Weiss Schnee
“Why were you so rude to Missy?” Ruby confronted me in our room after getting back from her little outing with her friend whose sister had somehow gotten the support of two of the most influential people in all of Remnant.
I…didn’t really want to explain myself but tension in the team after we’d just recently solved our initial issues was probably a terrible idea so I sighed and sat down on my bed, just happy that Blake and Yang weren’t here for this. “What do you know about her sister’s company?”
“Not much. Missy told me her sister’s trying to set up a dust mine and do some other stuff but that’s all I know.” Ruby answered.
“Well, apparently whatever that other stuff is, General Ironwood and Professor Ozpin are helping her set everything up because of it. Either that or they want to replace the Schnee Dust Company with some upstart.” Knowing some of my father’s policies, it wouldn’t be too surprising for them to be looking into alternatives but it wouldn’t explain why a large dust mine was being built in the middle of nowhere where Grimm would easily be able to tear it apart without sufficient security forces that notably weren’t being recruited.
And replacing the SDC in the short-term wasn’t viable, I knew that but the long term was another story entirely. With a sufficiently good reputation and high quality dust, the Travelers Corporation would be perfectly capable of replacing the SDC. All they had to do was not sink as low as my father had.
“So why’d that make you get angry at Missy?” Ruby sounded confused, not really getting my problem yet.
I let out a deep sigh. “Because that girl suddenly showed up out of nowhere,” Quite literally considering the background checks not revealing anything so far beyond Ozpin entering her into the system one day, “and is now poised to control a business that will have the support of both Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood. A business that might come to rival the SDC at some point just because of whatever got those two interested.”
“So…you’re jealous?” It was only her questioning tone at the end that saved Ruby from my glare.
“I am not jealous!” I rebuked immediately. Would I have loved to have the support of those two? Of course! And I was sure I’d have used it better than this strange girl, too! But that didn’t mean that I was jealous! “I am merely…cautious. And slightly worried.”
Ruby seemed more relaxed now that I’d explained myself, at least. “Alright then. No jealousy here.” She agreed, though I had this feeling she was mocking me, making me narrow my eyes at her. “But Missy’s not involved in that so can you just…not take it out on her? Or insult her sister to her face? I’m pretty sure she doesn’t like that.”
I sighed again before nodding. “Very well. I suppose you’re right about that. I can ignore my apprehensions about her sister when she’s around.”
“Great!” Ruby clapped her hands together excitedly. “Now that that’s cleared up, let’s go and get dinner.”
Smiling a little, I let myself get pulled up and along as Ruby led me towards the cafeteria. Maybe she wasn’t the best leader but she definitely wasn’t as bad as I’d originally thought she’d be, either.
Lydia
I’d been confused when the girl I’d been assigned to become the housecarl of told me to just go wherever her twin told me to and said twin had directed me to a newly purchased house in Whiterun.
A house which had been connected to a castle through some sorcery, it seemed. Honestly, I had no idea what I was even meant to do for the thane I’d been assigned to but Missy’d basically just told me to do whatever I wanted to for the time being so that’s what I was going to do.
There were lots of strange things around and the architecture was clearly foreign, too, but apparently that was the way Lilian preferred it according to the maids I’d asked.
And, thankfully, there were training grounds because I knew for a fact that I was going to go insane from boredom just sitting in the castle all day.
“Are you new here?” A redhaired woman asked me in that strange language Lilian had granted me knowledge of, holding a curved sword in her hand.
I nodded in response, drawing my own sword. “Just got here today.”
“Then it is nice to meet you. My name is Millicent.” She introduced herself.
“Lydia.” I replied simply. “You work for Lilian or Missy, then?”
“Lilian.” Millicent confirmed. “And you?”
“Missy.” I replied simply, not voicing my thoughts on my thane probably not having any idea of what to do with a housecarl, nor a need for one.
Millicent actually seemed surprised by my answer so I could only assume that it was Lilian who was the one in charge of the castle. However, she recovered quickly. “I assume you are here to train?”
“I have yet to get any other orders so I felt like I might as well.” I told her, nodding.
“If you wish, I would be more than willing to spar with you. You won’t find any others here at this time of day.” Millicent offered.
I raised an eyebrow at that. “Not one person aside from you trains at this time of day?”
“Most only train as much as they have to. Some think it’s a waste of time to train on their own when Lilian regularly holds lectures that improve them more than training on their own ever could and others are some of her personal students. Ultimately, many of them just have a much more relaxed lifestyle than what I am used to.” The redhead explained, not sounding as if she judged them for it but also not sounding as if she cared to do the same.
“Then I suppose I will take you up on that offer. At the very least, I can’t stand just sitting around.” I replied and, not long after, got my ass kicked. And then I lost again and again and again.
It didn’t matter. I’d grow strong enough to beat her, I’d decided. Not because I didn’t like her, much the opposite really, Millicent seemed like an honourable, skilled warrior. I just found a goal to spend my time on while my thane had no tasks for me to do.
Alice Biron
“Our daughters want to fight the Slaughterhouse Nine and you intend to sit here and wait for them to die?” I shouted at Alexander, the man apparently having been convinced by Lily somehow.
He sneered at me in response. “Do you believe I want them to do this? Lily’s set on it, at least, and she’s confident they can pull it off. When the only reason we’re here to complain is her pocket dimension, I don’t have much of a choice but to trust her!”
“You could’ve talked her out of it!” I argued fiercely.
“And how did that work out with Missy?” He questioned with a raised eyebrow, clearly not thinking that I’d succeded.
I flinched at the pointed question, taking a small step back before gathering myself again. “Our daughter’s convinced that stopping the Nine here is the right thing to do and you indulged her little hero-worship so much that she can’t be talked out of it.”
“How interesting that it’s always me indulging them when you want to complain about the bad habits of either one of them. We both know you’re at least as guilty as I am if not more so!” He argued just as passionately, reminding me of why we usually stayed in entirely different parts of the castle.
“And yet you were the one who let Lily waste her time studying magic and had Missy meet all kinds of Protectorate hunters!” I felt the anger welling up inside me and knew it wasn’t just because of Alexander’s mistakes when it came to raising our children.
No, ultimately, I was just worried about our daughters.
I knew that we were both being unreasonable. He knew it, too. It didn’t stop us. How could it stop us when we just wanted to take our anger out on each other? This entire situation terrified, frustrated and angered us and there was no emotional outlet quite as good as shouting at your soon-to-be former spouse.
Once upon a time, we could’ve sought comfort in each other. Those days had been over years ago. They’d ended when our love had worn off through constant interaction and the slowly growing realization that we’d rushed into marriage and having children together too quickly.
We’d fallen out of love almost as quickly as we’d fallen in love and there was no repairing our relationship. Not when I sincerely hoped to never have to see him again and I had no doubt Alexander would rather be stuck in business meetings for a year rather than hear my voice.
All that was left for us was to wait out this nightmare, hope that our children would be alright and finally end this marriage.
Taylor
“If you transfer him personally, his condition will worsen! Exposure to so much mana will-“ The doctor tried to argue as Lilian walked towards dad’s room, having informed him of our intentions to transfer him.
Lilian waved him off. “You’re literally injecting mana into him right now. And, based off what little research I did on the topic in the past, I’m pretty sure I learnt more about why that works from walking in here than you and those researching eternal slumber figured out in the decades since it was discovered.”
The doctor seemed insulted by Lilian’s casual words, unaware of just how insane her mana senses were. “Then, please, enlighten me.”
“Well, I’m not going to give you an entire thesis right now since I have much better things to do than to educate a fool that doesn’t work for me but, let me ask you a question. You’ve been working off the assumption that eternal slumber signifies a mana incompatability, have you not?” Lilian questioned, still walking forwards.
“Of course. It’s widely accepted that that’s the case.” The doctor answered confidently.
Lilian smiled in amusement at his response. “Then feeding him mana wouldn’t work.”
“The essence stones hold life force which is used to keep the victim alive!“ The doctor argued.
“They are irrelevant. Mana crystals would work just as well. The difference between the two is solely that one is influenced by the mana of the monster that carried it. The theory of them holding some kind of life force is one I can confidently put to rest right now.” Lilian shot him down without hesitation.
He seemed indignant at this point. “Then why aren’t we using mana crystals if they’re just as good?” He challenged.
“Because no such tests were done since the consensus was that introducing pure mana to someone who suffered from ‘mana incompatability’ was a bad idea. Of course, tests have been done with the mana of other hunters as you might want to point out and I’d like you to consider that even other hunters cannot accept the mana of someone else unless some special ability or extreme skill is involved. For someone without mana of their own to do so would require them to somehow convert mana that is already in a state others cannot utilize without altering it or utilizing specific spells without possessing mana themselves.” She explained and, the more my boss spoke, the more a small seed of hope began to grow in my chest.
Lilian would probably have a price. She usually did. But, if she knew this much about eternal slumber without even seeing dad, she could probably cure it given some time.
“Then why do you think mana crystals will work?” The doctor replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
“Because victims of eternal slumber just need ‘raw’ mana. Mana that has some lingering traces from monsters is fine but that from hunters is outright unusable without training that coma patients can’t receive.” She told him casually, still smiling. “Now stop complaining and open the door so I can get back to work after transferring her father to a different medical facility.”
I hadn’t even really noticed when we’d arrived at dad’s room, too focused on the potential for a cure but Lilian clearly had and, scrambling, the doctor opened the room for us before detaching all the equipment so Lilian could take him to his new hospital. He still didn’t look happy about it and I had a feeling he didn’t really believe Lilian but that was fine as long as he still let dad get out of here before all the glass in the city would break.
And very few people were willing to actually stop an S-Rank rather than just trying to talk them out of something.
Dad’s transfer thankfully went smoothly and, once we’d gotten back to the castle, I did as Lilian had wanted and sat in her office with her, my aura in constant contact with her own.
Biting my lip, I only allowed myself to hesitate for a moment before asking, “Can you cure my dad?”
“For the right price, yes.” Lilian confirmed casually, probably having expected the question. “Now that I’ve taken a look at his condition, it should be fairly simple for me to fix it. It’ll take some time, of course, but I’m uniquely suited for supplying both a temporary and a permanent solution to eternal slumber.”
I swallowed at her words, feeling actual hope that dad would get better for the first time since he’d ended up permanently asleep. “What do you want?”
“Your loyalty.” Lilian answered almost immediately, smiling at me. “If I cure your father, you’ll work for me no matter what. Even should I close the Travelers Guild, you’ll still be in my employ. There’ll be no other option for you.”
“I’d probably do that anyways.” I felt a need to point out. Much as I didn’t particularly like my boss on a personal level, the benefits she gave on their own would’ve been enough to keep people in the guild even without the binding vows that prevented anyone from using any amount of power they gained through the guild after leaving it.
“And I want assurance. If I’m going to be going out of my way to save your father’s life, I want to be absolutely certain that you will not just walk away afterwards.” Lilian declared and, while she sounded almost paranoid and her aura felt almost oppressive around mine for a moment before she loosened its hold again, I understood that reasoning, at least.
“Alright. If you cure my dad’s eternal slumber disease, I’m not going to stop working for you for as long as I live.” I offered, just wanting to get the binding vow that was definitely going to be made out of the way already.
Except, Lilian shook her head. “I’ll have the lawyers come up with a contract. Just so that the terms are clearly defined.” She explained. “Besides, your father can wait until after the Nine are dead.”
I knew better than to ask her what’d happen if she died. Lilian almost certainly would just wave off my concerns. If she was confident enough to face the Slaughterhouse Nine, she was confident she wouldn’t die, that’s all there was to it.
I just had to hope that her confidence was warranted.
Azur
Looking at the armless sorcerer before me, wearing a karolos glintstone crown, I had to wonder just what someone of my school’s lineage had done to end up here like this.
“Master Azur…?” He questioned, seeming speechless at the mere sight of me. “But you were-“
“Crystallized, yes.” I confirmed casually, still trying to figure out what exactly was going on here. “Lilian, it seems, is quite capable of returning even me to life.” I hadn’t been dead, of course, but I may as well have been. Willpower had been all that had kept me going all these years.
“Of course she is.” He muttered bitterly, intriguing me further.
“And what’s your story? I don’t believe that there’s a reason for a crippled sorcerer of the karolos school to be here out of all places.” I was not a master at reading people. I read the stars, not mortals, after all. Despite that, the sorcerer’s anger was thinly veiled and his fear poorly hidden enough that I picked up on it despite my lacking social skills.
“I was crippled by the girl and brought here to be her teacher in exchange for her sparing me. I’ve been forced to live like this since I finished teaching her all I knew.” He explained, my suspicions in regards to his origin growing further.
“I don’t suppose you’d be able to tell me under which circumstances you met Lilian? I’m sure I’d be able to get her to replace your arms if I knew enough about this misunderstanding to resolve it.” My social skills may have been lacking but I had taught countless people. Knowing how to resolve such situations was an essential skill for me and certainly not one I’d been able to neglect.
His silence told me a lot and, eventually, he elected to try to add to what his lack of words had already told me. “I was at the hermit village to guard you, Master Azur! I went there, risking life and limb just to make sure that the demihumans wouldn’t be your end!”
“How strange.” I replied, internally sighing already at what I was going to do. “And here I remember no fights breaking out around me barring one not too long ago. One which, now that I think about it, I’m fairly certain involved Lilian.”
He swallowed, visibly trying to think of a way to talk himself out of this situation.
I decided to make it easier on him. “Admit it already. You were sent by the academy to make sure that none would reach my body alive, were you not?”
“I was.” He admitted, shoulders slumping.
I was not a vengeful or violent man at my core. At heart, I was a scholar, someone who sought to unveil the mysteries of the stars.
Someone having the gall to wear the glintstone crown of my school and act against the interests of the student who would have been my successor had I been allowed to pick one was where I felt myself forced to draw the line.
A Glintstone Comet burst through his head, encountering little to no resistance in the process.
Waving over a maid, I smiled apologetically before gesturing towards the bloody mess, “My apologies but if you could clean this up and inform Lilian that I sincerely hope she no longer had a need for this waste of space, that would be greatly appreciated.”
“It will be done. Lady Lilian may call on you for this.” The maid informed me apathetically, clearly not particularly bothered herself. Apparently the fool hadn’t been all that popular during his stay here.
“That is fine. Just inform me should that be the case.” I had killed a guest of hers, after all. One whose presence near me I well and truly couldn’t stand but a guest nonetheless.
I would at least reassure her that I wouldn’t indulge in such temper tantrums again in the future, if just because I was almost certain the other such fools hadn’t survived Lilian’s encounter with them.
Really, I used to have better self-control than this but being expelled from my own academy and apparently guarded by students of my own school of sorcery seemed to have left me with quite the short temper.
I could not wait for Lilian to reclaim Raya Lucaria so I could see to it that order was restored to the grand academy Lusat and I had founded.
Count Dooku
Having to abandon the original plan of keeping the Republic around and using its own army to eliminate the jedi was a shame but the loss of Sidious had opened another window of opportunity. Namely, the jedi were now aware of the danger of the clones and no amount of pushing from the Senate was going to get them to agree to the deployment of their would-be executioners.
As it stood, the Confederacy’s droid armies were steamrolling the Republic’s feeble resistance and I even made sure to take a gentler hand with the conquered territories to make the Republic seem even worse now. With only me left and me controlling the CIS rather than the Republic, I had to at least try to get the people to prefer what I offered over the Republic’s endless corruption.
A new Sith Empire would be born from this war, I’d see to that. But I needed to finish this war as quickly as possible if I wanted to succeed at that. Every day the Republic got to gather an actual military was a day more than I wanted them to have.
Yoruichi
The invasion of Soul Society was going well. Too well, honestly. Ichigo had grown too quickly and hadn’t faced any actual challenges yet. If not for his restraint, the captains would have already mobilized against him, I was sure.
They still would because Ichigo was powerful enough to warrant that level of attention and grew slightly more skilled with each battle. His rate of growth wasn’t quite as absurd as Lilian’s but it was still monstrous. Add in a Shikai strong enough to match the Bankai of a captain who wasn’t some variety of ancient monster when it came to raw strength – though Ichigo was definitely less skilled at using his Shikai than any captain was when it came to their Bankai – and I was genuinely surprised none of the three I had in mind who weren’t Aizen and hadn’t retired from fighting to become healers had come after him already.
Then again, Yamamoto would almost certainly just sit pretty unless Ichigo started rampaging even more. He basically was the last line of defence for a reason, after all. Not only would it hurt the image of the Gotei 13 for him to be acting personally against humans but using his powers would cause immense damage to Seireitei, too. And I couldn’t imagine Shunsui or Ukitake rushing here to fight Ichigo, either. Maybe if Ichigo went into the headquarters of their divisions but that’s the only scenario in which I could see that happening.
And, until then, Ichigo was going to be swarmed by most of the shinigami due to being the biggest threat by far. If things went really wrong, I’d save him but the best case scenario was Ichigo never encountering anyone he absolutely couldn’t handle, especially because that list was rapidly shrinking to cease to include anyone I could save him from.
Ichigo fighting Kenpachi wasn’t even much of an issue. As he was now, Ichigo was more than capable of fighting Kenpachi even after he stopped holding back quite as much. The only issue was that Kenpachi himself was seemingly growing as he fought Ichigo. I’d known that his maximum strength seemed to fluctuate somewhat and had put it down as his poor reiatsu control making it hard to gauge but what he was displaying against Ichigo made me doubt that conclusion.
Ichigo’s growth made sense. He hadn’t had his powers for long yet. Kenpachi’s growth throughout their battle, however, was strange. He’d been a shinigami for quite some time and, while he was the only captain to have gotten his position without learning Bankai or even his zanpakuto’s name, growth like this shouldn’t have been possible for him after all this time.
‘He’s never been challenged, has he?’ Certainly, some captains took issue with him but Yamamoto wouldn’t have allowed his captains to just brawl in the streets of Seireitei. Ichigo was probably the first proper challenge the battle maniac’s gotten.
That realization made me a lot more careful as I watched the two continue to fight, both Ichigo and Kenpachi continuing to grow with every moment that passed. Kenpachi’s raw power seemed to grow just enough to keep it close each time Ichigo surpassed him by mastering his turbulent powers a bit more.
‘One of them’s going to die.’ The longer the fight went on, the less I could doubt that outcome. My only hope was that Ichigo having his Shikai while Kenpachi didn’t would let him knock Kenpachi out before he could grow even more.
Killing a captain was going to ruin any hopes of cooperation with Seireitei once the entire mess with Rukia was over and Ichigo getting killed was going to ruin a whole lot more since, unlike Kenpachi, he’d never been exposed to Aizen’s Kyouka Suigetsu and therefore actually stood a chance against the bastard.
In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I felt like this warranted personal interference even if revealing myself at this point in time was probably a bad choice, too. However, the window in which I could stop Kenpachi quickly even with his increasing amount of wounds was rapidly closing and I had no idea how far he’d go before the end.
So, sighing, I transformed out of my cat form and used Shunpo to get in close before delivering several precise blows to knock the bastard out.
‘Man, I can’t even prank Ichigo by exiting my cat form when I’m naked now.’ Well, I still could but it wouldn’t be nearly as funny with him already knowing about me being a shinigami rather than some kind of talking cat.
Really, this was starting to become quite a disaster.
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