Homeless Bunny 37

Homeless Bunny 37

Tianyu Yue

I joined Glynda in the headmaster’s office the next day. Understandably, classes had been canceled for first years. They needed a day to process. Even for huntsmen, a true life or death battle wasn’t a milestone to be ignored.

Ozpin looked tired, as though he’d fought the grimm tide on his lonesome. I’d seen that look before, on Ra in the Netherworld funnily enough. It was the burden of eons pressing down on him. We talked and shortly after he visited the Lunar Palace, he fully relinquished the throne and gave Horus his blessing. It was how Isis and I patched our relationship after I killed her heretic aspect in New York.

I returned my focus to the present. I was almost certain he was the Wizard by now, the original one who gave away his powers and made the Four Maidens. He was vague when I interviewed him following the dust robbery that got Ruby enrolled here, but I’d been around him enough to notice the signs of an immortal.

It was the little things. The self-control, the poise, the unflappable calm that could only belong to someone who’d seen it all and then some. These all masked an ocean of introspection, a melancholy that reminded me of lonely, autumn nights. That, and he had a somewhat anachronistic perspective that clashed with that of modern Vale.

“There is no one else who could have awakened an ancient grimm,” Ozpin said gravely. “It seems you have piqued Salem’s interest, Tianyu.”

“I guess that’s to be expected. It’s not a big deal though,” I said as I poured us some tea and coffee, tailored to each of their tastes, of course. “Even the ancient grimm wasn’t anything to write home about. It went down in one hit. Usually, things that are thousands of years older than me tend to be more worthy opponents.”

“Yes, well, I find it unbelievable that you are but a century old. Nevertheless, you may not have thought much of yesterday, but Vale is in an uproar. The kind of magic you unleashed will have far-reaching consequences.”

“I suppose it will, but that’s only to be expected. I created the largest dust quarry in the world on a whim, and now a new bay. Magic can create. Magic can destroy. They are two sides of the same coin.”

“Yet one inspires greed while the other inspires fear.”

“And together, they inspire caution. I don’t think your council will do anything stupid, not after that modest display.”

“Was that what this was, Tianyu? A display of your power?”

I nodded in agreement. That was exactly what that was: a show. “Yes. It is human nature to covet power. Campione have always been objects of desire and worship alike in my world. Every time a new Campione ascends, there is at least one fool who thinks they can dominate or control the fledgling godslayer. 

“‘Don’t fuck with godslayers,’ is a lesson my world learned through bloody repetition. It is a lesson each new generation has to learn again, at least once. Remnant had no godslayers before my arrival, and so it is up to me to drive home the point. Perhaps you think my actions excessive, but I would much rather redraw maps than conduct mass executions.”

“Better a display of deterrence than punishment,” Ozpin muttered. “How very… monarchistic…”

“Ultimately, yes. I did say that a Campione is an uncontested sovereign, didn’t I? The grimm tide was a good reason to show off a little.”

“And what of the students?” Glynda spoke up. She’d been silent for so long. Her brow creased with worry and accusation. Her favorite tea went untouched. “What of those too weak to survive your antics? People almost died today for your ‘demonstration.’”

“I was watching. No one came to harm, nor would I have allowed it. I will protect them until they can stand on their own, just as I did today.”

“They shouldn’t have to,” she insisted. “You may fight and slay gods, but they are children!”

“For what it’s worth, I agree. They are children. Even Amber,” I replied. “And yet, Remnant is a world in which children are raised to be killers, raised to sacrifice their lives in bloody conflict so the bulk of your citizens can live in an illusion of peace. I did not dictate this law, Glynda.”

We stared at each other in silence. Truthfully, I respected Glynda a great deal. Rare was the woman brave enough to criticize me to my face like this.

Sadly, she couldn’t deny my words. This was the kind of place Remnant was. Vale looked so pretty, so modern. Even the criminals knew not to act out too much.

And yet, it was a kingdom built on sacrifice. When it had a king, knightly orders glorified this sacrificial duty and called it chivalry. Today, families of huntsmen raised their children for that same calling. They just happened to glorify freedom and individual choice instead.

“You didn’t,” Glynda admitted with a heavy frown. She voiced what went unsaid many times before. “But your existence brings greater dangers. You… You shouldn’t have come here.”

I nodded. There were countries in my world who thought the same. Strictly speaking, the cradle of civilization was Mesopotamia, or modern day Iraq. The Middle East boasted the oldest, and therefore some of the most storied and powerful mage associations in the world. The fabled Garden of Eden was near Baghdad.

And yet, there was no such thing as an Iraqi Campione. There hadn’t been one in literal millennia. The closest was Aisha, who ruled the Indian subcontinent, but the mage associations of the Middle East kept even her at arm’s length. They believed that it was better to live in anonymity than be pulled into the chaos of a Campione’s rule.

It was a lesson they learned during the collapse of the Persian Empire. I couldn’t fault them for thinking that way. Perhaps it was only to be expected that Glynda voiced those same fears.

“You’re not wrong. My life is a chaotic one,” I said slowly. “Even if I do nothing but cook, I’ve found that I will have my challengers nonetheless. But I cannot leave now.”

“No, you can’t,” she agreed bitterly. “Leaving now means leaving Beacon vulnerable.”

“You’re right. All I can do is make them strong. They’ve improved greatly, you know. Fighting for so long isn’t easy. I’m pretty sure most of them ran out of dust and bullets halfway through but they didn’t lose their cool. They did well.”

“They did. They shouldn’t have had to.”

“Honestly? I’m not worried about them. They’ll be fine. I’ll stick around long enough to make sure they’re ready,” I promised. I meant it, especially after the twins’ confessions yesterday. 

For better or worse, the twins were part of my retinue now. Maybe not formally, but they still needed to be trained. Amber didn’t know what she wanted yet, but my training would only help her. And if I was going to train them, I may as well train the rest, too.

“That… I suppose that is the best we can expect…”

“What I’m curious about is why Salem triggered a grimm tide at all. Are the Maidens that important to her plans?”

Ozpin took a sip of his mug. He carefully mulled over his words before visibly deciding to tell me the unvarnished truth, a far cry from the cagey half-truths he gave me before. “They are. Do you remember when I first told you about the four Relics?”

“I do. Creation, Destruction, Knowledge, and Choice, right? I didn’t bother looking for them because the moon will eventually repair itself and I can go looking for the Brothers on my own.”

“That’s right. I told you that each of the four kingdoms guarded a Relic. What I did not mention was that each Relic is protected by unique seals that only a specific Maiden can unlock. The Fall Maiden, Amber, is the only person capable of retrieving the Relic of Choice here in Vale.”

“And you told me Salem wanted the Relics so she could summon the Brother Gods. Why exactly is that? If I remember right, you said the gods would destroy humanity if they find that humans aren’t living in harmony or something.”

“Salem… She just wants it all to end. Her immortality was a curse levied on her by the gods, just like my unending cycle of reincarnations. Some time ago, she decided that she’d much rather summon the gods to destroy the world than live on.”

“So she’s hoping that the gods will come and kill her, even if it means damning all of humanity and faunus in the process.”

He looked pained at the succinct description. “That… seems to be her motivation, yes…”

I slowly lowered my head until my forehead met the cool glass of the table. I rested there. I didn’t really get migraines anymore, but damn if that wasn’t the most braindead thing I’d heard in a long time.

“Tianyu?” Glynda called, half in reproach, half in concern.

“I’m… trying to process this level of stupidity…” I mumbled. I was dumbfounded. The big bad of this world was doing all this because she was… suicidally depressed… Slowly, I looked up at them with an exasperated sigh. “So what? Was this all a test to see if I’m strong enough to kill her?”

“She would never tell her subordinates as such. Perhaps she is even reluctant to admit it to herself. But in her heart of hearts, yes. I believe that to be one reason.”

“If the ancient grimm could kill me, then I never was worth worrying about in the first place.”

“Yes. Had Cinder managed to kill Amber, she likely would have inherited Amber’s Maiden powers, having a piece of the same already. The ancient grimm was meant to distract you, or perhaps to see if you were as divine as you claimed.”

“That makes no fucking sense. Why not just… come and ask me…? I could kill her. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d probably try to talk her out of it first because suicide’s always rubbed me the wrong way, but if she really wants it all to end, I’ve got options. Plural.”

“I never claimed my ex was sane,” he replied with a defeated chuckle.

“Then what about that other guy?”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Back there in the forest. There were three parties,” I said. I held out a hand and began to tick down the fingers. “Cinder and her group ambushed Amber; that’s one. Two, the grimm tide was for me, and so was the ancient grimm.The third group was a pair of people. One was skulking around near me. A second person was observing that one, probably providing overwatch.”

“That is… unexpected,” Glynda frowned. She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, making it glint in the light. For whatever reason, every glasses-wearing, hyper-competent secretary-esque figure did that. “I did not notice them. That implies a fair amount of skill, even if I was distracted at the time. Did you see what they looked like?”

“The one closer to me was a scorpion faunus. Brunette, male, and skinny, but that’s probably not unusual. He gave off so much bloodlust I have no idea how he thought he was hiding at all. I didn’t see the second, I can guess by the sounds he made that he’s probably a man, or maybe a woman carrying a great deal of extra weight.”

“I’ll look into the scorpion faunus,” she promised. “What do you think he was after?”

“Me, obviously, but I’m not sure why. For all I know, Jacques or Atlas sent an assassin and he just decided to back off when the tide struck.”

“James wouldn’t do that.”

“The Atlas general, right? But isn’t he just one of five members of their ruling council? You don’t need military backing to hire a single assassin, and I did kinda humiliate their entire military.”

“He is, but he is no fool. I suppose Jacques Schnee has enough motive… as do a great many prominent Atlesians… This scorpion faunus might also be another of Salem’s agents who simply thought better of attacking.”

I shrugged. I didn’t care too much. If I really wanted to know, I could sic Capo Cuddles on them later. “I guess  we’ll find out eventually.”

“We’d know now if you didn’t insist on making so many enemies.”

“True. Would it be better if I just went to Salem and offered to kill her?”

“You may find that harder than you’d expect,” Ozpin said with a resigned smile. “We’ve tried, both of us, to end ourselves at varying points in history. She will heal from anything, returning to her corrupted state. I will reincarnate, no matter what. We are doomed to repeat this endless cycle until humanity finds peace.”

“That… That sounds like torture… Mortals are always so eager to seek immortality, never knowing what it might really cost them.”

“And you, Tianyu? You never told me how you became what you are. Yet, you claim to have been born a human, not a faunus.”

I chuckled sheepishly. “You’re not going to believe me, but I became a godslayer on accident.”

“You’re right, I don’t believe you. One does not kill the divine through good fortune alone. You may not have set out to do so, but there must be a certain degree of intentionality by the end. How does one become a godslayer accidentally?”

“Fair enough. You told me a lot about this world so let me tell you about mine. Okay, in my world, the line between the material plane and the realm of gods, called the Netherworld, is very thin. Sometimes, gods rebel against their own legends and materialize on the mortal plane. We call these ‘Heretic Gods.’”

“I see. And if a mortal slays one in combat, he ascends.”

“Not quite. Not necessarily in combat. It all started with an avocado.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

I looked at Ozpin in shock. He was deadly serious. This man, this millennia-old wizard, had never experienced the joy that was the avocado. 

Suddenly, it all made sense. If I had to live for an eternity in this culinary desert, I’d want to kill myself, too. “Holy fuck… No wonder you’re suicidal…”

Author’s Note

Shortest chapter in a long time. Not much to say so let’s jump straight to animal facts.

Animal Fact: Sharks can smell blood up to .25 miles (400 meters) away. Pretty common fact, right?

BUT, that’s not their most acute sense. The idea that sharks rely on smell first is kind of false, perpetuated by Jaws and other popular media.

In reality, a shark’s first sense is its hearing. Sharks are extremely sensitive to low frequency sounds and can hear something struggling in the water up to .6 miles (965 meters) away. This is partly because sound travels further in the water, but their ears are also just much better than ours.