Chapter Text
In the middle of the forest two little girls walked among the many trees that surrounded them, looking for a specific someone that left them so many years ago and left them with a broken home, the youngest of the two had black hair with red tips that reached to her neck, walking in front of her while holding her hand was her elder sister, her blonde hair tied into pigtails.
As both girls walked along the forest the youngest spoke. "Yang, are you sure she's here?" she asked her older sister with fear in her voice, she was scared of this place, it was dark and so scary, she wanted to turn around and go home, but then Yang would be alone and she couldn't let that happen.
"Of course she is Rubes, where else could she be?" The older one answered not realizing her sister's plight, her mind completely focused on searching for the mother that left her so long ago and hoping that maybe, she could help her father.
As they kept walking the forest became even more dark, indicating that the sun was setting. "We have been searching for hours, she's not here Yang" the youngest tried to reason with the oldest who upon hearing this turned around towards her sister.
"Yes she is!" She screamed at the youngest who flinched back at the lashing out of her sister, Yang realizing this hugged her. "I'm sorry Rubes, i just wish she would come back, that she would help dad to smile again, after Summer left he hasn't smiled at all, he just stands there, looking at nothing" she said trying to comfort her little sister.
Said sister looked up."I know Yang, but if she was here drunkle Qrow would have brought her back already, of she herself would have returned, maybe she just doesn't want to return here" the words were spoken with the purity of a child who didn't know how much they could hurt, and Yang couldn't help but think about those words, maybe Ruby was right, if her mother truly wanted to come back then she would have done so already.
Realizing this Yang let go of her sister. "You may be right Rubes, maybe she doesn't want to come back and we are wasting our time" with a dejected voice she turned back to where she came from. "Let's go back home" as she walked back from where she came from a rustling could be heard nearby.
Turning towards the source she saw a claw scratching at one of the trees, tearing the wood effortlessly. The claw extended showing the arm it was attached to, the owner of said body came out slowly, unsure if its prey were around or not.
Before Yang standing beside the tree a black biped wolf stood, the black fur covered by many bone plates acting as a sort of armor for it, the wolf smelled the air for a few seconds before looking straight towards Yang, or more accurately, the one beside her.
With a roar the wolf broke into a sprint shortening the distance between itself and the children, Yang seeing this broke herself out of her funk and started to run away from the monster, but she was alone.
Looking back she saw her sister staring in fear at the monster, she wanted to run towards her, to call out to her but she couldn't, so she closed her eyes, not wanting to see what was next.
*Squelch*
The sound of flesh ripping apart made her feel sick, she wanted to throw up, she killed her younger sister and soon she would follow, all because she wanted to search for a non-existent mother, until she heard the sound of metal, opening her eyes she saw something that made her jaw slack.
Her sister was fine, and the monster that was about to eat her was dissolving into mist, but that wasn't what left her shocked, standing above the dissolving mist another monster could be seen, black heavy armor covered most of its body with the only exception being the massive wings on its back, its right hand carried a sword that was embedded on the dissolving wolf.
The monster turned to look at Yang, the singular glowing red eye trained solely on her and raised it's left hand, the massive cannon coming to life and shooting, missing her entirely and impacting with something behind her, what it was? She would never know since the blast eradicated anything of whatever was there.
But then Yang realized something, Ruby was beside that monster, with that realization she began to run forward and embraced her sister, putting herself between the monster and Ruby, said monster started to look around as if searching for something, when it didn't detect anything it sat down beside the sisters, not moving a single muscle.
Yang, seeing the opportunity, started to run away while holding Ruby, until she heard the voice. "Yang!" The rough voice was one she was familiar with and turning to it she saw a black haired man run towards her and her sister, when he reached them he stopped and started to look for any injuries they might have.
Seeing that they were safe the man smiled and took a sigh of relief before hugging them close, at this point both Yang and Ruby started to tear up while Qrow just held them, he was about to say something before Yang remembered the danger nearby. "Uncle we need to go, there's a monster!" she all but screamed at him and Qrow just laughed before smiling at both of them.
"Not anymore little one, my partner made sure of it" he said with absolute confidence while looking up at something, following his gaze she saw the monster from before starting to dissolve into gray particles before becoming a card and flying towards Qrow who catched it. "Thank you partner, yet again you save somebody close to me" he said with warmth towards the card.
"What was that?" a confused Ruby asked her uncle who smiled before answering, "That was my partner, Blackwing, the part of my soul that wanted to fight beside me" he said before lifting both girls on his arms and walking back to Tai's house.
As he walked along the forest Qrow turned towards the blonde girl and asked the question that burned on his mind. "What were you thinking while coming here?" he asked in a calm voice, not wanting to give away just how angry and worried he was about them.
At this Yang looked down while Ruby pressed herself closer to her uncle. "I wanted to find mom, so that dad could smile again" hearing that Qrow stopped a look of burning anger crossing his face before he went back to his usual facade. "I see, well i'm sorry to tell you this but she isn't here, nobody knows where she is or what she's doing" he said thinking of the wayward sister that he had come to despise so much.
With those words out everything fell into silence, for the remainder of the road Yang stared at Ruby, the image of the wolf about to eat her engraved on her mind as she thought about how she almost caused the death of her sister, for a woman whose name she couldn't even remember, and on that day Yang swore she would never let something like this happen again.
Ruby for her part couldn't help but think of the monster that saved her and wondered if maybe, just maybe she could have one some day.
—---------------
In another part of the world a teenager walked the dirty road that let to home, a smile on his smile as he thought about what waited for him back home, looking up he saw he was already in front of the big house, big enough that some would call it a mansion.
Entering the main door he walked among the hall towards the living room and was surprised when nobody was there, looking around the room he saw a singular note on top of the table, reaching down for it he read the contents and took a sigh.
Yet again they left, he understood why they did that, he understood why they didn't want to be here when the chance presented itself, however that didn't mean that they should dump this on him, it didn't mean that this should be his burden.
Those were the thoughts of the teenager as he ascended the steps towards the room of the youngest in their family, walking towards the so familiar door he took a deep breath before knocking twice, no answer as always.
Opening the door he saw the sight that he never got used to. On the floor holding a toy of a knight a little boy played the hero that saved the day, the huntsman that repealed the waves upon waves of darkness and protected those who couldn't protect themselves.
For anyone else that would be an endearing sight, if it wasn't for the fact that the child face was scarred, burn marks covered the left side of his face entirely, the place where the eye should be being completely vacant, realizing that someone entered the room the boy looked up and smiled.
"Shura you are back!" He screamed with joy before running and enveloping his brother in a hug. The brother returned the hug without a second of doubt, smiling at seeing his little brother after so long. "Hey Jaune, how's school for ya?" he knew already, Saphron had told him everything.
"Well there were this new friends i made, they were very nice towards me, but then they stopped when they talked with Saphron, i think she did something to them but she wouldn't tell me" the child said with confusion on his voice, not being able to understand why his friends would abandon him for something his sister said.
"Then we had a group project, but nobody wanted to be on my team so I did it alone!" He said with a smile proud of doing the work of an entire team on his own, not realizing why people wouldn't want to be around him. "And some kids pointed at me and called me a grimm, but that's not right. I'm going to be a huntsman not a grimm" he said with a smile not leaving his face at the hideous things people did to him.
Hearing that made Shura close his eyes for a second, remembering that he had to pay a visit to the junkyard, because he refused to believe that things like that were labeled as people and not trash, realizing he was spacing out Shura returned to the present, his brother thankfully not noticing.
"Oh and I learned to call Blade Knight to play with me! You remember Blade Knight right?" he asked his brother with a smile, and said brother just smiled. "Of course I remember Blade Knight, actually why doesn't he come out? I'm sure he would appreciate some company" the teenager said, making the boy's eye light up before closing it and focusing.
After a moment a white glow appeared around him before a card appeared on his hand, with a smile he launched the card and said. "Blade Knight!" the voice filled with joy made Shura smile for a second, the card disappeared and instead of it an armored figure stood, a cyan armor covering all of its body, his shield having the form of a diamond and the blade at his side disappearing when he realized he was called to play instead of fighting.
At this the boy turned to his brother and smiled. "See Shura!? I can call him whenever I want now, oh that reminds me! Why don't you bring Gaia as well? I'm sure he gets lonely too!" Shura laughed in a low voice before raising his hand, the light being a purple one this time, it consolidated on a card, opening his hand he let the card fall gently before he said the words. "Soldier Gaia the Fierce Knight" and the card disappeared, becoming a man as tall as Shura, his armor being was colores blue with accents of purple, gold and red, on his right hand he held a trident, purple as his armor.
The knight turned towards his owner along with the occupants in the room and realizing there was no danger let the trident become mist, the child smiled at seeing the knight he has admired for so long. "Gaia! You look different than last time, oh you evolved right!?" The child bombarded the knight with questions even if he knew the knight couldn't answer he couldn't help himself.
Seeing this Shura decided to answer in the knight's stead. "That's right, he evolved yet again being level 8 right now, two more and we will become the strongest we will ever be" at this the boy smiled even brighter and did the thing Shura dreaded so much. "And we will follow just behind! Me and Blade Knight will become hunters and go with you to become the greatest heroes!" he said with a smile as Shura's own left, even both summons looked as if they were sad for a moment.
At that Shura kneeled beside his brother hating that yet again, It was brought down upon him to crush his brother's dream. "Jaune, you know that father will never let you be a huntsman" and so for the first time since he arrived the smile of the boy fell. "But why? He promised me that he would teach me, as an arc! And we never break our word!?" the child screamed at Shura's face, tears coming out of his eye as he looked towards the brother he admired so much.
Shura didn't answer and just held the little boy in a hug. "I know that people think i'm ugly because of my face, i know that i'm not right nor complete, but why? Why does he act as if this is for my good!? Didn't he say that he would support any decision I made!?" The words resounded around the room as Blade Knight kneeling beside the brothers and hugging his owner as well, the only sound that remained around the room was that of the crying child.
Shura didn't answer, not because he couldn't but because he already knew the answer and he hated it. His father explained the fate that Jaune was bound to and Shura understood, understood why they didn't want him to be a hunter, he just wished that it didn't lead to this.
To a child that was forced to suffer injuries far beyond he should so his father could try to justify his actions, to a child having to live with an easily avoidable mistake on his face and having to be treated as a monster because of it.
To a child that wanted to become a hero to protect everyone not being able to do that so a selfish group of people could pat themselves on the back saying they protected him.
Shura understood why they did what they did, Shura understood the fear of his father, Shura understood why they didn't want to be here, so they didn't have to break their word day by day.
But that didn't excuse them for forcing him to do it instead and expect him to sleep soundly after.