2 Chapter 2
A/Ns at the bottom of the chapter.
I do not own RWBY, they belong to Rooster Teeth
I only own my OCS
The month after, 5 years old
So I learned one new thing about my abilities.
While I can use skill points to upgrade my abilities, I can also train or practice skills by continuously using them. The problem is, it's slow. There's an experience bar and everything, and I haven't filled anything at all, except for Unarmed, which is at 18/100 with 23%. Probably because of the Grimm attack.
It does help to look natural in my abilities though. I would be pretty surprised if I didn't have this RPG ability and someone suddenly has a mastery over something. God.
Right now, I'm just checking over my stats. None of my other skills have gone up as of yet, but I've finally decided that I would be like Uncle Qrow and carry a thin single bladed sword. I could use my points to put them all into Smith.. but I wanted to save my 10 points for Bladed Melee. I purse my lips. Be a better fighter, or a crafter?
The choices, they are painful.
For the past month, Dad hasn't left for a mission at all, so I couldn't see Qrow for his awesome stuff. I asked him if he knew Qrow was.. well, who he is. An awesome bastard.
I might be affected with the fact that I could have died, but it doesn't change the fact that the sword on his back looked epic.
The answer was apparently a solid yes. He called Qrow a Huntsman, though he looked at me uncertainly when he said his occupation. Apparently, He and Qrow were teammates at one point, along with Summer. They were pretty good too.
Makes me wonder just what Summer died to.
Whatever it was, it was probably something I have no hope of beating just yet. I plan to max out Bladed Melee and probably Small Guns just because I main Agility. Probably Sneak too. I'm going for a DPS/Assasin build, given my SPECIAL distribution.
I expressed my desire to be a huntsman to dad and he.. well, he had this odd look on his face. Yang and Ruby, at one point, had come down and heard our conversation and also expressed their desire to be Huntsmen. Through the combined puppy eye perk of Ruby and Yang (a perk I lacked, though there was nothing lost there), his walls collapsed and he said he would give us a test to see what we wanted to be as Huntsman.
Yang fist pumped, Ruby had this star struck look on her face, and I was my usual bland self. Our family dynamic is special.
Another thing about my ability is that apparently, I can choose certain traits every two levels. Right now, I chose something called [Blade Master], which apparently gave me 30% more attack speed and damage whenever I use a bladed weapon. Any kind of bladed weapon.
It's kind of broken.
The other choices were [Expert of the Spirit], [Light Feet], and [Silent Steps]. I plan to get Silent Steps, since it muffled all my steps regardless of my footwear. After that, probably Light Feet, which will give me 20% more speed, then Expert of the Spirit, which will give me a 10% boost on anything Aura related.
There will probably be more traits after, but I need to be smart about my choices since I'm pretty sure Traits are also unchangeable.
Regardless, I'm still stuck on level 2 right now and my exp. bar hasn't budged since last month. I've been trying everything, from going outside without dad's or my sisters' knowledge to try to trigger a quest, but nothing's been happening..
Wait.
Didn't I get experience for doing something with Aura? For using my semblance?
Hm..
I learned a few things about Aura from my dad after I unlocked it. It was used to protect the person from harm like a force field and can reasonably heal wounds, which confused my dad greatly because I healed my own large wounds without prior practice. Aura was also used as fuel for our semblance, when I showed him my control over Aerokinesis.
Now..
Let's see.
I concentrate my vision on my left arm and gather Aura around it. The same warm feeling from before coursed through my chest then into my left arm. It pooled around and gathered, filling my arm then to my hands before I stopped it.
Aura Manipulation Check Success: 25/20
Perk earned: Reinforcement
A pre battle school skill. Reinforces a certain part of the body. Can be upgraded to Reinforcement II.
2850 EXP left. Nice.
Well this is the first time I heard of upgrading skills. There's no prompt when I asked myself what Reinforcement II was, so it's probably just something that lets me Reinforce my whole body. Wait, let me just do exactly that—
Aura Manipulation Check Failure: 25/40
Aw.
Well, let me see.. what else can I do?
I use my semblance to do a reasonably strong gust outside our house, which makes the trees bend slightly and the leaves rustle uncontrollably.
Perk earned: Gust
Unique Perk! Makes a strong gust of wind.
2700 EXP left.
Perk earned: Hurricane
Perk earned: Air Slice
Perk earned: Air Blast
2250 EXP left.
Well, it's not slow, but I'm running out of ideas on what to do with Aerokinesis. Maybe I can try using solid aura to use as projectiles? Uh..
Just when I was about to do exactly that, my door opened and behind it was my dad with my sisters.
I waved. "Hello, family."
I probably looked weird, my window open and me staring out of it with a lost look on my face (I finally figured out why they look at me weird when I dive into thought). I would probably find myself weird too.
Wait, why am I even denying it? I was weird on my previous life and I'm weird here now. It's part of my charm.
My non existent charm..
Damn you, 2 Charisma.
"Crimson, were you using your semblance again?" Dad had this concerned but proud look on his face. I felt my chest warm. Damn, getting someone proud for you felt good.
"Yes." I answer honestly. No reason to lie.
"Crimson," he started sternly. Oh no. "You can't just use your semblance whenever you want. Your Aura might run out and it might do some serious damage to you," his hard gaze softened, making me relax a bit. "But.. it doesn't look like you got too tired," Damn right. I take a look at my Aura Meter. 49/130. Nevermind, I'm feeling the fatigue, though small. "So what did you get done?"
I shrugged and showed them a tiny version of the Hurricane, which floated around my room messing with the papers. My clothes rustled and the blankets were inflating for some reason. Yang and Ruby stared at it with wide eyes, before Ruby dropped a cookie crumb inside the eye, making it so that the crumb was spinning inside the tornado before it got thrown to the sides. Ruby giggled.
Dad's expression cycled through a few. First, he was surprised, then scared, of what, I don't know, then proud. Proud of me.
He was proud of me.
It makes me feel.. lighter. Happy.
Like a weight lifts itself off my shoulder.
I don't know.
"Wow.." Yang says quietly. "That looks so cool," she says. Is that envy? "I wish I could do that."
Taiyang just chuckles and ruffles her hair, successfully getting an indignant 'Hey!' from her. She pouts at him and he just chuckles more. "Sweetheart, a semblance is an expression of the soul. It's a special thing for everybody. Yours could be similar to Crimson because you're twins, but it could be also something entirely different. Who knows, maybe yours could even be better than an Elemental Semblance!" He tickles her at that, getting her to laugh.
I stop the miniature hurricane from spinning around my room to avoid any more messy outcomes. It dies down, making Ruby pout as she was trying to drop cookie crumbs inside the hurricane.
Now I have to clean that up.
As soon as I stopped powering the mini hurricane, Dad clapped his hands.
"Alright, I came here to tell you to go downstairs to the Living Room but seeing as we're already all here, I can just start over here. Hold on a bit, kids. I'll be right back," and with that, he left me alone with my sisters.
"Can you do the hurricane again, Crimson?" Ruby asked innocently, her silver eyes looking at me pleadingly.
Unfortunately for her, I can resist.
"Sure." I obliged her anyway. I did say I could resist but the power behind her cuteness went way over my moe resistance.
I spun my pointer finger in a circle a few times, a few gusts of wind gathering in the middle of my room and forming another miniature hurricane. Ruby giddily tries to touch the hurricane, resulting in her hand being forcefully blown back. It doesn't seem to bother her though, so I don't stop it as long as she doesn't dump a bunch of crumbs.
Yang stares at it and glares. Her fists clenched and her face is set at a scowl.
I could feel waves of anger coming from her. I doubt that I wouldn't notice it even if I wasn't her twin. It was just that obvious. Then again, Yang was never really good at hiding her emotions. She always had her heart on her sleeve, and it made her.. well, lovable?
I don't know how to describe it. Familiar?
Nevertheless, she was clenching her fists and along with her anger, I could feel something else.
Regret.
Why was she feeling regret? I don't get it. I would understand her feeling angry, or maybe even envious. But why would she feel regretful? Is it something that I did, or something that she never got to do?
"Yang?" I ask cautiously. "Are you.. okay?"
She forces a smile. Lie. "I'm fine."
"You're not." I state resolutely.
Her smile looks strained. "I'm fine."
"No, you're not," I stubbornly refuse her way of brushing me off. "Something's bothering you, I can feel it. As your twin, I have the right to know if I need to bop someone or something in the head to stop it from bothering you."
She was silent. Ruby kept on trying to touch the hurricane without getting blown off without much success. The noise of the hurricane thankfully masked our conversation.
Suddenly, Yang had tears in her eyes.
"I.. I'm sorry," Her voice cracked. She put up a hand to wipe her tears away. Regret and sadness came off her in waves, and I had to remind myself that it's not mine to not be affected. I could feel her regret… There was.. so much.
"W-what are you sorry for?" I asked in confusion, trying to shake off the initial shock of the wave of emotion. It worked, kind of. "You shouldn't be sorry for anything."
"I'm sorry for dragging you both with me to the.. building." She said it loud enough for both of us to hear.
Ah.
That incident.
"I'm sorry for getting us nearly killed. Ruby, I'm so sorry you had to suffer with us and Crimson, I'm sorry you had to get slashed at by the.. by the Beowolf! I promise, I won't let it happen again, it won't happen again!" She blubbered at us both, tears coming down continuously from her eyes. "I.. I—"
"I don't blame you. I never did," I stopped her. She stopped trying to apologize. "I can't ever blame you, Yang. I know you miss mom," my voice almost cracked there. "I miss her too. I know we have another mom and I get why you want to see her… But I can't blame you. I want to see her, our other mom, too."
Her eyes widened. "But.. But I thought that you didn't want to see her!"
"I never said that," I denied. "I just said that she would have left us for a reason."
Yang looked down and started to sob again. "B-but, I got you both in danger… Crim, I got you hurt. You had those.. those big slashes on your chest. You're not even alright yet."
"I am alright, and no one got really hurt," It was true. My wounds have healed, but now I have a permanent three slash scar all the way from my right shoulder to left hip. Honestly, it looks epic, if not for the fact I got it from being attacked by an oversized wolf. "And I still don't blame you. I don't think Ruby does, either."
Ruby, who's been listening in our conversation, began to nod rapidly. "Y-yeah! Those wolves were really scary, but Crim just went.." She did karate noises and weird motions with her hands. I snickered, and Yang couldn't help but crack a smile.
"Yang, I know I'm not the best person at.. talking," I say awkwardly. "But we're family. I can't ever leave you behind. I'll protect you guys again even if it meant me dying." I wouldn't accept dying anyway. I would train like hell so I could protect them and still live, hopefully, protect them and annihilate the enemy.
"But.. why don't you blame me? Ruby, Crimson?"
I get it. She wanted to be blamed because she still blamed herself.
"Yang.." I hug her. Ruby joins in the hug to make her feel better. "We don't blame you, so don't blame yourself."
"I don't blame you because we're family."
Perk earned: Familial Love
Low charisma doesn't matter to family and friends anymore!
Finally, Dad arrived with some papers. He glanced up from the papers, seeing us all hugging it out and comforting a crying Yang, making him smile softly.
"I'll come by later."
The next day
Ruby, Yang and I were in the living room with dad. He distributed the papers to us then gave us each a pencil.
After he did that, he sat down in front of us and adopted a stern expression on his face, which looked odd considering that his normal goofball expression was… well, the norm.
"Alright, this is something called an Aptitude Test. It's really short, don't worry. I just need you to answer honestly," He explained. "You can only choose 3 choices and it'll at least narrow down your interests when you finally go to Signal, or train early." He mumbled the last part to himself, but I managed to overhear it. "You can answer now, by the way."
Ruby had this critical thinking look on her face, and Yang had a little thoughtful expression before she grinned and darkened her choices.
I looked down at mine and almost choked. It was my Skills.
No, seriously. I see Bladed Melee over here, Sneak, the rest.I'm almost convinced dad knows of my extra power, but taking a peek at my twin's paper shows that she has the same choices.
What an odd coincidence.
So of course.. I have to have Sneak. I want to be a god damned assassin if I can… Aura manipulation for sure, I want to be better at using my Aura…
The last combat oriented one.
I could go for small guns, or pistols and SMGs probably. Or I could go for the Bladed Melee for swords and others..
I flashed back to Qrow's epic sword.
Oh I know my choice.
I darkened the Bladed Melee option.
I passed the test, well, survey more like it, to dad and he looked over to me as if surprised.
"I thought you would have been more interested in Unarmed." I guess Qrow told him what I did.
I simply shrugged in response. "I liked Uncle's sword."
Taiyang snorted, "It's a very big sword, yes." He seems to be internally reprimanding himself for that comment.
My mind went blank after he said that, trying to process it. When I finally did, I had to fight the urge to giggle like a perverted moron. Thankfully, I won, and my twin simply stared at Dad, confused.
"What do you mean by that, Dad?"
"You'll know when you're older." Dad pat her on the head and accepted Ruby's test and put it in front.
"Alright, well, I got you guys' interests. Well Yang, since you chose Unarmed," Wow, she's braver than I am. "You have to train on your strength, so I'll probably give you an exercise routine to follow." Yang nodded in acceptance.
"Crimson, you chose Bladed Melee, so I say practice your speed and agility, I think. And, Ruby…" He dryly looked at her. "I'll tell you when you're older," making her go 'Aww!' in disappointment.
A prompt appeared in front of me.
+15 Sneak
+15 Aura Manipulation
+15 Bladed Melee
Woah… So I just got 15 added to the stuff I chose on the specialties test. Neat. Now those 3 are on straight 40s and I still have 10 extra points. Considering that I have Blade Master as a Trait, I might as well put all my remaining points onto Bladed Melee.
There we go.
Bladed Melee (Agility): 50
Very nice. I'm halfway done with maxing it out. It needs to be my first most priority, second being Aura and third being Sneak..
Actually, I need to put points in Speech and Barter so I can actually talk to someone without fumbling over words. Thankfully, Speech has leveled up to 15 from the accumulated experience I got from talking in the past month. I need to use points in both so I can get discounts and talk to someone properly.
Anyway, Dad finished up his talking, patted us all in the head and told us we can play in the Living Room for awhile while he goes and talk to some people. Ruby and Yang cheers and looks at me, as if expecting me to do something.
"Use your semblance." Yang urged, a grin on her face.
Well.
I can't exactly deny my twin now, can I?
With an amused look on my face, I send gusts of wind around the house.
7 years later, 12 years old
"Yah!" Yang punched the place I was just in a while ago and a fucking crater formed. Jesus fuck I could have died.. well, probably not, but still. That shot was dangerous.
I slash diagonally at her with my one sided steel sword making her hiss as she barely dodged it. I quickly followed up with horizontal slash from the left. She jumps back and quickly pushes forward with a packedpunch.
I duck underneath the blow and strike her at the stomach with the sheath of my sword, making her go 'Oof' and, probably, fuelling her semblance.
She lands a few feet behind me as her hair lights up. Yeah, her semblance is working fine.
I step back and point my sword above her, before slashing down to materialize air blades.
I know, awesome right?
She runs to the left as the wind blades leave deep cuts in the places where she was awhile ago, then when she realized I stopped, went in for the opportunity of a hit.
I went in first.
With my greater… way greater speed, I met her before she even raised her fist, already my sword raised above her. I hit her on the head with the pommel on my sword, sending her crashing down on the round, and making dad declare me the winner.
"Crimson wins!" He announces, smiling at us both. "Wow; you've both improved so much since we started years ago. I can remember when my little girl couldn't throw a punch, and when my little man couldn't use his speed to his advantage." Yeah, that was embarrassing for me. I was way too fast and at one point, I had buried myself at a wall.
Yeah, that was.. an interesting day.
"Good fight." I say to her, smiling. Ruby was clapping enthusiastically. She took my hand and grasped it tightly, then grinning like a loony, before she grabbed me to the floor with her, making me go 'Ah!' when I fell on my face. Ruby outright laughed, and I could imagine Dad having a smile on his face, shaking his head. Yang simply laughed with Ruby as she gave me a punch on the shoulder before standing up and joining dad to chat on how to get better.
Meanwhile, I only need to look at my stats.
On the 7 years since that fateful day, I've only leveled up 5 times.
That's right, 5.
The lack of quests was so infuriating. I couldn't get any high yield quests. My highest yield quest, which gave me +1200 EXP was a quest that was a glorified "Beat up the grunts" with a side of being anonymous and leaving a note behind for the cops to follow.
That was the White Fang presence on Patch, but that was a few months ago and nothing, before or after, had ever come close to even nearing it.
My EXP right now is 3450.
Out of a whopping 10000.
Groan.
Well the good news was, I had maxed out my Bladed Melee skill at 100. I raised my Aura Manipulation to 50 plus some extra 14 points with training. Sneak got up to 51 through constant use to… well, sneak out the house to murder Grimm. I added 6 points to Barter, raising it to 15 (I still haven't gotten any experience with is so it hasn't been going up naturally) and the rest of the 19 points to Blunt Melee since I need it to be able to work effectively on dual wielding my sheath and sword, and an added 10 more points because of experience. I also got Speech up to 32 due to constant use. I suppose Speech would be maxed eventually since I keep on using it.
Since I got 5 levels, I got 2 more traits. I obviously got Silent Step and it works perfectly as long as I was sneaking below or at my Sneak level. My sneak may not be my highest but I still had silent footsteps and it was a great help. The other one was Dual Wielding, which gave me more damage as long as I wielded two weapons.
Thus the sheath bat. It works wonders.
There were other traits now available too. I had set my eyes on Stone Wall because avoiding Knockback is amazing.. and another one, Almost Perfect had a level requirement of 30 but raised all SPECIALs below 9 to 9.
That would be amazing.
Other than that, there was really nothing else to add to my stats. It was, okay, I guess. This spar with Yang was an evaluation of our skills and according to our Dad, we were great. We were apparently more than ready for Signal, and he was going to enroll us after our birthday, which is pretty soon.
"Well, kid, if I had a doubt about your skills, consider them gone." It was…
"Uncle Qrow," I acknowledged my drunk uncle with a tip of my head to his direction. He stood up from his seat and ruffled mine and Yang's hair.
"Hey!" Yang tried to sock our uncle, but missed as he sidestepped her while smirking. "
"Too slow, Yang." He laughed as she pouted up at him, making him ruffle her hair again.
He glanced over to me. "Well, kiddo, have you thought of my proposition yet?"
His proposition—
Oh, right.
It was around a year ago when he gave me an offer. It was to shadow him as a Huntsman's apprentice. Essentially, I would be enrolled in Signal but I would be "privately tutored" by Qrow. It's essentially an apprenticeship while Qrow would evaluate me himself when we go on missions. It would be a great way of leveling up, but I didn't want to leave my family alone because…
Well, overprotective me. I never thought I would be over protective over something. It's an odd thing.
"Yeah, I've thought of it," I confess. "How long do I have until I decide?"
"Until Signal starts up," Qrow puts a hand on my shoulder. "That's in three months. Don't feel pressured though, even if you don't accept my offer, I'll probably be drafted to train you brats."
I snorted. Dad would probably do that just to make us better. But having 100 on Bladed Melee means that I'm way above Master Level at anything with a blade, so I doubt I could improve anymore on that point.
Well, someone older could overpower me. My skill isgood but my SPECIALs, while they gave me an above average strength and made me really fast, scales with my age. So being above average at 12 will still get me overpowered by someone a few years my senior.
"If I choose to accept it, when will I leave?" I asked tentatively. I didn't want to go to a school for huntsman. While Yang and Ruby does need it, I'm pretty sure I don't. Probably.
Qrow shrugged. "If you accept now, we could leave in an hour or less. I have a mission to attend to today, and this could be my last offer before I leave for another few weeks."
I pondered on the offer. While the spars with Yang were good, I was still holding back. A lot. My Bladed Melee skill of 100 is kind of terrifying to be honest. Yang's moves were terribly slow for me, and I could predict where she was gonna punch.
Ever since I got my Bladed Melee to 100, I wasn't hit once. It made me feel, well… overpowered. Bored. There was no more fight in Patch. I doubt the exp gain in the island would be enough to get me to the high levels that I want.
Wonder if this was what Saitama felt with his single punches. I idly thought.
So if I accept now, we can have a high level mission right off the bat…
"That look on your face," Qrow smirked. "I guess you don't want the missions after all."
I scoffed. "I want them. I accept your offer."
Qrow's smirk widened.
"Pack your bags, kid. I'll talk to your dad and after that, we're going hunting."
"Qrow, what the hell?" Taiyang hissed at Qrow. "Why is my son packing his bags upstairs with necessities. What did you say to him?"
Qrow shrugged. "Hey, he accepted my offer. I told him we could leave in an hour."
Taiyang grabbed Qrow by the shoulders and shook him back and forth.
"Woah!"
"You're taking him on missions?!" Tai was livid, though his voice was quiet. "Don't you know how dangerous it is? What if he gets wounded in a mission, what if he—"
"Tai!" Qrow's voice was hard. "Relax. Your son already has the mindset of a huntsman. You can't keep him chained down forever. You can see how bored he was when he fought Yang. He was holding back. This apprenticeship is a big chance for him to exercise his skills and to train him even more. He won't die, not when his teacher is me."
Yang and Ruby were peeking over the corner to eavesdrop on the two adults. They were silent as they comprehended the fact that… well, their brother is leaving.
"What?!" Yang's eyes turned red, her hair catching fire for a few moments, making Ruby speed over to the adults before she went feral. "He's… He's leaving?!"
Taiyang looked at them in surprise. "Kids?"
Qrow answered her. "Yeah. We're going to go on missions, kiddo."
Yang's eyes widened and she growled. "You're not taking him away!"
"Yeah!" Ruby nodded rapidly. "He's our brother!" She pouted up at him.
Qrow was confused for a second before he snickered. "No, it's not a permanent apprenticeship. It'll last four years, about the time you stay on Signal, Yang. If you choose to go to Beacon, you'll probably meet him 'cause that's where I'll be enrolling your prodigy of a brother when I'm done training him."
Beacon… Yang's thoughts went wild. "Beacon?"
"Yeah, a training academy, essentially. That's where your dad and I went to train to be Huntsmen," Qrow scratched his stubble. "At the rate you're going, you could get recommended to Beacon when you graduate, and I bet you'll get accepted."
"Really?" A fire burned in Yang's eyes as she heard his statement, a fire of passion and eagerness.
Qrow and Taiyang noticed this too, Qrow taking advantage of the fire while Taiyang just groaned quietly.
"I bet you'll get a rematch when you both get on Beacon."
The fire burned.
"Yeah, and I'll beat him to a pulp for accepting your.. your thing!" Yang did a fist pump.
"Alright, I'm going to train real hard!"
"Yeah!" Ruby joined in.
Taiyang shook his head while he chuckled. "Now look at what you've done, Qrow. You've made my whole family want to be Huntsman."
"That's not necessarily a bad thing, isn't it?" Qrow replied. "It just means they can protect themselves better."
"Well yeah… but I wanted them to be safe so only I can protect them." Taiyang sighed. "Look, just promise me this one thing, okay?"
Taiyang grabbed Qrow's shoulders again, making the second man look at his friend in confusion.
"Make him better at talking to people."
Qrow laughed.
Taiyang was known to be a goofball, Yang was known to be ragey, and Ruby was known to be a speedster.
Meanwhile, Crimson was known to be socially inept.
This family really is a great thing.
"Do you have everything?" Taiyang asked me for the third time.
"Yes, I have everything, Dad." I answer, exasperated. "I have the sword, and clothes, and some other stuff. Yeah."
Taiyang wiped a tear from his eye. "They grow up so fast..!"
Ah, never change, dad.
I turned around, and there was Yang and Ruby, both looking at me with less than pleasant expressions. Ruby was pouting up at me and Yang was… mad.
Welp.
"You better come back!" Yang put a finger to my chest. "I still want to fight you fair and square, Crim."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, whatever." I gently pushed her away, but Ruby blocked my way too.
"Can you give me cookies when you're done in your adventure?" Her expression did a complete 180 from sad pout to excited smile.
Ruby really is a weird kid.
I snorted as I pat her on the head. Being a bit taller than Yang and at least a head taller than Ruby gave me the right to do that.
"Never change, Ruby."
"Does that mean you're giving me cookies?"
"No promises."
As I walked out of the house (ignoring Ruby's cry of 'Nooooo!'), I saw Qrow standing there, his weapon already on his shoulder. I could hear the revs of a bullhead somewhere, masking the ambient noise of the woods.
"Ready, kiddo?"
I took one last look at my house.
My family was standing outside. Yang had her arms crossed and was trying not to look at me. Ruby waved goodbye to me excitedly, and Taiyang had this look of acceptance in his face, a soft smile gracing his features as he nodded at me.
"Go on!" Dad raised his voice so I could hear it. "I trust you to make it back to us, Crim!"
I smirk.
"I will."
And I dashed along with Qrow.
As we sat down on the Bullhead, I idly play around with my Semblance, causing small gusts of wind to flow around and creating a miniature ball of wind. It was sort of relaxing to use it, and the aura that it uses is minimal. Qrow watches me as I do random stuff with my Semblance before commenting on it.
"You know, not a lot of people can use their Semblance like you can."
I was confused. "What do you mean by that?" I'm pretty sure that with the minimal amount of aura used, a lot of people can do it.
He scratched the back of his head. "Well, for starters, Aura would be constantly used so you'd be drained if you kept playing with it, but yours doesn't seem to dip that much so I haven't stopped you. Second, not a lot of people have that much control over Aura to… well, use it to that effectiveness."
Oh.
Wow.
"What?"
He nods. "Yeah, I know another guy with an elemental semblance like you. His was Earth, and last I remember he could only throw large chunks of rocks everywhere. Here, I see you doing spheres and stuff," he shrugs. "What are the odds of you being a prodigy born with a large aura?"
I shrugged in return.
We were silent for a few more minutes.
Qrow cleared his throat. "So… originally, I was gonna give you a gift your mom was supposed to give you."
I whipped my head towards him. "You knew mom?" I whispered.
Well, what do you know. Yang's looking for our mom and we had our informant right here. How unfortunate.
"'Course I did, she's my twin sister." He off handedly replied.
Twin sister.
Squinting at him, I guess I could make out the resemblance. Both had black hair and..
Red eyes.
Wonder how I didn't notice that in the past twelve years.
"Oh…" I muttered, before I brought up the other thing he mentioned. "Wait, she gave me a gift through you?"
"Yeah," Qrow brought out a black case, at least 3 feet and then several inches closing in to 4 feet. "It's a one sided sword. One handed, no sheath. If you channel Aura into it, the internal green dust will give your sword acidic properties," He glanced at me. "Could probably give your winds acid too. You want?"
A sword like that? No one can pass that up. "Of course."
He passed me the case. I gingerly set it on my lap and undo the clasp closing the case. It was…
A good sword. No, good doesn't begin to describe it. When I laid my eyes on it, I knew.
It's mine.
It was a black sword with a green edge. There was a compartment at the grip of the sword, barely noticeable due to the equally black grip. I opened it and there it was, some green dust. I close it again and bring out the sword, bringing it to the light.
It was a straight sword. I tested my grip on it by seeing if I can flip it to change directions. I did it, and it fit like a glove. I didn't even drop it.
Maybe it's my 100 points on Bladed Melee, but I felt it. The sword, it's mine.
"Like it?" Qrow observed me test the sword. "I can keep it if you don't want it."
"I love it," I say wholeheartedly. I glance at him. "She spent money on me? I thought she left us. Actually, did she give anything to Yang?"
"No," Qrow replied honestly. "Look, your mom is… a difficult woman. She respects strength and skill, but she's essentially a loner. I haven't seen her since she gave me your custom sword."
"I see," I answer, a bit glum. So I only got her attention because I was good? I don't know if I should be happy or not.
We were silent again, this time spanning several minutes.
Should I tell him?
I need to tell someone.
I need to get it off my chest.
"Qrow… I have something to tell you."
"Spill." He wasted no time uttering that single word, now looking at me with rapt attention.
"I have… this ability," I do a gesture with my hands that emulated a square. "Makes me play life like a game, I guess. I've had it as long as I remember and the only reason I accepted was to get stronger."
Qrow was silent, drinking in the information.
"Play life like a game," He echoed. "Like what exactly?"
"Well, I can't edit my base stats, like Strength and stuff," I revealed. "I get 17 points to use on my skills though."
"Skills?" He looked at me. I can't read his expression.
"Yeah," I was a bit nervous now.
Would he leave me?
Call me a cheater?
Would he leave me?
I can't think of any scenario of me being 'not broken' if anyone on my new family leaves me. Qrow was that one Uncle who also doubles as your best friend, Dad was my dad, Ruby was the energetic little sister and Yang the competitive twin.
I can't think of myself without any of them.
He was silent.
"Skills like, with blades, blunt weapons, stuff…" I added as an afterthought. "I maxed out blades because I've always wanted to use a sword."
"Huh, so that's why you're so good with the sword." Suddenly, Qrow had a relaxed look on his face and was nodding. "What level are you at, kiddo?"
What. "Uh, 7. B-but wait, aren't you mad that I basically cheated my skills?" I panicked a bit, thoughts running on my mind about how he was just making me feel better.
Qrow simply shrugged. Shrugged. "Hey, not my business on how you got your skills." His gaze softens.
"In our world, it doesn't matter on how you got your skills. I don't care about how you got it, cheating it or not. You're my nephew who looks awfully similar to my own sister, and you got a broken ability. I don't care."
"You don't… care?" I echo.
He just nods. "Yeah," he opened an eye and grins at me. "As long as you have it, I don't care. Makes my job of training you way easier. Who knows, maybe you'll get into Beacon without a sweat," he smirks.
I sighed. "You know, I expected more anger and betrayal from this reveal."
"Hey, it gets you better at everything, right?" He shrugged.
I shake my head. "No. Most things only serve combat purposes. There is speech and barter, but those two aren't really a priority yet."
He slowly nods. "Is that why you can't talk to other people?"
"No, it's because of my low charisma," I grumble. "I've had it since I was a kid. 2 out of 10 makes me way below average. I'm socially inept."
"You're aware but never tried to change it?" Qrow seems surprised.
"I can't change it. Plus, I never realized how much of an effect Charisma had on my social skills until Dad took me to the park when I was 7. That was a nightmare."
It was.
The children on there avoided me like a plague and steered away from me. Yang and Ruby were the only ones playing with me, and whenever some kid got near to us, they would always look at me nervously.
Qrow snorted. "Yeah kiddo, you look like a robot. No emotions, and you don't know how to talk to people."
I sighed. "I know, it just doesn't come out the same way I want to say it like. It's annoying sometimes, results in hurt feelings often."
My uncle snickered. "I bet."
We went quiet again.
"You should probably change into your combat outfit," Qrow suggested. "We're getting close to our mission."
"My… combat outfit?" I was confused.
I had no combat outfit.
"You don't have combat clothes." He stated flatly. He looked over my clothes, a simple white shirt and jeans with rubber shoes. He pinches the bridge of his nose. "Well this is going to be a bit more complicated."
"Why?"
"Why?" Qrow looked at me and smirked evilly. Oh crap."We're not going on any simple mission, kiddo."
A mission prompt appeared.
Quest Added: Grim Outcome
Destroy the Grimm's Nest
I paled.
"We're going to destroy a nest."
A/N
Hello.
I went through my Managing Stories bar and found my story with 3 reviews and 200+ views, several followers and a bunch of favorites. Thank you for the warm reception!
Next chapter should be a bunch of experiences in the four years he'll be shadowing Qrow.
The mission in this chapter?
Of course.
Anyway, I need to shed some light on the Gamer Ability here to clear out some confusion probably in your head.
He can level up to get skill point, but he can also train them to advance more naturally, some a bit faster because of the associated skill (Small Guns would progress faster than Speech). That's why some skills are higher than before despite being ignored, like Sneak.
Unarmed has some extra points because of the way he keeps using it.
By the way, this is Crimson's stat sheet after the 7 years. Yes, he only went up 5 levels because of the lack of hard quests.
Crimson Branwen (LV. 7)
Health: 255
Aura: 190
Semblance: Aerokinesis
Experience: 3450 / 10000
S – 8
P – 3
E – 5
C – 2
I – 7
A – 10
L – 5
Skills:
Speech (Charisma): 32
Barter (Charisma): 15
Bladed Melee (Agility): 100
Blunt Melee (Strength): 49
Unarmed (Endurance): 18
Small Guns (Agility): 25
Big Guns (Strength): 20
Lockpick (Perception): 10
Repair (Intelligence): 18
Smith (Intelligence): 18
Computers (Intelligence): 18
Sneak (Agility): 51
Medicine (Intelligence): 18
Aura Manipulation (Intelligence): 64
Available Points: 0
Traits:
Blade Master: Gives a 30% boost to attack speed and damage whenever player uses a bladed weapon. (Requires 8 Agility)
Silent Step: Makes all steps silent regardless of footwear. (Requires 40 Sneak)
Dual Wielding: Gives extra damage as long as the player is wielding two weapons
I think that covers it, and as always;
Take this story with a grain of salt.
Semi Serious story so don't take it too seriously.
Reviews are appreciated, but not needed.
