Ch 39: Memories: Fated Meeting

It was the middle of the afternoon. A seven-year-old Ray was racing through the underbrush of a forest just outside of Vale. It was a few days before the Vytal Festival would start, and Huntsmen had cleared out most of the Grimm around the City of Vale to prepare for all of the people who would be traveling here for the festival. That made it a training opportunity that Ray couldn't afford to miss. While most of the Grimm would have been wiped out, a few would have inevitably slipped through the net. Picking off a few isolated Grimm was perfect for the immature Ray's current abilities, as long as he didn't meet an especially powerful one.

Usually, Ray would be sneaking about slowly to sense any Grimm before they perceived him. However, he had heard the echo of a gunshot in the distance and was afraid someone was in trouble. He would never be able to look his twin sister in the eye if he knowingly turned his back on people in danger without at least trying to help.

The sporadic gunfire continued as he approached. As he got closer, under the sound of the gunfire, he heard the sound of a man shouting, asking someone to stop shooting, that they meant no harm. Ray frowned as he heard it. This wasn't Grimm, and that made the situation a lot more complicated.

Slowing his approach to avoid revealing his presence before he had a chance to assess the situation, Ray jumped up into a tree and peered through the leaves, which were just starting to change colors for fall, to observe the situation.

To his left, almost a dozen Humans dressed in worn yet well-maintained dirty clothes, probably from one of the nearby villages that surrounded Vale, and armed with pistols and hunting rifles were firing from behind the trees. To his right, a line of covered trucks on that had been stopped on the road by a fallen tree. There was no one else anywhere in sight, which wasn't that surprising. People rarely traveled this particular road as it came from the south-east, rather than the east, north, or south-west roads that merchants and huntsmen more commonly traveled since they lead towards the capitals of the other three kingdoms. Looking closely, Ray noticed that the fallen tree hadn't fallen naturally. The ax marks in it said somebody had cut it down.

[But why?] Ray wondered, [They are too poorly armed to be professional bandits, and the harvest shouldn't have been so bad that it would force honest farmers to attack travelers. Why would they attack this caravan, and why aren't they fighting back?]

"Please listen to me. We are just trying to pass through to get to the Vytal Festival." A large muscular man with thick black hair and beard and yellow eyes stood up from behind one of the trucks and tried to reason with them. All his goodwill got him was a bullet to his shoulder. Thankfully his Aura held, and he ducked back behind cover as more dust-propelled lead followed.

[Ghira!?] Ray recognized the man from the RWBY anime. He was Ghira Belladonna, father to Blake Belladonna and the current leader of the White Fang which was still a peaceful organization. As Ray looked closer, he could see the faded symbol of the White Fang, a blue wolf's head, painted on the doors of the trucks.

He couldn't see any of the Faunus hiding behind the trucks, but he could sense their Auras. About a dozen armed adults, all who had unlocked their Auras and, based on their Auras' stability, were well trained. They also had about twenty kids between 12 and 8 years old, a few who had also unlocked their Auras.

On the offensive side… no one had unlocked their Auras. If the Faunus lost their temper and fought back, these villagers wouldn't stand a chance.

"We don't need any f*cking animals at our Vytal Festival! You mongrels can just go back the way you came!" One of the shooters shouted as he spat in their direction.

[Well'p*, no need to wonder who is in the wrong here.] Ray pulled out his scroll and started recording the situation as he sent a message to his Uncle Qrow asking for assistance. If Ghira didn't want to resolve this with violence, then Ray would respect his intentions. But that didn't mean there was nothing Ray could do.

"Please, there is no need for violence." Ghira stood up to try and talk with them again but was greeted only with more hostility and bullets and quickly ducked back down. Ray couldn't help but admire the man. He had liked him before in the anime, and he admired him even more now that he was meeting him in person.

As Ray watched Ghira's valiant effort to stop the violence using peaceful means, something started to move inside him. Just a few days ago, he had felt that he had broken through to a new level in his Aura Manipulation, and this inspirational sight was starting to move him and his Aura in ways he had never been able to achieve before. Ray's eyes began to lose focus as he sank deeper inside himself as he experienced this feeling of enlightenment.

"Augh"

"Daddy!"

An unknown amount of time later, a painful grunt and the shriek of a young girl snapped Ray out of his contemplation. Ghira had stood up to try and talk with their assailants one too many times, and a bullet had finally broken through his Aura to drill into his chest. It wasn't a fatal wound, but he needed treatment. The masculine feline Faunus had fallen to the side and was partially exposed. A little girl with long black hair and cat ears had run out of her mother's arms and was now trying to pull her father up and back behind cover.

Without thinking, Ray moved on instinct and jumped down from the tree to stand between the Humans and the downed man and his daughter. As he landed, he faced the gunmen and spread his arms wide. "STOP!" He shouted with a voice containing traces of authority that didn't match his age as his Aura surged and took form around him, instinctively following the method he had just been contemplating. The azure skeletal rib cage of Susanoo manifested for the first time.

With his shout and the pressure Susanoo exerted, time itself seemed to stop as everyone stared at the youth who had suddenly appeared. Ray turned his head to look behind him, and his eyes met with the young Blake. He smiled at her and said, "Don't worry, I'll protect you." before turning back to face the attackers. With those words, time began to move again.

"Who the f*ck are you!?" one of the gunmen shouted at Ray, his pistol shaking in his hand. "Another d*mn freak!?"

Ray cocked his head and laughed at that, "While it certainly wouldn't be incorrect to call me a freak, the answer to your actual question is no. I'm not a Fanus. I'm a Human."

"Then why the hell are you protecting these animals!?

"Why?" Ray asked, cocking his head to the side innocently before a sneer crossed his face, "I wasn't aware I needed a reason to protect the innocent from a bunch of criminals."

The villagers were taken aback by Ray calling them criminals. Obviously, they had never thought of themselves as such.

"Shut up! A kid like you could never understand. These filthy animals masquerading as humans deserve to die."

"Not understand? I understand enough to know that based on Valarian law, what you lot are doing is attempted murder. It doesn't matter if the victim is Human or Faunus." Ray looked at them in disgust.

"Filthy racists like you give the rest of us Humans a bad name. The only animals I see masquerading as people around here are you! They are Faunus, proud of who they are and more civilized and, dare I say, humane than a bunch of violent, extremist, racists will ever be!" Ray started shouting at the end as he let his true feeling about the matter erupt.

"SHUT UPPP!!!!" One of the villagers screamed. Unwilling to take the verbal abuse anymore, he opened fire on the boy who had dared to insult them. The others quickly followed his lead and opened fire as well. Some aiming for the boy. Others at the Faunus who had peeked their heads out from behind the trucks to get a look at the Human boy who had suddenly appeared to stand up for them.

"Look out!" Ghira called out to the boy as he rushed out, planning to tackle him to the ground and shield him with his own body, Aura or no Aura.

Ray just smiled and stood there, his arms spread wide, welcoming their assault.

*Ping* *Ping* *Ping* The bullets pinged off Susanoo like raindrops. None of them were able to penetrate his skeletal Aura. And neither was Ghira.

*Thud* When Ghira slammed into his Aura from behind, Ray glanced back at him with a mischievous smile. "Relax. I said I would protect you, and I will." Ghira and the rest of the Faunus could only look at that small back that suddenly seemed a lot bigger and more reassuring.

If the Faunus were starting to feel safe, the Humans were becoming more and more terrified, "What the hell are you!?" one of them asked as they all started firing wildly, trying to bring down this terrifying existence.

Ray smiled at them with a face full of childish innocence that only served to scare them more, "Like I said, a freak."

"What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into this time, kid." At this moment, a lazy voice called out to Ray from the top of the fallen tree. A tall, lanky man with pale-red eyes, black spikey hair and stubble around his chin, wearing a grey dress shirt with long tails, black dress pants and shoes, and a tattered red cape with a collapsed single-edged greatsword strapped to his back was squatting on top of the fallen tree trunk looking at Ray with tired eyes.

"Uncle Qrow! I found these bad guys trying to kill these travelers. When it looked like things were going to get worse, I stepped in to help. Uncle Qrow, you should arrest them for attempted murder." Ray explained the situation to the new arrival.

"And who are you!?" a still panicked gunman turned his weapon to point at Qrow.

"A professional Huntsman." Qrow answered in an exasperated tone, holding up his license for all to see as he slid down off the tree trunk and straightened. "Put down your weapons and let me hear about what happened here."

"Oh, I have most of the encounter recorded on my scroll." Ray released Susanoo and walked to where he had dropped it when he had jumped down. As he was walking over, one of the Humans took another shot at him, hoping to kill this freak now that that crazy azure skeleton was no longer protecting him. Ray didn't even bother to acknowledge the attempt with a look. His uncle would protect him.

Qrow dashed in between Ray and his attacker, drew his greatsword, and deflected the bullet. "I said, put your weapons down. Final warning." Qrow warned the gunmen as he leveled his blade at them. As a licensed Huntsman, he was authorized to use force to subdue hostiles if the situation warranted.

After a moment of hesitation, the villagers all put their weapons on the ground and raised their hands in surrender.

"Better." Qrow said, returning his sword to his back. He turned and accepted Ray's scroll from him. "As for you, kid. I assume you can get back on your own. This is going to take a while. I'm sure Tai and your sisters are worried about you."

Ray shrugged but did look a little guilty when Qrow said that.

"They're used to it." he muttered. It wasn't the first time Ray had snuck away into the woods to train, though it was the first time he had done it so far from home. Ray started to leave, not forgetting to wave at the Faunus he had just helped and call out to them, "Bye, I hope to see y'all at the Vytal Festival" as he departed.

"Don't think we aren't going to have a long talk about what you were doing so deep in these woods once I finish here." Qrow called after the rapidly departing Ray.

The incident ended with all of the Faunus safely reaching Vale without any more difficulties under Qrow's escort. The villagers were all arrested for attempted murder thanks to the video evidence on Ray's scroll and the testimony of Qrow and Ghira. Unfortunately, Ray couldn't meet up with any of them at the Vytal Festival because his father had grounded him for sneaking off into the forest alone and could only watch it on TV.