Viking Funeral

"No problem pops, I'll be sure to call you immediately if I had wind of it," Zack said seriously in a straight-faced lie with a thumbs up.

"That's all I asked" Qrow nodded at Zack who nodded back.

Zack went to Ruby next as he crouched down to look at her in the eye.

Ruby's silver eyes stared at the blue-sky eyes of Zack for a moment then Ruby hugs Zack as she makes a few sniffle sounds.

Zack smiles warmly at his little sister.

"It's alright Ruby, I'm just going on a journey but you can bet my cookie recipe that I'll always return here," Zack said.

*sniff* *sniff* "Y-you Promise?" Ruby's watery eyes stared at him with a kicked puppy expression.

"!!!!!!"

"O-of course, I promise, when I return, I'll make you a delicious cookie using my improved recipe!" Zack hurriedly says as he can't take the look Ruby's been giving him.

"ALRIGHT!!! be careful out there big brother! be sure to come back earlier!" Like a switch was flipped, Ruby returns to her usual bubbly self.

Zack smiles wryly at her antics.

He then turned to the one that's hard to say goodbye to.

He doesn't know what made him cautious at Yang but at some point, she acted very weirdly around him. First, every night that they spent together in his room, she was always the first one to sleep, and not once did he see her break that habit of hers.

Second, every time he wakes up, he feels his lips are sore, some little bruises on his neck and he never catches sight of Yang in his room when he gets up.

Third, every once in awhile, he will lose one or two boxers a week but at the same time, Yang is always in his room after she comes back from school but she will always place a few clean clothes for Zack to change into outside the door.

And lastly, every time he takes a bath, he feels like someone is watching him like he was some piece of meat.

Other than those things Zack doesn't know why he's always cautious around Yang.

It'll always be a mystery in Zack's oblivious mind.

Zack approached Yang and gave her a simple hug but he didn't expect that she gripped hard at his shirt while her eyes were hidden by her bangs while a few small sniffles sound coming from her.

Zack warmly smiles at Yang then puts his right hand on her head and strokes her slowly.

"Don't worry, I'll always come back here and we'll be going to Beacon at the same time, who knows maybe we end being on the same team" Zack said positively while smiling like a fool who doesn't know the grave he's digging himself into.

"!!!" That made Yang flinched at the notion of being the same team as him.

Yang's eyes gained a scary glint while looking at the smiling Zack.

"Hmph!! I know that brother! but… promise me to always call us(me) every once a week… but… If.. you... miss one.. even for a single time, I promise you Zack Fair, I will drop everything and search for you" Yang said with a hundred percent serious expression on her face.

"Hahaha you don't have to worry Yang, I won't forget," Zack said with no understanding how serious Yang is right now.

Yang then composes herself then looked Zack in the eye.

"Good, and by the way, this is for good luck" Yang suddenly said as she put her arms around his neck then pushed his head towards her then kissed him on the lips for two seconds but at the last moment, Zack momentarily felt something trying to invade his mouth.

After that, Yang separated from him while smiling at him.

As for everyone else, their eyes widen from shock.

For Ruby, it was pretty clear what she said.

"Ewwwwww!!"

For Qrow, he was quite proud of his son right now and can't wait to tell this to Raven.

"Hahahaha! kids these days!"

For Zack, well Zack.exe stopped working a while ago.

"..ah… ehh.. wa… wh… ughh.. ahh" Zack's response as his brain is still trying to reboot itself.

For Taiyang, he was feeling complex at this but he knows Zack is someone better than some unknown brat taking her baby.

"Ahahaha maybe you should save that after you both get married," Tai said jokingly.

"!!!"

Everyone looked at the infamous overprotective father for that one, well except for Zack that is.

….

After that awkward goodbye, Zack rode on his motorcycle as he traveled wherever the road takes him, meaning Zack has no plan at all.

For the few months, he would occasionally encounter bandits but they were all beaten black and blue and Grimms were just cut into pieces. He did save a few small villages he came in contact with and did some unusual jobs here and there to earn some extra liens.

After four months he was finally able to talk with Sephiroth inside his head, and when he meant to talk, it was fighting to the death with each other.

This happened while he was staying in a nearby inn and good thing he booked his room for a month because he fought Sephiroth for two weeks straight in his mind while his body was in a state of metabolism suspension like those with cultivators.

As for his weekly update for Yang, it was pretty simple, he pre-recorded them in advance, but just two recordings.

As he finally finished his fight with Sephiroth, his hair became all silver and his eyes retained their sky-blue in color but with a pupil of a cat. As this transformation happened to his body, he felt he was free.

Aside from that, after he 'defeated' Sephiroth, he got his skills and experience. Also, all of his physicals were enhanced to a veteran hunter's level but he feels like he can still break his limit so he didn't let up in any of his training. His aura also changed, his Mako, Mana, and Aura inside his body fused and brought out his new Aura with a new quality and density unlike any other but the side-effect of it was that he can no longer create Mana based attacks so he had to recreate some of his previous moves but the hardest one to recreate was Sephiroth's Meteor, he can still summon one but it takes about half of his aura and the size is smaller.

One year passed since then, he rode towards who knew what but he suddenly came up with the place he hadn't been into yet and that was Menagerie, the homeland of most Faunus people.

On the way there, his trusty motorcycle finally collapsed and yes Zack cried for his lost brethren.

He didn't bury it though, he placed his broken motorcycle on a cheap boat he bought then left it there as he watched it going away in the sea, as he saw it was clear enough, he infused his right fist with large amounts of aura and pointed his hand over the boat sailing away then brought it down.

"Goodbye, my friend" Zack murmurs sadly while watching a small boat sized meteor coming from the sky and went toward his deceased motorcycle.

That's right, he's giving it a Viking funeral.

*BBOOOOMMM*!!!

While Zack was in his little world, the people who saw that explosion panicked as they thought there were Grimm or bandits that caused that.

After that episode, he just walked to the port of Menagerie without a single care as he did though encountered some pesky bandits and Grimm again but to him now, they were just too easy to take care of so that was what he did.

After entering Menagerie he took it as a vacation of some sort where almost every adult was either frowning or glaring at him but they didn't do anything other than that because Zack looks like a genuine veteran huntsman coupled with his serious expression right now.

'Hmmm now where can I find a momentary base, I need to make my new baby motorcycle' were in Zack's mind right now but still oblivious to the frowns and glares towards him.

Zack proceeded to head towards a somewhat inn looking building.

As Zack entered the inn, he immediately became the center of attention, anyone else in his place would be uncomfortable in some way but not Zack, he just went towards the reception desk and asked for a room.

One dog Faunus guy couldn't take anymore and stood from his spot and went towards Zack.

'Heh, a human free for a beating, I'll make sure no human ever even think about coming to Menagerie, I'll provoke him for a bit, if he takes the bait in this place, I can justifiably beat him until my fill'

At this everyone quieted down as they watched the upcoming beating of a human.

"Hey! human! your kind is not allowed here!" The dog faunus barked at Zack.

"….."

No response as Zack took his key and was gonna go out again to look for a mechanic shop to part-time at.

"....."

As Zack was gonna reach for the door, the dog faunus finally shook from being ignored.

"HEY, YOU!!!! You dare ignore me you piece of sh---

*choking sounds*

In a blink of an eye, Zack disappeared and he was already choking the dog faunus with one hand as he raised his hand.

The dog faunus was now panicking as he slowly choked out, he tried fighting it but every punch or kick didn't even make Zack flinch. The dog faunus looked at the guy's eyes and one of his eyes were glowing greenish-blue with both of them with cat-like pupils, he felt scared looking at this guy's eyes, he felt like he was about to die.

All faunus inside was shocked at the display of strength and some of them were intending about to interfere but contrary to everyone else's expectation to help in this situation, the guy himself stopped as he brought down the dog faunus slowly, It was weird because the guy started to talk to himself but the weirdest of them all was his voice, there were two different voices from each other.

*cough* *cough* (Dog faunus coughing in the background)

"~I told you, these insects will try to bother us even if we ignored them~"

*sigh*" yeah yeah but now because of you, we can't stay here in peace"

"~then find somewhere else without these annoying little pests, if you don't then I'll just cut some to lessen them~"

*sigh*" Can you not be a psychotic killer for a moment, we're only here until I finish my motorcycle, after that we're back on the road, alright"

"~fine, but on the way, get us some chocolates… the supplies are running out~"

"Finally something we can both agree on," Zack said as one of his eyes returned to its sky-blue color.

Zack then went to the coughing dog faunus as he brought out his right hand as he waited for the dog faunus to take it.

The dog faunus hesitantly took his hand to pull himself up.

"Sorry about that bud, let me heal that for you," Zack said after pulling up the dog faunus, Zack then pointed his hand at him then glowed green as the bruise on his neck disappeared.

"That'll do, alright see ya bud," Zack said he finally went out under the eyes of everyone on him.

The dog faunus was still in shock because his bruises on his neck were gone just like that and that the very one who caused him this healed him just like that and talked to him just normally, no insults, no threats, no disdain or any condescension.

He felt weirded out by that human and so was everyone else in there.

'Is that human alright in the head?' All of them thought of this except for one.

That one is a 15-year-old girl with long black hair, yellow eyes, and a pair of cat ears on her head. She narrowed her eyes on that guy earlier, because she didn't even see him move from his spot earlier but in a second he crossed that distance in an instant.

'He either is a veteran huntsman or worst-case scenario, a spy from the other kingdoms' She thought of all the possibilities but then she remembered that he was talking to himself earlier.

'Or maybe he's just a moron?'

Either way, she needed to report this guy to the Whitefang as it is very rare for a human to come here in Menagerie.