Chapter 8

The sun had finally set, and the duo of miscreants had finally left the school after Summer had finally found Kojiro trying to drag Neo away from another student communal fridge. Oddly enough, Kojiro always heard the soft thump of cane on ground around them, but Neo was moving too fast for them to investigate.

The sun was soft, and the trees of beacon were wreathed in an ethereal shadow that was slightly tinted with orange. Birds flew out of the trees, presumably seeking their nests, and Kojiro idly wondered if they were swallows as he reached for his sword.

Suddenly, the screens across the bullhead began to buzz. There was an incoming call, and the pilot answered immediately.

It was from a guy called 'Ozpin'.

"You don't really have cousins, do you, Summer Rose?" a young man with white hair and wearing a green suit said.

Summer began to fidget with her hands behind her back as she faced the headmaster. However, the call was being maintained by several screens at once, meaning that the nervous motion was still seen by Ozpin.

"Don't worry, you're not in trouble. I'm calling to talk to the young man standing next to you."

Kojiro released his sword from his grip as Neo looked at the figure. Then, the duo looked at each other, looked at this Ozpin person, and then looked at each other.

They both shook their heads. Neither of them knew who he was.

"…Pardon me for asking, but who are you?" Kojiro said, as Ozpin's smiling face froze for a bit before his shoulders went through the upheaval and relaxation that were the signature signs of a sigh.

"I am Headmaster Ozpin of this academy. I'm calling to invite you to my school. I must say, the footage of you fighting that Nevermore was quite impressive."

"There are cameras in the Emerald Forest?" Summer exclaimed.

"How else do you think Beacon Initiation has remained deathless across all these years? We have a bullhead-based retrieval system for students that are in great danger. That being said… how did your weapon break? Mr. Sasaki?"

Kojiro shivered at the blatant cultural misuse of his last name, before replying. "Contrary to many of your students, I do not have my aura unlocked. Also, how do you know my name?"

The other end of the call was silent, punctuated only by the distant clicks of Ozpin's clocklike wall decorations.

"You… do not have your aura unlocked?"

"It is but a crutch for one that wishes to achieve true swordsmanship." Kojiro said, tucking his arms into the sleeves of his robes, before nodding.

"A swallow can turn at about two hundred kilometers per hour." Kojiro recited. "I once was able to cut one of these birds in twain just as they swooped down at me."

Neo just shrugged and snickered internally and let this boast take place. It was funny to watch the supposed headmaster's slightly panicked expression as Kojiro described the fictitious bird known as a Swallow.

Kojiro probably didn't even realize that he was scaring the headmaster with his intentionally vague words.

"And you slew this… swallow… without aura?"

"Yes. Compared to that, a nevermore was nothing."

Then, Kojiro wrinkled his brow and asked again. "How do you know my name? I do not remember introducing myself."

"What avian grimm could possibly be worse than an alpha nevermore? A Grimm Wyvern?" Ozpin thought, sweat tricking down the back of his neck.

"Are you sure you don't want to be a huntsman?"

"Thank you for the offer, but I have no such desire."

"You could use your skills in the benefit of Remnant. It's much better than working for a small town gang."

Neo covertly sneered at what she now interpreted to be a stalker.

"So that's how you know my name. You tracked police records or something, didn't you?"

Ozpin nodded.

"As for benefiting the world…"

Kojiro sighed wistfully and looked at the slowly rising shattered moon creeping over the eastern horizon.

"I worked with people that did so once. It was a grand campaign… done by a Grand Order of people, you could say." He said, chuckling as if sharing some secret joke with himself.

"In the end, we were all vanquished, and the world never even remembered us."

Ozpin's eyes gained a rather intense light.

"You worked with these people?"

"Yes, I did." Kojiro said. "It was certainly an experience. Sadly, it is unlikely that we will ever meet again."

By "ever meet again", Kojiro meant "summoned onto this world". Ozpin just interpreted it as "dead".

"…I understand." Ozpin said. "Such sacrifice should only be undertaken once. I should no longer ask of you to shoulder such a burden."

"Thank you." Kojiro said, not understanding anything Ozpin said.

"But if you ever want to join our academy, either as a student or a teacher, all you have to do is come to Beacon and ask. I'm sure Miss Rose would be glad to bring you to the campus."

"Of course I would." Summer said, slowly wiping a tear off her cheek.

After the call closed, Neo applied a calm visage to her face as an illusion as she began laughing silently.

"I had no idea you had lost so much." Summer said, putting a hand on Kojiro's shoulder.

"Even if it felt like the battles happened a lifetime ago, the scars still remain." Kojiro said, smiling sadly.

Some misunderstandings were only made to be widened.

…

Kojiro stood in front of the still-smoldering bar. Neo looked slightly panicked, before running into the bar and clambering up the broken stairs.

"Wait-" he said, wanting to warn Neo to take care of the situation with slightly more caution.

He could hear the sound of a minifridge (or whatever fragments remained of it) clattering onto the wooden floor, before Neo stomped down the stairs, clearly miffed expression on her face.

"Of course all that you care about would be the ice cream. Did my tea set survive?"

Neo shook her head, before miming something shattering.

Kojiro rested his forehead in his palm. "Of course."

They stood in silence for a bit, watching a shelf slowly fall apart, individual splinters isolating themselves and falling to the floor from the shot up shelf.

"I think normal people should feel sad if this were to happen to them." Kojiro idly remarked.

Neo shrugged, before tugging on his sleeve to the nearest hotel. They had to find some place to sleep, after all.

Somehow, despite what must have been a lot of violence, the streets were still bustling as normal. Many people in suits leaned on particularly sturdy cars and chatted. One of them looked at the two before tapping some things on their scrolls.

After walking about half a block, they were suddenly dragged into an alley. Kojiro almost fell over as Neo collided with his legs.

"Oh damn, Kojiro. I finally found y'all." A guy wearing the signature Xiong clan uniform said nervously, looking out at the front of the alley. "The boss wants me to tell ya that we're relocatin' to the docks. Our base just got hit."

"We noticed." Kojiro said dryly.

"Wait, you came from that direction?" the gangster said, pointing at where the old bar was.

Kojiro and Neo nodded.

"Shit!" he exclaimed, running off deeper into the alleyway. "Didn't y'all notice those guys by the cars? They're here to hunt us down! They're probably coming this way right now! We gotta move!"

Dragged on by their comrade, the trio ran down the alleyway. Behind them, the sound of very loud breaking screeched through the setting night sky. Neo hefted her still unimproved umbrella and ran as fast as her admittedly short legs would carry her, the recognizable pink standing out amongst the slightly charred red bricks.

…

"Target is spotted. I repeat, target is spotted. Accompanied by two others."

Rufous smiled, looking out the window at the direction of the slums.

"I knew you were around here… nephew."

"Now what do we do first?"

"Kill all the others with him. And bring him to me."

…

Bullets, without a doubt, were fast. And humans just weren't made to dodge them.

It was only because the Gangster and Neo had aura that they remained mostly unscathed. Kojiro, being the tallest and fastest of the group, ran ahead of the other two as bullets peppered their backs.

They rounded a particularly sharp corner, and all of them took a while to catch their breaths. Even if their clothing was full of holes due to hasty aura barriers, at least they were unharmed.

"Boss… what… now?" The grunt panted, leaning against a wall. "I was… just supposed…. To lead ya to the docks…. There was supposed to be a car."

Neo glared at him, and the grunt stared back nervously.

The staring contest continued for about two seconds, and the gangster sighed.

"I can't… understand you."

Kojiro could hear their pursuer's footsteps growing louder, and drew his sword to prepare to fight.

He closed his eyes, and then stepped out into the alleyway. The gunmen chasing them from behind hesitated for a couple of seconds, before they opened fire at his head and his chest as he leapt forward. The bullets passed through his lungs, staining his purple robes, and-

Kojiro's eyes opened, and then stepped out onto the alleyway anyways, sword held aloft.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the gangster shouted. Neo looked at him in shock and dismay, as if already predicting his death.

Of course, Kojiro knew where his two opponents were going to shoot. He then used the other terrain advantage: the narrow alleyway.

Normally, it would be an impediment to his plan of deflecting bullets as he approached, since his long sword would be impeded by the narrow alleyway, limiting the size and fluidity of his swings.. However, because the weapons in question shot too many bullets to be deflected, that plan was obviously not going to work.

The other solution? Use that bit of terrain that hurt their chances to his advantage. Kojiro began jumping from wall to wall, making it on top of the relatively low buildings in two or three leaps just as his opponents reacted in time to fire at his vanishing form.

"God damn it! Why didn't you guys hit him?" one of the pursuers complained. "I was reloading!"

"I was handed this thing last week! Besides, what if it was the target? The boss said they wanted him alive!"

"What do you mean you joined the milita last week? I started training a month ago!"

"He probably had aura! It would be fine to shoot him!"

Kojiro was suddenly glad that all of his pursuers were just greenhorn recruits. It would be rather painful for him and awkward for those people when they realized that he didn't have aura.

"He might be sneak attacking us! Pay attention, you idiots!"

The bickering abruptly stopped, and they began fumbling with their weapons. The clackety sound of a loading gun, followed by the small clicks as the trio of men fidgeted with their triggers were all that was heard as the three watched the ceiling for their prey.

Kojiro then realized that they were at a standstill. He couldn't jump down and attack his pursuers, and

In hindsight, his plan was kind of idiotic. He could have gotten shot, but now that he didn't get hurt, what was he going to do now? More reinforcements were bound to come and capture his other two companions, before they climbed onto the roof and swarmed him.

There was nothing he could do against one machine gun wielding foe. The less the better was said about ten.

He took a deep breath and crouched at the edge of the roof, contemplating trying to attack anyways.

He was always the villain. He was always the side character. What if he was meant to die here, in what was probably a poorly written story like all the others that his wraithlike existence was based on, so that the main character could continue on with their rightful, gang-cleansing crusade?

He straightened his legs, before slightly bending them again. His sword was raised for what was possibly the last time, and then-

"What the fuck, dude? Why'd you punch me?" a relatively high pitched voice said.

A weapon fell to the ground, the ammo cartridge loosening and clattering out onto the brick road.

"I didn't do nothing! Concentrate!" a second voice said seriously.

"My weapon's on the god damn ground!"

"Then maybe you shouldn't have dropped it like an idiot!"

"What did you just say you little-"

"What if it's his semblance?" a third voice chimed in nervously. "Telekinesis? He could be using it to- Ow!"

Another attacker's weapon fell to the ground, and he slumped to the floor, cradling the only weakness that could induce such a reaction.

"Okay, man, this isn't funny anymore! I'm calling for backup!"

"You didn't do that?" the high pitched voice said, as sounds of more reloading filled the alleyway, before the cartridge fell to the ground. "Fuck! My ammo!"

Then, the thwack of boot meeting skull reached Kojiro's ears, who walked to the side and looked down cautiously.

One man was struggling to get up, hands nursing what must be some abused genitals. Another was curled up on the ground, unconscious. Two of the three weapons were on the ground, while a third was pointed at the spots right next to the only standing member of the group.

Then, the last member looked as if he'd just been punched in the face, and Kojiro leapt down and slapped the already stumbling man with the flat of his blade. He didn't want to risk swinging and hitting the wall with his katana, breaking the blade that was just reforged.

The attack did its job, and the man fell headfirst into the brick wall, stumbling before lying prone on the ground.

Neo appeared above the two men, her invisible illusion flickering off her in an array of pink sparkles. The handle of her umbrella was coated in a pink light, which showed what bludgeon had been used to sneak attack the three people lying on the ground just now.

"Nice job." Kojiro said, offering a smile. Neo accepted it proudly, exaggerating a bow and stomping one last time on a still-groaning head.

"Wait, when did ya get over there?" the grunt still in the other alley shouted.

"What's your name?"

"Mizu."

"Get over here and grab one of these." Kojiro gestured to the weapons with his foot.

"Oh, sure, boss. Well, you're not the boss, you're more like the top muscle, but-"

Neo mouthed the words 'top muscle' in exasperation.

"Reinforcements are on your way. Hold your position." The radio on the ground blared.

"Well, we best be off." Kojiro said, as Neo picked up the radio and threw it to the other end of the alleyway, where it shattered.

The trio then clambered onto the roof, Kojiro jumping up by wall bouncing and helping up the others, before they ran off in the general direction of the docks.

…

"We ain'tgonna make it, boss." Mizu said, despite his previous relevation of not having to call Kojiro 'boss'.

Kojiro had to carry the man's weapon just so Mizu could stagger along with their pace.

"This would teach you not to spend all day drinking and smoking, wouldn't it?" Kojiro said, breath still as even as when he started their escape. Neo looked at Kojiro with a disgruntled expression, as if daring him to mention her tired expression and her height.

"Maybe we should really find a car." Kojiro mused, looking at a bustling warehouse besides a bullhead dock. Besides the bullhead dock, a demolished building that used to be a neighbor gang's headquarters let up smoke gently into the air. Besides the wrecked building, several of the armored cars spray painted with the crown logo of the monarchs parked.

"Looks like we've got an old fashioned car chase on our hands." Mizu said. "I would drive you kids to the docks, but I can't drive delivery trucks. They're too bulky."

"Don't worry." Kojiro said. "I got this."

"You can drive?" Mizu said, raising an eyebrow. Neo looked at Kojiro, eyes open in bewilderment.

She had never seen Kojiro even touch a steering wheel in his life.

…

"That should be the last of the cargo you're delivering, old man Jade. Remember, you just have to drive to-"

"I know, I know. I've been driving this route for twenty years. Should only take about two hours."

"…Why haven't you retired?" the loading worker asked, taking off his bandanna and squeezing the sweat out of the soaked fabric.

"Mainly out of boredom. Someday, something exciting is going to happen here."

"There are gunfights every week around these parts."

"Well, they aren't exactly exciting, right? They happen every week."

"I just- why do you think that- is that normal for you?"

"Pretty much." He shrugged. "We live in the slums, kid. Violence is a part of our lifestyle."

"Why did I leave the farm for this?" the worker said, groaning. "I should have just stayed and farmed rice or something, but just chasing birds away from the granaries was just too boring for me, wasn't it?"

"You chose this life, kiddo. Now you gotta stick with it. See yaarou-"

The passenger side door of the truck was suddenly opened, and three people tumbled in. A teen wearing clothes that were abominations upon the name of fashion shoved him out of the driver's seat, while an umbrella tip poked at his fingers (which were still desperately gripping the steering wheel), until they relinquished their hold.

Jade fell out of the drivers seat and roughly onto the pavement as the truck was slowly driven out of the loading bay with the stability that only a seasoned truck driver could have. It crested over a speedbump elegantly, barely even quivering from side to side despite its heavy trailer.

The old man of the ground just slowly got up, mourning a bruised arm.

"Well, I guess you got what you wished for."

"What?" the old man said, irritated.

"Excitement." The young man said, smirking.

"Oh, shut up."

The truck slowly crested the hill, before disappearing from sight.

"…We should probably call the police."

…

Kojiro slowly flipped through the different radio channels, the music changing from opera, then to techno music, and then to something that sounded like action music from a badly animated three dimensional series.

At last, Kojiro settled on a Mistralian channel. A chorus of people sang joyfully, singing words that Neo didn't understand.

"… Is this a Mistralian version of "We're all in this together?"

"It's good to know that they have this song here."

Neo, currently cramming into a seat with Mizu, looked like she wanted to choke Kojiro for saying more nonsensical, confusing statements.