Chapter 14: Chapter 14
"Y'all really want to work for us?" Junior said, looking at the two tackily dressed teens.
"I think the better question is, if you're good enough for us to work with you~~~"
"Yeah, sis. We're huntsman trained. You don't just find that anywhere, do you, Ju-ni-or?"
Junior looked very uncomfortable. Slightly sweating in his suit, the bulky man turned to the person behind him and began whispering.
"Can we get Neo or something here? These brats might be trouble."
"You think we really need you twerps?" Mizu said, slightly drunk and totally unaware of the razor sharp claws and heels the girls were wearing. "You mess with our boss, you mess with us all!"
A kick caught him straight in the neck, and the slightly graying middle-aged man was kicked into the air.
"Boss, she's already here." The drink mixer said, pointing at a girl sitting in the corner. Wearing a pink and white kimono, with a parasol leaning against the table that she was currently glumly drinking ice cream parfaits, the girl did not look at all cheerful.
Then, Mizu collided with her table. The man groaned, his aura flaring, before he looked up at Neo, then down at her spilled ice cream. The chill of the food and the equally chilling gaze that Neo glared at him with made him instantly sober up.
"H-h-hey, Neo. Th-those guys di-d-d this, I swe-e-ear!"
Neo grabbed her parasol and walked to the center of the dance floor, where the other patrons were looking at the processions with interest. With many of them inebriated, common sense was a precious commodity.
"You want to play with the big girls, midget?" The one in the red dress jeered, her red claws flashing across her face as she looked at Neo condescendingly.
"Sorry, but you gotta be this tall to ride." The white-dressed girl said, holding a hand just above Neo's head.
Neo snapped. Her anger flared on her face for just a second, before being replaced with a smile that seemed to stretch across her face.
The frustration of Kojiro returning to obsessive training, her ice cream being knocked over, and now these… brats…
She strode forward, parasol fanned out.
"You sure you wanna do this? We wouldn't want to scar your pretty little face."
Neo froze in front of the two girls, staring unblinkingly into the claws waving in front of her face.
"Still listening? Or just chickened ou-"
Miltia was interrupted by an umbrella to the back of the neck. Her twin gasped, turned to look at the Neo in front of her, and saw the glass slowly crumbling.
"W-what?" Melanie stuttered, readying herself into a stance. Miltia's red aura flared as she got up from the floor, rubbing her neck.
"Don't worry, sis. Together, we can take her."
Neo's expression turned into an unbearably condescending one
The two circled around the diminutive girl, before beginning to attack in a flurry. The handle of Neo's umbrella, oddly shaped like a sword-handle, shot upwards to hook Melanie's heels and dragged it to the side, while her arm wrapped around Miltia's, shrugging her off to the side. The surprisingly flexible kimono she was wearing was loose enough for kicks, allowing her to take advantage of the off-balanced twin with a kick to the shoulders for Miltia and a hit on the head for Melanie. The two stumbled to stand once again, before exchanging a gaze and nodding at each other.
"You can't catch us off balance if we just attack from the same side. We can guard each other!"
Neo raised an eyebrow, before mimicking Kojiro, making a serious expression, even outlining her eyebrows with her semblance, before waving her hand in a challenging gesture.
"That's it. You're so infuriating, it's disgusting!"
The air filled with red and white blurs, as the spectators saw generic afterimages of a barrage of blows, with red blades and white spikes soaring throughout the air like in badly animated fight scenes. Neo casually dodged most of them, opening up her umbrella as if to hide from the sun, and to add insult to injury, even throwing in extra flips and twirls to emphasize the ease of the maneuvers.
A robed man carrying an odachi on his back walked through the crowd, the suit-clad bouncers clearing the way for him. Spotting him, Neo waved, sidestepped another attack, and used a harsh swipe of her umbrella to knock the two to the ground.
The twins got up, noticed Kojiro's arrival, and then began trembling nervously. The recognition in their eyes swiftly turned to abject terror as memories of rumors describing how deadly the oddly dressed man was seemingly whispered in their ears.
"Uh…. Mr. Sasaki… sir… We're terribly sorry…"
Kojiro merely looked at Neo's attempt at getting him to pay more attention to her, and then pointed at the twins.
"When you're done, come upstairs. Somebody is waiting for us both."
Neo pouted, looking at Kojiro's retreating figure and the definite lack of praise, before turning to the twins with a disturbing amount of malicious intent.
The resulting beatdown was rather horrific. Most customers immediately ran for the doors. Regular Patrons, used to these slightly violent antics, however, just averted their eyes as a blade shot out of the parasol, before turning the rather expensive dresses into naught but ribbons and short skirts. In the end, the girls were left shivering on the floor, muttering catatonically.
"Sheesh. She really was holding back, wasn't she?"
"You haven't seen her around before, dude? She's like… a part of the Sasaki duo, you know? That escape artist? Stole an entire temple gate?"
"I still don't believe that anybody could do that."
Neo walked towards the stairs that Kojiro slowly ascended, waving to a slowly recovering Mizu as she did, before peeking in the door of one of the VIP lounges and seeing Raven slowly take off her mask.
"It's been a couple of months, hasn't it?" Kojiro said, taking a sip of tea.
"Indeed, It has." Raven muttered, swirling around a little whiskey in a glass. "Is this just the cheap shit you guys serve down below?"
"I have no idea." Kojiro said, shrugging. "You should know I only drink sake."
"You're not even Mistralian." Raven said. "Stop trying to pretend to be."
"And we've had this conversation many times. I'm sure this isn't just a social call."
"The other side has begun their actions. They've already attacked the Fall Maiden."
"Oh. The feeble elemental powers you call magic have been transferred?" Kojiro said, fingering his sword. "I've faced worse, and survived worse, with nothing but my blade."
"No… you haven't." Raven groaned, exasperated. "You basically got skewered by that guy… what was his name again?"
"Chrysos. He was something of a worthy opponent." Kojiro said, subconsciously clutching a hand to where the spear had pierced him all those years ago. "You could have beaten him as you are now. I know you're holding back when we spar."
"W-what?" Raven stuttered. "How would you know?"
"You could have just used your powers to supplement your attacks and make them more predictable." Kojiro said, thinking about all the potential application of portals.
"How do you know?" Raven almost shouted, slamming the table with the glass. Her whiskey sloshed over the edge, smearing the expensive wood with the slightly sour scent of whiskey.
"You told me yourself."
"I definitely did not."
"I could see how you were restraining yourself from using that power. You could have turned situations around instantly, won battles with almost no effort… I always thought that you were just limiting yourself to make fights more enjoyable, but perhaps…"
"Indeed. You're correct."
Kojiro smiled.
"I'm glad to see that you're-'
"I am a maiden… How you managed to find out, I'll never know." Raven said, slumping back into her seat in defeat.
"Uh…You're definitely not a maiden..." Kojiro said, "After all, Tai…"
Raven's katana cut straight into the wall right besides Kojiro's face. Not even bothering to look at the katana, Kojiro continued to speak.
"I was just talking about the combat applications of portals." Kojiro said. "If you could hypnotize yourself to form a bond with your enemy, perhaps just out of respect for them if they are indeed a worthy opponent, you could attack them from any angle."
"Oh god damn it… I just told you that for no reason… and-Wait, I can do what?"
"Yeah. Hypnotize yourself to fulfill the requirements of your semblance. Many… semblance users utilize the same principle to make themselves stronger."
"Is this some crappy theory from the people that you supposedly worked with before to 'save the world'?" Raven said, making air quotes and sneering.
"Indeed." Kojiro said, not even minding the sarcasm in the least bit. "And I know how terrifying portals can be. If you can master this skill, no opponent will be able to escape from you."
Raven leaned back, contemplating this idea, before taking her blade, creating a portal, and sending an arm through it to hit the eavesdropper at the door.
"I know you're there, Neo. Get in here."
Neo appeared, her illusion dissolving. She stepped into the room, pouting and rubbing her head where Raven had hit her.
"Don't be such a wimp. Kojiro raised you better than that."
Indeed, Kojiro was one of the few people that Raven actually sort of respected. Being rather single-minded in his pursuit of strength, Raven wasn't sure that anybody short of the maidens, perhaps Ozpin, or even Salem could defeat him.
After all, she had never gotten close without using her maiden powers.
"Since I'm here anyways, I would like to test my strength against yours. If you know of my powers already, even if I just told you so rather… stupidly… then I can go all out against you. Just don't tell Ozpin or anybody about it. If you do…"
"You'll portal over and kill me in my sleep. Okay, I got that." Kojiro said, laughing lightly. "Would the rooftop suffi-"
Boom.
"Oh, come on! Another bar crashing party?" Mizu shouted from downstairs. "Kojiro, get over here!"
Kojiro sighed. "Perhaps our duel can wait for another time."
"I can always just watch you beat the scrubs that think they can challenge you." Raven smirked, looking at Neo's disgruntled expression. "Don't worry, gremlin. You're at least getting somewhat close to my level.
As Kojiro left the room, Neo walked over to Raven and drew the blade out of her parasol just a little bit.
It took a moment for Raven to discern Neo's talk-not-talk communication.
"Of course. I won't actually hurt Kojiro. I kind of trust him."
Neo raised an eyebrow. Raven's memory flew back to all the times she had called Kojiro in as reinforcement during particularly troublesome banditry operations. Of course, she could have defeated the enemies easily, but that would take extra time. Time that her tribe members could die in.
"Okay, I do trust him."
Neo smirked, before waving her hand in an exaggerated pompous manner, beckoning Raven to follow her.
"I still don't get how you fight in a kimono." Raven grumbled.
Neo just looked at her heels and stared.
…
"We are here to recruit the one known as… Sasaki Kojiro." Another fancily dressed girl said, floating in the air, with fire in her palms. Behind her, two street punks followed, one with metal legs and the other carrying two old-fashioned pistols.
"You an archer?" Kojiro said, looking at the bows and arrows strapped to the floating girl's back.
That awkward question effectively killed all conversation.
"Totally killed the mood there, dude." The grey-haired boy said, snickering.
"Silence!" their leader barked. The green-haired girl glared at her companion, who shrank back in fear.
Kojiro eyed them and appraised their skill. The boy was off balance, too reliant on the weight of his legs to stay upright. Clearly, those were recent prosthetic implants.
The girl just lacked control, and judging by the lack of strength and posture that any trained combatant would have, she would probably fight with something similar to a semblance. She settled into a combat stance, which looked like it was just copied from somebody who actually knew how it worked. The tension in her body was in all the wrong places, which probably would result in a slow start in combat.
"You are the one they call Sasaki Kojiro, right?" the girl said.
"…That is my name." Kojiro said in a deadpan. He tucked his arms into his sleeves and stood facing the floating leader, Odachi still sheathed behind his back.
"Then, we will require your services."
"Not interested." Kojiro said, shaking his head and walking away. "Unless you can find a swordsman more skilled than Miyamoto Musashi, or a fighter faster than a swallow, then I shall not join you in whatever task you have planned."
The remaining patrons began to laugh once again. "Give up, lady." One person shouted. "Nobody knows who this Miyamoto guy is, but if he can beat Kojiro here, then he probably doesn't exist."
A glass shard embedded itself into the chair right besides the rather vocal customer. Within thirty seconds, all of the customers were gone.
"Is a fight required to convince you?" the leader said, "If it is, then I am more than willing to provide."
"What are you going to do, fight me with your parlor tricks?"
"I can assure you that my fire is as dangerous as it looks."
"…What's your name, my opponent?" Kojiro said, not even bothering to unsheathe his weapon.
"Cinder Fall. You best remember it as the name of your employer."
"Then I guess I have my answer. Your fire is as dangerous as your name says it is." Kojiro said, smirking. "Nothing more than a sputtering ember."
"W-why you…" Cinder growled in rage, her flames growing brighter and stronger. Kojiro looked at the slightly glowing eyes and sighed.
Magic really was disappointing.
As shattered glass levitated itself in response to a hand gesture, Kojiro decided to teach Cinder a little lesson about relying too much on semblances.
"May we have a fair match." He said, making a gesture that beckoned her towards him. Instantly, both his and Cinder's aura shattered. The girl fell to the floor, eyes flaring weakly.
"What did you do?" she shouted, getting the bows and arrows off her back.
"Your semblance is whatever that was." Kojiro said, gesturing to the reformed glass shards on the ground. "My semblance is Aura Trade. I can deplete my own aura, and in doing so, deplete the same proportional amount from you."
"Heh. What a useless semblance." Cinder scoffed. "You just have a sword now, and my two subordinates here are more than willing to defeat you. Admit it. You've lost."
"And a sword is all I'll need to defeat you." Kojiro said, unsheathing his sword. He brought his blade down, touching the ground with the tip, before disappearing.
"Wha-" the grey-haired boy said.
Kojiro reappeared behind Cinder, his blade already in a downwards slash, about to cleave Cinder from shoulder to hip. However, she turned and sent a gout of flames at Kojiro, forcing him to retreat.
"Tch." Kojiro grunted in irritation. "Still too slow."
"That's right." Cinder purred, levitating into the air once again. "My abilities stretch beyond your imagination. I can even use my powers without aura. I can float right here, out of the reach of your toothpick of a sword-"
Neo gritted her teeth in annoyance, hand reaching for her parasol. Raven's eyes, however, widened.
"You have to back Kojiro up now." She whispered. "That girl is more dangerous than she seems."
Neo looked back at Raven, and when she saw her serious expression, nodded back seriously. Disappearing in a flash of her semblance, she began to walk slowly and quietly towards the battle.
"Mercury!" Cinder shouted, flying backwards and firing two flaming arrows at Kojiro. The two arrows were deflected in quick succession, ricocheting off into the rapidly dispersing crowd. The two gun-boots proceeded to fall onto Kojiro in strong, fast kicks. Dodging one, Kojiro deflected the other and slashed Mercury in the back. Stumbling backwards, Mercury looked at Emerald, who nodded.
Instantly, ten illusionary copies of Mercury appeared around Kojiro, wearing the exact same expression. But at that same moment, another Kojiro ran into the fray. Kojiro looked at the heterochromatic eyes and smirked.
"Ready to put your sword to the test, dear apprentice?"
The other Kojiro nodded, smiled uncharacteristically wide, before charging at the green-haired girl. A gout of flame blew through the path that the imposter was going to take, stopping the advance.
"So, another Illusion semblance user. Or maybe that wasn't the real Sasaki Kojiro in the first place." Cinder muttered, notching another two arrows.
Kojiro, meanwhile, was fighting the ten Mercury images at once. Even if there were supposedly ten of them, their movements were all synchronized. Kojiro took a deep breath, tried to channel vitrify to get rid of the illusion. The illusions flickered, before coming back in full force. His mental cleanse wasn't enough, considering that the semblance was immediately reapplied.
Thus, his best option was to defend against all ten of the Mercury images.
A wide, circular slash deflected the kicks of all ten illusions, but the attack only impacted once. Identifying the direction, Kojiro lunged forward, setting into a stance, before drawing another breath and muttering.
Tsubame Gaeshi.
His sword curved down swiftly once again, striking the real Mercury and sending him flying out of the series of illusions. His tongue clicked in annoyance as he failed to achieve it once more, before turning to attack Cinder with the other Kojiro.
The other Kojiro deflected bullets and dodged fire, pulling out unreasonably flexible dodges.
"Your semblance really has improved!" Kojiro said, smiling at Neo. "The image isn't flickery at all anymore."
The other Kojiro nodded back, before grinning and running straight at Cinder, who smirked and sent an intense gout of flame right through the other Kojiro's head.
The headless body continued to run forwards even as the head was melted off of the illusion.
"W-wha-" Cinder stuttered.
Neo's illusion dissipated, revealing a much shorter figure. Dropping her parasol sheathe, she drew her blade and jumped.
"The flame only hit the illusion!" a goon said, peeking out from behind the bar counter.
"That's our enforcer duo for you! Kick their asses, Kojiro!" Mizu shouted enthusiastically, pumping a fist in the air.
Her parasol blade sank right into the enemy's thigh. Neo's hands then shot up, grabbed the impractical heels Cinder was wearing, and pulled her down harshly to the ground. With the lack of aura protection, she lay still.
"Cinder!" the green-haired girl screamed, firing off her pistols rapidly, not caring about conserving ammo. Kojiro stepped in, grabbed Neo's parasol, and began to deflect the bullets. Despite standing in front of the hail of bullets without an aura to fall back onto, Kojiro was still relatively confident. Bullets marred some of his body, tearing into his robes and staining his them with blood.
"Kojiro! That's the third time this month! Next time, we're not getting you a replacement! Use your fucking aura!" Junior shouted, slamming his hands onto the bar table.
Seemingly panicked by the nonchalance of her opponents, the green-haired girl's pistols were clumsily reloaded. As they were pointed outwards to find the target, however, the girl was knocked out by a sword hilt to the head.
"Sorry about that, Junior." Kojiro said, scratching his head and sheathing his blade. Paying no attention to his bleeding, he just walked back to one of the tables, got a napkin, and began to wrap his wounds.
"It would be so much harder to dry clean this because of the blood, won't it?"
Neo facepalmed, before pointing to the umbrella.
"Okay, okay. I'll have some sort of shield for bullets the next time I face somebody with a gun." Kojiro lied, not even attempting to sound sincere. Neo laughed at Kojiro's nonchalance and sheathed her own blade, before beginning to text the place that made their clothes.
"If you caved and just got something like a long-ranged weapon when we suggested that you would, you wouldn't have to buy so many robes. Which set is this now?"
"I'm fairly certain that I've ruined about ninety of these." Kojiro said, finally deciding to take off the purple robes. Raven looked at his ridiculous color scheme and scoffed.
"I still don't get why you just don't dye your hair purple. Currently, you just look like an off brand clown."
Kojiro folded the dirty laundry and handed it to Neo, who tossed it unceremoniously over an armchair before going off to the fridge.
"…You know, I don't have any idea myself." Kojiro said. "Anyways, you still up for that spar?"
"Are you still up for that spar?" Raven said, raising an eyebrow. Neo came back from the fridge and waved her hand excitedly.
"You want to fight?"
Neo nodded.
"Well, sure. You're not an idiot that threw away your aura, after all, so you can actually give me a challenge. Still, though… first, we have to take care of-"
Raven looked at the notably missing unconscious body of Cinder.
"Damn it! I was too fucking distracted! If I just did something, that power could be-"
Kojiro's raised an eyebrow. Narrowing her eyes, Raven began to think.
"…Well, that power wasn't exactly impressive compared to your skill. It couldn't even compare the full scale of the maiden powers at all."
"Which still aren't very strong." Kojiro added. Raven ignored him.
"That power may have been the result of a passive semblance, instead of the actual maiden powers, or maybe just some delusional teenager. Speaking of hopeless idiots, are you still trying to teach these idiots your sword style?"
Kojiro looked at Mizu trying to sheath his blade in the wrong way.
"…Fair point. So just Neo?"
Neo glared at Kojiro.
"She doesn't want any of her secrets to be spilled before your spar. You'll still probably lose, Neo." Kojiro said, sighing. "I know you don't want to hear it, but it's the truth."
"Fight this… fight that… Those muscle heads are so goddamn weird. What's at the end of all of this trouble?" Junior mumbled, already thinking about the money he would need for repairs. His insurance prices were already through the roof.
"If it helps, next time, I'll try to fight outside." Kojiro said
"This isn't about fighting! I know your job is literally to do that, but we have no more competition now! The only people that could potentially be hostile are literally the people you killed Chrysos with! Find something else! Stop challenging people randomly and get a life! Most importantly, stop wrecking the bar!"
Junior walked away, the large man shaking slightly. Despite towering over Kojiro, the smaller man didn't waver at all, even in front of the intimidating yells.
…
"Damn it. Why won't those two just change?" Junior said, sitting in the back room. On their roof, the sound of two blades clashed. Fire scorched through the air and ice crystallized into formations with an odd tinkling sound.
Neo and Raven were still battling.
Mizu sat down besides him, sighing. "They're just built different, boss. Not ordinary people at all. Only extraordinary people can become extraordinary, but the meaning of extraordinary can… extend to other difficulties."
"You would know, wouldn't you? You're just too ordinary."
Mizu laughed sheepishly.
"I'm honestly considering firing them from the gang, but now with those guys around, we'll actually have to depend on them to keep us safe. I… don't like doing this, dude."
Patting Junior on the shoulder, Mizu smiled ruefully.
"In all of my fifty years of life, I haven't seen a pair as hardheaded as the two at all, like… It's almost like they're just… pretending to be human."
"Neo's a downright psychopath that's just chained by Kojiro." Junior said, rubbing his temples. "Kojiro, however… it's like he's just an unfeeling blade, always seeking to sharpen himself. And nothing more. He has gotten a few hobbies, but he's probably at his tea shop training or something. He just… never stops."
"Teaching them to be human can be hard, huh?" Mizu said dryly.
"Yeah." Junior said, "It really is."
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