A Nascent Kaleidoscope. Chapter 681:

Ozpin POV

Well, this was certainly interesting.

And I'm happy that Qrow is out on a mission right now.

I feel like he would be insufferable.

Jas, Glynda, and I were still reviewing the footage from the fight. How many tis have we watched it start to finish at this point? I seem to have lost count, not that it mattered.

It finally ended for the umpteenth ti, and neither of them asked to replay it again.

I took a sip of my coffee, extra strong. With how much work the festival planning has been, I'm afraid that if I stop drinking it, I'll fall over in exhaustion.

"Perhaps we should inform Miss Nikos to not use her new…move on the other students." I broke the silence.

"Oz, I'm fairly sure that she's capable of shooting one of my battleships out of the sky." Jas looked at . "That's not the kind of thing that can be left in the hands of a student."

"What are you saying, Jas?" Glynda put her hands on her hips.

"I'm saying that maybe you should encourage her to transfer to Atlas so it can be properly observed."

"That's entirely Miss Nikos's prerogative, Jas." I set my cup down. "And as you saw from the video, she quite thoroughly rejected Miss Schnee when she also offered."

Though, I could understand his concern.

That was certainly…strong.

It pierced through the reinforced Beacon Walls like they were paper.

"Oz, that's a damn railgun! In the hands of a child!" Jas slapped the table.

"Like you aren't working on similar weapons, Jas." Glynda glowered.

"And they're all failures, Glynda." Jas snorted.

"Really?" I sat up straighter.

He let out a sigh. "It's not that there hasn't been progress. The concept of a railgun has existed for…decades. But we don't have the technology—the materials—to handle the stress."

I humd thoughtfully. "Miss Nikos seed to have no trouble."

"Her Semblance, Oz." Jas waved it away. "It forgoes the need for strong materials to handle the stress of the magnetic force. Which is exactly my concern! Oz, she literally only needs a semi-sturdy piece of tal, and she can take down ships from miles away!"

"Then we're lucky that she has a strong sense of justice and wouldn't do such a heinous thing." I responded politely.

"She clearly has reprimanded Mr. Schweinorg on every occasion where he was cavalier about his less-than-legal activities." Glynda agreed.

"That's…" Jas frowned. "He could beco a bad influence on her. We should keep them separate."

"Or she could be a good influence on him," I retorted. "And besides, Jas, we're not actually capable of keeping him away if he really wanted."

"Magic bullshit," Jas scoffed.

"Mr. Schweinorg, despite our...butting heads on various things, has been amicable as well. It's not a good idea to poke at the flimsy relations we've developed for paranoia."

"It's my job to be paranoid, Oz." Jas crossed his arms. "I have to observe every threat and make plans for the worst case."

I couldn't deny that either.

Despite our differences in opinions on a lot of things, I had him as a close confidant for a reason. Jas complented my optimism with his own pragmatism.

There have been tis where my viewpoint has won out, and there have been tis where his planning and preparations for the worst have saved our behinds.

"It's my fault," Jas grunted. "I hadn't considered the full possibility of her Semblance. We've had it on file for years, and we've never marked it down. If I had taken more steps, we could have had her going to Atlas."

I smiled wryly. "You're not wrong to be cautious about the possibilities of Semblances, Jas. They're nad so for a good reason. To be a semblance of magic, they can reach heights that may surprise you."

I knew that Jas was already ntally planning his new orders to start databasing known Semblances. Perhaps to get a think tank going on their possible threats if taken to the extre.

"If you observed her aura levels, it appears that it took Miss Nikos a substantial amount of her reserves to perform such a feat. Even if she refined her 'technique,' I would be surprised if she could do it more than a few tis before she couldn't even stand." Glynda added.

"Small rcies." Jas let out a breath. "I can't even think about how we would contain her in the off chance that she was arrested for a cri. All our holding cells are tal; we'd have to develop a cage specially for her that's non-magnetic and that blocks her magnetism from reaching outwards." He shook his head. "I really hope you're right, Oz."

"I tend to be, more often than not." I took another sip of my coffee.

"And since you have decided not to punish Miss Nikos for the damage caused, I presu you already know which budget we're going to be pulling from for repairs, right, Ozpin?" Glynda pushed her glasses up.

"...Is it the boat fund we were saving up to buy?"

"It's the boat you were hoarding school funds to waste on." Glynda glared.

"Experience on watercraft is instruntal for teaching!" I defended.

"Ozpin, the boat you were looking at is a hundred years out of date!"

"It's a classic!"

"It has literal cannons."

"Yes." I smiled. "Yes, it does."

"Glynda, you can't put a price on historical hands-on learning." Jas also defended my goal.

Of course, I knew he would understand.

Glynda glared at him, then looked back at . "Ozpin, do you think I didn't look into the history of your little boat?"

I froze. "Well…you can't trust—"

"Ozmaneus the undefeated." Glynda said pointedly. "Does that na happen to ring a bell, Ozpin? A pirate from about three hundred years ago stole from the corrupted officials all across the seas. Happened to be the captain of the exact ship you want to buy. Coincidentally, it was salvaged and restored by the last King of Vale and put away."

Abort.

She knows too much.

"Ahem." I cleared my throat. "Do we know anything about that man that Mr. Schweinorg brought, Jas?"

"I've run his face through our database, Oz. I didn't get a single hit." Jas responded with a hint of annoyance. "Oz, is it possible he's a magic-user? I don't understand how he could have beaten Winter like that without Aura otherwise."

Yes, that's quite the conundrum, isn't it?

Claiming to have no aura, yet his skill was…breathtaking.

I turned the screen back to the fight again, but in slow motion this ti. "Every ti he blocked, parried, or deflected a strike, he turned his sword ever so slightly so the edge never connected with Miss Schnee's saber."

"He's far too skilled to not be known." Glynda agreed.

"Yet, not a single record in any kingdom." Jas grunted. "Are we assuming that he's simply never been to any kingdoms in his life?"

"...it's not entirely impossible," I said thoughtfully. "But it's still a question of how he got that skilled. That's not sothing you can simply train by yourself too. He very clearly has experience in a real fight."

You could tell the difference between soone who spent ti training and soone who had real-world experience.

This man had both in excess.

"And you're sure he isn't one of those magic users?" Jas asked again.

It would fit into everything nicely, wouldn't it?

I tapped my desk, thinking it over. "I didn't notice any signs of magic being used. But…I suppose it's possible he's from that secret society."

I've co more to terms with the fact that there's apparently a still-living group of magic users in the world, hiding sowhere away from everything.

As absurd and impossible as it is, I can't deny the facts.

"Have we still had no luck in 'finding' them?" Glynda asked.

I let out a long sigh. "Unfortunately, every place I had Jas check had turned up empty."

Jas nodded. "I had my people check all twenty-seven locations you could think of that they may be hiding, Oz. I still have more, but…"

I silently waved it off. "I understand, Jas. I'm not blaming you; it's a complete shot in the dark anyways."

All the locations that I could think of that were magically significant. Any place that I could pull from my mories that a society of secret magic users may hide away at.

Yet, not a single one of them showed even a hint of magical presence.

If anything, they were even more decayed and decrepit compared to every other part of the world.

It's silly; I've checked these places over the centuries—the thousands of years—in my various incarnations.

I looked for every scrap of magic that could have been left behind and found nothing.

Ironically, these magically significant places from the past were hidden the hardest when the Brothers took away magic from the world.

Though, it seems they missed a few spots.

Or maybe so clever fellows anticipated this and prepared ahead of ti? If the Brothers could have missed Salem retaining her magic initially, who's to say they might not have missed sothing else?

I could hardly call them infallible.

"I don't rember if I was around at the ti or not. Maybe my reincarnations happened afterwards, or maybe the long years turned the mories to dust. But when humans returned after so long, they didn't have Magic to face the threat of Grimm, and they hadn't discovered Aura yet. Perhaps… it's a legacy from the olden days?" I voiced my thoughts out loud. "When one had to rely purely on the strength and skill of their own."

I looked at the screen again, and I couldn't stop being impressed.

His weapon was so incredibly unwieldy. A sword that was longer than a spear, curved to make it more difficult to use even still.

Yet, his movents with it were so incredibly precise and delicate.

It was like watching a renowned artist paint a picture.

Winter did her best to take advantage of his weapon's very obvious flaws, yet with all her skill and experience, she was…well, toyed with.

Maybe she couldn't see it in the mont, but my long years let see the truth of the matter. He was going easy on her, to a degree I didn't know, but the signs of holding back were very clear.

Like an adult humoring a child.

But I don't think Miss Schnee could even bring herself to be offended if she realized.

Mr. Schweinorg called him the best swordsman on the planet from the audio we heard, and frankly, I'm inclined to believe it now.

And even without Aura, he was keeping up in both speed and strength.

When Miss Schnee used her Semblance to accelerate herself, he read her movent perfectly. I could see that he began to move even before she touched her next Glyph to shoot at him. He predicted her exact movent, her exact placent each ti to deflect and parry each of her attacks.

"You're not going to tell I can't recruit this one, are you, Oz?" Jas looked at .

I took my glasses off, grabbing a cloth to clean them, as the steam from my coffee had smudged them ever so slightly. "Jas, if you're able to recruit him, I will offer you genuine praise."

Judging by the way Miss Schnee was looking at him… I wouldn't say he didn't have any chance. From the caras around Beacon, I saw that she was giving him a tour of the school and was quite…enthusiastic about it. But also, I know people better than Jas. This Sasaki Kojiro is not the type of person to be held down by sothing like a military.

He's a free spirit.

The military is far too rigid and structured for him.

However…wouldn't a teaching position be much more up his alley?

We could always use another combat instructor.

I changed the screens because I got an alert of activity in the Forever Fall Forest. At least parts of it that were close to the school that we used to keep track of any stronger Grimm that got close.

The caras caught Mr. Schweinorg with Miss Nikos on his shoulder. Both of them were laughing as he ran through the forest, though Miss Nikos seed a tad more panicked.

Perhaps it was the Nevermores chasing them from the sky and shooting their feather arrows at them that Mr. Schweinorg skillfully dodged with ease.

I took another sip of my coffee.

As far as 'criminals' go, I believe Mr. Schweinorg is not soone I have to worry about.

Ironic, considering his relation to Salem.

"We can investigate our mysterious man any ti." I changed the subject. "Jas, were you talking about the increase in White Fang attacks recently?"

"Right." Jas nodded. "I'm concerned that the White Fang may be planning sothing for the Festival. They've attacked four Dust Shipnts in the past months; three of them were successful. That's a lot of Dust, Oz."

I nodded with a small sigh. "I suppose it may be appropriate to increase security, it seems."

[Line Break]

Wilhelm POV

"This is cool; I didn't know there were old ruins here." I looked at the old structures, weathered from ti, that sat on the cliff that overlooked a big part of the forest.

"There were so in the forest where we took our entrance test too. We had to go into these ruins and retrieve a 'relic.' The relics were just chess pieces." Pyrrha responded.

I was tempted to do so exploring, but the sun was starting to go down.

I should stock up on more of the red sap here; it's a really great ingredient.

Pyrrha was looking out over the cliff in quiet contemplation. Therefore, I felt the need to pull on her ponytail again.

"Eh!?" She let out a little squeak of surprise.

"How are you feeling?"

"Oh." She quickly recovered. "My aura is back to normal sowhat, so I'm not feeling aura exhaustion anymore." She smiled.

Pyrrha breaking out a railgun wasn't sothing I expected, but I suppose it makes sense considering what her Semblance is.

I sat on the edge of the cliff, and Pyrrha joined . "How have you been? We hadn't had much of a chance to just talk, huh? I co to offer, and you imdiately want to fight." I sighed helplessly.

She puffed up rather adorably. "Then you should co visit more!"

"Okay, Miss Sassy." I poked her cheek. "I'll try to visit more."

She kicked her legs casually over the edge for a silent mont. "It's been nice; I love Beacon."

"No one's bullying you, right? No one I need to go beat up?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes. "Do you think anyone here can bully ?"

"Well, you are very bullyable."

She let out a huff and smacked my shoulder. "I'm the top of the year."

"Is that a hint of pride I hear from you?" I eyed her.

"I an…I do take pride in my skill…" She looked bashful as I pointed it out.

Cute.

"I guess you aren't a 10-ti world champion for nothing."

"That's not my title." She huffed again, crossing her arms. "And you know it isn't."

"Maybe."

"Hmph." She grumbled. "You said you would be here for the Vytal Festival, right?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world, Red." I reassured her, knowing how much it ant to her. "I'll bring the whole family…or as many that can co."

'Doing so ntal calculations… I have no idea if Kunou will be on Winter Break or not during that ti.

I can hope.

Though, I should probably check. I'm sure that dea would know the answer to that question, and I can just send her a ssage at any ti.

"That would be great." She smiled warmly. "My mom will be there too."

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow, but she imdiately smacked my shoulder.

"You're not allowed to flirt with my mom!"

"I promise nothing."

She puffed up again, as if trying to glare at .

I just patted her head so she knew I was joking. Even if it were a younger that was a bit more…eager, in certain areas, I wouldn't want to ruin my relationship with Pyrrha.

"That reminds , I got a gift for you." I took out a familiar bracelet. "I made this one specifically for you."

"Oh, Wilhelm, it's beautiful." Her eyes softened imdiately and her previous as she gently accepted it into her hands.

It wasn't anything extraordinary. A few rubies along the band with so golden and blue enal. It fit her rather well if I do say so myself.

Her eyes turned slightly red as she sniffed. "I think this is the first ti a friend gave a gift…."

I pulled her into a one-ard hug.

Pyrrha is a sweet girl; it breaks my heart to hear sothing like that. "It's not a normal bracelet."

"It's not?" She perked up, looking confused.

"Have you wondered how I make things keep appearing and disappearing around ?" I asked her as I summoned my sword to my hand, then made it disappear again. I held up my finger and emphasized the ring. "Using my…semblance, I can condense and warp an area of space and anchor it to sothing. You can think of it as my Ring having an invisible warehouse connected to it that I can put things into and take things out of."

Her eyes widened, and she looked rather speechless. "My bracelet…?"

I smiled this ti. "If you channel your aura into it, I made it so you can access the 'space' connected to it."

I'm a little proud of this one. I had to figure it out without her having access to magical energy. But the gems on the bracelet had runes delicately carved on the inside—entirely invisible from the outside—that gradually gathered magical energy from the surroundings.

And with just a prod of Aura, it basically actualizes the Mystic Code.

"It'll take so practice, but I think you'll find it's rather convenient." I continued. "Oh, and you can't put living things into the space. There's already a safeguard for that, so don't worry. Just a warning in case you thought to do that and couldn't."

"How big on the inside is it?" She was still seemingly wrapping her head around it.

She didn't ask any technical questions, so I think she understood the concept.

Pyrrha was a smart girl; even if she didn't understand the underlying chanics, I'm sure she could grasp the barest idea of what I was telling her.

"It should be about the size of your dorm room. So…' try to stuff a car inside. If you try to put sothing too big inside, it simply won't work, so you don't have to worry about that either." I explained.

I took a lot of precautions in her case.

"And anything you put inside will stay 'pristine,' food won't go bad, nothing will mold or expire, tal won't rust, bacteria won't form, etc., etc." I made sure to tell her that bit too.

"Wilhelm, this is…amazing; I don't…"

I pulled on her ponytail, making her yelp again. "All my friends have one; why do you think you're any different?"

Her lips trembled, and her eyes watered just a tiny bit before she turned away from .

I pulled her into another hug.

Pyrrha deserved good things.

@***@

I stretched my arms as I stepped out of a portal into Vale.

Pyrrha had to go back; curfew.

Sasaki was apparently still at the school and was offered a room as a guest. I would point out the differences in how guests were treated—mostly myself—but I also rembered that I used a dildo as an anti-air weapon and took down a Bullhead.

I suppose it would make a tiny bit of sense that they'd be more open to hosting soone who isn't a criminal in 75% of the world.

Oh well.

And Sasaki didn't need to babysit him; he seed to be enjoying himself.

I just sent him a ssage to tell if he wanted to leave and left it at that.

It's been a while since I've been in Vale.

It was a rather nice city, and it had its own charm compared to the cities I was more familiar with back ho.

It's kind of wild to to see everyone using Dust in such a casual way in comparison. Like, every lamp post was powered by Dust as just a minor detail.

Though, I didn't dwell on it too long as I made my way across the nightti streets.

There weren't too many people out, and I was surprised when I got to my destination that there weren't big groups of people.

Junior's Bar should be much more crowded, shouldn't it? Nightti club and bar? There should be huge groups of people out and around the entrance.

When I got close, I noticed there was a big 'Closed for Renovations' sign on the front, which answered all my questions.

I shrugged and pushed the door open.

Imdiately, I felt a wave of dust—the kind from plaster and construction—sort of hit in the face, as it looked like people were working inside just earlier today.

Tiles on the dance floor had been torn up, so walls had been cut down, and it looked like they were expanding the building in its entirety.

But my eyes shifted because I wasn't alone.

"Well, well, well, look who it is, Neo."

I didn't have a chance to respond before an 'invisible' missile ran right into .

Neo, using her Semblance, tried to elbow in the stomach, but I caught her right before she did.

She looked upset, waving her hands around in various gestures.

"Alright, alright." I held my hands up. "I'm sorry I hadn't called or been around."

She crossed her arms in annoyance, but she wasn't trying to hit anymore.

"I've been busy."

She gave a look.

"Seriously, I've been very busy."

She rolled her eyes and dragged over to the bar that was still operable, it seems.

Roman was also sitting there with Junior, relaxing behind it.

Not a normal 'open for business' type of display, but they were just hanging around.

"My wayward son, returned after so long!" Roman clutched his chest. "It does my old heart good to see you after so long."

I kicked his chair over with a yelp from him.

"You motherfucker!" I pointed at him on the ground. "I got 'arrested' by so of Atlas's robots when I went to visit a friend at Beacon. Do you know what they called ?!"

There was a brief mont of silence before they all started laughing.

Junior couldn't hold it in either, and Neo keeled over, silently laughing hysterically.

Roman, despite being on the floor, was laughing happily, and I kicked him.

"Did you actually change his na?" Junior asked.

"He did!" I responded. "I thought he was just fucking around. Ha ha, here are your na change docunts. But no, the robots actually called Waterlon Torchwick."

"Pfft."

They continued to laugh.

I grumbled and took an empty bar seat next to them. Roman tried to fix his seat, but I kicked it over again out of pettiness.

"Where are the twins?" I asked Junior, who was recovering from his bout of laughter.

He rested a hand on the bar to support himself. "The twins have been on vacation since the club has been going through renovations. No point in having them around just to watch the construction going on."

Figures.

Neo sat next to and looked at expectantly.

Like I was supposed to give her sothing.

"...If I give you sothing good, will you forgive ?"

She nodded enthusiastically.

I set a literal gold bar down on the counter for her, and her eyes widened. The area around her shattered from the use of her Semblance, and the gold bar 'disappeared.'

"Hey, do I get one of those too?" Roman found his hat that had fallen off his head, putting it back on before fixing his bar seat and rejoining us.

"Do you want to answer that question?" I glared at him.

"Ah, is this puberty? My dear son talking back to his father."

I felt my eye twitch violently.

I fucking hate you, Roman.

I ignored him, though. "How's the business been, Junior?"

He grunted, taking out a bottle and pouring a glass, sliding it across the counter to . "Can't complain. Well enough that we can comfortably expand."

I nodded, not missing, well, the obvious around us. "And the less than legal business?"

"Ah, that's been in the shitter for a bit at this point."

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow.

"The cops have been cracking down hard with all the White Fang running around. Especially with the Vytal Festival happening soon. Those dumbasses don't even understand to stay quiet and out of sight when a big event like this is happening. It's making all of us look bad."

"Yup, those animals have been really acting up." Roman pulled a cigar out of his pocket, lighting it up without a second thought. "I haven't even been able to do my normal stuff because they've been ruining everything. Damn savages."

If I didn't know he was being 'racist' intentionally just to be an asshole to them and wasn't actually racist, I would have said sothing.

"I hope you guys aren't planning to do anything ssy during the festival." Because it was important to Pyrrha, and I wasn't going to let anyone ss with it.

"Do I look like so amateur?" Roman seed genuinely offended. "Not only are all kingdoms going to be watching, but the Atlas Military is literally going to be above our heads. I would have to be utterly idiotic to try and do anything big while the festival is happening."

The others silently agreed, and I breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Besides, Neo actually likes the Vytal Festival. She attends it almost every year." He added.

Neo nodded happily, making a few gestures with her hands.

I could vaguely tell that she liked it for the food and sweets.

"Well…if you're itching to do sothing, I got a job that needs done." I took a sip of my drink; it was a bit stronger than I expected. I tapped my finger against the bar counter for a mont before continuing. "The pay is pretty good."

Roman leaned in. "Well, would you look at this, Junior? The kiddo's all grown up, asking for a job all by himself. Even offering to pay."

Junior snorted. "I'm not really enthused by the idea of doing anything at the mont. But I'll hear you out if nothing else."

Neo propped her head up with her hands and elbows on the counter, looking at expectantly.

"It's nothing too ridiculous," I reassured them.

Truthfully, I had been wracking my head around ideas on how to help Yasaka.

She's been so stressed and exhausted recently, I wanted to help her out. Sure, I could keep giving her things like Dust or physically going around and putting out any fires, but that's not the kind of help she needs.

I wanted…no, what Yasaka needs is the kind of help that cos with permanence.

If for whatever reason I just up and disappeared, I didn't want her to be set back, to be without the continued 'ans' of help.

I wanted her to have sothing she could rely entirely on herself and her people to propagate. They were making money by trading with Skyrim, but if I disappeared, that would stop. Salem was trading Dust with her, but if I were gone, that would probably stop too without my help.

The herbs and potions were a good step there, but those didn't really help in the direct sense. And currently, the production capabilities are still being tested and sowhat limited.

I wanted to help from the lowest levels to help expand the foundations so it would alleviate so of her needs.

I decided just to be absolutely blunt about it. "I want the schematics for Scrolls, the CCT Towers, and Atlas's Robots."

[Line Break[

A/N

Youkai having their own network and communication system would be a pretty big thing. Add-on robots that can seemingly be mass-produced for any kind of work, not just combat, would be amazing for nial jobs like farming or construction, or any other physical labor.

If you want to read 10 chapters ahead or support , visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone

I also have a boosty if you can't use the above under the sa na.