Interlude (6): Eyes.
The delay in posting the chapter is due to something that happened on (P)(A)(T). I had to focus on a chapter posted there with some important information about Devas and the story in general.
Well, as always, if anyone wants to support me or just read 3/7 chapters ahead of my stories, that's possible on my (P)(A)(T). If not, I still appreciate you reading my stories!
Thank you very much!
That said, have a good night and happy reading!
(P)(A)(T)/CalleumArtori
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POV: Third person.
Mystia, the Magician, or, as her real name was, Aoi, was a second-year student at Haven. To say that the recent events hadn't affected her life would be a lie.
The death of Leonardo Lionheart, one of, if not the most powerful man in Mistral, was a blow to the entire kingdom and especially to the academy, which underwent various investigations.
Discovering that one of the headmasters of the four great academies was being controlled by a deranged psychopath seeking victims was one thing, finding out that said headmaster was from her own academy was a whole different story.
"Zero deaths by Grimm." Xia, Aoi's partner, commented, looking at the newspaper on the CCT. "The number of crimes was also minimal. It doesn't even seem like the Headmaster died... How did this happen?"
It was surprising. Anyone who knew how Grimm operated knew that the death of someone so important, especially carrying so many other deaths of Huntsmen and Huntresses, would result in a Grimm onslaught.
In times like these, negative emotions were common; Grimms thrived in such moments, yet there hadn't been any deaths or even reports of Grimm on the kingdom's borders.
It was as if the Grimms didn't even exist in these past few days, and as Xia had said, even crime had decreased; even the most dangerous areas were quiet.
"Depends, do you want what's most likely or the rumor that's being spread in the hallways?" Lisa, the third Huntress in training on the team, yelled from the bathroom.
"Rumor? Gossip?" Miiya's fox ears perked up. "Come on, spill it. I haven't had a chance to gossip in these past few days."
"I wonder why..." Xia huffed. "Oh, right, it has to do with a new teacher at Beacon, doesn't it?" Miiya's flushed face was answer enough.
The flying pillow was just the icing on the cake.
"No aggression in the dormitory." Aoi commented monotonously. "Last time you broke the light, and we got detention for it."
"It's not my fault our resident fox gets irritated and starts throwing things just because I point out the obvious." Xia dodged the second pillow. "I've seen someone horny before, but I could hear Miiya ovulating just by looking at the guy-"
"Stop!" The third pillow was used to try to suffocate Xia.
"No murder in the dormitory!" Lisa yelled. "Save that for class, don't mess up my bloodstained carpet!"
At the first opportunity to breathe, Xia continued the teasing.
"I still don't know what you saw in the guy. He was cute, sure, and had a sculpted body, but he wasn't a heartthrob for you to act like a blushing teenager." Xia huffed. "Thought you'd faint if he came to talk to you."
Miiya blushed even harder and hid her face behind the pillow, murmuring something softly. "I..."
"Louder. You're the one with four ears." Xia exclaimed.
"I... I liked his scent." Miiya's voice was barely above a whisper, yet it was enough to make all three others turn to her.
"Aoi, get the spray bottle, our leader is in heat!" Xia wasn't quick enough to dodge the shoe that hit her forehead.
"And you, Aoi. You said Devas went to your tent, didn't you?" Miiya didn't even bother to hide the subject change.
"On a first-name basis already?" Xia managed to dodge the second shoe but not the third one that Miiya had grabbed from Lisa.
"Yes... He and Headmaster Ozpin went there shortly before they went to meet Headmaster Lionheart." Aoi had a slightly distant look on her face, as if she were thinking about something while speaking.
The room fell silent as the other three waited for her to continue. Aoi didn't.
"So?" Xia put the shoes that had been thrown at her on the floor and went to Aoi's bed, poking her arm. "You gonna keep it a secret? Come on, what did you see?"
Lisa and Miiya looked just as curious as Xia. It wasn't a secret among them how Aoi's Semblance worked.
Soul Painting was Aoi's Semblance name. Her Semblance basically consisted of Aoi touching the target and measuring their parameters with her Aura.
Not even Aoi herself knew exactly how her Semblance worked, but it could measure physical strength, speed, endurance, Aura quantity; even technique and experience were something Soul Painting seemed to measure with impressive precision.
After getting to know each other better, at the beginning of the first year, the team, MLAW or Mellow, gained a small hobby that basically consisted of making a list using Aoi's Semblance.
Whenever Aoi used her Semblance on someone, she would say what she had drawn and what the title of the drawing was; if it wasn't possible to draw it at the time, she would say what she had seen.
Of course, none of the four were excluded from this list.
Miiya, who was the team leader, had the drawing of a red two-tailed fox in the snow with the title: Twintail Foxy.
Miiya liked the drawing much more than the title, even though it made sense, since her Semblance was shaping her Aura into fox tails. The more tails, the stronger Miiya became, and at the time of the drawing, she could only shape two tails.
Lisa, Miiya's partner, had the drawing of a butterfly with transparent and illusory wings flying in the clouds, titled: Mirage Dream, which matched her combat style, which involved using rapid strikes with her Semblance, capable of poisoning anyone who touched her Aura or Dust imbued with her Aura with a hallucinogenic poison.
Xia, Aoi's partner, had the drawing of a turtle with a relaxed smile on the shores of a lake with the simple title: Guardian. Xia, like Miiya, was a close-quarters combatant, but unlike the team leader, Xia focused more on defense, absorbing blows and protecting the rest of the team with her large amount of Aura and her Semblance that allowed her to redirect the kinetic force of received blows.
Finally, Aoi. It took her some time to be able to use her Semblance on herself, but in the end, the drawing she managed was of two rabbits looking at the starry night sky with the title: Dream Painter.
None of the three had the courage to ask why Aoi had such a happy smile while crying as she looked at the drawing.
"Come on, don't tell me you hid yourself out of embarrassment?" Xia nudged her partner. "Mystia, the mage-shy? Has hell frozen over?"
It was Xia's idea to create Aoi's tent, or Mystia, as was the pseudonym she used. The others also helped, participating whenever there was some kind of festivity, but the main attraction was always Mystia.
In addition to earning some Lien for them to spend, it helped with the team's little hobby.
"They paid well too, didn't they?" Lisa sang as she came out of the bathroom. "Either Aoi started prostituting herself, or those two really liked their drawings."
"I vote for prostitution." Xia spoke before Aoi could defend herself and lifted her partner's breasts. "Have you seen these balloons here? I don't know about you, but I'd pay a fortune for them."
The punch she received sent her flying to the other corner of the room, but it only made her smile grow even wider. If there was anyone who abused her Semblance, it was Xia.
"I'm not prostituting myself." Aoi huffed, showing more emotion than she had shown in the past two days, and said proudly. "Headmaster Ozpin and Lord Devas just thought my drawings were worth more than the normal price."
Although Aoi's Semblance helped in the creation of the drawing, transmitting what Aoi herself had seen, it was still only a small help; the rest was sweat and training.
Aoi was nothing if not proud of her art.
"Lord?... I was kidding, Aoi, but if you were having financial problems, there are better ways than selling your..." Xia pointed to Aoi's breasts before being hit by another sneaker.
"I'm not selling anything, you pervert." Aoi huffed with a light smile but didn't explain the reason for the 'Lord'.
"Here, I made a copy of Headmaster Ozpin's drawing." Aoi went to her personal locker, which was full of canvases, paints, and other painting paraphernalia, and pulled out a specific canvas.
Aoi placed the drawing on the dormitory table before being forced to hold the TV when the three of them jumped almost simultaneously to see what was drawn.
"A monkey, just that?" Xia said disappointedly before Miiya pointed.
"Just that? It's the size of mountains!" Miiya placed her finger above a part of the drawing. "This is Haven, right?" Aoi responded with a slight nod and a respectful look that was mirrored by all the others.
They all knew that the landscape around was as important as the animal drawn. In Ozpin's case, both were impressive.
Before Ozpin, the person with the most 'powerful' design, so to speak, was Lionheart, who was represented by a large lion with a flaming mane standing over a completely destroyed house.
Xia thought it was he who had destroyed the house himself, judging by the ashamed and sad look the lion had on its face, if she only knew...
"Wise, O great king. Damn, even his title is cool..." Miiya said jealous.
"What does this mean? That Headmaster Ozpin is the strongest Huntsmen in the world?" Lisa asked. She didn't think anyone could surpass that, and it made sense in a way.
Ozpin had a vast career as a Huntsmen, besides being the Headmaster of Beacon, the most respected school in the world, where most of the great stars graduated from.
"Maybe..." Aoi said in a vague tone; if the other three weren't so impressed with Ozpin's drawing, they would have noticed the emotions in Aoi's voice... The respect... The fear.
"Here... this is Lord Devas's drawing." Aoi placed the canvas on the table much more delicately.
"Is... A portrait of him?" Xia asked. "That's... Actually, it's the first time you've done a portrait. The title is also 'Human.' Wasn't there any animal representing him?"
"... No... At least I don't think so." Aoi looked at the portrait of the human with vacant eyes. "I don't remember very well what happened, actually."
"You... Don't remember?" Miiya looked at Aoi, concerned.
"No, even when I try to remember, it's just... Blank." Aoi shook her head, not saying that whenever she tried to remember, her being screamed that it was a bad idea.
"One moment I was touching his hand and then... Nothing. I just seemed to wake up from a dream." Aoi murmured with a vacant look. "I improvised on the spot and made a portrait of him with a title that came to mind. It felt right, he liked it too."
"Maybe it's because you got tired because of Headmaster Ozpin?" Lisa lifted the canvas of the large monkey.
"Maybe... I think I ran out of Aura." Not even Aoi knew if this was a lie. Something inside her said it wasn't, but that same instinct said it was better to just leave everything in the past and forget about it.
"I knew you were acting a bit strange these past few days." Xia clapped her closed hand into her open one. "I thought your period had arrived and you were just being reclusive to not lash out at anyone, but it seems I was wrong this time."
"Sometimes I wonder if you were born in the wrong species..." Lisa put her hand on her cheek and tilted her head to the side.
"You meant gender, right?" Xia looked at Lisa. It wasn't the first time she was compared to a boy, either by the way she acted or dressed.
She wasn't considered the Tomboy of the MLAW team for nothing.
"No, I meant species, actually." Lisa nodded gently.
"Should I be offended?" Miiya asked with a slight smile, knowing where this was going. She knew her partner well.
"No, she wouldn't be a faunus either... A roly-polies would be more accurate here." Lisa nodded.
"One of those backyard armadillos?!" Xia seemed more than offended... "I would be at least one of the big ones!" ...Or something close to that actually.
Aoi laughed amused by her team partners' interaction and stored the canvases, ignoring how she was sure that even though she made a perfect portrait of the human, she felt that something was wrong, especially the eyes...
For some reason, she felt they were the wrong color.
That night, when Aoi went to bed, she had the same dream she had been having for the past few nights since she had met the human.
She was walking the streets of Mistral peacefully, looking at the shops, the markets, until she passed by the place where her tent usually stood, then, with just a blink of an eye...
Water, everything around was water. Aoi's thoughts sped up quickly as she held her breath. No matter where she looked, everything was covered in water.
From the mountains around, to Haven and Mistral. Everything was covered in water, as if the ocean had been moved from its place, thrown over the kingdom, but without waves, without destruction... Everything was silent.
It took Aoi a few seconds to realize that she could breathe even underwater, a few more to notice that she was alone, everyone had disappeared...
The realization that the only visible light was from the soft sunlight coming from the top of the water came much faster, along with it, the notion that even alone, the water around her moved and rippled.
A raw fear crawled up Aoi's spine, making her hairs stand on end, the water grew colder, the movements around more erratic before calming instantly when a soft light floated towards Aoi, calming her emotions.
Aoi sighed in relief and walked towards the light, never taking her eyes off it, afraid to see what was inside the darkness. Only when she got close did she realize that the light was actually a necklace, a necklace with a small sword-shaped pendant hanging from it.
The light came from the sword.
Just looking at that beautiful sword made Aoi calm down, relax. But something inside her said 'beautiful' was an offense to the sword.
Aoi held the necklace gently in her hand, without daring to put it around her neck, and looked around. The darkness was as dense as before, but it seemed calmer... No, it seemed to ignore, as if the necklace asserted that she couldn't be touched.
With no idea what to do, Aoi began to walk aimlessly, instinctively following the submerged streets of Mistral, walking among the abandoned houses, shops, and markets.
No merchandise floated with the water, or almost none. Aoi didn't remember seeing any store selling deer masks so similar to Grimm carapaces before.
The masks floated among the houses, above the roofs and near the ground in a slow and casual manner. Some of them weren't even big enough for a human head, others didn't even have that shape...
Aoi nudged one of the masks with her finger, watching it float away and enter between the buildings, into the darkness. It was then that Aoi realized that as much as she couldn't see any humans or faunus, she wasn't alone.
Randomly, small fluctuations rippled the water, almost always following the same pattern, coming from within the shadows around.
Perhaps it was the confidence in the necklace with the sword, perhaps it was just curiosity, but Aoi pointed the necklace in the direction of the ripples... Saying she regretted it when she saw a thick giant tentacle passing between the houses would be an understatement.
Aoi choked back the scream that threatened to escape her throat, unsure if the water would muffle the sound, and stayed as still as possible.
The fear returned with full force, accompanying her were the eyes... Dozens, hundreds, thousands of eyes that opened in the shadows around, all of them looking at Aoi at the same time, blinking randomly and erratically...
Aoi had fought Grimm and knew how to recognize them; the eyes watching her from the dark were not Grimm... And that terrified her even more.
If those things weren't Grimm... What were they? Aoi didn't want to find out.
Without warning, the necklace in Aoi's hands pulsed and glowed; the Sun above seemed to react, and even with the immense distance and all the water hindering its light, its rays reached Aoi.
The light from the necklace calmed her, pushed away the eyes. The Sun warmed her body. She hadn't even noticed when she started to tremble.
Perhaps it was because everything was a dream, perhaps it was something more, but Aoi began to move again calmly, as if the earlier fear had been a lie, the monsters in the dark just bad dreams...
...Nightmares.
It didn't take long for Aoi to reach where the central square of Mistral should have been, a place where there should have been the most bustling of people, with large screens overhead, ready to broadcast the Vytal Festival, but at the moment, there was only a large, deep, dark hole...
Calling that place an abyss would be more accurate, actually. Aoi didn't test it, but she was sure that no light could be seen if it were thrown down the abyss.
Her screams would never be heard... Something whispered in the distance, maybe from within the abyss.
Wisely, Aoi took a step back and walked away from the abyss, but not completely away, around it. The light from the necklace guided Aoi gently around the abyss, instinctively, Aoi followed it.
As Aoi walked, the water around her rippled softly, and even without pointing the light at the ripple, Aoi could see the tentacles in the corner of her vision, occasionally, some eyes that seemed to follow her but didn't approach.
After a time that Aoi didn't know how to measure, she stopped, looking at the edge of the abyss where for the first time since the water had covered Mistral, she could see another person, a child, a little boy.
The human, Aoi recognized, but still couldn't put a name to that childish face, nor did she know why he seemed so alone.
The little boy was sitting casually on the edge of the abyss, his feet swinging leisurely into the darkness below, like Aoi had seen many children do on swings in playgrounds.
A chill ran down Aoi's spine at the thought. Why was the little boy so casually at the edge of that abyss?...
"You... I think you should get away from there." Aoi advised, ignoring how absurd it was that her voice could propagate under so many kilometers of water.
The little boy didn't seem to hear her, and if he did, he just ignored her and continued swinging his legs gently on the edge of the abyss.
With a deep breath, something that was incredible for her to do completely submerged, Aoi gathered her courage and walked up to the little boy, determined to pull him away from there.
Even though the current situation was completely absurd and strange, something told, screamed at Aoi that that abyss was something even worse...
Aoi only realized after she approached that the little boy didn't even seem to notice her, completely ignoring her attention as he looked down, towards the abyss...
Three bright green eyes stared at the little boy, unflinching, emanating a cruel, malevolent, and sickly green glow.
...Staring back at them.
Even though she wasn't the target of those eyes, Aoi felt her blood run cold, her mouth dry, even with all the water filling it, the shadows seemed to grow denser, eyeless, soundless, motionless... Just empty...
Aoi stared at the eyes, unable to look away, she tried, but couldn't, no matter how hard she tried, her body wouldn't move...
Urgency filled her thoughts, Aoi knew she had to look away, had to close her eyes, even blink, before it was too late... Before those sickly green eyes looked back at her.
She wouldn't make it in time, Aoi knew that, she could see the green eyes starting to slowly move, inch by inch turning towards her.
Even with all the water around, Aoi felt the tears begin to trickle from her eyes, slowly streaming down her cheek before floating around her head like dozens of tiny eyes made of water.
Aoi stared at the three bright, sickly green eyes as they slowly turned to face her, focusing mainly on the third eye that seemed to be on the forehead of whatever lurked down there.
She had given up at this point, accepting whatever was going to happen. Aoi was just waiting for the inevitable when a child's voice echoed all around.
"Look at me..." The little boy's voice was calm. "...Don't you dare look away, don't you dare blink."
...Before the last word was even spoken, the three green eyes had turned their attention back to the little boy, completely ignoring her.
Aoi sighed in relief as she felt control of her body returning to her and averted her gaze, turning her head so quickly that it made the water ripple around her, dispersing the tears that circled her head.
Only when she looked around did she then realize she was close... Too close to the abyss, so close that she would have fallen if she had taken just a few more steps,
Steps she would gladly have taken without even realizing it... Aoi shook her head and ignored the voice, focusing her attention completely on her right hand that held the necklace, tied and fastened to a post.
The soft light from the little sword illuminated the dark surroundings casually. Aoi knew, even with the intervention of the little boy, if it weren't for this sword, this light, she would have fallen.
Slowly and carefully, Aoi began to walk backward until she reached behind the post where the necklace was tied and started to untie it slowly. At no point did she turn her gaze back to the abyss again.
As Aoi untied the necklace from the post, she realized that the light from the necklace was not the only source of light and that the Sun's rays had changed color. If before they were a mixture of yellow, golden, and soft red, dimmed by the water, now the color was a bright, enticing silver.
Almost mechanically, Aoi raised her head to look up.
"Why is the moon full?" Her voice was a whisper, caught between shock and awe.
No one answered her, her voice was the only sound in the entire environment, floating through the water, just like the soft strands of moonlight, coming from the large full moon above.
Aoi didn't know how long she had looked at the moon, but she knew she had averted her gaze thanks to the gentle warmth emanating from the necklace in her hands, drawing her attention downward.
Slowly, Aoi brought the necklace to her chest and held it firmly with both hands. This place scared her, and the necklace was the only thing that seemed to protect her.
Even the little boy who had saved her frightened Aoi, in fact, maybe he was the most frightening thing here... Because why was that child so calm, why did those sickly green eyes choose to stare at the child instead of trying to drag him down?...
She knew why, instinctively she knew. Aoi was harmless, a weak prey incapable of defending herself, protected only by the necklace, the only reason those green eyes hadn't focused on her...
...Was because a predator doesn't look towards prey... When faced by another predator...
Aoi felt her thoughts begin to cloud as the warmth of the necklace took hold of her body. Her vision began to blur, and her eyes closed slowly as her body floated in the water, drifting off into a dream.
When Aoi woke up the next day, strangely refreshed, she had no memory of the dream, just as she didn't remember what she had seen when she touched the human's hand at her booth.
The human brain was kind at times; some memories and recollections were better off forgotten... But still, not everything was easily erased...
Shortly after waking up, a lingering memory remained in Aoi's mind for a few seconds before disappearing like everything else, but of one thing, Aoi was sure...
...The orange eyes of the little boy terrified her much more than the green ones of the creature in the abyss...
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I won't explain much; I'll leave it for everyone's understanding why Aoi saw this, what this vision is, and especially, how the painting she would create would look like and what the title would be.
Well, I really liked the MLAW team; I created them for another RWBY story I had planned and ended up deciding to put them here. (Maybe I'll still write that story).
Having said that, as always, good night everyone and happy reading!