The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Explaining

I paused for a moment, honestly uncertain. How did one explain the state of the world to a small child? Autumn was smart, but she had no context for…much of anything. One of these days, I was probably going to have to sit her down and explain just how far from the norm her daddy was, but one thing at a time.

When did I first find out what the world was like? I don't even remember. The Grimm had always just been there, the monsters in the dark and at our doors. I'd been told to stay away and be cautious at some point, I was sure, but it must have been when I was very young—that's when most people learned, at least. It was something most children were taught along with their letters and numbers, if not beforehand. Which was a bit odd, but also necessary; hiding the knowledge that the world was full of horrifying monsters that would gladly eat them wasn't doing kids any favors, however much we tried to convince ourselves that the Kingdoms were safe. Knowing when to run was a survival skill that was best cultivated as early as possible.

Odds were, my parents had told me or one of my sisters, mixing warnings into my bedtime stories. My great memory didn't do much for stuff I'd forgotten years ago, which was a bit sad; right now, I wished I remembered the words they'd said.

"I'm a Hunter," I said again, deciding it was better than an uncertain silence. "Which means I hunt the creatures of Grimm."

"Grimm?" Autumn asked, repeating the word to show she didn't understand it.

I frowned, trying to decide how to explain it—but seeing was believing, wasn't it? With a gesture, I conjured up illusionary versions of some of the Grimm I fought; Beowolves, Nevermore, and so on. I surrounded us in rows of the creatures and then added several larger expressions, from a Giant Nevermore above us to a towering Goliath. I held onto the illusion for only a few moments because creating so many things, to say nothing of something the size of a Goliath, was a huge pain in the ass, but it was enough to make a point.

Autumn didn't move, no doubt sensing that they hadn't been real. Even so, I could see her taking note of the individual types and knew she'd recognize them if she saw them again, which was another important thing to teach children.

"The Grimm are…monsters," I said simply. "They kill people, unless Hunters are able to stop them."

"Kill?" She asked, which stumped me again. The subject of death was another thing I wasn't sure how to explain, especially from a metaphysical standpoint. As a reincarnated superweapon especially, I wasn't sure where to even start.

No, just keep it simple, Jaune. You can explain things in more detail later.

"Death is when something stops living," I said. "It's…well, generally speaking, if something dies, it means it's gone."

"Gone?" She asked uncertainly. That was a word she actually knew, she just wasn't certain of the context.

"Gone," I repeated. "If someone you know—someone like me—were to die, then we'd probably never see each other again. It means I wouldn't be able to come back to you. I'd be dead and gone."

She was silent for a long minute at that, seeming concerned by the very thought.

"I'm glad you're not dead," She said at last. "I'm glad you're not gone."

I smiled at that, swinging our hands between us as I nodded.

"Me too, sweetie," I replied. "But it's not just us, you know; a lot of people would be sad if the people they loved died, just like I'd be sad if my little girl went away. That's why Hunters fight—so other people don't lose the ones they care about. The Grimm want to kill us, so we fight to stop them."

"How?" She asked, looking at me with shining silver eyes.

I sighed at that, pursing my lips for a moment before answering.

"We kill them, instead," I told her. "So that they can't kill us."

"Different?" She asked.

"Ah," I agreed, nodding at her. "We're different from them in a lot of ways. Unlike us, the creatures of Grimm have no souls…but what that means, I'm no longer sure. But to make things simple, the easiest way to think about it is that they don't need to kill us, but do anyway—so we need to kill them just to survive."

I gestured again and conjured a large map. I illustrated the mountains and plains, the fields and the seas, all of it color.

"This is Remnant, the world we live in," I said before placing four dots upon the map. "And these are the Kingdoms, Vale, Vacuo, Atlas, and Mistral. These are the places where humans live. And this is where the Grimm rule."

Beside the four points, the continents went black, even the blue oceans darkened to a brownish-yellow.

"The Grimm…to put it simply, they are the dominant species on Remnant," I said. "The ones who rule this world. Mankind is locked into these four corners, where we are allowed to survive, but even here we're hunted. So we Hunt back, slaying the Grimm that would attack us."

"Many," Autumn noted. It was easy to see the difference between the areas ruled by the Kingdoms and those ruled by the Grimm. We were literally just dots on their map.

"Yes," I agreed with another sigh. "In truth, they outnumber us by orders of magnitude. This is a losing game. It took me a long time to realize that, but just defending our borders isn't enough. If they tried, wiping us off the map would be as easy as that."

I twitched a finger and the glowing dots flickered out, leaving nothing behind. Autumn looked at the map in silence for a long moment, wise enough to be worried, but I just clasped both hands over hers, smiling.

"But you don't have to worry about that," I said. "Daddy's special, you know? And I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen."

Autumn looked at me again, contemplative.

"Why?" She asked at last.

I chuckled.

"Now that's a complicated question to answer," I mused. "Why? There are so many things I've asked that about and even now I've only found the answer to a few. Why what?"

"Why do they attack us?" She asked. "Why do we fight back when we cannot win? Why don't they destroy us?"

"Right to the heart of the matter," I praised a bit wryly, tilting my head back. "The first and last question have the same answer, though I'm not entirely sure what it is. In the end, though, it's because of me."

She didn't ask, but I could feel the unspoken question.

"The person who made the Grimm wants me for something," I said. "Something happened between us a long time ago. I think it had something to do with why he killed so many people…and why he didn't kill them all. In fact, he might be sparing them just to get to me…or to leverage them against me."

It was a thought I couldn't suppress. I'd wondered before and after what Keter had told me, there wasn't any way to ignore it. Had Mankind been spared solely so I could eventually reincarnate? Had all these millennia of murder and pain just been to get to me again?

Maybe. Maybe not. There was no need to do something for only one reason; he might have other plans. Maybe he even just enjoyed drawing things out. It didn't matter, in the end—he'd pay for what he'd done regardless.

"As for why we fight when we know we can't win," I continued, chuckling. "Well, it must seem rather foolish. But in life, there are some things you have to try, even if you can't succeed. Like saving the people you love."

I closed my eyes and thought of my father before opening them again and smiling at her as brightly as I could.

"For someone like my daughter, I'd fight until the end," I said, swinging our hands again. "Other people are the same way. And besides, if you have no choice in whether you're going to die or not…then how you chose to die is important, right?"

Autumn considered that for a moment.

"Yes," She answered. "I will also protect Father until the end."

I chuckled sadly and gave her another soft smile.

"That's…kind of what I wanted to talk to you about," I told her. "I wanted to give you a choice. If you want…I can teach you to become a Hunter."

"Like you?"

"Like me," I confirmed. "Like Adam and Gou, Grandmother and Grandfather, your aunts, Great-Grandmother—like the rest of our family. But at the same time, you don't have to."

"I don't understand," She admitted freely after a second thought.

"Hunters fight so that others won't die," I said. "But part of that is facing death in their steed. Hunters get hurt to protect people. Oftentimes, they even die. Being a Hunter is very dangerous and it's not a life you have to live. If you want, you can stay here where it's safe. We'll still see each other, but you won't have to fight. You can rely on me to keep you safe and do whatever you want."

She considered that.

"And if the Kingdoms died?" She asked.

"Even if the Kingdoms fall, Daddy will protect you," I promised her, closing my eyes with a pained expression. It wasn't something I liked to think about but that didn't mean I hadn't. "If that happens…if it's just you, I should be able to protect you. No, I will protect you for sure. I'm very strong you know."

She considered that for a moment and for a moment, I wasn't sure what she was thinking.

And when she spoke…

"If one of us died, we'd be separated," She mused aloud before looking at me. "If both of us died, would we be together?"

I stopped in shock, staring at her with wide eyes. I could honestly say that was a question I hadn't been expecting. But after a long moment, I nodded and swallowed, smiling at her again.

"You don't have to worry about things like that," I told her. "Daddy's special, see? No matter what happens, I'll find my way to you eventually, in this life or the next. Autumn, you and I…we'll be together, even in the afterlife."

Autumn nodded at that, imitating the gesture. I could tell that she believed me without a hint of doubt.

"Then…I want to stay with Father until the end," She answered. "I don't want us to be apart for too long."

I nodded, the motion tiny, swallowing again before smile, clasping her hand tightly.

"Yeah," I said. "Okay."

I planted my boot on the Beowolf's chest and kept it down with a minor application, ignoring its snarls and the clicking of its claws against my skin.

"Come here, Autumn," I said, beckoning her closer. Autumn approached with steady strides until she was just out of reach of the things claws and looked at me, awaiting instructions. "Just like I showed you, okay?"

She nodded, raising her spinal column spear and taking aim. Streams of quicksilver flowed through her three arms, lines of aura flashing through them, before she thrust the spear forward and slammed it through the beast's chest. As it sank into the ground beneath it, thorns flashed down the length of the spear, the shortest of them still several centimeters in length and especially think within the Grimm's body. The Beowolf twitched several times before going still.

"Good," I praised. "But remember, the Grimm aren't like you and I—they don't have pulses or organs or anything like that and some of them, especially the big ones, can take a lot of punishment before going down. There's no surefire thing for all of them, but when in doubt—"

Autumn reached out with her serpentine arm, opening massive jaws wide before bringing them down on the Grimm's head with a crunch. She sank the fangs as deep as she could before pulling her arm back and tearing away most of its face, black smoke rising from between glowing teeth.

"Atta girl," I said with a chuckle. "When in doubt, don't hesitate to make sure they're really dead."

Autumn nodded, concentrating on her work as she lifted her spear—and the corpse impaled upon it with it. As the thorns retracted, she had to swing it a few times to dislodge the body, but as it came free she turned back my way, silently asked what was next.

I chuckled, taking a step back as I looked her over, pondering the same thing. She was strong, especially for her age, but she wasn't trained. Though her Semblance allowed her to shapeshift into any number of forms—something that allowed her to basically ignore her mediocre physical stats—it didn't make her automatically aware of how to best use them. She was smart and wise and learned quickly, but though her level was in the fifties, she was no Hunter and I honestly wasn't certain of where to start when it came to making her one.

It was a common problem, in all likelihood. All children where different and children that were training to become Hunters even more so. Beyond the basics, there wasn't any real standardized way of training Hunters, because Hunters were people who diverged wildly from the norm. Once a person's Semblance came in, they would generally start building their fighting style around it and given that Hunters tended to build their own weapons on top of that…well, it got tricky. In Autumn's case especially, however, I wasn't sure of where to begin. I could train her in the use of a spear easily enough; while I wouldn't say it was my specialty, I knew how to do it and had the skills needed to make myself pretty damn good at it. With the time I'd spent using Magic Missile and Gungnir, I could definitely teach her a thing or two, especially if I tried to look into it some.

But though she'd made a spear as her first weapon, what did it matter to a shapeshifter? Autumn could grow any number of weapons from her body with a thought; that she was using a spear right now meant nothing more than that she'd pulled out a spear to use. While some weapon training would probably be wise and the spear was a classic for a reason, there was no reason to limit her to such a thing; one of the benefits of Autumn's power was its versatility, after all. But while breadth was great, time was an issue—I mean, yeah, with my skills I could teach her how to wield any weapon she felt like using, but actually teaching her how to use a thousand things would be even more wasteful, just in a different way.

Better to teach her the basics and let her figure out things from there, I thought. If I explained the mechanics, she'd remember and she'd be able to pick and choose how to apply them for herself. It's not like there was much point in binding her to fighting styles built for the human body, after all; it'd be enough to explain how to fight at different ranges and maybe pick a few weapons to practice with so she'd get a feel for them. A spear was fine, as was…hm, maybe I should practice with a bow some. She could use some ranged options and I'd need to teach her how to aim whatever she grew; a bow and arrow should be easy for her to produce and she could poison the arrows. A pity that poisons weren't a great weapon against the Grimm, whose bodies didn't have much to attack. Once I started practicing with Venenum, I could have shared some tips with her.

Maybe there was another way. How much control did Autumn retain over part of herself that she separated? She was still able to manipulate the spear she'd pulled out of her back, though she was holding on to it. If she could exert some control at range though, that would open up a number of options. She could shoot an arrow and make it grow into a tree or weaponized pollen or countless other things. At the end of the day, her best weapon was her mind—her knowledge and imagination. Once she got a hang of things, Autumn was smart enough to figure out how to fight for herself—I just had to help get her there.

I considered that for a moment. For now, it was probably best to get her comfortable in her own skin, whatever it happened to me. She was new to the whole biped thing—hell, to the whole mobility thing, really. However many things she could turn into, it didn't matter when she was still walking stiffly, even if I was proud of how quickly she'd gotten a hang of it. Her Semblance and the enormous well of matter she had to draw from allowed her to artificially raise her physical stats, but she needed to know how to use it. Then, I guess we'd work on shapeshifting in combat and, I suppose, raising her level. When she'd gotten a solid grasp of the basics, I'd take her out of the city and weaken Grimm for her to kill, as I had with Adam. We'd talk about where best to put her points, but grinding up to the eighties shouldn't be too hard with us there, especially since I'd be working on my skills anyway. We'd see how improving her mental stats helped with her shifting.

There were so many ifs, but that was to be expected from a child, I suppose; it's not easy to see how they'd grow up. I honestly had no idea of how she'd fit into our still developing combat dynamic, because I had no idea of what that would end up being. Maybe she should ride Gou, too? Even with her shapeshifting, she'd probably never be a speed demon, so that could be wise. On the other hand, once she grew big enough and ate enough plant matter—which was another thing we could work on once we got outside the city—she could act as battlefield control. Hell, she might be able to act as the battlefield, period.

Clapping my hands once, I smiled at Autumn and nodded confidently.

"Let's go for a run," I said. "I've been meaning to work out some more, anyway. Just let me grab some weights, okay?"

Autumn nodded again, absently gazing at the city. I quickly used my Psychokinesis to gather a few tons of metal from the countless shattered buildings around us, melted it into a massive block with Crocea Mors, and then latched myself to it with about a dozen chains. I tested it by taking a few steps forward, dragging it behind me, and nodded in satisfaction.

It would do.

Just as I was about to start running, though, I noticed something changed and focused my senses on the source. Gou had stopped in the middle of the street about a kilometer away, hunching his shoulders as if supporting a massive weight instead of just Adam. Aura rose up around him, as white as my own at first but darkening quickly to grey and then turning black. I saw his MP drop quickly until it was nearly empty and his HP followed suit shortly after as he used the White Tiger to draw out more power.

"Gou," I heard Adam say even as I snatched up Autumn with Psychokinesis and took to the air, block and all. "What's wrong?"

Gou just snarled, the animalistic sound surprising me despite the fact that he was a dog—and then he began to grow. The sight startled me even as I appeared beside him, reaching out to heal him again, as well as restore his MP, but it only took me a moment to notice the difference from last time. There was no violent change, this time, no tearing of flesh or snapping of bone; he simply grew, Aura pulsing slightly to leave an outline that his body filled in to match. It was a smooth process, this time, and even though the changes were immense, they didn't seem to be hurting him.

In fact…Observing him, I could see his stats growing to match his changed shape. His Strength increased rapidly, growing to match his Vitality. His HP bar lengthened even further to match the growth, and I could see his hide growing thicker. This was…

"Oh," I said, drawing back a step. He quickly began to fill the street, pushing against and then shattering the buildings to either side as he went. Adam had already jumped away and I made a platform for him to land upon as I continued to draw away and Gou continued to grow. "So that's why your title changed. Then…this is your Semblance?"

The ability to grow in size and strength based on one's Vitality, 'Tian'. I could feel the drain on his MP and subsidized it with my own, helping the process along, but Gou didn't answer, even when he grew to dwarf several of the nearby buildings. As it was, he was over five stories tall and still growing, the sheer size of his body insuring he had room to continue. Buildings cracked and fell one after another, glass and cement both breaking against muscle and fur.

When it stopped, I could have taken a seat on the tip of his nose and his panted breathes felt like the wind against my skin. The massive block dangling in the air beneath me swayed lightly back and forth as he tried to recover and focus on me.

"Jaune," He said, voice almost unbelievably loud as it echoed over the broken city.

"Hey," I answered with a smile. "I guess naming you Tiangou was a good move after all, huh?"