Unto Dawn

When Raishun's eyes fluttered open, he was greeted by the sigh of a wooden ceiling. He slowly blinked twice, he hadn't remembered falling asleep, much less entering a building.

"I've gotta stop waking up in strange new places." He grumbled in disappointment. "Let's see here. The last thing I remember is Castor and the others driving..."

In an instant, he was sitting upright, panic shot through his body like a bullet as he examined his surroundings. The room definitely resembled a criminal hideout. Dust caked the shelves and bookcases placed across the far wall, and could also be seen floating in the air thanks to the morning sunlight pouring through a high window to his right. To his surprise, nearly all the furniture was made of wood, save for a rusted AC unit hanging above his bed.

"Shit. This totally isn't creepy at all." He cursed and reached for the Caligula that usually hung at his side. His stomach dropped when he grasped nothing but air. Pushing the blanket down, he was surprised to see that his arms and upper body were wrapped in bandages.

Curious, he flexed the muscles in his hand. There was a little pain, but it would be barely noticeable if he needed to fight. [Looks like I'm mostly healed up. I heard that aura was amazing, but I never expected it to be this effective. One less thing to worry about.]

Suddenly he heard the door creak open. Turning his head, he saw a girl around his age cautiously walk in, holding a tray laden with food. What caught his attention was the curled violet hair that covered one of her crimson-colored eyes. As far as he could tell, she didn't have a weapon on her, but that didn't keep him from being any less cautious.

He opened his mouth to speak to her, but she quickly set the tray down on his lap and rushed out of the room, throwing it shut behind her.

[She seemed... unique.] He thought while snapping into a piece of dried jerky that had been on the tray. [I suppose if they wanted to kill me, they would've done it then.] He pondered as the gamey flavor of the meat exploded across his mouth, and he was quickly reminded that he hadn't eaten since before he left Beacon.

"This is delicious!" He muttered in astonishment, before being hit with a realization. "Was that Carmila?" She did fit many of the criteria. Excellent cook, shy and timid, just as Castor had described her.

Raishun spent the rest of his meal pondering the thought. Once he finished, regrettably set the metal tray aside onto a dusty wooden nightstand by his bed.

[I should probably go say thanks.] He threw the sheets off himself, and carefully rose onto his feet. His legs were a little shaky, but it seemed that they had healed as well. [At least I won't have to crawl my way out of here.] Opening the door to his room, he carefully tiptoed into the house.

The house layout was simple enough. The upstairs was occupied by a bathroom and a bedroom. At the same time, the ground floor was a single open area with different sections for a kitchen, living room, and various furniture. It didn't take him long to find the exit, and once he threw open the door, he was greeted by Castor, Yona, and the same purple-haired girl who had delivered him breakfast.

"Welcome!" Castor declared cheerfully while throwing his hands up in the air, "To Dadabarunga!"

The moment he finished speaking, Yona and the purple-haired girl dropped to one knee and struck similar poses to his. Their bodies were angled so that their hands collectively formed a triangle.

"Bless you?" Raishun chuckled mirthfully, "Dadabarunga?"

"Yup! The name's pretty unique if I say so myself! But that's what happens when you decide to let a kid name the village." The red-haired man lowered his arms, both girls following suit. In particular, the purple-haired girl seemed relieved that she no longer had to pose and quickly hid as best she could behind Yona.

[Yeah, that's definitely Carmila.]

"Well it's definitely unique, that's for- hold on, village?" Upon closer inspection of his surroundings, Castor was right. He was surrounded by what resembled a small village, with buildings constructed of an oddly shiny white stone. Every roof in sight was made of out slanted wooden boards. To his right, he could see some pigs and cows grazing in distant fields.

"She's a village of dreamers, that's for sure." Yona said softly, "Most of us moved out here to this village because we didn't like the way things were being run in the kingdoms. SOME people on the other hand... moved out here for other reasons."

She snuck a glare at Castor as she said the last part, who only smiled obliviously in return.

"She means me. What can I say, wherever there's beautiful women, you'll always find me not far away!" He said proudly

"Ugh, you really have no shame do you. You're the worst sometimes!" Yona scoffed. Though her hand still reached for his and clasped it tightly.

"Well actually..." The red-haired man continued with his cheeks slightly flushed, "I also came to protect this village. You see, most of us villages don't last long, but Dadabarunga has been around for over a century. Cause of that, the bigwigs in Vale paid us to have one of those supplementary radar dishes built here."

He pointed to a spot just above the treeline behind Raishun. The blue-haired Legion turned to look, and sure enough, the tip of a white metal structure could be seen above the treeline.

"Man, that things massive! I'm surprised I didn't notice it before." Raishun murmured in awe. Turning his head to speak to the trio, he was surprised to see Carmila had moved out from behind Yona, and now stood in front of him, holding out a metallic object which he recognized as a scroll.

"H-here." She squeaked, "This is yours. The k-kingdom gave them to us so we could help Huntsmen w-who lost theirs. It's a way to say thank you, f-for helping us."

[Castor wasn't kidding when he said she was shy.] He took it from her hands, and she quickly covered her eyes, though he could see her peeking at him from the cracks between her fingers.

"Thanks Carmila. For the breakfast and for the scroll, I promise I'll take good care of it." Raishun moved to slip it into his pants pocket, then stopped when he realized he didn't feel any cloth covering his legs. Looking down, he paled and let out a terrified cry when he saw he was only in small clothes.

Castor and Yona laughed as he tried to cover himself up as best he could. Carmila was turning so red that she resembled a cherry.

"Looks like you'll be needing some new clothes friend. We would've left you in your uniform, but it was pretty much in tatters... and covered in blood, a lot of blood." Untying the sweater from his waist, Castor tied it around the blue-haired Legion and began to lead him back inside the house. "This house is abandoned but I keep most of the stuff that doesn't fit in my room here, maybe we'll find something you can wear."

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Raishun changed as calmly as he could behind a paper screen in the corner of Castor's near-apocalyptic storage room. It took them nearly an hour to get into the room, and another half an hour to find clothes that hadn't been chewed at by rodents or insects. He could hear Castor leaving and entering the room with various belongings of Raishun's. Not a moment after he had finished changing, he heard the dull thud of something heavy being dropped.

"Whoops, looks like your sword jumped from the sheets. Don't worry, I'm sure it's not damaged."

Panic swept through Raishun like a storm. He threw the screen to the side just in time to see Castor reach his hand out towards the sword's hilt. Raishun launched forward, trying to snatch the blade away before Castor could touch it.

"STOP! DON'T TOUCH THAT-"

He should have been faster. Castor's fingertips touched the crimson hilt, and his arm erupted in black colored waves. He flinched as his skin turned the color of obsidian, his veins bulged through the skin on his arm so much that it looked like they would explode. The change stopped just below his shoulder, where it protruded outwards in thorn-like spines. Throughout the event, he didn't make a sound, instead opting to stare at his arm with fascination.

He tried flicking the sword to his other hand. The hand that caught it quickly underwent a similar transformation, while the previous hand returned back to normal. Letting out a satisfied grunt, he looked up at Raishun.

"Looks like I was right, this is an Imperial Arm." His calm facade quickly gave way to him, snickering like a child who had been caught breaking the rules. "Yona owes me ten lien for thinking it was fake."

Raishun could only stare at the man with a dumbfounded expression. "W-wha..." His gaze leapt between Castor's arm and the Caligula, "You should be-- i-it's supposed to kill... how??"

"Well you're right on the money, Imperial Arms kill anyone who touch em. That's just the way they defend themselves." He softly set the blade down on the ground and rose to his feet. Reaching down, he pulled the brown leather glove he wore on his left hand off to reveal a flat ruby gem wrapped around the palm of his hand with a rope. "That is unless you have an Imperial Arm yourself, then you're fine as long as ya don't try to use it in battle."

Raishun stared at the gem with a mixture of both awe and fear. Cautiously, he eyed his sword. [There's no way I'll make it in time. He'll probably take me out easier than he took out those Grimm.] He could feel his heart thundering in his ears so loudly that he was certain Castor could hear it. [Another Legion... Even when I fought Eric, I didn't feel this scared.]

"Whoa, take it easy. I'm not planning on fighting ya or anything. That's not my style." He clapped the younger boy on the shoulder, "Besides ya helped the village with the Grimm, that makes you one of us. A friend you could say?"

"Are you sure? You're awfully quick to trust someone you just met, much less a Legion." Raishun said skeptically, "I could always just stab you in the back or something."

"You're one to talk. Ya just agreed to go with us the minute we met." Castor chuckled, his eyes taking on a competitive glint, "Besides, we both know I could defeat you even if you tried. In fact, why don't you go ahead and take your best swing."

"What!?" He stared at the red-haired man incredulously, "Have you lost your mind?"

"Ya heard me, take your best shot!" He struck up a fighting stance, with his open palm facing towards the younger man. "I promise you won't even do a scratch!"

Raishun cringed and picked up Caligula from the ground. "Fine, don't blame me if you get hurt though!" He charged the older Legion and swung his sword down in a vertical arc. Unsurprisingly, Castor easily parried the attack. Angling his palm, he let the blade connect with the ruby gem, and a red pulse of energy enveloped his hand. The Caligula bounced harmlessly off the energy and knocked Raishun off balance.

Without waiting for him to recover, Castor drew the gem across his other arm, enveloping it in a bright red glow before slamming his fist into the younger Legion's chest.

"GUGH!!" He groaned as a red burst of energy shot out from Castor's fist and slammed into his chest along with his fist. The impact sent him flying backward, and he felt his back crash through the paper screen he had changed behind.

The older man chuckled and struck a cool pose with his fist raised high. His entire arm was letting of steam as the energy faded away. "Haha, I told ya I'd be fine! Ol' Labby here can redirect attacks like it's nothin'!" He proclaimed proudly, before walking over the fallen Legion and offering his hand.

"Labby?" He groaned while gratefully taking the hand he offered.

"Labrys Shield." Castor pulled him up with little effort and brushed some dust off the boy's shoulders. "That's what the bigwigs call us. Castor De Lione, the 4th Legion and partner to the Impenetrable Fortress: Labrys Shield."

"Nice title." Rubbing his still aching back, Raishun felt ashamed of how easily Castor was able to lift him up. [I know that I'm weaker than most, I don't have their training or experience. But in front of me is an opportunity to grow, if I don't take it, I'd be a fool.]

"I know that I'm asking a lot, but please teach me how to be a Legion. I promise that I'll do whatever I can to help the village, so please give me a chance!"

Castor stared at him in surprise. After a moment had passed, he let out an awkward chuckle and scratched the stubble on his jaw. "Y-yeah, that was the plan. We invited you here because of the Grimm. Yona, Carmila, and I are the only fighters Dadabarunga has. Having an extra fighter makes the village a lot safer, and with a Legion, I don't have to worry about keeping my family safe any more."

"Castor... I don't know what to say, but, thank you."

"Aw don't mention it. We gotta get you trained up so those Dadabarunga beauties'll look twice at ya." The older man chuckled as he wrapped an arm around the blue-haired boy. "Not that yer ugly or anythin, but you need a little more muslce. Lucky for you, thanks to Castor's magnificent training hour, you'll be a real ladies man!"

"Cool." Raishun let out a laugh, "When do we begin?"