Chapter 32: Plans Are Never Perfect

Disclaimer: I own nothing; this is purely a fanfic for enjoyment.

Cross-over from various games, books, anime, manga, and movies.

The familiar characters you see here belong to their respected authors and owners.

'Thoughts'

"Active skill name or magic spell"

'Active skill name or magic spell in thought'

"Activation phrase"

'Activation Phrase in thoughts'

"Speech"

*action*

Time*

Noise*

(Location)

[Skill Name] - Passive or Active - AP cost: or none

Description: Info on skill

[Item Type]: [Type]

[Name]: [Item Name]

Durability: 100%/100%

Quality: Poor - Common - Uncommon - Epic - Legendary - Ascendant

Grade: E-/EX

Value: [System Point]/(Cannot be sold to [Persona System])

Description: Info on [Item Name]

[Extra Info]: [Extra Info]

Chapter 32: Plans Are Never Perfect

Days?: Good or Bad? Part 2

(Vale: Vale City: Unknown Abandon Warehouse)

"I've already told you everything I know, so why won't you let us go?!" Mercury shouts at us while trying to activate his weapons, which are his boots as well, with a build in firing mechanism that is similar to Yang's [Ember Celica].

Sadly, no matter what he does. It won't even fire a single shot and even his prosthetic legs won't activate the air blasts either.

"Indeed, you have. But, the question is. Are they true or false? How do I know this isn't just a false information that could get me kill later on?" I look at Mercury with cold eyes, causing him to flinch from being stared at by a pair of eyes that won't show any mercy and would gladly kill if it's needed.

'Some of the information Mercury told us; well, some I honestly don't know and some of them I know already thanks to my knowledge of canon. But, that's only been shown while the full story is being displayed in the background. Who knows what lies he is included with the truths or even speaking half the truth.' I didn't even completely rely on my knowledge in RWBY canonverse. What could happen in canon, can be something else in this world.

'Then again, I don't even speak the whole truth, most of the time or just play with my words.' I mentally snort to myself at having to develop my own way to approach strangers, whom could be an expert at detecting lies or not.

"What's that got anything to do with me?! It's your choice to believe if it's true or not!" Mercury madly roars at me, as his hope of escaping these two is being blocked and his mind begins to fill with rage after all the stuff he revealed and all for nothing.

"Well, unless you got proofs to back up your info, then they're lies. Not much of value to us. And that means you would have to expand your time with us a bit more." I said in a cheerful tone, causing Mercury's rage to erupt even further at this.

"But, we don't have that much free time. So...I'm sorry about this, but I have to...send you two away." I said in a not so sorry tone and pretty much outright stating that I will either send them far away from here or just kill them.

Mercury's anger instantly dissipated right after he register my words and even Emerald stop crying for a moment before she begins to shake in [Fear] at the double meaning of my last few words.

Both of them tries to get out of their blinds with an extra effort at their end, but continue to fail at doing so. No matter how much they struggle; they couldn't get the ropes to loose one bit and their aura not even helping them one bit at all.

Shigure carefully walks around Emerald until she stands behind Emerald, then she smacks the back of Emerald's head, knocking the poor thief out instantly. Two things happen after this little action from Shigure. One: Mercury restart making more deals and this time; he trying to inform us more about other stuff that we already know thanks to both Izaya and Momoyo's support network. Two: I had to knock out Mercury as well because I was beginning to get annoyed the way Mercury continues to speak without giving me the chance to say anything; making this a one-sided conversation on my part.

"Did...anything he...says was true?" Shigure asks me while untying Emerald's ropes blinding to the chair, then tie her back up afterward. Then, she did the same to Mercury before both of us drag their unconscious bodies to a nearby wooden crate, which filled with small holes on two sides.

"Some of them were true, but just not the whole truth and mixed with some lies into them." I answer Shigure's question, who snort at this. Since it's a little funny to her that someone is doing the same thing her fiance does to others.

"Now, what should we do with these two?" I stare at the unconscious bodies of Emerald and Mercury we placed inside the wooden crate. On one hand, this is most likely a stupid part on our end since now Cinder would be more alert now.

While at the same time, Cinder would have to change her plan now, because without Emerald and Mercury. Cinder would have to attend the two-on-two team round after the 4-on-4 team round matches are finished.

"Do you happen...to have anything...related to...memory manipulation?" Shigure asks me in a curious tone since that would be something useful at the moment. And mostly because she would want to see if she could possibly create something to combat someone who could manipulate people's memories.

I pause for a moment, as one of my deadly [Persona] begins to stir from deep within my Sea of Souls. Of course, this caused me to break in a cold sweat as I'm afraid this [Persona] of mine would awaken soon. But, much to my relief; the [Persona] I dread of being awakening from its sleep, went back to sleep.

I mentally let out a sigh of relief, even my other [Persona] is also glad we didn't have to face against this [Persona] with everything we have and barely got it to sleep.

"Let just say I do, but the risks come with it. Isn't something lightly for me to take on." I said to Shigure, with a small voice that shows how frighten I am.

Shigure was confused for a few seconds, then pale at my words once she connected the dots. Gulping in fear that she almost caused my most deadly [Persona] to almost awaken from its sleep could have caused the Vale Kingdom to be thrown into chaos; worse than having an army of the grimm invading the place.

Compare to the deadly [Persona] of mine to grimm; it's just like comparing a cute kitty to a deadly tiger, that would shred you to pieces if they got the chance to.

"I'm...sorry." Shigure apology for her reckless thoughts that could relate to anything to my deadly [Persona] I gained 2 years ago, that almost led to my death and everyone I care about.

Somehow, my [Persona System] gave me one of the most deadly [Persona] I could ever have so early in my life. [Nyarlathotep], the fictional character in the Cthulhu Mythos featured as an Outer God. Also, the one who would cause my dream walk into other [Persona]'s past lives to gain their experience be harder to do so.

[Nyarlathotep] have the habit of picking which moment in my dream to see how I react and see if this could cause my sanity to be broken or not. If I didn't purchase the [Unshaken Will] as soon as possible right after I gained [Nyarlathotep].

[Unshaken Will]:

Passive Effect: Protect the user from mental ailments.

Type: Passive

Rank: Tier 5 (Require using [Upgrade] to enter next Rank)

Cost: None

I would have been driven to madness by now and no one could have helped me with dealing with an Outer God, that get its kick out of seeing me losing my sanity. Even with the help of [Unshaken Will]; [Nyarlathotep]'s influence still, affects me in my dream where I'm at my weakest and only my other [Persona] are barely enough to hold back [Nyarlathotep] from affecting me through my dream.

What's worst about [Nyarlathotep] is that s/he isn't the one from the Persona series, which is something I had hoped to be the version of [Nyarlathotep]. At least, that version of [Nyarlathotep] would be limited to a few aspects.

However, the one I got is a confusing one. As this [Nyarlathotep] took the form belong to the female version from Demonbane, but could switch to the H. P. Lovecraft version. Then, to the Persona series just to mess with me and finally to my form, acting like a [Shadow Version] of myself to continue messing with me for a few minutes before it returns back into the form of the female version of the Demonbane.

I knew instantly it wasn't the Persona series once after it plain out uses multiple abilities that don't belong to the Persona series version just as a warning to me not to annoy it by thinking it's the Persona series one.

Took me a whole week of extreme work to gather enough [System Point] to purchase the [Unshaken Will] in order for my protection against [Nyarlathotep] and it only helped a little while I'm awake. After going to bed to sleep, that's where the true battle with [Nyarlathotep] begin. A whole week of nonstop from [Nyarlathotep] during the day and night without much sleep had literally almost broken me down.

And only thanks to Shigure, who helped me throughout it. The only reason [Nyarlathotep] allowed this to happen was because it wanted its host: me, to give it more entertainment much more in the future. As this [Nyarlathotep] got some interests in my life and wanted to see how far I go. I took this as a small mercy with all the horror this [Persona] made me gone through that whole week.

My thoughts were cut off when Shigure pulls me in a hug, but this time I could feel the warm belong to Shigure's body as I begin to relax a bit more when I was close to returning back to the mental state I was forced to develop during that whole week with [Nyarlathotep] and would attack anything that would be a threat to my being or Shigure.

If we haven't knocked out both Emerald and Mercury a few minutes too late. I would have killed them instantly, because of [Nyarlathotep]'s presence made a stir throughout my Sea of Souls had sent me close to my temporary state of insanity like I entered a few days ago against the army of [Shadow].

Including with Shigure and Pyrrha's helps by stopping my mind become unstable with lots of things to keep my mind busy. There is [Edea Florence]'s [Emotional Stability] as a crutch to keep my emotions from going wild. Now, I would usually have [Edea Florence] equip to have [Emotional Stability] to be in effect most of the time, mainly in battles.

As both Shigure and Pyrrha, along with my friends, are enough to help me out when I don't have enough aura to spare to use [Emotional Stability] for the time being.

"Let's just call Izaya and Momoyo to deal with these two. Also, send them a copy of the information this guy gave us." I said to Shigure and feel my other [Persona] checking on [Nyarlathotep]. Then, just to make sure [Nyarlathotep] stays asleep. I took out an [Item] belong to the [Persona System], which helps me put [Nyarlathotep] asleep. I simply toss it into my mouth and swallow it.

[Item Type]: [Persona(Item)/Pill]

[Name]: Persona's Slumber

Durability: 100%/100% (Fresh)

Quality: Epic

Grade: B+

Value: 50000 System Point

Description: A [Pill] that require to be consumed and will force the user's [Persona] to sleep; however, it depends on how strong the [Persona] being forced to sleep. And if it's too strong, then this [Pill]'s effect would lessen than it should be. But, would still work for a limited of time and the user will require to repeatedly to consume more of these [Pill] to work on the [Persona].

Luckily, this was something I could use on [Nyarlathotep] once I got my unstable mind under control after gaining [Unshaken Will]. Took me some time to find this [Pill] and I bought it instantly after finding it.

Much to my happiness and horror; it works for like a few seconds against [Nyarlathotep] until it went berserk at this action of mine and I madly bought more as I consume them like no tomorrow. Until I reached to the 20th [Persona's Slumber] did I managed to put [Nyarlathotep] to sleep, for an hour.

I would have gone bankrupt of [System Point] if I had to make a massive purchase of this [Persona's Slumber] just for [Nyarlathotep], but I found out something in the [Extra Feature], which was what had saved my life and the others.

Giving me the option to strengthen the [Item] belong to the [Persona System] by increasing the [Item]'s rank for the extra [Cost]. [Persona's Slumber] is originally an [Item Rank: D] before I use the [Extra Feature] to increase the rank of [Persona's Slumber] to make it much stronger.

Thanks to this stronger and better [Persona's Slumber]; I only require to take it every 1 week to keep [Nyarlathotep] asleep this whole time. The price of getting this improve version of [Persona's Slumber] isn't cheap and I don't mind putting extra effort to make a budget just for them, even Shigure helped out as well by making a few normal weapons for me to sell to the [Persona System] for extra [System Point].

In return, I made sure to buy Shigure anything she needed; be it from the [Persona System] or the stuff around us.

"Izaya is busy...and Momoyo...is heading here...in a few...minutes from now." Shigure said to me, breaking me from my inner monologue. I blink at Shigure, who staring at me her usual blank expression and give her a weak smile.

"That sound grand. How long was I zone out for?" I ask Shigure in a dull tone and find myself hating [Nyarlathotep] more than ever. My mental state would never be the same after I gained this [Persona]. My mind was already messed up due to having more than one [Persona] within my Sea of Souls, but [Nyarlathotep] takes a good chunk of my already unstable mental state.

"Around 10...minutes or so." Shigure replied in a quiet voice, as she places her back against my chest while continue to type on her scroll to speak with Momoyo and update me on anything else as she enjoys me hugging her from behind.

10 minutes later*

Momoyo blankly stares at the wooden crate in front of her, where she could clearly hear both Emerald and Mercury's shouting for help as they banged against the side of the inner part of the wooden crate they are trapped within.

"So...you two knuckleheads just decided on your own to capture two students from a different kingdom out in plain sight where anyone could have seen this, and you guys still did it anyway and if that isn't enough. I was called over to deal with the aftermath. Am I missing anything?" Momoyo stares at us with a deadpan expression and by her tone of voice, she is not happy one bit.

"Does almost having a mental breakdown count as anything?" I counter Momoyo with my own question instead of answering her, causing her left eye to twitch a little, then her face drained of its color once she registers what I just said and rush over to me, as she begins to check on me to see any signs, physically or something else, if my mental state is stable or not.

"You okay? Did one of those two jackasses say one of the trigger words/phrases? You're not going to on a rampage later, right?" Momoyo fire off multiple questions with a pale face, as she begins to gather aura around her body just in case she has to take me down with the help of Shigure for support while she is the main attacker.

"Yes. No, and no." I answer without much of a pause, "I've already taken my [Pill] sooner than I should, but I'm good for the rest of the week and maybe an extra few days; however, I'll continue to take my [Pill] on Sunday anyway."

Momoyo let out a sigh of relief; after all, she was with her friend during that whole week and almost got killed in the progress. If that wasn't terrifying enough, her friend's instinct was plain outright unfair. Fighting on pure instinct should pretty much give others advantage over that person, who fight on pure instinct alone without planning out their attacks.

Instead, she faced a monster whose instinct included analyzing the battlefield, the number of enemies, weakness and strong points belong to those enemies. As well as using unpredictable ways to take down the enemy.

Who knew she could be taken out so easy by taking out her sense of sight and hearing in the middle of the fight would throw her off like she just begins learning how to fight. And it was on pure luck that her friend snaps out of his unstable mental state for a while enough for him to find a way to stop his mind from going insane once more; well, less insane than that time.

"Good. I don't want to face you when you can't tell friends and foes. Last time, Izaya was stuck in the hospital for a month from the aftermath. It would have been longer if Shigure wasn't there to help out and even she was hurt badly." Momoyo snorts at me, but I could see beads of a cold sweat doing down her forehead.

I send Momoyo a wry smile, "Don't forget that we had to defend against the enemies tried to attack us during our weak moment." That time was one of our worst moment in our lives, but we made it through thanks to both Momoyo and my effort to quickly take down the leaders of the groups before taking down the grunts, which they had numbers on their side to tired us out and could have won, if we were that stupid enough to leave those leaders to stay on the battlefield.

Momoyo scowl at this bad memory of ours, "Still left a bad taste in my mouth. You help out a faunus and expect them to be happy and leave you alone. Heh, look like the White Fang changed from equal right to supreme faunus' right over human instead. I would never know what's going on with everyone's heads when it comes to equal rights or whatever." I watch Momoyo shook her head in annoyance and disappointment that the one faunus she helped out of her own free will, but end up sold out to our enemies during that very moment of our weakness.

"Not all...faunus...are bad, though." Shigure comment quickly before this conversation of ours leads to something bad while we continue to ignore both Emerald Mercury's shouting.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm not going to place my hate on the whole faunus race, because of a single faunus belong to the White Fang took my charity and slap it against my face for just being a human." Momoyo beginw to look a bit tired, mentally that is, and felt that it a little bit of her fault for letting her guards down in front a hurt faunus, who was in a need of help during the time Momoyo was trying to take me down when my mental state broke down.

I pat Momoyo's right shoulder to show her I appreciate her help, which Momoyo give me a smile, then frown at me once she remembers why she was here in the first place.

"Nice try. Don't change the subject. I'm still mad at you guys for doing something this stupid. Do you have any ideas what kind of trouble we could get into because of this?" Momoyo scowls at us and pause for a moment, "Well, more in politic troubles. But, still trouble nonetheless, I hope you guys feel guilty of your actions...who am I kidding? Neither of you two would ever feel guilty when it comes to this kind of things. Whatever, I'll take care of this mess of your, once again. Both of you owe me a favor, again."

I watch Momoyo took out her scroll to make a few calls while Shigure look at the wooden crate for a bit longer before she pulls up her scroll and appear on the screen is the 4-on-4 team round of team JNPR fights team BRNZ of Vacuo's Shade Academy in their first match of the Vytal Festival combat tournament. And it looks like we just made it in the middle of the match between the two teams.

"Huh, I almost forgot about Pyrrha's team match." Momoyo glance over Shigure's shoulder to watch the team round. "Also, the people I called, will come over to get these two in a matter of between 5 minutes to an hour. So, we're going to have to stay here a bit longer until they show up just in case someone tries to save these two."

I blink at Momoyo, then resume watching Pyrrha's team battling the other enemy team. "So, either of you two girls found any potential new members that would like to join our group?" I ask them while all of us continue to watch the Vytal Festival combat tournament.

"I think so, but not so sure." Momoyo is the first one to answer, "She is a cousin of mine, who decided to come to the Vale Kingdom with her maid to be independent of her family. If you like, you could meet up with her later today. I just need to let her know ahead of time. So tell me before night come, so I could schedule us in my cousin's busy schedule. You have no idea how annoying she gets if we interrupt her during her project."

"Good to hear. I don't mind meeting up with your cousin tomorrow's morning. How about you Shigure?" I gave Momoyo the time to schedule for her cousin to meet up with me, then ask Shigure.

"Nope." Shigure didn't look like she put that much effort into finding a potential new member for our group, but I didn't hold it against her since she has a busy schedule as well. I'm lucky enough to be in her busy schedule, that I don't mind if she didn't find one or not. I'm just glad to spend time with Shigure and Pyrrha as well whenever I can.

Momoyo's scroll rings out loud, causing her to stop watching on Shigure's scroll as she takes her own out to see who calling her. "I'll be right back." Momoyo said to us, then walk a few feet away from us to talk on her scroll.

"Look like Pyrrha's team won. In a weird way." I said dryly, as both Shigure and I watch Nora literally send the whole enemy team flying by herself.

Shigure just shrugs her shoulders at my comment and continue to watch the whole thing until they switch the channel to something else like an ad until the next team match start.

"Hey, guys. They're here. We can leave now; no need to wait here any longer and unless you two like staying here in an Abandon Warehouse. Be my guest. I'm going to meet up with my cousin. See you guys later." Momoyo said to us, as she finishes talking to the people on her scroll and walks out of the Warehouse.

Shigure and I share a look before we head out to meet up with Pyrrha while we continue to ignore both Emerald and Mercury as we left them to Momoyo's people.

'I wonder what Cinder's reactions at the moment.' I thought to myself while walking along with Shigure to the Bullhead in order for us to get the Amity Colosseum to watch team JNPR's team round.

2 hours later*

(Vale: Vale City: Beacon Academy: Campus)

"Should...we...stop them?" Shigure asks me, as we and the rest of the crowd watch Qrow and Winter faces against each other. Both Shigure and I just arrived right in the middle of the fight between these two.

"Nah, let's just go find Pyrrha and her team. No need to stop those couples fighting each other. I mean, it's not like we have any right to stop those two would fight in public, where everyone watches these two showing their desire for each other through fighting. Then again, maybe this is how they show their love for each other?" I answer Shigure, right when both Weiss and Ruby walk over to us and heard what I just said, with a shocked look on their faces.

"Are you insane?!" Weiss shout at me, "Wait! No you are insane alright. Great. A few months away from you have made me almost forget about your personality. Anyway, I'll refuse someone like that guy as my older sister's lover. If anything, even Father would disown Winter if he finds out that Winter is in love with that guy at that." Weiss sneer at the word of her Father and already thinking about what he would do after finding about Winter and Qrow being a couple.

"Hey, don't be mean about my Uncle, you meanie!" Ruby pout at her partner, who gave her a deadpan look before she looks back at the fight between her older sister, Winter, and Ruby's Uncle, Qrow, which is just about to end soon.

"Honestly, Ruby, you need to grow up more." Weiss let out a sigh while continue watching the fight in front of her as she tries to give her leader a advise to become better.

"And I am! I drink milk!" Ruby said with pride, causing Weiss, Shigure, and I to stare at her, causing Ruby to look at us with a nervous expression, "What? It's true, though." And that was when Ironwood interrupts the fight, who order Winter to stand down.

Shortly, after Ironwood shouted, Ozpin and Glynda catch up to Ironwood, which caused the crowd to dispel and for Shigure and me to leave. Leaving both Weiss and Ruby behind to catch up with their family members.

few minutes later*

(Vale: Vale City: Beacon Academy: Campus: Dorms: Team: JNPR's Room)

"So where are your team, Pyrrha?" I sit next to Pyrrha on her bed while Shigure is using Pyrrha's desk to remake a few of her medicine pills.

"They wanted to celebrate the team's victory, but I didn't want to come with because I wanted to spend with you. Also, I rather not deal with Nora...fun things she wanted to do." Pyrrha said to me, with the last part in a nervous tone.

"That's good, I guess. So how is Beacon doing for you so far?" I ask Pyrrha while I begin to text a few things to Izaya, then put it away and give Pyrrha my full attention.

"It's great here. I made many new friends, even if some of them tried to capture you, along with Shigure and Izaya." Pyrrha frown at the memory of some of the members belong to both teams RWBY and JNPR tried to capture her older brother and friends from back in the Mistral Kingdom.

"Well, I could say you made the right choice in coming here instead of heading to Haven Academy. You have no idea how much of a pain those teachers and students caused for Grandpa Viridian, when they had been coming over to our Home, to find out the reason why you decided on Beacon Academy instead of theirs. Then there your fan club trying to follow you over to the Vale Kingdom, but end up failing because of their families and other reasons I don't feel like knowing. Pretty much you would have to sleep with one eye open every night until you graduate Haven Academy." I said to Pyrrha, who pale from remembering a few of her hardcore fans back in the Mistral Kingdom.

Pyrrha knew she dodged a one-way ticket to z nightmare of 4 years and a high chance of becoming a rogue huntress. At least, here in the Vale Kingdom, there aren't the same numbers of fans back in the Mistral Kingdom and in Beacon Academy. They're too shy or don't have the courage to speak with the Invincible Girl without having a mental breakdown before they could speak a few words and that's with them stuttering like a mess with broken sentences.

"I see..." Pyrrha sends a wry smile in my direction and look much happier from discovering her choice of between Haven and Beacon Academies was the right pick for her.

The only thing Pyrrha is sad about joining Beacon Academy is that I'm not a student here with her, but at least I take my time to visit her instead of waiting for her to come to the Mistral Kingdom for some reason or after her graduation from Beacon Academy.

"Come on, the Fairgrounds are still open and maybe we would see your team there, if not, we could still enjoy ourselves." I said to Pyrrha before I look over to Shigure, "Well, after Shigure finish making her medicine pills, then we could go."

Pyrrha looks at Shigure with the same wry smile, as she finds herself a little afraid of what Shigure is making at the moment. Not that I could blame Pyrrha for being a little scared of Shigure when she making something that could be helpful for medical purposes to lethal [Poison] for assassination. The last time Pyrrha saw someone mess with Shigure during her pill making. That person ended up getting a pill for a laxative, which was forced against their will to take by Shigure.

So yeah, neither Pyrrha or the rest of my group dare go near Shigure when she makes her medicine pill, besides myself who know a thing or two about the progress on making a pill, but other than that. Pyrrha is fine with Shigure making her medicine pill as long she got a good distance away from Shigure's work spot.

"Yes. Let's wait for Shigure to finish." Pyrrha said to me, with her using me as a meat shield at the moment. I roll my eyes at my little sister's action and find it funny that anything related to Shigure. Pyrrha would use me as her meat shield. Of course, I will take it since I love my little sister to take the brute end of Shigure's silent wrath, that even I dread to face sometime, but if it for Pyrrha's safety, then I shall take it as a responsibility of an older twin brother protecting his little twin sister. No matter how painful it would be.