Author's Note: This actually doesn't concern the plot in anyway, shape or form. It's just tiny bits of drabbles that I thought of during the process of writing this story, whether you choose to read it is your choice
<><><><>Sidestory 1: Breakfast in bed<><><><>
You know, in the short time that I've come to know the Deadly Sins Trio, or what i would call short for Alistair, Murdoch and Helen, they have proven themselves to be quite enjoyable companions on my journey (As long as you can ignore their other, more annoying quirks that is)
We've had many memorable memories together, certainly. The merry band of a wolf, a hound, a fox and a slime becoming best friends with each other and me being their leader is something that even I myself find hard to believe at times
If I were to tell you about one interesting experience when travelling with them, it would be the time when they decided to surprise me with full breakfast servings in bed
It is somewhere between day 16-18 when I woke up to a peculiar sight. There i was, stretching myself after an enjoyable nap and yawning repeatedly like a morning bird, when I just happen to turn my head side way....
"WHAT THE FUCK!?" I screamed
Four bloody human corpses was laid beside me. The weapons on their clothes suggesting they weren't just your normal folks around here, but rather trained Huntsman and Huntresses in the middle of their mission
But the real question is...why the fuck are they here? Why were they killed like that? What have they done to the others?
The others...my eyes widened
"Alistair? Helen? Murdoch?" I called out
There was a pause in which no one answered. In that moment I felt my heart dropping out of my chest in worry, before one of them answered me
Helen's head poked out from the tree behind me, soon followed by Murdoch's, then Alistair's
I noticed all of them have blood on their clothes. Soon my eyes narrowed
"Do you know who these guys are?" I gestured to the corpses, their eyes following my hand movement until they landed on them, then it widens too
"Oh, you mean your breakfast?"
A pause
"Excuse me, what?"
"You breakfast" Murdoch repeated, grinning ear-to-ear "Freshly-caught huntsmen, ready to be eaten"
"....Okay, but how did you find them?"
Helen tilted her head
"Alistair has the idea of attacking a nearby village to lure them out. As expected, the government sent a team of Huntsmen to take care of us in response. The rest is, as you know, just basically attrition tactics that you've taught us in hunting applied into practical uses"
Indeed, I did remember teaching them a bit about hunting techniques in the wild, but I would never expect it to be used this way
"But why would you bother doing this for me?"
"Well...." The slime shifted her foot awkwardly "Just the other day we overheard you saying just how great it would be if you can eat Huntsmen for breakfast, so we decided to wake up early in the night and hunted some of them for you"
"Alistair think it would be a nice way to show our appreciation for what you did to us, so she devised a plan to kill one huntsman team and served them to you while in bed"
I opened my mouth, then closed it
This is....
Before I could say anything, said fox girl who proposed the plan appeared in front of me. She looked at me with sparkling eyes
"Did we do good? Are you proud of us? Am I a good girl?" She asked excitedly, her tails waving around in a wild fashion "Are you going to give us headpats? Actually, only headpatting me is fine too, you can just ignore the others"
As she said this, the fox ears atop her head rose up and started twitching in excitement while the other two rolled their eyes
....Alistair, you're a fox, not a dog
And the fact that you just dropped several dead preys in front of me as offerings, isn't that something only dogs will do to their master?
I heaved a sigh
"Yes, in fact I have a reward for all of you, come here"
They looked at each other, before scooting to my side. Their eyes are curious as they leaned in with baited breath, waiting as to what I have as prizes for them
The answer...is a strong flick on each of their foreheads
"Ouch!"
"Yowch!"
"Owie..."
They all rubbed the red spot on their head where I flicked them "Boss, why would you do that?"
"You dunces" I hissed, surprising them with my tone "Do you how dangerous the task you've just done is? Grimms hunting Grimm-hunters? You could have been killed for fuck's sake"
"But-"
"No excuses! If any of you were to die, then whose fault will it be? Your parents will probably grill my ass if that were to happen"
"We going out is of our own will, there's nothing to blame in ignorance of one's action, especially if it's done for another's sake"
"I'm disappointed with your reasoning, Helen. How much do you think you guys means to me?"
She looked at me with those uncaring eyes "We are a part of the pack, and you are our leader, our superior in both power in and intelligence whose words are nothing but absolute orders that we obey. As your subordinate, isn't it our duty to listen and fulfill your every wants?"
"....Does satisfying my desires means that much to you? So much you would risk your life for that?"
"Yes"
"....."
I sighed and shook my head, before pulling all of them into a big hug, earning a quiet gasp from the normally stoic slime
"I supposed my attitude with you may have contributed to that line of thought, but know this: Every one of you matters to me. You are my equals, my kind, and is the closest things to friends I have" I smiled "The only order I would give you is for your own good, so please don't put yourself in danger again, okay?"
"....We will try" Hesitantly, each of them hugged me back. After staying like this for a while, I released them. The trio looked to the ground in an awkward manner
"Now, with that out of the way, I'm impressed" I nodded "You three managed to take down an entire team of Huntsman using your skills alone and bring them back to me. For that I thank you for your efforts"
That was honesty on my part. A normal huntsmen could take on an army of Grimm and remained untouched. Yet, these guys took down four of them without much effort. That just shows how fast they can grow if you teach them the right way
"There's no need for that..." Murdoch quietly protested
"But the next time you want to try something like this, at least bring me along with you" I ignored him "I'll forgive you this once, only because you're relatively unharmed"
"For now, consider this as your reward" I placed a hand on Alistair's head, before patting it, stroking her ears a little as I did so
The Kumiho's pupils dilated to an impossible size
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh~"
That day i learned several new things about the Grimms travelling with me
They are fiercely loyal to those who they acknowledged as stronger than them
....And they also like being headpatted, a lot more than normal human should
Ding!
You have learned [Job Class: Huntsmen]: Killing Grimms earns you 20% more EXP
You have learned [Snow Tread]: Allow you to walk on snow more easily
You have learned [Frostwalker]: Your travel speed when in cold environment is increased by 55% (Base Stat)
You have learned [Storm Fang]: Inflict [Shredding] Damage and [Slow] enemies when attacking with your fang
[Storm Fang] + [Blood Fang] + [Sharper Fang] => [Lethal Bite]
<><><><>Sidestory 2: EXPLOSION<><><><><>
Even though not many people know it, Cinder Fall originally didn't like explosions as much as her current counterpart
The young girl like to thought of those things as loud, unnecessary, and totally useless. Why blasting your opponents to pieces when you can just slit their throats from behind?
So, that begs the question...just what happened to change her into the explosion-addicted-loli we all know today
Well, you could say the reason to why she becomes like that is all thanks to a meeting with a certain Grimm during the attack on her village
She was standing neat the street's alley with her back against the wall. Towering in front of her were a drooling Creep. It opened it's jaws full of sharp teeth, ready to chew the girl to death
It was then something happened
That something just happened to come in the form of a certain Grimm named (Y/n)
"EXPLOSION!" Her eyes widened as the Grimm in front of her exploded into tiny pieces in a shower of mess and gore, some of it dropping near her feet with a wet splash sound
Far above the street, a Grimm is currently killing other Grimm. Yeah, even she could not believe that either
This one Beowolf is different than the others. It's fur is blacker than the night surrounding it, with two crimson orbs peering out in the shadows like sinister eyes staring straight at your souls. Another peculiar thing about it is that it can speak...she thinks so
Cinder could swear she heard it screamed 'EXPLOSION' just moments before
Currently, she were rooted on the spot in fear, fear of being killed just like the beast towering above her just a few seconds ago, being detonated into chunks of smoking hot meat without a single thought
Thankfully, the Grimm didn't seems to be bothered by her presence, as after a second of looking at Cinder it turned it's back and return to killing it's kind again
"AURA MANIPULATION. FIFTH FORM: BIG BANG!"
BOOM
All the Grimms surrounding it simultaneously exploded. Not stopping at that, it blurred toward another group of Beowolves with it's hands outstretched
"AURA MANIPULATION. THIRD FORM: ALLAHU AKBAR!"
BOOM
Her jaws dropped at the force of the explosion, which easily blew away nearby buildings just from the shockwave of the blast alone
She could grasp what it's doing if what it just yelled is correct
This Grimm is condensing the energy around it's core like a spring, before releasing it's hold, allowing that captured energy to shot forward at astounding speed and resulting in a devastating attack of doom that completely annihilates everything around it
...Internally, Cinder wondered if she can do that too...
But the show haven't even started yet, as the Beowolf again moved to her right, where a pack of Ursa is feasting on the corpses of some unfortunate children's organs
"AURA MANIPULATION. SECOND FORM. TAEPODONG STRIKES!"
BOOM
"AURA MANIPULATION. SEVENTH FORM. I AM ATOMIC!"
BOOM
"AURA MANIPULATION. ELEVENTH FORM. CONTINUOUS CHAIN EXPLOSION"
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
"AURA MANIPULATION. TWENTY-FIFTH FORM-"
Cinder quickly covered her ears and shook her heads to clear the tremor she felt from those attack. Her ears are ringing, and she could faintly heard some screaming in the distance, not that she cared enough to go and help them
It took her an uncertain amount of time to come back to her senses. When she did, Cinder was already standing in the middle of a burning wreckage, one that she recognize is her village
The Grimm has already left, but the memories of him slaughtering those Grimm will stay forever in her young, impressionable mind. The image of that Beowolf, walking so casually toward his prey while everything burned around him
For every steps he take, carnage followed
For every strikes he dished out, destruction is all that left behind
It was...beautiful. It was mesmerizing. It is a form of beauty higher than any art she had seen. The power of a thousand Sun, all compressed and released in one single, fantastic lightshow. It's as though she had a glimpse of heaven itself
It's at that moment that she understood
Explosion is Love
Explosion is Life
Explosion is the embodiment of Right
Yet again, the fate of a character in the RWBY Universe has been drastically changed by our protagonist (Y/n)
<><><><>Sidestory 3: the Pancake Demon<><><><>
Everybody who knows about Emperor's Aura at least know about it's interesting effect of turning those who came into contact with them a sense of loyalty, effectively giving them a permanent charisma hax in life
Often time, that is not the case. Due to a misconception about it's properties, many people thought the effect will turn those around the user into lunatics who worship them as soon as they touch the user
But the truth is, it doesn't
It's not loyalty that Emperor's user spread to others, it is obsession. A very unhealthy kind of obsession, rivaling if not even surpassing your average Yandere archetype
You see, obsession is in the eye of the beholder
For those who considered Emperor's users as an ally, they (the user) will be held in high very regard in their eyes. Often time this would lead to them being put in a high pedestal as their every moves were praised by their friends as a god-like entity, effectively turning them into Ainz Ooal Gown in real life
This is what happened to (Y/n) and his Grimm friends
But...for those who considered the user as their enemy, there will be an undeniable amount of wariness mixed in with hatred. They (the victim) won't be able to do anything but think about their every moves and try to read into it, before reaching conclusions far too absurd to even think about, but makes perfect sense in their eyes that the user is some kind of demonic mastermind who only likes to sink this world in terror and darkness
That...is basically what happened to Reaper
Specialist Reaper looked over the file on his desk, his face an unreadable mask as he skimmed over the content written inside
49 robberies, all of them concentrated on the outskirt of Mistral, all of them reportedly produce illegal pancakes . All of them razed to the ground, with the pancakes themselves nowhere to be found
This case started off as a joke amongst the military ranks, yet recent rise in casualties and internet popularity has led to the government directly intervening with the matter, doing as much as sending teams after teams of Specialist to work on it
He just happens to be an unfortunate one of them, in charge of going through the files to see if there's some connection between these so called "Pancake Raid"
And oh boy he glad he did
The door behind him opened, prompting reaper to turn around. He came face to face with general ironwood as the man closed the door behind him. He walked up to the Specialist, peering at the files as he did so
"Good morning General"
"What is it? You tell me you have news concerning the Grim" He frowned "Yet all I see is evidences of the infamous Pancake Demon incident on your desk"
"Ah, you already know about that. This will make it easier to explain" Reaper nodded "I think this incident is related to the Grim"
"......Ah shit, here we go again"
"Please hear me out" He stretched his arm "I know it sound impossible. What's with this happening in separate locations and all, but there's concrete evidences to this"
"First off, what did the catchphrase often used to identify the incident to be connected by the same culprit?"
"I am the Queen of the Castle"
"And what is the most popular opening move in chess history?"
"Specialist Reaper, i fail to s-"
"Just answer me, general"
"....The Queen's Gambit, which is invented in 1490 and become popular in 1873 in a chest tournament"
"And what's the sequence for that move?"
"D4. D5. C4"
"There are 49 total cases of robberies. 45 of which happened in Mistral's D district, 4 in the C district. The D district is built in 1490, while the C District hasn't been constructed since 1873. Could it be a coincidence? Maybe, but I think not"
"What?" the General was astonished
"And...if you mark all the incident's location on the map...like here" Reaper took out a miniature map that already been stained with ink. Despite that, he took out the pen and started dotting places on the paper
"And then you connected them in order from newest to oldest, you got this message"
THE GRIM
"...Incredible" Ironwood couldn't believe it "But if this truly is the Grim's work, then what is the message here?"
"You see. The Queen's Gambit started with you moving your pawn forward, then your opponent will counter with their own. You then moved another one beside it as a sacrifice to take control of the board's center"
"The Atlas Headquarter Massacre is his opening move, while our investigation is the counter" He nodded in undertanding "this is also just a distraction itself in order to manipulate our attention"
"And we also know the suspect is a child. the Grim is particularly good at manipulating children given that he'd convinced those grimm Hybrids to join his side, so it could possible that she's only one of his puppets"
"How cunning of him" Ironwood muttered, before turning to the Specialist
"Good job Reaper, you have found the hidden link in this investigation. The Grim has been playing with us until now, as expected of someone devious like him"
"I'm going to call the headquarter to raise his bounty. We must catch this criminal at all cost, or else he's only going to cause further carnage to us human race"
"If the massacre itself is only the start...then I worry for our existence in the future"
What is the connection between this so-called "Queen of the Castle" and "The Grim"? Who is she? How have they met? The question remained will unanswered until they can catch another hint
In another part of Atlas
"ACHOOO!"
"Nora, don't sneezes on your food!"
"Sorry, Renny"
"By the way, where did you get so much of those pancakes?"
"......"
"...Nora...."
"............"
"......Nora...."
".......................Ooh, what a beautiful butterfly in the distance!"
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Author's Note: There's a lot more ideas in my head, but I'm just currently too lazy to write all of them down in one go, so they'll have to wait until a later time
Yeah, and also I just entered highschool this year. My old friends are mostly gone, but we still have contact online from time to time. The one friend that DID go to the same school as I ended up in different class from me...which means I'm basically a loner now
Man, it just feels so strange being like that after such a long time. You sit in your classroom, watching as everyone talked to each other and listening to the sound of your teacher lecturing on the board, but you yourself is feeling like an outsider to the busy atmosphere around you
Hopefully I can make some new buddy this year...
Sorry for that, don't know why I typed it either. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as my limited writing schedule only allow me to dish out a half-baked, 3000-words chapter for you
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WAIT, WHO THE FUCK EATS MY POTATO CHIPS?!