Chương 81: Chapter 74: The Resolutions

The cool night breeze of Mistral swept through the expansive courtyard outside of Haven Academy's Grand Hall, carrying away the last remnants of evaporating black ash. The apocalyptic tension that had suffocated the mountain just an hour ago was completely gone, replaced by the chaotic but comforting hum of recovery. Near the shattered perimeter walls, Ghira and Kali Belladonna stood alongside Ilia Amitola and the Menagerie Faunus militia.

They were flanked by Team SSSN and Team ABRN, all of them silently watching the Mistral authorities securely bind the wrists and ankles of the unconscious Adam Taurus. A few dozen yards away, sitting on the grand, cracked stone stairs leading up to the destroyed hall, Yang Xiao Long let out a long, exhausted sigh. She didn't get to enjoy the quiet for long.

"Yaaaang!" A blur of red and black slammed into her. Ruby Rose wrapped her arms tightly around her older sister's neck, burying her face into Yang's shoulder. Ruby was openly weeping, her tears soaking into the fabric of Yang's battered jacket.

"Whoa, hey, I'm okay," Yang wheezed, returning the hug tightly as a wave of immense relief washed over her.

"I'm okay, Rubes. I'm right here." Weiss Schnee stepped up next, her icy exterior completely melting as she placed a gentle hand on Yang's shoulder. Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren stood close by, their faces beaming with exhausted smiles. Yang looked past Ruby's red cloak and locked eyes with the girl standing at the edge of the group. Blake Belladonna offered a small, hesitant smile, her amber eyes shining with unshed tears. Yang reached out her arm.

"Get in here, Blake." Blake didn't hesitate. She stepped forward and joined the embrace, completing Team RWBY once more. For a long, quiet moment, the four girls just held onto each other, the fractures that had divided them since the Fall of Beacon finally healing.

"We were so worried," Pyrrha said softly as the girls finally pulled back to give Yang some breathing room.

"When the earthquake hit and the vault collapsed... we thought we had lost you."

"I thought so too, for a minute," Yang admitted, rubbing the back of her neck.

"It got pretty dark down there."

"What exactly happened in the vault, Yang?" Jaune asked, leaning forward on his sword.

"Did Cinder get the Relic?" Yang's expression darkened. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.

"No. The Relic is still locked away. But things are bad. Raven... she was the Spring Maiden the whole time. Vernal was just a decoy."

"Your mom is the Maiden?!" Nora gasped, her eyes going wide.

"Was," Yang corrected bitterly.

"She and Cinder fought. Cinder still has that monstrous Grimm left arm... but she also had this terrifying bug hidden in a white glove. While Raven was down, Cinder used that creature to siphon the Spring Maiden's magic right out of her." A heavy silence fell over the group.

"She has two Maiden powers now," Ren deduced, his magenta eyes narrowing.

"Yeah. And she left us buried under the bedrock while she blasted her way out," Yang growled, clenching her fist.

"But enough about that. What happened up here? I felt the entire mountain shaking."

"You missed a lot," Weiss sighed, crossing her arms.

"Salem sent a massive horde of Grimm. Nevermores and Griffons carried the land-bound ones straight over the city defenses. It was a complete invasion."

"But then the cavalry arrived!" Ruby cheered, her silver eyes lighting up as she pointed toward Sun and Neptune across the courtyard.

"Team SSSN and Team ABRN brought many Huntsmen and Huntresses from across the Anima! And then... oh my gosh, Yang, you are not gonna believe this!" Ruby grabbed Yang by the shoulders, vibrating with excitement.

"A giant robot showed up! Like, taller than the academy! It had Atlesian colors and fired hundreds of lasers into the sky and destroyed every single Grimm in the city!" Yang stared at her sister in complete, utter disbelief. She looked at Weiss, expecting her to roll her eyes at Ruby's exaggeration.

"She is entirely correct," Weiss confirmed with a completely straight face.

"Are you kidding me?!" Yang groaned, throwing her hands up in the air.

"I get buried alive in a dusty hole, and I miss an actual giant super-robot?!" Jaune chuckled, though his smile was a bit strained.

"Yeah, it was pretty crazy."

"By the way, speaking of crazy," Yang said, pointing a thumb over her shoulder toward the massive hole in the Grand Hall.

"How in the world is Saitama here? I thought Professor Ozpin and his group had him holed up in Beacon!" Ruby, Jaune, and the rest of the group exchanged incredibly awkward glances.

"Well... it's complicated," Jaune admitted, scratching the back of his head.

"Saitama doesn't really remember how it happened either. He just said he got lost trying to buy bananas and... and then ended up walking across the entire continent."

"Accidentally," Pyrrha added with a nervous smile. Yang blinked.

"He accidentally got shipped from Sanus to Anima?"

"Pretty much," Ren nodded solemnly.

"Oh, man," Yang breathed, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth as she pictured the situation back in Vale.

"I can only imagine what Headmistress Glynda is doing right now. She is probably tearing the Beacon courtyard apart with her riding crop." If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"We are choosing not to think about that," Weiss muttered, shivering slightly at the thought of Glynda's wrath. As the group laughed, Yang's gaze drifted across the courtyard. Yang's smile instantly vanished. Sitting on a broken piece of masonry a few dozen yards away, perfectly twirling a lace parasol over her shoulder, was Neopolitan. The diminutive girl wasn't looking at the Faunus or the authorities. Her piercing, heterochromic eyes were locked in a dead, unblinking glare aimed directly at Ruby.

"Whoa, whoa!" Yang jumped to her feet, her Ember Celica whirring as she stepped in front of her sister.

"Why is Roman Torchwick's psycho sidekick just sitting there?!"

"It's fine! It's fine!" Ruby said quickly, waving her hands in a panic as she peeked around Yang's shoulder, sweating nervously.

"She's... well, she's with Saitama."

"What?!" Yang echoed, baffled.

"With Saitama?"

"Apparently, they met a couple of weeks ago," Blake explained, keeping a wary eye on Neo.

"Saitama said she helped him get free rent and bought him food in Mistral Below. They seem to have some sort of... arrangement."

"She tried to stab me like five minutes ago," Ruby whimpered quietly. Ruby remembers the last time she had seen Roman Torchwick on the Atlesian airship. The guilt of how he died still made her stomach twist whenever Neo looked at her. Before Yang could demand more answers, heavy footsteps echoed from the Grand Hall. Saitama strolled out of the ruined archway, casually dusting off his red gloves.

Behind him, a team of Mistral Police rescue workers and Atlesian agents stood with their jaws on the floor, having just watched a man casually toss multi-ton boulders out of a sinkhole like they were crumpled pieces of paper.

"Yo," Saitama greeted the group, his perfectly smooth, bald head gleaming in the moonlight.

"Got the rest of the rocks cleared."

"Saitama!" Yang jogged up to him.

"How is Raven? Is she okay?"

"Uh, yeah, the bandit lady is fine," Saitama said, pointing his thumb back toward the upper levels of the academy.

"The kid with the cane, the drunk guy, and those guys in the white uniforms are patching her up in some big office upstairs." Saitama paused, tilting his head as he looked closely at Yang. He looked at her blonde hair, her violet eyes, and then pointed a finger at her.

"You know, she looks exactly like you, just with black hair. Are you guys related?"

"She's my mother," Yang said, crossing her arms defensively.

"Wait, really?" Saitama blinked.

"But I thought you and the kid in the red hood lived with your dad. The blonde guy with the cute corgi."

"We did," Yang sighed, the old bitterness creeping into her voice.

"Raven is my biological mother. She abandoned my dad and me when I was a baby to go back to her bandit tribe. Taiyang is Ruby's dad, too, but Summer Rose was Ruby's mom. That makes us half-sisters." Saitama stared at her for a moment, processing the dense, dramatic family history.

"I see," Saitama said simply, his expression completely blank and unfazed. Yang let out a short, incredulous laugh.

"That's it? Just 'I see'?"

"Families are complicated," Saitama shrugged. He then looked over at Neo sitting on the rubble.

"Hey, stop glaring at the kid in the hood. It's creepy." Neo didn't break eye contact with Ruby, but she aggressively stuck her tongue out at Saitama.

"Okay, seriously," Jaune stepped forward, gesturing to Neo.

"What is the deal with her? She is literally a wanted criminal."

"She's staying with me," Saitama stated casually.

"We still have some business to take care of."

"Business?" Weiss asked skeptically.

"What kind of business?"

"Contractual obligations," Saitama lied terribly, desperately trying to hide the fact that he owed her five ice creams for projecting the giant robot illusion.

"She's a little annoying sometimes, and she kicks people a lot, but I honestly kind of enjoy having her around. She knows all the good food spots." Team RWBY and Team JNPR all turned to look at Neo. Neo offered a sickly sweet, mocking wave to the Huntsmen. The entire group let out a collective, heavy sigh of defeat. They hated it, but they knew trying to argue with the invincible bald man was completely pointless.

"Hey, Blake!" Sun's voice called out from the perimeter.

"He's waking up!" Blake's posture instantly stiffened. The warmth of the reunion vanished, replaced by a cold, hardened resolve. She nodded to Yang and Ruby, and the group walked together across the courtyard toward the gathering of Faunus.

Adam Taurus was kneeling on the cobblestones. His wrists were bound tightly behind his back with heavy, Aura-suppressing cuffs. Two Mistral police officers stood on either side of him. Adam's face was completely exposed, the horrifying SDC brand on his eye visible to the world. He looked broken, exhausted, and incredibly pale. Ghira Belladonna stood tall over him, his broad shoulders casting a heavy shadow over the disgraced leader.

Kali stood quietly beside him, while Ilia watched from the crowd, silently thanking every deity in Remnant that she had chosen to walk away from Adam's path.

"Adam," Ghira's voice was a deep, authoritative rumble.

"It is over. Your loyalists have fled. The Mistral authorities have secured the city." Adam slowly raised his head, his single eye burning with feverish, exhausted hatred.

"You assassinated Sienna Khan," Ghira continued, his tone laced with profound disappointment and anger.

"You twisted the White Fang into a violent, radicalized cult of murderers. You tarnished everything we built to protect our people, all for your own twisted sense of supremacy."

"Sienna was weak," Adam spat, his voice raspy and painful.

"And you are even weaker, Ghira. You parade around with humans, begging for scraps of equality! I was fighting for our freedom! I was fighting to make them fear us!"

"You were fighting for yourself," Blake said, stepping out from the crowd. Adam's gaze snapped to her. He bared his teeth like a cornered animal.

"Blake... you traitorous coward. You think throwing me in a human cell changes anything? My vision will outlast me. The Faunus will see you for the traitor you are!" Blake didn't flinch. She didn't look away. She stood incredibly tall, her amber eyes reflecting a quiet, unshatterable strength.

"Your vision is already dead, Adam," Blake stated firmly.

"You ruled through fear, and tonight, everyone saw you run away. You don't speak for the Faunus anymore. And you will never control me again." Adam let out a furious, pathetic scream, lunging forward, only to be roughly yanked back by the police officers. He was seething, breathing heavily, searching the crowd for anyone he could direct his venom toward. And then, his single eye locked onto a bald man in a yellow suit pushing his way to the front of the crowd. Adam completely froze.

The venomous rage in his face evaporated, instantly replaced by a horrifying, traumatic flashback of a red glove. Adam instinctively squeezed his knees together, his face turning an unhealthy shade of green. Saitama blinked, realizing the guy was looking at him.

"Oh, hey," Saitama said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Sorry about earlier. When you tried to dropkick me... my fist just kind of ended up right in the path of your, uh... yeah. That had to hurt." The entire Faunus militia, Ghira, Blake, and Team RWBY stared at Saitama in sheer bewilderment. Adam Taurus stared at the invincible hero in total, suffocating silence. His jaw trembled. His pride, the last remaining fragment of his ego, shattered into dust.

"I will never forget this humiliation," Adam whispered, his voice cracking with pure, defeated agony.

"Right. My bad," Saitama offered a weak thumbs-up. The police captain cleared his throat, grabbing Adam by the collar.

"Move it. You've got a cell waiting for you in Argus." As Adam was dragged away into the back of a heavily armored police transport, the tension finally bled out of the courtyard. The Faunus cheered quietly, celebrating the end of a terrifying era. Blake watched the transport drive away. She let out a breath she felt like she had been holding for years. She turned back to the man in the yellow suit, her brow furrowing in deep confusion.

"Saitama," Blake asked, crossing her arms.

"I'm grateful you stopped him from escaping... but how did you actually take him down?"

"Yeah, man!" Sun added curiously.

"What exactly did you do to him?" Saitama broke into a massive, comical sweat. He averted his eyes, whistling awkwardly as he looked at a completely uninteresting piece of rubble.

"Let's just say..." Saitama muttered, nervously shifting his weight, "... that I destroyed his future."