After the incident, the chaos that had swept through Vale slowly began to settle, though the scars it left behind were far from shallow.
Huntsmen and Huntresses were quickly dispatched across the city, moving through the damaged districts to secure the area and assist any remaining civilians. Emergency personnel followed closely behind, pulling survivors from collapsed buildings, treating the injured, and clearing away the wreckage left behind by the White Fang and the rampaging machine.
The streets that had once been filled with panic and violence were now occupied by rescue teams, stretchers, and the low murmur of coordinated efforts to restore order.
The damage was extensive.
Buildings had been partially destroyed, roads cracked and torn apart, and several areas of the city still carried the lingering scent of smoke and burning debris. The remains of the battle were everywhere, a silent reminder of how quickly everything had spiraled out of control.
Tsutsumi has already left, leaving the injured, traumatized Team RWBY behind on the ruined highway where they had witnessed everything. For a while, none of them moved.
Ruby stood frozen, her hands trembling slightly as she tried to process what she had just seen. Weiss remained pale, her usual composure completely shattered as her mind replayed the image of the crushed machine and the blood that followed. Yang sat on the ground, her back pressed against the cold pavement as she stared ahead, her breathing uneven, her earlier rage replaced entirely by something far more fragile.
Fear.
It took several minutes before any of them were able to calm down enough to think clearly.
And when they finally did, Ruby's eyes suddenly widened.
"Blake!"
The realization hit all of them at once. Blake was still lying where she had been kicked.
The three of them rushed toward her immediately, their earlier shock momentarily pushed aside by urgency. When they reached her, they found her unconscious, her body unnaturally still.
"Blake, wake up… come on…" Ruby said desperately, gently shaking her shoulder.
There was no response.
Weiss quickly checked her condition, her hands trembling slightly as she assessed the damage.
"She's breathing, but… we need to get her to a hospital. Now."
Yang didn't hesitate.
Carefully lifting Blake into her arms, she stood up and turned toward the direction of the city, her expression tight with worry.
The three of them left immediately.
The aftermath of that day didn't end on the battlefield.
It followed them back to Beacon.
In the days that followed, a clear rift formed.
Team RWBY and Team TNPR no longer interacted the same way they once had. Conversations that had once been casual became strained, and the atmosphere between the two teams grew noticeably colder.
Though in truth, it wasn't directed at the entire team. It was directed at Tsutsumi.
Ruby, Weiss, and Yang couldn't forget what they had seen.
The overwhelming power he demonstrated. The complete lack of hesitation when taking life.
More than that, it was the way he had done it. The calm, almost indifferent expression he held while ending lives so effortlessly was what stayed with them the most.
Blake, on the other hand, had been unconscious during most of it. She hadn't seen the full extent of what happened.
But she remembered the moment she had tried to stop him, and how easily he had put her down. The memory of that single kick, the overwhelming difference in power, and the aftermath she woke up to in the hospital left a bitter weight in her chest.
Even without witnessing everything, she held her own grudge against him.
Fortunately, before things could escalate further, Ozpin stepped in.
Most of the legal consequences that should have followed an incident of that scale were handled quietly through his influence. Reports were written, statements were taken, and the Kingdom's authorities were given a controlled version of events.
Even so, the truth wasn't entirely hidden. Through investigation and direct confirmation, Ozpin learned everything he needed to know.
Although team RWBY was the reason why Roman Torchwick and that group of White Fang attacked the city.
The White Fang group that had been eliminated on Sixth Street, along with Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan's deaths.
All of it pointed to one person. And when confronted, that person didn't deny anything.
"I did it."
The words came out plainly. With no hesitation, nor attempt to deflect responsibility.
Ozpin sat across from Tsutsumi in the interrogation room, his hands folded calmly on the table, though his gaze was more serious than usual. For a brief moment, he found himself unsure how to respond.
He had expected some resistance, excuses. At the very least, some form of justification.
Instead, he was met with complete honesty.
Beside him, Glynda stood with her arms crossed, her posture rigid. Even she seemed momentarily caught off guard by how easily the admission came.
Ozpin cleared his throat before speaking again.
"Well, Mr. Ryoko," he began calmly, "can you explain why you did that? You do understand the consequences of your actions, correct?"
Tsutsumi leaned back slightly in his chair, his elbow resting against the table as his head tilted into his hand. His purple eyes met Ozpin's without any sign of unease.
"What consequences?" he asked flatly. "Do you feel pain and grief upon killing a group of ants?"
The room fell silent.
The answer wasn't just cold. It was completely detached.
Glynda's expression tightened, clearly disturbed by the comparison.
Tsutsumi wasn't someone who didn't understand the value of life.
But at that moment, when his emotions narrowed down to violence alone, what remained was something far more dangerous.
The presence of the Destroyer of Worlds.
Ozpin studied him quietly, his expression thoughtful but troubled.
Huntsmen were not strangers to killing. Their duty often required them to take lives, whether against Grimm or those who threatened the peace of the Kingdoms. It was a harsh reality of the profession.
But even then, there was always a line. A sense of weight. A recognition that a life, no matter whose it was, still held meaning.
Tsutsumi didn't seem to carry that weight at all.
"Don't try to justify it," Tsutsumi added suddenly, his voice cutting through the silence before either of them could speak. "They were willing to kill others. They should be ready to be killed."
Glynda's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Still," she said firmly, "you attacked and traumatized members of Team RWBY."
Tsutsumi's expression didn't change.
"Attacked?" he repeated. "You said nothing when Blake swung her weapon at me, but now I'm the problem for responding with a single kick. You're really consistent."
The sarcasm in his tone was unmistakable. Glynda's eyelid twitched slightly.
She couldn't deny it.
Blake had been the first to act, and Tsutsumi had only retaliated.
The problem was the scale of that retaliation.
That single kick had completely shattered Blake's aura; it also bent her spine, cracked multiple of her ribs, broke a few of her bones, and damaged her internal organs.
"And if they're traumatized," Tsutsumi continued calmly, "then they're not ready to become Huntresses."
The statement hung heavily in the air.
For him, that wasn't an insult. It was a simple conclusion.
Ren and Nora had grown up surviving the destruction of their home. They had faced loss and danger long before arriving at Beacon. Nora fought without hesitation, her strength never held back, while Ren adapted naturally to precise, lethal combat.
Pyrrha had been trained as a warrior since childhood. She understood what it meant to fight seriously, even if she chose to restrain herself most of the time to avoid crossing that final line.
Tsutsumi had seen it. And he had already begun pushing her past it.
Because in his view, there would come a moment when holding back would cost everything. A moment where hesitation would mean losing what mattered most.
And when that moment came, blood would be unavoidable.
Ozpin remained silent for a while after Tsutsumi finished speaking, his gaze steady as he carefully observed the boy sitting across from him. There was no anger in his expression, no visible frustration, yet the weight of the situation was clearly pressing on him.
What Tsutsumi had done could not be brushed aside so easily.
An entire group of White Fang members had been eliminated in seconds. Roman Torchwick, a long-standing criminal who had evaded capture multiple times, was killed without hesitation. Neopolitan, equally dangerous in her own right, met the same fate just as swiftly.
And the method in which it was done…
Ozpin had seen many Huntsmen and Huntresses in his lifetime. Veterans who had fought in wars, prodigies who stood above their peers, and even individuals who could be considered monsters on the battlefield.
Yet what Tsutsumi demonstrated that day was something entirely different.
The ability to end lives with a simple gesture, to crush a machine of that scale as if it were nothing, to subdue multiple enemies in seconds without any sign of strain. Even the most experienced Huntsmen would struggle to replicate even a fraction of what he had done.
And what troubled Ozpin the most was not the power itself.
It was how easily Tsutsumi used it.
There was no hesitation in him, no second thought, no visible burden after the fact. The line between necessary force and excessive violence had not just been crossed, it had been erased entirely.
Ozpin let out a quiet sigh, the sound soft but heavy.
Pushing him further would not help. If anything, it would only make things worse.
Someone like Tsutsumi could not be restrained through authority alone. Trying to corner him, to pressure him into submission, would only increase the chances of him breaking away completely. And if that happened…
Ozpin didn't need to finish that thought.
At the very least, as things stood now, Tsutsumi was still here. Still within Beacon. Still within a place where he could be observed, guided, and perhaps, slowly, steered back toward something more stable.
That alone was worth preserving. Ozpin finally lifted his head slightly.
"I see," he said calmly.
He turned his gaze toward Glynda, who was still standing beside him, her posture firm though her expression clearly showed she was not satisfied with how this was being handled.
"Miss Goodwitch," Ozpin continued, his tone even, "please take him back to class. I will personally handle this matter."
Glynda's eyes widened slightly.
"Ozpin-"
"I will personally handle this matter," he repeated, his voice firm enough to leave no room for argument.
The room fell silent again.
Glynda looked at him for a few seconds, clearly conflicted. Everything about this situation went against her instincts as both an instructor and a Huntress. What Tsutsumi had done demanded consequences, demanded accountability.
Yet Ozpin was choosing a different approach.
After a moment, she exhaled quietly.
"…Understood."
She turned toward Tsutsumi. "Come with me."
Tsutsumi didn't argue. He simply stood up from his seat and followed her out of the room without a word, his expression unchanged as ever.
The door closed behind them.
Ozpin remained seated for a while, his eyes lingering on the now empty chair across from him. The weight of the decision he had just made settled heavily on his shoulders, though his expression revealed very little of it.
After a moment, he slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small object. An orange gem ring.
The gem faintly reflected the light in the room as he held it in his palm, his gaze lowering slightly as he studied it.
There was history behind that ring. A choice that had been made long before today.
Ozpin's fingers curled slightly around it as his thoughts deepened.
"Did I make a mistake…" he murmured quietly, his voice barely audible in the empty room.
His eyes narrowed just slightly as he continued staring at the gem.
"…choosing you, Wizard?"
The question lingered in the silence, unanswered.
---
AN: Yo A here, go check out my new story and see if you like it or not. I'm mostly writing it to avoid burnout from writing the same stories over and over again for days.