The elevator ride to Ozpin's office shuddered slightly as it began to slow. The final, soft hiss of the doors opening was the cue. Before the gap was wide enough to fully reveal the hallway, I executed the temporal maneuver. A single, focused burst of energy—less than a full Time Stop, but enough for the split-second duplication. With a crackle of displaced air, I summoned two new allies: the familiar clone in the cowboy outfit, and a perfect double of myself, my own cold, focused eyes staring back.
"I guess you all already know the plan, right?" I said, stepping out onto the plush carpet of the executive floor. My voice held a dangerous, manic edge. They didn't need to answer. A cold, telepathic affirmation flashed between us. Eliminate the target.
My eyes locked onto the figure waiting near the large, arched window—the Reincarnator. He stood there, radiating an aura of unsettling calm, his hand already resting on the hilt of his weapon.
[Playing rip and tear]
"So we meet again, huh?" I said, my own hand disappearing into the folds of my maid dress, emerging with a handful of silver knives. They spun between my fingers, their edges catching the filtered sunlight, gleaming like polished death.
"I guess so," he replied, his expression shifting from calm to hardened resolve as he drew his sword—a magnificent blade, glowing faintly with latent power.
"Let's dance."
The battle began with a roar of fire and steel. My cowboy clone, i have named Flare, didn't hesitate. She was a master of overwhelming suppressive fire. Flare charged ahead, twin revolvers erupting in a deafening symphony of Bang! Bang! Bang! The high-velocity bullets were aimed at his center of mass, forcing an immediate defensive reaction. He met the assault with a flash of light, his sword a shimmering shield that deflected the rounds, sending spent casings clattering onto the marble floor.
"Illusion Sign: 'Killing Doll'!" I screamed, my voice cutting through the gunfire. The air around me twisted and blurred. Hundreds of knives, spectral duplicates mixed with real, solid steel, materialized and shot toward him in a wide, sweeping arc. It wasn't just an attack; it was a wall of cutting metal designed to overwhelm his sight and reflexes.
"Light Speed C. Ricochet!" my other clone, followed up, throwing her own knife. It was a single, silver dagger, but it was imbued with a secondary temporal spell. It zipped and bounced impossibly fast, ricocheting off the walls, ceiling, and floor tiles in a spiraling, ever-multiplying trajectory, seeking gaps in the maelstrom I had created. He was a whirlwind of practiced motion, his body turning and weaving, his sword deflecting every physical and illusory projectile with chilling precision.
"He's too fast. Too adaptable!" I gasped, the drain of maintaining the clones and the large-scale spell already hitting my reserves.
"We need more time!" My clone shouted.
"Time, then!" I conceded, pushing the fatigue aside.
"Time Sign: Private Square!" My clone declared, slamming her hand onto the floor. A silent, emerald-green wave rippled outward, and the world screamed to a halt. The light from the hallway bulbs stretched into impossibly long, static lines. Dust motes hung motionless in the air.
The Reincarnator was still moving, but his speed was drastically reduced. He was like a sloth trying to run through quicksand. I threw a knife, empowering it with my next spell—a desperate, all-in move. "Time Sign - Imaginary Vertical Time!" The single projectile screeched as it tore through the temporal distortion, multiplying into a spiraling helix of razor-sharp blades, aimed straight for his heart.
He didn't panic. His eyes, though slow, narrowed with intense focus. With a barely visible surge of dark, coiling energy—the power of his Reincarnation—he teleported. A faint crackle of ozone was the only warning. He bypassed the entire Private Square and appeared behind Echo.
Shink! His sword pierced her back, the force shattering the delicate temporal field like glass. Time snapped back to its normal pace with a deafening CRACK!
My clone crumpled, dissolving into light particles. The Reincarnator didn't even look at the remnants of my clone, his focus entirely on me and the remaining clone, Flare.
"This guy just won't die!" Flare roared, reloading her revolvers.
"It's time, hey! Let's show him our domain," I said, a terrifying grin spreading across my face. I could feel the energy surging, not just from my own reserves, but from the spiritual backlash of the defeated clones. The Reincarnator's face darkened with a scowl, finally showing genuine concern.
"Your tricks won't work on me!" he bellowed, surging forward to stop whatever ultimate spell I planned to cast.
"Sakuya's World."
The command was a strained, whispered prayer, a testament to the sheer power it invoked. Time stopped.
The Reincarnator, mid-stride, froze instantly—a perfectly detailed statue of pure aggression. I took a deep, shuddering breath, tasting copper on my tongue. I was utterly spent, but this was it.
"Time to die!" I whispered, a frenzy of creation overwhelming the pain. First, a hundred knives materialized around him. Then came the true terror: the danmaku. Geometric spheres, flickering stars, wide-arching crescent moons of pure energy—thousands of them—spun into existence, encircling the frozen target in a beautiful, impossible net of death.
"Not yet!" A wave of crushing weariness nearly made me drop the spell, but a frantic adrenaline rush pushed me through. More appeared: heavy, antique muskets, their barrels pointed at his chest from every angle.
"Time shall resume again."
The world exploded back to life. Every knife, every danmaku bullet, and every musket round fired simultaneously. The Reincarnator had zero time to process the muskets—an attack completely outside the expected danmaku pattern—and the sheer force of the kinetic and energy assault was devastating. He was engulfed by the explosive salvo, a point of pure light and sound.
But then, as the smoke cleared, a brilliant white shield flared to life around him, fractured and smoking, but intact.
"Damn!" I spat, cursing my own limitations.
Flare, seeing her opening, charged in. A massive array of firearms—pistols, sawed-off shotguns, and even a heavy machine gun—appeared in a glowing arc behind her, all firing at once. The white shield cracked and groaned, the barrage damaging it.
"Useless!" he yelled, and with a swift counter-attack, his sword flashed. Flare was bisected, her body falling away in chunks before dissolving into light.
"Dammit!" I shouted, the twin losses of the clones snapping my tenuous control. I had failed. I didn't wait. I invoked the final emergency temporal skip, tearing a hole in the fabric of space to appear instantly at the Dorms, miles away.
[stop playing rip and tear]
"Tsk, using my worlds... tsk tsk, I can't allow that," I muttered, leaning against a dorm pillar, my mind frantically cycling through plans. I was too weak, too exhausted for a direct fight. I needed a new strategy.
"Tsk tsk, master, I have found her. Do we bring her in the easy way or the hard way?"
The voice was sickly sweet, and it belonged to Ruby Rose. I heard a muffled reply from an earpiece—a master? Another powerful foe?
"Sure, master. Hard way it is," she replied, her face splitting into a truly unsettling, predatory grin.
"Damn," I hissed, recognizing the three figures that had materialized.
"It's Team RWBY," I stated, grabbing a fresh pair of knives, my legs shaking.
"Come on then! I will show you the beauty of danmaku!" I prepared to unleash a small-scale barrage, but Yang was a force of nature.
Her yellow gauntlets flared. WHOOSH! Her fist met my knives with a resounding CLANG. Blow after blow followed, a relentless, powerful assault.
My silver knives started to crack, then one snapped.
"Wa—worl—" I tried to utter a new defensive spell, but a dark blur stopped me.
Blake's ribbon-like sword, Gambol Shroud, snapped out, catching my neck in a crushing, restrictive knot. Before I could move, Yang delivered a massive push that sent me flying backward. Behind me, a sudden, sheer wall of Weiss's ice glyphs manifested, and I crashed into the frozen barrier with a groan that rattled my teeth.
"Ugh, my body hurts," I groaned, pushing myself up.
He appeared the Reincarnator.
"Took you long enough," Yang said, still grinning.
"Let me handle her," he commanded, pulling his sword free.
"Tsk, I can't believe I would be using this... But then again... Fuck it, we ball," I said, a cold, terrifying resolve hardening my eyes. I poured the absolute last of my shattered energy into a reckless, forbidden gambit.
Four new clones materialized in a swirling cloud of thick, cloying smoke.
"You four handle him," I ordered, and with a final, desperate shimmer, I teleported—not far, just enough to escape the perimeter—vanishing from the battlefield entirely.
"Who are you? More of her tricks?" the Reincarnator demanded as the smoke cleared, revealing the four figures. They were me, but they thought they were tricks i have. They were wrong.
"Hehehe! This is so fun! Is that right, Mistress Remilia?" The first clone giggled, her eyes wide, holding a small, severed, doll-like Remilia head. This was Insanity, a maid who had lost her mistress and her mind.
"Tsk," the second clone muttered, her maid dress covered in dust and blood, a tattered Remilia hat clutched in her hand, a look of perpetual paranoia on her face. murder who killed for more power.
"I am hungry, so hungry," the third groaned, a gaping hole in her head and a missing eye, drooling. She carried a bloodied axe. Horror said looking empty.
"Shall we partner?" The fourth clone's eyes glowed a sickly red, black goo weeping from the corners, her dress a tattered black. This was Killer, the most efficient and terrifying of them all.
"Shall we start the murder?" Killer asked, her voice a seductive rasp that promised death.
"Tsk, it's not like they can even handle us," murder sneered.
"Come, Murder, I know you would like it," killer urged.
"Fine, Killer. So then, you," Murder said, pointing a finger at the Reincarnator.
"You and your buddies are going to have... A... MAD TIME!" she screamed, her voice cracking with the promise of violence.
Killer, Murder, Horror, and Insanity—the Sakuya clones of utter destruction—began their coordinated, insane assault on the Reincarnator and Team RWBY. A terrifying battle had begun.