As the fire continued spreading through the abandoned town, Raven went on a complete rampage against Qrow, Taiyang, and Tyrian. The massive avian Shikigami tore through the streets with frightening speed, her enormous wings sending powerful gusts through the burning buildings as the three men desperately tried to keep up with her movements.
Tsutsumi barely paid attention to them.
His gaze shifted away from the building he had just punched Jaune through. He had deliberately held back during that attack, making sure the Black Flash carried enough force to knock the boy unconscious without killing him.
Jaune wanted to be a hero.
But as far as Tsutsumi was concerned, he was simply another victim of Ozpin's endless war. Another child who had been dragged into a conflict he had never asked for, just like so many others before him.
There was no reason for Tsutsumi to kill him.
Even if Jaune now possessed the power of Kamen Rider Beast, Tsutsumi had no interest in collecting an incomplete Rider. The boy barely understood his own power, and Tsutsumi already possessed more abilities than can allow him to do what Jaune could with his new power.
His attention returned to Yang.
She was still standing.
Despite everything that had happened, despite the attacks that had failed and the overwhelming difference between them, Yang was still trying to fight him.
Her fists slowly tightened as she stared at Tsutsumi, her breathing becoming heavier with every passing second. Her mechanical hand trembled slightly, the damaged metal fingers struggling to remain closed.
She had attacked him again and again. Her punches had failed. Her Dust bullets had failed. Even her Semblance had done nothing to help.
She couldn't touch him.
That realization was slowly eating away at her anger.
At first, she had been furious. Then she had become frustrated. Now, beneath all of that anger, something else was beginning to appear.
Fear...
It wasn't the kind of fear that immediately made her run away. Yang was too stubborn for that, and there were still people she wanted to protect standing behind her.
She couldn't simply turn around and leave them.
Instead, it was the kind of fear that came from finally understanding just how completely outmatched she was.
Yang had always believed that if she pushed herself hard enough, she could overcome almost anything. Even when she was beaten down, even when she was hurt, she could always get back up and hit harder.
That was how Yang had always fought. Get back up, hit harder, keep moving, don't give up.
But none of that mattered against Tsutsumi.
There was no amount of effort she could put into her punches that would suddenly let her reach him. There was no technique she could suddenly discover that would bridge the impossible gap between them.
She could keep attacking him for an hour, a day, even longer. And the result would remain the same.
Her attacks couldn't even reach him. That was what made the difference in their strength so frightening.
Human beings naturally feared things they couldn't understand. But Tsutsumi went beyond simply being unknown. Yang could see him standing right in front of her. She could hear his voice. She could see his expression.
Yet she couldn't understand how someone could be so far beyond her that everything she did seemed meaningless.
The stronger she tried to become, the more obvious the gap became.
Yang's breathing became unsteady. Her knuckle had turned white from how tightly she was clenching her remaining human hand, and a small amount of blood dripped from her palm where her nails had dug into it.
She was still standing tall, refusing to kneel or fall before him. But her legs were trembling beneath her.
She hated that.
She hated that her body was reacting this way even though her mind was screaming at her to keep fighting. She wanted to move. She wanted to attack. She wanted to prove that she wasn't afraid of him.
But her body understood something her pride didn't want to accept.
She was afraid.
And somewhere deep inside her heart, the fear she had been trying so hard to ignore began to grow into something darker.
"You should stay out of this, Yang." Tsutsumi's voice remained calm.
There was no anger in it, no frustration or even a semblance of a threat. If anything, that calmness made it worse.
"Everything will return to normal once I'm done with this world."
Yang stared at him. She didn't understand what he meant.
How could everything return to normal after everything he had already done?
How could he say something like that so casually?
Tsutsumi had no desire to kill anyone who wasn't directly connected to Ozma or Salem. As far as he was concerned, Yang and the other students from Beacon were nothing more than victims caught in someone else's war.
They had been dragged into a conflict that had existed long before they ever understood what was happening.
Even Jaune had been spared.
That Black Flash could have killed him if Tsutsumi had put in a little more force behind the punch. If he had increased the power of the attack, Jaune would not have survived the impact.
Instead, Tsutsumi had only hit him hard enough to knock him unconscious. He had no reason to kill people who weren't his enemies or his targets.
"You..."
Yang swallowed. Her throat felt tight as she tried to find the courage to speak. Her eyes remained fixed on Tsutsumi, refusing to look away even though every part of her wanted to.
"You're insane! What the hell are you even talking about!?"
There was anger in her voice. But there was fear too.
Tsutsumi simply looked at her.
He knew she wouldn't understand.
Even if he explained everything, she would probably only hear the parts that confirmed what she already believed about him. To Yang, he was already a monster. Anything he said now would only sound like another excuse coming from the person she believed had betrayed them all.
So he didn't bother. There was no point.
His gaze shifted away from her. His eyes moved toward the burning battlefield where Raven was still fighting.
The transformed Shikigami had already thrown Taiyang across the street. Qrow was struggling to escape her attacks while Tyrian had been torn in two by her relentless assault.
Qrow quickly transformed into a crow and slipped free from Raven's grasp, flying upward in an attempt to escape.
For a brief moment, it looked as though he had managed to get away. Then a strange wall suddenly appeared in front of him. Qrow couldn't react in time as he passed through it, and his position suddenly shifted, causing him to appear somewhere else in the area. The strange wall disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared.
Qrow barely had time to understand what had happened before a hand suddenly reached out and caught the black bird in mid-flight.
Tsutsumi's fingers closed around him. Qrow's entire body froze, losing control of his entire body completely, leaving him unable to transform back.
Then the sound of chains moving through the air suddenly echoed across the battlefield. Yet, there were no chains anywhere. At least, none that anyone could see.
Tsutsumi lowered his head slightly, quietly whispering something under his breath.
Metal chains dragged across the air, wrapping around something unseen before binding it completely. The noise echoed through the burning village, making the entire moment feel strangely unnatural.
Qrow couldn't even struggle; he could only watch helplessly without being able to do anything.
Then, without hesitation, Tsutsumi tightened his grip. The black bird burst apart in his hand; red and black liquid slipped between his fingers before falling into the shadow beneath him.
Tsutsumi slowly lowered his hand as there was no trace of Qrow left where he had been.
"NOOOO!!"
The loud shout rang out across the burning village, filled with grief, anger, and desperation. Seeing their beloved uncle being taken from them right before their eyes, whatever will had been keeping Yang standing finally snapped.
Her legs gave out beneath her, and she dropped to her knees. Tears ran freely down her face as she struggled to breathe through the pain in her chest. She bit down on her lip so hard that she could taste the iron in her mouth, but even that pain was nothing compared to what she was feeling inside.
Her uncle was gone. Another member of her family had been taken from her.
Yang let out a soundless scream, her entire body trembling as the pain of losing her family mixed with the despair of her current situation and the complete powerlessness she felt against the Destroyer of Worlds standing before her.
She couldn't stop him.
She couldn't protect anyone.
No matter how hard she fought, no matter how much strength she put into her attacks, it was never enough.
Her fists slammed into the ground.
The remaining parts of her mechanical arm shattered under the force, but Yang barely seemed to notice. Tears, sweat, and blood dripped onto the ground beneath her as she lowered her head, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
For once, she had nothing left.
No anger to fuel her. No confidence to hold onto. No strength left to convince herself that she could still win.
There was only grief.
With his objective finished, Raven finally stopped her attack. Her monstrous form slowly returned to normal before she disappeared into Tsutsumi's shadow, leaving the battlefield behind.
Yang didn't even look up toward the woman who gave birth to her. She simply couldn't.
Then, suddenly, a crimson spiral shot forward. It moved like an arrow released from a bowstring that had been pulled back as far as it could go, flying directly toward Tsutsumi from behind.
Ruby held Crescent Rose tightly in both hands, her body moving entirely on instinct. Bloody tears ran down her face from her artificial eyes, but she didn't stop.
With the momentum from her charge, Ruby swung the scythe down toward Tsutsumi.
The blade dulled the instant it entered the countless tiny cuts surrounding him, yet Ruby continued pushing forward. She forced herself through the pain and kept pushing forward even against the resistance of the countless cuts, determined to reach him no matter what.
She pushed farther than Yang had managed. Yet even after all of that, she still couldn't reach him. Infinity stopped the blade before it could touch Tsutsumi.
The distance between them was impossible to cross.
Cuts appeared across Ruby's pale skin. Her clothes were torn and shredded in several places, and blood ran down her body, but Ruby didn't care. None of that mattered to her anymore.
The physical pain was nothing compared to what was tearing her apart inside.
Her uncle was killed right before her eyes, the man who had cared for and loved her like she was his own daughter.
The person standing before her had taken him from them.
The same person she had once called her friend.
The same person she had once trusted.
The same person who had fought alongside them.
And now he was standing there as though none of it mattered.
In Ruby's eyes, Tsutsumi had betrayed all of them. He had killed Pyrrha, turned against their friends, harmed innocent people, and thrown the entire world of Remnant into chaos.
Everything she had once believed about him had been shattered.
The cheerful girl who loved cookies, dreamed of becoming a hero, and believed that people could always be saved was slowly being buried beneath grief, anger, and despair.
She didn't recognize herself anymore.
Everything was his fault!
Everything was Decade's fault!
Tsutsumi's dull purple eyes met Ruby's blinded silver eyes.
For a moment, he simply looked at her.
Then he let his defenses disappear; Mince and Infinity were turned off. He had no intention of letting his barrier kill her.
Ruby felt the change immediately.
She could actually reach him. Desperation surged through her as she swung Crescent Rose again with everything she had left.
The damaged scythe struck.
The upper half of Crescent Rose broke away from its pole handle, spinning through the air before landing some distance away and stabbing into the ground.
Ruby was left holding the broken handle.
Tsutsumi looked down at it, then back toward her. The shorter girl was still standing in front of him, desperately pressing the broken pole against his shoulder.
At that moment, neither of them spoke.
Ruby's desperate gamble had accomplished almost nothing. The broken weapon had managed to scratch Tsutsumi's coat.
The only reason Ruby had even managed to touch him was because some part of Tsutsumi still cherished the time they had once spent together. He knew that she was another victim caught in this pointless war, and because of that, he had deliberately lowered his defenses.
He had allowed her to reach him.
Looking at Ruby now, Tsutsumi couldn't help but feel disappointed. Even now, after everything that had happened, her first instinct when entering a fight was still the same.
Charge forward and hope that sheer determination would somehow overcome whatever stood in front of her.
Didn't she ever think of another option?
Couldn't she at least try to come up with something better?
At the very least, couldn't she understand when it was time to retreat?
Why was charging headfirst into danger always the first thing that came to her mind?
"You really disappointed me, Ruby..." Tsutsumi said in a disappointed tone.
Ruby's grip tightened around the broken handle.
Even now, she was still stubbornly following the same method she had always relied on: charging straight foward and hoping that things would somehow work out.
Seriously, Tsutsumi was starting to get sick of this.
He had seen enough of Team RWBY's fighting style to understand their biggest problem.
Team RWBY was flawed from the beginning.
Their strategies and methods in combat usually came down to one simple idea: overwhelm whatever was in front of them with enough firepower and brute strength that they wouldn't have to think about anything else.
It wasn't that they were weak. Far from it. Each of them possessed abilities that could have been used far more effectively if they actually built their fighting style around their individual strengths.
Their biggest problem was that they rarely or barely did.
Ruby, for example, was extremely skilled with her weapon, but she was terrible at hand-to-hand combat. Rather than constantly throwing herself into the front lines, she should have focused more on acting as the team's strategist and an archer-like backline fighter, providing firepower and support from a safer position while giving orders and commands to her teammates.
Weiss's abilities were even more suited toward supporting her teammates. Her Glyphs could provide valuable assistance and create opportunities for the others, but her pride and overconfidence in her own abilities often pushed her toward fighting alongside them instead of staying in the back and providing proper support.
Unlike Tsutsumi, she actually needed time to cast her more powerful Glyphs, something that became extremely difficult when she was fighting directly on the front line and had to focus on the fight right before her. By constantly putting herself in the middle of the battle, she was wasting much of her own potential as a support fighter.
Blake was another example. Her abilities and fighting style were much more suited toward an assassin-like role. She could stay out of sight, observe the battlefield, and wait for the right moment to strike. She actually possessed the skills needed to make that role work.
Yet, once again, she preferred fighting directly alongside her teammates.
She was also too stubborn for her own good. Even when she knew her teammates weren't willing to abandon her, she still allowed her distrust to influence her decisions. She acted on impulse instead of stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, making it harder for her to properly understand the teammate and situation around her.
And then there was Yang. Out of all of them, Yang actually played her role perfectly. She was the team's tank. She drew attention toward herself, absorbed attacks, and gave her teammates room to fight.
But even a tank could only take so much. Eventually, something would hit hard enough to bring her down.
And that was the problem with Team RWBY as a whole.
When they approached a fight, they rarely seemed to have much of a plan beyond charging forward and hoping that their overwhelming firepower would be enough to get the job done.
They were powerful and talented. Yet, when everything came down to it, their strategy was still painfully simple.
Charge forward, hit hard, and hope it was enough.
Against most enemies, that might have worked. But against Tsutsumi Ryoko, it was nothing more than a futile struggle against something they could not even begin to understand.
Black markings began to form around Tsutsumi's cheeks and spread across his tongue as he slowly opened his mouth.
"Sleep."
The moment the word left his lips, Ruby's body went limp. Whatever strength she had left abandoned her all at once, and she collapsed to the ground, falling into a deep sleep before she could even attempt to resist.
The broken handle of Crescent Rose slipped from her grasp as she fell.
Tsutsumi lowered his gaze toward the unconscious girl. Blood was still running from her damaged body, staining her torn clothes and pooling beneath her. Even after everything that had happened, even after she had thrown herself at him with the intention of bringing him down, she had continued fighting until she could no longer stand.
And for what?
She had never stood a chance.
Tsutsumi remained silent for a moment before finally reaching down and placing a hand against her face. Reverse Cursed Technique flowed from his palm, gradually healing the wounds covering her body and stopping the blood loss. He made sure that her injuries would not prove fatal, restoring her condition enough that she could survive.
Was this action pointless? Foolish, even?
Certainly.
There was no reason for him to do this. Not anymore.
He was going to reset this world anyway. Everything that had happened, everything that everyone had fought so desperately to protect, would eventually become meaningless once he finished what he had set out to do. Whether Ruby lived or died here would make little difference in the end.
Her life would not change the outcome. Neither would her death.
So why bother saving her?
Was there even a reason for him to care about her anymore?
Not really.
Whatever friendship they had once shared had fallen apart a long time ago. The trust between them was gone, and the person Ruby remembered as her friend was no longer someone she could recognize. Whatever remained of their past was nothing more than a collection of memories that neither of them could return to.
Ruby saw him as a monster who had turned against everyone, while he could no longer look at her without being reminded of everything that had gone wrong.
They were no longer the friends they used to be.
And yet, he still couldn't bring himself to leave her there to die.
Perhaps it was guilt.
Guilt for not realizing what Ozpin had been doing sooner. Guilt for failing to see the truth before everything had spiraled out of control. Guilt for allowing so many people to become victims of a conflict that had continued for far longer than any of them could understand. The guilt of allowing things to reach this point when he might have been able to stop them earlier.
If he had noticed sooner, perhaps things might have been different.
If he had been more capable, perhaps he could have stopped it before it reached this point.
Perhaps... Pyrrha would still be alive.
Tsutsumi didn't have an answer.
He couldn't undo what had happened, nor could he return the lives that had been lost. Not without completely erasing himself along with his own timelines and hoping that the past alternative him would make better choices. That would be no different from him giving up, and failing those who had believed and trusted him.
He would only ever consider that option upon reaching a point in time where there was nothing left for him, and that to redo everything was the only option left.
Healing Ruby's wounds wouldn't bring her uncle back, and it certainly wouldn't repair the broken relationship between them. He wasn't saving her. He was merely giving her more time to live before the end came.
That was all.
And yet, even as he understood how meaningless this action was, Tsutsumi still couldn't bring himself to stop.
What he had done was nothing more than the action of a hypocrite.
A monster pretending to be a hero.
Someone who is destined to bring destruction wherever he went, still found himself reaching out to save someone who had once been his friend. Someone who had already decided that everything had to end, yet continued to preserve the lives of those who would eventually be caught in the destruction he intended to bring.
It reminded him of something he had admitted long ago, back when he was still weak and had yet to fully understand the power he possessed. Back when he was still afraid of what he could do, and when the thought of losing control over that power had frightened him more than anything else.
Even then, Tsutsumi had understood something about himself that he had never been able to deny.
He was nothing more than a devil in human skin.
He admired the justice and heroism embodied by the Kamen Riders. He admired their determination to stand against evil, their willingness to fight for others, and their refusal to give up even when the odds were against them.
Those were the very ideals he had once wanted to follow.
He had wanted to become someone who could protect others, someone who could stand between the innocent and those who sought to hurt them. Someone who could make a difference when it mattered most.
But what had he actually accomplished?
No matter how much power he gained, no matter how many abilities he collected, and no matter how strong he became, he had still failed to save the people who mattered to him.
He could imitate the Riders. He could wear their forms, wield their powers, and fight using the abilities they had left behind. He could even pretend that he was walking the same path they had once taken.
But none of that made him a hero.
Perhaps that was what had always bothered him the most.
He could chase after their ideals for as long as he wanted, but he could never truly become the person he admired. All he could do was imitate them, using their strength to cover up the truth he had spent so long trying to ignore.
That deep down, beneath all his power and all the identities he could assume, he was still the same person who had failed to save anyone.
Perhaps that was all he had ever been.
An imitation.
A way to cover up the truth he had been trying so desperately to avoid. He wanted to be a hero, but he could never save anyone. He wanted to protect people, yet the world around him continued to fall apart.
And now, after everything he had lost, he was preparing to destroy the very world he had once wanted to protect.
How ironic.
Tsutsumi looked down at Ruby one last time, his expression remaining as dull as ever. He had healed her wounds, but he couldn't undo what he had done to her. He couldn't restore the trust she had lost, nor could he return the person she had once believed him to be.
There was nothing left for him to say to her.
Perhaps there never would be.
Deep down, Tsutsumi already knew the answer to the question he had been avoiding for so long.
That these hands...
Could never save anyone.
Pulling his hand away from Ruby's face, he slowly straightened up. He had done what he could for her, pointless as the gesture might have been, and there was nothing more for him to do here.
The Aurora Curtain appeared before him.
Without another word, Tsutsumi stepped through it and disappeared, leaving no trace of his presence behind. As though he had never been there at all.