"I've been waiting for this moment, Seven," Penny said seriously, her emerald eyes locked onto Tsutsumi.
"How original." Tsutsumi's expression remained unchanged. "Calling me by the threat level your people assigned to me instead of my actual name."
Azu had already given him a quick rundown of how Atlas currently viewed him.
To put it simply, he was now considered a new threat to the world.
Tsutsumi wasn't particularly offended by that.
He understood why they were afraid of him. They were simply too weak to properly judge how much stronger he was than them.
This was part of the Curse of the Strongest.
Once someone became strong enough, they stopped being viewed as a person and started being viewed as a threat.
It didn't matter whether they were an enemy or an ally.
Strength that couldn't be controlled by others would always make people nervous.
What actually annoyed Tsutsumi was Atlas's decision to bring Penny into the Vytal Festival in the first place.
The tournament was supposed to be a competition between students from different academies, with each of them showing off their skills and abilities.
Then Atlas decided to send what was essentially a war machine disguised as a teenage girl into the tournament.
How was that fair?
The other students had spent years training to become Huntsmen and Huntresses, only to find themselves competing against an artificial soldier built by one of the most technologically advanced Kingdoms in the world.
And now that same machine was standing in front of him and openly treating him like a threat.
That was what irritated him.
It felt like shaking hands with an ally during wartime while secretly keeping a loaded gun pointed at them with your other hand.
They were calling themselves allies, but they were making it painfully obvious that they were prepared to turn that weapon on him if necessary.
Atlas was lucky Tsutsumi had no interest in starting a conflict.
Because if they really wanted to know what a genuine threat looked like...
They could always ask him to show them.
"Three... Two... One... BEGIN!" Professor Port called out.
The moment the match started, Penny began moving across the arena with surprising grace, almost as if she were dancing. At the same time, her floating blades moved along with her rhythm, flying toward Tsutsumi from different angles.
Tsutsumi simply looked up at them with a bored expression.
His long trench coat suddenly broke off his body and flowed through the air like liquid metal.
It spread outward, forming a massive wall between him and the incoming blades.
The blades struck the metal barrier, but before Penny could pull them back, thousands of tiny metal grasshoppers emerged from the ClusterCells.
They swarmed over the blades and began tearing into them, biting through the metal and ripping apart their internal components.
Penny quickly recalled them. Ten blades had entered the attack; only six returned. The remaining six immediately shifted into blaster form and opened fire.
The liquid metal surrounding Tsutsumi moved again, forming a shield in front of him and absorbing the barrage of energy shots.
While the shield held, Tsutsumi reached into his belt and pulled out his deck of cards.
He spread them across his hand, his eyes quickly moving over each one before stopping on a particular card.
Form Ride: Hoshimi Miyabi!
His body immediately began to change.
He became shorter, settling at around 170 centimeters, ears included, while his clothes transformed into the familiar uniform of Hoshimi Miyabi from Hollow Special Operations Section 6.
The Tailless appeared in his hand.
Unlike the other Form Ride card he possessed for Miyabi, which belonged to the Hoshimi Miyabi from his original world, this version represented the woman who had actually become his adopted mother.
The two shared the same name and even looked similar, but they were still completely different people.
Miyabi from his original world possessed a Quirk known as Fox Spirit, which gave her those long fox ears and allowed her to perceive and manipulate spirits to a certain extent. Even the blue flames surrounding her came from her Quirk.
Hoshimi Miyabi of this world, however, was an actual Fox Thiren. Her fox ears were simply part of her natural biology.
And the blue, flame-like energy that surrounded her blade wasn't a Quirk, it was Ether Energy.
Tsutsumi lowered his gaze toward the Tailless in his hand.
For a moment, his thoughts drifted toward another blade in his possession.
The Nameless.
The irony wasn't lost on him.
His ability allowed him to see the history of a weapon with nothing more than a glance, and he already knew the history behind both blades.
The Nameless had originally been known as the Tailless.
The cursed blade carried a tradition that demanded the current head of the Hoshimi family die before the next heir could wield it.
That tradition had continued even after the blade became known as the Shattered Cursed Singularity Blade, Nameless.
In that timeline, Hoshimi Miyabi eventually died protecting him. And the next heir to the Hoshimi family became her adopted son, Tsutsumi Ryoko.
The new wielder of the cursed blade.
Tsutsumi placed his thumb against the scabbard; blue wisps of Ether Energy began spreading across the blade as a chilling cold followed them.
Penny raised both hands above her head, already preparing for the clash. Her blasters shifted back into blade form, but then Tsutsumi noticed something strange.
The number of blades suddenly increased.
One became ten. Ten became dozens. Before long, a massive storm of swords filled the sky above him, all of them pointed downward and ready to descend.
Tsutsumi narrowed his eyes.
Something was wrong.
The blades weren't lined up properly. Some were floating at strange angles, while others seemed to overlap with each other in ways that made no physical sense.
Atlas technology wasn't advanced enough to produce anything remotely close to true nanotechnology, especially not something capable of creating hundreds of fully functional swords out of nowhere.
More importantly, his eyes could not read anything within the storm of blades. There was no information coming from the swords at all. It was almost as if they didn't actually exist.
That was when Tsutsumi understood.
Someone was using a Semblance to distort the participant's vision and force the match in a certain direction.
"So that's what happened to Yang," Tsutsumi muttered, a hint of amusement appearing in his voice as he finally understood why she had suddenly attacked a downed opponent.
Still, even if every single one of those swords had been real, they wouldn't have posed much of a threat to him.
Tsutsumi lowered his body slightly and settled into position.
Penny sent the entire storm of blades crashing down toward him.
Tsutsumi shot forward in an instant, moving so fast that normal eyes would not have been able to follow him. A moment later, he reappeared several meters behind Penny.
For a moment, nothing happened. Slowly, he slid Tailless back into its sheath.
The moment the blade locked into its sheath, his Form Ride ended and his appearance returned to normal.
Only then did Penny's body begin to split apart.
Her expression froze in shock as the light in her eyes slowly faded.
Tsutsumi didn't even bother turning around to look at her.
"Cut the feed!" Dr. Oobleck shouted.
But nothing happened.
Instead of the broadcast shutting off, the black queen symbol appeared on every screen.
"What is going on?!" Port exclaimed, quickly realizing that the signal could no longer be cut.
Then a voice came through the feed.
"This... is not a tragedy. This was not an accident."
Cinder's voice filled the arena.
"As someone who has studied these academies for years, I can say with confidence that every incident in this tournament has happened for a reason."
The feed shifted, showing Tsutsumi cutting Penny in half and Yang breaking Mercury's leg.
"This is what happens when you let your children place their trust in men who call themselves protectors, but are nothing more than men."
The screen changed again, this time showing the call between Ozpin, Ironwood, and the council, along with the council expressing their disappointment in Ozpin after he chose to protect team RWBY from the consequences of Torchwick's incident.
"How do you think Professor Ozpin could have allowed this tournament to go so poorly for his students?" Cinder continued. "He has clearly been putting pressure on them just to preserve their appearances."
The footage shifted once more, showing Tsutsumi Ryoko's Danger Level 7 profile from Atlas's database.
"He is even willing to label one of his own students as Danger Level 7, and yet he still allows him to compete against the others."
The feed cut to the fight between Qrow and Winter.
"Vale's local Huntsmen haven't taken kindly to Ironwood's little display of power either. At this point, it almost feels like Atlas is trying to force its military pride onto everyone else."
Her voice remained calm, almost pleasant.
"Speaking of which..."
The screen changed again, showing Penny.
"We have Ironwood's little project here. Why would he need a girl who is entirely mechanical? What kind of Grimm could he possibly be planning to fight with that?"
Cinder paused for a moment.
"Well, I can tell you he does not plan on-"
A loud pounding suddenly came from the door behind her.
"They're already here for me..." Cinder said softly as the sound of her weapons being drawn echoed through the feed. "I'm telling you the truth. Don't trust Atlas. Don't trust Ozpin. Don't-"
The broadcast cut out completely.
The arena was left in chaos.
Not only that, but every Kingdom watching the tournament was now in panic as well.
Outside Beacon, along the edge of the Emerald Forest, Grimm were already beginning to flood in.
Soldiers opened fire on the creatures as they charged.
One of them got tackled by an Ursa, while another managed to blast the head off a Creepcrawler with his rifle.
Inside the Colosseum, the alarms started blaring.
"Alert. Alert. Grimm threat level nine."
Ironwood stepped into the booth and raised his voice so it could carry across the entire Colosseum.
"Stay calm and evacuate in an orderly manner!"
His warning had barely left his mouth before a Giant Nevermore slammed down on top of the arena barrier.
"A Nevermore?!" Sun shot to his feet.
"How did it get past the kingdom's defenses?!" Coco asked, also standing up.
"It didn't get past on its own," Ren said, looking toward Nora. She had gone quiet as well, her expression turning tense with worry.
Meanwhile, in Ozpin's office, he watched the chaos unfold on the screen before turning toward Glynda and Qrow, who were both standing inside the room.
"Get to the city."
"But-" Qrow started to protest.
"Now!" Ozpin shouted.
Without another word, Glynda headed for the elevator.
"Make sure she's safe," Qrow said as he ran after her.
Outside the city walls, the Grimm that had gathered near the border were already beginning to move in, pushing straight toward Beacon.
Back in the arena, Ironwood pulled out his Scroll and quickly called Ozpin.
"Ozpin, the girl- I can explain-"
"James, you brought your army into my kingdom. Use it."
Ironwood clenched his jaw, but he still nodded.
At that point, his fleet was already under attack.
Nevermore and Griffon Grimm circled around the ships, tearing into them wherever they could.
One of the commanders grabbed his Scroll and shouted, "Blue Two and Blue Three, this is Blue Four! We need you in a defensive formation! Blue Five, get in position too! Blue Five, do you read me?!"
There was no answer.
On the other end of the line, Tyrian Callows, the scorpion Faunus, casually tossed a soldier's corpse over his shoulder. The body hit the ground with a dull thud, cold and lifeless, while Tyrian laughed like a madman.
The psychotic killer had already taken control of the ship.
He turned its cannons toward the other vessels in the fleet and opened fire, crippling their engines one by one.
That caused Blue Four to crash into Blue Two, damaging the fleet even further before the ship turned again and began firing on the others.
Near Beacon's campus, another fleet of Bullheads was rapidly approaching.
Their doors opened, revealing an army of White Fang soldiers waiting inside.
Among them stood Adam Taurus, a bull Faunus with short crimson hair and a white mask covering the upper half of his face.
"Bring them to their knees!" Adam ordered.
Another Bullhead opened.
An Ursa dropped out of it, landed hard on the ground, and let out a furious roar before charging forward.
Back in the arena, Tsutsumi stared down at the metal body lying cleanly split in half across the ground, his expression unusually complicated.
He had never seen his adopted mother swing her blade at him with the intention of killing him before, so he had clearly misjudged just how much power she could produce when combined with his own strength.
The blade itself hadn't even touched Penny.
It was the wind pressure from the swing that had struck her.
She was apparently so fragile that the pressure alone had been enough to cut her in half.
Tsutsumi honestly wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about that.
Maybe he had been expecting Penny's durability to be somewhere around Azu's level.
Wait. No, that wasn't right either.
Azu could survive a direct hit from his blade thanks to her self-regeneration.
So that only left one conclusion.
"Just how weak were you?" Tsutsumi couldn't help but mutter.
Before he could think about it any further, the power inside the arena suddenly began to flicker.
The barrier surrounding the battlefield disappeared.
A moment later, the Giant Nevermore flew down into the arena.
The civilians immediately became even more panicked now that the massive Grimm had entered the Colosseum itself.
The creature landed heavily, its enormous talon coming down directly on Penny's remains.
Tsutsumi slowly shifted his gaze toward it.
The Nevermore raised its head and let out a deafening screech directly into his face.
Tsutsumi didn't even flinch.
He simply raised his left hand, pointing his index and middle fingers toward the Grimm.
"Dismantle."