Lost Reaper | Akame ga Kill! × RWBY

III | Familiar Faces (Part I)

"Let me ask you again, Mr. Makabe," Ozpin began, grinning as he clasped his hands. "Would you like to come to my school?"

Akira scoffed and leaned back. "I believe I've already given my answer, Ozpin. I'd rather not."

"Why is that? You dislike fighting? The way you grew up? Is that it?"

"Sure, I dislike Huntsmen and Huntresses, but you seem to forget one thing, Ozpin."

The grey-haired man let out a chuckle, furthering Akira's anger... Or was it spite? Maybe it was because he was just annoyed, due to how much Ozpin was persisting about him joining Beacon. Already, Akira could tell there was something else other than just joining the school. No, he knew there was something else. For him to bring up his past life must have interested the Beacon headmaster.

"And what is that one thing I forgot, Mr. Makabe?"

"You already know," the boy said, narrowing his eyes. "I was a monster, nothing more than a killer. I participated in something that someone like me that had no choice to. So I'll tell you again, Ozpin. My answer is no."

Ozpin sighed. "I can understand that, Mr. Makabe. But please, it is your skills and experience are precisely why I wish for you to join."

"Oh? And why is that? You want me to teach the future generation of Huntsmen and Huntresses? Teaching wasn't in my résumé."

"As much as your experience is helpful, it is too early to teach them."

"Teach them?" Akira rose an eyebrow. "If anything, it's better to start teaching them now. Better to teach them that the world we live in is fucking cruel."

"Language, Mr--" Glynda was about to scold him.

"Don't even start with that bullshit," he responds, cutting her off.

"Even so, Mr. Makabe, I do not--"

Akira scoffed. "Don't think it's best? The sooner they find out that the world isn't all sunshine and rainbows, the sooner they'll realize they have to take it seriously when they're out there and not romanticize the dream of being a Huntsmen. If anything, it can lead them blindly to their deaths."

"And that is why you don't consider them heroes?"

"That's because heroes don't exist in this world." He frowns, "I should know. They don't always have the greatest of endings."

He does know. He had in fact scolded a young brown-haired teen his age at the time, who had thought that Night Raid was a group of heroes taking out the trash. Yes, they were taking out the trash, so to speak, the corrupted Capital officials and others that deserved to die. But that was when they had to remind the boy that the actions they were still doing was nothing but still plain, bloody murder.

Getting their hands dirty by doing the work that no one else would do. Knowing that one day, one day they'd pay the price of murdering someone else with their own life.

"They may still be children, Ozpin, I get that. But if they're really going to enter this line of work... They have to know the truth. That everything is built on blood, death, and carnage."

Ozpin sighed and nodded his head slightly. "Yes, Mr. Makabe. That is an undeniable fact that I can agree with. But it is as you said. They're still children. So it is best to let them live that role while they still can."

"If that's how you want to continue then, be my guest, go ahead. But be warned. It won't be my fault that if they blindly die out there in the field."

"Which is all the more reason you join us, Mr. Makabe. I can understand what you went through was undesirable for a child, and you don't wish to pick up your blade again. But think of it this way. Think of it was offering a better future for your sisters to live in."