Tell me about a time your character broke a promise.
WalterWhat-if: A Promise Is A Promise"As long as I'm standing, you're not getting hurt. That's a promise."
The roaring of grimm, the sound of gunfire and the members of team CASA shouting. Everything around Coconut appears to be a blur, the boy dazed from being struck by an Ursa Major. It's all just a nonsensical mess of color and noise. Then the noise stops as a scream is cut short.
The only thing Coco could see clearly was the falling of blue-green feathers before him. He couldn't tell what had happened. None of them could. Almost mere seconds later, two of them could hear the chilling sound of twisting metal and a crash sending their healer through a tree. The gunfire would halt soon after.
Coconut was still confused. What had happened? How could it end this way? This had to be some cruel joke. A nightmare of sorts. He wanted it to be over already - he could barely lift O.T.N. anymore. This whole thing was just a bad training session or something, he just needed to get some help...
A drop of cold water falling on his nose awakened Coconut.
His eyes fluttered open and the boy looked around in confusion. It took a moment to remember where he was. He had taken refuge under a particularly thick layer of canopy during a rain storm. Despite his better judgement it appeared that he had fallen asleep. The rain had slowed down to a light drizzle. It was time to keep going anyway.
Coconut rose from his position, checking to make sure O.T.N. was still where it should be on his back. He then stepped out from under the tree he had been leaning against, splashing mud over his pants and cloak. That was hardly the worst his clothes had seen.
It would take an hour of walking to get out of the forest. A disused path appeared to be leading to a small collection of cottages. A village. Coconut stopped, checking his coat's pockets; he was running low on food supplies. Risky or not, he needed to make another stop.
As he approached the village he noted the villagers frantically running around, collecting their things and throwing them haphazardly into several carts lined up near the edge of the settlement. They were evacuating.
One of the older men was seemingly overseeing the process. He snapped his head towards the newcomer, a terrified expression on his face. Upon seeing Coconut's gear, a gleam of hope appeared in his eyes.
"A-a huntsman! Thank the heavens! We were just running out of hope!" the man uttered in a raspy voice.
"A scout reported a horde of grimm heading this way, and it will be here in an hour at most. None of us are fighters, so..." "How long do you need?" Coconut asked.
The man blinked and looked back at the villagers. There appeared to be about forty in total.
"We will finish packing up soon, but we need more time to get enough distance between us and the horde. Maybe an hour or...""I can get you two. Leave some food and supplies, and whatever else you're willing to pay in that house over there," Coconut plainly instructed as he took O.T.N. off of his back and made a couple of practice swings with one arm. He was a bit sore from his troubled rest from earlier, but he'd have to make do.
"...And how will you escape?"Coconut momentarily stared blankly at the man. He was going to say 'Either I do or I don't', but realized that it was probably not the best move.
"Fair point. If you have a spare horse, just strap the supplies onto it and set it on the far side of the village. Point to me where the horde's coming from, first."
Coconut spent the next twenty minutes setting up his defenses. He hadn't done anything like this in a long time, but he recalled his first mission with CASA. He first utilized his sword as a make-shift shovel, digging out small holes in the dirt, before 'borrowing' some of the fence posts around the village to be used as makeshift spears. It wasn't particularly elegant, but it would buy him time in his retreat never the less.
As he worked, he was approached by a girl - rather, a young woman. The fluffy ears on her head gave away that she was a faunus right away. Although dressed in a somewhat ragged skirt, a dusty beanie upon her head, she was rather cute - caring purple eyes, a slightly angled face making it hard to tell how old she truly was and shoulder-length, blonde hair peeking out from her headwear.
She smiled, giving Coconut a slight curtsy as she approached. Slightly flustered, the boy was unaware of how he should respond, though it didn't seem like she was expecting him to.
"Thank you, hunter. What you're doing is most admirable," she said. The girl was short. Though Coconut was crouching, she was hardly taller than he was - or, maybe, Coco himself had grown quite a bit in the past two years.
"Could I know your name?"Coconut blinked and stood up, towering over her small figure.
"Coconut. Coconut Cream."The girl nodded.
"A pleasure, Coconut. I know this may seem odd... But promise you will make it back?" She asked rather sheepishly, looking down.
"That... All of us will?""As long as I'm standing, you're not getting hurt. That's a promise."There was a moment of prolongated silence. Finally, the boy spoke up.
"I promise. You can count on me."The girl nodded again, turning on her heels and skipping towards the carts. Coconut reached a hand out towards her:
"Hold on, you didn't tell me your name!"The girl peeked over her shoulder and gave Coco a cheeki smirk.
"I'll tell it to you the next time we meet!"
The villagers had left little over half an hour ago. Coconut now stood a good ways away from his makeshift defensive line, near the forest he had come from himself. The horde would be upon him any minute now. He was ready, grasping O.T.N. in both hands as he began to feel the ground under his feet tremble. A sensation he had been getting used to - after all, he had become a grimm magnet, plagued by the events of his past. He had become all too familiar with the way Prism had felt - and, for that matter, with Prism's sleep schedule.
The first grimm emerged from the treeline. A row of beowolves and the smaller ursas which had made it to the front of the pack. No more than vermin to Coconut. As the first trio of beowolves pounced at him they were sliced clean in half even with just O.T.N.'s long sword form at play. The following two ursa were skewered upon his blade and used as meat shields against the charge of the third. A swift kick to free his sword, then another set of slashes and the first wave had been cleared.
Then the next wave came. And the next. And the next after that. Five minutes passed, then ten, then twenty, until Coconut couldn't even fathom how long it had been. Each line of grimm was harder to deal with, but it was not as if he hadn't trained for it. If it were just the smaller ones, he could keep the fighting up for at least an hour more.
But it couldn't just be the smaller ones, could it?
As if on que, the treeline began to fall apart as the next wave approached him. Coconut knew he was in for trouble, stepping back and guarding his face as the trees were smashed apart by the massive claws of a large deathstalker. The thing was about the largest he had ever seen, its tail nearly the height of a four story building. Even Golden O.T.N. didn't stand a chance against that thing. It was time to fall back.
A screech from above raised concerns, however. Coconut turned tail in hopes of outpacing the grimm while he still could, but a rain of sharp feathers caused him to go back on guard. Four relatively small nevermores were circling above the village, seemingly taking turns at peppering the ground upon which Coconut stood.
Things were looking grim. If he couldn't make it to his horse, his entire plan from there on would fall apart. He should have pulled back sooner, prepared better - but as always, he had gotten too cocky. That was always the reason, wasn't it? It was always his fault...
No.
Fuck that, he thought. He had made a promise - and this time, it would be different. The deathstalker still on his ass, Coconut slapped O.T.N. onto his back and twisted the handle, transforming the blade into its Golden O.T.N. form. He then raised the weapon above his head, grunting as the arrows continued to rain - but few of them could now strike his body.
He leapt over his spear wall, and just in time - the deathstalker had gotten close, but the grimm following it had already passed it. Soon, however, they were met by the fence posts, colored to blend in with the ground around them. At least a dozen perished, trampled by the creatures following them.
The deathstalker did not care, however, as it crushed through the spear wall as if it was no more than just a couple of branches on the ground.
But that was not the only trick Coconut had learned from Amane. With his free hand, the boy reached into his pocket and flicked his scroll.
The beast reeled back as it passed the first pair of cottages, the explosives which Coconut had lined their walls with going off at once, sending rubble and fire dust its way. While it killed a few of the other grimm, the deathstalker might as well had not been harmed at all. But killing it with that wasn't the idea - stopping it in its tracks was.
Coconut used an undisturbed fence post to hop onto the low roof of one of the cottages. He was struck by another barrage of feathers, but that was not a major concern to the lone huntsman. He raised O.T.N. and focused his thoughts, the weapon glowing cream for a moment. He then swung at the air, letting out a powerful slash of aura towards the large grimm. The slash didn't penetrate the armor, but it did exactly what it was supposed to.
It cracked it.
The deathstalker barreled towards the cottage, crushing nearby grimm in its rampage. Cream waited, ignoring the seering pain in his back from the nevermores' constant attacks. He had to hold out just a moment longer...
Cream roared out as he raised Golden O.T.N. over his head and jumped down from the roof just before the deathstalker crashed through it. A downwards stab, if he had aimed it just right... Coconut felt a tremor go through his entire form as the blade sunk into the beast's skull, the creature releasing one last screech before collapsing.
As its body faded, Coconut glanced ahead to see another part of the horde emerging from the woods. The boy was near the horse already - he returned his weapon to its long sword form and cut the leash holding the animal where it was before checking the time. He still had an hour to hold the horde in place and his aura had already dropped below half.
He hopped onto the horse and rode out, holding his blade out in one hand. The nevermored had run out of feathers to shoot - it would be only a matter of time before they would swoop down. Going back into the thick of it would be suicidal.
But a promise is a promise, is it not?
It was late in the evening when Coconut stopped the horse and fell from it onto the ground. His side would be bruised from it later - his aura was completely depleted, as was any energy he had left in him. From a practical point of view, it hadn't been worth much - the villagers hadn't had much supplies to give.
And yet, as he laid there and attempted not to fall unconscious, he saw the girl from earlier before his eyes. He wondered if he would meet her again - if he'd ever learn her name.
No. Suppose it would be better that he didn't.