I threw a hood over my noticeable hair long before the meeting with Mei. My clothing was in charcoal colors - absolutely not the colors of the Schnee, and the only thing that could discern me from any other future or current Grimm huntsmen was my weapon, the Myrtenaster, but bringing a dust rapier clubbing was more of an overkill than anything.
It was because of that random thought about it being the overkill when we were relaxing that way for the first time, I learned that Mei not only capable of fighting Grimm or other aura-users on a level, but also she's a charmingly enthusiastic gunsmith. And somehow it so happened that we started making me bracers with hidden blades in a joint effort. It's just that I had to die to fulfill a teenage dream, yeah. My eighth-grader syndrome was deep, very deep inside of me, and it seems to me that it was squished there for a very long time, but I could not miss such an opportunity. Especially if it was concealed carry! So, I could justify it even for the skeptical inner voice!
I'm absolutely sure that I am Weiss Schnee, and not your inner voice, asshole.
If you were Weiss Schnee, then I would remember who I am. So fuck you, I'm Weiss Schnee.
Where is the logic?! You're the isekai, not me!
And you're just my schizo because of my inability to take in all the new memories immediately. I have a feeling that such a thing has already happened to me, though I don't really remember...
How can you be sure that your feeling is right?! And you mean that we are merged, am I right?
Most likely, we are. If it wasn't like that, then you would have your own thought process, but you just, like, peel off periodically. I don't think what we have here is like that case with two souls who can't share, like in that book.
You forget the fact that Semblance is also about the soul. These are my glyphs!
You forget the fact that the question of different Semblances does not relate to the Shnee, so it's more likely about the body. And I didn't say that Weiss is no more. I said that I am Weiss.
And I don't know how it happened.
"I have a feeling," I muttered to myself, "that the saying "it just happened on its own" is now my life creed, a new motto, and anything at all, but not an accident."
"What is it you mumbling, Schwartz?"
The fox girl grinned at me, deliberately stretching out a vowel in my lazy pseudonym for our strolls through all sorts of dubious, for the Schnee, places.
"We're almost there!"
"I'm trying to remember if there are any turtle Faunus," I shrugged and added cryptically. "There are no accidents."
"What are you talking about?"
Mei's already raising her eyebrow just like the entire female part of the Schnee family, that's what means to interact almost every other day for a month.
"And I think there are. Turtles are cool."
"A long time ago, someone told me a story about some panda Faunus, don't mind me. He had a turtle sensei who said that all the time."
"It's the first time I hear this," the girl said with curiosity and smiled. "Tell me more?"
I waved her off with the words "later" and "not today", and Mei was already used to me talking nonsense from time to time, so she shrugged and started chattering about the new issue of Atlas Mechanics journal, while hugging me by the shoulders and leaning into me slightly.
I shamelessly followed in the corner of my eye inside her neckline, glanced up at the nape of her neck and, pleasantly shivering with thoughts of the future, snuggled closer.
Yes, now there are even more people taller than me, and many of these people are women. And yes, I understood perfectly well that she wanted to grope me everywhere, because, once again, there are no accidents, and no one forces her to cuddle me. Weiss is totally beautiful, and I'm confident, and Mei seems like a pretty much free-spirit girl, and she clearly wants my cupcake.
Cupcake?! What's with the... A-a-agh! Why are you such a moron?!
Oh, and here you are again, I thought you were lost in me thinking about some pressing matters!
Most likely, we're definitely getting laid in foreseeable future. And I'm obviously flirting like breathing. I didn't expect that from myself.
So, Mei is totally aware, and one of the things I remember about this, the main stuff is that the girl has to be aware of the interest, so that everything's clear. And this girl has it written in large letters on her pretty face - everything that she feels about me is quite various, but mostly positive.
This body is sixteen, it's pretty much creepy, probably, even to think about such a thing...
It would be if it weren't for the fact that the girl is just a year older, she is already studying at Atlas in her first year, this month I definitely saw her making out with three different girls, and she is also an excellent technician.
Well, I also don't have any accompanying feeling of moral wrongness, because I don't remember a good half of my past lives.
All in all, I'm not some kind of bear in the bushes, and I'm not going to shame a girl for an active sexual life.
At first, I even tried to be afraid of daddy Jacques.
He arranged for me, certainly, on the very first day, one hot bathing in verbal shit, but that's if you squint and get to the bottom of it.
In fact, I had a strong realization that after my previous parents, except for that Charlie - I need to remember who he is after all, and why Jacques' mustache causes me odd but quite positive flashbacks - this Jacques man is quite a model of patience and at least gives money for useful things if I justify it somewhat logically.
He did try to put his shit in my head with some subtlety, imposing his vision of Weiss' place in the world, and this place was subordinate to him.
My guesses, based only on a vague transferred memories and some associations, were confirmed by the first headbutting argument.
He valued Weiss as one more resource, yes, but at least he appreciated her, and at least he considered her a resource, and not a freeloader by the fact of birth, as it happened to me... I think it did.
Yes, he felt that she clearly owed him her life - such were the feelings after their communication that crept in stealthily, locking up most of Weiss' dissatisfaction in that feeling of unidentified guilt. Obviously, locking up for the time being. But at least there was some kind of exchange. She was dutifully sitting on her ass, only that she didn't ask how high she should jump if she was told to jump, but she did jump, if that's even the right expression, ugh.
Weiss had a goal - to prepare her best for admission to the Grimm Huntsmen Academy, and even if she had no such a costly goal, I'm almost sure she would have found some other way to justify her use of the very money that constantly felt "dirty" to her and made her feel that inappropriate guilt. She was afraid to give it all up.
She wasn't... No, she wasn't the adult about it at all.
It seems quite idiotic to blame yourself for the father's dishonesty, no matter how you look at it, but her consciousness was amazing, especially compared to the background of what I remembered from past worlds, about those golden kids. And it was both a positive influence and a negative one. The positive - Weiss really wanted to change the world, but for the negative - Weiss, damn it, wanted to change the world!
She still wasn't an idiot who wanted the impossible, the world peace, or in this case, an adapted wish to make the Grimm disappear would do.
Those were wishes that you can't get close to even if you really want to fulfill them.
No, Weiss's wishes were doable, that was the catch.
I understood how to make sure that there was no need for the White Fang, I understood all the difficulties, but I also saw paths – but for Weiss, it was something from the category of getting a star from the sky.
I also understood how to become financially independent without any additional skills other than those that already exist, and how to make sure that the whole family, and even Jacques, if I try real hard, were not against and wouldn't interfere.
For Weiss, such independence was something achievable only after becoming the huntress.
In short, this Weiss Schnee was too good, no escapes from home, no friends, whom the father didn't approve of, and he would not approve of anyone, because there were only acquaintances who she didn't even meet outside galas.
No, I could find curiosity in myself if I had to. I'd go and meet everyone from her social circle if I must, there are probably parties and usual groups of interests. But first of, Weiss was a nerd on Hermione Granger's level, and second, her socialization did not include work in small groups.
She never even fallen in love yet, even in that nostalgic childish way. Too much thinking and too self-centered.
There was also no school for the new heiress, and this was how, apparently, Jacques' controlling nature has completely opened on his middle child. Because Winter definitely went to a preparatory combat school before entering Atlas Academy. It was even the same one that Mei Herd went to, by the way, as we found out in Mei's attempts to find at least someone from the local new generation of future huntsmen that I might know.
And Whitley, the little brother, avoided everything related to the Grimm hunting, and quite calmly went to one of the safest civilian schools a couple of times a week. And it seems he even had some friends.
And this whole situation, as I understand it, was such even before my father decided to deny Winter the inheritance of her share of the company, or something like that. I had suspicions that it had something to do with Willow Schnee problem, but for now, even a month later, those are just my suspicions. I haven't been able to get my mother to talk to me yet, she was running away from any deepening of the dialogue, and I suspected she was somewhat afraid and didn't want to delve into anything.
How did this woman kicked the Grimm ass in her youth and not helplessly die before she birthed this body, I wonder?
The answer to this question couldn't ever be found without that deepening of the dialogue, and this, in fact, is the problem.
But to be honest, though, I kept trying, I was more focused on one of the goals already mentioned. I knew how to gain financial independence, at the same time I had much more reasons to feel safe, because for better or for worse, but after checking the combat skills, ones unaccounted for were found. I was unreasonably attracted to knives and axes, and therefore decided to stay away at least from the latter. An axe instead of my rapier would be quite a paradigm shift.
I was afraid that memory lapses were something more. Not just this bizarre, even to some extent textbook insert and adaptation to a new body, but the situation, which will continue further, and may even worsen. I was afraid of losing myself and deliberately denied that the real Weiss Schnee could actually remain locked inside. It didn't seem like it, but if I hadn't been afraid that her existence might be true, I wouldn't have thought of denying it so decidedly.
Also, I regularly had nightmares of odd golden eyes.