Ghost of the Branwen

Disclaimer: I do not own Madara or RWBY

Chapter 20: A Trip Down Memory Lane

"A see a new shop has opened up." Ghira noted.

"It's quaint." Madara said as they sat down at a tea shop. "I guess we'll start from the construction? You did seem to leave after a majority of the buildings were complete."

Thanks to Ghira and the volunteer faunus, construction of many buildings went under way. However Ghira had brought Madara over to see a faunus who had the semblance of duplication.

They could duplicate themselves and others. It was quite amazing really.

However, the more they duplicated the more worn out the semblance user would become…and the more duplicates the shorter time they had to roam around.

"Who is that?" asked Madara. "With a semblance like that, construction speed would be through the roof."

"Hahaha. I know right?" Ghira laughed. "I hope you don't mind, besides she's one of the ones that want to live somewhere other than Menagerie, but still wants to be close to family."

"I can understand." Madara looked back at the faunus who duplicated other faunus and herself. "I can see she likes to get her hands dirty."

Madara blinked before he looked back at Ghira. "You don't sound confident when you said she…"

The large softy rubbed the back of his neck. "Well…we have no idea if she is a she or he's a he." He explained. "When we think that she is a girl, she says she's a boy. Call him a boy and he says he's a girl."

"So what is it?"

"We don't even know. We just decide on one gender individual and go with it."

"…He does seem quite androgynous…" Madara turned as he went to go work on a different building. "Talk about breeding like rabbits."

The androgynous faunus was actually a rabbit faunus, and with a semblance like that, it fit the rabbit theme well.

"Enough dilly-dallying, it's time to get to work."

Construction went underway smoothly and with the extra ability of duplication it went faster than expected.

Sadly no materials could be duplicated…

…Then again if that could happen, buildings would be falling down left and right!

Madara felt a little sorry for the faunus, seeing as the androgynous rabbit's semblance, while useful, drained him.

The more duplicates, the more tiring.

It was hard yet rewarding work.

Once they finished a majority of the houses, which looked like a clash of two cultures seeing as the faunus from Menagerie made houses like the ones in Kuo Kuana which with the new room and open space allowed these houses to be bigger which was accompanied by the houses like the log cabins and other homes found outside of Menagerie.

After that, they started to work on the farm and created a proper barn for the animals and they also started to fix up a proper dock for boats.

Madara and the faunus volunteers said goodbye to Ghira seeing as he had his duties as chieftain to attend to back in Menagerie.

Afterwards with the following months they continued with the building of Providence.

As the days went past slowly, they began working on other type of buildings, which soon settlers from Menagerie came in.

An academy to teach kids about the world they live in along with useful skills and to help with the younger generations with co-existence and to one day if they decided to, become hunters of Providence.

Or what Madara liked to call Guardians.

But that was for another time.

As more and more was added to Providence, the Akatsuki got its first job.

Or second if you included the bounties from Jacques.

"We will need some more human members." Madara thought, seeing as how Jacques replied with being a client as well as spreading recommendations, they would need some human members.

"A local gang war?" he looked through the job request.

As he read, he began to understand.

It seemed there were two sides warring for the territory of a small land in town. On one side there was a group calling themselves a mafia and the other side calling themselves yakuza.

One group was more behind the scenes while the other was more open and present and could be spotted easily.

Other than that, there wasn't too much separating one from the other.

"Elimination." He stood from his chair as he exited the building, his house. It was time to get to work.

As he stepped outside, he saw how the place was growing and it seemed that they were constructing another building which he had no idea what it was from first glance.

"…I need a weapon."

It was true, seeing as his gunbai and kama was still with Caracara…

Sure his hand-to-hand skills increased especially with Potoo's training. But that doesn't mean he can do it with just fists alone.

Madara walked to towards the newly built smith, which had been operating for a few days now.

"Morning." The teen said as he entered the forge.

"Good morning, Madara." The smith said as he turned to Madara. "How may I help you today?"

"I'm here for a weapon."

"A weapon?" the man stroked his beard. "Well we do have weapons here. But what type of weapon?"

Madara looked around the room where he saw many already forged blades and armour pieces.

"Well I have a job to get too and I need a weapon that can be easily hidden if I wanted too." He said. "A cutting and slashing weapon that is also durable and effective."

"Hm…I think I got just the weapon."

"You do?"

"Yes, how about a tanto?" the smith offered.

"Hm…a tanto..." Madara then nodded. "I'll take that."

"Then come back in a few minutes."

Madara raised an eyebrow. "But aren't those tantos on display there?"

"They are, but come back in a few minutes and you won't be disappointed."

"…Alright." Madara had left the forge and made his way to the nearby tailor that too was built around the same time as the forge.

"Morning Madara." The owner of the tailor said as he entered.

"Morning." He politely nodded. "Is my order done miss?"

She nodded as she pointed to his order before her hands elegantly started to weave yet another piece of cloth.

"Please try it on." She smiled as she said with her angelic voice.

Madara nodded as he had left for the changing room. Shortly after going in, he came out wearing his new outfit.

He wore a long, black cloak with red clouds that had a red interior and a chin-high collar.

He took the cloak off and revealed what he wore underneath.

He wore a black long-sleeved top that covered his neck and chin, a pair of black gloves, a pair of dark-coloured pants, a long green scarf and a pair of sandals with white stirrups. On his waist, he wore a thick black belt with armour-like metal plates attached to it, and similar plates on his upper arms.

"It suits you."

"Really?" he asked. "Hm…here you go."

He placed the lien on the counter before putting the cloak back on. He gave his thanks as he left before heading back to the forge.

"I see your back." The smith said. "Here's the tanto."

Madara took the sheathed tanto and pulled it out and inspected the blade. It was a straight-bladed tanto that seemed to glisten in the sun.

"Impressive huh?" the faunus man grinned showing his sharp teeth.

Madara could only nod as he sheathed the blade. "You're a skilled craftsman."

The blacksmith just laughed. "Hahaha, if keep up those compliments not even I will know what may happen with my future works."

"Right…" Madara paid for the tanto as he began to leave for the boat.

"Oi, Madara."

Madara stopped at the door as he looked back at the faunus.

"If you find a gunsmith out there…be sure to bring them back. While blades are good, some people want to have ranged weaponry as well." He said. "And I don't think my bows would be too good outside of archery and hunting."

"I'll keep an eye out."

And with that, Madara left the forge.

Madara strapped the tanto upside down on his left arm before putting the cloak back on.

"So you got a job?" asked Potoo.

"Yes, a simple one I can do myself." He said. "Make sure that Providence runs smoothly."

"Right, right." The old buzzard nodded. "Who knows, maybe you'll run into Amber on this job."

"I might."

Even though only two months have passed and the town having more buildings than before, Amber had decided to return back to the other four continents and continue her travels.

It was a shame too, he liked her.

"But I might not as well." He walked to a desolate location with Potoo far away from the village.

Potoo watched as Madara flared his aura before they stayed on a large rock, waiting.

He then watched as a Nevermore landed on the ground in front of them as Madara jumped onto its back.

"It got a little bigger."

"Only a little." The younger said. "But not that much noticeable."

The Nevermore flapped its wings as it began to take off. "I'll see you soon, old man."

After the Nevermore flew into the skies, Potoo turned back around to go back into Providence. "I wonder if we can get it done before his return?" he asked while stroking his own beard.

Madara felt the wind through his hair as he flew to the destination of the job.

He jumped off the Nevermore once it closer to the ground before it disappeared beyond the clouds.

After landing he stood up straight and dusted off his shoulder.

There was still a walk to the town and his client would be outside of the town.

The closer he got, the more he looked around. He was after a man with a sitar next to a street lamp.

It didn't take too long before he spotted said man.

"Are you watching the red clouds drift in our skies?" asked Madara.

"No, I'm watching the red mist that clouds our streets." Replied the sitar man as he stopped playing the instrument.

The man looked up from the spot he was sitting. "So you're the Akatsuki?" he asked.

"Yes, and before you ask, one is all you need for a request like this."

The man looked at Madara sceptically. "Just you? Against all of those gang members?" he asked.

"This is nothing. Just tell me where they are."

"The mafia hiding behind the scenes are located on the east side of the town using a single classy bar as a front." He said. "The present commonly seen yakuza aren't too hard to find, but they usually whole up as a group at the west side using a club as a front."

"I see…now how did this all start?"

The man sighed. "It all started once business started booming and word of uniquely growing herbs and minerals were apparently were in the town, along with something else." He said. "Honestly the words have passed through many mouths and it probably turned into something else."

Madara turned from the man to the town. "…I think I see now. The reason for this gang war." He thought. "Whatever the case, I'll take care of this. There won't be anyone left."

Madara walked to the entrance of the town as the man started to play his sitar.

As he entered the town, Madara put his arms together like a monk, his high collar hiding the lower half of his face while his eyes roamed the sights.

"East or west?" he looked both ways. "Let's head east."

Madara had turned in the direction of said bar the mafia was hiding at. The bar was a colourful sight…well not really, seeing as a drunken man had stumbled out as Madara easily avoided the stumbling drunk.

He stopped as he looked at the drunken man.

It was still morning and he was already drunk? What type of person would drink this early?

Madara ignored him as he went inside. "Hey." The man slurred. "Aren't you a bit too young?"

It was amazing at how the man could form sentences while being that drunk…and a surprise that he wasn't dead yet.

However Madara decided on a whim to indulge the drunken man briefly at the door.

"Aren't you a bit too old to wear a cape?"

The drunken man blinked before grabbing his cape that looked like it saw better days seeing as it looked to be torn and tattered. He then continued to stare at the red cape in his hand like he found the meaning of life.

Madara had already closed the door as the greying black haired man looked at the spot Madara was before looking at the close to empty bottle in his hand.

He scratched his head as he let out a large burp before stumbling in the other direction.

Inside the bar Madara sighed. He assumed there were more day drinkers in here.

There was nothing wrong with that, he just didn't want to deal with those who would stop him from reaching the goal of his job.

He approached the bar as a man was cleaning some glasses. "Aren't you a bit too young to be drinking?" the bartender asked as Madara sat upon a stool. "Besides, we're not really open till this evening."

"Then that guy's the exception?"

The bartender sighed. "No, no. He came in not long before you did and already drunk." He told the youth. "I just sent him away, but he was persistent…"

"So what? You gave him a bottle?"

"I did." The glass cleaner said. "Besides, drunks like him bring good money. I just told him to come back later when we open and that there is a free one of the house."

"Taking advantage of a drunken man? I can't deny that I wouldn't do the same." Madara revealed. If a drunk had information he would use beer to get that information.

"So…what brings you here kid?" the man put the glass down. "I assume your not here to drink and if you were I'm not serving you any alcohol."

"I'm not here for drinks."

"Then what are you after?"

"I'm looking for some people, you might know them." He said. "But before that, hear any gossip?"

The man gave Madara a look up and down. "Are you a monk or something?" he asked at seeing the sleeves together as Madara had his arms crossed. "Well anyway, I hear there's some fortune in this town and those people with that fortune are hiring."

"Really now? That's interesting…"

"So who are you looking for?"

"Probably the same people." He said as he stood before looking at the back door. "I assume your boss and his gang are back there?"

The bartender made a move before Madara swung his hidden tanto, slicing the man's neck, cutting the jugular.

Madara wiped the tanto on the man's body clothes before sheathing the blade. The bartender's body fell as he made his way to the back.

That's when Madara meet the gangsters and redrew his tanto.

He decided to paint the walls red today.

Once he killed the last gangster that blocked his way. He picked up his weapon, a nice little tommy gun.

He looked through the door's key hole before putting the tommy gun up to the wall and began shooting through the door. He heard the panicked screams and bodies dropping from behind the door.

Once the clip was empty, he kicked the damaged door off the hinges. He then threw the tommy gun after would as he heard those remaining inside to shoot.

Madara stepped back and twisted his tanto before he sprung in.

"A kid?!" one of them shouted as he ran towards the same guy and begun cutting bodies up.

His Sharingan spun to live as he caught all the ones with guns in an illusion where they saw their own impending death.

It didn't take the cloaked Madara long before only the leader of the mafia was left.

"W-Who sent you?" he asked. "Who are you?"

"That's all you have left to say? Those are your final words?" he asked. "I'm no one. Just a guy hired to kill you and the rivals, nothing more nothing less. It's just business."

Madara had impressively swung his tanto at high speeds that it looked like the leader didn't have his head cut off.

Madara cleaned his blade as he went to the next site.

"Boss! Boss!" one of the yakuza shouted before falling dead. He was on his way to warn the boss before he fell dead.

"So you're here." The leader said as he stood up and brandished a spiked club. "Who hired you? Was it that mafia? I can pay you twice as much to kill them and work for me."

"Sorry, but if I accept then I'll be collecting the money without doing any work."

The man's eyes widened as Madara dashed forth. The sudden realization hitting the yakuza boss as he brought up his club to block the oncoming attack, this kid killed his enemies already!

The man didn't have much time to defend himself as he saw the bored expression on Madara's face as those eyes bore into him and it was as the world around them crumbled.

But the time he realized that the world was fake as his weapon cleaved through Madara without any harm, a large slash wound found itself on the man's body before dropping to the floor.

"…Time to collect the job fee." Madara said as he then left the corpse of the yakuza boss alone.

Madara was paid by the sitar man as Madara took the pay and was on his way. Just because he offered the normal hunter missions, he did leave in some…more options that would have to be emailed.

Some off the list options, which he left under the mission board as 'other' missions.

"Thank you." He said as he took the money.

"No thank you." The man replied. "I was surprised that you took them all on easily enough by yourself."

"I told you."

"Um…aren't you going to ask questions?"

"No, this is a business. No questions asked."

"I-I see."

"You are probably wondering why I'm not looking into this prized resource the two groups were after." Madara mentioned to the sitar player. "It was quite obvious when you mentioned it. It was incentive for the two groups to kill each other by planting fake valuable resources, you'll have the two go to war with each other and they'll killed themselves out."

"And with any survivors, they can easily be picked off. But something went wrong. They didn't war like you wanted. Your plans to get rid of them backfired as they played safe and for the long game, only losing a few members." He said. "They were killing each other slowly, not the fast pace you wanted. I just helped speed that up dramatically."

"You knew and still went through with it?"

"Of course, it is a business as I said before." Madara told him. "Have faith in the Akatsuki."

"Good bye." Madara said as he left the man.

As Madara left the town he looked down at his scroll and saw yet another paying job.

"It seems that cheap pay is getting people's attention."

Later that day, into the opening hours of the bar Madara had just cleaned out. The drunken man stumbled in.

"I'm here for my freebie!" he announced.

It wouldn't be too long before he spied the corpse of the bartender.

Madara swiped his forehead at the second official job of the Akatsuki.

It was a search and rescue mission to find supplies left behind during a Grimm attack on a caravan. While no one was harmed, some of the supplies were left behind.

He had found the supplies and brought them back to the town.

It was a simple job.

Madara waved as he left the building where he returned the supplies.

As he continued down the street, he noticed something in the alley.

Walking into the alley, he saw some kids. Two humans, one faunus. "What are you three doing here?" he asked the three as he knelt.

"I-It's all my fault." The faunus said with tears as the three looked at him. They looked like they were just tossed to the side.

"No it's not." One of the human kids said.

"Calm down and tell me what happened." Madara said

"Well…when he was kicked out of the orphanage…we…we…" the second started to tear up.

"I think I understand…he was kicked out for being a faunus, you two stood by his side and threatened with the same punishment of being kicked out." Madara said as he stood up. "The threat came true and now you're out on the curb with no place to go."

Madara then held his hand out to the three. "How about we go to a new home?" he asked the three.

"Huh?"

They all looked at Madara's hand and it didn't take them long to make a decision.

When Madara returned, while the kids were sleeping upon the Nevermore (which caused them to be shocked at how they got to Providence so quickly), and given clean clothes and a place to stay in the village.

It didn't take them long to make friends, even the chinchilla faunus child was a resident of the village now.

"We got a surprise for you Madara." Potoo said.

"What?" he asked as he was brought to a two storied building. It was built with height in mind rather than width.

"This is your building." Potoo said.

"But I already have a house and I assume you got it done quicker with the rabbit's help?"

"We did." The old aging man said. "Now. This building right here…is your office."

"…My what?"

Even the tailor had walked over and gave him something and when he held it out, it was a robe with a white scarf.

"Please try it on later." She said.

"This growing village was your idea Madara." Drake said. "It's only fitting we have you as the leader."

Madara's eyes widened. "Y-Yeah." The bat Saguzar agreed.

It seemed that they seemed to agree to him being the leader of this village. "I'll guess I'll take up this role as Overseer of Providence."

He turned to see the kasa-like hat before placing it on his head.

Now Providence had a leader.

Madara sat at his new desk as he looked down at some papers. He looked up to see the rabbit faunus that had the duplication semblance.

"Thank you for coming." He said to the faunus.

"It's no problem…there's no problem is there?"

Madara shook his head. "There's no problem." He told the rabbit. "I just wanted to thank you."

"T-Thank me?" the faunus asked.

"Yes, without you the construction wouldn't be this fast." The faunus watched as Madara bowed his head towards him. "Thank you for your contribution."

"No, no! I just wanted to help." He or she said. The voice along with his or her appearance made it harder. "My semblance didn't really help in Kuo Kuana since the place was already done with constructions."

The rabbit faunus had an androgynous look with long, light brown hair reaching their shoulders along with chocolate brown eyes. He or she also had a pair of rabbit ears the same colour as their hair.

The rabbit wore light brown and cream kimono over dark brown pants and geta.

"What's your name?"

"Mochi, Mochi Scarlatina." The rabbit faunus said. "And I'm a-"

"Boy?"

"…Girl."

"I see, so it's true you play with people like that."

"T-That's not true."

Madara just shrugged as he opened a draw and pulled out a book. "Honestly, I'm going to refer to you as a he from now on." He said as he held the book up. "And there's an easy way to check your gender as long as you're not asexual."

"…With that book?"

"Yes, I believe it is called Ninjas of Love." He placed the book on the desk. "It was a gift?"

"You don't sound too sure."

"Would you be if a mother of one gave you a somewhat perverted book?" he asked.

The book was a gift from Kali of all people when she heard he took the leader position of Providence.

"…I might have to refuse any future gifts…anyways this book contains images of the female and male body. You might get a reaction from either one of them."

"Just to find out my gender?" the rabbit asked with a look of shock mixed with disbelief.

"If I was truly curious then my answer would be yes." Madara said shocking Mochi even more. Even the name could fit either gender.

"That's not why you are here today." Madara said. "You are here to be thanked for your efforts in helping the construction."

"Well…it's a job and everyone played their part here." Mochi replied as he messed with his hair. "There's nothing to it."

"But still, you played a vital role." Madara said as he put the book away. "I just wanted to give you my thanks. Might I ask what you plan on doing in Providence?"

"I run a sweet shop called Amaguriama." Mochi told the leader of the village. "Dango, mame-daifuku, manju, sweet bean paste…"

"I see…" Madara coughed into his hand. "I might pay a visit later. Thank you once more."

"It's nothing." Mochi bowed before shortly leaving.

Madara looked down at back at the paperwork and to the computer that was taken from the ship.

More time had passed as Madara's hair grew longer. Providence was a now functioning town with more buildings being created when needed.

He had hung up his Akatsuki cloak in his new house as he came back from another day of Akatsuki business as well as training with Potoo.

He kind of hoped he would meet Caracara again with Garuda.

After fixing himself up, he decided to look around the village, it had been a while since he just took in the sights.

Thanks to his efforts, more humans had moved into Providence. However these humans were like the two humans kids he had found.

Lost with nowhere else to go, they needed a home, they needed someplace to stay.

Madara gave them shelter.

He gave them purpose.

While the faunus numbers were still bigger than the human numbers. Coexistence seemed possible.

He locked his door as he looked at the drifting clouds. It was going to be a good day.

The faunus from Menagerie, and the humans from the four 'main' lands. He walked down the street with his robes as he took in the sights of his village of mixed culture.

He decided to get a better view of the village from the top of his office.

He easily made his way there due to jumping on the multiple roofs of buildings and reached the top of his office.

Madara overlooked his village which was still growing and took in the sights and what they had.

From the top he saw the academy, he of course saw all the other houses and homes of the people, no, his people.

He saw the shops which included Amaguriama and stands that served food or some sort of other services like dust. He saw the smiths which had the faunus blacksmith and the newly appointed human gunsmith at the forge, the improved docks for their ship, a heliport for any airship, the tailors where he had placed orders for some more clothing.

The farm was running smoothly, raising both animals and growing both fruits and vegetables. The hot springs that was built and actually natural surprisingly, he could see Kali going there a lot…he hoped he didn't jinx that.

Near the farm was the greenhouse which served to preserve and grow herbs used in medicine. He spied the clinic right next to the chemist as they worked on a hospital, restaurants for people to eat and of course a pub.

He saw the carpenters, potters and their pottery and the library which was stocking books in, while not a building, he saw a dedicated training ground and an empty cemetery.

He of course was standing on his office dubbed the overseer office. Next to it was the standby station, which served as a place where the Guardians stayed with their lockers and gear. However, right underneath was the correctional facility, which was basically a prison, located underground.

Yes, this was truly Providence indeed.

"And that's parts of it." Madara said. He had left out a few things and changed some of the more gruesome parts.

"Hm." The older man replied as he was currently eating. He made a sound of acknowledgement letting Madara know he was listening. "How did you get find the gunsmith?" he asked after finishing the food he was eating.

"During one of the Akatsuki missions. Was doing some village security and met him. Offered him a new place to stay after…some events happened." He said slowly as Ghira nodded in understanding.

"I understand. I hear Akatsuki's name is getting out there, slowly but getting word spread about it." Ghira said. "And from your tale, the hospital wasn't finished yet, but now it is."

Madara had placed an empty cup down as he paid for both of them. "Yes, Akatsuki is definitely seeing more work, and soon one day everyone might rely on it rather than the kingdoms for the prices." He said. "…however some might feel safer with those from the kingdoms…and then there is the side where attention would be brought up and those too curious or have bad intentions might come into the picture."

"Unnecessary attention?" the large man asked. "Like who?"

"…Nosy people…people with secrets that like to snoop around."

A middle-aged man with tousled silver hair and thin brown eyes drank some coffee from a mug. He had a light complexion and sharp facial features and held a cane in his free hand.

He wore shaded glass spectacles and a small, purple, cross-shaped pin on the cowl around his neck, an unzipped black suit over a buttoned vest and green shirt with black trouser shoes and long, dark-green pants.

He took another sip out of his coffee mug as he looked at some screens and the red cloud of the Akatsuki.

"Hm..."

Yet unknown to the man, someone else was looking at the same thing.