The Not So Wannabe Hero: Amaranth Anokades [done]

Being a Faunus was not a choice, it wasn’t even something that your parents could chose. And simply being born one had some serious consequences. But it wasn’t all bad. Amaranth was the last of three children in the Anokades family. Her older brother became a role model for her, while her older sister… well it seemed more like Amaranth had to take care of her. Though she didn’t mind this, she loved her older sister despite her shortcomings. At home life was good, as good as it could get for a Faunus family really. At school it was another story. Amaranth and her older siblings often got bullied, while her older sister seemed to take it in stride, probably not even realizing she was being picked on, Amaranth quickly became a shut in. Whenever she could she would ditch school, not to hang out with any disreputable friends, but to go home and lock herself in her room.

Her only escape in the world was books. She would spend any free time she had or could make reading. Of course she couldn’t buy these books nor could she go to the library due to a rather discriminating librarian, but she got lucky.  Most of the time she would steal from the garbage bins of book stores, most of what she got was in terrible condition and most of the time not even complete. During one of her dumpster dives she was caught. An older Faunus who owed the store found her hand questioned her intent.

The old Faunus, upon discovering she had been taking old books, offered her a deal. She would run deliveries for him and for every five deliveries she made he would give her a book. Amaranth wholeheartedly agreed. From that point on she would make as many deliveries as she could and soon she began to amass a small collection of readings. It wasn’t long before she began to latch onto the idea of the valiant hero. It seemed that in every book she read there was always a hero there to save the day when something bad happened. Yet in the real world bad things happened all the time and no one stopped it.

It wasn’t something that happened over night, or even in one week, but it might have seemed that way from the outside. It was like any other school day, a group of humans were bullying Amaranth’s older sister. Deciding that this had gone on long enough she stood up and confronted the bullies. What happened after that is a blank all she remembers is waking up the next day with more than a few bruises and several fractures. It wasn’t until a week later that she found out what had happened.

It hadn’t been the bullies that had knocked her out, or even caused most of her injuries. Not it had been human teachers who had “stepped in” after she had taken care of three of the bullies on her own. The other two had ran off by that point. As it turned out Amaranth had a knack for fighting. Unfortunately her little stunt ended up with her being expelled from the school. Though not all hope was lost. A teacher from the local combat school had been there during her fight.

As soon as she turned fourteen Amaranth enrolled into the local combat school. Due to this she had to leave home, and her sister behind. The teacher who had overseen her fight personally made sure that she got in, despite racial tensions. There were critics of her skill, and some who felt that she should be kicked out for any reason, but Amaranth pushed through. She took up the sword and trained hard. Each quarter during their assessments she consistently came out at the top of her class.

It was in her second year of combat school when Amaranth got the news about her sister. A group of anti-Faunus Dbags had attacked and nearly killed her sister. She hadn’t seen her sister or brother since she started combat school, but after the attack she was heartbroken, and enraged. Her older brother was the one who ended up finding and killing the men who had hurt their sister, but Amaranth wasn’t satisfied.

She continued her studies at the combat school, but with her free time she began searching. It wasn’t long before she found out that among the men who had attacked Amaranth's older sister were the fathers of the bullies that she had beaten up years ago. The young Faunus was shocked, and began to blame herself for what happened to her sister. At first she didn’t know what to do. For several days she sat in her room and stared at the wall, completely catatonic.

It was a book that brought her back. One of her favorites. It reminded her that when there is evil in the world someone has to step up to stop it. She knew that those men who attacked her sister weren’t the only ones who hated Faunus, they weren’t the only evil people out there. If no one else was going to stop them then she would. With a new fire in her chest she went back to training. She graduated from combat school, once again, at the top of her class and enrolled at Syne academy. Based on what she had heard both her siblings had also enrolled there.

The night breeze ruffled Amaranth’s cloak. Looking down below her she saw her target. A group of humans who had been known to attack Faunus in this area. They moseyed about as though they owned the streets, carrying baseball bats and pipes and chains. Just looking at them Amaranth could tell that they were no good. With a dramatic flair she jumped from the rooftop. Plummeting towards the ground she curled up into a ball and tumbled before stretching out again and landing on both feet.

“Eh? What’s this?” One of the humans spoke up at her arrival, “Last I checked this ain’t no costume party.”

“Vile filth, I have come to rain down judgment upon thee. Lay your arms down lest I be forced to take more drastic action,” Amaranth said bringing a hand up to adjust her hat.

“Hey it’s just a little girl. Get her!”

“So be it,” Amaranth said reaching back and grabbing hold of her swords. The fight was on.