[Congratulations! For teaching a disciple (Velvet Scarlatina) the art of mixology to the point of achieving total mastery, you have earned a Unique Set | 2,500 Gacha Coin!]

[Congratulations! For acquiring a supporting character as a girlfriend, you have earned a Meta Unique Gacha Coin!]

'What the hell is this?' I thought to myself before activating Katayoki's Song and teleporting to his knife which I'd left back at my apartment to eliminate the need for a return journey.

First of all, don't you patronize me! I did not need to be congratulated for getting a girlfriend. I would not turn down the Meta Unique Gacha Coin, but this shit wasn't about to turn me into a playboy degenerate, young master of a harem, wannabe. I didn't believe those kinds of relationships could work out.

Even with bullshit Shadow Clone powers or anything similar I might get in the future, it seemed like a bad idea to split my focus on more than one partner at a time. To seek out other women was bound to be a recipe for disaster and not at all worth whatever Gacha Coins I might be rewarded with.

Moving on, what the hell was this "supporting character" nonsense? It was giving the same kind of subtext as the "canon event" line I'd received for fighting Team CEM and helping Amber after they decided to betray me. I did not like the implication that came to mind, of Velvet being nothing more than a background piece to some great story set in this world.

What would that make me? The isekai reincarnator/transmigrator protagonist with unique and overpowered gacha powers? I liked to think there was more to me than just that, but what if that's all that came through for the narrative of the universe, multiverse or something even greater?

Eh, I was probably overthinking things. It was easier to accept things when I was self-aware enough to rationalize the existential dread away. My Gacha powers were probably centered around me and considered everyone I interacted with supporting characters. Everyone else was either an enemy or nondescript background character. It was either that or that I was in an alternate world with its own story that my mere presence was changing.

Not exactly the most optimistic thing, but also not inherently something that would turn out of the worst. For all I knew, I could have already done something to ruin whatever this world's protagonist or main characters' plans were to save it from the Grimm menace. Alternatively, this world could have been doomed from the start and the fact that I was brought into the fold before things went to hell might be just what the people of Remnant needed.

I didn't know and to be honest, I didn't care. Either way, I held the belief that everyone was the main character to their own life story, so whichever way the cosmic truth went wouldn't impact me.

"That's absolutely right," Katayoki flashed me a thumbs up as I entered my Inner World for another nightly bout of training. "Who cares what the Gacha might imply? Free will is still a thing and everyone you've met since awakening on Remant has been a real person. You're not living out a fairy tale or playing a game, so there's no reason to change how you think or act."

"Thanks, but I'm still going to kick your ass the second I get good enough. Don't think I'll forgive you for all those times you made me nearly break my expression in front of Velvet," I glared at the thought of him most angrily.

"What are you blaming me for? You're the idiot who assumed the worst and made a fool out of yourself to her, not me. All I did was laugh and backseat that terribly awkward first date you guys had."

It was times like these where Katayoki reminded me of exactly how annoying he could be even without the effect of his voice getting a rise out of me. Who did he think he was, pointing out every moment I felt so much as a shred of doubt? I wasn't perfect, but I did my best. So, excuse me if I might have put my foot in my mouth more than once and gotten the wrong impression.

I mean, seriously, how was I supposed to know I had a shot with Velvet? She treated every guy exactly the same, from me to her teammates, to the people at the restaurant. Someone as hot as her was bound to be taken, no? She was incredibly attractive to me, but not to the point where I'd ask someone and come off as desperate. I wasn't lonely enough (just yet) to take that kind of gamble needlessly.

Luckily, I didn't need to and now we would be dating in short order. I wasn't lying when I told her I enjoyed spending time with her. Even if the night didn't end with more than a quick kiss and hug, I preferred the experience over mindlessly walking around Vale and even eating out an entire restaurant's selection of meals.

It was almost enough to forget the merciless beating I was currently being subjected to courtesy of my ever-annoying Zanpakuto Spirit.

"You know what? Fuck it, let's go all out," I told Katayoki as I tossed my knife upwards before teleporting over a thousand feet in the open "air" of the void.

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"I'm warning you, that's not a good idea," Katayoki said as he made no move to continue antagonizing me while I was in the middle of summoning forth the large pool of my Hollow energies. "If you powerup with the strength of your Hollowfication and Saint and Sinner powers, the only thing that'll happen is that I will be forced to match you at that level."

"Good!" I shouted down at him as pure ecstasy ran through my veins and a bone mask flickered into place against my face. "It'll help me get used to this level of strength!"

I threw my knife at him and appeared right next to him in less time than it took to blink one's eyes. As I did my best to stab him, his tone grew serious as he kept to the defensive, "You don't get it. You're Soul is being strained to its limit just holding on to your sudden influx of Spiritual Power, if I fight back then there's a chance we might do some actual damage."

"And?" I missed his head as he ducked under my wild swing. "I can just make Soul Restoration Potions with some of the rare ingredients I have stockpiled. Stop trying to prevent this from happening and fight back! Maybe if we managed to actually do some damage and come back from it we'd grow faster from the experience like with muscle training."

"You're one crazy son of a bitch, you know that?" He sighed before accepting the situation for what it was and fighting back like I asked.

The "fight" was unlike any I'd ever experienced before. Against Katayoki who matched me in all aspects except for technique which he still lorded over me, it was as intense as ever. However, unlike before, where we only had the wounds on our bodies to show for our exchange of blows, now the void itself was quaking with every parried blade or missed throw.

I didn't feel any different hours later once we put an end to the temporary war within my Soul, but just to make sure I didn't leave any obscured damage, I made a Shadow Clone to make the Soul Restoration Potions anyway while I left for my Saturday training day session at Beacon. I actually made four clones and only one remained to work on the potions, while the other three helped me make the warm up trip with the added challenge of the cursed Chuni eyepatch.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the finest gentleman himself," Fox said to me as we ran into each other on my way over to the gym.

"You don't need to sound so disappointed," I said with a soft sigh.

"Be ready for the rest of the team including yours truly to grill you during lunch," he said as he power walked away. He was probably running late to a class, considering the fact that there were hardly any people left in the hallways.

"Yeah, yeah," I waved at him dismissively and continued on to the gym before suddenly locking up as a massive Ki Signature comparable to Ambers, but very clearly not her's, suddenly appeared about 2,000 feet away. This was concerning because it appeared inside my sensing range and didn't cross into it, meaning teleportation was probably involved.

The Ki Signature made its way in the direction of Beacon Tower and with my busybody nature, I couldn't just walk away. What if someone had come to assassinate Ozpin or something just as ridiculous? Beacon was where I came to work out, so if anything created a scene here it would also greatly inconvenience me.

With such a dangerous person around, I activated my Aura while heading towards Ozpin's Office. I took note of the Ki Signature moving strangely as it seemingly start to fly just outside of Beacon Tower and remained near it without making any further attempts to get in.

Weird.

But, definitely not as weird as when I arrived just outside the tower and spotted the raven that was perched by Ozpin's office's window, who turned out to be the source of that massive Ki Signature. Seeing as it hadn't taken note of me or really done anything aside from stare into Ozpin's office, I slowed my pace to prevent earning its attention as I pulled out my Scroll and called Ozpin.

"Lapis? To what do I owe this unexpected call," he asked.

"I'm heading over to your office right now. I think there's something interesting you'd like to hear about as soon as possible."

"Very well," Ozpin said, shortly muting his mic as another voice groaned in the background. When he unmuted his mic, he said, "An associate of mine who I believe you've met is currently in my office as we speak. I am right to assume whatever it is you have to tell me, you're fine with letting him know as well?"

"Sure, I guess."

"Then we'll see you shortly."

By the time the call went dead, I had entered Beacon Tower and only had to wait for the elevator to come down to take me up to the second highest floor. When I finally made it up there and entered Ozpin's office, Qrow was crashed out on the couch giving me the stink eye.

"Now, before I say anything, I'd like to know how soundproof this room is," I said cutting right to the chase as I walked into the room.

"Everything from the walls to the windows is locked airtight, so unless a recording device has been snuck in, no word of any of my conversations will leave this room," Ozpin calmly said.

"Good, good… Now, don't react overtly to this," I said before giving them a chance to process what I was saying. When they both narrowed their eyes at me and nodded, I said, "But, there's this bird currently spying in through left most window."

As Ozpin's eyebrows were ever so slightly raised, Qrow twitched violently before swearing to himself. Ozpin then used the reflection cast on his mug to verify what I'd said before he commented, "Just as you said, there's a raven outside the window." He put his mug down before asking, "Now, would you care to explain why you thought I'd find this information interesting?"

"That little birdy out there is holding a massive amount of energy I've only ever seen in one other person. Since it clearly isn't Amber and appeared out of nowhere in my sensing range before coming over here, I assumed the worst and came here to see if I could prevent or contain the damage."

"What?!" Qrow bit back the scream he had impulsively let loose. Despite not looking anywhere near the bird, he looked visibly alarmed and dumbfounded.

Ozpin similarly had a look of shock, but his was much better concealed as he quickly coughed into his hands before returning to normal. He said, "I must admit, this has been quite the surprise, but to get to the matter of your concern, you need not worry, she's not an enemy. Not exactly an ally either, but we are more or less on the same side in the grand scheme of things."

"Ok?" I felt the slightest bit of disappointment as the possibility of a good fight ended a swift death. "As long as you're alright with her" I emphasized, "—snooping around, I guess I'll leave you two to whatever it was that you were discussing," I said before leaving.

As I headed back to the gym, it suddenly occurred to me that something odd was at play between this bird woman and Amber. I hadn't really cared to think about this beforehand because she'd only mentioned it offhandedly when we were testing the effects of my Semblance, but Amber's Semblance was not at all related to her massive Ki reserves like I had once thought.

Now this bird woman appeared out of nowhere with an apparent association to Ozpin and also possessed similarly massive Ki reserves? Theoretically, anyone should be able to cultivate their own Ki to that point and far beyond it after unlocking it, but so far I'd only run into those two. Was that just because it was so rare to find people with Unlocked Ki, or was the fact that their Ki pools were so perfectly level a sign of something more being at play?

I was leaning more towards the latter over the former, but didn't concern myself with all the possible conspiracy theories that cooked up in my head. It didn't matter to me what was going on so long as they didn't bother me. Since neither Amber nor the bird woman were my personal enemies nor showed any signs of being evil with their affiliation with the Headmaster of Beacon, I did not care to find out why they had identical amounts of superfluous Ki.

I had better things to worry about, like training my own Ki by trying to lift an aggregate of over a million tons by the end of the day.