Aaron Kanghui Liu

Aaron Shilong was born on October 25th in a forest complex called Duskwood to Huntsman and Huntress Lei Bo Liu and Mei Li (Wei) Liu. His lineage was known to be comprised of successful Huntsmen and Huntresses alike, and was also known for their Faunus heritage throughout the generations. Having found a natural interest in combat and hunting alike, Shilong was no excuse to the tradition. Because of this, he began to be trained alongside his sister, Chelsea Xiulan, who was born just two months after he was, as soon as they were both capable of holding their own when walking and speaking. While undergoing their training sequences, they also received the uttermost love and attention from their family, and would declare that they lived a decent first half of their childhood if they willingly agreed to tell the tale of their history years later in the future.

Duskwood would actually have easily been considered a city rather than a mere town; and a large one at that. As its name hinted toward, the woods in which the Duskwood civilians called their home was a somewhat dim place, though wasn’t nearly as dark and eerie as one may have thought it to be at first. In fact, it was actually quite nice. The plantlife around wasn’t the coloring of common nature (rather, it took colors like blue, purple, red, and so on), though it proved to bring a beautiful and thriving display nonetheless. For the most part, Duskwood was a large area taking approximately fifty acres overall if not a little bit more in forest clearings, with many buildings both large and small scattered around the terrain. Such is why Duskwood would have been considered a city rather a town, and a pretty advanced one at that, as the people were highly knowledgeable in a great variety of things; their specialty being weapons and armor.

A mile or so eastbound from Duskwood would be a cliff and, below that, a canyon. On the other side would be another large and flat plateau. On the opposing plateau away from Duskwood on the other side of that canyon would be another city by the name of Ethereal Serenity. Like Duskwood, it was rather large and was only a little bit smaller than the woods in size. It, too, was as advanced as a tech-savy city was, and was beautiful in its own way, though not in a sort of dim radiance like Duskwood was. Rather than sending off a calming, dimmed radiance, Serenity was an area somewhat resembling a peaceful meadow, as it was brimmed with greens and plantlife, and also had several crisp, clear rivers running throughout the city. Few of them ran through the entirety of the population and over to the cliffs facing Duskwood, running off and creating the spectacular right of the occasional waterfall alone the ridge. While Duskwood specialized in weaponry and armory, Sanctuary specialized in both military forces and livestock alike, thanks to its better terrain for raising animals and growing crops.

The two areas were connected by a well-built and fortified bridge over the canyon, and people from other side often crossed it day by day in order to trade with one another. Alongside the trading matter, young ones from Duskwood often traveled to Serenity in order to learn about and practice combat and learn about raising crops and wildlife. Likewise, children and teens from Serenity hiked over to Duskwood in order to learn about blacksmithing in general. Each side was able to learn from each other’s specialties and also received what they needed at the same time. It was a win-win situation for the most part.

Around the time that both Aaron and his sister turned four, their parents had decided to take their leave to patrol Remnant and contribute to the slaying of Grimm whenever and wherever necessary. After they had taken their leave, the siblings were left with their grandmother, who took the role of both mother and father for several years in order to support the kids. In addition, she also continued their personal training out of the school they attended down in Sanctuary, passing down the skills that she had acquired in her days of an active Huntress. Life would continue this way for the next six years or so; things were parentless and a bit lonely for the two at times, but it could have been worse.

…And it did get worse.

The year before Aaron’s tenth birthday, conflict had arisen between Duskwood and Serenity. At first, it was something minor and something that was barely worth having an argument about, but then things began to change. Theories had been created – and some of them were actually true. Each side had a few bad secrets of theirs and, when they found out about the things that both cities had been hiding, both Ethereal Serenity and Duskwood began diving into denial and had begun threatening one another. It had gotten worse and worse through the next year, the civilians actually beginning to get a bit rowdy as well because of it.

One day during Aaron’s and Chelsea’s schooling at Equinox Academy, the school over in Serenity, a raid was sent over to Duskwood. Within the timespan of less than fifteen minutes, war had officially begun as the streets of both cities became tainted with blood and corpses. Those who had been enraged by the multiple threats and accusations over the past year were busy fighting, while the rest were defenseless for the most part and were attempting to flee for dear life. Despite the fact that he would have rather fought, Aaron had decided to take Chelsea and run for sake of her safety.

They managed to dodge the majority of the chaos running throughout the streets as they sprinted across the bridge and back to the Duskwood borderline, escaping the fight with a few scratches here and there due to a couple of falls and encounters with some raging citizens of Serenity. As they arrived, they began to sneak back over to their home city in order to see how badly things were going. They would soon find out that, as of that moment, their friends had been holding up well for the most part, but would soon be either pushed back or completely overridden due to Serenity’s superior knowledge in military combat. As they spied from a distance, they saw many familiar faces fall dead.

One of them just happened to be their grandmother as she attempted to circle around and flee.

The sight of their grandmother succumbing to death pushed the two over the edge with a deal of shock, disbelief, and sorrow altogether. Chelsea had broken down and was silently weeping, while Aaron was basically shaking in an unspoken rage as he watched, tearing away from his normal, calm demeanor. He began to rush over to the scene but was stopped by Chelsea as she had clung to him and begun to plead that he didn’t leave. While still enraged and shocked, he reluctantly took his sister once more and ran with her out of the city perimeter.

As the war continued, they would live on their own for a while, hunting and gathering for their own survival. Aaron, who was smarter and mature for a boy his age, had managed to hunt several small creatures with makeshift weapons that he had created from his knowledge gained at Duskwood in order to supply food for both his being, as well as his sister’s. They would sleep overhead in the trees to avoid any possible Grimm, for a few days, progressing further into the forest and away from their home.

A week or so after they had departed and the war was still underway, the siblings had encountered a small caravan that had been traveling through the area via airship as they began crossing a clearing. A person on lookout in one of the ships had seen the children and had contacted the other two or three ships traveling with them, telling them to land immediately. So, they did.

Aggressive and defensive was Aaron at first, seeming threatening to attack despite how outnumbered he was while having a clear drive to protect his sister. One of the people from the first airship had carefully and slowly approached, however, simply asking about why the children were out in the forest by themselves. He answered each question in a stern and serious tone, eventually giving information about the war that was occurring within their home city and their prior trading partners. Once the situation had been assessed, those with the caravan had managed to convince Aaron to take him and his sister on one of the airships and back to Vale, where they had come from to begin with.

The two were airshipped back over to the city of Vale and were brought to the police. Their situation was explained, and they were then transferred over to a local orphanage in the middle class district of Vale. There, they were registered and looked after for the several years afterwards. While picking up a couple of jobs and registering for Signal Academy, they were looked after by those at the orphanage. Though still shaken by the occurrence that they had witnessed, the siblings had slowly and gradually begun to manage and live normally in Vale. The two actually made friends over at school and in the orphanage alike. Due to his calm yet slightly powerful and destructive attitude during school spars, he was given the nickname and title of “Kanghui,” a name that he was often happy of being called and a title that he proudly bore.

Soon afterwards, their parents had gotten word of what had happened after being searched for and contacted by the orphanage employees. Both Leibo and Meili rushed over to check on their children. After they had discovered what had happened to their grandmother and had uncovered the conflict between the two cities on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Vale, they decided to attempt to take the two with them. They were sure that those with their group wouldn’t mind contributing to taking care of the kids, as it’s what they often did whenever they came across the occasional Grimm-infested area with people who needed aid.

However, Aaron was quick to reject the offer. Over the time that their parents had been gone, both Aaron and Chelsea had developed a sort of sadness and a slight sense of hatred to their parents due to the sense of abandonment they were given when their parents had left and hadn’t even done so much as visited a single time for the past six years. After arguing their side of things, Aaron took Chelsea away to the room in which they normally hung out in, stubbornness overcoming them as they refused to come out. Realizing that they would be persistent, the parents reluctantly left after requesting that those at the orphanage would take care of their children.

Both children would continue their schooling and living in Vale afterwards; once again somewhat hurt by the occurrence they had experienced the day before, but began to climb the hill back up after a little while. A daily routine of schooling, working, and coming back to the orphanage would be made and followed for the next seven years. Aaron had taken a job at a local weapon shop, while Chelsea had taken the role of a part-time combat instructor when she was fifteen. Her brother joined her in the job soon afterwards, taking it up as a second task in order to gather funds.

They would graduate Signal when they were seventeen, and would apply and be accepted to Beacon afterwards. The both of them started a little bit later than they had hoped due to the fact that Aaron had bought a home away from the orphanage when he had turned eighteen and was no longer a minor. They spent the next month or so moving into their new home and bringing themselves back up to speed with funds by the following one, and had finally made their temporary move over to Beacon by the end of December of that year.

Suffering ||| One of the main songs that Shilong tends to use. It is projected in a somewhat low tone and is slightly on the slow side, though not overly so. Suffering is one of the songs that Aaron knows that has lyrics to go along with it. As of this moment, he can only use it to augment his own being. When projected outwards and is heard, it increases his resilience, enabling him to take a greater deal of hits than he would have without the tune in effect. Often used during combat and is sung until a point of safety is reached, as, when he stops singing this particular song, the boost in resilience that he had earned would disappear, and the wounds that he had been able to endure would hit him more strongly than they would have in his previous state.

Hymn ||| A light sort of chant that gives off a feeling of radiance when heard. It is capable of healing either Aaron alone, or up to four people total, including himself. When healing, he is incapable of healing major injuries such as fractured/broken bones, and can only heal things such as bruises and semi-major gashes as of now. The more critical the wound, the longer he must sing in order for the healing effects to take complete effect. Much like when he fuses two or more songs into a single tune, his healing ability is cut into fractions the more people that he has to heal. His aura is also depleted at a faster rate the more individuals he goes to heal.

It has no set lyrics, but Aaron harmonizes to its tune regardless.

Velocity ||| Another one of the primary tunes that Shi uses. As could be predicted from the melody’s title, it increases the speed at which one moves. The factor regarding how loudly he projects this melody matters the most out of all of his songs thus far; the louder he is with this song, the faster he grows. With this tune, he is capable of boosting the speed of only one person other than himself.

Much like Hymn, this has no set lyrics, but he simply still continues to harmonize with it. It is the fastest tune that he knows.

Conflictions ||| The third and last song that is of the primary trio that Aaron uses. This specific song increases a subject’s strength/power, enabling their strikes to be more forceful than they normally would have been without the augment in effect. Like Velocity, Shilong is only able to augment one person other than himself at the same time with this song. This song has lyrics and is sung in a more fierce and forceful way in comparison to the others. It is, by far, the naturally loudest of the seven songs that he knows.

Grave ||| Another tune that Aaron would use a bit more often if its aura cost wasn’t so much more costly in comparison to his other songs. It takes a chant-like sound, and is the second fastest tune that Shilong is able to sync with as of now. Rather than augmenting his own being, Grave augments his weaponry; often elongating blades, increasing the rage and damage of bullets, and things of that sort. It takes effect on the weapons that he holds within his hands. If wielding Peacebreakers, then the blades will grow a foot more in length, and will take on a more sharpened and jagged blade formation for a greater pain infliction. The bumps on Zhanzheng Wuqi will transform into more spike-like figures, causing each blow to be much more painful than it would have been in the weapons’ normal forms. When synced with Conflict, the bullets will be shot faster and to a greater distance, capable of piercing through flesh and, on occasion, even bone. If a Dust bullet is fired, then the blast radius that the bullet takes after its explosion will increase by several inches, and will be capable of damaging more parts of the body.

It is only applicable to the things that Shi touches, and the effects of the weapon that he wielded will automatically disappear after a few moments if he were to put it down or give it to another person.

Requiem ||| The first tier form of the last song that Aaron knows. Its tune is the second melody that would immediately strike a sense of concern into a soul from its slow and suspenseful tone. To make things short, Requiem is the song that the man either sings or hums to himself that triggers the effects of all of the previous songs listed thus far at once without a large of his abilities being disabled. The drawbacks for this song are that it would exhaust his aura and a faster rate than even singing more than one of the normal songs that he knows at once, and that it only exhibits the abilities of the songs that he knows at a small portion depending on how loud he exerts the tune and whether or not he is simply humming along or actually singing the lyrics.

Because of the exhaustion concerns, Requiem is one of the songs that Aaron projects as a last resort. It is only self-applicable and cannot be used on any other person.

Kanghui ||| Named after a Chinese dragon of rain and destruction. Kanghui is one of Aaron’s nicknames, as well as the second tier and mightier form of Requiem. The effects of Kanghui are basically the same as the once exhibited in Requiem, minus the power fractions. In fact, Kanghui actually increases the abilities that are granted by each normal song by threefold rather than decreasing, giving him an extreme increase of capabilities. This song is almost immediately identified by its slow, eerie sound, alongside its lyrics, which have heavy pauses and the occasional, uneasy quiet section of lyrics.

The one and only drawback of Kanghui is that it depletes Aaron’s aura at an even faster rate of Requiem, and thus he’s only able to use the abilities of the Kanghui tune for no more than five minutes at maximum as of this moment in time. Should he use it for longer, then he will begin to feel short yet extremely painful shocks in his head which will continue until he stops chanting Kanghui, and the aftereffects of this action have been known to last up to five days at most. Unless training himself to boost his semblance abilities, Kanghui is almost always used strictly as a last resort. It cannot be used on/for anyone else other than Shilong himself.