Chapter 1

Confusion

I woke up, but not fully. I groaned groggily and rolled over, muttering "Five more minutes". I shifted and tried to drown out the sound of cars rushing by. Wait, my street was never this busy. I opened one eye to check it out. What was in front of me was startling. I was currently in an alleyway of a bustling city, hidden behind a dumpster. I shot up and rubbed my eyes, trying to see if I was in a dream. I wracked my brain for how I got here. I had gone to my second degree black belt test and was exhausted, so I took a nap on my couch and *poof* I'm in an alleyway.

I quickly took a look in a puddle of murky water. Blonde hair, check. Blue eyes, check. Still fourteen, check. Still a guy, check. Despite my current location, my black athletic tee shirt and black jeans were pretty clean. I reached into my shirt, pulling out my necklace. It was previously a simple cross, but now it was an ornate design of a black dragon curled around a huge red gem. I shrugged and tucked it back into my shirt.

I looked up to see what time of day it was, but the sun hurt my sensitive eyes. I pulled out my red tinted sports glasses and looked back up, noting that it was about midday. Wait, my test ended at two o' clock. How did I go back in time? I pulled out my phone and saw that it was the same day as when my test happened. Creepy.

When putting my phone back, I noticed that my laptop bag was sitting against a wall. I pulled it over and sat down, digging through the contents. Laptop, Kindle, chargers for all my devices, headphones, wallet (which was full of weird looking cards), what the hell! What was this, Hermione's purse! I dug through a few more things before finding a weird leather-bound book with a faded flame decal on the front. I flipped it open and began reading the weathered pages.

'Hello! This is your guide to the world of Remnant!' What is this, and instruction manual?

'Yes it is!' What the hell?!

'Yes, I know you're surprised by the talking book, but shouldn't you be gasping in shock? REMNANT dumbass!' Then it sunk in. Remnant, as in the planet that RWBY takes place on. Awesome! Now I can kill monsters and beat the shit out of Roman!

'Whoa hotshot, don't get too excited. You haven't even trained with a real weapon' I'm a second degree black belt, I'm good.

'You gonna put a Deathstalker in a headlock?' Touché, book.

'I have a name' Well, what is it?

'I'm Aegis' Like Silva and Aegis?

'Yeah, like that. Getting back to business, there's going to be a person coming around soon. This person I chose to be your guide and friend. You don't have to do anything, they'll come to you' Why are you being so vague?

'Dammit! I was trying to create suspense!' Just get to the point!

'They're coming around this very second! Put me in your pocket!' I shoved Ageis into my back pocket and sighed at the ridiculousness of my life now. I suddenly get transported into an alleyway with a talking book named after a flaming shield on a planet that was supposed to be fictional.

"You okay?" A feminine voice invaded my thoughts. I looked up to see a girl no older than myself looking down at me. She had long black hair with gold highlights and amber eyes. She had a yellow shirt and a black jacket that was currently unbuttoned. She wore a pair of black shorts that went down to her knees. A set of black and gold ankle-high boots completed the outfit.

'Just be honest! I have this all laid out for you!' A very Church-like voice echoed through my head.

Are you Church? 'No, just… focus dammit!'

"Oh, I'm great. I just took a nap on my couch and woke up, back in time, in an alleyway with a talking book named after a flaming shield on a planet that was supposed to be fictional. Wouldn't you be just peachy?" I said with sarcastic enthusiasm.

"Okay, are you insane?" She asked me, eyeing me warily.

"Look, proof" I produced Ageis and gave him to her "Read the last line"

"What the hell?" She fumbled with the book, dumbfounded.

"Yep, I told you. To be honest I thought I was insane" I admitted.

"It knows my name!" The girl handed the book back to me.

"Yeah, so what's your name?" I asked, getting back up.

"What the hell was that Segway?" She asked.

"I'm not good at conversations!" I scowled.

"Well, my name's Laurel, Laurel Winterberry. What about you?" Laurel offered her hand for a shake.

"Name's Kyle Thomas, nice to meet you" I shook her hand firmly, just in case she was one of those people.

"So, how exactly did you end up here?" Laurel asked.

"I don't know, I just told you all I know. If you want to know anything more, ask Aegis" I said, pulling out the book.

"That thing has a name?!"

"Apparently. Look, I'm just as confused as you are right now. If you have some place we could sit down and figure this out, that would be perfect" I tucked Ageis into my back pocket.

"Yeah, we could go to my house. The only problem is that my parents are going to question me bringing a stranger inside, especially a guy" Laurel scratched the back of her head nervously.

"Do you have an attic?" I asked out of the blue.

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"I have a plan" I said, grabbing my bag and walking off.

Laurel took me to her house, asking various questions. Everything from my family and friends to how I spent my free time. I answered what I could, which was most of them, but the few I couldn't I asked Aegis. He gave his vague answers that made no sense at all. When we reached the house, I could see that it was about two stories (minus the attic) and was fairly large. I hid behind a bush.

"I'm going to sneak around and climb up to the roof. You're going to go inside and open the attic window to let me in" I explained my plan, gesturing for Laurel to start her side of it.

She went inside and I stayed close to the wall, avoiding windows and doors. I noticed a gutter pipe that lead to the garage roof. I took a look around before latching onto the pipe and began to clamber my way up silently as possible. I saw a slightly higher part of the roof across a large gap. I took a deep breath before running up and jumping at the wall between the gap, sliding my hand along the wall and barely clinging on. I leaped off the wall, grabbing onto the gutter and taking a gasp for breath. I was so lucky there. I had done training on wallrunning at Karate, but I never expected to do it. I hauled my way up and walked silently over to the highest window. I jumped up and grabbed hold of the windowsill. I waited for it to slide open before jumping in.

"Holy crap that was tough" I collapsed on the floor, panting.

"How hard could that have been?" Laurel asked, helping me up.

"Did you just run on a wall?" I complained.

"Point taken. So, is this your grand plan? Are you going to live in my attic for the entire time you spend here?" Laurel questioned.

"No, you're going to sit up here with me and get to know me. If you know stuff about me, you can pretend I was your friend before now and convince your parents that my parents died and that I have no place to go" I explained.

"Clever. So, first question…" Laurel began asking me more personal and strange questions to get to know me better. I told stories and talked about things that I would have normally not told other people. Eventually, the sun began to set and Laurel was called down for dinner.

I realized that I hadn't eaten or drank anything since breakfast. I looked into my bottomless laptop bag to see if there were any snacks. I never found food, but I located a water bottle. My stomach growled, but I ignored it and just drank my water. I began contemplating my situation, almost laughing at the absurdity of my life right now. I failed to see the sense in asking Aegis anything, he wouldn't be of any use.

I heard some odd noises from below me before quickly realizing that someone was climbing the ladder to the attic. I snuck under a tarp covering a table. The dustiness was hardy bearable, but it was better than getting caught. The hatch to the attic creaked, suggesting that it was opening. I huddled into the back and slowed my breathing. I heard someone walking around the room, shifting things and picking things up.

I heard the sound of footsteps grow closer and I braced for my discovery. I the tarp was lifted to reveal an older man with black hair scanning the underneath. To my surprise, he didn't see me. Even when he looked straight at me he just moved on.

'Thank me later' a voice echoed in my head. I looked at my hands and noticed they were surrounded in a ghostly white glow. I heard the hatch close and went to push the tarp open. When I touched it, my hand passed straight through it. In my curiosity, I stood up. Half my body was below the table, half was above. I stepped out of the area and the ghostly glow disappeared. I tried to walk back through it, but bounced straight back.

'It's your semblance. I activated it for you when you were discovered' Aegis' voice echoed through my head. Oh yeah, I'm on Remnant. So I guess you want to make me a hunter.

'Yeah, that's basically it' Oh, now you give a straight answer.

'Actually, you're kind of an experiment of how someone like you would react to these kinds of situations. You just so happened to want to become a hunter' what, so you're the Bill Nye of the gods?

'I'm going to take that as a compliment' yeah, I guess that wasn't much of an insult. Who wouldn't want to be Bill Nye?

"Sorry! My parents asked me why I was in the attic so long. I couldn't come up with a good excuse so my dad checked. By the way, how did you hide?" Laurel came up through the hatch, apologizing.

"Aegis activated my semblance, which is apparently turns me into a ghost, and made sure I didn't get caught. Also, he gave a straight answer" I explained.

'Put me on the floor so I can talk to both of you' Aegis said in my head. I complied and a small candle-like flame appeared above the symbol. The flame was surrounded by an orange ring.

"Yeah, I told him that he's an experiment. I'm here to record how he reacts to this situation" Aegis said, the orange ring fluctuating at certain points like audio in a sound editor.

"Then I guess you're going to be here for a while. I should probably explain this world to you" Laurel began, but I held up my hand to stop her.

"Already know everything" I grinned, pulling out my phone and showing her the opening to RWBY volume one.

"What? How-"

"That's right, where Kyle comes from, you're in an anime" Aegis popped in "The only thing is, right now is three years before the canon storyline. That means, you're going to Beacon at the same time as the main teams. I did this because I think it'll be funny when Kyle accurately predicts the future"

"What happens to me?" Laurel asked, intrigued.

"You're not in the show" I said, causing her to pout.

"One, I didn't make it. Two, not every person on this planet is a main character" I held up my fingers on each number.

"Guys, don't mean to burst your bubble, but it's midnight. Get some bloody sleep" Aegis intruded on our conversation, probably for the best.

"Alright, we should. We'll deal with the second half of the plan tomorrow"

Hey! New RWBY fic up now. I hope you liked it, I put a lot of time into it. If anyone out there is a reader of my other story, Hek's Secret Weapon, don't worry. This will not interfere with it and it will continue to update. At the end of the summer, I might have to switch between the two, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Anyways, I'll see you later. Necrorizah, out.