Prologue:
Bacon Academy, Headmaster Office:
Octavius Ozpin was sitting in his office, drinking a mug of coffee while reading the huntsmen report of this month. The mission succeed ratio increased 8%, while mission demand increased 12% in comparison of last year. Good numbers, he liked when his job was going well.
Yet they could be better, crime in Vale was increasing and inscriptions to the academy were 4% lower than last year. Don't get him wrong, the students this year were more quality than quantity but the council would certainly focus on the numbers rather than the people. Unfortunately, he couldn't go there and ask everyone to become a huntsman. Not all the children of Vale were capable of passing the initiation exam.
His secretary called him from the phone.
"What is it, ?"
You're 2 P.m. appointment is here, sir. A certain, .
Himura? Oh yes, he remember that someone wanted to meet him. "Tell him to come in." From his seat he could see how the elevator was coming from the reception to his office. When the elevator stopped in front of him he could finally see this Himura person.
By his name he expected him to be from Mistral, someone between 25 and 40 years old. But when Himura step into his office he was quite shock to see his appearance.
He was…small! 5'2'' to be exactly, was Himura a woman? No, it was rather that . It was hard to tell, he had a very slender body and youthful face, he could be easily be confuse by a first year! His hair was red and very long, tied by a ponytail. But the other thing that stood up was his cross like scar on his left cheek.
Himura was indeed from Mistral now looking closely at his face, even his clothes said Mistral for him.
" , I suppose."
"Indeed, you must be Headmaster Ozpin." Himura sounded polite and soft, like a gentleman. "Yes, this one goes by the name of Himura Kenshin, a pleasure to meet you." He bowed to him.
"Please, there's no need to be so polite, . Please take a seat."
"Thank you for your kindness." The young man took one of the seats in front of his desk. "Allow me to apologize for the sudden meeting, . And also thank you to lend your time to this one."
"There's no need to apologize or thank me, . I believe that the reason of this meeting is important to you."
"Highly, I may say." Ozpin realize how Himura's eyes changed. "This one won't waste any times with old stories and go to the point, I'm here in representation of frontier city of Edo and to talk to you about our participation on the next Vytal tournament."
What? "Pardon me, . But are you telling me that you lived in one of those frontier cities?"
"No, this one lives in it, alongside his family."
Hold on…what? This was… " , if this is some kind of prank that you're pulling off I swear that I will call security to scold you out of this school."
"I'm serious, Sir. This one does not lie. While is true that most of the frontier cities had fallen by the hand of Grimm, our town has being struggled to survive for centuries."
"Let's say I believe you, how can you prove me that what you saying is true? How is that now, this frontier city, is contacting us after so long?"
"Je, it is a hard story to believe. But this one has come prepared to show evidence." Himura took a picture of his pockets. "This picture was taken two hundred years ago by the founders or my home."
He looked at the picture, it was quite old indeed. Black and white, the paper was old as well. The picture has five people smiling at the camera.
"It is an old picture that's for sure but this could have been taking anywhere. I believe the part that is two hundred years but not that they founded the city."
"Jajaja."
"Did I say something funny, ?"
"Apologizes, is just that she said that you would have say that. That's why she told that if I want you to believe, this one has to show one this." He took another object from his clothes, this one was cover by bandages. "Please, take it."
"What is it?"
"Open it and you will find out."
What was this thing? Ozpin was actually curious of this object so he opened, inside of the bandages was…a golden dagger….
"W-What?!"
The people who were close to him would have say that he is not a person who often gets surprise, but if any of them see him right now their jaws would hit the floor by seeing his expression.
"Where did you get this?!" Getting angry and raise his voice was another thing he usually doesn't do. "Who give this to you?!"
"The owner of the dagger."
" , I'm serious about this! Where did you get this dagger?!"
"I will ask you to lower your voice, Headmaster. This one has told nothing but the truth and speaks to you politely, and I expect the same treatment."
"Tell me the name of the owner."
"You know her name and what she is."
" . ."
"Ἀθήνα"
"Oh god…" Ozpin fell to his chair. "Oh god…oh god…"
"She also told this one that you will react like this."
"Y-You…she is alive?"
"She wouldn't have given me that dagger if she was a ghost, headmaster."
"I can't believe this…all this year, we all thought"
"That the expeditions were a failure? Well, this one does not blame you. Most of them ended in a tragedy, thankfully ours is still struggling to survive."
"I see…then, why it took you so long to contact to the kingdoms?"
"Edo was founded two hundred years ago. Communications weren't as good as they are today, sir. Besides, we found many problems in there that keep us occupied and reasons to not come back as well."
"Which there are?"
"The same reasons why you're so focus on winning the war."
"So you know…
"Of course, as well as your identity." Ozpin started at him. "Fear not, this one will not tell anyone about it. But that's why I will tell from the start that all the men and women who work with me know about you."
"I don't know how to feel about this…"
"You seem to take it very well, I dare say."
"Honestly, is been so long since I have a new that shakes me this much. I'm still in shock, too much in little time."
"Indeed."
"So… , what is that you want?"
"We want to return to contact with the kingdoms, sir. While we managed to survive, we don't have the best of lives. My wife and son live there, I don't want them to face the same horrors that I did when I was a child, neither I want this to the other people inside Edo."
"A noble goal."
"A human one, I dare say. Will you help us?"
"Of course, it is my duty as a huntsman." Himura stand from his seat and bowed once again.
"Thank you very much."
"Jaune, over here!" The blonde teenager boy looked at her friend from his sister team.
"Hey, Ruby. How're you doing?"
"Only Ruby? What are we, background characters?" A blonde girl asked a little offended. She alongside three other girls, were part of team Rwby. This girl was Yang Xiao-long, Ruby Rose's big sister.
The other two girls were Weiss Schnee, Ruby's partner, and Blake Belladonna, Yang's partner. One was a pale skin, white haired girl and the other was a black haired. "I-I didn't mean that! I was just saying hi to Ruby because she talked first!"
"Jajaja, don't sweat it, vomit boy! I'm just teasing you."
"Could you stop calling me that?"
"When it stops to be funny."
"C'mon Yang, don't be so mean." His partner step up for him. "Would you like if someone calls by a nickname you don't like all the time?"
"No, I will probably beat him up." She answered. "But I don't mean anything bad by calling him like that, is just a joke, P-money."
Phyrra Nikos was Jaune Arc's partner, alongside Lie Ren and Nora Valkirie, they formed team JNPR.
"Yang…"
"Please, Blakey. You and Weiss-cream don't anything when I called like this."
"We do, all the time. You just ignore us every time we say it." Weiss was angry, obviously more offended than Jaune by being called by that nickname. "Anyways, we should get to the next class."
"Don't talk me about it, we have Oobleck next." Yang groaned in pain, just reminding his classes made her head spin around.
"Stop complaining, and before we start, I'm not going to lend you my notes this time!"
"Weiss, we are a team!"
"It's not my fault that you're not able to take attention to class, Blake is capable of doing it so you should as well."
"I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or an insult…."
"At least you have someone who can take notes…no one in our team is able to follow him, not even Ren."
"I tried but it was too much for me."
"Don't give up, Ren! I will support you!"
"Nora, you sleep in all classes."
"I morally support you!"
The eight children conversed until they reach the classroom, they took their seats and waited to the other students to come. One by one, all the students occupied the seats of the classroom. Oobleck was known to be extremely fast in movement and speaking yet he was always the last to come to his class.
"Good morning, Class!" In a flash he was already before all of them. "Today we will not have our regular history class, neither are we going to follow last week subject." A lot of students sighed in relief, including members of both teams. "Instead, today we are going to have a special guest to give us a special class for all of us."
'Special guest'? That was something weird, since they started, none of the professor has bring external help for their classes, not even other teachers. The entire classroom started to whisper about was going to happen.
"Silence! Headmaster Ozpin has order to treat this guest with extreme care and respect, so I will ask all of you to behave properly for the sake of the academy."
If Ozpin wanted this level of care then this person was really important! Who was this person?! "That's say, you may come in now, ."
The door open to reveled a man coming in…or was a woman?! Not it was a man, a slender and feminine man like Ren. He didn't look to old, he was almost their age! He couldn't be older than eighteen years old! Not only that, his clothes were from Mistral! He looked like one of those so called "Samurai" from the movies with a sword and those weird pants!
"Excuse me, thank you for receive this one in your lesson, Proffessor Oobleck." Both teams notice the strange accent and manner this Himura guy uses.
"There's no problem, . It's a pleasure to have someone like you in my class."
"Very well, then I will take matter from here."
"Please."
Himura walked to the middle of the class and started to all the students, he smiled kindly to all of them. First impressions were everything, and their first impression was he was a harmless person.
"Good morning, students. Apologizes to interrupt your schedules, I hope that you all understand the matter in our hand. Allow me to introduce myself, I go by the name of Himura Kenshin and I'm a huntsman from the frontier city of Edo."
All the children were confused by his sudden declaration, some kids like Weiss were in shock. "Now, how many of you know about the Frontier?" Some intellectuals raised their hands but the majority didn't. "I see, well, for those who are not familiar; many centuries ago, the four kingdoms decided to expand their territories by making multiples colonies in the unknown continent. These colonies were made by human and faunus alike, as you may know, it ended in tragedy. Countless of lives were lost by the hand of grimm, the Frontier was considerate a failure in the Kingdoms eyes."
"Excuse me, ?" Weiss raised her hand.
"Oro? May I know your concerns, Miss..?"
"I'm Weiss Schnee and I want to know what's going here, sir."
"Can you be more specific, Miss Schnee?"
"What I mean, with all respect, is that I don't believe anything you say." She clarify. "How do you expect us to believe that Remmant's greatest failure wasn't as big as we thought?"
"This one understands your concerns, Miss Schnee. I dare say that even Headmaster Ozpin had the same problem when I told him the same history. But I assure you that what I said is true and Edo is currently the only Frontier city."
"How do expect us to believe this nonsense?!"
"Weiss! Be a little more respectful!" Ruby was embarrassed by her partner sudden burst, I mean, the guy was there!
"I was educated by Atlas finest tutors, even in Mantles schools have told us about the insulting book of Faust."
"Tell me about it…" Blake rolled her eyes.
"I see, may you tell this one the contents of such book?"
"Very well, Doctor Johann Faust was one of the most provident minds of Atlas. Today medicine has a lot to thank Faust, he was categorized as one of the most influencing man in Atlas. Until he went to an expedition to the unknown and return completely mad."
"How so?"
"He came with stories about people who were able to fight without weapons and aura, who could move at high speed without the help of semblances, and the worst part, that they were able for live for centuries."
"That sound like a cool book, maybe I will read later." Yang commented, mostly to tease the heiress.
"It's not, is the tale of how a once respected doctor fall into madness after the death of his wife."
"Spoilers, jeez!"
"They are not spoilers! It's history of Atlas! After his wife passed away, he became obsessed to learn their ways of Aura manipulation trying to find a way to bring back his wife. He illegally experimented on faunus, torturing them to death and work on their corpse. Thankfully, he was put down before he could keep his research."
"You are quite educated, Miss Schnee." Himura didn't seem offender by anything she said, in fact, he smiled as well. "Tell me, could you explain me the basics of Aura?"
"Aura is the manifestation of our souls, it protects us like as an invisible shield from external damages and heals our wounds. But it can only be access by training or by the aid of another person, and it can only be used by beings that had a soul."
"That's a perfect definition of Aura, Miss Schnee. Yet is not the only one."
"With all respect, . This is the official definition of Aura."
"Of course, but that is YOURS definition of Aura. Allow this one to explain himself; we all agree that Aura is indeed the manifestation of our souls, it is a fact. But it doesn't work exclusivity as a shield or a healing ability, Aura can be a deadly weapon as well."
The kids in the classroom started at the man like he was talking nonsense. "You all known about Semblances, people who had unlocked their Auras are capable to utilize a unique ability called Semblance. I dare say that Semblances are weapons as well, but what this one is referring to is to use Semblances abilities without semblances."
" ?"
"Yes, your name Miss?"
"P-Phyrra Nikos, sir…I don't understand what you're saying, sir…"
"Is that so…very well, apologizes but I will need a volunteer to show me their semblances."
"Here! Ruby can do it!"
"Yaang!"
"Very well, Miss could you come down here?"
Ruby blushed when all the attention focus on her, stupid Yang. Why she always was trying to show her off? She wasn't special! Sure, she skipped a couple of years thank to the headmaster, but that didn't mean that she needed to be treated like someone exceptional!
But now she didn't have a choice, if she refuse to go she will very rude to their guest.
"May I know your name?"
"R-Ruby Rose…" She was nervous. "My semblance is speed."
"Oh, that's sounds impressive, could you kindly demonstrate us your ability?"
"S-Sure…"
In a flash she completely disappeared, leaving behind a track of rose petals. People were starting at her semblance with gaze, they already saw her in her sparring but she always managed to catch the gaze of a team or two.
Ruby didn't want to show off a lot so, she stopped after 15 seconds.
"Quite a beautiful spectacle it was, Miss Rose. This one has witness various techniques but no one that looked this beautiful."
"A-A-h…" Her face reddened, people have always say to her that her semblance was good, useful or cool but never beautiful! How was she supposed to answer to that?!
"High speed movement is common type of semblance, I dare say that they are more melee focus semblances like clones or elemental manipulation." Blake and Weiss nodded at his explanation. "This one has talk about using this kind of abilities without the aid of semblances." Himura draw his katana. "Allow me to show you…"
Himura grabbed the sword with both hands, he putted himself into a fighting. "Hiten mitsurugi style:"
"Nine-headed Dragon!"
Ruby paralyzed were she stood, she could sworn that his sword become nine in a blink of an eye. Himura launched nine strikes to het at the same time, yet no of them hit her or even hurt her, as a matter of fact, every single one of them missed.
The attack started and ended in a flash, her hair flowed for the air expansion that those attacks made. She couldn't imagine what will happen if someone gets actually hit by that…
"That's one of my techniques, "The Nine-headed Dragon", with this technique I simultaneity strikenine vitals points with the tip of my Katana. It made look like a trick of my part, that's why I would ask the aid of someone expert with weaponry.
"I-I'm into weaponry, sir…"
"My, you surely are quite skill, Miss Rose." Himura smiled at her again. "Here look at my sword."
The man passed her his weapon, Ruby was a weapon enthusiastic, she build her own scythe herself with no help. She examined his Katana, it was very well craft, good materials, perfect balance, not to light to break neither too heavy to slow you down. She didn't see any dust cartridges or a switch, as matter of fact, his katana reminds her about Jaune old sword.
"Hold on…" When she started her second look, she notice something very odd about this weapon. "This sword…it has no edge!"
Everyone who heard the red hooded girl, wined their eyes in surprise. How could someone fight with an edgeless sword?! Even stoic people like Ren and Blake were completely shock by her discovery.
Ruby might not bet the smartest girl in class, but in weaponry no one surpass her, if she said that a sword was edgeless it was certainly edgeless!
"These kinds of Katana are call "Sakabatou", it's a sword which has its blade on the opposite side." Ruby look at the interior….and he was right!
"But how do you use it? If the cutting edge it's on the opposite side then how you able to cut of things?"
"I don't. This sword is not meant to cut people."
"B-But what about Grimm?"
"Not all of you use sharp weapons in order to kill them, I am right?" He…made a good point, Yang used her firsts to fight and Nora a hammer. "And if this one wants to cut something, well…that's why the opposite is for." Himura directed his eyes to the crowd. "The sword has an inverted edge, no dust cartridge and I have no semblance, then I ask you all, how did I perform this technique?"
"It is a semblance, sir. There's no way that you can perform such attack with not Aura."
"You're half right, Miss Schnee. I couldn't be able to perform the Nine-headed Dragon without Aura but not in the way you think, Miss Schnee." Himura turned his sword, showing the cutting side of the katana and cut the palm of his hands. "You said that Aura work as a shield and heal our wounds, as you all may see my hand is currently bleeding and not healing. With all of this clear…Hiten Mitsurugi style:
"Dragon Nest Flash!"
His delivered a countless series of attacks in, as the same said, a flash. No one was able to follow the movements of his swords, not even Ruby with her high speed was able to tell where his sword was. It wasn't like the last one, at least that one you were able to tell how many strikes were but with this, it could be dozens of strikes.
The attack last less than ten seconds, in that short amount he did more strikes than any of them in their best day. When he stopped, he showed once again his hand that was still bleeding.
"As you may see, my left hand is still bleeding. Aura has not healed it, and is not because this one has decided to not heal, is because I don't possess the same kind of Aura as all of you." Himura stated. "In Edo, we use an old style of Aura manipulation that allow us to canalized Aura outside our bodies and use it to perform attacks like the last two." The kids were shocked, some of them were staring at the man with gaze. "Thank you for your assistance, Miss Rose. You may sit down."
Ruby nodded, still shocked by his performance. "Do you have any more questions, Miss Schnee?"
"Many."
"Well, that's the reason why I'm here today, children. To answer all of your questions, and speaking of questions, you are free to ask me anything."
All the students raised her hands.
"My, curious bunch you are all. Let's see, the oranged haired girl over there, your name."
"Hi, I'm Nora! Question: Are you a samurai?"
"Nora…" The black haired boy said with grimace…
"I am."
"Yeah, I knew it!"
" , my name is Blake Belladonna, can you explain us what are you here?"
"Of course, I'm here as a representative of my home, Edo. As I explained, the kingdoms had send it excursions to unknown territory for expansion, Edo is the only frontier town that managed to established and survives for the last two centuries."
"Then why did you come into contact now?"
"Technology wasn't the same two hundred years ago as it is now. We focus mostly on survive and save as many as we can, life outside the kingdoms is painful, Miss Belladona. And for what I'm here…well, it is time for the frontier to finally came back to the kingdoms."
Edo:
"Alright, I set this card upside down and finish my turn." A teenager boy said, he was playing a card game with 3 of his friends.
"You pull another trap, didn't you?" One of those boys said, he had short black hair. "I'm pretty sure that when I attack it will be my lost."
"Don't be such a downer, Yusuke. You wouldn't know if you don't try."
"You always say that before you win." Another boy added, this one was blonde. "Hey, carrot-top, is your turn."
"Eh…how do I summon a five-level monster again?" Two of the four boys groaned in annoyance, while the trap kid smiled awkwardly. "I'm sorry but this game is too weird!"
"You need to sacrifice a normal monster."
"Oh, well, I sacrifice… "Harpy lady" to summon "Black magician"" This boy, as his nick name said, had orange hair. "And I attack Joey's…what that thing is called?"
"Luster dragon! Kurosaki, we been playing for days! How is that you don't know the name of my card?!"
"You have, what, two hundred cards? It's impossible to remember all that shit."
"Watch your tongue, this card can save your life one day!"
"Joey, just accept that he defeat you like a man."
"Shut up, Urameshi!"
"Wait, I won?!"
"Well, Joey is out of life points meaning that you beat him."
"Yes, in your face, Wheeler!"
"Oh yeah?! What about if we settle this at the arena?!"
"You want to lose two times in a row? Guess, you really are though guy, huh?"
"Why you!"
"Yusuke, it's your turn."
"I give."
"But, you can still win!"
"Yugi, your set car is "Black hole", right? If I attack you, then I will have no monster left in my battlefield leaving myself open to a direct attack."
"Ah…jejeje…"
"I knew it! You just want to beat me completely, right?!"
"N-No! I just…!"
"Jajaja, don't sweat man! I'm just teasing you!"
"Well, at least I don't give up at the end."
"This is just a game, besides, if I able to figure out Yugi's trump card, then I will be okay in a fair fight. Also, I don't to hear that for you, Mister. "Always fall down for obvious traps""
"I don't fall from them, I let myself fall!"
"That's pretty much the same…"
"You guys are pretty up at the morning." Another guy entered their room, he was also orange haired but he had a pompadour. "Sup'?"
"Hey, Kuwabara. What're being up to? I couldn't found you to play with us."
"Oh yeah! I have great news about !" All the boys wined their eyes in surprise when he mentioned their teacher. "He managed to make contact with Vale! We're going to the kingdoms!"