Disclaimer: I don't own either RWBY or Okami.
Sorry for throwing up this new story, but after replaying Okami HD (Highly recommended) and noticing some pretty similar concepts my brain would not rest till I wrote this. It was either this or a Witcher (Also highly recommended) crossover, which would also be cool, but alas, I know more about Okami than I do the Witcher.
"Birdie NOO!" A horrified yell echoed across the sky as a red-and-black clad girl, looking something akin to Little Red Riding Hood, soared through the air after accidentally crashing into and killing a Nevermore.
This was Ruby Rose, fifteen-year-old Huntress-in-training, currently undergoing her initiation into Beacon Academy, along with all the other first year students. The initiation? Being literally flung off a platform at high speeds into a forest filled with terrifying monsters called the Creatures of Grimm, survive the landing, meet up with another student who, upon eye contact, will be your partner for the four years at school, and then hike your way to a set of ruins and retrieve a relic. Whichever pair of partners picks up the same relics as you will become a team of four.
Simple stuff realy.
As the forest got closer and closer Ruby aimed her weapon, a red mechanical scythe that also acted as a high calibre sniper rifle lovingly named Crescent Rose, and fired a few shots to lose some momentum.
Now going a tad bit slower then before, Ruby transformed Crescent Rose into it's scythe form and hooked the blade around a branch to swing down safely onto the forest floor. As she landed in a crouched position her thoughts turned to finding her older sister, one of three people she knew at the school, as she set off running into the forest.
'Gotta find Yang. Gotta find Yang. Gotta find-' "Yang! Yang!" Ruby yelled out into the woods as she ran. She started to mentally panic at the idea of not being able to find and pair up with her sister.
'This is bad, this is really bad. What if I can't find her? What if someone finds her first?' As Ruby was caught up in thought she was blissfully unaware of a small, little hole in the ground that still caused her to trip and stumble into a bush...
...A bush that happened to be hiding a large cave that she then slid down into, looking very much like Alice.
"Ahhhh! Oof!" It was a near sixty-five degree ledge that dropped off onto a grassy platform. With a small thud the red girl hit the softer-than-expected grass. As she picked herself up, checking to see if anything had been broken and brushing off the twigs and dirt on her clothes, she took note of her surroundings. What she saw was wholly unexpected and completely extraordinary.
"Woah..." Ruby stated in awe of what she had stumbled upon. It was the most beautiful spring she had ever seen. There were a dozen cherry trees on each side a grassy pathway and a much larger thirteenth could be seen at the end of the pathway. Illuminated by fire from wooden torches, though sunlight from several openings in the roof of the giant cave added a sense of divine natural lighting in the area, the place was surprisingly well lit for what looked to be just some cave hundreds of feet underground. Several waterfalls could be seen pouring off into an abyss surrounding the platform that the spring sat upon. At the top of a small hill, a pond of crystal clear water sat in front of a shrine with a wolf statue on it. The wolf was in a standing position and appeared to be howling skyward.
Ruby's body moved on its own as she walked up the hill and towards the wolf. Something about the place seemed supernatural, as there was no way this place could have been formed naturally. That and the constant feeling of peace and calm she had now in contrast to the panic that was eating at her moments ago. As Ruby got to the pond she saw that several stepping stones acted as a bridge towards the statue. Carefully stepping on each one as she got closer and closer to the wolf, she could swear she saw a red glow began to emerge from the wolf's stone body.
Normally after one falls into a hidden sanctuary of supernatural beauty and stumbles upon a statue of a wolf on a shrine glowing red, they call it quits and turn right back around and go on their merry way. Ruby Rose was anything but normal however. Her childish curiosity demanded that she investigate and touch the red glow. As she slowly reached out her hand she felt the warmth of the sun wash over her and a bright flash blinded her temporarily.
"Oww.! Okay, that was not very nice..." Ruby muttered to herself as she rubbed her eyes to get back her vision. When she did regain her sense of sight, the statue of a wolf was gone, and in it's place was an actual wolf.
Not only was there a wolf, but it was covered in crimson markings on its face, legs, and body, had a tail shaped like a calligraphy brush, and had an all white mane. Ruby had to blink a couple of time to make sure she was not going crazy. Seeing the wolf still there and now looking at her while wagging its tail Ruby reacted in the most acceptable way. Freaking out.
"AH! What the heck! What just happened!? Why are you glowing!?" As Ruby began to panic the wolf calmly walked up to her and delivered a playful headbutt to the girl's stomach. Ruby let out an 'oof' as she landed on her butt. She went to shoot the wolf a glare for the attack but saw it just sitting there making eye contact with her. Several awkward seconds of silence passed as Ruby began to feel like the red and white wolf was somehow judging her.
"Soooo...what's up?" Ruby asked the wolf, not really expecting a response. Well, at this point she didn't know what to expect, so if the wolf had just opened it's gabber and began to talk away it wouldn't have been that shocking.
"*Bark*" The wolf let out a seemingly friendly bark as it wagged its tail a bit faster. Ruby, lacking the ability to speak wolf, or any form of the canine language for that matter, just assumed that meant 'pretty good'.
"Well...that's nice." A single bark was all she received in reply. Slowly standing up Ruby looked at the white wolf with a suspicious eye. Was this part of the initiation? Was this some unknown friendly/kind of a j*** Grimm? Or did she just stumble on something that should probably have been better off left alone?
"So...I'm going to go now, I kinda have a test I'm supposed to be doing." The wolf titled it's head in confusion as Ruby gave her excuse for getting out of it's cave.
"Well you see, I was supposed to find my sister so we could be partners and I wouldn't have to interact with strange people because I don't see how talking to people relates to fighting monsters. But I fell down this hole, activated some weird wolf statue thing, and now I'm probably never gonna find Yang and I'll get stuck with some stranger and have to be social." Ruby quickly ranted at a rate close to near unintelligible as the pressure of today was starting to get to her.
Taking some deep breaths after her vent she looked down to see the wolf was asleep on the ground. A massive sweat drop appeared on her head as her eye twitched at the wolf's lack of attention. Letting out a sigh Ruby turned around and began to walk towards the cave she tumbled down.
The rocky slope that lead up to the hole she fell down was a good forty feet above where she currently stood. No problem for someone with Aura, the manifestation of one's soul. Leaping up onto the ledge Ruby began to run back into the forest but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the wolf outside waiting for her. Doing a double take to where the wolf had been asleep and seeing the spot now vacant, barring some flowers that had inexplicably grown there, Ruby's head shot back to the crimson marked wolf.
"How did you do that?" She asked the canine in shock. A single bark emitted from the wolf, possibly revealing it's secret, but alas Ruby was still incapable of understanding barks in their natural form. Ruby slowly began to walk past the wolf as she got further away from the cave. The wolf followed her movements with it's head and saw her try and dart off into the woods. "Try" being the key word. As soon as Ruby began to run into the woods the wolf was once again in front of her. Now she was starting to get frustrated.
"...Okay, look here Mr. Wolf...or Mrs. Wolf, don't really know what you are, I have a test I need to be doing and if I don't find someone soon to be my partner I might not make it into Beacon and never fulfill my dream of becoming a Huntress. So either you need to tell me what you want or please move." Ruby attempted to reason with the wolf. Letting out two barks the wolf then pointed hunting dog style towards a direction in the woods. Staring at it for a few seconds Ruby then raised an eyebrow.
"...So what you want is over there?" She guessed. The apparently very intelligent wolf let out a sigh as it then scooped up and tossed Ruby onto it's back. Letting out an eep at the sudden forced movement Ruby was forced to hang on as the wolf darted into the direction it had pointed.
As it would turn out the wolf had some serious speed to it as the trees of the forest seemingly passed by in a blur.
"Where are we going!?" Ruby tried to ask as her question was shaken up by the wolf's running. The wolf made one graceful bound over a large tree and landed in a dead stop. The momentum launched Ruby off of it's back as she landed with a roll and rose to her feet.
"Ow…" Looking directly ahead Ruby made eye contact with someone. A girl, dressed in a snow white and light blue combat skirt and white heel wedged boots that went up to her calf. Her hair was as white as the wolf's fur and was done up in an off-centered ponytail. A crooked scar down her left eye was the only blemish on her pale face. This was Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company and someone Ruby had not made a good first impression on. In fact she may have accidentally blown her up. But hey, accidents happen. Ruby put on a light smile as Weiss made an about face and walked away.
"Wait! Where you going? We're supposed to be teammates..." Ruby said dejectedly as she kicked some of the dirt on the forest floor. The wolf walked up the side and let out a small whimper catching her attention. Ruby patted the wolf on the head as she gave it a half smile.
"Thanks for trying." The wolf's attention turned to where Weiss had walked away as the white dressed girl came storming back for some reason and began to pull away Ruby by her red cloak.
"By no means does this make us friends," Weiss stated.
"You came back!" Ruby cheered as she pumped her arms into the air. The wolf let out a happy bark and began to trot behind Ruby. The bark caught Weiss's attention as she now acknowledged the wolf's presence.
"...What is that?" She asked the black-and-red haired girl.
"Oh! This is a wolf I found in a cave. I know that sounds weird but it's actually pretty cool! So far it's moved super fast, can understand me, and it has some neat red markings!" Ruby answered as the wolf barked in apparent approval. Weiss looked at Ruby in confusion and back to the white wolf.
"What red markings? It's completely white." Weiss told her new teammate. Now it was Ruby's turn to look confused.
"What do you mean all white? A good quarter of it has these really ornate crimson markings."
"Are you hallucinating? It's all white."
"No, you must have eye problems, it clearly has red on it."
"No, it doesn't."
"Yes, it does."
"No."
"Yes."
"NO!"
"YES!"
As both girls continued to bicker about there being any red markings on the wolf, neither noticed the bushes behind them begin to rustle. A few pairs of red glowing eyes could been seen before several large werewolf-like creatures with white bone-like patrutions on their body and head appeared.
Beowolves, a kind of Grimm. And there were a lot of them. The white wolf that was accompanying the two girls began to snarl at the approaching creatures, catching the attention of the two arguing teens.
"Beowolves!" Ruby called out as she transformed her weapon into its scythe form. Weiss meanwhile drew a white rapier that had a revolver-esque cylinder acting as the guard. Each one of the 'barrels' had a different vial of Dust, the energy source that had given Mankind a chance against the Grimm.
The wolf crouched down into a near pouncing position and snarled at the Grimm. Ruby acted first as she shot towards one of the Grimm at incredible speed and sliced the creature in two.
Weiss shot forward with her rapier and, using a vial of red Dust, sliced down one of the Grimm with a blast of fire.
Both girls, seeking to use the momentum of their first attacks, lunged for the next Grimm they saw. Unfortunately, it happened to be the same one, and both girls collided in the air in front of the werewolf-like monster.
"Watch where you're going!" Weiss yelled at Ruby.
"Hey, I had this one!" Ruby yelled back. The girls were about to descend into yet another yelling match but the Grimm, feeling slightly ignored, decided now it would attack. Letting out a roar it made a wide swipe with its claws to gore the two distracted girls. However, a mysterious force apparently decided today was the day this Grimm would have its head magically cut off mid swing. The creature's head tumbled through the air as the body fell with a thud and began to vanish into a dark mist.
Both teens' eyes widened as they just saw a Grimm decapitation (Somewhere else in the forest the blonde half-sister of Ruby let out a laugh, for she had sensed a crappy pun being made). Looking around for another potential Hunter trainees, the girls' search drew a blank for other people.
What it did show was the wolf sitting in the middle of a horde of dead, dissolving Grimm, all missing various limbs. The wolf let out a happy bark at the red and white teens. Weiss's eyes had a look of pure shock and confusion as she rapidly looked around for anyone else, refusing to believe what she was seeing implied. Ruby, however, had stars in her silver eyes as she dashed over to the snow-white colored canine with red markings, leaving behind a bunch of rose petals.
"Did you do all this!?" Ruby asked the wolf excitedly as she picked it up from under the arms.
"*Bark*" The wolf let out happily as it wagged its tail. Ruby took that as a yes and began to gush over how she had found a magic wolf that could tear Grimm apart with ease.
"Oh, don't be silly you dolt. There is now way that mutt did all this. There must be another student nearby...Whose Semblance is invisibility or uses a sniper rifle," Weiss tried to rationalize.
"Nope! There is no else around and bullets wouldn't leave cuts like that." Ruby threw back her own rationel at the heiress. Weiss let out an aggravated sigh at her partner's childish nonsense. The heiress' eyes lit up with an idea on how to put this rubbish aside.
"I'll tell you what Ruby. I will concede that the mutt did all of this if that boulder over there suddenly is sliced into precisely one-hundred pieces." Weiss said as she closed her eyes and put on a smug smirk as she pointed over to a very large boulder near some trees. The sounds of something heavy hitting the ground hit her ears as her eyes shot open and saw the boulder lying in...a great many pieces.
"I'll count!" Ruby yelled out as she sprinted over to the remains of the rock and counted at super speed. Weiss looked down to the snow white wolf in shock and saw something that rattled her to her core. The formerly all-white wolf in her eyes now had faint red markings on its body and face. The wolf had a large smile on its face as it wagged its tail in amusement. Weiss could not form words for a while as Ruby appeared very close to Weiss with a sly smile.
"There are exactly a hundred pieces of rock." She stated as she let some of the debris and dust fall from her hand.
"...H-h-how?" Weiss stammered out as she could not look away from the now sleeping wolf. Ruby just shrugged as she walked over to wake the lazy canine up.
"I dunno. But it was a statue when I found it in the cave so maybe we have some awesome super magic wolf with us!" Ruby cheered out at the end as the crimson-marked wolf let out a bark of approval and did a standing backflip with no effort at all. Weiss could only walk robotically after the red girl and her wolf as they ventured further into the woods to find the relics somewhere deep in the forest. All the while looking at the apparently magical wolf as she tried to come to terms with what had just transpired in the past twenty minutes alone.
Amaterasu Okami, Goddess of the Sun, Master of all Celestial Brush Techniques, Origin of All That is Good, and Mother to us all was quite amused with how her recent awakening had gone. She had slumbered for several thousand years after defeating Yami, The Lord of Darkness and returning to her full power.
Having Nippon cleansed of demons, she decided a small nap was in order. However, she may have lost track of time and ended up turning to stone in order to retain her powers. When she had been awoken by a very innocent and kind young girl, in a world consumed by monsters and evil, she had felt it her duty to watch over and protect her, if not out of a need to help her fight off the new darkness she sensed, then out of a maternal sense.
So far her job had been met with surprisingly easy obstacles since the Grimm encountered so far were about on par with the demons she had combated long ago, but the girl's social awkwardness with other people was apparent with her partner alone. Letting out a sigh as she walked alongside Ruby, with Weiss still tailing behind after being able to see only part of her true form. These Creatures of Grimm may or may not be as bad as the demons she once vanquished back when the world was still young, but they would not be allowed to prevail over the light. That much she would guarantee.