Aokiji gasped wildly and his eyes went as wide as dinner plates as he sat up, but he quickly regretted it as whiplash along with the near blinding light made him feel woozy. He groaned and slowly made it to his feet and unfortunatly, toppled right back down onto his face. "Gah, what in the world?.." He cried, looking down at his legs, wondering why he couldn't stand. But as he looked down, the Navy Admiral realized legs was an overstatement. A good majority of his clothes were gone, and the tattered rags of his pants were covered in soot and scorch marks. His body was badly burned along the right side, and he grimaced as he looked at his hand. Third degree burns had scarred the tissue in an ugly fashion, and most importantly, his left leg was majorly gone, leaving him with a quarter of a stump.
A quick scene of a massive wave of molten magma rising over him flashed through Aokiji's mind and he shook his head, as a single name escaped his lips angrily. "Sakazuki.." he growled, as he lazily waved a hand over his missing leg and soon, an ice prosthetic formed in it's place. He slowly began bending his "leg" back and forth, testing it's flexibility. Once confident enough, the Admiral stood to a staggering height of ten feet. Aokiji remembered that he was in the apex of his battle with Akainu over the position of Fleet Admiral.
Flashback
Kuzan dodged a hail of magma fists from Akainu, his haki on full alert as he jumped back and returned fire with his own Devil Fruit.
"Ice Block: Partisan!"
Pronged ice spears rained towards Sakazuki, who simply coated his fist in haki and smashed them away.
"The Navy doesn't need to be in the hands of a spineless do-nothing who lets pirate scum come and go as they please! Who cares if they've done nothing now or ten years from now. If you wish to claim the title "Pirate" then you deserve the death you knew awaited you." Akainu growled as he rushed forward with a magma fist the size of a truck. Aokiji attempted to shield himself but found the sheer heat of Akainu's Magma far too much to form a thick enough barrier. With a heave, Akainu sent his icy counterpart into the ground under his burning fist. Slowly, the Red Dog lifted his fist to find a burning and broken Aokiji. "You sit on your ass all day and wait for the likes Strawhat and Shanks to rise to their full potential and persue stupid "dreams" and call it Justice! Why are you even bothering to try?" The magma covered Admiral continued, spitting on the ground next to Kuzan.
When Kuzan finally stopped writhing in pain, he shot Sakazuki a cold glare and raised his voice to a shout; something rarely ever done by the cool headed Admiral. "Because I know the Navy doesn't belong in the hands of someone who follows your justice! Someone who'd burn down an entire island of innocent mothers and children and hard working innocent men and women for the sake of a few pirates! Or commencing a Buster Call out of fear of a peaceful knowledge loving people! I might not be right for the position. But I'd even put it in the hands of someone like Red Hair or Straw Hat before I ever even considered you." Aokiji finished bringing up the same two pirates that all but plagued Sakazuki's mind just to spite him.
The angered magma man raised his bubbling fist with unremorseful fury before bringing it down one final time.
Present
Kuzan flinched as the memory ended. "Oh... I lost." He said gravely to nobody as he shakily began to take a few steps and survey his surroundings. "Somehow I'm alive...But where am I?" The giant Logia user wondered. There were large crates stacked high above his head and the smell of burning oil and the sea filled his nostrils. As he walked forward, he exited the small pathway he woke up in and found himself at some port for cargo ships.
"Once they found out I was beaten, they must've picked me up and tossed me to some random island. Probably not even in the New World anymore. They've most likely transferred my ass to some island in the Four Blues to make sure I couldn't spread rumors across the Grand Line." Kuzan thought bitterly as he began checking for people to get directions.
All of a sudden, the wind above him roared and blew furiously and the ground vibrated lightly. "What in the hell-" The former Admiral couldn't bring another word from his lips as he saw several gigantic metal contraptions flying in the air, swooping low before hovering over a group of people. He saw a bunch of people in masked uniforms with strange weapons in their hands. They seemed to be led by a man in a white suit with flamboyantly firey hair and a cane. The man just released a massive explosion that sent a young girl dressed in black flying.
The ten foot tall titan was about to intervene when he saw her tumble to safety before engaging White Suit in combat. One thing he noticed was that the girl had... cat ears? Her strangely shaped weapon seemed to be a firearm of some sort as it began shooting at White Suit, but he expertly ran out of the line of fire, closing the distance and using his cane to strike at Cat Girl. She fought hard but White Suit was more experienced and his willingness to use underhanded tactics like going for the groin and eyes was slowly gaining him ground.
Suddenly, she seemed to get hit, but vanish as if it were just a mirage. Suddenly a boy with a monkey tail and scruffy blonde hair took her place. He fought with random but diciplined strikes with a pair of nunchucks as well as incorperating his limbs into the fray to push back White Suit. Suddenly there seemed to be gunfire entering the mix but kuzan saw no firearms on either of them.. Until he looked closer. With every swing of a nunchuck, there was a loud boom and a flash at the end of the... Barrel? That's when the confused marine realized: the nunchucks were also guns. That boy was fighting with gun-chucks.
"That's actually kinda cool." Aokiji quietly admitted. Soon two more girls showed up. One with curly orange hair, a modest white blouse, and a black skirt and matching stockings, both with neon green lines runnung up the sides. The other girl was exceptionally younger than the other the rest of the teens fighting White hair and his masked lackeys. She had dark red hair, almost black and silver eyes. Her complexion was pale with rosy pink cheeks and she wore red caped cowl over a white blouse and a black and red stringed corset. She too had a skirt but it was red. She also held a massive red mechanical scythe in her hands.
"Blake!" Red called down to Cat Ears with concern.
"We gotta stop meeting like this, Little Red!" White Suit called before aiming his cane at her and firing another explosive shot at the young girl.
Kuzan stepped into action with a single use of Soru. In no time, he was in front of Red and her friend, with a thin wall of ice blocking off the shot.
Ruby didn't know what happened. She closed her eyes, preparing for the incoming shot but it never came. Instead, when she peeked, the young Huntress in training found her gaze climbing higher and higher to see an insanely tall man with an afro standing in front of her with a wall of ice shielding them. , his clothes were torn and he seemed to be injured badly. One of his legs, the severely burnt one was made of ice from the thigh down.
"Woah..." The young girl whispered in awe before shaking her head. "O-oh uh... Thank you!" Ruby said meekly, before seeing the man turn around, and revealing even more burns as he smiled.
"No need to thank me, little lady. I'd just seen enough. I'm guessin' the chick down there is your friend?" The tall stranger asked. Ruby looked past his limber frame down at Blake who was also looking up at the newcomer. "Yeah, that's Blake! I think she was with that guy." Ruby said, pointing at the Monkey Faunus beside her friend. "Good to know" the man said cooly before jumping down.
"Hey tall, dark, and crispy! This has nothing to do with you so why dont'cha just-" Torchwick didn't even get to finish his sentence before Ruby watched the man lazily raise a finger to point at Roman and calmly stating a simple word.
"Shigan."
Instantly a hole appeared in Torchwick's left shoulder and blood sprayed from the wound to the ground, dirtying his impeccable white suit. "Aaaah! Sonofabitch!" Roman cried in pain as he gripped his shoulder tightly to try and stop the bleeding. "Dang, I missed the heart." Said the dark man as casually as if he missed throwing a piece of paper in the waste bin. Torchwick growled in anger at being mocked by a total stranger.
"Get him!" The villian commanded his White Fang henchmen. Soon a large circle swarmed the tall Samaritan, but just as Ruby prepared to jump down and return the favor, the man suddenly disappeared. Dust swirled in the place of the exceedingly tall man, and suddenly, he reappeared outside of the circle of White Fang members.
"Look out!" Roman called, although his warning was far too late, as the tall burned fighter placed his hands on the shoulders of two faunus and everyone watched in shock as their arms and necks were frozen solid in an instant.
The men screamed bloody murder as the stranger smashed their frozen limbs, leaving ugly, frostbitten, shattered stumps where their shoulders used to be. Immediately, their comrades went into action. Multiple masked henchmen rushed at the burned man, some with blades and some barehanded. None of it mattered as all of a sudden he crouched down, and placed his hands on the ground. "Ice Time Capsule!" The man called. Ruby could have sworn she heard a bit of strain in his voice, but the thought was lost as she watched the ground surounding the lone fighter froze instantly, and every last White Fang members were frozen solid, without a second thought.
"Wow.." Was the only thought that Ruby's awestruck mind could formulate.
Kuzan turned to face White Suit and jerked his head back to the frozen enemies behind him. "If you hurry and thaw them properly, they'll survive with just a cold." He said, his aloof way of saying 'Get out of here while you can'.
"I don't give a damn about those faunus! They were just as useless before as they are popsicles!" White suit said. Aokiji noticed that both Cat Ears and Monkey Boy bristled at that comment, before White Suit continued yelling, this time, into a walkie talkie. "Shoot this guy down!" He yelled before taking flight in the darkness of a maze of shipping crates. Aokiji would follow, but those gigantic hovering metal contraptions swiveled to face him and began firing heavy bullets that shook the ground upon impact. Aokiji heard Little Red shouting for him as his body was riddled with bullets that left holes the size of baseballs throughout his body, and ripping away chunks. The Navy Admiral's body flopped to the ground from the impact of each shot.
Blake was absolutely stunned. First, the night had taken a turn for the weird when Ruby had shown up and Roman Torchwick fired a sneak attack at the young leader. Just as the shot was about to make impact, a tall, freshly and badly wounded man protected her seemingly out of thin air, injured Torchwick, and taken out the entire ground forces of Faunus that Roman brought with him. All in the span of a minute and a half.
Now Roman had gotten away, and those dust ships had shredded the mystery man into mystery meat. As Ruby looked away from the carnage, Blake was ready to console her team leader. However, the minute the darkly dressed faunus turned her eyes back to where the man's corpse was, he was gone!
"Ara ara... Those bullets are stronger than I thought. Knocked me on my ass." A deep voice drawled above the scene. Everyone looked up mystified to see the same man who was just dead on the ground, high inthe air, eye level with the dust ships! What's more, the only injuries he gad were the ones he showed up with! Not a single bullet wound could be seen.
"Who is this guy?!" Sun Wukong, resident faunus troublemaker and stow away exclaimed as he watched on in awe.
"That's exactly what I want to know," Blake thought to herself as she watched this living mystery work. Much to the shock of everyone, the tall stranger outstretched both of his arms, and ice instantly began reaching from his hands, only to instantly cover and freeze two dust ships on either side of him. They crashed down in firey explosions on either side of himself as he landed in a heap, causing all the young huntsmen in training to rush to him. Penny followed more out of concern for her new friend Ruby than the man, but worry was on her face for him as well. By now the rest of the dust hips were fleeing and police were just now responding.
Coughing, the man rolled onto his back, and with the help of Sun and Ruby, managed to sit up. "Ohmygosh are you okay? You were amazing! How did you do that? Was it your semblance? Where did you even come from? Didn't you die? How come-" Ruby's fast paced questions were cut short when the tall man, who was eye level with Ruby even while sitting down, reached a looming hand for her. Even though he saved her initially, they still had no clue about this man and the destructive power they witnessed was unreal.
"Sure we probably could have suceeded in stopping them.. But would it have been that easy?" Was a thought running through Blakes mind as she prepared to protect Ruby from this strange man. However, when Ruby flinched and closed her eyes, the man only ruffled her hair. "Thanks for the help, kid" he said as he slowly staggered to a height around ten feet, Blake assumed. She knew he was tall, but being right under his nose was like looking up at a skyscraper. "Wow you're tall, what are you a giant?" Sun asked, getting an elbow from Blake for being rude.
To all of their surprise and confusion he actually answered. "Hahah, giants are much taller and far more noble than me. You've never seen one have ya?" He asked. "Of course not, giants don't exist" Blake thought, but brushed off hia strange comment. As the police and the Atlesian Knight-130s began a through sweep of the area. "Ah, bout time the Marines showed up. Now I'll get some answers" the man said and they all watched as he limped towards one of the Atlesian Knights.
Kuzan stood in front of the robot and rose a brow. "These are some weird... And tiny Pacifista units" He muttered before addressing it. "Uhh... PX unit, identify your designation" he commanded. The robot seemed to look Aokiji over before following the others.
"Citizen, stand aside. Third degree burns detected. Questioning and medical help shall arive shortly." Was given in a deep automated voice before continuing. "Citizen? I'm still apart of the Navy, and even so, I should be recognized by all Pacifista. This is weird..." The devil fruit user thought. Moving on, he went to the humans. They'd at least recognize him, or at least his rank by his Admiral's jacket, while a bit burned and tattered at the ends, still was intact, the black kanji for justice boldly printed on its back.
"Yo." The Marine waved over the closest officer. "Holy hell, are you okay sir?!" The policeman asked, taking Kuzan for an injured citizen. Meanwhile, Kuzan, used to being called 'sir' by his subordinates, regardless how many times he tells them to do otherwise, believed he was being recognized. "Yeah I think I'll be okay," Kuzan said before continuing to his questions. "Those are some strange looking Pacifista. I thought they were all modeled after the Warlord Kuma? How long have I been out for Vegapunk to come up with an entirely new modle?" He asked.
The policeman looked at him as if he had grown a third head as he spouted off phrases that made absolutely no sense. "Uh... I'm not sure what you're talking about, but these are the Atlesian Knights, and uh, to be honest..." The officer looked around before continuing in a hushed tone. "Don't tell anybody but these are old as sin. Rumor is tge big tech guys in Atlas are designing an entirely new line as we speak! These hunks of junk will be out of here sometime this year." He finished before walking off.
"Hey! Wait!" Kuzan was stunned as the policeman walked off without a second thought. "Atlas? Atlesian Knights? What the hell is going on here?" Kuzan asked as he scratched his head.
"U-um.. Is there anything we can help you with mister" a small voice came from behi- below. As he turned around and looked down, he saw the young girl dressed in red that he protected. "Oh it's you, what's going on?" Aokiji asked, taking notice of her companions behind her.
"We wanted to thank you for helping us, and we also noticed you were having troubles so we decided to see if there was anything we could do." The cat eared girl said.
"I'm Ruby!" The youngest looking of the group said cheerfully. "This is my teammate Blake," she pointed to Cat Ears. "My new friend Penny, " now pointing at the nicely dressed girl with orange hair. "And... stow away monkey boy" she said, obviously unfamiliar with the monkey tail. "You can call me Sun" the blonde spoke for himself.
"Nice to meet'cha little lady. I'm Navy Admiral Aokiji." He said, making Ruby giggle. Blake spoke up now, having been introduced. "We overheard a few things, sounds like you're a little lost." She said. The tall marine noticed how observant and reserved she was compared to the relaxed nature of Ruby and Sun. He couldn't gague much from Penny yet.
"Ah yeah. Some things are a little strange to me. Could you tell me what island we're on?" Aokiji asked politely. Everyone held a look of confusion before Blake spoke again. "Weeeere not on an island... This is the continent of Vale" Blake said skeptically.
Now, it was Kuzans turn to be confused.
"Continent? No no no, I think you're a little confused. There's only one continent: the Red Line. We have to be on an island." He corrected. "How limited is this island that they don't know about the Red Line, but advanced enough to make their own robots?" The afroed admiral asked himself.
Finally Penny spoke up, however what she said was not what Kuzan wanted to hear. "I'm sorry, there is no history of a continent known as the 'Red Line'. Perhaps you have suffered a severe concussion along with your burns." The young girl suggested. "Hm... Somethings off with this one... She talks so similarly to the Pacifistas it's scary." Kuzan noted, not really put off by the comment, more how it was said. All the young teens however nearly went white with shock.
"Penny! That was rude!" Ruby exclaimed. Penny, for what it was worth, gave a look of shock before looking up at Kuzan. "Oh, my apologies. I hope I didn't offend." She said. "Nah, you're fine, I've had worse said and done to me" he waved it off with a chuckle. Suddenly a black limousine pulled up, making Penny stop.
"Oh, my father is here! I must go. It was really fun Ruby, farewell all." Penny said as she made her brief departure.
"But she does have a point. I'm not the brightest banana in the bunch, but even I know there's four comtinents, and none of them are called the Red Line. " said Sun. "Oh, I know! Here, why don't you show me where you come from." Ruby pulled out a little metal contraption that she pulled open, and a hard light hologram was pulled up. Soon she fiddled and the words "World Map" along with a very strange and unfamiliar map beneath it. As they said, there were four massive land masses, named Vale, Vacuo, Mistral, and Atlas. There were a few small islands, but none looked even close to familiar.
"What the hell is this?" Kuzan scratched his head as he took the scroll and looked it over. "None of this can be right... Look!" Kuzan Rummaged around in his Navy officers coat till he found what he was searching for. Only a bit burnt around the edge near the South Blue, and it as well held World Map at it's head. It displayed the Four Blues, the Grand Line.
Ruby, Blake, and Sun looked at the map for an entire five minutes before Blake Finally spoke up.
"I think we should take him to meet professor Ozpin."
Authors Note:
Really hope you enjoy. Just letting it be known now. There are going to be some massive story differences in the RWBY timeline Due to Aokiji's presence, so if you were hoping for one of those fanfictions where the story of one show goes on while a character from another simply joins for the ride, this is not the story for you. I hope all of my readers have open minds and look forward to the next chapter like I do.