It was a bright day in the rice fields. A man took a look at the rice growing at the fields. But then he saw something up in the air. A huge shadow grew, obscuring the sun, and a mighty wind started blowing across the fields. The man took another look. A battleship was crashing down off in the distance, and when it landed, it exploded. The explosion tore the landscape asunder.

Up on the clouds above, hundreds if not thousands of giant robots resembling Japanese samurai flew across the skies, guarding gargantuan, floating battleships. The machine samurai clashed in the skies above with their blades as they flew about. One group of machine Samurai flew to intercept and one of them charged a mighty laser, and fired it into the opposing army. The explosion destroyed a good number of the opposing samurai, but it was only a small portion of that army, and the survivors drew their blades and charged forward to attack. One machine samurai tore through another's shield, and then sliced it in half, only to have its arm ripped off and then be sliced in half. As the battling continued, many of the machine samurai drew guns and starting firing at each other. Many battleships became damaged, and the explosions started to bring them out of the sky. One of the mechanical samurai drew its gun and began charging up a powerful energy blast, aming it at the battleship on the opposing side of the battlefield. But out of nowhere, it was immediately sliced in half.

Out of the sky, a large ship shaped like a sword came soaring across the sky. On the exterior deck stood a middle-aged man with slightly dark skin, long brown hair, and silver eyes, wearing a green military uniform. In the cockpit of the ship sat a man in a similar outfit, much younger with blonde hair. The middle-aged man dashed along the ship's blade and leaped down below to intercept the machine samurai. He drew his sword as he kept falling towards the battleship and with one swift slash of his blade, the ship's deck was severed. Any machine samurai in his path was severed in two. The man landed on the deck of another ship and charged forward, dodging machine gun fire, and then killing all the enemies firing at him in a single strike. He then jumped back to the ship that carried him before. "Shichirouji. We're going to drive straight into that enemy battleship. Buy some time for our allies so they can retreat safely."

The pilot, whose name was Shichirouji, replied, "Losing battle, huh?"

"It's all we've got."

Shichirouji typed several buttons on his console. "Commander, flip the pressure valves to wide open. Propulsion drive to maximum, full armor on forward defence. We're going in." The ship kept on racing towards the battleship at full speed.

It was a cold, foggy afternoon in a desolate farming village. A group of farmers cowers in fear of mechanical bandits as they take away their rice. One of the bandits opened a lid in its compartment and a large metal claw emerged. The claw grabbed two rice barrels and put them into the compartment. This occured in numerous farming villages. One farmer decided to fight back. He charged at the bandit with his sickle. But the bandit, seeing this as a petty act of defiance, swung its mighty sword, killing the farmer in an instant.

Fifteen years after the Machine Samurai War. Kanna village. The farming plains. The air was cold and foggy. A farmer stood through the crop, looking through the fog. He saw something before him and the sight of it made him quake in terror. A Harvesting Fortress, a gargantuan battleship resembling an Atlas Moth the size of a skyscraper, activated its lights to check the fields for any more acts of defiance. Red lights emerged from the fortress scanning the surrounding fields. The red scanning lights crawled their way across the fields. The farmer fell on his back, panicking, holding still until the danger passes. The Harvesting Fortress continued to pass by in the fog, and before long, it disappeared from view.

In another part of the village of Kanna, quite a bit of distance from the watermill, a group of farmers wore white masks with red markings on them, ringing tiny . A young woman with long brown hair and mahogany red eyes, holding a pendant with a cyan glow to it, walked along a path that the other farmers lined up on either side of. She wore a white shirt with a red lining that stopped at her midsection, a red skirt that had a longer white section at the back, and red hair-ornaments in a red tiara made solely of red cloth. She and her fellow farmers were singing,

"Patient, looking, ardent search

Searching for the truth

Patient, looking, ardent search

Find the truth we need

Open soul… open eyes…

Divining world wherein truth lies…

Patient, looking, ardent search

Nature, hear our call..."

A small girl approximately at the age of five handed the woman a small bit of paper as the rest of the rest of the farmers continued to sing,

"Ardent looking, patient search

Water, hear our plea"

The woman's pendant started to glow.

"Open soul… open eyes…

Divining world wherein truth lies…"

The small girl handed the woman over another bit of paper. As the singing continued , the small girl continued to hand out more of those papers.

"Patient looking, ardent search

Searching for the truth…

Ardent looking, patient search

Find the truth we need"

The woman's pendant stopped glowing. Her eyes opened, breaking her out of her meditative state. The singing stopped. The other farmers topped ringing their . The small girl stopped giving the woman small bits of paper. The woman said, "The water has spoken. How many?"

The small girl answered, "Seven tablets."

An old woman standing behind the small girl said, "Dig seven times with seven turns, where the Dowsing Crystal points the water will be waiting."

One of the other farmers asked, "Will it definitely be enough for a well?"

Another said, "This will sure help us out."

A third, a chubby one, replied, "Yeah, I was scared when the well dried up. I thought it was the last thing our village could take. But the priestess has saved us."

The villagers took a digging tool and drove it into the dirt, and starting rotating it around. Another farmer walked up to the priestess, saying, "Thank you for your help. We would have been lost without you."

The second farmer said, "The priestess helps us with everything."

The priestess put her pendant away. But then she saw that the little girl was being troubled. "Hey, what's the matter, Komachi?"

The little girl, Komachi was sobbing profusely. "My stomach's growling!"

The priestess tried smiling cheerfully to cheer her little sister up, but then she felt uneasy. Then, she and the other farmers heard something rumbling. They looked off into the fog and saw a Harvesting Fortress flying off in the distance. The priestess kept Komachi close to her, hoping to protect her.

A farmer with short brown hair named Rikichi standing next to the priestess said, "What are they doing here? They know it isn't harvesting season yet."

The chubby farmer replied, "They take more than rice now. I've heard of another village where they took their livestock. And then they came back and took their women too! Daughters, wives, it didn't matter. They took them all!"

Rikichi gasped. "Then we have to get the water priestess to the shrine! What if they see her?"

Many of the farmers bent down to their knees, in fear. One of them muttered, "Cursed bandits…" too softly for anyone to hear him. The Harvesting Fortress turned to its left and flew past the farmers even with the red lights glowing from it. It flew off into the fog and disappeared from view. The farmers were safe from the bandits. For now.

Fifteen years after the Machine Samurai War. Mistral City. Haven Academy. A meeting is held between four students, the uncle of two of those students, and the former headmaster of Beacon, the now destroyed Huntsman and Huntress training school located in Vale, where the students used to attend.

Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Blake Belladonna. Yang Xiao Long. Four young girls trained at Beacon Academy to become huntresses; warriors destined to slay evil creatures known as the Grimm. Each girl has forged her own weapon and mastered her own semblance. Chosen to become Team RWBY at the prestigious Beacon Academy, until the night of its destruction. Tonight, they meet up with Ruby's uncle Qrow Branwen, and former headmaster Ozpin, now inhabiting the body of a farm boy named Oscar Pine, who has distressing news for the team.

Ozpin began, "Team RWBY. I understand that yesterday we had an important battle in protecting Haven and the Relic of Knowledge. And I know that we have to escort it to Atlas, but first, Qrow and I need time to sort some things out. In the meantime, I have an important assignment for you all."

Ruby replied, "Yes, sir."

Qrow activated a giant map of the World of Remnant, saying, "Now, I've picked up some activity located in this part of Remnant." Qrow then zoomed in on three islands off the SouthWestern coast of Anima. "You see these? These are the Kojima Islands on the SouthWestern region of Anima. And recently we've picked up that numerous farming villages in the region have been pillaged by bandits."

"And you want us to take them out, right?" Asked Blake. "Sounds easy enough."

"Hold your horses, Blake. These are no ordinary bandits. They're nothing like the ones my sister leads. Most of them have traded their regular organic bodies for gargantuan mechanical ones instead."

Yang cried, "But that's crazy!"

"Then I'm gonna give you ladies a little history lesson." He displayed video footage of a bunch of robots resembling samurai clashing over a wide area. "Over the past several decades, a massive war broke out all across the Kojima Islands region. It started off as a war between regular human beings, but not long after it began, many of the samurai fighting in that war integrated their living cells with machines to become these monstrosities. More and more people became machines during the war, but after the war finally ended, a bunch of these mechanical samurai became a group of bandits called the Nobuseri and are now terrorizing one farming village in the Kojima islands after another."

"And you want us to eliminate them?" Asked Ruby.

Ozpin/Oscar stepped in saying, "Well, not really. They are too numerous for you to take on by yourselves. Instead, we need you to find their base of operations so we could report to General Ironwood. He'll send some Atlesian troops and ships to obliterate the Nobuseri."

Weiss asked, "But I thought Ironwood wanted to keep his involvement with other kingdoms to a minimum, considering that Atlas has the finger pointed at them for the fall of Beacon."

"He does. He'll try to be discreet about his taking down of the Nobuseri and make sure it is out of the public eye. Just send me info on the Nobuseri's base of operation, and I'll transfer it to General Ironwood as soon as I could."

Blake replied, "And if we were to run into these bandits along the way?"

"I'm glad you asked, Blake. These bandits have committed various atrocities across this kingdom and therefore they are no different from the Grimm. They pillaged farming villages, stealing their rice and their women, and killing anyone who dared to resist them. So if these bandits ever get in your path, you are authorized to kill them."

"You got it," Ruby replied.

"However, if you find their nest, I do not advise rushing in there and trying to take down the Nobuseri yourself. To me, that seems suicidal."

"Okay, so where do we start?"

Qrow zoomed in on one of the Kojima Islands and a red dot appeared on that island. He then zoomed in on the dot, saying "This location right here is a run-down city called Kogakyo. And it's probably where you're the most likely to find a lead. But be warned. You know how the lower levels of Mistral are synonymous with the criminal underworld? In Kogakyo, the entire place is like that So keep your guard up the entire time you're there."

"You got it."

"And another thing: The Kojima Islands are run by this 'empire of merchants' who I strongly advise against trusting. Try to avoid conflict with them as much as you can."

"I gotcha."

"You understand your objective: find out where Nobuseri HQ is, then report to me so that I can report to Ironwood. Is that understood?"

"Loud and clear."

"Good. I'm counting on you. Any questions?"

Blake held her hand up. "I have a question. If we encounter a farming village attacked by the Nobuseri, should we help them out?"

"As a huntress it is your responsibility to help those in need. And besides, if you do, you could potentially gain a lead on where they operate."

"You got it!"

Weiss asked, "What about Jaune, Ren, Nora or you? Aren't any of you guys coming?"

"We'll need to stay here and I'll need their help to sort out escorting the relic to Atlas. But, you can contact me any time. In addition, Professor Goodwitch said she'll be helping to defend one of the villages that has been pillaged by the bandits."

Ruby asked, "I have a question too. I encountered a village that was raided by bandits and that attracted a bunch of Grimm into the village, killing everyone. Shouldn't the Nobuseri's constant pillaging attract a bunch of Grimm to those farming villages?"

"The Nobuseri were leftovers from a war that lasted for several decades and in that entire time, the Kojima Islands' entire Grimm population was wiped out. And most Grimm can't swim, and considering that these are islands, only flying Grimm like Nevermores could reach there, and most don't live anywhere near the Kojima Islands. So, you won't encounter any Grimm while you're there. Now get out there and knock 'em dead, kids! I'm counting on you!"

"Okay, then!"

All of the farmers had retreated into the watermill all dreading the bandits' return. Rikichi said, "It's almost harvesting season. They probably came today to see how the rice was growing. To see how much they could get."

"I can't believe it's already been a year."

"And they're going to take it all again."

Rikichi cried, "It gets worse every year. It's like negotiating with wolves. You give them your arms and they ask for your legs. Can we do something? I can't sleep anymore. Every night I think I hear them coming. I hear that rumbling of their machines."

"We're all suffering, but what can we do?"

Rikichi was starting to lose his patience. "We have to fight the bandits. Rise up and kill them ourselves!"

The chubby farmer was alarmed at what Rikichi just proposed. "Kill the Nobuseri!? That's madness!"

Richichi replied, "It's the only way to keep them from taking all we have."

Another farmer panicked. "How can we battle them!? We're just farmers and they're the bandits! The Nobuseri have turned themselves into weapons! They fly in giant machines with swords the size of houses! They rule over everything!"

"So, we should break our backs all year so they can have fat stomachs!?"

Another farmer in the back whines, "It's like an earthquake, Rikichi. All we can do is bear it and give the bandits what they want. Other villages have tried to fight back and they were massacred. It's better to lose our rice than our lives…"

Rikichi grabbed that farmer by the shirt, shouting, "What are you talking about!? Without the crop, we'll all be dead anyway!"

The chubby farmer tried to break up the fight. "Please. Stop."

Rikichi cried, "No! We can't be cowards anymore!"

"I know you're mad but we all had our losses."

"We haven't lost anything!"

An old man standing with his back against the wall of the watermill spoke out, "We'll fight them."

Rikichi and the other farmers turned around to the old man in disbelief. The old man said, "We'll make our stand against the bandits."

Rikichi let go of the other farmer's shirt. The other farmer said, "Elder, that's impossible. We're rice growers. We don't know anything of war."

The Elder replied, "That's why we're hiring samurai."

The other farmers were in shock and disbelief. They thought that the task was too impossible for them to be able to even consider. One of the other farmers cried, "But I've never heard of a village of peasants hiring samurai, elder!"

"I have witnessed it with my own eyes after the Great War ended and the bandits pillaged the countryside completely unchecked." replied the elder, "Out of all the villages that I passed, only one had not been burned to the soil. One that hired samurai. Only they can compete with bandits."

Rikichi had high hopes for what the elder just said. "Yes! Of course! That's what we have to do!"

The farmer standing next to Rikichi whined, "But samurai are expensive and proud and the only thing we have of value is the harvest. I doubt they're going to fight to save us in the name of sympathy and a few bowls of rice."

The elder said, "Then find hungry samurai. Even bears will come out of the forest when they are hungry enough."

"But if we want samurai, then someone will have to go into the city." replied Rikichi.

The other farmer added, "And that's dangerous too."

The priestess that helped the farmers find the underground water earlier, standing in the back of the room opposite the elder, held onto her Dowsing Crystal. The crystal started glowing.

Rikichi stepped forward. "Then I volunteer!"

There was a brief silence. Then the Elder replied, "Huh… very good, Rikichi."

"Elder?" The priestess stepped forward. "I'd like to go too if you'd let me."

The old woman from before, replied, "Kirara, please…"

"I must. I can use my talents to divine which samurai are most suited for saving us."

One of the farmers said, "No-one doubts your abilities, priestess, but samurai don't behave like water. Besides, the city is dangerous for anyone, especially young girls."

"I'm not afraid of it. And Rikichi will be with me."

The other farmers were afraid that the priestess, Kirara was becoming reckless. But then the one that spoke earlier said, "Of course. I trust your wisdom better than mine."

The elder said, "Then it's decided. We are counting on you as always, water priestess."

"I know," replied Kirara.

"Before the ears of rice begin to bend, bring us samurai who can defend us. Our hope now rests on that."

Ruby stepped out of the changing room, saying, "It's been a while since I've worn this." Ruby had silver eyes and chippy, neck-length black hair that had dark red tips, and she changed back into her outfit from before the fall of Beacon; a long-sleeved black dress with a high collar and red trims on both the sleeves and said collar, a black waist cincher with red lacing on the front, and a red trim around the skirt, topped by a red hooded cloak fastened to her shoulders by ross-shaped pins, and a grey belt at her waist carrying bullets, a pouch, and a large silver brooch resembling a rose. She also wore black stockings, and black combat boots with red laces, a red trim around the top of each one, and red soles. "Man, I've been missing this outfit. Hey, are you guys ready?"

Weiss was by the door wearing a short, glittering dress with a color gradation from blue to pale blue at the hem, a sweetheart neckline, a white, tulle petticoat, and a ribbon wrapped multiple times around the waist. The outfit had a slightly sheer long-sleeved blue shrug fastned at the collar with a broach with a sapphire in the middle and three pendants from it. She had sapphire drop earrings. She was putting on a white, double-breasted jacket with black piping, cuffs, and buttons over a white, pleated full skirt with a black lace trim. She wore a white, thigh high boot with a black heel and lace-topped black stocking and was in the process of putting on a matching boot on her other foot. Weiss had long, white hair in a ponytail to the side, and had light blue eyes.

"So, let me get this straight. Our job is to find out where these robo-bandits are setting up shop and then report that to Qrow so that he could report to Ironwood, so that he could send his troops after said bandits, right?"

"That's pretty much the long and short of it."

Blake and Yang stepped into the room, still wearing the outfits they wore last night when they stopped the attack on Haven. Blake had black, slightly wavy hair and yellow, cat-like eyes and cat ears on her head, and was wearing a black sleeveless crop top showing her midriff with rectangular, diamond-shaped cutouts around the neckline, with a long white tailcoat with a dark gray lining over it, black pants with a white belt, with a white pouch attached to the back, and thigh-high black heeled boots with gold-colored edging around the top and a belt wrapped twice around the left thigh. She had a diagonal belt around her waist with a magnet on her back to put Gambol Shroud away. Meanwhile Yang had wild, blonde hair and purple eyes and wore an orange crop top with a short-sleeved and halfway unzipped tan jacket over it, with two detachable gold-trimmed tails, and a thick collar completely encircling the neck. She wore a brown pair of pants, knee high boots with gold caps at the heel and toe and a gold zipper in the front, a belt with black material trimmed in gold attached, and a black fingerless glove on her left arm with a long brown cuff reaching the middle of her forearm. Her right arm was robotic painted in yellow and black and she had a long brown cuff over it too, and she had a yellow gauntlet on her left arm over the brown cuff.

Blake said, "Okay, so anything we'll need for our trip?"

"Well, we're going to need supplies for this trip. We'll need dust, money to buy food and places to sleep, toiletries like toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs and brushes, and so on, and of course, we'll need ammo for our guns. Thankfully, I've got you covered on most of these." She opened up her jacket, and the inner pockets were lined up with lien bills of very high amounts. "Ta da!"

"That's amazing, Weiss! Where did you get all that money?"

"I stole it from dear old dad when I snuck out of his mansion. It's what he gets for marrying his way into the Schnee family for money and telling it to mom's face. And when I did, I left him a note telling him to turn himself over to the White Fang and ask Adam Taurus to torture him.."

Yang's remaining organic hand trembled, and she tried to keep it steady. Blake replied, "Uh… don't you think that's kinda harsh?"

Weiss feigned thinking for a moment. "Hmm…. No."

The rest of Team RWBY was pretty stunned at what they heard. They knew that Weiss had a bad father, but were shocked that she would say that telling him to get himself tortured by a terrorist group that had been waging war with his company wouldn't be overly harsh on him seemed rather cold. Yang asked, "What about the other supplies you mentioned?"

"Got 'em in my other jacket pockets. And as for bullets, are you guys stocked on them?"

Ruby, Blake, and Yang pulled them from their pouches, before putting them back into them. Blake said, "I have some money in my pants pockets too. And the pouch on my belt."

Ruby cheered, "Well, all right, then. Team RWBY, move out!" And then she marched triumphantly out the door of Haven.

Yang shrugged. "You heard our captain, ladies, let's get going."

Team RWBY stepped on the outer yard of Haven, where Blake's mother, Kali Belladonna, was waiting for them. She asked them, "Good morning, Team RWBY. Did you all sleep well?"

Ruby replied, "We sure did! And thanks for the dinner you and Ghira made last night! It was delicious!"

"Well, I'm glad you guys liked it. Hop in."

It was the next morning as Kirara, Komachi, and Rikichi were walking through the grassy plains on their way to the infamous city of Kogakyo. Kirara was wearing a blue shirt that designed similarly to the white one she wore earlier, even also baring her midriff, and a large, round straw hat held to her head by a red cloth. Rikichi said, "You girls don't worry. I'll protect you with my life."

Kirara replied, "And we are grateful for that, Rikichi."

Komachi chipperly replied, "I'm not worried at all, sis. I know your crystal will find them."

Kirara said to her little sister, "You were very sweet to come along, Komachi."

Komachi walked a little faster. "I wanted to go exploring too and see the whole big rest of the world! I can't let you have all the fun on your own."

"So that's why. I thought you wanted to help." The trio kept walking along the trail ahead, preparing themselves for any danger that may await them.

Onboard the airship transporting Team RWBY to Kogakyo, Kali decided to talk to them about the Nobuseri. "I assume Qrow has filled you in on the Nobuseri and what they have been doing?"

Ruby replies, "Yes, Mrs. Belladonna. He has. He told us about the farming villages they've pillaged, that they were leftovers from a big war that happened in the Kojima Islands in SouthWest Anima."

"That was the Machine Samurai War. It lasted several decades as more people let themselves become machines as they clashed over the islands, leaving chaos, despair and misery, and only recently did the war finally end. It was such a major scarring to the residents of the Kojima Islands that they refer to it as the Great War whereas the rest of us use that term for the war between the four kingdoms."

Weiss asked, "Does anyone living on the islands know of the actual Great War?"

"No, they don't. It ended eighty years ago, lasted only one decade whereas the Machine Samurai War lasted for several and the repercussions are still being felt by the residents of the Kojima Islands today. That's why they call that the Great War instead. So, keep that in mind when you're in the islands."

Blake asked, "So, how should we know who to ask? How should we find a lead on where we can find the Nobuseri's home?"

Kali replied, "To be honest, I'm not sure. You'll just have to ask different people around town for any potential information. The Merchant Empire could potentially know a few things about the Nobuseri, but I would advise against trusting them. Somehow my gut tells me that they're connected with the Nobuseri somehow, and they wouldn't want to just give them away. Plus, from what I have heard of them, they are bad apples as well."

Ruby asked, "Isn't a merchant a guy that sells you stuff?"

"Well, trade is exactly how the Merchant Empire rose to power. Their influence has garnered them enough favor to rule over the Kojima Islands, and it's possible that they have some skeletons in their closet. If they are involved with the Nobuseri in any way, there's a good chance that they wouldn't want to hinder them for any reason."

"What makes you so sure that we'll find something in Kogakyo?" asked Yang.

"Some of the samurai in the city were retired from the Machine Samurai War. Chances are, they might know something about the Nobuseri. Just keep a sharp eye out and stay alert."

Weiss, replied, "Gotcha."

Yang, "You don't have to tell me twice."

Blake, "You got it, Mom."

Ruby, "Just leave this to us!"