AN: Hey everybody!
I'm glad to be back on this. I got the Disney world and the different world 'visits' I wanted to include figured out faster than I thought, and I decided to not write a different story. That story didn't sound fun anymore, this one did. I hope that it ends up as a fun story and an improvement on the first SMHS.
Right... I guess if you haven't read Smaller, More Honest Souls you should read that before you read this, or even the review responses below. This spin-quel builds pretty heavily on that story.
Speaking of which, responses to a few messages and the last reviews on that story:
To Greymangames: Wow, I actually hadn't noticed the Joestar similarities. No, he's not gonna end up as Joseph, I don't think. It was a... promise I made to a reader earlier on. It is kind of funny, though, because I actually watched that arc of Jojo's for the first time just as I was writing those chapters, so maybe there was a subconscious connection.
To Guest: Thanks. I was happy with how far the story came, too, and I love how highly you think of it. I hope you like this one just as much.
To warrior of six blades: Yeah, I'm sure Qrow is going to love the idea of Ruby alone with a boy, even Sora. I hope this ride turns out as wild for Jaune as you were hoping, because I think it's going to be great.
To gamelover41592: No, thank you for reading. I hope this one is just as good.
To A. Anonymous: I'm happy that I was able to hook you by chapter 12 and that it meant something to you. I hope that this story and the continuing developments – and more so the puns – can live up to your expectations. Thank you.
To SeekerOfDarkN: Thanks. I tried hard to make it enjoyable in every chapter, even the ones that I ... well, I don't want to say 'liked less.' Maybe just that they were slower to write because of how the story was building.
To herooftime69: Thanks for reading. I hope that this new story will be a fun ride.
To LtSnowPanda: If only RWBY was in KH. It would make an awesome world to adventure through! Well, if KH3 ever comes out. It feels like Square Enix has developed the Valve allergy for threequels.
To jacalman: Well, you put the idea in my head. If I feel good about this story and finish it up strong, maybe I will finish this up with a third story in universe. Thanks for the idea!
To ReneTheKeyblader: I'm glad you liked the ending. Endings tend to be difficult to get right, so I'm happy I was able to. I hope this one is just as exciting!
To G3r1k: I'm glad you like the pun as much as I do. I am sad to admit that, at first, I thought it was too much. But the too muchness of it grew on me, and I love it. I can't wait to get to SAO abridged, because that is going to be great!
To Slen D. Man: I'm glad you had fun with SMHS. I was worried that I hadn't weaved the two universes together as well as I had wanted, so I'm glad that turned out well. I do agree on the rushed character development. I felt like I was rushing them a bit, but there was not a lot of extra room to put them in more. I'll try to avoid that same issue in this story, especially since I'll really just be focusing on five core characters and the world companions/villains.
To pypet16: Hey, sorry it took me so long to respond. I was really busy until recently. I really like the idea of a My Hero Academia world, but I ultimately decided to limit myself to four worlds. I wanted to see Season 2 before including that world, and I finished planning before it could come out.
Chapter 1: A Fresh Start
"I said this world was a bad idea!" Emerald Sustrai snapped at her partner as they sprinted side by side down the walkway. The young thief was dressed in a color not far from her namesake, a crop top with cold shoulder. The sleeves of the shirt continued down to her hands, wrapping around her middle finger to keep them taut. Over the shirt she wore a tight, dark purple vest. A green emerald was emblazoned on the middle of her back. She was wearing a pair of white cargo capris, brown belts holding a pair of green kurasigama-guns to either of her hips and an ancient, golden lamp just behind the one on the left. Her brown boots were hitting the ground with a clack – clack against the stone.
"I thought it looked cool, what do you want?" Mercury retorted, voice somewhat more even than hers. He was wearing a collarless black leather jacket with two silvery lines that matched his hair running parallel down his left arm. His hands were covered by a pair of black, fingerless gloves that led up to a layer of silver armor padding. The jacket's zipper was left partially open, revealing a blue-silver undershirt. He was still wearing his large silver bandana tied to the belt of his jeans; his foot and wings emblem on the cloth in black. His dark gray jeans were tucked a pair of black gun boots that helped hide the shape of his prosthetic legs. "Come on, Em, would you rather be bored?"
"I just wish – " Emerald stopped herself and shook her head. "I just want to say, Merc, that you didn't have to choose the world where everyone is running around with their own type of weird magic!"
"Fire Dragon's... Roar!" Emerald and Mercury both cringed as an explosion of fire rocketed past them, destroying a building and nearly cooking them. "Woops!"
"How did we get these guys angry again?" Emerald asked before hooking a hard right and pulling Mercury with her. The two continued sprinting away with the hopes that they would find the time to open a Corridor of Darkness through which they could escape.
Mercury looked over at her, disbelief on his face. "Y-you're kidding?"
"What? No, really, what was it?" Emerald asked as another explosion of fire echoed out from behind the two of them.
"You stole that girl's collection of magic keys!" Mercury snapped.
"Sssso..?" Emerald asked as she began to twirl the keyring around her left index finger. She tossed them up and caught the gold and silver items in her left hand. "Come on, they're shiny and expensive. God, I hope so at least. Wait, that's what you're angry about?"
"I'm not angry you did it, I'm angry you got caught!" Mercury shouted. He shook his head and looked ahead so he could continue running. "What the hell happened to you being the best thief in the world?"
"And you aren't going to fight them off? I thought you were the best assassin in the world!" Emerald's eyes narrowed angrily and she scoffed. "Look, moron, that was Remnant, for one. For another, how was I supposed to know that pink haired doofus could smell what I was doing!?"
"Yeah, yeah, blame someone else for you not being able to steal some stupid keys," he growled under his breath. "Ugh, and from a blonde bimbo, too. You've lost your touch."
Emerald gasped. "Y-I – I'm insulted."
"Then make it better! How about you make an illusion so we can catch our breath?" Mercury suggested to try and placate the angry girl.
"The redhead can see through them... and she's the scariest one," Emerald muttered. She shook her head as soon as she started to space out. "Just be glad they haven't caught up to us yet and keep running."
"Nyeh nyeh nyeh," Mercury mocked. He pointed at her left hip. "You could make a wish! We get six of them!"
"First off, we only have five! You wasted one of yours 'accidentally' wishing for a new handheld game system! Secondly, we're obviously not going to waste one on running away; we already know how to run away!" Emerald disputed. She sounded annoyed he would even suggest that.
Mercury snapped back, "From the crazy flying girl with swords, the talking cat, and the naked guy shooting ice at us?!" He laughed dryly and threw his head up to the sky. "Sure!"
"Well, I'm just saying that this never would have happened if you'd just let me choose the world we're going to," Emerald huffed. She bit the inside of her cheek and shook her head. "You couldn't make a good decision to save your life."
"Fine, then choose the next world and get us our damn portal, Woman!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
"Hey, could you two stop flirting while we chase you?!" the naked guy called, his tone cold and annoyed.
"Could you stop stripping?!" Mercury retorted over his shoulder. He shook his head and returned his attention in front of him before breathing out a single, angry word: "Perv!"
The response was an explosion of ice on their heels.
"God dammit, just throw the keys at them!" Mercury suggested with an annoyed breath. He sighed. "Maybe then we'd at least be able to get a few seconds without these nutjobs behind us."
"I stole them fair and square; they should just deal with it," Emerald muttered venomously.
"They're not going to," Mercury pointed out simply. He jerked his head to the side and a beam of light shot past it. "So, maybe this once, we just throw the small fish back?"
"... No," she said simply.
"Really?" Mercury asked dryly. "Jeez, ever since you made us work with Keyboy and the other idiots you've been making stupid decisions."
"We prevented the end of the universe by helping them!"
"Ga – Just – Shut it!" Mercury snapped, his arm snaking out like lightning and yanking the keys from her hand.
"Hey, don't steal those from me," Emerald ordered, already reaching for the keys in Merc's outstretched hand. "I stole them, they're mine!"
"No! Now choose where we're going!" Mercury growled back. He jumped and turned around where he was, throwing the keys as he was midair. The gold and silver loop jangled until it hit the ground in front of the naked guy, at which point the three chasing them slid to a momentary stop. Merc landed and continued running alongside Emerald. "Have you picked?"
"Fine, here!" Emerald shouted back. She waved her hand, summoning up a pillar of inky Darkness in front of them. The two sprinted through it side by side, the portal shutting just as another swirling vortex of fire threatening to barbecue them came their way.
They came out on the other side a few moments later, panting with their hands on their knees. "What the... hell was that?" Mercury groaned as he tried to catch his breath. He shook his head and stood up straight to have a look around. "Where are we?"
Emerald stood up and looked around, taking in the sights. "It's... huh." The two were standing atop a huge, oddly shaped plateau overlooking a city of brown roofed and white walled feudal buildings. Nearby, at the center of the plateau, was a huge spear maybe fifty feet long sticking straight up with a series of ropes extending from it radially to the ground, holding it up. At the dropoff of the outcropping was a pair of wooden beams maybe three quarters of the spear's height were connected with another beam to form an 'H.' Emerald turned and looked the other direction at a white tower connected to the plateau via a thin, wooden bridge. "I could've sworn this place was a city when I chose it."
"It's called 'Soul Kingdom' Al."
"Oh, dammit," Emerald groaned as the lamp on her hip rattled for a moment until a bright blue burst of smoke exploded from within it. The smoke twirled around Mercury and Emerald, spinning around and congealing into the shape of a cartoon-y, large blue man. He had a black beard twirling off of his large, round chin, and a black ponytail extending from his otherwise bald head. He had sharp ears that pointed upward with a golden earring in either earlobe that matched the golden bands around his wrists. He had no legs and only four fingers, though, so it was a little unnerving to look at. Emerald pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned. "What, why, and how, Genie?"
"Soul Kingdom, specifically Soul Society," the Genie explained as he began to fly around the area nearby. He stopped in front of the huge spear and suddenly turned into a warrior in a black uniform with a long katana on his hip. He turned back to Emerald and Mercury, his face suddenly fare more serious and angular.
"Much danger is here.
My nearly cosmic powers
are how I know this."
"A haiku, Blue?" Mercury muttered, annoyed. He pointed his finger forcefully at the genie. "Just give us a straight answer! What dangers are here? What is this place?"
Genie immediately shifted into a round looking bald man with a bright cape. "Calm down, Genos," he said monotonously before shifting back to his original form. "There's tons of stuff here to worry about, Silver the Hedgehog."
"What are these things you're saying?!" Emerald snapped, but the Genie ignored that question.
"From what my phenomenal powers and knowledge let me know," Genie continued, putting one index finger up and shaking it, "this place is really dangerous. There's giant monsters called Hollows that eat souls, and some really serious people with swords who try to kill... everything. I think we're in their home base, actually."
"Then we can just leave," Mercury pointed out simply. He sighed and shook his head. "Can we pick somewhere we can actually get in a fight for once? I'm bored of going places you think you can steal stuff instead of somewhere I can get in an actual fight. You know, one without pink haired crazies or redheads who blow up towns. Ideally."
"Oh, so you're a coward now?" Emerald suggested.
"Oh, so you can't steal things now?" Mercury reiterated, shutting the girl up.
"Jerk."
"You love me."
"Aw, aren't you two just adorable?" Genie asked mockingly, batting his suddenly over pronounced eyelashes at the two.
Em and Merc both turned on the huge blue man. "Ew, gross!" Emerald snapped.
"Really?" Merc asked. He shook his head. "What, would you prefer Blondie or Keyboy? Oh! How about Pinkie?" Mercury rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Cause that sounds great."
"Better than you," Emerald huffed, crossing her arms and looking away from him.
"I have a crazy idea." The thief and assassin turned towards the Genie, skeptical at whatever idea the strange blue being could have. Genie cleared his throat and pointed at them. "How about you go somewhere you can be... heroes!" On the last word, he separated into seven different clones of himself, some wearing capes, some with wings, and each with a different emblem emblazoned on their chests.
"For truth!" the one in the front shouted, a large 'S' on his chest.
"For justice!" the one in dark blue cried out, voice gravelly.
"For –"
Mercury and Emerald cut the Genie off in tandem: "Lame."
The Genie's clones slammed back into one. "But -"
"Come on, let's get going," Mercury muttered, turning on his heel and getting ready to open a portal. Darkness began to appear around his hand, but he was momentarily distracted by an explosion far above. Mercury, Emerald, and the Genie all turned at the same time to the source of the noise. A bright blue orb of Light had crashed into a dome far above them, filling the air with a burning before, suddenly, the orb exploded. The dome faltered for a moment, a hole appearing in it through which a number of thin silhouettes fell. It took almost no time for alarms to sound out all around this 'Soul Society.'
"Crap!" Emerald growled. She turned to Mercury. "Open the portal!"
He nodded and summoned the Darkness to his hand. "Here we... go!" He swept it across his chest, summoning the portal. Or, he should have. Nothing showed up in the place where he had summoned the portal.
"Any time now," Emerald hissed as the Genie began to snake away into his Lamp once more, hiding from whatever was coming. Mercury tried again. "Open the portal!"
"I'm trying!" Mercury snapped over his shoulder.
Emerald rolled her eyes and growled, "Then just let me do it." She shoved Mercury to the side and summoned Darkness to her own hand then tried to summon up her own portal of Darkness. Again, none came.
Emerald grinned nervously and turned towards the annoyed Mercury. "I thought you were just being stupid," she said simply.
"Thanks, Em, now we know we're both being stupid."
"Ha ha. They probably have some sort of barrier up so we can't get out." Emerald frowned and placed one hand on her chin. "Then -"
"Uh, Em."
"Ugh, don't interrupt -" Emerald spun on him and froze. A pair of warriors dressed in black uniforms were standing a few dozen feet away, both of them drawing their blades out of different colored sheathes on their hips. The one on Emerald and Mercury's right was a man, maybe six feet tall at most. His black hair was shaved close at the sides and slicked back on the top. The woman on the left was about four inches shorter than her partner, with brown hair done in a pixie cut.
The woman angled her blade at the two. "Freeze, Ryoka! Prepare for your deaths!"
"They're not the best at this," Emerald noted.
Mercury snorted. "We had threatening people down by day three. They need to get their act together."
"Hey, do you think that's what everyone here wears?" Emerald asked, an evil grin coming to her face. "Those serious people with swords?"
"I think they'd fit us," Mercury agreed. "These two don't look that dangerous, either." Emerald and Mercury grinned excitedly at each other for a split second, then both rushing at their newfound opponents.
Mercury decided to take the guy on a whim, sprinting nowhere near his considerable full speed. When about fifteen feet away, Mercury tensed his legs and threw himself into the air, flipping and lashing out with his right foot. The warrior caught the blow on the flat of his blade and was forced back a few feet by the force of the blow. Mercury quickly moved into the next attack, he left foot coming around to attack the man's head. This, too, was blocked. "Ooh, you're a bit faster than I thought," Mercury said with a smirk. He jumped a few feet away. "Maybe Blue was right and you guys might be a little dangerous!" He got into his battle stance again and grinned, summoning a blaze of black flames to his boots before rushing the swordsman.
Meanwhile, Emerald was spinning her kurasigama around her, using the unpredictability of the weapons to her advantage. The blades attached to the chains would flick out at the woman in black, forcing her on the defensive. Emerald knew that getting in close would mean a slightly more even battle, and she wasn't going to risk that right now. Of course, she also had to be careful not to destroy the outfit the woman was wearing, otherwise she'd be stuck using her Semblance to keep them hidden. And, given what had happened with the last world they'd landed on, that might not work out well. On the next block, Emerald flicked her wrist and managed to wrap her chains around the sword. "Let go, Ryoka scum!" the woman snapped, struggling against Emerald's chains.
"Sure, because that would help me," Emerald remarked dryly. She pulled hard once more, and the woman came flying at her. Emerald grinned and jumped, twirling midair to land a spin kick to the woman's face. The swordswoman grunted in pain as the boot heel collided with her nose, sending a spray of red blood into the air. Emerald twirled as the woman began to fly away, entangling her in chains so the thief could swing the swordswoman overhead and into the ground. Emerald stared at the woman on the ground for a few moments, wondering if she was unconscious. She decided to summon a Thunder just in case, the yellow electricity coursing down the chains. The woman in black screamed out in pain for a moment, then went quiet. Emerald grinned then turned to look over at how Mercury was doing. "You done yet?"
"Just about," Mercury said as he kicked a sword slash away with his burning foot. He ducked beneath a swipe and slammed his shoulder into the swordsman's chest, causing him to stumble back. Mercury then jumped, changing the magic coating his feet from Fire to Sleep, and drop kicked the black clothed swordsman in the chest. The purple energy exploded around his body, and he flew back a dozen feet until he landed in an unconscious bundle of black. Merc turned to Emerald and grinned. "I was just trying to make sure you didn't screw up."
"Oh, please," Emerald scoffed. "You'd be a thousand times more likely to screw up than I would." She walked over to the woman she'd knocked unconscious and began to take the outer, black uniform.
Mercury rolled his eyes. "In your dreams." He took the upper half of the outfit from his opponent and wrapped it around his shoulders, then pulled the pants on over his own. He turned towards Emerald. "What do you think? Hot, or not? Oh, why bother... we both know your answer."
"You're right. Not," Emerald snarled. She finished tying the outfit shut then gestured at their fallen foes. "We need to figure out something so these two idiots don't follow us."
"I say we just throw them off the edge," Mercury muttered. He groaned. "No, they'd find the bodies and figure out someone took their clothes. We should tie them up, I guess. No fun..."
"Wow, look at you having a good idea."
"Shut up, Al."
Emerald holstered one of her weapons in the folds of the outfit and pointed the other at her partner. "I thought I said not to call me that!"
"Oh, but Blue gets to?" Mercury shook his head and clutched at his chest. "My heart!"
"Idiot," Emerald grumbled. She put her other weapon away and grabbed his shoulder, dragging him off behind her. "Come on, we can tie them up to the big stand with some magic. That'll give us time at least."
"Okay, Al." He was silenced by a slap to the face.
S M H S
Less Than Two Months Ago
The figure in the black coat walked along the path through the middle of a forest coated in snow. Snow crunched underneath his feet, leaving behind only his footprints between the massive pines. He walked in silence, hood pulled over his head and hands tucked into his pockets to shield him from the cold. Every so often an animal would screech deep within the woods or jump from tree to tree, causing snow to fall and thuds to echo through the forest. He didn't look once at the source of the noise, as he knew he was in no danger regardless of what came. This world had nothing that could kill him.
Then a new noise echoed through the empty darkness of the moonlit forest. The man looked up at the moon and stopped moving. He could hear something was coming, something large and powerful. Trees were falling to the ground, the noise of their crashing to the ground dulled by the inches of fresh, powdery snow that covered the ground. Soon, however, the earth beneath his feet began to shudder. A loud, echoing thud that rattled his body, shook all the snow beneath his feet, and caused the tail of his long black coat to flutter wildly. The creature grew closer and closer, eventually shrieking in hunger as it smelled the young man standing alone in the forest. Trees swayed and fell into one another, snow and dirt were tossed into the air far above. The figure sighed and pulled his hands out of his pockets just as the creature crashed through the edge of the forest.
The figure in the coat jumped backwards, flipping through the air and landing with a quiet crunch a dozen feet away. He stood up slowly as the creature shrieked at the moon, rearing up on its hind legs for a few moments before slamming its feet back down and glaring at him. The creature had a dark black and purple body, aside from the light blue, jagged designs trailing from its eyes and down its back. Spines of pink and magenta flowed out in a jagged mane around its head and three along its back. Giant chains with grappling hooks at the ends were wrapped around both of its front legs, which ended in huge, cruel looking purple claws. A black tail with erratic spikes extended from the back of its body. Its beady, yellow eyes followed the cloaked figure closely.
The figure threw his hand out to his right side, summoning up an aura of crackling black and white originating in his fist. A Keyblade appeared, the ancient weapon that controlled Light and Dark and determined the fate of worlds. The creature had followed its scent to find him like a beast drawn to the scent of the prey it desired the most. He lowered the weapon to his side and slid his left foot forward a half step before raising his left hand a few inches as if to hold the creature at bay. The creature flinched at the sight of the weapon, its claws digging into the snow and leaving long, jagged lines in the white. It regained its composure a moment later and the clenched claws dug into the ground to prepare for leaping forward.
It jumped, claws glinting in the light. The grappling hooks shot forward, whipping towards him from opposite directions. The figure didn't move for a while, waiting for the attacks to get close. When they finally did, he jumped into the air. One of the attacks flew past him, slamming into the ground where he had been a half second earlier. The other seemed to have been thrown in anticipation of his movement, whipping towards where he was now. He looped the teeth of his Keyblade around the chain and tossed them both at the monster. The hook shot towards the Heartless and the Keyblade returned to its master's hand in a burst of black and white, giving the figure time to launch a Fira spell after the hook.
The Heartless battered its own hook away, but this left it wide open to the Fira that spiraled after the metal. The embers crashed into its head, singing the spires arching from its face. The Heartless shrieked and swiped uselessly at the air, causing it to stumble backwards. Its back crashed into one of the trees, causing a loud crash to echo through the empty forest. The figure landed and began to sprint at the monster, holding his Keyblade out to his side as his other hand moved back and forth with every step. He jumped and raised his Keyblade above his head in both hands, preparing to bring it down in a heavy blow that would bisect the monster. It recovered in time to spin out of his path, leaving only one of its chains in a trail to be slashed apart. It disappeared, turning invisible and hiding in the shadows of the forest. The Keyblade wielder landed with a quiet thud in front of the tree, paying no mind to the chain melting away into the Darkness beside him. He turned his attention to the forest around him, looking for the creature that was now hiding from him. Every so often a flash of red would appear somewhere beyond the treeline, only to disappear once more.
It came out again a moment later, a streak of flames attached to its heels. The Keyblade Wielder raised his Keyblade in front of his body defensively, though it moved slowly, as if he was letting the attack hit him. He was thrown backwards by the attack, though the resulting wall of Reflect barriers stopped the monster in its tracks. He soared through the air and flipped until his feet collided with a tree, at which point he threw himself at it again. The creature, now visible again, hissed. Its spines shook angrily and flames began to congeal in front of its gaping maw, flames that launched themselves at him when they reached critical mass.
The Keyblade wielder simply raised his weapon in front of him, holding it straight out in front of his body, and cut it in half. He continued with the momentum as the two halves of the fire burst flew away from him and exploded against the trees behind him. The Keyblade came around, locking with the Heartless' claws. The force of the blow sent the monster tumbling to its back. The Keyblade Wielder landed on its chest as snow and pine needles began to rain down around them. He raised his weapon above his head, spinning it around and around, and ignited it with a stream of Dark Thunder; he buried in the monster's chest, and it writhed in agony resultant of the weight of the power within its form. Darkness streamed out of its body in every direction, arching towards the sky in wispy tendrils. The body of the Heartless began to slowly drift away to nothingness. He pulled his weapon from the monster's decaying chest and stood up to his full height. When the Heartless finally disappeared completely, the snow came into contact with his feet again and crunched beneath his boots.
On a whim, he glanced down at the weapon in his hand. It was a gnarled weapon, dark black with silvery designs etched into it. The pommel and guard were formed from a pair of demonic, leathery wings that extended from behind the head of a grinning goat. The main body of the weapon was formed from two barbed blades, the silvery designs forming thorns along the length of each. They came together at the top, forming the teeth of the blade in another demonic, shadowy wing, at the joint of which was a bright blue eye with a cat-like sliver of a pupil. The Keychain that extended from its base was deep black, with the blue eye covering a shape of jagged angles. It disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind only a shower of black and white sparks when it was dismissed. He placed his hands in his pockets and began to walk down the path again.
"Are you here?" he asked the air after a few seconds more of walking. There was no response, naturally. "If not, there's always the next. Or the next. The one after. You're out there somewhere, and I'll find you. I'll find you even if I have to travel to a thousand worlds."
A portal of inky blackness appeared in front of him, a gateway across the Lanes Between the newly formed worlds. As the figure walked through he said one more time, "I will find you."
S M H S
"Wa-a-ahoo!" Yang Xiao Long screamed as the Gummi Ship shot away from the surface of Remnant, her home. Ruby Rose – Yang's half sister – and Sora – Ruby's Keyboytoy – had come to send her off on her grand adventure. She was literally living her greatest dream: the adventure that no one else had ever had before. She couldn't wait to see everything out there!
"Sto-o-op..."
Yang sighed, annoyed at the noise coming from behind and to her right. She'd almost forgotten that someone else was on this trip with her. The bombshell looked over at her partner on this journey and shook her head. He was wearing blue jeans tucked into a pair of black and white combat boots. The jeans were held up by a lopsided belt and pouch over a sash made of red cloth. He had a black sweat shirt with red interior on over a white shirt, though they were both mostly hidden behind a heavy plate of white armor with golden filigree. Jaune Arc had bracers and hand armor over black gloves that matched his chest armor and sweatshirt respectively; the gold covered each segment of his fingers and the back of his hand. The white formed the bracer and led to a small oval of armor over his elbows. His left shoulder had an ornate piece of armor strapped to it, with a point that flared up from on top of his shoulder. There was a large silver circle at the center of the pauldron with a golden, rising sun emblem imprinted upon it in turn. The blonde boy's eyes were shut tight and his pale skin had become a deep shade of green. "Oh, come on, Vomit Boy! I just got through telling you to keep it in if you don't want me to kill you!"
"Yang, plenty of people all across Remnant are susceptible to motion sickness!" he snapped back at her, opening his blue eyes and getting some color back in his cheeks.
"I do not enjoy being yelled at, Jaune" Yang said after a moment, an evil grin spreading across her face.
"Y-Yang? You aren't going to – DON'T!" Jaune's eyes slammed shut and the green returned, twice as deep now, as Yang pulled up on the controls for the Gummi Ship and started to roar excitedly. The ship began to pitch upward, the world spinning around it for a few moments until they were upside down. She kept pulling in the same direction, forcing the ship to complete the loop the loop. Jaune fell back in his seat, fairly certain he was about to die when the world tunneled to a pinprick of light. "Ooghf... You did... You did it."
"Don't be such a baby, Jaune," Yang admonished again, though she did decide to tone down the fun a little bit. He looked like he was actually about to live up to the nick name Vomit Boy, and Yang didn't want that ending up on her shoes again. "Look, we're heading straight up. No more loops."
"Thank you," Jaune grumbled sarcastically when his brain finally started to return to normal. He made it a point to not look out of the ship, however, since that would only make the motion sickness worse. Better to stare at the floor of this massive spaceship. The shiny floor that... that reflected what was outside of the domed cockpit. "I hate this thing so much."
"Jaune, keep whining and I will punch you in the face as hard as I can to knock you out." Yang smirked cruelly over her shoulder. "And if that doesn't work, I'll just do another loop."
"Sorry!" Jaune shouted, terrified and holding his hands up to try and disarm the young woman. He grimaced at that thought. She did only have one arm, so maybe disarm wasn't the best way to describe it. On the other hand – Darn it, I'm as bad as Yang with these, Jaune thought to himself. – she did love a good pun. 'Good' being a relative term. Objectively wrong, really.
"Good. You should be," Yang stated matter-of-factly. She returned her attention to the ship's path and began to simply fly, humming to herself as she flew past the blue of Remnant's sky and into the Darkness that divided the worlds.
Jaune glared at the back of the woman's head, from where her blonde hair fell to her waist. She was wearing a black, brown, and golden outfit consisting of black pants and a long, tan—gold coat with orange lining and a golden border. She had a purple sash tied around her left knee, shortly above where her brown boots with bronze reinforced toes and heels crested. Her orange shirt peeked out slightly from beneath her diagonally zipped jacket and matched the inside and top of the high, almost scarf like collar the jacket had. A black glove covered the hand of her robotic right arm, and her golden weapon covered her wrists in bracelet form. Ember Celica, a pair of shotgun bracers that were specially designed for the woman's brawling style of fighting.
Jaune did see at least one thing was going well. Yang's Semblance had yet to erupt and destroy the ship. When the woman got angry, her hair lit up like fire and her lilac eyes turned the bloody red of her mothers'. Also, things around her tended to explode and burn down. The mere thought of the ship breaking apart around them made Jaune feel sick again.
"Okay, Blondie -"
"You're blonde, too!" Jaune pointed out, unsure why he was insulted.
"Ah, but you're the dumb one," Yang pointed out, shooting a look over her shoulder at him. Jaune wanted to argue, but he knew he couldn't. He was the dumb one.
Almost helping someone destroy the universe tended to prove that.
Jaune had been reeling when it had happened. He had not gotten over the idea of losing the woman he had loved, someone who had believed in him when no one else had. His partner, his best friend, Pyrrha Nikos. Then he had learned the people he was helping and trying to save had been responsible for Pyrrha's death, at least partially. Ozpin and his circle had tried to give Pyrrha abilities that the bad guys wanted for themselves. Cinder Fall may have been the one to kill Pyrrha, but that was only because of Ozpin. At least, that was the line that Salem had sold Jaune to get him to betray his friends.
He had been friends with Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, and Ruby Rose for so long. Those three had been through thick and thin with him even during the Beacon days when he could barely hold a sword at the right end. Then Sora came along, a visitor from the far past and another world, swinging his Keyblade and hunting down his biggest enemy. They had all been Jaune's friends through everything, but he had thrown that away for a promise he had known was empty. "Ozpin had been responsible for Pyrrha's death, but I can bring them back," Salem had said. It had only taken those words and suddenly Jaune had been more than willing to try and kill his friends, unleash a giant dragon on Vale, nearly get the entire Kingdom killed by a sonic bomb, and bring an entire universe worth of Darkness back into existence. Still, after all of that, Sora, Ruby, and the others hadn't simply forgiven him, they'd kept treating him like a friend. Jaune wasn't sure he could have forgiven someone else for all the stuff he'd done. Sure, Salem had influenced his Heart with the Keyblade, but at the end of the day he had still had a choice. That had been why he'd betrayed her and helped his friends out, after all. He had still had a choice.
He looked up and clenched his fists on top of his legs. This was his chance to make up for all that. Sora had given him and Yang this ship so they could go out and protect worlds from people like Salem that wanted to spread Darkness. Sora and the others had sent Jaune with Yang so he would have some company and so he could help her look out for her mother's Nobody. It was his responsibility, too, to an extent. Raven Xiao Long had been turned into a Heartless helping the others get away from Salem... after Jaune had betrayed them. Sora said that destroying both someone's Heartless and their Nobody could bring them back, and Morrigan had succeeded in killing Raven's Heartless. Yang and he just had to find and beat Morrigan and Raven would come back. Jaune fought off a slight streak of anger at the unfairness of that; he couldn't bring Pyrrha back, but Yang could bring her mom back?
Jaune shook off that envy; Yang was his friend, and they were going to be traveling together a lot over the next... while. He couldn't think like that about a friend. He couldn't let the Darkness get a foothold in his Heart again and risk once more becoming someone else, someone he didn't like. The temptation was there, of course. Darkness would always be part of him, but Sora had told him many times that it rested on him to fight that Darkness. He –
"Whoa..." Jaune looked up and saw Yang had let go of the controls, instead opting to let her hands dangle at her sides. She was staring out of the cockpit, slackjawed. Jaune blinked once and followed her gaze.
"Whoa..." Jaune echoed.
It was... beautiful. Stars could be seen in every direction, pinpricks of gleaming and beautiful white in an endless sea of swirling violet and black. Pathways of blues and greens flowed through the universe, rivers and currents through the unending Darkness that would swirl around their ship and carry them far from their home. It was difficult to make out at the literally astronomical distance, but he could even see some shapes coming out of the stars. One had a huge wall of ice extending upward from the northern edge and a rust red castle rising up from the south. Another was topped with a castle of glittering, clear ice with a white stone castle on the opposite pole. Beyond that, there were countless more, no two of them exactly alike. Worlds of water or fire, cities and nature. Jaune gulped in pain as the ship around him pitched suddenly, turning around. "Motion sickne...ss... I..." He left his mouth open and stared.
Remnant was floating in the Darkness before them. It looked so huge with how close it was, filling up almost all of the area could see outside of the cockpit. A gleaming castle of emerald, its beautiful new spires shining in the sparkling light. In the courtyard stood a statue of a man and woman standing atop the battered form of a Beowolf shrieking in rage. Beacon Academy, the home of the now Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch and the place from which the new Amity Arena would launch for its tour across every kingdom. Gone was the Dragon, gone was the destruction, and gone was the Darkness that had hung over the world. To the south was an unfinished temple, at this point just a single wall. At the center was a door, tall, thin, and rectangular, that formed the handle of a large Keyblade etched into its surface. The Kingdom Key. Once Sora's weapon, now gifted to Jaune himself.
"Shouldn't Atlas be up north?" Jaune asked when he could speak again.
"Sora said something about it being places important to the World," Yang muttered, still awed with her eyes locked on their home world.
"So Beacon and... whatever that is are the most important places on Remnant," Jaune noted. He wasn't sure why those places, especially one he didn't even know about, were the most important places on their home world.
Yang looked over at him, surprised for a moment. Then: "Oh, right! You wouldn't know, would you?" Yang shook her head and grinned. "Yeah, that place is the new Keyblade Academy. Oz and Sora are going to work there, and we're gonna keep an eye out for any other Keyblades. It'll be a regular key party!"
"Don't... I already heard that from your uncle," Jaune said, thinking back to his time at Haven academy, which now felt so long ago. "It was worse coming from you."
"You're no fun," Yang grumbled, turning back to the controls so she could angle the ship away from their home.
"Hey... I'll have you know plenty of people think I'm fun!" Jaune protested angrily.
"Who?" Yang mocked as the ship began to pick up speed, the stars turning into gleaming streaks outside of the cockpit window. Worlds passing the two of them by.
"Ugh..." Jaune grumbled. Yang was a cruel partner; how had Ruby, Weiss, and Blake dealt with this?! "Tons... Tons of people!"
Yang scoffed. "Oh, sure. Let me restate the question – who thinks you're fun that isn't your mom?"
Jaune decided he wasn't going to dignify that question with a response, because plenty of people thought he was fun. Yang was just trying to annoy him for fun, and he wasn't going to give her the pleasure of making him motion sick and annoyed. One or the other, not both. "Oh, I hurt your feelings? Sorry," Yang said irreverently.
"Fly slower!" Jaune snapped, giving in to both the motion sickness and being annoyed.
"No," Yang said with a grin, instead pushing on the accelerator even harder. Jaune's head snapped back and slammed into the cushioned headrest of the seat, which served to deepen his anger.
"Five minutes in and you're trying to kill me!?" Jaune yelled, already done with Yang. He unbuckled from his seat and threw himself forward, face shifting slowly from green as he shoved his motion sickness down with his anger. "No, move over, I am driving!"
Yang brought her hand up and tried to shove him away. "No, you'd just crash the ship you idiot!" She pushed as hard as she could against Jaune's cheek, squishing his face and keeping his outstretched fingers from being able to grab onto the wheel. "Now get back in your seat before you puke on me! I'll have to kill you if you do!"
"Give me the ship!"
"NO!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
Jaune dove forward, aiming to tackle her to the side so he could just take the ship. Unfortunately, Yang was strong enough to mostly resist. She was tossed to the side, yes, but recovered quickly. This had the negative side effect of causing Jaune's outstretched and lanky leg to slam into the wheel of the ever faster moving Gummi Ship, which veered off course and towards a nearby world before the two passengers within could realize what was happening. "Give it here!" Jaune shouted.
"N – Is it getting bright in here?" Yang asked when the Light of the world began to fill the cockpit. Jaune stopped trying to go for the controls and began to look around in confusion. It was getting – Jaune hit the ground. Yang was smirking down at him, happy she had finally been able to throw him off. "Good, now we can worry about this -"
Yang was cut off when the ship's cockpit opened suddenly, sending the two blondes flying in completely different directions towards the world below. Jaune reached out for her, trying to keep them from getting separated. "Yang!" he shouted, stretching as far as he could, their fingers brushing against one another for a second. Jaune gritted his teeth and held his right hand out further, summoning a burst of golden light to his right hand. A golden and silver key appeared in his outstretched fist, the teeth of the weapon waving in front of Yang. "Grab on!"
Yang reached out and grabbed onto the round blade of the weapon, clutching it tight in her fist. Then she pulled hard on it, causing the two to rush towards each other. Jaune dismissed the Kingdom Key and reached out with his hand, grabbing Yang's flailing limb. "Jaune!"
"What?" Jaune shouted back, eyes squinting through the bright light of the sun and the wind rushing across his face.
Yang stifled a laugh before shouting as loud as she possibly could, "I hope you're not falling for me!"
"..." Jaune thought very hard about letting go of Yang's hand. The choice was not his to make, however, as a ball of bright blue light slammed into their bodies, the force concetrated on their outstretched arms. Jaune felt Yang's fingers slide from his at the sudden jolt of force and he was suddenly spinning, the feeling of motion sickness rising again in his he spun, he briefly saw a blue orb filled with the silhouettes of people, but it was soon replaced by a bright flash and a wave of energy that sent Jaune and Yang flying even further apart.
"We must stick together. Anyone who gets separated will be blown away by the explosion!" a small, masculine voice called out. Jaune thought he saw the voice coming from a small black cat, but that didn't sound likely. Next he saw someone with orange hair and a sword way too large to be practical strapped across his back throwing a small auburn haired girl towards the rest of his group before the explosion the cat had mentioned sent him and a guy in green flying towards Jaune. The three crashed into one another in a jumble of limbs before tumbling towards the ground as one.
S M H S
Jaune Arc was falling, plummeting downward towards what looked like an ocean below. Water stretched out in every direction around him, waves moving forever across the world. He could hear them swaying and crashing into each other, a constant white noise surrounding him. He stared at them while the wind whipped past his face and the smell of salt filled the air. He turned his head, catching sight of a dark storm of thunderclouds in the distance. The blue flame of lightning would erupt every so often, somehow casting everything else into shadow rather than illuminating it. Jaune blinked once, growing somewhat scared of the Darkness that filled that region. He knew in his gut it belonged to him somehow. He wanted to turn away, to not look at it, but he knew he couldn't do that. It belonged to him.
He hit the water a moment later. He slammed his eyes shut upon impact, and suddenly he could feel it rush around him. He knew it should be filling his throat, drowning him and keeping him from being able to think. Instead, it felt like air. He was still falling through the air. It was no different from earlier, when he was falling towards the sea, except now there was nothing below him. Nothing save for an endless abyss of inky black. Bubbles rushed from his mouth but he continued to breathe normally. In and out, in and out. He landed softly against something a few seconds later.
He laid on his back for some time, staring at the light of the sun that was barely able to penetrate this far into the ocean. All that was visible was a small circle of yellow Light that pierced the Darkness.
Jaune sat up and Light began to shine from beneath him. Jaune stood up and looked down, casting his eyes on the surface beneath his feet. The main body of it was a bright yellow, with silvery accents forming images all along it. Intricate shapes curled around, curving ever so slightly. Jaune followed their path with his eyes, eventually finding they came to a complete stop at his feet. A loop, a circle, a cylindrical pillar. Images were littered across the surface. A ring of white and silver rising sun emblems ran along the outer edge of the platform, white then silver in a pattern. On one end of the pillar was a series of silhouettes. One had spiky hair outlined in yellow that reached out in every direction, forming jagged knives coming from the head. Another had spiky hair as well, though it was much more tame and was tinged a strawberry orange. The third had two figures within, one gray-white with long shapes like bunny ears coming out of the top of its head and the other orange with triangular shapes like wolf or fox ears and a long snout. The fourth one had a much more plain figure, with calm hair and only a pure black outline; the only interesting thing about it was the pair of sword hilts coming out of its back.
The last was larger, surrounded by the other four. It was surrounded by a black ring and had a more golden glow as its main body than the rest of the pillar. Hair that burned yellow, gold, orange, and red glowed like fire rising up from the silhouette's shoulders. It was a woman, and a familiar one at that. He wasn't sure who it was in the image, but he knew that he knew her somehow, as if he had known her for a very long time.
He turned to the other end of the pillar to catch sight of another pillar in the distance. It glowed with a dark purple energy. Jaune frowned and thought of the directions, retracing directions in his mind until he realized that this other pillar was directly beneath the place where the thunderstorm had been. Jaune walked towards the edge closest to the other pillar. He peered as far as he could, trying to focus on the other pillar so he could see what was there. In the distance, alone on the pillar, Jaune could see something – someone, maybe – running around, enraged. It was simply a black sliver so far away, thrashing its stick arms about. It wanted something, it was searching for it so desperately. Jaune felt... bad for it, whatever it was. For himself, he supposed. It was darkness, and it was him.
"Are you alright?"
Jaune looked around for the source of the voice. "Hey, Man, you alright?"
Jaune's eyes flew open, and he was faced with two people.
The first had bright orange hair, almost strawberry in color. It didn't conceal any of a thin and incredibly angular face. His features and dark brown eyes had a naturally concerned look to them, though that did not subtract from the anger, dedication, and unpredictability present within them. He was dressed in all black, with wide pants that looked almost like robes when close together. His shirt had large and loose sleeves with another, inner sleeve of white just peeking out. This revealed his thin, albeit very toned and muscular arms. Strapped across his back was a huge sword wrapped up in white bandages, though from the shape Jaune could tell it probably looked like a giant meat cleaver. The bandages were wrapped also around the handle of the weapon to form a grip. He was holding one hand out to Jaune to help him up.
The other man was basically the first's polar opposite. He had a long and blocky face complete with a jawline that could only be described as a foot long rectangle. His dark black hair was long and flared out in spikes where it ended at the middle of his neck. It was covered up on the top with a green bandana tied up to keep it out of his eyes. He had a green vest that matched the bandana over his white tunic. Black bands were over his forearms, the only part of his sizable arms that was covered. His shirt was tucked into a pair of black, puffy pants with white designs on both thighs and tightened to his waist by a red sash with a bag and large knife on the back. The green vest trailed past the belt, creating a small train. The pants were tucked into black shin guards that connected to his sandals and covered his white socks. He was glaring down at Jaune with one eyebrow raised – an eyebrow that Jaune noticed was half shaved off.
Jaune looked down when he noticed the ground felt weird. He blinked in confusion when he saw that he was in a bowl filled with sand in the middle of a white stone walkway. "Where – Yang!" He struggled to his feet in the deep pit of sand and began frantically looking around. "Yang! Ya -"
"Hey, shut up, you're going to get us killed!" the guy with orange hair hissed, slamming his hand over Jaune's mouth to muffle him. "I'd rather not have a thousand Soul Reapers here trying to kill us!"
Jaune stopped resisting at that term. Soul Reaper? That sounded bad enough on its own. The orange haired guy slowly let go. "Good. I'm Ichigo Kurosaki. The dumb looking one over there is Ganju," the orange haired young man explained. Ganju growled angrily and glared at the other person. Jaune turned around and found that they were about the same height, with Ichigo being maybe three inches shorter. Ichigo held his hand out."And who are you?"
"Oh, um, I'm Jaune," the Keyblade wielder said without thinking. He took Ichigo's hand and shook it. "I'm sorry, but, uh, have you seen a blonde. Maybe an inch taller than you. She's loud, likes punching things." Ichigo and Ganju gave him a confused look. "Yeah, I'd guess not. We got separated when we – fell here." He shook his head; he'd almost said 'Arrived in this world.' He wasn't sure why, but just saying that sounded like it would be a bad idea. He frowned inwardly. Come to think of it, how was this world already so... advanced if it was brand new? Jaune made a mental note to ask Sora or Ozpin about that the next time he saw one of them.
"No. Maybe she's with our friends, though. We got separated when we broke in, too." He nodded at Jaune, face still serious. "We're here to save one of our friends from being executed, and we need to find them and rescue her before they run into any Soul Reapers."
"Or before we do," Ganju pointed out.
"I could deal with Soul Reapers," Ichigo growled at Ganju, getting close and confrontational with him.
"You? Please, you couldn't even deal with keeping your Spiritual Pressure stable!" Ganju retorted, slamming his index finger into Ichigo's chest.
"I kept it stable enough for us to actually break through, didn't I? I could totally deal with any Soul Reaper that came our way!"
"Yahoo! What luck! " Jaune, Ichigo, and Ganju turned together to see a pair of what Jaune could only assume were Soul Reapers staring at them. One was bald and was holding his sheathed sword over his left shoulder, the other had chin length black hair and an odd peacock like pair of hairs coming out of his right eye and eyebrow. The bald one had a menacing grin on his face. "Can you believe this? First we skip out on boring guard duty, and then these three fall right into our hands!"
Jaune sighed to himself. I hope Yang is having an easier time here than I am.