Dedicated to Monty Oum. Thank you for everything. Rest In Peace.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the series used herein. They belong to their respective creators and the companies they sold the publishing rights to.
Pain. That was the first thing to hit him, almost as soon as he fell out of the multi-coloured swirly hole thing in the sky. It wasn't a normal pain, either. That he could have dealt with. No, this was the kind of pain that felt like his very soul was being ripped in two. It was so bad he felt like he might pass out in the next five minutes or so. He didn't, of course. No, he passed out only 30 seconds later, though not from the pain, but from the second thing to hit him.
The ground.
Which was fortunate, in a way, as people tend not to consciously feel pain when... unconscious. What was unfortunate, was that he missed seeing what happened next. Not that seeing it would have made his comprehension of the situation any more... comprehensive, but it was a sight that would have been unusual even to this young man. His form appeared to waver, becoming indistinct and transparent, while another form seemed to coalesce within, before the two separated and became solid once more. And thus, where once lay a single young man with raven black hair tied back into a simple pigtail and wearing a red and black silk Kung-Fu outfit, now lay both the aforementioned youth, who was now only wearing the remains of his black pants, and a smaller form with similar facial features and an identical hairstyle, though obviously female, wearing what was once the young mans red shirt, and with bright red hair. And cat ears.
This is how Ranma Saotome arrived in the world known as Remnant.
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Waking up, Ranma noticed, was far more pleasant when one wasn't being thrown out a window or having a bucket of cold water thrown on them. Which, after exactly 7.25 seconds of contemplating this thought, brought Ranma to complete wakefulness at a rate that even Kasumi's pancakes couldn't match. He never got to wake up like this. If, on the off chance his Pops had gotten so drunk the night before that he was unable to get up in time for their early morning sparing session, then the tomboy always made sure to wake him up with that stupid bucket of hers. And last he could remember, both Pops and Mr Tendo had been stone cold sober for the past week and a half anyway, thanks to his mother hiding the contents of all three of their secret Saké stashes. It was at this point, while opening his eyes to try and locate his missing father, he noticed something else.
"This... ain't my room."
"Indeed. The fact that you noticed this immediately is fortunate, in its own way, as I can't imagine the type of life someone might lead if they woke up in a hospital room in a place they had never been before and thought that it was their room." Spoke the older man walking through the door of said hospital room at that very moment.
"Huh? Hospital room?" Queried Ranma, before looking around and noting that, yes, he was in what appeared to be a hospital room. "And who the heck are you, old man?"
"Old man? Well, I suppose to a youth such as yourself, a man of my more... advanced years may seem old, but that is neither here nor there. My name, is Professor Ozpin, and I am the headmaster of Beacon Academy."
"Never heard of it."
"I would be surprised if you had. Tell me, what is the last thing you remember, before waking up here?"
Thinking back, Ranma began recapping his day to himself, before answering Ozpin's question. "I remember falling into some sort of multi-coloured swirly hole... thing, and then... pain."
"I see. Well, apart from the pain, your situation appears identical to that of a number of others I've been getting reports of. Well, almost identical, I should say. Tell me, young man..."
"Ranma."
"OK then. Tell me, Ranma, do you believe in alternate worlds?"
At this, Ranma snorted. "With the amount 'a stuff I've seen, it'd be weirder if I didn't believe in 'em. You say'n I'm in one?"
"Correct. I must say, you're taking this much better than some others have. Is this related to those 'Weird Things' you mentioned seeing?"
"That, 'n the ones that actually happened to me. Plus, I can tell you ain't lyin' to me. You're hiding things, but you ain't lyin'."
Raising his eyebrow at the fact that the young man before him could tell he was hiding things, the professor nevertheless continued with their conversation. "Well, that certainly makes this easier. Yes, you are in an alternate world, one that those of us who live here full time call 'Remnant'. And, as you may have inferred from my earlier remarks, you are not the only one. Indeed, there have been a number of cases similar to your own. Your own arrival, however, is different in two specific ways. One, the pain you mentioned earlier. And two, you did not arrive alone."
"I didn't arrive alone?" This was the part that Ranma found confusing. "I know I was alone when I hit that swirly thing, and I'm pretty sure I didn't see anyone else before the pain hit me."
"Nonetheless, when myself and my colleagues found you, there were definitely two of you in the bottom of that impact crater. In fact, given certain similarities in both your features and Auras, we had assumed that the two of you were related. And the fact that she's been sleeping in the bed next to your own without any reaction from you only seemed to bear that theory out."
"Eh?" Ranma asked smartly, then looked over at the bed Ozpin had been indicating (And how did he miss that on his earlier inspection of the room, anyway?) to see what was a dead ringer for his female form, or at least his female form if he'd fallen into the Spring Of Drowned Catgirl instead of the Spring Of Drowned Girl. "The hell is going on?"
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An hour later, after several explanations and seven servings of Lunch, Ranma's newly separated girl side having woken up sometime during the conversation and had proceeded to show everyone that she had nearly as big of an appetite as her original self. Or rather, her Big Brother, as she had taken to calling Ranma almost as soon as she woke up, and that was going to take a bit of getting used to, Ranma thought. Not only did he no longer change genders with a simple application of water, and it had taken a phenomenal amount of willpower to not break out into his "Never Gonna Be A Girl Again" dance upon that discovery, which would have been embarrassing in the extreme wearing nothing but a hospital gown, but apparently he also wasn't deathly afraid nervous around cats anymore. He suspected that it might have something to do with why his new sister had cat ears, as well as a few cat like mannerisms (She really liked the Tuna in that one sandwich), but there was no way to know for sure. Also of note was that she didn't appear to have any real memories of her own, apart from what Ozpin had termed "Instinctual" memories, things like how to move, speak, and eat. Ranma did find himself wondering if she had any of his Martial Arts skills, but that was something to test another time, there were more important things to think about.
"So, yer sayin' that not everyone who came to this world survived?"
"That is correct. Several people appeared to have landed badly after falling out of these dimensional holes, with the lucky ones dying instantly. At least one person appeared to have died not five minutes before a Huntsman team found her. Others were simply, not there, when a recovery team arrived at their entry point. We don't know if they were found by someone else, if they managed to leave the area under their own power, or if they had a run-in with one of the Creatures of Grimm."
"Creatures of Grimm?"
"Soulless monsters whose only purpose appears to be to attack and kill Humans and Faunus. We can discuss them more later, but for now, I have a question for you. What will you do now?"
It was this simple question that was the most confusing for Ranma. "I... I don't know. I don't think anyone's ever asked me what I was gonna do, or even what I wanted to do, before. It was always, Do This, or Be That."
"I see. That is very unfortunate, for it is the ability to choose the path we wish to take in life that defines us as people, and it is something we must all figure out for ourselves, no-one else can make that decision for you." Seeing the downcast look on Ranma's face, he continued with "I can, however, provide you with options." Ranma's face immediately brightened. "You mentioned you were a Martial Artist, a fighter, a warrior. There are many places that would benefit from your skills. I'm sure any of the militaries of the four kingdoms would accept you with open arms, as would the police forces. Or, if you'd prefer, there is another path open to you: that of the Huntsman."
"What, you mean like going out into the wilderness to hunt animals for food and stuff?"
"No, in this world the term has a somewhat different meaning. Huntsmen and Huntresses are humanities front line of defence, standing against whatever darkness tries to snuff out our light. Our most elite warriors, safeguarding the peace that others take for granted and asking for nothing in return."
"Then that's what I'll do. I'll be a Huntsman."
"Are you sure? You don't even want to take a bit of time to think about it?" Ozpin had been fairly certain Ranma would choose becoming a Huntsman, but he was a bit taken aback at just how quickly he had settled, almost pounced really, on the idea.
"You said it yourself, Professor. I'm a Martial Artist, and it's a Martial Artist duty to protect the weak and helpless. If that's what a Huntsman does, then that's what I'll do."
At hearing the quiet certainty in Ranma's voice as he said that, so different from the uncertainty of earlier, Ozpin smiled to himself. "The way you say that, it's not just something you say to sound cool, is it? No, you truly believe that with all your heart. Very well then, if that's truly what you want, then who am I to gainsay you? Still, it's not like you can just say that you'll be a Huntsman and you're automatically one. No, you still have to prove that you are able to handle it. And that is something I can most definitely help you with."
"Whaddaya mean?"
"As I mentioned earlier, I am the headmaster of Beacon Academy. Let me tell you a little about my school..."
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WORLD OF REMNANT: Authors Notes
OK, first of all, welcome. This is the first time I've written anything in several years, and the last thing I published never got past the first chapter. Here's hoping I have better luck this time.
So, as mentioned above, this story is dedicated to the memory of Monty Oum, creator, animator, and voice actor of RWBY, and a pretty sweet dancer too. Those of you who came here from the Ranma ½ section may not be aware of this, but Monty passed away a few days ago, and his friends and colleagues at Rooster Teeth asked that those of us who wished to honour him do something creative, so this is my offering. I hope it meets with approval.
Now, a few things I feel need to be addressed. First, yes, I did split Ranma from his cursed form, and I know this is going to get some of the Ranma purists up in arms, but I have my reasons. I was discussing this with Vimesenthusiast the other day, and we were both of the opinion that this would be the natural result of Ranma being sent to Remnant. You see, according to Word of Monty, Magic does not exist in Remnant; it's all either Dust, Aura, or Semblance. Thus, Remnant itself would reject Jusenkyou. And yes, the reason Ranma's sister (Haven't thought of a name for her yet, but not going with Ranko) is now a cat Faunus is because of the Neko-ken. Basically, I'm going with the school of thought that the alternate form is just that, another form, he doesn't have a second soul in him or anything like that, so when they were split, the now separate female part had to have something to form its own mind around, so it took the cat part of his Psyche along with a copy of the more child-like parts it formed itself within.
And no, I'm not going to go into any great depth in explaining common terms in the RWBY-verse for those of you who are un-familiar with the series. If you don't understand when I start talking about things like Dust or Semblance, then do everyone a favour and go watch RWBY, you can view it for free on the Rooster Teeth YouTube channel, you quite literally have no excuse not to. Plus, this series was Monty's Opus, so you owe it to yourself. You won't regret it, trust me.
Until next time.