What is life?
What is death?
What is eternity?
What is time?
The cogs of fate have already begun to turn your destiny.
Fate leads the willing, and drags the reluctant.
RWBY's Reaper
Ryoji had to admit, the view was spectacular.
He was surprised to receive an invitation to Beacon, and from the same man who run it no less, but considering his options, he really didn't have any other choice in the matter. Besides, there was a part of him that had grown attached to Ruby and Yang, so he could spend time with them while also honing his abilities.
Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
It hadn't taken him long to find them. Ruby was currently suffocating in Yang's sweet bosom, much to the envy of most boys, however he noticed that a few of them were currently having nosebleeds. He couldn't blame them: the scene was hot as hell.
...He hoped Hamuko was not in this world, otherwise she would seriously kill him for cheating on her. After all, if there was one thing the incarnation of death feared above all else, it was a woman on a quest for vengeance. Piss off a girl, you pay the price.
"Yang..." Ruby struggled to say in her sister's 'fun bags'. "Can't... breathe..."
Ryoji chuckled, walking toward them with his hands in his pockets. "Well, I see my two favorite and adorable customers are in the middle of bonding," he said with a smile. His voice caused Yang's eyes to widen, allowing Ruby to escape and take a deep gulp of fresh air. In his opinion, it wasn't a bad way to die. In fact, he was pretty sure the male population would agree with him. "Please, don't mind me. Continue."
"R-Ryoji?" Ruby coughed, straightening herself out before he finally managed to regain her normal intake of oxygen. "What are you doing here?"
Once he told them of his little tale, Ryoji began to reminisce back to his conversation with Ozpin. It had been... interesting... to say the least.
"Uh, pardon me, but..." Ryoji blinked, staring at the man in a state of confusion and shock. "Could you repeat that?"
"I said, Ryoji Mochizuki," Ozpin said, pausing for a few seconds to take a sip of his coffee. "How would you like to attend Beacon Academy?"
Ryoji just continued to stare at him in total confusion and shock. Okay, so he wasn't hearing things. Ozpin, the professor and headmaster of the most prestigious school in all of Vale was offering him, a Faunus of all things, a place at his school, where Yang and Ruby were attending. Normally, anyone in his position would jump at the chance, but he was not just anyone. "W-why?" he finally managed to croak out. "I'm no one special, plus I'm a Faunus."
"And... what of it?" Ozpin asked, as if the fact didn't matter at all. "Beacon is proud to accept everyone with the skills needed, whether they be Faunus, or humans."
"But not everyone is so willing to embrace Faunus, unlike you, Ozpin-san." Ryoji pointed out to him, accidentally letting an honorific slip. Honorifics here in this world did not exist, thus making it awkward for someone like Ryoji, who had no idea how things worked. "Plus, I have no combat experience." Okay, that was a lie. He had combat experience, having slept inside of Hamuko for the days when she had to fight, and learned everything she learned. Of course, his style of fighting was more akin to his sense of self as Thanatos.
Ozpin smiled mysteriously as he produced something from his coat, revealing a Scroll, something of a cell phone and computer all in one in this world, and typed in some keys before a video feed began to play. Ryoji paled when he saw footage of him in the forest, standing amongst the slowly crumbling corpses of Grimm. "No combat experience?" the man inquired with a grin. "This video of you slaughtering fifty Grimm, including three Nevermores and eight Deathstalkers, says otherwise."
Ryoji had to applaud the man for his investigational skills. During the first month here in this world, he began to test and play around his powers, learning how to control and wield them properly. His abilities were wild and unrefined, thus he had to get a hold on them, and the Grimm were the perfect targets for practice and trial runs. Unfortunately, it seemed that the Grimm were enticed by his power, and approached him in large numbers.
The battle had taught him how he could manifest his power into a corporeal form, taking the shape of the sword that he used as Thanatos, a naked blade without a hilt or guard, easily longer than the above average grown male, reaching to 8 ft and only fifteen centimeters wide. He could also create the coffins to be used as shields, blocking the attack. Of course, when he really cut loose, i.e. whenever he got really pissed off, or when one of his friends was in danger or about to die...
Let's just say the Grimm got a glimpse of death in his full splendor. Thankfully, the video didn't catch that part, as it was induced by static. He supposed the shockwave of him unleashing all of his power overwhelmed what cameras were there. Still, the fact remained that he had been caught red-handed. "...Okay, so I lied about not being able to fight." Ryoji admitted bashfully. "But, if people saw what I could do, they would act like total idiots and confuse me for a member of the White Fang."
"Of that, I can understand." Ozpin nodded. "However, I'm more curious about the power you displayed. I've never seen a Semblance that could take on a physical form, much less a sword or coffin that could act as a shield. There was also the fact that the Grimm were apparently attracted to you, and not in the mating sense."
Ryoji cracked a grin at the man's joke. "To be honest, I don't know much about my power. I've had it since I was young, and people were always scared of what I could do, so I tried to hide it as best as I could. Of course, if I leave it alone, I know it will go wild, so I train myself to get a better grasp of how I can use it."
"Hm, I see..." Ozpin said slowly, taking another sip of his coffee before looking back at the Faunus of Death. "There was also another matter... regarding your past." Ryoji was prepared for something like this. He knew something regarding his past would pop up eventually, sooner or later. "There are no birth records, no family history... in short, the Faunus, Ryoji Mochizuki, does not exist."
"Because I lost my parents shortly after I was born." Ryoji explained his false story, hoping the man wouldn't catch his lie. "Because of my appearance, most of the kids were terrified of me, so I lived in the woods, doing whatever it took to survive. I didn't really interact with humans all that much until I met Ruby and Yang by chance." He shivered at that particular memory.
Blondes... Never. Again.
Ozpin's eyes saddened a bit, taking up the story as he looked at the boy with pity. "...You are much too young to be shouldering such burdens." Ryoji smiled sheepishly. If anyone was too young to shoulder a burden of any kind... it would be the one he would gladly give his life to protect a thousand times over.
"...and that's how I ended up here." Ryoji finished off with a smile. "So, here I am. I have to say, though, I never thought I'd be seeing you guys again so soon."
Yang smiled as she wrapped her arm around his neck, leaning on him as she did so. "Just means we'll have a lot more time to..." she leaned in closer, her lips right next to his ear. "...get to know each other better."
Once again, Ryoji hoped that Hamuko was not in this world. Her slap was enough to make even Nyx dizzy for God's sake...
"But, won't Ryoji get into a lot of trouble because of his... you know..." Ruby trailed off, not wanting to offend him as she glanced at his tail, which danced around happily. Ryoji smiled, ruffling her hair. "Don't worry about it, Ruby!" he assured her. "If I get in trouble, it'll be because of the flees."
The three bursted out laughing at that. When the airship was now overlooking the ocean, Ryoji decided to explore the place a bit. He received a few glances and hateful glares, the most heated one coming from Cardin. No surprise there.
However, he did receive a few small smiles and such, especially from three other people. "Hey, it's the coffee guy!" Ryoji face-palmed and shook his head, the boy smacked outside the head by his friend. The group consisted of two boys and a girl, one with snow white hair tied back into a braid that fell over her shoulder, wearing a dazzling white sundress with snowflakes dancing near the hem, her eyes like ice sculptures. The second had dark blue hair tied back into a ponytail, wearing a black windbreaker over a collared shirt and worn jeans with tears below the knees and at the thighs, his belt hanging lazily off to the side. His bangs his the right side of his face, leaving only one of his gray eyes exposed. The third was a year or so younger than the two, wearing a white turtleneck underneath a black blazer with red and black plaid slacks and average leather sneakers. His hair was black and strangely it looked both messy and neat. (Ten points goes to whoever guesses who this character is modeled after!)
"His name is not coffee guy, Richard!" the girl said sternly, yet one could see the gentleness behind her tone easily. "It's Ryoji!"
The black-haired boy cracked a small smile as he watched the blue haired-boy, Richard, and the girl began to bicker before he bowed his head apologetically. "I'm sorry about them, Mochizuki."
"Eh, don't be." Ryoji waved it off before smiling himself. "So, how've you been, Phantom?"
Phantom Creed, along with Richard Lionheart and the girl, Winter Schnee, were among Ryoji's many regulars at Yggdrasil Cafe, in fact they were the first friends he made while working there, with the exception of Ruby and Yang. Richard was probably a lot like Junpei, carefree and goofy while always sporting a grin at the ready, however he never seemed to recall names, hence he gave people's nicknames. For Phantom it was Blacky because of his preference in clothes, Snow for Winter because of her hair and eye colors, also partially due to her name, and Wolf for Ryoji because of his tail and canines.
"We've been doing fine, thank you for asking." Phantom said politely. "Still, I can't believe your coming with us to Beacon. What a small world we live in, huh?"
Ryoji nodded in agreement. He turned to see Richard and Winter stop their bickering to smile at him, joining the conversation. "So, Wolf my man!" Richard exclaimed loudly, wrapping his arm around Ryoji's neck like Yang had done before, except a bit more roughly. "You and Xiao Long hooked up yet?"
"Nope." Ryoji said flatly, internally sighing. For some strange reason, Richard had made it his mission to hook the two of them up. Why he was doing this, no one knew except him, and they actually didn't want to know, out of fear of hearing something stupid and idiotic. "You already know I've got someone important to me back home, right?"
"So?" Richard shrugged it off, uncaring of his love life with Hamuko. "Love knows no bound!"
Winter shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose before bowing before the Faunus of Death. "I am very sorry for Lionheart's actions. He's acting very strangely today. I do believe his stupidity is in its fever at this time."
"Hey!"
"How have you been, Mochizuki?" Winter asked, concern appearing. "I hope Winchester and my sister haven't caused you any trouble?"
Ryoji had the pleasure of meeting Winter's sister, Weiss, and it was not pretty. It took everything Ryoji had to not go into his form as Thanatos and tear the ignorant and racist little brat apart. Honestly, he knew that the Schnee family had suffered hardships at the hands of the White Fang, but did she really have to hate Faunus as a whole? It wasn't like every Faunus was a member of the White Fang!
"No, I haven't had any trouble with Weiss." Ryoji said, much to her relief. "Cardin, on the other hand..."
Phantom sighed, shaking his head. "What does that fool have against Faunus?" he wondered aloud, and received a proper answer from Ryoji, having seen this type of person before while sleeping inside of Hamuko and acting as a human. "He doesn't. He just torments them because he feels like it."
"And it's because of people like him that the White Fang turned into a terrorist organization." Winter pointed out with a scowl marring her usual cold and beautiful looks. "I wonder how such a peaceful group became a bunch of murderers..."
Ryoji said nothing, because he didn't have an answer for her. Everyone suffered because of the White Fang, both humans and Faunus. The mere thought of them killing people made Ryoji sick to his stomach, and vowed that if he ever met a member, he would make them suffer. Painfully.
The airship finally gave everyone a good view of Beacon Academy in it's full splendor. Everyone was already making their way to the exit in groups, Ruby with her sister Yang, and Ryoji with his regulars from the cafe.
He didn't even know that the people around him would soon become his team, one of the best Beacon had to offer... including JNPR (Juniper) and RWBY (Ruby).
The name of this team, you ask?
RWPR (Reaper).
A/N: Not sure if I got Juanne's team name right. Bash me if I am wrong.
