A/N: Hey everyone, Flame'sWrath here with the second chapter of When Death owes a Favor. Thank you everyone whose followed and favourited the story so far, you guys are great. One thing that I forgot to put in the first chapter was a disclaimer, so here it is, and I hope you all enjoy this second chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own either Rwby or The Gamer, the series belongs to their respective creators.
One thing that lots of stories about being reborn don't touch on is that the process of being born is long, and horrifying….I'll spare you the details and just say this, babies have very good reasons to cry so much after they've been born. After finally calming down from the rather traumatizing experience of being born, while fully aware mind you, I was a rather calm baby, at least I think I was, after all babies aren't really known for their memories, or any of their senses. I mean seriously, I could barely see, and everything I could see was blurry as hell! My hearing was muffled as all hell as well, it didn't help that I wasn't used to the lights or sounds since I was only around an hour old, so everything was a cacophony of sound and light. After a while I was fed and burped, which as a teenager inside of a baby's body was an embarrassing experience let me tell you, I started to feel very tired and let out an adorable little yawn.
"Looks like the cub is tired, honey why don't you get a nurse and ask them to take him over to the infant ward?" A feminine voice asks the rooms other occupant. I almost forgot to introduce my parents in this new life, well the woman who is currently holding me and that just spoke is my mother Kira Raion. She was a small thing, standing up she was only 5'4", but damn if she wasn't strong, apparently she broke my dad's hand during labor, if the basic cast on his left hand was anything to go by.
"I'll go do that, do you want me to ask them for anything else while I'm out there?" The man standing by the door to the hospital room asked. This was my father Leon Raion, he in a stark contrast to my mother, was a giant of a man, towering over her with his 6'7" bulky frame. He was heavily muscled, but it wasn't an excessive amount of muscle like some of the bodybuilders back home, all that muscle didn't seem to hinder his movement at all either, so in all likelihood it was a mix of of red and white muscle tissue.
"Can you ask them when I can get out of this ridiculous gown, it makes me feel like an old woman." she says while tugging at the hospital gown she was wearing. Something I could already tell about my mother, even from the short time I've been observing her was that she was a rather blunt woman, she either didn't have tact, or she chose not to use it. My father chuckled a bit at her antics before replying to her as he opened the door.
"I'll be sure to ask them, in the meantime, get yourself some rest, you might try to act tough but my broken hand is testament to the fact that you were in a lot if pain a shirt time ago, this one certainly gave you more if a fight than his older siblings." he says, closing the door behind himself as he goes to grab a nurse. My mother shook her head slightly as she let out a small chuckle at my father's concerns.
"That man…*sighs* more concerned about his wife who's a fully trained huntress and has an unlocked aura when he's the one with a broken hand and no aura to speed up the healing process." It's at this point that she looks down at my bundled up form as she continues to speak. "I can only hope you take more after me than your father little cub, unlike your brother and sister…" She trails of towards the end as my dad comes back into the room accompanied by a woman in a nurses uniform.
"It seems this little one is starting to get sleepy, can you take him over the the infancy ward, I'd do it myself but my lower body is still very sore at the moment."she says as my traitorous baby body causes me to let out another adorable yawn as I valiantly struggle to keep my eyes open against sleep. The nurse says something to my mom as she gently takes me from her arms, but I can't make it as my eyes close and my body gives up the ghost when it comes to the fight against falling asleep. I don't know how long my sleep lasts, as I had no idea of what time it was when I fell asleep, but whenever I woke up I was in a small…bed…thingy, I had no idea what the things were called, sue me. Anyways moving on, I was in one of those baby viewing rooms that every hospital seems to have, I mean seriously why do these rooms even exist? Parents that have to see their children that much? Hmm...maybe the fact that I'm in a baby's body is contributing to my atrocious attending span?
Whatever it was, the facts were thus, I was awake, I couldn't really move on my own, and I was hungry, so I did what any other baby would do in this situation, I cried my little lungs out. It took a minute or two for one of the nurses to notice, and after they noticed it took another minute or so before they had a bottle but I eventually got fed. After being fed and burped, again, the nurse took me back to my mom's room, who was looking much less haggard than what I'm going to assume was last night. Placing me into my mother's arms, the nurse proceeded to give her a rundown of my relative healthiness.
"What date can we take the little cub back home? My husband has told me that his older siblings are starting to get impatient." she asks the nurse with mirth in her voice. The nurse excuses herself for a moment as she grabs the clipboard just outside my mother's room, looking over it for a moment before replying.
"Well Mrs. Raion you've healed up nicely, you could probably head home tonight if you wanted, the little one is healthy but we'd like to keep him for another day or two just to be sure." The nurse says while putting the clipboard back. She looks fearful of something for a moment before shaking her head and mustering her courage.
"Ma'am something I noticed when I was looking through your chart was that the doctor hadn't put down a name yet, would you like me to fix that?" She asks somewhat timidly.
"Yes that would be nice...his name is Akairo… Akairo Raion, my little red lion…" My mom answers as she gives me a look so full of love that it stops whatever I was doing or thinking cold. Before this moment I had been thinking of her and my father as just the people who had brought me into this world, it was this moment that I threw that thought out the window and truly began to see them for what they now were, my parents. After a while of spending time with my mom the nurse took me back into the infancy ward, this pattern if going back and firth from my mother's room to the infancy ward persisted for the next several days as the hospital kept me for observation. During those next few days my senses had started to clear up a bit, I could now hear much clearer than I had before and my sense if smell had improved, unfortunately the improved sense of smell coupled with the clinically sterile environment played merry hell with my sinuses, causing me to constantly sneeze. My eyesight had gotten better as well, it was still blurry as shit but I could see in more detail than that first day.
Another thing that I had noticed was that people's injuries seemed to heal much faster than back home, evidenced by the fact that when my parents were finally able to take me back home, my father's cast for his broken hand had been removed and he seemed to be able to use it perfectly fine. The thing I noticed immediately once we exited the hospital was it was very, very hot outside, and it wasn't just hot either, the air was also very arid and dry. From what has been told to everyone thus far in terms of the four kingdoms, I know that we can only be in one of two places, I was either born in Vacuo, home to practically endless desert, or I was born in one of the more inhospitable parts of Menagerie. Whichever it was the heat didn't last for very long as my parents got into their car and quickly cranked on the AC to cool the car down. The drive home didn't seem to take very long, around five minutes if I had to guess, however much time it took to get there, once we did, i got my first look at the home I would be staying in for the foreseeable future.
It wasn't overly large like some of the houses in this area but it was larger than where I had lived before, it was a two story build and it was painted a rich and inviting cream color, with the exception of the door, which was a deep red, far darker than my bright crimson hair. Entering the house I right away get a feeling of something I can quite put into words, it was like coming home after a long day, and curling up with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate. That feeling never really left, but it did fade slightly as my parents showed me around the house, and to my siblings. My sister's name was Sunny, ironic considering her bright blonde hair that seemed to shine like the sun underneath the right light. My brother was named Rowan, whose fiery red hair certainly fit with his name.
"Wow! Is this our new little brother? He's so tiny...were we exert that small Mommy?" Sunny asked awestruck at my tiny form as she reached for my tiny baby hands. I would place Sunny at somewhere around six or seven years old, based on her size and vocabulary, then again depending on if people here grow as fast they seem to heal, I may be wrong. Rowan was much younger than Sunny, at least judging by the thumb in his mouth and the lion plushy in his hand he was.
"Yes little cub, this is your new baby brother, as the older sister it's your job to make sure he stays out of trouble...and to answer your other question everyone was this small once, even your father was as tiny as Akairo is right now." My mother answered as she knelt down to pat Sunny on the top of her head.
"I'll take the bestest care of him! I'll be the bestest big sister ever mommy!" Sunny exclaims as she bounces in place. It seems that her name doesn't just apply to her hair color, it also seems to fit her disposition to a tee as well. Mom chuckles a bit at her enthusiasm before patting her on the head again and saying that she doesn't doubt that she would be for a second. The tour of the rest of the house now includes Sunny put in her own descriptions of all the rooms as she sees them. The tour eventually comes to an end as they finally head into my room for the foreseeable future, my parents set me down in the crib and I slowly begin to drift off to sleep with a smile on my face, maybe Remnant wouldn't be so bad after all.
-Five Years Later-
Time with my new family flew by, before I had really noticed it five years had passed, and what a great five years they were. As I grew, so did Sunny and Rowan, Sunny's personality hadn't really changed all that much during those five years, she was still very bubbly and friendly, but her energy was more...controlled compared to that first day when my parents took me home. Rowan on the other hand was the one who changed the most in those five years, whereas he used to be very shy and self-conscious, now he was a brash and confident eight year old, I think him becoming an older brother caused him to want to become someone for me to look up to. I was the one that had changed somewhere in the middle compared to the others, living in Remnant meant learning all the new customs that came with living in a different world, oh there were still holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, but the explanation for why they were around were different. Thanksgiving is celebrated as the first civil meal that humans and Faunus ever shared way in the past, before the Great War.
Another thing that was different on Remnant was that children were taught to defend themselves from a much earlier age, due to the constant threat of the Grimm, me and Rowan being the ages of Five and Eight respectively, were still too young to begin those lessons, but Mom had recently been teaching Sunny the basics. The house had also changed slightly over the past four years, furniture was replaced, appliances were updated, my room was no longer a nursery and was now a proper room with a proper bed. Today was my first day at Vacuo's preschool, actually that was another thing, a few weeks after my parents took me home for the first time I had concluded that we were in Vacuo and not in one of the worse areas on Menagerie. Anyways getting off track, today was my first day of school in this new life and I was rather excited to learn more about this beautiful and terrifying world.
"Hurry up little cub, or else you might end up late in your first day! You wouldn't want that now would you?" My mom yelled from somewhere downstairs. I had been getting ready but my reminiscing had caused me to become lost in thought. Quickly scrambling around my room to get dressed and to pack everything I would need for the day in my small backpack. I rushed to the stairs in a panic, nearly falling down the stairs in my frantic rush to get downstairs. Mom chuckles to herself as she watches my panicked reaction to her earlier words before speaking from her location in the kitchen.
"Calm down Akairo, you're not going to be late, I just said that because you stopped moving around up there, I was going to go up there and tell you that breakfast was ready, but I thought this would be funnier." She says with amusement. This wasn't the first time mom had pulled something like this, and I seriously doubted it was going to be last, she enjoyed embarrassing me too much for her to stop anytime soon.
"That was mean Mommy, you made me think I was going to be late on my first day at school." I say as I sit down at the breakfast island. That was another thing that my parents took in stride, the fact that I talked like someone who was a year or two older than I actually was, they just brushed it off as I was exceptionally smart. That isn't to say I didn't act like my age from time to time, being a mature five year old isn't very fun and it doesn't make you very many friends, so I tended to put most of that maturity away when around what friends I did have.
"I'm sorry little one, I could resist, you act so serious all the time, I just wanted you act your age for once." She says with an apologetic look on her face. Well damn...now I feel bad about acting so mature all the time.
"I'm sorry Mommy, I didn't mean to make you sad." I apologize as I get down and give her a hug. She pats me in the head, puts me back in my chair, and sets down a plate with bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, and a hashbrown.
"Well little one, if you want to grow up big and strong like you always say you will, you need to eat your breakfast...and besides if you just talk to me for too long you really will be late for your first day." She says as she sits down with her own plate of food. I smile, thank her, and then proceed to absolutely demolish the delicious plate of food she had made. Mom's cooking was literally the best food I have ever eaten, in either life, I had no idea how she managed to make something that looked so simple taste so good. After we both finish eating and I complement mom on her cooking, we both head outside to the car. Climbing into the car, I crawl up into my car seat and start to strap myself in as mom leads her assistance as needed.
The drive to the school didn't take to long, ten minutes at the most, a lot of which I spent taking in Vacuo's particular architecture, the buildings were hardy, built to weather the harsh nature of Vacuo's desert's. Once we arrived, mom helped me out of the car and walked with me up to the doors.
"Remember little one, try not to act so serious all the time, and do try to make some friends please." She pleads as she kneels to look me face to face. The look that mom makes when she wants me to do something should be banned, I literally cannot deny her when she makes that face.
"Alright Mommy, I'll try." I reassure her and I give her a hug before I head inside to find my classroom. It takes a little bit before I manage to catch the attention of the lady in charge of new students, we have a short conversation before she calls the teacher in charge of the room down to the office so he could escort me to the room. His name was Mr. Henderson, he was actually rather young, somewhere in his mid-twenties, he had a kind face with a neatly trimmed beard. He was dressed rather warm for living in Vacuo, suit and tie instead of clothes that showed a lot of skin like almost everyone in Vacuo was used to wearing. He was nice, cracking jokes and asking questions about what I liked and what I knew, typical questions a friendly teacher wanting to know about one of his students would ask.
We reached the classroom after a short walk and he introduced me to the rest of the class before assigning me an empty seat towards the back of the class. He introduced himself and proposed a little exercise for us to get to know each other, he had us turn to one of the people sitting beside us and introduce ourselves. It wasn't long after he asked us to do so before an outstretched hand planted itself in my field of vision, and by not long after I mean a matter of seconds. Following the hand back to it's owner I was fairly surprised by the familiar face that greeted me.
"Heya my name's Sun Wukong! What's your name!?" A very excited and very tiny Sun Wukong greets me. Honestly seeing him here was very surprising, I mean I knew he was from Vacuo, the fact that he went to Haven in the show proved as much, but I was not expecting him to go to my preschool. I realize I've been staring as his face takes on a look of confusion and I shake myself out of my thoughts and greet him back.
"I'm Akairo Raion, nice to meet you, sorry about staring, I got a bit lost in thought." I say extending my own hand to meet his in a handshake. The grin that he flashed me seemed to sparkle as we shook hands, I was half expecting him to say something about Youth but it only lasted for moment.
"It's okay! My gramps does it all the time, though when he does it he gets a really weird look on his face and he turns bright red...and he let's out giggles sometimes." Sun says as he gains a thoughtful expression. I'm not sure I can sweatdrop on Remnant due to this not being an anime but if I could I'm certain I would be doing it right now as Sun describes his grandfather's perverse tendencies. The somewhat peaceful chattering of the classroom was broken as a shout echoed through the school.
"WHY THE HELL IS MY DESK COVERED IN HONEY!?" The shout echoes through the school as Mr. Henderson steps outside to see what's going on. Sun's howling laughter told me everything I'd need to know about who did it, dear lord he was a prankster.
-Five years later...again-
Meeting and then becoming friends with Sun really mellowed out my frankly rather serious personality, his cheerful and laid back attitude was infectious. He had actually convinced me to take part in his pranks a time or two. Anyways time flew and before I knew it it was my tenth birthday, ten whole years since I was born into this world. One thing that I was looking forward to was having my aura unlocked, I had figured out a couple years ago that on my sibling's tenth birthdays my mom had unlocked their aura, it was why Sunny's boundless energy was more controlled than when she was younger. The party was a relatively small affair, family, Sun, and a few kind of friends I had made, the gifts I got had been nice but the gift I loved the most was the one that mom gave me after the party had dispersed.
"Son, when your brother and sister turned ten, me and your father gave them a choice of what they wanted to do with their life, they could follow me and become a huntsman and huntress, people who dedicate their lives to protect those weaker than them, or they could follow your father, become whatever you wanted to. Both of them chose to follow me, now I offer you the same choice, follow me and become someone people look to for protection, or be someone who has an infinite amount of possibilities open to them, but whatever you choose, know that me and your father are proud of you." she says with a serious expression as she lays her hands on my shoulders.
"I know that following after you, Sunny, and Rowan means that I may get hurt, but I don't care! I want to help people like you do Mom! If I had the chance to help people and I didn't take it because I was afraid of getting hurt what kind of person would I be?" I ask with matching Mom's seriousness.
"Well then, I guess that's my answer…" at this she lays one hand on my forehead and the other on my chest, just over my heart.
"For it in passing that we achieve Immortality. Through this, we become a Paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by Death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." She chants. The words so much more than just words, they were truths of this world. They reverberated in my soul, breaking a wall I never knew was there, the feeling was something I'll never forget, it was like seeing the world in a whole new way. For me I really was seeing the world through a whole new way, if the nametag and question marks for level hanging above my mother's head said anything.
