He let a sharp smile take place on his lips, as fake as everything he was, he had awakened in that place again: the place where he and the two others encountered. But this time he was alone, so It had probably descended into madness again, prompting the other to go stop It. And if It had devolved into its insanity, then it meant that a new possibility had arisen. He already knew which one.
"Him to this place hum? Oh my friend, you have always the most promising surprises."
"Humanity has forgotten that they are only a Remnant, a byproduct of long lost history, indeed. But this remnant holds such promise, such potential, that they can afford this little product of Pride don't you think? They prepare their guardians, their hunters, to fend off the darkness, who prey on them; you already sent your destroyers, your crusaders, to smother the light. We have brought our wild card: slithering in the shadows, basking in the light, to open a new path. Maybe, like he said, victory reside in a smaller, most honest soul, maybe not. But in any case, this soul will not be alone. For those who fend for what they believe in, those who partake in the same kindness, are never alone: they reach to each other from worlds and times apart, assembling against one enemy, for the dreams they each hold to their chest, in a huddle so close that their strength can shatter the mountains, that their belief can rend the sky asunder and that their name will inspire awe and respect in the hearts of the divine!"
The smile turned into something twisted, reaching a size betraying insanity.
"So, you who cannot hear my word, be ready for the storm, the play has yet to begin!"
The voice turned to a whisper.
"And it will be far less predictable than you seem to believe."
There were only few things Nagisa really disliked, he had long since learned to take his problems in stride. He had no problem with a suicide mission, he could be awakened at ungodly hours by a yellow perverted octopus teacher for 'bonding exercises' on the other side of the world without any problem and he even was more or less okay with all these cross-dressing stories. But being blocked in a dimly lit room with somebody pacing back and forth while silently assessing him had a way to put him on edge, memories of the second god of death's underground facility coming back to mind.
The woman finally spoke.
"I hope you realize that your actions tonight will not be taken lightly young ladies."
His head went crashing against the iron table with a loud 'bang'.
"Even dead, even dead, they can't have it right." He whimpered. Don't misunderstand, he did not really dislike it, but it still hurt a little when peoples thought he was a girl when he was not in a dress.
"Is there a problem?" asked the woman, the huntress like Ruby had called her, sounding a little annoyed.
He rose his head.
"Erm, sorry for interrupting you, but I'm not a girl, I'm a guy."
The woman rose an eyebrow. Ruby visibly startled.
"Wait! You're a boy?!"
His forehead swiftly reacquainted itself with the cool metal. He made a point to ignore the blood that began to drip over the furniture. There had to be somebody laughing his lungs out somewhere. He had the vague feeling it was Karma.
"Yes." It came out a little more like a sob than he would have liked.
"Then you have my apologies but, as I was saying, you must understand that you have put yourselves and others in great danger. Especially you, young lady."
"They star-" Nagisa rapidly cut her off before she pushed them deeper.
"We stopped a robbery conducted by armed men, the civilians had already evacuated with the exception of the storekeeper who was the first objective secured. The only persons put in danger were Ruby and I. Of the dozen of enemies, only two escaped and, while there were some collateral damages, there were no casualties nor wounded. Even if the results are not optimal, I believe that the operation can be considered a success."
While Ruby tilted her head like some overly cute puppy, the huntress woman looked at him with an expression at midway between annoyed and appreciative.
"Even if I have some new questions for you, you are indeed correct: you admirably performed and I would have congratulated you if you were graduated huntsman and huntress. But you are not. And this is why, if it were up to me, both of you would be sent home with a pat on the back..."
He felt bad for the suddenly smiling Ruby: the 'but' was clearly there.
"And a slap on the wrist!"
He didn't even realize he had instinctively reached for the knife at his left leg before he was at midway in the act, and he realized he had blocked the riding crop only when the sound of metal against blade screeched in the room. He blinked. Ruby blinked. The huntress certainly did not blink.
"Go-gomen, watashi watakunakatta!" He blushed. "I-I mean! Sorry, I didn't want to, it was a reflex!"
He could have sworn he had seen little stars sparkling in Ruby's eyes. He was absolutely sure the huntress' calm was a godsend. He was a little less sure about the calculating look she sent him.
"More and more questions... Where was I? Ah, yes! There is someone here who would like to meet you."
Cue the entering of a gray haired man clad in shades of green holding a cup of what smelled like a freshly made coffee and a plate of cookies.
"Ruby Rose and Nagisa, surname unknown." The man leaned slightly on the table in Ruby's direction.
"You have silver eyes."Before she could come up with an answer he turned toward Nagisa.
"And you... Have blue pupils."
"What?" Nagisa took his mirror, the one he used for light signal from one of his pockets. True to the man's word, his eyes had changed, the iris had divided into two rings of different shades of blue and the pupils had turned to two slits of sapphire. The fact that the eyes had changed was not that surprising, he had already observed the slow change throughout the past year. What astounded him was that, last he remembered, the change did not look nearly as complete when he killed Koro-sensei and it was far slower than what would have been needed for them to finish.
"Well, miss Rose, we will begin by asking you where you learned to do this." The man made a sign of his head to where the woman was holding her pad. Pad who displayed Ruby fighting the thugs in black. So the fight was recorded. It certainly explained why she was here in time to save the day. Now that he looked closer, he could see some familiarity in the way she moved, some reminded him of the ones the class used after the fighting and free-running training.
"S-signal academy." An academy? Interesting, maybe he could find a university where his most 'peculiar' talents and skills could be of use. He made a note to search a little for it.
"They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" Now he was exaggerating. Sure, Ruby's scythe/gun must need some skill, but he had seen weapons far more fearsome than it, all the bio weapons, tentacles and even some of Itona, Ritsu and Manami's joint projects came to mind. The thought of some of their results sent shivers down his spine, those who had been placed in the category 'Never talk about it again' had a way to make the class a little more trigger-happy than they already were, particularly the ones with which Karma had helped out.
"Well, one teacher in particular."
"I see." The man placed the plate of cookies on the table and Ruby began to happily tear through them. Nagisa took one of them and, more by habit than anything else, broke it in two before lightly sniffing one of the halves. Put at ease by the lack of poison traces he ate it, pointedly ignoring the interested look of the green man.
"It's just that I've only seen one scythe wielder of that skill before, a dusty old crow."
"fash mah hunkul!" Maybe the answer would have been easier to understand if she had emptied her mouth before, thing she promptly did.
"Sorry, that's my uncle Qrow, he's a teacher at Signal. I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing." The man and he lightly grinned at the fortuitous pun. "And now I'm all like-" Cue stereotypical kung-fu sounds and poses. His hands slowly found their way to his face. Before coming back bloodied, he had forgotten this small detail. He shot a grateful smile at the woman when she silently handed him a tissue.
"So I've noticed. And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?"
"Well, I want to be a Huntress." This word again.
"You want to slay monsters?" Wait what?
"Monsters? Excuse me, but what do you mean, monsters?" The others looked at him as if he had grown a second head.
"The creature of Grimm. What else?"
"Grimm?" He was sure this meant something like 'sinister' but he didn't remember anything called like that.
"We will have to talk about this more in a moment. But for your understanding, the Grimms are the creature of darkness oppressing humanity."
Monsters oppressing humanity, overpowered weapons and peoples talking about it like it was normal. It was not how he represented the afterlife.
"So, miss Rose, your answer?"
"Ah, yeah. I only have two more years of training left at Signal! Then I'm going to apply to Beacon! You see, my sister's starting there this year and she's trying to be a huntress and I'm trying to be a huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help people soIthought'HeyImightaswelmakeacareeroutofit'ImeanthepolicearealrightbuttheHuntsmanandHuntressarejustsomuchmoreromanticandexcitingandreallygoshyouknow!"
So, he got some infos in there. One, Ruby was a sucker for interrogation. Two, she didn't need to breath between two sentences. Three, Huntress and Huntsman were apparently some kind of super protectors and four, he maybe had found a university where his previous experiences could help.
"Do you know who I am?"
"You're professor Ozpin. You're the headmaster of Beacon."
Nagisa tried, he really, really tried not laugh. He miserably failed, the afterlife was just as crazy as his class.
When he finally reduced the laughter to a small chuckle, he apologized and told them to continue.
"Hello." Simply said Ozpin
"Nice to meet you." Answered Ruby, he nearly started to laugh again.
"So you want to join my school?"
"More than anything."
"Well, okay." The headmaster turned to him.
"Now, Nagisa was it? May I ask for your full name?"
"Ah, yes. I'm Shiota Nagisa, it's nice to meet you mister Ozpin."
"No reference to color?"
"Hum, no sir. Why?"
"We will talk about this in a little moment. But before anything, I would like for you to explain me where you learned to do this." He gestured toward the clipboard where his actions of the evening were displayed.
"Kunigakoa Junior High Class 3E. I was a part of the class tasked to assassinate the creature that destroyed the living world's moon before he and I both died together."
"Died?!" The cry came from Ruby.
"Well, yeah. I only arrived three hours ago."
"But... But you..." She seemed at loss of words. Maybe she was born in the afterlife. But would that mean that you could still grow here?
"Miss Rose, if you would let me do this please. Mister Nagisa, what makes you believe that you are dead?"
"The fact that there is more remaining moon sir. And also the fact that I feel much lighter. The space beam must not have worked as the government said."
"Then I must tell you that you are very much alive my boy. But from what you told me, I would consider the theory of different worlds."
"Ozpin! You don't speak seriously? This theory still has no proof of its accuracy."
"Oh, but I am absolutely serious Glynda, this would explain much of what young Shiota here just told us. Now, my boy, could you please give us a proof of what you say?" The now named Glynda silently sent him a long-suffering look without saying anything. Ruby looked again like a lost puppy.
"Sure thing professor." He reached in his pocket for his phone, or whatever his phone had become.
"Oh? You already have a scroll?"
"This was my phone, but it changed when I arrived here." He blinked: on the screen, some chibi snake danced over the words 'Download complete, touch the screen to activate'. He did just that and a familiar figure appeared.
"Nagisa?"
"Ritsu! It's good to see you."
"Nagisa, what's happening?! I can't contact my central unit! Where are we? Who are these peoples? And-and why are we talking English?" He didn't know what to do, it was the first time he ever remembered having seen Ritsu panic. In a desperate try, he touched the screen where her matsukazé, her pressure point would be and, to his great surprise, she calmed like any blood and flesh people.
"Ritsu, I would like to introduce you to Ruby, professor Ozpin and miss..."
"Goodwitch"
"And miss Goodwitch."
"I pray you to accept my apologies. My name is autonomously thinking fixed artillery, but you can call me Ritsu."
Ozpin was the first one to react.
"There is no need for you to apologize, you were in a situation where your actions were perfectly justified. But I must say, I did not think it was possible to create a fully sentient artificial intelligence. You are an artificial intelligence?"
Somewhere in Atlas, a certain android suddenly learned she could sneeze.
"Yes, Professor Ozpin. I was created by the Norwegian army and upgraded by koro-sensei to become fully sentient. I recently began to feel emotions after a close interaction with the Japanese experimental manned spacecraft."
Ruby finally stopped doing her lost cute puppy impersonation and suddenly was at his side, making signs toward his pho-scroll as Ozpin had said.
"Hey! I'm Ruby. Did you say you went into space?!"
"Me, Nagisa and Karma actually. Why?"
Ruby didn't answer and looked at him as if he was the first person to ever do that.
"It is surprising." Ozpin's intervention gave him an excuse to look away. "Because as far as memory is concerned, space has been but a far dream for humanity. Now, do you think you could explain us about this?"
"Hey! Can I stay and listen too?" Nagisa turned to Ruby and sighed. He had the feeling that she would just wait for them outside the door if he was to say no.
"Okay, but it will probably take some time, even if I summarize."
"Take your time, we are not in a hurry." And, seeing the kind smile on the man's face, Nagisa decided he liked him.
"Ritsu, I will need your help. So, it all begin with my last year in middle school..."
Ruby was having one of the best evening she had had in a long time: she had met a Huntress, Ozpin, a cyber girl and a really cool guy. Sure, she had to fight some robbers and she had been reprimanded by the Huntress. But hey! Ozpin had said she could go to Beacon and Nagisa was telling a really fun story with Ritsu. She frequently caught herself daydreaming about the world he was talking about, about a super fast teacher, about cool assassins and travel into space.
She had to tell about all of this to Yang, her sister was gonna love it.
"And then I awakened here. You know the rest of the story." He had talked without pause for two hours without stopping except when somebody asked for a precision, mostly Ruby but Ozpin and Goodwitch had interrupted from time to time too. By the broken moon was he thirsty.
"Hey." He looked up from the bloodstain on the table to see Ozpin handing him a steaming cup of coffee he was pretty sure had not been there before.
"Thank you."
"Amazing! So you are some kind of ninja!" Ruby's enthusiast exclamation made him grin a little. She was holding his notebook with his teacher's weakness that he had lent them for proof.
"It's a way of seeing it."
"Now my boy, I know you must have enough of talking, but I have some question and maybe a proposition for you."
Nagisa refrained a chuckle.
"Ask away."
"How old did you say you are?"
"I would have turned sixteen in three months, sir."
"You said you just graduated before coming to Remnant is that right?"
"I completed both my mission and my studies yes."
"And you said you wished to be a teacher as well as find a way to use your training in a way to help people?"
Nagisa suddenly understood where this was going. His smile widened. "Yes, professor!"
"And you Ritsu, what would you want to do?"
"I would like to stay with my friend and help him at the best of my capacities. I would also like to learn more about this place."
"Then I would like to propose you to join Beacon. As a student, but also as a teacher."
A triple "What?" was his answer, Goodwitch looked ready to face-palm.
"Not as a full member of the staff of course, but I think your knowledge could be used in an optional class. What do you think about it?"
He thought about it: on one side, he already envisaged to try to join Beacon, the perspective of a university where he could put his skills in practice was really enticing. On the other, he was offered what was basically experience for both of his dreams. The answer was obvious.
"I certainly would like to try sir."
"Then this is decided. But before we go, there are two things we need to sort."
"Tell me."
"First of all, you must know that here, on Remnant, every child is called after a color, be it the color itself or some word that would remind of it. Taking your appearance into account, I would suggest something related to the color blue. Of course, you are not forced to fully change your name, simply adding a second one should be enough."
"Something related to blue..." He had no problem with changing his name, he had not used his surname in almost a year and he could always use his first name as a replacement.
Ruby raised her hand
"Why not Sapphire?" He turned toward her and she began to fidget uncomfortably. "I mean, your eyes make me think of jewels and..."
"Sapphire." He let the word roll on his tongue before smiling at her. "Then now I am Sapphire Nagisa. Thanks you Ruby."
"Hum, you're welcome?"
"Now, professor, you talked about two things to sort."
"Yes. Tell me Nagisa, have you ever heard of Aura?"
"I can't say I have. And you Ritsu?"
"No, sorry."
Ozpin smiled.
"Aura is a manifestation of the soul that Huntsman learn to control. It acts as some sort of empowering armor for the user and, when you become more familiar with it, it can manifest as a Semblance, a special power specific to every person."
"Do you think I have an aura sir?" Somehow, the amused look the headmaster sent him carried the answer.
"Aura is present in every living being with a soul. It is just a matter of awakening what is already there. Unless you lack a soul, I do believe you have aura."
"And you want to... Awaken my aura?"
"Certainly. Anybody who can use aura to a certain point is able to unlock someone's aura. Would you like for us to do it now?"
Nagisa, Sapphire now, kept silent for a moment. Then he sighed.
"What must I do?"
"Just close your eyes and concentrate." He did just that and he felt a hand touching his forehead. Then he stopped being human.
He raised his head from the comfortable scales of his long tail, looking at what disturbed the peace of his nest. He could overlook what had arrived here before because it stayed at the edge of his dominion, but this red light had come to the center of it. He silently crawled until his eyes were mere inches apart from the intruder. He let his tongue dart out of his mouth, the light smelled of freshly cut roses. Slowly, a hand formed from the light and extended toward him. Light began to fill his place, so dull before, revealing his infinite length. Then the Light began to sing, he heard the one on the border humming in reply. Slowly, ever so slowly, he approached the hand and hissed in tune with the wordless song. He touched the light with his snout and let them enter his domain.
When he came back to being human, the first thing he saw was Ruby, looking at him with wide eyes, holding her hand in the air as if she had be touching his face. He suddenly realized she was the one with her hand on his forehead.
"A giant blue snake..." she muttered.
"Hum, are you alright?"
"Nagisa what is that?" Ritsu's voice brought his attention to his hands, his blue glowing hands. Reaching back for his mirror, he observed his skin, noticing the strange scaled pattern of the glow. The glow extended from his face where he could see it lengthen his two little fangs to his feet where he could see the end of some translucent thin reptilian tail.
"What"
"Hmm. This is not something you see everyday. Tell me, my boy, how do you feel?"
"I feel..." He searched for the right word. "I feel free sir, as if a great weight had been taken off my shoulders."
"Then it means that everything has worked as it should. My congratulation Sapphire, you too Ruby."
It seemed to bring the girl back from whatever reflections she was caught in."Thanks professor!"
"Then, now that everything is sorted, this is a pleasure for me to welcome both of you to Beacon. The transport will take off in two days at the central place. Until then, take care of you."
Ozpin and Goodwitch exited the room. Then something hit Nagisa like one of Takaoka-sensei's punch.
"Wait! I don't have a place to-" He heard them exit the building.
"-stay at..." His head got a third encounter with the metal table.
For this is in passing he achieve immortality
Through this he become our champion of lights and shadow and rise above all
Through infinite distance and beyond death
We release his soul from its bounds
And by our will guide him
Hey I'm bac- stare at the story's stats, the story's stats stare back. Pass out from the surge of emotions.
Holly hell! 9 reviews, 65 followers, 57 favorites and 705 views when I post this! You guys, and girls are the absolute best. I never thought the prologue alone would have so much success.
So, back on track, I will answer to the reviews I can answer without spoiling too much.
ChemicalDragon74: I believe your question has been answered.
The others: Hope you're happy.
About this chapter:4000 words in two days for a scene of two minutes in the original show. And to think I will put original content too. Yeah, we're gonna be here for a long time.
The person talking at the beginning is one of the trinity, along with the being from previous chapter. They probably won't interact that much with the characters if at all so if you don't like OCs, don't panic.
I offer one special scene of their choice to the first person who would find what has been accepted in the dominion before I put the answer online.
Review, follow, favorite, come back again, come back again!
And put down the C4 I'm working as fast as I can.
Edit:Stop telling me I've replaced the prologue with this chapter! It should be back by tomorrow, just the time to write it again