Heyo one and all and welcome to The Story of Kevin, Frozen Dust!
Word of warning, you have just opened up the second book in the series, (maybe book three if you count where I adopted the story from.)
I recommend reading BlageTheYordles "The Story of Nick" and the previous book "The Story of Kevin: Frozen Wings."
However I know many of you won't want to spend that time, so I placed a detailed "Previously on TSOK…" in the previous chapter. (Which I KNOW someone out there skipped!)
ANOTHER WORD OF WARNING!
This story is a multiverse story, so much so that if I placed it under Crossover I wouldn't know what to put under the second list. (HATERS DON'T CLOSE THAT TAB YET!)
Really crossover is mostly details and two characters. Story and world building mostly focuses on the world for the book, in this case, Remnant. So all that Semblance using, sword-gun loving, STARTING SEMISTERS WITH A YANG ACTION IS ALL THERE! (+10 points for appropriate jokes.)
Thanks for reading if you've actually gotten this far. Other A/N are at the bottom. Thanks! – WillTheYordle
Special Thanks to BlageTheYordle, my brother who essentially handed his idea and world over. Let the games begin!
No he isn't dead. Geez he just wanted to do something else. Romantics plz.
Chapter One: Welcome to the World… of Being Underdressed. Literally
I was sitting in my AP Calculus class, right in front of Mr. Adam's desk where I'd been since day one. It wasn't really a surprise, I wasn't sitting near the teachers desk in all of my classrooms by choice. Because of my tendency to doze off or doodle in class, it was well known that you had to put me right next to the teacher or I simply wouldn't listen to the lesson. It wasn't because I was a bad student, or that I didn't understand any of the material. In fact I probably had the best grades of anyone in the whole school. It was just that everything bored me to death. All the material was all too simple and uninteresting. Give me five minutes in my room with a textbook on any given subject and I would have the days lesson perfected to the point of being able to teach it myself!
So I found myself in the all too familiar situation of drawing while Mr. Adam was walking about some trig concept that I had figured out months ago. I didn't even know which one he was talking about, that's how far gone I was. On my paper - instead of notes - was a well crafted drawing of someone familiar, someone I should have remembered but couldn't.
The drawing itself was completed, it was a full body drawing of a girl with blue hair tied into long pigtails wearing a light blue long sleeve shirt and knee length skirt. I knew she was important for some reason but I couldn't figure out why, or how I recognized her. The name was on the tip of my tongue too, Me, Ma, Mo. Ugh this really bites. I should remember this!
"Mr. Tanner, is my lesson boring you?" I dropped my mechanical pencil in surprise and looked at Mr. Adam, his voice was deeper than usual, and slower.
"Yes sir, I mean no sir! I mean, uhh what was the question again?"
"You need to wake up son."
I Raised an eyebrow at Mr. Adam's reply.
"Wake… up sir? I'm already awake."
"Wake up kid, right now." This time the voice didn't come from Mr. Adam but from the drawing on my desk, which somehow had managed to bring itself to life. What the fu-
World: Remnant
Gaia Date: September 17th, 2015
Current Location: Unknown
Time: Unknown
Seal Status: Hidden
Day 1
I woke up to someone shaking me and saying over and over again to wake up. I groaned and blinked my eyes open. Sitting next to me was a broad faced man with a thick black beard wearing a black beanie and a light green T-shirt. He was fairly muscular and could easily take me in a fight, not that it would be much of one with me sitting on the ground half dazed from waking up.
"Ugh, where am I?" I asked, more out of instinct than a real need to know.
"You and your buddies can't be sleeping in this alley kid. Gangs sometimes like to hang out here. Trust me when I say ya don't want to be here when they show up, 'specially with that Faunus girl with 'ya." The man's reply didn't make too much sense to me since I didn't know any faunus, not to mention that the only place where faunus existed that I knew of were in the world of RWBY…
Oh. Right, reality check! It all came rushing back as the grogginess started wearing off.
There was no way I could convince this man we just kind of showed up in the alley from some kind of magical teleportation from another world, and I'm not exactly great at coming up with flawless lies on the spot. That left only one option, simply nod and agree with his request.
"Ugh… Alright thanks for waking me, we'll get out of here right away." The man nodded in approval of my answer before turning around and heading for a beam of light shining from around the corner that I assumed out to the street.
I yawned and stretched, giving my head a brief shake to clear the fog that clouded my brain. It was hard to imagine that just a little while ago I had been fighting back to back battles that were basically to the death. The first had been against Aleksandr and Evander, a pair of men whose pastime seemed to be hunting down World Jumpers and killing them for their amusement.
World Jumpers were people who did just as the name implied, teleporting themselves from world to world because they weren't happy with the lives they had in their own world, that or they had some kind of business with another Jumper. In short they're all of those people who get randomly teleported to another universe.
But to continue with my incredibly fascinating past which no one cares about, the second battle against Midas, a Guardian that tested the World Jumpers every time we wanted to go somewhere else. Pass that test and you get to move on, don't pass and… well I wouldn't actually know. I've only had to take one test and I cleared that easily. But I'd assume something nasty and along the lines of 'off with his head!'
Pushing myself into an upright position with crossed legs I noticed that I was sitting right next to a large gray dumpster. Well if you didn't smell bad after going three days without a shower, falling asleep to the right of a can of garbage would do it. I thought rubbing my nose in disgust. Letting out a small sigh of disappointment I looked around for my four companions. Thanks to that man, whose face reminded me a bit of a stereotypical miner or dwarf, I knew that they were at least somewhere in the alley. Sure enough I found one of them lying down on her side across from me after a moment or two. It was the girl I couldn't identify in my dream, but recognized right away now that I was wide awake.
Miyoko, my female partner in crime with dark blue hair and long pigtails that stretched all the way down to her waist wearing a simple combination of a blue long sleeve shirt and knee-length skirt with various shades of blue who happened to also have dark blue eyes. Any guesses to her favorite color?
Simply lying there, you'd never guess that this peaceful, friendly looking girl was actually a cold hearted no nonsense girl whose original purpose in life was simply do battle with strange looking creatures all for the sake of getting her master more money, and no I didn't put that wrong. Miyoko used to be something called an asset, a being created by Midas using the future of the person they're made for, at least that's how it's done normally.
While the purpose is the same, apparently Midas can't use the futures of Jumpers to create an asset. My guess is a chance of a massive backlash across all universes if something goes wrong for the guy. So for Jumper assets Midas just makes whatever he feels like with the consequences of dying being banishment from the universe. Miyoko ended up being a semi-normal teenage girl, except for the fact that she can control ice. Miyoko moaned as she slowly woke up, drawing herself into a sitting position.
"Morning Miyoko, how are you feeling?" I asked.
"Ugh, like my head was driven through a building, I thought you said jumping was painless." Miyoko complained groggily.
"Normally yes, so I don't know why you've got a headache because I'm not feeling any pain." I replied in genuine confusion. Miyoko shot a pained glare at me.
"Good for you Kevin." I rolled my eyes at Miyoko's sarcastic comment. Having spent eight months getting to know the former asset meant that I was used to her sharp tongue and cold personality. I found that most of it she either didn't really mean or was just pointless complaining.
"So where are we?" Miyoko asked.
"Besides some alley?" I replied in a mildly sarcastic tone which earned me a glare. "I'm sure we've ended up on Remnant. I had a quick chat with a guy walking through here before you woke up, and from how it went I'm pretty confident my guess is right."
"Still not sure I trust that bastard Midas to have sent us to the right place." Miyoko grumbled to the side before her gaze turned back to me. Her right eyebrow went up in a questioning glance. "Where'd you get those?" When I gave her a confused glace she reached a hand over her shoulder and pointed, signaling that I had something on my back. Reaching my right arm across my body, I felt my hand come in contact with some kind of handle. When I tugged on it there was a clicking sound and a large blade pulled out.
It was like someone had crossed a hand saw with a sword. The grip was like that of a sword turned ninety degrees attached to a half circle. The bottom of the grip had a pair of holes in it which didn't make any sense at all. As for the blade itself it was a giant triangle that stretched from an inch or two below the handle on either side of the circle all the way out to a point about two and a half feet out. The blade was at least three inches thick and had to be three quarters of a foot wide at the handle. A giant, triangular, double sided saw-sword, and from a quick glance to my other side revealed that I had another one.
"What in gods name is that?" Miyoko asked with disgust, which mirrored my own feelings. "Is that supposed to be some kind of a sword?" I shrugged.
"You tell me, I've only seen this design in video games."
"This isn't a game." Miyoko muttered coldly.
"No, it's an online series." I replied only half joking. Miyoko gave me another glare.
"Do we know where the others are?" She asked me, clearly trying to push her distain at my terrible jokes aside.
I shrugged. "They're somewhere in the alley, and from the sound of it we'd better get to them before the local gangs do." Miyoko quickly got to her feet, and the skidding of metal on concrete got both of our attentions. I spotted a pair of swords attached to either side of a new belt that wrapped around her waist.
"Seems I'm not the only one who got some new stuff." I commented. Miyoko drew one of the blades. In terms of blade length it was just as long as mine, however the sword that Miyoko was holding looked more like a traditional double edged longsword. The only strange thing about it was instead of a normal cross guard a thick four pointed star was there, and on one side of it appeared to be some kind of triangular spike attached to a chain.
"So it would seem." Miyoko replied turning over the sword.
"Looks a lot like the swords you used during Deals."
"With a few upgrades." Miyoko pointed the sword at the ground, and the click of a trigger was quickly followed by the spike shooting itself into the ground with a loud clang.
"What the hell!?" A male voice exclaimed in sudden panic from my right, and I realized that two more of my companions were waking up not too far from me.
"Hm, this will be useful going forward." Miyoko observed as the chain retracted.
"Good morning, hope you woke up without a headache." I greeted with a wave.
Kimimaro Yoga and Msyu, the former protagonists from a world known as C – Control, otherwise known as simply Midas. Originally, their fate had been to buy back the future of their country from a rich guy and then be separated as a consequence of their victory. However a combination of Jumper interference and some quick action on my part spared them their dramatic and rather depressing goodbye. Now they were tagging along with me and my small crew as we came to Remnant until they could pull a one-eighty and go home.
Like Miyoko and myself, nothing had really changed for the pair of them in terms of clothing. Kimimaro was still wearing the same old blue-teal jacket with some kind of monster face on the front of it and blue jeans with average brown hair. And Msyu was still totally underdressed in a red bikini with her long red horns, which would probably make everyone mistake her for a faunus in this world.
However some things definitely had changed. For one thing Kimimaro wasn't the proud owner of a gigantic silver-aqua war hammer that probably stood about four feet wall, and looked way to heavy for anyone but our fifth companion to carry. Then there was Msyu, who not only had some kind of wand looking thing on her lap but was dressed in a long dark red robe that from a first glance stretched from her neck to her knees. Well now at least we wouldn't run into any problems with lack of appropriate dress. I thought in a sigh of relief.
"What's going on, where are we?" Kimimaro asked in what seemed to be half panic.
"Could you start with less cliché questions?" I countered with a small laugh. I caught Miyoko glaring at me and I resisted the urge to roll me eyes. "Relax man we're fine. As planned we've jumped to Remnant, however it seems that we've ended up in some alley." Kimimaro took a minute for some deep breathing, which I hoped would calm him down.
"Uugh what's this about a remnant?" Msyu groaned softly. I couldn't resist a smile. It felt good to prevent a tragic breakup.
"Kevin." Miyoko tapped on my shoulder and pointed to my left. Turning around I found a small pink-haired girl sleeping on top of the dumpster that I had woken up next to. How is that girl still sleeping after all that racket? I wondered. Must be a heavy sleeper to be snoozing through all the racket that we just made.
My other partner and a recent addition to the crew in our last minute panic to escape from Midas. Sylva is another Jumper asset that took on the form of a six or seven year old girl, and with a matching personality to boot. Her combination of bright pink hair, adorable face, and cute innocence make her the biggest joy to be around. Well when you don't make her mad that is.
Her light blue sweatpants and white long sleeve shirt made her deceptively easy to label as weak and reliant on her innocence to avoid danger, (as well as having a terrible sense in dress) however if you make this girl mad you'll live just long enough to figure out that she has roughly around ten or more times the strength of any grown man. To add the cherry on top sneak attacks don't work on Sylva, after all how can you sneak up on someone who can see the future?
Sadly such gifts don't come without drawbacks. Sylva only joined us after her former partner had been banished from Midas altogether, and the only reason she teamed up with us initially was to "save" her partner from a terrible fate. Which as it had turned out was completely unnecessary. Now she was with us to track him down and have a merry reunion. It's a tragic backstory that we unfortunately had a small hand in, but the plan was to make it right somehow. Not to mention that it gives us a little extra muscle when Evander comes to town looking for revenge.
While befriending Sylva had been a task all its own, waking the girl up was going to be a challenge all its own. No matter how much I poked and pushed her on the shoulder she just wouldn't wake up. The slight rise and fall of her shoulders meant that she was indeed breathing, but wasn't willing to leave her peaceful land of sweet dreams just yet. Still I'd rather carry Sylva than that giant hammer.
"Probably tired from everything that happened yesterday." Miyoko guessed. I stepped back and folded my arms across my chest.
"Yeah no kidding, losing her partner, finding out that the guy I'd been looking for was responsible, and then a big fight against Evander followed by Midas. I think she can sleep for a while." Miyoko nodded in agreement, and then a pair sudden screams made me jump in surprise and whip around to find Kimimaro and Msyu staring at each other with looks of shock and realization.
"What is it?" I asked with a gasp. "You scared me to death!"
"Msyu you're… You're… free!" Kimimaro declared, ignoring my question completely. Of course this still gave me the answer that I was looking for, and made me realize that both Miyoko and Sylva weren't in my Midas card either. Which makes some sense, Midas cards don't even exist in this world. I'd look like an idiot for talking to a credit card on the wrong planet.
"How is this possible?" Msyu asked, the shock from being free waking her up completely. "Assets aren't allowed to move freely in the real world!"
"That'd be true if we were still on Midas." I pointed out, taking the opportunity to grab their attention. "But remember that we've jumped to a different world, so the rules are a little different."
"All right so where exactly are we then?" Kimimaro asked. "The only thing you've told us so far is the name of this world." Kimimaro's question, as much as I hated to admit it right then, was a fair one. While both he and Msyu had wanted to Jump away from Midas, there hadn't been enough time to give anyone a full explanation as to the details of this world. Hell the only reason I picked this place was because of Nick Arcane! Still, the time for explanations was later. None of us were the slightest bit familiar with gang activities in area – wherever that was – and thus it would be a bad idea to stick around in some back alley.
"Alright, I'll start with formal introductions and a quick explanation of the basics of Remnant but then we need to get out of here alright?"
"What's the rush? We've got time to listen to the full story, unless you're trying to hide something." Msyu accused. I rolled my eyes. If there were two things I could say about Msyu with certainty, it would be her power over fire and her protectiveness of Kimimaro. From what I remembered from the show back home, it seemed that Msyu didn't care about what Kimimaro did with people in the real world, so long as it didn't affect the pair of them in a negative way. Considering how shady I was sounding right now, it was also hard to blame the former asset for her concern.
And while I was confident that Miyoko could handle any of those gang goons if they showed up, I'd rather not have a situation with the authority's right out of the gate. Better to explain things in a park or a public café than some back alley waiting to get killed or worse. The problem was going to be convincing Msyu that leaving right the hell now was the best course of action.
Somehow, I had to get us out of this alley before I explained anything, and hopefully without creating a situation where these two would run off on their own. For one it would probably upset Sylva if I told her I let the pair of them run off, and two they had zero knowledge of what was out there, so they'd probably go get themselves eaten by the Grimm within a week.
"There's no rush if you fancy getting attacked by a gang." I retorted sharply. "I promise you both a full explanation but can we at least go somewhere where our lives aren't in possible imminent danger from a gang attack?" All it took was one look into Msyu's eyes to know that she wasn't buying it.
"So what if some guys show up? If they lay a hand on Kimimaro I'll burn them all!" Pyromaniac, overreacting psychopath! Could you not make this about your man for like two seconds! Despite the thought though I knew she was right. That was the only appropriate response if we got into a life threatening situation but…
"Yes and then we all get arrested for murder and spend the next twenty years in prison or on the run. I don't know about you but I'd appreciate sleeping in a warm bed with a respectable meal three times a day." Miyoko countered flatly. "And before you say anything else remember that you're not an Asset now, you'll have to eat food and drink fluids just like our former Entre's."
"Are you saying I can't take care of myself!?" Msyu asked, her voice rising closer and closer to a shout, and her horns started changing color, like someone had decided to hit the negative setting on a camera. Not a good sign. I was about to interviene but Miyoko beat me to the punch.
"No I'm saying that you don't know what the outside world is like. You don't have enough knowledge of this world to get by on your own."
"Enough!" I shouted before either one of them could escalate this into a battle pitting fire against ice. The last thing we needed was to draw attention to ourselves. "Miyoko don't egg on Msyu, she's only looking out for Kimimaro, and let me remind you that you've been doing the same for me since day one." Miyoko's eyes flared but she held her tongue. I got the feeling I would be hearing more about this one later. And while I was taking care of Miyoko, it seemed that Kimimaro was making sure that his former asset didn't go trying to burn down the whole block. Good, probably more effective than me trying to solve this issue.
"Msyu, calm down!" Kimimaro begged.
"Why are we even standing here! We don't need these guys!" Msyu insisted. I spotted Miyoko's sword hand twitching. I waved my hand, a silent signal for her to try and calm down. Reluctantly, Miyoko returned her sword to its sheath and let out a deep breath.
"Calm down and think about it," Kimimaro continued, "we don't know anything about this place. Let's at least learn a bit about this world before we do something crazy alright?" Thankfully, Kimimaro's reasoning seemed to calm the new Faunnus down at least a bit.
"Alright Kimimaro. I don't like it but it's your decision." Msyu hugged Kimimaro, leaving an awkward silence to fill the air. After a few brief moments I decided to take a comical approach.
"Guess ice and fire really don't get along huh." Miyoko glared daggers at me, and the response wasn't much better from everyone else. I let out a sigh of defeat as some tired moans started echoing from behind me.
"Mmm are we there yet?" I turned around to find Sylva slowly waking up, and I felt my shoulders were beginning relaxing and the adrenaline rush beginning to subside. Nothing like a little innocence to keep your sanity.
"Well then, shall we go?" I asked, attempting to put the one saw blade thing in my hand away to the sheath on my back only to find nothing there. "What the hell?" I muttered trying to find it. Miyoko gave me an annoyed glance.
"We don't have all day Kevin."
"Yeah I know, but it's like there's nothing there!" In my desperate attempts I ended up spinning myself around a few times in an attempt to spot where I was supposed to put my saw-sword.
"Give me that." Miyoko reached out her hand, asking for the weapon. Sighing in defeat, I gave her the sword and turned around. After feeling her push on my back there was another clicking sound similar to the one when I took out the saw-sword.
"It's more like some kind of harness." Miyoko explained. "Open faced backside and the swords attach themselves to it."
"So what, I got half a sheath?" I asked in annoyance.
"Yes."
I let out a groan. "Alright whatever, we're outta here." Since I couldn't carry Sylva piggyback because of my new toys, Miyoko was the one to bring Sylva out of the alley, since she was still half asleep. I realized as soon as we walked into the street that we hadn't event exchanged names yet. Which probably wasn't a big deal considering there had been a lot of shouting names recently, but I imagined it was getting annoying for Kimimaro and Msyu not to have a formal introduction. Also probably wasn't helping my cause, however getting to a safer location took priority over formalities. Grabbing Kimimaro's warhammer, which ended up somehow being light enough to carry with two hands, I headed for the light.
When we walked out of the alley we were met by a busy street. People were everywhere, going through various shops, talking with friends, even hanging out at a restraunt at the end of the street corner. I tried to take note of what types of stores were in the area. There were one or two restaurants in addition to the one on the corner that I spotted in my initial scan of the area. I noticed that one of them was a burger joint which made me happy. There was also a bookstore, clothing store, a place for art supplies, something to the equivalent of weapons R us, and finally one shop in particular at the end of the street that caught my attention. From Dust til Dawn. Now that name I recognized immediately.
Being from Gaia has its perks, and having knowledge about Remnant is one of them. From Dust 'til Dawn is a shop that anyone from Gaia who knows about Remnant has knowledge of. In fact it's probably the only store I'd be familiar with. But that was beside the point, the real bonus of finding this shop was I knew exactly where we were. Vale. My lucky stars shine brightly today!
One of the four kingdoms of Remnant, Vale was home to Beacon, this year's Vital Festival, and all the trouble in the world. It was fortunate that we ended up here, because the other three kingdoms - Atlas, Vacuo, and Mistral – were all complete unknowns to me. Best to start in a place that's at least somewhat familiar right?
Of course in addition to familiarity, Beacon was nearby. My original purpose for becoming a Jumper had been to find a guy named Nick Arcane, who had disappeared from his high school one day only to reappear a few weeks later with a set of wings on his back. For the last eight months I had been working to crack the mystery. Interestingly enough it had been Nick who suddenly showed up on Midas and helped be escape. During that time I also learned that Nick was a Jumper who had somehow become a Faunnus here on Remnant, and from his short stories involving team RWBY I could only assume he was a student of the academy. We however, didn't get placed as a student of the academy like he somehow must have been.
However despite having some minor knowledge of the world of Remnant and a few of the people involved I did not have any knowledge on the layout of the city itself. So I ended up defaulting towards walking towards the dust shop. It was weird at first, because I'd watched this world in 3D animation through a computer monitor, so it was very different to be seeing everything through my own eyes.
But the one thing that helps with is noticing the little things. While a few people walking through town carrying weapons wasn't unusual because of the various combat schools around town, it was highly unusual for a faunnus to be so underdressed. As we walked down the street I could feel people gazing upon Msyu with various emotions and whispers. I slowly got a sinking feeling that it may have been safer to stay in that alley. Then again, I reminded myself grimly, there was no way we could have stayed in that alley forever. We were going to have to move sometime.
My mind raced to find an out before we attracted some unwanted attention. Msyu needed another set of clothes that was for sure, but I doubted they'd openly cooperate with me again if I didn't give them a full, detailed explanation beforehand. Under normal circumstances I'd just find a bench somewhere and park it, but I got the feeling that doing that would also create a public incident. We needed somewhere private. My first thought was a sit-down restraunt but I quickly realized that would have the same problem as sitting down at a bench, not to mention the discrimination against Faunus that matched the American Civil Rights movement in the twentieth century. We could always find another alley but I didn't know enough about the city to know what areas were safe.
Screw this. I thought quickly. Anywhere is better than staying out in the open like this, we can deal with our little dress code problem in a bit. I slowly felt my frustration growing as I began looking for another alley to duck into, not caring who might be hidden around the corner. Knowing what I knew about Remnant and from what I'd witnessed in the last two minutes or so not only reminded me that humans were not all that accepting of the faunnus as a species, but that it may be worse than what I originally had thought. I'd spent enough time around freaky creatures back on Midas to be used to it, but even there Assets were often treated like business partners, or more often like slaves or pets. It hadn't bothered me so much at the time, probably because I had been too focused on escaping to really sit down and think about it. But now that the forefront of my mind wasn't occupied with the threat of impending doom, I realized that it kind of pissed me off!
A few moments of awkward silence later I found another alley leading to a small open space with enough room for personal bubbles. Sylva was awake by this point and enjoying the free ride that Miyoko was giving her. When the girl had first woken up her first action was to check and make sure our new companions were with us, and it seemed to make her happy. Even while the rest of us were silently stressing out about all the looks and whispers she was grinning happily and humming to herself.
The five of us sat down in a circle in the center of the space, Kimimaro and Msyu both eager to finally get the long explanation of who we were and why we cared enough to drag the pair of them with us to Remnant. Sure enough, just as I got settled Msyu started grilling me.
"Alright start talking before I burn you to a crisp. I want details, where are we, who are you, and how can we get back!?" I took a moment to take in a deep breath and check my surroundings. All clear.
"I'm Kevin Tanner, nineteen years old and I'm from Gaia. Back in the Financial District I was known as the Frozen General, and my total fortune probably topped at around fifteen to nineteen billion." I glanced at Miyoko, signaling it was her turn.
"Miyoko." Miyoko introduced flatly. "I'm, or at least I was, Kevin's asset. If you've heard of the Frozen General you've probably also heard of the Ice Queen."
"I'm Sylva Hoshi! I'm eight years old and I'm suuuuuper strong! I can lift a whole car by myself!" How Sylva knew she could lift a car when there weren't any outside of the taxi's in the Financial District I didn't know, but at least her tone was as friendly and energetic as ever.
After taking a moment to breathe I launched into my explanation. "And I believe we've established that we know who you two are, so I'll go ahead and jump right into the meat of it. You two have become what are called World Jumpers, people who can travel to different universes and live their lives somewhere besides their own world."
"Yeah we know that already, but where are we?" Mysu asked with a deeply annoyed tone.
"Geez didn't I say I was getting to the point? Alright well we've jumped to a world known as Remnant. Here humanity, or I guess I should say civilization, is fighting to survive against creatures of darkness known as Grimm. These Grimm want nothing more than to kill everyone and destroy any trace of civilization from the face of existence."
"Are these Grimm bad?" Sylva asked. A bit of a repetitive question but I nodded anyway.
"Yes, very. However there is a substance called Dust that it used to fight Grimm. It comes in various forms and has power over numerous elements. Fire, ice, electricity, stone, you name it there's probably dust for it. Dust is used in weapons and other items to keep this world running and fight off Grimm or anything else that would gladly tear down the walls of each of the kingdoms and plunge this world towards its doom."
"I can't imagine having to live like that." Kimimaro commented softly.
"So if these Grimm are such a big problem how do the kingdoms stop them from destroying the walls?" Miyoko asked. I grinned.
"That's the fun part. People known as Hunters and Huntresses are in charge of making sure that the Grimm don't get in large enough numbers to break through the walls and bring down a kingdom."
"Like a knight?" Sylva asked wide eyed with wonder.
"Sure." I replied with a shrug. "You could think of them like that, although they tend to be a little less chivalrous and more dependent on weapons other than a sword."
"Okay so what are we doing here?" Kimimaro asked. I shrugged.
"To be honest I don't have a grandmaster plan." I got a few looks of surprise which caused me to stop. "What? I only decided on here because that's where Nick went! First we should probably find a way to Beacon and catch up with the guy though. From there we can ask where the seal is and how to get you two back home."
"So you have an idea of what to do but you have no idea how to do it." Miyoko clarified.
"Something like that." That earned me a hard punch to my shoulder from the Ice Queen. "What the hell was that for?"
"For being stupid." Miyoko replied flatly.
"It's not like I got to pick where we landed!" I protested.
"Says the guy who's supposedly ready for anything."
"What the hell!? I haven't given up yet you know! Give me a few minutes to think and I'll have a plan figured out no problem!"
"Uhh, I hate to interrupt but where, exactly is this Beacon?" Kimimaro asked, looking slightly nervous to try and interrupt our heated argument. I took the question as a chance to back out of the debate with my face still intact.
"Directionally? I'll have to look at a map. All I can remember is that we'll either have to take an airship or risk a venture through the woods and outside the walls of Vale."
"Hey wait, wouldn't that mean running into those Grimm creatures?" Msyu pointed out.
"Uhh, kinda. That's why I'm hoping for the airship." I replied nervously. A round of sighs met my words and I laughed.
"Well we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime we have some other things we need to be worried about."
"I'm hungry." Sylva said with a raised hand. "Can we get some breakfast?" I nodded.
"Food, money, and a place to sleep are all at the top of my 'to-do' list, but before we can start looking for food we have a bigger problem" I glanced over at Msyu, who noticed my gesture.
"What's wrong with Msyu?" Kimimaro asked with a worried note.
"You're kidding right?" Miyoko responded, her tone still flat and monotonous.
"To put it in the words of an old friend," I answered, "'girl we gotta get you a new outfit.'"
"Do we have any money?" Msyu asked, and that's when it really hit me. Not only had we left Midas, but we no longer had bank accounts. We didn't have any access to the fifteen billion sitting nice and pretty with the Financial District, that is if it was even there anymore. In terms of money we were back to square one, and I didn't have the slightest clue as to how to making some short of getting a job.
"Well great. Thanks for dragging us to some other world only to have us starve to death because you don't have any money!" Msyu ranted with a frustrated tone.
I threw my hands into the air. "Alright, alright! I get it I screwed up! Forgive me for not coming up with a plan for after the crisis situation!" With a sigh, I rested my head in my right hand and tried to come up with a plan. Short of trying to make a panicked run to Beacon in the vague hope that they'd help us out somehow, the only thing I could come up with was all of us trying to find some kind of day job. Not exactly the most efficient approach, but then again all we needed was enough for an outfit for Msyu and to feed ourselves three times a day. The only question was, where could we possibly get a job?
Back on Gaia, I had worked in an electronics shop for a few hours a week. The pay had been decent and I'd been allowed to work on my programming and search the web when I wasn't helping out customers, taking inventory, or running errands for my boss. I knew that Kimimaro had worked in a pair of convenience stores back on Midas, so we at least had prior work experience. I imagined that if we wandered around town and asked enough people we could find a job.
Before I could start thinking about everyone else and what would they do while we were working, I felt a hand slap the back of my head hard, bringing me out of my thoughts.
"Ouch!" I complained rubbing where I had been smacked.
"Earth to Kevin, stop sitting there and explain what you're thinking." Miyoko didn't sound angry, but rather interested. She knew me well enough to know that I was indeed hatching some kind of plan to survive on Remnant, at least until we could find a way to get to Beacon.
"Well, it's not very glamorous but if we look around we might find a few 'help wanted' signs. Both Kimimaro and I have work experience, so holding down a day job shouldn't be too hard."
"How did you know?" Kimimaro asked, and I replied with a flat stare.
"Dude you're like eighteen, nineteen. You've have a job." I decided to avoid telling him the fact that I'd basically known about his entire District life from start to finish.
"What about me Miyoko and Sylva?" Msyu asked. "We've never worked before."
"Yeah I was working on that when I got slapped." I remarked. Miyoko shrugged.
"We walk around and try to learn as much about this place as we can." Miyoko answered.
"With Msyu dressed like that?" I replied with a raised eyebrow. "Plus the fact that you'd be three girls walking around town alone? No way you're asking to get mugged."
"We both know that Msyu and I can handle ourselves." Miyoko retorted. I let out a long sigh.
"Have you not been paying attention? We don't want to draw attention to ourselves, much less get arrested. And somehow I doubt the cops would be sympathetic to the side with the Faunus. I'm not worried about you keeping yourselves safe, I'm worried about the consequences."
"I don't understand, what are Faunus?" Sylva asked glancing up at me.
"Faunus are people who are mostly human, but with some animal traits." I explained, probably a simplified explanation but it's what I could come up with.
"So wait, I'm part animal?" Msyu asked with doubt and confusion in her voice. I shrugged, but Miyoko answered for me.
"You may not be, but your horns will make people here think you're a Faunus."
"But that's crazy! You can judge a person based on how they look!" Kimimaro protested.
"Preaching to the choir buddy." I replied grimly. "But that's society around here. There are groups working to lessen the discrimination, but for now we just have to work with it. First Kimimaro and I will get jobs and we'll meet back here later, hopefully with some dinner."
"Hang on." Msyu interrupted as I started to stand up. "What makes you think that we've agreed to work with you? Don't just assume that just because you've explained everything that we're good buddies now!" I was about to give my standard 'If you don't like it then leave speech, but once again I was beaten to the punch. Seems to be happening a lot lately.
In the blink of an eye Sylva was on her feet standing right in front of Msyu giving her an angry glare, her hands down by her sides curled into small fists. It was a look that only someone her age could pull off. Everyone just stared, after all Sylva hadn't said too much this whole time, only speaking to ask the occasional question or make a connection. I probably could count how many words she spoke on Remnant on two hands.
"Don't be a meanie!" Sylva demanded. "Kevin saved you two and promised to help you get back home!"
"Sylva it's alright." I called. "We can't make them trust us. If they want to go do their own thing we can't stop them." Sylva slowly turned away from Msyu and slumped down next to me. I wrapped one arm around her and pulled her in a hug to try and comfort her. Part of me wondered why Sylva cared so much about the five of us getting along. I tried to figure out what was going through Sylva's mind but quickly gave up. Figuring out what that girl wanted was like trying to navigate a maze.
Giving Miyoko a nudge with my shoulder, I gestured to the street behind me with a small turn of my head, indicating it was time to go. While getting the new Midas jumpers on our side would have helped out a ton, I wasn't going to spend the energy forcing them to go with us. That energy was better spent finding a place to crash and getting a job. If they really wanted to go with us, we'd run into them again.
"Hang on a sec, you're not just gonna leave us here are you?" Kimimaro asked in surprise as the three of us got up and started walking out of the alley.
"Well yeah. It's like I just said, I'm not going to waste energy and breath on pointless words. I've gotta go find a job and get us a meal before we starve to death." I kept on walking, and after a few moments Kimimaro's voice shouted form behind again.
"But what about Msyu? What happens if someone decides to pick a fight?"
"You burn them?" Miyoko answered, like the answer should have been obvious.
"But then we get arrested!" Kimimaro protested. I spun around on my heels.
"Well then shut the hell up and follow me then! We both know the chance of some idiot starting a fight with us is less if there are more people around!" Geez this kid just repeated everything I said over the last ten minutes. Does he have no brain? Then again we had just thrown him into a world where his girlfriend could be seriously hurt if left alone for any period of time.
"We still don't know if we can trust them!" Msyu protested from behind Kimimaro. I sighed inwardly. That moment when being overprotective makes you ignorant to your current situation. Even if we weren't trustworthy and could betray them in the end, which I wasn't planning on, I was the only one who was both a Jumper and had knowledge of this world.
"Think about it Msyu, we don't know anything about this world! And from everything we've been told it sounds like this place is dangerous."
"They could be lying to us! Ever considered that?" Msyu countered. I leaned against the side of a building, figuring this was going to take a while.
"And they could be telling the truth. Kevin stopped you from disappearing and promised to help us get back to our world, isn't that enough to at least give him a chance?" Kimimaro's reasoning lead to Miyoko and I sharing a glance of relief. Finally, somebody could see reason.
When I looked back Msyu looked like she wanted to argue her point further, but somehow the words just weren't forming. She was weakening.
"Alright fine." Msyu eventually said with a note of defeat in her voice. "I'll play along. But if they try and pull anything I'll fry them got that!"
"Understood! I'd rather not have Kevin barbeque served medium-rare!" I called with a grin. Msyu shot me what have to have been the fiftieth glare today. If I had a nickel…
A/N
So those of you who have read BRSO (and even the first Story of Kevin.) know how bad I am at uploading. I'm not gonna promise that gets better. Quite frankly I can't. My life is getting more and more chaotic (Thanks job/college…) so yeah.
Regardless using Kimimaro and Msyu is going to be rouuuuugh. Happens when you LITERALY plop characters from one universe to another. But it's fine.
BTW in case u didn't pick up on it, spoilers in the series. (Obviously.)
