Aoi Hyoudou: If you may or may not know this I redid the entire chapter. Originally, I was going to add a new type of Heartless into the story to give Ash a run for his money, but after looking it over time and time again I just didn't like how it turned out so I decided to go with a different route for Ash's 1st boss fight in RWBY. There will be interesting twists and turns, no doubt but hopefully it will make up for the long wait. Again, my apologies for the super long delay please enjoy the chapter.
Beacon Academy
1st Visit - Part III
{...}
"Is that-Hey, Ash, over here!" Yang immediately called out to the black haired teen, waving both her arms high in the air when she took note of him exiting the tree line and sliding down the long slope before reaching the bottom. He ran over and joined her side.
"Hey, Yang, how's it going?" The blonde female simply grinned in a teasing manner when she noticed his torn clothes and the scratch marks on his face.
"Doing just great. More I could say about you, Ash." The Keyblader scratched his cheek, embarrassed, unsure on what to say to her.
"Blame the Heartless, those Grimm things, and the guy in the black coat." Yang blinked confusedly at his weak explanation, but figured that it wasn't worth the time to press on any further when he was now focusing his attention on the black haired girl standing next to her with her arms crossed.
"You…" He began, catching the other female's attention who was now staring at him with her cat-like eyes in curiosity. "Aren't you that girl who was with Ruby and Weiss the other day?" She bobbed a nod. "And you are..."
"Blake." she said simply, offering him a half-smile.
"Nice to meet you, Blake. I'm Ash." They shook hands before the young wielder of the Keyblade noticed the old structure standing behind her, wondering if that was the abandoned temple. "Is that-"
"This is the place." Yang responded quickly, putting his mind at ease after noticing his constant staring at the sanctuary.
Ash began approaching the forest temple with both Yang and Blake trailing not too far behind when he noticed a set of pillars with gold and black chess pieces on top, some of which were currently missing. "These are the relics? But they look like chess pieces." He pointed out the obvious that nobody seemed to care about at this point.
"Go ahead, Ash. Pick one." Yang encouraged while beaming at him with another grin, praying that he would choose the black knight chess piece to match with her own gold one. "And I hope you pick that black pony over there." Blake rolled her eyes at her partner, but couldn't help but crack a small smile at her silliness.
The former Pokémon Trainer took a brief moment to think over his decision in deep thought while crossing his arms, wondering which piece he should choose. He studied each one very carefully, cupping his chin until his eyes fell on the king chess piece on the far left. He began to walk over and pick it up from the pillar before staring at the black piece for the longest time. He didn't know why, but he was getting a strange vibe from it, almost like it was telling him to choose it. "Hmm…"
"Ash, are you feeling alright?" Yang felt concerned for him. Ash immediately snapped out of his thoughts and turned to face the blonde teen after pocketing the chess piece, giving her a reassuring smile to ease her worries. Blake raised an eyebrow at his suspicious behavior, believing that he was hiding something from them, but chose not to say anything.
"I'm fine. Just thinking, that's all." She crossed her arms and frowned at him. "Really, I'm fine. Stop worrying." He tried to convince her again, which seems to be working this time around, for now. "So, should we get going?" he said eagerly, changing the subject. The two girls shared a glance with each other before nodding to him. They were about to head out when Yang stopped Ash in his tracks with a question heavily regarding her baby sister's whereabouts.
"By the way, Ash, you haven't seen Ruby, have you? I searched as much of the forest as I could, but I couldn't find her anywhere. I was hoping you might've run into her." She noticed him tensing up when Ruby's name was brought up.
"Uh, yeah…I actually did run into her not too long ago." That was some good news to put her mind at ease. "She was with Weiss." But when she heard that, her lips began to form into a small frown, not liking the fact that her little sister was with the Snow Angel of all people. Those two didn't seem to get along and yet…they were partners? It didn't make much sense to her. "And then…I lost them." he admitted sheepishly with a nervous chuckle, scratching his head in embarrassment.
"You lost them?" Yang was unamused, crossing her arms and glaring daggers at him. "What do you mean you lost them? Weren't you just with them, Ash?" she questioned in a demanding tone of voice, her eyebrow twitching violently in annoyance.
Ash was about to explain himself when he began to hear someone screaming and it was getting louder. "Do you guys hear that?" He was hoping he wasn't the only one who was hearing it.
The blonde hand-to-hand combat specialist thought he was trying to dodge her question at first, but she too began to hear someone screaming at the top of their lungs. "Yeah, I hear it too. Where is it coming from?" She saw Blake simply point her finger upward towards the sky, immediately answering her question without saying a single word. All three began to look up where they spotted a familiar dark red haired girl in a familiar red cloak plummeting from the sky, flailing her arms around while screaming her lungs out as she fell towards certain doom. But as luck would have it, her life was unexpectedly spared when an airborne Jaune came out of nowhere and slammed into her, sending both crashing into a tree.
Ash and Yang sweat dropped.
"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake began to ask the first question.
"I…"
*BOOM*
The trio immediately turned their heads straight ahead to the tree line when they heard a thunderous explosion, followed by a set of trees falling over when a bear-like Grimm emerged from the tree line in a fit of rage. Ash and co. thought they were in for a fight until the creature suddenly collapsed on its stomach dead with a familiar orange haired girl rolling off its back with a sad expression on her face. "Aww, it's broken." she said with a pout.
'That girl...' Ash remembered seeing her back at the cliff during Professor Ozpin's lecture. A moment later she was joined by her friend and partner who he also remembered. He witnessed the black haired teen scold her a little about her recent behavior until she abruptly disappeared when he took his eyes off her for one second. 'Where did she go?!'
"I'm queen of the castle~ I'm queen of the castle~" His auburn eyes widened in shock and surprise when she suddenly appeared before the group, goofing around in a happy-go-lucky manner while balancing a golden rook chess piece on her head. Her speed was incredible. One second she was with her friend. And the next she was already by their side in a blink of an eye.
"Nora!" her childhood friend called out to her with an annoyed tone of voice.
"Coming, Ren~" She began to skip away, humming a happy tune over to her partner's side with the chess piece in hand.
"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake asked her second question of the day after the girl was gone in a casual tone of voice, crossing her arms.
"I…" Yang tried to speak, but she was once again interrupted when they saw a familiar redhead being chased by a large arthropod-like Grimm with giant pincers and golden stingers on its tail, bearing the white mask with red trail-like designs just like any other creature of Grimm. The closest Pokémon the former Pokémon Trainer could compare it to was a Drapion.
"Jaune!"
"Pyrrha!" Jaune was currently hanging upside down from the tree.
"Whoa." Ruby noticed him, but she simply ignored him before jumping off the tree branch, leaving him hanging to sulk some more.
"Ruby!" The dark red haired girl easily landed beside her older sister.
"Yang~" The two sisters were about to embrace until Nora abruptly appeared out of nowhere and ruined their little reunion, completely startling them both.
"Nora~"
The group, with Nora and Ren joining their side, watched the Grimm Death Stalker chase poor Pyrrha around the area with no one helping her. "Did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?" Blake wondered aloud. Yang was beginning to lose her cool over the constant insanity around them.
"I can't take it anymore! Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!" Her wishes weren't about to be answered. Only seconds after she asked that Ruby tapped her shoulder to get her attention, causing everyone to glance up where they noticed something completely white hanging for dear life on a large bird-like Grimm. Ash began to recognize who it was.
"Is that…Weiss? What is she doing?"
"I told her to jump." Ruby explained poorly.
"She's going to fall." Blake stated the obvious.
"She'll be fine." Ruby retorted. Yang thought otherwise.
"Yeah, before or after she dies?" she snorted. Her little sister smiled weakly.
"Before?"
"She's falling." This time around it was Ren's turn to state the obvious.
Jaune, who had just pulled himself free from his earlier predicament, saw this as a great opportunity for him to impress Weiss by saving her life. He immediately leapt out from the tree and caught her in his arms, unaware that his timing was a bit off. "Just dropping in?" Weiss could only look down before turning her attention back to him with an uneasy look, which he noticed. He quickly glanced down before facing her again with fear written across his face. They were still falling in the air. "Oh, god!" Weiss held onto him tightly as they braced for impact with Jaune screaming like a little girl all the way down.
Ash and co. winced when they saw Jaune plummet to the ground on his stomach with a sickening thud, followed by Weiss landing on his back with a bored expression on her face. "My hero." she said dryly, her voice filling with sarcasm.
"My back..." he groaned with a low grunt, moaning in a lot of pain.
The party was joined by Pyrrha after she was thrown into the air and over to them by the Death Stalker. Yang began cracking a joke now that everyone was at the rendezvous point. "Great! The gang's all here. Now we can die together." If she thought having two powerful creatures of Grimm breathing down their necks was the worst, it was only just the beginning when Ash spotted a familiar fat cat at the corner of his eye grinning at him with that stupid smug look on his face.
"Pete!" He exclaimed, whipping out his Keyblade and pointing it straight at Maleficent's right-hand man, his auburn eyes flashing dangerously and his tone of voice filling with venom. "What are you doing here?" It was never a good sign when he was around. Ash knew that he was up to no good on behalf of that evil witch of his.
"Whatever business I have here is none of your beeswax, pipsqueak." he replied coolly, his arrogant smirk still on his face. "Old "mighty" Pete doesn't answer to just anybody, you see." That was one bold statement coming from a coward who always hid behind his master when things got ugly.
Ash began glaring at the buffoon with narrowed eyes, completely unaware that Ruby and the others were giving him looks, wondering what's his connection to this creature… thing was. "Ash, do you know this weirdo? And why does he look like a Faunus?" Yang beat her baby sister to the punch.
At first, the Keyblade wielder didn't answer. He was busy recalling his past encounters with "mighty" Pete and Maleficent during the days when he was still training with Leon and the rest of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee. They were a troublesome duo, always sending Heartless to stop him from interfering in their plans for world domination, but later he found out that they were after something more than just spreading darkness in their names. He'd had a few battles with Pete and he knew that they weren't the most memorable ones either, decent at best. Without Heartless by his side, he was simply a weakling but proved to be an annoying nuisance from time to time, just like a certain trio of misfits during his past Pokémon journeys that were known by the names of Jessie, James, and Meowth.
"I might not know what a Faunus is, but I can tell you his name's Pete." the ebony haired teen finally responded after growing tired of the constant staring he was getting from Ruby and the others. "He's bad news. While he isn't much of a fighter, he does have the power to call forth and control the Heartless under his command at any time so be careful." Blake blinked with confusion written on her face, strongly implying that this was new to her.
"Heartless?" she repeated casually, half-interested. "What are they?" The youngest member in the group decided to explain on Ash's behalf.
"They are manifestations of darkness in people's hearts." Ren furrowed his eyebrows at how the description was similar to that of the creatures of Grimm.
"So, in a way they are related to the creatures of Grimm?" Yang shrugged.
"Maybe," Then she became serious. "But now's not the time to talk about that." She slammed a fist into her palm and smirked smugly at Pete, strongly suggesting that she was ready to give him a serious pounding. "We've got ourselves a bad guy to stomp." Nora began jumping up and down like a little girl in excitement, showing that she was totally in favor of beating a bad guy to a bloody pulp before dealing with the Death Stalker and the Nevermore.
"Oh! Oh! Let's break his legs!" she suggested happily with a mad grin on her face. The party didn't know if she was joking around or actually being serious about it. A certain blonde decided to play along with her.
"No, that would be too easy. How about we just break every single bone in his entire body until he cries?" Yang came up with a better suggestion, being half-serious.
"Oooooooh! I like that idea! Let's do it!" Pete's face turned a little pale when he heard that, but he managed to keep a straight face despite a cold chill running down his spine.
He began glaring at the Keyblade brat and his little friends, raising a fist in an attempt to show them that he meant business. And that they shouldn't take him so lightly. "Why you little…! A bunch of wise guys, eh? Just you wait! Nobody, and I do mean nobody, messes with the mighty Pete!" He stood his ground after making the bold statement, immediately gaining everyone's attention including Jaune and Weiss's. Ruby couldn't help but snort at his empty threat.
"Well…"mighty" Pete—" She readied herself, taking her fighting stance with her Crescent Rose. Everyone followed her lead. Her lips began curving up into a small smirk as she continued, "—are you ready to surrender because we clearly have you outnumbered, eight-to-one." Blake couldn't help but point out one small error in Ruby's calculation.
"Don't you mean it's eight-on-three?" she corrected nonchalantly, reminding the younger female and pointing out that the Death Stalker and Nevermore were still around breathing down their necks. Ruby simply ignored her. Pete was starting to lose his patience with the group.
"You nimrods have no idea what you've gotten yourselves into. And soon your world will belong to yours truly." he gloated with another smug look on his face, which could only spell trouble for the young warriors. "Don't say I didn't warn you either." Ash didn't know what the clumsy oaf was planning, but it couldn't be good.
"Heartless, assemble!"
One by one, a group – no, dozens and dozens of Rapid Thrusters appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the young heroes, waiting patiently for their cue to move in and strike. 'Great…not these guys again.' the black haired teen groaned in an audible tone, annoyed.
"Whoa, what are those things?" Jaune asked with a nervous tone of voice (as she stared) up at the strange new creatures hovering over their heads.
"They're Heartless." Ash responded quickly, as if it was something obvious. No doubt it was painfully obvious when the group can clearly see the Heartless emblem on their little helmets. This caught a certain blonde's interest.
"Heartless, you say," Yang grinned smugly, looking very eager to pound these little critters into the ground with her twin shotgun gauntlets, Ember Celica. "Good, the more the merrier. We'll take them out first, then work our way to "this guy" here before dealing with the Death Stalker and the Nevermore altogether." Nora was all in favor for that, as long as she got the first crack at Pete before anyone else.
"Oooooooh! Count me in!" she said with glee, grinning madly.
"Sorry guys, but I have to stop you right there." Ash interjected quickly, gaining everyone's attention as he continued, "Nothing personal, but I think it's best if I handle Pete and the Heartless while you deal with those guys over there." He gestured his head casually in the direction of the Death Stalker and the Nevermore. "And don't worry about me, I'll be fine." he told the group with an assuring smile. "I've dealt with Pete and this type of Heartless before so it shouldn't be a problem for me." As much as she wanted to believe him, Yang just couldn't help but question this decision despite already knowing the answer.
"Are you really sure you don't need our help?"
"I'm sure," he answered simply with a shrug, completely ignoring the concerned looks from the two sisters.
"Ok," Ruby said uncertainly, finally dropping the subject. "But just promise one thing—" He was all ears, eyes focusing solely on her. "—no more secrets." She became serious, eyes narrowed. "Once everything's taken care of you're going to tell us everything-and I do mean everything. Got it?"
"And don't even think about flaking out on us either." Yang abruptly threw out there with a glare just in case he was thinking about it, as she still haven't yet gotten over what happened between the two back at the locker room regarding the enigmatic figure.
Ash sighed dejectedly in defeat. "Fine, I promise." Ruby and Yang smiled with satisfaction
It was a promise, indeed.
And as soon as Ruby and Jaune quickly collected a chess piece for their respective teams to bring back and complete the initiation, the dark red haired scythe wielder didn't waste any time sprinting off into action, taking matters into her own hands and drawing everyone's attention onto her.
"Ruby!" A worried Yang immediately pursued after her reckless little sister.
"I swear those two are nothing but trouble." Weiss said with a frown.
"And you're not?" Blake retorted, unamused.
"Quiet you." the young heiress to the Schnee Dust Company responded back sharply with narrowed eyes, glaring daggers towards her soon-to-be teammate.
"Come on you two, stay focused." Pyrrha abruptly intervened, stepping in-between her fellow Huntresses-in-training and gaining their attention, eyes falling onto her, as she was being the peacekeeper of the group. "We need to go after them. They might need our help."
"I have to agree with Pyrrha." Jaune said suddenly, backing up his partner and putting a smile on her face.
Weiss sighed dejectedly, annoyed.
"Fine,"
Blake didn't have any objections either.
And with that…they were off.
Jaune and the others didn't waste another second running after Ruby and Yang, catching up to the two sisters and assisting them in drawing both Grimms' attention and luring them away to another location. Ash waited patiently until the party was completely out of sight before turning his attention back to Pete and he immediately rolled to the side when more than a few Rapid Thrusters dived at him, but their assault ultimately failed when they collided with one another and allowed him the opportunity to strike back. He fired quick Fira spells in succession at the dazed shadow creatures, defeating them easily before glancing up again at the remaining Heartless.
The second wave was coming.
The Keyblade bearer held his ground firmly, as they dived at him very quickly from every angle. They had him where they wanted him. Or so they thought. He swung his Keyblade swiftly, sending a majority of them soaring before spinning around quickly and knocking away a few more. Then he proceeded to charge forward when he saw the opportunity to make his move, striking the disorientated Heartless one by one with swift, powerful strikes. Some darted in at him, but he managed to dodge them all and took them out after delivering successful hits to each one in succession before finishing them off completely with Fira.
The battles continued as Ash fought his way through the Heartless swarm to get to Pete, hurling multiple Rapid Thrusters into the air and cutting down ones that were getting in his way. As he was closing in on the black cat, fatigue was slowly taking its toll on the former Pokémon Trainer, his vision becoming a little blurry. But somehow—in some way—out of sheer will, he managed to shrug it off and locked his eyes on his target who was starting to sweat a little, as he didn't expect that the key-brat would come at him so suddenly. The young Keyblade wielder immediately leapt into the air and dived at him quickly, swinging the Oathkeeper downward fiercely until it unexpectedly slammed against the latter's magical barrier, tiny sparks flying on impact.
Ash's eyes widened in surprise while Pete grinned smugly at his priceless expression.
The former Pokémon Trainer was knocked back by a surge of energy in the barrier, his feet kicking up dirt upon landing as he sought to regain his balance. He held his ground again and glared at the now overconfident Pete who was still encased inside his protective bubble shield. "Heh heh heh heh aha ha ha! Nice try, kid, but did you seriously believe I would be a complete nimrod and allow you to get one over on me, the mighty Pete?" Ash was about to say something smart, but Maleficent's idiot right-hand man immediately cut him off, not giving him the opportunity to answer that. Then he pointed his finger past the teen's shoulder when he spotted something very interesting that caught his attention and he spoke up with a stupid smirk on his face, "And don't look now, but them Heartless have something special in store for ya."
Ash didn't heed his words at first, thinking that it was nothing more but a sad attempt to get him to drop his guard. But when he sensed immediate danger looming over him heavily from behind, he quickly spun around and noticed something strange occurring in regards to the remaining Rapid Thrusters. Their fragile, little bodies were coated with negative energy, as their once yellow eyes now shone red as they looked at him.
The black haired teen could only grit his teeth, as he was mentally kicking himself for allowing the one opportunity that was given to him to finish them off to slip away from his fingers.
The Emblem Heartless began to circle around one particular Rapid Thruster. Then suddenly all of them dived at it, slamming into their comrade violently, as if they were attacking their own when in reality—each one was actually helping their leader by fusing slowly into its body, boosting not only its size but its power and speed by ten-fold. Now the once small Heartless had evolved into a giant Rapid Thruster, one that was a hundred times bigger than the average one. While its appearance hasn't changed much other than its red eyes, it still posed a threat to a certain Keyblade wielder when its massive frame was hovering above his head and staring at him like a puny ant, screeching a powerful cry.
Ash knew he had to think quickly to overcome an enemy like this.
Ash moved quickly into a battle stance as the red-eyed Heartless made the first move by diving directly at him. As it drew closer and closer, he held his position and waited patiently for the right moment before rolling quickly to the side. As it flew by a wall of dust and a strong gust of wind followed in its wake, forcing Ash to brace himself and shield his eyes. Shortly after it ascended into the air, he noticed that it was circling back around and coming for him again when it made a sharp turn. He began firing rapid Fira spells where he thought it would move. To his complete surprise, the Heartless read all of his attacks, outmaneuvering and zigzagging around each one with ease, demonstrating its incredible mobility and evasion skills.
Gritting his teeth again with cold sweat slowly dripping down his face, the young Keyblade bearer quickly fired another round of Fira spells at it, hoping that this time around that things would be a little different. Nope. Just as he expected, the agile Heartless easily dodged every last one of them without missing a beat before nose-diving straight at him.
*BOOM*
The once quiet forest trembled violently when the Heartless smashed into the ground with tremendous force, sending debris flying in all directions. A weary Ash was able to elude the impact with minor injuries, as he (jumped back and came to a halt), eyes staring ahead at the crater. 'That was a close one.' He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
A second longer, and he would've been killed.
As he took a brief moment from a safe distance to rethink his strategy a little, the ebony haired teen noticed strongly that the giant Heartless had left itself wide-open for an attack, as it was still shaking off the dizziness from its earlier failed attempt to crush him head-on. This was the perfect opportunity to act now before it fully recovered, he knew that failing to capitalize on this chance would be a huge mistake on his part.
He sprinted quickly towards the disorientated Heartless before leaping into the air and diving straight at it, swinging the Keyblade downward fiercely in the hope of landing a critical hit on the manifestation. But as he was closing in, the giant Rapid Thruster abruptly teleported into thin air, eluding the attack in the blink of an eye.
'No way!' the former Pokémon Trainer gasped in utter disbelief, as he couldn't believe what had just happened.
He skidded to a complete halt before spinning around quickly as the Heartless reappeared in the air and prepared to unleash what appeared to be its strongest attack. It slowly opened its beak-like mouth where Ash could see that a small, swirling sphere inside was forming and growing in size. A moment later it fired a powerful cyclone blast, the attack spiraling downward fiercely at him. Ash could only brace for impact as it slammed into him with authority, almost knocking the wind out of him along with sending him flying off his feet. He held his ground as long as he could, but the strong winds were just too much to handle as they were slowly pushing him back, both of his feet dragging in the dirt.
The tide of the battle had shifted to the enemy.
Pete was enjoying every second of what he was witnessing from the sidelines – so much – that he truly believed that this was it for the key-brat. The sweet taste of victory was within his reach. Or so he thought until the teen's body started emitting a familiar blue light, his auburn eyes also changing color. It was his aura.
With a new surge of energy flowing into his body, Ash slowly raised the Oathkeeper high over his head and called forth the one spell that he'd been having trouble with as of late, hoping that this time around it wouldn't backfire on him like it constantly had on several occasions in the past. "Thundera!"
A fierce bolt of lightning came roaring downward from the heavens and struck the Heartless, electrocuting it thoroughly. The pain was excruciating, as it screeched in agony. The Giant Thruster then discovered that it was completely paralyzed due to the static electricity still coursing around its charred body and the amount of damage it had sustained. While the Heartless had managed to withstand Thundera's wrath, all signs clearly pointed to that it was all but done at this point, as it could barely keep itself from flopping to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
The aura-coated teen didn't waste another second as he sprinted forward at the already weakened Heartless, leaping into the air and striking his enemy with rapid blows in succession before swinging the Keyblade downward one last time, sending his enemy crashing to the ground with an echoing thud. The red-eyed Heartless screeched weakly as it slowly disintegrated in defeat, releasing its captive heart into the air.
Ash might've defeated the Heartless, but he knew that his job wasn't finished yet— not while Pete was still around. Ash shifted his attention to the nervous black cat and pointed the Keyblade directly at him, his blue glowing eyes narrowing dangerously. "It's just you and me now Pete!"
"Why you little…" Pete held back a retort with clenched fists as he realized quickly that he shouldn't let the key-brat get under his skin. "Just be glad that I'm on a tight schedule building an army of Heartless for my dear friend Maleficent—" he half-lied, sweating a bit under the teen's gaze. "—or else I would've finished you right here." His magical barrier vanished quickly as he stretched his hand out to the side and opened a Corridor of Darkness. "Next time we meet you won't be so lucky!" He turned away and walked through the dark portal casually as it closed behind him. Shortly after Pete's departure Ash lowered the Oathkeeper with a huge sigh of relief on his face, his aura fading and his eyes changing back to their natural color.
"Ash!" a female voice called out to him from behind. He glanced over his shoulder and noticed that it was Ruby and the gang, his lips curving up into a weary smile. They were safe and in one piece, indicating that they must've already defeated those two Grimms before rushing back here to see if he needed their help or not.
Unbeknownst to the party, a rogue in the black coat was watching the scene intently behind the trees before taking his leave and walking through a Corridor of Darkness.
{...}
Back at Beacon Cliff, Professor Ozpin had an amusing smile on his face, already fascinated by the latter's unique aura. He'd been keeping tabs on the young lad secretly since the beginning of the initiation through the eyes of his high-tech pocket notepad. While aura was no big secret in Remnant as almost everyone knew about its existence, his aura seemed to stand out from the rest—perhaps because there was something about it that reminded the Beacon Academy headmaster so much of the legendary hero he'd read about in a book many years ago by the name of Sir Aaron, a man who could wield the power of aura that was also blue. Was Ash by any chance a direct descendant of Sir Aaron? Or was it just a pure coincidence that both individuals shared the same aura? Either way, things were becoming more interesting than he had originally thought.
The always serious Glynda couldn't help but feel quite annoyed that her longtime colleague was losing focus over something that shouldn't be his top priority at this moment. Sometimes she wondered if he was doing it on purpose just to tick her off for his own amusement. As for her thoughts on the young teen, she was still skeptical about him but after witnessing what had occurred earlier involving him, that giant Heartless, and the strange cat creature she was starting to think differently about the boy. While there was still room for improvement, she couldn't help but admit that he was the right choice to resolve their Heartless problem.
{...}
"And there you have it…" As promised, Ash had explained everything—well almost everything to Ruby and the others as they left the Emerald Forest, heading back to Beacon Cliff to complete the initiation. "The story of my life."
"Wow, just wow," Ruby squealed with excitement. "I'm so jealous right now."
"Me too," Nora said with a pout.
"I still find it hard to believe." Weiss said as she crossed her arms, unimpressed.
"What are you going on about now Weiss?" a frowning Yang questioned the young heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, crossing her arms in annoyance and cocking an eyebrow at the younger female. "Are you still upset about what happened earlier, you know…when you were holding Ash's Keyblade to see if he wasn't lying about being a Keyblade wielder, and it suddenly rejected you as unworthy?" she teased with a grin.
"Quiet you," the white haired girl retorted hotly, glaring daggers at the blonde.
Pyrrha decided to step in and moved the topic forward before things got out of hand. "There's something I still don't understand." All eyes suddenly fell on her, wondering what was on her mind. "From what I heard long ago didn't all the Keyblade wielders perish during the ancient Keyblade War?" Everyone realized that she'd brought up a really good point. "So how is it possible that you're a Keyblade wielder Ash?" All eyes now shifted to the former Pokémon Trainer, who was scratching his cheek sheepishly.
"I, uh, inherited it," he said lamely, unsure of how to explain the way he'd gained the Keyblade without complicating things.
"Really, so that makes you a descendant, then." Jaune guessed. Ash shook his head.
"Not quite, Aqua passed it onto me when she performed the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony." This fact caught Pyrrha's interest.
"Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony?" she repeated not too loudly, crossing her arms. "Does that mean anyone can inherit the Keyblade?"
"It's not as simple as you think." he answered simply, before going on and explaining in further detail. "Only a Keyblade wielder on the level of a Master can choose you to inherit the power to wield the Keyblade. I was really fortunate that Aqua made an exception and took me under her wing with me becoming her first apprentice." He smiled with glee.
"Aqua, huh?" Aqua's protégé immediately flinched when he noticed Yang giving him that look. "She sounds like a really important person to you. Is she, by any chance, your girlfriend?" she teased with a wide grin plastered on her face.
"Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-WHAAAAAT?!" His yell echoed loudly in the air, scaring off random birds in the trees as they flew away. "What…makes you think that?" he stuttered, embarrassed as his face was turning scarlet. "She's just a friend, and my master."
The teasing blonde didn't look convinced.
"A girl with a cute name like Aqua? I don't think so, lover-boy."
"I'm telling you the truth!" he argued hotly.
"Aww, how cute, you're blushing~" she giggled as she leaned in close to his face and poked his cheek.
He looked away, his face still red.
"Yang! Stop picking on Ash. Can't you see you're embarrassing him?" a frowning Ruby said disapprovingly, her hands on her hips as she glared at her older sister.
"Relax, little sister, I was just kidding."
"Speaking of which," Blake interjected abruptly as she spoke for the first time, changing the subject. "Are you fine with all of this, you know—informing us about everything including the existence of other worlds?"
"Nowadays the rule of keeping the existence of other worlds a secret isn't important anymore." the black haired teen said with a shrug.
"What makes you believe that, Ash?" a curious Ruby asked.
"Well, I have a strong feeling that Professor Ozpin already knows about it and the history of the Keyblade." he answered calmly. Many eyes widened at the surprising news, regarding their mysterious headmaster of Beacon Academy.
"Really?" Jaune exclaimed, as he was the first one to recover.
"That's completely absurd." Weiss didn't want to believe it at first as there was no hard evidence to support his claim. "If he already knew, then why hasn't he told anyone else about it yet?" she challenged with a glare.
"Maybe he thought it was for the best if he didn't." Yang answered with the first thing that popped into her head.
"That could be one of the reasons." Pyrrha didn't believe that the blonde was completely off with her random guess, but she was convinced that wasn't it at all.
"Or maybe he thought it would make much more logical sense if Ash was the one to explain everything to us instead of him." Blake replied casually, before staring at the Keyblade wielder with a small smile on her face. "Right?"
"My thoughts exactly," He returned the smile.
"So wait-are you saying that Professor Ozpin purposely planned this whole thing out from the very beginning?" a frowning Weiss asked, crossing her arms in annoyance.
"Pretty much," He shrugged.
"I find that hard to believe."
"I don't expect you to, Weiss." He smiled.
"What do you mean by that, mister Keyblade wielder?" she demanded with a sarcastic tone of voice, glaring daggers at the grinning young man.
"Anyway," The black haired teen decided to change the subject before the white haired girl could get the chance to yell at him for ignoring her. "Don't we have an initiation to finish? No point in standing around, right?" Everyone nodded in agreement, even Weiss who was still glaring at him behind his back.
{...}
At Beacon in the assembly hall, the mandatory ceremony was about to begin after a long excruciating day. Amongst the curious Beacon students in the crowd was Ash who seemed to be out of place as he was the only one who wasn't appearing on stage with Ruby and the others after completing the initiation, for reasons only a certain gray haired headmaster knew. And speaking of that man, he didn't waste another second placing all the first-year students who had passed the initiation into teams of four right off the bat after a brief introduction.
Team CRDL consisted of a male student with burnt orange hair, a guy with green hair, a squinty-eyed guy with light brown hair, and a male student with long dark blue hair. Ozpin had appointed Cardin, the burnt orange haired male, as the team leader.
The members of team JNPR included Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren. Ozpin had shockingly selected Jaune to be the team leader, much to everyone's surprise including many of Pyrrha's admirers. They'd thought for sure that she was going to be the obvious choice to be the team leader, but whatever. No point in questioning the headmaster's decision when it was already official. Ash couldn't help but be happy for his friend and the possible futures that lied ahead of him as the leader of his own team.
And finally Team RWBY which consisted of Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. And much to Weiss's chagrin and protests, Ozpin had chosen Ruby to be the team leader of their group. While the Keyblade wielder hadn't seen it coming either, he had the strong feeling that it was the right decision after what he heard from Yang and the others about Ruby showing promising leadership skills during their fight against the Nevermore.
And surprisingly enough, Ozpin wasn't finished yet when he spared a brief moment of his time to glance over to the young wielder of the Keyblade's direction and give him a small smile, before facing forward again and announcing unexpectedly that Team RWBY would have an additional member included in their group, although not listed in files as an official student at Beacon yet the new member would still be recognized as an "honorary" member of Team RWBY.
The assembly hall immediately burst into a flurry of gossip and murmurs, students muttering amongst each other as they wondered who their headmaster had suddenly picked to join Team RWBY as their honorary member. Obviously, Ash had a good idea of who that new member was, and so did the rest of his new friends. It was only a matter of time until he heard his name being called upon by that manipulative man of a professor.
"Ash Ketchum"
He couldn't help but laugh sheepishly at the attention he was getting from all around him as his name was announced, all eyes focused solely on him.
Ruby was super-thrilled to have him as part of her team.
Yang grinned with glee, loving the idea already.
Blake had a small smile plastered on her face in amusement.
And of course Weiss was the only one who was completely against having a guy joining her team, but whatever. Her opinion meant absolutely nothing if no one was paying any attention to her. Despite her mixed feelings about him, she didn't have any major issues fighting alongside him as she was very confident that he would prove to be more useful in the near future than a certain little girl with dark red hair.
Later that night, Ash and the newly formed teams were ordered by Glynda Goodwitch to spend another night in the ballroom until morning where each team would be assigned to their new living arrangements. As expected, nearly everyone took the opportunity to rest up for tomorrow except for him as he was still wide awake in his sleeping bag which was provided by the Beacon staff members. He toyed with the same king chess piece that he had picked up at the forest temple in his hand above his face as he gazed up at the ceiling in deep thought. He was still thinking about the conversation that he had with Professor Ozpin right after the ceremony.
{...}
"So Ash, did you enjoy your first experience at Beacon?" the headmaster of Beacon Academy asked curiously as he sat behind his desk with both elbows resting on top and fingers intertwined altogether.
"It's definitely something I won't forget, that's for sure." The older male cracked a small smile in amusement at the young teen's straightforward answer.
"I see," He decided to change the subject now that he was satisfied hearing the Keyblade wielder out. "Well, you must be wondering why I requested you to report to my office again, correct?" The former Pokémon Trainer shrugged.
"If it's about naming me as a honorary member of Team RWBY, then I'm fine with it but next time a little heads-up please." The gray haired man chuckled very lightly.
"I'll keep that in mind, but no…that's not the reason why I called you here." He became serious. "It's actually about your search for – the Keyhole was it?" The latter confirmed it with a nod. "Apparently, we still don't have any major leads regarding its current whereabouts, but rest assured we will let you know as soon as possible if anything comes up." he said nonchalantly with a smile.
"Thanks, I really appreciate your help." The ebony haired teen returned the smile.
"It's no trouble at all." Ozpin took a brief pause before changing the subject. "In the meantime – why don't you go rest up? You must be quite tired after your little ordeal in the Emerald Forest."
"Are you sure it's alright?" While the latter appreciated the kind offer, he just couldn't help but feel like he was overstaying his welcome a little.
"It's fine," But the older male simply waved it off like it was no big deal as he could always pull some strings for the young lad.
"Ok…"
"Good - now go report to Miss Goodwitch. She's waiting in the ballroom with Ruby and the rest of the students." the Beacon Academy headmaster instructed as the teen nodded with a smile.
"Alright, thanks again professor."
As the young Keyblade wielder headed to the exit with his hand slowly reaching for the doorknob, Ozpin suddenly spoke up again, loud enough to catch his attention, briefly stopping him from leaving. "Oh, and one more thing before you go, Ash—" The teen looked over his shoulder and stared at the gray haired man with a curious look plastered on his face. "— keep this in mind." There was a brief pause before he continued, "It's closer than you think."
"Huh?" The former Pokémon Trainer blinked, quite puzzled at what the professor was trying to say.
"You will figure it out soon enough." Ozpin chuckled slightly with amusement. "Till then-" He changed the subject again. "You can go now. You don't want to keep Miss Goodwitch waiting, do you?"
{...}
The black haired teen sighed inaudibly in annoyance, both eyes completely shut at the moment.
Still trying to figure out what his next move, he opened his eyes again and began staring at the chess piece for the longest period of time until a dim light coming from it caught his attention as it grew brighter and brighter. He didn't know what was going on at first until he chuckled audibly in amusement, finally realizing what Ozpin had truly meant when he said, "it's closer than you think".
It was so obvious that it wasn't even funny.
This whole time…the Keyhole was right under his nose.
Boy, did he feel like an idiot right now.
Coincidence, maybe? Who knows? But at least it saved him the trouble of having to go look for it.
Now that the Keyhole had been found, it was time to head out. No point in sticking around any longer when he still had a promise to keep with Aqua, not to mention more worlds to visit and defend against the Heartless.
Quietly sitting up from his sleeping bag, Ash began to gather his things together before standing up and glancing ever so slightly over to Ruby and the others who were resting peacefully in their respective sleeping bags. He could feel his lips slowly tugging and twisting into a sad smile, a small concern still lingering in the back of his mind. Was he really going through with this – taking off in the middle of the night without saying good-bye to his new friends just like that? A part of him wanted to wait until morning, but after thinking it over some more he decided to go along with his decision anyway.
Taking a deep breath, the black haired teen walked over to the exit quietly as he managed to sneak by everyone including Blake who coincidentally was sleeping near the exit with her back leaning against the wall with both arms crossed over one another and both eyes peacefully shut. As he reached the door and gripped the door handle, he took a brief moment to look back at his sleeping friends, making sure that they were still asleep before leaving the ballroom and shutting the door behind him quietly.
Unbeknownst to Ash after he left, a certain dark red haired girl quickly sat up from her sleeping bag and began to crawl over to her older sister who was snoring loudly next to her, shaking the blonde urgently by the arm in a futile attempt to wake her up. "Yang, wake up."
The snoring paused dramatically for a brief second, giving Ruby some hope that her sister was about to wake up until it resumed and grew louder.
Annoyed, Ruby shook Yang again but this time a little rougher which did the trick as the blonde immediately sat up and looked around wildly in alarm, her heart beating rapidly. She eventually locked eyes with her little sister. "Oh, Ruby," She yawned with a hand covering her mouth, still sleepy. "What's wrong, can't sleep?" she asked with another yawn.
"I wish," Yang was taken aback by her sister's tone as she listened very closely as to what was troubling her. "It's Ash-" Her answer immediately caught the blonde's attention, wondering what was wrong with their favorite Keyblade wielder. "-he's gone."
Yang blinked.
"We need to go after him."
Yang blinked several more times before realizing that Ruby was right and nodded.
"Then what are we waiting for, let's go!" she said with a grin.
{...}
Ash arrived at the courtyard and scanned the area, cautiously making sure that there were no Heartless lurking in the shadows, prepared to ambush him on sight. The courtyard was clear, for now. He removed the glowing chess piece from his pocket and held it out before him, allowing it to float freely into the air in a ball of light. Calling forth his Keyblade, he immediately pointed it at the floating chess piece as the tip fired a beam of light into it, awakening the world's Keyhole and sealing it.
The Heartless activity in Remnant had now been reduced to a minimum.
A job well-done; now it was time to head out to the next world.
Once the Oathkeeper vanished from his grip, Ash whipped out his Pokégear and began to fiddle with the device until he finally punched in the four-digit code to have the Mark XII Shera pick him up from his current position after contacting Cid for assistance. Moments later after waiting patiently for his ride, the Gummi ship arrived at his destination and hovered above the courtyard in the night sky, ready to beam him up. As he was preparing to board the spaceship, he heard several familiar voices calling out to him desperately from behind, trying to get his attention. He sighed dejectedly before looking over his shoulder to see Ruby and all the members from both Team RWBY and Team JNPR heading in his direction. He should have known that they would go after him, stealthy or not.
It was inevitable.
And once the party reached his side, an exasperated Yang immediately marched up to him and poked his chest firmly with a glare, demanding answers. "Alright, Ash, spill it."
The former Pokémon Trainer said nothing.
"Why didn't you tell us that you were leaving? We were so worried about you." Ruby took her shot at trying to pry some answers from him, but much to her dismay he still didn't say a word.
Now it was Jaune's turn to try his luck, and hopefully he would get the Keyblade wielder to talk.
"You know, Ash-I can't help but feel that you're being selfish here." That definitely drew the latter's immediate attention to him. "I mean-Aren't we friends?"
"Of course we are," the black haired teen answered simply.
"Well, it didn't seem like that when you were about to leave without telling us." Pyrrha pointed out with a frown.
"I know, and I'm sorry." He gave the group a sincere apology, which they accepted—well, most did except for a moody Weiss. "It's just that-I'm on a time crunch. Now that I have found your world's Keyhole and sealed it, I need to head out to the next world as soon as possible before it's overrun by Heartless, just like my world in the past."
"Still...you should have just told us instead of trying to sneak out behind our backs in the middle of the night, Ash." Yang said with a scowl, crossing her arms in vexation. He sighed again, knowing that she was right. "But-we understand completely. You're a busy guy, and we shouldn't keep you away from your mission." Her attitude quickly changed as she grinned. The latter blinked with confusion written on his face, hoping he hadn't heard her wrong.
"Really?" Ruby nodded smiling.
"Of course," But then she became serious and gave him a look. "But please don't try to hide anything from us anymore, alright? If there's something on your mind, you can always count on us to help you, right guys?" Everyone but Weiss nodded in agreement. "See, friends won't let friends down." She smiled with glee. Ash chuckled in amusement, finally giving in.
"Fine, I promise," he said smiling. "And maybe next time when I stop by for a visit I'll introduce you guys to Pikachu."
"Pikachu?" Blake repeated, slightly interested. Ruby decided to answer on Ash's behalf.
"Oh, it's this cute little mouse thing." She squeaked, but then added, "But it can also shock you."
"Really"
"I wanna see it, I wanna see it!"
"Nora, please, Ash just said that he would introduce us to Pikachu next time. Weren't you even listening?" Ren sighed dejectedly.
"Awwww," Nora pouted. Ash chuckled in amusement.
"Well, guys, I'm off." He drew everyone's attention back to him as he was ready to head out.
"Please don't forget about us," came Ruby's reply.
"I won't," he reassured the dark red haired girl with a smile.
"That's good to hear," Yang too was relieved to hear that. "And since you're leaving-" Oh, boy, he didn't like that look she was giving him when she was slowly leaning closer to his face. He could feel his cheeks burning up, his heart beating rapidly as her lovely face was inches apart from his. "-you deserved one of these." And just like that she planted a quick kiss on his cheek, leaving her mark and surprising many.
"Yang!" her baby sister squeaked, her face turning bright red.
Satisfied, the blonde reeled back and faced her sister with a smug smirk on her face. "Relax, little sister, don't be jealous." she teased as she watched the younger female fidget a little under her gaze.
"What, I'm-not jealous!" she half-lied, not fooling anyone.
"Right~" Yang rolled her eyes at her little sister, both arms crossing over one another and her tone of voice filling with sarcasm.
"I'm not!"
As the two sisters engaged in one of their sibling arguments, a dazed Ash couldn't help but get a weird feeling that somewhere in the universe —dead or alive—a certain squinty-eyed future Pokémon doctor was crying in tears out of pure jealousy, wondering what Ash's secret was.
A/N: Yes, folks, I'm back…for now. Anyway, sorry the long seven month hiatus, a lot of things were going on including this recent Facebook called Star Era. Hopefully, this chapter will make up for the long wait. I will try to work on my updates as fast as I can to get them posted. Till then enjoy the chapter. Next stop, Traverse Town! Don't forget to leave your feedback.
P.S. - Give the proofreading and editing credit to my beta-reader, Vandenbz.
Aoi Hyoudou (formerly known as Johan07)