Started on March 6, 2020

Jin groaned as he sat up, half awake and not okay with his current situation at all.

He slid out of his sleeping bag, hungry and frustrated. He shuffled through the mesh of blankets and self-made pillows and stuffed it all into his backpack.

Jin tidied his sweater, pulling the end to cover the rim of his sweatpants, and dusting it. He went over to his guest's side of the road, with Jin's other sleeping bag and pillows.

He nudged his guest with his boot. "Hey, it's time to go. If you sleep any longer, you won't be getting to Haven Academy anytime soon." The boy—his guest—grumbled in his sleep. He hears the grinding of teeth and cranky mumbling under the kid's breath.

"How did I even end up with you?" Jin hides a grin under the collar of his sweater as he folds the grey sleeping bag neatly.

"You questioned the air on how you're gonna get to Haven. Then, lo and behold, I came and here we are!" Jin put up an enthusiastic front, waving jazz hands into the air. His guest didn't laugh, he only stared at him strangely. Jin slumped, no longer in the mood.

"But seriously," He cleared his throat, "You do realize if you keep talking to the air, people will look at you funny."

The boy's face scrunched up and opened his mouth. He squeaked like a mouse and after a few moments of silence, he glared a hole into the road. "...Well, I think the same thing."

Jin raised his brow, or, well, attempted to. Both his eyebrows went up in confusion, "What do you mean?" He swung his flashlight by the string, skipping to walk by his guest.

He couldn't have been older than fifteen, maybe less. The kid's clothes were in rough shape, dirt and wet spots clung to them. Bandages around his neck in some kind of fashion sense, as he wasn't injured in any way.

So what was a little farm boy going to the Academy for?

Jin laughed inside his mind, knowing what the answer was.

"I'm Jin, and I'm from Argus. Nice to meet'cha…?" He held his hand out for a handshake. His guest looked at it in confusion, then, his eyes glinted with familiarity as if someone had told him something.

His guest took his hand and shook it unsurely. "Oscar."

He died in his sleep at sixteen. He's sixteen again, though, but just one more birthday and he outlives his last life.

Yay.

He didn't think reincarnation was possible—he didn't stop to think about it to be true at all.

But it happened. The End. The only thing he can do is reflect on his memories and try to use some of that experience here.

On Remnant.

He realized this when he woke up, six years old and cranky, traumatized to the brim of insanity, to the smug face of Raven Branwen and her group of pansies.

"So, Oscar, what do you need to go to Haven for?"

Jin swung his flashlight like a lasso by the string handle. His guest named Oscar watched it warily. He followed his eyes and swung it near the boy's face, barely hitting the teen.

Gloved hands snatched it in the air before it neared him. Jin whistled, impressed. "Nice reflexes." He took his only source of light back and tugged at his auburn turtle neck. "But I got to ask, what's a farmhand like you going to Haven Academy for? Classes don't start in a few months is what I hear."

Jin noticed the small flash of green in Oscar's eyes. He didn't say anything but he secretly grinned under his turtle neck.

Oh ho ho ho.

"A friend of mine has something that belongs to me, and he's waiting there as we speak." Oscar's posture was no longer slouched and dragging. His back was straight and his head held high like a proud businessman—or, a mysterious headmaster.

"Really?" The boy with two souls nodded. "Then your friend must suck."

"What?" Oscar, Ozpin—whatever he wanted to be called—rose an eyebrow. Jin rolled his eyes.

"I mean if he has something you own, wouldn't it have been better for him to deliver it?"

"Yes, but that would've been-" Jin slapped a hand over his mouth and shushed him.

"Yes, I know. But he didn't even give you directions to get there. Yes, you need to board the trains but how do you know what train to take? What if you take the wrong one and get eaten alive by Grimm? By the Brothers, you'll probably get jumped 'cuz you're like twelve!" He's removed his hand from the boy's mouth halfway through to swing his hands in aggressive motions to emphasize his points.

Quickly, he added, poking his finger into Oscar's chest. "Plus, those strange men you need to watch out for?" He motioned to his neck, mouthing a long nope. "You're a kid, so that's why I'm making myself your official guardian."

He hears birds, crickets, and the occasional Nevermore caws in the distance.

Ah shit, they need to leave.

Oscar—Ozpin, at the moment—lets out a small snicker that erupted into a laugh. His eyes smiled wisdom and knowledge on his youthful babyface as he cleared his throat.

"Perhaps he didn't think it through enough, then." He says, the smile never leaving his face.

"Of course he didn't. That's why I'm going to be your new friend."

"You got some personality disorder going on or something?" He asks one time during their walk to the nearest train station. Jin makes sure he's conversing with Oscar.

Meh, Ozpin can come out too if he wanted.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, usually you're like this and other times you hold your head up high like some king, warrior person who exerts millennia worth of wisdom. Or something. Y'know?"

Oscar slumps. "Yeah, I get it. It gets unpleasant sometimes."

"To switch personalities?" Oscar looks shaken a bit, his eyes searching for… whatever. He mutters a mantra of "no's" and shakes his head.

"No—It's…" He holds his breath and releases a heavy sigh, his shoulders slumping. "You wouldn't get it." He adds, under his breath, "I'm going crazy. This is crazy…"

"Probably not."

"You know, it doesn't rain much in this part of the continent much less with thunder and lightning. Then again, you should also know that, since you work on—well, excuse me, worked on a farm." Oscar rolled his eyes, feeling the slight amusement come from his companion.

You enjoy this, don't you?

He doesn't get a response but only a pinch of emotions. Oscar sighs, digging into his pockets.

Jin nudges him. Oscar swats him away, earning a tsk from the older teen. He hears a beep. The hooded moss-haired teen nudges a train ticket into his hands.

Oscar sputters. "I can't possibly take this—"

Jin clicks his tongue, pointing a finger at the card Ozpin had insistently made him steal (steal!) from Aunt Em. "It doesn't accept those kinds of cards. You need actual pieces to get the slips."

I knew that.

Oscar snorts, "No you didn't."

"I didn't what?" Jin repeats, his golden eyes flickering to him. Oscar averts his gaze. The older teen's eyes spooked him, as they were just plain gold with no iris.

"Not you. It's…"

"Your alternate persona?"

"...Sure."

Jin was one of those people. The kind that questioned every little thing and demanded answers. Every answer Oscar gave him, and the vague answers Ozpin told him—Jin accepted and never asked again. He mentions it in several conversations later on, but never truly looks for what he's trying to get at.

He likes to comment on everything, constantly. Every ridiculous comment and answers he gives makes Ozpin want to laugh, but it's only Oscar that has the sensation to do what his emotions are telling him.

"I knew it!"

"Don't you ever want to ask why I'm going to the city?"

They sat across from one another. Jin rested his head in his arms on the table between them while Oscar looks out the train window. It was nighttime, the stars twinkled and the shattered moon glared above.

"I mean, yeah. Of course. You're going there to get your whatever ma'jig thing."

"In a nutshell." He yawned, smacking his lips. "But why me? Why does a homeless guy need to take pity on me?"

Jin places a hand to his chest. He cocks his head at him, "Jeez, you don't need to go that far. I may be homeless bu—" Jin stops before he could go into depth and go into a different direction. "That's not the point. The real point is that you need to get to the city. I also need to go there to deliver something."

"Deliver?"

"Yeah. A message. From a friend to another."

"So… This is where we part ways I believe." Jin says a moment after the watch the bustling people go off into the spiraling city.

The plan was simple. Leave the farm, get on a train, meet Qrow and get Ozpin's (his?) cane. Jin was unaccounted for but was most helpful.

It was an unexpected friendship.

Admittedly, Jin was his first friend. Ozpin didn't count since Oscar was still in the phase of questioning the reality of what was real and what wasn't.

"You can come with me."

Oscar.

"...If you'd like."

Ozpin wanted him to focus on their current agendas, like getting the cane and saving the world but that was an Ozpin problem, not an Oscar problem.

Jin blinked. He tugged his lavender hood over his eyes and smiled under his turtle neck. He opened his mouth to say something. He closed it. Jin repeated this several times and hummed.

"If I'd like to..." He hummed, "Yeah, of course."

Outside of the tavern, Jin tapped his foot anxiously. He sat on the little bench under the roof of the bar as he waited for Oscar and Qrow to come out, but he knew that wasn't going to be the case.

To Ozpin and Qrow, he was just some random helpful stranger who didn't need to nose into their business. To Oscar, he's probably the weirdo who called himself his best friend.

Even if he were to go with the two to the academy, there was no way in the seven hells they would let him follow. Maybe Oscar would permit him to follow them, though the other two wouldn't.

Unless—Unless he lied that he, too, needed to go to the academy to 'deliver his message'. That way, he can warn them about the fall of Haven, Raven's power, and pass his message to this Ozma guy.

The gods didn't tell him specifically who Ozma was. Long story short, his only objective was to tell Ozma that the gods are getting impatient and he needs to hurry up.

And after he completes his objective?

...To be honest, he has no clue. Maybe Jin would cease to exist after he says his piece. Maybe he would be reborn back on Earth where it was much easier than fighting Grimm and worrying about immortal enemies.

Jin liked to think he was only reincarnated for the reason to pass on messages from the Brothers.

He hasn't even got a single dream from them ever since he was born here, so maybe not.

Maybe.

In his inattentive state of mind, he rolls out his sleeping bag and spreads it out on the bench. He slides in, zipping himself up like a blue caterpillar and yawns.

"Man, I hope Ozpin has any idea who this Ozma fellow is…"

He might as well lay here until they come out and hope he doesn't fall aslee…

000

Sasaki Jin was born to a single mother who lived in the secluded part of Argus. His mother was nice and did all she could to support the both of them.

"Mommy, what's this?" Four years and still growing, his chubby finger clung to the envelope now in his mother's delicate touch.

The envelope held wads of what looked to be cash. Colorful plastic cards that came in green, orange, and yellow made it fat and ready to bust.

"Your dad sent this to us, Jin."

"Why can't he send it himself?"

His mother—long viridian hair that cascaded down her shoulders and dim hazel eyes—coos quietly, petting his blander color of green fuzz.

"He's away on his business trip, honey. So he sends us money to support us here."

His deadbeat father stops sending them wads of lien after a year.

"Jin, you'll never leave me, right?" His mother buries her face into his moss green bush of hair. Her voice turns into croaks after crying her heart out.

Six years old and not feeling a thing, he smiles. "I won't."

He burns the envelope with a photo of a newly remarried couple and divorce papers.

000

...He fell asleep, didn't he?

He cracks open an eye and jolts out of his caterpillar bed.

Jin shrieks incoherently, pointing at the cloudless sunny sky. Passerbys watch him incredulously. Children stop to watch him, animatedly pointing at him as their mothers yank them away.

Jin slams open the bar, looking for his best friend and Ozzy boy and the drunken crow. The bartender drops his glass in fright.

Oh ho ho ho. They weren't here. Jin was starting to get a little nervous.

"HAVE YOU SEEN A BOY THIS SHORT AND A DRUNKEN HUNTSMAN HERE?"

The bartender glares at him and rolls his eyes, pointing out the door. "Those two? They left last night to who knows where." The wolf faunus tsks as he grabs the broom behind him.

"Last night…?"

"Uh, yeah. If you're looking for them, I suggest you file a report. It's not the first time a huntsman takes a young kid out into the streets."

Is this guy suggesting…? Oh, gods. Jin dragged a hand down his face.

"But aren't you the tender of this place? Why can't you stop these things?"

"I'm a Faunus. No one believes a faunus out here."

Oh boy. Jin clicks his tongue and throws the man a tip. "Keep the tip. That's for telling me what happened to them."

He walks out, closing the tavern door behind him. His stuff is still there, thankfully, and packs it all in his bag.

His golden eyes glint with mischief as a devilish grin grows on his face.

File a report, huh.

First fanfic? I think? Published one awhile back but deleted it. Tell me what you think.

Jin = Gold

Sasaki = Aid, support (something like that)