Welcome to An Unexpected New path. This is an idea that came to me after reading numerous different fanfics that followed the same general plot line making me come to realize one thing about them that hasn't been explored in what I've read before. I won't say what that one thing is yet, but it's something that I can hopefully pull off effectively. The description does give a clue as to what it is so you can try and decipher it or just read on. I'll say more at the end of the chapter so until then, enjoy.
So... This was not what I expected when I woke up this morning. I don't think anyone would expect it. Going about your daily life when suddenly you're in a different world, it will definitely throw you through a loop. Especially if you've seen this scenario play out time and time again throughout fiction.
I'm not going to sugar coat this, but I'm on Remnant now. In the Emerald forest to be exact, just like some of the fanfics I've read... God I'm in an actual Fanfiction now, aren't I?
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Alright then, hello readers and all who are seeing this. I have no idea what's going on or how I got here but I'll let the author handle all that nonsense. If they actually exist that is or I'm just going crazy, who knows, not me. All I do know is that I'm on Remnant, I can likely change the events of the show, maybe create a life here and there's an Ursa, standing right above me. Breathe in, breathe out, welcome to Remnant, Aaron, welcome to Remnant. Now… RUN!
It all started on a nice summer day where the warm sun shines bright and a cool breeze blows through, sitting at his computer is Aaron Kirk. Standing at a moderate height for his age with a fair complexion, blonde hair and blue eyes, Aaron just finished reading another fanfiction that ended the chapter with yet another cliffhanger.
"Well… They're screwed." He said to himself after what he just read.
Seeing the time, Aaron saw that it was about two O'clock now on this lovely Saturday. While not overweight in any sense of the word, he wasn't very fit either. As such, ever since last year, he's decided to go on walks around the neighborhood. Aaron lived in an area where a relatively extensive path system was built during the city's development so he had his options. Every Saturday where the weather was nice, he would take these walks, take some time for himself, and reflect on life. It was a relaxing tradition that let his mind wander without worry or interruption.
"Alright, twenty four degrees with seven kilometer winds and no rain. Perfect." Aaron noted as he checked the weather and looked out his window.
Getting up from his chair, he quickly got ready and headed out. It was a short walk to actually get to the paths but he didn't mind. It let him actually clear his mind before being surrounded by nature. Another thing Aaron did during his walks was listen to music. It was mostly music from different games, movies and shows with whatever he was listening to dictating his pace. Walking in step to a constant 120 beats per minute helps gain that endurance that he quite frankly needs.
With a song chosen and trees and shrubs surrounding him, Aaron starts to let his mind wander. At first it's about University and the like that will be coming in the fall but then it shifts back to the present and where he is now. How birds are chirping around him, squirrels run from tree to tree and the leaves flow in the wind.
The novelty of the surrounding nature eventually fades, mind wandering once again. This time Aaron's thought returned to that of the fanfictions he's read. Enjoying fics of the Isekai genre, Earth or crossover wise, these walks gives him lots of time to think of the ridiculous things he would do if he ever ended up in those situations.
"Like that would ever happen." He said, eyes darting around the trees, "Hahahe."
He knew that it was impossible, just a work of fiction, that is why he was laughing it off. That was always the point in which something of the likes of an Isekai would happen. Continuing to walk, nothing happened, just like reality always has and always will be. Aaron's not special, he's not someone who needs to learn a valuable life lesson, he's not someone who is destined for greatness. He is just Arron Kirk.
"Excuse me sir." Someone asked in Aaron's peripheral vision, taking him out of his thoughts.
"Hmm? Yeah?" Aaron said, turning to see the older woman while he was taking off his headphones in the process.
"Can you help me with something mister?" She asked in a sweet grandmotherly tone.
"Uhh, that'd depend on what it is." He replied.
"Oh nothing much, my little Douglas over there has gotten himself stuck and I'm not sure if I can get him out of that." She responded, pointing towards a nearby playground with a small beagle wagging its tail in a joy filled storm, stuck between two of the metal bars.
"I'll, uhh, is he friendly?" Aaron hesitantly asked. This lady and dog seemed nice enough, he just wanted to be sure.
"Of course, of course, he just gets a bit too excited sometimes." She answered like this was a normal occurrence.
"I'll see what I can do then." Arron said, not too sure how to go about this. He never had a pet so this was completely new to him.
Slowly walking towards the dog, Aaron rounds the park to get a front view of the small beagle. Douglas had a goofy, joy filled face, panting hard and tail wiggling even fast at his sight. Seemingly safe to approach, Aaron slowly walked towards the overly excited dog.
"Douglas, here Douglas." Aaron said. Douglas' tail wagged even faster now. "Now to see if this works. Douglas, stay."
Surprisingly the beagle did just that, halting his tail wagging and let out a small woof but kept panting with a joy filled expression.
"Alright, now hold still." He instructed as he kneeled down to the dog's level.
Slowly moving his hands, Aaron brought them closer and closer to the trapped dog. There was no protest on the canine's part. Lifting the beagle's head up, he slowly turned the dog's head to the right, being extra careful trying not to hurt him. Once again, Douglas didn't mind. After the dog's snout was turned and pointed, Aaron slowly pushed the dog back from which it came. Douglas began to step back with the force and in no time was free. The canine's eyes lingered on Aaron for a moment through the bars before he turned and dashed back to his owner.
Seeing his job done, Aaron decided to go back and check in with the lady and Douglas. Coming out from around the play equipment he could see Douglas joyfully being picked up by the old lady getting many many kisses. Through all the puppy love, she was able to see him approaching and once again lowered Douglas to the ground.
"Oh thank you young man. Little Douglas here can put these old bones to work sometimes." The lady said. "I don't have anything to reward you with though."
"Oh it's no problem at all, I'm just happy I could help." He responded with a warm smile.
"I can't thank you enough then." She said as Douglas yiped seemingly in agreement.
"Well I'll let you two catch up then. Again, happy to help." Aaron stated before turning to continue his walk.
With his music back on and a smile on his face, Aaron continued along, now with more of a spring in his step.
"One two three, one two three, one two three." He repeated at 200 bpm, stepping in time to music.
Now Arron's mind turned back to that of fanfictions. With how much he's been thinking of them, you'd assume he's read a lot and you'd be right. After just over a year from the first fic he actually read, he's accumulated a few ten million words read. Has he been reading more than he should have? Yeah. Will he stop anytime soon? No. It's just his life now, find a good writer, read what they have, see if they wrote anything else he'd enjoy and repeat. He even threw his own hat into the ring one time to find moderate success.
These thoughts lasted him until the trees and bushes opened up for a major road. Cars whizzed by as Arron walked the short distance to the nearest intersection. Music still going when he arrived, he pressed the cross button and waited. The wait in its entirety lasted about thirty seconds before being given the white signal across the street. Stepping out onto the road with a cursory glance to his left and right, Aaron walks out.
With nothing out of the ordinary and nearly across, a faint siren could be heard blaring over Arron's music. Stepping onto the other side of the road with a look to the right, a speeding truck is being chased by a number of police cars barreling right through the opposing red. The chase makes it through the intersection right after Arron was safely on the sidewalk.
With wide eyes as to what nearly happened, Arron could only watch as the chase continued on. The precipice of death right before him. He stood like that for a minute until his song finished with a climactic symbol crash, releasing him from his stupor.
"Okay… That was too close." He commented to himself, shaking himself back to reality. "Alright what's next?" He said with a shrug before looking into what the next song would be. "Hmm, Red Like Roses? Sure."
As he began to walk once again, the main guitar line started being plucked away. His steps were in line with every two beats, slightly swinging his head as the strings played. A few bars after that the vocal line came in sung by Casey Lee Williams with long notes and crisp changes in tone when needed. Aaron's hand then started moving in a conducting pattern as he reentered the trees.
"Red like roses fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest."
Aaron continued to move with the music, it may look slightly weird on the outside with the conducting and all but he didn't care.
"White is cold and always yearning, burdened by the royal test."
His step dropped down harder as the next line started with greater force. More instruments came in giving the song more power for further along.
"Black the beast descends from shadows."
Aaron's movements became more pronounced with each step he took, leaning into each and every note being sung.
"Yellow beauty burns, gold."
On the last lyric, Aaron hummed in tune, knowing what comes next and the abrupt change it provides. Finishing with a cymbal roll, the song moved on from the slow and melodic tempo, to an increased speed as he followed suit. The natural 4/4 time finishing for a new 6/8 time signature to take its place.
The guitar and drums came back in full swing, driving the song forward towards the battle that it was made for. The guitar was strummed with intensity and passion as the music followed its strings. After a few bars of that, the guitar is replaced with a tambourine, accenting the beast of the drums as they played together. The guitar returned shortly after as the main melody before a group of cellos took over that job. This constant change of instruments with the main melody continued on as he envisioned the Red fight scene in his head.
Now Aaron came upon one of the natural lakes in his area, a piece of nature hidden in the city as the song slowed down for a short reprieve. It only lasted a few seconds before returning bombastically to the fast pace action for one final push. Aaron sped forward to match, now basically speed walking at this point. Keeping in time with the last few bars, the climax came with a large cymbal crash, ending the song.
He began to slow down at that point to a more respectable walking, taking some time to catch his breath. Looking down at his phone, Aaron began to ponder what to listen to next.
"Alright what's nex-"
BANG!
Aaron felt a strong gust of wind skim right over his head proceed by the loud bang. A sound that he knew that from this distance was a gunshot. His first instinct was to turn towards the sound which was exactly what he did as he came to see two men now taking cover and taking shots at each other. Aaron stood there petrified for three seconds at most in stunned shock and those were the most agonizing three seconds he had ever experienced.
Aaron's mind was racing at what he was seeing, unsure of what to make of it all. After a few more shots were exchanged, he finally returned to reality and hastily jumped off to the side behind some bushes. Where he was now, he was looking through leaves and branches to see the two shooters continuing to take shots at one another.
As he watched, Aaron could only think one thing, "oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." Over and over again.
Shot after shot, ring and ring, if he thought the three seconds of eternity were bad, ten minutes would be hell on earth. That's how long the shoot out lasted before the police arrived and put a stop to it. It did take some time after the cops first arrived to get the situation under control but eventually they did. As soon as both gunmen were hauled away, Aaron finally stepped out from behind his camouflaged cover. One of the policemen noticed him almost instantly and spoke to his radio before approaching.
"Sir, you are in the middle of an active crime scene. No civilians are permitted here at this time." The officer said in a commanding tone obviously wanting to know why Aaron was here.
"Sorry, I was pinned down behind this bush when the shots started." Aaron responded, pointing to where he just came from while the cop looked on with uncertainty.
"If that's the case, I'll need to get your statement regarding these events." He said.
"Not sure how much I can give you but sure. I'm guessing you'll need me to stick around then?" Aaron asked.
The officer nodded in response before reaching for his radio. "Jen, I'm gonna need you at my location with a pad and pen, we've got a witness willing to provide a statement." He stood silently while this Jen person responded through the distortion. "Alright." He said before turning back to Aaron.
"My partner's dealing with those two so we'll need to head over there."
"Lead the way then, officer?"
"March." He replied.
It took about a minute to walk from the scene of the crime to get to where a number of police cars were parked. Hastily stopped into an arc that had the two criminals being placed in the back seats of two of the cars. As the pair approached the blockade, A female officer by the look of the length of their hair was giving some directions to a few other officers.
"You seem to have things handled here." March called causing the female to turn around.
"So this is our witness then." She said once she noticed the two.
"Yeah. Said he was pinned after shots started flying." March replied.
"Alright then." She commented before turning to Aaron again, "I'm officer Jeniffer Patson and I'm gonna need you to recount what you say and heard leading up to and during the shoot out." She said while pulling out a pen and paper. "First, what's your name and occupation?"
The interview didn't take too long in Aaron's eyes. Just his description of events and a few questions before being free to go. With all that had happened not even an hour into his walk, he decides that he should head back home.
The walk back, thankfully, was so far uneventful. With nothing else out of the ordinary at this moment, Aaron now realizes just how lucky he's been today. A small smirk and chuckle followed after that.
"Nearly being run over by a runaway truck and getting caught in the middle of a shoot out." Aaron said aloud in slight disbelief at the day's events. "At least I got to meet Dougl-" Then everything went white.
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A bird cawed out, rustling awake Aaron from his slumber.
"Ughh." Aaron muttered as he regained consciousness.
Lying on his back and slowly opening his eyes, Aaron was greeted to a tree covered canopy with rays of light shining through. A light breeze occasionally ruffles the leaves around giving him some sensory awareness.
Trying to raise himself into a sitting position only results in Aaron gaining a massive phantom pain in his head. Instinctually he brought a hand up to try and sooth the pain which ended up not doing much for him. Taking a few moments for the pain to dissipate, Aaron was now fully aware that he was in the middle of a forest. That wouldn't be too concerning to him with what he was going just before seemingly passing out but the thing that got his attention the most was the trees themselves.
The trees that he found himself amongst were fairly spaced out, much more so than the ones he was walking through previously. Secondly there was the fact that these trees were much, much older than the ones he had seen in his area. The forested areas around where Aaron lived were filled with small but tall trees, a designated wooded area built with the city, but these trees however looked to be roughly 80 years old or greater if Aaron was to take a guess.
Another thing Aaron noticed once his analysis of the surrounding trees was completed was the severe lack of regular infrastructure around him. No lights, no signs, not even the path which he was walking on was in sight. With his observations of the general vicinity seemingly wrapped up and hopefully enough time passing by, Aaron raised himself from sitting on the soft grass to standing.
"Now where am I?" Aaron asked himself.
In all honesty, he had absolutely no idea he ended up and thus no way of knowing where to go.
"Well, it can't be too far a walk to get out of here." Aaron commented as he started to walk in the direction he was facing.
Chng, chng, chng, chng…
"Hmm?" Aaron hummed curiously, turning towards where more of those weird noises were coming from. Noting their mechanical sounding origins in the process.
Chng, chng, chng, chng, chng… the noise rhythmically repeated.
"Gyyyeyyyeyyeyyyyy" Was a yell he could just barely make out.
Now Aaron was utterly baffled and scratching his head in confusion at what he was hearing, "What the...?"
"Birdy no!" He could faintly hear a girl scream out before three gunshots rang out from just off to his right.
"Wait." Aaron muttered in wide eyed disbelief, "That voice. No. That's impossible. I'm just imagining things." He dismissed with a small, uncertain chuckle.
BOOM, the sound of a cannon rang out, seemingly approaching him. BOOM BOOM! Two more shots, each closer than the last.
"Yeah!" That came from nearly right above him making him widen his eyes even more.
With enough force to cause some serious whiplash, Aaron jolted his eyes to the sky just in time to see a yellow ball of explosive bombastic badassery soar right above him at near mach speeds.
Wide eyes remained locked on the cloud spotted sky as shock began to set in, "No no no no no no. That's impossible. This has to be a coincidence. I was just joking about all of that. It's a fictional world. It can't be real." Aaron said in quick denial.
The sound of a rocket snapped Aaron out of his spiral for a few moments before a loud thank you and I'm sorry were shouted across the forest.
"It is." Aaron uttered in absolute horror at what he was hearing and who he was hearing it from. His knees gave out as he slumped back down to the ground. He could only think of one thing as his mind began shutting down, "H-how? How can I be in RWBY?"
Well here's the start and prologue to my newest story. As a warning going forward this story is going to be very OC centric. I'm not good at character writing as my strong suit is in the middle scale, plotting out scenes, how fights are going to end type of stuff and other obscure plot details. I hope that this story will help me improve this short fall of mine and create a compelling read that you can be invested in.
Aaron Kirk is going to be the main protagonist as with any Isekai but I will be sharing the spot light with three more characters that will be written further down the line. Hopefully for the four of them, the 'screen time' will be split into a 35/25/20/20 situation at worst and 25% each at best. There will also be canon characters because what would a fanfic be without the actual characters. So overall, think of this as an anthology AU with OC's. It should become clearer the further along in the story I go as to how thing will play out, either remaining the same or being changed and you can follow along, but until then, the stage is set, now, stay tuned.