Prologue
A world of endless swords, colossal gears starting to materialise from the smog covered sky; it was the same old view he has loathed to grow recognising, a direct reminder of his naivete and idiocricy from accepting that contract which will remain for an eternity, an eternity of having to murder thousands of lives: men, women, children? That didn't matter to Alaya, innocent or not the only thing it cared about was the death of anything related to something that had a possibility of ending humanity, and what was the most likely thing that would end it? Themselves.
He had become a cleaner of some sorts for humanity's own idiocricies. It hasn't even become a century since he became a Counter Guardian yet he had already forgotten the names and faces of the people he genuinely cared about in his own 'life', a life in which he abandoned those people in the name of helping others he didn't even know the names of, he was a fool.
His Ideals of becoming a 'hero of justice', humanity's suicidal tendencies, the view of his distorted inner world, he hated it. So why? Why was he, Shirou EMIYA, in a way, happy?
Oh, right.
"Archer!" Counter Guardian EMIYA was looking towards the view of his old home, a city in which he had people he could call 'family',
turning back to the new voice, all he saw was an out of breath young woman, a silver cross embedded onto her crimson dress. The exhausted girl putting her hands onto her knees where she wore black leggings, torn and tattered from the battle she had just come out of.
"Rin." The young woman stood up properly as she stopped her heavy breathing, putting aside her fatigue in favour of talking to a man that nearly let her die in multiple occasions.
"Make a pact with me." she tried to sound demanding, ignoring the tears welling up in her eyes and the obvious desperation in her voice as the man sighed and turned his back.
"I-.. I'm afraid I can't do that Rin," he stuttered before deciding his final words, "I don't believe I deserve that right, I… no longer have any goals." He turned around from the girl as his dematerialisation began, his false body turning back into blue motes of light.
"But! -but that would mean, that after this-, you would have to return to being surrounded by bloodshed and death!" Even if she hadn't seen much from her dream cycle, she still witnessed the countless atrocities that he had been forced to go through. "So please! Even if it's only for a temporary amount of time! Even if it's only a 70 year break from that hell! That would still be better!" her tears started to fall.
"Geez Rin you're really making this hard for me" he muttered, taking a deep breath before making his final wish.
"Rin." the young woman looked up at him, now facing her directly, his hair was down instead of the usual slick back he wore, giving the girl an all too familiar feeling.
"I know I can't really ask much, -but," he paused, "Take care of me, as you know I'm quite hopeless."
The girl wiped her tears as she did a hum in affirmation and spoke up, "You don't even have to ask, I'll promise that I'll try my best he won't be as twisted as you, I'll try my best in making sure he'll be able to follow his stupid Ideals while still taking care of himself! so-!" she paused,
"-Promise that you'll atleast try to be happy from now on!"
Shirou Emiya sighed.
"Don't worry Tohsaka," his words sounded more like a certain red head, hitting the girl right in the heart. "I won't be able to promise you anything, but I will try my best"
His words were finished as he disappeared, leaving Rin Tohsaka alone on a hill overlooking a sunrise.
He had a faint smile at remembering his last moments in that city he once lived in, sitting on a random rock as he waited for another mission- What?
It had already been a few minutes but nothing has happened; there was no information directly being fed into his brain, he didn't feel his current body being summoned into an unknown era. What was happening?
"Emiya." a gruff voice said, the fake heroic spirit becoming surprised for a half second before recognising the owner of the voice.
"Zelretch? To what honour do I have the Kaleidoscope here." he sarcastically responded as he kept his eyes on the view of his inner world of swords, staying seated on a rock, the old man at his right side responding in a playful voice.
"That isn't the attitude I would expect from the person I'm giving a vacation from Alaya's services." Emiya's eyes widened at this, narrowing a second later as he quickly caught on to the implications of the old man's words and what he had just done.
"Oh? I would ask why me but knowing you, it's probably for a stupid reason." Emiya said as Zelretch laughed in delight at hearing the other man's words of acceptance
-Though he already knew the Counter Guardian would accept, but just hearing it himself just brings him joy-
"As quick as always Emiya! The world im sending you to is in danger, luckily for them, I quite like it and some of its characters, so I would like you to save it. " Emiya raised an eyebrow at this before narrowing his eyes even further at the vampire's next words
"Just kidding!" The vampire gave off a hearty laugh for some reason, "It's not like you could actually do it alone," the old man said, clearing his throat before continuing on his next words, "the truth is I want you to assist the people who strive to save it. Don't worry about having to do that vile stuff that you normally do in Alaya's missions, that won't be required, or rather, the correct words would be, it's optional."
Optional? Those words slightly agitated him, it gave off the feeling of whenever a person knows something is inherently wrong with something, what did the old man mean by those words…
"And what if i just do whatever I want? " He said in an attempt to provoke the man, glancing being his back and looking him directly in the eye, only to have Zelretch to laugh a second later.
"Ha! think we both know the answer to that!" Zelretch said teasingly as Emiya could only respond in a scoff, like he could actually ignore people in need of saving.
"What of my abilities?" Emiya asked, the old man not even taking a second to answer.
"You're magecraft will mostly be kept, along with a few added bonuses" Emiya narrowed his eyes at the man's last few words before the old man continued talking. "-But I do have to mention, since that world is pretty far from this one and add that with the fact that I used quite alot of magical energy to get you out off Alaya's contract, I don't really have that much power to just warp in your entire body sooo…" the silver haired man began getting worried at what the vampire would say next only to then grimace at his next words.
"I'll have to get your body in the classical way." Oh gods "-Don't worry though! I'll do something so you can keep your name and a semblance of your original body!" Emiya could only groan at the vampire's attempts at persuading him, speaking up a second later.
"Could you atleast tell me something about that world?" he asked, the old man answering after a few seconds of thought.
"Their equivalent to Alaya and Gaia are practically non-existent," What? That's… impossible.
"Alaya because she spent her remaining power in a desperate attempt to keep that world's inhabitants able to survive, and Gaia because one of the two most prominent gods in that world practically comatosed her, though her decaying of magecraft still exists, and she is unintentionally aiding that world's people by still producing mana in the air which, by itself isn't that useful, but thanks to the density of it, it actually condensed into solids near the leylines of that world." Emiya stayed silent in having that information sink in:
Gaia in a state of comatose? gods were powerful but being able to kill an entire planet? the thought startled Shirou, what type of god represented something so powerful that it could end the planet?
Questions formed in his head, but there was one that scared him the most, the Age of the Gods in his Earth was over, but in this new one he was about to go in? He didn't know. Is that god still alive?
-but even then, what irked him the most even after learning of their Gaia and its killer was how their Alaya attempted to save humanity, it was simply unthinkable: it was sociopathic in its methods, uncaring of the number that suffers and dies just as long as the majority live, so why? why would it use its powers that way? Sacrificing itself for a result that wasn't guaranteed, the Counter Force wasn't like that. -then again, it wasn't his Alaya.
"Anything else?" he asked, stepping out of his inner monologue but still having those worries in the back of his head.
The old man hummed before responding, thinking about his actions. "Well, since I figured you would have to relive your childhood, I though you could just do your own research." Shirou groaned at the eccentric old man's lack of explanation, Zelretch chuckling on his own before speaking up.
"-So if you're ready, I can go ahead and send you in." Emiya nodded in confirmation, subconsciously wanting to simply save those people as much as he denied it. It's still better than being a dog of Alaya.
Pain gathered in his back as the old man did whatever he does when he goes into other worlds, when the feeling of wanting to sleep began to well up in Shirou.
"-And one last thing." Through the throbbing hurt he felt, the old man's voice was heard.
"Accept Ozpin's offer."
Shirou Emiya lost consciousness , only to 'awake' a second later, feeling a sort of slime…
…
…
'This is going to be fun, isn't it?'
Chapter 1: Red and White.
Red: A Fated Night
Jacques Schnee was currently sitting in his pristine office, groaning as he looked at the video on his scroll.
"Shirou stop embarrassing yourself!" An angered Weiss was currently trying to stop her younger brother as he kept making personal insults to Jacques and his important close backers. "Do you want father to punish you again?" she reasoned only for Shirou Schnee to give a shrug.
"He could use the stress reliever or that stick up his ass might hurt him." the silver-headed Schnee responded amusingly much to the shock of those around him at his language.
"Besides I don't mind, he hits like a little girl if I'm going to be honest" he said before continuing on a rant about something as stupid as how 'badly' the SDC treats faunus while continuing to insult many people who were important to the SDC.
When Shirou proved to be a prodigy as he skipped through 2 years of school and was now at his first year at a prestigious combat school in Atlas at the age of 12, Jacques was overjoyed to have another way to boast about his family, only for that joy to turn into utter disappointment when his personality came into view. The boy was crude, overly sarcastic, uncaring of how his foul words would affect the reputation of the Schnee Family, and people that would be introduced to him would always be insulted in some way, by the boy either criticising their career or themselves personally.
Shirou was nearly everything that a Schnee wasn't supposed to be, even down to his appearance, he looked nearly nothing like a Schnee as he had hair which appeared more silver than the Schnee's pure white, and golden eyes instead of ice blue. The boy's appearance was so unlike a proper Schnee that Jacques himself had him perform a DNA test to make sure that the boy really was Jacques' blood and that his wife, –that he didn't much care about– didn't have an affair that could put a crack on the family name if the hypothetical fact came out.
Jacques was having a hard time thinking about how to fix the massive backlash the SDC had gotten when a video of the entire thing exploded on the CCT, though he didn't much care about what the boy said about the faunus since that could easily be fixed, no- but having to fix his and his important backers' relationship after his son's insults to them was hard.
…
…
"Ah.. "
Shirou was quite impressed with himself, getting sent to another kingdom with minimal support by his new family, specifically his father, all because of some things he said, was something he wasn't prepared for until he was a little bit older.
Then again, he had basically scandalised practically some of the most important backers of his family's company, insulted a majority of the Atlesian Military and its council, and the added bonus of making fun of his father by calling him out on some of the SDC's more unethical practices, with the cherry on top being his personal insults to all that was stated above,
which would've normally just ended with him getting a 'beating' from his father had it not been for his own stupidity at failing to realize someone was recording the entire incident on a scroll, this world's version of a phone.
Said video also coincidentally became popular once it was uploaded to the CCT, a considerable amount of people having watched it, which obviously in turn, caused all the things he said to become quite known, and become known it did;
Most of the people insulted having their reputations tarnished, a person even being detained after an investigation that confirmed what Shirou stated, and most annoyingly, Shirou becoming quite well known, which was never good (for him, atleast) .
The first thing was him losing his birthright to become the heir of the Schnee Dust Company
(Though he didn't care about that) and getting minimal support from his father, only getting sent a meager amount of lien every month, only enough to actually pay bills and feed himself.
Then was getting ousted to another continent, The Kingdom of Vale, just south of Atlas by a thousand kilometres or so, probably to try and quell the rage of those rich snobs.
The thing mostly bothering him was getting separated from the new family he got quite attached to -disincluding his father, of course-, mostly his 'little' sister, Weiss, who was actually three years older than him but he teased and doted on, her being a reminder of his mistake and failure at his previous life.
There was also the most inconveniencing and annoying part; becoming well known among the populace, mostly the part where he was continuingly bothered in public, either by getting harrased or being asked for autographs:
He had comdemned the SDC for its practices, specifically on faunus labour, which made some certain variety of humans have a distaste for him, 'animal lover' being a common insult he was called whenever a business owner recognised him shortly before being denied service and kicked out of their establishment.
Though, as a result of being despised by anti faunus humans, he was an idol of some sort among the faunus population itself.
'choosing to save one means not saving another' huh, that quote from that man could actually be used in alot of different situations now that he thought about it.
He sighed, his 15 year old body continuing to walk home to his apartment from a library that didn't immediately kick him out, the owner being a certain faunus he was acquainted with for certain reasons.
*Clang*
*Clang*
Hm?
HIs ears perked up at the sound of two bladed weapons clashing, the most possible reason was that a battle was probably occuring, well, unless there was some new blacksmith that set up shop, and if it was a fight of some sort, perhaps it was just a friendly duel… in the streets.
"OW! Fuck! You hit me in the shin ya brat! kill her!"
Well that confirms it…
He cautiously made his way to the source of the very pained scream, making sure to not notify any of the cobatanants, a habit he's grown out of after nearly dying a few times thanks to it.
Turning the street corner, all he saw was a young girl fighting about… 2 dozen rather well dressed men wielding butcher knives, the girl was fighting them with 'Crescent Rose…' a scythe that could turn into a… gun. What is with this world and guns?
He inwardly pinched the bridge of his nose at the weird weapon choice of this world's inhabitants before using his special form of structural analysis to comprehend the history of the scythe, and consequently, it's wielder, 'Ruby Rose'.
Shirou did the same with the grunts' weapons, "Junior, huh." he made a mental note of the name to 'deal' with the man in a later date.
There was also another man standing atop the Dust Store yelling orders at his supposed lackeys, he had a weapon but since it was far too distant from being a 'sword' Shirou couldn't Trace it. (Quite obvious since it was a cane.)
Though with the features the man had, the parted orange hair, the eye-catching suit and the over-the-top bowler hat, Shirou couldn't help but recognize the rather famous criminal, a man that was the known suspect of the recent Dust Shop robberies pervading Vale, Roman Torchwick.
"We don't have all day fellas, just get to it already and kill the brat you useless idiots!" Roman yelled at seeing the crimson-headed girl knocking out two of the men he hired.
They obediently followed although noticeably frustrated, money grubbing pieces of trash, now probably looking to take their anger out on the young girl who hasn't even broken a sweat, Tch, what the hell are kids made out of these days!?.
"Here's a little gift for you, Red." He raised his weapon of choice, a stylish (in his mind) cane that when triggered, opened the base of it and used fire dust to launch a massive flare of flame that was more than enough to break a huntsman's aura and incinerate whatever idiot is in his way. Melodic Cudgel, a name he came up with when he was 14.
He smirked as he saw the girl being too focused on the dozen men attacking her, a chance became apparent that would lead another easy victory at robbing another Dust Store.
Roman Torchwick pulled the trigger, the hatch opened with the familiar sound of fire dust being activated as in the next second, the flare was already a few feet away from the girl who just now realized it, causing her eyes to dilate in the comprehension of the fact that she was dead, Neo would really enjoy this sight if she weren't out probably wasting his money on icecream…
…
…
"Damn it! You just ruined a perfectly good moment here!" Roman Pointed his cane towards him. Shirou held up a now-melting shield, a random one he decided was fit to block such an attack.
"Sorry if I'm mistaken, but you just nearly killed a child." He dissipated the nameless shield as the only thing left of it were black smolders on the ground, then taking hold of the pre-summoned dual blades, the black one on his right and the white on his left.
"Child my ass!" / "I'm not a child!" The girl and the criminal yelled simultaneously as he glanced at the girl, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, Uh…Thanks for saving me, I can pay for the shield later." Ruby sheepishly thanked him after realizing how she just yelled at the person that probably saved her a lot of aura.
"I appreciate the offer but-" Shirou was interrupted by an attempted swing by one of the grunts, to which he simply responded with a counter attack by hitting the back of the man's neck with the blunt side of Kanshou. "We should talk in another time."
"Oh oops, I guess I'll take the guys on the right?" he could easily take out all of them like how one brushes their teeth but he decided to play along, nodding in agreement.
The girl held her scythe with both hands as she used her speed based semblance to cover the distance between her and her targets.
Shirou nimbly dodged every inexperienced slash by the dozen that decided to fight him, each time countering with a precise hit on non-fatal organs, he did this a few times before only a few remained, their auras probably nearly drained.
"Take that!" the voice of Roman Torchwick sounded in between the clashes of metal on metal.
Shirou felt the temperature increasing on his left side while a bright orange lit up the dark road, though he didn't even need to look at what the source was before sidestepping it; the large ball of flame hit a the base of a street light, incinerating it in a flash of orange then turned black, causing the streetlight to fall and coincidentally pin down the last few grunts.
Ah. The man that fired the shot was stupefied for a moment at his accidental stupidity, before snapping out of it at the sound of a gunshot, only to have his night ruined even more at the sight of where the other kid was.
Ruby breathed out as she hit the aura-depleted man with the metal part of her weapon, not wanting to actually hurt anybody, well, getting hit by something made out of metal would probably really hurt…
-Well they deserved it anyway for trying to rob this place! She made up an excuse as she fired a sniper round at another one of the grunts, then doing a spin as she calibrated Crescent Rose into a its war scythe form in preparation of slicing another criminal's aura.
…
"Huh, I'm already done…" she looked at all the unconscious bodies sprawled around her, then glancing at where the other teen was fighting.
"Oh, you're also finished with them, uh…" she paused at trying to get the silver haired teen's name.
"Shirou." he briefly responded, purposely leaving out his surname, it was a subject that bothered him, as much as he preffered leaving behind his identity as an Emiya, being a Schnee was virtually synonymous with the discrimination of faunus, which wasn't something he was awfully fine with.
"Shirou, interesting na- Hey! He's getting away!" The girl pointed at the man now running on the top of the Dust shop, getting out of view a moment later.
The girl used her semblance to gain momentum as she jumped on a nearby streetlight, using it as a support as she did a sort of wall jump off of it and onto the low hanging roof of the Store.
Shirou summoned a glyph that acted as a platform, simply jumping onto the roof.
Roman Torchwick stood, waiting for the other brat to get on the roof so that he could make a grand exit, and to take out both possible future inconveniences, the red girl seemed ready to use her troublesome semblance to slice him up as she held her rather large scythe. Oh, there he is…
"Well, I think we can both agree that this has been an eventful night…" A mechanical hum of some sort could be heard from somewhere, particularly behind the man.
"Do you really think you can get away with this?" Ruby thought it was a pretty cool line.
"Absolutely!" An aircraft flew up behind the man, a Bullhead, lighting up the entire roof as it levelled itself with the structure, surprising Ruby as Shirou threw both of his swords at the vital parts of aircraft that held the gravity dust keeping the thing afloat.
His swords only bounced off it like they were plastic, no visible marks were even left on the vehicle, What?
"Oh if you think you can damage this thing," Roman Torchwick back peddled on the thing as it started increasing in height. "You are very wrong."
"Oh no you won't!" Ruby's slight surprise disappeared as she sped to the opposite edge of the roof to gain more time to aim on the distancing vehicle,
She transformed her weapon into its High-Calibre Scythe mode, efficiently inserting a penetration wind magas she put her left eye on the scope, aligning the gun to that it would hopefully shoot down the thing.
"Are you sure about doing that?"
She opened her other eye, both dilating as she comprehended the pulsating crystal a few feet in front of her, A Fire Dust Crystal.
An equallly large rock was also thrown at Shirou, Roman chuckled at both of them before his escape vehicle flew off at its full speed.
He was a Schnee, part of the lineage that owned the largest Dust corporation in this world, and therefore, he was quite knowledgeable about dust, enough to know that a Fire Dust Crystal that large could easily go through an entire huntsman's aura.
Shirou could easily summon a thick layer of numerous nameless shields to protect himself but for the young girl that was on the other side of the roof from him?
He searched within his inner world for a shield, something, that could protect both of them, he came up with some, but they were swords and shields that would've revealed too much of his abilities and a few would've resulted in him having to reveal the existence of magecraft since it was too far from being apart of his Semblance.
Semblances are an ability that anything with a soul could manifest, similar to aura, both were what this world's Alaya used it's last powers in an attempt and save humanity and faunus, the latter being part of humanity was something true, a fact that was confirmed once he saw that they could also manifest them.
He was supposed to have the Semblance of Glyphs, a hereditary semblance from the Schnee Family that allowed the user to summon magic circle-like glyphs of time-dilation, propulsion, and even summon temporary familiars, there were also multiple effect when it's mixed with other types of dust.
Shirou was actually quite excited at the prospect of these abilities once he read about them back in the Schnee Manor's large library, one of the few things in that place that he didn't have a disdain for,
-but his excitement about it soon turned into a sigh once he read the part about Semblances being a 'manifestation of one's innate and personal ability' which meant that his semblance was probably another thing that was related to swords, and even if he did inherit the hereditary semblance he probably would've been incapable or atleast unskilled at using it…
That was confirmed once he activated it at the age of 9, and with the help of his uppity but caring sister, Winter Schnee, he could use the basic abilities of glyphs.
-but he was utterly incompetent at it, the glyphs he summoned (if they did actually summon) barely even doing any effect much to his sister's frustration, the girl reasoning that, 'it must have been his age'
After a bit of testing though, he was able to make a complete copy of any weapon thanks to the blueprints of Unlimited Blade Works, but with a few slight differences.
It's make was the same, same sharpness and shape, the only difference being the partial blue tint it had and the fact that all of its magical abilities were completely non-existent:
Kanshou and Bakuya didn't attract each other and their mystical properties of 'anti-daemon' were gone, Rule Breaker was just an unnecessarily jagged ritual dagger that didn't affect magic, Caladbolg turned into a useless sword that was unnecessarily spiral and didn't have the ability to level an entire city, and Rho Aias couldn't even be summoned.
As much as it impressed his sister, Shirou definitely wasn't, his conclusion was that his semblance only copied the physical traits of his armoury, compared to his Tracing, it was utterly weak.
-but it still had its uses,
It only used aura and stamina instead of magical energy, and he had a way to use his sword summoning abilities without revealing the existence of magecraft, even if the Mage's Association didn't seem to exist here, explaining magic was something he never wanted to do.
Was it really worth it to reveal some of his abilities? Even if it was only a fragment of it, information is key to winning a battle, the same was true for his enemies, Roman Torchwick would live to know of it and the man was already out of his range…
-But…
one glance at the girl made the answer obvious.
"Rho-" The legendary shield of the legendary hero of Troy, the 7 petalled pink flower that had the defensive capabilities of 7 fortresses.
He held his hand up with his other, preparing to feel the pain of having atleast a single layer destroyed, the amount an average huntsman's aura was equivalent to.
Shirou could still hide the existence of magic even if he used this shield, after all, he already has a history of discovering new abilities of his semblance, with enough willpower from him to stop scratching the back of his head while lying, he could do it, hopefully.
"Aia-"
A scent permeated throughout the entire rooftop for Shirou, It was the same type of smell that always occurred whenever one uses their semblance or exerts their aura, it was similar to magecraft but was.. different.
He stopped, his heartrate returned to its normal rate, he didn't have to reveal that ability yet…
A purple magic-circle like object encompassed the two's entire side of the rooftop, the massive explosion occurred but it was only like as though they were watching fireworks, feeling no heat even though it was only a few paces away.
"Those were one of Ironwood's…" A new voice mumbled, unheard by the two still looking at her semblance as it was now dissipating, revealing that the Bullhead was already a few kilometres away, its speed incomparable to most, -no, all aircraft technology available to the public.
Pulling herself out of her spacing out, she did a small but still-hearable 'Ahem' to catch their attention.
Shirou and Ruby turned around, only seeing the figure of a blonde woman that held composed look.
"I'm Glynda Goodwitch and I'd like you two to come with me."
"Interesting.." Ozpin watched the security camera footage of Shirou Schnee and Ruby Rose fighting off dozens of men, though said men were quite weak, the two 15 year old's battle experience were still shown clearly to the headmaster, enough for him to do something that would probably dumbfound Glynda, enroll them 2 years early…
Although he didn't know if the Schnee would accept, Ozpin still had a card up his sleeve that could convince him, but even if the boy still refused, he could still make do with the silver eyed daughter of Summer Rose.
Though another problem was apparent once he saw the type of aircraft that the criminal escaped with, a new type of bullhead that should only be in the hands of the Atlesian mIlitary; James isn't going to be happy about this.
"Oh don't worry about anything, all we're going to be doing is a little questioning, and something in the end, Shirou Schnee." Ozpin stated as he closed the door.
Shirou currentlu sat in a pristine white room, having been brought by huntress, Glynda Goodwitch here.
Beside the room's only door, a man took a sip of at his mug, a caramel brown substance being that liquid to filled it, the man's unnecessary looking glasses being fogged up by the steam.
"Don't you think it's a little rude to know someone's name without introducing yourself?" Shirou had a smirk while Ozpin remained calm, only beaming even more intrigued by the boy.
The young man probably already knew about him since he was the headmaster of the most revered academy in all of Remnant, which only showed how the boy really didn't care, making it clear that the person he was facing now and the person in that video were the same person, even after the punishment that the Schnee head apparently instated.
"I suppose that should be in place yes, well then, let me begin," He took a seat, facing the young man.
"I am Ozpin, the Headmaster of Beacon Academy."
"To be honest with you Shirou Schnee, I came here for another purpose." The man sounded, the two having just finished a rather boring questioning.
"-but first of all, I have to ask, what do you plan on doing from now on? I heard that you've just finished your third year in a combat school." the more truthful words would've been 'I dug up every single detail of your entire life'.
Ozpin, the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, and the man who Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg last mentioned before he was sent to this world.
'Accept Ozpin's offer'
That conversation he had with that vampire a decade and a half ago was barely remembered by him apart from a few tidbits, but one thing he has ingrained in his minds was those last words.
For a while in his childhood (or rather, this body's childhood) he's stopped thinking about it, who this 'Ozpin' and his offer was, but he found out the answer to that first question when the man was announced to be a Headmaster of the most revered huntsman Academy in Remnant, Beacon.
Shirou was slightly surprised at first when he saw the man enter through that door, this was probably the night he would learn what that 'offer' was.
And those last words he said just confirmed that thought.
But Shirou already had an inkling as to why a Headmaster of an Academy for soldiers, or what this world would call them, huntsmen, would question a 15 year-old for their actions in fighting off over a dozen men.
It was to enroll him.
But even then, why would he accept?
if he wanted to become something like a huntsman and aid this world, he could easily just become a mercenary, hell, it mostly has more benefits to it than being a dog for the Kingdoms.
There was a network of information in the underground world he could have from just being one, granted that he found a place to actually join, (well, there was always a choice to threaten some scum into doing it for him.)
Not to mention actually getting payed for the weekly Grimm hunts he does, and there was also the freedom of being one and not having restrictions for his actions.
Perhaps this wasn't the 'offer' Zelretch was referring to, after all, there was always a multitude of possibilities in everything, but should he even follow that man's words?
Zelretch was a mysterious, or rather, a downright insane man, probably a result of being alive for thousands of years, but he is still the man who mastered the fifth magic, the man who defeated a being that represented the moon.
His words must matter in some way.
"Would you believe me if I were to say that I wanted to enroll into your school?"
Ozpin had a smile at the statement.
A Small Encounter: Yellow
Shirou stood at the front entrance of a nightclub, a place he saw in the history of those grunt's weapons.
"Hey kid!" A voice shouted coming from the building, then came a man that wore the exact same suit of the men he fought that night,
"Don't you think it's a little bit too late for a kid your…" The man wait a minute.."
He charged at the taller man, holding non-existent blades on both of his hands, two magic-circle like glyphs formed, and with it, two black and white blades with a slight ice blue tint were summoned.
"C-crap!" the man frantically reached for the inner pocket of his suit, only to get knocked out once he actually grabbed a hold of his weapon.
"Hey what's going on there!?"
"Oh god not again…" the owner of the nightclub, Junion Xiong, had a migraine at seeing yet another kid beating the living hell out of his men.
Why did this type of stuff always happen to him?
"Stop you idiots!" He interrupted at seeing a man get knocked over the bar he sat in, a bar that contained thousands of lien worth of drinks…
"Let's hear the kid out before the entire club needs another renovation!" His first encounter with that girl led to the entire nightclub being closed for an entire month and hundreds of thousands of lien in repairs, Junior really didn't want to go through all that again.
They fortunately stopped at his words, the two women next to him could be noticed rolling their eyes before walking out of the large room.
"Junior Xiong." the familiar boy said, walked past the massive crater in the middle of the dance floor, taking a seat at the other side of the bar counter, his swords dissipating into ice blue motes of light, A Semblance?
"Shirou Schnee, you must be here for that Dust Robbery…"
"Those men I fought last week are now all behind bars, I'm quite interested as to how you know my connection to that incident," It was something that made Shirou curious when that guard from earlier recognized him,
He didn't know if the recognition came from his involvement in that Dust Robbery or that video, but the nightclub's owner's words confirmed whichever it was.
Junior sighed at the accidental information he gave the kid, "Listen, I run a business where I hand out men to other people, and coincidentally, some of my patrons are rather… unlawful." The more truthful words would've been scum, but that would probably only result in a fight if the kid had some type of hero-complex, most aspiring huntsmen were like that, assuming that the boy was one.
"Roman Torchwick."
"Alright I'll get to that, just don't interrupt me." Junior said in an attempt at trying to get the kid from becoming impatient, has he really stooped this low that he bootlicked people younger than him?
"I have no control over them once the lien is handed, and they usually don't tell me whatever they are going to do, and in this case, Roman didn't." slight agitation was in his voice at the stunt his former business partner committed.
"Then I'm assuming that Roman Torchwick was the one to inform you about me?" Junior nodded, pouring himself a shot before continuing with an added explanation.
"A few nights ago, he appeared to do the same business with me, even having the gall to insult me after getting over 2 dozen of my men arrested, saying that 'they were beaten by a two kids, but they're decent for the price.'," The damn bastard has changed recently, being even more annoying than usual and not to mention his actions.
"I declined." He said briefly, downing his shot afterwards.
"What of his location?"
"No idea, that brief conversation was the last I've seen from him." Shirou narrowed his eyes, analysing the man and his body language, he isn't lying…
Shirou stood up, the other man sighed in relief at luckily dodging a massive bullet in his wallet.
"Well, this has been a waste of time." The main reason as to why he even came here was to get the whereabouts of that man's whereabouts.
Dust was an item that was one of the main reasons this world has gone on for so long even with the Grimm, a crystal-like object found in large groups in random caves.
Most of the technology in this world were only possible through it, the vehicles he was familiar with from Earth remained existing here, the key difference being that they were powered by dust, and even some household objects like stoves were powered by it.
The truth of its origins were not known, to the public atleast, except to Shirou,
He came to the conclusion that Dust was the solid form of magical energy that Zelretch was referring to in his conversation with him that decade and a half ago, a result of the condensation of thick magical energy near leylines over thousands of years, they were the equivalent of jewel magecraft, Rin would probably have a field day in this world.
He's tried to extract magical energy from but it always ended in failure, anything he did extract was modest at best, it would probably allow him to summon an unnamed sword after about… 100 dust crystals,
Shirou was a third rate magus, due to his element and origin of sword, any magecraft he did attempt that wasn't related to it usually never ended well, at best it didn't end with him painfully convulsing on the ground.
Roman Torchwick's recent dust robberies interested him, at every incident, only the dust was taken, not any money, nor any belongings, only dust.
Shirou was interested in what the man could be plotting with the amount of it that he's stolen, sell it on some type of blackmarket? that was plain stupid, dust was a common resource, sold everywhere in relatively cheap prices, but what other options were there?
One thing Dust was known to do was cause explosions. Roman Torchwick could be planning to use that function of it…
-But that possibility of the man doing some type of terror attack was unlikely.
Roman Torchwick, from what Shirou has inferred of him, is the type of man that only cared about himself, uncaring of how he lives his life even if it included the suffering of others.
The man didn't care about the suffering of others unless it actually would've gained him anything, so what would he have to achieve by specifically aiming to do so? Therefore Shirou ruled out that likelihood.
"Well," he stood from his seat while Junior was being overcome with relief, a sigh escaping his mouth,
"This has been a waste of time…" Shirou made his way out, avoiding a possibly troublesome encounter as a yellow motorbike sped past him, being parked on the building's entrance just as he turned the corner, a rather loud by a woman's voice could be heard greeting Junior, the man audibly responding with a loud swear.
White: A Reunion.
Shirou stepped off the massive airship, seeing the view of Beacon Academy, and the dozens of other students walking towards the castle-like school.
Just as he had anticipated in that night, Ozpin had intented to enroll him into Beacon Academy without having to pay for the tuition fee, which was good since he Shirou didn't have that much lien thanks to that bastard who was supposed to be his father.
He currently wore his battle armor, the school for some reason making each student wear theirs,
It was a set he personally forged and made during his times at the Combat School he attended, a cuirass that had a dark shade of gray, light silver outlined his toned body, earning him a few glances from other students, normal combat pants covered his legs, the eye catching thing being the crimson waist cape that was held closely to his body, being held tight by a metal belt, its color matching the sleeves that covered his arms, it's ends being on his shoulder while a metal piece held both together.
A/N Just imagine archer emiya's outfit but… smaller.
*BOOM*
As most of the students were probably already in the assembly hall and the stone walkway was empty, a random explosion occurred, immediately causing Shirou to run towards it in a slight worry.
"Do you have any idea of what you've just done!?" a familiar voice was heard, a tone that he was used to sounding out whenever he did something she disliked.
He smirked, returning to a normal pace in his movement.
"What are you doing?!" Weiss Schnee yelled at the young girl on the ground, surrounded by scattered boxes containing dust, her dust.
"Oh! uh, sorry!" Ruby subconsciously picked up one of the random boxes in attempt to try and help, but this only seemed to anger the other girl even more.
"Give me that!" A hand forcefully nabbed the box from her, the other girl opened it, viewing whatever it contained; the girl breathed out in a sigh of relief, seeming to calm down.
"You're lucky that you didn't break anything." the girl huffed,
"Uh.. Break what?" Ruby calmed down in realization that she thankfully probably didn't cause too much damages.
"Ugh, see this?" she picked up a random red vial, holding it over the other girl's face.
"It's dust! Finely mined and purified directly in the Schnee quarries!" She began shaking it, only for a small crack to be discovered as some red particles were seen in the air.
"Oh look! You did break something, Ugh!" The girl began shaking it even more in anger, causing more dust particles to be released.
"Oh im so so sorr-" Ruby tried to apologise before feeling something in her nose,
"What!?"
"Uh… uh, Achoo!"
The sneeze activated the dust, causing an explosion as it caused another in a near vial, which exploded the entire suitcase of dust, the chain reaction of explosions causing tremors within the school grounds.
The dust began to settle, two girls with extremely low aura sat in the epicentre.
"Do you have any idea what you've just done!?" Weiss yelled at the girl who's ears were still ringing.
"Are you alright?" A new voice joined in, Ruby looked up to see a hand reaching out for her, she took it and stood up looking at the figure of the person that just helped her.
"You! -You're-" His red waist Cape fluttered I the wind as Ruby recognized his silver hair and golden eyes from that night.
"S-Shirou?"
Expect 'slight' AU aspects, slightly more op-ed characters from rwby, and slightly changed abilities of Archer since he's just too op.
Yeah the previous version kinda sucked, this rewrite is pretty much the same with slightly better writing.
Inspired by Dyslexic Writer's Snow and Ashes.