Ch 7

Back on the Sunny

Luffy "Do you want or need anything? I may not be a great cook but I know Sanji has stuff ready to grab in the kitchen including alcohol."

Blake "I am fine thanks for asking. If I can ask, why did you interfere? He could have killed you."

Luffy "He couldn't have killed me because I have a dream that is yet unfulfilled. I interefered because he was going to keep hurting you and you where not going to be able to hurt him more than he was hurting you even if you won the fight."

Blake "Yeah I have so much history with him most of truly terrible, at least looking back it is. I have never had someone step in like that for me before."

Luffy "That's what it means to be a part of this family, to step up when those around us need it, to fill the gaps that we all have. See together we form a team that can not be beaten by anyone I mean we fought our worlds worst group of people and won all to get robin back after she betrayed and left us, me Zoro Usopp and Sanji defeated Nami's tormenter after she robbed us blind and stole our ship. How much more would we fight to get you back if you had been taken by that guy. Your history doesn't matter only who you choose to be today. Most everyone here has a history they would like to forget or act like it never happened."

Blake smiles at that "Luffy I want to talk to a few other people about this but I think I want to officially become a straw hat pirate if you'll have me."

Luffy "You have been for awhile now you just didn't realize it until now. Don't worry Robin was the same way as was Nami. I would love to have you join the straw hats for ever."

Blake smiles "Well I am going to go bed and try and get some sleep. Wake me up for training tomorrow."

Luffy "Training is cancelled I just decided and as captain I get to decide these things. You have a nice sleep I'll keep watch and make sure your not disturbed."

Scene change

That next morning the tournament opening round is released and it's the first day of their missions. Cinders team drew team MZPJ. The ace ops (yes I know they where not actually there but it will make sense later) drew team LAWR and the rest doesn't really matter. Before they head off to their missions Robin asks to see Luffy Zoro and Mihawk.

Robin "Glad you all came I have been keep an eye and ear in Cinders room as much as possible after your conversation with Emerald like you asked Luffy and it's worse than you thought. Emerald isn't free to be here, she is being treated as they would a slave and it's not just Cinder who is doing it though she seems to be the one in charge. It seems she is grooming that boy with them to be the same. It's not just the comments or the way they seem to ignore her unless they need her. Its what they do to her Cinder at least keeps the physical stuff non sexual but that boy he is a true monster. Zoro Mihawk I asked you guys here because you guys have her in the first round."

Everyone is stunned by what was just revealed.

Luffy "Zoro Mihawk I have no right to ask this of you but I am going to anyway, kill them and make it hurt. Make sure they can not ever hurt Emerald again. She may not be family but she is an innocent and you know my stance on slaves. Use extreme prejudice."

Zoro "I want that boy Mihawk you can have Cinder I want to teach that boy a lesson before I kill him. It will have to be in the tournament am I correct and it will have to look like an accident?"

Mihawk simply nods at what Luffy and Zoro said thinking to himself how do I handle this lady.

Luffy "Yes do it in the tournament that way you won't face legal issues. Your strong enough I would just cut them without cutting their aura that should send the right message don't worry about accident."

Zoro nods his head "as you say captain."

They all leave and get back with their teams to prep for their missions.

With dr. OObleck

DR. OObleck "Teams CBBY and MZPJ welcome we will be taking this bullhead to a place called Mountain Glenn. It's an area Vale tried to expand into years ago but it was overrun with Grimm every time we tried and eventually we had to abandon it. Every year we send at least one team with advanced combat abilities to this area to make sure the grimm are not amassing to much and don't threaten Beacon and if they do to thin the heard without putting ourselves in danger and report back to Ozpin who will dispatch more huntresses to deal with the threat. Miss Goodwich tells me you guys are some of the best she has ever had so this should make the mission go quite well."

Yang "Well yeah of course we are the best did you not see who is on these teams like really I am here so duh"

This gets a laugh out of everyone except Mihawk and Zoro who simply smile.

Chopper "sounds like a good place for criminals to hang out is there any issues with that there?"

OObleck "Not really the grimm there tend to be the bigger older kind"

They head out and land and begin their travels around exploring the now ruins. When OObleck asks "Zoro wnhy do you want to be a hunter?"

Zoro "I don't I am here because my captain said we needed to be here"

OOBleck is very confused by this statement "would you care to expand your statement"

Zoro turns around and gives him a look that says drop it. OObleck having never seen a stare quite like that before would be quaking in fear if he was not meant to lead the mission instead he merely shudders and drops it. Some time later after asking a few other people the same question and getting more standard responses he thinks about asking Mihawk but decides against it instead he asks Bartolomeo.

Bartolomeo "I don't but Luffy Sama said I was needed here and since he needed me here I am. This whole school thing seems silly but I like the fighting thing"

OObleck isn't sure how to answer that "You guys all seem really loyal to Luffy what is it about him that made you give him such loyalty?"

Zoro "He allowed me to achieve my dream"

Mihawk "He gave me a new purpose"

Chopper "He gave me friends"

Bartlomeo "He changed my life"

OObleck is stunned by these responses. That night they have a campfire and chat. The next day they begin their walk suddenly the ground falls out from beneath Zoro which no one notices assuming he simply got lost until they see the ground get cut beneath them and begin to fall in. when they get to the bottom after avoiding the falling earth they see Zoro standing there with one sword drawn with two very dead White fang members at his feet with their weapons out. OOBleck is stunned at what he just saw. The rest begin looking for where the Fang could have came from.

OObleck "Zoro how did you do that? What is your semblance?"

Zoro "I just did it I only meant to hurt them but I forgot how fragile people are here and I killed them and cut the mountain."

OObleck has no response to this simply stunned. They find where they came from and begin to follow it down the tunnel. When they see the end of the tunnel and there are more white fang present who appear to be loading something OObleck orders a retreat. When asked why he explains its their job to recon the area and report back so they can come back with superior force and overwhelm them. This makes enough sense they listen and do retreat.

With Ironwood planning the defense

Whitebeard "General I believe the best strategy given the circumstance is to have every citizen prep for evacuation upon the alarm sounding. Have them fall back to the academy and have your military begin the evacuation process. As Ozpin said the walls will fall and when they do there is no real defense in the city outside of retreating to the academy."

Ironwood "If my people are handling the evacuation who will be giving us the time to get the people to safety? Where will the people go?"

Luffy "I don't know where the other people will go I was hoping the other kingdoms would help with that but as far as giving you the time to get people out me and my teams will handle that. It can't be any worse than a buster call and we survived that and won."

Ironwood gets a strange look on his face at this. "You guys are going to defend against an army on at least one front if not multiple and you say that isn't the worst thing you have ever faced, you guys must be either crazy or more than your letting on."

Luffy "Did Ozpin not tell you everything? He was supposed to."

Ozpin "I told him everything you guys told me"

Ironwood "Yeah that doesn't mean I believe it though. If you guys insist on this then I have to insist on my ace ops team assisting as well as Winter and myself. They are the best I have and I would feel bad if we didn't help."

Luffy "If you didn't believe before you will after the tournament. I can agree to those terms meet us on our ship after round one and we will go over placement."

Round one Cinder VS MZBY

Cinders team is the first ones introduced and its Cinder Emerald Neo and Mercury. After this comes team MZBY. MZBY comes out dressed for war Mihawk has Your dressed in his long flowing black duster and grey pants complete with his cross necklace, Zoro comes out with all three swords with his black bandana already tied around his head. Blake comes out with an improved version having replaced the ribbon with high tensile wire she is wearing the same outfit we see in the later seasons the one with the white duster. Yang comes out as usual ready for a fight.

Zoro "Remember the rules don't hurt Emerald and leave Mercury and Cinder to me and Mihawk"

They all nod. The announcer goes over the rules teams win by eliminating their opponents aura or forcing them out of the ring this is the first round and feature and will be the only round to do so. Now to decide the environment it is settled in at fire and ice. Immediately the arena splits into sections some on fire and yet others frozen over.

The battle begins and immediately they split up to face their chosen foes. Zoro chasing after Mercury knowing he doesn't have to get that close focusing on his killing intent he prepares his swords and uses his most devastating technique wanting to send a clear message here, Ashura Bakkei: Moja no Tawamure (What he used on Kaido) When he makes contact with Mercury he splits in half vertically three times and its over in less than a second. While this is going on Mihawk is watching Cinder before getting ready and using Kokuto Kogetsu to deliver several rapid slashes to Cinder leaving her with cuts all over her body and then she falls over dead. When Emerald and Neo see this they immediately run to the arena end and jump out effectively forfeiting. The audience is stunned and deafly quite even as the horn sounds ending the fight no one says a word as team MZBY walks out of the arena.

Up in the headmasters box Ironwood looks over at Ozpin like WTF just happened. Ozpin has a look of horror on his face having seen something that dark before. Ironwood excuses himself and heads down to the locker rooms. He walks into the ace ops room and see's their faces looking terrified. Ironwood assures them it will be alright and that he is on his way to go talk to their opponents to make sure that doesn't happen to them. They simply nod and point to the screen which seems to be frozen on the aura meters. When he sees them he to freezes because everyone's aura was at 100 including the dead. When he gets back to himself he walks over to have a talk with Luffy.

Ironwood "What was that that? What happened out there? Are you planning on doing that to my people?"

Luffy "That was a demonstration for Salem of what we can do. They where pure evil holding others as slaves. This was something we could not allow to continue. Your people will be fine but they will not win."

Ironwood "Ill let them know they don't have to worry about dying when fighting you. Are you saying they where working for Salem?"

Luffy "If you would have just believed what Ozpin told you then you would have known that but yes they where at least Cinder and Mercury where by choice it seems Emerald was their slave and Neo is an unknown."

Ironwood understands now wishes them good luck and walks back to his people. "I just got done talking to them and they promised not to kill you guys though they did say they where going to win. They told me some stuff about why they did what they did and I can't fault them but that was the most brutal thing I have ever seen and I don't know how they bypassed aura."

They look at him and that didn't ease any of them. They get the call to head to the arena and they are still shaking all lost in their own thoughts. When they get out there they look at their opponents tunnel and watch Team LAWR come out all smiles and very excited. They are surprised to see two of them come out with no weapons this does make them feel a bit better.

The fight begins and Vine tries to grab one of them immediately knowing if he can get one of them out of the arena they have an advantage. Upon seeing this Luffy Immediately realizes what he is trying to do as he would be doing it as well if they had decided to use their powers. Luffy jumps in the way of Vine intentionally getting grabbed. Clover keys in on what Vine is doing and uses his fishing rod to try and grab Luffy to help remove him from the field. Ace runs at Elm intent to have a battle of wills and strength. Ruby sets up to take pot shots with her sniper rifle while Weiss is content to do battle with Marrow.

Luffy being grabbed by two different people from across the arena smiles and declares loud and proud "Not today" and then he uses his power to break free and run at them only to punch clover right in the face. This drops his aura and eliminates him.

Elm swings her hammer and makes solid contact in what would get anyone else out of the fight a mighty smash to his head and is then confused when Ace laughs and says "good hit that actually stung a bit.". Ace then punches her in the gut sending her out of bounds.

Ruby seeing Vine free rushes him and swings with her scythe and he avoids the swing. They begin to trade shots neither making solid contact thanks to their respective semblences. Luffy and Ace are content to let them fight it out and watch how much Ruby has improved.

Weiss and Marrow make contact Marrow pulling out fetch and opening fire surprised when Weiss begins to deflect every bullet with her sword when she gets within striking distance she does indeed strike only to be stopped by Marrows semblance.

These fights continue for awhile until team RWBY figures out how to get around there semblances once they do that it is short work and they down go the Ace Ops. While Ironwood is surprised by the result he is happy to see they at least didn't get hurt. He is beginning to think they may be the one's to actually defeat Salem once and for all.