Prologue 1: Undefined
A young boy was just finishing his part-time job at a convenience store when his phone started ringing.
Taking out his phone he noticed that his monthly allowance from his high-school scholarship has been received. Feeling pretty good about himself he placed his uniform in the locker and changed into his usual attire, a black shirt, and baggy pants.
As he was walking down the street a gust of wind blew and made his vision wobbly for a moment.
"What was that? The weather report didn't report any chance of a storm today."
Mumbling to himself, he saw a box in the corner of his eyes. He went to the corner where the wind came and picked it up. Looking to the side, it shows "GadgetGabe Approves!" Opening the case he saw a single button and a keypad with an 8-bit display.
"Huh, must be abandoned."
Seeing that there was no one in the vicinity this late he figured that it had been left here for a while. The boy looks at it suspiciously.
"Might as well pick it up."
The boy has a hobby of using abandoned electronics from the nearby junkyard to create toys that he could sell at an online website for a good amount. With nothing left to distract him, he went to the parking lot.
Considering that he received his monthly allowance, and it was the weekend. It was time to buy some weekly supplies in the market. After taking the detour, he bought some ingredients and materials for his hobby and then drove home. Taking out his keys, he locked the door and went inside the apartment.
Placing his perishables in the fridge and cooking some midnight meal for himself he went into his workshop, placed his new materials into the table as he fished out the mysterious device that he picked a few hours ago.
"Hmmm, GadgetGabe?"
Looking up the name on the internet, it looked like GadgetGabe is a reviewer for custom electronics and famous for giving quality-approved devices that some people became entrepreneurs before becoming absorbed to the big leagues like Sumsang and Pear Inc.
"Sigh. It's hard to become an accomplished entrepreneur these days, considering the state of the electronics market. Not my problem though since this is just a hobby."
The boy plans to succeed in his father's farm after getting his diploma in agriculture, maybe create a device to streamline the process so that he could just press buttons and be done with it.
After cleaning the case, it looks like someone has masterfully crafted a device on par with a custom-made phone, although the design looked archaic with a familiar emblem of a red rose. Thinking where he saw it, he snapped his fingers and recognized the design from RWBY, more specifically the emblem of the main character Ruby Rose. Laughing quietly as he remembers the show.
"Man, that show has a lot of potential, I can't wait how the whole story ends."
RWBY was popular before the death of Monty Oum (bless his soul), after that it was thrown to the side for more new and exciting animations.
"Just like how the device is thrown away".
Flicking the switch of the device, it looks like the device was broken. He went to a drawer to get his tools and took a look at its internals.
"Huh, it only needs tape and soldering."
After fixing and reassembling the device, he flicked the switch on and the display was glowing. The boy was surprised, he saw nothing that could imply a battery and found that there is no input for charging, he wonders how this device is powered. Taking a look at the keypad it becomes obvious the function of this device, a simple calculator.
"Well, that was boring."
The boy remembers that funny meme he saw a few days ago he typed.
1337/0
"What the….."
Suddenly the device starts glowing and floating out of his hands, spinning at impossible angles. Looking around the workshop, the boy grabbed anything that could protect him from what was happening in front of him, his bag of store-bought material, and a silver fork from the plate he ate from. As the device kept spinning faster and faster, the boy tried to dial the emergency services only for the phone to suddenly disappear from his hands. Shocked and realizing what was happening he quickly brought his backpack that contained his laptop and placed anything that could be used. The device now looks like an orb and is starting to glow brighter than the sun.
"Wait I'm not do….".
The boy disappears from the workshop as well as the bag he was holding and his backpack. The device is now dimming and slowing down, before eventually dropping into the floor, crackling with energy before looking like the device was dipped in lava and smacked with a bat, making it unrecognizable and ruined.
"...ne yet."
With a flash of silver light, barely low enough for anyone to notice, the boy appeared surrounded by trees and bushes, falling into his butt.
"Ow…."
As the boy was rubbing his butt, he looked around and saw something that confirmed his thoughts, a broken moon. Considering the hints he'd gotten it was pretty obvious.
"Goddammit, I'm right. I hate being right. Why does this always happen to me?"
Throughout his life, the boy's instincts saved him more than he could remember, events like almost being crashed into a truck while crossing the street, or a bolt of lightning suddenly struck the spot he was a second ago or prevented him from using a broken elevator. The boy laments the tragedies of his life.
"I just wanted to live a peaceful life, maybe inherit the farm, and watch memes on the internet, is that too much to ask?".
"Who are you talking to? And what's an internet?"
Pointing his face towards the voice he saw a pair of lilac eyes, a young face starting to grow out her childishness looking at him with suspicion, hair getting past her shoulders, a girl that looks like she belongs to a freshman in high school, a bit taller than him, with a yellow scheme to match. For a moment the boy looks like he is about to faint before calming himself down hoping that the person he recognized doesn't see his surprised face.
The boy is starting to inwardly freak out as he sees one of the future team members in RWBY, Yang Xiao-Long. He was starting to imagine the consequences of potentially altering the timeline before his face was smacked with a punch.
"OUCH - OWOWOWowowowwo…"
The boy feels like he is having a mild concussion as his vision is clearing up. Looking at the perpetrator he glares at the girl who punched his face.
"Hey what the hell was that for? Who are you anyway?"
"Hmph. That's for not listening to me. My name is…"
The girl grins at his misfortune before introducing herself as Yang. While she is proudly babbling to the boy, he is tuning her out, evaluating his current options.
"As expected, I'm a few years behind the main story, should I intervene with the timeline? This world will have its happy ending anyways even if I do not interfere, but lots of people will have to die for that to happen. I'm in Patch, so it's the safest place to be around throughout the whole story."
The boy considers the factors and realizes that he is in a death world and immediately decides to go for the safest option.
"Ok, my current objective is to live a peaceful life, so staying at Patch is the least dangerous. So that means… YEAOOOUCHhh!"
Feeling like his ear is about to come off, he quickly grabs Yang's arm off his ear and starts to relieve the aching feeling.
"Alright, alright I was listening"
Yang looks like she doesn't believe him.
"Alright then what did I say to you?"
The fact is he hadn't heard any of what she said earlier when he was thinking so the boy made a guess.
"Your name is Yang Xiao-Long and you have a cute sister named Ruby living in Patch and you went here to find something that she lost. You also think you are cool."
Yang looked surprised at him actually listening (thankfully he got it right), and hearing the last part, she immediately turned her head high towards the boy and crossed her arms.
"I don't think that I'm cool. The fact is I am Yanging cool!"
Physically wincing at the bad pun. He retorted.
"Please don't do puns ever again."
Yang scoffs at him.
"Another one who can't appreciate my genius. Anyways have you seen a red box?"
The boy thought of the red box he picked up a few hours ago. He realizes that it might be Ruby's. So he asks for more information.
"A box?"
"Yeah it was Ruby's first craft, somehow she made a calculator without any of us knowing. She's a genius, don't tell her I said that though, she likes to be normal. Whatever her definition of normal is."
Feeling a cold sweat running down his brow, he found the box that transported him to this world is also Ruby's first creation. Thinking of possible ways to fix the situation, he feigned ignorance with a convincing voice.
"Nope, I haven't seen a box like that at all."
Thankfully, he thought to himself, that Yang didn't see his face as she was looking around the bushes, the boy doesn't have a good poker face that his coworkers told him of the fact. Feeling a bit depressed about not finding the box, Yang slumped her shoulders and looked back.
"Darn, looks like it was not in this spot too."
Yang looked like she was searching for a while, thinking that it has a correlation when he found it he asked.
"How long have you been finding it?"
Yang replies that she was searching it for a few hours, checking from spot to spot, she told him that Ruby saw an animal was grabbing the device in its mouth and ran away to the forest. While she was searching, she noticed a small flash of light in the corner of her eye, thinking it could be a clue, she went there and found a young boy rubbing his butt with his belongings scattered on the ground. The boy explains that he tripped on some branches and the light was actually from his flashlight since it was getting dark. Seeing that it was late at night, the boy suggested.
"It looks like it got lost or buried, maybe try again tomorrow?"
Since Yang combed through the forest for a while, she felt sweaty and dirty and definitely needs a bath, agrees.
"Sigh. Fine. Besides, my family is getting worried about me. You got a name?"
"Yeah, my name is.."
The boy was about to say his name but realizes that in this world names are all somehow related to colors, and he definitely can't say his name here, or Yang will get suspicious. After looking at his black shirt and the objects he was holding, he says his name.
"Kuro, Kuro Sterling"