AN: Long ass AN in the end, please read if interested in the story after CH 1.
Chapter 1
"Welcome, my little Moonlight"
"Remember, If the world bites you, be sure to bite back."
"Take him to my brother!"
"…CRUMBLE…"
"Wake up"
"I can assure you all I do is for the greater good "
"Your fight is my fight. Besides, I am surely not the only one sharing that feeling."
"A Dragon never yields, make sure to remember that."
"WAKE UP"
"I don't need to put a single effort in ruining your life Blake, you are more than capable than doing that on your own; because cowards don't get anything good in the end, Belladonna"
"10.231.873, that number is not only on me, but you as well, Ruby."
"We are not Heroes nor Huntsman, not even sources of inspiration, we are Guardians. Eliminating ANY kind of threats and getting our hands dirty if needed before a threat happens is our job, that includes you, Ozpin."
"WAKE! UP!"
"If we are ever meant to meet again… let's get along."
"We can do this, the eight of us."
"Every dead, every person close to you that suffered. It was all because of you, something that should have NEVER BEEN ALLOWED TO EXIST"
"This is OUR Revenge against the World! Against you, RATATOSK!"
"DUCK!"
Emerald colored eyes snapped wide open as he moved his head to the side after finally 'listening' to his instincts.
The person in question didn't bother asking questions like where he was. The only thing he focused on were the long blade that had been stabbed where his head used to be, and the owner of said blade.
There was barely any light wherever he was, but his eyes were used to the darkness as he quickly focused on the woman looking down on him; red hair and green eyes, and that's all that mattered in the moment as he quickly throw his left leg to land a kick and take advantage of the momentum to do a backflip from the ground and create some distance between them and got ready into a fighting stance, only to notice that she had already cut the distance between them.
'Hard' he thought as he dodged a vertical attack that was obviously aimed at his neck. 'I didn't feel my kick making contact with any kind of Aura, and yet it felt as if her body was sturdier than the average person.' He kept back-stepping as he took a calmer way of thinking now that he was no longer in a disadvantageous position. 'Also,' He slightly kneeled to avoid a thrust and made a quick step-up front to deliver a lazy uppercut that the assailant easily avoided, but it served his purpose as he got closer to her to get a better smell out of her since the place they were in already had a strong scent he could not distinguish. 'She doesn't smell like a Human or Faunus of any kind. Her strength is also abnormal for someone who doesn't have an Aura.'
The red head went for a strong knee strike, powerful enough he was forced to block with both of his arms. 'And finally, her shadow doesn't feel normal either.' He finished his thought as he quickly switched to assault after thinking in what kind of situation he was in regarding the 'woman' in front of him.
He used the momentum of the attack he blocked to deliver a headbutt on her nose, resulting in a slight step back on her part. However, regardless of that she recovered instantly as she took the opportunity of the newfound distance to make an attempt for his legs with her long sword. But it was futile, because he was already going for a solid palm strike as a black energy surrounded his body in an instant.
He could see her green slit eyes widen as she ducked to her left as a source of energy exploded in the form of a black dragon accompanied with an inhuman roar in the very same spot her head had been before. And that action itself had been a mistake, she was so focused on it that she failed to react at the quick move of that very same hand going for the back of her neck.
He took notice of it, she had completely frozen in place the moment his Aura made contact with her skin, making things easier for him as he held her in place before propelling himself upwards to then proceed to kick his enemy into the air as a trail of darkness follows in a crescent shape. He then swiftly punched the enemy into the ground, sending shock waves forward to deal more damage.
He continued his assault as he moved his fist forward into the air to create a projectile made of darkness that went in her direction as she herself managed to recover before the technique managed to hit her, giving her enough time to tense her muscles and make a swing with her blade to dissipate the energy of the attack, creating a small shock-wave in the process.
"I was right."
Those were the first words that came out of her mouth since the whole fight started.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously as the venom in her voice increased. "You are something that shouldn't be allowed to exist. I shall dispose of you this instant."
Something in him snapped as those words were said, as they were very similar to the words of a certain someone.
'The only sin you committed since the beginning was the simple act of being born! Something as unnatural as you shouldn't exist.'
He narrowed his eyes as his stance was dropped, leaving him full openings.
"Say, Ginger…"
He was always a logical person, leaving reason over instinct take the lead in a lot of decisions, even if the later saved his life most of the times, that's why he had opted to incapacitate and then interrogate her… but now he was opting for a solution one of his brothers would always go for when going alone.
Cripple first, question never.
Because it was already clear she despised him for no clear reason, and she didn't seem like the type of person to speak even if he went for a 'thorough' interrogation.
"How are you going to do that...with no hands?"
Something had changed in the Dungeon, something which had happened before as well, over a year ago. An anomaly so big that the influence of the entity that was the 'Dungeon' wavered instantly. And with time, it became weaker and weaker until it was clear there was a power struggle between 'it' and something else.
That's why she decided to act instantly the moment something similar was felt. But unlike last time, Revis was able to pinpoint the source of it in the deep floors of the Dungeon where she finally found her target sleeping on the ground.
He had blonde bright hair, he wore a black jacket and pants that could be considered fancy by human standards, a tribal tattoo of the number zero on the back of his right hand. She had also found curious the design of his foot ware, the only thing that seemed normal was the long white scarf around his neck with both ends of the fabric going over each of his shoulders with a black mark on one of its ends, but she couldn't make out what it was.
Not that it mattered to her as she went straight for his head. But things didn't go her way as she was now taking a defensive stance out of instinct after hearing his threat. It wasn't the words itself that made her wary, but the power behind them as the 'person' in front of her put his right fist next to his head just to put some pressure in order to snap his fingers as she started to notice some changes around him.
The most noticeable one was the… black energy surrounding him.
It became a little denser as his blonde hair turned black and a little less spiky, blocking his eyes a little until he finally raised his head just the slightest bit to have a better look at them. She forced herself not to stand back, not only at the increased coldness and indifference they had shown in their previous confrontation, but because those eyes didn't belong to a human at all.
The sclera that had been previously white were now pitch black, his emerald-colored eyes were now glowing as well, but the most noticeable thing were the pupils. She noticed they had been slit before, but now they looked sharper, as if focusing on a prey soon to be hunted, almost like a-
"What happened to all the hostility from before?"
His cold and unnatural voice reached her ears, Revis's eyes widened as she charged at him not a second later while he raised his open palm to his right, an action which made her hesitate in her attack but kept pressing forward seeing his shocked eyes focusing on his empty palm.
Something was meant to happen, but it didn't.
"You gotta be kidding me." He cursed to himself as he was forced to counter Revis' attack with a kick against her blade.
'It's over.' Revis thought as she expected to cripple him of his leg with the following attack, but instead got another shocked expression as her blade didn't cut any flesh, instead it was parried with so much ease that she lost her momentum for a moment before recovering to block a barrage of strikes aimed at her.
It didn't make any sense to her.
The edge of her blade made contact with his bare fists a couple of times, and it didn't inflict a single wound on his skin.
She even took advantage of every little instant he let her to counter with his own limbs, but no noticeable effect at all seeing he just kept pushing forward, she wasn't putting a Level 3 or 4 strength in her attacks, she was attacking her opponent with the strength and speed of a top level 5 and yet it seemed as if he was keeping up with her just fine, if anything-
'It looks like he's toying with me.'
She unconsciously gritted her teeth at that final thought. If her blade couldn't do the work, then there were other methods she could implement.
Revis quickly performed a backstep, only to then rush forward with a thrust of her blade clearly aimed at the blonde's left eye, who moved his head to the side with ease as he felt an arm around his neck.
She had previously put her whole weight in her previous attack expecting him to dodge, which gave her the momentum to use her free left arm to wrap around his neck and quickly turn her body around to put him in a lock with both of her arms as she dropped her blade to put all her effort into breaking his neck.
Revis was already used to the unnatural feeling of touching him while that dark colored energy surrounded his body, so she wouldn't freeze like last time.
"Hey dumbass," Revis's eyes widened, not only at the change of his voice, but also at the fact that she could not break his neck, no matter how much strength she put into it. "Who said...," she quickly wrapped her legs around him in order to make him lose his balance and fall, but he didn't falter at all as his right hand quickly grabbed her right shoulder with a fierce grip.
"...you could touch my scarf?!" Those were his last words she heard before a sound she was very familiar with reached her ears, and that was because she had done something similar to many adventurers through her 'life'.
*CRACK*
The sound of her shoulder bones breaking rang through the dark halls of the Dungeon while Revis gritted her teeth.
She tried to ignore the dreaded feeling that was invading her.
But whatever it was she was thinking, it was cleanly interrupted by the next two words her 'prey' muttered.
"[Raging Blast]" A reddish energy started to gather on the grip and merged with the dark energy that surrounded his body, making it black with crimson outlines before it was released in an explosion.
She was quickly knocked back against the wall as she released a painful cough and fell to the ground.
"I was right." Revis eyes snapped as she looked around to notice the massive amount of clouds of dust in the area, making it hard for her to spot the blonde as he continued. "You are neither Faunus nor Human." Her eyes widened as she looked at her right arm and notice that her skin was gone, revealing the creature like armor that was over a great part of her body.
"What the hell is a Faunus?" Revis thought out loud as she stood up against the wall while gripping her right arm.
"You don't know? …this whole situation keeps getting worse. Well…"
Revis's eyes didn't see what exactly happened.
One moment she was able to notice the form of his body behind the dust while his black energy was present, except there was something extra about him, or rather was holding something in his right hand while the energy also started to surround said object.
"Not that it matters to you."
It was in that moment that Revis came to feel what would be the most excruciating pain of her life as a blade impaled her wounded shoulder to the wall.
"You really should take care of your weapons."
Revis eyed her own long blade, whose edge was surrounded by that very same energy.
It made sense to her, even if her arm had been severely wounded, normal weapons weren't meant to pierce her Flesh armor. But that energy seemed to do the job as if the armor was nothing.
She quickly raised her left fist with the intent to use her whole strength in an attempt to break the blade, but it was already too late.
In a swift move, he quickly twisted the blade inside her flesh and made a vertical swing up followed by a descending one, cutting her arm completely in an instant.
"That's one." He muttered to himself as he quickly sidestepped to avoid an angered Revis, who fell down clumsily after her enemy put his foot between her legs .
'I need to get ou-!' her train of thought was interrupted. She felt something wrap up tightly around her good arm. She was then quickly pulled into his direction and a moment later grabbed by the neck.
He didn't say anything, instead all his focus was on watching her struggle while she focused on his abnormal eyes once more for her own widened as she noticed something.
He was no longer holding her blade, which was currently impaled in the ground next to him. Instead, he had taken off his scarf and wrapped it on his right hand while the other end was currently wrapped around her left arm. But that wasn't what got her attention, her previous train of thought returned as she noticed the symbol on the end of the scarf he was currently holding.
Her expression was one of utter terror as she then focused on his eyes one last time as he raised his fist while the energy began to concentrate on it.
The symbol on the end of the scarf resembled a tribal Dragon's head. That's what his eyes reminded her of.
With that final thought, the blonde left the grip on her loose as she fell, but her body never touched the ground as he gave a step forward with his left foot to then deliver the incoming fist.
"[Beast]" a soft mutter that she could not hear left his mouth, what she heard was the roar of an energy dragon made of black energy coming out of his fist the moment it made contact with her face.
She was barely conscious at this moment; she didn't even know for how long she was sent flying, only that she was still airborne as she heard his voice in the distance.
"Don't think it's gonna be that easy."
'The scarf!' Revis regained her senses for a moment as she noticed that her left arm was abruptly pulled back while the rest of her body moved forward. Making the tension in her strain incredibly as she felt some of her ligaments being torn apart by the action until she was fully back at the same speed she had been flying before.
[Mystic Arte:]
Her instincts screamed.
The terror she had felt a couple of minutes ago was nothing compared to the imminent feeling of 'Death' that invaded her body. She noticed from afar that the ground and walls around him were shattering by the sheer pressure of the energy increasing more and more by the second.
It was in that moment that she finally acknowledged the feeling she had before as he made one final swing at her face.
[Absolute Beast]
Despair.
Pure and utter despair was what invaded her as once again an energy Dragon was released from his fist. But this time the Dragon didn't disappear, instead it kept following her. No, it was more like the lower part of her body was trapped in its maws while its fang pierced her body. But the worst part had yet to come as she eyed her left arm, the scarf was still attached to her.
'No, no, no, no.' She thought as she tried to rip the piece of cloth with her own teeth, but it was already too late as it had already reached its maximum length.
Revis's eyes widened as she saw in slow motion how her left arm started to tear itself off her body little by little until it was separated from her. Meanwhile, all the blonde could hear from afar was her screams as the energy Dragon kept going and going until he heard it explode in the distance.
He retracted his scarf and tossed her severed arm after giving it a quick look. He accommodated the scarf around his neck to then pick the blade that belonged to his assailant and finally walk in her direction.
By his reasoning, any normal person with Aura, Faunus or Human would have died from that since there was a limit to it, but that didn't necessarily apply to the unknown redhead before him.
Speaking of unknown, he soon stopped walking as he noticed that cracks started to appear on the walls, a lot of them.
He eyed them curiously as the cracks started to open to give… birth to something. "What-"
The various beings fell into the ground and looked at him simultaneously, he then gave a quick look back to see the situation behind him was pretty much the same. He was surrounded.
Various pairs of red eyes of different kinds of 'Monsters' stared and snarled at him, which made him sigh as his hair finally returned back to its usual yellow, as did his scleras.
"These are not Grimm." He muttered as the blade in his hand was coated in his black Aura.
"How-" he took his stance and prepared for the incoming fight as a regular thought was said out loud "Annoying."
Nothing about this whole situation made sense to him.
At first, the blonde thought he was in a cave judging just by the structure of his surroundings. The thought was quickly discarded the moment he found a set of stairs going down, which quickly made him re-evaluate things and make him consider he was in either a tower or somewhere underground.
Deciding to follow logic, he kept searching the floor he was in to find the opposite set of stairs, which meant this wasn't either the First or Last floor of whatever this place was. In the end he decided to go up having taken into consideration that this looked like a cave. That, and the fact that more monsters were starting to spawn from the walls once more.
Which brought on the next topic, the Monsters themselves. As stated, they were not the creature of the Grimm, besides the red eyes there was no black skin nor fur, and they definitely didn't have any kind of skull mask. But the most noticeable thing was the fact that he couldn't feel the Darkness in them, not to mention that when killed they dropped some sort of purple crystal that acted as their 'soul'. At least, that is what he believed them to be.
At the very least they were more diverse as he kept going up the stairs. At first the monster that appeared in front of him looked like huge goats and flaming rocks, but then he started to see red lizards, bears, firebirds, beetles, killer mushrooms, mammoths and many other things while avoiding the big ones, seeing as there was no need to waste energy if he could avoid it.
The next problem was himself.
For all he knew, he should be dead, or at least be in a dreamless sleep, and this didn't seem like a dream at all so that idea was discarded. But the how and where he was here weren't the biggest problem. During his fight with the red haired assassin, he had tried to call upon one of his blades from the shadows, and it wasn't there. As a matter of fact, none of the things he had stored were there; his scrolls, his weapons, clothes, Dust, explosives, things of personal use, the things his brothers gave him and then forgot to ask back… EVERYTHING.
'Lloyd J. Aurion Irving, Zelos R. Wilder, Yuri F. Lowell, Flynn Scifo, Luke Fon Fabre, Gailardia 'Guy' Galan Gardios and Jude M. Lowell. ' he recalled the names of his brothers, and the last persons he was absolutely sure were with before waking up. At least his memory was intact, in some way. For some reason his memories preceding his arrival in this strange place were surrounded with noise. Everything else was fine, although he dreamed of every moment of his life in a single instant before waking up, and that gave him a bad feeling.
His Aura and its flow were stable. He could channel the Darkness easily… the rest, not so much. He had tried to generate lightning around his body, but all he could create was a single spark from his fingertips. He had solved that problem a long time ago when his soul could generate and self-sustain lightning, but he would need to charge himself somehow.
His Light; it was there, but his instincts screamed at him not to use it, which made him realize something; he was being observed. Thinking back as to how the monsters spawned, he figured this whole place was alive, and it hated him… and he felt that hate would only increase if he were to use the light.
'Now that I think about it…'
The monsters started to appear right after he dealt with the red-haired assassin, or rather, right after he had tapped into a level out of ordinary with his Darkness.
He would have to show some self-restraint if he wanted to avoid a huge number of monsters.
And lastly… the assassin.
"Of course, she had to be red headed." The blonde thought out loud as he made a swing with her former blade. "I am sure that makes it five people with that trait that have gone after my neck."
He internally winced as he felt an itch in the left side of his neck, proof that so far 'Assassin red head number 4' had been the closest to killing him.
He shook his head as he sighed, finally cleaning the floor he was currently in as he pondered about the possible kinds of people he was going to meet. After all, first impressions were important, and that said a lot since the first person he met tried to kill him for no apparent reason other than the good old 'you shouldn't exist.'
Whatever it was going to be, he was prepared. Because he had been feeling the shadows of others for the last 5 floors, and he would be in contact with them the moment he went up those stairs.
He looked at the blade he was using. There were faint stains of blood on the edge, and none of the organic monster he has killed so far has bleed, which meant that the assassin had used this very weapon to kill people before him.
He dropped the blade over his shadow. Usually, he would be careful with producing loud noises and drawing attention to himself, but this time, he simply let the blade fall, knowing full well it would produce no sound. And indeed, just a moment later the weapon fell inside his own shadow, being engulfed by the dark absence of light as if the shadow itself craved to absorb the object. Not a second later, almost as if it fell through the floor, the sword disappeared.
'Well… here goes nothing.' He thought as he finally went up the stairs.
"You've got to be shitting me." He muttered to himself.
He hadn't wasted any moment in searching for a vantage point to see the area where the most people were gathered. From afar he could see different kinds of people, and by different, he meant their races.
Yes, there were Humans and people with animal traits, so at least there were Faunus there.
But the rest?
Dwarfs? He only knew two of them all over Remnant, saying the rest had left the planet a long time ago.
There also seemed to be Hobbits, as he doubted children of such a young age would come here seeing how they were armed.
But the last one made him do a double check as he enhanced his sight to focus on their heads, or to be more specific, the ears.
'… Are those elves?' He thought as he sat back and looked at the giant tree in thought.
According to his Godfather, elves disappeared a long time ago because they didn't want anything to do with the other race's stupidity anymore.
'Although they weren't any saints either, prideful motherfuckers got offended over everything and thought they were above the other races, except for the Spirts of course'
The faint memory of his Godfather came to mind as he thought of the possibilities where the blonde could be.
As far as he remembered about the subject, the elves and Dwarfs left for different places. There was a possibility they worked out their difference and learned to co-exist together.
The blonde snorted at the thought, with how easy going the Dwarfs were, and how pridefully the elves acted, he however doubted it.
There was only one possible answer, and he didn't like it one bit.
'I am no longer in Remnant.' He thought in resignation as he laid back on the ground and looked at the crystal made ceiling. "What's worse, it looks like this is a damn fantasy world," his eyes narrowed in realization. "I am in a fucking Dungeon."
Tsubaki Collbrande stretched herself as she left the inn she was currently staying at.
"We still have a couple hours before the Goliath assault." She looked back with a grin at the Adventurers and Supporters of her Familia under her charge "be sure to be ready and there by then."
"Yes/Aye captain." Several members replied as she walked away while she shook her head in amusement. "Pirate jokes are never gonna get old." She said to herself with no ill intent at all since her Familia members said it without any malicious or degrading intent.
"Their next weapon better be level 3 worthy at least." She said half seriously as she prepared to go 2 or 3 floors down to see if she could get some drops. She was actually gonna do it yesterday, but the state of emergency that put all Adventurers in the Dungeon made it impossible.
She frowned at the thought.
The original plan was still on.
Be on the Goliath assault today to see if they could obtain some drops so a couple of members of her Familia could forge something out of it and increase their forging experience. But they decided to arrive one day before so she and some of the most experienced members could get some other drops from the rest of the 'Middle Floors'.
It all went to hell the moment an order from the Guild arrived from the surface saying that all Adventurers couldn't be in the Dungeon or leave the safe floor because of some 'Irregular' behavior the dungeon was exhibiting.
Which weird behavior? She couldn't tell.
But she did notice that the number of Monsters in the Upper Floors had decreased incredibly, not to mention that some rumors said almost similar things about the rest of the Middle Floors past Rivira.
'Almost as if the Dungeon itself had redirected all its efforts somewhere else.' She thought seriously, before shrugging her shoulders and shaking off the idea.
As far as she was concerned, this was a case of…
"Yesterday is Yesterday, and Today is Today." She said to herself with a smile since the order of warning arrived sometime a little past midnight, not that everyone was gonna explore anything at that hour.
"My bad." Her train of thought stopped as she stumbled with someone wearing a hood, who quickly apologized and went his way.
"Don't bother, I wasn't looking where I was-" she stopped mid-sentence as she turned around as said person just kept walking. "…rude" she muttered and continued moving forward before her single eye looked back at the person she just stumbled with and heard nothing…
'His steps make no noise. Not to mention I couldn't feel anything from him until we crashed. Even if he came from my blind side, I should have been able to feel it.'
"Cyclops."
Her train of thought crashed as she looked to her right to see one of the few persons that wore an eyepatch besides herself and her Goddess.
"Morning Bors, you're up early."
The man in question snorted at her. "Says the one that just left the inn." He said in joking manner before looking at the same person Tsubaki had been staring. "I was actually looking for you. Since you are currently the strongest person in the floor, I might need your help with something, or rather someone."
"Let me guess," she made a subtle gesture to the hooded individual, who had stopped at one of the stalls that was just opening. "Him… what's so special about him?"
Tsubaki was about to mention his abnormal lack of presence, but she wanted to hear Bors's reasons for suspicion first.
"I received word from the guards guarding the stairs earlier this morning, which earned their attention. "
Tsubaki now understood why he was up so early.
"So? I heard the warning was lif-"
Bors shook his head, he already knew her line of thought. "He didn't come from the 17th floor."
Her eye widened.
Now she knew why the blonde was suspicious.
"He came from the lower part of the Middle Floors… without a single scratch?"
"I knew you would notice." He replied as both kept eyeing the blonde subtly before following slowly the moment he started walking away. "Coming from the rest of the Middle and possibly Lower Floors as well with not a single wound or scratch on his fancy clothes."
"There's also the fact that he doesn't have a single weapon with him." She replied as she analyzed him completely.
As Bors had said, his clothes were flashy, or rather, its material was. It looked like something a pompous elf would use.
'That's too much black though.' She thought as she kept eyeing her and focused on the symbol located on the back of his jacket. It consisted of two tribal Dragons, one black with white outlines and vice versa, chasing each other, as if it was the Yin Yang symbol.
"You know…" Bors stared at her, only to start regretting his choice in asking her to help the moment he noticed her grin. "I got this." She replied with a pat on his shoulder and kept walking while he stopped and simply stared blankly.
"Relax, currently strongest on the floor, remember?" she said confidently, as if she felt his tension from afar.
'Strongest doesn't mean subtle.' He thought to himself as he sighed. "Why can't high ranking adventurers be normal for a change?"
"Anything I can help you with?"
Tsubaki's smile never left her face as she simply turned to the side to an alley, there was her target resting against the wall with his arms crossed as if he was expecting her.
"If it was from before, I already apologized." He said as he pulled off his hood.
She waved her hand as she walked into the alley, noticing that the blonde wasn't tense at all.
'That means he either thinks I am not gonna assault him or is overconfident.' She laid back on the opposite side as she crossed her arms.
"I would like to say I came to greet a new face to Rivira, but that would be a lie." Her eye narrowed, as she noticed his muscles tensed a little.
"And here I thought you looked like a kind type of person."
Sarcasm was evident in his voice, but his response did make her chuckle a little. "Oh, I am a ray full of sunshine all right… most of the time. But I followed you for two very important reasons. And one of them just happens to be-" she pointed at him, or rather, at his "Your clothes."
"Huh?" His reaction made all the tension in the air disappear and he made at motion at his jacket. "It's just leather."
"Yeah, and yet you made it all the way to floor 18 without a single scratch on you… or your clothes, without a single piece of protective armor."
He narrowed his eyes as he analyzed what she just said.
"Mind if I test something?"
Tsubaki's question was accompanied by a smile that would have made anyone feel relieved, but it gave a bad feeling to the blonde, a déjà vu. Because a certain someone he knew would pull the same 'kind' smile whenever he asked for something, only to be followed by something completely stupid.
He sighed. "Go ahead."
Faster than the normal eye could see, Tsubaki drew the katana hanging next to her waist to make a quick slash on the blonde's shoulder.
"… If this is how you treat strangers, I don't want to know how your friends see you."
She knew he could react to the slash, despite her action, her eye never stopped staring at his. He followed the movement of her blade the moment she started to move it.
He knew what she was going to do but did nothing. Be it either because he was confident in his 'clothes' or because he knew she had more than enough control of her skill to simply aim for his clothes and not his body, she did not know.
"I will have you know; they think of me as a wonderful and charismatic leader." She said, leaving aside that they also thought she was rather ruthless most of the time when it came to the results of their forging, but the blonde didn't need to know that.
"See, not a single scratch." She sheathed her sword. "Mind if I take a better look?"
The blonde took a moment to decide, but his hesitation wasn't because of leaving himself unprotected. It was because he could actually see stars in her single eye for the simple feeling of curiosity she was feeling.
"…" he said nothing for a good full minute before sighing in defeat as he took off his jacket, he knew she wouldn't seize.
She almost ripped it off his arm the moment the item was in her arms reach.
"Why do you think it's so special? Your blade couldn't have an edge for all I know."
She snorted. "Level 1's would kill to have a weapon like this, so shut it. Also, you have a set of good eyes."
Once again, he narrowed his eyes in pure annoyance as he analyzed her statement, but she didn't notice this time as she inspected the fabric of the jacket.
She had seen a lot of reinforced clothes in her life, like the ones some elves used, but this…
"I feel something in between the fabric… wait, it's also over and below it." Her eyes kept narrowing more and more, as she could see some faint traces of different colored lights in the fabric.
"You also have a good eye… no pun intended." She smiled as she looked at him, waiting for him to answer the obvious unasked question.
"It's infused with different types of Dust."
He scowled in annoyance, and a little bit of disappointment the second Tsubaki raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Dust? What the hell does dry powder have to do with this?"
He sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Crystals. The jacket is infused with different types of energy which is stored in special crystals."
"… what kind of dumbass would name energy crystals as Dust?"
To her credit, he chuckled. "Someone who was way over his head." He said as he quickly erased the thought of the Remnant's body stealing parasite. "May I have that back?"
She didn't respond, instead she stared at him again, more accurately, this neck. "Say, may I also see that scarf?" she stared at the rest of his clothes, more importantly, his long-sleeved buttoned shirt. "Aren't you hot in that? Not to mention you were already wearing a leather jacket."
Those were not the words she wanted to say as she narrowed her eyes, but she didn't make a comment of it yet as he took and put his jacket back on.
"The scarf stays." He said in a rather defending tone. "Also, to each their own taste in clothes."
She really couldn't argue with that seeing that she usually showed a lot more skin on the surface.
"Anyway, what was the second reason you wanted to approach me?"
She sighed, as both felt the tension in the air returned.
"You."
He narrowed his eyes again. "You could at least invite me to dinner first before showing your interest in me."
"Wouldn't you like to be so lucky?" She smiled, but the tension was clearly still in the air. "Right now, you are a little mystery that appeared HERE out of all places."
"… That's your reasoning? I walked all my way here like anyone else while dealing with the monsters, what so special about it? Yeah, I didn't get any scratch, my clothes makes up for the lack of armor as you already saw."
She raised an eyebrow. "Without any weapons?"
"I just could be experienced enough to deal with them with my own hands." He made a pause and sighed. "I also do have a weapon… I just don't have it with me right now."
Tsubaki could see the clear discomfort when he mentioned that last part, but she left it for later.
"Yeah, and usually people do come here, from floor Seventeen." His eye twitched a little at that statement. "But you arrived here from floor Nineteen, and don't bother saying you have been here before." She said as she explained what Bors said regarding the lock-down and the supposed anomaly that was reported in the Dungeon, it was impossible he had gone down the way before. Not to mention the guards would have seen him going down on previous days.
"Also, I have never heard of you, or anyone that fits your description. And just to be clear, one gets to hear about people who get a lot of attention around here, you just happen to fit that quota."
"Anything else?" he asked feeling, knowing already what was coming next because of his explanation about-
"Dust. I have never, ever heard of a material or crystals with that name. And one tends to know this kind of thing with my profession."
Translation: I am a blacksmith; I know my shit.
"You are not from here, are you?"
He finally sighed in defeat as he laid back against the wall once more with all the tension in the air disappearing.
"Out of all the people I had to cross paths with first, I stumbled upon a smart one."
"I am not just a pretty face." Tsubaki replied proudly as she crossed her arms under her bosom. "So, anything you want to share? Why are you here? Or rather why did you come from the lower part of the Middle Floors?"
The blonde closed his eyes in defeat because staring directly at her single eye. "You might not believe me, but I woke up here, several floors below to be more specific."
"And you don't remember how you got here?" she asked, she will have to judge whatever he says it's true or not.
He shook his head. "I was dealing with someone before coming here, everything is a little blurry in between from that point and the moment I woke up to defend myself."
"Monsters?" she asked, already expecting that to be the answer. She was clearly surprised when he shook his head.
"A red-haired woman." He replied. "I woke up just in time to avoid her blade."
She stroked her chin for a moment.
Bors had already said everyone that went down was accounted for, besides the person in front of her, and yet there was a second unknown individual in the matter.
"What happened to her?"
"I ripped off her arms and sent her flying."
Tsubaki became dumbfounded and gave a blank look at how clean and lack of hesitation in his answer.
"She tried to kill me; I think that's enough reason to incapacitate her."
Fair enough, but still...
"You really have no chill, do you?" she asked with a chuckle.
"I didn't kill her." He replied, with a slight tone of defense.
"Then what happened to her? because she clearly isn't with you."
He shrugged his shoulders. "I took her weapon and planned to question her, but monsters began to spawn from the walls. By the time I was done with them, she was already gone."
She analyzed him for a full minute before sighing. "Her weapon, what did you do with it?" she asked clearly and without hesitation.
"Why is that important right now?"
"You want me to believe you? That weapon is your only way of me doing so."
He sighed.
Tsubaki could see the blonde clearly didn't have a good hand in this situation as he moved his arm to his back, only so he could reveal the long blade in question the moment moved his hand to the front.
Tsubaki blinked once, then twice before rubbing her eye. "How-?"
"Please focus." He stated as he made a gesture with the blade before Tsubaki took it, her suspicions visible in her eye.
Her fingers brushed the end of the bladed and eyed from tip to handle. "This blade-"
"Has been used before against people, I know."
Tsubaki didn't comment on his statement and instead got the blade closer to her nose to sniff it; the benefits of being a level 5 and blacksmiths were being used by determining how old the blade was, see it's state, and smell to notice the scent of the wilder. She didn't know the scent of the blonde, but it definitely didn't compare to the stench of blood the blade had.
"You are in the-." She looked at him and stopped mid-sentence as the bland look she was receiving "-clear… don't you judge me! Haven't you ever seen someone sniffing a weapon?!"
"Yeah, a dumb-ass." He replied monotonously as he moved his head to the side to avoid the flying blade now impaled the wooden wall.
"Is there anything else you need or-"
"There's still an air of suspicion about you. That," she moved closed to him and retrieved the blade impaled to the wall. "And the fact that you clearly aren't from Orario just bothers me…"
They stared at each other before the blonde sighed in defeat. "… just tell me what you want so we can get this over with." For the first time since they started talking, Tsubaki could easily recognize the tone of defeat in his voice.
"You might be a capable adventurer,"
She ignored the clear growl coming from him the moment she used the term adventurer.
"But having in count that everything about you screams 'weird'"
"Rude." He muttered.
"You might need someone," she pointed at herself. "To help you get home, not to mention the fact that you probably don't have any Valis."
"Believe me, I really doubt you can help me get home." He thought out loud before shaking his head.
"Are you always this much of a pessimist?" she asked, using the same bland tone she was already used to, and to his surprise, he chuckled.
"It's called being a realist… What do you get out of this? Because I doubt you are doing this from the goodness of your heart"
"Of course, I am not. But believe me, I am probably gonna be the only person here doing this out of both our interests."
He could already tell she was being serious by the tone and look she was giving him.
Tsubaki knew how Orario worked, or rather how Familias worked. Everyone was always doing things out of her own interest, especially Gods. He could go to the Guild and ask for assistance, but she knew that would only generate more problems than results.
"And the only thing I want in exchange is," she pointed at his clothes. "Your/My jacket" both said simultaneously.
"I haven't met you for more than 5 minutes and I already have you figured it out."
She faked offense at that. "Hey, I am a blacksmith; I have seen reinforced clothes before, but this one just takes the top. I just want to see what I can do to replicate it."
"Of course, you had to be a fucking a blacksmith."
It might have sounded like an offense, but this time she could hear a hint of amusement in his tone.
"I am honest, brutally so. So, if you are willing to give me a hand with my problem, the least I can do is tell you the stakes; there's a very high chance you won't be able to replicate this."
She smirked.
"I love a good challenge, at least I know I tried my best. So," she extended her arms "what do you say, partner?"
He frowned behind his scarf as he stared at her extended hand. "Let's make this perfectly clear here. I am using you to my own convenience to gain something out of this. Having said that, are you still willing to help me here?"
"You don't have many friends, do you?" She chuckled at his sudden change of demeanor. "Stop being so stubborn and just shake my hand already."
"Quality over quantity." He said before giving her a firm grasp of her hand, she could already tell just by the strength she was using he was strong.
"Tsubaki Collbrande, Captain of the Hephaestus Familia. A pleasure."
"Drake M. Aurion Y. Likewise, and thank you for taking me under your care."
She snorted as she grabbed his sleeve to pull him out of the abyss. "Smartass attitude, fancy clothes and fancy name; if I didn't know any better, I would say you are a stuck-up elf."
"I can already see elves and I are gonna get along just fine." The sarcasm in his voice was clear, yeah, Tsubaki knew she and him would get along just fine. "So, where to first?"
"We are gonna get you something to eat first, seeing as you had to walk your way up here, I figure-"
She never got to finish her sentence. Not because the blonde interrupted her, at least not voluntarily.
*GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*
Everything seemed to stop at that moment, even some of the Adventurers seemed to stop and prepared their weapons at what sounded like the growl of a monster.
But this wasn't the case.
"Dude," Tsubaki started, trying her best not to laugh at what was a growling stomach, a very loud growling stomach.
"Not. A. Word." He said as he started walking ahead while he ignored the looks he was getting. "You said it yourself, I haven't eaten anything since I woke up, which is almost a full day by the way."
"Still, I am amazed it didn't make a single sound while we were chatting."
"Haven't thought of food, so I completely forgot about it."
Tsubaki gave him the blankest stare she had ever given someone. "What kind of person controls his stomach by not thinking about it?"
"What kind of person sniffs a damn weapon to get someone's scent?" he could name several, but none of them were normal either, him included. "What are you: a dog?"
A popping vein appeared around her forehead as she started arguing back against the blonde while he simply kept walking.
Yeah, they were gonna get along just fine.
AN: sigh, Haven't properly written anything in a while. But some authors managed to inspire me to give it another try, here's the result of that.
This is supposed to be a sequel to my incomplete story 'Tales of Fate', which was a RWBY fic that will probably be in hiatus forever, why? Because RWBY is not the best story to inspire anything at the moment (and I am being nice with my statement). It's no news the show has decreased incredibly; sure, a fanfic writer could just keep going and add his own twist separate from the Original sources, however, unfortunately I began to dislike the main cast a little too much for me to be able to continue writing.
However, I did like the story I had managed to set for my characters and the plot as well, and I didn't want to start over (yeah, I am that lazy)… so I gave him the isekai treatment… well, kind of. I made the new plot with a legitimate reason as to why he got there, but that won't be touched until waaaay later.
Something that some of you might find concerning is the MC's backstory since it has already been developed from another story, there will be callbacks to previous events that will cover that. Also, I changed some of the aspects of what was to be the ending plot of the original story and what was the main pairing to fit it in this sequel.
You are free to read the original story (which isn't even 20% of the original plot I had planned), but beware of the many grammatical mistakes you will find along the way. (There are a lot, it's a very old story from my earlier days.)
Also, things to have in mind:
-Warning: The MC was at the end of his journey before arriving at Orario, so expect OP.
-Although the previous story took place in the RWBY universe, various elements like his fighting style and lore are based off the "Tales Of" Series so the story basically was an expansion of RWBY's original vision with my own plot added to it. Also some characters from the "Tales Of" franchise will be mentioned and appear in some form later in the fic, as well.
-Bell Cranel… Bell who? In all seriousness, I haven't decided what to do with him, seeing as he's pretty much almost the same archetype as Ruby Rose. The story's set one year before the start of canon, so I had thought about making the MC fill the role of mentor to him, however the more I thought about it the more I disliked the idea. So I will decide what to do about that later down the line, just don't expect much of it.
-So far I have written a decent amount of chapters and one interlude for this. I will publish a chapter weekly as a test run to see if it manages to gain some track (which I doubt seeing as it is OC centric).
-Also, thanks to my Beta Reader, who apparently became a smoker thanks to the many grammatical mistakes I make in a single chapter.
-And thanks to the readers who have the patience to read all of this.
