Disclaimer: I hereby declare that Roosterteeth studios RWBY production crew may freely use any ideas, characters, or events written in this story free of charge and without any threat of lawsuit for any production, though it would be preferable to inform me of the use of the idea if used.

Ch 36

""Happy birthday!"" shouted a large group of people that was gathered around Lan. The large group was currently packed inside a gazebo on the beach. It was the early morning, and they were all beaming at Lan who was wearing his bathing suit and a beach jacket.

"You're nine years old now!" said Byakko "Shall we get started with our usual birthday ritual?"

"Get it over with." Said Lan, who spread his arms wide. Many people in the crowd who knew what was coming averted their eyes as their children stared at their parents in confusion.

"One!" shouted Byakko, who then kicked Lan right between the legs. Lan's face tightened in pain, but the boy stood firm and dug his feet in. Many of the young boys in the crowd winced and covered, their groins, as they imagined the pain that Lan must be feeling at that moment. Byakko then proceeded to kick Lan in the groin eight more times.

"Done!" shouted Byakko as Lan then fell flat onto his face and twitched on the sand for a few moments.

"Now, let the celebration begin!" shouted Byakko, who turned to the large group of people and spread his arms wide "And what better way to start off a day of celebrations, than with a grand feast of a breakfast!"

The group then left the gazebo and headed to the beach where picnic tables covered with food were waiting. Lan of course had to be carried over to his seat, and was only able to start eating a few minutes after everyone else had started tucking into their meals.

"Agh, damn crotch kicks of seniority." whimpered Lan as he grabbed a piece of toast that had a sunny side up egg on top of it and was speckled with salmon roe and a creamy sauce. "Well, at least I can enjoy the rest of the day now."

And enjoy it he did, after breakfast had concluded, the group hit the beach and played beach games that came from all over the world. This included watermelon smashing, beach volley ball, and other fun games. The Muteki family of course had their own unique beach games, and it was during one of these that the only non-Byakko initiated conflict of the day started.

The partiers had been split into two teams, one of them building a large sandcastle, and the other watching from the sidelines. Lan was on the building team and was bringing buckets of water up from the sea with his little buddies when he was stopped by a group of kids.

"Hey how come you get a birthday party this big?" asked one of the kids "We've never had a party this big on any of our birthdays."

"I don't know, it's just how things turned out" said Lan, who walked to the side carrying two buckets of water."

What the children didn't know, was that it was a cove tradition to treat any child that was currently being raised by Byakko well. You see, those who were directly raised by Byakko usually had two main outcomes for their lives. They would either leave Byakko after they found the training reached a stage that was too difficult for them to handle, at which point they would be an individual of great power who would have to choose a place to settle down, or die doing something great. In both cases, it was the general consensus to treat these individuals well, both for their future prospects and for the fact that they might not live a full life. A few of the adults had already noticed the commotion, but merely stood to the side, smiling as they thought of the lesson that their children were about to receive.

"Well I don't like it." Said a short fat kid who came forward. "We're just as special as you are and we're going to prove it."

Ignis and George growled, while Edel's feathers bristled, but they were quickly calmed down by a wave of Lan's hands.

"Oh, are we going to spar now?" said Lan, who smiled and set his buckets down, "That's fine by me."

"Get him!" shouted the leader of the group, who was a blonde haired boy with a bandage on his cheek.

2 minutes later

"We surrender." Came the whimpering voices of several individuals who were lying face down on the ground while the other children cowered farther away. "You're the boss now, and you deserve this party."

"Come on guys, that wasn't even a warmup" said Lan who hopped from foot to foot, "come on, I won't use my arms this time."

"You weren't using your arms at all just now." Said a boy with a large black eye.

"I wasn't?" asked Lan who put his hand on his chin and thought about it. "Yeah I guess I wasn't, I was just jumping into the air and kicking you all in the faces."

"Hey Lan!" shouted Tora from the giant mass of sand that was slowly taking the shape of a castle "Bring that water over here."

"Alright!" shouted Lan, who then turned to the kids who were littered on the ground "Come on, we got to get back to castle building. Oh and I suggest you all train up a bit if you ever want to spar again, grandpa's always willing to train you a bit so you can ask him."

A little while later, a giant sand castle had been built and was towering into the sky. It was at that time that the game began. The name of that game was 'Sand castle siege' and true to the name, one team began to assault the sandcastle with constructs made out of whatever could be found on the beach while the other side defended it. All of this was made possible by Ishiku who stood on the sidelines and controlled the hardness of the sand.

"Sandapult fire!" shouted Nyataro who was on the attacking team. A catapult made out of sand launched a sand boulder towards the sand castle walls. But it was quickly shot out of the air by a sand javelin thrown by Tora.

"Going to need to do better than that big brother!" shouted Tora.

"Nyahaha and I shall little Tora" shouted Nyataro, who snapped his fingers causing three large sand ballista to spring to spring out of the sand.

"You just had to goad him didn't you?" said Lan who kicked some sand arrows out of the air.

"Yes I did" said Tora who grabbed a handful of sand javelins.

"Guys, the interceptors!" shouted Lan, in response Ignis bit through a rope which brought a large cauldron of water to the top of the wall. George pulled a lever which dumped it onto those below, and Edel used his Dust wings to freeze the water, stopping the opposing infantry in its tracks.

After a few hours of mayhem and destruction, the group settled down for lunch. During this time Nyataro lifted his head into the sky and began stroking his whiskers.

"Hmmm, seems there's a storm coming" said Nyataro.

"What? But the sky's clear!" said Lan.

"I've sailed the seas and skies longer than you've been alive boy." Said Nyataro. "I can tell when a storm is coming, my whiskers can sense the changes in the air, and my whiskers never lie."

"So, the party's over?" said Lan, his gaze downcast.

"Of course not!" shouted Byakko, who had a large leg of mutton in his mouth. "That just means we move the party to the Cove HQ after we eat!"

True to his word, after eating Byakko piled everything party related onto a beach stage, then lifted the stage into the air and carried it over to the HQ with the rest of the party goers following from behind.

Within a few minutes, the doors of the HQ had been thrown open and the party set up in the basement, which Lan discovered had a working movie theater, dance floor, and snack bar.

"Now who wants to watch a few movies?" said Tora who turned on the movie projector.

The movie that they ended up watching in the end was 'Dragon Soul', which was about a man born with the soul of a dragon. Lan had already read the book the movie was based on and began watching with high expectations. But as it went on, although he found some parts interesting, he found that the movie had cut out many of his favorite scenes and that it tried to make up for it by playing up the action sequences. By the end Lan felt mixed feelings about the movie, but overall enjoyed it. Ignis, George, and Edel who couldn't recognize what was happening, fell asleep on the couch.

"How'd you like the movie!" asked Byakko at the end.

"It was good" said Lan "but I hate how they cut stuff out and changed things. I mean, they turned Big Sausage Uncle into Stinky Tofu Man."

"Oh yeah" said Byakko "Remember his real catchphrase?"

"Yeah!" said Lan laughing.

""I your big uncle have a large—"" started the two. Before they could finish their sentence, cake was shoved into both their mouths.

"There are children present you two." Said Chiyo, who was giving off a dangerous aura "Please keep the dirty jokes to a minimum."

""Yes ma'am"" said the two of them while chewing the cake.

After that video game consoles were brought out and a tournament based around the fighting game 'King of flaming fist' was begun. Lan did reasonably well, but lost somewhere in the middle of tournament against a teenage boy who worked the engine room in the Diamond Donkey ship. Byakko, however, lost his very first match due to accidently breaking his controller. In the end, the final two combatants at the screen were Chiyo and Ransu (who still had chains wrapping his body due to being in isolation training in Byakko's basement for the last month).

"Prepare to taste defeat mother" said Ransu, who was savoring his freedom after his incarceration in the basement of hellish training.

"Ohoho it is you who will taste that flavor" said Chiyo with an ominous glint in her eye.

Shortly after Chiyo was crowned the champion and Ransu, on account of losing a bet he previously made with Byakko about him winning, was chained up and sent back to the basement training center. The group began singing karaoke, where Lan sung a heartwarming song from a video game and Byakko rocked a heavy metal song which shocked Ignis, George, and Edel awake.

Dinner was then served, which consisted of richly prepared seafood and fine pastries. During the meal Byakko broke his previous record of number of fish and chips he could fit into his mouth and Lan knocked plenty of food onto the floor for his little friends to enjoy. After the final slice of cake was eaten it was finally time for presents.

Packages were brought out from different hiding spots and placed in front of Lan, who subsequently tore the wrapping paper off in seconds. The first present was from the onyx owls who gave Lan a large container filled with good quality parts which the boy could use to assemble anything that he felt like.

"Let your imagination flow" said Mao Tou Ying, "sometimes the best things you can have are pieces to construct the next solution."

The next gift came from the Moonstone Rabbits, it was a large composite artillery bow built from a variety of good material. The rabbits had noticed Lan's lack of any effective long range weaponry, and thought that this would be a good idea.

"We also have a pair of Bunny pajamas" said Anne Lapin, who was egged on by some of the girls in her crew. "Do you also want—"

"No thanks" said Lan, much to their disappointment.

From the diamond Donkeys, Lan received several containers of refined dust for his personal use.

"Need tons of that stuff if you want to get anything done in this day and age." Said Alonzo.

The next gift was a combination given by the Jade Tigers and Topaz Bears, it was a set of special pair of heated knives. The knives were sheathed inside a black rectangular metal knife holder, which a person could attach to the back of their pants. When switched on, the case would run an electric current through the knives, super heating them, which greatly increased their cutting power shortly after they were drawn.

"Little animal like you's got to have his claws" said William Mathan.

"And since you're part of our family they have got to be deadly ones" said Tora. "Watch this."

Tora flipped a switch on the knife holder and the device hummed to life, a few moments late he pulled out one knife, and showed Lan that the knife blade had a searing orange color.

"Behold!" said Tora who swung the knife at an iron pipe that William was holding. The knife cut through the pipe like a hot knife through butter. "It slowly loses its cutting power the longer it is out of the sheath though." Said Tora, who sheathed the knife and hucked the set to Lan.

"Don't worry" said Lan, "I'm sure I'll figure out a way around that eventually."

From the Agate Kangaroos, Lan received a nice tool set for a variety of situations, which he would most likely combine with the parts given by the onyx Owls in order to bring all sorts of mayhem down upon his future enemies.

But then from the Sapphire Sapiens, Lan received the strangest gift he would get that day.

"Hey there bud" said a Large rotund man with short blond hair who appeared to be in his early 20's. He was wearing a plaid colored t-shirt and had on a pair of jeans. As Lan stared at him, the boy noticed the man's resemblance to a large teddy bear.

"Uh hey" said Lan, "Who are you?"

"I'm Trey" said the man "my dad said that it would be a good opportunity if I went with you guys and saw the world. But don't worry dude I am not going to be a freeloader, so if there is anything you need me to do bro, don't hesitate to ask. From now on, I'm at your beck and call bro, no matter what you need—"

"Wait" said Lan, stopping Trey midsentence "So you're a new addition to our traveling group?"

"You got it tree sprout." said Trey, pointing at Lan with his finger shaped like a gun.

"Well, good to meet ya" said Lan, who shook his hand. Lan than reached into his bag and pulled out a stack of papers, which read: 'Guide to survie living with Byakko'. "Read this very carefully if you don't want to receive any fatal wounds" said Lan, who handed it to Trey.

"You got it boss" said Trey, who took the stack and walked to a corner where he began reading it and playing with the little guys who were happy to meet him.

After making sure he was out of earshot Lan turned to the people present and asked: "who's his dad?"

"Me" said Christopher Dynol "Yeah, the thing is Trey doesn't really have it in him to be a pirate, too good natured, so I was thinking of sticking him with you guys and let him see the world, toughen him up a bit… or not, he might just find somewhere else to settle down during that time and that's fine too. But hey, he's also a great handyman, I'm sure you could put him to work with something."

"Well, the toilets are always clogging" said Lan,

"Great, that's his specialty" said Christopher "Treat him well."

From the last of the captains, Henry Shout, Lan received every video game and manga that he had been even remotely interested in during his stay here.

"One must be sure to rest as best as he can as well" said the large rotund man.

"Dude I will totally help you play those" said Trey.

"Go back to reading Trey" said Lan

"Yes Sir!" said Trey who saluted and returned his attention to the stack of papers.

Nyataro then came forward and handed Lan a huge pile of books on the ways of the sea and sky.

"Will always be helpful to have the information you need at your fingertips" said Nyataro.

"Now then" said Byakko "Time for a little something from your two grandparents."

Byakko and Chiyo came forward and stood in front of Lan.

"From me first." Said Chiyo, who pushed a large box towards Lan.

Lan pulled on the ribbon and the box opened to reveal a mannequin fully dressed in a stylish coat, inner shirt, pants, a pair of gauntlets which had slots tools that could be whipped into his hand very quickly, and a pair of boots. From a distance it appeared to be your average fashion statement, but when examined up close, the material had the look of military grade fabrics and had a variety of pockets for your average hoarder.

The black t-shirt had a similar look to a military grade vest and was peppered with small pockets. The pants were made to hug the legs while still being comfortable and had a variety of holsters for whatever tool was needed for the occasion. The coat was a dark blue color and trailed all the way down to the wearer's ankles.

"Nice!" said Lan, "I will change into it immediately!"

A few shrieks followed as Lan whipped off his clothes and changed into his new gear. All parents nearby quickly covered their children's eyes at Lan's sudden display of nudity, but they didn't have to cover their eyes long, for 10 seconds later, Lan had fully equipped his new gear.

"Feels comfy" said Lan, as he moved his shoulders up and down.

"It's also durable" said Chiyo, who pulled out a sharp knife, gently pulled Lan's sleeve, and began ferociously stabbing the material, much to Lan's shock and fear. After a few moments, Chiyo dropped a blunt and bent knife onto the ground. "Good protection will reduce the amount of Aura you need to block every attack after all."

"Neat!" said Lan who looked down at his new clothes, "What's it made out of?"

"A blend of military grade polymers and this." Said Chiyo, who tugged on a strand of Byakko's hair.

"Grandpa's hair" said Lan, amazed "Isn't that stuff tougher than diamond? How on earth did you get enough to make clothes?"

"Like this!" said Byakko, who then lifted up his arm and began to furiously lick and bite his armpit hair as the onlookers recoiled in disgust. A minute later he stopped, made a choking sound, and hacked out a white hairball onto the floor. After everyone stared at it for a few moments, Chiyo turned to Lan and said: "Don't worry dear, I made sure to wash the hair before I used it."

"Oh thank god" said Lan, letting out a sigh of relief.

"I also worked one of my special tricks into these combat clothes" said Chiyo "Just sprinkle some of Byakko's hair onto it every once in a while and it will automatically adjust its size until you're around 14 years old."

"Thanks grandma" said Lan, who hugged Chiyo.

Chiyo smiled warmly after the hug and then turned to Byakko.

"Please brush your teeth if you want any more sugar tonight dear" said Chiyo.

"On it" said Byakko who was already brushing with hypersonic speed. A second later after he finished, he kicked a box over to Lan.

"Happy birthday!" said Byakko "It's your first look at the world of manhood."

Lan stepped forward, opened the box, and then recoiled with a bright red face. He then pulled out a match, lit it, and flicked it into the box where it set fire to the contents within.

"Yeah, had a feeling you'd react like that" said Byakko, scratching the back of his head "But I had to try anyway! Hmmm, but what should I give you now?"

Byakko stood there for a few moments with his finger on his chin, shrugged, reached into his gi, and flicked something in Lan's direction. Lan snatched it out of the air, and then took a good look at it. It was a glistening white and black magatama gemstone with a tiger's eye right in the center.

A few people in the room, the oldest and most experienced, let out a gasp of surprise.

"Father, do you really want to give him that?" said Nyataro, who for the first time since Lan saw him had a deathly serious visage on his face.

"I'm not giving it to him, I'm just loaning it to him for the remainder of his stay with me, the day he gives up on his training, I'll take it back." Said Byakko.

"If you say so dear" said Chiyo "But I'm not sure the boy will be able to use it properly. "

"Its fine, it's fine, if the boy really needs to use it, he'll figure it out." Said Byakko.

"Um, could someone tell me what this is?" said Lan "It seems kind of important."

"Never you mind that dear" said Chiyo who pulled out some thread and quickly wrapped the magatama in an intricate knot, and placed the newly made necklace around Lan's neck. "Just remember that you should never ever lose it."

"Oh and just to let you know, for your present, Ishiku is attaching a working forge to our house and is filling the room with some ore you can experiment with!" said Byakko "He recommends you start with easier cheaper ores like copper and then move on to more difficult ones after you master smelting those! And I got experience in that area, so I can give you some help!"

"Oh okay." Said Lan "But what about the magata—"

"Forget that for now!" said Byakko, who pulled out a plastic rifle and pressed a button on the wall. A large hole opened in the ground as a result revealing a glowing labyrinth. "It's time for laser tag!"

After that the party continued long into the night, with the people doing anything that they pleased, and starting any events that interest them. Somewhere late during the night, when the majority of kids had gone home, alcohol was brought out and things started getting very weird. Before he knew it, Lan was standing outside with a cup of ginger ale in one hand and the taste of grape wine in his mouth, which had been forced down his throat by someone ('cough' Byakko'cough' ) while he was in the party daze.

The storm had already blown over by then, and the full moon was shining down from above. As the inebriation began to take over his mind, Lan thought that it would be nice to just sit down and watch the celestial bodies above him. He did so and listened to the sounds of merrymaking in the building behind him. As he closed his eyes and felt a wave of serenity wash over him, most of his consciousness slipped away, with only enough remaining for him to barely be aware of his surroundings, the same as when one is on the cusp of awakening, in that misty dreamlike place between sleep and consciousness.

It was at this moment something pulsed deep within the depths of Lan's soul.

Lan slowly rose to his feet and then began to slowly walk towards the back of the cove. A few minutes later he had entered the tunnel leading to the ruins and headed deeper and deeper in.

It was the remnant of the spirit that had once inhabited Lan that egged the boy forward. Since the time it had been reduced to a small fragment of its former self, it had continued to exist within the depths of Lan's soul, slowly recovering by using the remnants of spiritual energy that were periodically expelled by Lan's soul.

Since the resonance with Lan back in tiger valley, it had kept itself hidden, but found that it was slowly growing weaker despite the energy it absorbed. It discovered that it was consuming more energy by staying conscious, so it slipped into a dormant state so it could derive more from Lan's spiritual emanations. However it wasn't completely unconscious and was able to act on small subconscious impulses.

At present time, due to Lan's inebriation, the spirit's subconscious impulses were the strongest signals which were directing the body, and right now the spirit's essence was currently being drawn to the ruins where it had felt a strange familiarity.

At the spirit's prodding, Lan's barely conscious form walked further and further into the dark. Deeper and deeper through the winding tunnel that Ishiku had dug. After lurching forward like a zombie for a good amount of time, Lan arrived in the cavern where the ancient ruins were located. But something was different this time. Instead of the dead ruins from before, the ruins were alight with a blue and white glow. Long glowing lines were scattered all over the streets and buildings. The lines were similar in shape and pattern to the metal lines in a circuit board, and rising up from the lines were small glowing lights that rose high into the air before disappearing.

The lines seemed to emanate from the large structure in the center of the ruins, and once they reached the outer edge of the ruins, they curved and created a circular circuit that surrounded the ruins.

After arriving, Lan continued to lurch forward, following a street towards the central dome. As he passed each structure in the town, particles of light coalesced together inside the buildings and formed humanoid shapes, which performed socio-biological actions such as sitting around a table and appearing to eat something or walking from place to place. They would then disperse back into particles of light after Lan moved far enough away.

Before long, Lan arrived in front of the large dome that the pirates had unsuccessfully tried to enter earlier. The boy then slowly extended his hand, and placed his palm on the stone-like metallic material. A six fingered humanoid handprint surrounded by an octagon appeared where his hands touched the stone, and from this shape, lines of blue light spread out to completely cover the door and spread out to the rest of town via the door. A few moments later 4 hidden mechanisms scattered throughout the ruins released and the door began slowly to open inward.

Inside the room was something that would have shocked and amazed Lan had he been completely conscious. There were 4 two story pillars which had small blue and white mist-like flames at their tops and from their bases, the circuit like blue lines spread out to the dome and as a result to the rest of the ruins. The pillars surrounded an area the size of a courtyard and at the center of this was a large stone tablet with a small metal bowl sitting in front of it. The bowl held the same misty blue fire, only it was much larger than what was atop the pillars. The structure was the spitting image of the ruins that Ansel had described, the same ruins Lan had been born from.

After standing still for a moment, Lan slowly began to edge towards the bowl. As he neared it, he slowly lifted his arm, reaching out for the flame that was reflected in his sightless eyes. His hand edged closer and closer, 4 inches, 3 inches, 2 inches, 1 inch, and finally his hand entered the dancing flame.

Suddenly, the tendrils of flame burst into life and began winding their way around Lan's body like dozens of coiling snakes. The flames then seeped into the depths of his soul where they were broken down into azure mist and began to flow towards the remnant of the spirit. The remnant began to swallow up this mist as it reached it, growing in size and strength little by little. With the return of its strength, it slowly began to awaken more and more, its consciousness and intellect returning to it. It became more aware of its surroundings and began to make connections with Lan's senses. At first it was confused, wondering where it was, but then it was joyful as it felt its strength returning, but as it interfaced with Lan's vision and beheld the scene in front of it, it froze in shock. Then a moment later it recoiled in terror and attempted to expel the mist back to where it had come from. However this spiritual shock pulsed Lan's soul, which surrounded the small fragment, and snapped the boy out of his drunken stupor.

"Huh, wug wha?" said Lan as he grasped his head and wobbled around a bit.

With Lan's consciousness returned, the boy once again had full control of his body, forcefully suppressing the spirit, making it unable to prevent the spiritual mist from flowing into it.

"Ugh where am—" started Lan, he then noticed that his arm (and whole body for that matter) was alight with blue fire. "AGGHHHH!" screamed Lan, as he attempted to pat the fire out "AGGGHHH, AGGHHH, AGHHHHHHHH!"

The boy then began rolling around on the ground in panic, not noticing that the lines of light extending from the central bowl were slowly fading away, the flames above the four pillars dying, and the ruins once again sinking into darkness.

Far far away, back at the party, the ears on the top of Byakko's head perked up. The old man who was holding a bottle of super liquor was just about to remove his fundoshi and perform his naked party dance, stopped in his tracks.

"Lan in trouble!" yelled Byakko, who smashed through the side of the building and bolted towards the ruins.

A few seconds ago back in the ruins, Lan had finally realized that the flames covering him didn't hurt.

"What the—" started Lan.

It was at that moment that the flames on his body extinguished as the last particles of spiritual mist were absorbed by the remnant of the spirit.

"Whelp, that's over" said Lan, who then passed out and collapsed flat onto his face with his rear pointed up towards the ceiling.

"Lan, you kay?!" shouted Byakko, in a drunken voice as he burst into the room, holding a box of popcorn.

He saw Lan's comical form, walked over and devouring his popcorn, picked the boy up, and began violently shaking him.

"Wake up noy!" shouted Byakko, as he raised his hand to begin slapping Lan's face"Speak to me!"

'Burp''Fert' responded Lan.

"Welp, you're okay" said Byakko, all previous urgency completely dispersed "But looks like you got a little drunk."

Chuckling, Byakko threw Lan onto his shoulder and walked towards the dome's, remarking about what kind of feats the drunk can perform due to the utter randomness of their actions as he passed through the door. A few minutes later, Byakko had returned Lan to the party, slapped the boy awake and the two continued to party.

Lan dismissed what he had previously seen as a result of his drunken stupor, and continued to enjoy the night. But he would find out that those weren't drunken ravings at all. The first signs of the trouble to come appeared around an hour after the two returned to the part. Dark shadowy tendrils emerged from the ground and shattered the empty metal bowl in the ruins before sinking back into the ground as if they were never there, all while Lan and his little buddies were wrestling with his new lackey Trey, completely unaware of the coming danger.

Okay, that's the 36th chapter. Hope the story is still interesting. Welp, next time on The Journey Of Lan, the beginning of the end of the arc starts.

And if you're wondering about Trey, yes I am making him a permanent character. I need something that will allow me to express some funny things I thought about, but didn't fit with Byakko or Lan due to their either being too powerful or serious to go through it.

Hope I'm still doing okay, and as always, any and all suggestions are welcome.