Three chapters already, it's good to write something new every once in a while, it releases the creative juices if ya get my meaning. I've actually wanted to do something related to RWBY for a while now so even better!
I've also decided to skip the couple weeks or so that Slate would spend in Patch since it really doesn't matter in the long run. He rents an apartment for a month, trains physically and studies in his free time and hangs out with the two sisters when he can. Training mentally at night since he had nothing else to do. Don't worry, there will be plenty of bonding time for them at Beacon. Well that's all for the pre-chapter stuff, let's get on with it lads.
'Dustcraft is fucking complicated.' I thought while looking over a SDC pamphlet in From Dust Till Dawn. 'It's like a mutated love child of chemistry and Elder Scrolls style alchemy.' Each type of dust, the form of dust, and even the combinations of each dust type had its own unique reaction, similar to old world chemistry. However…
'It's almost as if this system was specifically designed for human experimentation. Aura level, physical condition, semblance, even emotion. All of these factors impact the effects of dust on the human body, whether through ingestion, medical injection, and/or via dust tattoos.' Hell, they even made dust powered artificial humans. Wait can I make a Penny? Should I make a Penny? Questions for later.
A question for right now, would be how badly I should beat the crap out of that junior henchman for being a total asshole and throwing a defenseless old man over his shoulder. 'Eye for an eye? Or maybe twice as much since he did it to someone who couldn't defend themselves?' I debated internally.
"Gah!"
Looks like Ruby made the decision for me and slammed the guy into the ground skull first using Crescent Rose's blunt end…"Damn Ruby, chill. He was a dick sure but if he didn't have an aura that would have been a homicide on your end." I reprimanded the red reaper, giving her a head pat as she panicked slightly over my words.
"Don't worry so much, he'll be fine. Maybe a concussion at worst. Here, let me show you how to properly take down these schmucks without having to worry about pesky legalities afterward." Now outside of the store I had plenty of room to let loose my more destructive attacks.
"First, aim for the legs. Crippling an opponent ends a fight just as quickly as knocking them out or killing them." A basic ki blast shoots out and explodes into one of the goon's legs, leaving them charred as the guy slammed into a concrete wall. "Plus prosthetics are getting pretty damn good nowadays. So don't feel too bad if you do some permanent damage."
"U-uh, Slate. I think that's going a bit too far, but I get what you mean." Ruby winced a bit at the damage I just caused before shooting another goon in the leg with Crescent Rose, not doing nearly as much damage as an explosive ki blast, but still putting him out of commission.
"Screw this! Torchwick ain't paying us enough to deal with a couple of psycho huntsmen. Crab the boys and scatter!" The remaining henchmen decided that they'd rather deal with Junior's wrath than fight another moment longer against two fight-happy huntsmen-in-training. Smart move.
"Worth every lien, truly they were. They held their own for a total of five seconds against a couple of brats. Now Red, monkey boy, I think we can all agree it's been eventful, but it's time for us to pa-" I fire a ki blast directly at his face, singing it and thoroughly ruining his cigar.
"..." Roman spit out his cigar before giving me a flat stare. "Do you happen to be related to a certain bitch who's late for the evac?" Almost as if on cue Cinder and her big ass bullhead made themselves known. Distracting me for just enough to let Roman do his fire dust schtick on Ruby.
"Shit!" I curse before trying to give chase, Roman already climbing the rope to his getaway ride...Time to test out that sky dancing technique I guess. Channeling ki into my legs I shoot it out, not truly creating a heat source but instead transforming it all into pure kinetic energy, launching myself at Torchwick whose eyes widened at the sight.
"We got a flying monkey! I'll drive, shoot him down!" He barked out, Cinder calmly walking to the bullhead door as I approached. Already knowing that she was going to shoot fire at me I countered ahead of time with a ki blast of my own, sadly I miscalculated.
You see, when you take a concentrated ball of energy and shoot it at a fairly widespread bloom of flame, sure it will penetrate and hit your target. Dealing a decent amount of damage to the metal bird. But that fire itself would still reach you regardless. "Hot hot hot!" I exclaimed, losing balance and falling out of the sky as the flames slowly chipped away at my mediocre aura reserves. I was going to have to work on that.
Luckily, a wild Goodwitch, presumably from the north appeared and caught me before the asphalt streets could take away the rest of my aura for the night. 'Not gonna lie, this is a little embarrassing. Being saved after my first real taste of combat…' It really stung the pride, or maybe it was the disorientation of being weightless?
Goodwitch adjusted her glasses before addressing me. "Are you alright young man? Young lady? You both took direct hits from some rather serious firepower." She asked, mildly concerned but calm since we didn't have any serious outer injuries and both seemed lucid.
"I'm good, just gotta work on the flying. It's harder than it looks. And don't worry about the fire, aura took care of most of it. Ruby, you good?" I also asked for her health, she did seem a bit dizzy from the direct hit of a dust vial to the face.
"M'good! Just a little crispy. And thirsty." She admits, aura blocked the impact and protected her skin from any real damage but the heat was still felt. I was pretty thirsty myself.
"You'll be given plenty of water when we reach the police station. Please don't resist, I'm the one who's going to be filing the incident report anyway." Ah, right. This happened in canon too. Now for my next decision of huge importance...Should I fuck with Oz?
1 hour later.
After an hour of careful deliberation, I decided that yes. I was going to mess with Ozpin. And when better than when he makes his introduction? I remained silent for the most part as we were brought into the interrogation room. (Which was a bit much I might add, for a case of self-defense.) So it definitely caught Goodwitch by surprise when I caught her riding crop as she went to hit the table next to Ruby's hand.
"Now now, no need for fear tactics. Or at least I hope they're fear tactics and not something kinkier, Ruby isn't ready for that kind of stuff...Is that guy bringing in a tray full of cookies? That's a bit blatant don't you think?" I mean honestly, who carries around a riding crop and that haircut and doesn't expect these kinds of comments.
Glynda apparently, who went bright scarlet along with Ruby. Meanwhile, Ozpin kept a straight face. "I think I'm more married to the job than anything. And I got the cookie idea from Taiyang, something about a sugar addiction being used for good? I suppose that also explains Miss Rose's skill with a scythe, that dusty old crow is a better teacher than I thought." He says amused, handing the cookies to Ruby who actually looked hesitant to grab one.
Taking one of the sweets for myself I take another jab. "Come on mister Ozpin, a man of your age and experience probably has many admirers. Maybe even a special someone from when you were still a fledgling?" That got a wince out of him. "Or formerly special I suppose, sorry if I brought up bad memories." That did go a bit too far, I'll admit.
"No, It's ancient history. It really shouldn't bother me this much after so long." Heh, good one. And I get it mate, the heart can't help but wonder 'what if'? What if you didn't die? What if the gods weren't jackasses? What if your wife didn't try to commit suicide into a literal well of corruption and godly negativity? Lots of things to weigh down your mind really.
"Regardless, why are you here professor? Considering what happened I can only assume recruitment." It was literally the 'wise old wizard giving the hero a call to adventure' schtick. He raised an eyebrow and nodded.
"Genre savvy I see. That's correct, you have already been accepted into our fine institution Mr. Slate but Miss Rose also seems like quite the capable combatant. I planned to give her a chance to join Beacon this year, what do you say?"
Weeks later, bullhead to Beacon.
"Oh, I can't believe my baby sister's going to Beacon with me!" Yang exclaimed, suffocating Ruby in her sizable valley much to the red reaper's chagrin. "And all from taking down a world-renown criminal! Gotta be rough huh Slate, having your first date interrupted by an orange-haired clown in a fedora?"
"For the last time Yang, it wasn't a date!" Ruby tried but failed to deny everything. I shook my head, when will she learn? You don't combat a pranking troll with logic. You had to be equally creative with a counter troll!
"Are you just jealous that Ruby got a date before you? Don't worry Yang, Signal didn't have anyone worth talking about anyway. I'm sure there's someone at Beacon that can handle you. Hey, there's your fellow blonde heading this way right now." I teased before giving her hope by pointing at an incoming Jaune...Who proceeded to throw up into a trashcan, some of which landed on Yang's shoes.
God knowing the future was going to make my comedic timing perfect! Ruby was stuck between laughing at Yang's comeuppance and whining that it still wasn't a date. I had no such problem and gave my best evil chuckle all the way to Beacon.
Once we landed Yang did her thing and disappeared with her old friends from Signal. Not that they would last long, they're quite literally faceless nameless normies hanging out with a main character.
And like the good friend I was I stuck with Ruby and made sure that she didn't run into Weiss' luggage this time, preventing the first of many lovers' spats that these two would have. "You should be more careful Ruby, you nearly ran into Miss Schnee's luggage here. Hello, by the way, I'm Slate, a pleasure to meet you." Ruby was surprised that I knew who she was but figured it out soon after, that logo was pretty universal after all.
"Well, It's nice to see that the family name and crest is recognized even this far into Vale...Aren't you two a bit young to be here?" Her noble smugness made itself known ever so slightly before she cut herself off by asking an admittedly fair question.
"Some may say so. I'm 14 and Ruby here is 15, we both got the chance to take the initiation exam through merit. You may have heard of how this little gremlin earned her spot with that Roman Torchwick fiasco a few weeks ago." Said little gremlin tried her best to escape my grip as I ruffled her hair, complaining about the fact that I was barely an inch or two taller than her.
"I see. Fighting off Roman Torchwick would definitely imply competence in combat, however, her antics leave something to be desired. At least you seem to be able to hold a conversation." She deadpanned at Ruby who was still biting my arm. Not that it could get through my aura but the slobber was making it awfully tempting to let her go. So I did. Riiight into Blake who was trying to sneak past us and avoid a confrontation with a Schnee and a seemingly brave faunus.
"Ack! S-Sorry! Slate you meanie you did that on purpose didn't you?!" Ruby yelled, quickly getting off Blake while constantly apologizing.
"Maybe you shouldn't have struggled so hard, Rubes. Sorry about that Miss Belladonna, you ok?" I apologized to her, causing her to nearly jump like an actual cat at how I knew her name. "Why are you so surprised? You're pretty famous yourself after all." I kept the meaning behind her name subtle as she went running off in a dead sprint. Well, there goes that quest route, I give her a week before she jumps and questions me.
"What was that all about? And since when do you know anything about celebrities Slate? You didn't even know who the Achieve Men were!" Ruby asked suspiciously, I rolled my eyes. As if that boy band that she and Yang liked were the best example.
"I only pay attention to people of actual importance. The heiress to the SDC, the various leaders of each kingdom, and high-level hunters amongst them. Your uncle for example." Ozpin's own third in command and spymaster, definitely a man of importance.
"A wise choice, well it's about time for us to head to the initiation speech. I suppose I'll see you two later, farewell." She said with a bow before leaving. At least this little meeting ended on much better terms than before. Weiss was right though, we should get going.
"Come on little Red, we don't want to be late for our first day now do we?" I lightly jogged towards the largest building around, following Blake's trail from earlier while Ruby followed, pouting the whole way while mumbling meanie under her breath. I'm a troll. What can I say?
Minutes later
"Your time at this school will prove that knowledge will only take you so far, it is up to you to take the first step." Ozpin finished his ominous speech only to be met by a single person clapping. I couldn't help it, his words were too true.
Far too many people blindly searched for knowledge, hoping that it would give them purpose when in reality purpose was something people attributed to things themselves. Not some inherent quality that could be captured and put in a bottle.
"Thank you mister Slate, it would seem that one person amongst you has taken my words to heart." He smiled and walked away, leaving a slightly confused Glynda to dismiss them.
"I don't know Slate, he seemed kinda off." Yang mentioned, having joined up with them and Weiss when they arrived. Ruby agreed, saying that Ozpin seemed really distracted.
"That's probably because he's done a similar speech many times by now. The values he spoke of are universal enough for me to believe it anyway. People really never learn, no matter the generation so it's best to keep old lessons for when they need them." Those who do not learn of history are doomed to repeat it and such.
"Damn, you sound even older than professor Ozpin. Chill with the philosophy a bit, we got enough of that when you talked to dad and uncle Qrow over coffee." Oh poor, naive Yang. If only you knew.
"I for one approve of her approach to things. It's nice to see someone like you taking a more intellectual path." Weiss smiled, not noticing the slip-up or just not finding it important. Well, there were two slip-ups but I'll wait for better comedic timing.
"What do you mean by 'someone like her'?" Blake spoke up from our left, surprisingly coming to my defense even if it wasn't needed.
"To be fair, Miss Belladonna, I am quite literally the muscle-bound monkey archetype. Weiss might not have meant it like that but it isn't too inaccurate either. Just take this as a lesson not to judge a book by its cover neh?" I said playfully while balancing on my tail. Granted I didn't have the bulging teen muscles that Gohan had, but I wasn't smooth like a young Goku either. I was somewhere in between.
"Also I'm a he, thanks. Damn it Yang I owe you 20 lien." I slapped a card into her hand, the smug aura she emitted mocking me the entire time. The two girls who were caught with a foot in their mouths gaped slightly while Jaune stopped his approach all of a sudden and walked back to his spot, doing the innocent whistle as he went. 'Wait was he about to-'
"Y-you should probably cut your hair then. I-I mean if you don't want to be confused for a girl as often." Weiss stuttered as she tried to save face. Oh no, I wasn't letting anyone survive tonight without at least some third-degree embarrassment.
"Is that your way of saying that you like guys with short hair?" I teased, she blushed furiously while spouting denials, Blake chuckled at her expense. "Then how does this look?" I asked, using my semblance to cast an illusion over my head, changing my hair from silky black shoulder-length hair to a rougher style resembling Sasuke Uchiha's old hair, including the blue highlights. The results were instant.
"I-Yo-Wha" I broke Weiss, her attraction to blue-haired pretty boys overpowering her mind for the moment. The others broke out in laughter at the sight of the flustered heiress and even Blake couldn't control herself. Oh you naive kitty, you weren't getting out scot-free either.
"And I guess you'd like the opposite look right, Blake? How does this look." I didn't even bother with subtlety this time and straight upturned my face into red hair Shanks, scar and all.
*Critical hit! It was super effective! Blake has fainted!
Oh, this school year was going to be fun!
Yes, yes it will. I didn't forget about Slate's semblance by the way. He will put it to very good use don't worry, illusions are some of my favorites types of techniques in all of fiction and an illusion based warrior is just badass! I may or may not also be an Uchiha fanboy but can you blame me?
And don't you guys worry about Slate getting too strong too quickly, I swear he'll be perfectly balanced for completely legit reasons, and laziness won't be one of them! Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the chapter, have a great day!
The next chapter for Konosuba vol 3 is in the works and should be ready relatively soon, afterwards I'll work on some of the old stories since it's been a while since they've been updated. Ciao!
