Updating this story for the fun of it. RWBY is great and I've wanted to write more about it for a while now so here we go. Today, Slate will have his fun, Jaune's path will divert, and most importantly… Hilarity will ensue.
Btw, I just noticed a major typo thanks to the crappy way this site supports or more accurately fails to support common keyboard shortcuts. It's a small but significant change, the year in which Slate finally dies in his original universe isn't the tiny 10,108. It was 10 to the 108th power...So yeah, quite the major typo there.
*Snore *Smack "Ow!" Jaune snapped up from his mid-class power nap thanks to my patented anti-idiot chop of doom. Thankfully Oobleck was far too engrossed in his lecture to call him out on it.
"Try to stay awake Jaune. You're sitting in the front row and I'd rather not have to deal with Cardin's pathetic plan to embarrass you in front of the rest of the class." I whisper it just loud enough for the orange-haired attempted bully to hear it too.
"What was that? Are you finally contributing to the class, Mr. Slate? Excellent excellent, what is the answer?" Apparently, I didn't whisper quietly enough to avoid Oobleck's attention. Either that or the timing was just too perfect, either way, it was no biggie.
"Lagoon was inexperienced and ignorant of the unique strengths of the faunus. Most faunus species have nearly perfect night vision along with whatever other miscellaneous benefits their physiology might give them. Lagoon made the mistake of invading at night and was ambushed, leading to the defeat of his relatively massive army." It was an amateur's mistake, to the point where I have no doubt in my mind that the moron got fast-tracked into his position for political reasons. No seasoned general should ever make such a rookie mistake.
"If he really wanted to utilize his numbers in an efficient manner then he could have sent a few small squads to attack at dawn and dusk. Two times where guard posts were likely to change meaning that a large portion of his enemy would be exhausted or fresh from waking. Or he could have done the smart thing and just create a blockade until the enemy stronghold was starved out. Honestly, who attacks a fortified city head-on?" I ranted at the sheer lack of strategic thinking.
"..." Even Oobleck was stunned for a moment at the quick answer and annoyed tone.
"Sorry about that, I tend to go on rants when I talk about particularly stupid historical events unironically. I usually just laugh it off but the thought of such an incompetent person getting the rank of general kind of gets to me." Nepotism was the fall of many great civilizations, I just hope that it won't happen to this one.
"So it would seem. Regardless, you have answered the question perfectly. Honestly, I'm a bit surprised seeing such enthusiasm in one so young, perhaps there's hope for your generation yet." Oobleck said playfully, bringing a smile to my face. Some things never change.
"Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them. And as the makers and shapers of our own history, we'd best learn quickly before those mistakes stack up." I modified Oobleck's own quote a bit to his delight.
"Well said. Now, let's get back to our lesson." Oobleck said with a small smile on his face.
*RING!
At around the end of the class period, Cardin was up to his old tricks again and actually managed to knock Jaune down while I wasn't looking. Thankfully Pyrrha was there to catch him before he had a marble lunch. "You know, I really will break his legs." She said, giving Cardin a death glare.
"It's good to see that you're starting to show some initiative but there's no need." I jump in, giving Carding a slight telekinetic nudge as he was walking down some stairs. A very long very smooth set of stairs. "Isn't karma great? And it even has great timing, Jaune, Pyrrha, do you two mind coming with me for a moment? I have an offer." Looking at each other really quick the two soon to be lovebirds agreed to hear me out.
Minutes later, Asobi's room
"I'm going to be straight with you Jaune. You're weak- Ababa! Let me finish. You are without a doubt the weakest person combat-wise among the first years, but you don't have to keep that position." A depressed Jaune and pissed off Pyrrha perked up a bit at that.
"I've seen talentless, damn near crippled kids bust their ass until they could stand side-by-side with what might as well be gods, there's absolutely no reason why you can't do the same with a little help." While my pep talk was met with mixed results considering how unlikely my statement was, it was still taken seriously.
"I'll be the first to admit, I'm no swordsman, I have about the same finesse using Kurikara as Cardin has with his hammer. Hell, I'm not much of a melee fighter in general, that's gonna be Pyrrha's job if she chooses to accept it." Which she gladly did of course. Though Jaune needed another minute to think about it.
"And before you ask Jaune, you are doing this. You're a leader now, and you're going to live up to that title even if it kills you. I'll make sure of that as your physical trainer, I already have a routine ready so savor your final moments of comfort while you can. Your training begins tomorrow maggot." I couldn't help but hit them with a full-on visual and auditory hallucination of Mr. Popo saying that last part, by the time their brains even registered the mindfuck I was already gone…
Well, I was still in the room, I was just invisible to their eyes and muffled in order to laugh my ungodly laughter at the looks on their faces! Time to give these two lovebirds some privacy, who knows, maybe a collective psychotic break will get things rolling?
"Now, what to do with the rest of my day?" I mumbled while floating through Beacon's halls which had become a bit of a habit for me. Why walk anywhere when you could fly? It was pretty good training too since I was constantly expending ki, albeit a small amount.
"Maybe visit team RWBY? Things should have calmed down there by now, or maybe I should hang out with some of the upper years? Maybe team CFVY? Or maybe I'll work on that technique?" I contemplated before realizing that I've been stopped cold in mid-air. "Do you need something Professor Goodwitch or is this some kind of telekinetic flirting?"
"The former Mr. Slate, headmaster Ozpin would like to see you in his office before the day is done. And please, I'm well over 50, such comments are quite inappropriate." Ah, I knew this day would come. I just didn't think that it would be this soon. Oh well, If I was going down, then I'm gonna go down the way Muten Roshi would!
"And yet you don't look a day over twenty. You have aged like a fine wine, rich, complex, and bewitching to the- Woah!" Was all I could get out before being tossed out of a nearby window towards Ozpin's office tower. "Fair enough!" My voice trailed off the further I flew, adding to the comedy.
'This is going to be a gag, isn't it? Oh well, I'm off to see the wizard!' Deciding to bypass the elevator entirely I simply flew up to Ozpin's office and went in through a conveniently open window. "Huh, that's much more fun than using the door." I muttered, finally understanding why so many characters loved doing that.
"Welcome Mr. Slate, I can see that Glynda is as punctual as always. Though I'd advise you to stop teasing her, she can have quite the explosive temper when prodded for too long." Ozpin commented as he sipped coffee, a knowing look on his face.
"Your advice is taken into consideration and immediately discarded. Her reactions are just too good, I can't possibly give up that kind of entertainment. Someone with so many cameras placed everywhere should understand." I could already imagine the kind of comedy gold those things caught amongst the students.
"Fair enough, I'd argue that they are merely a security feature but that wouldn't be completely honest of me." Another sip, that's pretty rich coming from this guy. You know what? I'm game, lets see just how honest this guy can be when his opponent takes the direct approach.
"Well, honesty is important. Which is why I'll cut to the chase, you want to know about the abilities I've shown so far. Go ahead and ask, I'll answer to the best of my abilities. My only condition is that you give me the same courtesy." Another sip, he had a pretty good poker face but even Ozpin couldn't hide the slight widening of his eyes.
"Very well. I'll be blunt, how did you gain these abilities, and what are your intentions." Ooh, going for the indirect assessment. I almost expected him to ask about Salem or magic right away. Though I guess to be fair my ki techniques are significantly different to this world's elemental magic.
"I'll answer the latter first, I came here for an education and to meet a few key interesting people...And maybe change the future a bit. My abilities are my own, they utilize the natural life force of my body into techniques similar to a semblance but with far more variety." My first answer set him at ease, if only a little, though the latter one only lead to confusion.
"It's not magic, they're two completely different fields. Now, my turn. Why did you take me into your school? I have no prior history to speak of, I've never spoken to you in person before arriving, and I had no acquaintances before receiving your acceptance letter." I wanted to know just how the god that brought me here did it. It was bugging me for a while now and this might give me a clue.
"I was given information from a valuable contact of mine, granted he never told me where he got it from but I've learned to trust him." A vague response but one I could piece together, somehow Qrow got it into his head that he's met or seen me somewhere before.
"Interesting, so that god put some thought into my arrival. I almost expected a complete handwave but they actually got their hands dirty by messing with a mortal's mind directly." I drop the bomb on Ozpin, eliciting a sharp gasp. Few things could surprise a man of Ozma's age but casually dropping the involvement of gods on his hands was most certainly one of them.
"Oh don't look so scared, I'm not talking about those childish brother gods that abandoned this world. Though I'll admit that I don't know exactly which deity brought me here, only that it sounded vaguely female." That's about all I had, that and the god apparently relied on magic which wasn't much of a distinguishing feature.
"That...Is certainly something, I suppose that means that you know about my curse." Ozpin said after a long pause, astonishment still clear in his voice. "If you were sent here by another god then I must ask, why? What could they possibly want? And why you?"
"What do they want? Hell if I know, I didn't get much of an explanation either. She basically went, 'congratulations for surviving, here's a new world, have fun' and left. Not that I'm complaining, it was either be revived in this world or die. I'm allergic to death you see." I joked, somewhat hiding my own displeasure at being left in the dark.
"At least the gods are consistent, interfering with mortal lives at a whim. What did you mean by surviving by the way? Was your old world in a poor state?" This time it was my turn to flinch, I might have lost most of my memories after my first century, but I still vividly remembered the all-encompassing darkness that marked my final moments there.
"Are you familiar with heat death theory?" I probed, his own flinch told me yes. "Right, if you don't mind I'd rather not dwell on it. Instead, why don't we get to something a bit more pressing? The near future." Ozpin immediately gets serious, good.
"Since you brought it up I imagine that you're far more knowledgeable about certain things than you really should be. If you don't mind, can you tell me just how much you know? I need to have a base to work off of here." Very good, I've managed to build up a somewhat equal relationship with the man. It's not friendship, but at least I haven't garnered his animosity.
"I'll tell you what I can, but just know that I can't say everything. My knowledge of the future is static and any change I make now can snowball into something significant later." Ozpin nods in understanding, he was more than familiar with the downsides of foresight. His experience with the relic of knowledge made sure of that.
"Salem will try something during the Vytal Festival, one of her minions will arrive with her own set of mooks to cause chaos and attempt to finish off the Fall Maiden. They won't succeed, we'll make sure of that." I give him a smile, its obvious that my reveal of what was to come caused the man to clamp up a bit, but Ozma didn't get to where he is now without knowing how to deal with surprises.
"I would hope so. Is there anything I should do to prepare, something that wouldn't negatively affect your foresight?" Ozpin knew the importance of information, but at the same time, he'd need to do something to prepare. If he didn't, James certainly would.
"Tell Ironwood to only bring a small escort, he plans to bring a fleet as extra security. You can already see where I'm going with this, it's a bad idea and backfires horribly. Oh, and if he seems paranoid about how you know what will happen, tell him to install electromagnetic shielding on Penny. He'll understand." And if he went off the handle? They James would be dealt with, I wasn't about to let that guy's mess things up again.
"That certainly sounds like him. I'll take your word for it this time Mr. Slate, I hope that you know what you're doing. And what is this about a Penny?" He accepted before asking about the new name. I guess Ironwood hasn't told him about the new lifeform yet.
"Ah, Atlas finally cracked the aura transference issue. They took the soul of the scientist responsible and placed it into the body of an android, granting it sapience and autonomy. Essentially, they made an artificial human. It's actually quite interesting." I dropped the relatively small bomb on him. That was becoming pretty fun.
"I...See. I have mixed feelings." Which I suppose was understandable, they were entering new territory with this one. And he was pretty certain that if the gods were here they'd be...Rather angry, to say the least. "Is she safe?" A fair question.
"Oh definitely. She's pretty much the same as any other teenage girl, albeit far more naive and socially stunted as you could imagine. Otherwise, she's perfectly stable and even quite nice." Really this was the equivalent of Pietro giving 'birth' to his own daughter. The only difference being that the daughter had a metal body instead of one made of flesh, her soul was still human.
"Oh, good. Then I agree, that is indeed rather interesting. I'll have to speak with James later to give me the specifics." I suppose an immortal would have a few hobbies.
"So. Are we done here? I do have some things I'd like to work on, both for our future needs and for my own progress as a warrior." A warrior, not a huntsman, Ozpin could take that however he would but I wasn't about to be limited to one role.
"Very well, if you don't mind I also need some time to think about what you've told me." Which was code for 'I need a drink' I'm pretty sure. Whether that was another coffee or an actual stiff drink was left to my imagination as I walked out of his office, through the door this time like a normal person.
Today was a lot more productive than I thought it would be. So long as I didn't get distracted by something else I might even be able to finally master one of my favorite techniques from Dragon Ball! "Heads up Slate!" Nevermind! I prepared myself for the busty blonde missile that was heading my way. So much for no distractions.
And that should be all for now. A bit of a longer chapter today as you can see but hopefully that doesn't slow down the writing progress for everything else. I just got a large burst of sudden inspiration so I had to write this while I still could.
I hope you guys enjoyed it, and hopefully, I won't be too busy as the new year rolls around. See you guys later, and as always, have a great day.
