Chapter 6. What I Want.
They were surrounded by Grimm, with no way out. But they could not give up, Team RWBY was the last hope of Vale. Her partner Weiss on one side, her teammate Blake on another and her sister Yang having her back like always. Even though the odds looked like they were against them, Ruby knew that they would win.
Why? Because they were the best and the most awesome team of huntresses in Remnant.
*Crash*
An explosion comes from one side, looks like reinforcements had arrived, it was Team JNPR. They were quickly making their way towards Team RWBY in order to provide support. Nora being a force of nature destroying everything, Ren providing support and using his awesome martial arts, Pyrrha just being…Pyrrha, and Jaune sword in hand, commanding the group with ease.
Ruby could only smirk to herself, these Grimm's chances went from small to slim.
*Boom*
Suddenly a second explosion came from the other side of the mass of beasts. Ruby instantly knew that the slim chance the Grimm had before… was now zero.
Mori had arrived, armed with just a staff, once he made his presence known, he got into his fighting stance, just like the one at the dust robbery. Ready to do something awesome Mori instantly unlea—
"You dolt! Wake up!"
A voice cried out, waking Ruby up from her dream…who was that? ... Oh, it's just Weiss… what time was it?
Ruby opened her scroll to check the time…it's so early…Weiss…just why? This had to be revenge for the first day of school.
"It's 6:30 am Weiss, and we just finished our finals, why are you waking me up so early?" Ruby complained trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
"Don't you remember we're going to sp…checkout the Vytal festival today." Weiss said correcting herself in the middle.
She was about to say spy, wasn't she?
Ruby couldn't help but groan as she remembered that they did plan on going into Vale today. Getting out of her bed she tried to fully wake up only to slump on the ground…it felt so nice right now. She could just stay there forever…
"Get up! it's bad for you to sleep on the ground," The heiress angrily chided, as she attempted to then wake up the other partnership.
"Wake me up like that again, and I'm going to be the one to turn your hair green." Yang tiredly muttered.
"What was that?!" Weiss quickly turned her around with a scowl on her face.
"Why is it so early I thought we were planning on going in the afternoon?" This time it was Blake who complained, her face still in her pillow.
"Well, even though we planned for our afternoon to be in Vale we still need to do our team practice." The white-haired girl stated with a matter-of-factly attitude.
Ughh, Weiss had a point, looks like it was time to get off the floor.
"I call the bathroom first!" Ruby quickly declared.
"Wait, no—" Yang cried out,
It was too late, as Ruby used her semblance to quickly get into the bathroom. If she was going to be up this early, she at least wanted to have hot water.
After finishing getting ready, Ruby stepped out of the bathroom, Yang then walked in with a tired scowl on her face.
"Ruby so help me, if you used all the hot water,"
"You should be fine, there should still be some left." Ruby said as she dried off her hair.
And with that, Yang entered the bathroom.
knowing how long Yang took to get ready, Ruby had some of free time. After getting dressed, Ruby grabbed her headphones, found her latest comic book and started reading.
"Make sure you don't fall back asleep," Her partner said looking up from her textbook.
Yeah, yeah, she was awake.
However, Ruby was still a little mad at Weiss for interrupting such an awesome dream. It was reaching such a cool part. Even in her dreams, Mori doing something awesome gets interrupted.
Even though the boy still didn't have a weapon, that staff really suited him. When did she start thinking he would be good with one? Oh yeah, it was when they tried to find a weapon for him.
Beginning of the Semester
"Mori!" Ruby declared as she slammed her hand on the table. "It's time we get you something that is absolutely critical for you to have,"
"What do I need?" The boy replied, in the middle of eating his lunch.
"Identification?" Pyrrha suggested.
"Maybe a scroll?" Was what Ren brought up.
"A comic book collection!" Jaune said excitedly.
No Jaune, that was not necessary, cool but not necessary.
"A better wardrobe," Yang mocked, Mori then shot her an annoyed look.
"A taste in literature," Blake chipped in as she held up her book.
These ideas were getting worse.
"A brain." Everyone knew who that came from.
Ok Weiss, that was just mean. Mori was not dumb.
"A pet monkey," Nora excitedly cried out. Mori for some reason looked at her with a scared face.
Ok, this needed to stop before it got out of hand.
"No, no, What Mori really needs is a weapon," Ruby spoke, revealing Mori's greatest need.
"I've told you before Ruby—"
"Nope," Ruby interrupted him.
"But I—" He tried to respond back.
"Noope"
"But—"
"Nooope"
"Are you going to let me finish?" Mori asked slightly annoyed.
Ruby thought about it for a while.
"Nope," Was the conclusion she came to as she flashed him a smile.
The look he gave her was all the expression needed to show his feelings about her answer.
Well, looks like it was time to for Ruby use her greatest weapon, her puppy dog eyes. Quickly flashing the cutest look she could muster, she made instant contact with his eyes.
She could feel his will breaking as he was starting to be influenced by her cuteness.
"Fine," He said with a sigh, "We can go to the forge to try out some weapons."
Heh sucker, he still hadn't learned not to make direct eye contact.
"I don't know how you ever say no to her Yang," the broken youth said as he turned to her sister.
"See Mori, the thing is you've gotta st—" Her sister began to start.
Before she could finish Ruby quickly grabbed Mori and dragged him to the weapon forge. It wouldn't be too good if Mori was able to discover how to fight back against her cuteness this early.
A couple of minutes later they arrived at the weapon forge, ready to find Mori a weapon.
"So how are we doing this Ruby?" Mori asked as they started to look at the weapons.
"Well, first thing we've got to do is find a base weapon that suits you." Ruby said as she started zipping around the room gathering all sorts of different weapons. "After we find one that fits you then we can adjust it and update it to make it multi-use."
"…I guess that makes sense," Mori replied.
"Let's try this sword." Ruby said as she finished gathering all the basic weapons in the room. "Now pose for me."
As Mori made a stance with his sword, Ruby couldn't help but feel it fit…but it didn't as well.
"Ok, next one," Ruby then took the weapon out of Mori's hand and threw it to the side, "Now try this Axe."
Again, the weapon felt like it could fit him, but it still wasn't right. So, she immediately threw that one out as well.
It had been a half hour since they started, and each weapon Ruby gave felt like it could work but it wasn't right. They went through claws, gauntlets, rapiers, shotguns, snipers, halberds, tridents, a spear, a trumpet[1], a fan, nun chucks, even a scythe, this one Ruby was really hoping for. She needed as scythe buddy, everyone needed one. It was a disappointment to her that it didn't feel exactly right. Each of the weapons they tried felt like Mori could use and be good with…but none of them felt perfect.
Ruby was thinking to herself as she was deciding what Mori could use as a base weapon.
"Hey Ruby, we've been here for a while, but you keep on rejecting items; are you sure we can find one?" Mori asked as he put down the latest weapon, a bow.
Ruby couldn't help but feel she was missing an item. What were the closest ones that felt right? The spear did, so did the trident, the halberd and scythe were almost there as well, so was the fan. But that last one felt different than the others.
"Spear, halberd, trident, scythe…" Ruby thought to herself, "What do they all have in common? …OH!"
Suddenly Ruby connected the dots. She quickly zipped around the forge trying to find the item she thought of.
"Here, try this," Ruby said as she finally found what she was looking for.
"Ruby, this…" Mori said, shocked as he took the weapon from her.
It was a simple staff…and it was absolutely perfect in his hand.
"I think this suits you the most Mori," Ruby stated, happy that she finally found Mori's perfect weapon. "Now let's try to upgrade it and see if we can make it better."
Mori could only look at her with a look of amazement. Looks like he was impressed with her ability to find the perfect weapon for him.
Present
And with that they found Mori's perfect weapon…or they should have. Even though it was the right weapon, Ruby couldn't find any real way to design it. She tried making it a part gun, a sword and even a bow. But no matter how much she tried put on it, there was nothing she could really do to make it his own personal weapon. It was like there was something else out there for him.
That staff really suited Mori. Even though it was perfect, they couldn't find the right ideas to make it better. So Ruby just scrapped that and Mori was still weaponless.
"Ruby," Her thoughts were interrupted by Weiss, "Everyone's ready let's go,"
As Team RWBY made their way to the training grounds, Ruby saw Jaune working with Pyrrha on his fighting.
"Hi Jaune, hi Pyrrha" Ruby waved at them,
"Hi Ruby," Jaune waved back.
"Hello" Pyrrha responded as well
"How's he doing?" Ruby asked Pyrrha.
"He's doing great, he has made a lot of improvements," Pyrrha answered putting away her weapon.
"Yeah, I feel like I've been getting better and better with Pyrrha's help and advice." Jaune said with a happy face on him.
"Well Vomit boy looks like you're finally going start getting wins that aren't defaults." Yang joked
"Please stop calling met that," Jaune begged, "and please don't say that around Mori, he is still sour about that, he says he is not, but I can tell he is."
"I'll stop calling you that when you get me a new pair shoes," Yang teased patting his shoulder.
"Jaune's projectile vomiting aside, we still need to go train." Weiss said as she continued to the training ground.
Seeing the look on Jaune's face when Weiss said that made Ruby feel bad. She knew he had the hots for her partner but…knowing them first semester, it would be easier to cut Yang's hair then get those two together.
"Well bye Jaune, bye Pyrrha," Ruby waved goodbye as she also left.
"See yah" They waved goodbye as they went back to their training.
Ruby was happy for Jaune. Ever since his incident with Cardin he had taken a 180 in mentality. Now he was more confident and just plain happier. She was worried for a bit when he basically became Cardin's lap dog but now, he was really starting to improve.
Ruby couldn't wait to see how he'd do in the future.
"You know what we should do Ren?"
A voice called out to Ren as he was meditating. It was his team leader, Jaune.
"What should we do?" Ren asked as he broke his meditation.
"We should do a boy's night!" Jaune answered Ren's question with excitement.
"Why?" Ren asked with a confused look on his face.
"Ren, what team are we closest with?" Jaune asked with a serious face.
"…Team RWBY," Ren answered, wondering where Jaune was going with this.
"Uh-huh, uh-huh," Jaune said while nodding his head, "And how much of Team RWBY is made of girls."
"Well, all of them," Ren replied.
"And we are the only boys in Team JNPR correct?" Jaune continued with his reasoning.
Ren nodded to Jaune's question.
"So out of our two teams how many are girls and how many are boys?" Jaune asked again.
"…6 girls and 2 boys." Ren answered.
"Actually it's 6 girls and 3 boys," Jaune corrected. "You forgot Mori."
"But he's not on a team," Ren argued back.
"Please, we both know we've adopted him into our teams." Jaune replied with confidence.
Jaune had a point. Even though their friend was a substitute. He spent most of his time hanging out with either team.
Ren didn't mind Mori, actually he quite liked him. There was something about the boy that made him feel a connection with him. The only thing that he didn't really like about him was that he would enable Nora sometimes.
Like the time they made a tower out of books in the library. It wasn't even just a big stack of books. It was architecturally sound with, floors and doors. Ren wasn't even sure how they did that with just books.
The look of anger on Professor Goodwitch's face after that incident was apparently legendary. She spent an hour lecturing them, after she was finished, Blake then stepped in and spent two more hours chastising them on the importance of respecting literature.
Mori was the most enigmatic of the group to Ren. Blake was also mysterious, but she was easy to read as well. But Mori, you could never really tell what he was going to do.
Within the group Ren had separated them into two different categories. Those who used reason most of the time and those who didn't. Himself, Pyrrha, Weiss and Blake were in the former. Jaune, Ruby, Nora, and Yang were in the latter.
It was a perfect balance. Except Mori would tip the scales either way. Sometimes, he would do something dumb like the time he replaced Weiss's dust with sugar during practice. But then he would do stuff like the insightful thing he said to Ren during the first week of school.
First Week
Ren was practicing his martial arts going through the motions. Suddenly, Mori walked by looked at him for a bit and just sat down and watched him practice. Ren didn't mind, most people weren't used to seeing Mistralian martial arts.
"Your elbow is sticking out too much." Mori suddenly spoke up, while Ren was continuing through his forms.
"Huh?" Ren said, as his concentration broke.
"Oh, sorry for interrupting you," Mori apologized, covering his mouth.
"No, that's fine," Ren said accepting his apology, "what did you mean by that, though?"
"It was just a thought that passed through my head while you were practicing," Mori explained while rubbing his head. "But I feel like in that stance your elbow is sticking out too much."
Ok…that was weird most people didn't usually comment on his martial arts while he was practicing, unless it was something like "Oh my God, that's so cool."
"I'll leave, so I don't interrupt you again." And with that his strange friend was gone.
Ren could only shrug and he went back through his practice. When he reached the part where Mori interrupted him, Ren decided to just give it a shot just for fun. Reaching that stance Ren put his elbow a little in and struck…that strike felt a lot stronger…How did Mori know?
Present
Ever since Mori gave that advice to him, Ren couldn't help but pay more attention to the substitute. As he observed him throughout the year there were a couple of details that were interesting to Ren.
The first one was the way he moved. Most people called him unskilled and needing to learn techniques. But the way he moved was not that of an amateur. Even though Mori had amnesia, his body still seemed to remember whatever lessons it had learned before his memory loss. Whatever he did in his past he was very good at doing it.
Another thing that Ren noticed was Mori's control over the emotions. Because Ren's semblance involved suppressing emotions, Ren became adept at reading people's emotions. Before Jaune fixed whatever was going on between him and Cardin, Team CRDL had a nasty habit of bullying both Mori and Jaune. When they bullied Mori himself, he just ignored it and took it in stride. Whenever they bullied Jaune however, he would still maintain his aloofness, but that was only on the outside. On the inside he would get mad.
The angriest Ren had ever seen Mori was once during lunch. They were eating together when all of a sudden, the noises of Team CRDL bullying a rabbit faunus interrupted them. While the rest of the table could only be abhorred about by their actions, Mori had his head down looking like he didn't care. Despite that, the anger Mori was leaking was so much that Ren used his semblance to try and calm his friend down. The only other people to really notice the boy's anger was Ruby and Nora.
Cafteria aside, Mori was good at masking his emotions. Sometimes you could see his true self, other times It would seem like he would wear a mask. He was so good, Ren sometimes questioned if the boy really had amnesia, but hearing honest questions about basic stuff led to Ren quickly dismissing that theory.
"Well what do you think Ren?" Jaune asked snapping Ren out of his musings.
"Huh?"
"Do you think we should do a boy's night with Mori?" Jaune asked again.
It did sound fun, and Jaune did have a point that they were mostly surrounded by girls and they didn't have much time to themselves.
"Sure, lets do it." Ren agreed.
"Great, let's get Mori on board." And with that Jaune was off.
Ren wasn't exactly sure what happened with Jaune, but ever since their trip to Forever Falls, he had been more confident and more decisive. He also became a bit more reckless as he would do stuff that was not smart, and the reasoning Jaune always gave was "because he wanted to".
Ren didn't mind the change, he actually liked it. Jaune was really having it rough for quite a while. Ren just wished Jaune would tone it down a bit sometimes.
When Ren reached Mori's room it seemed like Jaune had finished his presentation to their friend.
"So…why do you want to do this Jaune?" Mori asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Because I want to," Was the simple answer Jaune gave back.
At this, Mori just nodded
"Ok, lets do it," Mori then turned to Ren, "Looks like it's me, you and Jaune tonight, eh Ren?"
Ren nodded in agreement.
"This is going to be so awesome," Jaune excitedly said, "It's going to be the best night ever."
"Should you guys tell your other teammates that we are doing this tonight?" Mori asked.
"Oh, that's a good idea," Jaune replied "I'll go tell them right now." And with that he was off to Team JNPR's room.
"Are you going to tell Team RWBY that you won't be available tonight," Ren asked Mori.
"Why would I need to tell them that, I'm not on their team." Mori responded with a look of confusion.
All Ren could do was stare at him with a flat face that said, "Really? You don't think a certain redhead with a matching hood, would want to know where you were?"
Mori understood immediately what Ren was implying.
"Ah, I guess I'll probably tell Yang, if I tell Ruby she would probably insist that she join us and then boy's night doesn't become boy's night anymore."
"You know you could say no?" Ren tried to helpfully offer some advice.
At this it was Mori's turn to give Ren a flat face as his said, "You don't think I already tried that? Staring in that girl's eyes just breaks me."
Ahh, fair enough, it was very hard to say no to Ruby, especially for Mori.
"Still though," Mori said, "This boy's night seems like it's going to be a lot of fun,"
"Yes," Ren agreed. "Even though I've been thinking Jaune has made some questionable decisions lately, it's a good idea."
"You know," Mori said as he put his hand on his chin "That may be my fault,"
Ren looked at Mori with eyebrow raised.
"So, you know how the reason he wants to do stuff now is usually 'because I want to'?" Mori asked
Ren nodded.
"So that's something I'd tell Jaune whenever he would feel down." Mori explained, "Well, ever since the Forever Fall trip he has really seemed to take my saying to heart, I don't know how that exactly happened though, because Glynda sent me to detention for that day."
"You mean Prof. Goodwitch," Ren tried to correct.
"Nah, Glynda" Mori stubbornly repeated.
Ignoring his friend's enmity with their professor. What Mori said did make sense, Jaune had a been a lot more open about doing anything really, from sparring against better people, to studying he seemed a lot more eager for a challenge.
"If that's true, then thank you," Ren said honestly meaning it.
"Nah I didn't do anything," Mori replied shrugging off the thanks, "Any improvement Jaune had made was on his own."
"Still though, you did plant the seeds in him."
At that, Mori gave a small smile.
Jaune soon came back looking excited and carrying…bubble wrap?
"I talked with them," Jaune said a bit out of breath, "They are both good with it."
"What's with the bubble wrap Jaune?" Ren asked, confused why his friend brought that item.
"Oh, Nora said that we needed to make sure you were brought back in one piece." Jaune replied
…That didn't make any sense at all.
"Makes sense, makes sense," Mori nodded along with Jaune's reasoning.
Ren could only stare at his brown-haired friend in confusion. Wasn't Mori supposed to be on the side of reason right now?
Boy's night had been…an adventure, Ren was knocked out on a bench, Mori was covered in alcohol, and Jaune himself, was holding an ice pack to his head. Now that would not be a big problem normally… except the three of them were at the police station stuck in a cell.
"So…" Mori said as he turned to Jaune, "That was an…experience."
"…Yeah…" Was all the response Jaune gave. "If my mom found out I got thrown into a jail she'd ground me for life."
"Ehh, this cell is a lot nicer than the one I was in before; this one has more lighting and less Glynda." Mori shrugged.
Jaune looked at Mori with a confused look, he was in a cell before? Was he friends with a convict?
"Remember Jaune? How I got into Beacon," the spiky haired boy explained. "And I know that look buddy, and that's real hypocritical coming from the guy who faked his transcripts and lied his way to school."
Touché, and oh yeah, Mori did tell him that story.
"So… did you call anyone to bail us out?" Mori asked.
"I called Pyrrha… she should be on her way." Jaune replied.
"You don't think she'll bring Nora, would she?" Mori asked, with a scared voice.
At that thought, Jaune started to shiver, Ren was technically in one piece, right?
"For our sakes, I hope she doesn't," Jaune answered praying inside his partner didn't bring his other teammate.
How did this happen again? Oh yeah it was because Jaune took Mori's advice of doing what he wanted a little too far.
Few Hours Earlier
It was going to be a boy's night a to remember, Jaune thought to himself…if they could find out what to do.
Right now, they were in Vale, just standing around.
"So, you said you wanted to do a boy's night, but you have no idea on what to do," Mori said in an unamused tone.
"A severe lack of planning has happened here," Ren deadpanned.
Ok, they were right, but did they have to be so harsh about it?
"Well what do you guys what to do?" Jaune asked trying to figure out how to get this party started.
"Sleep,"
"Meditate,"
Those were the worst ideas Jaune had ever heard.
"Guys, we can do those things in the dorms," Jaune explained "Boy's night should be special."
"We can get something to eat?" Mori suggested
"Apparently, there's this great noodle cart around here." Ren suggested.
"Oh, that sounds good!" Mori said wiping drool off his mouth.
Really, noodles for boy's night? Well it was better than their previous ideas, and Jaune was hungry.
"All right" Jaune said taking command. "First order of boy's night is getting noodles,"
When they got to the noodle cart there was only one other person there. It seemed to be a blonde-haired monkey faunus boy.
"Hey, guys," The blonde stranger suddenly spoke up, "I've been waiting for you guys for a while, I'm going to go on ahead, while you guys eat up," And with that the stranger was gone.
"That was weird," Ren commented,
At this both Mori and Jaune nodded at their friend's comment.
Sitting down, they each got their own bowl of noodles. Jaune had to admit, Ren was right that this was a good noodle spot.
"More please!" Mori said, sticking his bowl out as he finished devoured another bowl.
Man, Jaune really hadn't noticed it before, but Mori had a stomach. The amount of food that guy could eat was impressive.
After finishing their meal, the boys sat back in the chair satisfied with the delicious food. When the owner brought them their bill Jaune couldn't help but notice that something was off with it.
"Uh, excuse me sir?" Jaune asked. "I noticed you charged us for a lot more than what we bought."
"Are you dumb, that's from your other friend." The owner replied.
"What other friend?" Jaune questioned, confused. "We are all here."
Jaune took a look at Mori, he shrugged, and Ren had no answer either.
"That monkey faunus…he told me that he was waiting for his other buddies and to just put it on their tab"
3…2…1…
"THAT BASTARD!" Mori and Jaune simultaneously screamed out, while Ren looked pissed as well.
"Look, we did not know that guy!" Jaune said.
"Yeah we've never met him before in our lives!" Mori continued in their defense.
"Our group just consists of the three of us," Ren calmly tried to explain.
Their arguments were to no avail though. The owner clearly saw them interact with the stranger and be friendly with him.
"OK! New plans!" Jaune angrily shouted as they left the noodle cart. "WE FIND THAT DIRTY FAUNUS AND GET OUR LIEN BACK!"
"YEAH!" Mori cried out.
"Uhh, Jaune, that sounds really racist," Ren said with a worried look on his face.
Ren had a point, that did sound racist…too bad Jaune was too mad to care.
"I can find him!" Mori said going on all-fours sniffing the ground, after sniffing for a while he seemed to find something and went to it.
"All right Mori!" Jaune cried, following him eager to exact their revenge.
"Are we not going to comment on the fact that he was just on all fours sniffing on the ground," Ren deadpanned.
As long as Mori found the dine and dasher, Jaune did not care how he did it.
When Ren and Jaune finally caught up to Mori, they found the source of their ire already tied up with Mori holding him down.
"Good boy Mori, good boy for finding that bad person." Jaune said as he approached the teen.
"You owe us some Lien for that meal that we just paid for," Jaune angrily accused.
"Did Jaune just treat you like a dog?" Ren asked Mori,
Now was not the time, Ren.
"Look, look I'm sorry ok," the blonde faunus pleaded, "I just got off the boat from Vacuo and had no Lien on me and I was hungry,"
That seemed to have calm down both Jaune and Mori a little bit.
"Ok…we forgive you, but you still have to pay us back, you ate a lot," Jaune said as he looked the teen in the guy.
At that both Mori and Ren nodded in agreement.
"I don't have anything on me right now," The monkey boy bargained "But, I noticed you guys were talking about how you guys were doing a boy's night. There is apparently this awesome place that you guys could go hang out in. If I show you guys, could that make it up?"
At this both Ren and Jaune went into a meeting to decide while Mori continued to hold down their prisoner.
"What do you think Ren?" Jaune asked
"We were trying to find something do," Ren replied, "We could at least check it out."
"Ok, we've decided to take your offer," Jaune said after breaking the huddle with Ren, "Mori are you good with it?"
"Yeah, that's fine," Was the response Mori gave as he let the prisoner get off the ground.
"Uh, are you going to untie me?" Was all the Faunus said back.
"Nah, I don't want to have to chase you down again," Mori answered back.
"We'll let you go free after you show us the place," Jaune continued.
"I really hope we don't get caught on camera doing this." Ren complained.
Oh, shush Ren.
"Well that's fair," their captive said "Well, I'll show you where it's supposed to be, the name's Sun by the way, Sun Wukong,"
When he mentioned his name Mori all of sudden sputtered.
"…Your name is Sun Wukong?" the spiky haired teen asked
"Yup,"
"And you're a Monkey faunus?" Mori asked another question.
Sun checked his tail, "Yup" he answered back.
At this Mori seemed to be silent for a while, with a strange look in his eyes.
"…Hey Ren?" Mori said finally breaking his silence.
"Yes," Ren asked back.
"Can you…hold him for a bit… I… I need to deal with something," Mori said as he gave the rope to Ren.
"…o…k" Ren said as he took control of the captive.
Mori then went off on his own for a while, shouting stuff.
Jaune wasn't exactly what he was shouting about, the only word he could really make out was copyright and lawyers.
"Ok, I'm done," Mori said as he returned with a refreshed face. "Let's go."
And with that the group went to the place that Sun recommended.
When they got to the place destination Sun finally explained what it was.
"I heard this dance club is awesome," Sun said as he showed the club.
"This feels really seedy," Ren said
"I am getting a bad feeling about this," Mori agreed with Ren's sentiments.
Jaune wanted to agree with them, but they still needed to do something for boy's night.
"C'mon guys," Jaune said convincing himself to go in. "Let's go…for the boy's."
"…For the boys…" Mori and Ren said worried.
"Hey since we are here can you untie me?" Sun asked still tied up.
"Oh yeah, Sorry," Jaune said as he directed Mori to untie Sun.
And with that the trio went into the club…plus one.
"Why are you still here" Mori asked Sun.
"You guys seem like a lot of fun, so I think I want to hang out with you guys." Sun replied as he put his hands behind his head.
"Well, do what you want," Jaune and Mori said simultaneously.
Jaune noticed that the place was pretty packed, with a lot of people just dancing around.
Ren seemed to be instantly mesmerized, as he all of sudden went into of the dance floor and started busting some pretty great moves.
"I did not know Ren could dance like that," Mori said impressed by their friend's new-found hobby.
"Dude that guys awesome," Sun said, agreeing with Mori.
"Should we join him?" Jaune asked the two.
"Nah, I'm not much of a dancer" Mori said declining.
"I will," and with that Sun was on the floor
"I think I will stay with you," Jaune said as he decided he didn't want to leave his other friend alone.
It was a shame though, Jaune liked dancing as well.
It was a couple of minutes later when Ren was finally tired and joined the two back.
"Man, you really like dancing don't you Ren," Mori commented with his back against the wall.
"With all my heart," Ren replied sincerely.
"Still this is fun," Jaune said, "Boy's night has been awesome,"
"Outside of Ren, we really haven't done anything," Mori pointed out.
Dang it, Mori was right, Jaune really hadn't done much. What did Jaune want to do?
"You know what you guys should do?" Sun said popping back in. "Have a competition to see who can get the most numbers from the ladies," he suggested putting extra emphasis on the last word.
That sounded dumb, and from the look of Mori and Ren they seemed to agree. Still though, if he could get better at talking with girls, maybe he would have a better chance with Weiss. Ok, that seemed like something that Jaune wanted to do so he was going to do it.
"Ok," Jaune said, shocking both Mori and Ren. "I'll do it."
"Jaune, why?" Mori asked with a confused look on his face.
"Look guys, unlike you two I don't have a girlfriend," Jaune said as he tried to convince himself to do it. "I at least want to get better at talking to a girl."
"I don't have a girlfriend,"
"Jaune, we've told you this before, we are together, but not together-together."
"Well, I at least I want a cute girl to be able to talk to regularly," Jaune said jealous of his friends' relationships.
At this Mori seemed to pause with a confused face, he tried to say something, but he kept on hesitating.
"Jaune… you do know that Pyr—" Mori tried to speak, but all of a sudden, Ren covered his mouth.
"Mori, Jaune needs to figure that out on his own" Ren quickly said.
Ok…That was weird, either way Jaune was going to get a girl's number.
Quickly finding someone sitting alone Jaune made his way, to the girl.
"Hey," Jaune started trying to go with the best voice he could "The name's Jaune Arc, short, sweet, ladies love it."
Just before the girl was about to answer a voice spoke up behind Jaune.
"Hey!"
Jaune turned around, it was a pretty big guy.
"You're talking with my girl,"
Before Jaune could really respond, the guy suddenly lifted Jaune up and threw him into another person.
It was another big guy he got thrown into.
Suddenly, a huge brawl suddenly broke out in the club.
It was complete chaos…Mori and Ren tried to make their way to Jaune but suddenly someone threw a barrel of Alcohol that broke on Mori.
He was fine per usual…Ren wasn't though, as he suddenly got really tipsy, all of sudden Ren started busting martial arts on everyone as everyone in the club tried to take him on. It was a massacre…by Ren.
Present
"Who knew Ren was that bad with alcohol," Mori said head in his hands.
"…Yeah…" Was all that Jaune could say as his head was also in his hands.
Ren was still out cold on the bench.
Seriously, Ren only got a whiff of it and he destroyed the place. Thankfully, the cops arrived, finally calming things down. Unfortunately, they arrested everyone involved the fight and now they were stuck in the slammer.
Sun seemed to have abandoned them as well. Honestly, with how the night had went Jaune didn't really care anymore.
"So…why did you do that again?" Mori asked
"Because I wanted to?" Jaune replied, trying to convince himself.
At that Mori gave him a look that said he didn't believe him.
"Speaking of which," Mori started up, "What happened in Forever Fall, that made you use that phrase more?"
"Did I never tell you?" Jaune asked
"No," Mori answered back.
"Well…"
Forever Fall a couple weeks back.
Jaune couldn't believe what he was hearing from Cardin,
"You want me to what?" Jaune asked.
"You heard me Jauney boy," Cardin began, "Throw this sap on Nikos or I will tell Goodwitch about your little secret and you will be out of here like that." he finished while snapping his fingers.
Jaune and his stupid mouth, he just had to say his secret while Cardin was listening in. These past few weeks had been hell for Jaune, from doing Team CRDL's homework to being their lapdog, all so he could still stay in Beacon. He even gathered all those rapier wasps those jerks were going to use against Pyrrha.
Why couldn't he keep his mouth shut… Oh yeah it was the incredible guilt from being one of the worst students. He did not deserve his spot. He took the spot from his close friend Mori. If Mori didn't gotten lucky with the substitute student, he wouldn't be at Beacon right now…it sickened Jaune that he was so weak and underserving while his friend deserved it more.
The worst part was when he explained what happened to Mori, and his lies, instead of being angry and telling on him, Mori instead stood up, turned his back and said, "Jaune you belong here…Just do what you want." And then he left.
"Just do what you want," Why did Mori keep on saying that to him. He was doing what he wanted. He was a Huntsman-in-training at Beacon and following his dreams. So…why was following his dreams causing him so much pain.
"So, Jauney boy," Cardin interrupted Jaune's internal anguish. "Are you going to do it or is this is the last time we will see each other."
Cardin then handed Jaune the tree sap they gathered.
Jaune steeled himself as he prepared himself to throw the sap at his partner. He was doing what he wanted, this was the only way he could still follow his dream if he didn't throw this, he wouldn't be able to do what he wanted anymore…Was that what he really wanted?
Jaune suddenly remembered all the kindness Pyrrha had shown him from trying to teach him how to fight, to trying to help him study. In fact, all of his friends had shown him so much support. Ruby encouraging him the night before, Ren and Nora trying to cheer him up. Mori hanging out with Jaune and not being angry. Was following his dream really worth hurting his friends?
"No," Jaune said as he lowered his arm,
"No?" Cardin repeated back, "You do know what this means right?"
"I do," Jaune said with a determined voice.
Suddenly deciding to something he would probably regret, but it was something he really wanted to do. He threw the jar of sap at Cardin.
*shatter*
"Oh," Cardin suddenly started laughing covered in sap, "You've done it now,"
Jaune could feel his arms locked by Dove and Sky.
He didn't care he was doing what he wanted…he hoped.
It had been a couple of minutes since Cardin started beating up Jaune, the bully was taunting him the entire time trying to make him bend, but Jaune didn't care all he wanted was that he left his team and friends alone.
Just as Cardin threw another punch, Jaune suddenly felt his aura activate healing his wounds.
"Wow," Jaune thought to himself. as he got up, "Aura is amazing!"
He suddenly was on the ground again as one of Team CRDL pushed back down. When he looked up, he could only feel his stomach drop. It wasn't from Cardin. No, it was the giant Grimm entering the clearing.
"That's a big Ursa" Russell shouted as he, Dove, and Sky ran away.
Jaune had to agree that it was quite the big monster.
Just as Cardin got his weapon out to defend himself, the monster swiped it away from Cardin's grasp.
Jaune could only gasp at the size of the thing. It was so scary, if he took that thing on, he would surely die. As he was starting to think about running away, he caught Cardin's look of fear, as the beast made it's way towards the bully.
Should he save him? No, Cardin had been a bully and been the reason for Jaune's hell these past few weeks, good riddance, and besides all Jaune would be good for would be dying.
As he picked up Crocea Mors and started to get away, once again Mori's voice rang in his ears. "Just do what you want," … Was that what Jaune really wanted? …Did he want Cardin to die?…
Yelling out a war cry, Jaune immediately blocked the Bear Grimm's claw with his shield.
"Stupid Mori," Jaune thought to himself as he tried to stop the bears force with his weapon, "Why do you have to constantly say that, is that like your motto or something?"
Jaune immediately broke from his conflict with the bear. After creating some distance, the Grimm started to set itself up for another attack.
Jaune was scared out of his mind right now, he was going to die…but he didn't care. Right now, Jaune was doing what he wanted. He was protecting someone that needed help, it didn't matter who it was.
Jaune immediately started what was likely his last charge.
As he attempted his swing, he could feel his stance slightly change as he sliced through the Grimm…killing it…Jaune couldn't believe it… he actually killed a Grimm!
"WOOHOO!" Jaune yelled out to the Heavens.
After shouting for a couple of seconds, Jaune took a look to make sure Cardin was ok. After making sure he was, Jaune then walked over to Cardin and gave him his hand. There was one more thing Jaune wanted to do.
Jaune immediately tightened his grip and looked Cardin straight in the eyes.
"I don't care if you tell on me or not… But, don't ever mess with my team and my friends ever again." Jaune immediately let go. "Got it?"
Cardin's nod seemed to have meant he got the message
Present
Ever since that incident, Jaune had tried to live by doing what he wanted. He even told Ozpin his lie. To Jaune's surprise the headmaster didn't expel him and instead just had him do a couple of detentions as punishment.
Doing what he wanted was great, he felt better about himself and he felt challenges exciting.
So why was he feeling like crap for doing what he wanted right now?
"So, that's what happened," Mori said while stroking his chin.
"Yeah...I took your advice of doing what I wanted, and life seems to have worked out for me…except tonight," Jaune added on
"Except for tonight," Mori nodded in agreement.
"I did what I wanted," Jaune said as he sat on the bench, "So why do I feel so terrible right now,"
There was a couple of seconds of silence between the two.
"You know, Jaune," Mori spoke up, "I think it's good you've decided you want to do what you want now…. Here's the next step, and you already have some experience with it, but…you need to learn if what you want is truly what you want."
"What…" Jaune thought to himself, "Mori for once in your life make sense please."
"Mori what do you mean by that?" Jaune asked trying to make sense of his friend's vague words.
"You'll figure it out," Mori replied with a smile.
"Or you could explain it to me right now." Jaune thought to himself.
Before Jaune could vocalize his thoughts, the guard suddenly appeared to the trio.
"Are you guys, Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, and Mori Jin?" The guard asked.
At that, the two nodded.
"Your friends are outside to pick you up."
Ren was still out, so Jaune grabbed one side and Mori grabbed the other and they made their way to the entrance.
"Wait," Mori asked stopping all of a sudden, "Did that guard say friends?"
"Oh no,"
Hopefully, that didn't mean what they thought it meant.
When they got their Pyrrha was there with a worried look on her face…along with Nora who had the scariest smile they had ever seen.
"Uhhm, he's still in one piece," Jaune said hoping to somewhat make things better.
The look she gave didn't fare well for their chances.
It had been about another hour after Pyrrha and Nora bailed them out. Pyrrha spent the hour lecturing Mori and Jaune about not doing reckless things. When it was Nora's turn, Mori and Jaune were feeling worried about their legs. Mori less so, he knew that Nora wouldn't be able to really hurt him, but it was the intent that mattered.
Just as the two closed their eyes, they suddenly felt a warm feeling around them. It was Nora giving them a hug.
"I'm just glad you guys are ok," she said with a soft voice, "…But, seriously never go into a place with alcohol with Ren again, he's terrible with that stuff." she finished as she gave them the scariest look she had in her arsenal
"We know," Mori and Jaune said simultaneously, both trembling from Nora's face.
After that Mori was finally free. Instead of heading back to his room, he instead decided to go to his favorite spot in Beacon, the rooftop.
Getting to his spot on the rooftop Mori, relaxed and just stared at the broken moon.
The first semester at Beacon had already finished and Mori was able to pass all of his classes. Yang's help had been tremendous. She was able to help him get rid of all the unimportant stuff and learn the basic knowledge needed for class. It was a lot more efficient, and he didn't need to use as much energy to study.
Ironically, the worst class he had was combat class, Mori still hadn't fought since Ragnarök, he could feel his skills deteriorating from the lack of practice and the fact his body was not what it was…but if he used Renewal Taekwondo his cover would be blown.
That's what he told himself anyways.
He couldn't fight, because Goodwitch really underestimated the durability of his body, but she did have a point that the lack of aura would make it harder for his opponent, because they wouldn't have a win goal. If this was actual combat it wouldn't matter, but the purpose of a spar was to get better and aura was the parameters for spars here.
Mori did not care about not being able to fight.
He did not have any urges to join in while they were in the middle of awesome combat.
He did not make an impatient knee motion, whenever they did something that could be corrected on.
He especially did not feel his heart beat rapidly watching his friends improve and grow stronger, especially Jaune.
That is what he told himself anyways.
Jaune's growth though, had been tremendous, the difference between him at the start of Beacon and now was night and day.
Knowing the circumstances in Jaune's change, Mori couldn't help but feel proud of his blonde friend. Jaune had gained the strength to do what he wanted to do. He was learning that the only way to get stronger was to face strong people. He was enjoying his matches even though he would eventually lose. Those losses were fine, each loss made the blonde stronger, Mori estimated it would probably be another 2-3 spars before he finally got a legitimate win. "DAMMIT!"
Mori couldn't help but feel jealous of Jaune's growth. Especially, because how much Mori was stagnating. All the strength he had accumulated during his two lifetimes had been taken away from him.
"Jaune, you are amazing" Mori thought to himself as he held his hand out, "Keep growing, and getting better and better, eventually you will be able to reach the ideal that you want for yourself. You are strong and you are doing what you want…unlike me who is just runn-"
*Bam*
"Mori, I found you!" A voice yelled out interrupting Mori's musings,
It was Ruby panting with a worried look.
Mori was wondering what she was worried about, it seemed serious.
"We need your help, Blake ra—"Ruby suddenly stopped sniffing the air "Why do you smell like Uncle Qrow?"
TMT here again. Hope you guys enjoyed the latest Chapter of Journey To Remnant. It went over Jaundice but in a different way than normally told. I hope you guys liked it.
[1] So this was a reference to one of the funniest fics I have ever read. The Beacon Civil War by Coeur Al'Aran. If you've never read it before you should read it, it's hilarious.
Adilst: I agree that there are some parts that are important to the story that are hard to change. But at the same time I've been trying to experiment ways to maintain it while not being a novelization of RWBY Vol 1.
Yhwachtheirregular: I'm glad you enjoyed that joke it was one of my favorite from the past chapter.
ilanddubrowski: Your welcome hope you enjoyed this one.
Momentei: It really is true, you hear Weiss complain once about Ruby you hear it a thousand times. It does start to bother me a little where they do have fics where the crossover character essentially either takes ozpin or Port's role during that incident. I don't know what it is but I thought it wasn't really necessary for Mori to do that.
Seb Paul: Yeah thanks, I agree that Mori is too busted for Aura. I'm glad you think that the fic so far is excellent work. Btw are you still having plans on continuing your SL Fic?
darkzer01269: I'm sorry I don't speak spanish, I tried to google translate what you said though and if it's correct I'm glad that you liked the chapter and I can't wait as well to show the reactions to Re-Taekwondo.
Felip1402xza: He really did hate losing to Jaune. It's still bugging him.
andielgranrayo: Always good to see you enjoy the previous one, hope you enjoyed this one.
Cervidas: I wouldn't say the story is unique because it's just a basic crossover, but I do try to make it more interesting by focusing more on the character interactions. For the writing part though thank you, hopefully my writing gets better as I go through the fic.
Roachvit: It's more like she doesn't want to take the risk that and it would be unfair for the other students to try hit away at someone with no aura and they wouldn't have a clear win condition. This is sparring after all.
Guest: Thank you, and yes Mori is never going to live down his loss to Jaune.
Servantofcardin: Hey we all love certain characters if that's your guy so be it.
Beta'd
Woof28
Eliad91
