Chapter 7: Return
"…So, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence, and instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress. So here I am. A criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little black bow."
And with that, Blake had finished telling her story to Sun, the monkey faunus that had been with her while she was hiding. She told him about her origins in the white fang, when it was peaceful, to the degeneration of its values, and her eventually deciding that she hated its current philosophies and leaving.
All Blake ever wanted to do in her life was make a change. She thought she could achieve that with the White Fang, and she did. Faunus were being treated better, but she couldn't agree with the path of violence taken achieve that.
But her desire to change the world had remained the same. That was why she was at Beacon, she wanted to be a Huntress and to help people. Even though Blake thought her team leader Ruby had naïve ideals, they were ideals Blake could relate to.
"So…have you told your friends about this?" Sun asked as he finally took in all the story that Blake told him.
Blake looked down in shame. If she had, she wouldn't be here right now. She'd probably be in jail…especially knowing how much Weiss hated the White Fang. She couldn't blame her. As Blake had gotten to know Weiss, she wasn't as bad as the rumors of her said. It seemed like most of the faunus problems with the Schnee came from her hated father.
"Nope…if she had, she wouldn't be talking with you right now, she'd still be with them." A voice behind Blake spoke up.
In shock, Blake quickly turned her around to the source, she knew that voice…it was Mori.
"Mori!"
"Oh crap, you're the guy that tied me up!"
At that, Blake turned her head back to Sun with a confused look on her face.
"So that's why you were hiding your identity," Mori said, as he waved hello to Blake, he then turned to Sun, "And I don't know what you're talking about, I spent my entire Friday night in my room."
"What are you talking about?" Sun asked confused "I clearly remember, that you were at that cl—"
"No-thing happened Friday night," Mori repeated slowly, with a serious voice. "I spent the entire night in my room, Jaune didn't start a massive brawl and Ren didn't destroy a club."
That was oddly specific, it seems like Mori and Sun had some experience with each other.
Right now, though, there were more important things to figure out.
"How did you find me?" Blake asked.
"I followed your scent." Mori answered with a straight look.
"You…followed…my scent?" Blake repeated back confused as she lifted her arm to smell herself.
She took a bath this morning, right?
"Oh, so that's how you found me after I left you guys with the bill," Sun replied as he put he pounded his fist into his hand, "I thought that was really weird."
"I don't know what you're talking about Sun," Mori replied with a smile. "This is the first time I've met you."
"BS you just called me by my name," Sun yelled back.
"We have never met before," Mori stated in a serious voice.
Ok, this was getting stupid.
"Did you call anyone else?" Blake interrupted before Sun could argue again.
"No, I found you by myself, I haven't called because I figured there was a reason you ran away…" Mori replied, his face then turned serious. "Your team is seriously worried about you Blake; you've been missing for 2 days."
"All of them?" Blake replied with an unbelieving look, "They all were worrying about me, none of them wanted to throw me in jail."
"…Well…" Mori tried to answer, "I'm sure she'll come around, you did kind of just drop that on them. Just call them and you'll see, and besides jails not that bad."
"So, you do admit that night happened!" Sun accused.
"I'm not sure what you are talking about Sun," Mori answered back. "I was just in my room sleeping."
"Mori," Blake said as she put her hand on his shoulder ignoring the antics of the two, "Thank you, for keeping my secret all this time, but these are my problems and I need to resolve them myself."
"…If that's what you want…" Mori sullenly replied.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Sun asked.
"I really don't think the White Fang is behind these recent dust robberies." Blake said putting her hand on her chin. "It really doesn't do anything to help spread the message of Faunus equality."
"So, who do you think it is?" Mori questioned.
"…Mori I've heard this story from Ruby before, but I just want to confirm it." Blake said turning towards the spiky-haired youth. "But the robbery you were at, that involved that criminal Roman Torchwick right?"
"Is Roman that orange haired guy that wears too much mascara?" Mori asked back.
"…Yes?" Blake answered.
"Then yes," Mori replied.
"Ok...At the robbery did he steal anything involving dust?"
"All he did was steal dust."
Perfect, Blake now had a suspect.
"...There is one more thing I want to check out before I make any conclusions," She announced. "I have info from a source that says there's a large Schnee dust shipment coming in tonight at the harbor. I'm going to go check out the place where it's docking, and prove the Fang are innocent…of at least the dust robberies."
"Let me come with you; it will be dangerous" Sun said as a big smile suddenly crossed his face, "You've told me about yourself but now I'm going to introduce myself. The name is Sun-Wukong, a huntsman-in-training from Haven Academy. Along with my weapons Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang we'll be able to provide you support."
"Blake that sounds incredibly…" Mori started, before getting distracted by something. "…Wait …Sun, you call your weapons Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang?"
"Yeah, why?" The Monkey faunus asked back.
"…No reason…that's not important right now." Mori then turned his attention back to Blake. "But I was going to say, that sounds incredibly dangerous if you are going to do that, at least call your team."
Mori had a point her teammates would be able to help her out here…but, Blake didn't want to involve them any further than she had to. She needed to resolve this herself.
"No," She said to Mori.
"But-" Mori tried to answer.
"I want to resolve this myself Mori," Blake said, "In fact, I don't want you to come either, you don't need to be concerned with my problems."
"I'll be fine on my own." Mori tried to argue back.
"I know you have a pretty durable body; however, this could be dangerous and if we get overwhelmed, I won't be able to help you." Blake said then she looked Mori in the eyes. "These aren't Grimm Mori, these are people, they aren't mindless, you won't be able to be much help, especially with your lack of skill."
"But—" Mori again tried to argue.
"I don't know why you are so concerned about me Mori." Blake said as she turned around, "We've only known each other for a couple of months, and we are just classmates not even teammates."
At that Mori fell silent.
"Come on Sun," Blake said now turning to the other faunus, "We should check it out, before it gets late…and Mori if you really want to help me out, don't tell my team where I'm going."
And with those final words Blake and Sun left, leaving Mori behind.
"Wow," Sun said. "That was really harsh to say to your friend."
"It's fine," Blake said trying to convince herself. "You may not know it, but he has no aura, he has a lot of potential though, but it's just that potential…I don't want to get him involved and get hurt because of my mistakes…I already have enough blood on my hands that haunts me."
"I feel like he'd be fine actually," Sun replied, "There's something about him that makes me say this guy is awesome…that never happens that fast."
"Well I don't want to get him involved." Blake said as she continued her way. "Besides that's not important, all that matters is we get to the bottom of this."
Blake was really hoping that the White Fang wasn't going to be at the docks but…what would she do if they were?
"Hopefully, I don't have to make that decision."
"Blake! ...Blake!",
"Uhm, Nora she is not going to be in the trap can" a voice commented above as Nora popped out of the trash can. It was her best friend Ren.
"You don't know that Ren," Nora replied with a bubbly voice. "She could be hiding anywhere." Her voice turning serious.
At Ren's silence Nora knew that she won.
Right now, Team JNPR were on a Blake hunt. Pyrrha and Jaune were on one side of the city while Nora and her best friend Ren were on the other. Apparently, Blake was a faunus…who knew? Nora always thought she wore cat ears for fun.
Still, Nora could not help but worry about the girl. Blake was always more sullen, and on the silent side when they did stuff together with Team RWBY. But apparently her secret getting out was bad enough to run away?
Nora quite liked the group dynamic that had developed at Beacon. Jaune, her leader was awesome especially more so now that the burden he had over his shoulders was gone, Pyrrha was amazing and Nora always enjoyed training with her, Ren was still Ren. Ruby's enthusiasm along with her innocence and Yang's energy and adventurous spirit was stuff Nora could relate too. Then Weiss's sass and Blake's snark balanced those two out.
It was quite the perfect group dynamic. Made even better by her best-guy-that's-not-Ren friend in Mori. Nora knew whenever she wanted to do something fun, she could just find Mori and they could find something to do together. Like the time that they tested how much dust it could take to a launch desk across campus. Professor Goodwitch was not happy about that one.
Either way, the balance was in danger right now with Blake running away and Nora didn't want to lose that. Beacon had become a home to her, and she now had more family than ever, it wasn't just Ren anymore. Not that she didn't mind that it was just Ren. They had been together for so long after all.
Just together though, not together-together.
"Blake, Blake!" Nora continuously cried out.
"Nora," Ren stated tiredly, "If she ran away, I don't think she'll come to us if we call to her."
"Nonsense Ren," Nora argued back, "She's just lost, if we call out to her, she will find us."
At Ren's silence Nora knew she once again won.
It had been a couple hours later, and it was starting to get late, and they still had not found Blake. It had been two days so far, where was she?
Nora was starting to feel really worried about her friend…would she be ok?
"Nora it's getting late right now we should head back, it's getting really late." Ren said as he put as hand on Nora's shoulder.
"But… Blake?" Nora said as she looked at Ren.
"She will be fine, she is a huntress-in-training after all," Ren replied with reason.
This time Ren had won their contest of reasoning. Blake would be fine probably, Nora just wished things would go back to normal and their little Beacon family could be whole again.
When they got back to Beacon, only Mori had returned from his search.
"Any Luck?" Ren asked Mori.
"I wasn't able to find…anything…" Mori answered back as he trailed off.
At this Nora had a feeling there was something wrong. During her lifetime Nora had prided herself on the ability to feel emotions. Ren may be able to suppress them with his Semblance, but because of how much time she had spent with him she was able to tell whenever someone was trying to hide their own negative emotions. Right now, something was bothering Mori, more than usual anyways.
In their little circle Nora put each of them in their own roles. Pyrrha and Nora would be the motherly ones while the other 6 in teams were like kids that needed to be taken care of. Yang occasionally would take the motherly role whenever Ruby was involved. Mori, however, wasn't really someone that needed to be taken care of. In fact, Nora put him as the big brother of the group. Anytime someone needed help or advice Mori would always be there for them.
It was most obvious with Ruby, with his constant doting over her. He was constantly making sure she was ok, trying to curb her reckless tendencies and just always listening to her whenever the girl would go on her tangents.
But just because he was closest to Ruby didn't mean he did not pay attention to the rest of their family. Like Yang, when she lost to Pyrrha in her spar, even though she was smiling and saying it was a great fight, Nora could tell when she was frustrated. When she went to go to cheer her up. Mori beat her to the punch literally, when she got there to cheer her up, Yang straight up punched Mori, he took it because he was a beast that didn't get hurt, but based off what Nora saw, he was helping getting the blonde girl's anger out of her.
Then there were all the times he helped Weiss. Whenever Weiss would reach the breaking point with her partner, Mori would instantly be there and take Ruby off her hands for a while, just enough so that she could cool down. Then there was the fact that whenever he pranked Weiss, Nora noticed that he would always do it whenever the girl was starting to feel too stressed and it helped Weiss get her mind off things.
Blake, he respected her privacy and he gladly kept her entire library of books in his room, and Jaune's improvement was because Mori kept on believing and encouraging her team leader.
Mori was incredibly kind, and he did it in ways that was hard for their other friends to notice. He was a good person, no matter if he was faking amnesia.
…That's right, Nora knew that Mori was faking his amnesia. How could she tell? Her other friends had suspicions. But they all got duped into thinking it was true whenever he would sincerely ask his questions that anyone should know. Even Nora would've believed it, if it wasn't for one tiny fact.
No one that had no memory of their past should feel that sad.
Ren could feel whenever he was angry; however, Nora could feel whenever Mori was feeling sad.
The first time she saw his sadness was when she saw Mori watch Ren practice his martial arts.
Then there would be the times he was feeling sad whenever he watched people fight, whenever Ruby and Yang were acting like sisters, whenever Jaune improved. Each of those moments, Nora could feel his sadness rolling off him.
The worst times he was feeling sad, was whenever he was in the gym just staring at the punching bag. Whenever he did that, Nora knew she needed to do something crazy with him to make him feel better.
Like she said before, it didn't matter what questions Mori asked, there was probably a good reason for them. However, his sorrow could not come from someone who had no memories.
It was sorrow coming from loss. If you had nothing to lose, you wouldn't feel sad about it. Nora knew that feeling more than anyone because both she and Ren had experienced that same sorrow.
She didn't care that he was lying about his memories, he probably had his reasons for doing so and deep-down Nora knew Mori was a good person, so she didn't have to worry about him.
But right now, something seemed to be bugging Mori, whatever it was, it looked he didn't want to talk about it.
Well, it looks like it was the first time for Mori to meet Mama Nora.
"Ren, I'm hungry, can you make some pancakes?" Nora said turning towards her friend.
"Nora wha—" Ren tried to say.
"Pancakes now!" Nora interrupted him.
And with that, Ren was gone.
"Pancakes do sound good," Mori said, as it looked like he was trying to steer the conversation elsewhere.
Oh no Mister, you're not changing the conversation, though he was right, pancakes did sound really good.
"What's up Mori? Nora asked before she got too deep into the thought of pancakes, "You seem like something is bugging you."
"Oh, nothing, it's fine." He replied back.
Nora knew that was a lie, there was something up with him right now.
"Oh, I was just wondering because I'm really worried Blake right now and I was wondering if felt the same" Nora said as she continued the conversation.
"I think she'll be fine; besides, she ran off on her own, so she probably doesn't want us to look after her. I'm not too worried for her she is just a classmate after all." Mori answered
Nora could tell that was not true, Mori's conflict within him seemed like it was reaching a breaking point. What could she do to help him?
…There was that…
"You know Mori," Nora started, "Did I ever tell you about my childhood,"
Mori nodded no. Of course, he would, she kept this to herself, because the memories were too painful, however, Mori needed this.
"I used to live in this place called Kuroyuri…I was an orphan." Nora said bitterly remembering her experience there. "Certain…circumstances forced me and Ren to be together and for a while, it was Ren and Nora vs the World! …we were basically family…because that's all we had."
"…I'm sorry," Mori answered with a somber look.
"You don't have to be sorry, Mori," Nora replied back. "There's a reason I'm telling you this."
Mori then gave Nora a questioning look.
"Ever since we've been at Beacon it has seemed like I've added to my family!" Nora continued. "I consider all of you guys family, my team, Team RWBY and even you Mori."
"But you've only known me for a couple of months, and besides, aren't we just classmates?!" Mori answered back with a confused look on his face.
"So?" Nora refuted, "Whenever a baby is born parents don't wait to love it, once it comes to them they love it immediately…that's… you guys…ever since the school year has started I've loved being around you guys and to me that's family. Outside of Ren, I've never really had one…and I don't want to lose this one, not a single person…"
A moment of silence filled the air as it looked like Mori was digesting what Nora said.
"Mori," Nora said grabbing his hands and then looked into his eyes, "You know, you may say we are just classmates and you don't care… but to me you're a terrible liar."
At that, a light that Nora had never seen before on Mori seemed to glow in his eyes, as he suddenly turned away and started to run.
Nora knew whatever she said, had an effect.
"Nora, how many panc-" Ren returned stopping in the middle of his sentence, "Where's Mori?"
"Don't worry, he's doing whatever he needs too right now," Nora answered back. "And I want ten of them."
"The docks where is the docks?" Mori was thinking to himself as he continued to run. "Dammit I don't know where anything is."
Right now, Mori was desperately trying to find the stupid docks that Blake was going to recklessly check out. Knowing the luck that he had she was going to be in serious trouble. Seriously why couldn't she just call for help.
"Aggh, why didn't I ask Blake what docks she was going!" Mori screamed to himself putting his head between his hands.
*Boom*
A loud explosion occured as Mori turns to look to the source.
That was probably the location of the docks.
Suddenly his scroll that he got from Ruby and Yang started ringing, Mori took a look at who it was…it was Ruby.
"Mori," Ruby cried out in a panic, "there's an explosion at the docks, I think Blake may be there, she may be in trouble, I'm going to go check it out."
"Ruby wai—" Mori tried to respond but it was too late, Ruby turned off her Scroll.
"Dammit Ruby," Mori thought to himself, "Why do you have to be so reckless."
The girl had gotten better with curbing her recklessness, but when it came to helping people out it still was there.
As he continued to make his ways to the docks, all he could think about was Nora's words to him.
Right now, Jin Mori had been living a lie. The reason why he was at Beacon… a lie. His amnesia … a huge lie…his friendship with everyone…based on a lie. Ever since he had arrived in Remnant, Mori had just been lying. But Nora was right…he was a terrible liar…especially to himself.
He pranked Weiss because he enjoyed it, not because he was trying to loosen her up, though he did time it for when she needed to let out stress.
He did get bothered when he saw Team CRDL bullying that Rabbit Faunus during lunch.
He was still pissed about that loss to Jaune "Dammit".
He did get upset when Goodwitch said he couldn't fight.
He was pissed that people kept on looking down on him.
He thought Blake was being stupid trying to do this on her own.
But the biggest lie of all he was why he would not use his Renewal Taekwondo or any of his martial arts.
He gave the excuses of they weren't worth the effort, the skill level was too low, he was hiding his power from Ozpin, his body was a wreck, etc.
All those reasons were a lie.
The real reason why he had not used it? …It hurt too much. Whenever he went through the stances and techniques, the memory of his grandpa would keep on haunting Mori's mind.
He could remember his grandpa first teaching him the basic stance.
When he performed his first kick Mori could remember his grandfather's happy face.
When Mori finally learned how to do the Bo-Bup step, he could remember his grandpa holding him up and congratulating him.
When he performed his first triple kick, he could remember the proud look on his Grandpa and then taking him out to eat as a reward.
Each of those techniques was engraved with his memories of his time with Grandpa.
Using Renewal Taekwondo had been too painful…all he could think of whenever he tried to use it now was his Grandfathers last moments. And if he wouldn't use Renewal, why would he use anything else?
It was stupid and illogical, but that's how Mori felt. Being on Remnant he had no reason to fight…is what he had thought.
Then he went to Beacon and met his new friends.
They were all so amazing.
Ren, with his silent nature and always attempting to input reason into conversations. Mori always enjoyed his talks with Ren whenever he had the chance to.
Pyrrha, being a true warrior who Mori had been itching to fight…despite being so strong her strength hadn't corrupted her, instead she was one of the kindest people Mori had ever gotten to know.
Nora was always fun to be around, and she always had this knack for helping someone at their lowest, evidenced by their previous conversation.
Weiss…he was getting along better with her, but even though she held everyone to a high standard her standards for herself were set even higher. She always worked hard and when she thought no one was looking she worked harder. Despite her cold attitude towards him, he could remember her lending him dust for the first time when he had none on him and giving him advice with it, even though she framed it meanly.
Blake, his current problem child…she was silent and kept to herself. But she still was a part of the group and he couldn't help but smile remembering all the times she would try to get him into literature. Knowing her story now, he couldn't help but feel more connected to her. She wanted to atone for her mistakes and chaos she had caused. That desire to redeem herself was something that Mori could understand and respect.
He was only pissed at her because she wanted to do this alone at her current level.
Jaune, was goofy and unfocused at times, but he had a big heart. He was Mori's first guy friend in Remnant. Mori could remember Jaune introducing him to his comic books and inviting Mori to Team JNPR's room to play video games. Then there was his strength. He started out weak, but his growth was unbelievable. Mori was jealous of how strong he had gotten in such a short time.
Yang, one of the first people Mori met on Remnant. She enjoyed a fight and adventure, and Mori would always get along with that. Despite her brash exterior, she was also kind and loving, especially to her family. It seemed like Yang had included Mori into that circle, especially with how much she was helping him with his schoolwork. Mori always knew that whenever he talked with Yang, they could be real with each other.
Finally, there was Ruby… She was reckless, she was a sugar addict, she had no respect for Mori's privacy or personal agency, and Mori had a hunch that all the times she was being cute to make him do what she wanted, was an act.
Despite all this, Ruby was the person he was closest to in Remnant. She was naïve and trusting to fault, but despite all this there was something about her that caused Mori to just go along with her antics, in fact the only time he had ever used his Renewal Taekwondo in Remnant was to save her from the Death Stalker.
Her kindness in caring for a random stranger was something Mori hadn't experienced in a long time.
Her desire to save everyone was a trait he had only seen in one other person.
Her insights to Mori's true self was something that scared him at times. It was freaky how she knew that a staff was best suited for him.
Her belief in Mori was something that Mori couldn't understand. In fact, why did she call him for help. Why not call the police, Beacon or even Yang. Instead she kept on believing in him for no reason and kept on saying he'd be a great Huntsman and hero.
He was no hero; he was a coward running away from his past. He failed to save his important people when it mattered. But anytime she looked at him with her silver eyes and said "Mori you'd make an awesome huntsman" there was something about it that made him believe her.
She saved his life. Not from the Beowolves like she thought or from that "Giant Pillar."
She saved his life by allowing him the opportunity to live again.
Without Ruby's influence, Mori would not be at Beacon and he would instead be wasting away hiding.
He was sure he would be a lot more jaded towards other people if it wasn't for Ruby's actions.
He was still cautious; but Ruby had a way of making him open to other people again.
Jaune, Ren, Nora, Pyrrha, Weiss, Ruby, Blake, Yang… All these people had become important to Mori. Nora was right, time didn't matter, he genuinely had grown to love and care for them… like family.
"Mori… Please…Stay Alive…And don't hate people… too much." His grandfather's last words echoed throughout Mori's mind
He was alive Grandpa! and he did not hate people, in fact he had found a new group of people to love, along with his friends from earth.
Ever since he had arrived in Remnant, Jin Mori had been trying to find a new purpose in life. He did not know why he should fight… he had finally found his why.
"I…I want to fight for them." Mori said out loud as he continued to his destination. "And l won't lose anyone! Ever again!" He promised to himself.
Jin Mori, the Monkey King was gone… Mori was unsure if he would ever return.
But right now…Jin Mori the fighter was finally making his appearance on Remnant.
Right now, Ruby wasn't quite sure what to do. All she knew was that her teammate Blake was missing, and that she needed to help her out.
"Blake, Blake!"
Ruby yelled out as her search for teammate.
"Friend Ruby, I don't think your friend Blake is around here, if she was, she would have heard you yelling and responded immediately," Ruby's new friend Penny spoke up.
"Penny…you know what… you're right," Ruby dejectedly responded back to her new friend.
It had been two days and they had no luck finding her teammate. Right now, Ruby was checking the harbor, trying to find the missing girl.
Would Ruby ever see her teammate again? Ruby didn't care that she used to be a part of a terrorist group. The Blake she had gotten to know during these past few months at Beacon was not evil.
"Gahh" Ruby screamed in her mind. Stupid Weiss, why'd you have to be so stubborn, and stupid Blake why'd you have to run away."
"You looked Stressed Friend Ruby," Penny chipped in again, "I heard a massage can help you lower your stress level, would you like a massage?"
"No Penny, I'm fine," Ruby replied back, putting her hand to her face.
Penny was a … unique new friend that Ruby met when they were checking out the Vytal festival. She seemed nice though, but she just did the strangest stuff sometimes.
Wait…hadn't she said something like that before? …Oh yeah, when she first met Mori.
Now that Ruby thought about it, she had a habit of making strange friends. Maybe it was because her best friend was a scythe…not that there was anything wrong with that of course.
"Are you sure?" Penny responded, "My sens-, I can tell from your facial expression that you feel incredibly worried."
*Boom*
Before Ruby could respond to Penny an explosion occurred grabbing the two girls attention.
"Something tells me Blake is over there," Ruby thought to herself as she started to make her way to the source of the explosion.
"Friend Ruby!" Penny yelled, "Should you not call for help?"
Ruby immediately stopped in her tracks.
Doof, of course, it would be really reckless of her to go in just by herself.
She immediately opened her scroll and called the first person she could think off.
"Mori!" Ruby yelled out, "there's an explosion at the docks, I think Blake may be there, she may be in trouble, I'm going to go check it out." And then she hung up her scroll without letting him respond.
"Friend Ruby, was that the boyfriend you just called?" Penny asked tilting her head.
"Penny, he's not my boyfriend," Ruby replied.
"Is he not a boy and is he not your friend?" Penny asked tilting her head. "If yes to both, then that makes him a boyfriend correct?"
"Penny that's not what that word means," Ruby responded with a sigh, "Just… I'll explain it later… just stay here while I go check out that explosion."
And with that Ruby was off. When she got to the source of the explosion, she finally found the object of her search…She was with that Monkey Faunus that Weiss didn't like…and she was surrounded by a lot of people, with weapons. Normally Ruby would be excited about that but…now didn't seem like the time for that.
"Blake!" Ruby called out to her friend.
"Ruby!" Blake yelled back. "What are you doing here!"
"I saw the explosions and I figured you had something to with it" Ruby explained back, "I called for help, so it should be on the way."
"Wait, you saw an explosion and thought she was here," The Monkey Faunus said then he turned to Blake. "What kind of awesome stuff do you get into?"
"Who'd you call?" Blake asked ignoring the boy's question.
"I called Mori!" Ruby answered back.
"Mori!?" Blake shrieked back. "Ruby, I know you believe in the guy and think he has potential and I think he does too, but he is not going to be much help without Aura right now."
Oh drat, Blake had a point, why didn't she just call the police or Yang?
"As much I'm enjoying this reunion, I do have a robbery I need to finish." A voice cried out.
Ruby turned to see who it was. It was that thief from the dust store.
"Torchwick," Ruby muttered.
"Good to see you too Red." Torchwick replied tipping his hat. "No boyfriend today?"
"He's not my Boyfriend!" Ruby yelled back.
Seriously why did everyone call Mori her boyfriend? Sure, he was nice, and she liked hanging around with him…but she was more interested to see how much of a awesome Huntsman he could be in the future.
"Still, even without him here, not much has changed." The orange haired villain chuckled, "You still need to pay attention to your surroundings," he then pressed a button.
Ruby heard a click above her, and she looked up, it was a giant crate…Ah, biscuits she wasn't paying attention again.
She closed her eyes hoping that it wouldn't hurt too much…except the pain didn't come…again? Ruby swore this happened before.
"Ruby," An exasperated voice next to her said, "You really need to pay better attention to your surroundings."
Ruby opened her eyes to the sight of something familiar, Mori protecting her…again.
He was holding up the giant cargo freight like it was nothing with one hand.
"Ok, Superman!" Torchwick complained, "You can survive massive dust explosions and apparently can hold a 2-ton cargo freight like it's nothing, anything else you can do?"
Mori ignored the villain as he tossed the heavy box with ease into the sea.
"Blake!" Mori yelled out, "I told you this would be stupid, and you should have called for help!"
"What are you doing here!" Blake cried out. "I told you not to come!"
Wait, Mori already met Blake and didn't bother telling her. Oh, he was going to pay for that.
"I heard you!" Mori replied back, "And I decided I want to ignore that.,"
"But—" Blake tried to reply,
"I can't hear you, sorry Blake, you are too far away," Mori interrupted, putting his head between his hands.
"Bu—"
"Blah, Blah," Mori sang back as he covered his ears.
As she watched him act like a complete goofball, Ruby couldn't help but chuckle despite the situation they were in. There was something different about Mori. It was like a giant burden seemed to be off his shoulders.
"Mori," Ruby said interrupting the strange dance her friend was doing.
He stopped his dance and looked at her.
"You're here," Ruby continued, "But I don't know how much help you can be."
At that Mori smiled at her, putting his hand on top of her head, it felt kind of nice.
"I'll be fine," he said in a reassuring voice looking into her eyes, "There were…some things I remembered."
Did Mori recover some of his memories? That was great!
"I want you to stay here with on the sidelines while I go to help Blake and Sun," Mori said.
"But—" Ruby tried to reply.
"This is something I want to do for myself." Mori interrupted her with a serious voice, "If you're in the way, I may accidentally hurt you."
There was something in Mori's eyes that made Ruby believe in him.
She nodded ok, and with that Mori was suddenly gone, and was instead next to Blake and the monkey Faunus named Sun.
"Blake," Mori said still a serious tone as he appeared next to her, "When the fighting starts I want you and Sun to join Ruby on the sidelines, I already told her this, but with the way I am now, I'm not sure I can protect if you're in my way."
Blake and Sun were too startled by Mori's sudden appearance to say something.
"I know, you don't want my help," Mori continued, "But I want you to listen to me for once…got it?" the last part was said with so much force that Blake and Sun immediately nodded.
What Mori did next, Ruby could not believe.
"Uhm, Mori," Blake asked with a confused look on her face. "What are you doing?"
"I'm stretching," Mori replied with a frank face, as he straightened out his neck. "It's important, so I don't pull a muscle."
"Look, I don't know who you are," A big elephant faunus interrupted while walking up to Mori "But, if you think that you and those traitors are getting out of here alive you have got another thing coming."
At that Mori was silent with his back turned towards the White Fang grunt.
Suddenly, the grunt was sent flying into the ocean. Mori was now facing the other direction with a leg sticking out.
Ruby could barely catch what happened, but it seemed like Mori delivered a rising back kick.
"Hey!" Mori cried out, putting his leg down, "If you guys don't want to end up in a hospital, stand down!"
Ruby could not believe what she just heard…THAT WAS SUCH AN AWESOME LINE!
At that the White Fang members started conversing to themselves,
"Stand down?"
"This kid's delusional right?"
"Does he not see how many of us there are?"
"Kid, we are not the ones that are going to end up in a hospital."
"What can one guy do by himself?"
And with that, all the White Fang members readied their weapons. Ruby estimated there to be around 100-150 of them.
In response to their show of aggression, Mori once again took a stance. It was the mesmerizing stance that Ruby first saw in the first robbery with Torchwick. This time, however, there was no hesitation in Mori; instead, all she saw was conviction.
"Renewal Taekwondo: Basic Stance." He said in a calm voice.
Renewal Taekwondo? Ruby had never heard of anything like that before.
"Look kid, you don't even have a weapon what can you do agains—"Another grunt started to talk but was interrupted.
It wasn't by someone else talking, no…he was interrupted by Mori all of a sudden delivering a devasting knee strike to his face.
Suddenly Mori was now in the middle of the giant crowd of White Fang grunts.
What was Mori was doing? …He put himself right in the middle of the enemy…so much for not being reckless, he was being a massive hypocrite.
At Mori's sudden intrusion to the group, a grunt tried to raise his weapon and strike him. Ruby was about to warn Mori, but in one smooth motion he caught the weapon with his leg, then disarmed his opponent and kicked the grunt into the ground.
Another tried to hit him with his back turned, Mori immediately pivoted out of his first strike and delivered another devasting back kick to the unfortunate attacker.
Chaos erupted within the White Fang's rank as they tried to fight off the lone intruder. It was to no avail as he would either dodge, disarm or counterattack his opponent's futile attempts to hurt him. He was destroying them all with just kicks and punches.
"Wow," a voice next to Ruby said, it was Sun who along with Blake had arrived next to Ruby, "Remind me not to stick him with the bill again."
"I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!" Mori yelled as he finished crunching another grunt between his elbows and knee. "I SPENT MY FRIDAY IN MY ROOM!"
Huh, looks like Sun was somehow involved in "Boy's night."
"Ignoring his refusal to acknowledge we have met," Sun said turning to Blake, "He'd not be much help huh?"
"I…I…" Blake stuttered as she watched the carnage.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS KID!"
"SOMEONE STOP HIM!"
"HE'S JUST ONE-"
The last voice was interrupted as Mori delivered a brutal elbow strike to his next victim.
This was amazing, Ruby had never seen anything like this before. She expected Mori to do something awesome when she first saw his stance…but not like this.
It was like watching those Martial Arts movies her Dad and Yang liked to watch. Ruby liked those and she thought they were cool…but if they had weapons they would be cooler. She had never really been into hand-to-hand combat
But, there was something about watching Mori that seemed so…Beautiful… his movements were so… amazing.
Ruby's biggest problem with Mori had always been his lack of weapon…But watching him now it was like his whole body was a weapon. The White Fang couldn't touch him as he kept on delivering brutal strike after strike.
Using one leg to block an attack and then quickly using another to deliver a blow, Mori continued his onslaught against his enemies.
"THIS KID IS A MONSTER!"
"WHY CAN"T WE HIT HIM!"
"MOMMY HELP!"
"JUST MAKE IT STOP PLEASE!"
Their cries were no use as Mori continued to strike down his enemies with his martial arts.
"OK!" Torchwick screamed, "Where are the Bullheads?!"
And with that, Ruby noticed 4 bullheads fly in as they aimed their weapons at the boy.
"Mori!" Ruby cried out.
Mori instantly understood what she was saying, as he suddenly kicked off one grunt and jumped into the air.
"What is Mori doing?" Blake asked..
"Knowing what I've seen so far, something awesome." Sun replied.
Ruby had to agree with Sun that Mori was giving off signs of doing something really cool.
Suddenly, Ruby felt a chill as she noticed that the air around her seemed to be getting redirected.
It was gathering around Mori. Ruby couldn't but notice it was taking the form of…a dragon?
"JIN MORI ORIGINAL," Mori shouted midair, "BLUE DRAGON KICK" He then unleashed his attack against the bullheads.
The bystanders closed their eyes as a giant explosion filled the Harbor.
When Ruby opened up her eyes, she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"WHAT KIND OF MONSTER ARE YOU!" Torchwick cried out in shock.
"He…. He…" Blake was trying to say something, but she couldn't get it out.
Sun wasn't saying anything, because his mouth was dropped to the floor.
Honestly, Ruby couldn't blame him. Because the sight she was seeing shouldn't have been possible.
With just one Kick, Mori had absolutely destroyed the harbor. The bullheads, the docks, the Schnee shipment freighter…all of it was gone.
All that was left was just the bodies of the White Fang members groaning in pain.
"Shit!" Mori cursed, "I used way too much power."
TMT here again. I hoped you enjoyed the latest chapter.
Hasirama1710: Well Mori's fighting starts now. I can't wait to write his advenuters on remnant now.
Netapel: That may not be for a while. It would make an extremely short story if I did that immediately. Though, I may do a short involving that.
YhwachTheIrregular: Thank You I'm glad you are enjoying it.
Guest: I'm glad you like it so much.
Korst: You are right that when doing a crossover it can be extremely awkward when you are trying to insert just one character into there. There were a couple of things I was thinking of to solve that problem. There wasn't really anyone from the main cast I wanted to cut. Now that I think about it, I could have cut Pyrrha and put her in Mistral. However, I wanted Mori to gain a connection with all of the main eight. I actually was thinking of putting him with Team CRDL, but I decided against it. Yeah it would've made more sense to just have him on there so that he would have a team...but again I had no real plans for them and didn't really want to make any plans to fit them into the story. I think it would've been dumb to just stick him on there just for the sake of having him on a team. And they would essentially just be background characters. So if I just introduced characters with the sole purpose of filling the "Rules" but had no real intention of using them that feels like a waste. About him being a spare...That was the intent. People at Beacon treat like him a spare, because he is one.
Fpinheiro96: I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.
samsoasa14: For now, his God powers are going to be sealed...that may not be the case in the future. I don't think there is a time limit though.
destiny590: I hope you enjoyed the fighting in this chapter.
Beta's
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