Chapter 8: A Step Forward.
All Roman Torchwick could do was sit in silence. Roman considered himself a smart man. So, when all of the grunts got annihilated, and the escape vehicles were destroyed by a kick, he did the sensible thing and surrendered.
That of course resulted in his current situation, cuffed in the back of a police vehicle. Of course, even though he "surrendered" it didn't mean he didn't have a backup plan.
Suddenly, he felt the vehicle stop and sounds of chaos soon occurred.
"And there's Plan B," Roman thought to himself.
A couple of minutes of gunfire and shouting rang outside and then silence.
The door of the van is opened a minute later, and Roman is greeted to a friendly sight…friendly being relative of course with the subject at hand.
"Neo, good to see you," Roman said, "Now, can you be a dear and get these off me?" he then raised his hands to show his accomplice the handcuffs.
The pink and brown haired girl gave a sadistic smile, nodded and sliced down immediately with her umbrella shaped weapon.
"Gah! Watch it, Neo!" Torchwick complained as he rubbed his now free hands, "When I said be a dear and get these off me, I meant grab the keys from one of the dead guards, not try to cut me into two."
The apologetic look on her face was completely fake, as she then showed him keys she had swiped.
"It's a bit too late for that now Neo," Roman angrily replied brushing them away, "Anyways, we need to go talk to our employer."
Neo then tilted her head, wondering what Roman was doing.
"Let's just say there's some…details I want to work out."
Getting into the bullhead, the two immediately set off to their next destination.
"So, where exactly were you when the juggernaut was tearing apart those animals like… well animals?" Torchwick asked in the middle of the ride.
At that, the girl held out her hand, made a first and did a licking motion.
"You were getting ice cream," Torchwick deadpanned, "Important Robbery and you were getting ice cream?"
The girl nodded with a smile.
"Ugh, I don't care anymore, I've already dealt with enough shit tonight." The criminal responded. "What I need to focus on is not being literal burnt toast."
Upon arriving at the secret location, Torchwick turned to Neo and instructed her to stay behind.
She just nodded and went back to her scroll.
Mentally preparing himself, Roman went into the abandoned building where the meeting was supposed to take place. Upon entering the meeting place, he was greeted to a brunette woman in a red dress.
"Roman, good to see you aren't in cuffs right now," The woman said, "Though the lack of dust and the henchmen you lost does seem to sour this meeting right now." She then put a finger on Torchwick's chest.
Torchwick could feel his temperature rising, and it wasn't because the woman was hot…even though she was. The woman had the power to use fire and he was on the brink of being extra crispy right now.
"Well Cinder, the heist had some…what can I say…complications?" Roman replied, "And because of these…complications, there's some things I need to say."
"Oh?" Cinder replied softly, "And what is that?"
Roman could feel the temperature once again rising in the room. What he was planning on saying was probably not going to help him avoid being used as kindle…but considering the shit he had gone through just now…he didn't care.
"I quit," Roman replied with a straight face.
"You…quit?" Cinder repeated in a confused voice as she took her finger off his chest.
"I quit," Roman repeated back, "When you first roped me into this I was expecting to deal with scared shopkeepers, the police, security guards and the occasional huntsman…those I could deal with, I have experience with all of those. Tonight, I did not get that…instead I got a kid who could tank explosions, lift up a 2-ton crate with one hand, bare-handedly wreck 150 grunts without breaking a sweat and to top it all off, four bullheads, a Schnee freighter, and the harbor, he destroyed with a single kick…one kick."
All Roman could think of about that nightmare of an encounter was "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!? SERIOUSLY WHAT WAS THAT!?"
Being a criminal for so long he had developed an innate sense of when someone was dangerous. Cinder of course set that sense off like a house fire. It was why he was doing her stupid job in the first place.
That kid …Wildfire compared to her. He already felt uneasy about him when they first met at that small dust shop. However, tonight's event just confirmed it. It wasn't just his durability or power that scared Roman, Cinder could also probably destroy a harbor, not with a kick, but she can destroy one…it was also the look in his eyes. There was something about them that made Roman just not want to deal with him. Those were the eyes of someone that Roman knew not to mess with.
"I don't know why you are so freaked out Roman," Cinder nonchantly replied, "Any Huntsman worth their salt could deal with that many White Fang grunts, and you've dealt with Huntsmen before."
"Did I mention the fact that he blew up a harbor…with a kick mind you?" Roman responded, angry that she wasn't taking him seriously.
"Really Roman? A kick? Use your head, one of the grunts probably didn't secure the dust enough." Cinder replied, "Stray fire caused it to ignite and make that explosion."
"I know what I saw Cinder!" Roman shouted, "And that kid blew up the Harbor with a kick, he even shouted, to quote, 'Shit, I used way too much power.'"
"…Well that is intriguing…if what you said is true, which I highly doubt, I may have to look at this boy and plan around him." The Brunette responded, "But, if you still want to leave our…partnership, you should know that we still would have to go through an…exit interview."
Exit interview, was another way to say he would have to die. Roman was weighing his options now, deal with Cinder or deal with the monster. If it was Cinder, he would probably die a painful fiery death…the monster, well Roman wasn't quite sure, but he didn't want to test his luck.
"Cinder or the Monster, Cinder, Monster, Cinder, Monster." He was thinking to himself.
"Tick tock Roman," Cinder spoke in a seductive tone, putting her finger on his chest again "I'm waiting for your decision."
Roman could once again feel the temperature rising
"Fine," Roman replied. "I'll continue, but I want something done about the monster."
He decided the monster, at least with him, maybe Red could tone down whatever the boy would do. The boy seemed fond of her.
"I wouldn't worry about that too much Roman," Cinder chuckled, "If you want to deal with a monster, all you need is a beast."
With that, she suddenly turned on the tv and started a video call.
"What do you want?" The voice on the tv asked when the call connected.
Roman instantly recognized the figure. Anyone could recognize him, after all there were not many Bull Faunus that wore a white mask with red hair.
"Those men you lent us didn't seem up to standard…I think we need some more…personal assistance." Cinder Replied.
Roman was wondering where in his life he went wrong.
With the knowledge that James Ironwood had been entrusted with, there really should have been nothing in this world that surprised him.
These past few months have proven that wrong.
The first incident was the giant pillar falling into the nearby ocean. It caused some mild panic with tsunami warnings to the coast of Mantle. Thankfully, evacuation was immediate, and they were able to calmly resolve the situation. When a group of scientist went to investigate the object, they were unable to determine what it exactly was.
Its nature was not of this world. When they attempted to remove it from its spot, they could not, 4 Atlesian Airships could not even make the thing budge. Ironwood had never seen anything like it before. They tried to blow it up as well, but the thing was unscathed. No matter what they did, it looked like Remnant had gained a new landmark.
The second thing that astounded Ironwood was the video that Private Penny Polendina had showed him.
"Thank you, Penny." He said, "Is there anything else that you would like to report."
"I was about to intervene myself to help friend Ruby's friend out, when I noticed something odd." Penny responded.
"And what was that?" the General asked.
"My sensors indicated that the boy did not use any aura, in fact it looked like his aura was still locked."
"No aura?" Ironwood responded in Shock, "He did all that, with no Aura?"
"Correct," Penny replied, "Mr. Mori Jin had not used any aura, all he seemed to use was his physical skills,"
"…You are free to go now Penny," Ironwood said finally breaking his silence.
The girl then saluted and left the room.
The images of what Ironwood had saw filled his mind as he replayed them with the knowledge of the fact the boy used no aura.
This was actually not the first time he had heard of the boy Mori Jin. He first heard about the boy when it was announced that Beacon was implementing a replacement system. Ironwood found it weird that Ozpin was breaking tradition like that, but if the system worked out it would be a boon to society.
But then there was the incident at the docks, where Mr. Jin confronted the White Fang.
Who was he? What was with his amazing abilities without aura? Was he like a Penny, a robot? No, Penny's scans asserted that he was flesh and blood. But he still could've been a secret experiment…maybe of the Queens?
Ironwood tried to have him looked up, but the only thing that was pulled up was his Beacon records, his encounters with the criminal Roman Torchwick and an arrest report for…unruly behavior.
Outside of that, there was nothing.
If it was only the records Ironwood wouldn't have been that bothered. There were plenty of settlements that were too far away to really record anything. But, the level of skill the boy showed is what made Ironwood pause.
It was astounding the way he dismantled that sect of the White Fang; they weren't elite fighters but they were still experienced. Even if he was a huntsman-in-training, they still shouldn't have been overwhelmed like that. Instead the boy treated them like toddlers.
Mori Jin showed experience, skill and awareness of a trained huntsman.
That made Ironwood wary, where did he learn this stuff and how had such an amazing individual never been heard of before?
His fighting style was something that Ironwood had never seen before, the recording mentioned him calling it Renewal Taekwondo, but there was nothing in the databases that had any records of it before.
Video analysis showed it was similar to an Mistralian martial art based of kicking, and from what Ironwood can tell it was a martial arts technique that favored precision and slipping through the enemy's defenses.
It made Ironwood incredibly wary of the boy, because the fighting style seemed to be mostly used for humans. It would be effective against Grimm, but it was especially effective against humans. The boy didn't kill any of the Fang but still…
Then the last thing that worried Ironwood was the destroyed harbor. The official report was that there was unsecured dust and a stray bullet ignited the entire shipment and caused the mass explosion. However, according to Penny there was not enough dust to cause that much damage. The destruction was caused by the boy…by a single kick.
All Ironwood could do was rub his head in frustration as he thought about the boy, he was not normal and the fact that he did this without Aura accentuated that.
What was Ozpin thinking bring the child into his school without any idea of who he was?
Suddenly, Ironwood's scroll rang while he was in his deep thought. He took out and looked at the message.
"Queen has Pawns,"
That was the message that Qrow had sent out to the group that was in the know. That made Ironwood's blood run cold. Could the boy possibly be one of the pawns?
There was too much going on in Vale now. The pillar that was close by, the mysterious boy, the dust robberies, all of it seemed to point to Vale.
Either way, Ironwood would get to the bottom of it and find out exactly what was going on. He needed the best of the best to be able to not only uncover the truth but also protect the people from whatever was coming up.
Dialing up his scroll he immediately called one of his most trusted officers.
"Clover, this is General Ironwood. I have a mission for the AceOps."
Rumors of what Mori did seem to have circulated quickly throughout Beacon the day after his confrontation against the White Fang.
"Did you hear about the Sub?"
"He apparently fought off a thousand White Fang grunts,"
"I heard that he planted a bomb and blew up the entire harbor"
"I heard it was a section of the city."
All Mori could do was groan internally about the rumors circulating around the incident. As he got his lunch and sat down, he could sense the presence of his friends joining him
"What's up Disaster Boy?" A mocking voice that belonged to an annoying blonde girl called out.
"Disaster boy?" Mori questioned, just as he was about to dig in. "Yang, what are you talking about?"
"She's talking about you blowing up one of my family's freighters," Weiss answered, "My father is pissed about that by the way."
"I'm so sorry about that Weiss," Mori apologized, as he bowed his head comically to the heiress.
"Don't worry I'm not the one who's mad." The girl responded, "You were only trying to save my teammate, you couldn't have possibly known that there would be unsecured dust that caught fire."
"Uhh Weiss," Blake spoke up, "We told you what happened, Mori's kick is the one that caused the explosions."
"Yeah," Ruby chipped in, "It was totally awesome."
"Nonsense," Weiss replied, "Use your brain, what makes more sense, our friend kicked and destroyed a harbor or unsecured dust caught fire and exploded? Me personally, I think it's the latter."
"I know that it doesn't make sense but that's what happened," Blake argued back. "I don't know why you're so stubborn in not believing that."
"It's not stubbornness it's called logic" Weiss retorted.
"Guys, guys," Ruby interceded, going in between the two, "We already made up yesterday can we not get into another argument."
"I thought I was porcupine?" Mori asked Yang, as he decided not to get in between the fight.
"Eh, you were, but like you said I didn't come up with it, so I think I'm going to call you Disaster Boy from now on," Yang teased.
Mori groaned and put his head on the table; he preferred porcupine.
"Hey if you don't want that nickname, I'll take it," Jaune interjected, "I don't want to be known as vomit boy anymore."
"Nonsense VB," Yang teased, "You will always known be as Vomit Boy."
At that, Jaune groaned as he joined Mori in putting his head on the table.
"But seriously," Yang continued, "You three had a crazy weekend, Jaune starts a fight, Ren destroys a club and Mori blows up a harbor…we have a bunch of bad boys over here." She joked.
"We spent our Friday in our rooms," The three boys simultaneous replied back. "There was no such thing as a boys' night."
"Wow," Yang responded, "You guys have got that in sync."
"Ignoring what our idiots spent their weekends doing," Weiss joined in, "Are you guys ready for our final combat spars for the semester?"
"OH!" Ruby chimed in, "Mori, you promised me you'd show me something cool in combat class."
Mori turned towards Ruby; a questioning look on his face.
"Don't tell me you forgot Mori," Ruby cutely pouted, "It was last night,"
The Night Before
Mori could only sigh as he stared at the moon once again in his favorite spot on the rooftop, the chaos of the incident at the docks had finally died downed and when he tried to go to bed, instead of falling asleep, all he could feel was his blood still rushing from the battle.
It had been so long since he had a fight.
So now, instead of sleeping, Mori was instead practicing up top on the roof top, going through his kicks.
The fight with the Fang had taught him a couple of things. Mainly, aura made me people really durable. He knew that it helped protect people, but he wasn't exactly sure by how much it did. It didn't provide much of an attack boost but people sure can take a hit as they long as they had aura. That was good, because that was what led to his second observation.
His control was completely gone, he used way too much power during the fight, he only attempted to destroy the bullheads with his blue dragon kick, instead he destroyed the harbor, that caused him to be more drained then usual.
Either way his Renewal Taekwondo and martial arts was a mess, the cause was probably a combination of his bodies condition due to the aftermath of Ragnarok and his lack of practice. He couldn't do anything about the first one but since he couldn't sleep, he may very well do something about the second.
While going through his stances. Once again Mori remembered his Grandpa's last moments, but instead of his last words, he remembered his last act… the kick that saved his life…it was the most beautiful and perfect kick Mori had ever seen… could he do it himself?
Mori took a stance as he visualized his Grandfathers last act. Remembering the form, he attempted to copy it down to the exact detail.
"Not a single drop of wasted ene—"
*BAM*
"Mori! I knew you were up here."
Mori's concentration on his kick was interrupted, as he lost control and fell onto the ground. He looked up in annoyance to find the source…It was Ruby.
"Oh, sorry" The girl responded as she rubbed her head, "Did I interrupt something?"
She did, but Mori wasn't going to say it. Instead, he nodded no.
"So, what are you doing?" Ruby asked as she tilted her head.
"I couldn't really sleep, so I decided to come up here to practice." Mori responded, as he got back up.
"COULD I SEE MORE!" Ruby asked breathing heavily, as she got into his face, "THAT WAS SO AWESOME, WHAT WAS THAT?"
"It's my Grandfathers martial arts," Mori replied as he backed out of Ruby's excited face. "It's called Renewal Taekwondo."
"Renewal Taekwondo…" Ruby repeated back, "Oh! You just mentioned your Grandpa! Did you get your memories back?"
At that Mori internally winced, he could tell her the truth that he was faking amnesia, but…how would Ruby react? Mori doubted she would be angry that he had been lying to her this entire time, disappointed and he would lose her trust, but Ruby probably wouldn't get angry.
But at the same time if he told the truth, she would want to know why he was lying, and telling her that he was a God from a different world was not an explanation that was believable, she would just think he was crazy and lying still.
"Some of them…" Mori responded, as he decided to keep up the charade, "I remembered my Grandfather and his techniques."
"If you know your Grandpa's name, we could contact him to find your family!" Ruby excitedly responded.
At that, Mori gave a sad smile and looked down.
"I'm sorry Ruby, I don't think that would be possible."
Ruby gave a curious tilt of her head.
"He…Before I met you, he…he…" Even though Mori had been able to use his martial arts again, talking about his Grandfather's death was still hard.
As if it were Déjà vu, Mori could suddenly feel a warm feeling come over him.
It was Ruby hugging him.
"I understand," Ruby replied softly. "You don't have to force yourself to say it…just let it out"
Mori only nodded as tears started to fill his eyes.
For the first time since his Grandfathers death he was able to cry about it. He had held it in for so long, for fear of someone asking what was wrong and not being able to answer why.
If only his enemies could see him now, the Great Monkey King, who challenged the Heavens, beat the Gods and became the Supreme God himself…bawling on the shoulders of a 15-year old girl.
"So, what was his name?" Ruby asked as she finally let go of Mori after he was finished crying
"…Jin Taejin" Mori responded as he wiped his last tears away from his eyes.
"Wait… if he has the same name quirk as you, doesn't that mean here he would go by Taejin Jin?" Ruby asked with curious face.
Mori paused, thought about it and nodded yes.
"That's weird Mori," Ruby responded, "Even your family is weird."
At that, Mori couldn't help but crack a smile.
"I don't want hear that coming from you, the girl with a scythe as a best friend…Not that there's anything wrong with that." He added at the end.
"No, not at all." Ruby responded back with a smile of her own.
"So, can I see your techniques?" Ruby asked after they finished their banter.
Mori nodded, as he showed Ruby the Round Kick* first, after that Axe, Fangs, Screw punch, Baekdu, Ground Drawer, Rising Back Kick, Arang, etc.
As he once again went through his Renewal Taekwondo skills, he could remember his Grandfathers influence…It didn't hurt anymore, in fact it was comforting. It was like he was right there with him. Now that he had used his techniques again Mori realized; his Grandpa was gone…but he was still alive through Renewal Taekwondo.
At that, Mori stopped his demonstration to Ruby and started to cry again.
"Mori, are you ok?" Ruby panickily asked, "If it hurts too much you can stop."
"No, No, it's fine," Mori responded as he wiped his tears again, "I just realized something while doing that."
"What was it?" Ruby asked as she tilted her head again.
"My grandfather…isn't with me anymore, but as I was going through my techniques, I realized that he was…just in a different way." Mori responded, rubbing his head with his hand. "If I never fought with this again, I would never be able to see him again."
"I'm glad… it's wonderful when a family member leaves you with such a great gift," Ruby responded as a slight tremble seemed to fill her eyes, "It definitely has the Ruby stamp of approval for awesomeness."
"Oh, you haven't even seen the most awesome of these techniques," Mori bragged…that was a big mistake.
"YOU HAVE MORE AWESOME TECHNIQUES!?" Ruby responded as she once again got close to Mori's face, "SHOW ME!"
"It's really hard to show without something to use it on," Mori responded as he tried to back away.
"SHOW ME!" Was all Ruby said in response as she seemed to drool a little bit.
"Don't look in her eyes, don't look in her eyes, don't look in her eyes." Mori chanted to himself.
He looked in her eyes…Dammit.
"I'll show you…how about tomorrow during our combat fight" Mori responded, as he once again lost to the undefeated foe.
"But you are not allowed to fight in combat class."
"Don't worry, I think I could work something out with Glynda."
Present
Oh yeah, he did promise that he would show Ruby something cool.
"You dolt, he's not allowed to fight." Weiss interrupted before Mori could respond.
"Besides, I don't think he could really top blowing up a harbor." Blake chipped in.
"He didn't blow up a harbor Blake, it…was…the…dust." Weiss argued once again turning her attention to the cat faunus.
"IT WAS NOT THE DUST!" Blake argued back.
"KICKS DON'T WORK LIKE THAT!"
"I KNOW! BUT THAT ONE DID!"
Once again, Ruby tried to get in between the two arguing.
"So, Disaster Boy, you promised to show something cool during combat class eh." Yang asked with a smirk on her face.
"I too, am interested in your abilities." Pyrrha chimed in with a glint in her eyes.
"It would be interesting to see the skills of the man who supposedly single handedly took on the White Fang." Ren chipped in.
"I can't wait to see what you can do!" Nora shouted as she too stared at Mori.
"I heard you were busting moves, so I want to see them as well." Jaune said as he joined in.
At the stares of all his friends, Mori could only sweat inside. Why did he promise to do that…it wasn't even a sure thing his way of being able to fight would work.
Still if it did, what would he show them? Any of his originals were out of the question as they caused too much damage, the True Roundhouse Kick* was also a no, because it was too destructive and again his control may slip…guess he should go with that.
All Ruby could think about all day was Mori's Renewal Taekwondo, each of the kicks, and techniques had made her excited. He was all hwacha! and then waaa! and hiyah!.
Honestly, she wouldn't ever tell her Uncle Qrow, but the docks had caused Mori to overtake him in the coolness factor.
Uncle Qrow taught her how to fight and use a scythe. But Mori's Renewal Taekwondo was just so cool. There was something about it that mesmerized Ruby.
"What was that basic kick called again?" Ruby thought to herself, "The Round Kick?"
Trying to visualize the first kick Mori showed her, Ruby attempted to copy the stance.
"I think it went like th—"
"Ruby, what are you doing!?"
Gah Ruby's concentration broke as she then fell to the ground. Who interrupted her?
"Weiss don't scare me like that!" Ruby complained.
"Well it looked like you were about to flash someone," Weiss responded with an annoyed tone.
Eep, Ruby forgot, she was still wearing her school skirt.
"Ignoring whatever you were going to do, are we going to combat class or not?" Weiss asked.
Ruby nodded and they both made their way to the locker rooms to get changed.
"So, what exactly were you doing? Weiss asked again.
"I was just trying to copy Mori's kick," Ruby explained.
"What the one that 'blew up the harbor'" Weiss mocked, making air quotes with her hands.
"He really did blow up that harbor with kick Weiss." Ruby replied, "But no, he showed me some of his other kicks last night and I was just trying to see if I can copy the most basic one."
"…that may actually be good for you." Weiss responded after thinking about it for a while.
"Really?" Ruby asked.
"You mostly use Crescent Rose, so your hands are full for the most part but I've seen that your fighting style does use some kicks, if you can add more variety it can make you a lot stronger," Weiss explained as they continued their way to the arena.
Huh that was a good idea, maybe she should ask Mori to show her some pointers on kicking.
After getting changed and heading into the arena, Ruby couldn't help but feel nervous. She generally did well in one vs one combat but still it was a final…her grade was depending on this.
"I'm so pumped for this!" Yang said as she and Blake joined Ruby and Weiss.
"Please, we should all pass with flying colors," Weiss stated with a confident tone.
"I'm more interested to see the cool thing Mori said he was going to do," Blake added
"What, is 'blowing up the harbor' not enough for you," Weiss mocked, "Is he going to snuff out the Sun with a kick next?"
"Weiss, for the last time he really did blow up the harbor with a kick!" Blake angrily bit back.
"And I am telling you it is scientifically impossible to destroy harbor with a kick especially when he has no aura." Weiss angrily responded.
"That's why it's so unbelievable!"
"So, you admit that it's unbelievable!"
Ruby couldn't help but groan. Weiss and Blake seemed to have resolved all their issues involving Blake being a Faunus and a former member of the White Fang. Ruby was glad that they seemed to let that move past them.
They were now focused about the fact of if Mori blew up the Harbor or not.
Honestly, Ruby couldn't help but sympathize with Weiss's inability to believe, if it was anybody else but Mori and if she didn't see it with her own two eyes, she wouldn't have believed it herself. It just shouldn't have happened…but it did.
"I don't know why it's so hard for you to believe us!"
"I don't know why it's so hard for you to believe in reality!"
"Ladies, are you done with your argument?" a voice cut in between Blake and Weiss's fight,
The two girls immediately stopped.
"Yes, Professor Goodwitch," the two simultaneously responded with a look of fear in their eyes.
"Now, that we have all the…distractions finished; we will now begin your finals for combat class." Professor Goodwitch began, "Each of you will be doing a one on one match, we will start with volunteers and once all the volunteer are finished, match ups will be random."
Ruby wondered who she would want to face if she volunteered, Jaune, Nora, Ren, maybe Pyrrha?
"You will not be graded on if you win or lose," Goodwitch continued, "Instead, you will be graded on past fights and how much you have improved or learned, if I find your learning unsatisfactory, you will fail your final…Now do we have any volunteers?"
A hand immediately went up, Ruby instantly recognized who it was.
"Mr. Jin," Goodwitch responded with an annoyed tone, "Like I said before, we are still waiting for you to unlock your aura before you fight,"
"C'mon Glynda" Mori responded as he put his arm on Professor Goodwitch's shoulder.
Murmurs filled the classroom as no one was able to catch Mori suddenly appear next to their Professors side. Even Goodwitch herself almost dropped her scroll in shock as he appeared next to her.
"I understand the whole reasoning behind not letting me fight," Mori continued, "I'd get hurt, it would be no use because there was no aura for you to judge on, my opponent would have to wound me to win, I get it all, but I have a proposition for you."
"It is Professor Goodwitch to you, Mr. Jin," the Deputy headmistresses responded as she recovered from her initial shock and pushed Mori's arm off, "And what could you possibly be do to make it a fair fight between you and your opponent without putting you in danger.
"Easy," Mori responded, "One clean hit, if my opponent gets one clean hit on me I will lose and you can fail me."
At that, Goodwitch thought about it for a while.
"Are you sure about this Mr. Jin? It's awfully arrogant for you to think you can beat your opponent without ever letting them get a clean hit on you." Goodwitch said as she broke out of her thoughts.
"C'mon Glynda it's a win win," Mori responded, "I get to fight, and you get to fail me if I lose, you know you want to do that."
"Once again Mr. Jin, it is Professor Goodwitch," Their teacher repeated, "And despite our…interesting dynamic, I don't want to fail you or any of my students, I want to make sure all of you will be prepared for the real world to the utmost of your ability."
"Then let me fight," Mori argued back, "I won't get any experience if I don't fight one on one and this is the best way to accommodate my lack of aura."
Goodwitch seemed to think about it, a minute passed before she finally sighed in defeat.
"…Let me be clear, I believe this is a foolhardy choice. However, our school prides itself on giving students the freedom of choice." Goodwitch finally responded while shaking her head, "You can fight, but I am warning you, I will be liberal with what a clean hit is."
Yes, Mori convinced Goodwitch to let him fight, Ruby was excited to see more of his Renewal Taekwondo.
"Who would you like to fight Mr. Jin?" Goodwitch asked.
"I wanna fight Cardin," Mori smiled, pointing his finger at Jaune's former bully.
"Will you fight Mr. Mori, Mr. Winchester," Goodwitch asked Cardin.
"Fight against the sub? Easy win." Cardin exclaimed, after recovering from his initial shock.
At that, Ruby and Blake winced, remembering the events of the night before.
"Then take your positions gentlemen," Goodwitch responded as both Mori and Cardin faced off each other. "Mr. Winchester you know the special rules, correct? One clean hit and you will win."
"Just one? I think I can get more than that Professor," The Auburn-haired boy bragged.
Again, Ruby and Blake winced,
"He has no idea what he is getting into," Blake whispered to Ruby,
"Yeah," Ruby responded.
"I'm excited to see what Mori can do," Yang responded with a fire in her eyes, "I missed the show."
"Even though he obviously did not blow up a harbor with a kick, I too am interested in seeing his fighting style that allowed him to fight 100 White Fang members at once." Weiss said, as she too couldn't hide her interest in their friend.
Ruby immediately stopped Blake from arguing again and gave the girl a look that said "It's not worth it, do it another time"
"You know replacement," Cardin said as he got into his fighting stance, "I heard what you apparently did last night…I don't believe it, I think it's a sham."
To that, Mori responded with silence as his eyes went into focus, waiting for the signal.
"Begin!"
The next couple of seconds completely shattered Ruby's expectations… and they were quite high.
Cardin charged at Mori; mace ready to strike her friend down.
In one smooth motion Mori countered the weapon with a kick and diverted the weapon to the ground. Ruby had already seen that technique before, as he used it multiple times to disarm the White Fang.
But the next technique however…
"Renewal Taekwondo" Mori calmly stated, "Triple Kick"
All of a sudden, Ruby swore she saw three versions of Mori kick different spots on Cardin's head.
*Bam* *Bam* *Bam*
Mori walked by Cardin after finishing his technique.
In an instant Cardin slumped to the ground. On screen his aura dropped form 100 percent to Zero.
Everyone in the room's mouths dropped.
With one technique, Mori had completely shattered Cardin's aura.
"Holy…" Was all Yang could say.
"He, He," Weiss was trying to say something, but she couldn't get anything out.
"…I don't even know why I am surprised." Blake said as she recovered relatively quickly
Professor Goodwitch could only stare in shock as she looked at Cardin, then Mori, then back to her scroll, then to Cardin again, then back to Mori and etc.
However, while everyone was staring in shock at Mori's strength, Ruby was paying attention to something else.
In her eyes, flashes of a figure in white seemed to appear on Mori.
TMT here again guys and with that I should wrap up Volume 1. Something I should mention is that I've been usually been posting about every 3 days or so but now I probably will have to change it to about once a week. Looks like toomuchtime is becoming notenoughtime.
About the * I decided to go with English translations instead of calling his signature kick hwecheok How do you guys feel about that? should I keep it? change? doesn't matter?
So with that, if your interested here's some things that were part of the creation of Volume 1 of Journey to Remnant. I originally decided to make Journey to Remnant because well... I couldn't sleep and was reading fanfiction. There were so many ideas that I loved that didn't feel right for me or were too short. So I decided I wanted to test myself to see how I could do.
I was originally wanted to name the fic Remnant of the Monkey King because it was a good pun...but then I realized that was already taken. Then I thought about just combining The God of High School with RWBY or Remnant...but I felt like that was too Generic and I didn't like the title at all. That and a lot of fics I don't like seem to use God of and combining with the title. I finally settled on Journey to Remnant because I thought it would be a good fit because Mori is Sun wukong and as Wukong he went on a Journey to the West and as Jin Mori he is on a Journey to Remnant...well more like through but you get the point.
I originally planned out for this chapter to be chapter 9, chapter 5 would've focused on Team RWBY and essentially would've been a rehash of the first day at Beacon except there would be the occasional thoughts of Mori. Chapter 6 would've been a relaxing chapter where it revealed his lack of aura, and him just bonding with everyone, Chapter 7 was just going to go through Jaunedice, and chapter 8 would've been the docks.
However, while I was writing chapter 4, it was one of the worst experiences I have ever had, because so much of it felt like copy and paste and lot of you mentioned that in the reviews. So I decided to scrap that story board and give you the current version of Journey to Remnant. Personally I liked it a lot more than my original plan, what do you guys think?
One of the biggest struggles while writing the fic came from, surprise, surprise chapter 4. It was figuring out how to fit Mori in Beacon. I was originally planning on having him just Join Team RWBY as a 5th member, but it felt awkward and I felt like that it would've looked like the start of a harem. Which I don't have any plans of really doing. I also thought maybe I could replace one of team CRDL but I decided against that because I had no plans for the other 3 and that would've been a waste. I eventually decided on the current way of a subsitute by being inspired by the Light Novel/Anime the irregular at the Magic school and it's weed and blooms system, of course that was BS as Ozpin was just trying to find an excuse.
Finally I'd like to thank my beta's as without them this story wouldn't be possible. I'd also like to thank the RWBY writers discord that I'm on for helping me fix parts of this story.
I'd especially like to thank you guys the readers for reading this story, I'd probably wouldn't be as motivated if I didn't have so many of you express interest. So Thank You!
Chapter 9 and the start of Volume 2 should be up next week. If it's not I will mention something in the reviews.
Reviews:
Destiny590: Yeah the hype is pretty real. It was a fun chapter to read.
felipe1402XZA: Yeah Mori's starting to show a little of his power.
Ninjagonecrazy: You're Welcome I'm glad you like it!
everlost360: I'm glad you like the chapter.
Ilanddubrovski: You're welcome I hope you liked this one as well.
Guest:I hope you are ok, but don't worry I'm still going with the story.
Ryb1:Yeah this chapter was fun to write. I'm glad you liked the set up.
Trooper50: Thank you, I'm glad you liked the build up for it, it was something I was planning since the start, I wanted to show how his grandfathers death was affecting him, but not by saying it but by taking away a part that was important to Mori which was his Renewal Taekwondo.
FPinheiro60: Yup Mori has gotten his resolved back, I'm excited to see how he does now as well.
Lechain: Nora was such a sweety for doing that.
Darkzer01269: I don't speak spansih but from google translate I agree Mori is pretty op and he's finally back!
Dxhologram: Well I was able to convince Glynda to fight I hoped you liked it.
Anon:Thank you, that compliment means a lot.
Noxdeus: I'm glad you like this story. I'm just happy to have this many readers for my first fanfiction ever.
Lilcrafter: I'm glad you liked the end, it was pretty cool.
Creus: The main reason he couldn't fight was because it would've been unfair to the opponent cause they would have no real way to win because they can't bring Mori's aura below 15% because he had no Aura, that and Glynda underestimated his durabiltiy. About the 7th master it's somewhere in Remnant just not on Mori ATM or are you talking about his crown?
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