Welcome back again. Did you miss me? No replies, okay then. Well I am excited to bring you all another chapter. I wish that I planned out a Valentines special, but it just slipped my mind so I apologize to those who may have wanted some nice fluff to read and enjoy. Anyways, I'll let you see what happens to Crayg as he begins to learn about the Hunters and Huntresses.
Chapter 3: A New Home
It was a beautiful day and everyone in the Xiao Long house was bustling with excitement. Ruby and Yang were enjoying their French toast as Crayg was waking up. When the sisters saw him sit up from the couch they both rushed and checked up on him.
"Do you feel better Crayg?" Ruby asked bouncing up and down on both feet.
"Ruby, your ankle," Crayg pointed out before receiving a grin from Ruby.
"It's all better now. I am one hundred percent healed up and ready to fight more Grimm." She said and ran around the couch to prove her point. "One good night sleep will heal just about any minor injury."
"Okay so my arms should be- oh, scarred a little." Crayg said before realizing what they had that he didn't. "Aura, I can't believe that I forgot that, but then again when you live with slow healing for all of your life, you get used to it being slow. Although I have to say that the healing mix that was put on my arms works wonders, even if the dreams I had were a little strange."
"Really, what happened?" Yang asked interested in his tales of dreams.
"Well, I was lying down on the couch when a nurse came in and gave me a blanket. I think it was then that I sat up and asked her for the picture." Crayg said and paused to think about if he wanted to give out more information. Yang smiled and picked up where he left off.
"The picture that you drew of Ruby and then asked if I would like it and wanted to offer if I would like to be drawn. I know because it actually happened, Crayg." Yang smiled and watched as his face went red with embarrassment. Ruby started to smile and laugh.
"Yang, that's mean, but also funny at the same time." Ruby fell onto the floor hugging her sides. "It's almost like one of those scenes where you actually remember everything after drinking magic water."
"Magic water?" Crayg asked before Yang whispered into his ear about how innocent Ruby is and caught onto the act. "Oh, of course magic water, how can I forget something like that? Anyways, since Ruby is feeling better what is the plan for today?"
"We're both going to Signal today for school and how about you?" Yang replied knowing that he probably might get bored with going and spending hours at the library again today.
"I'll be learning more about the world and maybe think about unlocking my aura, if I have any that is." Crayg said and Yang raised an eyebrow.
"Okay Crayg you're coming to school with us tomorrow. It might be a good idea to learn of a job here and gain some firsthand experience." She said as Taiyang came out of the kitchen wondering where his daughters went and overheard their conversation
"That sounds like a lot of paperwork for me to deal with." Taiyang said as he looked at them all leaning against the wall. "Also, why do I have half eaten breakfasts still on the table?"
Ruby rushed back to finish her plate and Yang followed at a more casual pace. Crayg looked over at Taiyang and mouthed a 'thank you' before getting ready to head out for the library again. As he entered outside a hand fell on his shoulder.
"I just wanted to thank you again for keeping Ruby safe and I think that you should really consider your options right now." Taiyang said while looking at him with a stern look. "Since you helped out both my daughters I'll let you choose one of two options. You can either find a job and leave and begin your new life, or start thinking about becoming a hunter and we would help you with your training and since you have some fighting experience and killed your first Grimm, it wouldn't be too hard to make an explanation for you and to make a profile. And yes you would be able to live here, but just remember that you will be helping out with chores around the house."
"Well, can I answer you at the end of the day so I can think about each option?" Crayg asked and his shoulder was freed from Taiyang's grasp.
"Okay, sure. I'll let you have the time to think, but if I don't hear anything I'll assume that you chose the first option." After Taiyang said that he went back inside.
"I better take this seriously." Crayg whispered to himself and left for the library in Vale.
He traveled to Vale and couldn't help but get the feeling as if he were being watched by someone. He kept on looking around and saw that everyone was just going about their day, but he couldn't convince himself to shake off that feeling. When he reached the library the feeling went away and he began to relax a little. He continued to look around just to be sure that he wasn't being watched before beginning his research about the world again. About an hour in he heard a voice that he recognized from yesterday.
"So, you're back again?" He looked up to find the owner of the voice once again reading through her book. "It's nice to see that you won't give up after one day."
"Well, it's not like I had much better things to do." Crayg said and saw the bow twitch again. "Why does your bow keep twitching like that?"
"What?" the girl said in surprise that he was observant. "It's just the wind, I assure you."
"Well you must be wrong because I haven't felt any wind at all." Crayg said before opening his book. "Well it must be a pretty big secret to hide. It's almost as if you were hiding… ears."
The girl's eyes went wide with fear and then anger. She glared and him and growled at a very low tone. "Okay Mr. I-can-see-and-understand-everything, if you tell anyone about this, I will make sure that you will regret it later."
"Okay, so are they sensitive to sound and being touched?" He asked before coming to realize something. "Wait a minute. I don't even know your name. Care to trade names?"
"What? Why would I tell you my name?" She began her questions again like she did yesterday before noticing the scars. "How did you get those scars?"
"Oh, uh I may have had some Grimm try to chase me and my friend yesterday. So I kind of blocked them and this is my battle scars from them." Crayg said and looked over them again. "I haven't managed to unlock my aura yet. How do I go about doing that?"
"The best way to have your aura unlocked is to have someone else unlock it for you." She answered before standing up to get away. "I'm sorry, but I need to leave now."
"Oh, okay. Take care." Crayg called out as he watched her leave. He returned to the books in front of him and began to think about what Taiyang said. 'The pros of the first choice is that I can become whatever I want to be, however I would not have a place to sleep for who knows how long. On the other side, becoming a hunter would involve missions that my life would have my life on the line every time, but I would have a place to stay warm. So option one is freedom of job choice but no home and option two is a fixed job choice but be able to live with Yang, Ruby, and Taiyang.'
His thoughts were interrupted by a woman with black spiky hair. She wore red armor and when he looked up to meet her eyes, he found them to be as red as blood. His mind told him to run away, but his body didn't respond at all. He looked down to hope that she wouldn't bother him at all. Whenever he looked up to check on her, he looked straight back down and tried to hide himself behind the book that he was reading before she arrived.
"I finally found you." She spoke up and his blood froze in place. "Sorry about making you wait, but I think that it's time that you come with me."
"And what if I refuse to come with you?" He asked wondering to himself just what in the world was he doing, but her response surprised him.
"I would wait until you do come with me." She said standing up making a portal behind her. Before she walked through, she turned back and left Crayg a surprise. "After all, don't you have questions to ask of the person who brought you here into this world?"
"Wait, you brought me here?" Crayg shouted as the portal closed. He gritted his teeth knowing that he would need to get stronger. He knew that he was outclassed by her, even with his strength and durability. "Looks like my choice is clear, I need to get stronger before I can think about trying to figure out why she brought me here."
Time flew by as he continued his studies about Grimm, aura and weapons and tinkering with them. He looked at the time to see that it was evening and he had not eaten anything all day. It was normal for him to miss meals, but he was starting to feel hungry. He considered about going into the wild and finding some berries that were edible when the girl with the bow returned and began eating a sandwich with a banana and apple.
"I don't think that we're allowed to eat in here." Crayg said as he pointed out a sign which food was crossed out with a red circle with a slash through it. She kept a watch on him but didn't respond to him "You know, I don't bite, so whether or not you are or are not a Faunus won't make much of a difference to me."
She sat there in silence continuing to study and observe him. He gave up trying to have a conversation with her and began to put away the books and leave. She continued to follow him around to see where or what he might do. She continued to nibble on her sandwich as she followed him, much to his discomfort.
"What are you doing?" Crayg asked and turned to face her as she turned away and took glances at him on occasions. "Okay fine."
He continued to walk and be followed by the girl with the black bow until he found a nice hill next to a river. He sat down and began to draw the nice calm scene before him. The girl made sure that her shadow wouldn't cover his work but went to see what he was working on. He had managed to draw her sitting on the hill with accurate detail. Her interest grew more and more to see what he would do to the picture next. He suddenly stopped in the middle of her bow and stood up.
"Getting late?" She asked and it was his turn to be the quiet one as he walked down to a group of kids, three humans and three Faunus. They were arguing between each other and Crayg didn't want for it to end in violence.
"Hey, how about we all take a step back and talk things through." Crayg said as all of the kids turned to him.
"Yeah, now we have another normal person to fight off you animals." A blonde boy said before receiving a cold glare from Crayg.
"No, I won't be fighting anyone. Now, can I ask you three what happened?" Crayg turned towards the three Faunus with a patient look on his face.
"Well we were just playing with the Frisbee together when they showed up and started to call us animals and they weren't very nice about it." A wolf tailed boy said and showed the Frisbee to Crayg.
"Okay, now why would you three start calling them names like that?" Crayg turned to the other three kids who began to shift nervously before the blonde boy nudged his brown haired friend.
"We were kind of hoping that they would get scared and drop the Frisbee and run away." The kid responds and causes everyone to look at the kids with a look of confusion.
"Is that it?" Crayg asked with a raised eyebrow as he watched the three kids nod their heads slowly. "You know this whole thing could have been avoided with the right kind of words."
"Yeah, if you wanted to play with us, you could have just asked." A boy with deer antlers on the top of his head said with a smile and shrugged a little. "We would have been able to play more games with more people."
"You really would have let us join?" All three asked and smiles grew on their faces when they saw them agree to the idea. "Well, we're sorry for calling you animals."
"I think the antlers are cool." The brown haired boy said as Crayg smiled.
"See, we shouldn't be mean to one another because of race or how we appear different to each other." Crayg said and used himself as a joking example. "I could be an alien from outer space and yet if we could still get along if we take the time to accept the differences that make all of us special. Do you all understand?"
"Yes, thanks old man." They all shouted before running away giggling and ready to play together.
"I'm not old!" Crayg shouted before laughing at what he said. "Looks like telling the truth helps a lot."
"That was certainly a nice way to bring humans and Faunus as equals. Maybe you should start a peaceful organization." The girl with the black bow said handing his sketchbook to Crayg. "My name is Blake."
"Nice to meet you Blake, I'm Crayg, Crayg Woods." He introduced himself normally and took back the sketchbook and opened up back to where he was working on. "What do you think of it so far?"
"I'm impressed on how you managed to remember that much detail about me." She said as she looked over it. "You even got the bow down correctly. So, how is 'deciding on what you're going to do' coming along?"
"I think that becoming a Hunter is the best choice I have right now." Crayg said and finished up his drawing and put it away. "So, how was your lunch and/or dinner?"
"It was okay, how about you?" She asked only to hear his stomach answer for him.
"Nothing as of yet, but I think that I'll be heading home now." Crayg said standing up to head for the boat to go to Patch. "Maybe I'll see you around Blake?"
"Until next time," Blake responded and watched him leave before looking at the group of kids playing together. "This world need more people like him."
Crayg made it back to Patch and was making his back to what he would be calling home. Taiyang smiled when he saw Crayg come into view from the porch.
"So I take it that you're going to stay for a lot longer than intended?" He asked and Crayg smiled back.
"I think that it would be a good idea for me to use what I know to help take out the Grimm." His answer was clear and true and Taiyang nodded.
"Well then I guess that it's a good thing that we start training tomorrow." Taiyang said as Ruby and Yang left the house with smiles to show. "I guess that I can say welcome to the family since you will be living here."
"Yay, we got a brother!" Ruby cheered with a very big grin. Yang was a little excited as well, but Crayg was a little confused.
"Haha, that's very sweet of you Ruby, but I don't think that I would be called a brother to you unless I was adopted." Crayg said with a smile, but that smile slowly turned into shock as Yang brought out paperwork.
"Just sign here if you would like to be adopted then." Yang said holding out a piece of paper that already had Taiyang's signature on it. Crayg slowly took the small stack of papers from Yang and read over them. It was just as they said, if he wanted to be adopted all he had to do was sign the paper. Tears formed in his eyes and fell to the ground. The three watched him and became worried about pushing Crayg too far. "Are you okay, Crayg?"
"Yes Yang, I'm just filled with joy to have a family again. Can you please pass me a pen?" Crayg said and rubbed the tears out of his eyes and signed his name where it needed to be signed. Right after he was done, everyone was pulled into a family hug.
"And all I need to do is make a birth certificate for you and tomorrow I can judge and see where you will fit within the years. And you can keep your last name, if you want. I won't force you to change it." Taiyang said as everyone started to break apart from the embrace. "And before thanks are spoken, Ruby and Yang gave me the idea so aim the thanks towards them first."
"Thank you Yang, Ruby. I can't believe that in just two days of my new life in Remnant, I managed to not only get ridiculously lucky in not only finding a new place, but a family. It's a lot to take in and it's certainly seems as if it's going by so fast, but honestly I think that my parents are watching over me very well right now." Crayg said and hugged both of his new sisters as tears fell down his face. "Thank you, thank you all for everything. I can't express enough to show how much I appreciate this."
"Well, maybe we can bake cookies together for a start, and after that some video games?" Ruby suggested with a smile and Yang ruffled her hair.
"Yeah, and then we can watch him draw me looking super cool." Yang said grinning and Crayg smiled at the ideas.
"Well, it will be hard to draw you to look any cooler Yang, but I think that I can manage to think of something." Yang's smile grew wider as she heard this and the hugging ended. "So, this will be my new life now."
"Yup," All three of them responded bringing Crayg inside. "Welcome to Remnant."
Night soon came for everyone and with night, comes sleep. The newest member of the Xiao Long/ Rose family was still happy to sleep on the couch despite protests from the others. Yang and Ruby decided to sleep with him and brought out their sleeping bags. Crayg offered them the couch but Ruby said that it would be fun to feel like their camping out or having a slumber party with their friends. After a few minutes of talking, silence soon took over the room followed by the soft snores of the three. Unbeknownst to them, a visitor came for her target.
"Tch, of all the places he could call home, this is the one I didn't want to show up at." The woman with black, spiky hair, donned with armor of red and eyes of scarlet said with a frown. She looked at the boy sleeping next to two girls. "Looks like you win this time for now, Crayg, but you're days here are numbered. Once the threat is gone, you will be going back to your own pathetic world."
She saw the girl with yellow hair turn in her sleep and stepped out of sight. A portal was then created and she walked through it leaving the area without a trace. A single black feather fell into the grass. It was then picked up by someone, who then vanished with a crow's call into the night.
Morning came for everyone and so did coffee, milk, sugar, and a lot of bed hair. Crayg's hair was looking as if a horse had licked his hair and it froze from that point on. Ruby's hair was ruffled up and had a few that stuck up in the air. And Yang's hair was everywhere. Crayg had a hard time to tell if it was Yang drinking the coffee or her hair.
"Ruby, could you toss me two sugar cubes, please?" Yang asked groggily and Ruby with her eyes closed tossed the sugar into Yang's hair. Crayg was about to hand over two sugars when he heard two plopping sounds in Yang's cup. "Thank you."
Crayg looked at Yang's hair and back to her cup and then back to her hair, and finally towards Taiyang, who just shrugged signaling that he could not explain how it happened. Breakfast was served for everyone to enjoy before Yang called the shower first. After everyone cleaned up for the day, Taiyang decided that it was a good time to see where Crayg stood in terms of combat experience. However there was the issue of Crayg's weight and strength. He found some weights and began to think and grabbed dust crystals. He came back with gravity and air dust crystals and mixed them into a power. After spreading some powder onto the weights, he watched as the dust reacted and made the weight float up to the ceiling with a smile.
"Crayg, I got something I want to try out with you." He called out and Crayg showed up.
"Yes, what can I help you with?" Crayg asked with a smile on his face excited for his first orders in a long time.
"I want you to try these on and then stomp as hard as you can outside." Taiyang's orders were clear and Crayg was handed some bands that could be placed on his arms and legs.
"Okay, anything else?" Crayg asked before heading outside.
"Yes, then jump as high as you can and if you go too high just take off the bands." Taiyang said before watching his adopted son leave and heard a crashing stomp outside and rushed to see the damage. Before he left the door Crayg already jumped and was leaving the ground at a rapid pace. He then saw the two craters in his yard and called out to his daughters. "Yang, Ruby, I have two craters that we need to fill."
"Okay," They both called out, letting him know that he was heard before a third crash came from outside and Crayg has just met land again.
"Make that three craters that we all need to fill." Taiyang called out as Crayg got his head out from the dirt. "And a lot of work ahead of me, but on the bright side, mixing Air and Gravity dust lightened him up as long as he wears them."
Everyone laughed and had fun filling up the holes made. Taiyang knew that it's not going to be easy, but he knows that it will be worth it.
It seems like a quick end, but I plan to expand more on this issue. However for now this is going to be an early chapter this time because I will be home late tomorrow and I didn't want you all to worry about me not uploading a new chapter. (Though I am very small and unnoticeable.) Anyways I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and I will see you all in the next one.
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