Beacon's administrative offices were in the campus' south-eastern wing. The building housing the offices was eight stories tall, its outside walls a gunmetal grey. The building also housed the school's armory, gym, and workshops. Shirou and Rin made their way inside, the latter not really knowing what to expect.
Beacon trained its students to fight giant monsters. It was easy to assume that its security personnel were as powerful as the students they were assigned to protect. However, skilled Aura users were simply too rare for that to be the case.
Beacon's security was mainly composed of trained combat personnel, most of which didn't even have their Auras unlocked. While Beacon's students were armed with unique, personalized weapons that fit each student's fighting style, the school's security used standardized firearms. Instead of relying on Aura for protection, Beacon's staff relied on modern body armor. Instead of relying on individual skill and teamwork, they relied on numbers, tactics, and discipline.
"I wonder what you'd look like in one of those uniforms." Rin idly noted as the two descended a flight of steps.
"That body armor looks too bulky. My movements might get too restricted."
"That's not the point I'm trying to make, Shirou." Rin teased, eyes running over Shirou's torso.
The magus raised his eyebrow. "Right." he turned away, at least after he not-so-subtly glanced at Rin's legs. That uniform really suits her.
The pair soon arrived in Beacon's workshop. The large room was filled with everything that a student needed to maintain his or her weapons. From laser cutters, to lathes, to machines that produced different types of ammunition. Machines that dispensed various types of Dust lined a wall, along with canister and shell dispensers, workbenches, and a variety of other tools.
"Ah…" Rin said slowly, eyeing an unattended rifle on a nearby table. "…a gun. How quaint. I bet it transforms into a halberd or something."
"That's used by the guys at security." Shirou explained. "It doesn't transform into anything."
"Oh nice. Something practical for once."
Most of Beacon's students built their own weapons. Despite preferring the company of simple but elegant blades, Beacon's unique weapon designs still somewhat appealed to Shirou Emiya.
A transforming scythe-slash-sniper-rifle was still an engineering masterpiece, regardless of one's opinion on the practicality of its design. Weiss' Mysternaster was a simpler weapon, but it was still elegantly made. Blake's Gambol Shroud lacked the elegance of others, but it still functioned as intended. And Yang's shotgun gauntlets were, in Shirou's own words, 'insane-but-still-pretty-awesome.'
Of course, none of these weapons would work back on earth. At least, if they weren't wielded by Aura users. Shirou soon realized why only huntsmen and huntresses relied on custom-built weapons. Huntsmen used their Aura to stabilize their implements of death, in and out of combat. Aura lessened the need for maintenance and repair, acting as a sort of indirect Reinforcement to a weapon's internal mechanisms. Without Aura, Ruby's scythe-rifle, Blake's sword-katana, and Yang's shotgun-gauntlets would jam non-stop. Weiss' rapier would probably fair better, however, because it didn't have as many moving parts.
Rin followed Shirou's lead, until he eventually stopped before a pair of middle-aged men. The two adults were huddled around what appeared to be another rifle. After some time, the younger of the two noticed that they had guests.
"Ah, Emiya. What brings you down here?" Isaac Noble, a thirty-four year old with graying hair asked, wiping his hand of grease. He glanced at Rin and offered a friendly smile. "And who's the lady?"
"Rin Tohsaka," the heiress replied. "Nice to meet you."
"Ah, the girlfriend." Noble said with a nod. "The pleasure's all mine." he turned to his companion and frowned. "Hey Swan, show some respect will you? Emiya's girl's here."
A stout, but muscular man took a break from fiddling with the rifle's stock and walked toward his companion. Unlike his younger colleague, who was handsome in a rugged sort of way, Swan was a significantly older gentleman with a balding head and a scar that ran from his left eyebrow to his right cheek. Despite the loss of hair, the man still managed to sport a surprisingly impressive mustache.
"Heard about you, little lady. You're the one with the laser hands, eh?" he asked in a baritone voice.
Rin frowned. "You would be correct." she frowned deeper. "You heard that phrase from Ruby, didn't you?"
Swan nodded. "Cute kid. Despite her scythe-rifle thing being a logistical and maintenance nightmare."
"So what exactly do you guys do?" Rin asked conversationally.
"We're the chief weapons engineers around here. Mainly deal with designing guns for security and common Joes." Noble said simply. "As you may have noticed, conventional firearms aren't really that effective against Grimm. The problem is, weapons that are effective against Grimm are unwieldy for non-Aura users like myself."
"We're always trying to find a good balance between 'strong enough to bust a Beowulf's head open' and 'weak enough not to dislocate some poor kid's shoulder.'"
"Ahhh." Rin replied, before smiling.
She didn't really have any comments on the matter. She realized the importance of designing powerful weapons, especially in a world where monsters were actively trying to wipe out humanity. But her actual knowledge on modern firearms was limited at best. Her knowledge on transforming firearms was even less.
"Well, 'twas nice meeting you, miss. But I really got to get back to work." Swan said, making his way back to the rifle he was working on.
"Sorry, we got a bit sidetracked." Noble apologized, facing Rin. "What can I help you with?"
Rin straightened her back. "The headmaster said I could grab some Dust crystals from here, but that I had to run things through with you guys first."
"Ahh, right, right." Noble turned around and walked toward the Dust dispensers. Shirou and Rin followed. "These are our main Dust dispensers, for students at least. The faculty and staff have their own. If you need Fire Dust for bullets, Ice Dust for grenades, or Lightning Dust for flash bangs, this is the place to go. Just swipe your Scroll on the sensor beside a dispenser, and you're good. No paperwork necessary."
"I don't really use bullets for anything." Rin said. "Does this only dispense Dust grains? Where can I get the crystallized version?"
"Ahh. Well those actually cost money." Noble said. "We outsource our crystal Dust reserves because not a lot of students use them on their weapons. Grains are just overall better for ammo. We have three partners that provide us with crystals; Schnee, Ravencroft, and Knightstein. You'll have to choose where you'll purchase from depending on what you actually want to do."
"What do you mean?" Rin asked.
Noble started walking toward the opposite end of the workshop and the two followed.
"Schnee's the biggest company around. They're the generic drug provider of the Dust world. Ravencroft's all about experimental stuff. Their crystals are very top of the line. You can even get a discount if you can convince them that you're doing things for research. But otherwise, their crystals are very expensive. Knightstein only deals with big, bulk orders. Like a hundred crystals at once, sort of thing. But of course they sell at a discount."
"That's… I see." Rin said, not able to hide the disappointment in her voice. "I don't have any money yet, and I don't think Shirou's going to get paid until the fifteenth…"
"Why don't you just ask for samples from the chemistry labs?" Noble suggested. "You're a student, aren't you? Asking Professor Peach for a couple of samples to play with shouldn't be too hard."
"I considered that, but the crystals in the labs are designed for civilian use. Batteries and whatnot." Rin sighed and later shrugged. "You know what, forget it. I'll just use those for now."
Noble nodded, glancing at Shirou. "Well if there's anything else, I should probably get back to work now."
Shirou nodded in return. The pair watched as Noble strode back to Swan. They spent a few minutes exploring the workshop before eventually heading out.
[—
"This looks really dangerous." Ruby said, standing with Yang and the rest of her teammates.
They were in the school park, gathered around a stone table. Resting on the table was a Dust crystal no larger than a marble. Sitting in front of it was Rin, her sleeve rolled up and her hand pointing forward. A spell circle was drawn on the surface of the table with chalk, the crystal at its center.
"Should you really be starting with Fire Dust?" Yang asked. She used the same substance for Ember Celica, and knew how dangerous it was. "You could always start with something less… oh I don't know, explosive?"
"Hmm. Yeah, but that wouldn't be any fun." Rin said. "Risks need to be taken for maximum result! Without risk, science and magecraft cannot move forward!"
She said enthusiastically as she began pouring magical energy from her fingertips into the Dust crystal. The four girls surrounding her took cautious steps back.
"Rin…" Ruby asked. "…are you sure about this? We could just ask Weiss for another demo—"
"No, no, I got this!" the older magus said, smiling. She could already feel the Dust reacting to her prana.
If the people of Remnant activated Dust through Aura, then she'd have no trouble achieving the same effect with Od. Slowly but surely, her spiritual energy seeped into the blood-red crystal. The crystal began to glow in response, the imperfections burning like fissures. Rin smiled in anticipation as she increased the amount of energy she released.
The objective of the exercise was simple: to test how Dust reacted to prana instead of Aura. It was a delicate procedure. She would have to stop short before the Dust exploded in her face.
Then, with a loud bang, the Dust exploded in her face.
Chapter 6
A Song of Dust and Fire
"Rin noooo!" Ruby pleaded to the skies as she caught Rin's smoking form.
Across the park, JNPR's own leader glanced at Shirou. "Uh, don't you want to check on her?"
Shirou shrugged, his eyes not leaving the magazine in his hand. Today was a weekend, and the amateur magus decided that he would spend the day relaxing.
"She'll be fine." he replied. "This Vytal Festival sounds exciting. What's this about a tournament? Are you guys participating?"
Jaune answered with a shrug. "The tournament is a great place to hone our skills, as individuals and as a team. Joining is pretty much mandatory these days." he turned to Pyrrha and smiled. "Lucky for us, we got Pyrrha on our side."
The redhead blushed at the indirect compliment, burying herself in her book.
Shirou stared at the magazine, tilting his head. "The tournament ends in one-versus-ones, but to get in you need a four-man team. That's… disappointing."
"Aww, you want to join, don't you?" Nora asked, for some reason balancing a book on her head.
"If you want we can help you and Rin find a team." Jaune suggested. "You only need two more people, anyway. But… I'm not sure if you'll be allowed to join since you're technically a part of the school staff."
"We'll figure something out, Jaune." Nora assured. "I really, really want to Shirou in the tournament because—"
"Explosions." Ren finished for her, his voice flat. "She wants to see more explosions."
Nora stood up, her hands in the air. "Who doesn't want to see more explosions, Ren-Ren? Did you see what Shirou did to those Grimm! He was like, pew-pew, and those Grimm were like 'noooo fire and death glashdahsdahlsldhlksl—'" Nora emphasized her words by pretending to burn, and eventually collapsing on top of Ren.
"Eh, we'll figure something out." Jaune repeated with a shrug. He didn't want to openly admit it, but he shared Nora's opinion.
[—
The conference room housed six professional huntsmen and huntresses. Heading the table was Professor Ozpin, his chin resting on his entwined fingers. To his right, Glynda Goodwitch used her scroll to manipulate the holographic display that was being projected into the center of the room. Professor Port and Dr. Oobleck sat together with the pink-haired Professor Peach. Geneva Crux, the head of security, sat opposite of them.
The hologram displayed a three-dimensional map of Beacon and the surrounding area. A tall white tower symbolized the CCT tower, and from it an arrow curved outward toward the opposite end of the display.
"…this puts, in theory, Mister Emiya's operational range at a little over two-kilometers." Glynda said. She normally did not use more military terms in her everyday life, but today was an exception. "That is assuming that he demonstrated his maximum range in the first place. For all we know, he could be capable of twice or thrice that distance."
"It's also worth noting that we're still not sure if he acted to assist teams RWBY and JNPR," Peach said, in her high-pitched voice. "Or if he only acted out to protect Miss Tohsaka."
"Regardless of his intention, at the end of the day, he still valiantly protected our students." Port commented. "And for that he has won my respect."
"Still two kilometers that's quite the exceptional range." Oobleck said in his signature rapid-fire voice. "Reminds me of Tepid Nabul an old classmate of mine who also specialized in ranged warfare." he gasped for air before continuing. "But even he could only fire a kilometer away nor did he use ammunition powerful enough to destroy Deathstalkers."
"We ran Emiya through the obstacle course yesterday." Geneva reported, reading from her scroll. "Once with his powers activated and once without. Surprisingly, even without his… Reinforcement…? activated, he still managed to finish the course in above average time."
"That's a surprise." Glynda pointed out.
"Not exactly." Geneva shrugged. She was only a few years older than Glynda, with dark hair and a stern expression always drawn on her face. "He apparently follows a strict exercise routine every morning. Push-ups, sit-ups, the works. His partner does the same, but seems to prefer cardio. She often jogs when she has the time, but does so in the afternoon or on weekends. Her hosts, Belladonna and Xiao Long jog in the morning, but she was only able to join them once. Probably isn't a morning person."
Geneva swiped down on her scroll and continued.
"Croft gave him a tour of our facilities yesterday, introduced him to some of the faculty and most of the personnel. He was personable enough. Acted in a way you'd expect a new employee to act. After the tour, I told him that he wasn't really an official part of the security team, that he was more of a complementary force that would only be called in emergencies or special occasions. He is to report to the biometrics every morning, but is otherwise allowed to do whatever he wants, so long as he stays in-campus."
"That explains what he was doing in the CCT tower." Peach noted, examining her manicured hand.
Geneva nodded. "Yes. He spent most of yesterday afternoon there, on the rooftop, surveying the landscape."
"Continue monitoring our guests." Ozpin said, speaking for the first time in minutes. He had been silently digesting everyone's reports, his mind working out options, considerations, and possibilities for the future. "Our current attention should be focused on the unusual Grimm activity in Forever Fall. Crux?"
The huntress pressed a button on the table, changing the holographic display before them from a three-dimensional map into a two-dimensional one. Stats, graphs, and other variable data appeared beside the display.
"Port went into the area with a handful of scouts. We swept the entire forest clean, and found the Grimm population relatively… normal."
Professor Port cleared his throat before speaking. "We found roaming packs of Beowolves and the occasional family of Ursa, but beyond that, nothing out of the ordinary. No traces of larger species such as Deathstalkers or Nevermores were found. A shame. I was quite looking forward to facing the foul creatu—"
"—one of our Bullheads encountered a flock of medium-sized Nevermore," Crux interrupted. "Luckily, no engagement happened. Our pilots reported that they looked like they were migrating, most likely came south from Valley Cliffs, or south-west from Lake Basin."
Ozpin nodded slightly.
"Very well. Continue monitoring Forever Fall and the outlying areas. Send drones and place sensor markers a few clicks further out than usual, if possible."
Crux extended her scroll and began noting down the headmaster's command almost immediately.
"With the Vytal festival coming up, we'll want to prepare for every possibility." Ozpin deactivated his own scroll with a swipe and placed it in his pocket, standing up. "Otherwise, that is all. I thank you all for your hard work."
One by one, the huntsmen filed out of the conference room, until eventually only Ozpin and Goodwitch remained. After grabbing her things, the blonde headmaster followed her old friend and colleague out. To her mild surprise, instead of heading to his office as he normally does, he instead pressed a unique sequence of buttons on his private elevator, sending the machine down instead of up.
They emerged deep underground, in a barely-lit hallway that seemed to go on forever. At the end of this hallway were two capsules. One occupied and equipped with life support systems, the other an empty metal shell. The two capsules were connected, between them a computer that monitored the vital signs and Aura levels of the first capsule's occupant.
"How is she doing?" Glynda asked softly.
"Her condition is stable." Ozpin replied. "But she is at the cusp of passing away."
"We'll need to find a good candidate soon." Glynda's voice was still low.
Staring into the occupied capsule, a wave of sadness washed over Glynda Goodwitch. She knew what needed to be done. She knew about the risky procedure. She was prepared to risk her life, but as circumstance would have it, it was simply impossible. Before her, within that capsule of metal and wires, was one of the four Maidens— a myth, a legend in human form. Maidens were beings of incredible power. But unlike her sisters, the Maiden inside was weak. Placed in a medically-induced coma, the Maiden was not even aware of her situation.
They needed a vessel to inherit her power. And as powerful of a huntress Glynda Goodwitch was, she failed to meet two specific requirements: maidenhood and youth. And so she was left with the humbler responsibility of watching and protecting the Maiden from harm.
"Who were the last candidates you mentioned?" she asked Ozpin. "Rose, Nikos? When are you planning on introducing them to—"
"In due time, Glynda." Ozpin said, adjusting his glasses.
After a brief pause, Glynda asked.
"What about Tohsaka?"
"It's too risky." he replied. "Tohsaka has no Aura to speak of. Not to mention that she probably doesn't fit the requirement of being a maiden."
Glynda blushed slightly, pursing her lips. Ozpin could really be so blunt sometimes.
"Still. I am considering introducing her to Amber, nonetheless." he turned to Glynda, the sleeping Maiden and the machines keeping her alive behind him. "Magecraft and magic. Two concepts unfamiliar to our world."
"Magecraft doesn't sound too alien to me." Glynda pointed out. "From what I've seen, magecraft is similar to feats that you and I perform all the time. Reinforcement of objects is similar to applying Aura to a weapon or tool. Barring the blue or green lines, limb-reinforcement is similar to applying Aura to body parts."
"And what of Emiya's conjured blades?"
"Well that's—"
"And what of Tohsaka's feat back at Forever Fall, with the jars of sap?"
"Rose and Xiao Long did mention that happening, but—"
"Or Emiya's bombardment from two-thousand meters away?"
Glynda sighed, pushing back her own glasses with her middle finger. "Okay. You've made your point, Ozpin."
The headmaster managed a smile before continuing.
"A Maiden's power is more akin to magecraft than our own. Maiden's are not as limited with resources than we are. And their feats are magnitudes more impressive." he ran a hand across the glass of the occupied capsule. "Perhaps it's time we asked an outsider's opinion."
[—
HE WAS NOBODY.
IT WAS NOBODY.
NOT EVEN A MAN. NOT EVEN A CREATURE. BUT A DEMON CURSED.
LOSING HIS ARMS AND LEGS. HIS TONGUE AND FINGERS AND TOES. THE WORLD CURSED HIM. BLAMED HIM FOR ALL THE TERRORS OF THE WORLD, FOR ALL THE DARKNESS OF MANKIND.
CORRUPTION.
MADNESS.
DESPAIR.
VENGEANCE.
AN OVERWHELMING DARKNESS CAME UPON HIM.
THE WORLD CHANGED AROUND HIM. BUT HE REMAINED THE SAME. AN IDOL OF A BROKEN WORLD, OF A BROKEN TIME.
THE SINS OF THE WORLD ON HIS SHOULDERS.
A RITUAL CORRUPTED.
A GOLDEN KING TRIED TO RELEASE HIM FROM THE BINDS OF HIS PRISON.
Yet another king cleansed him with light.
HE WAS ERASED FROM THE WORLD.
BUT HIS HATRED TOO POWERFUL.
OVERPOWERING.
INSTEAD OF DESTRUCTION.
HE FOUND ANOTHER WORLD.
A PEACEFUL WORLD.
A MERE VESSEL HE WAS. NOMADS FOUND HIM. TOOK HIM HOME.
Corrupting them was easy. THE PROMISE OF WISHES. WORSHIP FOLLOWED. SACRIFICE FOLLOWED. SONS TO FATHERS. DAUGHTERS TO MOTHERS.
AS HIS OLD WORLD ONCE CURSED HIM. HE CURSED HIS NEW WORLD IN RETURN.
CREATURES BORN FROM HATE SPEWED FROM HIS BEING. LIKE A VIRULENT PLAGUE. CONSUMING ALL THAT WAS GOOD AND ALL THAT WAS PURE.
FROM HIS BEING WAS DARKNESS BORN.
MADE MANIFEST IN A FORM THAT MOCKS NATURE.
This chapter is sponsored by Plot™ and InfoDumps™.
I didn't really want to introduce any OCs into this fic, but eventually realized that I had to. Ah well. None of our OCs will be major characters and they're really only there to fill in the occasional gap. Also I've decided to include Professor Peach into the story, even though she has yet to appear in the series proper (or if she'll ever show up in the first place.)
With that said, here's an overly long description of the OCs thus far.
Name: Isaac Noble
Age: 34
Description: Smarty pants cool old dude. Weapons' engineer and combat school dropout.
Name: Swan
Age: 49
Description: Dude who only goes by one name because he's chill like that. Weapons engineer and whacky inventor. Highly respects Jaune Arc for his old school, but functional weapons.
Name: Geneva Crux
Age: 32
Description: Professional huntress. Military brat. Former soldier lady. Originally worked for the Atlas Military before finding herself in Ozpin's crew. Uses a pair of transforming katarr. Not a part of Ozpin's secret club.
Also a clarification: Base Ruby is slower than Shirou and Rin with Reinforcement. But Ruby spamming her semblance is faster.
Anyway on to the review replies and whatnot.
Guest: Yes, Shirou is more or less copying Archer's technique.
SeigZeon: Thanks. I'll try to throw in a few more ShirouxRin stuff for everyone's viewing pleasure.
Guest: Yes, I'm aware that Shirou is capable of all of those stuff.
thenotes146: Shirou goes to the Shirou Emiya School of showing off.
Dark demon619: Thanks for the enthusiastic review, man.
Arngeirr: I agree. I wanted to showcase Shirou's ahem, potential for explosions.
Phuxeds: More or less, yeah.
Scorpioneldar: Yeah man, Volume 3 was dark.
Guest: I don't think I'll ever clarify what sort of arrows/swords Shirou used during the bombardment. Just because I like reading about you guys coming up with your own theories and ideas. Don't forget that since this is based off of UBW, Shirou basically witnessed the majority of Gate of Babylon's contents in his fight with Gilgamesh.
Im a guest: Caladbolg II would have been too powerful, brah.
Rydan Fall: All good points. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Shirou can trace firearms and other modern weapons if he wanted. He just doesn't do it because of the significantly increased mana cost. For the purpose of this fic, he'll be able to trace RWBY's sword-based weapons, with just a slight increase in mana cost. It's probably not the most canon thing ever, but we're going to do this for The Rule of Cool. As for Rin, yeah she'll be learning how to use Dust to complement her skills. She's already pretty nerfed because she forgot her jewels at home.
Mazoku Tora'inu: You know, I'm just going to be honest and admit that I have no idea exactly what type of sword Pyrrha uses. I don't remember my exact source (either the Wiki or TvTropes), but whatever it was, it addressed the sword as a gladius. To be to be fair, calling the sword a gladius could be slightly attributed to Rin making a small mistake. So yeah, it's Rin's fault, not mine. P:
YuukiAsuna-Chan: Rule Breaker and Gae Daerg. Ah. One does wonder how those two would interact with Aura and Grimm.
Noitaerc: That's a cute idea for an omake. I'm actually debating whether or not I want to start a satellite fic that focuses on the slice of life aspects of Shirou and Rin at Beacon. Kinda like Emergence's Asides, which is a fic I've been engrossing myself in recently.
Server lock: The power of love! Jk. It was briefly explained in this chapter.
Guest: Lancelot Berserker v Ruby Rose in the custody of Crescent Rose, go!
cameronsweet5: Should have clarified things better, but Rin and Shirou will still be adapting to how Remnant people do things. It's just that they won't gain Aura or develop Semblances.
Treant Balewood: That was my mistake. I was talking about Base Ruby in that note. I'm treating Semblance Ruby as being faster and more maneuverable in short distances, while Reinforcement is better for running long distance. I'm also still not sure if Ruby's Semblance is purely based on speed or vectors as well, based on a few scenes from Volume 3.
Captaindickscratcher: I'm actually still debating if I want to give Rin a weapon. As for blending in, she doesn't really need to do that because Goodwitch already introduced her to the student population as an outsider with a unique skillset. If I ever ended up giving her weapon, it'd probably something like a staff, wand, or quarterstaff. But we'll see.
As always. Thanks for the reviews and I'm glad that everyone is enjoying this.