Author's Note: *Looks at story, 40+ favs, 70+ follows, 6 reviews….looks at half-written Chapter 1…settles down to type* Let's do this. First, reason for writing this now and then answering reviews:
Why I am writing this story now: I published the prologue on the day Volume 4 aired because I already have a large part of the plot worked out. I know how a lot of the relationships will develop, have definite plans for both Jaune and Ren's yet unseen semblances, and a general idea for how the main cast interaction will go once that comes along. My point is that I don't plan on shifting major elements in my story just to accommodate future volumes and while I may do so for some instances if I can find a way to seamlessly insert an element into the story I would not expect this with every new feature introduced and may not do so at all just to not set a precedent.
Tracing limitations: Yeah, Shirou is specifically stated to not be able to trace Divine Constructs but: in UBW Archer says he could trace Excalibur, in HF Shirou does trace Excalibur, in Fate/Extra Archer does so as well, in Prisma Illya Illya and Kuro trace Excalibur and Alt!Shirou traces Ig-Alima and Sul-sagana (which are also Divine Constructs). So the whole 'no tracing Divine Constructs' rule is sort of a rule until it would be super cool if it wasn't. Don't get me wrong, my inner fanboy goes nuts whenever it happens but the validity of the rule has always been nebulous at best. That being said, he still has limitations when it comes to certain objects of extraterrestrial origin and will never be able to even understand Ea. As for Shirou being able to trace something after seeing it in another person's memories, Waver's in this case, I think that he did pretty much the same thing with Saber in the Fate route when he traced Caliburn and I have seen it done several times in other fics so if I am misremembering then my bad.
The Director: All of my knowledge about him and a large part of the rest of the Nasuverse comes from the Type-Moon wiki. The Nasuverse has so many characters, mechanics, rules, and even more exceptions to those rules that it would be impossible for me to not rely on it for information. So, as far as I can say, yes, the Clock Tower is led by a 2000+ year old being who is said to be something more than human with little else known about him and I then took a few liberties to make him the world's predominant fallen angel. In the original script the Director was actually God since the Abrahamic religions are still very popular today and it would make sense from a Nasuverse mechanical standpoint for him to be around but I couldn't get his motivation straightened out. Inspiration struck when I realized that if God still existed then the Devil could too and the rest came naturally. I thought of using a member of the Hindu pantheon as it also has a high number of believers but I am much less knowledgeable about it and felt that I was more likely to offend people with my ignorance on the subject. It could be asked "if the Director was the Devil then where is God?" That has several potential answers: one would be God allowed for the Devil's plans to reach that point to make sure that humans attained a suitable level in both science and population before reintroducing magecraft, he could have been a really big fan of free-will for all of his creation, or any number of other reasons. Probably won't ever matter in the setting.
Shirou Emiya and not breaking the setting: I have given this a lot of thought and I think that I have a "!believable!" (not mocking, loved the review) reason for Shirou not absolutely breaking Remnant. It will probably be explained in-story in Chapter 3 but part of the prologue was to subtly mention the reason why Shirou isn't going to immediately try to, for example, establish half a dozen new kingdoms that I will elaborate on later. Shirou isn't going to go stomp Salem and all her associates and if a story of that nature is what you are looking for then I would suggest looking in the Naruto crossover section. I am not going to go with the oft used method of nerfing a character just so they fit in the setting especially since I established him as stronger than his past canon counterpart as that would just be lazy writing. I also do not plan to suddenly empower all other players so that they can casually shrug off a barrage of Noble Phantasms. One reason for not breaking the setting that may not be explained in-universe is that a lot of the main issues in RWBY such as the Maidens, Salem, and the Silver Eyed Warriors are things that only a select few even know are issues and Shirou is not likely to become one of them. Even though he does have a plethora of mystic arms most of them won't be useful for information gathering, he got really lucky with Uriel and Lucifer. If he were to say, take a look at Qrow's sword-scythe, then he would know the general information about the Maidens and possibly the Queen depending on what point they would meet in the timeline but Remnant is not a small world and coincidences like that don't happen often. A lot of the information Shirou already has from his own setting, Types, Gaia, Alaya, etc., will lead him to make a lot of false theories off of what he finds out about this setting, the broken moon, the Grimm avoiding conflicts with animals, and Dust. Even though in terms of raw attack he was the strongest person in his world that is largely because he is highly specialized for combat and because of that specialization is still unable to perform a lot of the basic thaumaturgy that would make information gathering and reconnaissance a whole lot easier nor did he ever have to focus on that since he was working with an entire organization that could do that stuff for him. You could think of it like having the sharpest sword in the world, capable of casually separating electrons from their host atoms and piercing through any defense. Awesome. Now hack into this computer.
Fun fact: Kanshou and Bakuya only took on their final form, the yin-yang symbol (taijitu), whenever there were 108 pairs created meaning that there were 216 blades in all. 216=6*6*6 which I have heard may be the actual Number of the Beast as found in Revelations and in this case was used in Satan's downfall. Didn't realize the irony until I had already written it.
Resonance
I don't consider myself a very brave person. I'm scared of plenty of things: dying, failing to become a Huntsman, talking to that cute girl that sits next to me in Math, you know, the important stuff. Even so I want to be a Huntsman, I want to be a hero like my older sisters were before me. That was why, while on my five kilometer run along the inside of Anthem's walls, I found myself approaching the crater that had suddenly formed several feet to my left. I could have sworn that I had seen someone falling right before this cloud of dust sprouted up and if they were injured then I would need to run for help. So, as I approached the crater with thoughts of 'please don't be a Grimm' repeating themselves in my head, I called out with what I meant to be a confident and assuring voice.
"Um…" Great start, someone could be dying and I can't even get actual words to come out of my mouth. "Are you alright?!"
The dust began to settle and I started to get a decent view of the person that was at the middle of the crater. He was tall, red haired, maybe six-one or two and he looked to be in his twenties. He had black pants with some form of holster or armor on his left side and a white cloth belt around his waist. His upper attire consisted of a white cloak with an artistic design on the inside, a single red and black sleeve on his left arm and nothing else. All in all, he was quite strangely dressed by any normal person's standards…probably a Huntsman.
That brought a rather disturbing possibility to mind. It would take a lot of force to make a crater that large and something had to have hit him for him to have suddenly landed here like that.
"Were you fighting a Grimm? My parents are close by and they're the best Huntsman around, I can go get them to come help you if you need it," my voice came out a little higher than normal as I offered to do the only thing I could of any value, getting others to do what I couldn't since I would only be at best a hindrance and at worst a fatal distraction.
The stranger looked at me in apparent confusion for a moment and as he did so I had an even worse thought.
What if he wasn't engaging a Grimm but another Huntsman? Wasn't dad just talking about some new red-haired criminal that dressed in white that he had heard about in Vale last week? Granted, that was on another continent but I just told him who my parents were. What if he used me as a hostage? Mom would likely be afraid to do anything if I was in danger and even dad would hesitate for at least a moment which may be all the time that this guy needed.
I looked him over again. He didn't seem to have a weapon on him, maybe it had landed somewhere else, but I remembered how the bracelets Emerald used to wear could turn into giant claws so he could have a six foot sword in his pocket for all I knew. I had Jasper's old knife in my back case, if I used it then maybe I could stab his leg so he wouldn't be able to chase me. No, I was being stupid. If he could survive a fall that hard and appear fine then a knife with only my strength behind it probably wouldn't hurt him. I suddenly noticed how dry my throat was and tried not to gulp.
As I worried about the potential destruction of my home and how it would all be because I didn't know when to shut up he voiced his reply.
"No, just had a bit of a fall there. I seem to have lost my way. Would you be kind enough to tell me where I am Mr. …?"
"Arc," I replied, hoping that the weight that the name held would deter him from starting any trouble. Hopefully he would assume that I would be trained enough to offer a measure of resistance if he tried to take me. I forced my breath that had grown heavy from both my run and my internal panic to calm down to try to support this image and set my legs a little wider so that I could make a run for my house if I had to. "Jaune Arc. This is the town of Anthem. There aren't any other villages nearby so the best I can say is that we're a bit over halfway between Mistral and Vale on the Animan continent."
He seemed to ponder over these words for a moment before his eyes roved over me taking in my attire, position, and footing and seeming to gain more insight from my clothes than I thought possible.
"What were you doing to fall so hard earlier? You said you weren't fighting a Grimm. Were you fighting another Hunter?" Okay, maybe if I could convince him to leave me alone for a moment I could call my mom and dad. They could come either identify him or stop him and whoever he was fighting with from bringing it into Anthem, all I needed to do was to get him to leave me alone for a moment, all I needed was a brilliant plan…yeah, I've got nothing.
But maybe I didn't need to? At my second mention of the word Grimm that same expression of confusion passed over his face again. What could be confusing about the Grimm, they were the predominant species on Remnant. No one should be confused about what they were, that would be… I looked to the crater. I looked to the man who had landed in the crater. I looked to the half-a-foot deep several feet wide crater. I looked to the man who had formed said crater by landing in it, possibly on his head.
…A man hit the ground hard enough to cause that, is confused and doesn't know where he is and I just realized that he is probably concussed?! Naturally, the next thing to do is assume that he is some criminal from another continent. He probably doesn't even know how he got here. I mean really, I read up on this after Layla put her shoes on the wrong feet and her dress on backward.
"Oh God, I'm sorry. You just had a fall, don't know where you are, and I am just being rude. Do you feel dizzy? Maybe a headache or something?" I babbled, letting the words fall out of my mouth while I tried to remember what the other symptoms there might be.
The man smiled at me in an amused but not unkind manner at my verbal flop.
First Hunter I meet outside of my parents' team and I make a fool of myself but hey, what else is new?
"I'm fine," he finally responded. "I don't know where I am exactly or anything about this place but don't worry, I promise that I was not in any sort of conflict so your village is safe. You introduced yourself as Jaune Arc? My name is Shirou Emiya and it's a pleasure to meet you."
He extended his hand and I automatically gave him my own. I just interrogated an amnesiac. Wow, am I an asshole.
As I let go of his hand I realized that he was still standing in the indentation in the ground, the lilies on the edge giving way to crushed grass followed by cracked earth. He seemed to take his eyes off me and took notice of our surroundings instead. There were several trees on both sides of the path that surrounded my village and since it was spring there were quite a few flowers lining the trail. He met my eyes again.
"You have a knife in your back pocket. You don't need to hand it to me but would you take it out?"
My train of thought screeched to a halt as I reached behind myself and grasped Jasper's old knife. Disregarding how he had even known about it when I have been facing him the whole time that was still a really suspicious question. The knife wasn't something for me to kill Grimm with, or, to be more accurate, not something that I could kill with Grimm. Jasper had probably used it to slay plenty of them before she headed off to Beacon. It was something she had given me when she left, something that dad had had her use before they had custom weapons and that I usually kept on me, not because I expected to have to use it but because it was precious to me. It was something that helped me keep trying to become a Huntsman. I would make sure to polish the blade regularly and sometimes just look at it at night and remember how my older sisters used to encourage me that I could become a Huntsman too. I would grasp its handle whenever I felt like giving up, which was almost every night when I failed to reach a fraction of what I remembered them doing, borrowing a bit of a hero's strength whenever I had so little.
I looked at Shirou for a moment, trying to find any deceit on his face but all I saw was a calm and encouraging smile. Okay, at least now if he tried anything then I would already have the knife out.
I took the blade out of its sheath and held it parallel to the ground for him to examine.
"It's a good blade," Shirou noted after a moment. "Very well cared for. It hasn't seen battle in a few years but you have maintained it anyways." He reached out and touched the dual crescents at the hilt, something that my sister had carved during her training days that I often rubbed my thumb over out of habit.
"And it is something that has your determination engraved in it, along with the love your sisters felt for you." I felt my eyes widen, and my jaw go slack as I took half a step back.
I had never seen the person before in my life. He was too young to be one of my parents' friends and Jasper, Emerald, Whitney, and Layla had never been really close to any other teams in Beacon as far as I knew, at least no one who had ever come to Anthem, so how the hell did he know how I had gotten this?
"Have you ever heard of Aura?" Shirou continued, either not noticing or just ignoring my reaction. He held out his hand and a light shone in it. With a small flash his formerly empty hand now held-
"…my knife?" I finished the rest of my thought out loud. I looked at the blade in his right hand and then the blade in my left with my eyes going back and forth between the two. They looked the same, they had the same markings, nicks, engravings, grains, everything. "What-"
"Hunters don't kill Grimm with just muscle. It helps of course, but the thing that allows them to fight back the darkness is Aura, the light of the soul. It is both man's sword and shield, granting them a great amount of protection from all forms of attack and allowing them to strike far harder than they would otherwise be able to."
"How-" I tried again only for him to once again see the direction of my thoughts.
"Did I know about your sister, about how you cared for your blade and how much you wanted to follow in your siblings' footsteps? That would be something analogous to your world's Semblances in a way. A Semblance is an expression of the user, a manifestation of their Aura onto the material world."
…Okay, I got this.
"It's a superpower?"
"…Your sister Emerald said the same thing. Anyways, my ability is the creation of my mental world, primarily weapons, everything from materials to forging process and history. Since I saw your blade I knew that your sister gave it to you as well as how strongly you have tried to follow in all of your older siblings' footsteps."
Huh. Superpowers exist, Hunters have them, one of them seems to be sucking at explaining things and while my training that I have been doing for the last few years has been effective in keeping me in decent physical condition it will never get me to the level of facing Grimm.
In short, I sucked even worse than I thought…no, that's wrong. I remembered how my sisters would come home for semester breaks and Layla and Whitney would jump right out of their airship and land without a scratch. Whenever mom would move furniture around she would pick up the whole couch like it was nothing. No matter how hard I trained, how many miles I ran or pushups I did I had never gotten close to their feats and now I knew why.
The only difference that I had known of before between them and other adults had been the training that they had done so I had tried to do the same. I wrote down everything I could remember of all of the exercises they had done whenever they used to practice with dad and I replicated them as best as I could. Even so, I was never able to do them nearly as well as they had and now I knew why. I had been missing a vital step needed to reach that level. A vital step that may be right in front of me.
In short, now I knew what I was doing wrong and could finally begin to improve and it didn't matter that I had just met him, I knew just the person to help me start.
"Mr. Emiya," I began in what I hoped was a respectful tone as I sheathed my knife, "could you tell me how to use Aura?"
It may seem abrupt but I needed this. If hard work alone wouldn't get me to where I needed then I would bargain, plead, and beg if I had to. I wasn't going to beat around the bush. If he could help me, give me an actual chance to reach my dream instead of the endless failure that has been my track record so far then I would become his apprentice or his servant if that was what he asked and since he had seemed to know the rest of my thoughts he probably knew that too.
The red-haired man smiled as if he had been expecting this question and I felt my body tense, ready to hear what he would say. He took a step to the crater's edge, placed a hand on my shoulder and with a smile resting on his face that conveyed complete understanding spoke.
"I don't know."
"…what?" My muscles remained tense for a few more seconds before whatever feeling of anticipation I had left.
"I should explain," he continued. "An individual's Aura is awakened by someone who already has their Aura active using their Aura to jumpstart your own," he had taken some sort of lecture pose with one arm across his waist holding his elbow and the other upright with his index finger out. "The problem is that my spiritual energy is a bit different from your own. If I were to try and awaken yours then it may succeed, it may do nothing, or it may cause you adverse effects for the rest of your life and I am not willing to risk that."
Damn. Just…damn. The only Hunters in the village were my mom and dad and neither of them would be willing to help me with this, nor were any of their teammates that sometimes visited likely to help either.
Why hello there, Square One, I do believe that we have met before.
"Now don't look like that," Shirou began, probably trying to give some form of reassurance after seeing my disappointment. "While it may be a bit difficult, I can probably find-"
He cut himself off and his gaze seemed to grow slightly distant and his expression curious. He stood there silently as if he was having a conversation that only he could hear. When his eyes came back into focus he nodded to himself and faced me again.
"Very well," he agreed to whatever voices seemed to be in his head, "I give you a choice."
The copy of my sister's knife that he had held onto throughout his speech dissolved into shards of light and two beautiful new swords took its place. He finally stepped out of his self-made hole in the ground and onto the grass beside me. He took a few more steps and then turned towards me, planting the swords amidst a bed of flowers.
"This one," he said while gesturing to the blade at his right, silver in appearance and relatively thin with plant like ribbons wrapping around the cross-guard, a blue handle, and a white flower on its pummel, "is the sword of a Saint. It is a symbol of her faith, determination and ability to inspire others. It is most certainly a hero's weapon."
He then held his hand out to the blade to his left. It was a dark reflection of the first with red writing on the black weapon, its flower being a vibrant pink, and its ribbons having thorns.
"This one, on the other hand, is the tool of an avenger. Some would consider it a villain's blade. Its wielder was someone who fought on despite a whole nation being against her. It is a symbol of her anger, her will to do anything to accomplish her goals, and, though she would never admit it, her desire to have others to stand by her even with the whole world as her enemy. Here is your choice. Which of these weapons will you take as your own? Choose the one that matches you, the one that draws you to it." With his speech over he folded his hand behind his back, curious in what choice I would make.
My hand twitched to the blade at his right but I drew it back. Maybe it was just the amount of emphasis he had placed on each of the swords but I felt like I had to consider this carefully. I looked between the two blades several times, thinking of his description of their users, amazing people that had done amazing things. I closed my eyes, inhaled through my nose and spoke the bitter truth.
"Neither."
"Oh?" Shirou began, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I am not like either of those people," I clarified while meeting his gaze. "I am not a leader and I am not fearless. I don't have the strength to make a whole kingdom my enemy. While the first one sounds like the hero I would like to be I think that if it came down to it, if the only way for me to become a Hunter was to lie or cheat then I would. I try to do what is right, I have tried to become someone that could be a hero, a Huntsman that can make a real difference but…I'm not, not yet."
When I finished, my eyes were to the ground and I found myself looking at the flowerbed. It stung, not just the sensation that I felt at the edge of my eyes, but the words themselves. These words were difficult to say and I knew they were true but even so, they did not change anything. I knew that I would become a Hunter, that even if my mom or dad or whoever said I wouldn't become one I would keep trying until my dream became reality. Even if I didn't have Shirou's help I could make a trip to the nearest village and either beg whatever Huntsman or Huntress they had to teach me or just work for them until they agreed to help me with Aura. I would do whatever it took.
I looked up to see surprise on Shirou's face for a moment before his face seemed to shift to sympathy and he smiled.
"Do you think that they were born great, legends from the womb?" he asked while shaking his head. "I saw your knife. I know how hard you have worked to become a Hunter. Leaders are not born, they are shaped by the forge of experience and fear is natural and healthy as long as you do not let it define you. I have seen the blades of thousands of heroes and I don't think you'll become one." At this his eyes stared deep into my own and the expression on his face became one of absolute confidence. "I know you will. But," he continued looking at the two swords planted among the flowers, "I suppose that I was wrong about you in regards to these two. You aren't suited for one of them."
He grabbed both blades and pulled them from the ground. He held them before him and continued speaking, but not to me.
"You heard him. The boy needs a real weapon and perhaps someone to make sure your story doesn't repeat itself. I will not be able to watch over him forever and you souls resonate with his own. What say you?"
I wasn't really sure who he was expecting to answer but I hadn't run after he had fallen from the sky, or after he revealed Aura to me or even when he had started having conversations with himself. I had made it this far and I wasn't about to quit now.
I opened my mouth but before any sound could come out another voice spoke.
"He is young, he will do great things. We are kin to his spirit. I will guide him." I stared at the silver blade. Did it just-
"You will not be doing so alone. I will make sure he does not make our blunders. Even it if means working with you to do so."
My eyes locked on the black blade, certain that I had heard them speak now.
"So you can hear them," Shirou's voice snapped me out of my confusion and I saw him nodding in approval. "It seems that you truly are in tune with them both." He took both of my hands and brought them to the blades. "Run one finger along the edge of each. I'll use your blood as the commonality in order to make sure that the fusion goes smoothly," he said.
Oh God, now he is using a blood offering. I am not going to-…oh, who was I kidding. I put one finger on the edge of each weapon and watched a small trickle of blood go down each sword.
"That's enough," Shirou told me while he brought his hands together, the sword in one aligned with the other, blade to blade and hilt to hilt, and he closed his eyes. The weapons took on a faint glow, the blood on each edge moving to the points of contact. "It acts as a medium of sorts, your blood. Neither sword, nor their wielders, were very alike. Some would even go so far as to say that you could never find two people more different, but both of them have the same starting point, a history that is one of their only commonalities. You're like they were. They did not think of themselves as heroes at your age, nor as warriors or leaders. What they did have, though, was the determination that you have right now." As he spoke the weapons began to morph in his hands, their shapes seemed to meld together until he held only one sword in his hands. It was the same in shape, with the blade of the first and the handle of the second, save for the flower and decorations at the end of each side of the cross-guard which were pure white. I reached out and touched the white flower that looked so close to blooming. I felt a comforting warmth while everything I saw disappeared in a flash of light.
My eyes refocused but the world still seemed out of place. There wasn't a cloud in the sky before I touched my new sword but now there were great billowing golden ones on the horizon everywhere I looked. The flower bed I had been standing in had changed. Instead of lilies and wine cups the ground everywhere I could see was covered in white and black…daffodils, maybe? The only thing that disrupted my view of the flowers were large poles sticking out of the ground like spears or maybe-
"They're meant for banners."
I spun around and came face to face with two women. They looked like twins, sisters at least. They would be indistinguishable from each other if they didn't have slightly different skin tones and, as I looked closer, different eye colors as well. The lighter skinned of the two had sharp yellow eyes while her counterpart had a shade of blue that mirrored my own.
"They're empty for now but that will change," she continued
"Um," God damn it, again?! Could I not make one clear introduction today? "Hi?"
The twin dressed in black rolled her eyes at me while the one clad in white smiled encouragingly at my awkwardness.
"Hello," she greeted warmly. "It's nice to meet you, Jaune. I am-"
"We" her counterpart cut in "are Jeanne of Arc, her the Maid of Orleans and I the Dragon Witch." She said this with a measure of pride that was emphasized by the self-satisfied smirk on her face.
"So your parents gave you both the same name?" I asked, focusing on that of all things.
"No," the Maid responded. "We are the same person in a sense. We sprung from the same source but she is the manifestation of a different possibility, a version of myself that sought vengeance on those that had us killed."
"Just because you were the first," the Witch spat, "does not mean that you are superior. There is no rule that says an imitation cannot surpass the original! If Shirou has proven anything it is that!"
She seemed to pause for a moment as she visibly reigned in her temper and deliberately shifted her attention to me.
"If you need to address us then you may refer to her as Ruler and myself as Avenger."
"Okay, Avenger," I began, deciding to ask her the obvious question since she spoke last, "where am I?"
She extended her hand to the horizon, seemingly satisfied that I had said something moderately intelligent and I couldn't help but feel like this was her regular personality.
"You are in La Pucelle. That is the name of the sword that you were just gifted," she nodded to herself again as if that explained everything.
"Okay, Ruler," I said while turning to her counterpart, "where am I?"
Ruler's smile grew a bit wider at my question while Avenger scoffed at me.
"You are in what I guess you could say would be the both of our souls," she explained while gesturing to Avenger. "To attempt to simplify things, you are in La Pucelle, which is a type of Reality Marble, the inner world of an individual. It's a set world that is defined by the individual's mindset."
"It can only be used by someone with an inhuman mindset," Avenger inserted. "Normally, only demons or monsters can actually use them." She said this last part while smirking towards Ruler who proceeded to don a very fearsome pout upon her face.
"Okay, so the sword is another dimension?"
"Essentially."
Ha, and people said that I would never get anything 'worthwhile' from comics. Still, there was another question to ask, I had probably a dozen more but I would settle for just the most important one for now.
"Why am I here?"
"We wished to speak to you," answered Ruler, "to introduce ourselves as well as ask an important question of you."
"Here is the only place that we can speak to each other face-to-face. We cannot manifest bodies for ourselves out there and will only be able to speak to you telepathically."
Okay, makes sense so far.
"What is the important question then?"
"Right to it then. We long since passed from our world."
"We no longer have any right to continue in it but we wish to help you."
"Both of us see in you our former selves, unshaped by our failures,"
"and yet to reach your full potential."
"We wish to make sure you do."
"We will be your sword,"
"and your shield. Your mentor,"
"and perhaps your friend."
"We may offer council on some of your choices"
"but sometimes the decision will be only yours to make."
"So, to follow your dreams,"
"to grant salvation to those who cry out"
"to attain your goals no matter the cost"
"and to never give up we ask of you"
"will you wield us?"
"Yes!" They both seemed pleased by my immediate response but what else could I say to such an obvious question? I was agreeing to becoming a hero and to never stop trying to do so. I had decided to do that long before either of them had asked me.
"Very well. We are the kin of your soul."
"Wherever you are there will we be."
With their piece said, each of them clasped one of my arms in a way that was sort of like a hand shake but where they grasped my forearms instead and the world again flashed bright.
"It normally doesn't do that."
At Shirou's voice my vision cleared and I found myself back in Anthem.
"What?" He nodded towards my hand and I looked to find that I now was firmly gripping La Pucelle.
"You won't go into their mindscape each time you touch the blade, only whenever you want to. Also, time passes at the same time in there as it does out here so don't be getting any ideas about a mid-battle meeting or something," he answered. "I don't know what you discussed in there so I just wanted to make sure you didn't do anything stupid. What did you guys talk about, I can tell you what else you need to know before you go back to your parents and then Jeanne can run you through everything else tonight."
"Avenger and Ruler introduced themselves and told me about La Pucelle. They then told me why they wanted to help me and asked if I would wield them. I said yes. What else do I need to know?" That was a legitimate question. I think I was keeping my cool pretty well and everything he told me was awesome but I was in over my head. What was he talking about earlier with awakening my Aura, why was he helping me so much, how would I use my Semblance once I awoke my Aura, and were regular Semblances able to make sentient magic swords or things that amazing? Apparently, I didn't need to even ask Shirou.
"In reverse order: one, Shirou is a ridiculously large exception to most rules, two, we don't know, three, we reacted to you so he brought us to you, and four, same as two."
I nearly jumped out of my skin before I recognized the voice. Right, telepathy. I had a Saint in my head. A Saint…in my head. I was trying really hard to not think about anything, especially that cute girl in-
"We are only talking to you right now to give you a sense of what it is like, we can cut it off whenever we want. We do not need to know about your dirty fantasies."
I sighed in relief right before I blushed in embarrassment.
"You're going to want to try not to talk to them too much whenever other people are around or at least try to make it more conspicuous. People might start thinking you're crazy." "You probably already have realized this but that's ironic coming from him." "Anyways, since La Pucelle is a spiritual blade it should be able to spiritualize, to shift into a sort of non-physical form. It comes in really handy for immediate access to your weapon and getting into places 'unarmed.' All you have to do is think shift, not the word just the thought."
I continued to numbly follow his instructions, concentrating on the blade and willing it to disappear. My hands were empty a moment later.
"Good, I was worried that that might not work. Now that your hands are empty have you noticed the change?"
I stared at my hands. I could still sort of feel my sword in the back of my mind and I think that I could call it back if I needed to. I said such to Shirou.
"Yes, but the change I meant was with your hands themselves. What happened to your cuts?"
I looked down and saw what he was talking about. The small cuts I had made on the edge of the blades earlier were gone.
"Did you heal me? Does Aura let you do stuff like that too?" I asked him while wondering how many things Shirou was capable of only for him to shake his head.
"Aura doesn't let you do that, at least not to others, but, when you have enough of it, it will let you heal yourself. Whenever you touched your new sword your soul reacted to theirs and your Aura awakened during that bright flash earlier. You may not feel much different now but when you concentrate on it and go into battle you will see the difference. Congratulations, Jaune. You awakened your Aura and you have a lot."
"Just like that?" I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but I thought it would take a lot more effort to get it.
"Just like that. Your Semblance won't be as easy to find though. That requires experience, personal enlightenment, searching through your emotions and discovering what is really important. That moment can come to you during quiet contemplation or in the clarity that comes with battle and even if it does that doesn't mean that you will know it if it is subtle. How much time do you have before your parents expect you home?"
I actually didn't know. I had lost track of the time around the point when I met Jeanne so I checked my scroll. Only a bit over half an hour had gone by since I started talking to Shirou.
"They will expect me back in an hour. I was only on my evening run for ten minutes before we met so we still have some time. If you want I can take you to meet them?" I wasn't sure if we should considering my parents didn't approve of my career goals and probably wouldn't take a liking to meeting someone who was helping me reach them. They would probably try to convince Shirou not to help me or forbid me from training with him. Shirou seemed to share my views.
"No, it's fine. They probably wouldn't like me training you so maybe hold it off for a later date. I was just asking to find out how much time we had. Could you materialize La Pucelle again?"
I did so and he took it from my hand for a moment. The blade seemed to become increasingly thin while he spoke.
"I was going to do this once you got your Aura to make sure you didn't accidentally cut your hand off but that came much quicker than I expected. La Pucelle is indestructible and so I can make it sharper without decreasing its durability or even its weight. In the event that you have to use it against someone without Aura and you do not have to kill then make sure to keep the blade in its sheath when you fight them."
When he handed the sword back to me along with a black and silver sheath he had just made I noticed Shirou had also made a new sword, a wooden one that had a tiger sash and a feeling of death radiating from it.
"Excellent. Now you have a sword, now you have a shield. Now we can start your training. Don't worry about my body, there is no way you will cut me."
I think I managed to get a half-formed 'What' out of my mouth before the tip of his sword was thrust into my face and I learned that even with Aura I could still feel pain.
"Your guard is down and every part of you is screaming 'hit me!' Widen your stance, find your center of gravity and a good balance. Adjust the grip on your sword, tight enough for there to be no chance of it slipping from your hands but not so tight that it shakes. Don't drop your blade for the next hour. You have a decent musculature but no technique so the habits you form now will last the rest of your life and when it comes to archery, blacksmithing, housekeeping, or swordsmanship I do not allow for anything less than absolute perfection and I shall not allow for you to either."
And so my intimate relationship with what I would come to know as the Torashinai began as it repeatedly drove itself into my flesh and I continued to come back for more.
Ending Notes:
La Pucelle: The Duality of Man, Rank: A, Type: Anti-unit. The twin hand-and-a-half swords of the witch and the maid brought together by a previously impossible commonality. As Jaune Arc's soul resonated with the Noble Phantasms and the sword acknowledged him as someone worthy to wield them he gained possession of the weapon. Their abilities are not overt and while the blade is improbably sharp it has no fearsome technique to release upon activation. La Pucelle instead favors a more subtle approach with the weapon's power lying in its very nature as a form of reality marble as the spirit of Jeanne of Arc herself. As the souls of both Ruler and Avenger reside in La Pucelle they are able to freely give advice to their wielder and are able to share in his senses and forewarn him of any danger they may perceive. While attributes such as class skills and most personal skills cannot be transferred the skill Revelation is still possessed by the spirits within and a measure of insight to choosing a correct path may sometimes be utilized. The blade cannot be broken and while it does possess the ability of the original to be utilized as a suicide attack it would require the approval of all three users to perform and is therefore impossible.
Jasper's knife: one of the four knives given to Jaune's older siblings, Jasper, Emerald, Whitney, and Layla, by their father when they began their training at eleven and twelve and was present as he explained aura and Semblances to his children. They all started their training to be Huntresses simultaneously since both sets of twins, Jasper and Emerald plus Whitney and Layla, were born within a year of each other. They were given their blades to train with before having weapons forged that would take advantage of whatever Semblances they possessed. Jasper gave her knife to a seven year old Jaune right before going to Beacon with the rest of her sisters to form team JEWL with Whitney and Layla being allowed in at the age of sixteen, which was a record for the time.
Torashinai: Taiga Fujimura's favorite practice blade. The blade has a minor cursed nature attached to it that inspires a moderate level of fear in the target regardless of how often the target may have been exposed to it. This actually works to create what some would consider an ideal learning environment as people often learn most effectively when under a medium amount of emotional arousal.
Shirou and La Pucelle's appearance: search limited zero over and La Pucelle fate. Only differences would be no sword in the first and a thinner blade and a black handle for the second with the blue cross-guard now white. I made La Pucelle thinner because I simply thought that if you had an indestructible blade and the ability to make it incredibly sharp without the danger of cutting its user then why wouldn't you? Also, I very much debated leaving the blades separate and teaching Jaune to dual wield black and silver blades but as cool as that sounded it would not be very realistic and also may conflict with some potential future plot points so I decided against it.
Thanks so much to everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed the prologue. 40+ of the first and 70+ of the second may not seem like a lot to some people but I really appreciate it and do not think I would have gotten to this nearly as quickly if I hadn't felt so encouraged. On that note, I would not expect the next chapter to update this quickly as I already had a lot of this one written out, but on the plus side I had to move several pages of this chapter that I had written to the next chapter since I realized that it would fit better in a different scene I had planned instead so the next chapter is already started. I apologize for any spelling errors that I may have missed combing over this thing half a dozen times.
Edited out some glaring spelling errors. Don't forget to fav, follow and review. Feedback is welcome and I definitely need it.