Day 1
I've just bought a journal to document my thoughts. I've been able to get a bit of money from pickpocketing, but not a lot. I've just barely been able to get by so far. I hadn't realized just how much I had relied on the others back in Mistral.
I have to rely on shoplifting now. Pickpocketing won't last me too long, and Patch doesn't have very many areas that attracts crowds, so pickpocketing carries an inherent risk of getting caught if I'm not quick enough.
That being said, I don't think shoplifting will be as easy as I make it out to be. I'll give it a try, see what happens. I enough Lien to last myself on a small diet for another day or so.
Day 3
Shoplifting is hard.
Day 5
Shoplifting is impossible as I am. There's a reason why Torchwick needed goons to rob a dust store. Even simple convenience stores have about a thousand different layers of security on them, about half of which would knock me unconscious the moment I try to walk out of the store with stolen merchandise.
Which means I have to leave Patch now. Luckily, if I remember from the show, either Ruby or Yang commented that they could see Patch from the airship to Beacon, so I should be able to walk to the school from Patch. Vale is right outside Beacon, so that means that I'll be able to be in a much more populated area, ideal for pickpocketing.
Day 6
I… Completely forgot about Grim. Not sure how I did that, but since I'd never actually seen the things before, I guess it's a bit understandable. I almost died today. Luckily, there was only one Beowulf, and I managed to hightail it out of there with my semblance before it could engage.
Day 7
Thought I could stowaway on a ship to Vale, but those ones are much smaller than the one I used to get here from Mistral. Apparently very few airships actually fly from Patch to Vale because of the small distance. I might be able to get to Atlas or Vacuo, but those ones are probably checked a bit more closely for stowaways.
Might have to see about joining a caravan, or at least trailing behind one.
Alternatively, could train up enough to simply run to Vale. Unlikely, but something that I'd want to do eventually.
Day 9
Almost out of supplies now. Managed to make pickpocketing money last a bit longer, but people that visit my frequent spots are now more suspicious. Some police officers stationed there, so I think my time in Patch is up.
There's no caravans tomorrow, and I don't have enough food to last me much longer. Water's fine, but food's a real issue now.
Ideally, I think I'd want to head to Atlas. It's the richest country on Remnant, so money wouldn't be as big of an issue there. Luckily there is an airship heading there tomorrow, so that's where I'm going.
Day 10
Airships are really, really fast. Much faster than any plane I've been on, so I question how we aren't creating a sonic boom, but I assume it has something to do with aura and dust. Either way, stowing away isn't as hard as I'd initially thought. Since I'm a kid, sneaking in and sitting next to a random adult seems to be enough for the rest of the crew to be convinced that I'm with my parent. Sitting next to a couple would probably work better though, but this guy was asleep and probably wouldn't ask me any questions.
Day 11
Atlas is cold. I'm used to the cold, but this is REALLY cold. Like, arctic circle levels of cold.
However, I was proven correct: people here are loose with their cash, and have an awful lot of it. There are law enforcers here, but no huntsmen patrolling the streets. I'll be fine evading them for now.
Day 12
Finally in a position where I can comfortably practice using my semblance. I'm interested to see what my limits are, and I'll need to work on expanding them.
Day 14
No new discoveries with my semblance, it's mostly me using up all of my aura, waiting for it to come back to me, and then draining it again. Not sure if that's the best way to train, but it's what I'm going with for now.
However, I need to train with stuff other than my semblance. I remember reading that it's actually harmful to start exercising from a young age. Not sure if that's true or not, but I'll hold off for now. Not like I have access to much exercise equipment anyways, the only facility I can access without a form of ID is the library.
Luckily for me, I'd always been good at throwing things. I found a few rusty knives. I'll practice throwing those, see how I do.
Day 29
I can get up to a 6:1 dilation now. Haven't increased my aura capacity much, so it doesn't last very long, but bringing myself up to that speed is still nice.
Day x
Totally forgot this thing existed. It's been a few months now, and I have not made much progress with my semblance.
While my aura reserves are increasing ever so slightly each day, it's really not much. Maybe an extra hundredth of a second at 5:1 dilation every day. Granted, that'll see good improvement eventually, but I'd still like to try and improve a little faster.
Day x+10
Throwing knives are actually going well. Can now hit where I'm going for within about twenty feet.
Not particularly impressive, but a good start.
Day x+40?
I've lifted enough money to buy myself a practice weapon. Considering I don't have any opponents to spar against, my options are somewhat limited.
I could go into archery, but that doesn't really go well with my semblance. I want a swift attack that no one can block.
My best bet is Iaido. Quickdraw. It's the only thing I can really practice. It's mostly aim and figuring out how to draw my sword faster. Ideally I'd use a katana, but for now I just have enough for a wooden sword. I'll just have to practice throwing leaves and sticks into the air and hitting them.
Day x+y
So… It's been awhile since I'd written. I think it's been about half a year since my last entry. Things got pretty crazy in Atlas. I robbed the wrong person, and I think a rookie huntsman was on my tail. I had to get out of Atlas fast, so I went to Vacuo. It had not been long since I had left Mistral, so I didn't think that it would be a good idea to go back there yet.
Vacuo is interesting. There are actually very few laws here, because there isn't much in the way of a government here.
That means that there's some pretty good pickpockets here. I've had to get pretty good by necessity, and I'd finally managed to get a passive time dilation going. It's only 1.5:1, but this is great progress. It made it much easier to not be pickpocketed.
On the downside, I tend to talk too fast for most people to understand me. I also walk faster than people, which makes it hard for them to casually pickpocket me.
I haven't really put myself out there, but I don't really want to. I don't really want to socialize with anyone. My weapons training is going alright, my throwing is fairly accurate, so I'm trying to find other things to throw. Iaido though, is harder than I'd initially thought. So far I've mostly been focusing on quickly drawing my sword. I'm not going to practice aiming it until I can draw my sword in a fifth of a second.
That being said, I don't think that'll be possible until I can actually exercise some. Vacuo does have private gyms, and I can probably get a membership fairly easily.
My current plan is as follows: I'm going to stay in Vacuo for a while, probably until I'm 8 years old. (I'm a few months away now.) After that, I'm going to travel to some of Mistral's outer expansions, since Mistral apparently has the most expansions out of any of the kingdoms. I'll probably spend a year or so there, then come back to Vacuo. I'll probably repeat this process a few times, getting exercise and resources in Vacuo and then going back to Mistral. My hope is that, by hanging out in some of the outer territories of Mistral, I'll be able to get real combat experience against Grimm while still being protected by local huntsman. Obviously, I don't want to run into Grimm immediately, but from what I understand, the odds that a town gets completely overrun by Grimm like Ren and Nora's town is very, very low. I'll probably stick to some of the more well-defended towns for a while. Probably get 'lost' outside of the walls, maybe fight a Beowulf or two at most.
Is it a stupid idea? Probably. Is it a great way to train myself? Most likely. I work better through trial and error, and my Semblance gives me plenty of wiggle room. The main idea thought, is to gradually get to the point where I don't need my semblance to kill Grimm.
So, my plan in a more manageable form:
-Head to Mistral in a few months
-Fight some small time Grimm
-Get back to Vacuo to pickpocket to my heart's content
-Start weight and running exercises at 9
-Get my Iaido quickdraw down to a fifth of a second
There. I'll bookmark this so that I don't forget.
Day x+y+383
So, I accidentally left this journal in Vacuo in my safety deposit box, so I just got a journal in Mistral instead. For the sake of convenience, I'm going to transfer those journal entries here.
Day x+y+1
Realized I left my journal back in Vacuo. I'll use this in the meantime.
Flight was fine. I'm still young enough to blend in by sitting next to an adult, so I'm fine there. Found a nice alley to rest in, doesn't look to frequented. I'll set up shop there until I find a better place to rest.
Day x+y+36
After a while, I found a nice park I can rest in. That'll be where I rest. Hopefully no one notices that there's an 8 year old sleeping in the park.
I'll start adventuring outside the walls starting tomorrow. I won't go too far though.
Day x+y+40
So, that was a stupid plan. My entire reason for being here might be pointless now.
The problem that I immediately ran into was that there's no way out of the town without going past the guards, who sent me back inside before I could get too far. Luckily, I had found something about my Semblance a while ago, which should have been obvious to me in the first place.
Manipulating the flow of time doesn't just make me faster, it also decreases gravity. I can jump higher, and don't fall as fast. Considering the fact that gravity is acceleration, and all acceleration is change of velocity over time, and I'm slowing down time's effect on my person, that means that I'm also affecting gravity.
That meant that I could jump far enough to reach the treeline. As much as I try and say that my powers are different than super-speed, so far all of my powers could be replicated by anyone with super-speed.
Anyways, that wasn't the problem. Not really. The problem came on the second day. I had been training myself, practicing my quickdraw, when a Grimm showed up, while it was the Beowulf I was hoping for, there were far more than one there. There were only three at first, but when I ran away, there was even more behind me.
I got hit on my way out, slapped to the side by a Beowulf as I made my escape.
I'm writing this with one hand, because I've learned something important from all this. My pain tolerance is low. My arm, while not broken, feels like it's in a lot of pain, enough that I froze when I got hit by the Beowulf.
I remember I used to have good pain resistance, because I had a different mindset. Things that hurt other people didn't hurt me as much, and I need to get back into that same mindset.
I can't afford to get into a fight with a Grimm and freeze up the moment I get hurt. I need to get in a better mindset for that.
I'm not stupid enough to harm myself on purpose for that, but I definitely think I need to get myself involved in more combat situations.
Just need to figure out how…
Day x+y+80
So, I have a new favorite person. Some huntsman-in-training had come to this town for a Grimm extermination mission and had broken off from their team. He apparently saw me practicing with my sword and offered to help me out.
After giving me some tips, he offered to buy some equipment for me if I gave him the money for it. I asked him to buy me a katana and some shurikens. I don't plan on using the shurikens long-term, but it's something that I can practice throwing with other than my normal knives.
I was pleasantly surprised when he actually came back with my money. I didn't actually expect him to help me, and that apparently showed on my face.
The man noticed my shock and simply smiled. He seemed amused by my paranoia. Apparently he had also grown up on the streets of Mistral, so he understood why I was practicing, although he didn't think that I should necessarily try to fight a Grimm at my age, but he wouldn't do anything to stop me.
Well, he did take all of the money I gave him, and I'm pretty sure that I gave him more than what he gave me would have cost, so I guess he didn't do it completely out of the kindness of his heart, so there's that.
Day x+y+85
Right. I've been putting this off long enough. I can't practice my new weapons yet; they're to heavy.
Shurikens would be fine, but the problem is I'm not used to throwing objects like how I want to throw shurikens, and it's throwing me off. I'm going to start with Lien cards to get used to the motion, and then build up from there. Lien cards are made out of some kind of plastic material, so it shouldn't be too hard to throw them accurately.
The katana I have now is simply too heavy for me to practice unsheathing it as fast as I want. It's also about as long as I am tall (which is to say roughly four feet), so I need to stick with my wooden one. I'll probably need to wait until a few months after I get to Vacuo and start working out again before I can start.
However, now that I have a weapon, I could theoretically kill a Beowulf if I catch it by itself. A short burst of my Semblance and I should be able to kill it.
Day x+y+150
Success! I caught a lone Beowulf today. It was all by itself when it decided to attack me. Luckily I had enough time to react and boost my semblance to max time dilation, which is currently hovering somewhere close to 7:1 right now.
Even though I can only hold that for about twenty seconds, that's all I needed. Like expected, since my katana is affected by the time dilation, it ripped right through the Beowulf's unprotected stomach. That's the main reason why I wanted to fight one, so now I don't have to stupidly adventure beyond the walls anymore. Once I'm trained a bit more, I'll be able to fight these things more properly.
Day x+y+264
So I'm approaching that moment when I return to Vacuo, and I felt like writing some more quantifiable results for how I'm doing. By taking some videos of myself, I've managed to piece together where exactly I am. I'll periodically do this every year or so, similar to how some people's family measure their height year by year. It'll certainly be interesting to see my progress over the years at least.
Maximum time dilation: 6.8:1
Time until aura depletion at maximum dilation: 45 seconds
Passive time dilation: 1.55:1
Unsheathe speed (Wooden sword): 0.7 seconds
Unsheathe speed (Katana): 1.2 seconds
Accuracy (Iaido): 5/12 (stationary)
Accuracy (Throwing knives, fifteen meters): 9/12 (stationary)
Accuracy (Lien cards, ten meters): 3/12 (stationary)
Top running speed: 10mph (ten seconds, reproducible 50% of the time)
Day x+y+365
There, all caught up now.
Day x+y+412
I've started a workout regime. The moment I entered the gym of my choice, I could tell that the people of Remnant are naturally more physically fit than a normal human of my world.
Considering the fact I saw a girl not much older than myself bench pressing over a hundred pounds pretty easily, I think that I'm going to have to step up my normal game.
Let the training begin.
Day x+y+446
I have a confession to make Diary. I'm probably not trying as hard as I could.
I've always had this problem when I've trained. Didn't matter if it was working out, running, or studying. Unless there's someone there to push me further, I do what I consider the bare minimum to get stronger, occasionally a bit more, but I don't really push myself very often.
I need to kick this habit, but it's not easy. The only reason why I push myself so hard with my weapons and semblance is because I find it interesting. Even then, I'm starting to lose interest in practicing with my weapons of choice. Hopefully now that I have a new training method, I'll be able to push myself more often.
Day x+y+493
So, some pretty sketchy people came into the gym while I was there today. Not sure how I feel about that, but they were roughing up a few people. Luckily I managed to avoid their gaze, but I don't think that'll last. Unfortunately, I don't really see a way around that problem.
Day x+y+513
Made it to 7:1 time dilation today. Pretty proud of that.
Day x+y+730
So, I'm off to Mistral again. I'm confident that I'll be able to fight a small pack of Beowulfs now. I've been focusing on increasing my passive time dilation this year, and I've almost gotten to 1.7:1, which might not seem like much on paper, but is quickly approaching the point where my reaction time is double that of a normal person's.
While I have my passive dilation up though, I don't recover any aura, so if I speed myself up anymore, I won't get it back until after I drop all time dilation.
I have to walk a fine line between getting used to daily life with my time dilation on and not adapting to it. I wouldn't want to get so used to my time dilation that when it drops I would be completely useless, so I switch it on every other day. That seems to be doing me alright for now anyways.
Day x+y+783
Found a pack of Beowulves. Five total. Dodging is definitely something that I need to improve upon however. I think there's actually a gymnasium in town, I should use that to get more limber. Do some acrobatics, since it seems every student at Beacon knows how to do flips and cartwheels.
Anyways, as was implied, I did get hit again. It was only a shallow cut though, and my aura took care of it. I only had to use 5:1 time dilation to end the Grimm, which I can now hold for a good five and a half minutes. Using that, I was able to kill the Grimm with minimal problems.
However, I was exhausted by the end. Not from aura depletion, but from lack of physical energy. I need to start running long distances if I'm going to last very long in combat.
Day x+y+827
There's so much I need to work on. I think I made a mistake by trying to make it out on my own. If I had been able to go to a combat school, I'd probably be in organized classes.
That being said, I'm probably ahead of most combat schools. However, the only reason why that is the case is because my semblance is a little hax.
I also came to the realization that the days when I have passive time dilation up I have more time to train, but I need to sleep longer, because I'm staying up longer. That makes me so tempted to keep time dilation up all the time, but I can't get too used to it.
Day x+y+957
I...Think I saw Lie Ren in the gymnasium today. In fact, I'm sure of it, because there was a girl with orange hair not too far away from him cheering him on.
I didn't say anything. I don't know if interacting with either of them would have some kind of butterfly effect that ends up with them at some other school other than Beacon.
Either way, I'm leaving in a few months, so while it's cool that I saw them, It's not too important.
Day x+y+1074
So, Nora came up and talked to me today, Ren trailing behind her. She introduced herself and Ren, and I introduced myself to them, but didn't interact much further.
I'm actually not too bothered by Nora's personality, especially since she's actually acting age-appropriate… For now. However, I think I'll still be fine with her in the future.
Ren and I are pretty similar. We're both pretty quiet, but Ren is obviously much more acrobatic than I am. Apparently the whole reason why they even introduced themselves to me is because Ren noticed I was practicing and wanted to give me some advice.
Granted, he had apparently noticed me a couple of months ago, but it took that long before Nora dragged him over and introduced himself to me.
On a side note, I now know how old I am in relation to the RWBY cast. I'm ten, almost eleven. Right now, with Nora and Ren being eleven turning twelve. That means that I'll be a year behind them, but since I don't have valid ID in the first place, I can probably get by with pretending to be a year older than I actually am.
Besides, Ruby was only fifteen when she entered Beacon, so if I do well enough I'll be able to get in even if I get found out.
Day x+y+1095
Heading back to Vacuo. Here's this year's stats. Forgot last year's.
Maximum time dilation: 7.4:1
Time until aura depletion at maximum dilation: 42 seconds
Passive time dilation: 1.85:1
Unsheathe speed (Wooden sword): 0.5 seconds
Unsheathe speed (Katana): 0.8 seconds
Accuracy (Iaido): 8/12 (stationary)
Accuracy (Throwing knives, fifteen meters): 12/12 (stationary), 7/12 (while moving)
Accuracy (Lien cards, fifteen meters): 7/12 (stationary)
Top running speed: 12mph (thirty seconds)
Maximum bench press: 95 pounds
Day x+y+1123
I'm an idiot.
Every time I go into the gym, I've been deactivating my passive time dilation because I don't want to put too much stress on myself.
However, I now realize that I should have it on at all times in the gym. If I increase the passage of time on my muscles, it'll increase the rate at which my aura regrows my muscles, making me stronger, faster.
Why didn't I think of this earlier?!
Day x+y+1124
I didn't think of this earlier because it's a stupid idea.
Nothing actually changes in regards to my muscles. All I'm doing is changing the flow of time in regards to what's around me, which means that my muscles are mending normally, or at least for me.
So for everyone else in the gym, I was just working out really, really fast. In reality, nothing had changed, except by the end of my workout I had aura exhaustion on top of physical exhaustion.
Day x+y+1356
I'm a bit concerned. I've tried a bunch of stuff with my Semblance, and so far all of my ideas have not worked out well. While I'm happy with what I've got, I feel like I could do more with my Semblance, but I don't know what.
Whatever. For now I need to increase the core abilities anyways.
Day x+y+1460
So, stowing away is harder now. Luckily I've got enough money to buy myself legitimate tickets to and from Mistral this year, but I'm going to scope out a few airships, see whether or not stowing away is a possibility in the future.
Stats for the year:
Maximum time dilation: 8.2:1
Time until aura depletion at maximum dilation: 40 seconds
Passive time dilation: 1.95:1
Unsheathe speed (Katana): 0.6 seconds
Accuracy (Iaido): 11/12 (stationary), 5/12 (while moving)
Accuracy (Throwing knives, fifteen meters): 10/12 (while moving), 2/12 (thrown target)
Accuracy (Shuriken, fifteen meters): 10/12 (stationary)
Top running speed: 15mph (thirty seconds)
Maximum bench press: 155 pounds
Day x+y+1539
After fighting a small pack of Beowulves, I ran into an Ursa. Luckily those things aren't any faster than a beowulf, which is what I'm used to. All I really have to do is get up on it's back, which I used full time dilation in order to achieve. After that, stabbing it through the neck works.
Day x+y+1542
After the success of killing an Ursa, I thought that I could take on something else. So I tried to fight a King Taijitu. This was a mistake.
Once it struck out at me, I realized that it could strike faster than I could react to, even with full time dilation. I got lucky that I barely managed to dodge its strike, but only just. Afterwards, I managed to kill it, and then stabbed it again to try and prematurely kill the second snake.
That worked… To an extent. Turns out, the second snake is a little more durable than the first, so I didn't quite kill it with the first strike.
It struck at me with impossible speed, and without a chance to dodge, I did the only thing I could: point my sword at it and hope for the best.
Luckily I had a bit of a 'Harry Potter' moment, and my sword found its way through the roof of the snake's mouth. Unfortunately, unlike Harry Potter, I didn't have a Phoenix to heal the wound that I received afterwards.
I had no idea if King Taijitsus were poisonous or not, so I decided to err on the side of caution.
Good thing I did too, because I started feeling immense pain just before I reached the clinic. The people there were happy to help me, and luckily it was fairly simple for me to get the antidote. They asked how I'd even encountered one, and I'd answered honestly that the thing attacked me, so I killed it.
I'm not quite sure they believed my story, but it was the truth…
Day x+y+1662
There's apparently a place where I can train my reflexes. It's only open to those thirteen and older, but I'm close enough. I just need to find it. This city is actually a bit large, and I'm ashamed to say that I haven't explored much of it. I knew the Mistral city that I'd visited last year pretty well, but this year, not so much.
Day x+y+1664
Found it. It's a place that shoots various projectiles from all directions, starting at dodgeballs and leading up to what looks like some kind of airsoft bullet. I'll be making liberal use of this facility this year, though it's going to eat through my cash reserves.
Day x+y+1749
I need a sparring partner. It's not enough to just practice dodging and doing acrobatics, I need a place where I can actually spar against another person.
Maybe I should enter a tournament? No, I don't want anyone I don't trust to know how I fight. That may sound unreasonable, but I need every advantage I can get. If that means that there's not documented evidence that suggests I can fight, then so be it.
… Maybe I could find someplace in Vacuo.
Day x+y+1825
Heading back to Vacuo. Here's the progress for the year:
Maximum time dilation: 8.7:1
Time until aura depletion at maximum dilation: 40 seconds
Passive time dilation: 2.25:1
Unsheathe speed (Katana): 0.5 seconds
Accuracy (Iaido): 12/12 (stationary), 11/12 (while moving), 4/12 (thrown target)
Accuracy (Throwing knives, fifteen meters): 12/12 (while moving), 9/12 (thrown target)
Accuracy (Shuriken, fifteen meters): 12/12 (stationary), 10/12 (while moving)
Top running speed: 22mph (forty seconds)
Maximum bench press: (?)155 pounds (Haven't tested in actual gym, hopefully hasn't gotten worse)
Day x+y+1968
The only place in Vacuo where I could spar is an underground fighting ring, and I'm not confident enough in my abilities to go down there yet. Maybe when I'm a year away from Beacon, but again that could reveal my capabilities to the wrong people.
I've started throwing larger objects, like a short sword I bought. I want to try to be able to throw just about anything, it could be a useful skill to have.
Day x+y+2076
Holy crap puberty gets affected by aura in all the best ways.
So, my physical capabilities have increased by a ridiculous amount, and while I can't test it, this might include my reaction times.
My stamina, top speed, and strength have all increased well past what a normal human would be capable of back in my world, but from what I understand, I'm only just in the top tenth percentile for strength and stamina in my age bracket. (Speed's different, I'm actually in the top fifth percentile there)
However, the weirdest thing is what happened to my semblance. My aura reserves seemed to have dropped, but my semblance seems more… potent now. I don't think there's actually a maximum to how much I can dilate time, but with my now reduced aura reserves, I can't hold really high dilations for long, but I can get to some frankly absurd dilations… for about ten seconds. Passive time dilation hasn't changed however, which means that the rate my aura recovers hasn't changed.
But seriously, this feels bizarre. However, since I've now proven that I've started puberty, I'm going to have to start talking to myself more. I need to use my voice so that it's not super high-pitched, and I haven't talked to anyone except to buy things for the last year or so.
Day x+y+2190
Heading to Mistral again. This place is a bit smaller, might actually get involved in a Grimm invasion, but I think I'd be ready.
Maximum(?) time dilation: 100:1
Time until aura depletion at maximum dilation: 9.3 seconds
Passive time dilation: 2.5:1
Accuracy (Iaido): 12/12 (while moving), 8/12 (thrown target)
Accuracy (Throwing knives, fifteen meters): 11/12 (thrown target)
Accuracy (Shuriken, fifteen meters): 12/12 (while moving), 11/12 (thrown target)
Top running speed: 36mph (sixty seconds) (I have no idea how this is physically possible)
Maximum bench press: 255 pounds (Seriously, aura is freaking ridiculous. I'm thin as a rail!)
Day x+y+2234
Not much happening today. Fought off a pack of Beowulves. They're getting pretty easy by now. Especially with my new speed, I can pretty easily kill-
In a small diner, I was writing diligently in my journal, when I was interrupted by a broadcast showing a tournament up in Atlas.
"-is our youngest competitor this tournament. Apparently, Pyrrha Nikos, the youngest champion of the Mistral tournament has encouraged others to follow in her footsteps. But can this young man, Samuel Scott, truly measure up to the 'invincible girl'? Let's find out."
I froze. I hadn't heard that name in over a decade. Surely, that's just coincidence?
I look over at the screen.
And then I see it.
He's wearing.
The stupid.
Goddamn.
Hat.
It's him. Sam Scott. A close friend of mine, who I roomed with back in Freshman year of college. I have no idea how he got here, but then again, I don't know how I got here either.
Doesn't matter. No other living being on the face of either world would ever wear a green and yellow striped hat with a smiley face on it into a freaking tournament fight.
I immediately pack up my things and head to get the rest of my supplies at the park where I'm staying. The tournament lasts for a few days, but I need to hurry to Atlas if I'm going to catch up to Sam.
I sprint out of the cafe that I had been eating in, probably drawing odd looks from the other customers, but I don't care. I need to get on an airship as quickly as possible.
When I get to the airships, I inwardly cringe at how much money it's going to cost me. I'm not in a high-density city, so flying outside of Mistral from here costs a lot, and I didn't book ahead of time, so it costs even more for me, but it'll hopefully all be worth it.
Moments later, I'm in the air. I take the time forced on me to think about what I'm going to be doing. Luckily the airship has one of its screens focused on the Atlas tournament, so I can watch. Unfortunately for me, Sam's match already ended, but I didn't know if he'd won or not.
A little while later, my question was answered. Sam managed to beat his opponent, who looked several years older than him. Looking ahead in the brackets, I find that Cardin Winchester is actually competing in the tournament. I honestly hadn't expected him to be in a tournament, and I especially hadn't expected him to be Atlesian.
Either way, I now knew how to find Sam. The tournament was spread over the course of several days to increase ad revenue, so I should be able to find him tomorrow to arrange a meeting elsewhere.
From there… Who knows. I know that Sam had at least watched RWBY, but I'm pretty sure he hadn't finished season three last I talked to him. However, right now, another person to bounce ideas off of sounded good, and Sam was apparently good enough to win fights in a tournament, so he'd be a good test for my combat capabilities.
But the most important part was ideas. I'll admit, I had done little planning as to what to actually do in regards to changing the future, mostly because I have absolutely no clue.
I mean, I don't know how powerful I am really. I have no measuring stick for myself. I have no idea if I could beat Mercury or Emerald, let alone Cinder. I don't have a concrete location where any of the events happened, and my memory is crap in the first place anyways, let alone after almost a decade of not seeing the show.
So just going to wherever Torchwick is hiding out is out of the question. Even if I could infiltrate his headquarters (which I doubt), I wouldn't know where it is to start with.
So that led me to rack through my mind to remember when the events where I could theoretically disrupt Cinder's plans.
I could help Ruby capture Torchwick outside the dust store from episode one, but that just runs into the same problem: it's just some random dust store, how am I going to know which one is the right one before time comes?
The next opportunity would probably be when team RWBY fights with Torchwick at the docks. That might change a few things, so that's my first real chance for some change. I could maybe capture Torchwick then, which might prevent the whole Mt. Glen train incident.
The next opportunity would be the night of the dance. At least, I think that happens before Mt. Glen. I can never remember if the dance was in season two or three. Either way, if I could help Ruby unmask Cinder, that would be huge. However, this would be the riskiest, as Cinder might simply decide that it wouldn't be worth the hassle to take Ruby and I alive, or get angry at us for disrupting her plans, and then Ruby and I would be dead. That would be bad.
Mt. Glen is a possibility for me to change, but it requires me and my team to be able to tag along with RWBY's. Not sure how we'll pull that off, but it might be possible.
Next was the Vytal tournament, which is being really general. If it gets to that point and not much has changed, I'll talk things over with Sam, but Beacon might fall at that point no matter what I do. Cinder controls all of Ironwood's forces, Neo can infiltrate and rescue Torchwick, causing untold levels of chaos, and that chaos would attract Grimm, giving Cinder time to grab the fall maiden's power.
If we make it to season four, it means that I've failed. Honestly, if I hadn't changed anything up to that point, I'll be convinced that the timeline is fixed.
At the very least, I've come up with two plans that should work. If I can distract Mercury in the final round of the Vytal tournament, I should prevent Penny's death.
The other main change that I want to fix would be Pyrrha's death. I… Have a plan for that, but it's a kind of 'last-ditch' kind of thing.
I shook my head. I can talk strategy with Sam when I meet up with him. The airship is about to land anyways. I open up my journal to finish up today's entry.
… I just caught a video of Sam in a tournament in Atlas. I've almost landed there now, hopefully I'll be able to meet up with him tomorrow.
Sam was a bit nervous right now. This was his first big competition, his first moment in the global spotlight. He needed to do exceptionally in the next few years if he wanted to get into Beacon a year early so that he could attend at the same time as team RWBY.
He NEEDED to get better, and facing strong people was how he was going to get there. He knew that his skillset wasn't focused on one-on-one fighting, so he needed as much practice as he could get.
He was lucky that his family were servants of the Schnee family, so he was allowed to talk with Weiss and Winter, who both knew quite a lot about applications of dust. Weiss and he had been best friends since they were young, since Sam was the only other person who could really be close to Weiss. Because of that, Weiss had gifted Sam with a large amount of dust for his tournament.
Surprisingly, even Jacques Schnee, someone who Sam would charitably call a certified bastard at the best of times, pulled out all the stops for Sam. While he didn't want his children to actually participate in tournaments themselves, for fear of making his family seem 'uncivilized', or 'brutish', he wasn't above helping Sam win if it made the Schnee family look better.
After all, Sam was a child of a Schnee servant. That implied that the servants of the Schnee family were powerful. If the servants were powerful… What did that imply about their employers?
So to that end, Jacques acquired a an experimental prototype for a kind of clip that used Aura rather than bullets or dust. In the stage it was in, Sam couldn't combine dust with its shots, but he knew enough about dust manipulation to use the raw crystals for attacks.
So with those two advantages, he felt a little bit better about his chances in the next round. His next opponent was an Atlas native. He used a large warhammer and favored powerful strikes. His Semblance seemed to be to send waves of earth out when he hits the ground with his feet.
Sam was of mixed minds about fighting the man. His current strategy was to try to layer as much ice on the ground as possible, and then try to ring the man out using either gravity dust, the knockback from his shotgun, or possibly both. He didn't have a good method of taking out a melee fighter who looked like he could take a few hits.
As Sam was frantically worrying about the upcoming combat, he heard a voice that broke him out of his train of thought.
"Sam Scott?" A voice asked.
Turning, Sam saw a boy about his age standing in the doorway. The boy in question had brown hair, a thin frame and stood at roughly his height, which was just shy of six feet. He had a black hoodie and jeans on, with no weapons visible on his person.
But for some reason, this boy looked… Familiar, which was weird, since his features made him seem fairly generic, not someone that Sam was likely to remember based on appearance.
Sam furrowed his eyebrows and cocked his head. "Um, yeah… That's me. This might sound weird, but… Do I…. Know you?"
The boy shrugged his shoulders. "Hopefully. My name's James Smith. Remember me? Please let the answer be yes, otherwise this is going to get awkward, fast."
Sam's eyes widened to an impossible size in shock. "JAMES?! Dude! You're- How-?"
James sighed in relief. "Oh, thank God. I was actually concerned for a second there."
"I- What? How? Why?" Sam tried. His mind was a bit on the fritz at the moment. His roommate from Freshman year, one of his friends from a world he had thought he had been cast out of, was standing there, in front of him.
"Well, in order…" James said, clearly amused. "Yes, it's me, your roommate from first year. We roomed in Carriage House, and just in case you need more proof, our last roommate was named Elijah. As for how I found you…" James' eyes wandered to Sam's… Unique hat, which was still perched upon his head. "Seriously, do you even wash that thing?"
Sam laughed. Hard. James' smile widened in response and he soon joined in on the fun. The two kept laughing for a few moments, mostly in relief. After a little while, they stopped laughing.
James wiped a tear from his eye. "Oh, it's good to see you again Sam."
Sam nodded in response, still chuckling slightly. "Yeah, it's nice to know I'm not alone here."
James smiled. "Mhmm. Before I thought I'd have to fix everything myself. Now that you're here…" He paused for comedic effect. "Well, I guess I'll just have to work harder now." He joked.
Sam rolled his eyes. "Oh, ha ha. You're so funny James. Tell me again why I was so relieved to see you again?"
James shook his head. "As much as I enjoy talking to someone again, you've got a match coming up. There's a park about twenty blocks west of here. Meet me there when you can, I'll be waiting."
Sam nodded. "Right, I'll see you then James."
As James walked out of the room, he turned his head over his shoulder. "Oh, and make sure you win, alright? If you do, your next opponent is Cardin Winchester, and that asshole needs to be brought down a peg or seven."
Sam grinned at James. "I mean, that was the plan anyways, but sure. I'll catch up with you later then."
James nodded and walked out of the room.
Sam was a bit worried that he'd be too distracted for his next match.
I snuck out of the preparation area that Sam had been using and snuck into the stands of the stadium. I wanted to watch Sam fight to see for myself how far along he'd come. He was obviously pretty strong, since he had managed to win a fight in the Atlas annual tournament.
As he and his opponent walked into the ring, I took stock of Sam's opponent first. He was a few years older than Sam or I, probably just about to attend one of the big academies and using the fame from this tournament to help him get in. He looked stereotypical musclehead, and had a giant warhammer. Shaking the thoughts of a man that I'd never meet again to the side, I turned my attention to Sam.
Sam always caught attention in a crowd, since he was fairly tall and he had that stupid hat on at all times, making it so that you could pick him out from about a kilometer away if you had to. Outside of the hat though, he was wearing a dark blue hoodie and jeans, though there seemed to be some red around the wrists of his hoodie. I then took notice of the giant white snowflake on the back of his hoodie.
Huh. I thought to myself. He's sponsored by Schnee? Adopted family, or something else? I wondered.
I saw Sam's weapon on his back. It appeared to be some form of shotgun, though the jury was out on whether or not it would stay like that. This was Remnant after all. Ever since I'd seen Coco's purse change into a minigun, I just assumed that there was no physical limit to what a weapon could change into here.
The two fighters stood opposite each other as the announcer counted them in, and on his signal, the two immediately brought up their weapons. The other warrior seemed satisfied with his warhammer, and immediately stomped on the ground, sending a wave of rocks and debris towards Sam.
However, Sam merely rolled to the side, avoiding the rocks by miles. His shotgun started shifting, and ended in the form of a sniper rifle. He immediately fired off a few shots while he was kneeled on the ground. I checked the man's aura levels on the big screen. Either his aura levels were weak, or Sam's shots HURT. However, what puzzled me was that Sam's aura was also decreasing as he shot at the man, so he was somehow using a Semblance as well.
The older boy was clearly enraged by Sam's actions and charged towards Sam. I'll give the man credit, he managed to deflect Sam's shots with his hammer pretty well, but several of Sam's shots managed to make it through. As Sam's opponent was nearing him, Sam stood up and made his gun turn back into its shotgun form.
The warhammer-wielding fighter swung vertically at Sam, probably hoping to follow-up with another strike. Sam surprised him by sliding towards his opponent, firing a shotgun facing up and away from himself.
I should probably correct myself now. Sam's shotgun isn't a simple shotgun. It's a freaking CANNON. The sound of it going off practically deafened everyone in the stands, sent Sam's opponent flying away, and even forced Sam to slide back, forcing him to tumble off of the edge of the ring ungracefully, causing him to ring out.
Thankfully for Sam, his opponent had been moving much, much faster than he was, so he had been ringed out first… What an awful end to a match. Sam was looking down at his weapon in absolute shock, as if he had absolutely no idea what had just happened.
Sam had absolutely no idea what just happened. He had tested out the shotgun mode before! Although… He had never tried enhancing the shotgun's ammo, soooo…. Maybe that was it?
He sighed. That match… Had actually been a little bit embarrassing for him. The whole reason why he was in the tournament in the first place was so that he could show off what he was capable of… Only to show that the recoil of his weapon was so extreme it almost made him lose his match. Talk about unprofessional. It didn't help that his opponent kept sending him the evil eye every time they met outside of combat.
Either way, he wanted to meet with James before he headed back home, which required him to get to the park that James had mentioned earlier. Sam wasn't sure why his old friend wanted to meet in a park, but but whatever.
And wasn't THAT weird to think about. For almost ten years now, he'd been on his own, preparing for his time in Beacon, doing his best to make sure that he'd be combat ready when he gets there. Then James shows up and now he has help… Well, Sam wasn't really going to complain, but still. It would take awhile for Sam to wrap his head around this new surprise.
"Sam, over here!" he heard from his right.
Sam turned towards the voice and saw James. He smiled at his friend and approached him. James smiled in response, and waved at Sam.
"Glad you could join me Sam." James said.
Sam chuckled. "I'm glad you invited me. Now we can figure out what the hell we're going to do."
James nodded. "Yeah. Let's start with questions though, since I've got the feeling we're gonna have a lot."
Sam pulled out his scroll. "Well, I'm not sure how much time I have, I'm expected to be back in at least half an hour, so I've got maybe fifteen minutes before I leave."
"That'll have to do for today. We'll have to arrange a time to meet again in the future." James responded.
"Sounds good." Sam said with a nod. "Can I get your scroll information? That would make contacting you easier."
James shook his head. "I don't have a scroll. I don't have the money for it, and any money I get I put towards training and food."
Sam cocked an eyebrow at James.
"Why don't you tell me your story then?" Sam asked.
James shrugged. "I'll give you the highlights, 'Cause there's not much to it. I woke up in Mistral. I was taught how to pickpocket, and my aura was unlocked so that I wouldn't get stabbed by an angry merchant. Soon after, I unlocked my Semblance, but had to leave because it made me really noticeable, and that was bad for the people helping me. Got on a airship to Patch, spent a bit there, actually managed to meet Ruby, in fact." Sam's eyes widened in surprise at that. "Oh, relax. I only had one conversation with her, I doubt she'd even recognize me now. Anyways, that place wasn't really great for me to support myself in, so I left for Atlas. Made a bunch of money here, then a hunstman chased me out. I went to Vacuo after that, stayed there for a while, made a bunch of money, then went back and forth between Vacuo and Mistral in order to train myself. That's basically it."
"Huh." Sam said. "Well… Sorry to hear that…"
James shrugged. "I'm used to it now. I might not have a lot of money, and I might not have great training, but it's given me the chance to go toe-to-toe with Grimm, so that'll be useful going into Beacon."
Sam had to agree, that was certainly true. "Yeah, I'm going to combat school here, and we're not allowed to fight Grimm until we're fifteen, and even then that's with huntsmen supervision."
"Anyways, how've you been? I see that the Schnee apparently like you…" James said, referring to Sam's outfit.
Sam looked down at his clothes. "Yeah, these are new, but they're good for combat so I guess I'll probably keep them…" Sam explained.
"But yeah, apparently I was found in a blizzard near the Schnee family's mansion, and a few servants found me. They took me in and found out that I didn't have anywhere to go, so they kept me. I'm not a Schnee, not really. I'm kind of a ward of the family, so I'm under their protection, but I do chores around the house, and it's kind of expected that I'll become a servant when I get older. I'm… Still not sure if that's an official 'thing' or not, but they've helped me a lot, so I haven't looked into it too much." Sam said. He then came to a realization. "Oh right! I'm best friends with Weiss." James stilled at Sam's information. "Um… I probably should have mentioned that first, huh?"
"You… Are best friends… With Weiss Schnee." James deadpanned.
"Yeah."
"Weiss Schnee, the 'W' of team RWBY, the girl whose main crippling weakness was that she doesn't know how to interact with people."
"Uh… Yeah."
"The girl who in canon is incredibly lonely all the time, just looking for a friend, and doesn't really know how to get one? THAT Weiss?"
"Yeah, pretty much. If it helps, she's starting to act like she did in canon. It's really weird."
James' thought process ground to a halt. "... What?"
"Well, I mean, she was so friendly whenever Winter was around, but since Winter left, she's been getting worse and worse. Nowadays she REALLY doesn't like it whenever I head out and don't take her with me. And if I don't tell her ahead of time that I'm leaving? I'm a dead man."
James placed both his hands on his forehead. "Okay… We'll deal with this when the time comes… Hopefully the changes that you made are only good changes…"
Sam shrugged. "Hey, I can't see how they'd be bad. Even if they were, I don't regret it. Weiss is my best friend now. Hell, before you showed up, I was almost tempted to break up team RWBY to partner up with her."
"Don't even joke about that. Breaking up team RWBY would have so many repercussions it's not even funny. We'd basically be in no better a situation than anyone else."
Sam rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that, but that was the best I could come up with."
James ran a hand through his hair and let out a deep breath. "Alright, we'll have to talk plans soon, but that'll take up too much time. What's your Semblance?"
"Oh, it's actually really cool. So, anything that my aura touches, I can 'amplify' it. So far, I've only managed to get it to work with dust or other people's Semblances, but I think that I can still improve it."
James' eyebrows shot up. "Okay, that's… Great, actually. But how do you touch other people with your aura?"
Sam pat his shotgun on his back. "My gun uses aura rounds, so all I'm doing is shooting out aura instead of bullets. Because of that, I can transfer my aura to people or amplify their Semblance. Otherwise, it just drains a bit more than a normal bullet."
James' eyes widened. "Wow. How come everyone doesn't have one of those?" He asked.
Sam shrugged. "Dunno. This one was apparently a prototype, and they haven't figured out how to get dust to work with it yet. Outside of that, it's probably not cheap, so maybe that's the issue?"
James nodded. "That makes sense."
"So what about you? What's your Semblance?" Sam asked.
James grinned. "While your Semblance is awesome Sam, mine's a bit cooler."
Sam raised an eyebrow. "Uh, is that a challenge I hear?" Sam asked.
James chuckled. "Oh, there's no challenge. My Semblance…" James trailed off for dramatic effect. "... Is time manipulation."
"... No really, what is it?"
"Ha! No, that's actually it. I can control the flow of time. I can make it so that I experience time at a faster or slower rate than everyone else."
Sam took a moment to process the information. "That… Sounds completely broken. What's the catch?"
James grimaced. "Well, admittedly, I don't really know how to train a Semblance very well, and I've never had anyone tell me, so I don't know if my training is ideal… But my aura reserves are low, and only got lower recently. The tradeoff for the drop is that the most I can manipulate time flow shot through the roof, but still."
Sam nodded. "Well, I can help you with your training. Do you know if you can affect other people with it?"
James shook his head. "No idea. Anything that's touching me gets affected, but I've never told another person what my Semblance is. I'd rather keep it as an ace in the hole."
Sam tilted his head in confusion. "Um… Okay, I guess. How are you going to get into Beacon then?"
"From what I can remember, there's a battle exam. I'll take that and do my hardest not to show off my Semblance."
"Oh, okay. That makes sense then." Sam replied. He looked down at his phone. "As much as I want to stay here and talk to you, I've got to get back soon. When and where do you want to meet up again?" Sam asked.
James shrugged. "I have no idea what your schedule is like. I'll just train in this park from here on out. Meet me here when you can."
Sam sighed. "Where are you going to sleep James?" He asked, already probably knowing the answer.
"Tonight? In this park. Probably can't do that too often though, so probably in side-alleys, under bridges. You know, normal stuff."
"James, I can probably get you a room in the Schnee mansion. You don't have to live like a hobo."
James shook his head. "No, it would be too suspicious for me to show up, especially since they know we've never met before. No, just let them know that you have a new sparring partner, and I'll do fine on my own."
Sam crossed his arms and frowned. "I don't like this."
James rolled his eyes. "Sam, compared to Vacuo, Atlas is absolutely tame. I'll be fine living on the streets here, so don't worry about me."
"Fine." Sam gritted out. "But don't think I won't be bringing you food!... 'Cause I totally will!"
James smiled at his friend. "That sounds great Sam, I appreciate the help."
Sam stood there for a few more moments. "Alright, I guess I'll just… Leave." Sam said.
"Alright, bye Sam. See you around."
"See ya."
And with that, Sam left the park. That day had been good for the both of the world-travellers. Knowing that they had a friend to help them on their journey was an immense relief for their stress levels. In the future, the two would train, would grow and develop into a nigh-unbeatable duo, but tonight, for the first time in a long time…
They rested easy.
A/N:
Here we are. I quite liked how this chapter turned out, so I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's reaction to it.
Speaking of reactions, can I just say that I'm really flattered by how many people liked this based off the first chapter? I mean, 45 followers for only 1 chapter? That's pretty good in my mind.
So, for anyone concerned about the amount of OC's/SI's, this is it. No more major OC's in this story, I'm not bringing in anyone else. Sam's in this because he's helping me edit my story, and I wanted to bring in someone as a partner. Sam's a good friend of mine, and he's watched RWBY, so it made sense to include him.
The next chapter will be the start of Beacon, so there's going to be a bit of a timeskip here, but we'll get a few flashbacks to the time where Sam and I train up. I just wanted to keep a few surprises for you guys in the future, while still giving you all a general idea as to what I can do.
Review responses:
Warlord of Chaos - Nice to hear that you like it! Hope you liked how my MC is turning out. I'm doing my best to write my personality without making myself seem perfect, but it's not easy.
Densho - Alright, fair enough. I'll get rid of that in the last chapter, and I'll be sure not to use it in the future. I had just seen it once or twice, and figured it'd be cool, but if it takes you out of immersion, it's not really too important that I keep it in.
Bomberguy789 - So, first of all, thank you for the review, I really do appreciate criticism. I didn't get too much constructive criticism in my other stories, so this really helps me out. So, without further ado, here are my responses:
(Pickpocketing) Answered in this chapter, but in case you missed it, it's in order to prevent the kids from getting stabbed by shifty merchants/other criminals.
(Attracting attention) Poorly worded on my part. Less about having Cinder's group target me and more about me having the element of surprise when I end up striking out. Every advantage I can get, y'know?
(OPness) Yeah, hopefully I put some of those worries to rest, but this is obviously a major thing to address. I did a bit of that in this chapter, but I'll definitely keep coming back to it in the future. Hopefully my explanations help portray that right now, all I've basically got is fancy super-speed.
EDIT: Thought Iaido mixed with Iatsu. Not sure what Iatsu is, or whether it even exists, but I fixed it now.