ARGH this one took forever but got it out before spring break ended so HAHA. also if you guys could read the comments at the end i would appreciate it thank you.

Chapter 3: Odd Characters

I wake up in a dark place not able to see anything until suddenly the are filled with light and when my eyes finally adjusted I saw Ruby in front of me with a big smile that I just found completely infectious and started to walk toward her. Then all of a sudden I taste something familiar in my mouth and the look of horror that appears on her face confirms my fear before I even look down. I look down anyways to find some sort of pole pierced right through me and blood is slowing rolling down it and onto the floor. I drop to my knees at the familiar pain and look up at Ruby to see her start coming toward me to help. Then I see some being with bright yellow eyes and a wicked smile showing off a set of jagged teeth step out from behind me. I reach out to stop it as it starts approaching Ruby with an evil looking smile. It's smile only grew bigger as I felt even more pain as more poles speared me in different areas including the hand I had out stretched. As some pierced my chest I coughed up blood which adding to the already rapidly growing pool of blood that was gathering under me. I try to tell Ruby to run, but no noise will come out of my mouth 'No! Stop! Leave her alone!' is all I can think as the thing slowly starts walking toward her.

Seeing the creature approach struck fear in Ruby but seeing me skewered enraged her so she took a stance to try and fight the creature. I try to move driving the poles to tear the holes they made in me even larger as I try to get up to help her, to try to get her to run away, but I don't think that she understood the gesture as she held her stance firmly. I cough up more blood as my efforts remain fruitless and Ruby sees this and it tips her over the edge causing her to charge toward the mysterious being 'No you fool run it's too late for me please just save yourself!' I try to scream at her. She reaches him in record time and throws a punch at him at blinding speed, but it fails as the being simply lifts its hand and catches the punch with ease. This causes the creature start giving a distorted laugh as it twisted Ruby's arm that gave off a sickening crack.

"IS THAT REALLY THE BEST YOU GOT!" the creature distorted words echoed as Ruby cried out in pain. Then I started to struggle even harder than before as panic and fear took hold as the creature took its time breaking Ruby. It was slow and meticulous making sure not to hit anything to vital until she was laying on the floor her head turns to me with her face covered in blood and tears asking me to help her. Tears started to run down my face as well though not from the pain, though that was excoriating, but having to watch and not being able to do or say anything.

As the creature loomed over her I started trying to speak again 'no' it reaches its' hand out pulling a spear out of thin air and aims it at her chest. 'NO PLEASE KILL ME INSTEAD!' once again no noise escapes me as I continue to struggle in vain. The creature turns to me with a grin that I can only guess is filled with sick delight as it sees me struggle to get free. Then it turns back to Ruby and pulls back the spear ready to strike her down as I could only watch in horror as it starts setting in what is about to transpire. I am going to lose a person I care for again and this thing was enjoying every moment of it. Then as the spear started coming down I tried to reach out one final time in vain and I also try shouting out, but this time as I shout out it can be heard.

"NOOOOOO!" I shout breathing heavily with my hand stretched out toward the ceiling of my room. As my breathing slows and the fear subsides I bring my hand to my face to find I'm covered in sweat. "What the hell was that." I wonder out loud because it's not like I don't ever nightmares about losing those I care for, but this was on a whole new level. It all felt so real and I even have to reach down to make sure that the poles that pierced me weren't there because the pain was similar to how it felt when I died. Still though what could it have meant to have one so life like and that dark being was new too because most of the time the nightmares were more about me being unable to save them where this almost straight up seemed more like a torture method. I shake my head trying to clear my thoughts it was just a dream after all it had no real world consequence.

I get up and look outside and see that it is still a little while before the sun is up and everyone will start moving about. Well that is if they weren't awake already from my scream from earlier and if they ask I'm not sure what to say because this just didn't feel like a normal dream. So I peek out the door to see if anyone was head to my room, but I am surprised to find the hallway to be empty 'Huh thought at least one person would have woken up from that.' I just shrug and start making my way to what passes as a living room that doubles as our dining room. Once there I remove my shirt in order to prevent it being drenched in sweat and start practicing my forms because if the fight from a few days ago have taught me anything it is that even though all of the physical labor has kept me in shape I am out of touch with my techniques. As I calmly move through the motions I let my mind wander as I usually do, but this time it flows toward the nightmare I just had. I just can't wrap my mind around what it could mean, I mean sure there were plenty of things I can't understand about this place but this is different it has nothing to do with the world around me. So needless to say I dislike this train of thought and it reflects in my forms as I start going through them faster and the motions become more aggressive as I strike at invisible enemies. 'Why? Why would I dream that? It couldn't have some other meaning could it?' I feel my frustration grow as thought keep going. 'If it does mean something than what could it mean?' I stop my motions for a minute to catch my breath 'Sure I am afraid of losing Ruby and not being able to protect her, but that is how I feel about everyone here in the orphanage right?' I drop my stance and stare at the floor 'Well it is true that I have nightmares similar to that before, but this was on another level so could it really be considered the same fear of losing people I care for?'

Just than a voice cuts through my thoughts "Brendan?" I turn to find Ruby standing in the door way sleepily looking at me until she realizes that I don't have a shirt on and a slight blush forms on her face.

As her eyes meet mine we both look away and Ruby turns around as a thought rises 'Wait why did I look away?!' this whole situation is confusing because I have never been embarrassed about having people see me without a shirt on. 'Maybe I'm still being affected by the nightmare.' Is the reasoning I put behind it and it seems like a pretty solid reason so I grab the towel I have handy and quickly wipe off the sweat and put my shirt back on. With that done I walk over to where I moved the table so that it was out of the way to put it back into a position in the middle of the floor. Seeing Ruby's back still to me I smile ready to tease her "So you gonna help me set the table back up or are you gonna continue to be lost in what world you entered in your mind?"

She turns to me face still a little bit red as she tries to glare at me, clearly not appreciating my teasing, before sighing in defeat and walks over to help me. As we set up we make small talk a little not really talking about anything in particular having a few laughs, but then she asks "So since I'm all better could I perhaps come with you to find work?"

She shifts a little nervously while I just sigh and smirk at her "If I said no would you actually sit and wait here?"

She giggles and rubs the back of her head "Yeah I probably wouldn't be able to and try to follow you anyways.'

I sigh again "So long as you feel up to it and agree to not push yourself while we work and let me do the heavy lifting I don't see why not." She nods happily clearly excited about finally being able to get out of the house. It has been a few days since she was injured but thankfully they weren't serious and she was able to recover almost completely rather quickly. Still I would have liked for her to take it easy for one more day, but I think her personality wouldn't be able to let her stay in one place for much longer. The way I see it better to have her by me so that I can make sure she doesn't hurt herself through overexertion.

After we finish setting up the table and a few pillows to sit on Ruby rushes off to get dressed to go work. I put together some snacks for the kids to enjoy before I go put my shoes on and wait for Ruby by the door. It doesn't take long for her to zoom back down the stairs as she passes some of the kids groggily make their way to the living room to hear from Sena what the plan for the days' events is going to be. We say our good byes to the few kids that are there and head out toward one of the districts that I have been hearing is having some trouble lately and hopefully there will be an abundance of work.

After we made our way through many districts we come across some people in black walking toward the center of the districts and everyone was making plenty of room for them. As they past I noticed some of them were bandaged and a few were holding their ribs and one was nursing an arm. 'Huh I wonder what happened to them because I only know of a few things that can hurt them that badly' is what crosses my mind as they pass.

"Who are they?" asks Ruby as they pass.

"They are called Shinigami." The look of confusion on her face makes me continue "It means Soul Reaper, essentially think of them as the special police of this world. They handle only threats that would have an effect on large portions of the Soul Society. Which is why they didn't interfere or bother to investigate the fight a few days ago." I look toward the direction they were walking from "It makes me wonder though what exactly could have put them in such a state." So I walk up to a nice elderly lady and ask "What happen to them?" I gesture to the Shinigami.

"They were investigating the strange ruffians in the forest, but for them to come back looking like that maybe the rumors of there being demons in there are true." Said the older woman with a look of concern on her face as she watched the Shinigami slowly walk away. Then she noticed who she was talking too "Your Brendan the strongest person of the Rukon Districts!" She moves forward taking my hands in hers and I take an instinctual half step back as she starts pleading "Please you have to help us! We won't be able to feel safe if there is something dangerous in the forest and even if those Shinigami couldn't do it you are stronger than ten of those men!"

I laugh nervously 'That only happened one time before I knew who they were and thankfully none of them remembered who it was that beat them.' After all, assaulting Shinigami comes with a heavy punishment and this lady was making a scene and I'm not one to ignore some old ladies please. So I give her a "Alright ma'am just calm down a little please." Her grip on my hands loosens a little bit and I sigh a little 'man this is gonna be a headache I just know it' "Well I don't like going into a situation blind so how about you tell me what you know."

The old woman thought about it for a moment "I am sorry, but I don't know much just what the rumors say they look like." The woman looked a bit dejected at this.

I give a warm smile the lady "It's quite alright Miss anything is fine."

She perks up a bit "Well they say that all of them are dressed in odd clothing." Looking at Ruby she "Kind of like how your girlfriend is dressed."

Both me and Ruby blush as both of us quickly reply "No we're not together!"

The woman laughs at this and gives a smile that I could swear said 'Oh youth.' like old people say in books and such. Then she continues after thinking about it again "I think one of the Shinigami claimed that one of them was a demon with long yellow hair that if any of them touched the hair they were instantly injured. Another said that there was one that could walk right out of the shadows and was some kind of cat demon. The last one I have heard about was about one that keeps on scream 'LET'S BREAK THEIR LEGS! LET'S BREAK THEIR LEGS!' and other than that I haven't heard much else sorry."

To be honest I think this sounds completely ridiculous who would ever run into such things. I turn to Ruby to ask what she thought of it, but she walked right up to the woman and took her hand getting pretty close to her asking "Where is the forest that these stories come from!?"

The woman is taken back by the girl's sudden eagerness and stammered a bit "W-well the r-rumor says it's in the forest just a few districts in that direction." She points in the opposite direction that the Shinigami were heading.

At this Ruby darts off in that direction leaving the woman a little shocked as I shouted after her "RUBY WAIT WHAT'S UP!?" I turn to look at the woman "Thanks for the info," I dash after Ruby and yell back at the woman "WE CAN WORK OUT A REASONABLE PAYMENT WHEN WE GET BACK!" As I turn my attention back to chasing Ruby I can only think 'Damn I never knew she was this fast! Gonna have to try to stay at top speed just so I don't lose her!'

'Damn how far can she run that fast!' Ruby and I have already reached the forest and were still heading in the same direction 'If she keeps this up I won't be able to stay with her!' Just as I think this she trips over something and lands face first into the ground 'Oooohhhh that's gotta hurt.' I approach her and say "Hey you ok?"

She simply stands up wipes off her dress with a serious look on her face "I'm fine." Is all she says before trying to run off again.

I grab her arm before she can sprint ahead of me again "Ruby what has gotten into you?" I ask in concern.

She struggled against me until I grabbed both her shoulders and forced her to look at me only to be greeted by tears streaming down her face. I slowly let go as she looks down a little and almost whispers "The description the lady gave was almost completely spot on for my sister and friends." Now I get why she ran off it was something that she had to see for herself and while she didn't want to she has her hopes up that it is one of them implication of such an event be damned.

I sighed 'I can understand where it is she is coming from. If I had even the possibility of seeing one of my friends or family members, I think I would probably be the same way.' So I reach out to her and pull her into a hug and try to comfort her "It's ok I understand." She sobs a little into me than I pull her a little away from me and then with a smile I say "How about we go find them?"

She wipes her eyes and smiles up at me with her usual eagerness "Yeah!" as she follows me into the forest. I pick the direction that seems to be where the Shinigami had come from if the trail I saw was correct.

Then after walking for a few more minutes we come across a little cabin surrounded in a clearing that looked like a couple of fights have happened there were even some burnt trees 'Well this looks like the place.' I look around to see if there were any Shinigami left because there was that was gonna mean trouble. Luckily none were around so I gesture to quietly approach the cabin and we slowly creep up to the door and once again I gesture for her to be quite as I slowly open the door for us to look inside. What I see is a group of kids that look a little older than me and from here they appear to be chatting about something. As I look over to Ruby as I am about to ask if any of them seem familiar she again looks like she is on the verge of tears and she stands up and bursts into the cabin "Ruby wait!" I whisper harshly as I try and fail to stop her from running in.

3rd POV

several minutes before Ruby and Brendan shows up

The group were gathered around in a circle to see if they can make some sense about what was happening and so far the consensus was not a happy one. "Jaune what do you mean we are dead?" berated a girl with snow white hair.

The blonde looked down still not too sure about it himself "Think about Weiss we were surrounded by an endless hoard of Grimm and none of us can quite remember how we got here. Also," the boy looked toward his fellow blonde "Yang's arm is back flesh and blood and you no longer have that scar that you are always so self-conscious about."

Weiss looked down to the ground because the once timid boy was right it did make the most sense that they didn't make it out alive. Everyone seemed to be in agreement of this as they all had their heads hanging low. After a while Nora piped up with her opinion albeit in a more tamed tone than usual "If we are dead," she paused as a slight frown appeared on her face "then what will happen to us now?"

Everyone paused and considered this no one really had an answer, but Ren spoke up not really wanting to see his partner that upset "Perhaps we are supposed to go somewhere and once there we might even be able to see people that have died before us."

This brought everyone's spirits up a little bit and Nora started to be at least a little bit of her usually bubbly self as she glomped her boyfriend. Pyrrha speaks up next "I hope we do get to see Ruby so that I can thank her because if it weren't for her I would have died much sooner than I did." She reaches over too Jaune and takes his hand "and I would not have been able to spend the time that I did with you." This brings a small smile to his face and a slight blush.

"AAWWW look at the cute couples." Yang teased "You feeling left out." She gestures toward Weiss and Blake. This earns her a couple of glares from her friends as she just giggles cause it was always fun to tease them about how lovey dovey they could be sometimes.

Then Blake spoke up "I hope so too but what about those guys in black with the swords." This causes everyone to start to think about their current situation.

Jaune enters his tactician mode that he has become known for "Well, while the guys that fought us earlier and yesterday weren't all that tough they used some strange techniques. It didn't look like they were using Dust either." He looks over to Weiss as the person that would know whether or not Dust was in use. She nods in agreement and he continues "We also saw multiple people fire off those red orbs so I don't think it was a semblance type of attack maybe Aura manipulation?" this time he looks over at Ren.

"If it was it was nothing I have ever heard even masters being able to do." Ren calmly replied but his mind was reeling at the possibilities if it was Aura manipulation.

Jaune continued "Well, how about for now we assume that it is something different. Also I don't think that they were the strongest fighters they have to offer. They were more likely sent either because they didn't expect this kind of resistance or they were just testing the waters. After in chess the Pawns always goes first, so it might be best if we try to move to a different prepare for the worst." He contemplates what they should do for a moment then speaks "We could do one of two things, either try to make this place more defendable or move to a different position to be able to gain an advantage in. The problem with the first choice is that our enemy could start bring out more powerful pieces and thus making any defense we try to null and void. The second choice might be worse because we don't know the layout all that well and could leave ourselves out in the open without a place to help defend against whatever attack they might throw our way." He sighed and brought a hand to his face "To be honest I don't like either choices and if we knew the area better than we would defiantly move to a better place."

Pyrrha places a hand on Jaune's shoulder to encourage him to move forward with his decision not that he needed it anymore, but that is not to say he doesn't appreciate the gesture. Then as he was about to continue the door to the cabin suddenly opened causing everyone to move into a battle stance 'I wasn't expecting them to send new fighters so soon!' Jaune thought in surprise. Nora stood up very quickly ready to charge at the enemy and "break their legs" as she liked to put it. Though with Yang being the closest Jaune doubted that she would get the chance too.

"YANG!" Shouted a familiar voice that shocked the group as a bright red blur charged at them and ran right into Yang knocking her into the ground with sobs clearly audible from the familiar figure.

Yang looked at the person that was hugging her as if she might disappear if she let go "R-Ruby?! Yang exclaimed as she quickly embraced her sister and started to cry herself. Everyone gathered around and sure enough there was the one person that they all thought that they would never see again.

Weiss approached the pair on the ground and fell to her knees and bent over and embraced the pair and started sobbing over the reunion with her partner and one of the best friends she ever had. Soon everyone followed suit and started to sob over the siblings with the reunion of their lost friend. That was until Blake's ear twitches as there was a slight sigh by the door. She turns to the door to find a boy leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed and a slight smile on his face as he watches the scene that is playing out before him. The overall appearance of the boy didn't seem like much, but he wasn't dressed the same as the men who attacked them earlier that day. Still she tenses up sensing that he is a good fighter, but a little unsure of who he is and thought that they should be cautious of him for the moment.

After a few more moments the guy cleared his throat "Now as much as I would like to just let you guys continue. We should probably get you guys to a safer location before the Shinigami come back." At this everyone else notices him and tenses up ready for a fight untill Ruby breaks free of the bear hug that Yang had her in.

She walks up to the boy rubbing her head a little "Sorry I got a little carried away when I saw them.

He patted her on the head "Don't worry about it I would have done the same thing." Then he looks up and gestures to the group "I am serious though we need to get moving." He says as he turns to start walking back into the forest. Everyone is a bit cautious at first, but when Ruby gives them a big smile then she turns to follow him. Everyone looks at each other, then at Jaune who only shrugs and began walking in the same direction and as the rest followed close behind.

Then after sometime of walking through the woods the group speeds up a bit to walk with Ruby and began questioning her. "So~ who's the boy?" Yang asked first in her teasing tone, though everyone else was just as curious about who the guy that was leading them through the forest was.

Ruby still overly happy from being reunited with her friends was completely oblivious to the teasing "His name is Brendan McCarthy. He is supposed to be the strongest fighter around and I saw him fight the other day and he was all like HE-AW-WAA." She does some karate chop motions then she smile even bigger "How about I introduce you guys to him. He is a pretty cool guy." Before anyone could say or do anything she dashes ahead of them to catch up to Brendan and starts pulling him by his arm.

He reluctantly stops and turns toward the group 'Here I was trying to give them time to re-bond, but nooooo she wants to introduce me to them.' He lets out a sigh 'Well nothing I can do about it, best just to get this over with and hey they seem like good people.' Brendan smiles "Well while I would have liked to wait for this Ruby here is insistent and I am sure you all know just how persistent she can be." This comment causes the group to giggle and Ruby to pout a bit and she punches him in the arm. Rubbing his arm a little he continues "Well my name is Brendan McCarthy it is nice to meet you all." Giving a slight bow at the end.

Blake and Ren copy the motion as Yang jumps forward "My name is Yang Xiao Long it is very nice to meet you." She leans forward trying to rise a reaction out of the boy only to be given a slight nod and a smile. This shocks Yang a little bit as she thought he would have blushed or something.

Before she could follow up Nora jumps in with Ren in tow "Hello my name is Nora Valkyrie this is my boyfriend Lie Ren it is good to meet you." Brendan thought she was done so he was about to turn to the next person, but Nora kept going wanting to know more about their new friend "So do you like pancakes cause PANCAKES ARE AWESOME!" as Nora continues to ramble on about all things she likes and asking if he likes them to, but never giving enough time for him to answer. Brendan looks over to Ren who shrugs indicating that this was a regular occurrence for his girlfriend.

It continues on for a good solid minute or two before Ren steps in so that they can move this along "NORA! I think it he would like to meet everyone else." She gives an innocent smile and rubs the back of her head, then hops over to stand next to Ren as a different pair approaches.

Jaune rubs the back of his head "Sorry about Nora."

Brendan smiles "It's fine I use to know someone like her." He extends his hand "And you are?"

Jaune takes the hand "Names Jaune Arc short and sweet."

Pyrrha steps forward "And I'm Pyrrha Nikos it is a pleasure to meet you."

Brendan shakes both of their hands as the white hair heiress approaches and curtsies "My name is Weiss Schnee heiress to the Schnee Dust Company."

Brendan is a little bit confused at this 'What the hell is Dust seriously where are these guys from.' He tries to hides his confusion and gives a slight bow.

Then the last person steps up "Greetings I am Blake Belladonna." The girl with black hair gives him a standard martial arts greeting which takes him a little bit by surprise.

His grin widens as it has been awhile since he was greeted in such a fashion and enthusiastically returns the greeting "It is good to meet you as well." He then looks at the top of her head "Look I'm sorry if this is a sensitive subject, but are those real?" he says pointing to his own head indicating her cat ears.

Blake's ears flatten against her head trying to hide them as much as possible "Is there a problem with me be a Faunus?" Blake shifted slightly nervous about what this new possible friend will think of her.

Brendan tilted his head slightly "I don't think so, but to be honest I don't know what a Faunus is to begin with. I just asked out of curiosity and I apologize if it was an insulting question."

His sincerity throws Blake off a little bit and his lack of knowledge of what a Faunus is doesn't help "I-it's ok so long as you don't have problem with what I am."

Brendan smiles "Then we should be great friends because one of my more resent teachers is a cat." This earns him confused looks from everyone, but he just smiles at them and motions for them to follow "Well now that we have introduction out of the way we really need to get going before the Shinigami show up." Then he starts to move ahead of everyone again leaving everyone guessing by what he meant as a thought comes to him 'I only hope that it will be a while before they meet that crazy feline of a teacher. Though to be honest the people I am taking them to hide with aren't much better.' He sighs internally 'I only hope that woman is at least sober otherwise I'm not going to enjoy this visit at all. Well fingers crossed on both accounts.'

In a rundown looking candy shop in the world of the living a dark skinned woman with golden eyes has her arms draped over a man with blonde hair with a hat on that has green and white strips on it with a cane in his hand. "Come on Yoruichi I have work to do." Said the man in an annoyed voice.

The woman smiles "Aww~ come on Kisuke. I know that you enjoyed teaching Ichigo and Chad. This new kid I found is pretty good at Hakuda and even though he hasn't awakened to his Shinigami powers he is able to take down Shinigami bellow the 19th seat." This catches the man's attention "Also he is decent with a blade but needs some more work with it before his powers should be brought to the surface."

The man looks at the woman "So let me guess, sense you don't usually use a sword you want me to teach him. Right?"

The woman smirked at this knowing that all that was left was a little push "You got me and hey I'll sweeten the deal you can train the boy any way you want."

The man smiles at this prospect as he starts taping his cane and he starts remembering how he trained Ichigo and it certainly had been fun. "Hmm." He was already coming up with all kinds of fun ways to "train" this new kid and if he was as good as Yoruichi said he was it was sure to be fun. He then pulled out his fan and covered the smile that creeped onto his face "Well if you put that way. Who am I to turn a friend in need away." Kisuke Urahara turns to the woman now transformed into a black cat "So when should we leave?" he says with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

The cat looks up at the man and manages to give a mischievous smile then in a very masculine voice answered "Well we should go as soon as we can."

thanks for reading and as always if you have any constructive criticism to give that would be great.

also was thinking of putting a different title because when i searched for the story by name like 8 different stories showed up. The problem is i can't come up with any so some help there would be appreciated.

oh yeah if you haven't noticed already i heavily ship Nora X Ren (not sure what ship name is flower power maybe?) and Arkos. also as sad as it is Yang is the only one who i don't know who to put her with after all in the show she doesn't have anyone like Weiss and Blake have.

one last thing if anyone is confused about something in the story just message me and i will clarify as i am not to sure if what i want to say is getting across do to my lack of experience in writing stories.