The God of Remnant Chapter 2 – Fights and Forever Fall
" " – Dialogue
' ' – Thinking
"Renewal Taekwondo" – Technique
-Morning After Initiation-
Mori awoke to pure darkness, although this wasn't an unusual occurrence as he removed his sleeping mask and slowly sat up in his bed. Finally, being granted the gift of sight, he examined his surroundings as yesterday's memories came rushing back. He remembered that he and his new teammate, Seraphina, were the first two-man team in Beacon's history. He also remembered that upon being introduced to their unusually two-bedded dorm, they both immediately went to bed.
It was only then that he decided to look in the direction of his new partner in crime and was shocked at what he saw. Seraphina was laying on her bed, reading a book. The thing that shocked Mori was that she was already fully dressed in the school's uniform and looked like she had been ready for a while. Her hair was already pulled into a tight ponytail and everything! Looking at the clock, he noted, with even more shock that it was 6 in the morning. Breakfast wasn't for an hour and class wasn't for another 2.
"Good morning!" Mori greeted his strangely punctual roommate to which he received a quick side-eye and a curt 'good morning' in return. Getting up and making his way to the closet, he discovered all of his and Seraphina's clothes organized by person and category. At discovering this he turned around to look at Seraphina for an explanation.
Sensing Mori's eyes on her, she closed her book and returned his gaze, her sapphire blue meeting his yellow crosshairs as she explained, "I took the liberty of sorting out our clothes since I had extra time on my hands this morning." She explained in her normal bored monotone before returning to her book.
Accepting this explanation, Mori grabbed his uniform and headed into the bathroom. 15 minutes later, Mori emerged with his uniform on, sleeping mask resting in his hair like usual. Said uniform consisted of a black suit lined with gold, accompanied by a blue vest and a white shirt with a red tie. Mori made a modification to his uniform in the form of omitting the red tie and leaving his suit jacket open, exposing the blue vest. His tail was left to hang freely behind him, flowing in a calm pendulum-like motion behind him.
Finishing his morning set-up and seeing the time nearing 7, Mori turned to Seraphina and asked if she wanted to go to breakfast, to which she accepted, and they set off. Breakfast would prove to be uneventful except for Mori's wonder at the unusually lavish cafeteria food with selections from all over the world.
Finishing up with a little time to spare, the two faunus began their trek to their first class of the day, Grimm Studies with Professor Port. Arriving at the class a little early, they sat next to each other in the row second from the front and waited for class to begin. They didn't have to wait long as about a minute later, Professor Port walked to the front of the semi-circular classroom and began class.
"Hello all, my name is Peter Port, however you all may call me Professor Port- "
THUD
At the end of his introduction, the door to the class came bursting open with a loud slam and a wave of bodies falling in. A couple seconds later, teams RWBY and JNPR stood up and apologized for being late, shuffling to find seats with Pyrrha closing the door behind them. As a result of their lateness, there were few places that could accommodate four people in a row and one of those happened to be next to Mori. Thus, the leaders of team RWBY and JS were sitting next to each other with team JNPR finding themselves across the room.
"With that out of the way," Port said with a small chuckle at being interrupted so soon ", we can begin to talk about the most basic of grimm, the beowolf." He began "The beowolf is the most common of all grimm and their weaknesses are plentiful. Since I find myself on the topic, I have a wonderful story to go along with this!" And thus, Port began a story of him in his youth.
That was as far as Mori got before he began to nod off. Recognizing what was going to happen and having no will to stop it, he pulled down his sleeping mask and his rested his head on his arms. Mori Jin was officially napping in class. In contrast, his partner was wide awake, although paying attention was another matter entirely as she expertly played on her scroll under her desk. If one were to look at the screen, they'd find that she was playing a pig-themed card game called Hogstone.
Team RWBY was faring much better than team JS, although not by much as they were awake but paying attention was, again, the issue. Ruby was trying everything she could to stay conscious, unlike her fellow leader, so she ended up resorting to various activities. Drawing a caricature of Port, passing notes to her sister, everything was on the table as long as it kept her conscious and entertained. Blake was reading and occasionally finding herself entertained by Ruby's antics along with Yang who had to suppress her normally boisterous laughter. Weiss, on the other hand, was completely different from everyone else. Weiss was attempting and succeeding at staying focused, taking diligent notes on each of the important parts of Port's tale. This just served to make her more and more angry as she contrasted herself against her supposed 'leader', however.
"Does anyone believe themselves to be the embodiment of a huntsman at this moment?" Port asked the class after concluding his story.
"I do!" Weiss shot up and said in a loud, authoritative tone.
Port, unaware of the storm of feelings within his student just grinned and responded to her eagerness, "Bravo, Ms. Schnee! I request that you go get changed into your battle gear and bring your weapon as I have a test befitting one who believes themselves to embody a huntsman."
Weiss was gone before he said 'huntsman'.
-GoR-
Weiss returned to the room dressed in her combat uniform which also doubled as her casual clothes. Her outfit consisted of a white, strapless dress that was white at the top and faded into pale blue at the bottom. She paired this with an all-white bolero jacket that had a red interior with a Schnee family logo on the back. She had her snow-white hair pulled into a side ponytail like usual with a tiara hair accessory to hold it in place. She finished her outfit with a set of snow-white heels that clacked against the floor with every step.
Reaching the center of the room, Weiss turned to face the large cage that was now present and pulled out her weapon, holding it at the ready. Said weapon is called Myrtenaster, it is a multi-action dust rapier. That is to say that it's a silver rapier with a multi-colored barrel where the guard usually is, making it bear a striking resemblance to Seraphina's weapon.
"Are you ready, Ms. Schnee?" Professor Port asked with a large axe in hand, standing next to a rope rigged to release the beast when cut.
"I'm ready, Professor" Weiss replied in a confident tone.
At the sound of her response, Port dropped his axe on the rope, allowing the door on the cage to fall. The instant the door fell, a giant boar-like creature came charging out, attempting to plow over Weiss with its horns. Taking a second to analyze her enemy, she looked for potential weak points.
The creature was large and black, like every other grimm. What wasn't like every other grimm was the excessive bone plating that seemingly covered every inch of the creature, showing no obvious weak points. The only thing Weiss could discern was that the horns were incredibly dangerous, so it was imperative that she avoid the creature's front. This creature is known as a Boarbatusk, a massive grimm version of a boar that was known for its aggressive nature.
"Go Weiss! Represent team RWBY well!" Ruby yelled out in encouragement.
"Be quiet so I can focus!" Weiss snapped back, her frustration at her leader's earlier actions still gnawing at her composure.
This is what Mori awoke to, raising his head from his arms and stretching before pulling off his sleep mask. He turned to his left and looked at Seraphina, now openly playing Hogstone on her scroll before turning to his right and seeing team RWBY rocking all sorts of team merch. Ruby herself held a sign with their team name on it, Yang had on a foam hand and Blake unenthusiastically waved around a small flag with 'RWBY' on it while reading her usual book.
"What happened while I was out?" asked an understandably confused Mori towards his teammate, who was still engrossed in her scroll.
Finally taking her eyes off her scroll for the first time in the period, Seraphina turned towards Mori and gave him the rundown of what occurred. No sooner had she finished, did Mori start cheering for Weiss alongside Ruby, somehow acquiring a team RWBY themed banner. Sighing at what she saw, Seraphina just quietly returned to playing on her scroll, there were pigs that needed her attention after all.
Dodging to the left as the boarbatusk did a rolling attack towards her, Weiss couldn't find an opening. 'wait,' She thought as she dodged another swipe of its horns ', if the creature rolls up, that means the stomach would have to be unarmored to allow that sort of flexibility. That means I have to- ".
"WEISS, GO FOR THE BELLY! THERE'S NO ARMOR THERE!" She heard Ruby exclaim from behind, interrupting her train of thought.
"Don't tell me what to do!" She yelled back while running to the other side of the arena to set up her trap. Her focus on the beast prevented her from noticing the sadness that crossed Ruby's face as she slowly sat back down. Seeing his partner in crime pulling back, Mori stopped cheering as well, a more serious expression crossing his face at what he witnessed.
Weiss paid them no mind however as she arrived at the other side of the room. The boarbatusk, noticing the distance between them, began to roll towards her at a high speed. Using this to her advantage, Weiss activated a rune under the creature that slowed and eventually halted the creature on its back. The boarbatusk, let out a confused squeal as it unfurled and struggled on its back, leaving its soft underbelly exposed. This was all according to Weiss's plan as she set up a series of runes to act as a staircase that she left off of right above the boarbatusk. The boarbatusk let out one last squeal as Weiss's rapier found its way into the creature's core, ending the battle in one decisive strike.
"Excellent work, Ms. Schnee!" Port exclaimed "May you all take note of how she stalled until she found her opponent's weakness and carefully laid a trap to allow her to exploit it. With that, we are out of time so I will end class here." He finished, allowing everyone to stand and start filing out of the room.
With class over, Weiss began to leave the room. She managed to make it 3 steps out of the door before she heard Ruby calling out her name.
-GoR -
Standing to follow Ruby, Mori started walking with a frown on his face, intent on giving Weiss a piece of his mind before he felt a tug on the back of his jacket. Turning around, he saw that Seraphina had a flimsy two finger grab on the back of his jacket that served more to get his attention than anything. Notably, her other hand held her scroll while her eyes were still locked onto the screen.
"What's up?" He asked his teammate with a little more intensity than he would've liked.
"You shouldn't meddle in other team's affairs; this is something that they're going to have to work out for themselves if they want their team to succeed." Seraphina explained with cold logic in her usual disinterest.
Looking down for a second and thinking Mori finally relented "Fine, I guess you're right," he said with a sigh ", we should get going to our next class though or we might be late." He said to which she agreed. The rest of their day went as usual until they got to lunch.
-GoR-
Walking into the cafeteria for lunch was a completely different experience than it was for breakfast. The cafeteria was much more filled at lunch than it was for breakfast since everyone was awake for this period. As such, finding a set of seats proved a little challenging for team Jasmine.
"Hey! Mori over here!"
…Or at least it was until they heard that. Walking over to the source of the yell, they found teams RWBY and JNPR sitting together with a free set of seats that Ruby was beckoning them towards. Upon sitting down, the conversation immediately shifted to the new arrivals as everyone started introducing themselves. The blonde leader of team JNPR started the circuit with his team and then team RWBY began their introductions. The problem came when it got to Weiss, however.
"I'm Weiss Schnee as you probably heard in our class this morning, although I am already… well acquainted with your partner" Weiss said with a pointed look towards the ever-aloof Seraphina.
"You two know each other?" asked a clueless Mori while looking back and forth between Seraphina and Weiss's little staring contest.
"Yeah, you could say we're something like childhood rivals." Seraphina explained "Since her father and my mother have always been close, we've been constantly compared practically since birth. From grades, to combat prowess, and even our skill in classical arts like singing and dancing have been compared." She further elaborated to the deeply interested group.
"So, which one of you is stronger?" asked Mori with a competitive edge, his intentions behind asking obvious.
"I haven't lost in a single one of our competitions" Seraphina said to everyone's surprise and Weiss's embarrassment
"Hey, now that we're in combat school things will be different!" Weiss asserted, cheeks burning a bright red.
"I look forward to it." Seraphina said in a deadpan while eating her triple chocolate cake
At the sight of her dismayed expression, Yang began to laugh boisterously, "Ha! I guess even our own Ice Queen can get flustered sometimes too!" she exclaimed as her laughter soon passed along to everyone else. Pretty soon the whole table, with the exception of the two heiresses, was laughing good-naturedly at Weiss's expense.
Calming down, Mori decided to ask what they were talking about before team Jasmine arrived. This seemed to reignite a pretty serious discussion.
'That's right!" Nora said in a sudden outburst ", Jaune was having issues with Cardin and we were giving him advice on how to deal with it" The hammer-wielding girl explained
"Nora, I wouldn't call offering to break Cardin's legs giving Jaune advice" The reticent Lie Ren contested
"Silly Ren, breaking someone's legs is the ultimate way of asserting dominance over them, so how about it Jaune?" Nora said with a sly smile towards Jaune
"Look guys, I don't need your help and I especially don't need you breaking his legs, Nora. Cardin's actually my friend and he's just messing around with me." Jaune weakly explained to his completely unconvinced friends.
"So," Started Pyrrha ", all those times he knocked your books out of your hands, tripped you, stuffed you into your weapons locker, etc. were just pranks?" questioned the red-haired girl with unexplained scenes showing everything she described for a chibi Mori and team RWBY's viewing pleasure.
"Yeah, he does that sort of thing to everyone!" defended Jaune.
Before any more questions could be thrown at the poor knight, a yell could be heard over the entire lunchroom. The sound caused everyone to turn their heads only to witness Cardin pulling on a bunny faunus' ear. The loud sounds of discomfort coming from the girl and the pained look on her face did nothing to deter him as he kept harassing her. The rest of team CRDL standing around as if to box the girl in.
The sight of such an insensitive act caused a look of discomfort to cross the face of everyone at the table. Nobody would notice the sudden stiffness of Blake's bow in particular as they witness such discriminatory cruelty.
"How cruel…" a disheartened Pyrrha let out as she tore her eyes from the act.
"Someone should really teach that jerk a lesson." An enraged Yang said as she reluctantly tore her eyes from the scene, only to lose her expression at the feeling she was getting from Seraphina. Seraphina was currently giving off an intense aura of displeasure that soon permeated the whole table. Everyone's eyes were on her, the scene with Cardin briefly forgotten until the aura broke at 3 words:
"Hey, where's Mori?" asked a confused Jaune as he looked around for his new friend.
-GoR-
Cardin was in his own world of enjoyment as he tugged on this 2nd-year's stupid bunny ears. Is this what he should expect from all the filthy animals he had the displeasure of going to class with?
His sadistic train of thought would be interrupted by a tap on his shoulder which caused him to catch the following words:
"Man, I really hate people like you, you know?"
As Cardin was turning his head to look at who had the balls to insult him, he was suddenly sent flying with an exploding pain originating from his now broken nose. The surprise attack not enabling him to put his aura defenses up. Cardin managed to put up his aura as he went flying into another set of tables with a loud crash, reducing the damage from the crash significantly.
"stand up, that was a weak one" an enraged Mori said with a glare in Cardin's direction, the monkey faunus now standing where Cardin used to be. The bunny girl whom Cardin was tormenting finding her way to stand behind Mori as he confronted her terrorizers.
"What are you guys doing? Attack him!" Cardin called out to his still motionless team. At his call, all three of the boys began to charge Mori. Deciding on what to do, Mori began to move towards them as well.
Dove began to pull a fist back to punch the pest when he suddenly found himself looking up at the ceiling of the cafeteria. He only understood what happened when he felt a dull pain register on his chin a second later as his feet left the ground. The only this his ringing ears being able to make out being Mori's technique name.
"Renewal: Front Kick" Mori said as the boy flew back from the force of the hit, his aura stopping any permanent damage from the powerful hit.
Russel and Sky decided to attack him at the same time, with Russel going behind to grab him while Sky went for a straight punch. Seeing through it, Mori sunk to the ground while doing a 180, dodging Russel's attempted grab in the process while he mentally began.
'Renewal: Lowest Hwechook' he thought as his shin met the side of Russel's foot, knocking him off balance. 'into Dragon Catcher' he thought as he caught the falling Russel's neck with the back of his knee before spiraling them both into the air. Once in the air, Mori let out a yell as he used his leg and the centrifugal force to launch Russel down into a stunned Sky. The resulting crash, disorientating both of them so badly that they were down for the count.
Landing softly, Mori redirected his vision to Cardin and began to run towards the him as Cardin began to do the same. Cardin reared back a fist as Mori thought up a move that would end this in one final blow as they drew near.
SLAM
Two groans could be heard from Mori and Cardin respectively as they lie motionless on the ground, an unseen force holding them both to the ground face-down.
"What is going on here!" A distinctly female voice shouted as all heads turned to the entrance of the cafeteria, only to find none other than Glynda Goodwitch standing in the threshold, weapon in hand. She walked up to the prone forms of Mori and Cardin before sighing and placing a hand on her head "How did I know that you would be involved Mr. Jin?" she asked rhetorically. A sweat drop went down her head as she heard his muffled attempts at speech. "anyways, I will be taking you and team CRDL to the headmaster to decide your punishment" She said, lifting all of the named parties with a wave of her wand. "Continue as you were." She said to the remainder of the cafeteria as she exited, another wave of her wand repairing the slight damage left from the fight.
-GoR-
"So, you got a week of 'house arrest' and team CRDL only got janitorial duties for the week?" Summarized Seraphina with an unreadable expression on her face. She and Mori were back in their dorm after their evening classes and dinner. The deliverance of Mori's punishment made him miss part of the period after lunch, but the day went as planned after that. Seraphina had yet to say a word to him until this point wanting to find the right words first.
"Yeah! How could they punish me for doing the right thing?" Mori said, pouting childishly "I wanted to go on the field trip to Forever Fall and eat the sap too!" he said as he thrashed around his bed in chibi form.
"Why would you step in for someone you don't even know?" Seraphina asked, her hair shadowing her eyes. "Don't you care that this will mark your record for as long as you're in school?" She asked, getting increasingly angrier "How do you justify any of this!?" She finally yelled out.
"You know," Mori began ", we have a saying in my family that applies perfectly to this: 'Do what you want'" He finished with his signature smile towards his shocked teammate.
"…" She silently pondered his words as she retreated to her bed, going under her covers and turning away from him. Seraphina would have a lot to think about that night.
Come morning, Mori would be awoken by the sound of his scroll receiving his homework for the day, his teammate, however, had already departed for Forever Fall shortly before this.
-GoR-
The ride to the Forever Fall Forest was as uneventful as anything, with the only notable thing being Jaune sitting with team CRDL instead of his own team.
Upon arriving and exiting the airship, Seraphina was inwardly stunned at the beautiful hues of red and orange that coated the trees. The fall colors inspiring feelings of warmth within the cat faunus as she remembered times she'd relax during the season. Those were some of the rare times she could escape her harsh reality. Times she was able to play with her sis-
"Alright class, today we will be collecting sap from the perpetually shedding trees found here in the Forever Fall." Began Professor Goodwitch, interrupting Seraphina's somber thoughts. "I will be giving you each one jar to fill with sap using these spigots." She said, pulling out a spigot and holding it so everyone could see. "The time limit is two hours and remember: Don't. Stray. Too. Far." She emphasized. "Dismissed!" She announced as everyone began to grab their spigot and jar.
-GoR-
Having figured out how to use the spigot pretty easily and completing her assignment, Seraphina was walking through the forest with her jar. She was thinking about her conversation with Mori the previous night.
'Do what you want, huh? When was the last time I did something like that?' She thought bitterly, memories of her mother flashing through her mind.
"No! I won't help you with this, I'm done!" She heard a male voice yell out before hearing loud rustling to her left.
Turning to her left, Seraphina looked and easily discerned the figures of team CRDL with more jars of sap than they needed and a mysterious box at their feet. She also noticed a rapidly disappearing set of white armor moving through the underbrush. Thoughts still a mess, Seraphina decided to sneak closer and listen to what they were planning with such shady equipment.
"Damn that loser, backing out on us so late!" Cardin cursed after Jaune's departure. "No matter, we'll just toss this sap over him too! They could all get stung to hell by these rapier wasps as far as I care!" Cardin said as he let out a suppressed laugh, suddenly caring for stealth. "Let's get in position" he commanded, receiving a round of affirmatives in response with his team starting to move the equipment.
'What am I even doing?' a still-hidden Seraphina thought as she followed team CRDL in total silence. 'I should report them to Professor Goodwitch' She reasoned with herself 'But that'll be too late' another part of her chimed in.
"Get ready…" Cardin silently called out to his team, each of them grabbing a jar.
'What should I do? Do I even have the time to think?' she hastily thought 'Just act!' that same part of her interrupted again.
"Set…" Cardin called, he and his team pulling their arms back in unison.
'But…Why?' Seraphina asked herself 'Do What you want!' That voice chimed in for the final time as Seraphina made her choice.
"GO!" Cardin yelled as he and his team started to launch the jars.
BOOM
CRACK
A loud boom was heard, overpowering the sound of Cardin's yell and breaking all four of the jars held by team CRDL. The sap being held within splattering all over them as they stood frozen, realization of what happened soon setting in. The increasingly loud sound of buzzing filling their ears as they all turned in unison to look at the source. The source turned out to be the sound of the rapier wasps flying out of the box they had prepared; an unseen cut having torn open the container.
The screams of team CRDL would echo throughout the forest as Seraphina walked away from the scene, eyes slowly dimming after the timely use of her semblance. Taking a break from listening to the fruits of her efforts, Seraphina opened her scroll and looked at her two contacts: 'Mom' and 'Mori Jin'. Making up her mind, she clicked on 'Mom' and started a call that would change her life.
-GoR-
After finishing his homework and napping all he wanted, Mori Jin decided that he was thoroughly bored. Deciding that he should at least still be active, Mori got up and threw on a muscle shirt before slipping into the beginning stance of Renewal Taekwondo. Right as he was about to begin, he heard a knock on the door. Deciding not to keep them waiting, Mori answered the door and found no one there to greet him. Looking left and right down the hall, Mori didn't see a sign of anyone. Looking down, he discovered a peach with a note under it.
Grabbing the fruit and the note, he closed his door and placed down the peach before opening the note.
'For your bravery and demonstration of traits befitting of a true huntsman
-O'
The note said, with a large stylized 'O' being at the bottom. Mori took this as his reward for saving Velvet earlier and promptly began to dig in. The sweetness of the peach was unlike anything he had eaten before. Before he knew it, he had consumed the whole thing seed and all! Licking his fingers of the inexplicably delicious juice, Mori decided to actually start practicing and got into his stance again.
He would never get to throw his first kick as a sudden pain burst out from his chest. Mori suddenly found himself writhing on the ground as his very core started pulsing in pain. The taste of copper entered his mouth as he resisted spitting up blood from the extreme pain. Mori's incapacitation not allowing him to notice the burning of the letter that came with the peach.
Seraphina would arrive that night, finding an incapacitated Mori that she hurried to the school Nurse. Mori would not wake up for another 3 days.
That's all for this time!
I hope you guys enjoyed this week's entry of The God of Remnant!
Honestly for my first fic, I was pretty nervous about the response but I'm happy you guys are enjoying it. I tried to set up some plotlines for the future using Seraphina's controlling mother and Mori's impending future and I have plenty of ideas to expand on both of these things.
I have ideas for all the way up to the Vytal Festival so hopefully I manage to stay relatively consistent until then. Until next time! – Mango G
Edit: Fixed the centering issue, thanks for pointing it out.