The God of Remnant Chapter 5: Evil Doesn't Take a Day Off
" " – Dialogue
' ' – Thinking
Vale - Location
"Renewal Taekwondo" – Technique
A Bookstore in Vale
-Afternoon-
It was a wonderful afternoon in Vale. The sun was out, people were populating the streets and storefronts. It was an all-around fantastic day. On this fantastic day, Tukson was cooped up in his relatively new bookstore, rearranging his backroom. In the dark corridor lined with dusty books, Tukson was at his happiest. Despite all of the pitfalls required to get here, he was truly happy to finally be settled in his new life. Picking up two stacks of books, Tukson found himself smiling when he heard the store's front bell ring.
"Coming!" He yelled out to his would-be customer as he backed out of the backroom. Placing the two stacks of books occupying his hands, Tukson turned around to greet his customer. Tukson had no way of knowing a green blade would slash his throat open, resulting in him falling with a face of hopelessness and confusion as he clutched at his throat. His assailant, however, would already be out of the door and down the street with her compatriot, chatting as if they had both not witnessed a murder.
Tukson's body would not be discovered until much later and his death would not be investigated further as faunus deaths rarely were.
-GoR-
Beacon Academy
-The Same Afternoon-
After the battle at the docks concluded Roman Torchwick's arrest and Sun had been properly cared for, everyone had questions for Mori as to where his mysterious staff came from. Before they could ask them however, the Beacon students were apprehended by one Glynda Goodwitch. None of their feet were able to touch the ground until they were in Goodwitch's office, at which point they were scolded well into the wee hours of the morning.
Only having a few hours before class began, both teams bid the other a goodnight as they hurried off to bed. The next morning would be chaotic for both teams as all of them had nearly woken up late for their first class. Even Seraphina and Weiss, the two earliest risers both had bags under their eyes from their unpleasant awakenings. Nothing could have prepared them for the gauntlet that was to come though: Professor Port's first period.
Neither team was awake the entire lecture. Mori, Ruby and Yang were the first to fall to the Sandman, with all three slumped in various positions. The second wave took Blake, although her falling asleep in such an upright position would throw off the average observer. Last to fall were the two heiresses, being the most disciplined of the group, they fell asleep with their heads tilted downward toward their yet unfinished notes.
Although in the middle of his lecture, Peter Port was not oblivious, he knew that both teams had fallen asleep in the middle of his lecture. He was also keenly aware of the act of valor that caused both teams to be as tired as they are. As a reward for exemplifying a quality of a true huntsman, he'd let the children sleep this time. They'd earned at least that much.
-GoR-
After being awoken by team JNPR, minus Nora who was among those sleeping , Teams JS and RWBY made their way to Professor Oobleck's history class. With the energy gained from sleeping through Port's class, both teams managed to stay awake during the speedy professor's lecture. Whether or not everyone was able to keep up was another matter, however.
After surviving their first two classes, they group finally arrived at their lunch break. For Mori, however this wouldn't grant him any reprieve as Seraphina and every member of Team RWBY regarded him with some interest.
"What? Is there something on my face?" A confused Mori said between bites of his rather large lunch.
"Well, yes, but that's not why we're staring at you." Began Weiss. "We've all been wondering about that mysterious weapon and technique you used to defeat Torchwick last night." The white-themed girl elaborated.
"Yeah! It looked like you launched that staff using a kick, which would be insane but so cool!" gushed an excited Ruby at the concept of such a move.
"Wait, wait. Fighting Torchwick? Last night? Does anyone wanna fill us in before we continue?" implored a shocked Jaune. His team had similar expressions of confusion on their face as they allowed their friends to break down encounter.
"So, let me get this straight," Began the ever-calm Lie Ren ", Not only was Blake a part of the White Fang and a faunus this entire time. You also held a small-scale sting operation on the docks then did combat with a well-known villain resulting in his arrest? Did I miss anything?" Summarized the stoic teen.
"Nope, that pretty much covers it all." Yang responded comparatively nonchalantly.
"How could you go through such a heart-wrenching character development without us!" shouted an indignant Nora, who up until now was eating a disturbingly high tower of pancakes for her lunch.
A couple seconds of silence followed Nora's question before Seraphina turned to her partner. "Anyways, what was up with that staff first of all? Was that the weapon you hinted at when we first met?" She asked, deciding to refocus the conversation.
Swallowing his food and taking a swig of water, Mori took a breath before he began to speak. "To answer your question, that was my weapon. It's a staff called Yeoui that can change length and size according to my will." He explained.
"So, you mean there's some kind of tech in it that allows it to change size with just a thought from the user?" Asked Ruby, ever the weapon expert.
"I don't think so?" responded Mori.
"What do you mean you don't 'think so'?" asked a confused Seraphina "Didn't you build your weapon, or have it built when you started attending combat school?" she continued.
"Well actually, what happened was…"
Flashback
Mori and Mujae's home
-11 years ago-
Having just finished their Taekwondo practice for the day, Mujae and Mori were resting before moving onto practicing with their bo staffs. At this point in time, Mori was a 6-year old boy that was currently dressed only in a small white training gi. He still had plenty of baby fat on his face, but the rest of his body was that of an athletic and healthily growing boy.
"Alright, that's enough rest for right now, Mori." Mujae called from his resting position, choosing to seat himself in the shade of a large nearby rock.
"Alright!" called back an energetic Mori. He seemed to really enjoy every moment of their practices, if his practically bouncing figure didn't give it away.
"We're gonna move on to staff training now" announced Mujae as he stood and grabbed two staffs that were lying on the ground next to him. One was as tall as him and the other was about a third of his height. Handing the smaller one to his grandson, Mujae got into his stance and watched his grandson mirror him. They then began to slide through their forms with a fluidity that only daily practice could give. Before long, however, Mori began to slow down as the weight of the staff began to prove too much for his small arms.
'Dang it! This staff is just too hard to swing around for a long time!' Thought a rapidly discouraging Mori as he noticeably dropped in speed compared to his grandfather. 'if only this staff was lighter!' he thought desperately as he tried to will the staff to be lighter. Mori was rewarded for his though, just not in the way that he thought.
One moment Mori was going through his stances with building fatigue, the next he was suddenly off balance with a splitting headache threatening to burst his skull. Rolling on the ground and clutching his head in an attempt to ward off the pain, it took his grandfather less than 3 seconds to be upon him.
"Mori! What's wrong?" Questioned a concerned Mujae as he held his grandson, who at this point was crying from the searing pain.
"I…don't know!" struggled out Mori as he clutched his head. "It feels like there's something in my head that's trying to come out!" He yelled as he suddenly started picking in his ear. In about a second, his search seemed to bear fruit as he pulled something out and held it before his tear-filled eyes.
"What is this thing?" He asked, still holding his head with one hand, and using his other to scrutinize the tiny gray object. "I wish it were bigger, so it was easier to see…" He mumbled as another shock of pain invaded his brain, causing him to yell out and bury his head into his grandfather's chest.
Amidst Mori's cries of pain, however, the small object that he pulled out of his ear began to grow in size. The object stopped once it was the size of the staff Mori was swinging around to practice his forms. It would take him a few minutes to realize this though, as he was currently in another world of pain. His grandfather noticed the strange occurrence, however, but chose to console his grandson over asking him about it as it seemed the staff somehow caused him pain.
After this day, Mori would name the strange staff Yeoui and he would begin using it for his bo staff practice. He would also go on to discover that the staff changed weight and size according to his desire, although this would result in a fair bit of recoil, so it was deemed unsuitable for combat. The strangest parts, however, were that 1) Yeoui was too heavy for anyone but Mori to lift and 2) he could eventually change its weight while in his ear to affect his own body weight.
Realizing that what he had seen was definitely abnormal, Mujae made Mori promise not to use his staff unless he was around those he could trust with his life. A promise which Mori held true to until the day of the dock battle.
Flashback End
"So basically, you just pulled this seemingly magical weapon out of your ear one day and have been hiding it until you needed it?" Asked an incredulous Weiss to which Mori just responded with a nonchalant nod. "okay, that's all I have to ask." She responded as she just went back to her food.
"A magic staff! That's just like something out of one of my dreams!" Chimed in an excited Ruby with stars in her eyes. "Do you think I could examine it?" She asked.
Reaching up to scratch the back of his head Mori responded, "Well you see, I kinda… Left it at the docks after the fight yesterday." He admitted with a sheepish smile and a small laugh.
"You left it!?" Almost everyone resounded upon hearing about his irresponsibility.
"Hey! It wasn't my fault! I was gonna go get it but then Goodwitch picked us up and didn't put us down till we were face to face with Ozpin." Mori defended with an indignant tone as he crossed his arms.
"Wait, you said that you get a splitting pain in your head whenever you change the size, so why didn't you have that effect when you used it last night?" Asked the ever-astute Seraphina.
"Remember how I was in the infirmary earlier this semester?" Mori asked, to which he received a series of nods in response. "Well ever since then, I stopped having the pain for whatever reason." Mori explained to everyone's confusion.
While the three teams were discussing their inquiries about the missing weapon, all failed to notice Nora was missing. So engrossed in their discussion, none of them noticed the dangerously high stack of pancakes the hammer-wielder held. Carefully walking back to the table, Nora was almost able to place it down when she lost control of the stack. The first to notice the impending tragedy would be Weiss, unfortunately this would only be after the stack came splattering down onto her. The collision left a trail of syrupy, butter pancakes in front of, on top of, and behind the heiress as the table went silent. Everyone's eyes widened when a pancake covering Weiss's face fell showing a scarily sweet smile that promised pain.
"I'm sorry…?" Nora tried with a smile of her own. Her hopes would be dashed when she felt a trays-worth of food impact her face, starting a food fight so large that it was best described as a war.
-GoR-
"Dude, I'm really excited for you to meet them!" Gushed an excited Sun Wukong to his blue-haired best friend.
Said Friend was known as Neptune Vasilias. Neptune was Sun's teammate from Haven Academy and the N in team SSSN (sun). He is a tan young man of similar height to his blonde-haired companion and had deep blue eyes to match his light blue hair. He had on a white dress shirt with a black tie, both beneath a red jacket that had an upturned black collar. Finishing his outfit with dark blue jeans and durable survival gear such as fingerless gloves and goggles, Neptune would generally be described as 'cool'. This fact was apparently known to him as he walked with a confident stride in his step.
"Honestly with the way you've been describing them, I'd think that they were some of the best people on the planet." Responded Neptune as they began to pass the cafeteria. As they passed, a splatter appeared on a window they passed, not that he or his leader noticed.
"They really are! Not only that but they're all crazy strong, especially the monkey faunus among them. Not to mention, Blake! She's a faunus as well, but that's a secret so don't tell anyone!" Sun quickly recovered upon realizing what he'd said.
"Don't worry about it, my lips are sealed." His teammate replied with a zipping gesture to emphasize his promised silence.
"I mean it. This isn't a 'I'm gonna spill to the whole school when we get back' type of secret. I just want you to play it cool." He said with a sigh.
"Dude, it's me we're talking about here" Neptune said gesturing to himself with a suave smile, his teeth even seemed to sparkle to accentuate his point.
"Alright, point taken. Well let's go on inside, this is gonna be so awesome!" Sun said as he and Neptune entered the cafeteria.
The first thing they noticed upon entering was the huge mess that lay before them. The formerly grand hall could now only be described as a battlefield of food, with the walls, floor and even the roof covered in various foodstuffs. Speaking of the roof, there seemed to be a large hole in it that occasionally crumbled a little.
Across the way, the wall was covered in a splattering of food and soda more heavily than the others. The splattering pattern was only broken by the four, person shaped silhouettes that were present, showing the wall's true gray color. Below lied the groaning members of team JNPR, covered in various mixtures of everything being served that day.
"Oh, Sun! You came!" the blonde heard from above, causing him to look up at the voice. Upon glancing upwards, he was greeted to a spotless and still-eating Mori Jin who was sitting on a gray cloud with his plate held up on a smaller cloud.
"Dude! What is that?" Sun asked while pointing at Kinto-Un like a child would at a plane flying overhead.
"Oh yeah, this is my semblance, Kinto-Un. It's basically a cloud that I can control, and it lets me shoot off lightning and stuff." Mori explained to his excited friend. Mori slowly floated down and kept doing so until he was even with Sun and Neptune, at which point he had finally finished his lunch. "So, who's this blue guy?" Mori said, pointing at and making an obvious reference to Neptune's most defining feature.
"This is Neptune Vasilias, My teammate, best friend, and all-time best wingman in history!" Sun advertised as he made a grand gesture to the still-shocked Neptune. "And this is the super-strong monkey faunus I told you about, Mori Jin." He said with a gesture towards Mori.
Shaking it off, Neptune settled back into his 'cool' mode to greet his new friend. "Nice to meet you, Mori." He said with a fist held out.
"You too, dude." Mori responded, meeting Neptune's fist with his own for a fist bump.
Right as they finished their introductions, they heard loud laughing from the center of the cafeteria. All of them looked at the commotion, only to discover teams RWBY and JNPR to be the source of the noise. The pure joy on everyone's face was contagious as the three boys all began to smile at witnessing the scene.
"By the way, Mori. Where's your teammate? Everyone seems to be here but her." Sun asked with a quizzical expression.
"Oh, she vanished once the food fight started. She doesn't seem to enjoy this type of thing, even if she has been loosening up recently." Mori remarked with shrugged shoulders. "Wanna go meet the others? They already seem to be having fun." Mori asked Neptune, who readily agreed.
"Hey Everyone! There's somebody you've gotta meet!" Mori said floating over to the group with Neptune and Sun in tow.
Upon Mori's call, everyone stopped their chatter and turned to the new and familiar faces and began to include them in their conversation. This is the sight, Glynda Goodwitch and Professor Ozpin walked into.
"I cannot believe Beacon students would conduct themselves in such a way. I shall punish them and get this cleaned up swiftly." Glynda promised as she reached for her riding crop.
"Now, now Glynda," Ozpin said while placing his hand on her wrist, preventing her from drawing her riding crop ", we should let them act as they wish for now" He calmy stated. "They will not be allowed such a luxury for much longer after all." He concluded as he removed his hand from Glynda's wrist.
"I suppose you're right." She agreed as her eyes softened at the sight of the smiling and laughing children. Turning and walking away with her boss, Glynda let a slight smile grace her features as the fate of the world seemed to lighten up just a little.
-GoR-
-During the Lunchroom Brawl-
With carefully timed used of her semblance and swiftness befitting someone of her frame, Seraphina had managed to slip out of the lunchroom without any trouble. Walking down the hallway, she was not surprised to hear the crowd of evacuating students and sounds of food warfare at her back. Deciding to get as far away from that as possible, Seraphina set out for the quietest place she could think of.
Using her trained agility and carefully using her semblance to enhance her strength just enough to get a jump boost was natural to Seraphina. Thus, using it to ascend the school building and land on the roof was simpler than child's play to her.
Walking to the edge of the roof and sitting down, she allowed her legs to dangle as she took in the view. The bluest skies one could imagine, with a cutting cityscape on the horizon made Beacon's view one of the best in the fractured world in which they lived. Even from such a height, Seraphina could see the smallest bits of movement in the bustling city below. Allowing herself to absorb the view for a little longer, she soon began to lay back and watch the clouds slowly drift through the sky.
Just as she was about to nod off, her phone began to buzz. Taking it out of her skirt pocket and looking at it, she saw a number she didn't recognize with an atlas area code. Not caring too much whether or not it was a scam, she answered.
"Hello?" She tried after the call connected.
"Hey, Seraphina! It's been a while." She heard an excited female voice all out from the other end.
It took her less than a second to recognize the voice. "Remi?" She questioned. "How'd you get this number? I pretty much just got this phone as soon as I got to Beacon." She explained.
"Isen is a miracle worker with the right motivation." She explained as Seraphina heard a small crackle on the other end.
Smiling at the implication, Seraphina decided to get to the bottom of the mysterious call. "So, why are you calling? Not that I'm not happy to hear you again but you rarely call just to catch up." Seraphina asked with a little suspicion at the answer.
"Sharp as ever, I see" Remarked Remi. "You're right on the money, though. The real reason I'm calling is more of a warning to you and whoever your teammates are" The Atlesian cautioned.
"Well that's nice of you but I'm sure we can handle whatever you're thinking of" the cat faunus casually reassured her.
"Seraphina, John's on my team and he's intent on going to the Vytal festival." She said, letting the bomb drop.
This actually made the happy expression on Seraphina's face to drop from its relaxed cheerfulness into one of apprehension as she thought 'John…'. Allowing Remi to continue her explanation and this time, paying rapt attention to what she had to say.
-GoR-
"So, what's the story with small, white and beautiful over there?" Neptune asked Mori who was currently seated across from him.
The entire group got cleaned up and attended the rest of their classes before settling in the library to relax. Team JNPR was seated at a table of their own doing some… light studying. Light studying to mean Nora was sleeping and Jaune had his eyes scanning a comic book while Ren and Pyrrha actually studied. Their productivity was superior to Team RWBY's, however, as they were all currently engaged in a board game… in a library.
The girl Neptune was referring to, the universally known Weiss 'Ice Queen' Schnee, was currently struggling to grasp the strategy game being enjoyed by her team. The young huntress was so engaged that she didn't notice Neptune's attention on her.
"Oh, Weiss?" Mori asked, briefly pulling his attention from the comic book he held. "She's strong and high strung sometimes but she's a good person." Mori concluded simply.
"Dude, what is it with you and strength?" Neptune asked with a slight sweatdrop.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to meet strong people." Sun chimed in from his place next to Neptune. "Afterall, some of them can be pretty cool." He said, eyes drifting from his own comic book to the gloomier-than-usual cat faunus of Team RWBY.
Closing his book, Sun stood and walked over to interact with the girls. Neptune, seeing an opportunity to break the ice with Weiss, decided to follow him. Left alone at the table to read his comic, Mori found his concentration suddenly broken by a strangely eerie feeling. Suddenly snapping his head to the right, he was expecting to meet someone's gaze but found nobody there. Shrugging it off, he went back to reading his book after a couple seconds. By averting his gaze, he would fail to notice a trail of green hair following its owner as she vacated the area.
-GoR-
Team RWBY's dorm
-Later that Night-
Team RWBY had finally returned to their dorm. They had yet to settle down, but three of them were engaged in casual conversation that gradually calmed the atmosphere. Amidst this light atmosphere, Blake was having some rather dark thoughts. She recalled the battle at the docks, what led up to it, what she could have done, why her people were aiding Torchwick. It was too much.
Letting these thoughts overpower her, she began to gravitate towards the door. When her hand was within an inch of grasping the knob, she felt a hand land on her shoulder.
"Weiss…" she said upon turning around and seeing the serious expression on her teammate's face.
"Wait a second." She began "Because, it looked to me like you were about to go off and fight something on your own again. I must need to get my eyes checked though because I could swear that you promised not to do that anymore." She explained in a light tone in an attempt to convince her friend to confide in her.
The slight look of guilt that crossed Blake's eyes, made her decision clear. Turning to look at her team, she looked them in the eyes before pleading her case.
"After last night, I'm just having trouble wrapping my head around the White Fang working with Torchwick" She explained. "The White Fang has always been unwilling to work with humans. Even if they were less militant about it before, they were still just as willing to work with humans. I would know, since I was apart of them, just how unusual this is. I just have to get to the bottom of this because it could potentially end up being much bigger than we know…" Blake finished.
"So, who's in favor of taking on an entire criminal organization? Anyone in favor say 'aye'!" Ruby said, much to Blake's surprise.
"This'll be a lot of work, so we should probably be prepared to really hit the books." Yang said, crashing her fist against her palm.
"While I don't trust you with that particular aspect, I do agree with that." Weiss shot with a playful smirk.
"Nobody said 'aye'…" Ruby remarked with a pouty face. Her face lit up in realization as she shot up straight "I forgot my board game in the Library!" She yelled out before dashing out of the room.
"Our fearless and reliable leader, everyone." Weiss dryly remarked as she palmed her forehead.
With the door closing behind Ruby, her team wouldn't notice her crashing into another person in the hallway, her small stature causing her to fall back.
"Are you alright?" She was asked as a hand reached out to help her up.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks, and sorry for running into you." Ruby apologized with cheeks warm from embarrassment as she was helped up. "Are you new around here? I don't recognize those uniforms…" Ruby asked as she saw the uniforms of the two individuals before her.
The one she ran into was a boy around her age. He had silver hair that seemed to cascade down in controlled streams that were designed to look messy. He was tall, a little shorter than Jaune's height and had a build and swagger that was carried by those who knew and were confident in their strength. His black eyes looked at her with nothing but kindness that Ruby's inexperienced silver eyes couldn't be expected to scrutinize.
"Yes, we've just arrived for the Vytal festival and are still trying to find our way to the guest dorms. Do you think you could point us in the right direction?" Asked the second person. This person made Ruby zone out for a second as déjà vu overtook her for a second. Had she seen this person before?
The second person was a female that seemed to be a little shorter than her but hid this with her heels that granted her a couple extra inches. She was a beautiful young woman with black hair that curled and flowed down the right side of her face and torso, ending right above her chest. She had eyes that resembled shining amber and seemed to burn with a particular ambition that Ruby couldn't comprehend. Basically, this woman looked like the main character of her own story.
Snapping out of it, Ruby responded, "If you keep going straight, you'll eventually reach the east wing and that's where the visitor rooms are" Ruby spoke as if she was giving a book report.
"Thank you, I hope we meet again in the festival." The young woman responded as she walked past Ruby's stiff frame with practiced grace, her teammate following soon after.
-GoR-
-The Visiting Team's Dorm-
"While I don't have any doubts in our plan, should we really have made contact with her so blatantly?" the silver-haired boy asked.
"Oh, Mercury. You're failing to understand just how simple-minded these young huntsmen and huntresses can be. If we attempt to build any sort of rapport with them, not only will they accept it with open arms, but they will also defend us without a second thought." Explained the woman with an evil smirk growing.
"whatever you say, Cinder, you're the boss here after all." The now-named Mercury responded. "By the way, where is Emerald? Shouldn't she have been back from tailing that other interesting hunter by now?" He asked
"I know you're useless without me, but at least try to act like you can function without me around." Responded a feminine voice that soon revealed itself as a figure climbing into their window.
The figure was a dark-skinned female a few inches taller than Cinder. She had long mint green hair that was split off into two tails at her shoulders that flowed behind her. She had a pair of blood-red eyes that contrasted with her hair in such a way that one would get the impression that she wore colored contacts to achieve such an effect.
"Welcome back, Emerald. Did you find anything about the subject?" Cinder asked in a way that made it sound like less of a question and more of a demand.
"Well, outside of the fact that he gets deceptively high grades and is strong with a large emphasis on martial arts, there's nothing else interesting about him" She reported. "Although, it seems he does have a weapon. A collapsible staff that he retrieved at the docks earlier." She said while pulling out her scroll to show a video she took of his collection process.
The video showed Mori picking up his weapon and holding it sideways before it shrank in his hand allowing him to place it in his pocket and start walking away. Before he exited frame, he seemed to stop and stare at where right into the camera before shivering slightly and continuing to walk away.
"Wait, didn't it seem like he stopped to look at you?" Mercury asked as she rewound it to the part where is yellow crosshairs seemed to lock onto her.
"That's honestly been bothering me because it isn't the first time he's done so. He seemed to notice me through my semblance back when I was watching him in the library as well. I was thinking it was a fluke but now I'm not so sure…" Emerald explained doubtfully.
"No matter," Cinder interceded ", We'll continue as planned. You don't need to watch Mori Jin anymore, Emerald, we should just focus on blending in until it's time for stage 3" Cinder instructed as her subordinates nodded in understanding.
A storm was coming, and Beacon was unfortunately about to be at the center of it. Whether they were ready or not.
Chapter 5 End
A/N: Finally, I decided to sit down and crank out the next chapter of this story. I have so many ideas that I really wanna get to and that keeps me coming back to this. Honestly, I'm really excited to write the Vytal festival to the point that I'm already planning out the matchups and the finer story structure leading up to it, look forward to it. Speaking of the Vytal festival, I had a question about Ilpyo Park appearing and I can definitely say that he will appear in some form because he is my favorite character in GoH and a HUGE influence on Mori.
As for this chapter: I wasn't sure how to approach this because this is mostly just character introduction, so I decided to also add in a segment for Seraphina. This will be massively important for the Vytal festival, as John is a person of great importance to Seraphina in UnOrdinary and I plan to utilize him well in this story. I will also utilize several other characters from UnOrdinary such as Remi and later on, Seraphina's mother.
Overall, I hope you guys are enjoying the story even though I'm pretty bad at updating on a regular basis and I'll catch you guys in the next one.
-Mango G