If you didn't get it from the title or the summary, this is heavily inspired from Murim Manhwas. By 'heavily inspired', I mostly just mean in terms of having a martial art sect and sword techniques. Despite reading several Murim Manhwas, I am still not clear on the wider worldbuilding so I won't even try to adapt similar worldbuilding on the wider world of Remnant. It's a concept I've taken a liking to so I'm trying to see how it plays out. Hope it's enjoyable to someone.


Jaune could feel the strong, panicked thumping of his heart throughout his whole body as he continued his desperate run deeper into the unfamiliar forest he found himself in. His legs were screaming for a reprieve while his lungs were aflame from overwork, but Jaune forced his body forward, fear and adrenaline numbing the sensations enough to ignore at the moment.

"Kid! You're making this more difficult than it has to be!" Jaune heard the voice of the lead kidnapper, a middle-aged bald man with a scar running down his left eye, shout distantly from behind him. "It's an island! You won't get anywhere, and you can't survive out here all alone! Come back now if you know what's good for you!"

Jaune ignored the threats as he kept his quick pace farther from the kidnapper's camp from the mountain cave. Jaune may admit he was simple and gullible, but he wasn't fool enough to believe anything his kidnappers said regarding his wellbeing. There might be other people on the island, good people that could help him. If not, there might be a boat or something that could get him off the island. Anything but returning to his captors.

After what felt like ages, Jaune was forced to drop on the grassy ground and lean on a nearby tree, his fear and adrenaline finally giving way to his sheer exhaustion. He took greedy, quick breaths while his entire body ached from overuse. Jaune knew he was severely dehydrated and the salty taste of sweat that dripped down to his lips only served to highlight the dryness of his mouth and throat.

Jaune closed his eyes so he could calm himself, resting his head on the tree behind him as his quick breaths slowly transitioned to a steadier pace. He felt his heartbeat calm down as well and soon he could no longer hear the rush of his blood in his ears or anywhere else on his body for that matter. When he felt himself steady, Jaune opened his eyes and took in his surroundings.

There was an abundance of plant life around him, with small trees and thick foliage filling much of the gaps between more mature and larger trees. Yet with so many plants and vegetation, Jaune noted that it was mostly a sea of green and brown around him, unlike the more colorful palette the trees near his home had.

'Home.' Jaune suddenly recalled, his mind immediately drifting to thoughts of his village and, more importantly, his family.

'We were just visiting Saphron and Terra in Argus. Why'd all this have to happen?' Jaune questioned in his mind, replaying the events that led up to his predicament.


For all the grief his sisters give him on a near-daily basis, Jaune knew they were in total solidarity in dread at the moment. He could see it in their faces, all scrunched up in discomfort at the hell they'll soon face: flying.

"You guys take care now! I know I wouldn't want to be you right now!" Jaune could hear the teasing smirk from Saphron's tone even if she was behind their group. Jaune joined his sisters in shooting her glares, to which she only responded with a wave and an annoying grin.

"T-Thanks honey. You and Terra take care here as well!" Jaune heard their dad's voice respond with forced enthusiasm, clearly hearing the teasing tone of Saphron as well.

"Don't forget to call often Saphron! If you two need anything at all, don't hesitate to ask!" The more joyful and warm voice of their mother responded to Saphron as well, oblivious to the turmoil of the rest of her family. Though then again, she could just be deferring her lectures until after goodbyes were said.

"Don't worry siblings. I still have that video of Saphron acting like a popstar in her room. I can set their tv to play it when Terra gets back from work." Azure conspiratorially whispered to her siblings, masking the action by fixing her glasses. All of them raised their eyebrows in slight surprise before identical grins sprouted on their faces.

They all knew that video well. In a family as large as theirs, blackmail and teasing material was inevitable. Though surprisingly, there was little ammunition that could be used against Saphron. But little still meant there was something, and one of her greatest moments was the Popstar Video.

'Poor Saph.' Jaune thought, imagining the humiliation she'd feel when confronted with the video. The video of her off-key singing, exaggerated dance moves and imaginary audience work. She made them delete the video from their scrolls and gave up her dessert for seven weeks just to keep them quiet. 'Poor, annoying Saph.' Jaune thought again, grinning at the payback.

"Hey Saph!" Mint called out to their sister with a shout. "Hope Terra likes home videos!" She taunted and Jaune could see the smile melt off Saphron's face and get replaced with confusion.

"What are you talking about?" Saphron asked with simple confusion, no clue about what Mint meant by the sudden statement. But when Jaune and his sisters just snickered at her, he could see understanding dawning on her face before desperation took over.

"Hey! What home video are you talking about!?" Saphron shouted from beyond the skyport's entrance, her voice filled with the sweet dread that Jaune and his siblings wanted her to feel.

"Bye sis!" "Bye Saph!" "See you, Saph!" A chorus of goodbyes sounded out from their group with a nonchalance honed to annoy and irritate. Jaune shared a laugh with his sisters as they and their parents walked further away from a distressed Saphron, momentarily forgetting their own dread of flying.

About half an hour passed with their family just waiting for a boarding call while sitting on the benches. Indigo and Iris sat next to each other, bickering like the little gremlins they usually were. Azure sat just a few seats away from the twins, focused on her Scroll and watching some documentary on something Jaune didn't catch. Mint was standing near the windows gazing at the different aircrafts that docked to the skyport while Rory stood nearby to keep an eye on their excitable sister.

"Hey wait, where's Violet?" Jaune voiced out with slight concern after realizing he couldn't find his youngest sister in the immediate vicinity.

"What's that Jaune?" Jaune heard his mother ask distractedly, her focus more on the quickly escalating argument of the twins.

Jaune gave another quick scan of his surroundings but still didn't find Violet anywhere. "I can't find Violet." Jaune repeated, standing from his seat, and moving near his parents.

Suddenly, with an eerily synchronized shriek, the twins bolted out of their seats and ran in opposite directions, mischief clearly on their minds. Jaune heard their mother and father both groan in frustration as they prepared to head out.

"We better get them before they cause a lot of trouble. Nick, go catch Iris." The order came out easily from their mother, courtesy of handling their family for so long. Their dad gave a nod of agreement, used to chaos, and ran towards the direction of Iris. "Jaune, you go after Indigo while I look for Violet."

Jaune readily agreed and went into a quick jog towards where Indigo ran off, vaguely hearing his mom tell Rory about the situation before he turned a corner.

While Jaune didn't see Indigo after the turn, he was confident enough in his understanding of his brattier sister to predict the likely turns she would make and the places she might gravitate towards. It didn't take him long to find her lurking in a less populated corridor of the skyport.

"You guys always do this, Indigo. Honestly, it's getting old." Jaune called out to his younger sister, looking calm but readying his body in case she broke out into a sprint. Luckily, she just stuck her tongue out at him but made no move to run away.

"But you always play, Jaune. Who's the dumb one now?" Indigo taunted with triumphant smirk.

"No one said anything about being dumb, dummy." Jaune replied with a deadpan tone which made Indigo lose her triumphant look.

"Y-you know what I meant." Indigo tried to salvage, embarrassed at the failure of her insult. Jaune just smiled knowingly over his shorter sister, which caused her to roll her eyes at him and look away in annoyance.

"Go on, go back to the others you little gremlin. Dad probably got Iris already anyway." Jaune told his sister with a slight laugh. She gave him a look of annoyance and her signature taunt of pulling down her eyelid and sticking out her tongue before running off back to their family.

Jaune made to follow her but heard something that caught his attention. The sound of a distant crash, just barely audible enough as he passed by one of the doors along the corridor. He checked through the small window of the door but saw no evidence of the crash. Curious, he entered the new corridor and checked each open room.

By the third room, Jaune was ready to just dismiss the crash and return to his family when he heard voices come from the inside the last room. Panicking since he assumed he was in a restricted area, Jaune went back inside the room he was just in and stood pressed against the door.

"Let's leave the… unpleasantness just now and return to the usual pleasure of business?" Jaune heard a gruff voice say, his tone going a bit weird when he mentioned unpleasantness.

"Y-yeah of c-course. Like always. P-pleasure doing business with you." Another male voice, this time meeker and clearly fearful, answered. Cruel laughter followed his answer; Jaune probably picked up maybe four or five distinct voices from them.

"Look at this guy. You'd think we threatened his wife and kid by how he's shivering." Another voice, this time a woman's, said with a sadistic chuckle. "Oh wait, we did!" She followed quickly, with a few other laughs joining her as quiet whimper sounded out. Jaune shivered involuntarily in discomfort.

"I think he gets the point, Cass." The first voice slightly admonished, killing the laughter of the others.

"Just remember, Officer Layton," The gruff voice spoke again, more menacingly this time. "The guns we run here in Mistral, we can turn against you and your family. So just smile and take the bribe."

'They're weapon smugglers!' Jaune realized in alarm, trying to suppress his surprise to keep himself hidden.

'I have to keep quiet until they leav-'

'Bzzzt. Bzzzt.'

Jaune silently stared in horror at the pocket where he put his Scroll. Even when it was set to vibrate, the proximity made the slight noise it made enough.

"What was that!?" One of the voices outside exclaimed with suspicion.

Suddenly, the door Jaune was leaning on swung open, making Jaune fall to the ground with a thud and a groan.

"It seems someone's been listening on us." Jaune heard the gruff voice say in an amused tone from above him. He looked up and saw a bald man staring at him with one good eye.

"Should we kill him?" Jaune looked at the brown-haired woman that excitedly asked the question, eyeing her with fear.

"N-no! You can't!" Came the response of the smaller man in a customs uniform. He was sweating heavily and Jaune could see a pair of animal ears rise up in alarm from his short, brown hair.

"Y-you'd raise too much suspicion with murder here. And it'll be t-too hard to clean up quickly." The customs officer continued quickly, trying to avoid the dangerous glares that was directed at him by the group of smugglers. Jaune saw the sadistic woman reach down to her waist for something when the bald man spoke again.

"He's right. I'd like to avoid heat when we can. Flynn, knock him out. We might even get something from him from those syndicates down south."

Before Jaune could say anything or even react to what was being said, he felt a strike on his neck before quickly going unconscious.


Jaune snapped open his eyes to see that the sky had a darkish orange glow to it compared to the normal brightness back when he was still running. He realized that he fell asleep while remembering what happened the day prior and let what must have been hours pass by.

Fortunately for Jaune, his kidnappers didn't seem to have hunted for him or if they did, they didn't stumble into him while he was asleep. Not wanting to push his luck out in the open against his kidnappers or whatever danger nature could throw at him however, Jaune pushed himself up from the ground and went on his way to find possible shelter.

The sun was near setting when Jaune finally came across a fairly large pool of water fed by a tall waterfall. Jaune rushed towards the pool, eager to get a drink of water, and dunked his head into it. He gulped greedily as he relished the wetness on his once-dry mouth and lips. When he felt the telltale sign of a cough in his throat, he quickly raised his head above the pool and coughed out some water that he swallowed wrongly in his haste to satiate his severe thirst.

As he opened his eyes again, he noted a slight hollowness just behind the glistening waters of the waterfall. He stalked around the pool, careful not to slip on the moss that grew on the soil and rock near the water as he tried to peer behind the waterfall from the side. It was a bit difficult to make out in the sparse light he had but he saw what could be a small cave.

With his daylight quickly running out and nowhere else to go, Jaune moved to get behind the waterfall and into the cave. Even with his best attempt to hug the cliff walls and avoid the waterfall, Jaune still got a bit wet from the sheer proximity of the waterfall to the cliff.

When he was finally able to enter the small opening behind the waterfall, he saw that the small cave was actually just an entrance to a larger and deeper cave. Jaune felt a bit anxious having a mysterious dark cave literally just behind him, but he reasoned that he had nowhere else to go. He'd have to risk it in the waterfall cave for tonight unless he wanted to risk it out there with the open wilderness and his kidnappers.

Jaune did not consider himself or even his family religious. But that night, he prayed. He prayed hard and fervently. He prayed to the Brother Gods. He prayed to Oum. He prayed to whatever other deity that might listen to his prayers.

'Get me out of this nightmare. Please.' Jaune silently pleaded to the heavens until sleep took him once more.

The first thing Jaune heard was the rushing water of the waterfall just outside the cave. It was a familiar and calming sound to him, though it did remind him of his situation. He was tempted to go back to sleep, hoping that by some miracle, he would be safe when he next wakes up. But the sound of rushing air, as if blown out of the nose, caused Jaune to tense.

'Was I found?' Jaune fearfully wondered, too scared to move a muscle. He felt nor heard any movements around him, only the rhythmic breathing of someone nearby.

With his heart pounding incessantly in his chest, Jaune gathered all of his courage to throw open his eyes to see whoever was with him and fight them if he could.

As he opened his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of the large, sitting body of a black and white bear.