Mercury Black never considered himself as a good talker or negotiator or recruiter in any sense of the word, part of the reason why he killed his dad was because he couldn't think of a way to ask for his Semblance back! What the hell was he supposed to say? 'May I have my Semblance back, pretty please'?

Which makes this all the more stupid after that bitch Cinder asked him to 'recruit' this Courrier guy or something, wasn't he an assistant teacher that beat the asses of everybody during sparring matches? Mercury might have an inflated ego but he knows when to suppress it when he realizes that there's absolutely no way for him to succeed.

Still… better to talk to the maniac and die under his hands rather than be prematurely cremated by Cinder when he gets back without doing anything. Sauntering into the training hall with the exaggerated swagger of a disabled teen with hidden mechanical legs, Mercury's eyes widened as he sees the torture scene happening in front of him.

That failure of a student Jaune was doing push-ups on top of some random Faunus girl apparently, while she's also doing push-ups with him on her back. They were not in sync and the interval between each push-up seems to be random. There were also stacks upon stacks of weights on the failure's back, and sitting on those weights was Courrier himself.

The man waved at Mercury, "Are you gonna do anything or are you just going to stand there and watch like an idiot?"

Mercury scoffed, "Just here to see the freak show, don't mind me," he peered at Courrier, "Where'd you get these fools anyways? The circus?"

"Woah there, don't insult my students, they're doing well," Courrier hopped off of the plates on the failure's back and clapped his hands together, "Alright, training's over, both of you scram, I have to talk to shitty hair over here."

Mercury ignored that comment as he watched the two walk out miserably, their arms shaking as they slowly lumber and dragged themselves out of the hall, "Alright, who sent you? The government?"

Mercury snorted, "As if, heard you talked to the cat girl yesterday, you part of the White Fang?"

"Yep."

"Come on, you don't have to lie- wait what?"

"Yep, that's me, I'm part of the White Fang," Courrier crossed his arms, for a man wearing overalls, he did look pretty intimidating… except for the fact that he wore sunglasses indoors and at night at the same time, "Why're you looking for me?"

"You know your pal Adam?"

"Bull boy?"

"You call him that?" He held in a laugh, "Oh, that's a good one I need to use that one day."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, what's the Bull boy gotta do with me?"

Mercury walked up to Courrier and slid him a note, smirking all the while, "Everything you need to know is on that note, do exactly as it says and we'll talk later."

The smirk was wiped off his face as Courrier slapped the note out of his hands and delivered a quick jab at his face. Fortunately, Mercury's reflexes have been honed to detect sucker punchers like these, so his Aura blocks the blow with some difficulty. The force from the punch itself still applied though, as Mercury's head was whipped back from the carried force alone.

Gritting his teeth, Mercury twisted his body and side kicked Courrier, or at least tried to as the man grabbed his leg and drove his elbow down on it, Mercury's eyes widened as his Aura took a big hit from that, as without it, his bionic legs would've surely been snapped in half.

Aura, while good at deflecting attacks, usually don't extend far enough to stop people from just straight up grabbing you. Right now, Mercury's learning that the hard way as Courrier spun him around like a propeller blade and threw him towards one of the walls.

Mercury flipped around and hit the wall leg-first, creating a small crater in the concrete as he glared at Courrier before dashing forward and sweeping the man's legs while ducking down. Normally this would make them lose their balance and fall but Mercury didn't expect Courrier to just jump over the leg sweep before landing on the leg itself, Mercury hissed as he felt another chunk of his Aura being taken out.

He felt another chunk being removed as he pulled up his Aura to block a drop kick from Courrier that was aimed directly at the centre of his face. Being knocked onto his back, Mercury rolled out of the way as Courrier stomped down on where he was before, cracking the ground beneath his foot.

Quickly getting back up on his feet, Mercury cursed under his breath as he felt his Aura dwindle, he's been kicked, thrown, and nearly stomped on while Courrier didn't get hit once. Who the hell was this guy? Where was he during all of this shit? Spitting out some blood after he accidentally bit the inside of his cheek during the battle, Mercury readied himself as he waited for Courrier to make his move.

Mercury backed away as he dodged a right hook from Courrier, the man's fist narrowly grazing his Aura as Mercury continued to be put on the back foot, constantly moving backwards just to avoid Courrier's relentless attacks. Ducking another jab from Courrier, Mercury decided that now is the time to regain some of his dignity as he activated the firing mechanisms in his prosthetic leg and aimed a kick at Courrier's midsection.

Unless the man has Aura, there's no other way to avoid being hurt from this… if the firing mechanism didn't jam that is. Mercury's eyes widened as he realized that his bionic leg's firing mechanism was fucked the moment that Courrier elbowed the thing, despite Aura being there to dampen the blow, the strike was still hard enough to dislodge some internal machinery of his bionic legs.

Courrier, capitalizing on this moment of confusion from Mercury, grabbed the leg and hooked it under his armpit before twisting his body around, which also twisted Mercury's leg by proxy, rather painfully he might add.

While Aura can block straight on attacks, being grappled and twisted is not one of the power's strong suit as Aura doesn't really do anything to stop you from being twisted in half.

Mercury jumped up with his other leg and hooked it behind Courrier's head, trying to leverage his other leg free and jump far away from Courrier's attack range. Kicking his leg away from Courrier's arms, Mercury used his shoulders as a boost and quickly jumped away from Courrier, narrowing his eyes at the man as he asked;

"Who the fuck are you man?"

"Someone who's beating your ass, now put those hands up come on," Courrier raised his fists and got into a boxing stance, "You use your legs too much, fighting someone is a mix of both hands and legs, specializing will only get you killed."

"They say a Jack of All Trades is a Master of None, but it's better to be a Master of None than to be buried six feet under with flowers blooming above you now is it?" Courrier smirked as Mercury ran forwards to deliver a few quick jabs at his head, easily dodging the strikes, Courrier ducked beneath a wide hook before uppercutting Mercury in the stomach, "Your hook is too telegraphed, a good fighter can see that shit from a mile away."

Mercury coughed as he felt the force, although dampened by his Aura, of the punch be exerted onto his stomach, knocking most of the air out of his lungs as he wheezed and double over, "And another thing, you gotta fight dirty," Courrier kneed Mercury in the face as he was holding on to his stomach and hunched over, he then grabbed his jacket and pulled his face closer to him, "Fight until you're sure your opponent's not going to wake up anytime soon, or just straight up dead."

Courrier then headbutted the assassin, shattering his Aura and causing blood to gush from his nose, Mercury grabbed his nose and glared at Courrier hatefully, "What the fuck?! I'm just a fucking messenger you lunatic!"

Courrier just stared impassively at Mercury as he breathed out heavily, hand holding back the line of blood slowly pouring out of his nose, "What the fuck did you do that for?!"

Mercury flinched as Courrier pointed a finger at him, "I didn't like the way you looked."

Completely flabbergasted at the man's answer, Mercury watched with wide eyes as Courrier just… walked out of the training hall as if he didn't just admit to beating someone up because he 'didn't like the way they looked'.

He's going to need to tell Cinder about this… and maybe buy some flame retardant clothing too while he's at it.

"Mr. Courrier, care to explain why you just assaulted another student?" Goodwitch gave him a smile but he could see the underlying murderous intent leaking out of the woman, "I let you get away with that little… 'training club' of yours but this? This is unacceptable. Care to explain yourself?"

"I just didn't like the way he looked!"

"Looked? At what?"

"In general! You'd understand if you saw him, was acting real shady too, handed me a weird note saying some shit like 'we'll talk later' or whatever."

"Still, your behaviour and actions today are inexcusable! Not only did you harm a student but you harmed a student that was not ours! At best, Shade Academy will call for your immediate removal as an assistant and at worst? You don't want to know what they'll do," Goodwitch glared at him, "Need I remind you that the Vytal Festival begins in three days and by proxy, the Tournament?"

"Oh shit, really?"

"Language. Yes, really."

"Sorry."

"You better pray that that student recovers in time for the Tournament, or else there'll be hell to pay…"

And with those parting words, Goodwitch used her Semblance to pick up the Courier and chucked him out of her office. Landing on his back, the Courier groaned as he pushed himself up to his feet, silently cursing Goodwitch under his breath, the Courier turned around only to come face to face with a very short student.

Black hair, red streak, really short with weird combat fashion, the Courier sighed as he prepared himself for the torrent of questions and words that'll inevitably come out of team RWBY's leader.

"Eh… Hi Mr. Courrier… hehe…" what the hell? The Courier thought she was supposed to be all energetic and shit not scared of him! "Can I- Can I ask you a question…?"

"Sure, shoot," this will not do, the Courier can't bear to have children be afraid of him… okay, that was a lie but he didn't like the fact that the people who he's saving is afraid of him one bit!

"Can… eh… Can I see your weapon?" the girl clamped shut her eyes as she looked down, as if the Courier would kill her for asking such a question… He won't though, obviously.

"What, the Old Glory?" the Courier grabbed the flagstaff and handed it to Ruby to hold, "You want to see it right?" He nudged the girl until she actually opened her eyes to see the thing, her face then lit up as she grabbed the flagstaff hungrily, obsessing over every detail of the weapon.

"Woah, it's so… simple?" she twirled the flagstaff around a bit, "It's light! Really light! Lighter than my Crescent Rose by like… a ton!"

"Uh huh."

"It's also made out of wood which is weird because wood breaks so easily but I guess that's where the weight comes from and the ornament at the top provides the weight so that it works like a mace where the momentum of the swing is carried onto the weight so that it deals more damage to Grimm because you have more uh… leverage!"

"Uh huh."

"It's also really long, longer than Crescent Rose that's for sure… does it transform into anything? Like a gun? Or a rocket launcher? Or a gun?"

"No it doesn't."

"Why? Wouldn't you be stuck with just melee then? How would you be able to hit Nevermores or anything from far away?"

"I have a gun for that."

"A separate gun?"

"Yes."

"Can I see it?"

The Courier then takes out his newly acquired revolver that he dug up from the ground after that little testing match with Goodwitch and Qrow, a blockier Ranger Sequoia with a different barrel, hits just as hard too, "Here you go."

"Wow! A revolver, it's really heavy too! What calibre is the gun in?"

"Forty-five government."

"Forty-what?"

"Nevermind."

"Okay! The weighted design must be because of the gun's heavy recoil right?" the Courier nodded, "Whatever calibre this baby's in must be really hard kicking! But it's nothing compared to my Crescent Rose with her fifty-calibre rounds!"

She has an Anti-Materiel Rifle built into that Scythe? Damn, okay, "How many shots does it take for you to break someone's Aura?"

"Huh? Oh! Uh… like ten? Maybe fifteen if their Aura's really large like my friend Jaune! You know him right? You're training him!"

"Uh huh."

"Yeah! So like if I don't miss and only shoot them with Crescent Rose's sniper mode then it'd take about fifteen-ish shots to break a person's Aura!"

"Yeesh, fifteen shots for a fifty cal? Either the bullets aren't as strong or your firing mechanism is seriously messed up," the Courier grabbed his revolver back and opened up the cylinder, taking out a forty-five seventy government round and showing it to Ruby, "Notice how this is smaller than a fifty calibre round, yet when I fire it… err… how about we take this to the firing range, yeah?"

"Yay! Let's go!"

"Uh huh."

The two made their way through the confusingly designed winding hallways of Beacon and into the firing range, it was empty, all the better for the Courier's demonstration.

"Okay, Ruby, I want you to use your Crescent Rose to fire at that target over there, try aiming for the torso since Aura doesn't care about where you hit them."

"Okay!" this girl is too eager to shoot something… or someone if he's not careful, Ruby unfurled her big-ass Scythe into a more manageable-sized sniper rifle as she scoped down range, after a few seconds of silence, a large bang echoed throughout the firing range as a large hole roughly the size of a baseball glove appeared on the target, "Boom!"

"Uh huh, now watch as I use my gun which uses a lower calibre than your sniper," the Courier holds the revolver, he really needs to give it a name, with both hands and firmly planted his feet on the ground, he breathed in and acquired the target… his finger depressed on the trigger and a louder bang sounded from the gun, Ruby watched through her sniper scope as she saw the target board gets an even larger hole blown through it.

Her eyes widened, compared to her target, the Courier's target looked like the front of a washing machine with how big that hole was! "I think the problem here is not your weapon but the type of ammunition, you're using Dust as a primer right?"

Ruby nodded, "Well, they're good for Grimm but against human opponents? Not so much, check your Scroll I'll send you the ingredients to a primer that I use in my bullets."

She pulled up her Scroll and read through the message that the Courier sent her, "It's called gunpowder, not as effective against Grimm because it doesn't have any elemental effects like Dust but against a human opponent? Their Aura's as good as gone thanks to the larger burst of energy."

"But Dust is much more affordable! I don't even know half of the ingredients on this list!"

"Dang, I didn't think about that…" the Courier looked down at the revolver and contemplated before turning towards Ruby, "Y'know what? It's time for a test fire, I have a couple of fifty cal rounds on me right now, I'll give a few to you right now but if you can impress me then you'll get a whole pouch of it. So what do you say? Deal?"

"DEAL!"

Ruby Rose walked out of that firing range a rich woman after that day…

We're nearing the beginning of Volume 3, yay, so excited.

Thinking about Mushoku Tensei for a moment (yes I'm still on this), I think it would've been way better if Rudeus wasn't reincarnated into a child's body but rather got transported into the world in his current body. I feel like that would hammer home the message of improving yourself and getting a second chance a lot more when Rudeus has to work for his redemption and power rather than being born into a family that's basically comprised of a really good magic user and a revered adventurer.

Him being reincarnated as a child and being given a loving family while he coasts on by using his powers that he was born with doesn't teach him any lesson at all! While him being transported to the world of Mushoku Tensei in his shut-in body with no changes would force him to re-evaluate his life and also force him to work for his redemption. It would also fix the problem of him grooming children too, so that's a plus.

Basically, having Rudeus suffer through the world of Mushoku Tensei without anybody to guide him forces him to think about all the bad shit that he's done. Redemption only works when the person being redeemed truly feels bad about what they've done and wants to change for the better. Canon Rudeus shows some of the signs of this but he's still perfectly fine with having a harem. That's like a slave owner saying that he feels bad about owning slaves and that he wants to change for the better! But continue to own slaves anyways.

Haha, like Naofumi from Rising of the Shield Hero, fuck that guy too, slave owning ass.

Anyways, thanks for reading everybody, I really do like reading the reviews as that makes me feel so much better.