Authors note: chapter two is now here, and the isekai has officially begun. yeah I went with the usual death causing isekai thing, but actually wrote said deaths in the first chapter.
don't worry, i won't be featuring those deaths as the only ones in this story. more deaths will occur, and they'll be much more permanent.
Currently watching: Lee
Lee found himself awaking with quite the start, sitting up and desperately clasping at his chest for a few seconds. Natural reaction really, he had just assumed he died after all. Yet here he was, still breathing… though the area around him seemed different somehow. The trees in the camping forest weren't this big for example, and… the fire they had lit wasn't here. Nor were the bodies of his friends, something wasn't quite right here.
"If this is the afterlife, I'm gonna be really disappointed god. Because this place looks like shit" lee spoke to himself in an irritated tone, finally forcing himself to his feet. Stumbling a bit, finding that he felt oddly disoriented. Not the dying kind, but almost like he'd been drinking all night. Pounding headache included, which really didn't make sense… because Lee strictly made sure to never drink alcohol. Not exactly something he should have, when he's working with dangerous equipment most of the time. Course his friends understood that, but they still call him a pussy because of it. Or well… they did, before everything happened.
"Oh god… they're really all gone huh?? I'm not just gonna… magically wake up in bed tomorrow am I? This is all real, they're dead and… I'm in some fucked up looking forest" he didn't quite want to believe his friends were dead, I mean who wants to accept something like that?? Best friends he's known for years, and apparently in the span of a night he's all that's left. Wherever the hell he happens to be, though part of him was holding out hope. Praying that maybe If he was here, the others were too. As unlikely as such a thing might be, it's the only thing keeping him sane. Sometimes that's all you really have left, that little bit of hope.
After almost an hour of tree based recollection and hyping himself up, Lee finally began to move. Stumbling through the forest like a drunk, that disoriented feeling still plaguing him somewhat. He didn't even notice a tree root sticking out, which he promptly fell over. Feeling his face splash unceremoniously into some water, swiping back his hair somewhat as it got wet. Though when the man lifted his head from the puddle, he noticed something alarming. Something he was praying wasn't real, gone was his usual somewhat patchy look. Instead it was replaced by the appearance of what almost seemed like a… fifteen year old anime boy? That didn't make sense, he was a grown man. How the hell did he suddenly turn into this boy?
What's even worse is, the odd appearance that the boy had. Striking yellowish blonde hair, tied back into some form of ponytail that still allowed his bangs to hang loosely. What looked almost like a set of greyish leopard ears adorned his head too, and his eyes. His eyes had a very eerie smokey amber colour to them, it went quite well with the caramel skin tone he now sported. Honestly if he hadn't died to achieve this look, he might have actually been happy with it. But given he had died, and ended up as some fifteen year old anime neko boy apparently? Yeah he was more than a little annoyed.
"Oh god… you mother fucker!" Lee roared up at the sky before picking up a rock, tossing it at the sky with a harsh glare. Until the rock came back down, and smacked him directly in the face. God was clearly smiting him for his hubris apparently, is this what he gets for all those times he accidentally made deadly gas compounds? Or nearly made bombs in his garage? Apparently god frowns upon those things, how was he meant to know that? He couldn't dwell on it for too long though, since he heard the sound of a twig snapping. Causing him to suddenly turn around, his guard upon. After all, last time he heard that… he and all his friends died some pretty horrible deaths.
Luckily for the now Scottish accented leopard boy, it wasn't some evil black skinned death beast this time. Instead it was a group of three boys, roughly the same age as him oddly enough. Who were all looking at him with a stunned expression, one of the three suddenly speaking up.
"Lee? Mate is that you? Christ, you look like hammered shit" an oddly familiar Aussie accent came from the one who spoke, it sounded exactly like Jay for some reason. But they looked nothing like him, despite that though. Lee couldn't help but lunge at and hug the boy who sounded like his deceased friend, holding onto them for dear life. As if they might end up suddenly disappearing any second, though eventually he had to pull away.
"Heh, I missed you too buddy. From the looks of it, we ain't dead… but all of us got these snazzy new looks" jay spoke, chuckling a bit. The Aussie sporting a nice set of sandy coloured bunny ears atop his head, paired alongside some coffee brown hair. His eyes were definitely striking though, being a shimmering emerald green. Last, his skin had a nice sandy tone to it. Like someone who spent their life living in a desert region, it honestly looked fairly nice. The Aussie seemed to be sporting the killmonger haircut, not the… best choice.
"Me next comrade! Behold, the mighty grizzly!" this of course came from Dimitri, the local russian of the group, who now that lee noticed. Seemed to be an absolute fucking unit in this place, easily standing at around seven foot tall. His hair was a shining crimson red colour, with a matching set of red eyes with some purple hues. Most noticeably, he had a set of bear ears atop his head. Alongside a frightening set of clawed nails on each hand, and… was that red bear fur on his forearms? Huh, it seems he got more than one trait in that regard. Kinda feels unfair, but lee won't voice that complaint. He's just happy his friends are alive, ya know? Though he did notice that Dimitri had a much lighter skin tone, seeming as if he were from a colder nation. Dimitris hairstyle was quite nice honestly, sporting the slicked back Zack fair style hair from crisis core.
"Guess that leaves the best for last then right? Hope you're ready" this came from Oliver, the proud English bugger. Stood off to the side with his arms crossed, his arms noticeably covered with a sort of shell like scaling. Almost like the shell of an armadillo or pangolin, quite the unique look in that sense. The Englishman also had black obsidian shaded hair that fell down to his shoulders, it didn't look half bad. His eyes were a rather odd greyish colour, not silver. Just grey. With his skin being very well kept and pale, almost like a rich man. Lee did notice though, each member of the group seemed to be fairly tall except for himself. Dimitri at seven foot, Oliver at roughly six foot and jay at 6 foot three. Lee himself was the shortest in the group, being about five foot six.
"Okay… guys, does anyone know where the hell we are? Also, ya said ya missed me jay… how long have you been here?" Lee asked the group, I mean he'd only been here a couple hours. Though when he asked that Jay seemed to look away a bit, the Aussie let out a sigh.
"Mate, I've been here for about a month now. There's a city area about five miles away from the forest, me, Dimitri and Oliver. We've been coming out here for a while to try to find you, I found Dimitri after the first week. Oliver was two weeks after that, and now we've found you" Jay answered honestly, the answer completely stunning lee. I mean, he had effectively just found out he'd been dead for a month. But his friends had still been looking for him? Seems he wasn't the only one who'd had that hope, but for Jay to have been looking for that long. How lonely must he have been for that first week, it must've been hell.
"Jesus… I only woke up a few hours ago, you're telling me you've been here this long? You didn't answer though, where are we?" Lee asked again, Jay just looked over at Dimitri and nodded. Gesturing for the russian to answer the question, since he would know the most. The Russian bear of a man stepping forward, smiling.
"We're in a forest five miles out from Mantle, it's a mining colony just below the kingdom of atlas. It's a location from rwby, jay here already secured himself a job at a warehouse. He helps load dust crates onto airships that head up to atlas, fairly simple. I've been working down in the mines, it's dangerous and there's already been a few accidents since I got here. But, I've survived so far. Finally, Oliver here started working as a waiter in a restaurant a few days ago. Apparently the customers aren't the nicest to him, but he gets paid so he accepts it" Dimitri answered honestly, even explaining the jobs they had found since arriving in this new location. That had once been fiction to them all, but was now their rather cruel reality.
"Alright then guys… I think we should head to this mantle place you all mentioned, Should be safer than here right? I mean, you said this was rwby. The same place, that evil wolf thing was from. So I'd rather not stay out here for too long, I'd much rather get somewhere safe… and warm" Lee responded, getting some nods of confirmation from the group. Before they all began the lengthy journey to mantle, the first journey for lee. A return trip of the others, something that Lee still couldn't quite wrap his head around. They all died within minutes of one another after all, how the hell did they arrive in this place so far apart?
Something had clearly happened that brought them all here, their split up arrivals also seemed almost purposeful. As If they originally weren't meant to all end up in the same place, yet something caused them all to end up here. Did something go wrong with whatever the thing that brought them here planned? Or was it all just some massive coincidence? He can't quite figure it out.