Author's Note:

This is a reupload of a fanfiction I wrote back in 2021 that got removed when I had a bit of an episode and deleted it and the others I made, its taken me some time to come back around to it and not to mention FFnet being broken every time I came back to post stuff again eventually making me stop altogether.

Originally this story was created with the intention of it being almost entirely a World Building project that focused on making a somewhat faithful but mostly AU World of Remnant, I'm a little famous amongst my friends for having said 'RWBY is a fanfiction template' and this is kind of an example of of that.

As well a core part of the story is that the MC has a Semblance version of the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception from the Kinoko Nasu series Kara No Kyoukai and the sort of strain it puts on their mind and life.

Back to my other point, calling it a fanfiction template isn't derogatory it speaks to the fact that the world, ideas and most of the presentation are so interesting cool that it makes you want to create in it even if the execution especially as it went on are something of a mess.

My last thing before the flash-forward is that this is uploaded in the raw state I have all the chapters in a google drive so they're probably a little rough.

Chapter 1

"Drop your fucking weapons or I'll blow this ladies brains out!" the Lone White Fang lackey shouted at me and my partner as his head wildly looked between us, I kept a firm grip on the gun.

Though my partner dropped her gun in plain sight of him and it looked like she might try her semblance on him, I made a subtle notion letting her know not to, it was too dangerous with the barrel of the gun pressed against the green haired and dark skinned woman's head.

Whipping the gun in my hand around so that I was aiming it directly at the man's head I spoke setting my plan into motion. "Listen I don't really care about her, I'm no cop or huntsman I'm not into protecting and serving or whatever- sorry lady you'll have you chalk it up to shit luck." I gave a shrug, he freaked a bit and the woman started shouting at me about how I was a degenerate asshole and how I needed to save her from this.

"What kind of fucking person are you then!" The White Fang lackey turned his gun on me and didn't get to think twice as he tried to fire but my perfectly aimed shot painted his brains across the display case behind him before he could properly register what was happening.

The woman screamed frightenedly similarly to when he had grabbed her, she dropped to the ground moving out of the corpse's way before running her hands over her head and such to check if she'd been shot or cut by the glass case that shattered.

[Like the Space Cowboy's of Old]

"Good Morning Mr Solatium." The grey haired old man I had come to find out was the headmaster said as I entered his office at the top of the Beacon tower.

I wasn't sure why he had requested me like he had, but I had a feeling I knew what he wanted to ask me about or have me clarify.

"And to you too Headmaster Ozpin." I bowed formally and he motioned for me to sit down at one of the two chairs in front of his desk.

"Could you please remove your mask for the duration of this meeting." He stated, it wasn't much of a question so relenting I took off the mask I wore.

Watching blankly as he took in my features I wondered why he had called me here, there wasn't anything that I could think of off the top of my head that wasn't related to my Semblance and mask.

"Something catch your eye sir?" I asked with a bit of a chuckle to myself, after a few minutes of silence passed between us, while I might not have normally made a joke like that straight to a teacher's face, he was analysing me like some kind of weapon that he was figuring out the best way to utilise.

I knew the look too, enough people had looked at me like that and I hated it.

"Quite." The older man sipped away at a white mug that had been sitting on his desk, the school's emblem was on it.

"And?"

"Your Sister wasn't very fond of me Mr. Solatium, I'm hoping that doesn't extend to you for your tenure at Beacon." He said diverting the course of the conversation, I didn't care for this shit, it was annoying enough to be pulled away from touring the school grounds and learning where everything was while it was still empty.

"Are asking me that or are you wondering out loud? Because I could tell you, but honestly I don't care to answer it and I'd like it if you got to the point of this already." I didn't like being played around with, plus it's not like what I thought of him or what my sister thought mattered at the moment.

"Ah… did not mean to anger you, I was just curious" his words were empty and his expression was bland.

"What's the point of all this?" I asked again for him to hurry it along.

"I wished to hear more from you about your Semblance, on your application form you glossed over it and merely wrote-" he glanced down to a piece of paper on the desk. "Here it is 'My semblance lets my eyes kill' if you could explain it a bit better, and you marked it a hazardous Semblance."

I blinked keeping my expression uninterested and neutral. "I don't know everything about it, but the simple details are that as you can tell my eyes aren't exactly normal which appears to be a side effect of it." He waited for me to continue with a level of intrigue in his eyes.

There was no reason for the Headmaster to ask me about it in the first place seeing as he could have just rung my mother. I would have said prep school, but I never went to one seeing as I lived in a frontier town and the only training I got was all self taught with the help of my sister who also trained my younger brother.

"I can see what I've come to call 'lines of death' a title my brother coined for me, but the easiest way to describe them is as solid, black zigzagging scribbles all over the world, kinda like they're within the air itself, that look like cracks in reality. They are pretty hard to see during the day due to the light, but emit a sort of glow at night."

The death lines certainly got his attention, so yeah he wanted to know about instances of my semblance, maybe he'd try to dig up reports or something and see what he can find out about it. If he had already tried then I didn't know obviously, but he didn't know the specifics going by how he reacted.

There was something about how he listened and his body language that seemed like he was looking to see if I was going to be a good little soldier ready to be pointed in the right direction and let loose.

"I don't mind telling you about the first time I used it if that's what you're after sir." I narrowed my eyes focusing on the lines around him, they were innumerable and it hurt just to look at him, it's why for the duration of our conversation I had been looking to the side of him.

I'd never met or seen anyone or anything with as many as he had, there was something very wrong with him… well aside from the stuff my sister told me about. Priscilla really doesn't like him or- ah thats for another time.

"If you would, I'm curious to hear how you unlocked it?" Ozpin sipped away at his mug again.

I couldn't help but chuckle. "I didn't say I was going to tell you about when I awakened it so to speak, because that's a boring short story. One day when I was very young maybe one and a half or two it just turned on and I haven't seen the world any other way for the past fifteen odd years." It might seem weird to your average person in Vale or any main city but when you live in the frontier like I did you get your aura unlocked early on because most of the people out there will need to fight in one way or another.

"So this first time you used it then?" he really wanted to know didn't he?

Grumbling to myself internally I sighed "When I was five or six I was at a daycare or something with a few other children in the neighbourhood and when one of them took something off me I went to grab it back and instead my mind made me grab onto his line and I tore that in half instead of actually grabbing him."

Ozpin's eyes went wide understanding what I had just said.

"Was there anything el-" I cut myself off when a message appeared on his computer screen.

"Quickly before I let you go, is there any reason behind that mask of yours? My deputy and one or two of the staff had their concerns about it."

"Well aside from the fact that my mother made it for me, yes there's a reason I wear it, it helps me keep my semblance under control." I was going to tell him about her Semblance but stopped myself.

"Come to me if anyone gives you trouble about it then." The Headmaster's eyebrow raised as he seemed to receive another message before he could continue what he was about to continue with. "Hmm… sorry to cut our meeting short, I'm needed to see something pertaining to initiation- I'll see you out Mr. Solatium." He walked me to the elevator and as I was about to call it up the door chimed and a blonde woman with glasses over some pretty beautiful green eyes stepped out nearly walking into me.

It seemed my eyes stunned her as much as hers did me because she starred for a little longer than necessary as I put my mask back on stepping past into the elevator.

As the door was closing I heard the woman say "That was Solatium?"

The ride down to the ground floor was short and uninteresting as expected, once I stepped out I headed to the Air Bus dock so that I could catch the next one down to Vale. I still had another week before the initiation for the school was meant to actually happen, I had arrived early because my mother didn't want me to miss it and because I needed to buy my school clothes still and it wasn't like I could buy them in the settlement I was from.

The hotel I had booked myself into was pretty alright, apparently a few famous people were staying at it or at least that's what I'm assuming because of the crowds of people flocking around certain individuals as they passed through the front doors and foyer. I was already bad with crowds as was, but whenever I saw the mobs of people moving around like heaping masses I just stayed away seeing as I'd rather not risk an anxiety based panic attack or something similar.

Another reason I had arrived early was because my mother had insisted that I get here early so I could make a good first impression with the staff, at this point though I had only had the chance to meet with the nurses the school had. Speaking of which there had been a really beautiful Nurse just a little bit older than me that was in the medical wing of the school, I made conversation with her while I was there and managed to get her number. So at the least I had one good thing going for me if I managed to fail the initiation, but considering Headmaster Ozpin assumed we'd be meeting again for another chat I imagine I'll get in.

As far as the staff I had met while walking around school went I met an older rather rotund man with a pretty thick mustache, he didn't give his name though. Another I met was a woman with long silver hair who I initially mistook for a student, she said her name was "Ms Cosmos" an interesting name but I hadn't stayed around long enough to get to know her.

Lastly was this woman with light pink hair in a bio lab of sorts that had a bunch of diagrams up for anatomy and such, she had introduced herself as "Professor Peach" before doing as everyone does and asking about the mask.

My mask was rather obvious too, it wasn't like some kind of scarf one you pulled up over your nose or whatever, it was a white "Shinto Mask '' as my mother had informed me when she gave it to me before saying how cute I looked with its fox like design on it. The design was emphasized by red and black accenting lines on it, around the eyes was blackened a little, the ears were coloured in red as well as it's eyebrows, mouth and little whiskers that were on the sides while the nose on it was black.

Like I said my mother thinks it's cute and so made a bunch of them for different animals, they were all really strong though. I wasn't sure what material they were made from but whatever it was could withstand a few bullets before it shattered as showcased to me by my mother when she handed them to me.

It was a bit shocking of course, but also reassuring to know that if I ever got shot at my face would be fine.

Anyway I boarded onto the Air Bus and went to take my seat.

[Man of Mystery]

Two days after my meeting with Headmaster Ozpin I was in my hotel room looking over my things when I realised that I needed to buy a weapon for school, I didn't have one yet and it wasn't like there was an ancestral weapon in our family and my sister didn't have one for me to borrow.

So I was left with buying something.

I trained with a lot of longsword length iron bars that were round and quite heavy. Originally I wanted to dual wield and become proficient in it and I did, but as I got older and using two 'swords' got easier I changed how I liked to fight. So for a few years I just ran around with iron packed into a bag while I trained with a big hunk of metal that I brought- well really it was just a five or so foot long piece of steel that I just swung around.

Though once again I reached a point where it stopped interesting me or being difficult to do so I just continued training my endurance with the bag of metal weights. I was greatful for the courier job I got when I was eleven because it meant I was running all over the town every morning with all that extra weight for training. It was fun, I got paid and it definitely put me on the track to want to become something more than just another person in our town.

Anyway, I was in the market to go and buy a sword and probably a gun. I'd never used a mechashift in my life and I didn't know they existed until a year or so ago when a Huntsman showed up in our town to help out with some Grimm that had been spotted.

The weapon they had was a 'rotary grenade launcher mace' as the guy put it, it was the enormous pole with a mace head larger than my torso. It was insane to watch him fight with it.

It wasn't what I wanted though.

Luckily I managed to miss the crowds of people in the lobby and began walking the streets of Vale. It was a nice day, the sky was a little cloudy but it was warm. I felt a little uncomfortable with the amount of people out and about, but I think it was just nerves from having grown up in a small town where you knew everyone else basically so this was a lot to take in even if I'd been here for a few days already.

I was following the directions on my Scroll to get to a weapons store that had some decent reviews online when I looked into it. A message appeared on my screen blocking the instructions-

\\Sweety I hope your day goes well! I've sent you some more money so you don't have to worry about expenses while you're in Vale/

Huh…

Well I wasn't expecting Mum to send me money I mean I already had quite a lot saved up so I was fine to stay in Vale for at least a month on my own funds before I would consider going back, so I checked my account and it looked like-

"What the fuck Mum?!" Staring wide eyed at the screen I stopped in my tracks and a few people bumped into me giving me annoyed looks as I continued to stare.

She can't have been serious right? I mean ten fucking thousand lien was insane- she literally doubled my savings for me, I needed to send her a thankyou.

\\-Mum thank you so much, but why?-/

Her response was almost instant, but I did have enough time to move out of the street and stand against a storefront watching people go by.

\\-Don't worry about it sweety, it's my birthday present to you.-/

This damn woman! A birthday present?! Ugh I'd transfer it back to her but she'd just send it back, I know she'd refuse to take it back.

I rubbed the back of my head before stepping back out into the street-

"Omph!" I felt another person collide with me.

I found the person on the ground, it was a blonde haired girl in a rather skimpy outfit that seemed to just be a tube top with a jacket over that and bike shorts with boots- she had lilac eyes that flashed red as I offered my hand and was about to apologise to her.

"Hey asshole watch where you're going!" she growled at me as she stood, I realised there was another girl next to her- she was shorter with black hair that had red highlights in it and dressed more modestly in a black dress.

I was again about to apologise when she cut me off again as she looked up at my face or well mask.

"I didn't realise that they stacked shit that high." she said with a satisfied smirk.

While my glare couldn't have been seen through the mask at the very least it made her friend uncomfortable when she tugged on her shirt and said-

"Yang, come on, stop antagonizing him!" The shorter girl's tone was reserved soft with worry.

Clearing my throat I spoke. "You know your friend is right, what would have happened if I was out here looking for someone to fight and bumped into you on purpose so that I could take out my anger and frustrations on you? Because if you just go around antagonising people and cutting them off when they're trying to apologise for something they didn't mean to do you'll piss off the wrong person." My eye twitched a little and the amount of lines she had seemed to grow an extra few like something was getting in the way.

Oh she must've been someone with their Aura unlocked, probably even here to go to Beacon in a few days.

Ignoring what I had said the blonde girl, Yang, I guess her name was said."What's with that mask you a White Fang or something?"

"Okay just ignore me then, and no I'm not with the white fang." I responded my voice dripping with annoyance, I got assumed to be White Fang enough that now it just pissed me off especially with what they've been doing recently.

I may agree with the Fang's original message, but the way they've turned isn't helping anyone and all the Faunus now just get treated like potential terrorists and it made things worse.

"I'll be going now." There was no reason for me to stay and care any longer so I just walked away, I needed to buy a weapon still.

I was sure I heard the younger girl's voice as I walked away, maybe she wanted to apologize for her friend or something?

Walking around for another thirty odd minutes through the winding streets of Vale, eventually I found the shop I was looking for, it was called "Mauzer's Armoury". It looked nice enough with large windows with displays in the front that had some swords, axes and prebuilt mechashift.

The door chimed as I stepped through and looked around the store, on the right side of the store was a wall of guns all racked up behind a glass counter that was filled with ammo types from 5mm to 40mm grenades. Not really sure when someone might normally need a 40mm grenade, but I suppose if you were like that guy I met then maybe you used them regularly to combat the Grimm.

On the back wall were more guns with a counter in front of it that had a lot of small blades ranging from throwing knives to larger stuff like Khukri and bowies. Finally on the left side was a wall full of posters and seemed to be the main counter with a register at it, though the floor area of the place was filled with a couple different isles that had all sorts of stuff on racks.

A minute or two passed as I was looking around at what they had on offer when I heard a door open and looked over to the main counter where a man that looked to be in his thirties with a full beard came out of a door that was marked 'Forge: Staff Only'. He was nearly as tall as I was and that was saying something seeing as I was about 6'6ft, his skin looked pretty weathered and aged like someone that had seen a lot.

"Good I thought I heard the chime, what are you looking for today?" he put his hands on the countertop and looked at me expectantly.

"You're Mauzer then?" he nodded, giving a short laugh. "Uh yeah I'm looking for a shotgun or something automatic in mechashift if you've got anything?"

He put a hand to his chin and hummed as he thought about it.

"Any particular melee you fancy or are you looking for a multi gun mechashift? I got a couple of those around the shop." Mauzer rolled his shoulders before turning around and looking for something and coming back up with a catalog.

"Preferably a sword or an axe maybe?" I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking for so long as it worked.

"You said shotgun or something automatic right? Any specific calibre or gauge?" He flicked through a couple of pages.

"Yeah some 7.62 or 12 gauge" I saw a couple decent looking guns and meachashift in the catalogue.

"x39 or 51?" he was looking at me like I could keep up with this, I had no clue what the difference between 39 and 51 was I just knew some basics from looking online..

"Uhh… do you have this in stock?" There was a eastern Mistralian longsword with a built-in shotgun, I think it was called a Katana?

There were a few greatswords that looked interesting to me, as well as a swordspear.

When Mauzer came back he shook his head and asked if there was anything else that caught my eye, so I settled on this heavy duty looking executioner's sword that was definitely altered to be more fitting for killing Grimm. I also bought a black Khukri and a Handgun that had a burst function and semi-auto and fired really quick so I got a holster for it that let me hide it down next to my ribs.

Leaving the store I was pretty happy with what I got and was about to head home when I made the realisation that I was in need of some protection, so I slung the sword over my shoulder and looked up the nearest shop.

The store that sold armour was called "Hella Brynja's Protection" this time I was much quicker about it seeing as I did know what I wanted, I bought a set of North Mistralian armour, I was pretty sure it was called spartan or something like that. The set was a dark brushed steel that decided I'd wear under my clothes for a combat outfit depending on how things went. It came with a breastplate with detachable pauldrons, vambraces and greaves. When I tried it on it was a little heavier than I expected but weighed less than the weights I used to train with.

And that concluded my day of shopping so I headed back to the hotel.

[Arming]

Tomorrow was the opening day of Beacon and if I was honest I was pretty nervous about it, I wasn't really sure how I compared to the rest of the people applying seeing as all of them would've gone to combat prep schools.

Hell I was hoping that I wasn't the only person who got in solely off the fact that the Headmaster sees me as a soldier to be moulded for whatever he has planned, I don't trust the man and the way he looked at me unnerved me. My sister said he was a decent man that just wanted the best of things but was also willing to do whatever it took to get those things.

So I was weary of course.

My Scroll rang and I answered it without looking at who was calling.

"Azrael speaking." whoops I spoke over whoever it was.

"Are you there? You didn't' get cold feet, did you?" it was a woman's voice, specifically-

"No I just didn't want to accidentally speak over you again Serqet, but what was it you're calling about?" I know we traded information but I hadn't really expected her to call me.

"Where are you at the moment?"

"I'm at my hotel. I was about to go out, why?"

"Send me the address I'll come by and pick you up so we can go out for lunch."

"Uh alright just shoot me a text when you're here." with that she ended the call and I messaged her the address of the hotel I was staying at.

I got a reply from her after a few minutes that said-

\\-Wow you're just down the road be outside in ten minutes.-/

So I got myself ready and because I was aware of the recent spike in crime across Vale I put the handgun I bought in its holster under the shirt I was wearing. Though today I was dressed in a large navy blue t-shirt, black jeans and boots. Once I made sure I had my wallet, Scroll and everything was in order I left my room and headed down the elevator to the foyer heading out to the parking lot and as I was about to step onto the main footpath alongside the road I saw Serqet coming toward me.

"There you are Azrael, come on follow me to my car." so I followed after her.

She was dressed in a white long sleeved blouse tucked into a burgundy skirt that went down to her shins, she had sandals on and was wearing some black tinted aviators. Not exactly what I would have expected, but at the same time we'd only spoken for a few hours the first time we met, so I didn't really know much about her.

Her car was nice too, I say nice because it did accommodate someone of my height which most cars I'd found didn't and was why I didn't use a taxi to get around Vale after my first time using one. Sitting down in it there was little display screen where you could connect your Scroll to where it briefly flashed the car's name and series as Serqet started the car, it read WMB N8 Grand Coupé I wasn't really into cars but this was certainly something that would catch my attention if I was buying.

Its colour was actually the same as Serqet's skirt, so there was that too along with the ivory white leather interior.

Anyway she pulled out into the street and we started heading out. The dive through the city was interesting, I got a chance to see a little more of it than I had while walking about.

"I was thinking we should go to this café near the waterfront, pretty sure it's called 'Umi café' what do you think?"

"Sounds good, I'll pay since you're driving us then."

A smirk crossed her face. "Mister deep pockets yeah? I'll take you up on that then."

Ten odd minutes of driving later and we pulled up outside the two story building, it was mainly a sort of cyanish colour with a lot of wooden pylons holding up a large canvas tarpaulin as shade from the sun. The second story looked like it had outdoor seating so you could look down on the wharf and docks to see the boats coming in and going out.

Once we had sat down at a table on the top floor where I found we could see the port like I assumed, we ordered some food and drink. I got something of a reminder of home in the form of desert lotus tea with a mince pie, Serqet had a cappuccino and two pieces of strawberry cheesecake.

"You're from Vacuo then or were you just feeling particularly out there?" She asked after our orders arrived giving me a raised brow.

"Yeah originally anyway but around the time my mother found out she was pregnant with my little brother she decided to move us to Vale which is how we ended up in Valor the frontier town I lived in until earlier this week." Something flickered in her eyes like she was remembering something while I was placing the mask on the table so I could enjoy what I ordered.

"I'm from Vacuo as well, where were you from?" I was wondering where she was from as well of course because while she had darker skin than mine and I was more on the perpetually tanned spectrum, I'd have pinned her for someone from the capital honestly.

"My family are from Sharma-El-Sheikh over on the western coast." she hummed to herself.

"That's literally the most resort-like place in all of Vacuo-" she grumbled and cursed under her breath. "I lived in Aswane."

"What- you lived in one of the coolest places! They have all the awesome monuments and old ruins, I loved to visit and see them in person." I really loved that part of Vacuo. We had some amazing ancient ruins of past civilizations around that never stopped being interesting… to me at least.

A few second long silence passed and Serqet's face morphed into something akin to realisation.

"Wait what did you say your last name was again?" Serqet looked a little worried, her amber eyes somewhat wide.

"Solatium… Why is there a problem with that?"

"Oh shit..." she looked like someone had just smacked her forehead. "Your Priscilla's little brother aren't you?"

"Yeah why?"

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I'm on a date with my best friend's brother, nice." she mumbled to herself and I could only sit there feeling like a moron.

A silence hung between us while we both ate and I finished my tea, when we finally started talking again I asked her about her family and whether she had siblings since she already knew about my situation. So we talked about her three brothers, one older and two younger- the change in topic help a slight dip in her mood though which was good and she seemed to be enjoying herself as the day burned into the afternoon and we ordered a bit more food and drink to satiate us along with the conversation as it wandered around all sorts of other areas.

When we eventually left I put my mask back on.

Our date ended when she dropped me off outside my hotel, she walked with me to the foyer-

I gave Serqet a smile and opened my arms out offering a hug, she accepted it and as brief as it was the feeling was nice.

She backed out of it, arms dropped to her sides. "Don't get killed in the initiation will you? Also if you can get away on the weekend we'll go out for another date- you can choose what we do next time." she patted me on the shoulder turning and walking away.

Left standing around in the lobby of the hotel I noticed a girl with beautiful red hair and vibrant green eyes, she looked almost familiar in a way but not at all at the same time.

Anyway, I needed to make sure my things were packed so I could head straight to the Beacon Airship platform tomorrow morning.

Author's Note:

Hopefully with this I'll be uploading the unfinished other projects I made quite some time ago, though this story isn't finished either though I might consider finishing it once it's all reuploaded and all 120k of it is out.