His chest ached, his lungs struggling with every moment to exhale just a little bit of breath and then take it back in.
Tears blurred his eyes making his vision blurry. Granted, not that he would be able to see much of anything even if they weren't washing over his iris'. The thick black smoke cloying at his throat and swirling throughout the building in amongst red hot flames.
Fucking terrorists man.
It was sad, pathetic really. All he could do was sit here and moan and groan, dazed and waiting to die.
He'd love to escape if he could, but considering the large weighty pillar pinning him beneath it? Well, that wasn't likely and he was seriously up shit creek without a paddle.
Honestly, it was odd how calm he felt about all of this. But then, it wasn't like anybody would even miss him. He was just a no name orphan, no family, no friends, nobody that cared about at all, not even the orphanage matron.
'…Ah, this fucking sucks.' he groaned internally. The only joy he had in life was working out and anime, not really a pair of hobbies that went together, but hey, one inspired the other.
He had nothing really going for him, but anime had inspired him, made him realise that he didn't need to if he put the work in.
…To bad that wasn't going to amount to anything. Since some dramatic asshole had come to school this morning and decided to blow themselves up for whatever reason.
Probably being bullied, his life was that sad that he would get killed over a cliche like that.
God damnit, he didn't want to die. As pathetic as a reason it was, he hadn't finished watching his favourite anime, surely life couldn't be so cruel as to do him in before that?
He never got to see if Luffy became Pirate King, or if Natsu found his dad, if Ash became a champion finally, If that twit Jaune finally manned up and brought out some sorely needed masculinity or the conclusion of the fight between Naruto and Sasuke.
A flame boiled in his chest, not unlike the roaring embers threatening to swallow him whole and burn him alive.
He'd never had anything going for him his entire life and it, It wasn't FAIR!
Do You Wish To Live?
"…I've gone mad." he gaped as his vision suddenly cleared in an instant and found himself staring at a floating ebony black screen with crimson red writing.
For a moment, he just stared, forgetting where he was.
It took him a moment to shake off the shock. Was he seeing things, hallucinating now that the smoke was getting to him? Was he about to lose consciousness?
He struggled, trying to lift his arms, to no avail, the weight of the pillar pinning him to the ground was just too much.
Seriously, fuck this school.
A derisive snort left his lips, "Of course I want to live!" he spat, losing himself in the delusion for a moment.
His life was shit, but it was his shit life.
Just as he spoke, the crimson red words on the black screen shimmered and a different sentence appeared.
Very Well, Prepare For Transmigration!
He blinked, "…What?" he uttered.
But that was all the time he had to say anything, because a split second later, the screen seemed to balloon in size and warp around him like an all consuming cocoon of red and black and then butterflies fluttered in his stomach as he felt himself falling.
He didn't even have time to be shocked at being swallowed by the thing or the trippy red and black darkness all around him, because a moment later, a life time of memories crashed into his mind, sweeping through and integrating deeply within his psyche.
Daiki Yurei awoke with a gasp, pushing himself up onto all fours and panting deeply.
He stared at the mud beneath him as his mind raced.
"…What?" he swallowed heavily, having trouble processing.
He lifted one hand from underneath him and traced his throat with a finger, feeling nothing but unblemished skin.
That wasn't right. He could vividly remember the feeling of that razor sharp, crimson red blade slicing through his jugular after his aura was broken and his vision going dark moments later as he bled out and died.
Fucking bull horned terrorist cunt!
It would be just his luck to run into the White Fang in the middle of a heist, at the same time their cell head was baby raging because his fat assed cat eared obsession ran away from him.
Damn cuck.
Even with their aura unlocked, the general White Fang grunt weren't worth shit, he'd clapped them easily, that big fucker with the Chainsaw was a problem, but Daiki thought he could handle him.
Adam Taurus, not so much. Especially with that bullshit semblance of his. The fucker had absorbed every blast of lightning he'd sent at him, sucked up the momentum and force behind every blow he'd thrown, and then turned around and shattered Daiki's aura in one attack, a massive, gargantuan even, crimson red blade of energy packed with Adam's own aura and all the energy compressed together from Daiki's own attacks.
The worst of it was-
Having to listen to the racist terrorist grandstanding about how superior he as a faunus was to Daiki before slitting his throat, 'Dude you're in your fucking fucking twenties, I've not even graduated Signal yet.' he groused inwardly, pride smarting.
Moonslice was such a bullshit semblance man, it was like Yang Xiao Long's only ramped up to eleven.
….Wait.
No, that was wrong.
Not the comparison, but rather-
'I shouldn't know that.' Daiki blinked, confused.
But he did, he knew a lot of things he didn't before all of a sudden, in fact, it was so seamless he almost didn't even realise, that he had the memories of an entirely different life in an entirely different world.
Of a boy just like him, an orphan, a nobody, worth nothing, caught in an explosion during schooling and waiting, pinned beneath a heavy pillar waiting to either asphyxiate from the smoke or be burnt alive by the flames, whatever came first.
And incredibly, beyond even having the memories of another teenager dying, was the fact that said teenager had memories of watching an anime called Rwby and all about the adventures of Ruby Rose, her teammates Yang Xiao Long, Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna, in a world overrun by the evil and horrifying monsters of Grimm in the world of Remnant.
…Remnant where he was currently, specifically, in the Kingdom of Vale. And he knew a Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long and even Weiss Schnee. He didn't know Weiss Schnee personally, but she was famous as the heiress of the Schnee Dust Corporation and for her singing. And Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long were both students at Signal Academy, they were pretty hard to miss.
That was one thing that confused him though. All of it seemed to line up…except for Ruby Rose herself. The memories he had of Ruby Rose painted her as a fifteen year old prodigy that got accepted into Beacon early, and was two years younger than her sister Yang.
….The Ruby Rose he knew of though, was the top ranked combat student in Signal Academy and had just finished up her last year at Signal Academy and would be attending Beacon Academy after the summer alongside her sister Yang…who was only around five or so months older than her.
Daiki shook his head, putting Ruby Rose out of mind, she wasn't important right now.
Rather, what was important was…the Grimm had someone leading them. Salem, the former wife of Ozpin, or rather Ozma…both cursed by the Brother Gods.
The Brother Gods were real….and petty idiots, more so the God of Light being the bigger asshole than the God of Darkness.
Ironic.
And quite heart breaking actually. Like, people had been researching why the moon had been shattered for centuries, they all thought it was some grand thing. But no, it was actually just the gods 'slamming the door' on their way out after abandoning Remnant.
And that wasn't even getting into magic, maidens, relics and all that other nonsense.
'…If this all plays out like it does in my memories of it, then a year from now Beacon will be destroyed and Vale overrun by Grimm.' Daiki grimaced.
Lovely.
Peachy even.
Fuck.
He wasn't even sure he could really feasibly do anything about it. He could go to Ozpin he supposed and tell the man what he'd learned…but, that could royally bite him in the ass.
Ozpin was in a real shitty situation and had basically been carrying the world on his shoulders, and Ironwood was doing all he could to protect the world and fight Salem back. They were in general, both good guys.
That wouldn't exactly be helpful to him though if they decided they needed every little bit he knew and couldn't be sure he wasn't holding anything back and he found himself in an interrogation chamber and getting tortured. He could understand right now why they would and praise the pragmatism if it came to that.
But, he wasn't interested in being in that position himself. He had no desire to give up his life to save the world from the oncoming apocalypse. What was the point if he wasn't around to enjoy it?
'The problem is, just how would I go about changing anything.' he wondered. He was good, really good even. His parents were both hunters before dying during a mission out in the field when he was eight years old, so he'd been trained by them growing up and he kept up his training and entered Signal Academy when he was twelve two years ago.
At the end of the school years, he was ranked the eight strongest in the academy, beating out many even three years older than him and heading for Beacon and other hunter academies after the summer, but, there was a vast difference between rank eight, and rank one, which was the coveted spot always switching back and forth between Ruby Rose and her sister Yang Xiao Long.
….And even they couldn't make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.
Hell, he wasn't even sure how the series itself ended, he'd only seen up to the end of volume six and volume seven was a few months from dropping before his alternate self got bombed to death.
Sighing, Daiki put all that out of mind for the moment. It wasn't anything he could really do anything about right now anyway, he needed to get home, rest and think a bit.
Standing up fully, he rolled his eyes when he saw where he was, "…Of course." he groaned.
Adam Taurus and his White Fang groupies hadn't even seen fit to bury him in even a shallow grave, he was just laying in a ditch not far off from the train track where he came across them.
His parents had bought a large property on the outskirts of the city of Vale, so it didn't take long at all to pass the city boarders and out into the wild lands.
He liked to hunt Grimm as part of his training. Generally it was only the likes of Beowolves and Ursai that frequented the area, and small Nevermore beyond them alongside the odd Boarbatusk.
Anyway, thankfully, those inbred farm animals hadn't stolen his weapons, the pair of dark blue mecha shift battle axes were left where he dropped them when Adam killed him.
Picking them up, he shifted them into standby mode, the shafts compressing down to little more than five inches in length and the blades holding together inwards and safely out of slicing and hacking range.
He holstered them in the holsters hanging on the small of his back and ran a hand through his hair, 'Next time I see that cunt, I'm gonna rip his horns off and keep them as pair of ass scratchers.'
Deciding to get a move on, Daiki made his way back to the train tracks and began following them back to the city.
As he did though, his thoughts wandered, 'I wonder what that screen thing was?' he wondered idly, it was what prompted his other self before he died and set this in motion, probably bringing him back to life in the process as well, how, he had no idea, but he was thankful for it nonetheless, 'It was almost like a status screen from a game.' he mused.
Just as soon as he thought that, the same screen popped up in front of his vision and his eyes widened.
…Yet it was different.
Now it was displaying his name, age, and a bunch of other things, like a numerical set of his physical abilities and aura capacity?
Name: Daiki Yurei
Age: 14
Aura Capacity: 967/967
Magic Power: -/-
Strength: 10/100
Endurance: 10/100
Durability: 10/100
Agility: 10/100
CQC: 23/500
Weapon Wielding: 35/500
Aura Control: 40/500
Semblance:
Lightning King Revolt: You are capable of augmenting your body, enhancing your speed, agility, reaction time and physical strength by converting your aura into electricity and can freely expel lightning from your body. You are capable of subjugating any single being you kill, gaining a portion of their abilities for your own and gaining the ability to summon them to fight for you. You can only use the subjugation effect once.
….What the hell? 967 Aura Capacity? Was that good, or not? He had the most aura in his class he knew back at Signal Academy, but, how did this amount compare to say an actual experienced and powerful Hunter or Huntress?
Also, Magic Power? It was dashed out at the numerical part, meaning he…didn't have any. But, did it mean there was a way for him to gain magical power?
Daiki shook his head, focusing on the actual stats listed at him. It seemed the max he could get to, physically at least, was one hundred? Was that just him, or was that people in general? Also, his stats seemed oddly low, each ten across the board, a mere tenth of the max amount.
That kind of hurt to look at.
As did the stats of his skills. Close Quarters Combat, Weapon Wielding and Aura Control, none of them even broke fifty out of five hundred! What? How? That seemed way too low, he'd been training since he was a toddler more or less! Heck, again, he was ranked eight overall at Signal Academy despite only being fourteen!
His teachers called him a prodigy!
But beyond all that, what the heck was with his Semblance being listed as 'Lightning King Revolt'?
His semblance was called Lightning Revolt. And what it did, was listed down perfectly on that status screen. Except one thing.
'You are capable of subjugating any single being you kill, gaining a portion of their abilities for your own and gaining the ability to summon them to fight for you. You can only use the subjugation effect once.'
Where in the fuck did that come from?
'…Wait!' his eyes widened. The semblance came from the very soul itself and was theorized to be based on the character of the holder.
Did that mean, his very soul had merged with his other world selves when he was about to die? Was that how he was brought back? The still living soul of his counterpart crossed over to Remnant and merged with him, revitalizing his aura and bringing him back? And in the process, made his semblance evolve?
That was crazy, but all he really had to go on, beyond this weird system itself.
Beyond that though, it seemed like a crazy powerful and useful ability. He could only use it once in total though according to the status screen, but, he could subjugate any one being he killed if he chose to and gain their abilities?
So, did that mean if he killed a maiden and used this on them as they died, he would gain not only the ability to summon a maiden to fight for him, but the maiden abilities as well?
'No wait!' Daiki's eyes widened as another thought occurred. What if he did it to a Grimm?
From what he knew now, the Grimm were made from the power of the God of Darkness, so would he gain magic or some form? And even more importantly, would he gain the Grimm's near eternal life? Grimm got older and bigger, but they didn't specifically age, they were more or less eternally youthful in a sense, and what about the innate power they all had as well, where they grew stronger the older they got?
For a moment, he had the mad idea to use it on Adam Taurus himself. He'd take his bullshit semblance for his own and keep him around for life as his slave and lackey, and he'd do all in his power to get into the pants of Blake Belladona so he could make the bull cuck watch as he fucked that cat girl cross eyed.
He discarded that thought quickly. As gratifying as it would be, this was way, way too important of an ability to waste on some petty revenge.
There was also the idle thought on using it on the likes of Jinn….but, he discarded that idea quickly as well. He wasn't even sure how he would go about killing the spirit of a relic, and if the relic themselves could be destroyed, Ozpin would have probably done so by now.
'It's gotta be a Grimm.' Daiki decided then and there. Grabbing some criminal for their semblance and aura and shit would be useful for sure, but, just the sheer possibility that he may gain the longevity and passive growth of a Grimm was too good to pass up.
The thought made his blood boil with excitement and he wanted to go rush and find the nearest grim.
But he calmed himself.
"No, no, gotta be patient." he talked himself down.
He heeded to get the most bang for his lien in this case, he only had one shot at this and wanted the most he could get out of it.
So, he would need to pick his target wisely, preferably a large and powerful old Grimm that he would see the most returns out of, especially since it would be the single only one he could subjugate and summon to fight for him.
'Maybe one that can fly and is big enough to carry me.' Daiki mused, like that massive wyvern grimm laying dormant in the mountain near Mountain Glenn.
Though, no way he would be capable of killing something like that.
Something I started a while ago. With the initial plan of having the main girl be an older Ruby Rose. And with the later addition of Weiss. I think I may still go some of that route, but honestly? Rwby is so hard not to hate these days. As far as I'm concerned, the four, besides Weiss, act more like complete sociopaths with no empathy for anyone but themselves and it just gets worse and worse as it goes on.
Honestly, I literally laughed when the latest episode dropped and the fake Ironwood and Ozpin were beating the shit out of Ruby, I was literally like, "Yeah, hit her again!"
The SJW nonsense and pandering that permeates the entire show is just disgusting at this point.
I've currently got three chapters of this done on my Pa-atreon if anyone wants to read ahead.
Anyway, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.