Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction based on multiple existing anime/manga series. The characters and settings used in this story belong to their respective owners and creators, and no copyright infringement is intended. This story is purely for entertainment purposes and is not intended to infringe upon any existing intellectual property. I do not own any of the original works that inspired this fanfiction, and I fully support the original creators and their works.
I'm also exceedingly rarely chilling in JaxWolf4's (Author of Nah, I'd Adapt and Zenin Days) Discord Server. It's a chaotic lobotomy mess. Not for the faint of heart.
Here's the link:
Disc: HrPrTeam
Kokusen? The fck?
-Story Start-
A month had passed since Blake's Funeral.
And today, as he had many times before, once again, Alex dreamed of a utopia.
Though this was one of the times he was lucid and wide awake.
Amid the flowery hills of Avalon, the clanging of steel reverberated as he sparred with his mentor.
Though a striking difference was noticeable.
They were roughly evenly matched... at least that's how it seemed for the struggling Alex.
Merlin's expression held its usual amusement, and his composure was akin to a tranquil lake.
Mid exchange, as Excalibur was grinding against Merlin's blade, in tandem with its superior sharpness and Alex's exerted strength, the inferior blade was grinding to its doom.
Even so, Merlin remarked. "Your swordsmanship is showing promise, but do you understand why you are faring better against me?"
Without issue, Alex pressed forward, cleanly slicing through the blade in Merlin's hands as he swung forward, the Magus of Flowers stepping back casually, and another blade reappeared in his hand to be met with Alex's charge.
"Prana is stronger than Aura. At least, when I can convert enough of it properly." He supplied his answer.
The grinding noise of steel against steel persisted, yet Merlin's bell-like tone rang out. "Not entirely accurate-" Alex was met with yet another blast of mana, somehow appearing behind him.
He moved at insane speeds, managing to, in a single leap, pass by multitudes of those infinite hills in Avalon, losing sight of the Magus. Yet Merlin once more proved his superiority, with another blast almost appearing out of nowhere, immediately hitting Alex squarely in the face.
The pain was sharp, stronger than he had ever felt in Avalon, but given where he was, it disappeared just as quickly.
Standing his ground, with both hands gripping Excalibur's hilt, Merlin lectured, having appeared before him with his guard down. "Reinforcement is far greater in increasing your strength and speed. However, Aura is its clear superior in terms of defensive capability."
"Once you practice enough, you'll be able to swap freely from one form to the other, but with Avalon within you, Aura's defensive and regenerative capabilities are wasted on you; you would be better served utilising Reinforcement."
Pausing, Alex lowered Excalibur and observed his fist, opening and closing it with the absurd strength he could muster, and feeling it lower in real time as his Prana ran out and was replaced with Aura. "I see... I can't help but feel I grasped reinforcement rather easily. Isn't it supposed to be a difficult magic?"
"Magecraft."
"Whatever."
Tilting his head, the blade in Merlin's hand was replaced with his trusty staff, "Need I remind you that you are not entirely Human? It came just as easily to Artoria."
Alex's face soured lightly at that remark, "Right."
Smiling indulgently, Merlin inquired with a knowing tone. "How far along in your progress in your skill in conversion has your trusty System evaluated?"
"Level 6, whatever that means. It isn't nice enough to confirm or deny whether the max level is 10, 100, 1000, or-"
"Not too far from what I estimate, and the max level is 10." Merlin supplied easily enough.
"Nice, thanks." Alex immediately met Merlin's kind news with a thumbs-up and a nod of gratitude.
"Once you reach it, you will be able to remove Avalon freely," Merlin mentioned casually.
"I figured as much." Alex agreed with a nod.
It was nice to receive confirmation, at least.
"But I'll have to warn you." Merlin's tone had that infuriating, enigmatic edge to it he so loved to use.
Resignation crossed Alex's expression nigh-instantaneously. "What?"
"Do not remove it carelessly; the moment it is out of your reach, you will be vulnerable."
"As long as I don't fail a quest, I shouldn't be-"
Merlin interrupted, his tone casual yet paradoxically stern and heavy. "I'm not talking about the parasite."
Alex frowned as he processed the implications.
His fists clenched, "Then... what am I supposed to do? Didn't you say he won't interfere-" Alex paused, taking a deep breath as he noticed a slight smugness to Merlin.
"The parasite can no longer be influenced by its maker due to Avalon. A puppet that can only run on existing directives, its strings cut loose."
"Undoubtedly, the Divine Spirit regrets bestowing it on you..." He chuckled, his laughter like bells in the wind as he shook his head helplessly, "But it is far too late for regret. The moment an opportunity is present, it will separate Avalon from you without fail and tamper with your soul as it sees fit."
"Riveting... so what now?"
"When you decide to remove Avalon, you must do so carefully, under the veil of its defense, only there you can utilise it without the Spirit being capable of tampering with you. Before the defense is gone, return Avalon into your visage and you will be just fine~!"
Alex paused, digesting every word out of Merlin's casual lecture.
"And... how do I do that, exactly?" He had an inkling of the answer, but a direct, simple instruction was always welcome.
Of course, Alex received just that - but with Merlin's usual flavor.
Merlin's grin almost split his face in half as he supplied a simple answer.
"Ask of it, declare its name."
Alex, with not even a second left to reply, the Utopia and Magus of Flowers before him turned into darkness.
-----------------------------
"Wakey wakey! Time for breakfast... or lunch, I can't really tell with you." Alex's ears were graced with the opportunity to hear the chipper tone of his partner and leader, incessantly slapping her hand on the metal railing of his upper bunk.
The early-noon sun peeked through the window, lighting his partner's dark, red-tipped hair.
His eyes flittered open to be met with her eager silver eyes, to which he grumbled out a most enthusiastic:
"Mornin."
"You forgot the 'Good!', Now, come on! Get up!" Her slapping increased in volume, as she basically drummed on the poor metal railing, "You need to join us before leaving for therapy!" Her tone gained a slight commanding edge.
"Join us... Join what? Whatever it is, I haven't signed up for it-"
"No, dummy! It's the students from the other Academies! They're arriving in like..." Her head turned to look at the clock in their room as she exclaimed, "An hour! You promised to join us in scouting out the competition! And it's a good time since you were planning on joining training with us right after."
Blinking, Alex's gears started to run as he realized what she meant, "Ah, right. That was today..."
Ah, he so enjoyed the late wake-ups of being in the blissful between-semester stage.
He had finally gotten rid of his unintended habit of waking up early, and here he was... getting woken up early on a totally not school day.
"Well, it is what it is. No need to convince me, I'm getting up."
With a lazy rise, he lifted his upper body and grasped Excalibur, which lay beside him as Ruby skipped over to his coffee machine, "Extra strong?" She offered, kindly.
"Hmm, yeah, you know the drill, thanks. You can grab one for yourself if you'd like." He lazily hopped out of his upper bunk, landing cautiously on the floor with a thud, and headed to the bathroom.
"The bitter taste is yucky," Ruby repeated for the umpteenth time.
"Five cups of sugar fix that one."
"Hmph! A huntress in training like me needs to be in pristine shape! So, I'm on a diet!"
"You are?"
"That was my Weiss impression, pretty good right~?" She snickered proudly at her own joke.
"Meh." He gave a so-so gesture as he strolled forward.
"Scouting the competition... these girls really gotta learn how to enjoy a vacation when you get one." He grumbled rather audibly as he delved into the chambers of respite.
"Hey! I can hear your deadbeat grumbling from here!" Ruby vocalized her chastisement.
"I know!"
"...And don't take your time! Everyone's waiting, so don't wash Excalibur as well!"
His refusal was immediate, as the door slammed shut. "They'll wait longer."
"Curses!" Her tone was barely audible.
-----------------------------
Beacon's massive bullhead port was packed with a great many staff and students. The whole student party, consisting of 1st to 3rd year students, stood with anticipation as a literal armada of bullheads from every Kingdom began to dock.
Signs and pretty decorations welcomed the international guests as well as announced the coming 40th biennial Vytal Festival, as the very air was electric with excitement and thinly veiled competitiveness.
From afar, visible even from the smallest corner within the city of Vale, was the massive floating island structure where the Vytal Festival Tournament will be taking place.
A reverse-coned-shaped floating island, nestled atop a cluster of gravity-dust, was floating slowly towards the skies of Vale.
A marvel of technology, a collective effort of all four kingdoms, and a physical, literal peace treaty following the Great War that took place prior to its construction.
Amity Colosseum.
Munching on a piece of beans on toast, Alex mumbled after a gulp as his eyes were mostly fixated on that thing. "Pretty cool." Was his expert assessment.
Weiss's revolted, cold tone rang out amid the crowd. "I'd appreciate it if you kept a 'cool' six feet from us when you eat that disgusting 'delicacy' of yours."
Pyrrha smiled awkwardly, "That's not... nice, Weiss... he genuinely finds that appetizing."
Folding her arms, she retorted. "Why the hesitation then?"
"Shoosh! They're coming! Keep your eyes on the prey!" Ruby warned with a silencing finger in front of Weiss, which was lightly pushed away.
The bullheads that landed opened cleanly as a swarm of foreign students, who, some would say, appear quite exotic, began to flood the dock.
Students from Shade, Haven, and Atlas waved with big smiles at the crowd, each distinguished by a symbol of the kingdom conveniently and proudly displayed on their uniforms.
In response, from Beacon's welcoming side of things, earthquaking cheers roared out.
Alex's three teammates seemed to be swept away by the infectious cheer as they roared out.
Well, with the sole exception of Weiss, who only had a small smile and a lightly raised hand.
Giving her a slight side-eye, Alex gave a light comment, "It's like we're welcoming a bunch of celebrities."
"I'd be pretty satisfied if I were to be welcomed in such a manner. Why not?" Weiss smiled sagely.
"Oh, don't be a buzzkill, Alex!" Ruby waved him off as she continued in the cheer.
He shrugged, "I ain't complainin, just saying."
"A good showing of Vale and Beacon's hospitality, right?" Pyrrha mentioned in response.
He took another, satisfying bite of his beans on toast, bobbing his head in agreement. "Well, as long as they like it. It was for them."
-----------------------------
The warm, loud welcome dragged on for two hours, with Ruby and Pyrrha making good note of who had a 'dangerous' or 'confident' stance, and making a mental note of who to keep an eye on thus far.
As they walked away from the premises, Pyrrha's voice rang out. "I'm sure we'll get to know each other better, they'll be here until the Festival, and there are preliminary matches and missions we'll have to take with one another."
Her reassurance was met with Ruby's keen nod, only for Weiss's voice of reason. "Only the matches... did you forget we can't leave on any mission?"
"...Right, my mistake." Pyrrha chuckled awkwardly.
"Well, I'm sure some of them want to get to know you, Alex." Ruby poked at his left cheek as they strolled.
"Really? I'm flattered." His voice was seeping with 'excitement'.
Pyrrha nodded with a slight, ashamed look. "One of the criteria to figure out who was worth keeping an eye out for was whoever was looking directly at you with some kind of... anticipation?"
Weiss rolled her eyes. "Kind of hard when his Semblance is like a bright neon light screaming for attention in the middle of the night... at this rate, I'm sure even a communication-less child in some desert village in Vacuo will recognize you with it."
"Well, partner! How does it feel to be recognized worldwide? Pyrrha can give you some pointers!" Ruby teased casually.
Alex hummed, "It doesn't get me free stuff just yet, and so far no one picked some kinda dumb fight with me to test themselves, so I'm okay-"
As he said so, just as they were about to leave the premises, a boisterous and jovial voice called out to them from behind.
"Yo! Are you Andrite?"
Team RAWP paused, all of them turning to the inquisitive fellow.
A loosely dressed, blonde-haired monkey Faunus, seemingly from Haven Academy, at least from the actually dressed teammates running towards him with worried expressions.
Ruby immediately whispered to Pyrrha, "Psst! He's one of the guys we need to keep an eye on-"
Before Pyrrha could reply, Alex gave his curt answer to the inquiry.
"You got the wrong guy."
At that, the Faunus lowered his head to look at the blade neatly attached to Alex's hip.
And completely ignored Alex's denial:
"Good! I heard you were strong!" He chuckled good-naturedly with both hands on his hips and a broad, confident smile.
Alex nodded.
And with not a single moment wasted...
He turned around and walked away.
"Hey! I'm talking-"
"I really gotta take a dump," Alex mentioned nonchalantly, and pressed on, his pace casual and without hurry.
With audible snorts at the sudden shock of the Haven Student greeting Alex, they all turned around and followed their teammate, with Ruby waving apologetically. "Sorry, Haven guy! You heard him! Pfft~!"
As they left the poor monkey faunus in a frozen stupor, with his teammates casually lecturing him, RAWP continued on their path to the training grounds.
"Nice one, Alex." Weiss snickered.
"What's up with people picking a fight with me? I don't get it."
"I do." Pyrrha hummed wistfully.
"Of course you do."
A notification rang out from Ruby's scroll, which she casually viewed, and a gasp left her lips.
"G-Girls!"
"Sure," Alex replied.
"I-I just got a message from Ozpin! He wants to talk with me about... something!"
Pyrrha teased, "Wow, Alex. Looks like you have competition for the favorite student position."
"A mutually beneficial relationship." He corrected.
To Be Continued!
-Author Note Start-
Unexpectedly, I pushed out a Kokusen.
Well, hope the chapter has been to your enjoyment thus far and up to snuff and all that jazz.
We've got the Vytal Festival and Tournament coming up (Lmao).
On that note, Love ya and bye-bye.
Cya in a week, probably.