The announcements continued to echo through the trees, confirming the matches I already knew were coming.
"Weiss Schnee and Ruby Rose. Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long."
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Even in this flipped society, some things were clearly universal constants. Team RWBY was forming exactly as it should, which meant the timeline hadn't completely shattered just because I existed. It was a weirdly comforting thought.
"It seems everyone is finding their place," Pyrrha noted, her voice calm and encouraging as she moved through the brush with practiced grace. She kept glancing back at me, her standard, supportive expression soft. "Are you holding up okay, Katsuya? We can slow down if the pace is too much."
"I'm fine, Pyrrha, really," I said, though my legs were still screaming at me from the 'calibration' session with Esdeath. "I can manage."
The forest around us was dense and quiet, but the tranquility didn't last long. A sudden, violent CRACK of timber echoed through the clearing ahead. The ground vibrated beneath my boots, and the smell of rot and old bone filled the air.
From the shadows of the massive trees, a Death Stalker skittered into the light. It was enormous—a pitch-black scorpion with bone-white armor plating and a glowing golden stinger that dripped with lethal intent.
"Katsuya, watch out!" Pyrrha commanded, her shield immediately snapping into place and her spear leveled. She stepped protectively in front of me, taking point.
"I've got this," I said, my voice low, a surge of power flaring in my core.
Saving Cerberus as a surprise trump card was the smart play. For this first encounter, my Innocence was more than enough.
I felt the familiar, searing heat flare up in my left shoulder. The Innocence responded to my will, and my left arm underwent its violent transformation. The sleeve of my jacket hissed as the heavy, grey metallic claws materialized, clicking into place with mechanical precision. This was just the melee form, but with the Death Stalker at range, I needed to shift.
I mentally pictured the activation sequence for the Range Form. The heavy claws didn't vanish; instead, they began to hum with intense green and white energy. Over the skeletal-grey structure, a massive, glowing construct of solid light and power formed, encasing my entire left arm.
"Clear the area, Pyrrha!" I shouted, bracing my feet.
The glowing energy claw was already perfectly aligned with the Death Stalker's head. I focused every bit of that raw power.
BOOM!
Instead of a punch, I unleashed a massive, focused burst of the green and white energy from the claw construct. The recoil was intense, but my transformed arm absorbed it. The energy beam screamed through the air, hitting the Death Stalker's face with the force of a artillery shell. The explosion was deafening, a cascade of sparks, scorched earth, and black smoke that obscured the monster entirely.
I lowered the glowing arm, a smug, satisfied smirk spreading across my face. I had poured everything into that shot. Even without Cerberus, that should have turned its brain into jelly.
"Overkill? Maybe. But effective—"
The smoke cleared.
The Death Stalker was still there. Its white bone mask was cracked and scorched, and one of its smaller eyes had been blown out, but it was very much alive. It let out a screeching hiss of pure rage, its stinger whipping forward with even more speed than before.
My jaw dropped.
"You've got to be kidding me," I hissed. The power from my Innocence felt suddenly inadequate. The creature should have been obliterated.
I scrambled back, keeping my eyes on the monster while frantically swiping my hand in the air to bring up the blue system screen. I needed answers now.
[Katsuya]: System, what the hell is going on? I just hit that thing with my Innocence's strongest range form attack, and it didn't even slow down. Did you nerf the inherent power level I was given, or did you buff the world scaling without telling me? Because this thing should be dead.
I stared at the screen, my heart hammering against my ribs as the Death Stalker recovered from the blast, its massive claws snapping with a sound like falling timber.
> [SYSTEM MESSAGE]
> REASONING: semantically, your power "Innocence" was modified to fit the laws of Remnant. It is currently registered as a Semblance.
> ERROR: Calibration mismatch. Innocence is an Anti-Akuma weapon. Grimm do not possess the same spiritual composition as Akuma. Effectiveness has been reduced by 99% due to frequency incompatibility.
> ACTION: The System is currently re-coding the Semblance to include Anti-Grimm properties.
> WARNING: To apply these modifications, the Semblance 'Cross' must be taken offline.
> STATUS:Semblance locked for the next (12 hours). We apologize for the inconvenience.
"Inconvenience?!" I hissed, my eyes going wide. "I'm in the middle of a—"
Before I could finish the thought, the brilliant green and white glow on my left arm flickered like a dying lightbulb. The heavy metallic structure shivered and then simply... dissolved. The weight vanished, leaving me standing there with nothing but a regular, human arm and a very thin jacket sleeve.
I was weaponless. I still had Cerberus in my inventory, but if I pulled out a triple-barreled hand cannon now, Pyrrha would have a million questions I wasn't ready to answer—and if the System was "patching" my powers, I wasn't even sure if my inventory would glitch next.
"Katsuya, get back!" Pyrrha shouted, her voice laced with that intense, maternal protectiveness that was so common in this world.
She didn't wait for me to move. She leaped forward, her shield catching the Death Stalker's stinger with a shower of sparks. She was incredible to watch—a blur of bronze and red—but I was stuck on the sidelines, literally powerless while the System "updated" in the background.
"Great," I muttered, backing away toward a large oak. "Just great."
———
[Ruby Rose POV]
"I told you! I told you we should have gone left!" Weiss shrieked, her rapier trembling in her hand as she pointed it toward the sky.
"And I said I saw something shiny that way!" I yelled back, clutching Crescent Rose tight. "How was I supposed to know the 'shiny' thing was a giant bird's nest?!"
A shadow—massive and oppressive—swept over the clearing. I looked up, my silver eyes widening as a Nevermore the size of a small airship circled above us. It let out a piercing, screeching cry that felt like it was trying to shatter my eardrums.
"It's circling us!" Weiss gritted her teeth, her white combat skirt fluttering in the wind. "We're trapped in this clearing! If we don't move now, we're going to be picked off like—"
"Like what?! Like crumbs?!" I squeaked, ducking as a volley of sharp, blade-like feathers rained down from the sky, thudding into the dirt around us like heavy harpoons.
"Like the incompetent children you are acting like!" Weiss snapped, though her bravado was clearly wavering.
The Nevermore let out another shriek, banking hard for a diving lunge. We were in way over our heads. I looked around, desperately hoping to see a flash of white hair or a familiar face, but it was just us and the giant bird.
"Weiss! We have to move, now!"
"I am well aware, you dolt!"
"Watch out!" I yelled, grabbing the back of Weiss's bolero and yanking her sideways just as a feather the size of a broadsword slammed into the spot where she'd been standing a second ago.
"Unrefined! Completely unrefined!" Weiss shrieked, her voice reaching a pitch that probably only Zwei could hear. She scrambled to her feet, adjusting her ponytail with a shaking hand.
I fired Crescent Rose behind me, the recoil boosting me forward in a blur of red rose petals. "I don't see you coming up with any better ideas, Princess!"
"Don't call me that!"
We burst through a final thicket of trees and skidded to a halt. The Emerald Forest opened up into a wide, circular clearing. In the center stood an ancient, crumbling stone temple, its pillars overgrown with moss and ivy. On a series of stone pedestals in the center sat a row of chess pieces—the relics.
"There!" Weiss pointed, already lunging for the pedestals. "The relics! Grab one and let's get out of here before—"
"Ruby!"
I looked up to see Yang emerging from the opposite side of the clearing, looking remarkably grumpy. Her hair was a mess, and she was trailing a very calm, very quiet Blake Belladonna.
"Yang! You're okay!" I cheered, though my joy was cut short when I saw the look on my sister's face.
"I'm partnered with a girl, Ruby," Yang grumbled, crossing her arms and ignoring Blake entirely. "A girl. Do you know how hard it's going to be to find a boyfriend when I'm stuck in a duo with a bookworm for the next four years? My social life is over before it even started!"
Blake just blinked, her expression unreadable. "I'm standing right here, you know."
"Exactly!" Yang huffed.
"Will you two stop gossiping?!" Weiss interrupted, snatching a white Knight piece from the pedestal. "We have a job to do! Ruby, grab a piece and let's—"
SCREE-AWWWWW!
The sunlight was suddenly blotted out. I looked up, my stomach doing a slow roll. The Nevermore from earlier hadn't given up. It was circling directly above the temple, its massive wingspan casting a shadow over the entire ruins. It banked hard, its talons extended, screaming a challenge that echoed off the stone pillars.
"It followed us!" I gripped my scythe. "Okay, new plan! We fight it!"
"With what?!" Weiss gestured to the open clearing. "There's no cover! We're sitting ducks out here!"
"Then we make our own cover!" I yelled, though I wasn't entirely sure how to do that yet.
Yang's gauntlets sparked as she slammed her fists together, her lilac eyes flashing with a spark of her usual fire. "Well, if we're gonna go down, we're gonna go down swinging. I am not letting a giant chicken be the highlight of my day!"
"It's a Grimm, Yang, not a chicken!" I corrected, already shifting Crescent Rose into its sniper form.
The Nevermore dived, a volley of black feathers raining down like a localized storm of daggers. We all scrambled for cover behind the crumbling pillars, the stone chipping and shattering under the force of the projectile feathers.
"We need a strategy!" Weiss yelled over the noise of the impact.
"I'm working on it!" I shouted back, peering around the pillar to track the bird's flight path. "Just... give me a second!"
———
[Katsuya Akiya (MC) POV]
I ducked behind a massive, moss-covered boulder as the Death Stalker's stinger slammed into the ground where I'd been standing a second ago, shattering the stone like it was glass. Pyrrha was a blur of motion, her shield clanging against the monster's heavy bone armor, but I could tell she was staying on the defensive just to keep its attention off me.
I frantically swiped open the system chat. I needed a miracle, and I needed it now.
[Katsuya]: Emergency! My Semblance is down for a patch and I'm weaponless! Does anyone have a spare shield or a defensive item they can send through the transfer?
There was no response...
[Katsuya]: No?! Scathach, I am literally about to be turned into a kebab!
[Scathach]: I am feeling remarkably salty, Katsuya. It has come to my attention through the logs that I am currently the only one in this chat who hasn't engaged in any... physical 'transactions' with you. I am being neglected.
[Katsuya]: I am so sorry! I'll make it up to you, I swear! Just send me a shield!
[Scathach]: Negative. You are already in significant debt after the firearm and the runic ammunition. Until I receive my repayment, the forge is closed.
[Katsuya]: WE ARE THE SAME FUCKING PERSON! JUST GIVE ME THE ITEM!
[Scathach]: I am myself now. And 'myself' is currently feeling very unappreciated.
I growled, swiping over to a private DM with the ice general.
[Katsuya]: Esdeath, help me out? I know you have high-tier imperial gear.
[Esdeath]: My feelings are still quite wounded, Katsuya. You ran away from my palace and refused to engage in our tactical mutual rape. It was very rude.
[Katsuya]: MUTUAL RAPE IS LITERALLY IMPOSSIBILITY! PLEASE!
Suddenly, a new notification pinged.
[Koneko]: wow. cheating already? i just finished with you and you're already hitting up other worlds for 'items'. typical.
I felt a vein throb in my forehead.
[Katsuya]: WE ARE ALL THE SAME PERSON! IT IS LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO CHEAT ON MYSELF WITH MYSELF!
I didn't even wait for their replies. I slammed the system window shut, the blue light vanishing into the air. My powers were locked, my "wives" were being petty, and I was currently the only boy in a forest full of monsters with nothing but my hands and a very expensive, very empty jacket sleeve.
"Katsuya! Watch out!" Pyrrha yelled, skidding back toward me as she parried a massive pincer strike. She looked winded, her green eyes full of concern as she stood in front of me like a bronze wall. "I can't keep it distracted forever! Do you have a plan?"
I looked at the Death Stalker. It was Hissing, its golden stinger dripping with glowing venom, preparing for a full-body lunge. I took a deep breath, my expression shifting into one of grim, absolute seriousness. I straightened my posture, looking Pyrrha dead in the eye with the intensity of a man about to unleash an ultimate technique.
"Pyrrha," I said, my voice low and commanding. "Get ready. I'm about to activate my strongest move. It's a secret technique passed down through the most legendary bloodline in my world."
Pyrrha's eyes widened, and she nodded solemnly, bracing her shield. "I'm ready! What is it? A finishing blow? A defensive barrier?"
I turned on my heel, pointing toward the distant temple.
"RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!"
I didn't look back. I just sprinted into the trees at full speed.