I wake up, look in the mirror and frown. Today's gonna be shit.
My short brown hair is disheveled and that damn cowlick is back. No matter how many times I cut it or smooth out my hair it always comes back to torment me. My green eyes are dull and lifeless, the dark circles around them having grown thicker even though I sleep six hours every night. My teeth are still perfectly white, as they always have been and there's not a single sign of acne on my perfect face.
"Y/N! Breakfast is ready!" My mother calls from downstairs, somehow sensing that I had gotten up.
"I'll be down in a minute!" I shout before grimacing at the atrocity that is my pajamas.
My mother has fooled herself into thinking that I like knights because I use a sword. I can't bear to tell her the truth because of the look of disappointment she'll have in her eyes if I did.
Down the stairs I pass by several family photos, apparently I have a father. Could've fooled me.
"Good morning, Y/N," My mother kisses the top of my head much to my dismay, and calls me my "new" name. After coming to this world I have learned plenty about it. The main energy source is Dust, a crystal capable of harnessing various elements. I personally haven't used it in any of my weapons, but plenty of my comrades do. Dust can be used in a variety of ways, such as weaving it into clothes, putting it into bullets, and even applying effects to bladed and blunt weapons such as swords and maces.
There's also Aura, something that everyone can unlock but not everyone does. If you get good enough at manipulating it you can even shield yourself from attacks, though that doesn't mean you're impervious to them. If someone does enough damage to your Aura it'll break and you'll be as vulnerable as everyone else. Except me of course, because I got to keep my Tick I found out a curious aspect of Inergy. It absorbs other energies into itself, mixing the two. So if my aura breaks, not only will I be vulnerable, but I'll also be knocked out untill I've gathered half my pool back.
Yeah, it's shitty, I know. But I have become a better combatant because of it. I'm like the hero of some dark-action manga.
Oh yeah, I should explain that too. I am a Huntsman in training who just got accepted into one of the four Huntsman schools in the world, Beacon Academy. I'm a pretty exceptional fighter if I do say so myself. Though some of my friends are truly monsters in the ring.
I finish breakfast and grab my weapon, Incursio, a short sword with a chain-link tassel given to me by my mentor before he died fighting someone he used to fight alongside with.
There's not much special about the sword except for its ability to create armor around me. But that's not very cool, at least, compared to my best friend's weapons.
I put on my jacket and open the door, immediately closing it because the sun is too bright and I haven't seen it for three days.
"Fuck..." I check my pockets for a pair of glasses that I've neglected to wear, causing my eyesight to worsen, but you don't necessarily need to see to fight.
Well, at least I don't.
Walking out the door my eyes are assaulted once again but my eyes adjust, albeit slowly.
I take a deep breath and sigh, I forgot how much I hated having responsibilities.
"Incursio," my voice is dull, dry, and depressing.
My sword disappears from my hand and my body is covered in mostly white armor with a long white cape.
"Let's go," I get ready before jumping off.
When I land I see one of my two best friends.
"Yo," I wave to the blue-haired sailor wannabe as the armor disappears from around me.
"Sup, Y/N," he waves back.
"The sky, Wave," I dodge a kick aimed at my face.
"No shit, dumbass," Wave is a fairly muscular teen of above-average height with short dark blue hair and eyes. Like me, he also has a cowlick but his is less... noticeable. He wears a blue leather jacket and a red scarf with an anchor on it. He says the scarf is his symbol of justice, whatever that means. Under that is a white shirt with a single blue line down the middle. He also wears a pair of grey jeans with a belt and dark blue boots. He carries his sword, Grand Chariot, on his back most of the time.
Grand Chariot is a weapon nearly identical in abilities to my Incursio. When it's in its "sealed" form it's a black short sword with a design similar to a cutlass. The "released" Grand Chariot is a black, full-body armor with a phantasmagoric defensive film where Incursio's lame-ass cape would be
"You smell like fish, like always," I sheath Incursio and grab Wave by the shoulder. "I am not getting on a Bullhead with you smelling like Salmon."
"It's Catfish but-" Wave tries to correct me.
"I do not care. Think about others. Take a shower," it's kinda hard trying to intimidate a guy six inches taller than me.
"But I di-"
"Shshshshsh... you ate fresh sushi for breakfast, that you prepared. I seriously don't need female feline Faunus coming up to us and beating up Lubbo because they caught him staring," you'd think it's not a common occurrence, but it is. It happens every time we go out for coffee.
"Hm... yeah, we are going to Beacon now so they'll be lots more Faunus around us now," Wave looked deep in thought.
"You still considering going to Atlas instead?" I looked up at one of my best friends.
"Yeah. All of my family went there and are expecting me to go there too," Wave looked kind of sad.
"Yeah, I understand how you feel. Some of my old friends expected me to go straight into working so I could send money back to the village in Mantle," I grew up in a rural village near Mantle that was getting money sucked out of it faster than they could make it.
Eventually, my mom moved to Vale and found a job at one of Lubbo's parent's libraries.
Some of my old friends think that I'm obligated to care about the village when I haven't lived there in ten years.
"Oh, they're still bothering you over that?" Wave looked over to me and I nodded.
"Yeah, I had to block Sayo and Ieyasu's numbers because they were spamming me while I was asleep. I don't even know how they got my number," Wave looked even sadder.
"That's pretty fucked up dude," Wave turned around and walked back into his house.
"I'll go get Lubbo and then we'll head to the Bullhead together," I call out before rushing through the forest, past another house, and then rushing through more forest with Incursio on.
"Tch, pretentious little cunt," I look at the mansion that belongs to Lubbo's father, a traveling merchant.
"Hey, don't hate the player, hate the game," my rich best friend, Lubbock or Lubbo as I like to call him, says as he leans against a tree.
Lubbock is a teen with shoulder-length green hair that covers his left eye, green eyes, and red goggles on top of his head. He wore a long green jacket with a fur-trimmed hood over a white and red ringer shirt and blue jeans with brown shoes. He also wears his weapon, Cross Tail, on his hands and back.
Cross Tail is a pair of gloves and ten metallic fingertips with wire threads running through them, and it can be used in various ways to attack, defend against, or immobilize opponents. The majority of the wire is held in a larger than normal spool worn on the back of the waist.
So we've got two sword guys and a wire guy.
"Sup Lubbo," I wave to my other best friend.
"Where's Wave?" Lubbo asks after we fist bump.
"He's taking a shower. He smelled like fish when I went over there," I recall.
"Ah, and I was hoping we'd get some cat babes flocking to his scent," Lubbo sighs in disappointment.
"Of course, you'd say that," I let out a sigh. "Let's go."
"Wait, before we go. Is he still stressed about the whole Atlas, family pressure thing?" Lubbo had an unusually serious look on his face.
"Yeah..." I could feel his irritation and see his irritation when I said that.
"Let's go," his voice was different from his usual carefree tone, it was angry.
Later all three of us stood near the Bullhead to Beacon.
"My mom just said that if I get on that Bullhead she's going to disown me," my eyes widen and my head snaps to Wave, the nonchalant way he said it plus the way he just dropped it on us was so... surprising.
"WHAT!?!?" Lubbock and I yell at the same time.
"She can't do that!" Lubbock was outraged, his fists not being able to fully ball up as something had been caught in Cross Tail's wire.
"She can and will if I choose to go to Beacon," Wave looked solemn. As if his mom saying that made him finally decide where he's gonna go. "I guess I'll see you guys when the festival starts."
"You're going to Altas!?!?" I blurt out, Incursio responding to my anger and appearing around me.
"Relax, if I can convince her that the military isn't my thing then maybe I can join you two at Beacon when the second semester starts," Wave smiled at Lubbo and me, but you can't fool a guy who knows what you feel, even if it's what you feel about people.
"Tch! Fine! We'll see you at the festival, but you better be way stronger when we see you again!" I'm not usually emotional so both Lubbo and Wave are understandably surprised.
"Heh, the same goes for you two," Wave is covered by Grand Chariot, the dark armor gleaming in the sunlight.
I hold out my fist for a fist bump, Lubbo holding his out too.
"You better be on the first Bullhead here when they start sending those snobs over," Lubbo smirks as all three of us fist bump.
"Heh, I'll be here before they start sending them over," And with that, Wave turns and walks off.
Later, when Lubbo and I are on the Bullhead we're talking about how he could use his wires in battle.
"What about making a spear like Incursio's Neuntote?" I recall my teacher showing me Incursio's Auxiliary Weapon, Neuntote. It's a long spear with a wide, red blade at the tip.
I've never been able to summon it myself, but Lubbo has seen it in action.
"I mean, I don't think I could make it sharp enough with my wire but I could probably make a polearm for similar uses," Lubbo had created a miniature of what he imagined with Cross Tail's wire.
"Hmmm, with your fighting style that could also work," I hm in thought before looking over to an overly rowdy pair.
One of them had chestnut-colored hair and the other was a relatively short girl with short hair in short pigtails with red eyes. The first one looked to be the usual age that people are let into huntsman Academies and the latter looked to be a little younger than me.
"My name is Seryu Ubiquitous, and I fight for justice and justice adjacent things!" the one with Chestnut colored hair declared like some Atlas nut.
The Atlas Empire is all about "justice and protecting its people," but Mantle is proof that that's a lie. The amount of people that sell their children is proof enough. I used to work with a group near there that wanted that to change but they got nowhere. Their ideas were too peaceful. What Atlas needs for change is a Revolution of sorts.
I also worked with a band of assassins called Night Raid, that's actually how I got Incursio. I only had a few successful assassinations before they deemed I was too young and sent me back to my mom with Incursio as a sort of final gift.
I haven't killed anyone since but the experience has made me quite bitter.
The shorter one didn't say anything, just holding her bag of candies closer to her chest.
"I don't care I'm not giving you any of my candy," she ate what looked like a cookie but I could tell that wasn't it. It's most likely laced with a drug that improves her strength. One of my old teammates told me about one of Atlas's programs that had used something like that, but the drugs also lessen the consumer's life span so they aren't very good for anyone looking to live long lives. Not like any of Atlas's soldiers live long anyway.
"Hey, those two are pretty cute," Lubbo says, eyes glued to the older girl's breasts.
"Yeah, but both of them are from Atlas so they probably won't make it a year past graduation. Maybe the younger one, but given that she started them earlier she'll probably only live about a year or two longer than the usual," it's only a fact but Lubbo looks at me like I'm a mad man.
"You really didn't have to put it that way, Mark," I forgot to mention, but when my vocal cords had developed enough, I had requested that my middle name be changed from my father's name to my original name. That way I could still be called the name I was used to in my old life and not have it be weird. Pretty smart for a four-year-old at the time. Though mentally I was twenty, but no one knows that.
"Well, yeah, but it's the truth. The only reason the rich oldies are so old is that they're rich and weren't subjected to inhumane experiments," from my time in Atlas the only people that were old were the working class and the rich, most of the military officers were either around the age you'd be getting out of a Huntsman Academy or in their thirties.
Our attention is diverted to a screen nearby, showing the news.
Lubbo and I move closer to see and hear better.
There's a mugshot of a known criminal, Roman Torchwick. I've fought him a few times when he was in Atlas and I had received several orders to kill him, but I haven't fought him in warmer environments like Vale.
"The robbery was led by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you, Lisa," the news lady and Romans mugshot are replaced by Lisa Lavender, the only news anchor I know the name of, and a photo of a Faunus rally with one of them holding up a sign saying "WE ARE NOT ANIMALS!" followed by the White Fang's logo.
"Thank you, Cyril. In other news, this Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony. The once peaceful organization has now disrupted..." she's cut off by a hologram of what I presume is one of our new professors.
"Hello, and welcome to Beacon!" Huh, I totally expected her to be British.
"She's pretty hot," Lubbo once again thinks with his dick instead of his brain.
"My name is Glynda Goodwitch," Her name even sounds like she'd have a British accent.
"You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world," That speech would've been one hundred percent better if she were British.
"Oh, wow! Look, you can see Signal from up here! I guess home isn't too far after all!" Some little girl yells while people look out of the windows.
I looked out of one of the windows, seeing the mansion Lubbo lived in and bringing said greenette to confirm.
"Yeah, that's the mansion," he confirms smirking at his home. "I wonder how my siblings are doing."
"Heh, at least one of them is thinking the same thing right now," I offer a smile to my best friend who returns it, the moment being ruined by a blonde guy trying (and failing) to hold in vomit.
Both of us sigh in annoyance.
See ya