Closing the portal, I looked around at all my girls, a little bit resigned. “Well, it looks like we arrived early in the evening so we will have a few hours to decide what we want to do before anything happens.”

  Then I paused and analyzed how the world felt. “At least there is still magic in this world, even if it feels weird, all stiff and rigid. Probably because it has all crystallized into dust,”

  Hermione was the one to ask. “What world is this then? And what do you mean dust.” I knew that the last world had been a bit traumatic since Hermione’s voice was a tad worried.

  Sighing, I answered the second question first. “This world’s magic is apparently all condensed into crystals that can be ground down into dust which they use for simplistic casting.”

  Then I ran a hand down my face. “This is the world of Remnant, from the animated series RWBY. It's another death world. This time with the entire human and demi-human races on the verge of destruction. ”

  I saw the worry on their faces, but no one seemed to know what I was talking about. Then I remembered that we had just visited a more modern world and copied, bought, and stole as much media as we could.

  Turning I faced Thea’s drone. “Thea, could you check to see if RWBY is one of the series that you were able to obtain from FEAR?”

  Her backup drone did a little spin. “Of course.”

  I then sat back and considered what to say before I started. “First, this is one of the few times we have visited a world that isn’t an alternate earth so I will have to give a bit more background. The quickest summary of the underlying history I can probably give is that a long time in the past there were two gods and magic that most people could use. The god of light and the god of darkness. Very much lower case gods by their demeanor and powers, they fought each other over their methods.”

  I was interrupted by Lara, ever the most interested in archaeology and history. “What do you mean by that?”

  I stopped and considered before I winced. “Wow,I haven’t actually explained my general power levels yet, have I?”

  At everyone’s no or shaken head, I continued. “Sorry about that, it was something I really should have explained before now.”

  I then scratched my chin as I started. “I think I have mentioned them, but I didn’t define them.” Then shrugging I just continued. “To be clear these levels aren’t exact or anything, but I always thought these seven levels above humans made the most sense. Each an order of magnitude stronger or more effective than the last. So if baseline human is the bottom above that would be: trained soldier, augmented human, superhuman, demigods, world enders, gods, and big G Gods also known as Elder Gods.”

  I saw interest in some faces, but others just looked confused. “Keep in mind that these are just general categories. Plus, there are people that would be much, much higher or much, much lower in another world.”

  Then I huffed a laugh. “In fact, this world is one of those cases. The local empowered fighters are called Huntsman and would be nearly unstoppable in a world like Alice’s London or Chell’s America.” Then I hesitated. “Well, at least as long as they didn’t get caught by an entire army division.”

  Then I gestured to each of my girls. “I mentioned not that long ago that I thought we had gotten to the edge of being superhuman. By that I meant that we were clearly above human, trained human, and even augmented human levels.”

  My laugh was a bit sardonic, “I think our ability to mow through the trained ATC guards and even the replicas, albeit more carefully, demonstrated our progression.”

  Then I got serious again, “However, I would reiterate that these categories are wide. I don’t think we are anywhere close to the strength of Wonder Woman or Superman for example.” Then I tilted my head, “Although, in retrospect they are both at the demigod level.”

  Then I snickered. “Well, Wonder Woman in particular is hard to quantify as based on the various backstories she is either a divinely empowered woman, a manifestation of a new god of truth, or a literal new Titan, AKA the beings above the Greek gods in power.”

  Taylor spoke up. “You keep saying demigod, I thought demigods were the children of the gods with a mortal. Plus, you still haven’t explained the separation between lower case gods and Elder Gods.”

  I shrugged. “Yes, in a lot of mythologies that was the case for demigods, but there are a lot more options across the multiverse. The DC universe in particular has things like possession, inheritances, items of power, etc. For my purposes I mostly just care about their general power levels. In fact, in a lot of the classical demigod examples they seem to be a lot closer to being an augmented human, two orders of magnitude lower on my scale.”

  Then I sighed and shrugged. “As for gods. I have heard this explanation from several different sources, but a lower case god is fundamentally different from an upper case or Elder God. The former may have a wide variety of power levels, but is very much flawed and mortal in their mentality, motivations, and actions. They have grudges, vices, and a distinct lack of omniscience that can be used against them. The Greek and Norse pantheons are common examples.”

  Getting serious again I continued. “However, big G Gods or Elder Gods are the ones like Arceus, Eru Iluvitar, and the God of the Bible would be examples of beings that are generally… above all that. They apparently just guard their slice of reality, and I assume seeing what we do with what we are given. We can ask Arceus if he shows up again, I guess.”

  Then I hesitated again, “There might even be things greater than that, but that level of power is kind of like comparing ocean sizes. Comparing them is difficult at the best of times.”

  Shaking my head I got back on track. Sorry, we can discuss that later. Here on Remnant the two gods were the gods of creation and destruction. They went back and forth for a while, the god of light creating animals, plants and eventually humans and demihumans. The god of destruction kept destroying things and eventually made the grimm. The grimm being literal monsters of congealed darkness that only want to destroy all life.”

  I was amused at the slow blinks of surprise. “Long story short, the gods left and destroyed the moon on the way out. There are now only two beings at a demigod level left. There is Salem, queen of the grimm, who can control grimm and is immortal in the ‘won’t stay dead’ variety. I won’t get into the backstory, but I think she wants to die and feels the only way possible is to get the gods to come back and destroy her along with the rest of the world.”

  That statement was a bit heavy and the room was silent but I didn’t really have anything to lighten it. “Ozpin is the current incarnation of the immortal wizard of the ‘will reincarnate in a teenage when killed’ type who is opposing Salem. The two have been fighting a multi-thousand year-long proxy war.” Then I paused. “I guess there are also the four maidens who Ozpin empowered, but other than the one who had half her soul ripped out and is currently hidden under the school, they aren’t a factor at the moment.”

  I was amused at the slow blinks of incomprehension as everyone tried to imagine a world like that.

  Gesturing out towards the group of teenagers currently going to bed I continued, “We have absolutely no way of changing anything with Salem at the moment. However this world does have some interesting magic and technology. The world has developed a system where men and women awaken their souls for power and become what they call Huntsman. These people go out and fight the literal forces of darkness, aka grimm, to keep the remaining fortified cities of humanity and the four human kingdoms and one demi-human kingdom safe… oh and the demihumans are called faunus and have one or two animal traits like ears or a tail but are more or less human otherwise.”

  This time my laugh was a bit wry and I gestured towards Ari and then after towards Ahsoka. “And of course, the world, despite being attacked by literal nightmare monsters, still has racism. There was even a war not that long ago that I won’t get into. Regardless, humans have generally been arseholes. Faunus are currently discriminated against in most cities. So obviously, some faunus have become terrorists, calling themselves the White Fang, and are killing humans and spreading grimm attacks.”

  Shaking my head I pushed my issues with the stupidity of bigotry, especially in this world, aside. “Anyway, when the huntsmen awaken their souls, they get their aura. It gives them superhuman powers, a force field and slight precognition. On top of that every single person gets their own unique ability called the semblance.”

  I smiled at everyone's look of surprise and then calculation as they considered how useful that would be.

  Then I frowned, “That said, we should probably check out if it will even work for us before we get our hopes up. I am a little afraid it won’t work as we are now.” Gesturing towards me and then around to each of my girls to demonstrate our bond.

  Amy broke in with a raised eyebrow, “If it won’t work is there any point in staying here then? We are strong, but we can’t fight an entire army of darkness as we are now. Why not just drop them some info like we did in HunterXHunter and try again.”

  I considered a moment longer. “Like I said, saving this world outright is still way above our current levels.”

  Then I gestured towards Thea. “However, if getting an aura doesn’t work, there is still the fact they figured out how to put artificial souls into humanoid robots and let them manifest their own semblance.”

  There was a moment of silence before Thea’s backup drone gave a little excited beep and bounced a bit.

  Then I winced, having gotten her hopes up, as I considered the timing, “the problem is that the robot, Penny, doesn't show up for several months from now and I don't want to stick around until that happens. Plus even if we stuck around or came back, I am not entirely sure we could even get permission to view the blueprints of said gynoid body regardless of what we do. While Penny looks human, she is considered an Atlesian military secret and getting access, legally or not, to her systems would be hard.”

  There was a heavy silence before Thea broke it with what sounded to me like a bit of forced happiness. “I have just confirmed that we have 8 seasons of an animation called RWBY.”

  Studying Thea, I was still worried. It had been less than 12 hours since she had lost her first and more developed drone body and she was still manufacturing the second on her 3d printers. She was also obviously getting tired of being left out and this world wouldn’t be an exception. This world wasn’t ready for a floating robot AI to show up despite having the tech to build it themselves.

  Trying to show just how serious I was, I addressed Thea. “Thea, we WILL find you a humanoid body, one you can use to walk around next to the rest of us, it is just a matter of finding the right one.”

  Thea’s drone bounced a bit before she made it nod, not saying anything.

  That just left what we would do in this world before we left.

  Already considering what we might be able to change with a simple warning to Ozpin, I distractedly asked Taylor about setting up for our guests to sleep, “We can watch it tonight after dinner. In the meantime, Taylor, could you please pull out some beds in the Onsen? We can…”

  Alma made her projection appear in front of me with her hands on her hips, even as her body kept following the group a few meters behind me. “I do not want to be separated from you.”

  Momentarily marveling at her multitasking and wondering how I could do the same. I had to assume not having a body had let her practice doing multiple things at a time.

  Realizing Alma was waiting for a response I rubbed my face and sighed. Then, looking into her eyes I considered for a moment before I slowly nodded. “You know what? You've been perfectly cordial with us.”

  Eyeing Tonks and Fleur I continued. “That is to say nothing of you two, who did your absolute best to watch my girls' backs. That probably does deserve an increased level of trust.”

  Looking at my girls, “What do you say? I would think that they will still need to swear an oath to protect our secrets and not attack us before they leave, but they could probably be given the secret.”

  At a chorus of different agreements, some quicker than others, the question was settled.

  Then it just became a question of what exactly the oath would be. After some back and forth, as Tonks and Fleur were understandably nervous about oaths, we settled on a compromise.

  The unbreakable oath all three took was: ‘that they would never reveal the presence or method to get to the inner sanctum to anyone outside the Family. They would not attack or harm anyone in the Family nor support anyone they thought was doing so before we returned to Hogwarts. Then they would have to tell us that they had decided to work against us.’

  The shock was when it was Alma’s turn to take the oath. I was slightly curious if this oath would bind her since she didn’t have Hogwarts Magic but to my surprise, it seemed to bind her even stronger. Then she ended the oath before she could get to the termination clauses.

  Then, in a sudden move that made me flinch back slightly, she carefully moved her real body closer and reached out and pulled herself into a hug.

  It took me a moment to build the confidence to return the hug considering how many people had exploded from her power, but soon enough my arms were around her pleasantly soft form. Looking down at her I had to know, “Not that I mind exactly, but may I ask why? Why not take the escape clause and why the sudden hug?”

  Alma smiled before explaining. “I felt the restrictions almost immediately when the first binding took hold. It gives me a little warning pain if something I was doing would have broken the oath.”

  At my conflicted face she rolled her eyes, really emphasising how more human she was becoming. “I would have accepted an electric shock 100 times worse to be able to touch people again. Now I will know if something I do will hurt you. Besides, I got very used to pain growing up. This is barely a discomfort.”

  That would have been a nice sentiment, if it hadn’t been for that last bit.

  Regardless, we all turned to Taylor, our secret keeper, as she shared the information about the inner manor..

  Unfortunately, that started the next argument where each person would be sleeping.

  On the one hand, Tonks and Fleur had responded that they were fine sleeping in the Onsen even as my girls invited them into the inner manor, really showing how my girls had started thinking of them as one of us. While on the other hand Alma had practically demanded to be allowed into my bedroom.

  Only after I promised to take her attempts to seduce me seriously did she agree to take the next available bedroom right to the right.

  Ahsoka, Lara, and Chell also returned to their own bedrooms on the first floor of the inner manor.

  Said discussion did, however, demonstrate how mentally exhausted everyone was after FEAR and we all universally agreed to gather in about three hours for dinner so everyone could decompress. I suspected that Fleur and Tonks in particular wanted a moment to collect themselves.

  However that did leave me and my wives enough time to have a little bit of private fun.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  However, even as I turned each of my wives into a puddle of contentment I felt like there was something wrong.

  It was only as I was finishing up with Ahri that I realized what was going on.

  Honestly, I should have realized that Alma would want to peek a lot sooner. The real kicker was it finally made me recognize what had been going on with the weird feelings while Aisha was staying with us. It almost made me laugh. two voyeurs… really?

  Shaking my head as I began to cuddle with Hinata, I narrowed my eyes as I realized that she might have been one as well. Deciding I had to ask. “Are all girls secretly this perverted, or is it just the ones that joined me?”

  Hinata was momentarily confused before I explained myself. Then she gave one of her cute laughs, covering her mouth and everything. Even as she turned completely red her voice was amused. “Max, you are asking if girls who agreed to join a harem and travel the multiverse with you are a little strange.”

  That got me to laugh too.

  Dinner was a relaxed affair, but as we gathered in the inner manor’s theater room, I was surprised when Sabah pulled me far to the side and then sat across my lap and hugged me. Not like she was afraid, but like she wanted some reassurance.

  My girls, and even Alma, seemed to see this and understand, giving us some room. Still, internally I was honestly a bit surprised at the physical contact.

  Even now Sabah rarely cuddled with me. Joining my harem had not changed her preferences. She rarely did anything with my male body and instead usually helped me with Amy or Hinata when I worked them over, so this was definitely unusual.

  Thus, as the RWBY series started and the girls turned away from our corner, I realized she wanted to talk. Waiting for a few minutes before putting up a silencing charm, I asked her. “Sabah, Love, what is wrong?”

  Sabah tried to smile, but it turned out more of a grimace. “I wasn’t strong enough. I just wasn’t… enough.”

  I frowned even as I hugged her tighter to me. “No, that was my mess. I put three mostly non-combatants on your shoulders. At least Non-combatants on our level. I had just sorta assumed that if you got into trouble, you would be able to portkey out. I hadn’t considered the idea that there would be a situation where you couldn’t leave.”

  She didn’t cry, but I felt her just breath shakily against me and my own arms squeezed a bit tighter. When she spoke again, her voice was very soft. “I might have lost them. I know Tonks has a soul gem and you could have gotten there fast enough to save Fleur, but… what if you hadn’t?”

  The memory of Fleur going down with an agonized scream played through my memory.

  We stayed that way for several of the first few episodes of RWBY.

  Finally clearing her throat a bit, Sabah tilted her head to look up at me. “What can I do?”

  I took a deep breath before I slowly let it out and looked into the distance. “You know I cheat when I give you all ideas. Generally I am just telling each of you what you did in canon, or ideas from fan fiction… which might just be another version of you in the multiverse.”

  Sabah nodded slowly.

  Squeezing her against me for a moment I continued. “The thing is, your power was never very well explained in canon so I don’t have that normal cheat.”

  Staring up at the ceiling I thought aloud. “You can move a lot of light things, but not with a lot of force. You can combine those movements into something bigger like you did to move your life sized dolls, but I understand those could never be too heavy or dense which is why you didn’t just make your dolls out of metal under the fabric or wield guns for your protection…” I considered that for a moment before I smiled. “A little disappointing since it would have made you pretty badass though.”

  I was happy to note that I got a small snort at least.

  Tapping my fingers against her knee I continued. “So mundane armor and weapons used in normal ways are somewhat a no-go. Even if we enchanted them lighter, they couldn’t stop external forces like bullet strikes or explosions which means we need to go full magical here for best effect.”

  Stopping and thinking about it, I tried to think of ideas. Yet like I did so often, I found myself starting to take inspiration from fiction.

  Slowly building steam, I started explaining my idea. “Your biggest strength is, like Taylor, your ability to multitask.”

  At her nod I continued. “We can use that. There was an anime I absolutely loved called ‘Read or Die’ or R.O.D, specifically the OVA. There is a woman who loves books more than life itself. She reads whenever and wherever she can. However she has special abilities, specifically the ability to control paper and is a special agent for a steam punk version of the British Empire. Under her control, said paper can stop bullets, cut steel, and turn into a glider or parachute.”

  Starting to turn curious, Sabah considered that. “We could charm the paper to be unbreakable, but how would it do anything like stop bullets? My power can’t hold them in place against that kind of force. Making them magically unmoveable would stop my power from moving them too, wouldn’t it?”

  I smiled harder. “We lean into the Ofuda, the paper charms from Japan. If we can figure out a way for you to trigger them remotely to become completely intransigent for your shields, you could probably do everything else as well. Hell, adding in chakra you are probably already 80% there with the ability to make swords, or ropes. I mean, it may take a bit more work, but we already send our chakra through items when we stick to walls through our shoes.”

  Sabah sat back on my lap and stared at the ceiling with me for several long seconds before she turned back to smile at me. “Thanks Max.” she whispered before leaning up and kissing me softly for a second.

  Letting the silence bubble drop now that we weren’t interrupting the rest of the girls who were still watching Jaune fight, I focused on RWBY again. Specifically he was fumbling around trying to fight a ursa only to have Pyrrha have to save him by using her semblance to adjust his sword and shield to actually kill the thing.

  Shaking my head at the animated Juane I couldn’t help but be exasperated at him. Seriously, why wasn’t he putting more effort into his training.

  As the episodes continued, the girls cried out at the death of Penny before we got to the big final battle of season 3. Watching in silence, we saw Pyrrha fight alone after being crippled by the attempted soul transfer of the maiden's powers before she was ambushed by Cinder, overwhelmed, then burnt to ash.

  I was considering how to handle all of that, before Amy suddenly spoke up. “Thea, pause it here please.” Turning to me, she scowled. “We are stopping all of that, right?”

  I blinked, but glancing around at the rest of my girl’s agreement, I smiled a little. “Of course.”

  Gesturing towards the burnt city on screen I continued. “We arrived right at the beginning. They haven’t even finished their entrance test yet. We can give them months of warning as long as we can contact Ozpin to pass the information along. Plus, if we could get on the wizard’s good side there was no telling what a man that experienced souls and magic could teach us. Just some of his private books could be invaluable to us.”

  The rest of the night ended up being fairly relaxing. The girls gave me suggestions on what we should pass along to the wizard and his tower tomorrow. Thea talked about a benign preemptive hack of the network to make everyone realize the risk, letting Ozpin know would let him push even harder for more security. Amy even suggested that we could try to heal the comatose Amber.

  Honestly, I was pretty happy and it seemed like a good plan.

  The next morning, I made sure we all got up bright and early before we put on our battle robes. Even if the plan wasn’t to fight, especially not a thousand plus year old serial reincarnation wizard, I didn’t want us going into possible danger unprotected.

  Plus, it should actually help us blend in considering how the students were all carrying their equipment as they headed towards what I had to assume was the locker room.

  I was about to portal in when I noticed cameras watching the area. Grimacing, I wasn't sure what to do here. We needed to appear if we were going to talk and get on his good side. But I didn’t want to be caught actually portaling in.

  I didn’t think he would appreciate the breach in security nor did I like showing our escape mechanism on the off chance he could figure out how to stop it.

  So, moving the portal round, I started following the students as they headed towards their exam.

  What I wasn’t expecting was to almost immediately fly into the locker room and get an eye full of 17 to 20 year olds changing.

  Backing up immediately, I immediately felt bad before I even thought about what I had actually seen. Instead I was just confused.

  There hadn’t been any warning. There were no signs nor separation between genders. Just a door before everyone was dropping their street clothes and changing into their armor. Men and women standing right next to each other.

  It took a second or two for me to get my composure back. However, after taking a deep breath, I was able to realize that no one was actually getting naked.

  Instead it seemed to be a rule of thumb that everyone kept on basic undergarments. Most were wearing some sort of black leggings and the girls had the equivalent of a sports bra. Together it looked more or less like exercise clothes.

  The one exception I had immediately noticed, who obviously hadn’t gotten the memo about what to wear, was Jaune Arc. He had been standing there in his smiley face boxers. Probably because he hadn’t actually attended any of the prep schools… and just faked his transcripts. Hell he didn’t even have his aura unlocked at this point.

  As I glanced around, several of my girls looked just as surprised as I did despite there being a PG version of this very thing in the animation last night. However Ahsoka and Hinata notably did not look even remotely bemused at the situation, only our reactions.

  That got me thinking. Addressing them, I turned my thoughts into a theory. “I guess in a death world like this and where you need to rely on the person next to you during long deployments through the wilderness, an excessive amount of body shyness was probably the first thing you would want to beat of out your recruits.”

  Hinata just nodded while Ahsoka just tilted her head like it made complete sense. “Of course.”

  Nodding, I turned back as I attempted to find a good portaling spot. “That also explains the co-ed dorms. Plus they are all more or less adults and when both men and women have super powers, theoretically everyone can take care of themselves.”

  At least we could be sure that there wouldn’t be cameras in the locker rooms. It only took a few seconds to find a blind spot between the entrance doors and the rest of the room where no one would see the portal and everyone inside would assume we just came through the door.

  Ensuring I was doing my best to be nonchalant, I didn’t bother talking to anyone as I immediately headed towards the doors on the other side of the room.

  My girls, however, had other ideas as they split off to follow Jaune as he walked towards some of the other girls. Weiss and Pyrrha among them.

  I raised my eye at this because last night we had just planned on pulling him aside and giving him a warning about studying hard. We had another set of warnings planned for Pyrrha, telling her to practice against grimm where she couldn’t use her semblance since they didn’t have metal.

  Getting involved with either was not the plan. I even saw, out of the corner of my eye, the main character Ruby talking with her sister, Yang.

  I considered asking my girls to stop, to just avoid all of this drama, but I did trust them and I wanted to support their decisions as well, and they clearly felt strongly about this.

  As we approached I studied their characters.

  What I immediately noticed was that I didn’t understand why no one fell for Pyrrha in the original series.

  She was a red headed bombshell and if I wasn’t married to nearly a dozen world level beauties myself, I would have been staring open mouthed.

  I could only assume it was her amazonian stature. It was apparently something that the animation couldn’t or wouldn’t depict correctly. With her three-inch heeled boots, 7 cm, she was nearly 6 foot 6, or about 2 meters tall. Hell, if we ignored Ahsoka’s montreal horns, she currently towered over every one of my girls except Taylor, who matched me at 6 foot 2, or about 190 cm. That was to say nothing about her lean and muscular gymnast build. Yet, because this world had super powers and apparently thus followed those tropes, she also somehow had a moderate chest and pleasantly round rear to balance it out.

  Really, both the toned muscles and curves were better highlighted with her greek or roman styled gladiator armor. Specifically the bronze colored armored skirt, greaves, and vambraces which just accentuated her blood red hair and vast tanned skin.

  The entire package made her seem like an untouchable warrior queen and I had to assume that despite being clearly just 17 or 18, she had just intimidated the boys around her so much they somehow missed how attractive she was.

  Maybe that was why she focused on Jaune so much. He didn’t seem intimidated by her abilities nor fame and was roughly as tall as she was.

  Unfortunately at this point Jaune only ever really had eyes for Weiss making the entire thing a hard to watch love triangle.

  My expectations seemed accurate because, even as we approached, Jaune was already attempting to interrupt Weiss and Pyrrha’s conversation in order to flirt with Weiss again and convince her to join his team.

  As if in comparison now that I was closer, I could confirm that Weiss was indeed a petite and attractive woman in the classical sense. Her aristocratic and delicate features, possibly accentuated by wearing all white made her seem the quintessential princess. It certainly seemed to be doing things to Jaune.

  Behind us I noticed that Ruby and Yang were now walking towards us and I absently noted that both were attractive, even if Ruby was too young to really show it at only 15.

  Maybe aura just helped make people more attractive.

  Again, I wasn’t really all that interested. All of them wanted to be huntresses and we were going to be moving on. Plus my wives were already objectively world-class beauties. However more importantly to me they were strong, smart, and kind women.

  Weiss, Ruby, Yang, and even Blake who I only spotted now on the edge of the room, avoiding attention, yet might eventually get all three attributes, but they certainly weren’t there yet.

  To be fair, most of my wives hadn’t been there yet when I had picked them up, but the point still stood..

  It had to be some sort of irony that Pyrrha was the one who better reflected those values and yet no one seemed interested in her that way. It arguably took her kissing Jaune before he even noticed her.

  So, as bad as that match up was, I didn’t really like the idea of breaking up couples and she really did seem to be head of heels for him. The question was, what could I possibly do to try to fix it when Jaune was so obviously not interested for the first two seasons.

  The first step was probably increasing her self confidence as I could already tell she didn’t seem to realize she was attractive.

  All of this crossed my head as Weiss yet again ignored Jaune’s attempt to convince Pyrrha to join her team. This was made all the worse by Weiss' incredibly cringey way of attempting it. Talking about how great your own accomplishments and qualifications were was just awkward. Bad enough that Pyrrha looked like she was trying to figure out a way to politely run away.

  Before Jaune or Weiss could further put their foot in their mouths or for Ruby to figure out how to save the day, Amy practically bounded forward, putting her arm around Pyrrha, “Ah, there you are, why didn’t you tell us you were going ahead of us?”

  Already Weiss was building her head of steam, so common in the first season, Turning she practically snarled. “Excuse you? What do you think you are doing? We were talking about…”

  Apparently seeing the out for what it was, Pyrrha smiled and nodded to Amy, “Ah, yes, long time no see. I am sorry, I was in such a hurry this morning.”

  Jaune attempted to step into talking with Weiss again, but that was the moment that both him, the vast majority of the boy’s, and a few of the girl’s heads in the room snapped to Fleur.

  I knew it was her pulsing out her allure, but in that moment she was a dozen times prettier than any other girl they had ever seen. Then a moment later, it was gone and everyone blinked in confusion.

  Fleur flicked her hair over her shoulder and just smiled as followed the rest of the Family as we headed towards the exit.

  As we got further away, Amy slowly released Pyrrha’s arm. “Sorry about that.”

  Pyrrha took a deep breath and then nodded. “Thank you, but I am going to have to apologize, I don’t think I can commit to being on your team either.”

  I huffed out a laugh along with Ahsoka, Ginny, and Holly. However it was Ahri who answered in her equally polite voice, “Sorry for the misunderstanding, but Amy simply wished to get you out of that situation.”

  Pyrrha instantly blushed nearly as red as her hair. “Ah, I apologize. I just assumed you knew who I was and…” as she trailed off. Then collecting herself she smiled. “I am sorry, my name is Pyrrha Nikkos, could I ask for yours?”

  I smiled back, “My name is Max.”

  Then around me my girls chimed in with their own names and I had to bite down a laugh as she looked overwhelmed at the number of girls that were apparently a part of our group. She had probably assumed that some of them were simply following us.

  Bringing the topic back on track, I smiled and nodded at her. Then considering how to best get her to get a little more confidence, I continued. “We understand the confusion. You are an absolutely gorgeous woman and obviously an incredibly talented fighter. So people attempting to get close to you must be a common occurrence.”

  Again, Pyrrha went completely red. “Ah, well…” then in a quieter voice, “you really think so?”

  All of us turned and looked at the busty amazonian, demonstrating our confusion.

  It was actually Fleur that answered this time. “Girl, do not concern yourself with the opinions of the idiots who can’t see the work of art right in front of them.”

  Then Ahsoka continued. “I have trained my entire life, I know a warrior when I see one.”

  Ducking her head Pyrrha took a deep breath before she looked up, smiling. “Thank you…”

  Turning to me her smile turned a bit shy… “Uh, would you… if you like…”

  However we were cut off by a white haired man standing on a small platform and a blond woman next to him who cleared her throat. Nodding in thanks, he addressed the now more attentive students. “It looks like we have collected just about everyone. So we will begin explaining the entrance ceremony momentarily.”

  Pyrrha, my girls and I, along with the students around us moved closer to the man that had to be Ozpin as he gestured towards the cliff to one side and the forest below us. From somewhere deep in the forest we heard something deep and primal scream out.

  Behind us I felt Fleur hesitate. “Max, I think it is best I wait here or back home for your talk with the headmaster.”

  Kicking myself, I knew that her injury had rattled her so I should have expected this reaction. “Not a problem, you should be able to go back the way we came.” I said, implying the portal back home would be open again. Else she could use her portkey when she got out of sight.

  Sabah hesitated for a moment, “I will keep her company.” she said before she turned to follow Fleur.

  Tonks also looked indecisive for a moment before she nodded, “I will stay with her as well” and turned back to follow the other two.

  Grateful, I replied softly. “Thanks, we shouldn’t be long.”

  I saw Amy visibly considering going back as she watched Sabah leave, but decided against it.

  Alma, who had been wide-eyed at all the new world around her, finally snapped out of it. “My body might also become a liability if the headmaster is displeased with our… infiltration, however, I will still be with you… just in case, Max.”

  Not bothering to be subtle she simply used the ring and disappeared with a swirl. Ahri only barely got an illusion up in time to hide it.

  We would need to talk to her about being subtle.

  Now down to only 10 of my girls and myself, as silly as that sentence sounded, I stepped forward. Carefully making my way through the crowd, I tried to make my way to the side of the arena in order to stand away from everyone else taking the test.

  We wanted his attention while he was stuck in place waiting for the students to get back. It would also limit his abilities to stop us from leaving if it became necessary.

  I saw, out of the corner of my eye, that Pyrrha followed us a bit but was still giving us some personal space. However, I was truly surprised when Ruby, Yang, and Jaune followed her. Maybe the four just wanted a better view.

  Ozpin cleared his throat and, via some sort of speaker system, his voice carried clearly across the entire courtyard. “I would like to welcome you all to Beacon. You have all been training for years, but Beacon only takes the best, so now is the time to prove it. Today your abilities will be evaluated in the emerald forest.”

  Then the blond secretary, who was clearly Glynda Goodwitch, continued. “Some of you have been wondering how we assign teams. Allow us to clarify that now.”

  Ozpin then gestured towards us. “These teammates will be with you for the remainder of your time here at Beacon. So it would be wise for you to find someone you can get along with.”

  A premonition suddenly crossed my mind as I recognized this as more or less the speech they gave before they launched the students in the forest. However, we weren’t close to the edge of the cliff. Were they just explaining this before they got the students into position?

  It also brought up the absolutely insane strategy of creating teams. These people were supposed to be the people who you trusted your very life to. What if you had personality clashes with one or more of them.

  Honestly if I was actually attending this academy and I had been partnered with an egotistical racist like Cardin, I might have killed him myself.

  Regardless of my inner monologue, Ozpin didn’t stop his explanation. “That being said, the first person you make contact with after you land will be your partner for the next 4 years.”

  The silence after that statement was so complete that I actually heard crickets chirp.

  A moment later Ruby wasn’t the only one who let out a “WHAT!”

  Ozpin just ignored the crowd and continued “Once you have your partner, you will make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die…”

  The silence was back, somehow even deeper this time.

  “You will be graded during the test, but our instructors will not intervene. You will obtain a relic in the temple and then guard it as you return to the cliff… any questions?”

  I could see others besides Jaune opening his mouth, but Ozpin just smiled. “Good… now, good luck. Make sure you have your landing strategy prepared.”

  I wasn’t any less shocked than anyone else as I felt a jolt run up from beneath me. Looking down, a moment of horrible realization made me finally understand that every stone in this courtyard was a disguised launch plate.

  I still might have been able to jump away if I hadn’t been so surprised to be caught up in all of this. Unfortunately for me, I was and a second later, it was too late as I was now flying towards the forest.

  Not bothering to hide my exasperation, I smacked my own forehead as I flew out head first off the cliff. “Bloody, Hell….”

  Interlude Ozpin:

  Of course Ozpin had felt it when someone had used magic and appeared in his sanctum.

  It had been nearly a thousand years since Salem had attempted to use magic directly against him and he would have known if it had been one of the maidens.

  Even the one that had stolen young Amber’s power would have been apparent if she had used it here.

  There were no other direct magic users left on Remnant… unless it was someone’s semblance. Someone like young Yang’s mother Raven, perhaps?

  So the question became, who exactly had come to him and why.

  Discreetly ensuring that these unknown visitors were included with the launch plate targets took very little effort.

  What he didn’t expect was the interference by several students to determine where they would land.

  It would mess up some of his plans, but what was life but a long string of unexpected chances?

  AN:

  1) Sorry for the delay, but when I passed 12k words and still wasn’t quite done, I needed to split the single RWBY chapter in half.

  2) Still , the RWBY arc won’t be very long. I know some people probably wanted more, but while the Family is briefly coming back later to remnant, it won’t be for very long. The thing is, as much as I really like the concept and powers of this world, I am not actually a big canon RWBY fan, especially recent seasons.

  However, I try really not to harp on other series too much. (Everyone reading this story knows I am not perfect) I even try to give justifications on what I see as plot holes in canon whenever possible.

  3) Finally, if it wasn’t clear from the story. The OVA of R.O.D is a somewhat overlooked masterpiece and everyone should watch it.