New World, New Rules

The Shadow watched the bustling city center from the rooftops, their eyes narrowing into thin slits as they tried to find its target. This place was unfamiliar to them, not only was it uglier than they had imagined, but it was also technologically inferior to their own world. Had it not been for their target, they never would have come here even if someone offered them a large sum of money.

Suddenly their eyes zeroed in on their target, a boy who looked to be in his teens walking alongside a small group of students. He stood out from the others with his messy unkempt dark blue hair and amber eyes that seemed to glow in the setting sunlight. One of his peers said something that made the boy flash a cheerful smile, which was quickly followed by the trio bursting into laughter.

The shadow felt their face heat up in embarrassment at the sight, in all the time they had been studying him, they had never seen him smile in that way. Suddenly aware of their drifting thoughts, the Shadow shook their head. "I need to focus." They muttered and continued to watch as the boy said something to the students, then waved goodbye to them and began to move into an old plain-looking house.

If the Shadow was going to make their move, it would have to be now. Reaching a hand out towards the doorway, the shadow teleported from their stop on the building's roof, to the shadowed side of the house. From there, they had a clear view inside, and raising their hand once more, they teleported into the house before quickly hiding in the shadows.

The boy, sensing that something was amiss, quickly shut the door behind him. He grabbed one of the umbrellas lined against the wall and held it out in front of him for protection as he searched his house. At one point during his search he came close to discovering their hiding place, but with a tired shrug, he returned the umbrella to its place on the wall and went about his day.

The shadow watched him for hours, waiting for that golden moment when they could strike. It fascinated them how the boy lived his life, how he would sit at his desk for hours browsing the internet while mulling over a stack of papers. At one point he even managed to light a bowl of cereal on fire while cooking, an action which made the shadow struggle to hold in their laughter. His life brought a smile to their face, but they remained focused, waiting in anticipation for their moment. That golden moment came when near midnight, the boy was slumped over his desk on the verge of sleep.

"Now, it has to be now!" The shadow rushed forward and clutched the boy by the throat. They lifted him into the air, slowly increasing the pressure on his throat the more he struggled.

The boy slammed his right hand into the Shadow's head and raised it to strike again. The Shadow had to dodge to avoid getting hit by the large clunky looking armlet that adorned his wrist, and quickly increased the pressure to keep him from struggling.

"Please stop resisting, it will all be over soon. Just let it happen and everything can go back to how it was before." As the shadow spoke these words, the boy's movements began to slow. His amber eyes once wide with fear, were now half-lidded on the verge of closing. With a bit more pressure around his neck and a loud snapping sound, they closed entirely.

The shadow let go of the boy, letting his body fall to the floor where the shadows from around the room began to converge on it, slowly dragging him down into the floor in a black puddle. Tears began to slide down the shadow's cheeks as they watched his body fade away into nothing.

"I'm sorry… please forgive me, but I cannot follow you just yet." They knelt down where the boy's body was, and placed their palm where his head would've been. "You need to be strong for both of us now. Stay safe… until I can reach you once more."

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In the middle of a forest filled with bright emerald colored trees, the blue-haired boy awoke to the blinding light of the sun. He reached a hand up to shield his eyes as he clumsily rose to his feet.

"Urgh… what the hell happened to me." The hand that once shielded his eyes, now clutched at his head as if to stem the ringing headache he had, "There was this person, and then everything just went dark…"

He trailed off as he began to notice that his surroundings had changed. Instead of his usual comfy house, he was now in the middle of the vibrantly green forest. His chest quickly rose and fell, his breathing coming out in short gasps as he began to panic.

"This can't be happening! Th-this is a dream, this is all just a bad dream!" Pulling his hand back, he slapped himself in the cheek hard, causing his head to snap back. "Dammit!! Why the hell is this happening to me!!"

"Hands up!" A cold feminine voice ordered from behind him, quickly followed by the sound of a gun cocking. "Turn around slowly, and don't try anything funny, otherwise you'll have another hole in your head to breathe out of."

The breath in the boy's throat hitched as he followed her instructions. Turning on his heel, he was met with a fair skinned girl who looked to be around his age. She was wearing what looked like a sleeveless dark green uniform, with a large black stripe running down the center. Various pouches that were so full they looked like they were ready to burst hung from the belt around her hips. Her green eyes were narrowed into a glare. Had it not been for the fact that she was pointing a massive rifle at his face, he would have said she was pretty.

"S-so is this your special way of saying hello, or am I just a special case?" He joked with a nervous grin on his face.

"Shut it!" The girl snapped, pressing the rifle's barrel against his forehead. The action causing her pink, side braided hair to slightly shift against her shoulder. "Just do as your told, and ya get to live got that!"

[Great. First, I wake up in a random forest, and now I'm being mugged.] The boy thought as the girl began to pat him down.

She roughly shook his collar, checked his waistband, and ran her hands through his hair before she was satisfied that he wasn't a threat.

"That's strange, ya don't seem to have any weapons on ya… or anything frankly for that matter." She shouldered her rifle as she stared at him with a confused expression, "Who are you exactly?"

The boy breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed he wouldn't be shot just yet. "My name's Raishun, and thank you for the warm welcome. I loved it." He said sarcastically while extending his hand towards her, "And what would your name be you trigger happy stranger?"

"Trigger happy!?" The girl huffed, but still shook his hand, "The name's Alisa Speeddraw. And this 'Trigger Happy Girl' is the best sniper at Beacon Academy!" She smiled proudly.

"Uh-huh, I don't doubt it considering how fast you were to almost kill me." He didn't know of any academy that would allow it's students to bring guns on campus, but he didn't want any part of it. "So is it a rule at Beacon to point your gun at the first stranger you meet?"

"Look, I'm really sorry about that okay. I heard on the news that the White Fang was getting a bit too close for comfort if ya know what I mean. And in my defense you were acting kinda crazy out there, breathing hard and talking to yourself." Her eyes suddenly seemed to drift to the mess of blue he called hair, "But now that I take a closer look, you're not a Faunus… or dressed in white either."

Thoughts raced through Raishun's head a mile a minute: What was a Faunus? What was the White Fang? With a frown on his face he pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind, he needed to focus on surviving for now. "So… random question, but where are we exactly?"

Alisa looked at him weirdly, and for a moment he thought that his cover was blown, "Didja hit your head or something? We're at Beacon Academy!! You know, the place where great Hunters and Huntresses are made!"

"Right! I'm starting to remember a bit now! Sorry but I did actually hit my head on a branch pretty hard while making my way here, so I've got a killer headache." He lied as naturally as he breathed, secretly grateful that all those years of drama class he had taken were finally paying off. "Ooh I know, how about you show me the way back. It's the least you can do considering that you… you know… pointed a gun at my face."

"Oh don't be such a baby, it was only a gun! But fine, if that's what it takes to wipe the slate clean, then just follow me!"

[ONLY, a gun? What have I gotten myself into this time…] He thought, and let out a tired sigh.

With Raishun trailing a small distance behind her, the pair began to make their way through the forest. While Alisa seemed to be spacing out during the walk, Raishun was cautiously eyeing the environment, trying to find anything to help him get his bearings. Though nothing he saw helped him figure out his location.

"So, how do ya think ya did on the entrance exams?" Alisa said casually, breaking the awkward silence between them, "I've never been the smartest apple in the bushel, but I think I did pretty well."

"The exams? Pfft, those were easy. I'm sure you did great!" He said with a wide grin on his face, though on the inside it was taking all of his willpower to keep up the facade.

"Well, aren't you cocky!" Alisa smiled back at him from over her shoulder, "You've gotta have a strong semblance if you managed to beat one of the instructors they had us spar with to get in. Come on, what is it? Breathing fire? Shooting a laser beam?"

"Semblance?" He gulped, he had no idea what that was. He could bluff about a test, but if he had to show something to back up his words, he'd rather not take the chance. "N-no, I've never had one."

"Aw, that's a real shame! But it's impressive you've made it this far without one." She turned and walked over to him, and patted his shoulder in a comforting manner, "You'll discover it eventually. Wanna see mine?"

She didn't wait for his response. Sticking her hand out in front of her with the palm facing upwards, she closed her eyes and began to focus. Slowly, blue particles of light began to rise out from the plants and ground surrounding them, each one landing in her palm. They clustered together in a tangled mess of blue until it formed a small figurine, barely longer than her pinky finger, that resembled him.

"What!!! That's so cool!" He flashed her a toothy grin, and leaned in to look at the figure in her hand, "Hey you even got my armlet and everything." He said while examining the tiny band of red on the figures wrist.

"Mhm! I know it's awesome!" Alisa puffed out her chest with pride, "I can make anything I want using leftover dust in the area as long as I know how it works." She placed the figurine in his palm and winked, "You can keep it, consider it a memento of the time you met the fabulous sniper Alisa before she became famous."

"Right, right. I'll make sure to treasure this for as long as I live." He chuckled as he moved to place the figurine in his pocket, but froze when he looked down at himself.

His outfit had changed. Instead of his school uniform, he now wore a black, golden trimmed capelet over a maroon-colored hoodie. His slacks had been replaced with loose-fitting jeans that were held up by a pair of belts, one of which hung loosely around his right thigh.

[Think on it later, focus on the now.] He thought to himself. Breaking free of his surprise, he slipped the figurine into the pocket of his hoodie. "You know, you're not so bad once-"

"Quiet!!" Alisa ordered. She clamped one hand over his mouth, while the other quickly formed three bullets using her semblance, which she loaded into a slot in the side of her gun. She shot each one into different spots in the ground in quick succession before releasing his mouth from her grasp. "We've got some company."

Growling noises from the bushes around them quickly confirmed her suspicions. Raishun slowly turned around to see a large black wolf come out of the bushes, only it wasn't like any wolf he had seen before. It had a white bony mask and shining red eyes that seemed to pierce right through him. More of creatures followed the first one, until the duo were completely surrounded on all sides.

"What the hell are those things!?" He quickly backed away until he was back to back with Alisa. His panicked eyes darted around, before settling on the over sized rifle in her hands. "Please tell me you can fight with that thing Alisa!"

"Relax, you don't get accepted into Beacon Academy for nothing you know. Beowulf like these are nothing to worry about on their own… but there are a lot of em." She pulled free a knife from a sheath on her hip and handed it to him, "Just keep them off my back, I'll deal with the rest."

Grasping the knife tightly with both hands, Raishun could only watch as the Beowolf charged forward. The ones in front of Alisa didn't make it 3 steps before they sunk into pitfalls in the ground, he heard several pained whimpers, and then black ash flowed out of the holes. The ones in front of him took a more cautious approach, slowly stalking forward until three loud cracks from Alisa's rifle took the small group down.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I kinda booby-trapped the whole place. So watch where ya step."

Alisa grinned pridefully at him before turning back to face the pack of beasts. With each pull of the trigger, another Beowolf fell to the ground and turned to dust. One of them managed to close the distance between them, only to have Alisa shove the barrel of her gun in its mouth. Raishun turned his head away just as he heard the crack of her rifle, he had his own problems to worry about.

One of the Beowolf was approaching him, its lips pulled back in a frightening snarl. Raishun had just enough to raise his knife as it barreled into him, knocking him off his feet and sending him flying backwards. In a panic, he stabbed his knife down towards its head, but it harmlessly bounced off the bony plates. It raised its head to bite him, that's when he thrust the knife upwards in a panic, sending it through the bottom of its jaw and up into its skull.

The beast froze in place and slowly faded away, leaving him lying on the ground, his breathing ragged.

Alisa walked over to him with a confused look on her face, "A-... Are you alright? You looked a little scared there." She helped him to his feet, brushed him off, and gently took back her knife from his trembling hands. "I guess a knife's not really your thing. Did you use something different, like a spear or a hammer?"

"Huh…?" Raishun quickly shook his head and snapped out of his panicked state. "N-no, I'm not very good with knives. Swords are more of my thing since they give me a bit more range." He said with a forced smile, "But man, this is one hell of a way to wake up huh."

"Yup! I sure wouldn't wanna be you right now. You're lucky I was here to save ya. Speaking of…"

She pulled free a small metallic rectangle, which when pressed on expanded to include a holographic screen. He watched in awe as she tapped away at the screen for a moment, then with one final press, a loud crunching artificial sound erupted from the device, followed by a small strip of paper slid out of the top. She ripped it off, closed the rectangle, and handed the paper to him.

"Is… Is this a receipt?" He asked, taking the slip from her hand and examined it closely. His eyes shot open wide when he saw the number of zeroes on the paper. Within a second his expression turned from one of surprise, to a mixture of equal parts annoyance and disbelief. "Hey I helped you fight off those things, they attacked you too! Plus aren't these prices a little too extreme!!"

"I still did most of the fighting, plus I did lend you that knife to fight with." Her eyes took on a dangerous gleam, it was similar to the glint in her eye when she was fighting the creatures, only more intense. "I took a bit off the fee since you helped me fight, but a huntress' gotta make a livin' somehow."

"You're charging me 5000 for, and I quote: 'Cool Beauty Expense'"

"Yeah, didn't I look beautiful and breathtaking while I was saving your life. I gave you a once in a lifetime experience! Would you rather be saved by some pompous old dude, or a cute star like myself." She batted her eyelashes and looked up at him as if to prove her point.

"I like being saved by people who don't charge me an arm and a leg for saving my life." He huffed, turning his head away in mock annoyance.

With a playful smile, she plucked the receipt from his hand, and placed it into one of the pouches on her belt. "Don't worry, the first one's always free. Just don't go expecting me to give ya any more favors like this."

With her mind spoken, she began to once again lead the way through the forest. With a small sigh he caught up to his guide, though inside he wondered what he had done to deserve being thrust into his current situation.