Chapter 3

My first action on seeing the doomy doom scorpion is to ready my circuits and start reinforcing myself. My second action is to look around and see how everyone's positioned and stuff. Yang, Blake, and Weiss are here with me. That means we have a tank, a speed based striker, according to GambolShroudVariantBallisticChainScytheofBlakeBelladonna, a support mage, and another striker. So not bad.

On the other hand, Nora seems to be a heavy type striker as well, primarily melee. Lie Ren is also a close range fighter, and a dodge type martial artist. Something between striker and tank. Pyrrha, on the other hand, seems to be another tank, though I don't think she's quite as good at it against Grimm. No clue about Jaune, his weapon isn't really reading any of his skills. Maybe he has some sort of... presence concealment ability? Or something? I mean, unless he just hasn't used his weapon, it should have some hints as to what he can do! It's got like, fifteen ancestors in it, so it's not like the sword itself is hiding anything.

I shake my head, tossing the thought aside as I scan the field. The scorpion's closer to the other two than us. "Nora, Ren, you two help Jaune and Pyrrha!" I yell at them, "Yang, Blake, you guys help us with the Nevermore. Get up there, and harass it, keep it on the defensive, and keep it close. Weiss, cover me would you? And help them get up there."

Weiss frowns at me as she creates runic platforms for the other pair to climb. "What are you planning on doing?"

"I've got something that should work." I explain, "But it'll take a ten count aria to actualize the mystery."

"... What?" She gives me a confused look.

"... I need to chant for a minute to cast the spell." I answer.

"You couldn't have just started with that?" She mutters.

I ignore her and start up my circuits. "Download. Compile."

I reach into the Archive and download a nameless blade wielded by a nameless man, wearing the form of a man who did not exist. Assassin's "washing pole blade." A sword he mastered to such an extent that he managed to break the logic of the world through sheer skill alone. But the Nevermore flying above us is too far away. This sword is not enough, not in it's current form.

So I redesign it. The very essence of its being is laid bare before me. I change it from a sword to a bullet, to be fired by Crescent Rose. Even if I lose some of the skill, what remains is enough. After all, it was a skill originally made to strike down a bird in flight. But it's damage is not enough. Not for a Grimm as large as this one. But I'm not him. I have other things I can take advantage of.

I go ahead and begin to compile it. The eight steps of tracing are slow and laborious, and burn at my circuits. This is something new, something I've never done before, so it'll take me a ten count aria. I take a breath, and begin to chant. I'm not sure where the words come from, but they feel right.

"Reading file.

Extracting initial data.

Designing algorithms.

Examining data structures.

Reformatting to new form.

Recalculating variables.

Adjusting parameters.

Compiling code.

Printing bullet.."

Prana burns through my circuits and thickens in the barrel of Crescent Rose. The bullet forms in a storm of rose petals. It's a bullet like any other, but not. Although it holds their shape, it retains the knowledge of being a sword. It's degraded now, some of the skill is lost. It's form is too different. But it's close enough, especially when attacking a bird, and even more so when I spent a ten count Aria on it.

I take a breath and reinforce the shot until it's on the edge of breaking. Then I let my Aura flow into it, reinforcing it further. Auric reinforcement is a simple technique, taught to all huntsmen and huntresses, and capable of strengthening even a leek to the point where you can stab it into the floor. It also stacks with the magecraft based version.

"Three Strikes that Form a Cage." My voice rises from a whisper to roar as I finish my aria, "Launch Program, Swallow Reversal!" Crescent Rose rings out with a shot, and at the same time, the Nevermore is hit thrice. Every hit is simultaneous, forming a cage of steel. The Nevermore screeches in agony as it falls from the sky, the trio of wounds enough to finish it off. Yang and Blake fall with it, quickly leaping off and each employing their own landing strategies to land without issues.

"Good shot, sis!" Yang says cheerfully as she lands beside me, cratering the ground and absorbing the shock with her Aura. "How often can you do that?"

"Twice?" I guess, letting my circuits unfold as I check the sensor on my wrist. My aura's at about 60%, the immense heat having damaged it even beyond the twisted bits that formed my false circuits. "Yeah, twice."

"It does seem to be an efficient trump card against single targets." Blake says calmly, "Do you think we'll need it for the Death Stalker?"

"I hope not." I grumble as we take a look, "It only works on birds." Well, technically I could probably add more lines to the Aria to make it straight up formalcraft and have it work on things other than birds, but that's just a waste of prana for single shot bullets.

Luckily, the other team's currently finishing off the scorpion by having Nora smash its stinger through its head. "Apparently not, they're doing just smashing!" Yang puns badly, "So you guys just need to grab your relics, and then we can head back. Whoo. That was a lot more fun than I'd expected when we got dumped here! Didn't think there'd be anything this big so close to the school."

I look over the various choices, then hesitate. It's a group of chess pieces. And even though I never had any interest in chess, nor did any of the earlier versions of, me, the symbolism in it's almost painful. The White King which was, and always had been, Arturia. Saber, when he fought in the holy grail war. On the other hand, there was the White Knight. What I'd always wanted to become, the hero who saved everyone. And on the other side, the Black Knight. The nameless hero who left nothing but corpses. I suddenly scoff, then just grab the white knight, throwing aside all those thoughts and just going for the horsy. It doesn't matter who he was, who he'd become, whom he'd loved. He wasn't me. And besides, symbolism doesn't belong on the battlefield, not unless you're trying to manipulate an army or something.

"So! What piece did you guys pick?" I ask.

"White knight." Yang pulls it out and waves it at me.

"White Castle." Jaune says, grabbing it off it's pedestal.

Nora grabs the other one, puts it on her head, and begins singing. "I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle~"

I shrug. "So how are we getting back?" I ask cheerfully, "Because we kinda fell down a cliff to get here."

"I'll use my runes." Weiss sounds a bit grumpy as she sheaths her rapier. "In the meantime, how did you do that?"

"Do what?" I cock my head at her curiously.

"That trick with firing three bullets at once! And then they turned into a cage of swords or something! I know it's not your semblance, because your semblance is the creation of weapons thing."

"Oh, it's because I created a sword." I say dismissively.

"... So... your semblance allows you to replicate Dust weapons?" She finally asks.

I flit over to her and put my left arm around her shoulders, using my other arm to gesture dramatically.

"A long long time ago, in a world, far far away, in the infinite possibilities of the kaleidoscope, there lived a man. He wasn't a very special person, he was just a guy who didn't have a name. And then he ran into a Samurai, who's like a Huntsman. And he asked the Samurai, 'please, teach me how to use the sword.' So the Samurai was like, no, for you must master the state of having no mind.' So he tried for a month, and then the Samurai died. But rather than giving up, because giving up's for shmucks, he was like, 'I'm going to become so awesome with the sword, I'll be able to cut a bird out of midair."

"Why's he trying to-" She began. I put a finger over her mouth.

"Don't interrupt!" I pout. She sighs and waves, so I gleefully continue. "Now, as I was saying, he decided to learn how to cut a bird out of the air. So he grabbed a sword so long that it was like a washing pole, and began practicing. But then he noticed that the birdies could feel the wind when he swung his sword, so he started swinging faster and faster. And then he realized they could feel the wind as the sword approached and had to make smaller adjustments than he did, and could move in any direction so he realized his sword had to make a cage around them. So every day, he practiced swinging the sword, and every day he grew closer to perfection, until one day, he grew so skilled that his blade broke through the very illusion of time and cut the bird from three directions at once!"

"... Was there a point to this story?" Weiss asks, sounding unimpressed.

"Yes." I nod. "So later, like, way later, someone makes this amazing ritual called the Holy Grail War, where seven wizards summon ghosts to fight for a wish. He's one of them. And one of the wizards is a kid named Shirou Emiya, who's a complete idiot, but he has the power to look at a sword and know it instantly."

"Did you just put yourself into your own story?" Blake interrupts, sounding disapproving.

"... Anyway, he saw the sword, learned it, copied it's skills, and then later made a pact with the world in order to save people, then he died and found out that the pact involved killing people. So then he went back in time to try and kill himself, then got killed by his former self, and then reincarnated as me."

"... What?" Weiss gives me a completely confused look. Blake just raises an eyebrow.

"It's actually a pretty good story." Yang explains after snickering at them for a bit. "Well, it is when she tells it right. Seriously, get her to tell you about it. Just ignore the fact that she talks as if she was the protagonist when it happened. And keep in mind that the protagonist is a guy."

"Yang!" I whine, "Why don't you believe me?"

"Because you're claiming to be the reincarnation of a legendary hero from another dimension." Yang replies immediately. I just pout at her. I've gotten used to people not believing me about it a long time ago, but it's still kinda annoying.

"Well, it's still a bit of a walk back." Blake says after a few moments, "Why don't you start telling us the story? It'll be a nice diversion."

"It's not a story." I grumble under my breath, but get louder as I begin to speak. "When I came to, I was in a burning field..."

"Look, all I'm saying is that it'd be easier to take seriously if it was either in third person, or written down." Jaune grumbles, as we look over the massive crowds, "It's hard mixing the idea of you and a guy with red hair."

"But then I'd have to write it!" I whine, "Do you know how long it is? It's REALLY long! And then Archer gets summoned to like, every single variation and gets a memory copy from the local Shirou Emiya each time because of the correspondence of souls thing."

"Why not just use those two main routes?" Yang suggests, "You know, the one that Archer went through himself, and then the one where he got killed?"

"Ugh, I guess." I grumble.

"Would you four be quiet?" Weiss hisses, "We are getting assigned our teams, you know."

"But everyone else got assigned teams based on their chess pieces." I point out reasonably, "There's not exactly any tension left, we know exactly who's on what team."

"Wait." Blake suddenly speaks up. I give her a curious look. "You mentioned that Shirou and Archer can copy the skills of the wielder for any weapon he sees."

I nod. "Yeah, it's why Shirou manages to beat Archer even though he's got a lot less experience. Plus that whole conviction and ideals thing."

"And you're claiming to be his reincarnation?" She continues, looking a bit uncomfortable.

"I am his reincarnation!" I protest, "Why do you think I can do the same stuff he can?"

"Because you made up the story and used yourself as the protagonist?" Weiss mutters under her breath.

Blake ignores her. "So... can you do that as well? Just look at a weapon and copy the skills of the person using it? No matter how much they worked on it?"

"Well, yeah." I reply, blinking. "When I project it, I copy everything about the weapon, including its experiences. If I let those experiences guide me, I copy the user's skill as well, though the rank's usually reduced a little bit unless I'm used to the weapon. It's just most of the time I prefer sticking to my baby." I pet Crescent Rose fondly.

Yang grins. "It makes sparring with her a challenge. She takes a look at your weapon, and then immediately knows all your tricks, so you have to literally come up with new tricks on the fly. It's like playing a game on Nightmare mode."

Everyone else frowns though. "That's extremely disrespectful." Weiss scowls, "They spent nearly a lifetime working on those skills, and you just copy them? Not even by fighting them or seeing them used, but just by taking a look at their weapon? It's like stealing."

"It is?" I ask sheepishly, "I never really considered it like that. I mean, weapons get copied just by looking at them."

"Wait, is this why you wanted to see Milo?" Pyrrha suddenly asks.

"What? No, I was honestly curious if they were proto-Noble Phantasms or not." I say, feeling a bit lost. "I mean, the copying happens as a side effect, but I wouldn't be able to use them to the same level you do because I don't have the magnetism semblance."

"You can't just copy it?" Pyrrha sounds a bit relieved, but also kinda curious, and a bit embarrassed as well. I shake my head.

"Nah. Shirou's element and origin were Sword, so he could copy things related to the concept of swords, like shields and sheaths. Mine is weapon, so I can only copy things related to the concept of 'weapon', and Semblances aren't. I mean, I might be able to, but I'd have to somehow structurally grasp it, and then I'd still suffer a rank reduction." I explain.

Weiss seems to relax at that. "So you can't copy my combat style." She confirms.

I nod in agreement. "Nope! You use too many utility abilities."

A few moments later, our group is called up front.

"Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long." Ozpin announces gravely, "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"

I stare at him in shock as Yang leans over to hug me. "I'm so proud of you!" She says cheerfully.

"Well, it looks like it'll be an interesting year." Ozpin muses before continuing. "Now, your assigned dorm rooms are on the screens. Please make your way there immediately. Classes will begin tomorrow. Team leaders, please say behind. I'll be handing you the schedules."

As I receive mine, I cough awkwardly. "Um, Headmaster Ozpin?"

"Yes?" He asks politely.

"Is there... okay, so my Semblance is a bit weird, and basically, would there be a location where I can set up a workshop? Some of the stuff I need to do with it is... delicate, and having others intrude upon it could be bad. I don't need a large room or anything fancy, just somewhere private and out of the way."

"Your father already informed us of your circumstances." He says, sounding amused, "I'll arrange one by the end of the day."

"Thanks." I say gratefully.

"So... should we wake her up?" I poke at a sleeping Weiss with a projected Torashina.

"Class doesn't start for another three hours." Blake points out.

"Yeah, but we need to get the room set up." Yang argues, "And she'll probably throw a fit if we do it without warning her."

"Right." I decide, "Screw it." I pull out my track whistle and blow it in her ear.

"GAH!" She wakes up with a shout, and I grin at her.

"Nice to see you're awake! Our first mission is to get our room set up and decorated before class at 10!" I announce.

"... What?" She blinks at me.

"We need to unpack." Blake says, holding up a briefcase. "And cleanup." She adds when it falls open, spilling out her stuff.

We start setting up the room immediately. It only takes a couple hours to get everything arranged, but then we're left with the four beds in a pile at the center of the room.

"This isn't going to work." Weiss decides.

"Bunk beds?" I finally suggest. "I bet I could make them without too much trouble."

"Huh?" Weiss frowns at me.

"Your Alteration thing?" Yang asks. I nod.

It takes another few minutes, but we quickly manage to get the bunkbeds made, and collapse onto the beds, Yang and I collapsing onto one, and Blake and Weiss on the other.

"I thought your semblance was copying weapons?" Weiss suddenly asks. I notice Blake tense a bit, apparently still not over the fact that I can copy skills as well.

"Well, technically, my semblance is speed." I admit, "The rest of that falls under magecraft, which I learned from being Archer's reincarnation." I say the last bit a bit louder, turning to my left to give Yang a look. She just smirks at me.

"Wait, so it's something anyone could learn?" Blake asks after a moment of thought.

I nod, then shake my head. "Kind of? It's... okay, remember how I mentioned magic circuits in my story?" At her nod I continue explaining. "Well, a magic circuit is like a nerve in the soul. He used to create fake ones by using his actual nerves, but since our auras are extensions of our souls, and we can manipulate our Auras, we can learn how to make fake circuits from them. After that, we can just learn magecraft the normal way. It's still dangerous and painful and stuff, but it'd let you make the circuits. The only thing is, there's no real point for anyone else."

"Why not?" Weiss asks, "Even if I dislike the idea, that copying ability you use isn't exactly a bad thing."

"Because magecraft has it's own semblance in the form of an Element. Shirou's element was Sword, which is why he could copy swords so easily. Mine is Weapon, so I can copy weapons. Beyond that, we've got nearly manifested Reality Marbles, which store the information for us. Your own element is more likely to be something like fire, water, air, earth, aether, or, if you're lucky, some combination of those five. So anything I know wouldn't really be helpful for you, and you probably wouldn't be able to use my Replication ability. And when I say probably, I mean you almost definitely wouldn't, because non-standard elements are already really really rare, and then the nonstandards can be anything. There's stuff like imaginary numbers!"

"What does imaginary numbers do?" Blake raises an eyebrow at me.

"Spirits and stuff." I reply dismissively. "That's not the point. My point is that if you have a non-standard, it could be anything, and I'd only be able to teach you if you had something related to swords or weapons. Well, no, I can still teach you the basic three, but you won't be able to do stuff on the level I do, because it's what my magecraft specializes in."

Weiss makes a harumphing noise, but doesn't comment.

"Well!" Yang says after a moment, "We'd better get to class!"

"It's only- oh, we do need to get to class." Weiss blinks at her scroll. "You said ten, right?"

I nod at her as I grab my backpack. "Yup. Let's go."

The class is... well, it's boring. While professor Port's lecture is technically useful in that his tactics are a valid, he's so over the top and boring about it, that it's actually kinda painful. I groan, but keep my attention focused anyway. I learned my lesson about letting myself get distracted when he missed Kiritsugu's lecture on magic circuits and started using his nerves. While that whole thing's actually pretty useful for me, it definitely was a worse idea than actually his circuits.

Finally, Professor Port calls up someone to volunteer if they think they're a Huntsman/ Huntress. Weiss immediately does. She manages to beat it without any real trouble, though there's a bit of trouble when she's disarmed. Pretty soon, class comes to an end, and we're sent on to our next class. Which is also boring. In fact, so are the rest of the day's classes. Even combat class doesn't actually have us practicing, just a lecture, though luckily, that doesn't seem to be a regular thing, just an introduction day thing.

After class, on our way back to our room, I'm interrupted by Professor Goodwitch. "Miss Rose, the room you required is room 214, a small lab room close to your dorm. Do try not to destroy it."

"Oh, can I see it now?" I ask excitedly, "Or do I need to wait?"

"Your equipment from home will be arriving around midday tomorrow. If you're willing to begin work before it arrives..." She trails off as I nod.

"Thanks! I'll head there now!" I quickly disappear in a flash of rose petals.

The room's mostly empty and covered in shelves, though there's also one of those emergency showers you find in weapons labs and a nice, solid looking desk. In other words, it's perfect. Well, no, that's a lie. There's no Ley Lines here, but other than that, it's perfect! I quickly glance around, mentally figuring out where I'll put the supplies as they arrive. Ritual Circle needs to be near the emergency shower, because blood from sacrifices is a pain to clean up. Raw materials have to be easily accessible, but notebooks take priority, so the first couple shelves will hold those. Now I just need my supplies to get here, and I can get back to work on my project. Trying to turn Crescent Rose into a Noble Phantasm.

It's probably not possible, of course. He never could have. He forged a copy of every weapon in his soul, never creating anything by hand. He was simply a fake. But me? I'm a creator. A real one. Crescent Rose was a weapon that I made with my own hands. And when I become a hero and ascend to the throne, everyone will know that name. But it'll be easier if Crescent Rose becomes a phantasm before I no longer need it as one, so I'm going to do my best to accelerate the process.

In this case, it's by projecting every single Phantasm I can, analyzing each one in every way I can, writing down my notes, and then trying to graft the properties onto Crescent Rose. While I can kinda do it temporarily through Alteration, and have actually half developed a Mystery to do so with a shorter-than-ten-line-aria that won't blow out my circuits, the ridiculous amount of variation among Noble Phantasms means that right now, the mystery just makes Crescent Rose count as something similar to a stick being wielded by a Heroic Spirit.

Basically, it's not what I'm going for. Not yet. But I'll get there! I swear it!

Elsewhere...

"GAH!" Rin snarls angrily as her foot smashes into another one of the manifested spirits. "How many of these things are there?"

"Quite a few more." Saber murmurs. "Rin, do you have enough prana to let me use Excalibur?"

"Yes, go ahead. Gaia's not interfering with our Magecraft, so I've got a lot more prana to spare." Rin waves the Jeweled Sword and sends forth a blast of prismatic light as she speaks. "Shirou, how much prana do you have left?"

"Enough for another 30 broken arrows?" I guess, "Not enough."

"EXCALIBUR!" Saber roars. A brilliant golden beam tears through the crowds of shadow-beasts, clearing a path.

"Let's go." Rin decides. We start running.

So, Authors Notes. Short chapter, unfortunately. Not much happened. They finished off the Nevermore in a very anticlimactic fashion, and Ruby revealed that her copying abilities extend to the skills of the weapons used. People are now uncomfortable around her, and this is going to spread. She also showed us that she has a workshop and is trying to create her own Noble Phantasm. That's obviously not going to work, but it seems like the kind of thing she'd want to do.

So, actal notes:

First off, using the Washing Pole Sword as a bullet. This is a highly unique circumstance that she's probably never going to get the chance to replicate. She had enough time to use a 10 count Aria, was aiming at a bird (keep in mind that the technique's originally anti-bird. I just hold that Nasu didn't record that because, seriously, in what circumstances is it's anti-bird nature going to come up?) and burned out a good amount of her Aura.

Second, she's unusually liberal with her knowledge. This is because, well, there's no magus association, and Gaia's pretty nice on Remnant. Shirou and Archer weren't particularly concerned with secrecy (beyond the whole "Hey, let's not get the magus association trying to kill us), and Ruby has even less of a reason to be concerned, since pretty much everyone pulls off low level mysteries without much trouble.

Finally, I still need a beta. XD MissGardenia has been kind enough to leave quite a few typo catches in her reviews, but I'd strongly prefer to avoid having them ever show up in the first place. Feels very unprofessional.