IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a universe merger. An attempt to bring the concepts of the RWBY-verse abilities and Nasuverse abilities and merge them into a coherent whole. As such, this changes a couple of things about UBW and how it functions differ, such as Shirou being able to reproduce dust infused weapons as they are native to his perception, and not alien or made by a deity. I do believe that is the only rather large change regarding such a thing. Just remember that due to Magecraft and Dust being part of the same reality, Magecraft can recreate effects that are produced using Dust. Also, this Shirou (and events pertaining to before his arrival at Beacon) are based off of the UBW Good End (not True End).

Edit/Authors Note: First of all I would like to thank everyone for the reviews and reception this story has gotten. It gives me a lot more confidence to continue onward. Even larger thanks to all those that brought up legitimate points and gave advice of any kind. At the bottom of this chapter is a changelist of all the changes made due to the advice given by such reviewers.

Prologue: Landing Strategies

Pyrrha Nikos' thoughts concerning the ginger haired boy known as Shirou Emiya were as uncertain and murky as a swirling pond. Shirou did not know or care of her fame, the boy simply continued readying for the initiation after their introduction, slipping that black rectangle into the inside pocket of his coat and gave her a heartwarming and sincere smile.

Perhaps that was what had urged Pyrrha seek out Shirou as her partner - Pyrrha wished only to not be hounded by her fame. On top of that, someone who had no knowledge of her fame was less likely to be inundated into the arts of combat, which Pyrrha would only be too glad to help him with.

A win for both parties.

As such, the display of combat expertise Pyrrha was seeing was an astonishing, though not unwelcome, surprise.

From the brush Pyrrha watched as Shirou fought off three Ursa with the black and white falchions that she had apparently missed at the launch pads. His tan coat blew around behind him as he made large and aggressive moves, always leaving holes, always taking chances as he pursued his attackers relentlessly. And even as those holes were made, the attacks made to his weak spots never connected. As if by chance, every strike and blow made to Shirou was intercepted by one or both of his weapons.

Every once in a while, as the blades intercepted a clawed paw or batted away the head of one trying to bite him the claws of the Ursa would be cut straight through, as if by some unseen force. Perhaps these blades are utilizing part of his semblance...

The first Ursa was struck down by the expertly made arc of the black blade; the white plating that protected the large Grimm parted easily before the strength and precision of the blade, allowing for a swift kill.

As the beast fell, Shirou turned to his next target and struck out, dodging the third Ursa in the same action.

Moments later, the second Ursa died in much the same way as the first, but to the white blade of the pair. Those swords are unusually sharp, even for a huntsmen's weapon.

A small grin leaked its way onto Pyrrha's face as she hefted Milo and took aim at the final Ursa- If she planned to partner with the boy then she would not let him fight completely alone.

Milo left Pyrrha's grasp and Pyrrha stumbled forward slightly on the follow-through as she watched her prodigal precision make simple work of the remaining Grimm.

The world became a mixture of colors as Shirou whirled around to try to find where the spear had come from. His white and black falchions, Kanshou and Bakuya, were gripped ever so slightly more tightly than they had been before as caution came to the forefront of his mind. Grimm were one thing, hostile humans were another.

To his relief, Shirou's slight caution was unneeded, as the girl he remembered being introduced to as Pyrrha Nikos by one Weiss Schnee walked out of the foliage at the opposite end of the clearing. The knowledge that she was not a hostile opponent put Shirou's worries to rest. No more fighting just yet. Thank the Root. While the initiation hadn't been going on for that long, maybe an hour or two at most, Shirou had had both an unending streak of bad luck regarding the Grimm in the Emerald Forest, and feared being paired with someone who he would eventually come to hate.

Pyrrha was definitely not a person Shirou could come to hate. Without even taking into account the woman's fame or good looks, there was a silent kindness behind the emerald eyes that seemed to be wary of those around her. A kindness which Shirou could understand to an unmeasurable degree.

Though almost definitely Pyrrha would not go to the distorted extremes Shirou would. She would probably get along pretty well with Saber.

With the traditional politness of his home taking control while talking to a stranger, Shirou bowed. "Many thanks to you, Nikos-San." By the time he had straightened up to his full height, the blades Kanshou and Bakuya had already dissipated into the ether. If Pyrrha was concerned with the sudden lack of weapons on his person, she did not let it show.

Pyrrha smiled. "There's no need to thank me, Shirou. We're partners, now."

"Of course, Nikos-san. Shall we get going?" Shirou's face remained blank, despite the small light of happiness in his soul. Swords do not smile in a combat zone. Most swords would not smile at all.

Pyrrha's nod was all he needed to continue speaking.

"There is a monument towards the center of this forest I saw during launch. We should head there."

"No better place than a monument to keep the artifacts we are supposed to collect, I suppose."

"Indeed."

As Shirou turned and walked towards the center of the forest, he could hear Pyrrha pull her spear from the Grimm's skull that it had previously impaled.

"Are you sure this cave will cut all the way through, Shirou?" Pyrrha's torch was a wonderful source of light, but she was quite sure that had this cave been going through the large protrusion they would have already been out of the dark hole.

"If it doesn't we can simply turn around and go back." What was there to lose? This initiation was not timed. There was no scoring system. The only goal was to find a partner and finish.

Silence descended between the two students of Beacon as they trekked further into the cave.

After some time, Shirou finally spoke up once more. "Nikos-san, can I see the torch for a moment?"

"Sure, here you go. But uh… why?" Shirou could only hear the curiosity in her voice. For most of the trip he had not used the light of the torch to navigate. Simply claiming his eyes were good enough.

"Many thanks. There seems to be a wall-" Shirou was interrupted as he stumbled down a sudden decline and his foot dipped into water. When he looked up, the torch dropped from his hand.

"We should run."

"What? Why, I thought-" Pyrrha too was interrupted, this time by the large and glowing red eyes that opened up at the disturbance brought about by the two's' voices.

The two silently agreed to run as fast as possible.

Yang Xiao Long looked upon the group of five other assembled students with a critical eye born of a person who had been in a couple too many fights.

Ruby Rose, Yang's sister, was the easiest to gauge, and was having a blast talking animatedly with the Schnee Heiress, who seemed to be doing her best to placate the younger girl into shutting up. With her black hair and silver eyes, Ruby was more like a squirrel in human form than a vibrating teenage girl. Such a motion only made more impressive by the absolutely massive scythe named Crescent Rose strapped to her back.

The aforementioned Schnee heiress, white hair and prim and proper white battle-skirt and all, was someone Yang had already had ruined by first impressions. Despite that, the rapier strapped to her side would show a measure of control in combat at least. First name Weiss, last name Bitch.

Next was Yang's partner Blake Belladonna. She was all quiet and mysterious and stuff, but seemed to be easy to get along with. Yang liked that, and seeing Blake work with the Kusarigama-like weapon she had made Yang think sparring with the woman would be both fun and challenging.

The runner ups after that were Ren and Nora, whose last names Yang had been unable to catch. As the two had only just joined the group minutes before, there was little Yang could say or think about the two other than that they had obviously known each-other for a long time.

Despite that, Yang Xiao Long was even more befuddled by how they hyper-active girl could be ignoring the obviously falling copse of trees in the distance. An event which could only be caused by enormously sized Grimm. Worse was the fact that the trail of falling trees was approaching the monument the "artifacts" shaped as chess pieces was. The monument all of the participants Yang had met were currently celebrating their accomplishments.

Being as excitable and unthinking as ever, Ruby sped off towards the Death Stalker. The first swing barely made a scratch, but Ruby's follow-through allowed her to continue with the momentum for a second strike, and then a third. Finally, in a fit of impatience, Ruby struck downwards to penetrate the Death Stalker's carapace with the point of her scythe, only for it to ricochet off and leave Yang's younger sister wide open to retaliation.

The next surprise came in the form of Weiss Schnee. The stuck up heiress, who Yang hadn't noticed following Ruby in the attack, leapt in front of Ruby and brought up a large wall of ice to block the Grimm. Shards of ice were flung into the air as the stinger collided with the artificial construct, and for a moment Yang feared the two would be skewered by the monster. Thankfully the wall held, and Weiss could be seen reprimanding Ruby.

The third surprise came from the ginger haired boy, who shouted something to Pyrrha that sounded like the word 'artifact 'as he spun on his feet and, in a fluid and rehearsed motion, pulled a black rectangle out from under his coat. As the boy fell into a stance Yang vaguely recognized from old history books as used for archery, the rectangle extended up and down and curved inwards towards him. A single black thread connected each end of the weapon.

The boy was going to use a simple bow and arrow to take make an attempt of the Death Stalker's life? Surely no arrow could harm a Grimm such as the Death Stalker with it's exoskeleton and armor plating.

As if to spite Yang's thoughts, an arrow appeared in his hand as he pulled back the drawstring, a thing of pure black metal, tinted with a red coat of what was likely dust. Even with fire dust in play, he won't be able to take down that Grimm. I should know. A wry grin made its way onto Yang's face as she watched with a silent curiosity.

He muttered something to himself, a cold facade taking hold of his features, and then released the arrow. A blur of red and black - much too fast for an arrow of what appeared to be pure metal - sped outwards and toward the Death Stalker, a thin trail of flames dissipating behind it. On contact with the base of the Death Stalker's tail, the arrow exploded, and the entire monster was consumed with fire and smoke.

When the fire and dust cleared, there was a clear and noticeable crack along the bottom of the tail where it connected with the rest of the Grimm. Such a wound would do naught but slow down any aggressive moves made by the Death Stalker using its tail. Sadly, such a thing was nowhere near a fatal wound.

Yang was drawn back to the rest of the world as Ruby and Weiss ran past her, and Blake - Yang's dark haired and mysterious partner - tugged her away.

The unsaid escape plan was enacted by the entire group, and so simply getting back to the top of the cliff was their only goal now.

One had to live to win, after all.

Shirou grimaced as he saw the lack of damage the Death Stalker had taken, though he was happy to notice the two girls had made use of his distraction to escape the vicinity of the large Grimm; even if one of them was a Schnee.

I guess I should go too. Shirou though to himself as he, too, made to run from the giant Death Stalker.

The run away from the monument that had held all the artifacts was supposed to be simple; cross the chasm they had been flung over to start the initiation and make their way to the top. Unsurprisingly considering Shirou's luck, the group's escape was cut just short of the perceived finish line by the body the largest Nevermore Shirou had ever seen as it crashed through the bridge they needed to cross in order to climb the cliff. Not before half of the group had already crossed, though.

And thus eight became four.

Shirou could only hope for the best as he turned, already bracing himself for the upcoming fight with the Death Stalker, and willed Kanshou and Bakuya into existence. The Death Stalker came to a slow halt before the group of four initiates in a scene which would have been perfectly in place during a game, or TV show.

An unspoken, unseen cue went out to all combatants and the fight began. All hell broke loose and Shirou's perception tunnel-visioned on the threat in front of him, only dimly aware of what his partner and temporary teammates were doing.

Kanshou and Bakuya swung with a practiced clarity, sinking into the Grimm's armor with their enhanced, monster-slaying cutting power. For every slash Shirou made, the gouges he was digging into the Death Stalker's side grew ever deeper. In the end, it was only a loud shout from above that stopped Shirou from being squashed like a bug from the hammer shaped meteor that descended on the weak spot he had made.

The concussive force that descended onto the Death Stalker from that hammer-meteor was such that the Grimm's legs buckled underneath it and it collapsed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust that obscured the scene. From the cloud of dust, a loud cheer arose, "Bullseye! I told you it'd work Ren! You owe me pancakes!"

As the dust settled a victorious figure was revealed. Hammer in hand, standing tall and proud upon the corpse of her slain enemy, who had worked so hard to make the four initiates its very own snack, stood Nora. The scene that would have been perfectly accurate in the ending of an action movie completely ruined by the large grin on Nora's face and the slightly twitching corpse beneath her feet, throwing her off balance every couple of seconds.

At least the thing seemed to be dead. Despite the commonality of such beings, though the great majority were not nearly as large, the lack of blood from the Grimm made such things hard to gauge.

Thankfully for the armor-smiths, weapon-smiths, and other such professions, the lack of blood also made the act of harvesting the exoskeletons and plate-like armor that many Grimm had much less messy.

And yet, as if on cue, the overpowering scent of 'Ice' permeated the air, and the Nervermore that had been harassing the other four initiates crashed into the ground, blowing up smoke in its wake.

Shirou turned back to his little group, "Good job everybody," he scratched the back of his head. "Now to just find a way across the bridge... Any suggestions?"

Unanimous agreement met his suggestion.

No one appreciated Nora's suggestion of simply jumping, though.

Glynda Goodwitch withheld a smirk as she and Headmaster Ozpin watched aftermath of the fight between what would become Team PRSN (Persimmon) and the Death Stalker. "I'm glad I was able to convince you to accept Emiya instead of the Arc child."

"Jaune Arc has great potential. His transcripts prove such a thing."

"They were fake."

"Exactly."

Author's Note

And so ends chapter 1 of what may be a one-shot depending on the reception it gets. Not because I don't want to continue writing, but because I feel my writing style is incredibly flawed, if not outright bad. Perhaps this is the artist looking upon his art and always seeing it as bad or not-good-enough, but as I never took many writing courses and mainly use what I know from reading a hell of a lot of written works, I wouldn't doubt that it is legitimately bad.

If nothing, I hope this was an interesting, if horribly paced, read for any that actually clicked on this story. Please leave any feedback (whether flames, legit criticism, or comments) in reviews so I know what I need to work on/keep doing/cut out.

Also, if any of you are willing to beta read for me every once in awhile (probably a couple thousand words every week or two) in the case I continue this story, please feel free to PM me. I'd greatly appreciate it.

Edit/Changelist: A LOT of grammar/phrasing/pacing changes. Not all, but alot.

Changed some details about Shirou including noticed weapons on him, and the thing regarding EMIYA's Bow. It's now a physical bow designed to look like such a thing.
Changed Yang's description of Ruby
Removed Caladbolg
Please give great thanks to Nhobody for the input he/she/they gave me regarding narrative flow and especially his/her/their help in fleshing out how semblances/aura are going to interact with Origins/Elements. Also Give a great high five to Soulvanguard for their help with bouncing ideas back and forth.