I do not own/have any rights to One Piece and RWBY

My first Fanfic. Hope you enjoy

Chapter 1 - Retirement

Yury Lloyd was rather confused. Being the youngest person ever to be nominated to become part of the (in)famous CP Aigis 0 (at the age of 15), it was safe to say the young Cipher Pol agent has been through and seen a lot. The young man mastered all forms of Rokushiki including the fabled Rokuougan by the age of 13. And mastered both the Busoshoku (Armament), and Kenbunshoku (Observation) Haki two years after that (Shame he didn't possess the third type, but then again, very few actually did). Even years before being nominated to the CP-0, ignoring the fact that he was already at a mid-tier CP-0 level by that time, the sheer amount of missions and pirates he had successfully taken on (officially) was just a few short of passing a thousand. Granted, most of those said missions were "boring" espionage or purge missions, almost all of them had the difficulty level said to be bordering on "impossible". Nowadays, the young man was very hard to surprise. But even he found his current predicament as somewhat strange.

"I'd hate to state the obvious but…" he muttered quietly to himself. "Where am I?"

He was quite literally in the middle of nowhere with nothing but sands as far as his eyes can see. The air was hot and dry, the plant life was nonexistent, and as for water… heh, what's water? His Cipher Pol issued full black suit (and gloves) under the blistering sun wasn't helping his case either.

He was beginning to feel hints of irritation bubbling within him, before sighing silently to himself. 'Perhaps I should think things through a bit more carefully from now on before letting myself get talked into participating in one of Doctor's 'silly' little side projects.'

Dr. Vegapunk was indeed every bit brilliant as he was known to be, but Yury couldn't help but think that the esteemed doctor had (more than) a few screws loose, and was in a desperate in need of some professional help. He managed to befriend the doctor when he had accepted to bodyguard/escort him to his next facility just so he can avoid writing out his blasted past mission reports.

Yury hated writing out reports, or any paperworks for that matter.

They weren't on the level of friends but more on the side of a pleasant acquaintances. And it wasn't long before Yury got talked into the doctor's little game of: "I wonder what will happen if I do this, to that?" And now, after their little "fun", the young agent was stranded in the middle of God knows where without even knowing where the nearest civilizations or any hints of sentient life (if there were any) could be.

Speaking of life...

Hisssssssssssss!

"Hm? Oh… I forgot about you guys." He was taken out of his silent musing when he remembered he wasn't quite alone.

Surrounding the young man were dozens of creatures that looked like one of Dr. Vega's early lab experiments. He could guess it was early since these "scorpions" didn't seem to have any lasers strapped onto their bodies. Other than their size, the doctor would have considered them, how did he put it, "utterly mundane and severely lacking in originality".

HHIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

As if sensing his thoughts and Dr. Vega's comment about them, these "scorpions" started to hiss even louder.

They started closing in on him.

Most would have panicked, screamed and cried. Many would have tried to run, and a good number would have simply given up. For Yury Lloyd, the first thing that came to his mind after seeing their charge was,

"Damn… did I bring my wallet?"

The answer to his query came in the form of multiple stingers rocketing towards his body, mere seconds away from running him through.

He sighed, loudly this time.

Time slowed down for him as he silently thought, 'Soru'.

'Just another day in the office I guess.' were his afterthought.

When a Death Stalker sensed a human so very far away from any civilization, it screeched in excitement and bloodlust at the thought of having such an easy prey. Said excitement was soon toned down by the slight disappointment when it noticed a number of its brethren were heading towards the same direction. But unlike most of its brothers, it considered itself rather mellow and decided that there would be no harm in sharing. Its excitement was further toned down when even more joined. No matter how the grimm looked at it, there simply wasn't enough in a single human to go around for a dozen Death Stalkers. Nonetheless, it wasn't one to miss a good kill and forged on after a quiet hiss equivalent of a whine.

When it arrived it noticed there indeed was a human, but there was something… off about him. Its senses indicated that its scent was rather foreign. Even his "aura" felt a bit strange. Yet its brothers didn't seem to either notice or care enough to pause. Soon they had the lone human surrounded.

But the human further displayed his strangeness when he showed not an ounce of fear.

It couldn't see it. It couldn't sense it. It was annoyed.

A single one of them was enough to send an entire town cowering in fear and yet, this human was treating them as if they were some minor pests! By the rumbling hiss of its brothers, they seemed to share its sentiments. It didn't take long for them to charge in unison.

When their stingers were mere moments before piercing the arrogant human, what greeted them wasn't the satisfying squelch of their stingers piercing his flesh, but string of thuds of their stingers hitting the empty space and ground where the human was occupying seconds ago.

Before any of them could realize what was going on, it heard a soft yet sharp sound of a wind. Then…

PAIN!

Immense pain erupted from its sides not a moment after.

It only took a moment to realize that it was dying.

Mustering its last ounce of strength, it turned its head to see the state of its brethren. If it had any eyelids, its eyes would have been opened wide in both surprise and slight, dare it say, fear.

Not a single one of them were left standing, all cut cleanly in half (horizontally might it add). And it didn't take long for its top half to slowly slide out from its bottom half, the last thing it remembered being the silhouette of the human standing few feet away from them before it too joined its brothers in the darkness.

'Why is it so popular to call out attacks when it's much deadlier to simply not say anything at all?' were Yury's thoughts soon after he silently called out 'Rankyaku' in his mind.

The result of his attack did not surprise him (though the immediate disintegrating of the corpses did raise his eyebrows). Simply having been considered being given a position in the CP-0 division, he was already on the top 5% in terms of combative prowess within both the Marines and Cipher Pol agency combined. His doriki was among the highest compared to anyone excluding the top members of the CP-0. His single Rankyaku was potent enough to slice clean through four or five standard marine battleships on a bad day.

Cutting down a handful of overgrown arachnids? A child's play.

"In any case, I should really get out of here." He quietly said to himself as he tried to sense for any high concentration of auras. (AN: The One Piece wiki actually used the term aura to describe the observation haki)

'Huh, that's unusual'

It only took seconds to locate a place containing the highest concentration of auras, despite the said place being a half a continent away. It was strange, people on this place had much more pronounced auras compared to most he was familiar with. Then there were those that had their auras quite literally screamed NOTICE ME! at him. It intrigued him. He was curious.

'Just where exactly on the New World am I?' were his last thoughts before he disappeared with a quiet breeze.

If Yury was curious before, he was downright fascinated now. He wasn't anywhere near the New World at all! In fact, he was beginning to suspect this place simply wasn't the world he called home in the first place. When he first arrived at the city, he couldn't recognize a single thing about it. Given both the size of this city and the nature of his job, the fact that it was completely new to him was a very interesting fact to him. A second form of surprise came as what the locals called "faunus". He originally dismissed them as some zoan devilfruit users flaunting their powers, but his theory became less and less convincing as he came across more and more of them, some even overlapping each other in the zoan "models". His last surprise came when he requested a map from the local gift shop. It cemented the fact that he was no longer in his home world since not only was he in a never heard of before place called Vacuo, but also in a entirely new world called Remnant.

'Now what?' the young agent asked himself.

Being from a world where corruption was pretty much part of its culture, he never really liked being part of its law enforcement organizations. Even after being hailed as a prodigy, he would've left without a second thought if it wasn't for the fact that his good friend and mentor Vice Admiral Kuzan (after his recent promotion) was still serving in the Marines. Being an orphan who had to survive on the streets for a good portion of his early childhood, Yury wasn't one to easily forget his debts since any form of kindness without any strings attached was rarely shown to him. So when Kuzan took him under his wing all those years ago, Yury could really only do one thing to repay his debt: show him that taking him off the unforgiving streets was a worthy investment. It was a shame that the World Government was every bit as corrupt as he believed it to be. Yet despite the varying levels depravity displayed by some of its "esteemed" officials, Yury simply tuned it all out and focused on his training.

Before he knew it, he was being hailed as a prodigy.

Before he knew it, he was placed in the Cipher Pol branch that supposedly did not exist.

The Cipher Pol Unit 9.

When Yuri first met Chief Spandine, the first word that came to his mind was a "careerist". Although the chief wasn't the most unpleasant person to be around, he certainly was up there. It was a wonder that he was actually able to get married; Yury often genuinely wondered if the woman was a masochist.

By that point in his life, Yury considered his debt to Kuzan paid in full.

Yet he still stuck around.

Yury still didn't understand why he didn't leave the moment he decided that his debt to his friend has been repaid. When he first came to the Marineford to be trained, he swore to himself that he would leave the second the debt was paid in full. But he found himself caring less and less about the sentiment.

Perhaps he had grown desensitized to the corruptions and hypocrisies of the World Government.

Perhaps he realized there wasn't anything he could do about it that would actually matter.

Maybe he simply became too lazy to care.

"I still blame that lazy son of a gun for rubbing that off on me" the young agent deadpanned before breaking out in a chuckle without any mirth.

Realizing that the chances of seeing that lazy fool was little to none did put a little damper on his mood, but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Despite only being 19, the things he had done in the name of "justice" really made him search high and low for ways that would allow him to retire without having to look behind his back every five minutes or so for sign of any World Government "janitors".

Up until now, he found none.

But now?

'Sorry Kuzan, but I'm really sick and tired of being the tenryuubito's lapdogs and willingly finding my way back to them would be the last thing I'd do. I hope you understand... and besides,' he thought casually, while making his way to where all the up-to-date and relevant information hub was most likely located. 'you would've done the same thing in my shoes.'

Yury Lloyd, now the former CP9 agent and CP-0 nominee, lazily made his way to the seedier parts of Vacuo.

Emil was unnerved. No, scratch that, he was seconds from losing his mind.

When he overheard his grunts bringing news of an easy score, he decided to join them on the raid but not without a good amount of skepticism. Yet when he saw the said "easy score" himself, he couldn't have agreed more to his men's assessment.

Their target was pretty much the very definition of a "pretty boy". The young man had a messy dark brown hair that made him look like he just got out of bed. He also had a somewhat skinny physique and was fairly tall at the approximate height of 6'2". He wore what was most likely a tailor made suit, and it looked like something that would have cost a fortune. And coupled with a glasses on his admittedly handsome face, he gave off an air of educated high nobility.

In other words, he stuck out like a sore thumb considering where he was at.

A REALLY sore thumb.

Soon, they started to tail the pretty boy, and he thought they were doing a decent job at it since their target kept walking to even shadier places without a care in the world. When they finally cornered him in a particularly dark alley, instead of panic or fear, all they got out of the young man was a lazy, yet exasperated,

"About time you jokers corner me."

Before any of them could question him, he simply disappeared. And the next thing he knew, he was being held up to a wall by his throat.

At this point, Emil was frantic.

He tried to scream, but the iron grip of the man in front of him prevented him from doing so.

He tried kicking, but it was like trying to kick a steel wall. Not to mention it only served the man in front of him to tighten his grip on his throat even further.

When he tried to look to his lackeys for help, he froze.

They were all on the ground choking on their own blood with what seemed like bullet holes on various parts of their body.

'I didn't hear any gun shots!? How!? Did he have friends? Is he a hunts-'

Emil was broken out of his panic ridden thoughts when he heard their supposed prey clear his throats.

"Greetings, I do apologize that our first meeting had to be like this but I'm in a bit of a hurry. I hope you understand..." the man said with a hint of amusement.

He nodded frantically.

"Excellent! Thank you for understanding. Now on to the business…" the man's nonchalance at the whole situation was really starting to unnerve Emil. "I suppose I am what most would consider a "tourist" to this part of the land, and I want to know everything there is to see and know about. Any idea where I can start?" He finished with a small smile.

Emil did not miss the emphasis on the word, and he told everything and anything he knew about any and all the underground information brokers he knew of and how to find them.

When Emil finished his wild blubbering, the man had a thoughtful look on his face. Seeing the opportunity Emil desperately cried, "P-please, that's all I know! Please don't kill me!"

When the man turned his face to smile at him, he felt a sliver of hope. Said hope soon turned to despair when he felt an immense pain erupt from his chest. When he looked down, he saw the man's finger was buried deep enough to easily pierce his heart. The man removed his hands from Emil's throat, allowing him to fall like a puppet with its strings cut. The last thing he heard was the grim reaper's lighthearted comment,

"Sure I'll let you go but…" he looked around. "It is extremely unfortunate that you and a number of your friends had a disagreement amongst yourselves that quickly dissolved into infighting, which lead to you tragically dying by the hands of those you once considered friends as a result."

"... And considering that this isn't the most reputable part of the town, investigation probably won't go any further than that." he added in a tone that almost sounded like an afterthought.

"In any case, I thank you for helping a poor stranger out, and I wish you safe travels in your passage to afterlife."

And with his last piece said, the man silently walked away as Emil's already lifeless eyes gazed onto his back.

'You know…' the young former agent mused. 'It really is just another day in the office.' The ex-agent thought with some amusement as he looked at his newly acquired ID along with what the locals called "scrolls" For a guy who was used to talking to snails for long-range communications, it was a pretty nifty gadget.

For Yury, the past few hours spent in Vacuo was… a bit mundane actually. It wasn't any different from his days in the CP9 when he was tasked with long term espionage.

First thing he needed to do was to gather intel, and gathered he did. It took a little longer than he would have liked, but he eventually was able to find someone who actually had the information that was useful to him. Third time indeed was the charm for him.

'But then again, the last guy's group had the most numbers, so chances one of them knowing something was relatively high I suppose' the young man reasoned.

The meeting with the broker has been somewhat amusing for the young man. The older male probably thought the "boy" in front of him was in over his head when the ex-CP9 agent barged into his office unannounced. But he quickly changed his tune when he noticed his guards behind the intruder. Well, what's left of them anyway. After a short introduction, the old broker was rather eager to please the young man. So as he's always done before, Yury milked the old criminal for all he knew.

When all was said and done, for the first time in what felt like years, Yury couldn't help but burst out in a mirthful laughter.

It would be his luck that he would crash land on a world where everyone came with their very own (albeit dormant) devilfruit powers and only thing they had to do to awaken it was to awaken their "auras".

Just thinking about few of his colleagues that often ranted about the difficulty of obtaining the fruit was enough to send the young man back into a fit of laughter.

After getting over his thoughts on his "poor" co-workers (and ignoring the look he got from the other male), he tried to unlock this "aura" after hearing its description from the man across him. The way this "aura" worked was surprisingly similar to the way Busoshoku (Armament) Haki functioned. So when he tried to feel for something similar within his "soul", while it took a few minutes, he eventually felt it. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted with the sight of a gaping broker, and a soft grey glow that enveloped his body. He did feel the slight increase of his strength and durability, but it was nothing to lose your head about.

The other information wasn't as interesting as auras and semblances, but they were useful nonetheless.

Dust: Meh, he's seen far stranger rocks in Dr. Vega's chem. labs.

Politics and current events: people discriminating those who they perceive as different. What's new? But he had to wonder, despite being physically superior to "humans" in almost every way, how the faunus manage to get themselves in such predicament was beyond him. Shouldn't it be the exact opposite?

Grimm: the blight of the world. If the tenryuubitos were the all-encompassing symbol of corruption and depravity in his world, then he supposed the grimm were this world's version of it.

And lastly: the Huntsmen and Huntresses. Basically the Marines of this world.

When he was satisfied with his intake of basic knowledge and current events, he asked for ways to obtain IDs. The broker was only too happy to obtain it for him. Now, according to his "records", he was an orphan who was brought from a small village outside the city walls when the said village was overrun by grimm. He recently graduated from a civilian school, and has been doing odd jobs ever since.

Yury Lloyd was now a proud citizen of Vacuo.

'Another day in the office indeed' he thought as he nonchalantly made his way through the onlookers that's gathered to watch the burning office few blocks away from them.

'Such a shame they had a gas leak, and no one was quick enough to make it outside.' Yury airily thought. 'And their boss was even kind enough donate a good amount of money he had on his safe.' The briefcase that he held was the proof of it.

A small part of him did pity them; they were probably just trying to survive on the unforgiving streets. He should know as a former street rat. But he also knew what they had most likely done in order to climb to the top of the ruthless underworld. He will probably forget about them in the next week or so. Besides, he had gone through this routine countless time when he was on a mission. Leaving any form of witness could become a liability to him.

"It's probably a good thing that this is my final mission." The young man silently reckoned.

Despite the nature of his (now former) job and how good at it he was, he never enjoyed killing. In fact, during the days when he was just a recruit, he regularly had to come up with different stories of how his targets died in order to cope with the guilt. After a while, it kind of stuck with him as a habit even after he no longer felt anything when he killed. Still, the fact that he no longer needed to eliminate anyone (hopefully) came as a small comfort to the young man.

As he passed one of the shops, a reflection of him drew his eyes. More specifically, it was what rested on the collar of his dress shirt that had his attention.

It was a small badge. A badge depicting the World Government's insignia. The final relic of his old life. After a short pause, he came to a decision.

"I, Yury Lloyd," he quietly announced to no one in particular as he silently plucked the badge off. "Hereby declare myself officially retired from the Cipher Pol. It was a pleasure working with you all." As he finished his small farewell, he crushed the badge before tossing it over his shoulder where it would be lost forever to the sands of Vacuo.

Yury couldn't help but smile.

As he gazed at the city below from his hotel veranda, Yury was in a deep thought. Quietly sipping his glass of bourbon, he pondered about his next course of action. Now that he was actually free of any responsibilities and obligations, he was somewhat at a loss at what to do from this point on.

He could stay in Vacuo, but the weather was a bit too warm for his taste. The same goes for Atlas, but for the opposite reason. Menagerie sounded interesting, but while he had nothing against the faunus, the opposite may not be the case. Unnecessary attention was the last thing he needed on his retirement life. So that left Vale and Mistral for the young retiree.

On one hand, there was Vale, a nice quiet kingdom that was quite literally right next door from Vacuo. But he didn't want his retirement to be too boring. On the other hand, there was Mistral, a kingdom with great culture and diversity. And its extensive underworld, given the right location to settle, almost guaranteed a front row seat for some prime entertainments. But there was a chance that he might get involved in these said "shows" if he got too close. The last thing he wanted was to come back out of his retirement.

Each had their own appeal and each had their own downsides.

'Well, nothing's preventing me from leaving when things get boring.' he thought after some deliberation.

In the end, the young man settled for a coin toss to decide where to visit first. And after seeing the result, a small smirk made its way to his face.

"Well…" he droned. "I hear Mistral is nice this time around."