Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction based on multiple existing anime/manga series. The characters and settings used in this story belong to their respective owners and creators, and no copyright infringement is intended. This story is purely for entertainment purposes and is not intended to infringe upon any existing intellectual property. I do not own any of the original works that inspired this fanfiction, and I fully support the original creators and their works.
I'm also exceedingly exceedingly exceedingly rarely chilling in JaxWolf4's (Author of Nah, I'd Adapt and Zenin Days) Discord Server. It's a chaotic lobotomy mess. Not for the faint of heart.
Here's the link:
Disc: HrPrTeam
-Story Start-
The dining hall had mostly emptied, leaving only a few unfortunate souls amid what looked like the aftermath of a grocery-truck collision, its contents sprayed across the hall.
"How's it fair that we're the only ones that gotta clean this up? Everyone participated!" Ruby grumbled with a visible pout, a mop filled with an abominable, unholy mix of foods and liquids, mirroring her own food-stained visage.
"You reap what you sow." Alex's casual tone drawled out as he sat on the edge of a window, one of the only spots miraculously unstained by the glorious battle that ensued.
Nora, the other perpetrator of the incident, stood a bit further from Ruby as she inquired with a raised tone. "If you're not planning on leaving, can't you help us out, Sleep Neighbor?" She pointed at the rest of JRNY, "Like our dear, nice friends?"
Alex admitted shamelessly. "They just don't get it. Few things feel better than seeing other people work hard when you don't have to." He nodded to himself with light satisfaction.
"It's the nice thing to do. You help out your friends!" Ruby glared at her partner at the smugness leaking out of his ordinarily stoic expression.
He wasn't convinced.
"...Even when they mess up!" Ruby added sharply, though a hint of awkwardness leaked from her voice.
Alex nodded. "You'd be right, but this isn't a mess-up I think I need to help you with."
"Give it up, sis. He's gloating; don't fall for his bait." Yang shrugged helplessly as she approached with her own mop, patting her sister's dirty shoulder placatingly and shaking her head.
Yang's pitying expression for her little sister had been swiftly exchanged with a wicked smirk, as Alex felt her boring down at him. "His ego's stroked after a pretty girl swooned for him~."
Alex simply arched an eyebrow at the lilac-eyed girl's attempt to get a reaction from him.
Ruby frowned, pausing in her mopping.
Yang took it as an opportunity, "Ooo~ Ruby? Is that jealousy I'm glimpsing?"
He could feel a sharp edge to Yang's glare as she turned to him at her peculiar accusation. It's been a while since this girl glared at him like she wanted to choke the life out of him.
Easily ignored, but she was making some strange accusations.
Rightfully, Alex defended himself with a blunt deadpan. "Look, lady. I didn't do nothin-"
Ruby blinked for a moment. "Huh?" She processed the accusation for a moment, her expression turning serious. "Umm, no, it's just... I'm happy that people are finally noticing the good parts about Alex outside of how amazing a Huntsman he is!"
[I wonder, what are your positive qualities outside of that, Master? Do you know?]
"Yeowch, man," Yang responded, offering Alex a pitying look, to which he shrugged.
Ignoring that, Ruby pressed on. "But she really bothered him and Pyrrha, so I thought it'd be the perfect chance to enact our plan and then... Weiss and her..." She scratched her cheek, stating honestly with a sheepish smile. "I'm a bit worried about her."
Huffing through her nose, she raised her head high, and her grip on the mop tightened. "I just gotta be patient! Finish this up quickly and go find her."
"Shower first, though. I'm fighting demons to stay here with my hair like this." Yang voiced out her 'elder sister' wisdom.
Pyrrha would probably be enough to help with Weiss, or maybe Weiss didn't even need any help... so he mused.
But what did he know? The more the merrier, he supposed.
He hummed aloud as he momentarily considered it, then shook his head. He let out a reluctant sigh as he hopped on his feet. "Y'all know where I can get an extra mop?"
At that, Ruby, Yang, and Nora exchanged surprised looks.
Ruby was the first to react with a radiant smile. "In the kitchen. Thank you, Alex!"
It wasn't an unpleasant sight.
His lips curled up lightly to form a small smile of his own. "Okay."
-----------------------------
The clean-up, even with his rare assistance, had lasted until evening.
He was being efficient about it, just to get it done, and without causing any room-sized hurricanes, he managed to shorten it just enough that it didn't last till late at night.
"You sure are in a rush. Even when you volunteer, you're usually sluggish with work like this." Ruby questioned his strange showing of effort with a genuine look of surprise.
"You need to get this done quickly, right?" Alex admitted honestly.
Ruby blinked for a moment, then realized his meaning. "Right... thank you." She smiled warmly at him as they proceeded to finish things up.
He kept their company until Glynda's lengthy lecture, which he properly excused himself from; he wasn't keen on listening to her adult nagging that put Weiss's own to shame.
Eventually, he found himself alone back at his dorm room. The quiet after the chaos was pleasant; nevertheless, his mind had not yet found it.
He drew out his scroll, noticing a message from Ozpin, but first he had to check on something.
He had no clue where Pyrrha, Weiss, and the scammer went. So he sent the former a message.
[How's Weiss? You two good?]
With that settled, he went to make his favorite coffee, fiddling with the machine.
The expensive and addictive scent permeated the air as he stood patiently awaiting the liquid gold to pour into his cup.
Another ping from his scroll, which he opened with light surprise. "That was fast." Pyrrha had responded just a minute after he sent her the message.
It was short and to the point, just how he liked it. [We're okay. I'm handling it.]
A light huff of relief left his nose as he turned his attention to regard Ozpin's message.
He had planned to take a look at it with a cup of coffee, because usually messages from that man were strictly business.
No offense to his favorite adult, Merlin didn't deserve the title, but they were mentally taxing.
[Good evening, Mister Andrite. I hope this message finds you well. In regard to your participation in the Vytal Festival Tournament, the exposure treatment is progressing smoothly in preparation. I can confidently assure you that the soonest we can do is in two weeks, preferably after I send all students on short-term missions within Vale. In case you are wondering, you are exempt from it since I require you on campus for the treatment.]
[My schedule and the Vytal Festival are a bit cluttered to accommodate such an arrangement any other time. So, apologies if you find it unreasonable, but that is the best I can offer you at the moment.]
[Please respond with which time you find appropriate in two weeks or call me by tomorrow morning to finalize the details. Have a great rest of the day.]
The timing seemed odd for him. Have him do the exposure therapy just when everyone's conveniently out of campus for a few days...
It took him a moment to get an idea of why that was an option.
'He's worried about nonsense.' The attention or others seeing him act up mid-session wasn't something that concerned him.
Humming for another instant, giving it another thought. "Maybe it is for the best. I don't know where it's gonna take place, but someone coming to take a look out of dumb curiosity and I lose control..." He didn't have to finish the thought to know how ugly that result would turn out.
He could only tell it'd take place somewhere around Beacon.
'Yeah, it wasn't a bad idea.'
Regardless, he wasn't going to argue with Ozpin on the matter.
Alex took a sip of his coffee as he read it, a blissful sigh leaving his lips. His thumb moved across the scroll as he typed a response.
'The dance should be over by then, so I don't really have any other big obligation...'
[Any day works, though preferably not on the days I meet with Doctor Indigo. Thanks for the effort.] Was his simple response.
After that, he sat down on their only couch and turned on the TV, watching the news half-heartedly.
"Neat, new robots." He commented lightly as he witnessed General Ironwood showcasing, or flexing, the newest Atlesian tech in the streets of Vale.
Some Atlesian-pala whatever; he didn't really concern himself with the labelling.
In any case, he simply waited for one of his teammates to call on him for training, but seeing as the three of them were... busy, he highly doubted sparring would occur on this day.
A blessing or a curse, he wasn't quite sure given the circumstances.
A ping echoed in his mind, with what would normally be bad news.
The quest had failed, the one he had resolved not to attempt, and repercussions were set to arrive.
But they didn't.
[Avalon The Everdistant Utopia has nullified body tampering of the host by foreign 'Fifth Dimensional' authority!]
...
This wasn't the first time in the last month. Every so often, the System would nag at him with a Sub Quest that either threatened or didn't threaten bodily harm.
Rarely would he complete it, only when their interests aligned, whilst most other times, like this one, he didn't.
The result was expectedly the same.
It was a long minute of silence; neither he nor the parasite in his mind spoke.
Then, Alex broke the quietude with a suggestion. "You should really consider not giving me anything if you can't really enforce it. You're wasting your breath and time." He stated with a shadow of a smile.
[You still can get rewards; punishment isn't the only enforcement.]
"You can't, can you?"
[...Can't what?]
Alex's lips pursed, his expression neutral. "You have some strange 'code of honor', or some self-regulation or... I don't know what to call it. Clearly, you can send me to... places." A frown crossed his face as the memory resurfaced. "But you can't just assign me quests and certain punishments as you will... You just bluff."
"You can't remove Avalon, but surely you can punish me in other ways rather than just bodily harm? You can, but those punishments are few and in between, inconsistent with the way you've been threatening me for so long." He took a deep sip of his coffee.
Merlin's advice rang aloud in his mind; it was so plain and short, but that Magus's devious smirk when he said it clearly amounted to some kind of epiphany hidden in there.
As time went on, and the little sub quests he had completed and ignored piled up, he began to get a feeling of how this thing worked.
He wouldn't lie, he was scared of the voice in his head.
It was capable of sending him to what amounted to Hell, and he had witnessed it firsthand.
'Playing around' with the System attached to him could risk him being sent there once more for a while or worse, for all time.
Even with Excalibur and Avalon, that was... a far less than ideal outcome.
Testing the limits of a System with an actual ego was doubly problematic, since it could reprogram or adjust its own punishments, limitations, etcetera.
Beyond his own will to act, which affected how severe the punishments were, he found out something else.
It granted him Avalon and Excalibur; it transmigrated him and granted him immense power even without them; it could take them away.
That was wrong.
It sent him to Purgatory; if it wanted to, it could do so again whenever it pleased.
That was wrong.
It threatened and lectured about all the things it can and will do. Certainly, it could back up those words; he'd seen it with the hell he experienced.
That was wrong.
It couldn't remove Avalon; certainly, it could adjust its own parameters and the quests to make sure he obeyed.
That. Was. Wrong.
He could finally all but confirm it, just that one hypothesis.
That ego, that lecturing, persistent, irritating voice that spoke to him... wasn't as powerful as it wanted him to think.
It had limitations, beyond merely being helpless against Avalon's defense and Excalibur's will.
So he gave his realization voice. "You either have no control at all, or something else greatly limits what you can actually do."
He had already considered a strict guideline when Avalon first nullified a punishment, but by now, it's all but confirmed to be that, or the System's Ego was nothing more than... decoration.
[You have principles; is it so wrong for me to have them as well?]
Alex sighed wearily. "It's fine. You don't have to answer me; I'd expect you to deny me all day, even if I am right." His expression radiated exhaustion.
[Then? What of it? Would you like to be praised for your surprisingly astute observation? Erroneous as it may be?]
Before he replied, the sounds of a collective of footsteps echoed quietly outside his dorm room, melding with the racket of the television noise.
Alex hummed lightly. "Take it as me talking to myself; what I told you just now changes nothing. As I said, you either can't really do anything or you're forced to follow a strict guideline."
He glanced at the ceiling, lightly. "Business as usual. If you give me something actually important or, even more surprisingly, useful, I'll deal with it." His hand quietly grasped Excalibur's hilt as he spoke his mind.
The door leading into the room creaked open loudly; a familiar nagging tone met his ears. "Speaking to yourself alone in the dorm? Must I start doubting Doctor Virdian's expertise?"
Alex slowly turned his head to regard Weiss. "He's a nice guy-" He paused in his tone as he realized who stood beside his icy teammate.
It was Ruby and Pyrrha, nothing unusual there, and he was both glad and annoyed at Weiss being in a good enough mood to yap, but the other guest was a surprising figure.
He pointed a sharp finger at the sheepishly smiling girl. "What's the scammer doing here?"
It was that purple-haired seductress.
Ruby stepped forward in blinding speed, appearing in front of him with an awkward smile. "Umm, right, Alex... she needs a favor." She pointed a thumb at the purple-haired girl as the other two stepped into the room.
He blinked, seeing that all three of them, even Pyrrha herself, had a similar expression.
"Hell, no."
To Be Continued!