Fanfic / BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant

BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant is a crossover fanfic between BlazBlue and RWBY written by ssjSega/MetropolisMCU, who also wrote The Silver Raven, and was inspired by Aura of the Azure and Against Despair.

The story is a retelling of RWBY, but the setting is fused with that of BlazBlue, as characters of the latter series become part of the main plot, and by extension, causes it to diverge as different teams form, new bonds are made, and new dangers are faced.

The fic can be read on FanFiction.Net here, on Archive of Our Own here, on SpaceBattles.com here, and on Sufficient Velocity here.

The story also has a supplementary story called BAR: Ozpin's Student Files (AO3 link here), which gives Ozpin's insight on the primary teams during their first semester at Beacon Academy.

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BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant provides examples of:

• Abled in the Adaptation:
  • Ragna was never maimed in his childhood and still has both arms here, unlike the games where Jin cut his right arm off.
  • Kagura completely lacks his canon counterpart's alcoholism, largely due to him being eighteen and as such unable to legally drink.
  • Yang doesn't lose her arm during the Fall of Beacon like in canon.
  • Cinder never has her encounter with Ruby in V3 and never gets blasted by the latter's silver eyes. As a result, she doesn't get her arm replaced by the Grimm arm nor does she lose the use of her left eye.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: The fused settings of RWBY and BlazBlue cause many of the characters' pasts to alter from what they were in canon.
  • Ragna still has a scarring past, but Terumi had no involvement at all and he was adopted normally by Jubei, having never had his home burned to the ground and having never lost his arm.
  • Jin was shown to have been adopted into the Kisaragi family when two members visited the orphanage rather than him being left to wander until he stumbled upon them. He was also never brainwashed into insanity by Terumi.
  • Penny is one of the biggest recipients of this trope. Unlike canon, where she was the result of the PENNY Project, which was an effort by Atlas to create a cybernetic soldier capable of generating Aura, she's instead the tenth Murakumo Unit that escaped her creators' custody and is now living in hiding, having no connections to Atlas.
  • Platinum's backstory is altered from being an Artificial Human whose personalities were the result of the LunaSena System to them simply being two children orphaned after an attack by the Branwen tribe, with Luna becoming the vessel for Trinity after discovering the Muchourin in a cave and Sena's soul entering her body upon his death because of it.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Penny originally first appeared in RWBY during the events of episode 15 of Volume 1. Here, she first appears working at Tukson's Book Trade just after the events of "The Badge and the Burden" and makes friends with Team BRNN. In addition, Pietro appears in Volume 1 when he canonically first appeared via brief cameo in Volume 3.
  • Neo first appears helping Roman with his heists and later aids him against Ragna, Blake, and Makoto during the events of "Black and White" in Volume 1, where as canonically she wouldn't first appear until the fourth episode of Volume 2.
  • Salem, Hazel, and Tyrian all make their first appearance in Chapter 29, set just after the events of the first volume of RWBY. In the series, Salem didn't make her first on-screen appearance until the end of Volume 3, while Tyrian and Hazel didn't first appear until the beginning of Volume 4.
  • The Happy Huntresses first appear in Chapter 31, which is set during the interim between Volumes 1 and 2. This is in contrast to the show, where they wouldn't appear until Volume 7.
  • The Ace Ops originally didn't appear in the series until the events of Volume 7. In this story, they first appear just after the events of Volume 2.
  • Saphron first appears in Chapter 78 alongside her wife and son, Terra and Adrian, just over a month after the events of Volume 3. Canonically, they didn't appear until the events of Volume 6.
• Adaptational Heroism: Since Pietro in this story has no connection to Atlas, Watts ended up as the top scientist of the Kingdom and never joined Salem.
• Adaptational Modesty: Much of the fanservice-laden attire from the BlazBlue games is toned down. Just to name a few examples, Makoto wears her pre-battle attire from Chronophantasma rather than her normal stripperiffic attire, Noel wears Modesty Shorts underneath her skirt, and Litchi's outfit, which normally leaves her bra exposed, completely covers her chest.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Downplayed for the BlazBlue cast, who have very minor changes to their abilities in order to better fit the RWBY setting. Additionally, they universally all use Aura and Semblances rather than Ars Magus and Drives.
  • Noel's Semblance is Far Sight rather than Chain Revolver. This has the added consequnce of making her more of a Long-Range Fighter here, whereas in the original games, she used more Gun Kata.
  • Kagura's Semblance is Black Gale, as was his Drive in the games, but here it's been recontextualized as the black wind that he uses in some of his special attacks, rather than it being his Stance System.
  • Penny didn't display a Semblance in RWBY canon, but here she has one called Homing Beacon, which lets her track the location of people she's made a strong connection with. Additionally, her floating blades actually levitate rather than needing to be manipulated by wires because the new source for them is the Lux Sanctus: Murakumo.
  • Nu-13 has her canonical powers provided by Lux Sanctus: Murakumo, but she also has the powers of a Silver-Eyed Warrior, having been given Ruby's right eye by Terumi and Relius.
• Adaptation Distillation: Chapter 49 distils the events of "Extracurricular" and "Burning the Candle" when it comes to trying to reason with Blake, having her team confront her on the issue like in the former before shifting to Makoto reasoning with her alone like in the latter.
• Adaptation Name Change: Downplayed. Tao's name in the games was Taokaka. Here, similar to one if the fic's inspirations, Aura of the Azure, it's altered to Tao Kaka.
• Adaptation Origin Connection:
  • Penny is a Murakumo Unit much like Noel and Nu-13, having been created by Relius and Terumi rather than Pietro.
  • Glynda used to be a member of Sector Seven here and was also friends with Litchi and Roy. Not to mention she has a history with Kokonoe and Relius.
  • As revealed in Chapter 29, the Creatures of Grimm are comprised of Seithr, the same substance emitted by the Black Beast in BlazBlue canon.
  • The Branwen tribe were the ones who attacked Luna and Sena's village when they were children, setting them on the path that would eventually lead them to discover the Muchourin.
  • Chapter 52 heavily implies that the reason for Ironwood's cybernetics is tied to the destruction of Sector Seven and by extension Relius Clover.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Now has its own page.
• Adaptation Species Change:
  • In RWBY, Penny was a robot capable of generating Aura. In this story, she's revealed to be a Murakumo Unit, making her an Artificial Human and a genetic clone of Saya.
  • Jubei, due to Faunus and Beastkin being composited, is much more humanoid with his animal attribute being his tail rather than being an anthropomorphic cat person. Valkenhayn, likewise, is a wolf Faunus rather than a werewolf.
• Adults Are Useless: Discussed and played with. Ragna calls Ozpin out on him and his staff's uselessness in stopping Team CRDL from bullying their fellow students. Ozpin acknowledges the issue, but also points out that they haven't received any reports of them bullying people either aside from one or two incidents that they were properly reprimanded for, making it clear that the bullies were being very careful to avoid repercussion. After the cafeteria incident, however, Ozpin makes it clear that they will keep a close eye on them, and sure enough, they're never seen bullying anyone after the fact.
• Age Lift: The ages of all the BlazBlue characters get shuffled around due to the combined setting and some of them attending the academies.
  • Characters like Ragna, Tsubaki, Noel, Makoto, Jin, Mai, and Kagura were all adults in their early to mid-twenties during the events of the series. Here, they're all in their late teens, with Ragna and Kagura being eighteen at the start of the story and the rest being seventeen.
  • Luna and Sena are fourteen years old here, making them a few years older than canon.
  • Tao in the games was shown to be younger than Ragna, as she was a child when Ragna was in his teenage years. Here, she's introduced at 19-years-old, making her older than Ragna by about a year.
  • In BlazBlue, Carl appeared to be around his early-to-mid teens. Here, he's confirmed to be somewhere between 17 and 18, putting him within the same age group as the rest of the main characters.
• Ancestral Weapon: Jin Kisaragi and Tsubaki Yayoi's main weapons are Yukianesa and the Izayoi respectively. Both are the ancestral weapons of their respective noble houses that have been passed down throughout the generations, though Yukianesa has been inert for a long time until Jin came to wield it. In Tsubaki's case, the Izayoi will only work for a member of the Yayoi bloodline, with her being the most recent member to carry it.
• And I Must Scream: Hakumen is trapped in a state of suspended animation beneath Evernight Castle and can only silently, helplessly rage as Terumi taunts him about the plan to destroy Vale while he's powerless to stop it.
• Apocalypse Maiden: Murakumo Units are this. As Penny puts it to Noel, the intended purpose of their creation is to usher in the end of all of Remnant.
• As You Know: This is lampshaded by Glynda in Chapter 45 when Relius opens his speech with "Now, as you all know..." and proceeds to exposit about things that are common knowledge among Atlas elite. As she puts it, Relius loves to hear himself talk.
• Awful Truth:
  • Noel is on the receiving end of unpleasant revelations at times:
    • Chapter 39 ends with Penny about to tell Noel the truth about who they are, but not before warning her that she will not like the answer. At the start of Chapter 40, she reveals that they are Murakumo Units: Artificial Humans and Living Weapons created for the sole purpose of destroying the world. The revelation leaves Noel shocked and horrified.
    • Then in Chapter 46, Noel gets another awful revelation: She's a clone of Ragna and Jin's younger sister, Saya, who was tortured, had her DNA harvested, and her soul broken apart, all to create Noel and the other Murakumo Units.
  • In Chapter 46, Yang is forced to face the truth that her mother, Raven Branwen, is a bandit queen who killed many innocent people and abandoned others to die to the Grimm.
  • Ragna gets subjected to this in Chapter 72, where he learns that he's the reincarnation of the Black Beast and is also forced to see the destruction he caused on his rampage throughout Vale.
• Battle Couple: Yang and Pyrrha after they start dating form one in the Vytal Tournament, where they tag team against Bolin during their match against Team ABRN.
• Big Damn Heroes: Nora and Ren both jump in at the last minute to help Blake, Makoto, and Ragna against the White Fang during the Battle at the docks, with Nora being the one who opened with a surprise attack to save them.
• Big "WHAT?!": Cinder's reaction in Chapter 52 to learning that the Southeast operation was completely compromised and disposed of.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Murakumo Units are programmed from their earliest stages of development to kill any "rogue units" they encounter. In Chapter 39, this results in Noel and Penny trying to kill each other. Though Penny is able to fight against her programming, Noel succumbs and turns into an emotionless killing machine that would have killed Penny and Ruby had the latter not gotten through to her.
• Breaking the Fellowship:
  • Team TSYP goes through this after the events of V3, as Weiss and Tsubaki's parents force them to return home to Atlas while Pyrrha chooses to return home to her mother so she can reassure her that she's okay. Yang, meanwhile, has to return home to Patch so she can take care of Ruby.
  • Team RNJR also goes through this, as Ruby is forced to return home due to losing her eye to Terumi so she can recover, Jaune stays behind in Vale to help the city before traveling across Anima with the newly formed Team JNNPR, and both Ragna and Noel are captured by the villains.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Terumi's killing of Summer was this for him to the point where he doesn't remember any details of the fight and doesn't even remember what she looked like until Ruby outright yells that he killed her mom.
• Casting Gag: In Chapter 36, Penny is shown having pictures of betta fish in her room, referencing her voice actresses' love of betta fish.
• Childhood Friends: Weiss, Tsubaki, and Jin all grew up together in Atlas, with Weiss and Tsubaki fondly greeting each other after reuniting at Beacon and happily recalling their childhoods with one another.
• Commonality Connection: Luna and Emerald in Chapter 42 form a bond with each other thanks to their past lives as thieves who were forced to do whatever it took to survive.
• Corrupt Politician: Discussed in Chapter 80. Robyn confesses to May that one of her biggest fears if she wins the council seat is that she'll become this, being familiar with the stories of how someone fighting for justice enters the political arena, only to become no different than the other corrupt politicians. May shoots the idea down, even bringing up her former family and how they'd do any underhanded action to get ahead, by telling Robyn that she's nothing like them even at her worst. Joanna further throws off the notion by telling Robyn that she has the Happy Huntresses by her side to keep her stable if council politics start getting to her, making it clear that they'll do everything they can to avert this trope.
• Country Matters:
  • Luna lets out a c-bomb when she start insulting Ragna in Chapter 56, though it's cut short via switching to Ruby's POV with the rest of her team and Jubei.
  • In Chapter 70, after Ruby shoots off his hat, Terumi similarly lets out a c-bomb that Ruby cuts off. After Ruby shoots him point-blank in the face, he lets out another, and unlike the previous ones, it isn't cut off.
• Crossover Relatives:
  • Murakumo Units are clones of a young girl by the name of Saya, the younger sister of Ragna and Jin Kisaragi. Penny Polendina is one of these clones. Making her the cloned sister of Ragna and Jin, as well as a "sister" to her fellow clone, Noel.
  • It's revealed in the final chapter of Volume 3 that Ragna is Salem's son. The first chapter of Volume 4 further reveals that he's the reincarnation of Ozma and Salem's firstborn son, meaning that he's also related to Ozpin as well. Jin's dream in Chapter 75 reveals that the same applies to him and Saya, with them being Ozma and Salem's youngest son and only daughter.
• Crush Blush: This starts happening a lot with Pyrrha after Chapter 43 when she realizes her feelings for Yang. After Yang starts having feelings for Pyrrha, she also tends to blush around her, as seen in Chapter 50.
• Crushing Handshake: In Chapter 43, Yang and Penny do this to each other. Yang, initially thinking Penny and Ruby are on a date, does this to Penny when introducing herself to intimidate the girl away, but it has no affect on her besides mild confusion due to her Super-Strength and Super-Toughness. Penny, due to a misunderstanding from Ruby, does the same to Yang in the same interaction, and unlike Yang's attempt, it actually crushed her hand.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • After Ragna starts using his Semblance in his fight against Pyrrha, the battle quickly goes his way and forces her to admit defeat.
  • Calling Adam's "fight" against Terumi/Hazama in Chapter 54 a fight would imply that he actually stood a chance. The only hit he manages to land is impaling Terumi via surprise attack, and even then Terumi spends most of his time not even acknowledging the wound.
  • Penny's at first on the receiving end of this when she fights Mercury with unarmed combat in Chapter 66, easily being overwhelmed by her opponent's greater skill. However, once she learns that Mercury was the one who killed Tukson, she summons her blades and fights to kill, turning the tables completely in her favor as Mercury quickly learns how outmatched he is.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Ruby's fight with Terumi in Chapter 70 doesn't go her way at all, and ends with her being subject to a savage No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Despite this, she's able to land a few decent hits, enough so that she actually causes Terumi to completely lose his cool.
• Curse Cut Short:
  • Subverted in Chapter 10. When Yang sees Ruby and Ragna riding on the back of a Nevermore, she shouts, "WHAT THE FU-" and gets cut off, only for it to switch to Ragna, who finishes the other half of the swear.
  • In Chapter 56, Luna calls Ragna an "arrogant dumbass c-" that switches away from them before it gets passed the C-Bomb.
• Custom Uniform of Sexy: Kokonoe had this among the members of Sector Seven. Unlike her colleagues, who all wore practical lab attire, Kokonoe always wore sandals and left her lab coat's lower portion unzipped to expose her stomach. Glynda even lampshaded and questioned why Kokonoe wore something so inappropriate to her job. Kokonoe's response?
  Kokonoe: Fuck off. I don't tell you what to wear to work.
• Cuteness Proximity: Zwei's adorableness causes Weiss and Pyrrha to go completely gaga over him. This gets taken up a notch with Noel, who snatches him from Yang and proceeds to cuddle him like there's no tomorrow.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: Ragna and Ruby due to them being partners. Ragna is the grouchy, angry cynic who initially prefers solitude while Ruby is the happy-go-lucky, open idealist who tries to help her partner lighten up.
• Damned by Faint Praise: In Chapter 15, Makoto comments that Noel actually did improve her cooking skills after her Death Dinner puts Jaune in the infirmary…because her cooking didn't actually kill anything that time.
• Date Peepers: Ruby drags Penny along to go spy on Yang and Pyrrha's date while on Patch. It's heavily implied that Raven was also watching in her bird form.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • The Wyvern Grimm was frozen in V3 by Ruby awakening her Silver Eyes, but still alive and drawing Grimm to Vale by its presence. Here, it's confirmed in Chapter 17 via a fairy tale and the author's notes at the end of said chapter that Hakumen killed it singlehandedly long before the start of the series, further shown by its absence from the events of the Fall of Beacon.
  • While their canonical fates after the Fall of Beacon are unknown, in Chapter 68, Sky Lark and Russel Thrush are killed by Ignis. It's also revealed that Dove Bronzewing was killed during the Black Beast's attack on Amity Colosseum.
• Demoted to Extra: Unlike the series, Sun takes no part in the battle at the docks, with both him and Neptune playing no role in the White Fang investigation. Instead, both only serve as background characters. Additionally, Sun plays no role in Blake's V4 arc, as he's still in Vale even when she's long since left it.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Amber died in Volume 3 when Cinder fired an arrow into her chest. Here, the initial attempt to take her Maiden powers before Volume 1 was successful.
• Disabled in the Adaptation:
  • Adam slices off his left arm in Chapter 69 when he's pinned down by it, in contrast to the main series, where he kept both arms throughout his entire story.
  • Ruby's confrontation with Terumi ends with him ripping out her right eye. This contrasts canon, where she still has both eyes throughout the series.
• Disappointed by the Motive: Ruby is left incredulous when Terumi explains that his reason for engineering Ragna's Black Beast transformation and causing so much death and destruction throughout Vale is "Well, why not?"
• Dramatic Irony:
  • In Chapter 65, Makoto brings up to Pyrrha that Nora believes Yang was framed or duped into attacking Mercury for a villain's evil plan. Unknown to her, but known to the readers, she's completely right.
  • In Chapter 59, while on their date and after Yang points out the same red-eyed raven that was watching over her before, Pyrrha talks about how she read stories where animals are the spirits of deceased relatives watching over their kin. Come Chapter 73, Pyrrha sees the same bird and believes it to be the spirit of Yang's mother, Summer Rose, watching over her. Of course, readers know that the bird is Yang's mother, but not the one either is hoping for.
• Duplicate Divergence: Noel and Penny both have very different Semblances and different fears, which the latter sees as clear evidence that the two are individuals and not mere copies of the same person.
• Establishing Character Moment: Jin Kisaragi's first moment in the story is casually defeating Team FNKI by himself and coldly blowing them off as "trash", showing that he's both a powerful fighter and a complete asshole.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Ragna and Jin are both jerkasses (Jin especially so), but they both remember the caretaker they considered a mother figure during their time at the orphanage well and mourn her death. In Jin's case, he still loves his adoptive mother, Makaira Kisaragi, and misses her dearly.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: In Chapter 57, Zwei can tell that Cinder has malicious intent and first bites at her leg then her finger, outright snarling at her when he isn't doing that.
• Exact Words: In Chapter 37, when Ren points out that Ozpin told them not to pull any vigilantism like at the docks, Makoto points out that Ozpin said to not let him catch them doing it again, so the solution is to simply not get caught.
• Expecting Someone Taller: In Chapter 9, Glynda's POV shows that when she learned Jubei's protégé, Ragna, would be attending class at Beacon on his recommendation, she was expecting him to be be as honorable and noble as he was skilled. While Ragna certainly lived up to her expectations as a powerful warrior, his crass and aggressive personality left her disappointed.
• Fantastic Racism: As is the norm for RWBY, Faunus are often subjugated by humans. Aside from canon examples from the show, Makoto often reacts with a snide remark or a sour demeanor whenever the Faunus' plight is brought up, hinting to her past sufferings with racial subjugation. In Kokonoe's case, she was one of the main heads of Sector Seven, but was often forced into the background in favor of Relius Clover due to the Atlesian elite not wanting a "filthy Faunus riff raff" representing their advances in technology.
• Fastball Special: During initiation, Ruby has Ragna do this with her by having him use Aramasa as a launching point to swing her at the Deathstalker like a baseball and slash off its claw. This happens again during Chapter 55, as when things cut back to Ragna, Ruby, and Luna, the latter comments on them using this technique to slash off a Deathstalker's tail.
• Fictional Counterpart: The world of Remnant has many analogues to real world products. For example, in Chapter 52, it's mentioned that Makoto and Nora played Iron Cog, based off Metal Gear, while Ruby and Penny play Alleyway Champions (aka Remnant's version of Street Fighter) in Chapter 59.
• Flipping the Bird:
  • Happens twice in Chapter 52. The first is Makoto flipping off the White Fang lieutenant when he calls her a traitor to their kind. The second is Neo flipping Cinder off after she'd had a long, exhausting day.
  • As Ragna leaves with his teammates back to Beacon in Chapter 56, Luna flips him off in a good-natured manner, with Ragna doing so in kind.
• Foil:
  • Luna and Emerald both grew up as orphans who had to steal just to stay alive before being taken in by a Parental Substitute figure, which is all something they bond over, but that's where the similarities end. Luna grew up outside the kingdoms, had her brother to care for, and was taken in by Jubei, who treats her and Sena like genuine people and cares for them. Emerald grew up in Vale her whole life, had no one to rely upon but herself, and was taken in by Cinder, who sees her as nothing more than a tool to be used until the time comes to discard her.
  • Yang and Pyrrha in terms of Semblances, which is something they even discuss. Both are powerful combat oriented Semblances, but Pyrrha uses hers to avoid getting hit while Yang's only works when she takes a hit. Their exchanged letters between each other also highlight that, while Pyrrha has herself figured out in what she wants to do with her life, Yang has always gone with the flow and doesn't really know what she wants for her life, especially after the Fall of Vale.
  • Penny and Noel due to both being Murakumo Units that were Happily Adopted but differ in everything else. Noel spent her whole life with no knowledge on her origins, while Penny grew up with full knowledge on what she was. Noel is a shy wallflower while Penny is socially outgoing. When Noel first learns the truth, she suffers from a massive case of Clone Angst due to the revelations while Penny, having always known the truth, has had far more time to cope with it.
  • Ragna and Jin are both practically polar opposites despite being brothers. Ragna is aggressive and rude to a fault, while Jin is cold and apathetic in equal measure. Ragna was the last of the siblings to be adopted while Jin was the first. Ragna loathes using his Semblance in battle and will only do so when pressed while Jin makes active use of his Semblance even outside of combat. In terms of reputation, while both are the most powerful students of their respective academies, Ragna is widely disliked and regarded as his school's "problem child" while Jin is lauded as "The Pride of Atlas Academy". Further contrasting the two is their relationships with their teammates, which is shown during their confrontation in Chapter 49, where Jin coldly orders his team to leave without a shred of care while Ragna gently reassures his teammates that nothing bad will happen.
  • Makoto and Adam are both Faunus who suffered injustice at humanity's hands and both are prominent in Blake's life, but their first encounter in Chapter 69 shows all their differences as well. Makoto, thanks to her friendships with Tsubaki and Noel, was able to let go of her hatred and become a much more loving person, looking back at her past self with disdain. Adam, by contrast, never let go of his hatred and actively became worse over time, turning into a monster far crueler than those who oppressed him. In terms of their relationships with Blake, Makoto is sweet and kind to her, while Adam was abusive both physically and emotionally. Lastly, their fighting styles also differ, as Makoto is a boxer while Adam is a swordsman.
  • May Marigold and Mai Natsume, with both of them being members of Atlas' upper class, both wanting to do what they can to help Mantle, and both having endured Trans Tribulations growing up. However, as they get to know each other, it's shown that while May's open with her identity as a trans woman, Mai hasn't come out and fears doing so thanks to her birth father's abuse. While both suffered abuse under their respective families, May had no support from anyone until she graduated and left Atlas, contrasting Mai, who was sent by her mother to live with her relatives, the Natsumes, who were much more supportive of her. Lastly, May's unabashedly glad she left Atlas given all the Hell it caused her, while Mai has qualms about the idea of leaving it since it's still her home.
• Fun with Acronyms: It's RWBY, so this is a given. Only with different teams forming, there are different names to them:
  • Team RNJR (Ranger): Ruby Rose, Noel Vermillion, Jaune Arc, and Ragna.
  • Team BRNN (Brine): Blake Belladonna, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, and Makoto Nanaya.
  • Team TSYP (Zap): Tsubaki Yayoi, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long, and Pyrrha Nikos.
  • Team JSMN (Jasmine): Jin Kisaragi, Ciel Soleil, Kagura Mutsuki, and Mai Natsume.
• Fusion Fic: The story combines the worlds and characters of RWBY and BlazBlue, with the characters of the latter having been born in the world of the former.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: Teams RNJR and JSMN are both comprised of two men (Ragna and Jaune for RNJR, Jin and Kagura for JSMN) and two women (Ruby and Noel for RNJR, Mai and Ciel for JSMN).
• Genetic Memory: Murakumo Units are shown to have the memories of their genetic progenitor, often in the form of flashbacks. Noel learns that she, and Penny by extension, are clones of Ragna and Jin's younger sister, Saya, when she has memories of when Saya first started being cloned.
• Gilded Cage:
  • Ever since returning to Atlas, Tsubaki has been forced to remain in her manor, barring once when she was allowed to visit the then comatose Jin alongside Weiss. She even namedrops this trope during her POV in Chapter 75 while pondering on how her old home now feels.
  • Evernight Castle is this for Ragna. After Chapter 76, Salem tells him that he has access to all its amenities and can travel freely throughout it, but he isn't allowed to leave the keep at all.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: The overall dynamic on Team RNJR. Ragna has a Sinister Scythe/BFS Morph Weapon and likes to mix it up with some hand-to-hand while Jaune uses a simple sword and shield combo. Meanwhile Ruby uses a scythe/Sniper Rifle for mid-to-long-range combat and Noel's use of Bolverk makes her a Long-Range Fighter, with it being stated that Ruby can trounce her in hand-to-hand.
• Helping Would Be Killstealing: During Chapter 56, Jubei has Ruby, Jaune, and Noel set up tripwires and a spiked ditch to pragmatically take down a pair of Goliaths. When Jaune asks why Jubei doesn't handle them since he's more than powerful enough to do so, Jubei responds that they wouldn't learn anything if he fought their battles for them.
  Jubei: Look, I'm old, and part of my job as your Huntsman is making sure you're ready for the future. In the end, while I gotta make sure you get there, I can't fight all your battles for you.
• Human Hammer-Throw: Makoto does this with Nora in Chapter 52, grabbing her hand and spinning rapidly before letting go to launch her at an Atlesian Paladin, sending it tumbling back.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: Both Adam and Jin practice this, though Blake notes that they have opposite approaches to their fighting styles. Adam prefers hard strikes with overwhelming violent power fueled by rage, while Jin employs fast and precise attacks in a dispassionate manner.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Even without Sun involved, the battle at the docks still happens, albeit with different people involved aside from Blake and Penny.
  • Despite not competing and being able to stay at Ruby's house, Penny still attends the Vytal Festival, her reasoning being that she wants to be there to support her friends.
  • Even with the different teams, Yang and Weiss are still the ones of their team to move to the doubles round and they still end up fighting Flynt and Neon. In addition, Yang still ends up fighting Mercury during the singles rounds and is still framed exactly the same way as she was in canon.
  • In the end, the events of the third volume still end with Blake running away, one of the main characters getting maimed (only in this case, it's Ruby rather than Yang) and having to stay home to recover, Roman getting killed, and Weiss being forced to return to Atlas.
  • Though the reasoning is different, Jaune, Ren, and Nora still journey across Anima following the events of V3.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Murakumo Units are treated by the worst of the villains as less than human and referred to as "it" by them. Terumi even tells Hazel as such in Chapter 76:
  Hazel: What did you do to that girl?
  Terumi: Correction, ya big lug, Number 13 is a doll. A thing. So it's an 'it', m'kay?
• It's All My Fault: As seen in Chapter 62, Qrow heavily blames himself for failing to save Amber, with Ozpin trying to reassure him that he did what he could.
• It's Personal:
  • Ruby genuinely comes to hate Terumi for killing her mother.
  • After Terumi rips Ruby's eye out, alongside learning of his role in Summer's death, Yang develops an immense hatred for him and plans to hunt him down.
• Last Episode, New Character: Carl Clover is introduced in the final chapter of V3 alongside Ada, with both of them heading to the remains of Vale in search for clues to where their father may be located.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: Happens in Chapter 30 between Luna, Sena, and Trinity, with Luna summarizing how Trinity was inside the Muchourin and how Sena's soul wound up in her body.
  Luna: Okay, okay, so let me see if I've got all this put together. The staff is called Muchourin, which was previously wielded by you, Trinity Glassfille. You were killed by some bastard named Yuuki Terumi and sealed your soul inside the staff to save yourself from death, with you being asleep for gods know how long. Muchourin recognized my soul as compatible with it like yours was, but since you were in it when I picked the thing up, your soul not only went into my body, but it also picked up my brother's soul too while he was dying?
  Trinity: Yes, I do believe that's everything.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Thanks to their Murakumo programming forcing them to terminate rogue units, Noel and Penny end up trying to kill each other in Chapter 39. Noel would have succeeded had Ruby not managed to bring her to her senses.
• Like Brother and Sister: Ragna and Ruby develop a close friendship over the course of their partnership, to the point where they often come across as a grouchy older brother and his chirpy younger sister. In Chapter 56, Ragna admits to his master that he sees Ruby as a younger sister, and in Chapter 69, it's made clear that Ruby sees Ragna as the older brother she never had.
• Men Like Dogs, Women Like Cats: Inverted. Weiss, Pyrrha, and especially Noel can't help but coo and adore Zwei, but Ragna's completely indifferent. When Yang wonders why, he states that he's more of a cat person.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: Ragna and Nu subject each other to this in Chapter 76. First, Nu grabs Ragna by the face and slams him into the ground a couple times before throwing him into the arena wall. Then later in the same fight, Ragna returns the favor after becoming the Black Beast, grabbing Nu by the leg and repeatedly slamming her into the ground before tossing her away.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Discussed. Ozpin tells Rachel after she insults Ironwood that her constant admonishing of him could lead to his potential betrayal due to lack of mutual respect, even reflecting on past events where he was betrayed by people for this reason.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Makoto and Tsubaki have somehow developed a sixth sense to detect whenever Noel enters a kitchen.
• Mythology Gag:
  • One of Ragna and Ruby's first interactions after becoming partners is him calling her a brat and her reacting with anger, much like their first interaction in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.
  • Yang musing how she'd "melt some bones" with the guitar she won at an arcade is a reference to RWBY Chibi where she said the same during the battle of the bands.
  • Jin saying how he'd rather slice off his own arm than let himself degrade into laziness is one to when he sliced off his brother's arm in canon.
  • When Ruby sees Yukianesa for the first time, she says "Now that's a katana!" which is another nod to RWBY Chibi.
  • In another nod to RWBY Chibi, Neo refers to Roman as "her Dum-Dum" in Chapter 58.
  • Chapter 59 has Penny and Ruby encounter a group of fireflies and spin around with them, much like the firefly sketch from RWBY Chibi.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • Makoto's tonfa in the games didn't have a name. Here, they're called "Unfaltering Butterfly" according to Ozpin's student file on her and Chapter 52 of the main story.
  • Kagura's BFS gains the name "Black Dragon" in this story.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When Ruby actually manages to land a decent hit on Terumi, he drops all pretense of toying with her and just proceeds to relentlessly beat her to a pulp.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • During their "fight", Terumi mocks Adam for believing himself to be in the right and fighting for a just cause when he's really the same thing Terumi is; a gleeful monster who loves killing for fun. Adam refuses to acknowledge it while Terumi mocks him for how delusional he is.
  • While watching the Fall of Beacon, Cinder takes sadistic glee in watching the students struggle against the Grimm. Relius is quick to point out how alike she is to Terumi in how they enjoy the suffering of others, much to her ire.
• O.C. Stand-in:
  • Tortuga Chartreuse, the member of the Ace Ops before Marrow joined, is this given how he was only ever mentioned in passing canonically.
  • Tsubaki's parents are also this seeing as, while they were mentioned in the games, they never appeared nor were they named.
• Odd Friendship: Emerald and Luna end up striking a friendship after pickpocketing each other. Emerald even steals money to buy Luna a Scroll so they can keep in touch.
• Official Couple: Yang and Pyrrha become a couple in Chapter 50 after they confess their feelings for each other.
• Oh, My Gods!: Characters swear by multiple unnamed gods, often saying "Godsdammit" or "For the love of the gods" to name a couple examples.
• Old Master: Like the games, Jubei was this to Ragna, being an elderly Faunus and a master of combat. This time, however, Ragna was also briefly mentored by Maria Calavera. He even brings up to Jaune that, despite being old and blind, she's still easily able to kick his ass.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: In Chapter 18, when Ruby starts making puns and calls Yang the "queen of punning", Yang points out that she only ever made one terrible pun back in Signal, yet people treat her like the Pungeon Master because of it.
  Yang: I swear, you make one shitty pun, and the world will never let you forget it.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: In Chapter 60, Jin tells Ragna that he intends to finish the duel they had back in Chapter 49, warning him not to lose so they can face each other in the tournament. Ragna tells him to do the same.
• Point of Divergence: The fic begins diverging from the main plot of RWBY in Chapter 4: Into the Woods, where Noel saves Jaune mid-launch during initiation. Because of this, the canonical teams don't form, with certain aspects and plot points of the series continuing to diverge from there.
• Police Are Useless: One of the reasons Teams RNJR and BRNN go and investigate the White Fang themselves is because they don't think the police will be of much help. In Chapter 28, the police only show up after the battle has concluded. Ragna even lampshades this.
  Ragna: Fan-fucking-tastic, now the cops decide to show up.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After Adam lashes out at mankind and questions why Makoto chooses to fight for them, she gives him a prompt Shut Up, Hannibal! before grabbing him and lashing back in one of these.
  Makoto: Oh boo fuckity hoo. Why don't you cry me a godsdamned river then?
  Adam: How dare yo-
  Makoto (grabbing Adam by the shirt): No, shut the hell up, you bastard! You honestly think that just because of what you had to go through, you get a free fucking pass to butcher anyone that pisses you off? That ain't how the world works, buddy. You may have gone through the shitter, but so have dozens of hundreds of other Faunus all over the planet, and none of them are blood hungry jackasses like you are. You attacked Beacon, killed students and Huntsmen, both human and Faunus alike, you spout off a bunch of horse crap about wanting to make mankind suffer, and you still think you're fighting a just cause or some shit!? News flash, asshole! You're just a fucking sadistic monster! Maybe it isn't the world. Maybe, it's just you.
• Ruder and Cruder: Characters such as Ragna, Luna, and Terumi were already incredibly vulgar in terms of language back in their home series, but generally their most profane language was usually cut short. Here, they're taken up a notch with frequent f-bombs that aren't cut off. Even some of the RWBY characters use more profanity than what their home series had.
• Ship Sinking:
  • Jaune and Pyrrha wind up having a friendly, uninterrupted chat in Chapter 4, with the latter unlocking the former's Aura before initiation begins and Jaune even questioning the odds of him ending up on a team with her. All of this seems like set up for their partnership and eventual romance from canon, but then Noel ends up saving Jaune mid-fall, preventing them from being partners. Later chapters firmly nuke the possibility of Arkos for the story, with Pyrrha revealing in Chapter 35 that her feelings for Jaune faded away due to lack of interaction between them, and she later develops feelings for Yang.
  • Noel ends up as Jaune's partner in place of Pyrrha, with the two of them being very mutually supportive of each other. At first, it would seem as if this is the build-up to a potential relationship, and per Word of God in the story's AO3 comments, that was the original idea. However, in the same comments, it was confirmed that the plan changed and that they worked better as friends, thus sinking the ship.
  • The Author's Notes of Chapter 57 make it a point to do this regarding Ruby and Ragna. Aside from Ruby's developing romance with Penny, it's also made clear in the notes that she and Ragna are Like Brother and Sister to each other and that any possibility of them becoming an item was never an option in the first place. This is taken a step further when the same Author's Notes make it clear that Ragna will remain single for the entire story, killing off any other potential ships with him.
• Ship Tease:
  • Yang and Pyrrha grow increasingly close throughout their interactions as partners, particularly after Chapter 35, where they talk about their past dating lives and Pyrrha openly calls Yang attractive, causing her to blush. They often go on outings together (with Pyrrha in disguise to hide from any unwanted admirers), and after Chapter 43, it's made clear that Pyrrha has a crush on Yang. Even before Yang realizes her feelings for Pyrrha, she has a number of moments where she admires Pyrrha's beauty. The two confess their feelings for each other at the school dance and become an Official Couple from then on.
  • After Ruby and Penny first meet, they start hanging out frequently, with much of their interactions having them hold hands in an intimate fashion. During Chapter 43, Yang and Pyrrha assumed they were on a date, and the rest of their friends even comment how cute they are together. For the school dance, Ruby helps Penny get her chance to play music there and spends most of the event enthralled by her, with the two dancing together for the rest of the time. When Ruby learns about Penny and her father being evicted, she lets them stay at her house and essentially starts living with Penny. They're often shown getting lost in each other's eyes, and when Penny revealed her full Murakumo form to Ruby, she's completely awestruck.
• Shout-Out: Now has its own page.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Female example. While she's only appeared twice in flashbacks, the caretaker who raised Ragna, Jin, and Saya seemed to be rather vulgar tongued, as she uttered "shit" when hiding from a Beowolf and called Suki an "unpleasable bitch". Considering she raised Ragna before he was taken in by Jubei, odds are she ended up being the reason for his very colorful vocabulary.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Ragna and Jin's default attire for the first three volumes of the story is the same as from when they were teenagers (In Jin's case, from the Spiral Shift novels), and as such, both of them lack sleeves.
• Sole Survivor: In Chapter 68, after the deaths of all his teammates, Cardin is left as the last surviving member of Team CRDL.
• Soul Fragment:
  • It's revealed in Chapter 46 that Murakumo Units, such as Noel, Penny, and Nu, all carry pieces of Saya's soul within them.
  • In Chapter 70, Terumi takes a small piece of Ruby's soul when he took her right eye, which he later uses to upgrade Nu-13. It's revealed in Chapter 73 that this resulted in Ruby having a burnt patch in her Aura around the area where her right eye once was, very similar to the ones Pietro had in canon.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Pyrrha and Penny both survive the events of Volume 3 unlike the main series, where they were killed.
• Squee:
  • Glynda lets out one when she gets Trinity Glassfille's autograph.
  • Noel lets out one when she sees Zwei for the first time before taking him from Yang and cuddling the corgi.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: Terumi lampshades the ubiquity of this trope throughout the series, saying he misses the good 'ol days when weapons either cut you from up close or pierced you from afar, rather than near every melee weapon having a ranged mode.
• Switching P.O.V.: The POV shifts around from character-to-character within a given chapter. For example, Chapter 20 starts from Glynda's perspective, then shifts to Ragna's, then Noel's, and finally Ozpin's. Some chapters are told entirely from one perspective however, with Chapter 32 being entirely from Ragna's perspective, Chapter 41 being entirely from Ironwood's perspective, and Chapter 45 being entirely from Glynda's perspective.
• Team Member in the Adaptation: Pyrrha is on the same team as Yang and Weiss, Blake is on the same team as Nora and Ren, and Ruby ends up on the same team as Jaune long before the events of V4.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Ironwood and Rachel are both members of Ozpin's inner circle, but they're shown to constantly argue and bicker with each other. Ironwood hates Rachel for her condescension and derision of him, while Rachel hates Ironwood for his recklessness and bullheadedness. Whenever they're in the same room, Ozpin has to work as a mediator to keep the two from coming to blows.
• Wham Line:
  • During Cinder's confrontation with Ozpin in Chapter 68, she asks him a question that shows just what the Vaults under the Academies hold:
    Cinder: Where is it? Where is the Azure?
  • Salem's final line to Ragna in Chapter 71.
    Salem: Good night, my son.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Played with and discussed. When Luna first hears the name of Ozpin's past life, Bloodedge, she laughs and has this reaction, saying that it sounds like he was compensating for something. Sena, however, reacts with fear, stating that it sounds like someone got that name from killing so many that their blade was covered in blood. When Ragna first hears it, even he questions it, finding the name weird.
  Luna (thoughts) Bloodedge? That's your friend's name? Really? Sounds like someone trying to compensate for something.
  
  Ragna: Though I'm definitely asking what kind of name is Bloodedge.
• Wipe the Floor with You: Ragna does this against Nu-13 during their fight in Chapter 76, where he turns into the Black Beast once again and drags her across the entire arena wall, demolishing it in the process.
• You Are Number 6: Just like the canon BlazBlue games, Murakumo Units all have numerical designations as their names. But besides the canon examples of Nu-13, Lambda-11, and Mu-12/Noel Vermillion, there's also Kappa-10/Penny Polendina.

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