2 Dissonance

"Hold still" The deep voice of the deer faunus, Jared Corsa, said as he gripped the handle of the Inverted Spear of Heaven.

Satoru grunted, sending a thinly veiled glare and a whispered "asshole" his way as he readied himself for what was going to happen.

Jared seemed to notice, something about him being part animal making his hearing better than it normally should be.

"You're the one who asked for this, we could have just waited for some Hunters to come save us, but you insisted."

Satoru frowned, "You keep mentioning Hunters like they are some type of miracle workers that fixes everything."

Jared scoffed, "They are, or at least the janitors who clean up after every mess the kingdoms or the White Fang make. This world would have been rubble without them, trust me on this one."

Satoru nodded, thankful for the tidbit of information, and also because of the familiarity of the statement about what Jujutsu Sorcerers did. Without them, Curses would accumulate power without being deterred, and eventually more Special Grades would appear, which would cause more negative emotions, resulting in more Special Grades. He had heard his fellow prisoners also singing the praises of Hunters just as the few regulars in the loop of Sorcerers did, but for all he knew, they were lacking if they hadn't made it here already.

It was night again, meaning for almost a full day Satoru had rotted away in this overgrown hunk of metal, gaining as much of his Cursed Energy as he could back before he finally decided enough was enough. Hell, the White Fang members only checked on them every hour on the dot, acting so casually it was hard to understand how no one had escaped yet.

However, with twenty hours to come to terms with his predicament, experiment with what he had available, and see just how this new world was different from Earth; Satoru had found out a few interesting things.

The Sorcerers, or Aura users as he came to discover despite them using Cursed Energy as well, couldn't actually sense others with it. The amount of times he had flared his Cursed Energy to see how they would react granted him nothing. No, they still casually talked amongst themselves, laughed at crude jokes, and had even picked out a few of the prisoners they would try to keep if they didn't get their ransom in time.

The other, more worrying issue, was that they were all Grade 1 with how much Cursed Energy they held; with three standouts even being close to having a Semi-Special Grade's capacity. The amount of Cursed Energy was almost standardized oddly enough, and not a single of the thirty or so White Fang members had lower Cursed Energy than a Grade 2 Sorcerer.

It was worrying.

"Gah!" Satoru practically yelped, turning sharply to see Jared holding the weapon that had been lodged in him for far too long, small droplets of blood flowing off the double blade and onto the metal floor.

"Seriously?!"

Jared shrugged, "Isn't that how you're supposed to do it?"

Satoru gave the bull faunus a blank look, and Jared donned a sheepish one in return, showing he was at least a bit remorseful for doing so.

"Now," He cleared his throat. "Time to pack the wound or you're gonna bleed out."

Satoru chuckled slightly, "No need for it Horn Head, this is nothing for someone like me."

He used Cursed Energy to push his muscles together, effectively sealing the injury, but he would still need to heal regularly or find a doctor to make sure something wasn't permanently broken. Even then, Satoru was a quick healer, he had always been for the few times he had actually been hit by something.

"How did you-"

Satoru grinned ear to ear, "I guess you could say I'm almost like a Hunter, just way more handsome."

It felt good, to quip and be his goofy and arrogant self again, but he knew behind it he was still confused and angry about everything.

To suddenly be brought to this world by a Cursed Tool emitting an eerie energy he never felt before, to be killed by some old Sorcerer Killer who was way past his prime, to fail a mission for the first time, to never see Suguru again, and to be forced to swallow the fact he had no idea why he was here and how to get back even if he could.

The Six Eyes granted him the ability to apply his Cursed Energy inside imaginary space to create reality bending spatial effects, but he had not a single clue on how to begin opening portals to other dimensions, or if that was possible for him.

Satoru still hid it all with his usual charming smile, casually getting up and walking toward the metal bars of the cage, each step thudding heavily on the metal floor until he stood before them.

Slowly, he raised a single open palmed hand, and with practiced ease his Cursed Energy wrapped around the bars and twisted them violently.

The tearing of metal screeched through the relative quiet night, and Satoru ignored how every single one of the sixty three prisoners all stared at him wide eyed in surprise and fear.

Turning, and with the backdrop of the sliver of a waning crescent moon pictured right behind him, he spoke confidently.

"You're free, when the White Fang eventually shows up I'll deal with them. Go."

Jared was up quickly with a noticeable limp, walking forward and sputtering, "Was that your s-semblance, d-do you have an aura?"

Satoru gave the man a single wink, "Nah, I have much much more than that."

Then, he teleported a short distance away, which ate up a good chunk of Cursed Energy like usual since his eyes couldn't keep it at a super low price, but it was enough to put him exactly where he needed to be.

With a clack, both of Satoru's expensive black loafers landed directly on a wooden crate, scattering the playing cards and colorful lien on it.

With a quick look, he found himself in an open camp walled off with stone walls enclosing shipping containers, weird vehicles with wings, and uniform metal homes most likely used for lodging.

Before him, five White Fang members sitting in a circle with playing cards in their hands blinked, looking at his shoes for a few long seconds before slowly panning their gazes up to see his face.

"Umm, who-"

The female lizard faunus never got to finish, as she found herself flying backwards and impacting a metal container that crunched around her like a baseball mitt.

The others were slightly faster though, weapons consisting mostly of swords and javelins brandished, yet they were too slow to actually fire or attack.

Satoru retracted his outstretched fist, blurring sideways and hammering an elbow directly into the sternum of a scaled bulkier White Fang member, but as the faunus was sent tumbling backwards, Satoru clicked his tongue in annoyance and intrigue.

He wasn't actually hitting anything, just a veil of Cursed Energy almost as hard as steel, but that was again not how Cursed Energy should work without a sorcerer manually doing it.

'Why?' Satoru asked, but when he poured more Cursed Energy into his Six eye and focused on the lizard faunus he sent into a wall from earlier retching herself free, he now understood completely.

"Falling Blossom Emotion, and without doing it purposely, you guys really know how to make a guy curious."

"Surrender now!" one of the White Fang grunts commanded, but in the next instant, he fired anyways, bullets zipping forward only to suddenly stop a good three feet away from Satoru.

"You didn't even let me answer…" Satoru blinked slowly. "Maybe I'm in America."

He wagered they didn't find it funny, because the rest proceeded to shift all of their weapons into guns and also began to fire despite nothing happening once again as their bullets stopped on a dime.

Once the clicking of empty magazines could be heard, Satoru acted, suddenly blitzing one lankier member with a combo of fists and kicks, and it was on the fourteenth hit that a sheen of green sparkled across the cheetah faunus' body. And oddly enough, on the next hit in the form of an open palm slap to the chest, did Satoru finally meet flesh.

Blood spurted out of the man's mouth as he went flying, rolling for a good ten feet before stopping and laying limp; most likely falling unconscious but Satoru had barely held back.

He wasn't in the mood too.

Satoru chuckled playfully, putting one hand in his pocket while his other gestured for the rest of the five who had now been joined by the twenty or so enemies who had been alerted by his small skirmish to come at him.

"Don't be shy now."

Bullets whizzed, metal churned, grunts and screams rang out, and there were even a few explosions to top it all off. In the end, Satoru stood alone amongst a field of unconscious or too injured to fight enemies, panting moderately but with not a single scratch on him.

'It's annoying since they have so much Cursed Energy,' He thought to himself. 'But other than that they're pretty weak, sub par training with their weapons, almost no martial arts. However, what the hell is wrong with their Cursed Energy?'

For some reason, once a unique color washed over their body, the Cursed Energy on them would sink inside their body and turn into Positive Energy to slowly start to heal them; once again something that shouldn't be as widespread or possible.

'However, I can focus on it later, now I wonder if those two might actually be a threat.'

Satoru had attacked when the White Fang had sent a patrol to kill the surrounding Grimm, creatures he came to discover were different from the Curses he knew about, as it would allow him to be a bit more cautious when fighting.

Although it was unneeded, seeing as these people were within his power, though that couldn't always be the case in a new world right?

"And who might you two be?" Satoru asked aloud, blue eyes glowing as he turned to see two silhouettes standing on a pile of metal shipping containers.

The first thing he noticed was striking red hair, horns, a blood red katana already drawn, and a black suit strikingly without wrinkles.

The other was more concealed, even a cowl covering most of what Satoru guessed was a female, letting black cat ears peek over a mask with holes that let her startling yellow eyes be visible. She also had her weapon drawn, but from dealing with the others Satoru could see it was in the weird hybrid form of a gun.

Oddly enough, when Satoru met her gaze, those same yellow eyes quickly looked anywhere else, almost as if out of guilt.

"Not going to talk?" He asked curiously, seeing as eventually something would need to happen, and as he used his Six Eyes to look back toward the cage, he saw most of the prisoners had escaped, now huddling behind further placed shipping containers and watching him with hopeful eyes.

The bull faunus with the red katana spoke evenly, "Are you a Hunter, or perhaps a Schnee, you look like one of them?"

"Maybe," Satoru cheekily answers with thinly veiled sarcasm. "Depends on what type of prey I'm looking to get, and I have not the slightest clue what a Schnee is, are they as good looking as me?"

The male White Fang member clicked his tongue, "Doesn't matter, you die here either way."

The red haired man was quick, quick enough that Satoru had to actually anticipate his attack rather than simply react, Limitless activated immediately and deftly stopping the katana which would have pierced his heart.

"What if I don't want to die, what then Red?"

"Tch," Red jumped backwards and made distance, sheathing his katana and slowly walking parallel to Satoru, ready to draw at any moment. "You don't have a weapon, you don't seem to be in a team… a bounty hunter perhaps?"

Satoru shrugged, but then realized that now that he was in a new world, how the hell was he going to get money?

He had billions of yen to throw around growing up, but now, he was dead broke.

The distraction from such a realization made him forget about his second enemy, but when he heard the gunshot, and casually glanced to his left, the .45 bullet seemed especially harmless as it floated there unmoving.

"Hmm?" Satoru hummed and turned to see the feline faunus also circling him from his side. "Come to play Kitty?"

Apparently, the red haired Bull Fuanus did not like that, once again using his startling speed to try and attack, and once again his red blade was stopped well within a safe distance from Satoru's throat.

"Third time's the cha-"

Satoru stopped, eyes widening as he turned, seeing another bullet, but something felt off; yet so disgustingly familiar his heart beat faster.

The bullet met his Limitless, yet a basketball explosion of fire detonated, Satoru hastily shielding his face as he was thrown backwards.

'That feeling, the weird energy signature close to Cursed Energy yet not.' Satoru coughed, looking down to see his right sleeve burned away and some of his flesh charred. 'The same feeling of the blade that sent me here.'

Satoru gritted his teeth, glaring daggers at the feline who once again pointed her weird weapon gun at him, and with the Six Eyes now focused he could see that inside the magazine and also the extra ones hidden on her body, gave off the same weird energy as well.

"Dust huh, easy work around for that semblance." Red spoke mockingly. "You humans think you're invincible huh?"

Dust?

Satoru let his Cursed Energy flow faster, reinforcing him twice as much as before and then forcibly slowing his breathing to calm himself.

"You think you can solve every issue with violence and an iron boot?" Red was seething now, slowly walking skillfully forward over the unconscious bodies of his allies as if he had done it a thousand times. "You think faunus are beneath you right?"

Satoru raised a single eyebrow, unsure what was setting off the Bull Faunus to get him so angry, but either way he didn't have to worry about him for right now.

No, he focused on the cat faunus still a good distance away, the pain from the explosion making him feel cautious more than his most recent battle before dying.

Was he really so vulnerable?

Was Limitless really that easy to bypass?

He had trained it just enough to stop solid objects and kinetic energy, but what of gas and liquid, heat or possibly poison?

Was he weak?

Is this what falling off a high horse felt like?

"Humans and their fancy armies, thinking themselves-"

"Enough." Satoru commanded as he rocketed forward, Cursed Energy overflowing to his right hand and a bullet of a punch landing squarely on the Bull Faunus' chest.

Because of his Aura Shroud as he was calling it for now, he was fine, but Satoru saw how Red's Cursed Energy was shaved off almost a quarter of its max.

"Damnit, Blake!"

Satoru was already moving, dodging whatever the hell the fire bullets were and gathering his Cursed Energy. He raced toward the feline assassin he now knew as Blake, her weapon shifting with a click and slicing through the air in a flash.

Of course, it stopped abruptly, and Satoru took his gamble, fingers flicking forward and grabbing a spare magazine off of Blake's belt clip.

Her yellow eyes widened, and in a quick motion Satoru threw the magazine backwards, not even needing to glance back to see the red haired Bull Faunus racing toward him from behind.

His Lapse Blue spawned, and with a familiar finger gun he fired backwards immediately in the next instant, his other hand flashing forward and gut punching Blake in her stomach, causing her to gasp in pain from the hit.

Satoru turned, watching as the magazine he threw went wide.

However, his Blue was true, barreling forwards to hit Red directly.

To no one's surprise, the Bull Faunus, despite being thrown off by the mass of blue energy, managed to dodge at the last second.

"Adam-"

Yet, as it was passing by his shoulder, Satoru narrowed his eyes at the fact he wasn't being attracted as much as he should.

Luckily, his contingency in the shape of a Dust magazine did, the object being sucked harshly into Lapse Blue, causing a flash of white to blind everyone.

The explosion detonated only a fraction of a second later, and Satoru used one third of his remaining Cursed Energy to teleport away.

It took ten long and suspenseful seconds for the dust to clear, and Satoru had already raced back, seeing Adam on the ground clutching his side while gritting his teeth in agony.

A smaller, more concentrated Lapse Blue the size of a golf ball swirled on the tip of his index finger, the same finger now pointed at Adam's head as he stood above him. Satoru could see that Adam's Cursed Energy had receded like the others he fought, and once again it did something he had thought previously impossible.

This supposed aura was shifting to Positive Energy, healing Adam's superficial cuts and the burns peppering his shoulder and arm before focusing fully on the gash at his side.

Satoru gave him the slightest smile, "Your move Red."

"Do you honestly believe-" Adam started through harsh breaths, only to then be silenced by the voice of his partner.

"Adam please." Blake started as she pushed herself up from where she had been laying in a heap on the ground. Her clothes were slightly burned, but having enough Cursed Energy and being far enough away, she was relatively fine. "Have we fallen so far as to actively hurt faunus and innocent humans?"

Adam practically growled, Satoru giving the man props for looking up at him and his still swirling Lapse Blue with not an ounce of fear; just hatred.

"They did so first Blake, they crossed the line, grabbed it and snapped it in half. They are murderers, yet they smile as if nothing happened."

Satoru was a moment away from ending this whole fight, but when he turned to look at Blake, he saw something familiar in her eyes.

Love, no… the want to love, a hope to do so with her whole heart.

He had never cared about killing Cursed Users, he had been practically forced to as he grew up. However, he never really felt anything when killing them, hell, for most of his life he felt nothing for a lot of things.

But right now, he knew it would feel good to kill Adam, to prove he could win, that his death was a one time thing; a fluke.

"You, Cat." Satoru spoke. "You let the prisoners walk free with rations to make it to Mistral, you let me take any lien off your grunts' bodies, and I don't kill your boyfriend here. Deal or no deal?"

She hesitated, sharing a variety of heat filled looks with Adam and communicating through it. After they seemed to have reached an agreement, she looked back up at him and nodded.

"Great." Satoru de-spawned his Blue.

Then, without hesitation, he kicked Adam in the face and knocked him out cold; his mask cracking but not breaking.

Blake balked, "Why did you do that?"

Satoru shrugged, "Why did you kidnap innocent people?"

Blake physically flinched, "Their village was attacked, the people were scattered, hurt, but Adam would never go out of his way to help them. So I…I came up with the idea to capture them and demand lien from the Mistral Council. A win for both of us. I got to save them, Adam believed he was still working toward his cause."

Satoru stared at her, surprised he actually got an answer to his retort and also shocked by how honest she sounded.

He turned away, looking at the ex-prisoners who had started to make their way toward him, Jared at the forefront holding the Inverted Spear of Heaven at the ready as if he was going to fight.

"I don't know if you're telling the truth, and honestly, I don't care." Satoru turned back to Blake who was sitting on her knees. "I got things to sort out, things you wouldn't and couldn't understand. Take your boyfriend and go be terrorists somewhere else."

Satoru began walking away, yet after ten steps he was halted by her voice.

"Thank you." He turned to see Blake removing her mask, a beautiful pale face marred only by a bit of dirt and slight bags under her yellow eyes.

"And…" She had the faintest tinge of red on her cheeks, so faint Satoru wasn't sure what it could mean. "He's not my boyfriend, he's my ex."

Satoru simply chuckled, turning and continuing on to meet the hairy deer faunus he had come to know in the last day or so.

"You were a Hunter all along?" were the first words to leave the older faunus' lips.

Satoru just gave him another wink, "Wouldn't you like to know."

Jared's forehead sprouted a single long vein, "I have known you not even twenty four hours, and I can honestly say your personality is rotten to the core, I would rather talk to a Beowolf."

Satoru patted the man on the back,"Kids these days, amiright? Anyways, the Kitty over there will help you guys get some lien and rations to make it to Mistral, you said it's two days on foot right?"

Jared nodded, looking back to see most of the ex-prisoners still standing idle, looking at Satoru with awe and a tinge of newfound fear.

"You heard him."

A good chunk of the crowd left, and even some of them started to pickpocket the unconscious White Fang members while the rest simply sat down, most likely still tired seeing as it was still night.

"Should we wait till daytime to travel?" He asked.

Jared shook his head, limping forward as he decisively kicked a jaguar faunus in the rear, causing the recipient to groan aloud, "Wouldn't matter, Grimm attack the same at night or day, the only difference is the negative emotions associated with night, but most have gotten use to darkness, thanks to those relentless beasts. If we stay longer, the bigger chance of Adam Taurus getting up and going for round two, plus all these criminals as well."

Satoru cocked his head, "You know the Redhead?"

Jared gave him a side glance as he struggled to get on one knee to take the sword-revolver from a random body, "You don't- wait that's right, amnesia. Everyone knows him, especially faunus like me, same with that short stack Sienna Khan, though I know younger men who would love to meet her."

"Huh, you learn something new everyday," Satoru said as he checked his burned arm, noticing they were mostly first degree and some second, nothing he had not healed from before, though without Shoko it would take a little bit longer.

Shoko, the name made his mood dampen, and he did what he always did; brush it off with a joke.

"So, why are you guys pickpocketing the goons, I was gonna claim that loot you know?"

Jared smiled, and soon he was joined by many others as they put all the lien, ammo, and even ingots of metal in a black backpack that they gave to Jared, who then handed it to Satoru.

"We heard the deal you made with the Fang member before, this is also our payment for your assistance, we won't need any lien. The Mistral Council will pay us relief because of the Grimm wave."

Satoru just stood there, unsure how to feel about the whole thing. He never really got thanked for doing missions for Jujutsu society. It was simply his job, his duty as both a sorcerer and as the next head of the Gojo clan.

This felt different, a complete contrast to everything he knew. Regular people would never know how many thousands of lives he had saved since he started killing Curses at eight, and they never would.

For the first time, Satoru was shown gratitude for his actions, not a simple nod of affirmation or a cold paycheck added to his bank account which was equivalent to a small drop of water being dropped into an ocean.

"I… thank you."

The backpack felt heavy, not from the weight of it, but something he couldn't quite grasp.

Jared patted him on the shoulder, or tried to, as he was stopped from doing so by a spatial distortion of air.

Satoru looked at the hand, and for a moment he hesitated, but ultimately deactivated Limitless and felt the even heavier feeling of Jared's hand.

"We should start heading to Mistral, we will probably meet a Hunter on the way, they patrol the main roads regularly and I'm sure they heard that Sakura Village has been destroyed."

A nod was all Satoru gave in return, watching silently as the prisoners were given rations by Blake who now had her mask on again, avoiding his gaze the entire time. Once the supplies were divided evenly, a path was decided, they started toward the open gate that led out of the compound.

Satoru glanced back, noticing the spaceship-like vehicles and asking the random black haired boy next to him, "What are those?"

The kid blinked slowly, then swallowed hard before speaking, "Bullheads, though they were stolen property of Atlas, not enough room for all of us anyways."

Satoru grunted, falling silent again as he used his Six Eyes to scan everything, gaze settling on a silhouette of a familiar feline female.

She stood at the open gate of the compound, eyes of yellow vibrant amongst the relative darkness of night, and his eyes widened a hair as he saw her give him a small wave.

He didn't wave back though, only raising his burnt arm and pointing at it.

That got her to drop her hand rather quickly.

A small smile graced Satoru's face from seeing her reaction, turning back around to follow the line of beaten and tired villagers heading toward the capital of a kingdom he had little to no knowledge about.

Satoru stifled a yawn, using his Six Eyes to scan the area around him aimlessly.

'What to do now, a whole new world to see? Should I become a bounty hunter, though becoming a Hunter doesn't sound too bad, how hard could it be anyways?'

Although, he had not the slightest clue how exactly he was going to become one, and he also wondered what life of a poor man might be like; or middle class, they were the same to him either way.

"Forward!" He yelled cheerfully, though the look Jared gave him was all too telling that wasn't the right vibe to have at the moment.

"Oops."

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[A/N: Chapter is a bit short, but the next ones will probably be longer, hope you are enjoying the developments so far, and also world building will be a huge factor going forth since this is kind of an AU. Also Blake best waifu??? JK, we all know it's Weiss.]