RWBY: The Spirit System Manual

Third POV

Grayson never thought much about life beyond the usual day-to-day grind. Wake up, go to school, come home, play video games, and maybe hang out with his little sister, Emily. It was a simple cycle, one that made sense to him.

He wasn't the type to stand out in school. He got decent grades, but he was not a genius, not failing was something he was proud of. He had a few friends, enough to keep from being a loner, like a certain guy with dead fish-eyes from an anime he watched from, but not enough to feel like he belonged to a big group. The only things that truly excited him were gaming, anime, and the occasional weekend when he could just exist without worrying about anything.

Having a girlfriend was not on his list of priorities. He believed that no girl was interested in him. Even in middle school, the girls there didn't pay him any attention, nor even give him a single glance, so he thought nothing would change in high school.

But there was his cousin, Chloe.

She had been in the hospital since she was three. His parents and hers never talked about the details openly, as if saying it aloud would make it worse. But Grayson understood enough: Chloe had stage 3 lung cancer. A cruel joke played by fate on a little girl who never had the chance to live a normal life.

Grayson didn't remember a time when Chloe wasn't sick. Visiting her had been a regular part of his life. He and Emily would bring her drawings, stuffed animals, and whatever new game or show they were obsessed with at the time. Even if she couldn't leave the hospital, they made sure she was still part of their world.

But he noticed it. The way she struggled to remember things, the way her attention drifted even in the middle of conversations. He once sat with her watching Regular Show while she played Honkai: Star Rail on her tablet, only to realize she barely remembered anything about the characters, the story, or any of it.

Despite everything, Chloe always smiled. She never complained, never got upset when they had to leave.

"Next time, you have to tell me all about it," she'd say.

Grayson admired her. She was strong in a way he wasn't. Even with her four-year routine and clinical trials, she kept smiling.

But even with Chloe in the back of his mind, school was its kind of battlefield. He was never the target of bullying, but he wasn't exactly invisible either. Some kids teased him for being a nerd, but nothing bad enough to make him care. What did get to him was the feeling that, no matter how many people he talked to, he still felt alone. He couldn't fit in.

It wasn't like he could talk to anyone about Chloe. His parents were always stressed, his aunt and uncle were barely holding on, and Emily...well, she was just a kid. She didn't need to hear how much it weighed on him.

So, he kept it all to himself. He put on a brave face, played games to escape, and acted like everything was fine.

Until it wasn't.

The call came on a rainy Tuesday night.

Grayson tossed his bag onto the floor, letting out a sigh as he flopped onto the couch. The rain drummed against the windows, a steady rhythm that felt almost soothing.A moment of peace. He reached for his controller and grabbed it.

He wasn't paying attention until he heard his mother's breath hitch.

He turned, controller still in his hands, as he watched her expression crumble. Her fingers tightened around the phone, her shoulders tensed, and then, in a whisper, she choked out the words that shattered the air.

"No… not Chloe…"

The room suddenly felt too quiet. The sounds of the rain outside faded, the screen in front of him blurred into nothingness.

Chloe was gone.

He felt like he was falling like the floor beneath him had vanished. His fingers dug into the controller, knuckles white, but his face remained still. A part of him refused to believe it.

No. That didn't make sense. Chloe was still in the hospital. She was still waiting for them. Still smiling.

A sharp, sinking feeling coiled in his gut.

Emily's wails pierced the silence moments later, as their mother pulled her into a tight embrace, whispering words of comfort that Grayson couldn't hear.

He just sat there, staring at nothing.

His hands trembled.

But he didn't cry.

Not at the funeral, where everyone spoke of how brave Chloe had been.Not when Emily clung to him, her sobs shaking her small frame.

Because if he cried… if he let himself grieve…

Then it would be real.

And he wasn't ready for that.

Even at the funeral, he just stood there, numb, watching as people spoke about how strong and brave Chloe had been. He hated it. Not because it wasn't true, but because she should have had the chance to be more than just "brave." She should have had the chance to live.

Out of everyone in the world, why did it have to be Chloe? Why did a six-year-old girl have to have cancer? Why couldn't it be someone who was the worst person to exist, or someone who had caused harm to others? Why did it have to be his little cousin, the most innocent girl in the world, who loved everything?

That night, Grayson lay awake in his room, staring at the ceiling. Sleep felt impossible. Even if he could, he didn't want to. He couldn't. His mind wouldn't stop racing. He kept replaying memories of Chloe, her laugh, her smile, the way she always acted like everything was fine even when it wasn't.

Eventually, exhaustion won. His body felt heavy, and his eyes drooped. Before he realized it, he fell asleep.

He dreamed of a girl with white hair and reddish-pink eyes, playing with a tall, dark blue mech. The mech's glowing pink cyclopean eye pulsed softly, and it wore a fur-lined jacket with multiple openings that exposed its shoulders. The girl turned, smiling brightly as she waved at him.

Then everything went dark.

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Location:???

And then, he woke up.

Or at least, he thought he did.

The world around him was wrong.

Uneven ground. The terrain is cracked and fragmented, as if torn apart by something impossible. Floating debris and jagged rocks drift in the air. Above, the sky swirls with deep blues and blacks, speckled with countless stars and nebulae that pulse with ethereal light.

And then, it appeared.

In front of Grayson was a being, an unfathomable being of writhing tendrils and shifting darkness. Its form is fluid, never truly solid, as though reality itself struggles to define its existence. Its head is shrouded in shadow, with no discernible face, it had four arms made of shadows.

[Image]

The entity moved, its form distorting as if space itself were bending around it. Then, a voice not spoken, but felt, reverberated through Grayson's very soul.

"Mortal. Your existence has ended. But your journey… has only just begun." The Entity declared as one of its shadow hands now had stars in it. 

A chill ran down his spine.

I'm dead.

The realization struck like a hammer.

His body. His home.His Family. His world...gone.

The entity extended a shadowy hand. Within it, stars pulsed like tiny, contained universes.

Grayson wanted to speak, to ask what was happening, but the words refused to form. It was as if his throat had been sealed shut.

The entity's presence loomed over him, its shifting tendrils extending and retracting in hypnotic, unnatural movement.

"You have been chosen." The Entity said.

Grayson's heart pounded.

"Chosen? Chosen for what?" Grayson thought as everything was happening so fast.

The void-like entity remained still for a moment before continuing.

"To begin anew. To wield a power unlike any other. The Spirit System Manual shall be yours to command. Remember, the world you will be in can change due to your actions. I'm an entity that doesn't leash on freedom." The Entity clarified.

"Spirit System Manual? World? Changes? What is going on? Am I reincarnating like those characters from light novels and manga?" Grayson thought, bewildered. He never expected this to happen; all he wanted was to return home! He didn't ask for any of this.

"Remember, many beings will be watching. After all, you are not the only person who has been granted a chance like this. Good luck." The Entity informed as he snapped his finger.

But before he could even process the words, the space started to collapse.

A force unlike anything he had ever felt before pulled at his very being, dragging him into the stars that the being held in one of his shadow hands.

His vision blurred, his thoughts scattered. The last thing he saw was the shadowy figure watching as he was absorbed in the stars in its hand.

Everything went black.

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Meanwhile...

Location:???

The being tossed the stars into the sky, and the other stars above absorbed them. As the being gazed at the celestial scene, a woman's voice echoed throughout the domain. The being turned its attention to Ilyasviel von Einzbern, known by her true name as the divine spirit Sitonai.

"Hmm… so you decided to send another soul into the multiverse?" She mused, her voice carrying a playful tone, yet edged with curiosity. "I thought you had stopped doing that. What changed? Did FuwaMoco and Mumei nag you into giving humanity another chance?"

"Both. They wanted to see if humanity could break its limits once again in the multiverse. And you know me; they didn't have to ask me to do this. If anything, both of them seem to know something. But it's also curiosity in what humanity can do." The Entity said as Sitonai nodded.

Sitonai let out a small hum, tapping her cheek thoughtfully. "Curiosity, huh? That's unlike you. Normally, you just sit back and watch, not throw mortals into the deep end like this."

She paused. Then, a knowing smirk tugged at her lips.

"But truly, granting a human the Spirit system and the ability to create spirits is something I never anticipated from you. Nonetheless, what's done is done. Which world did you send the human soul to? Was it Mushoku Tensei, Re: Zero, or maybe something truly cruel, like a Lostbelt?" Sitonai asked eagerly, her eyes gleaming with curiosity as she awaited the being's answer.

"....Remnant." The Entity responded.

Sitonai froze.

"Eh..."

A pause. Then...

Her expression shifted from surprise to utter disbelief. "EHHHHH?! You sent him to Remnant?! What, are you trying to speedrun his suffering? That world is already falling apart as it is!"

She paced back and forth, muttering under her breath till her eyes widened. "Unless… oh. Ohhhh. That's clever."

The entity observed her with an unreadable presence.

Sitonai exhaled, shaking her head. "So that's your plan, huh? Dropping a human with a Spirit System into an alternate Remnant that is considered a dying world, letting them break their limits, and then—" She stopped, staring up at the endless void.

A small smirk tugged at her lips.

"That's your plan, isn't it?" she murmured. "Dropping a human with spirit-crafting into that Remnant. Letting them change things."

"Well… this will be interesting to watch." Sitonai thought with a smile.

She turned to the entity, her red eyes gleaming with curiosity. "But tell me… do you really think he can pull it off?"

The entity did not answer. Instead, it simply gazed at the cosmos, at the distant star where a single soul had just been reborn.

And in the vastness of the unknown, the game had already begun.