8 Bad Decisions

[AN: I have noticed that some of my names for the story are getting corrected to the wrong thing when I type it up, or not corrected at all, so I will say them here for sure. {Cassinova} and {Laela} are the correct way of spelling it, so I am sorry if that is misspelled at any point in the future or past, and I will appreciate anyone pointing out the potential misspelling of any names should it occur.

On another subject, once I have uploaded enough of the story I might begin to upload and update a page on characters' powers (at least those that I don't mind sharing), outfits I have in mind when I think of them, or just general details. If it becomes a big enough idea, I might make solo chapters about each character's background, at least the ones that are wanted to know about.

That's it for now, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and I will try to get the next one out in a reasonable time.]

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It's been a few weeks since I woke up in Remnant, and I noticed a strange phenomenon within myself; I act more like my physical age than my mental age. Even if I would have done so to blend in, it is unconsciously happening, which I find especially strange because of my mental age gap. I guess it goes to show that Argento-me is most likely the primary me, which is for the best considering the sheer level of emotion I feel from THOSE memories even now.

Speaking of, a lot of my Braxely memories are cut off, unfinished, or missing. Even with the massive amount of memories I had to experience, it seems that wasn't all of them. I have no clue why this is, but no matter how hard I try, I can't find the missing pieces, so that's a problem I've decided to put a pin in.

On another note, it seems the Cassinovas and my parents get along great, so I get to see Ivy quite often. Sometimes it's just a dinner and playing together, and other times it's more of a picnic in the parks. The strangest thing about all of this is still Ivy. I know being reborn - transmigrated because of the already established body maybe? - is both exciting and utterly confusing as a concept, but I've never heard of this kind of connection between two humans. Maybe it happens in this world but not my last one?

"Honey, are you ready?" Hearing Amelia call for me, I snapped out of my reverie and finished getting ready. Walking out into the living room with a nice and tidy black polo and matching black pants, I see my mother standing in wait, wearing a mustard-yellow summer dress that made her eyes stand out just enough. Next to her stood Maxwell, dressed in his Sunday-best white/silver button-up and black slacks, and matched with his styled stubble, he looked like a lady-killer through-and-through; which strangely matched with the basket he was currently carrying.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Giving her a smile I grab her hand as we head out to the meeting spot; the city center by the fountain. Despite having been here for a few weeks, I have yet to see much of the city itself, as the outings have mostly been away from the city's main area. With Ivy's help and some tactfully placed puppy dog eyes, we managed to convince our parents to bring us through the city (mostly just my parents because they like to worry about me, presumably for the same reason that brought me here).

So now in front of me stood the Cassinova's, behind them stood an elegant fountain of a mermaid on a pedestal with water falling around, but not on, her. With several buildings in the immediate area being a few stories tall, shining with glass and metal as clean as can be, a building behind the fountain greatly resembled a smaller Capitol building of America. Atop the archway entrance "City Hall" was engraved and then filled in with gold to make it stand out more. In the distance, upon a more elevated area than the rest of the city, stood a large, technologically beautiful castle made seemingly of interconnected towers. It was Beacon Academy, and what little I could remember from the plot of RWBY was where a majority of the first few volumes took place? It was hazy, and on top of that, I couldn't remember how many volumes there were after 3, or when 3 even ended…

"Argy!" Now jumping into my arms (raised in time only because of reflexes) was Ivy, breaking me out of my mind's looping thoughts; her hair was illuminated by the sun, giving way for her deep dark green hair and bright silver eyes to be pronounced. She had a cute green dress with silver accents and matching slip-ons and a bowtie hairpiece. With my worries and mental age quickly slipping away, I hugged her back until she was satisfied and let go. Noticing her parents with small smiles from the interaction, I had the dignity to feel slightly embarrassed for letting my inner-child escape so easily and not greeting them. I backed up to my parents a bit so the three of them were in front of me.

"Hello Ivy, Mr. and Mrs. Cassinova, it is a pleasure to see you as always." Giving a lopsided grin that only works for children and roguishly handsome men, I did a mock and exaggerated bow, to which Ivy happily replied with a curtsy and got chuckles from the four adults.

"It is nice to see you too young man." Ivy's father, Deagon Cassinova, was clean-shaven and decently well-built, only slightly shorter than my own father. With the four of them finally in a crowd of people, I had a solid number of people to compare with, and I came to the solid conclusion that they just looked better than normal people; it seems me and Ivy drew high in the genetic pool.

"Fufu, you better be careful with this one Amelia," Laela stepped in close to my mother and whispered just loud enough for me to hear, "He will most definitely be popular with the ladies."

"If he takes after his father enough, then I have no doubt we'll be having a talk with him early on." With a sigh of exasperation that seemed to come mostly from her past, I could feel a slight heat each the very tips of my ears. I'm still just four, and they're already talking about me being a vagabond!

Unknowingly saving me from further embarrassment, Ivy jumped between them. "Park!"

"Yes dear, we'll go now." Relenting to her daughter, Laela reaches for her hand but is surprised to find her gone, and instead is holding mine. With a small smirk and a mischievous glint in her eyes, Laela takes her husband's arm and faces the direction we are about to walk in. "Well, well. You better take care of her." And with a similar smirk, my own parents do the same thing. Unbelievable!

Gawking at the audacity, I snap out of it as soon as I realize they aren't stopping, and I begin to lead Ivy along. Though there is some minor childish jabbering coming from her, Ivy was very quickly getting a hang of proper conversations these past few weeks. One such example is that for the majority of the walk we simply stayed in a state of comfortable silence as I kept her hand firmly in mine, to make sure that we weren't separated.

Once we got to the park, the parents set the prepared baskets on the ground underneath the shade of a tree. Unfolding a blanket to sit on, Ivy pulled me to the playground to do what children do best, make messes of themselves and play. Granted I didn't let us get dirty, but my reservations relaxed a bit and the child part of me came out enough to make it a truly enjoyable time. Between the food, playing with Ivy, and just the general atmosphere of happiness, it was becoming later before I knew it. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun, huh?

After the parents packed up and were ready, Ivy reattached herself to me as we left. I was trying my absolute best to ignore the look Mrs. Cassinova was giving me, but it is so difficult when she doesn't try to hide it! As we got to the more crowded areas of the city, with the bigger buildings and more plentiful shops, my conversations with Ivy still consisted of comfortable silence. That was why I was able to hear it.

"...y"

I turn around, but there's no one talking to me, and that wasn't Ivy's voice as I wouldn't be able to mistake her voice even if I tried.

"G…al…oney."

I look around the outskirts of the crowd now, assured it wasn't something else in my head. Barely noticeable on the edge of the group of people going to and fro was a very slight semi-circle around the entrance of a dark alley, which I was barely able to see a small group of men facing inward. I don't know what brought me to do it, but I told Ivy to get the parents and bring them to the alley. I have no clue how much she understood, but I didn't stop to find out.

"Don…me…ch!"

With increasing fervor and intensity, I noticed the hostility in his voice, but what made me continue was the glimpse of the face I saw. Pushing forward, I had no idea why my legs were taking me there, and I couldn't bring myself to stop it, so I could only prepare for the worst.

"For the last damn time; Give. Me. Your. Money!"

"HEY!" Arriving at their backs, I was in the air before I could process the kick I let loose on the groin of a man holding what I could now see was a knife. Now in front of me, at the end of the alley and visible because the man fell out of the way, was a girl, about my age, with dull brown hair and matching eyes. Wearing a cute white dress, she was backed up against the alley wall with another woman, whom she vaguely resembled, and a man, beaten and wavering, standing weakly in front of them, barely holding a sword.

*Groan*

With the grounded man's pain-filled groan kicking me out of my stupor, I take a step back at finding the six remaining men staring at me. Four of them had knives, but two of them had similar armor and swords as the wounded man in front of what I presume is a family.

"Well well, looky what we have here~" What seemed to be the leading figure in what I assumed to be a robbery stepped toward me, but stayed wary enough because of the man now on the ground.

"Let them go!" I don't know why I didn't just say 'Sorry, wrong person!' then bolt! The authorities were bound to have been called, and I wouldn't have to put myself into real danger… but there was something about the girl's eyes that drew me in. It was untraceable, but there was something there for sure.

"Oh, would you look at that! The kid wants to be a hero. Well brat, if you want to be a hero so much, then you gotta fight like one!" With a sadistic, face-splitting grin, the sword-wielder lunged forward and unhesitantly thrust his sword to my shoulder. Even going as fast as I could, a large gash appeared across my shoulder. Trying my hardest to not scream out in pain I jumped away as far as I could, which would have been effective if I wasn't 4 years old.

Once I landed, he was on top of me and this time went for my leg. The same thing happened, but I was a tad slower this time so the cut was deeper, and hurt to put pressure on. Seeing his sadistic smile growing, I assume he is enjoying this and is about to leap again, so as I move my good leg to prepare whatever I have left I feel and hear a ping. Glancing down I could see the knife from the guy I had kicked earlier, and so I did my best fake stagger from my pain, which was really easy considering how badly hurt I was, and quickly grabbed the knife.

"Ooh, so scary! The child has a weapon. But guess what? Mine's bigger!" With a speed I couldn't hope to match, his sword aimed at my non-wounded, armed arm. Knowing this was my only chance to delay enough to survive, I shifted all of my weight onto my wounded leg, barely making his sword hit the arm he already injured, and used my good arm to drive the dagger as hard as I could into the most effective place I could think of - the man's groin. Sadly not everything works out as planned, because he shifted his weight just in time, whether by accident or not, and he took the whole blade into his thigh, though mostly because he ended up pushing against it in the process.

"AGH!" He stopped moving and just stared at the knife, breathing heavily in easily detectable rage. Removing his eyes from the blade-deep dagger wound on his thigh, I could see a maniacal glint appear as he raised his sword. "You little bastard! I'll kill you!" At this point, I could barely stand, and most of what I could see was blurry. The only thing not blurry was the piercing pain I was feeling, the sword coming my way, and a roughly defined image of the girl's face, wrought with confused fear and worry, and silently screaming under the heartbeat caving in my eardrums. I give one last defiant look at the man, and as his sword is inching closer to my chest…

*Thunk*

Both of us are surprised to see a beautiful, sleek silver-throwing knife lodge itself deep into his chest bone as he staggers back from the force. Not even a second later a powerful hand shatters the blade in its grip; immediately after it swings up to grab the face of the knife-stricken man and throws him all the way to the back of the alley, next to the family and still wounded man, where he cracks the wall on impact. As I fall backward, I am gingerly caught, and begin to feel a warmth cover me.

"Save her…"

And I passed out.