Aura of the Azure
is a Crossover Fanfic of RWBY and BlazBlue written by Fanfiction.net user trvn which was first uploaded on November 11th, 2016. It is set in an AU of the two franchises, with Remnant and aspects like Dust, Grimm, Aura, and Semblances being the setting with characters, weapons and bits of history from the BlazBlue universe being placed in it. It is a retelling of RWBY using story elements from BlazBlue and has younger versions of said characters as the protagonists attending Beacon with the other protagonists. The fic currently has 92 chapters and is ongoing as of November 2023.
The fic also has Guilty Gear characters in the story added in as extras and side characters, but it is still marketed and focuses mostly on RWBY and BlazBlue.
This fanfic has also been translated into Spanish by Gilgamesh2407, found on Wattpad here.
Aura Of The Azure contains examples of:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: As expected from a Crossover AU of RWBY and BlazBlue. The BlazBlue and Guilty Gear characters, of course, get these due to being adapted into being from Remnant and having abilities and backstories suiting its mold as well as being younger and less powerful. Such examples include:
- Ragna's backstory not featuring Terumi, not having his brother and sister taken from him or his arm being cut off and replaced with the Azure Grimoire (Instead his powers are his semblance, Aura Eater, named after his Drive "Soul Eater" from the games), and he had a falling out with Jin causing them to be separated while Saya and Celica are still alive, but he still became Jubei's student and obtained his sword from him.
- Jin's is similar as he was never brainwashed by Terumi and driven insane. He simply had a falling out with Ragna and was sent away and adopted by the Kisaragi Family who are adapted into being nobles from Atlas, causing him to become friends with Weiss and Tsubaki. He also doesn't have feelings for Tsubaki in this, but rather Weiss.
- Bang is not a veteran of a civil war, but rather a ninja and warrior in training as a disciple of Tenjo, who is still alive in this AU. He is made to attend Beacon Academy and is given the Rettenjo like in canon. He then becomes a student of Baiken's, who is adapted into being a comrade and ally of Tenjo's.
- Terumi, though not confirmed or seen so far in the story, is not the fallen god Susano'o like in the games who ejected his soul from his armor and gained a human vessel to try and defeat the Master Unit, but appears to be still an ancient malevolent entity and still killed Nine and Platinum.
- Adaptational Badass:
- While not much of a change, Bang is a much more competent fighter and is capable of fighting one-on-two with the likes of Ragna and Jin (Though they suffer from Adaptational Wimp as a way to balance out the characters due to their age). Either way though, Bang is seen as far more capable and powerful. At the same time though, he's also in training and isn't a war veteran like he was in the games.
- Thanks to being trained by both Jin and Pyrrha, Jaune develops as a warrior much faster, even being able to trade blows with Jin in a sparring match whereas their past fights ended with Jin completely dominating Jaune without effort. Jaune also unlocks his Semblance much earlier due to his training in Ronin-Gai and has clearly become far more powerful and on the level of other characters in this canon.
- While Jin is mostly subjected to the opposite, he does gain hydrokinetic abilities that he never had in canon.
- Despite mostly being subject to the opposite due to power-scaling, Ragna gains the ability to copy and use the semblances of others so long as he is compatible with them. This was an ability canon!Ragna never had.
- Adaptational Heroism: While Ragna was The Hero in BlazBlue, he also started out as a mass-murderer who only cared about revenge and was the most wanted criminal on the planet. He was never a criminal here and has more heroic ideals from the start.
- Adaptational Jerkass: A few characters have their more toxic or negative traits amped up.
- Blake appears to suffer from this. She is far more violent and toxic in terms of personality and is quick to antagonize others for them pointing out flaws in her logic. Plus after they try to investigate Roman and his accomplices' plans and are defeated by Azrael, Blake blames their failure on having too many companions with them despite the fact the outcome would have remained the same regardless and refuses to take responsibility for the collateral damage their snooping had caused. Before Makoto finally talks some sense into her, Blake acts like a hypocritical and self-righteous bitch.
- Young Ragna is revealed to have been a case of this in Chapter 31. While he is known for being a bit of a jerk, he was far more caring towards his siblings in canon as a child, though due to Terumi being written out of his history the author had to create a different reason for Ragna and Jin to hate each other. It's revealed that Ragna began to train Jin and tried to beat the weakness out of him and make him man up, but he went too far when they tried to fight a small horde of Grimm and Jin was almost killed while Ragna got away in time to alert the church. When Jubei rescues Jin, instead of concern for his brother, Ragna angrily berates Jin for being a crybaby out of pure spite and irritation. This caused Jin to finally snap and train on his own, leading to him receiving Yukienesa and using it to get revenge on Ragna. Ragna would have been killed if his powers hadn't manifested and Celica has no choice but to separate the two.
- Roman is much more of a sadist and twisted person than he was in canon. While in canon he was still violent, he was more structured and professional in his criminal activities. In this fic during the Vol 2 scenes, he is far more chaotic and depraved, laughing like a madman after the Grimm are released into Vale and declaring in smug fashion how he always wanted to make an 'explosive entrance' and will enjoy the carnage and bloodshed spilled.
- Adaptational Name Change:
- Ragna's weapon, Blood-scythe (or the Aramasa), is called Bloodedge here.
- The Power of the Azure is called "The Grimm Aura".
- Nox Nyctores are referred to as Aura Weapons. Chapter 55 reveals they were originally called Nox Nyctores and were changed to suit the Kingdoms' propaganda of those events.
- The Black Beast was known as the Aura Beast. Turns out though it actually is called the Black Beast, confirmed by Cinder and Celica in chapter 51. In chapter 55, Terumi states it was changed to suit the events the Kingdoms fabricated and as a testament to their ego.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Some characters have either fewer negative traits than their canon selves or have them toned down to a degree.
- Jin is a lesser example of this. While he is still a jerkass like in canon, he is far more humble, patient and lacks the Ax-Crazy traits he did towards his brother. He also eventually befriends the resident Nice Guy Jaune of all people later on, even helping him train and giving him advice. Noel and Weiss also state that deep beneath his cold exterior, lies a noble and kind man.
- Ragna counts too due to lacking the Angst from canon he had due to Terumi not being part of his backstory in this AU. His actions are not driven by hate and vengeance like in the games, but rather fighting against corruption and injustice. Such examples include when he beats up two corrupt policemen for picking on a faunus boy.
- Ky is more benevolent and polite while lacking his rather extreme anti-Gear racism from canon.
- Weiss's talk with Celica helped her get over her more negative traits much faster than in the show, and she more openly shows a desire for faunas and humans to live peacefully. Her relationship with Jin also helps bring out her more positive qualities.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Makoto is a lesbian here whereas she was bisexual in canon.
Word of God states that he based this off the interviews which stated that Makoto was a lesbiannote . - Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed but the Four Kingdoms suffer from this. While in canon they were flawed and were in conflict with each other but were ultimately a part of an alliance and had humanity's best interests at heart as well as not being aware that their history was altered. Here however they are characterized as fabricating a false history surrounding the Six Heroes and Black Beast just to make it look like they supported them, when it actual fact they saw them as threats to the system they created and had attempted to kill them several times and even try and learn the secrets of creating Nox Nyctores themselves. Compared to canon where they are simply ignorant, the Four Kingdoms have a straight-up conspiracy linked to them.
- Adaptational Wimp: To counterbalance the power-scaling of the combined worlds and to fit with the Age Lift, Ragna and Jin aren't as powerful as their canon counterparts. They're well above the norm for Beacon Students, but compared to their original selves, who could individually decimate armies with ease and combat outright eldritch abominations, they're rather lacking. Also, any straight-up reality warpers and physical gods in the games have been downgraded (such as Amane going from the Onlooker of the world to a highly skilled Beacon student), but to what extent is unknown as Azrael and Hakumen are still individually one-man-armies like in canon. This also applies to Guilty Gear characters like Sol and Ky, since they are reduced to moderately powerful one-man-armies compared to the flat out Physical God Sol was and the unstoppable Gear-killer Ky was in the games.
- Adaptation Species Change:
- All Beastkin and Demi-humans are re-contextualized as faunas here. The same might be for certain Gears.
- Ragna, Jin, Saya and Nu are artificial humans in canon. Here they are full-grown natural humans, though Ragna clearly possesses an unnatural power that sets him apart and Nu is an augmented human from her time in the Murakumo Labs.
- Sol Badguy was a Gear in his respective game but is a full human here.
- Amane was an Onlooker in canon, but here he's a human.
- Ky, who became part Gear in canon, is completely human here.
- Terumi was a ghost and actually a deity in canon. Here, he's something else, though what that something is isn't quite clear yet.
- Age Lift: Characters like Ragna, Jin, Bang, Noel, Makoto, and most BlazBlue characters are within the same age group as Team RWBY, whereas in the original games they were in their mid-to-late twenties at most.
- Alternate Universe Fic: It's a Crossover Fic of RWBY and BlazBlue set on Remnant with elements from BlazBlue added in, but it is mostly Remnant. Such examples of the AU differences includes:
- All Beastkin characters are now Faunus, including Jubei despite being a full cat and it's never specified if he has a humanoid appearance in the story. While it hasn't been said or confirm, it's quite possible that any characters from Guilty Gear who are non-humanoid Gears or Gears with animal features would also be faunus too.
- The Dark War, not named in this AU, is downgraded to ten years, not a hundred years, and it happened after the Great War had finished. The Black Beast is called the Aura Beast and the Six Heroes did defeat it and disappeared afterwards like in canon. An unethical event during those ten years called the Beast Wall Tactic happened where humans created negativity within the Faunus regions, causing the Aura Beast and Grimm to focus on them rather than mankind, leading to the deaths of over twenty thousand innocent Faunus, including Jubei's family. However chapter 51 has revealed the twist that the Aura Beast is indeed called the Black Beast and that much of what was known to the world a complete lie. Chapter 55 reveals that the Black Beast not only appeared during the Great War, but the Six Heroes were seen as enemies of the Kingdoms and that while some wanted the Black Beast, some wanted to weaponize it. When the Beast Wall Tactic was an attempt to try and control its power and as a scapegoat, and when the Beast was defeated, the Kingdoms attempted to hunt down and kill the Six Heroes, then created propaganda that made it seem like they were united against it, changing names to make it sound like Remnant-orientated.
- The Nox Nyctores are referred to as Aura Weapons in this AU. They behave in the same way as their canon counterparts do but generate Aura, not Seithr or Ars Magus. They essentially have souls and are spiritually tied to their user and their memories and experiences. Yukienesa and Bolverk are of course such examples. Chapter 55 reveals that they are indeed called Nox Nyctores and their name was changed to suit the Kingdoms' fabrications of events.
- The Azure Grimoire's equivalent appears to be an energy force called the Grimm Aura which both Ragna and Salem possess parts of. the extent of their powers are unknown for now but appears to induce dread, fear, and intensity from those around it.
- The Prime Field Devices and Murakumo Units are adapted into being part of a project known as the Murakumo Labs, where they abducted young girls and experimented on them, and transformed them into cybernetic killing machines. Nu is, of course, one of the test subjects and most likely Noel is if the author chooses to keep Mu as Noel. Chapter 55 reveals that the Murakumo Labs were the Kingdoms' attempts at trying to create their own Nox Nyctores as well as living weapons to hunt down the Six Heroes.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Blake was frustrated with Jin for criticizing the White Fang. She responded harshly to Jin. Which caused him to ask her why she didn't do anything to help Velvet when Cardin was bullying her. Since Blake has strong feelings regarding the White Fang and the Faunus. Blake couldn't come up with a response.
- Ax-Crazy: Nu, of course, like in canon, due to being experimented on and traumatized by the Murakumo Labs. Whenever she sees Ragna, she goes into a murderous blood-lust and threatens to kill anyone who stands in the way of her and Ragna.
- Ragna himself becomes this after Terumi takes control of his Grimm Aura and becomes Beast-Ragna, lashing out at everyone and everything, and leading to him killing Penny.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: What made Weiss fall for Jin. Since he was the first person to see Weiss as a person and not her family name.
- Big Bad: Cinder and Terumi appear to fit this role as of now.
- Big Brother Bully: Ragna, in stark contrast to his canon self, was a rather shitty brother to Jin growing up.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Jin gives one to Jaune in a sparring match.
- RJNN and RWBY find themselves pitted against Azrael. It goes poorly for them.
- Nu using less than half of her power to beat all of Team JNPR singlehandedly.
- Beast-Ragna fights against Ruby, Team JNPR, Team SSSN, Team CFVY, Penny and Noel and Makoto and all of them are completely helpless against him, with even Ruby's Silver Eyes having zero effect.
- Terumi, using nothing but kicks and parries, owns most of the students he fights and snaps the neck of one with little to no effort. It takes Jubei appearing to get him to use his knives and Ouroboros.
- Cycle of Revenge: Jubei subverts this trope. When all of his friends and family got killed because of the Beast Wall tactic. He spent a long time looking for the councilor that instigated it. But when he saw the councilor, he realized what revenge was doing to him and ultimately decided to abandon his desire for revenge and saved the councilor's life.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Gender-Inverted with Pyrrha and played straight with Makoto. Both missed their chance to be with Jaune and Noel respectively (though in Makoto's case, Incompatible Orientation also plays a role), but choose to be happy for them rather than mope about it.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Team RWBY's plan to investigate the criminal activities in Vale with their friends. While they acted with good intentions. They didn't think about the collateral damage that could happen and that they may come across someone who can overpower all of them. They learned this the hard way from their fight against Azrael. The lecture from Amane made them realize this further.
- Applies to Young Ragna as well when he took young Jin to hunt for some Grimm with the intention to toughen him up. As expected, things ended badly for them.
- Doorstopper: The story is, as of this writing, over 600k words and is still ongoing.
- The Dreaded:
- Terumi himself is feared by those who know his true nature and intentions as while the world knew he was one of the Six Heroes, his former allies and enemies see him as a hatred-devouring monster who spreads pain and suffering. When Terumi reveals himself in the attack on Beacon, he kills a random student in front of everyone just to show he's not playing around, which creates even more fear and hatred.
- As of chapter 51, Ragna has become this for Remnant after going berserk and killing innocent people at Amity Arena which has attracted all of the Grimm. Cinder rubs it in more when in her broadcast she even states that Ragna is the Black Beast reborn and will bring about its resurrection, which has made nearly every civilian want to see him killed.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While Emerald and Mercury are the smug and arrogant murderers and lackeys of Cinder like in canon, even they find Relius Clover to be quite the depraved and psychotic man, disgusted by how little he cares about life and that he would even turn his own wife and daughter into androids.
- Fantastic Racism: There is racism against faunas, as is the norm with RWBY.
- Worth noting that despite Blake having suffered from this in the past, a lot of her interactions show that she's just as racist against humans as some members of the White Fang are, she just doesn't kill people over them.
- Makoto also went through this, but unlike the White Fang, she never raised a finger to fight them and wore her faunas heritage proudly.
- Adam is this towards humans, and unlike in canon he shows it more due to trvn not making him obsessed with Blake. He believes humans are weaker than Faunus and is so arrogant in this belief that doesn't buy that Jin was still recovering from injuries during their fight.
- Foil: Blake and Makoto. Both being faunas who underwent racial prejudice in their lives. The differences also paint Makoto in stark contrast to the White Fang as a whole. Whereas Blake hides who she is and the White Fang hide behind masks, Makoto doesn't bother hiding who she is and wears her heritage proudly. Jin even remarks that with Makoto having made friends among humans and never raising a fist against mankind, she's essentially everything the White Fang should have been.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: The side chapters that's been implemented, they focus away from the main casts which consist of anyone from team RWBY, team JNPR, team RJNN, and team BLST. They have a sign (S) next to the chapter title. Currently, there are four side chapters.
- For Want Of A Nail: The author's notes for chapter 46 bring up that going to Beacon is essentially this for Ragna and Jin. Had they not went, they would have turned out just like their canon versions, jerkass attitudes and all. Going to Beacon and making friends that help temper their negative attributes have allowed them to grow as people and avoid becoming the more crude people they were in canon.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: As Jin points out to Blake, yes the White Fang's suffering from humanity's prejudice was completely undeserved, but them lashing out and killing innocent people makes them no better, if not outright worse, than their oppressors. He even points to Makoto, and example of a faunas who has found peace with humans and happily befriends them, as a way to show how wrong the White Fang is in their methods.
- From Bad to Worse: Pretty much everything has pretty much go downhill from he moment Yang was framed for breaking Mercury's leg, and unlike in canon it's turned up to eleven. First Terumi makes Ragna go berserk and attacks innocent civilians and his friends as well as kills Penny which cause Grimm to invade Vale and throw it into chaos. Then Terumi wrecks havoc and Cinder is able to kill Amber and Ozpin's current body and gain all of the Fall Maiden's power, and is able to turn Yang and Weiss against Ragna using edited footage of their encounter. This leads to Yang and Weiss fighting Ragna in an attempt to capture Nu with him defending her due to not trusting Ironwood. Nu then wakes up and attacks Yang, leading to her losing her arm like in canon but is now indirectly the result of Ragna's actions, leading to him being forced to retreat while Weiss angrily curses his name and essentially brands him a traitor and criminal.
- Fusion Fic: Between BlazBlue and RWBY, as the worlds and background elements of the former are mixed in with the latter.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Salem appears to be this. However in the latest chapter it's revealed that Izanami actually is, and is manipulating Salem and all other villains excluding Terumi and Relius.
- Hypocrite: Blake after their investigation fails due to Azrael's attack angrily asks why Ragna kept that Jubei was his master a secret. She is not one to talk at all, considering she is keeping her faunas heritage a secret from the public. She gets called out for this.
- Incompatible Orientation: The main reason that Makoto can't be in a relationship with Noel. Though Makoto has accepted and made peace with this fact. She decided it's best to be there for her as her best friend.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Makoto and Pyrrha are this. Though both girls are hurt at their respective crushes choosing someone else. They feel that their happiness is important to them and don't want that to change.
- Liar Revealed: In chapter 53, Cinder reveals to Yang and Weiss that Ragna had been suspicious of her for months using an edited video of Ragna threatening, intentionally leaving out the part where she threatens his family to make Yang and Weiss feel even more betrayed and angry at Ragna.
- Lovecraftian Superpower: The Grimm Aura that Ragna and Salem possess is this. Cinder finds this power frightening. In the latest chapter, Terumi makes Ragna's Grimm Aura go berserk and transforms him into a Nigh-Invulnerable Superpowered Evil Side that makes quick work of everyone, with only Jin being able to fight him due to the Power of Order.
- Moral Myopia: Blake originally left the White Fang because of their increased hostility and violence toward humans, but she gets incredibly aggressive when people call the White Fang out on their actions, even if there isn't any racism behind it and is simply from a moral standpoint.
- Official Couple: Jaune and Noel become one after chapter 33. Jin and Weiss also do in chapter 32.
- One-Man Army: Azrael, Hakumen, and Jubei all far outclass the students and damn near anyone else on Remnant when it comes to power. When Azrael fought the students, he decimated them without a shred of effort and the teams needed Jubei to save them.
- Ragna may not be this to the same extent as his game counterpart, but when he removed his limiter, he was able to temporarily match Azrael. As Beast-Ragna however, he easily becomes this.
- Oh, Crap!: Jin's thoughts after figuring out Cinder's plan before Ragna's match against Sol Unfortunately, he figured things out too late
- Reasonable Authority Figure: When Ragna punched the headmaster after discovering the Fall Maiden is hidden in a location that would put the citizens of Vale and a lot of the inexperienced Beacon students in danger. Ozpin had every right to expel Ragna from Beacon. But chose not to do so because he understood Ragna's anger and agreed with Professor Goodwitch that he acted out of emotion.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- When Jin overheard how Jaune enrolled into Beacon and confronted Pyrrha about it. She told Jin that even though Jaune isn't strong compared to him, Jaune is a much better person than Jin, due in large part to his kindness and determination.
- Roman gives one to Ruby during the Grimm Breach about how she and her friends are to blame for the breach as well as himself and jests that they are going to remember this day and be guilt-ridden by it.
- Ragna gives a blunt one to Winter, calling her out on her arrogance and how the Atlesian Military has failed and being nothing but incompetent in stopping Vale from being attacked. Winter gives Ragna one back about his reckless and rebellious attitude to which Ragna calls her out again for her condescending behavior.
- The Reveal: Terumi drops a huge amount of bombshells in chapter 55. First he reveals that the Aura Weapons are actually called Nox Nyctores, the Kingdoms were never on the Six Heroes' side and created propaganda to make it look as if they were united during the war, Nu is Ragna's sister and Terumi is the one who killed Summer Rose.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Ragna and Jin fit this mold. Ragna tends to be aggressive and rash, while Jin is cold and calculating. Word of God even gives an example as to how they would operate as police officers combating corruption in a law enforcement organization. Jin would work tirelessly to locate the source of the corruption and ensure that the law punishes them without mercy. Ragna, meanwhile, would just brutalize and terrorize any corrupt cop he encounters.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Amane calls out Team RWBY after their investigation on Torchwick causes collateral damage. Surprisingly, it's Ruby of all people who agrees with him first.
- Ragna gives Ozpin one as well as a knuckle sandwich for keeping secrets about the Maidens from the public.
- Yang gives an enraged one to Ragna after Cinder reveals he was suspicious of her for months, and while it is true he hid this from her, Ragna only kept this from them because his family's life was on the line and chose to trust Jin for personal reasons. Ragna gives a small one to Yang for revealing to Weiss why Ragna and Jin grew apart from one another.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Nu may be a murderess yandere who'll kill anyone that gets in her way to be with Ragna, but after what she went through in the Murakumo labs, it's hard to blame her for why she is the way she is.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Ragna and Jin having to work together in chapter 16 for a sparring match. The main reason is that the brothers are on bad terms with each other.
