"I have gathered you all here today because I have an announcement to make." The Headmaster of Beacon academy spoke into a microphone. Addressing his students, who were currently gathered in the school's assembly hall. He was standing there in his usual dark green casual suit with lighter green scarf, cane in hand. Behind him to his right stood his assistant, Glynda Goodwitch, she was also in her usual attire of black heels, black stockings, and a tight black mini skirt. Her upper half was adorned by a white sleeved button up shirt with her black and purple pointed tendril cape resting behind her. Her stern gaze patrolling the students, waiting for somebody to catch her attention. The majority of the stage was shrouded with shadows. A single spotlight was on the Professor, Glynda could barely be seen from the edge of the light.
"I would like to inform you all that Beacon Academy will be getting a new team added to its roster." Professor Ozpin continued in his usual calm voice, his students now starting to get excited. He let them murmur amongst themselves for a short while before cracking a small smile and raising his hand to settle them down. It took only a few short seconds for the students to settle the talk amongst themselves. A sign of respect to be sure.
"They are going to be attending the second year classes. Along with teams RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL." A mixed reaction of sighs and cheers erupted from his audience. One particularly loud blonde girl could be heard after the rest of the noise had settled.
"10 lien Wiess! Pay up!" As her white coloured friend reluctantly transferred the money to the blonde, she became visibly excited, but contained it rather well considering her outburst. "Thank you for your business." She said with a smirk. Two girls, both clad in mainly black, simultaneously elbowed her in the ribs from either side of her.
"Miss Xiao Long." Glynda warned with a hard gaze from behind the Headmaster. The blonde quickly turned back to her teachers on stage and rubbed the back of her head with a nervous smile.
"This team is known as team Lilac, spelt L-I-L-C. Team LILC consists of their Leader, Levi Aurelian." As Ozpin spoke the name of the first student, a separate spotlight beamed down onto a somewhat tall and slim boy. He was dressed mainly in black, with yellow highlights and undertones adorning his outfit. He wore a yellow three quarter shirt underneath a black leather hooded jacket with no sleeves. There was a short distance from the end of his shirt to the start of his black fingerless gloves, with a hole in the middle of the top of the hand. He wore a similar pattern on his lower half, with a pair of black cargo shorts over the top of a pair of longer yellow pants that ran under his black boots that had yellow highlights. Around his waist sat a pale orange belt. He was slightly pale and had long black hair, a little shorter than Blake's, with a yellow streak all the way from the top of the left side front of the start of his hairline right back to the pony tail he had it tied back in. He looked around the room with his piercing gold eyes at the crowd, an almost bored expression on his face.
The crowd was cheering and hollering, welcoming the new student into their ranks. At the sound of a whistle closely resembling those used in cat calls, he dipped his head a little and smirked while exhaling heavily.
"The second member of LILC is named Iris Indigo." Ozpin added after Levi had had his moment. A third spotlight beamed down onto a rather brazen looking girl. She had a somewhat curvy, yet obviously fit body, it fit her look very well. Her hair was styled by having the right side shaved to a buzz cut, and having the rest of it combed over her left side, the tip of her hair ended in line with her chin. The colour of her hair was a mess of different shades of purple. She had purple makeup; lipstick and a more pale shade as eyeshadow. She wore a long white coat with purple trimmings, the front was open and the sleeves had been ripped off. The collar of her overcoat was popped up, framing the lower third of the back of her head with white fabric lined with purple. She wore a rather plain deep purple T-shirt, accompanied by a matching set of deep purple booty shorts. She wore white high heeled boots with purple details that came up to just below her knees. Her shirt and shorts were separated by a white belt. The deep blue eyes that sat in her head seemed almost out of place, they seemed too serene for such a forward looking girl. Her facial expression was one of confidence, a smirk across her lips, no signs of embarrassment or nervousness at all. She slowly scanned the room looking to see if anyone caught her eye. A few faces stood out amongst the crowd. The previously rowdy blonde and her group of friends, as well as a familiar scarlet head of hair. Was she on a cereal box?
The crowd had a similar reaction to what they did with Levi, and made their welcomes heard. She nodded her head slightly while crossing her arms.
"The next member of the team, and Levi's official partner, Lily Carmine." Another spotlight shone down on a rather short girl, who was a cat faunas. She had a small athletic frame that was toned and slim without looking boyish in the slightest. Her upper back length pink and blonde tipped hair was topped by two perky cat ears, her pale orange eyes were full of joy. She wore a pink pair of tights that ended just above her knee; a darker shade than her thumbless gloves, which traced all the way up her arms and ended half between her elbow and her shoulder. The glove's sleeves were topped by a pair of thin white ribbons. Her upper body was covered by a tight singlet, the same pale pink as her gloves. Her soft fabric shoes followed a similar pattern, being pink with white details. She was jumping and waving to all the students in an excited manner.
"Hello all! Nice to meet you!" She declared cheerfully to the room while jumping. A large portion of the crowd cheered back, however the handful of people that were still prejudiced towards Faunas weren't happy there was another one at Beacon. The Faunas of the school were excited to have another in their ranks.
"And last," Ozpin started, "but certainly not least, Christine Sapphire." The final spotlight set up for the new team shone down onto a beautiful, and rather voluptuous girl, clad in mostly blue. Her eyes were a warm brown that matched her hair, a deep brown colour that had been tied into a long plat coming over her shoulder and down to her ribs. She wore a deep blue jacket, which was open at the front, much like the rest of her team's jackets. It covered a white tank top, decorated in pale blue floral patterns, leaving her midriff exposed. To cover her lower half she wore a pair of slightly darker than average blue jeans that ended a little above her ankle, the ends however were covered by her thick, navy blue boots, with white details. She simply smiled gently and gave a small bow to show her thanks for all the welcomes the audience was giving her.
Ozpin looked over his student body and gave a slight smile. He took a sip from his coffee and raised his other hand. The students all settled down again in a matter of seconds.
"Now I know you are all excited about our new arrivals, and some of you may have questions." Ozpin addressed his students again in his usual calm voice. "They have informed me that they are happy to answer any questions you may have, all you have to do is find them around the school campus." Ozpin took another sip of his coffee.
"I know a few of you will be asking why they are being added straight into the second year classes without having to do a first year at Beacon." Ozpin paused for a short while. "They are here at my personal request, the reason for which I will uphold, and would appreciate it if they would do the same." Ozpin stated looking back at the team. LILC giving almost synchronised nods to show they understood. "I would ask of you to not question them about their reasons for being here." He took yet another sip from his white mug. "All will be revealed in due time."
After a short pause, a simple yet welcomed "Dismissed." Echoed around the hall as the students all sighed and started talking amongst themselves. A small group of people made their way up to the stage. The group of eight walked up to the now relaxed team LILC that were talking within their team. They were arguing amongst themselves about who would be the first to approach the new team.
"Wiess, you should do it, you're always good with first impressions." Yang Xiao Long joked, her younger sister clad in red and black didn't pick up on the sarcasm however.
"Yeah Wiess! You should be the first to talk to them!" She encouraged in a happy tone. The girl in white shot a poisonous glance at the blonde bombshell before turning back to her small friend.
"Ruby, Yang was being sarcastic. You really need to learn to pick up on these things you dolt." The younger girl just stuck her tongue out and pulled down one bottom eyelid in reply.
"Oh for the love of…" A short girl in white, grey, and pink started before walking out of the group. A dark haired boy in green sighed and put his head in a hand. "Hell-o!" The short girl sung. "My name Is Nora! Nora Valkyrie!" The ginger headed girl that stepped forward stated happily while extending her hand.
Levi turned away from his group pulling his hand out from around his Faunus teammate's shoulder and met Nora's in a handshake firmer than he'd expected from the tiny girl. "Levi, although you probably already know that, with that whole song and dance Ozpin put on." He replied in a sassy yet calm tone.
"I am a member of team JNPR, this is my team: Jaune Arc, our leader; Pyrrha Nikos, his partner; and Lei Ren, but everyone just calls him Ren." The shorter girl stated happily gesturing to her teammates, a blonde boy, a girl with scarlet red hair, and a boy with dark hair that had a pink stripe down one section, as she spoke their names.
"And we," Weise added stepping forward, "are team RWBY." She gave a delicate curtsy. "This is our leader Ruby Rose." Weise waved her hand back at the obviously younger girl. Ruby gave a closed eyed smile and waved. "My name is Weise Schnee. Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. It's a pleasure." The white haired girl gleamed. "This is Blake Belladonna," she motioned back to the girl in black and white, who gave a shy smile and a slight nod, "and her partner, Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's older sister." The blonde stepped forward to shake Levi's hand with a confident smile on her face. The two shook each other's hands firmly.
"I assure you, the pleasure is all ours, and to what do we owe this encounter?" Christine joyfully asked with her smooth and soothing voice to the groups that approached them. She gave a warm and gentle smile to the teens in front of them.
"Oh, we just wanted to say hello, and welcome to beacon Academy!" Ruby Rose cheered with a large grin. Her expression turned to one of curiosity. "Are you gonna be coming to today's classes?"
The sound of heels clicking on the hard wood ground interrupted the conversation. "Yes." Glynda spoke, making sure she had everyone's attention before continuing. "They will be. Mr. Aurelian, a word?" She turned to him with a rushed look on her face. She had places to be and classes to prepare. Levi nodded before heading off with Goodwitch.
"See you guys at combat class, and ladies? May death find you alive." He addressed his team, a serious demeanour taking his visage.
"No promises!" Lily replied giggling and waving. Her response elicited a rather annoyed facial expression from her leader. The remaining students set out for the next hour before class. She turned to the eight that had come to greet them before issuing her challenge. "So, who's taking us on in the one on ones?" She asked with a confident smirk.
Half way to the combat classrooms, Levi was lagging behind his new Professor as she was explaining the finer rules and obligations of being a student at Beacon, as well as being an official team captain. Of course he wasn't paying all that much attention, only tuning in when it sounded like she was emphasising a point. He was more focused on the rhythm of her shoes. The methodical, metronome sounding clicks of her heels on the hardwood floors of the beacon hallways.
He felt a buzzing from his scroll that snapped him out of his trance and leisurely pulled it out of his pocket and checked the new message from his Faunas friend, Lily. It contained a list of preferred matchups for their first day of sparring class. Levi waited for Glynda to finally stop her rant to take a long breath before clearing his throat to get her attention. She spun to look at him and saw that he had his hand extended offering her to take his scroll. She eyed him suspiciously before taking the device and studying what was on the screen carefully. She saw a list of her students paired off against the members of team LILC. She raised an eyebrow at him while slowly handing him back his scroll, he simply shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows briefly. She sighed and continued her way to the combat classroom.
"Mr. Aurelian, are you telling me that you not only have information on my opposition. But also know them personally?" The clockwork professor asked the young man in front of him. He was sceptical but willing to listen. This young man had just shown up on his front door asking to see him personally. He claimed he had information that would turn the tide of his battle.
"Yes, Ozpin. I am. But before I give you any information on them, I need you to guarantee me a few things." He answered with confidence and conviction.
The professor bowed his head resting his lips on his folded hands and thought over his options. After a short moment he raised his head to make eye contact with the young man again. "If it is within my power, then I shall see it done."
Levi nodded. "Appreciated." He tilted his head from side to side cracking his neck and prepared to make his demands. "First, I want to help in the investigation. Second, I want to speak with them before you do whatever it is you want to do with them." He took a deep breath in before uttering his final condition. He struggled to maintain eye contact. "I want you to enrol my team here at Beacon."
The 2nd year students had all acquired their weapons and made their way to one of the combat classrooms. Inside, waited their teacher, Miss Goodwitch, and the new team's leader, Levi. Teams RWBY, JNPR, CRDL, and the majority of team LILC strolled in and took their seats, grouped in their teams. The young man next to Glynda turned to her and nodded his head before taking his seat with his team.
"Today, we will be having basic one on one sparring practice to get a sense of where our new team is in terms of single combat prowess. I am aware that you have preferences as for who faces who." Glynda paused shortly, and took a deep breath in. "I will allow it." Some of the more outgoing student cheered while some of the more reserved students thanked their teacher. "For today."
The students were given five minutes of time to prepare before their matches. Most of them choosing to go through basic stretches or a quick reminder of their techniques. Weiss looked over at the new team when she felt a somewhat familiar energy. She was surprised to see the tall dark haired girl manipulating a deep blue glyph. "Excuse me girls, I'll be right back." The heiress spoke to her team before breaking into a light jog towards the fellow glyph user. "Hey, Christine! You told me you used glyphs as well-" Weiss cut herself off after realising something was missing. "Where's your catalyst?"
The brunette turned towards the short white haired girl as she spoke. "Oh, I don't need one." She replied in a casual tone. Weiss almost lost it at her answer.
"What?! Impossible! Even Winter needs a catalyst! There's no way you could-" Her team had heard her lose her cool and rushed over to stop her before she could say anything she'd later regret.
Ruby placed her hand over Weiss' mouth and spoke over her partner's muffled protests. "Sorry! She can get like this…" Weiss turned her head slightly and glared at the crimson reaper with wide, angry eyes.
Christine shook her head slowly. "Don't worry about it, it's a Glyph user thing. The Schnee's may have well-known hereditary glyphs, but they aren't the best."
The girls of team RWBY dragged the heiress away from the new team while the purple haired vixen turned to her partner. No words were exchanged but through subtle expressions and movements the conversation was had.
Glynda informed her class that prep time was up and that it was time to start the matches. First up was Lily of team LILC against Blake of team RWBY. The two faunas took their positions roughly thirty feet away from each other in the arena and drew their weapons. Blake's Gambol Shroud, a sword that doubles as an Uzi and Lily's Aoskil and Saman, dual pistols that are attached under the grips via extendable cable.
"I still think this is a little racist…" Blake muttered under her breath, unintentionally loud enough for Lily to hear. The shorter faunas was slightly taken aback by this, but quickly noticed the signs. A devious grin spread across her face as she had an idea.
Glynda signalled to begin. It barely took the length of a standard blink before the girls were charging at each other. Lily firing both pistols as she ran, aiming higher than expected. Blake dove into a roll and swung her blade at her opponent's mid-section. Her weapon was caught on the cable of Lily's weapons before the dual wielding faunas swung both of their weapons around, both girls following the spin. As Blake came back around to face her opponent, she took a heavy hit to the chin, sending her upwards and backwards. She used the momentum to flip mid-air and land on her feet. Her eyes fell on Lily's visually different weapons. Where there had previously been two pistols, rested two medium sized studded balls.
The dual wielder noticed Blake's glance and spoke up. "Like 'em? Pack quite the punch don't they?" At Blake's reactional grunt, Lily's usually cute and innocent looking face turned to one of a madman. "You haven't seen anything yet!" She practically screamed as her duo flails caught fire. Blake didn't react as Lily sprinted at her, spinning both ends of her murder chain. She brought them down into the ground with an unexpected amount of force. The ground was the problem.
"Where'd she go?" Lily cursed under her breath, all that she hit was a dark ghostly shadow of where Blake had been previously. Standing just five feet back was the girl in question. A mixture of shock and relief on her face. The smaller combatant switched her weapons back into gun form and opened fire, again, higher up than she should have been. She got closer this time though, Blake felt the heat radiate off the bullets for the brief moment they were whizzing past her hidden ears.
Blake swung her sword at the now in melee range Lily. The pink themed girl deflected her first few blows with the barrels of her guns, before parrying one of Blake's quick swings and sending a quick kick into the mid-section of her opponent. She tried to spin with the foot in Blake's stomach being the pivot point to get a heel kick to the head of the faunas in black. Blake dodged back, much to Lily's disappointment, and hit Lily in the back of the loose leg with the scabbard of Gambol shroud. This send the small faunas tumbling, she didn't stay on the ground for long.
She quickly sprung back up and proceeded to switch her weapons back to melee form. The pistols seemed to fold into a small cylinder then were pulled back into the cord they were attached to. After that process was completed, a similar cylinder re-emerged from the cord that seemed to blow up into the balls of pain that were there previously. All this in a split second, that had to be advanced technology for sure.
The momentum in which she started swinging them, it surprised Blake that she could manage to keep control of them, let alone start going for style points in her mad dash towards Blake. She raised the flails overhead and twirled in the opposite direction to her weapons before bringing them down into another shadowy enigma.
Lily made her frustrations heard before Blake went of the offensive. 'If I don't do something soon, she'll crush me.' Was the thought Blake had that spurred her onto the offensive. She made a few quick swings with both the blade and the scabbard of her weapon, before having an idea. She started using her semblance of being able to make a temporary clone to start faking out her opposition's guards and dodges. Where her clone would go for a right slash, she would end up throwing a left kick from behind it, she did her best to keep up the pressure but she didn't expect Lily to take the momentum of an attack to create distance between them.
She rolled back and switched her weapons back to ranged form and started to fire at Blake. Blake dodged and deflected every shot she could, unfortunately getting hit by a few. What she didn't expect was Lily throwing her left handed gun past Blake. Blake didn't understand until she felt her arms restricted, bound to her sides by the cable that attached Lily's weapons. The dual wielder then jumped over Blake and kicked the back of her leg, forcing her to a knee. Blake quickly countered with a head-butt straight into the mouth of Lily. The smaller girl reeled, releasing her weapons, and her hold on Blake. The pale girl took the opportunity to shed her bindings and swung with a backwards slash at Lily, landing hard in line with her shoulders. As Lily skidded along the ground on her back, the crowd gasped. At first Blake thought it was because of the hit the small girl just took.
She heard Lily laughing, it was slightly muffled as if she had something in her mouth. "I give up! I give up!" Lily cheered in between laughs. As she said this she waved around a piece of fabric. A black piece of fabric. Blake's eyes went wide and she turned noticeably paler. She slowly reached a hand to the top of her head and felt her faunas ears instead of her bow. "You win Blake. Congratulations." Lily taunted, obviously proud of herself. She dropped Blake's bow fabric on the ground as she strolled over to her weapons. She reattached them to the magnetic plate on her lower back, the handles slightly poking out from behind her small frame.
Blake stood there in shock. When it became obvious she wasn't okay with this, Yang burst from her seat. Her eyes turned red briefly as she made eye contact with Lily, but they quickly returned to their normal purple as her eyes once again set on Blake. She sprinted as fast as she could towards her friend. She reached Blake and quickly spun her around and hugged her tightly. She put a hand on the back of Blake's head in some sort of feeble attempt to make her feel safer, but she knew it wouldn't really help. She could feel Blake was shaking and that her heartbeat was dangerously fast. A mix of adrenaline from the fight and her panic attack.
"Blake. I need you to breath. C'mon, slow deep breaths." Yang's voice cut through the mayhem in Blake's mind. She did her best to oblige her teammate but it was easier said than done. Glynda informed Ozpin of what had just happened and made her way over to where team LILC was seated.
"Miss Carmine. You will be seeing me after class, and you will be punished for this." Lily's facial expression shifted back to her usual cutesy self. She acknowledged her teachers orders with a cheerful smile. Glynda strode over to the still clearly distressed Blake. "Miss Belladonna, do you need to step outside for a while? Or perhaps see Headmaster Ozpin?" Apart from Yang's attempts to calm her friend down, and Blake's erratic breathing, the room was silent.
Wiess was outraged that Lily had practically gotten off scot free, and acted on her feelings. She stormed over to where team LILC was seated, ready to speak her mind. The heiress noticed that LILC barely reacted to her moving towards them, which only made her angrier.
"Lily Carmine, you have crossed the line!" Weise spoke in her most threatening tone.
"I thought the point of a fight was to win." The faunas replied calmly. Barely giving any attention.
"You animal!-"Wiess was cut off when Lily was suddenly in her face. It wasn't for long though, for as soon as Lily stood herself up, Levi grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her down onto his lap. Now with her head in her leader's lap, she turned into him and started to curl up into a ball.
"Don't you dare ignore me!" Weise screeched. Without turning to address her, Levi spoke.
"Look, Schnee-"
"Do not call me that." The heiress interrupted coldly.
"Sorry, Lady Schnee, on behalf of my teammate I apologise." He turned his head to look at Weise. "Her behaviour was unwarranted," still with a handful of hair, he gave a light tug, "she should have respected Blake's privacy."
Ruby walked over and quietly and whined to her partner. "Weise… Please…"
"Ruby how are you not upset about this?" The heiress spun around and asked her leader.
"I am, but this isn't the way to deal with it."
"Then how would you suggest?"
"We take it up with Ozpin, or we ask them about it later, or… I dunno. But now is not the time. Blake needs us." Weise huffed but took her partner's point. The pair swiftly made their way down to the other half of their team.
After Blake realised her entire team was there to comfort her, she broke into a joyless smile. "I have been meaning to get rid of that…" She joked humourlessly. While Ruby and Weise didn't know what to think, Yang let loose a dry giggle before replying.
"Well most of us knew already. The teachers obviously did, and team JNPR knew a while ago." Blake sighed before speaking up confidently.
"No, Miss Goodwitch, I'm fine. I appreciate the concern." She stood straight, a huge weight had just been lifted from her shoulders.
"Blake, aren't you upset?" Yang questioned concern in her voice.
The faunas chuckled dryly. "I am, but I'm also thankful. It would've taken me ages to do that myself." Ruby was the only other one to let the event go however.
Goodwitch informed her boss that Blake said she was accepting of the incident, but insisted that Lily still be punished. The teacher spoke aloud to the future huntsmen and huntresses once again.
"The next match will be Pyrrha Nikos against Levi Aurelian. If students could please clear the Arena."
Yang looked up to the Spartan and begged to take her place against Levi. Pyrrha was hesitant but allowed Yang to take her fight. Yang was left standing in the arena as her opponent leisurely made his way down the stairs towards the battleground. He turned to stare her down once he was in position. Both fighters simultaneously cracked their necks waiting for Glynda's signal. One party obviously more invested in the fight than the other.
The fight was signalled to start by Goodwitch. Yang ran up to Levi, who hadn't seemed to react. She unloaded a flurry of punches, unassisted by the gun portion of her gauntlets, into the face and stomach of Levi. He just stood there and took it. She hit him with an explosive punch in the chest which sent him backwards a fair way.
This only seemed to make Yang more worked up. "Why aren't you fighting back?" she shouted at the darkly dressed teen. Levi rose to his feet, a little shaky.
"You're obviously upset about what Lily did. So I'm letting you take out your anger." He answered matter of factly.
"It'd actually help more if you fought back. A fight works better than a punching bag." Yang replied with just a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"Ah, I see." Levi flicked the dust from his hair before speaking in a more upbeat, playful tone. "You ready Xiao Long? I wouldn't wanna mess up that pretty face of yours!"
Yang blushed slightly and briefly before her retort " I was about to ask you those exact words, but it looks like I already have!" At her words Levi felt a small bruise quickly developing under his left eye. He cracked his fingers and shook his hands before drawing his twin tonfa, Ebony Dawn and Gilded Dusk, from the magnetic plate on his back. He took a stance low to the ground leaning backwards, his left leg forward. He had his left arm almost in line with his leg whilst his right was held beside his head. The blonde brawler smashed her fists together, sending a shockwave of air outwards of the impact zone.
The two ran at each other. Yang's first punch was averted by Levi, as was the second and third. She tried an uppercut, but Levi used that momentum to throw her off balance and reposition her around with a light kick to the back. He wasted no time jumping at her, connecting his knee with her face. He then beat her in the upper sternum with the shorter end of one of his tonfa, the side usually for firing dust flares. Yang fell back, but used the momentum to roll back to her feet. As soon as she was able she charged back at Levi with fist reeled back. Levi held both his weapons against his forearms waiting to brace for the coming punch. He wasn't ready for a powerful kick to the lower abdomen, at which he doubled over around Yang's foot. Yang was about to punch him on the back at full force, trying to end the fight there. But Levi grabbed the back of her other leg and pulled it out from under her. As Yang was falling she clocked Levi in the back of the head with the underside of her fist. Both fighters ended up on the ground, in a position that was only slightly uncomfortable for Yang. Levi's eyes and the bridge of his nose had ended up buried in the cleavage she usually exposed.
Levi surprised Yang by letting out a muffled groan. "Geez Xiao Long, could've at least brought me dinner first."
"Hah, in your dreams loverboy."
"Honey, you probably will be tonight." Levi spoke looking up and resting his chin on one of Yang's breasts. A playful smirk on his face. He promptly received a punch in the side of the head, which sent him rolling a few feet. Yang quickly jumped to her feet and walked over to him, ready to gutter stomp his face in. She brought her foot up straight, ready to put all the force she could behind the stomp. Levi saw an opportunity and punched her planted leg in the shin. Which, again, caused her to lose her footing and land doing a split over Levi's waist.
"Really blondie? Again with the advances?" The boy in black joked barely containing his laughter at Yang's rage, or embarrassment, it was hard to tell with her. He was shocked when he saw that her eyes had shifted from their normal pale lilac colour to a deep red. She glared at him with pure rage in her eyes. Well, now he knew it was anger. She brought her fist up menacingly.
"Uhh, Uncle?" Levi managed to squeak out before Yang dropped sideways bringing all the force she could with her. Her fist connected with Levi's nose, then she proceeded to fire a flare blast with her fist still resting on Levi's nose.
"And the winner is, Yang Xiao Long!" Glynda announced, which was met by Ruby cheering at her sister's victory and a round of applause. Levi rolled over slowly, headache pounding. He climbed to his knees almost falling right back. He got to his feet before turning to his opponent who had apparently offered a hand.
Without saying a word, Levi picked his weapons up on the way to the seating as his persona returned to the carefree, almost cold attitude he always had. As he sat back down with his team, he was greeted by a variety of different scowls from the girls. He rolled his eyes and ignored his team.
Glynda waited until her class had settled down before announcing the next match. After a few seconds of talking the teens had realised what they were waiting for and promptly shut their mouths.
"Next up will be Christine Sapphire versus Weiss Schnee. Fighters, make your way to the floor."
Weise readied her rapier and gave Christine a puzzled expression.
"Where is your weapon?" Christine chuckled before responding in a confident tone.
"Right here." She reached a hand forward and summoned a relatively small glyph, facing side on. A small protrusion appeared from the centre and Christine reached up and grabbed it with her other hand. She moved her left hand, the hand she had summoned her glyph with, away from her right hand, as she did, a weapon started to materialise. It was a somewhat transparent, monotone pale blue dagger. It shimmered slightly in her hand. Christine then grabbed the handle with her other hand before duplicating a copy of it into her left hand. She switched her grips to offhand and took up a modified boxer's stance.
Weise, or the onlookers, didn't know what to make of what they had just seen, with the exception of her team, who were already familiar with her style, or styles, of combat.
Goodwitch signalled to begin. Not a moment later, Weise opened with her usual glyph assisted lunge, she hadn't really used this into another glyph user however, and was not expecting to charge straight into a solid glyph. The type she usually used as platforms for her or her team. She regained her composure as Christine used a movement glyph to boost her jumping ability, she cleared her makeshift wall and flipped herself so she was head on with the Schnee. A blissfully calm smile spread over face before she placed another movement glyph at the soles of her feet. She sprung off it in a spin, holding her daggers points towards her opponent, effectively turning her into a human drill. Weise quickly summoned a movement glyph under her feet and skirted back just in time to dodge the attack.
"Not bad Weise. You are very capable with your glyphs." Christine halted the momentum of the fight. "But can you keep up with me?" She added with a hint of arrogance.
"Thank you, likewise." The heiress replied a little wary. "And I'm just getting started."
She rotated her sword's dust chamber to her lightning dust reserves. She spun her sword in her hands before slamming it into the ground. Lightning surged out from where she stabbed the ground, arcing forward at Christine.
The brunette thrust her left hand forward and created a defensive type glyph to attempt to block the lightning attack. An explosively loud crack was heard when the attack met the defence, Christine slid black slightly. The force of the impact was felt by everyone in the arena.
After the onslaught of lightning had stopped Christine dropped her defensive wall. "Well, these won't work." Christine mused to herself before dispersing her daggers with a flick of her hands. She summoned two more glyphs and shoved her closed fists through them. Two gloves of the same colour of her daggers had appeared on her hands. "Let's see how these do."
The brunette summoned fire glyphs in her hands and threw the discs at Weise. The heiress started backwards handsprings to avoid the attacks she knew would burn. She regained her footing to see Christine charging at her with the assistance of movement glyphs under her feet. Before the Schnee could put up her guard Christine landed a few solid punches assisted by ice glyphs summoned along the flat of her knuckles. The cold sting of an element all too familiar pierced its way into Weise's senses. Sapphire ended her combo with what was essentially a two handed volleyball spike, Weise's head being the ball. Christine jumped and clamped her hands together, bringing them down from over her head. The impact was fast and hard, both to her head and the ground beneath.
The Schnee was smart, and used what little time she had to create a glyph and try to reduce the impact between her head and the ground. The result was closer to two smaller impacts in quick succession rather than one larger one. This was enough to keep her in the safe fighting zone however. She rose to her feet, using her rapier as a crutch at first before shakily resuming her fencing stance.
"You're tougher than you look Weise, I'll give you that." It barely took a second for Christine to feel the chill creeping up her leg, but by then it was too late. Before she could react she was enveloped in a tomb of ice. Weise used the time she gave herself to attempt to regain her composure. She shook her blurry vision away and ignored the probable concussion for now. She brought Myrtenaster up, then cleaved down in a fluid motion, shattering the ice and a large portion of Christine's remaining aura with it.
"If you spent half the time you did talking on concentrating on your surroundings you'd have won this fight already." Weise informed her opponent with more of a bitchy tone than she would have liked.
"I suppose you're right Weise. You should take your own advice however." Weise spun on the spot to block a blast of fire from a glyph Christine had summoned behind her. Before she could turn back to her opponent, Christine landed a hard glyph assisted backwards spinning kick into the ribs of the heiress. This sent Weise tumbling to the side and sending what was left of her aura past the safe zone.
As the victor walked over and offered her opponent a hand, Glynda declared that "The winner is Christine Sapphire!" She glanced down at the list Levi had given her and saw the next matchup. She was going to need to do a lot of repairing after this one. "Final match of the trials is Iris Indigo against Nora Valkyrie."
The two fighters walked side by side towards the battlefield, getting a sense for the intensity of each other. Both girls were uncharacteristically calm during the seemingly long walk. They quietly parted and took up their stances a couple dozen feet away from each other. They stood there staring intently at their opponent. After a few seconds they both burst out in laughter. There were the usual personalities.
"Nice hammer!" Iris started their pre-spar banter.
"Thanks! Its name is Magnhild. What about your weapon? Looks pretty gnarly!" Nora retorted without hesitation.
Iris looked down at the light and dark purple and white assault rifle nestled in her arms. It's spines from its other form showing blatantly from around the top of the chamber. "Haven't given any thought into naming my weapon. Maybe you could help me come up with one after I kick your ass?"
"Ha! We'll see about that!" The redhead charged with hammer lagging behind her. Iris broke into a backwards strafe and started firing non-stop pale purple needle type projectiles at the hammer wielder. The glowing needles collided with Nora and barely penetrated her skin, nothing that her aura wouldn't be able to heal almost instantly. Before Nora could even mentally question it Iris released the trigger and every single needle exploded in a cloud of purple pale dust. Iris relaxed and rested her rifle against her shoulder, never releasing her trigger hand.
The sizzling of both her gun and the cloud made it impossible for her to hear or see that Nora was firing her own volley of grenades. Towards the last known position of her opponent. Iris didn't notice until it was too late and took the force of most of the grenades. A cloud of pink smoke enveloped the area around her. All of the smoke and dust seemed to clear at once, revealing both teens standing in craters.
"That was fun!" Nora blurted out with a huge smile on her face. Iris seemed a little shocked to notice that Nora had seemed to take no damage from the explosion. When she voiced her concerns to Nora she cheerfully replied with a smirk.
"Oh, well, you see…" Nora rubbed the back of her head quickly trying to think up of an explanation. "Electricity and lightning and all that stuff doesn't work on me. It actually makes me stronger."
I conceded "Ah" was Iris' response. This fight just got a lot harder. She switched her weapon's form from ranged to melee. The rifle seemed to fold in on itself to reveal a white chainsaw with the same purple spines as blades. It quickly revved into action before both girls charged at each other.
The violet vixen rolled under a huge round swing from the queen of the castle, she regained her balance and brought her chainsaw into the side of Nora's leg. A few small shards splintered and added an explosive kick to the attack. Nora used the momentum of the small explosion and continued around doing a corkscrew, bringing a heel down into Iris' shoulder. The following hammer strike was blocked by the flat side of the chainsaw that had just given her the momentum for the attack.
The hammer wielder pulled the trigger of her weapon causing a huge burst of speed straight downwards into Iris' defence. Iris fell back and rolled sprawling her legs out landing a kick into Nora's arm with just enough force to cause the hammer to miss its target.
"Gah! Stop moving!" The booper cried in frustration while taking up a neutral combat stance.
"I'd rather not, that hammer would crush me!" Iris retorted following Nora's lead in taking up a stance that conveyed neither an offensive or defensive preference.
"You got that right!" Nora boasted. She ran at her opponent dragging her hammer along the ground. She pulled the trigger twice in quick succession on her upswing, creating a shockwave on its ascent. Iris couldn't quite get out of the way and got clipped on the underside of her nose. She flopped back spinning to land on her stomach, hands cupping her face.
After a short while of silence she stood, completely stunned. Her nose was horribly broken, it looked, and definitely was painful. Iris reached up and grabbed what everyone could only assume was supposed to be the bridge of her nose with her right hand, and put the palm of her left on the underside of her chin. With a small grunt she forced her nose back into place, disturbingly accurately. An audible crack was heard around the room to accompany the display. Those who didn't feel sick, were shocked. Broken bones weren't a rarity in their line of work, but to see someone reset a bone like that, even one as small as the nose, was a rare sight.
The room was eerily silent. Nora of course, was the first to say something.
"W-wow. You really are hard-core aren't you?" Her question was followed up by a nervous laugh.
Iris chuckled to herself. "You got that right." Her aura had already started to heal her nose back to how it originally was. The girls both shook their heads before charging at each other with weapons at the ready.
"I'm calling this match off before further injuries occur." Glynda announced in the most demanding voice she could muster after what she had just witnessed, which was to her credit still enough to hide her current surprise. She'd seen full fledge huntsmen have a worse reaction to having to reset lesser injuries. The girls ran past each other without launching their attacks. Slowing to a halt not much after.
"Oh well, good fight." Iris spoke to her opponent offering a hand.
"Yeah. Really good fight." Nora took the hand. Both girls thinking they had the fight won. The walked back to their respective teams with some quiet banter between them. The rest of the class passed uneventfully, the rest of the students had their matches and made their way to the newly installed shower block attached to the arena classrooms.
"I want you to enrol my team here at Beacon." At him mentioning his team, the three young ladies that had been waiting towards the back of the room stepped forward.
Ozpin examined them carefully. They didn't look much different from regular kids, so why did they have such an imposing presence? He'd never seen them before, so why did he feel like he'd encountered them before? He sighed internally before speaking again.
"I can arrange those things." He paused briefly. "I will need you to fill out the application forms-"
"We have compiled all the information you'd need for those. Christy?" As he spoke, an attractive brown haired girl walked forward and placed a folder on Ozpin's desk. "I'm assuming you have similar required information to other academies?"
"Of course. I'll have Glynda fill out your forms." Ozpin paused. "But first, I need some form of proof that you have the information you say you do."
Levi made a face as if he were thinking it over, although he had played out the scenario a million times in his head.
"I hope you don't mind me revealing too much. Call it insurance." Ozpin's frustration was visible, if only a little. After a deep breath and sigh, he nodded his head. "I believe that one of the people giving you trouble is my sibling. It's been a few years since I've seen them, and I have no idea how far up the chain they'd be, but you hear things. I'm sure you've heard many of the same things I have, I just have the knowledge to put the pieces together."
"Arrogance will not get you anywhere with me. I've given you my word, I'm going to need something more concrete." Ozpin quickly replied, seeming almost insulted.
The boy in black looked down and sighed heavily. "Cinder."
"Whoever was in charge of these shower plans was an idiot." The leader of team JNPR spoke to his male team mate.
"What makes you say that Jaune?" The dark haired boy reached for his shampoo. Before Jaune could voice his reply he heard Nora giggling from somewhere behind him.
"That's what I mean." He sighed. "Unisex showers? There's no way you don't have a problem with this."
"Oh c'mon Jaune. It's a team shower, not a unisex shower. Think of the teams with only one gender." Nora argued without turning away from the opposite wall. The shower heads were set up as two on the left and right walls each. She made a certain type of sense. Staying as a huntsman team, seeing each other nude was only a matter of time. But was it really a good idea to put young, possibly horny, teens in showers with the opposite gender?
Pyrrha turned to rinse her hair out, luckily all the hot water had created a thick steam throughout the room, so it was hard to actually see anyone else.
"They're right Jaune. We have to get used to living together. Being naked with someone is one of the best ways to get to know them." She spoke with an air of confidence that you wouldn't expect from someone with her upbringing given the situation.
"I guess. But it's still weird to me." Is all Jaune could think of in reply.
"Loosen up Jaune! It's not like we're doing it or anything." The tiny booper informed her leader. The blonde struggled to find words, stuttering over multiple sounds before deciding on what he could say.
"Nora! Do you really think now is a good time to talk about that stuff?" His voice cracked in his argument, clearly showing he was uncomfortable. Ren silently chuckled at the exchange his team was having.
Most other teams weren't fairing any better. Yang was the only member of team RWBY that was trying to make conversation, team CRDL were being overly careful not to look at any of each other naked. But team LILC. They seemed completely perverted compared to all the other teams.
It's not that they were doing anything lewd. They just didn't care if they were naked in each other's presence. Levi and Christine had both asked for help with their hair, Lily having to do Christine's because she was too short to reach the top of Levi's head properly.
"So, how do you think we went blending in today?" Iris questioned her team while washing her leader's hair.
"I think we did great!" Lily cheered with all her usual joy. The blonde at the end of her hair turning brown under the water.
"I'm sure we did fine." Christine added blissfully. She loved having people play with her hair.
"You girls are kidding right? The closest any of us got to blending in was Christy, and she almost broke a Schnee's nose and ribs."
"What makes you say that?" Lily interjected a little hurt.
"Well. Iris reset her nose, which was half way up her forehead-"
"Oh it was not." The punk girl interrupted from behind her leader.
"Exaggeration makes for better story telling. Anyway, back to what I was saying." Levi had his head tilted back into the stream of warm water briefly before Iris pushed it back forward. "What I did probably would have been called sexual assault by any other girl in the room. I'm just lucky Xiao Long took it as lightly as she did."
"You kidding me? She left your head in a crater."
"Yeah, but I haven't been called up to Ozpin to discuss rape charges have I?" The team shared a slight giggle before Levi continued. "And Lily. Oh boy. You probably made enemies with almost everyone in the year level."
Lily didn't take it as much of a joke as Levi had wanted her too. "You guys know I don't think faunas should have to hide." Her cat ears flicked once before setting flat against her head.
"Lily I'm sorry, but not everyone shares your ideals." Christine consoled her teammate in her soft, heavenly tone.
"Speaking of that incident…" Levi smiled mischievously. "Girls, grab her. It's time for her punishment." And before Lily could process the words that had just been said, her arms were grabbed and held out to the sides.
"H-hey! Let go of me!" The small girl protested. She was no match physically for her team, but she struggled nevertheless. Levi moved over to the temperature controls of the shower Lily was being hit by. She noticed this before losing what cool she had left.
"No! Levi get away from there!" at this point she was practically screaming. He turned off all the hot water and cranked the cold as high up as it would go. Lily shrieked at the resulting blast of freezing water.
"Cinder." He stated.
"Cinder?" Ozpin spoke in disbelief. He didn't wholly think this boy was telling the truth, but regardless, he wanted more.
"Cinder Aurelian. My older sister. Like I said, I haven't seen her in years. I couldn't tell you if that's the name she's going by. But from what I've heard, and what I feel…" Levi trailed off. "Even if she's lost her mind, I know how she thinks. If you will trust me with all the information you have on these people, I should be able confirm if it is or isn't her. I would greatly appreciate that."
Ozpin stared at him intensely. "Your sister?" Were the only words he spoke for now.
"Yes. My sister." Levi confirmed with an equal measure of seriousness.
The headmaster gave a heavy sigh. "That would explain the familiarity I feel. We've had our run ins with a dark haired woman with glowing yellow eyes." Ozpin widened his eyes slightly as Levi's eyes began to glow with a glow that gave Glynda chills.
"I do believe that is the glow."
Author's Note:
Hey guys, Joshimitsu here, but you can call me anything as long as I know I'm the one being referred too. I'll sort a few things out here and now.
1. Yes, my name is based off of Yoshimitsu from Tekken. He was my most played back on Tekken 5 on the PS2, my real name starts with J, and hey presto. The name stuck., the game didn't.
2. This is an AU, as any fanfic that doesn't just repeat word for word what the source material does is. I will be changing pasts, presents, and futures.
3. Anything I may reference, of which there will probably be plenty, does not belong to me. I do not take ownership for any real word music, movies, games, etc. that I use.
4. Feedback is appreciated, the harsher the better, because harsher feedback is usually better feedback.
5. I owe gratitude towards both Reddit User Favorgate, and FanFic writer extraordinaire Xera Stark. He's helped me along from the very early planning stages up until a couple of days before the release of this first chapter. I highly recommend checking him out if you haven't already.
I know this was a long AN, but I have one more thing to say, so stay with me. This has been in production for quite a while, as you can probably tell from the setting, and that I'm not having LILC run into RNJR in the forest somewhere. This has been in production since before Vol. 4 even had a release date, but I plan on making chapter two a lot faster, depending on how many people get to reading this.
May death find you alive, and Merry Christmas
~ Joshimitsu