How Dare You
When I woke up this morning I somehow knew something big would happen today. I just didn't know how big.
The day went on fairly normally. Normal classes, with Yang not paying much attention, just enough to pass the class, Weiss paying too much attention, if that's even possible, and Ruby being her cute energetic self, always excited to learn something new about being hunters and huntresses. Training went pretty normal as well. The big event happened at lunch.
"Hahaha! Stupid faunus! Look at your ears, your so weird!"
I hear Cardin making fun of someone. And by the sound of it... He's making fun of Velvet.
"Are these even real!? Come on rabbit ears!"
Why is he doing this to that poor girl! There's no way his life has ever been harder than hers! No way it's been harder than a faunus's...
"Guys I'll be back in a minute..."
I excused myself from our lunch table.
"Blake what's up?"
Ruby asked me as I stood up from my seat.
"I need to have a word with Cardin."
I could see the worry in her face. I blush, then I remember I need to be serious right now.
"Don't worry I'll be fine."
She looks reassured. At least I don't have to worry about her now. I head over to Cardin, who is still picking on Velvet.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!"
"Blake Belladonna? What do you want? Wait a minute... Lemme guess, you wanna have some fun with rabbit ears too don't ya?"
"No! I'd never do something so awful!"
"Awful? What are you talking about? She's a faunus who cares?"
"Who cares!? What gives you the god damn right to say such a thing? Huh?"
"Because I'm human and not a faunus duh."
"How dare you! People like you are the reason the White Fang exists! People like you are the reason there's still discrimination after that horrible war!"
I undid my bow, exposing my ears to everyone.
"People like you are the reason me and every other faunus cry at night. From all the discrimination we get from humans that we don't deserve."
I start to tear up.
"Sure some of us may have been liars or criminals or degenerates, but it's not fair for you to treat all of us like that. I mean just look at this school. A place where humans and faunus live together. But then there's scumbags like you that treat us with disrespect. We all made it into this school, we're all equals in skill. Just because other faunus were bad in the past doesn't give you the right to treat our entire race with shame!"
Velvet comes out finally and puts her hand on my shoulder.
"Look Cardin... All I ask is that you treat us with the same respect you treat others with... And yourself..."
As I turn to walk back to my friends I notice Cardin looking down, as if to think back on his actions. I honestly hope that's what he's doing. Velvet sits down with me at our table. My friends slowly gather around me and help me calm down. They pat my back and tell me I did a great job. They all hug me, Ruby hugging me the most while commenting on how cute my ears are. Finally being able to vent out this frustration felt great... But I feel even better knowing that my friends accept me for who I am. It shouldn't matter that I'm different. We're all different, in our own ways. Discriminating against a faunus for having rabbit ears or a monkey tail is like if humans discriminated against each other for having different sized noses. Everyone is different from someone else, and that's not a bad thing. It just means we're all special and unique in our own ways.