Prologue: Feedback

5 Years Ago: Signal Academy

Genkei-Age: 14

The instructor paced the room, admiring the craftsmanship of every student in the room. Over the last week, everyone under his tutelage had been tasked with the ultimate privilege of being a huntsmen; creating your own weapon. So far, he was impressed with everyone's work. "Very good, Gin," he said to a girl. "Dizzy, that's an excellent spear. Does it have another form?"

"A shotgun!" Dizzy exclaimed happily.

"Fantastic!" the instructor said as he moved on. One by one, he praised the students for their work. Then, at long last, he came to the problem child; Genkei. "Genkai,"

"Genkei," the boy corrected.

The instructor sighed, clearly frustrated. "Genkei, what have you built?" he asked, noticing the absence of a weapon. "Did you even build one? Or did you lounge about like you always do when I assign homework?"

Genkei scoffed, brushing his brown hair out of his eyes as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "Shit, old man, no need to be a jerk about it."

"I beg your pardo-"

"Yeah, I built a weapon. Who the hell do you think I am?"

The instructor sighed heavily. "Well, may we see it?"

The boy smiled. Without removing his hands from his pockets, he kicked at a case on the floor that the instructor hadn't noticed. Skillfully, Genkei launched the case into the air and let it land with a loud thud on the table in front of him. Removing his hands from his pockets, he opened the case and revealed a sword; four feet long, it was rectangular in shape and looked very weighty. The handle was black and wrapped in leather, whereas the blade itself was a polished metallic color with a thick portion in the middle covered in red metal plates that looked as though they slid open. Engraved in a professional etching was the word 'REBELLION', a weapon's manufacturer that also sold bulk parts for customers to build their own weapons out of. Picking the blade up with his left hand and holding it backwards, Genkei met his instructor's gaze with a smile. "Pretty kick ass, right?"

"I see," the instructor said. "So, you ultimately decided on a sword, did you? Well, what else does it do?"

The boy raised an eyebrow. "What else does it need to do, old man? It's a sword. It's made for slashing and beating."

"What about ranged combat?" Genkei rolled his eyes. Here we go again, he thought. "Young man, you need to understand something; Creatures of Grimm are extremely dangerous and unpredictable. Close quarters combat should be your last alternative! You need a distanced attack to remove as many threats as possible, and then you go in for a close range battle if you absolutely must. Do you understand?"

Genkei resisted the urge to spit. "I understand that you're a coward," he said to the instructor's face. "I bet I could kick anyone's ass in here without a gun."

It was the instructor's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Oh, is that right?" Turning to face the rest of the class, he smiled and asked the question; "Would anyone like to take that bet? We've got a sparring are just outside this classroom, after all. Who wants to test out their new weapons on Genkai here."

"Genkei," he corrected again.

The instructor waved him off. "Anyone?" Three other students stood and grabbed their weapons, volunteering to fight. "Excellent! Now, everyone outside! We have a match to witness." Genkei smiled as he reached into his red jacket with his right hand, toying with something in his pocket, just before he followed the instructor and his classmates outside. Once outside, the combatants all stood around the match area, waiting to see what would happen. "So, Genkei, since this was your idea, how would you like to go about this?"

He shrugged, walking to the center of the match area. No one noticed his right hand in his jacket pocket. "Why don't all three of them attack? That sounds fun."

The instructor smiled. "Very well, you foolish boy." He turned to the other three students and whispered, "Take him down; teach him respect." In that time, Genkei pulled out what was in his pocket and started to chew on it. Turning to face him again, the instructor paused when he saw it; a red crystal.

"Come on," he said through the crystal. "I'm waiting." The three students approached, weapons at the ready. They each transformed their weapons into different firearms and began to shoot at Genkei. Smiling and without missing a beat, he seemed to vanish for a moment before he reappeared several meters to the right, effectively dodging the hail of gunfire. Raising his blade, one of the red metal panels slid open. He spat out the crystal and deftly caught it within the chamber before closing the panels; an audible click from the sword caught everyone's attention. Stabbing the blade into the ground, the dirt leading from the tip to his foes exploded into flames.

Two of the students dodged, but the middle one only had enough time to raise a weak aura before being knocked out of the match area. One down, Genkei though.

"W-what!?" the student to Genkei's right exclaimed in confusion.

Within a moment, Genkei appeared in the air above the student. "What's up, brah!" he asked with a wide grin on his face. Planting his red shoes into the student's face, he quickly flipped backwards and bashed him in the gut with the pommel of his sword; the student let out a gross gurgle before throwing up and falling to his knees. He very quickly dropped his weapon and raised his hands in surrender. "That's two."

He turned to the last of the three students and his smile widened when he saw the look on the boy's face; defeat mixed with terror. Once again, he seemed to vanish before reappearing right in front of the boy. Pulling a trigger on the handle of his sword, which made a sound similar to lighter being lit, the blade caught fire just before he swung and caught the boy's jaw; a loud cracking noise signaled a fractured bone. Holding the sword casually in his left hand again, Genkei violently threw his right hand into the air, giving a "thumbs down" to the losers. "Three for three!" His instructor looked on from afar, dumbfounded.

Present Day

Genkei-Age 19.

"Wake up," came a woman's voice, dragging Genkei from his restful slumber. "Wake up or I'm not making you any breakfast."

Genkei groaned. "Yes you are," he said in a low, hoarse voice. "You've never denied me a balanced, nutritious breakfast before, Ebony." Genkei raised himself from his bed, unwillingly, and met her gaze.

Ebony, the girl in question, stood a head shorter than Genkei, and she was dressed all in black from her head to her toes; or that's what he would think if she ever wore shoes. How this girl was able to walk around barefoot everywhere she went was beyond him. Her soles weren't even callused, and that, to Genkei, was one of life's greatest mysteries. Her tank top was black, her shorts were black, and her fingerless gloves were black; though, there was a small amount of red trimming on her shorts. On the right leg of her shorts, mixed in with the red, was a logo that said Dandy. Her hair was black as well, and her eyes were a deep, crimson red. Her expression was blank, as it usually was, but behind that facade of stoicism she was actually a sweet and emotional girl. "Are you actually getting up, or do I need to make Azure give you jolt?"

Behind her, upon hearing his name, Azure paused in the middle of organizing his laundry to turn and meet Genkei's eyes. Glaring at each other for a moment, Azure smiled and raised his hand, starting to don his lighting dust infused glove. "It would be my pleasure."

"Touch me with that, and I'll burn it," Genkei said dryly, reaching for his sword; Scrap Hound.

Ebony sighed, putting her fingers on the bridge of her nose. "Will you two ever get along?"

"Prolly not," Genkei said.

Azure 'tsked' at Genkei. "You could at least speak properly."

"Piss off, blondie."

"Come on, guys!" called an energetic voice from one of the closets. The shortest member of the team leapt from the collection of clothes, donned now in her orange overalls. One could see the flesh beneath her overalls, as she only wore a simple black sports bra to cover up her chest. She ran over and leapt onto Genkei's bed, laughing loudly the whole time, before she bent over to put her shoes on; this was the fourth member of the team, Russet. Her brown hair was wild at the moment, but as soon as her shoes were tied she went about to straightening and combing her hair, all while sitting next to Genkei. "You two like each other," she teased, referring to Genkei and Azure. I can see it now; frienemies form lifelong partnership! Won't that be a great headline?"

"Russet," Azure started. "Please don't start spreading any rumors."

"Rumors? What kind of rumors? You mean the kind like, oh, I dunno, Azure is madly in love with Genkei?"

Genkei and Azure both glared at Russet. "Don't you dare," Genkei whispered.

"You know that's not true, Russet," Ebony chimed.

Smiling, Russet leapt and wrapped her arms around Ebony, seemingly groping places that most people wouldn't want groped. "Oh, what's that, Ebby? You want to be included? You want to make this love/hate gay romance into a plot twisting love triangle? I'm sure I can arrange it!"

"It truly is a miracle that no one in this room has killed you yet," Ebony said as she just stood there while Russet rubbed her hands up and down her body.

Azure sighed. "God, give me the strength to get through this."

"You and me both," Genkei said as he lay back down in his bed. "Wake me never."

Russet frowned, bringing her apparent sexual assault to a halt. "Surely seeing a girl rubbing on another girl would've made him stay awake."

Ebony rolled her eyes. "We are talking about Genkei, right? The most selfish person on the planet?"

"Not true," Genkei said with his eyes closed. "You haven't met my father. I think I rank second compared to him."

"Right," Ebony mutter as she carefully pried Russet off of her.

Russet gasped. "What if he really is gay? This changes everything! Quick, Ebony, what do I have to do to look like a boy?"

"No need, I can get him up." Without another word, she kicked with her right leg, shoving her foot into Genkei's face.

Genkei squirmed for a moment before she removed her foot. "Fuck it," Genkei said as he jumped out of his bed. He approached Russet and flicked her on the forehead.

"Ow," she said in mock pain, rubbing her forehead. "What was that for."

He shrugged. "Somehow, it's your fault. I'm up, team, now what?"

"You know, the team should be woken by its leader, not the other way around," Azure commented.

"Piss off." Quickly, he dressed himself in his skin tight black sleeveless shirt, red short sleeved jacket, eggshell colored trousers, red boots, and finally he donned his red belt. The solid metal buckle was engraved with a single word; RIOT.

The day progressed as usual for the team. Genkei, Ebony, Azure, and Russet are the members of the aforementioned team; team GEAR. Like every team at Beacon, they didn't choose to be paired off with one another; coincidence and happenstance came together to unite this team of extraordinary individuals who shared very little in common with one another. They were in their third year of Beacon, and as such were often looked up to by the underclassmen; they were regarded almost as if they were legends at times. This, of course, was preposterous. Even Genkei detested the attention, and he was widely considered to be the most egotistical student at Beacon.

The members of team GEAR were in one of the student workshops, performing maintenance on their weapons. Russet always got a lot of weird looks when people saw her weapon; Noontide. It was essentially a grey ship's anchor that could transform into a cannon; no one but Russet knew why she wanted that particular weapon, and God knows that there isn't a weapons manufacturer on the planet that makes such a weapon.

Azure was proud of his weapon. True, there were many of similar design made by the Schnee Company, but he had customized his specially for himself; Tonerre. A long bladed sword with the thinness of a saber, it was five feet in length with a two handed handle, it was surprisingly light for its size, allowing Azure to wield it in only one hand. The hand guard was a round, blue, oval shape until it deployed two blue and silver cylinders designed to protect the wielder's hands, and the pommel of the sword would open up to allow the bearer to load it with dust; Azure usually used lightning dust. Even his left glove was infused with lightning dust, allowing him extra advantages during combat.

Ebony was already done with her maintenance. Her weapon, Testament, was the simplest; she took a flagpole and fused it with a Rebellion brand sniper rifle; she didn't look it, but she was a huge fan of aesthetic design and flare. She even went through the trouble to custom order a flag from her favorite clothingbrand to install onto the pole; it was a black banner with two red stripes that crossed in the middle, and the brand name Dandy embroidered upon it. No one understood why she loved that brand so much, or why she chose to wear their simplest and least flashy clothes, but she seemed to think that they held some sort of aesthetic value, so no one argued. Well, Coco might have brought it up a time or two, seeing as how she also buys from the Dandy brand from time to time.

Genkei didn't do much maintenance to his weapon; there was a reason he called his sword Scrap Hound. When he was fourteen, he was completely lost on what weapon he should build. He only knew that he didn't want to shoot a gun. To him, long ranged combat was cowardly. His father brought him a box of old scrap weapon parts made by Rebellion, and he instructed him to try and make something from that box. A few days of screwing, bolting, sharpening, and painting later, he held in his hand a sword made of junk; and he absolutely loved it. Every now and then, he would buy newer parts, but he made sure that the look and production year of the part didn't match anything already on the sword. The sword was a bastardization of weapon parts that could command flame, and he wanted nothing else in life.

Finishing up, Genkei turned to see Ebony helping underclassmen work on and repair their weapons. He couldn't help but smile at the sight; Ebony usually seemed stoic and flat, but that was a front she put up around her team. She was actually quite sweet, and was kind enough to help anyone around her. She became stoic and flat so that she could deal with the bullshit between Genkei and Azure.

"What are you smiling about?" came the voice of the blonde bastard himself. Azure stood next to Genkei, wearing his white clothes. Everything, from his boots to his over coat was a solid white, with the only exceptions being the black fingerless gloves and the blue cross that adorned the front of his coat. He was inspecting the polish on Tonerre before he sheathed it. "You really should redesign that horrendous weapon of yours."

Genkei smiled as he hoisted the heavy blade up in his left hand. "I like it just fine the way it is. It's heavy and intimidating. It serves the purposes of a weapon." He glanced over at Tonerre at Azure's hip. "Maybe you could use a redesign yourself."

Before Azure could form a response, he felt a suffen rip crushing force accost him from behind. "Now now, lover boys! Let's not have a dick measuring contest in the workshop," Russet said with her arms wrapped around Azure.

"Rus," he said in a forced breath. "You're cutting off my air."

"Oh," she said as she quickly let go. "Sorry about that."

Ebony strolled over silently, her bare feet never once making a sound on the floor, and shook her head at her three team mates before she smiled faintly. "Don't you three ever calm down?"

"Ebby! You're back! How are the kids?"

She rolled her eyes in response. "The underclassmen are just fine, aside from the fact that you three scare the hell out of them." She pointed at the door way. "You want to leave before you two break out into another lover's quarrel?" She directed that question at the boys.

"You are mean, and that is uncalled for," Azure said in a low, dry voice.

"I call it what it is."

"Actually," Genkei said in a moment of thought. "I do feel like kicking his ass again."

"Can you not do this now?" Azure asked.

Russet frowned. "Yeah, what he said. I don't like it when you two fight. Things always get too serious."

"When is a fight not serious?" Genkei asked.

Ebony put a hand on his shoulder. "She's right. You two always go too far. I don't know how you haven't killed each other."

"I'm gonna kick his ass."

"Don't."

"Gonna do it!"

"Stop."

"Just you watch."

"Fine!" Azure said, losing his temper. "You want to fight? Let's go, hot head!"

"Oh, name calling!" Genkei pointed out. "Isn't that shocking."

Drawing Tonerre, Azure glared at Genkei as he let electric sparks dance up and down the blade. "Shock therapy does the body wonders, I hear."

Gripping Scrap Hound, the blade erupting into flame as Genkei glared back. "I always love it when I get a chance to burn that smug look off of your face."

The underclassmen all around them stopped doing what they were doing and watched with curiosity. Ebony and Russet both glanced around nervously, afraid of what was to come. "Isn't that team GEAR?" one student said. "Are those two about to fight?" asked another. "Haven't you heard? Genkei and Azure do this at least once every week or so. They never get along." The murmurings just continued.

Ebony sighed; there was no arguing with them now. "If you're gonna do this, let's at least relocate. And please, please let me still have a team tomorrow!"

Song: Feedback-Guilty Gear XX Theme

Author's Note

Somehow, The Longest Night put me into a tradition of using songs as titles. Oh well. So, I don't think this is my best writing. Then again, I've never written fanfiction based solely around Original Characters before. It's something I actively avoided out of fear of really, really fucking up. I don't want my characters to be cooler than the real characters from the series, you know? I'm not so self centered as to think I can make a character that's better from a story stand point than team RWBY or JNPR. That said, here's why I think this isn't my best writing; I'm experimenting with OCs. Again, I usually avoid doing this, but I just really liked the concept of Team GEAR, so I ran with it. I don't know if I'll ever finish this story (especially since I have, like, three others in progress...or more.) But, I do have a slight story planned for this cast of characters.

If all goes as planned, most of the major characters will class in a big tourney. Sounds cool, at least.

Also, every team needs a motif, as well as a color scheme. My team's characters are all somewhat based on characters from Guilty Gear, with the team colors being Vermilion (a shade of red), Black (ebony specifically), Azure (a shade of blue), and Russet (and orange/brown color.) YAY! I put thought into them!

Side note: I thought that I'd have more fun writing Genkei in this chapter, but Russet is just so entertaining to me. Maybe I'm a 12 year old at heart or something, but I just love those whacky, crazy, inexplicable characters. In that regard, yes, I do think Nora is great. :D

Speaking of Nora, and in turn her partner, Ren, I'm sure everyone else here is just as devastated as I was to hear about Monty's passing. I never thought I'd cry over the death of a man I never knew, but I was in tears during the entire podcast on Monday. I got absolutely nothing done that day either. Rest in peace, Monty. We love you.

Fun Fact: I'm not a huge fan of this story yet, nor am I fond of the idea of posting it online because It's not the best I can do, but the whole point of it is to experiment! So, please leave reviews telling me how bad it is...or on the off chance that you like it, please don't keep that a secret; I must know what I'm doing wrong or right with this story at all costs!

Till next time, when Genkei and Azure fight it out!