Chapter 2
The four of us, well, five if you counted the bear, eventually barrelled our way into a clearing. As soon as we got close the girl in pink shot the bear again in the head and it toppled face first unconcious. Myself, the boy in green and Danny fell off in a heap just behind it as we heard the girl exclaim.
"Ah, it's broken."
Clear disappointment actually came off of her. Ren stood up using the back of the bear to grip, took a few steps back, radiating a tired resignation and relief as he said.
"Nora, please don't do that again."
I could agree with that sentiment, the sudden ride had been a jarring experience among with the sudden and quick stop. Nevermind I was feeling the emotional states of two very different teenages among with, whatever this thing was. Being on the ground for a moment helped though, just being still helped too and I took a moment to breath in and out as Danny clung to the wraps on my chest, nails dug in deep still shaking from the strange and rough ride.
I reached up with my right hand and started to pet the tomcat on the ears.
"Shh, shh, daijobu desu."
There was a brief instance of curiosity from the boy, then what felt like recognition.
"Daijobu desu ka?"
I blinked at the response.
"(Yes, I'm alright, you understand me.)"
"(It's been a while, I was taught when I was very young.)"
He held out a hand to me and I grabbed it. He pulled me up for a moment.
"(I haven't heard that dialect before either.)"
"(I'm not from around here.)"
There was a pause as we heard in the distance a sing song voice going.
"I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle."
The two of us turned to see the girl in pink standing by a dilapidated building, holding what looked like an oversized rook. A small amount of frustration mixed with annoyance rolled off the boy as he yelled out.
"Nora!"
"Coming, Ren!"
The girl in pink responded, not at all perturbed by his tone as we walked out from the forest to meet her. Standing in front of the ruins was a blonde girl in a brown bomber jacket, a yellow cami and black biker shorts next to a girl with black hair in a black and white outfit with a black bow. Both exuded a certain amount of disbelief and annoyance, though the blonde seemed to be building on the latter more quickly as she spoke.
"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" She said.
The feeling rather than the sound had me turn my head before anyone responded to that as a much, much larger creature broke through the trees, chasing a redhead in a gold and red outfit. I stared at the creature then back at the boy, Ren, and said.
"(Is that a giant scorpion?)"
"(It's a grimm, it's called a deathstalker.)"
The creature drew closer, the redhead only barely avoiding getting crunched between its claws as she called out.
"Jaune!"
There was a delay before a male voice called out.
"Pyrrha!"
There was a pause before he said again.
"Ruby."
Then from the trees a girl with black hair in a red dress jumped from the trees. A mix of determination and eagerness coming off her as the blonde exclaimed.
"Ruby."
"Yang!"
With a burst of happiness as she tried to lean in for a hug, which was interrupted by Nora, who chose that moment to burst in between them and finish the Rocky Roll Call with.
"Nora!"
"Did she just run all the way here with a deathstalker on her tail?"
The unnamed brunette said, partially in annoyance and disbelief at the scene.
"(Wouldn't you.)"
I said flat out to the girl, who looked at me. This seemed to be the breaking point as the blonde literally burst out in flames for a moment in frustration.
"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. CAN EVERYBODY JUST CHILL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENS AGAIN?"
The blonde exclaimed.
I looked at the group of them, then back at the deathstalker.
"(You've been on a battlefield before, right?)" I deadpanned.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN SAYING!?"
There was a pause as the blonde seemed to switch gears as she looked at me. Anger and frustration switching to confusion and concern at a moment's notice.
"What is a little girl even doing here?"
"What are you even doing here?" I replied, the switch to English eliciting surprise from Ren, and a few others.
"We're here to…"
"Umm, Yang?"
Ruby, the girl in red, apparently, pointed upwards. God, there was something familiar about this, but I couldn't seem to connect it immediately. All seven of us turned our heads upwards to see a giant fucking bird, with a terrified and confused girl in white hanging off a talon.
"How could you leave me?!"
"I said jump." The girl in red protested weakly.
"Unless she can fly, probably not a great idea." I said.
"She's gonna fall." The unnamed brunette said.
"She'll be fine." The scared, determined and worried girl in red responded.
"She's falling." Ren replied finally as we watched the girl in white lose her grip.
Whelp, what were the chances I could actually catch her without hurting myself, actually pretty slim. I really shouldn't mold chakra while having a concussion, one because doing so might cause me to use too much or too little, or it might make me vomit, or any other number of things. You generally didn't want to do something that was based entirely on constructing mental pathways to connect your physical energy with your mental energy to bend the laws of nature as a general rule. Nevermind I was much smaller than that girl and oh wait, a guy caught her mid flight. That's nice, can he fly, nope, no, he can't. In fact I can feel and see the panic fall off both of them as they fall faster with their combined weight and, well, at least he cushioned her blow.
I walked over quietly, looking at the girl in white and the blond boy lying on the ground.
"Are you alright?"
"My hero." The girl in white said before looking up at me. "What's a little girl doing here?"
"Standing."
I drawled out as I turned my head around to see in the background the girl in red and gold still running.
"Seriously, are none of you going to go help her?"
Said girl in a dead sprint jumped a good few meters before falling over exhausted in front of the others.
"Great, the gang's all here, now we can die together."
"Not if I could help it."
The girl in red replied, hefting her weapon as she moved forward, fear and eagerness fueling her run forward.
"That's a terrible plan."
I said as I reached down and helped pull the boy to his feet before turning to look at the other teenagers as the girl in red sprinted the distance to the deathstalker and shot at it with her, was that a giant scythe, now I knew this was familiar. Though whatever it was she had, it wasn't effective since it didn't even slow the giant scorpion down as she started to sprint away.
Worry and fear spread between the other teenagers, but only the blonde girl saw fit to run forward to help the other girl. Okay, this was getting out of hand. Until this point this seemed like a bad joke, but this was actually dangerous.
The girl in red ran ahead but the BFB (big freaking bird) came back around and, did it just shoot feathers out of its wings? How the hell did it stay floating when it...? You know what, nevermind, I shouldn't try to apply logic to this. I was in the middle of the woods with the cast of a B teenage movie who were being chased by monsters made of pure hate, should I really question this?
The giant feathers from the giant bird pinned the girl's red hood to the ground and she struggled against it.
"Take the damn thing off!"
I yelled from the distance, not that it seemed like she was listening. The feathers had pinned the blonde girl down too, who seemed too stunned to get moving again. Okay, no more being passive about this, I had a concussion, I didn't know where I was and these damn teenagers didn't have enough sense between them to fill a teaspoon, but it didn't matter, I wasn't going to let that girl get killed by that giant scorpion. Reaching into my sleeve I pulled my sword out from the seal I kept it in and tied it to my hip. I built up wind in my feet, this was going to suck if I got too much blowback but if I could cut that hood loose, then... I felt the surge of intent, clear as a bell, determination born of worry, and the short gust of wind as white flashed by us. Following my eyes forward I saw circles run along the ground as the girl in white closed in as the scorpion tried to attack the pinned girl.
Then ice flared up catching the stinger.
Okay, this got more interesting, then. I didn't stop molding my chakra, though and dashed forward immediately after. As I got close I caught wind of the conversation as the girl in white berated the girl.
"And dimwitted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style."
"Her fighting style, you got this monster pinned and you're running your damn mouth."
I replied, appearing just next to her a moment later.
Both teenagers turned to look at me confusion.
"How did you?"
I rolled my eyes as I jumped up past the scorpion's giant front claws and onto its head. I stuck my feet to its head, pulled my sword out of its sheath and stabbed it down into one of the creature's large red eyes. I got more resistance than I thought I would, usually the eyes of a creature were by their very nature soft areas, but there seemed to be a protective layer around this creature's eyes. That just meant I put both hands on the hilt and pushed chakra into my arms to increase the strength of my stab, twisting it somewhat to make sure the blade dug in as deep as possible. My sword wasn't very long, it was a wakizashi, so only about two feet, but that was apparently deep enough to do some serious damage to the giant scorpion.
The creature screamed out, trying to buck me in its death throes, but I was using chakra to attach my feet to its head. Its claws weren't flexible enough to reach me as it twisted and moved against its immobile stinger. I had to let go of my sword and jump off when it fully inverted itself, only then managing to leverage itself against the ice, but even then it was almost completely dead.
A few seconds later the ice cracked and I jumped back a few feet, as did the other two girls as it skittered forward, trying to impale me with its stinger as a final goodbye. I backed away, light headed as I moved around, but I was getting slower. It had been a bad idea to do this as I was, I was already getting dizzy, but I couldn't stay close, so I did a short half flicker, disappearing from where I was and reappearing several meters and watched from a safe distance before it finally stopped moving.
I watched the creature dissolve fully as I focused on it, my head swimming and pounding from the hatred of the creature. It, it took a lot to not just keep running from it. Or here really, because I could, I could feel more things, more hatred in the forest behind me. They were fainter, more distant, but they were there. It was only the distance from the teenagers that made me fully aware of this. The emotions wrapped around them, the confusion, the frustration, the eagerness, determination, cheer, calm and fear, it washed out the hatred of the other creatures. It washed it out because it wasn't alien, it was, alive. Actually alive. Whatever that thing was, it wasn't alive, nothing could live off of just hate. It was unnerving, and what's more, it was hard to separate from my own feelings.
Well, not that I couldn't tell what I was feeling now. I was still confused, but also ahd this nagging in my mind, something about this was familiar, something about this was something I knew. But I couldn't put my thoughts together. In fact, I couldn't put anything together as darkness started to edge my thoughts. But it was a more comfortable darkness because by my side something calming had appeared. Oh good, I wasn't going to pass out alone.
The eight teenagers stared at the small girl. One or two of them noticed a falter in her stance, one of the two, the young man named Ren, started running towards her. His partner Nora followed after, though pausing at the corpse of the deathstalker to grab the sword that lay in its dissolving corpse.
"Ohhh! Pointy, I wonder where she kept it."
"Where she, what the hell was that?"
The blond girl, Yang, ran forward, looking at the scene with confusion in her eyes.
"It was a small girl who jumped on the head of a deathstalker and killed it in a single blow."
Blake, the black haired girl, walked forward and said in a deadpan.
"Which one of you could have probably done the moment the grimm was pinned."
She gestured to Weiss, the girl in white, and Ruby, the girl in red, who were standing a few feet away.
"Excuse me, I was making sure my partner was alright."
Weiss replied, crossing her arms as she turned to said girl.
"By the way, I'm not done with you. What were you thinking running into a fight like that?"
"I um," The girl in red looked away shyly. "I just wanted to…"
"To show off? You need to stop that."
"I didn't want to show off, I just wanted to prove to you that I could handle myself."
Ruby defended.
"But then, I got saved by someone even younger than me." She replied, a bit deflated.
"You're fine, no one could have predicted that."
Weiss's tone softened.
"Anyway, I saved you, and I suppose I can be a bit difficult. But we're partners, so we should do this together."
The white haired girl turned to see the boy in green walking forward, holding the small girl with red hair.
"Though I have to ask, where in the world did she come from? I would have known if someone that young had come to initiation."
"Ohh, ohh, I found her! In the forest, lying in a heap, beowolves in every direction, so I went BAM! POW! SLAM! And killed them all before finding Renny after he exploded the head of a snake grimm."
Nora responded, hands fluttering around as she spun around with the naked blade in her hand. Ren walked over and held out his hand. Nora only paused for a moment before handing him the weapon handle first.
Ren held the weapon in his off hand as he balanced the unconscious girl in the crook of his arm. It was a well balanced blade, the edge very sharp, and well maintained too. The grip of the handle had a few scratches and there was discoloration that showed that it was well worn. This wasn't a new weapon, almost certainly. He found the sheath quickly, as it was pressed against his arm, and awkwardly moved it before it fell in his hand and he put the blade into it.
"It's as she says, we found her in the forest. We assumed she had gotten here by some sort of accident, but then..."
"Whoosh!" Nora said, her hand moving in the air over them. "JAB! Right in the eye!"
"Well," Yang ran forward and grabbed Ruby in a hug. "I'm so happy you're okay."
That sentiment along with everything else was interrupted by the roar of the large black bird known as a nevermore.
"Guys, that thing's circling back." The blonde boy known as Jaune Arc said.
"There's no sense in dilly dallying, our objective is right in front of us." Weiss said.
"She right, our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliff."
Ruby nodded to her partner in confirmation, who nodded back with a small smile on her face.
"There's no point in fighting that thing."
"Run and live, that is an idea I could get behind." Jaune responded.
"It's time we left." Ren agreed.
"Right, let's go."
Ruby confirmed and ran ahead. As the others started moving, Yang watched Ruby stand ahead, taking the lead even after a minor hiccup. That was good, maybe it was a good thing she was here. Ruby had been shy before.
"What is it?" Blake inquired.
"Nothing." Yang replied as they ran to the cliff.
As they got closer to the cliff, the Nevermore flew ahead, calling out in a fierce cry, daring them to come out. There was no avoiding it as it was blocking their way back to the academy.
Made worse by the fact that from the trees three more Ursas appeared.
"Oh man, run!"
Jaune noted as they moved from cover. They were covered from both sides, so fighting was the only option they had.
"Nora, distract it."
Ren said, his hands clasped around the small girl as he sprinted forward. Nora responded with a smile as she dodged through the flying features before pulling out her grenade launcher/hammer and peppering the nevermore with pink grenades. Buying them time to run forward.
Ren ran up next to Jaune, looking at the girl and the cat he was carrying and making a decision as he went. He overran Jaune and handed off the girl in magenta before jumping backwards at the same time as Blake, doing quick shallow cuts to distract the Ursas, who were about to catch Nora. She had taken a knee to focus fire on the nevermore. Weiss appeared quickly to grab and pull her before depositing her next to Jaune, who was running along the bridge.
Not a few moments later, the giant nevermore broke the bridge separating them from Pyrrha and Ren, who were shooting at the Ursas and failing to slow them down.
"Oh man, we have to get over there." Jaune paused and looked down at the girl in her hands. "Well, you do. I probably shouldn't."
The red haired girl smiled as she unfolded her full hammer and stood on its head, using the burst recoil to propel her over the gap, then using her momentum to slam her hammer down onto an Ursa's head. The bridge on that side visibly shook and one of the pillars started to shake.
Even then three of them versus three Ursa after they were exhausted running through the forest wasn't good odds. Especially since they were stuck at a dead end, one slip and they would fall to their…
The idea struck Jaune and he soon shouted out.
"Pyrrha, Ren, get on the other side!"
The two responded quickly, Pyrrha using her shield to redirect a blow and get on the other side of the Ursas while Ren dodged through the hits gracefully enough to get to the other side.
"Nora, get clear! Guys, the pillars!"
Ren and Pyrrha nodded to each other, understanding the meaning and cutting into both pillars. The unstable structure started to give way, Ren gave his pillar a full kick, knocking it loose and having it fall. Pyrrha ran up her tilted pillar before jumping backwards off it, using her weight to push the pillar down. They both fell on the trio of Ursas cracking and shaking the weakened section of bridge, pushing the stone to fully cracking.
"Nora!"
Jaune didn't even have to say more as the girl with red hair jumped back, springing off the flailing bears down to recoil her upwards before spinning mid air and hitting the shaky bridge. The final blow pushed her backwards as it fully cracked the stone, collapsing it under the three grim, who plummeted into the abyss below. As Nora stuck her landing, hands up, the four of them turned in time to see Ruby Rose running up the cliff, the nevermore's neck in her scythe as she was stuck there using the traction provided by the glyphs that appeared under her feet and using the recoil of her gun shooting downward to help herself go further up. As she got to the top, the bird's body stopped dead on a rock near the top, but it's head kept going as it was sheared off by the blade of the red scythe gun and Ruby stood there on the cliff's edge, the rest of the giant bird falling down along the side.
Jaune stared at this scene holding the girl and cat found in the forest in his arms, eyes wide. Though that was quickly interrupted when Nora yelled.
"Woo! Now we can go get pancakes!"
"()" Means they're speaking in Japanese.
