Yoshikage finally awakened from his deep slumber, his upper body slowly rising from the ground he uncomfortably slept on, his spine was all stiff and needed at least a fifteen minutes massage session.
Even though he experienced much worse ways of living in the many slums around town, that didn't make him any tolerant to sleep on a non-delicately-soft surface, talk about an exigent body…
He kicked off the sheets and glanced around at the many sleeping students surrounding him, sometimes wriggling inside their warm cocoons of clothes while a small fraction of them was empty, suggesting that their owners already woke up.
"8:05, ugh… I've really overslept on this one…" He resentfully muttered while glancing at his personal Scroll next to him.
Yoshikage was very strict about his sleeping habits, but maybe he'll have to give a pass on this one, after all, a long trip by plane and the whole entry to Beacon would obviously make his body more exhausted than normal.
He stood up and began making his daily set of stretches but in a more condensed sense since there isn't much space to make most of his movements, miraculously enough, he realized that he peacefully passed the night without getting kicked everywhere or crushed as he was expecting.
Also, while the other students brought their favorite sleepwear, Yoshikage had to improvise and sleep with the white tank top he was wearing behind his pink pullover, added with it was a pair of random black jogging pants he found inside his bag, with one of the sleeves rolled up to his knee which he immediately corrected.
From all the outfits he wore, this is probably the least elegant one so far but in the same time, he never needed to prepare a special outfit for such thing in the first place, like who's going to keep staring at him during the night?
…
On second thought, it's better to leave this question unanswered.
After a couple of squats, Kira finished his exercising routing by stretching and spinning his back around him, while giving a good view at the hall where all the first-year students like him spent the night.
The curtains were still covering the windows while the sun rays were reflecting on their dark red fabric, giving to the room a dark but also warm atmosphere, Kira could distinguish the blurry silhouette of the students waking up and walking around while the only noises he could hear were some yawning and small discreet talks.
Compared to yesterday, this morning was in fact very, very quiet.
He soon found his eyes in contact with the two supposed 'sisters' Yang and Ruby, the silver eyed girl was calmly enveloped inside her warm bedsheet literally like an eggroll, exhaling a calm little sigh like a child. While on the other hand, just inches next to her, Yang was in a weird position with her blanket covering only one of her feet while her yellow tank top and black short were doing a very poor job to cover her pale white skin, still that didn't seem to bother the girl as her face was deep inside her pillow drooling on it and snoring with no care in the world.
Looking at the two sisters immediately made him recall the events of yesterday when he introduced himself, as expected, they were quite perplexed by the boy's uncanny name.
"Regardless, I think it's a cool name… Suits your… Uuuh… Temperament?" He recalled Ruby complimenting with a kind smile, Yoshikage replied with a small flattered smirk on his face, which suddenly faded into a startled one as soon as he saw Yang suddenly pinching the girl's pale cheeks and starting to stretch them while displaying a naughty grin on her face.
"Hey! Hey! It's me or my baby sister's already trying to catch the big fishes on her first day? I appreciate your bold effort, but expect me to let you get all the pond for yourself!"
"Ya-Yang… Knock it off!"
Ruby kept pushing Yang's face with a nerve popping on her forehead while the blonde kept stretching her pale cheeks even more, which ensued into a fight between the two sisters in front of the two spectators of the scene sweat dropping in awkwardness.
Kira facepalmed in frustration, wondering how can these two be actual blood related by how incompatible both their personalities are, the black-haired girl sitting next to his feet agreed to his wondering with a sigh, however, instead of going back at her book, she turned toward the blond boy and spoke to him, her lips forming a slight attracted smirk.
"I agree with Ruby, your name got that uncanny touch in a good way. I think I still didn't introduce myself; my name is Blake."
"Nice to meet you then…" Replied Yoshikage with a nod and an appreciative smile, unfortunately, he must be cursed by a demon because every time he tried the mere effort to approach the girl, somebody interrupted him by shouting out loud like a lunatic.
"Will you shut the hell up?! Some of us are trying to sleep here!"
The group suddenly turned toward the newly arrived person, Yoshikage soon realized that the girl he was looking at was the white-haired one he met back at the entrance of Beacon, the one with the dust bottle collection and also the one who gave a 'frosty' attitude to our protagonist as an introduction.
She was wearing a long icy blue nightgown made of silk, her ponytail untied to leave her long white hair reaches down her back, she was depicting a very fuming stare at the four students, accompanied by her pouting expression which made Kira wonders if her face looks furious like that by default.
"Oh god! Not you again!" She screamed as her eyes turned toward the silver eyed girl in a very strange position with her sister as they suddenly stopped fighting, both starring at the white-haired girl with stupor.
"He-Hey Weiss! Nice to see you here…" Chuckled Ruby in embarrassment while trying to free herself from the posture she and Yang were trapped in. "Come on Yang, let go of me!"
"I wish if I could! But I'm stuck here too!" Replied Yang while trying to untangle their intertwined limbs.
"The sentiment is not shared…" Bitterly muttered the now called Weiss, frowning at Ruby with her arms crossed while being unimpressed by the silver eyed girl's lack of grace in the situation she was right in now.
Ruby turned toward Kira as she caught his attention by the finger she was pointing at him. "Hey, I think you two didn't meet properly yet. Weiss, this is Yoshikage. Yoshikage, this is Weiss-"
"I really don't care about his name or who he is, I just need you all to shut the hell up!"
"Wow, nice to meet you too…" Simply muttered back the blond boy after the girl's very harsh reply with a vexed glare, this has been the second time the girl gave him a cold shoulder and he's legit wondering if he should put her on the list of people he should stay distant from them.
Yang finally loosened herself from her sister and directed a very piercing gaze at the white-haired girl, her eyes nearly going red to see this pest deliberately bullying her precious little sister.
"Hey! What's your problem with my sister?! She's been trying to be nice with you from the beginning and you keep throwing crap at her!"
"She's a hazard to my health! A complete nuisance!"
"Hey, guys stop it! Weiss' right, people are trying to sleep!" Whispered the silver eyed girl trying to calm the two opponents before giving a quick glance at all the eyes targeted at the scene.
"Oh! Because you're on my side now!" Retorted Weiss completely misunderstanding the girl's hopeless attempt to calm the two.
"She always was on your side!" Jumped the blond tall girl trying to rescue Ruby from this mess, but indirectly making it worse.
"Hey! You cut it out! I'm not talking to a bimbo like you!"
"What did you just call me?!" Shouted the busty blond raising an invisible sleeve on her right arm while tightening her fist and starting to approach the heiress with harm intent, just before Ruby stepped in and tried to calm her enraged sister.
"Yang! you're making this much worse! Calm down!"
Yoshikage was slightly anxious toward all the eyes goggling him and his group like they were mentally ill, he then noticed Blake standing up with a very annoyed glare and walking away to somewhere more peaceful.
Seeing her leave soon made the boy realize that he doesn't need to stay here either and chose to do the same as he vanished without a trace, leaving the two sisters alone confronting the raging Schnee.
Talking about the 'Ice Queen', Kira realized that she was nowhere near the spot she slept while on a small distance away, Blake was still sleeping with her book resting on her face, god knows how many hours she has passed like that.
Kira headed toward the bathroom with a small yellow purse in his hands containing all that he needs for his morning preparation: a mint flavoured toothpaste, a blue toothbrush with a small bowling ball drawn on the grip, an exfoliating gel scrub, a moisturizer, a herb-mint facial mask, a long dark red hairbrush, and finally, an aftershave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older.
Which he will gladly use once he reaches the bathroom, but the twenty or so long queue in front of him seemed to prove him otherwise, the same thing could be told to the woman's bathroom in the same long corridor, maybe that's the effect of the 'First day at school'.
However, what's the most coincidental was that he was shoulder to shoulder, or rather like shoulder to head since there was a difference of like three to five inches between the two, with none other than the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company.
Kira looked down at the white-haired girl not noticing the tall blond next to her, however, he wasn't displaying any displeased glare at her even though snubbing two times in a row, he simply didn't hold any grudge against her.
But right now, the boy was finally going to decide if she deserves being in that famous list of his or no, she better not fail…
"Good morning." He calmly stated the boy suddenly startling her a bit before she looked at him and recognized his purple eyes with a surprised stare.
"Oh, goo-good morning…" She replied timidly, Kira was quite surprised to not see her with her superior and arrogant demeanor, but he was glad that the girl wasn't a plain douche by default.
Weiss looked away with embarrassment reddening her snow-white cheeks, while the tall blond boy just looked in front of him completely unconcerned by the girl's constant change of expressions.
"So… You're Yoshikage, Ruby and Yang's friend, right?" Muttered the white-haired girl glancing back at him.
"Not their friends… yet." Pointed out the blond with a very stern look. "But you are right, I am Yoshikage, Yoshikage Kira."
"Quite a strange name, does it have any origins from before the Great War?"
"Uhm, no idea… Maybe?" At this point, he slightly wondered about the subject, last time he checked, all habitants of Remnant have a certain rule when it comes to names, it must be something related or reminding to a certain color.
But he can't see what color does 'Yoshikage' nor 'Kira' represents, where did his father find such uncanny naming? That if he knew who his father was or if he's still alive.
"I see…" Muttered the white-haired heiress, not very satisfied by the boy's response. The conversation paused in silence as the two took a step forward and abruptly stopped to wait for another ten minutes. Suddenly the girl turned toward Kira and gave him the most courteous stare she could do.
"Such impolite of mine, I didn't introduce myself, I am Wei-"
"Weiss Schnee, daughter of Jacques Schnee, owner of the Schnee Dust Company…"
"You… You are right…" Weiss stared at him in complete bafflement, surprised to meet somebody besides Blake with a wide knowledge of her family here in Vale.
Hopefully to him, she didn't ask him where he knew such things.
"Well, nice to meet you Yoshikage… Kira." Murmured the heiress looking away nervously, which caused Kira to crack an invisible amused smirk, well, better late than never.
"Uuuuh, nice weather, right?" She then declared out of the blue, before realizing with an awkwardness that there were no windows around and that she has been staring at basically nothing.
"Y-Yeah, you're right…." Awkwardly replied the blond boy, looking at the ceiling she was staring while trying to hide the sense of laugh from his mouth, while she tried to hide her incredible shame with the toilet purse in her hands.
You don't need to be a detective to realize that the girl was forcing herself to make small talks with the boy, which made the blond honored to see this girl making so much effort into speaking with him, this whole socializing is honestly fun.
However, one thing that widely caught Kira's sharp light purple eyes as he took a much closer look at the girl's facial features, it was the naughty crooked scar that traversed the eyelids of her left eye, but it wasn't wide or long enough to be noticeable on her cute face.
Kira finally decided to break the ice (hehehe.) and confront the girl about what she was thinking as he targeted a very decisive stare toward her.
"Is there something you want to tell me?"
The girl made a suddenly shocked expression, caught red-handed on her intentions, she finally decided to take a more honest tone and stared at the boy with an apologized look.
"Look, I think we started with wrong foot me and you. I just wanted to say that I am sorry for acting so harsh in front of you…"
"I accept your apology, it's not a big deal, really." Casually responded the blond boy while taking another step then stopping a second time, despite his lack of emotion in his words, Weiss had the slight confirmation that his words were honest which relieved her.
"I don't want people to think I am just a plain lousy rich kid who's too cool for everyone. But god! The people in this place are so… childish!"
"I get where you come from… Nodded Kira with an acknowledgeable nod "But in my opinion, you're overreacting, people are not this bad… like Ruby for exam-"
"Ugh! Don't talk to me about her!" Weiss expression immediately turned to the one Yoshikage was initially used to as soon as she heard the silver eyed girl's name. "She may be not a bad person, but that doesn't mean I need to be all friendly and sugar-coat with her!"
The two took another step forward, then continued their discussion.
"You guys' just badly introduced each other; you should talk to her…"
"What! No way!" Her infuriated stare slowly cooled off as she slightly considered the boy's proposition and simply mumbled. "Maybe, maybe, I'll think about it…"
A moment passed before she flicked her head back at the boy with an extremely worried expression on her cute pale face. "Do you… Do you really think I'm overreacting?!"
Her question made Yoshikage slightly chuckle, which was a first for a very long time, he then shook his head and delivered her a very calm soothing smile that left the heiress agape at how mesmerizing his two purple irises could be.
"Just take it easy… You'll be fine."
Their conversation was soon interrupted as the queue submerged the boy's bathroom's door and began violently hitting it.
"GODDAMIT JAUNE! COME OUT OF THE FREAKING BATHROOM! NOW!"
"Al-Alright guys, just going to take me a minute-hngghaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Kira and Weiss preferred not to guess what the following disgusting sound coming from the bathroom was, at the same time, the white-haired girl patted the boy's back while praying to his upcoming endeavor.
"Good luck on that one…"
After a quick tour at the bathroom (which he prefers not to talk about), Kira decided to take a walk around the neighboring gardens just before breakfast, deciding to breathe some fresh air while most people are either still asleep or stuck at the bathroom.
The blond's lungs felt like they were in heaven as they delightfully inhaled the fresh humid air of the early morning, while he felt a tingling sensation around his ears as he heard the soothing bird songs coming from the tree branches.
However, he will quick to realize that he wasn't alone in the garden as he stumbles upon a person seemingly in the middle of some stretching exercise next to a round fountain.
It was a tall red-haired young girl, wearing a brown tracksuit with white strips vertically crossing the sides of her short, he couldn't properly see the front of her head as she was giving her back at him and settled with the long wavy ponytail gently swinging at every movement she made and the large bronze circlet surrounded the top of her head.
She stretched her arms down to her toes making her shirt slides down her shoulders and leaving to Yoshikage a wide view of her midriff and half of her black sports bra, she had a very athletic body given by her toned abs, but still managed to keep her feminine contours.
Her movements were flexible, she didn't find any difficulties reaching the tip of her muscled legs, her spine twisted in the most incredible ways while the lack of body fat around her waist gave her the possibility to perform all of her stretches quite easily.
She must be some kind of high-end athlete or at least a supermodel.
She finally finished her stretches by plucking the fabric of her shorts stuck between her 'you know where' and relaxing her spine before she realized the blond standing behind her as she turned at him with her vivid emerald eyes.
"Oh… Hey." She simply greeted him, surprised by his sudden appearance.
"Hello." Greeted back the blond with an awkward frown, not knowing any other words to say.
"I was just… doing some morning exercise…" She embarrassingly explained while scratching the back of her neck, Yoshikage took him a moment to grasp what she just said before nodding a bit too much.
"Yes, yes, I see that… Um, and I was… taking a walk."
Normally, this is what a pervert says when he's caught red-handed peeking at a girl, but for some reason, the girl looked like she trusted him, I mean what were the chances of finding a beautiful girl doing her exercises at nine AM in the morning?
"Wait, you're a first-year student too, right? I've seen you at the hall yesterday with those two girls yelling at each other."
"Yes, I am…" Yoshikage groaned in embarrassment recalling the events of last night with a bitter taste in his mouth, the redheaded girl giggled at the face he was pulling before smirking at him.
"So, are they like, you're friends or something?"
"No! Absolutely not!" The blond roared while frantically shaking her head, making the redhead give him a perplexed stare.
"I see, ow I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Pyrrha, Pyrrha Nikos…" The girl switched to a wonderful smile, she wanted to shake his hand but realized that she was all sweaty.
"Yoshikage, Yoshikage Kira…" He muttered as she sees her grabbing a towel on top of the fountain and wiped her neck with it, without realizing that he started to be more relaxed in giving his name to people around.
She was going to know his name anyway.
Pyrrha exhaled a small cloud of air from her mouth due to her high body temperature, then rested her towel on her shoulders and turned to the blond.
"Hey, breakfast is at around five minutes, wanna take a bite with me?"
"Shouldn't you be taking a shower?" The blond boy frowned at her while crossing his arms, he didn't want to be mean, but he simply cannot sustain being around someone smelling like sweat, there's a reason why he refuses to take trains during packed hours.
But despite the harsh remark, the redhead just simply chuckled which left him in surprise.
"I guess you are right, see you at the cantina then?" She waved at Yoshikage before exiting the garden from the nearest building, the last image she gave the blond of her face her kind smile.
Yoshikage just stood there speechless, this girl was so… refreshing, it's like a gentle breeze of air passed next to him.
Her confident stride, her calm demeanor, and this somewhat kind gentle aura beaming out of her…
And the way she happily replied to what supposed to be a very harsh remark, who freaking smiles when somebody tells him to go get a shower?
This girl… he doesn't know why but she earned his attention, and what is this tingling sensation in his chest?
Breakfast went normal, he didn't have much interesting to say about it besides that the school served very delicious croissants and coffee, some familiar faces were of course in the cafeteria like Yang and Ruby who waved at him, but he pretended like he didn't notice them and just sat somewhere else, he just had this 'weird' desire to eat alone today, nothing else.
That is until somebody stood in front of him while he was taking a sip of his coffee, he looked up to the person and saw a beautiful flock of red hair bundled in a ponytail above two emerald eyes gently staring at him.
"Hey, told you we're going to see each other back at the cantina, mind if I sit here?"
Yoshikage was reluctant to accept but had to comply since it would be rude and he really wasn't planning on being known as the anti-social guy of the school, that would just spark more unwanted attention.
Pyrrha gave him a thankful smirk before she sat at the opposite side of him, she changed her outfit to a brown t-shirt and a pair of white pajama pants with red polka dots on them, meaning that she probably took a shower as she said.
"It has been barely five minutes since I last saw you, how did you shower so fast?" Asked the blond looking down at his wristwatch with a perplexed frown, Pyrrha giggled at his question.
"Navy shower, but I would've come much faster if my hair didn't take so long to dry, you know how things are with us girls and our long hair…"
Kira knew about navy showers, ninety-second tops and effective enough to clean the sweat after a good training session. Unfortunately, the blond cannot take a shower in such little time since he had too many hygiene treatments to fit in such little time slot even with much optimization.
Pyyrha peeked over Yoshikage's shoulder for a bit and noticed Ruby and Yang in the distance giving stealthy glances at the blond and muttering to each other. "Those two girls over there, they're the one who were with you last night, are you sure you're not friends with them?"
"No." Immediately replied Yoshikage with a harsh tone as he was taking a bite of his croissant, he didn't even give a glance at the two girls she was mentioning which made the redhead sternly glare at him.
"You don't seem to have a lot of friends, do you?"
"How about you?" Quickly diverted the blond while taking a sip from his coffee mug, the speed at which he replied left the girl stunned for a bit before replying to him with a chuckle.
"Well, I left most of them at Mistral, but I don't think that's going to last…"
"Why's that?"
Pyyrha eyes widen at the boy's oblivious stare, like if he asked her what's two plus two.
"It's because I'm really, really famous?"
"Is that so?" Pyyrha felt a tad of mockery coming from Yoshikage, as if he wasn't buying one bit about her being a celebrity in Remnant and stuff, the redhead could only frown in confusion at the boy's uncanny conduct.
"Yo-You don't know who I am?"
"Hm, previously, yes…" He confessed with an uneased frown, that's the second time somebody asks him the same question in a short amount of time. Pyrrha pulled out a shocked face like he just told her that he didn't know who professor Ozpin was.
"Top graduate at Sanctum Academy? Winner of the Mistral regional tournament four times in a row? Doesn't ring any bell?"
"Maybe I have some memories of seeing you somewhere, but I don't watch the news that much, so in overhaul, nah…"
"I'm literally the mascot of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes!" She inadvertently shouted at Yoshikage while snatching a cereal box off the table and pointing at her image on the cover.
"I don't eat cereals, I prefer oatmeal, good for your health." He simply commented not dropping that unimpressed expression off his face, but it soon changed as he frowned at the redhead with slight concern. "You seem to be very sensible about your celebrity status…"
Pyrrha's cheeks suddenly flushed as she started waving her hands in front of her. "No-No! Not at all! It's just… feel weird meeting somebody not knowing you."
She rested her arms on the table and looked down for a moment, now that she remembers back at the garden, Pyrrha definitely thought that he was some kind of stalker creeping up on her at first just before she noticed his subtle glare like he wasn't expecting her to be present, he neither exalted any gasp of excitement when he saw her turn around and just kept that blank stare at him.
"I just got here for 24 hours and I've already got dozens of fans asking me for autographs, it was simply out of luck that I got to the garden all alone this morning…"
She didn't need to pull that depressed look to make Yoshikage feel pity for her, while her exploits and talents justified her celebrity status, he simply cannot imagine being in the same shoes as her, just the idea of it gave him chills down his spines. Maybe that was the reason for all those glances and small talks he kept detecting around their table.
Pyrrha brushed her dark thoughts away and switched to a smile, how quick she regained her cheerful demeanor slightly impressed the blond. "Anyway, are you ready for this morning's test?"
"The one at Emerald Forest, right?"
Pyyrha nodded. "I was wondering how it's going to go, like, how are we going to be split up as teams?"
Kira dropped his croissant mid-bite and looked at her widely perplexed. "Excuse me?"
Pyrrha's eyebrows slightly lifted in surprise before explaining to him with a weirded-out tone. "Um, we were told during the welcoming speech of yesterday that we will be split into different groups for the rest of the school years… You weren't there did you?"
"N-No…" He blurted out as his traits suddenly tensed up and a small drop of sweat appeared on his forehead before slowly sliding down his left cheek, despite the coldblooded demeanor remaining on his face, he knew that deep inside him was in a pure state of dread.
And that old goddamn geezer definitely wouldn't tell him about it in fear that the blond would refuse to enter his academy.
What scam is this?! He signed up for the word 'Huntsman' not 'Huntsmen', all that he wanted was a decent school life, the bearable bull crap coming from his peers for eight hours, and finally, the relaxing time between the four walls of his private room all alone with nobody to bother him.
It's no surprise that Yoshikage is a big introvert, he always was a lone wolf since as much as he can remember and knew how to be the most efficient in his 'work' without caring about anybody's else well-being.
Right now, he could either bail out and go back to his old habitude of constant relocation and running away, or have to sustain not one, but three other complete strangers who will surely turn out to be annoying morons.
Come on, there has to be something he could about it…
The sudden wave of anxiety condensing on his chest made him instinctively start biting the nail of his right thumb, which attracted the attention of the redhead in front of him in a rather worried tone.
"He-Hey, Yoshikage, are all right?"
He didn't reply to her and just kept nibbling his thumb, this is where his expression finally broke down into pure panic as his eyes widen and his forehead soak in sweat, his lips started to take a weird red color until Yoshikage realized that it was blood that he was tasting and suddenly stood up from his seat under Pyrrha's staggered look.
"I-I need to get going!"
And he suddenly disappeared, leaving the girl with a last glimpse of his bloodied finger.
Kira entered the locker room with a rather grim look on his face, he didn't give even a small glance at the students around him preparing for the upcoming initiation test.
Inside the room, he strolled around looking for his locker's number he memorized in his mind, '145', which meant he didn't have to take much time to find it since it was in the fourth range of lockers on his right.
His expression soon relaxed to its usual neutral state as he tipped the code on the locker's touchpad and opened it, while inside the other students' lockers were all kinds of firearms and blades all more obnoxious than the other.
Inside Yoshikage Kira's locker was… his knife, just a simple switchblade knife, thing looked like a freaking toothpick compared to his other peers' arsenal.
A knife that seemed to intrigue a person nearby him due to the uncanniness of seeing it somewhere else than in a kitchen or a junkie's throat for the more extreme cases.
"Are you really going to take that to the test?" Kira immediately discerned Yang's voice as he looked toward her laying a shoulder on her locker, arms and legs crossed and giving him a very skeptic look, the blond kept gazing at her then at the flamboyant combat outfit she was wearing, a tan jacket buttoned above a yellow crop top with two similarly colored bracelets on each wrist, followed by a pair of black shorts barely covering her thighs.
Of course, she wasn't going to fight in her sleepwear goddammit.
"You may have beaten up a couple of guys with it, but we're talking about big ass monsters over there…" She pointed to her hair-related companion; Kira's lips spread into a confident smile to indicate her that she doesn't have to worry about him while hiding the switchblade inside the palm of his right hand like a magician.
"Hey, nice trick you got there…" Complimented the blonde girl as she noticed Kira's small magic trick. "How did you do that?"
"Sorry, but it's a secret." He simply replied with his confident smirk still unfazed as he closed his locker with a strong push. Yang made a slight grimace at the boy's response, her attention then switched to his outfit, it seems like this guy has a special outfit for every single occasion.
He was now wearing a dark blue polo shirt with short sleeves and an unbuttoned collar revealing his white tank top, along with a pair of dark gold jeans and brown leather boots to cover his feet.
He genuinely looks like he's going to a stroll in the city rather than fighting monsters with that casual attire of him, like seriously, how does he expect those fingerless gloves in his hands stop the attack of a raging monster?
"Are you really going just like that?" Asked the blond girl looking up and down to his untraditional outfit, the girl always had a crush to strong men fighting with less than no weapons, however, this guy clearly doesn't have the physical strength to fight anything bigger than an average human being.
Out of her expectation, Kira just simply replied with a nonchalant "Yes." before turning his back at her confused stare and walking away adjusting his leather gloves, while Yang admired his confidence and optimism, she really cannot see how he'll succeed in whatever the heck he's planning on doing, which only gave him this image of overconfident prick that made the blonde annoyingly frown at him.
Yoshikage then passed by Weiss talking to Pyrrha and that blond clumsy kid he keeps seeing wandering around like he's lost or something, is he even part of this school in the first place? He preferred avoiding eye contact with Pyrrha and the others since the bizarre stunt of this morning until he was suddenly dragged by the elbow toward the trio.
"We can get Yoshikage to join our group too if you like!" Shouted an enthusiastic Weiss to a surprised redhead while grabbing a confused Yoshikage by the elbow, he turned toward her with an annoyed glare while trying to figure out what is happening right now. "Uhm, why me in particular?"
"Maybe because you're the only guy in this whole school who seem to not be completely braindead?" She muttered between her teeth while displaying a wide smile faker than superstar's breast implants and targeting the last part of her statement toward the other less charismatic blond in front of them. Pyrrha's look of bewilderment immediately faded as she laid eyes on Yoshikage and switched to a slightly worried one.
"Hey, Yoshikage, you really scared me when you ran away earlier, are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm sorry about what happened…" Awkwardly chuckled Kira scratching the back of his head. "I had things to do, so…"
"Oooooh! So, you guys already know each other, that's good!" Weiss enthusiastically began pushing the blond inside the group "I'm 100% you guys will get along very well, I'll leave you two here so you can know each other better, see ya!" Before leaving, she gave a quick wave toward the two, while a half-jubilant, half-demonic smile drew on her face as she departed away. Pleased to see her plan to form the greatest team in all Beacon Academy going immensely well.
Kira just stood here for a second embarrassingly silent like the other two, during that time, his purple eyes caught the surprising change of the redhead's casual outfit, now wearing a set of bronze and leather armor, mixed with fabrics having the same color as her hair, as well a shield and a sword attached to her back sharing the same color pattern as her armor.
It was like she was going to fight in an arena, which makes sense since this is kinda where they are all going.
In comparison, the blonde boy next to her clearly didn't seem to be fit for the upcoming battle, he may be more prepared than Yoshikage and own an actual sheathed sword to defend himself, but come on, a pair of jeans and a hoodie?
"So, um, excited for your first fight?" Stuttered Pyrrha giving to Yoshikage a small smirk, the blond could only do but awkwardly smile back and reply with the same way. "Y-Yeah, kinda."
Hopefully, their cringy conversation was soon interrupted when the other blond finally built enough courage to approach Kira and stretch an arm toward him, trying his best to introduce himself.
"Hey, I'm Jaune… Jaune Arc... Nice to meet you…" He then tried to pull a half-assed cocky grin and continued. "An-And I don't want to sound smug, but there's already an incredibly handsome blond walking in this side of the academy." His poor attempt to impress the redhead next to her was met with her awkward smile and a frowned glare from Yoshikage.
The poor boy was definitely expecting a punch or an insult coming from Kira, but instead, he wasn't even giving attention to what he just said and simply replied to him without even bothering to shake Jaune's hand.
"You're the guy who plugged the men's toilets this morning, right?"
Jaune's face suddenly jumped at Kira's statement before waving his arms in extreme awkwardness while he kept blabbering a justification next to the redhead who couldn't help it but exhale a giggle.
"Wai-Wait! It's because I ate something weird back at yesterday's dinner, so I felt sick y'know…"
"You're also the guy who kept vomiting all around the airship back at the arrival, 'Vomit boy' they called you…"
Pyyrha tried her best to withhold the burst of laugh coming from deep her throat while Jaune's face turned as red as the girl's hair locks.
"Co-Come on man… I have motion sickness, it's a normal thing…"
While Kira could admit that he didn't take Jaune's random jokes very lightly, he wasn't saying these things as a way to mock or belittle the poor boy but to simply state the facts as they were without expecting him to act up like that.
The speakers hanged around the locker room began to ring a slight dull tune to attract the students' attention, followed by the voice of Ms. Goodwitch.
"All first-grade students are requested to follow the instructors that will lead you to the location of the upcoming initiation exam."
"Welp, that's our call…"
All students immediately headed to the room's exit, Kira's traits soon darkened the same way they did when he entered the room, wondering what kind of test it will be.
All the students were gathered on top of a tall grassy cliff overlooking the wide vegetation of Emerald Forest, the sky was bright blue and cloudless, flocks of birds were flying around elegantly and the wind was fresh and delightful. This was a very suitable day to take a walk around the dense green beauty down there, however, our heroes knew that they will not be taking that kind of 'walking'…
Kira was standing between two unknown students who he didn't care about and just treated them as black silhouettes. He gave a quick glance at the steel plate he was ordered to put his feet on, wondering what's the use of it and why did they put such thing on top of a cliff while the whole exam is going down there, his glance then switched to professor Ozpin explaining the premise of the exam.
"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."
So far, Kira cannot see someone he could work with besides himself, none of the people he met grabbed his attention besides Pyrrha, Ruby, Yang, and Blake, and still, the blond doesn't feel like he could properly team up with them. That was just within his nature, nature he, unfortunately, has to overcome if he wanted to succeed in this school.
"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."
Yoshikage already mentally prepared himself for the revelation, he left the whole breakdown scenario to the poor Ruby standing a bit far to his right, still, he thought the idea of first eye contact completely foolish, this was no more a trial of skill but just sheer luck. Get yourself paired with a bad teammate and your entire school year is gone to dust, the only best strategy he seems to think of is to keep your eyes closed during all of the exams.
"After you've partnered up head to the north end of the forest, you will find a temple where your objective is located. Along the way, you will meet ferocious opposition, do not hesitate to eliminate every single hostile creature on your path, or you will die."
He's telling this just frighten them, is he? There's no way he's not going to endanger his students' life on their second day of school.
"You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene." How relieving, not only they will get their arse tracked by all kinds of monster, but all this will be filmed like a reality show, superb. "You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics, each pair must choose one of them and return to the top of the cliff. Any questions?"
"Ummm, sir?"
"Good, now take your position."
Kira lifted an eyebrow at what the headmaster just said, but before he could even utter a single word, the students positioned on his left all blasted in the air with just a microsecond of an interval between each other until it was his own turn to fly in the air at an incredible speed.
So that's why they told him to prepare a landing strategy...
Yoshikage stabilized himself in mid-air and began experiencing this splendid instant, he didn't give any attention at the students propelling in the air around him and just simply enjoyed the gasp of wind delightfully flowing through his blond strands as he spread his arms and acted like he was flying. However, gravity soon took over as he realized he was getting closer to the tall tree trunks submerging the forest's ground.
Cursing between his teeth, he covered his face with both arms as his upper body converged with the weak branches and started flinching in pain as he began feeling the branches getting thicker and thicker while falling down.
Suddenly, a blast occurred on the trunk next to him which unexpectedly projected his body to a completely different direction, he then began bouncing around like a freaking rubber ball until he finally slammed on the ground with a solid 'THUMP'.
The dust submerging him began to clear off and revealed the blond boy standing on his feet completely unscathed despite his violent collision with all his surroundings. It was like some strange powers protected him from the damages and absorbed his fall.
"Jeez, I don't think that's a good landing strategy…" He muttered as he kept sweeping the dirt from his clothes.
"Now to find these relics and somebody to partner with… Maybe."
"Ugh! I can't believe Ruby ran away and left me here all alone…" Rambled an irritated white-haired heiress deep inside the forest while she was making herself a path through the thick bushes and branches with Myrtenaster.
"What a bi-*cough*" She immediately censored herself as she realized such obscene word was going to come from her noble mouth, then soon cooled off and focused on her objective, her eyes twitching everywhere as she scanned every leaf and trunk in search of her black-haired 'partner', or at least of one the red petals she leaves on her way.
However, her attention soon switched to one of the bushes around her as she heard growls coming from her surroundings, she kept an anxious eye at the slight movements she perceived through the dense vegetation but couldn't figure out what it was.
Little by little, the noises became more resounding, the movements more frenetic and faster, Weiss swallowed her saliva as her eyes widened in terror, she tried her best to follow the growls and movements, but they were so fast and so numerous that she couldn't keep track of them.
And just in front of her, a giant bush kept shaking around, its perturbing aura caressing her cheek left the girl petrified in pure terror, she couldn't even exhale the air stuck in her lungs…
ゴ
ゴ
ゴ
ゴ
(SFX: Menacing.)
Suddenly, something violently grabbed her elbow and dragged her inside the dark green bush on her right before she could even utter a single yelp, she kept struggling to escape from the arms warped around her while trying to wave her rapier around until she finally realized that the hand muffling her mouth was actually human, she then looked up where she saw a set of golden hair hanging over a pair of piercing purple eyes looking through the leaves of the bush.
Kira soon released his grip on the girl as she stopped twitching around and making noises, he put his index on his mouth to indicate Weiss to stay quiet then pointed it toward the outside of the bush.
"Shhhhhh… Something's coming…"
The girl looked toward where the blonde pointed, two long black legs filled with dark fur were walking just centimeters from their hiding spot, accompanied with growls and pants from whatever the owner of those legs, the growl began to drift away from their position until they stopped being heard once and for all, giving them the green light to finally come out of their hiding.
Weiss was first to come out while she was taking out a few leaves and branches stuck on her hair and dress, she then turned toward the blonde following her and gave him an unkind glare.
"I could've taken this one out myself without you creeping around!"
The Ice Queen's venomous remark didn't affect the blonde as he just stayed silent while taking out a small wooden stick off his hair, it was a matter of time before the girl's hostile gaze began to deflate and faded to a pouting one as she finally admitted her thankfulness toward his help, as he expected.
"Bu-But thanks, anyway…"
Suddenly, another cracking sound caught the two soon-to-be huntsmen by surprise which they immediately turned toward it, readying themselves to fight whatever it was until they immediately stopped as they saw in dazzlement the thing, or actually, the person in front of them.
"Ru-Ruby?!" Shouted the white-haired heiress as she sees Ruby frightened to see the initially menacing look the two gave her when she accidentally stepped on a wooden branch as she tried to approach them.
"Weiss! You can't believe how long I've been looking for you after that you disappeared from my sight!" Her silver eyes then switched toward the confused blonde standing next to her teammate and gave him a quick wave. "Oh hai Yoshikage!"
Kira responded back with a wave who was soon obscured by Weiss' uncannily boiling red face, her enraged voice suddenly becoming as shrill as a crow's cry. "What do you mean by I the one who disappeared?! I tried my best to follow you between all that teleportation you've been doing until you completely disappeared out of nowhere and left me all alone!"
Ruby backed in terror as she sees the furious girl approaching her and pointing a sharp finger toward her chest, however, she immediately grew tired of the girl's accusations and gave her own displeased look at the heiress. "Wow wow! Last time I checked; I was the one who was following you! It's not my fault if you got lost in the woods! Princess!"
"Well, it's not my fault if my teammate is completely braindead and can't keep up with someone close without wandering around like a little girl!"
"Who do you call little girl?! I'm barely two years younger than you as a reminder!"
Yoshikage backed away from the girl's shouting as he preferred not to intervene between them, however, he soon regretted sticking with them this long as he began hearing new noises and growls coming from all the bushes around them, this time it wasn't just one approaching them.
All around them were horrifying creatures appearing from the dark shadows they were blending in, their red evil eyes carefully eyeing the three students like hopeless sheep ready to be eaten to the bone, not for the sake to appease their hunger, but only for the satisfaction to end a person's life, because these monsters were only drawn toward sadness and misery.
Grimm was the name the people of Remnant called them, Kira has seen them many times on television and books, however, he never encountered a real one before, which he would have liked if it stayed that way, now that he is completely ambushed by a herd of them.
If he's guessing right, these ones were called Beowolves, looks like a mix between a bear and a werewolf. A whole pack of them was surrounding the three teenagers, marching around them at a slow pace while growling and showing their sharp fangs at their prey.
"Goddammit! You have attracted the whole forest toward us thanks to your constant screams and yelping! Good job Ruby!"
"What?! I'm the one who kept screaming from the beginning?!"
"Still! I'm not the one who got the most irritating and loud voice in all of this forest!"
"Look who's talking! You're the person who keeps screeching like a dinosaur!"
"How dare you resembling my chanting vocals to one of a dinosaur! You little bi-"
"Shut up! both of you! Your barking will only make this situation worse!" Yoshikage couldn't contain the anger he was feeling and just spewed it all toward the girls suddenly jumping in fright at his sudden shift of mood before immediately keeping their mouths shut, traumatized by seeing a whole other side of Yoshikage Kira's usual calm and reserved demeanor roaring at them.
"Well, I guess it's about time we take down some monsters…" Muttered Ruby with a smirk while pulling out the scythe of her Crescent Rose and facing one side of the pack approaching them, relieved to finally test her skills against a Grimm.
"Of course, like a little kid, you must be all excited to fight these things…" Weiss whispered between her teeth as she drew her rapier at the Beowolves in front of her and decided it would be wiser if she released all her anger on them.
Kira frowned as he took the opposite side of the heiress and summoned his switchblade while still regretting not making a run for it as soon as he could, but now that he is trapped, he's definitely not going to lose this one.
One of the Beowolves targeted the blond and walked toward him, the beast was standing in about one to two feet above his head, still, that didn't discourage him, if this monster wants a piece of him, it better has to prepare for one hell of a fight.
And Kira's wish was granted as the monster roared and jabbed its right clawed arm in direction of him, which he swiftly dodged and dashed down toward the Grimm's waist where he gave him a quick flick of his switchblade, he then ended his dodge with a roll on the ground and looked toward his prey screaming in pain while glancing at the wound he made on the monster's black flesh.
As he expected, the monster wasn't bleeding, nothing but darkness was inside that cut like he was made of dark matter, the only thing he saw was a flock of black particles gushing from the injury when he made the cut.
After a few cries of pain, the Beowulf just turned toward the blonde like nothing happened, making the blonde slightly anxious as he could feel he made the monster even angrier.
The Grimm tried the same attack once again and failed as the boy leaped back and left the creature to shove its fist inside the dirt, Kira immediately decided to retaliate as he continued his leap toward a tree trunk behind him and use it to propel himself in the air in direction to the Beowulf's head.
However, Kira probably underestimated the monster's reflexes and speed as it didn't find any difficulty grabbing in him in midair, the blond grit his teeth and thrust his knife inside the Grimm's arms thinking it would drop him but in vain, he then tried to puncture the thick bone structure forming his face but with no success as well.
In the end, he just shoved his knife inside the monster's throat which finally affected the monster but not for his liking as the creatures literally slammed him on the ground and started roaring in pain as the knife was stuck in its neck.
Yoshikage probably felt his spine breaking apart due to that hit, he tried to stand up but the monster was directly in front of him. The blond simply couldn't dodge the powerful claw descending on his exposed self, leaving him with a shredded right forearm as he hopelessly tried to shield himself with it but that only made him more vulnerable for the next blow as the Grimm now used both his clawed arms to attack the boy.
There was no one who could save him, Ruby and Weiss were already busy with their own share of Beowolves to take down, everything was settled for the boy's unfortunate fate, and still, he had the audacity to depict a very calm demeanor despite the claws just mere inches from gouging his kidneys out
At this moment, a strange glowing dark magenta fog with pink outlines began radiating from the boy's silhouette. And then suddenly, something completely unexpected, a complete Deus Ex Machina.
*BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARP*
Out of nowhere, a pair of bright pink arms materialized from Kira's back and restrained the Beowulf's arms, the Grimm kept a dumbfounded stare at the two hands effortlessly grabbing his claws despite it giving out all the power it got.
The blond just casually stood up on his feet and stared at the monster with a glare that would frighten even death itself, he didn't seem to be astonished or even caring about the two arms coming from the back of his shoulders like a pair of wings.
In fact, he decided to use this new set of arms to lift himself up in from the ground and give a strong kick at the monster with both his legs, however, it wasn't his actual legs who sent the kick but another couple of limbs colored the same way as the ghostly arms expanding from his knees and violently ramming inside the Beowulf's front jaw, literally shattering the front of his skull and pushing his mandible deep inside his cranium.
The Grimm immediately dropped dead, its corpse kept twitching around for a bit since half of its face was freaking stuffed inside its brain, or whatever what inside that head.
The strange pink arms and legs immediately returned inside the dark purple smoke before slowly fading away as well, Kira wasn't in a slight bit creeped out at what just happened right now and just kept indifferently glancing at his defeated foe.
He then turned toward the two girls to see how they were doing; Ruby was giving the final blow at a Beowolf laying on the ground while Weiss strapped back her sword after fatally puncturing the chest of another one of them.
Kira just kept staring in disbelieve at all the dead Grimms swarming the ground and slowly vaporizing in thin air, it was hard to imagine it but the two girls actually cleared the whole place from the pack of Grimms all by themselves, while he was barely struggling with only one of them.
In his defense, his ability can only be focused on one foe, still, Kira had to admit that they've proved to be extremely talented.
"I hope you don't mind that we took down the rest while you were busy with that Grimm…" Explained the black-haired girl with an apologized smile, feeling a bit ashamed to have taken most of the action for herself and Weiss.
"It also looked like you had a bit of difficulty too… At one point, we even though we had to get you out of that Beowulf's claws." Kira agreed with the heiress' point of view, fighting things of his size is challenging but a bit easy, fighting giant creatures of darkness and death, on the other hand, was a whole other story.
"Actually, it's my first time fighting the Grimm…" He confessed while scratching his left cheek with a nervous grin.
"What really?!" Exclaimed the black-haired girl while the heiress next to her only sighed and looked at him in disbelief. "Then why the hell did you get in this school in the first place? Ugh whatev', just stay close with us for the time being, let's go find these relics…"
The two girls casually walked away while the blond stood back for it a bit, fortunately, they didn't notice the right hand he hid behind him, the gruesome wound shredding his flesh was leaking pools of blood behind him with no signs of healing back as his Aura should be doing… If he had one.
He simply cannot afford to attract his peers' attention about that for now.
"Ummm… Did your sister just fell from the sky?" Asked a stoic-looking Blake to her blond partner, Yang didn't reply to her question and just mentally agreed that yes, her sister just felt from the sky after that she jumped off from a Nevermore before crashing to a tree due to an unidentified object slamming at her.
"Hi-Hi Ruby…" Gasped out an exhausted Jaune to the girl sitting next to him before passing out on top of the branch he was laying on. Ruby slowly descended from the tree she was stuck on and jumped toward her sister with a wide smile.
"YANG!"
"Ruby where have you been?" Asked the busty blonde worryingly while holding her little sister in a tight embrace, Ruby pulled out her pale face from Yang's generous chest and gave her an embarrassed smile.
"Well, I-"
But soon enough, their moment of reunion was suddenly interrupted as out of nowhere, a growling twelve-foot-tall Ursa just stormed out of the thick foliage and began twirling around, on top of him was an orange-haired girl riding the beast like in a rodeo. Suddenly, the monster seemed to be electrified by pink sparkles before collapsing on the ground, much to the orange-haired girl's dismay. "Aw… It's broken…"
Shortly afterward, a young man with black hair with some of his strands dyed in pink to resemble a sharp line at the side of his head appeared behind the dead carcass of the Ursa, seemingly exhausted after following around his obnoxiously energetic partner.
"Nora… Please don't do that, ever again…" He panted before remarking that the girl literally disappeared from her previous spot, soon found her in front of the temple chanting like a fantasy princess with a golden rook piece on her head until she got woken up from her dream by her partner once again.
"NORA!"
The girl just made a slight giggle and ran toward the boy with a wide smile on her face. "Coming Ren!"
Jesus Christ, good thing Yoshikage wasn't around or he would probably blow his brains out the moment he saw that annoying girl spasming around.
"Did that girl just came riding an Ursa?" Blake's question was left unanswered once again as another grumbling noise coming from the woods and a giant scorpion appeared, following a young redheaded girl running as fast as she could. Pyyrha jumped from the ground to dodge another attack of the monster before briefly rolling on the ground and resuming her sprinting pace.
"Did that girl just came running all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?"
At this point, Yang just burst into shrill anger after getting really fed up by everything happening a tad too fast and too weird, her eyes turning into a crimson shade.
"UGH! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! CAN YOU GUYS CHILL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING STRANGE AND WEIRD POPS OUT OF NOWHERE?!"
As she kindly demanded, two seconds precisely passed before something suddenly came down from the sky like an asteroid and smashed a pillar near their position before ricocheting on the ground with a solid 'THUMP'.
"Aaah it's a meteorite!" Cried Nora while hiding behind Ren in genuine terror. "No! It's a UFO! We're getting invaded!"
While the girl was tripping in a panic about what it could have been, Kira stood up from his point of impact rubbing his head with a slight grunt. "I should really find a better landing strategy…" While he was dusting off his pants, his eyes met with somebody running toward him at an incredible speed.
"Pyyrha?"
"Yoshikage! Run!" The redhead shouted while passing next to his confused face, it was a matter of time before he realized what was the giant thing that the girl was running from.
"Oh, fuck me…" Sighed the blond looking more genuinely tired than panicked before he began sprinting at the same direction as the redhead, he soon caught up with her and was intending to ask her where the hell she found this thing before both got suddenly propelled in the air by a swift hit from the Death Stalker.
Both students were leaping in the air before crashing below the surprised stare of the other students.
"I just want a room of my own…"
Those were the only words that slipped through his exhausted sigh, just before he finally stood up with Pyyrha and looked at the students gathering, his sight mostly focused on the new faces, especially Nora's who was giving a wave a bit too frenetic and cheerful for the blond's taste and left him awkwardly glaring at her, somebody should probably lay off the coffee for a while…
"Looks like you got quite a rough day…" Commented Yang with a joking smirk, which Kira replied while rubbing his neck. "Tell me about it…"
"Well, at least you came just in time for all of us to die…" Kira couldn't believe the girl could still pull out one of her a witty joke despite the horrible situation they were all in, her sarcastic demeanor was really not helping them with the giant scorpion approaching them.
"So, what do we do now?" Asked Jaune finally joining the group after trying to save Weiss from crashing on the ground after that she jumped off the Nevermore as Ruby told her. "Anybody got a plan or something?"
Yoshikage was going to suggest running the F out of here before Ruby stepped in and cocked the handle of the sniper rifle within her Crescent Rose, depicting a severe glare at the monster. "I've got one, watch me!"
And as fast as a lightning bolt, she dashed toward the Death Stalker using the gun of her scythe to propel herself even faster, assigning a powerful smash with her weapon the moment she was in range of the monster, but it seemed like it barely tickled the Grimm's skull as he didn't flinch not a single bit, but he didn't take it well either as he gave her a severe smack with one of his claws, violently slamming her on the ground like a pancake.
Finally realizing her mistake, she soon stood up and began running back toward her friends while the Death Stalker was following her still pissed at her. And like that wasn't enough, the Nevermore came back and started chasing the girl too.
In a panic, Yang immediately sprinted toward her sister to save her from the mess she put herself in, Kira winced anxiously as he felt something bad was going to happen.
Unfortunately, his intuition was right as he saw the giant dark bird launching hundreds of pointy feathers at the ground with a flap of his wings, the feathers stuck on the field like spears with one of them piercing Ruby's red cloak and sticking her on the ground. Like that wasn't enough, the feathers reached Yang and completely obstructed her path, now looking at her sister struggling to take out her cape from the ground while the Death Stalker was approaching her.
"Ruby! Get the hell out of here!"
"I'm trying!"
"This is bad…" Muttered Yoshikage looking at the scene like a strange sense of panic rose up from his chest.
Suddenly, his right foot did the unthinkable and made a step forward before he froze to make another, wondering if it was worth the risk to step in and do something, he barely met these people and here is planning to do something he never did in his life, save another person. But in the same, he felt that strange sensation in his chest just kept increasing, like a blazing flame roaring and urging him to do something about it, a heroic spirit he never knew he had inside him.
"Ugh, fuck it…" It seems like this burning feeling tortured the blond far enough to the point he began sprinting toward the damsels in distress while cursing himself on his poor choice of thinking. "Me and my suicidal thoughts…"
However, before he could reach the endangered Ruby, a white blur passed next to him and intervened at Ruby's impending doom, Weiss used her rapier to create a wall of ice trapping the Death Stalker's tail and saving her partner, with a very stern look toward Ruby of course.
Kira felt somewhat of relief to see the scythe-wielder all fine thanks to the Schnee's heiress, he finally decided to reach Yang and help her get out from the pointy feathers, at the same time, he glanced back toward the duo and saw Weiss extending her hand toward Ruby to help her get up, which cracked a slight smirk on Yang's face.
"Seems like they are finally getting along…" Yoshikage agreed with Yang before he sees her rushing toward her sister to crush her between her strong arms. Soon enough, all of them came back to the temple where their companions were worried sick, however, there was no time for the party as the Nevermore came back toward the group.
"I never thought you were the heroic type Yoshikage…" Complimented Pyyrha with a melodically impressed grin, Blake nodded in agreement but her, on the other hand, was eyeing the blond with an unconvinced glare. "Me too, that's seemed very strange… Too strange in my opinion."
"I guess it's because of the adrenaline…" Yoshikage blandly tried to justify his sudden bravery with an indifferent grimace, followed by a suddenly startled stare as Yang gave a firm shove at the Yoshikage's shoulder with a wide laugh. "Hehe, how convenient! I get this kind of feeling too sometimes! I guess it's related to our hair color, right?"
"I-I don't think so…" Simply muttered the blond not agreeing one bit at Yang's suggestion, which left her quite disappointed.
"Heroic or not, I'm the one who saved Ruby I remind you!" Jumped Weiss crossing her arms in a bragging stance, the others turned toward her and acted as they agreed with her with giggles and nods just to please the princess' self-righteous demeanor.
"Uhm guys? I pretty much think we shouldn't stay here any longer…" Indicated Jaune pointing up at the black bird flying towards them with a slight perturbated face.
"What are we waiting for, our objective is just in front of us!" Everyone followed Weiss' idea and walked towards where the chess pieces were put, each pair taking one of the artifacts, however, there was a problem that bothers Yoshikage.
"Ummm what about me? I still didn't find a teammate to partner with…" He muttered looking at the chess pieces quite perplexed.
"What?! How can someone like you didn't find a partner yet?" Yang shouted with her mouth hung open in disbelief, for some reason, everyone had the same thought as they were all looking at the blond boy with the same surprisingly shocked expression, which Kira didn't understand why and only made him more nervous.
"Well, the least thing you can do now is pick up an artifact, who knows maybe you'll find somebody to pair with on the way back…" Kira had nothing to do but agree with Ruby's idea, so he chose an artifact for himself, it was a black knight, he kept looking at between his fingers with worry. While all the persons around were paired up, he wondered what kind of teammates he will be with at the end of the exam.
"Well, everybody got their pieces, let's get the hell out of here…"
Blake's words probably reached the Death Stalker as he finally pulled out his stinger from the wall of ice and headed toward the group of students running toward the cliff. Their trek took them to some stone ruins where they were pinpointed by the Nevermore blocking the access to the stone bridge leading to the cliff while the Death Stalker caught up with them and basically prohibited the group to turn back.
Yoshikage winced in frustration as he looked at the two monsters blocking them on both sides, this time it wasn't a question of bravery, now he really has to do something and work with the others if he wanted to get out of here alive, this time, he was the one stepped in before Ruby could say anything.
"I'll try to slow the Death Stalker; you guys try to make a run toward the bridge or take care of the Nevermore…"
"Wait, how are you going to take care of that monster?!" Shouted Weiss, stupefied by Kira's unpredictable move, the blond only looked at her with a serious look on his face. "Watch me!" He then ran toward the monster under the dumbfounded view of his companion who had no other choices but to follow his instructions.
"Hey! Don't expect me to save you as I did with Ruby!"
That strange burning feeling inside his chest came back once again, adrenaline or not, he exactly knew the only solution to cool it off: beat the shit out of that Death-Stalker.
He was now facing the monster which didn't have any hesitation to launch its pinching claws at the blonde, at the same time, Kira's eyes began to glow as the dark fog of earlier began to emanate from his body and swiftly intercepted the Death Stalker's claws, completely immobilizing the monster.
"Oh my god! He actually can wrestle big strong monsters with his bare hands!" Without him noticing it, Yoshikage just gained one point of affinity with Yang staring at his manly endeavor with her mesmerized iliac eyes.
The Death Stalker had it enough with this ridiculous being and decided to strike him with his orange stinger, the strange ghost hovering above Kira immediately retaliated by giving a strong punch sending the tail back to its owner, but that also meant that Kira had to let go on one of the claws who was going to cut him in half if he didn't have the reflex to jump from the ground.
Hopefully, Ren and Blake came to his rescue and hit the monster with their respective blades before retreating toward the group with the blond following them. Pyyrha began giving suppressive fires with Milo turned into a rifle at the Death Stalkers to help the trio reach the bridge, Ren and Blake kept running while Kira stopped next to the redhead and gave her a pat on the shoulder.
"Just don't bother with it, that thing takes bullets like a sponge…"
"Then what should we do?!" Asked an alarmed Pyrrha as she reverted the shape of Milo into a Xiphos while looking over the blond's shoulder at the scorpion Grimm slowly approaching them.
Yoshikage looked down for a moment reflecting for a plan until he pulled out his switchblade from the inside of his palm and gave it to the redhead, this time it was covered in a strange purple tint that made girl slightly confused.
"Take this and stab it on that bastard's tail, specifically on its stinger! Then all you had to do is to not get caught by it!"
"Uh, okay, but…"
"Shit! The Death Stalker catching up with us, come on let's go!"
Without leaving her a chance to utter a single word, he immediately grabbed her hand and began sprinting toward the group.
The crew started crossing the bridge, but soon enough, the Nevermore circled back and targeted them before proceeding to storm into the bridge and demolishing a part of it, unfortunately, some of them didn't have time to cross the bridge, while two got the unfortunate luck to be standing on it right when the monster attacked.
Yoshikage and Pyrrha both seemed to fall to their doom until the blond's dark purple emanated toward the redhead, then an arm suddenly materialized grabbing her by the neck before tossing her to the edge of the stone platform with a fulgurant force.
Unfortunately, while Pyrrha safely gained ground, she could only do but peek in horror at Yoshikage frowning at her in a stern manner, still not believing the sudden instinct to use his power to save her instead of him, but for some reason he wasn't regretting at all, he just felt stall and simply accepted his unavoidable fate.
His last actions were to empty his mind and close his eyelids, seeing all that he could remember of his life flashing before his eyes, it was a very fast slideshow. Afterward, a black blur swung toward him and caught him by the leg before taking to the nearest solid ground and throw him on it.
"Thanks…" Yoshikage sighed while looking at Blake's sheathing her chained pistols and giving him a small reserved smile on her face. "You're welcome… You seemed like you were reflecting on your past deeds down there."
"Yeah and I just realized they weren't that good…" Groaned the blond standing up before looking in dismay at the giant bird diving towards them, Yoshikage crouched down while Blake jumped above its head and rode the beast for a while before jumping towards where her three future teammates regrouped.
"That thing's strong as hell!" The black-haired girl complained while the Nevermore was coming back for round two.
"Then let's hit it with everything we got!" Shouted Yang with determination while charging her golden gauntlets with a set of new shotgun shells. The four girls all aimed their firepower toward the giant beast screeching in pain at the impact of the multicolored discharges on its wings, still, that didn't stop its course down their position.
"Crap! He's still flying toward us!" Cried out Weiss in terror before she jumped away from the giant black bird wrecking the small platform they were standing on; the girls then began swiftly hoping from falling rock to falling rock until they regained solid grounds.
In the meantime, Pyrrha and her future team were battling against the Death Stalker, despite fighting four different students at the same, the Grimm didn't have any difficulty scattering them all off with its strong jabs, Pyrrha was the last one getting attacked as she used her shield to protect herself from the scorpion's tail.
Crap! There has to be something they could do to defeat this thing!
Suddenly, an idea struck the redhead as she reached for the switchblade strapped on her belt, the purple tin of the blade shinning on her face as she remembered the previous instruction given by Yoshikage.
"Stab it on the bastard's stinger, and don't get caught by it!"
Why did he mean by "it"? That's what she was going to find out, Pyrrha threw the knife at the Death Stalker's orange stinger, unfortunately, only the tip of the blade stuck to it and the monster didn't even feel it as it gave to both Nora and Jaune a swift sweep of its claws.
This is where Pyrrha threw Akuo toward the tail and pushed the knife deeper into the stinger, at this moment, the blade made a distinctive clicking noise as if it just triggered some kind of tripping mine.
'clank'
'BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM'
Nobody knew what a kind chemical reaction triggered within the Death Stalker's stinger, but whatever it is completely obliterated the Grimm in an earthshattering explosion pushing everyone in its vicinity to the ground. Pyrrha slowly lowered her shield as she looked at the result of the explosion with widened eyes, the entire upper body portion of the Death Stalker was completely charred and its tail simply inexistent, the bone armoring the Grimm's body completely came off revealing a cloud of dark particles bursting from it like black blood.
Despite the horrifying wound inflicted on it, the monster was still on its legs, shaken up by the attack while whimpering in pain until Nora came from the sky and crushed its naked head on the ground with Magnhild, finishing off the beast once and for all.
"Pyrrha…" Jaune caught the redhead's attention as he stood up from his previous fall, an expression mixed between confusion and astonishment marked on his face. "Wh-What was that?!"
"I-I don't know…" Pyrrha shook her head as she was as confused as the blond boy. "It was that knife that Yoshikage gave me, it clicked and then just blew up…"
"Damn, uh, could it be a makeshift grenade or something?" Pyrrha nodded at Jaune's suggestion since it looked the most plausible thing, or else it could be something regarding his… Semblance?
The two students were immediately interrupted by the distant cries of the Nevermore still flying around and assaulting Ruby and her regrouped with Weiss as the two girls watched with dreadful eyes at the Nevermore still lurking around their position, finally admitting to the idea that bullets were completely ineffective against the humongous flying Grimm.
"Crap! What do we do now?" Weiss' traits tensed as she sees Yang jumping at the monster's gaping mouth and emptying all the ammo of Ember Celica right on its face, but the Grimm simply ate the shotgun shells like sweets and threw the blonde away from its beak.
"Wait! I have a pl-"
"Actually, I think I have a better plan."
Out of nowhere, Yoshikage appeared behind the surprised Ruby and Weiss and interrupted the silver eyed girl's talk, the two preferred leaving the questions about how in the hell did he got up here for later and just focused on what he had to say.
"Nothing too difficult really, I just need you guys to send me in the air, that's all."
Similar to Pyrrha, both girls gave him a completely bewildered grimace while trying to analyze the boy's statement in their heads before both uttering a synchronized "What?" in a disbelieved tone.
"Just you guys do it." Blandly replied Yoshikage trying his best to reveal as little as possible of his explosive plan. "I'll do the rest of it…"
The girls kept their dazed stare at the teenager for a second before plainly nodding and going toward the two other girls to inform them of Kira's strange stunt, Yang and Blake did the whole confused stare again but accepted as well since they were ready to do anything to turn that bird into a roasted turkey.
Under Kira's instructions, the group soon formed some kind of slingshot using Blake's chain warped around two stone pillars while Yang was keeping the Nevermore's attention far from the others, Ruby and Yoshikage began stretching the chain backward while Weiss used one of her magical glyphs to help the two stabilize the black rope and aim it in the right direction.
"Are you really sure about your plan?" Asked worriedly Ruby as she positioned herself next to the blond.
"Yeah! Are you really sure about that?!" Followed Weiss not believing she had to agree with Ruby about this, Kira just replied with a slight shrug and a far-too calm smile. "Maybe?"
"Wh-What do you mean maybe? We're endangering our lives here!" Weiss' voice began mimicking that weird crow scream again as her pale face started to fume in anger.
"Actually, I'm the only one who can get killed in this really…" The boy replied with no change in his attitude despite the situation he was in. "Just make sure you got the shot all right?"
The heiress preferred not to extend the discussion any further and just uttered a slight grumble while she was readying her glyph, Yoshikage gave a sign to Weiss to let go the chain which she immediately did as she dismisses her glyph and left the two blasts to space.
Yoshikage took a tight grip on Crescent Rose while its user was firing shots to propel them further in air until they reached the cliff and began ascending on it, Weiss used her glyphs once again to help them climb the wall until they reached a certain level where Ruby fired a shot on the cliff and sent the two straight to air with the Nevermore following their track.
Yoshikage grabbed the scythe's blade while Ruby started rotating on herself to give more boost to the blond's following leap in the air as he let go the scythe and left himself propel toward the sky until he could reach the clouds.
There was a microsecond where Kira's ascension died off and left him immobile in mid-air, he could see nearly the entirety of the Emerald Forest and even the high towers of Beacon Academy on his left. The view was simply incredible.
For a second, he wished he could have the ability to fly or levitate like that so he can experience such a relaxing moment without the need of a team of four girls and a giant slingshot. Or maybe he could try to practice more yoga, he heard that some people could levitate just by meditating.
Yoshikage finally realized this wasn't time to be submerged in such thoughts as he saw the Nevermore heading toward him and gravity finally overcoming, now it should be a perfect time for the second part of his plan…
…
Rolling up into a ball while the Nevermore was opening its beak and flying straight at him.
"No… don't tell me he's going…"
'GULP'
Under the horrified eyes of all the students on the ground, the Grimm swallowed the blond in one bite with no struggle coming from him, a sinister silence settled on the cliff as the Nevermore decided to hover for a moment as it was digesting its latest meal.
"Holy FUCK!" Yang couldn't prevent the profanities coming from her mouth as she was simply too appalled at what just unveiled in front of her very iliac eyes, a pure act of suicide nobody was waiting for not a single bit. Blake preferred expressing her shock by keeping a wide agape mouth not letting one single note come out of it.
"I first thought that he was braindead when he was talking about a plan, but not this much…" Whispered Weiss behind her hands covering her mouth with a dead frozen stare, expecting herself to be roaring in anger by the blond's incredibly stupid plan, but was instead genuinely, heartbroken.
"Yo-Yoshikage… NO!" A disheartened Ruby Rose cried out while shooting the rifle of Crescent Rose to launch herself toward the Nevermore, but the lack momentum only lifted her up a bit in the air before she miserably crashed on stone ground, she then looked up in the sky, tears forming under eyes as she grieved the horrible fate of a boy despite meeting him only for a couple of days.
On the other side of the crumbled bridge, Pyrrha was the most affected by Yoshikage's unpredictable move, her shocked eyes still not grasping the fact that he was devoured by the giant monster while her right hand instinctively covered her trembling mouth.
In the meantime, inside the Grimm's belly, there was a hand rummaging between the intestines trying its best to not get indigested. "If this fuckhead thinks he can fucking eat me alive…" The hand then made somewhat of a thumbs up, before pressing its thumb on its index like it was activating a detonator with a familiar clicking sound resonating from it.
'clank'
'BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM'
Then suddenly out of nowhere, the bird literally imploded in a gigantic explosion covering its cries of pain in a thick orange colored blast, the fulgurant brightness of the explosion urged the bewildered students to cover their eyes or look away from it like an eclipse until it finally cleared off, leaving them the chance to examine what just happened.
The Nevermore who was hovering above their heads suddenly vanished in thin air, not a single thing was left of his presence but a cloud of thick smoke and its shrill screams still echoing in the air like the cries of a ghost. A strange silhouette plummeted out of the dark cloud who was soon revealed to be Yoshikage's body completely unharmed despite being eaten alive by the monster.
"Holy FUCKING SHIT!" Yang definitely couldn't prevent the profanities to come out of her wide agape mouth while Blake's grim stare quickly turned into a pure sense of shock, then in panic as they both see the blond boy freefalling with no way to absorb his impact. "Somebody should do something! Or he's going to die, for serious this time…"
"I-I simply don't understand how he survived this…" Blurted out Weiss looking at him in disbelief "But I need to keep him alive just enough so I can scold him for his lunatic act!" She then slowly summoned a glyph to where he will be in contact to the ground until she was interrupted by a screaming Nora proudly pushing her chest forward with a wide proud grin.
"Don't fret innocent kind! SuperNora is here to the rescue!" At her words, she slammed her hammer on the ground and fired a shot sending her into the air, where she grabbed the falling blonde by ramming her shoulder inside his bowels and warping her arms around his waist.
If there was a photo finish, you would clearly see a frame by frame shot of Yoshikage slowly feeling his ribs being shattered and his spine nearly dislocating due to the girl's violent shove. Nora then safely returned back to the ground, holding the blond like a bag of potatoes before dropping him on the ground.
Yoshikage moaned in pain while holding his belly just before he turned his face toward the sky where all his companions surrounded his field of view with different expressions on their heads.
"You psychopath! Have you lost your mind or what?!" Yelled out Weiss red in anger with her eyes nearly popping out of their eye sockets, she simply cannot forgive him for showing her the most daredevil stunt she ever laid eyes on. Still, she had to admit that his 'plan' worked some way or another and the Nevermore was killed in one single blow, so while he may be a reckless madman with a death wish, he's fortunately not a useless hotheaded braindead as she imagined.
"Yoshikage, are you okay?!" Ruby hurried toward the blond and stared down at him, her anxious eyes twitching all around his body to check if he was hurt until Yang patted her shoulder and calmed her, the blonde then looked down at the boy with a genuinely impressed grin.
"You may be a reckless psychopath with a death wish, but holy crap what you just did was super-duper-freaking awesome!"
Pyyrha reached down to him and helped him to stand up with a half-smile on her face as she didn't know how to fully react to the boy's deed. "I'll be honest I'm not a fan of your methods, but I appreciate the originality, I guess…"
Yoshikage gave to all the group a silent smile before seeing Jaune approaching him from behind with his trademark mumbling and a shy grin. "Ye-Yeah I don't think I'll be doing the same thing as you do any time sooner, but that was… very cool, what you did, hehe." Kira stared at the clumsy boy before nodding at his statement while calmly saying at him "Thanks, Jaune." Jaune simply pulled off a dumbfounded face not expecting him to even remember his name.
"Well, now that we killed all these monsters, maybe we should go back to the cliff and finish the exam…"
Everyone nodded at Yang's proposition and walked on the bridge in a synchronized pass toward the finish point.
"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark. The four of you have retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as team CRDL, led by… Cardin Winchester."
Cardin, the broad-looking and newly designated leader of his team, brushed his light brown hair with a smug smile on his face, feeling somewhat of an honored sensation after Professor Ozpin declared him as the leader even though he was frankly expecting it, like seriously, the dude was half a foot taller than the rest of his team.
The four boys came down from the stage and their places were taken by the group of Jaune, Pyyrha, Ren, and Nora, who were soon called team JNPR and led by Jaune, the blond was so dazed by the news of him becoming a leader that he didn't properly react to Pyrrha's playful punch to the elbow and he clumsily fell on the ground causing the redhead to slightly giggle and all the audience to burst in laughter.
"And finally, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long…" Declared the white-haired headmaster while the four girls walked up to the stage "You four retrieved the white knight pieces, from this day forward you will work together as team RWBY, led by...Ruby Rose."
Similar to Jaune, Ruby was surprised by the news while Weiss completely froze on her place thinking she probably heard wrong for a moment, she then tried to convince the headmaster that there must be a mistake but the crowds' constant noises completely muffled her voice.
"I'm so proud of you!" Yang jumped on her sister and gave her a strong hug with an enthusiastic smile as wide as her cup size, not much can be said about Blake's emotion given by her usual stoic attitude, she just seemed content and that's all.
"Before we move on, ladies, can you stay here for a moment?" Indicated Professor Ozpin to the perplexed four girls before turning toward the crowd with a very stern stare. "Yoshikage Kira, can you please step up to the stage please?"
Soon enough, the whole amphitheater suddenly went quiet while the crowd formed a large circle around the blond whose heart was going to pop out when he heard his name, he swallowed his saliva and started walking through the mob of teenagers goggling at him while trying his best to not pass out from the anxiety he was feeling right now, which only made it even worse as the students kept staring at him, even more, wondering what the hell was wrong with him.
Hopefully, he found his way up to the stage without any accidents, the newly formed team RWBY stepped aside to let the boy face the professor, the two men looked at each other for a moment before the headmaster cleared his throat as he began stating the following speech. "You have proven to be a very rare case for this year as the only student with a team represented by only one member, a 'one-man team' to be specific…"
Whispers began filling the room for a moment which didn't improve Kira's annoyed posture before they finally all stopped when Ozpin resumed talking. "Which is a shame as when I was monitoring the whole exam, you have proven to be quite a fantastic and skillful combatant against the monsters of Grimm despite your… uncanny choice of weaponry. In fact, if you were in a proper team, I would've declared you a leader on the spot…"
Kira's tense eased a slight bit after the compliment, however, much to his displease, Ozpin soon picked a more threatening stare.
"Still, that doesn't mean I am not highly disappointed by your behavior young man, for the whole trial you didn't give a single effort to find yourself a teammate and just decided to stick up with team RWBY and JNPR, two teams who were already formed from the very beginning…"
Ozpin took a brief silence as he sighed and left his menacing tone fade away but still keeping his glare toward the blonde.
"But in the same time, it's not entirely your fault, this year's exam was quite rough as we noticed a slight decrease in student's success rate, which probably explains why not a single student beside you have picked up the black knight piece…" Ozpin's frown became more intense as he starred deep inside the boy's purple eyes with a bit of questioning. "It's like fate decided to make you a lone wolf no matter what…"
The headmaster's brown pupils slightly looked toward team RWBY standing next to them before switching back to Yoshikage.
"However, because of Beacon Academy's policy, I cannot let you go like that. This is why for the rest of your current student year; you will be assigned to team RWBY as an auxiliary member since you seemed to be quite cooperative with them back at Emerald Forest. But let me get this clear, while their grades will not be affected by your aptitude in their company, you, on the other hand, are obliged to cooperate with them and your performance will be meticulously graded depending on your coordination with the team. Be courteous and follow the orders of the group's leader like it was yours."
The headmaster's speech left Yoshikage with a weirded-out expression on his face, despite the initial revulsion to pair with somebody for the rest of his school years, he got to admit that this must be the best solution he could opt for, at least the team is not completely strange to him.
Ruby could be very dreamy from time to time but she's a very young kid and still proved enough to become a leader, Yang is lively and seem quite hotheaded at a first glance, but she's pretty smart and know how to tactically use her fists, Weiss can be very cold sometimes (as her appearance suggests) but she has proven many times that she wasn't the usual rich bratty kid and Blake… seems cool even though he cannot put a finger on her, still, he was happy to find a book mate in her.
Ozpin turned toward the crowd as Yoshikage and the girls came down from the stage, Yang rested her hand on his shoulder while expressing how happy she was to see him becoming a member of their team, Ruby and Blake agreed with the blonde while each depicting a very content smile, even Weiss seemed to have taken the news far more greatly than Ruby being her leader. In fact, she was satisfied to see one member of her supposed 'elite trio' being with her, even though he displayed a very unpredictable way of fighting that the heiress is not really a fan of.
The headmaster finally announced the conclusion of today's ceremony and wished good luck to the newly formed teams before leaving the stage.
"Come on Yoshikage! We just started the party!"
"Sorry, I'm tired and I still need to unpack my things. Good night, see you all tomorrow."
"Well okay, good night!"
"Sleep well!"
"Bye Yoshikage!"
The blond gave a slight wave to both team RWBY and JNPR who decided to celebrate their official admission inside team RWBY's dorm room and left them to continue their festivities, he wasn't a fan of parties anyway.
Conveniently enough, Yoshikage's room was directly next to his female teammates', the reason why he got a room of his own was probably because the dorms were designed to only host four people max, so Ozpin had to give him a special one.
Yoshikage slightly waved his Scroll in front of the room's magnetic lock making a slight 'click' as it unlocked the door and left the boy open it, the door pivoted to the side and revealed the interior of the room where Yoshikage will live for probably the next four years of his life.
Proportionally speaking, the room was barely half the size of what he saw Ruby and the others had, it looked like Ozpin took one of the janitor's storage facilities and put a bed, a bookshelf and a wooden desk next to the small single window to make it look like a bedroom, heck he could even see traces of where the old storage units where placed.
But despite the room's ridiculous size and its bland decoration, there was still a few free spaces that left Yoshikage's expertise in interior decoration fully bloom. "I could put a couch here and a T.V set just in front of it…" He muttered while looking at the space in front of the bed. "I could also fill this bookshelf with some novels, I should speak to Blake so she can lend me some… and this small empty area inside the wall, I could put a stereo system where I could play music when I want to study or something like that…"
This room, it was his room, his own and private place to stay, he was alone in this room and he can do anything he pleases… Anything.
A smirk drew across the boy's face while sitting on the edge of the single window illuminating the room, looking at the sunset in the far horizon between the many buildings constituting the academy. He then recalled the events at Emerald Forest and looked down at the bandage he stealthily rolled around his wounded forearm during the exam, he's certain that somebody noticed that dark red smudge on it but couldn't ask him about it in the heat of the battle, doesn't matter now either since they've probably forgotten about it by now. Another thing that resurfaced in his mind was that burning sensation he was sensing in his chest from time to time, that supposed heroic spirit, he finally concluded that it was just his brain who ordered him to give a good impression in front of his peers, why would he care about the well-being of any of these people around here? They can simply fend off for themselves...
…
Yes, as playfully expected from Yoshikage Kira.
His smile became much sharper and wider, at the same time, the purple color inside his eyes began glowing as his body started releasing a dark transparent fog covering his body once again, his features began to take a much sinister tone as the fog completely enveloped him and started sliding down on the pavement like a shadow and toward the small obscure corner next to the blonde.
"Yes, this place is good enough, it will suffice both of us…"
The iris inside his glowing eyes began stretching up to resemble those of a cat while he looked at the corner of his eyes, noticing the dark silhouette concealed in the corner of the room where the light of the sun couldn't attain.
"Am I right… 「Killer Queen」?"
The dark silhouette didn't reply and just maintained staring at nothing with its two predatory eyes glowing in bright pink. Kira stopped giving attention to the strange being and resumed contemplating the many light posts decorating the fine exterior of the academy gradually lighting up as the warm orange light of the sun was replaced by the dull shining of the shattered moon.
The strange silhouette drifted its right forearm out of the shadow and exposed it to the light of the moon, its skin was as bright as the color of its cat-like eyes, its humanoid hand had no nails and was clothed in a black leathered glove with bands warped around the forearm, steel studs were pinned on the knuckles and the bands of the glove while its thumb was bandaged in a white strip.
However, the most notable thing about that forearm was the round golden emblem attached to the back of the glove, a grim-looking skull with its jaw slightly agape and horns resembling cat ears on top of its head.
Ozpin was calmly sitting on his desk with his signature coffee mug resting on his table, browsing the many footages he captured from this morning's exam by using his tablet Scroll.
For some reason, he was mostly focusing on Yoshikage's performances as he was looking at the video where the blond was shown intercepting the deathly attack of the Death Stalker, the headmaster kept moving back and forth between the moment where the monster initiated its attack and the moment where Kira grabbed the two giant claws with his bare hands, or what looked like his bare hands…
As he kept slowing down the video, he noticed something radiating from the boy's body, some kind of dark purplish fog barely sticking out from the blonde's silhouette, he then rewind the clip and started moving one frame at a time while greatly concentrating at the dark aura growing more and more as the claws of the Death Stalker approached the mysterious young man.
Suddenly, the doors of his office opened as Ms. Goodwitch entered the room holding a folder between her hands and a displeased expression on her face, she stopped right in front of Ozpin's desk and rested the folder on the table while still keeping a disheartened look.
"As you asked sir, I've made my researches on the boy named 'Yoshikage Kira', I have done my best to track every bit of information regarding him…"
"And what did you find my dear?" Asked the headmaster while reaching to the folder and opening it, the lack of papers inside of it gave the old man a tad of worry.
"Nothing, his background files are completely empty, I typed his name on all the databases of the four kingdoms and they gave me no results, no parents, no relatives, no date of birth, no address…" Confessed the blond teacher with a worried sigh.
"I see…" Ozpin whispered while glancing at the content of the folder, looking at the files containing only the boy's name and some photos of himself at different ages, no prior than his early teenage years. However, the biggest thing that brought the headmaster's attention was that the oldest files about the boy only dated back to four years ago, which made the man speculate that Yoshikage's current identity might be false. "Maybe he has a different name? A different identity?"
"This is what I thought…" Replied Ms. Goodwitch "I've used the urine and blood samples he provided in his medical exam, nothing either…" She sighed once again while looking down discouraged by her failed endeavors before commenting with a low voice. "It's like this kid is a complete ghost…"
Ozpin retained the woman's comment and put the folder back to the table, he then grabbed his tablet once again and looked at the screen, the Scroll was now showing a still image of Kira blocking the Death Stalker's attack, however, with further inspection, it wasn't his hands that caught the Grimm's claws, in fact, his hands were not even near the Death Stalker as his back was facing the monster.
His dark aura was gathered on top of his back and formed some kind of humanoid bust grabbing the Death Stalker's claws with its strong arms, not much could be described about Yoshikage's 'guardian angel' but a pink silhouette barely discernable from the dark-clouded aura he was clothed in, however, one thing that could be noticeable were the two glowing pink dots representing its eyes and the two cat-like pointy ears on top of its head.
Ozpin took another quick sip of his coffee mug and put it again on the table while looking at the strange ghost then back at Yoshikage, by the small devious smirk drawn on his face, it doesn't seem like something out of the ordinary for him.
His medical report clearly stated that the young man had no Aura and no Semblance, still, Ozpin accepted his admission to the academy, seeing that his combat skills were good enough and expecting him to unlock his hidden powers the same way the young Jaune Arc did at the Emerald Forest, but he never thought that the boy would already process a power, a power widely different than anything he ever saw.
Could it be magic? Can he be part of the four…? No, no way…
"Well, what strange things are you hiding from us? Yoshikage Kira?"
