"Good morning, Echo!" Lily shouted in my ear. I groaned. Lately, Lily seemed to like yelling to wake me up, and none of the others seemed to mind it. They acted like it was normal, like an Arc tradition or something. It might as well be, I guess, but I wouldn't be doing it any time soon. I'm really stuck on this if you couldn't tell. I don't like being woken up by someone yelling in my ear.
"I'm up, stop yelling please." I groaned out, wiping the sleep from my eyes. She jumped out the door, heading down to breakfast. I got dressed and followed after her, slowly working the sleep from my body with some stretching. When I reached the table, everyone else was already sitting down with their preferred breakfasts in front of them. This consisted of mostly eggs in various prepared forms, bacon, and fruit slices. Jaune and Lily got Pumpkin Pete cereal, chocked full of sugar they just couldn't get enough of.
After grabbing my share of protein and fruit, I sat on down. Nicholas put down his fork and wiped off some egg that had gotten into his beard. "So, Echo has something to tell everyone." I just looked at him, confused for a second before recognition dawned on me.
"I'm going to be training to be a Huntress." The shocked looks lasted only a second before Fleur recovered.
"You can't be serious! You're only seven, and people don't start training until they're at least ten!"
"It's true," Nicholas cut her off. "She's going to be training under the Huntsmen and Huntresses in the village starting today after school. I've even called in a favor from one of my old colleagues working at Signal."
That got my attention. He knew someone working at Beacon, and got a favor from them? I ran through the list of people I knew worked at Signal, but I couldn't think of anyone Nicholas might really know. Then again, I only know of two people, and neither of those really appealed to me. "Who is it, if you don't mind me asking."
"I'm not going to tell you." He smirked. "And it's not like you know him anyways, he's never been here before. And it's better to be a surprise anyways, just to see the look on your face. I'll be sure to bring a camera, or get a picture on my scroll."
Yeah, dad, I'll give a real shocked face. Not as shocked as you'll be when I give you a zap though." The last bit was mumbled under my breath, as I picked at the bacon that had cooled off.
"What was that, Echo?" Juniper asked as she passed by, dropping her dishes in the sink.
"Nothing, mum." The rest of breakfast was spent in relative silence, with the only things being spoken about were school projects going on and bills that needed to be taken care of. Jaune had this look on his face, though, one that spoke of hurt and longing. I would be sure to keep an eye on him today, make sure he didn't get into trouble.
"Acacia, if you would take Lily, Jaune and Echo to school now, that would be greatly appreciated. Your father and I have to go over to the Hunter's office to take care of some paperwork."
"You got it, mom. They're be there, safe and sound before the bell even rings!" She gave a salute before turning to us. "Come on guys, get your supplies and we'll get going." We rolled our eyes but spent no time delaying anything. Acacia was the firstborn and golden child of the Arc household. We had to live up to her achievements in our eyes, which for me, wasn't that hard after learning to read the language on Remnant.
Oh yeah, I forgot to say that the written language in Remnant is not English. The spoken language, at least around here, is Valean. And it sounds exactly like English, but the written language is like putting English and German together with different letters instead of the normal alphabet. It took me some months to get the hang of it, but after I got it I was able to polish it up quickly to the point where I had absolutely no troubles reading. I was writing in a journal (not a diary, like Lily likes to call it) in English to keep up with everything that happened lately and what I knew of from the show.
After getting our supplies, we headed out the front door, following Acacia like a line of ducks following their mother. It was humiliating to me, yes, but if I headed off to school by myself I would be scolded by her. And I would worry the rest of the family, especially since they knew I was being bullied. The school wasn't that far, and it was in a pretty well-lit area with little vegetation in the way. If I was to be bullied there, then it would be immediately seen by an adult, and the bullies would be reprimanded.
Acacia dropped us off and gave us our lunches, reminding us to wait for her or one of the others to come pick us up after school got out. We agreed and she left off, leaving us to get to our classes. I said goodbye to Lily and Jaune, quickly heading off for my own class, because the teacher was extremely strict. And I wanted to get to working on a design for my weapon, since I knew I wasn't going to be taking Crocea Mors. That would be left to Jaune.
Right outside the class, I was stopped by a group of boys older than me. The group was led by a boy two and a half years older than me, named Roan. "So, the bat still comes to school. Didn't we tell you that you weren't welcome here, pipsqueak?"
"Yes, you did. And I remember telling you that I don't care what you think. Please vacate the doorway, as some of us still wish to get an education and not be stuck working beating metal for horseshoes at our father's forge." I made to move past him into the classroom, but was slammed against the doorframe.
"Hey, bitch, no-one talks about me that way."
"Oh, that's a naughty word there, Roan. Did your dad talk about what it means, or was he talking to your mom when he said it? Maybe it was about you, how you like picking on girls more than two years younger than you." His face kept getting redder the longer I went on, and the boys behind him were looking like they wanted to leave.
"Oh, that's it!" He swung a fist at my head, and I dipped it to the side. His fist connected with the doorway and a snap was heard. He yelled, dropping me to cradle his hand.
"You might want to go to the nurse to get that checked out. It didn't sound very good." I patted him on the shoulder and entered the classroom as he and his friends moved off towards the nurse's office. There was no need to antagonize him like that, but I just felt like it. He had been picking on me for too long now, and I just really didn't like him. What a joy Cardin would be, if I even went to Beacon. I got out some graph paper and my sketching pencil when I got to my desk and got started working on a design for my weapon.
I decided that I would go with something I knew what to fight with, a short sword. There would be dust channels on the inside, and the blade would break apart into two single edged blades. The handles would be where the dust was stored. One side would be lightning dust and ice, while the other would be fire and gravity. After drawing up some rough schematics, I began fully fleshing them out with the numbers on how long each part would have to be and how they would piece together with mechashift technology.
This lasted until the teacher came in and told the class to calm down and get out our math books, and to turn to page 135. I may hate math, but that doesn't mean I'm bad at it, and this stuff was horrible. Horribly boring, I could do this stuff while half awake and not make any errors. Another reason why I was a teacher's "pet" was that I found everything extremely easy and passed it with one hundred percent every time. If I could just take a graduation test now and skip schooling to focus on Huntsman training I would take it in a heartbeat.
I was called up to take care of some problems, making sure to show my work on each one. There were a few that I worked differently than what she had taught us, but she just praised me in thinking a unique way. As long as we got the correct answer, she was pleased with our progress. The lesson was about to end when Roan came back, his hand in a cast.
"And where have you been, Mister Leathe?"
"I was at the nurse's office after Arc broke my hand." HE sneered at me when the teacher turned her back on him to look at me.
"Is this true, Miss Arc? Did you break his hand?"
"No, I did not Ma'am. He broke it himself upon the doorway when I dodged out of the way of his fist." His sneer turned to a grimace. He must have thought that I wouldn't snitch on him to the teacher. Well, tricks on you dude, I'm not beyond going to an adult to work out some problems.
"Mister Leathe, is this true? Did you attempt to hit Miss Arc here?" He didn't respond, instead he decided to look off to the side and grumble about the 'bat freak is a little snitch bitch'. "Well, since you aren't denying it, off to the principal's office with you. I'll let him decide how to deal with this. Miss Arc and Amethyst will go with you, to make sure you actually make it there. Everyone else, take out your history books and turn to page 80."
Amethyst and I flanked Roan as we walked through the empty halls of the school. It didn't take that long to get to the office, it was a small school. Amethyst knocked on the door and was answered with the principal saying, "Come on in." We entered and he looked up from some paperwork he was filling out and then he sighed when he saw who it was. "Roan, we just had a chat last week. What are you doing in here now?"
"The brat made me break my hand." I rolled my eyes and face palmed.
Amethyst spoke up. "From what we heard in class, Roan was picking on Echo and broke his hand when he missed punching her."
The shock in the principal's eyes was clear. "Is this true, Echo? Did Roan here make to punch you?"
I breathed a sigh out of my nose. "Yes, sir, it is true. Upon reaching the classroom earlier this morning, I was confronted by roan and his group of friends. After exchanging a few words, Roan picked me up by my collar and slammed me into the doorway. Shortly after, he tried to punch me in the face, but I move my head in time to avoid it and he punched the doorway instead. I told him to go to the nurse to get his hand checked out. That is the end of my interaction with him."
The principal held his head in his hands for a few seconds, obviously distressed. "Roan, you will be receiving a suspension of two weeks." Roan made to speak against the action, but the principal wasn't done. "You will also be explaining to your and Miss Arcs parents as to why you broke your hand. Go speak to Miss Iris and tell her that you need to call your parents. Miss Arc, you will stay in here with me while I call your parents. Miss Gem, you may head on back to class."
She simply nodded and left, leaving me in the office with the principal. "Sir, if I may ask you a question before we call my parents?"
"Go ahead."
"Would it be possible for me to take the graduation test so that I may focus on my Huntsman training." He looked at me for an explanation. "Yesterday, my father told me that I would be receiving training from the local Huntsmen and Huntresses so that I may become a Huntress."
"Do you feel that you're ready to take the tests? They can be pretty difficult even for those who have had enough schooling. You're years away from even taking them normally."
"Yes sir, I am aware of that fact and do believe myself to be prepared for them. I have held myself back in previous tests to ensure that I would not be placed too far ahead of my peers to lower the chance of bullying due to my age. We can see how well that has played out, with our Roan situation as it is. If I were to graduate from normal schooling, I would be free to focus on training."
"If you truly feel like you are up to the challenge, then I will not hold it from you. I will prepare the materials for you to take tomorrow. You will be taking the tests under the supervision of the high school's principal. Now, let us call your parents." He dialed the number and pressed the button for speakerphone. There were only two rings before it was picked up.
"Hello, this is the Arc household, Nicholas Arc speaking."
"Hello Mister Arc, there has been a slight incident that involves Echo. If you and your wife could come down to the school to resolve this, it would be wonderful."
"We'll be right there." The phone clicked as he disconnected.
"Now all there is left to do is wait. Would you like something to drink, perhaps some water or juice?" He offered me, moving towards a mini-fridge he had in his office.
I declined and he moved back to his desk. I sat down in a chair and made myself comfortable, placing my hands in my lap and fiddling with a belt loop. I was glad that Juniper and Nicholas hadn't made me wear skirts like the rest of the Arc girls did. Once I had expressed my dislike for them, they made sure to take me shopping to get pants, along with Jaune. He wasn't really all that tall right now, but we were expecting him any day to just shoot up due to a growth spurt, and that meant that he would really need new pants during that time.
My mind wandered around some, just hitting assorted topics while we waited for my parents to arrive. They arrived ten minutes later with grim looks on their faces, but those lifted when they saw that I was perfectly fine. "Thank you for coming here as soon as you could, Mr. and Mrs. Arc. Now all we must wait on is Mr. Leathe's parents to get here."
"Echo, did you hurt Roan? You know what we talked about last night." Nicholas looked disappointed in me.
"No, I did not hurt him. What happened, he did to himself. He tried to punch me, but I moved out of the way and he punched the doorway."
Nicholas turned to the principal. "I thought you said you would take care of the bullying?"
"And I did say I would, when it occurred where a teacher or myself could see it. Otherwise, it would just be some kids saying they were being bullied and unnecessary parent teacher conferences."
Nicholas started to seethe, but was calmed down when Juniper placed her hand on his arm. She just shook her head, it wasn't worth getting angry at the principal. He calmed down and took a seat next to me. "So how long will we have to wait?"
"Hopefully not too long now. Roan's parents were called shortly before you were." There was a slamming sound and yelling.
"Roan! Follow me, stupid boy!" The door to the office opened once again, this time by Roan's father. He was a large man, with a coarse beard and bulging muscles. He was a civilian, but working the forge for a good deal of his life made him strong.
Roan was placed in a chair on the other side of the door, and his father sat next to him. "Where is your wife, if I may ask?"
"Has to take care of the store today, since I was called in for this. But I'm more than enough to handle this." I could disagree, he was hot headed, almost as much as his son. Of course, I didn't actually say it because it wouldn't help the situation any.
"Well, just today, your son attempted to harm Miss Arc here. She moved to avoid the blow and he injured himself on the class' doorframe. I would like for him to formally apologize to Miss Arc and her family. This will be followed by a suspension from school for two weeks, and any further incidents like this may lead to expulsion."
The look on Roan's dads face steeled into a mask of rage. "Roan! Apologize to the young lady and her parents now!"
Roan looked up from the floor to look into my eyes, avoiding the looks from my parents. "I'm sorry." It was unsaid, but I knew he also meant sorry for getting caught.
"That is good enough. If you would allow Miss Iris to take care of the paperwork." With the dismissal from the principal, Roan's dad grabbed Roan by the ear and dragged him from the room. "I would also like to ask you if you would allow Echo to take the graduation tests. She brought it to my attention that she will be taking training from the village's Huntsmen soon?"
"Yes, she will be starting this afternoon, after school. And we are more than happy to allow her to try taking the tests."
"Wonderful. She will be expected to be at the high school tomorrow at normal school time to take the tests, Verd will be administering the tests. And you will not be expected to pay for any of these, as they are standard tests. Since she will be taking the tests tomorrow, I will allow her to leave school for today. If you would go with her to retrieve her belongings from her class while I contact her teacher?"
"Of course. Let's go Echo" I lifted myself from the seat and gave a slight bow to the principal, following Nicholas with Juniper behind me. As soon as we were out of normal earshot of the office, Nicholas grinned and held out his hand for a high-five. I gave him one and Juniper scoffed at our childishness. "Nice one! You didn't even have to do anything and he hurt himself. Think it's your semblance?"
I giggled and shrugged my shoulders. "I seriously doubt it was my semblance. He's just the one who threw his fist at me with enough strength to hurt himself. I only had to move. Most of the kids he picks on don't try to move when he goes to punch them. It was only a matter of time until he messed up."
"Well, it's a good thing he messed up with you and not someone else." He weathered our glares for a fraction of a second before he furthered his reasoning. "It's better that he tried to hit someone with their aura unlocked, even if he didn't know it. If he hit hard enough to break bones and he hit someone without aura, he would be expelled immediately."
"You're right, I guess, but it still doesn't mean that I want to be hit by him!" He chuckled and scratched at the back of his neck, like Jaune was starting to do. I swear, Jaune picks up too many mannerisms from Nicholas. We went by the classroom and I picked up my things, saying goodbye to the teacher in the process. She said that she would miss me and I reciprocated those feelings. I liked her, she took no shit from anybody. "So, when were my lessons scheduled to begin?"
Nicholas pulled out his scroll. "Your first one is scheduled for this afternoon at four thirty, so there's still some time before that. Is there anything you want to do before it?"
I shook my head. "No, I didn't really think of anything." I stopped to think for a moment. "Actually, I could probably knock out that project I'm working on in the shop."
"What is it anyways? I know that we got you stuff yesterday, but I still don't really know what it's for." Nicholas scratched at his head, trying to figure out what the parts were.
"It's for headphones, isn't it?" Juniper, points to you for figuring it out.
"Yeah, it's for headphones. They'll cover up my Faunus ears, sure, but the microphones I got will be placed inside the ears on top."
"So instead of bat ears, you'll have cat ears? Why?"
"Aesthetics, mostly. But also, it will function as a headlamp as well. The sensors will be placed to allow me to move the ears around based on muscle movements. It helps with noise detection and emotive expression." I was basing the headphones on ones I had gotten on Earth, the ones that had lights and speakers inside cat ear extensions on top. With the metals and technology on Remnant, I could make them to be better suited to my needs as a Huntress.
"That's a pretty good idea. You ever think about selling the design to some company? Make some money?"
"No, I want it to be my thing. If it made it to a company, then it would be widespread and used by too many people for it to be unique." He just nodded his head to this and we walked the rest of the way home in silence.
When we arrived, he and Juniper said that they would be inside if I needed anything. I thanked them and moved to the workshop, ready to start working. To start off, I moved the parts around to the rough positions they would be at on the finished product. The ears would be put together using plated metal and silent pistons that were tiny and then a cloth would be placed in the opening after the wiring was completed. A hole was made for the small, but extremely bright, focused light. The process was repeated for the other ear, and the microphones were hooked up to the wiring as the ears were attached to the headphone base.
Then began the remaking of the ear cups, so my ears could fit inside without any pinching. Then, I put in the wiring and button for the light activation. After that was done, the padding was placed on and the cups were attached to the base. I went over it with a magnifying glass to check if anything was sticking out, and filed down any metal bits that were sharp. After finishing my halfway mark inspection, I glanced at the clock and saw that it was after twelve. I put down the project and washed up for lunch, grabbing my lunch bag and a chair so I could eat outside.
It was a sunny day, with a few clouds in the sky. In Ansel, it was usually sunny, with only a few scattered storms here and there. I actually liked it when it was raining, the soothing coolness in the air and the sound of the falling rain was calming, especially when you had a nice book to read and some tea to drink. Juniper and Nicholas didn't let me drink coffee yet, saying that it would be bad for me to get used to drinking it this young. I finished off my sandwich and fruit slices, brushing the breadcrumbs that had collected on my lap off. After tossing the trash in a waste bin, I got back to the headphones.
This was the time to take it apart again to put in the sensors. First came the pads, and then some measuring and marking to where the sensors would be placed. After cutting holes out of the pads and sealing the open parts, I made sure to see that they would line up with the marks I made on the cups and the base. Then I hooked up the length of wires to the base swivels and pistons that would allow the movement of the ears up, down, and in a 180-degree motion. After that was done, I hooked up the sensors and fit them into the holes I had made while fixing them in place with a few soldering marks. Then the padding went back on, and everything I didn't want painted over was covered.
The color I had finally decided on was a light blue, to offset my pink hair. The primer layer went on and was soon dry enough for the first paint layer, then the second layer, then the sealer layer to make sure the movement gone through would not wear down the paint. I let it all dry off before taking the covers off to test the sensors, lights and microphones. The microphones worked out well enough, as well as the lights, but the sensors were slightly off. It took me about thirty minutes to finally get them just right, standing in front of a mirror to get a good look at them and myself.
I looked like a kid that had just gotten new headphones, yes, but a human kid. My forest green eyes peeked out from behind my pink curtain of hair, and I blew it out of my face. It fell right back into place. I huffed in resignation before I took the headphones off and pushed my hair back to sit below the padding. I wasn't going to cut my hair, I had decided this earlier on in this life, I was going to grow it out and put it in a ponytail or braid or something.
"Echo!" The microphones in the headset picked it out through the wall, about the same amount my ears would normally.
"Yeah, I'll be right out!" I cleaned up the rest of the mess I had made and exited the workshop, turning the light off behind me. Nicholas was waiting outside the backdoor of the house, one hand on the door and one on his scroll. "What's up?"
"We're going to be going to the school to pick up the others. Then we'll be going to the Hunter offices to drop you off for your lessons." He didn't say any more before he went inside and began speaking through his scroll once more. I simply followed and linked the headphones to my scroll for some music while we walked. Yeah, I have a scroll. It was gotten on my sixth birthday, along with Lily's scroll. Again, the arcs don't really hold back that much.
The walk to the school was short, since Nicholas walked quickly. I was thankful for this, since Fleur seemed to walk at a snail's pace so Jaune and Lily could keep up. I was a naturally fast paced walker, so the normally set pace was hell for me. Jaune and Lily were waiting outside for us when we arrived, and they waved to me in excitement. I waved back and shut off my music.
"Awesome headphones, Echo! Where'd you get them?" Lily was up in my face, her young energy overpowering.
"I made them, what d'ya think? That I got them in a shop in Ansel?" Her wonder and amazement went through the roof as she inspected the ears on them and the paintjob.
"Doesn't that hurt your real ears though?" Jaune asked as he inspected them himself.
"No, not really. I made sure to fix the ear cups to accommodate my ears easily. The pressure is put more on the sides of my head and not resting on my ears. And check this out." I swiveled the ears back and down and then pressed the button for the lights. Lily and Jaune let out renewed 'oohs' as I swiveled the ears around some more and went through their full motions.
"Yes, your sister is amazing and so is her newest toy, but we have to get going. Come on." We set off once more, this time towards the Huntsman office with two more people in our little party. When we passed by others, they said hello and complimented my new headphones, wondering where they were from. I told them the same thing every time, that I made them. I got a few tongue clicks for that in disappointment, seemed that they really liked the idea of the headphones. And this was understandable, new technology nowadays wasn't really all that common, especially in the Vale area. Most new tech came from Atlas, and was extremely expensive for someone in Ansel to get.
The Huntsman office was a large building, with attached training rooms and gym. It was the second largest building in the village, after the hospital. "Well, this is where you get dropped off. Just head up to the front desk and tell them that you're Echo Arc and you have training at four thirty. Come on, kids, let's get home and ready for dinner after homework is done."
He received disappointed grumbles from the other two as they headed off. I waved to them until they turned the corner, then I turned back to the building I was about to enter. I wasn't nervous, exactly, but there was a certain energy bouncing around in my stomach. I opened the front door and walked up to the desk situated there. "Hello."
"Yes, hello, and welcome to the Huntsman office of Ansel. How may I help you?" The person sitting at the desk had not looked up from his computer.
"My name is Echo Arc, and I have an appointment for training at four thirty." He looked up from his work and then down to me, as I was shorter than the desk.
"Ah, yes! Miss Arc, welcome! We were told of your interest by Nicholas, he's a good man. We prepared some training clothes for you in the women's locker room and then you'll have some warm up exercises for thirty minutes. Then, we'll be going through some weapons to see what you're comfortable to work with. We'll finish up with weight training and some running." He pointed to the hallway on his left, my right. "Go down this hall and the locker room will be on your left. Someone will be waiting for you once you're done changing your clothes."
"Thank you, sir." I gave a slight bow and went down the hallway, going into the obvious locker room. There was a pile of clothes on one of the benches as soon as I entered, and I divested myself of my normal clothing before putting on the new clothing. It was a dark green tank top with a pair of black breathable shorts. I decided to put the headphones back on, as I would have to get used to wearing them in practice and combat.
True to the receptionist's words, there was someone waiting for me when I exited the locker room. She was tall, and looked somewhat familiar. While I was trying to put my finger as to where I had seen her before, she was sizing me up. "So, you want to be a Huntress huh? There's going to be a decent amount of times that you're going to want to give up. You sure about this, girlie?"
Wait, that voice. "You're the one that pulled me out of the safe room!" Her shocked face was hilarious. It was the Huntress that had gotten me out of the rubble and safe room when my village had been destroyed.
"Kid, you sure that's you? The one I got out of there was a Faunus." She looked at my head and body again, looking for Faunus parts. "You don't look to be Faunus."
I took off my headphones and showed her my bat ears before putting them on again. "Yeah, I'm that one. The only survivor. Thanks for getting me out of that box, and for clearing the Grimm out. Pretty sure that I would have died if you weren't there to tell those guys to stop blasting everything."
"Kid, you're freaking me out here. That is some freaky good memory."
I laughed and tapped my head. "I have some good memory. It's like an Ursa trap though, sometimes it mangles things up. But now that we're caught up, let's get training. No use burning time that can be used otherwise for more productive activities."
She huffed and agreement and we got to the warm up activities. Normal things like pushups and sit-ups were part of it, but there were also lunges and strafe jumps. I could tell my aura was already at work with how un-winded I was by the end of everything, as I would normally be out of breath with how much we had done. She set up a training dummy next, and brought out a rack of weapons. The rack was filled with all sorts of wooden weapons ranging from knives to battle axes, as well as having more than a few practice firearms. I picked up a short sword duo, and some gauntlets. I debated on trying out the war axe, and finally decided to at least try it for now.
"Not going to try out something ranged? Most Huntsmen and Huntresses today use some range, to pick off Grimm from afar to cut down on enemies before they reach melee range." She held out a rifle towards me.
"I don't think I'll use one just yet. I don't really know how to use one effectively." She just nodded and placed the rifle back in its holding place. We trained for an hour with the weapons I had taken, and I was really starting to feel some sort of burn when we had finished. Each weapon I had tried out worked well, with the gauntlets being the best, then the swords, then the axe.
"Excellent work today. Let's finish up with the running and then the weights after. Eight laps around the track in under thirty minutes. I'll be timing you. Start now." I burst off as soon as she hit the button on the timer.
It was difficult, running eight laps in under thirty minutes. I used to be able to run four in just over thirty minutes, and I was now expected to make more than a hundred percent improvement. By the end, I was panting and very sweaty. I looked over to her and she held the timer in front of my face. It read twenty-eight minutes and thirty seconds. I collapsed and she brought me over to a bench, handing me a drink to recover some of what I had lost while running.
After a few minutes of rest, we went over to the benches with weights. She gave me two twenty pounders and told me to lift each one twenty times, alternating between left and right. The burning in my arms was real, and I dropped them when I had finished with the required amount. She gave me another minute to get the feeling back in my arms and then she set up the bar with nothing on it, since the bar itself was forty-five pounds. Then she told me to do twenty lifts of that.
On my tenth lift, my arms gave out and I dropped the bar. She rushed to catch it, but didn't stop it in time. It hit my chest, but instead of hurting me and knocking my breath out, it just stopped and felt like forty-five pounds just sitting on my chest. I felt energized again and lifted it off, finishing up the other ten lifts and placing it on the bar holder. I sat up and rubbed where it had hit me, surprised to not even see a red mark.
"I think we found out your semblance." I looked up to her, seeing if she would explain it to me. "You stopped that thing dead in its tracks and then used the energy to finish up the exercise. You sap momentum and use it as raw energy."
"Cool." I was thinking at a thousand miles a minute now. This could be useful, very useful. "Do you think it works with recoil?"
"Don't know, let's find out." We made our way back to the weapon racks after wiping down the equipment and myself, and picked out one of the heavier rifles. "Aim this down range and keep both eyes open. Only fire the round when you have the target in the middle of both sights."
I followed the instructions, keeping the bipod on the table set in front of the range. I pulled the trigger when I had both sights lined up with the target and the bullet ripped out of the gun. It was loud, but nothing else happened. The target dummy burst as the bullet demolished it. The energy I felt from the bar hitting me was back. "It totally does work against recoil! Suck it gun, I won't be bowled over by you!"
"Let's burn out that energy you just got with practice weapons and then you can leave. Don't want your dad berating me for hyping you up and sending you home." She tossed me the weapons I had used before and I burned out the energy again, and I felt more burned out than before. I guess the energy is more like a pick me up and not a rejuvenation. "Same time tomorrow for your next session."
"Thanks, have a good day!" I went to the locker room and cleaned up, then I put my other clothes back on. I ran home, determined to not slack on training even though I had just finished. I had to be strong in no time, and that meant pushing myself further than I was normally comfortable. By the time I got back home, I was sweating profusely again and could barely land myself on the couch before I crashed.
0-0-0
I woke up, with Lily screaming in my ear again. I guess Juniper must have washed me or gotten me half-awake to wash myself and put me to bed. I was sore, and it took me awhile to actually get out of bed, and even then, it was just me rolling out of bed and falling to the floor. Face first. "Oww," I grumbled into the carpet. I picked myself up and got dressed. I was starving, a consequence of me not eating dinner.
"Sleeping beauty has awoken!" Nicholas crowed when I entered the kitchen. I just shot him a glare and got my plate for breakfast, piling it twice as high with bacon and eggs while getting the normal portion of fruit. "What, I thought it was funny."
I smirked. "What I find funny is how high your voice gets when you and mumff." His hand clasped over my mouth and he gave a nervous chuckle.
"Yes, yes, hilarious. Absolutely riveting story there." I licked his hand and he snatched it from my mouth, wiping the saliva off on his shirt. "You sure you're ready to take those tests today? We can reschedule them, I'm sure of it."
"Nah, I'm ready. One could say, I was born ready." I gave them a smirk and finger guns. They looked unamused. "Fine, fine. Yes, I'm ready for them. Training yesterday was pretty good. That's why I'm tired if you couldn't tell. I'm going to train with gauntlets, two short swords, and a battle axe."
"Not a sword and shield?" His voice was quiet, almost whiny.
"No, not a sword and shield. It just doesn't seem very me right now, if you know what I mean." He just nodded sadly and went back to his meal. The others looked like they wanted to ask, but just didn't end up doing so.
After finishing up breakfast, Nicholas told the others what was happening today. Shock faces were all around when they learned I was taking the graduation test today. I was going to be walking with the others instead of Fleur, Lily and Jaune. I was wished luck before we left off and when they left me with the principal.
"Let's not waste any time. My day is busy." Verd was a cool guy, hence why I used his name rather than my regular principal's name. He was a no-nonsense character, but very fair in his judgement. He also kind of reminded me of Dr. Oobleck. He handed me the first test, Mathematics, and told me I had forty minutes to finish it. I finished it in twenty-five. Then he handed me the next portion while he went over the one I had just finished.
I continued like this until I had finished the Valean portion, what constituted as the English portion in Earth schools. "All of this is extremely well done. Let me look at this and I'll get the paperwork set up. I think you'll be the youngest person ever to graduate high school."
"Yip-yip-hooray, no more schooling until hunter school. Will I even go to hunter school, or will I just stay here in Ansel and be a Huntress here? Things to consider, much time to think." I shook my head to clear it. "Well, it seems so. And sadly, I won't be here to interact with the instructors here. From what I've heard, you're all wonderful people."
He thanked me and sent me back home so he could finish up grading the tests and fill out the paper work. I ran back home, at a slower speed than yesterday to pace myself more. I would be training this afternoon, so it made no sense to tire myself out early. Upon reaching home, I threw open the door and yelled, "Guess who just became probably the youngest oldest person to graduate high school?!"
Nicholas rushed me from the side, lifting me in a hug. "You did! How were the tests?"
"Too easy." He put me back down and we high fived, then went down to a low five, hip bump with me jumping up to actually hit his hip with mine, and then fist bump ending with a pop and sizzle.
"So when should we expect the call to get your certificate?"
I shrugged, quirking my lip up. "Don't know. Mr. Verd said that he would get it done as fast as possible because he was busy today. The least I would expect is, eh, thirty minutes? Forty-five? Depends on how fast he grades and does paper work."
We waited for ten minutes next to the phone before we got bored and headed off to do stuff to keep ourselves occupied. I went to work on my weapon designs, now that I knew what my semblance was and how to work that into a weapon. I would be using all four weapon types that I had been using yesterday, maybe adding on another as a mechashift option. The gauntlets would be the first things I would work on, because they required the least amount of materials. And I decided instead of going with full gauntlets, I would go with gloves with built in knuckle dusters so I could use it as an offhand option while using a sword.
I was working on a design for that when the phone rang. It didn't ring again, which meant that the person had either hung up, or the phone had been picked up in the house. The back door slammed open and Nicholas rushed out, the phone still in his hand and the rest trailing after him. "You made it! Haha!"
"Dad, you do realize that you still have the phone in your hand, correct?" He looked down to the phone in his hand and to the cord where it connected with the rest and grimaced. "Yeah, you're going to be hurt for that."
"Nicholas!" Juniper yelled. "Get in here right now!"
He hung his head like a kicked puppy and trudged back inside, with me coming up behind him. She scolded him quickly, so as to not hold up anything, and we left out. The walk seemed shorter than usual, but that was probably because I was going at a light jog and forced Juniper and Nicholas to keep up with me. When we entered the office, Verde looked up from his computer and a large smile settled on his face.
"Congratulations, to Echo Arc, for being the youngest high school graduate at the age of seven years and two days old." He handed me the certificate and I read it. 'This person, upon the date of 08/26/26, has graduated from the high school of Ansel, in north-eastern Sanus, with the highest marks possible.' Under that was his name signed in black ink, and then my name on the top in fancy bold writing. He got a picture with me holding the certificate open, and then took a picture of me in between Nicholas and Juniper.
Today was a good day. And it showed in my training session. I pushed further than yesterday with the aid of my semblance. My body by the end was screaming at me to stop and I had to be escorted back to the house because I had tired myself out. Before I went to bed, I finished up the design for the knuckle gloves. They would be gloves that went just past the wrist that had small diamond shaped pieces of metal on the knuckles with padding underneath to help disperse the force on my body. They would allow me to hold things and fight normally, while still giving me a good option for fist fighting or offhand grappling. I went to bed tired and satisfied.
0-0-0
3 months later…
The training had an obvious effect on my body already with the help of my aura. I was showing defined muscle mass and improvement in my training in bounds. I was also doing self-training with my gloves and a training sword that I used on some trees near the backyard. My swords were nearly finished, all I needed to do was get the dust channels finished and the mechashift to a satisfactory point. I was also working on a design for a battle axe, battle hammer, shield and rifle combo for my hard hitting and ranged needs.
I was brought out of training when Nicholas called out to me from the back door. "Echo, that guy I talked about a few months ago couldn't make it, so he sent someone else. His 'brother' is here to train you for today." He made the air quotes when he said brother. "Please do not piss this guy off. He will more than likely be tougher on you than your normal trainer."
"Got it, I'll try to not piss him off… Too much." He rolled his eyes at me and motioned with his hand of too much speaking. I slapped him, and he feigned being hurt. "Chuckle it up, Chocko. We'll see who's laughing when I hit you and it actually hurts. Send the guy on out while I clean the place up." I put my practice weapon on the table we had outside and cleared some wood chips that had flaked from the tree into the bushes.
Before I even saw who it was, I knew the person. The smell of alcohol drifted on the wind into my nostrils. Cheap stuff, not what I would drink if I could right now. Probably way too strong for my tastes as well. "Well, I knew it was going to be a kid, but dang, you can't be even a year older than my younger niece."
"Good to meet you too, Qrow."
0-0
POV shift (from here on, these will be denoted by the two zeros)
"Your dad tell you who I was?" He asked as he took a swig from his flask.
She turned around, holding her arms across her body. "Yes, he did. He failed to mention that you would be drunk and still drinking."
Qrow held out his flask in an accusing manner. "Hey, pipsqueak, I'm not drunk yet. Might be by the end of this though, with the way you speak to me. You don't wanna call me Mr. Branwen like all the other little kiddos do?"
She scoffed derisively, kind of like Winter did. "I'll do so when you gain my real respect, and you're not drinking on the job. Especially in front of a seven-year-old girl."
"I do this all the time when I'm training the runts over at Signal." He took another swig from his flask, longer this time. "And I'm a full Huntsman, that doesn't automatically earn your respect?"
She held her face in her hands and whispered something to herself. "Qrow, it is eleven thirty-two in the morning, and you are drinking. The only two kinds of people who do that are pirates or drunks."
"Hey, I'm not one to procrastinate when life is only so long and there's no guarantee I'm going to be alive tomorrow. Pick up your weapon and get ready to show me what you got, I have to know what skill level you're at right now so I know how to train you."
She threw her hands up into the air and muttered about something that she's rather be stuck with Tai-Yang. She got into a starting stance, and was prepped for instructions. This kid was good already, like she had discipline before her training started or something. Qrow put her through a quick series of movements to see her progress. The only problem she had was when she thrusted, she threw her body too far and overextended.
"Kid, stop moving so far out when you thrust. Let the weapon do most of the moving, just keep it steady. Do it some more, right this time." The flask came up again, but he didn't take a swig of it this time just yet. He watched her as she stopped overextending in just two thrusts, and the rest after that were nearly perfect. He took a quick taste of his flask and thought to himself,
"This kid is… different."
-0-0-0-
A.N. Hey guys, I'm going to put this here to test the waters. If you would like shipping to be in later chapters, please put it in the comments, even if it's just to see how badly I can flounder with writing it. This chapter was longer than the other two because it's actually more towards what I want the chapters to feel like. If you like the longer chapters please tell me, or if you like the shorter chapters tell me. And as always, constructive criticism is welcome, and reviews are happily accepted.
Bowenross, signing off.