Chapter three: The first day

James woke at seven thirty, and woke the rest of his team, they each woke with varying degrees of energy, Felicia stretched like a cat and yawned loudly, her cat ears flattened to the top of her head, Evan glared at James, grumbling under his breath, as he got out of bed and pull a small coffee maker out of his trunk, and set it up on the short bookcase under the dorm's single window. While Evan was busy with his coffee maker, Ricard swung out of bed, stretched, and said. "Lovely morning, isn't it?"

Evan and Felicia glared at him, they weren't morning people, James filed that information away, he would need to teach them to be alert and aware quickly out in the field, the lives of the entire team could depend on it. James coughed three times, before addressing his team. "Alright team, let's get changed and go over the schedules, our uniforms are in the bundles in the closet, our room has a shower in the adjoining bathroom, we need to work out the shower arrangements *cough*, since we each want hot water in the morning, we'll rotate the shower schedule *cough* daily so that the person who was first the day before will be last the next day, the second will be first and so on." The rest of Team AZRE had no problems with that arrangement.

After several rounds of rock-paper-scissors the shower schedule ended up as: Felicia, Ricard, James, Evan. Once they were all showered and dressed in their uniforms, Felicia in a white shirt, tan vest, brown jacket, and red plaid skirt, and the boys in a gold lined black suit, black pants, a blue vest, white dress shirt, and a red tie, James pulled up the team schedule on the Scroll provided with his uniform.

"At nine, the whole team has Grimm Studies with Professor Port, at ten thirty we split up, Felicia and I go to Dust Basics, with Professor Goodwitch, Evan goes to Stealth Basics with Professor Hari, and Ricard goes to hand to hand combat, with Professor Starr, at twelve, we have lunch together, one thirty, we've all got History of Remnant with Dr. Oobleck, at three we've got Combat Theory with Professor Goodwitch, then we split up again at four thirty, I go to Leadership class, Felicia, you've got your elective, Field Medicine with Dr. Walker, and Evan and Ricard get Aura control with Professor Azure, and yes, she is my sister, please don't mention that you're on my team unless she asks, which she probably will, in front of the entire class, I love her, but I'll give you fair warning, she's nuts, and loves raccoons, never mention them in her presence if you want to escape with your sanity mostly intact. Finally, at six, we all have Biology with Professor Peach." At eight forty five, Team AZRE left their dorm and headed for their first class.

"Monsters! Deeemons! Prowlers of the night! Yes the creatures of Grimm have many names! But I merely refer to them as prey! HAHA!" Professor Port, an elderly, overweight man in a maroon suit began his lecture in a loud, bombastic voice, then he paused, as if expecting his students to laugh at his poor attempt at a joke, when the only response he got was James coughing into his sleeve, the portly professor cleared his throat awkwardly and continued.

"Uhhh... And you shall too, upon graduation from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying, Vale, as well as the other three Kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in.. Huntsmen! Huntresses!" At this he winks at Yang, who sat in the front row with the rest of her team, James saw the blonde shudder and groan uncomfortably. Unconcerned, Professor Peter Port barreled onwards with his speech. "...Individuals who have sworn to protect those who can't protect themselves! From what you ask?" Though nobody had asked. "The very world!" A lanky boy in the back got caught up in the excitement and leapt to his feet with a shout. "Ayyy-YEP!"

Everyone turned to stare at the boy, who seemed to realize that nobody else shared his enthusiasm, Evan shook his head in annoyance as the boy sat back down with a sheepish smile on his face.

Port coughed again, and continued. "That is what you are training to become. But first, a story: of a young, handsome man: Me! When I was a boy..." After that James toned out Port's voice, Weiss was studiously ignoring the antics of her leader, who was messing around rather than studying or paying the teacher the slightest bit of attention, other than to toss an occasional annoyed glare in the younger girl's direction, and James sat watching the white haired heiress grow more annoyed with her partner, who was currently balancing an apple and a book on a pencil.

Unaware of the trouble brewing in the front row of his classroom, Professor Port brought his "stirring tale" to it's conclusion. "In the end, the Beowulf was no match for my sheer tenacity, I returned to my village with the beast in captivity, and my head held high, celebrated as a hero! The moral of the story: A true Huntsman must be honourable! A true Huntsman must be Dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well educated, and wise! Now, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of those traits?"

James' hand beat Weiss' into the air by two seconds, though his infirmity took that exact moment to rear it's head, as the young heir of Azure Transportation began to cough, loud and hard. James tried to stand up, but his cough was so bad that his vision went blurry and he stumbled and landed on the floor, James began focusing aura into his lungs, but it did very little to help, James kept coughing until a few drops of blood fell from his mouth and spattered on the floor, then he staggered to his feet, navy blue light spilled from his body, and the color returned to his face as he straightened, the entire class was staring at him, Weiss and Team AZRE in particular looked worried.

"Excuse me Professor, I'm fine now, and I'd like to continue with the lesson." James wiped a fleck of blood from his lips.

Port looked concerned, his huge mustache quivered, and his perpetually squinted eyes crinkled in worry. "My boy, are you sure you do not need to visit the infirmary?"

James shook his head. "No Professor, I've lived with this my whole life, there's nothing the infirmary could do to help, I'd like to continue with the lesson, if you'll let me, Sir."

Port was still looking worried, but he had evidently seen the determination on his student's face, so he dragged a covered box with something inside that grunted and squealed in clear fury.

"If you're sure my boy, go retrieve your weapon, you will be facing a Grimm in single combat."

James smirked, his previous weakness seemed like it was far off. "That won't be necessary, Professor, judging from the sounds and the size of that box, you've got a juvenile Boarbatusk in there, I won't need more than this." James picked up his pencil, and held it up.

Professor Port blinked in surprise, and whispers began all around the room, James saw Weiss roll her eyes at his dramatics, though the left corner of her mouth twitched upward as her ice blue gaze settled on him. Rolling the stiffness from his shoulders, James Azure walked to the front of the classroom to fight a monster with a yellow number two in his grasp. As he passed Team RWBY's seats, Ruby and Weiss gave him concerned looks, he flashed them a confident smile that they didn't seem to buy, Weiss glared at him and mouthed "If you get yourself hurt I will rip your lungs out and beat you to death with them." James laughed and grinned at the white haired heiress, whose ears and cheeks immediately flooded with pink. Activating his Semblance, James jumped upwards and landed on his feet on the ceiling, and stayed there, much to the amazement of most of his classmates. Professor Port looked up at his student and spoke again.

"Are you sure you want to do this, my boy?"

A flare of anger rippled through James, but he kept himself under control. "Yes Sir, I am completely sure, this fight won't last five minutes."

"If you're sure... Let the match begin!" Professor Port threw the covering off of the cage, then he lifted his weapon, a blunderbuss with two ax heads sprouting from the stock, and slashed the lock off of the cage, just as James had predicted, the monster was a Boarbatusk, a jet black boar with a white and red bone mask, four glowing orange eyes, four tusks, and a multitude of bony plates on it's back, James poured a large amount of aura into his writing utensil, then he threw the blue glowing sliver of wood and graphite into the floor in the path of the raging boar demon, unable to stop, the Boarbatusk ran over the pencil and was immediately blasted off it's hooves by an explosion of the aura that James had stored in the pencil, unfortunately, the writing tool hadn't been built to handle a second job as an aura powered concussive mine, and the blast reduced it to splinters. The boarbatusk was knocked onto it's back, revealing it's vulnerable underbelly.

"Those in the front two rows should take cover, this is going to be messy." James warned, then he released his Semblance, and gathered aura in him right hand, until it was shining like a small, navy blue star, he dropped like a stone and punched downwards just in time for his fist to connect with the Boarbatusk's underbelly. BANG! The aura gathered in James' fist detonated, stopping him in midair, and sending monster guts in every direction. The now gore-covered Huntsman in training turned his fall into a roll, and landed on his belly, having taken the roll unsteadily.

It hurt, that was the first thought that ran through James' mind, his entire body ached, but especially his right arm, which had taken some serious stress from the explosion it had generated. Groaning, James rolled onto his back, and sat up, the mangled Grimm, and it's scattered viscera were already dissolving into black smoke, like the remains of all Grimm did sometime after death, nausea threatened as James breathed in the disgusting Grim smoke, but the young heir swallowed the bile, and forced himself to his feet, his aches protesting the entire way.

Professor Port looked at him in shock for a second before shaking his head and speaking. "Very impressive Mr. Azure, though I do wish you could have found a way to kill the beast without covering my classroom with it's guts, next time, please resist the temptation to show off, and just use your weapon. That's all the time we have for today, be sure to cover the assigned readings, and stay vigilant! Class dismissed."


(Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait, I was experiencing some writer's block, but here at last, is the third chapter of Under an AZuRE Sky, please read, review, and enjoy, thank you for your patience.)