VCTR – Chapter 4
First Day
As the sun broke through the clouds of dawn, peeking over Beacon and its dormitories. The sunlight passing through the window gently as it crept up to Vulcan in his chair, opening his mouth to eat the handmade sandwich he created in seconds. "You're not supposed to have food up in the dormitory, Vulcan," Titan said to Vulcan as he sat up from bed. Vulcan looked back to Titan in his desk, sandwich in his hands and munching on his bite.
"Mmhm…?" Vulcan blinked a couple times as he's in the middle of bite, "Hawlgh ahn…" He muffled through his food, taking his bite and eating it quickly before gulping, "Sorry… It's just that I'm used to eating an early breakfast, and, uh… heh, breakfast doesn't start until eight, soooo…"
"Vulcan, it's seven in the morning," Titan rolled his eyes as he got out of his bed and walked over to their closet. His sleeping attire being just plain black shorts and a white muscle shirt, "I would've expected you to be sleeping in this morning, especially what happened yesterday." He said, getting himself ready for the day.
"I'm beginning to think that using semblances during a big race is just plain cheating," Vulcan mumbled as he tapped his sandwich against his lips thoughtfully, "Otieno and Audra were way too quick."
"What do you think happened to Plamen?" Titan asked as he put on his student uniform now, "When we saw him on the way back, Winona was practically carrying him."
"Didn't you hear and see an explosion earlier that day too?" Vulcan asked him as he stood up from his chair, having himself covered by a blanket even though he just wore a pair of pants and black undershirt, "I'm pretty sure he was caught in it."
"Hey!" A pillow flew out from one of the beds and smacked Vulcan in the face, "Some of us are tryin'ta sleep here!" Carmine grumbled as he had his face covered with another pillow, growling to himself as he tried to block out the sunlight coming in.
"C'mon now!" Titan said as he grabbed Carmine by the back of his white overall pajamas, "Get up!" He pulled Carmine up above the bed with ease and he flailed about quickly.
"Hey, hey, hey! Lemme go, ya idiot!" Carmine griped angrily, "I'm tryin'ta sleep!"
"Our leader's up, so that means you've gotta get up too," Titan said seriously and looked over to Raiden, who got out of his bed, wearing normal pajamas as he skulked to the closet after putting on his glasses. Vulcan watched this quietly and began to smile lightly, chuckling a bit as he was now in the presence of friends.
They soon hear a knock on their door and their activity halted for a brief moment in complete silence. All staring at the door with wide eyes as they were fearing they had woke up someone else from one of the other dorms. An envelope slides from under the door and they all sigh in relief.
"Must be our test results they promised to give out in the morning," Raiden said as he put on his uniform now.
"Oh, boy!" Vulcan said happily as he grabbed the envelope and held it up with both hands as his sandwich was in his mouth, munching on it happily, "Leht'sh shee hereh," Vulcan muffled through the sandwich as he opened the envelope carefully and pulled out the four pages, "Hereh weh ahre…" He turned back to his comrades and handed them out carefully.
Titan took his page and looked at the results carefully.
"Mmh… I've passed with an A," He looked over to Carmine who sat on his bed, "Carmine?"
"C…" Carmine smiled lightly in a slight disappointment, knowing that C minus is the lowest passable grade here. He soon looked over to Raiden, "Raiden…?"
"A," Raiden smiled happily then as he held up his page.
"Heh, I've got an A, too!" Vulcan happily grinned and soon he looked over to Carmine with a slight expression of regret for saying it aloud so happily, "Ehhhhhh…"
Carmine just sat there a couple moments and nodded a bit.
"It… It's a'ight," He said with a smile, "It's just the first day and I've only jus' begun." He smiled happily to them, full of energy now, "I'm ready'ta do better."
"Alright!" Vulcan cheerfully held up both fists, being pumped as well.
"… What happened to your sandwich?" Titan asked soon as he noticed it was gone suddenly.
"What sandwich?" Vulcan asked before letting loose a powerful belch, "Oh, that one!"
"Well, classes start at nine o'clock," Raiden said as he held up his book carefully from the desk, "Grimm Biology 101, Remnant History, Combat Training 101, and Huntsman Weaponry 101 and so on… Each class being two hours long."
"Two hours!?" Carmine said with wide eyes, "Per class!?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Raiden nodded lightly as he looked up to Carmine from his book and he discovered his friend was on the floor, passed out from the overbearing news.
Titan sighed a bit as he reached out to pick him back up, "Eh, let him sleep…" Vulcan shrugged a bit, "He'll be needing it."
Meanwhile, the newly formed Team PAOW entered the mess hall for breakfast. Otieno and Audra still wore their hoods over their faces, but had to plainly wear their uniforms as the hoods were forced to appear as flowing dull capes behind them. Winona snickered lightly as they were given their food and she looked out into the clusters of student huntsman and huntresses within the long, winding chamber.
"Oh, Plam! Look at all the people here!" She chimed cheerfully as they go, "It's soooo much bigger and different than the food court we have in Signal!" Plamen nodded in an empty response as he's half-awake, having been so sore that it was difficult for him to sleep last night. He was also going through his schedule on his scroll carefully as they walk.
"Hey!" A fellow huntsman walked up to them from a table.
"Aren't you a that new team that took down that Alpha Crawler and cut that Nevermore in half!?" Other huntsmen and huntresses gather around quickly, interested in what they just heard.
In this moment, Vulcan noticed the attention PAOW was getting and he nudged Titan.
"Watch this!" He chuckled in overconfidence as he approached the group a bit proudly, "Ahem!" The students all look back to Vulcan then and an awkward moment of silence passes before one student spoke, "Who are you?" Vulcan became frozen in shock and Titan walked over and grabbed Vulcan by the back of his uniform shiver.
"Nice try, bud," Titan muttered as the crowd resumed their attention to PAOW.
Vulcan is sat with his friends by Titan and blinked a few times, "They just shrugged me off…"
"Don't you think you might be getting a little carried away, Vulcan?" Raiden said as he doesn't notice Carmine dozing off again beside him and Titan having to hold his head up, only failing, "I mean, it's just one Nevermore that we took down. There's plenty of other Grimm."
"Yeah…" Vulcan nodded to Raiden, scratching the top of his head thoughtfully, "I guess I let all of these good things get to me…" He said as he put his metallic backpack beside him in the chair.
"Uh, why do you have that with you?" Raiden asked as he looked at the backpack beside Vulcan.
"Oh?" Vulcan looked at his backpack and looked back to Raiden, "My Slaughterhouse? I like to keep my books in it, heh. And other important stuff I need."
"Like your lunch?" Raiden looked at him slyly.
"Well, when you're late for lunch, you'll be sorry ya didn't bring any in the first place!" Vulcan said proudly to him.
"So, you chose a backpack as your weapon's inactive form, eh?" The ninja shrugged lightly, "Pretty clever idea, I guess."
"Uh… What?" Vulcan muttered in confusion.
"You forged your own weapon, right?" Raiden asked him as he gave him an odd expression.
"… I, well… It's a… hand-me-down." Vulcan said as he looked away to his weapon, "There's no way I would've made something as complicated as this weapon anyway."
"… Who made it then? If you don't mind me asking." Raiden said carefully, seeing that Vulcan may find such information to be sacred. Carmine suddenly gasped as he jolted up, his face covered in cereal and milk as his bowl shook lightly. With wide eyes, Carmine looked around confused.
"Whazzit?! Whaddai miss?!" He said, quickly looking around as many students noticed and began to chuckle and laugh lightly at him.
"You awake now, sleepyhead?" Titan sighed as he threw a napkin into his face.
"Ugh…!" Carmine flailed a bit before cleaning up his face with the napkin, "Aww, dang…" He looked down to his bowl then and frowned, "My cereal…"
Vulcan suddenly held up a sandwich to Carmine, smiling wide.
"Sandwich?"
"Uh…" Titan raised his eyebrow at Vulcan, "You know, he can always get himself seconds."
"You can?" VCTR's leader asked with an interested expression as they hear a familiar and firm female voice clear behind Vulcan, "Eh…?" He looked behind himself, seeing Glynda crossing her arms as she frowned at him firmly. "Oh… H… Good morning, Aunt Glynda."
"Professor Glynda," She huffed at him lightly and eyed at his sandwich, "Where did you get that sandwich?"
Thinking fast, Vulcan quickly stuffed his mouth with the food.
"Whahteh shandvich…?" He muffled an awkward chuckle as his friends all stared at him in shock. Glynda's firm expression quickly shifted into a glare as she quickly opened Vulcan's backpack, pulling out the many sandwich condiments onto the table and she scowled at him.
"Vulcan Goodwitch! Bringing food into the campus grounds without permission!" She barked at him suddenly, many students trying to turn away their attention and not watch.
"T… Technically we're in a place where we can eat without worries, right?" Vulcan chuckled a bit awkwardly again.
"… Did you even swallow that…?" Glynda blinked at him, a little baffled on how his sandwich disappeared so quickly.
"Swallow wha-?" Vulcan let out a tremendous belch that consumed all chatter within the room and nearly blew Glynda away. After a moment of awkward silence and staring, Glynda incessantly huffed and raised her riding crop, levitating the condiments up and she promptly rushed off with them. Vulcan reached out quickly, "S-Sorry!" He shouted, gritting his teeth in embarrassment. His only reply was a loud slam of the cafeteria's doors. Vulcan sat back as people began to speak again quietly, and he looked down. Suddenly, he felt the smack of Titan's big hand against the back of his head.
"Gah!" He grunted as he looked up to see an irritated Titan.
"What were you thinking?" His comrade huffed at him, trying to not bring any more attention to them now as he whispered, "Glynda could've had us all thrown into corporal punishment for that!"
"S-Sorry! I didn't know what to do…!" Vulcan said quickly as he looked around a moment, beginning to panic.
"Well, next time don't do anything." The large Faunus grunted before standing up with his finished tray, "I'm heading to class…" He walked off then and Raiden and Carmine followed shortly after. Vulcan sat there until the bell rang for students to start going to class and he reluctantly stood up, sighing a bit to himself.
"I'm not ready for this day."
Later, after several class sessions, Vulcan comes into the last class for the day, entering a large classroom chamber where the room was flat and wide, leaving room for equipment hanging from the walls. There were other chambers linked to it with machinery for smelting and crafting steel and metals. The doors all were labeled with caution and a list of rules written on them on how to maintain equipment and operate machinery. The classroom was standard with a huge drawing board at the front where everyone faced and a desk before it, facing them.
Vulcan could see a man sitting at the desk, legs onto the table and leaning far back onto his chair. His hair appeared to be silvery and long, tied back into a ponytail as he distributed a silver goatee. His attire appeared to be more casual than the other professors, and cobalt button up shirt opened lazily to reveal his gray shirt of a rock band unfamiliar to Vulcan. His pants were dark gray cargo pants and everyone could plainly see his tennis shoes being cobalt. He was an obvious contradiction of the other professors, readjusting his glasses as he looked at the other students walking into the room.
"Mmh…" Vulcan looked around, spotting his comrades as he walked over, smiling lightly to Raiden then, "Hey… Mind if I sit here?" He asked as he pulled out the chair beside Raiden.
Raiden looked up to him and shook his head.
"I don't mind."
"Thanks," Vulcan said as he felt relieved.
The professor soon cleared his throat, grabbing their attention quickly.
"Ahem." He stood up quietly, "Good afternoon, class." He said with a calm and laid back voice, seeming to reflect such a voice himself as he picked up his chalk and wrote on the board, "I am Professor Cobalt." He sat down on his chair after he wrote his name on the board and resumed his lazy position, "But you may call me Cobalt. Any questions?"
"Uh, yeah?" A random student raised his hand then, "Professor Cobalt, I—"
"You," The professor pointed at the student, then to the door, "Out." A long moment of chilling silence shot through as the professor did not at all seem to be joking as he gave a look of expecting the student to move soon, "You'll see me after class." Cobalt said and the student shakily walked out of the room with his supplies. The class continued the shocked silence as the professor scanned the room.
"No further questions, alright." He stood up soon as he picked up his chalk, "This is Huntsman Weaponry 101." He wrote onto the board as he spoke, "Everything you've learned from your basic combat schools will be tested here. But why weaponry you may ask?" He sounded almost mystical a moment as he turned to them, "Let me answer your question with a question: what is a huntsman and huntress' weapon?" Titan was the first to raise his hand, "Titan?"
"Tools we use to defend the people," He said with a calm look as he lowered his hand.
"Not quite," Cobalt shook his head lightly, looking over to Plamen, and pointing at him, "Plamen?"
"Weapons we use to defeat Grimm," Plamen answered, almost sounding unsure of his answer.
"Yes, but no." He pointed over to Raiden soon, "Perhaps you would know?"
"Uhm…" Raiden thought for a few moments before speaking, "They're the creations we use to protect the ones we love."
"Almost…" Cobalt shook his head and looked around, seeing no one having an answer, "Tough crowd." He chuckled before readjusting his glasses a bit, sitting down, "Well, simply put, a huntsman's weapon is indeed a tool for defending, and it is a weapon for fighting, but it is above all an extension of ourselves." Cobalt smirked as he spotted their many thought provoked expressions, "You all understand how Aura is the embodiment of one's soul and life, correct? It contains the essence to defend ourselves from fatal injuries or wounds, and it allows us all to use a semblance that is unique to our being." He said, gesturing his hands to his chest then as the professor spoke, "Now, on that note, our weapons are actually conduits to support that Aura and use it in battle. If we use the incorrect weapons, what do you think would be the end result?"
"A student wouldn't be able to go into combat in their full potential," Otieno replied as he crossed his arms.
"Exactly," Cobalt said, holding up a finger, "Every huntsman can craft and forge weapons in any way they wished, but you may recall that your weapons would need to be analyzed and tested before you could actually use them in real combat. In this case as well, not every huntsman is the best in combat. The weapons he or she may be using could be in contrast with their Aura and Semblance and create an imbalance to their battle style. Hence why many students in those combats schools find trouble with their first few weapons because they wouldn't match who they are. I'm sure many of you here know the feeling of being frustrated with your first few weapons, but now you are much wiser on what to craft for yourselves."
"Cobalt," Vulcan soon raised his hand, shakily, "What about… hand-me-downs?"
"I was about to get to that part," Cobalt nodded to him, smiling lightly, "There are actually the rare cases of huntsman who use weapons passed down from relatives or friends that would match their auras quite well. This is rare though, so if you have a hand-me-down you're having trouble with, this may be your only chance this year to change to a different weapon or slightly enhance what you have." He lightly nodded as the other students looked at each other, quietly muttering, "Yeah but where am I going with this? In this class, I'm going to teach you how to identify a huntsman's battle style through what weapons they use. That said, each weapon you have defines you, class." Cobalt said calmly, "Your first assignment this week is going to be simple," he continued, "You will write a short essay to me about your weapons and how they define you as a huntsman personally. You must also explain why they fit your Aura and Semblance." He nodded lightly as the class began to speak to one another again in interest, "Since today is a short day and us professors may not have much to say, I can let you all out early, but remember that my class may be laid back, but I don't take bullcrap." He sat down and airily waved his hand, "Class dismissed."
The students all quickly stood up and grabbed their essentials before heading out the door, Vulcan looked down to his mechanized backpack thoughtfully.
Raiden noticed this and looked over to him, "What is it, Vulcan?"
"Oh…?" Vulcan looked back to him, hesitating a moment, "N… nothing…"
"Alright…" Raiden nodded and skeptically tilted his head, "Titan and Carmine are talking about heading to the Mountain Glenn district in Vale. You coming?"
"… Maybe next time," Vulcan said quietly as he kept walking, looking thoughtful as he goes.
"Uh…?" Raiden blinked as Titan and Carmine walked over to him.
"What'd he say, pardner?" Carmine asked as he watched Vulcan walk off.
"Maybe next time," Raiden muttered as he crossed him arms, "So, uh… what do you think is his problem?"
"I don't know…" Titan frowned a bit, walking around Raiden and followed Vulcan, "But I'm about to find out…"