You know, I just realised that Stranger's KR OOO/RWBY crossover, Dusts of Avarice, currently only has two chapters whereas Reaching Out To Remnants currently has four chapters.
… .
MWUAHAHAHAHA!
… .
… Hah… I'm retarded.
Raidentensho: … Grateful Damashii is the Super Form, the Form on par with Kachidoki Arms and Type Formula. Mugen Damashii is the Final Form, forms like Kiwami Arms and Type Tridoron. I'm sure you know this but still… .
And if you're talking about the Sunglasslasher signature feature, which Takeru somewhat uses with combinations such as Ore&Robin Hood along with Newton&Himiko, then yeah that's pretty obvious. Fanfiction doesn't have budget limitations like in real life. ;)
DocSlendy: Fun fact; Lucas said Salem's name to Ozpin to convince him of his story. Well it didn't really clinches it, it did made Ozpin take the situation far more seriously then he would have. Whether or not that means Lucas already told him about Cinder and merry band of thieves, murderers & Faunus… well, I'll let you all guess for now.
New Universe Returns: Knowing my track record, Volume 5 will already come out and I can safely introduce such an Eyecon.
gundam 09: *Shushes you* Spoilers~ I'll tell you this much; just because Lucas considers Blake as his waifu with Weiss as a very close second, doesn't automatically mean he'll end up with one of those two. Other girls also have a fair shot.
Omarnosian10: Hm… I'll think about it. One on hand, I don't want Lucas to gain another Eyecon so soon after gaining a Luminary Eyecon. On another hand… it makes sense… . Hm… . Oh, sorry I'm just talking to myself! I'll think about it.
So anyway, hope you guys enjoy Chapter 4!
As Team RWBY and Team JNPR sat in the bleachers of the amphitheater for their current class, Lucas sat in-between the two teams.
His face was currently in his hands out of embarrassment.
No wonder Port seem to look at him in approval after he told Jaune the Zangetsu speech! Everyone in the class heard it!
'Hole, where art thou? I needeth thee now.' Lucas thought in embarrassment.
… Had he said that out loud, he would end up digging a damn hole for himself.
Siting next to him were Yang and Pyrrha, who were patting the back of his head and his shoulder respectively.
"Why's the new student looking so embarrassed?" They all could overhear another student asking.
"Team RWBY and Team JNPR finally told him during lunch that everyone heard his speech in Professor Port's class." One of his friends answered for him.
"Oh~! Heh, where did he get that? A comic book?"
"Gotta admit, it sounded a bit badass."
"Yeah, but still!"
The laughter only made Lucas wish harder for the damn hole.
Well, wishing got him a second chance at living in another world entirely. Why not a deep hole for him to hide in?
"Hey, come on Luke, it wasn't that bad!" Yang tried comforting him. Had it been anyone else, like Jaune, she would try to be a little cheeky by teasing him but for a guy whose so much like Blake… , she really didn't expect such a reaction.
Then again, Blake might go through a similar reaction had she been in Lucas's shoes. It's not like the girl finds herself in such situations often enough for Yang to be able to make accurate guesses.
… Something that she should remedy as soon as possible.
"Yes, it was a good speech." Despite only getting to know him better just a few minutes ago, Pyrrha tried to help as well. His embarrassed reaction reminded her of Jaune, actually.
"Hmph. It was incredibly corny." Weiss however seem to think that Lucas's current reaction was appropriate. Then again, perhaps she still hadn't let go of the "Waifu" topic yet. … Understandable considering it's only been a day… . "Wasn't it, Blake?" She turned to her most sensible teammate for support.
Said teammate was busy reading one of her many books. Briefly, she turned away from it to look at her friends before going back to reading. "Please don't bring me into this." Was her simple request.
Nora wasn't helping matters by horribly repeating the speech. Heck, she got a few pieces wrong, with Jaune nervously correcting her while Ren just sighed out of exasperation.
"Perhaps a match will take your mind off matters?" Pyrrha offered, as the distinct cry of someone crying out in pain as well as being flung across the room reached the group's ears.
Amazingly, no one in the group except Lucas and Jaune really reacted to the cry. Humming in thought as he stared at the arena, Lucas supposed misplaced aggression would do wonders for him right now.
Just because he was a quiet soul… didn't mean that he wasn't a violent one.
"Well done Mr. Marigold. I see you actually did something about your tendency of leaving your left side open." Glynda Goodwitch, the instructor for the class, gave criticism for each match. She showed approval for the winner, apparently because he did something about a piece of criticism that Glynda gave him last time.
As the she sent the two students away, she faced the remaining students on the bleachers. "Now, I know that match seemed lackluster compared to some of our earlier ones… ." She commented, causing some students to gave wry smirks at her commentary, while others huffed for they felt their matches were equally as great. "Luckily, we still have time for one more match. Any volunteers?" She asked, with Lucas immediately raising his hand.
"Ah, Mr. Bloodedge." She hummed at seeing him volunteering. Inwardly, she wondered if the boy was getting a bit too cocky after his victory over the Ursa Major.
Oh, she heard all about it alright. As Ozpin's right-hand woman, she practically knew everything that happens in the school. Including Peter's tendency of capturing Grimm and bringing them to his class.
Nonetheless, she'll let Lucas have his way for now. If the boy believes he can handle most of the students here, despite his history, then who was she to deny his request?
"I do hope that this isn't because of some rush to prove your place amongst your peers." Of course, she had appearances to keep up, hence why she was being more harsh on him then she would've been had they been alone. Contrary to what most second year and third year students would say, she did have a warm heart underneath her cold exterior. Even she felt sorry for the poor soul pretending to be a Beacon student who was making his way towards her.
"… ." Said soul didn't say a word to her, merely raising an eyebrow at her for a moment before waiting for his opponent to be chosen.
"Hmph." She huffed a bit, not liking this aspect of his personality. Ozpin had informed her that Lucas, due to his rough around the edges personality, had the tendency of being rude despite never really meaning it.
Ozpin waved this aspect off with a laugh, finding it refreshing.
Glynda found such an attitude annoying. Good grief, she might actually have to spend the semester break with the boy to properly educate him on social etiquette.
"Well then, let's find you an opponent… . Any volunteers?" She asked her remaining students. Lucas wasn't the first student to transfer in the middle of a semester during Glynda's time at Beacon. She had grown used to how some of her ruffian-like students would like a piece of the fresh meat to see if they deserved to attend Beacon at later date than their peers.
Some rose to the challenge. Others did not.
Let's see which category Lucas falls in, despite his special circumstances.
"Heh! I'll do it!" One Cardin Winchester boasted as he stood up. Mr. Winchester was a young man with burnt-orange hair, contrasting with his indigo eyes. He wore a black collared shirt with red trimmings and black pants that were held up by a red belt. Over this ensemble was silver-gray armour which had gold trimmings, with the armour's chestplate sporting a gold bird with its wings outstretched.
He, along with his team, was also the first year's resident bully.
Something Glynda would find pleasure in bringing up during parent-teacher-conferences.
They may be teaching these children to be warriors, however that didn't change the fact they were still children who had attitude problems. And who better to reign in these attitude problems than their own parents? … The ones that still had parents, anyway… .
"Very well then, Mr. Winchester… ." Glynda said after thinking about it. To be frank, Cardin and his teammates were one of the more weaker teams out of all the first years, in her mind. Those boys seem to be believe that they were one of the greatest Huntsmen-in-Training to have walked through Beacon's halls… .
If that was the case; then they were wrong, however. Oh so very wrong.
Perhaps a small lesson in humility would help them open their eyes to reality. Those who bark the loudest were often the weakest of the lot.
Which only made Glynda a bit disappointed with the far more quiet and humble Jaune Arc. Even she could see the boy had some potential, now that she was helping training him through her classes.
Perhaps the remarkably similar Lucas could help Jaune see that the difference in skill between him and his peers weren't that far off.
Speaking of Lucas, it would seem that having Mr. Winchester as his opponent had flickered a switch within the boy as he suddenly had developed a small, sly, maniacal smirk on his face, which quickly went away within a second or two.
… Glynda decided that she would not keep both boys waiting any longer, now that Mr. Winchester had arrived.
"I trust you boys remember the rules?" Glynda gave a stern warning, making it known that she would not tolerate if either boy continues to attack the other once one of their Aura enters the red zone.
Lucas gave her a firm nod of respect. Cardin merely gave her a scoff.
"Very well then. Begin!" And with that, the match begun.
Neither boy made the first move. Well Cardin had a self-assured smirk on his face, with his mace resting against his shoulder, Lucas eyes remained focus despite his apathetic face.
The Gan Gun Saber was in his hands, in Nitoryu Mode. He began twirling the secondary piece of the weapon, with Cardin bringing his eyes towards it in wonder what Lucas was planning to do with it.
Big mistake, as Lucas chose to toss it into the air. And predictably, Cardin eyes followed the secondary piece since they had locked onto it while it was still in Lucas's hand.
Cardin seem to realise what Lucas was planning to do, however, as Lucas managed to get two clean hits in before the Winchester began blocking his surprisingly ferocious strikes. Cardin's mace blocked multiple hits that were fast and furious, forcing the Winchester to push the Bloodedge away.
Lucas was pushed away with a considerable amount force, seeing that the Winchester was able to swing his mace around with one hand. If it was someone like Ruby or Weiss, it would've definitely took them both hands to lift and swing the mace. As such, it was natural that Lucas stumbled a bit as he lost his footing.
Something Cardin capitalised as he quickly closed the distance between them and swung his mace at Lucas's face. Lucas raised the main component of his Gan Gun Saber and managed to somewhat block the blow, but he still ended up rolling unceremoniously onto the ground.
On the plus side, he rolled at the direction where the secondary piece of his weapon had landed. Picking it up, Lucas got into a battle ready position.
The look on his face made Cardin grinned, because it was the same face that a certain blonde pipsqueak in white had whenever he got frustrated.
'Heh, another pushover then! This'll be easy!' With that thought in mind, Cardin's grin got wider before he prepared himself.
Lucas however, went through his options. The Gan Gun Saber only had access to four modes by itself; Blade Mode, Nitoryu Mode, Gun Mode and Nagitana Mode. Out of all them, Lucas felt the most comfortable with Nitoryu mode.
Plus, Cardin was a bit… slow. He was faster than a normal person should be when wielding a mace, but compared to when Lucas faced the Katana Gamma and Yari Gamma… with Musashi's power… .
Yeah… he'll do just fine against Cardin… for sure!
The two students stayed silent, remaining still as they waited for their opponent to make the next move. The waiting was keeping their audience at the edges of their seats, as Team RWBY and JNPR hoped that Lucas put the bully in his place.
While Cardin usually messed with Jaune, there was one time where he tried messing with Ruby when she stood up for Jaune as it led the two of them to have a sparring match with one another. Luckily, she managed to put the bully in his place (with the encouragement of her teammates, Weiss especially, helping her pull through). But both teams had no doubt that had Ruby lost against Cardin, he would've spent more time picking on Ruby like he does with Jaune.
So whenever whenever they watched Cardin's sparring matches, they will without a doubt cheer for the other student.
Cardin seem to get fed up with waiting, and shouted at Lucas. "You gonna stand there looking stupid or you're gonna make a move sometime this year, punk?!"
This merely made Lucas raised an eyebrow, thinking back on what he knew of Cardin's personality. It's been a while since he watched Volume 1 (which was pretty much the only Volume where Cardin had the most screen-time), but apparently Cardin can be summed up as a stereotypical school bully.
… And weren't stereotypical school bullies sore losers?
This thought made Lucas develop a sly smile, and he decided to taunt Cardin by using the hand holding the secondary piece of the Gan Gun Saber to make the universal "Come on" motion.
This ticked off Cardin enough for him to charge at Lucas, whose plan in mind involve using a reaction command originating from a video game. In Lucas's mind, Cardin was replaced with some white-grey creature with zipper serving as it's lips, with Lucas seeing a boy who bore similarities to Jaune in terms of appearance blindsiding the creature by quickly encircling around to it's back.
As soon as Cardin got close enough, he blinked in surprise and confusion when Lucas suddenly disappeared. "What… ?!" He managed to mutter out before he felt two somethings whacking against his head, hard. Understanding that Lucas somehow got past him and behind him, Cardin swung to where he thought Lucas was but only hit air.
He got another nasty surprised when Lucas suddenly got into his face and gave him a hard headbutt.
Both boys staggered at that, though Lucas didn't seem to take into consideration at how hard Cardin's head was and the fact how disoriented he could be headbutting the taller boy. Nor did he seem to take consideration that Cardin would recover faster than he would.
Seeing his chance, Cardin grabbed Lucas by the shirt and had full intentions to slam him onto the ground before smashing his face in with his mace.
Unfortunately for Cardin, it would seem the first thing that came to Lucas's mind at being grabbed was to slam the pommels of the his two swords into Cardin's ears.
Aura stopped those who had unlocked it from being mortally wounded. It didn't stop them from feeling pain nor did it stop concussive blows. Meaning Cardin got quite disoriented when his ears were attacked.
He let go of Lucas, who stumbled along with the taller boy. Though Lucas recovered quickly and decided to grab the taller boy by the collar of his shirt and kneed him in the stomach. And despite holding onto swords, he decided much rather punch Cardin in the face a few times before kicking him away.
Cardin growled once he gotten his bearings. As he got up, he prepared to charge at Lucas again before Glynda Goodwitch's piercing voice made them both freeze.
"Enough." She said. "That's the match." She said in a tone of voice that made it clear that there will be no arguments.
"What?!" Which flew straight into one ear and out of the other in the case of Cardin Winchester. "But I-!" He didn't get to finish as Glynda interrupted him.
"Have sustain enough damage that your Aura levels have dropped into the red zone." She said, her professional frown in place that made it known that Cardin was skating on thin ice. "And in a tournament-style duel, that would indicate that you are no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match."
Cardin held himself back as his free hand curled into a fist. "Mr. Winchester, perhaps it would better next time to keep a calm mind when charging at your opponent. I assume that I would be correct in guessing that you've developed tunnel vision when you rushed at Mr. Bloodedge at various points in the match?" Cardin merely scoffed at Glynda's criticism and looked away.
Seeing as the boy is no longer listening, Glynda decided to turn to the other student would no doubt be far more interested in hearing his faults. "And Mr. Bloodedge, perhaps you should use a less reckless fighting style seeing that more than once, Mr. Winchester had given you quite a bashing." Glynda said, her Scroll showing that Lucas's Aura level had dropped to yellow zone.
"… I'll get to work on that." Was all Lucas said to her, giving a slight bow as well.
Nodding, Glynda turned to the rest of the class, with the bell conveniently ringing at this moment. "That will be all for today children. Remember to switch back to your uniforms and place your weapons in your designated lockers." Her eyes shifted to Jaune as she said this, with the blonde cringing as the professor was referring to the one time he had accidentally placed his weapons in his partner's locker by mistake.
"The videos of today's sparring matches will be sent to your Scrolls as soon as possible. Please do take the time to review your achievements and mistakes." She cannot stressed this enough, knowing for a fact that the less responsible students would merely let the videos remain in their Scrolls as long as possible, collecting cybernetic dust or delete them to make room for something else that could better get their attention.
As the students began crowding the door leading out of the amphitheater, Glynda noted that Team RWBY and Team JNPR were one of the teams that were at the very back of the crowd, thus would be one of the last teams out of the amphitheater. They were surrounding Lucas, no doubt congratulating him on his victory (though the look Miss Schnee's face seem to indicating that she was criticising it, no doubt she would end up criticising his callous use of a headbutt)
Soon however, she and Lucas made eye-contact with one another. They stared at each other for a moment, before Lucas delivered a genuine smile at her along with grateful nod.
Glynda raised an eyebrow at that, wondering what he was grateful about, but nonetheless gave him the barest hint of a smile in return.
"Huh, I didn't know that Beacon taught it's students how to cook." Lucas commented as he stood with Weiss and Ruby at one of the many counters in a kitchen-based classroom. Currently, they along with everyone in class had switched out of their normal clothes for a black outfit with gold trims that highly reminded Lucas of a chef's uniform.
The equipment in the room along with the uniform made it pretty obvious what class this was supposed to be.
Weiss was appalled at Lucas's admission, whereas Ruby was instead surprised. "Of course Beacon teaches us how to cook!" Weiss hissed at him, an angry look on her face that many people very attracted to her would find cute. "Listen up! As Huntsman, we are expected to spend days, weeks, even months in the wilderness! As such, Beacon teaches us the necessary survival skills we need so that we can survive such Grimm-infested areas!" Weiss went on to full lecture mode, complete with raising a finger and putting a hand on her hip.
… Lucas didn't know why, but he had the feeling that Ruby had grown accustomed to seeing this pose by the time he gotten here.
"So then why are they teaching us how to cook 5-star meals?" Lucas deadpanned, noting the high quality equipment the classroom has, which didn't really make sense to Lucas. If they were going to spend a lot of time in the wilderness, unless they brought a portable kitchen with them; learning how to cook kitchen-based meals seemed meaningless when one didn't even have the necessary tools to create such dishes.
"They're teaching us these skills in case we can find use for them in the future!" Weiss's frustrated reaction was kinda adorable, considering she's even flapping her arms as if she was a bird in the middle of flying.
Unknown to both Lucas and Weiss, Ruby was trying to hold in her giggling at seeing their interaction. Now she knew why Yang was always laughing when Weiss lectured her on her mistakes. Weiss's reactions were kinda funny, actually. Too bad Ruby was usually on the receiving on said reactions to fully appreciate them.
Weiss leaned onto the counter, with Lucas taking this as his cue to do the same. And apparently he was right as Weiss began explaining while whispering to ensure nobody else overhears. "I'm sure you know this; but the Grimm are attracted by negative emotions." Obvious statement was obvious. "Thus, amazing cooking helps bring out positive emotions out of people. That's why cooking tournaments and shows are held in all kingdoms; to help promote such positivity within people! The cooking industry is just as important as the entertainment industry when it comes to bringing happiness to the masses!"
"Oh, that makes sense." Lucas nodded in understanding, making an "Oh"-expression beforehand. He could see where Weiss was going with her explanation. He actually knew of a manga/anime about cooking which displayed over-the-top reactions at how delicious such meals were. Heck, he also knew of a similar, older manga/anime that features bread instead of gourmet meals.
Yakitate Japan and Shokugeki no Soma… sheesh if he knew that he was going to end up in cooking classes he would've wrote down the recipes and tips those series showed.
A man soon walked into the room, disrupting Lucas's train of thought while simultaneously silencing the class. The man was similar to Jaune in that he had blonde hair and blue eyes, however his hair was platinum blonde and was slicked back. His age was also apparent on his face, lines having been form slightly. He wore standard white chef clothing that one could easily Google if there were on Lucas's world.
"Good afternoon, my little apprentices." The blonde man said, his voice firm and could tell anyone that he had a no-nonsense personality.
"Good morning, Professor Brass!" The class immediately greeted back. The only one who didn't do so was Lucas due to being knew and not knowing the professor's name.
"Brass?" Lucas titled his head in confusion, very damn sure that this character wasn't in RWBY… the web-show in any case.
Seeing as he was apparently the teacher for the cooking class… well, he supposed it was to be expected. Seeing that on the web-show, RWBY only introduced four of Beacon's faculty on-screen. Even Professor Peach only got mentioned in passing. That was how limited the resources the 'creators' of RWBY used.
"That's Professor Brass." Ruby was the ever so helpful puppy. Seriously, you can't help but see the puppy in her when you look at her face. "He's our main cooking instructor. Though sometimes Professor Peach takes over whenever he's away on business." She smiled at Lucas, making him uncomfortable at how innocent she was, in terms of looks and personality.
"Eh… ." Lucas managed to hum out in understanding, noting how in Volume 2, Teams were allowed to take missions and usually the faculty that consisted of trained, experienced Huntsman were to babysit First Year teams on their first mission. Seeing that the man was the main cooking instructor and from what Weiss had told him, perhaps the "business" Ruby referred to was a Huntsman mission involving those cooking shows or tournaments.
"Now, I've got a note from Professor Ozpin that from here on out, there's a new special course student among us." Brass stated, the fierce look in his eyes not faltering in the slightest. Said eyes soon locked onto Lucas, the only new face he could see in the crowd of familiar faces. "I'm assuming that it's you."
Lucas merely let out a respectful nod in response. And he admitted to himself that the man intimidated him slightly.
"Well then, I'll tell you what I told your peers at the start of the semester." Brass said, not breaking eye-contact with Lucas, who was surprisingly not breaking eye-contact himself. "The moment you step into a kitchen, you become responsible for creating a delectable dish to serve to your customers. Neither status nor experience will exempt you from this sacred duty. And one more thing; those who fail to get an A in my class automatically fail. Do you understand, boy?"
"… Of course." Lucas replied without fail. Though he couldn't help but feel the speech sounded familiar… .
With an approving nod, Brass moved on to the next topic. "Well then, now that we have an uneven amount of students in this class, I supposed I should change one or two pairings to accommodate you." Brass stated, yet his eyes remain firmly locked to Lucas… or rather, his eyes had locked onto the White Rose pairing as well as the Bumblebee pairing nearby. "Miss Rose, for now, please pair yourself up with your sister and her partner. Miss Belladonna could use all the help she can get."
While the only reaction Brass had gotten from Miss Belladonna was an annoyed, embarrassed eye-twitch as well as her face slightly reddening, the reaction he had gotten from Miss Schnee seemed to be borderline on despair.
"W-W-Wait a minute Professor Brass!" The white-haired heiress slammed her hands onto the counter. "T-T-That means… !" She was unable to finish her sentence, though Brass understood what she was trying to say.
"Indeed. Mr… Bloodedge will be your new partner for now." Brass stated, looking at his Scroll for a brief moment to see his new student's full name.
"Sorry Weiss… ." Ruby muttered out with a "What can we do?"-face before making her way to the counter Blake and Yang had stationed themselves. Yang gave her sister a similar face before delivering it to Weiss, while Blake remained impassive as always.
"Do you know how to cook?" Weiss hoped that her new partner for this class was able to replace Ruby.
"Nope." Lucas flatly answered. 'There's a reason why I have trouble choosing between you and Blake as my waifu.' Lucas thought to himself, making sure he didn't say this out loud. Not only would everyone in the classroom would stare at him as if he was crazy, Weiss would more than likely dump a pot full of hot soup or something similar over his head.
Seeing Weiss's reaction only seemed to confirm his theory. After all, why should she, the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, learn how to cook when the family more than likely hired the finest chefs in Atlas to do the cooking for her?
"I'm assuming that, being the heiress of such a powerful company, you never learned how to cook before seeing that your family hired chefs to do cooking?" Still, it's better for him to confirm instead of making assumptions.
What was the saying… ? Oh, right. When you "assume", you only make an "ass" out of "u" and "me".
Weiss didn't look at him, her reaction sticking through with the theory so far.
Oh well, Lucas was sure they could scrap by.
Probably.
"Now that's out of the way, we can finally get onto the lesson." Brass stated, turning to the whiteboard as he began to write something. "Today, we will be making beef burgundy. It's a traditional Atlasean dish that's a staple for Atlasean restaurants. I'll write down the recipe on the whiteboard for those of you who don't know it." He said without turning to his students, writing the recipe large enough so his students would have an easier time reading it as said students began mumbling amongst themselves.
"You all have two hours to prepare the dish." His words immediately cause them to silence themselves. "Each pair should present their dish as soon as it's complete." He said with an intimidating gleam in his eyes as he faced them. "Now, let us begin… start cooking!"
And with that; some of the students, including Weiss, immediately went to work to get the ingredients.
As the Schnee rushed herself, she thought about her current situation. So she gotten unlucky in that she had to have the perverted otherworlder as her cooking partner for the unforeseeable future. It didn't matter. She had been cooking with Ruby long enough that she was confident that now she could at least make a traditional Atlasean dish all by herself.
She was from Atlas. It would be an embarrassment of the highest calibre if she couldn't even cook a common Atlasean dish!
Besides, throughout the day Lucas had shown himself to be quite capable, surprisingly. Just maybe if her luck would stretch itself a little bit further, Lucas would prove himself to be a decent cooking partner as well.
As she made her way back to the counter, Weiss noted that the person she was thinking about was currently standing in front of the whiteboard along with some other students as they read the recipe. 'Right, he's not even from this world. His world probably doesn't even have beef burgundy.' Weiss rationalised, as Lucas made his way back while humming in thought.
"What's wrong?" She asked out courtesy.
"Ah." He took noticed of her, apparently lost in thought. "… We're doomed." He deadpanned at her as he looked at the ingredients.
"… What?" Weiss was completely unamused at what he just said. So says her eye-twitch.
"Well, I'm sure you have some cooking experience from the assignments in this class. Maybe we can manage to scrap by." He said, not looking her into the eyes as he placed the vegetables away from the beef.
One of Weiss's eyes immediately began to twitch out of annoyance and frustration as one of her hands balled into a fist.
Unknown to anyone else however, a pair of eyes was watching Weiss Schnee like a hawk.
These eyes were light blue in colour, almost the same colour as the sky actually. The owner of said eyes had light grey hair and a slightly pale complexion. Due to them being in cooking class, they were wearing Beacon's chef uniform like their peers.
"That bitch Schnee… ! She must be on cloud nine now that she's got a new boytoy to play with… !" The girl growled as she watched the Schnee&Bloodedge pair like a hawk. It would seem that whatever beef (pun maybe intended) she had with the Schnee heiress is blinding her from seeing that Weiss was clearly unhappy at being saddled with her new partner.
"Oh knock it off Susie. I want to see her off her high horse too but I rather pass Professor "I-Have-To-Be-Related-To-Goodwitch-In-Some-Way" Brass's class right now." The girl's partner said. This girl had long wavy ebony hair not unlike Blake's, with indigo eyes similar to Cardin's. Like her partner and everyone else in class, they were wearing Beacon's chef uniform. Currently, the ebony-haired girl was chopping some vegetables for the dish.
The grey-haired girl, named Susie apparently, turned to her partner. "Oh come on Sammy! If there's one thing training as a Huntress taught us, isn't it that we can kill two birds with one stone?" Susie huffed, not wanting to let her grudge go even for a moment.
"Well, unless you can find a way to kill two birds with one stone, I suggest you get over here and help me out." The ebony-haired girl, whose name was apparently Sammy, grunted as she continued with her task.
"Well, it just so happens… ." Susie didn't finish her sentence, instead gaining a sly grin on her face as her eyes gleamed on a certain ingredient she had picked up.
Meanwhile, Weiss currently going through a mental checklist as she nailed the recipe step by step. Now all they had to do was to let the whole thing simmer in a pot in a low heat. They had to take the meat out as soon as it was done simmering, lest they risk failure.
They had to take the meat out in 40 minutes… !
They had to take the meat out in 39 minutes… !
They had to take the meat out in 38 minutes… !
"Hey, Weiss." Her new partner suddenly calling out her name made Weiss jump. As her heart raced, she looked at the boy in question, who was currently holding all of the various bottled ingredients and spices that Weiss had grabbed from the nearby cabinets. "If you want to stare at the pot, counting the minutes down, wouldn't it be better if you just set a timer 5-or-so minutes early so you can get other things done in the mean time?" The deadpan snark only served to highly annoy her, as well as increasing her urge to whack him in the head.
However, Weiss took a deep breath as she held that urge back, letting it die down as she released her breath. She was trying to be the best person she can be… which meant no whacking people in the head unless they actually deserved it. While he said it in a rude way, Weiss could see that the boy was actually trying to help and would stop Weiss from wasting over half an hour of her life staring at a pot.
Having sufficiently calmed herself down, Weiss decided it would be better if she get to serving the dish while she still had plenty of time. Lucas stared at her for a moment as she silently walked past him, thinking about her for a moment before shrugging to himself and making his way to the before mentioned cabinets to put all of the bottled ingredients back.
Unnoticed by either of them, or anybody else in class for that matter, two malicious girls let out confident smirks that spelled nothing but trouble for their targets.
A minute or two later, Lucas was humming a song to himself as he made his way back to his station. But he noticed something off when he arrived.
"Hey, Weiss? Did you open the lid already?" Lucas asked, knowing for sure that the lid was supposed to stay closed even by the time he made it back to the counter.
"What?" Weiss said in surprise and confusion, stopping herself from preparing the dish. "Of course not! We still need to let it simmer for another 35 minutes before we can open it!" Weiss berated Lucas for asking, in her opinion; stupid question. As she walked over, she noticed the same thing Lucas noticed. However, unlike Lucas, seeing this did nothing more than making her blood freeze. "Why is it open?! Did you knock it open or something?!"
"If I knocked it open, I would've said something! I just found it like that!" Lucas bit back, his tone making it perfectly clear that he didn't like her accusation one bit.
As Weiss panicked as she tried to figure out what could possibly knock the lid open, Lucas grumbled at her accusation. However, his grumbling didn't stop him from hearing a nearby pair commenting on the two.
"Heh, look at them, arguing like an old married couple." Sammy couldn't help but grinned, please at what they did.
"Bet the Schnee-bitch is used it. She must've got arrange marriage proposals every day before she came here." Susie had a similar grin plastered on her face.
Lucas's frowned at overhearing this. It would seem that even an elite school like Beacon was filled with these types of characters… .
Then again, considering that Team CRDL was a thing, it was should be somewhat expected, shouldn't it… ?
As Weiss finally calmed herself down, both of them decided it would better if they opened the lid to see if anything went wrong with the dish. Opening the lid completely, what the two saw made them freeze in horror. "W… What is this?!" Weiss shrieked, pretty much getting the attention of the entire class.
Something Lucas noticed as he winced in pain, as being next to Weiss when she shrieked gave him a full frontal assault to his eardrums. Normally, Lucas would hate being in the center of attention. However, he could care less about the fact that so many eyes were on him. He wanted to find out what the white stuff on the beef was as well.
And what better way to discover it by tasting it?
Picking up a small spoon and scooping up a small portion of it, Lucas licked the tip of his tongue against it. He made a face as he realised that with him being dead, his tongue was merely for show when it came to the tasting department.
This really wasn't the time to let Weiss know he couldn't really taste anymore. Plus, considering how loud she was, she will probably end up screaming so loud that the whole class will hear and his secret would be blown.
So he made a wild guess.
"It's… salt?" Lucas cringed as he felt that the way he said it made it clear that it sounded like he was unsure of the fact himself.
"Salt?!" Weiss repeated in disbelief, apparently too far into it to question Lucas even further like she usually did. "B-But… if it's salt, what're we going to do?! We can't use this meat anymore!" Weiss bemoaned. "We'll have to start over… ." Was the only conclusion that Weiss could come with. However, the fact that they only have 45 minutes left when it took them about an hour and half just to reach this stage made it so blatantly obvious that they would never finish the assignment on time.
Should they risk it and serve Professor Brass this salt-caked dish? But they'll only end up getting an F-rating for sure! There was absolutely no way for them to get out of this pinch! Her perfect record would be tarnished!
What would her father say about this?! Her father, who would more than likely use her records to forcibly bring her back home to Atlas?!
"Weiss… !" Ruby muttered out in worry for her partner as she gripped the counter of her station tightly out of frustration, with the young Rose wondering how she could help her partner.
She could try splitting her own group's dish in half and hoping Professor Brass wouldn't notice.
However, the last time she tried that when Yang and Blake were struggling with one of Professor Brass's assignments, Professor Brass had let them off with a stern warning that they should never do that ever again, with Weiss making it clear to Ruby that she should not jeopardise their scores ever again if she didn't want Weiss to freeze all of her cloaks.
"Ruby, look." Blake said, pointing to Lucas.
… Who apparently had taken the time to grab spare ingredients.
… .
Silence reigned in Professor Brass's classroom, with everyone looking at Lucas in disbelief.
"I got some spare ingredients." The special course student stated the obvious. "Now pull yourself together woman, and put your game face on." He said, grabbing a knife.
"You've gotta be kidding? He's going to start all over again?" One student muttered in his disbelief.
"Heh. Serves him right." A certain Winchester commented. Team CRDL was in this class as well, with Cardin taking pleasure at the hopeless situation Lucas had found himself in. Like there was any chance of him being able to finish the assignment on time if he started from scratch again… .
"Are you an idiot?! There's no way we can finish it on time if we start over again!" Weiss hissed at him, being in disbelief like everybody else in class.
"You know, Professor Brass said some wise words at the start of the class." Lucas. "Wise words that makes it clear that blurting out excuses isn't going to stop us from getting a failing mark. That's why, at the very least, we should try to present something that gives us a higher chance at passing than that thing steaming in our pot over there."
Unaware to the class, Brass had let out an approving smiled at Lucas's words, once he snapped out of his own disbelief. Not quite there yet, but what the boy said was almost akin to something a professional would say when facing a similar situation.
"I ain't no cooking genius, so help me out, Weiss." Lucas stared at Weiss, who couldn't help but stare back. "We're partners right now aren't we? We either pass together or fail together. Your choice."
Clenching her petite fists and gritting her teeth, Weiss immediately stood next to Lucas. "Just to make this clear, I'm only going with this because of the logic of your sentence." She huffed out in denial, as she too began to work on the dish all over again.
Everybody in the room couldn't help but look at the two in awe, not believing that they're actually starting all over again despite witnessing the act with their own very eyes.
However, soon enough, they snapped out of their disbelief and began to get back to work on their own dishes.
"Heh, look at them, getting all worked up." Sammy commented as she walked back to her and Susie's station with a plate in hand.
"Like they'll finish in time. In fact, everybody else should be finishing up by now. They're going to get an F no matter what." Susie said with the utmost confidence in her plan. Oh, the look on the Schnee-bitch's face when she gets an F-rating will be filling her dreams tonight!
"Hm… . This is A." Professor Brass commented on a dish presented to him, none other from the three-members pair consisting of Ruby, Blake and Yang.
"Yes!" Both Ruby and Yang pumped their fists at hearing this, before high-fiving each other. Blake on the other hand didn't have much of a reaction other than a smallest of smiles gracing her face.
"All we got left is the sauce. Let's wrap up and-" Susie noted as she and Sammy watched this. She bets that the the look on the Schnee-bitch's face would be even sweeter once she hears that her teammates got an A-rating on an assignment she gotten an F-rating on.
"Professor Brass, evaluate our dish please!" A surprising voice said.
The voice was surprising in that it belonged to Lucas Bloodedge. And sure enough, he and an oddly submissive Weiss Schnee was making their way to Professor Brass's table with a plate of steaming beef burgundy in hand. "All done!" He said in a slight sing-song voice, which sounded almost a bit mocking as his peers watched the pair in complete shock.
"N… No way… !" One student managed to mutter out.
"How could they possibly… ?!" Another one tried asking, but couldn't even finish his sentence.
Professor Brass said nothing as the dish was placed on his table. He noted that outwardly, the dish seemed to resemble all the other A-rated beef burgundy dishes presented to him before. He picked up a fork before pressing it against the beef itself, with the reaction that followed surprising him. "… ! So tender… ! The fork is practically springing back… !"
"Say what?!" Many students screeched at hearing this.
"There's no way! They couldn't possibly braise the beef long enough!" Sammy shouted, though was promptly ignored by everyone.
"Your team had an accident, if I recall." Brass noted as he stared at the pair whose hair colour stood on the opposite side of the colour-spectrum. "How did you managed to finish the assignment on time?" He wondered, honestly quite surprised that the pair managed to finish on time. Even he thought that, despite how inspiring Lucas was, the pair was doomed to get an F-rating.
"Ah, that's because we added honey to the mix. I kneaded it into the meat before the braise, and also included it into the mix." Lucas explained, bringing up a jar of honey he had taken from the cabinets.
Brass let out a grunt at that, understanding where the new student went with this ingenious adaptation. "Honey has protease, which breaks down proteins. The protease went to work on the hard beef flank, allowing you to tenderise it within the short amount of time you had left." He hummed in approval.
"But how did you know you could use honey this way?" Weiss finally spoke up, having become submissive at seeing the ingenious use of honey had actually managed to tenderise the meat under a short amount of time, when originally she was opposed to Lucas adding the ingredient.
There was another reason why she became momentarily submissive. Another reason which she'll be informing Lucas and her teammates once classes were over for the day, away from prying eyes and ears.
"A comic book." Without fail, Lucas delivered a deadpan reply.
… .
It was easy to tell that Lucas's revelation had completely silenced the class out of pure disbelief that a comic book of all things saved the pair from getting an F-rating.
"A… comic book?" Weiss managed to sputter out despite her disbelief. An eye twitch indicated she believed that Lucas was bullshitting her.
"Yeah." Lucas nodded. "The protagonist of the comic book had read a cookbook stating how pineapple juice tenderises meat. Of course, he couldn't think up a reason why he should get an entire pineapple if it was just for that, so he experimented with a bunch of ingredients in his kitchen to see if there was anything else that had a similar effect." Lucas explained, his apathetic stare not leaving his eyes for a moment despite him raising a finger while explaining.
"So the protagonist discovered that honey was a suitable replacement?" Brass interjected, quite interested in Lucas's explanation.
"Yeah, he found honey more versatile, especially since it has a long shelf-life." Lucas pointed out, with Brass humming in agreement and approval. It would seem that any corner of life can give an ingenious lesson on certain topics.
Well, he supposed he shouldn't keep everyone in suspense any longer. Finishing the dish under a short amount of time was one thing, but did it live up to all the other A-rated dishes that Brass had tasted just a few minutes before?
Weiss's stance now become apprehensive as she awaited for the piece of beef to enter Professor Brass's mouth, fearing the worst.
Then she got a pleasant surprise when Lucas handed her a fork with a piece of the beef burgundy. "If you're so worried about it, then taste it for yourself. Besides, we're allowed to eat the dishes once tasting is done, right?" There was a reason why lunch was before Professor Goodwitch's sparring class, with Professor Brass's cooking class being right after.
Hesitantly, Weiss took the fork in Lucas's hand, staring at the piece of beef on it in apprehension before digging in.
An honey-flavoured explosion soon covered their mouths as they let out red-faced smiles and sighs out of pleasure at tasting the delicious beef burgundy. The other students in the classroom couldn't help but let their jaws dropped in disbelief as Roland Brass was a man who was known for rarely smiling. And a genuine, pure smile like that… .
'Oh. My. God!' Was their collective thoughts at seeing Professor Brass smiling.
A minute or two passed, with Professor Brass and Weiss soon snapping out of it. Brass placed his fork onto the plate, a small smile in place. "… Schnee&Bloodedge Pair… ." He began, keeping everyone in suspense. "… you get an A-plus." He declared with a wry smile, much to everyone's shock including Weiss.
"Thank you sir. I'm glad you enjoyed it." Lucas didn't seem to realise how big an achievement he had gotten, and instead gave the man a polite smile and bow.
"N-no way… ." Sammy said, not believing what she just heard.
"The Schnee-bitch and the new guy actually gotten a higher rating than everybody else… ?!" Susie stammered out, unable to believe that her plan had backfired so horribly.
Soon however, a burning smell reached their noses.
"Oh shit! The sauce getting burnt!" Sammy cried out, opening the lid of their pot to see that their dish was indeed getting burnt from being in the pot for too long.
"Oh no!" Susie cried out, and in her panic loss her grip on the cylinder of salt that she was holding onto. Said cylinder soon fell into the pot.
… .
"E-rating." An annoyed Professor Brass rated their dish as the two were on their knees out of despair, while the Schnee&Bloodedge Pair were currently celebrating with Weiss's teammates in the background.
Nighttime at Beacon was greatly peaceful, in Lucas's opinion. Almost everyone in Beacon retired when the night comes in. For good reason, considering classes start at 9 and the mess hall opens for breakfast at 8.
And apparently a majority of the people at Beacon weren't morning people. Hence why said majority chose to retire early at night so they can get as much sleep as possible.
Well, Lucas supposed that piece of trivia didn't really affect him all that much, considering he didn't need to sleep.
The whole day, he didn't collapsed at all. And a few years ago, when he was a bigger idiot than he was currently; he was stupid enough to spend a few nights without going to sleep at all.
He usually started teetering to unconsciousness at around 3-to-4 PM as a result.
So yeah, he figured he didn't really need to sleep anymore. He supposed that makes sense, since sleeping was to rest the body and mind.
Something Lucas no longer physically had.
Meaning he now had about an extra 9 hours to spend on whatever he wished.
He sure as hell wasn't going to spend it procrastinating.
Making his way to a table in his dorm room, Lucas grabbed the six Eyecons resting on said table. He made eye-contact with them, muttering; "Well, let's find out my limits, shall we?" Lucas rhetorically asked the Eyecons, which expectedly didn't reply back to him as he pocketed them.
As he made his way to his window, Lucas mused on today's events. After cooking class, Weiss had mentioned that when he was cooking that honeyed-beef burgundy, he had started to glow. Like, a faint outline of Aura (which was everyone's best guess at the moment) surrounded him. It wasn't easily noticeable, but with Weiss being right next to him she was able to noticed it.
She even stated that his eyes had actually dulled themselves, yet somehow remained focus at the same time as he was able to chop the vegetables at amazing speeds despite when he originally cooked; he was slow as a turtle since he never handled a knife before.
Lucas absolutely had no idea what she was talking about. Then again, at the time he pretty much put all of his focus on cooking that beef burgundy. All other thoughts were pushed away since he was too busy reciting the recipe like a mantra.
Walking around as a mere soul was weird… yet it did show tremendous amount of potential.
Potential Lucas was sure he will never end up using to it's fullest.
Oh well, so long as he used enough to protect those under his protection, it didn't really matter if he was unable to use his potential to it's fullest. Being at the top was lonely, after all.
As Lucas mused to himself, he slowly but surely, left the safety of Beacon Academy and made his way towards the Emerald Forest.
"Sister Ariel. Why have you summoned me? I was busy."
"Looking for those powerful Eyecons, yes? Hn. I came here to inform you that Aria has found herself a Human."
"A Human… ? In our world… ?"
"Indeed. And it would seem that he shares similarities to your description of the so-called Fake-Gamma. He too has the ability to use these mysterious Eyecons… ."
"… Hn. So what? You want me to babysit him?"
"That's exactly what I want you to do."
"… Excuse me?"
"I won't repeat myself little brother. Take this Human with you when you back to the other world. As you collect the Eyecons, we will lend them to him after we are done researching them. Let him deal with the Fake-Gamma."
"… Very well, sister."
Days Left: 98
Current Eyecon Count:
[Musashi]
[OOO, Fourze, Wizard, Gaim, Drive]
Missing Eyecons:
{Edison, Robin Hood, Newton, Billy The Kid, Beethoven, Benkei, Goemon, Ryoma, Himiko, Tutankhamun, Nobunaga, Houdini, Grimm, Sanzo}
{Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, Faiz, Blade, Hibiki, Kabuto, Den-O, Kiva, Decade, Double}
I swear to God, the characters are talking in Japanese and I'm just subbing it for you all. I don't know, it feels like I'm not capturing the dialogue correctly. I mean, I feel like I'm making Weiss into a tsundere when I think a lot of people can agree she's not that much of a tsundere. (Then again, it's more like she's only tsundere to her friends instead of her love interests… which technically makes sense with the current relationship Lucas and her is developing, but still. I just don't like how Tsundere I'm making her)
And yeah. I'm sure those who know of Shokugeki no Soma know about the cooking scene. Yeah, I kinda deserve to get shot in the head don't I… ? Heh heh… *Sigh* I'm sorry… .
… Well, at least next chapter will finally feature the appearance of a Gamma, a Luminary, and a character who usually doesn't get much of the spotlight in RWBY fanfiction.
And wow, I can't believe this took a week for me to spit out. Bare in mind; most of the week was spent procrastinating. Geez… .
Anyway, my apologies if there's any mistakes when I post this, but it's nighttime here and I want to go to bed now. See you next chapter!