Chapter 5

Desmond was sitting on his couch as he repaired his hidden blade more so upgrading it. It broke when Yang punched him into the tree yesterday which he was glad his back didn't break. The floor was a bit of a mess with leather bindings, scrap metal and discarded gears and pistons. That should do. But how am I still alive when my hidden blade broke when I hit the tree? I should be thankful that I'm still breathing... and walking. He finished putting the finishing touches on the bracer and put it on his right wrist. "Let's see if it works," he said as he fixed the bracer on his wrist. He took in a deep breath and flicked his wrist. The blade came out quickly thanks to the newly installed pistons in the blade. Desmond raised his wrist to his face to look at it, a satisfied look on his face. He slowly moved his fingers on the blunt side of the blade and pressed on it making the blade pivot into a unorthodox position. "Nice," he said as he retracted the blade. He took the bracer off and placed it on the coffee table. "Maybe I can squeeze a few more upgrades in it," he said as he looked at the ceiling for a bit. No need to worry about that right now. Right now I need to think of this week's lesson. He scrunched his face for a bit before an idea came to his head. "Maybe I can talk to Ozpin about it."

He was walking down the hallway to Ozpin's office while he held his back in pain. How hard does she hit? he thought as he walked, wincing from the phantom pain in his back. He reached Ozpin's office and knocked on it. "Hey Ozpin? You in?" he asked.

"Come in," Ozpin replied from inside. Desmond opened the door and saw Ozpin looking out the window. He turned around to see Desmond. "Ah Mr. Miles, how are you?" he asked as he walked to his desk.

"I'm fine, still a little sore from yesterday's class. What I'd like to ask you is, do you have an equestrian club?" he asked as he rubbed his hands together.

"Why do you ask Mr. Miles?" Ozpin questioned, taking a sip.

"Well, most of my ancestors rode horses for traveling and combat. I was just wondering if I could teach my class to do so? It may help them in the long run," Desmond proposed.

This made the headmaster raise an eyebrow but smiled. "I see you are quite the instructor we have gotten Mr. Miles," he said, taking a sip from whatever is in his mug. "Well, we do have one but sadly, it has fallen into disrepair. No one really rides horses anymore thanks to the rapid advance in technology," Ozpin explained.

Desmond chuckled as he clapped his hands together. "Well, maybe after a few uses, we may have a reason to upgrade it," he said, blowing into his hands.

"If you say so Mr. Miles, let's see what happens," Ozpin replied.

Meanwhile in the training room...

Logan was shooting some arrows at some targets while Ogata was punching a training dummy. "I think you need to take it easy there Hiro," Logan said, shooting an arrow without looking.

Ogata just merely punched the dummy harder, making it throb violently on its mouht. "This is me taking it easy," he replied, giving it a few more jabs before punching the head clean off. With a sigh, he removed the dummy from the floor as the severed head bounced back at his feet, before pulling up a new one. The ones that Beacon used weren't top-of-the-line, but he had hoped he wouldn't burn through so many so quickly. The near-dozen-and-growing pile off to the side quickly dashed those hopes.

"That's already your eleventh dummy this past hour Hiro, you should take a break," Logan said, shooting three arrows at once, hitting their marks.

Ogata lowered his head before throwing a left hook at the head. "After this one I'll rest," he replied, throwing a right cross as well.

Logan lowered his bow, looking at Ogata. "That reminds me, why don't you wield a sword or melee weapon?"

Ogata stopped punching the dummy, which currently had a number of fist-shaped craters scattered across the galvanized rubber. Letting out a sigh, he turned around to face Logan. "You don't want to know, bro," he said, moving to walk away from the dummy before delivering a reverse roundhouse to the "legs". Before it could hit the ground, Ogata delivered a brutal elbow to its midsection, Logan wincing as it was driven into the floor and failed to bounce back.

"Suit yourself, Hiro," Logan said, retracting his bow. "I was just asking, that's all."

"Thanks for understanding," Ogata replied. I really don't want anyone to know why. It's too embarrassing and painful. "Rgh," he grunted as a lance of pain shot up his arm, his left hand reflexively grabbing the end of his right bicep above the elbow.

Logan raised an eyebrow and walked closer to Ogata. "Ogata, you alright?"

Ogata just gave him a weak smile. "Yeah...yeah I'm fine, don't worry about it," he answered before heading out, the only display of emotion that he was truly hurting being the slight twitch of his brow.

Desmond was sitting down at his kitchen table in his room eating his diner while looking at what to do for class. He took another spoonful of soup into his mouth, narrowing his eyes on the piece of parchment full of ideas and notes for horse riding. Calm down, just relax and you'll figure it out. Hell, Altair and Connor were those guys who barely lost their cool. Well there was that time when Connor killed his friend and Altair was exiled, but still. They all rode horses, except for Edward because he had a ship.

He placed his bowl in the sink and stretched his arms while yawning. "Better hit the hay then." He didn't bother taking off his clothes and threw himself on the bed. He stared at the ceiling blankly, blinking a couple times. Just go to sleep Des. He closed his eyes and passed out like a light.

Ancestor: Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Location and year: Rome, Italy, 1501

Desmond kept shifting in his bed, trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in. A sense of a different feeling took him, stealing away the feeling of his still bed, replacing it with movement on his feet. His eyes made way to a bright sun basking on his face with a few clouds in the bright blue sky. He felt his body making way to another body that he was all to familiar with. "There's the Assassin!" yelled a person.

Looks like I'm Ezio right now he thought as he gained the sight of the Italian Assassin. He saw himself being surrounded by a dozen guards as Ezio stopped running.

"In the name of the Pope of Roma, you are hereby sentenced to die where you stand Auditore!" yelled the captain of the group. Ezio just smirked while he whistled.

"Really? Well, get me then," Ezio taunted the captain. The captain let out a grim smile, unsheathing his sword as he walked towards Ezio. Before the captain could swing his sword at him, an arrow struck him in the chest.

"What-? What is this?" the captain breathed out, holding his chest. He felt something else go through his chest. He looked down to see Ezio stabbing him with a hidden blade.

"I'll spare you the pain," Ezio said to him as the captain fell backwards dead. He retracted the blade and took out his own sword, looking at the confused guards. He was then accompanied by six hooded people that came from behind him, wearing similar robes the Assassin had, though each had their own unique add-ons. "You took your time, Fredrico," he said to the man beside him.

Fredrico shook his head at Ezio. "Sorry about that, mentor. It took us a bit, but we got you a horse for your escape," he replied, motioning behind him. The master Assassin looked behind him to see a brown horse snorting slightly. "We'll hold them off but we can't guarantee how long, Ezio."

"Bene, I'll see you back at the headquarters, Fredrico," Ezio said while climbing on the horse. He kept his sword in his right hand and looked at the guards. "Engage them," he said before riding away. "Hyah!" he urged the horse to gallop faster. The horse grunted, galloping faster away from the fight behind him. "Va bene, now we're moving."

"Halt Assassin!" a voice shouted behind him. Ezio looked behind him to see two guards on horses pursuing him.

"Cazzo," Ezio swore as he urged his horse to gallop faster. "Keep going my friend, keep going!" he shouted, the three horses galloping down the streets near the Colosseum. One of the guards came close to him and tried to push him of the street into the building. Ezio swung his sword at the guard who dodged, bringing up his own sword to attack. The two delivered blow after blow before Ezio disarmed him by slashing at his wrist. The guard shouted in pain as he held his wrist, not paying attention to Ezio who then slashed downwards at the horse's legs causing it to fall forward.

"In the name of the Pope, you must di-!" the other guard started to say before a crossbow bolt went through his mouth. The guard fell of his horse, blood slowly pouring around his body. Ezio sighed, placing his crossbow back on his back.

"I need a break from this," Ezio said while the horse jumped over a fence.

The next day, the horse stables near Beacon...

It was still early morning and Logan was up and about doing his morning rituals. He was outside practicing with his longsword motions when he saw Desmond walking down a trail to the horse stables. Wonder what he's up to? He sheathed his sword and ran up to Desmond. "Morning Mr. Miles," he said upon arrival.

"Morn, Logan," Desmond replied, rubbing the weariness out of his eyes. "Wait, why are you up?"

"Just doing my morning rituals. You?"

"Just getting next class ready. Thinking it could take awhile I decided to get up early," Desmond answered, with Logan by his side while walking.

"And that would be what?"

"We're gonna do some horse back ridding, Logan," Desmond said. Logan's eyes brightened when he heard that, making Desmond look at the Ranger. "Are you okay, Logan?"

"Yes! I get to ride some horses!"

"You like to ride horses don't you?" Desmond questioned with a chuckle.

"I was born and raised on horses, Mr. Miles. I can ride them blindfolded without my arms," Logan said proudly.

Desmond smiled when they reached the stables. "Good, then you can help with the lesson then," he said.

Later in the afternoon...

The class was outside near the field they use for long-range combat and simulations. Team VOLT were wondering where Logan's disappeared off too. "Where's, Logan? He's gonna miss class," Velvet said nervously.

Ogata patted her shoulder to ease her. "He'll show up eventually, Vel."

"Yeah, but he's been gone for most of the day. Wasn't in history class with Prof. Oobleck, Dust usage in Prof. Goodwitch's class or Prof. Ports Grimm studies," Thalia said to them.

They then heard galloping off in the distance and the class looked where it was coming from. "Whooohooo!" Logan's voice shouted out, startling the class. They looked behind them to see Desmond and Logan on horses.

"Welcome to horse back ridding people," Desmond said as he dismounted. He patted the horse on its neck. "Good boy," he said to it. He looked at the class and pulled down his hood. "First question, has anyone ridden a horse before excluding, Logan?" he asked them. Only a few hands rose up, one of them Ogata. "Not surprising when technology has advanced rapidly. So, I'm gonna teach all of you the basics and you'll try it out yourselves." He then mounted the horse again and had the horse got a few feet away from the group and stop. "Alright everyone, follow me and, Logan to the stables where everyone can get on a horse."

An hour later...

"This is a little hard, Mr. Miles," said Ruby, trying to make her horse stop.

Desmond just grinned. "It's easy! Just pull on the reins a bit and he'll stop, okay?"

"Okay!" Ruby shouted back. She pulled back on the reins and the horse came to a dead stop. She almost flew off the horse but managed to stay on. "Whoa, that was...AMAZING!"

Desmond chuckled and looked at his list. "Alright, up next is, Team VOLT and CRDL. You guys go on some horses and show me what you've got."

Ogata lowered his head and sighed. I should probably ditch my shield before getting on. Wouldn't want to be the straw that broke the horse's back, he thought as he removed his shield and gently set it on the ground, before climbing onto his chosen horse.

"Why don't you have a melee weapon, Ogata?" Desmond asked him causing him to tense up.

Ogata bit his lip trying to think up with something. Shit, he wants to know. "It's...complicated, Mr. Miles," Ogata replied.

"I see. Carry on then and show me what you know because, Logan is already a horse riding master," Desmond said.

"Alright then," Ogata said when he kipped the horse to make it go. I won't be able to dodge the bullet forever, but I just don't like bringing it up,
he said as he rubbed his right arm nervously.

A few months ago, Emerald forest, Beacon initiation...

The four wearily walked towards the cliff after their fight with the Crusher. Logan collapsed to his knees gasping for air. "I...I think we should take a breather you guys," he indicated to them.

Thalia nodded. "He's right. We can rest for a bit before getting to the cliffs."

Ogata grinned and sat down on a rock while Logan just fell on his back to rest. Ogata felt a sharp pain go through his right bicep and clutched it with his left hand, trying to ease the pain. "Ugh! I hate it when this happens," he muttered to himself.

Velvet noticed Ogata gripping his arm and walked over. "Are you okay, Ogata?" she asked him, sitting down beside him.

Ogata looked at her and smiled weakly. "I'm fine, Velvet," he replied, cringing to the pain.

"Can I ask you something?" Velvet asked.

Ogata tilted his head at Velvet. "Huh? Sure, go ahead."

"Why don't you use a weapon?" she asked him.

Ogata paled a bit, regretting his action. "I...I'd rather not talk about it. It's kinda embarrassing," he said to her.

Velvet lowered her rabbit ears while frowning. "Oh, sorry. I...I didn't know," she said.

Ogata sighed and looked at her. "Hey, sorry for answering like that." He took in a deep breath and nodded. "Since we're gonna be partners for the next four years, I'll tell you why, even if it isn't a fun topic for me," he said getting the others attention, collecting himself as he inhaled through his nose before starting. "In case you couldn't tell from my attire, I don't come from Vale, but from the far east in the country of Orient. There, the weapons we use tend to be a bit more traditional, and it's only in this generation that weapons with multiple configurations have started to become mainstream. Back before I took to using this," he said tapping his chestplate, "I wielded a giant axe and hammer bound together by a leather cord known as the Kabutowari. Whatever the axe couldn't split on its own, would be able to do so after the hammer was taken to the blunt end, though individually Kabutowari's two halves were equally impressive. Of course back then, I wasn't nearly as strong as I am now."

Thalia tilted her head at Ogata. "So what does that have to do with your arm?"

"I'm getting to that," Ogata replied. "I was heading back home after training one day when I came across a non-violent White Fang protest in town. Right as I passed it however, things got out of hand when members of the more militant White Fang started hacking and slashing at anything non-Faunus. People and Faunus alike were panicking, but I tried to save as many people as I could. However..." he said rolling up his right sleeve, revealing an ugly, jagged scar running across the inside of his bicep right above the inside of his elbow. "A group of them gunned right for me, and well..." he said rolling the sleeve back down. "You can pretty much imagine the rest. Obviously they didn't kill me that day, but a lot of blood was spilt anyway, and I lost most of the dexterity in my right hand. While I can do a few activities without any trouble," he said touching each of the fingers in his right hand to his thumb, only for his hand to seize up after a few rotations, "I'll never be able to wield weapons same as anyone else. After that, my family changed my style from an overwhelming offense, to an impenetrable defense, and the strength you've seen so far compounds that."

Logan whistled. "That sucks man. I wouldn't know what to do if I couldn't wield Elendil anymore or my bow."

"I agree. Zephyr and Eurus are a part of me, I wouldn't know what to do," said Thalia.

Velvet shifted nervously when she tapped Ogata's shoulder. "Ogata? Do you dislike the Faunus because of what they did to your arm?"

"No, I don't," he said with a smile. "Seeing all that blood spilt, it made me want to change the way things were, so that Humans and Faunus wouldn't fight so needlessly anymore. Its a long way off, but I dream of a world where Humans and Faunus can share the same world in harmony. Even if I don't live to see it, if I can make the world just a little brighter before I die, that'll be good enough for me."

Now...

Logan was riding his horse around his team. "C'mon you guys, it's easy," he said to them.

Thalia glared at him. "Easy for you to say, Logan, you rode on horses ever since you were a kid." She was trying to get on her horse but was having some trouble.

Logan got off his horse and walked over to Thalia. "You want any help?"

"No," Thalia answered back. Logan just crossed his arms and looked at her with a questioning face. "...Yes."

Logan smiled and pointed at his horse. "Alright, all you need to do is throw your right leg over the back and quickly get up using the momentum." Thalia tried doing it but was still having trouble. "Here, let me help you." He walked over to Thalia and helped her up her horse. Obviously she never rode a horse before and fell off onto Logan. "Whoa-easy!"

"Gaahh!-Omph!" Thalia cried out when she fell on Logan. When they both regained their senses, they both blushed a deep red.

"Oh, looks like those two are having love!" Dove teased riding around on his horse. Many of the other students started snickering at the sight of the two. Thalia noticed saw that she was straddling Logan.

Thalia quickly stood up and dusted herself off. What the hell just happened?! One moment I was getting on my horse and the next I'm on the ground straddling, Logan! Thalia blushed a deep red and looked away from Logan.

Logan got up and smiled weakly at her. "T-Thalia, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just fine," she replied harshly walking away from him.

Logan frowned and mounted his horse and said something sadly in a foreign language. "I'm sorry..." he said before riding off.

Cardin just laughed uncontrollably. Shit, that actually happened! A Faunus girl straddling a human. I'm not gonna forget that one easily. He mounted his horse and took out his mace. "Time to gang up on, Mr. Foreign man Ogata you guys," he said to his lackeys. His team nodded with evil smiles on their faces.

Ogata chuckled softly to himself when he saw Velvet trying to make her horse stop. He rode up to her and nudged her arm. "You any help, Vel?"

"U-uh y-yeah, Ogata," she replied shyly.

"Alright, remember what, Ruby did? All you need to do is to pull on the reins until he stops, Okay," he explained to her.

"O-okay, I'll try," Velvet said. She lightly pulled on the reins and the horse didn't stop yet. She pulled harder on the reins and the horse stopped suddenly making her lose her balance on the horse. "Ahhh!"

Ogata strode over to Velvet and reached out to help her. He took her hand and he pulled her back. "Easy on the reins, Vel." He tried to pull back his hand but he couldn't get it out of her grasp. "Ah, Vel?" he questioned.

Velvet came to realization and blushed when she saw herself holding Ogata's hand. "Oh, s-soory, Ogata," she said to him.

Ogata blushed a bit at her but gave her a warm smile. "It's fine, Vel." He then heard the trotting of horse hooves behind him. He turned around to see Team CRDL riding towards him, weapons drawn. "Get out of here, Vel!" he said to her. She nodded and started riding away from him as he started riding away in the opposite direction. "What the hell are you guys doing?" he questioned him.

"Nothing foreigner!" Cardin shouted out. Dove took out his bow and notched an arrow, aiming it at Ogata.

Ogata narrowly dodged the arrow and sweat-dropped. The hell?! Why isn't Mr. Miles doing anything?! He kept riding his horse away from them.

Unknown to Ogata, Desmond was smirking internally. Weiss walked up to him and *Ahem*. He turned around to face her. "Yes, Ms. Schnee?"

"What in the name of Dust are you doing?! Can't you see that your students are fighting each other?!" she screeched at him.

Desmond raised his hand to calm her down. "Calm down, they're gonna be okay," he assured to her. I'm just seeing what they can do.

Cardin and Sky rode up beside Ogata on both sides of him. Sky had his broadsword in hand, grinning at Ogata. "You're going down, Ogata!" he yelled at him.

"Not in this lifetime!" he yelled as he leaned to the left away from the strike. Pulling the reigns to the right, he brought his horse closer before snapping his right leg out, kicking Sky clear out of his saddle and tumbling onto the ground. "Surrender now and I'll make it easy on you," he said snapping the reigns, his horse galloping faster.

Cardin smirked and swung his mace at him. Ogata moved his head down and dodged the attack while bringing his left leg up to kick him off. "On no you're not!" he said, swinging his mace down to his leg. Before the mace could make contact to Ogata's leg, a whizzing sound whistled through the air and an arrow hit his mace. Cardin lost grip of his mace and looked behind him to see Logan with his bow drawn. "What the-?" he questioned before he felt something strike his stomach. He fell off his horse and landed on his back.

Ogata grinned at Logan. "Thanks for the shot!"

"No problem, Hiro!" Logan shouted back. He started riding towards Russel and a blueish white aura surrounded him as he neared Russel. He shut his eyes closed and slowed his breathing. He shot his eyes open and Russel appeared to be slowed down. He slowly placed his feet on the back of his horse and balanced himself as he got beside Russel. He jumped to his horse and threw him off the horse. "That's for ganging up on my friend!"

One hour later...

"Alright, that's enough people. Take the horse's back to the stables and you can go back to your dorms," Desmond called out.

The students nodded and rode the horses back to the stables. "That was something," said Yang.

"Yang, you almost burned your horse," Blake inquired.

"Hey, Jaune cut a strand of my hair off, so he got it," Yang retorted.

"Whatever."

Desmond stayed on his horse and looked up to the sky, the sun was still up high in the sky. "Huh, still early. Well I still have a week left to teach them." He then saw Logan trying to reason with Thalia only to see Thalia scold him.

"If you didn't help me in the first place, maybe I would've never been straddling you in the first place!" she shouted at him.

"But, Thalia, I'm-"

"Oh, you're sorry?! Then how about you never help me again!" and she stormed off, leaving behind a slumped Logan.

"But I...I didn't...mean to have that happen," he muttered to himself.

Desmond rode up to Logan and looked at him. "You okay, Logan?"

Logan sighed, lowering his head even more. "I'm...I'm fine, fine and dandy, Mr. Miles."

"I can see you're having some girl troubles," Desmond said.

"Yeah, no shit. But she's not that bad. Where I come from, women are more scarier than her."

"No kidding? Where I come from, women always want attention," said Desmond.

"We all have women problems no? I guess we can't escape them."

Desmond smiled at Logan before looking at the school. "She'll get out of that cycle soon. She just needs to cool off. Give her some space alright?"

"Sure. Thanks for the tip."

Logan walked away leaving Desmond with Ogata. There's something about Ogata that I need to know about. He rode over to Ogata. "Ogata?"

Ogata turned his head around to face him. "Yes, Mr. Miles?"

"I'd like to talk to you about today."

"Uh, sure."

They rode their horses back to the stables and hitched them by their posts. Desmond looked at Ogata, looking for the right words to say. "Tell me, why don't you have a melee weapon?"

Ogata bit his lip and looked away at Desmond. "Like I said... it's complicated and its also embarrassing, Mr. Miles."

"C'mon, you can tell me. It's just us here, teacher and student."

One story later...

"I see, Ogata, thank you for telling me."

"Yeah, besides from you its also my team that knows. I just don't want many people to know."

"I understand." Poor kid, he can't really use a weapon anymore, well properly. Desmond sifted through his thoughts. He placed his left hand on his face and saw a part of his hidden blade. An idea then surged through his head. "Maybe I can help you, Ogata."

"How?"

"Give me some time and you'll see."

Later...

Desmond was walking back to his room when he saw Glynda standing outside his door. "Glynda?"

Glynda looked at Desmond with a stern face. "Would you like to tell me why you allowed such recklessness in the school?"

Desmond grinned nervously and placed a hand on the back of his neck. "Look, I allowed that to happen because I wanted to see for myself what they're capable of."

"So, you had them fight each other just to see what they know?"

"Yep. By knowing what they can do, I can help them improve and gain new skills that suit them. The Assassin's knew this sorta trick and that's how they've survived for hundreds of years back on Earth."

Glynda nodded at Desmond with a relaxed smiled on her face. "Thank you for telling me, Mr. Miles. You just had me worried there for a bit."

Desmond smiled and turned the knob on his door. "You're welcome, Glynda. Good night."

"Good night, Mr. Miles."

Desmond entered his room and shut the door softly. He made his way to the bathroom to clean up before sleeping. He looked at the mirror to see a small tinge of red on his cheeks. "Nah, it's probably nothing," he said before washing his face with a damp towel. He placed the towel on the counter and took in a deep breath. "I wonder how, Ozpin will take it when I ask for some items."