Magnus: Welcome to another chapter, here the pairings will be finally set, in case you hadn't guessed them yet, anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: Check the first chapter for it.


Chapter 7

Spirit Unleashed

Ruby watched the boy sitting in front of her, a serene expression adorning his face, his tall hat with a foreign symbol reflecting the sunlight, and above all, his own declaration of his source of strength; he was like the hero of one of the old fairy tales that she read long ago, and that she still does now days, away from her sister's eyes of course; unfortunately she was so socially awkward, that she lacked the courage to ask if he read the same stories…

"In order to unleash your spirit, you need to understand at least it's most basic aspects." Kanetsugu began his explanation earning Ruby's undivided attention.

"Is it different from aura, or the soul?" Ruby asked, just like a curious child would do.

"Yes, and no. The soul is your very essence, what you are, as such, and for I can feel and see, aura is the projection of the soul's need to protect its vessel. The spirit, it's your very nature, your inclination toward your destiny, it feeds on your actions and choices, projecting itself not as armor, but as a weapon, a sudden explosion of power that in my land we call 'Musou', this is the gift and burden I want to pass into you." Kanetsugu explained, following the teachings that had been passed to him, although by the way Ruby had tilted her head in an absolutely cute way, he may have take this challenge a little more seriously… memories of lady Aya teaching the youngest children of the clan resurfaced on his mind and heart, generating a small smile on his face.

"So, the nature is like the semblance? And what does Musu means?" Ruby asked now, and Kanetsugu could only melt at her curiosity.

"Musou can be translated in your tongue as 'unrivalled' or 'unmatched', it refers to the unique and unstoppable nature of the power it gives. As for the semblances you mention, I have very little knowledge of those; in any case, the nature of the spirit refers to the intrinsic nature of the person; the essence that prompts a person to action." Kanetsugu kept explaining to the best of his capabilities, but decided that Ruby's frown was akin to not understand a single word.

"Intrinsic?" Ruby's adorable face was enough to make the battle monk chuckle.

"Have you ever wondered why a person becomes the way he or she is? Why, no matter the upbringing of a person is, he or she ends up acting in a very specific way?" Kanetsugu asked now, making sure to sound as mysterious, as if to gain Ruby's attention even more.

"OH! Like how my sister is too bold! Or like Blake seems to be like… lonely?" Ruby asked now, finally getting a small amount of understanding.

"That's more like it! Yes, those are examples of a nature. In order to unleash your spirit, you need to first feed it, and you'll do this by being true to yourself. An honest, simple soul shouldn't have trouble feeding its spirit, unleashing it however, is key, and the key, to harness the true power we all have inside of us." Kanetsugu finished his explanation, and was pleased to see Ruby taking a thinking pose.

"So… my spirit grows stronger by me being me… I think I get that. How do I unleash it?" Ruby asked, making Kanetsugu smile at how she took his words as true, and how she just has chosen to simply believe them instead of truly trying to understand.

"In battle. Fortunately for you, our souls seem to be compatible enough for me to simply show you how to do it in a more practical way." Kanetsugu replied, and the Ruby's eyes sparkled with childish glee.

"Then let's head to the training rooms!" Ruby declared while dragging Kanetsugu to said facilities, at full speed.

Meanwhile…

Weiss was at a loss… when Mitsuhide finished his convoluted explanation of the spirit he proposed to help in unleashing hers, that was perfectly fine for the heiress, except that he couldn't do it through a ritual like the unlocking of aura, instead, only through fighting it would be done. There were a few things that were fine for Weiss, like how Mitsuhide asked to start with very friendly spar, with slow moves to let her see his style, to which she answered with a show of her own moves; but then he began to speed up, slowly of course, but it soon reached the point where the heiress could barely block or evade…

"Hmmm… your defense is not bad, we can work on making it better; how do you feel?" Mitsuhide started a conversation, marking a small break in the spar, to which Weiss was more than grateful.

"To be honest, scared. The way you move, the way you fight… I'm surprised you weren't advanced even two years ahead!" Weiss decided to be honest, so far the samurai had been nothing but helpful and a very nice company.

"I'll be advanced when the time is right, not after or before; besides, I was asking for your spirit, and I doubt that your nature is being fearful." Mitsuhide explained his question, and it took about a minute for Weiss to stop sputtering incoherently to form a proper answer, that Glynda chuckled at the polite, yet very insulting, comment didn't help the heiress.

"I'm telling you! I'm the prideful heiress of the Schnee dust company, I was trained by the best of Atlas' tutors in both combats and politics, and I'm a true huntress in training who strives for perfection in everything that there is to be." Weiss repeated as if those lines had been drilled into her for a very long time.

"Tell me then, why do you fight? Why do you even lift your weapon for?" Mitsuhide asked in a serious tone that surprised both Glynda and Weiss.

"I…" Weiss tried to reply, but was immediately interrupted.

"Be honest." Mitsuhide sounded as if giving a warning, if a friendly one. It took Weiss several minutes to answer, for it was hard for her to do so, more so because the only good teacher she had met so far was listening far too intently.

"I… Fight for myself…" The moment Weiss spoke these words was the moment Glynda made a face of sorrow; she knew by heart that most students answer this question with words fitting for a hero, or a leader, someone worth of praise, and she knew that only one in a thousand spoke these words with sincerity; however, Weiss was far from done, once she started to open her heart, she had to let it all out.

"I fight to prove that I can stand by myself, that I can be strong to fight for my own belief, that only I have the reins of my life. So when my father comes to demand that I take his place, I'll be able to tell him NO." Weiss finally completed her response, and she felt… liberated. Glynda looked at her with respect, for she understood the enormity of what she wanted.

"Well said, Weiss! Now, I want you to strike with the sole purpose of fulfilling your desire, feed your strength with the echoes of your heart, and when you can no longer add more fire to the pyre of your will, then let it go." Mitsuhide stated in what Weiss considered a mystic and romantic way, of course she remembered the purpose of the entire ordeal, so, she raised her rapier once more; she found it funny, though, how Mirtenaster seemed to weigh less than a minute ago…

As the sparring re-started, Weiss allowed Mitsuhide's words to sink in, she started to fight in accordance to her own heart, and not the designs of somebody else; with each stroke, another step to her goal, with each slash, one less obstacle to her freedom; she stopped caring that Mitsuhide was blocking each and every one of her attacks, she stopped caring about perfect stances and well calculated moves, and then, she felt her heart singing in freedom.

"What in the world!" Glynda could only whisper her amazement, Weiss 'aura bar' began to glitch, showing unreadable data about her power, then she noticed that Weiss herself was shimmering, and her rapier was encasing in ice.

"Now! Embrace yourself, and let it go!" Mitsuhide commanded in a way that Weiss found irresistible, and in a mere instant, all of her bottled up emotions, her pent up frustration and need of freedom, was released.

Glynda watched in a mixture of worry, amazement and fear how the heiress became an icy blue blur, her attacks becoming both beautiful and unstoppable; then her worry became horror when she noticed how Mitsuhide was now unable to defend himself against the beautiful onslaught that Weiss was unleashing on him. And then, just as fast as it started, it was over; Weiss was standing there, panting after fighting like never before, just like the full fledged huntsmen and huntresses; and Mitsuhide was face down in the floor, parts of his armor covered in ice. Glynda quickly looked at the aura reading, and found comfort in seeing that, while now in the red, it was not completely depleted, meaning that the young samurai was still well alive.

"Mitsuhide!" Weiss screamed after seeing the result of her spirit being unleashed, obviously scared at the idea of hurting the one that had helped her the most.

"That was a good one. You really have potential." Mitsuhide stated while standing up, showing just how resilient he was.

"You scared me! For a moment I thought I had killed you!" Weiss shouted in an outraged fashion that did nothing to conceal her worry. In the background Glynda couldn't help but to take note in the massive increase in power, if it was that massive on mere first year students, then in a fully fledged hunter it would grant power equivalent to the guardians, if only briefly.

At the same time, at one of the training facilities…

Ruby and Kanetsugu were fighting against a large group of training robots designed to imitate the behavior of both the bewolves and the ursai; Kanetsugu praised Ruby's great agility and control over her complicated weapon, while Ruby was amazed over Kanetsugu's sword technique and usage of paper charms to frightening efficiency. Even when the battle was not difficult or really long, Ruby found easy to put Kanetsugu's words to practice, every strike was a wound inflicted upon the darkness, with every fallen foe, another child would smile again, and every small victory against the grimm was another step to a better world for everyone; so it was not surprising that instead of getting tired, she was getting more fired up, and soon Kanetsugu found that she was ready.

"Now open your heart, Ruby! We are going to strike as one with our spirits unleashed!" Kanetsugu shouted, reaching toward the red caped girl with both his spirit and his aura, to which said girl seemed to reciprocate in kind.

"I can feel it! Your soul and mine are touching!" Ruby replied while cleaving another robot, if this was the so called spirit, she was loving it.

"Justice is my sword! Love gives me the strength! Radiance of the heavens clear the way!" Kanetsugu shouted while unleashing his spirit, forcing Ruby's spirit to react with him; His sword elongated with pure solidified light, and Ruby's scythe vibrated with bestial force; he danced in circles, shredding everything in his path, while Ruby began to dash from one side to the other, dragging Crescent Rose to slice all that stood on her path; then she felt the last bit of her explosion reaching the final point, and she pushed it further, she wanted to give the last fraction of this exhilarating feeling an extra boom, and then something went… different.

"What?!" Ruby quietly exclaimed, for she suddenly felt sluggish, not weak, but as if the air itself was putting almost as much resistance as if going through water, she found difficult to move her weapon, and even the large robot in front of her seemed to stop as if seeing that she wasn't able to continue. Ruby of course felt the need to at least do one final attack, and swung her weapon against the robot; and then the weirdest thing happened, the edge of her scythe passed through the robot as if he wasn't even there, well, it still had the same resistance that the air was posing, but still, no apparent damage was done to the still unmoving robot.

"What in the world?" Ruby muttered as she tried to attack again from a different angle, earning the same result, angry at this, she swung Crescent Rose five more times in different angles; frustrated at doing nothing, she tried to leap toward another of the larger robots, and found that not only the air slowed her leap, but also the time she spent without touching the ground; once she fell in front of the new unmoving target she repeated the process, slashing the robot another seven times, again without doing nothing, the edge passed through the whole thing with no apparent resistance, but without effect, it was here that she decided to turn to Kanetsugu to ask what was happening, what she saw stunned her.

Kanetsugu was standing still, his sword stabbed into the ground, his free hand extended in front of him, several paper charms were floating around him and the robots surrounding him; the paper charms were moving at a lazy speed, what appeared to be bullets of light were jumping between the charms at speeds that Ruby could barely track, piercing the robots that were in their way. Ruby took a moment to let this sink, for even she comprehended that she was seeing something that she wasn't supposed to be able to see, once she began to digest this, she looked at her first target, just in time to see that her first slash had indeed connected, and the robot was now, very slowly, separating from the waist up… then the sense of sluggishness left her body, and everything around her sped up in an instant; her two targets where reduced to ribbons in a blink of an eye, just as Kanetsugu's charms returned to him after finishing obliterating everything around him, Ruby could only react in one way…

"That… was awesome!" Ruby shouted as she tried to jump to Kanetsugu's arms in a childish fit of joy, unfortunately her body decided that it was a good moment to show the effect of putting such strain on her muscles by making her legs feel like jelly, making her fall forward.

"Ruby!" Kanetsugu could barely catch her in time to prevent her from falling face first, of course this had the unintended effect of placing Ruby exactly where she wanted to be…

Just outside the training room…

Yang and Ranmaru were at a loss, they were supposed to ask Nobunaga about unleashing the spirit, but since he was 'busy' with one Blake Belladonna, both decided to bother Kanetsugu; for Ranmaru it was a wise choice, since he is an expert on the topic, for Yang, it was overprotective nature what was driving her, of course both were disappointed when they couldn't find the cheerful pair neither in the gardens or the food court, so, they decided to go to the training facilities to begin an attempt on their own.

"I'm pretty certain it shouldn't be that hard, I mean, you said I just need to be true to myself, and as a thrill seeker, I'm always true to myself." Yang reassured, for she saw that Ranmaru was hesitant to do this attempt unsupervised.

"I still believe you need something else, if you were so true to yourself, then you should have unleashed your spirit long ago."Ranmaru replied, although he saw no harm in giving a demonstration of the procedure, if only to prove his point, and if it was the last push for the bold blonde, then that was good too.

"Maybe I just need you to introduce that knowledge into me?" Yang asked in a very sensual way, making Ranmaru blush, but not look away, he had learned that relenting in this kind of situation would only lead to even more teasing.

"You have no idea what you are asking for…" Ranmaru began to build up his rant as he reached for the handle of the door to the training room, but was cut short by the voices that were heard from behind it.

"I can't believe my first time would be SO intense!" A childish female voice that obviously belonged to Ruby put them on edge, the wording used was too shocking for any of them to form any reply.

"I'm so glad to find that you enjoyed it; although I'm shocked you were able to handle it so well despite being so young." Kanetsugu's voice followed, and this forced Yang to reach for the handle, ready to punch first and ask later, if at all; of course Ranmaru sensed her intentions, so he caught her hand, stopping her for her current path.

"They must be speaking about unleashing the spirit, it is an exhilarating feeling the first time one does so; remember that he is a monk, not a hormonal teenager." Ranmaru quickly explained, and while Yang glared at him for a moment, she seemed to accept that perhaps she was being too hasty in judging things.

"My legs feel like jelly though; is it normal?" Ruby's question forced them to look at the door with faces of shock and disbelief; once again the wording seemed off.

"Well, you certainly didn't want to slow down." Kanetsugu's answer only made things worse, Yang's hands were shaking, her mind obviously conjuring images about activities she considered unsuited for her innocent little sister; Ranmaru's hand held hers, as if trying to calm her down, although he lacked any words to discourage her train of thoughts.

"I think that my favorite part was when you poured all your strength inside of me!" Ruby's words certainly didn't help the situation, at all; Yang's eyes turning red certainly proved this theory, and Ranmaru certainly wasn't going to say anything this time, even he doubted the purity of the battle monk this time.

"I must admit that it was a pleasant and deep connection that we reached this time; and if you feel the need to repeat it, well…" That was as far as Yang could tolerate, she reached for the handle of the door, and broke it as she tore the entire door from its hinges, stomping her way inside the room still wielding the reinforced steel door like a light weight shield, interrupting Kanetsugu in the process.

"Well, well, what little mess do we have here, little sister?" Yang spoke in an eerie cheerful voice, thankfully the sense of danger died very quickly, for as she took a look at the couple, she noticed that they were fully dressed, not touching, and the only mess in the room were the broken bodies of the robots.

"Yang, what are you doing here?" Ruby asked, oblivious to the entire situation fabricated on her sister's mind; Yang for her part could not form any kind of reply, at most her eyes returned to her usual cerulean shade.

"Oh, we were just informed by the staff that you were here, and I thought that following Kanetsugu's example, I could help your sister to unleash her spirit. I think it worked for you, if the level of destruction is any indication." Ranmaru replied for Yang, saving her from a very awkward situation.

"It indeed was a success; she even discovered her finishing stance!" Kanetsugu happily reported, unaware of the danger he was until a few seconds ago.

"Then congratulations are in order, for that it's a feat not many can boast about." Ranmaru praised the leader of team RWBY, who gave a squeal of happiness in return, causing Yang to cast down her eyes, ashamed of her own thoughts.

"Well, I believe that we must vacate the area now, you'll need the space to work, and I have to take Ruby to a place she can rest." Kanetsugu stated, in such a well mannered voice that it left no room to misinterpret it as something else than good intentions.

"I'll need some help though." Ruby said in a very shy and childish voice, making Kanetsugu chuckle as he lifted her bridal style to take her away; as the pair left the room, Yang turned to face Ranmaru with apologetic eyes, but the apology couldn't leave her lips, for Ranmaru had very evil glint on his eyes.

"Well, I believe we have found your true nature; you are filled with rage." Ranmaru declared with a smile that was undoubtly filled with malice, this cause Yang to let go of the door she was still holding, making a really loud thud as it impacted the ground.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Yang said as she turned away, she didn't want to admit it, but the feeling of excitement she felt as a thrill seeker more often than not was tied to fight with others; Ranmaru for his part decided to have a little bit of revenge for Yang's treatment when she unlocked his aura, so he hugged her from behind, making her go stiff at the moment of contact, it was not improper, yet, but very suggestive, more now that she knew of his true nature.

"Are you going to tell me that your hands are not demanding you to be used? That your chest is not burning with intense desire for action? That your eyes are not looking for something to set you off?" Ranmaru said to her ear, all the while slowly pushing her to the nearest wall, hit his upper body and not his lower one; it still looked dangerously suggestive, but when they reached the wall, and when she felt the truth of his words, she decided to return fire, and not give up her self created illusion of not being a berserker; she slowly turned in his arms to face him, hugging him back, making use of the fact that he was a whole inch smaller than her.

"Oh, I don't know cutiepie. Are you sure you can take all I can give?" Yang asked while pushing him with her lower body, making him blush, but not relent, she just loved to tease him, more with the knowledge that even when he would understand her words, he wouldn't jump at the chance; then both of them heard something metallic hitting the floor, and turned in the direction of the sound, just to find the entire team CRDL looking at them with wide eyes and jaws dropped, with weapons on the floor.

"What?" Both Ranmaru and Yang asked at the same time in a very unfriendly way, although it was mostly out of shame for being caught in such an awkward position.

"Nothing!" The four guys shouted and retreated as fast as they could, their weapons forgotten in the ground due to the shock.

"People are going to talk about us tomorrow, aren't they?" Ranmaru asked in a resigned tone that denoted a certain amount of regret.

"I don't think we'll have to wait for tomorrow… sorry." Yang replied, knowing that she was the one to blame, but really, she couldn't help herself, the poor guy was a formidable fountain of teasing material she just couldn't pass.

"We better get to the training." Ranmaru suddenly said, letting go of Yang, however the blonde brawler didn't, for she felt the boy's body reacting, again; she suddenly decided that if people were going to talk about them, then they should give them reason to do so.

Nondescript classroom…

They had decided to give some time for the link to dissipate, for they didn't want to start a relationship out of an unexpected reaction, if there was going to be something between them, it had to be cemented on a solid understanding of each other, so they decided to avoid contact for the rest of the week, and then have a meeting to discuss the topic further, that was the rational thing to do, it was smart and logic… and they didn't like it one bit.

"So… what is a hanyou?" Blake asked, not as a real question, but as a way to distract herself of the unshakeable feeling of incompleteness she had for being away from Nobunaga's arms.

"Well, they look like humans, but with animal traits, like ears and tail, and have great spiritual power." Nobunaga replied; he was grateful for the distraction, as it prevented him from grabbing some of Blake's silky hair to try to bask in its scent.

"I see, so it's your word for faunus. I take it my kind is not common in your homeland?" Blake asked now, she already knew the answer, but if she didn't set the mood for something more academic, she would be the one to fall first to the embrace of the darkness that was already calling for her.

"I believe so, although you'll have to ask Kanetsugu about details, as I'm not an expert on such things. May I ask why did you put your bow on? I think you are more beautiful without it." Nobunaga's question threw Blake off balance, again, making her heart ache in need of more attention and acceptance.

"Because most of the other students are not as welcoming as you are. In fact, I need to ask you to not revel to the others about my nature as a faunus." Blake's answer puzzled Nobunaga; while he could understand that she didn't want to be subjected to the discrimination that her kind suffered, he thought this to be too extreme.

"Not even your team?" Nobunaga asked with unmasked concern, he was sure that to keep the unity of the team, such secrets should not be maintained.

"I… I'll tell them when I'm ready, I promise." Blake answered in an attempt to finish that line of conversation, and while Nobunaga didn't seem to be convinced, he relented.

"Very well, but know that I'll be there for you when the time comes." Nobunaga offered, and it took all of Blake's willpower to not hug him, which was a good thing, for Glynda entered the classroom in that moment.

"Ah! There you are. Did the proceedings go well?" Glynda asked in a neutral way that hinted to her not have crossed paths with Ranmaru and Yang, to which both Nobunaga and Blake were grateful for.

"Of course. Nobunaga's aura has been successfully unlocked, and he helped me to unleash my spirit; I must admit that it was a very interesting experience, the boost on power will be much appreciated." Blake reported in an all business way, to which Glynda seemed to take notes.

"And I must say that the protection provided by the aura will aid greatly in combat; I can't thank you enough for sharing this treasure with me and my people." Nobunaga's words sounded so sincere and real that they seemed to melt the combat instructor's heart.

"And I can't thank you enough, even in name of the kingdom, for sharing the teachings of the spirit with us, even if it's in a limited number of students; anyway, mister Akechi and miss Schnee are waiting for you at the cafeteria, although I need to hold miss Belladonna for a moment, as I have to ask her a few questions about the proceedings, to fill the appropriate report, of course." Glynda's petition was reasonable enough to not say no, but it scared Blake to not end, she wasn't sure what Mitsuhide and Weiss did, but she was certain that a soul kiss was not in that report.

"If you need it, I can stay too, as my input can certainly help to gather the information that you want." Nobunaga offered, lifting a very heavy weight from Blake's shoulders.

"That won't be necessary, in fact, I insist in you going to meet your teammate; Miss Belladonna and I won't take too long." Glynda's rebuttal only hinted to trouble in the horizon for the broody cat girl.

Headmaster's office, after school hours…

Ozpin was a man that prided himself for his absolute control over everything, his wisdom gave him voice in the council, his benevolence gave him the trust of his students and staff, and his experience gave him the loyalty of all the hunters of the kingdom; so he knew that gaining a new teaching, and hence a new source of power for his people, was something to be happy about, and yet he couldn't help but to be unsettled. He watched and re-watched the footage of the proceedings of the four pairs, the unlocking of auras was very enlightening; Mitsuhide and Ranmaru showing readings above average, Nobunaga showing a very unusual type of aura, and Kanetsugu blowing all records away, that guy alone could be considered a living weapon by himself; the unleashing of spirits was a little more worrisome, Blake and Weiss showed a boost in power large enough to push the issue of teaching it to every student, although the reveal of their true nature was not very welcomed, Weiss was less than stellar when confronted, her rather selfish motivations could spill trouble in the future; Blake seemed more tame, her main motivation could be considered that of peaceful coexistence between species, which was very much welcome in the eyes of the headmaster; Ruby looked promising, her naïve and childish view of the world, along with her pure motivations, portrayed her as just what he needed, that her combat prowess had just elevated to the level of legendary heroes only made it all the better, he held no hopes of controlling her or Kanetsugu, their morals were set in stone, and their will was truly unbreakable, but they could be easily directed for the greater good.

Yang and Ranmaru though, were truly disturbing; not only they showed monstrous power, but also blatantly declared their abominable nature, blood thirsty beasts of war, armed with the strength to obliterate military grade combat robots with eerie easiness was never a good combination. At least Ranmaru had a tight leash holding him, even if it was not in the wise hands of the headmaster; Yang, Ozpin decided, would need to be chained properly, and have someone watching her at all times, least she bites the hand that feeds her. For the moment, Ozpin decided to watch these teams full time, the power granted by the spirit was a great boon that he needed to ensure for the kingdom, sharing it with the others was going to wait a very long time, for he had to agree with Kanetsugu; not everyone should be allowed to have access to such power, just a few select ones, especially if they coincided with his view of the world and the greater good.


Magnus: I hope you like where this is going, and yes, I'm about to touch team JNPR development, see ya in next chapter!