Author's Notes: Guys, it's been like seven years, but between grad party, moving to my soon-to-be university's city and a whole other list of things, I've barely just been updating my other stories, and now it's this one's turn. It took a while to write, but it's the longest one yet, and there'll be another one out by next weekend. I'm talking a whole week since orientation starts tomorrow, but hey, it's something. Without further ado, enjoy.
Training Initiation
"Alright, kid, aim up. And for God's sake, punch it like you mean it!" At his shout, Cardin gave a roar with his still little voice. He'd turned twelve a week past, and Hei had given him some boxing gloves for a present. He now considered him a real friend, and the big man had taken a real liking to him. Only rough spot that they'd had was when Lucy found out he'd been sneaking out weekdays after school to The Club, Hei's place. It had been one of the few times he had seen truly infuriated, but she managed to hide it so that her angry lecturing wouldn't be for all to see. Fortunately for him, the giant had stepped in, invited the two for a drink, Cardin a soda, and explained everything.
She still lectured him, but she was relieved to hear he hadn't been drinking, but rather training and fighting. Lucy had been somewhat against him boxing because she had thought he was too young, but with the Orphanage as rough as it was, she didn't deny him the opportunity. Besides, she had sized Hei up herself and approved of him, even if he was a bit morally ambiguous when it came to certain matters. And for almost a whole year, Cardin had trained with Hei Xiong. He got to eat lunch and dinner with him, sometimes Lucy as well when she was free the evening, and many of the neighborhood punks didn't want to mess with the raven haired tower.
Cardin had gotten better at fighting. One of the most important lessons Hei had taught him had been that strength, as much as it was worth, was not everything. The trick to fighting was knowing when and where to punch. After Cardin had spent a full month with Hei, he faced Lyle and Tom again. They beat him, and both Lucy and Hei pulled his ears when they heard. He had started the fight, he wasn't defending himself, they said. They deserved it, sure, but he didn't need to get bruises that he could save himself from. The next times he fought he managed to hold them off. Not win, but hold them off.
It was in his sixth month of training that he had earned his first victory. With the knowledge Hei had taught him and an immense amount of luck, he had knocked out Lyle in one punch, a hook to the side of the chin. Tom was hefty work after that, but a great part of their strength came from attacking together. With the Boar Faunus alone, Cardin had been able to corner him and knock him down until he started running. Lyle woke up after maybe three minutes on the ground, found himself alone and ran after his friend. That was one of the happiest memories Cardin had ever had.
Lucy was somewhat glad that it was over, Cardin sported fresh bruises that she was not happy about, but he was no longer being harassed by the two elder boys. Hei had given him a much bigger congratulation, even letting him sip a tiny bit of rum. He spat it out as soon as the first drop made it down his throat. That had made the giant laugh. The results of the fight had motivated Cardin to train further and for Hei to teach him more. It resulted in a surprisingly close bond. And now, a week after he had turned twelve, he was in front of a sandbag, punching the sack with all his might.
He had to stop to take a few breaths, tired and sweaty, but Hei slapped him in the back approvingly so. With a tilt of the head, Hei motioned for the two to walk outside the Club so that the bigger of the two could have a smoke. He was the owner of the place, so it would give it and him a bad reputation if he broke the very rules he had established for it. On the way out, Cardin waved at some of the people he had started to know, those who hadn't been fired for mediocrity by their boss. The giant took a cigarette out, a toothpick in his mouth, and let out a few puffs.
"You know, Cardin, I've been thinkin'…" The prepubescent boy looked at him, question in his eyes as he awaited the other to finish his statement. "This isn't a nice part of town, but it's the right place to make a business like mine."
"Yeah, I don't think there's a lot of good people that go to your parties." At the ginger's response, Hei chuckled. "It's not that they're good or bad, Cardin. They're just rough, simple as that. You're a good kid, but you've been learning how to give a mean punch, for instance. Point I'm trying to make is, there's plenty of rough crowds that want to go to a place like mine at night all the way 'till dawn. That means that they spend a lot of time drinking, meaning some end up drunk, and some of those drunks like to pick fights."
"I kinda thought people here liked to pick fights without drinking, too." Cardin pondered. Hei nodded, but shook his head later. "Yeah kid, but not in my club, or any of those kind of places for that matter. If anything, they're looking to drink enough to forget the shitty parts of their days or weeks. Problem is, doing that can make them aggressive. They're easy to handle, but they can spook people away. People who are looking for a break, which happen to be plenty around here, won't go to a club where they think they'll get caught in the middle of a bar fight."
"Yeah, so?" Cardin could tell Hei wanted something from him, but from the way the giant made it sound, it wouldn't be too much. Besides, if he could help the big man in any way, it'd be great. The raven haired boxer had done plenty for him and Lucy. "Well, under the right circumstances, even drunks know better than trying to piss on others' shoes. I can be scary because I'm damn near a head and a half taller than almost everyone else, but I can't be there all the time. I need to know that if someone mentions my name, then the pests will get the hell outta dodge before they make me come 'round."
"Alright, so what do you want me to do?" Hei looked at him and took a long drag before sighing. "I want you to help me find a look and a nickname that can sink into people's memories."
"Really? Why me? Why not one of your workers?" Cardin was actually kind of excited at the idea, like naming a superhero. Or a powerful individual. Whatever Hei would be classified as. Still, he was confused that he was chosen for the task. The giant chuckled. "The thing is, Cardin, you're too damn blunt 'n' honest for your own good. My men will just kiss my ass and tell me everything's great. You're a still a kid, and in this case, it's a good thing. If you can help me look and sound notable enough for you to remember, then any grown man will, too. So, any ideas?"
Cardin thought and thought, but couldn't recall any recent instances where Hei had been particularly scary. Maybe because he had gotten so used to thinking about him in other, friendlier ways. Then he thought back to the day he met him. At the moment, the owner of the Club was in a brown, leather jacket and a simple white t-shirt beneath it, with black jeans and black boots. He had his sunglasses folded on his shirt, and his chin's little beard was freshly trimmed. The day they had met, he learned, Cardin learned, Hei was actually on his way to one of his friend's grandparent's funerals, hence his formal clothes. It gave the boy an idea.
"You remember the day you found me? When Lyle 'n' Tom nearly left me in the trash?" Hei nodded. "Yeah, why?"
"You were really scary that day." The giant raised a thick, black brow. "More than I do now?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Why's that?" Cardin went over the idea in his head and nodded in approval. "You were dressed really fancy and all in black. You don't look bad now, but some of the neighborhood punks dress like that too. You could add chains to the pants and use spiky wristbands, I guess, but I think the suit makes you look scarier. If you were going to threaten me dressed like you are now, I think I'd be afraid that you'd beat me senseless, shank me and steal my money. If you were going to threaten me in your fancy suit, I would think that you would find the way to hurt me in the worst way possible."
"Huh, that's a pretty good idea, Cardin. I'll give it a thought." As the giant stayed pensive on the boy's remarks, he used two fingers to slowly stroke his little chin-beard. It gave Cardin another idea. "Oh, and I think you'd look even more serious if you left a full beard grow instead of just the chin. You look a bit more youngish if you keep it all in the chin. If you left a small, well cut beard all around, I think it would make you look like the real deal."
"You know, I've only had goatees for about three years now since my cheeks wouldn't grow any hair back in the day. I'll give it a try. Now, any ideas for a nickname? I don't want to scare off people right away with it, but I also want it to be useful in a warning. Something that sticks easily." The fighter-in-training was pensive again, and in the midst of his brainstorm, he found an answer. "Hei, you said you have the same name as your dad?"
"Yeah, I did." He answered, a bit confused by the relevance of the question. Cardin smiled. "Then how about 'Junior'?"
Cardin woke up rather groggily, not really wanting to know what the day had in store for him. It was a Saturday, a day he was going to have to use to get up to date with the classwork he was meant to do, in no small part thanks to Oobleck's intervention. There was plenty of catching up to do, but still, he got out his E-Scroll and looked at the news before he continued on. Amongst there more grand of 'Vale Today's news titles, he found a rather gruesome one he and many of those within the kingdom had grown accustomed to seeing.
[THE WAYWARD WARRIORS STRIKE AGAIN– Once more, brutalized corpses have been found towards the south of Vale city with the signature injuries many others have suffered. The band of ruthless, borderline-terrorist mercenaries self-deemed 'The Wayward Warriors' have taken a hold of twenty more victims that had unfortunately traveled too far down the kingdom and nearer to the Grimm occupied areas. Male victims were reported to have been mutilated in numerous ways, from limb dismemberment to full-body incineration to the female victims, whose wounds are those akin to those found amongst rape victims, violently abused before being executed with a shot through their heads. Once more, it is very much advised by all Vale authorities to not travel too far down south until the mercenaries can be dealt with. Furthermore, all those living towards the southern end of the-]
Cardin shook his head and swiped his finger, reading the next, hardly gruesome article by comparison on Vale politics to not read further into the previous topic. He had read enough on the soulless cunts to not need further information on how their misdeeds characterized their brutal mindsets. Hell, I'm surprised Hunters haven't been sent to cut the bastards from balls to brains. He shook his head once more and kept on reading the articles until he got up from his bed to return to the original purpose as to why he had woken himself up that day so early by his own standards. Silently, he wondered when he would have the time to visit the Orphanage again, for all but his own stake.
It was then that the team's alarm blared, marking the eight hundred hours the four needed to wake to during the weekdays. Not for the weekends. Meaning someone forgot to turn it off. Cardin wasn't as pissed as he could have been with his body's own wake-up call, but across him, Dove was groaning. "Goddammit Russel, it was your turn to shut the fucking thing off."
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry! I haven't even thought about it with all of Oobleck's assignments this weekend!" Lionel sat up silently, not even a frown marring his features. But Cardin saw that killing look in his eyes that came with his silent fury. The leader of the group let out a rumble, making the bones of his back sing with a good morning stretch. Soon after, he was up and went over to the team's desk to shut the clock down. He heard one more pair of grunts in approval as the two quarreling teammates plopped back down on their beds, eager to catch a few hours more of sleep.
"Come on, get up, all of you! We woke up this early, we're making use of today!" His firm shouts were received with protests from the same pair, though the azure haired man had already hopped down from his bunk and stepped into the bathroom, armor in hands. It took five more minutes and a few angrier yells, but the two made it down to the floor. Russel was holding his hands up, half looking at him as if he were a threat, smartly deciding not to anger the giant. Dove, on the other hand, was far more liberal in showing Cardin how he felt in the form of a firmly erect middle finger. Which, of course, was promptly responded to with a good slap to the back of the head.
"Ah, fuck you, Cardin. You're supposed to be the team leader, not the damn prison warden. That's a real crappy thing to do, torturing your faithful comrades. It's the kind of stuff you don't do, or else." He grouched, rubbing the mildly sore spot on his head. The tallest of the three barked his loud laughter. "Or what? I'll be cursed for a traitor? I'll end up in hell next to Satan? I'll have the ghost of Nox Rufus waiting for me at night, trying to take my oh so sweet innocence from me and butcher me clean?"
"I was gonna go with plain old mutiny. Jesus Christ, man, couldn't think of a joke that's just a bit more dickish?" Dove had visibly sobered up with his rather brash comment, prompting Cardin and Russel to look at him. "It's a joke, Dove, don't get your panties in a twist."
"I don't know man, he kinda was the most recent notorious child rapist and murderer whom the police couldn't catch and the prisons couldn't keep. I mean, he's dead now, but still." Russel was rubbing the back of his head when he said that, which made Cardin scoff again. "Yeah, then he was found dead three years ago with the top of his head sliced off and his brain mushed up on the ground at some butcher's freezer. He got what was coming to him. Besides, the dead can't hear us anymore, and if they could, I'm pretty sure they'd be too busy fucking him over to listen to us, wherever he is."
It was at that moment that Lionel left the bathroom, hair still wet but perfectly combed and dressed in his combat armor. "Bathroom's free."
"That was fast." The teammate with the mohawk murmured. The silent man shrugged apathetically, grabbing his weapon from the closet and taking the time to take it apart, gear by gear. Cardin nodded, getting in the washroom next, taking a second to admire the fact that it was pristine and white, that the toilet wasn't clogged, that the shower didn't have some fungus growing from the drain and that the mirror wasn't so much as scratched, much less cracked. At moments like these, he could only think back to the Orphanage. Hell, I gotta go back there one of these days.
Under the rain of the showerhead, he gave himself the luxury of letting his mind go blank. For many, it was the time when the philosophers within them sprouted and made them ask themselves questions about life itself. In that sense, Cardin wasn't like the many as well. Where he came from, showers had to be very quick, firstly because of their ironic lack of hygiene, and secondly because taking too long would increase the Orphanage's bills and beatings would be distributed the next day. So, washing himself clean, he thought of nothing. He was still quick about it, he would not allow himself to waste water unnecessarily, but he did so with a calm he almost never had.
By the time he got out, Russel went in and Dove was on his bed, reading the same book he had seen a days past. Apparently, they had agreed over who should go first. Only clad in boxers, he armored up, waiting for the lime haired companion to finish and dress and for Dove to do the same. By the time they'd left, an hour had passed, but got the pleasure of being the first team in the mess hall. They ate their fill and left. On the way to the gym, however, Cardin spotted a certain blonde sleepily walking towards the men's bathroom alone. He grinned, gesturing for the others to wait for him at the fighting place.
"Why, good morning, Jauney–boy! How are you spending this beautiful day?" He jumped at his voice and jumped again when he slapped his palm rather hardly on his back. He had to blink a couple of times to wipe the sleep from his eyes. He had to think a few more seconds to process his question. His nerves grated in the meantime. "I-uh, I guess I'm-uh, fine."
"Good, that's great to hear! Say Jauney, do you remember that little assignment Oobleck gave us a few days ago?" He could tell the blonde did not like his new nickname. Internally, he made it his personal task to call him that way from that point onwards. He could only hope that the blonde was somewhat smart enough to note the derision behind his falsely cheery tone. His stomach bubbled heatedly when he saw the smaller man give him a blank look. "You want me to do it for you?"
"Of course not. I'm not gonna trust someone who's failing his classes into doing my work for me. What I am going to ask of you is that you find the actual useful information in those five chapters beneath all the bullshit they're filled with. You're going to find the key pages and key paragraphs, and you're going to send them to me tonight. Sound good?" He wasn't actually asking him, but he was enjoying making him feel like shit that morning. Seeing the small amount of relief in the blonde's face, after he had been stung by his previous comment, made him want to take that back and let Arc do the work for him.
"Alright, I'll make time to do it today." Cardin gave his big, wide, shit-eating grin to the blonde and slapped him in the back again, making the leader of JNPR yelp in pain. "That's great! You have no idea how much of a help you're being. Oh, and Jauney? If you send me the wrong information, by accident or on purpose, I'm breaking your arm and telling everyone our little secret."
The blonde looked very unsettled by that, making him smile more. He left the bathroom, finding his redheaded lapdog waiting for him outside. She gave him a mild glare, which he answered to with a grin. She couldn't catch him, and if she was about to, her idiotic leader would stop her. As he walked out of the immediate school grounds and into the fields he found himself thinking about why he had not made Jaune do the work for him and save himself time and effort. The answer, or answers, were very simple.
What he had said about Jaune being shitty at Oobleck's classes was his first and most important point. Cardin wasn't a smart man, but he was smart enough to know that he wasn't smart, and neither was Arc. He wouldn't ride towards the farthest city on the dying mule. The second reason was because any person that did the assignment for someone else did the second far too similar to the first, and both would get caught and be incriminated for copying the other. On the off chance that he didn't make them alike, the blonde would obviously take the best one for himself. The third and final factor that came into play was the sole fact that Cardin would bring his grades and general average up himself. If Jaune miraculously managed to improve his grade, then Cardin would be improving because a useless mutt had done the work for him. He wouldn't have that. Success or failure, everything he did, he did himself.
Having Jaune blackmailed made his work a lot easier, though. He needed to make a two-thousand-word essay on the Great War and its effects on current day Humanity. The topic was ironically easy, many ideas popping in his mind when he thought of the results of the conflict that was responsible for the naming traditions for people nowadays. He had done essays built on logic and modern referencing before, but the reason he had not had good grades on those were his lack of book references. If it wasn't there and it had no other fundament on a trustworthy or official site, then it was essentially bullshit. Cardin hated that he couldn't argue with that kind of logic. It made him feel that much more relieved that the grunt work of the task would be done by JNPR's leader and not himself.
Without having to dedicate as much of his day on that monotonous chore, he could focus on building his team up better. Speaking of which, he was nearly at the gym. They questioned why he had come late, well, all but Lionel, but he shrugged them off. He instead pointed towards the square boxing ring and climbed up, the three following him. At the top, he took a good look at them, furrowing his brows as he sized them up to the best of his ability.
First came his official partner. Russel was hopping from foot to foot, by far the lightest on his feet. For armor, he only had one spiked shoulder pauldron, a small one at that, and two leather vambraces. That was it. Cardin knew that depending on the person, less and lighter armor was the better alternative, but Russel's poor excuse for protection might as well have been to decorate his form. Under almost every circumstance, his 'armor' was virtually useless. "Russel, you and me first."
"Huh?!" He looked startled at that, his hands hovering over his twin Daggers nervously. Dove chuckled at the dual wielder's face. Lionel looked at the scene bored. Cardin didn't smile or frown, simply continuing, "We're sparring, and I want the three of you to go all out on me. Considering you haven't discovered your Semblance yet, us three won't be using ours in the fight. I'll find each of your strong suits and weaknesses throughout. Now go."
With that he unsheathed his great Mace and swung a downwards swing at the smaller man. Russel barely just rolled out of the way, the other two hopping out of the ring to watch the fight from a safe distance. With almost surprising speed, Russel slashed at Cardin, the ginger barely just blocking them in time. He was too big to dodge the strikes fully. The more he moved, the harder it became for Cardin to get on the offensive, but still he waited. At the right moment, he feigned a swing and hit Russel square in the jaw with his right elbow. From there, it took two more good swings straight to the back and the chest to knock him out, the latter's Aura levels faltering terribly.
The mohawk-haired man groaned, still having enough Aura in the redzone to help nurture his soon to be bruises. Cardin walked next to his fallen opponent and offered a hand, which was promptly taken. "You're fast Russel, real damn fast, but you're not the fastest out there and your resistance is worth shit. A few good hits in the right places and you're out of the fight. All your training you've focused on speed and agility, but forgot about everything else. It doesn't help that you don't have guns or some kind of projectile weaponry, you're letting your ambidexterity go to waste. Dove, you're up."
"Aw, dammit." Cardin ignored the next opponent's grunts and Russel's limping. Dove started by shooting Cardin before he could start the match. He was also shooting rapidly and almost randomly, making his Sword's small bullets harder to block. Cardin was spinning his Mace in a pendulum-like way in front of himself to keep the shots off of him, but a few were sipping through. None of it was painful and the bullets that made it through barely scratched his Aura, but the entirety of the act was irritating. It's exactly what Dove wanted.
Walking closer towards his opponent, still swinging his Mace, he made for several quick swings, which were promptly redirected mildly so it would barely graze the smaller brunette. He did it almost easily, expecting as much from the giant. He tried the same thing he did with Russel, but Dove had seen through and dodged both strikes. Cardin made for a strong downwards swing which the other hopped away from quickly, making his way to the other side of the ring before shooting again. While on the surface it looked dumb, it was actually a smart way of playing the fight. Dove hadn't taken damage and he was draining Cardin's aura slowly but surely.
Then Cardin decided he would play the part of the enraged opponent. Running full speed towards Dove, he stopped just before the smaller man rolled away. With a rather unconventional use for his Mace, he threw it like a spear towards the Hunter in training barely getting back up. Dove dodged again, but miraculously so as the great metal beast scraped his armor. Caught off guard, Cardin gave Dove a perfect hook to the cheek, knocking off his balance. Keeping the lack of predictability, he grabbed the other's blade mid-swing by the blade, slowly bleeding his Aura. In a surprising show of brute strength, he tore it from Dove's hands and tossed it aside. From there, he almost easily knocked the blue eyed opponent out.
"You're fucking crazy." The fallen man groaned almost inaudibly. Cardin chuckled softly at the remark and offered his hand again. Dove got up and quickly shook his head, opening and closing his eyes in a rapid succession to regain full control of his body. "You've got a smart system, Dove, but you cling to it as your only fighting style. You're average in every respect, and you know how to wear down and piss off most opponents until you outclass them in terms of Aura and levelheadedness. If someone tries anything that isn't conventional by any means, you're fucked. You've got pretty good fighting skills, but sometimes you take too long to react, and without your Sword, you lose a great deal of that fighting strength. Also, it would definitely be better if your pistol's bullets actually made a difference. I get what you're going for with more shots, but sometimes fewer and better placed strong shots are worth more."
He didn't need to say a word for Lionel Sky to step into the ring while it was now Dove that limped out. Cardin held his Mace rather loosely, eyeing his opponent to analyze him. But the silent specter gave nothing away, grabbing his Halberd just as loosely. Cardin grunted at his own obvious disadvantage. He could tell Lionel had studied his fighting style meticulously, as he did with everything he set himself to, and Cardin only had two thirds of his Aura. He would need to play it carefully.
He started walking in sidesteps to the right, circling around the ring. The blue haired comrade did the same, leaving the two looking like wolves at the ready for a good fight. Cardin stopped, Lionel did the same. The two ran. The weapons swung in an incredibly fast flurry, Cardin holding back as little as he had to. He grunted the more time passed. Each and every one of Lionel's strikes were smartly made, going for the best weakness or current opening in the giant's defenses. He was nearly overwhelmed, when, in a final resort, Cardin aimed precisely for the Halberd and let it get stuck in his Mace's grasp. Being the stronger of the two, he tossed both weapons upwards and out of the ring, leaving the two empty handed.
Almost immediately, Cardin and Lionel were back at it again, only with their bare hands as their weapons. It was actually nearly the same as when they had weapons. Lionel made for punches and kicks to hit and greatly wound a man a full head taller than him. Cardin was on the defensive again, but now he was letting himself give out a few punches himself when and where he could. He had spent twice as much time in his life fighting with his fists than his Mace. When he gave punches, Lionel blocked them, but they were powerful enough to force the smaller man back and still make an impact on his aura. Lionel, by difference, didn't make as much damage onto his massive frame, but still managed to keep up with more, better placed punches. It helped that Cardin had armor twice as thick as Sky's.
Then, the greatest turning point in the match had happened. With the martial arts the smaller man had displayed, he knocked Cardin to the ground by latching onto him and kept his left arm in an armbar. The ginger grunted, but the blue haired fighter was locked in. "It's over, Cardin. Tap out or I'm breaking your elbow."
In an insane rush, Cardin stood up, carrying Lionel with his great strength while still in the lock. The smaller man raised a very surprised brow at his moves, but then went for it and snapped the giant's elbow, making the two members of the audience groan and cringe at the sickening snap. For a second, all Cardin could feel and think of was the incredible pain his arm was in, barely breathing enough for his lungs to gain the bare minimum of oxygen required. It took all of his will to not use his Semblance then and there. Even with his Aura only a few points just above the redzone, Cardin felt adrenaline rushing through every fiber of his body, even his now useless left arm.
Savagely, he launched a now truly shocked Lionel from his body, rolling on the ground as he watched with awe the still standing, now rampaging giant. With a final boost speed and strength, Cardin gave the best jab he could give to Lionel right in the stomach before he could cover himself. It sent him to the end of the ring, covering his stomach as Cardin charged with another punch ready. Lionel blocked it this time, but the strength of the swing wounded both arms. Impossibly quickly, Cardin grabbed Lionel by the chest piece with his remaining good arm and headbutted him thrice before the best fighter out of the three was finally out cold.
Cardin dropped him and fell himself, leaning on one of the ring's corner tubes and holding his left arm carefully and tightly. His Aura was working on healing the wound, but he knew he could not save himself from a visit to the infirmary. He took deep, slow breaths, trying to at least calm his mind and ignore the pain for the time being. He had been in far more terrible situations with much worse odds before and he had still pulled through. When he looked up again, Lionel was standing with an arm around Dove, needing the assistance for the time being while Russel was kneeling in front of him, shouting at him, probably asking if he was alright or not. Slowly but surely, the sounds from the outside world made it back into his brain to be processed.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. After I say what needs to be said here, I'll go to the hospital. You three will stay here." Dove and Russel looked at him surprised, while Lionel awaited further instructions. There was a glint in his eyes, still there from the shock of his great threshold for pain and his ability to fight with an arm completely incapacitated. It was beyond respect, Cardin was sure. Maybe it even bordered on admiration. It surprised the giant to have warranted as much from the otherwise emotionless man.
"Alright, Lionel, as you can probably guess, your lecture will be the shortest. You hit hard, you hit right, and you're a very tough fucker if you can take my hits like you did back there. But, you can't let your guard down until your opponent's completely out of the fight. I even managed to out-speed you in the last minute of the match. If I had to give you advice, which is little enough as it is, it would be to counter every attack headed your way. If you can't, then try dodging. If you can't do that either, then resort to blocking. If you're up against an opponent stronger than you, which already sets the bar high, then they will be able to wound you through your arms."
The bleeding man held his nose tight and snapped to the right place again, taking a deep, pained breath as he did. Then he nodded, taking his words as a new mission. Cardin had to say, out of the three, he liked Lionel the best. He was a hell of a fighter, a great match against him, and he was a no-bullshit kind of guy. Those qualities deemed great respect from him. It was the kind of profile Cardin would have adored to have from the brother he never had.
"Alright, now the three of you listen up, because this goes as the new training regimen that you will follow every weekday for the rest of our time as a team. Russel, you're gonna run fifteen kilometers every day, do a hundred and fifty squats, fifty push-ups and fifty sit-ups. You're not strong or resistant now, hell, I'd say you're the weakest one of us as it is. You're going to build up that stamina throughout time with the push-ups and sit-ups, and you're gonna reinforce your speed and leg work with the squats and the running.
"Dove, you'll be doing a five kilometer run, seventy-five squats, seventy-five push-ups and seventy-five sit-ups. You're an all-rounder, so improve in every way and ask Lionel for advice on hitting and slashing in all the right places in case your fighting tactics don't work. Lionel… well, I don't need to tell you shit, but if I were to give you an advice, then it would be a ten kilometer run, a hundred squats, a hundred push-ups and a hundred sit-ups to make sure you stay in shape or even grow stronger. Fighting-wise, I've already told you everything.
"The exercises I've given you are natural workouts that you do with your own bodyweight. The better you get, the more you can do. Wherever you came from, it doesn't matter anymore. You're in Beacon now, which means you can eat however much you fucking want without anyone telling you otherwise. Gain weight and gain muscle, being healthily fitter will make you much better fighters as it is. Next weekend, we start working with Semblances and how we can incorporate them into fighting techniques. As for Russel, you're the only one without one yet, we'll work on figuring yours out. Now that we're done here, I'm going to the fucking hospital and getting my arm fixed."
Author's Notes: Well, hope you've enjoyed this chapter. It's been a little different from usual, and it's entirely written by me, as you've seen. To make it simple, 'unique' chapters like these will be rare in the first Volume, they will be far more common in the second (though it will be closely following cannon), and Volume three will be far more divergent. Anything and everything post-Volume three will be AU, I'll be driving the road from there by myself. It may be influenced by Volume four, but it's going to be my story from there on out. I hope you guys stick through for the adventure, because it's gonna get a hella lot rockier along the way (but it will also have good peaks, too). Please do review if you've enjoyed or if you think something could be changed/improved.
The Almighty Afroduck,
All Hail
