Hello everyone and welcome back to the reading.
Not much to say today, so let's just jump right in.
Nora opened the book with an excited grin, eager to know what happened next.
[Chapter 7: Reveal]
I woke up to sound of the rooms alarm clock going off, "Kuhn you're the closest to the damn thing, turn it off." I groaned, much to my relief the sound ended soon after.
"Come on guys, we have classes today and Pi wants to talk to us all after classes end." Atoli said, already in her uniform, although she wore her white cape as well.
"Wow, she's up as early as Ruby is." Yang said in slight surprise.
"And my sister wants to talk to them apparently." Pyrrha said in thought.
"What? Why?" Kuhn asked.
"I'm not too sure, but she said she sent a message to teams RWBY, JNPR, and one called CFVY to come as well." Atoli said.
"Considering the chapter title, she's most likely going to explain about the avatars to everyone." Glynda said in thought.
"CFVY?" Kuhn asked, "That's my sisters team."
"Oh boy, you think Pi's gonna tell everyone who's coming about the Avatars?" I asked.
"I'm more worried about if she's gonna tell the whole truth, or spin a semi-truthful tale." Endrance said just before he entered the dorms bathroom.
"Hey!" Kuhn shouted as Endrance shut the door in Kuhn face.
A few people chuckled at that.
"Okay, where'd I put that schedule?" I asked myself.
"I have it." Atoli said holding out a small binder.
"Thanks." I said, "Okay could someone tell Endrance the schedule when he gets out because I'm taking the next shower."
"Hey come on now, will you guys stop kicking me already?" Kuhn groaned.
"As soon as you're done being a flirt!" Endrance called before the shower turned on.
"Which is probably never." Weiss said with a smirk.
"Okay at Nine o'clock we have Grimm Studies with Professor Port, at Ten we have History with Doctor Oobleck, at eleven we have Professor Goodwitch in combat training, and at Twelve we have a break, we have Professor Peach in Survival Studies at One, and at two I've got a leadership class I need to attend." I said.
"I've heard from Coco that Professor Goodwitch is getting replaced at the end of the semester, her replacement is supposedly here now and will be splitting the class with her." Kuhn said.
"Well that's a bit surprising." Glynda said in surprise.
"Oum knows that you would definetly need some time off." Ozpin said, making Glynda sigh with a nod.
"Huh, mom didn't mention anything like that." Atoli said to herself.
"Who knows who it is, all I know is that at three Pi want's us all at the Beacon Cliffs." I said, rushing into the shower room as Endrance came out.
"Ah come on!" Kuhn groaned from outside.
[]
'Pi wasn't kidding about Port's tangents.' I thought as I had a hard time staying awake as Professor Port had already gone off on a tangent about a battle with a Grimm... at least I think that's what it was about, I've already heard him repeat a few phrases his father had told him.
Qrow raised his hand with a smirk "Who else falled asleep in his class at one point?"
Ruby, Yang, Jaune and Nora all raised their hands with him.
"In short," Port said, his voice booming to wake me up from almost falling back to sleep, "A True Huntsman must be honorable. A True Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise."
'Yeah, I'm not too sure I'm any of those... Actually maybe I am and I never really put too much thought into it.' I thought entering a deep state of thought.
Weiss sighed "Honestly he probably represents them more than I did back then."
"Was it really that bad?" Winter asked her sister.
"You'll see." Weiss said as she nodded towards the TV.
"So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?" Port asked.
I rose my hand as he said that, while Weiss stood up with her hand up.
"Right here sir./I do sir!" Me and Weiss said respectively.
"Oh ho, it's not very often I have two people come up to volunteer." Professor Port said joyously, "Very well, go get your equipment and be back within twenty minutes."
It was then I noticed the cage in the room, in it I saw a pair of red eyes and a set of ivory curled tusks, I also noticed Port stepping out as well.
[]
I had already collected my equipment and was making my way out of the locker room when I bumped into Weiss who had also just finished.
"You again, what on Remnant makes you think you are any of those traits Professor Port told us?" Weiss demanded.
"I should be asking myself that question honestly." Weiss said with a frown as she looked at how she was back then.
No wonder people called her Ice Queen.
"Before I answer that, how long until we hit the thirty minute mark he gave us?" I asked.
"Thirteen minutes, why?" Weiss asked.
"Because now I don't need to rush my answer." I said.
"Fair enough." Weiss said with a shrug.
"Alright, first on the list is honorable." I said, "Now while I may get pissed off rather easily, I would never get just pick a fight with someone I know I could beat easily, in fact I look down on stuff like that, the only time I would fight someone weaker than me is if they were a criminal, or if it were a sparring match." As I said that I found myself remembering Kestrel, the guild of PK's in 'The World'.
"What's a PK?" Ruby asked.
"A Player Killer, basically they attacked other players and killed their characters, and Haseo was a PKK, or Player Killer Killer." Swift said.
"So... he killed Player Killers?" Jaune guess, earning a nod from Swift.
"At least the World wasn't like SAO." Swift added.
"What's SAO?" Pyrrha asked.
"A game where you put on a special helmet to basically enter a virtual reality, but on the game's launch day, the creator made it so people couldn't log out at all, and if they died in the game, the helmet would fry their brain." he explained, making a few jaws drop.
"That's horrifying." Weiss gasped out.
"Yeah, it ends well though, because someone cleared the game, freeing all the players trapped in it." he added, making them sigh in relief.
"And strategic, well-educated, and wise?" Weiss asked.
"Alright then." I said, "What I saw in the cage back in Professor Port's class was Boarbatusk based on the curl of the tusks, and Boarbatusks are the more heavily armored species of Grimm, which means that rapier of yours will have little effect against it unless you attack the unarmored underbelly, unlike my greatsword which has enough weight behind it when I swing that I could crack the armor. Furthermore the Chainsaw feature is strong enough to carve into Grimm armor so long as I can keep that Grimm held down."
Weiss grew an irritated look on her face and turned her head away, "Alright, fine, I'll admit you're smarter than you look and act."
"Oum it's like I tried to piss people off back then." Weiss said with a sigh.
Swift internally smirked "If you asked me it's her inner Tsundere." he mumbled to Ozpin, the headmaster raising an amused eyebrow.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I growled, only for Weiss to walk away, "Dammit, she pisses me off more than Bordeaux ever has, and she was a stubborn PK."
"Oh great, apparently I'm worse than a PK." Weiss groaned.
[]
Turns out Port had brought out a second Boarbatusk into the room, and he broke the lock on both cages, letting both Grimm charge at us.
[OST- .hack GU battle theme]
Weiss dodged past her Grimm while I swung Lost Epitaph at the Grimm's face knocking it aside.
"Oh ho, Weren't expecting that were you?" Port asked, I wasn't sure if he was taunting the Grimm or us.
"You can do it Weiss!" Ruby cheered, "You too Haseo!"
Turning toward the Grimm I was fighting and away from Weiss I looked at the recovering Grimm before dashing at it and slamming my sword down, resulting in a squeal from the Grimm as I saw it's armor chip.
"Squeal little piggy!" Nora said with a grin before continuing to read, making a few people look at her with a raised eyebrow.
"A bold new approach, I like it." Port called, I wasn't too sure if he was talking to me or Weiss, and I wasn't going to look away from this thing when I was so close to it.
"Ragh!" I shouted lifting my weapon again, activating the chainsaw and slamming back down again, resulting in another, more prolonged squeal from the Grimm.
"Go for the belly Weiss, there's no armor there!" Ruby called.
"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss snapped.
Okay, now she's crossed the line snapping at Ruby like that.
"I feel like my other is in for a major verbal beatdown." Weiss said with a shiver.
"Yeah that tends to happen a lot in stories that put in more people at Beacon." Swift said with a nod.
I lifted Lost Epitaph one last time before slamming it back down on the gash in the Boarbatusk's armor I had made beforehand, slicing the Grimm in half.
[End Music]
I turned off the chainsaw and put Lost Epitaph back on my back as soon as I heard the second Boarbatusk squeal.
'After class Haseo.' I repeated in my head like a mantra as I glared at Weiss, and out of the corner of my eye I noticed Endrance give Weiss a sorrowed look.
"Well done you two, it looks like we're in the presence of true huntsmen in training." Port called out, "I'm afraid that's all the time we have for this class, be sure to go over the assigned readings."
Weiss marched straight out of the classroom and I marched after her, only to feel a hand on my shoulder stopping me, "You're not stopping me from chewing her out Endrance." I said.
"I know Haseo, I just want to let you know something." Endrance said.
"And that is?" I asked.
"Don't hold back your words, she needs the discipline." Endrance said.
"And it's going to get worse." Winter said as she patted her sister's shoulder.
I nodded and walked out of the classroom after Weiss, and caught the tail end of the conversation.
"-Ozpin made a mistake." Weiss had finished.
I looked at Ruby's crestfallen face at glared at Weiss. Following that I marched right up to Weiss with a face of pure anger.
"Oh its you again, what do you-" Weiss started
*SLAP*
Several people winced at that, but none as harshly as Weiss, who honestly could almost feel the slap.
I slapped Weiss in the cheek with all my strength in the back of my left hand, not only knocking her face to her right, but also knocking her onto the ground, "You and I are going to have a very serious chat." I growled, grabbing Weiss by the collar of her bolero and dragging her to the roof.
[]
When I reached the roof I noticed Professor Port was there as well, most likely hearing Weiss struggling to get out of my grip he turned around, and noticing the look on my face walked away, but he did pause right next to me.
"Whatever you do, make sure she can still make it to her other classes." Port said.
"Will do sir." I said throwing Weiss in front of me.
"Does he have to be so rough with me?" Weiss asked with a whine.
"You just pissed off an overprotective older brother, the fuck did you expect?" Yang said to Weiss.
She had forgiven Weiss for her words to Ruby in their world since she apoligized, but it still set her off a bit to see Ruby so sad.
"What was that for!?" Weiss snapped, her cheek still red after my slap.
"You attitude." I said, "Why the hell are you being such a bitch to my little sister? This can't still be about her knocking over your damn suitcases."
"She's a childish, inattentive dunce!" Weiss snapped, "I don't even know why Ozpin made her the leader."
"I have a few reasons." Ozpin said as he sipped some coffee.
"Where did you get that mug?" Glynda asked with a raised eyebrow.
Ozpin simply pointed at Swift, who was sipping some soda.
"Oh like you could be any better a leader." I retorted.
"What gives you-" Weiss snapped.
"That. That right there is why you would make a terrible leader." I said cutting Weiss off.
"What?" Weiss asked, more confused that hostile.
"Your attitude Weiss, it seems like when someone isn't giving you the proper respect you snap back at them. Ruby's childish, yes, but she's still got enough skill to catch Ozpin's attention and skip two years to get into Beacon. In fact she's still overwhelmed by not only getting pushed ahead two years, but also becoming a team leader." I said.
"That's true enough I guess." Weiss said.
"Listen Weiss, don't act like a spoiled brat, Grimm don't give two shits about that, in fact that negative attitude would draw the Grimm to you rather than the others, and given your style of fighting that isn't good for you." I said, "So here's my advice, put aside your title, put aside how you were raised, and try to help Ruby as much as you can."
"I was too stupid to realise that back then." Weiss said with a sigh as Winter hugged her a bit.
"You learned though, before it got too late." she said comfortingly.
"How? I don't even know where to begin." Weiss asked.
"Remember she's skipped two years of school and she's gonna have to do some late night studying to catch up, start there." I said walking off, "Oh right, you got a message from someone called Pi to head to the Beacon Cliff's after classes right?"
"Yeah? Why?" Weiss asked.
"Apologize to Ruby before then, or else." I said.
"Well that's reassuring." Weiss said dryly.
"He doesn't mess around." Blake said.
"No he doesn't." Ren added.
[]
"Good day class." Professor Goodwitch called as class began, everyone in their combat attire, "Now this class is about improving your combat skills, and to do so you will be sparring against one another in this class."
Atoli raised her hand, "Yes Miss Goodwitch?" Professor Goodwitch asked with a smirk on her face.
Glynda smirked as well when she saw some people in the class room had their jaws dropping "I can see why she finds that amusing."
"Join the fun side Glynda." Ozpin said with a smirk while Glynda rolled her eyes and Qrow snorted in laughter.
"I heard a rumor that there would be another teacher in this class who would be taking over next semester, is that true?" Atoli asked.
"Yes." Professor Goodwitch said, "I will be handing over the class to someone else next semester, now allow me to introduce my teaching assistant for this semester and your new teacher for next semester, Pi Nikos."
Pi then stepped into the room, a pair of pink, fingerless gauntlets on her hands, by that I mean the metal stopped at the knuckles.
Looking around I noticed about three quarters of the male population of the class blushing, Jaune included, odds are because of Pi's choice of attire, there was even a collection of hushed whispers. And seeing as Jaune's right above me I could hear him.
Jaune looked away from the screen, and from everybody else, while Pyrrha smiled a bit at him as she kissed his cheek, making him smile.
"She's your sister right Pyrrha?" Jaune asked, "You think you could introduce me? A-and the team of course."
"Goddammit other me! There's a beautiful redhead next to you!" Jaune shouted to the screen, and Pyrrha blushed a bit at his outburst.
'Oh great, looks like her fan base is being reborn again.' I thought, 'Jaune might even have a crush on her too, though I think it may be safer for him to be crushing on Weiss.'
"Of course I could introduce us all Jaune." Pyrrha said, "But Jaune, please remember she's a teacher, and student teacher relationship are looked down upon." Pyrrha said, getting a chuckle from Kuhn.
"O-oh, right." Jaune said.
Pi then sharply slammed one on her high heels on the floor, causing a sharp crack to resonate throughout the room, "Listen up children!" Pi shouted. Needless to say she had everyone's undivided attention, "I will teaching your class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, meaning tomorrow I will be the one teaching you and I have a few things I want to say before Glynda can layout the basics of the class."
"Oh boy." Kuhn muttered.
"First, I will be teaching differently from Professor Goodwitch, where as she would have you focus main on sparring alone or with other members of your team, I will be not only doing that, but I will also mix and match members of different teams during matches, or even sparring with you myself." Pi called out, "This is to simulate how you will never know if you are going to fight with or against someone know or not."
Glynda tapped her chin in thought "I'll have to think about that."
"Just don't place us with team CRDL, any of us." Blake said.
Glynda noded, even she knew there was issues between team CRDL and teams RWBY and JNPR.
"I'll bet there will be complaints from racist bastards." I said to myself.
"Second, I tolerate no racism, should I pair a racist human with a Faunus and I see that the two of you are not working together well I will continue to pair you two together until you can work together without fighting each other." Pi called, "On the battlefield you may not be able to just pick an ally that is human, but there would be plenty of possible faunus you can work with. If you let racist attitudes come into the battle field you. Will. Die."
"Huh, that just might put the jerk in his place." Jaune said hopefully.
"She's not wrong." Endrance said.
"Third, just because this class is not in session doesn't mean you can slack off, should I find your team coordination to be horrible, and not off simply because you were paired with an ally you don't fully know yet, I will be consigning your team to mandatory training sessions with me until I deem your tactics to be sufficient." Pi called. "Remember these rules because I will not repeat them. Should you have teammate out of this class today for whatever reason, relay this to them."
"I'm doomed." I heard Jaune say before his head hit the table he was sitting at.
"Yeah, other me might be screwed a bit." Jaune said with a wince.
[Beacon Cliff]
Pi waited at the cliffs and I noticed that only her and my team were the only ones there right now, "I guess we're early then." I said.
"No, everyone else is just late." Pi said.
"Oops." Ruby said sheepishly.
Of course at that moment Professor Goodwitch walked over to us, "Alright Pi, what is this about my daughter?" Glynda asked.
"I am glad that you are worried about you daughter Glynda, but there are others I am waiting for." Pi said.
Glynda glared at Pi before sighing and walking over to Atoli and pulled her into a hug.
"Professor Nikos, what is this about, you said in your message it has something to do with my brother." Weiss said as she approached with Team RWBY behind her, Ruby and Yang we trying their best to act like they didn't know what was up.
Ruby and Yang both blinked "We need to work on our innocent looks." Yang said, getting a nod from Ruby.
"Patience miss Schnee, we're are still waiting for two more teams." Pi said.
"Hello sis!" Pyrrha called as she and her team got close.
"Make that one more." Kuhn said.
"Kuhn Adel what is it that you've decided to keep from me!" A Coco shouted as she approached with her team.
A, currently slightly cowering, rabbit Faunus with brown hair and wearing a full body suit of brown leather, a giant sized guy wearing a tanktop with an impressively sized sword on his back, and a tanned guy who looked like he was blind given his eyes are pure white wearing an orange vest.
"Yatsuhashi is really freaking tall." Nora said as she looked at the tall boy on the screen.
"Especially compared to you." Ren added, making Nora nod before she started reading again.
"Now that we are all here I can explain." Pi said catching everyone's attention, "First of all, who here, minus Team HAKE, might have an idea of what this is about?"
Pyrrha and Yang raised their hand without hesitation, while Ruby held up her hand hesitantly.
"What is this about?" Jaune asked.
"You see Mr. Arc, Haseo, Kuhn, Endrance, Atoli and I were all born with something else within us." Pi explained, "Beings known as The Phases of Morganna."
"The Phases of Morganna?" The Rabbit Faunus asked.
"Correct Velvet, there are eight Phases, I couldn't find all that much on them but I did find out their names and their abilities more or less." Pi said.
'So she's making up a story with the truth weaved in.' I thought.
"It's the simplest thing to do, and the least risky." Blake said with a nod.
"The first Phase, Skeith The Terror of Death." Pi said motioning to me, "The Second Phase, Innis the Mirage of Deceit." Pi pointed at Atoli, "The Third Phase, Magus The Propagation." Pi pointed at Kuhn.
"That would explain why Kuhn flirts with so many people." Coco said.
That made everyone snicker again.
"The Fourth Phase, Fidchell the Prophet, who is not here." Pi continued, "The Fifth Phase, Gorre The Machinator, also not here. The Sixth Phase, Macha The Temptress." Pi then pointed at Endrance, getting a look of shock from Weiss, "The Seventh Phase, Tarvos the Avenger, who resides in me." Pi continued touching her chest where her heart is, "And Finally the Eighth Phase, Corbenik The Rebirth, he is once again not here."
"So Haseo, Kuhn, Endrance, Atoli and you have these... Phases?" Blake asked making sure she was hearing things right.
"Correct, Teams RWBY and JNPR have already seen Skeith." Pi said, "So you know how powerful these Phases can be."
"Why haven't you told me Endrance?" Weiss asked her brother.
"Because Macha is something I do not want father to know about, yet you can see her effect on my Semblance." Endrance said.
"If father knew about it, he might do something drastic." Winter said in thought.
"Hey can we see one of these Phases ourselves?" Coco asked.
"Of course, I've cut the security camera's so no one can see them." Pi said before she backflipped off the cliff.
And it was Tarvos that floated up.
Tarvos had a pink curvacious feminine body and had a mask like face the had a pair of 'ponytails' that bent down after a certain distance to form two pink wing like shapes that pointed to the ground with three golden ovals pointing toward each other near the end of the wings, her upper legs were bound together by what appeared to be cloth while her lower legs merged together, and her arms were above her head with her wrists locked together by a black spiked ring. But the most glaring thing about her aside from the wings was the giant silver stake rammed through her abdomen from behind her, the back of said stake had a silver rings with five spikes on it.
"Holy crap." Coco said, her sunglasses tipping off her face.
"What she said." Yang said with her jaw dropped.
"That thing is bigger than Skeith." Ruby said.
"Yes." Pi said, her voice emanating from Tarvos, "Skeith is the smallest of the Phases, yet is the most powerful of them all."
"How do you know that?" Ren asked as he tried to shake Nora out of her daze.
Tarvos faded and Pi stood back on the cliff as particles of light fleck off her, "Because the Phases appeared twice before, far before the discovery of Dust." Pi said, once again lying to weave in the true story.
"They have?" Nora asked.
"Yes, they first appeared almost immediately alongside a creature called Cubia, I couldn't find much on it aside from it being an Ender of Worlds. Now the Phases didn't seems to have the same mission as Cubia, yet they still interfered in the journey of a child called Kite, who began his journey to defeat Skeith, who had sent his friend into a coma. During this time the mission of the Phases was to collect data on human emotions, yet Kite defeated them one by one." Pi said, "In the end, Kite defeated all eight Phases and Cubia."
"I need to find this book." Blake said.
"Too bad it doesn't exist." Blake sighed.
"Pretty sure finding a novelization of the games wouldn't be that though." Swift said, making Blake smile a bit with a nod.
"It was recorded in a set of ruins, so you'll have to work on your translations, and find it because I found it by getting lost losing my Scrolls signal." Pi said, "Although in my spare time I may put the story to words."
"I see." Blake said.
"Hang on." Glynda said, "You said they appeared again, when?"
"A mere seven years later." Pi said, "When Kite defeated the Phases part of their essence went into a collection of eight people, sadly these Phases fought one another yet Skeith defeated every single one of them, and then destroyed the revived Cubia that appeared when Skeith had absorbed the power of the other seven phases."
"Does that mean Cubia is going to come back again!?" Yang shouted in worry.
"Oh man that would be bad." Ruby said in a bit of worry.
"No." Pi said, "Kite may have slain Cubia, but Skeith completely annihilated Cubia, it will not return." Once again another lie seeing as Cubia was a digital creature born in 'The World' by the Epitaph of Twilight.
"Thank goodness." Pyrrha said.
"So... where do you think the other three Phases might be?" Weiss asked.
"I'm not all that sure really." Pi said sadly, "I might have a hint as to Gorre but I don't know how helpful it is."
"What's the hint?" Jaune asked.
"Originally Gorre was two mask like creatures that shared a life force, later on Gorre appeared in a child with a Split Personality Disorder so odds are that Gorre will appear with someone with a Split Personality Disorder." Pi said.
"Well that narrows things down." Weiss said sarcastically.
"Actually, I might have an idea who Gorre might be with." Jaune said nervously.
Jaune blinked in surprise "Seriously?"
"You do?" I asked.
"Yeah, I have eight sisters, but my younger sister, Sakubo Arc has a split personality, they shift so much we call the more aggressive one Saku and the shy one Bo. It honestly feels like I have nine sisters instead of eight.
"Before anybody asks, not her actual name, and she's not like that." Jaune said as some people were ready to ask him just that.
'Yep, Saku and Bo are here to, now as two personalities in the same body rather that two sibling sharing a game character.' I thought.
"I see, I'll send your sister a letter later today, for now I suggest you all turn in for the day, I will be pushing at least one of you to your limits tomorrow." Pi said.
"No kidding." Kuhn muttered.
"Endrance I want to see Macha by the end of the year." Weiss said.
"Mom I promise I will show you Innis within the month, okay?" Atoli said.
"This is gonna be a long year." I said to myself as Ruby and Yang walked up to me.
"Probably longer than ours." Yang said as Nora passed the book to Pyrrha.
Well everyone, I hope you liked it!
Read, Review, Don't be a dick, and have a nice day everyone!
See ya next time!
