Great. Another chapter. Maybe the next one will be stalled out more than just a month so my suffering doesn't need to be written down.

Wow, I'm bad at keeping up with the chapters aren't I? Meh chalk it up to summer laziness and attempting to write non-fanfiction in the spare time. Also, this chapter is most definitely NOT my best work despite being longer than the other chapters.

-Ψ-

Kaidou was excited. Very much so.

After an uneventful trip to the locker room to equip themselves, Kaidou stood with a number of other first-year students at the edge of a cliff overlooking a large forest and ancient ruins of stone architecture. Students that would be his future… well, they already were his allies. Off to the side, Kaidou noticed Ruby nervously looking around and Kaidou gave a quick wave when their eyes met.

Ozpin was currently giving a speech about what the initiation process was, but Kaidou wasn't particularly paying attention. Soon he was going to be runn… walking into the forest below to strut his stuff. He heard Ozpin say that they were going to assign partners today based off of eye contact, and get some relics on the other side of the forest under supervision. Ozpin also said something about dying, but Kaidou was pretty sure he was just scaring everyone else.

Apparently, this initiation was going to be serving as a trial for him and his classmates so he would have professionals shadowing them for safety. Ozpin said he wasn't sure if Kaidou and others were actually prepared quite yet, as only the best were actually allowed to be in Beacon. Kaidou wasn't sure if he wanted to be the best.

But he wanted to be a hero.

"AIYEEEEEE!" Kaidou screamed pathetically as the metal plate he was standing on suddenly catapulted him. As he was at the end of the line, he was the first to be launched and Kaidou's sore lack of awareness bit at him.

Before Glynda could launch the next one in line, everyone heard the sound of someone planting themselves on metal. Turning to Kaidou's launched plate, everyone stared at the poor teenager clutching at it.

Kaidou, after spiraling a little while in the air, teleported back to the cliff and clamped himself onto the flat catapult. Still visibly shaking, Kaidou began calming down as people began staring at him with varying degrees of surprise, pity, and scorn.

Looking at Ozpin and Glynda, Kaidou nervously chuckled when Glynda shook her head in disappointment.

"Sorry…" Kaidou apologized as he let go of his ground. "I'll… just… go."

Kaidou walked to the edge of the cliff with his head hung low and teleported away into a random spot in the forest to cry.

-Ψ-

'Gotta find Yang… Gotta find Yang…' Ruby thought to herself, sprinting off as soon as she landed from her own launch. She wasn't particularly worried about her evaluation, but more so, about finding someone that she could actually work with. 'Ah, this is bad, really bad, oh what if I can't find her, what if someone finds her first?'

'There's always Kaidou.' Ruby's thoughts instantly shifted to other possibilities. 'He's nice, he's kind of cool, but he wasn't really that good at fighting when we sparred…'

'Maybe Kuboyasu? I mean he looks like he can handle himself, and doesn't seem as exciteable as Kaidou. But I bet he's looking for Kaidou… and I don't want to get in the way of that…'

Caught up in her thoughts, Ruby failed to realize the living obstacle crouched on the ground in front of her.

And so, she crashed into the object and tripped into the ground.

Quickly picking herself up with her arms, Ruby regretfully screamed, "Oh no! Did I just run over a squirrel?!"

Ruby, while young, was trained as a huntress. Auras were a very core part of that doctrine. As a physical manifestation of the soul, an aura works as a physical barrier that could protect from harm proportional to their size. That's why the Grimm could be deterred as well as they have been by humanity.

Of course, that means other organisms could hold auras as well, and Ruby could understand how it felt to break an aura using smaller organisms where even a finger prod could break their auras. And in this case, she knew that only something like a squirrel could have an aura so small that it was severely broken just by Ruby tripping on it even at her speed.

Which is why Ruby then had to question her understanding of auras when she saw Kaidou with his face painfully dug into the forest ground. "Kaidou…?"

'That really hurt... I want to cry more…' Kaidou thought, with his face entirely in the dirt. 'I guess Ruby's my partner… wait…'

Ruby was about to help Kaidou up, perfectly accepting that he could be her partner even if she still preferred her sister. However, her effort was halted when Kaidou held up a finger despite still eating dirt.

"Mmph." Kaidou mumbled. Realizing he couldn't be coherent in this position, Kaidou tilted his head slightly forward so that his mouth was no longer in the ground but was still extremely close. "Wait, wait. Ruby, that's you?"

Ruby nodded. A few moments passed before she understood Kaidou didn't see that. "Yeah?"

"You're looking for your sister, right? Like how I'm looking for Kuboyasu?" Kaidou questioned.

"Uh-huh?" Ruby affirmed.

"We have not made eye contact! And I saw Yang above me while I was…" Kaidou stopped his explanation before he was about to reveal something embarrassing. Instead, Kaidou pointed in a different direction than where Ruby was headed. "She went that way."

"But it's okay if we're partners…" Ruby said, despite wanting to just run in the pointed direction. It would feel like she was just abandoning Kaidou.

"…It's okay." Kaidou stated, uncomfortable with a girl actually showing him kindness. "You go find your sister, I find Kuboyasu, and we all be on a team together. Deal?"

Kaidou hurt himself trying to hold a pinky in an awkward angle in the general direction of Ruby's voice. Feeling his pinky being shook and footsteps that went impossibly fast in the direction he pointed, Kaidou finally rolled over.

His eyes were red and his face was covered in dirt, and Kaidou just wanted to cry some more. But he needed to get up, he had a promise to keep.

"What are you doing, Shun?" Kuboyasu called out, having heard a conversation. "Were you talking to yourself again? Also, camouflage isn't just you putting dirt on your face."

"…Shut up." Kaidou denied, turning away to wipe away any remnants of crying. He also felt disappointed that Kuboyasu found him and not the other way around. "Let's just go, Aren…"

"Oh hello!" A cheery female voice called out. Looking towards the source, the two boys saw Pyrrha approaching them. "Have you two seen… Kaidou?! What happened to your face?! Are you okay?"

Kaidou began running away, trying to hold back more tears.

- Ψ-

Weiss landed perfectly. 'Well, that was only expected.'

"Did I just run over a squirrel?!"

Weiss only barely recognized that voice as one of those two squealers on the main walkway yesterday. She had been thinking of scolding the two, but their third wheel seemed to have some sense of where he was. It would probably be a nuisance if she needed to interact with them at all.

Especially if she doesn't have the sense to avoid a squirrel.

Thankfully the direction she needed to go in was in the opposite way as well.

Given a few minutes of dashing through the forest, believing that if she walked it would be a detriment to her overall evaluation, Weiss was forced to stop.

Not because she met opposition, but rather because there seemed to be a very bright light emanating from her left, short of being blinding but almost as if there was a consistently burning firework. 'That shouldn't be the northern exit of the forest… but what else could be producing such a light besides the relic?'

Abandoning her controlled run for a full sprint, Weiss quickly reached a clearing where she was met with a curious sight.

'What? Isn't that…?' Weiss thought, seeing the girl who grabbed everyone's attention the other day. While Weiss was certainly hoping to be partnered with Pyrrha, the amount of people that this girl attracted made her a teammate candidate as well, but it would be difficult to track her landing pattern when Weiss was one of the first to be launched and Teruhashi had been the very last. 'Teruhashi, was it?'

That thought came secondary as Weiss just stared in confusion at the scene before her. There was a veritable horde of Beowolves that were actively slashing away at the huddling blue-haired beauty.

Well, rather they were slashing at the giant indented orb that was protecting her from their attacks.

Weiss wasn't sure whether or not to be impressed. Considering the patterns that the Beowolves were circling Teruhashi, the Grimm had clearly been at this game for a while, meaning that whatever Teruhashi was using was formidable. However, that strength didn't seem to carry over to her willpower as Teruhashi herself was cowering on her knees in fear.

And as haughty as she may be, Weiss wasn't going to let that fear continue.

Teruhashi lifted her head from her knees as she heard wolf-like cries of agony around her. She hated the situation that she found herself in and had been patiently waiting until her supervising huntsman would finally show up and save her. Thinking the moment had finally come, that hope was transformed as Teruhashi saw one of the girls she recognized from the cliff was tearing through those monsters like they were paper.

The white-haired girl was handling her rapier just as well as Olympic fencers in Teruhashi's eyes, and her weapon seemed to sprout fire, ice, and lightning at what could only appear at random intervals to the combat novice. The sudden appearance and flawless integration of large circles of varying colors and fancy designs within their perimeter was a spectacle on par with the wonders Teruhashi had already bore witness to.

But even paper can cut, and even Teruhashi could tell that the amount of Beowolves that she herself had attracted with the noise and the light she had been producing was giving her fellow initiate trouble. But it hadn't seemed like she would lose the fight… even if Weiss would be a bit banged up afterwards.

Teruhashi was scared to help… the only means of help she could offer would rid her of the only thing separating her and the monsters.

It was something that she did not give up easily.

Teruhashi watched as Weiss backflipped through the air at a height she would never had thought possible, but what drew Teruhashi's trained eyes was the bleeding cut that opened Weiss's sleeve and arm. Her eyes weren't usually focused on things other than the expressions she would manipulate and the possible nuisances that could make their presence known when she was out for a walk, but it was difficult not to notice the splotch of red on Weiss's vestige of white.

'This isn't what a perfect pretty girl should be doing, right? Princes are supposed to help their princesses but I'm more than just a normal princess…' Teruhashi wasn't sure if she was actually going to be of any help, but she resolved that she could at least give Weiss some room to recover stamina.

Stamina which Weiss would probably deny she needed, sweat heavily beading on her forehead. Without time to wipe the liquid away, Weiss prepared to do a spinning cut at the Grimm behind her before rolling away from the part of the horde she needed to backflip and escape from.

At least, that was the plan before Weiss was knocked off her feet, and stabbed her rapier into the ground to prevent any further momentum from one of the strongest gusts of wind she had ever felt. Noticing the Grimm had even less luck at protecting themselves from the bale of wind, Weiss could take the time to stare at the source.

"Holy…" Weiss's voice trailed off before she could commit an act of blasphemy to the Brothers. It seemed she was mistaken when the indents on the orb were caused by the Grimm. It wasn't an orb in the first place. But rather, Teruhashi's aura was caressing her.

Teruhashi stood unabashedly as sizable shining wings composed of aura flapped once to straighten themselves, the wind they produced being appropriately less powerful than the full force of their opening.

Even the Grimm seemed to pause in wonder, although not for very long.

With an uneasy smile, Teruhashi had her wings draw backwards as Weiss braced herself. Before any of the Beowolves could come closer, Teruhashi panicked, disrupting her idea to just flap her wings hard again.

Instead, her panic caused Teruhashi's wings to slap all the remaining Grimm in front of her into a messy pile. Realizing she didn't need to brace at all, Weiss professionally recovered before summoning an icy white glyph encompassing the literal dogpile, and stabbed her rapier forward to create a large shard of ice to pierce through their black hides.

Teruhashi, who closed her wings defensively on instinct and closed her eyes, heard a voice say, "And I thought you were just going to sit there."

Peeking her eyes open, Teruhashi saw Weiss standing in front of her, expression recognizable as somewhat grateful, mostly annoyed. The latter emotion was something that Teruhashi had only got used to being directed at her from Saiki and that accursed child, Yuuta.

Weiss looked at Teruhashi's wings again. "Is this supposed to be your semblance?"

Teruhashi tilted her head before shrugging. "Probably? I had Goodwitch-sensei activate my aura yesterday and these are what came out."

Weiss was taken aback from that statement. "Wait, this is supposed to be your aura, then?! How?! …Wait… yesterday?"

Weiss's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "As amazing as this is, how could you even get into this school if you didn't even have an aura yesterday?"

Teruhashi stepped back nervously. "O-oh… well, that's a long story…"

Before Weiss could complain, Teruhashi continued, "And not in the long way as in me telling it, but you believing it… Ozpin said it was my choice to share it with my teammates if I wanted to in the future."

Weiss sighed, realizing that if Teruhashi as being truthful, this wasn't the time or place. "Well, we're partners now. But… I guess we can talk about after initiation."

Teruhashi just nodded in response.

"I'm guessing you have no idea where to go, do you?"

Teruhashi just nodded in response.

-Ψ-

"This. Is. Stupid." Toritsuka complained for the fiftieth time. Collapsing on the ground after his pants got caught on a twig for the fifteenth time, Toritsuka heaved his breath in and out. "So much walking…"

'That stupid launch made the only ghost I had with me lose me. Where the heck is that person?! I probably should have asked his name, we've been stuck on a different world for a few days now. At least he was a gymnast, apparently. But where the hell are the ghosts on this planet?!' Toritsuka inwardly yelled.

Toritsuka could have gotten help. He spied some green-wearing Chinese-looking person with a pink highlight in his hair earlier. But there was the hammer girl following him on a tree above him and Toritsuka was too scared to approach at all out of fear for what was between his legs.

"Ne! Isn't someone supposed to be watching me?! Can I time out?!"

After no response for a good while, Toritsuka sat back up so that the bush he had been pressing down raised with his body, and enveloped him in the leaves. After a futile attempt to brush the foliage off, Toritsuka sighed and lowered his head.

His head then got horribly kicked.

"OW! What's the big idea…" Toritsuka stopped speaking as he came face to face with a big black bear wearing a stupid mask. "Grim thing, right?"

Toritsuka instantly got up, and with the fear of Saiki-san in him, ran away in a full sprint. Which still wasn't very fast, allowing the Ursa to follow closely behind, roaring all the way.

"Saiki-saaaaaaaaaaaKUPLEH" Toritsuka's pitiful cry for help ended as he jumped over another bush into a black obstacle. Realizing the proximity of the Ursa behind him, Toritsuka quickly scrambled on top of it.

For a moment, he felt safe. But as soon as you read black obstacle, you probably already had an idea of what just transpired.

Toritsuka lolled back his head as the thing he clambered over began growling. But before anything else could happen, the Ursa underneath him began flying backwards, crashing into the other Ursa.

The sudden momentum shift caused Toritsuka to fall backwards and look up to his savior that kicked the Ursa away. And then he blanched when he realized he was in even worse trouble.

"Oh. Guess who decided to drop in." Yang said, cracking her knuckles with sadistic smile.

Giving a nervous chuckle, Toritsuka tactlessly asked, "Was that supposed to be a bad pun?"

Toritsuka's ensuing pain was worse than if an ambulance were to run over his head, as he once again lamented how much more hostile this world, and especially the women, were.

"Mea-OW!" A howl of pain interrupting whatever was supposed to be said came from above the two of them. Despite Toritsuka's pain, he quickly scrambled to the side before two teenage girls made impact into the ground he was previously on.

On second thought, the girl on the bottom side fell chest-down. Toritsuka should definitely have sacrificed himself there.

Ruby quickly got off of the black-haired girl under her. "I'm so sorry! How did this happen twice in a row?! I mean, you were in a tree, I couldn't expect that… wait, no, this is still my fault!"

Looking up, Ruby squealed as she made eye contact with her sister, "Yang!"

"Sorry. Bit late." Yang replied, pointing a heavily clenched hand's thumb over to a bruised Toritsuka. He waved as he looked Ruby over.

"Oh." Ruby sadly said.

"Then I guess that means we're partners, then." The girl Ruby fell on calmly got up and brushed herself off. As Toritsuka kept looking between them, she then proceeded to hold out a hand towards Ruby. "Blake, by the way."

"Ok." Toritsuka mumbled with his eyes closed, not knowing he got the attention of present company. Yang prepared to punch him, realizing what was happening. "Neko, cat girl gets an A. Full body, good curves, probably lean muscle."

Blake would feel offended… well, she did feel offended but she flinched at her nickname. "What do you mean cat girl?"

Toritsuka opened his eyes, realizing he was talking aloud. 'Dammit, the girls here are way more sexy that I can't help doing this. But they're all sadistic, and I'm not particularly one for that kind of play.'

"Oh. I'm just called you that because the noise you made before you fell sounded like a meow." Toritsuka brushed off. "Not to mention that bow of yours makes you look like a cat, which also adds points."

Alright, now Blake only felt offended.

"But your new partner…" Toritsuka began, not noticing Yang's menacing knuckle cracking noises. "You two make an amazing combination. She gets an S… young, cute…"

Toritsuka began trailing off with a disgusting look on his face, not wanting to go into the parameters that may possibly be offensive, for some reason unbeknownst to him. Despite the nasty context of his words, Ruby blushed anyways.

The next few words Toritsuka whispered under his breath, but Yang, who had still been in close proximity, managed to hear them. "I would definitely like to do it with her."

Blake and Ruby could feel Yang's vein pop from anger even from a few feet away. "Hey."

Toritsuka momentarily ended his fantasies from the word clearly meant for him and looked towards Yang questioningly.

"You would definitely like to do what with my sister?" Yang asked with a very hostile tone.

"Kyah. Don't make me say it. It's embarrassing-" Toritsuka's blush drained out of his face as he became pale. "Your… what?"

Yang gave a demonic grin. Toritsuka, who felt a fear on par to which he had for Saiki, decided to make the most of his last moments, metaphorically for now. As Yang winded up her arm, Toritsuka turned to Ruby and bowed. "Please go out with me!"

"Eh? No, thank you."

"GAH!" Toritsuka responded, devastated metaphorically by Ruby and literally by Yang. As his body began flying out of the trees, scraps of clothing, and a bent metal badge flew from Toritsuka's person.

"You two can go ahead." Yang said, with a sweet tone. "There seems to be another monster in the forest that needs to be exterminated."

As Yang began walking away, Blake held out a hand to try and stop her before Ruby put her own hand on top of hers. Looking to her new partner, Blake saw Ruby solemnly shake her head, as if the young reaper had witnessed her sister on these rampages in the past.

"By the way, do you know where to go?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah. Wait, did you get lost?" Blake wondered.

"No…"

- Ψ-

Toritsuka felt all kinds of wrong. Although one of those emotions wasn't a disgust for himself, only for the world. His body was in immense pain, his stamina was completely drained from all the walking, his spirit and virginity was in pain that he may never find a nice pretty girl like Ruby to f… date, and he realized he didn't take a shower this morning so he felt dirty compared to his normally clean self.

Oh, and Toritsuka was currently using his dick-shaped aura to stick himself into a tree.

With his head facing into the tree in more ways than one, Toritsuka found himself in a difficult spot as there was a lot of empty space between the height he was attached to and the actual ground, without a singular branch to grasp onto. Well, maybe. Toritsuka was having difficulty seeing, as he was stuck among the leaves of the forest canopy.

Toritsuka used his aura to stick into a tree but it had never occurred to him to use his aura to soften his descent.

'Well, I guess I can just stick here for a while until I have the energy to climb down.'

Toritsuka felt like the gut he was punched in could be caved in just if he tried to eat something. And more than just his pride got knocked out of him. This day sucked, but he wasn't about to jinx it by saying something about it.

Which still failed.

"AIYEEE! Saiki-san! WHY!" Toritsuka desperately yelled, as he felt himself be plucked away by something very large.

Even if his soul was tainted, his aura was still fairly powerful as Toritsuka watched what appeared to be talons clawing away at the front of the cylindrical part of aura.

With the rate his aura was trying to be torn into coupled with the sheer height in which he was ascending, Toritsuka didn't notice the clothing around his nether regions becoming wet.

Down below…

There was a pair of students that were proceeding on after dealing with two snake-like King Taijitu. The one with the giant hammer poked at her male partner, wielding much slimmer green SMGs. "Hey, Ren! Doesn't that Nevermore kind of look like it has a dick?"

Looking in the direction his partner was facing to stop her incessant poking, Ren stated, "Nora. Grimm don't reproduce in that… actually, it kind of does."

"Right?!"

On the cliffs…

"What do you mean you lost him?!" Glynda yelled into her scroll.

A scruffy voice answered back. "The badge we put on the kid broke, I'm looking at it right now."

"But didn't he already find his partner?!" Glynda yelled back.

"Quit yelling." The voice answered back, knowing that he was still addressing a superior. "Yeah, whoever that girl was, I forgot her name, decided to punch him into next week. That's why I lost him at all."

Ozpin decided to voice his concerns. "Glynda."

"What?"

"I think that Nevermore has ahold of young Toritsuka."

"What? How would you- oh." Glynda looked forward to see a Nevermore desperately scratching away at Toritsuka. Instructing loudly into her scroll, "Gaoh! Get into the sky now! He's on a Nevermore!"

"Which one?"

"What do you mean, which one?! There's only… oh no." Glynda clutched at her scroll as she saw a small flock of five Nevermores coming to join the one assaulting Toritsuka. "What is going on…?"

"There has to be an influx of negative emotions, either here or possibly in the city." Ozpin offered an explanation. "At the very least, Toritsuka had the strongest aura in terms of defensive capability."

"Well, at least that accursed shape did until Teruhashi unlocked hers." Glynda corrected.

"Right. It seems he's manifesting it perfectly well, and help should arrive within due time."

Glynda was about to object, but she noticed Ozpin cling harder to the tip of his cane than normal and decided to stay silent for now.

Back with the destined to die…

"Shit. Shit. Shit." Toritsuka repeated in his panic. "Wait!"

Toritsuka fumbled around his pockets until he touched metal. Carefully taking out his binocular-shaped weapon, Toritsuka pointed it towards where he thought the face of whatever was holding him was and clicked the flash.

But as it was broad daylight, and he was pointing it towards the sun, barely any light seemed to be emanated. 'Crap.'

Thinking about chucking one of the lens bombs, Toritsuka dismissed that possibility thinking that it would hurt too much at the close proximity, once again forgetting how auras worked.

Instead he collapsed the binoculars on itself to make it into a dagger. Turning himself around the try and stab at the underbelly of whatever Grimm type was taking him, Toritsuka yelled out, "Take this!"

With all the force he could muster, Toritsuka stabbed into the Grimm. However, his inexperience in actually gripping a dagger caused him to lament the laws of physics. The moment he made contact with the black skin, the opposite force knocked away his dagger onto the forest floor.

"Okay. Seriously. Seriously!" Toritsuka complained.

"Hey!" A voice called out.

Looking to his side, Toritsuka saw the middle-aged man of a spirit besides him. "Where the hell have you been?!"

"Sorry. I was having trouble finding you…"

"Whatever! Get in me!" Toritsuka begged.

The spirit nodded before jumping into Toritsuka's body, and displaced Toritsuka's own spirit. The spirit seemed to give a confident smirk to where Toritsuka was floating.

Toritsuka suddenly felt a thousand times grateful for this guy. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Satou Ishikawa." The spirit responded with a hefty voice, Toritsuka's vocal cords being exhausted from all the screaming.

'Yeah, I'm totally going to forget that.' Toritsuka thought.

Satou deactivated Toritsuka's body, and despite the toll Toritsuka had taken, the ex-gymnast could use Toritsuka's much younger body to balance himself on the Nevermore's talons, which had grown accustomed to the dick shape.

Before the Nevermore could try and slash Toritsuka's body, Satou dived off towards the ground much to Toritsuka's fright. 'Ex-gymnast or not, what kind of human being does that kind of bullshit?!'

Attempting to catch up to his own body, Toritsuka saw a yellow blur shoot out from the trees. 'Oh crap, she's not still mad, right?!'

Satou saw a red-eyed Yang barreling towards him at impossible speeds. Although the spirit had no clue who she was, Satou felt Toritsuka's body freeze in an instinctual fear.

Passing him in the air without a clue, Yang smirked, "I got this one!"

Yang's momentum carried her directly into the Nevermore, giving her ample force to punch the Nevermore in the face-beak. Hard.

With the laws of physics being softened around Yang, instead of shooting backwards, she started floating back downwards as the Nevermore spiraled out of control towards its brethren.

Seeing the damage the initial Nevermore caused to the formation, Yang celebrated, "Strike!"

As for Satou, he could no longer feel proper muscle control anymore and panicked. Thinking as quickly as he could, Satou reactivated Toritsuka's aura but still took plenty of damage when he landed on his feet out of a gymnast's habit. Feet which were the least protected part of Toritsuka's entire aura.

Feeling his legs give away under him from the pain, Satou realized he probably wouldn't be able to walk for a while. "Toritsuka, I think it's alright now!"

Hearing the bushed ruffle behind him, Satou turned towards the noise thinking Toritsuka was coming to meet him.

At least until he remembered that spirits like him don't make noises like that. Satou was an average man who didn't experience the paranormal and had been sheltered in a much more indoor life due to his immense flexibility.

Nevermores were scary, but Satou just saw them as big birds. Scorpions, on the other hand, were something that humans naturally feared.

And seeing one the size of a small truck emerge from the bushes caused dividends.

Compounding on Toritsuka's fear of being thrown around by the Nevermore, the instinctual fear caused by Yang, Satou's fear of seeing the Death Stalker Grimm-type had been too much.

- Ψ-

"Huh?" Toritsuka mumbled. He heard his own voice call out his safety from down below, while he himself was actually impressed that Yang could direct her violence elsewhere. And do it pretty well.

For once, he was glad that he got Yang as a partner.

Floating downwards at a similar pace to Yang's, Toritsuka saw shiny particles drifting away with the wind. Shiny particles that as a spirit medium, he had seen before.

"Satou?!" Toritsuka abandoned his floating to dive straight down to where he heard his own voice.

Under the canopy, Toritsuka bit at his spiritual lips as he saw his body, legs bloody for whatever reason. But more importantly, there was a giant scorpion Grimm next to him.

Toritsuka dove into his body to roll out of the way.

SPLCH.

Toritsuka heard a muffled noise above him, as he realized that instead of entering his body as he always did, Toritsuka dove straight through, into the ground.

Peeking his head above the ground, Toritsuka found nothing where his body and Grimm previously were. Flying upwards, Toritsuka worriedly looked around.

But all he could find was a bloody splotch on the ground. "Oh that better not be what I think it is."

- Ψ-

"Chess pieces?" Weiss wondered aloud. Looking around the pedestals of the remains of a temple-like structure, Weiss grumbled in annoyance. "Guess we weren't the first ones here."

Teruhashi walked besides her holding the white queen piece.

"Huh. Nice choice." Weiss commented.

Before they could begin walking away, a new pair made their way to the relic site. The orange-haired girl wearing a white shirt with a heart cut into it and a pink skirt waved excitedly at the two girls. "Hey!"

In an instant, which thoroughly freaked out Teruhashi, Nora was in front of the white rook piece and grabbed it. "I'm queen of the castle!"

"It's called a rook, actually…" Teruhashi corrected.

"But it's shaped like a castle, so a castle it will be!" Nora stated, holding the piece proudly above her head. Ren walked up from behind her and put his hand on her should in an attempt to calm her down.

It failed.

"Oh hey! Look! Now there's a bunch of Nevermores!" Nora yelled out, pointing into the sky.

Seeing the difficulty the flock could pose in battle, Ren and Weiss simultaneously said, "We should probably go."

While Ren didn't look towards her, Weiss suddenly felt glad that there was another competent person here.

A happiness that would only be reinforced when Weiss heard the voice of the famed 'Invincible Girl.'

"Oh, I think we're here!" Pyrrha excitedly called out to her three companions. Turning to the four that were around the temple ruins, she waved, "Hello!"

Teruhashi felt slightly relieved as she saw Kuboyasu and Kaidou walking towards their group.

"Oh man." The fourth member of Pyrrha's party, a blonde male wearing white armor over the upper chest area of his black hoodie and jeans, complained. "I guess it really wasn't in that cave."

"Jaune, I don't think they would be that stupid to put the relics in some random dark cave." Kaidou gave his insights. "In this situation, you're supposed to put the relics in some open place so a bunch of people could meet and then be teammates with one another."

"Kaidou. Anime logic does not work everywhere." Kuboyasu retorted.

"It's been working pretty well so far." Kaidou grumbled.

The new members of the crowd looked around at the assortment of chess pieces. Kaidou, in realization, said, "Oh, I want to be the black knight! Wait, the white knight would be more heroic, right?"

As Kaidou plucked the white knight, Kuboyasu asked, "Since there's two pieces of everything, isn't that how they pick teams? Couldn't we rig it right now?"

Everyone proceeded to stare at Kuboyasu. Nora was the first to speak up, "Well, what's the fun in that?"

"Well. Wouldn't it guarantee you wouldn't get stuck with people you hate?"

Everyone looked upwards to the new voice. Blake was standing above them, and would've looked decently cool with that entrance if she wasn't carrying Ruby over her shoulder like a towel. Before anyone could ask, Blake explained, "She tried to hitch a ride on a Nevermore."

Weiss blanched at Ruby's stupidity. The two newcomers dropped down to make the group count ten.

"Hello Blake." Pyrrha gave a small wave.

Kaidou scratched at the back of his head as he walked towards a now let-down Ruby. "Guess you didn't find your sister, huh?"

"No, I did…" Ruby shook her hands in front of her to alleviate Kaidou's guilt. "She just found somebody before I did. But hey, Blake is really cool, too! She's like a ninja!"

Ruby invaded Blake's personal space in a hug. The so-called ninja delicately asked, "Please get off me."

Ruby did exactly that, with a nervous chuckle. "Heh. Sorry."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Maybe instead of loitering here, we could just move on? As much as I hate to admit it, it would probably be easier to move as a group."

Murmurs of agreement ensued, despite Weiss's tone. The remaining pairs grabbed their own pieces: Jaune took the white rook piece for Pyrrha, not unnoticed by Ren and Nora; and Ruby took a white knight piece, earning an unseen fist pump by Kaidou.

However, fate seems to be a cruel mistress in stories. Kuboyasu, feeling his mullet aura being tugged at, yelled out, "Get down!"

A flurry of razor feathers hailed upon the temple ruins, everyone doing their best to protect themselves. Pyrrha and surprisingly Jaune, quickly reacted and held up their shields to act as bastions for Nora, Kuboyasu, and Teruhashi, who couldn't dodge as quickly as the others. The former shield user made up for her circular shields much smaller size by expertly deflecting the oncoming projectiles. Weiss, Ren, and Blake reacted with more grace, using their agility to roll behind pillars to protect themselves from damage. Kaidou teleported far away to the side with a poof while Ruby mimicked that motion using her speed semblance to dodge to the same side.

The culprit, or rather culprits, made themselves known as four Nevermores descended upon, the other two Grimm seeming to be preoccupied with something else. Three of which took made a line, which seemed to be ready to charge in a prey on the student huntsmen. The fourth provided suppressing fire with more feathers, although the onslaught had decreased dramatically.

Weiss thought about the options present to her, but Jaune once again surprised her by taking point. Turning to Teruhashi and quickly getting over her impressive wings, more compact when not in combat, "Can you help me and Pyrrha with the one still pelting us with feathers?"

Before Teruhashi could even nod, Jaune turned to Kuboyasu and Nora, "Your weapons look more close-ranged, could you take out the one directly in front of us?"

Deciding they didn't even need to nod, the two rolled in the space between Jaune and Pyrrha to begin their assault immediately, bat and hammer in hand.

"White girl! Help out ninja girl and green guy with the one on the right!" Jaune yelled out.

"It's Weiss!" She yelled, deciding to follow his instructions for now, deciding Grimm distribution wasn't something to argue over.

"And we'll get the last one, right?!" Ruby called out for approval.

Realizing he was acting like a boss, Jaune nervously replied, "Y-yeah, g-good luck!"

Kaidou, not wanting to look not that cool, teleported beside Ruby, who brought out Crescent Rose in sniper form. "Um."

Ruby quickly fired off a shot to get the attention of their assigned Nevermore. With determination, Ruby said, "Listen, I know you're not that good at fighting, but I can probably kill it if I can build enough speed to cut its neck off. I don't know how long that'll take, so can you just distract it until I say 'Take cover'?"

"Hmph. Who do you think you're talking to?" Kaidou replied confidently.

"Are you Kaidou right now or one of other Kaidous?" Ruby wondered innocently.

Kaidou failed to hold back a blush. "I can do that…"

Ruby dashed away in a plume of red petals, and the Nevermore she shot tried to follow until its eye was pierced with an ivory sickle.

"I meant to do that." Kaidou whispered to himself, having launched his Bloody Moon's sickle form to draw its attention. Before he knew it, Kaidou was thrown into the air as the Nevermore drew back its head with the sickle still attached. "AAAAH!"

Kuboyasu didn't particularly have time to worry about Kaidou's screaming, trying not to step on Nora's toes as they both just beat on the Nevermore that had been closest to the group. However, the large Grimm continued to draw backwards until it was the furthest, taking minimal damage from their swings.

"Dammit, quit moving!" Nora yelled in annoyance. Slinging her hammer around and transforming it into a grenade launcher, Nora tried to pelt the Nevermore with explosive capsules. However, just as it had been doing, the Nevermore flapped backwards, crushing the arc of the projectiles into the ground. Kuboyasu, unaware of the weapon change, was blown back by the ensuing boom and slid backwards with a nasty scrape alongside his right elbow.

"Wait, can you kill it if it does?" Kuboyasu grunted, wincing as he tossed his bat from his right hand to his left.

"Well, duh?" Nora affirmed, wondering his point.

"Okay. Got it. I do that, you kill it." Kuboyasu tried to explain as simply as he could. Activating his aura, Kuboyasu charged while Nora was taken aback at his aura's shape.

Or rather, the lack of shape. Instead of being an aura that enveloped him, Kuboyasu's aura was incredibly spiky and jagged, and in constant motion with the spike retracting and shooting out at every other moment. His aura seemed to even leave parts of his body completely exposed to possibility of unfiltered damage.

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but they break yours too!" Kuboyasu thought aloud.

Kuboyasu, instead of swinging blindly like the Nevermore became accustomed to, threw his entire baseball bat after twisting the top of it to light the entire thing in fire-based Dust. Purposefully throwing it at an angle towards the left, Kuboyasu mirrored the Nevermore's dodge to the right and brought his fist down into one of the Nevermore's legs.

Controlling his mess of an aura, Kuboyasu channeled a spike to pierce directly through the Nevermore's leg and implant itself into the ground.

However, expending that much aura in a direction caused Kuboyasu's backside to be completely exposed, a prime target.

The Nevermore slashed a talon brutally across the flesh of Kuboyasu's back to leave a deep and bloody gash. Even so, Kuboyasu stood steadfast against the pressure, clenching his teeth from the excruciating pain.

Nora, always one to move on instinct, was already in mid-air when Kuboyasu was struck. And with one valiant swing, the Nevermore's head crashed into the ground, beak barely grazing Kuboyasu's side as it twisted at an impossible angle.

As the Nevermore dissipated into black particles, Kuboyasu forced himself away to check at his back injury.

"Whoa!" Nora exclaimed. "That doesn't look good. You alright?"

"Yeah yeah." Kuboyasu waved her off. Half-jokingly, he stated, "Just another scar."

Nora picked up on the 'half' part, but decided to leave it alone. Feigning ignorance, she turned back and waved, "One down!"

Nora posed triumphantly as it seemed two of the other groups were already cornering their own respective Nevermores.

The unit comprised of Weiss, Ren, and Blake looked to be perfectly battle-competent. The Nevermore's wings were constricted by rope originating from Blake's weapons, said girl attempting to tighten that hold upon the Nevermore's back. Its feet had been encased by ice, completely ridding the Grimm of any opportunity of movement.

With a simultaneous attack, Weiss stabbed her rapier into the base of the Nevermore's neck as Ren unloaded a full SMG clip of one of his weapons into the top of the Grimm's head as he used the blade of his other weapon to provide him a proper handhold.

In the meantime, Pyrrha had very well single-handedly defeated her group's assigned Nevermore. Jaune and Teruhashi had been relegated to the sidelines, the latter only having provided support by providing harsh gusts to push away feathers.

Jaune hadn't done much at all. Despite this, Pyrrha and Teruhashi would both comfort him much, much later that day that his solitary shield shove was helpful.

As for the last group… well…

"AAAAA- AAAAA- AAAAHH- HHHH!" Kaidou consistently screamed while teleporting every half-second, trying his hardest to stay in a perimeter around the Nevermore to buy time for Ruby and not have it fly away. While the Nevermore attempted to track his movements, it had since given up. Now it was trying to use whatever it could to attack everywhere it could with a reckless abandon, whether it be beak, wing, feather, or talon.

This had been going on ever since we last left off on Kaidou.

The rest of the cast looked on in embarrassment at Kaidou's antics. The moment they approached to help was also the moment that negated any need of it.

Ruby, in a near-invisible blur, finally made her appearance as her scythe's blade cleanly sliced off the Grimm's head with the precision of an expert executioner.

Before Kaidou could even stop screaming, he witnessed a newly-screaming Ruby dart past him. Even he could see that Ruby may have built up more speed than necessary as her trajectory continued to be a perfectly horizontal line.

"Waitwaitwaitwaitwait!" Ruby continued to scream as she shot past all present company at uncontrollable speed, leaving rose petals in her wake. Her cries were eventually silenced with the firing of a bullet and the subsequent sound of a body crashing into dirt.

When Ruby regained her composure and opened her eyes, everyone besides Kaidou were standing over her with either concern, held-in laughter, or contempt. The absentee was too busy cradling himself against a stone pillar out of residual fear.

Mumbling to himself, Kaidou kept mumbling over and over again, "So sayeth the crow… so sayeth the crow..."

- Ψ-

"Dammit, dammit, dammit… where the hell…?" The spirit of Toritsuka continued to grumble as he flew slightly under the forest canopy.

For the past… well, he lost count but it was a really long time, Toritsuka had been searching high and low for his body, to no avail. "I've never been out of my body for this long and while this is giving me ideas, I can't feel anything without actual hands."

Finally giving up his manual search, Toritsuka decided to slowly make his way back to the cliff where Ozpin was. Maybe he'll possess that really hot dominatrix and ask Ozpin if his supposed surveillance knew where his physical form was.

As he made his diagonal flight to Ozpin, Toritsuka noticed a number of students climbing the cliff face. One of which had blinked to the top of the cliff after offering a hand to a couple of them.

"Guess that's wimpy kid." Toritsuka commented. Suddenly, he stopped his flight as he realized something.

There were girls wearing skirts.

And they were climbing upwards.

Toritsuka immediately changed his path to underneath the climbing group. He just felt guilty that he didn't have to do the manual work, that's all, and totally believable.

- Ψ-

By the time Toritsuka finally reached the top of the cliff, he had a newfound and utter gratitude to his phantasmal form. He could put his face and arms and other things wherever he wanted and they wouldn't even know. It was a godsend. 'Thank you, Saiki.'

Rousing himself away from his libido, Toritsuka weighed the costs and benefits between spirit and body.

Before he could make a decision, Toritsuka overheard Ozpin raising his voice sharply. "Why do you have this line, Miss Xiao Long?!"

Looking over to the headmaster, along with anyone else in earshot, Toritsuka's lack of tact allowed him to fly over to towards Ozpin's ear to eavesdrop on the conversation. There was a chance he might've done the same if Toritsuka wasn't a ghost and it would have been a certainty if the receiver had been Glynda rather than Ozpin.

Catching the latter half of a sentence, Toritsuka heard the annoying woman that punched him several times earlier speak with a desperate tone, "-said to say we need ground support. He's busy… and we need medical support too!"

'Heh.' Toritsuka smiled as he realized the annoying girl was having a hard time. 'She gets what she deserves, and karma has been served!'

"Can you not fall back? Are you surrounded?" Ozpin replied.

"No, it's not that!" Yang snapped over the communications line. Sounds of bullets flying and screaming from both Yang and an unidentified male party interrupted the conversation briefly before Yang could speak again, "The Grimm are the ones falling back! And we're barely keeping up with them!"

Ozpin took on a look of shock, alongside Glynda who seemed to be on the same communications channel, "Why are you chasing?!"

The sound of bullets being reloaded joined the sound of the previous male voice barking out orders too inaudible to hear over the call. "Gragh! They have that purple-haired guy! The Grimm are taking his body for some reason! Shit! Where is he?!"

Shock once again adorned the headmaster's face as Toritsuka was taken aback by the statement. Without needing to say anything, Ozpin looked to Glynda who nodded in response before yelling out instructions of her own on a different channel.

While imperceptibly grinding his teeth, Ozpin asked, "Can you tell if he's alive?"

Toritsuka hadn't stuck around to even hear the question as he darted away in a random direction, hoping to pick up on a sign of where his body was.

By the time he found it, Toritsuka Reita was in the morgue. And pronounced dead.

- Ψ-

Alright, first thing to address. Their auras. While the Toritsuka and Kaidou have their semblances based off of the puns in their names, their auras are actually another feature in the source content.

While I hope that some of you actually know who Aiura is, or are reading this in the future where she made an appearance in the second season of the anime, it's because of her powers that the auras in this story are special the way they are. I'm going to avoid any other spoilers because that'll come in time but for story reference:

Kaidou: Incredibly tiny aura.

Kuboyasu: Spiky and uneven aura.

Teruhashi: Literal angel wings with a few black feathers as an aura.

Toritsuka: ...An inappropriate joke in itself.

And the thing I eluded to in the last chapter about Kaidou and Kuboyasu… I'd probably say they're the 'Generic Self-Insert Character.' Or in this case, characters.

The GSIC, for short, is basically to implement your own personality or a very delved out personality in your head without betraying the actual character personality. If that doesn't make much sense, basically it's the reason Naruto and Jaune are popular fanfiction main characters. Because you can write them how you would like, and their actual personalities are such an open book that it's still believable in context. Those two barely have any characteristics that make them unrelateable which is why you can have super-criminal born to Salem or Roman or etc. Jaune Arc or a Naruto that beats enemies through the power of dance.

If those are actual fanfictions, I apologize. I would research but I'm lazy. But anyways, if you were to write a Saiki Kusuo self-insert, I would suggest otherwise and just write from Kaidou or Kuboyasu's perspective unless you're going for that self-insert appeal. It'll make more sense in the universe and there's less freedom so the story can actually be focused rather than trying to make an OC's personality show in random situations.

Kuboyasu is definitely the GSIC of Saiki Kusuo. Even if he can be kind of stupid at times, as long as you make it so that Kuboyasu can't tolerate bad guys or make an AU where its explained otherwise, you could probably write him the same way Naruto or Jaune would be.

Kaidou, however, can be a bit less of a GSIC than Kuboyasu. After all, he's meant to be a wimp and a chuunibyou. However, the brave streak he sometimes has and some of the things he does makes him seem like a GSIC. However, he is a much more prominent character which makes him a contender for the Saiki Kusuo GSIC.

However, I guess this whole thing is kind of irrelevant since most people probably won't use a GSIC for Saiki Kusuo fanfiction. The reason being that Saiki Kusuo doesn't take place in a super interesting alternate world. GSIC is normally used for stories that you can write about a cool environment like Remnant or otherwise. Saiki Kusuo takes place in just plain ol' Earth.

Also, this entire segment isn't meant to make me sound pretentious or anything and I'm definitely NOWHERE near a professional writer, so take my opinions how you will. But if you were to write a fanfiction, maybe see if there's a GSIC somewhere in the story that you could use and abuse. After all, writing a story with an alternate Jaune Arc rather than an OC is probably going to be read more so you could actually get more opinions and stuff.

That being said, I'm not going to try and deny that Kaidou and Kuboyasu are being written with that GSIC mindset. Their characters are pretty flexible that I could basically write whatever and it would still believable in some way. If that turns you off or if you end up thinking about it during any scene I write them in, sorry 'bout that. Just thought I'd share since that's what these things are for.

Now for the review responses:

Raygha, I feel like I should just be copy-pasting a genuine 'Thank you' at this point. Not to say I don't appreciate your support, it's always welcome.

Zentari, I know you reviewed Chapter 3 but if you're reading this, Saiki Kusuo being smart but picking up the idiot ball to cause dumb situations is basically what the source content is. But since it's a crossover, I'll try my best that you can't see an idiot ball as the plot progression tool.

doaNUMBERSSSSSS, one of your biggest fears is also mine. Which is probably why if anything else happens it'll be High School Esper or Green Lantern so I don't burn out of writing this story so I can write about different things so writing this shouldn't get stale in theory. So for now, I'm working on both of those to see if I could keep it up in private before making it public. Maybe I'll post the Green Lantern one soon but that's an 'if'.

But as for your hopes of Toritsuka's death, sorry I used it the way I did. But I feel like if I say anything else, I could accidently spoil something else I have planned so an apology is all you and probably a decent number of readers get for your tensions being released in such a pathetic way. These chapters weren't really supposed to happen anyway.

Powdered Fred, I can't keep being awesome if I wasn't awesome in the first place. That aside, thanks for being another reason why it feels valid to actually write these chapters.

And Guest… um, when I said I 'wrote too much,' I meant I wrote too much in the Author's Note. I know that chapters aren't that much. That note was a lot longer than I had planned and sorry that I didn't make the context of 'too much' clear enough.

As for your preview… Catching Up.