So, this took longer than usual to write, but in the meantime, I have gotten the basic structure for a couple of other chapters down.
An end to beginnings
Lafiel
Beep, beep, beep.
The sound of the alarm broke Lafiel out of her dream. It had been a good dream, she remembered. She couldn't exactly remember why had it been good, and could only remember snippets of it now, but merely knowing that it had been good was enough for her to yearn to go back to it again.
Beep, beep, beep, the alarm continued to sound. Rustling sounds in the other beds told her that the others were stirring too. Blearily, she opened her eyes and looked at the nightstand between her and Pandora, where beeping clock showed 7:01 on its digital display.
With a groan, she reached out to turn it off, wishing that she could have remained in that dream for just a little longer. It wasn't to be though. Not if they wanted breakfast before classes. Sitting up, she looked to the other beds.
Pandora had already risen in her yellow and black pyjamas and was busy collecting the supplies for a morning shower. On the other side of the room, Seishin was still fully covered by the red covers, except for a large arm that was blindly fumbling for the clothes that he had laid out the night before.
Turning her gaze slightly, she saw that Yonsa's bed was empty, except for the packed backpack leaning against it, but that was no surprise by now. Even after returning to Beacon the night before the Winter Break ended, he had made an effort to avoid them as much as possible. That included getting up before and going to bed later than them.
Lafiel didn't know how he had managed to persevere through it for the past three weeks, but she doubted that it was good for him. After all, she had once found him napping while holed up in a dark closet in a remote area of the library.
Sighing, she got up herself and started getting ready for the day. Half an hour later, they were all ready to go get some breakfast. The dining hall was crowded by students, some still only half awake, trying to find places to sit or leaving for classes.
The group of three managed to find a place to sit and snatch some food from the platters. Pandora mostly chose fruits and dairy products, while Seishin went for a giant bowl of oatmeal with raisins generously sprinkled atop of it. Lafiel herself chose to eat some fruits with honey-covered bread, slices of roasted bacon and eggs.
As they ate, she chatted a little with Team APLE beside them. Lucia was cordial enough, though Lafiel did occasionally catch her eying the empty spot next to Seishin. It was just another reminder that their team's feud was no private matter anymore.
Even if their first mission had not propelled them to celebrity status amongst the first years, Team LPYS would have still been high on the watch list due to its members. Pandora was undefeated in 1-v-1, with Lafiel also ranking quite well, if she was to say so herself, and nobody could miss Seishin in a crowd or best him in strength. Even Yonsa was well above the curve.
All that visibility did however come with the drawback that it hardly took more than a few days after the Winter Break before the team's disarray was commonly known. A large part of that was due to Yonsa's behaviour after he came back.
After having been gone for two whole weeks with his Scroll turned off and neither Lafiel nor Seishin able to find any trace of him within Vale City, he just suddenly popped right back in with no explanation. When they had asked him where he had been, he had merely looked at them with contempt, echoed that it didn't matter and refused to speak more of it.
Aside from just avoiding them when possible, he had also almost stopped all communications with them altogether. The only exceptions seemed to be when they were doing group exercises that required him speaking to them, and even then, it was clearly done with as few words as he could get away with.
If Lafiel had thought that he was a man of few words before, it paled in comparison to now. He wouldn't even respond to everyday pleasantries, and the one time she had tried bringing up their fallout, he had left in the middle of her sentence.
It had made her worried that he might have meant what he had said back then. She didn't think he had, but…she wasn't sure, and that thought scared her more than she would like to admit.
The silent treatment, and the awkwardness that it brought, was worsened since whenever they were required to be in the same room for something, he would sit with them. Well, near them might be more accurate.
"Still no progress on that front?", Lucia asked cautiously.
Lafiel realized that she had been staring at the empty spot and gently shook her head, "none."
"I know you don't like it, but could you at least tell me what is wrong?", Lucia asked with her curiosity showing through her concern, "I mean, it has been three weeks already. How can anyone hold a grudge that cuts off his only friends for so long? Whatever you guys did, it couldn't have been that bad."
"He is the one that-", Pandora managed to snarl, before a warning look from Lafiel got her to shut up. They had agreed not to turn this into a public spectacle.
"We're working on it", Lafiel answered Lucia diplomatically.
Lucia nodded in acceptance that nothing more would be said about that, but could not hide that she looked like she had gotten more out of Pandora's brief outburst than Lafiel would have liked. Lafiel could only wonder at how long and in how many versions the outburst would be in before the entire school had heard. Lucia was many things, but being good at keeping a juicy piece of information secret was not one of them.
Still, Lucia's question did get Lafiel thinking. Was that how others perceived the situation too? When she thought of it, it was true that when looking from the outside, it truly did look like he was the one that was distancing himself from them, which was more indicative of a victim than an offender.
Add to that that he was still technically doing his share of their group work, and Lafiel could quickly begin to see how others would perceive a permanent break with nothing else to go on. Sighing, she knew that it was just another reason to try and mend things with Yonsa sooner rather than later.
Dejected by where the conversation had gone, she ate a little more from her tray, before gathering it up and leaving for Port's class, with Seishin and Pandora following her example.
"Oh yeah, due to the drama, I forgot to tell you", Pandora cheerfully said as they walked, "when I was home, I told my parents about our team and how we lived. Even showed them this picture too."
A Scroll with a picture in full screen was shoved into Lafiel's face. The picture showed all four of them, as they had looked when their team photo had been taken at the initiation party. Lafiel didn't know if it was just her imagination playing tricks on her, but Yonsa seemed resigned even then. She hadn't really ever thought he looked like that before now.
"How did your parents take it?", Lafiel asked somewhat curious.
"Well, my father was a little concerned that I was rooming with two boys, but he said that he understood where I was coming from and that he trusted me", Pandora answered, before hesitating, "my mother…didn't look at it that way. She kind of suggested that I should have a room to myself, at the very least."
"How did you manage to convince her not to?", Lafiel questioned.
"My father managed to convince her that it would isolate me from the other students", Pandora said as they passed one of the janitors, who looked up from his work to nod in greeting to them, "in any case, I think that they have accepted that it has worked for me so far, so they should trust me to take care of myself."
"What about Yonsa and the mission?", Lafiel wondered. It didn't sound like she had explained that to them.
"I said that we ran into some unexpected difficulties during our first mission, but made it through them regardless", Pandora answered in a tone that suggested that she had not elaborated too much on those unexpected troubles, before continuing on in a less sure voice, "and regarding him, I didn't say anything about that. They shouldn't have to worry about such things."
Something in the way that she said it made Lafiel think that it was not just for their sake that she had omitted that piece of information.
Yonsa showed up just before the class began and sat beside Seishin without speaking a word to any of them. From his appearance, Lafiel guessed that he had either been in the library or gone jogging and then showered afterwards.
She could never be quite sure what he did during the times that he was not required to spend with them. She had followed him a few times, but she was fairly certain that there was no pattern to what he chose to do on any specific day.
One day, he might study in the library in the early morning, then spend the lunch break with them and retire to the shooting range for the evening. On another, he might start out jogging, go to the training room and train the spear, most often by himself, before finishing off with the library or something else.
At this point, she was fairly sure that whatever he did was whatever he felt like on that day, as long as it didn't involve them in any way shape or form.
"And so, the beast and I looked into each other's eyes. Neither flinching nor wavering", Prof. Port droned on in the background.
Beside her, Pandora was taking notes and Seishin was trying very hard not to fall asleep. Yonsa had that glazed look that she had seen during his watch on the first day of the mission, and to her surprise, the headset was connected to his left ear. The one facing away from the teacher.
Occasionally, she would catch him typing a few commands into his Scroll, but he would otherwise look like he was paying attention, at least from the outside.
"Ahem, Ms. Lamprose", Prof. Port suddenly interrupted class, "is there a Ms. Lamprose present?"
"I'm here!", Lafiel announced and raised her hand.
"Yes, there you are, Ms. Lamprose", Prof. Port acknowledged, "Professor Ozpin wishes to speak with your team. Please report to his office immediately."
"Yes sir", Lafiel acknowledged and got up with a confused glance at her teammates.
Why did the headmaster want to see them? They hadn't done anything of note lately that she could think of, unless Yonsa had done something in his free time. Lafiel rejected that idea quickly. What if Pandora's parents had decided to take a more active role in her education?
A worried glance at Pandora as they walked down the halls had the other girl slightly shaking her head, though Lafiel guessed that the other girl had at least thought the thought herself too. The rejection of that possibility made Lafiel cast another glance over her shoulder at Yonsa, who was walking two steps behind the rest of them.
It was like having one of the Atlas androids for a teammate.
When they got to Ozpin's office, he was sitting behind his desk with Ms. Goodwitch standing to his left. The desk had a glass surface and four large mechanical legs holding it up, and in front of it were four wooden chairs.
"Welcome students", he greeted warmly and put down his black tablet Scroll, "have a seat."
As they took their seats, Ozpin continued, "I am sure that you must be wondering why I called you here in the middle of class. It has come to my attention that your team has suffered a…disruption, and that this has prevented you from functioning as a team."
"If I may ask, Professor, do you do this for all teams?", Pandora asked politely.
"If I have time, I try to help all my students", he said and took a sip of coffee, "however, given the prominence of your team, I felt compelled to intervene more directly in this matter since you appeared to not be able to solve it on your own."
"I don't see a reason to complain. The team has fulfilled all requirements put before it so far", Yonsa surprisingly objected.
"And you do not believe that anything has been missing for the last three weeks, Mr. Chén Zhuáng De?", Ozpin asked neutrally.
"I have performed all duties required of me during the group exercises", Yonsa defended, as if Ozpin's words had been a direct attack on his person.
Duties. Is that what he considers us as now?, Lafiel thought and then remembered what he had said to her that dark night so long ago, or has it always been like this?
"I see", Ozpin said and turned to the others, "and how do you feel about this?"
"He is the problem! I cannot trust someone that might use personal information as blackmail material against his own teammates", Pandora accused.
"Well, I wouldn't have had to if someone had just been able to keep her mouth shut!", Yonsa growled right back, "I saved her life, and she could not even do this one little thing!"
"Enough!", Ozpin interrupted with a firm voice, before directing his attention to Lafiel, "Ms. Lamprose, given the direction that this discussion has taken, I would like to know what piece of information that is being talked about."
Lafiel swallowed and looked at Yonsa, who was sending her warning looks, before she told Ozpin that the night after their encounter with the bandits, she had found out that Yonsa had taken the initial shot with the intention of killing.
"Very good, Ms. Lamprose", Ozpin acknowledged her without as much as blinking at what he had been told, "and I suppose that you did not trust your teammates enough to reveal this information to them, Mr. Chén Zhuáng De?"
Yonsa seemed just as surprised that no hesitation seemed to have been given to the information, as he was suddenly being asked such a question.
"Given how this has turned out", he eventually responded with a sweeping hand covering all of them, "I would say that I was justified in not wanting it to be found out."
"Hmm, it is as I feared from Ms. Argonfield's report then", Ozpin sighed, "given the state of disarray that this team is suffering, I am afraid that I must suspend you from the list of teams going to Atlas next year for the Vytal Festival."
"What!? But you can't!", Pandora objected more forcefully than before, "one person's actions shouldn't impact the entire team in this way!"
Lafiel knew that Pandora was competitive, but she had not expected her to yell at their headmaster like that. Even if they were excluded next year, they still had the 39th Festival in Mistral.
"But I can. No other school deserves to lay witness to this level of disarray in one of my teams", Ozpin said calmly but firmly, "and I will include the one after that as well if your team does not show improvement."
"But can we not kick him from the team then?", Pandora suggested, "he doesn't want to be with us anyway, so that way, the team's issues are solved and everyone are happy."
"I am afraid that that would defeat the purpose of this lesson, Ms. Azura", Ozpin said in a firm voice and with a critical look, which made Pandora sit down like a child getting scolded. He then picked up the black Scroll from his desk, "besides, as Ms. Argonfield's report describes, your team performed well below expectations during your first mission."
"But she said we did well?", Lafiel pointed out confused.
"Yes, as individuals, each of you performed admirably considering the trials put before you", Ozpin said with a glance at the Scroll, "however, as a team, I am afraid that there is much left to be desired. During the bandit engagement, your formation fell apart the moment pressure was applied to it, and before that, each of you acted as individuals with little to no coordination."
"I did what I was assigned to do", Yonsa pointed out.
Ozpin eyed him for a little bit, seemingly considering something, before he said, "the report indicates that when given free rein, you gave little concern to your allies and even less thought of actively cooperating with them. Given the way that you have spoken thus far, I am inclined to believe that."
Ozpin then cocked his head slightly as he looked at Yonsa, "you were a courier in Anima before coming here, correct?"
"…I was", Yonsa agreed nervously.
"I suspected as much from your transcript. Dreadful business, that", Ozpin said with a rueful nod.
Yonsa looked like he was about to interrupt him with an angry retort, but a single look from Ozpin silenced him.
"And would I be correct in assuming that you would not care if your team was excluded from both Vytal Festivals?", Ozpin continued.
"I would not actively oppose it or otherwise do things that might hamper their ability to compete", Yonsa replied without answering the question.
"You see yourself apart from them. Not an uncommon trait", Ozpin commented.
"I do my duties", Yonsa reiterated.
"Your duties?", Ozpin said with a small chuckle, "Mr. Chén Zhuáng De, being a Huntsman is about more than simply doing ones duty. It is about defending those cannot do so themselves, it is about inspiring hope in the populace and it is about being able to cooperate and work with others.
Unless you truly understand this, there is no place for you at my school. You can enrol in the Atlas army, should they accept you, or go back to Anima and continue your lonesome existence until your luck runs out one day."
Yonsa was about to interject, when Ozpin cut him off again, "however, I am not unreasonable. You will have until the list for teams going to Atlas will be completed next semester to show improvements. If this does not happen, you will be asked to leave the school premises and your team will be banned from all future Vytal Festivals. As an addition to this, significant improvements in the overall teamwork will also allow the entire team to be reinstated as amongst those considered for the Vytal Festival."
Before Pandora could make another objection, Ozpin levelled a gaze at all of them, "I believe that this will be a good life lesson for all of you. Either you all improve, or you all fail. You are dismissed."
As Lafiel stood up and began to leave, Ozpin's voice came out from behind her, "and Ms. Lamprose, I would prefer not to have this discussion again. Please make sure to take your leadership responsibilities seriously this time."
So admonished, Lafiel turned back to join her teammates just as Ozpin lifted the coffee mug to lips once more with the hints of a small smirk hiding behind it.
Instead of returning to class, they decided to head back to the dorm room and figure out what to do from now on. The walk there was covered in awkward silence, but it was better than opening this can of worms in the middle of a hallway.
"I think we need to align our expectations before proceeding any further", Lafiel said as she closed the door behind her, "if we can't even align our goals, then any efforts made will be wasted."
"I agree", Seishin supported her with a nod, "frustrations are bound to arise if our goalposts are on different scales."
"I will not apologizing for what I did", Yonsa disrupted the flow, "it was necessary, and none of you would be here to argue about it had I not done so."
"I am not talking about something as concrete as that", Lafiel quickly tried to defuse the situation before it could escalate, "I am talking about what we want to eventually achieve with this team."
"Oh…then I guess that is fine", Yonsa said demurely and plopped down on his bed.
Lafiel looked to Pandora, who nodded as well. Good. At least they could all agree to discuss what to agree on.
"With everyone agreeing to this, I think that we should aim to enter the Vytal Festival next year", Lafiel continued, "I believe that this is a reasonable goal, since Professor Ozpin said that we only needed to show significant improvements, I think that this is within reach."
"I agree that that should be our goal", Pandora concurred.
"Yonsa?", Lafiel looked to him.
"I am less certain that I'll be able to complete my own goals in time, much less have time to work on any group goal", he admitted.
"But it didn't sound that hard to do? The cooperation thing is something that we will be working on together anyway", Lafiel said to encourage him.
"Yeah, I don't know what he actually wants of me, so…", Yonsa said, "defending the weak, inspiring hope, etc. I don't see how simply doing the bloody job should not be enough for those things. If I take a contract as a Huntsman, it is obviously because someone couldn't do it themselves, meaning that the mere act of taking and doing the contract should satisfy the first two, and I am perfectly capable of the latter."
At Pandora's snort, he elaborated, "when have I not performed what was expected of me in this team? Put a task before me, within reason, and I will do my part to solve it."
"It is probably that contractual thinking that he wants you to change", Lafiel commented, "after all, a team isn't supposed to have to send in a formal request every time something unexpected happens. As a Huntsmen team, we need to be able to put our trust in you without wondering whether this might exceed some unspoken contract."
"When do you not need to wonder whether any request infringes upon an unspoken contract?", Yonsa countered, "you cannot just go ahead and make a completely unreasonable request and then expect it to be followed just like that."
"Well no, but anyone close enough for that level of trust would know what the limits were", Lafiel acceded, and then a thought struck her, "which is why we should start by getting to know one another."
"Weren't we still discussing goals?", Seishin pointed out.
"Yeah, but I think everyone agrees that we should aim to enter the 38th Vytal Festival since Yonsa's goals should hopefully be solved by working on the teamwork aspect with all of us", Lafiel said with a nervous look over at Yonsa.
"Sure", he conceded with a shrug.
"In order to even begin to trust you, I need to know what else you are hiding from us", Pandora said in a hostile tone towards Yonsa, "starting with whether you have any more dirt on any of us."
"And I wouldn't trust any of you to keep even something as simple as my birthday to yourselves for a mere two weeks, so how about no", Yonsa shot back in the same hostile tone.
"Calm down, both of you", Lafiel intervened, though the last shot hurt her more than she cared to admit.
"I am just starting the 'get to know him better' proposal that he accepted", Pandora argued.
"I didn't accept that. I only accepted the eventual goal of where we are going", Yonsa interjected.
"Enough!", Lafiel shouted, "if we are to ever get anywhere, then we need to know that everyone is willing to put in the effort required."
"I already told you that I was willing to do whatever task you appointed me within reason", Yonsa argued.
"Then start by unpacking your backpack", Lafiel said with a nod towards the item, "if you really want us to trust that you won't just run away at any moment, then unpack it right here and now."
Yonsa looked surprised at her request. His eyes darted from hers to the item in question and then momentarily to the door. She really wished that she had not seen the last bit, and she really didn't want to point out that with the deadline set in stone, there should be no need for him to make a hasty exit.
Finally, he nodded and said that he would begin unpacking when they were done talking.
"So what do we do now?", Seishin asked the room.
"I still think that getting to know each other better is necessary if we are to make any improvements as a team", Lafiel reiterated her opinion, "but we cannot just try to force it all out right now, so I propose that for an hour each day, we return to this dorm room and take turns asking each other questions. We could start today's session now."
"Alright, I'll start then. Yonsa, where were you during the Winter Break?", Pandora quickly said.
"I was at none of your business", Yonsa growled back.
"We obviously need to lay out some ground rules", Lafiel loudly interjected, "first and foremost. I think that if a person does not want to answer a question, they should be allowed to pass it for another. That way, we don't have to worry about someone lying to protect a sensitive issue. Oh, and we should make it so that no person can be asked twice until everyone has already been asked once and that the person asking cannot be asked back by the person answering."
"But wouldn't it defeat the purpose if someone is just able to pass all the important questions", Pandora objected.
"No, if this is to succeed, then we cannot force anyone to share something that they don't want to.", Lafiel argued, "trust is a two-way street, so we have to try and meet in the middle. Is everyone okay with this?"
Seishin agreed immediately, Pandora hesitated a little with a suspicious look towards Yonsa, but agreed nonetheless, and Yonsa asked her to confirm that you could pass as many times as you would like and that nothing said would leave the room without the owner's explicit permission, before agreeing as well.
"Good, then I will start", Lafiel said happy at finally getting somewhere, "Yonsa, when is your birthday?"
Yonsa looked at her with a cocked eyebrow and an expression that said that he was not sure whether she was joking or not. She had to admit that it was a bit odd to ask this question considering it was what he had used as an example earlier, but it would be a good easy question to get going with and show that he was willing to cooperate.
"About a month ago", he eventually answered after determining that she was not joking.
"During the Winter Break?", Lafiel exclaimed, "why didn't you tell us?"
"I was kind of elsewhere at the time", he said with a sarcastic undertone.
"I meant before…that", Lafiel clarified.
"Because it didn't matter", Yonsa said with a shrug, "but it is my turn now. Seishin, when is your birthday."
"In two months", Seishin answered and quickly asked Lafiel the same. Hers was in the summer, as was Pandora's, when she got the question.
"Yonsa, what is your Semblance?", Pandora asked a little too pointedly.
"Pass", Yonsa said without hesitation.
Pandora looked as if she wanted to object, but a look from Lafiel silenced her objections. She then looked contemplative for a moment, before asking how he had pushed her aside before the Winter Break. When he passed on that as well, she hesitated only a moment before asking if he was holding back during their training sessions.
Another pass, and Lafiel was beginning to see trouble brewing in how this was going. She quickly intervened to remind Pandora that this was supposed to be done in good faith, after which she asked a more reasonable question about who had trained him in using the spear.
Answering that no one person had, Yonsa asked Lafiel a fairly tame question about whether she had any siblings. She answered that she had none, and then proceeded to ask Seishin how many he had all in all. She had met a few of them when she had picked him up to search for Yonsa during the Winter Break, but did not know if it was all of them.
Seishin replied that he only had the two younger ones that she had seen, before reiterating the question to Pandora, who was an only child. When it became his turn, Yonsa answered that he had had siblings, and did not speak more of it.
Despite the tense atmosphere, they all continued until it was eventually decided that this was to be the last round. When it became Lafiel's turn to ask, she knew what she wanted to ask, but not whether she wanted to know the answer.
"Yonsa, when you said that you were starting to regret interfering, did you mean it?", Lafiel eventually worked up the courage to ask, do you regret saving my life?
Yonsa was visibly uncomfortable at having been asked the question, which was made none the better by Pandora and Seishin both leaning in to hear his question. His eyes briefly darted to the door again.
"Pass", he rejected the question. A part of her had known that he would likely do that.
"You can't pass on something like this!", Pandora objected.
"No, it is alright", Lafiel countered.
"But he won't even say if he regrets letting you live", Pandora pointed out, "what are we to think of that?"
Silently, Lafiel agreed with her, but also knew that there was only one true answer to the question that would satisfy everyone. Had he said yes, their progress would likely have been set back quite a bit, if not destroyed for good, and had he said no and lied about it, she would have known. This way, there was at least the possibility of him not regretting it.
"If he doesn't want to answer, then he is allowed not to", Lafiel said with a monotone voice, "it was the basis on which we agreed to do this."
"But still…", Pandora said annoyed.
Lafiel tried to move everything along with a simpler more neutral question, which he did answer, but the mood for continuing this game had disappeared entirely. As soon as possible, Yonsa was out of the door and they would not see him again until later that evening.
Still, at least they were trying to improve.
This will be the last of the introduction chapters. From here on out, the stories told may not come in a chronological order, but I will be sure to inform you of when it takes place(when I eventually stop writing on it, I will post an epilogue chapter and order them in chronological order for ease of use). On the other hand, we are already 40k and seven chapters in and have only just gone past the last of the setup. I know it didn't end all well and good, but that is for later chapters to explore more. Frankly, at this point, I will welcome the lighter chapters I am to write next(after I have finished writing the epilogue chapter).