One reviewer pointed out that Yang and Russel don't interact with each other last chapter. That is definitely about to change.

Chapter Eleven

The second term is passing far quicker than the first. We have assignments, training and just generally stuff to do. So it's no surprise when Oobleck stands up and tells us he has another assignment for us.

Dove and I are playing HangGrimm, and he's losing bad. I'm two letters away from getting the Beowulf's legs drawn in (my word was "disemboweled" but Dove seemed convinced I had chosen some form of food – I think he was hungry) when Oobleck actually pauses. This is sufficiently odd to attract my attention.

'Your first missions as Huntsmen and Huntresses are coming up in a very short time,' he says in his pedantic manner. 'As such, with the presence of visitors for the festival, I think you could all benefit from a more in-depth knowledge of what it means to be Hunters in Remnant! I am assigning you a group and a historical event in which Hunters from different kingdoms worked in tandem and I expect a report to be compiled by all of you!'

I sigh. This is going to be a drag

'The groups will be as follow.'

Wait, what? We aren't doing this with our teams?

'Cardin Winchester, Pyrrha Nikos and Weiss Schnee; Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc and Dove Bronzewing; Blake Belladonna, Nora Valkyrie and Sky Lark; and finally Russel Thrush, Yang Xiao Long and Lie Ren.'

The only consolation is that nobody looks any happier than I am at the moment. 'Excuse me?' Schnee actually yelps

'My dear girl, this is an exercise in history and teamwork!' Oobleck says enthusiastically. 'I want to throw you out of your comfort zones even as our early forebears were thrown out of theirs!'

Well, he got that bit right, at least. Nikos, Belladonna and Cardin all look furious, Arc looks worried, and Sky and Ren are sharing such similar looks of disgust that I wonder if maybe they wouldn't actually enjoy working together. Schnee is dismayed, Xiao Long looks irritated, Dove and Rose look resigned, and Valkyrie is wearing her typical vacant grin

We're dismissed from class early. Apparently we won't have any in-class lessons from now until our mission; we're to work on this report together instead. I groan. 'This is going to be the worst,' I say to Cardin

'Let's just get it over with,' he says grimly. JNPR and RWBY are waiting for us at the base of the seats. We descend in much the same manner as we would if we were going to be hanged.

'Sooooo,' Arc says uncertainly. 'Partners.'

'Temporarily,' Belladonna stresses, crossing her arms.

'Let's just get this done,' Cardin says briskly to Nikos, not noticing the flare of anger in her eyes. I'm momentarily diverted by the fact that Cardin has finally been paired with people as strong as he is. That's not a self-burn; I stand up to Cardin by just ignoring the fact that he's trying to push me around. Schnee, on the other hand, is just as pushy as Cardin is and if anything even more used to getting her own way, and Nikos will react like fire Dust if Cardin tries to tell her what to do. This is going to be disastrous. The thought cheers me up for all of ten seconds before I remember my own personal long-haired pains in the ass.

'So,' I say to Ren.

Ren looks at us both. 'We should begin in the library. They'll have reference books we can use.'

'May as well,' Xiao Long says with a sigh.

We all end up walking to the library together, three discrete, unhappy clumps. Once there, though, we have to split up. There are nooks in the library where you're allowed to talk but they aren't large. Ren, Xiao Long and I claim one and then set out into the stacks, looking for history textbooks.

I return first, carrying a single book. Ren is next, with three. Xiao Long shows up a moment later, carrying a dozen. 'I don't think we need all those,' I say, startled into speech.

'They're all books on the history of Vacuo,' she says, looking offended.

'Ok, fine,' I say impatiently. 'Just chuck them down somewhere.'

We settle down and begin to scan our textbooks in total silence. I can hear Valkyrie chirping away somewhere in another study nook, and I take a moment to feel sorry for Sky.

'What areas do you want to focus on?' Ren finally says in a grudging tone.

I take a moment to scan my memory to pull up what Oobleck actually assigned us. 'We got the Ursai invasion of Vacuo,' I say. 'So… I think we should focus on the Ursai invasion of Vacuo.'

Ren rolls his eyes and sighs heavily. Xiao Long frowns. 'Yeah, no duh.'

They're really starting to piss me off. 'Fine,' I snap. 'You can focus on the cutbacks in the Hunters' annual budget five years before the invasion that led to the kingdom's outer perimeter being understaffed. I'll focus on the desert terraforming processes that left large groups of civilian workers stranded without any support. You can also have the genesis of the Vacuo Party for Unification since it's directly linked to the Council's economic policies and Ren can look at Atlas's military advancements that were happening at the same time which distracted everyone from the outlying regions.'

They look like I've both surprised and impressed them. I've kind of impressed myself. 'You've studied this before,' Ren says after a moment.

'Couple of years ago,' I say.

'Awesome!' Xiao Long says, looking happy for the first time. 'You got any notes? That would make this a lot easier.'

Regretting bringing all those books? I wonder cynically. 'Nope.' It's true, too; I never actually made any notes. Everything I learned about the invasion, I remembered.

'Well, would your family be able to send them?' Xiao Long asks impatiently.

'Nope,' I repeat, as unhelpfully as possible.

We're silent for a moment, then Lie Ren reaches for a piece of paper. 'What did you say we should look at?'

I make myself sound friendlier as I list the topics. He writes quickly and neatly, his eyes on the paper. Trying to make up for snapping at them, I add, 'Xiao Long's books will actually have a lot of good information on this stuff.'

'Would it kill you to use our first names?' Xiao Long snaps. So much for friendlier

'Dunno. Don't want to risk it.' I make my voice as laid back as possible, knowing it will drive her mad.

'Swear to god, Thrush –'

'See, isn't it fun?' I ask.

'You know, we do have to work together,' Ren says. 'Maybe you two should stop aggravating each other.'

It's hard to argue with someone when they're stating facts in a calm, reasonable tone. I turn to Xiao Long and jerk my head at Ren. 'He's no fun.' Then I look more closely at the books Xiao Long brought and add in surprise, 'Hey, that top one's actually really good. It's where I got the information last time I did this assignment.'

'You like to read?' Ren asks, curious.

'Not really,' I admit. 'You?'

'I enjoy studying,' he says with quiet enthusiasm.

Xiao Long and I grimace at each other in a moment of shared disgust. 'At least we got an interesting topic,' she says grudgingly.

'You have no idea,' I say. 'The Ursai invasion was gnarly. They made a kick-ass monument for it in Recluse Academy.'

'That's where you trained, isn't it?' Xiao Long asks.

'Yeah.' I think about it. Recluse was a lot different to Beacon: a lot more spread out. Space is never at a premium in Vacuo, which leads to some sprawling architecture. We got most of our fitness training in jogging from building to building.

'So why'd you come to Vale anyway?' Xiao Long asks. 'Wasn't Recluse any good?'

'There was nothing wrong with it,' I say, as unwilling to start studying as she is. Lie Ren ignores us both, dutifully taking notes. 'Beacon was just better, even if this place is freezing.'

'It's not cold here,' Xiao Long says, startled.

'Shows what you know,' I say. 'This is the like the middle of winter in Vacuo.'

'Aw, poor baby,' she croons. 'You wanna blanky?'

'Only if I can stuff it in your mouth,' I say.

'You can try style,' Xiao Long snips back.

'It won't be hard, it's open enough.' I make talky motions with one hand.

'At least I talk to people outside my team,' she says, crossing her arms.

'Meaning?' I ask, leaning back. Lie Ren, between us, lowers his head. 'I talk to you and your sister.'

'Yeah, and that's it. You and CRDL are a bunch of snobs.'

'This coming from someone who has Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna on their team,' I note scornfully. 'Those two are bigger snobs than all of CRDL put together.'

'Isn't it a bit early to be picking fights?' Ren interrupts, looking up with iron in his voice and eyes.

Xiao Long and I glare at each other for another moment, then start to study.

'D'you mind?' I ask a few minutes later as she picks up my pen.

'What?' she asks irritably.

'That's mine.''You aren't even using it.'

'I will be in a second. Didn't you even bring a pen?'

'Uh, that was me,' Ren admits sheepishly, pulling Xiao Long's pen out of where he was using it as a bookmark and passing it back to her. 'Sorry.'

'There, you can have your pen back,' she snips, throwing it across the table at me.

'So you ask permission to return it? Kind of backwards, don't you think?' I retort.

'Worried I'll get cooties on it?' she demands.

'More like worried it'll get lost in your rat's nest of hair and I'll never get it back.'

'You're in no position to talk about stupid hair, yours looks like a toilet brush.'

Oh, she did not just insult my hair. 'I never said your hair was stupid.' I wait for her to process that, then add, 'Just that it looks like you forgot to feed it.'
'Enough,' Ren snaps.


By the time the hour is up I think Ren would happily have throttled us both. We spend the entire time sniping back and forth at one another until he tells us to shut up. There'll be five minutes of peace, and then we'll start back up.

We all pack up with no little relief, but as Xiao Long and I start to leave, Ren steps in front of us. 'We are not going to get this assignment done if you two can't get along,' he says, crossing his arms. 'Shake hands.'

'Excuse me?' I snap.

'Shake hands or so help me, I will make you.'

'Excuse me?' It's Xiao Long this time. 'I know for a fact that you can't beat me in a fight.'

'Then I'll just ask Nora to help.' He isn't kidding, either. 'You know she will, too. Now shake hands.'

We glare at each other, then slowly reach out and shake hands. Holy hell, her skin is warm. And so smooth, too.

'You're freezing,' she exclaims, dropping my fingers.

'Told you this place was an ice box,' I say with a shrug.

'I thought you said it was an ice place to train,' she says with a sudden grin.

I grin. 'That was terrible.'

'Good.' Lie Ren uncrosses his arms. 'I'll see you two tomorrow.'

'Yes, dad,' I say, walking past.

We meet up with Cardin, Schnee and Nikos on our way out. Cardin and Nikos look mutually irritated, but Schnee is walking in between them and I get the impression she's serving as the counter-balance between them. That makes sense: Nikos likes Schnee and Cardin at least respects her. She would be the only one who could get them to work together. Much like Rose, I imagine thoughtfully. She gets along with both Arc and Dove – I caught Dove returning a book on historical weapons design that he'd borrowed from her a few days ago – and what about Sky and Belladonna and Valkyrie? Hmm. Sky was actually pretty similar to Belladonna in temperament, and he had a high tolerance for stupid shit from his years with Dove. He would be able to tolerate Valkyrie, and he and Belladonna might actually get along if she could get past her angry Faunus thing
That's an interesting thought. How much planning went into these groups?

'How much planning went into these groups?' I say, turning to the person beside me, only to find it's Xiao Long.

She looks at me, startled. 'What do you mean?'

'I don't think – never mind.' I turn back. My theory has one giant hole in it and it's our group. Xiao Long and I are the least likely to get along if we're forced together. I can work around Schnee, I have no problem with Ren and Belladonna, I can work with Ruby and Nikos and I think I could stand Valkyrie if I had to. Xiao Long is the only one my personality actually clashes with.


I mention my theory to the others when we retire to our dorm room. They look at me in surprise. 'Why do you think you're the weak link?' Sky asks.

'Ok, first of all, I never said weak link,' I say. 'And second, it makes sense. Xiao Long is the only one I can't make myself ignore.'

'She seems fine to me,' Dove says. 'Didn't you say she was hot?'

'She is hot! That doesn't mean I like working with her.' I begin ticking off points. 'She's cranky, stubborn and she won't admit when she's wrong. And she doesn't take anything seriously!'

Cardin, Dove and Sky exchange incredulous looks. 'You're not serious,' Cardin says finally.

'I know! She's so annoying to work with. Seriously, I don't care how hot she is, I would prefer to be in literally anyone else's group.' I slump back.

'Maybe you're just too similar,' Dove suggests.

I dismiss the suggestion with a snort and a wave of my hand. 'Please. She's a brainless airhead who thinks about her hair, her sister and fighting, in that order.'

'Whereas you think about your hair, your team, and fighting?' Dove suggests.

'Fuck off,' I say companionably. What has Dove been smoking, and where can I get some? 'Xiao Long and I are not the same.'