GOMU GOMU NO!~ Phew, this chapter took me a lot longer than I expected, but here it is guys. The relics at the temple have been taken and the teams have been officially formed! Maybe...
The initiation arc will probably be completed after the next chapter, and the next arc will begin which I've named: Mountain Glenn Mission. I don't know how many sub arcs there will be in between main arcs as I move forward, but there will be a few but I only plan to make them 3-4 chapters at most.
With that, cheers everyone, and happy reading!
With the sun on his back and the wind in his face, Jaune dragged his feet across the grass with a depressed frown. Not only did he fail to partner up with his younger sister, but he also failed to achieve the main objective of initiation. Without a partner, Jaune had no idea what to do next as the further instructions lied in his offline scroll.
"What am I going to do Funkfreed? If I don't find anyone soon I don't think I can face my dad, uncles, Minty, or anyone for that matter." Jaune sighed.
"Pao." The elephant wriggled free from Jaune's hip and landed on the ground with a thud. It transformed into its animal form, and plucked his partner by his waist and hoisted him onto his back.
"Aw, you don't have to push yourself to cheer me up Funkfreed. I guess I'm a little too nervous for my own good ya know?" Jaune chuckled weakly.
Funkfreed flapped his ears and patted his blonde pal on the back with his trunk. He hated seeing Jaune in the dumps and offered a hidden apple he'd been saving for the end of the day. Jaune accepted the gift wholeheartedly, while it didn't solve the boy's downtrodden state, it did uplift his spirits a tad.
"Kee! Kee!"
A swarm of Jaune's brickbats returning from their overhead search, one of the shadow creations planted itself on Jaune's shoulder and presented him with a silver pendant.
"Hey, this belongs to Minty..."
A lightbulb dinged over his head and Jaune's expression brightened tenfold. His shadows had finally found another student, and it was his sister no less! Jaune jumped off Funkfreed with gusto and ordered his friend to morph back to his saber form.
He shuffled his tarot cards and deduced the shortest path to his objective. A wide smile blooming on his visage at the favorable percentages.
"I'm coming Minty!" Jaune sang and rushed past the thickets and shrubs to meet his beloved sibling.
"Thud! Thud! Thud!"
Jaune skidded to a halt, the vibrations from the soil climbing up to the top of his head, he heard a woeful pair of screams down the opposite path to his destination.
"I'm sure whoever those guys are, they can take care of themselves." The blonde boy grumbled.
"Waaaah!"
Judging from the volume of the scream, Jaune took that as a nope.
"But I'm so close to Minty..." He huffed and retracted his steps to the previous road of dirt.
"Why did you give that weird bat thing your pendant? Isn't that item important to you?" Blake curled a brow as her new mint-haired partner shot her a knowing grin.
"That shadowed bat belongs to my older brother. He should be closeby, and with any luck, he'll find his way over to us soon."
"You really think highly of your brother..." Blake muttered.
"Well, he is my sibling to be fair." Emerald shrugged.
Blake nodded and the two went back to walking side by side and up the spiraling paths of the hill. The higher they went, the number of trees and bushes lessened, making way for large clumps of gray rubble and stone.
The northern path their scrolls instructed them to take led to a set of massive ruins. Riddled with vines and weeds galore, a set of broken pillars stood around a circular pad to resemble some sort of temple. Within the temple, were numerous pedestals with decorated chess pieces on top of them. Each had a respective matching pair of gold and white.
"Huh, I didn't think we'd venture all the way out here to play a game in an abandoned temple." Emerald plucked up a chess piece and inspected it. Other than the golden coating, Emerald concluded it was nothing more than a game piece meant for a game board. She passed it to Blake and the introvert came to the same conclusion.
Their confusion solved by a sudden ringing from their scrolls, Emerald and Blake withdrew their electronic devices from their pockets.
"Congratulations, Emerald S. Hawkins and Blake Belladonna! You have completed the first half of your initiation. To complete your tasks for today, you must select a chess piece as a team and head back to the cliff from which you were launched. Further instructions will be relayed once you have completed this task.~"
The message seemed simple enough, but the ending part drew suspicion.
"Teams will also be selected at random, no matter which piece you take-un?~"
Furrowing their brows, the young student pair eyed the glossy trinkets.
"Hm, so which piece do you want to take Blake?" Emerald asked.
The ebony-haired girl eyed each relic meticulously and picked up a black bishop. Emerald, seeing no reason to oppose her partner's decision, agreed to her choice and pocketed the piece for safekeeping.
"Oh, I think we've finally made it, Ruby. I see the remains of a temple over there." Pyrrha sighed in relief.
Emerald and Blake turned to see a panting duo running up the ruined temple steps behind them. The first, a redhead adorned in bronze and golden armor, along with a silver-eyed hooded reaper beside her.
"Wow, this place is really big." Ruby glanced around the ruins with a look of awe.
"Yes, it does seem quite ancient by the looks of things," The spartan commented.
Their eyes meeting, the four girls stood in silence as each duo waited for the other to speak. Pyrrha and Emerald, being the most sociable out of the lot, finally decided to break the ice.
"I believe introductions are in order?" Pyrrha grinned and beamed a friendly smile at her new acquaintances.
"My name is Pyrrha Nikos. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Emerald S. Hawkins. Though, we've already met right, Ruby?" The mint-haired girl said calmly and diverted all attention on the little reaper who now had flushed cheeks.
"H-Huh?" Ruby squeaked. She bonked her head in a childish manner and fiddled with her skirt while staring at her toes.
"M-My name is Ruby Rose. It's nice to meet y-you."
"Blake Belladonna." The girl with the black bow and amber eyes greeted in a flat tone. She made no effort other than that and crossed her arms.
"So, how did you guys manage during the initiation?" Emerald asked.
In the most formal manner possible, Pyrrah relayed her's and Ruby's experience and how they met but left out the part where she pinned Ruby to a tree unintentionally. Unfortunately for the bronze-clad girl, the little reaper was more than happy to tell the tale.
"Yeah, and Pyrrah almost killed me with her cool weapon!" Ruby added, bringing both a look of alarm and curiosity from her peers.
"T-That's not how it went! I saved Ruby after she fumbled with her landing strategy!" Pyrrha waved her arms frantically, raising her voice to drown out the rebukes of her silver-eyed partner.
Emerald raised an open hand to her cheek and snickered.
"Remind me to avoid that one, Blake."
Despite Blake keeping a stoic facade, the corners of her lips did curl up just a bit.
The Mistralian prodigy's face matching the color of her hair, Pyrrah did her best to come up with a feasible lie to sway the conversation back in her favor.
"Nuh-uh, that's not what happened Pyrrha." Ruby waggled a finger in a teasing manner as she once again broke apart her companion's half-truths.
Pyrrha's right eye twitching, the smile on her face shifted to the one she wore when being adored by shallow fans and paparazzi.
"P-Perhaps that's enough of speaking from our half. I'm sure that you two also have many stories to tell?"
Emerald glanced at Blake, and the black-haired girl shrugged her shoulders and gestured for her partner to speak.
"Well, it all started when a Nevermore found me..."
In the midst of her story, Emerald was interrupted by a loud pair of voices that seemed to be bickering halfway up the hill.
"It's this way you dolt!" A snobby heiress growled.
"I can read a compass thank you, Ms. Obvious!" A proud heir retorted.
Trudging up to meet with the others gathered in the temple, the young man wearing a bowler hat and white suit smiled when his green eyes landed on a familiar person.
"Emerald, how nice it is to see a friendly face." Roman tipped his hat and separated from his partner the first chance he got.
"Oh, Ms. Nikos, I didn't think we'd meet again so soon!" Weiss' sour attitude shifted to a pleasant one as she strutted over to the spartan prodigy. Though by the look on Pyrrha's face she did not share the sentiment and tried to divert the heiress' attention to her socially awkward partner instead.
"This makes you guys the third pair to arrive." Emerald sighed.
"Huh, while I'm not happy to have the bronze trophy, compared to the massive group of hunters we started out with, I'll take it," Roman said smugly and rubbed his chin.
"So, you're partner is quite a handful isn't she?" The mint-haired girl pointed lazily at the white-haired heiress.
"Please, don't get me started. She might seem like the definition of a role-model student, but boy does she like to run her mouth. This must be Oum getting back at me for all the times I pickpocketed you and Jaune."
Emerald curled a brow at Roman's mistake.
"Is that why Jaune's always short twenty lien when you guys come to visit?"
The bowler-hatted teen coughed into his hand and tilted his head toward a secluded girl seated in the corner of the ruins. When her amber eyes met his deep green, she quickly turned away, seemingly content with staring at the sky.
"I'm guessing that's your partner?" Roman asked.
Emerald shrugged. "She's not too big on conversations, but she's not rude either. I think she struggles with socializing like Pyrrah's partner."
Both teens veered their sights to a scarlet ponytail and attractive figure adorned in brass armor.
"Isn't she the girl everyone's been fussing about?" Roman quipped.
"Huh? You know her?"
The cunning student nodded.
"Neo and I heard all about the great Mistralian prodigy. I assume you've heard of Destruction Cannon Ideo? He's the greatest advertisement Pumpkin Pete's sweets ever had and apparently that red spartan is a former apprentice of his."
"You mean the long-armed guy on the cereal boxes Jaune likes? But isn't his home kingdom Mistral? Why would one of his prized students venture all the way out to Vale for a hunter's license?" Emerald wondered.
"Beats me. Neo and I didn't really get a chance to talk with the invincible spartan. When she met us in the ballroom, she tried to end the conversation as quickly as she could. I'm betting she assumed Neo and I wanted to get her to promote our pop's dust business. Then came along Ice Queen over there and you know the rest after that." Roman hummed.
"By the way, has Neo and her partner showed up yet?"
Emerald shook her head.
"As you can see it's only us six here."
Her statement made obsolete in the next few seconds, a proud cry of a ginger-haired valkyrie sang over the trees as she and her heterochromatic partner joined the jolly group of students.
"Neo, look! There's a bunch of students over there, I guess we were on the right track after all!" Nora shouted and skipped over to the broken temple.
"It's just one student after another..." Emerald sighed.
"It is four o'clock now, most of the stragglers who aren't here probably got eaten by the Grimm or got lost. Anyhow, I'm going to see how Neo's doing. I'll chat with you at another time Emerald." With a polite wave and nod, Roman excused himself and strutted over to his flustered little sister.
"Eaten by Grimm or lost?" Those words pricked the heart of the younger Hawkins child. She knew Jaune's sense of direction was impeccable when he had his tarot cards, and it had been a while since his brickbat took away her pendant.
Did Jaune...? No, there's no way the blonde goofball would bite the dust this early. There had to be a reason for him not being here yet, and Emerald was content to wait. No matter how long it took.
With a confident nod toward the sky, Emerald busied herself in making new friends to distract herself from negative thoughts. This grew much easier at the arrival of a blonde brawler, two armored students, and a sassy young lady with golden eyes and black hair who disturbed the mundane atmosphere around the ruined temple.
"Rubes, you actually made it before me!" Yang chuckled and pulled her sister in for a headlock.
"Y-Yang, I can't breath!" The young reaper choked.
"Haha, sorry Rubes, I can't help it. To see my little sister come so far..." Yang said while wiping away a false tear.
Ruby puffed her cheeks. "I made it past the exams, didn't I? I earned my spot here just like you did."
"Hmph, a piece of paper can only get you so far. When faced against a horde of Grimm, a degree in math isn't going to save you." The blonde brawler joked.
Her neck still locked between her sister's bicep and chest, Ruby flailed towards her scarlet haired friend for assistance.
"P-Pyrrha, please help, the future of your partner depends on it!"
"Pyrrha, eh?" Yang curled a brow and glanced at her sister's new pal.
"U-Um, yes, my name is Pyrrha Nikos. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"The name's Yang Xiao Long. The greatest comedian in all of Remnant, second only to my father." The blonde grinned and released Ruby from her clutches.
"Comedian?" The red-haired girl tilted her head as Yang's smile stretched from ear to ear.
Her senses gathered and lungs filled with oxygen, Ruby stared straight at the spartan and frantically shook her head. She didn't want Yang to go on a pun spree, that would ruin the mood in two seconds tops.
"You betcha, in fact, I keep all my puns written down in a notepad that's stuffed with papers. You wanna know why?" The lilac-eyed student leaned over and waggled her eyebrows.
"Do explain." Pyrrha chuckled, much to Ruby's annoyance.
"It's to make sure my puns are tear-able!" Yang fist-pumped.
Seconds passed and nothing was said. Everyone in the temple heard what the brawler said, but no one had the guts to say her puns sucked. That is until a dark-haired beauty opened her mouth.
"That joke was appalling," a girl wearing a Chinese styled dress scoffed.
Yang pursed her lips and turned to the older student.
"No need to be a sour crout, I'm just trying to have a little fun here. What's your name anyway?"
"Cinder Fall." The girl said proudly with a hand on her hip.
Yang rolled her eyes.
"Hmph, everyone's a critic." She sulked and decided to keep her puns to herself... for now.
"So, I guess it's finally time to pick a chess piece?" Roman cupped his chin at the vast selection before him.
"Wait, does anyone know how the process actually works?" Cardin grunted.
Everyone shook their heads, they knew they had to bring the relics back, but the rest was up for speculation. Most assumed each pair of pieces would match the doubled pair of students to create a team of four, but the different colors brought drew concern. Not to mention the odd, last-minute, accented message.
Maybe the golden chess pieces secretly matched with the white and black ones? And if anyone were to grab the wrong one, they could find themselves in a series of endless headaches.
"Hmph, you lot can stand around here for the whole day for all I care. Hurry up Sky, we're leaving." Cinder grumbled and snatched the golden queen piece from its pedestal.
"W-Wait, shouldn't we discuss which piece we should take?" Sky gulped.
"And why would we need to do that? The queen is the most powerful piece on the board and gold is the most valued metal. That's all we need to know, Sky." The ravenette narrowed her eyes at her sheepish partner as if challenging him to disagree.
His questions landing on ignorant ears, Sky's shoulders sagged as he nodded and followed his sassy partner down the pathways they took to reach the temple.
As for everyone else, no one touched any of the other queen pieces as no one wanted to take the risk of having to put up with Cinder's dominant attitude for four years.
"Well, which piece do you want to take Pyrrha?" Ruby motioned for her partner to take the lead and pick a piece.
All eyes on the redheaded spartan, Pyrrah did her best to keep her composure and picked up the closest piece to her. A black bishop.
"Is this selection okay for you Ruby? Don't be afraid to choose a different piece from mine."
Ruby frantically shook her head.
"Nope, that's a great piece Pyrrha!"
Before the spartan had the chance to say anything, the little reaper snagged her by the arm and blitzed away in a swarm of rose petals. Ruby was never one who enjoyed being in the spotlight.
"Oh, Neo, can we take this piece pleeeease?" Nora grabbed a white rook and put it on her head.
"We can be the queen's of the castle if we bring back this piece!" She declared with a giddy smile.
The ice-cream themed girl tapped a finger against her chin. Honestly, Neo didn't know what to choose. There were so many pieces, but as the earlier message said, teams were selected at random so was there any harm in letting the Valkyrie decide?
With a silent nod, Neo reluctantly accepted her partner's decision and the two made their way back to the cliff where the teachers and headmaster waited.
Roman saluted his little sister as she and her bubbly cohort departed. Now, it was time for the proud RDI prodigy to select a chess piece, one which had the highest chance of putting him on Neo's team.
"I say we should take the knight piece, Roman." Weiss flicked her ponytail over her shoulder and pointed to a golden knight.
The ginger-haired teen opened his mouth to protest, but bit his tongue and pondered the scenario. The knights were positioned adjacent to the rooks on a chessboard, and the piece Neo and her partner took happened to be a rook. Perhaps the teams were selected by groups of adjacent pieces?
The idea sounded funny to Roman, but with the odd final message from his scroll after he and Weiss entered the temple, he couldn't help but feel things weren't as black and white as he first thought.
"Hm, I guess that's an acceptable answer, Ice Queen."
The heiress tilted her head. Did Roman actually agree with her for once?
"What, did I say something weird?"
"Hm... Never mind Roman, let's get back to the cliffs, shall we? I'm tired of trudging past the trees and over the muddy grass." Weiss sighed and gave the chess piece to Roman.
As the big shot duo left the ruins, a blonde brawler and her armored partner observed the remaining pieces.
"Well Cardin, you got any ideas?" Yang asked nonchalantly and turned to face her cohort when all she got was a questioning look.
"What?"
Cardin scratched his cheek.
"I thought you'd just pick one of the relics and tell us to go back to the cliff be honest. I didn't expect you to consider my opinion when choosing our piece."
Yang's lips curled downward. Did her partner really think that low of her? Sure, they got off on the wrong foot, but Yang didn't want the person she'd spend the next four years with to hate her.
"Well, I do care about your opinion Cardin. So come on already and tell me which piece that you want. If it's different than mine, we'll rock paper scissors to decide which piece to take."
For a second, a flash of appreciation crossed the bully's features, but quickly faded after he picked up a piece: a white rook.
"Alright, put 'em up big boy, and let's get this over with." Yang grinned and readied her hands for a rock paper scissors match.
"Alright, but I'm warning you, Yang, a Winchester never loses." The tone Cardin used was slightly dubious, but the blonde brawler pushed those thoughts aside as she and her partner threw down their hands.
"Haha, alright, gold knight it is!" Yang chirped, much to Cardin's displeasure.
"It just had to be the piece that snobby heiress chose. I just hope we don't end up on the same team..." The orange-haired boy growled under his breath.
With the main cast gone, no one was left to see a duo of young men enter the temple.
"Hey, Ren, check it out, these must be the relics our scrolls told us about. But there aren't many left." Mercury stretched his arms at the remaining pieces. A golden queen, a white rook, and a black pawn.
Ren curled a brow and leaned down to inspect each individual piece. From what his scroll said, it didn't matter which piece he took, as long as he and Mercury returned to the cliffs with one of them.
But for the green-robed student, he was determined to have Nora on his team and fulfill the promise he made to her.
"Hey, how about we take the white rook piece?" Mercury said and gestured to the ivory tower.
The stoic boy rubbed his temples. What would Nora say if she were in this position?
"Hey, look at me Renny, I'm the queen of the castle and you must vanquish my rule if you want my territory!" Squealed a chibi version of Nora on his shoulder.
"Alright Mercury, let's take that trinket and head back. I think I've had my fill of forest for today." Ren said.
Mercury gave a thumbs up and the two hurried back to the cliffs, eager for a hot meal to fill their starving stomachs.
With each pair-matched and ready to return home, a particular blonde student and his two acquaintances were busy screaming their lungs out as a giant deadly scorpion hunted them down.
"Briiick Baaats!" Jaune announced and split his shadow into several pieces.
When he arrived at the scene and caught a glimpse of the ones responsible for the high pitched screams from earlier, he didn't expect to encounter a fully grown deathstalker. Unlike those he'd seen in Vacuo, the boney exoskeleton of this Grimm dimmed to a cloudy gray instead of the usual white with scars pittered all over it.
It's eyes were also a concern. Instead of a hot amber filled with malice, the pupils of this deathstalker burned a fiery crimson as it lashed out its enormous pincers and stinger at its prey. It also lacked the signature markings its branch of species usually possessed.
"Hey, over here!" Jaune yelled across the empty field.
Two boys, one with a shaved head and fire-like green mohawk, and his assumed partner who had light brown hair and adorned a sturdy set of bronze armor.
The frantic duo's eyes landing on a person with golden locks and a ruffled long-sleeved shirt, they nodded to each other than bolted toward him with all their might.
"Skryeee!" The deathstalker hot on their heels, it broke down several trees in its pursuit and shoved the debris away with its pincers.
"Okay, that thing looks really scary. Also, that doesn't sound like a usual Deathstalker's cry." Jaune gulped.
A stray branch crashed against the back of the boy with the mohawk and forced him to the ground. His partner tried to go back to help him but ultimately retreated when the Grimm got too close.
"D-Dove?! Don't leave me here man!" Yelped the unfortunate teen.
"Come on brickbats, don't just waste time flapping your wings around me, go and help the guy out for Oum's sake!" Jaune fussed and raised both arms towards the fallen student.
"Kee! Kee!" The bats swarmed the Deathstalker, and while the shadow pawns possessed little fighting power, they did well to deter the Grimm from its initial human meal.
"Hey, are you alright?!" Jaune hurried over and shoved his sword underneath the base of the heavy branch. With a grunt and a squat, Jaune hoisted the piece of lumber off the mohawked boy and helped him to his feet.
"T-Thanks a bunch man. You're a lifesaver." The bruised student wheezed.
"Haha, don't worry about it. The name's Jaune F. Hawkins by the way. What's yours?"
"Russel Thrush and the unreliable student who happens to be my partner is called Dove Bronzewing." The wounded boy scoffed and pointed to the brown-haired individual who was carefully working his way back to them.
"A-Are you guys okay?" The student now known as Dove said meekly.
"Yeah, but no thanks to you." Russel barked.
"Hey, I don't think this is a good time for banter you guys-" His sentence cut off by a loud screech, Jaune and his acquaintances veered their attention to an annoyed obsidian colored beast.
"C-Come on man, we gotta dip on outta here or else that monster is gonna eat us!" Russel Whimpered.
"That is an option." The magician in training noted.
Performing a few tarot draws, Jaune's eyes widened at the first calculation.
"What do you mean there's only a 29% chance I can beat this Grimm? Sure it's more intimidating than your average Deathstalker, but I've fought one before in the agricultural district, and my chances of beating that monster were 40%!" Jaune's face paled as his cohorts furrowed their brows.
"What, does this Grimm actually have a brain?!" The blonde boy yelled and yanked on his hair.
"How the heck are ya reading percentages off of those weird-looking cards?" Russel cupped his chin and peeked over Jaune's shoulder along with Dove.
"Skryeee!" Cried the Deathstalker as it nipped the last of the brickbats. All eyes on the daunting menace that charged towards them, they spared a few glances and came to a unified conclusion.
"Do you guys have enough energy to run?" Jaune whispered.
"Hell ya, bruh." Russel gulped and Dove simply nodded in silence.
Unbeknownst to the students taking their initiation, a private bullhead with the logo of Reptile Dust Industries was leisurely hovering above the forest. Within said bullhead, two former warlords, and three former pirates lounged about on leather sofas with an assorted table of fine dishes and delectable wines for them to feast on.
Usually, any aircraft would have been identified by Beacon's security, but the man who owned this private bullhead paid good money for private modifications, allowing him to fly wherever he pleased without being detected by criminals and authorities alike.
As the guests feasted on delicious food and drinks, a particular tarot reading blonde found himself in the middle of the room with his longsword drawn and crimson eyes filled with determination.
"I gotta admit Hawkins, that straw manipulation technique you've got going is pretty impressive." Crocodile smirked as Vito and Mr. 1 switched on a wide screened television perched on the wall.
"I've been practicing with various Grimm skeletons, and the ones of Deathstalkers are the easiest for me to command seeing I can imitate its stinger with my sword," Hawkins replied and swung his blade downward.
"I think I've got it-rero!" Vito chirped and the image of a frantic Jaune and two other students running for their lives from a scorpion beast blinked onto the screen.
"Be careful Hawkins, we don't want Jaune or the other kids getting injured on their first official day of school," Kuma warned as he munched on a plate of honey biscuits.
"My son and daughter can take care of themselves in the wilderness. I've tutored them enough to be independent when they need to be, but I wanted to see for myself how far Jaune and Emerald have progressed. Besides, I intend to retract my Grimm puppet once Jaune reaches the base of the northern hills." The magician sighed and slashed diagonally.
"Hold on a minute, Hawkins." Crocodile raised his hook and took a long drag from his cigar.
"Why rush the good part of your kid's initiation? I'm rather eager to see what my business partner's offspring is capable of."
The blonde curled a brow as the bullhead suddenly shifted toward the direction of the emerald forest ruins.
"We've got time to burn. How about we give Jaune an initiation he'll never forget? Not to mention a bucket of laughs we'll enjoy for the rest of our lives. I'm sure your Deathstalker can take a few hits?" Crocodile smirked.
