Chapter 14: To Move Forward

A/N: HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR!

2/10/21: Surprise! 'Twas I, another chapter! Okay, now I'm actually going to take a break. I think I landed a job, so I'll have less time to write. But this is good! Because this means I'll have more money, which means stability, which also means more writing in the long run!

2/10/21: Also, thinking about writing my stories on Twitch around 10 P.M. regularly. Let me know if it's a good idea and I'll start it up! Just in case...my name is Aznchubbychub on Twitch...ok thanks...haha!

2/10/21: I just read the first chapter Author's Note, and I can't believe that this story, which originally was intended to have zero plot and stay at Beacon, became this. To be honest, it was supposed to end far earlier, and the chapters were meant to be much more succinct. But instead, I've ended up writing a story that may become my longest story to date, and it may reach the twenties or thirties length by June. That's insane, because there's simply SO MUCH that needs to be covered to reach where I want this story to get to.

2/11/21 chapter publish date stats:

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Chapter 14 START

Willow was in bed. Warm, cozy. One of her favorite places in her large estate. It provided her a sense of comfort little else could match. Sleep was sweet reprieve from the stress's of the day and the great equalizer of mankind.

She hardly moved, grabbing the sheets from above and moving a bit more to her side. Her husband, Jacques Schnee, had rolled in his sleep and ended up stealing more than his fair share of the duvet. This was common enough, and she had gotten used to it over the years to make a fuss over it. This was one of the few annoying traits of her husband. Otherwise, he was caring and kind. Outwardly passionate and a loving husband. He always tried to treat her right.

If there was one issue she had with her marriage, it was that her husband was always so busy. He worked every day, from the moment he rose until he fell asleep. Every day, it was always work, work, work. There was a dinner he had planned with a few influential families tonight. She knew it was more than just a dinner between like-minded individuals who wanted to relax and had a good time, but the mentality her husband had unnerved her sometimes. It was as if he wanted to milk the dinners out to get as much on the good side of every person as possible so he could milk the benefits while still being respectful and kind in return.

These are not thoughts for someone that just woke up. She rolled to her side, her eyes falling on the crib on her side of the bed. Little Winter was fast sleep, deep in her little world of whatever it was that a baby dreamt of. Her little girl. So spunky and full of childish wonder. Had it already been over two years since she had given birth to her little miracle?

She lay still in bed, watching Winter breathe. She must've been watching for some time, because the sun soon rose enough for the light to pass through the filtering curtains. The room brightened considerably, and she had half a mind to shut the blackout curtains to turn the light away and lay in bed for a few more hours. It was a Sunday, and it was her day off. Besides, she could watch her daughter and never be bored. That childlike wonder she had was infectious, and Willow was more than content to take care of her daughter.

"Honey?" her husband said, tone dripping with drowsiness. He really needed to get more sleep, and she as much. But he refused to comply and always said the same thing in reply. That he was doing this for her and her father so that they could rest easy. The company would go on and her father would be able to let go of the reins soon, content to leave it in the hands of his capable son-in-law.

Of course she understood. She wanted her father to rest and enjoy life how he deserved to. But that didn't mean she wanted her husband to simply take her father's place and work himself to death instead. They had argued - well, she had told him how she felt, and he had responded with absolute calm. He never did seem to get upset, always knowing what to say and using the right tone to persuade her that he was doing it for her. She believed him. She really did.

It didn't mean she had to like it.

"Good morning, dear," she said, rising out of bed. "Coffee?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Good morning. And yes, please," Jacques said, sitting up in bed. He looked at her and smiled. "You look gorgeous today."

Willow smiled at her husband. "You say that every day, you know? One day, that's not going to work."

"It worked today." Willow huffed, but smiled nonetheless. She walked out of the room in her night clothes, making her way to the kitchen downstairs.

Her husband wouldn't listen to her pleas to loosen up on the work, so she may as well help him in any way that she could. When she returned with two cups of coffee, one for her and one her husband, Jacques was sitting on the edge of the bed with little Winter jumping up and down at his feet. The little one was giggling animatedly, and Jacques made absurd faces which made Winter erupt in laughter with each new convoluted expression he made.

"For you," she said, handing him the cup of coffee. He took a second to look up at her with a thankful expression, grabbing the mug with nimble, careful fingers. Those fingers were quite skilled in bed when -

Bad. Her daughter was right in front of her, and this was no time to be thinking thoughts like that. But it had been...some time since they've had any fun together in bed. Say what she would about how tired he was, he was always good when it mattered.

She just wished he made more time for her and her interests. She had told him and she, her father, and Winter would be taking the trip to Atlas on Monday morning and had directly invited him. And as always, he had told her that he would be busy with meetings and something else with the company that she had heard hundreds of times before. Willow stared at her husband, who looked lovingly down at Winter.

Yes. Her husband and her marriage were perfect. In every way but one.


The world was silent. The trees spoke of nothing, and the wind whispered with empty words. At this moment, and the next, there was an emptiness that only came with a world of white.

When Raven meditated, she didn't really think of anything as her subconscious drifted. Sometimes, she would see stray marks of her Aura in her mind's eye, sometimes even parts of her Semblance. Other times, she would see and feel nothing at all. Meditation was strange in that way. It would improve your focus by allowing you to see oddities, things that shouldn't be. Her Semblance was not a visible construct, and the concept nothing was also not something that existed in the real plane of existence. The very idea and concept of nothing was a paradox when there was always something in every space.

She opened her eyes, revealing her blood red orbs to the world. She was sitting in the dorm room that the Atlesian Academy had offered to the Beacon students for their visit as diplomats. Violet, Glynda and Crystal were all doing the same as she had been. They were entranced in their own worlds of emptiness, lost in their subconscious. She turned her eyes up and remained still, thoughts trudging mildly while she scrutinized the clean ceiling.

Raven couldn't quite grasp the idea of conceptual creation and enhancement. Crystal's explanation the day before had thwarted her partially, leaving her with a half-complete understanding of the fourth year's capabilities. Sleeping on it had helped her internalize what she couldn't understand, but it wasn't enough to get the full picture. There were now more questions that badgered her, things that she wanted to ask the emerald-haired girl directly. Questions like: why wouldn't Crystal enhance her intelligence? Raven had already assumed an answer to her theoretical question, but she wanted to make sure. Was it that the properties of the concept that Crystal was enhancing had to be understood, meaning that she would have to have a strong grasp of the physical capabilities of what a brain could do? That knowledge was hardly available, and Huntsman tended to know barely anything about that kind of stuff. Or was it that she was simply limited from making use of her Semblance in that way? Had she even tried?

Raven sighed quietly, ensuring that none of the other girls in the dorm heard her. Her own Semblance, Kindred Link, probably couldn't be used in such a creative way that simply thinking of it from a different angle wouldn't shift the utility or usage of it. As a passive effect, it was only able to 'link' to people that she felt a bond with. There had to be a level of connection, otherwise it was moot and innately useless. And if she did have a degree of connection with the other person, there were tiers to how close she had to be to unlock the passive traits of her Semblance. Understanding another person's whereabouts, their emotions, and their thoughts...all of these came with a better understanding and trust with the other person. No amount of shifting the paradigm or vantage from which she analyzed her Semblance would change that.

Her Semblance was not meant for combat. She admitted it freely. Or maybe she was like Naruto, before he understood how to utilize his Semblance in a way that would derive use in a state of battle. Well, she would have to find a way if she would ever catch up to her professor. Her truculent ways of constantly challenging him to spars would find her at the same end every time if she didn't improve drastically or evolve her Semblance.

She would lose. Simple as that.

Crystal practically stated that she couldn't beat Naruto with her Semblance, despite how absurd its utility was. Glynda also told her on multiple occasions that Naruto was so far beyond her capabilities that it was a joke to even imagine them on the same playing field. So what was she, a first year, trying to accomplish by imagining herself an equal to Naruto?

She shook her head, her bangs bouncing with the motion. She refused to wander down that path of thought. Negativity and weakness. She would not stand for it, and it was not her methodology to allow herself to stoop to weakness.

The next step is the most important, she remembered. It was her own words, and Nicholas Schnee agreed with her, even saying that they were extraordinary and introspective. I cannot stop moving forward, even if the end of the road is not in sight. To stagnate is to lose.

Naruto may be untouchable, but that was a fact for now. Perhaps the fourth years admitted that he was their professor and also the gap between student and professor was a wide chasm that could not be overcome. She accepted it as well...but only for now. She would continue to trek forward, tirelessly and without cease. This was all she knew. This was who she was.

She tried to enter a meditative state again, but tossed the idea immediately. She stood and walked around the room without making a sound.

"You can walk normally, you know?" Violet said. Raven looked over her shoulder at the girl who was sitting on the ground next to her bed, one eye opened and looking at her. "It doesn't make that much of a difference."

"Sorry," Raven said anyway. How did the girl hear her? She swore that she wasn't making any sounds with her footsteps. Glynda and Crystal still had their eyes closed, but she could see their eyelids moving in minute fluctuating motions. They were aware of her as well.

Violet closed her eyes. "Don't worry about it. If you're restless, you should give the smaller combat rooms here a quick visit. We took a look yesterday and I have to say, they make Beacon's pale in comparison."

When Violet didn't say anything more, Raven nodded and grabbed her keycard and her weapon, Omen. She did feel a bit jumpy and jittery. Her hand tensed on Omen a bit together than usual. Something felt different.

Only a few seconds later, she was outside of the room and walking down the long, straight halls that she had somewhat accustomed to. There were a lot more students out in the halls than she had anticipated. Many of them had their customized weapons on their person, either strapped in or on hand. Most of the students she saw were traveling as four, so in full teams. She walked by herself, catching a few people glancing at her and whispering. Keywords like 'Beacon' and 'Vytal Festival' came up the most.

The Vytal Festival...it made sense. Many of the students here wanted to have a good showing for the Vytal Festival and put their best foot forward to make an impression that would last. If one performed well enough, they might be able to get chances to be assigned to tougher missions, which would segway into a more pronounced career and reputation as a Huntsman if the mission was a success. If one performed beyond admirably and into the realm of exceptional, internships under world-class Huntsman and sponsorships from renowned business and huge name brands.

She was glad to see more students in the halls, obviously electrified and more incentivized with the upcoming festival. She wasn't here in the previous weeks, so she wondered if the amount of students on campus differed during the weekends when the Vytal Festival drew near in comparison to normal weekends with no upcoming events. If there were more because of the festival in a month, she was glad there were more students but...

It all felt so superficial. They were Huntsman in training, putting their lives in any other career on permanent hold to become humanity's wall against the Grimm. They were, in the most base and simplest terms, improving themselves to become humanity's protectors, and the stronger they were, the safer the world was as a result.

Raven thought of her team and how they wanted her to stay with them so that they could practice their teamwork and combination so that they would be like a well-oiled machine when it came down to the team battles. She let out a sigh, realizing that perhaps her team was just as fallible as any other. It's not as if she couldn't understand, though. Well, as long as there was some form of initiative. But the feeling that some students treated the career of a Huntsman more of a game than a real life-threatening job nagged at her.

An elevator came into view, and she walked up to it. Pressing the button to call for a car, Raven stepped into the elevator when it opened. A few seconds later, she exited at a lower level, a bit deeper into the Academy. The halls were still wide, but there was slightly less warmth and color to the walls. There was no carpet, and now the entire floor seemed to be made of a clean white that reminded her for hospitals.

There were far more students milling around on this floor than the one upstairs. Many of them were lounging around with their weapons in full display. The students stuck near the walls, chatting or analyzing their recordings on a Scroll. These were all students here to improve themselves. She received less glances, although the few that she did notice were far more competitive. They must have realized that she was a Beacon student.

There was a room clearly labeled 'Combat Room Simulation Seven'. She walked up to it. Pulling out the card that had been given to her, Raven tapped it against the keycard analyzer. It chimed with a high-pitched ding, accepting her card and revealing her identity momentarily on the screen before disappearing. The door hissed opened, and she stepped through into the combat room that Glynda had suggested for her to take a look at.

It was smaller than the combat room that Naruto had schooled every single fourth year in a matter of minutes, but it wasn't inferior by much. What it lacked in space, it made up for its technology and simulations. The larger combat room had multiple stages for students to fight, whereas there was only one. However, the simulations she saw students engaged in were individually catered to and personalized. Each student in their simulation would fight against a horde of Grimm that they had preset.

There were at least a dozen students inside. It was more than she had expected based on how many students she had seen on Friday night, taking the day off to take a trip to the city and let some stress be relieved. The students inside were training on their livelihoods and futures. All of them were dressed in uniform, representing their school. She mentally scoffed at the idea, dressed in shorts and a training top herself.

A pair of students were sparring off to the side of the room, not using the stage in the middle of the room. She eyes them for a moment, inspecting for anything for her to take from their short engagement. Finding nothing of import, she moved to give the simulation machines her attention.

How do these even work?

There was a section of space wide enough for her to move around with limited freedom, but it wasn't enough to achieve her max speed. Her acceleration would be roughly stunted. There were also no walls, so aerial combat would be a challenge for her. She nodded to herself. Those were good things. She had limitations, meaning that if she could overcome them and find breakthroughs to surpass those limitations, then she was stronger than she was before. Now, all she had to do was figure out how the damn contraptions worked.

There was a large holographic device that was similar to a Scroll, but just larger. Simple enough, but whatever she pressed based on intuition, it didn't lead to any simulation coming to life. No Grimm suddenly surged into the ground and started charging her, and no Nevermore floated into air, prepared to fling its razor sharp feathers and dive at her, beaks prepared to rip her apart.

Nope. Nothing. No matter what she pressed, nothing happened. No amount of confirmation or experimenting with the buttons lead to her to the result she wanted. Which was, ideally, a large number of Grimm for her to subdue.

Beep. Beep. Confirm. Nothing.

Raven was beginning to grow frustrated at the technology's refusal to do as she bid.

"Oh come on," Raven said, her lips tightening when, once more, the machine did not complete the task she asked. She was asking for a few dozen Grimm to appear, so why wouldn't it confirm her ask and make those simulated Grimm come to life? She pressed another button a few times, clearly indicating that she was increasing the number of Nevermore that would be summoned, but when she attempted to confirm it, it turned up blank.

She heard a few footsteps behind her. A blue-haired teen, slightly taller than she was, strode up slightly to her left. He stared at the monitor that she was attempting to work with.

"Huh. Are you sure you want to deal with seven-hundred sixty-six Beowolves and seventy Nevermores? Isn't that a bit much?" he asked, leaning partially towards Raven. The machine was to her right, so he had to partially enter her comfort zone to read what she had input to the system. "Unless that's what you wanted to do, of course."

Raven stepped away from the machine. "Yes. That's exactly what I wanted," she said flatly. The Atlesian student caught onto her sarcasm and chuckled, pressing a few buttons on the screen. She saw the numbers reset to a zero.

"So," he said, looking at her and hand on the buttons. Raven noticed that a few of the other students that had finished their round at the simulation were now watching her with mild curiosity, forming a wide semi-circle. The pair that was sparring on the side of the room had walked over a bit to see if she would actually attempt to face hundreds of simulated Grimm. "What did you want to do for your simulation?"

Raven stalled for a moment. "Twenty Beowolves and three Nevermores would be good," she said, tersely. A few students behind her gasped, breathing in sharply from surprise. "Is that a lot?" she asked, unsure of what to think from the response she had received. Naruto and Glynda had made hundreds of Nevermore seem moderately difficult, and that was with their huge disadvantage of fighting on a bullhead with limited space to move and the short amount of preparation time that they had. The entire group and the bullhead had escaped unscathed. Three Nevermores, she thought, should be no problem for her.

The student that was helping her hesitated, his finger hovering over the holographic buttons to customize the simulation. "Are you sure? Are you one of the Beacon fourth years that came with that crazy professor Uzumaki?"

She felt affronted. "I'm in the diplomatic group with my professor, Naruto Uzumaki. Yes." She crossed her arms and leaned her weight to the right. "Why does it matter?"

The student looked around uncomfortably, unsure how to approach this situation. When none of the other Atlesian students stepped forward to assist him, he fixed his eyes back on Raven. "Um...most fourth years deal with only a few Beolwolves at a time to warm up. They're stronger in numbers, you know?"

Raven's frown deepened, her pupils sharpening. "I'm aware of what I'm asking for. I need you to deal with the machine because I don't know how to work with it. Grimm, simulated or not, I can deal with."

Seeing that the Beacon first year was adamant in her decision and did not look like she would back down anytime soon, the student sighed, huffing with his shoulders. The sound of the Scroll-like device chiming with each press from his finger played in her ears. "It's all done," he said, waving at her to approach him. "When I press the start button, the simulation will begin. You only need to step forward and cross the line, and then the space is all yours. Since you called for Grimm in the tens, I think the entire room is yours. If you take a hit, the simulation ends."

Raven looked at the floor and saw the peculiar white line that glowed perpendicular to her position. She stepped forward with confidence, hand already reaching for her odachi. She nodded at the student who had assisted her and said, "Thank you," before turning forward. Bright lines of three dimensional figures came to life as whatever system the Atlas students used whirred into action, creating the figures of Grimm and computing their actions and combat sequences. She could see the Beowolves' forms become more lifelike as the seconds ticked by, and the Nevermores, the same. The room shifted from a bright white to a shade of darkness and blue. All at once, the bright neon color that had been used to color in the form of the beasts were overtaken by black and red, the true colors of the enemy of mankind.

They screeched at her. Raven knew at that moment that it was the time to fight.

"Perfect," she said, a belligerent grin reaching her battle hungry eyes. She took hold of the hilt of Omen and rushed forward at the nearest Beowolf, blade to her side and behind her. She upon the beast within a heartbeat, her arms stretched overhead with her sword swinging down with her forward momentum. She brought her odachi down with all of her weight, swinging at the neck of the Beowolf.

It didn't even have a chance to retaliate. The Beowolf looked at her, as if it was dumbstruck. Then, the work she had done with the wide downward cut she had done became apparently as a bright red line showed itself across the length of the Beowolf's neck. Slowly, the head removed itself from the body that was still postured to block Raven's aggressive dash forward. Everything it did was behind pace and slow, even the way it disintegrated once the system realized that the cut was thorough and that the Beowolf was no longer meant to be alive.

In the time that Beowolf had dissipated, Raven had already blitzed off to her next target. A pair of Beowolves, side by side, and a single Nevermore waited menacingly for her in one of the corners of the room. She ignored the part of her brain that whispered to her that monsters like them would never wait idly, always wanting to take the initiative with hyper aggression and take the fight to the Huntsmen.

Once she was in striking range, she swung -

Strands of black floated in the air, clipped from her scalp. She blinked, hands on the floor as she flipped backwards. She had thrown her body backwards, her instincts screaming at her and her body listening to what it told her. The claws had flown by her face, clearing any skin by only a few inches. If she didn't trust her instincts, the very ones that had been honed for nearly a decade, the Beowolf would have struck her full on from the side of her head.

She hadn't even seen the clawed limb swing at her. When she had approached, all of their legs were still on the ground, and there was no tell of any aggression as she had prepared to swing. To her, the attack had been all but instantaneous, with no warning or preparation. It was as if the system had forgotten how Grimm moved and clipped through the motions, showing only the start and end images.

Raven grinned with dilated pupils, teeth showing with a predatory grin. These weren't normal Grimm at all. She knew what Beowolves were capable, and attacking at the same speed as her was definitely not within their ability. They were not known for how adept they were, but simply their viciousness and numbers. Barbaric.

She stepped forward, blurring and leaving afterimages of herself. Even though the distance was only a few feet, she pressed on as quickly as she could, in between the two Beowolves. More teeth showed as her heart sung, her mind lost in the midst of battle. She was in the air, at shoulder height of the Beowolves, and spun clockwise with her arm and sword outstretched in a straight line. Her sword felt no resistance as she sliced through the upper bodies of the Grimm. They may as well have been made of papier mâché.

Before gravity could take hold of her, she kicked off the arm of the Grimm to her right and landed on the left Beowolf's dissolving lower body. Before it could disintegrate, she used it as a foothold and exploded upward, overcoming the distance to the flying Nevermore. It opened its beak to bite at her, but it was over before it even had a chance to bit. She flew right by it, her sword horizontal against its mouth, then against its entire body. She crashed against the wall as the Nevermore just began its descent, its body bifurcated completely from head to tail.

Red eyes roamed over the battlefield. Seventeen more Beowolves and two more Nevermores to defeat. She only had about a second before the force from her landing against the wall would dissipate and she would begin free falling towards the ground. She caught onto her next prey, targeting a larger group of five Beowolves.

Like a crack, Raven's jump off the wall made an explosive sound that echoed against the room's interior. In the air, Raven tucked and twisted her body so that she was upside down and facing the Beowolf with her sword towards the ground. Her odachi sliced through the skull and straight down the back of the materialized Grimm. Right at the end of its tailbone region, Raven swung her arms down and utilized the momentum to flip forwards, landing on her feet and sliding with her body facing the same direction of the dematerializing Beowolf.

The other four Beowolves were in each of the cardinal directions, looking down at her with glowing red eyes, mouths salivating with the fake engine of the system. But it certainly felt real. They wanted to kill her, as badly as she wanted to do the same to them.

Raven leapt into the air, clearing over a swipe from the Beowolf from behind her. Within that single heartbeat timing, she landed on top of the arm and held on through the entire swing, ending up right beside the head of the Beowolf that was now standing on its hind legs. She swung her sword, once more cutting through the body of the Grimm with no resistance to her edge.


"She's insane," one of the students muttered, hands trembling over his hammer. "Didn't you make the difficulty of the simulation based on the Hunter's level?"

The student that had helped her nodded, uncertainty riddling his body. "I did."

The system modulated the difficulty of the simulation based on the skill level of the Huntsman that entered the field, increasing or decreasing if the need arose. It was one of the best ways for students to push themselves and overcome their weaknesses when it came to fighting against the Grimm. It was why fighting against more than a few Grimm at a time was considered unadvisable. If you killed one of the simulated targets, then the system would assume that you were stronger than what it had output initially, so the rest of the Grimm would become stronger and marginally faster.

So why? Why was the girl constantly overcoming the increased threshold difficulty that was being set by the system and pushing through every single obstacle with little difficulty, only gaining more speed and strength as the fight continued?

"Is she smiling?" one of the female students asked. The rest of the students could hardly get a solid look at the girl inside the simulation, moving so randomly and constantly. The girl was hardly ever still, getting a feel for her surroundings and immediately bursting in a different direction, her sword already mid-swing by the time she reached her next destination. But they were able to see her lips, upturned with too many teeth visible to even call that a smile. It was the smile of a ravening wolf, insatiable in its thirst for the hunt. When it knew that the prey was beneath them, and all it had to do was slowly, slowly, slowly drag the hunt on, as its victory was already assured.

It was a fact that was not lost on the Atlesian students that the girl was also getting faster every single time that the Grimm would increase their ferocity and base stats. She probably didn't even notice what was happening, only realizing that the the Grimm were attacking with more power and blurring swiftness, their rapid and precise attacks become even more so after each kill. And yet, they had yet to make her even block, her body able to shift to the side, her eyes able to keep up with the turbulent state of battle. She was one in the combat, lightning in a bottle.

After each kill, she became faster. The girl was taken in by the pace of combat, internalizing it and instinctively knowing what to expect already. It wasn't as if the Grimm were not willing to attack her; that's their nature. It was what they were meant to do. Most students would wait for the Grimm to come to them when they did simulated training. Whenever a student would take the offensive, the difficulty of the fight would ramp up exponentially quickly because the system would assume that if a Huntsman was moving forward, that meant their confidence in their skills were far above than the difficulty threshold that was being presented.

And yet, the girl made it look so easy. Flipping through the air, the black-hair whipping as she turned and spun with her feet above her head, she struck faster than most humans could even react. Her blade streaked, separating limbs and whole sections of Grimm bodies with each swing. She cut through the four Beowolves the surrounded her. Her blade flashed for an instant, and then she was gone, the four severed bodies of the Grimm only starting to fall apart when she was already upon the next congregated group of Grimm. Her blade would be a streak of black, seemingly stretching as the image she left behind expanded.

She took the fight to the Grimm faster than they would have been able to bring it to her. That was the frightening part. Grimm were not generally smart or intelligent creatures. They were beings of instincts. They wanted to kill, sever, and destroy, and nothing else in their nonexistent brains said anything else. And yet, somehow, this girl was even more aggressive than they were able to comprehend. At least, the computer system seemed to have difficulty computing an acceptable level of viciousness from the Grimm without defying the real standard strength of the formed Grimm too far.

The girl, the student from Beacon, cackled and smiled through it all. Halfway through, having killed twelve of the Beowolves and one of the Nevermore, the girl's body started glowing with the use of the Aura.

The student that was standing over the holograph widened his eyes. The system seemed to have concluded that it would remove the limitations on the Grimm's base speed and allow it to break standards.

"Oh crap," he said.


"Woah!" Raven let out, a pair of claws almost tearing off her right arm and leg. She slid to the left, barely dodging the two Beowolves that had jumped at her, claws pointed at her heart. She turned, her hair a vortex and her sword above the storm, using the dodge to be used as a means of a counterattack. Before the two Beowolves could retreat and assess their next attack, she swung her odachi down, cutting through the pair of limbs that had stretched out to strike her. With a glint of steel, the Beowolves' legs split from the main body. The Beowolves, having leaned forward fully committed to their attack, fell forward when their front limbs found no purchase on the ground.

It was simply too easy for Raven to take over from that point, stabbing the two clean through the skull, bringing her arm down twice to shove her sword through the tip of the Beowolves' head down to the floor.

She looked around quickly, getting a quick grasp of her surroundings. She jumped backwards, her body clearly out of range of the diving Nevermore as its beak slammed against the ground where she was just standing. Without thought, her sword arm moved above her head so her sword was to her back. A clawed leg met her sword against the flat of her blade, slamming into the metal and cutting off all of Raven's momentum as it was reversed.

Raven slammed against the ground, bouncing once and then rolling like a tumbleweed. She slammed her left palm against the ground to push her body up. Her body kept spinning once it was in the air, her body completely horizontal. As she approached the ground, she split her legs and let the momentum of the centrifugal force lessen, giving her a split second more to right herself so that she was able to bounce off the moment her feet touched the ground.

She didn't get the chance. The rest of the Beowolves and the two Nevermore were surrounding her.

Good. That made it easier for her to narrow down her options. She wouldn't have to decide which group to attack. She'd simply have to destroy all of them.

Faster, she told herself. She brought her arm up to her head, the hilt of Omen high and the odachi's head pointing to the floor, deflecting a grazing blow that would have struck her bluntly on the right side of her ribs. The clawed limb went wide, giving her no reason to chase after the offending limb.

The Neverwore stretched its wings back, the feathers beginning to vibrate violently. The Grimm rose, lifting itself higher and then clapped its winged limbs together, sending a fusillade of feathers straight at her. Dozens of feathers that may as well have been short knives rushed down at her, whizzing as they screeched through the air and cut through the gap.

Her eyes took in everything, the feathers and the rushing Beowolves that were going to attack the moment she defended from the feathers. In fact, the other Nevermore was gaining height as well, preparing to send its own volley of bladed feathers at her.

For the first time since the combat began, she used Dust. Applying Fire Dust into the round cylinders of her sheath, Omen's blade sheen shifted to a bright red. The sword exploded out of its sheath, and using the momentum from the initial blast, Raven defended by swinging the odachi without cease, prevent the feathers from clipping any part of her body. None of the feathers ever reached her skin.

The three Beowolves came at her in a line. Simultaneously, they brought down their claws where she stood. If two wasn't enough, than three with more force and numbers was their response. How uninspiring, she thought.

She placed Omen back into its sheath, reignited the cylinder with Fire Dust. Then, she let the blade fly on its own, pressing the release for the sheath to let the sword escape with the added force from the dust explosion. The blade few, striking the Beowolf she aimed Omen at with perfect accuracy dead on the head.

Without pausing, the other two Beowolves still rushed her, as if to avenge their fallen comrades. Raven ran forward to meet them, sliding at the last moment to barely scrape as they slammed the ground. When she was under the belly of the Beowolf to the right, she rolled off her shoulder and caught air, her stomach now towards the ground. Planting her hands onto the ground, she pushed off with her feet straight above her and kicked the Grimm from below with all the force she could muster.

The Beowolf lost all grip with the floor and was thrown nearly twenty feet into the air. It crashed into the Nevermore that was preparing to send a barrage of feathers, taking the flying Grimm down with it as it came down to the floor.

Raven was already on her feet, leaping to her left and charging to the last Beowolf directly within striking range. It was sliding on the ground away from her, skidding towards one of the walls. She picked up her pace, kicking off the ground and channeling Aura into her legs on the last step to empower her jumping ability. She rocketed off the ground and jumped into the air, somersaulting so that her right leg was straight above her head. At the last moment, she brought her leg down like an axe to chop wood, cracking her heel down on the Grimm mask of the Beowolf. The mask splintered with spider fissures of weakness, showing lines of where the skull of the Beowolf was now exposed and more prone to damage.

But it hadn't died. And neither had the pair of Nevermores behind her.

She grabbed the mask as she fell, using it as a crutch to throw herself behind the body of the Beowolf as another volley of feathers blew by her with so much force that her hair was thrown back. Using the body of the Beowolf was as meat shield, Raven heard the feathers riddling the body of the Grimm tens of times. The Beowolf fell to the ground and began its process of dissipating.

Her eyes caught onto Omen on the ground, a few meters away. She moved, her heart beating like an overworked engine in its cage, pumping as she exerted her body beyond what she thought she could do. She felt that the Grimm in this simulation were far stronger than what she would ever face from normal Beowolves and Nevermore in the real world, but she didn't care.

This was battle. Her blood, pumping fuel through her ears, one heartbeat at a time. Her legs, both screaming and singing as they were used to reach top speed repeatedly in a single step, activating every muscle in her body to achieve stability as she blurred through the space. Her brain was also overclocking, absorbing every single minute detail, down to the grain, as she fought. She could feel each individual bead of sweat as it ran down her face in little rivulets, dripping off her chin as she burst into motion.

She leapt forward for her sword, dodging another hail of feathers that crashed into the ground where her feet had been just a split second ago. Her hand caught onto the hilt of Omen and she used the momentum of her jump into a roll, stopping her body from moving immediately when her feet found purchase with the tiled floor.

Raven could feel it. In her heightened state of awareness, she could feel her Aura pulsating inside of her, like a tidal wave that was being held back by a makeshift wall and that wanted out. It pressed against the pores of her skin, thrashing and fighting to escape. Right now, she felt like she could do anything!

Raven gripped her hilt tight with both hands, seizing control of herself and channeled Aura into her blade, and then she swung twice in two large angled arcs, sweeping Omen across space.

Two Nevermore and three Beowolves. They were all cleaved clean through their massive bodies. Her Aura, which she had channeled through Omen, had slashed through the air, singing steel and death, and found the bodies of the Grimm and cut through their hides like a hot knife through butter. The first Aura Slash had been angled to hit both Nevermore that were flying together, and the second Aura Slash had been used at ground level to catch as many of the remaining Beowolves as possible.

The adrenaline went into overdrive when the realization of what she had just done actually began to set in. It only took the time of a single blink in her heightened state of awareness, but time in battle felt dilated. Long. Seconds became minutes as the feeling of time seemed to slow for her, dragging to a crawl.

Without any warning, the room went from hazy blue and dark to a blinding white. The rest of the simulation dispersed, and the Grimm that had been called by the system disintegrated into bright neon lines, much the same way they came.

Raven's breaths came in heavily, her eyes scanning without pause. Even when her brain was telling her that the battle was over, her body didn't let her drop her guard. Her shoulders heaved as she took in each breath, inhaling much needed oxygen as her chest rose and fell with each one.

Only after ten seconds had passed did she allow herself to drop Omen down to her side, but it did not enter its sheath. It reflected its beautiful black steel against the white ground.

"Why?" she said, dragging her feet as she turned to face the student that had helped her set up the combat simulation. "Why did it stop?"

She didn't care for the audience she had drawn, and the way the Atlesian students pointed at her. A sweaty, stray bunch of hair fell over her eyes. She whipped her head to the right and refocused her attention on the assister. He was pointing behind her. She followed to his finger, turning her head over her shoulder to see what his shaking hand was directing her attention to.

Her eyes widened. Two long cuts against the wall, no doubt from the Aura that she had emitted from her blade. The computer had most likely realized that damage had been done to the wall and had assumed a student had been injured through a process of elimination. Even though it may have seen her perfectly well and healthy, there must have been the assumption that because the wall was damage, perhaps she had crashed into the wall hard enough to create lines.

Raven's blood slowed, and her mental faculties returned to her in a trickle. Once upon a time, Naruto had done the same feat to her. Hadn't she swung her sword thousands of times since that day every day, attempting to accomplish the same feat that he had done so easily. He had swung her blade, Omen, as if he were handling a toy sword, except that toy sword was a deadly conduit that released deadly crescents of Aura that could crush compact walls and slice through entire bodies of weaker Grimm from range.

With a smoothness that could only be matched by performing the same actions tens of thousands of times, Raven twirled the odachi and sheathed it in one clean motion. She walked back the the middle of the room where she had crossed the line that had begun the simulation, nodding at the student as way to show her thanks.

"Who...are you?" he asked. He looked down at his Scroll, then back at her. "I've never heard of you before at the last Vytal Festibal."

Raven paused in her steps. "You would be right to think you didn't." She remembered something he said before the simulation began. "By the way, I'm a first year."

The tall student seemed like he was about to lose his balance at any moment, his hand using the machine as a crutch as he leaned against it with most of his body weight. "You're a first year? And you can perform an Aura Slash?"

Raven glanced at her lifelong partner, Omen. "As of two minutes ago, yes. I can." She gestured her nonchalance with a shrug when all he did was stare at her with stupefaction.

"How?" was all he could ask. She shrugged again, her mind elsewhere.

"It just felt right," she said, deciding that was the best answer. There was no other way to describe it. Everything just felt right in that moment, as if the stars had aligned for her. Every checkmark necessary for her had been filled in, and all she had to do was grab that opportunity and seize it for herself. And now she knew how it felt. She felt the way her Aura channeled through her arms and into Omen, and the release it took as it took the shape of her blade and the thinness of it to retain its sharpness as it escaped her control in a half-moon.

She would be able to do it again. Once was a fluke. But she had swung twice, and her Aura had listened to her body's command, creating a weapon out of her Aura equal to the number of swings.

"Isn't she stronger than Glynda back then?" Her ears picked up whispers from the students that had been mildly curious before. They were transfixed on her person now. She straightened her back, slowing and evening out her breaths.

"Thank you," she said to the male beside the machine. With that, she turned away and headed for the exit. The door released its latch and opened for her when she neared, and she passed through and heard the door close behind her when she kept walking.

Her heart pounded. From exertion, yes. But there was something else driving her emotions right now. A rictus smile stuck, and she couldn't get rid of it. It felt so out of place for her, but the upward curve of her lips simply wouldn't leave. Eventually, she stopped trying and ran in the halls.


Naruto softly sang a tune to himself. He was sitting in one of the desks in the dorm room, back against the frame of the chair as he tipped the furniture onto its back legs. He was directly in front of a window, shedding golden resplendent glory over his sheets of paper and his Scroll, which had automatically brightened its screen to compensate for the increased exposure. The sun cast a lazy glow, the cloud mirroring the waves of energy over the entire city of Atlas.

He was brooding, as heavily as the anchor that set a ship at port. What would he use as the main lesson for tomorrow's class? He was told that he would be the main professor for the fourth years, and he couldn't use the same lesson twice. Also, beating the students again wouldn't really send the right message. It would only cement the idea that he was a battle freak, but also a gigantic jackass. He couldn't have that kind of reputation be affixed to his character.

The Atlesians students were fourth years, so they must have learned quite a few lessons. In fact, he pondered, what had the students not learned so far? As fourth years, the students were practically fully-fledged students. The last two years of Huntsman Academy were generally used for the students to take on more missions with their teams - and sometimes, professors - as a way to gain more field experience. What they absorbed outside of their campus was easily multiple times the value of theoretical data that they received in their sheltered classrooms, so...what could he teach the fourth years that was related to the beating he had given them, could be a repeated lesson no matter how many times it was stated and still have an impact, and make him seem like this whole shenanigan was all preplanned?

A knock resounded against his door. He spun on the chair, still balancing against its back legs. With ease, he righted himself and then strode over to the door.

"Yes?" he asked, opening the door. It revealed a very sweaty Raven, but he could feel a sense of accomplishment from the girl. Her eyes shone like stars, the kind of gratification that only came when you reached something that you had been chasing for like a far off dream. An aspiration, wanting it as badly as you breathed.

She smiled, and it was free of the normal snark and half-hearted attempts she had shown before. No, this one was full of happiness and giddiness. It was the first time Naruto had seen such a smile on the girl, and it was beautiful. He certainly hoped it wasn't the last.

Raven raised her sheath, her blade Omen inside. "I did it," she said, smile widening when she told him. It was like she was relieved, excited, and giddy all at once when she finally said the word. He couldn't help but flash a huge grin, and he felt her sense of accomplishment double.

"Well done," he said. "You earned it."

He knew he said the right words when Raven's smile somehow widened even more. He swore he saw a tear starting to form on her left eye. He turned away, pretending to look into his room for his notes and Scroll. When he looked back at her, the bit of moisture on her eyes was gone, wiped away. But her smile remained.

"Want to get dinner out in the city? It's on me," he said.

"Just us?" she asked.

Naruto nodded. "Sure, if that's what you want. Today's your day." Raven nodded once stiffly, like someone trying to hold back their excitement.

"Let me shower and get dressed. Then we'll go."

"Sure." Raven gave him one long look, then walked the short distance to her own dorm and entered. He closed the door and went back to his desk.

Hard work and humbleness. No matter how many times you hear it, you can never be reminded of how powerful it was to have those two traits together. No matter how much of a genius you were, you couldn't reach your potential without accepting that it would take work. Raven had put in hundreds of hours in the two months since he had shown her the Aura Slash. She didn't even need to tell him what she had done, because he knew. It was the only thing she had done unceasingly, without fail, every night.

He saw her from the roof one night, swinging her sword in regular intervals at least a thousand times a night, trying to recreate what he had shown her that one day. He would feel her Aura fizzle out every time, but a little closer to what she wanted to achieve every time she tried again. But she never gave up, walking out to that same patched out section of the hill where she went every night. Beside the tree, Raven would swing her sword facing the mountains so that if she ever succeeded, it wouldn't create unnecessary damage to the premises. Every night, she would finish her routine with all of her concentration, and then walk back into the dorms.

Naruto would sit outside on the edge of a rooftop, unsure why he returned every time. At first, he simply watched. As the days went by, he would meditate, read, do his work on the rooftop, or whatever he really felt like. It was only for about an hour a day, but it was one chunk of the day that became as routine as Raven's. He knew she would be out there, training, and he could look away from his Scroll for a second to take a short break and see her still bringing her odachi down, one rep at a time.

And then it clicked. She was like him, so many lifetimes ago. She desperately wanted to prove herself and to become strong, but she didn't realize what for until recently. She only had her brother and her tribe, but now she had a whole network that she was loosely connected to, and some people that she strongly trusted.

He wished he could've seen the moment that Raven managed to perform the Aura Slash. A wistful smile slipped across his lips. He pushed back against his chair, tipping it backwards as he looked up the ceiling. Knowing her, she probably would have a recording of it somewhere on her Scroll, but it wasn't the same as seeing with his own eyes and being able to share how proud he felt in that exact moment.

It was like how Nicholas Schnee said he wanted to see him teach in person and see if he was the real deal in person. Willow had hinted at lunch the day before that her father had seen clips of Naruto absolutely decimating the entire class of fourth years, which was incredible in its own right. But seeing something on a screen and seeing the very same thing live were two completely different experiences.

"Heh...if she could show it to me, I'd be happy with that," he whispered to nobody. The sun set on his face, the light crossing through the window in hues of red and gold. He left his work on his desk, unfinished by professional standards. But the words he would say, and the lessons he had prepared, they were all in his head now.

Thirty minutes later, he heard another knock at his door. He grabbed his jacket and put his arms through the sleeves, putting it on easily. Naruto opened the door to a cleanly dressed Raven, a slightly more reserved smile that was usually on the taciturn first year. She hair was pulled back in sections that formed a bun, and the rest fell freely in lesser amounts that the normally free falling hair that she had. Raven had put on her red wool jacket on top of her black shirt, and black jeans with a pop of bright red to compliment her jacket.

"I like the bun," Naruto said, complimenting the work Raven had done with her hair.

"Thanks," she said. "Let's go. I'm hungry."

Naruto chuckled. He double checked that he had his keycard and Scroll in his pocket. Assured he left nothing behind, he walked out the door and closed it behind him.

"Let's get dinner."

"Sounds good to me."

Chapter End.

A/N: Please stop bullying NeonZangetsu. This is a rough time for everybody. I know it's probably a minority, but if you have only malicious and rude words to say, keep them to yourself. I know you, the reader, are probably not involved in what NeonZangetsu has had to suffer in terms of flames, but I want to spread awareness what is happening, even if FFN is not a widespread media. Some guests are telling NeonZangetsu to die and kill himself. This is not acceptable behavior. Please, if you do leave a review for any of his stories, leave him a kind word or a bit of encouragement as well. I'm sure that NZ needs it.

That said, I want to talk about Willow's scene with Jacques in the beginning. I understand how many people would find it upsetting that I wrote Jacques in such a good light. I want to remind you that Jacques was a loving husband to her until Nicholas died. He faked and pretended the marriage until he had complete control of the SDC, and that took years. He faked his love to her to the point she believed it was real and agreed to marry him.

Also, if you have met people that "nice" and take advantage of others, you know how well they put on a mask and fake persona. The more they perfect the art of faking a good person act, the more they take and could steal from others. This isn't a psych class or anything, but this was one of my areas of study in university. And I've also lived it. I've been in a situation where I was taken advantage of by a significant other, and I had all the signs but didn't realize it until after it was all over and I had months to process what I had gone through.

This is Willow's first marriage. Saying it like that makes it sound like she's going to be married again. To not give any false hopes about her getting married with Naruto, I'll say at least for the next ten years in the RWBY universe, it will not happen. Weiss and Whitley are yet to be born and, more importantly, Nicholas Schnee does not die for quite some time. Jacques has more than enough time and influence to worm his way deeper and deeper into the SDC until he is invaluable.

Sorry to burst your bubbles. Naruto isn't going to be the savior of Willow this arc. But I am planting the seeds to show you, the reader, the signs of her as a different person that the one in canon that tread down the path that to her canon RWBY self. She will not end up dependent on alcohol as a form of escape, because Naruto will be there for her when everything goes to shit. One person that you trust can make all of the difference in the world when it matters.

Take a second to think of someone you care about. Maybe hit them up with a quick, casual checkup. Maybe tell them Happy (Lunar)New Year. Or just appreciate that you have someone in your life.

Because Willow didn't have anyone to turn to when shit hit the fan, and she tread down a path that made her a shell of her former self.

Best,

KenzoXShuyita.