Thank you to GamerJay, SwapAUAnon, and Gladsome Praetorian for Beta Reading this chapter as well as providing feedback.
Alright, we're now finally getting back to the events of the main plot with...not exactly the Jaundice Arc (Goddammit Barb!) since I can't really call it that, but more so where the arc is located as far as the timeline is concerned. So I don't really have a name for this arc so I'll just call it the Forever Fall portion for now.
BlazBlue is owned by Arc System Works and RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth. Please support the official release.
Chapter 20: Rage
The sound of a steel mace clashing against a shield reverberated within the combat arena as Glynda watched the two students battle each other. Just as Cardin Winchester was about to make an underhand strike, Jaune Arc deftly avoided the attack and delivered a sweeping kick to his opponent's feet, knocking him on his back. The taller student then rolled and picked himself back up as fast as he could before he struck at Jaune again, the handle of his mace meeting Arc's blade as the two clashed against each other.
Overall, Glynda found herself rather impressed with Mister Arc's performance these past few classes. Initially, he displayed very little in the way of combat capabilities even after initiation. However, whether he found a spark of inspiration or just maintained solid practice within the weeks since school began, he had improved leaps and bounds beyond what he was achieving previously.
Arc attempted to spin his wrist to flick the mace out of Winchester's hands, but he slipped up and ended up loosing his sword in the struggle as well, knocking both weapons away. Rather than scramble for it, he instead struck at his opponent with a headbutt, sending Winchester stumbling back a few feet. For his part, Arc clutched his head in minor pain, almost as affected by his own attack just as his opponent was.
Despite his improvement, Arc's swordplay was still incredibly clumsy and uncoordinated. Still, he managed to make up for it with unarmed tenacity and combative skills.
Seeing the fatigue both fighters were displaying, Glynda decided to check their Aura levels to see if the match should come to an end. So far, both Arc and Winchester's Aura's were at less than half, Winchester's slightly higher, but still not enough to call the fight in either's favor.
Neither side attempted to retrieve their weapons as instead, Winchester rushed forward, intending to tackle Arc while he was dazed from the previous headbutt. Instead, Arc rolled back onto the floor as Winchester neared, using his shield as a platform to push his opponent off in the direction of his attempted charge. The result sent him landing on his front as he slid across the floor on his armor and over the edge of the arena, landing on the auditorium floor.
"And that's the match!" Glynda called out.
"As you all can see," she continued as she gestured to Mister Winchester, who was picking himself off the floor, "Mister Winchester has been knocked out of the arena. In a tournament style duel, this means that he has been eliminated from the match and the round goes to his opponent."
Glynda turned to Winchester and said, "Mister Winchester, perhaps it would be in your best interest to not be so reckless when you fight? Throwing yourself around like that against a more pragmatic opponent is a recipe for disaster."
"Whatever," he said as he walked back to his seat in a huff.
"Mister Arc," Glynda then turned to the blonde student still standing in the arena, "You've improved immensely over the course of these classes. However, I would advice that you practice your blade work. Make sure you cover all your bases."
"R-right. Thanks Miss Goodwitch," Arc replied as he bowed slightly and returned to his seat. Out of the corner of Glynda's eye, she could see his teammates congratulate him, with even Mister Ragna giving him a pat on the back for his efforts.
The bell rang, signifying that their class was over. Glynda turned to face the entire class as she spoke loudly for all of them to hear.
"Now students, do remember that the Vytal Festival is a few months away!" her loud statement was met with excitement buzzing around the various students, "Soon other students from the different academies will be arriving here for the tournament! Practice and improve upon where you stand now! Remember, if you choose to compete in the Festival, you will not just be representing Beacon Academy, but all of Vale as well! Dismissed!"
Her conclusion was met with the students leaving the classroom. Some were in high spirits, such as Teams RNJR and BRNN, while others were stewing in bitter anger from failure, the most notable she found being Team CRDL.
Great, the dynamic duo is rambling on again, Ragna thought to himself as he rolled his eyes and ate his lunch while Nora and Makoto were blathering one of those made up tales they liked to tell.
Currently, most of the students were eating in the cafeteria for lunch. He sat next to Ruby while Jaune and Noel sat directly across from them. Makoto and Blake sat to his immediate left while Nora and the quiet guy, Ren if he remembered correctly, sat directly in front of them. At Ruby's right was her older sister and Pyrrha while in front of them was the Schnee and Tsubaki.
Ruby and her sister seemed intent on listening to the two while Tsubaki and Pyrrha only seemed to half listen. Schnee filed her nails and was content to ignore the whole thing while Blake and Ren just sat and let the two run their mouths. Jaune was just hungrily eating his lunch, but Noel...
Noel looked like she was listening, but it seemed more like she was forcing herself to. If anything, it was like she was doing everything in her power to force her attention on her friend. Every once in a while, she seemed to sneak a small glance at him before she forced her attention away.
Ragna still couldn't figure out just what the hell Noel's deal was with him, but he was starting to lose the ability to care. He decided that it's better to just let her deal with it. No matter what Ruby tried to say, it wasn't his problem, and Noel didn't seem to want it to be his problem either, so why change that?
"Oh, tell them about the part where the Beringel grew wings and breathed sparkly fire blasts at us and we had to slingshot a house at it!" Nora loudly told Makoto, who's face fell slightly as she groaned.
"I would have, but you kind of spoiled it for everyone here."
"Dang it! Sorry everyone."
"It's fine," Tsubaki said, "I'm sure it would have been...interesting, to say the least."
She then lightly elbowed Schnee to get her to pay attention, which made Ragna chuckle slightly.
"Uh, yeah," Schnee stammered out as she put the file away, "I'm sure it would have been fun, right?"
"Huh," Jaune said as he came up from his food, "Sorry, I wasn't really paying attention. My bad."
"Eh, that's fine," Makoto replied before turning to Blake, "What'd you think, Blakey?"
Blake merely rolled her eyes and shrugged, "It was fine, but maybe you should try to go more for realism instead of...whatever that was."
"Ugh, everyone's a critic," Nora grumbled out. Almost everyone started chuckling at that, even Ragna found himself going along with it.
The only person who didn't was Noel, who looked down at her food.
Jaune saw this and was the first to react, "Hey, Noel, is something wrong?"
"N-no, everything's fine," Noel said, but she wasn't very convincing.
"Noel, you've been like this for a while now. Maybe," Ruby said to her, sneaking a glance at Ragna before continuing, "you should tell all of us what's wrong."
"Yeah, come one Noellers," Makoto said as she leaned in, "You can tell us."
But Noel didn't budge. She just looked down and shook her head, "Guys, I told you it's nothing. Can we please just drop it and eat lunch?"
"Alright," Jaune said reassuringly as he put his hand her shoulder, "If you don't feel comfortable now, you don't have to talk about it just yet. We'll wait till you're ready."
Noel started to perk up and nodded, though she still looked a little down.
Maybe I should talk to her about whatever's wrong, Ragna thought. As much as he didn't really want anything to do with Noel's problems, seeing her sad just felt...wrong.
"OW! T-that hurts!"
Ragna was snapped out of his thoughts when he and the rest of the group's table heard someone shout in pain. He turned and saw Cardin pulling on the ears of one of the upper classmen, a rabbit Faunus with mocha colored hair that Ragna recognized as Velvet Scarlatina, one of the members of Team CFVY. The rest of his cronies were laughing and making fun of her.
The sight infuriated Ragna as he clenched his fist and gritted his teeth, trying to rein in his anger.
"Alright, that's it!" Makoto stated as she stood up and glared at them, "I'm gonna give those jerks a piece of my mind!"
Makoto stomped up to them and started yelling at them, but amidst all that, Ragna just heard one of them call Velvet and Makoto 'a couple of freaks' as Cardin pulled on Velvet's ears even harder, making her cry out in pain.
Enough.
Ragna got up and headed up to them, with Makoto prying Cardin's hand from Velvet's ear and pushing him off before checking to make sure she was okay. Ragna instead focused in on his true target.
As soon as he reached Cardin, he slugged him hard enough to send him flying across the lunch room.
The other members of CRDL froze for a second as Ragna faced them, but they snapped out of it and attempted to dogpile him.
Big mistake.
Ragna ducked under the unified attack and grabbed one of them by the leg, throwing him into the window and shattering the glass. The second one got up and rushed at him, but Ragna was faster, grabbing him and slamming the bastard into the table, shattering it to pieces as students backed away.
"What the hell, jackass!" Cardin yelled, prompting Ragna to turn to him. He glared at the bully with all the hatred he held and walked up to him, batting aside another member of CRDL as he charged at him, throwing him into the wall and leaving a large hole in it that led outside. Ragna ignored the calls of concern from his team and the others, instead focusing all his rage on the asshole he was approaching.
"Seriously?" Cardin whined, "So what, I ain't allowed to have any fun as long as you're arou-"
Ragna cut him off when he reached out and grabbed his throat before lifting him off the ground.
"ACK!"
Ragna could hear Makoto's voice as well as Ruby's and Tsubaki's in the background yelling at him to stop what he was doing, but he couldn't care less right now. This fucker needed to be taken down a peg.
"So," Ragna growled in a low voice reflecting all his anger, "How does it feel? Being helpless, and at someone's mercy?"
Cardin just made a choking noise as he glared down in anger and fear.
"Welcome to what bastards like you put others through. And for what? Because you get off on it? Because you're all sick assholes who need to kick someone down just so you can feel good about yourselves?"
As he ranted, Ragna's mind went back to one of the most enraging sights he'd ever seen in his life.
Opening a convoy.
Dozens of Faunus looking terrified and as if they'd been through Hell.
And him tracing it back to the source to find something far worse.
"Well, I'm not gonna stand for it, bastard!" he yelled as his hand tightened its grip around Cardin's neck, "Never. Again!"
"Ragna! STOP IT!"
Noel's voice yelled out, and suddenly, Ragna clamped his eyes shut as an old memory assaulted his mind.
"R-Ragna. You need to stop."
"Why? I'm just trying to keep you and Jin safe from those jerks."
"You'll keep getting yourself hurt. I-I don't like seeing you hurt yourself like that."
The memory ended, and Ragna became aware of what was happening around him. He saw Cardin was barely breathing as he choked him, and he overall looked weaker, as if the life had been sucked out of him. Ragna looked at himself and saw his Aura had flare up.
He'd lost control. His Semblance, Soul Eater, had gone active.
He dropped Cardin and backed away in disgust. Not in the bully, but in himself.
He watched as Cardin grabbed at his throat and hyperventilated as he started recovering from the affects of Soul Eater before looking back to Ragna with absolute fear on his face.
Reality hit him as Ragna looked around. His teammates were looking at him with shocked expressions. The rest of the students looked at him with terror in their eyes. He saw the bullies he had just beaten down, all thrown about and groaning in pain. He didn't feel a shred of guilt for what he did to them.
But with what he almost did to Cardin...
Ragna clutched his head and stomped out of the cafeteria in a huff, ignoring everyone as he headed for nowhere in particular.
He needed to clear his head.
"H-holy shit..." Jaune said right next to Noel. She herself was completely shocked by what just happened.
The sheer brutality Ragna displayed when dealing with Team CRDL was one thing, but what he almost did to Cardin was a different one altogether.
The way he talked was the angriest she'd ever heard him, and he was almost always angry about something, so the level of unbridled hate he just displayed was just insane.
And then that aura came back. That same terrifying black aura.
She'd seen how it worked against Pyrrha in their match, but here it looked like it was actively sucking the life out of his victim.
It was almost like Ragna wanted to kill him.
But he didn't. Instead, he threw him back and walked away. As he did, Noel saw a look of disgust on his face. One that didn't seem to be directed at anyone in particular.
No one else at their table spoke. None of them knew what to say, or even how to properly react to everything.
Teachers came in a couple minutes after Ragna left somewhere, asking what had happened. Noel heard the students explain things in terrified voices, though Makoto was able to bring up Team CRDL's bullying, with Velvet seemingly reluctant to confirm it. Noel was at least grateful for that. She could tell that Ragna's rage was directed at them specifically because of their bullying, so hopefully he'd get a reduced punishment if it was seen as defending another student.
Ragna didn't like bullies very much.
Suddenly, that same pain entered her head again, though thankfully weak enough that she only closed her eyes tightly in response. Once more, the memories began.
"Hey! Leave her alone!"
"Or what? Get lost or your next."
"I don't care! No one makes my sister cry!"
Noel opened her eyes wide as the memories ended. They were becoming more frequent, especially as she was around Ragna. Thankfully, it seemed like her friends were too caught up in the current events to notice her headache.
They...confused her. She didn't know what to think of them, or if she even wanted to think about them at all. So she did her best to ignore it, and that meant doing everything she could to ignore Ragna.
In any case, she watched as the teachers took the unconscious and groaning members of Team CRDL to the infirmary while they sent for one of them to get Ragna and bring him to Professor Ozpin.
Noel only hoped that if they were going to punish him, they wouldn't be so harsh. He was only trying to protect someone the only way he knew how.
"Hmm, serves that brute right for being so excessive," Weiss said. Clearly, not everyone shared Noel's wish.
Ruby was quick to come to his defense, "Weiss, I'm not saying that Ragna wasn't too extreme, but those guys were bullying another student. Can't you cut him a little leeway?"
"Ruby," Tsubaki interjected, "There's a very clear difference between telling someone off for being in the wrong, and using excessive force that could kill someone. Even though Cardin was being a disgraceful bully, what Ragna did is even less excusable."
"Hate to say it, but I think I have to agree," Blake said, "I've seen that kind of violence in people before, and it looked like Ragna was just one step away from crossing the line."
The look on the black-haired girl's face seemed to Noel like she was remembering something painful and Ragna's actions reminded her too much of it. She felt it best not to ask any further.
"Guys, Ragna's our friend," Jaune said as he got up from his seat, "Did he go overboard? Yeah, but I know that his heart was in the right place."
"Same here," Ruby agreed as she got up and started heading for the exit, with Jaune following after her.
"Uh, Rubes, where are you guys going?" Yang asked.
"To find Ragna and help sort this out," Ruby then turned to Noel, "You coming?"
Noel looked around nervously, looking at the rest of her friends, as well as Makoto who was just now walking back after comforting Velvet. She wasn't sure what to do.
She genuinely wanted to have her teammate's back on this, even if she disagreed with his actions, but with all these confusing memories and him inadvertently being the cause of them, she didn't know if she wanted to go since that would mean facing him.
"Noel," Tsubaki's voice interrupted her thoughts. She turned to her as she said, "It's fine for you to go with them. While I believe that his needless brutality was completely unwarranted regardless of his intent, he is still your teammate. So if you need to go talk with him, it's fine."
Noel nodded before getting up and walking with Ruby and Jaune to wherever Ragna was. For now, she needed to but this whole memory debacle behind her and focus on helping her teammate through his problems.
No matter how much she didn't want to put up with these painful memories, her needs didn't matter right now.
Ozpin sat in his seat as he stared at the eighteen-year-old sitting directly in front of him; arms crossed, looking to the floor and acting like he didn't care. But the guilt-ridden look in Ragna's eyes told him all he needed to know.
He'd seen that same guilty expression himself long, long ago. He'd seen it whenever he looked in the mirror, constantly dwelling on the mistakes he'd made and the pain they'd cause.
It was one thing to look at your own reflection and despise what you saw. It was another thing to have a reflection that so closely resembled one that once belonged to you (and that was something that he found both perplexing and unsettling) have that same sense of self-loathing all on his own; their existence and being entirely separate from you.
In any case, Ozpin sighed and asked, "Well, Ragna, would you like to tell me what happened?"
"Tch, not much I can say that you weren't already told before I got here, now is there?"
He was deflecting. That much, Ozpin could tell. It wasn't that he was shifting the blame, more so that he simply refused to open up about it. He was burying the guilt within himself rather than let it out.
That was a road he'd been down more than he could count. And it was a road that never had a happy ending.
"True," Ozpin responded, "I know the side of the story told by my staff, the side told by the recovering members of Team CRDL, and the side given by the students, including the one you protected," he then took a sip of his hot chocolate before continuing, "But I'm missing the final piece of the puzzle. Your side of the story."
Rather than respond, he simply grunted and refused to make eye contact.
Ozpin moved his drink to the side, but before he could continue, Ragna spoke up, "How about this. I'll give you my side of this shit if you answer one question."
"Very well, ask away," Ozpin said.
"Why the hell weren't you guys doing anything?"
Ozpin raised an eyebrow, "I'm not sure I follow what you mean."
"Cut the crap, you know exactly what I mean," Ragna responded, glaring daggers at him, "I'm pretty sure Cardin and his merry band of fucks heads have been picking on her and maybe others since day one of class. What I want to know is why you and your lazy ass staff haven't been doing their fucking job."
Ozpin saw what he meant. Truth be told, while Team CRDL's behavior was troublesome, outside the one witnessed incident where Cardin Winchester launched Jaune Arc in his own locker, which Glynda properly reprimanded him for, he hadn't received any reports of outright bullying from either the teachers or the students. He had a hypothesis as to why, but it was just that, a hypothesis.
"I understand your frustration, Ragna. Truthfully, we haven't received many reports regarding these kinds of incidents," he began, "While I can't give you a complete answer as to why, I do believe that it is likely that Team CRDL has been rather careful to hide their harassment of other students so as to avoid consequence. The students themselves are afraid of making things worse for themselves, so they choose not to bring it up."
Ragna looked like he was about to yell, but he stopped himself and became almost contemplative.
"Well, it's still horseshit," he muttered, "And what about Velvet? I've actually sparred with her team before. They're all second years, and I know for a fact that she could kick their asses as easily as breathing, so why doesn't she stick up for herself?"
Ozpin folded his hands in front of his face as he spoke, "I believe that answer lies in her nature. Both in her first year and throughout her second, Velvet has proven to be kindhearted and concerned for others beyond measure, but perhaps too much for her own good," he took note of the confused look on Ragna's face before he went on, "What I mean is that Miss Scarletina likely allows herself to be their target so that they won't go after other students far weaker than them. It would certainly explain why we've never received any reports from her regarding trouble with harassment from other students."
"Yeah, well if you see her before I do, tell her that's a complete load of shit," Ragna scoffed as he crossed his arms, "The asshole squad's been picking on one of my teammates. So maybe she should rethink her idea of 'protecting weaker students' if that's the best she could come up with."
"True, I'll let her know if I see her. Albeit with less crassness, obviously." Ozpin replied, "Additionally, we'll make it a point to put further scrutiny on Team CRDL as well as other students with similar behavior to avoid further incidents like this one. Just as well, Team CRDL will properly be punished for their grievances," he then smiled and said, "I must admit, your needless anger aside, it is remarkable how you've managed to grow in the past few weeks since you began."
"What?"
"When we first met, you made it no secret that you didn't want anything to do with my school," Ozpin said as he took another sip of his beverage, "I find it rather interesting how defensive you are now of people you previously wanted nothing to do with, even the ones whom you have no reason to be concerned with."
"Oh please, it has nothing to do with that," Ragna retorted, though Ozpin could hear him mutter a 'well, mostly' beneath his breath, "I just can't stand seeing jackasses like Cardin pick on anyone."
"And that brings us to the bigger issue, when you assaulted Team CRDL in response to their actions, you ended up almost killing Mister Winchester via strangulation," Ozpin said as he gave Ragna a stern look, "But as I said, I want to hear your side of this story. So please tell me what happened."
"It wasn't that. Well, not entirely anyway," Ragna loudly muttered as he looked down to the floor, "I just got so pissed at them all that I..." he sighed and continued, "I can't really say I lost control. I knew what I was doing. Gave into my anger and...I ended up using my Semblance on him."
"You mean Soul Eater?"
Ragna nodded. Jubei had warned Ozpin ahead about Ragna and his Semblance. An Aura that allowed him to drain and potentially devour the souls of others. Just from that description alone, it was clear how devastating that power would be against any human or Faunus, not to mention anyone who had that kind of power would be seen as a terror on their own. While he knew that Jubei had been training Ragna to control it as well as harness it in combat, the boy clearly hated using it.
After today, it was easy to see why.
"I see," Ozpin said to himself before he turned his attention back to the student in front of him, "And you were able to stop yourself because you recognized that you had gone too far in your anger, I take it?"
"No," he said, "I heard Noel yell at me to stop. I just...came to my senses after that."
"Hmm," Ozpin hummed as he took another sip.
It seemed that Ragna truly had grown close to his team, considering that Miss Vermillion was able to calm him down. Perhaps they could better help him with controlling his rage.
Ozpin placed his drink aside once again and said, "You don't have to take my advice, but I suggest you at least give it consideration before I send you on your way. Let those around you that you trust serve as your anchor. When you feel as if you're being pulled too deep into an abyss, rely on them to pull you back from it."
"Great," he replied sarcastically, "Any other weird ass proverbs you pulled out of a cereal box that you think will help."
"Alternatively I could set you up for anger management sessions with Miss Goodwitch."
"Yeah, no. I'll pass on that shit," Ragna got up from his seat and was about to make his way out, but Ozpin stopped him.
"Not so fast," Ozpin said, "While Team CRDL will receive punishment for their past grievances, you still haven't for your actions today. Considering the mess you made at the cafeteria in your rampage, I'd say the best punishment for you would be to clean up after yourself," he then smiled playfully, "Don't you agree?"
"Fine," Ragna grunted before he continued to the elevator door, but before he entered, he let out a low, "Thanks," as he exited the room.
As soon as Ozpin felt Ragna's presence leave the immediate area, another took its place. One that was right behind him.
"Well, I will admit, watching a mongrel sink its disease ridden fangs into meaningless worms was certainly entertaining. In only for the first four seconds," the sarcastic, haughty voice of Rachel Alucard said as she walked out from behind, her cat familiar, Nago, in tow as she stood in front of his desk.
"So, you've found a way to sate your boredom?" Ozpin asked.
"Oh don't be so simple minded Mister Wizard," Rachel replied as she snapped her finger. In response, her familiar shifted into the form of a large chair that she took a seat in, "If I wanted to watch your unruly children waste time beating each other senseless, then it would be a sign that my sensibilities have dulled."
"Any reason why you've decided to drop by that doesn't involve insulting my students, or me for that matter?" Ozpin questioned as he reached into his desk and pulled out a tea kettle and poured two cups for both him and the vampire. He usually kept it warm just in case Rachel decided to make it a habit of popping in unannounced.
Rachel took her sip and hummed, "Well congratulations Mister Wizard! Your tea making skills have improved from awful, to mediocre. An apt improvement."
Ozpin said nothing, since at this point, he was just too used to Rachel's needless barbing to care about it when directed at him these days.
"In any case," she said as she put her cup down, "I've sensed a presence in Vale recently, one that felt rather odd." her face scrunched, "It felt not dissimilar to the presence I briefly felt years ago. You recall the Sector Seven incident?"
Ozpin's mind went back to what he'd heard. The reports of Doctor Relius' experiments. The research division's dissolution. And the facility explosion that wiped out many of the scientists as well as Relius himself.
Personally, he, Rachel, and their main allies never truly believed Relius had died, but they could find no trace of him after that. Odds were, if he was still alive, he was completely off the grid, but officially as far as the world was concerned, he was dead.
In any case, he hadn't heard much. He wasn't all that connected to the former research division of Atlas, nor did he have eyes and ears inside at the time to let him know what was going on.
However, he knew someone who did...
"You'll have to ask Glynda for more regarding that," Ozpin admitted, "She was far more connected to them than I ever was."
As Rachel nodded, she took another sip of her tea. Ozpin mused that for someone who thought so little of his tea making abilities, she sure had no problem drinking it.
"Well, on the matter of Sector Seven," Rachel said as she placed the cup on his desk and pushed it towards him, indicating that she didn't want any more, "I was able to recently contact Kokonoe regarding Terumi's resurgence in Vale."
"And how did that go?" Ozpin asked. From what he remembered, it had been a long time since any of them came into contact with Jubei's daughter. The last time they did was after she and her associates retrieved something called 'Lambda' from one of the 'deceased' Doctor Relius' hidden research facilities. How she managed to find it was something she refused to elaborate on. Not to mention that she refused to tell or even show them what this 'Lambda' was.
"Oh, the usual," Rachel replied as she rested her head on her right palm, "Her stubborn insistence that she has no need for our aid, that she'll find and kill Terumi herself, and telling me, and I quote her directly...well, actually I won't because she often barbs her tongue with repugnant language that is far beneath my standards."
"I just only hope that you can convince her to join our cause fully, and soon," Ozpin said as he turned his chair to face the sky outside, "Terumi is likely planning something big if he's more or less announcing his presence to us now. And I'm afraid he's targeting Beacon's vault."
"You believe he's working with Salem?"
"No. More like he's pretending to ally himself with her for his own ends. You and I both know that Terumi won't be subservient to anyone unless he's after something for himself and they happen to have it."
He heard Rachel hum behind him as well as the sound of her standing.
"Regardless, I'll ponder on something that can remedy our current predicament. Until then, try to keep your students in line."
The sound of a snapping finger reverberated throughout the room, and Ozpin no longer sensed her presence as the smell of roses left.
He was now left alone to muse to himself what they needed to do next.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are now back to continuing with the main story. Some of the differences that I had in the Slice of Life chapters are already starting to take effect. The most obvious being that thanks to Ragna training Jaune earlier than when he started training in canon, he's competent enough to fight effectively and has more confidence in himself. Though he does still have his self-loathing problems.
We got some more of Noel having flashbacks from Saya's memories and how she really doesn't want to confront them due to the confusion and pain they cause.
I also wanted to get a bit into Ragna's head. He's got some past with witnessing Faunus abuse/prejudice that I'm hoping to further expand on and implement, and so seeing that kind of shit really drives him up a wall like no one's business.
Also, got some small foreshadowing in and hints at connections between characters, particularly regarding Sector Seven at the end there as well as name dropping Lambda.
In any case, I hope you guys found this enjoyable.
