Akamu yawned as the sun came up slowly, his fingers aching from creating his main weapon. As it turned out, attempting to create a mechanical-styled sword completely from scratch with added 'Dust Capabilites' without any gloves or tools was very dangerous, and the several new scars on his hands proved it. Silently chuckling at the packaging for the customization module, he realized that his sword was nearly complete, and the most dangerous part was over. Well, maybe... He was still running his hands and wrists over an extremely sharp object, so there was a chance he was going to severely injure himself, but he's made it this far without it happening! Quickly, he set to sharpening the blade, hoping to complete the weapon before everyone else woke up.
Finally, his new sword was complete. This one wasn't as prone to breaking as all the others he had used due to it's broadsword-like nature, along with the fact that aging hadn't brittled the metal. His own sword! That he made! Never had he imagined that he would be able to make something of this magnitude, especially within the near future. Now that was complete, the only thing he needed was the arm-mounted launcher he had come up within the past month, though that was likely going to be more difficult. Compared to most hunter weapons, his sword was simple, but the launcher was going to be something that was highly technical. He'd need weeks at least. As he picked up the newly forged hunk of metal, he realized that not only did he have nowhere to sheathe it, but that it needed a name. He sat back down and worked on creating a makeshift holster for the mighty blade, he thought of names.
Just as he finished etching the name Epilogue into the new sheathe, Akamu suddenly heard a loud beeping noise. Too tired to get into a battle stance, he simply cowered away from the noise. This lead to him tipping the chair he was in on it's side, and subsequently banging his head on the near wall. Beyond his own pained groans, he heard the groans of another two residents of the dorm. Yang and Weiss. As far as he knew, Blake was still awake, which meant that either Ruby was dead, or-
"Good morning team!" shrieked the red banshee, further disrupting the peaceful quiet the room sat in just mere moments ago. "Oh, Akamu, you're already- Oh, you okay?" She asked looking down on the dazed wolf, too tired to argue with his fate.
Akamu thought for a second, his usual processing speed gone from a lack of sleep and a possible concussion. "Yes, I just tipped the chair over. What is that beeping noise?" he asked now rubbing his head.
"Alarm clock. Speaking of which..." Yang said, slowly climbing out of bed to grab Ruby's scroll. After a quick tug war, Yang came out on top and turned it off. She then looked at the dorm's desk to see the new, giant, sharp addition. "Wait, did you make this last night?" She asked, looking at the silver faunus with incredulity.
"I did." Akamu answered, still trying to scrub the pain out of his head. "I woke up at four and decided to use my free time to make... that. I'm probably going to need it considering I'm at a school for hunters and huntresses, right?" He said, awkwardly trying to explain his thought process. Sleep deprivation did nothing to help his already stunted social skills. It was a miracle he could even remember words. "So, uh, plans for today?"
"Owwww..."
Apparently Yang's definition of fun is practicing combat. Against her teammates, with no holding back. Needless to say, even though Akamu had physically healed enough to be considered healthy, his previous wounds didn't exactly appreciate that Yang definitely bested him in all forms of combat. As did Blake. In fact, the only person on his team that he had managed to best once was Weiss, and that was only because she held a weapon type Akamu knew how to defend against thanks to the manuals hidden within Mount Glen. What also didn't help was that Epilogue was most definitely heavier than what he was used to wielding. Regardless, Akamu now sat beaten on the sidelines watching as the two fastest fighters, Ruby and Yang, duked it out in the small section of arena. As time went on and Akamu lay there trying not to wheeze, he felt a growing sensation to look to his left. What he saw was that team JNPR apparently had the same idea as team RWBY. He saw Jaune attempting to fight Pyrrha, key word attempting. It was clear that she had more self control than Yang as to not brutalize her teammate, but the clear winner was the redhead. Feeling fed up of being absolutely bested by his new team without even being able to get a handle of his new weapon, he walked over to their ring just in time for Pyrrha to switch out.
"Oh, hey Akamu!" Nora called, noticing the newly geared faunus approach. "What's up? Ooh, wanna fight Pyrrha? I bet you're just ready to see if you can beat the unbeatable!" She clearly was even more hyper than Ruby, which was saying a lot.
"Well, maybe. You see..." Akamu explained, unsheathing the new beast that lay on his back, it slightly extending with the sound of a hydraulic. "I just finished this sword earlier this morning. I haven't exactly had the time to tune it, or practice with it, and Yang doesn't seem keen on letting me. I was actually wondering if one of you could let me build up to actual combat?" He finished, eyeing the two swordfighters in the group. Pyrrha looked at Jaune and nodded for him to get in the arena, which he did without much of a fight.
As they both entered, Akamu made a note of Pyrrha's stern look towards himself. Laying his eyes back on his target, who now had his shield in front of him, Akamu now realized that it was almost time to start, and positioned his sword in front of him. A moment passed without anything before, rather suddenly, Nora shouted "START!" much to the dismay of Akamu's ears. Suddenly, Jaune lunged forward, sword positioned in a thrust. The faunus quickly sidestepped and knocked Jaune's blade upwards towards the sky, then went in for an obvious slash against his side. Unsurprisingly, Jaune blocked the attack with his shield, but it a closer call than it should have been. 'Gotta get him on the defensive if he's gonna learn how to block effectively.' Seeing the stumbling of his opponent, Akamu again swung, aiming near the shield, but not directly at it. Again, another close block. Picking up speed, Akamu continued to wail on the shield, hoping for Jaune to recognize the clear openings that the faunus was laying out. Unfortunately, Jaune was more preoccupied with defense to even begin looking for chances to take a swipe. Jaune lasted as long as his arm could hold against the weighty sword, but the match was called to an end when the shield was knocked entirely out of the way and another swing knocked the sword out of his hand, and the remaining force knocked Jaune on his butt. Before anyone could say anything, a gaudy voice sounded out.
"Jeez, Jaune, you're even getting beaten by faunus? We really gotta work on that!" the voice in question belonged to an orange-haired, muscly man in what appeared to be plate armor. "I mean, look at this freak! Not to mention he's a faunus, which is bad enough, he's also got 2 eye colors!" Akamu suddenly felt embarrassed to... What? Exist? Before he could even begin to feel anger and lash out, a foreign feeling in the back of his mind clicked into place once more. Directions from... Somewhere told him what to do, and he had no reason to argue.
'Lift your chin up' was the first instruction. Akamu now had his lifted to where, despite the height of this offensive man, he was looking down on him from his perspective, similar to how Weiss normally stood. 'Right, now, you need to exude confidence, and not... Whatever it is you put out. Now, rest your weight on your right hip and relax almost everything else.' Following the strangely descriptive order, he began to realize that this order had now made it far less clear if he was shaking, due to the lack of tensed leg muscles. Whatever was guiding him had done this before. 'Now, do your best cocky smile, and repeat after me.'"You know... Those are some pretty confident words from someone who's about to get their ass kicked." Akamu stated, clearly out of character. He even heard the gasps of both team leads behind him. His only hope was that he hadn't somehow upset Ruby, or any of his new friends for that matter. Bringing his attention back forward, he saw the giant clearly angry giant ponder for a second.
Then he answered. "Hmph... You're not worth the time, faunus." He spat out, then promptly turned on his heel and walked away in a strut. Akamu still wanted to 'kick his ass' as his guide had put it... 'Wait, who was that?' His brain questioned, wondering just who had told him how to deal with that situation. That wasn't the only person who he was wondering about. As Akamu turned back to face his friends, he felt the persona he just put on immediately crumble, and his eyes shot fully open as he realized what he had just done. Just about everyone behind him looked shocked. All but Yang, who had on a similar smirk Akamu had just worn.
"I didn't even think about the fact you could swear!" Yang said, happy. "Not to mention you just scared off Cardin, local bully! Jeez dude, you just keep surprising me." The praise barely entered Akamu's ears as he felt an incoming panic attack coming.
"H-hey, um, thanks, but could we go back to the dorm? I-I suddenly don't feel so well..." Akamu half-truthed. It very quickly felt like all eyes were on him, and it wasn't doing anything to ease the tension building in his stomach. The panic was clearly not done with him, however, seeing as all sounds didn't even register anymore, and all he could see was people looking at him. He shut his eyes in hope they would stop, but nothing changed about the situation. Just as suddenly as the panic attack started, he felt somebody grab his wrist and start leading him somewhere. His legs followed, barely, and his memory began blanking.
"-ey, it's alright, just calm down. Akamu, calm down, you're gonna be alright." The boy in question slowly came back from whatever semi-consciousness he was in, and focused on his breathing. It was haggard, like he had just ran several miles. His throat also felt like it. His head, however, was simultaneously as clear as day and had the worst migraine he'd ever experienced in his life. As Akamu came to, he focused on who was consoling him. He recognized the voice as Blake's as she continued to try and comfort him, which apparently had worked seeing as he was now thinking somewhat properly now. Again, her voice beckoned him. "Akamu, come on, talk to me. Tell me you're gonna be okay."
Akamu opened his eyes, only to be blinded by the lighting. As it works out, night vision sometimes has downsides. "Sorry." Akamu said, his voice still hoarse. "I guess I blanked out there." He stated, starting to rub his face, feeling the nigh invisible scars. He felt horrible in almost every conceivable way.
He heard a familiar high pitched voice start to say something, but then settle on a simple "Hey, what can I do to help? Do you need anything?"
The deja vu of this situation made Akamu sick, but he willed his way through it. 'She wouldn't remember, so don't think about it.' "Uh, yeah, if you could get me a glass of water, that would be nice. My throat really hurts." He hated himself more for taking the words straight out of that vision, but it was the only answer that had come to mind. He heard someone get out of the bed opposite him and the door opening, then closing.
"Hey, dude, you doing okay?" Yang questioned, concern thick in her voice. Before she could continue, Akamu answered.
"Yes, I'm okay. Just don't really like creating conflict among people, I guess." Akamu said, slipping back behind his usual mask of emotions. "To be honest, I don't really know what came over me when I said that to him. Cardin was his name, right?" Akamu said, semi-considering apologizing.
Before the conversation could continue any further, the door to the room opened and something cold was put into Akamu's hands, now free from Blake's hold. Without hesitation, he instinctively reached for the cap, twisted it off, and drank. While it wasn't water, Akamu couldn't complain about it. 'Is this what they call tea?' His eyes had finally stopped watering enough to where he could see. His guess was correct, it was a bottle of tea from a vending machine. 'Wait, aren't the vending machines halfway across campus?'
"Hey, Ruby, how did you get this so fast?" Akamu asked, his voice sounding less like an old person's.
"M' semblance." The girl in question responded, munching down on an entire packet of cookies, much to Yang's dismay.
"Ruby, you're gonna get sick!" Yang pleaded, reaching for the packet, but Ruby had the upper hand as she sat in her bed and fended the blonde off with her legs. Weiss was also upset with Ruby's antics, but just sighed and sat down in her bed. Blake either didn't care or was trying to block them out, scooting Akamu off of her bed so she could read. However, she still laid concerned eyes on him, but he waved her off and mumbled something about being okay now.
As chaos ensued, Akamu sat back down at the desk he spent so much of the past 12 hours at to continue working on his weapons. Firstly, while Epilogue was an excellent sword, it still had dust capabilities, but no actual dust implementation. Secondly, he needed to finish his original creation, the arm-mounted launcher, which he had nicknamed Prelude. As he sat down, he noticed a familiar pair of yellow bracelets sitting nearby.
"Excuse me, Yang?" Akamu asked, getting her attention. "Do you mind if I look at Ember Celica? I think some of the designs in here may actually help my ranged weapon plans. I've been trying for months, but this stupid-" Akamu started rambling before Ruby was suddenly right next to him.
"Ooh, ooh, can I see them!?" The innocent girl asked, clearly excited by the idea of weaponry. Akamu sighed, walked into his 'personal quarters' as he dubbed them, opened up a bag, and pulled out a sheet of paper chalk full of measurements, shapes, and descriptions. Ruby quickly grabbed the paper and stared at it for a solid 15 seconds, her eyes growing wider and wider as she looked. "Woah... This is... Complicated." She said, trying to work out the figures in her head. Though her Crescent Rose was a complicated machine to say the least, the amount of tiny moving objects in the arm launcher was ridiculous. She then noticed a problem. While the firing mechanism was theoretically functional, the cycling and reloading chunk was most definitely not going to work. Then, her eyes landed on Ember Celica, which Akamu was now carrying over to the desk layered in paper.
Taking a look at Ember Celica, Akamu quickly surmised how the reloading function worked. Akamu facepalmed after realizing how simple it was. Though it wasn't exactly one for one when it came to Prelude, the idea was close enough that it would work. Now, all he needed was parts. Custom tooled parts, a high tensile cord, spray paint... This was going to cost a fortune. Luckily, Akamu still had a solid chunk of Lien leftover from Ozpin's gift.
"Hey, I need some stuff, I'm just gonna head out for a bit. Thanks for, uh, helping me earlier." Akamu said, getting up from the chair. These people actually cared about him, possibly the first people to ever do so, as far as he knew. "It really means a lot to me." And with that crack in his shell exposed, he left in a rather fast rush. 'Don't cry don't cry don't cry do-' he chanted to himself in his head, tears threatening to spill from his eyes.