Transcript 1: Settling In
"No not like that! Put it over there!"
Gale scowled and lifted the bedframe bodily over her head and then thumped it down on the other side of the room next to where Lina was standing.
"That's better. Now our side is ready at last, better than what those two boys could do."
"Must everything be a competition, Lina?" strained Gale. From what she had seen so far, she had met rocks that could have more fun than this girl. She pictured an image of a rock growing little arms and legs and jumping up and down to entertain itself, and smiled inwardly. She could never stay mad for long.
"Now it's a real jungle in here!" joked Jasper, surveying both sides of the room. A few desks had been set up near the window in the middle of the room, but past that there was a clear difference once you crossed the central line of the room. The boys' beds were at a ninety-degree angle to one another, with the feet pushed into the corner nearest the door. A few bookshelves, closets and posters lay scattered around their beds up against the wall, with a punching bag in the opposite corner for Jasper.
In contrast, the girls' side was perfectly symmetrical, with a bed at each end of the room and a bookshelf between it and the wall, doubling as a bedside table. A large wardrobe spanned the centre wall, with a shelf either side for their respective weapons. The one difference between the two areas was that Gale had put up posters and filled her bookshelf with novels, while Lina had "decorated" her side with textbooks and school equipment as well as novels.
He was so busy looking at the room that he didn't realise nobody laughed at his joke– probably a good thing.
"Anyway. Now we are finished that, we should be getting ready for our first class. It's uhmmm…" Jasper pulled out his recently issued scroll and checked the timetable for first year students. "…introduction to military strategies with Professor Peter Port. Then we have history with Dr Bartholomew Oobleck – he's that speedy one who took us on the tour, remember? Then a break, and dust science with Professor Thumbelina Peach…"
Lina perked up. The dust science teacher had the same name as her, that was a good start. She herself resented being called Thumbelina, because it usually meant someone was making fun of her height. She wondered how Professor Peach dealt with it and whether she was also vertically challenged like herself. Then again, "Lina" wasn't a great alternative either because it was so similar to her sister's, a fact which people would jump on when they met her.
"Alright guys, lets get going!" piped a bright-eyed Gale. "The only way to become Huntresses and Huntsmen is to gettttt startedddd!"
Nero was also secretly excited for the first class with Professor Port. Combat training in Vacuo had heavily focused on relying on yourself before others, and he was eager to see how military and combat strategies would be approached at Beacon. It was sure to be very exciting.
It wasn't very exciting. After giving a short, weird introduction to Grimm and hunting them, Professor Port's lesson devolved into a long, boring tale about his former years which bore little relation to the material at hand. The only fighting strategies invoked seemed to be the exaggerated details of his own exploits as a younger man.
So much for the best teachers in the world, Jasper moaned internally. Gale was almost asleep, any intrigue and fun ideas she might have had about the learning long gone. She just wished the next teacher was more interesting.
Thankfully, a green-haired history teacher who rushed through his sentences almost as fast as he rushed around the room was easier to pay attention to, although Lina found it harder to focus on the lesson at hand rather than the noise of Dr Oobleck's constant coffee sipping. But the lesson they all looked forward to the most was dust science with Professor Peach, which proved to be as amazing as it had promised to be. Nero was the most intrigued and hoped to learn over the next few weeks and months if it would be useful to change the types of dust in his whips, or even use more than one.
"Alright students, many of you may remember learning the basics of chemistry and the periodic table of the elements. Now as we know, dust is not made of regular matter, so this class will also introduce you to the periodic table of dust, and what it means for dust properties, how we use it, and how we can combine it to make different types of dust. Dust has a large amount of energy stored in it, which is why we can use it to power our homes, grow things faster, or simply destroy things, such as Grimm."
Jasper's eyebrows shot up at her last statement. He had never thought about using dust to aid his semblance, but the way she framed that sentence made it seem like it was possible. It seemed he and the other students were going to learn a lot more than the "fight better", "adapt better" and "plan better" many had anticipated.
As the first day drew to a close, they walked over to the cafeteria accompanied by Team MAJE in a hall filled with close to a hundred students and teachers. Lina began making polite conversation with their leader, Maizy Storm, as they waited in line.
"So Maizy, did you pick up anything particularly useful today?"
"Yeah a couple things. Dr Oobleck's class on the establishment of kingdoms was boring, but necessary I guess. I liked the dust stuff Professor Peach gave us."
"Well," said Nero, butting in. "I thought Fort Castle was a pretty dumb name for a place. In Vacuo we have actually interesting names for places and natural phenomena." He stopped. We? Maybe he considered himself more Vacuan than he realised. Maybe he… no it was too late, he should just drop it, he hadn't contributed anything really useful to the conversation anyway, or even the right topic.
But Maizy smiled at him and beckoned for him to continue. "Really? What sort of names do you have?"
"Well, when someone or someplace falls into a sinkhole, it's referred to as "sudden demise". There are a lot of desert related terms used by the tribes away from the main settlement of Vacuo."
They reached the front of the queue, and were served what was carefully prepared for tonight's dinner.
Beans.
A bit bland, considering the fees needed to get into this place, the students silently agreed. Somewhat of a lowlight to end their first day.
At least its good protein, thought big Hunter Anstone.
Transcript 2: Combat Glass
Gale's aura was at 55% but she was sure Amazon's was lower. The two tallest girls in the class circled each other, looking for an opportunity to strike. Gale dodged back from a jab from the long green spear which seemed to keep on coming, and she realised Amazon had fired the rope dart tip straight at her as she was retreating. She leaned back and caught it in the gap between her bow and bowstring and heaved. Caught by surprise, Amazon stumbled forward, and Gale pushed upwards with her legs, causing the bigger girl to soar out of the arena. Game over.
"And the winner is Gale Grigia" announced Professor Goodwitch, as she scribbled some notes in a tiny handbook.
Getting back into combat was arguably the students' favourite part of returning to study. There had been some good matches this week, but this one was one of the best so far. All members of Team CVFY had won their respective bouts, much to a pouting Lina's disgust. She had put up a good performance against her old rival Coco – who had in fact specifically requested the bout – but had ultimately been unable to break down the girl with seemingly endless aura even though she felt she had had the best of the fight. Maybe it was safe to say it was the favourite time of the week for MOST of the students...
Looking past the total dominance shown by Team CVFY, Team JNGL too had fared well – mostly. Aside from Gale's brave win, the students had earlier watched in amazement as Nero's opponent dropped screaming to his knees for apparently no reason at all, as Nero calmly wrapped him up with Draw and belted him repeatedly against the floor like he had the boarbatusk in the Emerald forest. A sore and sorry Harley received no sympathy from his twin that evening, only teasing that Knight had won his own match against Pollen Lightfoot.
"My semblance, Scourge, is false pain" shrugged Nero. "It's not very useful against Grimm, but it's super distracting in a fight." Nero was shown a great deal more respect after that day, and any jibes about his Vacuan stint or his different outfit vanished for some reason.
The final matchup for the week, and the last two students which hadn't fought yet, were Jasper and Jewel Blackmore. Jasper felt a little nervous as he stepped into the arena. He had worked on controlling his semblance during the week, but although he had made a little progress, he still wasn't confident it wouldn't get out of control in a fight situation. He shook his head. The students he was facing here were of a much higher calibre than most others he had fought at combat school. Surely they could take care of themselves, like Professor Goodwitch had said. There wasn't any need to hold back.
The bracelets, earrings and broches Jewel wore jangled softly as she stepped up to the opposite side of the platform. She held up an enormous black shield with blades angled all around its edge, making it look like a ninja shuriken.
That was no coincidence.
As soon as the signal was given, Jewel whirled around and frisbeed the shield directly at Jasper's body. He put up both his gauntlets to block but was nearly knocked over by the huge force of the blow. By the time he was up Jewel was upon him, sweeping Jasper's legs out from under him, before jumping and kicking his chest from above as the whirring shield bounced off a nearby column and landed back on Jewel's arm.
But Jasper knew a thing or two about close combat recovery and somersaulted off his back just as Jewel brought the shield edge down where he had been a moment before, and he fired at her exposed upper body. The ice dust slowed her down only for a second before she shattered it against the shield, but it was enough. Jasper leapt forward and smashed the shield back with a left jab, before a right roundhouse punch into the back of the shield which sent it flying off Jewel's arm. In response, she brought the freed arm down on the top of Jasper's head, and twisted her shoulders, sending her brown ponytail flashing towards him.
A surprised Jasper caught a glimpse of the embedded stones before they smashed into his face, forcing him to retreat. He knew there had been too many gems in there for good fashion sense and should have realised they weren't just for show. Jewel raced to pick up her weapon, but Jasper was closer, and delivered a savage kick to her back as she moved past him. She tumbled but somehow picked the shield up from the ground as she flew over it and skidded to a stop just inside the outer boundary. Jasper held his fists up and readied himself as Jewel charged again but was distracted by a most peculiar sight.
The emerald broach, the sapphires in her hair, the rings, all seemed to be… glowing.
They were… so beautiful.
Jasper suddenly found himself sailing across the arena, his aura not able to completely prevent the stinging sensation in his chest caused by the massive blow from Jewel's shield. He shook his head to clear it and blasted a few rounds into the ground in front of him, creating an ice wall which prevented him from flying out of the arena. That said, the impact wasn't much less painful than the original blow, breaking loose a few chunks of ice which fell on his chest as he lay at the base of the wall. Handy semblance, he thought. He had been practically mesmerised as Jewel rushed at him.
Jasper sprang up, careful to avoid any eye contact with his opponent lest she used it again and checked his scroll. His aura was about halfway down already just from those couple of big blows and smashing into the ice wall. He would have to be more careful and change his strategy somewhat if he was going to win this.
Jewel readied herself to charge again, and Jasper realised he had gotten into trouble the same way, as he had in the Emerald forest the other day. Rushing in. Blind attacks which left him vulnerable. He would use Jewel's technique against her, like the boarbatusk had against him. The giant shuriken flew towards him, he ducked under it, and instantly brought his right hand up to parry Jewel's attack, punched her in the midriff once and rolled away before the shield could strike him on its return arc. While she caught the heavy weapon, Jasper drove both feet into the back of her knees, causing her to utter a cry of surprise as she toppled to the ground.
He landed a good number of heavy blows before a battered Jewel spun away and jabbed at him with the face of the shield, a long spike shooting out from the centre and catching Jasper's right arm as he struck towards her. An annoyed Jasper recoiled in pain, then retaliated with a massive straight left as he let loose his anger at being tricked again.
Which he never should have done.
His left gauntlet took on a red glow, before an ear-splitting wrench of steel filled the air and the lower half of the shield split open as if in slow motion, the gauntlet travelling through into Jewel's leg, shattering her already low aura completely. She fell to the ground and gasped, as did most of the spectators, and clutched at her right shin. Jewel raised a shaky arm towards her broken weapon, before letting it fall onto the concrete, hard, as she saw the state her pride and joy now lay in.
Jasper's open mouth felt drier than a drought in Vacuo as he looked in horror over what was in front of him. This was what he thought – no, what he KNEW would happen. He wasn't the greatest fighter by any means, but his potential to hurt others was almost unmatched. He had tried to explain that to Professor Goodwitch, but she hadn't taken his fears on board, and now look what had happened. What had happened when he hadn't held back.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," a numb Jasper repeated over and over, catching a glimpse of a worried Glynda Goodwitch coming towards them as he put his hands over his eyes.
Transcript 3: Worrying over nothing
"The good news is the scans show it's only bone bruising, not a fracture, so she should be fine in a couple of days."
Glynda Goodwitch crinkled her eyebrows as she looked down at the dejected figure in front of her. She knew Jasper felt it was his fault even though it was accidental and would be experiencing a lot of guilt over potential trauma to Jewel.
Jasper and the other teams had visited her many times over the last day to check up on her wellbeing. She was sore and seemed down for the first few visits, and although she insisted it was because of her broken weapon, Jasper couldn't help think that she was shocked and uncertain about being injured in a fight, especially so unexpectedly. He knew he felt similarly about injuring others.
"And the bad news?"
"Well, she will be out of action for at least one fight, so in fairness to Team AKKH, you will have to sit those ones out as well."
Jasper nodded. The cumulative points awarded for each team's combat throughout the year were based on participation as well as the other factors such as remaining aura, duration of combat and more. It would be the best result for everybody. Technically he had won this first fight, but a lot of points had been deducted from that so-called victory for putting other students' aura into the danger levels. Any hopes of beating records set by the legendary Team STRQ had gotten off to a rocky start.
"Professor Goodwitch?" he said quietly, looking up into the tall huntress's face.
"Yes, Jasper?"
He shuffled his feet. "May… I do some extra training with you while I'm not fighting? To help me control this… this semblance?"
Glynda turned her head toward one side, and frowned, considering her options.
"I feel like I should be called Glassfinger instead of Glass, because everything I touch breaks sooner or later. At first I thought I was clumsy, then I thought I was just plain unlucky, but now in actual combat it breaks people instead."
He looked up with imploring eyes. "I can't fight like that. Please help."
She let out a long, thoughtful sigh. "Alright. I'll take you to the fourth-year training facilities. They have some more specialised equipment used to analyse and fine-tune particular fighting styles. Maybe that will give some more indication…"
She never finished the sentence. A harried-looking Professor Ozpin burst into the office.
"Glynda! Amber's in trouble! Qrow's bringing her in, but she's in a bad way. Somebody found her, they tracked her down and ambush…"
He stopped dead a few feet from her, noticing Jasper sitting in front of the desk, now turned to look in surprise at the usually unflappable Headmaster.
"Who's Amber? Is she going to be ok?"
Professor Ozpin swallowed nervously and composed himself. "Yes, she's… going to be fine" he replied in an ever so slightly shaky voice. "She's a good friend of ours, and I was just worried for her, and let it get to my head. Amber was… attacked by a group of thugs while patrolling outside the kingdom walls, and was badly beaten up." That part wasn't technically a lie, thought Ozpin, but it certainly left out most of the important details.
"Oh ok, that's good" said Jasper. "I'm here myself because I get worried about when people get hurt." He rose to leave. "I probably shouldn't keep you if you need to see your friend."
"Yes, Mr Glass, thank you for your time" breathed Glynda Goodwitch.
"Thank you for agreeing to help me" said Jasper as he closed the door on his way out.
Jasper took the lift down to the main court area below at the ground level of Beacon Tower. He was a little surprised at the flustered reaction of both professors to the news of their friend Amber. It had sounded like the headmaster thought it was pretty bad, but he had said she would be alright, and Jasper understood more than most people what effect that sort of incident brought on others.
He reached the base of the tower, where the remainder of his team were waiting for him.
"How was it? What did Professor Goodwitch say?" inquired a concerned Nero.
"Jewel is ok, but she won't be fighting for a couple of days. The professor said I would have to sit out any matches during the time she's recovering."
"That's harsh, but fair" said Lina, twitching her fox tail thoughtfully. "It will hurt our points tally obviously, and you already lost half from your fight. I do hope Jewel is up and about again soon, for her sake too. It's not a nice thing to go through."
"Yeah, I hope she's fine too." Jasper chose to not tell the others what happened with Ozpin and Amber. He didn't need to spread the teachers' private affairs. He hated the drama from what had resulted from his and Jewel's own incident.
After all, there wasn't going to be anything wrong with leaving that out, was there?