Well, uh...
This chapter took a while. Sorry about that. The first 5,000~ words were originally part 1 of this chapter, but I was struggling with properly writing part 2 to be similar in length, so I ended up combining the two.
It ended up around 8,000 words, which is a pretty good amount for this story, so far.
Reviews:
DeathlyJazzHands55: I hope her stand meets expectations! But I did go a different route with the naming scheme, because Guns N' Roses didn't really fit the ability I had in mind for her stand.
It was almost Kiss From a Rose, though. That was way back when I was planning this story months ago. Glad I changed that, haha.
Nobody: Thank you! When it comes to RWBY characters getting stands, I'm trying to set it up in a way that their abilities work well in tandem. I'm still working on some of their stands, and some of them might not end up getting any, but I'm trying to keep the whole power balance idea in mind. The only one with a pretty strong stand (so far) will be Ruby, since she's the main character of the show, and all.
I've been writing completely random stand battle drafts to try and nail the mind game aspect on its head, and I do want to try and keep them from just being a punch off.
When it comes to Jaune and Johnny, I think that's like, the fourth most planned thing I have for this story. I don't want to spew details here since I might change some of the ideas, but you've got a good bit of it figured out already.
DeltaGhost: Thanks! I'm not sure what I have in mind for the Festival as of now, since that's a good ways away, but I'm definitely going to make a few changes here and there.
(Probably should've moved these to the bottom)
Anyways, here's the chapter!
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"So, you seem awfully chipper this morning." Ruby's sister, Yang, said with a sly grin.
"Yep!" Ruby cheered as she pulled her baby, Crescent Rose, out of the locker in front of her, "No more awkward small talk or 'getting to know you' stuff, today I get to let my sweetheart do the talking..." She tenderly stroked the red weapon in its compacted form, before hugging to close to her.
"Well, remember Ruby, you're not the only one going through initiation." Yang placed her hands on her hips, "If you want to grow up, you're going to have to meet new people, and learn to work together!"
"Ugh... you sound like dad..." Ruby groaned as she placed Crescent Rose back in its place in her locker, "Okay, first of all, what does meeting people have to do with fighting? And secondly, I don't need people to help me grow up," she crossed her arms over her chest, "I drink milk." She finished triumphantly.
"But what about when we form teams?" Yang asked her.
"Um, I don't know... I'll just..." she shifted away from her sister awkwardly, "...be on your team, or something..."
"Maybe you should try being on someone else's team..." Yang suggested, a hint of caution in her voice.
"My dearest sister Yang," Ruby marched forward and jabbed a finger at her, "Are you implying that you don't want to be on the same team as me?"
"What? No, of course I do!" She waved her hands, "I just thought... I don't know, maybe it would help you break out of your shell."
"What?! I don't need to break out of my shell, that's absolutely-"
"Ridiculous!" She and Jaune, the lanky blond guy she had met yesterday shouted at the same time. He was a nice guy, if not a little overconfident, and not the best Huntsman material.
Ruby and Yang watched him slink by as he grumbled something about his gear being in the wrong locker, before they turned back to each other.
"You'll be fine, Ruby." Yang planted a hand on her shoulder, "It'll be good for you! And besides, even if we're not on the same team, we'll still be at school together! That's awesome enough on its own, isn't it?"
"I guess so..." Ruby mumbled.
"That's the spirit!" Yang wrapped an arm around Ruby and pulled her in, "Now let's get ready to kick some Grimm butt."
Ruby pulled Crescent Rose out of her locker, as well as her ammo belt, and wrapped it around her waist. She clasped Crescent Rose securely to the small holster on the small of her back giving it a firm hit to make sure the scythe was properly secured.
"Would all first year students please report to Beacon cliff for initiation," Professor Goodwitch spoke over the intercom system in the locker room, "again, all first year students please report to Beacon cliff immediately."
Ruby joined her sister on her way out the locker room, the two of them approaching a slumped over Jaune against the side of a row of lockers, "Having some trouble there, lady-killer?" Yang joked as Ruby offered him a hand, pulling him to his feet.
"I don't understand..." he sighed as he brushed off his jeans. "My dad said all women look for is confidence... where did I go wrong?"
"'Snow Angel' probably wasn't the best start," Yang patted him on the shoulder.
"Come on, Jaune," Ruby hoisted him up, "Let's go." The two of them began walking for the exit to the locker room. They walked in silence to the cliff, where the launch pads were lined up on the edge. Of course, Ruby didn't practically carry him the whole way there, just out of the locker room. Jaune opted to sulk his way to the cliffs the rest of the way.
The two of them stood next to each other on the launch pads, the only two available, as the staff of Beacon prepared for the initiation.
"For years, you have trained to become warriors," Headmaster Ozpin began, a steaming mug in his hand. "And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." The sprawling mass of green trees spread out beneath them, stretching for miles and miles.
"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams," Professor Goodwitch said, "Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates, today."
"Aw, man..." Ruby complained to herself.
"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Ozpin warned forebodingly. His eyes were hidden behind his small glasses, "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next 4 years."
That just wasn't fair! What if Ruby got partnered up with some crazy, psycho, evil guy! She would probably die!
"After you've partnered up," Ozpin continued, "Make your way toward the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way," though she didn't notice it, the Headmaster cast a sideways glance in Ruby's direction for a brief moment, "Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die."
Jaune laughed nervously next to Ruby, before gulping down the bile that rose in his throat.
"You will be monitored for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned Temple at the end of the path, containing several Relics." He informed them, "Each pair must choose one, and return to the top of the cliffs. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" Ozpin asked as he finished.
"Yeah, um... sir?" Jaune raised his hand.
"Good!" Ozpin ignored him outright, "Now, take your positions."
Ruby lowered herself as she prepared to launch through the air. Her right hand was poised down by Crescent Rose's handle, so she could grab it when she entered flight, while her left hand was raised in front of her. Her knees were bent so she could spring up while the pad was launching.
"Uhh, sir?" Jaune kept his hand raised, his voice wavering, "I've got a, um, question."
The first pad went off, sending the student on it, the scary white haired girl from yesterday, Weiss, into the air.
"So this... landing strategy thing uh, w-what is it? You're like, dropping us off, or something?" He asked as more students launched into the air.
"No," Ozpin stated flatly, "you will be falling."
"Oh, I see... so did you... hand out parachutes for us?" He scratched his head.
"No, you will be using your own landing strategy."
"Uh... huh... that..." Jaune mumbled.
Yang turned to Ruby with a grin, winking and putting on a pair of aviators as she shot into the air. Ruby turned and offered the same gesture to Jaune, minus the wink and sunglasses, as her pad sprung off.
A few seconds later, the boy went screaming past her as he flailed through the air. "That's a... unique landing strategy." She thought as he continued to shriek and whip his arms around.
She sailed through the air, pulling Crescent Rose out from behind her back. She looked around for other students falling near her, but didn't seem to find anyone. She was almost a couple hundred yards away from everyone else, maybe she overestimated her jump?
She shrugged and unfolded her scythe. Oh well, that just meant more time to herself with her darling Crescent Rose!
Ruby shot off a volley of rounds as she began dropping towards the forest below to slow her descent. The blade of the scythe flicked out and clicked into place as she spun through the air, hooking it onto a tree branch and swinging herself down onto the forest floor below. She planted her hand on her hips and smiled triumphantly, a very graceful landing indeed.
The forest was eerily quiet around her. Back home on Patch, she would hear birds chirping and other fauna trudging around through the underbrush in the woods around her house almost year round because of the almost nonexistent number of Grimm on the island.
She didn't hear the sounds of other students fighting Grimm anywhere nearby either. Aside from the rustling of the leaves from the light morning breeze, the forest was devoid of commotion. She really had landed far away from everyone else.
"Well," she thought, "Might as well start heading north! Maybe I'll run into Yang, if she doesn't have a partner already. Hopefully not." She looked up through the canopy of the trees, seeing that the sun was still rising through the sky to her left.
Using her genius intellect, she spun around and pointed forward, "North!" She cheered, and began marching in the direction of the Relics.
She continued walking for a few minutes, before she began to feel a strange tingling on the back of her neck, like something about the air around her was... wrong. Ruby liked to think that she was pretty aware of her surroundings when she was fighting, and right now she felt like there was some big, dangerous Grimm following her.
Crescent Rose was raised in front of her, and she slowly spun around, looking through the brush around her for any evil creature that might jump out and attack her, but she didn't see anything.
"Hello?" She called out, "Is anything there?" She waved into the bushes. She began slowly backpedaling in the direction she was heading, still scanning the trees for any sign of danger.
A branch snapped on the ground behind her and she quickly spun around, facing a large Ursa that seemed to freeze up at the same time she did.
The girl and the Grimm stared at each other for a moment, neither one moving, before Ruby shot a round into its face. It didn't do much but anger the large bear Grimm, but it gave Ruby time to back up and prepare to fight it.
Ruby had fought plenty of Ursa Minors back home, and they weren't too hard for the scythe user to deal with. But this one almost took her by surprise! If it hadn't stepped on that branch, it definitely could ha-
The Ursa's head was detached from its body in a flash of sickly green and deep orange, the attacker disappearing as quickly as it had shown up.
Ruby could only stand slack jawed as the Grimm's body began disintegrating on the forest floor. She shook herself out of her stupor, "Thank you!" She called out into the woods. "Uh... whoever you are!" She scanned the trees for her 'savior', but didn't see anyone.
She continued her march towards the Temple with a bit more caution in her step, keeping an eye out for any Grimm, or whoever had saved her.
The hairs on the back of her neck were still raised, as if she was still being followed, but she didn't hear or see any Grimm this time, so she tried to keep it in the back of her mind.
It didn't work well, and she was constantly anxious that something was going to jump out and attack her, and that wasn't good, because it would just attract more Grimm that would definitely jump out and attack her.
A flash of black moved through the leaves in the corner of her vision, before disappearing into the treetops entirely. Ruby quickly spun in the direction of the figure, pointing the barrel of Crescent Rose into the trees.
Perched on a thick branch of one of the trees in front of her, high above the ground, was a man obscured by shadows.
He was wearing all black, with what looked to be pads of dark leather armor to match. Ruby couldn't make out the details of his face, but she could tell that he was staring down at her.
She hesitantly lowered Crescent Rose, not wanting to shoot him, since he was probably another student.
"Uh... hi." She greeted nervously. He was honestly a pretty frightening sight from so far below, and his silence wasn't helping. She received no response from the man, who only continued to stare at her. "D-do you already have a partner?"
Still no response.
"A-alright. I uh..." Ruby laughed nervously as she slowly began to shuffle away from the man in the tree, "I guess I'll just... keep walking then."
"Wait." The man called out. His voice was rough and scratchy, and he definitely didn't sound like he was a student.
Ruby froze at the sound of his voice, slowly turning her head to look up at him.
"Your name." He said.
"W-what?" Ruby blinked. She clutched Crescent Rose and kept her baby ready.
"Your name. What is it?" He shifted on the branch, but he was still obscured by the shadows, which kept Ruby from seeing what he was doing.
"It's... R-Ruby." She meekly answered. "Who are you?"
He didn't answer as he slinked back into the shadows, completely disappearing from view. Ruby raised Crescent Rose and pointed the barrel towards the branch he was standing on. She did not trust that man, not at all.
She spun on her heel and activated her semblance, dashing through the trees to get as far away from there as possible.
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"How's he supposed to keep up with her?" Kira grumbled as he took the scroll from Johnny's hands. He watched as the little red blip shot across the map, while the other one trailed slowly behind.
"He doesn't have to," Johnny pointed to the screen, "If she makes it to the cliffside, the temple is another mile or two to her west," he traced a line on the screen, "and the rest of the students are around here," he circled the southwest corner of the map, "so no one will be able to interfere."
"Johnny is correct," Ozpin said, "she likely won't keep running for much longer, since Samuel hasn't made any actual attack against her yet, he's just made her anxious."
"But that's going to attract Grimm to her, right?" Kira pointed out, "That's got to be his plan, I guess. If she's too busy fighting off some Grimm, then he can swoop in and take her by surprise. She can't block an attack from his stand with her weapons, so that'll force her stand out." Kira concluded, "if he can manage it..." he added quietly.
"Sam said he was winging it," Johnny took the scroll back from him, "But... I think that's what he's going for right now. See these black dots?" He pointed to the numerous blips heading towards Ruby, and around the other students on the other side of the forest. "These are 'unknowns'. Could be a deer, or a wolf, or something, but they're typically Grimm. Since he's staying high up in the trees, they're all after Ruby."
"And if Miss Rose has to deal with a pack of Grimm, she'll be distracted, like you said." Ozpin cupped his chin. "If that is Sam's plan, then I believe it will work."
"And if it doesn't?"
Ozpin only smiled, "Well, we'll find out then, won't we?"
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Ruby was in a bit of a pickle, now. She had hacked down Beowolf after Beowolf, but they just kept coming. Not that that was a problem for her, of course! She could fight a few beowolves for hours without getting tired, but she didn't want to be held up by them. She needed to find a partner (the creepy tree guy didn't count), and grab one of those relics before they were all gone!
Crescent Rose was constantly in motion, the curved blade of the large scythe cutting down droves of Grimm as it sang through the air. She didn't notice the spectator perched in the trees, waiting for her back to be turned.
Sam was breathing heavily, sweat caking his brow. Jumping from tree to tree for over a mile wasn't his speciality, but he had finally caught up to the girl.
Seeing her fight made him doubt his plan for a moment, "That big scythe might be a problem..." he muttered to himself, "Maybe if I get it out of her hands first..." he pulled his weapon, a kyoketsu-shoge, off his back. The small knife had two blades, the straight one was about 7 inches in length, which was large for a knife of that size. The curve of the secondary blade was much more exaggerated than one on a traditional kyoketsu-shoge, resembling a fishing hook without a barb. The rope that attached the blade to the heavy metal ring that it was used in tandem with also differed from tradition, being more like an elastic line than the regular 4-ish meter line that would normally be seen. If thrown with enough strength, he could just about double that length.
Typically, one would throw the ring at their target. The thick disk would force them away, creating distance between the user and their opponent. But Sam wasn't a stranger to using the curved hook on the knife to snatch an enemy's weapon from their hands; even if the weapon wasn't designed to be used that way. Suspended in the tree high above his target's head, he had two options: He could either drop to a lower branch on the tree, and risk being spotted by either the Grimm or Ruby, or he could wait for her to get closer. If she stood a few feet from the base of the tree, somewhere around 9 feet or so, or a little under three meters, from his perch around 7 meters above her, he might be able to just barely hook his blade around the shaft of her scythe and yank it out of her hands.
He grabbed the line a few inches away from the handle of the blade, and began slowly spinning it in the air to build up momentum. Sam felt the familiar eerie presence of Hollywood Fever over his shoulder, the sickly green stripes running down its arm oozing with the stand's paralytic venom. Its right hand was clenched into a fist, the jagged hook jutting out from it.
Ruby had almost slain most of the Grimm surrounding her, the disappearing corpses of around a dozen Beowolves littered the underbrush around her. There were only two more stragglers, and they weren't fairing much better than their friends. She delivered the killing blow to the first one, its ugly head detaching from its body and rolling away, before disintegrating with the rest of the body, and made short work of the other one, her scythe whizzing through the air in a red blur.
Ruby sighed and wiped the sweat from her brow, taking in her work. There weren't anymore Grimm around, so she could continue on her way towards the Temple. She began walking away from the tree that Sam was perched in.
"Aw, damn..." he began twirling the line at a faster speed, causing the blade to whistle through the air, "This'll be a risky throw."
With a strained grunt, he launched the knife towards Crescent Rose, the sound getting Ruby's attention.
She spun towards the noise, Crescent Rose held out in front of her, but she was quickly jerked forward, as something grabbed hold of her precious scythe. Before she could react, it was flung from her grip and shot high up into the trees, lodging itself deep in the trunk.
Her assailant, or rather, assailants it seemed, jumped out of the trees, the man in black from earlier with a strange rope knife in his hands, and another 'person' wearing a strange, green and orange costume of some sort. Their eyes were obscured by what looked like an execution hood that was ripped and torn past its nose, revealing a deathly pale face that seemed to have a permanent grimace of disgusting, sharp golden teeth. Their white body was covered in dark orange pads and sickly green tubes pulsating with a thick, syrupy liquid.
The man threw his knife at her again, striking her in the shoulder. It ripped a hole in the black fabric of her sleeve, but her aura deflected the blow. She still staggered back from the impact, completely defenseless against him. If only she could throw a punch like Yang right about now!
The other figure flashed forward, moving too quickly for Ruby to react. Its fist flew past her face, narrowly missing her. Time seemed to slow down for a moment as she noticed the hook on its hand cleave off some of her hair by her chin, before its other fist rocketed into her gut, knocking her off her feet.
She slid in the dirt, getting tangled up in her red cloak as she rolled onto her side. The pair stood a few feet away from her, the man poised behind the strange figure idly twirling his blade.
"Why?" Ruby struggled to get to her feet, she raised her arms in front of her, not that it would do much good, "Why are you doing this?" She hoped the man would answer. Even though her legs ached from running earlier, she still had a little juice left in her to run away if she could just prepare herself.
Unfortunately, the man only began stomping forward towards her. His 'partner' approached her faster, his hooked hand poised and ready to strike.
It swung forward, and she braced for the impact, raising the aura she had left all over her body and clenching her eyes shut, but the hit never came.
She peeked out over her arms. Someone had come to her rescue! The figure's arm had been caught by a sleek, silver armored hand. Her savior's head was obscured by a short maroon cowl which hung off their back, and the silver armor covered most of their body overtop a slick black bodysuit. Judging by their feminine figure, it was a young woman, not much taller than Ruby.
She flung her fist into the green man's face, knocking him back before she let go of his arm and released a barrage of punches to his core. The strange man was flung backwards through the air from the attack, alongside the man in black, for some strange reason, before the two of them crashed into the trunk of a tree and slumped over.
Her savior looked over her shoulder at her, a shiny maroon visor obscuring her face. Ruby could just barely see two dim, silver orbs glowing where their eyes would be behind the helmet. "Now would be a good time to run." She told her with a muffled voice.
Ruby only nodded, she was still failing to comprehend what was going on. She spun on her heel and began sprinting away from the scene of the fight. Her semblance wasn't kicking in, and she glanced back to see what the woman was doing.
To her surprise, she had vanished from the clearing completely, but the man was still slumped against the tree. "What the heck was that?!" Ruby panted for air. She didn't know why, but it seemed like she was out of aura, and couldn't use her semblance to run any faster. "I think I ended up in the wrong part of the forest... who were those people?" Ruby hadn't seen anyone that looked like them at the top of the cliff, or the day before. She definitely would've believed that the man was a student, if it wasn't for the fact that he immediately tried to kill her, but those other two, that woman and the green guy, there's no way she would believe that they were supposed to be here!
She breached the edge of the forest, reaching the edge of the canyon, before she began gasping for air with her hands on her knees.
Once she had properly regained her bearings, she decided she was going to head straight towards the bridge that crossed the deep chasm dividing the cliffs from the forest, and figure stuff out from there. Maybe she could still find a partner and a Relic, if she made it in time!
Reaching behind her back, she went to grab Crescent-
Her eyes widened when she realized she had left it lodged up in that tree in all the commotion. She began sprinting back into the trees, trying to will up all her strength to kick her semblance into gear.
The world began spinning around her as it finally activated. She left a trail of rose petals in her wake as she flew through the forest as a red blur back in the direction she had come from.
She spotted the familiar shape of Crescent Rose sticking out above her head as she skidded to a stop. The man was gone, and there was no sign that he had ever been knocked out against the tree in the first place."Yes!" She cheered. She jumped up to grab it, but it was too high for her to reach.
"Alright..." she muttered as she stepped back from the tree and took in her predicament, "Let's try..." she got low to the ground, her back foot stretched out far behind her to kick off the ground. She activated her semblance, and scuttered up the side of the tree as quickly as she could. She grabbed hold of Crescent Rose as quickly as she could, hanging onto it by the shaft.
She was dangling a few feet off the ground, and her scythe was firmly stuck in the trunk of the tree. She swung her legs forward and planted them on the tree, before pushing with all her might to remove the blade from the bark.
"Come... on... you..." Ruby clenched her teeth as the scythe began sliding out of the bark, "Just... a little..." Crescent Rose jerked out of the wood, and Ruby dropped gracelessly to the grass below. "Owww..." she groaned.
She stood up and clicked out the scope for Crescent Rose's rifle, scanning the trees for any sign of trouble. Specifically, that psycho that had attacked her!
"He's gone."
Ruby yelped and spun around, accidentally discharging a round in the speaker's direction.
The same strange woman from before was crouching on a low branch on one of the trees, one that definitely shouldn't have supported the weight of a person. She looked at the smoking bullet hole in the tree next to her, and then turned back to Ruby. "S-sorry..." Ruby chuckled nervously. "Thank you for... y'know, saving my butt earlier." The woman responded with a curt nod. "So... who are you anyways?"
"What do you mean?" She asked in return.
"I..." Ruby blinked, dumbfounded, "I mean... who are you? Y'know... like..." she twiddled her thumbs.
"I'm you." She answered. Ruby opened her mouth to respond, but didn't know what to say. "Or rather, a part of you."
"A... part of me?" Ruby tilted her head, "How?"
"I'm the embodiment of your fighting spirit, your stand." The woman (Ruby 2?) told her.
"Well, do you have a name, then?" Ruby asked. After everything that had happened so far this morning, she thought she would be a little skeptical of this 'stand', but she didn't feel any need to be, and she couldn't tell why.
The helmeted woman (stand?) stared at her for a moment before she answered, "Moonage Daydream."
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I decided to leave this authors note here, even though the chapter does continue afterwards. Like I said at the top, I decided to compress the two chapters, because it took me long enough to make it in the first place.
This just serves as an easy (in other words super lazy) segue between the two parts of the chapter.
I decided to forego the normal 'Rose' mantra most people use for Ruby's stand in stories, since there's only so many options for it. I have a more important reason for choosing Moonage Daydream (aside from the fact that I really like David Bowie), but that won't come up until later.
Writing Ruby on her own can be tricky for me, so I didn't show as many of her thoughts as I had originally planned, but I think this chapter 1st half worked out well.
Anyways, on to the next one!
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Sam struggled to the top of the cliff, stumbling to his knees in the short grass near the launch pads. The blood pouring from his nose stained the vibrant green blades red.
A hand was offered to him, by the Mistrali looking relative of Johnny, Yoshikage Kira. "How'd it go?" The man asked with a smirk.
"How's it look?" Sam chuckled, and then winced in pain. His voice was nasally, if he were to guess it would be from his smashed in, bleeding nose. "Her stand definitely packs a punch..." He tentatively touched his nose, the entire center of his face flaring up in pain at the contact.
"Stay still for me," Kira ordered Sam as he placed his hands on both sides of his face. His thumbs were hovering next to the bridge of Sam's nose on either side, "This'll only take a second. I really wish I had gloves for this..."
"Oh, no no no no, I'm not doing that right n-" Sam's septum was set back into place with a revolting CRUNCH, the man staggering back and screeching in pain. "AGGH—FUCKING WARN ME NEXT TIME!"
"You would've started squirming," Kira looked at the blood on his palms, "They always do, anyways."
"How many... noses... have you set?" Sam grunted, "Is it going to start bleeding more? I feel like it's going to start bleeding more."
"It might." Kira shrugged. He waved in Johnny's direction to get his attention, and then turned back to Sam. "And I've dealt with plenty of broken noses. Slipping is the most common cause of injury on a ship, and there's only so many directions you can fall."
Johnny jogged over to the two, "Did it work? We haven't gotten a good look at her on the surveillance cameras yet."
"Yeah, Sam says it went as planned. Got clobbered in the process, as you can see." Kira motioned to the other man who was still quietly whimpering every time he tapped his nose. "Do you have any water?"Johnny nodded and pulled his canteen off his belt, handing it to Kira. "Thanks." Kira took the canteen, and poured some of the waters on his hands, rubbing the blood off them. "Need any?" He offered it to Sam.
Sam graciously took the water, splashing some on his face before gulping half the canteen down. "You got any gauze, or something?"
"Not on me, no." Johnny shook his head, "Hey, Oz! We've got a first aid kit up here somewhere, right?"
The Headmaster turned and looked at them. He had other students to monitor aside from Ruby Rose, of course, so he wasn't always watching her status with Johnny and Kira. "I don't believe so." He returned.
Johnny and Kira looked at one another, "Why the hell not?!" Kira shouted. "You weren't serious about letting some kids die in the woods if it came to it, right?"
Ozpin didn't answer right away, but Johnny did. "That's just to scare the first years. If their heads aren't on straight it's a very real possibility." He informed Kira, "Deaths don't occur often, anyways."
"Some poor guy almost died during my initiation," Sam said, "That was rough."
"Wasn't that 'poor guy' your partner?" Johnny chuckled, "And wasn't it your fault?"
"That's not important."
Ozpin approached the three of them, the cup of coffee he had been drinking was nearly empty as he took another sip of it. "So," he smiled at the men, "I take it it went well?"
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"I think Moonage Daydream is a weird name." Ruby stated matter-of-factly as she and her new ghost pal strolled through the forest.
"You chose it." Daydream replied.
"Nuh-uh! I would've picked a way cooler name, like..." Ruby tapped her chin, "I'll... come up with one later."
They walked in silence for a few minutes. Ruby would've preferred running, but she didn't want to wear herself down anymore than she already was, which was a lot for such a short period of time.
"You don't talk much, do you?"
"I do not have much to say."
"Why not?"
"I speak when necessary."
"Huh." Ruby shrugged, "I guess that makes sense." Ruby looked over her precious Crescent Rose, scanning it for any damage acquired during her earlier scuffle. "I think a screw's loose in the receiver..." she shook the scythe for emphasis, listening to the rattle of a small piece of metal inside the gun. "Aw, man..."
Moonage Daydream seemed to blink into existence in front of her scythe, "It's not important," she said, "The rifle should work without it." Daydream's hand seemed to pass through the red painted metal of Crescent Rose's upper, and the screw ceased its rattling after a moment. "It shouldn't be a problem anymore."
"Wow..." Ruby gasped once Daydream's hand was removed from Crescent Rose. "That's so cool! How'd you do that?!"
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After Sam had reported to the infirmary, Ozpin, Johnny, and Kira, continued to monitor Ruby's progress. She had finally arrived in the surveilled area of the Emerald Forest, within proximity of the other students. While many partner pairs had already formed, there were still plenty of individual fighters prowling through the woods.
Stands weren't clearly visible on cameras, with a few exceptions, of course, and they appeared more like ghosts, or disturbances in the image, distorting the air around them, but remaining completely unseen. Ruby seemed like she was currently conversing with this glitch in the footage.
"Her stand must be quite talkative," Ozpin mused.
"I'm sure Ruby's doing most of the talking." Johnny replied. He had his own scroll out, monitoring the map while watching Ozpin's feed of the cameras. "This'll be... interesting."
"What is it?" Kira looked over at his scroll. There was another blip heading in Ruby's direction, a student, it looked like. They were being pursued by a small number of Grimm, only three or four, it was hard to tell because of how close the black dots were to one another.
"I think Miss Rose is about to meet her partner."
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A white figure burst out of the bushes, an exquisite silver rapier in her hand. A shining blue glyph appeared in the air in front of her flight path, in the shape of a six pointed snowflake encompassed by a circle. This girl was Weiss Schnee, the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. She planted her feet on top of her glyph, standing sideways for a short moment, before she kicked off, launching back in the direction she came from as a creep scurried out from the bushes she had just lunged over.
Creeps weren't often seen above ground in most situations, but their lack of substantial armor on parts of their body aside from their face and lack of hind legs meant they weren't exactly formidable foes for any experienced fighter. Their greatest tool was their speed, and occasionally size if they ever grew big enough.
The creeps that had been chasing the girl were barely the size of the average beowolf, and only the one that had just been chasing her had been close to catching up to her, which was saying something, because she seemed to be wearing heels.
She soared through the air, straight towards the creep, piercing her blade through the soft top of its slack-jawed mouth into its cranium.
The creep didn't drop immediately, but it screeched in anger in response to her attack. It whipped its spiny tail around and slammed her in the gut, knocking her off her feet.
She groaned when she stopped sliding across the grass. Losing her weapon was a minor setback, but as long as the other two creeps didn't show up for a few more minutes, she'd be...
"Oh, wonderful." She thought, "I definitely jinxed that." She watched as two more creeps trudged out from the bushes. If she was lucky, the first one might try and chomp down on her sword, Myrtenaster, and stab itself through the brain in the process.
Knowing how her day had gone so far, that was unlikely. Looking at it from another perspective, she might be considered lucky, but to her, just about everything had gone wrong.
You could say she was saved from being partnered with that blond buffoon, Jaune, by Pyrrha, or, she lost her chance to be partnered with the champion fighter.
Weiss rose to her feet quickly. Without her rapier, she couldn't make the strongest glyphs, but she might be able to make one to hold the creep's mouth in place.
The other two creeps had joined their friend, stomping slowly towards her. The Grimm had a strange habit of doing so when they thought they had cornered their prey, despite their speed. The one she had attacked was either too stupid to realize that Myrtenaster was stuck in its mouth, or its slack jaw wasn't powerful enough to clamp shut with the blade inside. Weiss would guess that it was the first one, but because of the strange varieties Creeps could come in in shape and size, one with a weak jaw wouldn't be surprising.
When it lunged for her, she did her best to create a glyph locking it in place by the neck. The glyph created flickered, but remained in place. She would only need it for a few seconds once she got a hold on Myrtenaster, anyways.
Her hand shot inside the creep's disgusting mouth, before she yanked out her rapier as fast as she could. The creep's jaw clamped shut the second the sword wasn't lodged in between its black tongue and soft palate, its sharp teeth scraped against her hand, her aura flaring up as she barely pulled her sword out of its mouth.
"HYAAH!" She exclaimed as she plunged the rapier into its chest. She pulled Myrtenaster out at a sharp angle, rending the Grimm's flesh, destroying its heart, and effectively eliminating it.
Now that she had her sword back, its two friends wouldn't be too much of a problem, though, and Weiss would never say it out loud, she wouldn't mind a little help.
As if listening to her thoughts, someone bounded out of the tree line and immediately began cutting down one of the creeps with a giant... red scythe...
"Oh, of all people!" Weiss complained as she stabbed her rapier through the other creep.
"Wha-" Ruby turned around, "Ah!"
Weiss huffed and turned around, pretending the young girl didn't exist.
Unbeknownst to her, Ruby had turned to speak to a third person in their vicinity, one that she didn't know existed.
The moment Ruby opened her mouth, she was interrupted. "Do not speak to me, she doesn't know I exist." Moonage Daydream informed her. "I hear your thoughts, speak to me in your mind."
"But that's weird..." Ruby complained. She turned her attention back to Weiss. She wasn't sure what help Daydream would be, since she had only known about the 'stand' for maybe 30 minutes. "I don't make the rules." She told the other girl, "But Professor Ozpin said that the first person you made eye contact with was your partner. And you're the first person I've seen, and I'm pretty sure I'm the first person you've seen, so..."
Weiss sighed in response, "I suppose you're better than most of the other options so far..." she spun on her heel, and grabbed Ruby by the hood of her cloak, "But this does not make us friends." The other girl yelped as she began to be pulled along.
"Wait!" Ruby shouted. Weiss released her grip and looked at her expectantly, "North is that way." Ruby hiked her thumb to the right, pointing in the direction she originally came from. "But I think the relics are more..." she pointed out in between herself and Weiss, "that way!"
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The initiation was going well, all things considered, and a number of the students had returned. Few of the relics remained, and 8 of said remaining chess pieces had just been taken. The two separate teams had already begun to fall into the roles that they fit best, despite not being officially formed yet.
"Shit, I'm glad we avoided that thing." Kira commented as they watched Ruby nearly get crushed by the stinger of the giant Deathstalker from the caves. Her partner, who turned out to be Weiss Schnee, had frozen its stinger in its path with a giant wall of ice.
The 8 of them had acquired their relics and were running for the bridge crossing over to the cliffs, but the Deathstalker was quickly breaking out of its icy prison.
"Any ideas for team names, Oz?" Johnny asked.
"I'm thinking of them as we speak, Professor Joestar." The silver-haired man answered, "I believe Miss Rose and Mister Arc could shape up to be formidable leaders, don't you think?"
"Seems like a risky move," Johnny shrugged, "I mean, if you're right about the Arc kid, then that could be a disaster."
Kira wasn't paying any attention to what the other two were talking about. He was enraptured by the scene unfolding on the surveillance cameras in front of him, like it was some fantastic action movie, which to him, it certainly seemed like. The other two men had been through this so many times, that it must have lost its zest to them.
The giant Nevermore that had been swooping around the Temple for the past few minutes flew right past the cliff, perching itself on the old tower on the bridge.
"Oh, this is a rarity." Ozpin mused, "Two Grimm of this caliber at once?"
The Nevermore left its perch on the tower and hovered in place in the air. Suddenly, it shot its wings forward, unleashing a volley of ultra sharp feathers on the students below.
Kira had been told that Nevermore attacked at range that way, but seeing it in person was a terrifying sight as the feathers burrowed themselves deep in the ground.
Around the same time that the Nevermore began its attack, the Deathstalker burst through the trees and began chasing the group across the bridge. They did their best to keep it at bay, but their weapons weren't exactly big enough to do any real damage to it. One of the students, Kira didn't know her name, fired a grenade launcher at the Nevermore before she began to run across the bridge as well.
The giant bird flapped off into the distance, out of the range of her grenade launcher, before swooping back around and crashing into the bridge.
The group of students was split up, 5 of them landing on the side of the bridge closest to the cliffs, while the other three ended up back where they started, being pushed towards the edge by the Deathstalker. Ruby looked like she was trying to shoot the giant Nevermore out of the sky with her sniper, but it wasn't working.
2 of them, the girl with the grenade launcher and the blond boy with the sword and shield, seemed to destroy more of the bridge to launch themselves back over to the other side to help. Her grenade launcher shifted into a massive hammer, which she brought down on top of the Deathstalker. It clearly did substantial damage, as the skull plate on its head cracked, and it tried to impale her with its stinger. She jumped away from the attack but ended up knocking one of her fellow students off in the process.
"That's... not good." Johnny said. The girl fell for a few seconds before a rope shot out of her weapon and latched on to the other side of the bridge and hitched a ride on the Nevermore, trying to slice it down with her small blades. She jumped on top of the tower when it flew over, and joined the rest of the group up there.
They began attacking the Nevermore from a distance, a hail of bullets, ice, and fire raining down on it, but it still had little effect on the giant Grimm.
It tried to dive bomb straight into them, destroying the old tower in the process. The four of them managed to make their way back onto what was left of the bridge before falling into the chasm below.
The 4 fighting the Deathstalker weren't fairing much better, as their side of the bridge was slowly collapsing while the giant Grimm continued to toss them around like rag dolls.
Its stinger was dangling from its tail from the constant attacks to it, and the girl with the bright red hair in the Greek-looking outfit threw her shield at it, causing it to crash down onto its head. The ginger girl with the giant hammer sprung into the air, slamming the stinger deep into the Deathstalker's head.
Unfortunately for them, that force was the last straw for the bridge, the old stone flipping into the air and tossing them back onto land.
"I told you, Johnny." Ozpin smiled at the feed, "He's a smart young man."
The Nevermore was still being assaulted by bullets and fire, and it swooped in to attack Ruby's blonde sister. The girl jumped into its mouth, holding its jagged beak open and firing her shotgun gauntlets into it. This clearly took the bird by surprise once she hopped out, as it crashed headfirst into the cliff.
Weiss shot across the bridge using one of her glyphs, forming another wall of ice to pin the Nevermore's tail down. Ruby's sister and her partner used her rope to make a slingshot, which Ruby yanked herself back in with her scythe. Another glyph formed behind her, which turned black to lock her in place, before it turned the same shade of red as her cloak and launched her straight towards the Nevermore.
She hooked her scythe around its neck, before charging up the cliff. Once she reached the top, the Nevermore's head seemed to detach from its body with very little effort on her part, before she planted her Scythe in the grass.
"That was..." Kira trailed off. He shook his head, "I don't even know what to say, honestly."
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That's a wrap!
The main reason I had so much trouble actually getting this chapter out is because the second half (originally second chapter), jumped around the initiation a lot, and I had trouble properly writing Ruby's stand into any of the fights.
I ultimately decided on saving Moonage Daydream and its abilities for later, since she isn't familiar with the concept of stands or how to use them, so it probably wouldn't set in until after the rush of initiation that she's just acquired a punching ghost.
I was planning on releasing this chapter alongside the second Johnny Joestar chapter originally, but I didn't want to make you guys wait any longer. Expect that one soon, though, since I've got most of those chapters basically set in stone for how they go.
A lot of the future chapters with Kira do sort of depend on how Part 8 goes, especially one major plot point that, as of right now, can go three different directions depending on what happens in the next few months. It's definitely easier to write with Part 7, since the story is already complete.
Also I finished writing this pretty late at night, so sorry for any errors in there, if they were terrible.
Anyways, let me know what you guys think, And I'll catch you next time!