Disclaimer: I don't own KNY or RWBY

Chapter 11

This is not fine.

Jaune Arc stumbled across the forest, his armor heavy against his chest and the steady bounces of Crocea Mors beginning to weigh on his jeans as he marched onwards. He counted 7 times now that he had just barely avoided tripping and slamming his face into the ground below- something he very much wanted to avoid, thank you very much.

In front of him- marching at a much faster pace- was his foreseeable partner for the next four years of Beacon. Cardin Winchester apparently didn't give enough of a damn about what happened to his sorry soul to care about, well, anything that happened to him. Instead, the boy trudged on, his armored backside a constant sight that Jaune barely kept up with.

Then, something elevated bumped into his left foot. Jaune's tired eyes widened instantly to an almost comical degree, his arms flailing around and swatting against nearby leaves as he struggled to maintain balance after being rendered single-footed for but a brief moment.

Eventually, his left foot found itself back on the ground, trudging against the muddy dirt with a sound Jaune was very much not fond of. Still, Cardin's backside and the glint of his mace was slowly disappearing from sight, and Jaune was absolutely not crazy enough to stay in the forest without his only real source of protection. Clenching his fists, he increased his pace to a slight jog to catch up with Cardin's- admittedly not so fast- walking speed. He ignored, or at least tried to ignore the tiny but noticeable impact his armor made against his body as it rose up and down, slamming into him and breaking his stamina down piece by piece.

Thoughts buzzed around his head as he wandered the forest with his partner, but in the end they all seemed to converge to a singular, dominating phrase.

I'm so screwed.

"Oi, noodle!" Cardin's voice called out from ahead. "Are you gonna complete this initiation or not?"

Jaune wasn't sure whether to be happy that his partner was at least somewhat aware of his existence (loosely speaking, of course) or concerned that he was about to spend four entire years with... What would I call a guy like Cardin, actually? Pretty sure mom would-

The sound of a mace slamming against flesh cut through his thoughts. Jaune quickly shuddered as his eyes landed upon the sight- his partner swinging his weapon in a wide arc, the metal slamming into the beowolf's face and sending it flying sideways.

I wonder what would happen if I got hit by something like that- wait, no! Not the time!

Biting his lip, Jaune brandished his own weapon, the steel of Crocea Mors raised high in the air as he quickened his pace to a sprint and charged into the fray. By now, Cardin had already effectively either killed or disabled the majority of the Grimm, which meant it was going to be easy pickings from now on. And besides, they didn't look that dangerous anyway! All I need to do is time my swings right, and- Oh, that one!

His mouth twitching into a grin, Jaune's eyes settled on a smaller looking beowolf that had its backside exposed. Slightly altering his direction, Jaune prepared to swing down his sword. Now if I can get just a bit closer to it-

His foot slammed into something hard.

Before he could blink, Jaune found his face being slammed into the wet dirt of the ground below.

It then apparently took him way too much time to realize that he had potentially revealed his presence to a creature that would be able to mangle him in an instant. As the realization hit, Jaune's mouth morphed into an 'o' as he lay sprawled across the dirt.

The growling came immediately after.

His body moving on autopilot, Jaune scrambled to his feet... and failed, managing to only barely get into a sitting position as the creature in front of him pounced into the air. Almost instinctively he shut his eyes closed tightly, his heart beating into his ears and his shield arm sloppily and harshly throwing itself forward.

Please please please please-

He waited for the impact to come, and it-

Huh?

The crashing sound of steel echoed throughout the forest, followed by the muffled growl of a beast.

Jaune blinked.

As his eyes registered the sight in front of him, something in his chest seemed to cave inwards, a host of feelings rising up within him that he wasn't sure how to recognize. Shame? Relief? A horrible amount of terror and fear? Probably a lot of that. Still...

Cardin Winchester stood in front of him, his mace held idly at his waist. To his left, a disintegrating corpse had been very clearly slammed into a nearby tree. Jaune's breathing grew harsh. Unsteady. Cardin looked down at him with something on his expression, his eyes and mouth twisted into something Jaune couldn't quite recognize.

"I-" Jaune opened his mouth to speak- but his throat wore out, leaving his mouth hanging in an awkward gape.

Cardin lifted his mace. "I'm seriously stuck for four years with a loser like you?" he muttered, with a tone almost bordering on disbelief. Without a word afterwards, the boy turned and walked away, his silhouette slowly disappearing into the forest ahead.

Jaune clenched his fists.

Dammit.

"So Rubes, how did you get here with pitch perfect timing?"

"Oh, I rode a Nevermore!"

Next to him Giyuu heard something of a muffled chortle coming from the armored girl- Pyrrha, he recalled from a conversation the previous day- and he had to admit, there was something rather funny about Ruby's delivery. As if this is an everyday thing.

"H- huh?"

"Yeah it was awesome! We wanted to-"

"You wanted to." Giyuu managed to interrupt, much to the apparent chagrin of a now slightly dimmer reaper. Still, Ruby only responded with a light wave of her hand.

"Details, details. Anyways-" she continued. "I thought- getting to the forest quickly was our biggest objective, right? So we needed to get there ASAP. But running is so slow, and boring as well, and being high up would give us the advantage of being able to see lots of things in the forest, right? So..."

She concluded rather awkwardly, weakly raising her arms in something resembling... actually, what pose is she even trying to make here?

Yang crossed her arms, her frown barely letting out a surprisingly well concealed smirk. "And you thought the natural conclusion to that line of thinking was riding on top of a giant dangerous grimm?" she asked, Ruby quickly nodding. Huffing, the blonde turned away, her eyes darting around her surroundings. "Where did you even land the thing anyway?"

"About 50 meters east." Giyuu replied this time. "We made sure it was dead." We probably overdid it too, he noted, recalling Ruby putting her weapon into something had she called rapid-fire mode before shooting about a dozen rounds into the collapsed beast's head. They had stayed for a minute to watch the disintegration begin before making their way to the relics.

Ruby had then promptly disappeared in a trail of roses to greet her sister.

Yang sighed. "Well, at least you're safe. You two partnered up?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Giyu gave her a nod, and a tension in her face seemed to release as she huffed. "I'm glad. Thought for a sec she would be stuck with some goober for four years, like that ass from the weapon lockers."

Giyuu only raised an eyebrow. "Have I met this person?"

"Nope," Yang muttered, popping the 'p.' "You slept with that damn sword of yours hooked onto your waist so you wouldn't have seen him in the lockers. It was some ginger dude- tall, broad shoulders, giant mace, lots of fancy looking armor. The guy pushed past us and acted like an ass about it afterwards."

"Didn't dad say it's bad to judge people based on first impressions?" Ruby interjected. Yang sputtered.

"W- well sometimes the case is different, alright? I dunno, maybe he was just really having a bad day." Yang said. "Still, I'm good at the people thing, alright? And I really didn't like the- the... you know, the things coming off of him." she concluded somewhat lamely.

Pyrrha coughed. "Not to twist your words, but that sounds a bit promiscuous."

"Promiscuwhat now?"

Pyrrha slightly winced and took a step back, covering her mouth with a hand. "On second thought, I think I'll just- stay silent, actually." she said with a sheepish chuckle. "Just... er, don't mind me."

Yang raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't comment. "Y'know, I'm gonna search that up on my scroll when initiation is over- given that I actually remember the word." she said, muttering towards the end. "Promiscu-something. Promiscuas? No, that's not it either."

Pyrrha apparently was wiser than her sheepish disposition implied, as she stood still with her mouth firmly closed shut.

What an odd group of people.

It took about three seconds for Yang to give up trying to remember the word. With a huff, she ran a hand through her hair and looked sideways at what he assumed were the relics Ozpin had sent them out to find. "You guys gonna pick one? We already got ours." she said, turning back to Ruby who responded with a nod.

Giyuu stepped towards the board. A series of strangely shaped figurines rested on it, some of them resembling vague shaped and structures he was familiar with. Giyuu picked up a more strange looking one- a round looking piece that looked like a knife had cut into the top portion.

"What are these?" he muttered, holding up the figurine.

Yang's jaw slightly dropped, much to his confusion. "You've seriously never seen a chess board before?" she asked. Nonplussed, he shook his head before pausing and looking at the pedestal- which was apparently called a chess board- again.

"Ah, actually," he said. "The pattern is familiar, but I've never seen the pieces."

Yang flashed a lopsided smile. "I was gonna make you play chess with us there for a sec, but now that I think about it there are seriously way better games to play now." she said. "I think partners are supposed to pick the same piece, by the way. That's why there's four of each piece on the board. Two groups of two and all."

Giyuu nodded, looking at the board again. Releasing the piece from his hand, he set it back down on the board. Although that seems awfully... controlled. It feels almost strange that Ozpin would let students decide their teams like this after deciding partner combinations by eye contact and throwing examinees into a forest.

But what other determining factor could there be?

"Yang, what piece did you pick?" Ruby interjected. "The two of us can just pick the other pieces so we can be on a team together!"

Giyuu furrowed his eyebrows, staring at the pieces. "She picked the horse. All of the other pieces have two pairs, but the horse only has one." he commented before returning to staring at the board. There's something here, but what would it be? Or am I just paranoid? "Yang, are the game pieces usually organized this way?"

Yang stepped towards him, a frown on her face. "Actually, no." she said. "But you're probably wasting your time if you're trying to find some hidden pattern in the pieces. Six of them are gone now, and I mean, hell- you don't even know the rules of the game."

Ruby then took the moment to interject. "I mean, even if headmaster Ozpin gave us crazy instructions for partners, the instructions have always been super simple, so..." she noted. That's actually... surprisingly insightful? "Maybe this is just something meant to trip up people but it's actually super simple as well?"

Giyuu hummed. Actually, she does have a point. I don't know enough about Ozpin to predict what he's thinking, but either way I'm probably worrying for nothing.

Grabbing the horse pieces, he tossed one over to Ruby, who promptly caught it and grinned before hesitating a moment later. "Wait, you really trust me on this?" she asked. "Cuz I'm not really tipsy hundred-percent sure about this either. You might have a point actually..."

Well now we're back to square one.

Giyuu sighed. "On second thought, even if there's a pattern I doubt we can figure it out by ourselves. We have more pressing things to attend to right now."

"See?" Yang exclaimed. "Even Sherlock over here's given up. Trust me Rubes, it's gonna be fine."

Ruby put a hand on her chin, her face in a frown. "You're probably right. Still, now you've planted the idea in my head and I can't get it out!" she huffed, her talking pace increasing by the second before she finally stopped and slumped. "I miss Signal..."

Yang winced. "Honestly yeah, even with uncle Qrow Signal was less..."

"Eccentric?" Pyrrha offered, Yang nodding in response.

Meanwhile, Giyuu pocketed his chess piece and glanced towards the side. "Either way," he began. "There's no use dwindling here now. When we were on the Nevermore I spotted some locations with odd looking specks of silver. I think those are the materials we need to find in order to survive the night. If we don't have anything more to discuss, we should depart."

Pyrrha nodded. "Yes, that would be wise. I assume all of us can last a night without food, but still..."

"Alright then!" Yang perked up. "So which way do we-"

Before she could finish, a bear tore into the clearing with a girl riding on top of it.

"What an interesting group."

Glynda threw him a scowl. "You say that while leaving the majority of the paperwork to me." she muttered, with a just barely visible tinge of humor in her tone. "This year is messy, headmaster. You may call them interesting, but after so many years, I'm quite more inclined to call them..."

Ozpin sipped on his now-diluted coffee. "Filled with joyous potential, perhaps?"

"Tiring was the word I was going for, but considering we have wildly varying ideas of joy and fun, perhaps you may have a point." Glynda stated. "That boy with the sword- Tomioka, he was the one that Xiao Long personally recommended, was he not?"

Ozpin nodded. "It isn't often Taiyang uses his privilege as an Beacon alumni in such a way. So far however, I don't think I've quite seen anything truly noteworthy out of the boy yet." he stated, his eyes fixated on his screen. "Perhaps he simply needs to be pushed to meet a challenge?"

"I disagree." Glynda firmly stated, Ozpin's head- for once- snapping around to look at her in surprise. Glynda's never given an outright commendation on initiation. So what would give? "Compared to the other candidates this year, I'd say he's quite observant, wouldn't you agree?"

Ozpin blinked. "Observant?"

Glynda gestured at her screen. "The other candidates so far have simply picked up their chess pieces and left. Tomioka is the first real case where he took the time to observe the patterns of the relics. Perhaps the only one to crack the clue behind the puzzle." she noted.

Ozpin grinned.

"Fair enough I suppose," he said. "Although I would argue that what fuels Tomioka isn't quite being observant. In the end the boy still picked the knight, and I'd say that's quite telling."

Glynda raised an eyebrow, a gesture for him to continue.

"Now if he were truly observant, he would take note of the proper organization and pick the bishop instead- assuming he wants to team up with Ms. Xiao Long and Ms. Nikos." Ozpin noted. "However, in the end he still picked up the knight. Combine that with his behavior when we first met, and it's quite easy to come to the conclusion that what drives young Tomioka isn't being observant- it's paranoia." he concluded.

Afterwards, he shrugged.

"Of course, I could be wrong. I'm simply speaking from my own anecdotes after all." he said. "And paranoia can lead itself to observation. The ability to detect one's surroundings- I suspect our candidate has that in spades. Perhaps even his combat observation may give us a pleasant surprise if such a situation presents itself to us. His pattern detection could certainly use some work, though. Perhaps he'll need help in Mathematics?"

Glynda put a finger on her chin, her eyes unmoving as it gazed at the screen. "You may be correct, headmaster. Either way, I must say I feel a fair bit of pity for the boy. He seems to be more withdrawn than anything, and partnering up with someone like Rose..." she paused. "Although I suppose it isn't quite as bad as Mr. Ren and Ms. Valkyrie. I fear how those two may manage to get along if they do manage to pass this..."

Ozpin simply chuckled. "Well Glynda, I suspect this year we've got our hands quite full with problematic partnerships." he chimed, taking a long drink from his mug and settling his eyes to a particular group.

Speaking of problematic partnerships...

"FOR THE RECORD, IF THIS THING KILLS ME I'M BLAMING ALL OF THIS ON YOU!"

Blake restrained a wince as she sprinted across the forest, her natural experiences guiding her limbs as she jumped off of boulders as vantage points and flipped over trees. To be fair, her partner- who was currently gliding across the air with just as much elegance as Blake had come to expect from the short time she had worked with her- did have a point. Blake had seen the Deathstalker in the cave. Blake had seen Weiss approach it. Blake had heard it growl and had felt the instinctual twitch of the ears on top of her head.

Blake had also made the decision there and then that an encounter with a Deathstalker would be better than exposing her identity there and then. And she didn't regret it- at least, not too much. The two of them could reasonably survive this encounter and make it past initiation, she was confident enough of both her and her partner's skills for that. Still, she did have to admit...

"This thing is way too persistent..." she muttered through her teeth, frustration seeping into her voice. Just as the Deathstalker swung its arm towards her again, Blake pushed with her right leg, kicking upwards from the ground and flinging herself to a nearby tree. As she soared through the air, her arms reached out to grab a branch which she promptly used to propel her forward.

It doesn't help that neither of our skillsets are suited to beat a Deathstalker. Cutting weapons aren't going to be effective against it until some serious blunt force damages or cracks its outer shell. Maybe Schnee could use her dust, but I'm not sure how much she has of that...

As her feet touched the ground once more, Blake blinked and a wave of electricity ran through her body. The entire ordeal took a split second before she pushed forward once more, her partner already ahead of her. Now however, a pitch black clone of herself stood in the way of the Grimm.

That'll distract it for just a little time. Maybe by then-

To her side, Weiss dodged a swing from the scorpion's pincer, sliding under it as if the ground was made out of ice.

Wait, we need to actually get to the temple as well. If we're going in the opposite direction, this could hinder our progress massively! she noted, chastising herself as her white-haired partner slid to her side with stone cold eyes and a raised sword. Around Myrtenaster's blade, a torrent of energy swirled and cackled, begging to be released.

Blake heard the sound of a click before Weiss drove her sword to the ground, the ground's stability shattering as cracks began to appear along the muddy stone and dirt. In a split second, whatever move Weiss had used had created a path of seismic activity that led directly to the deathstalker.

And then she heard the ice.

To a honed ear, the sound of ice being involved with anything was something way too distinct to not distinguish. There was a unique sort of hum to the cold surface impacting against something else, almost mirroring the sound of shattering glass save for a few very clear differences in pitch and tone.

Before the Deathstalker had time to dodge, a pillar of jagged ice erupted from the ground underneath it, a guttural noise piercing the air as the grimm was sent flying backwards. I kinda have to admit, Blake thought to herself. That's pretty impressive. If she trains up her semblance even more, it could be...

She restrained a shudder.

No. Don't think about that now.

"Belladonna!" Weiss's voice snapped her from her thoughts. "While I'm flattered by your impression of my skills, that isn't going to keep it down for long. We need to run and get to the temple as fast as possible- luckily, I've made sure to track our progress so that we've been heading in the correct direction until now."

Blake simply nodded before she followed the Schnee heiress, a mixture of emotions blending inside of her stomach. She kept track of the direction as well? I've had field experience with this stuff before- how am I the one being pulled along here?

She winced as she jumped over a tree branch, taking just a split second to look up at the clouds as she swung from a grip.

I'm seriously off my game today. If this continues, things might get- wait, huh?

Blake stopped. Didn't Ozpin say that the temple was at the Northwestern end of the forest? In that case, since we're going to the left...

Suddenly, she felt smug to an almost guilty degree.

"Schnee!" she called out from the ground, the girl stopping and looking back at her with a mixture of curiosity and exasperation laced into her expression. Keeping her deadpan, Blake simply pointed to her side. "We're meant to go that way. Look at the position of the sun."

As she had expected, the girl's first expression was one of frustration- as if she wanted to argue- before she shifted her gaze as well to the sky above them. For the next few seconds, the girl's face was shifted from emotion to emotion- most of them looking fairly laughable, if Blake had to be honest.

Finally, the Schnee heiress simply huffed before giving her a nod and shifting directions.

Blake took a deep breath before following her.

Giyuu was done.

He had handled Ruby's insanity. He had handled Yang's antics. He had handled Ozpin- for reasons he was fairly sure were unrelated to any sort of academic striving- launching all of his students into a forest with a ridiculous looking device. And he wasn't sure whether this was a tiny little feather that added onto piles of weight or a heavy piece of iron falling from the sky, but either way it snapped the camel's back.

He missed Japan, where the most he had to deal with was the occasional paper work and the even more occasional civilian death that followed his career. It was awful, but it was his preference of awful. He had gotten used to the awfulness, and he could withstand it. Remnant however, for all its technological advancements and safety, brought upon a whole new breed of frustration- one he was just starting to identify.

It was annoyance. Annoyance that he felt throughout his entire body. It wasn't like the shock and the deep frustration that came with seeing a dead civilian- more of a sudden weariness that spread through his arms and legs. And it would get even worse because he was so very sure that Ruby or Yang- flip a coin- would call him brooding again after this as a result.

He felt the urge to do many things. Like smacking his head against the ground, or smacking his head with his palm.

Either way, at least the bear Grimm the girl had ridden on was dead- a drop of water in a desert for sure, but it was something, he supposed. And we're likely to take them along for supplies as well, now that they've arrived here. I'm not sure how much more I can take of this without dying from a migraine.

There's some humor in that though. A Hashira of the corps dying not from a demon attack, but from stress. Maybe it could be an ideal way to die that slayers in the future could strive for?

He shook his head. That was then, and this was now. Taking in a deep breath, he let his emotions flood out of his system like a wave. Think rationally. That's the past, but the reality is that I'm here- and it's up to me to decide how I'm going to act and deal with this situation.

No matter how... strange some people may be.

Readjusting to his surroundings, he took notice of the disintegrating body of the bear Grimm. Towards the center of the clearing, the two that had entered- the hammer girl and the boy that looked like him- had already chosen their pieces, with the ginger girl gleefully holding a piece shaped like a tower.

Well they certainly pick quickly at least.

"Alright, you two done?" Yang asked, the boy with a pink streak in his hair nodding in response. "Then you might wanna join us. Work together for now and all, since we all have to get through today anyway. We're grouping up and searching for the supplies that Ozpin mentioned before Initiation begin. You two in or not?"

"We're in!" the ginger girl immediately replied gleefully. Oh no, she sounds just like the way she acts... "As long as I get to smash some Grimm on the way, we can work together! Isn't that right, Ren?"

The boy with the pink streak- who he assumed was Ren- simply nodded. Giyuu blinked. So he's a quiet type. I wonder how he'll get along with a partner like the hammer girl. Shinobu always did tell me that opposites worked well together at times, and I suppose that could be true- after all, she did end up being the closest person I had inside the corps.

"Great!" Yang concluded with a grin. "Then we can get on with this and tootle out of here before things become even more cra-"

Before she could finish, a familiar looking girl with snow-white hair flew into the clearing, barely managing to land properly by using a glyph under her feet. Speak of the devil. Still, that's certainly an interesting looking ability. I suppose it's still hard to adjust to the oddities that the people here are capable of...

Following her, another familiar figure- although Giyuu only faintly remembered seeing her before the launchpads had flung them into the forest- flipped into the area, a pitch black clone of herself directly behind her. The girl wasted no time, immediately turning towards Yang and raising her sword.

"There's a deathstalker heading this way. We tried to delay it with an attack, but I think that only made it angrier!" she hurriedly explained, striding up to the clearing and grabbing two pieces of the same kind that Giyuu had picked up earlier- Yang had called it a bishop. She quickly tossed one to her partner, who promptly caught it, before turning back to the rest of the group already in the clearing. "It's fight or run. I'd say we could handle it right now with a group of eight, but whatever you decide you have to do it fast."

"Wait! How long do we have?" Ruby asked, her scythe- in its miniature form- already in her hands. Oh for the love of-

That was when the giant scorpion Grimm burst through from the treeline ahead. Oh, it's one of those. Giyuu already faintly remembered the shape- he had killed one, albeit a much much smaller one, on his first day here. But this one was at least twice the size of the one he had killed. With this one, he wasn't so sure if his water basin would get him through the beast's armor- or even damage it for that matter.

To the left of him, Yang pushed her fists together, a faint orange glow in her eyes. "I say we fight the thing. It's eight of us and one of the thing, how hard could it be?"

It was then that Giyuu remembered a particular memory from his own time as a Mizunoto. Whenever a team-up occurred, there was a silent but nonetheless important vow of silence. Thoughts were thoughts, but words were uttered. Heard by the world. And in a profession that was as dangerous as being a demon slayer, luck was a big part of whether or not a newly established Mizunoto would survive the next mission given to them. Hence a three word combination had been popularized among the corpsmen.

It was Ruby that uttered those same three words.

"Don't jinx it, Yang!"

Which was why frankly, Giyuu wasn't even surprised by the giant Nevermore that suddenly appeared from the horizon. This one also a much bigger one than the one that Ruby had decided to hitch a ride on. With an ear-piercing screech, the Grimm began its dive towards their location.

"Yang?" Pyrrha questioned, her voice calm for the most part but still containing an edge that it had lacked before. "I believe this changes things, does it not?"

In that moment, a series of thoughts seemingly coursed through Yang Xiao Long's face- a series of thoughts that ended on an obvious conclusion as she opened her mouth to speak. After all, Giyuu knew the girl had the combat instinct to see it- the eight of them were surrounded by giant monsters, all of their weapons were raised, and they were prepared to fight till the end.

Ruby's scythe was raised and poised to attack. Giyuu's hand was settled on his sword. Pyrrha's weapons were raised, a faint black glow surrounding the two pieces of crimson colored steel. The two girls that had entered the scene were already prepared, the white-haired fighter surrounded by glyphs and the girl with the bow tie assisted by a pitch black clone. The hyperactive girl had a hammer raised and the quiet boy had two green contraptions in his hands. Yang herself was glowing with energy, her usual lilac eyes replaced with a bright red hue.

Which was why the next decision was the only natural conclusion she could have possibly made.

"We're skedaddling the hell outta here!"

Notes

Sorry if this chapter feels uninspired or lacking. Not quite satisfied with this one, but school's started again and that means I have actual responsibilities now- including the dreaded threat of assessments and homework.

That being said, we're heading into the more interesting parts now! The character arcs I have planned for the Beacon bit of the story are starting to kick off for real this time, and I have some things I'm really excited for. Cardin's character and his dynamic with Jaune especially is something I'm going to have fun writing, because the approach I have in mind is something I don't think I've ever read or heard of before. It's not quite going to be the traditional redemption arc, I'll tell ya that.

Giyuu with Ruby is always fun to write, imo. While the former has a lot of stuff built up from his history as a demon slayer, I don't want to hype focus on that- hence I tried this chapter to bring out something a bit more comedic from his history with the "don't jinx it" thing. Because ocassional moments of humor can always be found, even in the most depressing scenarios. Meanwhile, Ruby is the exact opposite. She's on paper a much better person, but the recent seasons especially have shown that when confronted with trauma, she seems like she's almost cut from a similar cloth with Giyuu- as in, she powers through it and doesn't take the time to properly internalize it.

Weiss and Blake are an interesting combo. I think partly not many people use them as partners because it almost seems like the most obvious choice. The ex-terrorist and well... the target of the ex-terrorist's organization. It almost seems a bit too perfect for conflict. Still, I'll try to mix things up to make things interesting between the two.

Meanwhile, Yang takes the place of Jaune as Pyrrha's partner! The dynamic between these two is something I think is pretty fun to write, but anything extremely meaningful or deep isn't going to kick in until the later chapters, unfortunately. But when it does, I think it'll be pretty interesting, and I hope it pays off!

Ren and Nora are self explanatory.

Now with that extremely long tirade out of the way, thanks for reading this chapter again! As always, criticism is always welcome and if you see grammar, spelling or dialogue/OOC related issues I'm welcome to hearing it and I'll try to fix the issue ASAP.

That's it for now, thanks for reading once again and I'll see y'all when the next chapter is written!