XVI.
The First Semester
Yang spun her fork around her bowl of noodles. It wasn't her favorite kind of food, but she had just grabbed something from the cafeteria randomly. It was already past noon so most of the selection was gone anyway since the cafeteria wasn't going to restock until dinner time. Most of the other students had already finished their lunch and left by now.
"Yang."
Yang looked up from her food and saw her partner staring straight at her with those amber-colored eyes of hers.
"Yeah?"
"What's wrong?"
Yang blinked at that for a moment, caught off guard by the sudden question before she forced a smile onto her face.
"What? Nothing's wrong. What gave you that idea?"
"Yang, you've been brooding since yesterday." Blake dryly replied. "I think it's safe to say that something's bothering you."
Brooding?
Had she been doing that?
Yang looked down at her lunch and saw that she had spun her fork around it so much that it was starting to look more like toothpaste than solid food.
Okay, maybe Blake had a point.
"Alright. Fine, something's bothering me." She eventually relented. "It's not a big deal though."
"Uh-huh." Blake had a skeptical look in her eyes. "Definitely not a big deal."
The sarcasm wasn't lost to her.
"Look, it's not something that you can help with."
"Even if I can't help directly, talking about it with someone can help." Blake countered. "You told me we were partners, remember? I'm supposed to rely on you, but not vice versa?"
Damn it.
She had said something like that before hadn't she?
"Hey, you can't use my own words against me like that!"
Blake just gave her a smug grin. "Are you going to tell me that it was all a lie?"
"Ugh… Fine, you win." Yang replied with a sigh. "I don't even know how to describe it though."
"... Is it about your friend, Kirei?"
"How did you know that?!"
Blake just rolled her eyes. "I have eyes, Yang."
"... Was it that obvious?"
"Honest opinion? Yes." Blake dryly answered. "You've been brooding ever since you came back from sparring with him."
Yang started to spin her fork around her noodles again.
How did she even begin to describe what was bothering her? It wasn't like it was some new problem, it's been something that had been bothering her for years now. She didn't think Blake could help, but she didn't want to be a hypocrite either since she had made Blake spill her whole secret involving the bow on her head after all.
"... You ever feel like you thought you knew someone, but you actually didn't know anything about them at all?"
Blake seemed to freeze up at that for a brief moment before she recovered and tried to play it off.
"... Sort of." Blake eventually replied. "Is that how you feel about your friend?"
"We pretty much grew up together, but it's like…" Yang trailed off, unsure of how to formulate her next words. "... sometimes I feel like I just don't understand him at all."
"People are complicated. I don't see the problem here."
"It's just…" Yang hesitated for a brief moment, unsure of how to formulate her next words. "He's always been there for me, but he never talks about his own problems." She looked back down at her mess of noodles and sighed. "... I want to help him, but he just keeps everything bottled up inside."
Kirei had always been the reliable one that she could go to any time she needed something. Even when dad wasn't all there because of what happened to mom, Kirei had still been there. He had always been the person she could rely on, so what was she supposed to do when there was something clearly wrong with him and she couldn't do anything about it? He had always helped her with any problems that she had, but she couldn't do the same for him, and that ate at her like no tomorrow.
"... So you feel guilty about it?" Blake asked. "I doubt that he wants you to feel obligated to return the favor."
"It's not about that. I mean yeah, I feel a little guilty, but it's more like he's important to me." Yang answered with a frown. "I just don't want to see someone important to me suffer on their own."
"Suffer…?" Blake repeated as her brows furrowed. "What's wrong with him?"
Yang just gave a bitter smile in response.
"I wish I knew the answer to that."
Time passed by and the day of the stakeout soon arrived.
For Kirei, it wasn't his first time participating in a stakeout, he had done them before in his brief time with the Church's Executors. He was used to the long hours of waiting and observing. For the rest of his team, it was a little bit different.
They were all sitting along a roof that had a good vantage point of the Vale docks. He and Pyrrha were sitting along the edge of the roof watching the shipments of Dust being loaded into the docks. Weiss was looking through her scroll while Ruby was lying down on her back looking up at the night sky.
"When's Torchwick finally going to show up?" Ruby groaned. "We've been waiting for hours now."
"Have some patience, Ruby," Weiss answered without looking up from her scroll. "Thieves like him like to operate in the dead of night."
"We should have waited until it was later before we left Beacon then..." Ruby gloomily replied. "I don't know how much longer I can stand sitting around here doing nothing."
"You were the one that rushed everyone here, to begin with!" Weiss sniped back with an annoyed look on her face. "I already told you that there wasn't going to be anything exciting about a stakeout."
"... Sorry." Ruby apologized. "I thought it would be like the movies."
"It's alright, Ruby. The movies don't exactly show the boring parts after all." Pyrrha helpfully said with a comforting smile. "It doesn't seem like anything is going to happen anytime soon, so how about we grab some snacks from the convenience store?"
Ruby excitedly shot up to her feet at the suggestion.
"Yeah, that sounds great! What if Torchwick shows up while we're gone though?"
Pyrrha glanced over towards him and he just gave a slight nod in response.
"I'll stay here and keep a lookout." He simply stated. "I'll send you a text if something happens."
"Thanks Kirei, you're the best!" Ruby happily replied. "How about you Weiss?"
The white-haired girl didn't bother looking up from her scroll.
"I'll stay behind with Kirei."
"Alright then, Ruby and I will be right back," Pyrrha said before standing up as well. "Did you two want anything from the store?"
"An energy drink would be nice," Weiss answered after a beat. "And a sandwich as well."
Pyrrha looked over towards him when he didn't immediately respond.
"You don't want anything, Kirei?"
He just shrugged. "If you see something spicy."
"Anything specific or...?"
"It's alright Pyrrha, I know what food Kirei likes." Ruby chimed in. "We'll be back in a bit guys!"
Ruby gave them a wave before she jumped off the roof before Pyrrha followed closely behind leaving him and Weiss alone on the rooftop.
He kept his eyes on the docks while Weiss sat next to him scrolling through her phone with her back faced towards the railings. The sun had already set and the sky was dark, but the street lights provided enough illumination to get a good view of the docks. If Torchwick was ever going to show up, it was going to be under the cover of the night sky.
"You were right, Kirei."
He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in response to the sudden statement from his partner.
"I'm afraid I don't follow."
Weiss closed her scroll before she put it away and fully turned her attention towards him.
"About me and Ruby." She eventually began. "You said we were similar before, remember?"
"Oh? So the heiress was able to find some common ground among us rabble then?"
Weiss just scowled and he couldn't help but feel his own lips twitch upwards in response. His partner really did have the most sublime reactions to his quips. It was always amusing to see the girl's icy facade crack even just a little bit.
"Why do you always have to be so insufferable? Do you really think that I'm like one of those snobby nobles from Atlas?"
As amusing as it might have been to continue to aggravate her, it was probably better if he didn't. He could already begin to hear Pyrrha lecturing him again in his mind's eye. He had promised that he would be more considerate of his partner and he didn't want to be a liar.
Kirei never did like lying after all.
"Do you really want me to answer that?"
Weiss just rolled her eyes in response. "On second thought, no, I don't."
It looked like she was about to say something else, but the sounds of an aircraft engine cut her off. Looking up at the sky, he could see a pair of bullheads with no insignia begin to land in the middle of the docks. Kirei had a feeling that their target had finally arrived. He could see Roman Torchwick step out of the bullhead along with a group of people wearing white masks.
"Is that… the White Fang…?" Weiss asked as her eyes grew wide. "So they were working with Torchwick!"
"So it would seem." He replied in agreement. "... Ruby and Pyrrha still aren't back."
"Let me send them a text," Weiss said as she tapped away at her scroll. "Keep an eye on Torchwick for me."
Kirei had a witty reply lined up, but decided against it.
There was a time and place for messing with his partner, and this wasn't one of them. Down at the docks, he could see Torchwick directing traffic as the White Fang began to load Dust into containers to put into their airships. They were moving quickly in spite of how much Dust they were transporting.
It wouldn't be long before they finished.
"Ruby and Pyrrha won't make it back in time." He pointed out. "Torchwick and his crew will be done soon."
"We can't just let him get away." Weiss declared with a frown. "We'll simply have to make do without them for now. Any ideas on how to proceed?"
Torchwick had numbers on his side, but he and Weiss had the element of surprise. He didn't know how skilled the White Fang members that Torchwick had with him were, but he doubted that they were on the level of huntsmen. From what he had heard about the White Fang most of their members were regular Joes that had simply volunteered. It shouldn't be too difficult to take Torchwick and his lackeys down with Weiss providing assistance.
Kirei glanced over towards Weiss and smirked.
"Just one."
Weiss thought that Kirei's idea was simple, but it made sense given their circumstances. It was her job to be the distraction while he snuck up on Torchwick from behind and apprehended him. She didn't like acting as the decoy, but Kirei was better at sneaking around than she was. The bright colors and heels that she wore didn't help in that regard.
At the very least, she'd be able to make a good entrance and give all those thieves a piece of her mind.
"Stop right there you scoundrels!" She shouted out from atop a shipping container. "You're stealing SDC property."
All the current faces at the docks turned towards her.
"Uh, yeah. That's kind of the point, princess." Torchwick dryly replied. "What's the heiress herself doing out here at night anyway?"
"I'm here to put a stop to you scoundrels stealing from my company."
Weiss was laying it on thick, but she thought that she was doing a pretty good job of getting everyone's attention. She could see Kirei making his way around the back of some shipping containers, moving from one to another as he got closer and closer to Torchwick.
"... Kids these days, they just get crazier and crazier," Torchwick grumbled more to himself than anything. He looked over towards his henchmen. "Well? Don't you animals have a grudge against the Schnees? Shoot her!"
The bullets came flying towards her, but she nimbly avoided them by leaping off the shipping container. Any stray rounds that flew towards her direction were promptly repelled by a Glyph. A couple of the White Fang members pushed up with melee weapons, but Weiss could tell they weren't very skilled from their movements.
They were amateurs that looked even less skilled than that fool Jaune Arc was.
Kirei watched quietly from the shadows as Weiss drew everyone's attention.
Torchwick was watching from the back while a bunch of the White Fang members that were with him pushed up to Weiss. It was as good of a chance as he would get to take down Torchwick quickly now that most of the White Fang were preoccupied with Weiss. Without so much as a sound, Kirei pulled a Black Key out of his sleeves.
With a quick burst of speed, he grabbed Torchwick from behind and held his Black Key menacingly next to the thief's neck.
"Drop your weapon, now," Kirei ordered. "And put your hands up."
To his credit, the thief obeyed immediately and let his cane fall harmlessly to the ground before he slowly raised his hands into the air.
"... Wait, I recognize that voice." Roman eventually replied. "Oh god, it's you again? Don't tell me Red's here too."
"She's not," Kirei curtly answered. "Now call off your lackeys."
Weiss didn't look like she was having much trouble taking down those White Fang members, but it was still better to be safe.
"I would love to, but there's one problem with that."
Kirei's eyes narrowed as he brought the Black Key closer to the thief's neck. "... And what problem is that?"
"... Those animals aren't too good at following orders," Torchwick replied with a toothy grin. "My partner Neo on the other hand though..."
Suddenly, Kirei heard a pair of footsteps shuffling behind him. If he didn't need to take Torchwick alive, he would've slit the man's throat right then and there. But he did need him alive, so he let go of his hold on the thief and kicked him away just in time to turn around and block an attack from the person behind him.
A pair of mismatched colored irises stared back at him with a murderous look.
His assailant was short, even smaller than Ruby. He wasn't sure where she had been hiding the entire time, but he hadn't seen this 'Neo' person at all until now. The girl then suddenly pulled away and backed up for a brief moment before she charged back in. He parried her attack and let another Black Key slip out from underneath his sleeve into his hands as he slashed back at her.
Neo slipped underneath his slash and continued to weave in and out of his attack range. Whoever this person was, she was a lot better of a fighter than any of the opponents he had faced so far since attending Beacon. She was nimble, almost annoyingly so, but her attacks didn't pack too much of a punch. It was unfortunate for her that close-quarters combat was his specialty and this wasn't a practice arena or classroom.
This was a real battle and he wasn't bound by rules anymore.
Pyrrha was a better tournament fighter than he was, that much was obvious. When it came to real battles though, that was a different story. You never wanted to seriously injure someone in a practice match, but in a real battle people fought to kill and Kirei had once been a professional murderer for the Church.
It was safe to say that he was a bit of an expert when it came to real battles.
The diminutive girl in front of him relied on avoiding his attacks, but she could only dodge for so long until he got a good read on her movements. He put the pressure on and attacked relentlessly, clipping her a few times here and there with his Black Keys, as her Aura fizzled. A gunshot suddenly went off behind him though, so he had to stop his attack and jump out of the way, the Dust round nearly hitting him as it flew by.
It seemed that Torchwick had managed to pick up his cane again sometime during his battle with 'Neo'.
"You know, I've been wanting to pay you and Red back for that day at the Dust shop. Neo wasn't too happy about having to bust me out of prison either." Torchwick said as his face twisted into a savage smirk. "I guess we'll just have to settle with you this time."
Torchwick's confidence wasn't misplaced, they had him at a disadvantage with it being a two on one after all.
Weiss was still busy dealing with the White Fang members, so he couldn't rely on her for assistance. A two-on-one was never a good fight to take, but he didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. He might have been at a disadvantage, but there were still ways around a numbers advantage. The girl was a bigger threat than Torchwick was, so he would need to isolate her and deal with her first.
Kirei knew that they wanted to take Torchwick alive, but everyone else didn't have that restriction, so he wouldn't need to hold back.
He let a few more Black Keys slip out from his sleeves until he had three in each hand. He held the Black Keys in his hands like a fan and threw them at the duo. As soon as the weapons left his hands he charged forward pulling out another Black Key in his right hand at the same time.
His weapons did their job in separating the duo, leaving him with a very brief moment to try and neutralize the more dangerous threat first.
Neo noticed him blitzing her and tried to get the first strike in by slashing at him with her sword. He countered by throwing the remaining Black Key in his hand at her. It seemed to catch her off guard as she moved to parry the weapon. The Black Keys were always meant to be for ranged attacks anyway.
Kirei preferred to rely on his Bajiquan for close-quarters encounters, and with Aura strengthening his attacks, he was downright deadly. Neo didn't seem to be a bruiser like Yang was, so any direct hit he could land on her was going to do some serious damage. Their brief encounter earlier gave him enough information to predict how she was going to try and dodge to the left as he closed in.
His fist connected and he could see her Aura fizzle and pop as he sent her flying.
Torchwick yelled something at him, but he was too focused on his objective to bother deciphering what the man said. Another gunshot went off and he was well aware of the Dust round speeding towards his direction, but he didn't care. In a two-on-one, he needed to neutralize the most dangerous opponent immediately.
Kirei chased after Neo and materialized a Black Key in his hand.
The Dust round hit him squarely in the back and he had to grit his teeth to ignore the pain. His Aura fizzled a bit but held strong as the bullet dug into his back. Aura might have protected the user, but it didn't do anything for the pain and taking a bullet to the back hurt.
Another half a second later and he had caught up to Neo. There was a dazed look in her eyes as she tried to regather herself. He wouldn't give her the chance. The Black Key pierced her heart in an instant. Her eyes went wide and time almost seemed to stop for a moment.
It wasn't the first time Kirei had killed someone.
It was always interesting to see the life begin to leave a person's eyes when the moment of death came. Some looked at him with anger, others with fear, and some even with dull resignation. Neo's eyes held something that looked akin to desperation as her hands tried to move towards the blade sticking out of her chest.
Kirei could feel his body shudder a bit with goosebumps at the sight.
He never needed to wonder what people thought about him as he killed them. It always showed in their eyes. The desperation to survive and the despair that showed in Neo's eyes as her brain began to fully process what had just happened excited him.
Kirei could feel his heart begin to flutter at the thought.
He pulled the blade out and it slid out with a wet schlick. Blood spilled out and the body in front of him twitched and coughed a bit before it went limp. All of that had happened in a matter of seconds, but for him, it almost seemed like an eternity.
"Neo!"
The girl had ceased to be, but the show wasn't over.
There was a burning rage in Roman Torchwick's eyes as he charged at him. It was a sloppy attack, one that was born of righteous anger rather than sound strategy. He recognized that look, it was one that belonged to a man that had just lost their most important thing in the world.
"I'll kill you!"
Kirei couldn't help but feel his heart start to dance at the sorry sight of the man possessed.
He easily disarmed the thief and knocked him to the ground before stepping on his chest, pinning him there. The Black Key that was still slick with the girl's blood dangled menacingly in front of the thief. The eyes were said to be a window into the soul and all he could see was a fit of burning anger in Torchwick's eyes. Behind that anger though, Kirei knew what came next, it was that ever so delectable despair.
The pain from losing the most important person in your life.
The suffering that came from being unable to do anything about it.
It was wrong to find joy in this, Kirei knew that. He hated it even, with every fiber of his being. He couldn't stop his heart from dancing at the thought though, couldn't stop his face from twisting into that blasted smirk just like that specter in his mind. Those small little juvenile acts of defiance couldn't compare to the joy he felt from this.
It wasn't as if he had been raised wrong. His father had been a good man, a man of faith, and a man that had raised him the right way. Summer had been the same, she had been a good woman, and someone that had helped raise him the right way. He understood right from wrong, he had a working moral compass. He knew what was considered to be good and evil, but he couldn't find any joy from performing acts of goodness.
Kirei Kotomine was someone that had been surrounded by good all his life but had still somehow turned out wrong in the end.
"... Kirei?"
That was a voice that he knew all too well. Ruby stared at him with wide eyes as she stood there, watching.
Judging.
It was all so wrong that he couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.
Ruby couldn't believe her luck.
They had waited hours for Torchwick and he finally decided to show up as soon as she and Pyrrha left to go get a snack. How unlucky was that? She had almost yelled in frustration in the middle of the convenience store when she got the text from Weiss.
This wasn't how she had planned the day to go. Not one bit.
Ruby was a lot faster than Pyrrha because of her Semblance, so she went on ahead first. She wasn't going to miss out on catching Torchwick, not after all that planning and waiting. She wanted to be a hero after all and what kind of hero wasn't there when the villain finally decided to show up?
Luckily, they hadn't gone too far before Weiss had sent them the text.
It didn't take Ruby long for her to make it back to the docks. She could already hear the sound of fighting as a gunshot tore through the air. As she got closer, she could see Weiss fighting against a bunch of people that had their faces covered with white masks. She recognized them as members of the White Fang.
So the White Fang was actually working with Torchwick?
Ruby didn't have time to ponder as she broke off into a running sprint and pulled out Crescent Rose. She leaped into battle and took out one of the White Fang members with a quick swing of her scythe. She made sure to not hit him with the sharp part, of course, she wasn't trying to kill anyone here after all, even if they were bad guys.
The sharp end of Crescent Rose was reserved exclusively for the Grimm.
"Ruby, where's Pyrrha?" Weiss asked as she took down one of the White Fang members.
"She'll be here soon!" Ruby quickly replied as she knocked down another Fang member. "I got here first because of my Semblance."
With the two of them working together, it didn't take long for them to take down the White Fang members. If she were being honest, they didn't really seem like they how to fight very well. They were hardly better than the men in suits that she had fought against the first time she encountered Torchwick at the Dust store.
Another gunshot ripped through the air and her eyes quickly zeroed into the direction of the shot.
Ruby saw the bullet from Torchwick's cane hit Kirei in the back and her heart stopped for a moment. When she saw his Aura hold strong though, she quickly shook it off and began to run over to help. When she saw Kirei stab someone in the chest with one of his Black Keys, her feet suddenly felt like they were rooted in place.
It took a moment for her to realize what she had just seen.
Kirei pulled his blade out and the girl that had just gotten stabbed slumped over.
"Neo!"
Torchwick's voice had sounded so desperate that Ruby actually felt bad for him.
"I'll kill you!"
Torchwick charged at Kirei, but he was able to take the thief down easily and pinned him to the ground. The Black Key that he had used to kill the other person with was still slick with blood as he held it over Torchwick. There was a sick, almost twisted smile on Kirei's face, one that she had never seen before, and that scared her.
…
Why did that smile look so familiar to her though?
And then she remembered.
Memories from a day that she had sealed away into the depths of her mind, from a day that she had tried her best to forget resurfaced all at once. It was the day of mom's funeral. She could remember all the tears, all the grief, and all the sadness of that day. An empty casket. A broken dad.
And a smiling boy by the lake.
That was the day that she had discovered that there was something wrong with Kirei. She thought that he had gotten better since then though. She hadn't seen Kirei with that twisted smile on his face since that day at the lake. He had helped take care of her and Yang, helped out around the house with whatever that needed fixing. They had all grown up together, like a family even.
He had always seemed… normal since then.
Mom had always told her that things would get better if she believed in it enough. She had thought that Kirei had gotten better since then. That very same smile on his face from the day at the lake told her otherwise.
"... Kirei?" She found herself calling out his name.
The boy went still. Ever so slowly, he began to turn his attention towards her.
They stared at each other for a brief moment, with no one saying a thing. And then, just like that day of mom's funeral, he started to laugh. There wasn't anything funny about it though. It was a choked laugh, one that almost seemed to border along the edges of insanity.
And Ruby couldn't help feel her heart sink at the familiar sight.
In the end, nothing had changed at all.
Author's Notes- Yikes. Well, that's not very good for everyone involved, now is it? Haha.
I think this is a good place to close out this arc and put an end to The First Semester. Probably one of the longest if not the longest chapter I've done so far for this story. Was debating whether or not I wanted to split it up, but I decided to just do it all in one. Meh, hopefully, it turned out well.
Anyway, as usual, please leave me a review if you liked the chapter! Reviews help a writer keep his muse going!