I do not own RWBY or Tales of Berseria. They belong to their respective owners. Here's Chapter 6. Enjoy.
Chapter 6: The Demon vs the Dragon
Velvet and Yang take their stances and eye each other, waiting for Goodwitch to start the match.
"Velvet's definitely got some skills, but she has no idea what's coming to her," Yang notes, wearing a confident smile.
"She's seen me in action during my initiation, while I have no idea how she fights. This gives her the advantage. This also won't be like fighting demons or Grimm. I better keep my guard up," Velvet thinks as she narrows her eyes at Yang.
Goodwitch raises her arm at the edge of the arena, "Ready…and…Begin!" she says, lowering her arm.
Yang makes the first move as she fires her shotgun gauntlets at Velvet, sending several shots her way. Velvet rolls out of the way of some, and flips over the rest as they hit the ground and explode. Yang then aims her weapons behind her and fires, using the recoil to propel her towards Velvet faster than normal. When she gets close, Yang throws a right jab, then a left hook, and then a right side kick, all of which Velvet dodges before countering with an upward diagonal slash with her blade. Yang blocks with her gauntlets and then throws several hooks. Velvet blocks each one before she maneuvers the last left hook around her to knee Yang in the stomach. Velvet then makes a three slashes at Yang, who blocks them, and then does a spin kick that knocks Yang back a few feet. Yang slides across the floor, stops, and then fires a shot at Velvet, who rolls under it as she runs at Yang.
When she gets close, Velvet activates her foot blades and thrusts her right leg upward at Yang, who reels back to avoid the attack. Velvet twist around to deal a horizontal slash with her arm blade that gets blocked, but then she drops onto one hand and spins her foot blades at Yang's legs, that hit their mark. Yang staggers from the hit, giving Velvet a chance to punch her in the gut with her left hand. After the hit, Yang grits her teeth and goes on the offensive again. She starts with a right cross, then a left uppercut, followed by front kick. Velvet evades them and thrusts her arm blade forward at Yang's chest. Yang hoped for this and grabs Velvet's arm, giving her the chance to uppercut her in the stomach before throwing a left hook at her face. Velvet stops it with her left hand, but Yang head-butts her in the face to get some distance between the two.
"Not bad. But this fight's just getting started," Yang says.
Velvet makes no comment and runs at her, jumping into the air as she does a freestyle kick at Yang's head. The attack misses, but Velvet follows it up with a slash from her arm blade and then with a left side kick, with the third attack hitting Yang. Yang hits the ground and rolls to get back on her feet. However, the second she turns around, Velvet already hits her with drop kick to her face that knocks her back to the ground. Velvet prepares to go at her again, but stops when she notices Yang's hair starting to burn with fire. Yang stands up, and still smiling, smashes her fists together as fire explodes around her. She rushes at Velvet again, with Velvet throwing a spin kick at her. Yang ducks under it and lands a few cross punches on Velvet, before ending it with a hard uppercut to her face. The strike sends Velvet flying up, but she manages to reposition herself in mid-air to land back on her feet. Yang rushes her and as she throws a right punch, Velvet side steps her and slashes at her head as she passes. Yang stops and turns around to face her.
However, her eyes quickly fall on the few locks of blonde hair that fall onto the ground. Velvet notices them as well and shrugs it off, but then she feels the heat in the room suddenly rise and looks at Yang.
"Uh oh," Ruby says, knowing what comes next.
"Why you…YOU JERK!" Yang yells as she goes into a rage.
Yang shoots over to Velvet and starts throwing punch after punch as Velvet tries to avoid them, but has trouble as a Yang lands a few clean hits on her. After the third punch nails her, Yang throws a powerful right jab that sends Velvet flying across the arena, landing at its edge. The screen above the arena shows Velvet's aura level just barely above the red zone, while Yang still has about half of her aura up. Velvet gets onto one knee with her head down.
"She's a lot stronger than I thought. This must be her semblance. To think that I would have this much trouble against the fighters in this world…And yet I'm supposed to protect Ruby. How can I do that if I can't beat her own sister…I guess I have no choice…Sorry about this Yang," Velvet thinks.
Yang cocks her right gauntlet and fires off a shot at Velvet. However, Velvet activates her demon arm and smacks the shot away like a fly. Yang gets angry and charges Velvet, but just as she gets close, Velvet thrusts her demon arm forward and grabs Yang's skull. She then attacks with her fire arte at point blank range, hitting Yang in the face and sending here rolling across the arena while she chases her. As Yang gets up, growling, Velvet is already on her and grabs her skull again. Velvet starts absorbing her strength, with Yang trying to free herself, but her efforts diminish as she gets weaker. Eventually, Yang falls onto her knees and her arms lose their strength. Velvet keeps going until she hears a buzzer and stops her ability. She looks up to see her aura still just barely above the red zone, while Yang's is in the red zone. She lets go of Yang and deactivates her demon arm, and then looks up to the stands.
Everyone is shocked to see how she won by absorbing Yang's strength. She notices the looks they were giving her; shock, confusion…and fear. She looks at Yang, who weakly gives her the same look of fear. Velvet then looks back at the rest of her team to find the same expressions on their faces. When Velvet sees Ruby's face, she quickly looks away and can't help but feel a sense of dread at the thought that Ruby might be afraid of her.
"No matter where I go, I'm still a monster…and everyone will see me as one," she notes.
From the sidelines, Goodwitch shakes her head to clear her mind and walks forward.
"That's the match. The winner is Velvet Crowe. Uh, well done Miss Crowe. The two of you return to the locker room to get changed while I set up the next match," she says.
Seeing as Yang may not feel up to going with her, Velvet goes first. When she enters the locker room, her mind goes back to the image of seeing Ruby looking scared at her.
"Why?...Why does that bother me so much? Many people have seen my powers and were scared of me then, but that didn't affect me at all. Damn it. DAMN IT!" Velvet mentally screams as she punches a locker, denting the door.
Deciding that she needed some space, Velvet returns to the stands, but sits away from everyone else, including her team. The rest of the class goes off without much else and soon ends. Everyone gets ready to leave, but Velvet stays behind as the others go first. After they all leave, Velvet gets ready to leave until Professor Goodwitch approaches her.
"Miss Crowe. What happened in your match earlier? I have never heard of someone possessing a semblance that allows them to absorb someone's strength and aura. Even Miss Xiao Long's semblance doesn't give her that ability. Explain yourself," she demands.
Velvet thinks for a moment on an excuse for her demon powers, and quickly comes up with one.
"It's part of my semblance. Those fire attacks I produce. Well, I need energy to create them, so I have the ability to absorb the aura of others to build up the energy for them," Velvet lies.
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?! If you absorb too much of a person's aura, it could kill them," Goodwitch berates her. Velvet chuckles at this. "What is so funny about this?" Glynda asks, getting a little irritated.
"You complain about people possible being killed from my ability. Where I come from, sometimes you had to kill in order to survive. My semblance was born from that desire to survive. And besides, aren't huntsmen trained to fight and kill Grimm?" Velvet counters.
"Yes, but Grimm are monsters that have no soul. They are humanity's enemy," Glynda explains.
"And yet, they are not the only enemy to humanity. I now there are times when people turn on each other and cause conflict. I've seen it, and sometimes the situation gets so bad, that people end up killing each other. I'm sure huntsmen have been called to missions where they had to kill people. Am I right?" Velvet questions her. Glynda tries to retort, but looks away as she knows that Velvet is right. "Are we done here then?" she asks.
Glynda reluctantly nods her head. "Yes. We are done…For now," she replies.
Velvet gets up and leaves while Glynda watches her. The rest of the day goes off without a hitch, although Velvet keeps her distance from her teammates. Soon, dinner arrives and Teams RVWBY and JNPR sit together as usual. However, when Velvet walks towards them, they still give her the looks they had from before, and decides to eat somewhere else by herself. While she is gone, the two teams have a discussion.
"Okay, is anyone else just a little freaked out by what Velvet did earlier?" Jaune asks.
"Creeped out doesn't even begin to describe it. She absorbed Yang's aura. How is that even possible?" Weiss asks.
"Yang, what happened during that fight? I mean what did it feel like to you?" Blake asks.
Yang looks down at her plate, "Honestly, I have no idea. When she grabbed my head and started absorbing my strength, it felt weird. It was like my soul was being slowly ripped out from my body. Honestly, it was scary," Yang notes while hugging herself.
"I admit, I thought her semblance was cool before, but now I'm not so sure," Nora says, losing some of her usual happy demeanor.
"I'm sure Velvet has an explanation for this. It is said that a person's semblance is based on their character. Perhaps if we got to know her better and understood her character more, then this would become clearer," Pyrrha says, trying to give the benefit of the doubt to Velvet.
"That depends on whether or not she wants to talk to us. She has been avoiding us since the match," Ren notes.
Throughout the exchange, Ruby remains the only one who doesn't speak about Velvet and glances towards her. She sees Velvet finishing her dinner and gets up to leave without looking back at them. This makes Ruby feel sad for a moment.
"Velvet…" she thinks.
…
Later that evening, the four members of Team RVWBY have already returned to their dorm room and gotten changed into their sleeping attire, but Velvet has yet to return.
"Do you think she's gonna come back?" Yang asks while brushing her hair.
"With how we reacted to her in class, I don't think so," Blake says while reading a book on her bed.
"She can't stay away forever. Like it or not, she's gonna have to come back. And when she does. I want some answers from her," Weiss says, hands on her hips.
Ruby sits on her bunk, remaining silent while she thinks.
"She's staying away because of how we reacted. I admit, she was scary, but…she's our teammate, and our friend…I have to go find her," Ruby decides and jumps off her bed. "I'll go find her," she declares as she gets ready to leave.
"Hold on Ruby, I'm not sure that's a good idea. Maybe we should give her some space for now," Yang tries to dissuade her.
"She's not trying to stay away. We PUSHED her away. Yes, I admit I was scared, but that doesn't give any of us the right to just boot her out like that. So, I'm going to find her and apologize, and you can't stop me. You guys wait here if she comes back, and call me on my scroll if she does. I'll be back," she says and leaves the room.
Ruby scours the school, looking for Velvet, but for a time has no luck. However, that doesn't stop her as she keeps on searching for her. Ruby searches for some time, checking around the dorm halls, but finds no sign of her. Eventually, her quest takes her to the top of the dorm building to a balcony area. Here, her efforts finally come to fruition when she sees Velvet standing alone, gazing at the stars.
"So, finally found the monster, have you? You sure that's a good idea?" Velvet asks without looking at her.
Ruby steps forward, "Velvet…I-," she begins.
"You're not the first. Back home, I got along with everyone…That is…until this happened," she says, raising her left arm. "After I got my abilities, everyone became afraid of me, hated me even. I was ostracized because of what I am…And now the same thing has happened here. Most may think semblances are gifts, but mine has been nothing but a curse," Velvet interrupts her while looking at her left arm with a sorrowful look.
Ruby steps closer to Velvet, "Look Velvet, I'm sorry about how I reacted earlier. I don't know what happened to you back home. But things are different now. You're here at Beacon, and you're a part of Team RVWBY. We are not afraid of you-," Ruby tries to say, but Velvet stops her.
"I recognized the looks everyone in class was giving me. It was fear. Yang showed it, the others showed it…You showed it. No matter where I go, I will always be seen as a monster, and people will always be afraid of me," Velvet replies and turns around to face Ruby with a neutral expression. "Although, I've gotten used to it now. If people are afraid of me, that's fine. I don't care…Even if you're scared of me," Velvet says.
At this point, Ruby has had enough and runs at Velvet, wrapping her arms around her in a tight embrace, shocking Velvet.
"But it's not fine. I'm not afraid of you. You're my teammate, and more importantly you're my friend. I know you've had it rough, but that doesn't mean you're no different from the rest of us. I don't know exactly what you went through in the past, but that doesn't mean you'll go through that here. I admit, seeing what you did unnerved me a bit, but that doesn't change the fact that you're my friend. And I will always be there for my friends," Ruby says while holding Velvet tightly.
Velvet remains shocked at Ruby's actions, but also can't help but blush a little bit at how close Ruby is to her. Eventually, Velvet slowly returns the embrace, albeit has some trouble returning the kind gesture as she's not used to it.
"…Thank you, Ruby. I guess I needed that. But, could you, uh, let me go now?" she says.
Ruby opens her eyes and realizes their position, specifically her head pressed against Velvet's chest due to their height difference. She blushes at realizing this, and quickly separates from Velvet.
"Uh, um, we should probably get back to the dorm room. The others must be worried about us," Ruby says, fidgeting with her fingers.
Velvet nods and they head back to their dorm room. When they enter the room, all eyes lock on them. Yang hops off her bunk and approaches the two along with Weiss and Blake.
"Look Velvet, I-," she begins.
"Yang, I told you we can't push her away. She's our friend and teammate, and nothing is going to change that," Ruby declares as she gets in between them.
"I know. Just let me talk to her," Yang says and looks back at Velvet. "Look Velvet, I want to say I'm sorry about how I acted before. I guess I was just shocked about your semblance and I didn't know what to think, so I just…blanked out. The fact remains that you beat me fair and square. Weiss and Blake feel the same," Yang apologizes, scratching her head.
"She's right. You're our teammate, and teammates are supposed to stick together. So, I apologize about before," Weiss says.
"I'm sorry too," Blake adds.
Velvet looks at all of them and sighs, "It's alright. Let's just move on and not worry about it, okay?" she suggests.
The three smile, "Okay," Yang says.
Ruby smiles as well, "Good, now how about we all get some sleep?" she suggests, to which they all nod at.
They all head to their beds, but as Ruby hops onto hers, she notices Velvet pull out a well-designed, brownish-gold comb and starts combing her hair with it.
"I didn't know you had a comb, Velvet," she says, getting everyone's attention.
Velvet stops here combing, "Yeah…It was my younger brother's," she says solemnly and continues combing her hair.
"I didn't know you have a younger brother," Yang says, missing the signs in Velvet's words.
"Had', a brother…He's dead," she replies and finishes her combing before she puts the comb away and gets into bed. "Goodnight," she says and goes to sleep.
The rest look at each other, concerned about what she said, but decide to give her some space for the time being, and go to sleep themselves. However, Ruby looks at Velvet one more and the image of them embracing each other from before, and can't help but let a little blush coat her cheeks at the memory as she falls asleep.
"I promise Velvet. You may have had a rough life in the past, but I'll make your time here at Beacon the best of your life. And I won't ever let you go it alone. I promise."
So now we have the first signs of the VelvetxRuby pairing. What awaits Velvet in the future with Team RVWBY. Please Read and Review.