A/N: Holy crap guys. The latest episodes were just... holy f*cking sh*t. I actually thought Weiss was gonna get off worse than she did. Thank god Jaune got his canon semblance when he did, even if it was a bit predictable at that point. Now, am I going to be altering his semblance to fit in with the canon of the show? No, but I will give an explanation as to why he can heal people. Actually, it might not even be his semblance at all; maybe it's a form of Aura manipulation. Oh well, I guess we'll find out later.

Review Responses:

fernandamichelleraya: I'm glad you liked them! I plan on using the different perspectives more, especially in the future, so hold on tight! Also, sorry I didn't message you like I normally do, didn't have a whole lot of spare time (spent most of it with family).

awesomerebel55: It'll probably either be really damn funny or unspeakably tense.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.

I do not own the cover image

Chapter 22: Building Antics

"Alright! Now that you've all finished the basic workouts that I laid out for you..." Torino scanned the room, finding that everyone was wearing an expression of fear, excitement, or cautiousness, at times a combination of the three, as he continued, "… and I have devised one more exercise that will help all of us, in some way. For those of you who are less physically inclined than your peers, you'll be happy to know that this will be the last of the endurance exercises I have planned."

Weiss, Ruby, and Velvet in particular beamed at the news, while Fox casually smirked at the fact that he wouldn't have to work very hard for much longer. Of course, Shoto, Yang, and Tenya looked a bit disappointed, as did Yatsuhashi, as if they were expecting a bit more from the monochrome wearing man currently standing above them on a tree stump.

"You'll also be horrified to know that it'll also be the hardest thing you're going to do here," Torino said with an evil smirk on his face, causing everyone who'd either been ecstatic or disappointed to switch moods. Izuku, through it all, was somewhere in between all three listed emotions, along with Coco and a currently stoic Bakugo. Despite this, Torino continued, "Now, I know what you're all thinking, what could possibly be more difficult than anything I've already had you do? Well, I thought the same thing myself all day yesterday. And then it hit me...

"What about repairing the building?" This caused everyone to begin sweating in fear, even the ones who were once happy for the challenge were now rethinking their life choices up until that point. "I mean, why didn't I think of that earlier? It'll give you a lesson in cooperation, strength training, and give you a much-needed lesson in architecture!"

Weiss then raised her hand. "What is it, shorty?"

One of the veins in Weiss' forehead visibly bulged to emphasize her annoyance, but she kept her stoic face on and answered, "Where are we going to get the supplies for this? I don't know your financial situation, but I don't think it's enough to cover refurbishing the entire building. And even then, how are we going to fix this place in a day?"

It was at that moment that a loud, echoing thud rang out from behind them. The group then turned to see Mei and Maijima, the former with a hard hat, with a few truckloads of building material just behind them and armfuls of tools, though Mei also carried a large, steel grey briefcase with a crimson red direwolf emblazoned on either side of it. Wait, wasn't that-

"You rang?" Maijima asked with sarcasm tinging his voice. Mei simply looked over the building with an analytical gaze for a few seconds, putting her tools and the briefcase down before she stated as incredibly blunt as someone could say... well, damn near anything, "How has this place not collapsed in on itself yet? You said this place was in poor condition, but this is... well, it's something else."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Toshinori visibly steaming over Mei's comment. The pink dreadlocked girl shifted her eyes towards the monochrome wearing man and continued, "This is going to take a lot more than a day to fix, even with all the extra hands."

"Don't be so worrisome, Mei. I'm sure we can get at least half it done before today ends." Maijima then addressed the group as a whole. "Okay, how many of you have worked with at least basic power tools before?"

Yang, Coco, Fox, and surprisingly Bakugo, all raised their hands. A confused Velvet shot her leader a disbelieving look, to which the beret-wearing girl replied, "I've used a couple power tools to adjust some of the specifics on Cream and Sugar. It kinda became a habit of mine, so I think I'm fairly competent with them."

"Cream and Sugar?" Mei and Ruby asked with interested looks on their faces, though they both had some suspicions as to what the aviator wearing huntress was referring to.

"It's the name of my minigun." She answered. The chocolate colored girl then immediately regretted answering this question as the two began to bombard her with questions about specifics, although she managed to hear maybe twenty or so questions before the both became rapid fire, blended dumps of pure enthusiasm.

"Alright!" Maijima then broke the two weapon nuts from their near never-ending tirade of questions to Coco and properly addressing the rest of the awaiting group. "The rest of you are gonna be helping out with the heavy lifting. Be careful with this stuff though; if you drop any of it you could shatter your Aura if you're lucky or break a bone if you're not."

Torino the spoke up once more with an evil grin returning to his face. "And remember, absolutely no Semblances from any one of you. This doubles as an endurance exercise, so be sure to-"

"Work until we drop. Trust us, we know." Almost everyone present, including the normally sincere and well-meaning Ruby, Velvet, Tenya, and Izuku, said with extreme sarcasm in their tones.

"That's not what I was going to say." The group's eyebrows then raised in confusion, and Torino continued, "Watch each other's back and help your group members when they need it. This might be primarily an endurance exercise, but it is also a test of two very important factors that will often come into play during your time as hunters."

"And those would be?" Weiss asked with genuine confusion on her face.

Silence reigned supreme for several slow seconds before it was finally broken when Torino responded, "Teamwork and your willingness to cooperate with each other. That's what'll get this building fixed. Now stop gapping and get to work!"

And they did. Yang and the others Maijima previously mentioned began grabbing the power tool cases with the help of Mei, moving them into the top part of the building while the rest of the group began to help Maijima unload the supplies with a long day of repairs ahead of them.

(one hour later, Yang's POV)

"Hey, Yang, pass me that socket wrench, would ya?" Coco said as she hung from the ceiling in an inverted position with Yatsuhashi and Shoto holding up the ceiling's supporting beam with their raw strength alone. Despite his physical appearance, Shoto was actually very strong. Yang dug around in the bright red toolbox, eventually finding the damn thing and casually tossing it over her shoulder with practiced ease, something she used to do with her father while they worked on building Bumblebee. She might have been a natural mechanic, but that didn't mean she knew everything about motorcycles. Moving on...

Coco snatched the socket wrench out of the air, twirling it around between her fingers before gripping it gingerly and tightening the final few screws of the beam into place, releasing her leg grip on the ceiling and flipping down to the ground with practiced ease of mobility. For a heavy gunner, Coco was surprisingly acrobatic when she had to be.

With a thumbs up from the aforementioned huntress, the Yatsu and Shoto released their grip on the beam and, upon rechecking all the bolts, confirmed its safety. The blonde brawler then waved down to the others to send the next beam up. Izuku, Blake, Tenya, and Weiss were currently trying to do just that, and though the latter seemed to struggle with actually helping to lift the beam, though she tried her best. Either way, Yatsu and Shoto took the beam off their hands and took it over to the next beam that was marked for replacement.

"So, when are you gonna-"

"I'm not going to plan it out meticulously, Coco. Just... leave it where it is for now, okay?"

She relented as Yang and Yatsu began to remove the marked pillar, repeating the earlier process as the hours they worked became an afterthought.

(three hours later, Bakugo's POV)

The whirring of the bolt headed power drill drowned out Bakugo's raging thoughts as he focused on the task at hand: securing the shiny grey reinforcement plating of the basement. He didn't know why Torino wanted to do this, nor did he much care. Although he did note the fact that it was shaped to be a fighting ring in some way. Just what the hell was that old geezer planning?

"Hey, Bakugo!" The aforementioned direwolf faunus stopped what he was doing and turned to see who had addressed him, finding Mei standing at the entrance with the same briefcase the she held under her arm earlier that day. "Ya mind?"

Bakugo sighed, securing the plate into place before walking over to the pink haired girl and asking, "It's finished?"

Mei, without another work, placed the briefcase on the ground and, with a bit of dramatic flair, slowly opened the case and revealed the finished weapon. It was fucking beautiful, as if it had been lifted right off of his blueprint.

"This'll do nicely. I can't wait to soak these in Grimm blood." Bakugo said as, slowly but surely, a bestial grin spread across his entire face. Despite the context of this action though, the blonde direwolf faunus was indeed very happy.

"Glad you like it. Although I wouldn't do that if I were you. It wouldn't be all that easy, but literally drenching these babies in blood will probably damage the circuitry. Also-" Mei shoved her hand in Bakugo's face, smiling as she continued, "-you owe me a hundred lien. Cough it up."

"Dammit!" Bakugo yelled in an annoyed huff, pulling out his wallet and digging through it to remove the requested amount, all while Mei held that same, prideful smirk plastered on her face.

(two hours later, Izuku's POV)

"Okay, these should be enough to start working on the third floor, and then we've got the sign and roof to work on. With any luck, we should be done by the end of the day." Maijima said as he finalized the plans for the aforementioned parts of the building, ironically just as Bakugo, Fox and Velvet had finished up the basement. He and the others stood just outside the building, a fold up table placed just in front of him with the aforementioned plans placed on it.

Izuku then remembered a certain question from quite a few months ago about Maijima's helmet that he'd never posed to the weaponsmith. He didn't really know why that particular topic popped into his mind, but the green-haired boy knew that if he didn't the question would probably bug him for a long while. Plus, he was fairly curious about it.

The others soon filed into the building, though Yang and Bakugo lingered before they too joined the others, the former with a touch of concern in her gaze while the latter was merely... observing. Huh. Who knew.

Maijima turned and addressed the green haired boy before he could muster up the guts to ask, "What's up, Midoriya? Something on your mind?"

Briefly startled, Izuku shook his head to snap himself out of his daze, then asking the daunting question, though hesitantly, "A-actually, yeah. I was wondering... why do you wear that helmet all the time?"

The question made Maijima visibly flinch, clearly uncomfortable with what Izuku had just asked. Noticing this and immediately regretting his decision, Izuku sputtered out, "I-I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that."

"No, it's okay. I... thought that you'd ask eventually, but not quite this soon." Maijima said as he breathed deeply and told Izuku, "Don't tell this to anyone else, alright? Especially not Mei. The only other people who know this story are Toshinori, Torino, and the rest of my old team, for good reason. If she found out about this now, I don't know how it'll affect her. Promise me."

Izuku, not trusting himself to speak in this surprisingly tense situation, gave a stiff but resolved nod. Satisfied with his answer, Maijima rolled up the plans and sat on the edge of the table. He patted the spot next to him, saying, "You're gonna want to sit down for this. It's a pretty long story."

Izuku carefully sat down next to him as Maijima began his story. "It was about five years ago, back when the Fang was still getting used to its new leader. There was a certain sect called the 'Creed of the Serpent.' As you've probably guessed by the name, they were primarily made up of snake faunus' and a few other serpentesque reptiles. Anyways, they were a well-rounded group, taking part in anything from starting riots to stealing dust... even taking part in assassinations. One time, they took over a rather large railway station in Atlas. Even though our recently reassembled team had a plan from the start, the group had managed to capture one of our teammates. I don't know how the hell they managed to pull it off, but they did. Nemuri Kayama was her name, although most of the public knew her as Midnight."

Wait, is he-

"Yeah, I'm talking about that incident. I take it you're familiar with Serpent Saw?"

"Well, I don't know all that much about, but I do know that he was COTS's leader, and that he gave All Might quite a hard fight."

"Good, you know the basics. As to why I... went for the bait, it was because... well, I was kinda in love with her." Maijima scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. Izuku could've sworn that he saw a blush bleed through his helmet. "Yeah, I know, it sounds cliché as all hell, but I really was. Still kinda am. But that's not the point; I was so blinded by the fact they'd taken her hostage that I didn't even think and charged right into what I knew was a trap, despite my teammate's protests. If I had thought logically, I probably would've gone with the plan that Toshinori and Ecto came up with to get Nemuri back safely. But I screwed up. Badly.

"I only managed to take down about half of their grunts before the elites showed up and decimated me. I was strong, but I was still mainly the engineer on the team, and my Semblance was made for scouting and stealth. It was pretty ironic, really. A groundhog faunus with echolocation. Heh. It was goddamn hilarious."

"You're a faunus?"

"Yeah, but unlike the others in my family, I was born with digger claws instead of the nose or ears. I was also born blind, like most of the other groundhogs, so it was a bit overwhelming when I got my semblance. Moving on; I was brought to the same place Nemuri had been taken, straight to Serpent Saw. I don't like saying this about anyone, but that man's sense of depravity and the amount of hatred he held for humans were both so great that I'm fairly sure whatever redeeming qualities he may have had were swept away by all the negatives he displayed at that place. He went on a hate speech about humanity and their preternatural nature towards the concept of 'shoot first, talk never,' despite being an incredibly oblivious hypocrite. He said that he was 'disappointed' in me, that I would rush in so blindly to save 'a human, of all living things.' He might have been painting himself as a holy man, or some bullshit symbol for equilateral justice, but in reality, he was simply a complete psychopath with no chance at any kind of redemption. Then he got bored of waiting for the others to show up and took his chainsaw to my face." Maijima stroked the front part of his helmet gingerly, as if the wound, despite long since healing, was still fresh and overflowing with unspeakable pain. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, he let his hand drop to his side once more and continued, "That was also about the same time Toshinori and Ecto broke in. I didn't hear much of what happened next, but I know that Toshinori left Serpent Saw without most of his limbs. Then something... really odd happened. According to the others, I was on the verge of dying; it was a miracle I'd survived as long as I did, but then... Toshinori healed me. Even though it left a scar that did pretty much mar my face permanently, he saved my life.

"And stranger still, I don't even know how this was possible; he cured my inborn blindness. I could see. But after that, my semblance... it was gone. It couldn't work if I could see properly, like everyone else. Toshinori never forgave himself for that, and, if our conversation at the shop was anything to go by, everyone else might still blame themselves as well. After my semblance was shot, I retired from the huntsman's life and started my workshop. I found Mei a few months later, and the rest is history.

"So yeah, really long story. I'm... I'm honestly glad you asked. Feels like I've had a weight lifted off my shoulders." Maijima hopped off of the table and gestured towards the building, "Well, we ought to get going now. Can't keep the others much longer, now can we?"

Izuku too hopped off the fold up table, though as he began to walk to the building he asked, "How did All Might heal you? I thought you needed something like a healing semblance to do that without Aura Regulation Machines."

Maijima sighed heavily before he answered Izuku's question. "Kid, that's something you're gonna have to ask Toshinori about. I might be experienced, but I don't know everything."

Maijima the hurried inside with Izuku following shortly thereafter, the sound of power tools and banging metals making white noise while he lost himself in thought.

(five minutes later, Shoto's POV)

"I wish Momo were here. If she were this would probably be going a lot faster," the half and half leader overhead the white-haired heiress sigh under her breath as they and the others lifted the first beam up via pulley system they'd set up just a minute prior.

"Wait, you know Momo? As in Momo Yaoyorozu?" Shoto asked with a piqued interest as they continued to pull on the rope, assisted by Yatsu, Blake, Tenya, Mei, and Fox. Everyone else was upstairs assisting with the installation, as they'd learned their lesson previously from when a beam had nearly fallen on the aforementioned heiress.

"Yes. Why do you ask?" Weiss asked as they lifted the beam to its destination.

"Well, we're... erm... I have no idea how to explain this to-"

"You're dating, right?" She said with a smirk plastered onto her normally stoic face, causing Shoto to nearly lose his grip on the rope as the above team hauled the beam inside and began the installation.

"How did you know?" Shoto asked as then others slowly lowered the pulley to the ground, though they ignored their conversation and subconsciously labeled it white noise.

"She talks about you a lot. I didn't bring it up with you because... well, we're not all that close and it probably would've been awkward if that was the first thing I said to you." Weiss scratched the back of her head in minor embarrassment.

"I see." Shoto let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"I also know about the... other aspect of your relationship." That got Shoto to tense up once more, bracing himself for a lecture on how their relationship had actually started, but was pleasantly surprised to find that she did no such thing. "I'm not going to pretend to understand how you two fell for each other in that context, though I do have one request.

"Be true to her. She's one of the only friends I've ever had; I actually might not have been able to come to Beacon if it weren't for her support. So...

"If you happen to commit adultery, I'll be sure to castrate you as painfully as possible." Weiss said with an evil gleam in her eye, though Shoto remained stone-faced as he answered her threat, "You've got no need to worry about that. I'd probably do that to myself if I committed... well, anything of that sort."

Weiss, satisfied with the answer, gave a kind smile and said, "Good. Now, let's get back to work before the others start yelling at us."

(two hours later, Tenya's POV)

Tenya was completely baffled. In the span of only a day, they'd managed to take the entirety of the once shambled, broken down complex, and turn it into what could be considered a five-star hotel.

"Is no one else going to question how we managed to fix this place in a day?" Weiss asked the others as they gazed at the building in question.

The nearly unanimous and synched response was simply, "Don't question it."

"But-" Tenya tried to object when the same people said in sync once more, "Seriously, don't."

A short while later, everyone began to file inside the complex, though Tenya pulled his partner aside, saying, "I've got something for you," as he pulled out his wallet and, after finding the hidden pocket, pulled out the two golden cards marked FAVOR in black.

"The hell is this thing?" Bakugo bluntly asked as he inspected the item rather... intensely.

"It's a guaranteed favor from Thoth. And before you ask, yes, I do mean that Thoth. Don't tell anyone about this, got it?" Tenya asked, accompanied by a pleading look that never often graced his features.

Bakugo, placing the card in his, said, "I know, I know. There would be way too many questions if we told them. But you better damn well tell me how the hell you got these."

"Later. For now, let's just help with dinner." With that, the two finally stepped inside, laughter and comedic banter emerging from within for most of the early evening.

A/N: We're back in business baby! I know this chapter probably raised some questions. If you have any, feel free to ask them in the reviews! Feel free to make suggestions or criticisms as well. I'm always open to learning.

There isn't a profile this time, sorry. I'll be sure to update Bakugo's at the end of the next. Well, after the fight scene, of course.

Next Chapter: Jan. 26th

Seeya in the next one!