I Once again Live! But only just. And I bring with me news of Cheeki Breeki and chapter 3. Is it good? Hell if I know. All I do know is that it was at least entertaining to write. Now, that's enough from me, onto the Story!
LYAR's room was dark, but that was to be expected in the early morning. Anna was the first to get up out of the aspiring Hunters. Though this was also to be expected. Her family had groomed her into an almost military schedule. Once upon a time she might've hated it, getting up hours before anyone her age, but she had grown to appreciate the silence. Her life was filled with enough stress to kill, so any brief respite she could gain was better than nothing. But, she sighed to herself, so was the life of an affluent child.
Anna tossed the covers off of herself and sat on the side of her bed, letting her eyes focus on the dark corners of the room. Through the darkness, she saw that Luka and Yossif both laid perfectly still in their sheets. Her eyes hadn't quite focused enough to see over to Rexus, but she was confident he was asleep. Something about his personality told Anna that he would've let her know he was awake.
Anna placed her head in her hands and quietly sighed again. First day of Beacon academy. First day of something new! First day of a possibly annoying four years. Though, she would at least have a friend in Weiss. From what Anna had seen, she didn't care much for her team either. Perhaps they were kindred spirits to that degree. Perhaps they could forge an alliance between their two families during their time at Beacon.
Anna shook her head and looked up. Not a week away from her family and she was already thinking business. Perhaps an annoying team was what she needed to take her mind off the company. Her eyes were finally able to pierce all the darkness in the room. She once again looked over to Rexus, expecting to find him asleep.
He was staring at her.
Anna recoiled, but quickly regained her composure. Rexus sat on his bed, propped up against the corner of his wall. He wore the same camo pants as he did yesterday, just minus a shirt. He held a knife. His left fingers held the tip of the blade, his right slowly spinning it. She went to say something, but stopped when she realized what he was doing. He was staring through her.
He hadn't even registered her presence.
She waved at him, and elicited no response. He just blankly stared ahead. "Rexus. Rexus?" She whispered. Nothing, not even a twitch. Anna moved to the end of her bed to avoid his unsettling gaze. For him to make the jump from being loud and annoying to quiet and reserved confused Anna.
An ear-piercing tone shook the silent room. Anna's emergency wake up alarm had gone off. She quickly scrambled over her bed to silence it and cursed herself for forgetting to earlier. She fumbled with her scroll a bit before finding the off button. The screen read six o'clock. "Morning, Jade." Rexus said behind her.
She turned to face him, "It's...Anna." She cautiously said.
Rexus had put his knife away and sat on the end of his bed. "Oh," He lightly slapped his forehead, "Yep. You should probably get used to that." He smiled at her.
Luka had shot up when the alarm went off, and was now groggily scanning her surroundings. She took note of Anna and Rexus before asking aloud, "How long have you guys been up?" She wiped the sleep from her eyes.
Rexus put a hand on his chin and hummed to himself, "When did we go to sleep last night?"
"10." Yossif said as he mechanically got out of bed and cracked his neck.
"Oh, if that's the case," Rexus tapped his chin. "I've been up since Sunday." Luka, Anna, and Yossif all turned to stare at Rexus. He just stared back shrugged. "I got an epic case of insomnia and...insomnia." He went to say something else before stopping himself. No one pushed any further.
Yossif sauntered off to the bathroom without a word, and the shower turned on a few seconds later. "Well, I guess he's taking a shower. I call-." Luka said before being cut off by Rexus jumping to his feet.
"Next!" He said a bit louder than he should've.
"Oh, then I guess I'm after him." Luka said quietly while looking over at Anna.
Anna only shook her head at her leader. Luka resigned herself to taking the last shower and laid back in bed. Anna smiled and shook her head before turning to look at Rexus. He hid some secret, she was sure of it.
She just wasn't sure if it should be uncovered.
He noticed her gaze and stared back at her. Anna held his gaze for a few seconds before looking away. Rexus made an L with his right hand, put it up to his head, and stuck his tongue out at her.
Rexus sat in his first period, munching on another one of his food bars. Rexus never understood why people had such an aversion to these things. They were tasteless, odorless, and didn't leave a stain in your mouth. Sure, they felt disgusting to eat, but no one would know that you ate one unless you told them. He shrugged to himself and offered it to Jaune. Jaune, who was sitting on his right, immediately leaned away from it. Rexus thanked God that he had this boring period with someone he knew. Math certainly wasn't his strong suit, and he didn't ever care to make it that. Rexus had secretly hoped that he would have math with Weiss, but he would be the first to admit that calculus wasn't for him.
Rexus absent mindedly took down into his notes whatever the teacher put on the board and fought the urge to sleep. Thankfully, Jaune was suffering just as he was. Rexus took confidence in that, and soldiered on until second period.
Yossif diligently took down notes, keeping his attention on the board. Vale history was a slightly uninteresting class, but that just meant Yossif would turn his study time for this class into time that could be allotted to other things. The black haired girl next to him was probably thinking the same thing. While Yossif wasn't ecstatic at Blake's presence, he was still slightly relieved that he had someone to compare notes with. Their pencils worked in concert to record everything. They would probably compare notes later to make sure they didn't miss anything.
Oh the joys that would await him in his third period.
Luka laid her head on her desk. Her third period was a godsend, study hall. She aimed to sleep today, since she had no work. but, perhaps, she would sit next to Ruby Rose next time. Currently, they sat on opposite sides of the room, and they both had their heads on the desk. Luka hoped they could discuss their teams. That they would compare notes on how to lead. Maybe they could come up with some tag team moves?
She sure hoped so.
Calculus for fourth was a slog, but Anna couldn't really blame anyone but herself for taking it. Thankfully, Weiss did too. Though they only knew each other from a business standpoint, Anna was happy to see a familiar face in her class. They both sat gracefully in the front of the class, tuning out the first day instructions that they had heard for three periods so far. She hoped lunch would come soon, but didn't dare to look at the clock for fear of being disappointed. After awhile, the teacher left the class to their own devices. With nothing else to do, the pair discussed pleasantries until lunch.
Oh, lunch, the best part of the day.
Rexus arrived in the cafeteria, hungering for something good. He couldn't pick out his boys, so he decided to just get some food and look again after. After a brief wait in line, Rexus grabbed a rather good looking BLT and set out to locate his team. After a brief casing, he found the people who put LYA in LYAR. They sat near the corner of the room at a small table meant for two teams.
With some pep in his step, he walked over. "What's up, party people?" He announced his arrival. Luka waved to him, Yossif gave him a high five, and Anna just crossed her arms.
"Look who decided to show up." She said as she continued to eat from her salad.
Rexus immediately sat next to her. "Ooooooo, Whatcha got?" Rexus asked as he inspected her food.
"Something you won't get." She moved her food away from Rexus
"Come on. Share the wealth Jade." Rexus said as he picked up his sandwich and took a bite.
"Anna." She corrected and took another forkful of green leaves.
The team happily ate their food in silence for a bit before Luka spoke up, "What did you get Rexus?"
He looked to Luka, who was sitting to the left of Anna(Who herself sat left of Rexus). "A BLT, but without the T cause I'm not a savage."
"Pussy." Yossif joked with his mouth half full.
"Alright, what do you have dickhead?" Rexus shot back with a grin.
"Barbeque bacon burger with EXTRA tomato," Yossif reached under the table and grabbed a water bottle. "Because I'm a real man." He took a drink.
"Barbeque bacon? Alright, I'll let it pass. But only because you're my boy." Rexus hungrily took another bite of his food. "What do you got, Luka?" Rexus asked with a full mouth.
"Oh, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich." She held it up for him to see.
"Yoooooo! I gotta get one of those next time! Been awhile since I had one." The group once again settled into a comfortable silence and ate. After a few minutes LYA had finished their food, leaving Rexus the last one eating. He continued to do so happily.
"So, what does everyone have next?" Luka asked as she pulled a schedule from her back pocket.
Anna pulled out her schedule and squinted at it, "Combat Class. You?" Luka shot her fist up in a small celebration, before becoming a bit embarrassed and scratching her neck.
Yossif answered from memory as he cleaned up his spot, "Combat Class as well." Luka and Anna nodded before turning to Rexus and staring expectantly.
Rexus wasn't paying attention to the conversation, and so he met their gazes with confusion. "Hmmm?" He said while taking another bite.
"Your next class?" Anna simply asked, an unamused look on her face.
"Hmmm!" Rexus put the rest of his sandwich in his mouth and fumbled around with his uniform vest pocket until he produced a small sheet of paper. "Mhhm." He put the paper on the table for them to look at while he finished chewing. The three looked at the paper, his fifth period was also combat class.
Luka nodded and smiled to herself. "Good, good."
"Hmm." Anna reached into her pocket and fished out her scroll. "When does fifth start anyway?"
The school intercom played a tone, answering her question. "Pfft." Rexus chuckled a bit. Anna sighed and put her phone away. With that, the group got up to leave. "Man, I can't wait for this!" Rexus yelled, briefly drawing the attention of a few other students. Anna placed a hand on his shoulder and stopped him from walking towards the door. "What?"
Anna pointed towards Luka, who was sitting at the table lost in thought, and Yossif, who was walking towards her.
Yossif walked over to his leader and looked down at her. She was indeed lost in thought, a smile plastered across her face. He put a hand on her shoulder and gently shook her. This broke her out of her trance. "Huh?"
"Come on, we wouldn't want our leader to be late on the first day." He gestured towards the rest of team LYAR, who waved at their leader.
Luka noded, "Yeah, sorry." She got up and pointed towards the door, "To class!"
Team LYAR arrived to their class and entered. The room was considerably different than every other they had seen. It was a circular room with an arena in the middle. The arena was about 20 feet wide in all directions, with an opening on one side. Walls went up around the arena, and provided a start to the seating area. Each row fully encircled the room, and the next row was a foot higher than the last. The benches were made from a nice wood. And to top it all off, there was a raised platform on the opposite side of the room from the entrance. Ms. Goodwitch stood on it. She saw them, nodded to herself, and tapped on her Tome. They had entered the room and looked down at the rows from the top.
"Hey!" Ruby Rose called out from her spot. Team LYAR looked at her team. They sat in the fourth row from the arena, roughly the middle of the room. Team LYAR made their way to their friends, who made room for them. Luka chose to sit next to Ruby on the left, Yossif sat next to Blake on the right, Rexus got in between Yang and Weiss, and Anna sat in between Ruby and Weiss.
"How's it going guys?" Yang asked.
"Oh, you know, first day things." Luka answered.
"Eyy but it's better now. I've been waiting all day for this! I can't wait to get some fight going!"
"Rexus, why don't we offer to go first. After all, you gotta start things with a Yang!"
Both teams groaned and slumped over as Yang proudly smirked. Some of the students who had been walking into the room also groaned, Rexus was sure one even got tripped up by the joke and fell down. "You know what?" Rexus placed a hand on his forehead, "I'll accept if you promise never to do that again."
She shrugged, "I'm not gonna promise anything."
"And how's your guys day going?" Luka asked.
"You summed it up quite aptly." Weiss said.
"Yeah, it was alright." Ruby added.
With that, the group settled into their places and waited. Ruby and Luka talked about something that they could only understand. Anna and Weiss looked over their notes, separately. Yang and Rexus looked leaned back and looked at their scrolls. And finally, Yossif and Blake watched the many people that entered the room.
After a few minutes, team JNPR came through the doors. Ruby noticed them look down into the seats for a place to sit. Ruby waved at them. Rexus quickly noticed her waving and joined her in bringing over their friends. Team JNPR eventually noticed the two and walked over. "What's happening, party people?" Rexus yelled to his friends over the loud conversations of the room. Nora waved excitedly and ran over, followed by her team walking over.
They all sat a row in front of them and turned around. "Hi guys!" Nora greeted loudly. Ren lightly smiled at his friend and greeted the other two teams. Jaune made finger guns at Weiss. She just stared back at him, unamused. Jaune then awkwardly waved at everyone else. Pyrrha greeted them with a melodic "hello."
"How has your first day been?" Ren asked calmly to no one in particular.
Luka answered for everyone, "Ehhhh." She made the so so hand motion. "Yours?"
Pyrrha laughed a bit, "About the same. It seems that no one really cares for first days."
"You can say that again!" Rexus said before laughing at something on his scroll. The group was quiet for a bit while JNPR settled into their seats.
"So, what classes did everyone have before this?" Luka asked, trying to make conversation.
"I, uhhh-." Ruby said before being cut off by a loud tone from the school intercom.
"Students!" Ms. Goodwitch boomed from her spot on the other side of the room. "Welcome to Combat Class!" She tapped on her tome, and a screen behind her lit up. Every person in the room had their picture up. JNPR, RWBY, and LYAR turned their attention to the teacher. "Here you will learn how to effectively protect yourself, others, and the world which you serve. If you think you already know how too, you will find that you have much to learn. As you know, this is a physical class, so let me point some things out." She pointed to the opening in the arena, "That tunnel connects to the school lockers. Before you fight in this class, you will have a chance to get out of your uniform and into the attire of your choice. It is important to do so for any physical activity you undertake during your time at Beacon." She pointed to the arena. "Use of ranged weaponry is not allowed indoors. During certain points in the year we will allow it. If you can avoid damaging the arena, please do so." She stopped pointing, "I will call fights. If you hear me say stop, stop."
She looked down at her tome and tapped it a bit, "I believe that covers it, any questions?" No one raised their hands. "Alright then, would anyone like to set the standard for the class?" She looked up as multiple students raised their hands. First among them being a giddy Rexus and a confident Yang. Ms. Goodwitch looked down at the screen on her tome to figure out the name of the two. "Ms. Xiao Long, Mr. Gallant, you may go first."
Rexus turned to his friends, "Alright, take notes people."
"Yeah," Yang agreed, "Make sure you record the exact moment where I beat him." With that, the two hopped into the arena and walked down the tunnel towards their lockers.
Yang patiently waited in the arena for Rexus. Where she had taken three or so minutes to put on her clothes, Rexus was running on five. Ms. Goodwitch crossed her arms and waited, and the rest of the room rapidly switched from looking at their scrolls to looking at the arena. If she had a watch, Yang would be staring at it and tapping her foot on the ground about now.
tap tap tap, Yang heard Rexus walking towards them. She finally saw him as he turned the corner in the tunnel. She was going to call him slow, until she saw his clothes. Gear would've been the better name. He wore the same thing as yesterday, heavy vest, knee pads, camo, and he was covered in straps holding knives and other things. He looked like he was gonna go to war.
She was still going to call him slow, "Well there young lady, did you put on some makeup too?"
Rexus walked into the room, allowing every other student to get a good look at him, "No, but I can wipe yours off," He reached behind him and quickly drew his knife, leaving his longer blades at his sides, "Free of charge. I can even cut that moppy head of hair for ya." He added with a smirk.
The hair comment struck a major nerve with Yang. She frowned and cracked her knuckles.
Ruby gulped and watched the two nervously. Rexus just stepped on one heck of a landmine.
"Are you two ready?" Neither of them answered, they just bent down and stared at each other. Rexus with a smirk, and Yang with an angry look. Ms. Goodwitch nodded and tapped her tome. A three second countdown started on the board behind her.
Three
Rexus gripped his knife tightly and dissected Yang's looks, trying to find an obvious weakness. After finding none to speak of, he waited for her to start fighting. He'd know what to do then.
Two
Yang was fuming inside. Her hair? He really had to go there? She was gonna enjoy wiping the floor with him.
One
Ruby watched the two with worry. She couldn't speak for Rexus, but she knew that an angry Yang was a scary opponent. Especially if she had her hair threatened. Rexus might have a hard time dealing with her, and it would be worse if he actually touched her hair.
A tone sounded from the screen behind Ms. Goodwitch. With that, the two rushed each other.
Yang threw a quick punch at Rexus's face, but he was quicker than her. In one fluid motion, he slipped past it and grabbed her arm with his free hand. Rexus swung his left foot back and knocked Yang's feet out from under her before throwing her forward by her wrist. She rolled a few feet away from him and glared.
Rexus smirked, tossed his knife into the air, and beckoned for her to come with a single finger.
Yang slammed her fists into the ground and charged again. This time she was careful to be more cautious, only coming close enough to hit him. She threw punch after punch, but Rexus either sidestepped or blocked every one. He was fast, faster then her even with all that gear.
That pissed Yang off.
Her punches got faster, and harder. The smirk slowly faded from Rexus's face as he put more effort into fighting. Eventually, a opportunity to get a good hit on Rexus presented itself to Yang. She punched wider than usual, and when Rexus went to block it she struck. As hard as she could manage with no time, she kicked his left side. It put Rexus off balance, and open to further attacks. She gave him a left hook, then a right, then a left again, and followed up with a devastating uppercut.
As Rexus stumbled back, Yang looked over to the big screen. It had their pictures, names, and remaining aura on it. There was a problem.
He had barely taken a scratch from that combo.
"Alright," Rexus moved his shoulder up and down while cracking his neck, "My turn." He flipped his knife into a reverse grip and rushed forward. Yang leveled a punch with his face in order to stop him. Rexus just dodged under it and delivered a slice to her under arm. Then another to her chest, and to her leg, and to her cheek. She could barely keep up as he cut her to ribbons. Each time she punched, he'd move and slice. After a few seconds she was entirely covered in shallow, painful cuts. There were so many that her aura was slowing down trying to heal them all at once. With a quick glance at the board, she grew worried. Rexus had taken her down by about three tenths, and was still wailing on her. She had to stop him.
She went on the offensive and shoulder rushed him through his attacks. He got in a slightly deeper cut on her face, but she managed to free herself from his assault. She moved a few feet away from him and turned. He walked a bit away and then turned to face her, his smirk returning as he did. He held his knife up to his face and looked over it. With a scoff, he used two fingers to brush something off of it.
A single yellow hair floated to the ground.
Yang's eyes lit up into a violent red. With a growl, she flew into a rage and charged Rexus.
Rexus at least had the decency to look surprised, but that didn't change much. He still knew what he was going to do. As Yang charged, Rexus slid his blade back into its sheathe and waited for Yang to reach him. As she closed the distance, Rexus put his hands up into a boxing pose. Yang wound up and threw a hell of a punch at Rexus. Sadly for her, winding up means that it was visible from a mile away. Rexus slid to the left and narrowly avoided her attack, then used the momentum she had built to fling her into the arena wall by her wrist. The wall cracked slight on contact, but not much more than hairline fractures. Rexus quickly followed up with a kick at her while she sat against the wall. She dodged by a hair, and so Rexus' foot crushed the stone into dust.
Ms. Goodwitch frowned and took her attention away from the fight for a second. With a couple of taps on her tome, she noted what had happened, and why. She would fix it after the fight, for now she needed to make sure these kids didn't tear each other apart.
The fight was going fairly good for Rexus. For every hit Yang would get on him, he'd get two or three on her. That being said, those hits she got on him were some hellish damage. He was glad he wore a vest, because without it she might've caved in his chest. Another one of her hits landed on Rexus. He was getting sick of the gut punches, so he backed up a bit.
Yang saw that he was relenting, and pushed her advantage. Each punch of hers drove Rexus back step by step until he was only a few paces from the wall.
Rexus smiled wickedly as he was pushed back. He stopped retreating, tempting Yang to up the force of her strikes.
She did.
With a heavier punch than usual, Yang expected Rexus to break. He instead blocked it and slid back towards the wall. Using that speed, he placed a foot on the wall and jumped up. Time seemed to slow as Rexus flipped over Yang. With his free hand, he pulled a smaller knife from his vest and threw it at her while he was in the air. The knife whistled as it came down at Yang. She moved sideways, but not quite enough to totally dodge it. The blade cut her other cheek and implanted itself in the floor.
While Yang was busy processing what he just did, Rexus landed. He drew the knife from his back and surged forward. Yang registered his charge just in time to catch a knee to the stomach. The force flung her back and into the wall. He then delivered another knee as she tried to balance herself, causing her to double over. She quickly looked up at Rexus, eyes blazing red. Her look was met with a hard punch to her face. With that, her eyes reverted to their normal purple and she crumpled onto her face.
Rexus prepared to continue his assault, but was stopped by Ms. Goodwitch. "The match is over, Mr. Gallant wins!" Rexus stood straight up and looked over to his teacher. She shook her head at the damages and pulled out a riding crop. With a single flick, the wall that he crushed started to form back into an actual wall.
Moving his gaze from her, he looked at the electronic board. His aura had fallen into the yellow, with one fourth of it depleted.
Yang was in the red, with eight tenths depleted.
A groan was heard from the ground. Looking down, Rexus noticed Yang struggling to get up. He quickly slid his knife into its sheathe and bent down to help. "Damn Yang, you got a punch on you." He grabbed her shoulder in an attempt to steady her.
"Yeah," She wiped her mouth and got onto her knees, "So do you."
"Need help walking?" Rexus asked.
She stared at him for a few seconds while she caught her breath. "Sure." With that, Rexus put an arm under her shoulder and walked off to the locker rooms. They could hear Ms. Goodwitch calling out for two more students. "Man, you hit harder than that night I had at Juniors." Yang complimented.
Rexus squinted and mumbled to himself, "Blonde, one, strong?" He turned to Yang, "Wait, did you trash Juniors club a few days ago?"
"More like they trashed it trying to get me."
Rexus sighed heavily, "Oh, you're lucky I'm in a good mood, else I would kick your ass again right here. Matter of fact I'ma do that later."
"What, why?"
"You have no idea how inconvenient dealing with that was."
The next class the three teams had together was Remnant History, led by a very energetic teacher. One Dr. Oobleck. The speed at which the man flew around the room was astounding to all the students in the class. The lecture hall style room was littered with papers and other assorted objects which kicked up into a flurry every time the Doctor rushed by. His mouth, it seemed, was just as fast as his feet. He spoke a mile a minute, turning the speech all teachers made first from a few minutes long into a thirty second affair. After that he rushed through all the rows, taking down attendance and individually introducing himself to every student. Some shied away from his energetic personality, a few examples being Ruby and Luka. Others paid it no mind, like Yossif and Blake. Others still tried to match him with their own enthusiasm. Those others being Rexus and Nora.
After his very brief introduction, the doctor began, "Yes hello everyone I'm Dr. Oobleck. Today I decided that you would have an easy class that still relates to our field. Who here likes fairy tales?" He stopped on a dime in the front of the classroom, and threw out that whole spiel in a few seconds. About half of the students present understood him, the rest were left very confused. About half of those who heard him raised their hands. "Yes out of you who here likes the story of the Four Maidens?" The man spoke without rest, no matter how long it had been since his last breath.
Once again, only half of those who raised their hands heard him. Hands went down, but some stayed high. Ruby and a few others somehow deciphered his words.
"Yes Yes and who likes the parallel tale of the Four Horsemen?" He said quickly while writing something down on a piece of paper the class just realized he was holding.
Rexus and a few others raised their hands while Ruby and her group put theirs down.
"Good Good Miss Rose please give us a summary of the Maidens." He said while quickly writing something else down on his paper.
"Oh, well..." She stood up, "The Four maidens were all sisters who visited an old wizard in the mountains. They all showed him kindness in their own ways, so he was grateful enough to give them the power to share their kindness with the world."
"Excellent excellent. And Rexus could you do the same for the horsemen?"
Ruby sat down, and Rexus stood. "Well there were four Horsemen who came to a king in war to offer him their services. They were made into his most trusted commanders and set them out to lead his armies. Every season, an army and Horseman was lost to the war, and every season the king had his mages revive the fallen to serve again. Eventually, the war turned sour, so the revived Horsemen set out with their ghostly armies to defeat the enemy Queen. They sacrificed themselves to destroy her. The king found out and tried to revive them. When he failed, he took their aura's so he could bestow their powers onto the most worthy warriors in their time of need."
Dr. Oobleck frowned and quickly shook his head, "Your explanation is both long winded and obscure." He quickly turned to the chalkboard behind him as the students giggled at Rexus. Confused, Rexus put a hand to his chin and sat. "Where did you hear that telling Mr. Gallant?" Dr. Oobleck asked without turning from the board.
Rexus waited for the giggling to stop before he answered. "I grew up with that version."
"Hmmm," Dr. Oobleck scratched his chin, "Well it is certainly a fascinating diversion of the tale. But it isn't the most common telling. It is usually told for the other point of view. A kingdom was fighting a war against a evil king and his four commanders. The queen called out for help, and so the maidens answered. Together, they pushed back the Horsemen's army's. Each time he lost a commander, the evil king grew more desperate. And so he called upon his mages to remake his commanders and their armies. When they did, the resurrected men looked and fought with the Grimm, but they couldn't halt the advance of the Queen and the Maidens. In a last ditch effort to win, the Horsemen attacked the queen. They succeeded in destroying her, but were eventually destroyed themselves by the maidens. But with that, the Queen's forces were routed. The Evil King then took the souls of the Horseman, and twisted them into the first Grimm. And their aura is present in all corrupt and evil beings." He finished and stepped away from the board. On it was a crudely drawn Horseman and Maiden. "Rexus's tale does have a lesson. All history has two sides. Now does anyone see any similarities between these tales?" Some kid put up his hand and was called on, "Yes Mr. Tontiak?"
"Both give something to the world. The maiden's kindness, and the Horsemen evil."
"Yes. This is a clear metaphor for good and evil in the world. Anyone see any differences in the tales?" No one answered. Dr. Oobleck waited a few seconds before calling on someone randomly. "Mr. Winchester! Do you see a difference?"
Cardin sat back with his feet on the desk. "I donno, one's longer?" He said half-assedly.
"You are partly correct." Oobleck turned back to the board and began drawing. "The stories originated from different groups of people. This means that they are written in different styles." He turned back to the class and revealed his drawing. A rough map of Remnant. "The tale of the Maidens is thought to originate from the middle of Sanus where the story of the Horsemen has it's roots in northern Anima." He made circles around the area's of the continents he was talking about. "Mr. Gallant where do you come from?"
"Southern Solitas, just a bit east of Atlas."
"Yes yes that makes sense. "He made a mark around a bit of southern Solitas. "This area is where your retelling is still widely recounted. Ms. Rose where do you come from?"
"From patch!" She happily chirped.
"Ah yes Patch is known for its simple retelling of the Maiden's tale." A few chuckles circled the classroom, which caused Ruby to shrink slightly in her seat. "Yes these two variations serve to highlight something. Does anyone know what?" Mr. Oobleck looked around the room at all the raised hands. "Ms. Nikos?"
"They both show cultural differences?" She offered, half sure of herself.
"You are partly correct!" He zipped back and forth across the board, scrawling something across it. "While it does show differences between culture-." He cut himself off by taking a rather big gulp of whatever was in his mug. "It also serves as a great example of every story having two sides!" He stepped away from his board and revealed it to the class. On it was a sprawling mass of lines and arrows pointing to the different landmasses of the world. Students peered down at it and tried to decipher it, to no avail. "Here is a broad map of the different origins of all telling's of these two stories. Does anyone have anything they would want to say about it?" No one answered. "Mr. Arc you look like you have a problem with my drawing."
This tore Jaune from his own thoughts about the board, "Uh I-... What did you say professor?" He asked, defeated from not hearing the question.
"Doctor! I asked why you were glaring at my drawing like it had offended you."
Jaune became flustered, "No no I just... It's just so hard to understand."
"Exactly! Men and women who have dedicated their lives to learning this can't even understand this fully. This brings us to another part of this tale of stories. Unearthing both sides of a story is a difficult undertaking. But we are Hunters, so this is what we'll do! Now you have free time until the end of the period. Next class come ready with your textbooks and notebooks!"
Port's class was definitely... something.
That something being the most boring thing in existence.
The team JNPR, RWBY, and LYAR were all going through various stages of disinterest. Rexus drew crude knife designs in his notebook, which he'd occasionally show to an unamused Anna. Anna, for her part, had tried to find something to take down into her notes. After failing that she decided that her scroll was much more interesting. Luka was laying her head on the desk and dying of boredom. Yossif looked around the room at anything remotely interesting. Yang and Blake were, somehow, still paying attention. Ruby was out cold in her chair, quietly snoring. Weiss was, surprising everyone but Rexus, actually writing things down in her notebook. Team JNPR were universally suffering. All of them looked like they were approaching death. Well, everyone but Nora. She kept falling asleep. Sadly for her, Ren would flick her awake again.
From his spot in the back of the room, Rexus looked at both of his allied teams. RWBY, for some ungodly reason, had taken the front two rows of the class as their own. Yang and Blake sat above Ruby and Weiss in a two by two formation. Looking to his left, Rexus spied team JNPR sitting in the back left of the room. They all sat in one row. Jaune on the aisle, followed by Pyrrha on his left, then Nora, and ending with Ren.
Looking at his own team, Rexus was thankful that they had gotten into the class first. Their spot had a good look over the entire class, and a wall behind them to use as a backrest. From the aisle on the left to the right, it went Yossif, Luka, himself, and Anna. Possibly the best thing about their spot was the charging outlet behind them.
Prof. Port stood in the front of the class, ready to begin. "Monsters! Deeeemons... Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!" Rexus swore he heard crickets from somewhere. On the bright side, at least they woke up Ruby. "Uhhhh... And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying: Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses..." He waved his hands towards the students. "Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves! From what, you ask? Why, the very world!"
A student stood and shot his fist into the air, "Yeah!" He stood dumbly for a moment while everyone stared at him.
Rexus felt a bit bad for him, so he yelled, "Whooh! Yeah!" That drew some looks away from the kid so he could sit down without being watched. He did so with an embarrassed expression on his face.
Prof. Port continued on, "That is what you are training to become. But first: A story. A tale of a young, handsome man... Me! When I was a boy..." Rexus finally lost the last bit of interest in the class that he didn't know he had. He instead inspected the room. Trophy's hung all around. Most were common, beowolf claws or ursa spikes. Others were less so, like the tusk of a goliath. It seemed that Port's egotistical ramblings held some merit. He was an undoubtedly accomplished Hunter. Though, perhaps a less accomplished storyteller. "...Despite smelling of cabbages, my grandfather was a wise man. 'Peter', he told me..." Yeah, Rexus thought, he had him beat in that regard.
An evil presence was emanating from the front of the class. Rexus, sensing the impending danger, peered down into the front rows to see what was happening.
Weiss was looking like a wet cat. She was being pushed to a breaking point by something. Rexus followed her gaze to the right, and onto Ruby. Weiss's leader was currently balancing an apple on a book, on a pencil, on one finger, while sticking her tongue out.
Though Rexus felt bad for his best friend, he wouldn't miss a meltdown. He elbowed Anna and Luka at the same time. "Ow, what?" Anna responded, rubbing her arm. Luka just looked at him and waited for an answer.
"Look." He nodded towards Weiss and Ruby. Anna looked down at the pair with annoyance at first, but soon grew interested. Luka elbowed Yossif and directed him towards the imminent explosion. He waved her off, as he was already aware and watching. Soon, other teams of students grew interested in what LYAR was looking at. The entire room slowly began to direct their attention towards the front.
Prof. Port was oblivious to hazard in the front row, believing that the class had suddenly become solely interested in him. "The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable!" Ruby dropped her balancing act, causing a loud clatter. "A true Huntsman must be dependable!" Ruby's head bobbed up and down as she tried to stay awake. "A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise!" Ruby picked her nose. "So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"
The room held its breath as Weiss seemed to be fed up. Instead of exploding like everyone thought she would, Weiss just raised her hand, "I do, Sir."
"Well, then, let's find out!" Port turned to a cage that was next to his desk. "Step forward, and face your opponent!" Red eyes peered out at the class as the cage was violently rattled by it's inhabitant.
Without a word to her team, Weiss got up and walked out of the classroom to get changed.
Many were disappointed that Weiss had not lost her nerve. So many in fact that Prof. Port believed they were disappointed he stopped telling stories. "Not to worry students! I have stories to spare, why just the other day..." He went into another long winded story about himself, much to the horror of all present.
While he droned on, Rexus contemplated the recent event. If he knew Weiss, and he did, she'd be angry for the rest of the day. He briefly entertained the idea of asking to go to the bathroom just so he could catch up with her and calm her down. After all, it was better that she rail on him than on little Ruby Rose. He had no idea why Weiss had taken such a dislike to her. Sure, Ruby was childish, but so was he, and Weiss and him got along just fine.
Now that he thought of it, that was probably why she didn't like Ruby.
He hoped that Ruby would shut her mouth for the rest of the night, for her own sake. But, looking down from his seat at her, he knew it wouldn't happen. She was still messing around. He shook his head and sat back.
"This'll be interesting."
Weiss stood in front of the cage, practically growling back at the grimm. Her team cheered her on from the side, and then a high pitched chirp from Ruby shattered her focus. "Yeah, represent Teeeeam RWBY!"
Weiss grew increasingly enraged, "Ruby! I'm trying to focus!" Her "leader" shrunk into her chair and mumbled apologies. That girl was starting to get on Weiss's nerves.
"Allllright! Let the match... begin!" Prof. Port raised his weapon above his head. A simple design, being a blunderbuss with two axe heads attached perilously close to the users face. With a single downward strike, the lock holding the cage door was destroyed. The flimsy metal door fell with a crash, revealing a blur of black. The grim inside, a boartusk, immediately charged Weiss at breakneck speed.
Weiss held her blade close and deflected the charge, pushing the grimm away. The monster stumbled towards the edge of the stage before turning to study her. She held Myrtenaster close to her chest. Despite it's thin blade, her rapier was more than capable of taking a full on strike. And her revolver-like firing system was just as hard to break. "Ha-ha! Wasn't expecting that, were you?" Prof. Port laughed
"Hang in there, Weiss!" Ruby yelled in a high pitched tone. Weiss gritted her teeth in annoyance. Why couldn't she just shut up? Was it hard? What affliction caused her to not be able to leave her to her work! With a look of pure anger, she rushed towards the boartusk in an attempt to stab it's head. It reacted in kind. Both of them went for the kill shot.
Weiss drew the short end of the stick, and lodged her weapon in the tusk of the creature. Enraged, it thrashed around in a vain attempt to dislodge the weapon and student from itself. Weiss fought to reclaim her only means of defense from the grimm, holding on with an iron grip as she was thrown around. "Bold, new approach. I like it!" Prof. Port yelled in approval at her aggression.
"Come on, Weiss, show it who's boss!" Ruby's voice seemed to taunt Weiss. In a lapse of judgement, she turned to Ruby and glared. As a result, she ever so slightly loosened her grip on Myrtenaster, and the boartusk saw this. With a mighty shake of his head, the grimm tossed Weiss away from him, and dislodged the weapon from himself. It slid to the other side of the room.
"Oh-ho! Now what will you do without your weapon?" Prof. Port asked in childish glee at the interesting fight in front of him.
Weiss stared up at the grimm. It seemed to smile at her as it lined itself up for a final hit. With an angry squeal, it charged towards her.
Weiss quickly dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the boartusk as it collided with Port's desk. She got off of her stomach and dashed towards her weapon. As soon as she felt the hilt back in her hands, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Weiss! Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath-" There was Ruby again. Her childish "leader." Oh how she resented her for that. Weiss felt dread and anger wash over her as she realized that this was her leader for four years of her life.
With her rage boiling over, she turned to her leader in the crowd, "Stop telling me what to do!" Ruby leaned away from Weiss in her chair. A look of hurt plastered over her face. Good, perhaps now she'd shut up and let Weiss work.
The Boartusk looked like it was trying to do a front flip, but it didn't stop. It just kept spinning in place, gaining more and more speed until it loosed itself from its spot. It came towards Weiss at an impossible speed. Luckily for Weiss, her semblance had her covered. A light blue snowflake glyph appeared in the air. Instead of passing through it, the grimm collided with it and stopped on a dime. It flipped onto its stomach, disoriented and in pain.
Not letting up for a second, Weiss conjured another glyph under her. The new black glyph boosted her into the air. The other wall glyph moved into her path and closed around the boartusk, much to its displeasure. As she fell, Weiss struck through the blue glyph. As the rapier passed through it, the blade sped up. With the extra speed granted to Weiss by her own semblance, she stabbed straight through the grimm, killing it and ending the fight.
"Bravo! Bra-vo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training! I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and... stay vigilant! Class dismissed!" Weiss looked over at her leader in anger before quickly walking out of the class. The rest of team RWBY looked at each other in confusion before setting off after their teammate. Ruby did so especially fast. All while Rexus sat up top and shook his head. It seemed he'd have to clean up after his friend's tantrum, again.
"Can you guys take my stuff back to the room? I gotta go make sure Weiss doesn't make the rest of her time here any harder." Rexus stood and walked towards the exit without looking at the rest of the team.
"Sure, lazy man." Yossif answered as he walked out the door.
By the time Rexus caught up to the pair, they had pretty much already finished their conversation. From around a corner, he heard Weiss insult Ruby. "Not a team led by you. I've studied and trained. And quite frankly, I deserve better. Ozpin made a mistake." He listened as Weiss's heels clicked down the hall and waited until she left to talk to Ruby.
"That was a bit harsh," He walked around the corner and stood next to Ruby, "Even for her."
"Is she right? Did he make a mistake?" She was on the verge of tears.
Rexus looked at her sad state before turning to lean against the near wall. "Maybe," Ruby looked at him, staving off the tears, but only just. "But so what? You gonna prove him right? You gonna prove her right?"
She looked down and clenched her fists. Tears flowed freely from her eyes, but she did not cry. "But Weiss said she trained for this, she said she studied for it. I don't even know what I'm doing."
"So stop being a baby and learn. You gotta start somewhere."
"Easy for you to say," She turned away from him and slowly walked away, head hung low. "You're not trying to lead a team."
Rexus sighed and got off the wall. "At the risk of sounding like Port, let me tell you a little story about myself." She stopped, but did not turn around. "Once upon a time, about a year ago, I led a team of some of the toughest people I've ever known. I was introduced to them, and then told to lead 'em. They hated my guts, because I had never led anyone by myself before. I was like you, nervous, unsure, and way inexperienced in a leadership role."
"This is to make me feel better about myself?" She turned a bit and looked at him from the corner of her eye.
"Eventually though," He continued, "I learned. It took awhile, and a lot of screw ups, but I did learn."
She turned away, believing he was done.
He wasn't, "Moral of the story? We all gotta start somewhere. My team hated me at first, but now I'm pretty good friends with all of them." Rexus walked towards her. "All things considered, you're doing pretty good. Usually leaders have to deal with way more people disliking them. You have two of three on your side." He placed a hand on her shoulder.
"But, she's right! She deserves a better leader."
Rexus turned her around and put both his hands on her shoulders, "Then be better! Not for her, or Ozpin, but for yourself." He removed his hands from her shoulders. "You're doing just fine Ruby Rose, so perk up. And don't worry about Weiss, she disliked me too when we first met. She'll take a shine to you in time."
She smiled a bit, "Thanks Rexus."
He took his hands away from her, "No sweat, but as a warning, you should probably give her some time to cool off. God knows I've made the mistake of trying to reason with a still angry Weiss."
She giggled a bit as Rexus frowned at the horrid memory. "That's probably a good idea."
"Mhm, we should probably get back to our dorms before our teams come looking, huh?"
"Yeah. We probably should." With that, the two walked down the hall and back towards their rooms.
Ozpin waited for them to get a bit farther away before walking around the corner. He watched as they walked away, a slight frown on his face. He pondered something silently, before taking a sip from his mug and walking away from them.
It appears that his plan would need some reworking.
"You know, I considered myself a decent mathematician, but Jesus! Would you look at this!" Rexus complained loudly to all present. Those people being a mishmash of three teams, all in pajamas. Anna and Luka sat on their respective beds, Yossif having left to go compare notes with Blake. Yang sat at the foot of Yossif's bed, staring at the first math lesson with confusion just like Rexus. Ren had also made his way into the room, somehow. No one really remembered him coming in. He just sat quietly in the corner, taking in some relative peace while he was away from his ecstatic friend Nora. "I mean, come on, what's with all these graphs man?"
"I...don't wanna do this." Yang leaned back onto the bed and placed her hands on her face.
"No joke." Rexus tossed the notes to the side with the smallest hint of malice.
Anna looked over at him, "You better pick that up before you go to sleep."
"What're you, my Ma?" Rexus leaned back and pulled out his scroll.
"What I am is someone who wants to keep this room clean." She returned to going over one of her classes' syllabus.
Yang sat back up and turned towards Ren, "Ren, you're smart right?"
Ren had his eyes closed as he sat against the wall, "Depends," He said, not moving or opening his eyes, "Who am I being measured against?"
"Uhh...Weiss?" Yang replied.
"Probably not." He replied, unashamed.
"Oh cool, guess I'll go ask her for help." Yang said with a shrug. Rexus scoffed to himself. "What? Is that a bad idea?" Yang asked.
"No no it's a fine idea, if you want to get needlessly confused."
Yang sighed and slumped over, "She's that bad?"
"Only in math. You should probably restrict your questions for her to other subjects." Rexus scrolled through his scroll absent mindedly.
Yossif entered the room quietly, a notebook in his hands and a tired look on his face. "Hi Yossif." Luka looked up from her sheets at him.
"Luka. Everyone else." He greeted. Everyone but Rexus greeted him tiredly.
Rexus did it with gusto. "Yossif, my boy! How goes it?"
"You are too loud." Yossif walked to his bed and laid down.
"You're too quiet." Rexus countered, coming back down to his inside voice.
"How are you awake, Rexus?" Yang asked drowsily.
"I sleep once every week like a boss." Rexus responded with boredom.
Ren opened his eyes in alarm, "That...can't be healthy." The rest of the room, excluding Yossif, also looked at him with worry.
"Eh." Rexus shrugged. "But speaking of that, really wish it wasn't Tuesday." Rexus leaned back onto his pillow and sighed.
"Ain't." Yossif stated.
"What?" Rexus sat up quickly and stared at his friend.
"Yesterday was Tuesday, initiation. The day before was Monday, when we all got here. Today is Wednesday. Tomorrow is Thursday." Yossif said while unlacing his shoes.
Rexus looked down and counted on his fingers. "That means...one, two...Three days until I can sleep! Whooo!" Rexus raised his hands in elation.
The rest of the group, once again excluding Yossif, looked around at each other in worry.
Before they could put their worry to words, Weiss walked in.
The entire room leaned away from her, expecting something akin to earlier.
Weiss looked around, "What?"
"You...uh...you good?" Rexus asked, slightly hiding behind his scroll.
Weiss scoffed a bit, "Yes, I'm fine."
"Did you...make up with Ruby?" Rexus asked, bracing for fury.
Weiss walked over and sat at the foot of his bed, "Yes. I did."
"Oh," Rexus stopped hiding and sat up straight. "Really? Just like that?" He asked in disbelief.
She got a little frustrated, "Is that so hard to believe?"
"No, not at all." Rexus quickly answered.
Weiss looked around the room at all the unsure looks she was getting. "What?" She asked. Everyone looked away.
"Well, it's getting pretty late, I should probably go back to my room." Ren said as he stood.
"Yeah, me too." Yang also stood.
"But, I just go here." Weiss protested
"Yeah, stay a bit longer Weiss, I can tell you some stories!" Rexus said happily as he moved to sit next to her.
"On second thought," She stood and moved to the door, "I should get to bed early so we aren't nearly late again."
"Aw, you're no fun." Rexus said as he laughed a bit.
With that, Ren, Yang, and Weiss walked to the door and started to leave.
"Goodnight everyone." Ren said with a yawn.
"Night guys." Yang said while stretching
Weiss went to offer her own goodbye, but Rexus beat her to it. "Goodnight, Weiss." He said with a wave.
She smiled at him, "Goodnight, Rexus." She quickly looked at everyone else. "And goodnight to you guys, too." She quickly left for her room, followed by the others, leaving team LYAR alone.
Yossif turned to see Rexus still smiling at the door. "Rexus and Weiss sitting in a tree."
"Shut it." Rexus said, an embarrassed smile on his face.
Both Anna and Luka smiled at the exchange. Pretty soon, everyone got ready for bed. And soon after that, Rexus was the only one still awake. He stared out through a window at the shattered moon. His thoughts wandered for awhile, like they always did at night, but they eventually stopped on a mental image he had conjured. His team, team RWBY, and team JNPR, all standing around and enjoying themselves. Rexus didn't know what these four years would hold, but he hoped it would be good.
And he'd be damned if it was boring.
Well Damn, was that a piece o' piss or what? I hope that it was at least somewhat worth the wait. If it wasn't, I'd sure appreciate some criticism. Anyway, I thank you for taking a little interest in my hobby. I think I finally have a groove down.
As always, have a good day!
And don't Die!