ADA's pulses were shot out, like millions of tiny arrows: they travelled in all directions, scanning the area. Millions of tiny echoes came back: their collective information was gathered by ADA's computing system and translated into an image. Black background, with objects represented in shades of grey. The most interesting object was an outline: a person's outline. Female. Lithe. Medium height. Unless you counted the bunny ears.

Velvet was standing like a fencer: knees bent, one leg pointing forward, the other leg orthogonally positioned behind it. Sword arm extended, pointing towards me.

But there was no sword.

Velvet lunged forward; the simulated weight of her hard-light projection clashed against the steel of my blades. We parried, me following her body stance to anticipate where the weapon would strike from. Since I couldn't "see" the range of her weapon, I had to start with a best guess and adapt based on trial and error. Her movements weren't too easy to predict: practicing multiple styles had given her versatility, even though I was pretty sure she wasn't using her semblance yet. At least I was familiar with the types of movements typically employed by sword users. It was a wide range, of course, but I roughly knew what to expect.

As long as she didn't switch.

I saw the arrow coming: Velvet changed form above my head, with one arm extended unbent and the other drawing on an invisible string. In my mind, I drew the trajectory of its flight and got out of the way. Velvet landed on my chest with a kick, pushing me downwards, and I backflipped, landing on my hands and knees. She increased the pace, rapidly changing between weapons and styles: too quickly for me to be able to keep track. Blows rained on my body one after the other, everywhere, incessantly. I no longer had any idea what she was using, what to expect: I was almost back to total blindness, feeling my way through the match, like in the days before I had ADA.

My fighting, back then, had relied heavily on grappling. I'd start by assuming a strong defensive stance and wait for my opponent to make contact first, then grabbed on to them and navigated the fight by touch. The key was to never let go, or at least not for long. This had saved my life early on, but it had its limitations: it didn't work well against opponents who would strike and retreat quickly, never letting me get a hold on them. It especially didn't work well against opponents with ranged weapons, who could strike from afar. Eventually, my developing ability to detect people's location by their auras had mitigated some of the disadvantages: it let me at least know where my opponents were, though not what they were doing. I had made my weapon, learned how to use it effectively, and incorporated more punches and kicks into my fighting style. It had worked well, against most fighters.

But Hunters, even Hunters-in-training, were at a different level. There, the artificial sight provided by ADA had been extremely helpful. And yet, right now, Velvet was proving its limitations.

However, I had my own advantages.

I'd sensed she was employing her semblance now. It was a reasonable assumption, given all the weapons she'd been going through. But I could also really sense it: there was an increase, albeit a slight one, at the rate her aura was being burned. There were changes in her aura shield, too: it was less solid, more doubtful. There were more chances to break through, more weaknesses to exploit.

I rearranged my own aura, strengthening it even more around my head and vital organs, and letting it spread more thinly around the rest of my body. Normally, I'd use it more reflexively: anticipating hits and pushing more aura into the locations where I expected the hits to land. But with such an unpredictable opponent, and the disadvantage of not being able to "see" her weapons, I needed a different strategy.

I lunged towards her, bracing myself for the pain I knew would come. I went fully on the offensive, ignoring the repeated counter-strikes that felt even more forceful and smarting than before. The pain was excruciating, and although my vital organs were protected, some of the damage from the hits was getting through to the rest of my body. But it was working. My assault kept her on her toes, temporarily forcing her into a more defensive approach. I felt her doubt and her nervousness as my rapid blows kept forcing her into decisions on how to counter them. I sensed her aura trembling: millions of interconnected little streams, losing more and more of the synergy that kept them together in a protective whole. The weaknesses were expanding, deepening; and I kept prodding them, provoking them with targeted attacks, constantly monitoring their infinitesimal, but constant changes. Until, at last, one of them became a crack. Not a large crack. A very miniscule one, in fact. If I'd been paying a smidge less attention I wouldn't have even noticed it.

It was enough.

I thrust my hand up, aura rushing through. Velvet raised a new weapon – Yatsuhashi's long sword, I guessed from her pose. As she prepared to strike, my palm, charged with offensive aura, connected with the crack in her shield. I heard her gasp as part of her aura shattered around the weak spot, my blow piercing through in full force. But as I charged in for a finishing strike, I heard the deafening sound of a mini gun firing. It was Coco's weapon she'd been using: she must have held it in an odd way on purpose. That was a clever trick, I thought, as a full round of bullets rained on my body. I fell on my back, panting; Velvet dropped her camera and collapsed on her hands and knees.

"How about we stop for today?" I suggested after a moment.

"Good idea", she agreed. She sounded exhausted. Which perfectly matched how I felt.

We sat on the floor in silence for a while, catching our breaths. We'd reached a degree of familiarity where silence was comfortable.

"Can you show me that thing with your palm?" she asked. "It's the same thing you did to Yatsu, right?"

"It's similar." I got closer to her, took her arm, and showed her the movements. "You have to concentrate on the striking point. For me, it helps a lot that I can sense the weaknesses in the opponent's aura. It lets me know exactly where to hit. But with Grimm, it should also work for you because you can see their physical weaknesses and target them. Maybe we can practice the move together next time."

"I'd like that."

"You're getting more confident with your semblance", I said. "You got a little nervous at the end, but you were doing really well for the most part."

I heard her smile in her voice. "Thank you." Then, her ears drooped a little. "I wish Yatsu would see it that way", she said. "He always holds back so much when we spar."

"Yatsu is a protective guy", I said diplomatically. "Probably even more so with you, since you're his partner."

"I guess." She didn't sound convinced.

My regular trainings with Velvet would have seemed like a bit of an abnormality to most of my peers. You were, of course, expected to spar with all your teammates; but in most teams, it was partner pairs that trained together most frequently. Or the whole team did it together.

I was not Velvet's partner, but I understood her in a way Coco and Yatsuhashi didn't: I knew what it felt like to be perceived as fragile and helpless. So I knew how to approach her. I knew what to say, and, most importantly, what to do. I invited her to spar with me often, and had explicitly told her it was because we could both benefit from each other. I took a genuine, non-patronizing interest in her weapon and abilities. I asked her to help me improve my weapon, pointing out her exceptional skills in engineering. In short, I treated her as a competent equal who had things to contribute.

I knew Coco and Yatsu wanted to do the same. They had good intentions, but their execution could use improvement. They saw that she needed encouragement, so they tried to encourage her with words. That could be helpful to an extent, but too much of it could be perceived as insincere, or condescending: as if they thought she needed constant coddling to function. And Yatsu in particular was overprotective, to the point that it could come across as a lack of real belief in her abilities. He really was holding back a lot when he sparred with her: their matches usually ended with her "winning" by virtue of the fact that he wasn't really trying. Or a sort of weird stalemate where Yatsu's reluctance made Velvet similarly unwilling to hurt him: and then, they were both sort of politely moving around each other without really attempting any kind of attack. It frustrated Coco to no end, and it couldn't possibly be helpful to either Velvet or Yatsu.

With me, Velvet was acting differently. She was somewhat more confident in her use of her semblance and her fighting in general, so clearly we could add performance anxiety to the list of her psychological setbacks. But she was also acting differently on a personal level: more naturally, more freely. As if I was getting past her walls of fearful wariness and formal politeness, getting glimpses of her real personality. She was a nerd through and through: she could talk endlessly and enthusiastically about her engineering projects, and often did so with me after I'd convinced her she wasn't boring me. And like the rest of us, she, too, had a Huntress's protective instincts: she just wasn't showing them as openly to the rest of our team, perhaps out of a fear of offending them. But with me, we had gotten to the point where she would sometimes express worry about accidentally hurting me, or overtaxing me.

"I didn't go too fast, did I?" she asked. Case in point.

"Nah. Besides, I asked you to do that. It's really nice practice, sparring against multiple styles. And the fact that I can't see your weapons makes for a good challenge. I like challenges."

"Coco has been a good influence on you", she teased.

"Well, okay, I don't like challenges as much as Coco does. That girl was born with a turbine up her ass."

She laughed, but then hugged her knees closer to her chest and hid her face between them, embarrassed. "Coco is a great leader. You shouldn't make fun of her like that. I was a little worried about being on a team with her at first, since…" Her voice trailed off, and she left her sentence incomplete. I didn't ask her to elaborate. I knew why. "But she's been so kind. And strong. And confident. And so good at fighting, and strategizing, and everything."

"Easy there, Vel. Coco is a good leader, but don't idolize her so much. No one is perfect. And getting made fun of occasionally is good for everyone."

"It is?"

"Yeah. Keeps them from getting a big head. Or, in Coco's case, a bigger head."

She laughed again, then hid her face. Again. With her ears this time. "Fox!"

"What? It's not like Coco would even care, I say things like that to her face all the time."

"Still. She just wants us to be the best that we can be. Oh! That reminds me! I brought the blueprint for your new weapon design. I made it 3D, so you can explore it by touch if you want."

"Sounds awesome. Can you bring it?"

She did so, carrying back what seemed like a sheet of paper. When she unfolded it, the three-dimensional structure of her design popped up. I ran my hands through it: a familiar act. It took me back to my childhood, when touch was so crucial to my understanding of the world around me. My parents would bring objects to my hands and tell me their names while letting me get familiar with the details of their structure. Sometimes, they made miniature models of larger things out of clay, explaining that the real thing was much bigger.

Even now, touch was very useful. ADA was not perfect with small details, so the feel of the paper on my fingers gave me a wealth of additional information about Velvet's design. I was impressed by how well thought-out it was.

"So the shooting components go here… and that's the activation mechanism. Ammo is stored over there…" I let my hands rest on it for a while. "Velvet, this is amazing. Easy to use, won't interfere with the blades at all. Thank you, really. I wouldn't have come up with something like that in a million years."

"Oh, stop it." She sounded quite satisfied with herself, though.

"I'll get started on it. Should be ready on time for our next mission."

"Are you nervous for this one?" she asked.

"Nah. I mean, all freshmen missions are kind of boring. Especially the early ones. Coco was complaining about it, but really that's how they're supposed to be. We're not expected to be doing anything really advanced yet. Besides, we're just shadowing pro Hunters, so we should be fine."

She nodded. "I wonder what our escort will be like."

XXX

"Cadets!" the Huntsman barked. Beside me, Velvet jumped to attention, her bunny ears shooting straight up. "My name is Roy Ackroyd. I will lead you through your first mission. It is a simple one: we will patrol across the mountain range bordering the residential district and destroy every Grimm we encounter. There is only one rule: you do what I tell you, when I tell you. I can send you back at any point, for any reason I see fit. If I think you're not up to snuff, you go back to school to repeat the boot camp. And if you so much as think about disobeying an order, I send your sorry ass back to your headmaster faster than you can say 'expulsion'. Any questions?"

Silence.

"Good." He motioned for us to get into the airship. After we did so, he followed us, closing the door behind him.

"So what are we thinking?" I sent to my teammates as the airship ascended towards the sky. Our escort was at the front, talking with the pilot about something.

"Meh", Coco said.

"Meh?" Velvet repeated, in complete disbelief. "Coco, this guy will toast us if we step half a foot out of line. Didn't you listen to his speech?"

"Yeah. Big whoop. I could have done it better."

I believed her.

"Anyway", Coco continued. "I stand by what I said. Not impressed. I thought we'd be escorted by one of the professors. This guy seems green."

"Green?" I sent. "Coco, you are literally a freshman on your first mission."

"I'm not the professional getting shadowed", she countered. "What are this guy's credentials, anyway?"

Yatsuhashi looked it up on his scroll. "Roy Ackroyd. Graduated from Beacon academy twelve years ago. Leader of his team, top of his class. Throughout his years in Beacon, he accepted a few missions that took him to Atlas and made some connections there. He worked for a couple of years as a teacher in one of their combat schools. Later, he got an offer to enlist in their military, but rejected it in favor of freelancing. He returned to Vale, but has been accepting missions in all Kingdoms: sometimes solo, sometimes leading temporarily formed teams of other freelancers. There's a list of his missions: it paints a pretty impressive picture."

"He has a baby face", Coco said.

"He has a baby face?" Yatsu repeated incredulously. "That's your retort? Besides… My esteemed leader, have you recently looked at yourself in the mirror without sunglasses?"

Coco did not respond immediately. When she spoke again, it was in a disbelieving tone, addressed to me. "Did the big guy just roast me?"

"Yep", I confirmed.

There was a brief, tension-filled pause, at the end of which Coco burst into laughter. "Good job, man!" she told Yatsu, slapping him on the shoulder. "I knew there was hope for you."

He just groaned.

"Hey, cheer up", Coco told him. "Your leader just gave you a compliment. If it makes you feel better, was kidding about him having a baby face. I mean, he does, but it's no reason to prejudge someone."

"Why did you say it, then?", Yatsuhashi asked.

"Getting you worked up is funny", she told him. "But we should, of course, conduct ourselves professionally. It's our first assignment and we have to ace it. I really was expecting a professor, but I'm sure anyone selected for this sort of thing won't get us killed, at least." She laid back lazily on her seat, one leg up on it. "This mission will probably be a breeze anyway. A standard Grimm patrol? Please. This is child's play for team CFVY, the best squad in our year led by the toughest and coolest rising Huntress in Beacon."

Her scroll rang before I could make an appropriately sarcastic remark. She took a look at it, then briefly searched her bag. "Oh, I forgot my headphones", she muttered. The scroll kept ringing while Coco just stood there in uncharacteristic indecisiveness.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Nothing", she said. "I'll, uh… I have to take this, give me a moment." She clicked a button on her scroll, accepting the call.

"Hello, my little cocoa bean!" a chirpy female voice filled the room.

"Hi, mom", Coco muttered.

"Oh my, what is that godawful noise?"

"It's from the airship", Coco said. "I don't have my headphones, so I increased the volume. Um… my teammates can hear you, so if you could just-"

"My baby girl is on the way to her first mission!" the voice happily exclaimed. "Oh, honey, your daddy and I are so proud. And your brothers are here too! Say hi, everybody!"

"Hi, Coco!", a chorus of enthusiastic boyish voices echoed across the room.

Her mom spoke again. "We all took a break from our schedules to surprise you! We couldn't let you go on your first mission without wishing you good luck. I know you'll do great! We all love you so much, and we are so incredibly proud of you, sweetie."

"Yeah, we're proud of you, sweetie", one of her brothers piped up.

"I'm older than you!" Coco protested. "And stop smirking like that."

"You said your teammates are there, too?" her mom continued, ignoring the spat. "Let me see them, baby. That's right, move your scroll a little. Oh my gosh, my sweet baby girl with her whole team… I'm going to cry. Hello, darlings!" she shouted out, presumably to us. "It's so nice to meet you all! I hope my little girl is treating you well. Not bossing you around too much, is she?"

Velvet and Yatsuhashi made polite non-committal noises. I, for my part, was just trying to hold back laughter.

"Anyway!" her mom continued. "I'm afraid I have to go now, darling. I have to look over some new designs." I recalled, with some amusement, that the bubbly, doting mother on the call was the CEO of a successful weapon manufacturing company. "But I love you so much! I'm cheering for you! Never forget that."

"Thanks, mom", Coco said. "Um, goodbye then."

"Aw, don't I get an 'I love you too'?"

Coco took a breath. "I… love you too."

"That's my baby girl!" her mom said happily. "Alright then. Goodbye, my sweet little cocoa bean."

"Bye, Coco", her brothers called out in unison.

"Bye, everyone." She hung up. After a few moments of silence, she walked gingerly back to her seat and all but collapsed on it. "Shut your whole entire mouths", she growled at us.

I smirked. "As you command, my sweet little cocoa bean."

XXX

I jumped aside. The Death Stalker's tail slashed through the air; its stinger slammed down on the spot where my head had been and landed on the ground with an earth-shattering thud. Giant pincers snapped on my sides, missing me by a breath. I danced around them and lunged on the monster. Its exoskeleton was hard to pierce through, but not unassailable: it was weaker between segments, and that's where I unleashed a barrage of slashes and hits. The Grimm thrashed wildly in response, its pincers and stinger snapping at me in turns with deadly force.

"Nevermore approaching from northeast", Velvet sent to the channel I'd opened.

"On it", Coco responded. She raised her minigun; I felt the changes in her aura that indicated she was preparing to use it in an offensive way, through her semblance. "Hey, big guy, give Fox a hand with that oversized bug over there."

"No need", I sent. "I'm good. I have this new thing I want to try."

Coco shrugged. She pointed her minigun towards the sky, spraying a deafening round of dust-enhanced bullets on the incoming Nevermore. It was on the smaller side, but it still shook the ground upon landing. Its remains splashed on my face and clothes before evaporating into nothingness.

"Yuck", I sent. "Could've targeted that better."

"I'll put that in our training schedule", Coco replied dryly. "How to properly dispose of the flying remains of your Grimm corpses."

"It might not be such a bad idea."

"Don't be such a princess, Fox. Besides, they vanish. That's their whole thing."

"Who are you calling a – Ursai to your left, running through the trees. They'll emerge in a couple of minutes." Between ADA's warnings and Velvet's enhanced senses, any Grimm that entered our wider vicinity was immediately detected.

"Got it." Yatsuhashi silently readied his sword; Velvet drew out Gestalt in its twin pistols form. "By the way, it's whom", Yatsuhashi added.

I was still jumping around, trying not to get pierced by the Death Stalker. "What?"

"The correct usage is 'whom'", he clarified while slashing the Ursai around him in pieces. "It functions as an object in your sentence: it refers to the recipient, rather than the performer, of an action."

"Dude", I said. "Everyone just says who in colloquial language. Besides, whom cares?"

"No, that's not how-"

"Pack of Beowolves from southwest", Velvet interjected. She'd been quietly supporting Yatsuhashi against the Ursai, catching the faster attacks before they landed.

"I'll get that", Coco sent. "Yatsu, stop arguing about grammar and focus on the Grimm. Fox, if you want to try your new technique, do it already. If you haven't killed this thing by the time I'm done with the puppies, I am going to help you and you are going to like it."

"Fine, fine. Geez."

I focused my aura on my hands. I envisioned the Death Stalker's body on my mind, still and lifeless, like one of Velvet's three-dimensional models. I run through all the gaps in the exoskeleton, all the thinnest parts of the joints: the overview of all the monster's weaknesses was locked in my memory, clear and crisp. And then I charged. My feet danced their way around the vicious snaps of the pincers, the deadly sting of the tail. My blades clashed against the monster's armor, and my aura burst forth, like a running stream, at the point of contact. It travelled across the massive body and pooled under its weakest spots. It simmered there for a bit; then, it released itself, bursting through every spot at once. The Death Stalker exploded from within. Its remains scattered around the battlefield, lingered there for a few seconds; and then, they were no more.

"Could've targeted that better", Coco's voice said in my head. She lowered her mini gun, having finished off the Beowolves.

"Ha ha. Don't I get points for technique?"

"You could've just used your weapon like a normal person. Show-off." She slapped me lightly on the shoulder, which was Coco-speak for "good job, I'm moderately impressed".

In battle,that is. Outside the field it could just mean "get a grip". Or "I like you, but I'm not going to get all mushy on you and express that with words."

"I did use my weapon", I retorted. I just enhanced it a little. It's more fun that way. Don't be jealous."

She snorted. "As if."

"You know, as the leader, you're supposed to provide support and encouragement. Say things like 'Wow, Fox, nice aura manipulation you got there. I really appreciate your unique style'. Be all caring and nurturing and stuff."

"Fine. After we set up camp I'll tuck you in your sleeping bag and tell you a bedtime story."

"Very funny." I frowned. "By the way, when are we setting up camp? It must be getting late. I can tell because I'm getting hungry."

"I don't know. Should be soon, it's getting pretty dark. Go ask our guy, if you want."

I took her advice and approached our escort. He'd been standing a bit behind, carrying our package and mostly letting us handle the encounters. They were nothing we couldn't manage, for now. The valley we'd been crossing, expanding between the mountains, was still relatively close to civilization. It ran across villages and small towns with protective barriers and other patrolling Hunters. But as we went forward, the signs of civilization were diminished, and Grimm encounters got more and more frequent. Our patrol ended close to a remote village at the other side of the valley, but we weren't going to make it there today.

"Excuse me", I addressed our escort. "Sir?"

"Just call me Roy", he replied carelessly.

"Um… okay." I scratched the back of my head. "You sounded like you'd be more of a stickler for protocol."

I heard the smirk in his voice. "I just had to set the ground rules. Make sure you don't do anything stupid. You are a team of freshmen in your first mission after all."

I nodded. "Fair enough."

"And make no mistake, I will be sending you back to school if you disobey orders. But as long as you understand that, there's no need for additional formalities." He paused for a bit. "You kids did well today. You have more synergy than most first-year teams. I think you're going to do alright tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

He nodded. "Today was a warm-up. We're not really in the wilderness yet. The area we'll be traversing through tomorrow has rather higher Grimm traffic. Still nothing unreasonable for your level, don't worry. And I'll be there if things get really rough."

"I see."

He set the package down. "Call your teammates. We're setting up camp. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to personally test your skills before we venture further."

That sounded… dramatic. "What do you mean, exactly?"

He chuckled. "Yeah, sorry, that came off a bit ominous. I was just thinking waking up early and having a light spar before breakfast. Nothing too strenuous. Threshold at ten percent drop of aura, so it'll be replenished by the time we set off. I want to get a better idea of your abilities as fighters, so that I know what commands it makes sense to give you if the need arises."

I nodded. To some, his idea might have seemed a bit redundant: he'd seen us fight the Grimm after all. But some Hunters followed the school of thought that you didn't really know another combatant unless you'd faced them personally.

XXX

"So, do I get a bedtime story?"

"Shut up, Fox", Coco growled from the sleeping bag next to mine.

"Aw. You know, you're not acting much like a sweet little cocoa bean right now."

"Are you ever going to let that rest?"

"Nope."

"Fox, seriously, go to sleep. We have a tough day ahead of us."

"But you promised me a bedtime story."

"Once, there was a young team leader", Coco said. "She loved her team. She had hopes and dreams. But one night, her partner wouldn't let her sleep, so she killed him."

"Rude."