Pyrrha Nikos could only sigh as she returned from her morning jog. For the third day in a row, the bed beside her own was once again empty.
Pyrrha pushed through the door, and headed for her closet. She reached for her towel and brought one of the many sets of uniforms she had with her to the bathroom.
The morning was much like the others she had these past few days. Her lack of a partner being present wasn't something that would affect her too much, but Jaune's absence was starting to affect the rest of Team JNPR.
Jaune had effectively abandoned them, all in pursuit of his goal of being a "hero" whatever that meant. Pyrrha understood it as being competent as a future Huntsman, to live up to the legacy his family had. She could empathize with wanting to live up to the expectations of other people, but Jaune was being idiotic.
Pyrrha pushed the thought away, instead focusing on soaking in the shower she was currently taking part in.
Everything just felt wrong to her, she thought Jaune was different. She thought that Jaune could be her first real friend since achieving her status as an icon.
"Foolishness." Pyrrha muttered, the word directed at herself.
"Pyrrha?" A voice called out to her followed by several quick knocks.
"Yes?" She replied. "Nora?"
"Yup." She answered, accentuating the "P" sound. "Not to rush your shower, and I can understand just soaking in the water. It feels really nice, and the philosophical thoughts you can get are super amazing too, but-"
"Nora." Ren's muffled voice from farther away lightly scolded.
"Oh right." She said. "Shirou's here, and he brought breakfast!"
Pyrrha blinked. Then formed a light smile on her features, perhaps she was a fool. Thinking that Jaune would be the one to give her real friends, when she'd already made one herself through the simple act of helping someone open a locker.
Shirou Emiya stood in the hallway in between the RWBY and JNPR dorms. Two rather sizable stackable metal containers were in his hands. He would've preferred wooden bento boxes, especially when serving food to Rin, but he was sure that she'd be able to see the practicality of these containers rather than the larger Bentos.
Shirou knocked on the JNPR dorm once again. A moment after Nora had made a gap and popped her head through.
"Yes?" She asked.
"Just give me a shout when Pyrrha is ready." Shirou lifted up one of the containers. "You and Ren have a share of the food too."
Nora's eyes went wide. The door suddenly slamming shut. Shirou raised a brow, but his confusion did not last long.
PYRRHA HURRY UP! SHIROU HAS FOOD FOR ME TOO!
Shirou fought the urge to remind her not to scream her lungs out this early in the morning. Instead he turned, and directed his attention to the door behind him.
A quick knock, and Shirou stood back.
He of all people knew that Rin wasn't much of a morning person. He strained his hearing for a moment, and heard nothing from behind the door of the RWBY dorm.
He knocked again. "Hello? Is anyone awake?"
Shirou's Scroll hummed in his pocket. He was sent a message, and from Ruby of all people. "Just come in." It read. He blinked, and somewhat hesitated in entering the room.
"I'm coming in." Shirou steeled himself, he hoped this announcement would give ample time to anyone who was in a less than decent state. Pushing through the door, Shirou could honestly see no one in sight. Only four lumps on each of the beds that seemed to move on occasion.
One of the lumps in particular squirmed until a head of red tipped black hair popped out from under the covers. "Oh, hey Shirou." Ruby greeted followed by a yawn. "Why're you up so early?"
Shirou simply raised both arms showing off the metal containers. The hooded hun-er, pajama wearing huntress in training's silver eyes widened in recognition. "Breakfast by Shirou!" She squealed causing the rest of the room's occupants to jerk awake.
Though, Ruby's excitement was swiftly quelled by a pillow launched at her face that knocked her back onto the bed.
On the bed beside Ruby's, a rather unhappy looking white haired girl sat. "You better have something good, Emiya."
"It's Shirou, Weiss." Ruby defended. "It's always gonna be good!"
"Okay, fair." The white haired heiress nodded. Then turned back to the auburn haired male. "Alright Emiya, what meal is here to enchant these poor defenseless girls?"
"Well…" Shirou said. The metal containers clicking as he unlinked them from one another. It only took one of the containers being opened and the scent of whatever was in it suddenly filled the room. A pair of amber eyes went wide. "So this first containers has-"
A hand was firmly rested atop the container. All eyes were on the raven haired beauty who simply looked Shirou dead in the eye, and attempted to bring the container towards her.
"I guess…this one is going to Blake?" Shirou questioned.
Blake simply nodded slowly and retracted her hand with the container following suit, her eyes not once leaving Shirou.
Ignoring what had just transpired, Shirou unveiled the remaining three containers. Yang's eyes seemed to be immediately attracted to the katsu, which Shirou simply slid over to her.
"Yep, it's official." Yang opened the container housing the Katsu. "Shirou is my new favorite person."
"Didn't you try punching through his head?" Blake asked.
"Shut up, it's my turn!" Ruby could be mistaken for a basketball with how much she was bouncing in place. Her excitement was palpable as she waited for Shirou to unveil the last two containers with baited breath.
Though what came next wasn't what she expected.
"An omelet?" Ruby's head tilted. "Oh wait! I didn't mean to sound so disappointed-!"
"I understand." Shirou chuckled. "This is just to balance out your diet a bit. You could use a bit more protein Ruby, especially on days where you have strenuous classes."
Yang seemed to nod in agreement. She was liking Shirou's reasoning, though perhaps it was because she herself did similar things for her diet.
"Sorry Shirou, I didn't mean to sound ungrateful."
Shirou simply placed a hand on Ruby's head. "You can apologize by eating and staying healthy."
"I can do that!" Then swiped a fork from somewhere behind Shirou and took a bite of the omelet. Ruby's eyes widened. "It's so soft and fluffy! It's almost like-"
"Like a souffle?" Shirou smirked.
"You did this on purpose?!"
"Just because it's a simple omelet, doesn't mean I'll slack." Ruby could only stare wide eyed at Shirou and the cloud in omelet form that was handed to her.
"You spoil her, Emiya." Rin added.
Shirou wordlessly handed her a container of her own. Rin could only blink, not because of what was inside but what it represented to Shirou. The Hamburg Steak is a somewhat easy dish to make, but it was one of the first dishes that Shirou Emiya had learned to make for his foster father.
He'd told her the tale once they had gone out to eat in London and she'd ended up ordering the dish for Shirou.
Shirou was the type of person who wore his heart on his sleeve. If he felt something then you'd know, but when Shirou had laid his eyes on the dish in that restaurant he quieted, and simply enjoyed the meal in silence as if speaking was an affront to the dish.
To have him make it for her, it meant a lot.
"It looks delicious, Emiya." She simply said, a light smile decorating both hers and Shirou's features.
"Jeez, get a room." Yang teased.
"This is the room." Rin countered.
"Okay okay." Shirou cut in. "No need to get into a fight during breakfast."
"Yes mother." Rin countered.
A round of laughter went around the room, Shirou couldn't help but join in. Though it was cut short when the sound of rough knocking could be heard from beyond their door.
When Shirou had opened the door, he didn't know why he wasn't surprised to find a giddy Nora bouncing in place with a near manic grin. Ren was doing his best to keep her restrained while Pyrrha looked the same as ever.
"I hope we aren't intruding?" She asked.
Shirou stepped to the side. "You're just in time." He led the way into the dorm with his hand. "The food's still warm."
Nora had practically shoved herway inside. Shirou smiled as he sat the others down, and served them their meals.
"Delicious as always, Shirou." Pyrrha smiled.
"I aim to please." Shirou returned the smile, then caught the faintest movement of the door to the dorm move. He let out an internal sigh, he supposed there were people just as set in their ways as he was.
"Shirou?" Pyrrha titled her head.
"It's nothing." Shirou smiled. "My mind just wandered for a moment." Then moved to place another plate of food on the table top.
"You made a lot of food, Shirou." Nora spoke.
"I suppose I did." Shirou shrugged. "Maybe if someone decided to come by and have breakfast, this impromptu get together would be livelier." He hoped that did the trick, but knowing how stubborn people worked (As he was one himself) it probably didn't.
"No way!" Ruby exclaimed. "I'm glad we have these little get-togethers, but no more people should come." Ruby defensively corralled off her plate with her arm. "If more people come, then that means less of Shirou's food goes to us."
"Careful sis, if you keep thinking like that you're gonna have trouble swinging Crescent Rose around your body." Yang offhandedly commented. "I mean it's not like you're exercising regularly, when was the last time you went for a morning jog?"
"Now now, no need to be hurtful." Shirou circled the room, and found a spot that he deemed suitable to sit on.
"Yes mom." said Yang, earning a chuckle from Ruby and Blake.
"Calling it now." Nora said in between bites. "Today's gonna be a great day."
"Nora's a liar." Ruby grumbled, her head meeting her desk as boredom overtook her.
"How dare you?!" Nora said in a hushed whisper behind her.
Shirou couldn't help but chuckle as he listened in, but he'd be lying if he said he was an avid enjoyer of the Plant Sciences class. He could see the use of the class, after all Huntsmen and Huntresses were expected to go out into the wilderness. Knowing what plants did what was a useful skill.
Rin who sat beside Ruby slid a small piece of paper in front of the silver eyed girl.
"Name a common berry found in Vale's wilderness." It said.
"Huckleberries." Ruby fought the urge to laugh. Rin nodded as her partner answered. Shirou smiled, it reminded him of the days in London where she'd help him with his classes.
Professor Peach stopped her monologue at the front of class, then glanced at her watch. "I think that's a good place to stop." She turned to Shirou. "Mr. Emiya, could you collect the reports I had made from last time?"
Shirou simply stood, and began going around the room. Then happened upon Jaune in one of the chairs at the back, he looked horrible. His eyes were swolen, most likely from a lack of sleep.
"Jaune." He began, which stirred Jaune from his stupor. "Your homework?"
The blonde fiddled with his hands for a moment before presenting Shirou with a stack of papers. "Jaune, the assignment was six pages at most."
"Yeah…I know." Jaune yawned. "Those aren't all mine." Shirou quickly went through the stack, and found the names of Team CRDL right underneath Jaune's paper. The handwriting was sloppy, and slanted in some pages.
"You're being foolish, Jaune." Shirou said then walked off.
"What do you know?" Jaune muttered.
Shirou paid that comment no mind, and eventually returned to his seat. Their next class was a self study period which was to be overseen by Professor Port. Some of the room's occupants had left the moment they'd handed in their papers, while some like Blake had brought out their novels.
He felt a prod in his back. Pyrrha had motioned to Jaune with her head.
"He's being stubborn." Shirou simply said, and turned away.
"Shouldn't we do something?"
"Being told what to do won't go well with him." Shirou replied. "I know I never listened when someone tried to get me to do anything."
"Shouldn't we still do something?"
"You're too kind, Pyrrha." Shirou smiled. "But Jaune has to see what the consequences of his actions are, he's your partner. He's supposed to act like it." Shirou stood up from his seat and walked over to the empty seat beside Pyrrha.
"He's had no formal training." Shirou whispered. "I doubt he even went to primary combat school."
"Neither have you." Pyrrha countered.
"But not all of us are gifted in the ways of violence." He recalled Jaune's fight against Cardin. "You are Jaune's crutch, without you covering him he's practically worthless as a combatant. It might sound cruel, but its true. He needs to be trained extensively, be built from the ground up."
"Then help him." Pyrrha said once more.
"He's too proud to ask." Shirou leaned into his seat. "He needs to get a harsh dose of reality, he won't get anywhere without help."
"Shirou, you're not making any sense." Pyrrha sighed. "You say we need to leave him be now you're saying we should help?"
"Quite the conundrum, isn't it?" Shirou shrugged.
Pyrrha shook her head. "What do you suggest we do?" Shirou moved to speak, but Pyrrha raised a hand. "Please make sense this time."
"Jaune wants to realize his dream, but he can't. He's too inept at combat, and while he could reach a level of proficiency, it would take him years." Shirou began. "To offer your help while he's like this. Jaune would simply throw your help back at your face. You need to make him come to you for help, but therein lies the problem."
"He's allowing his pride to blind him." Said Pyrrha, now understanding what Shirou meant. "To help him is an insult, so we do nothing."
Shirou nodded.
"But the question remains: What do we do?"
Frankly Shirou didn't know, it all hinged on how Jaune acted. If he continued brooding then the best course of action was to do nothing, but if he asked for their help then he would help Pyrrha if she wanted him to.
"For now we stay our course." Shirou fished out his Scroll. "Let's give him time to figure out what he really wants."
As another day came to a close, Shirou and Rin could be once again found within the general training area. They'd come earlier than usual, which meant there were still students within the room using it for their own means.
Though most of them kept to themselves, and were obviously staying out of their way. Shirou could feel their gazes on him and Rin, they weren't exactly being subtle.
Some of them never turned their backs on them, as if expecting an attack from their direction.
"You're dense sometimes." Rin had lunged forward with Myrtenaster. Shirou took a step back, leaning on his back foot before riposting and forcing her back.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked as they circled one another.
They clashed once again.
"Our little display in the mess hall a few days prior." Rin grunted as she pushed Shirou and broke their clash, she offered a thrust in response. "You almost used lethal force, and let out a bit of murderous intent. You didn't think people wouldn't treat you differently because of that?"
"It was never a problem before."
"Shirou," Rin breathed. "We were in the presence of mages." She mouthed the last part. "A lot of them were scum, most of them were practically used to feeling it everyday. Of course no one would mind, it would be like asking a fish how the water was."
Shirou brought down his rapier onto Rin's hand. She let out a yelp as she dropped Myrtenaster. "No fair!" She said.
"You need a better grip on your weapon." Shirou smirked and dismissed the nameless rapier. "And while I appreciate the fish analogy, it wasn't necessary. I understood the first time."
Rin sighed, as her hand shimmered. The cut that Shirou had made on the back of her hand vanished not long after.
"Aura still amazes me." Shirou offhandedly said.
Rin punched him in the shoulder with a reinforced fist in response.
"You'll heal." Was her response when he voiced a complaint.
"Do their glares bother you?" Shirou asked, rubbing his shoulder.
"I got used to being the center of attention back in high school." Rin countered, then smirked. "I seem to recall you had your attention on me as well, Emiya."
"Did I?" Shirou looked away.
"I've always looked up to this girl named Tohsaka Ri-"
"Alright, I get it." Shirou huffed. "You don't forget anything, do you?"
"Just the unimportant things." Rin chuckled. Her gaze drifted past Shirou. He followed with his own and spotted Jaune who was seemingly taking the brunt of Cardin's blows from his mace. "I don't think that can be called sparring anymore."
"I don't think that was the intention." Shirou followed up.
"Should we do something?"
Shirou continued to observe the beating, and sighed. He was no fool, nor was he lacking in common sense. Jaune and Cardin were not friends, to call them anything remotely close would be an affront to the word.
Jaune took a knee as the shower of blows paused for a moment.
No sane man would take this much punishment and continue to keep going without voicing any complaint. While Shirou took similar beatings during the war; no one who knew him during that time would necessarily call him sane.
Cardin knew about Jaune's situation, somehow he'd figured it out or perhaps Jaune was going around telling people he'd snuck into the school. While he doubted that Jaune was that foolish, at this point Shirou wouldn't cross out the possibility.
He turned to Rin.
"Shall we call it a day?"
Rin raised a brow. "You're not going to jump headfirst into that?" She gestured to Jaune being beaten. "Seems like a good place to step in."
"Ignore him." Shirou simply said.
Rin blinked. "Emiya?"
"Yes?" Shirou tilted his head.
"You are Emiya Shirou, yes?"
"Yes, I am." He smiled. "I've always been, Emiya Shirou. But as it turns out I'm not impervious to change, this shouldn't come as a surprise."
"Sorry, I suppose it just caught me off guard."
"Let's go get dinner." Shirou turned away. "What would you want?"
Rin caught up to him with a light jog. "Surprise me."
It wasn't that late, right?
Coming back at 11:04 in the evening when she had a make-up class at around 6:00 wasn't unreasonable. Yang sighed, the more she thought about it the more she didn't believe herself. She might as well just take what she could get, and head straight to bed.
The door swung open, and she paused.
Weiss was on the floor. Not in the sense that she was unconscious, but in the sense that the girl was doing push ups.
Yang couldn't help but stare, and the white haired heiress noticed that.
"Welcome back." Weiss greeted.
"Hey." She trailed off. After all this time, she hadn't really seen Weiss do anything like this. Though if she thought back to the night they arrived at Beacon; Shirou mentioned something about a nightly pushup routine.
"What's with the staring?" Weiss asked her as she continued to rise and fall.
"It's nothing, just…" Yang's eyes drifted down to her exposed midsection. Weiss was only in a sports bra as her top, meaning she had just gotten back from her nightly training with Shirou.
Weiss' clothing hid her physique really well.
"60." Weiss said, then paused in her push up form with her arms extended. Then stood up with a huff, strands of her white hair stuck to her face with her sweat.
"60 huh?" Yang began. "Is that your usual?" Her eyes drifted all around her body, she noted how well defined some areas were. But Brothers help her, the girl was cut. Weiss had a set of abs that made her jealous, especially when she wanted to look like that too, but she could just never get the results she wanted for some reason.
Weiss shook her head. "It's usually just 50." She stretched. "But since Shirou fed me enough food to choke someone to death, I decided to kick it up a notch." Weiss let out a breath. "I think I'll sleep well tonight, if I do then maybe doing three sets of 60 should be my new norm."
A hundred and eighty push-ups before bed. Now she was starting to understand how Weiss had blown her away with one hit that day.
"Something on your mind?" She asked.
"Where is everyone?"
"Blake is out." Weiss huffed. "Something about needing to calm down."
Yang raised a brow. That was a suspicious way of wording it, did Blake have a problem? She shook the thought away, that wasn't a good thought to have. Blake was just introverted, and she'd dealt with enough to know that if an introvert wants some alone time you give it to them.
That left one other person.
"And Ruby?" Yang asked.
A shrill voice echoed out from the dorm's bathroom. Yang couldn't help but chuckle as her question was answered.
"How long has she been in there?"
Weiss shrugged. "I saw her with a stool."
Yang plopped herself down onto her bed. Weiss doing something similar, but sat more on the edge. Obviously preferring to not get any sweat on her sheets.
A swift silence made itself comfortable around the two. Weiss continued to do her cool down stretches, while Yang on the other hand felt she should say something. She wasn't exactly doing a lot of reaching out after their little fight. Although there were a few moments where they seemed to get along, the others were always involved to quickly fill in any gaps.
"You're going to get wrinkles if you keep doing that." Weiss said. Yang turned to the heiress and raised a brow. "Your face, you were thinking so hard your face was scrunching up."
Yang felt a bit sheepish.
"Don't pressure yourself." Weiss continued. "I know we've both put our issues behind us, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're supposed to be best friends." She smiled. "Do what comes naturally, and I'm sure we'll get along."
"Damn, why you gotta be so mature." Yang groaned. "We're supposed to be the same age. Jeez, rich people don't play around."
"It's got nothing to do with being rich." Weiss chuckled, then her expression grew somber. "I just had to grow up really quickly."
Part of Yang wanted to pry, but she knew better. She had her own demons, and Weiss had hers. Heeding Weiss' words, she just sat there just in case the white haired heiress wanted to share what was on her mind.
She never spoke, but Yang didn't mind. If she needed a hand then she'd be there for Weiss, it was the least she could do.
Shirou let out a breath, his nightly routine had steadily grown to accommodate his needs as the years had gone by. Before it had only been reinforcing objects, then by the time he'd gotten to London he'd thrown in projection into the mix.
But there was always room to be better.
Shirou's dimly lit room shimmered with teal light, a construction of the first weapon he'd seen since coming to Remnant.
A large red and black scythe came to rest in his hands. His breathing growing labored as he began to feel its heft. His mind flashing images of its inner workings.
Wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong.
His own mind was telling him that this was a perversion, it wasn't a sword. "No shit." He muttered. Of course a scythe wasn't a sword, but he knew which part his mind meant.
Shirou dismissed the projection with a sigh. Part of him wondered why he was trying to make firearm when his very nature went against it, while the other more illogical part of him said: be better.
For the umpteenth time, Shirou sighed. Then once more let loose the teal energies. He shut his eyes allowing himself to focus on the structure of the weapon that his mind could understand. Then his mind wandered, flashes of a barren snowy landscape came to the forefront of his mind. The swords that were scattered around made it unmistakable.
Unlimited Blade Works.
The world that was his very soul. It used to make him feel warm, a reminder that his dream was beautiful despite how many times he'd have to lay his life on the line. But now it resembled nothing like it, but he still felt drawn to it.
He was fine with this change, he didn't mind the cold. In fact for some reason, he welcomed it.
Pyrrha Nikos paid no heed to the empty bed beside hers, and simply stood up and went about her morning.
"Pyrrha, when is Jaune going to hang out with us again?" Nora asked.
"I don't know, Nora." She replied, her facade faltering somewhat. She placed a hand on her fellow redhead's shoulder. "But I'm here, and so is Ren."
Nora smiled.
A set of quick knocks rang out. Ren opened the door to reveal Shirou, already dressed in his uniform. Weiss stood by him with her signature cool expression, and Ruby's head popped up from behind the pair.
"Seems that our friends are here." Ren said.
Pyrrha couldn't help but smile. "Indeed they are." Then rushed off to class.
"You seem to be in a good mood." Shirou spoke beside her.
"I suppose I'm realizing that I have other people that I'm supposed to care for aside from Jaune." Pyrrha continued to gaze forward, and watched as Ruby dragged Weiss in an attempt to go faster.
"Hurry up! Professor Geel is going to look at us like we're idiots again." Ruby cried out.
Pyrrha chuckled, but part of her understood the feeling. To be silently judged as you only did your best was not a welcoming feeling.
"Ruby's right, let's pick up the pace." Pyrrha decided to help out the younger girl.
Ruby let out an enthusiastic "Wohoo!" Then rushed ahead. The door to the classroom was ahead.
The moment Ruby opened it a deafening bang had sounded off. She froze as Ruby fell back.
Sand had coated Pyrrha's shoes, but her attention was on Ruby. The girl was white as a sheet and even trembled, but she was alright. That was what mattered.
"Impressive, very impressive Mr. Emiya."
Pyrrha looked into the room, and saw Professor Geel armed with a large cannon like device that he held like a rifle.
But when did Shirou get in front of Ruby?
Pyrrha blinked, she was sure Shirou was right beside her a moment ago.
"I don't think I approve of this method of teaching, Professor." Shirou spoke and lowered his hand, the ebony falchion in his hand vanishing after a moment.
"It was only a sandbag, Emiya." Professor Geel lowered the weapon. "Even then, Miss Rose has her Aura. It would've left nothing but a bruise."
Pyrrha had to register the events that had transpired for a moment. Shirou had rushed in front of Ruby, used his Semblance to create a weapon, and accurately cut a projectile aimed at Ruby. Pyrrha couldn't believe it, but she'd seen it for herself. Shirou had done all that in the span of Ruby opening the door and Professor Geel firing.
A thought that made her shiver with excitement and horror occurred to her.
Shirou had been holding back all this time.
"Don't look at me as if I've done something wrong, Emiya." The older man continued. "Teachers at Beacon are allowed to teach in any way they see fit, and this is how I wanted to do it today."
Shirou did not move, and continued to stare down the man.
"Alright then." Professor Geel sighed. "I suppose this will allow me to segue into the lesson proper." He turned to the side, looking to the other students that were seated. "I require a Team of volunteers to join me and face off against Mr. Emiya."
Pyrrha's eyes narrowed.
Was Professor Geel going to beat Shirou in front of the class?
"We'll do it." The voice of Cardin Winchester rang out, then he placed an arm around the shoulders of the scrawny male beside him. "My Team and my buddy: Jaune."
"Excellent, now get down here." Geel huffed. "The rest of you get to your seats, class is now in session."
Pyrrha hesitantly went, and immediately sat in the front row. Weiss plopped down in the seat beside her. The white haired girl's expression was that of annoyance.
"He slipped up." Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose.
Pyrrha didn't know what she had meant, but was ready to jump in at a moment's notice if need be, but Weiss had muttered something that had calmed her nerves a bit. Because if she was right, then this wouldn't be much of a fight.
"Make it believable, Shirou." Weiss had said.
"The rules are that of a standard spar." Professor Geel began. "If your Aura is low enough then you're out, but with the added caveat that I am unable to strike you. All I will be able to do is fire at you from a distance." To make his point he loaded a long magazine of ammo into his weapon.
"Rubber bullets." He said. "It won't kill, but they're weighted in a way that would knock you out even through your Aura."
Shirou settled in his stance, and traced Bakuya this time.
"Only one?" Geel seemed to be curious. "Overestimating yourself?"
Shirou did not respond, and instead kept his eyes trained on his opponents. Cardin and his band of goons had circled him, Jaune seemed reluctant but did the same.
Four of them rushed Shirou. Russell was the first to come into striking distance, armed with a pair of his own daggers he'd swung at Shirou.
All it took was a step back. Bakuya descended down on his weapons after the missed strike, and suddenly he was down a weapon. Quickly, Shirou restrained his other arm, then put Bakuya to his throat.
Everyone else was stunned.
Shirou made eye contact with Geel, but he wasn't deterred and raised his weapon. A shot rang out, and Shirou had allowed his hostage to take the hit for him.
Shirou rushed forward with Russell going along for the ride. Geel unloaded a few more shots all aimed at Shirou which he made Russell take. He was honestly impressed that his Professor was this good of a marksman, if it weren't for the fact that he could react to them this bout would have been over the moment the first shot was fired.
He threw Russell and dove for Dove. Their swords clashing before Shirou ran Bakuya down the length of his opponent's blade. Dove moved to throw Bakuya off his blade before Shirou could reach his hand and potentially disarm him. A sound tactic.
But he didn't notice the fist Shirou had thrown.
Dove crumpled the moment Shirou had connected with his chin. Kanshou was traced immediately after as his Professor rained down more shots on him.
It was child's play. Bullets were nothing compared to Noble Phantasms from the King of Heroes.
Shirou brandished the twin falchions, and eyed his opponents. Jaune and Sky moved in tandem this time. Sky's halberd reached him first.
A click.
Shirou quickly kicked the halberd away from him as a shot rang out. He cursed under his breath. Did everything have to be a gun?!
Jaune let out a shaky battle cry as he swung at Shirou. The latter responded with a harsh kick aimed at this shield which sent him rolling back then turned his attention back to Sky. He found it odd that the Professor wasn't taking any shots, even if they weren't necessarily the most threatening, the thought of being fired on was enough to keep him from diverting too much of his attention elsewhere.
Frankly, it was clever.
The threat of being fired upon was enough to keep him distracted, at least for a bit. Allowing those who would opt for a melee to be more free in their movements.
"Move!" Cardin roared, and slammed his mace down. An explosion that rushed towards Shirou in a narrow cone lit up the arena. Sky had jumped out of the way, but before he could effortlessly do the same, several shots rang out and Shirou was peppered with a volley of rubber bullets.
Shirou deflected a few bullets, then became increasingly aware of the encroaching explosion. This was bothersome, he'd need to stand out a bit just to not waste anymore time.
"Trace on."
The sound of Cardin's explosion rang out, and dust and smoke obstructed vision. Cardin's hearty laughter could be heard, while some in the stands were silent. Pyrrha had a dangerous look on her face that passed over Jaune, then settled on the Professor.
But when the smoke cleared.
Shirou was gone.
In his place was a large object embedded in the floor. A weapon made of pure stone that seemed to have been chipped and sharpened to even just look remotely close to a weapon. Shiou stepped out from behind it, and took a few steps back.
He took a breath, and thought.
Two strikes, then he'd forsake the weapon. It was too draining to recreate the strength needed to wield it.
Then Shirou vanished.
Jaune barely had enough time to jump out of the way before Shirou had descended onto them. The weapon made contact with the floor and everything broke, the force was enough to send him flying and Sky too from the looks of it.
Cardin tried to fight back, but Shirou had met him halfway and swung the stone behemoth. Cardin followed in his teammate's footsteps and was sent flying.
"Please end this, Professor." Shirou said.
Professor Geel had his weapon still drawn, but lowered it with a smile. "I suppose this is my loss." Then moved to place his weapon on his table, then proceeded to take out his Scroll. "Now, Professor Goodwich will be arriving shortly to fix the damages and chew me out, not necessarily in that order. Now before that happens, let us segue into our lesson proper. Can anyone tell me what it is?"
Several confused looks were seen among the students.
"Did no one read ahead?" The militant professor sighed. "I'd assume since so many of you seemed to dread my class that you'd at least come prepared."
Now several students cringed at that comment.
Among them two hands shot up from the crowd. One belonging to Pyrrha the other Rin.
"Well well…" He glanced towards Shirou. "I'm glad to see that I do still have students in this classroom." Professor Geel gestured for Shirou to sit, then spoke Rin's new name.
"The handouts say minimizing casualties and member identity." began Rin. "It's the rules of engagement for advanced team fighting."
Geel let a nod of acknowledgement be seen, then turned to Pyrrha. "Nikos, tell the class where our little squad failed to do so."
"Member identity is crucial for any engagement, some battles can ignore this if the individual is skilled enough. However…" Pyrrha glanced in Shirou's direction and not at Cardin's to make a jab about him him being incompetent like many had thought. "With a dangerous enemy such as an older Grimm, the identity of each of the members and what they must do is imperative to survival."
"Then what would you have done?"
Pyrrha pondered on it for a moment. "Say Shirou was a powerful Grimm, the general rule would have been: Cardin at the vanguard since he's the most physically gifted among them." Shirou could feel the disdain in her voice as she said that. "Russel is the quickest, and would be able to keep circling the Grimm for a flank, Sky and Dove are secondary offenses; they're to step in when Cardin would need backup, and if you were present Professor you'd keep the Grimm suppressed with gunfire."
"What of Arc?"
"He doesn't belong there." Was Pyrrha's simple reply.
Shirou saw Jaune's face contort, part of it was anger, the other knowing she was right.
"A fair point." As Professor Geel continued, the doors to the classroom suddenly swung open. "Well hello Glynda, nice to see yo-"
"Save it!" She snapped, and with a single motion of her riding crop fixed the classroom. "I already have enough on my plate, so please don't destroy anything else." She pointed her riding crop at Shirou surprisingly. "That extends to you."
Shirou sighed, and nodded.
"Now, let me borrow Mr. Emiya." Glynda said. Professor Geel raised a brow.
"You're going to take the only student who makes sense in my class?"
"Spare me, you have the likes of Miss Schnee and Nikos. I'd even make a case for Miss Rose." Ruby perked up a bit at the sound of praises being sung at her. "Now, Mr. Emiya get up."
Shirou rose from his seat and sent a glance at Rin.
"You're not excused from cooking me dinner." She said.
"Hai hai." He replied and left with Glynda.
Upon exiting the classroom, Glynda marched onward. Not even bothering to look at him as she walked.
"Did I upset you?" He began.
"No." Glynda replied. "I suppose it's just dawned on me that you're not the average student." She produced a tablet and showed a humanoid shape lunge forward. It was clear that it was him in the recording. "It's clear that you don't understand the significance of me showing you this, but the camera that recorded you is meant to track students who have speed altering Semblances."
They stopped in the middle of an empty hallway.
"Any normal student would have seemed to be going normal speed or slower upon being caught on camera." Glynda continued. "However, you are much faster, and that doesn't make sense. Your Semblance is the creation of bladed weaponry, and yet you're displaying feats that blow other Semblances out of the water." She turned to him. "You have your secrets, and you have a right to them, but harm any of these children and you will know no rest."
"I believe you." Shirou replied after a moment.
Glynda straightened herself out, and sighed. "My apologies, but you have to understand why I'm suspicious of you. People infiltrating the Huntsmen Academies for their own reasons aren't unheard of."
"You're just trying to protect your students." Shirou nodded. "I respect that, but you should know that I'm also trying to protect those that matter to me."
"I've noticed." Glynda smirked. "Threatening to skewer people in defense of Miss Schnee is a bit extreme, but it's sweet in a way."
"It isn't like that."
"No need to explain yourself to me." Glynda gestured for them to continue walking. "Though, I've heard you volunteered to be part of the protection detail for our class excursion in a few days."
Shirou raised a brow. "I didn't volunteer."
"Didn't you?" He could see the sly smile on Glynda's face. "Your name was on the paper I put on Thumbelina's desk."
Shirou could only sigh once more, an act that he was sure to repeat many more times during his stay at Beacon Academy.
A/n: Hope everyone enjoys, and I'm sorry for the delay. I don't really have much to say other than the usual leave a review cause I like reading those.