Chapter 5: combatant
"Congratulations, to those of you who retrieved a relic." Ozpin begins, his gaze never leaving a the quartet of students who had been in the most danger. The four girls had been given proper medical treatment, and he can tell that their aura is working overtime to heal them. "To those who didn't, or those who never found a partner, I'm afraid this is the end of your time at Beacon. You may try again next year. There are airships waiting to return you to Vale." Nearly two hundred teenagers grumble and shout as they exit the auditorium. The remaining first year students glance between each other uneasily, suddenly realizing that there are far fewer of them than there should be. "For those of you who remain," His eyes sweep over the twelve teens before him, "please follow me into the next door auditorium."
The group enters through a side door of the auditorium, exiting near the stage. Seated already inside are their seniors, the huntsmen in training who were accepted before them.
"Please, remain here for now." Ozpin says, as he walks onto the stage. He comes to a stop before the microphone stand, and clears his throat. "Welcome, students, to the yearly team selections." The senior students holler in excitement. "This year, due to extenuating circumstances, there will only be three first year teams." Whispers break out. A few of the elder students seem to have already been briefed on what happened, as their gazes flick to a certain group of girls. "Now, without further ado!" Ozpin waves a hand, and a large holo-screen appears behind him.
Pictures randomize on the screen, before displaying four boys. "Our first team! Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark, and Russel Thrush!" The four boys saunter onto the stage. "From this day forth, you will be known as Team CRDL. Led by Cardin Winchester!" Three of the boys pat another on the back, and as they walk off the stage, pictures begin randomizing on the screen once more. "Our second team!" The randomizer spits out four pictures. "Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, and Jaune Arc!" The four make their way onto the stage. Jaune, in particular, looks sick to his stomach. "From this day forth, you will be known as Team JNPR." At that, Jaune pales, looking more sick. "Led by Jaune Arc!"
"L-Led by...?" Jaune mumbles, as Pyrrha claps him on the back and leads him off the stage. Ozpin smiles at the boy, as the screen behind him spits out the last four pictures.
"And our final team. Yang Xiao-Long," The blonde swaggers onto the stage, grin on her face. "Blake Belladonna," The dark haired girl sighs as she walks forward. "Weiss Schnee." The pale girl grimaces as she walks, gently rubbing at her still-healing shoulder. "And Ruby Rose!" The cloaked girl limps onto the stage, beaming wide. "From this day forth, you will be known as Team RWBY! Led by Ruby Rose!"
"Good on you, sis!" Yang slugs her sister on the shoulder. The four girls share a soft smile and exit the stage.
"Before we all leave," Ozpin continues, "there is one last thing I must mention. No doubt, some of you already know what I am about to say." A few of the students nod and grin. "Starting tomorrow, we here at Beacon will be welcoming a new combat instructor to our staff." Ozpin holds out a hand. "Please, introduce yourself." A streak of red blurs into existence beside him, and the room explodes in chatter. Dressed in a long red cloak and donning a skull-shaped mask, there is no mistaking who this is. The Grimm Harvester.
"Hello, students." The Harvester says, "I'm sure you all know my moniker. The Grimm Harvester. But, as I will be teaching here, I think Professor Grimm Harvester is a bit of a mouthful, don't you?" She chuckles, and lowers her hood. She hesitates for a second, before removing her skull-shaped mask. The students shout, excitement growing. Silver meets silver, though with the bright spotlight, Carmine is sure no one truly notices her eye colour. Ruby and her team, and the rest of the first years, stare up at Carmine in awe. "My name is Carmine Rosemage. Please, refer to me as you wish."
"Okay so if I... and then... maybe...? No, no, I should..." Carmine mumbles, pen madly scribbling across several sheets of paper. The faint lamp-light barely covers her desk, straining her eyes. Behind her, several large black-boards are filled with notes on team compositions and proper stance guidance. After a few minutes, she smiles and lets her pen drop, satisfied. "Yeah. Yeah, that works."
"Last minute lesson plans?" Carmine startles, eyes darting to Ozpin, who is standing in the doorway of her new classroom.
"Well, if someone hadn't sprung a job on me last minute, I would have these done already." She snarks, making him chuckle. She shuffles her papers and sighs, "Is there something you need, Oz?"
"I assumed you would want to know that I finally managed to contact Qrow." Carmine's head snaps up and she smiles.
"That's great! When's he gonna get here?" Ozpin checks his scroll,
"He said he will be here by Friday morning."
"Friday... Friday..." Carmine mumbles, thinking back to her Beacon days. "That's when Peach and Glynda are taking the kids out to Forever Fall, right?" Ozpin nods.
"Indeed. Glynda understands that she might not be able to make the meeting." Ozpin's scroll dings, and he scans the newest message. "Ah, good, he's available as well." Carmine frowns, cocking her head to the side,
"Who?"
"Well, every huntsman needs a team." Ozpin says cryptically, "Based off of Team RWBY's composition, I figured you work best with long-range dust support, a mid-range stealth specialist, and a close quarters combat operative."
"Okay... and? What does any of that have to do with our plans?" Ozpin levels her with an 'are you kidding me' stare.
"Carmine, I'm not sending you and Qrow out alone to deal with several highly-trained enemy combatants. Nothing against either of your skills, but if you were to die, any and all knowledge of yours dies as well." Carmine can't argue with that logic.
"You've got a point there." She says, "So, who is who? I know Qrow is a mid-range stealth specialist, but the others?"
"Glynda will be your dust support."
"Makes sense."
"And Taiyang Xiao-Long will be your CQC operative." Carmine's jaw drops. She squeaks out,
"Oh." Ozpin raises a brow,
"You seem surprised?" Carmine scratches her cheek sheepishly,
"Well, I wasn't exactly going to tell my dad that I was back in the past...?"
Ozpin smirks, "Then I'm terribly sorry for ruining your surprise."
Let it be said that Carmine has never taught before. She was also never expecting to teach ever. So, this whole farce is a lesson for both parties. She's also getting more and more nervous as Friday approaches. How would her uncle and dad react? What if they... she shakes her head, clearing her thoughts. No, no, she can't spiral like that. Not when she has a class to teach in less than a minute! The door to her classroom opens, and her first year class begins to enter.
Silver eyes dance along the twelve students filing into the room. While her own first year class had nearly forty students in it at this point in time, most of those kids dropped out shortly before everything bad happened. Eventually, her own year went down to just these twelve. These were the twelve kids who knew what they wanted out of a huntsman's life, and were willing to do everything to make it. It's why she told Ozpin and Glynda all about them. They were, originally, going to place only six sets of chess pieces – just enough to cover for these kids. But the Manticore, while a surprise, was more welcome than crushing the dreams of thirty student hopefuls with a carefully rigged system. Now, most of those kids knew what could happen, and were unlikely to try again.
Once the last student enters, Carmine waves a hand, and the classroom doors close. The students jump at the sound, their attention landing on her. She leans against her desk and smiles,
"Welcome, first years, to your first general combat class." Her gaze skips along the students, staying a bit longer on her mini-me. "I'm Carmine Rosemage, though I'm sure you all recognize me from last night." She looks at team RWBY. "And you four, you might recognize me from when I save you from that elder Manticore." The two other teams whisper to each other in shock. A hand shoots into the air, and Carmine raises a brow, "Miss Schnee? What is it?"
Weiss stands, "Professor Rosemage, can you tell us why a Manticore, normally found in Solitas, was in the Emerald Forest?"
"Ah." Carmine blinks. It's not like she can just come out and say that the so-called 'Immortal Queen of Grimm' likely sent the Manticore to scout out the sudden and new magics that appeared impossibly. "We're not quite certain, however, our leading theory is that it spawned due to the high-negativity surrounding the initiation." She smiles at Weiss, "That answer your question?"
"Y-Yes!" Weiss nods, cheeks tinting a bit red as she sits back down.
"As I was saying, welcome to general combat class." Carmine pushes off her desk and walks to the centre of the small arena floor before it. "In this class, I will be teaching you not just how to fight Grimm, but how to fight each other." She waves a hand, and four lockers on the opposite end of the room pop open. "First things first, team RWBY." The four girls look at each other. "Get your gear and get on down here." Yang whoops loudly, as they all rush to gather their weapons and combat outfits. "As they are changing," Carmine says, as the four enter the small changing room adjacent to the lockers. "can anyone tell me what I want those four for?" A hand timidly raises. "Miss Nikos?" Pyrrha stands,
"You are going to demonstrate basic fighting with them." Carmine grins,
"Well, not quite." Pyrrha tilts her head, but doesn't get to ask her question, as the four members of RWBY exit the changing room fully changed.
"What're we doing teach?" Yang asks with a wide smile.
"Why, we're doing a sparring drill." Weiss looks over her teammates,
"Between us four?" Carmine laughs,
"No, no." She wipes a tear from her eye. "You four against me." And then she releases her aura, filling the room with its heavy presence. For a moment, everything tints with a blood red colour. The four members of RWBY pale and clench their weapons tighter. Carmine grins, an odd glint in her eyes. "Well? Let's get to it."
"A-Are you not going to get your weapons?" Ruby asks.
"Nah. That'd be overkill."
No one moves for a while. The four younger girls look at each other and at their teacher, but make no motion to begin. Carmine waits patiently for a few moments, before sighing.
"Guess I'll start then." She says, before she blurs from existence. The girls yelp and look around, eyes wide. Carmine reappears in front of Ruby. Her hands dart out, snatching Crescent Rose from her younger self's hands.
"Hey!" Ruby cries out, as Carmine jumps back, scythe twirling in her hands. "Give her back!" Ruby rushes forward, ignoring her teammate's shouts, and grabs for her weapon. Carmine throws the scythe out of the way, and slams a fist into her mini-me's gut. Ruby chokes, and Carmine grabs her by the shoulder and flings her at a wall, breaking her aura.
"Ruby!" Yang shouts, anger clouding her gaze, turning her violet eyes red. "You'll pay for that!" Yang launches herself towards Carmine. Carmine dances out of the way of her every strike, sending the girl a taunting smile, which only serves to make Yang angrier. "Stay still dammit!" Carmine lets her land a hit against her. Yang freezes. Her hit had done nothing. One of her strongest attacks hadn't even made her teacher stumble a bit.
"My turn." Carmine slugs her once-sister in the face. Yang stumbles back with a gasp, but Carmine is hardly finished. Her hands blur as she attacks. Yang blocks as many as she could, but her aura crackles after a few seconds of the onslaught. A final fist to the face sends her flying, her aura shattering once she hits the ground. Carmine flexes her fingers, and looks at the remaining two girls. "Well?"
Weiss and Blake shoot each other a look and nod. Blake rushes forward, Gambol Shroud in sword form, while Weiss raises Mrytenaster and begins making ice rain down on the field. Carmine dodges the ice, and Blake's slash. She parries the hidden faunus' blade with her hands, ripping it from her grasp with ease. Blake's eyes widen. Carmine's fist shoots forward, and the Blake before her dissolves. Her grip tightens on Gambol Shroud, as she flicks her gaze around. Blake reappears beside Weiss. She hefts the sword up and grins at Blake, before vanishing.
"Blake!" Weiss cries out, as Carmine slams the faunus into the ground, making her aura flicker. The silver-eyed woman looks down at her and raises Gambol Shroud, shifting it into gun form. She fires, and Blake's aura shatters. Carmine drops the weapon, and turns to face Weiss.
"And then there was one." She says, smiling. Weiss looks between her downed teammates and pales.
"C-Can I-" She begins, but Carmine cuts her off, hand closing over her throat. The older woman's smile widens, and she throws Weiss across the arena. Weiss lands with a grunt, the air rushing from her lungs. "...forfeit?" Carmine appears above her, grinning.
"At this point? No." And she slams the heel of her boot into the heiress' head, knocking her out. Carmine cracks her neck, and turns around to look at the rest of the first year students. Eight pairs of eyes are all wide, with varying degrees of horror. "Who's next?"
"You beat up children, Rosemage! All twelve first years are being kept overnight in the infirmary!" Glynda shouts, angrily glaring at her from across Ozpin's office. The man himself is looking surprisingly amused at the unfolding drama. Carmine raises her hands in peace,
"Glynda, ma'am, I didn't mean to hurt them!" Glynda's glare only gets more venomous. Carmine blanches and drops her hands, eyes widening. "I-I just wanted to show them that sometimes a fight isn't winnable! If they'd just forfeited within the first minute, I would have stopped!"
"The only team that lasted more than a minute was Team RWBY! You could have permanently harmed them, Rosemage!" Carmine flinches, hands fisting into the fabric of her pants.
"I-I know that! I just wanted them to know that they're not invincible." She looks down at her hands, at a series of crisscrossing scars across her fingers. "I wanted to show them that, as they are, there's no way they can be huntsmen. That they need to start working and stop dreaming." Glynda sighs, anger melting from her,
"Be that as it may," The blonde shakes her head, "you still went too far."
Ozpin interrupts, "Glynda, Carmine clearly regrets this." He takes a sip of his cocoa. "This is only her first lesson. She's never taught before." Carmine nods. "Surely, you remember what it was like on your first day?"
Glynda huffs, "I was not as bad as Ro-" She cuts herself off with a cough. "-as Carmine."
Ozpin raises a brow, "Glynda, I distinctly remember you sending the students, unarmed, into the Emerald Forest to spar in hand-to-hand." A red tint comes to the blonde's cheeks. Ozpin smiles and turns back to Carmine, "Don't worry about Glynda, Carmine. She's only tough on you because she likes you." Glynda glares at him,
"Ozpin!"
Carmine tilts her head, "So, I'm not in trouble?" Ozpin laughs,
"No, no." He leans forward, "Everyone makes mistakes, Carmine. You just need to learn from them."