[A/N: not much to say other than a reply to a review.
To Momentei: Thank you for the review. And I have taken your concerns to heart, and you do not have to worry. Siegfried will NOT be getting into any more life or death fights, at any age under 10 (as I have some things planned for when he's 10), like last chapter, that was mostly to set the stage for Adam's past, for his branding, as well as introduce the some of the Arcs. And the only ways I could think to get Adam to appear was, a.) have him he part of an assassination attempt, where he is beaten then captured, but have Siegfried inspire some hope in the boy. Or b.) Have Siegfried go to a mine with Jacque or Winter at some point, where he would witness the branding, but he unable to stop it, but he would try and end up ruining his cover against Jacque and still fail to save Adam. The later option would have interfered with my future plans for Adam. I personally believe that Adam had too much potential as a character, and the way the series killed him off didn't do him any justice, a simple double stab throught the front and back, and all he says is "oh" followed by him falling off a cliff into a river with a waterfall. Seriously there could have been so much more for that!
Ahem... sorry for that. So I obviously went with option A.
Disclaimer: Me no own me just fan.
Siegfried sat against the basement wall and watched his sister strike the wood log, he had somehow managed to drag down there, repeatedly with her practice rapier, until she lost her footing and ended up planting her face onto the floor.
Weiss picked herself up and sat down while she hugged her knees, while sniffling, and tears clear on the edge of her eyes.
Siegfried sigh, stood up and approached his sister.
"Hey... wanna stop for today?" Siegfried asked.
Weiss nodded, pitifully.
Siegfried sighed again.
This had become their daily routine since their third birthday, last year, they would sneak down to the basement, Siegfried would teach her the basics of fencing, then he would have her practice with him in a very light spar, and then after that he would have her repeatedly hit the log with her practice sword, to help build muscle memory, but she would get hurt often and they would stop for the day when she did, even asking at this point had become nothing more than a formality. After that she would go back up to her room and play, while leaving Siegfried to practice his glyphs for a few more hours, before he had to stop so as not to raise suspicion as to his whereabouts.
He would have done more physical training for himself in that time but for the past year his young body had been in constant muscular pain, a consequence of fighting as many intruders as he had as well as his subconscious use of Crane Wing Three Realms. He could barely move the day afterwards.
Willow had of course noticed and had a physician look at him. Turns out his muscles had all but disintegrated, and he was lucky to he able to walk afterwards. So Siegfried had resolved to allow his muscles to completely rebuild themselves, which would, according to the doctor, would take another 2 years or so, so only light physical training for him, just to help prevent his muscles from atrophying.
And yeah he knew his way of training Weiss was a terrible way of teaching her, but hey, he never said he was a good teacher in the first place.
But today was going to be different than normal days because now Siegfried and Weiss now have to go to the worst thing known to existence, something that was in his top 3 of most hated things.
"School..." Siegfried thought with sharp narrowed eyes.
He had gotten extremely tired of School, he had gone through it twice over, and each time it had been a complete waste of his time, especially when he could have been practicing magic, in both lives.
Siegfried knew there were schools, but the only ones he knew were the combat schools and the hunter academies. He had hoped that the combat schools also doubled as normal schools, that way he could sneek off to train instead of actually going to class, he only needed to pass the test they hand out, which are for subjects like math and english, anyways so it wouldn't be much of a problem.
But according to Jacque and Willow, the combat schools are strictly for combat practice and high school only, and normal schools do in fact exist.
For those who are wondering the huntsman Academies are also counted as colleges, and do give normal courses for the mundane non-aura empowered students, with some huntsman in training taking a few for future application.
Siegfried groaned.
"Great... and Jacque still hasn't forgotten about my words to him last year! Which I fucking guarantee is the reason he's putting me in a different class than Weiss." Siegfried thought.
Yep Jacque had put Siegfried in a class in a school in Mantle, with Weiss going to the same school but a different class.
"Well... I guess I don't have to go to school with all of the annoying, spoiled, rich brats here in Atlas." Siegfried thought, then he returned his attention to Weiss.
He stuck out a hand to her.
"Come on. We gotta get back upstairs, we have school today, we got to shower and change. It's our first day, we can't be late." Siegfried said.
"As much as I hate mundane schools like this, Weiss doesn't have a proper education, I'll put up with it for a while, I'll look into things in Mantle during the school hours. Maybe there's someplace that I can get materials from, or something?" Siegfried thought.
Weiss nodded and took his hand with tears still on the corners of her eyes, which Siegfried noticed, and wiped them away.
"And no more tears okay... seriously you want to he a huntress right?" Siegfried asked
Weiss nodded.
"Well you need to be strong for those who you wish to protect, so no tears. You can cry when your alone or with someone you trust or care for dearly, but when you train and when you fight, you need to be the picture of calm." Siegfried said to his sister.
"Eh? But... I trust you. And I care for you. And you said training was over for today. Why can't I cry now?" Weiss asked with a tilt of her head.
Siegfried actually took a step back at her sound logic.
"I-It... makes me... feel bad... when you cry..." Siegfried muttered.
Hey it's his one weakness. He can't stand it when women cry, he gets pissed at the one who made them cry, and feels like an ass when he makes one cry.
Like the old saying goes: "a women's tears are every man's kryptonite."
He can tell when the tears are real or fake, so it won't be a distraction in the future, like if a female enemy tried to make him distracted just by crying...
Hey it could happen, ok. Siegfried could speak from experience... it was how he learned to discern what was real and what what wasn't when it came to crying!
Anyways...
Weiss brightened at his words, but didn't say anything, which Siegfried was immensely grateful for.
The two cleaned up their training equipment and left the basement to go bathe and get changed into their school uniforms.
The uniforms weren't really uniforms, as they weren't required to be worn, but the school, and Jacque, frowned up the lack of uniformity, so it was heavily encouraged.
I.e those who don't wear them were labelled as delinquents, even if they were children.
"Stupid teachers and their using peer pressure to make students wear uniforms..." Siegfried mentally growled, as he gazed at his reflection in the full body mirror.
The uniforms were simple black pants, with a white button shirt, and a black blazer, basically the stereotypical school uniform from Japanese anime.
The blazer had a pin on the left side in the symbol of a white staff with a white ring around it. The symbol of Mantle/Atlas. The symbols were actually meant to tell which relic is in what kingdom. Vale has a laural wreath with twin axes, the Wreath is the true symbol, as it represents the Crown, with the axes being a clever front to hide the true purpose of the symbolism. Vacuao has the Swords, which obviously represents the sword. And Mistral has the winged Lamp, which is obviously where Djinn's lamp is.
Seriously how obvious could those symbols be!? The only one with even remotely smart camouflage was Vale's.
Siegfried shook his head out of his mental rant, and left his room and headed down the stairs of the manor.
A five months pregnant Willow, Weiss and surprisingly Winter were already down at the main door waiting for him.
Winter had come back about two months prior. Apparently the 13 year old girl had been going through military training, not official military training but she had been doing a sort of ROTC program where you train to get used to military life, and to train your body, mind, aura and semblance to join the Specialist program (a sort of huntsman for the actual military) upon graduation from Atlesian bootcamp, which applicants can only join when they turn 15. Anyways the girl was currently on leave until she turns 15, but she didn't slack on her training.
Siegfried would often see her perform combat training drills early in the morning.
He was surprised to see her because ever since she got back she would purposely avoid any contact with him, and to be honest it was starting to annoy Siegfried.
"Are you two ready for your first day of school?" Willow asked.
"Yes!/No not really." Weiss and Siegfried, respectively, say at the same time.
Willow ignored his words and focused on Weiss' cheerful one.
"Alright! Let's get going!" Willow cheered.
Siegfried watched the woman with a soft smile.
Willow had mellowed out her drinking, in the past year, and was slowly starting to heal.
Siegfried frowned again.
He knew it would last only until their 10th birthday, when Jacque finally reveals his true nature, then she'll fall into her old habits and become a recluse, a paranoid one that sets up the cameras neccessary to bring down Jacque. Which means... Siegfried will have to restrain himself from helping Willow with her problems, no matter what.
Anyways...
Willow led the two children, plus Winter, to their private vehicle, which was a literal white limousine as a hover car.
Siegfried deadpanned at the vehicle, seriously no matter how many times he sees it, it will always astound him at how certain things would show up even in completely different worlds with no form of shared history... although... that may be because of Zelretch bringing random people here, or some bullshit like that.
Siegfried mentally shrugged, at his thoughts, before he entered the back of the Limo, and took his seat to Weiss' left followed by Winter who sat on his own left side.
Willow had been the first one in and sat on Weiss' right, so the older members of the family could "protect" the younger in case the need should arise.
Not that Siegfried really needed the protection, despite his damaged muscles his aura was still as strong as ever, and he could easily rain down several glyph daggers on any that attacked them, but he digressed.
The driver of the limousine, introduced himself as Dopey Klein, which made Siegfried slightly nervous for obvious reasons, before their drive to school began.
The drive was... uneventful, seeing as Siegfried didn't have a window seat, so he couldn't watch the sights that passed by, and he couldn't even practice his glyphs, seeing as Willow and Winter don't know he has his semblance awakened, somehow, meaning he was pretty much bored the whole way.
He resolved to carry a book tomorrow, that way he won't be bored.
But after 20 or so minutes the limo touched down in the parking lot of a large white and black checkered building, with a sign that read "Mantle's School for non-huntsman."
Siegfried deadpanned at the sign.
"Seriously?... that's the best they could come up with? Then again according to what Willow had mentioned once, this school deals with Kindergarten all the way to highschool, unless you transfer to a combat school... so I guess that makes... some sense." Siegfried thought with his deadpanned stare.
Weiss had also noticed the sign and clearly shared his thoughts.
For some reason a sense of pride bubbled into his chest.
"Come you two! We don't wanna be late for your first day, Winter you'll take Siegfried to his class and I'll take Weiss. Since it's the first day a parent or a legal guardian has to be there! And since Jacque couldn't make it, you'll have to stay with him for the first day, then you can go to your own clases tomorrow." Willow said to Winter, who nodded.
"Oh that's right... Winter also goes to this school." Siegfried remembered.
She had taken an extended leave of absence from the school, in order to go through with her training, it was most likely approved by Ironwood, seeing as Willow and Jacque didn't know that she went for pre-military training until she had returned.
Boy was Jacque furious when he found out.
Siegfried mentally chuckled as the memory of Jacque turning an angry red before he exploded at Winter and tried to smack her and forbid her from joining the military, only for her to grab his incoming hand and judo flip her father onto his back.
That day left Siegfried feeling the happiest he'd ever been since he'd been reincarnated into this world.
Anyways, after she explained who would stay with who, Willow left with Weiss to said girl's class, leaving Winter and Siegfried... alone.
An awkward silence settled upon the two as they began their trek to Siegfried's class.
"Say something! Or better yet ask her why she's avoiding me!" Siegfried thought to himself.
Siegfried nodded at his thoughts.
"(*ahem*) so... is there any reason that you've been avoiding me since you came back?" Siegfried asked, awkwardly.
Winter stopped for a second and turned to Siegfried.
"What would lead to to believe I am avoiding you?" Winter coldly asked.
"You mean you not?" Siegfried asked sarcastically.
"No ypu are correct I am avoiding you, I was just curious as to how you figured it out." Winter stated
Siegfried rose a brow.
Her answer had almost no emotion to it.
He narrowed his red eyes.
"Winter... what did you do..." It wasn't a question.
"... now is not the time nor the place for this conversation... if you meet me somewhere ... more secure I will explain later tonight." Winter said in a hushed tone, and she wearily glanced around.
"Oh?" Siegfried thought.
"Very well... Tonight... the elevator, punch in code 0000." Siegfried whispered to his older sister.
Winter rose a brow in confusion, not knowing that there was a code 0000.
Siegfried sighed.
"Seriously? Not even Winter knew there was a basement?" Siegfried thought exasperated.
"Look just punch in the code and the elevator will do the rest, meet me there afterschool at around... 19:45." Siegfried sighed, using military time since he knew Winter prefered to use that since she returned, he'd be down there after school anyways, to catch up on his missed training from that morning.
Winter blinked. She didn't think he knew military time, it made her wonder what else her younger brother knew.
"Alright then... I'll meet up with you at 19:45 sharp." Winter agreed hesitantly.
Siegfried nodded.
The two then continued their walk in silence, until finally they entered a rather beat up hallway. The hall looked like it constantly had to be repaired until the school just gave up.
Winter paused at the sight, knowing exactly which hall way they were in.
Siegfried noticed her pause.
"What's up?" Siegfried asked.
"Nothing... just this hallway. It's where a lot of Aura empowered Faunus children are assigned. They have been known to fight often with the other Aura empowered human children... and the class you've been put in is the worst." Winter said with obvious concern in her tone.
"What on Remnant is Jacque planning... to send Sieg to that class..." Winter thought in worry.
Siegfried noticed her worry, and rose a brow.
"And let me guess... a majority of the class has children of parents who openly hate the SDC... and by extension the Schnee line..." Siegfried sighed.
Winter nodded, feeling disgusted at their so called "father".
"Of couse... just my luck." Siegfried sighed and thought.
Siegfried then straightened as they approached a very beat up classroom door. The door had several claw marks on it.
"I'll go get the teacher you just wait out here." Winter said hesitantly.
Siegfried nodded.
Winter then knocked on the door, and after a few seconds a woman with long white hair, red eyes and bunny ears poked her head of the slightly closed door.
"Yes? Can I help you?" The woman asked.
"Are you Ms. Lily Scarlatina?" Winter asked firmly.
"Yes, yes I am." The newly named Lily Scarlatina said.
"I am Winter Schnee a student here, and this is my brother Siegfried, he is here to attend your class, and I am his... escort." Winter said.
"A Schnee? Being assigned to our class? Has your father finally let go of his racist actions and behavior?" The woman asked.
Winter suppressed a chuckle, and was about to reply when Siegfried spoke up.
"No he is still his usual racist, parasitic self." Siegfried said.
Lilly looked at the boy.
White hair and pale skin like all blood related Schnees.
His eyes however were... unusual, they were ruby red, with slit pupils tjat were reminiscent of reptilian faunus heritage but different, the boy's were more jagged and seemed to spike outwards while still remaining in a single slit.
Her faunus instincts told her those eyes were very dangerous, and to run away from the one who possessed them.
But she held firm.
"Why do you mock your own father?" Lily asked with a rose brow.
"Well the only thing he is good for is mocking material. And when it comes to him being my father... in blood yes... but I refuse to acknowledge that Parasite as a human being let alone as my father." Siegfried said casually, which surprised both Winter and Lily.
Winter because she had assumed the boy would take after Jacque, due to how detached and arrogant he seemed to Winter.
Of course she had never seen him when he played with Weiss, so you can't really blame her.
Lily was stunned at how intelligent this 4 year old was, as well as how he openly said his own father was less than human and nothing more than a parasite.
Lily smiled awkwardly, unsure of how to proceed, but decided to just introduce Siegfried to the class.
"W-well then... shall we go and meet the rest of the children?" Lily asked.
Siegfried shrugged, while Winter gave the faunus woman a rather greatful look, clearly she was uncomfortable with the situation as well.
Lily led the two into the the classroom and as soon as they entered the class went silent.
Siegfried gazed around the room and noticed that nearly all of them were faunus or Half-faunus, and two humans
Half-bred faunus were easy to tell as, dispite not having any faunus features, they were forced to have a tattoo of their animal heritage under their right eye, a cruel way of letting people know that they weren't completely human and are more mutt than the normal faunus.
Or at least that was the message, Siegfried truthfully didn't like it at all.
Lily directed him to take a seat, which he did in the back as per his old habits from many... many years of doing this over and over again, while Winter went to stand behind with the parents at the back of the class.
Lily cleared her throat, and began the first day of school speech, which Siegfried turned out, not wanting to hear the usual "I'm your teacher for the year" crap.
After the speech the class was called up one by one to introduce themselves.
Siegfried wasn't interested, he just wanted this day to be over with.
When is was his turn he stood and walked to the front of the class, like all the others.
He faced the class and cleared his throat.
"My name is Siegfried... nice to meet you." He said casually, purposely omitting his surname, "My likes are swords, books and cooking, My dislikes are racists, rapists, and a certain parasite. My future goal is to be a huntsman, and take back my family from that parasitic pretender." he finished.
The parents and Lily were stunned, most of the other students were simple and not very detailed, which was expected for a four year old, not... what Siegfried had done.
He ignored the stares and returned to his seat.
Lily blinked, but then called the rest of the class up one by one.
Siegfried groaned in exasperation as he sat down at a lunch table, alone.
Due to his introduction that morning and the fact he was an obvious Schnee the parents told their kids he was best avoided, which honestly was fine with him, he's not here to make friends, he's only playing along for Weiss' sake, she needed this not him.
He sighed as he looked at his lunch, a simple Turkey and cheese sandwich, with a rather large serving of Ravioli on the side, the later of which he was almost drooling about.
Siegfried took his fork and was about to mutilate- I'm mean eat, a bite of the tomato sauce covered goodness, when he felt someone behind him, about to grab his hair.
Siegfried ducked instantly and a glyph blade appeared in his right hand, while he spun and used his left hand to grab the arm of his attacker.
In the next instant the glyph blade was placed against the neck of a boy three years older than him.
The boy had long messy blong hair and two feline ears on his, a lion faunus.
The cafeteria went silent when someone pointed the scene out, and they sat there and watched curious as to what would happen.
"Let me go Schnee." The lion boy spat out Siegfried's last name with venom.
"Careful now anymore venom in those words of yours, and we might need to get you some antivenom." Siegfried teased before he actually let the boy go, but he didn't dismiss his blade.
The lion boy blinked, before a savage grin was on his face.
"What ever you're thinking, don't do it..." Siegfried said.
"Oh? and why not Schnee." the lion boy demanded.
"Cause I'm not looking to kill you." Siegfried said casually.
The lion boy blinked again but guffawed.
"Ha! Like you... could..." The lion trailed off as 20 glyph blades appeared and surrounded him.
"Next time you wanna try to bully me just remember this moment." Siegfried then kicked the boy in the nads and sent the blades down to the boy, and with pinpoint accuracy, the blade caged him in, using the space between each limb to form a psuedo Tepee of blade.
The lion boy groaned and glared at the other boy, as he gripped both his nads and one of the blades, he then growled and aura built up into his fingertips, and formed claws of aura, and squeezed and the blade he held cracked
"Oh? You already have your aura and your semblance unlocked, not bad, who knows you might be make a good huntsman." Siegfried said as he dismissed the blades which cause the lion boy to fall down.
Siegfried knelt down to the lion boy.
"Ya know... Lions are known as the king of the jungle right?" Siegfried said the boy, who looked up in confusion.
"They're strong, the female lions hunt for food, while the male... well can you guess what the male does?" Siegfried asked.
The boy shook his head, actually curious as to his animalistic heritage.
"They protect, the males stay with the old and the young, those who can't protect themselves, and protect them from other predators who would love nothing more than to take a cub from the pride and devour it. Male lions are natural born protectors." Siegfried answered.
The lion boy felt a spark of pride in that regard.
"And Lion's also symbolized kings, they were on the coat of arms of many Kings, and their knight, and were emblazoned on their shields to symbolize not only their Kings, but their Pride as Knights, and believed that the Lion on their Shields would give them the strength to Protect not only their kingdom but their families." Siegfried said.
This only furthered the pride the Lion faunus felt.
"And when I look at you... I am disappointed that your lion heritage is being used to simply bully others, instead of protect." Siegfried glared at the boy whose eyes widen.
For Siegfried the image of a short blonde woman dressed in a blue dress with knight armor appeared in his mind, a lion in all but appearance.
"You sully the honor of the Lions who came before you. If you wish to change this... then get strong... protect you're family. And if people call you an Animal, so what! There's a reason animal ruled this planet before humans, survival of the fittest, use your animalistic abilities to be the best, to protect not put down!" Siegfried said as he pointed his only remaining blade at the Lion boy whose eyes eyes were wide.
The entire cafeteria of faunus children was silent.
Siegfried held out his hand to the lion boy who was still on his knees.
The boy silently took the offered hand, and was promptly lifted to his feet.
The lion boy then let go of his hand and turned away to leave, and began to walk away.
Siegfried expected that, the boy was still a child after all, he doesn't have the mentality to change yet, but it was better to say what he had before the boy becomes a worse bully, or even worse joins the white fang in the years to come.
Currently Siegfried's goal was to inspire pride in who and what they are to the faunus, and what better place to start than in a school filled with faunus, just like he did with Adam. But for this boy he had another reason...
But that's a thought for another day.
Before the lion boy was out of earshot the boy stopped.
"Raiga... Raiga Shishio, that's my name, remember it... cuz in a few years it'll be the name of a famous huntsman, got that!?" the lion boy said.
Siegfried blinked... he wasn't expecting that, but nodded.
"Huh... it seems I've become better at speeches... well at least better the 'people die when they are killed' yeah not my best speech..." Siegfried thought to himself.
In all honesty he thought the speech was a bit cringey... but hey... it worked right?
Siegfried shrugged to himself, before he returned to his lunch, only to pause as he saw that in his earlier haste to dodge Raiga's grip, he had knocked over his lunch, with his Ravioli having spilt all over the table.
•
•
•
Siegfried sighed in heavy sadness.
"Dammit..."
[A/N: Finally done... sorry would have updated sooner, but recently my family had to put our dog down... she... had a spinal injury while she was playing with my brother one day, and it slowly got to the point where she couldn't walk with her rear legs and yet still felt immense pain in them, the medication the Vets used didn't reduce any of the swelling that had cut off the use of her legs. And after the last time one of our dogs was in constant pain and fear due to him having a brain tumor, and having random fits of seizures... we thought it best to put her down and save her any more pain. And on top of that we recently moved states so, sorry for the inconvenience.]