Summary: Why does everyone keep looking at Pyrrha that way?
Adam has doubts about his decision to follow Blake.
Cardin's patience with Jaune's uselessness is exhausted completely.
"Good morning class," a portly white-haired man with an overwhelming moustache said as he walked into the classroom.
"I'm Professor Port and I'll be taking you in Grimm Studies."
The class murmured a greeting to their new Professor, still a little surprised at his... interesting appearance.
"Seeing as this is the first class, I ought to start an introduction of the subject," he said as he wrote both his name and the subject at hand on the board.
"Grimm Studies, as the name suggests, is the study of the Creatures of Grimm. As Huntsmen, our primary duty is to combat them, so understanding these creatures' abilities, vulnerabilities and habits will be essential in doing exactly that."
"Before becoming a Professor here, I was Grimm Acquirement Specialist; my job was to capture and study Creatures of Grimm. I worked for and alongside many organisations, including the SDC, the Valean Ministry of Grimm Countermeasure Studies, and even this very academy before I was approached with an offer to become a permanent resident here. So you can all rest assured that you're in capable hands."
Despite his look, he seems very qualified.
Adam was officially impressed; it was difficult to see such well-seasoned veterans in a profession that generally had a short life expectancy.
Beacon wasn't called the best for no reason.
"We're all familiar with the Creatures of Grimm," he continued, seeing that there were no questions waiting to be asked regarding his background, "The focus of this class shall be on popular Grimm species in Vale."
As he said that, the curtain he was standing before was raised high, revealing cages containing different Grimm Creatures.
He captured all these? Impressive.
Despite being a powerful soldier, Adam had almost no knowledge of Grimm that he didn't earn from firsthand experience battling them. A formal education was something he was sorely lacking and had noticed within himself for years. In all honesty, attending a Huntsman Academy and bringing back the knowledge he gained to the Fang had been a small dream for him, one that he of course knew was impossible.
I'm here, but not for the Fang, not anymore.
With every day he spent in this relatively peaceful environment, his guilt grew. At this very moment, his brothers and sisters shed blood and tears on the field while he sat down in the air-conditioned halls of the most prestigious academy in the world.
Fuck! He shouted internally.
Why couldn't he stop thinking about that? He had made his choice; he was serving his highest duty.
Partially, it was because he didn't feel like he was serving his duty at all. Even while they waited within the city, he had felt a distance from Blake; in some ways, she had shut him out. It had gotten worse since they arrived too; they had barely exchanged a single word between themselves.
What am I here for then? I'm not protecting anything.
"Okay then," Mr. Port announced, snapping the faunus out of his thoughts, "I'll need five volunteers to take on the five Grimm that I've captured."
This is it, Weiss thought to herself immediately after she heard the Professor's declaration, This is my opportunity to get the Invincible Girl's attention; I'll prove to her that I'm worthy of being an ally.
"I volunteer," she said loudly, getting there before anyone else and walking down happily on being chosen.
After a swift change, she stood before the first beast that was let loose. It was a Boarbatusk; a dangerous boar-like creature that operated generally on plains or close to rivers of Vale. Weiss had personally never encountered one but she had faith in her training and was confident in picking up a victory.
It didn't take long for Weiss to make her first mistake; in fact, it was the first thing she did after taking a stance. Her gaze travelled for merely a fraction of a second to see if the Invincible Girl was watching her.
The short moment between her looking away and looking back was more than enough for the beast to land a hit on her.
It's that fast? She said to herself in surprise as she redirected the momentum of the strike and flipped in the air, landing perfectly and once again taking a fencing stance.
In reality, Weiss was one of the students here who had the least experience fighting Grimm. Owing to the climate of Atlas, Grimm species in the area were few. Coupled with the difficulty in capturing the creatures, it was pretty rare for students in Atlesian schools to have face to face experience with Grimm. Whatever practice they got was generally facilitated with simulations incorporating Hard Light Dust technologies.
By no means was it that the Atlesian military and combat schools were lacking in combat ability however, they were after all the strongest military in Remnant. It simply meant that in a first encounter with a beast, they might be set up for a rude awakening like the one she had received just now.
Still, she was an elite Atlesian member and after realising her situation quickly, it was bound to be an easy fight.
I'm fighting to impress, so I have to make this as quick and flashy as possible.
As she thought this, an Acceleration Glyph appeared beneath her feet, propelling her forward with detail-blurring speed, confusing the dark monster.
She continued her acceleration, circling the beast many times with the aid of Glyphs and stopping it from making a proper attack.
Suddenly, she paused holding her blade with two hands in a thrusting stance.
Using one more Glyph, she virtually teleported before her opponent, the blade of Myrtenaster, now coated in a faint orange glow, penetrating it, the beast unable to let out so much as a grunt before falling down.
The match was over, and Weiss Schnee was victorious. She turned to look towards the Invincible Girl, flashing a smile at her.
Pyrrha scratched her head nervously, not sure how to respond to her smile.
Even though it was friendly, somewhere in the Schnee's eyes was the same thing she saw in almost everyone she spoke to.
Hunger.
There was always some desire or ambition behind the smiles that were sent her way, some lust behind every greeting; they always wanted something from her, something other than her. The cold light in those eyes that reduced her to something else other than Pyrrha Nikos, the only thing they said was 'The Invincible Girl'; a brand, a title, not her, never her.
Stop looking at me like that.
Weiss walked back to her seat, oblivious to the emotions her gaze had inspired in Pyrrha.
"That was so cool!" Ruby praised as she returned to her seat.
"It was nothing," she replied, unable to keep the smugness out of her voice.
"It really was nothing," Blake said from her seat directly in front of Weiss, "It was just a show; you used up too much Aura for your little... display."
Tsk.
Weiss clicked her tongue distastefully at her teammate, unable to counter what she had said. Truly, she had burned through a lot of Aura for one move, had she been against many opponents, then it could have been disastrous, but since the point was- as she had said- a 'display', it was a logical move.
Immediately after the exercise, Adam stormed out of the class, desperately in need of some fresh air.
xXx
Cardin walked out of the airship and onto the hot sand of the Pale Desert. As the scorching wind threw sand on his face and into his mouth, he found himself wishing that he'd brought a turban or something.
The Pale Desert was an area believed to have been formerly a sea or ocean but had dried up due to some unknown event. The desert was huge; covering an area of over 200 square kilometres. The unique white sands made it a famous tourist attraction and in addition to its abundance of several minerals and even salt, it was one of the most profitable non-Dust resources in all of Remnant.
As a result, many cabals had made attempts at capturing it, but since it wasn't too far off from the Huntsman Academy, those efforts had obviously ended up in failure.
This was another method that Theodore used in stabilising the Kingdom; aside from his charisma, he also put various resources under his protection to ensure not only that it wouldn't fall into enemy hands, but that all those you wanted reliable access to them would have to form some agreement with the school.
"Good morning class."
The greeting came from a tiny tan woman of impossible to determine age and sandy brown hair dressed in green and brown robes and a glittery coat.
"I'm your History Professor, Rumpole. Today will be our first class, so let's get along with each other."
A murmur of agreement passed through the body of students; something between a greeting and an affirmation of their lack of interest.
Why are we out in the desert for a History lesson?
"I'm sure you're all wondering why I brought you out here for a History lesson," she said, walking slowly before them, "Well, it's because I take a practical approach to studying."
As she said this, the ground began to quake, unbalancing the new students for a while. Seconds later, large black maws covered in white skeletons and a burning eye pattern on the crown of their heads.
Desert Moles, Cardin thought, barely holding himself back from releasing a curse.
Desert Moles were Grimm that moved swiftly underground and relied on their hearing and sense of smell. They generally didn't wander about here because Grimm were consistently exterminated since this was a tourist attraction.
That crazy bitch must have something to do with it then, Cardin growled internally as he eyed the woman.
"For the first lesson," Rumpole said from her new position atop the airship, "We'll be talking about the Black Wave and its effects on the history and cultures of Remnant."
Is she serious? He thought to himself as he jumped up to avoid a swing from one of the creatures.
"You all know what a Black Wave is, but for the sake of the readers, I'll say it again. A Black Wave is a common phenomenon in Remnant when the Creatures of Grimm suddenly become erratic and bloodthirsty (more than usual) and attack human settlements with great ferocity. The exact cause of this is not quite known as Grimm will break their migration patterns, leave their habitats and even work alongside rival Grimm to participate in this. Scientists theorise that the behaviour falls under a 'super-instinct'; a set of behaviours that supersede the natural programming of an organism. That's unimportant though, as the core of the matter is not understanding its reason, but its results and ways to resist it."
"Any attempt to fully explain the effect it has had on our history would probably be insufficient; it is very likely the most significant phenomenon in the history of civilisation. From formation of travelling tribes who move about to avoid being caught in the event to the invention of the CCTS which served the primary purpose of alerting settlements of Black Waves instantly so as to avoid casualties as much as possible, it is truly the defining phenomenon of this world."
"So then," she said brightly, "Any questions?"
The students simply fell down at her words, exhausted from fighting the beasts. This was Rumpole's teaching style; not just brutal, but an amalgamation of the various essential subjects every Huntsman was required to be familiar with. This style was actually popular in Vacuo, hence the reason the students were always allowed to don battle wear and carry their weapons around; a History class about the applications of Dust could suddenly turn into a shooting range.
"If there are no questions then I'll tell you about the pop quiz."
Violent battle on the first day I can understand, he said internally, But a pop quiz means that she's pure evil.
"Just kidding," she said with a smile on hearing her students' groans, "I've already administered the test."
Damn, don't tell me?
"Yes, you guessed it, it was your bout against the Grimm, that's your first quiz and it will be graded."
"In a History class?" Cardin couldn't help but ask out loud.
"This is clearly a test of your grasp on history," she responded, the mischievous gleam in her eyes brighter than ever, "You're understanding how your ancestors responded to these things, which is obviously the essence of History."
Bullshit!
"Just so you know, this is a team assessment; a team's only as good as its weakest member after all."
Then flashing a wicked smile at Cardin: "In addition to failing the assessment, the worst team will also be punished."
xXx
Of course we're the weakest team, he said silently as he lugged a crate of Dust from the delivery airship to the storage room of the school, That damn dwarf.
He turned towards Jaune- the only one of them struggling under the weight of the crates- even the pusillanimous Shouter was managing his weight.
"What do we have here?"
The question came from a team of four, classmates of Team CLAD.
"You're the dumbass team that failed the first assessment right?"
I see, Cardin said to himself, looking at the guys with an annoyed smile, So that's how it is.
Shade Academy was 'quirky' in many ways, but one of its more bizarre practices was the almost explicit encouragement of bullying. Even when reported, there was no sort of punishment, all other schools were similar; encouraging students of Huntsman Academies to resolve their issues by themselves, but would in the end intervene if they deemed the treatment of a student was excessive.
Shade knew no limit; "By our strength we shall prevail" wasn't just an empty motto, the students were expected to live by those words and if they couldn't, they'd be sieved out eventually. This was partially the reason that the results of a test were always announced aloud in the class; not only to shame the failing students into doing better but to put a target on their backs.
Wearing your battle wear and weapons at all time seems to be a wise decision.
He shook his head in amusement, unslinging Executioner from his back.
"Good afternoon," he began with a small bow and a large grin, "I'm Cardin Winchester of the Valean Red Castle Winchester Family, you're going to regret this."
xXx
A few minutes later, Cardin stood above the bullies with a small smile, holding the crate of Dust he had been lugging above them menacingly above them.
"You guys were acting so tough earlier though," he said in mock disappointment, "This is all you're good for?"
He dropped the crate beside them with so much force that it cracked the floor beneath it.
"Scram."
They did as they were told, having a new understanding of their place in the dominance hierarchy.
"We sure showed them," Jaune said excitedly from behind.
Cardin's gaze travelled slowly to the blonde 'warrior' in disgust; the worthless bastard had contributed precisely nothing to the short battle except serving as a false metric of their strength as a team.
He walked towards the Arc with an intense gaze, placing his hand on his shoulder and making eye contact with him.
"You're a fucking joke," he said, applying his Semblance on his hand and pushing him to the ground.
"What-"
Sky held Shouter back, putting an end to the protest of the dog faunus.
He needs to learn.
Jaune strained under the weight of Cardin's hand, trying his best to break free of it.
"I'm going to ask you some questions," he stated while bending down so he was close to the same level Jaune was on his knees, "With every unsatisfactory answer, I'll increase the weight of my hand, understood?"
He increased the weight of his hand on receiving no response from the boy.
"Understood?"
Jaune nodded his head in acknowledgement of the question.
"Do you know what this place is?"
Confused by the meaning of his question, Jaune once again failed to respond on time, giving Cardin excuse enough to increase the burden.
"S-Shade Academy."
"That's better," he said, with a smile sardonic satisfaction, "Shade Academy, the most ruthless of all four Huntsman Academies. I was only asking because at the rate you continue to fuck about, I was scared you mistook this for a summer camp or something, glad that you at least know that this isn't a joke."
"I'll be blunt with you," he said, leaning closer towards his teammate, "You're not cut out for this life; it's not even that you're weak, it's worse than that; you're clueless... you can't even tell that you're this weak and it's sad."
"Even spineless back there would have gotten the hint, but you? Nah, you still flex like you're a real warrior and usually I don't care, but if you're going to risk my chances at 'rehabilitation' by being so fucking useless, then I feel the responsibility as your leader to open your eyes a bit."
"Y-you're wrong."
Cardin hadn't been expecting a response to his lecture and cocked an eyebrow at his teammate.
"About?"
"Even I can tell that I'm a weakling," he said strainedly under his team leader's hand, "Even I can tell that I have a long way to go."
"But, but..."
"I am a warrior! And I'll be greater than my father and his father before him, that's a promise I made to myself and I never fail my promises."
"Humph."
On his expression of contempt, the Winchester heir increased exponentially the weight of his hand, forcing the Arc to collapse, blood spraying out of his mouth at the sudden shattering of his Aura.
"Okay warrior," he said to the blonde who barely had his consciousness, "Finish moving these crates."
"I hate bastards like him that get in over their heads," he said in annoyance as they walked out.
You're one to talk, Sky said silently, looking at his friend almost expressionlessly.
"Will he be okay?"
xXx
"Well that's all for today," a tall green-haired Professor, announced at the end of his lesson, "All that's left for you is to choose your class rep. Professor Port was supposed to announce this to you, but he seems to have forgotten. The manner in which you choose one is completely up to you, thank you."
Immediately the words 'class rep' were said, virtually the entire class turned their gazes towards Pyrrha. They called her title with their eyes; the Invincible Girl would be the perfect representative of their class.
"You'd be great for the role, don't you think?" Weiss, who had found a seat next to the Invincible Girl since Adam was not attending the class, said with an excessively sweet smile.
"Perhaps," she said politely with a smile, not hinting that Weiss was encroaching on her personal space, "But I think there are others who are better suited than I am."
"You're being humble, as expected of the Invincible Girl."
Pyrrha's smile faltered for a second at what had to be the hundredth time she had heard that title today, but she still kept appearances up and beamed brightly.
Adam couldn't have picked a better time to disappear, she said sarcastically in her head, I hope there are no issues though.
xXx
Adam walked to the entrance of the school, looking past the gate with a conflicted feeling of longing and hesitation.
What was he doing here?
"Hey there young man."
The owner of the voice was no one other than the Grimm Studies Professor who had introduced himself a while ago.
"You seem to have something on your mind."
Adam observed the man in question cynically; he had already acknowledged the man's competence earlier, but competent or not, he didn't go around baring his thoughts to anyone, ever.
"I see," the man said with a jolly laugh after several moments of tense staring, "Then I'll do the talking if you don't mind."
"When I was a wee lad back in my village," he started, "I was tasked with guarding the grain store; we experienced harsh winters in that area, so we always had to store up food against it. Coupled with attacks from tribes as well as Grimm, adults to guard it were always in short supply."
"At that point, I had just unlocked my Semblance and was thought to be capable enough to take over that duty. As you can imagine, it was a great honour for someone of my age and I guarded it passionately, even staying later than my set shifts."
"For months, I guarded it proudly; I guarded it at the expense of my training, at the expense of spending time with friends and at the expense of virtually everything else. That's how I was as a kid; one-track minded."
"But for months, there were no attacks, no thefts, nothing. For months, I simply stood there."
Is this guy's habit jumping into longwinded stories? He did the same during class earlier.
"And one day, I decided that I wouldn't guard it. I left that day, and decided to get some training in and visit my friends by the local pond."
Let me guess, that day there was an attack and you weren't there.
"After a few hours, I went back to the store and everything was exactly as I'd left it."
"What's the point of this story then?" Adam asked in annoyance.
"The moral of the story is that you shouldn't abandon your post, regardless of whether there are any repercussions to it or not."
"T-thanks for the lesson then I guess."
"My pleasure young man," he said, walking away.
"Well, it wouldn't be exactly accurate to say that 'everything' was exactly as I'd left it," he said with a low voice a few steps from Adam, "What I didn't tell you was that every day of my post, my dad would come and talk to me for a few minutes, sometimes it was meaningless rabble or a story or two or even a snack, but he never once failed to do that."
"He worked constantly securing the village's walls, so I rarely saw him except then. When I returned to my post after my 'day off', he came as usual but there was something different about him. I'd later find out that on not seeing me, he was worried and went looking for me, just to find me playing about."
"Another thing I later found out was that my diligence to the job was a point of pride for him; most kids abandoned their duties quickly or cut their shifts short as much as they could. He bragged to his friends daily about that; he had nothing else to brag about on my end since he barely knew me, but of my diligence he was sure- until that day that is."
"Again, there were no serious consequences; he returned to his normal behaviour shortly after. But I still use that day as something to guard me from ever slacking off or taking the easy way out."
"Whether you feel needed or appreciated or not shouldn't be the determinant of whether or not you fulfil your duty," he said, turning with a small smile towards the redhead, "The fact that it's your duty is the only determinant."
"Enjoy your day young man."
xXx
How did I get here? Jaune asked himself as he saw that he was standing close to the gate of the school. It had been a few hours since Cardin had knocked him out, during which time he recovered and got up.
I must have blacked out, he said to himself, placing his hand on his head in response to his splitting headache.
How did I get here though? He asked again, this time not referring to his location but instead his situation as a whole.
What made me think that this was a good idea? What made me think that I could pull it off?
The blonde warrior looked up to the sky, grabbing his hair in frustration as he did.
What was I thinking?! Dad was right.
"Young man, why so down?"
The deep and smooth voice that sounded from behind him caused the fourth generation warrior to turn back to see the owner, a tall, thin and tan man with short hair and an overbearing present. It was the Headmaster of Shade Academy, Theodore.
"Headmaster Theodore!"
"Just Theodore is fine," the man responded, raising a red-gloved hand at the student, "So, what's the matter?"
"It's... nothing."
"Oh come on," he said while patting his new student on the shoulder and causing him to wince, "I can tell there's something; I have an intuition for things like that."
Jaune looked at the tall man hopefully, wondering if he truly could confine in him.
Gulp.
Here goes nothing then.
"Headm- I mean, Theodore, have you ever had doubts?"
"Doubts are natural of course," he responded before inspecting him.
"I'll just be blunt and get to the heart of the matter; you're a weakling."
"Don't interrupt, I'm going somewhere with this. I've said it before that I consider Huntsmen as the pillars of Remnant. When a pillar is weak, it doesn't just crumble, it passes on its weight to others."
He looked firmly at Jaune, his brown eyes arresting the young knight's blue ones.
"By falling to your doubts, you aren't just betraying yourself-which is bad enough- you're burdening everyone else. You're the only person who can stop yourself from being weak, choose to."
On finishing his speech, he turned around and began walking away.
"I wouldn't give you this advice if I didn't see your potential, don't let yourself down."
xXx
It was sunset in Vale, the deep orange beams cast a beautiful atmosphere throughout Beacon. It was in this atmosphere that Adam found Pyrrha sitting alone on the roof of the auditorium.
"Don't even think about it," she said to him, noticing that he was picking up a rock to get her attention like last time.
"Just kidding," he said with a small smile before sitting next to her, "What's up? I heard from Nora that you disappeared after classes."
"Yeah, you disappeared too."
"Yeah, was thinking about some stuff; nothing serious though. How about you? What's got Pyrrha Nikos so down?"
"Pyrrha Nikos."
The red-haired icon said her name with a hint of irony, as though there was some joke hidden in the name.
"You're one of the only people who thinks I'm Pyrrha Nikos," she said while breaking a piece of tile from the roof and sending it soaring through the air, "Everybody else sees the Invincible Girl... I'm tired of it."
Adam watched her attentively, waiting for her to continue.
"I can't remember the last time I had someone come up to me that was there for me and not for the four time winner of the Mistral Region Tournament. I had hoped that by leaving my Kingdom, I'd avoid that as much as possible and form relationships independent from that."
"But that's a bust so far."
"You have me," he said without thinking, shocking both him and the target of his words.
There was silence between them once more; embarrassment and a degree of happiness.
"But you know," he said with a small smile, "I think you should be the class rep."
Pyrrha looked at his puzzledly, as though not knowing why he said so all of a sudden.
"Because if you became class rep then I could be your assistant," he said, smile widening as he did, "Then we'd have an excuse to spend more time together. That way, I can get to know Pyrrha Nikos more and... if you're interested, you could get to know Adam Vulpes a bit too."
He did it again.
He spoke without thinking, like he almost always did with her. This time though, he wasn't surprised; because he noticed something he hadn't before. His heart was beating like crazy, it did so whenever their eyes made contact. With that much blood, if he said anything reasonable it'd be a miracle.
"That plan sounds way too enticing to be a good idea," she said with a small laugh, "So Mr. Assistant Class Rep, tell me why I should hire you for this job."
"I don't have any resume," he said as he held onto her hand, "But I'm willing to learn on the job."
Pyrrha started at his response; she had just been teasing and hadn't expected such brazenness from her taurine assistant. Adam hadn't expected it either, but here they were; holding hands in the sunset.
I'm in real trouble.
Both of them had the exact same thought, but they were excited about this type of trouble.
xXx
"Oh this is such a massive score," Brid said from a distance as he watched the red-haired pair from a distance.
"Is this really a good idea?" Bay asked his partner with hesitation clear on his features, "If we get caught, it could mess with our rehabilitation."
"We'll be careful about it, don't worry."
Notes: Not sure I can keep the "slow romance" promise in the tags lol. Also, every chapter seems kinda repetitive; I'm really bad at writing romance.
Comment/review, bookmark/follow, favourite/give kudos. You know the drill.