I don't own RWBY. I own OC's.
Sorry if you find any grammar mistakes. I'm still learning English because it's not my first language.
EnderBlazeHybrid: I'm glad you're liking my story so far and don't worry, I won't turn David into Jaune's clone :)
Another days passed at the Beacon Academy and David was quite busy for most of those days, mostly because of his training as he was spending at least an hour a day attempting to get better at fighting, hoping that he'll get better, at least a little bit.
Speaking of his fighting skills with his swords, he slightly improved when it came to them, but was still far away from perfect. He still didn't stood a chance against any of the members of team RWBY and JNPR, well, maybe except for Jaune. His fellow blond haired student seemed to have as much experience in this area as he had, but David knew he was not the one to judge, considering the circumstances under which he was put in this school.
The other thing that was taking him some to master was his ability of using grappling hook in all ways it could be used. Hunter wasn't joking when he said that it would take him some time to master it. He couldn't remember the last time when he was that proud of himself like he was when he landed safely on the floor after using his grappling hook to leap from the wall for the first time.
Learning how to use his revolver didn't took him that long because this obviously was the easiest part of his training to learn, and he actually had some experience with shooting from earlier, because Brian's, one of his closest friends, father owned a local shooting range and was taking his son and his friends to his shooting range from time to time.
He continued to learn more things about Remnant and one of the things that caught his attention was an event that everyone in the school seemed to be really excited for. This event was Vytal Festival. is an international festival held every two years in one of the Kingdoms of Remnant in celebration of the end of the Great War that took place a while ago.
Right now he and his friends were in the middle of the lunch break and Nora was in the middle of telling them a story about which she was really excited about it. Blake was lost in her book, Ruby and Pyrrha were staring at Jaune who was messing with his food, in concern, and Weiss was filing her nails. The only people who were really listening to her were Yang, David and Ren.
"So!" Nora exclaimed, "There we were, in the middle of the night..."
"It was a day." Ren corrected, holding a cup of coffee.
"We were surrounded by Ursai!" Nora continued.
"...They were Beowolves." Her teammate and longtime friend once again corrected her.
"Dozens of them!" Nora loudly exclaimed, as she shot up from her seat, with her hands raised in the air.
"Two of them." Ren corrected Nora for the third time.
"But they were no match..." Nora explained as she sat back down on her seat, "And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!"
Ren sighed, "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now."
"For over a month now?" Yang asked as her gaze was on Nora when she asked, "And you're not getting bored of if?"
David shrugged his shoulders and said, before either Ren or Nora could answer to Yang's question, "At least this dream has a satysfying ending. Maybe if that one dream I had a while ago ended up as satysfying as Nora's did, then maybe I would remember it more fondly."
"Oh, what it was about?" Nora asked him, in a curious tone.
"It was taking place in the post-apocalyptic world and I was one of the survivors of whatever happened there before the world became what it was." David began, trying to remember as much of the dream he just mentioned as he could, "It started off pretty well, but it had one of the most unsatysfying endings I have ever seen in my entire life. Let's just say that It ended right when things started getting better and I was finally starting to do something against the bandits that were after me since the beginning of this dream and I even formed a group with four other people."
"How did it ended?" Nora asked him another question, still as curious as she was a moment ago, waiting for the answer along with Yang, Ruby, and Ren.
David sighed before replying, "It ended right after I spotted some guy with white mask coming towards me with a white sign. Then everything went black, which was followed by an inscription which said "You're safe, now." or something like that. It sort of reminded me of a screen in video game when you finish a level or die."
Yang and Nora laughed, with the former saying, "You must have been so angry when you woke up."
"Believe me, I was." David nodded in confirmation, "My first thought after waking up literally was "What the hell was that?"."
"Jaune." Pyrrha spoke up, calling out to her team leader, "Are you okay?"
Jaune snapped out of his thoughts and turned around to look at his friends, "Huh? Oh, yeah! Why?"
"It's just that you seem a little... not okay." Ruby explained what was on her and Pyrrha's minds, with the red haired girl nodding in agreement.
Jaune laughed nervously and gave them a nervous thumbs up as everyone at the table stopped what they were doing and looked at him. He offered all of them a sheepish smile, "Guys, I'm fine. Seriously!"
His sheepish smile faded away when he heard some laughing coming from the other side of the cafeteria. He turned in the direction of it, with the others following his example and saw Cardin and his team picking on Velvet Scarlatina, a second year student and member of team CFVY who happened to be a rabbit faunus. When David saw her for the first time, he thought that she was simply wearing rabbit ears because he was completely unaware of what of what a faunus was before his friends explained it to him.
There wasn't much that David could say about Velvet, because they didn't exchange many words with each other during his time at Beacon. One of the things that he could say about her was that she was apparently interested in photography because she asked him if she could take a picture of his grappling hook and blades when they spoke for the first time.
"Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school." Pyrrha told her team leader.
"Who?" Jaune asked her, turning to look at her again, "Cardin Winchester? Nah... He just likes to mess around! You know, practical jokes!"
"He's a bully." Ruby pointed out.
Jaune nervously laughed in response to Ruby's words, "Oh, please! Name one time he's 'bullied' me."
"Are you serious, Jaune? Should I point out a few examples?" David asked his friend as he raised one finger in the air, "He made you drop your things on the floor when you were passing each other on the hallway." He raised second finger, "When you were walking through the doors, he activated your shield, blocking you." He continued as he raised third finger, "Back when Goodwitch was giving us our rocket lockers, he placed you in one of them and launched it out of the school and we had to go out to look for you."
"C'mon, David, none of it was anything too severe." Jaune nervously waved it off, seeing that everyone at the table was staring at him, "I mean, I didn't land far from the school!"
"Jaune, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask." Pyrrha assured him.
"Oh!" Nora said as she stood up from her seat with a huge toothy smile on her lips, with excitement in her eyes, "We'll break his legs!"
"Guys, really, it's fine!" Jaune assured his friends as he picked up his tray, before standing up from his seat, "Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me; he's a jerk to everyone."
They all looked in Cardin's direction again as his and his teammates laughing grew louder, which was not mixed with the cries of pain from Velvet as Cardin was tugging on one of her ears, with his team laughing at the sight in front of them.
"Ow! That hurts!" Velvet declared, but her words were ignored by Cardin who continued to do his thing. She grimaced, "...Please, stop."
Cardin once again ignored her pleads and proceeded to tug on her ear, turning his gaze towards his team, "I told you it was real!"
"What a freak!" Russel Thrush, one of Cardin's teammates laughed.
The leader of team CRDN finally let go off Velvet's ear and the faunus didn't waste any second and quickly hurried away from Cardin and his teammates, making her over to another table on the other side of the cafeteria, her head low and her hands hiding her face.
The rabbit faunus walked past Pyrrha who shook her head, "Atrocious. I can't stand people like him."
"You and me both, Pyrrha." David said in agreement. He hated bullies, especially that Nathan, one of his closest friends back home was having problems with them a while ago. Thankfully his friend stopped having those problems as they years went by.
Blake glared at Cardin and his team, "He's not the only one..."
Yang leaned her head on her hand, stating, "It must be hard to be a Faunus."
It was when the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch time and the time to return to class. Everyone got up from their seats and left towards their next class.
All of them arrived in their next class in time and another one of Doctor's Oobleck classes started shorty after. David once again found himself barely able to keep up with him as Oobleck zipped through the classroom, going from the white board to the various papers to show his students, eventually taking a small break to take a large sip from his coffee.
David let out a quiet sigh, not wanting anyone to hear it as he found himself seated between Pyrrha and Blake with his notebook in front of him and a pen in his right hand, as he did his best to write down everything that Oobleck was saying, or at least everything that David thought was going to be useful for him.
"Now!" Oobleck exclaimed as he stopped in the middle of the classroom, "Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?"
A few students in the classroom raised their hands in the air, with Velvet who sat in the front of the classroom being one of them as Oobleck shook his head, "Dreadful, simply dreadful! Remember, students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence!" He paused for a second to take a sip from his cup, "I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to White Fang! Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorize to be the turning point in the third year of the War?"
Weiss raised her hand, knowing the right answer for this question, "The battle of Fort Castle."
"Precisely!" Oobleck quickly nodded his head as Weiss lowered her hand, "And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"
Cardin flicked a paper football at Jaune who was asleep for this entire time. It landed on his head, causing him to wake up, "...Hey!"
Oobleck quickly made his way to Jaune, now standing in front of the leader of team JNPR, "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?"
"Uhhhh... The answer... The advantage... that the Faunus..." Jaune said with pauses between the words, as he tried to come up with the answer. He looked over Oobleck's shoulder to see Pyrrha cupping her hands around her eyes. He quickly realized what the correct answer was right after seeing it, "...Binoculars!"
Despise sounding and looking so pleased with his answer, Jaune's mood completely shifted when the class started laughing at him, Cardin being he one who laughed the most as it was worked exactly the way he wanted it to. The blond haired teen looked up at Oobleck who took another sip of his coffee.
"Very funny, Mr. Arc!" He told him before making his way to his desk, "Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject!"
"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier." Cardin answered.
"It explains why you're so easy to train, then." David stated, with a shrug of his shoulders, a bit louder than he intended.
"Oh!" Oobleck said as he rushed over to David, finding himself in front of him in a matter of seconds, as Cardin turned to look at David and glared at him, "It appears that Mr. Miller has finally decided to participate in our class! If you're willing to participate in our class so much, Mr. Miller, then how about you tell us what kind of the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"
David rubbed his neck nervously after hearing Oobleck ask him this question, already regretting speaking up. He knew he had to think fast. He moved his hand away from his neck and rubbed the left side of his head, trying figure out the answer as he thought to himself, "Think, David, think..."
It was when something popped into his mind. The faunus had animal traits, and a lot of the animals in his world had night vision or at least this was what his mind was telling him. He didn't know if what his mind was telling will turn out to be the correct answer, but he had to give it a shot. Nothing else was coming into his mind right now and he doubted that Oobleck was going to wait long for the answer.
"Uh, night-vision?" He answered in more of a asking manner, already readying himself for Oobleck to tell him he was wrong.
"...Correct!" Oobleck quickly nodded his head and made his way away from David who let out a small sigh in relief, simply relieved that his guess turned out to be a correct one.
He shifted his glance between Blake and Pyrrha and whispered to them, with a relieved smile forming on his lips, "A fool is always lucky."
His raven haired roommate raised her hand in the air, earning Oobleck's attention as she continued, "General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the general was captured." She turned her gaze towards Cardin and glared at him, before continuing, "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."
Cardin clenched his fists and glared at Blake, standing up from his seat. He was about to move over to Blake but was stopped when Oobleck called out to him, "Mr. Winchester! Please take your seat." Jaune laughed at his tormentor's embarassment, but was quickly shut down when Oobleck, "You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings."
The class was dismissed soon after. Everyone headed out of the classroom towards their next classes as Jaune and Cardin stayed behind in the classroom along with Oobleck who was intending to have a conversation with them. The rest of the day was uneventful. Once all of the classes ended, everyone went back to their dorms, to mind their own business.
The Next Day
David couldn't help but stare in awe at the trees surroudings him and his friends. The Forever Fall Forest was very beautiful to look at. A forest that was actually not too far from Beacon consisted of brillantly red leaves and grey tree trunks.
"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see." Professor Goodwitch declared, leading David, team RWBY, team JNPR and team CRDN through the forest, "Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so."
She turned around to face her students, causing them stop walking. Jaune who walked in the back of the group, with a protecive case for the jars they were going use to collect the sap bumped into Cardin who glared at him, making the blond haired teenager to send him a sheepish smile.
"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap." Goodwitch continued, "However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at 4 o'clock. Have fun."
Ruby and Yang exchanged a smile as they turned in the direction of a more forested area, beginning to walk further into the forest, as the rest of team RWBY, Ren, Nora and David followed them, intending to collect the sap together while team CRDN along with Jaune went in the opposite direction.
David stopped walking for a second when he noticed that Pyrrha remained where she stood when Goodwitch was telling what they're going to do. He called out to her, "Pyrrha! You're coming?"
"...Yes." Pyrrha responded after a second with a saddened sigh as Jaune followed Cardin and his team, "I'm right behind you."
David nodded his head in response, turning his gaze away from her, hearing how she started to follow him and the rest as Weiss spoke up, "We need to go further. We won't get any sap from the trees here."
"How do you know that?" Blake asked her.
"I read about those trees a while ago." Weiss explained, "I can recognize which ones are dead and which one aren't."
Everyone nodded their heads to Weiss' words, in understanding. The group eight students walked further into the forest for a few more minutes until Weiss told them to stop before informing them from which trees they're going to get the sap from. The group split up into smaller groups and each group approached one of the trees which Weiss pointed at, starting to extract the red sap.
Ren was in the process of filling another jar when he heard slurping behind him. He turned around and saw Nora who returned his gaze, now with an embarrassed smile covered in red and an empty jar in her hands.
"Nora." He sighed, "You know that I can't make you pancakes if you eat all the sap before we get back to Beacon."
"But, Ren!" Nora smiled sheepishly, looking at him with pleading eyes, "I just can't help myself! It's so good!"
"You can have all you want if we finish our assignment." Her friend pointed out, "We need to bring this back to our professor, otherwise we will fail."
David, Pyrrha, and Ruby who were collecting the jars together watched them in amusement. David turned away from them and glanced down at the half filled jar he was holding, "Watching them makes me wonder if this stuff is good."
"You can try it if you want." Ruby pointed out as she looked down at her own jar, "I don't think it'll be better than cookies, though."
"Only one way to find out." David shrugged his shoulders at her words. He placed one finger in the jar, and pulled it out a second after. He eyed the sap covered finger for a second before placing it in his mouth. He pulled it out of his mouth and smiled. The taste was not that bad, "It's actually not that bad. You should try it if you want to."
"Has either of you seen Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, worried, as she looked around herself, attemping to spot her team leader, "The last time I saw him was when you called out to me to join you."
"I don't know where he is." Ruby shook her head.
David shook his head too, gesturing towards his jar, "Haven't seen him since we split up to collect this thing."
Ruby opened her mouth to speak again but was cut off when a howl rang through her and everyone's else ears. She looked around herself, "Did you guys heard that?"
Blake pointed forward, "It came from over there."
"Considering how loud this howl was, I can easily say that it was not that from of us." David stated as Sky, Dove and Russel ran past them, presumably running from it.
"Ursa! Ursa!" Russel declared to everyone as he accidentantly ran into Yang.
Yang grabbed him by his shirt, and asked, calmly, as if he didn't just ran into him, "What? Where?"
Russel pointed in the direction from which he just came from, "Back there! It's got Cardin!"
Pyrrha dropped her sap filled jar on the ground, letting out a concerned, "Jaune..."
"Yang!" Ruby instantly reacted to that, and called out to her sister who looked at her, "Yang! You and Blake, go get Professor Goodwitch!"
Yang and Blake nodded in understanding and started heading out to get Goodwitch as Pyrrha called out to her two teammates,"You two, go with them! There could be more!"
"Should I go with them?" David wanted to know as Ren and Nora started following Yang and Blake.
"No." Weiss shook her head, taking out her weapon in ready as Pyrrha and Ruby drew out their weapons as well, "You'll be going with us. You'll have to face a Grimm sooner or later If you want to improve your skills."
Although he looked a bit hesitant, David nodded his head and unsheathed his quickly turned in the direction from which most of team CRDN came from and started making their towards it, intending to find Jaune and Cardin. They were greeted by the sight of Cardin crawling away from the Ursa the moment they reached made it to this place.
"Oh, no!" Pyrrha said the moment this sight appeared in her view. The Ursa rised it's paw in the air and was about to bring it down on helpless Cardin but was blocked in midair by Jaune's shield. He gritted his teeth, struggling against the Grimm as Weiss lifted up her blade, readying herself to help them, but was stopped when Pyrrha told her, "Wait."
Jaune took his shield out of the Ursa's way and swung his sword at it, slicing it's stomach. The Grimm backed away a bit, but quickly striked back by trying to crush the leader of team JNPR by bringing it's paw on him. Jaune managed to jump out of it's way in time, but unfortunely for him the Grimm swung it's paw at him when he was in midair, hitting him in the chest.
The leader of team JNPR was threw backwards and landed on the ground a few meters away from the Ursa. He quickly got himself back on his feet and charged at the Grimm, only to get knocked behind it.
Pyrrha turned her gaze away from the fight and turned it towards David, "David. Help him."
David returned her gaze, "What?"
"You remember what Weiss told you a few moments before, right?" Pyrrha asked him to which David nodded in response, "She is right. You'll have to face a Grimm sooner or later if you want to improve."
"This is going to end well." David said, sarcastically as he shook his head with a sigh escaping his lungs, readying his blades, with a hint of nervousness in his tone.
"Don't worry, David." Ruby comforted her roommate, wanting him to be more calm. She couldn't blame him for being nervous, considering that it was going to be his first time facing a Grimm, "Remember that you'll have your aura to protect you and don't worry if you don't do well in your first fight."
David nodded his head and rushed out of the woods into the area when Jaune was facing an Ursa. The blond haired teenager and Cardin who was still on the ground turned their gaze away from the Grimm when they saw David stepping in. He let out a sigh, knowing that he couldn't back away from this now and glanced down on his grappling hook which was on his wrist.
He recalled Hunter telling him that it could be used to get him closer to the Grimm and it was exactly what he was supposed to do. He shot his hand forward and the hook shot towards the Ursa. The hook hit the Grimm and David was sent flying towards it. He clenched his teeth as readied himself to bury his blades in the Ursa's body.
The Grimm let out a loud howl as David took his blades out of it's body, causing the Grimm to shift his attention towards him. It howled at him as David swung his blades at it, slicing it's side. The Grimm lifted his paw in the air and David readied himself for the Ursa to strike back at him. When the Grimm brought it's paw down at him, he jumped out of it's way and found himself next to Jaune.
The two of them looked at each other and nodded. They charged at the Ursa at the same time and for the first several seconds it seemed like they were winning their clash with the Grimm, considering that it now had to fight two people at the same time, but their luck ran out when it managed to knock Jaune away from it and David, after a few failed attempts at doing so.
The leader of team JNPR glanced down at the scroll on his wrist and saw that his aura was very low as David unfortunely didn't avoid the strike of an Ursa in time and was send flying away from it and Jaune. David grunted in pain as he hit the tree a few meters away from Jaune and the Ursa, taking a quick glance at his scroll on his other wrist to see that the level of his aura has changed from green to yellow.
Jaune turned his gaze away from his scroll got himself back on his feet, noticing that the Ursa had it's attention on him. David noticed it too and saw this as an opportunity to attack the Grimm by suprise. He shot his hand forward at one of the trees, hoping that this will be one of the times when he'll succeed in leaping himself from the wall, or a tree in this case, towards his target.
The blond haired teenager rised his sword in the air, preparing himself to strike the charging Grimm again as Pyrrha who continued to watch the fight along with Weiss and Ruby noticed that her team leader had left himself in the open. She held her hand out, gathering the dark energy in it while David managed to leap himself from the tree towards the Ursa, causing him to form a small smile on his lips as he was relieved that he succeeded at it this time. His smile quickly faded away from his face, though, because he wanted to focus on helping his friend at first.
Just as the Ursa was about to hit Jaune, Pyrrha's dark glow surrounded his shield, making it block the Grimm's strike as David arrived just in time and placed his swords in it's stomach, causing the Grimm to let out a howl. Jaune quickly used this to his advantage and sliced the Ursa's head off, getting rid of it for good.
Pyrrha smiled as Grimm's headless body collapsed on the ground. She lowered her hand, hearing Ruby ask her, "Uhhh... What?"
"How did you?" Weiss wanted to know.
"Well, Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs, and David has..." She paused for a second, recalling that that David hasn't unlocked his semblance, yet, "Well, we'll most likely find out in the future. My semblance is polarity."
"Oh, you can control poles." Ruby said, realizing what Pyrrha could do with her semblance.
"No, you dunce! It means she has control over magnetism!" Weiss said, annoyed by Ruby's words.
"Magnets are cool, too..." Ruby whispered, still amazed.
David let out one deep breath after another, "We did it."
"Yeah." Jaune said, approaching his friends side, "Thanks for the help."
"Don't mention it." David said, letting out a relieved sigh that he made it out of this fight without any injures. He gave his friend a smile, "We have to help each other, right?"
Jaune returned his smile before turning his attention towards Cardin who rose up from the ground, "Don't ever mess with my team - my friends - ever again. Got it?"
Cardin gave Jaune something that could be almost passed as apologetic look before the blond haired teenager turned away from the leader of team CRDN, spotting Pyrrha, Weiss and Ruby in the woods. He turned his gaze towards David, giving him an asking look. David simply shrugged his shoulders at him, before the two of them walked over to Weiss, Ruby and Pyrrha.
The group of five started making their way back to the rest of their fellow students and Professor Goodwitch, with Cardin tagging along somewhere in the back. Pyrrha and Jaune took the lead of the group as they walked ahead of David who walked next to Ruby and Weiss.
"You still have a lot to learn." Weiss told him.
"I know." David told her in return.
"You still did well." Ruby gave her roommate a smile, "First fight is always one of the the hardest ones."
David nodded his head at her as they continued to make their way through the forest. He wasn't excepting this day to go the way it went. He wasn't excepting that he'll end up fighting his first Grimm today, but he knew that his friends were right. This fight would have to happen sooner or later if he wanted to improve his skills and he felt like there was more fights to come.
At least this time the chapter didn't took me half of a year to get it done. We'll be finishing the first volume in the next chapter.
My task for this story is to get at least to volume 4 before 2021 ends.
Hope it wasn't that bad. See you in another chapter.