Hello there! Important message time.
So, since 2020 began my life has gone through a number of tumultuous events that have forced me to reexamine my trajectory in life. For those of you who don't know, my chosen path is that of a writer, screenwriter specifically. And for one to even have a chance in that business, they need to produce a portfolio of original work. I have created some work, but I need to create more and fine-tune the ones I have. That, in addition to the rigors of college, has forced me to reexamine just how much time I've been putting into fanfiction. It is time I believe well spent and will continue to spend, but I must reallocate my efforts if I am to have any hope of creating a successful career. I do not intend to stop writing fanfiction, I started all my stories because I want to tell them and I intend to finish them. By some changes are necessary.
1. I will be freezing my Pat reon. To those of you who don't know, this means that the page itself will stay up and all the Teasers Chapters and Story Ideas will still be available to Patrons, but there will be no monthly payout. If my schedule is to be as mercurial and inconsistent as I expect it to be in the future, it would be unfair and irresponsible to have money involved in the equation in any manner. I will create and post the February Teaser Chapter, but after that I will likely not be active there.
2. The monthly poll stories of 'The Third Faction' and 'One to Find All' will change to a joint bi-monthly drop. This has been brewing for a while as it has become apparent that my beta for Third Faction Draconic and I simply need more than one month to produce a chapter of that story. In this manner, if all goes as planned, I will spend one month writing Third Faction, then I will send that chapter to Draconic and he will spend the next month beta-ing it while I write One to Find All, and then both stories will have their chapters posted when ready that month (Feb., April, June, etc.)
3. I will do my best to keep to my update schedule, but as mentioned in Point 1, I am doing this so that I have time to work on my original projects. Due to school, family, or those projects, it is entirely plausible that circumstances may end up causing chapters to be late, sometimes by longer periods. I will do my best to avoid such occasions, but I cannot make any promises.
All this said, I must repeat: I have NO intention of leaving any of my stories unfinished. I tell these stories because I want to tell them. They make me happy and knowing they are enjoyed by all of you just makes it even better. For Reading, I cannot thank you enough.
Now then, on with the chapter.
The whole "getting thrown off a cliff" thing that Ozpin had mentioned was far more terrifying than Izuku had expected. He'd thought it'd be similar to when Pixie-Bob had swept his class into the Forest of Beasts in a landslide, but no. The platforms were spring-loaded and sent each of the prospective huntsmen into hurdling into the sky. He was pretty sure he heard Jaune squealing with terror as he flew.
He probably would have been screaming as well, if he hadn't already had experience flying through the air from when he, Iida, and Kirishima had rescued Kacchan. As it was, he was able to keep enough of his mind together to keep focused on his objective. Which was, ironically enough, still Kacchan.
Professor Ozpin had done what he could to make his job easier for him. When he'd assigned the platforms to the students, he positioned the two of them right next to each other and when they'd been launched, their flight paths had come close together. Kacchan fired off a series of small explosions behind him, taking control of his descent and steadily pushing himself forward. It seemed whether he still had his quirk or his semblance was eerily similar, he had trained the same hard-earned mastery of his abilities he'd had on Earth.
Which meant Izuku needed to catch up to him, as well as make sure he wasn't going to go splat. Initially, his plan had been to use the blowback and recoil absorption properties of his Iron Soles to shave off momentum once he'd dropped into the tree line, hop from branch to branch until he was at a safe enough speed to go the ground. But he couldn't do that until he'd dropped into the forest, at which point Kacchan would have already propelled himself way ahead of him. He needed to increase his forward momentum somehow, shoot himself past his rival.
And so, as he often did, even though he knew he couldn't keep emulating him, he thought to himself 'What would All Might do?'
For some reason, he thought of being slammed into from behind and nearly getting his back broken.
Wait! There was a reason he was thinking of being slammed into from behind and nearly getting his back broken! Back when he and Kacchan had faced All Might in their final exam, his idol had been stranded in midair while Izuku had been making for the exit down the street. And to close the distance, All Might had punched the air! The sheer pressure had easily covered the space between them!
But how much of One for All's power was needed for him to do that? He could safely use eight percent without his aura and fifteen with it. Would that be enough?
There was only one way to find out.
Emerald lightning crackled across his suit, his quirk rising up to its tested limit. After it held steady at eight percent, he brought up his aura, a green energy field flaring to life around him before fading soon after, invisible, but present. Once he recognized that its endurance enhancement had taken effect, he pumped near double the power through his body. His muscles, instead of roaring with agony, hummed with strength. He didn't know how long he would be able to maintain his control, especially in a combat situation, but for now, he only needed a moment to make his move. He clenched his butt cheeks and yelled out from the depths of his heart…
"SMASH!"
He kicked below and rocketed forward, a funnel of wind blasting out from his foot and bending back the trees immediately behind him. His newfound acceleration obliterated his control, he was only just able to reduce One for All's power level before his aura collapsed, but it did its job. He was soaring again, blowing past even Kacchan, who's eyes widened at the sight of him. But instinct, Izuku took the opportunity to smile back at his rival.
Big mistake.
Kacchan roared, whirling around in midair, thrusting his right hand out while his left steadied his wrist. He abandoned the steady, controlled explosions that had gotten him so far, Izuku's sudden leap having equaled their pace. And crucially, it seemed that whether he could remember who he was or not, Kacchan would not allow himself to be bested by Izuku.
A deafening blast thundered through the sky, a storm of fire and force ripped across the Emerald Forest, spilling flames across the verdant foliage. It seemed Kacchan was still capable of his maximum firepower attack.
Unfortunately, said attack also created one hell of a shockwave, shooting Kacchan at least half a mile ahead of Izuku. Which would have been distinctly less of a problem if it hadn't also swatted the green-haired hero out of the sky!
Izuku went careening out of control, wailing in terror as he spiraled through the treetops. He scrambled his legs, desperately implementing his original landing strategy. He bounded from branch to branch, each one, no matter how thick, snapping off and plummeting to the ground as soon as Iron Soles touched them.
However, as off-balance as he was, eventually he missed his mark. His momentum had been reduced enough that he wouldn't die outright, but it would still hurt quite a bit when he hit the grass. At least, if he was using One for All.
He switched off his quirk and brought up his aura. The energy barrier flared to life just in time to soften his landing. This time when he skipped across the ground like a stone, it only felt like he'd hit by a car instead of smacked down by Muscular.
Izuku groaned, slowly rising to his feet. He rubbed the back of his head and glanced around the clearing he'd landed in, taking stock of the situation as he did. He and Kacchan had made eye contact, but since they hadn't landed yet, it didn't count to make them partners. He'd have to track him down, find him before somebody else did. And since Ozpin had made sure he'd memorized where the Ancient Ruins were, he could get there and stake it out until his reincarnated rival arrived.
Because there was no way Kacchan wasn't going to be among the group that made it there. The only hard part would be making it there before… him?
A low growl roused Izuku from his plotting. The young hero dropped into a ready stance and whirled around to the source of the noise, already dreading what he suspected it to be.
Alas, his fears were confirmed when a bone-white mask emerged from the shadows of the forest, a few shambling steps revealing the black bipedal wolf it was attached to. The creature, the Grimm, was at least as tall as the Nomu that had fought All Might at the USJ, though far more gangly than the hulking quirk hybrid had been. Somehow, with the beast's razor-sharp canines in plain view, that fact didn't provide Izuku with much comfort.
Though to be fair, that might have been because of the three other Beowolves stalking into the clearing.
He was surrounded, lupine demons on all sides. These creatures were the bane of Remnant, the monsters that had forced humanity to cower and hide in a handful of cities, relying on natural boundaries to not face the constant peril of extinction. And any settlements that attempted to establish themselves without such protections might as well have already been dead.
The first Beowolf lunged forward, its claw raking for Izuku's throat.
The green-haired hero set his face in stone and hopped back, the beast's talons scraping just short of his neck. Emerald lightning sparked across his flesh. He danced around the monster's outstretched form and swept his leg into the side of the beast's mask. The creature slammed into the dirt, its skull cracked under the force of the kick. When Iron Soles' second impact struck, it shattered completely.
As the beast's form began to dissipate into black dust, Izuku couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt. Logically, he knew that this Grimm wasn't a living creature, it was a monster with more in common with the training robots or Pixie-Bob's earth creations than an animal or person. But he aspired to be a hero, and unless there was no other choice, a hero didn't kill. Going for lethal force right off the bat wasn't something he was used to. Still, if he was going to a huntsman academy, this wasn't going to be the last time he'd have to destroy the beasts of negativity. He'd best become accustomed to it.
A chorus of snarls reminded him that his timeframe for doing so was distinctly small. He twirled around, his leg flying up and smacking a Beowolf's claw aside.
These creatures were the bane of Remnant, but not this species, at least not in such small numbers. According to Ozpin's books, a single Wyvern or Leviathan could wipe out a city, but Beowolves were pack creatures. One was a threat to untrained civilians, but it would take a sizable group to threaten someone who knew what they were doing. And even if that wasn't the case, it was a hero's duty to stand against threats to humanity.
Well, not usually something that large, mostly petty crimes really but—oh, the Grimm was charging.
Izuku ducked under the claw swipe and dashed into the beast's guard. Given the distance required for his wide kicks, normally such a tactic would be unwise, but the Beowolf's arm was at least twice the length of his legs. There was something to be said about fighting foes that lacked typical human proportions.
The young hero leaped into the air and slammed his foot into the underside of the Grimm's jaw. The beast reeled from the strike, stumbling back into its fellows, but unlike Izuku's previous target it managed to hold itself together. His blows were powerful to kill in a single strike but only if he struck a vital area. He must not have hit the skull right.
The other two Beowolves galloped around their comrade advancing on the green-haired boy from either side. With a thick tree trunk behind him, he couldn't move behind and one of two would snag him if he got close to the other.
Of course, just because his escape was blocked didn't mean the route behind him was useless. He turned and used his enhanced speed to allow him to dash up the tree trunk, gaining a height advantage and leaping off the bark just as Grimm lunged for him. One of them managed to nick his side, but the wound was barely a cut. Hardly enough to impede his progress.
Or stall the roundhouse that he was aiming squarely for their heads.
"St. Louis Smash!"
His armored boot crashed into the side of one of the Beowolves' skulls and slammed the monster into its fellow. Both beasts were driven into another tree, one of them already fading into nothingness. As soon as he landed, Izuku rocketed over and made sure the other was well on its way.
When he had a second to breathe, he felt rather proud of himself. He'd been worried sick the day before, and though most of that had been from the sheer weight of his mission settling in, he had been curious to see how well he'd fare against the Grimm. He didn't think he'd be single-handedly taking down a Wyvern any time soon, but he was pleased to say that his hero's training had prepared him well for a huntsman's duty.
He turned around, the last remaining Beowolf finally recovered and staring him down, nothing but rabid hatred in its burning crimson eyes. Izuku readied himself to charge. The beast shouldn't have been too much trouble, but only a fool let their guard down in a fight. Nothing good would come of it.
Such as a blur of rose petals jetting out of the tree and decapitating someone with a gigantic scythe. Fortunately, by the time Izuku's startled eyes had shrunken back to their usual size, he was able to recognize that it was the Grimm that had lost its head, not him.
"Izuku, are you okay?" Ruby asked. She dashed to his side and started looking him over, not the least bit concerned about the demonic wolf she'd just casually (and awesomely!) slain. "I saw Katsuki blow you out of the sky!"
"What? Oh right, that," Izuku replied, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head. "No worries. My landing strategy, which I've definitely been practicing for years, is extremely versatile."
Ruby cocked an eyebrow. "Okay? Well, I'm glad to see you made out alright."
"Thanks. It was touch and go for a few seconds there."
"Right," Ruby glanced all around him, the nonchalance she had displayed against the Grimm abandoning her. She rolled on the balls of her feet for a few seconds before she spoke again. "So, I guess this means we're partners."
Eh?
Oh no! He made eye contact with her!
"Partners?" he squealed.
"Um, yeah," Ruby flinched. "Do you… not want to be my partner?"
"What? No! No!" he hastily claimed, even though it was a complete lie. He forced himself to calm down, channeling his fondness for his new friend into a reassuring smile. "I just wasn't expecting it."
He held out his hand. "It'd be an honor to be your partner, Ruby."
The silver-eyed girl grinned. She eagerly shook his hand. "You too, Izuku. We're going to be the best partners slash BFFs ever!"
"Eh, yeah…"
This was not good! Well, it wasn't bad, but it completely derailed his plan. He needed to be Kacchan's partner so that he could use the constant exposure to somehow jog his classmate's memory! He couldn't do that if he was Ruby's partner!
No, no, no, he couldn't freak out over this. This was a complication, but not an insurmountable one. It wasn't just the partners who shared rooms, it was each team. And the teams had four members. He'd considered this possibility. He just had to make sure that he and Ruby got onto the same team as Kacchan and whoever he ended up partners with. Simple!
Besides, as he shook Ruby's hand, the red hooded girl's smile radiating like a sparkling diamond, her words from the other night playing through the back of his mind… he couldn't say he'd mind having her as a partner.
He was on Remnant to find his friends, but that didn't mean he couldn't make some new ones along the way.
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"You… you monsters!"
Yang had been having a pretty kickass day. She'd gotten to wake up next to Ruby, watch her little sister break out of her social recluse shell a bit, and then go sky diving off a cliff. Even the total boredom of trudging through the woods alone, not a soul responding to her many shouts, hadn't been all bad. At least she'd gotten to kick some Grimm butt along the way.
But, these two Ursa bastards, these complete and utter demons, had dared to hurt her hair! What kind of monsters were they?!
Oh, right, they were Grimm. Well, that meant dad wouldn't get mad at her for beating them to death.
A raging inferno erupted across Yang's hair, an ungodly scream of fury emanating from her throat. Her semblance poured energy through her muscles and the blond huntress rocketed into the nearest Ursa. Ember Celica fired on all cylinders as her fists bludgeoned the monstrous bear faster than most people could see, let alone react. One final haymaker and the beast was shot through half a dozen trees. The monster dissolved into blackness, smatterings of fire flickering all over the broken wood.
The other Ursa, like the moron it was, roared, drawing Yang's ire when it could have spent its last few moments of life running. "What?! You want some too—"
"DIIIIIIEEEEEE!"
Whatever rage the huntress had promptly died when an utterly enormous explosion blasted out from behind the Ursa. The Grimm was instantly reduced to paste, and Yang was blown off her feet, flying back and slamming into a tree. She landed on her feet, her aura keeping the bark from cutting into her skin and her fists raised for whatever threat might still be coming.
Amidst the dark smoke, that threat rose. A leering, humanoid figure stalked towards her through the smog. The shadows obscured its exact features, but Yang could make out its glowing red eyes and razor-sharp canines as it raised its hand—
"Tch, dammit," the figure scoffed. "I was hoping for Nikos."
Yang cocked an eyebrow. What?
In a few moments, the smoke cleared, and her question was answered at the same time her hopes plummeted.
"Aw shit," she muttered, realizing just what she'd done when she'd looked into those burning red eyes.
Katsuki Bell, her new partner, glanced away and narrowed his eyes at the wreckage she'd left from killing the first Ursa. "Not completely useless at least." He turned and marched back off into the forest. "Come on, Poufy Hair! If you slow me down, I'll kill you!"
"Wait, what?" Yang shouted. Who did this asshole think he was talking to her like that? She'd already gathered he wasn't the most pleasant of people, but that didn't mean he got to outright threaten her!
When he didn't stop stalking away, the huntress growled and shot herself ahead with Ember Celica. She whirled around and glared the wolf faunus straight in the face. "What are you doing? Do you even have a plan? Or were you just going to wander around the forest randomly until we stumbled onto the—"
"The ruins are to the east."
"Huh?" Yang froze. "Wha—how do you know that?"
"We were shot a hundred feet in the air. I used my explosions to extend my fall time so that I could get a lay of the land from above. They were in the same direction as the sun and, since it's morning, that means they're to the east," Katsuki stated, as if it should have been obvious. He brushed Yang to the side and continued onward. "Now come on. We've wasted enough time already. We need to be the first ones there."
Yang couldn't help her wide eyes. This jerk had figured all that out while they were falling from the cliff? He'd had the sense to think of modifying his landing strategy once Professor Ozpin had actually told them what their task was? She'd just been concerned with enjoying the rush of it all and doing some tricks on the way down.
Damn. Sparky was an asshole, but he had his eyes on the prize. She had the feeling that even if a Goliath got in his way, he'd blow the thing to smithereens if it meant getting into Beacon.
She scowled a second after thinking that. Skills or not, that didn't make him anymore pleasant to be around. They were all here because they'd trained for years, worked themselves to the bone. They were all willing to do whatever it took to get into Beacon and become huntsmen. Just because he happened to be stronger or smarter than most didn't give him the right to be a huge jerk, him and Weiss both.
And she was stuck with him for the next four years.
Great.
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Well, there went that plan.
Blake sighed and brushed a few stray embers off her bow. She'd been following Ruby's sister Yang, hoping to become her partner. The number of people she'd been comfortable teaming up with could be counted on one hand, but the blonde seemed to be a decent mix of good-natured enough not to be prejudiced against the faunus yet also blasé enough that she wouldn't look into certain details about Blake that might lead to… uncomfortable conclusions about her past.
Of course, then the wolf faunus boy with attitude (what was his name? Katsuki?), had jumped in and exploded an Ursa in her face. Oh, and stolen her prospective partner, that too. She was thrown into the bushes, and by the time she'd regained her senses and the ringing in her ears had stopped, the two angry blondes had already seen each other.
Ugh, well, that was inconveniencing. But it wasn't something she couldn't work around. They seemed to know the way to ruins, so she'd just follow them and snatch up her own relic. Then she could be partners with whoever she saw next.
With any luck, it'd be someone halfway tolerable.
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Weiss had gotten used to disappointment in her life. She'd seen her father drag her family name through the mud with a series of inhumane atrocities. She'd watched her mother regress into a bottle instead of fighting back against him. But she hadn't let that disappointment keep her down. She had worked tooth and nail to escape her father's clutches, beaten down every test he'd thrown in front of her, even crushed the Arma Gigas he'd set up as her final barrier, and now, finally, she had gotten to Beacon, to the place where she would carve her own path.
Only to be faced with disappointment yet again.
"Are you sure we're not partners?"
The heiress growled. "I am one hundred percent sure we are not partners."
"Are you sure?" Jaune Arc asked again. "I mean, I don't want to get either of us in trouble with the headmaster before we've even gotten in—"
Weiss whirled on the blond buffoon. "The headmaster's stated conditions were that the first person we made eye contact with once we landed were to be our partners for the next four years. I was wise enough to divert my gaze from you as soon as I recognized that ridiculous hoodie of yours. Thus, we never made eye contact."
"Um… okay," Jaune replied, a nervous giggle in his voice. He turned behind him. "Well, looks like everything is good, Pyrrha. Arkos is completely legal."
"Wonderful," the Mistral Champion responded with a smile.
Weiss made every effort to keep the grinding of her teeth inaudible.
Wasn't that the most aggravating part? Not only had she barely escaped being saddled with tall, blond, and scraggly as a partner, she'd also had to watch the utter travesty of poor Pyrrha Nikos being shackled with the imbecile in her place. While she was also more than irritated that she had only just missed allying with the Mistral champion herself, the fact that such a competent and hardworking young huntress had been weighed down with a ridiculous oaf like Jaune Arc infuriated her even more. Where was the justice in that? The redhead had put so much effort into training and perfecting her talent and skill to world-renowned degrees, and now her partner, who was supposed to support and aid her, would add yet another burden she'd have to carry!
Weiss took a deep breath, the three of them trudging through the forest together. With Grimm afoot, there was safety in numbers. They would travel to the ruins together, and with any luck, she would find a partner for herself, someone who'd made it to the relics on their own.
But anyone who'd made it into Beacon must have been skilled. Even if they did not match up to her rather exacting standards, the most prestigious huntsmen academy short of Atlas wouldn't admit useless vagabonds. That child Ruby and that vulgar wolf faunus aside, however they'd made it in. Jaune Arc must have had some well-honed skill to go along with his abysmal perception and lacking personality. Otherwise, he would never have made it past Professor Ozpin's esteemed wisdom. She was just jumping the gun, making a judgment too quickly-
"Ow!"
"Jaune, are you okay?"
"Fine. It's just a scratch."
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you have your aura active? We are in a Grimm infested forest and could be attacked at any moment. We don't have the luxury of being unprepared."
Jaune tilted his head and shot her a dumb look. "My what?"
…
…
… He was joking? This was a joke, right? She didn't have much experience with jokes, most people were too intimidated by her father to try to joke with her, but this was too asinine to be anything but some ill-thought-out attempt at humor, right? Right? Right?!
"Jaune," Pyrrha said gently. "Do you know what aura is?"
"What? Um, yeah. Of course I know what aura is," Jaune replied.
Weiss sighed. Good, she could maintain her sanity that one of the most prominent institutions on Remnant had not slipped so badly as to admit someone who didn't even know what aura, the necessary tool of all huntsmen, was.
"Do you know what aura is?"
Weiss was confident her titanic scream of frustration was heard throughout the forest.
She didn't care! She didn't care! If that red-hooded little girl walked through the trees right now, she would not complain! She would happily accept her as her partner! Because no one on Remnant could possibly be more infuriatingly ridiculous than Jaune 'dumb as a rock' Arc!
At this point, she would take anyone as her partner! Anyone!
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"Did you not want me to be your partner?"
"Huh?" Izuku replied, zipping through the trees, encased in that green lightning semblance of his. Even still, a noticeable, nervous sweat dripped down his face. "What do you mean?"
Ruby cringed. She'd been working up the courage to ask her new friend that question ever since their eyes had met back in the clearing. True, she probably could have picked a better time, the two of them were jumping from branch to branch across the Emerald Forest and a deafening caw above them signaled that their company was gaining, but the words had just slipped out with her nerves.
"I'm sorry, I know this isn't the best time," she confessed. "But I know a little about trying to fake being excited about something when you're really not, and I don't want to make you think that you have to pretend to like me—"
"I'm not pretending to like you," Izuku assured her. He nervously rubbed the back of his head. "I'm sorry if I made you think that."
"But you didn't want me for your partner?" Ruby concluded. She should have known that even a guy as cool as Izuku wouldn't want to partner up with the freak who got in early. "What you said in the locker room was just you being nice."
"No, no, that's not… I was hoping to partner up with someone else," Izuku confessed. "But that has more to do with me and them, then not wanting to pair up with you."
Ruby raised an eyebrow. "You mean Katsuki? Why did you want to partner up with him?"
"That's… complicated," Izuku said, glancing away. "But I have no problem with being your partner." He leapt over another branch and kicked a tiny Nevermore into black paste, barely breaking stride. He glanced over and flashed her a thumbs-up. "We're going to make a great team."
Ruby wanted to believe him. She really did. But this was a guy who gotten blasted out of the sky and then immediately took down a pack of Beowolves like it was nothing. He'd gone from dodging all her best scythe swings to helping her chase down Torchwick in a split second. She'd accused him of being a criminal and gotten him arrested and he'd just shrugged it off like it was nothing! And what he'd said the other night about his dream, and how he'd said it with such earnest wonder! If his boots had guns in them, he'd be one of the coolest guys Ruby had ever met, just short of Uncle Qrow and Professor Ozpin.
And now he was saddled with her as a partner. Even if her theory was right and he'd been admitted to the school early like her, he was still at least a year older than her. How was he supposed to feel about being paired up with a girl like her, the one everyone looks down on like some oddball, special kid, when he wanted to be with some angry, loudmouth, take no malarkey from anyone, wolf faunus?
A flock of baby Nevermores charged out of the foliage, their razor-sharp beaks streaking for her eyes. She flashed Crescent Rose around her, and the monstrous birds were cut to ribbons without even making her break stride.
Seriously, she was just a normal girl with a super awesome sniper-scythe! How was she supposed to assure Izuku that having her for a partner wouldn't be nearly as bad as he was clearly thinking it would be? She knew how to fight. She was great at killing Grimm. But would that be enough? Everyone here was great at killing Grimm, that was their job as huntsmen.
No, she needed to prove herself to her new partner, make sure he knew that anything Katsuki could do, she could do. She hadn't put her best foot forward in their first meeting, and even though she'd recovered in their following interactions, he was still so nervous about being her partner. That was her fault. She needed to fully earn his faith. But how?
Another thunderous caw echoed down from above, a sheet of darkness casting a massive shadow over the treeline that overpowered even the scattered shade of the leaves.
Ruby grinned. That was it!
"Follow me!" She shouted to her partner. "I know how to get to the ruins faster!"
"Huh? What do you—Ruby!"
She twirled her scythe and fired off a volley of rounds below her. The recoil boosted her into the sky and enabled her to snag onto the plumage of the giant Nevermore soaring above them. She glanced over her shoulder just in time to see a tempest of green lightning following her.
Perfect plan! From this high up, they could see exactly where the ruins were, and then they could prod the Nevermore to take them in that direction! Izuku was bound to be impressed by this!
"Ruuuubbbbyyyyyy!" He yelled over the wind racing past their faces. "How are we going to get down?!"
Ruby's smile instantly fell. Okay, so maybe it wasn't a completely perfect plan.
Still, if all else failed, there was always landing strategies. He had said his was extremely versatile.
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"How about a cute little pony?" Poufy Hair said, picking up one of the white knight chess pieces. "That good with you?"
Katsuki barely heard her, his glare leveled around the crumbled stone ruins. Specifically, the multiple ornate pillars that encircled the main shrine.
Even more specifically, the empty pillars.
They weren't first. Some other pairs had beaten them here. Yes, things had worked out alright and they were still plenty left, but what if there hadn't been? What if there'd been nothing? What if he'd lost his chance to get into Beacon?
Damnit! This was all that green-haired bastard's fault! He'd had the perfect landing strategy to use the momentum and height of the launch to let him fly all the way to the ruins using steady, controlled blasts! But then Broccoli Hair had gotten in front of him and he'd just… he just… well, he didn't know what happened! But he couldn't tolerate the idea of that vegetable piece of shit overtaking him!
He'd used his maximum blast to smack that idiot out of the sky and launch himself way further ahead. Unfortunately, he'd needed a crucial few seconds for his body to recover after using so much power and by the time he was ready to resume his controlled explosions, he'd already fallen through the treeline. And then gotten stuck with Poufy Hair as his partner, with a certain decidedly unwelcome tagalong.
"Come out, coward," he shouted towards the brush. "The stench of your weakness makes me sick."
Poufy Hair cocked an eyebrow. "Um, Sparky—"
"What did you call me?!"
The other blonde rolled her eyes. "Who are you yelling at? What could the bushes have possibly done to piss you off?"
"It's not the dumb bushes!" Katsuki screamed, before snarling at the foliage. He snatched up one of the white rooks. "It's the coward hiding inside them."
He promptly tossed the castle piece into the leaves. Just as expected, a tanned hand shot out from the greenery and snatched the figurine from the air. A moment later, its master strode out of the bush, looking none too amused.
"Woah," Poufy Hair remarked. "How long have you been following us?"
Blake Belladonna shrugged. "Since this one nearly blew me to smithereens while you were fighting those Ursa."
Poufy cringed. "Ouch. Sorry. He does that." She turned to Katsuki. "Did you know she was there the entire time?"
"Hard not to," he said. "And as long as she stays out of my way, we won't have any problems."
It was why he'd thrown her the piece he had. He didn't know exactly how the headmaster planned to decide the teams, but he doubted the choice of chess pieces as the relics they had to retrieve was coincidental. He'd briefly met the huntsman after winning the Scholarship Tournament and gotten a decent enough read on him. Ozpin was nice enough, but he was the type to keep everything close to the chest, secrets within secrets. If he did something, it was a solid bet that there was a purpose behind it.
A chessboard had eight non-pawn pieces on each side, of which six were paired, which would have made for a total of sixteen pieces. There were twenty pillars in the ruins circle, which meant he'd probably added an extra white and black queen and king so that everything was paired. Which meant it was important that everything have a pair. There was still an extra white knight and rook, so that meant whoever got the former (hopefully Nikos) would probably form a team with him and Poufy Hair and whoever got the latter would be stuck with the coward.
As long as he didn't have to see her crappy face on a regular basis, he didn't care who those suckers were.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"
"Oh no!" Poufy Hair exclaimed, turning towards the direction of the shrill scream. "Some girl's in trouble!"
Katsuki stared at her for a few seconds and then started walking in the opposite direction.
"Hey! Where are you going?" his partner demanded. "We have to go help her!"
"Why?"
"Why?!" his partner dashed in front of him and blocked his path. "Because they're in trouble! You heard the headmaster! They could die!"
"Die? Please," Katsuki scoffed. "This place only takes the best of the best. Nothing in this forest is worse than an Ursa Major. If they can't handle that, they shouldn't have come."
Poufy Hair's eyes narrowed at him, their violet hue darkening to a burning red. "So, you'll just leave them to die?"
"We can't abandon them just because they can't fight for themselves," the coward challenged, her bow twitching forward. "We're here to become huntsmen, to make a difference."
Katsuki whirled on the black-haired bitch, no shortage of satisfaction coming when she flinched from his blazing glare. "I don't need lecturing from a coward."
Make a difference? This coming from the bitch who'd abandoned her family, including one of the best women Katsuki had ever known, to run off with a pack of losers like the White Fang. Please! He wouldn't rat her out to spare Kali the pain seeing her thrown in prison, but he wasn't going to play nice either. Whatever reason she was here for, if she made one wrong move, he'd burn her to ash.
Unfortunately, his new partner didn't have the same background info about their third wheel as he did. Poufy Hair snatched up the scruff of his shirt and dragged him back to face her. "Listen here, Sparky! I don't care how great you think you are! You either start showing some basic tact, or I'm going to put you through a few trees to see if we can find a smaller stick to replace the one shoved up your ass!"
Huh. Looked like he'd found a spirted one. She went the Kirishima route rather than the Kali route, taking him head-on and firing back just as hard. Now, the only question was whether she could back up her words and prove a good enough anvil to keep him sharp. She'd made short work of an Ursa, but could she handle him?
"You want to go, Poufy Hair?" he grinned. "Just say the word and I'll blow you away—"
"Heads up!"
Katsuki, Poufy Hair, and the coward all whirled towards the sky, where Moon Eyes dropped down from a giant Nevermore, only to be smacked into mid-flight by that blond wet noodle. No sooner had they collided with a tree than Nikos and the Ice Bitch had dashed out of the forest and across the clearing beside the ruins, quickly making their way into the circle of stone, both girls panting for breath.
"How? How?" The Schnee hissed, her pale face flushed bright red. "How could anyone possibly be that dumb!?"
"Oh, it wasn't that bad," Nikos replied, leaning on one of the stone pillars. "He was just trying to help."
"Help!? I am genuinely concerned for your safety over the next four years! Speaking of which…" the Ice Bitch whirled on the other group. "Do any of you three still need a partner?"
The coward's eyes widened and Katsuki let out a mad cackle as he shoved his thumb towards her. A Belladonna and Schnee as partners? That sounded like the setup to a bad joke.
The Ice Bitch marched up to the disguised cat faunus, who could only let out a resigned sigh. "Look, I know we didn't get off on the best foot, but—"
"Do you know what aura is?"
"Um… yes."
The Schnee immediately clasped the black-haired girl's hand and shook it. "Then bygones are bygones. I look forward to our partnership."
"Oh," the coward replied, an eyebrow cocked in confusion. "Great?"
Katsuki scowled. He was hoping for more fireworks. Still, if his hunch about Ozpin's team choosing strategy was correct, at least this meant he could avoid both his biggest headaches in one swoop.
He snatched the other white knight piece off its pedestal and tossed it to Nikos, who easily caught it. "Here. You'll need this."
"Oh," she said, glancing around the ruins. "These are the relics?"
"Apparently," Poufy Hair replied, releasing Katsuki and looking to the trees. A red blur dashed towards them, materializing into Moon Eyes. "Ruby!"
"Yang!"
"Deathstalker!"
Katsuki raised an eyebrow at the Schnee's shout, but his question was answered before he could ask when the edge of the forest she and Nikos had run out of suddenly exploded. Tree trunks were uprooted and tossed about the clearing as an enormous armored scorpion Grimm emerged from the greenery.
The wolf faunus grinned, his palms already tingling with sparks. So, there was something in this place worth killing. The black arthropod monster was even bigger than most of the Deathstalkers back home, its armor thick and rugged with age. He might even break a sweat blowing it to bits.
"Don't worry, guys!" Moon Eyes proclaimed, dashing off in a stream of rose petals. "I've got this!"
"Ruby!" Poufy Hair called out.
Katsuki snarled and blasted after her, a flurry of explosions propelling him forward. Poufy Hair ran after them both, but she couldn't keep up.
Unfortunately, the same soon proved to be true between him and Moon Eyes. Whatever her semblance was that left behind those rose petals, it also made her stupid fast and for longer bursts than his more controlled explosions. He could match or maybe even surpass her with one of his maximum blasts but given how he planned to fight the Deathstalker once he arrived, putting that much stress on his body wasn't wise.
Besides, his slower speed also afforded him greater maneuverability. Something that proved quite the asset when the giant Nevermore rained down a swarm of razor-sharp feathers.
The wolf faunus snarled and blasted himself to the side just as the black barrage fell. He glanced back and saw that Poufy Hair was unharmed, the feathers having stopped right before her. Still, she was trapped behind them like the bars of a jail cell. Which was better than her sister at least, whose cloak had been caught under one of the feathers, pinning her in place just as the Deathstalker came upon her. The silver-eyed girl paled as the monster raised its claw.
"Ruby!" Poufy Hair yelled, reaching out her hand just as a white blur rushed past her.
And a green streak, thick with lightning, fell from the sky like a thunderbolt.
"Manchester Smash!"
Broccoli Hair crashed into the top of the Deathstalker, his foot ramming an ax kick straight into the monster's heavy bone armor. The giant Grimm's legs gave out and the creature shrieked as it smashed into the dirt. In that time, the Ice Bitch was able to arrive and trap its massive claws under a thick layer of ice. There were befits to be being filthy rich. The amount of dust the move must have cost was more than Katsuki would see in a year.
But he wasn't focusing on that right now, or Moon Eyes getting her cloak out from under the feathers, or the Schnee yelling at her. No, the only thing that was occupying his vision was Broccoli Hair. Having come out of nowhere and forced the monster down, standing atop its form like some fairy tale hero from Kali's books, victorious… why were Katsuki's eyes drawn to him?
And why, just for a second, did he not see the green-haired boy at all, but a towering blonde man in a red, white, and blue spandex suit, smiling like a madman as a booming, confident laugh echoed out from his throat?
Then he blinked, that second passed, and everything went back to normal. Broccoli Hair's legs wobbled beneath him as he hopped down from the squirming Grimm, tumbling in between Moon Eyes and Ice Bitch as he went.
"-And furthermore, in addition to breaking proper form and rushing in before we had established a proper order of combat, what possessed you to think that riding a Nevermore was a good idea?!" the Schnee reprimanded. She whirled on the newly arrived green-haired boy. "What made you think jumping off it from fifty feet in the air was a good idea?!"
Broccoli Hair cringed, all traces of the mighty warrior he'd been a second ago evaporating instantly under the white-haired girl's tirade. "Well, I didn't really! I was trying to figure out another way to get down, use my landing strategy but then I saw Ruby in danger, and I kind of… stopped thinking."
"And how was you getting yourself killed supposed to help her?!"
"It wasn't his fault," Moon Eyes protested, though her near-death experience seemed to have robbed her previous spirit. "It was my idea to ride the Nevermore. I thought it would get us to the ruins faster—"
"And get you eaten along the way!" Ice Bitch lectured. "These things aren't petting zoo animals and this isn't a game! What are you going to do the next time you pull one of these childish stunts and there isn't anyone around to bail you out—"
"Hey!" Broccoli Hair interjected, stepping between the two girls, a bit of fire back in his emerald eyes. "Leave her alone. She didn't know all this was going to happen. And, in case you hadn't noticed, her plan worked." He pointed towards the ruins. The rich girl sputtered at the sheer vigor of his defense.
Katsuki raised an eyebrow. Where was that spirit when she was laying into him?
More importantly, did none of them notice that the Deathstalker's stinger was both not frozen and coming right for them?!
"Move you bastards!" he shouted.
His warning came just in time, the three huntsmen-in-training, all of whom seemed to possess some sort of speed enhancement, leaping out of the way just as the golden stinger crashed into the ground. He would have loved to have seized the opportunity to blow the Grimm apart, but fighting Deathstalkers was his stock and trade back on Menagerie. He wasn't dumb enough to think he could penetrate the armor of one this old before he got skewered. He would have targeted its unprotected underbelly instead, but the Schnee's ice barrier, though successful at keeping the beast pinned, also cut off that avenue of assault. And with the Nevermore already circling around for another path, he couldn't try to flank it.
He had to retreat. But he wasn't running away! Before he left this damn forest, those Grimm would be dust!
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Izuku's legs felt like they were on fire. He'd been working on temporarily increasing his Full Cowl to twenty percent before this Remnant mess had started, but… ow. Still needed a bit more work. If he hadn't dropped his power level and gotten his aura up when he had, his bones would've shattered into nothing even with Iron Soles' recoil absorption. No matter, he could still move, which meant he could still fight.
And there looked to be an awful lot of fighting still to do.
He, Ruby, Weiss, and Kacchan dropped back several yards, the ice barrier containing the Deathstalker steadily splintering in the face of the beast's struggles. Izuku had hoped he would have at least discombobulated the monster with his attack, but it seemed what the book had said about the scorpion beast's armor wasn't overexaggerated. His smash had splintered a web of thin cracks at the point of impact, but the bone itself was still intact. Grimm really were terrifying creatures. The garden variety Beowolves might not have been too much trouble, but the stinger would have struck at least one of them if Kacchan hadn't shouted his warning. If they let their guard down for even a moment, they'd be dead—oh crap the Nevermore had finished circling back.
"Incoming!" he shouted.
A rain of black feathers the size of telephone poles streaked down towards the four prospective students, far more numerous than the previous bombardment Izuku had witnessed from above. Seeing it from the view of the ground, the light of the sun was ever so briefly yet utterly obscured, shadow obscuring the flash of their lives passing before their eyes.
And then the light returned, reflected down by a soaring bronze discus.
It flashed across the sky, a gleaming orange shield, a circle of day cutting through the dark. One after another, it slammed into each of the feathers, knocking them off course and scattering them across the clearing. Each time it bounced off a target, it rebounded straight into another projectile, at times being coated with a thin membrane of black energy and changing course even further. In the space of a few seconds, the entire barrage was harmlessly knocked aside.
The shield soared behind Izuku's group and they all whirled around to watch the shield return to the waiting grip its master, the redheaded girl from the locker room, who together with Yang and Blake, was dashing up to their side.
"I'm sorry!" she called. "Are you all alright?"
Izuku could only gape at her, an action mimicked by Ruby (who was quickly scooped up in Yang's arms) and Weiss. Kacchan just grinned.
"Not bad, Nikos," he said. "Glad to see you live up to your reputation."
The girl, Nikos, flinched at the mention of whatever her reputation must have been. "I do what I can."
"Do what you can? That was amazing!" Izuku cheered. "You must have calculated the exact trajectory and necessary force to strike every single feather! How did you do that in only a few seconds?! Did it have something to do with that black energy that covered the shield?!"
"Oh," she muttered, her eyes flickering away from his gaze. "You noticed that?"
Izuku immediately flinched. He'd gone into fanboy mode, hadn't he? Darn it. Most heroes back home were weirded out when he did that and they were used to dealing with an adoring public. He could only imagine how uncomfortable he'd made this girl—
"Look out!"
He whirled around at the shout, only to catch a glimpse of another feather headed straight for his head. Fortunately, another shield was thrust into the projectile's path, dinging off the white barrier.
Jaune turned back to him, a frenzied look on his face, staggered to his knees by the force of the attack. "Are you okay?"
Izuku cringed, helping his friend to his feet. Another disadvantage of his fanboying, he tended to lose sight of his surroundings. He didn't know where Jaune had come from, but he was grateful for the save.
He glanced up at the sky, the giant Nevermore finally finished its current pass. Unfortunately…
"It's circling back," he said, narrowing his eyes at the enormous demon bird. He glanced back at the Deathstalker, the ice already cracking. "And that thing's not going to stay down for long."
"There's no sense in dillydallying," Weiss argued, pointing at the chess pieces strapped to Yang, Blake, and Pyrrha's belts. "Our objective is right in front of us."
"She's right," Ruby concurred. "Our mission is to grab an artifact and get back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things."
Jaune smiled. "Run and live? That's a plan I can get behind."
Kacchan scoffed turning back and marching towards the Deathstalker.
Yang sighed. "What are you doing now, Sparky?"
"If you idiots are dumb enough to think these things are just going to let us leave, you're free to run," Kacchan replied. He smashed a fist into his palm, a bloodthirsty smirk crossed his face. "I'm going to bury these monsters."
"Actually, the Deathstalker was already buried when we found it," Jaune said. "Didn't seem to do much."
"Shut up, Wet Noodle!"
"Noodle?"
"Are you really so hungry for a brawl that you'd risk all our lives in a battle we don't need to fight?" Weiss challenged.
Kacchan turned back and glared at her. "We're here to be huntsmen. Did you think your life wouldn't be at stake?"
"Okay, okay!" Izuku intervened, stepping between the two. "He's not wrong. That Nevermore controls the sky, we can't just grab relics and run." He turned to Kacchan. "But we also can't fight them both at the same time. We'd have a hard enough time getting through the Deathstalker's armor without having to constantly dodge feather barrages."
"So what do you suggest, Broccoli Hair?" Kacchan growled.
"We don't fight them all at once," Ruby said, her eyes wide. "There's eight of us. That's two teams of huntsmen, one for each Grimm. The Nevermore is after me and Izuku, we can lead it away."
"Not alone you won't," Weiss said. "If you two are left without supervision, I wouldn't be surprised if you returned with a Goliath." She looked at Blake. "Are you ready, partner?"
Blake glanced at Kacchan for a moment before nodding. "Let's do this."
"We'll take the Deathstalker," Jaune declared. "We've got more heavy hitters anyway. Better for getting through that armor."
"Stop talking already!" Kacchan snarled. "Are we going to murder these things or what?!"
Ruby looked to Yang. "Be careful, sis."
The blonde grinned. "No worries, Rubes. This guy won't know what hit him."
Ruby nodded and looked to Izuku, Weiss, and Blake. Gone was the flustered schoolgirl. Before them was the same stalwart huntress that could take off a Grimm's head without blinking. "Let's go!"
The trio of red, white, and black took off for the ruins. Izuku hesitated just a moment, glancing back at the Deathstalker team, specifically the wolf-eared warrior in the lead. He had come to this world to find his friends, to save them. If Kacchan died against this Grimm, before he reclaimed his memories, he'd be gone for good.
But that was true of the Remnant natives too. If they died, there was no natural course of souls waiting to ferry them to their true bodies in another world. And if there was one thing he knew more than anything, it was that Kacchan could handle himself. He'd trust him to win, so that he could save him later.
He turned and ran after his partner and the others, the shadow of the Nevermore bearing down on them from above.
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"Alright, so do we have a plan to take this thing out or—"
"DIE!"
"Die?"
Jaune would admit that he was ridiculously inexperienced when it came to huntsmen matters, his ignorance of landing strategies and aura was proof enough of that. But he was pretty sure that running straight at the Deathstalker and screaming 'die' did not constitute a plan.
Nevertheless, that is exactly what Ruby's sister Yang and that wolf faunus guy (what had she called him? Sparky?) did, though the girl blonde declined to make her war cry so specific. Pyrrha sighed but had no choice but to follow them and he in turn had no choice but to follow her (at a much slower pace obviously. She was a star athlete and he'd run out of breath just running from the treeline to protect Izuku).
The Deathstalker burst out of its ice prison, screeching at the huntsmen. Yang and Sparky arrived first, the former going high and the latter going low. The Grimm seemed to ignore the human girl's punches, tanking them on its armor, but its eyes widened slightly at the wolf faunus' approach. It smashed its claws into the ground, cutting off Sparky's assault by taking his explosions on its appendages' bone shielding. Defended from the opening assault, the monster's stinger streaked down for the huntsmen.
Sparky immediately fired off an explosion and ducked back from the strike. Yang, on the other hand, didn't, the stinger smashing into her and ramming her into the ground.
Why hadn't she dodged? She'd seen the stinger coming, Jaune had watched her eyes lock onto it. But instead she'd just smirked and crossed her gauntlets in front of her, letting herself take such a huge hit. Pyrrha only had time to explain the basics of aura to him, but he was pretty sure it was a finite resource. Why waste it by blocking a hit you could have dodged?
Regardless, the Deathstalker was now free to focus on Sparky and focus it did. The giant scorpion eschewed any precise strikes with its stinger and just charged the wolf faunus. The huntsman fired off an explosion and leapt to the side, but the Grimm was quick enough to lash out with one of its claws, smacking the boy across the clearing. With the momentum from his blast, he might have made it all the way to the treeline, if a weird black glow hadn't covered his gauntlets and belt and arrested his tumble. What was that all about?
The Grimm whirled around to continue its assault, but Pyrrha seized the opportunity to leap over its body and get on top of the monster. She scrambled over its armor, somehow balanced, that same black energy coating her shoes, and made her way to its face. She twirled her spear above her head and stabbed down into the beast's eye.
The Deathstalker stood up on its hind legs and shrieked in agony. Somehow, Pyrrha was able to stay on its back, removing her spear and making to stab the other eye. However, she didn't see the stinger descending behind her.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted. "Look out!"
His partner heard his cry, ducking to side just as the stinger slammed into where she'd been a moment before. The golden appendage slammed into the monster's armor, right where Izuku had cracked it before, spreading the splintering all throughout the bone, before flicking to the side and slapping Pyrrha off the scorpion.
Jaune cringed, finally arriving at the battleground. This wasn't working. Pyrrha, Yang, and Sparky were all really strong, but they couldn't break through the Deathstalker's defenses one at a time, or even two at a time. The armor was too thick, and its claws and stinger were too strong, plus the sheer fact that it was twenty times their size and could just crush them if it got on top of them.
But it had to have some sort of weakness. Video games had taught Jaune that everything had a weakness. He wasn't a hundred percent sure that applied to real life, but for all their sakes, he sure hoped it did. He just had to figure it out.
Alright, the thing's armor was focused on top of it and to the front, but it didn't seem to have any bone shielding on its underside. That was probably why Sparky was trying to hit there. The claws could stop such attacks from the front, but if they hit from behind, then only the stinger could maneuver back there and it wasn't much of a defense. But the monster had proven more agile than its size would suggest. If they tried to flank it, the scorpion would just whirl around to smack them away.
Wait, but then how had Weiss had time to trap it with ice?
Izuku! He hadn't been able to penetrate the armor, but the sheer force of his attack still pinned the Grimm to the ground, if only for a second! If they could replicate that kind of attack, they'd have a moment to get behind the monster and blast it with all they had. And if Sparky's explosions had proved anything, it was that a moment was all he needed.
But who would hold the monster down? Pyrrha was amazing, but he didn't think she had the raw strength to force the Deathstalker down. Sparky could do it, but he needed to attack the rear. Which left…
"Yang!" Jaune shouted, the blond girl rising from the crater she'd been smashed into. "Can you pin it down?"
"Pin it down?" Yang grinned, slamming her fists together as her long mane erupted in flames. "Vomit Boy, I am an expert in bug squashing!"
"I'll take that as a yes." Jaune turned to Pyrrha, who was keeping the Grimm's attention with rifle fire. "Pyrrha, make sure its blind side is towards Yang!"
"Got it!" she called back. The redheaded champion kept up her small arms barrage, maneuvering the Deathstalker so that the eye that she'd gorged out was the one facing the blonde brawler. The scorpion wouldn't see her coming.
Which only left one more piece to slide into place.
"Sparky!"
"What the fuck did you just call me, bastard?!"
Jaune flinched, but at the moment his terror of the giant Grimm was greater than the wolf faunus. "Get behind it! You're only gonna have one shot!"
"Like I'll need more!"
Sparky thrust his hands behind him and rocketed behind the Deathstalker. The beast's head flickered towards him, probably attracted by the sound of the explosions, but another barrage from Pyrrha's rifle drew it back. Unfortunately, that prompted it to sweep towards her with its claw.
Jaune rushed in, bracing himself and hoping the large amount of aura he apparently had would be enough to weather the force of the giant pincer. He planted himself beside his partner, clenched his teeth, and raised Crocea Mors' shield.
The Deathstalker struck the metal barrier with the force of a bullhead. Jaune's knees shuddered, an uncomfortable tremor running through his muscles. But he held, and Pyrrha was unharmed, free to continue her barrage and keep the Grimm looking at them.
The yellow flaming comet that smashed on top of it a second later proved why that was a victory. Yang's fist slammed into the cracked bone armor, driving the monster into the dirt, paralyzed and exposed. Just in time for the coup de… coup de gra… coup de—
"DIE!"
That.
Sparky's explosion erupted from behind the Deathstalker, a titanic fireball of thunder and death that flooded over the Grimm. In the blink of an eye, the unprotected scorpion demon was scorched to ashes.
Unfortunately, Jaune had failed to realize that he and Pyrrha being right in front of the Deathstalker and Yang being right on top of it would mean that they'd be caught in said super explosion. He was not ashamed to admit he screamed like a girl when the flames washed over him, both he and Pyrrha buckling down behind their shields to keep from being blown away.
A yellow streak that soared over their heads reminded them that their last ally was not so well protected.
"Yang!" Jaune yelled as soon as the fire faded, coughing from the smoke cloud.
He and Pyrrha ran out of the smoldering grass, where the blonde girl was laid out in another crater, slowly rising into a sitting position.
Pyrrha knelt at her side. "Are you alright?"
Yang groaned. "Alright? Am I alright?"
"Are you?" Jaune asked tentatively. It had been his plan that had led to her being in the blast zone. He should have realized that, but all he could think about was how to kill the Grimm and it had nearly burnt her to a crisp along with it. If she hated him, he would understand—
"I'm better than alright! That was awesome!" Yang cheered, throwing her hands in the air and collapsing on her back. "Man, what a rush! Do all your plans end in explosions, Vomit Boy?"
Jaune chuckled nervously, though he noticed she said his nickname with much more affection than previous uses. "Don't know. This was my first one."
"Really?" Pyrrha remarked.
Yang smirked. "Way to come out swinging then. Ain't that right, Sparky?"
"Stop calling me that!"
Jaune turned to see the wolf faunus striding through the billowing smoke cloud, his boots stomping over the dying embers of the incinerated grass. His teeth were barred at his partner. "If you can't get my name right, then don't bother with some stupid nickname!"
Yang cocked an eyebrow. "How about I call you Kettle then? I'll be pot. And you'll blow your top."
"But for those of us less brave," Jaune spoke up. "What is your name?"
The wolf faunus growled. "Katsuki."
"Nice to meet, Katsuki. My name's Jaun—"
"I don't care, Noodle."
"Great. That's great."
Well, here he was. Sitting in a field of ashes with a combustible wolf faunus marching past him while both their partners glared at his back and a Deathstalker atomized into nothingness. Honestly, he'd expected worse.
Still, with any luck, Ruby and Izuku were doing better.
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"Well, this could be going better," Ruby remarked, panting hard.
She, Izuku, Weiss, and Blake had drawn the Nevermore past the ruins where the chess pieces were, it was far too close to the Deathstalker fight for comfort, and towards a massive canyon, an ancient temple built on both sides, surrounded by segmented stone pillars, and a bridge built between them.
Well, there had been a stone bridge, but then the Nevermore and smashed right through it, so now the four huntsmen were trapped on the far side. Even if the others finished their fight early, there'd be no help coming.
The improvised team had planted themselves on the crest of the temple and locked their aim on the circling Grimm. Ruby and Blake had shifted their weapons to their firearm forms and unloaded every dust round they had at their avian foe, while Weiss unleashed hails of fire and ice from her rapier. Izuku, lacking a ranged method of attack, had taken to defending the girls, streaking across the battlefield and kicking aside every feather swarm the Nevermore rained down on them.
At last, the bird's flight path carried it to the other side of the canyon and out of the huntsmen's sight. Though, the incessant caws that echoed throughout the valley indicated their rest would be a brief one.
"Nothing we do is working," Weiss growled. "At this point, we're just wasting ammunition."
"What else can we do?" Blake pointed out. "That thing's hide is too thick for any of our weapons."
"What about blunt force?" Izuku inquired. "Hide or not, it doesn't have a lot of armor."
Weiss' brow furrowed in thought. "That could disorient it. But you'd need to hit it first, and you can't kick it if it's in the sky."
For some reason, the white-haired girl's comment caused Izuku to glance down at his hand. Specifically, his fingers.
"I've got something," he said. "It's dangerous, but I can make it work if I have to."
"Then we figure something else out," Ruby declared.
"That thing's going to be back soon," Blake reminded them. "We might not have that luxury."
"If it's our only option," Izuku muttered, clenching his fists. "Then I'll gladly take the risk."
"But it's not our only option," Ruby declared. If this move was a danger to her partner, enough that'd he'd hesitated at all bringing it up, there was no way she was letting him take such a risk.
What Weiss had said back at the Deathstalker had been harsh, maybe a little mean, but she hadn't been wrong. Riding the Nevermore to get to the ruins had been a reckless, unnecessary risk, and if it had gone wrong, it might have gotten both her and Izuku killed. She'd wanted to impress him, prove that he wouldn't have to be embarrassed by her, and instead she'd put them both in danger.
No more unnecessary risks. She'd come to Beacon to become a huntress, and that meant it was time to be a huntress. Their life would never be without danger, but she wasn't going to add to that or let Izuku do it himself.
Besides, she had a plan.
"Izuku," she continued. "Can you kick those pillars and keep the fragments intact?"
"The pillars? Sure, if I don't go for double impa—oh!" Izuku's eyes widened and a grin spread across his face. "That's genius! You're amazing, Ruby!"
Amazing. He didn't think she was a freak! Or a kid!
"Wait, oh! How sharp is your scythe?" he asked. "Could it get through the hide?"
Ruby cocked an eyebrow. "Crescent Rose? It's sharp enough to cut through anything, but I'd need more force, more momentum which… oh! Now I see what you're getting at! That's brilliant!"
"What's brilliant?" Weiss demanded. "What did you two just come up with?"
Ruby just smiled, her silver eyes gazing out into the canyon as the Nevermore came back into view.
It didn't even know it was already dead.
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Partnered with a Schnee? Blake could safely say she hadn't seen that coming on her long road to redemption. Fate was funny that way. You go in expecting to train and become a righteous huntress out to root out the corruption and racism of the world, and you end up shackled to one of the personifications of those things.
She was exaggerating, of course. Weiss might have been an arrogant brat, but she was still only a teenage girl. Her father's countless acts of cruelty were not her fault. And she had readily put their earlier altercation in the school courtyard behind them (because she knew what aura was? What was that about?). Maybe there was hope that the two of them could survive each other after all.
Still, it was hard to look at the snowflake emblem on her jacket and not think of the scores of starving SDC mine workers the old White Fang had held food drives for up in Mantle. Children covered in soot, their parents lost to cave-ins, begging for cans to feed themselves. All while the shining city in the sky looked down on them all.
But that was neither here nor then. Right now, she and her partner's little impromptu team had a Nevermore to kill. And the crack of Ruby's sniper rifle signaled the beginning of their plan.
The red hooded girl knelt at the very peak of the temple; her scythe implanted in the stone to steady her gun. She fired shot after shot into the Nevermore, each high caliber dust round insufficient to break through the beast's hide.
But then, they weren't meant to. They just needed to keep the monster focused on her.
"I can't believe they came up with this madness," Weiss said, freezing the blade of Gambol Shroud into the other end of the valley. "There are a thousand ways this could go wrong."
Blake shrugged, pulling the high tensile ribbon of her weapon until it was taut across the chasm. "I've seen worse plans."
"And who came up with them? A dancing monkey?"
A raging bull more like, but that was a bit more insight into her past than she was willing to give. Besides, the next stage of the plan had begun.
The Nevermore closed in on Ruby, which meant it was wholly unprepared when sparks of emerald lightning flashed from lower on the hill.
"SMASH!"
Izuku went to work and half a dozen segments of the various stone pillars were kicked into the air, flying like cannonballs straight for the Grimm bird, each one with enough force to send it sprawling. Blake didn't know what the green-haired boy's semblance was, but the sheer strength it gave him access to was insane. She hadn't seen him in a one-on-one fight yet, but if his technique was as impressive as his physical ability, she didn't think anyone in the White Fang short of Adam would be able to beat him.
Unfortunately, he didn't seem to be too experienced kicking up solid stone (his biggest concern with the plan was that he wouldn't be able to keep from shattering the segments outright). The bombardment had power behind it, but their trajectories weren't aimed at the Grimm's center of mass. Four of the shots missed outright, and the two that hit merely clipped the creature's wing and talon. It was shaken, frantically flapping and dropping a good ten feet, but it was able to correct itself from spinning out and hover in place.
Leaving it a sitting duck. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
"You ready?" Blake asked.
Weiss smirked. "Am I?"
An impish smile spread across Blake's face. "Are you—"
"Of course I am!"
Ha! Too easy.
Blake held Gambol Shroud tight, keeping her eyes peeled on Izuku's falling shots. Weiss flicked her rapier up and unleashed precise blasts of fire and lightning. Each elemental attack struck the edges of the pillar fragments, maneuvering them right where the huntresses needed them to go.
Weiss stabbed Myrtenaster into Gambol Shroud's ribbon and half a dozen black gravity glyphs sprouted across the length of the cloth. The stone segments stuck to the cord like nails to a magnet, even as the fabric, with the strength of steel rope, bent downward. Just like Ruby had planned, the world's largest slingshot was locked and loaded.
The glyphs disappeared and the recoil launched the pillar fragments into the air. And unlike when Izuku had kicked them, they were aimed. One after another, the stones cylinders slammed into the Nevermore's underside. They couldn't penetrate the hide, but their sheer blunt force was enough to send the giant bird soaring into the sky.
Where Ruby was waiting, scythe blade at the ready. Just like Izuku had planned.
The red hooded girl blasted herself into the heavens and then burst downward on a stream of rose petals. At the same, a flash of emerald lightning rocketed up the columns of the temple and launched itself at the underside of the Nevermore's head.
"SMASH!"
Izuku's kick was the last thing needed to send the Grimm shooting into the heavens. And with Ruby falling at much the same pace, Crescent Rose had more than enough force to cleave right through the avian giant's neck. With a final shriek and one last wild storm of feathers, the Nevermore's head tumbled to the ground and its body burst into shadows.
"Why does he always scream 'Smash' when he attacks?" Weiss asked. "Isn't that just wasting breath he needs for com—AH!"
Blake's eyes widened as one of the errant feathers from the Grimm's last gasp smashed into her side of the valley. The ice fixture that had kept Gambol Shroud in place under the immense weight of the pillars shattered, while the edge of the canyon crumbled into dust right under Weiss. Her partner wailed as she fell through the open air.
Without thinking, the cat faunus wrapped her end of her weapon's ribbon around her hand and dove into the valley. Wind rushed past her face as she plummeted past the stone, reaching out her arm.
"Take my hand!" she roared, securing Weiss' gaze. "Now!"
The heiress' eyes were wide with fear, but she'd been well-trained and instantly clasped Blake's wrist in an iron-clad grip. Just in time, as Gambol Shroud's ribbon went taut and bungee jumped them both back to the clifftop. The cat faunus snagged onto the edge of the canyon. With one more great heave of strength, she threw her partner back onto solid ground. The dirt crumbled under her fingers from the strain and she began to fall, but Weiss quickly whirled around and summoned a white glyph beneath her feet. With the new purchase, Blake easily hopped back onto the cliff.
"You… you saved me," Weiss whispered, staring at her.
The cat faunus blinked numbly. She had, hadn't she? She, the daughter of Ghira Belladonna and former partner of Adam Taurus, had just saved Weiss Schnee's life. Well, if her former comrades weren't going to lynch her already…
But she found she didn't regret it. She couldn't regret it. She couldn't say she liked Weiss, but she was an innocent person. She didn't deserve to die, and a huntress didn't get to pick and choose who they saved. She did the right thing. Whether her new partner would have done the same for her if she knew who Blake's true identity and past was irrelevant.
And made it even more important that she never found out about them. Even though she suspected that a certain wolf-eared jackass already knew.
"It was nothing," she told Weiss, shooting her a small smile. "We're partners now. We watch each other's backs."
An innocent grin crossed Weiss' face, a light pink blush covering her cheeks. "Yes. I suppose we do."
The two of them looked over at the temple, where Ruby and Izuku stood atop the ruins. Surrounded by the decayed yet majestic ruins of an age long past, the two of them looked like twin demigods of scarlet and emerald, titanic heroes of an age long past.
"Hopefully we won't have to watch their backs as well," she said. "Izuku seems alright, but Ruby is a bit… reckless."
Blake chuckled. "The plan worked, didn't it?"
"Notice I didn't say incompetent," the heiress pointed out. "She is most certainly skilled enough to be here, but she's hardly tempered. Her luck and her allies won't always be able to counter her childishness."
"She's only two years younger than us."
"I'm not trying to demean her. In a few years, I'm sure she'll make a fine huntress. As long as she isn't given free reign."
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"Ruby Rose, Izuku Midoriya, Blake Belladonna, and Weiss Schnee. You retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forth, you shall be known as Team RIBW, or Rainbow. Led by Ruby Rose!"
"What?!"
Izuku didn't know why Weiss was so surprised at the announcement, or why Ruby's own eyes were wide at her appointment. He nudged her with his elbow and shot her a reassuring smile, which soon blossomed into one of her own. His partner should have been proud. Her plan had gone off perfectly, unlike his own.
Well, not his additions to the Nevermore plan, those had gone wonderfully. But his actual plan, to end up on Kacchan's team, had completely fallen through.
Even as applause thundered throughout the auditorium, he couldn't keep his eyes from flickering towards the newly formed Team AYBN, or Auburn. Kacchan was still snarling at Jaune, evidently displeased that the other boy had beaten him out for team leader. It was supposed to be him on the receiving end of that hatred, slowly whittling down the walls in his classmate's memories until he remembered their actual strained relationship. But by the time he and Ruby had made it back to the relic ruins, the companion to Kacchan and Yang's white knight piece had already been taken, and since Ruby and Yang were perfectly satisfied being on different teams, he had no real excuse to request a trade, even if Ozpin could have fudged the rules to allow it.
He'd messed up, there was no getting around it. He had one job: get on Kacchan's team and integrate himself into his rival's daily life. But because he'd hadn't told Ruby that he'd known where the ruins were, she'd felt the need to help them get there by riding the Nevermore, which had cost them precious time, even if it had worked out in the end. The fact that he couldn't tell his partner what he knew had shot him in the foot.
He and his team started walking off the stage, the last presentation of the ceremony. But as they left, Ozpin caught his shoulder and leaned into his ear.
"Don't focus on what you've lost," he whispered, so soft Izuku barely heard him. "Focus on what you can still do."
Izuku didn't have time to ask for clarification before the headmaster stepped back into place, the interaction so quick that no one else would have noticed. Professor Goodwitch stepped up to the microphone and began directing everyone to the dorms. The green-haired boy kept pace with the rest of his team, pondering his ally's counsel.
Focus on what he could still do? It was sound advice. Like it or not, he hadn't gotten onto the same team as Kacchan. That didn't change his mission though. He couldn't wallow in self-pity. He needed to find a way to stay in contact with his rival. But how—
"Ruby!" Yang cheered, running up to her little sister and engulfing her in yet another hug. "Team leader! Oh, wait until I tell dad! And Uncle Qrow! They are going to be so proud! Oh, you're following in mom's footsteps already—"
"Yang! Air!"
A lightbulb went off in Izuku's head and a smile broke out over his face. He may have been an only child, but in every anime he'd ever watched and manga he'd ever read, siblings were either inseparable best friends or they wanted to kill each other for various convoluted reasons. And since he didn't think Yang's hug was secretly an attempt to suffocate Ruby for her magic nose hair, he was going to assume his partner and her sister had the former relationship. The sister, who was Kacchan's partner.
He had his way in. Family was a beautiful thing.
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Hei 'Junior' Xiong officially decided that family was a terrible thing. His had given him his nickname that had made it stupidly difficult to gain respect in the criminal underworld, and his righthand gals' had laid out his entire staff across his club and was currently holding a revolver to his head while leaning against his bar counter and drinking his alcohol. And not even the cheap stuff, the bitch had cracked open his best wine!
"Hmm, Mistralian Red," the black-haired girl mused, sniffing the top of her flute. "A good year too. You two really did pick an excellent meal ticket, didn't you?"
The targets of her words, Junior's lieutenants Miltia and Melanie, both shivered on the dance floor, their hands held out placatingly at the assailant.
"Momo," Melanie said softly. "Please. Put the gun down."
Junior's eyes widened, refocusing on the teenage girl holding his at gunpoint with new, proper fear. She looked older than he'd heard her to be, her proportions more 'mature' than most seventeen-year-olds, even the freshmen at Beacon who were famously more attractive than many moral guardians were comfortable with. Her feet were covered in sturdy combat boots, while the rest of her legs were bare save for black combat shorts that still looked stunning on her. Her upper body was clothed in a red shirt that could have been called skimpy, her creamy arms and midriff exposed. Only her chest was covered completely and even then, the responsible garment was… strained.
Normally, Junior would feel conflicted over taking in the attributes of a woman who was barely legal, but again, gun to his head. If he was going to be dead in a few seconds, he was least getting a pleasing last image.
Momo frowned at the girls and opened her palm, the pistol falling from her grip. Not what Junior had expected, but he wasn't one to let an opportunity got to waste.
He reached behind the bar counter and raised his bat, but before he could even begin to swing, a shot rang out and blasted his weapon out of his hand. His eyes zoomed back to his attacker, a completely new firearm bursting out of her skin and straight into her hand. What the hell kind of semblance was that?!
Momo sighed. "Dropping my weapon doesn't really mean much when I can just spawn a new one with a thought." She glared at Junior. "And you're very lucky that I'm the only one here. My brother would not be so forgiving of a stunt like that."
Melanie and Miltia's eyes widened.
"He… he's here?" the red dress wearing twin murmured, terror saturating her voice.
"W…Where?" the other whispered.
"Out scouting. We need to know what everyone in this kingdom wants if we're to expand here," Momo explained, before glaring at the twins. "Some people haven't been doing their jobs and keeping Lil' Miss in the loop."
"Momo—"
"The condition of you two being allowed to stay in this kingdom was that you and your…" she scoffed at Junior. "… employer served as the Spiders' eyes and ears in Vale. Yet, we seem to be sorely lacking in recent intelligence just when we need to expand."
"Hey!" Junior protested. "I've been upholding my bargain with Lil' Miss to the letter!"
It had been five years ago when he'd found two girls starving on the streets. The little devils had actually tried to pickpocket him, and, when he'd caught them red-handed, put two of his boys in the hospital before they got taken down. He was always in the market for talent, but the Malachite twins had wormed their way into his black heart over the years, like the daughters he'd never had. Of course, then he'd learned whose daughters they actually were and he'd promptly shit his pants.
He was an information broker by trade and everyone in the underworld information game knew about Lil' Miss Malachite. The Spider Queen's web spanned all of Mistral, and she had at least a few footholds in the other kingdoms. To prevent her from storming into Vale to retrieve her wayward daughters, who made clear their preference not to go back, he agreed to become one of those footholds.
With the way one-half of the crime boss' top enforcers glared at him, he hadn't done it well enough.
"We haven't received any reports in weeks," Momo said. "Care to explain the discrepancy?"
"It's not his fault!" Miltia protested. "This blonde hussy stormed in here and blew the place to hell! It's taken weeks to get everything up and running again!"
Momo raised an eyebrow. "A huntress?"
Melanie cringed. "Not… exactly…"
The mobster glanced at the unconscious bodies of Junior's men she'd torn through and sighed. "I guess that's something we'll have to work on."
She lowered her gun and placed it in a holster she spawned from her hip. Junior breathed a gasp of relief. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet," the bombshell said. "We have a lot of work to do. If we're going to be the top dogs of this kingdom, we need to challenge the top dog."
"Um… yes?" Junior muttered, already disliking where this was going.
Momo motioned with her hand. "And who is the top dog in this city?"
Yup. He did not like this.
"Roman Torchwick," Junior confessed. "Word is he's been running with the White Fang lately."
Momo cocked an eyebrow. "The gentleman thief is palling around with animals? Can't say I saw that coming."
Melanie chuckled awkwardly. "He rented a few of our guys for a job. He was dissatisfied."
"I can imagine," Momo said. "So what is this unholy alliance after?"
Junior scowled. "Dust. They've been stealing every scrap of dust in the kingdom."
"Dust?" Momo repeated. "Not exactly traditional, but brother and I have handled stranger things. I'm going to need a list of targets. This kingdom is about to have quite the shortage."
Mob boss Momo. Fun times. Scary, but fun.
Also, huzzah! Got through initiation in one chapter! The arc is a joy to watch unfold onscreen, but my god is it dull to write on-page. Anyway, just as things often go for Izuku, his plan didn't work out exactly how he'd hoped. But, the future World's Greatest Hero isn't going to let a little thing like that stand in his way! He's got a job to do and he's going to do it PLUS ULTRA.
Oh, and people may notice that a certain best couple in RWBY is conspicuously absent from these proceedings. Rest assured, I have not forgotten about Ren and Nora. But the MHA gang have been on Remnant for seventeen years now and that has caused... ripples.
UPDATE: Thanks to the amazing Wilahelm2, this story now has a TVTROPES PAGE! If you're into that sort of thing, head on over and enjoy it!
An extra huge thank you to my patrons: Gregg Tracton, Annaya Chan, Keith Tracton, Nora Okonus, KefkaesqueXIII, Christian Howard, SanyaBane, Matthew Blevins, and David Wayman.
Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!
Go Forth and Conquer!
