Crimson XVII: Another Term
The same as any other, the sun was beginning to set on another day in the Kingdom of Vale. With its slow descent, both Beacon Academy and the surrounding city were covered in a dull golden glow. Despite the calm setting, many of the students were anything but calm, rushing off to last minute activities or hoping to plan last minute celebrations as the final day of their of their vacation came to that agonizingly slow close. Come tomorrow morning, students would be in their first class for the next semester and with that the assignment of time eating homework along with sleep depriving projects. Knowing that these precious last hours weren't to be wasted, nearly all of the students that weren't returning from family trips were fighting hard to enjoy the last few minutes and staying as far away from any class rooms as they could… save for one particular student.
Ragna the Bloodedge had never been the social type. Even with the developments of the last semester chipping away at his cold and brooding exterior, he still very much remained the same standoffish and vulgar delinquent as he always was. Standing cross armed at the center of the mock combat room, he didn't move a muscle despite appearing quite on edge. His massive sword-scythe; the Aramasa, rested on the back of his belt where he usually kept it when he wasn't swinging it in the heat of combat. He'd left his most recently acquired sword, Clarent, back in his team's room for the time being… He wasn't going to need it here.
His signature red coat had been recently repaired from a brawl with his teammate and the patchwork he'd performed on the fabric made it seem practically brand new. Despite having new… options to wear, the Grimm Reaper would be lying if he didn't think he still looked his best like this.
The sudden shift in the air around him made the brooding Reaper give a harsh grin as he went for the Aramasa. Pulling the weapon off of his belt with enough force to create a harsh gale, his edge of steel collided with another and caused sparks to fly at the contact. A few midair flips and his best friend, Ruby Rose, pulled off a perfect landing with her precious Crescent Rose in hand. Despite having just slashed at Ragna with her scythe, the young girl had the most excited smile on her face and sparkles in her eyes.
(Cue F-Zero: The Legend of Falcon The Meaning of Truth)
"Solid approach," the Grimm Reaper commended, flipping his sword around in his hand a few times before resetting the blade on his belt. While he appeared to be standing with an unconcerned slouch, in truth this was the posture he always took whenever he was ready for a fight. From here he could either throw out an unarmed strike, guard himself, or just as easily go for his sword. "You ready for this?"
"Always! I'm getting you to bring out that scythe today for sure!" Ruby promised him, twirling her own weapon around a few times as well before resting it in both of her hands in her own combat position.
"If you say so; GIVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT!"
That was all the invitation that Ruby needed; firing a blank shot behind her she used the force of the blast to rush forward before twirling in midair and turning her scythe into a deadly saw blade. Ragna responded in kind by creating a Barrier in front of him to take the storm of scythe swings. Still a bit above Ragna in height, Ruby swung downwards but the attack was easily deflected by Ragna's unarmed uppercut; his fist carrying enough force to avoid being hit by the blade. He then made another upward slash with Armasa and caught Ruby's weapon and interrupted her from firing off another momentum shot, before following up with a downward slash and forcing her to the ground. Ruby managed to keep her footing despite sliding back slightly, but Ragna's quick and powerful roundhouse kick sent her flying back even further. Plunging her scythe point into the ground to halt her slide back, she used that position to fire two quick scy-pod shots.
Ragna charged forward to close the distance on his own accord, quickly taking his blade out to deflect both shots to the side with ease before turning to a rush with a wild haymaker slash. Using her speed semblance at the last second, Ruby managed to avoid the slash and get behind Ragna. Seemingly unable to turn around and counter with his own blade, Ragna slid forward to avoid Ruby's first slash, turned and leaned to the side to avoid her second, and leaned back to barely avoid the third as the point of her scythe nearly caught the underside of his chin. Ruby then went for a low slash to try and catch Ragna's feet, but he stabbed his sword down and managed to catch her blade before swinging upward and forcing both weapons into the air.
With Ragna right in front of her and going for a quick slash, Ruby's only option was to clash weapons and cause more sparks to fly. Ragna raised his leg to catch perform a crushing stomp, but Ruby managed to hold her weapon up and used it handle as an effective guard. Pushing the attack off she tried to go for a quicker pommel strike to Ragna's gut, but the Reaper blocked the attack with ease before slashing his sword which again connected with Ruby's.
Making a quick horizontal slash, Ragna just barely missed Ruby as she blasted herself into the air to avoid the attack. Performing a mighty helm splitter, he again just barely missed as she zoomed just out of his range and landed on the floor. Gathering up her semblance, Ruby then rushed straight as Ragna with spinning through the air, going so fast that she appeared as a small red twister. The Grimm Reaper just barely had time to raise his barrier and guard against the attack as Ruby's continued to push him back along with the violent currents her attack was causing. Ever after she started to lose momentum, Ruby landed to the ground and spun her scythe in a series of circular swings which continued to clash against Ragna's barrier. Leaping up into the air, she delivered a final slash which managed to push her opponent back and gain some distance.
"That's a new one," Ragna commented, almost sounding impressed. Ruby only gave him a confident smile, indicating she was still ready for more. "Alright then, let's see what you really got."
As Ragna took Aramasa off his belt once more, Ruby started a charge to press another offensive, only to pause as Ragna raised his sword into the air and it pulsing with a strange dark energy. Ruby skidded to a stop in her charge forward, watching intently and squealing with excitement as Ragna's weapon extended, it's blade slanted to the side, and another blade formed entirely of dark energy was created; the Aramasa's true form.
Ruby then blitzed forward to try and close distance quickly enough so that Ragna wouldn't be able to hit her with his larger weapon. Unfortunately for her, it was then that she saw that Ragna could wield his scythe as fast as he could his sword. With a quick slash cleaving through her path, Ragna forced Ruby to stop her charge before quickly leaping back. Ragna made another slash, but this one Ruby managed to leap over before firing a blast that shot her towards Ragna. Bringing her scythe down, she figured she'd be able to make direct contact, but Ragna quickly reached with his hand and caught the scythe by its handle. Throwing her behind him, he then followed up with another scythe slash to that sent her flying back into the training room wall.
Using her speed semblance to quickly turn around and land her feet on the wall. Taking off into a powerful sprint while still remaining on the side of the wall, she fired off several rounds of practice shots to overwhelm Ragna from different angles. Keeping his weapon in it's scythe form, Ragna moved the defensive has leaned to avoid on the first few shots before wildly swinging his scythe, managing to make contact with each of the bullets and deflect them away. On one of the shots that the young huntress fired, Ragna managed to hit it at just the right angle where it blasted a hole in the wall right where Ruby had been about to step and knocked her off.
Firing off on regular shot at Ragna, the Reaper leaped high into the air while carrying his large scythe with him. Utilizing what little bit of aura she still could, Ruby activated her speed semblance and went once more into a viciously swinging buzzsaw. Ragna only roared as he swung his own blade around in a hefty swing, creating a brilliant collision as both scythes made contact.
(End theme)
That final clash ended with Ragna completing his final swing while Ruby lost her grip on her weapon as it spiraled out of reach and impaled itself in the classroom wall. Giving her a chance to recover, Ragna allowed the Aramasa to revert to its sword form before placing it back on his belt. Ruby quickly got to her feet and rush at Ragna with her semblance. The Reaper raised his arm and blocked a semblance fueled punch… only to stare at Ruby once it had connected.
"Uh… is that it…?" he asked, looking down in surprise at his sparring partner. Blinking a couple of times, Ruby reeled back her fist before throwing a follow up punch. Ragna didn't block this one and he barely felt it as Ruby made contact. Realizing she was losing her edge, Ruby unleashed a flurry of punches (honestly she was just flailing about) as she tried to get a mark on Ragna. The Reaper only shook his head before giving her one well placed poke to the forehead strong enough to send Ruby stumbling back before she landed square on her bottom. "...B Minus."
"Hey! That wasn't an official fight! We were just doing this for fun!" she told him with a pout on the floor.
"We both know damn well that you were giving it your all out there," he told her as he looked down at his friend, eventually giving a teasing smirk. "Including whatever that was after you dropped your scythe. I wanna say… dancing?"
"Oh, that's it!" Ruby said as she finally leaped to her feet. "I'll show you!"
Using her speed semblance, she rushed forward for another attack on Ragna. Knowing she couldn't do anything to hurt him, Ragna just shook his head and gave a wistful smile as she ran into him… before realizing she hadn't been aiming to hurt him.
"Ru-Ruby! C-cut that out!" Ragna shouted as Ruby clung to him, viciously tickling his sides and even using her speed semblance to increase the effect. Strong as Ragna was, he couldn't help it if he was ticklish and he couldn't help laughing as she clung to him. Trying to force her off him proved to be his undoing as he lost his balance and fell, landing flat on his back.
"One all," Ruby announced gleefully, resting her chin on Ragna's chest as she smiled brightly at him.
"Tch, you wish," the grumpy Reaper continued to deny from a rather compromising position. "There's no way I'm counting that."
"Excuse us?" a voice sounded, making it quite clear to the two that they weren't alone here. Ruby quickly got off of Ragna as the Reaper tried to adjust his clothing, both giving harsh blushes. "Sorry, were we interrupting something?"
"No, nothing at all," Ragna said trying to save face as he got to his feet.
'Well… it's not nothing,' Ruby admitted internally before looking at the three that had just arrived. "Oh! Are you all new here?"
"Guess we would stand out. We're here for our first semester at Beacon," the only boy of the group said. He had greyish hair that was style to his right, and a black and grey zip up jacket. "You can call me Mercury. The girls beside me are-"
"Emerald," the girl to his side said, obviously just to interrupt Mercury so he wouldn't have the satisfaction. Her hair was a light mint green styled into bangs and her outfit was a strange exotic mix of clothes with brown covering white pants and wrappings to cover her top half… Ragna had a suspicion a certain student would be interested in her get up… while another would be interested in the lack thereof.
"And I'm Cinder," the lead girl and the one that had called them out chimed in. At the moment, she was the only one currently wearing the official Beacon uniform. She had ashen grey hair that was styled to her left and cover most of the eye on that side. The eye they both could see though seemed to be focused on Ragna in an almost intense stare, seeming to ignore Ruby completely.
"So, something you needed?" Ragna asked, feeling just the slightest bit uncomfortable under the gaze. That and something about Cinder herself was… off. It wasn't even something that he could physically see about her; it was more like there was a feeling that would cause his hair to rise if it wasn't already so naturally spiky.
"Don't be rude, we still need to introduce ourselves! Good first impressions!" Ragna decided not to comment that they'd already made quite the first impression. "I'm Ruby Rose! First year here at Beacon!" The Reaper had hoped that she would save him the trouble of introductions, but the look his young friend was sending his way made it clear he wouldn't be getting out of it that easily.
"...Ragna, also a first year," he eventually relented, noticing that Cinder hadn't looked away from him (he wasn't even sure if she'd blinked yet). "Again, something you needed?"
"We just needed some directions to the dormitories," she explained, breaking eye contact before turning her attention to Ruby and putting a smile on her face. If Ragna didn't know any better, he'd have to assume this was a forced effort for some reason. "It's a big place and it's a little hard to find our way around."
"Oh, then you just need to head a couple of halls down to the right, you can't miss it," she instructed. "Hope we see more of you this term!"
"I'm certain we'll be seeing a lot of each other," Cinder said in a friendly manner as they left… though Ragna couldn't help but notice the final 'look' she sent him as her team exited the training room.
"That damn way she kept looking at me…" he began with a low tone, still unnerved by the woman he'd just encountered.
"...You think she likes you?" Ruby asked, tilting her head to the side. Ragna gave his best friend an odd look, knowing full well how wrong that seemed. "What?"
Outside in the still empty halls, the three had… different thoughts about the meeting.
"So that guy with the whole deathly brooding complex is the one you've got a vexing interest in?" Mercury commented stepping side by side with Cinder with his hands resting behind his head in a very relaxed manner. "Gotta admit, I'm just not seeing it."
"That's not surprising," Emerald harshly commented.
"What? Did you try to get a good eyefull yourself? And here I thought I was your type." Thanks to his good reflexes, he managed to avoid Emerald's slap to his face.
"That's enough you too," Cinder told them both, her commanding voice containing both authority and a deadly threat. Both of her followers complied as they continued to find the dormitories. "We all have to behave while we're here, after all…"
'So… the only person who's taken up so much of Hazama's thoughts and the girl that's already gotten in my side already know each other. What's more, they seem very close…' Cinder nearly gave a sadistic giggle. 'This is almost making it too easy.'
GRIMM REAPER'S OF REMNANT
Volume II -Second Guessing-
"For the rest of the school year, the haunting echoes of their screams could be heard no matter where you went. There wasn't a drop of coffee to be found throughout Beacon and even Vale city was faced with the crisis of a shortage that lasted for months. The heavy air of exhaustion was suffocating, some people fell into a deep sleep afterwards and never woke up. Some people lost their nerves so badly… that their entire head went BALD."
"NOOOOOOOOOO!"
Yang screamed in sheer terror, clutching both Weiss and Blake as close as she could. While all the noble could do was grit her teeth as she was held hard enough for her ribs to start to crack, Blake meanwhile had to fight for her life so that Yang wouldn't unintentionally strangle her. With the flashlight illuminating her face from below, Nora gave her best maniacal laugh before continuing the story.
"All of this was meer childsplay to the true terror that awaited them all. Both torturously slow and all too quickly, the papers' due dates came upon them. Shaking from the mix of pure fright, sheer exhaustion, and sickly over caffeination, the students brought the fruits of their labor forward; offering them up like pegan sacrifices. The teachers emotionless and rigid as a stone cliff side. But with the documents in their hands, their eyes gleamed viciously…" Nora then made a wild swing with her flashlight, laughing crazily like a Yandere gone too far (obvious foreshadowing is obvious). "AND THEN THERE WAS THE DESTRUCTIVE FLASH OF RED! THE DREADED CORRECTIONS PEN! MISSPELLING! IMPROPER GRAMMAR! IMPROPERLY SOURCED REFERENCES! SPACES THAT WERE A MILLIMETER TOO LONG! ALL OF THEIR HARD WORK REWARDED WITH A D MINUS!"
Nora basked in her storytelling glory as the screams cut through the air… only to realize that it was only one scream… and it wasn't coming from any of the girls.
"Don't mind me, I'll be out in a second," Lei Ren assured as he took the screaming teapot off the burner and began pouring the tea. "Anyone care for a cup? Fresh from Haven."
"REN! You totally blew my story!" Nora shouted at her partner. "I had this whole thing ready to have all three of them afraid for their lives and you went in blew it!"
"I think the only reason you got a scream at all was because you hit Yang's weak point," he judged, looking as the blonde was still pulling her beloved hair close to her.
"Jesus… We're gone a half hour tops, we come back to a dark room, and Yang and Nora are screaming their heads off," came Ragna's voice as the light's in the lobby were finally flipped back on.
"Sounds about right, literally," Ruby tried to tell him with a smile. Ragna was not amused.
"You guys weren't gone for very long," Blake noted from were she sat, having finally caught her breath. "How did your sparring go?"
"Managed to tie!" Ruby said, giving a peace sign of victory.
"She wishes," the Reaper cut in, thrusting her hand down.
"Well I managed to see you go Scythe Mode! That's victory enough for me!" the weapons enthusiast decided proudly.
"Ruby, the Festival Tournament isn't too far away and if you keep an attitude like that you won't get past the first elimination round!" Weiss cut in, scolding her partner as usual.
"That's funny; and here I thought your pride as a Schnee wouldn't let you do anything less than take on the entire tournament all on your lonesome with a hand tied behind your back for good measure," Ragna taunted before smirking. "Or is that just your own personal stubbornness?"
"St-Stubborn!? Who are you calling stubborn!?" she demanded, getting to her feet so she could lean forward with her hands on her hips and glare up at Ragna.
"Looks like everyone's getting along as well as when we left you," came another familiar voice from down the hall; it's source was a redhead decorated in golden armor.
"Pyrrha! You're back!" Nora exclaimed rushing forward to greet her friend and teammate. "Soooo give me the details! What was Jaune's family like?! Do they have a big house?! Did you already get his parent's blessing?! When's the-?!"
"Nora, don't overwhelm her…" Ren sighed at his partner's behavior before looking at Ragna. "Tea?"
"Why not?" the Reaper said with a solid shrug as Ren began pouring him a cup. "Where the heck is Jaune anyways?"
"...I'm not here," came the voice of Jaune Arc. By how dead his voice sounded it was quite clear that there was something wrong with the poor boy.
"There going to have to see you eventually Jaune, you might as well get this over with now," Pyrhha gently tried to coax. Eventually her team leader stepped out of the shadows and she was forced to shoot a powerful glare at Nora as she erupted into laughter.
"What on earth are you wearing!?" Nora demanded as she fell on top of the couch, clutching her sides with pangs of laughter. Her leader was dressed in a canadian tuxedo; a deep blue denim jacket, faded blue jeans, and a sky blue v-neck t-shirt. His only saving grace with a grey metal chain necklace with a kite shield with a laurel wreath wrapping around the sides as its centerpiece. Such an accessory was fitting if somewhat bold fashion statement… but it did little to keep his teammate from laughing.
"It… It's something that… my mother picked out for me." In hindsight, that could've been about the worst thing he could say. Now Ruby and Yang were joining in the laughing, Blake could only avert her eyes in the shame she saw in him, and Ren only wordlessly facepalmed.
"It's not as bad as you all think," Phyrra tried to tell them. "His sisters are merciless; they didn't give him a choice in the matter…"
(Author's Note: For those that want more details about this check out Chapter 3 of my side story Grimm Reaper's Extensions)
"...That right?" Ragna commented, having remained silent while everyone else had reacted to Jaune's outfit. Walking over to the ashamed blond, he reached his arm out and but a hand upon his denim covered shoulder. Surprised, Jaune looked up and saw the Reaper's face in a much different light; one of understanding and comradery. "I hear you… brother."
"...BROTHER!" Jaune seemed to say out of nowhere, rushing forward as Ragna moved his hand from his friend's shoulder from his face to avoid whatever clinging he was in for. NOW Phyrra was facepalming.
"That's funny…" Yang said with a smile that made it clear she was about to tell one of her famous wisecracks. "A lanky blond kid, dressed in blue, and has a name that starts with a J is trying to glomp Ragna while shouting Brother… and Jin's nowhere in sight."
"Is that so, woman?"
An icy chill seemed to pass through Yang as she trembled at the words before turning to the lobby's main entrance and saw the Kisaragi heir wheeling in a small suitcase behind him. Ragna gave Jaune one final push off which seemed to do the trick, before turning his attention to his younger sibling.
"You made it back," he noted obviously.
"You seem disappointed," Jin commented. His face had both a scowl and something of a cocky smirk.
"Not really," Ragna shot back with his own sharp grin. This wasn't much between them, but for everything that wasn't happening, it was certainly progress. "How was your break?"
"I suppose I have no complaints," his sibling decided.
"Didn't you spend it with Kurgura?" Ruby reminded.
"I'm surprised too."
"If you two went together then where is he?" Weiss demanded. Jin then set his eyes upon his classmate, some previous words regarding her weighing heavy on his mind, though Weiss herself didn't seem any different.
"He's… out doing exactly what you'd expect," Jin said with a soft sigh.
Meanwhile
"Aw, I'm glad you both decided to drop the cold shoulder," Kagura said, each of his arms around a lovely young lady. "Sorry that I had to leave you both by your lonesomes."
"You'd better be sorry; I hate to have to show you the business side of these heels," Melanie Malachite threatened as she sat on Kagura's right, her bladed footwear sitting so close that most people would feel threatened… this womanizer knew how to keep his cool however. "The entire week you were gone Miltia kept pining after you and saying how there weren't any cool enough guys without you."
"That so?" Kagura asked, directing his charmers smile to the red dressed beauty on his left rested her head on his shoulder. Even with the obnoxiously loud dance music blasting around them, the ladykiller was skilled enough with his volume and the words he whispered into the claw user's ear was enough to flush her face crimson.
"Whatever," she said trying to hide her real reaction, but to no avail as the confidence in Kagura's grin grew even further.
A ways away from their little corner of the club, its owner watched them with a less than pleased look on his face.
'How are they supposed to get their work in as bouncers if they're gonna keep cozying up to that idiot?' Hei Xiong (better known around as 'Junior') internally growled as he watched them. Kagura would always come in with some idiotic play to get the girls, but the really infuriating part was that it always seemed to work. '...Guess I should just be happy he's willing to dump all of that cash of his into this place; just about paid off all of the repairs for blondie's damages.'
Back to Beacon
"That idiot… though I can't say I'm at all shocked," Ragna muttered as he realized what Kagura was doing. "And Goodwitch always thinks I'm the poor bastard that needs to be put on mop duty." Ragna glared at his brother. "You know the kind of hell he's going to give your team if he gets caught in a dive like that, right?"
"Like you have any room to talk with our-"
"Ix-Nay, YANG," Ragna told her with a harsh scowl, wanting to keep the secret between as few people as possible. The blonde only gave Ragna a smile that reminded him that she'd never manage to keep a secret.
"In what little I'm willing to offer in defense of Kagura, it's a long flight from the Kisaragi estate and we'll all need to be well rested for the coming events," Jin informed.
"Well rested? Doesn't that seem kinda paranoid?" Ragna asked as he scanned the room. No one seemed all that confident of the coming term… quite a few of them actually looked pretty nervous. Even Ren seemed a little less stoic than usual, the tea mug he offered to Ragna shaking ever so slightly. "Okay… not the response I was expecting."
"Ragna, you know what we're in for," Jaune tried to reason with the fellow lead. "Come on, even you can't tell me that your confident even after hearing the stories from some of the second year students."
"And second hand tellings with a spine chilling twist from yours truly!" Nora chimed in proudly.
"Nora's zany way of telling things aside, what the hell kind of stories are they telling in the first place?" the Reaper demanded.
"Only what people are calling the Project Hell," Blake told him, actually starting to give him answers to what he was in for. "Ragna did you really not hear talking about this from other students?"
"I mean… they might've been saying something about it," he admitted. "Problem was I probably wasn't listening."
"Honestly…" Blake sighed.
"Hey, it's not my fault I don't have cute cat ears like you," Ragna retorted as looked to the top of Blake's head… almost… longingly.
"...No, you're not allowed to pet them," she denied with a sharp scowl. Ragna actually looked a little disappointed. "Getting you back on task, this upcoming term there's going to be no homework, no attendance records, and only weekly lectures. All of our time is going to be dedicated to projects."
"That… sounds like hell I guess?" Ragna said, still not seeing the point. "If that's all we're doing, how many projects are we supposed to be doing?"
"Four projects, each more heinous than the last! One for each bloodcurdling class designed to strip away any sign of hope left in those foolish eyes of yours! Oh you sweet summer child! How foolish you are to show any signs of confidence, when at the end you'll be broken and pleading for it all to end!"
"Nora's… Noraness aside, there's only one project to do for every class. The problem is that you're going to be expected to work the entire term on it, so it needs to be good," Pyrhha explained.
"...Still not impressed," Ragna admitted as he sipped his tea. "Long as you don't spend the whole semester pissing your time away, you should be fine right?"
"It's not that easy; not with the way project teams are going to be split," Jaune explained, remembering the information Pyrhha had been briefing him on during their flight here. "So your first project's going to be a team project, meaning that you're supposed to coordinate with your entire team."
"Meaning that not all of them are handled that way," Ragna realized. "Then what?"
"Then you have your standard partner project," Weiss explained. "Depending on how badly Tsubaki and Celica are going to be trapped by bad weather, the both of you are already starting off with a heavy disadvantage."
"I'm well aware; it's my brother that you need to worry about," Jin assured her, leaving his elder to growl at the insult. "You'll have to manage your time well and work hard for the solo project; even if you only have yourself to rely on, our instructors are said to judge just as harshly as the other two projects."
"So a bunch of crap is on me, big deal," Ragna tried to downplay. "Wait a minute… Group, partner, and solo. I thought you said we'd have four projects."
"And… that's what supposedly makes this Project Hell," Blake told him darkly. "If you were forced to do everything else it could have been manageable… but then you have the final Random Project."
"You and one other person," Ren clarified. "It's going to be on that person to make or break your semester. Everyone else you might've found a way to coordinate with, but the random partner is going to have their own schedule to attend to and there's the chance that they'll be a type that particularly hard for you to work with."
"There's only two things that are certain for your random partner," Yang interjected. "Your random partner can't be anyone from your team… and no take backs; you're stuck with them for the entire term." She then shot Ragna a smirk. "Might not be all bad for you; you might even get to team up with a total hottie."
"Is that a flame pun?" Ragna asked with annoyance.
"I just said hottie, never said anything about it being me," she told him as her flirty smile only seemed to grow. "But I was the first one you thought about when I said that? Nice that you're being so forward for once!"
"Wha-!? I didn't-!? ...You know what? Forget it," he growled before taking a long sip from his cup as everyone around him chuckled at his expense.
"Point Yang," Ruby commented with a smug grin at Ragna.
"Something tells me I don't think I want to know the overall score," Jin commented, earning a slight glare from his brother. He then turned serious again. "Normally, that alone would be enough to earn the moniker of Project Hell, but this year they seem to be taking it a full step forward."
"...They are?" Somehow, even the horror story spreading Nora didn' know of the extra challenge Jin was talking about.
"On these projects, Ozpin's been known to bring in an expert from outside of the academy every year to oversee and grade one of them. They usually tend to offer the harshest criticism and they're known to assign readings that are far beyond our year's normal curriculum," he advised. "Last year the professor was assigned to the partner project and managed to cause a lot of tension between the teams, but now we're even worse off… they're supposed to be judging the Random Projects."
"Putting even more pressure there," Ren realized. "Do you know who the outside expert's supposed to be this year?"
"Not a clue, but I'm sure we'll be finding out at the assembly tomorrow when the random teams are announced," he admitted. "And if that wasn't enough…"
"There's more?" Ragna groaned as he realized just how serious this is getting.
"Think about what she said earlier," Jin instructed as he gestured to Blake. "What's the one thing they're not stopping during the group projects?"
"No homework, no attendance grades, weekly lectures…" the Reaper began listing off before it dawned on him. "The mock battles."
"More than that, The Vytal Festival is next term," Pyrahh realized.
"And Vale's hosting this year," Weiss realized. "Meaning on top of Project Hell, we also need to give our all in the combat classes if we want any chance of getting in."
"...I'm so dead," Jaune muttered as he slumped his head forward, knowing how much work his combat skills still needed, and that was for regular classes sparring.
"...Oh Ragnaaaaaaa," Nora said with a mix of sweet and sadism, causing Jaune to tremble as he looked to the fellow team lead. "I think Jaune could use another… crash course."
"M-Maybe you don't have to go that far…" he tried to tell the Reaper, as Ragna seemed to be thinking it over. "I… I mean I just got back, didn't I?"
"You did, but…" Ragna began before sighing. "If we can manage to bulk you up a little, there's a chance you'll be able to outgrow those damn clothes that you got sent back with." This attempt at motivation was something that he'd learned from his teacher; if you wanted to convince someone to put the effort in to get through a hellish training regimen, you needed to convince them that there was a harsher hell they'd be escaping.
"...DO IT."
It had a solid record of success.
Meanwhile -Upper Floors-
While he didn't come off as nearly standoffish as some of the other students at the academy, Azrael could still see the value of some private time. Laying on the upper balconies while the wall behind him kept him sitting upright was one of his usual relaxing places and one of his favorites. There was a soft breeze tonight which felt cool against his skin and the twilight hour was sending the last of the sun's rays over the horizon. It wasn't too unusual if he'd fall asleep while he was up here (he'd only fallen off once and they were still trying to get his body's massive indent out of the ground below), but as he heard footsteps approaching he knew that plan wouldn't be upheld. There were only a few people at the academy that would even think of approaching him, and the one he saw was certainly the hardest of them to read.
"Mind if I join you?" Amane Nishiki asked in his signature flowery tone as he walked onto the balcony.
"Even if I said no, you're not the type that can take a hint," Azrael grumbled.
"More like I'm selective in what stage cues I acknowledge," the dancer to him as he leaned against the balcony himself. "Why aren't you with the others?"
"Felt like a nap, but it looks like you won't let me have that," he bluntly explained. "What about you? You're so social that you can actually make someone uncomfortable."
"Only because most of our cast has yet to get over their stage fright," Amane told him, using his usual wordplay. "As for now, I'm on my own little break. I can't expect so many performers to keep their forms after so many performances, especially with such a tricky routine on the horizon."
"Guess I should have known it would be that simple," Azrael decided as he turned his gaze back to the horizon. "I hear we're having some students from the other kingdoms arriving early for the Festival."
"You've heard correctly, but with the stormy weather as harsh as it's been, it might take some time for all of them to arrive. Much to everyone's disappointment." A gentle smile formed on Amane's lips. "I can tell how hard it will be to hold yourself back from charging full force against them when they arrive.
"Actually, it'll be easier than that," the Mad Dog admitted with a toothy grin. "If I don't get to fight them now, I'll be in for a fresh fight when the Festival finally rolls around."
"So that's your game; you're hoping that the Festival is going to be your biggest hunt of them all." Amane got all of the confirmation he needed from Azrael's confident laugh. "It's good that you have something to look forward to, but I'd take a small sliver of caution… you don't want to end up scarred again, do you?"
'He can see this?' Azrael thought to himself as he glanced down to his chest. While the wound he'd been inflicted by Ragna had been a sizable one, Azrael's aura along with his own impressive metabolism had healed it quickly and effectively. Now it should have been impossible for the naked eye to see, but something about Amane made it seem that he had better eyes than that.
"That look you're giving me…" the dancer began, a strange shine starting to sparkle in his eyes. "Would you prefer to have a personal dance with yours truly?"
"...Pass, for now," Azrael eventual decided. "You're so delicate that I'd snap you like a twig."
"Snap? Oh no, I'm afraid I'd be far too flexible and limber to let something like that to happen," Amane brushed off. "Perhaps some other time then?"
"Maybe at the Festival," as a hungry smirk alit his face. 'This is going to get interesting…'
The Next Day
"Still a lot of people trying to make it back from their breaks," Ragna noted as he stood in the Assembly Hall with his brother the next morning. It was bright and early at the academy even if there technically wasn't a lot on today's agenda. While the main purpose of this assembly was for Project Hell initiations, all of the teams from the higher years were there as well (Ragna had given a passing nod to Team CFVY). "Any word from Tsubaki or Celica?"
"Earlier this morning," his brother informed. "The storm's set to subside some time tomorrow and from there it's still a full day's travel for them. Meaning they'll have only missed a single day of project work."
"That's not too bad, but they're still going to miss the weekly lecture tomorrow," Ragna grumbled. "Can't believe they're not willing to just push it off for another day until everyone gets here."
"It's probably their way of testing us, making sure we'd be able to pull for the rest of our team when they're unavailable," Jin guessed. "This whole process is starting to sound like one long series of tests."
"Fun…" The Reaper's sarcastic growl did well enough to tell what kind of mood he was currently in.
"Happy start of Term!" came Ruby's greeting cheery as always. This made it just a bit harder for Ragna to stay as sour as he was currently feeling.
"Wouldn't exactly go with happy… but good morning," Ragna told her with a softer smile.
"You're actually wearing your uniform for the first day," Blake noted, seeing Ragna dressed in the standard Beacon Academy uniform. "I thought you hated wearing it."
"I do, just figured I might as well have it on for the first day," he told her while scratching the back of his head, an easy tell that he was hiding something.
"More like you just didn't want Goodwitch nagging your ear off for not being dressed right," Yang countered with her knowing smile, something that she'd often have around Ragna.
"You're not wrong," the Reaper admitted. "At least I've got the damn thing on right."
"I wouldn't go that far," Weiss told him. Before Ragna could protest, Weiss was already all over his clothes. Tightening his tie, adjusting his shoulders, flattening his shirt. The Reaper didn't have a second to protest as Weiss made sure his appearance was up to form. "There… that's much better."
"Really?" he had to growl. The sudden display was even enough to get a small dignified chuckle out of Jin.
"You're fault for caving in so easily," came Azrael's voice as he joined the group along with Amane and Kagura. Out of the three of them, only Kagura was dressed in the school's uniform.
"You know…" the Black Gale began with a charming smile. "My tie's feeling actually feeling a little loose. Weiss, do you mind-?"
"Fix it yourself; you have hands," she told him, not even bothering to face him.
"Chilly as a winter's night," Amane commented with a smile as Kagura glared in jealousy at Ragna's snarky smirk.
"No, that'd be my sister," Weiss informed. Before anyone could question her words, it was then that team JNPR burst onto the scene.
"Are we late?" Jaune asked, sounding a little out of breath after running the entire way here.
"Nah, Ozpin hasn't made his appearance yet," Ragna informed. "How come you had to take so long though?"
"Apparently he was so exhausted with yesterday's training that he slept through today's alarm," Pryhha explained.
"And most of the follow up tries had no effect," Ren added.
"What on earth did you do to him last night?" Nora demanded.
"Just the usual; and you're the one that said I should train him so I don't want to hear it," Ragna told her, leading Nora to stick her tongue out at him. "That's classy."
"Ozpin's on the stage now; I think they're about to start," Jin informed as the Assembly Hall grew quiet. To Oz's left stood Goodwitch while to his right stood Peter Port and Bartholomew Oobleck.
"No sign of the guest Teacher yet," Yang whispered.
"Maybe he got caught in the weather delays?" Ruby guessed.
"Thank you all for joining us," Ozpin said as he spoke into the microphone. "With any luck we'll be able to finish relatively early here and you'll be able to enjoy the rest of your day before classes begin in full tomorrow. I understand that many of you do not have your full teams at the moment, but we'll have to do our best to take this unfortunate occurrence in stride… fitting the core of Huntsman and Huntress planning."
'Starting to sound like he planned it this way, storms included' Ragna realized.
"Onto other news; as you all know next season Vale will be hosting the acclaimed Vytal Festival. In accordance with the upcoming event, each and every mock battle you'll be participating in will carry a certain new weight to it. If you want any chance of being selected to represent Vale in the coming tournament, you'll have to go above and beyond anything that you could have managed last term… that goes for everyone."
Ozpin looked over the notes on his desk before he began reading.
"That said, we do seem to have a powerful lineup of potential contestants this year. While most of our higher years are impressive enough in their own right; our first years from last season actually managed one of the highest written exam averages on record… and some of the top scorers for the combat exams carried marks that were nearly unheard of. One student in particular during the Grimm Hunting managed a record that was more than fifty over the former highest."
Ragna felt Yang gave him a solid punch to the shoulder before seeing her proud smile, remembering when they took that final exam together. He again scratched the back of his head, this time in mild embarrassment.
"That being said I don't want any of you to expect this quarter to be an easy one; the name Project Hell was aptly earned," Ozpin told them, using the name most figured only students used. "This may very well be the greatest challenge of your first year as students, so I expect you all to rise to this occasion." Ozpin then guestered to the teachers on each side. "Professor Port and Dr. Oobleck as expected will be handling projects around Grimm Studies and Historical Studies. Those will be your Team and Partner projects respectively. Professor Goodwitch will continue to oversee the mock battles as well as the Solo project which relates to Information Gathering. Lastly though he's absent now, the Random project will fall under the guidance of-"
THOOOM!
A loud crash echoed around the Assembly hall from the very back. Students all whipped their heads around to see the entrance doors had been flung open with great force. Standing at the entrance was a lone man, wearing a purple shirt and cape, white pants, leather shoes… and a golden mask covering his face.
"No damn way…" one of the students could barely say.
"THAT'S our Random Project instructor!?" another demanded.
"...I think the first years are just plain dead," a third year comment with abundant pity.
"Uh… Ragna?" Jaune whispered to the Reaper. "Who is that?"
"That's... Relius Clover," Ragna said in a low voice as the man walked forward through the center of the crowd. Everyone wordlessly made way for him to pass and made sure he had ample room. "I didn't do that much reading when I was on the road with my master… but this guy wrote every book I looked at."
"He's well known then?" Jaune asked, still not understanding the key details.
"That's putting it lightly," Kagura noted, even his confidence seemed to be waning. "They call him the Soul Seer; his theories and discoveries have completely changed the field on how we understand semblances and auras. He managed to do that much in just five years."
"O.. Oh.." Jaune noted.
"There's also a rumor about him," Jin said, keeping his eyes focused as Relius made his way up the stage and shook hands with Ozpin. "They say he can tell the exact details of a person's semblance just by looking at them… even if they don't even know it themselves."
'He can see semblances?' Jaune considered as he was starting to understand the teacher's power. 'That… that might be just what I need!'
"You're late," Goodwitch scolded from atop the stage.
"Fashionably," Relius said simply, brushing her words off without missing a beat.
"More like dramatically," Oobleck whispered to Port, who nodded in agreement.
"As I was saying, the Random project will be handled by Doctor, Huntsman, and valedictorian of this very academy Relius Clover," Ozpin said, letting the weight of the teacher's accomplishments fall on the student's shoulder. "His subject will revolve around the study, philosophy, and practical uses of Auras and Semblances."
"Do your best not to disappoint," Relius told the rest of the room uncaringly. "When you return to your dormitories after the address, your partners will be listed on the front board. As you know, all assignments are final."
The address then continued with Ozpin discussing many of the important points regarding the following school year… though none of the students were able to tear their focus now that one of the greatest scientific minds of the millennium was in their very own academy.
Later -The Dorms-
"...You think that confirms it?" Kagura asked Jin as the both of them stood side-by-side, looking at their partner assignments. While Kagura had been assigned a name he hadn't heard of before (Neptune or something), Jin's partner had left him still… uncomfortably still. "I know there's a chance this was actually random, but the timing of all of this…"
"...You told me so," he finally admitted, though to say those words mixed with everything else was killing him.
"Don't worry; I won't be gloating," Kagura told him seriously, before looking towards Team RWBY. "She's right over there, I say we let her in on what's going on."
"Agreed, I'll meet you in the room in a minute." Nodding, Kagura headed to Team JACK's room, while Jin approached the four. "Weiss."
"Jin. ...Seems we've been assigned partners," she said to him, doing her best to act indifferent.
"Seems so, but could I have a word?" Jin asked, the edge in his tone making it seem serious. Weiss didn't say anything, though her team gave each other a collective strange look. "This won't take long."
"...Lead on," she eventually decided with a sigh. Nodding, Jin quickly hurried with her to his team's room. Weiss raised an eyebrow of why they needed to be so out of sight, but it became slowly annoyed when she saw Kagura in the room. "What's this really about?"
"I'll be blunt, Schnee."
"Whoa, whoa…" Kagura said, putting his hands up. "You're going a little aggressive there Jinny; why don't you let me handle this part?"
"Don't call me that," the blond growled, but stepped aside. Weiss gave him an odd look, but Jin only nodded to let her know that Kagura was to be trusted… not sure if she could trust that though.
"Listen, this is going to seem a little strange, but have you talked to your father recently?"
"Excuse you?" Weiss demanded, feeling that this was becoming a breach of her privacy.
"Answer him; this is more important than you realize," Jin ordered.
"Jin. Seriously. Calm down." Kagura tried to put some weight into his words. "I'm sorry, but we really need to know."
"I… I haven't talked to him per say," she admitted, though it was clear she was uncomfortable bringing up her family's relationship. "He… he's been sending me messages." Kagura nodded in understanding. "Recently though, he's been sending more messages than ever before. In some cases more than three in a week."
"And have you read any of those messages?" Again, Weiss thought this questioning was borderline interrogation, but reluctantly shook her head. "Why not?"
"I had finals to focus on, and his messages were never something I really looked forward to that much," she admitted.
"I understand and I don't blame you, but I need you to do a quick search on these messages," Kagura told her. She shot another look at him. "You don't have to show any of them, but I need you to search if there's any mention of Jin."
"Why on earth do I need to…" she began, before shaking her head. Taking her scroll out, she did a few simple presses before typing his name out. "Zero results."
"...Huh," Kagura admitted as he paced around the room. "That's… not what I was expecting."
"That's because you chose the wrong key word; it wouldn't be on a first name basis," Jin lectured before turning back to Weiss. "Search the phrase 'Kisaragi Heir', that's the one we really need." Rolling her eyes at the absurdity of it all, Weiss moodily typed in Jin's request… and went still as stone. Her eyes dart across the messages back and forth at a worrying speed before her scroll fell to the floor with a hollow clatter. "There's no doubt to be had now."
"Jin, give her a minute," Kagura told him as Weiss's eyes were glued to the floor, her irises shaking in terror. "I know it's a lot to process, but-"
"But what!?" Weiss demanded as her entire body began to shake. "That father's using me to-!"
"That's why I brought you here; to make sure that doesn't happen," Jin said, the force behind his words stronger than ever. "I'll be blunt; you can't stand me and I have even less of an interest in you." Weiss didn't comment. "Were it possible, I would have found some way to change our assignment."
"How did we even get paired together like this in the first place?" Weiss could only wonder, before a thought dawned on her. "Do… do you think that my father could have bribed Relius Clover?"
"I wouldn't put it past him, but I'm not sure that Relius is the type to take bribes," Kagura considered. "That and… we didn't even know he was the instructor until this morning."
"Even a scientist needs money to fuel their research and someone like her father could have easily found out through the right circles," Jin denied, ever the realist. "It doesn't matter how it happened, this whole thing is already set in stone. What matters is how we approach this from here."
"...And what do you have so far?" she demanded them both. "What do you have planned to get us out of this?"
"I think we should talk to Tsubaki." Jin glared at Kagura for his suggestion. "Not in that way, just that we should ask for her help. She comes from a noble house the same as us; if anything she might be able to find something that we're missing."
"...Fine, see if you can get in touch with her now," he ordered. Kagura nodded as he left the room.
"And… me?" Weiss asked, so far having next to no idea on how to handle the situation.
"Unless you feel like you can confront your father outright, I suggest you stay where you're needed most," Jin told her as he held the door open for Weiss to leave.
"Right, I'll…" Weiss said as she made her way to the hallway, just outside the door frame. "What do you mean? Where do you think I'm needed most?"
"You should easily know that much," Jin told her as he slowly began closing the door. "After all, he can't even put a suit on right without you."
"Uh, I- You-! How-!?"
Weiss rambling went unaddressed as Jin finished closing the door. Getting over the sudden shock while collecting her thoughts, she stormed away from her team room, keeping her head down so no one could see her blushing face.
Meanwhile -Ozpin's Office-
"Sorry to call you back after your last trip into Vale was so recent," Ozpin told Relius as he placed a cup of freshly brewed coffee on his desk in front of the scientist. "Our last fill-in had to cancel at the last moment due to certain… constraints."
"You mean her prison cell?" Relius retorted, not mincing words at all. "It might be on a need to know basis, but you should know that I qualify for that list." He took the cup in hand, but did not begin drinking just yet. "To think that Jasmin's work pushed her so far…"
"Far enough to feed stray Faunus and infestation refugees to the Grimm she'd captured…" Ozpin said bitterly, remembering the report. "It was… lucky that Branwell found her operation when he did."
"Wrong words to use, given their past together," Relius said simply as he took a sip from his cup as his tone seemed to change. "Back onto lighter news, how many did we have this year?"
"Five attempts. Two successes."
"That many this year?" Relius asked as a smile formed on his lips. "And the students that failed?"
"Given a random punishment chore, courtesy of Goodwitch," Ozpin informed. "Many more students were willing to try to hack that branch of our mainframe this year, but with all of the pressure we've been applying it's not hard to see why they tried to change their partners."
"It's only the first step though," Relius reminded. "This shows initiative, not ability. The Project results will decide if their risky decision was the right one."
"That said, there was something out of the ordinary this year," Ozpin began, as he looked towards the door. "The two changes used strings of virus code far more advanced than anything even our most tech savvy students should be able to pull off." He turned back to Relius. "Dare say… it even rivals the program you used."
"Technology was different back then, but I agree that it is odd," he admitted. "Do you know what assignments they changed?"
"I don't since I never kept a physical copy. I never thought a program could eliminate traces so easily and my oversight kept us from being able to recall the data… That makes this a touch worrisome," Ozpin admitted.
"In any case, it's not our business to interfere," Relius decided. "Their fate is now their own, whether that results in success or failure."
Rooftops
"You've been here all of this time?" Cinder asked as she walked onto the rooftops. It hadn't been long since the pairings had been announced, but by now most of the teams were working together desperately to find strategies for studying time together as well as formulate different possible approaches to whatever assignments they'd been given… the two on the rooftop now hadn't been doing that. "You sure you weren't trying to avoid me?"
"Just wanted some air," Ragna told her as he stood on the edge of the building, overlooking the academy and the city below. He'd be lying if he said that he still wasn't uncomfortable around this chick, but for the next while he wouldn't have a choice.
"And here I thought that you were disappointed that wrong partner," Cinder noted, her words almost sound like a taunt. Ragna didn't say anything, knowing full well who she was implying and he didn't care for it. "Guess we really will be seeing more of each other in the future."
"I guess," Ragna responded, his words automatic and hollow. "...Do you mind if we hold off on setting an official schedule until the rest of my group gets here, they're still staying held up by the storms."
"Sure thing," she told him as she opened the door to head back downstairs. "I hope we both get to know each other a little better; I'm interested in hearing about the Grimm Reaper of Vacuo."
"There's not a lot to tell," Ragna admitted before deciding that Team RWBY (who he admitted would've been far easier to work with) would want him to at least try and make an effort. "But if you're interested, I'm sure I could tell you a story or two.
"I'd like that," Cinder told him with a warm smile. "Pleasant dreams."
"You too, Cinder," Ragna said as the door closed behind his new project partner. "Guess it was just my imagination, she actually seems alright." 'Her eyes sorta make it seem she was to take a bite out of me or something though.'
Behind the closed door, Cinder had much different thoughts as a smirk began to form. Plans of ruining his life, making everyone moment a living hell… and even possibly a great betrayal down the line.
'Now what to do with Ragna,' she thought to herself as she took out her scroll, looking through the previous records of the partner assignment. 'Too bad I can't let on that I hacked the system to pair us... otherwise he might've found out he was supposed to be working with Ruby.'
Author's Note
DAMN. New job isn't as easy as my last one, but I'm nearly making double coin. It's gonna take a bit to get used to so I might start setting my upload dates as Saturday from here on out. Not altogether sure, but we'll see what comes of it.
As for this, there's going to be a lot of character related plots in the upcoming chapters, so there might be a lot more to follow than usual. I'm hoping that everything's going to lead to a big payoff at the end, but I'm going to need to choose my moves carefully. Let's look over a couple of reviews.
Wlyman2009: Sometimes to see how crazy characters actually are, all you need to do is put them in a more casual setting (if you can).
The Unplanner: Thanks for the summary of the major points.
VirusChris: It's not that big of a deal, so go ahead and use the idea (if you haven't already).
MeteorElDrago: Ragna and Cinder's plotline might be the most challenging for me to write realistically, but I'm going to do my best to make sure I can.
BloodedgetheReaper2113: No Mai this chapter, but I'll be putting them together for some interactions down the line.
Pally111: Someone's certainly excited.
pendragonZx: Thanks, it takes some work to do that, but thankfully Yang humor can make it feel a little more on point.
Bismarck Alexander: Jacques Schnee is certainly going to be involved more in the plot this time around… as evident by Weiss's new plotline.
Flame1Hedgehog: If I were to do Gag Reels, they'd probably be done in the side story 'Grimm Reaper's Extensions'
Guest (1): Takes a lot of focus.
Until next time! Ciao!