The Emerald Forest was a truly beautiful place, filled with tall sprawling trees that ended in enchantingly bright green leaves, the gaps in the canopy letting bright ray's of light in. It was a sight that brought Kira to a euphoric peace, he was sure that if the forest wasn't packed with Grimm he would come here every week. He felt at such peace that even the seemingly pointless Conversation with Dove seemed tolerable.

Speaking of which Kira had been able to glean a bit of relevant information from what his partner had been saying. Apparently he was the top of his year at his old school and had been the only one from his home town to make it to Beacon in years, although impressive it wasn't a monumental achievement considering the population of his home town was just under two-thousand.

"So anyway I have this uncle that owns a place down in Vale that will definitely let the team in, I think- did you hear that?"

Surprised by Doves change in tone Kira turns and looks down at him "hear what? All I hear are the birds and the wind." Kira told him in a cautious tone.

Dove replied by holding up his hand to quiet Kira and completely shutting his eyes. After a moment or two of silence Dove tilted his head up a little and frowned "I can't tell just what they are right now but I'm hearing far to many footsteps for it not to be Grimm, to loud as well it's definitely more than just beowolf's."

To say Kira was pleased would be an understatement, he had been taken off guard by Doves competence. Intrigued by this ability Kira pressed for more information "Have you any idea how many there is? Or is that too specific for you to know?"

Dove shifted his jaw back and forth a bit and hummed," if I was to bet on it I would say thirty-five Grimm, but it could be thirty, it could also be forty, the point is it's a lot of Grimm probably some of the bigger variety's as well, I'd say they're a few minutes away."

Kira frowned at this answer, not out of Doves uncertainty though, the boy proved that his ability was more than useful. Kira was by no means an expert in Grimm but even he knew such numbers may be difficult for them, he also knew that his ability would be ill suited to killing them, Killer Queen excelled in taking on single opponents but lacked when he was outnumbered, but with Dove at his side he at least had some support.

Internally Kira was getting frustrated with himself as he quickly came to realise how out of his depth he was fighting Grimm so swallowing a bit of his pride he asked. "So do you think we would be able to stand our ground and take them?"

Dove just shook his head. "No I don't think so, not here anyway we'll get surrounded and slaughtered quickly."

"So what should we do, perhaps we should hind a more manageable position like a cliff or a cave to create a choke point?" Kira theorised.

Dove cupped his chin with one hand and nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea, back in my old school one of the teachers was always going on about how the terrain is a hunters greatest weapon, I never really agreed with her but I can definitely see what she meant."

"Well we should move quick if that pack is close enough to hear"

Now on a strict time limit they picked up their pace, Dove keeping an ear out for how close the pack got. They passed many cliffs and steep streams, but they didn't find any of them to be suitable

Either being to small or not steep enough.

Finally they arrived before a wide cave, it's entrance was split in two by a large pillar down the middle, the cave itself was deep and dark, Kira was barely able to see a few meters inside either tunnel but they appeared to meet eventually. He nervously adjusted his tie, that he now regretted wearing. He felt a bit of sweat gather on his head as he looked at the cave, the entrance seemingly towering over him.

He glanced over at Dove and saw he wasn't faring much better he was tightening a strap on his chest piece, his legs were tense and firmly rooted and he was clenching his teeth. It appeared Kira wasn't the only one apprehensive about entering.

Sucking himself up Kira walked ahead. "I'm going in, you take one hole I'll do the other."

"That's what he said!"

Gritting his teeth Kira didn't even validating that shitty joke with a reply. Now inside the part of the cave where the two holes met he turned around Dove coming up to his side and let out a calming breath before snapping his head up to see the first beowolf coming into view.

That beowolf was quickly put down by Dove who's sword also appeared to act as some some sort is pistol, how that supposedly worked Kira had no clue, but he hardly had time to think about it as three more beowolf's came to replace it.

Two were shot by six rounds from Dove bit before he could reload Kira took out one of the steel balls from his pocket and turned it into a contact bomb using a portion of Killer Queen's strength in his arm he launched the ball over a long arc and hit it right in the back.

The damage was immediate the creature seemed to spasm and contort before it's body began to split apart, as it went up in an explosion that enveloped its whole body.

Kira allowed himself a small smile at seeing the balls work, not that he had any doubts, but seeing it in action just did that much to reassure him.

As the onslaught continued Kira turned another ball into a remote bomb and detonated it between two beowolf's taking a large chunk out of the sides of both them leaving their corpses to disperse naturally.

As the beowolf's started to flood in Kira felt a large crash followed by a roar on Doves side.

"I've got an ursa this side, it's not the biggest, I think I can deal with it!"

Kira didn't reply has he grabbed a beowolf by the neck, turning it into a bomb as he used killer Queen to kick one away, cracking its mask, he had decided it would be appropriate to manifest it now he knew it was just him and Dove. As he detonated the beowolf he used killer Queen to punch through the belly of the one he kicked, a brief flash of him doing the same to a young boy came into his mind before it was washed away as he heard the Ursa Dove was fighting collapse to the ground with a roar.

But just like the beowolf's two larger ones replaced it barrelling out of the tree line uprooting and crushing foliage as they made their way to the cave. As they neared the entrance the split off to rush an entrance each he heard Dove curse under his breath before he rose and went to meet the ursa head on in his tunnel. Palming one of his steel balls Kira readied a contact bomb on the colossal ursa that seemed to have a hard time actually entering his tunnel, he cocked his arm back and threw the ball, scoring a hit directly on its mask. He watched with pleasure as it went up in a large fire ball leaving nothing but… it's lower torso and hind legs that were slowly dissolving, Kira could have sworn he had put enough power in to take it out completely. Shaking his head with a frown he decided he likely hadn't put as much into as he thought.

If the gunshot's and roars were anything to go by Dove was having a harder time killing his ursa than before, so in an effort to keep the beowolf's off him Kira stepped out to the edge of his entrance and threw a remote bomb between two beowolf's that were about to enter and detonated it, taking them out in the process.

As the mutilated beowolf corpses dissolved there seemed to be a lull in the fighting, for a few seconds, no new Grimm seemed to come from the forest. That is until trees started falling and snapping as a death stalker burst out backed by a few beowolf's.

Now Kira believed himself to be a brave enough man, but he also liked to think that he knew when to run from a fight. So abandoning his pride he turned on his heel and sprinted down Doves tunnel detonating the ursa dove was still fighting, an explosion ripping apart its back legs and half its torso.

Jumping over the now dissipating top half of Doves ursa Kira grabbed Doves arm pulling him, trying to bring him a bit further into the cave. Dove struggled in his grip before he saw the the death stalker, all he could let out was chocked shout before running with him.

They stopped as the got to the point the cave merges to one they turned back and looked at the death stalker trying it's hardest to get to them, knocking over loose boulders and driving it's way through debris it was trying hard but the cave narrowed as it went back, the more it pushed in the more it got stuck. Down the other side they could see a few beowolf's charging into the cave.

"Shit, shit, shit, Yoshikage what do we do? That thing's going to snip us in half with those pincer!"

Dove all but screamed at Kira as he lopped the head off a beowolf.

Kira was just stood staring at the death stalker biting his nail when an idea came to him "I could probably bring down the cave ceiling on top of it."

"What? Really? Are you going to use your semblance for it?"

"Hmm, yes I think I could the ceilings of caves like this aren't exactly the height of engineering, it probably wouldn't take a huge blast to bring it down. in hindsight it was probably rather risky of me to be using my semblance at all in here." Kira said trying to do some rough calculations in his head. "It'd probably be best if you clear a path outside just now I'll follow you out as soon as I've set the bomb, alright."

Nodding his head Dove quickly made his way out of sight down the tunnel slashing another beowolf in his way. As he left Kira sighed and sagged his shoulders looking over to a stalactite hanging hear the death stalker Kira made his way over to it but paused as he got close realising he was almost in the death stalkers range. He took a few steps back and manifested Killer Queen letting it touch the stalactite before he ran after dove.

He came out the cave to see his partner standing over a very large beowolf covered in more bone armour than rest, an alpha if he remembered correctly. Dove gave Kira a glance as he exited before unloading the rest of his pistols magazine into it's head. Kira let a small smile grace his face, the whole scene amused him, reminding him of some sort of execution from an action movie.

"Have you done it? Setting the bomb I mean."

Kira just nodded and turned to the now very much stuck death stalker, which now only had the tip of its tail sticking out the cave, before bringing his thumb down, and with a click a bright flash erupted from the cave followed by cries from the oversized scorpion as grey dust billowed out. The hillside the cave was on sagged a bit before it ultimately started falling, the small landslide largely covering both the open and collapsed entrance.

Pleased with himself Kira turned to an awe struck Dove "I believe we're done here are we not? I'd rather not wait around for anything else to appear from the woods."

"Yeah… that's a good idea."

"Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing and Yoshikage Arc. You four collected the black bishop pieces, from this day forward you will be known as team Cardini (CRDY) led by Cardin Winchester."

Kira just kept a neutral face as he stood atop the stage, truth be told, he was absolutely exhausted and couldn't be bothered standing here any longer. But At least it was almost over, he wasn't really listening but did catch that his brother was to be the leader of his own team. Now want that a surprise? He could already see Jaune running to him for advice on how to manage his team or be a great leader and of course Kira would give him some although Jaune would be better off asking elsewhere as Kira had little to no experience on the matter. Although it did remind him that he still had to talk to Jaune about the whole 'faking his way into Beacon' and 'do I really need aura' things although that could wait. For now he decided he would relax and get to know the people he would be spending the next few years of his life with.

"I'm jumping on the shower first!" Dove shouted as soon as they entered the dorm already locking the door behind him.

"Shower? Nah I'm going straight to bed."

At this statement both Kira and Cardin made a a face of general disgust, Kira nudging Cardin with his elbow in an effort to provoke him into doing something.

"Right! first team rule, after spending the whole day sweating and rolling in mud fighting Grimm we will all be taking showers, alright?"

Russel looked up at Cardin I'm the eye for a few seconds before relenting saying "fine" and walking off to abed muttering about 'stupid rules'.

" I guess he's got a bit of a problem with authority, or maybe he was hoping to be the team leader."

" Hmm, maybe, but at least I won't be getting any of that from you Arc? Will I? Especially not over something so stupid."

Kira lightly chuckled shaking his head "No definitely not, if anything I'm quite happy your leader and not me."

"Oh? and why's that?"

"I don't see it as a blessing to just do what you want and order your team around like some do, I see it as a burden of responsibility, one I don't think I'd be equipped to handle."

Cardin let out an agreeing grunt before going over to his stuff and beginning to unpack some clothes.

As he did this Kira did much the same going over to a suitcase and lifting out a small carton of milk he had hid away. With a smile Kira drank some of it, it may not be as warm as he wanted but it would do as he looked over at his two teammates he imagined that if he could just manage to get along with them then his stay here might just be bearable.

That took a while didn't it? I managed to procrastinate for the entirety of summer and autumn over this story. Well at least this chapter's out now and I've gotten my first fight scene done ( I'm not overly happy with how it came out but I don't want to wait any longer to finish it) now that I've got the initial part done and am onto the part I've been wanting to write I theoretically should should update this story quicker, but of course things rarely go to plan like that.

I've also got a Mista centred story in the works, I have no clue when the first chapter will be done though.

I named the team after a magician that went by that name as it fit easily, but it turns out that it's also a type of salad dressing.

Also before anyone bitches stalactites hang from the ceiling of a cane and stalagmites come up from the floor.