Chapter 10: Semester Start

Azure (1st Person)

Not good, not good, I thought as I ate. Why did I do this? I TKed a thrown apple out of the sky.

Oh, yeah. That's why.

I was sitting in the back of the Beacon cafeteria, the day before the semester started again. Otherwise known as 'the day of the giant food fight', assuming it didn't get butterflied out of existence. And wait I just grabbed an apple with a TK (technically remote item manipulation) spell. I looked around. No one was looking or 'not looking' in my direction so I think I'm fine. Maybe they thought it was a gust of wind, or 'advanced aura manipulation'. Anyway, the food fight is the only important thing today… at least, since I talked to Tukson yesterday.

{Yesterday, early in the morning.

I walked into Tukson's book trade. The bell rang. Under better circumstances, I would have bought something, but right now I need to convince the guy that he needs to leave now. So, how to go about this…

Tukson was at the counter. "Welcome to Tukson's book trade, home to every book under the sun. How can I help you?" He seemed curious.

"I'm here to let you know that they know about your plans to run." That startled him. Now we pray this works.

"How do you know about that?!" Tukson said, shocked.

"I know a lot. Comes with my-" knowledge of canon "-Semblance. They're sending a hit squad tomorrow. My recommendation? Leave while you still can. Find a nice hotel for the night, and sleep with one eye open until you reach Vacuo." I walked out of the shop before he could respond. Maybe that was a bit rushed? Eh, there aren't many long term consequences of his murder. Whether I persuade him or not doesn't really matter on the grand scale. On the sapient scale however… no time.}

And according to the dead man's alarm I set up, he's still alive. I faintly heard two distinctive voices from outside the window. That would be Sun and Neptune… which means that right behind me is…

"Food fight!"

I turned around. The cafeteria was an active warzone. Most of the students were pelting soda cans and trays of food at each other. RWBY and JNPR were accelerating past normal food fight levels already. I could see Jaune and Nora trying to stack tables together. Yep, the fort is underway. Who knows, maybe someone will try and make a plan this time. And by someone, I mean Jaune. I left the Art of War with him for a reason. Now, as a 'responsible' assistant teacher, I should probably go find Goodwitch and try and stop this.

As a bored teenager, I grabbed my bag of peanut butter pretzels and sat down to watch.

A few minutes later, the normal students decided not to get caught in the crossfire and made a break for the door, just as Sun and Neptune came in. The castle was complete at this point.

"I'm queen of the castle!~ I'm queen of the castle!~" Nora sang/yelled from the top. Interestingly, most of the team was crouched behind the fort instead of in front of it.

"Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It will be… delicious!" That was Ruby, rallying her team to victory… in a high school/college (haven't figured out which is more accurate. Probably college) food fight. I pushed over my own table as a blast shield (with a hidden TK spell because I have no muscles) and hollered over to the two by the door.

"Hey! Sun! Blue Hair!" They looked at me. "Over here!" I waved them over. They walked over hesitantly. "Hello there." I said cheerfully. "I'm Azure." Some bits of watermelon splattered against the table. "Want a pretzel?" I held up one of my peanut butter pretzels.

They both shook their heads. Behind them, Ren, Pyrrha and Nora had jumped over the barricade. Pyrrha and Ren respectively grabbed baguettes and leeks (as expected), while Nora jumped into the air to make the crazy watermelon-hammer thing… and immediately slipped on Weiss's ketchup slick. I saw a few soda grenades go flying on both sides… although how are the cans exploding? Same reason the bread is working as swords. Aura is more BS than some kinds of magic.

"You're… Neptune, right, blue hair?"

"Yes." That's more prompt than I thought it would be. We sat in silence for a bit, just watching the eight - no, wait, seven, Weiss got hit by a watermelon and is out cold - teenagers beat the crap out of each other. There just wasn't much to talk about. They didn't know me, and I didn't feel like talking. Getting enough sleep gives me enough control to keep the rambling inside.

People started dropping. Ren lost a sword fight with Blake (there might have been an epic sword fight, but I got distracted by something), but then got slammed into the opposite wall by a golf swing from Nora. And so the fight went on, with JNPR actually winning. It's amazing what giving a person who's already a good strategist a book on strategy will do. My best guess is that he at least read the book once over break. Or maybe he just ignored it. I don't know. I haven't really been paying attention, but it looks like JNPR is winning. Amazing what having one guy stay in the castle did. I started prepping a few spells. I quickly checked over an illusion spell to make it look like I used Dust;

\

Dust Illusion. Spell;

1. Package. JavaSyntaxSpells;

2.

3. Public Construct RWBYDust;

4. Private Timer Spelltimer;

5. CastMethod = Concentrate (SpellName);

6. SpellComponents{

7. Construct RWBYDust(Shape, Color, Volume, Transparency, Permeability, ConstructPackage){

8. Shape = getShapeArray (Shapes. Presets. Natural. RandomCrystalA);

9. Color = ConceptColor (Concentration);

10. Volume = 0.05 ( Measurements. Length. Millimeters);

11. Transparency = 1;

12. Permeability = 0;

13. ConstructPackage = Illusion;

14. }

15. }

16. OnCast {

17. SpellTimer. Start

18. RWBYDust. Create( Spray. Grains, 20-50);

19. If (SpellTimer == 200){

20. Dispel RWBYDust;

21. }

22. MetaSpells. Analysis(RWBYDust){

23. Mote Cost: 0.02/Construct;

24. Casting Time (converted): Negligible;

25. }

\

Alright, looks good for something I made in five minutes. I also prepped my Simple Geokinesis spell for if - and yep, looks like Pyrrha is going to start flinging soda cans around. Time to act a little.

I let my eyes dilate and said "Oh, crap," injecting my voice with as much 'this is gonna suck' as possible. Before casting the dust illusion with one hand, sprinkling the fake grains around, and using the other to pull up a rock dome around our little table. With a hole in the front to see, of course.

"Why did you-" Sun was cut off by the sound of soda cans hitting the outside of the bunker… along with Yang. Huh, turns out you can beat Yang with (ranged) attrition. Good to know.

"How did you know to do that?" Neptune asked.

"I know everything~", I said while giving jazz hands. Now it's time to wait for Ruby's whirlwind.

And wait.

And wait.

I finally poked my head out of the shelter… just in time to see Ruby doing a dramatic heroic-second-wind thing and starting the whirlwind. I quickly ducked back inside as a red blur shot past, followed by rose petals and detritus. Then I just waited for the crunching to stop.

Once I sent the dome back into the ground, the scene looked like an actual war had taken place. The wall opposite the door was cracked and coated in soda, with four human-shaped outlines the only break in the rainbow. The tables (outside of the one Sun, Neptune, and I used for cover) were generally broken, and all of them were covered in stains and gunk. There was also a lot of food on the floor. The only positive comparison to the original timeline was that the ceiling was intact.

I was observing all of this as I made my way to just behind the door. Once I saw objects start to fly back together (I swear that Goodwitch is the only reason Beacon isn't a crater), I started to sneak out as much as a gangly teenager can sneak.

"And where are you going, Mr. Turner?"

I turned around sharply, more out of an instinctual response to her tone than any actual fear. "In my defense, I had nothing to do with the fight, and I just remembered an urgent appointment so gotta go bye!"

A/N: Sorry there wasn't a chapter last month, blame driver's ed.