"... And that's why you're all invited to our little party!"
Everyone turned to look at Yang as though she grew a third head, did they not hear her talking for the last ten damn minutes!?
Ruby blinked out of her stupor, "Yang, what party?"
"Why are you saying we?" Weiss asked.
"OOOH! YES!" Nora squealed, clapping in excitement.
"Since when were we talking about a party?" Jaune asked.
Pyrrha nodded, "Yes, I would like to know what party it is that you-"
"UGH! Pay. Attention." Yang cried out, banging her head hard against the table, waking a sleeping wolf faunus.
Wynion's head shot up, "Gah! Wha- Yang! I was actually having a nice dream for once-"
"That's why you were whimpering like a puppy, cry- OW!" Ruby interrupted her sister with a hard smack. "Sowry…" Yang muttered.
"Go on with the damn speech already…" He yawned, roughly rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his uniform.
"Okay! So teams RWBY, JNPR, and Wynion are like sisters, yeah?"
Wynion frowned, "I'm not a sis-"
"We all sit together, fight together, do homework together, cheat off tests together, right?"
It was Pyrrha's turn to frown, "Cheat off tests together-"
"SO!" Yang interrupted once more, "Why don't we know each other better? Eh?"
Blake grimaced, "I think we know each other just fine-"
Yang put her finger to the black haired girl's lips, "Shhhh, my mysterious ninja partner… You are going. I dare you to wiggle your way out of this one."
And now to sell it… "So how about we change that, huh? And get to know each other like sisters should?" She put on her most dazzling smile to the crowd. They were silent at first, then Pyrrha spoke up first,
"I think it's a wonderful idea."
Ren nodded, "I see no problems with it."
"YES!" Nora tackled her red headed teammate and Ren in a hug, looking at Jaune expectantly.
"Sure I guess, Nora just don- NORA NO!" Jaune cried out as the four melded into a JNPR ball with Nora holding it together, grinning proudly.
"Team RWBY? Blake, you don't get a say on this." Effectively silencing the protests of the girl before it even began. Hot damn was she good.
"Sure." Ruby shrugged nonchalantly.
"I think it would be a better use of our time to study instead of…" Weiss trailed off when Ruby whispered something into her ear. Presumably about the great Yang's persistence, great enough that it stopped Uncle Qrow from drinking for a whole two days.
"I… Fine. I'll go." Weiss relented.
All according to plan, with one remaining person. Everyone's (well, all those who were upright) eyes turned to the faunus.
His bloodshot eyes met Ruby's pleading ones.
"Sure… Just let me sleep a minute, I'm useless in this state."
Blake was worried. Faunus were subjugated, discriminated, and tormented all over Remnant. To protect the faunus was the very reason the White Fang was created. To protect people like Wynion, so tormented he started hating the very essence of who he was. People like him was why they had their cause, Blake just wished she could do more than protect for once. Maybe this feeling was why Adam became so… misguided.
She carefully observed the faunus, making sure to keep a hand on her weapon threateningly if she saw a student that she thought might potentially create a problem. Wynion gave her an annoyed glance, but otherwise he didn't say anything.
The two teams and the thief entered the auditorium. All of the other first year students filled out the seatings, all outfitted with their personal combat outfits and weapons.
"Students, welcome to your first day of Combat Class," Ms. Goodwitch greeted the students from the stage once they settled in. "Over the course of this year, you shall spar amongst your fellow peers in an attempt to improve the combat ability of yourselves and your team. This is a rather simple course, with only a few rules."
The blonde tapped her riding crop threateningly, "It is imperative that you all follow these rules to the best of your abilities. I have never been lenient towards troublemakers, and I have no intention to start now. The rules are as follows: All duels take place on stage, anywhere else is considered out of bounds. All duels unless explicitly stated otherwise, are tournament style. To those who are unaware, tournament duels end when one combatant is knocked out of bounds, has their aura in the red, or surrenders."
To the surprise of the students, Ms. Goodwitch treated the room to a rare smile, "This is my favorite class to teach. It is always a pleasure to see each student fight; I encourage every single one of you to surprise me," Her face returned to her usual frown, "Within reason of course. Now to start off the year, let's choose two random students for our very first match."
Blake took a breath, making sure every move she planned to display did not have any trace of White Fang tactics-
"Our first match is Reginald Arancia against Wynion Lupo." A student with a deep orange jacket climbed aboard the stage, twirling a longsword with a gun barrel for a handle, it's barrel protruding out where traditionally the pommel would be. Wynion however, was sleeping already…
"Wynnie! Hey, Wynnie!" Ruby whispered, shaking him awake, "Your name was called, you have to fight!"
The silver-haired faunus stood up and stretched, taking a moment to stare at his opponent, "May I decline?"
"Mr. Lupo-" Wynion's face was one of anguish upon hearing his last name.
"-Don't call me 'Lupo'." He glared at the teacher.
She frowned, "Yes well, do you have a reason to not participate?"
"... No." He seemed uncomfortable for some reason, did he know his opponent?
"What's wrong dog? Too scared to fight?" The student with the sword smirked.
"If you don't have a reason," Ms. Goodwitch ignored the comment, "Then step forwards."
Wait… Wasn't he supposed to report his bullying yesterday to the staff? They wouldn't force him to engage with an opponent like that unless… You idiot… Keeping silent is exactly how these people get away with that kind of thing and even worse, it encourages them…
Blake barely kept herself from yelling at him as the faunus made his way down to the stage. "Why does he have that look again?" Blake's team leader muttered in concern.
"Because his opponent was probably there yesterday…" Blake groaned. She couldn't help but feel somewhat disgusted at his complacency, but she forced it down knowing it wasn't his fault.
"What do you mean? What happened yesterday?" Ren asked as everyone turned to her.
"He should be the one to tell you, but he had a nasty incident with some faunus hating students-"
"What!?" Ruby hissed.
"How bad?" Yang asked.
Blake chose her words carefully, "It was bad, but it could have been worse." She answered truthfully, causing everyone to wince.
Ruby raised a hand and called out to the teacher, but it was too late, the duel had started and the woman's attention was focused solely on monitoring the duel at hand.
"Come on Lupo! Show me what you got!" The boy charged, boosting himself as he rushed towards the faunus with his sword leveled to thrust. Wynion whirled out of the way, letting the charging student pass with his scythe flashing overhead at his opponent.
Reginald ducked and didn't even bother turning as he fired from his hilt at the student who had angled himself at the sword wielder's backside. The faunus was pushed onto his back as his aura flared up and he grunted in pain.
"... Shut. Up." Wynion gritted through his teeth. The silver haired boy climbed back on to his feet, readying his scythe again for combat.
The orange clad boy chuckled, "What's the matter?" He mocked (Blake could probably have heard Ruby grit her teeth even if she wasn't a faunus), "You're an animal, you don't have the right to chose your name-"
"-Mr. Arancia, while trash talking opponents is encouraged, please refrain from going too far with your comments." Ms. Goodwitch interrupted him with a disapproving frown.
"Whatever you say, teach." Reginald stalked towards Wynion, swinging low with his sword. With surprising grace, Wynion jumped over him and swiped at the student's exposed backside of his head, causing his opponent to stumble forwards as the faunus landed behind him.
"Fuck," Reginald glared at the faunus, "I am going to beat you to a fucking paste." He charged again, and the two students engaged in a flurry of blows. Wynion focused on hitting his opponent, not bothering to block the oncoming hits while Reginald countered the unusual weapon.
And then came the kick, sending Wynion sprawling across the floor, separating him from his weapon. Reginald stalked towards the faunus, and kicked him again. And again. And again. And again…
"That's enough!" Ms. Goodwitch called out, stopping Reginald in his tracks, "Mr. Lupo's aura is in the red at twenty-one percent, while Mr. Arancia's aura is at sixty-three percent. Mr. Arancia, you have won. Since this is the first match that any of you have experienced at Beacon, I'll let some of the issues you displayed slide. Please refrain from making extreme comments. This may be a simulated combat experience, but I would like to remind you all that you are still in school, so please try to restrain yourself when making such remarks. Mr. Lupo, you appear rather drained, so I will end the speech there."
Reginald leaned down towards the faunus for the last time in a voice Blake barely heard, "Hope you enjoyed, Lupo." The student with the orange jacket snickered as he walked off stage.
Wynion just laid there, before getting up to collect Ladrones. He walked back towards the group with a limp, muttering to himself. She knew Wynion. She knew that look in his eyes. She knew why he hated his last name. She knew those stupid thoughts running through his head. He was sitting down now, with his empty eyes and those thoughts he was muttering out loud about how he was a stupid animal and how he just dragged her down-
Ruby hugged him. Tight. He needed a hug. It was enough to break him out of his stupor and look at her. He tried to push her away, but she didn't let go. He stared at her with wide eyes, and then he let out a sniffle. He wasn't fighting it anymore. Wynion finally moved his hands around her, and hugged back weakly.
She let him lower his head onto his shoulder, feeling the warm tears in his eyes against her dress. And so she whispered a promise to him.
"Shut up. I know what you're thinking. So stop. I'm right here for you no matter how bad things get, and I always will be."
I'm writing out a fight scene... I suck at these. Honestly. I'm already disorganised enough, the level of order required to write one sufficiently? I barely have that much. I'm a writer who writes for moments, not for overarching or planned stuff like I try. HHhhhhuuuuuuuuaaaaa... I STILL GOT WORK TO FUCKING DO! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...
I think I lost a reader when I uploaded that last chapter, it's not real! I plan for this storyline to go at least to volume 6, if nothing else. Ambitious for me, I know. I'm the kind of writer who requires a month to make a finished piece, but I don't care whether or not it's finished (for better or for worse), I upload it anyways.
Silly me, almost forgot something (yes I know how long I keep making these notes, shut up :c. ). I am going to go back and take a while to fix stuff when I get to the end of Volume 1. Hopefully, I actually manage to suceed.
I probably messed up with the description of the combat room, oh well. Didn't mean for Blake to reveal the fact that Wynion got into a little scrap, but I couldn't see a way around it.
Overall, I'm planning for the tone of this fic to be somewhat dark, but always intentionally keeping myself from going to deep in because I like to feel good. This isn't angst, it's hurt/comfort.
K?
k.
Ahhh... Okay, I need to get back into gear with this stuff. I think it's better to be productive then to laze around doing nothing. I think my writing has gotten worse...
So, this time I'm back for real. Expect the madness enducing upload speed I have been trademarked for. YO! ARCLIGHT! IF YOU STILL HERE, KNOW THAT I WILL BE USING THE ADVICE I ASKED TO COPY NEXT CHAPTER, SO THANKS AGAIN!
Also, to JohnBerry: Thank you for the compliment. Ahh... Compliments warm my heart and are the lifeblood of writers.
If anyone wants to see something in particular or has an idea for the story, let me know. In fact, I encourage people to send my ideas for the party when it comes to interactions or events, I still need to plan stuff out there. I'll credit y'all unless you request otherwise. Come on, don't be shy...
I'll be doing some of GX and try to start for real on that story while I figure out the party. I accidently made an op copy-paste of Wynion there instead of the actual character I was planning out... But don't worry, this story takes priority. Always.
Edited to be able to be read without much pain.