Finals week and adjusting to a new schedule has been very annoying and difficult, especially having to catch up because of a multitude of doctor appointments. School's almost over though, and I'm back. Make sure to leave a review or PM with your thoughts. I live off those.
The trip back to Beacon was relatively easy. I stopped near a fast flowing river and washed the brain, heart, and blood matter off of my clothes and skin. The various pinprick wounds I had recieved along with a few deeper cuts and monumental bruises ached and I used my power to accelerate my healing. The entirety of my upper body was still sore and would be for a few more hours.
My clothing was patched up by weaving a few shadows into it and mixing it with my summoning power. The sigils burned into my hand faded and I made sure that no blood was baked into my blade. These kinds of things were hard to explain, you see.
I encountered no more Grimm and no more soldiers on my treck back. If I had to deal with one more irritation tonight I was going take a few stories off the school. Ozpin might not like that, but I sure would. We could work something out.
I chuckled at the thought of me and the Headmaster diplomatically discussing how many students I could kill and on what days. In the end I would get my way no matter what. He would get the short stick. The world would get the short stick.
My mind managed to become a large amount calmer on the climb upwards on Beacon Cliffs. There really is nothing like a sunrise at this height, I thought. A few rocks snapping off the wall peaked my exhileration just a bit. Adrenaline was still nice to feel.
By the time I had made it up there the sun was, from my view, an inch off the horizon. People would be up soon, so I took a final check of myself before strolling back onto school grounds. A couple early risers were jogging around campus in their efforts to get the day started. One I saw had her eyes closed and her body on autopilot. Somewhere close to my dorm building I heard her yelp as she obviously woke up and fell.
People need coffee...
Today, like a normal human, I walked inside the dormitory and strolled through the halls and stairwells up to my floor. It was honestly a 50/50 chance that Ruby had woken her team up by now. Some days she was an early riser, other days you had to tip the bed over. If she wasn't up yet then that was a good thing. A shower with actual soap would completely alleviate any lingering iron smell.
Ah, fourth floor. The solid wooden doors lined the straight walkways before leaving around corners. The red rims and brass knobs accentuated the color. Ozpin sure cared about image. Image was half the battle after all.
The floors were hardwood covered by a thin cloth, but they still made a deep tapping noise from my have boot soles as I walked. The walls were thick and kept the noise from forming and instead creating a pleasing echo. In no time at all I made my way to our room number and opened the door quietly. To my dismay, only Yang was still asleep, and stirring at that.
"Hey Darren!" Ruby greeted me with a smile on her face. "How'd it goe with your crazy uncle?" She asked. "Well as I could expect. Threw around some conspiracy theories, killed some Grimm, had a drink." She tilted her head at me. "You drink?" I nodded.
"He insists on a compettition everytime we meet." I told her. She nodded in a slightly wary way but said nothing. "So, where's the other two?" I questioned. "Blake is in the shower and Weiss walked down to grab a textbook that Pyrrha borrowed. I'm surprised you didn't see her." She explained.
"Me too." Pyrrha had all but left my mind until this moment. I would have to check her mental state at some point. "Speaking of Pyrrha, what exactly did you do to her? She's been acted weird for a while after your fight and everytime I bring up your name Jaune starts getting angry." I held back a chuckle at the memory.
"Oh I simply went a little overboard when I expected to be fighting the Mistrali champion. I never heard any bad news and expected her to have recovered easily." A door opened next to us.
"A little?" It was annoyed. Blake was standing in the bathroom door with her school uniform on and hair slightly wet. Her bow was off and a glance to the side told me that it was draped over her bedpost. "She was sobbing in terror." She told me, walking closer with her fists tightening.
"In my defense, I asked if fear tactics were allowed, Glynda said yes. "Your tactics almost broke her!" She said, starting to raise her voice. as far as I knew she wasn't good freinds with Pyrrha, so I had no idea why she was getting so angry. "Look, I tried to apologize but she wouldn't have it. Maybe she'll want a rematch at some point and we can talk then." I tried to talk my way out of this.
"Oh I can garuntee you that she does. You haven't been around much, but do you have any idea how much she's been training? Until only recently she's been getting a few nights of sleep a week and spending the rest in the training room. I've never seen someone affected so heavily by a single fight." I was about to retort that those actions were normal in losing a duel, but a loud yawn sounded off next to us.
"What's all the yelling about?" Yang asked, her hair draped messily over her own face and words slurring slightly. "Nothing Yang." She turned to Ruby. "I'll see you at breakfast." Blake grabbed her bow and walked out of the room, giving me a heavy glare as she did so. "Blake, come back!" Ruby tried to yell, but she was already long gone.
"Hey, I don't mean to interrupt whatever just happened, but is there any hot water left?" Yang asked us. Ruby sighed. "Yes Yang. Hurry up though or we'll miss breakfast." The though of missing breakfast apparently terrified the blonde because she sprung out of bed and skipped into the bathroom. Water started rushing a few moments later.
"How long has Blake been pissed at me?" I asked Ruby. She turned to me and slumped down onto the bed behind her. I did the same. "For the past few weeks she's been scowling whenever we bring you up. She's never had an outburst like this though. I honestly have no idea why she's so angry about it. It was just a sparring accident, right?" She asked me.
"Of course. I'd never intentionally try to harm someone mentally, at least not seriously. Is she good freinds with Pyrrha or something?" Ruby shook her head. "Blake is still a bookworm and doesn't talk much to people outside of us. I know she cares about Pyrrha, but I wouldn't call that a freindship. Let alone a good one." I juggled the information around in my head.
"Let's talk about something else, kay?" I nodded my acceptance. "OK. So... Training? Is that good for today? You've been throwing it off alot lately." I pretended to think about my schedule for the day. "Sure. Have you managed to awaken that secondary semblance again since?"
"No." She said dejectedly. "No matter how hard I fight it seems like it's just there on the edge of my reach." I smiled a bit too wickedly because she got a worried look on her face. "I suppose I'll just have to force it out of you again. No needles this time. It'll be a real fight."
"O-Okay. What about Yang and Weiss?" Weiss still hadn't returned which was odd. JNPR's room was on the same floor so it should have been a quick trip. "Perhaps she caught Blake in the hallway and went with her." I proposed.
"No, I meant about training." Ruby explained. "I'll work with Yang to see if I can push her to light the paper and see where that takes us. As for Weiss, I'll test her abilities in using Glyphs before explaining some rudementary Runes later." I did not truly belive that I could get much out of Weiss in training. Both Ruby and Yang had potential to become something great because of the way thier semblances work.
As far as Blake went, skill could only take her so far. I would have to fight her at her best before I made any lasting decisions. The same might go for Weiss, but I already partially knew the extent of the Schnee Semblance from simple research and the consumption of the soul of one of thier higher-ups. Amazing how useful people can be when they are dead.
The bathroom door opened for the final time that morning and Yang stepped out, fully cothed and her hair dried perfectly. One of the things I had learned is that she cared very much about her hair. "We goin' to get breakfast? Weiss just shot me a text to tell us that they're already there." She told us, slipping on her bracelets that were lying on her nightstand.
"Oh, yeah I guess. you two catch up, I've got to get something ready." Ruby said before getting up to dig into the desk. "Ooh, a surprise. We'll meet you there then. Come on Darren." Yang told me. She opened up the door and stepped out. I followed her out and down the stairs into the cafateria. Weiss and Blake were already there when we arrived, seated in front of JNPR.
From the moment I sat down I could almost feel Jaune glaring at me. I hadn't conversed with him much at all in the long time I had been here, but from the intensity that came from it I could infer that he cared very much about Pyrrha. Pyrrha herself looked worse for wear with bags on her eyes, random bruising and small cuts along her arms and face and any other skin that was visible.
What she did not seem however, was broken. That both dissapointed and impressed me. I had thought that even as a prestiged warrior she would be shattered in the mind; especially after the illusions and nightmares I had tortured her with for a few days after our, shall we say, match. Another fight needed to happen. I wanted to test just how strong her resolve was.
A match with Jaune was in order as well, but somehow I think he had the same thoughts. He might even challenge me himself. He didn't look like much, but anger was a poweful tool. It might even be fun. I just hoped he could put up more of a fight than one of the soldiers from last night.
*SMASH*
While I was in my own thoughts Ruby had managed to sneak up on the table and smashed down a book that shook every tray and cracked the surface slightly. The top of the white folder had a title crossed out in red marker and a new one written. "Best Day Ever Activities!"
'What fresh hell is this?' I thought as she adressed us. "Sisters. Friends... Wiess." The heiress mentioned made an offended noise that Ruby ignored. "Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream." I sighed and waited for the rest of whatever waste of time was about to be explained.
"This ought to be good." Yang said. She then caught a cherry in her mouth that somone had thrown at her. Ruby continued speaking. "A dream that one day the four of us would come together as a team and have the most fun that anyone has ever had... Ever!" She exclaimed, bouncing in excitement. Weiss was now irritated for a different reason.
"Did you steal my binder?" She asked. "I am not a crook." Ruby responded.
"What do you mean?" Blake asked, her bad mood from earlier seemingly alleviated. "I'm talking about kicking off the semester with a bang!" She said.
"I always kick my semester off with a Yang."
...
...
And then I shot myself.
Just kidding. I did contemplate my existence for a second or two before tuning back in to the conversation. Another person also shared a similar position and threw an apple into Yang's face.
"Guys, its been a good two weeks and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our semester is going to be gread. But classes start back up tommorow. Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today." She took a deep breath and waited for our response.
"I don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store for us today." Weiss said. Yang whipped what looked like a pear at deadly speeds to someone in front of us. Blake sighed for an unrelated reason.
"I think I might sit this one out." She said. "Sit out or not, I think however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team." Weiss said, and an air of friendship filled the room. Thankfully the moment was ruined.
"I got it!" A familiar high-pitched voice said before a large cake hit Weiss squarely in the face and stuck. A glance in front of us and I saw Nora pointing at Ren who had his hand over his face.
After that things, shall we say, escalated. There was eggs thrown, sodas exploded, humans launched. It was actually kind of fun. All I know is that I was roped in and in about 30 seconds, ever table was stacked on one side of the cafateria, about fifty of them, and JNPR was standing on them. To this day I have no memory of how they got there that fast.
Ruby was rounding the team and declaring war when I looked back at her. "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It will be, DELICIOUS!" Ruby yelled, slipping into a battle cry that the rest of them followed. I joined in for kicks and we began to gather our weapons. Before any of us could be armed however, a volley of watermelon's descended upon us.
"Yang, turkey!" Ruby ordered and Yang slipped two turkeys over her hands. She wiped out the brunt of the assualt with her newfound 'gauntlets' and Blake vaulted over her. She armed herself with two bread sticks as blades and they charged together. Blake rushed Pyrrha and Jaune at the same time. Yang sent her help by lobbing both her turkey-gloves at Jaune and effectively knocking him out for the moment.
I searched for an acceptable item of food to join in with while keeping tabs on the battle with the corner of my eye. There was a brief struggle between Blake and Pyrrha before they broke apart into close-quarters combat. While it would have normally been a more equally balanced fight, Pyrrha's training seemed to have obviously paid off.
She stayed a step ahead of Blake during the entire confrontation before knocking her down and back at us. Instantly after she assaulted Yang with a trio of bread-spears. The third found its mark and pushed her off the table she had clambered onto.
I took my chance, taking an abnormally large salmon in both hands and charging Pyrrha. Her eyes widened for a good second as she realized I was coming for her. Then she grit her teeth and seet her eyes before taking a defensive stance. I smiled at her efforts before swinging. Just as my 'blade' was about to make contact it was blocked by a blonde-haired face.
Jaune stared up at me, having crouched to reviece the full force of the blow. The fingers on his left hand were wrapped around the curled over part of a tin platter. His right hand held a breadstick. Though it was currently a mock fight I could see the real fire in his eyes as he moved to counter me. With the platter he shoved my blade over and stabbed at me under my left arm.
I blocked his swign and threw my own upwards, whacking across his cheek and painting what would become a decent bruise. While he recoiled I checked around for Pyrrha, but she had left. I heard her throwing more bread upwards to my side and Ruby sliding along tables with a lunch tray in her direction. Somewhere in the room a pipe snapped and was followed by a squelching noise.
That was all of the information I could gather before Jaune was on me again. He swung twice this time, once at me chest and once to sweep my legs. I blocked the first and jumped onto his weapon on the second swing, pinning his hand to the floor. With a surprising maneuver he reached over and smashed a milk carton on the side of my head. My right ear was filled with liquid and my vision blurred.
A moment later I felt his platter bash into my side with the rim and pull back for another attack. I quickly wiped the milk from my eyes and caught the platter in an iron grip. The tin bent and left impressions of where my fingers were, allowing my to rip it out of his hand and leave him weaponless. I slashed wickedly upwards onto the right side of his body and lifted him off the ground by his jaw alone.
He flew back into a table and cracked it with his impact. He seemed out to me, but then his fingers grasped the broken pile of table pieces as he climbed out. I took another moment to figure out what was happening around me. Pyrrha was recovering on the ground, presumable from Ruby. Nora had charged Ruby and Weiss and had apparently knocked Ruby out for a moment.
She held a pipe speared through a watermelon and was currently trying to land a solid hit. Blake and Ren were nowhere to be found.
"Over here!" Jaune yelled at me and a plate whizzed by my still waterlogged ear. More plates were thrown at me and I broke them out of the air with my salmon, taking a step closer with every swing. He kept throwing until I was on him and he was out of plates. On my next swing he put his arms up and was thrown back by the force of the imapct. His aura flickered briefly as he landed next to a broken table.
I saw him reach into the wood before pulling out a sizable table leg and running at me again. In the distance I heard stone collapsing on stone and Ruby screaming about something. I didn't care to figure out exactly what all the screaming was about and I instead focused on Jaune. He used his table leg much like I wielding my salmon.
We traded blows and I found him to be slower fighting like this and at the same time stronger. That was the downfall of wielding a blade primarily two-handed. "Not so tough now, are you?" He spat at me. I chuckled. "This is only a mock fight, or are you being serious?" I asked him. He stepped back for just a second and I saw that information sink in.
He was fighting for real right now. Maybe not a full strength or with a proper weapon, but it certainly wasn't a game to him anymore. He stepped forwards again and stabbed upwards at my chest cavity and I caught the table leg, snapping it with my wrist. There were much louder noises around us now. Hissing explosions and smashing stones.
Jaune swiped what was left of his leg at me like a dagger and I moved my arm behind his next swing. I used his body weight and momentum to simply toss him to the side and give me time to look around again. Nora was without a weapon again, now throwing sodas at Blake. As I looked around I noticed that they were littered everywhere.
Then the cans began to glow black and shake. I created a force rune and vaulted across the room, back to Ruby's position. We watched as Blake got decimated by a horde of cans that threw her into the back wall. I tapped Ruby on the shoulder. "They've played thier trump card. It's your turn." I stated. Instead of making excuses or having doubts, she only nodded.
A familiar spark appeared in her eyes and she took a sprinting stance. Then she was off. A faint red glow appeared around her as she ran, and at first I was dissapointed that she was simply running. Then I saw the cans coming for us reverse directions, caught in the funnel that she was creating. Ruby dived into her run and into a tornado of rose petals. The object she had accumulated did the same.
Cans, food, and members of JNPR alike were sucked into the funnel behind her. As she came to an abrupt stop mere feet from the wall, the air pressure around her collided with it and cracked the dense cement. I'll admit that there is not a sight much more satisfying than watching the members of JNPR get destroyed by a spiraling myriad of objects.
There was little noise in the room and I began to think that it was over until the doors of the carafteria burst open. Glynda Goodwitch walked into the room with a scowl on her face and a faint growl escaping her throat. With a single movement I watced as purple glow overcast ever object in the room. Dozens of tables flew into the air under her command. Silverware placed itself and food threw itself away.
"Children please, do not play with your food." She thought her message had gotten through until Yang crashed through the repaired cieling. Fire breifly flashed out of her hands and she paused just long enough to make the fall non-lethal. With her added defense in aura and the table breaking her fall, she landed only mildly hurt. She was obviously fine enough as she got up laughing, if swaying.
"What was that Yang?" I asked. She looked at me strangely. "What was what?" She responded. "When you fell through the roof again, you did something." She nodded. "Yeah, I was falling to fast so I used my gauntlets to slow... Myself... Down." She looked at her wrists and noticed a distinct lack of extended gauntlets. In fact, they were only half extended.
"It looks like your gauntlets are jammed Yang." I said, my smile growing just a bit. "Then how did I...?" She pointed at the hole in the cieling and her eyes lit up. "You made fire. That means we can continue." She smiled very brightly and pumped her fist into the air. "Alright!" She screamed and a small flash of flame sprouted from her knuckles.
She yelped in surprise and I widened my eyes. The only theory I had at the moment was that she had unconciously broken through the barrier that had kept her from being able to perform these feats before. This made my job harder and easier. I wouldn't have to work her aura up to using it, but I would have to teach her control over it. Yay me.
I started making plans for the training that I would do for the both of them and the questions I would have to answer for Blake and Weiss.