Make sure to drink water guys.
"Here we are at training facility #647284!" A loud voice announced dramatically. A light switch flicked before a warehouse sized room was bathed in white light. At the entrance stood a white haired boy and pony tailed man.
"Can you not be so loud?" A young boy had asked.
"What's wrong Kaiser? Can't handle a bit of noise?" The man's hand clamped down on Kaiser's shoulder, to which the boy flinched at the sudden contact.
"It's too early in the morning to be this obnoxious, but considering it's you…" the young boy crossed his arms whilst staying silent.
The older man gasped in mock hurt, "whatever do you mean?" His voice raised a few decibels while taking on a falsetto tone. "I am expelling the appropriate amount of noise to communicate with you."
Kaiser just gave the man an annoyed look.
"Relax kid, I just want to test you for your hand to hand." The man had started moving his hands with practiced motions. "You can handle yourself incredibly well against regular opponents, but the moment you go against people like me you start to crumble." His fist stopped a few inches short of the back of Kaiser's head. "I know you don't trust me all that much with me being ex-Zodiac and all that, but I have the experience to make you better."
The boy turned around to face the blond haired man with hesitation. "Where do we start Kane?"
Kane gestured to a dimly lit corner of the warehouse, there stood a small mat with a yellow circle painted on it. Lining the circle were multiple metal pipes leaning inwards into the circle, each one was tipped with a detachable rubber ball.
"What are those for?"
"That, Kaiser, is Zodiac's final exam for assassins." Kane pat one of the pipes as if it were a dog. "They had us fight each other in here one on one to see who needed extra training." It was a blatant lie, the grim reality was that the pipes were sharpened. To pass the exam was to murder your opponent by knocking them into the pipes. Kane passed his with flying colors, the main color being red. He chose to keep that aspect of the exam to himself, he didn't want to unnerve his young companion.
"Alright kid, show me that you beating me wasn't just a fluke." It however was, Kaiser wasn't ready to admit that to himself. Kaiser took a combat stance once inside the circle, he quickly approached the man with intent to strike. A fist crashed into his cheek before Kaiser understood what had happened. The boy keeled over when his back hit the pole, it was instantly sore. The boy groaned as he applied pressure to his back.
"I didn't even say start yet." Kane gave a smug look while raising his fist. "You could've really hurt me!"
Kaiser glowered at the ex-Zodiac agent, he stayed in one place until told otherwise.
Kane threw a left jab, to which Kaiser dodged. The boy didn't expect the right cross landing square in his face, his back hitting two more pipes. Kaiser arched his back in pain.
"Training starts now!", the assassin barked.
Suffice to say that team FRKN wasn't going to work out if each member was just a made up personality, so it was team K for now. Seeing as it was just one person, Kaiser decided he'd have to be strong enough for a whole team. For that reason, the boy had found himself in Beacon academy's gym. It was the type of place you were glad was empty, whether the issue was insecurity or just not being pressured into rushing your workout. Of course it was empty seeing as it was 5:15 am, early mornings were practically drilled into his head at this point.
Kaiser observed a row of bench presses only to see that all except one were missing. He was the only one there anyways, he'd get first pick. After adjusting the incline bench the boy started his warm up with just the bar. The rhythmic clanking of the bar was the only sound filling the room for a while, Kaiser didn't like it. The lack of outside noise unsettled the boy, he sat up to check if anybody had arrived after every time he racked the bar. His muscles tensed as if expecting somebody to hurt him at any moment, he was probably paranoid. Kaiser decided to plug in some earphones to play some music from his scroll. The boy added some plates to the bar as he focused on the music.
'So sacrifice yourself, and let me have what's left.'
A couple songs later and Kaiser was well past 175 pounds on the bench press. The boy froze as he felt another presence in the room, he sat up immediately after racking the barbell. He instantly relaxed when he saw Pyrrha nervously standing a few feet away, a red towel had been wrapped around her neck. The boy took out his earphone and began conversing.
"Good morning Pyrrha."
"Ah, Good morning to you too." Pyrrha chirped, albeit a bit too quickly. Kaiser was sure that she was nervous about something, the question was what though.
"Push day?" Kaiser had done a bit of studying on some huntsman level combat through the tournament circuits. Pyrrha in particular had turned out to be a world class athlete, not that he doubted her after her performance in the initiation. It seemed that she was also conditioned to wake up early to train.
"Yes." She nodded meekly.
"Would you like to share the bench press?" Kaiser stood to remove the weights. "I'll spot you after you warm up."
"I'd like that." With that, the mistralian champion did her warm ups. Kaiser stood off to the side as she started at the bar, he busied himself by starting a bit of shadow boxing. His footwork was practiced and precise, just as it was when it was first drilled into him. The boy mixed in defensive and offensive maneuvers into his drills as well, maintaining balance was key in combat. Every movement was as fluid as water, and as quick as the wind.
Kaiser was stuck in his own little world until he heard a loud clunk from behind him, Pyrrha must've been done with her warm up. She started adding on more plates to one side, Kaiser positioned himself behind the bar ready to assist when needed. The boy mentally went over what had happened in the last 24 hours.
Kaiser's performance during the initiation exam was poor to say the least. He was normally able to thrive in unfamiliar situations, but he's been put on the backfoot numerous times throughout the exam. It was reasonable to say that the boy would be ill-equipped in the coming term if he didn't improve on what he didn't have. He would improve in time though, he would do at least that for himself. For now though, he could hold his own using the skill he had to make up for his lack of aura training.
"Switch?" Pyrrha had finished her set.
"Sure." Kaiser got back on the bench and set his hands on the barbell, he straightened his wrist before lifting. The weight went down smoothly as the boy kept lowering and raising the bar. He was halfway through when he noticed the distant look on Pyrrha's face.
"Pyrrha, are you alright?" She snapped out of her daze, the bar got significantly heavier as the boy tried to lift it. Kaiser was struggling to get it near the rack. He felt the load lighten as two hands led the barbell back on the rack.
"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha quickly blurted out.
"It's alright don't worry!" Kaiser was quick to reassure her. "You're not expected to know when I can't lift anymore." The boy used the hem of his shirt to wipe his forehead.
Pyrrha had blushed at that. "No, not about that." She hesitated before taking a deep breath. "I'm sorry for the hit you took yesterday."
It took a minute for the gears to start working, he vaguely recollected getting knocked off the temple by a stray bullet. When the absurdity of the situation caught up to him he gave a cocky smirk, if only to let her know it was nothing serious. "Don't worry, it's not like a little detour can stop me!"
Pyrrha's only response was a shaky smile.
Kaiser was hunched over his desk looking like a scholar masterfully taking notes. In reality, the boy was perusing over his notebook with two words scribbled on it. He kept thinking of the words 'aura' and 'weapon' while tuning into Professor Port's lecture, or rather his eccentric story telling. It felt like he was back in training and the veterans were boasting their past operations to him. Who tries to show off to a seven year old? Apparently old guys trying to teach said seven year old to pick pocket. Kaiser just kept an ear out for any topic related information the professor happened to divulge.
A third of his mind was occupied by weaponry, and how his own was leaving him unsatisfied. Huntsman grade metal was made with far more advanced alloys infused with dust to improve durability. This same quality was not afforded to non-huntsman, which left Kaiser's weapon quite lacking compared to his classmates. The metal alloys were much heavier and could only be supported by those with aura. With the only requirement being strength, huntsman and huntresses were able to incorporate complex machinery like mechashift components without having to worry too much about weight. Kaiser could only fill the gap between weapon damage by pouring aura into his own.
The boy barely registered a cage in the middle of the room, the locks on it had rattled as the inhabitant thrashed about.
Then came the other problem: Aura. Everything was much simpler when Kaiser didn't have to factor in his aura usage, he did like the extra help in battle though. Too much aura was spent in doling out extra damage, as a result, he ran out of it far too early in initiation. If he could gain a mastery over his aura, he'd be able to last longer in fights against more dangerous opponents.
Kaiser was scribbling down his own notes while sensing the beat of battle taking place on the stage below. Weiss Schnee was skillfully avoiding head on collision with a boarbatusk that the professor let loose in the middle of class. Her rapier was caught between the ivory tusk of the Grimm she tussled with, the beast had disarmed her by throwing the weapon to the other end of the floor.
Kaiser finished up the notes in his book, half a page was filled in with different ways to go about approaching the situation. He'd have to remake the blade of his sword using huntsman grade alloys, or make an entirely new weapon to his liking. Things like those did not come cheap, so he'd have to work out some sort of deal to fund this project of his. It'd be infinitely harder to make a new weapon from scratch as he'd need more resources and an idea of what it'd be rather than just replacing one part of his sword. Next, the boy would have to learn aura control and better, more effective ways to use it.
It was settled, all he needed to do is reforge his weapon and get a better grasp on aura. If he did that, he'd be an incredible huntsman. He'd probably even be able to match fourth years in terms of fighting prowess and be among the best that Beacon had to offer. It was set, Kaiser was already on his way to being a first class huntsman.
Kaiser finally turned his attention to the battle below, Weiss was on the ropes against the boarbatusk. She waited as the beast barreled towards her, the heiress summoned two mystical looking circles. One had stopped the Grimm and had thrown the creature on its back. The other flung Weiss into the Grimm to pierce its soft belly. Kaiser looked on in amazement at the barriers she seemed to have conjured up. His head softly hit the wood laminate as the boy sighed.
"What else am I missing?"
Kaiser had successfully made it to the last class of the day without messing anything up, public education was easier than he thought. Blending into the crowd of angsty teens really did wonders for his anonymity, he hadn't been called on once the entire day! Now he was just waiting on Professor Goodwitch to pass out a slip of paper for her combat class. Kaiser read the paper and started to fill out his slip, the questions were pretty basic. It asked for name, weapon name, and weapon type. Kaiser filled out the one that caught his eye first, that being weapon type. The boy had jotted down sword in the box, weapons name had caught him off guard. Was he supposed to name his weapon? He looked at the next person's paper, that being Ruby Rose's, she had filled her weapons name as Crescent Rose. Kaiser tapped his chin with his pencil a couple times before settling on a name. He wrote down sword for that category as well, Kaiser wasn't the most creative of individuals. Kaiser filled out the secondary section for additional weapons for his revolver and wire.
It was only when he turned in his paper that he realized he accidentally wrote sword for his own name as well.
Goodwitch went on about class expectations and the like, Kaiser had paid the utmost attention as she had been eyeing him throughout the entire time.
"We have time for one combat exhibition, this will exemplify my class for the majority of your time here at beacon." Professor Goodwitch paced from one end of the students to the other. "For our first bout, I would like Mr. Sword and Mr. Winchester to come up to the arena."
Kaiser heard loud shuffling from behind him, he turned back to see some behemoth of a boy head towards the locker room.
"Mr. Sword, you should probably change into your gear too." Goodwitch raised her eyebrow at Kaiser, whom had played dumb by pretending to not have heard. Goodwitch sighed. "Make sure to not make a silly mistake like that again Kaiser."
The boy in question had reddened in embarrassment, some of the students near him had snickered to themselves. Kaiser quickly excused himself from the class to find the locker room. Luckily, the locker rooms were one hallway away from the arena. Kaiser rushed towards his locker and swiped his scroll on it.
Inside was his black coat, sword, revolver, and his wired rods. The coat had suffered a couple small tears in the emerald forest, but it would serve just fine for the combat exhibition. Kaiser quickly sheathed his sword and placed his revolver in the holster before running back to the arena. Today he'd get to fight an actual person.
Up on the stage was the behemoth of a boy, Kaiser's opponent was scowling at him. His opponent was probably pissed because he was forced to wait so long. The white haired boy scrambled up the steps to face Winchester.
"The rules are simple, get your opponent below 15% of their aura." Goodwitch pointed her riding crop at large screen above the stage. "You May also pursue a ring-out by getting your opponent out of bounds." Goodwitch faced the students in front of her. "Any questions?" She then turned to the two on the stage. "Are both combatants ready?" Two nods were received. "You may begin."
Cardin wasted no time in charging after Kaiser, he pulled back his mace to swing.
Kaiser drew his revolver and shot a dust round at Cardin. The fire round was swatted away by Cardin's mace and had been pelted back towards Kaiser as it exploded. The one second delay had allowed Cardin to avoid the bullet's devastating effect.
Somewhere in the stands, icy blue eyes narrowed.
Black smoke clouded the arena as Kaiser hacked and coughed through the cloud, he sensed an attack coming. The boy leaned backwards just before Cardin's mace was wildly swung in front of him. The larger boy pressed on as he charged forward, Kaiser was shoved backwards onto one end of the arena. He barely recovered before he could've been knocked off. Cardin emerged from the haze of black smoke, a condescending look adorned his face.
"Not so tough now when my back isn't turned." Cardin mocked the boy before him, his mace rested gently in his right hand.
Did he do that to Cardin? Kaiser wouldn't put it past himself to attack when somebody's back was turned, he just couldn't place where'd he'd even interacted with the mace wielder before.
"I thought this school taught us to fight the monsters, not be them."
Kaiser covered his mouth before coughing. He stood back up once more, an inkling of a plan was forming in his head. Kaiser could shoot the ground the next time a Cardin charges at him. He could use the smoke screen to dodge at the last second and throw Cardin out of bounds for a ring out.
"Honestly with how you were that day, I'm surprised that bird on your armor isn't a chicken!" Kaiser heard a few chuckles from the crowd, and a low growl from Winchester. Cardin had crossed the gap and swung his mace to the floor, to which Kaiser rolled out the way.
Cardin brought his mace down on Kaiser, but was quickly parried with Kaiser's sword. Kaiser landed a front kick on Cardin while his mace was occupied by the blade. The clash was broken when Cardin stumbled backwards from the kick.
By this time, Kaiser was just trading blows with the brute. He was yet to get near the edge of the stage so he could set up his win condition. Before he could move positions, Kaiser tripped on Cardin's extended boot. The brute neared the downed boy, both his hands held his mace tightly.
"Say goodnight!" Cardin delivered a heavy two-handed swing on the boy.
Kaiser thrust his sword into the mace, he intended to strike Cardin through his mace. His attack was brought to a grinding halt though, Kaiser's sword was trapped between two of the mace's claws. Cardin must have twisted the mace so the claws would press on both sides.
Kaiser's grip on his blade was unfaltering, Cardin decided to use this to his advantage. He twisted his mace to the point where the blade wasn't able to move no matter what. With a grunt, Cardin managed to snap Kaiser's blade in two. Kaiser's eyes widened as the chunk of steel was sent skittering across the stage.
"A pathetic weapon from a pathetic excuse for a fighter!" Cardin's cackles were heard all throughout the arena. He crashed his mace on a frozen looking Kaiser. The boy was now splayed out over the ground, his wounds from Cardin's mace were not healing fast enough. The downed boy was given a glimpse of the aura monitors, roughly 26% of his aura left through that attack alone. Kaiser would have to finish quickly before anyone noticed his weakness with uncontrolled aura.
Screw the plan! The mace was swung down once more, Kaiser stopped it with his left foot. The mace was swiftly kicked out of Cardin's hand and was sent out of bounds. With the weapon out of the way, Kaiser chucked the broken handle of his own weapon at the bruiser. The white haired boy had gone from laying on the ground to crouching in an instant, he used his arm to support himself while he swept Cardin's legs from under him. The armored brute fell with a heavy thud. Kaiser was back in a standing position as Cardin tried to sit up using his elbows. Before he could get up any further, Kaiser hit Cardin in the head with a heavy roundhouse kick. The blow had knocked the boy out cold as his body went limp, Kaiser looked to the stands waiting for the match to be called.
"The winner of the first match of the year is Kaiser." Goodwitch turned to three students in the crowd. "I advise that the rest of you take your leader with you."
Kaiser didn't wait to hear what came next, he just picked up the broken pieces of his weapon and left the arena.
Kaiser sat in the locker room trying to nurse the giant headache that had now come on. His weapon(or what was left of it) lay next to him on the bench. He sat in front of his designated locker with his head in his hands, another obstacle was thrown in his path. It was fine, he could work through this. He'd already been picked for combat so it was unlikely he'd be picked again so soon. Even if he was chosen, his proficiency in hand to hand could tide him over until new options arose.
Kaiser slammed his locker shut when he changed into his uniform, class had probably already ended. Dinner was starting so he should probably get there since he skipped lunch in favor of practicing his aura control. He just hoped there wouldn't be much of a line when he got to the mess hall.
Lady Luck seemed to be smiling down on Kaiser for what seemed to be the first time in a long time. The line to pick up food was about 5 minutes, he'd be back in his dorm room in no time at all! The day had been especially taxing for the boy who never had proper schooling in his life. Aromas of tender meats wafted through the cafeteria, it was the closest Kaiser ever came to drooling. The starving student body had finally moved one step forward when Kaiser was approached.
"Hello again."
Kaiser turned around quickly to see Pyrrha standing behind him. Mistral's champion had decided to queue up behind him, Kaiser suppressed a groan. It's not to say he didn't appreciate Pyrrha's company, but his fight with Cardin had him done with people in general for today. Nevertheless, he returned the same kindness Pyrrha afforded to him. He tiredly waved back at her and smiled.
"Lined up for the five star meal I assume?" Kaiser chuckled a bit at his own joke.
"Yeah, a long day can really work up an appetite. Wouldn't you say?" Pyrrha grabbed her tray and started picking out her meal.
"I felt like I would die at any moment." Kaiser huffed, bed sounded amazing by the time he'd get to his dorm.
Pyrrha chuckled softly at his exaggerated response. "Are you going to eat with your team?"
Kaiser visibly cringed at that, nobody had really seen him with a team. Ozpin had only announced teams and seemingly skipped over the boy. "I don't really have a team, kind of passed alone." Kaiser rubbed his forearm, it was completely healed up from when he scraped it.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring it up." Pyrrha gave a bashful look. She immediately brightened up before facing Kaiser. "Perhaps you'd like to sit with us?" She gestured to a table someplace far off.
It wasn't an idea that really appealed to Kaiser, but saying yes at that moment would probably pay off in the future. "Sure, if that's alright with you." Kaiser followed closely behind Pyrrha to a table near the middle of the cafeteria. It was a little too exposed for comfort, not that he'd mind he would just be a little more aware of his surroundings. The wild waving of arms as if to emphasize something was what Kaiser saw first, someone was probably telling a story. He tuned into the story as soon as he sat down.
"And then I zoomed to the deathstalker! Too bad the nevermore stopped me, I would've clobbered them both!" Ruby Rose(if he remembered right) was busy retelling the events from the emerald forest.
"I don't know about the nevermore, but I'm sure the deathstalker was gonna get scorpi-owned." Yang Xiao Long was waiting for some sort of response, she would receive none from the team across from her.
Kaiser suppressed a grin from her attempt at humor, it shouldn't have been funny. From Kaiser's experience, blondes thought themselves the comedians of any given group of people. Visions of a dark prison cell clouded the boy's mind, his teeth grit a bit trying to dismiss the thoughts.
"Go ahead and laugh, it's what I'm here for." Yang had greeted the boy who accompanied Pyrrha.
"Wasn't that funny."
"Really, because it looked like you were about to explode."
Kaiser faced anywhere except the blonde joker in front of him, his embarrassment to keep his expressions in line was apparent.
"Speaking of exploding-" a small hand waved in front of his face, ruby smiled at him. "-your fight was awesome!"
Kaiser nodded at the young girl, she seemed to be too young to even attend the school. Too bad Kaiser couldn't be bothered to be more curious about it. "Thank you."
"The way that flames came straight out of the barrel!" Ruby chomped down on a cookie after her statement.
"Except it's not supposed to fire like that." At the end of the table, Weiss Schnee was filing her nails. Ruby had noticeably shrunken in on herself when she heard her partner speak.
This caught the boy's attention. "What are you trying to say?" He set his utensils down, it felt like there was a pit in his stomach.
"The dust round shouldn't come out like that, it should shoot out cleanly." Weiss put down her nail file. "Furthermore, the dust round should go off on impact. The reason it doesn't is because it's leaking fire dust before it makes it out of the barrel."
"So my weapon is faulty?"
"Yes, and you should get it replaced or fixed because you could die in a real life situation." Weiss finished curtly.
Kaiser paled, he thanked whatever luck prevented him from messing up too badly during initiation. At least it did answer some of his questions, the second delay being the most prominent one. "I thought that was how dust worked." The boy's head promptly thumped against the table.
"Clearly you don't think right." Weiss lightly tapped Kaiser's head with a paper, she passed it in front of him.
"Dust for dummies?" Kaiser would've been offended if he knew more about dust beyond dust rounds.
"Yes, if you have any questions I'd be more than glad to assist you." Weiss resumes filing her pristine nails.
"Aww, looks like you thawed out the ice queen's heart!" Yang poked fun at Weiss while Kaiser just stared at the informational pamphlet.
The rest of dinner was spent with Yang ribbing the occupants of the table. Kaiser wasn't exempt, especially with how hard she tried to make him laugh.
He wouldn't though, he's already had his lifetime dose of teasing blondes.
Reviews are welcome.Later.