The next day Summer woke up at her normal time at five in the morning to get up and begin getting ready for the day. She went over to the wardrobe on her side of the room and quietly opened it with her left arm as she rummaged through the wardrobe looking for her white cloak. As she went through the various other white cloaks Summer came across the damaged one from yesterday and she stopped and stared at it for a moment. Her mind shifted back to the previous day as she subtly looked down at her right arm. A frown graced her lips as she quietly sighed to herself and she slumped her head. 'Darn it Raven what do you have against me?' Suddenly another thought crosses Summer's mind. 'I can't really go through with my special training anymore. At least not while I'm this condition. I could risk harming myself even further if I train in my current state. Plus theirs always the fact that since Raven is having to monitor me at all times she would eventually find out about it. Heck all of them have been curious what I do ever since they found out I leave this early.'

As Summer continues to slightly mope she hears the very quiet creaks of the floor boards as she turns around. Summer sees a somewhat tired Raven quietly walking around her bed right towards her. "Why do you always *yawn* have to wake up so early?" Raven tiredly whispers as she rubs her eyes.

Summer turns around to fully face her teammate as she forces a smile. "You know training and what not. Seeing as I'm pretty terrible at fighting other people I've just always gotten up early to go train in my own spare time." Summer looks slightly abash. "When I woke up this morning I realized that I wasn't going to be able to do my usual training like I normally would given my injuries." Summer puts emphasis on her injuries as she stares intensely at Raven for a moment. Raven averts her gaze for a moment before refocusing on Summer. "I'm not so sure what to do now as I'm too used to waking up this early to train." Summer thinks about it for a moment when she suddenly gets an idea. "You know what? I just thought of an excellent idea. How about you train for me?"

Raven looks at Summer in confusion. "What do you mean train 'for' you? How does that even work?"

"What I'm saying is that I watch you train early in the morning so I can pick up a thing or two when it comes to melee combat from watching how you fight." Summer elaborates.

Raven sighs as she pinches the bridge of her nose. "Seriously? You want to watch me train?"

"It would be nice if you also gave pointers as you go along so I can take notes." Summer adds. "Do keep in mind that you have to listen to me." Summer grins mischievously at her teammate.

Raven grits her teeth at the reminder as she pushes Summer aside a little bit so she can reach for her own clothes. "Fine I'll show you." Raven grabs one of her outfits without even looking and heads for the bathroom to change into her combat attire.

Summer continues to look into the closet at all of her cloaks as her eyes land on one cloak that isn't like the others. She stares at it for a long time as her mind drifts elsewhere deep in thought. 'What would my parents think knowing I came here? What would they think knowing I took this with me?' Summer stares at the special cloak with enough intensity to burn a hole through it before she hears Raven behind her again.

"Geez does it really take that long for you to pick out an outfit? All of your outfits are the same anyways just hurry up and grab one." Raven sits on her bed with an annoyed look on her face.

Summer covers the special cloak as she quickly grabs one of her white cloaks and the rest of her usual attire. "Right... sorry for taking so long. It does look a little ridiculous the way I just stare at essentially the same outfit." Summer suddenly realizes something. "Uh Raven... I think I might need help changing."

Raven sighs as she flops back on her bed. "Ugh seriously? Can't you do it yourself?" Summer slightly raises her cast as Raven groans even louder. "In that case just change into your school uniform instead."

Summer looks to Raven in confusion. "But why would I do that?"

"Because it's not like you'll be training anyways so no need for your combat uniform. Plus I don't feel like having to change you again later. Plus I'd be careful around Tai since he'll be awake later." Raven lists off.

"What's wrong with Tai?" Summer asks as she puts her combat uniform away.

"He'll just pester the hell out of us and tease us along the lines of 'ooooh~ how risqué~' or some other crap like that." When Raven imitated her partner Summer had to hold down a laugh as that is exactly what Tai would do.

"Tai isn't exactly the most mature of people." Summer shrugged. "Although I'm surprised you're not worried about Qrow."

Raven chuckles at that. "My brother is so dense it's not even funny. Then again we grew up in a tribe where we had to look after each other when we bathed to make sure we weren't ambushed so at this point I don't really think my brother gives a crap about any of that, and quite frankly neither do I."

Summer blushes slightly in embarrassment at that. "You two should seriously have some more modesty than that." Summer reprimands Raven.

Raven shrugs. "Who cares? Their just parts of the body anyways."

Summer rolls her eyes as she begins to walk towards the bathroom with her uniform in hand. "Anyways could you help me with my outfit please?"

Raven gets up and walks towards the bathroom to meet up with Summer. "Let's just get this over with."


After that Summer would watch Raven practice combat as she would sit on the side lines and take notes with her one good arm. Raven's technique prioritized strength over defense as she would deliver each of her strikes with a ton of force that would make a loud swiping noise. After Raven trained for two hours Summer got her attention. "That's enough for today." Summer got up and walked towards Raven who was panting heavily from the long workout.

Raven sheathes Omen as she turns her head to face Summer. "Geez, you do this every day?" Raven asks as she pants while hunched over.

Summer nods her head. "Yep. I come down here and train two hours a day every day before school starts."

"Seriously? How are you so bad at fighting other people? If you dedicate this much time to training everyday I would expect you to at least put up some form of a challenge." Raven gasps out between breaths.

"Weeeeeeell I usually do a... different form of training." Summer averts her gaze.

Raven looks up to Summer with mild confusion on her face as she stand up fully. "What do you mean?"

Summer thinks internally about it on how she can phrase this without giving herself away. "Usually in the morning I do aura control exercises to help me use my semblance better." 'It's technically half true.' Summer thinks internally as she waits for Raven's reaction.

Raven begins to grow slightly irritated. "Then why didn't you say that from the beginning?"

"Because physical combat is what you would be better at teaching that's why. No offense Raven, but you don't exactly use your aura or semblance very often to begin with so you would be the worse person to teach me about it." Summer tells Raven.

Raven scoffs and averts her gaze. 'You're not entirely wrong.' Raven internally begrudgingly agrees with her leader. Raven begins to walk towards the exit. "Come on, we need to get back to the room. I'm definitely gonna need a shower before class now."

Summer follows behind Raven. "Hey Raven?"

"Yeah?" Raven turns her head enough to see Summer as they walk.

"Thank you for showing me a few things." Summer lightly smiles. "I've been needing to improve on my swordsmanship and what better teacher than you?"

Raven turns her head and smirks to herself. "No problem Summer. I AM the best after all."

'Although that arrogance of yours needs some fixing.' Summer frowns internally.


When Summer and Raven made it back to the room Raven opened the door to go inside. When the two of them got inside they noticed that Qrow was up already and Tai was still sleeping. "Where have you two been?" Qrow asks.

"Training." Raven replies as she walks over to her wardrobe to pull out one of her school uniforms.

"What kind of training?" Qrow asks.

Raven walks towards the bathroom as she simply replies, "Ask Summer." Raven closes the door and soon after they hear the water running.

Qrow turns his head to face his partner with a questioning look. "Well?"

Summer sits down on her own bed across from Qrow as she flips to a page in the notebook she had on hand. "Combat training. I thought if I watched Raven fight then I'll be able to learn a thing or two since y'know I'm not the best at melee combat."

That piqued Qrow's interest. In the time he had known Summer he had never bothered to dive for more details about her training. Qrow decided to ask more about it. "Is that what you normally did? You know before the whole arm thing."

"No normally I would practice my aura control to better use my semblance, but Raven doesn't use her semblance very often as is so I wouldn't think she would be the best teacher for that." Summer explains.

Qrow shrugs. "Makes sense." Eventually Tai wakes up and the rest of them get ready as the team heads out for the day.


As the day went on Raven would be relieved as it turned out that Summer didn't need her help when it came to the classes that required notes to be taken as it turns out that Summer is ambidextrous. However what had been a pain was dealing with combat class. Due to Raven having to take up a slot for both herself and Summer that meant that she had to fight twice that period which wasn't as big a deal for Raven as she was the second highest ranked student in the class besides Tai. That wouldn't be a problem to her if it weren't for the fact that Lance wouldn't allow Raven to fight her opponents back-to-back which meant she had to go up and down the stairs and wait between matches instead of just getting both over with. During both fights Summer was taking more notes on how Raven held her blade along with Qrow and Taiyang so she could get a better grip on her team's fighting styles. As Summer watched the three of them fight she began scheming ways to incorporate their styles together.

Raven was a much more aggressive attacker who favored attacking with very little defense as she would try to finish fights as quickly as possible. Tai fought incredibly similar to Raven as he would charge in and out pace his opponents and overwhelm them with his attacks. However where he differed from Raven was that unlike Raven, who tried to deal as much damage as possible per hit, Tai would go for any and all weaknesses he spotted and he would exploit them. Due to his semblance heightening his senses he could spot much more subtle weak points and take advantage of them. Also unlike Raven, Tai would actually dodge attacks as well instead of tanking them like his partner would.

Her own partner Qrow had probably the most unconventional fighting style out of the three of them. Unlike Tai and Raven, Qrow didn't take his fights very seriously. He would taunt his opponents and goad them into attacking him. His style didn't favor strength, but rather technique as he would periodically switch his weapon between sword mode for short ranged attacks and scythe mode for longer reaching attacks. She also found that during his fights something bad would always happen to his opponents whether it be missing an attack, losing their weapon mid fight, or even tripping and falling. Their would even be times where an opponents aura didn't protect them fast enough as Qrow lands a hit that theoretically shouldn't even be that strong that ends up massively damaging them. Truly Misfortune was the most polarizing semblance Summer had ever seen.

Summer began to write down some potential team formations as she began to scheme.


Later that day Summer had requested Raven to join her in their dust class after the day was over to which Raven reluctantly agreed. As they walked towards the dust lab Raven had to ask why Summer she needed her there of all places. "So what are we doing here exactly? We don't have any projects for this class so I don't see why we're going to the dust lab."

As Summer kept leading the way she responded without looking back. "Normally after classes I spend about an hour on the gun range to make sure that I never get rusty at using my guns. In order to shoot my guns I need bullets and that is why we are going to the dust labs. We're going to go fill in some shells so I can practice shooting at the gun range."

Raven looks at Summer in confusion as Summer wasn't supposed to do any training while her arm was still in her cast. "Summer why are you shooting at the gun range? You're not supposed to over exert yourself while you're injured."

Summer looks behind her as she walks to give Raven a teasing grin. "What's this? Raven cares about my well being?"

Raven rolls her eyes as she blankly states, "If you over exert yourself you run the risk of reopening your wounds. If that happens then I'll have to look after you even longer. I would rather get this done and over with as quickly as possible." Raven then narrows her eyes at Summer. "You still didn't answer my question though 'leader'. Why are you still training?"

Summer turns back around as she continues to head towards the dust lab. "I'm training for the same reason as you, Tai, and Qrow. To get stronger. I may be limited to only one arm right now and I may not be able to exert myself very much, but I can still practice my shooting as using my gun doesn't require me to physically exert myself very much. I just need to keep up my precision."

The two arrive at the dust lab and Summer gestures for Raven to open the doors. Raven complies and lets both of them in. Summer walks over to a shelf and pulls off a small box of what looks to be ammunition. Summer places the box on an open table as she gestures for Raven to follow behind her. Raven complies.

Summer points towards a large plastic container full of white dust. "We'll need that to make my bullets. Can you bring it over to the table for me please?"

Raven sighs as she picks up the container and is surprised at how heavy it is. Raven slowly carries it over to the table as she puts it down and heaves. "Geez Summer, how are you able to lift this thing every day?"

"Well normally I can't. What I usually do is push it over to the table. I'm not actually strong enough to carry the whole thing like you just did." With her one good arm Summer opens the container and walks over to a shelf to retrieve a small scooper.

Raven realizes how unsafe it is to just leave dust in a plastic container like this and makes a comment about it. "You would think being at one of the most prestigious schools in all of Remnant would be able to afford some better storage containers for something as dangerous as dust."

Summer looks at Raven with a questioning look as she walks back up to her. "What do you mean?"

"Well just look at it." Raven gestures with both of her hands towards the container. "All it would take is one small mistake and it would blast this whole place to smithereens."

Summer looks at Raven even more questioningly. "Don't you know that white dust isn't reactive?"

Raven turns to her leader in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that white dust can't cause any reactions to other dusts. It's a dust that is largely useless and its only real purpose is to make target practice ammo as it doesn't blow up or have any other special properties to it. That's why it's here for the taking and why there isn't many safety precautions taken with it. By the way Raven could you hold the bullet shells in place while I pour the dust in?"

Raven complies and holds the bullet shell in place as Summer begins pouring dust into the shells. "But seriously Raven I thought you worked with dust as well. I thought you would've known that already."

Raven grows a tick mark at this as she incredulously looks at Summer. "Well I only work with fire type dust so I'd have no clue about the other kinds."

Summer looks at Raven with disappointment. "Oh Raven you're limiting yourself so much with just using one type of dust. Just think of all the other things you could do with other types of dust."

"Well it's not like the hilt of my sword could contain more than one type of dust anyways. If I did that then I'd run the risk of the dusts combining and blowing myself up." Raven replies as she continues to swap out full shells for empty ones as Summer continues to go to work filling them.

Summer thinks about it for a second as she continues to work. She then puts the scoop down and quickly snaps her fingers. "Why not build multiple dust containers? That way you can store multiple types of dust without running the risk of having them react with each other."

Raven thinks about it for a moment before shaking her head. "I don't know about that. It sounds like it would be a bit bulky to carry around if I just had multiple sheathes."

Summer deflates a little as she gets back to work. "Yeah... I guess you're right. Just a suggestion though. I feel that you would be even stronger if you diversified your attacks." Summer throws out.

After that there is a silence that goes on between the two of them as they continue to work. Just as they're almost done with their work Raven asks another question to Summer. "So why go through all the effort to make your own bullets? Wouldn't it just be easier to go buy packs in Vale?"

Summer closes her eyes in remembrance of something as she opens them and looks back at Raven. "I could do that, but my money is limited and I'd rather not waste it on bullets if I can make them myself for free. Plus I'm just used to making my own bullets at this point. I've done so for a while so to do otherwise would just feel strange to me."

Raven thinks about it for a moment before she shrugs it off. "I guess being frugal is a good trait to have when it comes to our field of work."

Summer pouts at Raven. "That's just a nice way of calling me cheap."

Raven rolls her eyes. "However you choose to see it."

Summer finishes up filling the last bullet container as she puts the scoop and box of shells away. Raven realizing they were done, shoves the box back to where it was.

Summer takes notice of this and smirks. "Was the box too heavy for you as well?"

"Tch, No. I just didn't want to lift it again is all." Raven responds with crossed arms.

Summer opens up her cloak with her good arm to pull a small box out of one of the pockets inside it and opens it up to start placing the bullets into it. After she finishes the two of them leave for the locker room to retrieve Summer's left handed pistol.


A short time later Summer and Raven are in the gun range and Summer opens up her cloak and pulls the small box of ammunition out to place in front of her. She then reaches down to her gun and pulls it out to quickly inspect it for any faults. After nodding her head in acceptance she waves the gun to the side to get the cylinder to open up. Summer then turns around to face Raven. "Hey Raven I'm going to need some more of your help with this next part."

Summer raises the handle of the pistol up towards Raven as Summer motions to the box of ammunition. Raven understands what Summer wants her to do and grunts in understandment as she grabs the revolver and walks closer to the box of ammunition. Raven then proceeds to load rounds into the weapon for Summer. Raven notes how smooth the ivory handle on the weapon was and how nice it felt in her hand. The craftsmanship of this gun was quite nice. Raven hands the gun back to Summer as Summer turns towards the target about two hundred feet away. "Those guns of yours are incredibly well made." Raven acknowledges.

"You think so?" Summer asks. Summer lines up her shot with the beowulf shaped target.

"The feeling of the handles was very smooth and the designs on the side would have only been done by an expert craftsmen. Tell me, where did you get those guns?"

Summer takes her first shot as the crack of the gun echo's throughout the entire range. The bullet hits dead center between where the eyes would be on the target as Summer turns to face her teammate. "They were actually made by the blacksmith back in my village. He's an older fellow who has perfected his craft over many years. He took special care in making my revolvers knowing that I was better at using them than my hidden blades." Summer lines up her next shot and fires again as the bullet hits right where the heart would've been if Grimm actually had organs.

Raven thinks about that for a moment. "Wait. Does one person make weapons for everyone in your village?"

Summer nods her head. "Yep." Summer starts getting in the groove of firing as she shoots two more shots that hit each kneecap.

Raven takes notice of how scarily accurate Summer is with each of her shots as Summer shoots her last two shots which hit each elbow on the target. Summer then waves the revolver to flip the gun open as all six shells fall on the ground. Summer turns back towards Raven in expectance for her to reload for her. Raven complies and quickly loads six more shots in as Summer flips the cylinder back in place and readies for some more shots. Summer moves to the next booth over which has a target that is three hundred feet away as Raven follows behind with the box of ammo in hand. "How did you become so good at using firearms?"

Summer turns her head and smiles in appreciation at Raven. "Why thank you very much Raven."

"It wasn't a compliment, it was a question." Raven corrects her.

Summer rolls her eyes as she focuses back on the target in front of her. "I'm this good at using them because I'm not very strong."

Raven looks at Summer in confusion. Sure she knew that already but it felt odd that she would so readily admit it like that. "Your gonna need to elaborate what you mean by that."

Summer takes another shot as the bullet pierces the head once again before turning her head to face Raven. "What I mean is this: My semblance is not good at attacking. Sure it's an excellent defense, but it is pretty terrible offensively and can be easily exploited like you did during our fight. This wouldn't be a problem if I was better at using my hidden blades. Unfortunately I'm physically weak which means that I usually can't overpower my opponent like you and Tai can and I can't really avoid my opponents like Qrow can either. I'm just not that strong or fast." Summer lines up another shot and shoots right in the chest again. "However one day I tried to use a gun to attack instead and that's when I realized something." Summer turns to see if Raven was still listening.

Raven nods her head. "Keep going."

Summer turns back around and fires another shot, this time into the left arm once again. "A gun doesn't require me to be strong or fast. I just have to be precise and focused. Once I realized that I just kept practicing more and more until I eventually became the best gun wielder in my village. Of course not many people in my village seemed all that impressed as our hidden blades were more treasured there than the guns, but I was able to change the minds of a few people before I left."

Raven was starting to get invested in this story and curiosity got the better of her. "What did you do?"

"To show my village how useful a gun could be if trained with properly I hunted down over a hundred Grimm with just my revolvers. I made sure to bring a few witnesses with me as to show that I wasn't lying. That's another thing: Even though aura usually blocks bullets and makes it almost pointless to use against other people, they are incredibly effective against Grimm as they have no way of negating bullets. If anything guns are more effective against Grimm that any melee weapon as you just have to keep your distance, and on Draco their are Grimm EVERYWHERE." Summer focuses back towards the range and releases three shots back to back which pierce the right arm and both legs. She then waves the revolver opening up the cylinder as six more shells fall to the ground. Summer then hands the pistol back to Raven as she reloads the gun and hands it back.

Summer moves over again as she is now at the four hundred foot range. "I guess that explains why nobody else is here." Raven comments.

"Exactly. Most people would rather train their melee weapons since they can be used against both Grimm and people while guns are really only effective against Grimm." Summer begins to focus her shots once more. "This is also why I need your help training me with my hidden blades. You are probably the best student in our class when it comes to wielding a sword, and I'm going to inevitably have to fight more people down the line which my guns won't help much against." Summer shoots her shot which barely hits the head this time.

"Well you know I kind of have to now since Ozpin is forcing me to look after you." Raven sighs.

"But even so I still look forward to learning from you." Summer responds.


After that their is a long silence as Summer continues to practice her shooting for the next hour as she slowly goes through her bullets. Each time Summer is out of bullets Raven would reload for her. As Summer continued to practice Raven began to think back to what Summer had said earlier. 'Why not build multiple dust containers?' 'You would be even stronger if you diversified your attacks.'

Truth be told that was something Raven had been meaning to do for a month or two but she just hadn't any idea on how to do it. As Raven began to think about this Summer gave her pistol back to Raven to reload once again. As Raven reaches into the box of ammunition she realizes their only a few bullets left. "Hey Summer it looks like these will be your last few rounds." Raven informs her.

"Oh alright then, I guess I finally ran out of ammo." Summer responds.

"Looks that way." Raven begins to load in the last few bullets in the box into the cylinder when suddenly Raven realized something. The cylinder of a revolver could hold six bullets in it. Each bullet was separate but could be used whenever it was next in the barrel. 'Wait a minute. This design... might actually work for how to store more dust types!' Raven smiles as she stares at the pistol for a moment longer before Summer interrupts her thoughts.

"Hey Raven? Are you okay? You don't usually smile." Summer tilts her head in confusion.

"Nothing... Just had an idea." Raven states as she quickly loads the rest of the bullets in and hands the revolver back to Summer.

Summer shrugs it off for now seeing as whatever Raven thought of can't be that bad if she seemed happy about it. 'At least she isn't angry.' Summer thinks to herself in relief. Summer takes her last few shots and puts her revolver back at her hip where it belonged. Raven then handed Summer the empty box to which Summer then pocketed it back in her cloak. "I had an accuracy of over ninety five percent. I'm glad this arm isn't limiting my shooting capabilities." Summer then begins to walk back towards the entrance where they came in. "Come on Raven, let's go round up Qrow and Tai so we can all eat dinner."

"Alright." Raven follows behind still thinking of how she could incorporate a cylinder into a sheathe. Raven then thinks back to what they did earlier today. "So is this how it's going to be from now on? At least until you're fully healed."

Summer thinks about it for a moment and nods her head. "Yep. We might occasionally do some other things, but this is what we'll do for the most part."

"Damn. That two hour training in the morning is going to kick my ass at this rate." Raven sighs.

"How do you think I felt when I was doing it?" Summer questions.

Raven then remembers that yes Summer had been doing something similar since they had all gotten here. "I don't know how you manage it."

'Because I'm not doing the same thing as you.' Summer internally remarks. "Anyways let's get going. I'm starved after that."

"You're telling me." Raven responds. 'These next two months are going to be exhausting.'

to be continued...

Authors Notes: Here we go another chapter done. Thank you to everyone who has been reading this story I really appreciate it. This little mini arc will probably last three chapters so look forward to the rest! Next chapter will probably focus on what Qrow and Tai are doing in this two month gap that Raven has to look after Summer. As always let me know what you all thought of this chapter, as always I enjoy reading reviews as they always make me happy to see. With all of that being said this is Exile Mansion signing off.