Just when you thought i'd died.
Time for the Rose to reunite with her savior. Nothing else to say really except thank you all for liking this so much and thanks for being patient. I thought of posting an update but then I realized that'd be a real dick move after this long.
Also I updated my story poll and added some new ideas. Go check them out on my profile and vote or pm me if you want to use them for yourself.
Ruby Rose was having a bit of an internal freakout as she ran past the trees in the forest.
Why you may ask?
She had absolutely no Idea what to do about a partner!
She crossed out the possibility of the cyborg she met or the crabby princess. The former for being already way past her, and the latter scares her a little bit. Right now her only option was to find her sister and have Yang be her partner. The whole "eye contact" factor made her terrified of getting paired up with someone that wouldn't be friends with her or would not even acknowledge her existence.
Or worse not getting anyone at all and failing the entire initiation as a result.
She was shaken from her thoughts when someone came into view and she skidded to a halt. Unfortunately she stopped in front of the frosty heiress from earlier. Silver met icy blue as she came to a full stop.
"U-uh, H-hi there." Ruby awkwardly waved. Weiss stared at her for a brief moment before turning around and walking away past some bushes.
"Hey, wait! We're supposed to be partners!"
Ruby stood there watching as the ice themed girl walked away. She looked down at her shoes and was ready to crumble into despair... If Weiss hadn't immediately come back from the other side of the bushes. The frosty heiress walked towards her and began dragging her by the hood.
"By no means does make us friends!"
"YOU CAME BACK!" she cheered, happiness restored. Ruby was eager to celebrate not being abandoned that she missed the panicked look screaming "NOPE!" on her new partner's face or the slightly frantic tone of her voice.
What the heiress saw behind those bushes raised the danger of initiation tenfold. Regardless of the fact the creatures she saw had been killed by something even stronger than they looked, if the caved in heads of the mysterious beings were anything to go by.
From what most people understood about the mysterious beings that not only did they have souls, unlike the grimm, in most cases the monsters themselves were people at one point. And even when they weren't they still obtained human-like intelligence and in some cases the ability to speak.
The idea itself was already terrifying, but the scariest part was that in terms of intelligence, destructive capabilities, and sheer unpredictability, they had the grimm out matched in all three aspects. They could spawn anywhere, in any of the kingdoms, and at any time while the grimm were as predictable as can be. Then there was the disaster levels to consider. And she had no way of knowing which levels of monster were in the forest.
There was definitely WOLF and TIGER level monsters in the pile she saw, and she didn't even want to think about the possibilities of a DEMON level monster lurking about the forest.
However in the hurry to get out of harm's way she failed to realize she was going in the wrong direction.
Near the far North side of the forest many bodies of monsters were being piled up and grimm were evaporating by the dozens. All courtesy of Jaune as he jogged south towards the ruins; he overshot the initial jump but not by much. From his best guess it would take about 20 minutes at his current pace, having seen the temple from the air as he passed it. He wasn't even slowed down slightly by the dozens of monsters and grimm he smashed through on his way.
As he continued his jog Jaune's mind drifted back to what the headmaster said about how partners were formed during this test. He didn't really put much thought into who he might end up with. Because no matter who it was, or what team they got, he would just end up being the one to carry them all.
It definitely wasn't like when he took the hero exam. Sure, he destroyed everyone in the physical examinations and barely squeaked by in the written test, but both were very straight forward. Nothing like this cluster fuck of an initiation. He admits to not being that smart when compared to his friends, but he could tell when something or someone was being sketchy from his time training while living on the streets.
Whether the headmaster was iffy or not didn't really matter. It was just going to be another day of no injuries and scrubbing blood out of his clothes.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Is there any particular reason why you had to follow me?" The resident esper inquired as she launched a small group of ursa towards a spiked porcupine-esque monster, impaling them all and crushing the spiked being at the same time.
"I wasn't following you. We were both going after aniki." Genos answered.
Closer towards the temple the young cyborg and psychic had landed a bit past the ruins in their attempt to reach their friend. As they walked and talked they also casually blasted away and shredded any monsters that charged at them.
"What makes you think that I was trying to reach him, how do you know I wasn't just trying to get to temple before Jaune?" Fubuki questioned. Only to recieve a flat look from the fifteen year-old, while he shot through a plant based monster's torso with his incinerator.
"If that were true then you wouldn't have come this far out and actually landed at the temple. And knowing you, you might derail his progress when you catch up to him." he received an eye roll as a response while she launched a horde of beowolves to be impaled on the corpse of some porcupine monster.
"And just how would I slow Jaune down in any way? My presence would be nothing if not helpful." She asked, putting her hands on her hips after dispatching the last of the grimm.
"Blizzard, I am only two years bellow you and Jaune; I know exactly what goes on when either you or Tornado visit him when I'm not home." He stated using her hero name, as Jaune and her sister were the only ones to use her real name.
Fubuki's only response cross her arms and turn her head away with a 'humph' in a similar fashion to her S-ranked sister. Though unlike her dear elder sister, she gained a bit of pink dust to her cheeks.
"And how do you know we weren't doing something else?" She pouted, a little miffed she was called out on her private time with her fellow B-class hero. Not daring to look at Jaune's unofficial little brother.
"You and your sister both cover your tracks well, but my optics can spot even the faintest of stains on brother's sheets." Or blankets, or the carpet, or couch, or the counters, the shower curtains, or the table cloth.
And don't get get him started on what's left behind when they visit him together.
XXXXXXXXXX
Further back a certain boxer and ninja duo were making good time towards the temple. However there was a certain issue with the path they were taking.
"Hey, Blake?" Yang asked.
"Yes."
"I, uh... probably don't even need to ask, but are you also getting a little freaked out by the-ahem..."
"Dead monsters." Blake finished as the blonde trailed off.
"Yeah, them."
That was the case with the trail laid out for them, it was fairly straightforward as they just followed the carnage left by the few that went first. Though the path steadily became more unnerving with each monster that the black and yellow duo passed. They varied more and more in size and appearance, but the visual causes of death stayed the same. What ever killed them was either very sharp or heavy and blunt.
"You think the guys that went first did this?" Blake asked, keeping gambol shroud drawn as she was eyeing the bodies they passed.
"Either them, or another... more dangerous monster." Yang cautiously kept ember celica at the ready in case some weren't as dead as they looked.
"Let's hope not." They pushed forward past the trees and were met with a sight that only served to freak them out even more. Right in front of them were some ruins, but that wasn't what stopped them in their tracks.
In the middle of what they assumed was the temple, the extra damage made it hard to tell, were the last two of the "Launch pad busters".
"You ain't taking more than one of these damn trinkets! You here me ya hair-horned brat!" A slightly scuffed and dirty Bad ordered pointing his bloody bat at his partner.
"Oh, why shouldn't I? It's a monster's duty to go all or nothing!" Garou proclaimed, grinning like a madman as he held all the remaining chess pieces in his hands.
Dirtying them in monster blood. Made all the more unsettling when the two girls looked down at the two's feet and the hill of dead monsters beneath them. Their causes of death were eerily similar to the ones back in the forest.
"Stupid question, but you think these two are responsible for what we saw back there?"
Blake only gave her a flat look as a response. Yang let out a sheepish chuckle before they turned back to the arguing partners.
"I don't have time for your shit Garou! Leave the rest of these chess pieces so we get on with this dumbass initiation!"
"Not happening, besides who the hell are you calling a brat!? I'm older you than you!" They went back and forth like that for nearly a minute longer, until Yang decided it was time to get their attention.
"HEY GUYS!" The delinquent and martial artist briefly paused their confrontation to look down at the new arrivals.
"Do you think we can get one those relics you got there?" Yang ask pointing at the chess pieces, only to flinch at red liquid dripping from them.
"I-I mean, you know... heh heh, once you wipe the blood off it." she weakly chuckled as she back peddled and placed Blake slightly in front of herself. Which didn't go unnoticed by her partner who rolled her eyes at the blonde's action.
The S-class and Dragon level duo's brief pause gave Bad the opportunity to smack away the rest of the pieces in their direction. Leaving only a red splattered white bishop in his partner's grip. Yang reacted in time to snatch a knight out of the air before it hit the ground with the rest in front of them.
Only to immediately shove the improvised relic into Blake's hands.
"Grossgrossgross!" Yang muttered frantically, wiping the blood from her hands in the grass. The pause in conflict didn't last too long however, as while this was going on a girl riding ursa burst through the forest. It only made it a few feet before it dropped dead in the middle of the girl's yeehaw.
"Aww, It's broken." The others blinked at the girl's strange entrance, moments later a green clad young man came running from the same direction and stopped short behind the insane girl.
*PANT!PANT!* "Nora, please don't do that again." The request he gasped out went largely ignored as the hammer wielder zipped past the mountain corpses and to the ruins only to find there weren't any relics.
Ren managed to get his breathing under control as he stumbled towards the pile of bloody chess statues. His breathing still labored; Ren reluctantly picked up a rook and wiped the blood and grass off on his coat. He called out to his partner and childhood friend and held the castle piece up for her to see. She bolted once more and snagged it out of his hand before parading it around like a trophy singing/declaring herself 'queen of the castle.'
"What the hell? Did that crazy bitch ride a fucking ursa the way here?" Garou questioned, momentarily forgetting his and Bad's disagreement.
"HEADS UUUUUUUUPPPP!" the next interruption came from above. They all craned their heads to see the red themed reaper quickly plummeting from the sky. Thinking fast and being the hero that he is, Metal bat smacked what he thought to be the 'softest monster' among the rest of the bodies into her flight path. She landed face first in the bloodied wool of some kind of sheep monster rather than the solid ground.
And was quickly followed by her partner once she saw the relatively safe, if grotesque landing pad.
"And now we got more dropping out of the damn sky! What the hell else are damn hunters gonna do to get here?" It was Bad's turn to point out and question the incredulous. His question was answered by the Mistral champion sprinting past the treeline towards the ruins. In her hurry she failed to avoid the, almost literal, river of blood and as a consequence slipped and slid the rest of the way before tumbling to a stop a the foot of the monster pile.
Moments later a deathstalker charged out from the green and smashed through the trees head first into the open field. Disorienting itself however allowing the huntress room to breath.
Bad let out a disgruntled exhale through his nose at the sight. While all that was going on he and Garou picked up the sound of footsteps coming from the other side of the temple. Coming from the opposite side of the ruins were the first three to enter the forest, Jaune and his pitch white hair came out first followed by his blonde and ebony haired companions.
The stark haired teen eyed the area for a moment before walking up to the relics in front of the corpses and picked up a rook piece. He was soon joined by Fubuki who used her telekinesis to pick the last white bishop and give it to her cyborg partner. Jaune payed no mind to the concussed deathstalker or screeching nevermore flying over head, because he still lacked a partner. He eyed everyone and noticed that the only seemingly alone was the red head dusting off her armor.
"Hey. You there, in the gladiator cosplay." He called out towards the mistral champion.
"Oh, Hello there." She seemed oddly polite for being covered in dirt and a little bit of monster blood.
'Wait, does he think my armor is a costume?'
"Do you have a partner?" Her eyes widened, forgetting his little jab at her choice in attire and remembering she in fact did not.
"Actually no, I don't."
"Good, neither do I." With his partner now secured he walked back towards his fellow initiates. Garou and Bad jumped off their perch at the corpses peak and joined them all.'Now we can get on with this ridiculous half-assed excuse for an initiation.'
"Well, are we just stand here and wait for the prey to come to us?" The self proclaimed monster asked pointing towards the grimm.
"Not if I can Help it!" Ruby said. They all watched as she bolted for the for the giant scorpion grimm with a boost from her semblance. Only to be bombarded by a volley of giant black feathers. She did her best darting between them but got her cape snagged on one of the feathers during the end of the attack. She looked up and saw the nevermore was beginning to circle the ruins. Ruby started to tug and yank at her cape when she looked back down at the deathstalker and saw that it started to gain its bearings.
Everyone else stood by, watching it all play out until she was rendered helpless. They all wanted to help the girl but half of them weren't sure if they could, while the other half... weren't even looking at the girl that was trapped. They were looking expectantly at their caped friend.
He sighed feeling the looks he was getting.
"Guess I'll go."
It was the obvious choice: Bad and Garou were pretty worn out from dealing with most of the higher tier monsters; Genos would make it but he might cause a fire that would burn down the forest in its entirety if he used incinerator cannon to break through the deathstalker's tough exoskeleton; and while Fubuki could handle both elder grimm with ease but she wasn't as fast as them.
So that naturally left Jaune to do what he does best. Before the huntsmen in training could prepare themselves he did a repeat of his show at the cliff; albeit scaled down so as to not overshoot the distance like he had done previously. However that did nothing to lessen the force that again knocked them all back save for Jaune's fellow heroes. It was less than a second before Jaune was in between ruby and the scorpion grimm. His sudden appearance coupled with the rush of wind caused Ruby to stumble back onto her rear end.
She looked back up and was treated to quite a sight. As it turns out Jaune stopped in just the right place to block the sun from her eyes. Which also let the sunlight hit Jaune in a certain way to give him the classic 'radiant hero' image, billowing cape and all. That was the view from behind, if she saw the almost permanent look of boredom on his face it would take away from the coolness a bit. The grimm closed in the moment Jaune appeared though did not slow down his charge. It had already had a claw raised to mow down the two. As it swung down Jaune had already clenched and wound up his fist to strike.
When Ruby and the others saw the wind up they thought the punch would knock the claw back, or crack its shell, or in the worst case have have no effect at all. When his punch landed they did not think for a moment that it would completely blast a massive hole through the creature of darkness. Or that the force would continue to travel, uprooting trees and tearing a path through the forest all the way back towards the cliff. Where the shock was felt by the headmaster and his deputy.
The caped girl was doing her best impersonation of a gaping fish in reaction to the punch. The rest of the huntsmen were still in awe from the feat that they all witnessed, but shook it off as they heard another screech. They looked up at the nevermore still circling their heads. As they all tried to think of a way to take it down Jaune had already found one, in the feather trapping ruby by her cape. He walked over and plucked the obstruction from the ground and took aim at soaring grimm. Adopting a javelin thrower's stance, he hurled the giant appendage back at its source. Decimating the larger grimm and blasting away every cloud over beacon and the emerald forest.
The initiates were still reeling from the display of absolute power. Two grimm that would normally take the work of an entire team of experienced huntsmen to take down were destroyed in a single attack each by one person. They shook it off however, none of them wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth. Relics secured for every partner with Weiss picking up the last knight piece and a brand new clear path to the cliff was very welcome to the teenagers.
The heroes and huntsmen started their walk back to the cliff, with Jaune walking ahead. As they walked Ruby called out to the one leading them, thanking him for saving her. She had this odd feeling of nostalgia when the words of gratitude left her mouth.
And when he simply waved back in response a memory flashed into her mind. And Jaune's waving image was replaced by a bloodied blonde's as her eyes widened in recognition.
'Mister hero!?'
And there it is, hope it was good because this took way too long to write, but don't worry. I got brand new computer, a job i genuinely don't hate and a class schedule that doesn't make me want to kill myself or others.
Also I really need to come up with a team name for Bad, Genos, Fubuki and Garou. That and a hero name for Jaune as caped baldy won't work anymore. I was thinking of "White Peak" but that belongs to... another anime character so please give me some Ideas. Either PM me or leave them in the comments.
but anyway hope y'all enjoyed. and again please leave or pm me team names ideas for jaune's hero name and his friends' team name.
