So what's Beurling gone and done this time well i guess we'll find out. Remember to check below for Character Inspiration.
Tomoko woke up to find Beurling once again not in her bed, though strangely Beurling's beret was left on her desk, she couldn't find her in the rest of the rooms either, by the time the rest of the team had gone down to breakfast none of them had seen her.
Coming up about midday the three had decided to split up and look for her, Tomoko was in quite the panic "Is she still angry about last night?" she thought as she looked in the library and then the grounds. Having no luck, she went back to the meeting point the others had agreed to come back to after their searches, she found Maple waiting for her who had no luck either at locating the brawler.
Tomoko was racking her brain trying to think where Beurling could have gone when Maple asked her a question "Frenda told me she heard you two arguing last night, it didn't cause this, could it?"
"I don't know." Tomoko spoke sullenly, she was feeling terrible, she could just imagine what Sara and Klara would say if they heard all this and for some reason the idea of that little girl being mad at her pulled at her heart strings.
"Tomoko, is there something you're not tell me?" Maple asked.
Tomoko looked up and Maple, she was about to mention the conversation she had with Sara, when suddenly Frenda came running up to them out of breath and waving her arms.
As she stopped to catch her breath Maple asked her what's wrong in response Frenda just managed to wheeze out "Beurling…Arena…now."
The two Faunus looked at each other than at Frenda, before running off to the arena with Frenda trailing behind them going "Hold…on…I can't…run…that much." she panted like a dog on a hot day.
Once they got to the area they saw a small crowd had gathered, standing in the arena was Beurling, opposite her were two women, one was about Beurling's height and had black hair and red eyes, she had two spears in her hands, one was taller than she was and bright red while the second was about arm's length and green. She had a dark purple jacket on with red sleeves and black trousers and boots.
The second was about the same height as Tomoko, she had bob cut white hair with red ends, a navy-blue jacket with white trousers. In her left hand was a black sword, what Tomoko noticed the most was the eye patch she had on her right eye and her black cat ears.
Looking at a screen in front of her she could see that the girl with the spears was called Sgàil Scáthach and the girl with the eye patch was called Horatia Nelson, in addition she noticed the bar for the aura levels were much lower than normal, in class they set them to say depleted at around thirty five percent this time they were set at ten percent. Nothing about this situation made Tomoko feel even the least bit good, she had a dark foreboding about this.
"So, where's your partner?" Horatia asked, putting her sword over her shoulder, as Tomoko found herself confused by this question "They chicken out?"
"No." Beurling spoke "I didn't tell her."
"And why would you do that?" Sgàil asked pointing her short spear at Beurling.
Beurling remained silent, Tomoko was a bit confused about this, was it meant to be both her and Beurling fighting these two? And if so why didn't Beurling tell her.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but she's a Faunus, isn't she?"
"Yes, she is, what of it?" Beurling asked.
Sgàil and Horatia shared and look at each other before nodding at each other.
"Shall we begin, then?" Horatia asked with an evil smirk.
There was then a buzz filling the room, Beurling kicked in her semblance and she was covered in her usual green flames, Horatia charged in at Beurling, sword over her shoulder, ready to slash.
Just as Horatia was a few paces away, her blade ignited "Sgàil, now!" she shouted.
Tomoko looked and saw Sgàil connect the two spearheads, she then separated them and a purple tear appears and a black spear fired out of the tear and headed straight for Beurling. Beurling parried the spear away with her Kukri, but this left her open for the slash of the sword and was forced to use her vambrace on her arms to block the strike.
Beurling countered with a slash of her own and forced Horatia to step back out the way, they exchanged a few more strikes before Horatia span around, Sgàil then came in and thrust her longer spear, Beurling dodged and tried to attack but Sgàil was using her short spear to hold Beurling out of her striking range. Beurling disengaged her semblance, Tomoko suspected it was because it wasn't going to help her out here right now.
Sgàil then swapped with Horatia again who kept up the strikes in a flurry of blows and while Beurling was able to parry, block and dodge most every now and then a strike would get through, they weren't big but they were adding up, dropping her aura little by little.
Horatia readied another strike from over her head and it hit the ground as Beurling dodged by stepping back from this one far enough away to get a run up to try and get off the defence. She managed to kick Horatia in the head but before Beurling could get more strikes in Sgàil threw her short spear at Beurling as she running jumped over Horatia. Beurling beat away the thrown spear with the vambrace. Sgàil then thrust with the long spear and broke Beurling's charge and made her stumble back a bit, Sgàil then picked the short spear back up and moved back as Horatia charged in again after recovering.
Horatia swung the sword, which had stopped burning now, and tried for a slash but Beurling dodged and managed to swing a head kick, she then kicked her semblance in and punched her in the gut sending Horatia flying back.
But Sgàil cut off any follow up with another one of her black spears, which Beurling ended up taking full force and made her step back.
Tomoko then saw Horatia stand up followed then her shouting "Fly by!" to Sgàil, she then thrust her sword into the ground and put her hands in front of her to form a step. Sgàil then ran at Horatia, who boosted her up into the air. As Sgàil flew she made three of the tears and three burning black spears appeared from each tear heading straight for Beurling, who could only brace for the coming hit. As they impacted around her all nine spears exploded and Beurling was obscured by the dust from the explosions.
Tomoko held her breath and covered her mouth, she was filled with fear at what she had just seen, looking at the screen displaying the aura's she could see Beurling was still above the limit, but only just.
As the dust settled, Tomoko could see Beurling still standing but shaking and coughing. She clearly was not in a good shape.
"Still standing I see." Horatia spoke, sword in hand.
"Impressive." Sgàil spoke after.
Tomoko was a mix of emotions watching this, she was frustrated that Beurling was taking a beating and she wasn't there to help her, but she was also angry that Beurling did this without even asking her to help.
Beurling dodged another spear again rolling on the ground.
"This has been fun, but it's time to end this." spoke Horatia with a smile "You really should have brought your partner, might have lasted longer."
Horatia flipped a switch on her sword and the blade burned once more "I'm curious." she spoke and she dived in swinging the blade trying to hit Beurling's left side "Why didn't you bring her?" Beurling parried the strike "Do you not trust her?" she spoke as she swung the blade again this time for the right side Beurling parried again, but Horatia twisted her sword slightly and hit Beurling with the pommel of the sword making Beurling take a few steps back "If you're going to be a huntress you need to trust you partner."
Horatia swung the sword again from high this time "Or do you look down on her for being a Faunus?" she spoke as Beurling blocked it with her Kukri. For a moment time stood still for Tomoko "Is that why you didn't ask me Beurling, do you not trust me?" she asked herself as Horatia brought the sword down again trying to repeat the action while saying "Are we worthless to you?"
"SHUT UP!" Beurling screamed kicking her semblance back into action, as she reached out with her free left hand at the burning blade which she grabbed hold of it just before it hit Beurling elsewhere, causing everyone in the room to gasp even Horatia was stunned, if it wasn't for her aura Beurling could have easily lost a hand. She kept hold of the blade as she spoke, with the whole room was watching, as Beurling's green flames mixed with the orange of the blade.
"I came here knowing whatever happened, we couldn't win and even if my honour demands that I accept your challenge, that doesn't mean I'll let my partner take a beating in a battle we both couldn't win, even if I end up broken and bloody I'll defend her to the very end!" Beurling spoke her voice full of rage.
"Even if it kills me!" Beurling spoke as she ripped the blade out of Horatia's hand, throwing it to the side, Beurling slashed Horatia across the chest, then hit her full force in the chest causing her to kneel and then Beurling kicked her full force across the arena till she hit the wall. Looking at the aura's screens Tomoko could see she was out her aura completely drained from the impact.
Beurling was breathing heavily, as she looking at Sgàil. She took up a defensive stance with her short spear pointed at Beurling the long spear behind her "It seems I owe you an apology." she spoke calmly considering her partner had just been rag dolled across the room "When I heard your partner was a Faunus and she wasn't coming, I thought you looked down on her, I thought wrong, you're the protective type, doing whatever you feel you need to, no matter the cost to protect them, that's a rare and respectable trait."
Tomoko was stunned, Beurling was doing this, taking a monstrous beating just to protect her, she could feel her fists clench "That idiot!" she screamed in her head.
Sgàil carried on "I apologise for misjudging you, your motives are honourable and you have my respect." she spoke and she made ready to summon that strange portal again "So out of my new respect for you, I can't keep battering you, my next attack will finish this."
Beurling charged her, as Sgàil opened it and three spears shot out, Beurling parried one off to the side, the second she deflected it off using her vambrace.
Tomoko could see Beurling wasn't going to be able to dodge the third, she gritted her teeth and closed her eyes "Please work, please gods make this work" she thought as she put all her effort into trying to get her semblance to work on Beurling, she wasn't convinced it would but she was desperate to at least try, if only to make the feeling of helplessness go away. She her aura started to glow slightly as did Beurling's who somehow managed to narrowly dodge the spear, though it still glanced her aura.
Beurling tried to carry on and attack but Sgàil was too fast and she swung the longer spear like Fídi's staff and hit Beurling in the head sending her staggering back and her aura fizzled and faded.
"Match over." came the voice of the monitor.
Beurling lay flat on her back, gasping looking up she could see Sgàil standing over her, who offered her hand to help Beurling up who took it to the great cheers of the crowd. Sgàil and Beurling spoke a few words that Tomoko couldn't hear over the cheers of the crowd, Beurling then left as Sgàil went to pick up Horatia.
Tomoko and the rest of the team didn't partake in the cheering they made their way as quickly as they could to catch Beurling.
They intercepted her not far from the arena, Beurling was holding her side and was not steady on her feet, having to stop every now and then to rest.
Tomoko was a mix of anger, frustration and worry "Beurling!" she shouted, the brawler looked up to see Tomoko marching toward her with a look she hadn't seen before "Tomoko?" she spoke confused.
The next thing either Tomoko or Beurling knew was Tomoko slapping Beurling across the face "What the hell were you thinking, we're supposed to be partners." she shouted, as her tail stood up on end.
"You saw…?"
"Yes I did." she said shoving Beurling up against the wall "Beurling I'm your partner." she spoke with a hand on her chest "I don't care, what the odds or how impossible the task is, I'm supposed to have your back, how can I do that if you don't tell me stuff, you bleeding idiot!"
"Sorry it's just I didn't…"
"No Beurling!" Tomoko spoke defiantly, tears running down her eyes gritting her teeth "Your trying to protect me and that's fine but who's protecting you!" she spoke grabbing Beurling's jacket putting her forehead to her chest "Why didn't you tell me, do you not trust me?" she spoke as she shut her eyes trying to stop herself from crying.
Beurling looked stunned at Maple and Frenda who remained silent "Tomoko I…" Beurling started, but all this was too much for Tomoko, so she backed up from Beurling "I can't do this." Tomoko spoke as she started to ran down the hall past Maple and Frenda.
"Tomoko, wait!" She could hear Maple say after she'd past her, but she didn't, she just kept running she didn't really have a place or destination in mind she just wanted to be as far away from Beurling right now as she could get.
She didn't know how long it was or how she got here, but eventually she found herself on the roof looking over at the buildings surrounding Shade academy. She could feel the wind blow past her as she sat down and took a few deep breaths.
"I see you found my smoking spot." She heard a voice say behind her, a voice she'd rather not hear right now. She could hear Beurling walking up to her "I'm sorry Tomoko." Beurling spoke again as she sat next to Tomoko about an arm's length away.
"Why Beurling, why didn't you tell me?" Tomoko asked quietly, as she rested her head on her knees.
"I don't want my friends being hurt; I care about you Tomoko and I didn't want you beaten up." Beurling spoke quietly "So if I had to take the knocks alone that's what I'll do."
"You mean you don't trust me to fight beside you." Tomoko retorted.
"It's not that Tomoko."
"Then what is it?"
Beurling sighed "I didn't tell you because I was scared."
"What?" Tomoko spoke confused while turning to look at Beurling, she could see she was still holding her chest "What are you talking about?"
"What's you biggest fear?" Beurling asked quietly.
Tomoko shrugged in response, Beurling looked out at the building's looking downcast "Mines losing what I care about, I didn't tell you because I was scared, scared you'd be in a worse shape than me if you took part, so I kept it hidden so you'd be ok." Beurling spoke rather quietly and humbly Tomoko hadn't seen her this subdued before, she'd always seen her defiant.
"Beurling I'm your partner." Tomoko spoke softly "Watching that was horrid, seeing you get beaten to a pulp, and standing around watching it, feeling helpless." Tomoko hiccupped, she could feel the tears coming back "I wanted to dive in and help so bad, even if I did get hurt, I don't care!" she said dropping her head down, while her whole body shook "Watching you getting hurt is a lot worse than being hurt." she said feeling a tear roll down her cheek.
"I'm not sure I can take this anymore." she spoke quietly, getting up to leave again only to feel Beurling pull her into a hug, the smell of smoke filled Tomoko's nose, it wasn't a pleasant smell, but it also felt reassuring in a weird way "Sorry." Beurling spoke "I do trust you Tomoko, it's just I didn't want you involved, Horatia came to me last night and you saw what happened back there, I didn't want you hurt to." Tomoko looked up to retort but Beurling put her hand up to stop her "Your right though, I should have told you, all of you, I wasn't thinking." Beurling bit her bottom lip before talking again "Can you forgive me Tomoko?" Beurling spoke in a pleading tone.
Tomoko couldn't stop the tears this time, all the frustration and fear she'd built up burst like a waterfall, slamming her head into Beurling's chest causing Beurling to wince in pain and making them both to fall on to the floor, with Tomoko on top.
"Don't ever do that again ok, Promise?" Tomoko spoke, closing her eyes.
"Ok" Beurling gasped.
"Idiot!" Tomoko spoke as she pulled her tighter into the hug. Beurling yelp in pain from the action which made Tomoko pull back "Sorry." Tomoko spoke pulling back "No it's ok." Beurling said rubbing her chest "I deserved it."
Once the pair had got back to the room, where their teammates were waiting for them, Tomoko helped Beurling onto one of the sofa's, Beurling grunted at when she landed.
"How are you hurt if your aura took the hits?" Frenda asked, sitting in front of Beurling on the opposite sofa with Maple, while Tomoko sat next to Beurling.
"Your aura just stops the wound, but not the pain." Maple spoke glaring at Beurling "Much like you were today!" Beurling looked down "Just consider yourself lucky it all worked out."
The air in the room was tense, Frenda had forgiven Beurling quickly, Maple was much slower to forgive. After a few more harsh words and promises of no repeats Maple let it go and told Tomoko to take Beurling back to bed.
"Ooh, moving fast there you two." Frenda spoke with a grin,
"Not now Frenda." Maple spoke sounding tied, as they both went to bed.
The next day, the incident was mostly forgiven though Beurling still got an earful from Maple, about how she was lucky Tomoko was such a nice person as to forgive her so easily. The team was making its way to breakfast when they stopped in their tracks when they saw Horatia and Sgàil along with two men standing in their path.
Beurling took a step to the front "What do you want?"
"Just to talk." Horatia said with a smile.
"Somehow I doubt that highly." Beurling retorted.
"Oh, don't be so worried." Horatia spoke looking at Tomoko "It's making that girls cute face look bad."
"What?" Tomoko and Beurling spoke, Tomoko blushed while noticing Beurling was gritting her teeth.
"Enough, Horatia, we didn't come here for your flirting." spoke Sgàil "We apologise for Horatia, we came here to say well done for yesterday Beurling."
"Now why should we believe that?" Maple spoke "Especially after you challenged one of us late at night."
"You got us there." spoke one of the men running a hand through his short ginger hair "Well, you see, we heard about Beurling being a highly talked about person in the year below us, Sgàil and Horatia were curious what the fuss was about so wanted to see it first-hand."
"Especially if they are pretty." Horatia spoke this time about Beurling.
Tomoko could feel her tail standing up on end and her own teeth clench, finding she was a little annoyed at this stranger calling her partner cute, even if she had to admit Beurling did look pretty at time. "Wait what the hell am i thinking?" she thought.
"Stop it." spoke the ginger man looking over at Horatia, bringing Tomoko's attention back to group in front of her "Look, let's have bygones be bygones and make peace over breakfast sounds ok?"
The MSFT team all looked at each other for a second before agreeing to their little peace attempt. As they followed the other team, Tomoko noticed Beurling was keeping an eye on Sgàil and Horatia, she had to admit she was a little warry, especially about Horatia, she wasn't sure what it was but something was just off about her.
Once they were all sat at the table, Sgàil and Horatia sat down first and were followed by the ginger haired man, who introduced himself as Dorcha Cú he had very similar outfit to Sgàil with a black jacket on with blue sleeves and black trousers and boots. The other male was called Argent Mesrine he had grey trousers and jacket on with a black helmet with a silver strip on the back and a black balaclava which only showed his eyes silver eyes and noise. Their team name was SHAD or Shade.
The MSFT team then introduced themselves, although there was a tenseness with Beurling who was keeping an eye on Horatia all the time. "See something you like?" Horatia asked with a smile and a wink.
"No, just making sure you're not going to try something." Beurling responded coldly.
"Aw, no fun, why so cold?" Horatia asked faking being wounded.
"You give off a bad feeling." Beurling spoke with glaring daggers.
Horatia, looked at Beurling confused for a second, before she burst out laughing "Oh, wow can't believe I forgot about that." she spoke through giggles.
All the others of her team sighed while the MSFT team looked at her like she was mad, Sgàil then spoke up "Do you want to explain instead of laughing?"
"Sorry." Hoartia said trying suppress the giggles "My semblance means that any sort of mind messing semblances or Grimm effects have no effect on me, the side effect is that it makes people feel uncomfortable."
"How does that work?" Frenda asked fascinated.
"Well say someone has an illusion semblance on all of us here, you'd all see it, but I'd see nothing." Hoartia explained with a smile.
After a while the tenseness had lifted a little, though Beurling was still on edge as Tomoko could see her shoulders raised slightly.
Once the two teams had gone their separate ways, Tomoko and Beurling were left by themselves, in the team's room "Tomoko." Beurling spoke "Would you like some hand to hand training?"
"Huh?" Tomoko responded confused.
"Well, I don't want you in the situation as last time you fought in combat class, so do you want some private lessons." Beurling then looked away, her cheeks a little red "With me?"
"Aw, you trying to get some alone time with her Beurling?" Frenda spoke as she walked in, having heard the offer through the thin door, which gave little privacy at times.
Beurling blushed a little more before shouting "I was not!"
"Sure, you weren't." Frenda spoke.
"I'm going for a cigarette." Beurling spoke as she walked out the room.
"Beurling!" Tomoko spoke, Beurling stopped and turned to Tomoko "I will." Tomoko spoke feeling her cheeks heat up a bit and she had to stop her tail wagging slightly. Beurling smiled before nodding and walking off.
Man that fight was hard to write hope you liked it.
I also hope you liked my introduction of my equal to team JNPR.
Anyway this time we are looking at four people, thats right its team SHAD (Shade).
S Sgàil Scáthach: Now she is based off the Scottish guardian of the Underworld in the Ulster cycle Scáthach who created the spear Gae Bulg and her Semblance is based off said spear and portal to the underworld she guards (Honestly i'm surprised the story doesn't have much back story for her as she seems really cool but she's sadly lacking). Her first name mean's Shadow.
H Horatia Nelson: Based off Admiral Horatio Nelson. Her hair is from the white ensign of the Royal Navy, the black cat Faunus traits is from the Royal Navy cat Tiddles the black cat which are actually lucky on British and Irish ships and her semblance is honestly just a counter to illusion powers which i honestly hate as a power. Her first name is the female version of Horatio and Admiral Nelsons daughters name.
A Argent Mesrine: Based of the French GIGN for his look and his weapons and equipment. His first name means Silver in french and the second Mesrine is just a random French name i heard.
D Dorcha Cú: He is based of the Irish hero Cú Chulainn Basically he is the Irish Achilles is a good description of him. He was trained by Scáthach in the ulster cycle and she gave him the spear Gae Bulg. His first name is Irish for Dark.