Hey everyone, I'm so happy people like my writing. THANK YOU ALL! This one will be longer than the others since classes will start soon I have no idea when I will be able to write more, so I hope this will tide you guys over until the next time I can.
Chapter 5: Resolution and the next step
Moring eventually came when William was woken up by a knocking on his door, it was Ruby.
"Hey William we're going to get breakfast and I thought you'd like to come with us." She said through the door.
William still a little sleepy walked over to the door and opened it. Standing before him was the short red haired girl smiling as happily as always.
"Good morning Ruuuubbbbyyyy." William greeted with a yawn.
"Morning." She replied.
William exited his room seeing the rest of team RWBY and all of team JNPR waiting for him. They traded good mornings as they lead William to the cafeteria. It was a large standalone building with rows of long brown tables, vending machines, and a buffet line in a separate room with only an entrance and exit connecting the two rooms. Everyone got their food, William got an overstocked plate reminiscent of last night. One-by-one each of them scanned their student ID, when it came to William Ruby handed a note to the lunch lady, with which she waved William to pass through.
"What was that note?" William asked Ruby.
"Professor Goodwitch gave it to me to clear you for breakfast even though you aren't a student. She figured you might need it."
"I do believe she was right." William chuckled.
Everyone got setted team RWBY and William on one side and team JNPR on the other. They chatted a little, Nora tried to get someone to challenge William to an eating contest with the loser possibly having to do something embarrassing. Surprisingly William was the one to decline first stating he didn't have the same appetite he did last night.
"Are you sure, because I have a gut feeling that says differently." Yang said with another face palming pun as she gestured towards the mound of food on William's plate reminiscent of last night's.
"I haven't used my Grimm powers since last night so I don't need to eat as much." William said digging into his food mountain comprised of every breakfast food the cafeteria had to offer.
"Right, so a normal meal, if you don't use your powers, is one pile of food instead of five?" The blond brawler asked.
"Basically."
"Oh, that reminds me." Ruby stated. "Professor Goodwitch said to bring you to her office when you finished eating breakfast."
After everyone had finished eating Ruby began guiding William to professor Goodwitch's office followed by the rest of her team and team JNPR.
"I don't mean to be rude but why are you guys coming with us?" William asked after walking for a few minutes.
"Come on, we've been through too much to simply stop now." Yang stated.
"This will be very emotional moment and if you need a shoulder to cry on we'll be there." Jaune added.
"You are aware that I DID try to kill you only yesterday, right?" The wolf Faunus asked.
"Meh, Water under the bridge." Nora said shrugging it off.
"Ok, you can come." William said admitting defeat.
After Ruby somehow accidently got them lost they eventually made it professor Goodwitches office. William walked up to the door and knocked on the door.
"Come in." a female voice said from within the office.
William opened the door and walked in. The office was fairly large, almost twice the size of the dorm room William had slept in last night. Professor Goodwitch sat a big oak desk that stood in the middle of the room facing the entrance. Its contents were neatly organized; a computer monitor and desktop on one side, keyboard in the middle, there were two stacks of paper on the other side with one stack in an 'in' box and the other in an 'out' box. Behind her desk were two large dark bookshelves that matched her desk, filled with books relating to numerous subjects. On both sides of the room were three file cabinets each, two plain wooden chairs in front of her desk, and on her right side was a small bookshelf with various porcelain figurines of things on it. Upon closer inspections they seemed to be entirely regarding puppies. This actually surprised William quite a bit, though he only just met her, she didn't really seem to be the type of person who would be into that kind of stuff.
"William, welcome let me just finish up this paperwork and we can go." The woman behind the desk said trying to sign the forms in front of her as fast as possible without missing anything.
"That's ok, take your time, oh, and we will be having a little company." William said pointing over his shoulder to the two teams standing behind him.
"Are you ok with that?" the platinum blonde asked.
"Well I don't think telling them not to come will mean anything?" William asked looking over his shoulder seeing Ruby and her group shaking their heads slowly while smiling.
"Very well, they may accompany us, however we will still have General Ironwood's men escort us."
"Oh yeah, I had actually forgotten about that."
After a few minutes professor Goodwitch finished her paperwork then pulled out her scroll and sent a text message, presumably to General Ironwood. When she received a reply she stood up and led William and the others to meet to the court yard where General Ironwood and a half dozen of his mechanical soldiers.
"Wow are these the newest model Atlesian Knights?" William asked.
"Yes these are the Atlesian Knights-200, how did you know that?" Ironwood responded.
"They just look like a better version of the 130s I've fought."
"When did you fight Atlesian Knights, only individuals with top clearance would have been allowed access to them?" The general asked.
"One of the people who tried collect the bounty on my head brought about twenty of them plus a half dozen huntsman. Fortunately for me the knights couldn't tell me apart from the other Grimm and with that many people in a Grimm hotspot I was able to handle them."
"Could you recognize this individual?"
"I assure you that whoever they were after what happened to them, YOU wouldn't recognize him."
"What did you do?" The general asked with clear anger in his tone.
"He tried to kill me and when he realized he couldn't kill me he dropped his weapon and ran into a pack of very angry Beowulves." William responded also showing some aggression.
"Can you describe him?" the man in the white jacket asked closing his eyes in an effort to calm himself.
"About your height with professor Port's build, light brown hair with the same style as you, three vertical scars on the left side of his neck, mid-thirties I think, really bad breath, and he used two tomahawk pistols that connected together. Does that help any?" William responded as he calmed himself down.
"Yes, yes it does. You have actually just helped me identify what happened to Walter Melon, a rouge operative. Thank you."
"You're welcome." William replied somewhat caught off guard by the generals seeming sincerity.
"Well I believe you have somewhere to be." Ironwood stated snapping William back to reality.
"Yeah, about that we are going to have a few more 'guest' accompanying us." William said pointing over his shoulder to the two teams behind him.
"Very well."
With that the group departed boarding Ironwood's private air ship. After about twenty minutes they got off and walked for another ten minutes or so. Along the way William noticed how nice the houses were; most were very well kept and decorative, but still showed family life; toys in the yard of one house, a dog house in one of the front yards, a barbeque in the back yard of another. All and all it seemed like a pretty nice neighborhood, this made William smile that his mom's grave was in such a nice and happy place. He apparently was happier than he thought as a few members of the group commented here and there about his happy smile and a supposed spring in his step. William of course denied any of this.
Eventually they arrived at their destination, Aesop's Fables cemetery. The cemetery's entrance was a twisting metal gate with its name crafted out of iron on a wooden board intertwined in the gate in an arc. William almost seemed to freeze as they came close to the entrance. He looked scared, but at the same time unsure of what it was he was even afraid of.
"It's going to be okay," Ruby said gently taking William's hand.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Professor Goodwitch asked. "If you don't think you can do this we can always comeback another time."
"No I'm ok, I came all this way I need to finally do this." William reassured.
"If you say so." She said continuing to lead him to his mother's grave.
Before William knew it he was there, staring at his mother's grave. The others decided to give him some space to himself, but still staying in sight if he needed them they would be there.
The hours seemed to just roll into one another, but for William it didn't matter. For him this was a moment ten years in the making. William sat down on the ground and began talking to his mother's grave. At first he was unsure of what to say, but as he got more comfortable everything that had be building up just seemed to suddenly start rushing out. He talked about how had escaped and lived in the Valley of Grimm for the last ten years, how he had finally discovered his semblance and his Grimm powers, and even shared a few funny stories from his time in the valley; like how he saw a bounty hunter accidently shoot himself in the same foot twice in the same day. However the tales of laughter soon turned to an intangible mix of sadness and loathing. William cursed Feign Village, the huntsman who protected it, Bill Blanch the bully who had challenged him to a fight on that fateful day, and above all else himself for his helplessness in saving her. Even general Ironwood was moved by this lament, as moved as possible for him anyway. In the time William was there it would have been no exaggeration to say that he had in fact gone through all five stages of grief in his visit as emotion after emotion was unearth after having been buried so deep for so long. And with those stages of grief finally came acceptance, he had cried all he could cry, laughed all he could laugh, swore with all the curse words he knew, and finally was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. He had finally done it, he had finally gotten it all off of his chest and laid it bear for the world to see.
Finally feeling the weight lifting off of his shoulders William tries to stand only to find no strength in his legs and falls to the ground. His legs were completely asleep. Then it hit him all at once, it was dark, night time, the street lamps were on and the moon was high in the sky.
How long have I been here? William thought to himself before being hit with another surprise as his stomach roared so loudly it was audible from outside his body. What the hell is going on? When we got here it was barely nine thirty, wait where is everyone? William tried to reason before frantically turning trying to look for the others, a task made difficult by his still asleep legs.
"William we're here." A familiar reaper's voice sounded waving as she and her friends walked over to him. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah, just my legs are asleep. What time is it?" William asked as Jaune and Yang helped him to his feet.
"It's a quarter past seven." Weiss responded looking at her scroll.
"Seven, as in p.m.? I've been sitting there for nine and a half hours?!" William asked in disbelief. "Have you guys just been standing there for nine and a half hours?!"
"Calm down slugger." Yang said trying to ease him. "You HAVE been talking to your mom's grave nine and a half hours. Honestly you almost seemed like you were in a trance. And no we weren't here the entire time, at least not all of us."
"Some of us got picked to go pick up lunch including some for you." Nora said handing three large bags marked 'A Simple Wok.' Even though the food was cold it still smelled good.
William quickly opened them and with the pace that had become expected of him ate the three comically oversized bowls worth of food in moments.
"Ah, I am full." William said rubbing his belly contently. "I don't know what to say other than thank you."
"For the food, no problem." Ruby replied.
"No, well yes the food was delicious, but what I was thank you for was sticking by me. Most people would have probably left after, I don't know an hour."
"After hearing your story and all we have been through already how could we not see this through to the end." Pyrrha said.
"Yeah, this is the end."
"You don't sound too happy about it." Blake noted.
"Well, I don't know, I've spent all this time just trying to survive long enough to get out of the valley and then just to be able to finally say goodbye to my mom. However, I haven't really thought about what I would do afterwards."
"Why don't you come to Beacon?" Ruby asked.
"I don't know, how would I even support myself?"
"Well, how would you like a part-time job?" Said Beacon's gray-haired head master as he stepped out of the shadows taking a sip from his coffee mug.
"Ahhh, professor Ozpin!" Ruby screamed as her and her team stepped back in shock.
"Why are you here and have you been here this whole time?" William asked.
"As the same as the first time you and I meet, I was concerned when a number of my students and faculty are gone for extended periods of time. As for you second question I've only just got here." He replied with a smile.
"Except I'd still need to get school supplies, clothes, and a lot of other things. Not to mention I haven't been to a doctor or a dentist in ten years." The Faunus boy argued.
"That's not a problem, in Beacon's many years there have been a number of individuals like yourself who are in need of start-up funding. Because of this there is an entire fund devoted to such purposes and as it so happens these funds has yet to even be touched this year. Additionally, Tomorrow is Saturday and Monday is a holiday so you would have three days to get everything ready, if you choose to apply to Beacon."
"And I suppose I can just go to the school doctor; catch up on any missed vaccinations, get checked for any health abnormalities, and then just walk next door to the school dentist and have a check-up without an appointment, all by Tuesday morning?" William said sarcastically.
"No, the school dentist is actually TWO doors down from the school doctor. As for the rest of your question the answer is yes. As a school for huntsman and huntresses Beacon has one of the most advanced medical facilities in the world and as many of my students come from outside the kingdom we do have the supplies to update any vaccinations and provide top notch dental care."
"You have an answer for any reason I have to say no, don't you?"
"Pretty much, yes."
*sigh* "Ok, what is this job you were talking about?"
"As you may be aware, we know very little about the creatures of Grimm that inhabit the majority of our world."
"And you want to use me as some kind of research subject, is that the gest of it?" William interrupted.
"Correct." Ozpin replied taking another sip from his mug. "You'll be paid as a consultant, meaning you'll be paid a monthly salary of twenty thousand Lien and I can give you an advance if you should ever need it."
"Hold on, before I agree to ANYTHING, I have a few terms, none negotiable. First, NO dissections. Second, if I say I don't want to do anything, WE DON'T. And last if anyone tries anything that results in them being harmed or killed by me I will not be punished. If any of these rules are violated or someone TRIES to violate them then WE ARE DONE and there will be NO second chances." The wolf Faunus said with the most serious expression he could make.
"Do you believe that you will harm someone?" Ozpin asked with his usual unphased demeanor.
"How many times have captured Grimm attacked and killed the people researching them?"
"I see your point, but to you believe you will do the same?"
"I don't know, my emotions are connected to my powers and if I ever fell threatened it is a possible risk."
"Well I can understand why you might feel threatened." Ozpin said glancing over at Ironwood's mechanical soldiers.
"Alright then, you have the world's best Grimm consultant at your service," William said shaking Ozpin's hand.
"Ozpin you can't be serious?" General Ironwood interjected.
"James, we will talk about this later." Ozpin said brushing him off.
"As for Mr. Beorthwulf, I look forward to you attending my school, now all you have to do is fill out the student application form, in triplicate, get a physical by the school doctor, as well as a record of your vaccinations, pass a rigorous combat exam, and get fitted for you school uniform, by Tuesday morning. I'll send you the forms to your room when we get back." Ozpin said smirking as he began walking towards the entrance.
"You are going to do that every chance you get, aren't you?"
"I have no idea of what you're talking about and yes."
After returning to Beacon Ozpin made good on his word to send William the paperwork he needed. Much to William's surprise the papers he had to fill out towered over the six foot tall Faunus. Additionally, William was surprised by the fact professor Goodwitch had been the one to deliver them. Professor Goodwitch had also brought the forms to make her William's legal guardian. She had volunteered to be his guardian so that he would have a permanent address for the forms, but more important than that Ms. Goodwitch said she wanted to look over William in his mother's stead. William felt touched, this really meant a lot to him, enough to almost make him cry, almost. Despite the touching moment they had, professor Goodwitch was still professor Goodwitch and made sure they did not stop working until their work was done, with the exception of a few bathroom breaks. William didn't really mind this, in fact he actually admired her work ethic. Although he wasn't too keen on the coffee she brought. As it turns out a single cup of coffee will cause him to LITERALLY bounce off the walls uncontrollably for about ten minutes. This would give Yang ammunition for her puns for the entire weekend, much to everyone's displeasure. Even with Ms. Goodwitch's help they didn't finish filling out forms until the sun rose.
William and Ms. Goodwitch decided he should get some sleep and she would submit his forms to the admissions office. She also dropped by team RWBY's dorm to inform them that William would be sleeping in and to ask them to take him to the school's doctor and then to drop by her office to pick up a credit card linked to Williams funds so he could go shopping later. Professor Goodwitch said she would go with him herself, but had been assigned to help with the planning committee for the Vytal Festival and would be occupied for the rest of the day.
It was about one thirty when William woke up, he walked over to team RWBY's door and knocked on it. As it turned out the only one there was Blake. Ruby and Weiss had to run a quick errand and Yang had to walk Zwei. Since Blake was also getting hungry they decided Blake would text the others to meet them in the cafeteria. The walk from the dorms to the cafeteria usually only takes about fifteen-twenty minutes. However for the two Faunus this felt much longer, the reason being William glancing at Blake's bow and Blake noticing.
"Is there something you want to say?" The cat girl finally asked.
"Yes, why are you still wearing that bow?" William asked. "I know Ozpin talked to that Cardin guy and his team about keeping what happened secret, however I get the distinct feeling that they aren't too keen on listening or Faunus for that matter."
"That is true Cardin has proven himself a bigot time and time again, but that isn't why I wear this bow. I… I just want to be judged on WHO I am not WHAT I am."
"Is that the real reason or just a convenient excuse?"
"WHAT?" Blake said stopping and turning towards William. "What would you possibly know about my life?" she yelled.
"Well…" William began completely calm "… I can tell that you used to be in the White Fang."
"WHAT, HOW… how do you know that?" Blake said reducing her volume before looking around to see if anyone had heard him.
"Are you aware that creatures of Grimm react to negative emotions?" He said calmly while Blake was still holding onto the collar of his shirt and her eyes widened.
"What?" Blake asked lessening her grip on his collar.
"Back when we were waiting for the pilots to get us back in the air Cardin called you a member of the White Fang. You felt concern, but not just you, but your team, Jaune's team, and that other blonde guy, what was his name again? He's the monkey Faunus with the unbuttoned shirt."
"His name is Sun."
"Thank you." William continued. "They didn't feel fear that you were a member of the White Fang, but fear of what would happen to you. This tells me they not only know your secret, but also genuinely care about you, even the one everyone calls Ice Queen."
Blake let go of William's collar and stepped back looking like she has still to finish processing what he had told her. Seeing that Blake needed to process William guided her to a bench in the court yard that seemed fairly secluded. Blake eventually regained her composure and told William her story; how she was a member of the White Fang, how it had changed, and what it was like to leave all she knew behind to try and turn her life into something with genuine meaning. William understood what it was like to want to be treated equally, but he also understood her standing up for her principles even if it meant leaving so much behind. With her secret of being a Faunus revealed Blake had been in a fragile state, but talking to someone about it helped her regain her poise not just externally, but internally as well.
"Thank you William." Blake said wiping a tear from her eye.
"No problem, but I have to ask why didn't you talk to your team about this?"
"They asked me if I would be okay when we got back the day we meet you, however I didn't want to talk about it. I guess I'm just so use to keeping things bottled up, I still have trouble talking to others."
"Then that makes things easy, I just get you to talk like I did today until you can talk about your problems yourself." William comforted.
"That reminds me, do you always ease drop on people's thoughts?"
"Oh, no it's more that some people just feel negative emotions like fear or anger more intensely than others. If it was something like regular fears and sorrows, like misplacing a shoe or dropping their ice cream on the ground, I can only detect it as much as others. I only can sense a person's negative emotions when they are extreme and/or are a relatively negative person, like Cardin or general Ironwood. Individuals who are usually more upbeat and cheerful like Ruby or Nora are completely indecipherable to me."
"You're not the only one." Blake joked.
*low growling sound* this time coming from Blake.
"I think we should get to lunch, I'm pretty sure the others are already at the cafeteria." William suggested.
"Ok."
The two quickly walked to the cafeteria meeting the rest of team RWBY at the entrance to the cafeteria. When asked about why they were late Blake, to William's pleasant surprise, told her team about what the two had talked about. Before any of them could respond Blake promised she would talk to them more, asking that they would only be patient with her. They went to get their food and when they sat down they talked more about Blake and William's conversation. Once every one of Blake's teammates' questions were sedated they continued eating lunch as normal. Once they finished eating the girls had something they needed William to do.
"William I don't want to be mean, but you need to shower." Ruby sheepishly said. "I asked Jaune and Ren and they agreed to loan you an outfit and some shower products. Oh and don't worry about the underwear, as it turns out Jaune actually brought an unopened pack of underwear with him when he came to Beacon and hasn't used any of it yet."
"Do I really smell?" William asked.
"Yeah man, you're starting to get a little rancid. " Yang chimed in.
The group went back to get his supplies from team JNPR and then William went down to hall to the showers. Much to William's dismay they were right, as he showered he couldn't help but notice the stream of mud flowing into the shower drain. He was however happy about being able to take a warm shower for the first time in he couldn't remember how long. Even when he lived in Feign the water was rarely ever more than lukewarm and even if they did get some warm water the pressure usually would fluctuate so much that it would become more than a trickle.
I could get used to bathing every day when they have showers like this. William thought to himself.
After finishing showering and changing into the clothes Jaune and Ren had loaned him William felt completely refreshed and born anew. He admitted that when he looked in the bathroom mirror he did like his new look; a plain black t-shirt from Jaune, and a pair of white pants from Ren with matching socks. When he returned to team JNPR's room to return the shampoo and soap he had gotten from Ren, team RWBY was there and everyone commented on how much better he looked AND smelled after showering.
"Wow you really clean up nicely." Yang commented. "But I think you still need to brush your hair." She said brushing some of his still wet strips of hair from the edge of his left eye.
This actually proved to be more of a challenge than everyone thought, as it turned out William had not brushed his hair for the ten years he had been trapped, it was tangled and knotted to an extreme to say the least. It took three hair brushes and the combined strength of Nora and Yang just to detangle and brush William's hair. Those who were not already aware of this quickly learned that you need to be very careful when combing Faunuses, you especially need to be weary of their VERY sensitive ears.
From there team RWBY lead William to the school's doctor office. Weiss helped William sign in and sat down with William and the rest of her team in the waiting room. When William was called in by the doctor Yang offered to come with him for support, William tried to down play his desire for Yang to accompany him and his comically obvious nervousness about going to see the doctor. As it turned out Beacon's medical staff have access to a vaccination specifically for those who had received little to no vaccinations prior to coming to Beacon. William especially liked this as it meant getting one shot as opposed to several. After his vaccination he was given a typical physical which lasted for about twenty minutes, then doctor cleared him for Beacons physical exam requirements. The doctor had been informed about Williams's unique biology and told him that he would have to report back on Thursday for a thorough exam of his other form.
From there they walked to the school's dentist. William noted that Ozpin was right and it was two doors down from the doctors.
The visit to the dentist did not prove as easy as the doctor's visit. The dentist was nice and she had a calming aura about her, but since Williams teeth would shift between that of a Beowulf and a humans several times a day when he lived in the valley a number of things ended up compressed and embedded in his teeth to the point the dentist need to pull on her tools with both hands in order to just loosen the debris. His semblance did not help either a large number of the debris stuck in his teeth were things normal people would never even attempt to eat. Ruby suggested staying in his Beowulf form until they were done, however this was exceptionally difficult given the constant scraping of his gums. At one point William needed to be restrained as the Dentist accidently imbedded her dental hook into his gums. Restraining him required a combination of Yang holding down one arm, Blake binding the other with Gambol Shroud, Weiss holding his legs in place with her glyphs, and Ruby helping the Dentist pry open William's mouth to retrieve her tool. They eventually managed to finish removing all the debris from between his teeth, after three hours, and still managed to have time so the dentist could give him a lecture on how to properly brush and the importance of flossing.
From there they headed toward professor Goodwitch's office, this time Weiss insisted on leading.
When they got there William knocked on the door, but there was no answer.
"Professor Goodwitch said to come to her office, right?" William asked holding his jaw to alleviate some of the pain in his mouth.
"That's what she told me." Ruby responded.
William knocked on the door again and again there was no response. He then tried turning the knob, to his and everyone else's surprise the door was unlocked. William looked at the others and then entered the professor's office. Everything seemed to be in the same place it was when he was here yesterday, everything except for an envelope and a note with William's name on it. William opened it and read the note:
"William,
I had to leave early to meet with the planning committee inside the envelope are, a scroll, and the card connected to your account. Please use your money wisely. Also, please note that once you have completed your combat exam you will be an official student of Beacon and your Scroll will function as both your student ID and room key.
p.s. please do NOT let anyone tell you are allowed to spend any money on anything other than clothing, sundries, and school supplies. ESPECIALLY Ms. Xiao Long.
Glynda Goodwitch "
"Oh come on, do I really seem like that kind of person?" Yang asked to the group.
"Well… yeah kinda." Ruby replied with the others nodding.
They decided the best place to go shopping was the Silver Guard Mall in town. From the school they took an air ship to a platform where there were at least a dozen other air ships parked to take people, mainly students, to various locations in the kingdom. However, the group didn't need to take another air ship, much to William's dismay. It was at this point Yang began making puns about William's apparent love of flying, much to everyone's dismay.
After walking for about twenty minutes they had reached their destination. William couldn't remember if he had ever seen anything like it before; all the store housed in a massive building. It wasn't hard to see William was a little overwhelmed.
"Didn't Feign have a shopping mall?" Weiss asked.
"No, we had the 'business' district, but that was just a bunch of small shops." William replied.
"You poor thing, well don't worry we'll show you what mall shopping is all about." The heiress replied.
"Thank… you." William said a little unsure of what exactly that meant.
"However before that we need to do something about your foot wear." Blake suggested pointing to the hole in William's left shoe so big all five of his sock covered toes were visible.
Their first stop was a shoe store called 'Sole Purpose'. William fought off the urge to ask Yang if she had helped them name the store. Fortunately the store catered to a lot of Beacon's students so they had a wide selection of shoes that could handle the wear and tear of being a huntsman. After the third try William settled on a pair of black and red combat shoes. He wore them out of the store and discarded his old pair in the first available trash can.
School supply shopping was fairly straightforward, with Weiss unwarrantedly explaining the minuet differences between the products and their quality. Clothing shopping however proved more difficult. Weiss and Yang had their own unique style opinions and tried to 'suggest' its superiority to William. Weiss' focus was on formal wear and VERY expensive clothing from high-end retailers whereas Yang felt that more 'stimulating' clothing, something a kin to Sun's attire, suited William better commenting this only after seeing that William's shirt was concealing a very well defined six pack. Ruby acted as the voice of reason and suggested letting William decide for himself. William actually surprised the freezer burn pair by picking from both 'suggestions'. He got himself some simple t-shirts and jeans, nothing as revealing as Yang had hoped, but even she did admit he looked comfortable in them. He also bought a few reasonably priced dress shirts and pants for special occasions.
All that needed to be done to wrap up clothing shopping was his combat outfit. For this all four girls agreed they needed to go to Huntsmen's Place, a clothing store that specialized in high quality battle-ready garments for all sizes. After trying on a half dozen possible outfits William found the outfit he felt was perfect. A black hoodie with two buckles across the chest and three more on the left shoulder, matching pants, two wallet chains that can shift to knives that hang from the right side of his belt, and for the final touch black fingerless gloves with the insignia of a red wolf eating itself on the back of the hand.
As they were walking out of the store there was a question that was clearly weighing on her mind, clearly enough to provoke William to ask "Ruby, is there something wrong?"
"Yeah, why did you by those collapsible pocket chain knives?" The weapon maniac asked.
"I thought they looked cool and I'm probably going to need them."
"But you can turn into a Beowulf and you're strong enough to take on a dozen of us like it was nothing." The red reaper replied.
"Well the reason it twofold; the first being that I no longer have unlimited access to Grimm so I need to converse the Grimm I have, and second I'm pretty sure I should keep my Grimm powers under wraps as much as possible. This means I can't use my powers, so I need something to help me out in case I come across a particularly tough opponent."
"Oh, yeeeaaahhh… that makes sense."
All that was left was getting health care products; tooth brush, tooth paste, dental floss, shampoo, soap, comb, etc. Fortunately there was a Ceiling Blue nearby that had everything they needed. Blake helped when it came to shampoo and conditioner so as to not agitate his Faunus ears. They were done and out of the store within only ten minutes, the fastest time that day.
When they exited the store it was just turning nine fifteen. "Wow, it got late, but at least I got everything." William said happy that it was finally over.
"We probably should get back otherwise we are going to miss dinner." Blake said.
"Oh yeah we need to get going," Ruby said leading the others in a charge towards the platform.
When they got back to Beacon it was already ten o' clock.
"What time does the cafeteria close?" William asked.
"Ten-thirty," Yang replied.
"Ok, we've got time. I'm going to go drop all of this stuff off in my room and I'll meet you guys in the cafeteria." William said gesturing to the five large bags in his hands.
"Ok, we'll save a spot in line for you." Ruby said as they went their separate ways.
When William reached his dorm room he sat his bags down and pulled out his key, when he suddenly heard a noise behind him. Turning around quickly he saw nothing, no signs of life in the hallway at all. Ok, maybe I'm more tired than I thought, but I could have sworn there was someone behind me. He thought out loud to himself.
After dropping off his bags William rushed over to the cafeteria finding team RWBY standing in at the end of a small line.
"Hey guys." The wolf Faunus greeted.
"Hey, William we saved you a spot," Ruby responded.
They got their food, this time the cafeteria lady remembered William and let him through without even bothering to ask for a note, only commenting that he needed to get a student ID sometime soon. They talked for a little bit, before Yang noticing William tucking his hair behind his ears.
"Everything alright William?" The blonde asked.
"Yeah, but I think I might need a haircut, know any good places?" He asked.
"Don't worry about it I can take care of you."
"You know how to cut hair?" Weiss asked in surprise.
"Of course, Yang has been cutting my hair for years," Ruby commented.
"Just so we are clear…" William began directing his attention towards Ruby. "… You have short hair by choice, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Oh, just curious." William said turning back to Yang. "So when can I drop in for a haircut?"
"Drop by around noon tomorrow, I have to find my barber stuff first."
They finished eating and decided it was best to head to bed.
Whew, that was exhausting. Who knew shopping could be so taxing. William thought to himself getting into a pair of pajamas with sheep on them and a white t-shirt.
Relax, it won't be long now!
"What was that? " William asked aloud looking around his room only seeing the bags of supplies he had bought. Maybe NOW is a good time to go to sleep. William thought as he turned off the light and crawled into bed. Oh crap, I forgot to get a blanket and pillow so I can give these back to Jaune and Ren. And I forgot to give them their clothes back. William thought placing his palm his forehead.
"I'll do that tomorrow," William said with a yawned letting his consciousness drift away.
The next day William woke up around seven, made his bed, and then gathered a change of clothes and his soap, shampoo and a towel so he could take a shower. Walking down the hall to the men's facilities William ran into Jaune.
"Hey, Jaune."
"Hey William, how was shopping with team RWBY?"
"Tiring, but I still enjoyed it. Oh, by the way, I forgot to get a blanket and pillow so I have to go get one, I'll have them back to you later today.
"That's ok, no rush."
"Also, is there a laundromat or anything around here, I'd like to wash the clothes you and Ren gave me before I return them."
"Yeah, there is one in the basement, avoid machine thirteen, it has a habit of taking your money. Oh, and you can keep the underwear."
"Thanks."
The two showered in separate stalls occasionally chatting about the different places William would need to learn about.
As they finished up and got dressed in the stalls and walked out Jaune told William that his team and team RWBY were going to meet in the cafeteria at eight for breakfast. Naturally William said he'd be there after he unpacked a few of the things he bought yesterday.
After unpacking his clothes and getting his things organized. William checked on his scroll seeing as it was almost eight William decided it was time to head out. As he opened the door he saw Ruby with her hand up like he had opened the door just as she was about to knock on his door.
"Morning Ruby, come to get me for breakfast?" William asked with a smile.
"Morning William and yes."
"Ok, let's go," William said as he and Ruby joined the group in the hallway.
Everyone walked to the cafeteria got their food and sat down at the same table. Yang made a pun about William wolf-ing down his food. After everyone shook their heads at the blonde's crude joke they gradually got back to normal conversation. Things seemed to be going good until William wolf ears twitched as they heard the clack of heels on the cafeteria floor. Turning his head he saw what he was expecting, Ms. Goodwitch followed by general Ironwood and professor Ozpin.
"Good morning William." The blonde teacher greeted.
"Good morning."
"How was shopping, did you get everything you needed?"
"I have to go back, I forgot a couple of things."
"I see, well when you are done please return your card to me. Also regarding your combat test…"
"…Due to your unique abilities…" Ozpin interjected. "…the powers that be have decided that you will have to face a tournament style one-on-one battle with any four, non-competing, huntsmen in training selected by general Ironwood." He said gesturing to the man next to him.
"Just so we are clear you are forbidden from using your Grimm powers while sparing," Ironwood said with a less than happy tone. "At ten you are to report to the auditorium for the match."
They left and the group conversation drifted towards what the fight, who would general Ironwood pick, what he should do, what he could do, so forth. Nora had a few ideas, but William declined to use them. He wasn't sure if he was ALLOWED to break someone's legs or splash hot sauce in their eyes, but felt he probably shouldn't all the same.
Once they finished eating the groups went their separate way. Team JNPR went to the sparing grounds to practice their combinations, Weiss went to the library to study, Ruby went to the weapon shop to do minor maintenance on Crescent Rose, Yang and Blake had a 'thing' to do, but wouldn't go into detail.
William remembered the path they had took the yesterday and found his way back to the shopping mall. He quickly found a store that sold the bed supplies he need, as it turned out they were having a sale on bed sheets, buy one get one free. After buying everything he needed he then looked for a store that sold laundry detergent. One thing that could be said about the Silver Guard Mall is that is very easy to get lost. William in trying to find where he might find the detergent didn't notice what was right in front of him until he hit it. Being knocked back he looked directly in front of him only to see nothing.
"Excuse you." A soft delicate female voice said, but William couldn't see where it was coming from. "Down here." The voice said. William looked down to see a short young woman wearing a white jacket with a pink interior, a black corset, brown pants, high heeled gray boots, a pink parasol, and she wore a number beaded necklaces. However it was her hair that attracted the most attention, her hair was combed into two parts along the left lining of her skull; the left split was brown, but the right was pink with white strips.
William didn't know why, but she was just so cute he couldn't help but stare.
"Hello, anyone home?" The Neapolitan-themed girl said looking confused as to what was going on in the Faunus' head waving her hand in front of his face.
"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't see you there."
"Well, that's not an excuse."
"I really am sorry, are you ok?"
"I'm fine, but you really need to watch where you are going..." The short girl trailed off. "You…You knocked over my ice cream." The girl said getting teary-eyed about her ruined treat.
"I am so sorry."
"You owe me a new ice cream." The girl said grabbing William by his shirt.
"Ok, ok." William said getting the girl to release his shirt. "Don't you think you're overreacting, I means it's just ice cream right?"
"JUST ICE CREAM, that was the limited edition dust produced Winter Wonderland Chocolate ice cream that can only be bought today!" The short girl said angered by his understatement of her new favorite ice cream.
"Well then lead the way," William said nervously.
"That's better." The girl said before walking the opposite direction she was going.
After a short walk they ended up at a store with a giant diagonal vanilla ice cream with sprinkles and sign with 'The Sweet Stop' written in 'frosting'. The place was pack, a few more people and you would have a line going out the door. The second the short girl stepped into the store everyone went silent.
"OH SHIT! SHE'S BACK EVERYONE RUN!" Someone yelled causing everyone in the store to suddenly start rushing out of the exit. Within moments the store was empty and the person behind the counter was cowering in fear.
"Do I even want to know what that was about?" William asked turning his head and looking at the girl.
"Let me put it like this, if you get me my ice cream I won't give you a personal demonstration."
"Ooookay," William said not sure what to make of the situation.
They walked up to the counter.
"Uh… Miss, I thought you already got your ice cream." The person at the counter said looking like he was about to wet himself.
"I did, however, this guy here bumped into me and caused me to drop it." The short girl said pointing to the Faunus standing next to her.
"Well then…" said Willaim walking up to the counter seeing that the ice cream was actually fairly priced at only three lien a cone. " I'd like one cone for her and I guess I'll one for myself. You can just make them the same as her previous order."
"Interested in tasting Vale's best ice cream?" The triple colored girl asked.
"Well if it's good enough to drive you to violence and/or intimidation I figure it's either really good or you're just crazy." The Faunus boy said with a smirk.
"Probably a little bit of both." The girl said.
The clerk looked like he wanted to say something, but was obviously holding back.
After they got their ice cream they left so people would return to the shop.
"WOW, this is the most amazing ice cream I have ever tasted!" William said after a single lick.
"Told you." The girl said.
"I can see why you would be mad about the spilled ice cream."
"Well you got me a replacement and now understand the brilliance of it, so I can forgive you." She said with a gentle smile.
"Has anyone ever told you you're cute when you smile and eat ice cream?"
'What?!" The girl said blushing a little. "You… you really shouldn't say things like that out of the blue." She said blushing.
"Huh, you're cute when you're nervous too," William said with a sinister smirk.
"Uh… I mean… stop it." The girl said blushing enough that her face resembled Ruby's hood.
"Ok, I'm sorry, but I could help but get back at you for earlier." William chuckled.
William pulled out his scroll to check the time, it was nine twenty.
"I'm sorry I gotta go. My names William by the way." William said rushing towards the exit.
"I'm Neopolitan." The girl shouted.
"I hope we meet up again." William shouted back as he exited the building.
William rushed to the platform eating his ice cream so fast it gave him a headache.
Fortunately the air ship was early, William boarded and made it back to Beacon ahead of schedule. He ran to his dorm room, dropped off his stuff and ran to the auditorium.
Only getting lost once William managed to make it to the auditorium at ten on the dot. When he entered the room he saw Ms. Goodwitch standing on the stage, professor Ozpin was sitting in the front center row along with general Ironwood and four other individuals, presumably the four he would have to defeat.
"Well now that William has arrived let us begin, William and the first contestant, Marcus Barak, please enter the arena." Professor Goodwitch announced.
The two combatants entered the fighting stage William on the right and Marcus on the left. Marcus was a large individual, roughly as tall as Yatsuhashi, completely clad in metallic armor with his face being the only exception. He was holding some kind of large mechanized sledgehammer similar to Nora's, but it did not seem capable of firing any kind of projectile. While preparing to fight William's right eye turned Grimm red with a demonic supervillain-style smile creeping across his face. Those sensed the change in the air around the Faunus feeling the pure bloodlust emitting from him. Many of them realized that this fight may become more than a fight. Even professor Goodwitch was made nervous by this transformation, William had warned her that even if he does not use his Grimm powers his right eye will always change color when he is set on fighting and that this would bring on a confident and aggressive streak in him. Never the less she signaled for the fight to start Marcus charged towards William swinging downward with one hand when he came into range. William evaded, but once Marcus' hammer hit the ground the entire stage shook with a visible electric discharge upon impact. William realized that this weapon was meant to stun the opponent after each hit allowing Marcus to continue to wail on his opponent until they were defeated or dead. This meant a single hit would be the deciding factor in the match.
As Marcus continued charging after William he began to swing sideways from his right again with that single hand, William grabbed the hammer's handle with his left hand pulling on it to propel himself forward and quickly striking Marcus' wrist with full force causing him to releasing his weapon. William with both hands swung Marcus' own weapon upward striking him square on his chin actually lifting the giant off of the ground and releasing a loud electric hiss as Marcus was electrocuted by his own weapon. William spinning the hammer to gain a proper grip swung it sideways striking Marcus in midair sending him across the stage and embedding him into the wall with an even louder electric hiss. William then charged at top speed to finish Marcus.
"That's the match!" Professor Goodwitch called out causing William to stop his swing just in front of Marcus' face. William looked up at the board seeing Marcus' aura was almost completely gone.
The remaining three matches did bring some interesting challenges. His next opponent was short orange haired girl named Azure Ethelinda dressed in a white blouse with a blue skirt, blue knee high socks, and a blue watch on her right wrist. She fought using a rapier she held in her left hand. Her striking force was below that of Weiss' however her thrusting and retracting speed was where she stood out. William managed to evade all the same, but had to remain on his toes the whole time. After William had gotten use to her attack pattern he would dodge her attacks, strike her with one or two good punches, and then fall back. It looked like all William needed to win was continue this pattern and the victory would be his. Until Azure turned her rapier from the guard up into a giant cobra with her semblance. As William quickly learned the scales and hood on this cobra was razor sharp as she managed to shallowly cut his hoodie's left sleeve. If it was anyone else they may have been at a disadvantage, but for William and his semblance it was more an opportunity for an after lunch snack. As Azure waved her handle to signal an attack William charged forward dodging under the cobra's hood and pushing forward until he came across a thinner section where he bit down as hard as he could, taking a section out of the metal snake causing cracks to stem from the bite mark. William began charging towards Azure spitting out the metal. Azure tried to get her snake to turn around and attack, but when she moved the handle the snake break in two. Shocked as her giant cobra reverted back to a broken off rapier blade Azure was too stunned to react before William delivered a deciding full force punch to her face nearly depleting all of her aura.
William's third opponent was a roughly six foot five tall tanned purple haired woman name Selena Constella. She was wearing a purple tank top, black shorts, and blue combat gloves and boots with a fist coming from a crescent moon pattern on them. The gloves and boots have a small clear hose extending from them over the outer parts of the limbs, going down her back, connecting to grey rectangles on a belt on her hips with a dial on both sides of her hip. The dials seemed to have three different colors on them. When Ms. Goodwtich signaled for the fight to begin, by the time William had realized it Selena was already right in front of him delivering a fierce and rapid succession of kicks and punches in a seamless combination. William managed to gain some distance from Selena only for her to close the gap within moments. William tried to land a few punches, but each time he tried she would dodge and use the momentum of his strikes to cause him to damage himself against her strikes. William was quickly losing ground so he tried a low sweep, Selena jump back. She then turned the dial on her hips, what was visibly red dust flowed into her gloves and boots turning them a matching red. She then punched the air sending a fireball towards William causing him to dodge. She continued punching and even threw in a few kicks as she neared William while sending a barrage of fire balls at him. William tried to dodge her attacks however he was quickly overwhelmed and one after another was blasted knocking him to the ground. He looked at the screen seeing his aura had already hit the half way mark, he knew that he needed to do something and FAST. As William got back to his feet Selena changed the dial on her right side causing the tubes to go from red to blue. She then through a right punch William had to leap out of the way to avoid it. Looking back he saw a small mound of ice where the attack had hit. It was at that moment a light bulb had gone off in William's mind. He got to his feet as fast as he could and ran full speed towards Selena. As she readied another strike William took the collapsible pocket chain turning it into a knife and threw it with full force at her right dial causing a flash as it exploded. When the powdery white smoke cleared Selena's right arm and leg were completely incased in ice. Realizing Williams plan she posed to strike the ice with her free hand only to notice too late that a second knife was flying towards her other dial. Upon impact a fiery explosion from her hip blasted Selena through the mound of ice and slamming her into the wall. Before she could recover William sprang up striking her head indenting her face into the wall and signaling the end of the match.
After such an intense fight professor Goodwtich suggested William take a break, however general Ironwood objected to this. As a compromise William asked for something to snack on after he reclaimed his knives. Seeing no reason to object he gave William a few Liens and allowed William to go to the vending machine down the hall under supervision from one of his subordinates. After by a few minutes William returned with a granola bar.
"Ok, I can fight now." William said putting the granola bar in his pocket.
"Aren't you going to eat that?" Ironwood asked.
"Yes, later. Oh, and here's your change." William said handing the general his change.
"Ok. David are you ready?" He said directing his attention at the last member of the team.
"Yes sir." The last member said standing at attention and saluting.
William's final opponent was a tall skinny dark skinned, black curly haired guy named Tawny David. He wore a black and red vest with brown pockets over a long sleeved white shirt, brown pants, black shoes, and a pair of orange goggles with black lenses. Something that struck William as odd was that on his left waist was a large sheathed kukri knife and on his right side seemed to be some kind a series of several small pouches. Both contestants entered the ring. The screen showed Williams aura was only at fifty percent.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Ms. Goodwitch asked looking concerned.
"Don't worry, I have a plan." He said with a sly grin.
"Ok, then if both contestants are ready, you may begin." She said signaling the start of the match.
Tawny wasted no time unsheathing his weapon and then put it in his left hand. What was surprising was that when Tawny hit the switch at the back of the guard the knife split in half along the blade transforming into a triple band sling shot. Quickly taking out some kind of projectile from one of the pouches on his right side and fired at the ground near William. When it hit the ground it released a blinding flash and a loud bang. Unable to see or hear William was unable to dodge the three quick fire rapid shots. Two hit his feet incasing them in what seemed like instant cement and the third latching onto his chest releasing a strong electric shock paralyzing him. As William struggled to recover he saw Tawny coming for the finishing blow with his weapon back in blade form. Unable to move William could do nothing but watch as Tawny deliver a series of quick and power strikes knocking William free as he was sent flying across the arena. As William looked at the board his aura was only a few points just above the line that would signal his defeat. AS William staggered to get up he looked at Tawny.
"General Ironwood was right, this isn't easy." He said chuckling a little.
"If you give up no one will hold it against you. General Ironwood set you up to fight people who specialize in disabling strong opponents in one-on-one combat." Tawny said with a mild Australian accent.
"I knew that the second I found out he was going to be the one to select my opponents. I knew he was setting me up to fail form the get go."
"Then why would you do this?"
"If I want to be a huntsman I will face a lot worse then you guys and chances are they won't be as kind as to stop when my aura runs out." William said having some difficulty standing. "And it helps if I have an ace up my sleeve." He responded taking out the granola bar from his pocket and quickly eating it.
"I guess you were hungry, but what does that do for you?" Tawny asked.
"You may want to look at the board." William said pointing towards the screen.
Tawny's eyes widened as he saw William's aura go back up to roughly seventy percent.
"How did you…" Tawny began before he saw William charging at him.
Tawny having no time to think swung his kukri knife only to be blocked by William dual wielding his knives. With his free hand Tawny reached into one of his pouches, took out a pellet, and threw it on the ground releasing another blinding flash and deafening bang. William knew this trick, he had made a mental note of the position of Tawny's feet and stepped on his left foot to prevent him from fleeing and to trip him up. Much to Tawny's surprise he feel backwards trying to fall back and following him down was William. Off of what was pure intuition William pinned Tawny to the ground by jabbing his knives through Tawny's sleeves. William placing his left hand on Tawny's throat.
"You seem like a nice guy so I'll give you the option to surrender before I decrease your aura level the old fashion way." William said still not fully able to see.
"I give up." Tawny announced as loud as he could.
"That's the match the winner is William.
William removed his knives and helped Tawny to his feet.
"How did you do that?!" General Ironwood asked looking a combination of shock and anger.
"My semblance."
"I thought your semblance allowed you to eat and then mimic the properties of whatever you consumed." Professor Goodwitch said.
"I can actually use it a couple of different ways; I can bite through anything I can get my teeth on, I can of course copy the properties of whatever I eat, and lastly I can actually temporarily boost my aura levels if I eat something. The drawback is that my aura after a while begins to rapidly decrease even if I am not fighting at the moment." William said gesturing towards the screen showing his aura levels quickly dropping as they were speaking.
"Is there any particular reason you did not reveal this before now?" The general said slanting his eyebrows.
"I wasn't aware I needed to tell you that?" William said with clear hostility in his tone.
"What did you say?" The general said getting visibly angered.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Professor Goodwitch yelled causing both men to take a step back and turn and look at her. Neither of them knew if the blonde teacher could yell like that let alone know how to deal with the clearly angered woman.
"Regardless of our understanding or lack thereof Mr. Beorthwulf's semblance, he did manage to defeat all four of the Atlas students you selected." Ozpin said standing up walking toward the stage. "Furthermore he showed the ability to adapt to different fighting styles, displayed great creativity in how he applied his semblance, and above all else he came here KNOWING that the odds were set against him yet, despite this, he still pushed forward and even won. I look forward to seeing what he can accomplish when he is properly trained."
"So does that mean I got accepted into Beacon?" William asked.
"Yes." Ozpin replied with a smile.
"WUUUUU HHHHUUUUU!" William exclaimed. "I gotta go tell Ruby and the others." William said heading toward the exit.
"William." Ms. Goodwitch said stopping the young man. "Your card."
"Oh yeah, sorry I forgot." William said pulling the card from his pocket and handing it to the woman. "Oh, I know you said I couldn't use the card for things other than school supplies and things like that, but I accidently bumped into someone and caused them to drop their ice cream."
"So you replaced it. Well I can allow this, it's not a problem." She said.
"Thank you."
"Also, report to room 103 tomorrow by eleven so we can get your measurements and have your uniform by Tuesday morning."
"Ok, I will." William said starting to move towards the door.
"Oh and William." Ms. Goodwitch said.
"Yes?"
"Congratulation."
"Thank you." William said exiting the room.
William rushed to team RWBY's room to tell them the good news. He got to their room barely able to catch his breath. He announced his victory to them, while in their eyes it wasn't a surprise that he would win, they learned firsthand he was tough, but they were none the less happy for him.
Thank You for reading and Happy New Year! Please leave me a review. Tell me if you prefer stories as long as this or if you prefer it to be shorter, I don't really mind either way. Also I know Walgreens and Bluecieling, I just wanted to make that joke at least once.