Blake Belladonna jumped from tree to tree, using her weapon's ribbon to latch on to the next awaiting branch before swinging silently over. She had her target in her line of sight. She licked her lips, an unconscious reaction preparing her for what was tantamount to a hunt. This girl was hers.
Dressed in golden bronze armour. By all accounts famous and far too generous for her own good. From what she read, not a racist bone in her entire body.
Yes, Blake knew the ultimate partner when she saw them. With a quick throw of her weapon to a nearby tree, she kept her eyes trained on the fighter, pulling her ribbon taut and grasping it with both hands. As Pyrrha Nikos came into view, she swung.
It would take Blake three thoughts to realize her mistake. The first thought, was that she had not truly gauged whether the branch she had fastened her weapon to, was strong enough to carry her weight. A few tugs on her ribbon weren't a good enough test.
The second thought was that she had not monitored her surroundings properly for threats. Any huntsman or professor could jump on her at any moment and she would have no time to prepare, let alone jump out of the way of a precisely timed attack.
The third and mots damaging, was that she had not accounted for other student hopefuls having the same idea as she did.
And it was exactly after that third thought, that the branch holding her snapped with a loud crack and left he falling to the forest floor below. More so, it had left her falling directly onto another person who had just begun to call out to Pyrrha Nikos.
"Hey!" She cried out.
"Watch it!" Came the other girl's voice, as Blake fell on top of her.
"Howdy partner." Before Blake looked at the girl she landed on, the both of them looked up to see a tall blonde speak to a smiling Pyrrha Nikos.
"Dammit," the two collectively said, finally looking at each other.
At seeing the girl's white hair and sky-blue eyes, Blake scowled, "Schnee."
"I have a name; I'll have you know. It's Weiss. Not Schnee. Weiss. And could you get off me!" Weiss's voice rose with each word until she was shouting at Blake.
Blake did get off of Weiss, standing up and brushing at her pants, not even holding out a hand to help the other girl up. Though, judging by her scowl, there was little possibility that Weiss would have accepted even if the offer was given.
"Not to speed up our introductions, but I sorta let a group of guys chase after me," the blonde said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. How she could reach her neck through all that hair was beyond Blake's understanding.
"Why would you do something so stupid!?" Weiss Schnee shouted in her high-pitched heiress voice. Blake rolled her eyes. It was the same one she used on that Ruby Goodwitch girl.
"Because I thought it would have been a great bonding moment between me and my partner, duh." The girl explained like it was the most simple thing in the entire world.
"I think it was an excellent idea."
"See, Pyrrha agrees with me," the blonde stuck out her tongue at the heiress, bringing a smile to Blake.
Blake was truly enjoying this girl. Then it struck her. Out of the three girls in front of her, she was probably partnered with the worst one.
"Great," she sighed.
The four unsheathed their weapons, all prepped and waiting for the group that would be their targets.
A moment later they heard their shouting. Then they saw them all, a little worse for wear, but still ready to go on the offensive. Blake rolled her neck. After being partnered with the Schnee heiress, she could really use some stress relief.
"Sup boys!" The blonde shouted, causing all of them to stop in their tracks, weapons still raised.
Collectively, they all looked at the blonde, then at Blake and the heiress. Then, their gaze fell onto Pyrrha Nikos. Pyrrha for her part smiled and gave them a shy wave. With each new person they saw, their weapons lowered just a little bit.
"Maybe we should head out, Cardin." Said one of the boys, looking to the one in front of them, most definitely their leader.
"That's Pyrrha freaking Nikos. The Invincible Girl. If she were alone, maybe we could take her. But with the blonde chick and the other two?"
"What do you mean by 'the other two'? We have names as well!" Weiss scowled and stomped her foot.
The blonde turned to her, "I don't know about you, but my name isn't 'the blonde chick', so I think only Pyrrha gets to have a namedrop."
"Well, I like to think I'm just as famous as Pyrrha Nikos is," Weiss lowered her weapon to turn and glare at the blonde.
"I don't know about you, but Pyrrha has her face on a cereal. Bet she milks that brand for everything their worth."
Pyrrha's head dropped, sighing deeply at the girl bringing up her cereal sponsor. If Blake were human, she wouldn't have heard the girl mutter, "why did I have to sign up for that sponsorship. It's just so sugary."
Blake nearly chuckled at the remark.
Weiss and the blonde continued to bicker, though the blonde seemed more disappointed that Weiss was not acknowledging her pun.
"Umm, guys?" Blake finally chimed in.
"Huh?"
"The boys you wanted to fight?"
"Ya? What about them?"
"Well, they seem to have run off."
"Oh." The blonde tilted her head, as if confused by the prospect that anyone would run instead of fighting four armed huntresses-in-training. "That's a little disappointing. Sorry Pyrrha, I was hoping for a little fight or something. Maybe next time?"
"Of course. Until next time," came Pyrrha's cheerful reply. "Hello everyone. My name is Pyrrha Nikos. I would be delighted to make all of your acquaintances."
"Heh, everyone knows who you are, Pyr-Pyr. Oh, I'm Yang!" Yang said with a smile and a wave.
"Pyr-Pyr?"
"Ya, trying out new nicknames. Whatcha think?"
"I've never had a true nickname given to me by my peers before. I think I quite enjoy it."
"No prob!" Yang winked and held a thumb up.
"My name is Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company in At-"
"And I'm Blake."
"Hey! Don't interrupt me."
"It is a pleasure to meet you Blake, Weiss."
"Ditto."
And then they just stood there. Awkwardly. Even Blake, who loved her moments of silence found this one to be quite overbearing. But really, there was not much else to discuss at this point. As of now, they were just two pairs of partners. There was not even any surety that they would see each other again after Initiation, if one pair failed. There was still one final objective to complete before they were done. Finding that civilian.
"Does anyone know where the civilian might be?" Pyrrha helpfully said, her own thoughts mimicking Blake's.
"Ruby? No, haven't seen her in a while." Yang said with a shrug.
Both Blake and Weiss did a double-take.
"Did you say Ruby? As in Ruby Goodwitch? Short kid, likes wearing red?" Weiss asked.
"Don't know about her last name. She bumped into a tree, introduced herself as Ruby, said she was the civilian, but had to keep that a secret. Then she told me how I needed to upgrade my weapon and stalled me until a professor could catch up and attack me. The little bugger darted off afterwards. I'd be impressed with her pranking talents if I wasn't so annoyed."
"That child…" Weiss muttered.
"Well, at least we know what she looks like. That gives us a leg up on the competition," Blake said, deep in thought.
Ruby. Ruby Goodwitch as the civilian. A ten-year-old was the person they all had to catch and capture. No wonder Professor Goodwitch was so serious about ensuring her safety during Initiation. That also meant they would need to be extra careful about how to go about her capture. She was a child after all. That meant a much greater risk of bruising or cuts and scrapes. Ruby was young, meaning she likely did not have her aura unlocked yet.
But that brought up the question why she would be allowed to risk being the civilian in this test.
"Yang, when you bumped into Ruby, could you tell if her aura was unlocked?"
Yang nodded, "definitely. She was buzzing around with her semblance and everything. Rose petals were flying everywhere. Knowing they were coming off of a little girl, it was quite adorable."
A semblance at age ten? That was remarkable. Beyond remarkable. Most people did not even unlock their aura until age twelve, often when they started at combat schools. Even those training outside the system waited until they were ten to unlock their aura. But to have discovered their semblance at that age? Either Ruby had discovered her semblance days after unlocking her aura, to give her time to master the semblance, or she had unlocked her aura at an extremely young age.
This girl was getting stranger and stranger.
"I've got an idea that I think you're all going to love. Well, I know Pyr is going to love it, but I think you guys will to."
"We're waiting," Weiss said with an exasperated sigh directed to Yang.
"Since we all know what Ruby looks like, or are partnered with someone who does, we're on a fairly level playing field. First pair to capture Ruby and complete Initiation wins?"
"And what will the winners get?" Weiss said, suddenly intrigued.
"It should not be monetary in value," Pyrrha suggested.
"We can always have it just be a one-time no-questions-asked request?" Blake joked.
They all thought for a moment and grinned. Without a word of acceptance, they smiled. The challenge had been set and reward declared.
"ThreeTwoOneGo!" Yang shouted, blasting off into the forest with Pyrrha hot on her heels.
Leaving Blake and Weiss alone.
To look at each other.
And remember the argument that had introduced the two of them to each other.
Weiss huffed in sullen acceptance. "Fine, let's get going. Just don't slow me down."
"Don't worry, I've managed to survive this long without a personal chauffeur. I think I can manage to keep up." Blake said, not willing to drop their admittedly petty argument in the courtyard.
At least she was willing to follow Weiss in a random direction. The goal was Ruby at least. Ruby was quite nice, even though she knew about her faunus features.
Initiation couldn't get much worse than this at least.
Congratulations to Zapper Frost who made the correct guess! 10 points to you, good sir. Don't spend them all in one place, ya here?
And all the pairings are set! I have no clue what the groupings of 4 are going to be, let alone their acronyms, so please give me some suggestions if you have any! A quick reminder of the pairings (in no order):
Yang Xiao Long - Pyrrha Nikos
Blake Belladonna - Weiss Schnee
Jaune Arc - Lie Ren
Ilia Amitola - Nora Valkyrie
Good luck on those grouping names!
Nagaichi - Thanks!
merendinoemeliano - I know, fights are something I definitely need to improve. Practice makes perfect at least!
dragon soul97 - Bz. Incorrect! But not bad guesses. How did you like the answer?
Darknight2124 - You know it! 'Sneakily' is my middle name! i am legally 0neWho Sneakily Wanders! lol
Zapper Frost - Ah right! If nobody past, it would be an awkwardly empty first semester and everyone would have the chance to try again the following semester. Goodwitch would be extremely annoyed with all the extra work that would entail. Ozpin would find it hilarious though.