Chapter 6: Arin and The Sniper

As the doors of the blimp opened, Drew jumped out and landed on the platform. He stretched after the long trip back up to the school grounds.

"YOU FOOL!" he heard Richard call out from inside the blimp, furious at him. "You are to wait until the safety protocol declares it is safe for you to exit!"

'You may now disembark.' The intercom called out to the passengers.

"SEE?!" Richard leapt out of the doors, demonstrating to Drew the proper procedure.

"Now now, you two." Ozpin lightly scolded as he and the other two left the blimp.

"But sir! His attitude and manners aren't appropriate for a school environment!" Richard begged with his headmaster.

"Hey, this isn't about me, it's about Arin." Drew shrugged, shifting the conversation topic to his partner. "Say, why are back in school anyway?" Drew questioned.

"I said I had to show what's wrong. And the most suitable place to do it is at school." Arin explained.

"What specifically are you planning on doing here?" Richard questioned. He got right up in his face. "Because if it isn't suitable in school..."

"Relax." Arin shoved Richard to the side and began to walk down the launch pad's area. "We're going to the shooting range."


All five of them were inside the indoor shooting range that students use for practice. Since everyone had their Friday off, they were spending it down in Vale. Everyone had earmuffs on and Arin was preparing his gun-knife hybrid to aim at a target down the far end of the range. Before he did so, he faced the other four. "Okay so, just to testify, Arin, Richard and Nina, you all know that I am completely sober right now, right?"

"WHAT?!" Drew yelled.

Arin snagged the earmuffs off of Drew's ears. "You God damn idiot... Anyway!" Arin went back to the topic at hand. "So, a few months before I came to Beacon, Ozpin found me in the alleyway of this bar." he explained.

"Not surprising." Richard retorted, feeling smug.

"Is there anything in your rulebook that says you can interrupt someone when they're talking?" Arin sarcastically jabbed.

"C-carry on!" Richard responded immediately. Apparently, there is.

"Anyway, I was fighting these thugs and they were runnin' off and then Ozpin came up to me and started talking."

"I noticed that he was fighting in a rather peculiar way." Ozpin continued.

"Oh, you mean Arin's 'Drunken Kung-fu Master But He Uses a Gun' style?" Drew asked.

"You... actually named it?" Arin groaned as a bead of sweat ran down the side of his head.

"I helped!" Nina cried.

"Well, me and Ozpin got talking an' I told him my reason for drinking all the time."

"Wait, you have a reason? I just thought you were an alcoholic." Drew shrugged.

"Agh, shaddup and put yer earmuffs on!" Arin yelled as they all did so and he faced down the range. At the far end was a cardboard cut out of a human outline which was his target. Arin took a deep breath and held out his pistol with both hands. He aimed at the target carefully for a few seconds before firing a single bullet. The four spectators looked down the ranged to the target and were surprised. Arin missed. Poorly. The bullet hole was a good two feet away from the target. Frustrated, Arin fired two more shots, neither of which were any closer. As Arin got flustered, his right arm began to twitch. It was slight at first, but Arin's arm quickly descended into flat out spasming. He dropped his weapon and fell down to his knees in pain.

"A-Arin! Are you okay?!" Drew gasped in fright as he, Nina and Richard ran over to Arin's side.

"Yeah... I'm fine." Arin grunted, trying to control his pain. He gripped his right shoulder as his twitching died down.

"What... what was that?" Drew asked, helping Arin to his feet.

"Medical conditions should be shared with teammates!" Richard yelled at him. "As stated in 'Student Guidlines' Section 4-"

"It's not a medical condition!" Arin yelled back, angry that Richard would be acting so stupid at a time like this. "Not really..." Arin sighed as he removed his coat and let it lie on the floor.

"Whoa, whoa, Arin, what're you doing?" Drew asked, concerned at the sudden removal of clothes. Arin then grabbed the bottom of his shirt at both sides and began pulling it up over his head. "Oh my God Arin, control yourself! There's a girl in the room!"

"St-stripping is proper behavior in a school environment!" Richard yelled, also flustered.

Nina just stared at Arin, still concerned over his previous incident.

But when Arin fully took off his shirt, what caught their attention wasn't some smexy, bishounen fanservice-y body like Drew expected, but a scar. It was a small scar in the shape of a circle located just below his shoulder and it made several crack-like markings all across his body. "... oh." Drew blinked.

"Yup." Arin gestured towards the center of his scar. "This scar's been giving me trouble. I can't aim properly."

"But... I've seen you shoot Beowolves and Grimm easily before." Drew objected.

"Yeah, as it turns out, alcohol reaaally eases the pain." Arin shrugged.

"Seriously?! That's the reason you're such a heavy drinker?!" Drew hysterically yelled.

"Well, it does taste good too."

"Wait, how did you get that scar in the first place?"

"That's where the story begins. It was a little more than a year ago, when I was still in the military..."


In a shooting gallery in a military campus, a young boy with a high caliber sniper rifle was aiming carefully down at a target. His hair was long and but tied up in a pony tail. He shot at the human shaped target, taking a few seconds to recover from the recoil in between each round. After shooting 5 bullets, he removed his eye from the scope of his rifle to look down at the target. There were several holes in the upper torso.

"Woo~" He heard someone whistle. "Not too shabby!"

The sniper turned to his left to see his tall, lanky friend staring down at the target he was previously shooting at. "A-Arin!" he said in surprise.

"Yo, 'sup, Raito?" Arin casually gestured with a smile. "Getting a little bit of practice in before our Graduation Hunt?" He grinned widely.

"Y-yeah..." Raito sheepishly confirmed.

Arin chuckled and patted his smaller friend on the head. "There's no need to be ashamed about it, it's just practice! But still..." Arin stared at the target with a competitive glint in his eyes. In a very sudden motion, he reached to the back of his belt, pulled out a Desert Eagle handgun and aimed it down at the target with his right hand. He fired several bullets and swiftly put the gun back in it's holster. Raito looked down the range to see that the bullets hit the head of the target and the pattern it hit it made it look like two eyes and a goofy smile. "...If you want to be a sniper, you gotta get on my level of aim!" he boasted with a dramatic laugh.

"Jeez, Arin..." Raito mumbled with his jaw on the floor. "How can you do that?..."

"I'm just too damn good." Arin chuckled. "But anyway, we should probably get going. Rosalind is seriously gonna kill us if we're late." Arin explained, turning suddenly serious. Raito nodded in agreement.

They exited the gallery to make their way to-


"Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Drew cut off Arin mid-sentence. "I've been trying to hold my tongue for a while, but I have to say something!"

"Wh... what?" Arin gritted his teeth.

"You aren't being descriptive enough!

"Excuse me?"

"You keep saying that the two of you are in a gallery. What's it like? Is it indoors or outdoors?"

"Well, uh..."


They exited the indoor gallery to make their way to the meeting hall.

After walking for-


"And another thing!" Richard also interjected. "You said this was in a military training campus!"

"Yes..." Arin confirmed, growing more annoyed by the second.

"I am familiar several different campuses. Which one is it?! Where is it located?!"

"Ugh.. I don't remember where specifically it was located, but-"


The campus was located just a few miles out of the border of Vale, in the wildlands. It was located here-


"Why is it located there?"

"God dammit, Drew!"

"I mean, come on! Placing a bunch of cadets-in-training in the middle of Grimm infested territory?!"

"You fool!" Richard answered in Arin's stead. "Training campuses are located in hazardous regions to strengthen the cadets' survival and combat skills!"

"I have a question too." Nina piped up. "Why are you and Raito friends in this? You seemed pretty hostile to him back in town."

"O-oh, yeah..." Arin was caught off guard that it was Nina who was asking the sensible question. Though, he was honestly surprised that anyone made a sensible question. "Well, you see..."


When Arin and Raito were still in the army, the two of them were close. As thick as thieves, Despite Arin's cocky nature at the time and Raito's timid one, the two shared a strong brotherly bound.

When the two left the gallery-


"You had a best friend other than me?! How could you?!" Drew yelled as he bear hugged/tackled his partner with tears flowing out of his eyes.

"Get the hell off me Drew!" Arin continuously tried to shove Drew off of him.

"I have a question." Richard asked.

"What is it?!"

"Why is he using a sniper rifle and you have a hand gun? Two people using projectile weapons is hardly a suitable combat strategy!"

"Right!" Arin roared, shocking his other teammates into kneeling on the floor obediently. "Listen! All you need to know is this: Me and Raito were good friends who were in the same squad back in a military training camp; we used to hang out with Rosalind and Jean; I was a cocky little shit at the time; and the story I'm telling is set on our graduation day and we're going to do our 'traditional hunt'!"

"Well jeez, why didn't you just say that in the beginning, huh?" Drew huffed.


2 minutes later...


"Okay, so if everyone's ready, I'll resume the story." Arin declared. "Drew, you ready?"

"Yep." Drew responded, holding back the pain of his new black eye and bruises on his face, courtesy of Arin.

"Alright then!"


They exited the gallery to make their way to the meeting hall. After a few minutes of walking, they met Rosalind and Jean waiting for them outside. Rosalind was not impressed with their tardiness, while Jean was leaning against a wall in his usual apathy.

"Where the hell have you two been?!" Rosalind cried angrily.

"I-I'm sorry..." Raito sheepishly replied. "I was getting a little bit of practice in before the hunt."

"I was sleepin'." Arin shrugged.

"You jerk! We were worried, goddammit!" Rosalind smacked Arin on the head. "And it's okay if you were just practicing a bit..." she patted Raito on the head, motherly like.

"Don't be spreading rumors about me, I wasn't worried in the slightest." Jean droned.

"Oh yeah?" Arin grinned mischievously. "Then why are you waiting here for us?"

"... shut up."

"Hahaha!" Arin chuckled. "Anyway, how late are we?"

"Sergeant Grants is already giving his speech. We can still sneak in the back without being noticed." Rosalind explained.

"Alright, let's go!"

The four squad members silently opened the doors and crept inside. They were at the back of a large group of cadets, standing in attention and facing up to a large podium with a somewhat old, stern faced man giving a speech to the young cadets. Arin, Raito, Rosalind and Jean managed to stand in without being noticed.

"Alright maggots!" The sergeant yelled out. "For three years now, I've been trying to make soldiers out of you pieces of dirt! And although there may be a few of you who can shoot a gun without fallin' on your ass, most of you still don't have the brass to fight on the front lines! And that's where today's ceremony comes in..." During the speech, Raito caught a glimpse of Arin standing next to him. He could've sworn he saw Arin give a menacing grin as he heard the ending part of the speech. "Today, you kids will be hunting some Grimm!"


All the cadets made their way to just outside the border of the campus. Some stayed alone just beyond the safety border, others had formed groups of their own and were running far out into the dusty wastelands. Arin and the others had formed their own little team. "Alright, everyone!" he announced to his friends. "You all remember the procedure?"

"Yeah... In about a minute the higher ups will blow a horn ad release some sort of scent into the air..." Jean sighed, uninterested in the situation.

"T-then a bunch of B-Beowolves and other Grimm will c-come to get us..." Raito shivered as he hugged his sniper rifle for security.

"And then it's clobberin' time! ...Until we decide we're unable to fight." Rosalind cheered.

"But, you kids should just go back to base from the get-go!" Arin chuckled, readying his hand gun and pulling out his combat knife that was hidden inside his boot. "I can take whatever's coming myself!"


"If they already know this, then why are they explaining it to each other?" Drew interjected. "I mean, that just sounds like really lazy writing!" Arin pulled out his gun-knife and pointed it directly and Drew's head, with the blade just millimeters away from his face. "Carry on."


Everyone was waiting anxiously, until a sudden and loud horn signaled the beginning of the hunt.

The instructors on the other side of the dust powered barrier pulled pins out of smoke grenades and threw them over the barrier. They released an ominous red mist into the air which all the cadets recognised as Grimm bait. Within seconds, they all heard the pattering of feet. They all looked at hill a couple of hundred meters away to witness dozens and dozens of Beowolves running towards them.

"Alright maggots!" Sergeant Grants yelled at the nervous cadets. "You can opt out any time, but just remember your training! Keep calm, aim forward, and-"

"Wooo~!" Arin screamed in excitement as he rapidly emptied his clip at the Beowolves, each bullet taking a wolf down. "You suckers can run along back home, I can practically take all of them down!" he yelled as he dashed towards the hoard of monsters. He skillfully reloaded his handgun with one hand and shot more bullets at the wolves.

"Oi!" Rosalind grunted as she and Jean ran into the fray after him.

Raito set up the stand for his sniper rifle and lay down, aiming at the battle taking place. Most of the other cadets had begun to fight, some dropping out after a few seconds and running for cover back through the Grimm-filtering barrier into the base. Those who remained were holding their own against the wolves, Arin in particular was taking down several wolves easily. In fact, he was enjoying himself... Despite being surrounded by by the wolves on all sides, he carefully and precisely stabbed the advancing Beowolves in any vital spots he saw while dodging their claws and fangs. He would occasionally fire a bullet from his gun, which would always hit a Beowolf square in the head. Raito was sniping any Beowolves he could get a clear shot at from a safe distance. As he was searching for a stationary target, Raito spotted another wolf coming over the hill. This one seemed much larger and angrier as it slowly prowled down the hill into the skirmish. Raito aimed carefully at it. 'This guy looks like trouble... Imagine what people'll think of me if I take him down...' Raito reasoned as he tried to center the prowling Beowolf in his sight.

"Ooh~! Look at that!" Arin grinned menacingly as he spotted the large Beowolf descending down the hill. "Everyone leave that guy to me!" he yelled to no one in particular as he dashed off towards it.

Raito was confident in his steadying aiming and was gripping the trigger without fully pulling it. Through the scope he saw the wolf slow down and growling at something. 'Now!' Raito squeezed the trigger at his chance to kill it.

"Here you are, ya sonuvabitch!" Arin yelled as he jumped towards to large wolf. He didn't realise that he had jumped into the line of Raito's rifle just as he pulled the trigger.

'No...' were the only words going through Raito's head as he could only witness what happened. The bullet impacted into the back of Arin's shoulder blade. Blood squirted out in jolts out of the bullet hole as Arin fell to the ground.

"AAAARRGGH!" Arin screamed in pain.

Rosalind heard the screaming and turned to see Arin falling to the ground in a bloody mess, right in front of a large Beowolf. "Oh my God.. someone get Arin!" she yelled as she ran towards her fallen comrade.

Raito had let his rifle fall down on the ground as he just stared at the scene in disbelief. "What... have I done?..."


"After that, they managed to get me back to the base and everyone retreated back behind the barrier, though the higher ups took care of that big Beowolf. I got surgery done on me, and I technically was still permitted into the army, but..." Arin lighted patted his right shoulder. "I ended up having a nervous twitch. And in a career where you need a steady hand, I didn't last long and I had to leave after that. That's why I have a thing against Raito." he concluded. "Because of his misjudgment, I was kicked out of my promising job. A job I enjoyed! Then I turned alcohol and was stuck in a bar for a few months, until Ozpin found me and permitted me into joining Beacon." Arin let out a sigh as he concluded his story. "Any questions?"

"So how old are you, anyway?" Drew asked.

"Huh?"

"You were training in the army for a few years, and I don't think that they just let kids in, sooo..."

"Well, in the middle of next month I'll be ninetee- Wait a goddamn minute!" Arin flinched. "That isn't what's important here!"

"YOU'RE RIGHT!" Richard yelled. "The practices of that training camp are completely out of line! Forcing Cadets to fight Grimm?! They must be reported immediately!"

"Yeah!" Nina agreed. "How could they do that to those poor Beowolves?!"

"Guys! What the hell?! Aren't you like, concerned about me, our anything?!" Arin hysterically yelled.

"Well, of course. We knew there was some sensitive subject you had, or something." Drew explained. "Like I said, everyone has some tragic backstory."

"HOWEVER!" Richard declared. "Regardless of personal history, you have the duty of being a model student, just like everyone else! AND WE EXPECT THAT MUCH OF YOU!"

"Yeah! You're usually the most competent one of us all!" Nina pouted. "To hell with some ol' grudge!"

"To sum it up: regardless of whatever happened to you in the past, we think you're capable enough to handle yourself." Drew gave him a thumbs up. "We trust you to do what you do!"

"Guys..." Arin smiled lightly at his teammate's trust in him. "Wait a minute... why did you make me tell you everything?"

"I was just curious. Looking for something to waste the time with." Drew shrugged.

"You little-" Arin grabbed Drew into a headlock and began nuggying him.

"Ach! Arin! Stop!" Drew gasped.

"Physical violence that isn't consented as sparring isn't welcome in a school environment!" Richard scolded, but didn't intervene.

"Arin~! Stop being a meanie!" Nina added.

Ozpin chuckled as he watched the scene play out. 'Perhaps they're better friends than what they let on...' He turned and left the team to their argument.


Rosalind stared outside the window of the blimp. Jean was typing away on a laptop and Raito was staring between his feet at the ground. Rosalind stole a few glimpses of Raito. After a few minutes, she decided to ask the question she and Jean both had on their minds. "Raito... are you okay with this?"

Raito needed a second to collect himself to answer. "Before... Arin was important to me. He was an inspiration to me..." Raito let out a heavy sigh. "But... There's no other explanation. This is something we need to do."

Rosalind let out an inaudible sigh. They could feel the blimp slow down and the doors open. "... let's go." Jean ordered. They all stood up and exited the blimp. They crossed the landing path and entered Beacon's grounds. Fortunately, they noticed the team they were looking for walking towards the dorm rooms, bickering about something. "There they are..."

Rosalind was the first to walk towards team DARN, followed by Raito and Jean. As they approached them, team DARN's expressions changed to ones of surprise. "R-Rosalind, guys..." Arin greeted. "What are you doing here?"

The three looked at each other awkwardly, all sharing a similarly sorrowful expression. Rosalind closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Arin Heartly!" she yelled fiercely.

"Y-yeah..."

"You're under arrest for the murder of several military members of high rank!"


AN: Dun!Dun!Dun! Find out what happens next time on CSI Beacon! In all seriousness, sorry if there was a bit of a delay on this chapter, I had exams on. But now it's the summer holidays! And you know what that mean! I get to stay inside all day while the sun shines, all to write a story about a group of misfits!