Yeah, yeah, I know- late as shit, but whatever. Also, in case any of you haven't read my other story(Which is all of you, you ungrateful bastards.), my computer went coo-coo for being broken, so now I have to write my stories on mobile, and that takes a shit ton more time than normal, and on top of everythingelse, my updates will be even slower until I can buy a new one.
But, you know. Love Senpai, live Senpai, read my stories, and all that good jazz.
"Damn, damn, son of a bitch, damn!" I cursed to myself silently in the pitch black of JWRN's dormroom the very night that Initiation took place, looking under a microscope as I brooded my angst away on my bed. When I had taken a tiny sample of what little Reiatsu I could gather in myself(Which was pathetically the only amount of energy I could even scrounge up to begin with, mind you-), this was not at all what I had hoped to find out.
In fact, in the spectrum of things, this was the least wanted thing right next to finding out that I had erectile dysfunction coupled with prostate cancer and a sudden case of infertility.
The two were very close on said spectrum, still.
When I had looked under the microscope to analyze the nature of my Reiatsu in the hopes of figuring out my problems with 'Performance Anxiety', the results had been what I had always wished the paternity tests for all my bastard, one night stand children would be.
Inconclusive.
Sadly, life loved fucking me(And I, it… But not in the literal sense, mind you- wouldn't do to just start humping the air randomly and hope I score with the bitch that way.), so that was not the case. Before I could even procure a proper device with which I could conduct my experiments, my tiny, meager sample of me juice(No, we are still on the Reiatsu, not my sperm- perverts.) was already deteriorating in the atmosphere around us, and by the time I got it under the scope, I had scant seconds to observe before the sample faded entirely.
Luckily for me, however, I was the leading expert in my universe when it came to all things Reishi, Reiryoku, and Reiatsu, so I had seen examples of this before.
Mainly in Quincy specimens that had abundant amounts of Hollow Reishi flowing through their veins after being infected by one of us.
Now, this either meant something was destroying me from the inside, or the very oxygenated areas around me had some kind of bacterial, virus, or even its own Reishi that was counteracting against my own to obstruct my powers from manifesting.
If it was the former, then Jaune Arc had something inside him before we 'Merged', so to speak(If the fact that this body got my insane love for masochistic streaks, or the fact I got his supposed love for Bloopy Reggae Jams was anything to go by-), that was interfering with my ability to use kick ass, godlike attacks and impeccably precise support techniques, or the very world as Jaune Arc knew it was out to kill me. Sadly, it wouldn't be the first time.
You didn't get me back then, and you're certainly not getting me now in your funworld of death, you sleazy, cheese eating republican rat!
A-hem, getting back on track, from the past experiences I have seen and heard of in tales long since past, however, basically all evidence so far was proving to lean more for the first case, as if the world was indeed just rejecting my Reiatsu, I would still have access to my Reiryoku, and be able to perform the basic techniques every Hollow was born with that didn't require manifesting Reiatsu outside the body with control no new-born Hollow could hope to have, and not be able to pool even the smallest amounts of energy into the world like I had done a whole ago.
However, even pooling my Reiryoku together to attempt anything was met with failure as I had no damn Reiryoku to even SPEAK of at the moment!
So, sufficed to say, it was easy to deduce that the world wasn't out to (Pro-)actively kill me, so then it must be something else going on in my body that was causing me to be unable to use anything. What that could possibly be, though, was beyond even my perception, as I hadn't the slightest in the way of clues.
It couldn't be the conduit(AKA: The body.), as it seemed to have gained all my resistances and immunities to outside, foreign bodies, so I couldn't have been infected with anything from this world, and there is little-to-no known illnesses of this nature to be spoken of for the Hollow species as a Hole(Yang was really rubbing me the wrong way… Okay, okay, I'll stop with the jokes.), because, say what you will, for a bunch of beasts with little in the way of intelligence and being cannibal as fuck, our bodies took different pathogens and bacteria a lot better than any other known species out there, so illnesses were out on both sides.
But that left so little which could be left; could my inability to mold Reiatsu be a byproduct of our bodies fusions? Will it eventually fade in time when we finally fuse completely, or did something in said process jack up and destroy my pools of power in the same way?
"Ugh! There are too many possibilities, with only so many plausible solutions!" I growled silently so that I wouldn't wake up any of my team members(Especially Nora- may whatever deity out there have mercy on my poor soul if it was Nora-) as I slammed a hand into my bed, spilling one of the many books piled on top of it onto the floor by accident. "Damn it!" Once more cursing, but this time at my own stupidity and not something completely out of my hands in terms of possibility, I reached down and picked it back up, glancing at the title from the corner if my eyes as I placed it back onto a nearby pile.
I froze.
Wait, DJ, play me back that last track again.
Uh, what?
You know, play that last one back to me again.
Hablar Ingles, porfavor?
God damn it, man, you are ME! You know the same shit I do, so you know what it means!
I don't know shit when the dumbass telling me the shit doesn't even know what is spilling out of his own mouth!
… Just repeat what you said back in that last paragraph, jackass.
Oh! You could have just said so in nerd speak. Geez.
'May whatever deity out there have mercy on my poor soul if it was Nora' There! Zoom in, eleventh word! 'Soul?'
Son of a bitch, it was right in front of me.
Picking back up the fallen book again, I examined it further.
'The Rays of your Life! A Guide to Souls, Aura, and Semblances!'
It wasn't my body that was a hindrance, it was my soul! Specifically, my CONJOINED soul that was currently situated inside the same body, with possibly two warring energy presences that both have to do with the state a soul is usually in…
Okay, now you all probably think me stupid, but give me a break here! This is like my third day here, and my first even knowing what the fuck an Aura is!
Quietly clicking my tongue in annoyance, I flicked the book open to a seemingly random page and started reading pointedly.
Semblances are similarly linked to the soul, like Aura, but not nearly as much as Aura itself is, and is more related to the use of Aura, so is more indirectly connected to the soul. Aura, however, as stated previously, is much more in tune to the soul than a Semblance. If even the tiniest change to the soul is made, such as the death of a loved one, or a bodily injury that inflicts permanent harm to the person in the form of physical injury or a negative development to the mind of the user, change is easily felt and seen within the Aura. There have even been cases seen in which the person underwent such modification that their Aura transformed completely or, in a very severe few, locked itself away forever.
That… Couldn't be good.
Ah, my favorite part of the day, at last!
"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!" "WHAT IN THE DUST-" "MY COOKIES!" "BUT I DON'T WANNA GO TO THE ACADEMY! It smells like the albinos!" Each of my team members fell to the floor, floored as to what woke them up.
You want someone to blame? Blame Yang.
I had the feeling I would be saying that a lot from now on.
"What the- ARC? What is the meaning of this?!" Weiss got off of the tangled mess that were her teammates and straightened her nightgown as she glared at me.
Of maybe it was aimed at the air horn in my hand, hard to tell.
"The meaning of this, is that it is already 7, and none of you are up, so I decided to wake you myselves before you missed breakfast AND classes." They each seemed to perk up at that. "Breakfast? You brought us BREAKFAST?! I knew that Headmaster guy chose you as our leader for a reason!"
Yaeh. He chose me as leader so I could be breakfast boy, Nora.
… Son of a bitch, he chose me as leader so I could be breakfast boy!
Ignoring the sudden twitch in my eye, I shook my head. "Anyway, hurry up and get dressed before the breakfast I made gets cold." As Nora and Ruby yelped and hightailed it to the bathroom, Weiss eyeballed me. "You made the breakfast? Not the cafeteria?" "Yeah." I shrugged, idly itching at the collar of my blazer that I left unbuttoned and without a tie. "Don't get me wrong, I am sure the food there is good and all-" I actually wasn't sure of that, but no need to get them down in the dumps before the year even started. "-But I thought our first day deserved something a little more special, so I, ah, solicited the kitchen for a while to make us all our favorite dishes." She narrowed her eyes at me. "And how do you know our favorite dishes, or even took over the Beacon cafeterias kitchen for that matter-" "Ah, ah, ah, Ice Princess." I grinned at her and gestured to the bathroom. "That would spoil the fun! But you should be getting dressed soon, anyway. School starts in less than two hours." Grumbling at that, the white haired girl went over and snatched her own uniform and went to get dressed with the others.
"Good. Now that they're up, we can also get to settling in."
Waiting and reading what was the last book in my stack of books still left untouched, I flipped a page as the girls finally came out some minutes later, dressed and ready to go. "Dang, Jaune." Ruby eyed up my(Well, to me-) unimpressive stack of books. "You sure seem eager to get a start on the school year!" "I suppose so. Hopefully this book proves more prudent than the rest of my readings before it have, too." She blinked slowly. "Wait, are you telling me you read ALL of those-" "Who cares?! NORA WANTS FOOD!" "And so Nora shall have said food." Without so much as even glancing up, I procured three trays of food from behind my back, expertly holding them up in the one arm.
"I heard you all talking some such days ago, and remember you each saying your preference for easily digestible content, so I took the liberty of making you each something special. Nora-" I handed the tray to a drooling Valkyrie. "You seem to have a fetish for all things pancake-" "Live by the pan. Die by the cake." "-So I made you pancakes with extra syrup and untold amounts a bacon on the side. Ruby-" I handed the next tray to the wide eyed girl with a red cape worn above her uniform. "I heard you love all things cookies, so I made my special Oatmeal Raisin recipe, with some milk on the side." I actually looked from my book and stared soullessly into her own eyes. "Guard them with your life so that my enemies do not get their hands on them and do unspeakable things to the deliciousness." Ruby gapsed. "They shall have to pry them from my cold dead hands, first!" Nodding to her, I went back to my book and handed the last tray to a still skeptical Weiss. And for Weiss, you spoke of your preference of coffee over tea, so with a nice iced latte, I also scrounged up a nice basil, tomato based soup, with some cucumber sandwiches on the side to snack in." Nodding in finality, I went and sat down on my bed as they all did the same.
"You should all hurry with breakfast, too, because afterwards we still have to set up our shared room." Gasping in realization, Nora and Ruby nodded. "I totally forgot that we needed to do that! Come on, guys, let's eat and get this done!" Nora didn't have to be told twice and was already stuffing her face with bacon. Weiss, however-
"And what about you?" "What about me?" I flipped a page. "Why are you not eating?" "I, if you'll remember, was up and ready to go before all of you were even up. I ate before I woke you all for the day." Not immediately getting a response, I sighed. "Really? You really think I poisoned your food?" "What?!" Ruby's hands went to her mouth(Hilariously stuffed full of cookies to the point of looking like a chipmunk-) as Nora stopped stuffing bacon in her hole(... I don't know why, but I feel like I should be apologizing for something.) and looked over, wide eyed. Ruby finally had the sense to swallow(Ha!) and looked over in disbelief at her partner. "Weiss! He was nice enough to make us all breakfast, and you're accusing him of poisoning your food?! That is messed up! Apologize and eat his amazingly delicious food right now!"
The 'So he will actually do it for us again' went unsaid.
"Sorry for actually being realistic here, Ruby- oh wait, I'm not!" "Realistic? You are just being paranoid! For NOTHING! He is our leader, and the Headmaster chose him to lead us for a reason! Besides, if he tried to do it anyway, he'd be caught immediately! There's no way he would attempt it with odds against him like that!" Wow. Thanks for the support, Ruby. "Easy for you to say! All it would take is one wrong bite, and BAM! To the morgue for me! And all because I trusted the wrong type of person!" "Oi! That's my partner you're talking about there!"
Well didn't THIS day turn out just swell?
"Okay, OKAY! That's enough! Ruby, while Weiss is being a tad bit paranoid-" "Hey!" "-Coming from the family she does, it is still probably to be expected. Her food has probably been poisoned dozens of times by assassins before, so it is probably ingrained into her to be cautious at this point. But Weiss- we are a team."
God, I shudder at that fact.
"And teams don't just go out of their way to kill teammates." Another Page flip. "We'll just do that the easy way with untold amounts of teasing and unwanted puns." "Oh please Oum, no. I get enough of that from Yang."
And you are about to get more from me too.
Welcome to grown up life, Ruby.
Where you do and put up with shit you really, really don't want to.
"Alright, alright, I'm-" Here, Weiss looked little better than as if she had swallowed a lemon Hole(All of the puns!). "-Sorry. I may have been a little too quick to assume your intentions with this breakfast. It's just- it was a little suspicious that you made our breakfasts yourself and new our favorite foods by just hearing about it once or twice." "Nah, don't worry about it." I lazily waved a hand in her direction. "Eat or don't eat, I really don't care or take offense. But we need to be getting this room in shape soon, so it is now or never." "R-Right, right…" Gulping, she daintily lifted a spoonful of the tomato based liquid, and sipped at it. "It's-" She blinked. "It's good. Really good, actually!" "Yeah! These cookies are easily the best I've ever had of their kind- maybe even the best of any I've tasted before!" "Mmhhhmmmhm!"
I was going to guess that was Nora speak for 'Good bacon!'.
"Seriously, these are amazing. Where did you learn to bake like this?" Ruby asked, still munching on the cookies. "Yes, and I have to wonder where you were taught how to make such fine cuisine as well. I haven't had personal chefs with as much skill as you before." Weiss quietly bit into a sandwich, giving off an appreciative hum as she did. "PANCAKES! BACON! PANCAKES AND BACON!"
'Nough said.
"Meh. Just an old hand at it I suppose." I shrugged at the not-so-lie.
Learning to cook so that your meals wouldn't leave your sight and be poisoned made me an old hand at it, right?
Probably did.
"Though, I have to ask about my milk- you sure it wasn't expired or anything? The color seems off, and it smells kind of different to regular milk." "Yeah! And it looks like you dropped reindeer pellets into my damn PANCAKES!" "... Uh, no, Nora, that isn't-" I shook my head. "What, you've never seen flavored milk or pancakes with added preservatives in them before?" The two aforementioned questioners slowly turned to each other. "Flavored…?" "... Pancakes?" They both quickly set about drinking and eating my concoctions to see what I was talking about, causing their eyes to widen in an almost impossible manner. "Holy cow, this milk tastes like STRAWBERRIES!" "And my pancakes have tiny chunks of chocolate inside of them! This is the greatest invention since sliced pancakes!"
They both got off their bed and started kneeling before me in reverence. "We are not worthy!" I stared for a few seconds before tilting my head to Weiss' direction. "If you're expecting me to do that too, it will take a lot more than this for me to even think about it." Pausing to look at my raised eyebrow, she rebuffed herself. "On second thought, knowing you, that could very well be in the realm of possibility…"
"Seems a bit… Cramped, don't you think?" "Whaaaaaaaaaat? Cramped, no. No no no no, nnnnnno." "But-" "Nope."
It was times like these that I hated how much Nora was like me. It made figuring out when she used sarcasm that much more difficult.
If she even used it in the first place, I mean.
I sighed as the three girls bickered on how they would fix our living arrangements. "Welllllllll, what about- wait for it." Ruby paused dramatically. "Bunkbeds." "Jaaaaaaaaaaune!" Ruby pouted and crossed her arms. "You ruined my moment." "Sorry Ruby, I couldn't help myself. Ice princess over here was glaring at you so hard I was worried she would freeze you Weiss cold!" Said Ice princess just turned her glare on me as Ruby gave me a dry look. "What?" A piece of crumpled paper hit my head. "Boooooooo!" Nora said as she gave me a thumbs down.
Everybody was a critic…
"But getting back on track, bunkbeds aren't that bad an idea." Weiss gave me a look. "Uh, yes. They are. In case you hadn't noticed, three seventeen year olds and a kid- "Hey!" "-Do not have quite a good grasp on constructing a plank of wood, let alone making our beds into something so dangerous! What if the top one fell onto the bottom one?! The person on it would be crushed!"
I stared at her blankly.
"We are at a school where they teach us how to fight massive beasts of nature, harness our incredibly volatile inner powers into the outside world, and just generally how to live in this cruddy place we call a world, and your first immediate thought when we say 'Bunkbeds' is 'It's dangerous!'?" Slowly but surely, the other two occupants of the room turned to the last remaining one as red crept up onto her otherwise porcelain skin. "W-Well, that is to say, I-I only had our best interests in…" She just gulped and shrunk in on herself.
Riiiiiiiight.
"If it's saftey you're worried about, I wouldn't bother. I have crafted much bigger things than some flimsy bunk beds for our desired comfort." Ruby looked interested at that. "Like what?" "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuh."
Don't say death cannon, don't say death cannon, don't say death cannon-
"A couch from IKEA?"
Nailed it.
Speaking of nailed, though(Really wish I were right now, that's for sure-), I looked over at the clock nailed to our dorm rooms wall and almost did a spit-take(An actual one, though, with actual spit, because I wasn't even drinking anything currently.). "Son of a female dog in heat! It's 8:50!" "So?" "So? Classes start in less than ten minutes!" "T-Ten minutes?!" Everyone in the room started panicking(Except for Nora, because I am pretty sure that while we start at zero and go to a hundred real quick, her default speed is 250.) as they tried to gather everything they needed for the day, and book it to class to hopefully not be late. "Hurry, hurry, hurry!" I tried to rush them out of the door, but Nora had other plans.
"Quickly! To the Nora-Mobile!" Wait, hadn't that Ursa died back out in the- "Ooomph!" Turns out, she went and got herself a new, used vehicle.
My back.
Shaking my head, I Decided to just roll with it… Until- "Great thinking, Nora! You always seem to know just what to do!" The fuck did THAT mean?! I quickly found out as Ruby jumped and perched herself onto my shoulders as Nora situated herself onto my back, not unlike(Yes, I get the irony here. Jackasses.) a sloth, as I finally just slapped my palm into my face. Turning my head(And earning myself a squeak and a hand hurriedly guiding my head back into position, courtesy of Ruby- who wasn't nearly as pure and naive as she led others to believe if her underwear choice the same color as her name was any indication.) to the last remaining member of my team, I raised an eyebrow at her. "If you think for one second I am doing anything similar to what those two did, you are sorely mistaken." Aw, dear old Weiss. I knew I could count on-
"You will transport me like any dignified person, with you carrying me securely in both arms, in a respectable fashion with your hands staying in one precise location, as if I feel you wandering even a bit, you will be lucky to have any by the time the day is done."
You sassy bitch.
Glancing once again at the clock, I found I had absolutely no time to argue(Or even think up any 'good' puns! Damn it.) so I just went with it and quickly picked her up in my arms like a bride, kicked open(Read: Down… I had a lot of work to do once I got back tonight.) the door and sprinted past an equally frantic and late team PYBR as I carried my team on my back(Wouldn't be the first time…) to our class.
Which, thinking back on it,was taught by some portly man or whatever, being Grimm studies(What with Hollows being of basically the same biology, mentality, combat prowess, and… Virtually everything else under the sun, I didn't expect to pay much attention in that class, nor be anything but the best in the subject, surpassing even the supposed teacher of the class.), and being in room 209, if my schedule was anything to go by.
Though, with absolutely none of the doors having any real numbers next to, above, or even on them, I honestly didn't know if I should even believe what type of fucking tree that paper was made of.
"Son of a whore, Ozpin fucked me AGAIN! There are no numbers to tell any of these classes apart!" I would at least like a cup of coffee first, maybe over a nice brunch before I get bent over a table, have my pants pulled down with my underwear and be absolutely, 100%, FUCKED- "Well, don't just stand there! Start looking for it! We have less than-" Checking her scroll, Weiss answered. "3 minutes before we are officially late- for the first day, no less!" "Worry not, princess! Your knight will ensure that this little bump does not tarnish your vast and luxurious record!" "Grand. Tell me if you see this supposed knight, will you?"
Ouch.
"Your words pierce me, but have no effect, for I have the harm of fortitude, which triples my defense against piercing weapons such as yours!" "What… What are you on?"
I grinned.
"Let us find out together, non-believer." Not wasting anymore time, I made my way to the first door, kicking it in to peer inside. "Grimm Studies?" The teacher awkwardly shook his head at the sight of us. "Semblance Manifestation…" "Damn." Moving onto the next classroom, I proceeded to do the same thing there. "Grimm Studies?" "N-No, this is 'How to Control your Aura'." "Double damn." Running over to the next door, I did the same thing again, only this time it was accompanied by a loud shriek, what looked like dust hitting the floor, and then a large explosion, taking everything inside the classroom with it. "... Not Grimm Studies."
This went on for about another minute, where I busted open doors, to varied expressions of shock, anger, annoyance(Boy was that Glynda once I came a-knockin'. Though, to be fair, it probably was equal parts of both that and anger, but I didn't stick around long enough to see how much it actually was.), and even jubilance at one point(From what I came to find was the Plant Sciences teacher, and from what I saw on his shelves, easily my new favorite class.), trying in vain to find our correct class, to no avail.
"Son of a two-timing whore! How many possible classrooms am I going to be knocking down the door to in the vague hopes of finding our needed one?!" Speak of the devil though, I panted as I knocked down the last door in this corridor, slowly making my way through the now doorless frame. "For the love of all that doesn't entirely loathe my existence, PLEASE tell me this is Grimm Studies!" "Well, you would be quite right dear boy!" The portly man behind the desk twirled his mustache and looked over at the clock, just as a bell rang. "And not a moment too soon, too! Such a showy entrance as well, why, it reminded me of a young, well, me, from back in the day! Oh yes-" The teacher went on a rant as I dropped Weiss back onto her feet, let Ruby off, and shrugged until Nora fell as well, and when they were all down, I fell to my knees, then face planted onto the floor.
Ruby looked vaguely disconcerted as she carefully toes my fallen form. "Uh, you ok down there, Jaune?" I shakily held up a hand, and lifted my thumb upwards. "Oh, good! You're still alive to mule us around fo
r another day!"
I tried telling myself that these were groans and not sobs, nor that was I crying, but letting manly tears well up from all my hard labor today.
I don't think I believed me.
I sighed tiredly as I rubbed my eyes, leisurely making my way out of the stupidest class I had ever had the displeasure of attending. Seriously, hearing Port(Like hell I would call that man- ANY MAN if it came to this school- a professor!) blabber on and on constantly about his adventures when he was younger, the beasts he took on that were apparently colossal but I doubted were the size of a large dog in real life, and the different relatives he had that had the accumulated smell of various cheeses and meats(And the one with the scratch and sniff of cabbage…) made me want to pull a picasso, twice. This had been a horrid first week, and the other classes I had weren't that much better on the spectrum of 'Give a fuck about', and the only noteworthy thing that had taken place was when Weiss went up to the front if the class for Grimm Studies to struggle against what looked like a below average sized Boarbatusk to prove she had what it took to be a leader(Because, spoiler alert, she was pissed I was made leader and not her… Fucking cry-baby.).
Because apparently barely fending off one of the weakest specimens of easily the weakest species of Grimm made her the Professor-fucking-Xavier of Huntsmen and Huntresses.
Luckily(For what little remained of my sanity-), this was the last week of the first week of the rest of our lives, and supposedly the only week where they hold off on the fun sounding classes, like the combat one and the dust safety class where we would practice using dust and even forming varied types from the basic elemental ones.
My favorite would probably be Plant Science, though.
Tots gonna Gonja my dong off.
"Give it BACK!" Hm? Looking over to the left of a once vacant hall, I saw Ruby surrounded by what looked like the Goonies(Fat, nerdy, smartmouth, asian.), trying and failing to jump and reach something the tallest one was keeping in the air above her head. "I am so going to kick your butts when I get Crescent Rose from my locker!" "Hahaha, I'm sure you will, pipsqueak. But as it is-" He shoved her to the ground, and she hit it with a quiet 'Oomph!'. "-I hold all the cards and, what is this, some kind of blanket?" He shook what I now saw as her red riding cape. "No! It's my cape! It's the last thing I have from my mother, so give it back!" "Aaaaaw, isn't that cute? The baby still wears a cape! And she thinks she is Beacon material?" They all shared in a quick laugh before the 'Leader' grinned down at Ruby. "I have no clue how someone like you made it into Beacon, but it was obviously a mistake. Luckily for you, however, your dear old friend Cardin here is more than willing to help you along! And I think we need to start with getting rid of your silly little kiddy toy, here." Here, he gripped the cloth in both hands and gestured slightly, just enough to get his point across.
"No!" I don't think I had seen Ruby move as fast as she had just then, but even then it wasn't enough, for when she reached asshole(I refer to everyone who refers to themselves in the third person as an asshole- and before you start, I have been an asshole far longer than you have most likely been alive.), she wasn't strong enough to do more than reach up and punch(Which was more like a slap from an elderly old woman for all the good it did then.) him in the face, barely tilting his face as one of his goons(Get it? Goon, Goonie? Eh? Eh- ah go fuck yourself.) moved over and pulled her back, restraining her as he did. "Oh." Cardin grinned and spit off to the side(Extremely gross.) before looking back at Ruby. "Big mistake." He gripped the cloth in an even tighter bunch in his hands, and started slowly stretching it out. "NO! PLEASE! IT'S THE LAST THING MY MOTHER GAVE ME!" Ruby was little better than a baby at this point, red faced and crying her soulful little eyes out.
The sight pulled the trigger for me.
For all you folks at home, reading one of my ever so clever and cute stories for the first time, you wouldn't know it, but I am very, very hard to anger. I've had countless limbs cut from my body, various organs expelled from my insides, been injected by poisons and drugs that would have even someone like Batman lying on the ground, writhing in agony, played 'Hide-the-Sausage-in-my-Ass' against my will, and even at some points had to watch as the closest things I had to whatever the hell 'Fry-Inds' were be tortured beyond any valid reasoning. But none of that had ever made me furious- a little peeved? Sure. Annoyed to high heaven? You bet. Angered, however? That was something else entirely. There have been very few times I was as righteously as pissed off as I was just then. When I had first became a Hollow, I was pissed, as is the nature of the creatures. When I had my sword- a part of my very soul, which was also the closest being I had to a confidant; a true, blue, person, who knew exactly what I did, felt what I did, liked what I did, hated what I did- was sealed away from me, by apparent order from itself, so my fury was more than understandable. And then you had when the biggest prick in the world to my eyes tortured the innocent girl in front of him, just because he could, and then had the gall to make her cry on top of it, to actually hurt her.
Each had their valid explanations- all Hollows feel the way I did when they are born, so it was out of my hands. The very soul I had thought understood me, and would be there until I finally just kicked the bucket, had betrayed me, so I was more than entitled to my fury. When I saw Ruby cry, well…
Okay, so I had a thing for cute objects and beings, sue me.
But can you blame me?! They are so freaking adorable that I just wanna hug them for eternity, and then some!
Ruby, as it turns out, counted as 'Cute and adorable'.
And if you fucking make something so unbelievably adorable actually cry and make them feel pain while I am around?
You were going to have a bad time.
"Maybe next time you'll show me a little respect, won't-" Cardin had a real tough time continuing any train of thought when a veritable train in and of itself kicked his face into a locker far enough to leave a dent.
On the face.
"What the-" goon number one didn't get much out in the way of words before I was behind him, taking both arms away from Ruby and kicking him to the floor hard enough to crack it, and the arms. Allowing his limp arms to pool around him I quickly made my way between the only two dicks still standing(Because for once, I wasn't hard- yeah, that's how serious this was.) and basically crushed their skulls between my two hands.
And then against each other.
Seeing them descend to the floor, I couldn't help but thank the stars above that Aura was a thing.
Would be pretty hard to explain away the four corpses on school premises...
"I believe this is yours?" Reaching out, I grasped the still floating cloak and handed it back to a still stuttering mess that was Ruby.
Did I mention this happened in around 2.8 seconds? Because it did. "J-J-Jaune!" Reaching out, she snatched her cloak up fast, and started to try and fix herself up. "F-Funny s-s-seeing y-you here!" She rubbed at her puffy eyes to get rid if any free tears. "I was just- just on my way back to the dorm!" She sniffled again.
It made my lolicon loving heart ache.
So I sighed. "Come on-" Despite many a protest, I lifted her up into my arms and started walking back to our dorm room again. "The first thing we are doing during training is making sure you can actually fight without your weapon. Seriously, watchng butt-muncher go to town on you with his team when I knew you would wipe the floor with him otherwise was painful." She just looked like someone kicked her puppy and stared down at the floor sadly. "I'm sorry-" "For being an inconvenience? For being useless? For being as weak as a Magikarp on land… Or sea? For making me go through another stupid friendship speech? For not wearing a short enough skirt which I can get my jollies off on? For all of the above?" The young girl just looked out of place and was opening and closing her mouth, trying to come up with an appropriate response to those last questions. "Uuuuuuuuuuuuh…" "The answers to all of those should be no, Ruby- you're not an inconvenience, you definitely aren't useless, Magikarps eventually evolve into beastly ass Gyarados's, and while I hate friendship speeches, I am not adverse to them if they get messages through people's abnormally thick skulls." "What about the, um, skirt, thing?"
Okay fine, the answers to most of them should be no.
"The point is, you're fifteen Ruby. You can't do everything right away- even I, as impossible as that is to hear, can't do any and everything. You grow from experiences and learn, like from your last encounter. You know now not to be caught off guard, and to train to be better in combat without your weapon. And if you do that, I am sure Cardin will be as much a pushover to you as he is to me; and if his merry band of mis-shits want to intervene on your asskicking, well-" I cracked my neck. "Nora would be proud to hear what I would do to them." She chuckled, a bit weak sounding, but mostly still filled with mirth as I rounded the corner to our dorm hall. "And considering today is Friday, the weekend is here, and I can help with your training tomorrow." She cracked a grin. "Any good tips then, coach?" I made a face that looked like I was actually pondering the question. "Yeah; grow your hair out. You would look even more beautiful that way." My grin split my face as hers couldn't possibly get any redder as I dropped her to her feet and swiped my scroll through the lock, opening our door.
"Now remember, you should rest up for tomorrow, because you'll need to alive and aware entirely for your torture tomorrow." I walked in and looked at the neat bunkbeds I had put together at the beginning of the week(Though, considering I had no use for sleep, I made a tiny wooden floor which I stuck above Nora's bed that had a small desk and shelf where I could work on my projects without taking up everyone else's space in lieu of a bed.), immediately sighing as I felt like I was missing something important I had to do.
BAM!
The door which I had hastily put back onto it's broken hinges so that I could go out and buy more to fix it. Of course.
"Don't you mean, training?" I walked over to where my bed was, and pulled out a screwdriver with a box of screws from under mattress, as well as a bag full of various things, while sparing the poor naive child a pitying glance as I did. "Normally I would try to lie and say it is, but I just can't lie about the amount of hell you are going to go through." She gulped nervously as the rest of our motley crew walked by our fallen door, staring at it as they entered our room. "Jaune-Jaune, I think the door has a booboo." "I know, Nora. It is lucky I am such an astounding doctor so I can fix it right up, then." Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "It is a door, not a child. And you are a dunce, not a pediatric doctor." I walked passed her and made my way to the door, inspecting it as I did. "Says the girl who wouldn't know the first thing about the intricacies of treating mononucleosis, a disease primarily found in children's ages 12-18, with anti-inflammatory biotics, or how to diagnose it and tell the difference between a terrible bacterial infection compared to just swollen tonsils."
She opened her mouth and lifted a finger, before finally lowering it and lifting her mouth back up.
Thought that would shut her up.
"Anyway, don't think you two will be getting out of the hell I am creating tomorrow, because I like making my time as efficient as possible, so you will be training with Ruby to lower the amount of life I am spending teaching you all how to fight properly." I looked at the hinges on the doorframe, and nodded at seeing them still mostly intact, before looking at the ones on the door and cringing.
Yeah, it would normally take some major work to deface a piece of metal like that. And I would rather not talk about the eight other pieces of metal I had that were originally two wholly intact screws either.
Luckily I had gone out and… Procured some new ones from a store who was well known not to be kind to innocent little kitties and bunny rabbits. Of course, the owner was none the wiser, as I had amazing skillz.
The flaming bag of animal refuse I left on his doorstep did make it into the news, however(How desperate were these people for more news if they literally had to make articles on flaming, paper containers of shit?).
"Ugh." Weiss groaned and fell backwards onto her bunk. "It is the first weekend of our time here in Beacon- we should be using this time to relax." Who was this lazy bitch, and what did she do with the strict bitch? "Or catch up on some much needed studying." Ah, there she was. "Maybe you need to do that, but I am ahead of everyone in class, and I took the liberty of doing all your homework so you wouldn't have any excuses to get out of this." At that, they all paused and suddenly reached for their books. "Holy cow, a guy that kicks ass AND does my homework?! Best leader, EVER!" "W-When did you have time to not only do our work- in our own handwriting- but also steal it from us without our noticing?!" "You were all busy stuffing your faces with my food at lunch, so it was pretty easy to take and do it." "In our respective handwritings?" "Also pretty easy." I stopped tinkering with the broken hinges and pointed at Weiss. "Overly neat." Then Ruby. "Overly peppy." And finally Nora. "Complete gibberish."
'Nough said.
I went back to the door. "So don't even think about getting out of this that easily." The Ice princess just groaned again in frustration. "Don't you have anything better to do, like tinker with your stupid projects?" "Oi!" I glared at her. "I do not 'Tinker', they are not just 'Projects', and it is important shit, so don't knock it!"
I feel like I made myself a hypocrite right there, but I ignored the feeling.
"But no, I don't have anything better to do tomorrow. I was originally going to browse through some catalogues to get an idea of what weapon I would want to get for myself, but whipping you poor saps into shape comes before that." Ruby gasped at that and shot herself up from her position on the only top bed in the room. "That's right! You don't have any weapons since Initiation, or even armor!"
Yet another thing Oz-Prick screwed me on…
"Yeah, I need to come up with something, but I am in no hurry as I can still easily kick the ass of anyone with just my fists." My fists were like pizza, and the weapon was pepper flakes; the latter makes the former better, but is in no way, shape, or form needed.
Damn it, now I was hungry.
"You can't just go around without a weapon!" Ruby flailed as I finally replaced the hinges and put the door back into place. "The weapon makes up, like, at least, 70% of a Hunter! We need to get you a weapon, ASAP!" "Tots immediately." "'Tomorrow' immediately, even." I shot my team a withering scowl. "You're doing this to get out of training, aren't you?" "Whaaaaaaaaat? Nooooooo." "The very thought hadn't even crossed my mind!" Nora looked confused. "Wait, I thought that was exactly why we were doing this?"
"Nora!"
Note to self: Install mini-fridge to store booze in on my little plateau…
"Okay, why is team shit here?" "Team Phiber!" "Yeah, that's what I said. Anyway, why is team take-a-dump here?"
That busty blonde one was really easy to irritate.
"We actually enlisted the aid of the other team so that we could find you a proper weapon for someone of your build. Because, between the three of us, we only really have experience with Rapiers, Scythes, and Hammers-" "Nora smash?!" "Not now Nora!" She pouted. "But the other team not only has the brawler, who your style seems to fit more towards than anyone else's, but also a Katana, Sickles, and a Spear/Sword. Not to mention whatever other weapons they have all seen and fought against in their lifetimes: especially Pyrrha, who has fought in the Mistral Tournament 4 times and won each one."
It irritated me that they thought I didn't know what I was good with.
"While it warms my jolly little heart that you put this much effort into finding me a weapon, it was ultimately for naught." I glanced around the bland, grey, Beacon training room we were in, or more specifically, the massive wall of weapons that took up the entirety of the surface. "I didn't need to know what weapons I should use, just ones I was interested in." Everyone rose a collective eyebrow. "Jaune, let's be real here, there are a handful of weapons you could actually use, and even less that you could wield to their full potential. In the spectrum of things, you should probably just stick to what Pyrrha has, and use a sword and shield combo." It was my turn to raise an eyebrow.
Did they just assume my weapon?
"Hold onto your twisted knickers, Ice princess. I don't do conventional. A sword and shield is so last year." I glanced at the resident spartan. "No offense." "None taken, really." Weiss just huffed at my stubbornness. "Jaune, stick with the program here. Use what is practical, not what is flashy." Says the party consisting of shotgun fists, element shooting toothpick, collapsible sniper rifle farm tool, grenade launching hammer, hand-gun ninja weapon, whatever the fuck Blake was packing, and weapon-confused spear/sword(A speard!). "Okay, I don't feel like wasting anymore time here, so let's just do this; you all pick three weapons of any caliber, and I will use it to then roffle stomp another three of you with. You win, I go with whatever stupid thing that comes out of your mouths. I win, then not only are you three booking it to make up for lost training time, but you four." I pointed at the other surprised team. "Will be joining them in hell. Got it?"
None of them liked the sound of that(Especially the other team who had no idea whatsoever about what I meant when I said hell.), but they figured that with them choosing my weapons AND who got to fight, it was a sure thing.
Weiss(The unspoken spokesperson here.) spoke up then. "Deal."
The poor bastards(Or bitches, in this case- I still wasn't 100% about pinkys true gender.).
"Okay, so who am I fighting, and with what?" They all shared a glance and looked back. "You will be fighting Nora-" "With THIS!" Hearing grunting from behind me, I looked back and saw Yang struggling to carry a massive grey, double sided axe almost two feet taller than her, and easily twice her width, with a deep red handle. "A combat axe? When the hell was one of those last used, the Viking era?" "Probably." Shaking my head at the collective answer, I went to take the colossal weapon as Nora skipped out onto the field to do battle with me. "Good luck in the fight, lady-killer." Yang's slightly sweating face grinned at me as she handed off the wood-cutting tool to me. "Thanks." I took it from her and effortlessly threw it over my shoulder, to everyone's shock. "But there ain't gonna be anything but skill in this brawl."
The once confident looking group suddenly looked like they had second thoughts about this bet. "Rules are simple: First to be beaten into submission wins, or lose if they are knocked unconscious." Knowing these stubborn kids, it would have to be the latter. "I will let one of you start it." They all once again glanced at each other, before Blake stepped forward and threw her hand down. "Begin!" And not a moment too soon, as a battle crazy Valkyrie shot from her previous position and leapt towards me, bringing her hammer down to rain punishment down from above. "NORA-"
Right as it came swinging down on me, the hand not wielding the axe shot out and stopped the piece of metal in its place with a resounding 'BANG' across the entire room.
"... Smash?" Using the blunt side of the blades, I slammed my weapon into her, sending her flying into the wall. I almost felt bad for doing that to my partner.
Then I remembered the other day where she found my booze stash and used them to start molotov cocktails that were then thrown at random Ursa's and Beowolves in the Emerald Forest.
Yeah, she had it coming.
Throwing myself forward in a lumbering jog, i let the axe lower to the ground so as to make it drag along it, sending sparks everywhere as a dazed Nora got back up from her slumped state and saw me approaching. Wisely erring on the side of caution this time, she held her distance and shot three of her special 'Grenades' at me.
Which were rendered useless as I cut all three down the middle when they got near me, and pet the tampered explosions blow behind me as I neared her. "Ah crap baskets." Swinging my axe horizontally at her, she hurriedly jumped to avoid it, and landed on it with a grin, ready to bop my head in with her hammer. Sucks for her that I then clutched the handle tightly with both hands, and spun it.
She quickly lost ground as she was forced to do a lumberjack roll on top of my deadly blade. Finally stopping the twirling, i tried to bisect her betwixt her nethers, but she was able to leap away at the last second. But she leapt in the wrong neighborhood, as when she tried to do it over my head, my left hand caught one of her ankles, and I proceeded to play 'Whack-a-Nora' on my axe, sending her head and torso into my axes body, most likely giving her a concussion as I lifted her limp body and beheld the massive bruise that was once her face, grimacing when I saw her broken nose, too.
Yeesh, whatever this Aura was, it really sucked at its job.
"Okay, didn't think I was this strong, so one of you will have to take Nora to the infirmary to get checked up on." Wincing once more from looking at the poor state of my partner, I chose to tone it down a tad next round. "Nora!" Making his way over to us, the only other male in our ragtag group rushed his way to the school's nurse as the others looked on, slack jawed in awe at my skill and prowess.
Or at least I like to think that is what they were doing.
"He made mincemeat of Nora…" Wincing herself, Weiss tried to shake it off. "W-Well, from what quick work he made of the Grimm in the forest last week, I suppose it is to be expected." "Ah come on, Weiss. Wipe the Grimmace off your face and lets get a move on." Getting groans from everyone, plus a wide grin and thumbs-up from our resident pun expert, Ruby went off to fetch the next weapon. "Looking back at it, picking a weapon that requires little skill and a lot of brawn wasn't the best of choices, but our next pick will remedy that." Walking up to me, Ruby handed me a pin-prick of a sword that looked like it had down syndrome. "A Foil- you're making me fight with a Foil?" "Against Yang, yes." "Foils are meant for contact sport only, though- they break easily and deal non-threatening wounds if you're lucky." "Oh? Is that a complaint about the rules you set I hear?" I grumbled and just waited in a lazy stance as Yang made her way to the stage.
Ice princess was so getting it at training.
Once again starting the fight, Blake lowered her hand. "Begin!" Yang seemed to grin even harder. "Oh, I am going to enjoy this." Slamming her fists together, she then sprinted towards me, confident I couldn't do anything about it.
I was going to enjoy this.
Right as she came into range, my stance rearranged itself entirely, going from slack and lethargic to rigid and flighty instantaneously as I moved the point of my sword to match her outstretched fist, the sword resisting it and bending backwards as I followed the flow of it and allowed myself to be pushed back and once again out of reach of a surprised Yang.
"Engarde." I cockily smiled. "Ah, crap baskets." Despite what was probably every fiber of her being telling her not to, Yang rushed forward again and tried to wail on me again, but the results were the same. This went on for a few minutes, before Yang cornered me into a wall. "Gotcha!" Grinning again, the fiery girl went for a haymaker to slam me into the wall, but I darted to the side and stabbed at the back of her knee. The stab itself did little more than prick her skin, and the force behind it bent the blade forward more than it probably should have, but it did what I needed it to and caused the blonde girl to stumble and fall to the other knee as the other was thrown off balance. Capitalizing on this, I used the pommel of the blade to slam into the temple of the girl, sending her to the floor in a slump, but she quickly got back up anyway, and was grinning as her eyes lit up red and her hair glowed behind her as well.
I raised a brow at that. Some sort of last stand semblance, or did it activate with pain? Or maybe she just held back from activating it in the first place because while useful, it was exhausting? It required further study in the future, regardless. "Heh, heh. Now you've done it! Tell me how it tastes to be on the receiving end of double what you gave me!" Being little more than a blur, the girl threw herself forward and lodged a flaming fist through-
The air.
"Huh?" The still glowing young lady stumbled forward as she missed entirely(Not that she knew that, of course.) and tried to get back into her stance as she turned around. "How did you-" She couldn't continue as the vertigo from spinning around so fast caught up to her and sent her to her knees, her semblance flickering away as it happened. "How? Well, you missed entirely, my dear. In fact, I was surprised you were able to stand, let alone throw a punch! I hit your temple pretty hard; thought you would have stayed down, but apparently I was wrong. But by now the effects of it should be appearing. Breaking out in a cold sweat, body not reacting like you want it to, vision swimming." The busty babe loosely shook her head as her eyes closed, no doubt going to vomit had she left them open from the spinning. "Wha-What did you… to my head…?" "Hm. Well the temples on the skull are the bones weak points, and by slamming so hard into your head, it rattled your brain easily, and caused these effects you are feeling now. To be quite frank, I was afraid for your safety when you immediately got up, because the rush of senses and your use of Aura could have damaged something up there. But you will most likely be fine with some rest. Regardless though, after this next fight I will have to look at you properly to see for sure." She mumbled a bit incoherently before laying down fully and passing out.
Okay, this strength was really worrying now, as her Aura should have absorbed most of the blow and only disoriented her for a few seconds that would have allowed me to strike more precise and important areas on her body that would have disabled her enough to win me the match.
Not… This.
As much as I didn't want to do it, I would have to postpone their training a bit for me to find out what this was about.
Didn't want to go breaking my cute little schoolmates, after all!
"I-I-I-" Weiss was struck speechless as I moved the sleeping Yang to the sidelines where everyone else was staying. "Make sure she keeps breathing peacefully; if she stops or starts doing it erratically, call me." I told a worried Ruby as I got back up off the ground and made my way to the middle of the arena, sighing. "So, can we like, skip another hospital visit and call me the winner already?" "NO!"
Surprisingly, that hadn't been from Weiss' mouth.
"Oh! Uh, I didn't mean for it to come out like that, it's just-" Pyrrha cleared her throat. "I just wish to test my mettle against your own, is all I meant. I think it is obvious that we have severely underestimated you and your abilities when it comes to weaponry, but I still want the chance to fight someone so, so-" "Devilishly handsome?" "-Devilishly handsome, yes!" Wow. She was so pumped for this fight she didn't even notice the slip-up.
Well, far be it from me to extinguish such Flames of Youth that powerful!
I feel as if someone, somewhere, is trying their hardest to strangle me right now.
Weird.
"Alright, I suppose. Pick your poison." I gestured to the massive wall behind me. The young spartan hummed in thought as she reviewed the weapon wall, doing this for a hot minute before finally pointing. "That one." Glancing over, I found my eyes widening. A Zweihänder- and not just any old one either, but an exact replica of Pier Gerlofs Donia's Zweihänder! One of, if not THE largest blade of the Medieval Ages.
Another fun fact, it was the blade I once held before the pirate stole it from me.
But you know, totally not salty about that or anything.
Nope.
"You want me to use that?" I just had to ask. "Why?" She shrugged with a small grin. "I don't know, really. It just seems to fit." Not one to look a gift-sword in the mouth, I quickly jumped up the wall and grabbed the weapon that was precariously hung at the top, almost as if to spite all the other weapons for being inferior(Or some shit- I wasn't poetic enough to look into it.), and grabbed it, before returning to the ground floor. "Oh yeah." I swung it around a few times to get a read on it. "Daddy likes." Seeing Pyrrha drop down into her own stance, I gripped the new sword with both hands and crouched low, keeping the blade behind me, with just the tip barely reaching the ground. "Alright, whoever is reffing." I eyed Blake. "And you know who you are, start the fight already. I gots an itch only my long stick can fix." Looking at me oddly for a few seconds, Blake just sighed.
"Begin!"
Not wasting anytime, I blurred into motion, and Pyrrha was just barely able to lift her shield up to block a slash from me. However, the force of the blow sent her arm reeling, and I used that moment to spin kick her in the abdomen, knocking the wind out of her. I went for another slash, but she was more prepared this time, and lifted her sword to contend with my own, being able to hold it off long enough to use her other arm to try and bash my head in with a red and gold shield. Unluckily for her, however, this wasn't my first rodeo(My first was back in Texas, competing against that blasted squirrel! Luckily, some strange sponge came and ruined her mojo and I won by default, but still, a fucking squirrel!), and I tilted my sword just so that her shield collided with the blunt of my blade, halting its progress. Not done, I shot a foot into her guard, kicking her shin and making her lose balance slightly, but just enough for me to push her back and get me out of reach, but stay close enough for my long ass compensating sword to still slash at her.
Not one to let opportunities like this just slip away, I hastily started stabbing in short bursts at the defending redhead. With the strength behind my thrusts, and the speed in which I was making them, she could do little more than parry and block to try and prevent herself from looking like swiss cheese. During this, however, I noticed her position one of her hands subtly behind her shield, and saw a strange dark grey start glowing from behind it, and not wanting to know what that was, I threw away the sword I was crossing blades with, and slammed my sword into her other arm, disrupting her concentration and subsequently shocking the hell out of her, as her jaw and her guard dropped. Not knowing what that was about, and not really caring, I sped into her personal bubble, used my elbow to awkwardly place her sword arm between it and my body, and kneed her in the stomach, leaving her out of breath as she bent over from the force. Without skipping a beat, I twisted around, her arm still in my grasp forced behind her in an uncomfortable position, and I jumped with it and kicked her into the ground.
True to her position as Mistral Champion, she recovered quickly and tried to roll over and get up, but I just stabbed my sword into the ground a literal centimeter from her neck where she had rolled over, indicating that I had won with the gesture.
"Well, I suppose that is my game, then." I held out a hand for the panting girl to take, and she took it with a satisfied smile on her face. I easily lifted her up, and leaned in to make sure no one else would hear me. "Gotta love silver; so useful for so many things, like currency, the color to indicate a position held by second place runner-ups, or even just used to make antique weapons." I smiled coyly. "Like this one." Her eyes widened. "You figured it out?" "Pretty easy to- while the blade is 100% silver, the guard is made of iron, and I felt the slight pull there."
Eh, mostly true, at least.
The guard thing was totally legit- the 100% silver factoid was probably less than truthful, however. If it was anything like the original, the outer covering was silver, and then the entire inside would be crafted from zinc- kind of like America's stupid pennies made from like 10% copper, and then the rest was zinc. Though they were worth one cent, and took around five or six to make one.
I would say they take the 'Gotta spend money to make money' phrase to heart a little bit too much, but let's be real, they are kind of just idiots.
"But it's whatever. I won't tell the others your semblance, and just let them figure it out themselves. Though-" I instantly thought back to my team. "-If you are trying to keep it hidden forever, I wouldn't doubt the difficulty." She smiled at me in relief and a tension seemed to seep out of her body. "Thank you." "So!" Ruby and the others(Sans a broken Yang still snoozing in the corner.) walked up to us after they were sure they wouldn't be caught in some kind of misfire. "You kicked butt with basically all of those weapons, so which one are you gonna use as a weapon?" "Which one of those? None of them."
"WHAT?!"
"Yeah." I shrugged and threw the large blade behind me, conveniently where the weapon wall was at, and it soared through the air and lodged itself into the place where it was before I had grabbed it. "I just wanted to get an idea of what I wanted to use in the future- all of these fights were conjecture. While there are a lot of weapons here for me to peruse through, not every single weapon in existence is standing in front of me, and for me to choose my weapon based off of a limited stock of tools, would be against the mad-warrior in me." "Mad-warrior?" "Mixture of mad-scientist and a warrior." "Ah. Why do I get the feeling I only asked that question for the sale of someone else?" "Because you did, Ruby."
Cue me staring at the camera.
"Because you did." Shaking my head, I just sighed. "Well anyway, now that two of you are out of commission, while another one is tired and beaten as crap, and considering the fact I don't know where a fourth one even is, I guess I will have to postpone your training… For now." All the people that knew me the best sighed in relief. "Well wait a moment." Pyrrha, catching her second wind, stood straight up and interrupted me. "I am fully able to train at full capacity, just like this." I could just tell Ruby and Weiss were slowly shaking their heads behind my back. "And even if two of our friends are unable to join us, that does not mean that the rest of us cannot train!" A grin started slowly making its way to my face as I bet Ruby's and Weiss' heads started shaking even faster. "And for the people that are not training right now, you can just up their training so that they may catch up to us at a later date!" My mouth reached shit-eating proportions of grinning as I could almost feel Ruby dropping down to her knees and praying to whatever deity might listen. "So please, help us train anyway."
"Ah, but of course, my dear Pyrrha." Nobody asked me where the bullwhip came from, they just instinctively knew to gulp and shrink down to hopefully avoid my gaze. "Now then." I cracked the whip. "I do believe it's time for me to whip you all into shape."
Despite their fear and reservations, they all still groaned at that.
Except for Yang- even unconscious, she was able to shift her hand into a gesture vaguely resembling a thumbs up.