Henna Umbra would not have even been to a combat school if it had not been for her adoptive father. Her parents were still alive but they had a falling out with Henna when she had asked to go to a combat school. The family had been peaceful tree farmers for the last ten generations, so when Henna applied to a combat school nearly a hundred miles from her hometown, her parents were furious. Especially her father. He had screamed at her when she told him and nearly struck her. During the heat of this argument, Henna let a very hidden secret slip. She was a lesbian. This shocked her father and he struck her then threw her into the gravel path that led into the house while her mother looked more struck than the girl, her face pulled into an O from the shock.
"Don't come back until you have your wits about you!" He screamed. That was five years ago and she has not seen her parents since then. She became an apprentice huntress and had been working with the same crew for two years until she met him.
He was a prospect client who needed a section of woods behind his massive manor cleared of Beowolves that had sprung up. It was obvious why he needed a crew of huntsmen just by appearance. He walked heavily on a cane that seemed to nearly break under the pressure he put on it. The party cleared the woods out a full week before the contract was due and as they came to collect their bounty, he pulled her aside.
"Is this your family?" He asked, "You don't seem to resemble the rest, if you don't mind my saying." He had a point though. The group consisted of two twin redheads with pale freckled complexion, a large tiger faunus, a small mute girl with dark green ivy tattoos sprawling all over her body, which Henna knew from experience.
She thought it over and replied with, "Not by blood. They were a group that trained when I was first cast out. The only people to truly accept me for me." All the while, he nodded.
"As expected, would you like to live with me?" he inquired calmly, as if asking for her to stay for dinner.
"You're a little old for my taste and I'm into girls not guys," while making a gesture that involved two scissoring hands, "Wait, who do you think you are laughing at, old man?"
He was indeed bent over at the middle and shaking. He slowly stood erect and smiled kindly at the girl. "I meant as a father figure, not as a partner. You could go very far with very little schooling if my instinct is right and it nearly always is. I have some connections at the nearby combat school, Signal, and I could get you admitted at your current level of skill without needing to do the lower end classes."
At the beginning of the proposition, her lightly tanned skin was a deep red at her misunderstanding, but as the speech progressed she began to become very excited at finally fulfilling her dream of becoming a fully licensed huntress.
"I can't." He did not look shocked and replied with "I understand. You want to stay with you family."
"Yeah, she can't… she can't refuse the one chance in her life to fulfill her life goals." The tiger faunus stated.
She swung around abruptly to see her team smiling back at her.
"But I can't leave you guys!"
"We'll be fine. Most teams are only four members anyways." One of the twins said.
"Yeah, you are really killing the vibe." The other twin said with a smile. "Now spread your wings and fly little dodo bird."
Henna started crying as she hugged the group and kept saying, "I'll never forget you."
"Does the offer still stand?"
"Of course."
She unpacked her meager possessions after seeing the team off.
She did not even fill a drawer in one of the two five-drawer cabinets that her massive room had. As she was looking around the room, a voice made her drop the book she had picked up from the bedside table.
"You a burglar or what?" Henna spun around to see a girl in all pink and black standing in the door. She looked to be the same age but had a bust that put Henna's C-cups to shame. In her hands were two cylinders of steel that looked like they could do major damage if dropped.
"Uh, no he just adopted me. Kinda. Sorta. Not really. Maybe?" Henna hadn't stopped to consider if this was technically legal but concluded it didn't matter.
"Huh. He got another one, did he?" the girl stated as she walked around Henna, obviously shaping her up.
"Wait. Are you his daughter? Henna asked, afraid that the girl would be jealous and hate her.
"Nope. Same boat as you girl." She followed this comment with a slap to Henna's well- sharpened rear.
"Careful. I swing that way too." Henna replied in a husky voice while grabbing the slightly taller girls rear and slowly kneading it.
"Should I come later or just watch and wait?" A new voice stated. Both girls looked annoyingly at the figure in the doorway holding a battle-scarred blade edge. "Does everyone carry around steel here?" Henna thought.
"Oh, shut up! I was merely getting to know the new girl. Just a little more intimate than other people would." The pink girl replied as she followed the greyscale boy out of the door.
Henna sat at the arena's edge barely paying attention to the first two battles as she rubbed the tattoo on her right wrist. It was a picture of two identical red vines with a tiger pattern inside of the vines. She smiled at the memory of being so readily accepted by her new family.
She looked to her left after the first fight and saw a raven-haired beauty that completely took her breath away sitting about ten feet away. She gawked as the girl sat silently and read a book that obviously did not have the original cover sleeve because the book A Man with Two Souls was much thicker that the book it's cover was on.
While Henna wondered why anyone would purposely change the sleeve someone tapped her shoulder.
"Have you figured out what she is reading yet?" The blonde questioned.
"I'm going to guess it's not A Man with Two Souls?" Henna replied. The comment caused the blonde to break out in a grin as she shouted, "Hey Blakey, someone knows what you are reading!"
The girl snapped her book shut and swiveled to her right to glare at the blonde.
"Maybe you shouldn't be reading be reading sm-oof!" The blonde was cut off by the black-haired girl smacking her on the top of the head with the spine of the book.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" The girl accented each hit with a smack of her book and quickly became flushed in the face.
The little display made Henna smile and as she started to speak she was interrupted by a bell and a statement,
"Fighters Blake Belladona of RWBY and Henna Umbra, please enter the ring."
Henna grabbed her long katana and strode to her left beside the girl. As they passed Blake's former seat, Henna realized she was to fight the girl.
"Hey, um, good, you know, luck and, um, bye." The usually sociable girl stammered over the few words and left an awkward silence as they moved to the arena.
"Yeah, good luck." Blake replied. -
Sorry for no fight scene. it is 12:08 when I am updating this chapter but I promise I will update it the next time I get some free time. Thanks for the people that have stayed loyal with me and I also love any readers. Also, how did I portray a female character? I am a guy so it was a little weird but not to bad.