Chapter 10: True Training Begins

A week later…

Shangzu: "Dodge it!"

Kai (panting): "It's (pant) not that easy (pant) as it looks (pant)."

Shangzu: "You're too slow."

Kai (angrily): "Oh really?"

Shangzu: "It's only been a week since our training started, and your getting all beat up."

Kai sighed & replied: "One week Shangzu. One week."

Shangzu: "It doesn't matter, you have to be ready at all times, and you're in terrible shape."

Kai: "The last mission that was taxing was given to me about a year and a half ago."

Shangzu: "And you've slacked off since then."

Kai: "The Templars were hardly a threat."

Shangzu: "That's what they wanted you to think, and now their better prepared than we'll ever be."

Kai: "You've legitimately kicked my (censored) for a whole week. What more do you want?"

Shangzu: "You need to be more aggressive. You gotta get out of vacation mode."

Kai: "I was never in vacation mode."

Shangzu sighed & said: "Whatever, we're done for this evening."

Shangzu walked off the training arena and exited the facility. Kai stood in his place simply panting with his fists clenched and he stared at the floor. He decided go back to his dormitory and get some rest. It was Friday afternoon. More like four thirty to be exact. He had a long day during the day at school, and right afterwards, Shangzu literally came and dragged him out of his last class and they began their training with the permission of the head master himself. During that week, the process began as how it ended just moments ago.

The day after Shangzu's interrogation, Professor Ozpin had admitted him to live on campus as an "intern". Because Shangzu specialized in martial arts and combat, he was to be Ms. Goodwitch's assistant (quote on quote) for the time that he would be at Beacon Academy. Ms. Goodwitch, as furious with this decision as she was, complied with the head master's wishes. During that week, Shangzu trained with Kai immediately after his classes were over. He also attempted to befriend the blonde headmistress, but she turned him down every time with a glare or a polite/rude comment.

Shangzu however was not dissuaded from her responses. In fact, these responses made him want to get closer to her. Shangzu, being the gentleman he actually was, did stop when she told him. However he did continue to try these advances toward the combat instructor. Kai would merely watch his cousin's futile attempts of persuading Ms. Goodwitch into believing that he was a good person at heart.

Moments later…

Yang: "I wonder why Shangzu trains him so much?"

Blake: "It's really none of our business Yang. This is a personal issue between the two of them."

Weiss: "Blake's right Yang, it isn't our business. Although I will admit this, I am kind of curious about this unknown power that he spoke of."

Ruby: "Do you really believe that Kai is that strong?"

Yang: "Well he kind of proved it when he fought against us and Team JNPR."

Blake: "True. He was a powerful opponent indeed."

There was a sudden knock on their door. Ruby got up and opened it to see Alex standing at the door with his hands in his pockets whistling a tune.

Ruby: "Hey Alex, what's up?"

Yang (in the background): "The sky! Huh? Huh? What you think guys."

Ruby face palmed, Weiss groaned, and Blake simply smacked her head against the book she was reading. Alex just smiled and turned his attention back towards the young leader.

Alex: "Kai is back. Yang wanted me to let her know when he got back from his training. (Looking at Yang.) He's either taking a shower, or just finished. Either way he's in our room."

Yang: "Thanks Alex!"

Alex: "No problem. The rest of us are downstairs in the living room."

Ruby: "Okay thanks Alex."

Alex: "See you girls in a few."

He looked into the room and spotted Blake, who was also looking at the doorway. The two's eyes met and Alex gave her a wink. She was taken aback by this action and blushed a little bit when he did it. He laughed lightly and left the room.

Yang: "Well that was a thing eh Blakey?"

Blake: "Yang…"

Yang: "Alright, I'll stop, but to be honest Blake, he probably has the hots for you."

Blake's face flushed a bright red.

Blake (stammering): "W-W-What?"

Weiss: "Oh dear Oum here we go again."

Yang: "Oh Oum what Weiss? We all know you got the hots for the tallest one amongst them."

Weiss' face flushed a light shade of pink. She quickly stood up and shouted at Yang.

Weiss: "I DO NOT YANG XIAO LONG!"

Yang laughed and Ruby merely sweats drop at the scene before her. Yang stopped laughing after a good minute and decided to pay Kai a visit. She went up to their room and entered the room without knocking.

Yang: "Hey Kai! Didn't know you were-"

She stopped speaking when she noticed that Kai was just wearing his shorts. His hair was slightly wet indicating that he just got out of the shower. He did not have a shirt on however, and his bare chest was exposed in front of Yang. She shamelessly looked up and down his body examining what was displayed in front of her. Both parties stood in place not saying a word to the other. Yang finally broke the silence.

Yang: "Well if it's one thing, I must say that you have a nice six pack. You definitely are ripped."

Kai shook his head and reached for one of his drawers and pulled out a sleeveless workout shirt. He put it on and walked over to Yang. Their eyes met, but Kai had a more serious look on his face.

Kai: "Next time, knock on the door before you walk into another room that's not yours got it?"

Yang playfully saluted and replied: "Yes sir!"

Kai sighed and shut the door behind him. He then headed downstairs with Yang trailing in tow. When the duo reached downstairs, all the teams were downstairs chatting with each other. More noticeably, Weiss was speaking with Kyle, and Blake was speaking with Alex. Ruby was speaking with Jaune and Pyrha, while Ren and Nora were sitting together as usual with Nora speaking about random topics and Ren listening to his best friend. Kai noticed that Mason was a little ways away from the group that was chatting. Yang went ahead and snuck up behind Blake who wasn't paying attention and scared her. Kai shrugged and went over to Mason. Mason noticed he was walking over to him, so he looked up and faced his leader.

Kai: "What are you doing here by yourself?"

Mason: "Relaxing. You know just trying to rest after today's lecture from Professor Port."

Kai: "Yeah, that guy definitely needs to get another hobby or something. I don't think I've learned a single thing from that guy."

Mason: "Yeah, I could say the exact same thing."

Mason leaned over from the side of the couch that he was sitting on and picked up a soccer ball that was sitting next to it. He began tossing in gently between his hands. Kai watched as Mason slowly and progressively went faster. Eventually, Mason went to fast and he lost the ball. It bounced its way towards Ruby's feet. Once it hit her feet, she looked down and picked it up. She then lifted her head up and looked over at the two assassins sitting at the other couch at the other end. Ruby and Mason made eye contact, and she gave him a small smile. Mason slowly turned his head away from her as a faint blush crept across his face. Ruby got up from her seat and walked over to them.

Kai noticed this and simply got up and gave Mason a small pat on the back. When the two passed each other, Kai and Ruby gave each other respective hellos, which was Kai nodding his head in her direction, and Ruby giving him a warm smile. Ruby then turned her attention back to where Mason was sitting. She sat down beside him and waited for him to respond and take notice of her. After a minute, Mason eventually turned around and looked at the young scythe wielder.

Ruby: "You okay?"

Mason: "Yeah, I'm alright. I was just lost in a train of thought."

Ruby: "You dropped your ball."

Mason: "More like lost it if you ask me."

Ruby: "Yeah, you were tossing it between your hands very quickly."

Mason: "I was trying to see how many times I could toss it between my hands while going as fast as I could."

Ruby: "I never really played soccer."

Mason: "Really?"

Ruby: "Yep. I'm more of a weaponry nerd if you ask my sister or me. I watched a couple of soccer games because Yang did participate in some little leagues when we were younger, but I just never developed an interest."

Mason: "Huh? Really?"

Ruby: "Yep."

Mason: "We've been playing soccer together since we've been together. We actually were all on the same little league team when we were younger. Even when we "departed ways", we all still played soccer."

Ruby smiled & replied: "That's good. It sounds like you're all so close to one another."

Mason: "You could say that. We're pretty much like brothers."

Ruby smiled again and turned her attention back to the soccer ball. She then looked back at the youngest assassin.

Ruby: "Could you perhaps teach me how to play?"

Mason blushed at this request and turned his head away. He thought about it and decided that it wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Mason: "Sure why not? I don't really do much outside of our usual activities."

Ruby: "Really?! You'll teach me?"

Mason: "Sure why not."

Ruby squealed in excitement and hugged the young assassin. He didn't know what to do, so he hesitantly hugged her back in an awkward manner. From the other side of the room, Yang and Kai and watched and observed the whole situation.

Yang: "I'm glad that she's finally opening up to meeting new people. I'm actually surprised that she's opened up to a guy this easily."

Kai: "I wouldn't say she's opened up, but she definitely has made a huge transition from being herself back when she was younger."

Yang: "Younger? Did you know my sister or something in the past?"

Kai: "I've honestly come across your sister at a park once in awhile. We spoke together at times, but she usually did all the talking."

Yang: "And you didn't bother to share this with me because?"

Kai: "I usually don't like talking about nonsense things."

Yang: "You know that's important for an older siblings to know right? I mean she told me about you, but she said that you never stated your name to her. For all I could've known, you could've been a pedophile."

Kai's eyebrow twitched when he heard Yang make that statement. Yang began to laugh and snort at the sight of the assassin leader's face. Little did the two know, they were being watched as well from another pair.

Alex: "Seems like my leader has the hot's for your blonde brawler."

Blake didn't look up from her reading, but still responded to his comment.

Blake: "I highly doubt that Alex. Kai seems to still be keeping certain secrets to himself. And he isn't the type to constantly seek out women like you do."

Alex smirked & asked: "Oh and is that a bad thing?"

Blake: "I know what you're trying to imply. I don't see you as that type of person, but constantly having your attention on something that is not important is a waste of time."

Alex turned toward his leader and the blonde brawler who were currently talking about Professor Port's class.

Alex (still watching the pair): "You think love is useless?"

Blake: "I mean sort of. It's not like it's easy to love in this type of day and age."

Alex: "You honestly believe that?"

Blake looked up from her book and looked directly at the British boy in front of her. He was still looking in the direction of his leader. His expression was not like how it usually was however. Alex's expression was more serious than he usually was, and his eyes from her angel seemed more distant. Blake then looked back down at her book and continued to think about what they just talked about.

Alex: 'You're an interesting girl Blake Belladonna, I'll give you that.'

The next day…

Kai was the first one up as usual. Except, he woke up around 6:30 in the morning. He couldn't sleep well enough the night before because he pondered about Shangzu's tale from yesterday. Whether he believed his cousin or not, he needed to start training harder to become stronger mentally, physically and spiritually. He decided, on his own accord, to train with his cousin for the time being. He made a connection with his dream and what his cousin told him. If that was to be indeed the case, then he really needed to buckle down and begin training. Millions of people's lives are on the line if a legendary tale is actually a real catastrophic phenomenon.

Kai: 'This is the start of a new journey. This path is one of hard and intense labor. This is the path of pain. As my duty as an assassin of the creed, I must do what is right. I've been training for many years, but none of that training is going to prepare me for what is to come. True training begins on this day, and continues on until the day of Ragonorak.'