Chapter 22: Professor Kipmud

In a worn-out shack, somewhere in downtown Vale.

"Success." A voice called out as the door opened.

"What is it this time?" The reply came. "I don't like you stealing for us."

"This, and you know we wouldn't be living without me." The first held up the dust crystal in his hand.

He reached down and hugged the one sitting down.

"I love you mother. And you know I would do anything for you."

"I know, I love you too son." She hugged him back, planting a kiss on his cheek. "But don't do anything too reckless."

"I know." He perked up, he was always happy when his mother didn't argue with him. "Can I go see what Alex is up to?"

"I suppose, but don't do anything foolish." She rolled her eyes.

"I won't mother." He slipped out the door.

"Goodbye, my little moon." She whispered as he left.

In a very bored classroom at Beacon.

"Over the last few weeks we have discussed the usage of aura, but we never went into specifics."

Professor Kipmud was talking in the front of the class, and all the students were all listening attentively. Well, not exactly.

"Are we done yet?" Krystal whispered.

"Nope, it just started." Colton replied.

"Ugh." Krystal sank down further in her seat and sighed.

"Today we will be starting a new unit on specialized Semblance usage." Kipmud continued. "More specifically, how each of us uses our Semblance and how they vary greatly from person to person. Miss Nikos, would you care to show yours first?"

"Of course, sir." Pyrrha walked up and, winking at Jaune, used her Semblance to pull his metal pen to her hand.

"Very good, Miss Nikos. Now, that Semblance was Polarity, the ability to manipulate magnetic fields. You can have a seat. Miss Schnee, would you care to show us yours?"

Weiss walked up after a nod and sprang up into the air using her glyphs.

"Class, that Semblance was the usage of Glyphs. Miss Rain, care to give us some insight into yours?"

"You're coming down with me." Krystal pulled Colton down to the front and proceeded to lash out with a vicious kick in the back of his knee.

Colton fell to the ground and Krystal quickly knelt beside him. She raised her hand over the fracture she had made and a dark blue haze surrounded her. It rushed down her arm and into the fracture, immediately healing the bone and surrounding area.

"Thanks." Colton muttered as she helped him up and pulled him back to their seat.

"That was Recovery, the ability to heal people far faster than would be typically possible. Next?"

The demonstration continued, with Colton showing off his Infrared ability, Sun showing off Sensor, and many others showing off their respective talents.

"Well it seems that's everyone, would anyone like to know my Semblance?" Professor Kipmud asked, looking at every student in turn.

Out of the whole class, one kid nodded his head. Kipmud apparently found this number satisfactory, because he continued anyway.

"I have the ability to breathe underwater." He said proudly, puffing his chest out.

The room was suddenly ablaze with badly contained laughter, for this Semblance was one of the most common out there.

"Don't laugh, I won every underwater breathing competition as a child."

"I bet you did." Krystal muttered under her breath.

"Now, there are many various levels of Semblance. The first is Level One, mine is an example, meaning I am the first generation in my family to have a Semblance. Level Two would be something like Polarity. Miss Nikos is the second person in her family to have a Semblance, and I'm sure any siblings she may have have a similar Semblance as well. Level Three is where it starts to get crazy, like Miss Belladonna's Shadow. She is the third generation, so her Semblance is very well developed. The final level is Mister Wukong's Sensor, Level Four. He is the fourth generation in his family to have a Semblance, and it has apparently evolved into the state it is now."

"That's a lot of info." Colton said, writing furiously to keep up.

"Now, let's talk about siblings. Who has siblings that you know has a Semblance?"

Sun and Pyrrha, among others, raised their hands.

"Wonderful, do any of you know what their Semblance is?"

"My sister has the ability to manipulate clay, it's referred to as Keramos." Pyrrha spoke up.

"Very good. You see class, Pyrrha and her sister have similar Semblances. One can control metals and the other can control clay."

"Ugh. Wake me if anything important happens." Krystal said quietly as she leaned against Colton's shoulder.

Colton just rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the professor.

"Does anybody else want to tell the class about your siblings?"

Kipmud's question was met with stony silence.

"Uhhhhhh, okay then. Let's move on. Our first topic is on Level One Semblances, like mine."

The soft sound of snoring began to emanate from the back of the room, and Kipmud paused for a second before continuing on.

"Level One Semblances are the most basic of all, but they are also the most special. Typically these are formed in the child of two people with large aura reserves."

"If they have large aura reserves, why don't they have a Semblance?" Yang asked.

"Good question, thank you so much for asking it."

"Oh you're very welcome." She muttered sarcastically.

"Semblances are a bit of a rarity… Or, they used to be. After the last large scale war with the Grimm, the people who survived tended to be the ones with Semblances."

Sun felt Aurora cringe beside him.

"Now we're in science class." Someone said.

"Son, science is everywhere. But that's not the point of this lecture. Natural selection plays a very important part of life, and that applies to battle as well. People with Semblances are able to use them to survive in a fight, and the ones without do not have that ability. This is why so many regular people died in the Grimm War, but people with Semblances lived to reproduce. This is why most of the people you see have a Semblance, especially students at Beacon."

Aurora buried her face in Sun's shoulder and began to cry silently.

"What if two people with two different levels of Semblance reproduce?" Blake asked.

"Another great question, thank you for asking. I- Can somebody wake Miss Rain up?"

Colton jabbed at Krystal and she woke up with a start.

"Whowhatwhenwherewhy?" Krystal clumped her words together and shook her head.

"Payback" Colton whispered.

"Thank you for rejoining us, Miss Rain. Now back to Blake's question. Two people with different levels of Semblance that reproduce form a slightly, ah, more complicated offspring."

"What does that mean?"

"The child has a fushion level of the two parents. Miss Hirosaki is a perfect example of this."

Aurora brought her face away from Sun and looked at Kipmud with tear-streaked eyes.

"I would guess that she is a fusion of a Level One and a Level Two, this would be classified as a Level Undemi."

"In English please?" Yang said.

"Essentially, one and a half."

"Ah."

"Yes, a fusion of a Level Two and a Three would be a Deuxdemi. A fusion of Levels Three and Four is a Troisdemi."

"What about a person without a Semblance and a person with one?" Pyrrha spoke up.

"The child is a bit of a special case. They typically have giant aura reserves and are therefore more likely to have a child with a Semblance. They are not referred to as anything different than regular humans, aside from the aura reserves of course."

"Is Level Four the highest?" Colton chimed in, briefly checking his notes.

"From what we know, yes. But there is always the possibility that we have seen a Level Five and have just classified it as a Four. Common belief among scientists is that the fifth generation has the same level as the fourth. Therefore, I believe Level Five Semblances are no more powerful than Level Four."

"Interesting." Colton added another page to his notes.

"But that doesn't prove anything, it is but a theory. Any more questions?"

There was a widespread shake of heads and Kipmud glanced at the clock.

"It appears that we will have to get to the topic of Level One tomorrow. Class dismissed."

"Ugh, that sucked." Krystal said as she walked out of the classroom hand in hand with Colton.

"Let's look on the bright side…" Colton started.

"There's no bright side!"

"Of course there is, it wasn't Port's class."

"Is that really better?"

"For one thing, this class is more interactive and interesting."

"Easy for you to say, you actually paid attention."

"I seem to recall you being very excited to show off your Semblance." Colton replied with a sarcastic smile.

"That was one thing I was interested in doing." Krystal smiled back.

"We should go back to the room, we have some time before Oobleck's class."

"Follow me." Krystal started off purposefully before turning around. "I know that you were about to say it was a different way than I started, so I have already changed directions."

"Actually, for once you started out in the right direction." Colton responded, rolling his eyes.

"Right, always trust your first instinct."

Author's Note:
If you have any questions, check my profile or PM me. Thank you all for reading and if you enjoyed, don't forget to follow, favorite, and review. Chas1881