Disclaimer: I do not own Akame Ga Kill and/or RWBY. They belong to their original owners

A New Beginning: Life at Shade Academy

Shade Two: Unexpected Teachers

The door opened to team ALCE's dorm room and Cornelia was the first enter while sighing out of tiredness. "Finally." After they passed their initiation, the team spent the rest of the day familiarizing the campus layout. Having Kurome as the guide certainly was helpful and they realized how much different it was compared to Beacon. Esdeath and Cornelia learned about how the school was the only law and order around in Vacuo. Also, there was no dress code which again, made Leone very happy. After taking the tour for the whole day, they went their separate ways which led to them where they are now.

While Cornelia sat down on the nearest bunk ignoring the room, Esdeath stopped and admired their new room. "We actually have bunk beds."

Her words finally registered to Cornelia and looked around the room. "Hey, you're right. That's pretty cool actually."

Esdeath giggled happily as she ran over to the top bunk the blonde was sitting under. "I call top bunk!" She climbed on top of the bunk and laid down on the bed happily.

Leone couldn't help but laugh at her teammate's enjoyment. "Someone's happy."

Esdeath buried her face into the pillow while smiled before turning to blonde Faunus. "I actually like the idea of bunk beds. I was kinda jealous that Ruby and her team had them." Again, she showed that childlike desire the old Esdeath never had. It was then her expression changed to a sad one. "Ruby…"

Now everyone felt the same way once she brought up Ruby. Not only her but the memories they had back at Beacon. Leone sighed as she walked over to her bottom bunk and sat down. "Kinda makes you miss the good old days huh? All of us having a good time. Laughing like there wasn't a care in the world. Then shit hit the fan and nothing became right anymore."

Akame walked over to her girlfriend and sat down next to her. "Beacon was like a home for all of us. It's where everything started again for us and where we first met you two. And now…it's gone."

Their leader brought up a good point. Beacon was the place all of them met each other and first became a team. Esdeath let out a small whine which Cornelia noticed. "Hey, it'll be okay. We can get through this."

Her teammate whined a little more. "It's not that. It's my Teddy Ursa." Tears were coming out of her eyes anime style. "He's still back at Beacon probably all alone and scared and cold."

Everyone else should've expected her to say that. Akame did admit she had a similar problem. "Now that I think about it, that plushy you won for me is still there too Leone."

Leone couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Looks like we left a lot more back at Beacon then we thought." She looked up at the ceiling. "So I guess this is how we're living now."

Akame looked over to her two team members. "How do your parents feel about this?"

Cornelia smiled at her leader. "Papa wasn't against it. He knew how much I loved this team and I couldn't bear to be separated from all of you. Especially with the history we shared."

Esdeath managed to stop crying. "My father was the same, though he was a little hesitant at first for sending me to a place like this but I like being with all of you."

The Faunus blonde snickered. "Least we have some cold ice in the desert. Think you can handle the desert heat?"

Her teammate nodded at the question. "I'm positive."

That's what Leone wanted to hear. She looked at the name. "It's still kinda weird how this place is similar to the Empire."

Cornelia was curious about that. "How so?"

"She means how this place is the only law around while everything else is probably in disarray." Akame explained. "The Empire ruled the same way except it actually enforces those laws and it's the people who disregard them." The other two girls have heard about how the Empire Akame and Leone lived was a total nightmare to live in time to time.

Esdeath wondered something else about the kingdom. "What about the government?"

Leone already heard about them earlier before she went back to Patch. "Give them points for trying but like Akame said, it's the people around here who disregard the law." She had enough talking about law and government. It didn't suit her anyway. "Enough about that, though. Wait until you hear what we know about the headmistress here."

Esdeath and Cornelia were a little interested now. There were several seconds of silence outside of their room. "WHAT!?"

They couldn't believe what they told them. "The headmistress is your former leader of the team you were on before!?"

Leone nodded at Cornelia's question. "Uh-huh. You got it. I was surprised when I first saw her. I almost didn't believe it at first. Then again, the same could be said for you Esdeath. And Kurome, and Chelsea. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if we were to see the rest of our team in this world if this trend keeps going."

She brought up a good point to Akame. "Seeing them again, huh." She thought back to her old team. "If Cora is in this world, then maybe the rest of them are in this world too." Seeing them again did excite her. Especially Tsukushi. It was a wishful thought. Speaking of thoughts, she had one more. "Come to think of it, if Najenda was the one who adopted Kurome and is her adoptive mother, does that mean…" She shook her head and smiled. "No. I've been with Najenda far too long to think of her like that."

"What's up Akame?"

The leader of the team looked at the other girls and just smiled at them. "It's nothing." She stretched out her arms while her eyes were closed until Akame finished and opened them once she was done. "In any case, we should probably rest up now. We have our first day tomorrow of Shade Academy."

Leone grinned at that. "True that. Let's show these Shade kids what we can do."

Cornelia laughed at her fellow blonde's words. "They already kinda did back at the Vytal Festival. It's showing our academic skills they'll see." Now that Leone was a little worried about.

B

"Does this look okay?" Esdeath turned her whole body around wearing the outfit she wore when Akame and Leone first met her.

Leone smiled at her. "You look fine to me. I think you look the part."

Since there wasn't a dress code for Shade Academy, Everyone was wearing what they felt like. Leone was wearing a previous outfit she wore before when she went out with Yang for the first time. For Akame, it was her standard outfit as always. Cornelia was wearing a short sleeved white shirt with a light blue zigzag explosion pattern on it and black jeans. Said blonde looked over at her leader. "Akame, why are you wearing your battle outfit?"

Akame looked at herself. "I've always worn this even after I've done missions."

Cornelia questioned the girl's clothing sense while Leone just snickered. "Trust me, Akame wears what she likes. I even remember that one time Mine made her wear all kinds of different dresses and outfits. It was hilarious."

Akame remembered that all too well. "I didn't like any of them."

Leone smiled at her girlfriend. "And yet you wore one when we went on our date and at the dance."

The other girl had a reason for that. "That was because it was only for you and it was special for us."

The Faunus blonde felt rather honored hearing that. "Ohh. Is that so? Maybe we should go on more dates because you do look good in a dress."

Both Esdeath and Cornelia giggled at that. "Come on. We should head to our first class. Can't be late on the first day, can we?"

Everyone nodded at Cornelia's words and headed to the door. Akame was the first to open it and they all left the room with her closing it behind them. Now they were headed for their first class. "So what is our first class anyway?" Esdeath asked.

Akame thought back to the schedule they've received. "If I remember right, it's Grimm Studies."

Leone sighed at that. "No offense to Professor Port but I hope this teacher isn't like him going on and on with stories." The only way to find out is to go to the class.

B

"No no no no no no no. You have got to be kidding me right? Is this some kind of freaking joke?"

Akame shared Leone's thoughts as she couldn't believe who their teacher was through the expression her face was making. Their new teacher set down a few books and stacks of paper on his desk. "Good morning my lovely students! I've heard we have some new people joining us today. My heart does go out for you four after what happened at Beacon. Such a tragedy." Akame still couldn't believe her eyes at who she was seeing before her. Their new teacher smiled at them. "But enough about that, it's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm your new professor. Or rather doctor. Doctor Stylish."

The name sealed Akame's confirmation. To think someone like him would be a teacher. The last time she saw the doctor was her cutting him with Murasame. While the two former assassins were taken by surprise, Esdeath smiled at her new teacher. "He seems really nice."

If she only knew and that's what worried Akame the most. "Alright, let's have you four caught up to speed. We have a lot cover and maybe some on the next test." Even more reason for Leone to dread that he was their teacher.

B

Leone groaned as the team was walking over to their next class. "Seriously. He's going to be our teacher? What a nightmare." Judging from their reactions, Cornelia guessed Akame and Leone knew their teacher from before.

"Akame!" The team looked ahead to see KRCT walking over to them with Kurome smiling at her sister as the two teams stopped in front of each other for the moment. "Hey there. How did you like your first class?"

Akame didn't know how to respond. Thankfully, Cornelia could. "It was really nice. I felt like I learned a lot more than we did in Professor Port's class. The teacher was really good."

"Speak for yourself." Akame and Leone had the same thought.

Kurome thought as much. "Yeah, Doctor Stylish can be a little odd but he's a good teacher."

Her sister still wasn't sure about that. "Is there anything we should know about him? Did he perform any…experiments?"

Kurome tilted her to the side in confusion. "If by experiments you mean bringing Grimm into the classroom for a more real life experience and that's as far as he went. Why would you ask?"

It seemed Stylish has toned down his type of subjects for his experiments. Still, it didn't make Akame any less thrilled that he was her teacher. "Just making sure. That's all."

Kurome already knew her sister was hiding something but decided to leave that for another time. "So what's your next class?"

"World Studies." Cornelia replied. They heard Chelsea laugh at that. "What's so funny?"

Chelsea giggled a little more before she stopped and smiled at the other team. "Boy, are you going to have a fun time. The teacher for that class is very strict and you don't want to get on her bad side or you'll regret it."

Already Leone was dreading her next class. "Great. Thanks for the heads up, though."

The other girl waved her hand at the Faunus blonde. "Good luck. You're going to need it. We'll see you later." KRCT continued on passing by ALCE.

Rienna waved at the team as well. "See you at lunch."

"Take care." Taeko added.

Soon as they left, Akame and her team continued to make their way to their next class. Leone couldn't help but have a bad feeling. "Guess we'll see how bad this next teacher will be."

B

"You got to be fucking kidding me! Stylish was bad enough but she's here too?!"

Leone saw her new teacher drink her tomato juice through a straw from a bottle. "Okay, so I see we have four new students. I'll make this quick. I'm your new teacher, Dorothea Wonder and don't let my appearance fool you. I'm much older than I look. Pay attention in class and you'll be fine. Don't think you're anything special just because you passed the Headmistress' initiation. Although I do feel sorry for what happened to you back at Beacon." She looked over at her board. "Now let's begin our lesson." She started to write on the board.

Leone leaned over to Akame. "Is this some freaky shit huh?"

Akame nodded in agreement. "Yes. First Doctor Stylish and now Dorothea. It's quite unexpected."

It was more than that for the Faunus blonde. "Unexpectedly freaky that's what this is. And what's up with the tomato juice she's drinking? It's weird."

Before the two could talk more, something flew in between them and left a small crater behind them. They looked back to see a piece of chalk embedded into the wall that freaked out some of the other students. The two girls looked back at their teacher who looked less than pleased while tossing another piece of chalk in her hand. "I don't tolerate talking in my classroom. If you have something to say, say it after class. Until then, keep your mouths shut and learn. Oh, and I drink tomato juice because it's nutritional and healthy. Since you two were talking, I want to see your whole team after class. Understand?" All four girls nodded at her. Dorothea smiled at them. "Good." She turned to the board again. "Now, where were we?"

B

Esdeath whined a little in the locker room the team was in for their combat class. "We have to do a report on historical battles that's due next week."

Cornelia zipped up her outfit and wasn't too thrilled about their punishment either. "Yeah and individually too. Plus, we'll be scored as a whole team based how everyone did."

Leone groaned at that. "Sorry. It's our fault."

Akame felt equally guilty. "What's done is done. Let's just focus on what's next."

The Faunus blonde was more than joyful for that. "At least it's a combat class. That's where I'll really shine."

Cornelia smiled at that. "I don't know. I'm pretty sure no one would want to fight you since I'm pretty sure everyone here saw you fight in the Vytal Festival."

The other blonde hated to admit that her teammate was right. "Damn. Well, I can always hold back if that'll make them happy. I guess that also applies to Esdeath and Akame after what they pulled off back in the festival. So I guess you're the odd girl out Cora."

Cornelia gave a glare at the other girl. "Hey, what's supposed to mean?"

"That's enough Leone." Everyone looked over at their leader. "Cora is great a teammate in her own way." Cornelia was glad Akame backed her up. "Now let's head to the arena."

Everyone nodded and left the locker room. "I wonder who the instructor for the combat class is."

Soon as they arrived at the arena, the team saw a student crash into the wall and fall to the floor. "Is that the best you have? If this were a real battle, your opponent would already have broken through that pitiable guard you call a defense!"

It was at that instant when Akame and Leone heard that voice, they froze completely still in fear. Once they saw who their instructor was, it made all the more real to them. "Okay, now this is where I draw the line here."

Esdeath felt a little scared too but for a different reason. "He's…scary."

Cornelia chuckled nervously in agreement. "Yeah. He looks intense."

"It's more than that." The girls looked over at Akame. "That's-"

"So I see you've meet Instructor Budo." The team looked behind to see Kurome and her team. Seemed they had a class together. Kurome smiled at the other team. "Don't let him scare you. Sure he looks intimidating but he's a real softie on in the inside."

That was very hard to believe considering both Akame and Leone fought against him before. "You four must be the new students." The team looked over at Budo who gave them a powerful stare. "I hope you show the same kind of skill back at the festival."

Leone really couldn't believe she had to deal with him again. "A big softie. Yeah…I can totally see that." She thought sarcastically on that last part.

B

What Cornelia said was true. Almost everyone in Budo's combat class didn't want to fight against ALCE. It really pissed off Budo and offered extra credit for anyone who fought one of the members. One did try his hand fighting against Cornelia since he thought she would be the easiest out of the team but lost. Leone sighed in relief as lunch finally came around as the team was in the cafeteria. What differed from the cafeteria from Beacon was that many of the tables were circular and the students could see the food being prepared by the chefs. She was all too glad to have a breather after who they saw. "I don't know how many more surprises I can take in this place."

Akame felt a little exhausted after seeing several familiar faces. She had about enough for today. "This place isn't like the Empire. It is the Empire."

Esdeath and Cornelia looked at each briefly before looking at their teammates. They already knew what was up with them. "Let me guess. The teachers we have were people you previously knew."

Cornelia hit the nail on the head. Akame leaned back in her chair. "They were. Doctor Stylish was a member of the Jaegers and the first one we fought against. He launched an invasion force at our base."

Now Cornelia remembered him. "Oh yeah. You told us about him before back at the festival."

Leone nodded at that. "Yep. I remember how much of a bitch it was fighting against his goons. All in freaky S&M outfits and twisted from the experiments he did to them."

Already the Stylish they knew sounded like a madman. "To top it off, he transformed into some giant monster which made it difficult to…" Akame looked around the cafeteria and back to the rest of the team. "You know." The other two girls understood perfectly well what their leader mean. "In the end, we did manage to defeat him. I never did expect to see him again."

Esdeath could clearly see it on their teammate's expressions. "And what about Professor Dorothea?"

The Faunus groaned at the mention of her. "That freaky bitch. To make a long story short, remember what I told you about Wild Hunt? That freaking pipsqueak was part of them. She was an alchemist who sucked the blood out of her victims to extend her own life. And get this. She was the only person who surpassed my strength."

That was both surprising and hard to believe for other two girls. Especially for someone like Dorothea. "And Budo was once a general same as Najenda and you Esdeath. In fact, he received the rank of Great General from the emperor. His loyalty to the Empire was that of one hundred soldiers. On top of that, he was tied as the most powerful with you Esdeath."

As if one wasn't scary enough for Esdeath. Now she learned there was someone else who was just as strong. "So I'm guessing all of them had the same kind of weapons as you did?"

Akame nodded at the question. "Yes. Doctor Stylish had the Imperial Arms Glorious Hands of God: Perfector. What it does is increase the speed and precision of the user's fingers. You can imagine what that can do in the hands of someone like Stylish."

They really didn't want to. "The Imperial Arms that pint-sized alchemist was called the Blood Collector: Absordex. Try to imagine her having a set of vampire fangs. It's kinda like that. What's more is that her strength increases with every victim she's drained of their blood."

Just when Esdeath and Cornelia couldn't think these Imperial Arms weren't creepy enough. "Budo had the Imperial Arms Thunder God's Rage: Adramelech. They're two piston gauntlets that grants the user to command electricity to their will. It also grants the power of levitation."

Esdeath could see why Budo was considered to be just as strong as her past self. "I really can't imagine you two fighting those kinds of opponents."

Leone didn't blame her teammate for thinking that. "They weren't easy I'll tell you that. I don't know what's scarier. Having them as enemies or having them as our teachers." A terrible thought occurred to her. "Oh goddamn it." She facepalmed at her sudden thought. "Now I'm thinking there might be another Prime Minister out there somewhere in this world. My only hope is that he's either a janitor or some homeless guy." That was scary thought for Akame as well. He was bad enough as is back in the Empire. She couldn't imagine what he could be in the world they were living.

"Excuse me." ALCE looked over to see two familiar teams walking up to them.

Cornelia smiled at them. "This is a surprise. NDGO and BRNZ. What brings you to our table?"

The two teams stopped in front of ALCE and one of the members smiled at them. "Just here to welcome you all to Shade Academy since this is your first day here. We may have seen each other in the tournament but we never really met officially. I'm Nebula Violette, leader of NDGO. The other members of my team are Dew Gayl, Gwen Darcy, and Octavia Ember."

Leone thought it nice of the other teams to come over and greet them since they really never knew them all that well back at the Vytal Festival. "And what about BRNZ?"

One of the members was about to speak but Nebula interrupted. "They had kinda had the same idea as us but if you ask me, I think it's because the boys wanted to ask one of you out."

One of them took offense to that. "Hey!"

The lone girl on the team rolled her eyes. "She's not wrong."

Her leader ignored the words and looked over at the new team. "Never mind her. In any case, nice to finally meet you in person. Brawnz Ni, leader of team BRNZ. These are my teammates Roy Stallion, Nolan Porfirio and the joker is May Zedong."

Akame was rather glad some of the other teams from the tournament were here to greet them. Leone smiled at the lone female of team BRNZ. "So May, what's it like living in the same room with three boys?"

May groaned at the question. "Let's just say, it's a pain to have any privacy at all. I sometimes envy other teams like NDGO and yours."

Brawnz took offense to that. "Hey, it's not that bad living with us."

May would say otherwise. "Maybe so but I still have problems with you three."

The conversation was beginning to be a little off topic. "Hey hey! Let's not forget why we're here. To welcome ALCE. Even though…" She glanced over to some of the members while looking slightly nervous.

Akame knew where Nebula was getting at. "You don't have to worry about us. We are on the same side."

Even with that said, some of the members still felt a little uneasy about most of ALCE. Akame had awakened some scary power and went toe to toe with Kurome, Esdeath's semblance was beyond powerful, and Leone's strength was the most insane they've ever seen. It seemed the only normal member they had was Cornelia. "And what do we have here?"

Everyone looked over to see KRCT walking up to them. "Getting cozy with the new arrivals are we?" Kurome smiled at all of them.

Roy wasn't all too happy they showed up. "And what are you doing here?"

Kurome didn't like his tone of voice but tolerated it. "Same as you. Here to greet the new team. It'd be nice they get to know some of the people here considering…"

Leone sighed as she knew what the other girl was going to say. "Save it already. We've heard enough about how we lost Beacon. The last thing we need is your pity. If that's what you're going for?" She eyed at NDGO and BRNZ.

Nebula waved her hands in front of her. "No, no. Nothing of the sort."

Brawnz nodded in agreement. "Yeah. We don't play like that." Now that they were up close, they clearly saw how frightening Leone could truly be.

Kurome had another motive as to why her team was here. "Now that we established that now, how about we get something to eat? I can assure the food is pretty damn good here."

Nolan scoffed at that. "That's because you eat everything in sight."

A vein suddenly popped on Kurome's forehead and glared at him. "I'm sorry but who got their ass kicked in the first round of the tournament?"

Nolan glared back at her. "And you were the one who had some freaky breakdown during her match."

Kurome growled at him. Chelsea got in between of them with her arms held out. "Okay, cool the claws, no pun intended Leone…"

"It's cool."

"And you can settle it in the next combat class. Of course, we all know Kurome is going to kick your ass again Nolan." Rienna and several of the other members couldn't help but laugh at that. "So let's get a move on already. Time for you to experience what the food in Vacuo is like. I can guarantee you it'll be better then what you ate back at Vale."