Red Falls At The Rising Hero's Feet
The cool air was rather refreshing as Rukia and Orihime walked back towards the dorms, they were completely exhausted and wanted nothing more than to rest. The source of this fatigue came Tatsuki, who suggested that the entire team should train for a few hours...the problem was the training was grueling. Ichigo and Tatsuki had no problem with any of the exercises, from sparring to lifting weights, this training regiment had it all; the two had suggested Rukia and Orihime take break before meeting up with them near the dorms which they immediately agreed to.
"Th-this is insane", Rukia groaned as she walked back as Orihime slightly lagged behind.
"I knew Tatsuki could be bad with the training but both of them are a nightmare!", Rukia nodded in agreement to Orihime's statement; while it was true that she was used to training, Rukia wasn't quite used to this level. Most of her experiences comes from stretches, running, and combat practice, she wasn't too keen on the idea of lifting, and when the time came for her to actually do it...it destroyed any form of energy she had left, matter of fact she could still feel the burning and aches in her muscles.
"Hey, isn't that Jaune?", Rukia looked at the oranged haired girl before focusing on the figure a few feet away.
"Now that you mention it…", she squinted her eyes as she attempted to observe every detail of the person ahead of them and the bill matched Jaune perfectly. They sped up a bit as they walked towards him.
"Jaune!", the blond quickly looked behind before speaking.
"Oh, hey guys," his voice seem to have a sense of dread in it causing the pair to become curious.
"Are you feeling alright?", Rukia asked with a neutral expression on her face as Orihime began to speak.
"You know if something's bothering you, you can tell us," Jaune shook his head as they continued walking.
"I'm fine, really I am," the pair looked at each other before looking back at him with a look of doubt of their face,
"If you say so Jaune, Just so you know, you look like hell right now," Jaune chuckled at Rukia's remark.
"I guess I need to hit the hay then."
"They're taking a bit longer than they should be don't you think?", Ichigo turned to Tatsuki and shrugged.
"I guess, but I mean they aren't really used to this kind of training," he leaned back against a wall as he started to speak.
"If I had to guess though, I'd say those two are probably just taking it slow...today had to be a bit rough on them," Tatsuki crossed her arms and sighed deeply as she looked forward before something quickly caught her eye.
"I think I see them," Ichigo raised a brow at her before turning to what she was looking at.
"Yep, that's them and…", he squinted at the other person in attempt to make out their identity.
"Oh wow, looks like Jaune is with them," Ichigo stood up straight and started walking forward. He beckoned Tatsuki to follow as he started to walk faster.
"Yo!". Ichigo was jogging towards the trio with Tatsuki not too far behind.
"Oh, hey Ichigo," surprisingly, Jaune was the first one to react to the greeting.
"Long time no see man," Ichigo cracked a small smile as he patted Jaune on the shoulder, prompting a slight response from Jaune.
"Yea, it's been a while…", the blond had a slight smile on his face as he spoke; as Tatsuki joined the conversation she wore an expression of slight concern on her face as she looked at Jaune.
"You okay Jaune? You look like you had a rough day," Jaune shrugged.
"Long day I guess," he looked around at the four before chuckling a bit, "You guys run a marathon or something?", Rukia pointed at Tatsuki and Ichigo as she started to shout.
"I swear these two are trying to kill us! You should have seen the massive weight he made me lift up!", Ichigo rolled his eye as her exaggeration of today's training.
"Rukia, calm down. It was 105 lbs."
"I refuse to believe that's how much it was! It had to be at least 200!"
"I was spotting you, I know what I put on the bar."
"You must be blind then!", Ichigo scoffed at her remark before wrapping his arm around her shoulders and giving her noogie.
"You tryin' to piss me off ya midget!", Rukia started to kick and flaw as Tatsuki turned to Jaune.
"She's in denial because Hime did 110 and she couldn't," Orihime giggled a bit as Tatsuki mentioned.
"Well, it's only because Tatsuki had me training with her before we came here," Tatsuki lightly punched her in the arm causing her to rub her arm due to slight pain.
"You gotta give yourself more credit Hime! You're stronger than you think," Tatsuki's little pep talk was cut short as Rukia elbowed Ichigo in the stomach before putting her fists up.
"You wanna go carrot top!", Ichigo brought his hands up into boxing stance with a scowl on his face.
"Bring on you midget!", before they could get any further Orihime and Tatsuki restrained the two. Orihime stood in front of Rukia and had her hands on her shoulders, gently pushing her back while Tatsuki...she looked like she was trying to tackle Ichigo to the ground, due to him being much larger than she was, Tatsuki had to hold him in place as he tried to push her back. The little squabble was interrupted by Jaune, he began to laugh hysterically to point where he was on the verge of crying. As he began to stop laughing, he pointed to Ichigo and Rukia.
"You guys look like me and my younger sisters!", he began to laugh again as Ichigo scoffed.
"Yea, well Ol' Goat Chin said she was like a third daughter," he glared at Rukia slightly.
"Though I don't remember ever getting into a fist fight with Karin or Yuzu," Rukia stuck her tongue out mockingly at Ichigo as he rolled his eyes.
"Thank you for that. Honestly, that made my night," Jaune waved and walked past them.
"Have a nice night," he called out to them in a cheerful tone as the four just stood still for a few seconds in utter silence.
"Ichigo and I got drinks by the way. They're over in that bag," Tatsuki pointed to a large plastic bag resting against a wall.
"Why didn't you say anything! I'm dying over here," Rukia darted straight towards the bag and quickly pulled out a bottle of water before downing it within a few seconds.
Team RIOT had just recently gotten settled in for the night, Rukia decided to speak up after a few moments of silence had passed.
"Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Jaune's team say something about him being distant?", Tatsuki looked over and nodded at her.
"Yea, I remember Pyrrah saying something about that," Ichigo glances over at the two before deciding to chime in.
"I didn't know you hang out with Pyrrah."
"Well yeah, we hung out a few times but I mostly talk to her when I go to train," Tatsuki turned herself towards Ichigo and stared at him a bit.
"Um, do I have something on my face?", Tatsuki shakes her head.
"I was just wondering, you said your dad referred to Rukia as his third daughter," her expression quickly changes to one of curiosity, "So, care to explain?"
"Well, she came to Karakura Town a few months before school and then I ran into her...she kinda followed me back home and Goat Chin told she could stay at our place as long she needs," Tatsuki tilted her head slightly.
"But last time I came over the guest room was empty...whe-", before she could even ask, Orihime blurted out the answer to her unfinished question.
"Oh, she was living in Ichigo's closet!", Ichigo brought his hand to his face and just shook his head a bit as Tatsuki glared at him.
"She just went and set herself up in my closet," Tatsuki's gaze snapped over to Rukia for confirmation.
"Well, yea I did...I would've took the guest room if I knew about though," Ichigo glared at her.
"I tried to tell you about it but you just went into my closet and unpacked!"
"You went straight to your room! I thought you were going to show me where the guest room was!"
"I ran into you on my way back from the store...I was going to show you to the room after I put the stuff I bought away!", Rukia rolled her eyes and put on a teasing smirk.
"I bet you just wanted to keep a cute girl in your room didn't you?", she spoke in a seductive tone...but it was cut short by Ichigo's small fit of rage.
"Can you shut the hell up!", he shouted at her before throwing large book at her.
"Oi! That could have hitted me you fool!", Ichigo rolled his eyes at her remark.
"That was the point!", Orihime quietly giggled at the two before turning to Tatsuki.
"Just like home isn't it?", Tatsuki smiled a bit and nodded.
"Yea, a home away from home."
The first year students followed behind Professor Goodwitch as they all stared at the scenery around them. The leaves that decorated the trees and the forest floor were a brilliant shade of red as they continued to drift through the air. It was like a painting, it just seemed impossible for such a beautiful place to exist.
"Yes students, the Forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sightsee. Professor Peaches asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest. And I'm here to make sure that none of you will die while doing so," the class comes to halt causing Jaune to bump into Cardin, who shot him an irritated glare, whilst he was carrying a case with multiple jars on top of it.
"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at four o'clock. Have fun!", as she finished talking, Jaune went to walk towards his team only to be pulled over by Cardin.
"C'mon, buddy! Let's go," Jaune looked at Pyrrah with a troubled expression before going with Cardin causing her to let out a sigh.
Team RIOT was gathered around a section of trees with teams RWBY and JNPR, filling up jars with sap. Orihime stuck her finger in the red substance and tasted it before letting out a slight squeal delight. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small container and began to fill it up. Ichigo noticed her actions and walked over towards her as he finished filling up his jar.
"Hey Orihime," she recoiled at the sound of his voice and turned around to face.
"Y-yes Ichigo?"
"Do me a favor, if you planning on taking some of that stuff for yourself, could you please get some for me? I want to give to my mom and Yuzu so they could make something with it," Orihime smiled brightly at him as his cheeks revealed a slight pink hue as he mentioned his mother and sister.
"Of course! After all it's nice of you to think of your family like that."
"Thanks Orihime, I appreciate it.", she smiled at him again before going back to what she was doing; a few minutes passed as a roar echoed throughout the forest. Ruby looked up before turning to the others with a worried look on her face.
"Did you guys hear that?", not a second later, the members of Cardin's team came rushing from the opposite direction. Russell began yelling as he ran.
"Ursa! Ursa!", Yang stopped his dash and lifted him up by his collar.
"What! Where?", she asked as he pointed behind him.
"Back there! It's got Cardin!", Pyrrah dropped the jar of sap she was holding as she heard this,
"Jaune!", she exclaimed in a worried tone, Ruby looked at her before looking at her teammates.
"Yang! You and Blake go get Professor Goodwitch," Pyrrah turned to the Ichigo's team and her remaining teammates.
"You two go with them! There could be more," Ren and Nora darted at her command, Rukia wasn't far behind them as the rest of her team soon followed .
"Things just keep getting better and better don't they!", Ichigo shouted as he ran. Yang laughed a bit before responding to his sarcasm.
"Yea, I know right!", Rukia and Blake both rolled their eyes at the two's optimistic joking before Tatsuki decided to put an end to it.
"Guys, can you stop joking around? This is serious!", Ichigo scoffed at her comment and Yang went on to reply.
"What? It's not like things can get any worse," Orihime gasped as the words left Yang's mouth.
"Yang! You shouldn't say things like that!", she shouted with a sense of urgency in her voice. Yang chuckled at her concern as she continued to run.
"Yea? What are eight more gonna show up?", the rustling in the forest indicated that Yang had just screwed the pooch and Orihime's superstition proved true as eight large Ursai emerged from all sides.
"See! This is why you don't say things like that!", Orihime scolded Yang for being a smartass and jinxing the whole situation.
"You got lucky!"
"Guys!", Ren yelled at the two causing the pair to become silent before turning to face the oncoming enemies.
"We have much bigger problems than your little argument here!", Yang pointed a finger at Orihime.
"This isn't over!", she then quickly went to Blake's side before darting at an Ursa and delivering a heavy haymaker to its rib cage.
"Dance! Sode no Shirayuki," Rukia issued to her blade's release command causing it to shift into its Shikai state; An Ursa lunged at her but was quickly countered by Orihime.
"Shiten Koshun, I reject!", she slide her fingers across her hairpin before aiming behind Rukia's back. The golden, triangular shield appeared behind her and caused the beast to be thrown a few feet back; it roared at Orihime and began to charge. Tatsuki leaped at the Grimm and narrowed her eyes as she drew her weapon, the weapon took the shape of a bo staff as the world around her lost color due to her semblance. The Ursa's knee glew slightly as it stood to strike, she spun the steel staff around before smashing it into its knee, sweeping it onto the ground. Tatsuki hit a switch on the weapon causing it to split into a pair of wakizashi blades as the Ursa stood back and charged at her. She readied herself as the beast rushed at her, she activates her semblance once again, this time she sees two thin lines of color leading to the Grimm's chest and lower stomach, once in position she strikes. With a swift motion she draws the two blades through the Ursa's body and flips herself behind before looking at Orihime.
"Hime now!", Orihime pulled reached behind and pulled out a high caliber assault rifle and began to fire at the Grimm, killing it within 14 shots.
Yang and Blake were caught up in their own little scrap with a rather large Ursa, as it swung, Blake used her Gambol and Shroud to slice to through its legs and and arms as Yang provided supporting fire using her Ember Celica before Blake finished her assault and perched herself on a tree branch, giving Yang a thumbs up as the Ursa fell to its knees. The blonde charged at the Grimm and delivered a skull shattering uppercut.
"Well, that wasn't too bad," out of the bushes come two more Ursai, bigger than the last. Blake looked at her partner.
"You really need to learn to be quiet every once in awhile," Yang shrugged as she ducked a strike from the larger of the two beasts before punching it in the jaw. The second one attempted to get the jump on her soon after, however Blake intercepted the creature by placing a deep gash in its chest. The two beasts roared at them before Yang looked at Blake.
"Y'know these Ursai are really 'heating' me up," Blake groaned as Yang activated her semblance and smirked before charging at the smaller Grimm.
Ren jumped over the Ursa's attack, using this opportunity, he began to fire at the beast before dragging StormFlower's blades down its mid-section before flipping back a few feet. He looked at Nora and nodded as she gripped Magnhild tightly. The energetic girl smashed the hammer into the Ursa's knee before smashing its head into the ground before striking a victory pose as Ren wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"That should be the last of them," he looked at Nora, who was currently beaming with excitement, "Come on Nora, we have to go find the others."
"Okay!", she responded in a cheery tone as she stood still humming a happy tone.
"Nora!", Ren shouted impatiently.
"Coming!", as she said this, she began to skip towards Ren with Magnhild resting on her shoulder.
"I still can't believe we let ourselves get separated like that!", Rukia exclaimed in a frustrated voice as her and Ichigo walked through the forest.
"I just hope they're okay," Ichigo rested Tensa Zangetsu on his shoulder as he searched for signs of the others.
"Ichigo, look over there!", he turned his head towards where Rukia was pointing. Up ahead, Professor Goodwitch was standing with the rest of their team along with the stray members from teams RWBY and JPNR. They began to run towards the group as they noticed them.
"Ichigo! Rukia!", Orihime exclaimed before her and Tatsuki embraced the two. Tatsuki broke away from the little group hug a few moments later and looked at Ichigo and Rukia with a worried expression on her face.
"Are you guys alright?"
"Yea, just a few scratches and bruises is all," Orihime darted towards them.
"Let me heal you then," Ichigo waved his hand dismissively.
"It's fine, really nothing too …", Ichigo grabbed Orihime by the shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes, "You really should save your energy. We're fine alright?", she nodded at him.
"Okay," Glynda cleared her throat as she looked at the group of students before her.
"Alright, we need to search for the rest of your class. This forest is incredibly dangerous and we need to stick together for this," she looked around at the first year students with an intense gaze.
"Understand?", the students nod in confirmation, "Good, now in which direction did the rest of your classmates go?
"They went that way ma'am," Blake pointed forward.
"Alright, let's get moving," As Glynda began to walk, about five more Ursai began to rush from behind the group. Ichigo groaned as he saw the creatures.
"I've had it up to here with these bastards! Why do they keep popping up?"
"Umm, Ichigo...I got some of that sap in my hair," he turned towards Orihime who was currently trying separate some hair that was sticking together due to a certain red substance.
"Okay, I'm done with this," he raised his hand to his summoning his Vizard mask.
"Mr. Kurosaki, what do you think you're doing?"
"Blowing these bastards to high hell!", he gripped Tensa Zangetsu tightly with two hands as Aura began to erupt from the blade.
"Stop this instant! Do you have an-", her sentence was cut short as Ichigo raised the blade over his head and brought it down with straight over head slash.
"Getsuga Tensho!", the giant black and red crescent made contact with one of the Ursai and exploded into a giant wave of Aura that began to flood through the forest.
Jaune, Pyrrah, Ruby, and Weiss were walking back towards where they were initially gathering the red sap; upon arrival they saw a rather peculiar scene. Glynda was screaming at Ichigo, who was currently sitting on the ground with a scowl on his face.
"I hope you release how reckless your actions were!", Ruby thought back to the moment she met Ozpin and Glynda as she heard these words. Curiosity grew in the four as they walked to the group.
"Excuse me, Professor Goodwitch...what happened?", she turned to Weiss with an irritated expression on her face.
"Well Ms. Schnee, Ichigo here thought it would be a good idea to dispose of a few Ursai…"
"That doesn't sound like a reason to disci-"
"By blowing an entire section of the forest to pieces," she pointed to the section of trees that were toppled over and torn apart.
"Oh…", Weiss looked over to Ichigo and back to Glynda, who had just turned towards the oranged haired boy.
"As I was saying, you must think before you act Mr. Kurosaki. What if that blast had happened closer to the group?", Ichigo rolled his eyes before looking her right in the face.
"Yea, yea, I won't use my mask unless I absolutely need to," he spoke in an extremely sarcastic tone, which annoyed Professor Goodwitch to no end.
"Do not take that tone of voice when addressing me," she turned and walked away from him as Ruby walked over and sat beside.
"You're really not use that mask unless it's an emergency?"
"Of course not! It's my mask, I'll use it when I feel like it," Ruby chuckled at his response.
"Good thing too, it makes you pretty mysterious in a sexy way," a seductive voice whispered in his ear, causing him to jump back a bit. Yang started to laugh as she saw his face turn red.
"You're way too much fun to mess with, strawberry!"
"Strawberry? Where did you hear that from?", Yang pointed to Tatsuki and Rukia, who had extremely smug expressions at the moment.
"Those two…", he turned back to Yang and stood up, "My name actually means 'number one protector', thank you very much," Yang smirked and grabbed his arm before pushing her breasts up against his chest.
"Even better, I would prefer not to be screaming Strawberry tonight," Ruby walked behind her and smacked her in the back of the head.
"Yang! Stop saying all that dirty stuff!", Yang pouted as she walked away.
"Thanks, Ruby. I didn't know how I was going to handle that."
"Oh, don't worry if she ever starts acting up just let me know," she wore a prideful smirk as she spoke.
"I will," Ichigo said as he looked over to make sure Yang wasn't creeping up on him again.
"Alright, I'm going to head over with my team now. See ya.", He turned and began to walk over to the two perpetrators that told Yang to call him "Strawberry".
'I'm going to kill those two.'
"You should have seen your face though!" Rukia and Tatsuki were rolling on the floor of the dorm nearly in tears from how hard they were laughing.
"It isn't funny!", Ichigo shouted at the two with a furious tone as they continued to laugh.
"No it's hilarious!", shouted Tatsuki as she continued to laugh.
"Shut up! I even told what my name actually meant and then she said something about how she likes that even better because she didn't want to be screaming Strawberry," Orihime's face went beet red as she heard this and then covered her face as she attempted not to let imagination go wild as the pair continued to laugh. Ichigo gritted his teeth and put his hand on his face.
"Stop enabling that damn pervert!", his shouting caused them to stop as soon as they heard the familiar double toned voice. Ichigo glared at them before speaking again.
"Now, I don't wanna hear another word of this. Got it?", the two nodded, "Good," he turned around and flopped onto his before dismissing the mask.
AN: Alright, alright seven chapters in now. Now I hope that you guys aren't disappointed with Tatsuki and Orihime's weapons, with Tatsuki's weapon being a steel bo staff that is cable of shifting into other weapons used in martial arts and Orihime having...a gun. The reason behind Tatsuki's weapon choice is probably obvious but Orihime having an assault rifle is probably something that you wouldn't expect; the reasoning behind the weapon choice for Orihime is simple: I feel that Orihime would be someone who would either support others in combat or engage in combat from a range. I apologize for this chapter being shorter than the last…on a different note, thank you guys for all support so far and I hope you will continue to read. Until next time!
