A/N: I felt like a total baka for using an update to promote something else, so I decided to push forward with some creative drive and make TWO WHOLE CHAPTERS!

Hopefully this makes up for the false hope, I've replaced the chapter with this one so it does not mess with the chapter select or whatever. Enjoy!

I do not own RWBY or any of its characters. Otherwise, this entire story would be animated by now.

Chapter 13: Signal Adademy

I reflected on my decision to attend Beacon as I washed my face the next morning. I had woken up earlier than intended, but I was hardly asleep anyways, my mind refusing to rest as I stared at the ceiling. Eventually I abandoned sleeping all together as dawn grew closer and made my way to the dorm washroom to splash water on my face. I cringed at the pain in my chest from when Jaune had landed on me.

And from when I was hit by the Death Stalker...

And from when I fell...

And from another headache...

I rubbed my side to alleviate some of the soreness and went over what Professor Ozpin had said last night. Romulus and I only had a few days to bring together a full team, that was the most pressing issue to be sure. The only catch was that I didn't know anyone outside of Beacon that could fit the bill. There was always Jack, but he made his opinion about the academy pretty clear during our previous 'chat'.

Then I remembered Ema, the girl from the park and who I had the pleasure of meeting again the other day. It was a long shot, but if we could find her, there was a possibility of having her join our team. She seemed enthusiastic enough about Beacon, so it wouldn't be too hard to convince her. Hopefully.

Fixing a bit of bed-head, I decided that unless Romulus had any ideas, we at least had something to fall back on. I let out a sigh and began to make my way back to the room to change out of my sleepwear.

The halls were pretty quiet, the few of those awake just making their way towards the washrooms to prepare for the morning. Turning the corner, I walked straight into Pyrrha Nikos, literally.

"Good morning, Hiro. You're up early," She said as we rubbed the respective bumps on our heads.

"I could say the same to you. Sorry about that, I guess I'm not fully awake yet." I rubbed the back of my neck in embarrassment.

Pyrrha shook her head with a smile, "It's quite alright, it was as much my fault as well. So, are you ready for classes?"

"Actually, Romulus and I haven't received a schedule yet."

Pyrrha seemed confused, "What? Why not?"

"Well…"

I gave a brief explanation of what had happened after initiation and the deal we had with Ozpin. She waited patiently for me to finish, not wanting to interrupt me as I spoke.

"The only problem is I don't exactly know that many people. I sort of-" I hesitated, not sure if I should bring up my amnesia quite yet. "...I wasn't a very social person outside of Beacon."

She nodded understandingly, "Well… There are a number of combat schools you could visit. Why not just go to your old school and ask around."

"M-My old school?" I looked away, "I was, uh, homeschooled…"

"Oh." Her smile faded, "I'm sorry, I just assumed-"

"No, no. It's fine. I'm sure I'll think of something. Thank you for your help."

"Of course. Good luck." She gripped my shoulder before turning and continuing to the washroom. I watched her walk off with a smile, she really was a kind and beautiful person.

*PHEEEEEEEEWWWWW!*

A piercing sound tore me from my thoughts, I looked around to pinpoint the origin of the noise.

I began walking down towards the rooms only to find Romulus in the hall outside of team RWBY's room still wearing his nightwear, which consisted only of a pair of black sweatpants with a hole for his tail. His fists were clenched and he looked ready to kick the door from its hinges.

"Hey, Romulus!" My voice interrupted his plan of vandalism as he turned towards me.

"Oh, hey Hiro. where'd you wander off to?"

"Couldn't sleep. Went to splash water on my face. So, uh... what's going on here?" I gestured between him and the helpless door before him.

Romulus frowned and returned his gaze to the door. "Someone in there blew a whistle and now my ears won't stop ringing! I was just going to return the favor." His wolven ears were pressed flat against his head, proving his point. I'd probably be angry too if I was woken up like that.

The faunus boy brought his foot back up to take down the door, I quickly stepped in front of him, arms raised. Vandalism on the first day, especially in our predicament, was not the best first impression.

"Relax, man." I tried to calm him down. "We don't have time to pick fights with RWBY right now. We have to find two new teammates, remember?"

Romulus stared at me, flicking his eyes at the door in thought.

"Grr… Fine!" He huffed. I let out a breath of relief and began to follow him back into our-

*PHEEEEEEEEWWWWW!*

"THEY'RE DEAD MEAT!"

So close…

=||-{([O])}-||=

It took fifteen minutes to calm down the wolven warrior. Yang had to hold him back from Ruby while I talked him into a non-volatile state. Blake held Weiss back in a similar manner; Weiss was less than pleased as she berated Romulus about their, now unhinged, door. The two of them were currently in the middle of a staring and yelling contest that would have gone on forever if I didn't drag him away, apologizing as I did so. Ruby also apologized again and again, promising never to blow the whistle from this point on. Romulus wanted the object destroyed but I was able to talk him down, allowing the girl to keep her possession.

"Well that could have gone better…" I said between a mouthful of pancakes and eggs. Across from me Romulus angrily ate his breakfast steak in silence, traces of frustration still visible on his face. We had both changed from our sleepwear, wearing roughly the same outfits that we had worn during initiation, but I was without my jacket, leaving my black t-shirt and weapon exposed.

"Look," I rubbed my eyes, "the next shuttle to Vale leaves in less than half an hour. We only have about four days to bring a team together, so we better figure out where to start our search." I took a bite of my food, swallowing before I continued, "I was thinking we could start at Signal Academy, You know, it being a combat school and all?"

Romulus merely shrugged, "As long as we get a team, I don't give a shit where we go." he replied, taking another large bite of steak.

I sighed and checked the clock mounted above the entryway.

8:55 a.m..

Class would be starting soon, and the shuttle leaves at 9:15. I didn't see RWBY or JNPR anywhere during breakfast so I could only assume they had gone ahead to class early, skipping the morning meal for whatever reason.

Not feeling very hungry, I put down my fork, having only finished half of my breakfast, and stood up to stretch.

"You going to finish that?"

I looked down at Romulus, who was pointing at my plate with his fork. I shook my head and he eagerly pulled what was left of my food to his side of the table and began to finish both plates.

I chuckled, "Once you're done you should grab your gear and head over to catch the shuttle. I'm going to stop by the medical wing and speak to Dr. Night before we leave, so I'll meet you there."

His mouth full, Romulus only gave me a nod in return before returning his attention to the food. Satisfied with his response, I turned and left the cafeteria, making my way towards the medical wing.

Thankfully, the cafeteria was not far from my destination, and I was in the medical office in only a couple of minutes. Dr. Night was reading through some papers when I arrived and looked up from her desk as I walked in and smiled.

"Good morning, Hiro. Sleep well?"

The office wasn't much more than an average room with a plethora of shelves lining the walls along with several filing cabinets. Despite the constricting feeling coming from all of the medical documents, the room somehow emitted a bright and colorful feel due to the well placed plants and pictures that were across most surfaces. There was even a small vase of flowers set on the desk as well.

I rubbed my side, "About as well as you could imagine. Those bandages yesterday helped, but I'm still more bruised than a banana."

Her smile fell slightly at my response, "Yes... I can see how that would be troublesome without an aura."

I lowered my hand and took a seat across from her. "That's sort of why I'm here. You've mentioned aura before. I don't really know much about it or why I don't seem to have one, so I wanted to ask you about it."

Dr. Night nodded, "I see. Well..." She held her hand up to her chin in thought, "Aura, at it's core, is the physical manifestation of a living creature's soul. It is a powerful force that carries the burdens of the user and protects them from harm."

I leaned forward intently, nodding in understanding.

"With enough practice, one can learn to use their aura in a multitude of different ways. A person's soul is unique, and in turn, so is each aura unique. This is where we get something called a semblance."

"Like Ruby's speed, right?"

She nodded, "That's right. Everyone has the ability to weave their aura into their own special skill that makes up their semblance."

"Well, that's great and all, but..." I motioned towards myself, "why don't I have one? Just because parts of me aren't real doesn't mean I don't have a soul, right?"

"No, I assure you that's not the case. You see..." She folded her hands in front of her on the desk, "most remnans require their aura to be unlocked by someone else. Now while this is not usually a difficult task, there have been a few circumstances where beings with mechanical limbs have had rather... unpleasant side effects." She took a moments pause, closing her eyes before continuing, "The transition from the host's biological nervous system to the electrical signal of the replacement limb is a phenomenal development in the medical industry, but has been known to cause major problems in the usage of aura. One case being when a patient's aura was unlocked and they went as far enough to rip the appendage from their shoulder while it was still in sync with his body."

I gulped and sank in my chair.

"There are a few other cases similar to that, but they all end about the same way. The soul does not extend through the machinery and it is rejected by the aura, causing intense pain to the hosts mind and body." She opened her eyes to look at me, "Which is why we have refrained from attempting to activate your aura for the time being. Even with the strange combination of biological and mechanical organs, the procedure has an extremely low success rate."

I lifted my arm and stared at it, "I... I had no idea... So does this mean I'll never have an aura?"

At my question, Dr. Night smiled, "Well that's what we would like to figure out." I raised an eyebrow as she continued. "We know that a full mechanical limb will be rejected, but with your situation of having them only be PARTIALLY mechanical, we might have a better chance of unlocking it with no side effects! We will have to run some tests of course, just to be sure."

I let out a breath of relief, "That sounds good to me." I said, standing up, "Once we get our team together I'll be sure to come back and schedule something with you, doctor."

"Great! I look forward to it!" She reached out her hand and I shook it respectfully before turning towards the clock. I nearly lost my balance at the sight.

"Crap! The shuttle leaves in five minutes!" Distressed, I spun and immediately took off out the door, "Gotta go, doc! Thanks for the talk!" Ignoring the pain in my ribs, I left the medical offices behind me and took off full sprint towards the shuttle.

=||-{([O])}-||=

I made it to the shuttle with seconds to spare and apologized to Romulus countlessly for being late. He shrugged it off with a grunt akin to meaning, 'Don't let it happen again.' and took a seat on the small airship. I took my own seat as the shuttle lifted off the ground and began to make it's way towards downtown Vale. Looking over one of the maps placed around the shuttle, I began to plan out where we were going.

In order to get to Signal Academy, we would have to make our way to the docks and catch a ferry to the Island of Patch. Once there, it was only a matter of finding the school along the main road, which didn't seem to hard. Once sure of where to go, I folded the map back up and placed it in my back pocket just in case before leaning back in my seat to enjoy the ride.

It wasn't long before we had arrived downtown and walked the couple of blocks to where the ferry was docked. Using what little money I had left, I paid for a round trip ticket and boarded, Romulus followed me in after paying his fare as well.

We didn't speak throughout most of the trip, keeping mainly to ourselves as we quietly walked around. Not that I disliked the faunus's company, but I had a lot on my mind and wasn't quite comfortable with voicing my thoughts with him quite yet. Romulus didn't seem like he was overly eager to talk anyways, and was constantly sniffing around as people walked by. Not strangely enough, they weren't usually pleased about it.

Halfway to Patch, we had still neglected to speak to each other.

I let out a sigh, 'If this keeps up we won't exactly be partners...'

I glanced at the wolf boy, trying to find something to talk about to get a conversation going.

"So... Beacon, huh? It's a pretty nice place, don't you think?" I said with a smile.

Romulus just shrugged, "It won't really matter if we don't find enough people for our pack."

I tilted my head to the side, "You've used that term a few times. You say 'pack' instead of 'team'. Why?"

"It's not important," He replied, crossing his arms, "They both hold a similar meaning, so understanding it isn't too difficult."

"I guess so..." I struggled to keep the conversation going, "So what about your weapons? Do you mind explaining them?"

"You saw them during initiation, there's not a lot to explain," He lifted his left arm to show me, "Clypeus is a collapsable shield and houses the pair of pointed rods that you saw before. When activated," The shield extended to display his point, "the shield and rods extend and allow for defensive and offensive strikes based on the situation. They can be extended or retracted together or individually, and the rods are filled with explosive dust that enables them to be launched from their chambers, one of which has the coiled chain you saw before." The components retracted and extended in various ways as he went through his explanation before returning to their original form. He then gestured to the blade hanging from his right hip. "I also carry my sword, Jiat. It's shorter than the ones most people carry, the blade being only about twenty inches, but is much more practical for precision strikes and thrusts." Romulus then proceeded to lazily lean back on the bench he was sitting on, "That's about all there is to tell. From what I observed during initiation, you have a small blade and firearm, right?"

I shifted uncomfortably, "Actually, my gun was destroyed when I fell into the ravine yesterday... I just have this now," I said, pulling out my knife.

Romulus raised an eyebrow and looked at it skeptically. "You think that you're going to be able to make it though Beacon with nothing but that at your side?"

I flinched slightly. His words were harsh but true, and I had had the same thought run through my head throughout most of the morning as well. I could barely hold my own against smaller Grimm, and that was with a ranged weapon in hand. 'Would I really be able to make it with only this?'

I shook my head, "Like you said, it won't matter if we don't get enough teammates by friday." I re-sheathed my blade, which I had yet to give a proper name, and turned towards the front of the ship. "Looks like we're about to dock."

Romulus brought himself to his feet in a stretch, "Best we get moving then."

With that, the two of us made our way to the boarding ramp. I couldn't help but feel this partnership between us had no more cooperation than we had that morning.

=||-{([O])}-||=

The island of Patch was, in a word, quaint.

All of the buildings were smaller than what I had seen so far from Vale and Beacon, most not being more than one floor high. The roads were less busy and I even caught some younger children playing down a side street as we walked along. If I had to choose a place to live based on first impressions, it would DEFINITELY be here.

"There it is."

I turned in the direction Romulus was pointing, and sure enough we had reached our destination. I chuckled, it was almost like looking at a smaller version of Beacon. It had a similar resemblance to a castle, but while Beacon had a singular, larger tower in the center, Signal had one off towards the side with a slightly shorter one opposite it. The entire campus was built along the side of a hill, making the difference in the towers height less noticeable, but it was there.

After spending a minute taking in the view, we entered the school and made our way towards the administration office. Not being students, we couldn't just wander around without signing a visitors book and putting on a name tag that read, 'Guest'. Once we had that taken care of, we were free to walk the halls, so long as we did not disrupt any classes whilst we were there.

Now the only question was where to start. I turned to Romulus to ask him if he had any ideas, only to stop myself when I noticed his ears twitching around as he turned his head towards a connecting hallway. "Hey, are you-"

Before I could finish, Romulus had taken off at a run down the hall, leaving me behind.

"H-HEY! Wait up!" I kicked off with my left foot and sprinted to catch up with him, wondering what was wrong.

We passed by a few classrooms and around a corner before he stopped at an open door. I ran up beside him and took a moment to lean down and catch my breath.

"What did you run off for?" I panted. Standing up straight, I noticed a grin on Romulus's face as his tail flicked back and forth.

Curious, I lean forward and peered through the door myself, my face lighting up as I realized what was happening.

Inside was a large combat room and a little over half a dozen students scattered around sparring or practicing with their weapons. By the look on Romulus's face I imagined that he wanted to get in on some of the action as well. I probably couldn't stop him if I wanted to.

I moved aside and let the wolf boy run in and make his way to a group of students that were sparring, probably asking if he could take them on. I walked in and watched as they all lined up opposite of each other, each activating or readying their weapons for battle.

I shook my head and smiled, turning to make my way to a bench to watch. The bench was occupied by another student at the time, which made me smile even more, because I knew this particular student.

I sat down quietly and watched Romulus go toe-to-toe with another sword wielder for a minute before speaking up.

"Boo."

"WAHHH!" I laughed as Ema nearly dropped the notebook she was writing in surprise.

"We really need to stop meeting like this." I said, picking up the pencil that she DID drop off of the floor and handed it to her.

She blushed slightly and took the pencil back, "Well you startled me. I didn't even see you sit down."

I rubbed the back of my head, "Sorry about that. So what're you up to? Bit of a strange place to be doing homework."

She clutched her shut notebook in her hands tightly, "T-That's because it's not exactly... homework..."

I raised an eyebrow, "Really? Do you mind if I ask what it is then?"

"N-N-No! It's too embarrassing!"

"It can't be that bad."

"But it is!"

I placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down, causing her to relax after a moment. "Hey, it's alright. I didn't mean to pry. I was just curious why you were out here," I gestured towards where Romulus had been backed into a corner, smile still evident on his face, "instead of somewhere like the library or something. I bet it's pretty hard to work with all of the racket going on here."

Ema had closed her eyes as I spoke, not saying anything for a minute before letting out a sigh. "I was working on my weapon design." She admitted, opening her notebook to reveal- 'HOLY DUST that's a lot of notes!'

"All of this is for your weapon?!" I asked, dumbfounded that one could put so much work into a weapon like that. I couldn't even understand half of what was on the pages!

"Y-Yeah." She blushed, "I have a prototype in my locker, b-but it's not finished yet." She gestured to the combat area, Romulus was locked hand in hand with the last opponent, the other two having sat down on the benches, defeated. "I come here to get inspiration to work on it, even though it is a bit noisy at times." A small smile crept its way onto her face as she finished.

"That makes sense I guess," I said cheerfully as Romulus made his way towards where we sat, dusting off his hands in victory.

"That was refreshing~" Romulus commented, a large grin on his face.

I clapped my hands in praise, "Great fight, man. You really stole the show."

"Meh, it was nothing. It'll take more than that to stop me." He turned his gaze to Ema, who immediately shrank into her seat, afraid. "So who's this?"

"Romulus, this is Ema. Ema," She looked at me as I gestured to him, "this is my partner Romulus."

Ema fearfully brought her eyes as high as his knees, "H-Hello."

Romulus looked at me with a questionable look, I just shrugged and turned to calm Ema. "Ema, relax. He's a friend."

She quivered but looked up at him for a moment. Romulus just rolled his eyes and stuck out his right hand, causing her to flinch slightly. After a few seconds she reached out and grasped his hand for them to shake.

She quickly retrieved her hand once they were done and took a deep breath. Romulus turned back to me again, "THIS is the student we came to find for the team?"

"R-Romulus!" I shouted, stunned at how blunt the wolf faunus could be. I spun back to face Ema who had a confused look on her face.

'CRAP CRAP CRAP! This is NOT how I wanted to go about this!' Cursing my partners bad timing, I tried to come up with something to bring the situation back to the ground.

"You came to this academy to find HER?"

I looked over behind Romulus to see another group of three students standing near us. They all had on school uniforms, similar to the one Ema was wearing, and carried themselves with an EXTREMELY confident looking attitude.

A shorter boy with light brown hair that covered his eyes stood to the left, his hands were buried in his pockets and it was impossible to tell exactly where he was looking at.

On the right was a taller, darker skinned girl that had her dark hair tied back in a single ponytail that stretched down the length of her back and in her left hand she held a small yellow duffel bag.

In the center was another girl of mid height that had blonde hair that would give Yang's hair a run for its money, and was brought back into two ponytails. both girls wore skirts as a replacement for the uniform slacks, and all of them looked unimpressed.

I could just tell these were the cocky, top-of-their-class students. Somehow I just knew.

The girl in the center stepped forward, "You're just wasting your time with her." She gestured towards where Ema was sitting, "I mean really, HER going to Beacon? She couldn't beat her way out of a wet paper bag!" At her comment the three of them started laughing. To my left, Ema had brought her head down in shame, seemingly trying to just disappear.

I stood up and stepped next to Romulus who had turned to face the students as well. "And who might you three be?" I asked, unamused.

"Jace, Victoria, and Lileth. Left, right, center, in that order." Lileth recited, raising a finger two the two of us, "If I heard you right, you two are from Beacon, aren't you?"

"That's right." Romulus said, "We're here because our pack needs two more members to be accepted."

"You don't say~!" Almost immediately, Lileth had slid up next to Romulus with a sly grin on her face. "Well it's your boys' lucky day! We just so happen to be the top students in our year~!" As she spoke, she somehow slid her arm around Romulus and pulled him close. The poor warrior visibly stiffened up in discomfort, his face unable to choose what shade of color to add to it. "Any respectable leader would be lucky to have any of us on their team~!" She gestured to her two friends who were smiling before them.

At that point, Romulus deftly spun and ducked under her arm to escape, "Oh gee, look at that! I have to go over there and fight those students again!" The wolf faunus turned and ran towards the group from earlier, "HEY PUNKS! ROUND TWO!"

Boy did I feel bad for those kids...

"So, Hot-Shot, what do you think~?"

'Seriously?! Why do girls keep calling me that?!' My face reddened as Lileth now clung to me, awaiting a response.

"W-Well..." I put on the best smile I could forge, "You all seem to be very appropriate to be chosen for Beacon-"

"That's right~!" I'm glad we have that settled, now it's all about which of us you want to take with you!"

"Oh, I-I don't think I could split up such a well-formed group such as you three!" I chuckled and scratched the back of my head as she continued to talk.

I regretted every moment I had her clinging to me. Looking for a way out I saw Romulus half hazardly chasing the other group around the arena, he wouldn't be of any help right now...

Then I spotted Ema, the mouse girl had been packing up her belongings into her bag quietly. One look told me that this was something that happened often, and I didn't like it.

Oh. I remember the last time I didn't like something. It didn't end well...

...

Shit.

I mustered up all of the mental strength I had and let out a deep breath, my smile fading. "I'm sorry, Lileth, but I don't think any of you are good enough for our team."

"..."

A pin could drop and be heard from a mile away, it seemed. Romulus and the group of students had stopped and were staring at us as though I had just slapped her across the face.

"E... Excuse me?" She muttered quietly. Her smile was stuck to her face as she tried to process what I had said. Jace and Victoria had dropped their smiles for shocked expressions and waited for their leader to say something in return.

Seconds passed. Her arm never moved from around me the entire time.

The next thing I knew, I was in the air.

"YOU BASTARD!"

"AHHH!" With unseen strength, I was hurled a hundred feet across the room and onto my side, rolling for a few yards before regaining the ability to stop myself. My right arm, which was unprotected from the impact, was scraped up and already starting to bleed a bit. My focus however, was back on the blonde demon standing across from me.

I nearly did a double take, as I noticed that her own shadow appeared to have manifested itself right beside her. Looking closer, I noticed that it only matched her body from the waist up, and below that it seemed to trail off, almost ghost-like to the floor.

As I stood back up, the shadow shrank back into its natural state and Lileth began to stalk towards me, fury burning in her eyes.

"Hiro!" Romulus started towards me, only to be blocked by Jace and Victoria, both of which had their weapons drawn.

"You stay right where you are, mutt." Victoria had unfolded a large mechanical bow from her bag and had it trained square on the wolven warriors head.

Jace's weapon was hard to notice at first, but in his now visible hands were a set of needles that I was certain he knew how to use efficiently. Either way, Romulus bared his fangs at the duo, enraged.

"Romulus!" I shouted worriedly, before turning my attention back to Lileth.

Ema, who at this point looked mortified at what was going on, turned to run, only to be stopped by Lileth who had grabbed her by one of her mouse ears and pulled her back. "Ahhh!"

"Oh, quit your whining, you rat!" Lileth gripped the girls ear tightly, not letting go and turned back to face me.

"Let her go, Lileth!" I demanded, pulling my knife out in front of me.

"Pfft, you think you can stop me with that little thing? Please, I-" The blonde stopped mid sentence, her confidence falling from her face. Confused, I turned around and spotted an older gentleman with silver hair that I didn't recognize.

"P-P-Professor! I-I didn't see you there!"

The tension in the room shifted, and not for the better. I was even a bit nervous, it didn't look good to have visitors brawling with students.

"Miss gardener." The man spoke with a tone similar to that of Ozpin, his real emotion hidden behind a tell-less voice. "I believe that one of the rules at this academy is that violence outside of an arena without the consent of the opponent is classified as bullying. An action not taken lightly in regards to punishment."

Lileth immediately flushed and released Ema, who immediately ran over behind the professor and myself. "O-Of course professor-headmaster-sir! I-It was not my intention to do so! I-I was merely demonstrating- er, I mean, we were just messing around! Eheheh..."

Romulus had walked over beside me at this point and placed a hand on my right shoulder, "You okay?" he asked in a low voice.

"Yeah, I'm good. You?"

He turned to look at Lileth and her friends who were trying their best to look as innocent as possible, the headmaster had walked past us and was speaking to the three of them. "I'm itching to get them back..." He growled, "Those disrespectful punks insulted me and Ema for being faunus, and getting her ear strangled like that," Romulus clenched his fists, "they're scum."

"They're always like that..." I turned to my left, Ema had approached us quietly to speak, "They all come from families of huntsmen and huntresses, and since they're at the top of our class they usually get away with whatever they want." My face softened, I could see the sadness in her eyes as she spoke. It just wasn't right.

Over with the headmaster, Lileth, Jace, and Victoria had weaseled their way out of a punishment and were making to leave, smirks spread across their faces.

I took a deep breath, uncertain of what I was about to do. I had seen and heard enough, and I didn't like it. Anger built up inside of me like a bad headache.

I brought my hand up and ran it through my hair. It was a headache, manifested in the form of three students. 'And I got an entire armful of aspirin.'

Lileth turned to make her way to the door, "Sorry about the misunderstanding Headmaster~! I promise it won't happen again, I guess we'd better get along to-"

"HOLD IT!"

[Play: No Game No Life OST: Reverse? ]

[ watch?v=E5y0FZxrekA]

All eyes turned to where I had shouted, my outstretched finger pointed in the trio's direction.

And it.

Felt.

GOOD.

What a rush! I let a grin spread across my own face like some insane fool, which at this point, I probably was.

"H-Hiro?! W-What are you doing?!" Ema asked, shocked at my outburst.

Romulus stepped forward and stood next to me, tail wagging and his face bearing a toothy grin of its own, "I think I know where this is going. You sure you can do anything with that toothpick of yours?"

I chuckled and placed my fists against my hips, "About as sure as what I'm about to say next."

Lileth and her goons had turned to me, and it was clear that she was frustrated that she was still there, and she probably would have been gone had the headmaster not been there. "What do YOU want?! We don't have all day!" She spat at me.

'My heroic mentality is bound to get me killed one of these days. But until then, here goes everything.'

I pointed at them again "The three of us challenge the three of you to a team battle-royale! Right here, right now!"

At this point, the small crowd that had gathered let out a unanimous gasp at my challenge. The headmaster smiled at me, clearly amused by this, which was good. Having a staff member here would ensure no funny business, and meant we wouldn't get in trouble for fighting.

The professor turned towards Lileth, "Well, Miss Gardener, it appears that the move is yours. Do you accept our guests challenge?"

Murmurs spread around the room like the common cold, clearly it wasn't a common occurrence here at Signal for a challenge to be issued to these three.

"T-T-Three of us?! B-But, Hiro!" Ema tugged on my arm with as much ambivalence as she could muster.I turned and clasped my hands on her shoulders, causing her to stiffen up slightly, "You said you had a prototype weapon in your locker, right?"

"W-Well, yeah! B-But It's never been tested! I don't even know if it'll work properly!"

"It'll work." I smiled, "Besides, what better way to test it than in a real situation, right?"

Lileth was fuming, "You think two weaklings and their dog can take the three of us?" The blonde gestured to her 'team', "I think you're crazier than you look. We accept."

I released a fear-stricken Ema and faced our opponents, "I figured you would. Headmaster," I turned to the silver haired man, "would you kindly do the honor of overseeing this battle?"

The professor nodded and pulled out his scroll, after a moment a large screen above the arena came to life, the names and aura level of the students appeared quickly, leaving only Romulus and I with a 'Guest1' and 'Guest2' icon for team two alongside Ema. Luckily, our aura levels remained greyed out. I wouldn't have to explain why I didn't have one in this case, I would just have to be careful.

Romulus and I shared a look- we were both smiling like it was our birthday. I guess we did have something in common: we both love a good challenge.

=||-{([O])}-||=

A/N: If you didn't listen to the music near the end, you need to go back up and do so RIGHT MEOW! It adds greatly to the experience! (Ace Attorney 4 Life!)

I feel like I could just keep writing and writing while I made this! It feels good to be back! I apologize for the delay in a proper update, but I've been pretty much struggling to do a million things at once. A youtube channel, a fanfiction, animation, all around a crazy work schedule? Talk about a plate piled high with more food than I ever eat EVER!

Speaking of animations, if you haven't seen it yet type in this link at YouTube:

[ watch?v=g8dc3lrtrRU ]

to see what's up. or just look up RWBY Fan Intro in the search bar and it should come up. I've posted it on my groups gaming channel, so there's other stuff there as well.

Blake Tourdner: Well… This is awkward… I guess you can't quite forgive me (YET). Again, I apologize for taking so long, but I hope this chapter and the next make up for it!

Flamewing98: Glynda vs Romulus confirmed for chapter 121. Maybe sooner if I push it up, or get around to it. XD

Hiro and Romulus get along as well as any new acquaintances would. Romulus is definitely a skilled fighter while Hiro is… not… That along with their severe gap in similar interests, it'll be interesting to see how they live together after getting a team.

The next chapter is already finished and I'll probably release it near the end of the week so you won't have to wait long to see what happens with Lileth and co. Thanks again for reading, leave a review and let me know what you think (Every message helps!).

And as always, Stay Gold.

-HiroNinja