A/N: Now we start Arc 2! Which will be named at a later date…
Before I get anything else, except thanking everyone who has reviewed up to this point, or sent me PMs, as well as all those following and favoriting this. I NEED to make a special mention of MsInsanity again, AND a request.
PLEASE! PLEASE GET AN ACCOUNT MsInsanity!
Seriously, I wanted to reply to your first reviews, but could get away with not doing so, adding this last one though, makes me want to make you my Beta Reader. It was uncanny how well you seem to understand my iteration of Neo. So I will be doing something I hadn't planned for, because you deserve it, and I cannot send it to you as a PM.
Yes, you are COMPLETELY correct in your description of her mindset at the time of each semblances appearance. The childish personality wanted to escape the harsh reality of being alone and have 'friends' so she conjured illusions to keep her company. Her chocolate (I need a better name for this personality, ideas?) personality is just as you said, finally getting fed up with reality, she choose to escape from it, hence the teleportation, its limitations did not allow her to truly escape though, as she had no images to guide her from her facility. So she broke down, and her white personality came out to save the day.
To give you your due, I did in fact originally come across 'Wicked Scary' from the Teen Titans verse, to give Neo control over shadows. Sadly though, I did not stick to it, for it just wasn't enough to give Mato that 'terror' factor, that caused her to shout at her teammates not to risk it. Instead Neo took a page from Narutoverse's Tsukuyomi. Without the spinning red eyes of evil. Neo, with contact to anyone's head, can have them live through a nightmare world created by a combination of their worst fears, and what Neo actually had to live through. Unlike Tsukuyomi, it does not need eye contact, but direct physical contact to their head (Which can be anything from her hand to a headbutt), also, it does not have a time dilation effect, or stick them in such a mindscape. Which means that the person afflicted, will be screaming bloody murder in real-time, and running around like a chicken with its head cut off, or worse.
As an example, Neo once, while hiding under her illusions, did this to several criminals in sealed warehouse. Said afflicted ended up killing most of their peers in the following events, before either killing themselves to escape the horror, or by accident.
Once afflicted, the only way to escape it, is by living out everything that can possibly threaten you from the combined imagination of Neo and yourself, or die. As of yet, Mato is the only one to have broken out of its effects, by activating her Red Flame during its effects. Neither her or Neo know exactly how she managed to break out of it, or rather, what combination of things caused it, and Mato has no urge to try it again.
I will give a cookie if anyone notices the trends in Neo's three semblances.
Also, I went ahead and made several edits to the last chapter of Arc 1, or Chapter 09, based on a few suggestions from Reviewers and ideas that came to me once I had rested enough. Nothing major, but it should read better now, for those that felt it was clunky prior to this.
I am also asking all my readers to send me PMs or Review with names for Neo's alternate base personalities (Besides Strawberry, Chocolate, and Vanilla…) and for Mato's flames (Once again, not Blue, Purple, and Red.).
OKAY! Now that that is out of the way. DAY 1 OF SCHOOL!
Beacon - First Year Dorm Rooms (MDNS Personal Training Room)
April 3nd, 2014 - Early Morning
"Hey Neo."
"?"
"I just noticed, despite my age. I really don't have much in the way of life experience or anything really useful to teach the younger masses."
Neo just gave Mato a look that asked 'Where did this come from?'.
"Well, Ruby sent me this story called 'Shinobi of the High Seas', whose main character is over one-hundred years old, but unlike myself, this guys has had a LOT of events happen to him. So he has all these wise words and lessons to give to those he encounters and befriends. The only similarities between us is the fact that I can probably beat up or kill anyone or anything that threatens you all. Oh, and the torture we are disguising as training we are going to give Dove and Winter."
Both look over to where said teammates were currently resting… against their wishes, after a 'light' spar from Neo to test their hand-to-hand and weapon skills without semblances.
"So yeah, anyway. Do you think that makes me a cop-out? I mean, an old lady without life lessons and tales of the past? That's just wrong, no?"
"..."
"Yeah, I guess tales of the past are kinda pointless, what with being from another world. But still!"
Neo just waved her off, currently engrossed in her own story about a demon among devils.
"Yeah I guess your right. Life isn't always like a story."
"Urgh… did anyone get the number of that train?" Dove stated before being kicked in the head by Neo.
"Dammit Neo! I know it isn't polite to compare a petite girl like yourself to a train, but we need him conscious for class!"
"Augh… what hit me?" Winter stated as she herself started regaining consciousness.
"Neo did."
"Neo… you hit too hard." Winter stood up on wobbly legs. "Where do you even get all that strength from? You weren't using any aura for that entire fight, and where not only faster, but stronger than both of us."
"Oh don't beat yourself up dear. To be honest, based on my observation of the teams that were formed yesterday, the only people that would probably give Neo a decent challenge, or beat her would be RWPY's Ruby and Pyrrha, JNPR's Ren and Blake, and SEPA's Sienaerde."
"..."
"Neo don't state the obvious, of course I am in that list, none of you are on my level though, except Ruby is she decides to go for the kill." Mato shuddered involuntarily at that, having faced Ruby in her 'Reaper' mindset once. A mindset developed by Qrow, that was only perfected thanks to Mato. "I swear, that girl's ability is overpowered for combat and assassination like no other. I am not certain that Ozpin or myself could beat her if we were all being serious about killing each other."
Winter just stood there looking at Mato and Neo in confusion, before deciding it was best not to ask any questions in her current state. "I am going to shower and prepare for breakfast."
"Good idea, I will go and prepare breakfast for everyone then. Neo, can you head to the school store and get the extra uniforms for everyone, and turn in my request for personalization?"
Neo just nodded her head and froze, before her image broke into a shower of glass that faded soon after.
A few minutes after everyone had gone their separate ways, Dove stirred again. "Urgh… how much did I drink last night?"
After Neo got back with the extra uniforms and confirmation for Mato, Dove walked into the kitchen/dining room from his own shower and sat down in front of his plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and waffles.
"Ok team. Before I get into specifics from our little spar earlier today, I just want to tell you both, that you did great. From my observations of the first years yesterday, Dove, you are solidly in the upper middle of the year. Winter, based off of physical and weapon skills, you would actually be slightly below Dove, but since you have adapted your Semblance for combat so well, taking that into consideration, you are probably within the top twenty or ten of the first years."
Both of them looked rather pleased at that, apparently accepting it at face value, considering that Neo wiped the floor with them both without trying, and Mato was stronger than Neo.
"That said, I will start with you Winter. I understand that your semblance is remarkable. Truly it is, but you cannot rely exclusively on it, because you will sometimes have to fight elongated battles where you have to conserve it as an ability. So your training will be simple. I am going to run you ragged in physical conditioning, and then Neo and I will train you in your hand-to-hand and weapon usage. Any free time you have from that, start going through the Dustnet and look up others who have had control over the temperature, or even just ice and fire. Fiction or not does not matter. I want you to spend time looking for more ways to use your ability, since so far, you have only used it to sheathe yourself in an armor of ice, create weapons from ice, attempt to flash freeze me, and those fist of fire, which by the way were awesome, but still. Read up some fiction, and some physics books."
Winter nodded seriously while taking a drink from her orange juice.
Neo 'spoke' up at that point, while facing Dove seriously. "..."
Mato nodded while crossing her arms. "She's right Dove. Your going to be both an easier case, and a much harder one. Like Neo and myself, your semblance has no direct combat potential against Grimm. Thanks to that, you have focused yourself well on your physical conditioning, but due to mostly being alone and training yourself, your skills are not up to par. First thing I am going to do for you, is speak with Ruby and get you your weapons."
"Weapons? I only use a single sword."
"Not anymore you won't. You are rather good with your sword, so I won't take that away, I am just going have Ruby help me design a better and more effective version if possible, if not, I am keeping it as is. The problem is you don't use your off-hand for anything but balance. You didn't even try to punch Neo with it. So I am going to see about giving you a shield of some kind. Based on your speed, I was thinking a buckler, probably with a bladed edge to make it double as a weapon. I will go over the details with you and Ruby later for that. I am also going to see if I can get Pyrrha to help you train with it, if I can get both our teams together for joint practices and sparring. As it stands, both our teams are rather even, so it would be good."
Dove was silent for a moment, but nodded in acquiescence. "It did not come to mind before, but I believe you are right. It would be good to have shield."
"What with you technically being something of a medic, you need to be the most defensible one. Since we all are relying on you when we get hurt, so you cannot. Although the chances of any member of this team getting hurt bad enough for that will be improbable. Sadly though, it is not impossible, so the more we train and prepare ourselves, the better. That said, in your free time, start reading some biology books, get a better understanding of how your semblance works. Since it allows you to allow rest the muscles, it might be possible to keep yourself standing for much longer, and depending on how it does what it does, you can even use it to increase the potential payoff from physical training."
Dove nodded while finishing the last of his waffle.
"Good, well then, it is a bit early since I ended the physical training so soon today, so let us go finish unpacking and getting everything ready for class. Today we all start our Grimm studies with Professor Port in two hours."
Beacon - Grimm Studies Classroom
April 3nd, 2014 - Early Morning
MDNS had arrived a fair amount earlier than everyone else, since they had not wanted to be late, since one of the duties that were listed in their responsibilities as the first year representatives. As such, they were able to watch everyone arrive and start sitting around randomly, many of them not even with their teammates.
MDNS had all decided to sit together in the third row of the left, with Mato, Neo, Winter, and Dove in that order from the stairway in.
JNPR sat in the row behind them, all together, as MDNS greeted them all.
RWPY came in with seconds to spare and decided to sit in the row below MDNS, also getting a greeting and some light prodding from their near tardiness. To which Weiss was most vocal in her response. Poor girl looked ready to strangle everyone.
Mato noticed that aside from herself and Neo, Ruby had also apparently asked for and gotten permission for personalization of her uniform. Ruby had her red cloak added to the uniforms ensemble. Neo had switched the girl's skirt for the boy's pants, not being comfortable with skirts thanks to her fighting style. Mato had her jacket and gloves added to her uniform… which meant that if she closed her jacket, she would look no different than she did normally, what with the footwear not being provided by the school.
Their professor for the course arrived shortly after the bell.
Professor Peter Port was indeed… portly. Standing at around one-hundred seventy-two centimeters, in a burgundy suit that did little to stop the occasional jiggle of his belly, the gold buttons keeping it together threatened to snap right off. Still, if the gray hair and mustache, plus the trophies lining the room were any indication, this was a hunter who had faced and survived a great many foe. To add to that, there were many diagrams that displayed hand-drawn pictures of different types of Grimm, complete with all manner of details about notable features and abilities. If the class did nothing but read and copy those diagrams, it would still worth it.
"Monsters!" Port bellowed, with a rather boisterous voice and a sweep of his arms. "Demons! Prowlers of the night! Yes the creatures of Grimm have many names, but merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!"
The ensuing silence was deafening. Although Neo was giggling to herself… whether because of Port, or the reaction to Port was the real question. Mato decided to throw the aged hunter a bone.
"Excellent mindset professor. One does not fear prey, and that is our responsibilities as huntsmen and huntresses, no?" Mato could have sworn that she heard someone cough the word 'kiss ass' somewhere to her right. A quick glance to her left at Neo, followed by a nod led to a rather loud thump on her right side. Everyone's attention was suddenly on the 'sleeping' member of team TAPE.
Port frowned, although it was a bit hard to tell what with his features being hidden behind so much mustache and eyebrows. "Please, I understand that yesterday was a tiring day, but one must get adequate sleep at night, not during classes." Turning back to Mato, "As for your question, that is exactly right. A true huntsman must be honorable! A true huntsman must be dependable! A true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise! That is what you are all training to become! But first, a story. A tale of a young, handsome man: me!"
The following tale was grand! It was a tale of heroism, wisdom from elders who smelled of cabbages! Of a few details about how best to pop a Grimm's one's bare hands.
It was boring and long winded…
Still, there were a few details that could be gleaned from his tale, plus the wealth of information from the displays behind him, so Mato got down to copying all the notes, as did Winter and Dove after a whispered word from her, until Neo cheated as per usual and used her illusion semblance to replicate all the information in front of her, where she then proceeded to photograph with her scroll to make copies of later.
After a quick nudge Neo promised to give them out to everyone if they gave her the notes that should be taken from Port's 'lesson'. Mato took responsibility of the first class, and watched as her three teammates went to sleep or started doing other things while Neo created another illusion over them, to hide them from their professor.
It took awhile longer, but the tale finally came to an end.
"So, as I stated prior to my tale. Which is also the moral of this story. A true huntsman must be honorable! A true huntsman must be dependable! A true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise!" A brief pause had Port leaning over to Yang "Or huntresses." He stated with Mato could only imagine was a wink. Yang wasn't the only one who shivered, although Neo was once again doing so due to containing her laughter.
"NOW! I would normally ask for a volunteer who believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits, but this year has gifted us with representatives from initiation." The elderly gentleman started approaching the cage that had been lying in the corner of the room. "This is something that has not happened in over forty years, so miss Kuroi, would you kindly step forward and face your opponent?"
Mato got up and started heading down before Port interrupted her. "This will be live combat my dear, please go and prepare yourself. The locker rooms are rather close for this precise reason."
Mato smiled at the younger man before shaking her head. "I appreciate the concern professor, but my locker holds nothing but emergency medical supplies, rations, and survival gear. Plus an extra set of my combat clothes in case I need it." She gestured to her current outfit, "This jacket, gloves and boots are my combat gear, the clothes underneath matter not to me, whether it be my school uniform or my casual clothes, they are no different." She raised a hand and with a small flash of blue light, her Black Blade materialized in her hand. "And my weapons are always with me." This time Mato sent the wink towards her teacher. "A huntress must be prepared at all times after all professor. Your grandfather said it himself."
The beaming smile and raising of his eyebrows was worth the slightly out-of-character grandstanding. "EXCELLENT! Well then, shall we begin?" He asked after Mato stood on the other side of the floor from the cage, closing her jacket over her uniform. 'When did he get his weapon from the display above his desk? Also, he must be as insane and as skilled as Neo if he is wielding something as ridiculous as that for a weapon, I mean come on, how do you even wield it with the axes attached to the stock!… well, you know what they say, 'With Great power comes Great Mental Instability'.'
"Alright! Let the match begin!" Practicality aside, the axe was sharp enough to cleave through the lock with apparently little to no effort as Port swung his blunderaxe down. As the cage fell down to reveal its occupant, Mato decided that grandstanding seemed a good thing to do in this class. Her face broke into grin reserved only for homicidal serial killers and psychopaths. 'Neo and Port at the very least will enjoy this.'
As the black and white creature, covered in bone-like protrusions that adult Grimm were known for raced out at her, Mato settled into a relaxed stance, her weapon vanishing, and with a grace that most matador's would kill for, sidestepped away from the Boarbatusk.
"Ha-ha, wasn't expecting that were you?" Port called out.
Mato gave Port a glance, "Was that question meant for me, or the Boarbatusk?" she questioned as she once again sidestepped the charging boar without facing it, her hands now nestled in her jacket pockets. When Port didn't answer, Mato merely shrugged as she turned to face the class. A quick step forward that would have made any imperialistic army sergeant proud later, and the Grimm flew past her again. "Class, as many of you should have noticed by now, this is a Boarbatusk. It is a Grimm known for the hardness of its armor."
A quick backstep later, "Among all its brethren of the same age group, the Boarbatusk will always have the strongest armor. This means that attacking it head on is for most people, pointless and stupid." Once again Mato dodged it simply by taking a step forward. "Unless your have explosive weaponry, or use something that causes massive blunt force trauma, you must attack this creature with your wits. Thankfully, as we all know, unless it has reached the age of at least an Elder class, Grimm are far and wide, mentally stunted and incapable of anything besides attacking you directly." This was proven by Mato once again dodging the enemy without looking at it, and taking no more than a single step back again.
She had the whole class's attention by this point. "Now, if you have read the diagrams that Professor Port so graciously provided to us all in the boards behind me, you would be able to tell that this particular prey is VERY limited in its attack patterns. Can anyone here tell me the second attack pattern it uses?" Neo wildly waved her arm back and forth. "Go ahead Neo."
Neo stood up and replied most eloquently, "..."
Mato nodded while she dodged the Grimm again. "You are correct Neo, and thank you for putting so much detail into it." The classes did as a whole, except Pyrrha, Ruby,Yang and the rest of MDNS did a double take. R-P- and -D-S because they knew she actually was talking, or because they could understand her. Yang because she was laughing at the absurdity of everything. "And look, our chosen specimen here decided to give us a demonstration."
At that the Grimm did just that, having apparently realized that its actions were getting it nowhere, it jumped into the air before spinning like a certain blue hedgehog. Mato still dodged it with all the grace and show of a professional ballerina. "As you can see, with this attack, The Grimm becomes much faster than before, as well as covering the only weak spot it had before, which was its underbelly. Fret not though, there is still much you can do in this state."
A quick leap over the creature, hands still in her jacket pockets. "Now, if you use explosives, shield, or large blunt weapons, your tactic against it is still the same as before. Beat it until its insides turn to mush from the concussive damage. Its armor is strong, but it isn't a solid piece, hit it hard enough and you will crush its organs, or shatter its spine without issue." A quick pirouette interrupted her. "For those of us with a bit more grace and finesse to our chosen styles. Hopefully you have a partner or semblance that lets you forcefully stop its charge. If not, it tires itself out after a few runs. It actually gets dizzy and becomes vulnerable if the information behind me is accurate."
One more pass and the Boarbatusk did just that, stopping and practically collapsing from the teetering it was doing. Mato quickly jumped at the boar and flipped it over, holding it open with its belly towards the class. "There, this is your target. No armor protects it here, so you want to stab, shoot, or whatever it is your weapon does here. At the unprotected flesh. After all, a huntsman and huntress works smarter, not harder!... Although you should still work hard before going into combat. As Ozpin said, knowledge can only get you so far." Her demonstration over, Mato quickly lifted the Boarbatusk over her and brought it down on her knee spine first. The entire class's eyes, including Port's, and minus Ruby's, Neo's and Winter's, widened to the size of dinner plates as they watched the Grimm imitate an upside down V to the loud sound of it snapping in half.
"See? Enough brute force hand still kill it without having to do anything fancy for those of you who are more focused on smashing things and blowing things up." Mato concluded, before turning to Port and bowing, "Thank you for allowing me the chance to assist you in your lessons professor." and then headed to her seat.
Before she got there, while everyone was still staring at the incredible display of raw power from a petite girl just slightly below one hundred fifty centimeters, the bell indicating the end of the class rang.
Port, apparently having already collected himself let out another of his apparently signature boisterous laughs. "Well then class, shame it has ended so soon, I will prepare some homework for next time, for now just run to your next classes, and welcome to Beacon!" His laugh echoed as he walked away from towards a door in the side.
Mato and the rest of MDNS had already vanished towards their next class, courtesy of Neo and her ever convenient transportation method, when the rest of the class turned around, preparing to leave and start questioning their apparent representatives.
Port himself was laughing himself almost silly at the display and ability shown by the second shortest person in the class. As per usual, Ozpin had not failed them, in his decision to name the First Year Representatives early this year.
A/N: So! What do you all think of Chapter 1 of Arc 2? Or just Chapter 10.
Leave me a Review or send me a PM with your thoughts!
And as stated in the author notes above, I am asking you all for alternative names for Neo's base personalities, and Mato's alternative flames. I don't want to go around saying Red Mode or Flame over and over. Actually, I don't want to use the word Mode at all… it sounds wrong. SO SEND ME YOUR IDEAS!
MsInsanity, again, please take a bit of time to create a profile, I really want to be able to send you PMs. I wasn't joking about that.
And go visit my friend 'CushionySiren3' as thanks everyone. He updated his story, 'The (Un)forgettable Team TAPE', which has graciously allowed me to use his OCs in this story. As a note though, although I will use them VERY sparingly, and mostly as a background detail, and keep them to the originals when I do, this story and his are not intertwined. What happens to them in this tale, is not what happens to them in his. So go and read the original world they come from. I assure you, it is quite the humorous and emotional read.
Final mention is to 'Kenchi618' since I referenced one of his stories. Honestly, Kenchi is by far one of the best authors I have ran into on this site or any. Check him out as well, he mainly writes Naruto FanFiction, but all of it is excellent stuff that completely differ from each other. There is a reason most of his stories have thousands of followers and favorites.