Team RAIN's Room
Jaune and Ichigo were currently the only members of Team RAIN still asleep. Pyrrha had woken up before anyone else to train while Ruby awoke sometime after feeling excited to get the day started with her new team.
Now, both wore female uniforms with the team's leader loudly shrilling a whistle she had until their male teammates awoke. "Good morning, Team RAIN!"
"Uhhh…" Jaune groaned.
"I agree with Jaune." Ichigo noted tiredly. "Five more minutes."
"No can do because today marks our true start as students of Beacon." Ruby declared. 'We need to get started with our first order of business, decorating."
"That's right." Jaune sat up and yawned. "We still have to unpack."
As Ichigo reluctantly joined Jaune, Ruby blew her whistle again, so he ended up snatching it from her. "Hey!"
"No more whistles." Ichigo stated tiredly as he tossed it out the window.
Ruby crossed her arms. "Oh fine."
Pyrrha put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "If it helps, I thought it was a good idea."
"Thanks, Pyrrha." That reignited Ruby's excitement for the day. "Alright. Ichigo, Pyrrha, Jaune, and their fearless leader Ruby have begun their first mission!" She pumped her first. "Banzai!
Pyrrha joined her enthusiastically/Jaune and Ichigo gave a less enthusiastic call. "Banzai!/Banzai."
Later…
Ichigo stared in shock because the room was a mess. Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ruby's stuff was everywhere, and the beds were stacked together.
"How is this even possible?" The swordsman looked at his teammates in disbelief. "All I literally have is a duffel bag of essentials and what the school provided for all of us. That leaves basically a whole room you guys can divide three ways."
"While I don't agree we should just take a fourth of the room from you, clearly how we set out to do this isn't going to work." Pyrrha noted.
"This is something new to me." Jaune noted. "I mean, I lived in a full house all my life, yet it's never been this bad before."
"I got it!" Ruby exclaimed. "We should turn the beds into bunk beds."
"That would certainly efficient." Pyrrha agreed.
"I've had a hand in making bunk beds before." Jaune noted. "Shouldn't be that hard with what we have here."
Ichigo immediately put a hand on Jaune's shoulder. "In that case, I call Jaune as a bunk mate.
With it agreed upon, they got to work. Jaune had the vision while Ichigo had the strength to make their half work. The former applied a healthy amount of wood glue to the four corners of his bed before the latter went about carefully setting his atop it.
Jaune then took out some clothing he was okay with losing before they turned it into enough fabric to tie around the connected corners. Jaune started the knots while Ichigo ensured they were tied tightly. The result was a stable bunk bed between the two of them.
As for what Pyrrha and Ruby came up with, they ended up securing Ruby's bed above Pyrrha's. Since the two girls seemed happy with the arrangement, Ichigo chose not to comment on it. Finally, with more than enough space now, everyone had their fourth of the room sorted.
"Objective: Complete!" Ruby declared before taking a seat with a binder. "Now, our next order of business are classes with our first starting at nine…"
"Wait, classes begin at nine?" Ichigo questioned shocked.
"Yeah," Ruby responded confused. "Why?"
The other members of the team looked at the nearby clock while Ichigo had already thrown open the door. "See you there!"
He used Shunpo creating gust which tore through the halls resulting in Team RBYN opening their door in confusion. They watched as the remaining members of RAIN peaked out their door as well.
U-uh… To class!" Ruby ended up exclaiming before running after him.
Jaune and Pyrrha followed her.
"Class?" Ren glanced up at his long time friend. "Nora…"
"I wanted extra pancakes." Nora responded with a content smile.
"Yang, Blake." Ren ran out after RAIN before giving his order. "From here on out, keep all clocks away from Nora!"
"Right!" They exclaimed while running after him.
Nora followed last. "I regret nothing!"
Grimm Studies
Ichigo made it to class in no time while his teammates and Team RBYN barely made it. Right now, their instructor, Professor Port, was giving a lesson. Honestly, Ichigo felt 'lesson' was stretching it considering the guy decided to tell a story about himself.
It didn't take long before Ichigo went with tuning him out and resolving to study from the book. Unless Port was a real jerk and gave a test all about himself, the swordsman felt he'd do just fine. As for Ruby, she was doodling an unflattering picture of Professor Port.
She soon showed it to her teammates with Jaune covering his laugh while Pyrrha had to try not to laugh. Ichigo didn't personally see what was funny about it, but, in his opinion, even this silly doddle was a better use of this time. He simply ruffled her hair with a small smile.
Eventually, Port managed to draw Ichigo's attention. "…So, who among you believes to be the embodiment of these traits?" Professor Port asked as he scanned the crowd; however, no one immediately raised their hands. "How about you, Ms. Rose?"
Ruby realized Port called on her resulting in the leader looking at him. "Yes, sir."
"Wonderful!" Port took this as her acceptance. "Go get changed into your combat attire and bring your weapon."
"Alright." Ruby agreed.
She didn't quite know what was going on, but if it involved Crescent Rose, it must be something cool. Ruby had quickly changed out of her school uniform and returned to the class with her scythe in hand.
"You got this Ruby!" Jaune cheered.
"Fight well, fearless leader!" Pyrrha added.
"Take it down." Ichigo stated.
"Alright." Port raised his blunderbuss axe. "Let this match begin!"
He brought it down unlatching the cage and unleashing a boar Grimm known as a Boarbatusk.
The Grimm curled itself into a ball before launching at the young girl. Ruby gave it a confident grin as she lept above the coming monster and fired two shots when it rolled underneath her.
Both rounds bounced off harmlessly before the creature came to a halt. Ruby landed and fired off two more shots before the beast came rolling at her again. This time she side stepped the Grimm and followed it. When the beast came to a halt again, Ruby was right beside it.
She used her scythe to hook the Boarbatusk below the leg and fling him into the air. She then fired off a round to propel herself after it and ended up above the Grimm whose belly was exposed. She raised her scythe overhead before bringing it down cleaving the boar in half.
"Well done!" Professor Port declared. "We are in the prescience of a true Huntress in training. Now, I'm afraid that's all the time we had. Be sure to cover the assigned reading and stay vigilant. Class dismissed!"
Hollow Grimm Studies
Teams RAIN and RBYN moved onto the next class, with their fellow first years, which was taught by Kisuke.
"Everyone's here, so we can begin promptly." Kisuke stated. "First, introductions. As I said the day you all arrived, I'm Kisuke Urahara. You can address me formally or informally. Whichever you prefer." He gestured to Tessai. "This is my assistant teacher, Tessai Tsukabishi." Tessai just bowed. "Now, for our first lesson. How many of you know what the creatures of Grimm are?"
This question confused most, but one student, Cardin, decided to answer. "Grimm have been here as long as any of us. They are "creatures of destruction" and lack a soul meaning they can't use Aura. They are also drawn to negative feelings like envy, sadness, loneliness, and hatred.
"That's about the understanding I expect most of you to have, and it'd certainly be a good answer were you answering Professor Port." Kisuke retorted. "This class is special because it's on a whole other classification of Grimm."
"Mr. Urahara, could you elaborate?" Pyrrha inquired.
She had a feeling that the eight of them who saw it the day prior knew what he was talking about. If that were the case, this truly would be an informative class.
"Gladly." Kisuke stated with a smile.
He looked at Tessai who nodded and brought out a remote. Pressing one of its buttons turned off all the lights in the room and brought out a hologram of the Menos Grande. Seeing a Grimm of that size was startling to the students who weren't there to see it themselves.
"I figured this is where the lesson was going." Ichigo thought as he stared upon the Grimm he'd fought.
He then noticed Ruby was shaking beside him, and he could figure out it had to do with what potentially happened to him. Ichigo merely put a hand on her head drawing the girl's attention as he ruffled her hair. Having that to focus on did calm Ruby a bit.
"Most of you are probably wondering what you're looking at." Kisuke noted. "Well, before I decided to join this academy, I was a scientist who traveled. As I traveled, I came upon a special species of Grimm."
Blake raised an eyebrow. "Special species?"
"Yes." Kisuke nodded. "Notice how this one has a hole in its chest. While this particular species is the largest I've come across, all of them have a hole somewhere on their bodies. As such, I've dubbed them Hollow Grimm."
"Hollow Grimm." Ruby muttered as she stared at the image.
"While some of you think Grimm are mindless and heedless of risk, that is only during their youth." Kisuke continued. "All Grimm have the ability to evolve and learn the longer they live." He then pointed to the hologram. "What makes a Hollow Grimm special is these holes.
You see that, and you should beware because that's the indication they've devoured a human. Through doing this, they evolve rapidly. One such example is that they can garner the ability to use Aura. The other students were about to protest but he held up a hand.
"Before some of you call BS, Teams RAIN and RBYN can attest to this. They saw big and ugly here, personally, during that team founding test of Ozpin's. If a Grimm were to devour one human, they become a Hollow. After devouring about a hundred you get Menos Grande often."
Kisuke then nodded to Tessai who pressed another button and switched to a video of the Menos firing an Aura blast at Ichigo. While the student himself was perfectly calm in the face of this, the other seven who had been there cringed at the memory.
"This is something I've dubbed, the Cero." Kisuke pointed at the screen. "It's a move which means Hollow Flash. In my travels, it is a common move used by the Hollow Grimm species." Kisuke then looked at the time and nodded to Tessai who turned the lights back on. "Now, it seems we'll have to wrap up today's lesson. Everyone, dismissed."
Cafeteria
When lunch rolled around, Ichigo sat with his team who were sitting across from Team RBYN. Everyone seemed to be in silent agreement that they do not focus on the prior class. On that note, the moment they sat down, Yang reached over and wrapped Ruby in a hug.
"I'm so proud of you Ruby!" She declared happily. "You absolutely devastated that Boarbatusk and looked cool doing it!"
Ruby smiled as she returned the hug. "I felt pretty cool doing it, thank you sis."
Ichigo derived a little humor as everyone stared at the sisters, back and forth, with wide eyes.
"You two are sisters?" Jaune questioned. "You guys look nothing alike."
"Yeah, we know. Officially, we'd be half-sisters; however, Rubes and I have always thought of one another as full sisters." Yang grinned as she released her sister and sat down. "The official bit does mean we look distinct."
"Makes us feel special, ya know?" Ruby added.
"Yeah, I hear you." Jaune nodded. "I actually grew up with seven sisters myself, and with seven girls in the house, there are going to be some necessary differences for everyone to feel unique."
"What about you, Ichigo?" Pyrrha asked. "Given what you've already shown us, I'd say your defining feature from your family is your strength."
Hearing that drew looks from Yang, Jaune, and Ruby since they were currently the only ones who knew about his condition.
"That could be a possibility." Ichigo responded. "I actually wouldn't know considering I don't remember much about my past at this point."
"What do you mean?" Ren asked curiously.
"Roughly a week before I entered Beacon, I woke up in Vale with only my first name to go on." Ichigo responded. "Since then, things have been slowly coming back to me, but I've got nothing substantial to go on."
"You mean you have nothing?" Pyrrha asked. "You don't even remember where you're from or who your family is?"
"I've seen people that might be family, but anything I have on them doesn't confirm as much." Ichigo shrugged. "Part of the reason I'm in Beacon is because Ozpin said he'd try to find a way to help me remember."
"You know, you really seem to be taking this whole no memory thing pretty well." Jaune noted. "I think most people in your shoes wouldn't be able to hold it together."
"Probably not." Ichigo shrugged. "I can't deny that I have a desire to remember my past, but I'm not going to let it stop me from living in the present. I think if I did that, I'd stop progressing to the future. At this point, moving towards that seems to be the key with what I have remembered."
If defeating a Menos hadn't earned their respect, then his resilience in the face of what most would consider a significant loss sure had.
Combat Class
After lunch, everyone attended Professor Oobleck's class, yet he preferred to be called Doctor. Regardless, this professor zipped around the room while teaching his class. In Ichigo's opinion, that made it better than Port's class.
Finally, there was Ms. Goodwitch's class, but before everyone got settled in, she spoke up. "Everyone, I want you all to leave and return with your full battle attires. In this class, we work hands on.'
Ichigo walked out with his team.
"Why do you think she wants us all geared up?" Jaune asked concerned.
"She probably wants to gauge where we are with our combat skills." Pyrrha responded with a confident smile. "I mean, this is a combat class."
"I'm ready for that!" Ruby cheered. "You think we'll be fighting more Grimm!?"
"Nah, there weren't any cages to hold Grimm, and I doubt we'd have the time, within one class, to make it into the Emerald Forest." Ichigo was personally itching for what he just knew had to be coming. "We'll be sparring against each other."
Ruby groaned. "Fighting people is less fun than fighting Grimm."
The entire class soon re-entered the training hall and watched Ms. Goodwitch as she spoke atop the stage where it appeared the battles would take place. Behind her, situated on the back wall, was a large, blank screen.
"We shall begin this year with duels to find your strengths and weaknesses when facing a human opponent. I know many of you have thrived in facing Grimm, but there are people in this world who will wish to do harm. It is our job to defend against such threats. Now, would anyone like to start us off?"
Yang immediately raised her hand clearly eager for this. "I'd like to!"
"Very good." Glynda nodded. "Now, who will be her opponent?"
Ichigo, while not displaying it outwardly, was itching to fight, so he raised his hand. "You can make me her opponent."
Glynda approved it, so the two of them moved onto the stage where they faced one another. Ichigo looked overhead and saw their current Aura's were signified with a green bar implying perfect condition. Ichigo drew his sword while Yang primed her gauntlets.
"Don't worry, I'll take this nice and easy." Yang voiced confidently.
"Funny, sounds like something I should be saying." Ichigo returned. "I guess instead I'll simply say holding back with me isn't going to do you any favors beyond ending this fight quickly."
The bell sounded and the fight began with the sound of a shotgun blast.
Yang fired both gauntlets behind her sending her rocketing towards her opponent while cocking an arm back ready to swing. "Here I come!"
She closed the distance before swinging at Ichigo's face. He shifted his head to the side at the last second and watched as the arm extended past his shoulder. He then drove his knee into Yang's gut making her reel back before slamming Zangetsu into the same area.
While her Aura managed to protect her from getting cut, the force of the strike was still enough to send her colliding with the back wall. She slid down it, managing to land on her feet, gasping with a grin on her face.
"Looks like you can fight humans just as well as Grimm." Yang uttered as she caught her breath.
She fired off another double shot behind her to rocket at Ichigo again. This time, he charged her as well and swung Zangetsu. The blond powerhouse managed to block the blow by raising her shielded forearms, which stopped her momentum, before she began punching at him.
Ichigo deftly weaved through the flurry of punches and shotgun blast Yang attempted before using Zangetsu to swat away one of the fists putting he off balance. He took full advantage by pressing forward and executing a flurry of slashes.
Yang eventually managed to recover her footing and attempted to fire on Ichigo who lept back. At this point, the blond brawler was panting, but she didn't let that stop her from regaining her footing until it was just as firm a stance as what Ichigo held.
"You really are something else." Yang stated while looking upon the swordsman with admiration.
Ichigo gave her a small smile. "You are one determined person."
Not many would see this large a gap in skill, yet still be willing to continue the fight. Yang wasn't even hesitating despite everything telling her she should. Ichigo barely lost any Aura, he used it a bit in his movements, while she was dangerously close to the red.
"Ready to finish this?" Yang asked.
Ichigo grasped Zangetsu with both hands. "Bring it."
Yang charged Ichigo while firing off a barrage of shells as she did so. The swordsman nimbly avoided each bullet with a step to the left or right. Each movement brought him closer to his opponent. When he was finally close enough, Ichigo unleashed precise sword swings.
Each one set up the next to the point that Yang struggled to position her golden coated arms between herself, and the near constant barrage. Each contact sent vibrations up her arm that made her increasingly nervous as the assault moved on giving her no leeway to counter attack.
"You're… pretty… fast." She grunted between each clash of metal on metal.
Yang was losing ground fast as she took steps back to lessen the impact of each blow to her arms. Ichigo knew they'd soon reach the end of the stage, and she'd have no ground left. This forced the brawler to attempt to leap back in a bid to gain some distance.
Ichigo quickly unfurled the cloth before using it to hurl his blade at Yang. This was shocking to the blond brawler, but she managed deflect the Khyber blade with her gauntlet. She then pressed the advantage by shooting forward and swinging a wild haymaker.
Ichigo simply pulled hard on the cloth bringing the blade in from behind to plow into Yang's back sending her crashing forward. He jumped over her falling body and caught his sword just as a buzzer went off. The fight was over.
"That's enough now!" Glynda called out.
Yang rose to her feet before both combatants looked to the board. Ichigo saw the blond looking at the screen slack jawed. Her Aura had slipped into the red while his own was well over three fourths full.
"Heh." Yang gave her signature smile as she walked over to Ichigo and wrapped her arm around his neck in a friendly manner. "You are the real deal, but don't think this is the end. Now that I know your tricks, I won't lose our rematch."
"We'll see." Ichigo moved away from her and sheathed his blade on his back. "Fighting you was fun, so any time you want another round, I'll be ready."
They walked off the stage together and found their teams awaiting them.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Ruby exclaimed while patting Ichigo on the back. "Way to represent Team RAIN!"
"Thanks." Ichigo responded.
"You do realize I'm your sister, right?" Yang declared with slight annoyance. "You should have been rooting for me out there."
"I know, I know!" Ruby sounded so pumped "I mean, even with how strong Ichigo's shown us he is, I assumed you'd win Yang. No offence Ichigo." Ichigo simply shrugged. "It's just, Yang has always been my strong, older sister. Then, she didn't even touch you."
"Both of you did well out there." Pyrrha nodded. "Ichigo, your skills are great. Yang, not many could have the odds stacked against them, yet be willing to continue. Let alone give it their all. That is something to applaud."
"I fully agree," Ren placed a hand on Yang's shoulder. "In my opinion, you represented Team RBYN well."
"Thanks, boss." Yang's usual, confident grin returned. "I know I'll get him next time."
"You bet you will!" Nora hollered as she raised her fist. "Especially since from now on you're going to be on my personal workout routine until you are stronger than everyone in this school!"
Yang looked mildly concerned at this revelation.
"Good job." Blake added simply as Ren led Team RBYN back to their seats.
At this point, Professor Goodwitch spoke to the class drawing everyone's attention. "With Ichigo and Yang's fight having concluded, is there anyone else who would like to volunteer?"
Hallway
Ichigo and Jaune were waiting on their other members because they'd all decided to at least head back to the room together before potentially doing something else.
"You know Ichigo, I could get used to this." Jaune voiced.
"This certainly beats wandering Vale looking for answers that might not even be there." Ichigo nodded. "Agreed."
"You really were pretty cool in that fight with Yang." Jaune chuckled. "Guess it should come as no surprise after what you did in the Emerald Forest."
"Sounds like you're not acknowledging what you did." Ichigo retorted. "Ruby did end up recounting how you three took down a Deathstalker together."
"You mean how Ruby took it down." Jaune commented. "Heck, had you been there, you could have taken it down no problem."
"Maybe I could have, and maybe Ruby would have." Ichigo shrugged. "In the end, maybe doesn't really matter in the face of what happened. You and Pyrrha managed to keep it busy and gave Ruby a clear shot."
"Well, you might have a point." Jaune nodded. "Still, I didn't really feel like I was fighting alongside them. That's why I'm going to work hard and get stronger to make sure I'm not dragging all of you down."
"The first step to achieving a goal is knowing what you want." Ichigo patted his back. "The second is having the drive to make it happen. I think you'll end up where you want to be."
Jaune smiled. "Yeah, I will."
Not long after, Pyrrha and Ruby exited the locker room.
"Sorry about that you two." Pyrrha voiced genuinely. "Hope we didn't keep you waiting."
"Eh, it's fine." Ichigo shrugged. "We all take our time doing things, so it's no big deal."
"Yeah, Ichigo and I slept a bit longer than you two." Jaune smiled. "So, we'd be ones to talk."
Ruby smiled since she loved this team so far. "Well, we're together Team RAIN, so let's head back to the room."
Currently the poll on my profile, about potential romantic pairs for Ichigo, goes like this.
Pyrrha: 5
Weiss: 2
Winter: 2
Coco: 2
ArguableReader (ch. 1): It comes from JPDE. I am not planning to incorporating that whole plot into this, but I liked the fan game enough to the point that I would include the location.
ArguableReader (ch. 2): I think Orihime honestly had potential early on, but I see what you mean. As for teams, as you can see, I did not go with the fifth wheel option, so no worries there.
ArguableReader (ch. 3): Weiss is still there, but no getting a team did have an impact on her.
ArguableReader (ch. 4): We'll see. As I said in the poll, no pairing is confirmed just because it gets votes, and I never said that would remain the only poll. People's opinions might change as story events happen and characters interact.
taylorrajay88: There's certainly going to be changes.