Chapter Five: Grimm Experiences.
Time had gone by so quickly that Neo's head was still spinning. How exactly did she end up here again?
Let's see… She had finished up all that paperwork with Ozpin rather quickly. She was fortunate enough to have known the answers to the majority of his questions with her strangely specific knowledge. If he had asked her trivial questions like where she grew up or who her family was, she would have struggled to answer him because she had absolutely no idea. General knowledge of Remnant? Easy. Rough outline on what a Grimm actually is? Next. Where do you live? …Pass.
As such, she counted her blessings when she didn't have to reveal that she was not only height-deprived and mute, but also a partial amnesiac with inexplicable knowledge of potential future events.
What happened after that…? Oh yeah, of course. One of the members of staff gave her a quick tour of the campus. Who was it, you ask? Well, it wasn't one of the teachers since they were all busy juggling students at the time. Instead, it was one of the receptionists. They had walked Neo all across the academy, stopping at all the various points of interest. The Beacon Tower, The CCTS (Cross Continental Transmit System,) Amphitheatre, the various Lecture Halls, the Dorm Rooms, Dining Hall, Library, Locker Rooms and even the Ballroom. It was so much to keep track of that Neo was certain that she was going to get lost all the time. At least for the first couple of weeks. Maybe she should tie a bunch of strings to the handles? Nah, that'd never work. Guess she'll just have to commit it to memory.
And then…oh, right. It was time for class. Which is where she was right now. Sat in one of the lecture halls, surrounded by other students with all their fancy textbooks, pens, pencils and backpacks, sitting in their newly found friend groups. Neo was lucky enough to have been given a sheet of paper and a pencil until they gave her a textbook to write things down in.
Truth be told, Neo was more concerned with the various students in the room than she was interested in the lesson. It was just some blustery old geezer with a grey moustache, which hardly fit on his face, blubbering about the Grimm. All it really boiled down to was: 'hit it in the weak spot. If it doesn't have one, hit it really hard wherever.' That just sounded like common sense to her.
As for the students, the arrival of an unfamiliar face had not gone unnoticed. Well, to be honest, Neo did stick out like a sore thumb. A student, who is the new shortest, just randomly walks in alongside the group and sits down near the back? She received a lot of curious and concerned glances. And no, it wasn't because of the outfit. Neo had been smart enough to semblance away her usual clothes for the appearance of the typical red, white, and black uniform. She had kept her hat and neck scarf but taken off the hat when the lesson started. Maybe that just drew attention to her natural pink and brown hair, but taking off the hat would surely be the sign of respect which a teacher would be looking for. Plus, having that hat in her peripheral vision made her feel not quite as alone anymore.
Whilst her ears listened to the lesson – more out of fear of being picked on to somehow muster an answer to a question than by an actual desire to try and learn something new – her eyes swept across the room, piecing together who the students were. She could already see three main groups had gathered together, each one divided into roughly two halves. There were also several students who sat alone around the room, like she currently was.
Who to start with…? Well, it had to be those two over there. Never had she ever seen such a…curious relationship. There was a dark-haired boy sitting near the front of the room. Though she couldn't really get a good look at the boy due to his position, she could make out the brightest of pink streaks running through his hair near his left ear. He seemed to be calmly writing down notes and doing his best to pay attention. However, it wasn't him that Neo found to be interesting. No, no. It was the orange-haired lovebird which hadn't let go of his arm since they had sat down. She was nuzzling and leaning on and just generally holding him and refusing to let go. It didn't seem like the boy minded, though. Maybe he liked the attention? Or maybe he had just given up trying to shake the obsessed girl off?
Sitting nearby were two other students. One of which she recognised to be Pyrrha, who was now wearing the traditional school outfit, instead of her battle garb. She was generally paying attention and diligently writing notes, but Neo noticed that she seemed to be a little distracted. Was it a result of that combat which Neo had involved her in about an hour ago? Maybe. Was it that the lesson was boring her? Perhaps. Was it that boy she was looking at? Most likely. Which boy? No, not the one which the redhead was swooning over. Nope, she had her eyes glancing to a young-looking blonde boy who was sitting at the end of the row. Once again, Neo didn't have the best of angles to be looking at the details, but he seemed to have medium-length hair and blue eyes. He had a bit of a baby face, but otherwise looked like just your average teenaged boy. The only reason she saw the blue eyes was because he had glanced at Neo at one point during the lecture. Neo had successfully 'avoided' eye contact because she had her semblance making an illusion of her paying attention, taking notes, and not staring into the souls of her classmates like the real her was doing.
But the craziest thing about the boy Pyrrha was looking at…was the fact that he was looking at a different girl on the opposite column of seats to him! Talk about a crazy love…err…angle? Hmm? Why not a triangle? Well, I mean, I guess it could be…but girl number two isn't reeeally looking at Pyrrha except for the occasional glance. That could easily be written off as her just wondering what the role model student is doing. What does she look like? Sorry, I got side-tracked. She could only really see the girl's long white ponytail which came out at an angle and was held together by some kind of tiny silver tiara at the base of the tail. They're mostly writing notes and listening to the old guy's explanation on why aiming for the eyes is typically high-risk, high reward.
Then there's a girl with medium-length black hair and a reddish hue at the end of each strand. Aside from Neo, herself, she seemed to be the smallest person in the room. She appeared…a bit younger than the other students… but she could just seem younger than she looked, like Neo. It was hard to say for sure. Then there was a larger girl with long, golden hair sitting next to her. On occasion, one would whisper something to the other or secretly eat a snack whilst Mister Moustache turned around to write something on the chalkboard. Then there was Black Bow; a girl sitting a row upwards from those three. She had long raven hair and had a big black bow on the top of her head, hence the temporary nickname. She was holding a book with one hand and pretending to write notes with her other hand. Neo was pretty sure that the book was a work of fiction, instead of an actual textbook, since there were no pictures from what she could tell. She was probably clever enough to be using a false cover, else Mister Moustache would've undoubtedly tossed it out the window by now.
Now then…who else was around? Well, there were a group of miscreants sitting on the opposite side of the room to her. Four of them, all teenaged boys who enjoyed testing the limits of everyone's patience. Tossing paper, making quiet and insulting remarks, generally mocking the lecture as a whole and acting like pompous idiots who would make any cliché movie jock swoon in admiration. They came in a variety of shapes and sizes. The largest one seemed to be the centre of attention. He was a broad-shouldered kid who was roughly the same height as Pyrrha. He had short, light brown hair and a smirk which made Neo's spine shiver from how slimy he seemed. The other three were lankier than they were wide but were still misbehaving even if it wasn't to the same extent as their supposed leader. One of them had dark blonde hair which slanted off to one side, barely not covering his left eye. Another had incredibly short grey hair but a larger section of spiked lime hair sticking out the middle as if his head had erupted with snot and mucus and then froze in place in the shape of a short mohawk. The last one had slicked-back grey hair which touched down at the tops of his shoulders.
That left the last three students in the room, not including herself. Let's see… they were all particularly strange in their own way. It was hard to choose which one to observe first. Let's go with…that one. There was a young woman wearing a dark, hooded cloak over the top of her school uniform. You know, like she was trying too hard to be edgy and mysterious. She was sitting on the same row as Neo, closer to the staircase, so she had a pretty good look at her. It seemed that she was reading. Not like Miss Black Bow over there, though. How so? Well, there was no writing on the page which she was reading. How was she reading it, then? By tracing her finger over each line. That's right, she was blind and was reading in braille. It was easy to tell that she was sightless, considering that the upper half of her face was wrapped in bandages. Their skin was oddly pale, in stark contrast to the dark colours she wore, but they otherwise seemed somewhat normal. Well…about as normal as Neo was, herself. And then…she did something unexpected. She turned to Neo and mouthed something to her. It looked like: 'Do you have a problem?'
Uh…no. But now she did. How did she know Neo was looking at her? Her illusion was diligently working on listening to the lecture and writing notes. Not only that, but the girl was also blindfolded, and Neo was at least ten steps away from her. Needless to say, Neo found it strange that the only person who was onto her…was the blind girl. She quickly moved on to observing someone else.
Erm…how about that one? He was sitting on the front row, taking up roughly half of the bench by himself. Wait, so he was really big? Not quite. Really wide? Not exactly. Well, it was just that…he had multiple hands. Which were floating. Each one had their own notebook and pencil and were meticulously taking notes. The boy, himself, was also taking notes with both hands. Judging from the intricacies of each pencil motion, they were both writing something different. How many brains did this kid have? His hair was dark, with purple tips and he wore his school uniform with some kind of metallic harness which extended from the back of his neck to the back of his head. Several odd-looking tubes ran between the sections, but the actual destination of the tubes was covered with his black and purple hair. Overall, the kid was probably some kind of prodigy who was capable of writing six different pages of notes simultaneously, but since he was on the front row, Neo couldn't really get a good look at him otherwise.
That just left one other student. They were wearing some kind of medieval knight's helmet over their head but were otherwise wearing the normal school uniform. Since they were sitting down on the far side of the room, Neo couldn't tell which gender they were, or even if the uniform had skirt or trousers. The helmet was of peculiar design. It was fully metallic with very small slits to see out of and littered with tiny holes which made piecing together their surroundings a little easier whilst still providing outrageous protection. It was a unique shape, too, kinda like the shape of a bird's head with a small, curved beak to go with it. A long plume of red hair flowed out the back of the head in a neat ponytail, but Neo doubted it was actually the hair of the person inside. It seemed more like a decoration piece than a hair vent. At least, that was the impression which Neo got from it. The person, themselves, seemed rather muscular but they weren't as tall as Pyrrha, nor as wide as that jock over there. An odd combination of the two, but without the full strength of either. With that being said, Neo knew the school was lax on dress codes…but…wearing the helmet of a knight to your lectures seemed like they were pushing it. Maybe they had a good reason for not taking it off?
And then, there was a moment of silence which flushed over the room and Neo snapped her attention back to the front. At first, she was horrified to think that she had been asked a question but, in reality, the lecturer had posed a question to the entire room. Something about whether or not people thought they were the pinnacle of the school's standards. As much as Neo wanted to raise her hand, she decided against it in favour of not drawing more attention to herself than she already had. She was only just settling in, so claiming to be a model student already would be too prideful – even for her. It's not like she even had the option, since the white ponytailed girl raised her hand and pronounced that she was the epitome of perfection. Neo just rolled her eyes. She already didn't like her attitude and she'd only just heard her talk once.
White girl, whom Neo had just learned was called 'Weiss Schnee,' by Mr Moustache, was called up to the front of the room in order to face an 'opponent.' At first, Neo was wondering if the teacher was planning to blast her with that blunderbuss axe of his. She would've loved to see that. Alas, it seemed that he was planning to have her fight against…whatever was in that cage he was lowering from the ceiling.
Weiss quickly changed into her combat outfit in a side room, utilizing the rocket-powered lockers to deliver the contents quickly. When she returned to the room, she wore a short, white combat dress with a bright red inner layer about the collar. She wielded a rapier-esque weapon with a large, cylindrical cross guard. Her team cheered her on, even pulling out small banners. However, Weiss directed her anger at the young-looking girl with dark hair and reddish tips claiming that she, in particular, was making it hard to focus.
Wait a minute…did Weiss call her…'Ruby?' Where had she heard that name before…? It seemed…familiar… Oh well, she'll figure it out later. Right now, Neo was excited to witness the fight.
The cage door slammed open as Mr Moustache severed the lock with his axe and a black beast charged out. Neo recognised it immediately as a boarbatusk. A largeish, boar-like creature comprised of a black torso and short stubby legs. It had a white exoskeleton of sorts which housed the creature's primary weapons: a pair of massive white and red tusks on the front of the creature. Four glowing red eyes gleamed with malice as they stared daggers at the white girl in front of it.
It charged forward with feral rage, narrowly missing the girl who leapt to one side and ineffectively slashed at it as it passed. The two stared down each other as they circled each other briefly. With every passing moment, they assessed the weaknesses of their foe. Only to be disturbed by Ruby cheering on Weiss and recommending attacking the weak underbelly of the monster. Though it was a particularly good piece of advice, the girl lashed out at her for being a distraction, before charging forwards with her rapier. Ah, typical stuck-up girl who thinks she's better than everyone else.
Karma bit her in the butt, though. Whilst she was complaining about Ruby just trying to support her friend, the boarbatusk rushed forwards and took her by surprise. Weiss managed to block the attack by turning her rapier to the side at the last moment and confronting the tusks head-on. However, her unfortunate timing caused her to not be fully braced and her rapier slipped behind one of the tusks. The two were locked in a grapple for a moment, but it was broken in an instant when the boar reared its head with a sudden jerk. The rapier was sent flying from her grasp and the girl was left scrambling to escape the reach of those tusks. Too late, unfortunately. The beast smacked her backwards with a sudden forwards jolt, sending her rolling to the floor. Disarmed and staring the beast in all four of its demonic eyes, a moment of reflection was surely racing through her head. The boar charged forwards, narrowly missing the girl as she rolled out of the way. It collided against the front stands at an unusual angle, causing it to topple to the ground. Seizing the opportunity, the girl in white raced forwards and retrieved her rapier.
Ruby called out to Weiss once again, reminding her of the boarbatusk's unprotected underbelly, but the girl still had not learned her lesson and lashed out once more, rebuking the poor girl for just trying to be helpful.
"Stop telling me what to do!" She had shouted, as the beast charged towards her with a newfound power. Like a Sonic the Hedgehog character, it had spun itself into a ball of tough exoskeleton and tusks and rolled towards her like a bowling ball, only to be blocked by a large sigil which had appeared out of the aether after the girl in white made a few hand gestures. Neo figured that it must be her semblance. Confused from the impact, the creature fell backwards onto its back but had not the time to right itself as the girl leapt backwards and launched herself forward on a second sigil and plunged her rapier deep into the creature's underbody. The creature squealed for a moment, then went limp and began to project a dark smoke. The creature was evaporating, proving that it had been defeated in that single, decisive hit.
Mr Moustache congratulated the girl for succeeding against her foe, but Neo honestly thought that the fight had gone awfully. She may have finished it in a single hit (well, two if you count the ineffective sideswipe) but that just proved how weak the creature had been, as opposed to the girl's martial prowess. What would she do when she faced a larger foe with greater reach and endurance? She couldn't possibly think herself to be all-powerful and perfect when she had struggled to defeat one of the weakest varieties of Grimm. Sure, maybe the cheering on wasn't helpful, but Neo thought the girl was just making excuses for her shoddy performance.
Either way, the class was wrapped up shortly afterwards. She had wanted to have a word with Ruby but was dismayed to see that she had gone chasing after Weiss, who had left in a huff. Neo wasn't quite comfortable enough to approach her with all the drama going on. Especially not to ask something as trivial (and potentially stalker-ey) as her last name. That could be seen as a really weird thing to do. At least there would surely be another, more fitting time to do so in the future.
Instead, she simply checked her schedule. Looks like they all had another class before 'Self-Directed Sparring.' Urgh. Hopefully not all these classes were as boring as that one had been. Sure, the ending was interesting but seeing a spoiled, uptight rich kid getting beaten up was always a good time.
As she walked down the hall towards her next classroom, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Wondering who it could be, she turned around to find herself looking at Pyrrha. Neo gave her a smile and a wave, hoping that the gladiator girl held no grudges… What came out of the warrior's mouth was not a question which she had expected to hear, though.
"Where did you learn to fight like that?" She asked as they walked together down the hall. "I mean, you said you were self-taught but…it's just…a little hard to believe."
Neo stopped for a moment and placed a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder, before letting out a sigh and tapping something down on her scroll.
'Can you keep a secret?' She asked. Pyrrha read the message with a raised eyebrow…but nodded. Neo gave her a serious look and narrowed her eyes, as if judging how trustworthy she was.
'I'm telling you because I owe you, but please don't tell anyone.' She first wrote, before adding: 'I can't remember. I have amnesia. Anything I knew before today is gone, with only a few exceptions.'