Volume 1 - Part 2 A New Future
A boy and a man sit in the ruins of an abandoned building, around a fading fire, and on edge soldiers surrounding them in an abandoned village. The older of the two having a half up half down hairstyle and smoking a cigarette, his gray eyes and animal ears blended in well within the wasteland. The boy however had a short black hair cut, maybe half an inch in length at most, and maroon red eyes. The Man sat confidently staring into the flames whilst the boy sat nervously, his brain rattling from the previous day's events.
The man turned to see the boy's expression and, without hesitation, reached for his back pocket pulling out a pack of cigarettes. With a smile he took one out and held it out towards the boy saying "Here, this'll calm you down," with a kind voice. There was a few seconds of quiet before the boy silently took the cigarette. "I know it's scary, but as long as we stick together what few of us are left will make it out to safety, away from Uktaria," the man continued with a soft smile. "I'm Corporal Veles, what's your name, little man," The man asked, as the boy put the cigarette in his mouth.
…
"Gerovit, wake up," Professor Port yelled, his ire, and the class's attention, directed squarely at Cyril. "I know due to complications," Port paused for a second, rewording his statement "you are only in a team of two, but with your combat scores, anything is possible, so pay attention!" He reiterated with a triumphant crescendo in his voice.
"Yes sir," Cyril replied tired with his tone clearly showing his insincerity like it was a badge of honor.
Picking his head up off the desk and putting it in his left hand, Cyril was met with Port saying "If you're going to act like that in my class then how about a bit of a test, let's see how you deal with a boarbatusk grimm!". Before Cyril could even say anything the bulbous professor, with great pride, went to the lecture hall's storage room to fish around for the grimm.
Cyril signed and stood up from his seat at the front of the class, grabbing Perun, his revolver, belt, and bandolier from under his desk. While he shuffled out of his seat, he took off the uniform belt and put his on, along with the bandolier and unbuttoned his uniform blazer. Port came walking back into the lecture hall with a rattling cage, gesturing to Cyril to go to the room's far right as he placed the beast on the room's left.
"Get ready!" Port warned Cyril from across the room. Slowly Cyril drew the saber, its arching as lively as ever. Tension was in the air as the whole class placed their eyes on Cyril in his stance, angled down, left shoulder forward, and with his right hand resting on his revolver.
"Here it comes!" Port yelled as the beast was let loose, and he ran out of the way. The beast charged at Cyril, and after the grimm had made it halfway to him, he drew his revolver planting a round right between its eyes, cracking its face armor wide open. The beast reeled from the shot and sat incapacitated for a few seconds letting Cyril close the distance. With one last move he thrust Perun into the grimm's destroyed face plate, it letting out a shriek before dying. With a smile Cyril put his foot on the beast's head, pushing against it to pull out the saber from its skull, and with a little twirl around its guard, he sheathed it silently and headed back to his desk. Cyril took off all his equipment and put his uniform belt back on before putting his head back down on the table. The whole class was left in small chaotic discussions as Professor Port was left with an expression of shock on his face.
"W-well good work young man, you'll make a fine huntsman," Port said embarrassed by the whole display. "Everyone quiet down, we're going to get back to class now," He said in a fruitful attempt to regain control of the room.
"Good job," Julie whispered to Cyril, like a little kid to their sports idol.
"It wasn't all that hard," he whispered back, his eyes closed, head down, preparing to go back to sleep.
Julie leaned in towards Cyril's ear and replied with "You made it seem like a quick chore though," in a hushed yet excited tone.
"It was," Cyril said with a chuckle and a sigh before closing his eyes and falling asleep once more.
After the initiation the headmaster, Ozpin, told them an interesting bit of information. During the ceremony two participants had died in combat. This left the other black pawn untouched, meaning there was no one else to form a team with until 2nd semester transfers. Though it appeared that Julie was the only one who was sad, but, in reality Cyril felt something too. Against his own wishes. That night the pair skipped the team assignment ceremony, and went straight to their half empty dorm.
Cyril was shook awake by Julie at the end of class, and with a quick second of confusion he grabbed his things and the pair set off. It was lunchtime and the two strided through the school hallways to its cafeteria, Julie leading the way. Ozpin had made her the pair's leader to in his own words "Keep Cyril in check". Though in the end Cyril didn't mind, he cared little for leadership and spent most of his time training alone.
"Are you excited for lunch?" Julie asked in a joyful voice. Over the past few weeks the two had opened up to each other and talked so much that the two grew a sort of familial bond.
"Eh, it's not like I really need a break from class considering I sleep through all of them. The most difficult part of my day is when one of the Professors think they can catch me off guard," He replied with a lax tone only known to Julie as he stretched his arms up.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, I found us a place to sit with other people during lunch!"
Julie said with controlled excitement, and giddiness waiting for Cyril's response.
"Eh, as long as you're happy I'll sit wherever, I don't really care," Cyril replied, shrugging.
"Great, I'll ask them to introduce themselves when we get there," Julie explained, leaving a smile imprinted on her face.
"How'd you meet them?" Cyrill asked, turning to Julie with a light smile as they headed out of the classroom hallways and out onto the campus's exterior.
"While you were asleep in first period one of them started talking to me, and invited me to sit with them after I told them how the other people here treat us," Julie explained with the joy in her voice fading and exploding back towards the end.
"It should be nice to sit with other people today," Cyril said with a genuine smile, capping off the exchange as they reached the cafeteria door. Julie led the pair through the packed cafeteria, with odd stares and looks, like normal.
Once Julie reached the table she happily said "Hey guys,". Cyril scanned the table quickly, there were 8 people but he didn't recognize anyone, except for one, Pyrrha. Cyril accidentally made a face and got nervous catching many at the table off guard.
"Oh hey Julie, you came to sit with us at lunch after all," Pyrrha replied, a sort of excitement shrouded in her voice. "And he's your teammate… Cyril right?" She asked, trying to make a good impression with Cyril.
"Yeah," Cyril said a bit flustered.
"Pyrrha, why don't you introduce him to everyone here," Julie added, turning back to see an uncomfortable Cyril, giving her a nervous slight smile.
"Well for starters, I'm Pyrrha, this is Nora," She said pointing to a fiery girl with short orange hair "This is Jeane," she said gesturing to a skittish blonde boy "and that's Lie," she said nodding towards a boy with medium length black hair. "I'll let Ruby introduce you to her team," She exclaimed with enthusiasm and goofiness, in a vain attempt to make Cyril feel better.
"Ok, here's my team," A red haired girl said with lots of energy which slightly annoyed Cyril. "We got my sister Yang," She said with umph as she put her arm around a yellow haired girl "Weiss, you might know her as the Ice Queen," she continued, pointing at a white haired girl, who proceeded to give her a dirty look. "And lastly the mysterious Blake," She said in a silly tone, her last attempt to make Cyril not appear uncomfortable.
"Don't worry about him, Cyril is a bit of a nut to crack but once you do, he won't be so nervous," Julie said, sitting down and staring at Cyril with a comforting look. After a few moments Cyril sat down next to Julie, and immediately put his head down.
In an attempt to break the ice Pyrrha asked the pair "I know from Julie some of your past is very touchy, but what kingdom are you guys from?".
"Uktaria," Cyril answered, with Weiss suddenly getting nervous. Cyril Immediately was able to tell why and that he messed up, sitting back up and beginning to back track, saying nervously "Don't worry I was just born there, I left when I was like 3,".
"I'm surprised that someone else here was born outside the kingdoms," Blake said in a quiet, but not shy voice.
"You're also not from the kingdoms? It's a tough world out there, I got lucky though," Cyril said with a chuckle, gaining composure and comfort.
"How about you Julie?" Pyrrha asked, her kind manner bleeding into her words.
"Oh, uh, I'm from Atlas," Julie said, taking Cyril's nervousness and making it her own.
"It's ok if you don't want to talk about it," Pyrrha replied, comforting Julie with her words.
"Y'know you two act like siblings, Cyril is your protective brother," Yang said in an attempt to establish truly friendly conversation. Cyril laughed it off but the comment made his heart drop.
"Maybe, but you make it sound weird," Julie said, the comment revitalizing her joy from earlier. Julie and the rest continued their conversations with Cyril putting his head down. He couldn't get the thought out of his mind. The scene etched at the back of his mind inched forward. The nightmares had stopped but their inspirations never died.
Himself in a bit of a panic told Julie he had to go to the bathroom, and practically ran away. After exiting the cafeteria he made his way to the statue of the two hunters. He sat under the statue, his mind going insane as he grabbed his head in anguish. He started to breathe slowly, calming down after a couple of minutes. When Cyril eventually stood up from the statue his resolve had hardened.
With a determined look Cyril paced back to class, headed to Professor Oobleck's history class. His determined look was turned to a slight smile when he saw Julie waiting outside class for him. The two walked into class and Cyril went into his typical routine of falling asleep.
…
A gray eared faunus and boy sat on top of a hill, home to the rare sight of a tree, on an even rarer rainless day in the wastes. The two were smoking, celebrating good news. SDC Security and the Atlas Ground Guard had finally accepted their request to scale the Uktari Wall and escape to the green pastures above.
"I can't wait Cyril, maybe I'll be able to become a huntsman, I know it's a little late seeing as I'm 18, but maybe I could do what they couldn't. I'll be able to change the world. What do you want to do Cyril?" The faunus asked giddy with joy.
"I want to be a hunter too Belmen, I…"
…
"Mr. Gerovit, wake up," Professor Oobleck said firmly, staring at the snoozing 18 year old. "I'll give you a pass if you can answer this question. Ms. Nikos has just explained how the faunus won the Battle of Fort Castle, now answer me as to how that caused the creation of the Schnee Dust Companies' Security Branch, and what its main components are," Professor Oobleck continued with speed and confidence, expecting Cyril's combat prowess to not convert over to his knowledge of history.
"It's called the SDC Combat Division, the security branch is a part of it. It was formed after the Atlasian forces defeated at Fort Castle left behind so much dust unprotected to the faunus it helped fuel their war effort to its eventual victory, among other factors. In order to protect their dust and 'business interests' the Combat Division was formed consisting of three branches. The first being Security who are deployed to all major sites along dust's production, and delivery if the customer is willing to put up the money. The second branch is the Protection which offers bodyguards to Schnee family members and other important members of the Schnee Dust Company. The last branch is SFO, short for Strike Force's Office, who actively fight organizations like the white fang," Cyril recounted half asleep before dropping his head again.
Before falling back asleep he heard Professor Oobleck say under his breath "I can't believe he knew all that off the top of his head,", being left almost dumbfounded before his usual energy picked up again. As Cyril closed his eyes his mind began to drift, and soon flew away into sleep once more.
Author's Notes: For the one person wondering, Julie and Cyril will never date, I used to tell my pals who were sophomores in high school they were pedos for dating freshman because they were basically still middle schoolers.