Chapter 3: Huntsmen and Huntresses
Shaun woke up from his bed. After two weeks of being in Beacon Academy, he finally knew about the basic knowledge of Remnant. To be honest, it's interesting. Remnant civilization appeared to be a step forward than civilization on Earth. Granted, Earth was already laid in ruins and humans were low on population, technological advancement was halted and didn't advance as what Remnant is.
Then there was what the locals called Dust (not his/father's crow). Dust was the source of all power, meaning its uses were endless in this world. Transportation, weaponry, electricity, anything. The books that he read and provided by Professor Goodwitch were enough for him to understand this world's basic knowledge. But despite the many uses, Dust was unstable if you're not careful in using it. There were many kinds of Dust that the world of Remnant offered to the civilization, different in their elemental properties. For example, Fire, ice, earth, wind, and many more. Combined with them and their power would increase.
Then there were other species, another intelligent being called the Faunus. They were the same as humans, but they have animal traits. He read that no one knew where and where Faunus originate, but they speculate that they were created by the God of Animals from the fairy tales. Despite being the same as humans, history showed him that they were discriminated against. He frowned about it, despite in a world full of grim discrimination still showing itself in society. Even if they were given a continent for their assistance and missed behavior towards their kind, the Grim Reaper's son saw this as an act of centralizing the Faunus as a form of segregation.
Shaun shook his head. Getting up from his bed, he stretched himself to get rid of the stiffness of his muscles. He was currently wearing a white t-shirt and baggy sweatpants. The room he was in was the dorm room. Inside his room, there was a chair, some shelves, a wardrobe that contains the school uniforms and his normal attire, and a personal bathroom. His weapons were on the table below the left window.
Shaun was grateful that the headmaster was willing to give him all of this. Despite being here for two weeks, he deduced that the headmaster was a kind, respectful old man. But he was still an enigma to him. The eyes that the old man radiated screamed of a man with a burden. It reminded him of his father, the burden he carried as the Horseman. He understands that the man meant no harm, but then again will he trust him, that he was not human but a half Nephilim? He didn't know, but something tells him that sooner or later he needs to tell Ozpin the truth.
Shaun sighs as he remembered the conversation with the headmaster a weak ago.
A week ago, Ozpin's Office
Shaun was again called into the headmaster's office in Beacon Tower. He was curious about what he was disturbed by. Before coming into the office, he was currently reading Remnant's fairy tales. He was in the mid of the story about the lady who finally claimed her freedom. Just when he was going to know what the story's next plot was, his scroll, a rectangle device that was used for communication and searching for information, chimed. He looked at the screen to see that he received a notification from Ozpin.
Now here he was in front of the sitting old man, who was drinking coffee (Shaun questioned the man why he was drinking coffee in the morning) questioning himself why he was summoned here.
"Good Morning, Mr. Hopkin,"
"Morning to you too, professor,"
"Before we continue for why I called you here, how are your days in Beacon," He said to the half Nephilim. Shaun put his hands inside his trousers pockets.
"Not bad. I got to admit your library was full of information. The histories and knowledge I gained from your library were enough for me to understand my lack of… basic knowledge," He said. He was afraid that the headmaster caught that he didn't know any basic knowledge in Remnant. Ozpin once asked him about it, but Shaun told him that he lived in a town that was low on civilization and was isolated from the outside world.
The lie was of course still questionable, but until then, it would make do… for now.
"Great, and how about my staff or the other professors?"
"It was interesting I supposed. The mustache man, Professor Port has unique stories about his days killing the grim, Dr. Oobleck was… hyperactive to say the least. The others besides that were fine," He said to the headmaster chuckling, remembering when he saw Dr. Oobleck zipping across the room. If his eyes weren't trained by his father's training, he won't see the professor.
Ozpin let out a chuckle at Shaun's comment about the two professors. Shaun was like any other teenager in his academy. But still, the rumored "Grim Reaper" was a mystery to him. Despite that, he was glad that he accepted his offer. Something told him that in the future he could open up to himself.
"I am glad you enjoy my staff here. Now, as for why you are here, there's something you need to know about next week's new semester." He said.
"Next week, this academy would be receiving new huntsmen in training and for that, there would be teams. After each one of the individuals finds a relic, the teams could be sorted, depending on the relics they took. But you are an exception, you don't need a team to enroll in this academy. You will be a one-man team which I will announce after the team's arrangements." He said. Shaun widened his eyes over the information.
"Why?"
"Because you already have the skills of four huntsmen combined, what do you say?" he asked.
Shaun rubbed his temples at the information that was given. The man before him was very kind. Maybe he did this for warming up to him, proving that he isn't an enemy and can be trusted. But he still needed to keep an eye on the old man, until then he would reveal everything.
'In the future, Professor Ozpin, I will reveal everything,' he thought.
"Sure, thing Professor,"
"You can call me Ozpin, Shaun." After that, Shaun said goodbye to the two professors and went into the elevator, and headed to the library to continue his readings.
Present-day
He shook his head from the memory. Looking at his scroll, it was 5 A.M in the morning. Today is the day when the academy will receive new Huntsmen in training. He then looked at the window, the sun still not up for the day. Getting up from the bed, he went to the bathroom to take a bath. Then after that, he got out of his own dorm room and wandered around the academy as an early exercise in the morning.
After wandering around the prestigious academy, he headed to the Dining Room to have breakfast. Shaun foremost of his life finally have a proper breakfast. Back on Earth, he only ate what he could find. Of course, when his mother was still alive, she would introduce him to many different foods, despite never eating them in his life. He only read about them in a cookbook.
So, when the first time he looked at the food and tried it… It was delicious. He got looks from Ozpin when he was in the Cafeteria, but he gave the man an answer that his village had never had this kind of food before. The man's eyes widened and gave Shaun his condolence. Now, Shaun was sitting at a table, in front of him was his breakfast. A sandwich and milk and to end it all off an apple.
He then ate his food in silence. After eating his breakfast, he looked at his scroll to see that it was 7 A.M. The first-year students would arrive here via bullhead in 30 minutes. With nothing else to do, he decided to observe the landing bullheads on top of the school. He stood up from his seat and delivered his tray to the lunch lady. After that, he headed up to the rooftops of the castle-like academy to observe his future classmates.
Outside of Beacon, Docking Bay
Ruby Rose was nervous… and excited. She was in Beacon! But before coming here she fought her first bad guy, then after that, she met a Huntsmen… which she then brought her into the police station. But despite that, she met Professor Ozpin and he enrolled her into Beacon Academy! Two years early! Oh! Awesome!
But she was the only one who got into Beacon early and was the youngest one amongst the students. Yang kept saying she was the bee knees at the bullhead, but she just wants to have normal knees. And then her sister's shoes had puke on them when a blond teen crossed paths with them. Vomit Boy is what his sister called him, which is hilarious.
After they landed and got out of the bullhead, she was mesmerized by all the weapons she saw. There was a person with an axe, ooh and-and a hammer. She would have still mesmerized the weapons when her sister didn't pull her cloak, stopping her from ogling further. Her sister advised her that she should make friends, which she reluctantly agreed on. Then suddenly her sister was pulled by her friends. She has spun around because of her sister's group from Signal Academy's sudden getaway. Then she accidentally hit someone's luggage.
Now, here she was… being scolded by the owner of the luggage. She wore a thigh-length strapless dress with a faint color gradation from white to pale blue at the hem. A small piece of black lace sits in front of her neckline and the hem of the dress was scalloped and stitched to resemble snowflakes, with layers of white tulle under the skirt. She wore white boots, wedged heeled, and higher at the back than the front. At her left hip was her weapon, a white rapier with a revolver chamber inside the guard that holds different kinds of dust inside of the chamber. The multi-action dust weapon's name was Myrtenaster.
"Hey, you! what are you doing?!" she said. Ruby was still on the ground, recovering from the hit on the luggage.
"I-I'm sorry…"
"Sorry?! Do you have any idea of what damage you could have caused?!"
Ruby began to help the girl by picking up one of the luggage, but the annoying girl forcibly took the luggage from her hands.
"This is dust, mined and purify from the Schnee Quarry." She said, but Ruby was still recovering from her fall. This made the white-haired girl angrier than the 15 years old Ruby Rose.
"Are you even listening?! Dust! Fire, earth, lightning?" she said, opening the contents of the case. By this time Ruby was already standing up. But then the white-haired girl took out the bottle of dust and shook the dust bottle at Ruby, letting out a cloud of dust on Ruby's face.
"If any of this gets out from the bottle, the damage would be devastating! What do you have to say for yourself?!"
The cloud of dust from the bottle reached Ruby's nose. Ruby was about to sneeze when somebody's hand covered the little red's mouth, preventing her from sneezing and damaging the surrounding area. The two looked at the new person that prevent the destruction. He wore a black zipped jacket, a tattered cloak, black trousers, and black boots. He has black-haired, red eyes, and paled skin.
"Miss, you should be careful with that bottle of dust. It looks like your bottle isn't sealed properly." He said to the white-haired girl, known as Shaun Hopkin. He let go of the hand covering the girl's mouth.
"Excuse me?! How dare you told me that? Do you know who I am?" she said. Shaun was about to tell the girl he knew when another person approached them. Shaun widened his eyes at the girl, she was that girl with the bow that he encountered two weeks ago in Forever Fall.
"Weiss Schnee, heir of the Schnee Dust Company. One of the largest producer energy propellants in the world." She said. Shaun sensed that at the end she was going to get a bad mouth at the now-named girl Weiss.
"Finally! Some recognition," she said looking at Shaun and Ruby.
"… the same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners," Blake said. Ruby tried to not stifle a laugh and Shaun was smirking at the jab that the black-haired girl gave at the heiress.
"Wha-What! How dare you!" she said approaching Blake and taking the bottle of dust from her hand. Ruby shouted that she would apologize to the heiress as the heiress stormed away from them. Shaun was looking at the heiress as questionable, but he felt that someone was looking at him. He looked at the source and saw Blake look at him. She narrowed her eyes at him to analyze his appearance and voice.
"Have I met you somewhere before?" she finally said. Shaun decided to lie to the ex-member of White Fang.
"Sorry, but we never met before," he replied to her.
"Oh… it's just your voice. It sounds similar but ok. Sorry for mistaking you for someone else," she said as she left Shaun and Ruby.
'Something tells me that she recognized me as the grim reaper but decided to drop the accusation. She probably going to ask me again later,' He thought as he looked at the retreating form of Blake.
Shaun heard a groan on the ground. There Ruby was sprawling her hands on the ground.
"Huh… welcome to Beacon," she said tiredly.
"Here," Shaun offered his hand to Ruby and took it, prompting her to stand up from the ground.
"Thank you, for that AND back then. I-I mean with Weiss," she nervously said which made Shaun chuckle at the kid.
"It's fine. That Ice Queen shouldn't be scolding you for her own mistakes,"
"Oh! Yea-yeah. I'm Ruby Rose by the way," she offered him a handshake which he shook.
"Shaun Hopkin," While they were given their introduction another new person came. The person wore a black short-sleeved hoodie with detached reddish-orange sleeves. Covering his hoodie and image of a rabbit or Pumpkin Pete was a white diamond-shaped chest plate cut off from his lower abdomen and placed over his shoulders were a pair of white spaulders with rerebraces set under them. Below he wore blue jeans with a white patch placed on the left knee and black sneakers. On his left hip rested a white sheath and a sword.
"Hey guys, the name's Jaune Arc, sweet on the tongue ladies love it," He said to them.
"Do they?" Shaun asked the guy.
"Well I hope so, mom always told me that my name would make any girl fall for me," He said with a nervous laugh.
'And I thought Shaun was supposed to be a good name…' He thought.
"Well, Jaune. My name is Shaun Hopkin, and this is—" He was to introduce Ruby when the girl already beat him to it.
"Ruby Rose," Then she suddenly remembered something from when she was in the bullhead. The two males tilted a brow at the girl.
"Aren't you the guy who threw up in the ship?" she said stifling a laugh from her mouth. The blond teen sighs heavily at the comment.
Fast forward, the three were walking aimlessly outside of the academy. Then Ruby starts a conversation with the two males to clear up the air of awkwardness.
"So… I have this," she said. She brought something from her back. At first, it was only a red rectangle case, but then she started to unfold the red case. Shaun could hear gears turning inside the red case. Then the red case transformed into a large scythe which startled Jaune. Shaun looked at the seemingly large scythe. The scythe was mechanized, to say the least, unlike him and well his father.
"This is my baby, Crescent Rose. It's a highly customizable high-impact sniper rifle," She said. Shaun was impressed with the weapon but worried about the girl. Her small stature with a big weapon like that? It could hinder her movements. But he didn't know how the girl fought so he let slide his worries.
"A what?" Jaune said, confused by the explanation.
"It's also a gun,"
"Wow… that's cool," The blonde said with Shaun still quite amazed with her weapon.
"What about you?" she asked Jaune. The blonde knight unstrapped his sheath and let out his sword.
"Oh! I got this sword and this shield."
"So… what do they do," Ruby said as she touched the shield which made the shield collapse into its sheath form, catching Jaune off guard. He tries to catch the shield, but Shaun helped him catch the shield.
"Thank you, Shaun. Uh, the shield could get smaller, so when I got tired carrying it, I could just… put it away,"
"But would it weigh the same?" Shaun said to the blonde.
"Yeah… I guess…" he said. Then Ruby looked at him and Shaun tilted his right brow up.
"What about you Shaun?" Ruby said. Shaun was about to show them his weapons but suddenly remembered that his weapon was inside his locker.
"Oh, sorry, Ruby. My weapons were already inside the locker." He told her.
"Wait! Why do your weapons already inside the school's locker?" She asked.
"Well… It's a secret," He said smirking, making Ruby pout and Jaune more confused.
"Oh yeah, by the way. Did you guys make your own weapons?" Ruby asked the two males.
"Yes. I forged my weapon and design it myself. The materials were given to me by my own father. But the other weapon was given to me by my uncle," He said to them. Ruby was impressed by her new friend. He forged his own and designed them also. That was very cool.
"Wow… awesome! What about yours, Jaune?" Ruby turned to the blonde male.
"Well… this was a hand me down. My great-great-grandfather used it in the great war," He said to them.
"Sounds like a family heirloom to me. I mean not many people have any appreciation for the classics these days,"
"Yeah… the classics,"
"By the way, where are we going?" Ruby asked.
"I don't know. I was just following you two," Shaun sighs at the two of them.
"Huh… you two probably didn't know where everyone else heading, right?" The half Nephilim deadpanned at the two, which they nodded innocently.
"Follow me," he said motioning with his hands as he walks to the Auditorium where the rest of the new students were headed.
Beacon Auditorium
Soon, they arrived at the Auditorium. The half Nephilim gazed around the crowded students. He got to admit the number of young people who desired to be Remnant's protectors was many. He could see that they have a variety of weapons. He hoped that they could make the cut.
Suddenly, a voice called over to Ruby. He looked at the person or a girl, the girl has blonde-haired with a cowlick sticking at the top. She wore a tan jacket that bared her midriff, with golden brown piping and short, puffy sleeves with black cuffs that future two golden buttons. Underneath she wore a yellow crop top with her emblem on the left breast.
She also wore black shorts that reached to her upper thighs, a brown belt with a white material that reached her knee, she wore knee-high boots and orange-over-the-knee socks with the right sock pushed down below the knee. Her weapons were two yellow bracelets that were shotguns, the name of her weapon is Ember Celica.
"Ruby! Over here, I saved you a spot," she shouted amongst the crowd.
"Oh, sorry guys, I-I gotta go! See you guys after the ceremony!" The red scythe wielder said to the two males. Shaun just waved back and Jaune just tried (Keyword tried) to tell the girl to not leave him alone
"Hah… now where would I find another nice-quirky girl to talk to…" he said sighing.
"Why are you even want to have a girl like that?" Shaun asked the male blonde.
"Oh, come on dude! I mean it would be great for me. My mom used to say that when you talk to girls you should always be confident towards them,"
"Sure, but girls should be the least worried for you now. We are here to save the world you know," Shaun pointed out.
"Yeah-yeah, I know, but you know that we aren't going to this for a lifetime, right?" He said. Shaun didn't answer him. He was scanning around the room for signs of the ex-White Fang member. Then his eyes caught the girl at the far-left side of the Auditorium. He didn't expect that the girl's ember eyes were also looking at him. Unexpectedly being caught, the girl quickly returned her focus to her book to avoid awkwardness. Shaun raised a brow at that but disregarded it.
"-Yeah and we could paint our nails and try on some clothes and talk about cute boys like tall, blonde, and scraggly over there," Shaun recognized the voice. He looked at where the source and it was where Ruby was.
"Or maybe broody, edgy, and taller than the other one like him," the heiress of the Schnee Company pointed her finger to Shaun himself. Because of this, Shaun decided to approach the trio and leave Jaune.
"Really?!" Ruby said hopefulness.
"No," Weiss said. At this Shaun was already behind the group and resumed greeting Ruby.
"Hello again, Ruby," Shaun greeted, startling the trio.
"Oh! Hey Shaun, what's up?"
"Oh, nothing. It's just I noticed that Ice Queen here mentioned me back there," he said. The nickname Shaun let out stifle a laugh from the blonde girl and made the heiress fume.
"Ahaha! Oh god damn it, I didn't know you could let out a joke there, buddy. Anyway, the name's Yang Xiao long," Yang offered a handshake which he shook.
"Shaun Hopkin,"
"Oh! so you're Shaun, my little sister told me you saved her from exploding the front of the school, thanks for that," She said to him.
'Sisters? They are not look alike… Probably half sisters.' He thought about what the blonde girl said about Ruby and her being siblings.
"No problem, if I didn't your sister would be in a tighter situation with this Snow Blizzard," He said earning a laugh from Ruby and Yang and making the heiress angrier.
"Ahaha! good one. Man, if you keep this up you could make me fall for you. Shaun…" The hot blonde seductively said to him. To be honest, he didn't know how to react to this since he didn't ever stumble into these kinds of situations (Although Uncle Strife probably knows how to do it in this situation), but something tells him that he should probably be careful around her.
"Yang! Stop making him uncomfortable," Ruby said punching her sister.
"Relax. I was joking," She said laughing. Weiss who was currently being ignored by them decided to ignore them. Then a mic sound was heard and from there, on top of the podium, the headmaster of Beacon was going to begin his speech.
"I'll keep this brief… You've traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft, and to acquire new skills. And when you're finished, you are required to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you… all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, correction."
"You'll assume knowledge will free you off this… but your time at this school will prove to you that knowledge will carry you so far. It's up to you to take the first step," Ozpin finally ended his speech and left Glynda to take over the mic.
"You will gather upon the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready, you are all dismissed," The blonde combat teacher announced to the students. Ozpin's speech sounds… heavy. It reminds the half Nephilim about that one time that his father told him about knowledge.
"Son. Knowledge would only take you not that far, but experience and knowledge? You could cross the path of a wise warrior,"
The first time he heard it he didn't understand (Granted, he was still 10 years old after all). But many years after, he understood the meaning. With only knowledge without experience is like going to a demon lord's lair without knowing what's inside of it.
And it would only get you killed if you don't know the knowledge and the experiences to face it.
"He seems… kind of odd…" Yang commented.
"Almost like if he doesn't even there," her sister agreed.
"You know, I am a natural blond, you know," Jaune suddenly appeared, flirting with Weiss. The heiress just touched her forehead and Shaun just sighs at the attempt to flirt.
'Uncle Strife probably would give Jaune a 5/10 for effort…' he thought.
Beacon Ballroom
Nighttime began in Beacon Academy. The students were now in the ballroom. Some were finished changing up into their nightwear and some were already in their sleeping bags. Shaun was one of the students that have gotten changed into his normal sleepwear. When he looked around the ballroom, he was a little uncomfortable. Ozpin explained to him that all students must be in this ballroom before their initiation.
And that means him also… he loves peace and quiet… but rules are rules
Stopping from his thoughts, he gazed around the room to find a nice and peaceful place to sleep in this ballroom. His red eyes (He didn't wear his mask in school, but only wear it in the initiation or mission) caught a part of the room that fitted in his criteria. Then he walked there, passing some other students and… drooling females? Are they ok? He didn't know. Soon he arrived at the part of the room, located at the far end where he could observe his surroundings (he spotted Yang and Ruby amongst the students when he arrived at the part of the ballroom) and could sleep comfortably. To be honest, despite being the next generation of Huntsmen and Huntresses, the males still have the time to show off their muscles to the females. Uncle Strife always brags at him about his father being shirtless to 'attract' females towards him. Shaun chuckled at the memory, when his uncle was caught by his father bragging about him, Death chased him around the city to give him a lesson.
He could still remember the sound of machine guns and steel all over the city.
"Excuse me," someone said beside him. He glanced at the source to see the ex-member of the White Fang wearing her sleepwear.
"Yes? Can I help you?"
"I was wondering if this space was taken or not," Blake Belladonna mentioned the open space beside him. Shaun shook his head and told the girl that the space beside him wasn't taken. Blake nodded and placed her sleeping bag beside Shaun's.
"Thank you," She said. She then sat beside him, leaning at the wall behind her, and opened a book. Shaun curious looked at the title of the book.
'The Man with Two Souls, huh? Interesting.' He thought. Shaun felt the girl look at him. When he stopped glancing at the title of her book, he met the girl's eyes with his own.
"Alright… you clearly didn't believe my lie before, right?" He said. The girl nodded.
"Yes… it's just… why did you leave me to get away? I mean I'm grateful, but why?" She asked him.
"Because you clearly wanted to get away from him. So, why don't I help you?" He said without hesitation. Blake was caught off guard by his answer, he didn't care if she was from the White Fang.
"You don't care about me being in-"
"The White Fang and a Faunus? No, I don't care," He said. Blake was about to continue when a pair of footsteps approached the two. Shaun looked at the two people whom he immediately recognized as Ruby and her sister. Yang was it?
"Hi! Oh! hey, it's you again!" Yang said as she inspects his body from top to bottom. Shaun rolled his eyes at the blonde sister's antics.
"Yang was it?"
"Yup! And you also must be…?" Yang gestured to the one beside Shaun.
"Blake Belladonna," She looked at the other sister that was looking around the room behind her blonde sister, seeming to distract herself from being nervous.
"Aren't you the girl who almost got exploded?" She said to the red scythe wielder.
"Uhh… yeah. Oh! Hey Shaun." She said at the half Nephilim which he nodded. She then returned to the raven-haired girl who was busy with her book.
"My name is Ruby. But you could just call me… almost exploding the entire front school… or," Shaun was quite amused at the attempt of Ruby to befriend Blake. While Blake was still focusing on her book.
"… OK," Yang seeing her sister like that tries to introduce herself also.
"Soo… Blake. My name is Yang. Uh… I like your bow, it looks great with your pajamas," Shaun could feel the girl's growing annoyance for being disturbed with her by the blonde brawler.
"Right…"
"Nice night, don't you think?"
"Yeah, it's lovely. Almost as lovely as this book… that I will continue to read, as soon as you leave" She said to the two sisters. Yang out loud said about Blake being a lost cause. He didn't know what it meant but he deduced it probably related to the way Blake didn't like being disturbed by her book.
"What it's about?" Ruby suddenly asked. Stopping Blake from reading further.
"Huh?"
"Your book, does it have a name?"
"It's a tale about a man with two souls. Each of them trying to take control over his body," she explained to the younger sister.
"Wow… that's really lovely…" Shaun could feel that the older sister was being sarcastic.
"I love books. Yang used to read me before bed. Stories of heroes and monsters. They are one of the reasons why I want to become a Huntress."
"Why is that? Happy you will live happily ever after?" Blake sarcastically said to Ruby.
"Yeah. Hoping we all will. As a girl, I wanted to be like the heroes in those books. Someone who fought for what was right and who protected people who couldn't protect themselves. Just like the Grim Reaper Huntsmen," the latter of the young girl's comments widens Shaun's eyes.
"That's very ambitious for a child, unfortunately… the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale," she said in a sad tone.
"Well… that's why we're here, to make it better," she said. Shaun smiled at the girl's short speech. What Blake said about the world was true, but in the dark abyss full of hatred and despair, there will be always hope.
It was what his mother used to say to him.
"Oh! I am so proud of my baby sister!" Yang immediately gave Ruby a tackling hug and the younger sister starts to try to pry her off her.
"Wise words, Ruby Rose," Shaun muttered while the two sisters were still in a fight. Blake was about to tell them to stop when the heiress of the Schnee Company approached them.
"What in the world is going on around here?! Don't you see that some of us are trying to sleep?" she said angrily at the two sisters.
"OH! NOT YOU AGAIN!" Shaun winced at the sister's shout to the heiress.
"I hate to admit… but the Ice Queen is right. Some of the people here need some sleep," Shaun finally said after being quiet.
"Oh! Now you are on my—"
"Shut it, Ice queen. Now… I think Ms. Belladonna here wants to have a shut-eye since she was about to blow off her light candle." Shaun shutting Weiss off rewarded him with laughs from the two sisters and a small smile from the Faunus. Soon the two sisters and an angry heiress headed to their sleeping spot.
"Thank you, 'Grim Reaper'," Blake said as she prepared her sleeping bag beside Shaun. Shaun smirked at the female Faunus as he lay down at his sleeping bag. After that, Blake blew off her candle.
"Good Night, Shaun."
"Good Night, Blake."
The Next Day
After Shaun woke up, he could see that not everybody was up. They were still asleep. Blake was also still asleep beside him. He looked at his scroll and it showed that it was still 5 A.M. He woke up very early it seems. Not feeling sleepy, he decided to train until breakfast time. Standing up he carefully traversed the sleeping people at the ballroom to head outside.
Once he was outside, he began to train. He already got his weapons from his locker. He performed the attacks that his father taught him from a young age. Slashing in a horizontal angle, then in a vertical angle, he then ended it with a backflip attack which then immediately appeared his true form slashing upwards. After that, he followed up with multiple shots from his magnum pistol on a tree.
He continued this until the sun comes up. When dawn came, he was covered in sweats, his white shirt and baggy sweat pants were draped in sweats. He looked at his scroll to see that it was 6 A.M which means that in thirty minutes breakfast period will end. Quickly got inside the school and simultaneously put his weapons back and took his usual clothes, he headed to the bathroom to wash himself off from the sweats. After he got out of the bathroom, he headed to the dining area where he could eat his breakfast. While he was enjoying his breakfast, he could see two people, male and female, across from where he was seating.
The male wore a dark green tailcoat and white tan pants with black shoes. Then his female companion wore a black sleeveless collar dress and a short pink skirt. From what he observed from the two it seems that the black-haired person was trying to eat his breakfast and the orange-haired girl keeps bickering beside him. Shaun praised the boy across from him for his patients. Finishing the last bite of his bread, he stood up and headed again to his locker to get his weapons and his signature bone mask.
When he was approaching his locker, he found the two female sisters beside his locker. The younger one spotted Shaun approaching them. She waved at him and he waved back. He looked at Ruby's combat attire and which consisted of a black high-collared blouse and black combat boots with red trimmings.
"Hey, Shaun!" she happily said.
"Morning, Ruby," he said as he arrived at his locker which was beside Ruby's.
"Morning too, Shauny," Yang said. He raised an eyebrow at the blonde's way of addressing his name, but he let it slide.
"So… Shaun, where did you go? We didn't see you when we woke up." The red cloak girl said.
"I was training from before dawn came." He said inserting the code for his locker.
"Jeez, didn't know you were a morning person, Shauny," Yang said.
He rolls his eyes at the second attempt of the blonde calling his name like that. He opened his locker and took out his pair of scythes and his magnum pistol. He hides his mask from the two to surprise them at the initiation as the 'Grim Reaper Huntsmen. As soon as Shaun's weapons were opened to see to the two sisters, Ruby had stars in her eyes.
"Ohmygoshohmygoshisthatyourweapons?itsit'sascyhte!whatkindofcravingsarethese?couldittransforms?and-anddoesithaveagunfunction?" she said. Shaun was confused at the fast-spoken words from Ruby.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Oh! Sorry. I mean your weapons are cool, is this what you designed and forged by yourself?" she asked.
"Yeah. This is a pair of twin scythes, and this," Shaun showed his magnum pistols, "is a magnum pistol that's a gift from my uncle," he said. Ruby was astonished at his weapons, a drool escapes from her mouth.
"Wow. What is with people and scythes anyway? I know it's cool, but nothing could ever be as awesome as these!" Yang sad showing her bracelet weapons.
"They are COOL! My crescent rose is the proof that scythe-based weapons are awesome!" she said, as she wrapped her weapons close to himself. Shaun just chuckled at the younger sister and Yang just sighed.
"By the way, you seemed offly chipper this morning," the older sister said to Ruby.
"Yup! No more awkward small talk and getting to know your stuff. Today, I will let my sweetheart do the talking," Ruby said as he continued to wrap around her weapon as if it was her child.
Like seriously… why did she is doing that to her weapon?
"Well, remember Ruby. You aren't the only one who is going through initiation. If you want to grow up, you need to meet new people and learn to work together," Her older sister spoke in what an older sibling gave a piece of advice to the younger ones.
"Uggh… you sound like dad. First of all, why is meeting new people got to do with fighting, secondly, I don't want people to help me to grow up? I drink milk." She said hands crossed over. Shaun shook his head at the childish answer from Ruby.
"But… what if we form teams?"
"I don't know. Maybe I'll just be on your team… or something,"
"Mmm, maybe you should try being on someone's else team," Yang said caressing her hair.
"My dear sister Yang are you implying that you don't want to be on the same team as me?" the little one said to her.
At this Yang quickly retaliated, "What?! Of course, I want to, I just thought maybe it would help you break out of your shell,"
"WHAT! I don't want to break out of my shell! That is absolutely—"
"Ridiculous!" Shaun recognized the voice as Jaune. He looked to his right to see the blonde male, trying to find his locker. Looking at the sisters still chattering, Shaun decided to approach Jaune.
Jaune was looking for his locker, but he can't seem to find it. He recounted yesterday that he put his weapon inside locker 636, but he didn't remember to count that high. While he was walking and looking at the map of the locker section, he bumped into someone.
"Oww, so sorry!" he said as he stood up.
"Huh, it's fine Jaune." Someone said. Jaune widen his eyes as he bumped into Shaun.
"Oh! Hey Shaun, didn't see you there,"
"Sure. What are you doing?"
"Oh, I just trying to find my locker that's all," Shaun motioned for him to give him his map. Once Jaune gave it to him, he told him to follow him.
"You said that you remembered putting your weapons in locker 636, right?" he asked him as they walked towards to woman, one he already knew as the heiress and the other was a redhead woman with spartan armor.
"Yeah,"
"Then your locker probably beside the Ice Queen or that red-haired woman," he said pointing to the two women.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it said in here," Shaun said to him. Jaune nodded and then presume to head to his locker. Shaun looked at his blonde male friend afar. Jaune was having a conversation with the two. He could see that Weiss was very irritated by him since he tried to flirt with her, but the red-haired woman was seemingly enjoying the knight boy's company. But Jaune kept flirting with the heiress and ignoring the red-haired woman.
He decided to head there since he clearly could sense something wrong afterward.
"So… Weiss, couldn't help it over here your faun for me the other day," Jaune said flexing his muscle. By this time, Shaun already arrived behind the three. The red-haired woman sensed Shaun's presence from behind them, she turned her eyes to him, but Shaun motioned with his two fingers at his mouth to be quiet. The red-haired just lifted a brow but nodded.
"Ugh! You got to be kidding me,"
"Don't worry, no need to be embarrassed. So, I have been hearing rumors about teams… I was thinking that maybe the two of us could be a good one. What do you say?" He asked the heiress.
"Actually, the teams are compromised of four students each—"
"You don't say," the blonde male then went to the other woman's side, "Well hot stuff, if you played your cards right, maybe you could join the winning team," then suddenly Weiss got between them and separated Jaune from the other girl.
"Jaune, is it? Do you have any idea who are you talking to?"
"Not the slightest, Snow Angel," he said plainly. Shaun was inches away to pull Jaune's hood so he could stop embarrassing himself.
"Well… this is Pyrrha Nikos,"
"Hello again," the now-named Pyrrha said.
"She graduated top of her classes in Sanctum," June shook his head as if he doesn't know.
"She won Mistral's regional tournament, four years in a row a new record," Jaune still doesn't know who Pyrrha is (And to be honest Shaun doesn't too since he only read about Remnant's histories and news).
"The what?" Jaune replied, making Weiss annoyed and the spartan girl… wait is she smiling?
"She's all in front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marsh Mellow Flakes!" Jaune soon gasped as he remembered the famous/celebrity.
"That's you! They only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!" Jaune is fangirling about the cereal. Shaun made a note to try this food called cereal since he never had one.
"Yeah, it was pretty cool. But sadly, the cereal isn't very good for you." She said. Shaun screwed off the idea of trying the cereal from his lists to do. Weiss then interjects the conversation.
"So… after hearing this, do you really think that you're in the position to ask her into your team?" Weiss smugly said.
"Ah… No…" Then Pyrrha approach the blonde knight and put her hand on his left shoulder.
"Actually Jaune, I think you'll be a good leader,"
Suddenly being praised, Jaune exaggerated thanked the red-haired spartan.
"Oh gosh please stop it. This kind of behavior shouldn't be encouraged—"
Jaune immediately approached Weiss while using a flirty tone, "Well, sounds like Pyrrha is on board on team Jaune, spots are filling up quickly, now I am not supposed to do this, but I could pull some strings, find a place for you, What do you say? ", he said to the heiress while dangerously approaching closer to her face.
Seeing this too much and losing his patience, Shaun pulled his hood and then dragged him off from there.
"He-Hey Shaun!" Jaune said as he struggles to pry off from the half Nephilim.
"Shut up, if I leave you there too long then you would be in a far worst situation, and please stop embarrassing yourself," He said as he dragged him off to where the initiation would be located. Meanwhile, the spartan and heiress were looking at the duo of males in shock.
"Wha-What! How did he suddenly appear here?" the heiress said as she was dumbfounded by Shaun's sudden appearance.
"Actually, he was already here when you two were talking." Pyrrha pointed out.
Beacon Cliff
'What are these platforms?' Shaun thought as he looked at the steel plating that he was currently standing on. After he dragged the blonde from getting himself troubled, they headed to Beacon Cliff where the two professors were already waiting for the initiates. There were only a handful of people were present at the cliff. There was this big guy with armor and a mace, Blake was already there too as she gave him a nod and other individuals. Soon not long after, Ruby and Yang arrived at the cliff where they greeted him.
Now, he was currently listening to Ozpin's instructions of the initiation and still wondering what's the purpose of these steel plates.
"For years, you have trained yourselves to become warriors. Today, your abilities would be evaluated in the Emerald Forest," The headmaster said, then Glynda continued for him.
"Now, sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to this confusion. Each of you will be put into teammates… Today," She announced. Ruby Rose, which was beside his left, was saddened at the news.
"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here in Beacon. So, it is in your best interest that you be paired with someone with whom you could work well,"
"That being said… The first person who made eye contact with you after landing will be your partner for the next four years," Ozpin ended.
Shaun honestly could hear something shattering from beside him. He looked to his left to see a shocked Ruby Rose.
'The announcement must be shattering her hopes for a partner with her sister, huh? Poor kid,' he thought at the little red riding hood.
"What!" she said.
"See I told you," the girl Shaun looked at the cafeteria and said to her male friend.
"After you partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. Along the way, you will meet apposition, so I would advise that you do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die." Shaun heard the blonde knight gulping because of the information.
"You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your grade in your initiation. Our instructors will not interfere. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path that contains several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will guard that item as well as your standing to grade you properly. Are there any questions?"
"Yeah… umm, sir—" Jaune tried to ask.
"Good. Now, take your position," everyone then went for their stance. Shaun dawning his hood and tightening his red scarf.
"Umm… sir? I have a question," Jaune said. The first person to launch was Weiss. Shaun widened his eyes at the springboard. Is Ozpin crazy? Or he just wants to entertain himself by launching his students toward the forest?
"Yes?"
"So… this landing strategy thing, wha—what is it? Is it like you would drop us off or something?" He asked confused.
"No… you will be falling,"
"Oh… uh, I see. So, like did you hand us parachutes or something?" Shaun looked at the next person who has been launched into the sky.
"No, you will be using your own landing strategy," Ozpin said casually. Shaun looked at Yang as she winked toward him and Ruby and launched into the air. Then Ruby was next who has been launched and it left only him and Jaune.
"So, what it's a landing strateGYYY!" Jaune said frantically as he was launched mid-sentence. Shaun looked at Ozpin with a deadpan.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Shaun said deadpanning.
"I do not know what you're implying about, oh I almost forgot there would be a special relic waiting for you at the temple, make sure you retrieve it," He said to him. Shaun just sighs as he put on his mask to his face. Then suddenly he was launched into the air.
'Let's fucking do this thing,' He said as he was soaring through the air.
With Ruby
Ruby Rose landed on the ground with a 'thud'. Then immediately she sprinted to god knows where as she chanted inside her hair about finding Yang as her partner. She traversed the forest and shout Yang and Yang. As she was doing this she thought about her potential partners.
'Oh! this is bad, REALLY BAD! Oh, what if I can't find her, what if someone finds her first… there's always Jaune, he's nice. But I don't think he's very good in a fight. What about Blake? So mysterious… so calm… plus she likes books. But sadly, I can't hold a conversation with her. Or maybe Shaun? He's nice, calm, and edgy, I think? And plus, he could fight! And have those pairs of scythes with him as weapons! But I just have this feeling that Shaun has a similar appearance as the awesome Grim Reaper! Wait! What if he is the rumored huntsmen?! OH MY GOSH IF IT IS REALLY HIM I WANTED HIM SO BAD AS MY—" Then suddenly she could see someone in front of her. Immediately she stopped herself, skidding. As she stopped her sprint, she looked at the girl in front of her. The other girl looked back and the two seemed to look at each other for a moment.
Then the girl, Weiss Schnee, abruptly stopped the staring and huffed into the other way. Ruby Rose is now partnered up with the white-haired heiress.
"Wait! Where are you going?! We're supposed to be teammates!" Ruby said at the walking away heiress. As for the heiress, she was getting away from that little dolt that now she was partnered with. She pushed away a bush and then pushed some vines from her way. As she was pushing through, she heard a male sound. She looked up to see a hanging Jaune on the side of a tree. A spear kept him from falling to the ground.
Jaune looked down to see Weiss looking at him. He let out a toothy grin at her and the girl went back to Ruby.
"By no means, this makes us friends," Weiss said as she pulled the dolt on her hood.
"Yeay! You came back!" She said as she was dragged by the heiress, leaving Jaune up on a tree with a spear piercing his hood.
"Hey! What's the hurry?" Ruby asked the heiress.
"I will not let my mission be delayed because you are too slow," then suddenly Ruby was beside her, startling her.
"I'm not slow, see,"
"What the— how did you get-"
"Weiss, just because I didn't know how to deal with people, doesn't mean that I didn't know how to kill monsters," She said as she made her way to her side, dropping an arm on her shoulder in a friendly manner.
"After this is all over, you're all going to be like, "Wow! That Ruby girl looks really… Really cool, " ", She said and Weiss only rolled her eye.
"And I want to be your friend," She finally said, as she vanished in petals of roses.
"You may be fast, but you still wasting time!" She said. Then she heard rustling noises around her. "Ruby?" She said in bewilderment, she didn't notice that pair of red eyes were behind her. Then it quickly spreads itself and revealed a wolf grim coming out of the dense forest.
"Ruby!" she shouted and the beowolf howls at her.
With Shaun
When he was on patrols with his uncle, his uncle joked about how beings like the Nephilim, the Demons, and Angels were always being dropped off from the sky. He said that it was annoying, but cool at the same time since it gave the enemies a surprise welcome. The annoying thing was that the path which they fall is always not good for the face. At that time, Shaun lifted an eyebrow at his uncle since he didn't know what he meant. But now… Now he knew why.
Approaching fast to the tall tree, Shaun used his two scythes to anchor himself at the tree. He spun around the tree as the momentum of the launch decreased. Then he kicked off from the tree and use his shadow grip on a branch. With a thud to his long-reach shadow grip, he was on top of the branch. Standing on the branch, he overlooked the vast green that his eyes received.
He could see the applicants that began to fall from the sky and then disappeared from inside the forest. To be honest, the humans in this world seemed very resilient thanks to their aura. Aura, what he learned, it's an energy that came from within the soul, giving them strength, acting like armor, and giving them special abilities that they called semblance. Shaun could guess if they went to his world, he was quite sure that they would be capable of killing a demon.
Stopping his sightseeing, he went down to the ground. Using his shadow abilities, he willed it to make wings at his back, decreasing his speed. Landing with a crouch, he observed his surroundings for grim. Satisfied, he stood up and dusted his clothes off. Immediately he summoned dust and told him to find this temple that Ozpin instructed to him. The crow went away in the direction of the temple and Shaun followed it.
Shaun was not going to use Despair in the initiation. If he used the undead horse, he would attract attention to himself and people will ask questions. Questions that surely would raise some eyebrows and suspicion, he didn't want that.
After quite a while traversing the green forest, he finally saw a grim. The grim was a single ursa, but it seems it's an alpha, because of how much bigger and thicker the armor is. His back was filled with large bone spikes. The bear-like grim sensed Shaun's presence as it looked at him, observing him. Shaun narrowed his eyes at the grim. The grim growled and let out a roar at him.
"Bring it…" He said at the grim. The grim then stopped his eating and charged at Shaun. Every step that it took created a small earthquake that Shaun didn't mind. He also sprinted to him, scythes in hand. Once as they were close, Shaun slides under him and slashed its abdomen in a vertical pattern. The grim growled at the damage. It quickly turned around and used its right hand to give a paw slash at the half Nephilim. Shaun leaped and landed on its arm. He quickly used it as a springboard and then he kicked at its bony mask.
The bear grim staggered from the kick and back away. Using this opportunity, he used his shadow grip and went at its face. Shaun vaulted from its head, then spun his body as he delivered a slash with his scythe. The head of the grim fell on the ground. Shaun then continued his journey to the temple leaving the alpha grim on the ground, dead. But he was suddenly halted… by a flying grim that came from inside the forest. Shaun quickly sliced off the dead grim and then let the pair parts of the body fly from his right and left.
The angry scream of a blonde woman that Shaun recognized could be heard in front of him. Shaun raised an eyebrow at that. What could possibly make the blonde brawler mad?
With Yang and Blake
Yang was very mad. How dare that ursa let her precious and well-cared hair be cut (even if just a strand she was still angry). No one was going to ruin her hair and get away from it… NO ONE! Calming herself she could hear another grim coming towards her. Good thing she has enough of the residue impact left from that last ursa. She activated her semblance and instantly her hair was glowing and on fire. Red eyes suddenly replaced her lilac ones.
But suddenly, the grim was taken down by Blake Belladonna with her weapon gambol shroud. Blake Belladonna smirked after she killed the ursa at Yang.
"I could have taken that one," She said. After that, the two of them went in the direction of the temple. While they were heading to the temple, they converse about what will the temple look like.
"So, have any idea what the temple looks like?" the blonde asked her new partner.
"Not a clue, but we would soon find out," she replied.
"Yeah. By the way… what's with you and Shaun? You guys are dating or something?" She asked out loud. Blake immediately stopped and looked at the blonde woman.
"What?"
"Yeah. I mean you two seem like knew each other, so I just got this thought that you two are dating," She said. Blake gave her a deadpan look.
"No, we aren't. He's… just a guy that saved me from someone… and I didn't learn his name until now," The ex-White Fang member explained.
"I see. But anyway, Shaun looked very similar to the rumored Huntsmen don't you think?"
"Why do you deduce he's the rumored Huntsmen?" Blake asked but she knew who it is.
"Well, his weapons are similar, his tattered cloak, and don't forget this aura of death emanated from him," Yang said.
'You don't know how much horrifying it was when he was on that train scaring Adam,' chuckling at the memory.
After that, they finally got out of the forest and were greeted by the temple ruins. They walked to the rather circular temple.
"You think this is it?" She asked her partner. Blake didn't reply and just entered the temple. The two of them saw that there were chess pieces each with its own colors.
"Chess pieces?" Blake asked as she examined a black chess piece.
"Some of them are missing. Maybe we were the only ones that arrived here first," Yang deduced.
"Well… I guess we should pick one," the cat Faunus suggests. Yang looked at a gold chest piece. She then decided to take the gold horse chess piece.
"How about a cute little pony?" She said. Blake rolled her eyes at her blonde partner's joke.
"Sure," The cat Faunus said as she headed over to her partner.
"That wasn't too hard,"
"Well… it not that this place is very difficult to find,"
Then suddenly the pair of girls heard a women's shriek from the forest.
"There's a girl in trouble! Did you hear that? Blake, did you hear that?" Yang said to her partner. Blake just wondered aloud about the person's shriek.
With Shaun
Shaun stopped his traverse to the temple because he heard a scream.
'Is that… Jaune?' he thought.
'Should I help him? Nah… he will be fine… right?' He thought. When he met the male blonde that day, the first thing that came to mind was how weak he is compared with the others. He wondered if Jaune could fight. That was why he stuck with the blonde's side, to prevent himself from embarrassing himself in front of other people.
Shaking his head, he continued leaping to another branch of a tree. After a couple of minutes, he stopped himself at a very tall tree that overlooked the ruined temple. As he was getting ready to free fall from the branch, Shaun heard a girl's scream from above the sky. He squinted his eyes to see Ruby falling from a nevermore.
Shaun got ready to save her, but he was too late because Jaune already beat him to it. The two crashed into a tree below him. Then after that fiasco, another immediately showed itself. Shaun looked at a girl who was riding on top of an ursa, she seems quite entertained riding the bear grim. Then the ursa was down dead and the girl got off from the grim as it was a plaything. The girl's friend that wore a green outfit came out from behind the dead grim, exhausted.
Shaun widened his eyes after what he saw. These humans were something else entirely. He decided to watch them and joined them when they need his help.
With Yang and Blake
Yang watched as the orange-haired girl sped up from her first position and to the temple. She watched as the girl picked up a chess piece and put it on her head.
"I'm the queen of the castle—I'm the queen of the castle—" She sang.
"NORA!" her male partner shouted. The girl giggly apologized to her partner and headed over to him.
"Did that girl just ride an ursa?" the blonde girl asked her partner. Then suddenly another bizarre event appeared. The spartan girl came out from the green forest and she was chased by a deathstalker. The scorpion grim swipe his humongous claw at the girl, but she easily dodged her way through.
"Jaune!" the spartan girl shouted. Just then Ruby suddenly appeared from inside the forest and immediately startled Yang.
"Ruby!"
"Yang!" just as the two sisters were going to embrace themselves with a hug, the orange-haired girl stepped between them and shouted her own name.
"Did that girl just run all this way with a deathstalker oh her tail?" Blake said out loud.
With all the weird and bizarre events that occurred at the same time, the blonde girl was enraged.
"Aghh! I can't take it anymore! Can anyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!" she said in rage, her red eyes suddenly replacing her lilac ones. Then Ruby asked her about something and mentioned her to look up.
On the feet of the nevermore, there was the heiress of the Schnee Company. Gripping for her life on the feet or claw of the large bird grim.
"How could you leave me?!" Weiss shouted at her partner.
"I already told you to jump!" The red scythe wielder said.
"She's going to fall," Blake pointed out.
"She'll be fine," Ruby replied.
"She's falling," the green male said now known as Lie Ren. From the silent male statement, the heiress fell from the sky. When she was about to hit the ground, Jaune Arc saved the heiress. He had caught the heiress in bride style. At that moment, Jaune used his charm on the white heiress telling her that he was just dropping in. But little did he know that he forgot about the landing strategy and together they were falling to the ground fast.
They crashed on the ground, but thankfully the heiress was fine. But the knight? Not so much. He was being used as a cushion for the heiress to fall safely to the ground.
"My hero," The heiress said to the knight.
"My back…" he said with his face facing the ground. The group stared at the duo for a moment. Then suddenly Pyrrha appeared in their front,
"Great the gang's all here, now we could all die together," Yang sarcastically remarked.
"Not if I can help it!" Her little sister said. Then to her horror, Ruby charged at the deathstalker with her battle cry.
"Ruby, wait!" Yang said. Ruby with her scythes recoiled was flown away at the deathstalker. Then, with a swing of her weapon, she slashed at its armor. But the attack proved to be useless as the scorpion grim's armor was too strong for the scythe to slash deeply into it. As a result, the silver-eyed girl was bounced from the impact and onto the ground.
She hastily got up from the ground and picked up her bearings. She told the group that she was fine and shot the large grim so she could run away from its grasp. She runs away from the deathstalker and it chased her. Yang began to head to her sister to help her.
But suddenly the nevermore that Ruby used as a transport began to chase her too. The large flying ebony raven let out its sharp feathers at the girl. One of the projectiles managed to stab itself at her red cloak. Another bunch of its sharp feathers also blocked the path preventing Yang from saving her sister.
"Ruby! Get out of there!" She said in a panic.
"I'm trying!" her sister replied. Ruby quickly tried to pull off her cloak from the feather, but the feather didn't bulge as its stuck there preventing her escape.
Yang could only watch in horror as she saw her little sister stuck there and about to meet her fate at the hands of the deathstalker. Ruby witnessed as the deathstalker's golden stinger was about to stab itself at her. She could hear the shout of her sister's panic. She closes her eyes as she was about to meet her fate.
Weiss Schnee was about to save her partner but then a black figure suddenly beat her to it. When Ruby expected pain, she was surprised that she didn't. Slowly opening her eyes, she was shocked to see a figure with his combined scythe holding the stinger with ease. The figure then pushed the stinger and kicked the grim's head straight on. The grim backed away a bit giving the figure time to quickly unstabbed the sharp feather that lodged itself onto the silver-eyed girl. Weiss quickly head over to them and created an ice wall to freeze the front of the grim's body.
"Are you alright, Ruby?" the figure asked. Ruby widened her eyes as she recognized his voice.
"Sh-Shaun?" she said looking at the bony masked figure with red glowing eyes. The grim reaper or Shaun Hopkin nodded at her. When he was about to scold the girl for being reckless the heiress was the one who would do it for him.
"You are so childish… dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don't get me started with your fighting style. And I suppose I can be a bit… difficult, but if we were going to do this, we were going to have to do this together. So, if you weren't trying to show off, I'll be… nicer," the heiress said.
"I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know that I could do this," she said to the heiress in a sad tone.
"You're fine," the heiress replied as she walked away to join the others.
"Come on, Ruby. Your sister is worried," Shaun finally said as he offered his hand to her. Ruby forgot that he was here and took the offered hand.
"Thanks. OH MY GOSH! I KNEW IT YOU'RE-YOU'RE THE GRIM REAPER!" She squealed at him. Shaun just deadpanned at her.
"Ruby… that was very dangerous. You shouldn't have jumped into a fight like that." He said. Ruby just looked down.
"I know… I'm sorry, I promise I wouldn't do that again," She said to him. Shaun just patted her head like an older brother.
"Good." He said as they went to join their group. When they arrived there, Ruby was immediately enveloped with a hug by her sister. Yang looked at the masked figure that she recognized immediately as Shaun.
"Shaun… thank you for saving my sister," She said which he nodded. Then the group heard a crack sound that came from the ice Weiss created and the nevermore circling back to them.
"Guys, that thing is circling back. What are we going to do?" the blonde teen asked anxiously.
"I suggest we should quickly take the relic from the temple. Fighting them here will just waste our time," Shaun said making the group widen their eyes at the masked figure. Some recognized the mask as it was well known to Remnant as the 'Grim Reaper' but some recognized him as Shaun by the sound of his voice.
"He's right, our mission is to grab the relic and take it back to the cliff, there's no point in fighting these things," Ruby agreed with the half Nephilim.
"Run and live, that's an idea I can get behind," Jaune commented. Next, Ruby and Jaune went to the temple and grabbed each a chess piece. Shaun was about to pick up a random piece, but then his eyes caught something peculiar. There on the far end of the ruined temple was an emblem with the color black and a picture of a horse engraved at the circular emblem.
'This must be what Ozpin mentioned about…' he thought as he put the emblem inside his jacket pocket.
"It's time we leave," Ren said to the group.
"Right, let's go," Little red said, mentioning the group to flee from the temple. Yang looked at her sister as she was smiling to see how much her little sister has grown up. Blake saw this as she asked her what was wrong.
"Nothing," the yellow-haired woman replied to her partner. The group arrived at what looked like old ruins. At the edge was a tower standing tall behind a cliff where they were going. The group scattered themselves to take cover to prevent the nevermore from firing its wings at them. The nevermore perched itself on top of the tower. Soon then behind the group was the now-free deathstalker. The group had no choice but to come out of their respective covers.
"Nora! Distract it!" Ren said to his partner. Nora Valkyrie got out from her cover and shoot at the nevermore with her weapon Magnhild which shot out grenades. After she shot at the nevermore. She dodged the nevermore feathers that tried to hit her. She didn't notice the approaching deathstalker but thankfully Blake and Ren covered her back staggering back the scorpion grim.
Then Weiss came to her side and with the help of her glyph, she leaped further with Nora in tow. The remaining group on the back run from the deathstalker. Shaun provides his support by shooting at the scorpion grim. Then when the group tried to head over inside the tower, a nevermore suddenly appeared and rammed his head at the bridge. This made the group split up.
Shaun with Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Jaune, and Nora was on the side of the tower and the other group was on the other side of them fighting the deathstalker.
"We got to get over there, they need help," The blonde knight said.
"Let's do this!" Nora said beside him. Jaune looked below him as he didn't see any ground just a bunch of fog obscuring his vision to look at the ground below.
"I-I can't make that jump," Then Nora gave him a maniac grin. She tossed him to the back as her weapon transformed into a long hammer. Then she leaped into the air and smashed the platform into pieces. The results were Jaune catapulted by the impact. They flew to the other side with Jaune ragdoll in the air and Nora happily soared to the other side. When she was in front of the grim's face she smashed her hammer into the thing staggering it.
The deathstalker on a reflex attacked the hammer-wielding girl, but Nora used her weapon's recoiled to evade its stinger. Blake didn't notice the approaching Nora and was thrown away to the edge of the bridge falling. Blake was about to use her weapon's kusarigama form when suddenly Shaun caught her. Shaun used his shadow grip to then wall run and then shot another shadow grip at the tower, where RWY was fighting the nevermore.
"Thanks," Blake said to him with a smile.
"Sure thing," He replied while they were getting to the tower via shadow grip. Then the nevermore caught sight of the two. It then flew to them. Shaun looking at Blake mentioned the nevermore. She nodded as he threw her to the nevermore. Blake let out a bunch of quick slashes at the nevermore. Then she landed on the tower with Shaun arrived later.
"It's tougher than it looks," Blake commented as she landed beside her partner.
"Then let's hit it with everything we got," She said as she readied her pair of bracelet weapons. The nevermore then flew to them, shrieking at them. The group of girls and the half Nephilim fired their weapons at the nevermore. The nevermore shrieked in pain and hit the tower, causing it to collapse. The group made their way to the top, parkouring the collapsing building. Shaun landed at a nearby bridge that was still intact. He looked at his surroundings and find out that the others managed to get up to a bridge.
Yang was firing at the large flying raven to keep it busy. He then looked at the little red as she and the heiress had a plan. First, he watched as Yang leaped from her perch and went to its mouth and then shot out bullets to the inside of its mouth. The large raven staggered and crashed at the sides of the cliff. Then Weiss used her ice dust to freeze the nevermore in place from its tail.
Blake then threw her weapon in kusarigama form and then Yang caught it. They stretch the short scythe to make the ribbon straight. Then Ruby used the elasticity of the ribbon to stretch it far, making a makeshift catapult. Weiss summoned a black glyph that was imbued with gravity dust.
"Of course, you would come up with this idea," The heiress commented.
"You think you could make the shot?" the little red asked the heiress.
"Can I?"
"Can you?"
"Of course, I can!" She said. Then Ruby with determination reloads her ammo and Weiss wasted no time letting her glyph disappear catapulting the little red. Ruby shot a bunch of bullets and using its recoil she soared to the large bird that was still trapped. Then with her scythe, she aimed it at its neck. She continued to wall-run up the wall with the help of the heiress glyphs.
Then with a battle cry, she beheaded the grim when she arrived at the top leaving a bunch of rose petals. The body of the grim fell into the bottomless pit. Ruby looked at everyone from above, she looked at the other group that managed to kill the deathstalker and the other people that helped her kill the large nevermore.
Shaun looked at Ruby from the bridge. To think that these humans could kill a creature like that, he was positive that this planet has great protectors on its side. Not to mention at Ruby, he was 100% sure that his father would make her his tutelage.
And he didn't mind it.
"That was a thing," Yang broke the silence.
'Huh, it is.' He thought. Then as they thought that the bosses were done and killed, suddenly from below the pit an ear-piercing screech was heard. The group covered their ears except for Shaun as he readied his weapons. Because what lies in the bottomless pit… it's probably larger.
Like that titan grim when he first arrived here in this world.
"What was that?!" Jaune shouted as the gang regroup and went to the top of the cliff where Ruby was.
"I-I don't know, it's coming from down there," Ruby said as she pointed below the pit. Then a beak was revealed on top of the fog, then its body, and its… two set pair of wings. With a rush, the biggest and largest nevermore showed itself to the group of teen huntsmen.
"Th-that's a big grim…" Yang said as she widened her eyes at the sheer monstrosity of the grim. The grim was by far the largest nevermore that was recorded in Remnant's history. Its mask was more sinister with bony spikes that curved into the shape of a lion's fur. Then its wings were enormous as it posed menacingly at the group. The group for the first time was anxious at the large nevermore.
"I have never seen anything like it…" Pyrrha commented gripping her shield and spear. The cheerful Nora for the first time went the cheeky smile and replaced it with a frown. The large nevermore was just flapping its wings and just looking at them, as if it was studying them.
"No doubt it's studying us," Shaun said to the group. Then the ancient nevermore focused its vision at the half Nephilim. Shaun narrowed his eyes back. Suddenly with a screech the nevermore let out its projectile wings at the group. The group was still shocked however and didn't have time to defend, but thankfully Shaun summoned his shadow tendrils to swiftly halt the incoming projectiles. Then with a flick of his wrists, the projectiles were sent back to the ancient nevermore.
The nevermore avoided its own projectiles by flying into the air. The group was stunned by how fast Shaun protected them with his semblance.
"Damn Shauny, I didn't know you could do that," The blonde brawler teased to decrease the tension.
"You guys need to get out of here, let me handle this alone," He said to the group. The group didn't have a say in this as Shaun's body began to emit his signature smoke. Then he leaped from the edge of the cliff.
"Shaun!" Ruby worriedly said. Then they were taken aback by the appearance of a large figure with dark wings and a large scythe flying from below the cliff.
"What the hell?!" Jaune said shocked.
"Don't worry, it's Shaun," Blake said. Everyone looked at her with bewilderment.
"And how do you know such a thing?" Weiss interrogates her. Blake was about to tell her when the group heard the shrieking of the large raven grim. They looked at the battle between the ancient grim versus the grim reaper huntsmen.
The ancient grim let out a bunch of its sharp large wings at Shaun, but Shaun easily avoided them. Flying high enough to avoid a projectile and then spinning in the middle of two sharp wings. When the large bird was about to flee, Shaun shot many shadow tendrils at the bird's face. Then he pulled the bird to him. With a swift of his large scythe, he sliced its eyes then its beak with multiple succession.
The bird shrieked as pain and anxiety began to build up inside the ancient nevermore. Then the bird fell and Shaun while still in the air flew faster to the falling bird. When the two crashed to the ground the group could hear a horrifying ripping flesh sound.
"What was that sound…" Jaune said. The group was heading to the crashing that was on the other side of the tower, where they first came to these ruins. Dust clouds were still obscuring their visions when they arrived at the location.
"Ugh… this fog is making my eyes hurt Ren," Nora said.
"Let me help them," Weiss then using her glyphs, dissipated away from the dust clouds. Then they were shocked to see a beheaded ancient grim and on the top of its body was Shaun covered with the ancient grim's blood. Some were sick of looking at the half Nephilim and some were in awe at the sheer power of the grim reaper.
"That was AMAZING!" Ruby said deleting the silence. Shaun came down from the now vanishing grim and using his shadow powers, he let out the black blood from his clothing.
"Ahh! I wish I could do that like you, Shauny," Yang said. He really hated that nickname, but he let it slide.
For now
"So… you are the rumored huntsmen…" Ren said stopping his musing. Shaun nodded at the male.
"Yeah. Although I was going to keep it a secret, I guess it was already spoiled by this girl," Shaun mentioned to an amazed Ruby with stars in her eyes.
"Well, now that we already get the relics. We should probably get to Beacon Cliff," Yang suggest to the group. The group went back the Beacon Cliff to finish up their assignment.
Beacon Academy, Amphitheater
"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, the four of you will work as team CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester," The crowd clapped their hands at the newly formed team. Then Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora were called to the stadium by the headmaster.
"Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie, the four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, the four of you will work as team JNPR, led by Jaune Arc," The headmaster announced.
"Huh… by me?" He shockingly said.
"Congratulations young man," Ozpin said to him. Pyrrha gave Jaune a friendly push, but it's seems it was too hard and he fell to the ground.
"Finally, Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward you will work as team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose," The crowd cheered as the final team was formed.
"Oh, I'm so proud of you, sis!" Yang gave a hug to her little sister. Then suddenly, Ruby remembered someone that didn't call by the headmaster.
"Now, I have bad news that I have to mention to you all here. Shaun Hopkin, please step forward," Shaun then joined team RWBY on the stage. Ruby was worried about the half Nephilim since he was the one who hasn't gotten a team yet and Blake, although didn't show it, was worried about the guy, her cat ears were shaking a little under her bow.
"Mr, Hopkin, you didn't find a partner while in the initiation. For that, I hereby sorry to say… that you didn't pass this initiation," The crowd and team RWBY was silent after hearing those words. Ruby and Blake were worried at the mention of Shaun didn't pass into the academy. The little red was going to lose his first friend and Blake was going to lose a good person that she could trust. Although she only knew him a little, she just felt that she could trust the guy who saved her from Adam.
"… if you didn't receive the special relic inside the temple. Shaun Hopkin, for retrieving the black horse emblem, I granted you the privilege to be the first in Beacon's history to be a one-man team and already have proven yourself to uphold the title," Then suddenly the screen showed Shaun in his true form killing the ancient nevermore. The crowd was shocked as they realized who Shaun was and was even shocked more at how handsome he was (Mostly the girls if Shaun guessed were right by their love-shaped eyes).
"Welcome to Beacon academy… Grim Reaper," Ozpin said. The crowd began to cheer at the half Nephilim.
"And one last thing, you will have the privilege to work alongside other teams, if they are in need of your assistance," The headmaster said to him. Shaun nodded as he joined teams RWBY and JNPR to celebrate their achievements.
"Looks like things going to be shaping up to be… an interesting year," Ozpin said as he watched at the happy faces of team RWBY, JNPR, and the one-man team, Shaun Hopkin, letting out a small smile at the two teams.
Somewhere in Vale
In a large warehouse, there was a man wearing a white suit and a bowler's hat. He was currently being called by someone. Once he has done calling the mysterious person, he slammed his scroll at the table. He sighs as he took out a cigarette.
The orange-haired man leaned at what looked like a map of the city of Vale. Plans were noted on the map. Then suddenly, a random masked person came to him handing a bunch of Lien.
The orange-haired guy or the infamous Roman Torchwick ordered the guy to open the suitcase. When it was opened, inside were many dust crystals with different colors.
"We're gonna need more man," He said as he picked one of the crystals to see.
On Earth
"Pheww… that's the last of these demon assholes," Strife said as he spun his gun on his hands to look at the massacre he has done. Standing on top of a pile of demons, he got down from it. Today was an ordinary day of slaying demons that the council ordered.
"Jeez, if the upper guys could just give me something more… exciting than this," He said as he shot a dying demon. Then suddenly a messenger appeared out of nowhere in front of him. It was the watcher, a dark being that was created by the councils to observe its horsemen.
But this horseman particular didn't need any watch since he was the most trustable guy in the realms (Death was the one who wasn't ever being watched, but he disappeared and the councils didn't have a choice but to give him full reign without any watchers on his tail).
"Greetings horseman, I have a message from the council,"
"Speak then," Strife said as he cleaned up the filth of a demon's blood from his two guns.
"The council has a mission for you… and it involves your mother," Strife stopped his cleaning and narrowed his eyes at the watcher.
"What…"
"The councils gave you a mission to investigate what Lilith doing. They reported sensing some strange energy came from the Black Stone," It said.
"Huh… that demon bitch was on Samael's home all along. Well then, I will go there," He said as he turned away from the watcher. Whatever was that bitch demon was doing it may or not connected with Shaun's disappearance.
"Shaun, your uncle is coming to get you…" He said as he summoned his stead and rode to find a portal.
AN
Whew… that took a long while…
Thank you for anyone who waited this long, busy with try getting in college
Well, nothing left to say unless enjoy!
And I see you in the next chapter.