{Logic}
'When are you coming to visit me, Ray? xoxo'
Ray read the message from Lylac several times before he sent an appropriate response.
'I don't know where you're living.'
Her answer took a couple of minutes to come through, but it was likely that she was preoccupied anyway.
'You have the means to find out.'
The boy let off a hushed sigh as he typed his next reply, completely uninterested in the spar happening down on the arena floor.
'I'm not tracing your scroll's location just to find out where you chose to turn into your safe house/brothel.'
Ly took her time to reply again.
'You COULD just ask, you know.'
Ray sighed in defeat.
Granted, he didn't think of that…
But given the short amount of time between getting her a new apartment and the time he had to ask for the address, there weren't a whole lot of opportunities to do so.
'Send me the address and I'll see if I can make it out later tonight.'
'Will do, love you xoxo'
With that out of the way, Ray's focus dipped into the arena and watched as Cardin Winchester established himself as a professional seal clubber.
It clearly came naturally to the boy – the ability to bully the lesser men beneath him.
There was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed moron, if Ray had ever seen one. Absolutely nothing exceptional about him whatsoever, except his name.
Maybe.
Jaune Arc.
Scrawny and incompetent seemed to define his entire existence as he was helplessly slapped around the arena by some brute with a club.
It was almost sad. Pitiful even. Though Ray had no sympathy with that yellow-headed imbecile.
If the hacker was honest with himself, he had more incentive to take his team out and buy them all a grease-filled slab of meat sandwiched between two withered, somewhat stale bricks of what could barely be considered bread, commonly found at the local fast food "restaurant".
Oh wait. Scarlet was a vegetarian, so some leaves and a tomato for her then.
The victor of this fight was pretty damn obvious.
Why even bother staying?
That said, he had literally no other plans. So, he begrudgingly decided to stay and watch anyway.
That was until Cardin Winchester delivered some utterly asinine monologue right before kneeing his prey in the nose.
Ray wouldn't be surprised if he had broken it. Normal bones are surprisingly fragile.
Sadly, the poor little seal pup had no time to lick his wounds before his fiery-haired partner came to his rescue, offering him a helping hand that was dismissed with a weak smile and fake display of bravado.
Ray had seen that miserable expression too many times.
The same damn countenance.
The same damn lie.
"I'm fine" or "I'm okay" usually accompanying the same damn mask.
And the ones that put on this façade were usually the quickest to run to their demise.
The hacker had experienced this first-hand.
"When you make yourself harder, you only become brittle. Recognise and accept your weaknesses, and you can use your knowledge of them to grow."
These were the words Orion Chroma told his son many years ago, during the untold number of days of training they went through.
Despite not understanding them at the time, they've helped Ray more times than he could count.
Sighing, the boy watched with uncaring eyes as Jaune Arc limped away to recover.
"This wasn't a particularly engaging fight," Kyzal muttered to the side, "more of a one-sided beatdown if you ask me."
"Guy can't catch a break, seems that Cardin guy's shaping up to be your regular schoolyard bully. Typical." Gabriel responded to his partner's comment with an air of disdain in his voice.
Seems Ray wasn't the only one on his team with a strong hatred of bullying.
Nor was he the only one willing to use force to put an end to it either.
He chose not to comment on the matter, but he was partial to agreeing with his teammates.
"Our next scheduled match will be our last for the day," a saving grace from Glynda Goodwitch was music to Ray's ears for multiple reasons.
For one, the class was ending and lunch was next, which meant he could temporarily escape this unholy nightmare.
Add that to the fact that he didn't have to get involved with any further activities also made it extensively easier, having already played his part as the punching bag.
His arm still hurt from that mongrel's temper tantrum.
He paid no mind to it though. Calling off the match when he did spared him the Aura he need to use to heal the negligible damage anyway.
Too bad he had no opportunity to return the hits he took. He was the exact opposite of a glass cannon, despite his disposition toward avoiding hits.
An iron blowgun.
Well, technically a titanium-steel blowgun, but it didn't matter.
He could probably push for a titanium-steel slingshot if he had actually tried to win though.
Despite Inuba's skill with her Semblance - or whatever the hell that was – her swordplay was surprisingly weaker than he had expected.
Wasn't his problem though. He just wanted to call the day off.
He couldn't do that though, not when additional educational exercises in futility waited sadistically on the chronological horizon.
More classes he wouldn't pay attention to, nor engage in.
Oh, wait, Glynda was talking…
"Mr. Ezdeil and Miss Valkyrie, please make your way down and prepare yourselves for combat."
Ray's eyes alternated between the dark horse and what appeared to be a ginger pipe bomb.
But what's this?
"I forfeit!"
The girl straight up quit, right before the fight had even begun.
What?
Ray gave her a once over, short ginger hair, turquoise eyes.
She wore a collared black vest that ended at her waist, and beneath that was a white sleeveless top with a heart shaped keyhole between her upper chest and collarbone.
As she held her hand up in the air, flashing an apologetic smile, Ray noticed she had a pink fingerless glove.
Further inspection revealed that she wore its twin on her other hand.
She sported a pink skirt below the waist, ending mid-thigh.
"Interesting…"
Ray muttered to himself, remarking not her choice of clothing, but her decision to give up almost immediately after being called.
Could you forfeit to prevent participation?
This was something the hacker was going to abuse.
"Miss Valkyrie, exercising your right to forfeit is within the conduct of this class. However, to do so before a match begins is bad sportsmanlike- "
The pipe bomb was having none of Glynda's lecture.
"I know, but I can't go down there against him! He'll cream me!" Miss Valkyrie exclaimed, falling back into her seat.
What did you do, Ezdeil?
It would seem, after careful inspection of the rest of the class, that none of which wanted to go and fight him.
He didn't look so tough, but then again, appearances can be very, very deceiving.
If most, if not all, of the class, outright refused to fight him, there must have been a logical reason for it.
"Very well, your participation grade will not suffer. But do keep in mind that if this is a reoccurring problem with you, I will deduct points from your overall marks in this class. This is your only warning, now," Ray eyed the professor as she scanned the audience for a suitable test subject, "Mr. Tyro, please step forward- "
Another one?
"Uh, I forfeit too. Sorry." A tall boy, well-built for brute strength, easily twice the size of Niro Ezdeil, also forfeited immediately.
What the hell?
Ray turned to his own team, eyeing each as they were all subtly, yet noticeably shaking their heads.
"Even you, Scarlet?" Ray questioned, narrowing his eyes inquisitively at the girl as she avoided eye contact and sank into her seat.
"H-he… unsettles me…" she whimpered quietly, hiding her face behind her sanguine hair.
Ray slowly turned his head back to the arena, trying to wrap his head around why someone who took down several large Grimm while laughing absolutely hysterically would refuse to fight one boy.
She was a maniac, but even she had the common sense not to kick a hornet's nest, it seemed.
Glynda Goodwitch called out another student.
Mr. Tyro's partner also declined the offer presented to her.
This was going to make for a very interesting class.
Especially if Niro Ezdeil couldn't find a willing partner to spar with. Though Ray suspected the boy couldn't care less about his participation.
The black he was cloaked in really worked to consolidate that.
"Is anyone here willing to spar with Mr. Ezdeil?" Goodwitch addressed the entire class instead of cherry-picking from the benches.
Ray had made his effort for the day, so he was completely out of the question.
Glynda looked surprised past her stoic expression and her heart rate had also increased by 15.3%.
Was that excitement Ray detected?
"Anyone?"
No one moved a goddamn muscle.
Heads suddenly swivelled as two hands shot up in Ray's peripheral vision, the first belonging to a blonde-haired girl wearing clothing that only accentuated Ray's instant judgement of her being more promiscuous than most others, and the other belonged to-
Son of a bitch…
It appeared as though Prince Charming had the balls to step up where no one else would too.
Ray was not surprised.
Talking down to him right before he was about to fight the kitsune.
Condescending asshole. Ray hoped he would get his ass beat by Niro.
But it was not to be.
After careful manipulation of her silver tongue, that yellow thing that accepted the challenge first put Prince Charming down with ease after stating some asinine "I have a grudge, kindly fuck off" type message.
Are all teenagers this petty?
Ray's limited experience with people his own age left him, in most cases, clueless in regards to their social norms.
This may very well be adolescence in its entirety or only a fragment of a larger spanning picture.
In either case, he wasn't sure.
It's not like he had the time to find out either.
[Mirror Protocol Start]
Oh, right…
As those words filtered through Ray's vision, he was swiftly reminded of his ab-human nature.
The trusty Mirror Protocol, a useful tool, practically the foundation of his survival over the past six years.
It was a system set in place with the sole intention of analysing and documenting new actions for Ray to call upon when he needed them.
It was an intense method of learning, but undeniably critical.
In this instance, the system had begun to observe and document Niro Ezdeil and his opponent, Yang Xiao Long during their spar.
Its first target was Niro, watching as he leapt over the arena wall and landed silently onto the arena floor itself before swiftly redirecting Ray's attention to the boy's adversary, Yang.
It logged her brash, aggressive behaviour almost instantly as the girl cracked her knuckles, rolled her neck, and punched the palm of her hand with a confident grin.
She was eager to get payback for whatever the hell Niro had done.
"Oh, I've been waiting for this one," Yang teased Niro as the bones in her neck popped, "You dissed my partner, you dissed me, and you used my sister for your little game of slaughter. I think I need to teach you a little something about family."
"And while you're at it, you might as well make out with him too," Gabriel whispered to the rest of renegades, earning a small giggle from Scarlet.
Ray and Kyzal weren't so easily humoured though, both watching Niro and Yang with large interests.
"You think family means nothing to me?" Niro asked, flexing the fingers of his gloved hand as he looked at the girl with a canted stance.
"Pfft, with the way you've been acting and talking, I doubt you even know what respect is, let alone the meaning of family, or how they should be treated," Ray grimaced slightly, those words, in a sense, could apply to him too…
"Even if they're not related by blood," Yang adopted a boxer's stance as she laughed.
It was fake.
That laugh was a mask if Ray had ever seen one.
The bout of hostility ended with Glynda's strict voice piercing the arena, "The match will begin momentarily."
The Mirror Protocol was still very much in effect.
It was observing and logging every minute twitch the pair of fighters made, studying them with absolute fervency. Even as they stood in wait, it was watching.
"The first person whose aura enters the red loses, and the match will be stopped immediately,"
Learning someone's fighting pattern was a key solution to outplaying them, rather than using brute strength alone to crush them.
"Any damage past that will not be tolerated,"
If you declaw a cat, it can no longer scratch you. Ray had always preferred that level of precision over brutality.
"Furthermore, the match can be called at any time under my own discretion or that of one of the combatants,"
That wasn't to say Ray was a stranger to brute force. The offensive capabilities of his semblance were limitless, but his disposition to keep it restrained often avoided exhausting himself, which saved him more times than he had eaten hot dinners.
"…both of which have the right to forfeit."
Always use the method that works best.
"Anything else applies, so long as they are within reason."
Energy was a finite resource, so there was no point in wasting it with overkill.
"Are you two ready?" Glynda asked after listing all the rules.
Yang nodded, eager to beat Niro's face in like a sandbag. Niro merely regarded his opponent out of the corner of his eye.
Something about his posture indicated that he wasn't taking this seriously. Almost as if he was knowingly undermining Yang and her personal bout of revenge.
"So be it."
The spotlights dimmed until only the arena floor was shown, those with the ability to see in the dark wouldn't be too affected by this, though it helped divert all attention to the fight, basic psychological manipulation.
"Begin."
That word gave Yang the permission she needed to charge headlong into Ezdeil and deliver unto him the wrath of a woman scorned.
Or to boil it down, a punch to the stomach followed quickly by the discharging of what seemed to be a shotgun embedded inside her flaming golden gauntlets.
The blast from her weapon let off a loud, resonating micro-explosion of whatever power the shells contained.
But something was wrong, and Ray spotted it easily.
The pellets went through Ezdeil's body.
"What the hell?" the boy whispered, eyes widening a fraction of an inch.
That shouldn't have happened, but before Ray could call anything out, Yang landed a swift jab into her opponent's jaw, pushing him back slightly as he gave no retaliation.
This wasn't right.
Ray was then immediately notified by the Mirror Protocol that Niro's ribcage and lung had just received serious trauma.
Why is he taking damage?
His aura should have shrugged those hits off with ease, and yet Ray was receiving a constant supply of warnings and cautions regarding his physical state.
He was taking physical damage in this fight, but it was so subtle and happening so fast that no one was noticing anything wrong.
Yang pounded into him, delivering strike after strike after strike, her previously hidden rage quickly becoming prominent as she beat the boy into a bloody mess.
There was an underlying hatred surrounding her, like the air she was breathing fuelled this anger and drove her to hurt Niro more.
He just took it all…
Wait…
Was a part of a plan?
There is no way anyone in this school would just stand there and take those hits without some kind of counterattack.
Yang was practically dancing around him, driving the hardest points on her body into him with the unyielding intent to do as much harm as she could, firing her weapons nonchalantly as if there was no danger to his life whatsoever.
It wasn't until her final shotgun shell fired that she ceased her assault, lung racked with laboured breathing.
Vitals on her showed that her heart was beating rapidly, but was quickly circulating the blood through her body.
Physical fitness surrounded her life it would seem.
Niro on the other hand, had more holes in him than a dartboard, irony would have it that he was pinned against the wall like one as well.
He was in really bad shape…
As he wiped his bloodied mouth with the back of his wrist, the words he muttered were barely audible, but judging by Yang's horrified expression at her own realisation at what she'd just done, they must have been pretty haunting.
Before anyone had any time to react to what was going on, save Scarlet who was trying not to gag, Niro's body illuminated in a brilliant lime green.
And through the light that blinded everyone else, Ray watched as every cut, scratch, bullet wound, and broken bone fixed itself in a few short moments.
Ray's eyes didn't blink once, not even after the Mirror Protocol signalled its deactivation in his heads-up display.
As Niro's aura burned away any impurities his clothing had accumulated, Ray's focus momentarily switched to Yang as her horror turned to complete and total confusion.
Whatever Niro had said to her, it was doing a damn fine job of making her think.
And after what she had just done, it was probably a good thing too.
Her sunken frame stood there idly, dragging her voice from the bloody floor to her bloody gauntlets.
"W-wait," she spoke, directing it toward Niro as he walked away, "Why did you…" she paused. The feeling of being lost clung to her being as she glanced up at Niro, "Why didn't you fight back?"
"Good fucking question," Ray murmured to himself as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.
"I had no reason to."
Bingo!
There it was.
The ulterior motive Ray had been searching for.
Whatever motive that may have been…
And as Yang said something unheard by most of the audience, Niro's departing words were rather comical.
"I forfeit."
Docile Grimm did not exist.
It didn't matter how wise or intelligent they were, whether they were trained by the most masterful of tamers, or possessed an electric collar.
Docile Grimm did not exist.
Ray's eyes never left the Nevermore sat in the corner of the classroom, the wooden board beneath the beast labelling it 'Lanza'.
It showed no hostility as it scanned the room with cautious eyes, but Ray held his reservations that it would attack if anyone so much as looked at it funny.
RGDS picked seats as far back in the room as possible, though not because of the Nevermore.
In a room, full of creatures trained to kill it, the bird remained surprisingly calm.
No, they chose the back of the class because it made it easier to talk amongst themselves.
Gabriel and Scarlet were optimistically talking about the new teacher the four of them were about to be introduced to, with Kyzal casually cutting in.
Ray never stopped staring at the Nevermore.
Especially when it began burning holes through Mister Ezdeil.
No one had seen the boy for the past hour and a half after he was mutilated and put back together again. So, when he locked eyes with the juvenile Grimm, it certainly garnered some attention.
Those sat closest to him evacuated the area quickly.
That was fear Ray saw in their eyes, or at the very least, concern.
Nobody liked him, or at the very least, trusted him.
Ray was indifferent, the hacker couldn't care less about Niro Ezdeil so long as they didn't get in each other's way.
Not like that would happen anyway, Ray's inclination to interact with him was entirely non-existent.
"Yo."
The new voice flashed with a rising pheromones diagnostic across Ray's vision as he widened his gaze.
It didn't take him long to pinpoint where the increase in levels came from.
One seat to his right.
Is she suicidal?
Releasing toxins into the air like that could get her killed.
On the bright side, it might liven things up a little.
But it still wasn't helping that Scarlet's eyes were drilling a hole through the new girl's lithe legs, someone who'd just very daringly slid up carelessly to Niro's side and made herself comfortable.
That can't be good, the last thing the class needed was another running riot.
Ray's concern only grew as Scarlet's interest suddenly skyrocketed.
The least he could do was take in her appearance as if there was much to look at in the first place.
Small, less meat than a butcher's pencil, and dressed in purple and black.
Remarkable.
It didn't matter what she looked like, her voice was about as entertaining to listen to as a fork scratching a porcelain plate.
Or a sandpaper massage.
Scarlet didn't hold these values. Her conversation with Gabriel died down and fizzled out of existence as she dedicated her short attention span toward the girl challenging fate itself.
"What's up? Sitting alone?"
Such an acute observation, well done. What else do your purple eyes see?
The girl placed her cheek in her hand as she gazed at Niro with an unwarranted interest.
"I would be, if you weren't here."
"How far would I need to be for you to be alone?" The girl tilted her head in confusion, or in question.
She was far too expressive.
"Further than you'd think," Niro muttered. He was enjoying company, clearly.
"Off-campus?"
"Off-planet."
Ouch.
"Well, seeing as how I can't leave the planet," Sadly, "looks like I'm stuck here. And since you won't be alone no matter how far I get, I'll just stay put."
Logically sound, well played.
She shifted her center of gravity, clearly located inside her head, from side to side, smiling all the while.
"Anyone can leave the planet. They just have to jump high enough," Niro spoke with sincerity, a noticeable pattern.
Ray witnessed the girl literally stare at the ceiling, humming to herself in deep thought.
She can't be that stupid, surely?
"How high do you think that'd be? Wouldn't the gravity of the nearest planet pull you back down eventually?"
The girl definitely seemed to possess some form of intelligence, so why was she-
"Bring whip cream and hold your breath, I'm sure you'll be able to propel yourself to the nearest ice cream space store with life-support."
Uh oh…
Scarlet's heightened interest tripled after hearing that one sentence, everything in her proximity blurring into white noise as her focus was solely, and wholly on Niro.
Ray turned to face his partner, amethyst eyes glancing over her small frame as she leaned forward with her head resting in her hands and a small, almost subtle smirk curled across her lips.
She was enjoying this, for the most part.
Her crimson eyes alternated between Niro and his unknown conversational partner, responding to whoever was speaking with a deep concentration.
"There's ice cream in space?!" the high-pitched shriek followed by an overdramatic gasp was without a doubt one hell of a fucking ruse.
She was playing.
Of course, she was…
Ice cream in space? There was no way in hell anyone would fall for that.
No wa-
You're fucking with me…
Scarlet was falling for it if the excited little shaking that encompassed her body coupled with the shining gleam in her vermillion eyes was any indication.
Her smile had widened too.
Ray could feel a lot of questions coming his way.
"All kinds. The asteroids are made of them, after all. They have stations that orbit like satellites and droids that mine passing debris, scavenging the frozen goods into storage units before transporting shipments down to Remnant."
Stop this. You're feeding lies into an innocent, gullible child.
"Why didn't anyone tell me about this?!" Ray watched as the girl's claws dug into Niro's collar and tugged. The force she put into her grip was infinitely weaker than she would have hoped.
She successfully proceeded to pull herself back and forth, as opposed to shaking Niro.
Good job, moron.
"Nobody told me ice cream came from space!" her exclamation was deafening, almost causing interference with Ray's sensor arrays.
Kindly go fuck yourself. With a chainsaw.
Niro's gaze strayed away from her, possibly contemplating suicide. Ray knew he would.
Granted, the number of students who inevitably ceased all communication to focus on her was impressive, though unsurprising.
She wasn't someone who could be so easily ignored.
Someone get her a bottle of fucking milk already.
"Why do you think it's so cold?"
Because it's fucking refrigerated.
Ray couldn't wrap his head around the reason behind spinning such an intricate lie, his brows furrowing into a frown before his concentration was broken by a nudge on his left.
His head turned to face Kyzal, who then proceeded to redirect his attention back to Scarlet, who, in the midst of the commotion, was ready to explode.
Why did Niro have to shake the soda can?
She was quite literally trembling with bottled up exhilaration, the unspoken fear of her exploding was subtly shared amongst Kyzal and Ray in a moment of brief concern.
With another irritating gasp, the banshee sat next to Niro drew in another breath before she spoke again, "You're so right… it is cold!"
Eat a brick.
"This explains everything!"
Make it stop…
"It explains why you're so hyper."
No Niro, someone attached crocodile clips to her and shocked her with 1000 volts.
"That too!" as graceful as she could possibly be, her hand slammed into the desk before her, it was surprising that she didn't go straight through it, "The drifting ice cream balls in space probably keep their form due to the pressure of the vacuum! And the removal of heat just keeps them in a constant state of a chilled, delectable treat of possible extinction!"
Ray had to take it back, she didn't deserve to eat a brick. No, she needed to eat the chainsaw after fucking herself with it.
If she intended to put on a show to break the ice, she succeeded, additionally, she drew the undivided attention of everyone in the class. And, to add to that, she managed to fuck with the minds of almost every student there.
Almost.
This was all bullshit to Ray, and he could have done without it, but the simultaneous ingenuity of this girl combined with the absurdity of her charade was too conflicting a matter to ignore.
"Now you know what killed the dinosaurs. An orbital bombardment of galactic ice cream balls large enough to wipe them into extinction and simultaneously introduce the ruptured world to the delectable treat found in every corner store across Vale," Niro seemed to take amusement from fueling the flames of the string of lies.
Ray shifted in a bout of repressed anger.
He was hating this place more and more. With every passing second, it was niggling at the protective, fortified walls of his growing temper.
This school wasn't a place to train warriors, it was a breeding ground for mental patients.
The inside of his head was willing to wage war against itself, torn between losing his shit and storming out, or restraining his rage and staying put.
Where the hell is the teacher?
"Poor prehistoric creatures… they never got to taste the ice cream…" her falsified sorrow was winding Ray up more than he cared to admit, the hands in his pockets twitching, just ready to jump down there and throttle her neck, "Ice cream's like my life essence. I couldn't imagine living without it."
Probably couldn't imagine living without oxygenated blood either, but there's a first time for everything.
"Try dying once in a while, you'll realize what you can and can't live without," Niro turned to her after his response, taking the time to analyze her quickly.
Ray wouldn't grant her the same respect, they'd been there for ten minutes and she'd already confused him and pissed him off.
Black and purple, lacks an indoor voice, annoying.
Those were the only three things the hacker would take away from this encounter with that thing.
Not like she had anything useful to offer, other than nonsensical slander and a headache.
"Have you died before?"
Don't be ridiculous.
Oh, wait, too late for that now.
"I don't think I have… maybe I did but I just can't remember it," her earlier sadness had magically disappeared.
Maybe she did possess some kind of mental illness.
Ray hated this girl and every syllable that slipped out of her face hole built on that hatred even further.
At this point, the boy had half a mind to kill her, and the other half agreed.
The patience he had being eroded away in tiny increments until he reached his limit.
He was only waiting for it at this point.
To compare her to anyone else would be an insult to them.
Not even Scarlet was this bad, and her delicacy already wound Ray up enough as it is.
But this girl… this bastardized amalgam of cute and funny cut up and spliced with manipulation and vexation…
It wasn't worth it… he'd need to wash his jacket again.
Clenching fists loosened as he gave up on trying to rationalize her skewed perception of reality.
"Once or twice," Ray watched silently, inhaling slowly through his nose and exhaling through his mouth, as Niro's gaze locked with the nevermore's.
"I wouldn't associate yourself with him if I were you," that voice…
It reeked of self-indulgence.
Violet eyes snapped to its origin and the rage he had been trying to quell very quickly made its return, though with a different, valid target this time.
The Schnee heiress?
No way…
No fucking way…
At this school?
Ray hoped she wasn't here to stay, wouldn't surprise him if she was here to scout the place for her revered father's future purchase.
She'd better own another bank account too. Because if Ray had his way, he was going to bleed her current one dry.
Pristine white, dressed up and looking out of place in an establishment like this. The hacker was surprised he missed her disgusting presence in the first place.
Once he was done with his goal, he'd make sure she'd realise that this was not a place for royalty.
Her father alone was a piece of work, the knowledge that he'd spread his seed to some poor wretch and brought up three little darling abominations of the same holier-than-thou calibre was an insult not only to society but the entire recorded history of mankind to date.
If there was any minute inkling of hope in her that she'd become a certified huntress, let alone a respected one, she had better wrap it up in a neat little bow-tied gift box and incinerate it with the valuable, slave-mined energy propellant she so casually and pridefully advertises.
Before Ray had the opportunity to open his mouth and murmur a string of curses, the purple goblin from before beat him to it, "Really? Why do you think that?"
Schnee progeny number two rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, sending a little glare toward Niro that bounced off him with very little resistance.
"He's bad news."
Look who's talking.
"So whoever you are, just don't bother with him. It'll only lower your status as a respectable individual."
Status. She brought status into it.
Ray wasn't surprised in the slightest, Schnees held onto their precious reputation like it was the only thing that kept them alive.
"Oh, hey, we were just talking about icy stuff. Did you know ice cream came from space?" the goblin replied, grinning at the Schnee with defiance.
How intriguing…
It was switching targets now.
"Oh dear god, please don't tell me you don't actually believe that?"
Get off your high horse and sit down like a good student you insufferable little-
"Weiss… nobody knows where ice cream comes from, maybe they're right."
Ray recognised this speaker, the other red little girl, Ruby Rose.
Not very confident, from the looks of things.
Not very smart either, if the space-originating ice cream theory was leaving her in a state of uncertainty.
To her credit, she was making an effort to mediate the argument before it started.
"No, you dunce! Ice cream comes from little dwarves in the mountains!" the Schnee puffed her chest out as she faced the girl.
Ray recorded the last five minutes of audio too.
That was blackmail material if he'd ever seen any.
A sea of stifled laughter erupted from the benches around her, two of the three members of Ray's team joining them.
The gambler, in particular, clutching his stomach as his body wracked with muffled chuckling.
"Weiss…" Ruby put a hand on the heiress' shoulder, offering a sweet smile before continuing, "That's ridiculous. Ice cream comes from space."
"No, it doesn't! The dwarves made it." Spoken with all the innocence and confidence only a five-year-old could muster, Weiss held strong to her beliefs.
That was also recorded.
"Actually, I thought it came from cows."
Ray watched and listened as the debate grew in members.
How was this even a serious discussion?
The latest speaker was the monotone Faunus in disguise. This one Ray definitely recognised.
"Blake, cows make milk, not ice cream," the Faunus got shut down quickly by her younger superior.
Ray had every opportunity to step in and correct all of them. But mental illness as serious as this can lead to brash results if challenged.
You try telling a hysteric, dysphoric maniac that birds fly because they push air down beneath them and they'll accept it, tell them that the atoms that make up their entirety prevent them from touching anything, including their mothers, and they'll lose their goddamn mind.
"Yeah, sis is right. Cows can't make milk and ice cream. But, then again, I heard ice cream came from a Schnee's-" the blonde one from the combat class, the one that punched holes through the one that started this mess, was very quickly silenced.
No, please continue.
"W-what Yang was trying to say, was that our uncle told us ice cream was made, yeah, made by those of, uh, of the Schnee family."
Nice recovery.
Ray would have killed to see the look on the Schnee heiress' face had Yang finished her sentence.
Hell, he would have broadcast the footage nationally, across every scroll system in the world.
"Ruby, I can assure you, my family has no association to ice cream whatsoever. We are not dwarves, after all."
Recorded.
Each of them, save the red one, spoke with the utmost sincerity in their beliefs. It was comical, if not utterly humiliating.
Ray felt the second-hand embarrassment radiating from the other students in his vicinity.
Most of which were trying their hardest to distract themselves from the debate as best as they could.
Hiding behind their scrolls, attempting to make quiet, private conversations, and even staring at the front of the classroom in silence were some of the few methods they used.
Yang had begun to lose all composure, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes as she repressed her laughter poorly. At least someone found this funny.
"I-I think we c-can all come to," the girl forced herself to inhale as she wiped her eye, still miserably failing to pull herself together, "an agreement that nobody knows where ice cream comes from."
Ray shook his head in disbelief. Idiots, all of them. Every last one of them.
Cream, milk, sugar, and eggs. Frozen and churned until ice crystals formed and the mixture is pasteurised and homogenized.
Though Ray severely doubted any of them knew that at this point, each of the participating morons convinced that it was a naturally occurring resource.
He hated this class.
A small tugging on his right arm brought his attention to his partner, as she sat on the bench with a confused expression on her face.
"W-where does ice cream come from?" she asked delicately, her eyebrows scrunched together as her head tried to filter fact from fiction.
Ray hesitated to give her an answer, knowing that whatever he said at this point, even the complete and unmitigated truth, would only add to her problems.
He placed his hand on top of her head and lightly ruffled her hair as he pitied the perplexed girl.
"As far as you should be concerned, your freezer."
"B-but I don't have a freezer…" the girl meekly replied, her gaze falling to the floor.
"I can assure you that it doesn't come from fucking space, that's for sure…" Ray muttered disdainfully, though more so to himself than his naive partner.
Saying literally anything related to this horseshit conversation would be succumbing to the idiocy of this class he was stuck in.
For the first time since he had arrived here, he was actually looking forward to whatever class this was.
That would be short-lived.
"Well, I'm sticking with the space ball theory!" now it was the other conspirator's time to speak, her brown hair lagging behind her head as she suddenly crossed her arms and flashed a grin.
"You believe what you want to believe, just stop talking to the one next to you. He's more dangerous than you might think," Weiss finally returned to her original reason for speaking.
This earned a shrug from the other girl, Ray still had no idea what her name was.
"Doesn't really matter. We're all dangerous to different degrees, like you and your ice kabob and her with her melons."
She gestured toward Weiss and Yang respectively, maintaining her aggravatingly smug smirk.
"Was that a fucking joke?" Ray murmured to himself.
"I'm surprised you're still paying attention," Kyzal returned, arms crossed and resting against the back wall with his hood up and eyes closed.
That was a valid point…
"It's more of an ice pick really," Ruby commented to the side. Her neutrality in the situation beginning to falter.
"Call it what you will, but my Myrtenaster can still take a Grimm down faster than your scythe," the heiress was hellbent on defending her dignity, though her pride was already tainted the moment she mentioned dwarves.
Her partner wasn't going to back down so willingly as she flashed the condescending girl in white a challenging smirk, "I don't know about that. Speed is kinda my speciality."
The girl flashed with a trail of rose petals to position herself behind the heiress, whipping her long, white, dental floss hair with the sudden rush of air.
"Stop using your semblance so recreationally! It should be honed on the training grounds, not used to show off."
If she thought what Ruby did with her semblance was bad, she had yet to see what Ray did with his own…
"This is how I hone my semblance, Weiss," the girl in red countered, flicking her partner's nose with a casual, playful demeanour before sitting down next to the Faunus. Her older sister also flocked to the black and white, sitting herself down on the other side.
Schnee then returned her focus back to the hyperactive, suicidal mental patient once more, offering the girl a slightly inquisitive gaze before asking a question.
"What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Skyla, but most people call me Sky," she replied, beaming a smile in her direction.
Ray couldn't care less about what she was called, he just prayed to every known deity that she never garnered the incentive to speak to him. Ever.
He'd shoot her on sight.
"My name's Weiss. Just…" Ray witnessed her gaze stray toward Niro as he casually minded his own business, "Just be careful around him. He's… unpredictable."
Don't be so judgemental you dumb whore.
"I will," Skyla replied.
14 minutes had now passed.
The professor was still nowhere in sight.
And Ray was ready to leave.
The best part was, under the listed academic rules, if the professor failed to turn up within the next 60 fucking seconds - which was what he was desperately hoping for - he could leave, and not be punished for it.
What a blessing.
Except… it wasn't.
Team Juniper burst into the room, quite literally diving and sliding across the floor as laboured breathing replaced the calm silence occupying the room not long before.
Oh, and it would seem that the professor herself has also graced us with her presence.
Ray's nose breathed in the unmistakable strong scent of dark liquor lingering from the teacher's maw.
And you know what?
As if he wasn't pissed off already.
The fact that she could drink during school hours and he couldn't literally infuriated him.
That was only judging by the faint scowl on his face as he traced her well-built frame.
Ray didn't even want to describe what was going on inside his head…
She was of average height and possessed long dark blue hair, coinciding with a pair of cobalt eyes.
And, as was the trend this year, she wore a cowboy hat too.
"Oh splendid…" the boy muttered to himself as his eyes subconsciously flicked toward Gabriel and then back over to the one in black sitting on the other side of the room, "why am I not surprised?"
Originality was lacking in this hellhole.
And that was coming from the boy more suitably dressed as a civilian than a half-mechanical, biologically engineered superweapon.
The woman before Ray looked like she was in her twenties, not much older than Lylac if he had to make a comparison.
She wore tight-fitting black leather pants and black leather heeled boots that stretched up toward her mid-shins.
And to add the cherry to the cake of shit before him, she audaciously adorned a form-fitting tube top that would pass as inappropriate in a classroom setting was she anyone else.
Basically, to summarize her, she was an alcoholic whore roleplaying as a professor.
Ozpin sure knows how to pick his faculty members.
"Hello~"
Ray visibly cringed at the flirtatious inflection.
"My name is Professor Miralla, but I prefer you just call me by my first name."
Ray had no intention of doing such a thing. The morbid stench of alcohol and her filthy tone of voice distracted him too much…
"Now, as some of you may have known or heard by now," she paced over to her desk and leaned against its front for supporting her weight as she crossed her legs, "this class teaches you how to survive, track, and navigate your way through unfamiliar and dangerous territories. And, additionally, how to engage Grimm you've never encountered before."
This was a lie, this class would be the one Ray would be dropping in favour of more… desirable activities.
"So," the professor clapped her hands to keep any straying attention on her as she scanned the classroom, "We're going on a little field trip. Leave your belongings, you won't need them."
The last thing Ray was going to do, was leave his stuff here. Especially his bag.
"Oh, and no stopping by your weapons lockers on the way, it's best you learn this lesson without weapons."
Ray immediately stood, knowing in full that he was going to disregard both of her instructions.
His weapons were already around his forearms, concealed by his sleeves, and his bag with all of his stuff was thrown over his shoulder.
He wasn't going to listen to this masquerading prostitute.
Caza fucking Miralla? What a damn joke.
Author's note:
My absence is certainly justified, please don't worry about it.
I'd like to thank OS Worldmakers and Xera Stark for proofreading this chapter. Thanks, guys.
Ray hates a lot of things and makes such aggressive judgements based mostly on first impressions alone. In this instance; He despises Skyla.
I've also joined the scroll conversation bandwagon, totally not because it's easy to write or anything.
Most definitely for expositional purposes…
Anyway, sorry for the wait, however long it's been. I'll be uploading the next chapter eventually.
On that note, for those that have forgotten or don't know, in order to understand what the hell is going on in this story, you need to read Rogue Huntsman by Xera Stark, and additionally, for another great story about the same plot, go and read Knights of White and Black by andy2396.
I graciously hope you'd consider leaving a review, and if you do, please Favourite and Follow for more.
Have a good one!
-Hydra