I still couldn't believe that the others agreed to wanting to learn from me a bit more on my weapons and they were on board with the idea of training with each other's weapons. Well, not each other per say. I'll be the one teaching them on how to fight with my weapons while they also teach me on how to fight with their weapons. It'll be the perfect opportunity for me to form a better bond with everyone on my team like I was told I had to do. We're not all going to do the training at once or so close together. First off I'm going to continue working with Weiss before I take my chances with the others. To be honest, with the others, some I'm excited for while others make me… nervous.

Blake's is what I'm probably the most excited to work with. The way how she moves so fluently with her weapon set, Gambol Shroud, reminds me of my own a bit and I can't wait to learn how to use that weapon to its full extent.

Yang's is what I'm somewhat tense about but not as much. My fighting style focuses more on close quarters combat, just like hers, minus the concussive shotgun additions, but it would be interesting to see just how she teaches me to fight using her Ember Celica.

Ruby's though I think I'm the most nervous about. For crying out loud she's small, cute, incredibly nice and has one of the deadliest weapons I've ever seen! The sheer size of Crescent Rose makes me feel it'll be quite cumbersome but how she uses it makes it seem like it's extremely light and how she can cut down Grimm with ease and blow them apart with her sniper rifle. While I'm nervous about using her weapon, I am quite curious to see how I perform with it.

Either way, their weapons are pretty cool and looking forward to learning more about them. Not to mention they are willing to learn about my style too so that'll be quite a learning experience for all involved.


"This is the part where you lose."

"Over my dead—!"

Before Jaune can finish, Cardin knees him in the gut, making the boy drop his sword and kneal over in pain. Seeing his opponent so vulnerable, Cardin can't help but bring his giant mace overhead and prepares to defeat his opponent.

"Cardin, that's enough!" The Instructor, Glynda Goodwitch, calls out as the buzzer rings and the lights come back on. Not wanting to gain the ire of the instructor, he walks away from his opponent as she comes on stage to address everyone. Ethan lets out a breath of relief at the interruption. He was very tempted to move in and prevent the jackass from smashing his friend but now their instructor speaks. "Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament-styled duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match." She explains to everyone what expect and how these matches work. Jaune takes out his own scroll and sees the blinking red bar along with the full ones of his team. "Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your Scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it's appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more… defensive strategy." She feels the need to remind the defeated student. "We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now, would we?" She remarks.

"Speak for yourself." Cardin comments, making Ethan growl, and walks off the stage.

"Remember, everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away! It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale!" She informs everyone of the festival. Meanwhile members of team RWBEY are excited for it, with Yang punching the air with anticipation, Weiss shaking her fists with an excited smile, Ruby bounces with enthusiastic energy and squealing softly, and Ethan smiling at the idea.

The bell rings after she finishes talking, and students start leaving while Pyrrha continues to frown sadly. Jaune, still sitting on the floor, hangs his head in shame. Ethan shakes his head at the display and goes to help his friend.


"So! There we were, in the middle of the night…"

"It was day."

"We were surrounded by Ursai…"

"They were Beowolves."

"Dozens of them!" Nora loudly proclaims to her audience, where as Yang is listening with rapt attention to the story, Weiss is busy filing her nails, Blake is reading her book, Jaune is messing with his food, and Pyrrha, Ruby and I are simply listening to her tail.

"Two of 'em." Ren meanwhile corrects his friend of any embellishing details she adds.

"But they were no match and in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!" She finishes with a smile an triumphant look. My head cocks to the side in confusion. 'Wait, how? Grimm completely evaporate when killed.'

Ren meanwhile sighs, "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now." 'Ah, okay. That explains it.'

"You think it means something?" I ask him but he shrugs his shoulders unsure.

"Jaune? Are you okay?" My attention is focused to Pyrrha who asks her leader.

"Huh?" He snaps out of it and turns to us, "Oh, yeah! Why?" He asks like it's all good when in reality he was looking pretty down as he was absent mildly messing with is food.

"It's just that you seem a little… not okay…" Ruby points out.

This attention gets everyone else notice as well so everyone is now staring at the blonde depressed leader. "Guys, I'm fine. Seriously, look!" He tries to dissuade us by giving us a thumbs up and laughing but it comes off as nervously so it fails miserably.

I shake my head at the denial but laughing from elsewhere shifts the focus now. As it stands, the reason for Jaunes misery, as well as a lot of other peoples comes from Cardin and his cronies. Right now they've decided to take it upon themselves to harass a rabbit faunas student several tables away. Cardin himself is laughing at her and another of his teammates mimics her ears with his fingers on his own head while the faunas girl shrinks in her seat at the taunting. My growl lowly at the actions and my hands clench in anger.

"Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school!" Pyrrha points and its true. That jackass has been bullying him for a long time now and his actions have also shifted to other students as well, namely those of faunas qualities.

"Who? Cardin Winchester? Nah... He just likes to mess around! You know, practical jokes!" Jaune tries to deny it but its futile.

"Practical jokes my a—"

"He's a bully." Ruby statesm interrupting me from my low tone of voice.

The blonde scoffs at the notion. "Oh, please! Name one time he's 'bullied' me."

The deadpan looks we give him are pretty evident on how much we know about his bullying. "The time he knocked your books out of your arms." Blakes says.

"Then when he activated your shield in the middle of a doorway." Ren mentions another incident.

"Yeah but—"

"Or the time he stuffed you in one of the lockers and programmed it to send you flying into the forest!" Ruby says loudly and firmly. We turn back to him to see him a little nervous on the focused attention.

"I didn't land far from the school." He tries to laugh it off but slap my hand on my forehead.

"Jaune," I pull my hand down and look at him crossly at how he's trying to play all this off. "I had to summon Raven and Shadow to scour all over the place for you!" I loudly state to the guy as I press a finger to his chest. "You're lucky Shadow's got your scent or we wouldn't have found you." That little incident sucked and took the better part of a day to find him.

"Jaune, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask." Pyrrha offers.

"Ooooh!" Nora suddenly gets up onto the table and sports what may be a not-entirely-sane grin on her face. "We'll break his legs!"

"… Tempting." I mutter. Suddenly there are eyes on me. "Oh c'mon! You know as well as I do that if anyone deserves that, it's him." Shaking head nods are the reply to my reason.

"Guys, really, it's fine! Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me; he's a jerk to everyone."

"Ow!" Jaune's statement rings true as Cardin and his teammates continue to harass the rabbit faunas student, now the asshole going as far as to tug on her ears while she cries in pain. "That hurts! Please, stop…"

"I told you it was real!"

"What a freak!"

My fingers clench harshly as they pop loudly for the others to hear. Not wanting to see this crap anymore, my mind is made up as I quickly stand up. "I'll be back." I growl as I start making my way over to team CRDL.

"Ethan wait!" Ruby calls out but that doesn't stop me.

"Don't interfere." I reply back and continue walking up to them as they continue to laugh. Once I'm close enough, I stop and cross my arms. "This is pathetic." I say loud enough for them to hear. They stop their laughing and taunting, along with Cardin letting her go. "Please leave ma'am. You don't need to be here." I say to bullied student and nod my head away from us. Taking the chance to go, she gets up and goes.

"Hey! I'm not done with- Arrh!" Cardin goes to grab her but my hand flashes outward and grips his hand, twisting it harshly and painfully for him to focus on me again. She looks back to me for a second from the noise but I nod for her to keep going.

"Pathetic." I growl out and throw his hand away from me as his teammates move closer to me. "All of you ganging up on one student. Cowards." I insult them outright. I steady myself as they start to move closer to me.

"Hold it." Cardin's voice stops them from going any further. He rubs his hand a little from the grip I gave him as she stalks up to and bares down on me. "What are you saying then? You think none of us alone could take you on?" He challenges me. My arms stay folded as I smirk at him.

"Prove it then. You and me. Right now." I challenge back and fold my arms behind my back. "I'll even let you have the first shot." I lean my head forward a little in emphasis.

Cardin and his teammates chuckle and laugh at what I suggest before Cardin himself grins evilly. "Hehe, alright then. Your funeral." He pops his knuckles as he readies himself to deliver the first punch of the fight. He reels his arm back and sends it forward.

My head leans back, making him miss hardcore. "Ohhhh so close! C'mon you can do better than that." I taunt as I straighten up.

"Grrrr! Hold STILL!" He tries to punch me again but I dodge it again… and again and again and again as he throws punch after punch to try to hit me but I move, duck, dodge out of the way seamlessly. The smile never leaving my face as I continue to backup away from him. Already I can feel the eyes of everyone else in the cafeteria on us as the one-sided fight goes on with him trying to punch me and me simply dodging and moving back. Already I can feel his anger boiling off as he continues to miss me. Before I know it, my back hits the doors to the lunch room much to my surprise. "Got you!" My view shifts to the door for a second and that's all that he needs to get his shot in finally.

"Ethan!" The fist that connects to the side of my face is like I was hit by truck as one of my friends call out my name. I'm forced back through the doors where I stumble a few times and slam into the opposite wall.

"Arh." I hiss as the pain courses through my face and I bring a hand up to the rapidly forming bruise on the right side of my face. I look up to see Cardin getting ready for another punch.

"Should've just stayed out of it." He mutters with a sadistic smile and pulls his arm back. I can see his aura forming on his fist, getting ready for a much more powerful shot this time around on my now dazed state.

*CRASH*

"Mr. Winchester!" I look up from my spot on the floor at the large fist that went through the wall where my head was. A large spider-web of cracks go off in all directions from where he punched the wall. Looking to the side, I can't help but smirk at seeing Miss Goodwitch standing there. Cardin looks from me to the instructor and gets a very scared and very frightful look on his face at seeing her of all people right here.

"Uhh, ma'am I—"

Cardin begins to say but a pointed finger held up tells him to shut up right there. "Mr. Wright, do you need to go to the infirmary?"

"Mm." I grunt as I stand up and rub my cheek. "No ma'am. I'm good."

"Very well then." She shifts her focus back to my assailant. "I think you know what happens now Mr. Winchester." She crossly tells him. His shoulders slump and nods sadly. "Follow me." She says and starts walking away.

I watch as she goes away with Cardin trailing after her with a defeated expression about him. "This isn't over." He growls just as he passes me.

"Looks over to me." I reply and with a smile on my face I head back into the cafeteria. I resume my spot where I was eating next to my friends. Before I can take a bite, the others stare at me with looks of surprise on their faces. "What?"

"What?! That's all you have to say?!" Weiss loudly replies with a bit of anger. "You decide to pick a fight with him, with his team backing him up, get punched by him and all you have to say is WHAT?!" She loudly says to me from the other side of the table.

I lean forward and give her a pointed look. "Weiss, are you saying I was reckless in my action of interrupting Cardin and luring him all the way to the hallway where the strictest teacher we have just so happened to be walking by and catch him in the act of attacking me?" I ask her in a faux way. I sit up straight and place my hands on the table. At the surprised looks everyone has on their faces, I rub my nose, sniffing, but as my hand glides past my cheek, my black aura flares up and the bruise is gone as soon as my hand goes back to the table. Their looks of surprise and disbelief are priceless. "C'mon guys, give me some credit." I say as I smile.

"You cheeky little—!"

I lean to the right and back as a fist tries to hit me from behind but misses. I grab the head of the person who missed and slam them onto the table, dazing them as they slump to the ground. I bring my right arm back and elbow the person right below the belt, making them groan in pain as they crumple to the floor holding the neither. The last person tries to hit me from behind with a tray but I forward, making him miss. With the missed attack, he goes forward and gives me the opportunity to hook my arm under his leg and throw him up into the air. He lands hard on the table on his back and rolls off on the other side.

The remaining members of team CRDL lay on the ground groaning from their beating after they tried to surprise attack me. My team along with JNPR look around in disbelief at what just happened before with Cardin, and now with his team.

I see Raven pass by out the window, having been able to see Miss Goodwitch enter the building and relaying the image to me along with the surprise attack.

I take a bite of my pancake.


'Oh god! What is this guy on?!' I ask myself that question a lot whenever I enter this class with Dr. Oobleck. He is quite an interesting teacher and every time I have to listen to his lectures I feel like taking a nap afterwards. Just trying to keep up with his talking on my mind alone leaves me drained The drinks a lot of coffee but there's no way that alone could have him be so god-damned fast!

"Yes! Yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution- more popularly known as the Faunus War- humankind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie. Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day! Now! Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?" At the question he gives, I breathe a breath of relief at the short break and give a look at my surroundings. Lots of students are here and most are keeping their heads up to listen but some, like Jaune next to me, are napping. Cardin is behind us, directly behind Jaune laid back but I can feel his eyes boring into me after my stint that landed him being disciplined by Miss Goodwitch. To our right on the next set of rows is the faunus who was being bullied by that jerk, who I found out is named Velvet Scarlatine, above her is Pyrrha, Blake, then Weiss on the one above.

In regards to his question, some students who are faunus do raise their hands. Velvet herself looks hesitant to draw attention but as she catches my eye, I give her a comforting smile and nod. She finally does raise her hand.

"Dreadful, simply dreadful!" Dr. Oobleck continues his lecture. "Remember, students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence!" He takes another sip of his coffee. "I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to White Fang! Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorize to be the turning point in the third year of the War?" Weiss raises her hand. "Yes?"

"The battle at Fort Castle."

"Precisely! And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?" Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Cardin getting ready to flick a paper football at my friends head. My hand flies up and catches it just before it hits his head. "Ah, Mr. Wright! Excellent! Maybe you can enlighten with the answer!" Suddenly our instructor is right in front of me, with Jaune wide awake and just as confused as I am. It's only I realize that me catching the piece of paper has made it look like that my hand is raised to answer the question… which I don't have the answer to right now.

"Ohhh, uhhh…" I bring my hand down under the desk. "The advantage that uhhhh… the faunus had over the General was…" As I speak, I try to think up all that I know about the battle and what the answer might be. 'He had a massive army but something the faunus had that he didn't was what rendered those numbers intert. What was it?' As my mind tries to run through the possibilities, I look past Dr. Oobleck to Pyrrha as she waves to get my attention. I clear my throat to buy more time, "Eh-hem what they had… that helped them win… was…" She points to her eyes and circles them with her hands. 'Binoculars? But wasn't the battle at ni—' "Night… vision." I answer hesitantly, remembering that little trait of most faunus and hope its right.

"Yes! Excellent answer there!" I breathe in relief. "Can anyone else add more onto the subject?" He asks the rest of the class. Pyrrha raises her hand. "Yes, Miss. Nikos?"

"Night vision is a trait that many faunus are known to have, in which they have nearly-perfect sight in the dark."

"General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the general was captured." Blake adds more onto the matter before she turns to Cardin. "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, and not goofing off, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure." 'Okay, so she saw what he did. Good.'

Cardin, angry at the jab gets up from his chair. "Mr. Winchester! Please take your seat." Dr. Oobleck demands of him. "You and Mr. Wright can both see me after class for additional readings." He instructs and goes back to teaching. At this point when I'm to stay and be given additional work, unless I know I did something wrong, it's just the extra work from my position on my team. "Now! Moving on!"


Once class passes, Cardin and I are the only ones left in the classroom with Dr. Oobleck. He takes a sip of his coffee. 'How much does he have?' I ask myself absent mildly as it gets kind of hard to see when he gets himself a refill.

"Now then, Mr. Wright I assume you already know why I asked you hear?"

I nod, "I know the drill sir. Extra reading assignment and an essay to go with what I read."

"Excellent! I wish I didn't have to give you so much extra work but I am glad to see it hasn't hindered you whatsoever! You may go." He gestures to the door with his coffee hand.

Nodding again, I get up from my seat and make my way up the stairs. "See ya Cardin." I mutter with a bored tone as I pass his row.

"Shut up." He replies and I can't help but smirk. 'Still mad about Goodwitch.' I think as I make it to the door and go out. As soon as I'm out, I find myself greeted by Jaune and Pyrrha, although the former is a little down for some reason.

"Oh. Hey you two. What's up?"

"Well, Jaune wanted to stay and say something to you." Pyrrha nudges the guy a little, bringing him out of his slump.

"Oh, right. Listen uhhh, Pyrrha told me what you did. Thank you for helping me back there. I probably would have made a fool of myself if you hadn't saved me like that." He thanks me and nod back.

Bringing my hand up, I pull out the paper football Cardin was going to use on him and smirk. "No problem." I pocket the little thing and turn to her. "And thank YOU for saving me back there. You definitely saved me." I thank her. I vaguely remember the battle itself and it was because of her that I remembered the night-vision aspect that faunas have.

She smiles back to me. "It's the least I could do as well as thanks for helping Jaune like that."

"Even I didn't know what you were doing back there with your eyes. I probably would have said binoculars or something." Jaune points out as we three begin walking away.

"I only barely got it. I was going to say binoculars if I hadn't remembered the time of day that happened with the battle and it was only because of you that it clicked." I mention to Pyrrha.

"Glad to see it helped." She says but as we come to a cross-section of the hallways, she takes a second longer to look at Jaune before she looks like she got an idea. "Speaking of helping, come with me!" She grabs his hand and they bolt down one of the hallways.

"Hey! Whoa!" Her package yelps confused as he's suddenly dragged along.

"Good luck on your work Ethan!" Pyrrha replies back before she and him disappear around another corner.

For the longest time I find myself staring where they disappeared. "Okay then." I mutter and turn a different direction. "I swear I feel like they- Oof!"

"Oh!" I slam into something and suddenly find myself on the ground along with someone else and a clatter of things. Taking a moment to shake off the daziness, I see a familiar rabbit faunus just as dazed sitting in front of me, rubbing her head with several books scattered around. When she notices me, she blushes and begins apologizing. "Oh! Oh no! I'm so sorry! I was distracted and I didn't see where I was going and I'm so sorry I bumped into you!"

"Hey hey hey!" I ease her back on the furious apologizing with pushing my hands down gesture. "It's cool. No harm no foul." I tell its alright and that makes her relax a bit. "Here, let me help you." I offer and begin picking up the books she dropped.

"Oh, yes. Thank you." She appreciates the gesture and we begin picking up several of her books and by the time I gather half and so does she, I can tell why she bumped into me. Both stacks together almost cover her vision. "Sorry, one of the professors needs these and I volunteered to pick them up."

"That's cool. Where do you need these?" I ask once we got everything.

"It's not far, I'll show you." She begins to lead me down the hallway to where their needed. We don't talk or banter or anything. She walks and I follow here. True to her word a couple different hallway turns do we come to another classroom that I don't recall coming to. "Here we go." She backs into the door and opens it for us. No one is here so I don't know who needs them but I'm not hung up on it. In any case she simply sets the books down on the top row table and I follow suit. "That's all that's needed. Thank you." She thanks me and gives me a small head bow.

"No problem." I nod back and take a step to the door. "Well, I'll be seeing you."

"Wait." Her word stops me. Turning back from the exit, I see she's looking sheepish and looking down. "Why did you help me? With… him… that time?" She asks. The hesitance in her words, what she asks, already I know who she's talking about.

I smirk and look down myself. "Why indeed." I mutter quietly. She looks up at that but it's a second before I look back up to her. "I guess you could say I don't like seeing a pretty girl get bullied," She blushes at that, "Or I could say I just don't like bullying in general… Or…" I look down and flex my right hand out of her view. "I could say I know what it feels like to be bullied. I'll leave that to you." I smile before I make my way to the door. "See you later Velvet. Take care." The last thing I see before I pass through the door is her slightly surprised face but adorns a smile at the end.

The bitter memories of my own problems I've had in the past come up but seeing how things have progressed, I smile nonetheless.


Alright, well that was a good set up chapters I managed to crank out. It's about time I gave this story some much needed work after my constant blunderings with it and I hope you guys like this. Originally this chapter was going to include the next set of episodes but I felt I was taking too long on it. Don't know if I was but I just felt like it. Reason being is, as I said in the previous chapter, I got hit with a bad case of an allergic reaction, i.e. Hives, to some medicine I was taking and it rendered me pretty out of commission and woozy for almost a week. Still going to be woozy and a little weak for a bit more time as I take a different medication to combat the reaction but the worst has passed. Now's it's a matter of toughing it out for now until I am fully back to 100%.

Not much else has been going on with me, besides a few tests and assignments I had to do for different classes but it's all good.

Oh, also I saw the new episode for volume 5 of RWBY and it was awesome! Granted I'm not a FIRST member so I'm only seeing the episodes that release on YouTube so I'm behind from the original air date for the episodes but the first episode was awesome nonetheless. Very interested to see what else pops up in the show that'll make me and you all excited, scared, tense, I don't know but this is going to be good. People have met, plans are being set, new possibilities and so on. This is going to be good everyone.

Thank you all for reading. Have a great day, hope everything goes well for everyone, and as always have fun reading.