Hello, one and all!
Jango: Hah! In true me form, Hyper's decided to leave you loyal readers hanging on the cliff of the end of the last KatJ chapter for another while and let you think about it and anticipate it longer! So instead, he gives you Silent Chapter Two. Not that I'm complaining, heck no.
Me: He is absolutely correct. I was struck by this sense of... Something. Made me want to make you guys wait more for KatJ. Must have been a side effect of the cliffhanger. Anyways, this is chapter two, so let's handle the first reviews of Silent.
Hey, these guys are definitely different from some of the ones who regularly review my other stories. Hi, hello. TheWick, Mute's power is based on his power in New Age. I will attempt to establish limitations, but it is true that i did send a particularly capable fighter into the mix. I hope I can humanize him a little more as the story moves forward.
Hey, West. Yes, Mute is intended to be mysterious. I... Don't know about that quote, but yes. His eye-contact communication will provide a challenge of sorts.
And Azariah Kyres. There are many complications with his different method of speech. Think, for a moment, what would happen if he got separated from his team by a wall and was in trouble. There are advantages and disadvantages to this new form of communication. I also can't change the semblance now; I've already started the story, and honestly, his semblance does in fact build upon and develop his character, or it can. It has quite the potential in my eyes. Besides, his boots already have the absorbing/releasing technique that he uses in combat to make his fighting more versatile. His semblance doesn't have to do that on the side, in my opinion. I hope that answers your concerns and alleviates them.
Okay. that's a great start to the story with honest reviews such as these. Read on, people. Have a nice day.
Chapter 2
This was school, apparently.
Mute had no way to recognize most of the things he saw unless someone explained it to him. He had been told of classrooms, and not of the dorms set for the teams. Despite the familiarity, Mute was left to believe that this dorm-looking place was indeed a classroom.
"This is our dorm," Blake told him after a few minutes, seeing him look around confusedly. She had an easy time understanding him even when he sent no messages, oddly enough.
Mute's expression cleared of confusion and he nodded. The other three around him seemed to be putting things in the packs they carried away in their personal stuff. Bookshelves and beds were already there, and the space everyone had would be less of an issue because Mute had no personal items at all.
He stood around without much to do until Ren asked for him to help move the beds. He noted that Nora had somehow gotten her bed in place herself when his back was turned. That girl kept managing things without appearing in his range of hearing and sight and intuition. He and Ren started moving Blake's bed where the girl was directing the two of them as they did so. When the boys had gotten it right, Blake nodded to them and gestured for Mute to help her with Ren's bed.
When Ren confirmed that his bed was in an acceptable place, Mute automatically moved over to one of the sides of his own bed to move it.
"Mute, what we were doing was allowing the owner of the bed to give the area a critical eye when the bed is being moved, so they can say if it's in the right place," Blake explained after both she and Ren watched him wait for them for five seconds.
Mute felt a burst of some odd emotion in his chest. It didn't feel good. It caused his face to heat up somewhat. Not enough to be noticeable from the outside, but he still felt that was something he could do without. The boy obediently stepped to the position where he should have gone and tried to think about which position would be the best for his bed. Considering he had nothing with the exception of a table besides the bed, he reckoned it would be best to take some leg room there and use his bed like a chair in case he needed the table for something. He directed his two quiet teammates through eye contact, which was proving to be far more efficient than actually speaking.
It occurred to Mute that as long as he wasn't separated by a wall, he could communicate even better than the others.
"Understandable." Ren nodded as Mute pointed this out. "As a team, we should strive to stay in more open areas so that Mute can talk to us."
"Got it." Blake went back to putting books away. Mute watched her panic as she pulled out a certain book and looked around, seeing that Ren and Nora had their backs turned. Mute expressed his confusion, and Blake sighed with relief instead of answering.
Mute narrowed his eyes. He would have to sneak a look at that book and discover what it was and what secrets it held. Blake was hiding something.
Considering she slipped it deep into the bookshelf so that the larger books might make it appear as if it was almost entirely hidden. Certainly suspicious. Mute made certain not to have his accusatory expression on when Blake turned back around, not intending to alert her that he understood something was up.
The boy pressed his hand against the bed. It felt like it would support him better than the last one at least. Just by a little bit. He nodded and turned to Nora…
Nora wasn't in the room.
Mute tilted his head while he heard Ren sigh behind him. "She'll be back." He assured Mute and Blake. "I know her."
Mute wanted to know why she would just disappear. "Any number of reasons." Ren responded "She can be… Difficult."
Mute realized that this boy was their best chance of understanding Nora to some extent.
Blake started getting out books and notebooks now. "We need to get Mute some supplies." She said, getting down to business. Mute wondered where Blake herself had gotten materials like that, as she had not had them when he met her on that train.
He wondered now if he needed to ask her what she was doing on that train in the first place. She had not told him very much about her. Neither had communicated too much since she found him at first, just led him here. He had some difficulty recognizing the kindness that must go into doing so for someone she hadn't met before at all. And yet, it gave him another one of those emotion-things that he could not understand. Not uncomfortable in the slightest, however.
Yes, Blake was a very complicated person that Mute could not fully understand. He decided that whatever possibly nefarious secrets that small book held, he would try to understand her anyhow.
Mute informed the two that he could look for Ozpin to request some materials, and Ren shook his head. "That won't be necessary." He assured Mute "There is a place on the campus to get school materials, along with stores for ammunition and materials to repair or create weapons."
Mute nodded, but then tilted his head, meeting Ren's eyes.
"I read this." Ren held up his scroll. He traced his finger along the screen, bringing up a list. "We all received one. I am… Not the only one to have read it, right?"
"...I was going to get to it." Blake mumbled as Mute brought out his own scroll, confusion written on his face. Ren sighed and facepalmed, betting that Nora had not read it either. Mute found the directory in his scroll and read through the places listed, classroom locations, store locations, sparring gym locations, as well as regular gym locations. He nodded and put the item away, turning towards the door.
"Please keep an eye out for Nora." Ren requested. Mute turned to give a nod, before he was out of the door.
Mute passed a door on his way out, hearing a shocking amount of noise from the other room. There seemed to be devices and exclamations and callouts from within the room. They sounded like the girl Ruby, and Yang. Those two were likely the ones calling out. Mute blinked as he heard some crashing and an 'aww…' from Ruby as something apparently fell. Mute blinked, and leaned away from the door somewhat.
Around the time he started walking away, An argument took place.
"You complete dolt!" Weiss exclaimed, "This is why you don't support bunk beds with spare books!"
"I only did it for that one leg…" Ruby muttered sheepishly.
"I got it." Yang lifted the bed easily and held it up in position again.
"Would it not be easier to acquire some lumber… Anywhere?" Pyrrha asked.
"Easier." Yang agreed "but not as exciting."
"Ah." Pyrrha nodded, taking the reasoning in stride.
"I know!" Ruby exclaimed, and Weiss sighed in advance as Ruby moved over through their particularly crowded room and procured a thermos that was in their stuff for whatever reason. It had a flat top and bottom. "And with this, we won't have to sacrifice a bunch of perfectly good books!"
"That looks even more unstable than the-" Weiss was cut short by Ruby bolting over with a flash of rose petals to set the perfectly sized and incredibly convenient-slash-inconvenient thermos thing between the first bed and the second. Yang cheerfully let it settle, happily discovering that the bed was perfectly level.
"Very convenient," Pyrrha commented. "Almost as if it was made for it."
"Where on earth did you even get that?" Weiss asked.
"I dunno," Ruby admitted, shrugging. "It was just in this pile of stuff here."
"Almost too convenient," Weiss muttered, looking at the thermos as if it might be holding a bunch of miniature grimm or something.
"Anyways~" Yang spoke up "We'd better get ready for classes and all, right?"
"Classes start at Nine in the morning." Ruby read from a printed schedule tucked in one of the binders she had on her.
Weiss stilled. "Nine o'clock!?" She asked.
"Yeah. Why?" Ruby asked.
"It's eight fifty-five you dunce!" She exclaimed.
Blake heard the door burst open across the hall, and she quickly peeked out along with her teammates. She saw Ruby's team peeking out from the door along with the rest of her team as well, and all seven stared down the hallways.
And seven voices cried out at once:
"We're gonna be late!"
Mute was taking notes. Having acquired some materials, the boy had quickly gathered them and walked into his first class. The turquoise-eyed boy gazed intently at the instructor, a gray-haired man with a mustache that stalked back and forth while speaking.
Mute's pencil flew across the paper as fast as the man spoke. He could not write every word the moment they were said, but he had learned after ten minutes that it would be more efficient to omit certain words to shorten how much he had to write, save space, and allow him to write down every last thing the man said.
Which was ultimately helpful, because this man talked constantly.
The man's many stories filled the pages of Mute's book even as the door burst open and a group of seven people rushed their way in. The girl in front tripped and suddenly all four were in a tangled heap on the ground nearby where the instructor stood. Professor port stopped for a while, giving Mute the opportunity to sharpen his pencil quickly.
Mute looked up once he was done, seeing the silent standoff between his professor and the seven people sprawled in a messy heap upon the ground. He recognized his teammates and Ruby's team as well. He watched them evenly, without pause. Ren managed to untangle himself from the pile of girls and step away, calmly brushing his uniform with his hands and doing his best to appear impassive.
Nora rolled off the top of the pile, landing on her feet and popping upright immediately. "Weeee're here!" she announced excitedly.
"Big sis, get off. You're too heavy…" Ruby groaned from the bottom of the pile. Yang complained about the implied insult but stood up without effort, which was impressive due to the fact that both Blake and Weiss had managed to land on top of her. Both girls were tossed off of her back when she stood. This allowed Ruby to get up as well, theatrically clutching her back.
Pyrrha had managed to avoid the chaos, having had enough reaction time to twist and roll to a stop next to the pile rather than in the middle of it, having winded up in a sitting position with her back leaned against the other girls. She too stood.
Once everybody was up, they noticed the class and Professor Port staring at the seven of them. "...I can see that." Port finally responded to Nora, who shot a brilliant grin at the old man. Five seconds later, Nora was hovering around Mute and looking at the many pages filled with words at his portion of the desk. Ren and Blake followed suit at a slower pace, leaving Ruby's team to listen to Port ask why they were late.
"They didn't clear out when they had the chance," Blake said evenly and quietly as she settled down on Mute's left. "A shame."
Mute nodded as he watched the girls look pleadingly at his team. He met Yang's eyes, feeling his leg twitch again, and he frowned at his desk for a moment. Then he returned his gaze to the group and loudly stomped his foot.
Clank.
He had done so on the impulse that he didn't want the girls getting possibly unfairly questioned. Another new kind of thought for him to consider. He met the instructor's eyes as he attracted the man's attention, and explained mentally that both of the teams had become preoccupied putting their rooms together, and that he only arrived on time because he had gone to get supplies and was not aware that the remainder of the teams had forgotten. He was willing to accept responsibility.
Port was taken aback by the boy for numerous reasons, including the boy's willingness to take blame that did not really belong to him as well as his unique form of communication. "I can understand simple miscommunication." Professor Port decided "And as this is the first day, I can hardly be too frustrated with any latecomers that might have gotten lost or lost track of time." he turned to the girls. "I do expect everyone to be on time tomorrow." he continued frankly, and the girls frantically nodded and rushed to take seats near Ren's team, as Mute had managed to acquire a respectful amount of desk space apart from other students.
If Mute wasn't a close acquaintance to the girls, they might have felt the impulse to give the creepy silent kid his personal space as well. "Thanks for the save, whatever you said to him." Yang thanked Mute as she sat in the row behind him along with her team. Mute simply gave her a short nod, and turned back.
His filled pages were missing. Mute blinked, and looked around for them. Had they fallen? No, his teammates had nicked the notes and had begun to copy them. He noticed they were searching the notes and writing select things that seemed important. The boy blinked before he pulled a fresh sheet of paper out and set his pencil to it as Port began his soliloquy once more.
Ten minutes later, the girls and Ren had determined that this was an incredibly boring class. Mute was about to get his notes back as Blake and Ren and Nora had finished catching up by writing the hidden important parts in Mute's notes down when Ruby and Yang leaned forward and nicked the notes once again right before they reached Mute, and passed them out to their team while Mute gave them a glance that literally said: "Really?"
"Yes, really," Ruby whispered to him before poring over the good sixteen sheets that she held.
Mute felt a surge of an odd foreign emotion now, and he rolled his eyes and turned back to his writing. Perhaps Blake would be able to explain that one. Yang smiled as the boy showed an attitude he likely didn't understand fully. She figured he was making progress.
Twenty minutes later, Mute had a lot more pages of notes. Port didn't pipe down for a single moment, and all he was doing was telling stories about himself and his colleagues. Ruby had regressed to drawing poorly made caricatures of the man, and Blake, Pyrrha, Nora, Yang, and even Ren seemed to be losing interest properly. Weiss maintained her retention, only for that to fade twenty minutes after that.
By the end of the class, many of the girls had fallen asleep and The teammates who had remained awake were left with bleary eyes. The exception was Mute, with forty full pages of the massive speech Professor Port gave.
Ruby, awoken by some of the kids prematurely putting their things away, blearily shook her head. She looked left and right, seeing the clock and realizing class was was going to end, and noticed Jaune still asleep. Not wanting him to remain asleep while everybody left, she picked one of the fifteen and a half pictures she had drawn, one of professor Port, and she crumpled it into a ball and launched it at impressive speeds straight for Jaune's mess of hair while Port was turned away.
Jaune perked up after being struck, looking about with the paper managing to have stayed on his head. Ruby's friend shrugged and picked up his stuff, turning away while the paper ball fell off of his head. Ruby smiled. Disaster averted.
The group met just outside the room of the classroom, and Ren addressed all of them. "I think we should meet in the library during our free period," he announced. He got generally positive responses immediately, and continued: "Mute, you wrote literally everything down. That's helpful for today, and we could all use your notes if you'll let us copy the rest down, but you will use a lot less paper if you write the more important parts of what you hear."
Mute tilted his head. Was not everything important?
"I honestly can't say a majority of what he said was too helpful," Blake answered. "I believe the most important skill we can learn for this class is how to weed out the helpful and relevant pieces of information scattered among his personal stories and focus on them, write just those down."
"Yeah… It's hard to listen to, though." Yang yawned.
"I had trouble myself, but ultimately I found it easier to pay attention once I was searching for those little tidbits that actually mean something for what we should be doing as future huntresses." Weiss pointed out.
Mute and Ren looked at her.
"...And hunters." Weiss added, noticing the looks. "Anyways, we need to get to our next class."
"On the quintuple!" Ruby exclaimed, bolting off at speeds none of them could match.
"...Isn't it 'on the double'?" Ren asked.
"Nah, she's moving too fast for that. Let's go, everybody!" Yang walked after her sister.
"Woohoo!" Nora was gone, leaving the others blinking in surprise. Nora's speed was ridiculous as well, although there was something very different between Ruby's speed and Nora's speed.
"Nora!" Ren exclaimed, starting to run after her.
"She should at least check her map." Blake met Mute's eyes.
Mute figured she had done something like memorize it already. He wouldn't put it past the strange girl. Blake blinked in acknowledgment, before the both of them traveled in the same direction. This left Weiss and Pyrrha standing alone in the corridor.
"So…" Weiss trailed off quickly, wanting to say something but, blast those six, she had no material other than the typical 'what a bunch of dunderheads', which Pyrrha had seemed not to appreciate much the last time. Pyrrha, for her part, was waiting for Weiss to continue awkwardly. "...Never mind…" Weiss decided, walking forward. Pyrrha watched after the girl for a few moments, confused, but decided that getting to class would be more important.
Ruby stared. This guy was moving almost as fast as she could!
Professor Oobleck was zipping about the room at intense speeds as he looked each person in the eyes. "Students!" he exclaimed, and then launched into his lesson.
Mute's eyes widened. The man was changing topics too fast for him to take proper notes. Gritting his teeth, the boy wrote down what he could in a heroic display of writing speed, but he wasn't nearly fast enough, forced to abandon many of the things the man said to keep up.
Blake chose to listen to the man's words instead and attempt to memorize them. It seemed he was still explaining the class itself, though he was nearly done with that.
And now thirty seconds had passed.
This was going to be a long day.
"Mute, cut that out." Weiss hissed. "You're going to use up every page you have trying to write that all down!"
"It would be easier just to try and remember what he says at first…" Blake agreed slowly. Mute straightened, having been bent over his paper, and he blinked a few times before setting the very dull pencil down and staring at Oobleck, following the man with his eyes and trying now to simply listen and memorize.
"I think it's the coffee," Ruby whispered to her sister.
"Yyyep." Yang agreed. "Wonder if we'd be able to understand him if we stole it."
"Let's not get so hasty... until it really becomes a problem." Pyrrha murmured, wanting to avoid doing something negative yet admitting to herself that she did not have high optimism that she could grasp everything the man said if he continued speaking so quickly.
"Are there any questions?" Oobleck asked. A kid behind Ruby and Ren's teams, a girl by the name of Carla, raised her hand. "Yes, young lady?"
"Could you go over that again, but at a pace so that we can actually understand you?"
Silence for a moment, and Oobleck had the decency to appear somewhat embarrassed. "Of course," he said, his words still quick but at least comprehensible, and thanks to Carla, everybody was able to understand what was expected of them in class during the next several minutes. Mute discarded his messy, out of order notes and drew up new ones.
"So who's she?" Nora asked brightly.
"I dunno, but she's part of Jaune's team I think," Ruby responded quietly.
Mute turned his head, looking at the group of four. The girl, Carla, looked a bit worried and shy, which was odd, considering how she had spoken out before anyone else. Her hands carefully folded on the desk and her back was a touch bent. Her white hair reached down to the small of her back, and was curiously tipped with two inches of blue color, even as the hair spilled all across her back and shoulders. Jaune's other teammates consisted of a rather big guy. He had a deep tan and heavily built muscles that were clearly defined as he crossed his arms. He had large wolf ears of the same color as his black hair clearly visible, and Mute reckoned he would find a wolf's tail there as well. The last member was another girl, this one with brown hair pulled into a bun, her rectangular glasses amplifying the stern look on her face. Mute knew instantly that this girl was going to get along very well with Professor Goodwitch.
He turned back to find the professor extremely close to him and staring at him. "Was there something you needed from team JALC?" he asked. Mute informed the man that he had been simply memorizing the faces of the teammates of an acquaintance of his. "...There will be plenty of time for making acquaintances later, Mute." Oobleck admonished the boy, who nodded shortly.
Whispers broke out around the room.
"The guy didn't say anything, or did he?"
"I didn't see his lips move at all…"
"How'd the professor understand him?"
"Is this why he's called Mute?"
"Everyone!" Oobleck was in the center of the room, taking a sip of his seemingly endless coffee. "Please, focus! We have work to do!"
And class continued after he received reluctant confirmations from everyone.
"Class dismissed!" Oobleck said quite a while later, a few milliseconds before the bell rang. People got out of there like they were on Oobleck's coffee.
"He was… Strange." Weiss commented bluntly.
"But he's gotta be strong." Yang pointed out. "He's a hunter, after all. All our teachers are."
"That's a very good point." Pyrrha nodded.
Mute tuned out from the conversation, having little to add and admittedly feeling another new unpleasant emotion after the instructor called him out for not paying attention, and approached Jaune and his team. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the girl had noticed him immediately and was looking right at him. Mute blinked. The girl had a red right eye and a blue left eye. That was very odd.
He politely greeted Jaune, as the blonde was clearly an acquaintance of Ruby's. Then he turned to the other three, wondering who they were. The brunette blinked in surprise at the redhead's ability to communicate without speaking, And Jaune really hadn't spoken to him much, so he reacted, but the other two did not react as badly.
"Name's Arthur." the brute of a teenager replied shortly.
"...Hello." the girl with the strange hair and eyes said slowly. "My name is Carla." she continued. She looked away quickly. The girl was acting very strangely.
"And I am Leslie." the final girl proclaimed. "A pleasure to meet you. Mute, was it?" she offered her hand.
Mute stared at it blankly for a moment before he remembered what it meant and he grasped it, accepting the handshake. He gave her a nod, although his blank expression failed to change at all. Before any more words could be shared, Ruby zipped up to the group. "Jaune!" she exclaimed "Hey. How's your first school day going?"
Jaune rubbed his head. "Uh…" he muttered. "Fine? I guess?"
"He needs training," Arthur grunted, swishing his massive wolf tail and crossing his arms. "A lot of training."
"But we'll handle that," Leslie assured Ruby and Mute quickly. "And he has proven to be good at snap decisions in battle."
"He'll survive." Carla nodded.
"Aww, guys…" Jaune muttered, embarrassed. "Thanks?"
"Welcome," Arthur grunted in reply.
"Well, uh, that's great!" Ruby said awkwardly "But…. We gotta get to our next class, right? Let's go!"
Mute nodded in acknowledgment and turned away from the group. As he and Ruby walked away, Mute turned back to the white haired girl with the blue. Something seemed very… Contradictory about her. He had difficulty placing it.
"C'mon, best friend!" Yang said cheerily, still determined to drag Mute everywhere as she was doing right now with her arm wrapped around his shoulders. He struggled, but despite having impressive strength, Yang outmatched him in the sheer power department.
Blake just met his eyes with amusement this time instead of rescuing him. Traitor.
Mute held the side of his head while Glynda had asked them to do something for her instead of droning on. The pre-assessment was easily more accomplishable than writing everything the instructor said down. It was the fourth class of the day now. Lunch and free period come directly after this.
Mute was not in this position because he was bored. True, he had completed the assignment to the best of his abilities and freely admitted when he did not know something, which interestingly was in regards to many of the questions on the test. However, he was in that position because, as usual, conflict had struck. What had been that tone he used? Why had the word 'traitor' come up in his thoughts, especially accompanied by the urge to roll his eyes? Mute shook his head slowly, wondering how he was supposed to learn what that all meant.
"Are you finished?" Glynda Goodwitch asked, looming above the boy.
Mute nodded to her and handed her the sheet of paper. Professor Goodwitch added it to her short pile of already completed pre-assessments, which included three others, and Leslie's. Mute had discovered that Leslie was quite the fan of Glynda. She had run up and asked a dozen questions of the woman, who answered them quickly and efficiently and asked the girl to sit down before Leslie could accidentally prevent class from starting.
It was Blake and Arthur that managed to overhear the teacher muttering: "Those three teams, hmm?" likely referring to how difficult they would be.
Arthur's ears twitched in response as he slowly answered his questions. He seemed more the brawny type than the brainiac type, although Mute refused to advance such assumptions. For all he knew, the boy could have quite a lot of sense in the battlefield compared to understanding in the classroom. Or he could just be taking his time, which Mute took into account as an option because the big guy's face was impassive and Mute could not see his paper.
Slightly bored, Mute folded his hands over each other on the desk and watched Glynda with his always intent gaze. The woman's own gaze constantly traveled around the room, intent on keeping order. She would glare at people who were talking until they noticed and shut up. She met Mute's eyes and simply moved on.
Pyrrha finished her paper next, followed closely by Weiss, and then a lot of people started turning the papers in. Pyrrha relaxed, knowing that she would get near full marks on this pre-assessment. Weiss felt confident, as did Ruby and Yang and Ren. Nora was contemplating taking a nap versus eating one of the pancakes she had snuck out of the room before they left. Blake was certain she had done very well. Arthur was still answering questions. Leslie knew she had full marks. Carla had an unreadable expression on her face and Jaune was silently panicking with his head in his hands.
Leslie, sitting next to Jaune, was torn. She wanted to help her teammate, who seemed adorably incompetent, but at the same time, helping would be cheating. Even Arthur seemed to be getting more questions correct than their leader, and he did everything slowly.
Snap!
...And powerfully, Leslie reflected, looking at the snapped pencil in Arthur's hand even as he held it up and inspected it. "I got it," Leslie said again, pulling a riding crop similar to Glynda's, though with a different design, out of seemingly nowhere, and pointed her weapon at the pencil. It flew back together immediately, and she put it away.
Glynda noticed this immediately, raising an eyebrow. She had seen Arthur and Carla battle, and they had unique fighting styles, but this Leslie girl seemed to be taking a lot of inspiration from Glynda herself. She added to that the girl's excited behavior at the beginning of class and looked back down at some of the paperwork in her hand. The girl had made it into the school, after all, so she must have some degree of skill with the riding crop.
Glynda searched the groups of people gathered in her room silently with her eyes. She analyzed each one and remembered some of the special things about them.
Pyrrha had exceptional, even incredible skill using both her semblance and her weapons in perfect harmony. Her spear could be used in many ways, including the ability to use it as a rifle. The sheer versatility and speed of the girl made up for any potential shortcomings.
Next to her was Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Her glyphs were also very versatile. However, she was reported to have quite the attitude and a certain… Haughtiness. Glynda hoped that with the help of her teammates, she would grow past that. She did have potential, after all.
Yang Xiao Long separated Weiss and Ruby. The girl was impressively strong, but her method of attacking was incredibly direct and not too versatile. Thankfully, she had extensive experience with the martial arts and her lack of versatility was made up for by sheer power.
Ruby herself seemed to be drawing again, as she had done several times. Passing the time in which nothing happened during class by entertaining herself. She was young, two years younger than most of the rest of them. She was incredibly quick and her weapon of choice was one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed, and she wielded it very well for someone her age. Yet, she was inexperienced. She needed to learn quite a lot.
One row below them sat the team led by Lie Ren. Ren himself was skilled in martial arts as well, specializing in palm strikes. His weapons of choice were very efficient for quick strikes, and dealt damage quickly and properly. He had little endurance; the boy would likely be sent flying by a good hit.
Nora Valkyrie sat to his left. Being the only energetic character in a team full of people who were generally… Quieter seemed not to have had too much of a negative effect on her. In fact, her energy was likely going to hold the team together in the near future, and make communication more likely to occur with her antics. Her weapon of course, a hammer mixed with a grenade launcher, made her the heavy hitter of the group.
To Ren's right sat Mute. No last name, no backstory. An enigma. He seemed not to blink often. He was extremely attentive, and both powerful and fast. Glynda was uncertain of how to feel about the boy. His steady yet oddly blank gaze never faltered, creeping out everybody near him. Despite this, he was able to accomplish what Ruby's team had managed to accomplish in an eighth of the time, using a known weakness against the deathstalker. His blades were as sharp as Ruby's scythe, and his heel could slam something as powerfully as a heavy hammer. Despite his impressive nature, he had a critical flaw. Communication. How was he expected to communicate in an instance where he was forcibly separated from his team and eye contact was blocked? He would be cut off, and then someone might get hurt. A great asset… Yet also a possible hindrance.
And finally for their team was Blake. The girl's shadow semblance was extremely useful, and the more Blake mastered it the more efficient she would be in battle. She had already had extensive experience in battle thus far, and Glynda certainly knew who she was. Ozpin kept no secrets from her. The headmaster was particularly interested in helping the young girl, despite Blake not being very open about her troubled past.
And the third row up housed the third team of people who seemed to be getting along nicely. First was Jaune Arc. Glynda frowned as she looked at the frustrated boy. No matter what his transcripts said, he was not ready for the level of combat expected of him. His weapons were low-tech; They looked practically like antiques, suitable for combat but woefully inadequate compared to the weapons his peers wielded.
Next to him sat Arthur, possibly the most brutish person his age that Glynda had seen in a long time. Without Leslie there to back him up, the wolf faunus would have broken at least five pencils already. It was ridiculous. Glynda had not seen a specific semblance in action for the boy, but she suspected it had something to do with his immense (and constant) strength.
Leslie, to Arthur's left, kept glancing at professor noted that she seemed to have taken the role of a role model for Leslie, and the girl was taking off with it. Her semblance was also a mystery so far to Glynda, but if it wasn't similar…
Finally, there was Carla. The enigma. Glynda had seen her acting in this reserved way a few times so far, but just by chance, she saw the girl with an odd look in her eyes and… Pranking another student with some incredibly elaborate trick that Glynda hadn't recognized in all of her time as a student or an instructor. Then she had shaken her head and resumed her normal facial expression and went back to what she had been doing. Extremely odd. And yet she was a capable warrior all the same.
The group of twelve were the three teams that Glynda predicted would cause the most commotion in and out of her classroom. And as they all seemed to sit in that perfect trapezoid of seats in her circular room, they likely would be… Communicating… All the time. With the exception of Mute, who took things very seriously, and Leslie, who seemed to idolize her.
Well, perhaps spread amongst the teams, those three could keep things in some form of order.
Leslie aimlessly spun her riding crop between the fingers of her left hand. The item was the same brown as her hair, and the tip of it was adorned by what appeared to be an odd small hoop with spikes all along it, and a brown handle as well. It had a place to open and put dust cartridges in within the handle itself. She only required a small amount of aura to fix something, like Arthur's pencil.
She caught Professor Goodwitch's gaze, and smiled brightly. She had always admired the skill with dust that the woman demonstrated, and had intended to be capable of much the same. It was a shame, she admitted, that she did not have the semblance to use telekinesis, but she felt that her semblance was close enough.
Glynda didn't return the smile. Instead, she stepped up and took the papers that Arthur and Jaune had, as she had seen both of the boys were finally done filling in answers. Arthur's answers had been gathered slowly but many were correct. Jaune's paper was… A mess.
"It seems a majority of you are well informed about the topics involved in my class already," Glynda announced as she looked through the pages swiftly. "This will help me iron out our curriculum this term. Be aware that the grades for these particular papers will be available to you, but will not ultimately affect your final grade. That is, after all, what a pre-assessment is."
Jaune sighed with relief.
"I will bring the papers graded to you all as soon as possible, but for now, I shall explain what our class is all about." Glynda continued, setting the stack of papers on the desk and stalking to the middle of the room.
Mute tapped his pencil down several minutes later when the professor decided to take a dramatic pause from her words. Glynda, thankfully, was a very efficient instructor. There was more 'useful information' in two pages than in seventeen of Port's class' pages of notes. Professor Goodwitch continued to get straight to the point every time she spoke. Many of the students who had the other instructors earlier were quite relieved by this, with some exceptions. A few oddballs had been quite interested in the stories that Professor Port was saying.
Towards the end of class, Glynda stepped back to the center of the room and nodded. "I appreciate the effort of most of my students in this class to remain on task today." she complimented the lot of them. "And I will further appreciate it if you keep it up. The bell will ring in thirty seconds, so feel free to pack up your things, and tomorrow, we will put much more effort and emphasis on learning the art of combat and its complexities."
The bell rang. People cleared out quickly, as they looked forward to eating in the mess hall and having a free period directly afterward.
"Professor Goodwitch!" Leslie excitedly bounded up to the woman, pushing her glasses back up over her eyes again.
"Yes?" Glynda asked, giving her signature 'no nonsense' look to the girl.
"I uh I just wanted to say, you are very much my inspiration for wanting to become a huntress and I'm so glad to finally meet you in person and you're exactly how I was told you'd be and-... Iwanttoleanfromyou!" Leslie got out.
Glynda blinked, honestly a little surprised. "I do have a particularly busy schedule, dear," she said frankly.
Leslie's excitement dropped a few notches, but Glynda wasn't done. "I do, however, have free time on certain days. What is it you need?"
"I want to fight like you do." Leslie said, taking a 'no nonsense' tone herself. "And I hoped… You could teach me some of your techniques using dust."
Glynda found no reason not to humor the girl who had obviously spent a lot of time working with her technique to be similar to her, and the woman was admittedly flattered anyhow. "I see. I have an open time after hours on Thursdays, if you would like to meet me in my office at that time." Glynda responded, pulling out her scroll and jotting it down.
Leslie had stars in her eyes, and she couldn't hold the serious expression anymore. "You mean it?" she asked, almost thinking it was too good to be true.
"Yes, of course. Seven to eight-thirty PM, Thursdays." Glynda said, watching the brunette hurriedly schedule that in on her scroll and even set herself two reminders for it. "Don't be late."
"I won't!" Leslie exclaimed excitedly, and she waved at the woman before practically skipping after her teammates, who were at the door and patiently waiting for her.
Professor Goodwitch decided to sit down. That had been quite the odd experience.
Jaune smiled at the brunette. "Nice." he complimented her.
"Hey, short sentences are Arthur's thing." Carla quipped with a smile on her face.
"Hmph" was all Arthur had to contribute.
Jaune chuckled. "Okay. It's time for lunch, and the others went to the mess hall already. Let's meet them there."
"Okay," Leslie responded shortly.
"And now she's doing it." Carla looked away. "Anyways, yeah, we should go."
When Carla sat across from him, Mute analyzed her more closely. He was sure of it now: she wasn't hunched over. It looked like it at first, but the bulge of her back only made it looked like she was hunched over. When one really looked, it was clear she was sitting up straight. There was something concealed under her shirt, tight against her back. Mute wondered if that was her weapon or something else.
He watched as her eyes changed from lively to slightly confused as she watched Jaune get up from his plate to get something from the soda machines he saw on the end, and she, still holding the very odd expression, reached behind her, her arm definitely further back than the back of her shirt, and mysteriously pulled out a container of something that she sprinkled onto her leader's food. Mute and his teammates watched as she seemed to put it away, and he blinked. The moment he did, the girl seemed back to normal.
"So," Carla said as if she hadn't just done something to Jaune's food. "You guy's been holding up okay? I found Professor Port and Professor Oobleck to be kind of difficult to listen to."
Everyone continued staring at her for a bit, though Nora's stare was one of admiration rather than the odd feeling everyone else was getting. Finally, Leslie spoke up. "I could follow Oobleck's words okay." she said "But my problem with Port was that I couldn't tell when I should listen and when I didn't need to listen. The important bits were strewn so sporadically into his speech that it was impossible to tell."
"Well, our note-taking savior here has our back." Yang patted Mute on the back, hard.
"Which I'm very grateful for." Jaune admitted as he sat down, a several cans labeled 'people like grapes' in his arms. "Grape soda anybody?"
"Everybody likes grapes," Yang replied cheerily, picking a can out of his arms, and everybody aside from Mute, Ren, and blake took one as well.
Jaune set the unused three cans aside as he opened the top of his. Then he set it aside. Everybody watched silently, tension rising, as he cut into the meat on his plate and brought his fork up to his mouth. He stopped. "...Why is everybody staring at me?" he asked.
No response. The boy shrugged and put it in his mouth. Then his eyes bugged out a bit as he forced himself to swallow. "Spicy!" he exclaimed, grabbing his soda and promptly draining it. He gasped a few times as Nora cackled at Carla's trick.
"What're you talking about, Arc?" Yang asked, chuckling. "Ours are just fine. Look!" she took a bite and chewed slowly, tantalizingly.
Carla sighed. "Sorry, Jaune. I'll get you a new plate," she said, taking the boy's plate and walking off with it.
"So what's her deal?" Weiss asked.
"Weiss!" Ruby hissed.
"What?" Weiss shot back, her tone not exactly inviting the younger girl to continue.
"We don't know," Arthur said. "She's unsure herself."
"Carla is… Complicated. Sometimes she just kind of zones out and pranks somebody, and then comes to her senses." Leslie explained "But if anybody's going to talk about it in detail, it should be her. It's not our place to discuss what she has to deal with."
Carla returned with a full plate for Jaune. "Sorry." she apologized again, and sat down in her spot.
Nora was leaning towards her. "You gotta tell me how you made that super spicy stuff in the container appear out of thin air," she said.
"I… Can't," Carla admitted. Ren sighed with relief the instant the girl confirmed this. "People tell me I do that sort of thing, but I don't remember it."
"If you don't feel comfortable talking about it, then perhaps it can wait," Pyrrha told her before she could stutter on. The girl certainly didn't appear comfortable. Carla smiled gratefully at Pyrrha before sending Nora an apologetic look.
"Aww…" Nora sat back down on the chair heavily, as she had leaned forward enough to have left the seat.
"The eye color thing's pretty cool, though," Ruby commented, changing the topic. "You're left eye's this awesome sky blue and your right's the same color as Crescent Rose!" she exclaimed.
"Ah… Thanks." Carla nodded.
Mute casually ate his food as more banter arose among the other eleven people. He didn't join in, didn't get involved. He had a lot on his mind. What was Blake hiding in her bookshelf? Why did he act so oddly when Blake smirked at him instead of getting him out of Yang's grip? Why did Yang make him twitchy just by being nearby? And how on earth was he supposed to separate the 'important' things from the 'unimportant' things in taking notes?
Mute did his best to hide his discomfort, but Blake was used to seeing that look all the time. She let it slide for ten minutes while people cleared their plates of food and drink, and then just continued talking for a while. Then, she put her hand firmly on his shoulder. "Mute," she said.
The boy looked at her, confusion written on his face. "What's wrong?" she asked. He blinked at her, uncertain as to why she was asking.
"Aww, maybe he's just feeling a bit left out!" Nora exclaimed.
"Nora…" Ren sighed.
Mute simply decided to inform them that he had a lot on his mind, and that he barely understood any of it."
"Well, maybe we can help," Leslie said, her arms crossed on the table.
"Go for it," Arthur added.
Mute let out a long breath through his nose. He closed his eyes for a while, and then looked directly at the people across from him, only choosing to mention the odd feeling he got when Blake hadn't saved him from Yang, and the impulse to roll his eyes.
"That's being amused and making a joke," Carla said immediately. Mute didn't really understand, and it showed in his eyes even if he couldn't communicate like that.
"Yikes," Yang said as she leaned over to see his eyes. "If it's this guy's first time ever finding something funny, We have a lot to work on."
"Hey, Blake." Ruby piped up "You and Mute were around each other for a few days at least before the rest of us got here, right?"
Blake looked over at her slowly. "Yes. How did you know?" she asked.
"Well… 'Cause you guys were here already when we got off the plane and stuff, and I just thought you'd most likely been there for several days because you knew your way around and stuff." Ruby analyzed, causing several of the people around her to blink in surprise.
"...Yes, that is correct." Blake acknowledged.
Yang theatrically pointed an accusing finger at her. "And it didn't click that this kid needed to learn how to laugh?" she asked, hiding the smile that almost reached her mouth as she did so.
Mute felt no ill feelings towards Blake. He wouldn't have known that being amused by something was normal. He didn't even recognize the feeling, but Yang had given him a word to associate it with. He couldn't understand why Yang was suddenly accusing the girl of failing something.
Blake didn't catch the humorous glint in Yang's eyes either. "It took several days for me to recognize that Mute had little understanding of most emotions, and his story about being woken up by some mysterious person left both of us confused." she retorted smoothly.
"Perhaps it would be best for Mute to learn these things… Slowly." Ren said, a bit of authority growing in his tone of voice. "Yang, you overwhelm him."
"What's that supposed to mean?" the hothead asked immediately, her eyes flaring red for a moment.
"It means that you're going to scare him at this rate." Pyrrha supplied, trying to be helpful.
Yang deflated. "Oh. I getcha." she acknowledged. "Sure."
"I'm sure he'll be fine. Getting pulled around by you isn't too bad…" Ruby consoled her sister. "And I should know."
"She should know?" Leslie asked, directed at Carla.
Carla shrugged.
"That was fun." Yang seemed lost in a memory.
Mute looked at his empty plate. His eyes narrowed slightly. Something about this seemed unnatural. He felt like his thought process should be somewhere along the lines of 'this porcelain item is on top of the table and has nothing on it: useless'. That made sense to him. Instead it was 'i've finished my food, and am sitting her awkwardly while people I know discuss me in great detail for reasons I can't comprehend and I have a bad feeling that I don't like that makes me think and I don't know what to do so it's probably best if I just keep staring at my plate until somebody gives me a direct order that I can follow'.
He clenched his eyes shut for a count of three, and opened them again. He wondered what the girl had done to him, if she was the cause of all of this. Looking out at the group that he now trusted, Mute decided, now might be a good time to show that trust.
…
…
…
"She sounds really weird," Weiss commented. "This golden girl, I mean. Her words are cryptic, she makes gold tablets appear out of nowhere, etcetera. I'd hate to wake up like that."
Maybe Yang reminds you of someone you saw?" Ruby asked, voicing one of the options Mute had gone over in his head.
…
"Oh." Ruby murmured. "Yeah, you mentioned something like that, or, you said she said something like that."
"Well, we trust you," Ren said calmly. "You don't have to worry about any of us talking about what she said your… Previous life was like."
"But it would explain why your memories are so disjointed," Leslie commented.
"Uh… Did you guys totally gloss over the 'different world' thing?" Jaune asked, a bit tense. Many of the others blinked and then chuckled.
"Sorry, but isn't that, like, crossover material?" Yang quipped.
"Well, I was wondering why Mute had near-violent reactions when Yang pops up in front of him. If he was like that before, maybe Yang looks something like his previous target." Blake spoke up. Everyone felt a chill as she said this. "The memory, disjointed and inaccurate or not, could be causing that."
…
"Eh, you couldn't get rid of me if you tried." Yang consoled the silent boy, patting his head.
"But what if-" Weiss was cut off suddenly by Blake.
"It won't."
"Hang on, how do you know?" Weiss asked irritably.
"Weiss…" Ruby murmured.
"No, I need to know this," Weiss argued.
Ren sighed. "Weiss, Mute trusts us enough to tell us all of these odd things revolving around how he came to be here, and even if it doesn't answer all of the questions we have, we need to share that trust. It's how a team works."
Weiss opened her mouth to retort, but slowly closed it again. His last sentence had discouraged her from further argument. Still, she appeared rather wary of Mute from that point forward.
"Well, weird in-the-dark backstory aside…" Ruby murmured awkwardly. Then she brightened. "Ooh! Let's talk weapons!"
Many of the people watching her sweatdropped. "...Sure." Pyrrha agreed slowly. "I use a shield and a spear that can become a short sword or a rifle as fast as I need it to."
"Hammers for life and pancakes!" Nora exclaimed very loudly, attracting all sorts of attention.
"...I do not know what she means by pancakes, but I use this." Leslie held up her weapon. "I sort of got major inspiration from Professor Goodwitch, so I've learned how to fight like her… Mostly. I have a lot to learn."
"Sword." Arthur grunted, widening his arms in a gesture that boiled down to 'it's really freaking big.'
"I can use a pair of knives as well as a cutlass," Carla explained calmly, but shortly.
"Sword and Shield," Jaune muttered dejectedly. He reflected on the fact that he did manage to find himself a team with teammates who, none of which had high-tech gear, just like him. Well, Jaune reminded himself, Arthur's sword did fold in on itself to actually be carryable. Even his shield did that.
Yang stood up dramatically once more. "I am the grand master of punching all the things!" she declared loudly, again attracting attention. She mimed jabbing at an invisible foe a few times. "Yeah!"
"That you are, Yang!" Ruby cheered along with her. "And anything she doesn't punch, I cut into teensy bits with Crescent Rose!"
"The gun-scythe thing." Jaune guessed.
"Customizable, high-impact sniper rifle, Jaune." Ruby corrected him while sticking her tongue out at him. Many of the group members chuckled, even Ren.
Weiss rolled her eyes, thinking the action was particularly childish, but then saw that everyone had their eyes on her this time. "I use my rapier, Myrtenaster." She said. "And glyphs, and many dust techniques."
"Ooh." Leslie seemed to get an idea. "We could compare notes on dust spells!"
Weiss couldn't help but smile. "I think that would be beneficial to the both of us. Thank you." she nodded to the girl.
As it came to be Ren's turn, he sighed. "I use a pair of automatic handguns equipped with collapsible blades. I use dust as the main source of power for its firing rate. Stormflower is its name, and I can easily hide them in my sleeves."
Blake nodded. "I use my blades, which consist of my sheath and the katana within. And I can turn the katana into a pistol with ease, and use an elastic ribbon to rapidly fling it about, for lack of a better phrase. It's… Far more in depth than it sounds."
"I believe you," Weiss said shortly as she turned to Mute. "Well?"
Mute blinked, supposing they wanted him to do what they had done. Mentally sighing, as he could not simply say it aloud, the boy stepped onto his chair, balancing easily on one leg and holding up his boot. Then he flicked his toes downwards, unsheathing the sickle-like blades hidden within the slots on the base of his boot. Then he sheathed them again with another flick. He held his boot up to his arm and struck his ankle against his wrist, the force of which, caused the blade within the heel of the boot to unsheath. The boy pulled his leg away, and the blade slid back into its proper position. Finally, he did a similar trick with his foot aiming the other direction, revealing a blade within the toe portion of his boots.
He slowly sat down, his demonstration complete.
"You totally forgot about the energy absorption thing, but whatevs." Nora shrugged, then leaned forward. Everyone stared, wondering how on earth she had gotten the pancake she held in her hand. It had syrup on it and everything, and pancakes weren't being served right now. "His boots totally absorbed the energy of the grimm and he used it to rip through them! It was… Awesome!"
"What kind of metal can do that anyways?" Leslie asked. Mute simply didn't know, a message that caused the girl to comically faceplant. "You don't know?" she asked incredulously. "Are you sure it's not radioactive and stuff?"
"Hey, he's used them for years, we're assuming." Blake pointed out.
"Yeah…" the remainder of Weiss' sentence was extremely quiet, but Arthur and Blake heard every word once again.
"How dare you," Blake growled. "He trusted us not to call him crazy when he told his story of waking up, and we need to trust him in return!"
Weiss glared at her. "And what exactly-" she stopped as Pyrrha put her hand on the white-haired girl's shoulder.
"Weiss, I don't think now is a good time for voicing concerns." Pyrrha calmly admonished the slightly younger girl, nodding to Mute, who's eyes had shadowed over and his back had hunched somewhat. "Yes, there are risks, but there are risks in everything we do. We are here in this very school to take risks, to put our lives on the line for others. Why is Mute any different?"
"Because… Because…" Weiss stammered slowly, but trailed off and looked away. She gritted her teeth.
"We'll give you time to decide whether you can trust him or not," Pyrrha assured the girl, and met everyone's eyes. Despite not being Mute, she was capable of sending the message that she really meant all of them would do as she said or there may be consequences out of Pyrrha's control.
Mute stared at his plate again, a bad feeling in his stomach once more. Bad because he thought Weiss was right when she was muttering. He was different. He was dangerous. He was probably responsible for killing people he didn't remember, and he probably was quick enough to betray someone without instant retaliation or defense.
Mute stood up. He was going to ask after Glynda's grading on his pre-assessment, and, according to him, wished to do so alone. The boy walked away, his footsteps disturbingly silent considering he was constantly wearing metal on his feet.
Mute nodded respectfully to Glynda as he stepped into the room.
"Was there something you needed?" Glynda asked. Mute nodded and took a seat opposite her desk. He was interested in knowing his results on the pre-assessment ahead of time. Glynda sighed and pulled a familiar stack of papers filled with short answer questions and answers.
"Mute, you did exceptionally well… In every combat related question. Everything else… You knew next to nothing or absolutely nothing about." she told him as she looked at the paper. She lowered it so that she could meet his almost blank eyes above it. "It is almost as if you have spent every waking hour of your life training to fight and not bothering to or being unable to learn anything else. It has me concerned."
Mute blinked, tilting his head. Was the fighting style he used insufficient?
Professor Goodwitch sighed again. "Mute, many aspects of battle revolve around this 'everything else'. There will be scenarios—plenty of scenarios—in which if you just go in for the direct attack, you are going to get killed no matter what skill level you have." she explained calmly. "And your inability to communicate like the rest of us leaves you at a disadvantage in that regard."
She set the paper down on the table. "I have made notes to this, like the others I have graded so far. Feel free to take it early, as you are already here. And Mute, everything I go over in my class is immensely important. Do not take anything for granted."
Mute nodded slowly, and took the page from the woman's desk. Mentally thanking the woman, he turned around and walked out.
He walked alone, having half of a free period left. The day was bright as it had been for a long time. Mute looked around at the relaxing students that lay either in the sun or the shade, enjoying themselves. For a moment, Mute wondered if he was going to be like that someday, when he… Learned.
He dismissed it and continued walking. He had nothing to do, but that did not stop the boy from walking on as if he was the busiest person on the planet.
Perhaps the dorm would be quiet. He reflected on that thought. The others were likely in the library or something, 'hanging out', as Yang would call it. And they knew about everything he knew about now. His eyes narrowed. He wondered if that was the right decision.
Ultimately, he had to accept that he had made the choice. Yang trusted him even if he kept getting twitchy around her. Many of the others trusted him in return for his trust to them. Weiss, however, seemed to worry a lot about him instead.
Mute gritted his teeth. This was not supposed to be difficult. This was supposed to be a case of 'this one I can trust, this one I cannot, and I will interact with them if need be'.
No, it was 'I understand why Weiss didn't trust me as quickly as the others did and the fact that the others trusted me immediately was downright strange after all the insane information brought to light, but it still hurts and I don't know why.'
Far too in depth. Mute shook his head violently to clear the thoughts. This was not the time.
He walked back inside after going through the courtyard and moved through the hall at a constant pace. Apparently he was glaring, which seemed to have been causing the teams that passed him to give the orange-haired boy a healthy distance as he walked past them. As much as they could manage in a hallway, anyways.
The boy swiftly opened the door to his dorm room, seeing that it was empty, and closing it. Looking straight at his bed, he noticed a parcel on the comforter. Mute blinked. Gold. The person who wrapped it chose gold as a color for the wrapping paper and the ribbon.
"Somebody likes you."
Mute shivered and whirled, bring his foot up halfway before cutting himself off. Why was it that his extraordinary senses were failing him? Was Blake that quiet?
He looked at her, letting his surprise die down, before he had the inescapable urge to look away. His gaze falling on the parcel, he picked it up slowly, and tugged at the ribbon. Frowning as the material was rather tough to rip up, he held the small package up to one of the blades from his boots, slicing it through and taking it off.
He unfolded the wrapping and pulled out four small metal pieces. White metal, very similar to the metal of his boots. And a small piece of paper. Written on the paper was: 'I think this is as forgetful as I've been in years, but here's some things I meant to give you. You can snap them into place on the slots in your boots to prevent the blades coming out. This'll let you train without threatening your peers. You'll be able to remove them when you need to.'
Mute looked at the eight metal pieces in his hand. He lifted a foot and pushed the metal piece into the slot, watching it seem to click into place. He did the same multiple times, switching feet when possible, until he had sealed all of the slots on his boots. Then he set everything down.
Blake snatched up the paper. "For training, huh?" she asked. "The wrapping's gold. Think it was your weird girl?"
Mute wondered how exactly the weird girl was his. "It was a joke." Blake brushed it off. "But it seems you've got a guardian angel watching over you. At least, she acts like it."
Mute turned away from the girl, his eyes halfway closed. He picked up the leftover mess from the useful gift. He was still looking down when Nora popped out from under his bed. "Yo!" she exclaimed, making the boy leap away with the speed of a startled cat. The girl must have been hiding there since he came in; there was no other physically possible solution.
Mute cast grateful eyes on Ren, who entered the room like a normal person. "You're welcome," Ren said casually, his arms behind his back. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"
Mute looked him in the eyes. No, he did not want to talk about it, other than to leave it that he felt Weiss was the only one who had any sort of reasonable reaction among them.
"But it hurt when she doubted you." Ren refuted. "I saw it."
Blake sat down on her bed. "So maybe the reasonable reaction would hurt," she said pointedly. "What matters is that you don't let it get in the way. She'll come around eventually. So what if she's the only one being reasonable? The rest of us trust you, and even if it's wrong, you should focus on that."
Mute stilled, keeping an eye on Ren. He knew he should listen to the boy, as Ren was his commander in a way. He should obey his leader. Furthermore, Ren believed what he was saying, that much was obvious. And even without those, Ren seemed a little worried for Mute. However, Mute still felt a raging conflict. It just didn't make sense. Nothing did, anymore.
"You trusted me with your story," Ren said, placing a reassuring hand on Mute's shoulder. "Can you trust me with something as simple as this?"
Mute considered. The comparison Ren made was clear, and well made. He nodded in agreement eventually, causing the boy to give a light smile and pat Mute's shoulder before he stepped back. "Well, everybody else is waiting for us in the library." Ren continued with a smirk. "Come on. Join us."
The orange-haired boy blinked. Then he nodded slowly.
Considering that the last two classes were rather mundane and that the library was just consisting of the group making small talk that didn't amount to much at this point, the day was over much faster than the morning had been.
Ruby gave a positively adorable yawn (everyone thought so), and waved goodbye to Ren and Jaune's teams before she, Weiss, Yang, and Pyrrha left the library after classes to get to their dorm for the rest of the night.
"Y'know, for a first day, that wasn't so utterly exhausting," Yang commented brightly.
"True." Weiss agreed. "I kind of expected that the first day would hit us harder because we were on break and all."
"Our first two classes are a doozy though…" Ruby muttered, slumping over.
"Tell me about it." Yang groaned. "Port and Oobleck…"
"It did seem like we would have to develop strategies for learning from them," Pyrrha commented, looking at her scroll. "At the very least, all twelve of us speak to one another constantly, and one of us takes notes on everything that is said at the moment. Together, I doubt it is even possible to fail in terms of schoolwork."
"...Which leaves actual battle. I don't intend to lose that either." Weiss crossed her arms.
"Oh," Yang grinned. "I certainly won't."
"Let's get some rest." Ruby offered, yawning again. "Tomorrow might be worse."
"It is likely that everything will kick off at once, yes. Let us be prepared." Pyrrha nodded.
"I wholeheartedly agree." Weiss nodded, and the four girls walked to their dorm.
"What do you think?" Jaune asked, lying on his bed.
"I think you boys are going to have to step into the restroom to change." Carla teased.
"..." Arthur closed his eyes. The large boy sat on his bed in a meditative pose, his wolf tail curled around his waist and his ears drooping.
Leslie nudged Carla. "Good luck with that," she said to the other girl. "We're going to have to deal with it."
"Why oh why are there co-ed dorms in this school?" Carla asked, crossing her arms.
"I dunno," Jaune replied.
"Tomorrow, Professor Goodwitch is likely going to start us on battle training," Leslie spoke up. "So… We'd better be ready. I've seen all your weapons except for Carla's."
"I saw her putting them away," Jaune spoke up now, ignoring Carla's deadpan look. Even as the white-haired girl wondered if they remembered that she was in fact in the room, he continued: "They're super cool looking."
Leslie shot Carla a sympathetic glance and told the boy: "I'm sure I'll see them tomorrow."
"Let's all just relax right now." Jaune offered. Everyone agreed and the girls too collapsed onto their beds after the first school day.
"I wonder why Mute walked on ahead." Blake mused as she, Ren, and Nora walked along the hall. "He almost seemed in a hurry."
"I'm sure we'll find out." Ren shrugged.
"And I'm sure it'll be awesome when it happens!" Nora squealed.
Blake went back to reading her book for a while, holding it with one hand as she rested the other at her side. "I'm sure it will," she said in a light but monotonous voice.
They neared the dorm door, hearing nothing. Blake put her ear to the door and slipped it open. She walked in, as did the rest of her team. The black-haired girl walked over to her bookshelf without really paying attention, her fingers ghosting over the books there. Immediately, she saw something was dreadfully, dreadfully wrong.
She turned slowly, and saw that Mute sat on his bed calmly. He raised an eyebrow and held a book up in his right hand. Her book. Blake felt a chill as she read 'Ninjas of Love'. Mute's expression said it all, even without his semblance.
Busted.
So... I was writing this and I thought: 'I can't just let Jaune drop from the story entirely. That would be kind of inconsistent and I don't have a team that needs an extra person. Darn it, I'll make an entire team for him'. Enter Arthur, Carla, and Leslie. I hope I conveyed their characters well as they were introduced, and provided a healthy dose of mystery to Carla.
I also discovered while fact checking on the RWBY wiki that faunus typically only show one characteristic from the animal that they share traits with. Whereas I gave Arthur a wolf tail and ears. Then I thought: 'Eh, I'm too lazy to go back and fix it, so he can keep both the ears and tail'. Whether this annoys anybody or not, I've made the decision.
I think I did pretty well with Jaune's teammates. If you are going to review, I wonder what you think Carla is based on, or what Arthur and Leslie's semblances might be. Release your analytical nature, if you will.
Thank you all for reading. Please review and give me your thoughts, positive or constructively negative, and I will see you all next time.