Foreign Exchange
chapter 13:First Day of Class
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Be-
WHAM!
Waking up to the sound of an alarm clock getting smacked loudly, Shavo opened up his eyes and saw that he had managed to hit the alarm button and cause the satanic box to silence itself.
"Awwwww, five more minutes." He heard Ruby groan out from her bed as he sat up and rubbed his eyes, clad in a black t-shirt and pajama bottoms with white skulls on them.
"Ruby, I don't like it either," Weiss said as she yawned, stretching her arms over her head. "Aaaaaaah. But we have to get up."
"Yeah, what she said." Shavo grumbled out as he threw his legs over the side of his bed and looked around groggily. Standing up, he yawned as well before scratching his chin.
"Okay, so who get's first dibs on the bathroom?" He asked.
"Seeing as how I'm the closest one to being up, I'll go." Weiss stated as she walked over to one of the two closets and opened up the sliding door, pulling out a school uniform and folding it over her arm.
"When did we get those?" Shavo asked as he started making his bed.
"There were three for each of us in a box at our door, and in front of Team PYRN's room." Blake said as she poked her head out from under her blanket, eyes half open before yawning also. "Weiss hanged up yours in your and Ruby's closet."
"Thanks." Shavo instinctively thanked the heiress as he tucked one of the folds under his bed.
"No problem.' She started as she turned from the door to look back at her leader. "Just be sure that you-"
She started, but stopped when she saw her leader walk over to the open closet and set down one of the suits on his bed.
Right before yanking off his shirt and about to go for his pants.
"Odadjian, what do you think you're doing!?" She practically screeched at him. Looking up from whatever they were doing, Both Blake and Ruby were surprised before Ruby began to blush while Blake's eyes widened slightly.
"Ahhhh…" He said blankly as he looked around, not sure what was wrong. "Getting changed for school…?"
"Not while you are in the same room as us, you aren't!" She cried out before picking up his shirt and throwing it at him.
"What?" He asked, holding his arms out with a confused face. "It's not like I'm getting naked or anything."
"Shavodan, there's this thing called decency, and I was honestly hopping that you would understand that." Weiss said sternly as she folded her arms with a huff.
Shavo rolled his eyes, but grabbed his suit regardless and headed for the door as he picked up a toothbrush and toothpaste while heading for the door.
"Alright, fine." He relented as he reached for the door handle. "I'm gonna go on ahead to one of the restrooms down the hall and use that. Be back in a bit."
With that, he opened the door and stepped outside into the hallway and down to the bathroom to get changed. He opened the door and saw that, no surprise, it was empty asides from him. Setting his suit down on the spotless white tile floor, He took his toothbrush and began to brush his teeth.
'Did I put the gun back under the pillow?' He thought to himself, remembering that he had set the glock on his drawer when he made his bed. It may have been uncomfortable, but Shavo felt a little safer with the pistol under his pillow.
Never before had he ever had to contemplate sleeping with a gun. Due to being as paranoid as he is, he had sometimes thought about it. But, thinking of something and actually doing it are two different things.
So, Shavo had placed the glock under his pillow with the clip in and the safety on.
But he wasn't stupid. If anything did break into his room while he was sleeping, it would more than likely need more than a glock to take it down. So, he was also sure to keep his blade next to his bed as he slept as well.
If any Bounty Hunter broke into his room, whether they killed him or not, he was going to fill them with a mouthful of lead.
'Still have to think up a name for that thing.' He remembered the important detail about his blade as he spat out some toothpaste and started rinsing his brush. 'Ruby was sure to bug me about it again last night.'
Setting the brush aside and starting to put on his school uniform, Shavo began to think of some ideas for his weapons. His teammates all had catchy, cool sounding names for theirs like Blake's Gambol Shroud and Weiss' Myrtenaster.
But he couldn't think of anything cool and or catchy, especially off the top of his head.
Alright, what were some distinguishing features about the weapon itself? Well, like he had suggested to Ruby, the blade looked like a giant Megachete. But, before that, he was stuck on it being a giant cleaver. And, thinking back on it, it wasn't that too bad of an description.
Okay, now what else could add on to that?
Well, the blade can become a AK-47, which is a just all around good choice for an assault rifle. While it is also fairly accurate, there are a lot of times when one could just mow down their enemies with it's full auto.
Or slaughter them.
'Okay, dark and gory.' He thought to himself as he buttoned up the long-sleeved white shirt underneath his blazer. 'I like where this is going.'
So now that he had it's main idea centered around massacre, what was something he could name it that was centered around it?
'Well, I was calling the blade a giant Cleaver. And Butcher's use cleavers a lot… So…'
As he finished putting on his uniform and began tying his tie, realization hit him in an instant as his eyes widened and a smile sprang onto his face.
"The Butcher's Blade." He said happily to himself as he straightened out the tie with glee. "From now on, that sword is The Butcher's Blade."
The name was dark and foreboding, making him think of a slaughter room with slabs of meat hanging from hooks while a man chopped away with a bloody cleaver, a truly disturbing picture that has often inspired horror into the viewer within movies and T.V.
Plus, it sounded like a sick as hell Heavy Metal song from the eighties or something, so that helped sell it too.
Nodding to himself with certainty, Shavo grabbed his sleeping clothes and walked out of the bathroom and back into the hallway. As he made his way back to the dorm room, he saw Pyrrha walk out of her room, dressed in her uniform as well.
"Hiya Pyrrha!" He waved happily.
The Amazonian turned around and smiled upon seeing the traveller, waving as well.
"Good Morning Shavo!" She greeted back with enthusiasm. "Ready for our first day of classes?"
"Pffft, ready to fail, if that's what you mean." He laughed out. "How about you? I'm guessing you have some brains to go with those looks?"
Shavo meant it jokingly, but Pyrrha's cheeks grew a shade redder from the compliment as her eyes widened slightly before smiling.
"W-Well…" She tried to think up a response. "I was on honor roll for my whole time at Testament's training school."
"Then this'll probably be a easy day for you then." he said as he threw his sleeping pants over his shoulder and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "The rest of your team up yet?"
"They are. I was just about to go get an early breakfast." She nodded to him, her blush starting to die down.
That was when she had an idea.
"Would you...Care to join me?" She asked him as she twirled a lock of hair in her fingers. Shavo thought about it before shrugging.
"Sure, I don't see why not." He answered before opening the door to his dorm and throwing in his pants. "Hey girls, I'm going down to eat an early breakfast! I'll be back before Eight forty."
"Okay!" Ruby yelled back. "Don't choke on a egg or anything."
"I'll try my best." He laughed before closing the door behind him. He grinned at Pyrrha before taking a bow and gesturing.
"After you."
As she took the lead, Pyrrha realized that the smile on her face wouldn't be leaving anytime soon.
"Welcome, students!"
As the second bell rang and students began to file into the classroom, Professor Peter Port stood by his podium with his hands crossed behind his back. Making their way to whatever seats they chose, Team OWRB sat in one of the front rows, Team PYRN taking their seat in the table right behind them, Pyrrha looking especially happy after having spent the past hour talking with the goateed teen seated in front of her.
"Am I glad to see that there are, once again, so many new faces here this year!" The boisterous man cheered enthusiastically. "So many young adults, ready and enthusiastic to destroy the Grimm threat!"
"Now, some of you may already know me, But my name is Professor Peter Port, and I will be your Grimm Studies teacher! So, first allow me to take roll call, and then we shall commence our first lesson of the year."
As the portly man pulled out a stack of papers and began to list of names, Shavo reached into the backpack Knk'ahayr had given him before pulling out a pencil and notebook and setting them on the table before picking up the pencil and looking at the pad thoughtfully.
A whole empty canvas, right at the tips of his fingers, able to make whatever he wished with the only limit being his imagination. As he twirled the pencil in his hand, the teen began to think of all the things he could draw.
Maybe he could draw a robotic man, half his flesh missing to reveal the mechanical parts beneath the skin? Or, he could do something even better, and draw a nordic warrior, rising from the ashes, wielding a broadsword defiantly as smoke surrounded him. Or, he could reattempt that picture from fourth grade and draw Chuck Norris riding a dinosaur into battle against Joseph Stalin riding a laser-mounted bear with bear cavalry close behind him.
It may have been a little primitive, but man, that was one badass picture.
Thinking about it a bit more, Shavo decided to draw what he always drew best:
Cartoons of his favorite bands.
Making a few basic lines for a body, Shavo began to think who should this subject be. Maybe Chuck Billy from Testament? Or how about Jonathan Davis from Korn? He could possibly make this be Wayne Static, but the face would be a bit more difficult for drawing the guitarist's large forehead. Shavo didn't care, however, as he began to draw a face and immediately decided that it was going to be Till Linderman from Rammstein, back in the days when he had the mohawk and the kevlar vest.
Drawing the former olympic swimmer's basic figure standing atop a plane and staring into the distance, Shavo then began giving him clothing, placing the hands into the pockets of the cargo pants he wore before moving up to the vest, bulky and equipped with a 44. magnum. After that, he gave detail to the arms, a tribal tattoo on the one facing the viewer before putting a tourniquet on the one covered by Till's body.
With that detail added, he figured maybe he could make it look like a crash. So, he added tears to the parts of the plane that were visible as well as making smoke billow out behind him.
With that done with, Shavo turned his attention to the head. First, he drew the eyes, then the mouth and chin. After that, there was the hair, which was a simple short mohawk that had the rest of his hair shaved. As Till looked off into the distance, he felt one more thing was needed. At first, he couldn't think of anything. But then, he had the perfect idea.
Erasing the eyes of the man, he then added one cylinder to his face before putting another behind the nose, adding in a band to wrap around the head before shading it in and making goggles.
All that was left now was adding in shadows, a background, maybe even the band's name. If he really wanted to, he could add in the other members, too. But, he'd probably save that for later. Now he would probably start drawing something else, like maybe Ivan Moody from Five Finger Death Punch. Or, he could do something like-
"Shavarsh Odadjian."
"Present." He said out loud on instinct, looking up as the professor called his name.
Port nodded before going on down the list again, calling out other student's names. Shavo was just about to go back to drawing, but was surprised to see that the notepad with his drawing was gone.
"Wow, this is really good."
Looking over to his right, Shavo saw that the missing notepad was now in the hands of his partner as she looked over it with wide eyes. Blake and Weiss looked over to see what she was talking about and saw the object of the girl's attention.
"You drew this just now?" Blake asked curiously as she pointed to the drawing.
'Uhhh…" Shavo drawled out in confusion before nodding his head. "Yeah."
"In the past ten minutes?" Weiss asked skeptically. "That's… Quite good, actually."
"Jesus Christ, ten minutes!?" Shavo said wide eyed as he looked to the holographic clock displayed at their table. "How many people are in this classroom!?"
Ignoring him, the three girls looked at the drawing some more before it caught the attention of the table behind them, Yang leaning forward and snatching the notebook from her younger sister's hands.
"Whatcha got?" The voluptuous blond asked.
Looking over the drawing, the rest of Yang's team joined in on the gawking.
As they all looked at his drawing, at the front of the classroom the professor finished roll call before clearing his throat to gain the attention of all the students before him.
"Well, now that that's over with, welcome!" He greeted them all again as he held his arms out to his sides. "Today, we shall start with a basic refresher for all of you: The Five common Grimm, all of which you should have run into during your initiation yesterday. Now, there are many other Grimm that come in all shapes and sizes within our world, but these are some of the ones you shall face almost every time you go out into Grimm-infested lands."
Walking around his desk, the portly man pulled out some sort of remote before aiming it overhead and pressing a button, causing the lights to dim down before he pressed another and caused a large holographic screen to pop up in the center of the stage before he walked back in front of it and clicked another button.
On the screen, a familiar black form materialized, animated with twitches and slight shakes of the head as a title in pure black appeared above it:
The Clicker.
"Here, ladies and gentlemen, we have the most common of the Grimm: Clickers." Port boomed out as he began pacing in front of the hologram. "These monstrous creatures are considered the 'infantry', roaming and heavily populated in every place where Grimm are dormant. They have no armor, only their flesh to protect them. They communicate with, as the name implies, rapid clicking sounds from their mandibles and use their claws on their hands as their primary attack. While most can only shamble at a decent pace, older Clickers have been known to break into spastic sprints at Hunters."
Finished with that, he clicked the button on his remote again, the Clicker being replaced with a new, equally horrifying monster. It was short and hunched over, probably reaching the height of Shavo's waist with it's back. It, too, had black skin with gray fur around its body. It reminded Shavo of a hellish monkey,including a tail that appeared to have a spike on it's end.
The Surface Creep.
"Ahhh, yes, the annoying cockroach of the Grimm." Port said with a jovial tone. "This is known as the Surface Creep, a lurking horror that often travels in packs of six to seven with an elder Creep leading them. They don't take many hits to go down, but more than make up for that with their speed. These are crafty little freaks, so be wary of them, students."
Another click, and the monkey-like Grimm was replaced by the spitting image of what Shavo thought was the Hellhound from the Call of Duty Zombies: A feral German Shepard with blood red eyes and black fur. At least, it had black fur, except for the places where bone and muscle would show through. It's animation looked around before snapping it's jaws every few seconds.
The Mongrel.
"Here, we have a very bad dog. This is the Mongrel, a dog-like Grimm that is both fast and deadly. It is rare to see it travelling on it's own, following after the Surface Creep by travelling in packs. But, unlike the Surface Creep, this Grimm doesn't go down quite as easily, it's bones stronger than most Grimm. However, they all have a weakness on the under bellies, which is best to strike when they lunge for you with their front paws."
Click.
Up on the hologram, the screen zoomed back a bit as the animation of the Mongrel was replaced by something much, much larger. This thing was more than likely around eight feet tall, a pure wall of grey muscle with scars littering it's whole body. It had only one beefy arm, rippling with muscle as the other side of it's chest only had a stump. This was one of the Grimm that Shavo had not seen during initiation, the only mention of it being from Yang.
Now he was glad that he hadn't.
The Berzerker
"Let me tell you something about this one, students: Do not try to arm wrestle this beast, it does not end well." Port said before shuddering slightly. "Trust me, I speak from experience."
"Anyhow, this is The Berzerker. Incase you couldn't tell from right off the bat, this Grimm is the heavy class of the Big Five. Able to take an exceptional amount of damage, this monster has been known to barrel through defenses mindlessly. But what it lacks in brains, it more than easily makes up for it in brawn. There have been quite a few of these mindless beasts that have also been known to pick up random objects to use as weapons, such as boulders, tree stumps, whatever they could use that acts as a large club for them. Be sure to keep that in mind whenever you come face to face with one"
Finally, the professor clicked on the remote for the fifth Grimm. As the animation of the Berzerker disappeared, the camera zoomed back in slightly before a new monstrosity took it's place.
It was hard to describe, due to the many different parts. It had the upper torso of a humanoid, two long arms with three clawish-fingers that looked as long as Pyrrha's spear as well as a head. It had a large mouth with many sets of sharp teeth, making it look like it was smiling maniacally. It had no eyes, just the mouth and nose. But, where it's legs would be was a large snake's tail, and out of it's shoulder blades were two snake-like necks that had human-shaped heads on their ends, only having two large white eyes and jagged sets of sharp teeth.
The Centaur
"And finally, we have the pack leader: The Centaur." From the way Port had said the monster's name, Shavo assumed that even Port was a tad weary of this creature. "A hellish mixture of man and snake, this creature is one of the strongest, fastest, and cunning Grimm we have ever encountered."
Looking over, Shavo saw Ruby looking at him as well as they both shared a simple thought.
'Yeah, but we've seen worse.'
"While there are the Colossal Grimm who are more powerful, they lack the leadership skills that this monster has shown to posses. Taking control of the others with fear, The Centaur has organized many attacks against Human and Faunus kind time and time again. This is easily one of the most dangerous of them all, simply because they posses one of the most dangerous weapons we have ever known."
As he said this, Port leaned forward slightly and tapped the side of his skull.
"A mind."
RIIIIIIIIIING!
Just in time to be finished with his speech, the bell rang out, signifying the end of the class. As he stood up from his seat, Shavo was handed back his notebook by Yang as she began to fall in step with him.
"Not bad." Yang addressed his drawing as he closed the notebook and put it into his backpack.
"Pffffft, I'd like to see you do better." Shavo poked her on the arm with a grin as they exited the classroom. Turning to him, she poked him in the ribs hard enough to make him jump back a bit.
"Ah, you suck!" He yelped out in surprise as she chuckled at his dilemma. He was going to say more, but was interrupted as Sky came up from behind him and jabbed him as well.
"Hah, that's really funny coming from you Shavo." The blue haired teen grinned as he began walking beside him as well. Looking over his friend's shoulder, Sky saw Yang looking at him before realizing something and holding his hand out.
"oh, uh, hey." He greeted lamely. "Name's Sky. Sorry about being all uptight to you and your sister the day before."
"Eh, stuff happens." Yang shrugged as she took the hand and shook it with a strong grip.
"So, where's your team at, buddy boy?" Shavo asked him, trying not to sound suspicious. While Sky he didn't mind, he still wanted to make sure that his team was fine as well.
Pointing ahead, Sky pointed out the slightly familiar figures of Dove Bronzewing and Russel Thrush following closely behind the taller figure of Cardin Winchester, all three dressed in there school uniforms.
RIght before a familiar girl with bunny ears bumped into him, the books in her hands spilling out all over the floor as she fell backwards.
Velvet Scarletina.
Everything came to a halt, everyone going silent as they turned to look at the scene displayed out before them. Even though he felt as if he should rush up to get ready to defend the girl, Shavo was rooted to the spot, along with everyone else in the hallway, watching, waiting for something to go wrong. For Cardin to sneer at the poor girl, maybe reaching down and pulling her up by her rabbit ears, just like he would in the show.
But that was before Cardin knelt down and began to help her pick up her books. From his place, Shavo watched Russel look over to Dove before Dove shrugged, and they began picking up the scattered papers.
Completely thrown off, Shavo watched slack jawed as Cardin organized the bunny girl's papers for her while everyone else began to go on with their day, the possible fight having been evaporated and therefore releasing their attention. He then stood up, towering over Velvet as she meekly took her papers back.
"Sorry about that Cardin." She apologized to him.
In return, Cardin grinned at her as he dusted off his hands.
Not a mocking or mean grin, but a genuinely happy one.
"Just watch where you're going next time, Velv." He reminded her before walking past her and yelling over his shoulder. "See you at lunch time!"
"See you then!" She yelled back before going onto her merry little way. She walked past Shavo, his mind temporarily broken as he continued to stand there and look straight ahead.
That was… New.
"Hey, goat-boy." From his side, Yang jabbed him once more to get his attention back to the world around them. "You still there?"
"Yeah." He said, still wide eyed as he re-found the ability to walk again, albeit it was a very drowsy one.
"You look kinda surprised." Sky pointed out the obvious as they took a left down a hallway. "Something wrong?"
That was when he realised he couldn't give them a truthful answer as to why he was so surprised. To be honest, it shouldn't have been, what with everything else having been changed. Still, it was just so weird to see someone made to be antagonistic actually do something nice, especially to one of his victims in the show.
"Uhhhmmm…." Shavo quickly tried to think up something before an idea struck him. "It's just… With the way culture is nowadays, I kinda expected him to… You know…"
"Be a racist like a lot of other people?" Sky asked him before shaking his head. "Nah, I understand where you're comin' from, but Cardin ain't like that, at least from what I've seen so far. Especially since that's his older sister."
At that, Shavo's head whipped around to the blue-haired teen with eyes getting just the tiniest bit wider.
"But she's a faunus, and he isn't." Yang pointed out from Shavo's left.
"Adoptive." Sky answered the blond girl. "Said that apparently her real parents died when she was real young, and his parents adopted her."
"Oh." Shavo said with a bit of sadness as he thought about how that must have felt, losing your parents at a young age.
"Poor girl." Yang said with a slight worried tone in her voice as she looked back over her shoulder, trying to spot the receding figure of the faunus.
"Eh, he said she's over it now." Sky shrugged as they rounded another corner, their destination coming up ahead of them. "They get along really well, from what I've seen."
As he finished his sentence, the three teens walked up to the door of their next class, their teammates not far behind them. Opening the door and holding it for all of the ones behind him to get through, Shavo waved to Sky as he disappeared in the crowd, getting various 'thank you's from the students who came by, especially from Pyrrha.
Once they were all in, Shavo entered as well before spotting Ruby waving over to him from a table and pointing to an empty seat next to her. Walking over, he saw that his side of the table was right next to Pyrrha and her team's table to their left.
At least it wasn't going to be hard to find excuses to interact with them.
Sitting his backpack down behind his seat, Shavo pulled out a chair and sat down as he leaned back and sighed.
'Not too bad so far.' He grinned to himself with content at the thought of CRDL no longer being a worry.
Well, at least Cardin and Sky were, but he was crossing his fingers that the two remaining members would be as well.
"HelloStudents!"
His head jerking up at the familiarly fast voice, Shavo saw a man standing ramrod straight, hands behind his back before he slightly pushed his glasses up on his nose and regarded the class with a nod.
"MyNameIsDoctorBatholemewOobleck,AndIWillBeYourHistoryTeacherForYourTimeHereAtBeaconAcademy!"
Well, thank Oum that Oobleck's class was over.
Sitting in the bleacher's of 's arena style classroom, Team PYRN was talking with teams OWRB and CRDL, the team that Shavo had introduced them to at lunch. Yang didn't really mind them, but was more interested in the one showing them to her instead.
Looking over, she saw Shavo grin as he chatted with her younger sister while they waited for their teacher to start. She couldn't help the tiniest of smiles that fought it's way onto her face just from looking at the man, gesturing around while he caused Ruby to laugh.
Yang was glad to see him being a good friend to her sister. She knew that while Ruby was a great person, the girl could be a little awkward at times.
Which made her all the more happy about him being the girl's partner. Even with what she had told Ruby about trying to branch out and make friends in the locker room before initiation, she was still a little bit worried for her younger sister. And she always would be, just as all older siblings should be for their little brothers or sisters.
But now, she was positive the girl was in good hands with Shavodan.
'Hmmm, now if only I could get into those hands.' She thought to herself in a saucy tone.
To be honest, it felt a little weird, only knowing this guy for four days and still thinking about him the way she has been. Yang had never been one to believe in that stupid "love at first sight" bull crap. To her, that was just something in fairy tales and books. This was the real world, not some kid's story.
But then this guy came along and completely threw those beliefs right out the window.
So, just from simply the past four days, Yang had been paying close attention to Shavo. She had been able to run into him and her younger sister during initiation, so that was a plus in her book.
And hey, it wasn't her fault she was able to see which direction he was sent flying when they were launched. She's just observive.
So, now she was getting excuse after excuse to talk to the guy. With them now living not even four feet away from each other in the hallways, having at least six classes together, and the training lessons she planned on getting started today with the goateed teen, she had more than enough opportunities to interact with him.
Still, Yang felt a little odd about this. Romance had never been anything to her before. She knew that she looked great, and put her beauty to good use to get what she would want and mess with people that deserved it, like that Junior guy and some of his goons back at the club. Up until now, she had no interest in something like that. She had so many things that were always of more importance to her, such as her future career as a huntress. And not even that, but she hardly even knows the guy. It's hard to really get to know someone in a week, let alone four days.
But, Yang had never been one for patience anyway. Whatever she wanted, she would get.
She was Yang Xiao-Long, after all.
"Attention students!"
All heads within the room turned to the stage below them to see the teacher of their class, Glynda Goodwitch standing there, as per usual with her scroll in hand and riding crop tucked under her arm.
At first glance, Yang had thought it was a rather odd choice for a weapon. Don't get her wrong, she knew enough from Ruby's tale of the robbery that Glynda was a user of Dust and Glyphs, but even with that, you'd think she'd make it something more… Well, practical.
But then again, there are people out there with quite the oddest of styles and weapons that could kill hordes of Grimm with ease.
And with a grin, she thought about how one day, that would be her, too.
"I am your Combat Instructor, Professor Glynda Goodwitch." She began as she looked up from her scroll. "As the title implies, this is our combat training class. What with being one of your most important aspects in this school, you all will be in here for three hours a day on school days, either combating with other students in organized tournament style matches, training with some of our training drones that have been kindly provided to us from the Atlesian military, or using the holographic chamber for training against Grimm. And remember, while you are required to use them now, you are more than welcome to use this facility during your free time as well."
At the mention of the Holographic chamber, Yang saw Shavo perk up slightly with interest. While she didn't know much about them, she did know that these holographic rooms were relatively new, Beacon being the eighth training school to receive the twenty chambers. They were pretty high tech, able to do standard simulations of Highly detailed Grimm in realistic environments, with a bunch of settings to make it more life-like. It sounded cool and all, but she was personally more interested in the real thing.
"For our first day, we will be doing simple one-on-one matches. Everyone will participate, so try and find someone to pair up against."
Before Glynda had even finished her sentence, half of the class had already found people to go against. Not wanting to be far behind, Yang stood up and walked over to her goateed friend before grabbing him by the back of his collar and dragging him along with her, Shavo deadpanning as he was dragged away.
"Oh no, that's cool Yang, it's not like I would have preferred a chance to pick someone or anything." He said sarcastically, but had a small smile on his face regardless. "That would just be silly."
"Oh, stop being a baby." Yang grinned back as Shavo began walking on his own, stepping down from the stands and onto the floor for fighting. It was big enough for all eighty-four students to fill up the small circular rings within, as well as have a decent amount of space left over as Yang and Shavo found an empty on near one of the edges.
"Besides, look at it like this," Yang offered as she stood on one side and he the other. "This can be a little bit of an evaluation test before we do our actual training together later on."
At the mention of the training, Shavo's eyes widened a bit as he turned his head slightly.
"Oh." Was all he said as he brought out his sword from his sheath behind his back.
"What?" Yang asked in confusion. "What do you mean by 'Oh'?"
"Well, uhmmm…" Shavo said lamely as he scratched the back of his head with one hand and looked down at the floor. "To be honest… I thought you were just saying that to calm me down."
"Why would I do that?' She asked with a tilt of her head, genuinely confused.
But, Shavo just waved his hand in a dismissive gesture as he shook his head.
"You know what, forget I even said anything." He tried to take it off the current topic as he took his sword in a two-handed grip. "Let's just get to the fight."
"Uh, okay." Yang said, a little thrown off by his comment but shrugged it off. "Anyways, you know standard tournament rules, right?'
"First person to fall out of the ring, have their aura drop into the red or are no longer able to fight immediately lose." Shavo answered her easily.
Yang nodded her head in agreement.
"Yup." She said before dropping into a stance, her gauntlets going into full form with a loud click. "And don't worry: I promise I'll go easy on ya, big guy."
She meant it as a joke, but Shavo didn't seem to notice as his face went blank, if not slightly serious with a small frown and a furrowing of his eyebrows. Right above them, a holographic screen appeared as a small force field encompassed their ring so as to keep stray bullets from striking outsiders. On one side it had Yang's picture with her name and aura count while the other had the same for Shavo, each currently in the green. In between them was a countdown.
3…
2…
1…
FIGHT!
WIth the sound of a small bell, Shavo lunged forward, his sword brought up as he prepared to swing down with his blade. Yang easily twirled out of the blades path, giving him a small punch into his back as he stumbled past.
But, he regained his balance and instead of falling on his face, he recovered and turned back to face her as he charged again. This time, he went for a side swing, which she dodged as he went for another one. This one she crouched under and gave him a swift punch to the gut, causing him to lose his breath and stumble back. She didn't relent, however, as she jumped up and gave him a spinning kick to his chest, knocking him onto his back.
Shavo quickly scrambled up into a crouch, shifting his sword into it's gun mode and taking aim at her before letting out a quick burst. Yang was able to block the strike with her gauntlet, which she saw made Shavo's eyes widen a bit in awe.
Shaking his head slightly to refocus himself, Shavo stood up, but continued to fire off a few bursts at her as he ran up to her. She dodged them all, but was too preoccupied with that as he emptied his clip and quickly reformed it back into sword form as he swung down. She had no choice but to block it, forming an X with her arms and holding it for a second as Shavo pushed down with his other arm, a contest of strength.
A contest he easily lost as she pushed upwards and gave him a headbutt to the forehead, then slammed her hands onto his ears to distoreint him further as she gave him a simple kick to the chest, sending him onto his back again.
Sparing a glance up to the screen above them, Yang saw that her Aura was still full, while his was already at seventy-four. By the time she looked back down, he had already gotten back up to his feet, holding his blade out before him with a his frown just a tad bit deeper.
He charged again, but this time he went for a high swing towards her face. She went to block him again, but he surprised her by turning the path of the blade to swing lower instead and smacked her leg with the flat side of it, trying to get her to fall over.
But, Yang held her ground and instead tried to punch him in the side of the head. Shavo rolled out of the way behind her before he tried to strike her in the back of her knee with the handle of his blade. However, Yang was able to front flip out of the way, striking him in the face with a kick as she did so.
Instead of getting back up, Shavo quickly brought his sword into it's gun mode again so he could reload and take more shots at Yang. She was able to dodge most of them, but one clipped her in the side before two more blasts got her, one in the shoulder and another in her calf.
She expected him to follow up, but instead he got a guilty look on his face as he stood up and took a step towards her, not to attack.
No, she could see, he was just worried that he had hurt her.
"Yang, I-" He tried to apologize, but was stopped as she gave him a quick punch to the mouth and made him stumble back.
"No playing nice during a fight, goat boy." Yang told him before bringing back her fist and letting out a shot at his body, hitting him in the face and making him fall down for the third time. "Stay focused."
Shavo grunted in annoyance as he stood back up and started shooting at her again, running towards her.
She expected this to go the same as last time, emptying his clip at her to occupy her before coming in for a swing, and was a little disappointed that he was being repetitive. She blocked the shots and prepared to parry his sword strike, but saw that he didn't slow down as he got close to her and instead slid under her legs before bouncing up behind her and striking her in the back of the head with his handle.
"There we go, that's better!" Yang smiled as she immediately turned, the hit having not done much to her damage wise.
He saw that her aura was merely at ninety-three while his was already at fifty-six. Shavo charged again, attacking her with a flurry of strikes that she either dodged or blocked, giving him a punch to the gut in between a few. Shavo didn't flinch much, but she could tell that it hurt him.
Snarling slightly to himself, Shavo leaped back before reaching for something clipped to his side and pulled out a black handgun, much to the surprise of Yang. She hadn't seen the weapon on him during initiation.
With blade in one hand and gun in the other, Shavo tried to run at her from the side and fired off three shots her way before swinging again. She ducked, but had to roll back as Shavo pointed the gun at her face and tried to shoot her. He didn't relent, coming after her and trying to stomp on her with his boot. She blocked it with one raised arm and pushed him back, causing him to lose his balance and fall onto his butt before she stood up and pushed him down onto the ground with her foot and brought her fist back, ready to pop off a shot at him.
And looking up past her to the screen, Shavo must have seen that if she did, he would fall into the red and she would win. He also couldn't get any leverage, her boot pressing down on him hard enough to make him gasp.
She had just won.
"Computer, end fight." Yang said aloud with a small smirk, the screen above them emitting a small buzzing noise as the barrier fell down around them and she lifted him up. Shavo looked a little frustrated, but took the hand without a problem and allowed himself to be helped up to his feet. He looked up to the screen and his face fell a little bit as he looked at the time.
"Forty-eight seconds." He lamented. "You literally wiped my ass in forty-eight seconds without even having to try."
"Hey, that wasn't so bad." Yang tried to assure him with a grin. "I'm sure if you hadn't stopped when you shot me, you could have inflicted a bit more damage. Oh, and that reminds me."
She then gave him a quick punch to the shoulder making him cry out as he held the spot where she had hit him.
"That's for shooting me, ya jerk." She laughed. Shavo rubbed it, but started to look less mad and more thoughtful.
"Can't say I'm surprised." Shavo said more to himself as he sheathed his pistol first, then his blade. "You're probably more used to fighting human opponents. I'm not."
"What, didn't you ever have matches back in your training school?' Yang asked him as they began walking back to the bleachers.
"I wasn't at a training school." Shavo told her, looking like he was trying to think of a way to explain something. "I was… I guess you could say I was more trained by one hunter than a school. Guy named Knk'ahayr."
Looking closely at him, Yang saw that Shavo wasn't lying.
She was having a hard time believing that, to be honest. While it wasn't unheard of, a Huntsman being trained by another one was rare. And, she had never heard of this Knk'ahayr before.
Plus, while they were mainly centered around fighting Grimm, Huntsmen and Huntresses would be called in often to fight criminals and other people who the regular police and army just couldn't handle.
Odd.
"Well, looks like we're gonna have a lot of work ahead of us, then." Yang said out loud before cracking her knuckles. "Speaking of which, why'd you put your weapons up?"
At her question, Shavo looked down at his gun by his side, then back up to her.
"Oh… I thought we were done for a bit." He said lamely.
Yang just grinned brightly as she hiked a thumb back to their little arena behind them.
"Nah ah, goat-boy. We've still got two hours and forty-three minutes of training ahead of us."
As she turned back around and sauntered off to the small ring, Shavo's face went as white as Weiss's hair as he thought about the almost three more hours of getting his ass whooped.
"Today is going to suck."
A/N:
Hello Everyone. Just letting you know that there is going to be a change in managment for a bit.
The Author, Triple T, has had to step down for a few months due to issues with his parents, and has asked me to write for him while he is gone. He was nice enough to give me instructions on how to write for the story, and I will do so until he can come back and pick it back up.
Omake: Time to Ride 1
This wasn't good.
As Shavo looked over the rooftops of the abandoned city, he couldn't help but feel like he was in for some serious shit pretty soon.
He had been walking all day, looking for a partner. He had hoped by now to have run into someone, hopefully a person he had already met so far.
Such as Ruby.
He had to admit, he was really hoping she would have found him to be his partner. As he scanned a burnt-out car with his AK out, he thought of how much he could really use her right now.
He was starting to go from worried to scared.
'Jesus Christ, what did I get myself into!?' He thought to himself inside his head. 'I'm some dumbass teenager who's never been in a fight before, and here I am, literally thrown into a monster-infested city. I'm more screwed than a screen door on a submarine.'
As the rays of light began to turn from gold to orange, Shavo's hold on his fear began to slip, looking around frantically and into the shadows all around him.
What if those things he saw earlier were hiding in them?
'STOP.' He commanded himself.
If he didn't get his shit together pretty soon, he was going to lose it. He didn't even realize he had started to hyperventilate until he started to think again.
'Losing your cool out here is going to do nothing but get you killed. Need to just stop, breath, and get my head straight.' He tried to reason with himself. 'Remember what your English teacher told you: If there's ever a situation that you can't focus on, don't keep on. Take a step back, and just breath for a second.'
Odd person to take life advice from, but that had always stuck into his head, and it has always worked for him whenever he started to get frustrated with something.
That little tidbit could probably come in handy right now.
Walking over to the side of the road and leaning against the wall, Shavo began to take deep breaths and count to ten. He didn't like stopping out in the open, but he knew for a fact that if he didn't do it know, he was going to be absolutely useless in a few minutes, too busy freaking the hell out.
Not a good situation from any angle you look at it, honestly.
So, once he was sure that he had calmed down enough to think rationally, he readied his gun again and began to inspect the buildings around him, now actually seeing more of his surroundings.
Looking at the position of the sun, he realized he didn't have much time until the sun set, and he would be outside in the dark. Immediately dismissing the thought of walking through the dark with those things wandering around, Shavo knew he needed to find a place to spend the night.
Looking at the buildings around him, he saw that the one he was right next to would probably be a decent fit. It was a tall office building, and it looked like it was still mostly intact from this angle. It had a few lines of foliage growing up it's side, but that was only the first story. Everything else above that looked just fine.
Taking his rifle up and pointing it into the door, Shavo turned on the flashlight at the end of his gun and shone it inside, seeing nothing but bare wooden floor and some piles of trash. Off in the corner to his left across the room, he saw a spiral staircase leading up to the next floor.
By the time he had gotten to the fifth floor, he had seen that everything was abandoned.
"It sure as hell ain't the playboy mansion…" He commented to himself as he allowed his rifle to fall to his side, "But it'll work."
Setting his gun up against the wall, Shavo took off his backpack and knelt down next to it as he began rifling through it for his sandwiches. Finding one, he pulled it out and looked through the wrappings to see it was an egg and cheese sandwich. Unwrapping it, he took a bite as he sat down cross legged and began to pull out all of his magazines.
Setting all of them out, he saw that he was down from his original fourteen magazines down to twelve. He had had a run in with a group of small-monkey looking Grimm earlier that he couldn't avoid. But, that was only from looking back at it. At the time, he had just immediately opened fire at them due to surprise.
As he began to put them back into his pockets, he tried to remember how many he had seen at that time. He hadn't tried to keep an accurate count, but he was fairly certain he had killed twenty of them before he had to escape.
He wasn't afraid to admit there were a lot of things he could have done better.
But right now, he was afraid of something.
He was afraid that he was going to die.
Shavodan was no idiot. Even if he wasn't strong, or even battle-hardened, he was realistic. And anyone who was realistic knew that he would be lucky to make it to dawn, let alone out of this abandoned city. Not by himself.
And by now he was starting to think he wasn't going to find a partner anytime soon.
Eating the sandwich in silence, Shavo stared distractedly at the wall, lost in thought as he chewed the egg and cheese.
Why hadn't he found anyone yet? There had been eighty three other people joining this year, why is it that not a single, damn one of them hadn't run into him? He was really hoping Ruby wouldn't stop looking for him until she had found him.
But thinking on it now, that probably wasn't the best idea, simply for Ruby.
Just simple thought would justify it. Ruby is, in all ways, a prodigy. That girl could tear through Grimm like they were made from paper, could think like a leader on her feet, and is a all around great person.
And then you had him, a teenager who's greatest feature was his expansive knowledge of Heavy Metal.
And his thoughts got only worse as he realized even that was useless now. Never again would he be able to talk to his friends about how amazing Ryan Maretnie was at the bass guitar, never again would he freak out when he spotted a digitally remastered Black Sabbath album at the music store, he would never be able to go to a System of a Down concert like he had always dreamed. He would never be able to ask his dad info on eighties rock n' rollers.
He would never be able to talk to his dad ever again.
His family. They probably thought he was dead. And the thing that scared him the most…
He didn't know if he was sure leaving them was a bad thing.
Finished with his sandwich, the light began to disappear from the room as it cast Shavo into a gloomy light, his eyes shadowed from the world as he thought more and more about his life. How short it had been, and not even a good one. Thinking about it, his life, for the past couple of years, had become mostly centered upon RWBY. At first, he hadn't thought much of it, just a show his friend had shown him when they were hanging out one time. He had been reluctant, what with the quality of the animation at the start of the show and his then lack of interest in anime.
But then, he slowly began to gravitate more towards it. After a while, it had become his main thought process, thinking of the show and it's characters, how they lived in such an amazing world. When someone lived in a world, surrounded by death, destruction, hate and misery, it was no surprise he was so drawn to the bright, happy inhabitants of this one, where all of the problems were eventually settled and everyone had someone to depend on.
Someone to be there for them when they really needed it.
Someone who honestly cared.
Something he always doubted he ever had.
And now, right when he had finally achieved his dream and was in the bright world of Remnant, he was alone.
Right when he needed someone the most.
As Shavodan's thought continued to take a darker and darker turn, the Traveller came to a sudden realization.
This city would most likely be his grave.
"Shit." He cursed under his breath as he leaned back against the wall. "Not quite how I was hoping this would turn out."
Creeeeek.
His head perking up at the sudden noise, Shavo reached for his rifle and quickly got to his feet and held it at the ready.
What the hell had that sound been?
Creeeeeek.
Looking up, Shavo could have sworn that the noise was the sound of something walking on wooden floors.
And it was coming from directly above him.
That was when he realized he had forgotten to check the rest of the building before he settled down.
Creeeeeeeeeek.
Cursing himself under his breath, Shavo quickly took out the magazine in his AK-47 and checked it to make sure it was still full. He saw the glint of a bullet casing from the light and slid it back into place, the last of the light beginning to leave the room as the sun started to set.
"I'm probably gonna die here." He said to himself as he racked back the slid on his rifle, a look of grim determination on his face. "But i'll be damned if I don't go down fighting."
Turning on his flashlight and pointing his rifle at the stairs, Shavo slowly began to walk up to it before shining it up the hole in the ceiling. He stayed there, gun aimed at the opening and waiting for something to come flying out at him.
Creeeeeeeeeeeeek.
Okay then, it looks like he was going to have to come to it.
Slowly stepping up the stairs, finger resting on the trigger guard, he kept his eyes sharp and ears alert for any sort of other noise that could give away just what he was dealing with. Shining the beam of his light around, All he saw was knocked over filing cabinets and walls with the paint on them having long peeled off. But, unlike the other floors, this one wasn't a flat and open room. This one seemed to have multiple corners and hallways within.
Perfect opportunities to get jumped by something.
Pushing that thought away, Shavo slowly crept towards one of the corners and stopped right in front of it, his gun aimed at the dark opening before it cut off into darkness around the wall, space for something to hide. He took a deep breath, trying to steel his nerves before he went in.
Then, with his heart pounding in his ears, Shavo turned the corner to find absolutely nothing.
He kept his rifle trained, scanning the room for any sort of movement before looking at the ceiling for signs of anything.
Nothing.
Then what the hell was making that sound?
Creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek.
Whipping around and pointing his rifle behind him, he thought he had heard the noise coming from the room by the staircase. Shining his light more around the room, he still couldn't find jack shit.
And he also didn't see the black figure come down from the ceiling right behind him, until it poked him in the back of his head.
"Boop."
Shavo didn't even have time to scream as he turned around and fell onto his back on the floor, bringing his rifle up and aiming his rifle at the thing that snuck up on him.
With the light striking it, he saw that it had bright orange hair on it's head, as well as bright green eyes and rosy cheeks. It wore an odd collection of clothing, different colors of white, pink and black all on them. That was when the Traveller began to connect the dots.
This was Nora Valkyrie.
The hammer maiden brought her hand up to cover her face from the light, his rifle still pointed at her.
"Ah, that's bright!" She cried out as she scrunched her eyes shut. Shavo started to focus again as he aimed his gun down and away from her face.
"Jesus Christ…" He breathed out a sigh of relief as he allowed his head to fall back on the floor. "You scared the shit outta me."
"Wait a minute…" Nora seemed to think about something as she walked up to the goateed teen and then bent over him, her face inches from his as she squinted her eyes and seemed to scrutinize him.
Shavo, not daring to move, just looked back with wide eyes as he waited for her to say something.
"You're not Ren!" Nora finally said after a few moments of scrutiny, standing up straight and pointing an accusing finger at him.
"Uhmmmmm…. No." Was all he said back, propping himself up on his elbows. "I'm not."
"Aww, shucks!" She said in annoyance as she stomped lightly and crossed her arms as she looked around. "Where on Remnant is that boy?"
"Uh, hey, I hate to be the one to break it to you," Shavo said as he got up to his feet and dusted himself off before picking up his rifle. "But you weren't hoping to be partners with this Ren guy, were you?"
Nora looked back at him and nodded enthusiastically.
"Well… You know the rules for partners here, right?" Shavo asked the girl. She nodded again, but didn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation. "How the first person you make eye contact with… Is your partner for the rest of your time here at Beacon?"
Nora just nodded at her again, until realization hit her like a fat guy barreling towards the bakery and her eyes went wide.
"Ohhhhh. So, that means…" Nora let the rest go off into the air as she pointed at him. Shavo nodded confirmative before holding out his hand.
"Looks like we're partners for a while." He said as he gave her a smile. "Name's Shavodan. What about you?"
Even though he already knew the girls name, Shavo still was trying to keep up his cover.
Whatever the hell his cover was, exactly.
Taking his hand and giving it a strong shake, Nora smiled back at him as she answered.
"Well Shavodan, my name is Nora Valkyrie!" The hammer maiden greeted him happily.
"You can just call me Shavo." Said teen corrected the girl as he decided to start walking back to the staircase. Following him, Nora tilted her head to the side in confusion.
"Sacco?" She asked him. Shavo came to an abrupt halt as he slowly turned back around and shook his head.
"No." He tried to tell her. "Shavo."
"Shave-o?"
The Traveller shook his head again as he held his hand up and emphasized every syllable.
"Shav. O.' He said slowly. "Shavo."
"Pancakes?" Nora asked him. The guy could only stare back at her, slack jawed.
Until she started to snicker and patted him on the head.
"Relax silly, I'm just joshing you." She laughed. "Why so serious?"