Chapter 3: Introductions
T
Tsuta was shoved to the side as a tall blonde boy rushed passed him to vomit in another trash can. The flight was uneventful until the boy became overcome with his motion sickness. The poor guy already earned the nickname, "Vomit Boy" from a few girls. Of course, he did vomit on one of them.
Tsuta had been talking with a few of the other passengers, after all he would be taking classes with most of them and may even be partners with one. It'd be good to get to know them now and skip the awkwardness later.
As far as partners went, he found a few he'd like to be teamed with if he were given the option. There was the pair he last talked to. Either of them would make good partners, they seemed knowledgeable enough and friendly. He wouldn't mind being partnered with the cat Faunus or her friend. He discovered their names were Mondy Blauer and Reyn Boe. Reyn was one of those "don't judge a book by it's cover" types. Despite his outfit's lack of color, he actually had a colorful personality once you got to know him. His clothes were a simple black button up shirt, buttoned all the way to the collar, and black pants and black boots. His long messy hair was matching in color, or lack thereof. However apparently he dyed his hair, for some reason though whatever that was, Tsuta remained ignorant. He was soft spoken as well. Not the kind of person you'd assume was training to be a Huntsman. But Mondy insisted he was amazing fighter. Tsuta couldn't help but notice Reyn's lack of any kind of weapons either.
He also noticed one older grey-themed boy who had appeared to be simply observing his fellow passengers during the flight. Tsuta had been planning on talking to him, however, he was stopped by the announcement by Professor Goodwitch... and "Vomit Boy." He saw the same guy, the grey one that is, again on the way to the campus.
He looked a couple of years older and yet was on a flight filled with first-years. Weird. When he turned to look at something, Tsuta noticed that he had a small scar over his lip. The scar didn't quite go to his nose and didn't seem to make it to his chin. He obviously had some real combat experience unlike most of the other students who transferred from schools like Signal. He also wore giant metal rings around his wrists, neck, waist and ankles. Surely they must be heavy, Tsuta pondered, What could their function be?
"You're doing it again!" a familiar feminine voice called.
"Hmm?"
"You're analyzing people." A redheaded girl with black aviators stood behind me.
"Oh, Carmina. Sorry about that. I kind of space out a lot around new people," he let out a chuckle. She was another student he met on the bullhead. She had a bandage over her nose that almost hid the freckles dotting her nose. She had a wry smile on her face, clearly enjoying herself at Tsuta's expense. She looked like the most hardcore person here, with a large, jagged scar that stretched diagonally from her right eyebrow over the bridge of her nose and ended just under her left cheekbone. Her hair was a bit unkempt. Around her neck were several necklaces that suspended various teeth, Tsuta assumed they were fake Grimm's teeth. She wore a black biker's jacket, well it was a jacket before the sleeves were torn off, effectively turning it into a vest. She wore torn blue jeans and underneath the pant legs two shiny metal boots shone and slung over a shoulder was a worn brown messenger bag that seemed to be carrying something very heavy within.
"That's weird. Not saying you're strange or anything, but it's unusual."
"Is it?"
"Kind of. But that's just your fighting instincts, to analyze a situation before you confront it. The staring is still weird though." There was pause as her smile widened. She didn't mean it as an insult, she was simply making an observation. She tended to be quite blunt about what she was thinking, lacking a filter. "So who were you analyzing this time?"
"Uh well..." Tsuta looked back towards where he last saw the grey haired boy. "He's gone."
"That's too bad, he's probably gone ahead. I hear there's supposed to be a big speech, pep rally thing going on. Why don't we check there?"
Agreeing, they went on their way pausing only when they thought they heard an explosion coming from the courtyard. "Probably some schmuck's gun going off, it's nothing," Carmina commented as they continued on their way.
"What are we looking for?" Tsuta asked not entirely sure where they were supposed to be heading.
"The multi-purpose room I think. It's the combat room we visited during orientation." Soon enough Carmina was proven correct as they found students gathering around the battle arena that was turned into a makeshift stage. Behind them entered "Vomit Boy" and a girl in red who had some soot on her cloak, probably from the explosion he and Carmina heard earlier. As they moved through the crowd of students Carmina stopped and said, "Oh! Hey, I just saw a friend of mine, I'll see you round 'kay?" and she bolted off shouting for her friend who seemed to be named after "saffron". Just then a man stepped up to the microphone. Headmaster Ozpin.
"I'll... keep this brief," he began. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge - to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people." Tsuta and a few others nodded in agreement. "But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."
"Well that wasn't much of a pep talk," a voice said to his right belonging to a frowning white haired boy. Tsuta remembered this boy from the flight over, he was frowning then as well. His expression said "Don't talk to me." Foregoing that initial impression, Tsuta approached him.
"Kind of a downer speech wasn't it?" Tsuta agreed with the boy's sentiment. "Tsuta, by the way." he stuck out a hand in greeting.
The boy eyed the offered hand for a second before grasping it. "Gavin. Yeah nothing quite like the Headmaster telling his students they're wastes of energy," he deadpanned.
"Right? But he does have a point, if we go into battle with nothing but knowledge and ideas of glory, we'll die for sure. We need experience and something to fight for."
Gavin let out a forced laugh at that, and cryptically replied, "Got it covered."
"What do you fight for?" Gavin raised an eyebrow at the question.
"It's a long story. How about you. Do you have something to fight for?"
"My family are all self trained Huntsman, hunting Grimm is everything to us."
"Self trained? Then what are you doing here at Beacon?"
"Well I'm probably the least talented among my brothers so extra training couldn't hurt, that and well..."
Gavin smiled knowingly, "You want to put it to the test, see which way is better, right?" Tsuta grinned and nodded.
"That and, well, I'm just curious."
"I can respect that."
A brief silence filled the conversation before Gavin asked, "Khopeshes?"
Tsuta was confused for a moment before he realized it was a question about his own weapons. "Uh, yeah, they also have shotguns built into them." He pulled out his weapons to show them off. They each had black hilts with rounded pommels, the blade was outlined in bright green on the sharp edge. The blade was straight from where it protruded from the hilt, then curved away to make a slight crescent shape and the tip was shaped to create a hook. The blades were about 24 inches in length and only the side curved outward was sharpened, the opposite end was blunt, making it useful to hit with without causing lethal damage. Along the middle of the blade there was a tube running on each side, each ending with openings. "They fire Dust shotgun shells," Tsuta explained as he pressed a button on the hilt and the blade unhinged at the hilt revealing a Dust round in each barrel.
"How do the rounds travel through the curved barrel?" Gavin asked, intrigued by the design.
"Oh they don't. I couldn't ever seem to get that part right. Instead it simply channels the activated Dust, releasing the energy at the end of the barrels, damaging anything close to the end of my sword." Gavin nodded in understanding. "What about you?" Tsuta eyed two thin swords on either side of his hips.
"Oh these are just a little something I pieced together," he answered as he unsheathed two rapiers. 'Pieced together' was right. It looked like he made them using parts from several different weapons. The hilts were pistol grips like the ones used for fencing irons and above the hilts were two large gears that didn't seem to serve any purpose other than being hilt guards. There were mechanisms attaching a dust clip to a trigger on the hilt, and a barrel above the blade. One blade was shorter than the other by a few inches. No individual piece seemed to be from the same weapon. "How did you make this?"
"I only had spare parts of other weapons to work with. Still, I think I did a pretty good job, I managed to piece together two Multi-Action Dust Rapiers."
"How well do they work?"
"Well they held up just fine in the combat entry exam. Other than that I don't know. That was the first time I used them." Tsuta's jaw dropped momentarily before he clamped it shut. He's only used them once?! Sensing his concern Gavin added, "Don't worry I've gotten into battles with much less to fight with. I'll probably make some modifications later, this should get me through the initiation though."
Tsuta then noticed the crowd of students moving out of the room. "Looks like we're leaving, let's go," Gavin said as he began following the crowd. Tsuta followed, taking the moment to appreciate the fact he seemed to break Gavin's antisocial wall. So far today had been a good day. At this point, he felt confident that no matter who he was paired up with, he would have at least introduced himself to them already. Tsuta couldn't wait to get a team, he worked much better in groups than solo. He wondered whether or not he'd be able to choose his partner. He'd probably go for either Mondy or Gavin. If not, he was probably already on good terms with them, unless it was that Cardin fellow. Ah well, only time will tell I suppose, thought Tsuta.
I didn't have to make too many changes to this chapter, I was already pretty comfortable with it. Thank you so much for reading, see you next chapter!
Don't forget to leave me a review, it motivates me to put out better quality content faster!