Chapter 6: Survive
All the students stood atop stone platforms. Suzaku looked over all the students as Professor Ozpin spoke, "For years you have trained to become warriors, and today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."
Glynda Goodwitch continued her partner's speech as her fingers moved across her scroll, "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates… today."
Suzaku heard this and turned towards Ruby as she whined at the thought. Ozpin carried on, "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." All the students looked on eagerly as the professor continued, "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."
"What!" Ruby complained as all the students looked on with surprise. Even Suzaku was shocked - he had never seen that form of organization done before. I suppose he believed that all the students would be assigned to teams that would be guaranteed to work well.
"Are you really putting that much faith in chance?" Suzaku asked the professor.
Ozpin looked to him and gave a small nod. The confidence in his decision was clearly evident as he shut Suzaku down with no hesitation at all.
"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die. The only one who will not be partnering, because of the odd number of students, will be Suzaku Kururugi. If you come into eye contact with him, continue your search for a partner." Ozpin said.
All the students looked to Suzaku as he gave a small nod to the professor. Though he would be at a disadvantage, he was fine with this. He would be able to travel faster and with less worry of attracting attention.
"You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene", Ozpin said.
Suzaku spoke once again at the professor's words, "I would advise some caution. Fortune favors the prepared."
The professor was quick with a response as he took a sip from his coffee, "then we will see how prepared you are, Mr. Kururugi, when chance gambles with your life here at this academy."
Suzaku silenced himself at the professor's words. He wanted to see them be challenged at adaptation. How wise.
"You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one, and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and we will grade you appropriately", he said before he continued; "Suzaku you will choose a relic before you return to the top of the cliff. Your team will be selected after the initiation."
Suzaku gave one more nod before he turned to look at the forest below the cliff. It was green, and the temple he saw prior was below him.
"Are there any questions?" Ozpin asked half mindedly. Jaune raised his hand.
"Yeah, um… Sir-" Jaune asked as the professor cut him off.
"Good. Now, take your positions." All of the students took their positions, except for Jaune and Suzaku. Jaune continued to raise his hand as Suzaku looked towards the professor for an explanation.
"Sir, um… I've got a question", Jaune asked timidly. "So this landing strategy thing, wha-what is it? You're like- dropping us off or something?"
"No, you will be falling" Ozpin said.
Suzaku looked towards the other students as he saw them get launched off the pads one by one. His eyes dilated as he began to think of a landing strategy of his own.
"Oh, I see. Did you hand out parachutes for us?" Jaune continued to ask.
Suzaku looked at him for a moment. Was he really that oblivious? Suzaku looked towards Ruby who was at his right as she looked over at me before flying off.
"Professor, you are insa-" Suzaku tried to say before he was flung off with the rest of the students. Suzaku could have sworn Ozpin was taking a calming sip from his black coffee.
Suzaku looked down at the ever encroaching ground. He still had not come up with a landing strategy, but he needed one fast, otherwise he would be a pancake on impact. He saw an incoming tree and pulled out his revolver. He fired six shots into the base of the tree as it began to tip over towards him. He holstered the revolver, before he pulled out his blade. As the tree angled right below him he embedded the sword into the trunk to slow his descent. His feet slid across the wood as splinters of oak bruised and slightly cut his legs. He eventually reached the end of the log, still not completely stopped. He removed his sword from the tree as he flipped off of the crashing tree and slid across the ground. His eyes gazed at the tree as he slid to a stop on the dirt. He sighed as he kneeled for a moment to catch his breath. How did he just do that? He thought of it as Alpha's work, and left it at that.
He stood up and began to run through the woods towards the north. His legs ached as he paced himself through the dense foliage of the Emerald forest. He came into contact with a lone grimm wolf, but was able to slide under it and cut its leg before he turned around and plunged his blade into the wolf's skull. He watched as it faded into nothingness.
He turned around to find a pack of grimm. "This is not my lucky day", Suzaku said as he began to run north.
The beowolves gave chase. Suzaku pulled out his revolver and fired a round into the crowd of grimm. Several fell down dead, but more joined them as he continued to run. He then heard gunshots in the distance. He realized that these sounds were from the other huntsman, so he increased his pace until he reached a clearing. The clearing had several hunters in it - they stood near the temple with the relics. He skidded to a stop and fired more shells into the grimm before he charged into the crowd of grimm with his sword. A grimm tried to swipe at him, but he jumped over the beast's claw and fired a bullet into its head. He flipped onto another grimm and pushed off of its shoulders. He then laid low on the ground as he swiped at their legs and started parrying their claw strikes - cutting and stabbing them. Their numbers dropped drastically as he cut into their ranks. Eventually only a few of the grimm remained, however all of them were bigger than the cannon-fodder that he had faced previously. They were far wiser than their younger brothers, and slowly crawled back into the shadows of the forest.
Suzaku was tired as he kneeled on the ground. His breaths were ragged as he gasped for breath. "How do you fight like this?" Suzaku asked, though the question was more to himself than anyone.
He sighed as he stood up and controlled his breathing. He turned towards the temple to see that there were chess pieces on the stands that held the relics. Suzaku laughed internally at that. What an interesting choice. He slowly walked over to it and looked at the options he had. There was the rook, the knight, and the bishop. He took the knight as a symbol of his title. He went over to the rest of the teams as he studied each one. There was Yang, that black-bowed girl - named Blake, Ruby, a man that had an uncanny resemblance to a chinese soldier he saw in the second black rebellion, a young lady that looked like a greek warrior, and a red-head with a massive grenade launcher. "Hello, everyone", Suzaku said as everyone waved to him. They each smiled at him, those he didn't yet know gave their names - the black-bowed girl was named Blake, the man who resembled the chinese soldier was named Lie Ren, the greek warrior was named Pyrrha, and the red-head with the grenade launcher was named Nora.
"Well the gang's all here, now we can die together" Yang said.
Suzaku looked around and noticed two new grimm - a giant Nevermore bird in the distance and a yellow tailed scorpion.
"Not if I can help it", Ruby said as she charged at the scorpion grimm.
Yang tried to stop her but it was too late. She charged at the creature with incredible speed as all of them looked in shock. Suzaku and Yang sprinted for Ruby as she was knocked out of the way by the creature's massive claw. She got up and tried to run back to the group, but the massive Nevermore fired its feathers at the red-hooded girl, catching her by the cape. Ruby pulled on her cape as Suzaku and Yang dodged the sharp feathers, trying to reach her. Out of the corner of their eyes, they saw a white blur dash past them and freeze the scorpion's striking tail.
It was Weiss Schnee. Suzaku stopped as Yang continued to run towards Weiss and Ruby. Did Ruby get partnered with Weiss?
Suzaku looked on at the scene for a moment. He then walked back to the group of Huntsmen and joined the conversation. "That thing is circling back", Jaune said, as he pointed to the bird.
"He's right, there's no point in trying to fight it when what we're looking for is right here", Weiss said as Ruby and Jaune picked up their relics. Ruby picked the knight, while Jaune picked the rook.
"Let's go" Ruby said as most of the team followed her. Suzaku was about to join them when Weiss spoke up.
"Wait, Mr. Kururugi", Weiss said, "have you activated your aura?"
Suzaku gave her a quizzical expression as the heiress sighed. She grabbed him by the hand and then proceeded to grabbed his shoulder.
"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory. Through this our souls are unbound by pain or death, and by thy shoulder I shall protect thee", Weiss said as Suzaku's body began to glow. His aura expanded and formed a blurry form - it looked almost like the symbol of Geass. It then shrank back down and became a soft green glow.
"Your aura is incredible!" Weiss said as all of Suzaku's minor injuries healed. Suzaku looked at himself in awe. It was as if his body were unable to contain the splinter of his soul. He gave a calm breath.
"We need to catch up to the others" Suzaku said. Weiss nodded as they headed towards Beacon cliff.
All nine of the students ran to the clearing where the ruins formed below Beacon cliff. The Nevermore found itself perched atop the ruins waiting for the students to make their move. They sat behind the withered pillars that dotted the clearing. Suzaku stayed behind the pillar as he analyzed the predicament that they were all in.
Unfortunately he had very little time to think as the scorpion from before tore through the foliage of the forest, and charged them.
"Run!" Jaune bellowed out as they all ran from their spots and towards the giant black bird.
Nora fired a volley of grenades at the bird which flew from its perch to attack them. All of them began to run for the cliff. They ran as fast as they could as the scorpion Grimm followed in pursuit of its fleeing prey. Suzaku and Pyrrha turned towards the creature and began to fire at it - unfortunately that did nothing to halt its advance. They both turned around, but Suzaku stopped as the Nevermore swooped in and took out the bridge. All of them went flying. Suzaku was flown ever closer to the massive scorpion's pincers. He took out his blade and cut at the Grimm's eyes. It tried to hit him with the tail, but missed as he side stepped and flipped off the creature. Suddenly, Nora flew in with her mighty hammer and smashed the creature's carapace. It jabbed its tail at her, but she quickly reacted and fired her hammer again, causing her to fly off the scorpion's body. She landed on the bridge, but her momentum caused her to hit Blake and Suzaku.
Suzaku went wide-eyed as he fell into the bottomless canyon, while Blake flung herself up to the ruins with her weapon. Suzaku plummeted to the ground rapidly. He tried to find anything to grab or stab into to slow his descent, but found nothing. He turned himself towards the abyss below. He couldn't end here; he wouldn't!
"I won't allow you to die either," a voice said.
Wait, that's Alpha's! He turned towards a green light and saw green eyes stare back. Not the eyes of a human, but the eyes of a machine.
(=+=)
Back upon the surface Ruby had come up with a plan to get rid of the Nevermore while Pyrrha, Nora, Jaune, and Ren landed in the clearing after they had taken out the scorpion. Weiss charged forward as the Nevermore tried to propel itself off the cliff - it became stuck as Weiss froze its tail. It screeched in rage as Blake tossed her roped weapon to Yang. They wrapped the rope of the weapon around a couple of the pillars in the ruins as Ruby flung herself onto the rope. Weiss, who had just returned, used her glyphs to pull the bungee cord towards the ground.
"Of course you would come up with this idea", Weiss said as Ruby waited to be catapulted.
"Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asked her.
Weiss replied sarcastically, "Can I?"
"Well can you?" Ruby asked once more.
"Of course I can!" Weiss angrily said back as she launched Ruby towards the trapped Nevermore.
Ruby caught the neck of the Nevermore before Weiss created glyphs for her to run on. She dashed up the cliff firing one round after another until the bird's head came clean off. She landed atop the cliff looking down upon everyone else. She eyed all seven of them once more.
Wait! Seven! There were suppose to be eight.
"Where's Suzaku!? she yelled out. All of them looked around until Blake's eyes widened in realization.
Weiss and Yang saw this and turned to her; "What happened?" Yang asked.
She looked back to the cliff where she was pushed off with Suzaku. All of them looked in shock. Nora and Blake were probably the most upset by this.
Another screech could be heard as a second Nevermore swooped in and began firing a volley of arrows at them. All of the students took cover behind whatever they could.
"How are we supposed to take down another one?" Jaune asked.
All of the students looked in caution at the Nevermore until they heard a slight humm in the air. They focused their senses to find the noise and looked towards the abyss below. White, gold, and green light shot up from the fog and began to fire at the creature with a barrage of green energy. The Nevermore flew away from the green energy circling around to attempt a strike on the new combatant.
It was a massive mech of some sort - white with golden trim. It had glowing green eyes and transparent green wings. It looked at all the students before it spoke.
"Don't worry, I'll handle this." it said. All the students eyes dilated as they looked at the mech. It sounded exactly like Suzaku... because it was Suzaku!
All of the students were relieved that he wasn't dead. The mech took off at incredible speeds as it continued to fire at an incredible rate. It drew swords from its back before it charged at the Nevermore. The creature swerved out of the way, but was surprised when the mech fired a wire from its hip. The hook connected to the Nevermore's wing - flinging the mech to the back of the Nevermore where he drove his blade through its skull. The bird fell to the ground below, crushing several trees under its sheer weight. The mech pulled the blade from the Nevermore's head as the creature dissolved into a black dust.
The mech flew back to the cliff where Suzaku opened the cockpit and jumped out of the seat. All of the students were still surprised - all except Ruby. Her eyes went wide as she looked at the marvelous machine. She yelled to Suzaku.
"Can I drive!?"
(=+=)
The professor congratulated team Juniper, which consisted of Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren. What surprised Suzaku the most was that Jaune became team leader. He wasn't present when they defeated the Grimm scorpion, but I suppose he showed great promise.
Finally, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xaio Long were declared team RWBY with Ruby as team leader.
"Now, Suzaku Kururugi," Ozpin started as Suzaku walked onto the stage, "for choosing the white knight, you shall be with team RWBY for the duration of your stay. Is this agreeable?"
Suzaku nodded in agreement as Euphemia ran up to the stage and hugged him.
"Looks like things are shaping up to be an interesting year."
Author's notes: I apologize for the tardiness of my chapters. I will try to speed up production time, however I am writing on my off-time two more books for FanFiction. The first was mentioned in the previous chapter, and the second I have yet to reveal, though one of the characters in it will be the mysterious "Alpha". By the way, I have decided to stop publishing chapters every week. Each chapter is so short and I'm not giving it one hundred percent, so I will only publish chapters that are fully worked upon. Thank you for reading my book. If you like the book, please do follow and favorite it. If you like me, please do follow and favorite me. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day.