Becoming a huntress was a life-changing event for most people. Dedicating your life to the fight against the endless horror of the grimm attracted certain kinds of personalities. The range of applicants went from would-be heroes to opportunists and ended on the other end of the spectrum with the desperate.
Blake Belladonna wasn't ashamed to admit her motivations for applying to Beacon rested firmly in the realm of personal gain.
She understood the gradual change from activism to terrorism among the White Fang members, but couldn't reconcile participating with her concience. It left the cat faunus with the personal dilemma of wanting to help the cause and no venue to do so in a meaningful manner. Standing at street corners handing out flyers about unethical labor practices in dust mines wouldn't change the world anytime soon.
Until one day, Blake found the answer by complete accident from a throwaway advertisement on her scroll.
A fifty percent discount for opening a commercial account on the scrollnet.
The scroll network was a new phenomenon on the rise, ever since more people than ever had access to scrolls. Purely educational and informative at first, recent development showed increased interest in entertainment content. The open nature of the scroll network allowed anybody to share their thoughts and work with the world, not only the rich and influential in certain industries. Anybody could reach an audience of thousands with just a scroll and an idea.
Once exposed to this part of the world, Blake saw her chance and had learned the ways of the scrollnet celebrity, cross referencing hundreds of profiles in months of research and planning.
So many videos. So many brain-rotting hours looking for the perfect recipe to success.
All she had to do now was push this button on her scroll to make the first vital step by making her debut. From there on, she had a road map to stardom all towards graduation, culminating in her reveal as White Fang supporter on the height of popularity and maximum reach.
But first, Blake had to find a spot with good lighting for her introduction video.
She had planned to film yesterday, before the commotion between the Grimmhound and Yang had thrown a wrench in her timetable. Afterwards, her mind had been set on informing her boyfriend about the situation and to generally catch up with him. And while supportive and reassuring, Adam remained strangely hesitant with details about his relationship with Jaune Arc.
Something to needle him about the next time they met each other in person.
"That is, unless this farce of a test goes any more sideways," Blake thought. "As if I don't have enough on my plate already without some meatheads messing everything up."
The nature of the initiation test didn't allow it to bring much of her recording equipment. She rather not have to explain to the staff why it would be necessary to bring a camera stand, dust-powererd lighting and professional microphones. A convenient knothole in a tree to fixate the scroll would have to be enough for now.
Final preparations included checking her carefully applied make-up and hair, doing some last-minute vocal warmup and lastly scanning her immediate surroundings for any sources that could interrupt her performance.
She found none and pressed the record button.
"Hello everynyaan!"
Many long nights were wasted pondering about how deep she should lean into the cute cat motive. People reacted favorably to cliches and stereotypes. The key lied in knowing to moderate her usage towards a healthy amount. Rely on those fluffy ears just enough to separate herself from the field.
"My name is Blake, I'm a faunus, and my biggest dream is to become an amazing huntress!"
Not true, because killing grimm was just a means to an end, but it sounded better than admitting to manipulating public opinion towards faunus equality through exploitation. The same kind of predatory practices her soon-to-be scrollnet colleagues were spewing every day for far less noble reasons.
"...I can't believe it's finally time for my first day at Beacon. I'm so nervous about messing up…"
She had reached the part where it became prudent to trigger the protective instincts of her target demographic; males from the age between twelve and thirty-two. Those were the audience her assets could reach most effectively. She would only throw a few easy and throwaway baits to fish on the fringes of other groups without risking the majority.
"...You will root for me, won't you?"
Was it exploitative and dishonest? Absolutely.
Did she care? Absolutely not.
"It would be sad if all my effort would be wasted. I really gave it my all to be here."
No falsehood here. Blake had trained like a maniac to get herself in prime fighting shape. The plan hinges on her success as a huntress to be sustainable. Charisma will only get their attention, competency will make them listen.
The flow of the video transitioned smoothly into a careful selection of personal trivia to endear herself to her viewers and strengthen the emotional bond, mostly inoffensive anecdotes from her life and relatable likes and dislikes.
All in all, ten minutes with no second wasted. Short, sweet and to the point.
"...See nyaa guys soon!"
Her fingers touched the stop button just before she crumbled to the floor like a house of cards, face beet red and breathing heavily to combat the shame burning in her innards like molten lead. Even after practicing hundreds of times, she barely could keep a straight face through the whole routine.
"Be likable. Act non-threatening. Show confidence. Stay approachable."
Her very own mantra to calm the crippling anxiety of a born introvert. Recited to calm her down enough to think, trembling fingers tapped the newest video file to review the footage. Blake watched the recording with a growing frown as the seconds ticked by.
"It doesn't look right…" said the little voice in her head, nagging to find the missing piece of the puzzle.
The movement, the tone and choice of words, everything matched her imagination to the letter. Each individual part of the whole was honed to perfection, so why did it bother her so much to look at the final product?
"That smile looks fake."
That voice definitely had not originated from inside her mind, proven by hot breath hitting the side of Blake's neck and hand snatching the scroll from her grasp from behind. The limb belonged to a short young woman with orange hair, bright jade eyes, and a strong fondness for the color pink in the selection of clothes. What she lacked in height, the stranger compensated in pure muscle that put Blake's lithe frame to shame. Physical strength would be necessary to use a bulky grenade launcher like this girl possessed, let alone carrying it around so effortlessly on her back.
"What do you think?" The peppy redhead showed the playing clip to her subdued companion who kept his distance. "Wait, don't answer that. The thought of you ogling at another woman makes me feel all murdery."
"You're the only girl for me. Always have been and always will be."
The girl didn't seem to care that her boyfriend was professing his undying devotion in the same manner one would read the weather report. He had long black hair put into a low ponytail with a single magenta streak on the front that matched his eye color. The clothes were distinctly mistralian with a dark green tailcoat and white silk pants. Weaponry came off a bit mundane compared to most aspiring hunters with their complicated mechashift technology, being just two green automatic pistols with vertically attached blades.
The girl tossed Blake her scroll back and puffed out her chest. "I'm Nora and this delectable piece of stoic manmeat is my soulmate Ren."
The boy named Ren responded in the same monotone drone as earlier. "Is soulmate an upgrade to introducing me as daddy of your future babies to our last waitress?"
"She wanted to know what we would like, Renny!"
"Drinks Nora, not life goals."
Redhead and Mr. Robot seemed harmless enough, the former a bit too obtrusive and the latter staring at her longer than necessary with his dull emotionless eyes. Neither appealed to Blake as a choice for a partner and luckily the two looked content with each other.
Blake managed to take three steps away from them.
"You're not gonna introduce yourself?" Nora's tone went from quirky and bubbly to frostily hostile at the drop of a hat. "Are you too good for us?"
The hair on Blake's neck stood on end and she turned around to go into a defensive stance, hand on her weapon and muscles tensed to the breaking point under the massive killing intent of the ginger shortstack.
Ren booped Nora on the nose and the oppressive atmosphere vanished. "Be nice. I don't think she wanted to insinuate that we are beneath her notice because of race or societal differences."
Blake blinked.
Blake blinked again.
Then, the weight behind his words hit her like a bag of rocks.
"What? No! Holy shit, never ever!"
Was that how her lack of engagement looked to people? A faunus supremacist? The exact opposite of what she wanted?
"Then everything is super duper!" The skittish cat faunus found herself in a vice-like side hug as Nora retook Blake's scroll and watched the recording again, her face frozen in an expression of deep concentration. "Yup, as I thought. The whole thing lacks love."
Blake had hoped for something substantial as a criticism. A quantifiable metric to improve on instead of a vague concept. How would you determine when a performer had put enough love into his show? What did love in that context even mean?
Nora recognized the look of somebody completely lost. "Do it again, but this time imagine the person you care about most in the world is watching your performance. How would you respond to them?"
For lack of better options, Blake indulged in the little experiment and restarted the introduction with Nora as her camerawoman. As instructed, she imagined somebody dear to her heart as the audience and it didn't take long to see Adam before her mind's eye, front row in a faceless crowd watching every step of her in awe and adoration. It activated a pleasant warmth growing from her stomach all up to her cheeks. The words came easier, her body felt lighter and any doubts were banished to the endless depths.
"And cut!"
Nora let both videos play at the same time for a side-by-side comparison. The second time around, Blake's smile looked genuine and the excitement didn't look forced, a startling difference to her rehearsed happiness.
The first step had been made.
"Thank you… I'm Blake." She clutched the scroll to her chest like a precious treasure.
"Well Blake, who's the lucky guy that makes you smile like a million lien?"
Blake tapped on her scroll. She didn't have to navigate on the menu for long, because the picture in question was her screensaver and menu background. When Adam and her became close, way before they even realized their romantic interest in each other, he was already an honorary member of the Belladonna family.
Her father loved him like a son, calling him the only remaining member in the White Fang with a conscience and the spine to act upon it. Her mother was the only person who could get beyond his stoic persona and manage to revert him to an embarrassed little boy. Adam has his own room in their home and was invited to every holiday and celebration, which he wouldn't miss for the world.
One of those occasions turned out to be her favorite picture.
It showed him and her at the dinner table, both wearing matching sweaters her mother had made as presents and her father standing behind them pushing the two together for a kiss.
"We've known each other since childhood, but really only recently took the next step into a relationship. Best friends turning lovers is the most cliche thing possible, isn't it?"
Nora's big grin lessened a smidge. "It worked for Renny and me. Why should we care about originality when it comes to our happiness? Filthy street rat getting adopted by the wealthiest family in town after surviving a devastating grimm attack sounds like the most basic plot ever, but it's my life and I'm thankful for it."
"You weren't filthy…"
From a composed individual like Ren, any shred of emotion registered that much harder.
"It's ok, Renny." She took his hand and squeezed. "Ever since then, I have had the means to smell extra nice. I bought a new cinnamon scented shampoo just the other day!"
Initial weirdness aside, Blake warmed up pretty quickly to the couple with polar personalities. The two came from a small village in Mistral and chose Beacon Academy over the closer facility in Haven for monetary reasons. Vale had bigger funding for its hunter academies and could provide more for the students. Having all living expenses taken care of by the government sounded a lot better than paying a substantial amount of those costs out of your own pockets.
"We have to get on a double date after this test. Renny and I, never had one of those!"
"No waffle house."
"Aw, why not?"
"Too much sugar."
"Spoilsport."
They were sickeningly cute together and Blake couldn't help but compare to her own relationship. Adam and her weren't that far yet when it came to showing affection. A kiss here, a hug there, nothing too extreme. Neither of them could be described as overly emotional to begin with, making their interactions look dispassionate for outsiders. Pair that with the long stretches of time the two had to be apart due to his responsibilities with the White Fang and you understood that barely anybody knew they were a thing.
"We're almost there!" Nora had climbed on top of the tallest tree when Blake hadn't been looking. "I can see the ruins and the blonde guy has already made it before us!"
Jaune Arc.
"There's someone else. Second dude was hard to see."
"Anything special about number two?"
"He's out cold on the floor and looks a lot like the guy from your photo. That's bad, isn't it?"
Blake answered by exploding into a hectic sprint.
"He can handle it, he said. Look where that got you, you idiot! What good is all your chivalry when you're dead!"
Ice cold dread filled her heart from the thought. She could be too late. He could be gone forever.
In strides powerful enough to almost rip the tendons in her legs to shreds, she burst onto the scene with Adam crumpled on the floor and the large frame of the Grimmhound looming over his still form. The shot from her gun rang before Jaune even registered the presence of Blake. She didn't even remember what kind of ammunition was loaded into the magazine, but to her great satisfaction, the first shot with an ice dust round hit the blonde bastard square in the face.
His whole head encased in a block of frozen water, she used the opportunity to transform her weapon back into its sword configuration and engage in close combat with one leap. a two-handed stab at his heart bounced off his aura like a tennis ball from a wall and Blake readjusted her footing for a flurry of cuts.
Strike after strike rained down on the disoriented blonde, until one of his hands blindly grabbed Blake by the arm and hurled the girl away at near mach speed into the thicket.
Nora chose that moment to chime in with her two-handed hammer, aiming for his encased head in a large overhead swing. Metal connected with ice, shattering the block as the weapon finally found its target with Jaune's skullcap. The faintest glimmer of aura was the only indicator her attack had any impact, Jaune standing there like somebody had hit an iron statue with a wiffle bat. Ice forcefully removed around his head, Jaune Arc had the first opportunity to get a good look at his assailants.
Although he had to look down to do so.
The enraged ginger was smaller than Ruby, making it necessary to put her head back to glare up at him. She shared the preference for oversized weapons with her fellow redhead, the hammer easily a head bigger than herself.
That's where the similarities ended though.
Ruby managed to fight with her massive scythe by using the momentum to offset its weight. In comparison, the girl in front of him used pure muscle strength to swing around a heavier weapon with relative ease.
"Who are you supposed to be?"
"I am Nora and this is Rennysnookums. We are the defenders of true love and you're supposed to be a pancake, only less yummy!"
The bravado in her voice wasn't mirrored by her stance, Nora glancing repeatedly between Jaune and her weapon to reassure herself she wasn't dreaming. Nothing and nobody had ever taken a blow like that from her unscathed. Ren behind her stood a bit straighter, weapons drawn and face marred by the smallest frown.
For a usually composed teenager like him, it might as well have been a look of abject horror.
This Grimmhound was now calmer than him. "Not sure what that means, but I get the gist of your intentions to hurt me."
Nora swung again with a roar and Jaune had the luxury of seeing it coming this time, grabbing the handle and stopping the blow in its tracks. His thumb pushed against the metal bar and the weapon started to bend away from him.
Sudden warm wetness on his forehead made him release the weapon and use the freed hand to wipe it off. His fingers came back with a smidge of red.
"You have hurt me…" Jaune said, transfixed on the small trickle of blood.
The greater distress raged within Nora at the sight of her bent weapon. Before she could react, a grappling line wrapped around her midriff and pulled the girl towards the forest to join Ren in his retreat.
Jaune looked up from his hand and found himself alone.
"Hello…?"
While Jaune looked for his vanished opponents, Nora was dragged behind a large thicket with a hand over her mouth. She took a bite out of reflex and couldn't get through the igniting aura around the limb, a fortunate circumstance once she realized the fingers she tried to gnaw off belonged to her boyfriend.
Ren let go once she understood he wanted her to be quiet.
The redhead expressed her displeasure in a harsh whisper. "What gives? I had him on the ropes!"
"You gave him a scratch after completely catching the guy off guard. A scratch his aura healed in seconds." Ren's eyes never left the searching blonde from their hiding spot.
"What's your point, Rennypoo?"
Lie Ren considered himself a prodigy on the subject of aura. Pair that with the sensory application of his semblance, and he could get an accurate evaluation of anybody at a glance and better than most technology could measure.
Jaune Arc felt like a deep ocean among puddles of water.
"My point is, we are facing a monster in human skin."
He had never seen a human or faunus with this much aura. The calmness of their opponent made sense, considering nothing they'd throw at him should be able to inflict feasible damage past that ridiculous barrier and inherent healing. But the most concerning was the small moment when the sea of tranquility rippled with unbridled excitement.
Right after Nora managed to draw blood.
Jaune Arc was dangerous.
Nora took his trembling hand and spoke with unusual gentleness. "Ren, how would our life be if that lone huntress hadn't bothered to save our village?"
"What has that to do with anything?"
"Just answer the question."
A Lot worse, that was for damn sure. It was a thought that kept Ren up at night sometimes. The thought behind his main motivation to become a huntsman. A single huntress had made the difference between salvation and destruction for a whole town, their town which still stood and prospered to this day. All those precious memories he wouldn't have if a single person hadn't made the choice to care.
"That huntress didn't know us. She didn't owe us anything. She helped because it was the right thing to do. I believe helping Blake is also the right choice."
Ren sighed. "The only way to win is getting through his monstrous aura. We wait for an opportunity to hit him with all we got and hope for the best."
The right moment turned out to be Blake gaining her second wind. Bursting through the shrubbery again, Jaune still had kept an eye out into the direction Ren disappeared with Nora and didn't see the enraged girl swinging her cleaver until the last moment.
"Die, you—!"
Inches before impact with his skull, Jaune grabbed the girl-shaped projectile midair by the neck in matching speed.
"You aren't the redhead midget."
He received two strikes against his unmoving jaw, fingernails clawing into the hand choking the life out of her. Jaune's head turned to look his attacker in the face and dulling amber stared into calm blue, until his eyes widened with a spark of recognition. The iron grip around her throat released and Blake fell to the ground gasping for air.
Her blurry vision sharpened just in time to see Jaune stand over Adam again.
"No, don't hurt him!" With energy she didn't think she had anymore, Blake pushed past Jaune, throwing herself on top of Adam to shield his body. The sudden weight on his chest forced a loud groan out of the red-haired bull faunus under Blake. Deft and nimble fingers roamed his body as Blake checked for the source of her boyfriend's discomfort.
She found nothing. No blood, no wounds, not even a bruise.
Only a flushed face and the pungent smell of liquor.
Ren and Nora stopped their advance towards Jaune when the vicious sound of slender palm connecting with a perfect jawline rang through the forest. The baby blue eyes of Adam Taurus opened to look up blearily at the perpetrator of his stinging cheek.
Blake Belladonna, sitting on top of him with disheveled hair and dirty clothes, glaring with wide expressive eyes in flesh and blood instead of the static screen of his scroll. Senses overloaded from the warmth of her thighs and the mixed scent of sweat, dirt and scented soap on her skin.
She was here, an inch away, throwing a fit and drumming on his chest with her fist. "Why are you drunk in the middle of a forest? I thought you were dead! Don't scare me like that! You colossal idiot, I…"
He acted upon his first instinct, putting a big kiss on those moving lips.
Drunk Adam was much more affectionate than the non-alcoholic version.
Blake stiffened, relaxed and went rigid again from the taste of alcohol on her tongue reigniting her anger. "Don't try to distract me…" Sudden pleasant shivers took her breath away. "and stop playing with my ears..."
Honest to oum purring came from the pair as Adam continued to shower his girlfriend with affection. Jaune stepped away to give the two some space and bumped right into a redhead staring into his soul.
"You're not a bad guy?"
"I made him drink with me, knowing full well what a lightweight he is with alcohol. Does that count as evil?"
It did not for Nora and the disappointment about it couldn't be missed on her face.
"Anything left to drink?"
"Ice box."
Jaune turned his attention towards the new guy, who was moving in such a way to position himself between Nora and him at all times. Where the redhead lost any tension while she rummaged through the box, the ninja boy kept his guard up and attention focused on any movement from the blonde.
"Any reason why you are still on edge… Rennysnookums?"
"It's just Ren," he said evenly. "We tried to kill you. Most would hold a grudge for that."
Jaune shrugged. "Emphasis on the word tried and it wasn't even close, no offense. I'm sure you two are very capable and have an illustrious career as hunters to look forward to in the future."
The stone mask of Ren broke for a raised eyebrow.
"Renny, they have strawberry syrup!"
"It's for cocktails… or you can drink it straight." Jaune said, watching her squeeze the content of two red plastic bottles into her open mouth.
"Nora spit it out! That's too much sugar!"
"Never!"
Blake still tried to get tipsy Adam off her as he kept hugging and kissing under half-hearted mewls of protest of the feline faunus. Ren managed to tackle Nora at the waist and fought like a lion to wrestle the bottles of syrup out of her hands, splashing both of them with their content in the process. Gradually the mood among the two pairs changed when longing trumped over indignation, culminating in Blake reciprocating Adam's advances in kind and Nora getting her sugar high by licking the spillage from Rens' face and neck.
Jaune Arc stood amidst the sudden outbreak of teenage hormones as a colossal fifth wheel, unsure what to do now when all around him started making out. He settled for taking a seat on a nearby lawn chair, lighting his last cigarette and listening to the sound of motorcycles getting closer.
"Four years of this…"