Jaune Arc slowly opened his eyes to the sound of his Scroll beeping underneath his pillow. His body slowly came to life as he stood up and took a breath, and began to stretch. One of the things Pyrrha had taught him and he's included in his morning routine.
Jaune fell forward, as a weight had suddenly fallen onto him. The room was filled with groans and the lights were suddenly flipped on.
"Sorry, Jaune."
Jaune sighed, a small smile forming on his face as he pushed the male that had jumped off the top bunk off him. "Dan, you've gotta get rid of that habit."
"I can't help it." He replied. "I always did this back home."
"You're not at home." An annoyed blonde haired girl stared at them both.
"C'mon Ash-"
"Ashley." She corrected.
"Alright, don't start that this early in the morning." Jaune got to his feet. "Why don't we just take a breath, and get our day started. I heard that they've got bacon for breakfast today." He glanced over to Dan. "Why don't you go get showered, Dan."
"Kay kay." Dan jumped up, and quickly grabbed his things and headed for the shower.
"I have no idea how you can put up with him." Ashley began, her hands busily brushing her long blonde hair that honestly reminded Jaune of Yang.
Jaune smiled. "I've dealt with worse."
"Oh right, you mentioned having seven sisters."
"Yep." Jaune moved to make his bed. Though, he wasn't really referring to any of his sisters when he said that. His mind wandered over to the thought of an energetic redhead that could probably level Beacon if she wanted to.
Jaune wondered how they were doing.
Pyrrha Nikos slowly opened the door to her dorm, her morning jog was over and a hot plate of breakfast was there waiting for her.
"Oh, welcome back." Shirou greeted her, then returned his attention to Nora who was still soundly sleeping. "C'mon Nora, time to get up. It's time for breakfast."
Nora simply held out a hand as if asking for the food to be placed.
"She's already used to the smell of your food." Ren looked perplexed. "The promise of breakfast isn't enough anymore."
"What about pancakes?" Shirou tried.
Pyrrha could only chuckle at this display as she entered the shower. It had only been three days since Jaune's departure, and everything just felt normal. Obviously not having Jaune around was something that put a damper on things the first day, but Shirou's constant presence helped improve their moods drastically.
Shirou was not Jaune's replacement, he made that very clear but he was going to do his best for them.
"I need to step up my game." Pyrrha wanted to rise to the challenge. Just because Shirou was there for them, it didn't mean she could slack. She had a responsibility as the new leader of Team JNPR.
A thought occurred.
"Are we still Team JNPR?" She thought aloud. She'd figure it out, after all it had only been three days. There were still many months ahead before Jaune would be allowed to return.
Pyrrha rinsed herself off. Today would be a good day, it would be their first day as a new Team in class, and she'd make sure the others-THUD!
Pyrrha jumped a little at the sudden impact by the door to the bathroom.
"Is everything okay?" Pyrrha called out.
When no response came she immediately rushed to finish her shower, and got dressed to see what had occurred. She peeked her head out from the bathroom, and spotted a deep indentation on the wall. To her surprise however, all of her Teammates were seated around the little table Shirou had brought from his room.
"This stuff is great, Shirou!" Nora complimented.
"Nora, don't talk with your mouth full." Ren simply replied, handing the redhead a napkin. "Though yes, I do share in her sentiments, Shirou." Ren glanced down at his simple bowl of rice and a plate of grilled salmon. "I find it so amazing that you can make such simple ingredients taste so well."
"You flatter me." Shirou smiled. "Though, the real stars of the show are how fresh the ingredients are. Beacon's cafeteria staff have quite the luxury of options." Shirou made eye contact and moved to the side slightly. "C'mon Leader, your food's going to get cold."
"Can I have Pyrrha's share if she doesn't want it?" Nora was already wide awake. Pyrrha was impressed, even she had trouble waking Nora most days.
Saving that thought for later, Pyrrha sat beside the redheaded male and partook of the food.
"Delicious as always, Shirou." She said.
"You're too kind." Shirou returned to eating, and seemed to still be unimpressed with this work with how he eyed the dishes that were laid out. Pyrrha could respect that, after all to keep striving to be better and better was something that in her opinion everyone should strive for.
"So, what's on the itinerary today?" Nora asked.
"Classes." Shirou replied, then glanced over to Pyrrha. "However, anything in between is for your leader to decide."
"Ooh Ooh!" Nora raised her hand. "Pyrrha, can I fight Shirou?"
Pyrrha sent her a strange look, as did Ren.
"Oh c'mon, Shirou's been kicking all kinds of butt." Nora shrugged. "I just wanna see how I fair, not to toot my own horn but I'm pretty sure I can give Shirou a better fight than Team CRDL."
That was rather unexpected. Pyrrha didn't take Nora for the type to actively challenge anyone, she always had her pegged as the playful type who liked to laze about.
"We'll see if we can slot it in." Shirou shrugged. "I've got quite the packed schedule."
Pyrrha nodded, she'd gotten used to the insane schedule that Shirou seemed to put on himself. In the morning he had a simple workout routine, then he'd come back to his dorm to shower, then cook for the two Teams that he called his friends, then the standard classes while acting as a teaching aid if it was needed, and then when classes were over he would spar with Weiss.
"Why don't we all go train with Shirou and Weiss, that is if you don't mind?" Pyrrha asked.
"Of course not." Shirou smiled. "I think it'd do Weiss well to spar against other people besides me."
"Grand." Pyrrha beamed and the group continued to eat in silence. "Though, I get to spar with Shirou first."
"What?!" Nora exclaimed.
"As Leader, I am within my right to exercise my power." Pyrrha smirked.
"You're a tyrant!" Nora gasped. "Is this what the future of Team NPRS is going to look like?"
"Team NPRS?" Ren chuckled.
"I don't know what we're called now."
"I'm sure the Headmaster or someone has our name in mind." Shirou assured.
Meanwhile the aforementioned Headmaster of Beacon Academy was facing a dilemma. For once in his tenure here at Beacon Academy he was quite stumped. Stumped by what you may ask?
The new name that will be used to refer to Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, and Shirou Emiya.
Glynda Goodwitch stood at his side, she was somewhat worried at the amount of caffeine that the Headmaster had ingested.
"Team…PVLE. (Pebble)" Ozpin crossed another name off his list. "No, I can't liken these students to pebbles!"
He'd been at this for so long. Glynda couldn't help but remember the other names he had thought of. She knew it was uncalled for to think that some of the names were amusing considering that the Headmaster was running himself ragged.
Team PERV was among the worst of his ideas.
Glynda wished that the Headmaster would figure something out soon.
In a daze, Rin Tohsaka awakened to an unfamiliar scene. Myrtenaster in hand, her body jerking and rolling as she threw herself out of the way.
A massive suit of living armor was attempting to crush her. The massive sword missed her frame, but she could feel the force from it. Touching it would have cleaved her in two, there was no alternative.
The living armor was deceptively fast, it swung at her. She moved to the side, then jumped as it swiped at her with its free arm. She braced herself, then flew back into a ragdoll before stopping.
For a moment she thought she had been blinded. The blow had crushed her orbital, that was her initial thought, but no. It didn't hurt to keep her eyes open, and after a few blinks she could see out of it once more.
Who cares if she had been blinded, there was no way to stop her.
Weiss Schnee would be free from her captivity in this home.
Rin Tohsaka slowly opened her eyes to let in the light of the new day into her vision. Blake had just stepped out from the bathroom, her hands slowly buttoning up her underblouse as she approached the bed.
"Good morning." Blake simply greeted. "You look spooked."
"I do?" Rin asked, then glanced to her hands. One was tightly clenched as if it was holding onto something.
The door to the RWBY dorm slowly opened, and Yang had come through.
"Morning guys." Yang beamed, then quickly hopped over to the closet and grabbed a fresh set of clothes and rushed into the bathroom. "Oh, by the way. Can someone wake Ruby up?" Then shut the door.
Blake had taken it upon herself to walk over to their leader and gave her a few pokes.
"Ruby." Said Blake. "Time to get up."
"The Faunus Rights Movement!" Ruby shot up with a dazed look. Then noted Blake who had jumped back slightly. "Oh, morning Blake." Then poked her head down to the bottom bunk. "Hey Weiss, sleep well?"
"For the most part." She replied. Rin fell into thought, the damn visions she was having in her sleep. It was annoying, she'd gotten used to her fair share during the war. She'd see Archer's on occasion, but to see Weiss' was a bit jarring.
Her hand moved to touch the scar on her face.
There were other things afoot, she could feel it.
"What day is it again?" Rin asked.
"Thursday." Blake answered. "We have classes with Professor's Peach and Oobleck." Blake sent her a look. "Are you okay? You're usually the one who reminds everyone of their schedule."
"I feel a bit off." Rin replied, not really seeing the harm in revealing that much.
"Oh." Blake said, then turned. "Do you want to stay in? I'm sure we could cover your note taking in class if you're not up to it."
"No, thank you." Rin rose to her feet. "I think I'm fine, it was just a dream. Nothing too major, I'm just blowing it out of proportion." Blake seemed to be content to leave it at that, and then moved on as did Ruby. The flashing light from her Scroll caught her attention however.
There was a single name being displayed on the screen: Winter.
Rin blinked, this was Weiss' older sister. She paused for a moment, then took a breath and answered the call.
Shirou Emiya had a realization hit him the moment he had sat down in class.
He hadn't started doing the task that Professor Geel had assigned him to do. It had been two weeks now since the militant professor had left for his assignment as an active Huntsman, and in those two weeks had made no progress at all.
He supposed he should give it some thought. His eyes moved to his first class with Professor Port, only Yang and Rin were in this class with him on this day. The others had opted to change their schedules since they didn't feel like dealing with Professor Port this early in the day.
Not to say that the older man was bad by any means, it was just that he was a bit eccentric with his stories and would often go on tangents to regale the class with experiences from his youth, that more often than not had no bearing on the lesson proper.
If he were to space out then he was sure Professor Port wouldn't mind.
Well spacing out wouldn't necessarily be the right term. He was more than capable of listening to the professor's lesson (At least until he went on a tangent) and not having it interrupt his train of thought.
For the Teams that he was going to help, there were no other candidates aside from Team RWBY. Rin was in it, and he was sure he could sneak in a few pointers for applications for Weiss' abilities in between sessions while helping the team. The second would be Team JNPR or whatever they were called now until Jaune's eventual return.
Team RWBY was first.
Ruby was a competent fighter, he recalled his first meeting with her during the robbery. Ruby was fast, and honestly had a very honed fighting style with a weapon that in human history did not necessarily have a designated combat style since well…it was a farming tool. Still, Shirou couldn't overlook it. Lots of weapons used to be farming tools until someone figured out how to do damage with them, take nunchucks for example.
The scythes he had at his disposal weren't similar to Crescent Rose. So he couldn't really claim to be an expert in that area so he'd leave it to Ruby. Though, the area he supposed Ruby could focus on was her general experience. While most would see her being accepted into college at the age of 15 as an impressive feat, it also meant that those last two years that she could have had beaten knowledge into her were lost to her. Compared to everyone else, Ruby as both a combatant and a Leader weren't on very even footing.
He'd see if that was the case.
Rin didn't have many problems, she was experienced thanks to her experience in the war, but her new abilities would take time to hone. While they were already being used intermittently whenever she saw the need for them, she would default to Magecraft most of the time, but if they wanted to remain low profile that needed to change.
From what he could tell from Blake, she was very competent. Her strikes weren't very powerful from the sparring sessions he'd observed, but they were strong enough. From the limited information he could learn from Gambol Shroud, he found that they were forged through battle, and Blake had put them to very good use. He wouldn't pry about her past, but as far as he was concerned in terms of overall skill and experience Blake was in the lead for her Team.
Lastly was Yang, the blonde brawler reminded her of Berserker. Skilled, but defaulted to brute force. In Berserker's case it was because of the madness that he was afflicted with, but with Yang it was as if she was sure that the enemy she was facing would crumple the moment she touched them, and if that didn't work then they'd crumple with the next blow, then the next.
Hit it til it dies, that seemed to be her strategy.
He glanced at the blonde beside him who was lazing about as Professor Port continued his lessons.
"Yang." He began.
"Sup?" Yang replied. "Got something on your mind?"
"I wanted to pick your brain about hand to hand." Shirou turned his gaze to her. "What goes on in there when you're fighting?"
"Why the sudden interest?" Yang asked, then shrugged. "Well if you're curious then not much, it's mostly the same with everyone with a weapon: Look for openings, be mindful of your own, make sure Aura is up on occasion." Yang raised a brow. "You look kinda surprised, did you think that I don't think at all?"
"Hypothetically, if I answered yes would you hit me?"
"Hypothetically, yes." Yang glanced down at his notes, and spotted what he had scribbled down. "Berserker?" She looked offended. "Do I really look that unhinged to you, Shirou." Yang let out a dramatic gasp. "I'm hurt."
"I don't mean it like that." Shirou sighed. "But, you do just go off the rails when you fight Yang."
"That's just my style." Yang leaned back into her seat. "I just go all out. I know I won't always win, but when the chips are down you can always count on me."
Actions speak louder than words, but he at least knows Yang can back up her claims. From their little scrap a few months ago, he tasted Yang's strength first hand. She made him eat dirt for the most part, but that was when his body was crippled.
He doubted it would happen again.
"Emiya," Rin called out to him. "Does this have something to do with that little project you were assigned?"
"Project?" Yang asked.
"For Professor Geel's class." Shirou revealed. "I'm supposed to take two teams, and help improve their overall effectiveness as a unit. I'm supposed to do that in place of my midterm exam for his class."
Yang let out a whistle.
"So, you're going to go with us?" Yang asked.
"You and Team JNPR." Shirou nodded. "I figured these two teams would be the best, especially since we're Freshmen who don't really have good team dynamics developed, since we're all pretty new."
"I can see that." Yang nodded. "So what pointers are you gonna give out?"
"Frankly, I was thinking of individually suiting you into roles then working from there."
Yang thought for a moment. "Oh, like what we talked about in Professor Grouch's class! Roles in a team, right?"
Shirou nodded. He was happy that Yang caught on, he would get her thinking about her role in the team and if needed he'd nudge her into thinking a certain way here or there.
"I suppose we'll be shelving our training sessions then?" Rin asked.
Shirou smirked. "Not on your life."
Near the end of the day, a pair of redheads could barely contain their excitement.
Well…one of the redheads could. The other was doing her best impression of a basketball with how much she was bouncing in place.
"Ren, be more excited!" Nora ordered.
Pyrrha chuckled as she continued to stretch. Nora's challenge this morning had been accepted and Pyrrha had asserted herself as well in wanting to fight Shirou. She was honestly quite excited, as someone who gained fame through battle, to test her skills against someone who seemed to be on par with her was always exciting.
Pyrrha did not see herself as boastful, but the fact that compared to her peers she was a seasoned veteran in terms of combat, remained.
But to say that she and Shirou were on par as combatants was incorrect. She had been made aware when Shirou had defended Ruby against their Professor. Her fellow redhead had been holding back a substantial amount. Physical feats aside, Shirou was also very skilled with what he had at his disposal, and that just made the gap between Shirou and herself wider.
Pyrrha unapologetically welcomed the challenge.
The doors to the training room had slid open, allowing the group of teens that made up Team RWBY to filter into the room. Ruby threw her hands up in greeting as did Nora, the others seemed to be more aware of their purpose and began to stretch as if to get ready.
Then Shirou stepped into the room.
"Seems that everyone's here." He began.
"Woo! Fight time!" Nora exclaimed.
"Not yet." Shirou smiled, then turned to address everyone. "I'm sure some of you are surprised at this little gathering."
"Not really." Ruby shrugged. "We always hang out, and now we're training together. Nothing surprising about that."
Ruby made a fair point, but Shirou's tone indicated that there was more to this than a friendly gathering to spar.
"Shirou got a doozy of an assignment dropped onto him by Professor Grouch." Yang cut in.
That was news to Pyrrha.
"It's like Yang said." Shirou stepped forward. "I've been tasked with helping two teams improve their efficiency as a unit. Obviously, I've chosen my friends to help."
"Shirou, don't take this the wrong way." Blake began. "You're good, but you're not that good."
The soft smile that worked it's way towards Shirou's face spoke volumes. Yang, Weiss, and Ruby all took a precautionary step back. Pyrrha and Ren had done the same, the latter grabbing Nora as they did.
"Alright then." Shirou smiled. "How about we do a little experiment? Team RWBY versus me."
"No!" Ruby cried out.
"Emiya." Weiss groaned.
"It's just a demonstration." Shirou took a step back. "A way to see if the classes we're learning from are actually teaching us anything, or if we're just regurgitating information into our tests." Most of them still seemed apprehensive. "If I lose then we call this off, and I'll look for someone else to train, and I'll even splurge on the meals you get if I were to lose."
"Premium Tuna?" Blake's deadpan tone remained.
"Nothing but the best and freshest." He glanced at the rest of Team RWBY. "For all of you." Weiss crossed her arms with a smirk, and began to speak that strange dialect she would sometimes hear from them.
"Datte karera, yowai mo ne?" is what came from Shirou
Weiss' hand slowly made its way to the blade on her hip. "Shirou, Shirou. You're overestimating yourself again~" It was clear that what Shirou had said to Weiss was enough to provoke her. She had the same expression on her face as she did that night Shirou had seemingly skipped out on their training session to help her let out her frustrations with Jaune.
"I think we should get clear." Ren suggested.
Pyrrha didn't need to be told twice, and moved far enough to where she think she and the others wouldn't be caught in the crossfire.
"Formulate a plan, and then we'll start in one minute."
Rin Tohsaka was upset, not because of Shirou…well partly because of Shirou. The red haired male had successfully goaded her into this fight with a few simple words.
He still knew how to press her buttons.
Honestly she was partly impressed. Shirou had channeled his inner blue haired bastard and somehow mimicked the mannerisms that her want to throttle him.
"Oh! By the way!" Shirou called out from across the room. "I'm only going to be using my bow and arrows!"
"Okay, Shirou!" Ruby replied then turned to the group. "Well…at least Shirou's going easy on us."
"Kinda insulting if you ask me." Yang shrugged.
"Yang, are you forgetting that Shirou shot a Nevermore out of the sky?" Blake added.
Rin never took her eyes off Shirou. He had traced the longbow she had seen Archer wield during the War. He seemed so comfortable with it.
"Since Shirou's only using a bow I think the best option is to rush him." Yang suggested.
Emiya traced an arrow.
"We're all competent close range fighters, he can't hold all of us back." Blake added.
He notched the arrow and drew the bowstring back.
"Yeah, it's not like he's shooting bullets." Ruby beamed.
A flash of red.
"Move!" Rin pushed Ruby out of the way as an arrow whizzed past her head and immediately after made contact with the hard-light barrier that coated the walls. A sizable explosion and Shockwave followed.
Ruby went white.
"Time's up!" Shirou called out, and loosed three more arrows all running parallel to one another. Ruby vanished in a flurry of petals, Rin had run forward sliding underneath the arrow in her path.
Yang overestimated the speed at which the arrows were being fired at and ended up taking one of the arrows on her shoulder. The impact threw her back into a roll, she held her shoulder for a moment, her Aura flickering for a moment before solidifying once again.
Ruby had rushed in, avoiding arrows left and right. Rin knew she had to get in close, the handicap Shirou imposed on himself was for their sake not his. If she was being honest the only reason they stood any chance of beating him was because of the handicap,but with this handicap it also meant that Shirou was going to restrain himself less than normal to give them an appropriate challenge.
Ruby's petal form had swerved around an arrow. But Shirou was quick to fire off another pair right in the path Ruby had taken.
Ruby let out a yelp before she was hit, and rolled away.
Rin had her chance, she poured Magical Energy into her legs and burst forward. She soon faced Shirou's bow, and threw out a hand to shift it and throw off his aim.
Looking back she scoffed at the notion.
There was a reason why he manifested as an Archer in the war.
Shirou's hand moved with the shove, his shooting form not deviating as he chose a new target in that instant.
The Blonde Brawler that had rushed forward with a war cry. Then took the brunt of the shot Shirou had loosed into her chest and fell backwards.
Shirou pulled the hand that held his bow back, and pulled Rin with it. She planted her feet down into the ground, but Shirou had now pushed giving her a fresh taste of the bow's material. Then he'd stepped past her, the bow how pressed firmly against her neck.
Rin tried to choke out a profanity, Shirou was taking this a bit too seriously against her! Before she got the wind in her lungs, Shirou had flipped her over his shoulder with the bow's help and she had slammed into the floor.
Rin ignored the flickering in her vision, and the slight burning feeling in her throat. She fought to get back to her feet, her hand tingling to reach for the blade at her hip.
Shirou was looking at her from a few feet away.
"What will it be, Rin?" He asked almost taunting.
She gripped Myrtenaster and pointed it at him. "Must you ask?" She smirked, her eyes glancing past Shirou. "Right, Blake?"
Shirou glanced with his peripheral, and indeed the bowed beauty was there. Gambol Shroud drawn and wielded as two blades.
"I think you've bitten off more than you can chew, Shirou." Blake said.
"I don't think so." Shirou quickly notched an arrow, and Rin reacted with a White Glyph. Shirou's foot jerked forward like the many times she'd done in training to throw him off balance, but he was still in shooting form as he fell and shot at Blake.
Blake's double took the hit, and Rin rushed in.
Shirou fell to the ground, he spun with his legs out as Rin approached in an attempt to keep her away, then got into shooting position once again.
She wouldn't let him shoot, she couldn't. Those arrows were too dangerous and would do so much damage against their Aura.
Rin thrust forward, the tip of Myrtenaster aimed directly at Shirou's bow. The blade running down the length of the bow but Rin kept pushing forward. She pulled the trigger on the handle and allowed to cylinder to rotate.
Myrtenaster's engravings glowed blue.
The tip had grazed the bowstring, then Shirou had shoved her away. He quickly moved to shoot at Blake.
Rin smirked.
The bowstring shattered, not snapped when Shirou had pulled back on it. He glanced down at the bowstring before he took note of Blake who was closing the distance. He swung at Blake with the bow, then abandoned it the second she moved to parry the blow.
He dove to the side, the bow fizzling out of existence before a new one had formed right in his hands.
Blake stopped her assault when Shirou had primed an arrow to fire right underneath her chin.
"Forfeit." It wasn't a request.
Blake's eyes darted behind Shirou for a moment.
"You too Rin, don't drag this out." Shirou added. "What will it be? I loose this arrow Blake gets carried off with a concussion at least." Shirou had a dangerous glint in his eye. "Then you'd have to deal with me alone."
The glowing on Myrtenaster slowly receded, before she sheathed her weapon. "I forfeit." Rin said, and that was all it took for Shirou to finally put down and dismiss the bow.
"Pick Ruby and Yang off the floor, then let's talk."
Pyrrha didn't know what was more impressive: Shirou or the fact that Team RWBY held out that long. Shirou had mopped the floor with Team CRDL, and while she assumed anyone with any modicum of strategy and quickness could do so against Team CRDL, the same could not be said against Team RWBY.
Team RWBY in Pyrrha's eyes were one of the best teams in the freshman roster. Great individual strengths that would have become more pronounced as they improved their teamwork.
Yet what happened during the spar showed that they hadn't gotten to that point yet. While they could work together, it seemed superficial. There was no trace of set strategy that even newly formed teams of veteran Huntsmen would try to implement. Pyrrha shook the thought away, that was needlessly mean. To compare this freshman team to veterans was just asking for disappointment.
They were students, herself included. While she was familiar with the inner workings of how veteran Huntsmen functioned, that was because she had the privilege of learning from them, because of who she was.
Regardless, Pyrrha seemed to be aware of the weaknesses of her fellow freshman team and she knew then Shirou knew.
"Alright." Shirou clapped his hands to get their attention. "Now that that's settled, who can tell me what went wrong?"
"We…fought you?" Was Ruby's answer.
"Hilarious, but no." Shirou took a step back, he let out a resigned sigh from the looks of it. "It seems that Professor Geel's lessons aren't sticking." He nodded as if affirming his suspicions. "Stop me if you've heard this before–Minimizing Casualties and Member Identity."
"Oh yeah, from that class where you beat Team CRDL into the dirt." Yang added.
"Please tell me that isn't the only thing you remember from that class."
Yang remained silent.
"You all had a decent chance of beating me." Shirou continued. "Tell me what was the plan?"
Their plan consisted of rushing him, that much Pyrrha was certain of.
"We tried rushing you, we were sure you couldn't handle all of us at once." Ruby answered.
"I see. Correct me if I'm wrong, your plan was to get all of you if not one of you into melee range against me?"
"Yup, pretty much."
"Ruby, close your eyes." Ruby became apprehensive the moment Shirou had told her that. "Don't worry, I won't hit you or anything." After a tense moment, Ruby obliged. "Now, I want you to imagine that instead of me you were fighting something else, a strong monster that even other huntsmen have trouble with, razor sharp fangs and claws that can rip through metal with ease."
"Shirou, what's the po-" He silenced Yang with a raised finger.
"Now Ruby, imagine what had just happened but that thing was what you fought."
For a moment Ruby just stood there, then she could see the beads of sweat form on her forehead. Then Ruby's eyes shot open in horrific realization.
It's all fun and interesting strategies in training and sparring, but if this situation were to be reenacted against a powerful Grimm then they'd most likely be dead. Yang, Ruby, and Weiss would have been mutilated, while Blake would most likely die if she kept fighting.
The younger girl had huddled up against her elder sister for comfort.
"I'm not trying to scare you Ruby." Shirou said. "I know you know the consequences." Shirou passed a hand over his side. Pyrrha wouldn't forget how Shirou had essentially bled out in her arms during Initiation.
"I know Shirou." Ruby hung her head.
"Let's treat it as a learning experience." Pyrrha tried her best to make the younger girl see the bright side. She locked eyes with Shirou. "Perhaps you'll be struck with inspiration if you were to see me deal with Shirou."
"You tyrant!" Nora screamed. "I've got first dibs."
"First dibs?" Blake raised a brow. "You mean you're actually clamoring to fight Shirou?"
"Yeah, I mean don't you?" Nora asked. "We've got someone who's super good at fighting. We could learn a thing or two from Shirou."
Pyrrha smiled, she shared the same sentiments. Fighting Shirou gave her insights to her own style, and whenever Shirou watched a bout in class his commentary on certain ways a match could have turned out and the actions that led up to a certain point were always eye opening to her. It was almost as if Shirou was the one fighting every bout.
"Shall we begin then?" Shirou asked.
"Let's go!" Nora jumped.
"Just like that?!" Blake asked with wide eyes.
"I mean, when's a chance like this going to come up again?" Nora defended.
Pyrrha chuckled, she didn't have the heart to correct Nora. Shirou was a member of their team, she could fight him whenever she wanted. Though, she supposed the fact that Nora hadn't figured it out yet was a blessing since if she did she was sure the dorm would turn into a veritable battle field.
"Alright Shirou! Get your butt in there!" Nora beamed.
"Not so fast." Shirou stopped her. "Are you forgetting the point of this exercise? This is a team training exercise." Wordlessly Shirou materialized the twin falchions into his hands. "So, I think I'm going to take this opportunity to take the three of you on."
Nora's excitement had gone through the roof at this point, as she had gone and run towards Maginhild. Pyrrha and Ren had calmly readied themselves in the sparring area.
"Same rules on engagement as Team RWBY." Shirou called out. "But I'll only be using Kanshou and Bakuya." Shirou waved the falchions in the air. "Same with them, you only have a minute to discuss strategy and then I'll come at you."
The moment Shirou had finished giving his instruction, she knew the timer had started.
"What's the plan, Pyrrha?" Nora asked.
"I'll take the vanguard." Pyrrha began. She was the only one capable of matching Shirou at this point and time. "Nora, you and Ren will try striking whenever you can. Shirou is bound to have openings, all that's left to do is find them."
"Down!" Ren exclaimed, shoving Pyrrha out of the way before suddenly being blown back as he tried to match Shirou's strike. The blow was so strong that it knocked Stormflower out of his grip as he went flying.
Pyrrha immediately went on the offensive, planting herself firmly as she resorted to using her javelin to stab and prod at Shirou. However, he only advanced. It was as if he knew exactly where she was targeting, and made small adjustments as he walked forward.
It was almost as if he was doing to her what she did to most of her opponents.
That would have been impossible. Shirou didn't have a semblance similar to hers, so he wouldn't be able to do what she did.
"Smash!" Nora had quickly closed the distance between herself and Shirou. Maginhild was primed to hit Shirou in the abdomen.
Pyrrha moved in, she wanted to keep Shirou in the hammer's path. She knew he'd be able to get out of the way, but the more things taking up his attention the better. Shirou twisted, his foot meeting the hammer before his body could, his Aura flashed for a moment before he used Maginhild as a way to push himself away.
Bullets suddenly rained down on Shirou as Ren reentered the battle, but he pressed on. Pyrrha was somewhat unnerved, was he seriously showing off?
Shirou was deflecting each and every one of the bullets sent his way as if they were going in slow motion.
"Cover me." Pyrrha said, and rushed in. Her shield raised as she collided with Shirou's blades.
"Well this seems familiar." He said, a small smile gracing his features.
"Not quite." Pyrrha shoved him back, and Ren once again began raining down bullets on Shirou. A few of them hit their marks, his Aura flickering as he ran.
Then Nora came, Maginhild cracking the floor where Shirou stood before. They would not let him rest, not when they were so close to a victory. Pyrrha advanced, then Nora, and Ren acted in the rear.
Shirou would not escape them.
"Nora with me!" Pyrrha exclaimed, then rushed in to duel Shirou, but the unexpected happened. Shirou simply moved out of the way, and then countered with so much force that Pyrrha could feel the reverberations in her shield.
Her eyes went wide.
The white falchion had whizzed past her head and went flying, then Shirou had come to attack her once more. When she had managed to repel him long enough for Nora to try and intervene, he had pushed back and threw both blades at Nora.
Then a new pair of blades had spawned from his hands before he charged back into the fray.
His eyes locked onto hers, and he smirked.
A challenge.
Pyrrha returned with a smirk of her own, and then charged in. Shirou continued to spawn blades from his hands, and threw them her way. Most of them flew past her, some she deflected, but none would deter her from getting to Shirou.
Shirou rushed in, but did not collide with her. Instead, he suddenly passed her with a burst of speed reminiscent of that day where he protected Ruby from harm.
His target was Nora.
"Nora!" Pyrrha exclaimed, and sprinted back to her Teammate. The situation just dawned on her, all those blades Shirou had thrown hadn't been an attack on her. Pyrrha eyed all the pairs of spinning blades homing in on Nora.
Ren had come in deflecting two pairs, before Shirou came to challenge him. The blinding speed that Shirou showed had surprised Ren, he barely had enough time to parry a strike before Shirou had debilitated him with a kick to the knee and then to the temple. Then returned his attention to Nora.
Nora was quick to move in after her partner, but she strangely found herself struck from behind.
"Nora, the swords!" Pyrrha stopped her sprint and opted to fire on the spinning swords with her rifle, but she could barely train her sights on them with how fast they were moving.
Pyrrha cursed under her breath and instead targeted Shirou.
She fired.
But Shirou had quickly spun around to block the bullet away.
She was outclassed. It was a different feeling, she wanted an even fight against Shirou but as she had come to realize, she was far from being "even" with Shirou. Regardless, Pyrrha would carry on and fight.
Maginhild clattered to the ground, and suddenly Shirou had disarmed and held Nora in his clutches. The ebony blade pointed into her abdomen, and the ivory blade into Nora's neck.
"Yield." Pyrrha's whole being shook with that single command Shirou had uttered. The unsaid continuation echoed loudly. "I'll kill her if you don't." Pyrrha felt helpless for once, and then dropped her weapons.
Then Shirou let Nora go.
Pyrrha could hear her heart beating in her ears, and Shirou had simply dismissed his blades. Then Nora sat on the ground and she watched with bated breath as Shirou approached her. When he moved his hand, her first instinct was to almost grab him by the wrist and put him into a hold that would break his arm.
There was a momentary pause before she realized that Shirou was offering her a hand to help her up.
"Are you okay?" Shirou asked.
"Y-Yes." She replied.
Shirou locked eyes with her for a moment, and then turned to Ren and Nora who had picked themselves up. "Let's do the breakdown right here." He said, and motioned for Team RWBY to approach.
Pyrrha shakily moved to gather her weapons, and stood in front of Ren and Nora.
"Let's start with the positives." Shirou began.
"No fair." Yang smirked. "You didn't have anything good to say about us."
Shirou ignored her, and continued to address the others. "All of you, and I mean all of you are very competent fighters." a few of the others perked up at this.
"But?" Weiss asked.
"You're all either lacking in awareness of your situation, perhaps it's because you've put it in your heads that this just training so you can afford to slack off a bit or you're in your own worlds when you fight." Pyrrha felt as if those last few words were aimed directly at her. "Though, you all seem aware of that."
"Weren't these supposed to be positive?" Ruby asked.
"Team RWBY, you're going to have to figure out better thought-out plans." Shirou offered a soft smile at Ruby. "But I'm sure you'll get better at it as the year progresses, and you've got somewhat of a master planner on your side."
Weiss seemed to puff out her chest in pride a bit.
"Wait, so that's it?" Yang asked. "With how easy you took us down, I was assuming you'd tell us to rethink our fighting styles or something."
"Oh, no need." Shirou said. "I'm sure you're all aware of the areas where you could improve, I'm just here to help you out if need be." Shirou turned towards team JNPR. "Now, let's continue."
Pyrrha felt somewhat nervous of Shirou's criticism, she didn't know why.
"Ren and Nora, you're both doing amazing." Shirou began. "Throughout the fight, you both kept covering each other's blindspots, and even extended that reach to Pyrrha when you could."
Pyrrha blinked, they had?
Shirou seemed to had taken notice of her reaction, seeing as he immediately turned to her. "Pyrrha, I don't know how you'll take this, but I mean no offense." Shirou took a breath. "Please keep your battle lust under control, I could've ended the spar several times during the exchanges where you sought me out."
Pyrrha wanted to retort, to challenge him on his statement, but he was right. Challenging her was his goal, and he could have done so without any fear with how skilled he was. She fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
"I understand." Pyrrha simply said.
"Don't look so down." Shirou said. "It's only the first day, tomorrow will be better. Now, let's go have some dinner. I think you'll like what I have planned."
Multiple cheers erupted from all around her, but Pyrrha couldn't help but feel dissatisfied with herself.
Pyrrha thought back to the exercise–no, the battle. That's what it was, Shirou made it clear that they should have seen it as such.
She enjoyed fighting him too much, and that put the others at risk. If they weren't fighting Shirou, she was more than certain that Nora would have died.
"Hey." Pyrrha flinched, Shirou was in front of her. She took a moment, it was only Shirou. "The others went ahead. I think Ren and Nora are worried, especially since you didn't move for a while."
Had she really spaced out?
"I'm sorry." Pyrrha sighed.
"You don't have to be infallible, you know?" Shirou said to her. "What I said was a genuine critique, but it doesn't mean you can't have fun." He smiled. "I know facing someone formidable is a thrill that not many can understand, trust me it's something I found myself enjoying when the circumstances were right."
"I suppose I'm realizing that being a leader is a larger responsibility than I thought." She knew that she'd be responsible for the wellbeing of others, but it never dawned on her the pressure of failing to save someone who was supposed to be your responsibility.
"It isn't a burden many can carry." Shirou said.
"No it is not." Pyrrha turned to him. "Would you want to take my place?"
Shirou offered her a look, and she chuckled to herself. Pyrrha supposed she already knew where Shirou stood on the matter; he nominated to make her leader when Jaune's vacancy opened up after all.
"At the expense of sounding preachy, I have a story for you if you're willing to hear it?"
"A story?" Pyrrha tilted her head. "What about?"
Shirou held out his hands, and began to form a blade. The blade formed slowly, as if Shirou was revering in its creation. "This is the story of the King of Knights." He began, then shook his head. "No, this is the story of Arturia Pendragon." Then the broadsword in his hand shimmered.
"It's beautiful." Pyrrha said. She could already tell that this weapon was special, it hadn't even finished forming, and she could already tell. "Does it have a name?"
"Excalibur." Shirou replied. "This sword represented her noble dreams as king, but let's move past that. Arturia was only 15 when she became king of her country."
Pyrrha couldn't keep her eyes off the sword.
"Arturia was the model king, and that's what made the fall of her kingdom all the more tragic." Shirou continued.
Pyrrha was somewhat shocked, the story of a model king and yet the kingdom falls to ruin? That didn't seem right.
"Strange isn't it?" Shirou remained firm in his stance, as if to deviate from the stance he was in would be an affront to the sword. "You'd assume that the story about the perfect king would have a happy ending, right?" Shirou shook his head. "I suppose that's a story for another time, but I can tell you one thing for certain. She didn't regret her actions." Shirou's face fell, looking almost reminiscent.
"Shirou?"
"I want to propose a question to you, Pyrrha." He glanced at her. "Would you rather lead and let those who follow you get hurt, or hand command over to someone else and watch those same people get hurt?"
Pyrrha pondered on it for a moment. "I don't think this relates to the story."
"Maybe not." Shirou shook his head. The sword in his hands beginning to shimmer and dematerialize. "I suppose I've gotten carried away. Regardless, keep leading Pyrrha. You're a neophyte in leadership, you're an amazing warrior, but you're still learning as a leader." Shirou took a step back, then fell onto his backside.
"Shirou?!" She reached out.
"I'm fine." Shirou held up a hand to placate her. His Aura flickering then breaking "I'm just a bit lightheaded. I guess even trying to partially form that weapon drained my reserves."
Pyrrha only grew more concerned. "What do you mean?"
"I can't recreate that weapon. Safely at least." Shirou admitted, and Pyrrha's concern only grew. She supposed even Shirou had his limits. "I'll be fine."
"Shirou, you just told me that you couldn't recreate it safely." Pyrrha deadpanned. "And you did it anyway. To act as a prop while you told me a story."
Shirou managed a weak chuckle. "Hey, it got the point across."
"Don't do that again." Pyrrha said. "Please?"
"Of course." Shirou held out a hand, to which Pyrrha took and helped him to his feet. "So, shall we go meet with the others, Leader?"
Pyrrha rolled her eyes, and simply joined Shirou as they both left the training area.
A/n: I can already feel that people won't like the Excalibur scene, so let me do some damage control while I still have your attention.
First off, I already made it harder for myself by making that scene follow a 3rd Person POV of Pyrrha, and I didn't want to rewrite that scene a fourth time and this is honestly the version I could post without feeling any regrets.
So unfortunately no inner monologue for Shirou during that part, but I tried to salvage it with a barebones explanation.
I'll make sure the next scene we get with Rin is her chewing out Shirou for trying to make a divine construct.
Anyway, you'll probably notice that these bridge chapters aren't my strong suit so I hope you guys will look forward to the Faunus Arc at least.