Hey there. It's been a while, hasn't it.
So a lot happened. I went to college, barely finished college, cried at the state of the job market, bluffed my way through a postgrad, and got a job. I even have a husband now- like a flesh one, not one of those underage anime boys. I also received like Every Pronoun, but that's not important right now.
What I didn't do in all these years was keep watching rwby. I don't know why the magic wore off on me, but my thoughts on the show aren't important right now. The point is, I dropped off the show, which made it kinda hard to want to keep writing this fic. Hell, even if I was still excited for it I could tell that a lot of this story, especially the early chapters, were not my best work to say the least. I don't throw around the word 'cringe' too often, but I legit cringe reading most of this.
That being said however, I still love my little guys. If I'm ever working on a project, I'll try to squeeze Drew Arin Richy and Nina into them in some way, even as background characters. I've come up with a bunch of au ideas for them, I tried making a webcomic about them as tokusatsu superheroes, I even turned Drew's siblings into space-faring adventurers who are also furries, because I can. Also gave him another sibling, so they're up to eight children now.
And yet despite all the fun I was having, this fic was still looming over me. The great unfinished progenitor whose corpse was still whispering its wild and fanciful story ideas into my brain. Tempting me to finish it off. I don't think I'll ever finish this thing due to my terrible attention span (I should really get this diagnosed...) but team DARN still had so much to do in its original form. I won't be able to kill this white whale, but I can at least put a eulogy together for it. For these four goofballs who have genuinely helped me through life.
So, in bullet pointed form, here's the notes on what was gonna happen in team DARN's story, with some commentary from me about what my thought process was and where I could've done better.
The rest of the team XTRM arc
-Continuing on the end of last chapter, the next chapter would open on both teams in Ozpin's office, half getting scolded by Ginda, half arguing that the other ones started it
-Ozpin is very stressed at the whole situation and suggests that maybe the two teams fight it out in an exhibition match to settle their differences, which they seem to agree to
-The teams leave and Glinda starts to chastise Ospin for suggesting that, since XTRM is gonna wipe the floor with DARN, which means Ozpin has given up on DARN. To which he is quiet
-This whole scene is sorta meant to mirror the scene at the beginning of the fic where Ozpin and Glinda discuss DARN and Ozpin says they have potential or whatever, now showing that Ozpin has supposedly given up on them. Except that isn't actually the case because of whats gonna happen in like 2 sentences, so wtf past me. You suck at writing
-Glinda leaves the office but the two teams are right outside, and from the looks on their faces its clear they heard what Glinda had said
-Glinda begins to apologise, but Drew cuts her off by quietly but passionately declaring that DARN is gonna win the exhibition match next week, and the team walks off. Ozpin walks up and is like "Haha, I totally did believe in them lol im so smart"
-Cut to DARN arriving back in their dorm, and the adrenaline of Drew's declaration has worn off and Richy and Arin start to panic about having to fight team XTRM and losing hard, but Drew gives a rousing speech and they resolve themselves to fight and try to win
-The team split up to train, and we get a scene of Arin finding Drew in one of the empty gym courts training with a book from the library that demonstrates the proper form to make sword strikes with. Arin comments that Drew must actually be taking this seriously, and its a small cute scene of these two bonding and discussing the exhibition match. This is also the only thing close to a training arc we get before-
-It's a week later and the exhibition match is here! The narration follows Arin as he walks through the classroom arena where other students are seated, excited to see XTRM in action
-Arin sits in the row behind team Yang and Ruby and makes some small talk with them before Mello comes along and sits behind Arin, taunting him and gloating
-Mello gives some exposition about how since this is a best-of-3 one-on-one match, one member from each team would have to sit out. And it makes sense for Mello to sit out since he's already given away what his weapon is
-Mello says Arin is sitting out for the same reason, but Arin's internal monologue says that he's actually sitting out because he can't be drunk off his ass in front of the whole student body or else he'll get expelled. Haha. Alcoholism is so funny, and I'm so grateful to past me for making this part of Arin's character.
-Also as a little side note before we get into the big fights, since we're gonna be talking about power levels and stuff: If the two fought right now Mello would absolutely beat Arin. Mello's attacks are too broad for Arin to keep dodging while also trying to attack, and Arin will run out of stamina before Mello. There might be some scenarios where Arin could come up with a plan or use the environment to his advantage, but those are rare and Mello could probably come up with a way to counter whatever Arin's doing. Arin will eventually get much stronger in the future, but this is the result for right now
-Anyway, Ozpin starts the beginning ceremony and welcomes everyone here. He states that each team selected who would represent them for each round separately, so the matchups were unknown to them until now
-He reveals the round matchups to be: Round 1, Ray Metalworks vs Richard Roland. Round 2, Danny Trigger vs Nina Crusher. Final Round, Akashi Xavier vs Drew Naywing. Some of the audience boos because this means they won't get to see Akashi fight, seeing as XTRM are obviously gonna win the first two rounds anyway
-More small talk between Arin & co before the first round starts
-Richy and the hooded Ray walk out, Ozpin announces that the fight will end until one side either surrenders or loses a set amount of aura. The bell rings, and the fight begins
-We see Richard pull out a small device which when activated expands into a basketball for him. There's a moment before Richy begins the attack, giving a hard smack to the basketball to send it flying at Ray. He narrates that he's spent the week training with Nina, so his strength has been improving, and this attack is stronger and faster than one might think
-Ray raises their arm and a metal claw slashes the ball to pieces
-While Richard is panicked by this, Ray then changes their posture to a defensive stance, now revealing for the first time that their hands are mechanical with metal blades protruding from their finger tips
-Arin's peanut gallery oohs and ahs at them, with Mello noting that this is the first time he's seen their partners weapon
-The big thing to take away from their comments is the idea that 1) Richy only has four of those little portable basketballs left, and 2) considering the ways in which Richy attacks with the balls, by bouncing them off of the opponent and environment, Rays weapon makes this fight a really bad matchup for him
-I won't give a play-by-play, but the fight continues with Richy trying to bait Ray into attacking, and trying to dodge and counter. He manages to get a hit or two in, but Ray is just a little bit better and learns how to deal with him, even slashing up three more of Richy's basketballs. They even make some cuts on Richy himself
-Richy needs a new plan like right now, and starts to reflect on his battle experience, which becomes reflecting on his time spent with his friends. He thinks of how rowdy and disruptive they are, but also how much they're counting on him. So he resolves to fight in an unorthodox way
-I probably explained it in the fic before, but a quick recap on Richard's semblance: He's able to visually calculate the trajectory of an object before he exerts force on it- in other words, he can see where an object is going to fly when he throws or hit it, and know just what amount of force he needs to hit the object with in order for it to bounce where he needs it to. Combining this with a basketball means that in a perfect world he can ricochet it all over the place, hitting an enemy multiple times and landing it back in his hands.
-Richard starts a rhythm of passing the ball from himself and a point on the circular wall of the arena, which then bounces to another point of the arena wall, and back to Richy. And in the center of this triangle is Ray. Ray tries to step towards Richy and attack, but as they do the basketball hits them in the back before it returns to the triangle pattern
-Ray is now more cautious of the ball, which Richard tries to take advantage of with a kick. Ray blocks it, but Richard continues the triangle pattern anyway without missing a beat, this time the triangle now smaller from the distance Ray was pushed
-What Richard is doing is an elaborate game of rock-paper-scissors, where he can counter most basic attacks that Ray attempts. If Ray tries to swipe at the ball, Richy can punch or kick them. If Ray tries to attack him, the basketball can attack them from behind. Rey even tries to fake out an attack on Richard, but Richard is able to react in time and hit them anyway
-This is a dumb combo even by dumb shounen fight standards, but I guess an idea I wanted to get across was that it's a rudimentary attack, but effective because of Richard's speed and reaction time
-Arin & co basically relay all this info as the story's commentators at this point, which is punctuated by Richy getting off multiple hits in sequence which knocks Ray down
-There's no buzzer indicating Ray has lost yet, but Richy being a good sport stops his attack to let Ray catch their breath
-The rest of the crowd murmurs in disbelief. Someone from team XTRM losing? Impossible…
-Ray finally gets back to their feet, and we finally get to hear them speak, and it's the most anime nonsense ever. They say that it's finally time to go all out, and then they take off their hood to reveal they have a blindfold on, they say that it's been on the whole time they've been at Beacon, and that the entire time they've been training by using their semblance, which is an animalistic 6th sense, to move about the academy and fight
-But then everyone in the arena and audience do a cringy unfunny anime-inspired "eeehh? You're actually _?" reaction, because revealing their face showed a few things besides the blindfold. Firstly, Ray is actually a faunus, with two fox ears poking out of their hair. Second, they have some heavy burn scars running up their neck and face from their body. And third, they have a somewhat feminine face, enough for people to assume they were actually a girl this whole time and lying about it, though a later conversation will show that they're actually agender and "doesn't care what other people see me as". Also their name is spelled Rei not Ray
-Oka, so. Not only is this kind of a cheap "twist" and not very funny, but uh oh I accidentally did a transphobia with this a lil bit. See in transphobic circles there's this idea that trans people (nonbinary people included) are just being performative with their supposed gender identity in order to deceive cisgender people, or trick them. In anime communities, this has led to trans people often being called a certain T word with the same implication, and it's just… very gross and bad. In the best scenarios this has led to trans people being made the butt of a joke by a bunch of slurs and harassment being thrown at them, OR the trans person is fetishised and their whole identity suddenly becomes the object of weird desire by perpetually online anime weirdos. But at worst, this has led to actual real world violence and murder because the perpetrator saw themselves as "tricked". And because of that, they had to kill someone over it.
-Why am I giving you this lecture? It's because when I look back on a work I wanted to write, and my first nonbinary character's big defining scene is when they reveal a part of themselves they kept hidden, and one of the big jokes is that they were "deceiving" everyone of their "true" gender, I suddenly realise that I was definitely inspired by the same type of anime fan who thinks trans people are just that certain T word and nothing else.
-And before you say that I'm overthinking this and that this isn't actually offensive to trans people, guess what: In the few years since I've touched this fic, I figured out that I'm genderfluid. And when I look back on this, I personally feel weirded out by it. And I have to acknowledge this is something that I wrote, y'know
-This whole situation is weird though. Me reflecting on ideas that I never wrote, but sat on for years and was content with. This is all very self-indulgent, but hey please indulge me
-Back to the story, and to counter that bad joke, we get a joke/character interaction that I think is still pretty nice:
-Richard apologises to Rei saying that he didn't realise they were fighting with a handicap. So in the interest of fairness he insists on having his eyes closed for the rest of the fight, much to Arin's shock and anger. Rei, who speaks with heavy monotone and is very emotionless in general, insists that he really doesn't need to do that, and they don't even want to fight if he isn't strong enough. This polite argument goes on for a minute until they agree to just start fighting again
-The fight turns into an intense blow-by-blow with Rei clearly being much quicker to react to Richy's attacks, which culminates in one last intense clash between them- Rei's claw and Richy's basketball crashing together until they both shatter and they both go tumbling back. With one of their prosthetic hands nonfunctional it looks like Rei will actually lose, until Richard raises his hand for attention from the crowd and announces his surrender, prompting shock from everyone once again, to which Richard explains that he just lost his last basketball and has no way of fighting anymore
-So a lil post-fight breakdown here: This fight is a weird one, as is any fight Richard has. For some reason years ago I figured it'd be funny to give one of my heroes a basketball as a weapon, and I had to run with it ever since. Having a fighting style that ricochets a projectile around the environment can be fun in theory, but when the person using it has no imagination it gets hard to describe anything new. Fortunately, this is post-character development Richy so he's willing to get a little more creative with it, but then there's the problem that there's no fun environment to use in this fight, just a circular arena. And on top of THAT, Rei's whole kit was intended to completely shut down Richard's basketball attacks too. So I had to come up with that triangle formation nonsense in order to make this fight close. But even with my powerup asspulls, there was no way Richy was winning this. Rei really countered the only thing he had going for him- they were faster and could slash apart his weapon. Richard only got as far as he did because of his quick thinking. So yeah, Rei wins round 1
-We get a scene of Richy and Rei joining the peanut gallery after being bandaged up. Arin is mad at Richy, Richy gets mad back. Mello starts asking Rei questions which they finally answer (remember that Rei hadn't been talking to their team this whole time). They answer in brief one or two word answers, and after some personal questions we get a brief glimpse of what their life has been like. Faunus. Orphaned. Bullied. Orphanage attacked. Burned. Lost hands. Cried. Wandered. Stopped crying. Blacksmith. Prosthetics. Trained. Hid face. Trained more. Joined Beacon. It's clear that Rei has a bunch of trauma that they haven't unpacked yet, and we don't really get into it for the rest of this story. All we get is that Mello is mean and borderline racist to Rei, and Richy scolds him for it, and I start weirdly shipping Richy and Rei together from now on because idk why
-Anyway, it's time for round 2. Nina steps into the arena with more energetic gumption than usual, no doubt from Drew hyping her up backstage. Danny Trigger enters the arena and is blatantly hyping up the students in the crowd instead. There's not much preamble before the fight starts
-Nina runs towards Danny, and he finally brings out his weapon from a case he's been carrying: a guitar with an axe head as its body (though it's technically a halberd because it has a spear head at the end too but whatever). Nina swings her bat down on Danny, but he swings back and the two weapons clang apart. The two clash blows like this for a bit until Danny manages to wedge the spearhead into Nina's bat, and she can't seem to pull it off
-Danny pulls his guitar under his arm and starts to play a solo on it, and Mello gives some exposition about Danny's semblance. Y'know that idea of an opera singer singing so loud that it cracks a wine glass? Well it has nothing to do with volume, it's all about the frequency of the noise. Any object, when exposed to the right frequency, will vibrate and when that frequency is strong enough it can break. So, Danny's guitar finds and plays the right frequency, the ax head channels the vibrations into an object, and his semblance amplifies the sound enough to shatter it
-And sure enough, Nina's bat shatters into pieces, and she appears shocked and terrified. Danny follows up with a heavy swing to her stomach which sends her flying into the arena wall. Richard and Arin are shocked and kinda worried that Nina actually got hurt
-The crowd is cheering and Danny approaches Nina to finish her off. Nina looks in fear for her life as he raises his guitar ax up and says a one liner before swinging down on her. But the ax meets nothing but the ground she was lying on
-Behind Danny he hears Nina comically burst into tears and beg him to not hurt her, she's a single mother after all! Confused by how she got behind him, Danny tries to attack her again but she's gone again, now a few more metres away wailing about how her dear dear Moonmoon will grow up as an orphan
-There's some general confusion among the crowd about what's going on and how she's doing this, but Richy and Ruby say that with their semblances they can just make out that Nina is simply running away before Danny hits her. But it's still confusing because Nina's shown how physically strong she is before, but she isn't exactly a speedster or anything
-And then Arin says that he's actually been thinking about what Nina's semblance is for a while now, and that this actually fits in with his theory (Spoilers, but as the author I'm saying that he's right about it). We thought that Nina's semblance was just a boost in raw power, but what her semblance actually does is responds to her emotions and affects her body in kind, although the semblance does make an abstract interpretation. When she's fighting Grimm or any other enemy she usually gets angry, which the semblance interprets as "There is something that Nina does not like and wants to get rid of, therefore I will give her the physical strength to get rid of it". And in the fight right now we see that Nina is afraid of Danny, which the semblance interprets as "There is something that is scaring Nina, we should get her away from it, therefore I will give her the speed to run away from it".
-We even get a flashback to when Nina is cooing and cuddling over Moonmoon, and Arin points out that despite the Grimm clawing and biting at her she never got injured. Which Arin says is because she's very happy when with Moonmoon, which the semblances interprets as "Nina is happy with things right now, we should make sure she doesn't change, therefore let's give her increased defences in order keep her as she is right now".
-But before I keep going on about this out of nowhere shounen battle mechanic, I gotta pull the breaks again and clear the air again. Remember how I accidentally did a transphobia before? Well this time I accidentally did a sexism AND a racism :)
-So I got two teams of ocs here, and there's only one girl among them. And what's her unique powers? She Gets Very Emotional and fights things with her Emotions because she is Overly Emotional. It feels like 1920s level sexism right there. Yeah that's a bit of a bad-faith interpretation, but it's still one that's easy to make. And it's still not as bad as the accidental racism I did:
-So at some point a few years into DARN's creation I realised "Hey. All the characters in this story I thought up in my head are white. I should change that because there's no harm in having a more diverse cast." I didn't change the fact that most of them were boys, but y'know it was something.
-So I started retroactively deciding that most of the cast weren't white: Drew is Filipino, Richy is Mexican, Akashi is Korean (don't ask about the name, it gets explained later(seriously)) etc. The problem is that I decided that Nina would be African-American. This, combined with her characterisation of being happy & simpleminded while suddenly having bouts of anger where she gets very violent, accidentally paints her in this 'angry black woman' stereotype. Which y'know, isn't good.
-I will admit that I'm not as educated on the intricacies of racism to talk about it as much as my little transphobia spiel earlier, so I could be either overthinking this OR not giving it enough though. But I'm pretty sure that the ideas of black people being simpleminded or prone to violence are some very racist stereotypes dating back to slave-owning days. Hell, even that bit of Nina being immune to damage when happy is accidentally one of those stereotypes, bc white people perpetrated the idea that black people 'don't feel pain the same way we do'
-So. Let's talk about how I write Nina, because I feel like this is even more my fault than the thing with Rei. I made Rei with the intention of them suddenly revealing part of themself in mind from the beginning. I kinda fell into the trap of bad trans rep from the beginning. Nina's different though, I made her with the intention of her being one of the clowns in this four man band. She's ditzy, incredibly loving and doting, but switches to prone to anger and violence in an instant. And all of her punchlines fell back on this characterisation of her. Even when I started taking these characters seriously and planning these big emotional arcs for them, Nina remained pretty simple: She had big emotions, she punched hard.
-Not to say my other characters are complex puzzles of shakespearean intricacy, just that I never gave Nina as much thought. And that was my biggest issue I think. When deciding ethnicities for my character, if I just thought a bit more about the implications of making my big angry character a black woman then maybe I wouldn't be here explaining myself
-Also, I forgot I haven't said sorry for it despite this ramble. I'm sorry for making my central woman of colour a racial stereotype
-Also for what it's worth, I intended for the next major arc after this tournament arc to be Nina's big character arc where we see how deep she really is. I'll probably talk about it in another notes chapter like this
-Also also for what it's worth, including the ones mentioned above, everyone's ethnicities are: Arin is a quirked up white boy, Mello is Indian, Danny is African-English (ew), Rei is Japanese, Moonmoon is just a little guy
-And now back to the fight. Remember the whole 'Happy Nina is an indestructible Nina' thing? Arin proves it by calling out to Nina, lying and saying that Moonmoon is rooting for his mommy, which Nina is totally. Nina turns to Arin and is so elated by this that she doesn't notice Danny winding up a major swing to her head
-Fortunately, Nina is literally too happy to be hurt by it, and the ax head actually dents on impact with her. She turns to Danny, now seeing him as someone who wants to get in between her and Moonmoon, and an Angy Nina has arrived
-Now it's Danny's turn to feel the fear, as he desperately tries to swing at her, but Nina catches the axe in one hand. Danny's too shocked to react as Nina simply squeezes and eventually snaps his entire axe head off. And as he stumbles back, Nina follows it up with a single punch straight to the face, sending him flying across the arena and crashing into the far wall. The buzzer immediately rings, signalling Nina's victory. She turns to Arin and Richard and gives a peace sign
-Another side note: At this point in time, Nina's probably like… top 10-ish strongest characters in this universe? Maybe top 8 if I exclude some alien nonsense I threw in. The reason being that Nina's semblance works on Hulk rules: as long as she keeps getting angrier, she can keep getting stronger. We've only seen fights where she's able to win with one or two blows so far, but if she went up against something or someone way stronger, she can tough out their hits, then get mad and hit back twice as hard
-Not only that, but her semblance technically enhances her body to keep up with her other powers, so she isn't gonna just tire herself out from getting too angry or anything. Even if you manage to wound her heavily, you'll find out that when she's sad she gets a healing factor, albeit not one that makes her immortal
-So you can't overpower her, and you can't win the war of attrition. The only realistic ways to beat her is to a) outspeed her and just kill her in one shot, b) somehow figure out how her semblance works over the course of the fight, and try to manipulate her emotions against her, or c) have a unique power that you cannot defeat with pure strength alone, like locking her in a pocket dimension or sealing her semblance. So yeah, Nina's pretty strong. I literally had to nerf her in her upcoming character arc by giving her trauma
-Also, don't come at me with 20 characters from the newest volumes of RWBY who could beat her, I've said before that the universe DARN's taking place in is waaaay off course from where that show's been going. I also had weird unique Ozpin backstory that's now just completely contradictory to the show
-And now, back to the fanfic: Next chapter, and we cut to Arin in the crowd with his head in his hands, almost sobbing.
-When asked what's wrong, Arin says that the plan was for Richard and Nina to either both win or both lose. But now that they're at one win and one loss, the worst case scenario will occur: Drew will have to fight, and embarrass himself and the team in front of everyone
-Nina joins the gang in time to hear this and just goes "Ah, eto.. bleh!" which gives us more banter between everyone
-Danny also shows up covered in a comical amount of bandages and casts. Mello berates him for losing, to which Danny eventually breaks down crying. Through tears he says that he's sorry and that he's not actually this cool and confident rockstar that he pretends to be (and that I totally did a good job as portraying him as, don't worry about it) and that he's actually riddled with anxiety and self doubt, and has just pretending the whole time
-No one really knows what to say, but Rei just pats his head and monotonely says "There there."
-Also Arin mentions that now he remembers where he heard Danny's name from (because I had him mention that in the last published chapter for some reason). It was the name of a younger kid in his elementary school that was bullied horrendously by a lot of people, to the point that his parents had to move away with him. Danny explains that yeah that was him, and when he moved away and went to a new school he didn't want to be his old, easily bullyable self again, so he decided to go with the punk rocker look and learn how to play bass
-Yeah, this characterisation for Danny kinda comes outta left field, but I wanted to keep up this theme that team XTRM are hiding parts of themselves from the public and aren't the cool guys they portray themselves to be. Kinda like I'm parodying the idea that RWBY oc teams who are these larger than life cool guys who are cooler than the canon main characters and everybody loves them would realistically be very different
-Two small problems with that line of thinking though: First is that this idea of XTRM being a parody doesn't really make a lot of sense the more you look at it. Yeah Danny works as being the opposite of what he supposedly is, but what about Rei? They aren't not the opposite of what they pretended to be, they're still a traumatised and relatively lonesome person. The only real thing they subverted, according to the story, is that 'omg youre actually a g-g-g-girl?' (See above as to why this is Bad)
-Mello also isn't not what he seems, he's still an asshole, we just learn that he's more tsundere about it. And Akashi himself is… a bit more nuanced than just not being the big cool hero man. I know I of all people have no right to call my own character nuanced, but there is more than one level to it
-The second problem is that if we see XTRM as a parody of ocs in general, then I just no longer really agree with the criticisms I'm supposedly poking fun of. OCs aren't meant to be perfectly written or avoid tropes and cliches, or tie into a million different themes and motifs. They're just lil guys we come up with and like writing or drawing about. There's really no need to criticise other people's ocs, unless they're like a published work or something.
-Also, most of the people making RWBY oc teams (at least at the time) are teens, I ain't beefing with kids bro
-And now for the moment you've been waiting for: Akashi vs Just Some Guy
-Drew and Akashi enter the arena and eye each other up. Akashi compliments Drew's team on the well fought fights, but Drew says he won't be satisfied til he puts Akashi's face in the dirt
-The buzzer indicates the start of the match, and the two draw swords. As a reminder, Akashi wields a rifle that has a katana blade incorporated into its underside, and Drew wields the cheapest bottom of the bargain bin stock short sword. This'll be a close match, folks.
-The crowd pops off at just the sight of Akashi drawing his weapon. The two continue to stare at each other, waiting for the other to attack first, until Drew makes the first move:
-He does the Drew Strazor, that 'attack' where he just throws his only sword at his opponent, and Akashi effortlessly bats it away. Drew mutters under his breath that he "knew he should've saved that move for later." Arin dies of cringe.
-Akashi doesn't let the comedy routine continue, he dashes forward and lunges his blade to Drew, who just barely dodges out of the way. Akashi immediately follows up with a horizontal swing. Drew dives to the ground to avoid it, but he does get a light slash across his back. And before Drew can even exclaim in pain, Akashi starts stabbing at him to which Drew rolls on the ground away, stumbling to his feet as he runs for his sword
-Even when he gets his weapon back it's clear that Drew is just completely outmatched. He can barely block or dodge Akashi's simplest attacks, Akashi is fast enough to parry any cheap swings Drew can get in, and at a far range Akashi can just shoot some potshots at Drew which are arguably stronger
-Drew quickly gets scratched up and bruised badly after a heavy swing from Akashi knocks him into the wall. Coughing and groaning in pain, Drew tries to rise to his feet. Akashi himself looks pained and says he finds no joy in this one sided beatdown, and implores Drew to surrender
-But Drew just spits back at him and says he's just getting started, and starts shadowboxing to prove his point
-Akashi sighs and reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a glass rifle shell containing some yellow Dust. He loads it into his rifle sword, and the blade becomes coated in lightning
-Through some fangirls screaming, we get some exposition from the rest of team XTRM that this is Akashi's semblance- the ability to manipulate lightning. Normally a vial of Dust like that would only be able to be shot out of a rifle in a single strike, but with Akashi's semblance he can use it for a number of different attacks depending on the amount of 'bullets' of it he has loaded. He has a number of techniques, but this form of the lightning coating the sword is the most straightforward and directly useful
-Akashi rushes forward and clashes swords with Drew, causing the latter to get electrocuted before Akashi follows up with a kick to the side which sends him flying again. Drew is now slightly crispy while also convulsing just a bit, and falls to his knees
-Akashi waits for Drew to move-to either surrender or fight back seriously-but after a moment's silence Drew begins to chuckle, evolving into full-on evil laugh. He rises to his feet and declares that he waited patiently just for Akashi to show off his lightning. And now his plan is complete
-Arin preemptively tries to escape the room to be spared from whatever embarrassment Drew has cooked up, but the friends keep him put
-Drew turns to the audience and yells for their attention. He exclaims to them that Akashi is a fraud-that everything about him from his clothes to his mannerisms- especially his weapon and fighting style, are all just copied from a certain tokusatsu hero from a kids show
-Small note, I did make Akashi with this twist in mind and designed most of what he does and looks like after an actual toku hero: Kyoryu Gold from Kyoryuger, a show that was airing at the time and one that some of Drew's -isms were inspired by (the role call style particularly)
-Akashi flushes bright red at this since, well… it is true. However instead of acting shocked and betrayed, all the students seem more confused. Until, while Drew is going on this long rant about the similarities, one faceless student chimes in with a "So what?"
-Annoyed that someone just 'doesn't get it', Drew explains Akashi's been lying to them and everyone. And then the nameless student says "Just because he's imitating someone doesn't mean he's, like… not a good huntsman y'know. And just a good guy in general."
-More of the students chime in with similar affirmations. "Yeah, we still love you Akashi!" "Who cares what this guy has to say!" "You're the coolest!"
-Akashi is now blushing for a different reason, and bashfully thanks the now cheering crowd. But Drew is shocked and quickly turns angry, throwing a temper tantrum and yelling that this wasn't how it was supposed to go, it isn't fair that he gets to be such a nerd and still so popular, why do all the girls still like him etc.
-Naturally, the crowd then goes from cheering for Akashi to booing Drew, hurling insults at him and calling him childish and pathetic for trying to 'out' someone (of something they don't really get) to the student body. Akashi doesn't like that a crowd rallied behind him are now just shouting insults at someone, but he doesn't really stop them either
-Now that he accidentally has a whole crowd booing him (and calling out an insecurity or two) Drew starts to shrink back, making himself look small and avoiding eye contact from everyone
-We move to Arin looking on at the scene. He finds it embarrassing, but he and Richard at least feel lucky that everyone's booing Drew and not Drew's team. But then they notice Nina stand up and try to cheer for Drew instead, though her voice gets drowned out by the crowd
-Arin and Richard try to get her to calm down, but she's adamant about supporting Drew right now. They try to explain that Drew kinda brought this on himself and deserves it right now. Arin even gets a bit passionate when saying that Drew is pathetic and childish, and really shouldn't be in Beacon, and wouldn't if it weren't for team DARN picking up his slack all the time
-But Nina echoes what was said moments ago: "So what?"
-Nina says she doesn't really need a reason to support him other than she wants to help her friend. And that there's no reason that he 'doesn't deserve' help- personality be damned! An even ignoring all that, right now the only ones who can help Drew are Nina Arin and Richy
-This piss-poor friendship speech somehow connects with Richy and Arin. Arin stutters while calling her stupid, and scratches his head in frustration as the jeers of the crowd start to anger him to the point where he stands up and yells, silencing everyone
-Arin takes a moment to swallow his pride fully and quietly asks everyone near him to forget what they're about to see. He points at Drew and says that he's "only gonna do this once, so remember it and be grateful."
-And then Arin does his part of DARN's roll call. At least, as close as he can get to Drew's vision of it is- he stutters it, his pose is wrong, he forgets to say part of it. He probably wouldn't have held the pose for more than a few seconds if Richard and Nina hadn't stood up and followed with their own bastardised versions of it. Arin sits back down after telling Drew to not go losing pathetically anymore
-The crowd murmurs at their little performance, some even starting to laugh at them. That is until Drew, smiling and giddy, lets out an uproarious laugh of his own. "Of course!" he says, his voice backed by a new false bravado. "How could I have forgotten! Popularity, romance- they don't make a hero. All I need to keep being one is my will and my pride!"
-Drew turns back to Akashi who was waiting for him this whole time. "Sorry for the wait. But from here on out, the real fight begins!" He strikes a pose and finishes the team's roll call: "The Fiery hero: Team DARN's D! Our enemies curse at our names. The four of us together are: Team DARN!"
-And without waiting for a reaction, Drew stretches his arm back and flings his sword towards Akashi once again. Akashi snaps out of his brief admiration of Drew, and effortlessly deflects the sword into the air
-But this time is different, as Drew dashes towards Akashi with speed he's never shown off before and leaps into the air to catch his own sword and swing it back down while still in the air. Akashi is still able to block, but the strength they both exert on each other keeps Drew balanced in the air for a few seconds, all while the lightning of Akashi's blade dances around the two, but not latching on to Drew this time. Drew then shifts his weight and swings his body down, kicking Akashi in the face
-Akashi rolls back then back steps from Drew to give himself time to recover, but Drew runs at him again, sword at his side and ready to thrust. But Akashi is ready, and similarly holds his sword up, ready to stab at Drew with a new technique that expels lightning in a single powerful, incredibly fast thrust. If this connected then it would finish Drew off
-And yet somehow Drew knows it's coming. No, more like he can feel it coming. He can feel that the sword is gonna pierce his right shoulder, so without thinking too much about it, he dives to the left just as Akashi unleashes the attack. And as Drew recovers from his action before his opponent, he twirls around and slashes Akashi across his back
-Akashi cries out in pain and backs away from Drew again. They both pant at the exchange of blows they just had, but this setback isn't going to stop Akashi. He opens up his rifle's barrel and pulls out a second Dust bullet shell and loads it in. The lightning that crackled around him grows larger, and starts to tear at the ground around him, as he holds his blade up ready to strike from afar with a wave of electricity moving through the air towards him
-Drew starts to panic again and looks around for something or somewhere to hide, but there's nothing. Until he has a sudden bright idea and stabs his sword into the ground
-Akashi swings, and the lightning released covers the entire arena, tearing up the ground somewhat and raising dust everywhere. And as it settles we see Akashi on one side of the arena unchanged, and Drew on the other side: lying on his stomach with his hands covering his head, and his sword in between the two boys sticking out of the ground, the handle charred and smoking
-Drew opens one eye to see the result of his plan and laughs victoriously. He reasoned that lightning always wants to make its way to the ground, so all he needed was a grounding device to redirect the lightning, and his trusty sword did the trick. As he explains this he gets up and walks over to his sword to pick it up, but burns his hand on the handle and jumps around cartoonishly in pain
-Akashi is still perplexed by this explanation, and back in the crowd Danny echoes this confusion, because that idea doesn't actually work. Akashi has done training exercises to control his lightning to specifically avoid grounding devices, so the lightning should've just flown past it and hit Drew
-Everyone in the small group can't really think of a reason why the attack just now worked that way either, but Arin is thinking deeply over it. Yang (who is still here btw I haven't forgot) casually asks if maybe Drew just controlled the lightning and sent it to his sword. And while that might be possible, is really a coincidence that Drew has a similar Semblance to Akashi and just never showed us until now
-Nina suggests that maybe Akashi was the one to awaken Drew's Semblance since he didn't have experience with lightning before. And while that too is possible, the answer doesn't satisfy Arin. What Drew did out there was less like awakening his own power and more like… quickly copying a friends homework five minutes before class
-And that's the eureka moment for Arin.
-Drew can't really be the big and powerful hero he dreams of being. The best he can do is cheaply copy what other people can do, but worse. And that's exactly what his Semblance does: cheaply copy the Semblances of people around him.
-To be specific in how it works is that Drew's soul naturally sucks up the Aura dispersed by the people around him. Normally the pieces picked up are tiny and can't even be used to self-heal or any of the other things souls can do in that show that I haven't watched in years. But if it can pick up just enough of one person's Aura, say by either living with them for months, or by fighting someone head on who is constantly using their own semblance and spending a lot of their aura, then they can use just enough of it to poorly mimic that person's Semblance
-Arin goes on to explain that Drew's sudden burst of strength was likely because he was channelling Nina's Semblance, though if it were Nina's Semblance at its full power he would've probably won by now. And the way he could predict and dodge Akashi's sudden stab attack was by using Arin's, but if it was the full extent of Arin's Semblance then he would be dodging everything. And of course, he is able to redirect the lightning juuust enough to not be hit by anything by mimicking Akashi's Semblance
-Mello asks how he was able to dash so quickly after he did that roll call thing. "No idea." Arin says while side-eyeing Ruby. That was a gross implication I made years ago
-One other thing to note is that at this point in time Drew isn't actually aware of his Semblance, it's just sort running automatically
-So. Sixteen year old me thought this was the smartest power I could give Drew, something that could give this little underdog an edge on any big scary opponents he might face. Adult me can now recognise that this is actually a pretty generic power to have, and is in fact like 1 step removed from being the power the protagonist has in a terrible isekai. 'I Can Copy Anyone's Powers And Make Them My Own In Another World' kinda thing
-The one thing I will defend about Drew's Semblance here is that it's meant to be a bit symbolic for Drew as a whole. Drew is pretty weak as a fighter and can't do much on his own. He aspires to be like these larger than life heroes who can proudly declare their own names while mowing down hordes of evil. But he can never be like them. The best he can do is poorly mimic them, propping himself as someone bigger than he is. But when the facade is blown away, the one thing he can rely on is his friends supporting him
-Or maybe I'm reading too much into this blorbo I've grown attached to. Idk. At least it's not as crazy as the space jesus stuff I do to him later
-Anyway, back to the fight. Drew manages to blow on the hilt of his sword til it's cool enough for him to hold. Akashi laughs and says that he doesn't know how Drew did all that, but he's sorry for underestimating him and now he'll fight him earnestly. Drew is nervous about this but throws on a smile of fake confidence anyway
-So. I've run out of fancy ways of saying "And then they fight for a bit" but they do that. Drew seems to be able to keep up and get a few hits in when he can, but a trained eye can see that Akashi still has the upper hand. Even with Drew's 'new' little power up, Akashi still outclasses him in every way but one: their stamina. Akashi's used to finishing fights quickly and not using his Semblance so much, so he's burning the candle at both ends here. He's also like not fighting as smartly as he usually does because he wants to give Drew a fight he can be proud of
-And eventually after a bunch of cool swordplay and exchanges of blows that I'm not talented enough to write, Akashi backs off and says it's time to end this with a Finisher. He loads his rifle with his third and last Dust casing and lightning surges around him again, harsher and more intense than before
-Drew sees this and thinks "Damn. That might actually kill me." But despite the bruises, cuts and burns, he's come too far in this fight to give up. So he stances up, and the two boys dash at each other, both calling out silly attack names as they do, and their swords collide, vibrating with the force behind them both. The lightning tears up the ground around them, dust rises, and in the last second the audience can barely see the blade of Drew's sword crack.
-And then the lightning settles down in the dust cloud. We get reactions from everyone in the crowd who wants to know the winner. And as the dust settles we see the two boys again, Drew face down on the ground, practically fried to a crisp, but still very much alive and even still conscious, and Akashi on his hands and knees panting furiously from the overexertion
-Everyone is concerned for them both, but there's also no clear winner here. Drew's obviously beaten up pretty badly, but Akashi looks like he'll pass out at any minute. And the buzzer declaring they've run out of aura hasn't gone off. Ozpin comes in over the speaker to clarify the situation: In the state they're in we can't allow both of them to keep fighting, however there isn't a clear winner here either. No one probably wants to call this a Double KO and have them fight again in a few weeks time, so we have to determine if either fighter can even stand. So Ozpin decides that the first person to stand up and declare themselves the winner will be determined to be the victor
-There's some rabble among the crowd about whether this is good idea or not, but in the arena the two boys talk about if they're okay with this way of winning and they both agree to it and slowly start to pull themself to their feet
-The crowd murmurs louder, cheering Akashi on. The rest of teams DARN and XTRM give a silent prayer to their respective leaders
-With his sword still in hand, Drew gets one foot under him. His whole body is in pain, but he tries his best to raise himself. Akashi similarly struggles to get up, his muscles shaking from exhaustion
-Akashi gets on both his feet, it looks like he's gonna do this- but then his muscles give out and he's back on one knee, earning a gasp from the entire audience
-Instead Drew manages to get on his feet. He's wobbly, he needs to keep his footing, but he gets there. He manages to stand straight up. He raises his sword above his head with a thrust. He beams happily and says "I'm the wi-"
-And then he hears a snap, as his cracked sword finally snaps off and the flat side lands on his head with a clunk. Drew slowly falls back to the ground, and the buzzer indicating that his aura is depleted has rung. Akashi is the victor, and the whole audience erupts in shocked disbelief
-We cut to Drew regaining consciousness. He's in a closed off room of the infirmary on a bed in a ridiculous amount of bandages, and woozy enough on pain medication to not be in nightmarish pain. He can see the sun setting outside the window, and he can feel something pressed up against his side
-He looks down to it and sees Akashi sitting in a chair by his bedside, laying his head asleep on his folded arms that rested on the bed beside him. Drew gives a 'Weh!' in surprise, which startles Akashi awake
-Akashi asks if he's feeling better, and Drew is sceptical of the sudden friendliness. But Akashi cut through Drew's caution by properly introducing himself: His name is Ash Xavier, he just called himself Akashi because it sounded cool and no one caught on. He loves toku superheroes and indeed mimics one a lot of the time, and he'd like to be friends with Drew
-Drew is taken aback by this, then laughs gently because he never knew his real name was Ash. It isn't a mocking laugh though, it's a laugh you share between friends sharing a secret. And it makes Ash happy to hear
-The conversation is turned back to Ash, Drew asking why he needed to act like a superhero when he was already so strong. Ash explains that he simply didn't feel strong. Ash comes from a long line of huntsmen, and his family put a lot of pressure on him to perform well like they did. The pressure got to Ash and gave him a bit of performance anxiety, leading him to fail a lot of examinations and practical tests. So he went to his personal heroes for help, putting on the mannerisms and saying the catchphrases of his favourite characters, all to give him just that little bit of courage to move forward
-He says he isn't ashamed of it, just that he wishes that one day he can stand proud as his own huntsman without needing this 'mask'. Not as Akashi, but as Ash. Drew is touched by Ash divulging his heart to him, and asks why he'd wanna be friends with him after trying to embarrass him in front of the whole school. And Ash says that if Drew admires the same heroes who fight for love and peace that he does, then there is goodness.
-Moved by the vote of confidence and embarrassed by his own actions, Drew apologises to Ash and admits that he was being childish and only got into a fight with him because Ash is so popular and that the girl he likes has a crush on him. He was just being envious
-Ash is actually surprised and confused at that revelation. He tries to reason out the confusion in his head before revealing one last thing to his new friends: "That actually won't be an issue because, uhh… I'm kind of gay, Drew." Well done past me, you wrote two queer characters who were sort of forced to out themselves in this story. At least this one isn't public
-Realisation and embarrassment rush over Drew at once and he apologises profusely. Ash assures him that it's okay, but Drew rambles that this now makes him feel like even more of an asshole for trying to fight team XTRM. Ash laughs and encourages Drew to put the whole thing behind them. And besides this is kind of a good thing, because now Drew has one less rival in love. Ash gives a thumbs up and toothy, yet warm and genuine smile and wishes Drew the best of luck with his crush
-And then, due to a mix of being exhausted from their fight, being chocked full of pain meds, and just because he's someone with no impulse control, Drew's mind produces a single thought and he speaks it without thinking:
-"Oh wow, he's pretty when he smiles."
-A moment passes, and then both boys start to blush profusely. Drew starts to stammer out that he didn't mean that, but he's then 'saved' by Arin, Richard and Nina barging into the room. Nina was caught up in the rest of the crowd's enthusiasm and is still loudly celebrating the victory (she just doesn't realise whose), Richard is deeply sorry to his leader for losing his fight, and Arin goes straight for Homer Simpson strangulation on the helpless Drew for losing after he embarrassed himself so much.
-Ash uses this chance to escape the room to calm down and cool himself off, but immediately runs into his teammates waiting outside. They have some small talk that has a very awkward atmosphere over it. Until Ash blurts out the question: "Are we still friends?"
-His team is confused, but Ash admits that what Drew tried to reveal was kind of right, he is actually a huge nerd who's just imitating a hero he likes. But his team unanimously agrees that they don't really care. Danny says that he understands how Ash feels and that he's saved his ass more times than he can count, Rei says that they could tell Ash has been a good leader and tried to make friends with them, and even Mello admits that he doesn't hate Ash after bickering among the group for a bit
-And so the arc ends with our two teams reuniting- team XTRM bonding over newfound secrets, and DARN loudly arguing in a way only close friends could.
-Fin-
And there you have it, what was meant to be team DARN's last outing, the worst show on television. It was meant to show off how everyone does in a fight, develop ideas about these characters, and introduce more characters. Instead it ended up bloated (this document is 10k+ words), it complicated a bunch of comic relief characters with nonsense shounen battle powers, and tried to apply this grand thematic meaning to the little gremlin I've made into the protagonist. And I loved every minute of writing this, yes even the parts where I criticise myself.
So anyway, that's where I intended to end writing this fic, but there are a lot more stories that team DARN go on. I'll probably write a part two of this that covers the future and any major aus I've developed, but until then this is An end to the story. Thank you for sticking with me all this time.