Kamiro: Hands you an incredibly overdue chapter for this story
Kamiro (in a posh accent): "Here, read it you bitch!"
(If you got the reference to the first Lemonade stream of a certain Youtuber, then good on ya')
Last time, on A Rose With Iron Thorns:
Our aspiring young Hunters confronted the Drythd, the plant-controlling grimm who proved the biggest obstacle that any of them had faced to date. But with teamwork, dedication and determination, they were all able to pull through the battle, with Ruby landing the killing blow on the Drythd that had encased itself in a gigantic wooden suit of armour.
With the initiation concluded, the successful students were given ID cards as well as team assignments and, for the lucky few, the privilege to captain their respective teams.
Unfortunately for Ruby, she was the one straddled with the duty to lead her team…
Vale, Beacon City Academy: 22/06/137M, 07:38pm
"SHE'S WHHHHHHAT?!"
Everyone near the Beacon Academy first-year dorms had to quickly cover their ears and the glass-shattering shriek that boomed across that part of the campus. Back in the dorm where the noise had originally come from, people were checking to make sure they could still hear correctly.
"Geez, Ice Queen, you're going to pop my eardrums!" Yang complained as she wiggled a finger in her ear.
"Well, sor-ry that I seem to be the only one who's got some sense here, but why do none of you see the problem here?!" Weiss continued to fume.
Realien, emerging from her cover behind a bed, tried to speak. "W-Weiss, it really isn't any…"
"Literally anyone else here would be more suited to leadership than that… that bullheaded ruffian child!" Weiss cut off the silver-haired girl.
"Uhm, A: I'm standing right here, and B: would you care to repeat that?" Ruby snarled at what she was quickly expecting to be her nemesis for her stay at Beacon Academy.
Weiss waved her hand in a small circle, indicating a dismissive gesture. "I mean, everyone else on this team is better suited for the title. And I mean that literally. Blake is more levelheaded, Yang is more experienced, Realien is born for such a role which isn't even to mention me."
"Oh, I think I have a lot to mention about you, Princess."
Weiss scoffed at the insulting implication. "See? Childish." She strode to the door to their new dorm room. "I don't know what kind of mistake Ozpin made making you leader over me, but I intend to correct it." And with that she left the dorm, closing the door.
But once she was outside in the hallway, Weiss staggered slightly.
"You are a Schnee. You are meant to be great." Weiss whispered to herself, almost as if it were a mantra. Calming her frustration with the self-reassurance, Weiss straightened and began to stride away in confidence. 'It's not like this will last very long…' She thought. 'All I have to do is what I would normally, and Ozpin will see how much better suited I am to leadership than that childish… DOLT!'
Back inside the dorm Ruby was hopping around on one foot from kicking a bedpost before putting up her projection.
"Agh! I can't stand her! So what if I'm younger?! I'm just as good as her!" Ruby ranted. As she huffed, the energy seemed to drain out of her, and she slumped down onto one of the room's four beds.
"R-Ruby, Weiss was just r-raised that way," Rae said, sitting down next to her friend. "Sh-she sees that she needs to be the b-best at everything, or else n-nobody will respect her. High s-society is c-c-cutthroat."
"I'd respect her if she wasn't a total jerk!" Ruby shouted.
"Ruby…"
"And what's worse is… she's not exactly wrong either. Why was I made leader?" Ruby said, slumping further into the bed.
Yang moved over to stand in front of Ruby and Rea. Hands on hips she leaned down to stare Ruby in the eyes. "Hey! None of that Ruby, you're going to be a great leader!"
"But you would've done better!" Ruby protested.
Yang straightened up and waved her hand as she turned her head slightly. "Pshhh. Nahhhh. I would be a terrible leader. 'Hey gang, why don't we just charge headfirst into battle with no strategy! I'm sure that'll work!'."
This worked in making Ruby smile.
"And hey, Blake hasn't even shown up yet! Gotta be a reliable leader, right?" Yang continued. It hadn't gone unnoticed by anyone that they were still a teammate short so far.
"Yeah…"
"Look, Ruby," Yang landed in the bed, bouncing the other two girls with the force. "You're a great person, and I'm sure you'll be a great leader too! Sure, you're pretty cocky because of your semblance…"
"It's a great semblance!" Ruby defended.
"Hey, I agree! But you're still a cocky little brat!" Yang ruffled Ruby's hair much to her protests. "And so that means you're going to be the best leader, since you've got the most mistakes to make, and the most lessons to learn from them."
"Wow Yang… that's really wise of you."
Yang beamed proudly.
"I'm surprised."
Yang choked briefly and whipped her head towards Ruby. "Hey! I'll have you know that I'm full of wisdom!"
"Y-you bet me you could f-fit a whole hamburger in y-your mouth just last night." Rea reminded, shooting down Yang's claim.
"And I was right!"
"You ch-choked."
Ruby nodded solemnly. "Pyrrha had to help you cough it up."
Yang grumbled and looked away from the pair, but both could still see the red tint of a blush covering Yang's face.
Ruby smiled at her new friend and sister. "Well… thanks guys. I needed this."
"A-any time… Ruby." Realien put a hand on Ruby's back.
The door clicking open diverted the three girls' attention towards the front of the room. Standing in the doorway was Blake, still in her simplistic and robe-like black outfit and staring back impassively at the three sets of eyes on her.
"Did I miss anything?" she asked neutrally.
✇ARwIT✇
Vale, Beacon City Academy: 23/06/137M, 03:17pm
Teams 7 & 8 sat around a large table in the academy library, discussing the day they had and the week to follow. The orientation was extensive and a little mentally exhausting with just how much information about the school and their curriculum they were told.
"Man, these timetables are packed…" Nora said. She looked at her own timetable at an angle as if it were going to change the schedule somehow. Another thing that was learned was the remaining three members of Team 8. Along with Mars and Jaune, they also had Pyrrha, Ren and Nora.
"Well, all those classes have to get shoved in there somewhere," Mars said, leaning back on her chair. "And don't forget how many of those skill-based ones have team variants like combat."
Mars was referring to the second of two types of classes they now had. Year-based such as geopolitics and grimm studies, and skill-based classes like aura control and the aforementioned combat.
"How do you guys think you're going to be ranked next week?" Yang asked.
"I am confident in my combat capabilities." Pyrrha smiled.
Ruby mimicked the expression with more enthusiasm. "Well then I'll have to do well too, I really want to have a fight with you Pyrrha!" Ruby then paused for a few seconds, realizing how she phrased that. "Wait, no I didn't mean it like-" she flustered.
Pyrrha giggled with a raised hand to her mouth. "It is more than fine, Ruby. I understand what you mean, I'm actually quite glad about your eagerness. Most are rather intimidated by my… record."
"The one where you've never lost?" Mars put it bluntly.
Pyrrha coughed awkwardly, averting her eyes.
Aware enough that Pyrrha would appreciate a topic change, Ren spoke to Team 7. "I must ask – where is Weiss Schnee? Nora told me about how she was on your team."
Team 7's mood soured at the mention of Weiss and her absence. Well, Blake looked as indifferent as always but that was not a surprise as she hadn't really shown any other emotion.
"Sh-sh-she didn't w-want to come…" Realien answered.
Ruby then immediately followed this with; "She's been avoiding us all day!"
"Really? Why?" Jaune asked.
Yang decided it was best she answered. "She's sour that she wasn't made leader."
"And even more of a jerk just because I got made captain!" Ruby included. Pyrrha looked genuinely perplexed at Ruby's words.
"But Ruby, I believe you'll be a great leader." She said.
"Yeah!" Nora leaned over the table and got in Ruby's face. "You were so take-charge in the entrance exam! We could have been toast if it weren't for you!"
"And you were ready to sacrifice your position in Beacon to let the rest of us succeed. The mark of a true leader." Ren contributed. Ruby, embarrassed, shrunk away from the compliments.
Trying to deflect, Ruby shifted the conversation. "I-I just wish Weiss would see it that way, but I guess she's just a stuck-up pansy-pants."
"Ruby," Realien spoke softly, "I d-don't think it's fair just t-t-to write Wiess off like th-that. I-it's only b-b-been a day."
Ruby looked down pensively at the desk unsure of how to feel or how to move forward with the conversation. Somewhat fortunately for her, neither did anyone else, so the whole subject was changed to a different relevant topic. Mainly, classes. Again. The new discussion revolved around asking one another about how they'd do, and about how the 'refresher' classes being held the following week for the year-based ones were going to be dull. The only people who held any form of enthusiasm were Ren and Blake – neither showing it outwardly, of course. There was some more complaining from the less academic-focused teens with Mars being the one to finally point out that this is just about what every school did in the beginning of a year, just not as bluntly.
The relatively new friends kept talking about their upcoming time at the academy and expressing their excitement at finally becoming Hunters after so many years of training, despite still only being at the lowest rank of Scout. This continued until some new presences approached the table they were gathered at.
"Tharum!" Ruby exclaimed happily upon seeing the only other person they had teamed with during the entrance exam.
"Oh, hey it's Mr Ren!" Sam Kura, who was also present, pointed at Ren.
"My first name is Ren. Lie is my family name. I told you this." Ren corrected.
Nora furrowed her brow, seemingly trying very hard to remember something. "Why does this seem familiar?" She asked aloud.
"Because you did the exact same thing when we met?" Ren said.
"Oh yeah!"
Sam covered her mouth and giggled at the two. "That's super funny." She said once done, "But I remember your name, 'Mr Ren', it's just a joke!"
Ruby enjoyed the three-way interaction between her new quirky friends. Refocusing on Tharum again, Ruby realized that there were three other people who she hadn't noticed. There were two girls and one boy, one of the girls and the boy looking like they were already in their twenties – likely entering at that age due to previously failing or not attending an entrance exam. Ruby wasn't the only one to notice the new faces, as it was Yang who was first to greet the newcomers.
"Hey there! You guys part of Tharum's team?" she asked.
The boy huffed with an easy smile. "Better to say Tharum's part of our glorious leader's team." He jabbed a finger at the older girl next to him.
"Oh shush." The girl retorted. Well, it'd be more appropriate to call her a woman, as she was clearly out of any form of pubescent phase. She then turned to the group of friends and introduced herself. "It is nice to meet you all, my name is Cinder. Cinder Fall."
"Nice to meet you Cinder! I'm Ruby Rose!" Ruby greeted back with a grin. The rest of the two teams (sans the absent Weiss) also introduced themselves.
Cinder was a fair-skinned young woman with wavey ash-black hair covering one of her eyes. She wore a short red dress with practical leather leggings made of what Rea could identify as sandcrawler hide.
The attention then moved from Cinder and to the boy who had spoken earlier. He had dusty grey hair in some sort of hairstyle that he probably thought was cool – but in reality just looked stupid. His clothes were nothing to write home about, just a big jacket and baggy pants that were not colour-coordinated in the least. There was a large hump on his back despite standing straight, and a conductor's cap on top of his head that fortunately covered his dumb hairstyle partially.
Next and last was the younger girl. She was the most practically clothed out of all of them, sporting what almost looked like a wetsuit with a flak jacket and a pair of cargo pants. Everything was in black or muted shades of grey. The only noticeable thing about the girl was that she clearly had albinism – pale skin, white hair, red eyes and all. This natural complexion created a stark contrast between it and her dark clothes.
"This is Antue Rim and Zetta Rogue." Cinder introduced them.
"Hey hey,"
"Yaunsi."
"Yaunsi" Mars and Blake replied automatically, providing the Mistral local greeting.
"Oh, you guys are from Mistral too?" Ruby asked her friends.
"Not anymore," Mars said cryptically, averting her eyes.
"Yes, I used to live there with my parents." Was all the answer Blake would give.
With introductions and greetings made, the now fully-known Team 3 was invited to stay. They continued to just talk about mostly nothing, just their own opinions of the upcoming school year, where they were all from, and other things like that. It was also quickly revealed that Antue was a faunus, and part of the Uanstofei subrace at that – marking him one of the more mystically-tied faunus of the two possible faunus subraces. His traits came from a kappa – a non-Grimm monster that had a turtle shell and a little pond on top of their head, which slightly explained his stupid haircut.
Another thing that slowly became apparent was that Team 7 had oddities when it came to awakened semblances. All of them had one, something neither Team 3 or 8 could claim since Jaune, Ren, Sam, Tharum and Antue had all yet to acquire one. This then leads to the funny story of how Nora discovered her semblance after they compared how young they were when discovering their semblance, she being the winner so far at age eight and Ruby coming second at ten.
"…and so when I wasn't dead, we figured out it was a semblance." Nora finished her story. Yang couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of Nora just getting struck by lighting when trying to use a metal pot to 'protect' her from the hail.
Grinning herself at the story, Ruby turned to Cinder. "So what is your semblance anyway, Cinder?"
Cinder smiled slyly (something they were beginning to notice as a habit for her). "Superheat. It's an elemental projection-based semblance. Let me… turn up the heat. Works well with my glass-based fighting style."
"Glass-based fighting style?" Ruby asked, instantly intrigued.
Cinder nodded. "I superheat dust-infused sand I keep in vials into glass weapons. I then reuse any glass that fragments."
"That's so cooool!" Ruby gushed. "We've gotta spar. Integrating your semblance into your fighting style like that sounds really good!"
"Ruby," Pyrrha chuckled, "You do that too, you know."
Ruby huffed. "Well, I'm sorry Miss 'My Semblance is a secret' Nikos, but some of our semblances are super really cool."
Everyone, including Pyrrha, laughed at Ruby's response.
✇ARwIT✇
Vale, Beacon City Academy: 23/06/137M, 03:17pm
It was Realien who had told Weiss that they were going to the library with Team 8, but she was reluctant to go. Weiss was confident that if she just did her very best, excelling in everything she did like she knew she would, it would be evident that she was a better choice to lead. Certainly better than Ruby – she was no older than her little brother.
Weiss wasn't stupid, she knew that her recent… 'outbursts' were making her father begin to consider passing over her to inherit the company. It didn't help that her little brother was someone after her father's heart – conniving, sly and ruthless. Weiss knew she was walking on thin ice and couldn't afford any mistakes.
Like not being made a leader.
And that's what had left her with the problem being two-pronged. On one prong, her father may take this as the last straw to begin looking for excuses to remove her as heiress. On the other… well the other was more personal. It was a stab at Weiss' ego that and a torment in her mind that someone two years her junior had already taken something from her. And the thought haunted her, 'Why couldn't it happen again?'.
But those were thoughts to keep in the recesses of her mind, if not expunge completely. Because right now Weiss was doing what she had been taught best from living in Atlan high society – socializing. And socializing had many benefits, such as alliances with those who proved beneficial, and learning weaknesses of those who proved threats.
Weiss stopped, midway through a hallway after a productive afternoon of learning about her competition – or 'classmates' – when a thought struck her. The biggest current 'threat' to her was Ruby Rose. If Weiss could grin and bear the little dunce, then she could learn about her weaknesses, and then exploit them to gain leadership of Team 7.
And if there was one other thing that Weiss learned from Atlan high society, it was how to conceal her dislike of others. But first, she would have to make a plan…
✇ARwIT✇
Vale, Beacon City Academy: 26/06/137M, 03:17pm
The three days that made up the weekend flew by for the new students of Beacon Academy. It was a scramble of last-minute hangouts, preparations, training and studying. Ruby primarily found herself cloistered away in the academy's forge with Realien designing weapons and tools for the coming year, both already having taken the elective in forging due to their love of weaponry. Even though the two mainly spent their time there, they still caught up with their friends during meals and in the evenings. But as said before, the time evaporated as the following week dawned alongside the start of classes.
"Ruby th-this is a r-r-really bad idea…"
"Nahhhh, it'll be fine."
Ruby brought the trumpet she had procured up to her lips and aimed it at Weiss…
This was a totally normal chapter where totally normal things happened.
And I promise I like Weiss – I'm just setting up her initially bitchy attitude for later character progress that will pay off.
And again – this was a totally normal chapter where totally normal things happened.