AN- Well here we are again with another chapter! I gotta say guys, wow. You guys are awesome, all there is to it. Now for the reviewers!
HaFschu- Welcome back! Thank you for the praise, and I'll remember to not mistake 'to' and 'too' in the future.
CRAZYDIAMOND- Here is the next chapter for ya, I hope you enjoy it!
nico2411- I'm glad I now have your attention. I'm sure you can figure out how and why Kai feels that Ruby is familiar on your own. If not well, one of these days you will ;). I had a blast writing a young Ruby, I felt that in her younger days Ruby was really excitable and not as socially awkward, so I replicated that feeling and wrote it down, I'm glad it worked out. I try using new words, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. As for the little sister big sister thing, I might have mixed them up... whoops. Blind jokes and funny moments including his condition are going to be plentiful, so be ready for them. Finally, the signal arc might end up being around ten to twenty chapters, give or take, but with the influx of ideas I have, probably going to be more than that, probably… Thanks for the review!
Zeldawolffang- Yes, the joke is not lost on me. I noticed it the moment I named Kai.
Dood Whitefang- I couldn't help myself with that man, I just had to. And about getting to Volume 1, so many other writers (not saying that it is bad whatsoever, I personally love a lot of them.) mostly make their characters start out in Volume 1, and then leak out the information about their past during the story or by a full blown flashback. I just want to get the past stuff out of the way first, and do something that I haven't personally seen a lot of authors do. Which is write a Signal arc. So, here I am. Went off on a bit of a tangent, sorry about that. Thanks for the review and for your support.
Now something I want to let you guys/girls know, since Kai is blind he can't see what others are wearing or what they look like. Just the weight of said person. So besides himself and a few select OC's, and the main characters. You aren't really going to know what they look like. This is to replicate just one of the things a blind person has to go through. So if Kai want's to know what someone looks like, he has to feel out their face. If they are willing that is. Let me know if you'd like this to be a constant factor for this story, despite not being written in a first person perspective.
Thank you to all of my new followers, I hope you enjoy the story!
RWBY: The Blind Huntsman
Chapter 3- Volume 0, episode 1
First day with a new mentor
Kai wakes up with a yawn, then stretch of his arms and tail, he sits up in his bed and swings his legs over the edge right away then touches the floor with his feet. He senses the room and lets out a relaxed breath of air. He is always uncomfortable when he is not able to see what is around him in his own way. Back in his own home his bed was much closer to the ground, so he was still able to sense what was around him. This bed is an exception, since it was that or the couch downstairs, or the floor, and he isn't exactly fond of the latter. Also he needs his sleep, if Tai's warning about the supposed intense training he is supposed to be doing today for his semblance, then following that is even more training with Yang. Kai has a mixture of excitement and concern for his new style of training he is going to be going through.
He grabs his shirt that he left in a specific spot in the room on one of the chairs and puts it back on. It's one that his mother picked out for him when he was younger. Kai likes to leave skin out, for the purpose of feeling the way the wind moves around him, whether it be a shockwave caused by something or someone, or just to get a better feel of the air around him. So he can't see it, but his mother got him a shirt that matched the color of his aura, silver on the front and back, but on the sides are white, to represent the shine of his silver aura when it flares. It fits snugly and comfortably against his body, showing off the grooves of his muscles. Next are his shorts, which are mostly black, with a white trim to them. It also hugs his figure pretty well, while also retaining the look of it being somewhat baggy and comfortable. He stuffs his tail into the pants, taking advice from his mother to keep it hidden around humans. He wears no shoes, and no gloves. The reason for that being so that he can sense the area around him easier. Lastly, it is his most required piece of clothing before he even thinks of leaving his room, his black oversized headband that his father gave to him many years ago. He wears this every second of the day, and rarely takes it off the go to sleep, he only did it this time so that he can let the covered parts of his head be aired out so to speak, but didn't even open his eyes. He sleeps with it in his hand, it is very important to him to not let the world see his eyes, for now at least. He knows the world is going to see them one of these days, but that day is not going to be today. Kai wraps the headband around his head, covering his eyes, and then ties it tightly around his head. Letting the excess cloth hang limply on his upper back and neck.
Now fully dressed and comfortable. He feels ready to leave the room and freshen himself up, but as he approaches the door, he can sense someone on the other side of it walking toward the door, he feels every step and starts to focus on the weight of the person.
The weight of the person is lighter than Tai, yet heavier than Ruby. Must be Yang then.
"Is that you Yang?" Kai asks as the weight stops in front of his bedroom door.
"How'd you know it was me?" Yang asks as she opens the door, arching her eyebrow as she leans against the doorframe.
"You're heavier than your sister, and lighter then your father, and only three people besides myself are staying in this house. It made the most logical sense." Kai explains as he yawns once again.
"Man, I don't know if I should feel amazed or offended." Yang says with a chuckle. "Dad wants you to get up, freshen yourself up, eat, and meet him by the river. He gave me specific instructions not to tell you which direction in the river is in."
"That's fine, I'll find my own way there." Kai says as he approaches the door to go find the restroom.
Yang steps out if his way, and watches as he finds the restroom without even asking her where it is. She shakes her head with a smile as she goes back into her own room that she shares with Ruby.
Kai enters the bathroom, and waves his hands around until he finds the sink. He then reaches to the right corner of the sink, where Tai told him where his toothbrush would be, and feels it up to make sure it is his. Before he left his home, he wrapped the toothbrush around with a small piece of tape. Just so he knows that it is his before he made a mistake that he would regret. He freshens himself up, and exits the bathroom. He walks down the stairs, eats a small but energizing breakfast, and then gets outside. Unbeknownst to him, since Yang and Ruby are on a higher elevation then he is, they watch as he kneels down the the ground, and places his right hand on the ground. He enhances he seismic senses mentally, by blocking out his sense of smell in order to hear and feel better. To his northeast he feels a constant vibration that is most likely a flowing river, and can softly hear the water splashing against the shore and anything else peeking out of the water.
"Found ya." Kai says to himself as he stands back up from the ground, and heads off in the direction of the river.
"Woah, that is so cool." Ruby says with sparkling eyes as she observes the whole spectacle.
"Yeah, that guy really is something." Yang says as she moves away from the window.
Back with Kai, he is walking through the forest, not far from the river and will be there shortly. With every step, he can feel the trees around him, the tiny insects crawling around him, whether it be right beside him, or several meters away from him on a tree or crawling on the grass. Soon he hears the sound of running water, and smiles to himself as the soothing sound reaches his ears and intensifies as he grows nearer to the river. He feels a pair of feet standing near the river, and assumes it to be Taiyang Xiao Long, his new mentor.
"I'm here, sir." Kai makes himself known as he reaches the wet dirt beside the river.
"There you are, I'll admit it, you got here faster than I expected." Tai says as he turns to face him. "Show me what you can do with water." He orders right away, not letting the greeting last longer than it needs to.
"Okay." Kai has no protests, and with one hand manipulates a portion of the water out of the river and allows it to flow around him. It's a showy demonstration sure, but as far as offensive combat goes, he could use a little work in that department with this particular element.
"Nice form, now you feel that rock over there?" He doesn't need to but he points to it anyway, not far from where he is standing.
"Yes." Kai says as he turns his head to face the rock.
"Let me see how much damage you can do to it in one strike." Tai says as he steps by his side.
"Okay." Kai says as he begins to focus on making the water as deadly as possible. He weaves the water around his body, and with one swift chop, brings the water down from above in a slicing motion, and cuts right through the rock about five inches deep. Doesn't destroy the rock, but if that hit a person's artery they would most likely bleed out before help could arrive if the bleeding is not stopped, but that is only if they are out of aura.
"Hm, not bad. I feel like if you had the chance you would use water as more of a defensive ability rather than offensive, am I right?" Tai asks as Kai lets the water fall to the ground with a weak splash.
"Yeah, whenever I have access to it, but in an area like this there is plenty of water for me to use. I can pull it out of the wet dirt we are standing on, and of course there's the river." Kai explains as he gestures to the river.
That's when Tai gets an idea. "Have you ever considered taking the water out of plants? Like a tree, or the grass?" Tai asks as he observes his surroundings. In an environment like this, with plenty of water around, he would be able to utilize three out of four parts of his semblance, which would make him a very tough opponent if his enemy doesn't know how to respond properly. Tai thinks to himself as he waits Kai's answer.
"It might be possible… but I never really tried to do that before." Kai says as he feels and hears the grass and trees rustle around him.
"Then that is what you will be training to do for today. We won't leave this spot until you pull some water out of one of those trees, so go pick one and I'll wait here, after every half hour we will train your ability to use your water offensively as well as defensively. That way when you do have access to more then two of your elements, you're not stuck with using water defensively." Tai instructs as he goes back to where he was standing and picks up a fishing pole Kai mistook as a reed. "In the meantime I am going to catch us some dinner."
"Okay sir." Kai says with an amused grin as he focuses all of his ability on trying to pull water out of a living plant.
Kai picks a tree, not too big and not too small, and raises his hands and curls his fingers. He can sense the water flowing through the tree with his aura, but can't quite get a grasp on it. He tries to pull the water out of the tree with his aura with the grip he has, but the water doesn't even budge.
"Tsk." Kai mutters something to himself about this being harder then he though it would be. But he goes right back to it without any complaints.
For thirty minutes straight, Kai repeatedly tried the same move on the same tree, and for thirty minutes he yielded no results. He is now much more tired, and frustrated with himself.
"Not even a drop yet huh? I caught a fish but it was too small so I let it go. Alright now it's time for the fun part. You have trouble sensing where your opponent is when they're really fast right?" Tai asks with a grin on his face as he sees Kai finally show some worry on his face.
"... Yeah." Kai answers unenthusiastically. Actually not looking forward to training for once.
"Good, 'cause I am going full out on you in terms of speed, and then when you're used to me we are going to practice with someone even faster, i'm sure you know who that is going to be." Tai chuckles to himself as he sets down his fishing rod. "It's definitely going to take a while for you to get used to just me. So don't beat yourself up too much about not being able to keep up with me, this is meant to enhance your senses as well as your reaction speed. Use whatever you can to win, and don't hold back. Or you'll regret it." Tai says as he enters a fighting more akin to speed then anything. Of course he is not actually going to go full speed, just enough to where Kai can't sense him for more then a second at a time.
"Yes sir." Kai says, getting into the same stance as he did against Yang just yesterday.
Okay, there's no doubt that Tai is much faster and stronger then Yang, but since h trained her himself he probably has a similar fighting style. I don't think I an win, but I might be able to stand up to him for a good amount of time before I get overwhelmed. Kai thinks to himself as he feels Tai get ready to lunge at him.
But then suddenly, Tai is off of his feet, and Kai can't sense him, he can barely hear him as he dashes around him. To someone who can use their eyes properly, Tai is dashing from spot to spot so fast that Kai can't sense him for more then half a second at a time, but he can still be seen by the human eye, albeit barely.
Kai feels a nudge in his back, and spins around quickly and sends a horizontal arc of air behind him, hitting nothing but the tall grass and trees behind him. He feels a foot land right behind him but is too late to react in time as he feels a punch land in his cheek, lifting him off of his feet and sending him crashing into a nearby tree. When he touches back on the ground. He can feel feet running up on him, and instinctively rolls outs of the way just in time to dodge the incoming knee, which splinters the tree he was just laying against. He attempts to wrap stone around Tai's foot in the same fashion he did to Yang, but his reaction time is too quick for him to wrap it around fully and Tai easily breaks out of the small prison before it can get too hard. Using that same foot to kick Kai's hand away and pin hm to the round. Kai attempts to punch at Tai with a blast of air to blow him off of him, but he gets that hand pinned to the ground, along with the other.
"You lose, get up and try to get water out of the tree again." Tai says as he begins to step off of Kai.
But Kai has other plans, instead he stomps the ground, and sends a angled pillar of stone right into Tai's back hard, launching his mentor to the other side of the river. Not really hurting him, but surprising him for sure.
"Damn it Kai! Stop being smart!" Tai says as he manages to land on his feet.
"You shouldn't assume the fight is over until it is actually over!" Kai shouts back, making Tai widen his eyes in surprise since Kai is usually so kind. "You said not to hold back, just because I am pinned down doesn't mean I still can't fight back!" Kai shouts again as he manipulates water out of the dirt beneath him and lets it flow around his body.
"Wow, your kid really is something Malikai." Tai mutters to himself as he smiles. Actually impressed with the blind boys dedication to better himself. "Alright kid, we'll keep going until you get an actual hit on me. Then you can go back to your tree." Tai says as he jumps across the river and re-enters a fighting stance.
This time it is Kai who makes the first move, by whipping at Tai's current position with his water. Tai of course jumps away before the water could get close enough to hit him, and the water stabs into the ground where he once stood. When he lands, a horizontal arc of air gets blasted his way just as his foot touches the ground. Tai widens his eyes as he is forced to jump over the attack.
He can't sense me in the air, I wonder what his next move will be. Tai thinks to himself as he flips into the air and prepares an aura powered axe kick. Using gravity to add even more power to the mix as he comes down onto Kai.
He hasn't touched the ground yet which means… AN AIR ATTACK! Kai thinks to himself, he drops all the water back on the ground, and punches the ground with his fist, manipulating and hardening the dirty beneath his feet to form a dome around his body, and as soon as it forms, he hears and feels a crushing attack right where his head just was before he ducked.
Tai widens his eyes as the dome of stone is formed in less then a second. This kid has crazy adaptability skills, Tai notes. alright let's kick it up a small notch. With a grin, Tai puts more power into the axe kick, easily shattering the dirty stone dome, and successfully lands the devastating blow on the back of Kai's neck.
Kai coughs out some spit as he is kicked to the ground, his aura flaring to lessen to pain and impact when he headbutted the ground. He tries to push himself back up, but another foot in his back pressed him back against the dirt.
"I don't want to drain too much of your aura, we'll continue this in half an hour. I'll let you know when you are finished." Tai says as he releases the pressure he was putting on Kai's back.
Kai, now much more willing to listen to orders this time around, pushes himself up from the ground and looks back to his designated tree he recognizes by feeling the shape of the roots underground. Without a word he goes back to trying to get at least a single drop of water out of the tree, and it goes without saying that this is one of the most frustrating things he has had to train for in his life.
This time however, Tai is keeping an eye on him. He watches as Kai struggles to manipulate the water out of the tree, the way his facial expression is so serious without any sign of faltering, with a good touch of frustration in it. But no signs of wanting to give up anytime soon. Since it's the first day he is taking it a little easy on the kid. For the reason that he wants to observe more of his personality more when he trains, of course if he wanted to he could be much more brutal, much like his old teammate who is somehow keeping a job at Signal. Qrow would work Kai out until he collapsed, but if his little outburst earlier was any indication, then Kai would not complain and instead ask for more. He shakes the mentioning of the dusty old crow out of his head and sends out his fishing hook into the river once more. He decides to let Kai work a little longer at pulling the water out of the tree, an hour wouldn't hurt right? Would he even notice?
On Kai's side of things, he has been trying a different method this time, instead of trying to forcefully pull the water out of the tree with the weak grip he had on it with his aura, he is trying to pull the water out in a more simple way, just like he does with water. He enters a different, more relaxed stance, as he does when he manipulated water out of the river earlier. Tai raises an eyebrow at this, and even sets down his fishing pole to give Kai his full attention. Kai weaves his body around almost as if he is dancing, and to Tai's surprise the tree seems to be… sweating? For lack of a better word. Tai widens his eyes as tiny droplets of water start to get pulled out of the tree and start to float around Kai's hands. Kai sense the water flowing around him with his aura, and celebrates by pooling the water into a small ball in his palm.
"YES!" Kai exclaims as he pumps his fist into the air. Even his tail points up with him, bursting out of his shorts.
Tai chuckles after seeing the young side of Kai take over for a split second. He isn't surprised by the tail, since Malikai made sure to let him know that he picked up that trait from his mother.
"Took you about an hour and ten minutes, but you finally pulled it off." Tai says as he walks up to Kai's side.
"It's been over an hour already? I couldn't even notice." Kai admits.
"Yeah, that's called getting in the zone. You were so focused on getting that water out that you didn't notice me catching a fish." Tai points out.
"Oh, wow I'm sorry sir, I just really wanted to get at least something out of that damn tree." Kai says as he bounces the ball of water from hand to the other.
"Okay first, just call me Tai, this 'sir' and 'Mr Tai' crap just makes me feel old. Second, don't worry about it, it was actually interesting to observe you dedicate yourself to training, I remember when my daughters would rebel against me so hard before they started loving it." Tai reminisces.
"Okay sir- er Tai, and as long as I could remember I always loved to train, even when I got my ass kicked most of the time. My father was very supportive of me." Kai says with a smile as he holds the ball of water between his hands without touching it.
"Heh, Malikai was always like that. Did he ever tell you about that time when-"
"Tai I feel two people coming this way." Kai interrupts in a much more serious tone, dropping the ball of water and turning his head to the two intruders coming their way. "One has a familiar weight, but the other I haven't met at all." Kai says as he senses someone very light, and someone a little bit heavier the Taiyang himself.
Instead of Tai getting deadly serious, he just facepalms as he realizes who it is right away. "I know who it is." Tai says after an exasperated sigh.
Suddenly, the much lighter weight disappears from Kai's seismic sensing, and then reappears beside him.
"YOU HAVE A TAIL?! That's so cool!" A very excited Ruby exclaims as she grabs it, scaring the shit out of Kai in the process.
"GAH! Ruby? You were fifty feet away from us just a second ago." Kai says as he yanks his tail out of the young girls grip.
"Im fast!" Ruby points out triumphantly, "Why were you hiding it in your pants though?"
"Oh, uh. My mom warned me that most people outside of Vacuo and Menagerie aren't exactly fond of faunus, even less of hybrids born from a human and a faunus. So, I took her advice, and hid it." Kai explains. Usually he wouldn't have, considering the fact that he had just met the girl yesterday, but something about her just radiates warmth in the most friendly and accepting way possible. "But please don't grab it without at least asking, it's very sensitive." Kai says as he wraps the tail around his waist like a belt.
"Kai." Ruby calls out to him, tilting her head with curiosity.
Kai does his best to look down into her face, and arches an eyebrow.
"Yes?"
"Where do babies come from?"
And just like that, Kai drops the ball of water he has tried so hard to get out of that tree, his tail falls limply behind him and almost between his legs, and his face can only be described of one of pure helplessness.
"Oh… uh, I don't think that I am the best person to ask about that." Kai says with a nervous forced laugh. "M-maybe that's something a father should explain to their daughter." Kai blows a breeze of air with his tail toward Tai, snapping him out of his own shocked and embarrassed state.
If Kai could see it, Tai gave him a look of betrayal. He gets extremely uncomfortable as Ruby speeds up to him and looks up to him with an expecting look, prepared, but not fully prepared to hear the answer. Tai didn't have this problem with Yang, since she is far more social than her little sister in terms of making friends. But now that he is face to face with this little birds and the bees problem. Tai realizes that he is massively unprepared to answer this.
"Oh, who are you?" Kai asks as he senses someone walk in front of him. Kai didn't greet him hostiley since this man was with Ruby, and neither of them seemed stressed to be around one another
"I should be asking you that question kid." Kai hears a gruffy deepy voice reply to him.
Luckily for Tai, at the sound of this man's voice Ruby spun back around and in a flurry of rose petals dashed right up to his side, hugging his arm adorably. "Uncle Qrow is here early!" Ruby squeals in delight as she mistakens Qrow hand on her head as a pat instead of an attempt to push her off of him.
Tai locks eyes with Qrow, and a tense silence fills the air as Kai stares obliviously down at the newcomers feet. But isn't oblivious to the stressed out levels of blood pressure between both men.
"I can't help but sense a tense feeling coming from both of your bodies." Kai says as he looks back up.
"Nevermind that Kai, what are you doing here Qrow? You're two weeks early, didn't expect you to be back yet." Tai points out, in a more mature tone then Kai expected.
"My schedule cleared up." Qrow says nonchalantly with a shrug as he takes out his flask and takes a huge swig of it. After he finishes, he places the flask back in his suit pocket and burps loudly, not even attempting to suppress it in the slightest. Ruby giggles at her uncle's antics, somehow not affected by the stench of alcohol in the air.
Kai on the other hand, smells this a little too much, much worse then Ruby or Tai has it with his highly enhanced sense of smell. He takes a step back, and silently waves away the air with his semblance, effectively sparing himself of having to smell it any longer.
"So, who is this kid?" Qrow asks, flicking his chin toward Kai. "Didn't know you were taking up students besides your daughter."
"His name is Kai-"
"Oh sorry, forgot the part where I said that I wanted to hear it from him." Qrow cuts him off as he steps closer to Kai, and gives him a glare that would make any boy his age shake in their shoes.
Tai grumbles something about Qrow being a dickhead. But can't wait to see the look on his face after he learns a certain something about his new student.
"My names Kai Matsuoka, I am the son of Marron and Malikai Matsuoka. I want to be a huntsman, but schools in Vacuo wouldn't take me, so Tai agreed to take me in so that I could attend Signal." Kai explains a short version of his past as he extends his hand out, this time actually in the correct area this time around.
Qrow arches his eyebrow at the young boys bravery, or foolishness. He grabs the boys hand and of course gives it an iron grip, but to his surprise the boy doesn't even wince. He then turns his attention to the headband that seems to be tied intentionally around his eyes. "What's with the headband covering your eyes? Is this some sort of fashion kids are getting into?" Please tell me it's not…
"Ooo! Ooo! I can answer this one!" Ruby exclaims, jumping in between the two, interrupting the one sided tense conversation.
"Oh, yes, please Ruby, tell him why Kai wears the headband." Tai says with a mischievous grin on his face. "You're alright with that right Kai?"
Kai shrugs his shoulders in response. "Sure, I don't mind, people are going to find out about my condition one of these days anyway."
"Your… condition?" Qrow asks, wondering if he heard that correctly. Huntsman can't have conditions, not when they are constantly risking their lives against the Grimm and people alike. "What do you mean?"
"Kai can't see!"
Qrow blinks once, then twice, then a third time for good measure.
"Can't… see?" He asks after a moment, wanting clarification to make sure he heard what he just heard, There's no way this kid is blind…
"I was born blind, have been my whole life." Kai clarifies with a smile.
The look on Qrows face is a mixture of surprise, impressiveness, and shock. If only Kai could see it. But Tai makes it known that his thinks it's hilarious, and doesn't stop himself from bursting out in laughter.
"Huh…" Qrow steps closer and waves a hand in front of Kai's face - an immature way of verifying if someone is actually blind, and he knows that. What he doesn't expect is when Kai asks him what he is doing.
"Why are you so close to me? And why are you waving your hand in my face?" Kai asks as he gently pushes the hand away from his face.
"You could see that?" Qrow asks in a suspicious tone. "Take off the headband." He demands in a not so nice tone of voice.
"No no no Uncle Qrow! He can sense you with his seismic feet!" Ruby comes to Kai's defense, pushing and failing to get Qrow away from Kai.
"Wait… you're Malikai's kid right?" Qrow asks, stepping away from Kai. Ruby falls down to the ground once the weight she has been pushing against moves away suddenly.
"Ow…"
"Geez kid why didn't you say that earlier?" Qrow asks in a more of a kind and playful tone.
"I did…" Kai points out "You know him?"
"Bah, must have missed it, and yeah I do, went on a couple missions with him a few years back. His fire and water manipulation skills are insane, Grimm can't even get close to him when he is near a source of either of them. I heard that he had a kid, but I never really found out more than that." Qrow says as he takes back out his flask, but before he can drink it the alcohol seems to fly itself out of the flask. "Hey! That's mine!" Qrow complains as he sees the fluid float around Kai's hand.
"Sorry, but I think you could use a little less of this stuff, I smelled the alcohol coming off of you before you even realized we were here." Kai says as he keeps the alcohol around his hand. The stench burns his nostrils, but he figures it's better than allowing this man to drink it until he knocks himself out.
"Ugh, I see you picked up that trick from Malikai, fucker always thought that was funny."
"SWEAR!" Ruby exclaims, and a jar almost overflowing with Lien appears seemingly out of nowhere. It even has a tape on it with the words written in all caps 'SWEAR JAR' on the front of it.
"Where were you even keeping that?" Qrow complains as he reluctantly places yet another piece of Lien into the jar. It's best to not complain and refuse, because Ruby would follow you around bugging you about it until you finally gave in, which Qrow knows all too well from 'incidents' of the past.
"Alright, so you're here early. Now what are you doing here? Im sorta training this kid here." Tai points out as he crosses his arms, back to a more sour mood.
"How do you train a blind kid?" Qrow asks with a taunting chuckle, making Kai frown at his attitude.
"This kid can see better than both of us, not to mention his semblance is pretty powerful. If he gets fully trained I have faith that he can be one of the best huntsman in history just based off of his dedication." Tai defends Kai as he walks up to the boy and places his hands on both his shoulders.
"Y-you really think that?" Kai asks, a bit embarrassed at the praise.
"Yes, besides, you beat Yang in a one-on-one. You've earned my respect after that one."
"Hmph." Qrow scratches stubble on his chin, this time with a smirk on his face. When he first arrived earlier that morning, Yang and Ruby greeted him with open arms, and of course Yang had to mention herself getting beaten by a boy fair and square. Which peaked Qrows interest. "Anyway, I was just curious to see what was going on over here, Ruby wouldn't shut up about having a new big brother, and I just had to go see who it was." Qrow says as he turns around on a dime.
"Uncle Qrow! Don't say that!" Ruby hides herself in Qrows cape so that she could hide her now red face resulting from her embarrassment.
"C'mon Ruby, you're the one who wants to learn how to use a scythe." Qrow says with a roll of his eyes as he turns around and walks away. Ruby hanging off his cape as she waves back at Kai and Tai with a smile on her face.
"Well, he was nice, I wonder when he is going to realize that he forgot his alcohol." Kai says as he lets the alcohol fall to the ground.
"Haha, I knew I was gonna like you. We're not done training yet, but since Qrow took a lot of our training time, Im am gonna go get Yang so you can spar with her, but I want you to use only you're water." Tai says as he heads back into the forest back toward the house.
"Okay Tai." Kai says without hesitation, completely fine with sparring with only one element.
"That's another thing I like about you, you're not a complainer!" Tai calls out as he gets out of earshot.
"Heh, guess It just grew on me." Kai says to himself as he steps back beside the river. Relaxing as the soothing sound of the water flowing reach his ears. So that was Qrow? Bit of an oddball, but I'm sure he'll start to warm up to me. I look forward to training with him one of these days.
Kai practices one of his forms, and walks on top of the rivers surface without breaking though. He raises his hands from his sides, and six tendrils of water flows up with him. He puts one hand forward, pointing toward the ground, and one behind him, pointing toward the sky, and three of the tendrils flow the front of him, extending out of the ground and ready to attack anything that may be attacking him. From behind him, the other three tendrils form a wall to defend his blind spot, ready to absorb any attacks in case he is against more than one enemy. But since he is just practicing, he just practices the movements he needs to make in order to make the water move the way he wants it to. The way he can tell that it is working properly, is the smooth usage of his aura as the water flows dances around him. As far as he knows, he and his parents are the only ones that can 'part' of their aura in the way that they use their semblance. Allowing it to leave their bodies so that they can use their semblance as effectively as possible. Of course if he dropped the water the aura would come back to him right away in full. But before he can get too far into practise, he hears someone break through the forest.
"Woah, you can stand on water to?" A voice belonging to none other then Yang asks as she steps onto the shore.
Kai turns around to face them, and greets them with a smile. "You're back already?" He asks as he steps back on to the ground. Now able to sense better with his feet then he was on the water; standing on water heavily muffles his ability to sense the are around him with his feet.
"Yeah, turns out she was already on her way here." Tai says with a shrug as he goes to sit on the rock Kai cut open earlier in his training.
"So, what are the rules of this spar? You said you would tell me when we got here." Yang points out as she stretches her arm across her chest.
"Yeah, you two are going to spar again, but this time Kai can only use water. He needs to learn how to use water for offensive purposes as well as defensive, then he can work on his own to adapt it to his usual fighting style with the rest of his elements." Tai explains.
"Cool! So no more rock tricks to worry about this time around." Yang says with a smile as she punches her fists together.
"Lucky you." Kai says with a friendly smile as he weaves water around himself in the same manner as before.
"You can begin whenever, just stop as soon as someone's aura breaks or someone surrenders." Tai instructs, wisely getting up and getting farther away.
Kai starts off the battle without warning, waving his hand forward and downward in an arc, and one of the tendrils comes down from over his shoulder right at Yang in a stabbing motion. Yang side steps the tendril and shoots her a round at Kai.
Kai ducks down under the blast, and the water catches the round and it harmlessly falls back to the ground behind him. Yang arches her eyebrow as she jumps away from another one of his tendrils. Ranged attacks aren't going to work on him. I wonder how close range attacks will do! Yang excitedly thinks to herself, she smiles as she instead uses the her shotgun blast to launch herself toward the blind boy, lifting herself off the ground as she prepares one of her signature haymakers, that has even more power added to it by the momentum she gave herself.
Kai hears the sound of the shotgun gauntlets going off, and then feels Yang disappears from his seismic sensing. He assumes that she is soaring through the air at a pretty fast speed, and after his short spar with her yesterday afternoon he guess that she is going for a haymaker, and predicts the angle she is coming at him and attempts to counter with one of his other tendrils, but as soon as he starts to move. Yang smiles to herself.
She knew he was going to try something like this, and instead of falling for it like she did before, with the fist she had extended out she fires again, this time hitting Kai in the chest, and at the same time, changing her angle of trajectory. Kai skids across the ground for a short distance before coming to a stop.
Yang shoots up in the air with her left arm when she realizes that she is right above him, launching her right back down toward Kai, bringing her left arm forward with the intention of plunging her fist on the top of his head.
Kai can't react in time to get out of the way of the punch, judging from how close the sound of the firearm seemed to be judging from the sound. So instead he manipulates the water he had behind him and shields himself above his head in one fluent motion. Yangs fist makes contact with the water, heavily weakening the force of the attack even when it breaks through, but still enough to knock Kai off of his feet.
He tumbles along the ground until he stops himself with his water, lifting himself back up and placing him back on his feet just in time to sense Yang coming from his side. He successfully defends the next attack by redirecting the punch with his water, and punches Yang with his water, the water even makes a fist as he does so, landing the oversized fist in her mid section. But Yang doesn't let up, she knows that speed is his weakness after all.
She shoots her weapons behind her once more, and changes directions, she doesn't have much ammo left, but enough to throw Kai's senses off. She appears to be in more then one spot at once, and Kai can't keep up with it.
Tai smiles to himself, proud of his own daughters ability to learn and adapt to an enemy. The last time she showed no such adaptability besides trying to throw his senses off by just launching herself in the air, and was more predictable, he likes this new change of pace.
"Water you doing Kai? Can't keep up with me?" Yang taunts as she believes she has this in the bag.
Kai gives up on trying to pinpoint Yang's location, and using the rest of the aura he has left, he forms a ring around himself, and grits his teeth as he prepares a wide spread attack in a ring around himself. Yang widens her eyes just as she launches herself at Kai one last time, having only one shot left.
"HAA!" Kai shouts as he pushes the ring out fast, his aura flickers and then goes out, the tall grass that the water touches slices right through it. Tai has to duck under this as the attack unintentionally comes his way as well. Yang however, barely had the reaction timing to use her last shot to dodge the attack, launching herself over the water and tackling Kai to the ground. Pinning him down with both his hands above his head.
"You dodged that?" Kai asks, sounding more impressed instead of defeated.
"I got you this time." Yang says as she pushes herself off of Kai, and then offers the same help up Kai gave to her just yesterday. "I got you back, no one beats me and gets away with it."
"Yes, you did. I look forward to facing you again." Kai says, trying to find her hand by waving in the air until Yang just grabs it herself, and then helps him up.
"Yang, good job adapting to Kai's fighting style, I was actually impressed with the way you adopted a more speedy style of fighting yourself, since you usually like to be more aggressive and up front." Tai compliments as he pushes himself back up from the ground. "Kai, despite starting off the fight low on aura. You did great, but what you need to learn is how to dodge instead of relying on your semblance to defend yourself, for heavy hitters like myself and Yang, your semblance might not be enough to defend yourself."
"Okay, I'll try to learn to dodge more." Kai says with a determined nod.
"Good. Now, since you're out of aura, training is going to have to be cut short for today. The rest of the day can be spent resting until you regenerate your aura, help around the house if you want. We can pick this up again tomorrow." Tai says as he picks up all the fish he caught and heads back to the house on his own without another word.
"Well today was fun." Kai says as he faces Yang again. "How has your morning been so far?"
"Eh, like every other morning except you happened to change it up a little."Yang answers with a shrug. "How's my dads training?"
"About three hours of straining my aura. So all in all it was alright." Kai answers with a shrug. Earning a chuckle from the blonde brawler. "Most of today was me trying to pull water out of a tree. I managed to get a bit but then Qrow and Ruby came by."
"Well, good on ya." Yang says, getting embarrassed all of a sudden for an unknown reason.
Kai feels Yang's heart rate rise, and gets concerned. "Yang, is there something wrong?" He asks, noticing both her unusual tone of voice and increased heart rate.
Yang doesn't bother to hide her bashful face, knowing that Kai is blind and can't see it. "No, not really. I was just wondering if you wanted to know what I look like? It would be weird to be living in a house with three people you don't know how they look right?"
"Oh, if you want me to sure. I can tell who you are based on your voice and weight. When I know you long enough, I can even tell who you are by the way you walk. If you're uncomfortable with me touching your face then I don't need to do it, just so you know." Kai explains to Yang, now knowing the source of her stress.
"No no, if you're going to be living with all of us I want you to at least know what I look like." Yang says as she grabs his hands and raises them to her face. "So go ahead… do your thing."
Kai realizes he doesn't have much choice in the matter, unless he wants to get on Yang's bad side. "Okay, just sit still." Kai says as he places his hands on her face.
Her face is warm to the touch, but he just assumes that is because of the spar they just took a part in. Her face is round, like her sisters, but her chin is more round, unlike her younger sisters. Her cheekbones are a bit more defined, and her eyes are round but more sharp. Her lips are soft to the touch, and her hair, oh man her hair is so soft and All in all, Kai thinks that Yang is very beautiful.
He removes his hands from Yang's face, and places them back down where they once were at his sides with a smile on his face.
Yang opens her eyes once Kai's hands leave her face, still a bit embarrassed about what she just let a boy do to her. But less then she would have been if Kai could actually see the way she is blushing.
"Sooo…" Yang trails off, hinting to Kai that she wants to know what he thinks.
"I think you're beautiful." Kai says, blatantly honest with his true thoughts. "Not much to add other then that."
If only Kai could see the redness on Yang's face. But she plays it off well.
"Well, of course you'd think that! I'm the prettiest girl in the world!" Yang exclaims, making Kai chuckle at her antics.
"We should get back now, Im starving." Kai says as he begins walking toward the house himself.
"Eh? You're not going to agree with me?!" Yang complains as she joins Kai.
"I never said that I didn't."
"You never said you did."
"Why is it important?"
"So I can brag about how even a blind person can tell that I'm beautiful. The most beautiful girl on Remnant."
"Maybe one of these days I might."
"Hey! I beat you!"
"And I beat you yesterday, does that mean I am the handsomest guy around?"
"... Shut up."
The rest of the day was spent was spent relaxing, and eating tons of food on Kai's end. I'm glad I ended up with people so accepting and supportive. I look forward to getting to know all of them better. Kai thinks to himself as he walks back outside of the house in the dead of night (11pm give or take). He plans on training his water manipulation for about an extra hour, and then he is going to do physical training by attaching stone weights to his limbs with the purpose of increasing his overall strength and speed. After he is finished with the water manipulation training for the night, he throws it back into the river, and takes off his shirt. He levitates some stone off and out of the ground, and wraps it around his arms and legs, making sure he leaves some areas open to provide some flexibility. Then proceeds to do basic physical training such as push ups, sit ups, running, and pull ups, for pull ups he makes a strong stone bar himself so that it could hold his added weight.
While he is doing this however, a pair of red eyes have an eye on him, a crow with red eyes to be more specific. Kai has no idea that he is being watched and observed for the duration of his training.
When Kai is finished, the stone falls off of his body and he falls back into the grass, panting. He sits up, senses the area to make sure nobody is around, and reaches toward his headband, and unties the knot he has on the back of his head. He keeps his eyes closed and runs a hand up his face and through his hair.
The crow flies onto a closer branch. Only to see that the boy it is observing is heavily scarred around his eyes. But that is not what that bird is there to see.
Kai opens his eyes for the first time in what seems like months to him the sweat that has been bothering him for a while, gets rubbed away by his wrist and forearm, until he finally finishes and removes his forearms away from his face. He feels the air flow around his eyes.
His silver eyes. Eyes that he inherited from his father.
After the crow sees this, it squawks and flies off. Leaving Kai alone back to his privacy. Kai's eyes wander around, surprisingly they still move in sync, not with one looking in a different direction then the other. He looks back down at his hands, imagining to him what hands even look like. He takes a deep breath and stands back up, finished with his nightly training, and ties the headband back around his head and eyes. He just needed to air them out for a bit, since he is very hot and sweaty, some of that sweat got into his eyes.
After cooling down and stretching he uses air to dry himself off and somehow removes the stench along with it. Then manipulates any of the remaining sweat off of his body. Now effectively done with his quick improvised shower, he throws his shirt back on and heads back to the house and into his bedroom, ready to train again in the morning.
AN- Here we are. It took a bit for me to think of how this chapter should have gone, but as you already know, I managed to pull it off.
I don't got much to say this time, since I don't want to accidentally spoil anything.
But I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see ya next time.
Please review and tell me what you think! Any ideas? Concerns? Advice? Please share if you have any!
Disclaimer- I do not own RWBY in any way shape or form.