AN- Here we are to the next chapter of The Blind Huntsman, which I just realized can be abbreviated to TBH. Well… thank you the the reviewers of TBH last chapter!
HaFschu- I'll consider the suggestion for future chapters, most likely during the Signal arc. Thank you for the support.
Jerron- I hope to improve myself in writing with every chapter of every story, I will spend more time editing this story then any of my other ones. So hopefully this one turns out to be the best in terms of quality. Thank you for reading my story.
Dood Whitefang- No need to apologize my friend, I just figured Ruby's innocence would be a good running joke for the story up to a certain point. Thanks for the review.
Nico2411- As I said earlier I strive to become a better writer after every chapter. I am spending more time editing this story then I have on any of my other projects, since this one is blowing up much faster then any of them. To the next thing, plenty more young Rubaby cute moments are coming, so prepare yourself. I like how you look into almost every aspect of this story, makes me feel like I am doing a good job with reining in viewers. Soon this introduction arc will end, most likely this chapter or the next and Signal will begin soon, if Im fast, maybe this week or the next for sure. Thanks for the review!
Aveshetta- Welcome, I believe I covered you in PM's because I didn't to wait until this chapter was posted. But thank you nonetheless for your reviews and suggestion.
If you have an eagle eye, you can see that I removed the OC X Yang pairing, why you ask? For a number of reasons. I have been thinking of all the possibilities of other characters to pair Kai with, such as Ruby, Weiss, of course Yang, hell even Pyrrha, and others you can think of. Since it is still very early in the story and we still have a ways to go before any sort of relationship is set and stone, before it's too late I figured I will let my followers help make the decision for me. I find that way would be the most fair instead of me just choosing and not giving you guys a choice. So if you have any recommendations, feel free to share them. If no one does then I'm probably going to pick one of the sisters.
Well now that is out of the way. Let's get straight to the story!
RWBY: The Blind Huntsman
Chapter 4- Volume 0, episode 2
Flames of determination
The week of water manipulation training went by faster then Kai had expected. In terms of training, he has managed to balance out the abilities of his water manipulation, not by very much, since it has only been a week, but definitely enough to be considered by Tai to be enough to move on to the last stage of his training before attending Signal. Which is going to be his fire manipulation. Now, Kai is much better at using fire as a weapon then almost anything else, second only to his stone manipulation, and even then it is not by much. But in terms of power, fire is the best weapon he has so far.
Besides the training, he has gotten pretty close to everyone he has been living with for the past week. Especially with Ruby, he doesn't know why, but she is just one of the easiest people to get along with, even after his half-faunus half-human heritage has been exposed she accepted it without hesitation and moved on to the next topic. The night before, after his night training he did on his own, he didn't go up the stairs and into his room like so many times before, instead he just plopped down on the couch and goes to sleep in that very spot, trusting the people in the house enough to lay down his whole body on said couch. He falls asleep almost the instant his head touched down on the cushion. He feels excited for his training to follow in the morning, not only because he gets to literally play with fire, but he is just that much closer to becoming an official huntsman in training. He falls asleep with a smile on his face.
The next morning, Kai wakes up after a finger taps him for the seventh time on his forehead. He twitches as he finally moves the tiny hand away from his face. He doesn't even need to put his feet on the ground to know who did that to him. And judging from the barely suppressed giggle, it further confirms it.
"Ruby, was that you?" Kai asks as he sits up in the couch.
"Matsu! You're finally up!" Matsu, the new nickname Ruby has given to Kai for whatever reason, it rolls of the tongue pretty nicely however. Ruby jumps up onto the couch beside Kai, and waits for him to respond.
"You're lucky that nickname is too cute to reject." Kai said as he ruffled her hair, earning a pout and a whine from Ruby as she struggled to push his strong arm away from messing up her hair.
"Stop that!"
"Nope, as Yang says, you're my Rubaby." Kai says with uncontrollable laughter at the nickname that Ruby hates so much.
"Stooooop" Ruby whines out of embarrassment as she buries her face into her knees.
"Glad you're finally up Kai, hope you enjoyed your beauty rest because you're gonna eat this and we are getting straight to training." Tai says as he enters the room, leaning on the against the wall nearest to him. "If I remember from the note correctly, its the second best element you can use right?"
"Yeah, and I can't wait to get started!" Kai exclaims as he gets up from the couch and goes to eat the food that was prepared for himself and house mates.
"Just don't burn the forest down. Or my house, or me or anyone else that lives here. Well maybe Qrow but-"
"Hey! I'm right here a-hole!" Qrow raises his voice as he enters the house himself, he made sure to censor himself so he didn't have to fork over any more Lien to his niece. "And before you get started, I just remembered that I brought a gift for Ruby and Yang."
Before he can even bring the present out from behind him, Ruby is already clutching his arm.
"Aw! Thank you Uncle Qrow!" Ruby exclaims as she hangs from his arm. "What is it? What is it? What is it?" Ruby continues to ask the same question, getting faster and faster with each question.
"Ruby you know I can't understand you when you do that." Qrow says as he prys Ruby off of his arm. "Get your sister from upstairs, and then I'll show you."
Ruby dashes off in a flurry of rose petals as soon as Qrow finishes that last sentence. A thump is heard above them where the sisters room is followed my muffled screaming.
"They seem excited." Kai points out the obvious.
"Yeah, they do seem excited." Tai echoes. "What did you get them?"
"Well… you know how they have been asking for a pet for like, their whole lives?" Qrow asks with a smirk. He twirls the cardboard tube in his hand before taking the cap off, and pointing it to the floor.
"I smell something animalistic coming from that tube." Kai points out as he sniffs the air.
"Qrow… you didn't…" Tai says with surprise, and surprisingly no resentment.
A second later, a black roll of fur falls out of the tube. Everyone stares at the black bundle of fur that doesn't move for several seconds.
"Uh oh, I think he might be unconscious." Qrow says as he nervously scratches the stubbles of hair on his face. "... or dead."
"WHAT?!" Tai exclaims.
Another second later, the bundle of fur makes a popping sound as it transforms into a black and white colored dog. Another second later and it jumps straight onto Kai's Tail and clamps down on it with its small surprisingly sharp teeth.
"AAGHH WHAT IS THIS THING?!" Kai exclaims as he struggles to pry off the terrifying creature from his tail.
"You got them a dog?!" Tai asks as Kai tries to pry the dog off of his tail.
"You got us a dog!?" Yang and Ruby ask as they zoom down the stairs and dogpile Kai on accident as they latch on to the dog and begin to pet it. The dog pants as it enjoys all the attention it is getting, finally letting go of Kai's monkey tail.
"Haaaah..." Kai sighs out of relaxation and satisfaction as after his tail is finally released from the maw of the creature that attacked him. He instinctively wraps the tail around his waist and holds it tight to his body. "Much better."
"Oh my god! Uncle Qrow thank you!" Yang and Ruby exclaim in unison as they jump off of Kai and hug each of Qrows arms, with the dog running circles around them.
"Yeah yeah you're welcome, now please let go of me. No amount of aura can stop you two from cutting off circulation with your hugs." Qrow complains playfully as the two excited girls finally let go of their arms.
"We have to name him! Yang what do you think?" Ruby asks as she picks up the dog from the floor.
"I dunno. Kai what do you think we should name our new dog?" Yang asks as she looks down at the half faunus still on the floor.
"Huh? That creature is a dog?" Kai asks as he pushes himself up from the floor, tucking his tail back into his pants for his own safety.
"Oh yeah, always forget that you can't see." Yang says with a chuckle. "But yeah, new dog. We should name him - it is a him right?"
"Yeah." Qrow nods.
"We should name him."
"W-wait I never said we were keeping him." Tai interrupts, but the death glares from the two girls, and Qrows cocky smirk is enough for him to stand down, and raise his hands in surrender. "O-or not… We can keep him." Tai relents.
"Yes!" Ruby and Yang high five each other for their team up that they 'telepathically' told each other to do.
"Wow, I've never felt you feel fear until now Tai." Kai remarks with a chuckle.
"You don't know what it is like to deny something these two want. To deny them is like signing your own death warrant. Especially with something like this." Tai says with a shudder as he remembers the time he had to give Yang her first haircut, and when he tried to take off Ruby's beloved red hood after wearing it for four weeks straight. Not fun times, either of them. But he recorded both of those moments, to use as ammo for the time they bring anyone over.
"Huh, guess I don't." Kai replies with a shrug.
"Alright, go eat before we start training while you're on an empty stomach." Tai threatens.
"Ah! Okay!" Kai couldn't run faster when he disappeared from his spot in the room and onto a chair in the kitchen.
"You two can play with the dog for today, take the day off." Tai says in his gentle dad voice to his daughters. They don't even respond and dash right back up the stairs and into their room to bond with their new dog.
"Well, now that leaves us, how have you been Tai?" Qrow asks with a flick of his chin toward Tai's direction.
"Oh now you care how I feel?" Tai responds bitterly.
"Alright. Guess being nice isn't going to work for you." Qrow says with a sigh as he takes out his flask. "Got something you need to know, about the blind kid." Qrow says as he walks outside. "C'mere."
"Whatever you have to say about him can be said right here. What is it anyway, you don't like him?" Tai asks as he crosses his arms.
"No, opposite of that actually. Kid's pretty fun to be around." Qrow answers from outside.
"Oh how would you know that?" Tai asks in an annoyed tone as he follows Qrow outside anyway.
What neither of them know, is that Kai listened in on that part of the conversation. He ponders to himself on whether or not he should eavesdrop on them, since the topic is apparently about him, but thinks back on it. Whatever it may be, he trusts the two huntsman he has been training under and living with for the past week. He turns back to his food, and starts to dig right back into it. Not knowing of the threat of the dog getting ready to pounce on him from behind.
Back outside, Tai has just stepped down the stairs, and walks up to Qrow who beckoned him over. "So, gonna answer my question?"
"Kid asked me to train him during the night, I didn't have anything better to do so I said yes." Qrow answers with a shrug.
"Oh, taking another one of my students now?" Tai asks in a deep disappointed tone.
"Tai, c'mon. He was the one who came to me. His exact words were "I want to get faster, Mr Tai is good for teaching me techniques but I need to train my body." So yeah, like I said, I had nothing better to do. Probably going to keep doing it while he attend Signal to. Ruby could use a training partner that's closer to her skill level anyway." Qrow explains.
"Hmph, so what is it that you wanted to tell me, must be important if you're actually sharing it with me."
"Have you seen the kids eyes yet Tai?" Qrow starts off with.
"No, I respect his privacy, and wishes. Why do you ask?"
"Have you ever seen Malikai's eyes?" Qrow asks next, ignoring Tai's question and trying to get him to figure it out himself.
"No, same goes with him. He always wore that headband around his eyes back when we were students at Beacon. Just get to the point Qrow." Tai says as he begins to lose patience with his old partner.
"*Sigh* He has the same eyes as Summer Tai. Geez, I knew you two didn't talk much until recently but the rest of our team knew." Qrow finally reveals.
Tai is too shocked at the revelation to acknowledge Qrow's little quip. "Malikai has silver eyes?" Tai asks in a much quieter voice. "That explains so much…"
"Yeah, and he had a kid. A blind kid, and you'll never guess what color his eyes are."
"How would you even know? He is like his father with that headband of his."
"I... might have... spied on him while he was doing night training by himself... " Qrow shamefully admits.
"Damn it Qrow, we'll talk about that invasion of privacylater. So lemme guess, Kai has silver eyes to?" Tai asks, even though he is sure he already knows the answer the the question.
"Finally, got something right, good job." Qrow says sarcastically as he puts his flask away.
"Yeah yeah screw you to. So how is he ever going to use his eyes if he's blind?"
"I dunno, which is why we need to keep an eye on him. It could go one of three ways; Route A, is that it severely weakens the ability to use his eyes in a fight. Route B, could be that it doesn't work. And route C, could be that it either remains the same and nothing changes, or it makes him even stronger." Qrow explains.
"I could see either A or B happening. I doubt the last one will happen." Tai says with a sad shake of his head. "Of all the people that could have been born with silver eyes…"
"Yeah, my thoughts exactly when I saw his eyes for the first time." Qrow adds.
"So, what are we doing about it?"
"'We'? There is no 'we' Tai, I'll handle this. Hasn't been since you pretty much disowned me as a partner." Qrow bitterly remarks. Tai groans at this, but doesn't push this issue any further. "Just keep training the kid, it may look like favoritism to others but you're gonna need to pay attention him more than pretty much anyone else in the class. Just train him alongside Yang if you have to. I'll do my part, you do yours."
"Fine, this week Im training him with his fire manipulation, he seems pretty excited to go for this training then he was with training his water. Since you know Malikai's fighting style much better than I, what can I expect?"
"Oh, this is rich, Taiyang himself asking me of all people for advice." Qrow says with a laugh as he reaches into his shirt again to grab his flask. "Gonna have to drink to this one."
"Y'know what, I'll figure it out myself. Have fun with whatever the hell you do when nobody's around." Tai says as he turns around and heads back into his house.
"Meh." Qrow mumbles as he takes a swig from his flask. "Ruby! Time to train!" He shouts as he heads toward the makeshift training area he made just for training Ruby.
Not even five seconds later, Ruby comes speeding out of the house, leaving nothing but rose petals behind with an oversized wooden scythe on her back. No one knows how she was able to get it into her room without breaking anything. She almost didn't want to leave the house because of the dog, but training is something she enjoys the most, second only to eating cookies.
"Kai! C'mon I know you don't eat that much." Tai says as he re-enters his house. But his response is the sounds of stuff breaking in the kitchen, and sounds of a dog playfully barking.
Tai takes in a deep breath and prepares himself for seeing the worst. He walks around the corner with his eyes closed, and cracks one open. Only to regret it immediately. The kitchen is a mess, with plates and food scattered on the floor, the table somehow upside down with a chair perfectly balancing itself on one of the legs, the stove fire is somehow still on, Yang is standing off to the side of the mess suppressing laughter the best she can, and finally, someway somehow, Kai has gotten himself latched to the ceiling, using his tail to wrap around one of the wooden beams to keep himself off the ground, and right beneath him is the dog that Qrow had gotten for them.
"... Do I even want to ask?"
"Tai! Please help me, I think there's a Grimm in here." Kai pleads as he snaps his head in the direction the voice is coming from.
Yang loses it right there, bursting out into laughter at the scene in front of her, not able to keep it in any longer for the sake of her father.
The dog barks happily in response and hangs its tongue out of the corner of its mouth. Looking like he did something to be proud of.
"Kai… it's a dog. Have you ever seen a dog before? And how did you even know we had wooden beams up there?" Tai asks two questions out of the dozens of questions he has in his mind.
"I guessed… it worked out though so no biggie?" Kai says as he gingerly begins to lower himself back toward the ground, only to pull himself right back up when he feels a tongue lick his bare foot. "Tai I need help."
Tai, despite the state he just found his kitchen in, begins to laugh along with his daughter. Although much more suppressed than Yangs is.
Tai picks up the dog, and pets it behind the ears. "I picked up the mean monster, you can come down now." Tai says as the dog licks his face.
Kai drops himself to the ground, letting out a breath of air he knew he has been holding in for a while now. "Ah, much better." Kai says under his breath as he regains his seismic sight.
"Great, here Yang." Tai gives the dog to Yang. "Since you laughed so hard at poor Kai's expense, and since Ruby is off training with her uncle, you get to clean all this up."
"What?! I'm not the one who-"
"C'mon Kai, let's get going." Tai interrupts as he pushes Kai forward.
"Uh, okay." Kai runs out of the house, and away from the monster that will forever haunt his thoughts for the next couple of weeks.
"Oh this is just bullshi-" Kai wasn't able to hear that last part since Tai shut the door closed before Yang can finish her exclamation of frustration.
"Alright Kai, we're not going to go as far, but far enough so that you won't burn my house down." Tai says as he begins to walk toward the wide open backyard that he trains Yang in. As Kai follows he can make out what seems to be an unlit campfire, judging by how the rocks are assembled in circle and the lighter material he assumes to be wood to be in the center.
"You said fire is your second best right? How second are we talking here?" Tai says as he kneels down to start the fire.
"Stone is the best in terms of the balance of offense and defense, but flames are just my favorite to use. But I don't get to use it often in fights since fire is not always around." Kai explains.
"Ah, understandable. Malikai told me about that little weakness of your semblance. Luckily I thought ahead." Tai says as he gets up from his kneeling position and tosses the lighter Kai's way, hitting dead on the chest. "Ooooh, I really need to stop forgetting that."
"What is this?" Kai asks as he picks up the square shaped lighter from the ground.
"That's a lighter. Keep that around with you, and you'll always have a way to 'summon' fire." Tai answers.
"Oh wow thanks!" Kai exclaims as he puts his new lighter in his pocket.
"Don't mention it. While you're at Signal you should probably come up with a weapon that lets you utilize your semblance to its fullest besides being stuck with just stone and air for almost all of your fights." Tai proposes.
"Hm, not a bad idea at all, I'll definitely consider the idea that just popped into my mind."
"Good, now show me what you got. The fire seems to be high enough now." Tai instructs, backing away a considerable distance as to not to get caught in the crossfire.
Kai feels the hot air around the flames, and hears the crackling sound it makes, and brings his arm up with his fingers curled up. The flames literally leap from the wood and onto Kai's arms and clothing, somehow not burning his clothes. Tai is concerned at first and almost jumped in to put him out, but once he sees the way Kai is not panicking at all and actually enjoying this immolation, he stops himself. Something he notices right away is the change of color in the flame, going from the usual red-orange to black and white, with white as the center of the flame. Overall it looks both badass and intimidating.
"Did you know that the flames you use change colors when you manipulate them?" Tai asks.
"They do? I mean, I never really saw colors before so I wouldn't know." Kai says as he focuses the flame onto his right arm rather then his whole upper body.
"Do you have to absorb the flames to use them?"
"No, It just looks like I do, at least that's what my mom said." Kai says as he switches arms.
"Hm, go on."
Kai manipulates the fire into all four of his limbs, and firstly kicks out into the air, releasing a rather large beam of black flames straight into the sky, about the size of a small car give or take, then moves on to a mere fire whip, cutting through the air with his right arm diagonally, with flames following his hand until it is released and used like a whip to strike the ground, leaving a precise, scorching hole in the ground. He then jumps into the air and front flips, landing with an axe kick in the ground, followed by a large wall of flame that slams into the ground from above him and leaving a black scorching line of burnt dirt ahead of him.
"That's the best attack I can give you without causing too much damage to the surrounding area. Most of my flame moves are used for a wide area of attack, so it's good against groups of enemies. I need to work on more precision based attacks." Kai explains as he returns the fire to the bundle of wood.
"Hm, gotta say I am pretty impressed with this one. But I can see flaws with the way you move when you use these kinds of attacks. It's too much movement, your enemy won't be letting you do all these special moves so that you can pull of these attacks. Shorten it down a bit, i'm sure you don't to do a front flip for that last attack." Tai chuckles at that last part, making Kai rub the back of his head out of embarrassment. "Also it seems like the reverse of the problem you had with your water manipulation training. You don't seem to have very much defence with fire as you do with offence, you should work on that in case-"
"Um, Tai. Sorry for cutting you off but…" Kai's voice trails off for a moment.
"Oh no, go ahead, if you think i'm wrong then tell me why." Tai insists, actually impressed with the fact that his student is disagreeing with him in a more mature way then he expected.
"I am going to have to disagree with you when you say I should try to use my flames for defensive purposes. In my opinion flame manipulation is not meant for defence, but purely for offence. I have three other elements I could use for defence." Kai explains as his body cool downs. "And if you're worried about me burning my sparring partners, all I have to do is stop when they tell me that they are out of aura, unless they want to be burned that is."
"I get it, and I can see where you're coming from. Now that I think about it you can't really use flames for defence in the first place; bullets and the like would go right through." Tai says as he enters a fighting stance. "I expect you to adapt your flames into your general fighting style. Spar with me using everything at your disposal, just please don't burn down my house."
"Oh, already? How long do you want to go this time?" Kai asks as he enters his own combat stance.
"Since you already know how to use your flames, there's not much to train you on since you don't think you need to use fire defensively. So there's going to be a change of plans this week. Just overall training your style of fighting and your body." Tai pushes off of his leg and launches himself toward Kai with a punch thrusted out ahead of him. Kai barely has the reaction time to dodge the attack and divert Tai's path with a blast of air to push him away from him. "Qrow told me you've been training with him at night." Tai says as he goes right back onto the offensive, forcing Kai to be defensive this time around.
"Eugh?!" Kai makes an incomprehensible groan like a child does when they are caught doing something they are not supposed to. Kai raises a wall of stone in front of him and kicks it forward. But Tai predicted this and jumps right over it, landing with his foot on the top of Kai's head, almost making him fall over but instead he thrusts both of his hands upward into Tai's leg and blasts air into it, making Tai flip too many times to count and land on his back. "I asked him to train me at night so that I can make my body stronger and faster with the time I have left, while you teach me techniques." Kai explains as he pulls the fire away from the wood not too far from him again. "I need to work harder than anyone else in order to become a huntsman, and I am going to be the best yet!" Kai exclaims as he axe kicks the air. Bringing down a wall of black flame that slams into the ground, narrowly missing Tai by a hair when he rolled backwards and jumped to the side.
"There you go Kai." Tai mumbles to himself as he jumps from spot to spot to dodge fireballs. It seems like he doesn't run out of flames once he's got some. Either that or it just takes a while for him to run out. Tai thinks to himself with a smirk as he deflects the next fireball away with an aura empowered hand. But rather then being surprised after feeling his fireball hit the ground harmlessly beside Tai, Kai stomps on the ground and stone wraps around Tai's leg. Catching Tai off guard and temporarily immobilizing him in that one spot. Kai weaves the fire around his body, but something looks different as he does so. As Tai works on pulling his leg out of the stone, he notices that the fire has literally been absorbed by Kai's body, and his body steams as he gets low to the ground with one arm curled up at his side and one arm bent upward in front of him.
Tai breaks the stone trap on his leg, just as Kai thrusts his lowered arm forward with two fingers extended, and a line of compressed black flames that looks more like lightning gets shot his way at speeds even he can barely keep up with. Tai leans back and to the side just in time for the beam of compressed flame to scratch his face, cutting right through his aura and into the trees behind him, piercing several trees and even some rocks before finally coming to a stop. Tai reaches a hand up to his face and feels the burning cut on his face. This kid… has a move like THAT up his sleeve? Tai thinks to himself as he looks back at Kai.
Kai has stood back up, but is noticeably tired and sweating. His silver aura flickers and threatens to go out as Kai gets ready to keep going. "Why are you just standing there?" He asks as the flames leave his body and wraps around his right arm.
"Don't use that attack in spars." Tai demands in a stern voice, effectively calming down Kai from attacking.
"Why? Did I hurt you?" Kai asks, more concerned now then he is determined to continue the fight, the flame disperses from his body and dissappears into the air.
"No, but, that attack cut right through my aura, and I'm still at ninety five percent. That move you just used could have killed me if I didn't dodge it in time." Tai reveals, shocking Kai with the revelation.
"What?! Oh, Im so sorry I didn't know it could be that strong!" Kai exclaims as he jogs over to Tai.
"I thought you said you don't have any precise attacks like that."
"I said that most of my attacks are meant for a wide spread out attack. My dad taught me that move a few weeks before I left. I didn't think it was that deadly." Kai states, looking to the ground feeling guilty for what he almost did.
"Hm, well don't beat yourself up about it. Use that against the Grimm whenever you want, and only use it against people when you absolutely have to. It looks like that move takes a lot aura and energy." Tai says as he pats Kai on the shoulder, making him look back up at him. "Don't think we're done yet. Give me five hundred weighted pushups for almost killing your mentor." Tai orders in a joking way.
Kai smiles and shudders at the thought of having to do what he was told. But he does it without a second thought. He picks up the three metal weights on the ground, each fifty pounds each and ties them to his shoulders and back. Then for even more weight, wraps stone onto his legs. Now barely able to walk, he falls to his knees with a thud, and then falls forward on his hands and gets into a push up position.
"Say Kai, how much do you weigh without all those weights?" Tai asks as he does some work on his scroll regarding his position at Signal.
"I… haven't checked… in a while… but… last time I checked… I was… one-sixty." Kai says through gritted teeth as he continues his workout.
"Hm, alright thanks." Tai says as he types that into his scroll. He has to make a profile of the kids he is personally making a recommendation for, he already did Yang, now he has to do Kai, he already got most of his information from his father, but some things he is going to have to fill in himself, such as weight, height, hair color… eye color, luckily Qrow helped him out with that one. Just the latter was enough for him to be accepted, despite his condition. Even without the headmaster of Signal knowing that he had silver eyes, his skills are enough for him to be accepted.
"Mhm." Kai moans in response as he himself pushes back up.
Night time
After a mostly uneventful day of training, that consisted of sparring, and weight training. Followed by a hefty lunch and a very well needed nap. Qrow kicked the side of Kai's leg lightly to wake him up for his night training.
"C'mon kid, time for your nightly workout." Qrow says with a yawn.
"Mm, my body hurts." Kai mutters as he sits up and rubs his eyes through his headband.
"Did you just rub your eyes though your headband?" Qrow asks, wondering why it didn't hurt him.
"Yeah I do it all the time." Kai answers like it's not a weird thing to do.
"... Okay then, I got some special training for you tonight." Qrow says as Kai does a little wake up stretch. "And a very enthusiastic sparring partner." Qrow finishes.
"Ruby? Oh gosh, why do I feel like I am not going to enjoy this one bit." Kai says as he stands up and follows Qrow out of the house.
"Because chances are you won't." Qrow answers honestly with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Well at least you're honest about it."
"Hah! At least someone appreciates my honestly."
A few minutes later, and they arrive at the makeshift training area, Ruby is waiting patiently on one of the fallen trees, dangling her feet over the side. She hops down once she sees Qrow and Kai appear.
"Hey! You didn't tell me Matsu was coming." Ruby points out as she speeds up to them.
"Yeah well this was an idea I kinda just came up with when I saw Kai sleeping. I was going to let him sleep but this is just too good to let it pass." Qrow responds.
"What was your idea?" Kai and Ruby as in unison, even tilting their heads in opposite directions.
"Ruby, turn around." Qrow instructs, Ruby does so without question. "And no peeking!" Qrow adds as he catches Ruby trying to turn her head just enough so that she could see what is happening behind her.
"Alright, Kai, all you have to do, is not let Ruby take this off of your neck." Qrow explains as he puts a necklace around Kai's neck, with something dangling out in front of his chest.
"What is this?" Kai says as he reaches his hand up to touch what is on the necklace. But Qrow stops him before he can get close enough.
"It's part of the training." Qrow answers, suppressing a chuckle from coming out. "It's to make you used to pinpointing really fast opponents." Qrow continues in a much more serious tone.
"Oh, if you say so. But isn't Ruby a little too fast for me?"
"Use anything at your disposal to prevent her from getting too close. Just don't go all out, this is just to train your reflexes."
"Alright." Kai says with a nod. "I'm ready whenever."
"Good, now you can turn around Ruby." Qrow says to Ruby.
Ruby turns around, and right away locks her eyes on Kai's necklace. The thing that is hanging off of his neck… is a cookie. Her eyes sparkle and a line of drool comes out of the corner of her mouth. "Is… that real?"
"Yep, all you gotta do is grab it. I'll replace it every time you get one." Qrow says as he backs up from the two with a smile on his face.
"Really?!" Ruby asks in an excited voice. Looking like she is getting ready to pounce right onto Kai.
"Yep, you two can start whenever you're ready. Kai, watch your left." Qrow advises as Ruby dashes from her spot in a blink of an eye and is already reaching for the cookie from Kai's left.
Kai leans back just in time just for Ruby's fingers to barely graze the cookie. She groans in indignation as she slides along the ground and almost loses her balance.
"What is this thing?!" Kai asks as he feels the cookie wrapped around his neck.
"Don't touch it!" Ruby exclaims as she dashes toward him again. This time getting her fingers wrapped around the cookie faster then Kai can react. She dashes away again and eats the whole cookie in one bite.
"Good job Ruby, now do it again." Qrow says as he puts another cookie around Kai's neck before he even realizes it.
"What?!" Kai exclaims as he tries to pinpoint Ruby who is moving so fast he can barely feel her feet touching the ground. He narrowly avoids her as she dashes toward his neck once again, but isn't fast enough to avoid the follow up attack, if it could be called one. Ruby once again grabs the cookie and eats it in one bite, and before Kai can react to Qrow, he finds himself to be wearing yet another cookie around his neck.
"B-begin round three!" Qrow exclaims through his laughter.
"How did you even get this around my neck without me noticing?" Kai asks as he feels around for Ruby. "Damn it!" He whisper screams to himself as he barely feels Ruby dashing around him. But then he gets an idea, If I can't sense eher with my feet, maybe I can hear her.
Kai focuses on his hearing more than anything, soon he begins to hear Ruby's cape flapping along behind her, and hears it close in from his right side, he raises his hand and swats away her hand from getting even close to the cookie around his neck. Ruby widens her eyes, but narrows them just has fast. She exhales and jumps off her foot to grab at the necklace again, only for her hand to be dodged this time. The she loses balance and tumbles twice before stopping herself and getting back to her feet. Kai heard her exhale as she lunged at him, and predicted her movements by dodging way before she expected him to.
Qrow arches an eyebrow after seeing this, Huh, Tai was right about his adaptability skills. It will come in handy while facing new opponents. Qrow thinks as he narrows his eyes on the spectacle ahead of him.
Of course, Kai can't last too long avoiding Ruby's constant attacks, and the cookie is taken off of his neck once again. And once again the cookie is eaten in one bite. This time he hears her chomp down on something, and smells the chocolate. Realizing what has been wrapped around his neck three times in a row actually is, he begins to laugh.
"So that's why I keep getting almost strangled to death." He says out loud while turning his head to face Qrow. If only he could see that hysterical state he is in, he just grew abs from laughing so hard.
"A-alright. I know what you're thinking, but look at it like this." Qrow says as he walks over to Kai. "This is to train your reflexes, and look at your progress already, your adaptability skills are really good." Qrow compliments, covering up the fact that the full reason he did this was for his own amusement.
"That was a half truth, but I can see your point." Kai says with a shrug. "How many times are we going to do this?"
"I want more cookies!" Ruby exclaims in the background.
"Until I run out, and by my expert calculations we have about… uh… twenty left." Qrow says after he quickly counted the cookies in the little bag in his shirt.
"Well at least this is fun." Kai says as another cookie is tied to his necklace.
"It's not going to be after the next few, I can promise you that." As soon as Qrow jumps away, Ruby goes right back into the action.
Kai and Ruby continue the constant back and forth close calls they have for the next two hours. Over time Kai was able to adapt more and more to Ruby's speed and the way she moves. Not by any means able to keep up with her, but more of just predicting her mostly linear movements enough to act accordingly. Even this required thinking going at the speed of light as he avoided Ruby for as long as possible with each cookie. His record is lasting twenty minutes before he finally messed up and Ruby got the drop on him. After the last cookie was taken from his neck, he fell backwards in a mess of sweat and soreness.
"Hah… hah… never again." He says between deep breath.
"That was fun Matsu! Let's do it again tomorrow!" Ruby exclaims, barely winded at all despite working herself to the limits.
"Sleep first, play later." Kai replies tiredly as he tries to fall asleep right there.
"Alright, I think he has had enough. You two get some rest, I'll talk to Tai about giving you an extra hour of sleep tonight Kai." Qrow says as he picks Kai up from the ground and carries him over his shoulder.
"Mm." Is all the half asleep blind boy can respond with.
"There there Matsu." Ruby comforts him by gently slapping his face as it dangles behind Qrow's back.
~Five minutes later~
"Hope you ate because I am not a good cook." Qrow said as he placed Kai down on the couch where he was before he kicked him awake. Meanwhile Ruby goes upstairs and into her own room.
"Mhm." Kai moans as he moves to lay on his side, now about eighty percent asleep.
"Yeah I feel the same way." Qrow says as he sits down on one of the chairs in the living room. He has designated this chair as his sleeping chair, much to Tai's dismay.
"Qrow…" Kai calls out, turning his body to the edge of the couch.
"Hm?"
"Why do you and Tai hate each other?" Kai asks hesitantly and groggily.
The question catches Qrow off guard somewhat, and he takes out the picture that he has kept with him for so long, a picture of his old team. He smiles at the memories of all the adventures they had together.
"We don't hate each other kid." Qrow begins. "Just… a lot of things happened to make Tai pretty distant from me, and it's not entirely his fault, mostly it's mine and my sisters. The team just couldn't stay together and well, one thing lead to another and before I realized it, Tai despised every fiber of my being." Qrow answers sadly, he begins to remember the sad things that happened that lead to it, but he doesn't intend to reveal those anytime soon.
"Have you talked to each other about it?" Kai asks next.
Qrow looks to Kai, and scoffs. "It's not something that is easy to bring up kid. Just get some rest, I understand your concern but just leave it to us to handle."
"...Okay." Kai relents, turning his body back around and falling asleep on the surprisingly comfortable couch, his tail leaving his pants and hanging limpy over the side of the couch.
Qrow puts the picture away, and leans back in his chair. "Hmph, damn kid making me hope for some good luck." Qrow mumbles as he lets sleep overtake his body.
AN- And there we go, finally done. This one took a couple of days to think up, I didn't want to be repetitive and have another chapter dedicated to just training a certain element and then ending it off with another spar against Yang. So I decided to make this one a mixture of fluff, humor, and plot building. Hope you guys enjoyed this one.
Please review and tell me what you think of the story so far! Anything you have to say I am all ears to, and as always, thank you for reading my story!
Disclaimer- I do not own RWBY in any way shape or form.