Here we are again with another chapter of this wonderful story. To think that we are up to chapter 42 and barely into Beacon honestly surprises me. I don't know how I did it, but now I got some more to get through. More plots to set up, more crazy Cinder to write! Just think of the possibilities…
Dracus6: Once I finish some of the stories I have already started writing, I'll think about starting a new one like that.
Bolticronic: I don't mean to be rude by correcting you here, Cinder wants the baby captured, not killed. Salem's orders wants all silver eyed warriors captured if possible. Marron is the one that is in danger of Mercury's assassin skills.
Oblivious IJ: I don't know whether I should be proud or terrified of the fact that I pretty much started a cult revolving around my name. I'm proud of course, there wouldn't be any other way to take it. I need more members!
MrSlendy69: You must be a Unlikely Hero reader, I am assuming of course. We'll see what happens to Mercury in this story.
Arctech: You've never been an ass to me, don't worry! I am just happy to have you here reviewing my stories! When I am not busy, I will try to get a good read into that Wolf in Shepherd's clothing you told me about before. I am a great fan of the Mass Effect series, so I suppose I should give the fanfiction fandom a bit of attention as well.
Thank you all for the reviews!
Beta: CrowSkull
Now let us get right back into the story!
The Blind Huntsman
Chapter 42- Volume 1, Episode 9
A Regular Day
Once again, Kai found himself sitting at a desk in a classroom. Fingers tapping against the wood and keeping a clam pattern of inhales and exhales. He was focusing on his hearing more than anything, since the obvious being that he could not see or write what he was listening to, he had to commit the professors words to memory. Also once again, it seemed like his teammates have already created a pattern in which to sit in. Orchid and Ruby to his right in that order, with Blake on his left. Team RWBY, the one with Yang and Brick in it. Still, it was hard not to think of that team and imagine Ruby herself in it. He felt like she deserved the leader position more than he did anyway.
The conversation he had with the headmaster earlier that day along with the lesson professor Port instilled onto him the hour before was admittedly clouding whatever the teacher was trying to teach. He already knew a lot about the Grimm because of the… questionable people he has trained with, so he knew most of their weaknesses and strengths, so Grimm Studies shouldn't be such a difficult class to get through, especially with the help he was without a fragment of a doubt going to get from his teammates.
Now he was in a Remnant History class, a subject he honestly did not have all too much experience with. During his years at Signal he had a choice to either take a history class, or take more practical lessons. And after what happened in Mistral, all he could think about was getting stronger than Cinder and her forces. Now he was regretting it, because professor-
"Doctor Oobleck!" The apparent doctor corrected a different student down his row, making him momentarily think that he knew what he was thinking about at that moment. "And to answer your question, yes. Dust is what ancient civilizations believed we originally came from, and Dust is also what we used to combat the forced of Grimm when the concept of a weaponized manifestation of one's soul was undiscovered. But that is another topic for later in this semester." Something slapped into the man's hand, Kai assumed it to be some kind of long straight edged stick used to measure things. A tool useless to him, but curiously he thought about what function the prof- Doctor had in mind for such a tool.
"For right now, we are going to be focusing on the Great war, the most recent and last war humanity has ever fought against one another." Another slap of the ruler into his hand woke Kai up. "Can anyone tell me why a war on such a massive scale was fought?"
Kai sensed a hand near him go up, surprising him as he knew instantly who it was.
"Miss Belladonna!" Oobleck exclaimed as he suddenly appeared in front of his partner. What was with these Huntsman and their incredible speeds? He could barely keep up with their pace as it was. "It is so great to see a student so enthusiastic to answer one of my questions on the first day! Marvelous, simply marvelous. Tell me, what do you think is the answer?"
Blake blinked once as she took in the brunt of what the teacher was probably going to be like for the rest of their time here at Beacon. But her hand slowly curled back down to rest on top of her other hand on top of her desk.
"The Great War was fought because-"
"You can do it Blake!" Orchid and Ruby cheered suddenly, startling Blake slightly as she was cut off from speaking.
"Quite." Oobleck didn't even seemed phased by their interruption, and if he was he hid it well. Kai couldn't sense anything from the man besides a rapidly beating heart and the stench of coffee coming out of his mouth, nose, and for some reason his armpits as well.
"T-the Great War was fought over individualism, and and self-expression. Conflict arose from Humans and subjugated faunus which sparked the faunus rights revolution." Blake recited, impressing Kai with her knowledge of the history of the faunus. That impression went away when he remembered what exactly she was before her decision to become a Huntress. He kept silent about it, but readied himself for any further revelations on her knowledge of faunus subjugation and general history of Remnant.
"A textbook answer," Oobleck said with a pleased smile, Blake simply shrugged her shoulders in response. "But not inaccurate in the slightest. Although some people in this world believe the war was sparked over another reason, some believe it was us humans who started the war, while others believe that it was the faunus who deserved such blame." He moved away right when Blake and a few open faunus narrowed their eyes at him. "I for one however, believe that it was the misguided actions of both races which lead to a war that caused the deaths of thousands of people."
"Tch," A student in the crowd made a sound of annoyance, Kai only heard it because everyone else was silent, but he didn't seem to be the only one as he sensed the teacher appear in front of said student.
"Mister Winchester," Kai perked up. It was Cardin of all people? He hasn't spoken to him in over a year, he has tried to become his friend but ultimately was pushed away because of his disgust for faunus. He had his moments with him, but eventually gave up and deemed him as a lost cause. But it seemed like that wasn't going to be the last time he was going to meet with that boy and from what his senses was telling him Sky was there as well, as well as two other boys he was not familiar with. He was never close with any of them, but they were his comrades all the same and he trusted them to fight by his side whenever he needed them to, and he would do the same for them. They all fought when Mistral was attacked after all. He stayed quiet as the professor-doctor continued. "Is there anything you would like to say? Do not worry, this classroom is open for those to express their thoughts, and I will not tolerate any student degrading another for having an opinion." His warning couldn't be more obvious, and Kai sighed as he figured out what was coming already.
"I think those filthy animals you call 'faunus' were the ones who started everything." Cardin sneered. "I mean, think about it. They got the equality they wanted, and a whole damn island to sit on. Yet they still formed the White Fang, and they still went violent."
Oobleck frowned at his words, as did Kai and just about every other faunus in that classroom. Even some humans were disappointed in their fellow kin. This was a school for promising Huntsman and Huntresses and to see that one of their own seemed to be a devoted bigot did not fill any of them with confidence.
"Of course you would think that," Blake spoke up again, narrowing her amber colored eyes toward the bulky boy. "You're a Winchester, a descendant of the general who failed to win the important battles needed to win the war for the humans." Lots of `Ooo's` and `Ah's` followed after that, and Kai himself couldn't help but snicker. "If you really knew what the faunus are going through, even after the war where they won their so called 'equality' you wouldn't dare speak out and claim that w- they have it easy."
Cardin only rolled his eyes, not caring about what others think about him already. Though the mentioning of his great grandfather did make him growl. "Oh please, faunus sympathizers like you are only into it for the reputation it comes with. I don't need to listen or take in anything you have to say. Humans and faunus are never going to see each other as equals whether or not you speak out."
"If faunus and humans truly didn't have any hope for equality then how do you explain the Outcrosses around the world?" Blake smirked at him tauntingly. Kai perked up ever so slightly, since he is the culmination of a human and faunus himself. "I wouldn't imagine you even know what that means since you seem to have more stones for brains than anything."
Cardin slammed his hands down on his desk and rose angrily. "You little bit-"
"That is enough!" Doctor Oobleck shouted over both of them, making them both flinch and simmer down immediately as they gave their teacher their undivided attention. "I will not have such arguments in my classroom, in fact. Both of you may stay after this class is over so that I may have a word with you two."
"B-but-" Cardin flinched as the professor slapped his ruler into his hand again.
"Another word from either of you and perhaps I'll give you something to work on together." It wasn't a threat, but a promise, and all the whole classroom knew that. "No more words? Good. Now, I know that the vast majority of humans and faunus have never had a proper healthy relationship throughout nearly all of history. Only uniting when the forces of Grimm became a bigger threat and after they were dealt with they would just go back to fighting each other. Over and over the cycle went, but after the Great War, the Huntsman Academies were established. This is a rather easy question, but who here knows the names of all four of the major Huntsman Academies that were established across the world?"
"I do!" Ruby exclaimed, hand rising in the air faster than most people could blink before anyone else could.
"Ah, Miss Rose! Another member of Team KRBR, tell me. What is the answer?"
"Hm… lets see here." Ruby sat back down to think. Orchid whispered something to her as she covered her mouth so obviously it actually made Oobleck laugh out of amusement at their display of teamwork. "Beacon,"
"That's one."
Orchid leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms proudly.
"Atlas, Shade, and Haven." Ruby listed off, using her fingers to count all four names and smiling when she counts all the way to four. Truly, it was a great achievement.
"That would be all correct. Good job Miss Rose." Ruby preened heavily under the teachers praise, though for a nut like her if she didn't know the names of all the schools that would have honestly surprised him. This was Ruby after all, the girl who spent half of the hours in her life drooling over weapons and training to become a Huntress. Kinda like Kai, but two years younger and a lot smarter than him when it came to weapon maintenance. If Silver Ebony wasn't made out of the perfect material, it would have broken a dozen times before.
The rest of the class went on without much issue, somewhere in the halfway point of the class the teacher gave him a packet of work to do. Said work was memorizing what he was supposed to read via braille and being quizzed on his knowledge of the great war next week on the same day. He started working on it right away, reading braille was a careful process. He had to trail his fingers all over the nubs and make out every individual letter and combine them all together to form a word. It went on like that for about two hours until class was finally over. Blake had to stay behind as she was told to, Cardin had to as well. Kai tried to speak to Cardin once again, but he went steadfastly ignored as the larger teen stepped right back into the classroom.
It disappointed him, sure, but he was used to it by now. "I don't want to leave Blake behind." Orchid said as she wiped away a tear that suddenly shot out of her eye. "She was so young and held so much potential…"
"We're not leaving her behind Orchid." Kai said with a soft amused shake of his head.
"Yeah, we're just going to wait for her to finish up whatever Professor-"
"Doctor!" Oobleck shouted from the classroom.
Ruby flinched. "D-Doctor Oobleck has set of for her and Cardin." She said, swallowing as she slowly slid down the wall.
Kai and Orchid slid down with her, by the sounds of things. It wasn't going to take any small amount of minutes. Thankfully, their next class was in an hour, so they ran almost no risk of missing next class, which was just going to be a combat class with Miss Goodwitch. It was strange that in a school full of hundred of students, the only professors he has ever known of here was Glynda Goodwitch, Peter Port, Bartholomew Oobleck and the Headmaster, Ozpin. There was probably more teachers set up and dedicated to the upper years, because there is just no way that the same four people would teach every class there was to come in the next four years and however many years they have all been working there so far.
"Okay!" Orchid said happily, sitting up straight and wrapping an arm around both Ruby and Kai who were sat on either side of her. "How do you think the others are holding up?"
"Anyone in specific?" Kai asked, not meaning for it to sound like a tease and Orchid didn't take it that way.
"Uh… how about the twins?" Orchid suggested. "We haven't seen them in a while."
"We saw them at Breakfast… and yesterday." Ruby pointed out.
"Oh, okay miss smarty pants, be that way." Orchid huffed, and authoritatively removed her arm from around Ruby's shoulders and crossed it across her chest just underneath her breasts. "The poor Violets must be so lonely." She fake cried.
"They each have teams of their own, you know." Kai pointed out.
Orchid than removed her arm authoritatively and fulfilled the crossing gesture of her arms. "The Flamingo Goddess mustn't take these harsh words from either of your mortals."
The `Flamingo Goddess` could only pout as Kai and Ruby broke into soft laughter.
Brick yawned for what felt like the tenth time that morning as he rested his head on his arms, leaning on the lunch table for support. Knowing him, it probably actually was the tenth time, that hour.
"You wouldn't be so tired if you got the full eight hours of sleep you should have gotten." Weiss hissed as she elegantly ate her own lunch. A salad with a blue dressing on it with a side of porridge. The complete opposite of the heavy amount of meat Yang had in her bowl which put Ren's average meal of macaroni and cheese to shame.
"But I had to." Brick groaned through his mashed potatoes. Face halfway pressed into the meal.
"You did not have to run to your aunt for a uniform you did not need."
"C'mon Weiss-cream," Yang said, ignoring the glare she got from the heiress as she turned to look to her. "Leave the kid alone, he's a growing boy and he needs his nutrients."
"More like he belongs in a school meant for younger children." Weiss muttered as she reached over and drank from a cup of water in the must condescending way possible.
"If he is younger than the rest of us and already in Beacon that must speak volumes for his skill." Ren pointed out, earning a betrayed yet surprised look from Weiss. "As does his brother, you two are both sixteen am I correct?" He asked Brick.
Brick leaned back from his mashed potatoes, red eyes gleaming and no longer bloodshot suddenly as he reared back with a face half full of mashed potatoes which was slowly falling off bit by bit as gravity took hold. "Yup! Sixteen years old, and we're going to be the second youngest Huntsman to ever walk Remnant!"
"Second?" Weiss asked, sharing her confusion with her leader.
"My lil sis Ruby is fifteen." Yang said with a mouthful of food. "So she is the youngest to ever attend Beacon so far."
"Fifteen!?" Weiss not so accidentally shrieked as she coughed on her drink. For a moment the entire cafeteria was silent, not that it did anything to make Weiss Schnee of all people shy away from continuing her rant. "This must be a mistake, there is no way that the headmaster would even consider allowing a fifteen year old come into Beacon two years than anyone else, at least my partner is sixteen and has the exceptional skill and knowledge to be able to be applied, he is acceptable with the bare minimum already acquired.
"Gee, thanks." Brick rolled his eyes at the way she managed to compliment and insult him at the same time.
"Whoa there, what makes you think my sister isn't good enough for this school?" Yang asked, getting defensive of her little sister and even taking some of the offense herself. She would not sit back and let this privileged girl talk smack about her family while she could say anything about it. "She's here, isn't she?"
"She shouldn't be. No wonder she nearly died half a dozen times in initiation, she is a child playing an adult game." Weiss snapped back.
"Yeah? At least she was actually able to get along with her partner."
"Irrelevant! Those two have known each other for years prior they so much have said it to everyone themselves!"
"Uh…" Brick leaned away from the ticking time bomb he knew Yang was and Weiss at the same time, looking to Ren for help from out the corner of his eye. The pink eyed young man simply sat there, unknowing of what to do or say in order to stop the blonde and the Schnee from going at it. There was only so much he could be able to fix all on his own.
Luckily, he didn't have to.
"Renny!" A pair of arms wrapped around his shoulders, the familiar voice being that of his childhood friend Nora. The ginger cooed happily as she rocked him side to side, her chin resting on top of his head with a goofy grin on her face.
Apparently, that was enough to distract Yang and Weiss to the point where their sparking argument was forgotten to the surprise entrance, and if that wasn't enough, Brick's twin Rick jumped over and hugged him from the side as well. It went ignored how the brothers nearly brought themselves to weep just because they hadn't seen each other in not even a full day. Though the amusement was shown on Pyrrha's face as she sat across from the twins beside her leader blonde leader Jaune who couldn't quite keep his eyes off of Weiss.
"How has the first day been for you guys so far?" Rick asked as he stole one of Brick's french fried, the latter retaliating by stealing on of Rick's sweet potato fries. The cycle went on like that for about ten seconds before someone thought to answer his question.
"It is going quite well, thankfully." Ren answered for his team, getting an approving nod out of each of them. Internally, Ren was having anything but a difficult job taking care to keep all of his teammates happy. First there was Weiss' unspoken envy of him being the leader of Team RWBY, Bricks Nora-like tendencies were rather easy to deal with because of his experience, and although his love for his brother was heartwarming he couldn't help but think about how that might disturb the balance of his own team in ways that was similar for his worry with Yang. She had a little sister that she completely and truly adored over anything else in the world, and would do anything to keep her safe. She keeps saying that she is happy that Ruby got a team of her own with Kai, someone she trusts implicitly as her leader along with Orchid Rosa, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to try and speak with her whenever she could, even though that he was her partner and that they were meant to work with each other on almost anything.
Not to mention her ludicrous amount of puns that she can make at any given moment, and also the fact that she takes about half an hour to take a shower in the morning. And of course there was the case of Brick using him as a reference point to draw some girl for fun.
The memory made him groan just thinking about it.
Not that he would say any of that stuff out loud of course, he wouldn't bring up the problem until it got to serious conditions. If he did so now, that would only bring even more discord to his team and he did not feel like dealing with that so early on in their first year.
"It's been a nightmare so far," The blonde one who was fortunate and unfortunate enough to have Nora as a partner groaned, Jaune he believed his name was did not seem to share his thoughts in keeping the true situation of things to himself. "The work is piling up already and I don't even want to think about me trying to wake up my team in the morning."
Rick snorted while Pyrrha stifled her giggles with one of her hands. Nora's smile took a sharper edge as she swapped her arms to Jaune's shoulders and squeezed them lightly.
"It's not my fault you got a little frisky with me Jauney~" Nora cooed into his ear, causing the young boy of raging hormones to blush madly and push himself away from her.
"I-I already told you! It wasn't like that!" Jaune claimed, waving his hands no in front of his face as Nora promptly plopped down in the spot between Ren and Jaune that was much too small. Not that she cared anyway, she has always been the affectionate touchy type.
"If there is a story to this, I have to know." Yang said with the kind of grin that suggested blackmail stockpiling was already in progression. Brick leaned in on his elbows to listen to whatever story was about to begin, while Rick leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, willing to watch the whole thing unfold before him. Ren couldn't lie and say that he wasn't at all interested to know the story that apparently lead to the implication that Jaune had groped his childhood friend. If that was the actual case however, he may need to have a talk with the blonde on privacy and how not to take Nora seriously at the best of times.
"Okay so, I woke up and found mister blondey over here all snuggled up in my big Badonkadonks-" Ren slowly reached for his weapons as Nora spoke.
"I was trying to wake you up!" Ren slowly pulled his hands away from his weapons as Jaune cut her off. "You pulled me into your bed when I tried shaking you awake, and then threw me away when Pyrrha caught us!"
Ah… that sounded like something Nora would do.
"It was quite the experience." Pyrrha said between giggles, unable to keep them in any longer and bursting into small fits of laughter. "I thought the worst right away, thinking that I may have caught them in the act."
Jaune's head slumped onto the table and he hid himself from view. "Thanks Pyrrha…" He groaned.
"So yeah, that's how our morning went," Nora leaned on Jaune's shoulder as he regarded everyone else. "What about you guys? Anything special happen?"
"I got my aunt to make me a new suit!" Brick exclaimed, standing up and showing his customly designed red long sleeved top over the rest of his Beacon clothes.
"Oh hey, so did I!" Rick said next as he to stood up and showed off his own clothing, lacking the suit coat entirely and rocking just an electric blue vest over a white dress shirt.
"I know, we went there at the same time dumbo." Brick pointed out.
"Oh hey you know what? Shut up." Rick replied with a smile on his face.
Nora then gasped dramatically as she looked at the two standing side by side, cutting off everyone before they could share their thoughts as she stood up slowly and went around the table. Eyes wide and mouth just as open as she placed a hand on both of their shoulders.
"I remember you two!" Nora suddenly cried out emotionally. "Ren! These are the lightning boys I told you about! Remember them?"
"I was there." Ren said with an amused smirk on his face. "You introduced them to me after your triple threat match two years ago."
"I know right!?"
"You forgot about us?" Brick asked, horrified.
"We'd never forget you!" Rick added. The two of them would never be able to forget the ginger haired girl that took their most powerful attack, absorbed it, and then made them submit. They even made a pact to meet up at Beacon once they got out of Mistral, and after two years Rick and Brick approached Nora about it, and she went along with them as if she has known them her whole life.
"What am I watching?" Weiss asked as Nora and the Violet twins hugged each other in one big group hug. Weiss inches away so far that she was almost a part of Yang with the amount of times that she bumped into her and growled for her to move each and every time. If Yang wasn't so amused at the time she would have already snapped at the heiress as second time.
"I think they all just remembered each other at the same time." Yang said with a shrug. After dealing with a prodigy blind guy, the knowledge of an ancient warrior race her sister is apparently a part of, and Orchid for more than two years. The fact that Rick and Brick suddenly saw Nora as some kind of Goddess that they apparently met in the tournament was not too surprising in the slightest.
...
Something about all of that made her slightly worry for her own mental health.
Blake stepped out of Ooblecks classroom ten minutes before the start of her next class. She was annoyed that she was kept in there for that long, but accepted it because the argument that she and Cardin were allowed to have in his presence got a little heated. Things were said, ideals clashed with ideals, and after tiring themselves out mentally and emotionally they went their separate ways without saying another word to each other.
She was however surprised to see that her team waited for her the entire time. Right as she rounded the corner, two sets of eyes turned to look at her. One magenta and the other silver, before the one with the blindfold turned to face her as well. Ruby and Orchid hopped up to go meet with her, and Kai followed them once they caught up with her.
"Hey Blake! You came just in time, we have combat class to attend!" Ruby cheered as she hopped in place in front of her, absolute excitement being shown in her expression and demeanor.
"You… waited for me?" Blake couldn't help but ask.
"Of course we did silly!" Orchid said as she playfully punched her in the shoulder. "We're teammates! That's what we gotta do for each other."
"I didn't want to leave you behind." Kai said once he stepped up from beside Orchid. "So c'mon, we already missed lunch but I sent Ruby to get us some food while we waited." He tossed her a sandwich, a meal in which she drooled over once she saw what was inside. "Wouldn't want to be late on the first day now do we?" He asked as he started walking away, Ruby and Orchid were quick to follow. They must have eaten while they waited for her, and even got a meal for her as well.
Blake quickly chased after them and caught up as she stuck the sandwich into her mouth, her taste buds were assaulted by the fishy taste of tuna and whatever dressing that was put on. She wasn't used to such actions of comradery, her time in the White Fang had come with the necessity to work together with their allies. But for this to happen so soon?
Maybe Beacon wasn't such a bad idea after all… It was a great one. She thought to herself as she joined in there group conversation for the first time that day. Speaking about how classes are like so far and what she was doing in Ooblecks class after he called for her and Cardin to stay behind with him. They took the news rather well surprisingly, less surprisingly with Kai of course, who listened to the whole thing with a rather amused smile on his face. Ruby and Orchid on the other hand only seemed to want to know more about it, to know more about what she thought and why Cardin thought the opposite.
She left out the parts that she would rather have kept private of course, but she gave them what they wanted to know nonetheless.
In the midst of their screaming at each other insults and their own reasons for why they feel the way they do, with Blake keeping her true origins secret under great restraint, Cardin actually slipped up about a bad experience he had with the White Fang, calling them monsters for becoming violent and killing an innocent little girl who just happened to be human. After that, he went quiet, and Blake couldn't find it within herself to keep going. Oobleck told them that the lesson that was supposed to be taught in that moment was that everyone has a reason for thinking what they think, and she couldn't feel more stupid at that time. She kept the part about the little girl to herself for obvious reason, however a bigot Cardin was, she wasn't about to go spreading his secrets.
Before they even realized it, Kai brought them to where they were supposed to go, and failed to completely hide himself from `whooping` for managing to remember the path from Mister Ooblecks class to Miss Goodwitch's class without making a mistake. Blake found it amusing and decided to keep it to herself for the meantime as she sat down in her seat.
"Students." With just a single word the teacher known as Glynda Goodwitch silenced the entire hall. Brick and Rick whimpered and shrunk in on themselves as their aunt's green eyes roamed over them. Once every mouth was shut and the hall silent, the professor continued. "Today we will be holding introductory sparring sessions that will serve as both an introduction to the rules and structure of Beacon, but also a chance for some demonstrations. As such, the leader of each team shall select a member of their team to participate and only the ones chosen shall be allowed to spar today. I will also have you know that I will be watching these matches with a close eye. This is not a game, treat it as such and you will be punished thoroughly. Understand?"
A few muttered yes' from the leaders of each team, the loudest of them all being Rick and Brick Violet despite them not being the leaders of their own respective teams.
"Good. I will give you the leaders of each team two minutes to decide who to send in. Starting now."
"Pick me!" Ruby and Orchid begged at the same time while Blake simply stayed silent. Kai was pushed back slightly as the two girls nearly got into his face. If he could see he would imagine that he would be seeing the puppy yes Taiyang once said he couldn't resist against whenever Ruby wanted something she didn't really need.
"I…" Kai hesitated, since he was the leader he would have to make this decision obviously. He knew that they were both capable of fighting on an elite level like himself. He trained Ruby himself after all, or at the very least made her much stronger than she was a few months ago. Orchid has always been a wildcard, sometimes she would lose quickly and others she would dominate her opponent. It really depended on what personality she was in at the moment. Every personality had their own set of skills and fighting style, and not all of them revolved around a great sword, dual curved long swords or a single blade. Some relied on using their fists as weapons, others didn't want to fight at all. Then there was Blake, someone he knew could fight and could do it very well, she was also the only one other than himself and possibly Orchid who has real combat experience against someone trying to kill you. It was a hard decision to make, and it got even harder as a minute ticked by.
"What if I want to select myself as my champion?" A boy asked, Cardin Winchester he recognized the voice as. Of course it was him, who else would it have been?
"If you so wish to do so, team leaders are allowed to select themselves to spar today." Glynda answered with a nod toward the whole class, who suddenly grew much louder as they deliberated on what they should do.
Kai had to think extra hard to himself now with what he should do. Pyrrha was definitely going to be picked from JNPR without even a fraction of a doubt in his mind, and he would assume that it was either Brick or Yang from Team RWBY, which out of all of his friends left only his own Team KRBR. Ruby and Orchid were left still waiting for his answer, and he could sense Blake shift slightly to look at him with a curious eye, wondering about what he was going to do now that it was revealed that he could choose himself.
Time seemed to slow slightly as the seconds ticked by, Kai took a deep breath as his thoughts strayed to a much more serious topic. Ozpin. The man was no doubt going to take every action of his and commit them to memory, that was just how he was. How he was warned to be wary of him. If he chose himself, that was just more training that the headmaster was going to put on him. Yet if he didn't choose himself, Ozpin might just get onto him anyway.
Damned if I do and damned if I don't… Clever old man. Kai thought to himself as he came to a decision.
He smiled at his fellow silver eyed warrior.
"You can have a go for our first day Ruby." Kai said to the hooded girl, who cheered happily as Orchid muttered something about him needing to earn her forgiveness after this.
The choice was difficult, but if he selected Orchid or Blake like he wanted to then Ozpin would have known somehow that he was trying to avoid being seen fight in front of the headmaster. He didn't want him to know how good (or bad) he actually was, since that might make the headmaster try to pursue a different silver eyed warrior to influence. Ruby was the safest option, since it was well known that he cared for her and that this could easily be passed off as him falling for her cute begging, even if he could only hear it and not see it.
"Has every leader selected a fighter?" Glynda asked as the two minutes ran out. No one dared to say no to her and those who didn't select a member either chose themselves or a random person on their team to fight in their stead. "Good. Now, can the selected member from Team KRBR and Team RWBY please prepare for your bout and come down to the stage."
Ruby exited the locker room after a single minute and hopped into the stage with a huff. Most of the crowd widened their eyes in surprise at the sight of her choice of weapon. A large red and black scythe with a silvery blade which stood even taller than she was. Kai felt amused as he thought what their reactions would be when they see that it was also a sniper rifle at the same time.
Kai couldn't tell who the member from Team RWBY was, but it was easy to distinguish that it was Weiss just by the way she huffed and flicked her lopsided ponytail over her shoulder. He leaned back and focused his senses on the vibrations he felt within the world around him, Orchid noticed this and chose not to bother him. Instead leaning forward on her elbows and cheering on her partner. Blake… wasn't paying as much attention, Kai noticed. She was more focused on whatever thing she was holding in her hands at the time. He let her have that moment, but silently promised to make her fight next time if he had the option to choose someone from his own team again in the future.
"Yeah, go Ruby!" Orchid shouted over the silent crowd.
Ruby beamed up at her partner, and Weiss tried to hide the subtle gesture of her looking toward her own team to see if they were going to cheer for her as well. Ren gave her a smile and a nod, Yang gave her a thumbs up, and Brick was asleep again.
Weiss sighed irritably and shook her head. She couldn't make a scene here, Schnee's did not make scenes of anything. It didn't matter if she wasn't going to get the spoken well wishes of her teammates, she was used to doing things on her own anyway. At least she would be able to put down the child that was Ruby Rose. No fifteen year old should be allowed to attend the greatest Huntsman Academy on Remnant anyway, she had to be made an example of and maybe the headmaster will see that she is not ready and remove her from the school for her own sake.
"The battle will continue until one of your aura goes into the red or forfeit. If there is any foul play the match will be called off and you will get detention. Understanding this, are the two of you ready to begin?" Glynda asked, looking back and forth between Weiss and Ruby and rose a hand when they both declared themselves ready to go.
"Begin!" Glynda began the match with a cut of her hand as she jumped out from in between the two girls. She hopped back down and watched with a careful eye as-
"Argh!" Weiss cried out as a blur of red caught her around the curved blade of a scythe. Ruby's speed was so quick that Weiss could not even see her as soon as the teacher declared the beginning of the match. Myrtenaster was barely raised in time to create an attempt to block the attack but the speed force behind her strike was much too powerful for Weiss to hold back with her thin light frame.
Before she knew it, she was flying through the air as her aura flared to prevent her from being cut in half by the sharp scythe. She was forced to shut her eyes as she was spun around and thrown out of bounds with her face landing in the tiled floor. Weiss pushed herself up from her daze and shook her head in disbelief. It was over that quickly?
"Ruby Rose is the winner." Glynda declared as she pointed a hand toward the red hooded child. Who just so happened to get so excited over her victory that she hopped in place and threw a hand up in the air in excitement over her first ever victory. "Miss Schnee, I can hardly blame you for being caught off guard by such a fast opening attack, in your next spar I would suggest that you do not underestimate your opponent."
Weiss looked like she was going to pop over how red she got, she stood up and bowed her head respectfully in response. "Y-yes Miss Goodwitch."
Glynda nodded at her. "Miss Rose, while your opening attack was very quick and unexpected, it will not work on everyone. If Miss Schnee was prepared she could have quickly turned the tides in her favour. Do be careful to not let this victory go to your head either, if this wasn't a sparring session in a tournament like setting, you'd have left yourself completely open to a counter attack."
"Yes professor." Ruby nodded at her in understanding respect.
"Good, both of you will begin the sparring sessions next class. I hope to see improvement from the both of you. Dismissed." Ruby and Weiss went back to their seats and sat down, it was one of the last classes of the day so they stayed in their combat uniforms. Ruby was chatting incessantly with Kai about her victory, to which the latter congratulated her multiple times on her victory. He did train her to keep using her semblance during a battle since it uses little aura and almost no one will ever be able to keep up with her in terms of speed. While Weiss got a pat on the back by her leader who also offered her some of his own advice. Brick thought about teasing his partner about her loss, but thought better of himself. He was supposed to try and make things easier for the both of them, not harder.
"Next, we shall have the selected members of Team JNPR and Team CRDL. Come down when you are ready."
When Kai heard the team name JNPR get called and the tell tale clicking of Pyrrha's heels he smiled as he senses the sudden discomfort within Cardin. It was fitting that one of the best would go up against a guy like him. That spar was over almost as fast as Ruby's did.
The rest of the class went on like that, and compared to others it went much more quickly. Some students had to go to the infirmary for overexertion or injury, and some needed to stay behind and get a stern talk with the professor for getting a little too excited in what was supposed to be just a spar.
Before long the first day was over and Kai found himself back in his bed where he started off the day that morning. It went by surprisingly fast, and the other teachers were very lenient when it came to his condition. He just wished he didn't have so many damn packets of papers with hundred of little Brailles on them to read through. That was what his homework mostly consisted of, memorizing everything he needed to know in order to pass his classes.
Once he knew everyone else was asleep, sensing out that their heart beats were all slowed down to the point that they were unconscious he put his papers away and sat up. Dialing a number he knew was going to be answered right away.
"Kai?" His mother Marron answered his call. "I haven't heard from you in days young man! How are you doing? Is Beacon treating you well? How are your friends?"
"All fine, mom." Kai said with a chuckle as he held his custom made scroll up to his cheek. He felt the braille buttons rub against his face, but wasn't bothered by it in the slightest. "How is my sister?"
"Kai!" Malienna crowed in the background. "Brotha'! I learned a new word!"
"Oh really?" Kai smiled, leaning back in his bed and relaxing. "What would that be?"
"I love you!" His heart melted as he heard those words, it didn't even cross his mind to correct his little sister and say that what she said was three words and not one. He could feel his tail wrap around his waist just a little tighter. It seemed like his time away from her has been filled with a lot of learning from their mother. In just a few days she was already speaking like she was four years old instead of just two.
"Love you too." Kai said back.
"Yeah, she's doing great." Marron said, Kai could hear the passion in her voice and could imagine his little sister probably in her lap at that time. She had to be put to sleep however, which of course lead to whining and begging which held up to no avail. Marron was on the call the whole time, telling him about what has been going on in her end ever since he left for Beacon. She has been keeping up on her training with Qrow and occasionally Taiyang, and she has gotten much better at controlling her aura and semblance. Her choice of weapon was a pole arm with a wicked blade at the end of it, though she did train with a regular sword from time to time as well because of how easily she could be disarmed.
"We'll be moving into Vale pretty soon, Qrow went on another mission and Taiyang is lonely without his beloved daughters. When we heard that Ruby got accepted into Beacon two years early, we were shocked."
"Yeah…" Kai's smile disappeared, but his cheeriness did not leave his voice. "Tell me about it."
"Not now, I'm tired and sore after training and packing everything, expect us in town around later this week son." Marron sighed, and Kai could hear her lying down in her bed. "I am going to go to sleep now son, take care of yourself. I love you."
"Love you too, goodnight." Kai said a little too desperately, and if Marron noticed she did not comment on it. She simply made a kissing sound as she thumbed the end call button on her scroll, and Kai felt himself relax immensely after hearing his family's voices again.
No matter what, he could not lose either of them. That was why he was doing this, that was why he was going to bring the fight to Cinder and this Grimm Queen when he was older and strong enough. That was his main goal in the end of everything. It was what mattered most. To keep his family and friends alive.
He fell asleep and woke up much more willingly than the day before.
And there we go everyone! A longer chapter for you all for no other reason than that I love you and I couldn't stop writing. It happens sometimes, don't worry. This chapter was a little more faster paced, and it's going to be like that for a little while as the Beacon arc gets out of the early stages. I can't wait to get back into what I have planned before.
And I even was inspired by a past review to write another Omake for you all!
Omake: Love Letter (Inspired by Oblivious IJ)
Kai trained on one of his few days off of the week, which was the weekend. Ruby was busy hanging out with Yang, and Blake was doing… something with her time. He didn't know what, he only knew that Silver Ebony swung through the air with grace and stopped just before he could cut through his friends shoulder. So that was where Orchid was…
"Hello Orchid." Kai said as he pulled his sword back, already knowing who it was.
"Gasp!" Orchid exclaimed the word shockingly. "How did you see me?"
"I… didn't." Kai said, and he could swear he heard some sort of crowd laughter in the distance. "The real question is how you managed to get this close to me without me sensing you sooner-"
"Never mind that, I uh… have a letter for you!" Shy Orchid exclaimed as she shoved a bright pink envelope with a design of a flamingo on its front.
"A letter? From who?" Kai asked as she sheathed Silver Ebony and held the envelope in one hand. He shook it before preparing to open it.
"That's what you gotta find out~" Orchid said giddily as Kai rolled his blind eyes underneath his blindfold and opened the envelope, holding the piece of paper within and feeling it out for any braille.
"..."
"..." Kai kept feeling out the paper.
"Well? Aren't you going to read it?" Orchid asked after a full minute of watching him rub the paper all over with his fingers.
"... I don't know how to remind you that I am blind without making this awkward." Kai said honestly.
"Hmm," Nerdy Orchid hummed as she snatched the letter away from him, and then looked into his face. "I don't see what the problem is I'm afraid-" The realization settled in. "O-oh, I see."
"You can read it to me if you want-"
He was cut off by the sound of Orchid ripping the letter to shreds in a matter of two seconds. "Nope! It was nothing! Nothing at all!" Flustered Orchid shouted as she threw the pieces of the paper into the wind.
"Oookay…" Kai started backing away slowly. "I'm going to go shower, I'll uh… see you later?"
"Oh, I will be seeing something alright…" Flirty Orchid flirted as an idea formed in her head.
Hours later, it was the end of the day. Glynda Goodwitch was on her way to her office before she stumbled across a pile of teared up pieces of paper. Curiously, she used her semblance to piece it all back together to read it's contents.
Brick is red, his brother is blue, Ruby likes cookies, and the Flamingo adores you~
Glynda raised an eyebrow and allowed the pieces of paper to fall apart and drift into the wind once more as she went about her day.
"Children…"
And there we go, that was a little fun thing for me to write. Imagine that all happening in Chibi mode and it'll be even better.
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