"Next! Ruby Rose, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie. You all retrieved the white and black knight pieces. From this day forth, you will be known as Team RPRV, or Raspberry, led by…Ruby Rose."
The girl looked shocked at the announcement, her hope of being a normal girl, with normal knees of course, crumbling to pieces as she stood on stage. Her team didn't let her wallow as they all gave her their own forms of encouragement, to which she could only give a shaky smile in return. As the newly christened team was leaving the stage, Ozpin looked upon his scroll pad before speaking to the crowd for the last time.
"And finally; Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long. You all retrieved the white and black bishop pieces. From this day you will be a team, however, due to you only having three people, we will have to discuss your situation in my office. So, if you would please, follow me. As for the rest of you! Your scrolls will update you as to your room numbers, so take the rest of today to organize your rooms and get to know your teammates."
With that, the headmaster began to make his way towards the elevator that led to his office, the three girls trailing behind him as the auditorium began to fill with the conversations of different teams.
"Headmaster? Do you know which of us you plan to make Team Leader?"
Ozpin didn't turn around to answer her question, opting instead to step aside motioning them to enter the elevator as he followed in after them.
"Not to worry, Miss Schnee, we will discuss everything in just a moment."
The ride up was silent for the rest of the time that it took, and as the elevator dinged, the doors opened to reveal the Headmaster's office, filled with turning clockwork gears wherever one would look. The three girls entered and moved to stand across from the headmaster's desk, ignoring the seats.
Ozpin made his way to his chair before making himself comfortable, and taking a sip from a mug of hot chocolate that seemed to be waiting for him as if perfectly on time. Indulging himself, he took a long and deliberate sip of the mug before setting it down and lacing his fingers as he addressed the girls.
"So. If you girls have any questions, now would be the time to put them forward."
Weiss took a step forward as she repeated her question from earlier.
"Which of us will you make team leader?"
"Well, that is an easy question."
The girl seemed to preen, assured that she was the one who would claim the role. The man noticed this, and took another sip of his beverage before he answered her.
"None of you."
His answer took a moment to connect, but the three looked dumbstruck once it did, with Weiss's look of indignation standing out the most.
"I…I beg your pardon? Headmaster, what do you mean?"
"Simple. None, of the three of you, will be appointed as leader for this team."
"May I ask why?"
"Of course. But before that, allow me to ask you a question of my own."
The older man leaned forwards as he looked the three girls in the eye.
"How would you describe yourselves?"
Weiss wasted no time in bringing a hand to her chest as she responded.
"I've studied under my sister, Winter Schnee, one of General Ironwood's personally picked specialists. My grades are the highest among my peers, and I've studied to be able to lead others for years so that I can manage my family's company once the day comes."
The man hummed in response as he looked at Blake, the girl understanding it was her turn to answer.
"I haven't had the same opportunities Weiss had, and I haven't even gone to an official combat school to study. But, I like to think of myself as well read, and above all else, compassionate. I don't want to stand by while there's so much wrong in the world; someone needs to do something about it, so why not me?"
His gaze lingered on her for a moment, before he turned to look at the long-haired blonde.
"Well, my dad and my uncle are both professors at Signal, so my grades are pretty good. On top of that, I was top of my class at Signal in terms of combat. I don't mind helping people, and I like to think I'm a pretty good judge of character…"
The girl looked a bit sheepish as she rubbed the back of her head whilst she continued.
"But, I'm also kind of a hot head. My dad and Uncle Qrow tell me how I rush into things without thinking about the consequences, and they…might have a point. And I can get overly defensive when it comes to family. Or my hair."
The man nodded before responding.
"Allow me to explain why none of you are going to be named leader. But, before that; Misses Schnee and Belladonna? Do you realize that neither of you acknowledged any flaws that you might have?"
The two girls looked surprised as the man pressed on.
"Naming only your best qualities, or what you believe them to be, is a sign of one's ego. Believing yourself to be the answer to all the world's problems is a sign of naivete. To name not only your strengths but your flaws as well, shows humility, something I and the professors here wish there was more of. But, simply acknowledging one's flaws without taking any action to rectify them is a sign of immaturity."
The three girls looked slightly down at hearing the man's judgment about them.
"In front of me, I see a girl who's been given everything she's ever wanted for her entire life, a girl who wants to make the world a better place with no idea how, and a girl who just wants to go on an adventure above all else. As it stands, Miss Xiao Long would've been the best candidate for the position of leader among you three, but wasn't the, correct choice in my opinion."
"So…Who is?"
"Well get to that in a moment, but before that, I want you three to know that Glynda and I had to discuss whether or not you'd be allowed to attend Beacon after initiation."
The three looked downright shocked at that, and Ozpin continued into his explanation.
"Misses Belladonna and Xiao Long, you both managed to form a partner duo, but failed to retrieve a chess piece. Miss Schnee, you failed in finding a partner, but succeeded in not only securing a chess piece for yourself, but one for your, possibly, teammates upon seeing them forced to retreat before choosing one. You all failed and succeeded in some way, and I believe that it would be a waste of your talent for you to have to wait a year to try again."
The girls seemed really unsure of what exactly was happening, and Yang took the silence as a chance to ask a question.
"So…What exactly is going to happen now?"
Ozpin adjusted his glasses before responding.
"If you don't wish to wait until next year to try your hand at initiation again, there is a way that I'd be willing to accept you three."
He paused deliberately to ensure he had the three girls' attention.
"To join Beacon, we have always required students to form teams of four. You all need a fourth to fulfill this requirement. We have a student who suffered…quite a lot last year, to be truthful. He would have been a second year now, but was forced to take time away from the academy to recover. His team however, had to retire being huntsman students. If I have him join you three, he would serve as your Team Leader, killing four birds with one stone. Your team would have a fourth, a leader, two partner pairs, and he would get the chance to continue training to be a huntsman."
The three girls stood in silence for a moment before Yang spoke to her teammates.
"I think it's worth it. I really don't want to wait another year to start at Beacon."
"I guess it can't be any worse than not getting in at all right? What do we have to lose?"
Blake's agreement left only one, and both her and Yang turned to Weiss who still seemed conflicted. A minute passed before she crossed her arms as she answered.
"I suppose this is an acceptable arrangement, or at least, preferable to having to live with failing to be admitted. Fine, I accept."
The man smiled before he polished off his mug of hot chocolate.
"Wonderful! Then I'll send for him no-"
The sound of the elevator's ding caught their attention, and all eyes turned to see a tall teen with blonde hair pulled into a neat ponytail. He was dressed well; wearing a dark-gray suit with a matching vest above a pink dress shirt with a white tie and pocket square; a gold symbol of two crescent moons emblazoned on either. He also wore brown shoes, a watch, and round frame, thick lensed glasses that were polarized, if the bright reflection was anything to go by.
But the most noticeable thing about him was the blind cane, or white cane, he was holding in one of his hands.
Beginning to use the cane to walk forwards, the three girls made room for him to walk forwards without any issue.
"Ah, Jaune."
"Headmaster."
His cane eventually reached a bump in the floor that he knew as being an acceptable distance to stand away and in front of Ozpin's desk and came to a stop, resting his hands atop one another on the large orb at the top of his cane.
"Miss Goodwitch said you'd want to see me after you finished in the auditorium."
"Ah! Always a step ahead. Well, this is them."
The bespoke teen turned around to where the three girls in the room were, and instead of offering a hand to shake, gave a small bow as he greeted them.
"Hello, my name is Jaune Arc. Pleased to meet you all."
The three looked amongst themselves before Weiss responded first.
"Weiss Schnee."
"I'm Blake Belladonna."
"Call me Yang."
He seemed to think something over as he looked blindly in their direction.
"Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Got it."
The headmaster coughed into his hand, earning the attention of the room, including Jaune who chose not to turn around in lieu of his circumstances.
"Girls, this is the man who will become your fourth member. He is one of my most promising students, and keeping him on the sidelines would be a waste of his skill, and an insult to his efforts."
Two of the girls didn't really know how to respond, both having heavy reservations from what they could see of the blind blonde, Weiss on the other hand, was less reserved.
"Headmaster, forgive me for this, but you can't seriously mean to let a blind man lead us."
The teen in question simply chuckled where he stood, earning curious looks from the three girls, but Ozpin speaking turned their attention back towards him.
"I can understand how things may appear, but I assure you, Miss Schnee, that he is the man for the job. In fact, I'm not sure you're aware, but within all the written tests and screenings we hold before initiation ever happens, we slipped in a leadership aptitude evaluation. Mr. Arc here scored perfectly on every account."
"Can he fight?"
Yang's comment earned looks, and it was Ozpin's turn to chuckle.
"How about this; if you all still have your doubts, I will arrange for the three of you to go against Mr. Arc here in tomorrow's first combat class. Does that sound acceptable?"
The three looked amongst each other before nodding in agreement to the headmaster's offer.
"Perfect. Now then, that'll be all for today. I suggest you three go and see your new room, and Jaune, I'll have someone come and assist you in packing your things to join them in your new room tomorrow. I'll announce your team name tomorrow after the fight."
"I feel a little guilty."
Blake's comment earned a raised eyebrow from the Schnee heiress from where she was standing next to her in the center of the women's locker room.
"What are you on about now?"
The girl in question rolled her eyes in response before answering.
"I mean, are all three of us really about to fight a blind person?"
There was a brief moment of silence between the three before Yang decided to speak up.
"I think you two aren't giving him enough credit. He's supposed to be a second year student at this point. And on top of that, if the Headmaster allowed him to stay enrolled and planned to have him join our team, as leader no less, he's gotta be good. Or at least able to handle himself."
The blonde girl received no immediate response from the two girls, them having opted to finish the last of their equipment checks. A few minutes later, Myrtenaster, Gambol Shroud, and Ember Cecilia were primed and ready for battle, carried into the combat class arena by their respective wielders.
The little whispers that circulated around the room ceased as Ozpin entered the room flanked by Glynda, Dr. Oobleck, and Professors Port and Peach. The three girls standing in the center of the ring of the arena watched as the deputy headmistress made her way to the center edge of the arena, looking down at her scroll pad before the sound of a door opening caught the room's attention.
Entering from the left side of the room was Jaune, in the same attire as the day before, sans the vest, making his way to the ring slowly, navigating the steps as he did. The room was silent, confused, and most of all, shocked once he came to a stop standing against the three girls.
Murmurs made their way around the room as Ms. Goodwitch brought up the aura monitor on the screen above the ring. Once done, the woman looked over to her superior and nodded, the man taking a sip from his mug before making his way to the podium in the room.
"Good afternoon students. I'm sure some of you were expecting individual fights from what you've heard from your upperclassmen. Normally this would be the case, however, with the three first year ladies on the stage, they are missing a fourth member for their team. Mr. Arc here would've been a second year, but suffered some unfortunate circumstances, so we're using this as a chance to see if they would be a good fit."
The man looked around the class and could see that quite a few students had questions or things they wanted to interject, but predicting what was on many's minds, decided to address it preemptively.
"Also, for those of you who have the question in your mind; yes, he is blind, completely so in fact, but let today's first match serve as a lesson."
The man stepped away from the podium, returning to where the other teachers were before sending a look to Glynda. The woman nodded in return before she stepped up to the edge of the ring with her riding crop in hand.
"Today's first match will be the team of Blade Belladonna, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long against Jaune Arc. Exiting the ring or having your aura fall below fifteen percent will result in a loss. If both sides are ready, then we'll begin the match."
"Wait. Ms. Goodwitch, who's fighting him first?"
"The three of you will be fighting him together, Miss Xiao Long."
The blonde girl, for the first time since they're opponent had been announced, looked somewhat unsure of the whole situation. The white-haired girl to her side scoffed to herself while Blake simply kept her silence, now observing their opponent more in depth after hearing that. He was relaxed, disturbingly so, but as she looked him up and down for any sign of weakness, he turned his head to her direction slightly with a small smile, unnerving her a bit.
"Now, I'm starting the countdown."
The woman pressed a key on the scroll pad, and the room heard as the countdown chimed down.
The chimes counted down until the buzzer inevitably sounded off. The three girls looked amongst themselves, before Yang took the lack of conversation as a sign for her to step up. Punching her fists together, she cocked Ember Cecilia before calling out to her opponent.
"Hey! Hope you're ready buddy, cause you've got me first!"
"First? You don't seriously mean to go it alone do you?"
"Oh, I'll show you just how serious I am!"
The girl ran forth as opposed to how she'd normally launch herself by shooting a round behind her, not wanting to go all out against an opponent with a handicap. As she entered striking distance, the blonde male's expression changed and his expression shifted before the most bizarre thing happened.
Yang seemed to freeze mid run, a shiver shimmying down her spine before she stood to her full height and took a step back, heavy and labored breaths escaping her as she gazed at her opponent with wide eyes. A few murmurs went around the room, but none were as unnerved as a petit reaper sitting in the front row.
"Is she okay? She's your sister, right Ruby?"
"Yeah but…I've never seen yang do that before."
The bombshell blonde managed to steady her breathing before narrowing her eyes at the blind man across from her, bringing a faintly shaky hand to her throat.
"I'm surprised you sensed that."
The girl perked up, hearing her opponent speak.
"What's that?"
"That I was aiming for your throat."
The girl was a bit uncomfortable that the blind man seemed to know exactly what she was doing. She tried reigning in her composure as she began to think about what happened. Her opponent didn't move from his spot, all he did was shift how he was standing and change the expression on his face. But as she had been approaching, a screaming sense of danger overwhelmed her, and she swore she felt a small rush of wind pass by her neck.
All the while, Jaune stood there with a small smile on his face before he changed the way he held his cane.
"You're good."
The hot-blooded girl mulled things over for a moment before deciding to jump back to her teammates.
"Girls, I think we should take him on together. Something about him is…off. Like really, really off. I'm getting this feeling that if we take it easy on him, or if we go in one at a time, we're gonna lose."
The well-dressed teen across from them's smile turned to a smirk as he spoke again.
"You're very good. This'll be fun."
Blake simply nodded to the blonde in response, but a scoff was heard as Weiss pushed past her, spinning the chamber on Myrtenaster.
"Speak for yourself. Our opponent is quite literally handicapped, and a Schnee doesn't need others to succeed."
The haughty girl stood across from her opponent before speaking out.
"I'll be your opponent."
"Hmm. Weiss, right?"
"That is correct. Please try not to take what happens next personally."
The blonde laughed a little, before nodding to her.
'He's letting me have the first move. Let's see how he reacts to this.'
With that the heiress spun and stabbed her weapon into the ground, releasing the dust chambered and creating a layer of ice over the floor. She stood back to her full height and leveled her weapon back at Jaune, waiting to see how he'd respond. A slight tap of his foot against the ice as he tried to move from place to place, feeling what moving was going to be like.
Seeing this as an opening, the girl began to skate across the ice gracefully, spinning the chamber on her weapon to fire dust. Knowing the girl was approaching, Jaune stomped down hard on the ice, causing cracks to form near where he was standing before using his cane to smash more of the ice around him. Weiss went on high alert seeing her opponent break the ice around himself, but decided to continue on the attack, seeking to put him on the back foot.
As she grew closer, she created a glyph and jumped towards it, letting it send her at an odd angle through the air to where she had another glyph waiting. Standing on it, Weiss watched as it seemed Jaune had no idea where she'd gone. Preparing herself, she launched from the glyph towards the blonde from the blind, but to her surprise, as she came within striking range, the older teen spun and knocked her weapon aside with his cane, causing her to spin as well.
As she came back around to face him, she froze as a handgun was pointed at her forehead. Before she could think to do anything, the cane was held across her neck as he kept the firearm trained on her, the room watching in silence. He let the gun travel down until it was aimed at the floor before he removed the cane from where he held it, and nodded towards where the other two girls were. Weiss, breathing a bit heavy, eyed him suspiciously before she jumped back to her teammates, and once she was there, Jaune spoke out.
"That's strike two. Miss again, and I'm going on the attack."
The three didn't say anything, choosing to look amongst each other instead.
"Either of you have any ideas?"
The two girls looked back to Yang before Blake spoke up.
"Well, I'm not taking a turn running in alone against him, so I'm open to ideas."
Weiss kept her eyes trained on their opponent as she spoke.
"Well, trying to blindside him, no pun intended, doesn't seem like it's going to work. Somehow, he was able to know where I was when I tried to strike from one of my glyphs."
The bow wearing girl stood silent for a moment before she proposed something to her teammates.
"I think I might have an idea. Weiss, can you take care of the ice on the floor?"
The white-clad girl opted to spin the chamber on Myrtenaster before pointing the weapon towards the floor in Jaune's direction and letting out a torrent of flame. Unsurprisingly, he moved away from the flames.
"And what now?"
"If you can make both of us glyphs that propel us forwards, the two of us can try attacking him from different angles at the same time. And if you keep making those glyphs, we should be able to just keep rushing him like that. Yang, whenever we aren't close to him, you can fire off shots from your gauntlets. If you see either of us go down, just jump in and…do your thing I guess."
The blonde smacked her fists together nodding to her teammates, and Weiss changed the active dust in Myrtenaster back to ice before the two girls ran at the blonde. As they approached, Jaune smiled, fully this time.
"Now you're getting it."
With that, he swept his gun from the right to the left, firing shots at waist height as he did, causing the two girls to jump to either side of him as Weiss created glyphs for them both. Not one to stand idle, Yang took her chance to punch off two rounds of combustion dust towards her opponent.
Jaune rolled away from the imminent danger, but as he got back to his feet he immediately had to turn to block a strike from Blake with his cane, while at the same time raising his handgun in an attempt to fire at Weiss. He managed to drive them both off, but as he moved to turn towards the heiress, he felt himself unable to. Suddenly, due to the frigid coolness creeping up his leg, he realized what the girl had done. She'd encased his leg from the shin down in ice, trapping him there.
Knowing what was coming next, he faced back towards where Yang was, as the girl punched out an onslaught of her high-powered rounds towards the blonde. Blake and Weiss smirked as they saw him seem to freeze, before he threw his gun up into the air above him, before dropping into a Mistralian sword stance, one that was very familiar to Blake.
As the blonde held his cane to his side and had his other hand near the orb at the top, he pulled and in a few flashes of silver, the incoming projectiles were cut and flying past him. Standing back to his full height as the explosions went off behind him, he smirked a bit himself before using the cane-like sheath to break the ice that was on his leg.
"Strike three."
With that, he quickly stabbed the cane into the ground and used his now free hand to catch the gun that he'd thrown into the air earlier. Turning his arm to the side, he fired off rounds at Blake, catching the girl off guard and dropping her aura into the eighties, earning a swear as she began using her semblance to evade.
Wanting to help her partner, Yang finished reloading her gauntlets before firing behind herself to launch her at Jaune. As she was in mid air, the blind teen had already ceased firing at Blake, and stowed his weapon away. He sheathed his sword back into his cane before dropping back into the same drawing stance from earlier as the color of the orb at the top of his cane-sword turned from white to purple.
The brawler brought her gauntlets up to block a potential attack, but it was for naught as Jaune slashed towards her, not doing any damage, but instead changing her momentum and causing her to make an immediate, and very painful, vertical plummet that left a crater in the ground. Weiss stood there, gobsmacked at how in an exchange that took less than ten seconds, they had been put on the defensive.
As he stood there blind staring off in the distance, Yang managed to pull herself out of the crater she'd created and regrouped with Blake and Weiss.
"Jeez, I'm gonna feel that in the morning…I mean, just, wow-I expected him to be good since the Headmaster was letting him stay and all, but this is on another level."
The two girls agreed with what the blonde bombshell was saying. Looking him over, he wasn't showing any outright intent to engage them anytime soon, but as they continued to study him, Weiss made an observation.
"He's…toying with us."
The other two girls looked at her before returning their attention to the well-dressed teen across from them, studying him more intently. He certainly did seem relaxed, comfortable even, as he stood there, twirling his cane around before he suddenly stopped, putting the three on guard.
"Hey, Ms. Goodwitch?"
"Yes Mr. Arc?
"Is it okay if I have a small teaching moment really quick?"
The woman in response smiled a bit before she responded.
"The stage is yours Mr. Arc"
With a nod, the boy stood straighter before he spoke to his opponents.
"A minute or so ago, you were wondering how I was able to react to you Weiss. For any such as myself, blindness is an unfortunate handicap to have to adapt to. But, through a few different methods, this can become something to adapt to rather than a career ender. Most commonly used is this."
Everyone watched as he reached up and pulled a small device from his ear holding it in front of him as he continued.
"This is an A.D.A, or Accessibility Dialogue Assistant. For those of you who don't know, these are offered to hunters who are or become blind. This little thing is what allows me and others in my position to continue fighting. It sends sonar pulses that scan the environment and relays the information back to me. Furthermore, it personalizes itself to fit its individual user, and even features a compass. And finally, it contains a battle mode, which scans the nearby area for weapons, and then gives a rundown of fighting styles."
The room watched as he inserted it back into his ear before he resumed speaking.
"So that's how he's able to respond to us so well, I thought it was his semblance."
Weiss's comment earned a laugh from the blonde, causing the three girls to look at him.
"Sorry to disappoint ladies, but I don't actually need my ADA to 'see'. I'm perfectly able to replicate its sonar abilities using my aura. Now then,"
The well dressed teen began to walk towards them slowly, causing the three to take a step back as they raised their weapons.
"allow me to lead."
Eyes around the room widened as the blind student shot off with a burst of speed that no one had been expecting, aiming for the Atlesian girl first. However, his eyes widened a bit as he watched Yang dash between himself and Weiss to protect. He smiled wide, speaking to her once he was a few feet away from her.
"I take it all back, you're the best!"
He moved to draw his sword from the cane for a slash, but as he was mid-motion, his opponent made a desperate, but successful, move by grabbing his cane, keeping the sword contained.
"Sorry about this Bat-guy, but now that I've got your weapon, it's all ov-"
She was cut off as the well dressed teen let go of his weapon, watching shocked as before she knew it, the blonde had slammed the purlicue of his hand into her throat. Her aura flared at the vicious strike, and she loosened her grip on his cane as one hand went up near her throat. Jaune wasn't done however, and repeated the action another two times, before he pulled her down into a strike from his knee, then letting her stumble back. He tightened up, and unleashed an uppercut that sent her near the edge of the ring, hacking and coughing where she writhed on the ground.
The room was silent at the brutality of how the blind teen fought. Weiss and Blake wore grim looks as the Arc unsheathed his sword and stabbed the cane into the ground again, before he reached behind himself and drew his gun in his off hand.
"So that's it then?"
The two looked confused, glancing at each other before Weiss responded.
"What are you talking about?"
"Yang over there,"
He gestured towards the girl with his sword before continuing.
"Is the only one of you that's been taking me seriously. On top of that, she actually jumped in the way to protect you, even though you haven't even been teammates for a full day."
Weiss bit her lip as her grip on Myrtenaster tightened. She struggled to reign in her emotions, but before she could make a hasty decision, a hand caught her arm. Looking to the offender, she saw Blake, the bow-wearing girl keeping her eyes trained on the blind teen. Before she could ask what she was doing, the girl met her gaze out of the corner of her eye before she kept motioning to something with them as subtly as she could.
Following her gaze, she looked and saw Yang fighting to get to her feet as her hair started to glow. Weiss and Blake looked at each other with a smile before they fell into their stances and dashed off to engage the older teen.
Jaune raised his gun to fire at them again, but the moment he did, a block of ice encased both his hand and the firearm held in it. As the two girls entered melee range, the blonde quickly switched tactics to dodging and countering, waiting for an opportunity to free his hand from the ice.
What the two girls on the attack didn't expect was the way the blonde teen began to move. He responded perfectly on time, but more uncomfortably, the way he was moving was extremely unorthodox. Where most people would roll away from a slash or throw their entire body into avoiding a thrust, Jaune continued to swerve out of danger with a minimal margin of error. And irritatingly, he spoke out as if reading their minds.
"Most people's reaction when in such a close quarters engagement is to ensure they absolutely do not take a hit. If you were to grab someone's face, the automatic response would be to get your hand away from them. However, I'm blind. The fear that comes with seeing a weapon millimeters away from your face isn't something I have to fight anymore."
Not only that, it made his own moves hard to predict or respond to. Most people looked where they were going to hit you, but he stood at an angle when fighting them, and the knowledge that he was blind made them hesitate in their decisions, even if only for the quickest of moments.
The blonde managed to find an opening through the onslaught and slammed his ice encased hand towards the Schnee heiress. She brought Myrtenaster across herself to guard against the blow, and found herself sliding a few meters back, but more alarmingly, the well-dressed teen had freed his gun.
With impressive quickness, he spun and went for an upward slash towards the black-clad girl, firing behind him at Weiss as he did, only for her to use her semblance to evade his attack, a look of surprise dancing across his face, before his eyes narrowed and he flipped his grip on his sword to a reverse grip. Moving swiftly, Jaune stabbed his sword into the ground, stopping Weiss's thrust before raising his gun and firing a few shots off towards her, more than a few of which hit their mark.
Aware of movement behind him, he spun once more and brought his gun up, catching Blake's blade on the underside of his trigger guard before kicking her away, the girl again using her semblance to shift herself into falling behind him. Shifting Gambol Shroud so that she could fire a few shots off at him from behind, she was caught off guard when his empty hand caught her shoulder and began to pull her forward.
Panicked, the girl used her semblance once more and managed to slip away before she was slammed face first into the ground. But, taking advantage of the distraction, Weiss looked in a direction and nodded, before raising a huge wall of ice towards the blind Arc. He dodged away, not given much choice but to abandon his spot near his sword due to the large scale attack.
The well-dressed teen dug into his pocket with his free hand, retrieving something, before suddenly, from his side, a roar was heard before Yang barreled through the ice wall that had obscured her. Hair blazing and eyes bloody red, she flew towards Jaune with an arm cocked back for a devastating blow.
The blonde moved to begin dodging, but was caught off guard as Gambol Shroud's ribbon became taught and bound his legs together. Before he could respond, a glyph materialized and restrained the arm holding his gun.
"GET SOME!"
Yang's roar earned a smirk from the other two girls on the battlefield, and everyone watching was on the edge of their seats as it seemed like for the first time, there wasn't anywhere for the blind teen to go. Weiss and Blake's smirks quickly evaporated the moment they saw Jaune's own. Opening his hand, he revealed a device before pressing and lightly lobbing it up just above his head.
"Lights out."
A bright flash enveloped the room, followed by the sounds of a struggle. And by the time everyone managed to rub the fuzziness out of their vision, everyone was shocked to see what had happened. Weiss was laid out nearby and unconscious, while Blake was groaning from where she was laid against the wall outside the arena. Leaving only Yang as the one still in the ring and qualified to continue fighting.
The room watched silently as Jaune retrieved his cane and sword, holding both after he stowed away his gun. The girl attempted to get to her feet, but was met with a rain of shallow thrusts from the blind teen's sword where she laid, until her aura dropped below the threshold and the buzzer sounded.
A beeping sound stirred Weiss from her slumber. Feeling a dull ache, she forced herself to sit up from wherever she was laying as she brought a hand to her head.
"Well~ Look who's awake."
The girl turned to see both Yang and Blake sitting on one of the beds.
"Ugh…What happened."
"We got trounced, that's what."
"Apologies, if I was a bit rough with you all."
Weiss looked past the other two girls in the room to see the well dressed teen sitting by the open window, peeling an apple.
"In that last moment of our fight, you three managed to catch me off guard. I may have gone a bit overboard, admittedly."
The three girls looked at him silently as he finished slicing the apple and putting the pieces onto a plate alongside more cut apple slices. He picked up the plate and moved to where the three were sitting together, putting the dish on a small table in between all of them.
"Ozpin wanted me to tell you three that starting today, we'll be known as team ABYS, or Abyss. I'll be acting as team leader, but please, don't hesitate to tell me if something is bothering you. I want this to be as good an experience as possible for all of us."
The three girls stayed silent for a moment before Yang shrugged her shoulders before snagging an apple slice and speaking.
"Well, you're good enough to kick my butt, so I can't really complain if you're in charge, can I? So, I'm cool with this setup."
The girl continued to speak with her mouth full, much to the ire of Weiss. Blake chose to speak up next, her mind having been made up.
"I don't mind. You're much stronger than I could have ever expected, and you look like you know what's going on. So I don't mind following you."
The two girls looked at Weiss. The heiress looked down at her hands, conflicted, before she peeked up and saw the teasing smile Yang was wearing, and the knowing look on Blake's face before she made a sound of frustration.
"Fine! I…suppose that there isn't any harm in you being chosen to lead us given your skill. But! I expect you not to lead us astray!"
Jaune chuckled as a soft smile found its way to his face, the first he'd worn since they'd met him.
"I think I can manage that. Well then, it's official; from today, the four of us are a team."
The four nodded before moving to decorate the room with their personal effects. Weiss coughed loudly, gathering the room's attention before they got too absorbed in their tasks.
"I think it'd be best if we set some ground rules. Mr. Arc, I expect you to leave the room when it's time for us to change!"
The room looked at her silently before the well dressed teen responded to her with a deadpan expression.
"Ah. Yes, because there's so much for me to see."
"Excuse you! I'm still growing!"
Blake looked at her with a similar expression to Jaune before interjecting, ignoring how Yang was trying, and failing, to contain her laughter at Weiss's outburst.
"Weiss. He's blind."
The girl stood still for a moment before an embarrassed blush erupted over her pale skin. Yang managed to catch her breath to toss in her own jab.
"I guess hindsight's twenty-twenty!"
Jaune looked over to the blonde brawler, donning a faux thinking face, before it shifted to one of revelation as he spoke.
"Oh, I see what you did there."
(A/N)
I don't know why, but writing these little snippets when I'm stuck on what to do next with my other two big stories is really cathartic.
Anyway, I'm making some progress on the next chapter of "A Second Chance", as well as the next chapter of "It Never Came Up". I have some ideas for "Hate Breeds Hate", but nothing concrete for the next chapter yet.
See y'all again soon!
BlackJackHero