The class' energy was weird, a different kind of weird once they returned to their classroom. The students who had passed both of their exams had a positive, almost upbeat kind of energy emanating from them, while those who failed the normal exams or the practical felt like they were sucking all of the air out of the school. By they, Weiss meant Mina, Kaminari, Kirishima and Sato just to name a few of them. It was understandable, since the majority of the class passed their exams. The biggest upset was Midoriya and the dog somehow passing their exam, against All Might of all people!
"Everyone…" Mina spoke in between sobs as Weiss patted her shoulder. "I'm looking forward to hearing your stories…about training camp."
Weiss remained silent, just in case she blurted out something that would be insensitive and only make things worse.
"W-We don't know for sure yet! There might be a twist." Midoriya said with a slight stutter. Weiss was about to shoot him a sharp glare for offering up false hope, when Sero stepped in. The Tape boy had fallen asleep thanks to Midnight's quirk, which resulted in his team's victory being carried by Mineta.
"Stop it Midoriya, if you say it out loud, you'll probably jinx it." Sero said, placing a hand on the green boy's shoulder. Weiss bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from saying anything that would draw Midoriya's attention to herself. She didn't have the time to deal with such an annoyance.
His eyes still reminded her of Ruby.
"If we failed the exams, then we'd have to skip the training camp and be stuck in the hell that's summer school." Kaminari started to monologue. "And since we didn't pass the practical exam…"
Kaminari started to shout. "If you guys still don't get it you're dumber than monkeys!" He poked Midoriya in the eyes.
"Shut it, you oversize battery on legs." Weiss sighed. While she did dislike Midoriya, she had to admit that he was a rather studious person, and he had improved rather quickly, even if copying her moves left a bad taste in Weiss' mouth. "You should've spent more time studying instead of staring at Kyo-"
Kaminari quickly covered her mouth with her hand, earning himself a glare that made him shiver back in fear. He was lucky her bassist friend was near the back of the crowd of students.
"Anyways, we don't know how they're going to be scoring the exams so-" Sero spoke up again, becoming Kaminari's target in place of Midoriya.
"So if you feel bad for us, then uh, bring us back a lot of stuff!" Kaminari shouted once more, when the door to their classroom opened, revealing Mr. Aizawa.
Everybody was seated not even a second later.
"Morning." Mr. Aizawa seemed happier than usual, which was weird. "Unfortunately there are some of you that failed to pass the exams."
The class deflated at that.
"Accordingly, for the training camp in the woods…" Mr. Aizawa said slowly, most likely trying to savor the pain and tears of Weiss' classmates, before forming a grin that looked unnatural on him. "...everyone's going!"
"Can we go too?!" Kirishima slammed his hands on the desk. Weiss simply leaned back in her seat, this last minute twist must have some conditions.
"Really!" Mina cheered, throwing her arms in the air.
"Yeah." Mr. Aizawa's bored look returned. "Some of you failed the practical, but no one failed the written exam. In the practical portion, Kirishima, Kaminari, Ashido, Sato and Sero failed."
That much was obvious just by watching the matches. Sero falling asleep early on in his exam probably didn't do him any favors.
"For this exam, the teachers made sure to leave a way for the students to win, while watching how you all would take on each task." Mr. Aizawa stuffed his hands in his pockets and yawned. "If we hadn't most of you would've failed before you even started."
Another point that was obvious, in a normal operation the majority of Weiss' classmates would have failed, after all, their teachers were Pros with years of experience, decades in Midnight's case.
"The training camp is where you are going to increase your strength, so those who failed need it the most. They have to get stronger, all of you do." Mr. Aizawa's sadistic grin returned. "So it was a rational deception."
Now that was something Weiss didn't like. She was tired of adults lying, tired of their deception and manipulation. Professor Ozpin, Professor Lionheart, were all teachers liars like that? This would be the second time Mr. Aizawa lied to them, which meant he definitely couldn't be trusted.
Why couldn't All Might be their homeroom teacher?
"Still, failure is failure. We have prepared a separate time for lessons for those who failed." Mr. Aizawa said seriously. "They'll be tougher than the after school lessons here at UA."
Heh, poor Mina. Well at least the exams were over, Weiss had a trip to plan before it was time for the training camp.
Hopefully I-Island was nice this time of year.
"Are you curious, Tomura Shigaraki, about the Idol?" Kurogiri stared at Tomura, much to the latters annoyance. With his hand mask covering his snarl, Tomura tore the photograph of the Bard during the UA Sports Festival, with dozens of dodgeballs floating around her body.
The door to their bar creaked open.
"Shigaraki, you've been the talk of the town for the past few days." Giran, that annoying merchant, said. Oh how Tomura wished he could turn that smirk to ash, but his finger was just reattached and it was still aching.
That only made him more mad.
Tomura disintegrated the photo, turning it into blackened ash.
"I hear you're planning something big-"
"Who are they?" Tomura interrupted the weapons broker. At least Giran was better than Torchwick, and that creepy vampire he had following him around everywhere. For that, Tomura would let Giran leave with all of his body parts intact.
A weird lizard and nasty looking man with burns walked into the bar. The midget Godzilla stared at Tomura with determined eyes, and an oversized blade on his back.
"I saw a picture of you, but you just look gross in person." Ugly burn guy said, looking down on Tomura. He was going to regret saying that, he didn't even have a right to talk with his nasty skin.
"You're the one that I was told to obey?" Lizardman scoffed. Their voices were annoying.
"Kurogiri, get rid of them." Tomura snarled, his voice gravelly. "I hate rude people."
"Now, now! They came all this way to see you, so let's hear them out at least." Kurogiri protested, waving his misty arms around. "Besides, they're bound to be valuable assets, the broker brought them after all."
"I don't care if they live or die, just make sure I get my commission, Kurogiri." The Broker said, smoking his cigarette. "I have a family to feed and it's been hard to put food on the table thanks to Torchwick annoying the Yakuza."
Giran moved in between the two rude guys, holding his cigarette casually. "Still, I won't be rude and not introduce them to you."
He pointed the cigarette at the Burning Man. "Dabi here hasn't committed any flashy crimes, yet, and he's able to hold a conversation as you just heard."
The two of them were useless, utterly useless.
Giran pointed at the Lizard. "And he's Spinner, now he comes highly recommended by-"
"I don't care." Tomura stood up, raising his good hand at his side. He would have to watch that Lizard's sword, if he could even lift it with how big it was.
"Tomura! No!!" Kurogiri raised his voice, but Tomura wasn't paying attention anymore.
"You're all annoying me!" Tomura charged the two, his hand stretched towards the ugly guy who raised his own hand in return, when the Lizard pulled something from his pocket. It was a keychain, with the stylized face of a girl with red and white hair, and two wings below.
Tomura paused as Kurogiri portals prevented him from killing Scar guy, and vice versa or whatever.
"She sent you?" Tomura pulled back his hand, glaring at the Lizard. The logo was something he saw whenever he went out, along with the Bard's and that one Korean fox mage, but for the Lizard to bring it here…
"Yes." Spinner the Lizard said. "She told me that you would help create a new world, a better one."
Heh, that sounded just like his sister. Tomura started to scratch his neck as he started to giggle. "I guess you guys can join."
He could always kill them later.
A/N
Writing Shigaraki is harder than Weiss, but he's a fun POV.
DO7 donated another amazing art piece by Alex Kellar! You're amazing! It can be found on Alex Kellar's Deviantart, as well as on AO3.
The follow omake below was written for DO7, you're a great person!
Enjoy!
Till next time on Schnee: Hero or Huntress!
"Stop slouching." Kyouka's voice was muffled by the pillow Mina buried her head in. The pinkette was feeling down, which didn't happen that often anymore. The reason for her downer mood, a certain friend of theirs, one who was suffering and didn't want to reveal what she was really feeling. Mina could still see the pain in Weiss' eyes, the hurt and sadness despite her attempts to hide it.
"I dun wanna." Mina mumbled, pressing her face deeper into Kyouka's pillow. Weiss pushing them away felt like deja vu, like Mina had seen this somewhere before. Oh wait…she had. Heh, it turned out Weiss had more in common with Elsa than she had initially let on. She remembered seeing her friend cry at the end of the movie, which surprised them.
"You're going to suffcate yourself if you stay like that." Kyouka lightly slapped her shoulder. The two were on the dark haired girl's bed, Mina decided to stay the night since it would make the trip to her internship easier. She felt terrible, and she could only imagine how Weiss was doing with Takeyama in the hospital.
"W-Why would she push us away?" Mina voice cracked. Despite her instincts, and usual cheerful demeanor, the incident with Weiss only confirmed her suspicions that the white haired girl was keeping them at arms length, despite being the bestest of friends.
And her smile, that fake smile that Weiss had somehow convinced the world was her real one, she used it on them. Mina and Kyouka could read Weiss' face easily, having seen her real smile before.
"Weiss has always been rather guarded." Kyouka said bitterly. Mina had never seen her this mad, even Yaomomo was a bit scared. "It's like we don't actually know her."
"But she's still our friend." Mina finally rolled her body upwards, placing the back of her head on the now moist pillow.
Kyouka sighed softly, pressing the end of a pen against her cheek, a notebook in her hands. "Yeah, we'll be there for her when she needs us."
Mina nodded in agreement, finally sat up, and scooted over to the free space that was beside Kyouka. Hopefully the bassist could cheer her up. "What are you writing in there?"
"I'm writing a song." Kyouka's face turned a shade of red. "I'm still not pretty good at writing lyrics, the melodies are so much easier."
Mina wouldn't know, she was a dancer not a muscian. "What's it about?"
"Weiss always says that music speaks louder than words." Kyouka shrugged. "So I'm just putting our feelings in here, maybe hoping she could hear it."
"Wow!" All of Mina's friends were amazing.
Kyouka's lips formed a smile that Mina didn't like one bit. "Maybe you could sing it for her, once we're back from our internships."
"Who? Me? No way!" Mina shook her head, whipping her short hair around. "I sound like my neighbor Tom, and he sounds like someone's trying to murder him when he sings."
Kyouka stared at her. "Have you ever actually tried singing before?"
"No." Mina's lips betrayed her, and her voice too.
"Perfect."
No it wasn't.
"Are you sure this is okay? Aren't your parents sleeping?" Mina sat in the recording booth with two large headphones covering her ears, and Kyouka's freshly written lyrics in her hands.
Kyouka pressed a button from the control room. "The music studio is completely soundproof because our neighbors complained a few years ago."
Darn it, there went Mina's excuse!
"Now just take some deep breaths, just like I showed you and sing. You didn't sound bad earlier, and you'll sound better if you put more emotion into it." Kyouka said. She messed with some buttons on the control board.
"Fine." Mina sighed as she wiggled on the stool. Kyouka raised her right hand, turning off the intercom.
Five, four, three, two, one…
The music started to play softly, a slow introduction which Mina never expected to come from Kyouka. It was her turn now.
"I know that you're hiding things, using gentle words to shelter me." Mina sang a bit awkwardly, it made her throat feel weird. "Your words were like a dream, but dreams could never fool me, not that easily."
Woah, it was like Kyouka took the words out of her mouth.
"I acted so distant then, didn't say goodbye before you left." Mina paused for the briefest of seconds as she held the music sheet even tighter. "But I was listening."
Weiss didn't have to push them away, she shouldn't have retreated behind those she had put up.
Or…were they always there?
"You'll fight your battles far from me, far too easily." The song started to speed up as Kyouka added the other instruments.
"Save your tears cause I'll come back, I could hear that whispered as you walked through that door." Mina poured her emotions into the word picture that Kyoula had created. "But still I swore to hide the pain when I turned back the pages."
Mina closed her eyes. She wished everything could go back to normal, she wished Takeyama wasn't in a coma, she wished Weiss would finally open up to them.
"Shouting might've been the answer. What if I'd cried my eyes out and begged you not to depart." Mina's voice followed the instruments. "But now I'm not afraid to say what's in my heart!"
"Though a thousand words have never been spoken, they'll fly to you, crossing over the time." Was this what musicians felt when they said feel the music?
"And distance holding you, suspended on silver wings, and a thousand words, one thousand confessions will cradle you." Mina's throat ached. "Making all of the pain you feel seem far away!"
"They'll find you forever!"
Would this reach Weiss?