Chapter 33: School days
'Hey Mom, Just wanted to let you know that everything has been fine up till now. Good News! I made it into Beacon. Bad News. I made it by the skin of my teeth if I'm being honest here. By some luck, I was able to be in of team of five. Yeah Don't know how, but it's better if I tell you this over a scroll call rather than text. So my teammates are... Unique if I'm being honest here. Were a mixed bag of weird and intense people, and Pyrrha. Yeah, we are on the same team. By some miracle.
The others are, Jaune the leader, he is how do I say, really full of himself, to the point that I think it's annoying but what do I know. Next, it's Nora, the loudest of the group but I will tell you this she is really and I mean really intense. I mean she has her moments but it overshadows the crazy things that she does. I pray that we don't get into too much trouble with her. (fingers crossed.) Last we got Ren, he's the quietest one out of all of us. To be fair he's not really much for talking but when he does, it's really low. But he's good for what I have seen. I will just have to get to know them better and see how well we can all adapt to each other. But from what we have done so far, I say we are in the step towards the right direction. Hopefully, we can visit someday or we can video chat later and I can introduce you to them. But for now, I need to get ready for school. Talk to you later Mom love ya!'
With that, I send the messages and put my scroll down next to me on the sink. I look up and see my reflection in the bathroom mirror.
'Man, why do we have to wear uniform? Back in Sanctum, we got to wear our combat gear all day and now we are wearing uniform?!'
Splashing water on my face, gets me to wake up more.
Ah, much better. Okay so, what has happened so far?
Well after getting put in a team and somehow making it into Beacon, we made it to our room where we will be staying for the foreseeable future. Sadly once we made it in, the room only had four beds. So that means one of us had to sleep on the floor.
Sadly that was me, but on the bright side of all of that, the headmistress told us that a spare bed would be arriving today, so I wouldn't be on the floor for too long.
Putting on the black suit, I began to mess with the red tie, that all male students were forced to wear and began to leave the bathroom.
"Alright guys, you all ready?" I look up and see the rest of my team beginning to get up from bed.
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...
I pulled out my scroll and saw that it was eight in the morning.
"Seth? What time is it?" I heard Pyrrha ask me with a yawn.
"Just turn eight. But classes apparently start at nine, so we still have time. Bathroom is free by the way." I said to them and saw Pyrrha get up, she was wearing some brown pajamas, and entered the bathroom first.
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...
Right, rooming with other people as well. Got to get used to that. I walked toward a chair and sat down, pulling out a book that had everything about our schedule.
'Let's see, breakfast starts at eight, too late for that. Classes start at nine and all the way to five in the afternoon. Fuck! This is so much worse than I was expecting, but at least we got lunch and dinner later as well, so the day won't be too bad.'
"Is that the schedule we are getting?" I heard Ren's voice behind me.
"Yeah, for the most part, it seems pretty simple. Honestly, the only bad thing is that breakfast is starting now so we might not get there in time, maybe next time." I turn to face him and see him with wide eyes.
"You good?"
He blinks a good few times but regains his composure. "Sorry, it's just you kind of surprised me."
Huh? I tilt my head at that.
"Your eyes."
Oh, yeah that checks out.
"Oh yeah... Well, if you are going to ask, I'm not blind. So that's a thing for me."
"I wasn't going to say that." I could tell he was lying about that.
"I know, it's just that the first response that everyone takes with me. Honestly I-"
"AHHHHH!" I soon heard Nora scream and saw her standing next to her bed, pointing toward me. "Ghost!"
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...
...
I turn to Ren. "This is a new one for me."
"Nora! It's just Seth." He tells her and she quickly calms down. Like real quick.
"Oh. Sorry, Seth." She quickly walks toward me and leans in closely. "Cool! Your eyes are white. Wait can you not see? Are you blind? No, that can't be right you can fight. Can you sense Aura and see people like that? Can you-"
"Nora!" I tell her. "I can see, this is just how I was born. Nothing special or anything. Just white eyes."
"Oh, but why wear sunglasses?"
"Cause people tend to stare a lot. That or make fun of me for it."
"Oh. Sorry, Seth." She apologizes with a low voice almost ashamed of what she did.
"It's fine. No need to worry." I get up from my seat and move toward my sleeping bag, there I grab my sunglasses and put them on. I them turn "Better?"
"I don't think the school will allow you to wear them to class." Ren tells me.
"Well, I will fight for the right then."
"YES!" "Please don't."
"Yes, Seth Please don't." The bathroom doors open and out walks Pyrrha wearing her own school uniform. "Just try and accept what they tell you, alright?"
Sigh... "Fine." I see Nora step into the bathroom next and Ren making his bed. I turned to our last member and saw that he was still sleeping in his bed.
'Really? After all the noise that we were making you are still asleep?'
"We should probably wake him up now. Classes will start soon."
"Yeah, we should."
I was going to go to him but soon heard a whistle being blown from outside.
And for some reason that got Jaune up.
"What happened?"
Pyrrha and I both look at him surprised by his sudden awakening.
"You're finally awake."
"How? You were asleep just now?"
"Oh, well. I grew up with sisters and they always like to play pranks on me. So I had to wake up like this before they did anything bad."
"But... We were making noise? How did you not wake up from that?"
"I don't know? Anyway, what time is it?"
I checked my scroll and told him it was already 8:25.
He got up and began to walk towards the bathroom, seeing that Nora was already out of it.
"You know if having siblings makes you like that. I'm glad I'm an only child."
"Hmm." I turned to face Pyrrha and saw her looking at me with a smirk.
"What?"
"Fix your tie."
I looked down at it and saw that it was still untied.
"Right." I began to mess around with it again.
After a good twenty minutes of just sitting around we are all ready to start the day.
"Alright Team JNPRS, today's the day. It's the first day of our life here at Beacon." Jaune announced to us and got a mixed reaction out of us.
"Yeah!" A cheer from Nora.
"Woo." A small woo from Ren.
A simple clap from Pyrrha and a 'Hm' from Seth as he continued to mess with his tie.
"Aw come on guys, today we are finally going to be attending school. This is going to be the beginning of our journey. Have a little bit of energy like Nora."
"Well I'm excited sure but, I'm not too excited about class."
"What's our first class by the way?" Pyrrha asked.
"Here it says Grimm studies. Followed by Sciencs, then Dust class, we get lunch. After that weapon class, History, and on some days the end class will be combat class, and after that Dinner. Keep in mind classes rotate on different days, so today we start in Grimm studies but tomorrow we might start History." Ren informed us of our daily schedule.
"And we will repeat that for the next Four years. Yay." Seth said as he pulled out his scroll.
"I'm sure it won't be too bad. This is the first day, so I guess it will be a slow day for all of us." Pyrrha said to the group.
"Speak for yourself, I want to get to combat class so I can kick butt. You think I will fight someone today?" Nora wonders.
"Doubt it, today will probably be slow just like Pyrrha said." I tell her as I continue to watch a video.
"Uh, Seth what are you doing?" Jaune question.
"Teaching myself how to tie a tie. Over, under. Shit."
"Didn't you do it when we graduated Sanctum? I clearly remember you having one on."
"It was already made, I just had to put it around my neck. This one I have to actually do."
"Didn't your dad teach you?" Jaune said to Seth.
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The room got so quiet that you could hear someone outside using a buzzsaw and hammering.
Pyrrha looked at Seth and back at Jaune. Nora and Ren both looked at the two seeing that the mood of the room changed. "Jaune... I would suggest not to-"
"Don't have a dad." I quickly said. "Never had one. So yeah, I don't know."
"Oh, sorry Seth I didn't know."
"I know you didn't. I don't blame you." I get up to walk to him and place my hand on his shoulder. "The first one is free. The second one... Well, you know." I take my hand back and continue to mess with the tie.
"Here Seth let me help you." Pyrrha offered to help but I quickly finished the tie.
"Done! Okay, I think we are all ready to go now Right?" I go to the door and open it.
"Yeah. Let's go and get to class."
As I open the door I am met with Weiss opening her door and running out of it, while somehow giving me a death glare.
Sigh... What a good way to start the morning.
"Too class." Ruby begins to run out of her room as well as Yang and Blake.
"Class." I hear Jaune also say behind me, but soon I get pushed to the ground by my team.
"OFF! All of you Guys, OFF!" One by one they got off me and soon we began to run towards our first class.
I swear if they are going to keep falling on top of me at least warm me about it. Well, let's see what today brings us.
This was not what I expected today.
Currently, we are in our first class of the day. Grimm studies, with Professor Port, an older man with a mustache that can cover his whole mouth. At this point, I wish it had covered his mouth.
The moment we arrived and took our seats, he began to talk about his life as a young brave man taking care of his cabbages or something along those lines. Honestly, I stopped paying attention to him, because this story was mostly about him and not about Grimm.
I looked at the others and saw them also having a hard time following. Ren looked like he was sleeping with his hand covering his eyes, but was still sitting upright. Nora just had a book over her head fully asleep at this point. Pyrrha was doing her best to pay attention, but I could tell she was also about to fall asleep. Jaune on the other hand was also sleeping, sitting up with only his hand to hold him still. Meanwhile, I was sitting back with my head looking up at the ceiling, finding it way more interesting than what the professor was saying.
Sigh... This was not what I was expecting when I decided to become a huntsman. I feel like Sanctum was way more fun and got to the point. But here, man just keeps on talking!
I put my head down and saw the professor take a bow.
"What did he do?"
"He was telling a story and finally finished." Pyrrha tells me.
I actually clap for that.
"Thank you! Now, the moral of this story, a true huntsman must be honorable, a true huntsman must be dependable, and a true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise."
You know, not to be mean or anything but I feel like half of us here are not that.
"So who among you all believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"
In the front of the class, Weiss raised her hand.
"I do sir."
The professor then leaves the room and comes back, dragging a cage that has something in it.
A Grimm. The cage has a Grimm.
Dude, what is wrong with this school?
The professor calls out to Weiss to fight the Grimm to prove herself. As Weiss leaves the room I turn to the other.
"You guys want to make a bet?"
They looked at me like I was crazy.
"Not to see if she dies or anything, but on the Grimm, she might fight."
"Oh, you are on! Call dibs on a Beringel!" Nora said with confidence, and we all looked at her like she was the crazy one now. "What? It could be a small one."
"Okay, Nora is locking in. You Ren?"
"Hmm, it could be a Boarbatusk or a Creep, by the size of the cage."
"Well pick one."
"I'll say Creep. I might be wrong but maybe it's a young one at best."
"Cool. Pyrrha?"
"Boarbatusk. Jaune what about you?"
"What? Oh ugh, Beowolf. A small one."
Even a small one won't fit in that cage. We all should know that by now.
"Okay, I'll go with Ren on this one, Creep."
Not Ten minutes later, Weiss returns wearing her combat attire and weapon on hand.
As she stood in the center of class she prepared herself to fight.
"Gooo, Weiss!" At the front of the class, we could hear Yang cheer for her. Looking down I saw the rest of team RWBY as well.
"Fight well!" Blake also cheered for her as she waved a small flag.
"Yeah, represent teeeam RWBY!" Shouted Ruby.
Weiss turns to Ruby "Ruby! I'm trying to focus!"
The others did the same and they didn't get that treatment, only Ruby. Someone is mad.
"You got this Snow Angel!" From the side of me, I heard Jaune also cheer for Weiss.
She then turned to us and gave Jaune a death stare if I had ever seen one. Making Jaune shiver in fear. Well, why not join as well?
"Don't Die!" I yell at her and see her turn from Jaune towards me giving me the same treatment. But I simply just wave at her.
"Really?" I turn to see Pyrrha looking at me.
"What? Just a friendly reminder that's all." We both turn back to Weiss and see her get rushed by a Boarbatusk.
"Good call on the Boarbatusk."
"So what do I win?"
"You call it, or double it and save it for the next time."
"Hmm, I think I will save it for now." I nod at her and turn back to the fight.
There I see Weiss lose her weapon. "Oh-ho! Now what will you do without your weapon?" The professor asked and soon the Boarbatusk began to roll towards her.
Weiss quickly rolls out of the way and begins to run for her weapon on the ground and faces the Grimm again.
"Weiss! Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath-" Ruby shouts advice to her, but she turns to face her.
"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss shouted back at Ruby.
"She's trying to help you Dumbass!" I yell at her, but she ignores it seeing the Boarbatust begin to roll at her again.
"You don't have to be mean to her Seth." I hear Jaune tell me.
"If she can't take advice from her team. Then she will get injured. Getting help from others will always improve the dynamic of the team. If one doesn't listen, then the whole team will fall one by one." I look at Jaune now. "We all learn this in combat school, remember?"
"Ri...Right." He looks back at the fight and doesn't say anything else.
I get that he cares about her, but these are Grimm. They don't care about anything else. They need to be dealt with no matter what. If one person decides to not listen to the group. Then they are as good as dead. School tells us this.
But Mom taught me this a long time ago.
'Always have each other's back, Seth. Because they will always have yours.'
As I turn back to the fight. I see Weiss drive her blade into the Boarbatusk's stomach. Killing the Grimm.
The bell rings and we all leave to go to our next class.
As the day went on, the other classes were actually enjoyable. Science class was run by Professor Peach, a nice lady who had this mad scientist vibe to her. I really liked her class and can't wait to see more of it. Dust class was also fun, but the Professor there was over the top, to say the least. But he did somehow make learning more about dust fun. Even though Weiss was looking pretty angry at the man's carelessness of the matter. After those classes were over we all went to get lunch. There we mostly talked about the day so far and how much we actually didn't learn anything yet. But again, it was the first day for us. So of course, it would be easy.
However, there was tension in the air, and it was all thanks to Weiss and Ruby. Whatever they had with each other was really making us uneasy. Especially on Weiss's side of things.
After that, we all went to our next class, Weapons class. To be fair this was mostly a free period for us. There was no teacher only someone telling us this was just a way for us the fix our equipment or study for other classes. Honestly best class so far. 10/10.
Technically our final class was History. But on other days that would be Combat class.
But History for me was a nice change of pace for me. Why may you ask? Well.
"Good afternoon students my name is Bartholomew Oobleck. But you may address me as Doctor Oobleck." A tall man with green hair enters the classroom with a speed that rivals any speed semblance.
The professor then actually begins his lecture while also moving around the classroom.
"Man that guy is fast I can bearly keep up with him." Jaune whispered to us.
"Yeah, I see him one second in front of us and the next the other side of the class." Nora also agreed.
"It is getting a bit difficult to keep up." Pyrrha also agrees with them.
"Wait... You guys are having trouble following?" I tell them.
"Yeah? Aren't you?" Ren asked.
I look back at the professor (Doctor!) and see him run at a normal speed.
'Gods I think Mom really did something to me at a young age.'
"If you don't blink you can follow his movement way better." I tell them and return back to watching him actually teach us something.
During our time in class, as we continued to work, something did happend. For some reason someone was throwing papers at Jaune, he kept ignoring it but I could see a big amount of papers on the floor next to him. When I turn my head to look at the person responsible for it. I saw a guy with orange hair laughing his ass off over what he was doing.
'Really? Isn't he a leader?'
He threw another one at Jaune but I caught it right before it hit him. He looks at me and I just turn back and ignore him.
"You didn't have to do that." Jaune whispers to me.
"The guy was being a dick. Trust me I dealt with those types of people before." I said to him as I continued to work.
By the end of class the professor(Doctor!) Right. Gave us some books to study. We all took them with us and headed to our final class of the day.
Combat class.
Combat class was run by the woman with blonde hair. I am now knowing her name was Glynda Goodwitch.
"Welcome students, I am your combat instructor. For those wondering yes, this class will only take place on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This class will teach you how to better defend yourself against other human opponents. Grimm are not the only threat to this world. There are those who also wish to hurt it as well. In this class, we will be following tournament rules. Does anyone know what that means?"
A few people raised their hands but the professor called on Pyrrha. "It means you fight until your Aura hits a percentage, roughly around the fifteen percent."
"Correct. So when your opponent is down to that percentage the match ends. Now I know some of you look like you all wish to fight. However, today is mostly an introduction. Until Friday, that will be our first actual day of fighting. So be prepared."
With that, she dismissed us all and the first day of school ended.
"Oh, I can't wait till Friday! I want to beat someone up!"
"Nora relax. We still got one more day till friday." Ren reminded her.
As we all left I saw Weiss walking away from her team while Ruby went to follow her, leaving Yang and Blake back.
"Sup guys. How was your day." I tell them as we walk up to them.
Yang turns back to us and smiles at us. "Boring first day, but seeing you now is making me feel much better shades." She tells me and I roll my eyes at that.
"Oh gods."
What's wrong with Weiss and Ruby?" Jaune asked them
"Well, Weiss has been annoyed by what had happend in Grimm's studies. Ruby has been trying to talk to her about it, but so far nothing has been working." Blake tells us and looks back at the direction she saw both of them go. "At this point, Weiss is just upset."
We all looked at each other and decided to begin to walk to the cafeteria to get dinner.
As we all sat down to eat we just continued to talk about the day. Wondering how this will be happening for the next four years.
"Honestly can't wait for Friday. I can finally have a go at you, shades."
I choke on my food at that and turn to her. "Why me?"
"Why not? After seeing you fight I really want to see who of the two of us is the best."
Sigh... This girl
And I thought Arslan was bad.
"Hey! Seth good but he doesn't compare to me. I can bench five of me with no sweat."
"Nora we are in the same team."
"Yeah, but a healthy competition always improves the team."
"Speaking of team, how have you guys' team been? Can't be easy being the only five-person team here." Blake asked us.
"For the most part, it has been easy nothing really changed. Well, I just had to sleep on the floor last night but other than that I't been alright."
"On the floor? If you need a bed shades you can always-"
I get up from my seat, grab my empty plate, and begin to leave.
"Going back to my room now. See you guys later." I quickly leave while hearing Yang laughing a storm.
'I swear this is going to get annoying fast.
Back with the others
"You really need to stop doing that Yang." Pyrrha tells her.
"What? You know I'm just joking right? Seth gets it, why are you jelly?"
"No, as I said before we are just friends."
"You say that but..."
"Okay, you two. That's enough." Ren the voice of reason cuts in. " There is no need to fight here, We are all friends here."
"Yeah! Save it for Friday."
"Nora." Ren places a hand on his face.
Both girls looked at each other with determination and agreed to this.
Friday was going to be fight day.
As I was walking back to the room I was reading the text that I got from Mom.
She was happy for me to be able to make it in, also we promised each other to talk later in the week once I was out of school. Honestly, Mom worries too much.
I might need to change some details about what has happend but I will at least have a nice talk with her.
As I turn the corner I bump into someone.
OOF
"Shit, my bad I didn't-"
"Swear."
I looked and saw Ruby.
"Oh hey, Ruby what's up?"
"Bad."
"Why bad?"
It took her a minute but then she looked at me. "Seth, do you think I'm cut out to be a leader?"
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"What?"
"Leader. Am I made for it? I was talking to Weiss and she brought up some good points, and now I'm doubting myself about-"
"Ruby if Weiss is the one telling you this then maybe it's not the best idea to listen to her."
I mean, if she was my team leader, I would probably shoot myself.
"But she's my partner."
"Yeah, partner. That means she needs to know that you are doing your best at this and that she needs to support you as well."
She looks down at the ground not liking my answer but I still continue.
"Ruby, it's only been one day. You still have a lot more time to prove to her that you can do this. So do that."
"Do what?" She raises her head to me.
"Prove to her that she is wrong about you. Show her you are capable of doing this. I mean, you are the youngest out of all of us and yet you still made it into Beacon. So tell me what has she done so far?"
I can see her think for a bit and smile. "Thanks, Seth. I'm going to try my best from now on." Her stomach rumbles and her face becomes embarrassed.
"Maybe after you get food. The guys are still in the cafeteria, you should go now and catch up with them."
"Right! See you Seth, thank you!" She soon runs off with a speed that leaves some rose petals.
"Huh, didn't know she could do that."
"I see that you are fulfilling your role well." I heard a voice behind me scaring me and I turned to see the headmaster.
"Holy Crap! You are creepy as shit, sneaking up on me. Wearing that-"
"I would suggest not to continue that Mister Sapphire."
"Right... Sorry, just the way I react to people sneaking up on me." That or I throw a punch.
"Hmm."
"By the way, what do you mean by role?"
I see the man take a sip of his mug. Does he always have it on him?
"Tell me, have you played chest before?"
"Um, not really sir. If I'm honest here I'm more of a checkers kind of guy."
I mean the game is more simpler.
"I see, to put it in a simpler way, the artifact that you collect is considered the weakest piece of the board. However, it does its part by protecting the other pieces on the board."
"Soooo, that means?"
"You are helping others as you see fit, you might learn more as you continue to be in this school. But know this. Once you make it to the end, you can be whatever you want to be." As the headmaster said this he began to walk away from me. Leaving me even more confused about what he was talking about.
"Honestly that man is a great mystery if I ever seen one. And yet." I rub my head some more. "He did not make any sense at all. This is why I prefer checkers."
I began to leave and headed toward my room. As I made it there I opened the door and saw something I was not expecting.
"Why is there a couch here?"
I feel my scroll buzz and pull it out to see that I have received a new message from the school. As I read it, I take a seat on the couch and once I finish, I look at it again.
"Cool, so this is my new bed."
Friday came around and everyone was excited for today.
As everyone left their classes, we all headed towards the combat arena. Today was Friday. So that means we get to fight.
I am dreading this all day today.
"Friday! Friday! It's Friday~!" Nora sang her song excited for today.
"Nora calm down." Ren tried his best but no dice.
"How can I, today we finally get to hit stuff!"
"Ah let her be Ren, she just excited about today." I assure Ren.
"While that is true, I'm worried what she might do."
"How bad can it be?" Jaune asked.
"She goes for the legs a lot and people always get injured."
I felt a shiver going down my spine when he said that and looking at Nora now. I am so happy we are on the same team.
As we entered the classroom, we all took our seats. There Miss Goodwitch was waiting for all of us to be seated.
"Settle down students. Now I know today is Friday and I can tell some of you are excited. Some more than others." I could tell she was looking at Nora, who was just bouncing in her seat. "But remember we have rules in this classroom, and I oblige all of you to follow them." She looked at everyone in the room making sure everyone got the message.
"Very well, who would like to start today?"
Oh, gods please don't let it be Yang. She was hyping it up all day yesterday and now that today is the day. I just hope she at least waits.
"I will ma'am!" A volunteer stood up and hearing her voice I knew who it was.
"Miss Schnee, very well let me pick an opponent for-" Miss Goodwitch was soon cut off by Weiss again.
"Ma'am I wish to fight... Him." She pointed at someone, and everyone turned to the person.
As everyone turned to the poor sucker, I saw Jaune turn his head to Pyrrha who turned her head to Nora who turned her head to Ren who also turned his head to me and I also turned my head to face a wall.
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...
I turned to face Ren and pointed at him.
"Very well, Mister Sapphire please get your equipment and get ready to fight."
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...
"Can I decline!"
A/N: A simple chapter today. Hopefully next week I post another one.
Thank you for reading and see you all next week. For Seth vs Weiss!
Feel Freeze to join me! ;)
(Why am I like this.)