A/N: The Halloween Chapter isn't much for scariness but I wasn't in much of a spooky mood. I blame the fact Halloween is over. Writers Block. Just had to happen at the worst of times. Patrick had quite the time of his life but just doesn't care. If only Amanda realizes that instead of believing he's doing some "Fanatic" role to get "closer" to them.
Chapter 18: Training
Two and a half weeks have passed since Halloween. As Selena has said, she returned to Beacon as Sherry Farron days after Halloween. Akira and Marlene talked about how they were at the concert, it makes Selena happy to know her friends came to support her, but she was especially surprised to learn Patrick was there as well. Even accidentally.
Teams PASM and CPER are spending their after classes in the Training Grounds. Patrick is busy working on his devices. He finished upgrading his Dust Leg Bracers but is now working on his Flamethrowers. Marlene is helping him out with the devices. Selena is working on her Staff Combat Techniques.
All while Akira is just sitting in the middle of everything meditating.
"What is Akira doing?" Peter asks.
"Shh. Quiet." Marlene says. "She's training."
Akira is only sitting with her eyes closed, hands folded, and slow breathing. "I don't get it, she's just sitting there."
"Trust me, she's training," Marlene says.
"Guess he needs a brain to see it," Patrick mutters. "Marlene, I need the Fire Dust Crystals."
While Akira keeps meditating, her attackers are hiding, moving in silent steps. Clawdia has her eyes set on Akira while positioning herself in Cat Pounce Mode. Earnest gestures his hands to hold two blades. Rayla gets into a fighting stance. All while completely silent.
Akira makes no movement of any kind, not even the slightest. Just sits there meditating like a rock. Earnest and Rayla look at Clawdia. Clawdia countdown with her fingers and mouths: 'Three. Two. One. Go!'
The three of them leap towards Akira at once with great speed. Akira remains still in her meditation. Everyone delivers the first blow, and Akira's fox ears perk up and her eyes open in seriousness. In the blink of an eye, Akira draws out her Katana and blocks Clawdia's Fist Claws, while docking her head down to avoid Earnest's invisible blades. Akira uses her Chi Enchanted left hand to block Rayla's fist.
Everything happens real fast that Marlene and Peter can hardly keep up with what's going on. Akira repels Clawdia, she goes for Earnest to block his attacks. Rayla delivers several blows with her hands and feet. Akira knocks Earnest back and focuses on dodging Rayla's swift blows. Clawdia joins in on the fight and now Akira and dodging and blocking from both opponents.
The second she gets an opening, Akira charges up her Chi Semblance and unleashes a blast wave that defeats them. Akira turns her attention to Earnest, who is positioning himself to wield a heavy club. Then charges. Akira powers up her Chi, sending all of her focused energy to her Katana. Earnest delivers the blow, and Akira blocks it. Resulting in a powerful shockwave and the ground beneath them creaking. All while the two of them didn't flinch.
The shockwave, however, causes Patrick to lose his concentration. The Screwdriver in his hand went flying along with the screw and lid flying as well. And the screwdriver lands right on his head. Patrick softly growls while rubbing his head.
Earnest and Akira ended their deal. Akira sheathes her sword and respectfully bows.
Selena and Marlene clap delightfully. "Akira, that's amazing," Marlene says.
"Yeah, mew were Paw-some!" Clawdia says.
"Indeed. Your swordsman skills are quite fetching." Rayla says. Earnest speaks, and Rayla only translates it with: "Master Earnest agrees as well."
"Thank you, everyone. But I still need to train some more." Akira says.
Selena and Marlene groan in disappointment. "Again? You already fought 5 matches with 13 students." Selena says.
"You're becoming training obsessed like Patrick," Marlene says.
Hearing that certainly got Patrick's attention. "Hey!"
"No, I need to train more. I only have two days to complete my training." Akira says.
Since nobody wants to continue training with Akira, she decides to do more meditating and practice her swordsmanship on target dummies. Everyone else just stands by and watches her. Except for Patrick, who still focuses on his devices.
"She's been at this all week," Selena says.
"What's wrong with her?" Clawdia asks.
"It's the Kendo Club. They're having a tournament this weekend to determine who will represent Beacon at the Vytal Festival." Marlene says.
"Is that it? I don't think she's really the type who stresses herself over this." Rayla says.
"Normally, yes. But there's a special occasion: The Faunus-Hater, Kasheer." Selena says.
Earnest and Clawdia are shocked to hear that name. "Him again? Just what is wrong with that jerk. He's got a tail between hiss feet." Clawdia says.
Earnest speaks, of which Rayla translates. "'Seeing his behavior makes me want to take one of my Mime Swords and...' Oh, good lord, I am not translating that for you, Master Earnest. But I do agree, his Faunus behavior is so bad-mannered."
"Yeah, and Akira is going have to fight him in a duel. If they ever meet a match that is." Marlene says.
"Which they probably will," Patrick says. "I've seen him training here for the past several weeks. He's getting serious."
"So what if one guy has it out on Akira. She's still pretty awesome, and lovely too." Peter says, sounding pretty subdued in that last comment.
Patrick catches on his perverted nature and growls. "Clawdia!" Clawdia angrily grabs and pulls Peter by the ear, snapping Peter back into reality as he winces in pain. "Thank you."
Clawdia lets go of Peter's ear. "Oh, what are we gonna do about her?" Rayla asks.
Akira spent her days' training. Once it gets dark, she moves from the training room to meditating on the roof. She sits, legs crossed, eyes closed, breathing in slow and deep, the exhale with a single chan sound. Akira forms her hands in front of her, her Semblance activates and a small orb of Chi Energy forms in her hands. The orb grows slightly as she focuses on her meditation.
As she does, the memories come.
Memories of her younger years in school, kids picking on her for her Faunus nature. As the memories flow, Akira has trouble maintaining her concentration. Her school days. Moments when she is protesting in the White Fang. The human citizens from her village.
Above all else: Kendo Club.
The match against Kasheer. 'I've lost? To a Faunus? This is unacceptable!' Afterward, things have gotten intense with Kasheer. He's been getting serious with his training, and whenever they cross paths he just throws mean glares at her and mean comments about her being a Faunus.
But there is one memory that haunted her: The last fight when Akira won but was nearly defeated. After that, Kasheer threatened her with a: "When I defeat you in the tournament, everyone will see that you don't belong here. Just like every other Faunus."
The word 'Faunus' echoed in her head, and it broke her concentration. Akira falls on her hands and knees, sweating and breathing heavily. Once she is calm, or as calm as she can be, Akira moves into sit position. She looks at her hands, shaking. She's nervous as heck, letting Kasheer get into her head, triggering her long past life.
"I need to train more."
Selena and Marlene worriedly waited for Akira to return, but she hasn't. Patrick doesn't really care what's going on, but he wishes the girls would just calm down. After a while, they decided to go to sleep. Even Patrick turns in. By morning, Selena is the first to wake up, even earlier than Patrick. She yawns and stretches her arms around. Then looks at Akira's bed.
Even half-asleep, can she tell there's something missing: Akira. "Hey, guys?" Marlene and Patrick wake up, still tired. "Did anyone see Akira?"
"I thought she was in bed when I woke up..." Marlene checks the clock. "Three hours ago."
"I was up to go to the restroom minutes after that and I didn't see her," Patrick says.
"Guys, you don't think she stayed up all night, did she?" Selena asks.
"If she did, this is going too far," Marlene says. She gets out of bed. "Come on, let's talk some sense into her."
Selena agrees. Putting on her disguise quickly, Selena catches up to Marlene. Patrick just says behind. "And they say I'm the one with problems."
It doesn't take long for those two to find Akira. She is spending her day in the training room. Only instead of meditating, she's fighting off against a dummy with her weapon. Just by looking at her, Marlene and Selena can tell how exhausted Akira is. She wields her blade as if it's heavy, bags under her eyes, struggling to say awake. Selena and Marlene try reasoning with Akira.
But alas, they were unsuccessful.
"Akira, this has gone long enough. You haven't slept. You barely eat. Just look at you." Marlene says.
"You can say all you want, but I must train for the tournament tomorrow," Akira says.
"Akira, please. You are a really skilled Huntress. What you need is to rest." Selena says.
"Don't bother trying to talk me out of this," Akira says.
"If you're nervous about something, you can talk to us about it. We're your team." Marlene says.
"I...am not nervous," Akira says.
"I'm an idol, Akira. I know stage fright when I see it." Selena says. "And I can see you're a nervous wreck."
"I said I'm not nervous. I just...need to train some more." Akira says.
Selena and Marlene keep trying to talk her out of training but Akira refuses. Eventually, they both give up, then returned to their dorm. Selena and Marlene constantly talked about what to do to get Akira to stop. Patrick just stays out of the way on this conversation, yet he feels annoyed at the girls blabbering in worry. Finally, Patrick had enough. Frustrated, he gets off of his desk chair. Selena and Marlene were startled by his sudden action.
Patrick starts leaving the dorm, Selena and Marlene ask each other what he's doing and then decide to follow him.
Patrick starts making his way through Beacon until he finds Akira in the Training Room. Akira looks even worse than earlier. Selena and Marlene stop at a certain distance while Patrick keeps marching towards Akira. Akira notices Patrick approaching. "If you're here to talk me out of training, don't."
"I'm not here to talk," Patrick says. "I'm here to challenge you." Hearing that surprises Akira...and worries Selena and Marlene. Patrick grabs a wooden sword and positions himself to fight. "You said you wanted to train, so I'm gonna challenge you."
Akira accepts his challenge. Selena and Marlene lean close to each other whispering. "This is not going to end well," Marlene says.
Selena agrees. "I'm at least hoping he'll go easy...oh who am I kidding, he won't."
The match begins. Patrick starts by charging in. Akira braces herself in a defensive stance. Patrick delivers the strike, which Akira blocks only his strength is superior against hers and her weapons fly right off of her hands. Then Patrick does a strike that knocks her down. "You're defeated," Patrick tells her. Akira looks up at Patrick. She reaches for her weapon and stands up, was long and hard for her to get back up. Patrick readies himself and charges in for a strike. Akira manages to successfully block the first attack, but didn't get lucky the second time and was whacked on the head. "You're defeated."
Akira can feel her frustration building. This time, she makes the first strike, and Patrick still defeated her so easily.
The matches go on and on for a while, even Akira is showing signs of being on the verge of collapsing. Selena and Marlene just worry more and more with each match happening. Even Selena sometimes whispers 'Stay down'.
"Just give up," Patrick says.
"No! I...Can't!" Akira slowly, struggling, gets back on her feet. "I have to win."
"Why do you need to win? I thought you didn't care about winning." Patrick says.
"You wouldn't understand!" Akira goes in for a strike, only for Patrick to block without even trying. "I have to win."
Patrick repels Akira's attack, causing her to fall. "Look at you, you can barely even stand," Patrick says. "How do you expect to win in this sorry condition you're in?" Selena and Marlene commented about how harsh that sentence was. Akira once again stands up. "Why are you doing this? We've seen you fight! You over-exhaust yourself! All for what? A stupid tournament. So why? Why are you doing this? You're afraid?"
"I am not afraid!" Akira says.
"You're not afraid. You're already a skilled fighter. If you don't have a reason for all this, then just give up!" Patrick says.
"Shut up!" Akira loses her temper. She charges at Patrick. "You don't understand! You'll never understand!" Akira strikes at Patrick as she speaks, each blow with all her strength, but still too weak for Patrick to block with no effort. "All my life I've been picked and insulted. Humans shunned me. Shamed me. Abused me, my family. All because we were Faunus! When we were finally making a difference in the White Fang, they didn't respect us. They feared us! We wanted to bring honor to the Rhysenshi Clan! For Faunus everywhere! I came to Beacon to bring that honor! Then he came! Kasheer!"
On the last blow, Patrick easily disarms Akira. Akira doesn't bother going for her weapon, she instead resorts to her fists, Punching Patrick. To him, it only feels like she's punching a fluffy cloud. "He's always picking fights on me. Saying such insults. 'You don't belong here!' 'You're just a pretender.' 'Kendo Club isn't for Animals!'"
For her last punch, Patrick instead blocks it grabbing onto her fist. Akira just stands there, looking down, panting. Her body begins to relax...and Patrick takes notice of tears sliding down her face, dripping from her chin. "And I realized he's right..." Akira's fist drops from Patrick's hand then she collapses onto her knees. "The Kendo Club is full of humans, I am the only Faunus. All the other Faunus are afraid to join, all because of Kasheer. I thought...I thought if I could win, then..."
Akira doesn't say anything. Her voice starts cracking. Akira wraps her arms around her, breaking down crying. Patrick's expression softens, he then kneels down and puts a hand on her shoulder. Selena and Marlene and only watch with shocked expressions.
Hours past. The sun is beginning to set. Akira is in her bed at the dorms, falling fast asleep. Rayla places the cover over her then afterward picks up the dirty dishes and leaves.
In the Dorm of Team CPER, Selena, Marlene, and Patrick explain what happened to Clawdia and Earnest. They cannot believe what they learned. "Goodness. Poor Akira." Clawdia says.
"She must have been bottling up these motions for years," Selena says. "Then I guess over-exhausting herself must have caused her to crack."
"It's quite possible. Bottling up human emotions for who-knows-how-long can cause stress on the mental lobe and the mixture of sleep-deprived and lack of substance caused the stress to crack under the pressure." Everyone looks at Marlene confused. Marlene takes notice of the expressions focused on her. "What? I got my degree in Psychology in three of my School Courses."
They could do nothing but take her word for it. "Anyways, I understand how Akira Fur-els. But if I were in her Paws, I wouldn't go exhausting myself to death." Clawdia says.
"I agree. I guess it shows how much Faunus equality means to her." Selena says.
"And it's something she'll never achieve as long as Kasheer is there to break it down." Patrick says.
"What are we gonna do now?" Marlene asks.
"This tournament match means a lot to her. All we can do is be there to support her." Selena says, and Marlene, Clawdia, and Earnest agree.