Greywing44: *Takes deep breath*
Gotta say, with all I've seen from you, did NOT expect you to be a negima fan. Though you got good taste though! Yue gets pretty up there in battle strength eventually and Nodoka's a force to be reckoned with an a tactition. I can't wait to see what you do with them in this story.
Amazo though? Really? Why would you want a half naked elf in your biz? Heh, I'm kidding, this should be fun.

NeoNazo356: Negima was one of the first Manga I bought in-bulk at MTAC, and I've been collecting them until I finally had the whole set. It's one of my earliest fav's, next to "Rosario+Vampire", "Amazing Agent Luna", "Toriko", and a few other titles that have influenced my work. In the previous story, one of my favorite characters made a surprise appearance, but kept it low-key enough that no-one would know who she is right away; she was actually mistaken for Salem very recently. As for Yue and Nodoka, they seemed like an interesting contrast to have in Yang's circle of friends, hence why I introduced Nodoka in the prequel, so as to be a segue to expanding Yang's circle of friends in Volume 2.
As for Amazo, he isn't always an elf-like android; at least not in Earth-12.
*Wink*

KitsuneDragon: Sooooo...Vincent's a cyborg?

NeoNazo356: In a... manner of speaking. Also, I've made no attempt to hide his "Automail", so that shouldn't be a surprise, and RWBY already has cyborgs and the occasional gynoid, so it shouldn't be that-shocking as of this chapter.
Of course, if it isn't obvious enough, Vincent isn't just any ordinary cyborg, and hints at his origin have been sprinkled in all his past appearances if you aren't already aware. The acronym "A.M.A.Z.O." is just the most-recent in a trail of breadcrumbs I've been leaving behind ever since his appearance in Giant-Slayer (Volume 1).

skinnydude911: Well, looks like the plot of Vincent's past and abilities thickens... this should be good.
Also, dear God... f*** Oobleck teaching him about sex, holy s*** that was one of the funniest things I've read. I can just see Glynda having an anime horrified expression plastered on her face as she found them like that. I laughed so much at that moment she walked in and found him teaching the young amnesiac about women. Well done man.

NeoNazo356: Yeah, that was kind of the reaction I was hoping for when Oobleck went off on that tangent. Given the zeal he teaches History, it only makes sense that, when given the opportunity, he'd tackle "the birds and the bees" with equal zeal; which in some cases can be a really bad (read: funny) combination.
Glad Glynda's distress brings you such joy.

TM11: So, Vincent either is a cyborg or an android? Or is he something like Tatsuya Shiba from Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei?

NeoNazo356: An "android" is what Penny would be if she were a he. Basically, what Android 16 from Dragonball Z is. Vincent is most-definitely a cyborg because, as you might've seen in Giant-Slayer (Volume 1) "Chapter 53: The Wandering Stray & The Los Boy", Vincent bleeds.
As for Tatsuya Shiba... I hadn't seen that prior to starting Giant-Slayer, so it won't be a crossover and it wasn't inspiration for his character, but that being said, Vincent isn't outright "magical" like Tatsuya is. His feats up 'til now have other sensible explanations, though you might have to open up your imagination to possibilities with a little more... dimension to them.

Stoked to have so many interesting Reviews, and I'm looking forward to more in the chapters to come.

*NEW WORLD*

'Why…?' Nodoka thought to herself as she scrambled through the grass and the dirt to escape the Grimm trying to crush her. 'Why couldn't I get a Semblance like Yang?'

Even to the untrained eye it was obvious this Grimm was just toying with her; milking every drop of negativity it could from her.

'Why can't I be strong like she is?' she asked, lamenting her own weakness.

"GRAAAAAAAAAH!"

Nodoka rolled to the side, dodging another axe handle by the smallest margins.

'Is this really where it ends for me…?' she asked, glancing up to see Yue nudging an unconscious teen with white hair as thoughts of all she'd never be able to do flitted across her mind. 'Yue… Haruna… Yang… I'm sorry…'

Closing her eyes as the Grimm raised its arms up once more, the girl resigned herself for the final blow.

'Goodbye...'

The next moment, the was the loud *WHAM-CRACK* of a body being struck and bones being broken, the noise resounding far and wide through the air.

To Nodoka's confusion however, she didn't feel a thing.

Cue Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth OST – Amakakeru Hoshi (Star Soaring) by Suara

Hazarding a glance upward, the bookworm's blue eyes went wide as she beheld a silver-haired man barely older than her striking the massive Grimm in the face with a beautifully-sculpted arm of ringed chrome, coming to her rescue at the last possible moment like the hero from the stories of yore. The Grimm's bone-like mask cracking around the left eye and staggering backward, the silver-haired hero landed before her with the grace of a cat, his fine clothing a strange match for the beautiful arm of chrome jutting from his shoulder.

"Hey! Are you okay?" the silver-haired teen asked, mismatched eyes of indigo and glowing crimson meeting her own as he turned to meet her gaze.

"I-Look out!" she suddenly shouted, pointing hurriedly behind him, the massive Beringel lunging towards the silver-haired teen, enraged as chips of bone fell from its visage.

Odd-colored eyes glancing to the side, ribbons of silver light suddenly spilled out as he whirled on his heel and thrust out his arms. With a roar of- "STAY AWAY FROM HER!" -, the air around the two of them shuddered before suddenly coming alive, a monstrous gale like the exhale of a scorned god bore down on the massive Grimm, halting its forward momentum entirely as it clumsily fell to the ground. With another mighty push, silver ribbons of light beginning to spill out of the teen's hands, grass went flat and trees groaned as the gale grew stronger, the Grimm's massive frame causing it to be thrown onto its back, actually tumbling.

"Whoa…" Nodoka awed with wide eyes as she beheld the showing of Nature's Wrath, nary a speck or crystal of Dust in sight.

"Can you… stand…?" the silver-haired teen asked between pants of air, the recent display obviously taking its toll on him.

"Yes, I-agh!" she suddenly cried the moment she put her weight on her foot. "My ankle… I think I sprained it…" she said, pitying her own weakness.

"Here, let me help you up," he said extending his chromed hand to her.

Staring up at the limb of ringed chrome, despite its glowing iridescent lines, the girl couldn't help but reach out to it, seemingly entranced with this other-worldly figure standing before her.

The moment their hands met, the girl felt a sudden surge of warmth wash over her; not the cruel, abrasive warmth of putting your hand on a hot stove, but instead the soft heat of a warm blanket. She was far from the sort of machine nut that Yang's sister was, but even she knew that Automail was meant to be cold; yet, this warmth she felt was extremely surprising, and in a weird way sort of welcoming.

"Nodoka! Other guy! Behind you!" Yue called out, the two teens whipping their heads around once again to see the recovering Grimm ambling towards them, a bit more-cautiously in the face of forces it couldn't comprehend.

Because to the Grimm, the thing that kept attacking it was practically invisible, flickering into its visible spectrum only when attacking, before completely disappearing.

"You shall not pass!" the silver-haired teen roared as silver spilled from his eyes once more, a violent column of wind spilling out of his left palm, angrily buffeting the Grimm and halting it in place before his gaze turned back to her. His right hand gently lifted up, in contrast to the violent gale assaulting the Beringel, Nodoka found herself being swaddles in a cradle of wind, held aloft like a baby bird in the hand of a saint.

The blue-eyed girl sailing gently away, a juxtaposition to the opposite feat of power being displayed in his opposing hand, as she was set down next to Yue, the bookish girl managed to call out one last time before she was led away.

"Good luck! I believe in you!"

*NEW WORLD*

'Heh… It's pretty nice being appreciated,' Vincent thought to himself with a smile on his face, idly rubbing his free hand at the back of his head before turning his attention back to the massive gorilla-shaped Grimm coming at him. 'This power… I think I'm getting the hang of it. Only… I still don't know why I have it…'

Thrusting his arms out and focusing all of his power on forcing the Grimm back, to the silver-haired teen's surprise, the Grimm began punching divots into the ground, using them as footholds as it advanced toward him, shrugging off the wind in a way it hadn't before.

"Well… That's unfortunate…" the teen hummed before throwing his arms upward as though he were flipping a table.

The wind, heeding his command, threw the Grimm upward, the massive gorilla-shaped beast flailing wildly through the air while the silver-haired wind-wielder turned on his heel and ran like his life depended on it.

Cause it kinda did.

*NEW WORLD*

"Running, running, running, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap," Vincent chanted to himself as he ran like his life depended on it.

Cause it kinda did.

"Booooo! Learn a new joke!"

How the hell do you assholes keep getting in here?!

"Shit! And I just got this shirt too!" he swore only just now realizing his right sleeve had burned away… for some reason. "Also… Why the heck is my arm glowing?" he said glancing down to his arm before blinking. "Also, again, why the heck is everything so red?" he tacked on as he blinked his eyes.

Ever since that… whatever it was, went off inside his head, everything in front of him had gained a reddish hue, only abating whenever he actively closed his right eye. It was quite jarring actually.

Glancing over his right shoulder to the Grimm chasing him, a white chevron enveloped it with multiple prompts reading [-!-DANGER-!-] surrounding it, Vincent did the only thing he could possibly think of.

"Brain! Status report!" he shouted to himself.

"Everybody knows that the best way to learn is under intense life-threatening crisis!"

I never said the "only thing" was remotely smart, now did I?

"Damn you brain! That was not helpful!" he cried as he turned his attention back in front of him. The people fleeing out of his path lit up with white chevrons as well, separating them from the background. The teen's right eye beginning to sting a little, he glanced around until he found an area with a low concentration of white chevrons, and continued to kite the Grimm after him. "No idea what happened to my eye, but I'll take it!" he said, seeing as it was helping him find an area with few people.

"Young man! This way!" a rotund man in a burgundy suit with gray hair and a large mustache called out from an empty lot in that general direction.

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Vincent said ramping up the speed and making a sharp turn to the left, the Grimm tumbling into a nearby trashcan before righting itself after him.

"Hold this, will you?" Professor Port asked as he shed the upper half of his clothing, revealing his rotund, but still well-muscled form. Drawing a Knocking Gun from his pants pocket as his attire was passed along, the man brought it up to his shoulders, injecting biodegradable needles into his muscles sending an intense electric current into his muscular system.

The next moment his right arm tripled in size, followed by his left, his upper body expanding shortly after with legs swelling just-enough to accommodate. The Grimm closing in on him, the now-enormously-muscled man's girth was more than a match for the massive Grimm that tried grappling him into submission, the man's cavalry boots digging into the dirt until they found purchase.

"Oh hoh! A feisty one, aren't you?" the man asked as they entered a heated stalemate.

"Holy crap! How the hell did you do that?!" Vincent gawped as he beheld the moustached man's muscular form.

"Push-ups, sit-ups, and plenty of juice," the man chuckled heartily before he spread out his arms and drew the Grimm into a headbutt that caused another large crack to form on the Grimm's bone mask, this one splitting it down the center.

"Holy crap! How many push-ups did he do? How many sit-ups? What kind of juice did he drink?!" Vincent could only gawp as Professor Port laid down a furious staccato of blows on the raging Grimm as it tried and failed to surmount the enormous wall of meat before it.

"I shall indulge your questions later! For the time being, excellent work on keeping that young girl safe."

"You saw that?"

"From the window! And very heroically-done!" the man said with a grin as he grappled against the Grimm. "Don't worry, you can leave this to the pros now!" he said freeing his right hand before punching the Grimm in the face and throwing him away. Squaring his feet and pointing his right fingers forward, grasping his wrist with his left, his extended fingers let out an iridescent orange glow before he cried out- "JUSTICE FLASH!"

The glow of light from his fingertips suddenly belting out a deluge of ob-longed orbs, each one burst against the Grimm's body like bubbles, hair and flesh alike singed, filling the air with the scent of cooked meat as the attack kicked up a plume of dust in front of the Grimm.

Vincent for his part could only gape as heterochromatic eyes drank everything in, the teen in utter awe at the sight before him.

However, amidst that awe was a sense of... self-loathing, from deep down inside.

'It doesn't feel right... sitting back doing nothing...' he lamented to himself as he stepped back. 'If only I had some sort of weapon.'

[Thought Command: Recognized]

[Weapon Privileges: Reinstated]

[Generating Context-Sensitive Presets...]

'Wait what?' the teen thought to himself before an intense pain suddenly erupted from his right temple. The iridescent rings on his chromed arm blinking as the teen staggered, symbols he couldn't understand appearing before his left eye. His vision flickering between white and red as he was greeted by the unfamiliar sight, all he could tell was that the symbols flittering through his vision were like the App symbols on his Scroll; small squares with rounded edges and symbols in the center.

His hand reaching up to swat the phantasmal chevrons out of his way, his fingertip passed through one making something like a *Blip* sound in his ear, all the other flurrying symbols disappearing as the word [ FABRICATING ] blinked into being in front of him, a progress bar appearing beneath an App-like symbol depicting a vaguely egg-shaped cannon with an energy bar on the side.

The next moment, the chromed metal of his arm became a dull dark-gray matte with only the barest sheen, the concentric rings disappearing until his right arm resembled his left, only made of dull liquid metal instead. Before he could blink and process the change, his arm began to transform again, only unlike weapons with Collapsible or Foldable frames, his arm actually morphed, matter shifting and changing shape with a sound like a blade being drawn.

A few moments later and his right forearm resembled the egg-shaped cannon from the symbol, a dark-blue color bleeding across the metal in its final moments before it solidified once more, leaving Vincent enthralled yet more-confused than ever.

"Okay... I have a gun, but no hand..." the teen muttered, trying to keep his composure as he turned his new gun-arm this way and that, looking at it from every angle. "How does this thing even-"

Twitching a finger that wasn't even there anymore, there was suddenly a loud *PEW* noise as a bright-yellow oblong sphere of energy was suddenly spat from the barrel, the bolt of energy sailing through the air before taking a chunk out of a tree in the distance.

The sound of wood groaning until the tree buckled under its own weight, Vincent hissed painfully at the sight, before panickingly pointing his gun-arm at the ground.

If... whatever just happened, happened again, at least he wouldn't hit anything important.

Or anyone.

As doubt, confusion, and fear swelled in the odd-eyed teen's mind, the Grimm, still being assailed by Port's Justice Flash, had its attention drawn sidelong to its previous target, the negative emotions welling up within the teen's mind causing him to light up like a beacon, unironically-enough, to the creature of darkness.

Breaking away from Port into a sprint, energy bolts peppering its back as it disengaged, Port saw where the Grimm was going before shouting- "Look out!" -as the Grimm bore down on him.

Vincent for his credit had enough presence of mind to leap away from the Grimm's right swipe, the air whistling around the strike as he dodged.

To the teen's shock however, the pendant around his neck that had jumped out into the open during the chase, was not so fortunate, the barest hint of bony fingernail snagging the ribbon and sending it flying through the air, the old coin glinting in the sun like a winking eye as it landed in the grass.

Eyes going wide with panic, the Grimm bearing down on him was momentarily forgotten as he dove to the ground and grasped at his pendant, hastily blowing flecks of dirt and blades of grass from the immaculate black ribbon his friend had applied for him, caring more for it than the pendant itself, actually. A large shadow looming over him, the teen looked up to realize his error as the Grimm from before raised its arms above its head, intent on crushing him in his vulnerable stance.

Port, diving towards him with as much speed as he could muster and Vincent grasping the coin tightly, neither he nor Port nor Grimm noticed a soft golden glow emanating from the coin in his grasp. An instant later, the smallest, most-minute twitch of his leg muscles transformed into a powerful leap, carrying him well away from the Grimm's blow, dirt and grass kicked up as Vincent's body righted itself, almost as if by magic, landing on the ground with another bout of mantis-like grace.

"Huh...?" Vincent hummed looking down to his legs, then to the coin in his grasp. " . . . Mull on it later!" he said stuffing the pendant securely into his shirt before aiming his gun-arm at the Grimm, firing a shot into its face right as it was shoulder-checked from behind, the lemon-shaped bolt of energy taking out an eye if the Beringel's howling was anything to go by. "Listen up, butt-head! You do not hit girls! It's bad manners!" the teen chastised, the Grimm glaring at him with its remaining eye as a throaty growl left his lips.

"Ah, fighting for a young maiden's honor, are you?" Port questioned with a grin behind his mustache, seeing that the young man was now more-armed than moments before. "Very well then! I shall sit this battle out. He's all yours," he said as he sat upon a nearby bench, the wood and metal groaning under his new girth as he crossed his arms.

At that, Vincent and the Grimm stared one another down, mis-matched eyes of crimson and indigo glaring into a single fiery orb, the creature of darkness letting a growl rumble from the back of his throat before it charged, the air around Vincent changing as he dove into action.

Cue Mega Man 2 OST – Dr. Wily Stage

Snapping up his right arm and taking aim even as he ran, Vincent fired off three lemon-shaped shots at the Grimm, peppering its bony chest before leaping over its head when it swung its arm out at him. Aiming straight down and peppering its back as well, the teen curled into a ball and rolled away before breaking out into a sprint once more, the Grimm howling as steam rose off the areas that had been blasted.

Letting out a gutteral roar, the Grimm rounded once again before lunging at speeds bellying its massive girth, two massive arms thick as tree trunks diving at the teen from either side, aiming to trap him in a very fatal embrace.

However, instead of going up, left, right, or back, Vincent actually went forward, which turned into a "down" as he slid under the Grimm's body feet-first across the ground, slipping beneath the beast without harm before he dug his heels into the ground, jumping up and then spinning on his axis so he was aiming at the Grimm once-more, blasting rounds into its back even before his belly hit the dirt.

A rapid deluge of energy bolts peppering the Grimm as the silver-haired teen grew more-accustomed to the gun-arm he'd acquired, the shots became more-centered, forcing the Grimm onto the defensive, lest even more of its bony plating be shorn away and its flesh incinerated.

The aged Grimm beginning to lose ground under the deluge of bolts, glancing at something from the corner of its remaining eye, the Grimm ripped a trashcan free from the ground before hurling it. The odd-eyed teen bounding over it, the Beringel in turn lunged at the teen in mid-leap knowing only birds could change direction mid-air.

However, to the creature's surprise, silver light spilling out of the teen's eyes ushered in a rising column of air, which carried the wind-wielding teen up and above the Grimm's attack.

"Ho hoh! So he can sting like a bee and float like a butterfly!" Port noted jovially as the silver-haired teen remained tentalizingly out of reach as he floated through the air like a leaf in the wind. None of the Grimm's follow-up swipes fared any better either, its ire rising as its opponent taunted and attacked it with impunity, the stressors of the fight causing its reserves of energy to wane.

This was the sight that greeted Beacon security and those of the trained Hunters who finally arrived on-scene.

"Port! What's going on here? How did that Grimm get loose? Why are you just sitting back and watching?" Glynda demanded as she walked forward, she and the other Hunters on-site forming a wide perimeter as the woman approached the one who said he'd arrived first.

"My money's on the Council sending us cheap cages. Whether it's because they want to save money or someone's embezzling and chose this as the corner to cut away, who's to say?" the man replied with a meaty shrug.

"Well, at least we can keep the situation under control and-Vincent!?" the woman suddenly squawked as she realized just who was keeping the Grimm contained. "Vincent, what are you doing out there?!" she demanded.

"Urk! Glynda?!" Vincent yelped with wide eyes, the laps of concentration causing the ribbons spilling out of them to die out, dropping him to the ground and onto his rear.

An opportunity the raging Beringel was more than eager to take advantage of.

"ROLL LEFT!"

Responding to the call, Vincent did as he was told, the Grimm's fist missing him as he rolled left.

"ROLL BACK, THEN TO THE RIGHT!"

Rolling backwards, Vincent dodged the stomp aimed at him before rolling right, avoiding the follow up downward strike that would've taken him down for good had the stomp connected.

"STEP FORWARD!"

The Grimm bringing down an axe handle, Vincent stepped forward into the space between its arms made on the downswing, peppering its face with lemon-shaped shots before he leapt far away. Glancing over his shoulder to the person shouting instructions at him, he saw the girl he'd helped get away only minutes ago, the girl being supported by her friend as she clutched a college ruled notebook tightly in her hands, never peeling her eyes from the pages as she held it in a knuckle-white grip.

"IT'S GOING FOR THE PARK BENCH! BLAST IT!" the girl cried several seconds before the Grimm moved to pick up the piece of outdoor furniture, Vincent snapping his arm-gun up and blasting it into splinters before it could even turn around, a confused expression on its face before it turned to the bookish girl. "EEP!" she cried as the Grimm abandoned all else, diving toward once-lost quarry.

"You! Get back!" Glynda shouted as she raised her riding crop, only for a gale of wind to sweep past her, eyes going wide as Vincent literally flew between the girl, the teen's riding boots digging into the ground until they found purchase, the teen standing resolutely between the bookish girl and the monster.

"No you don't!"

Rearing his head back and taking in a massive gulp of air, throwing his head forward, a great zephyr spilled from his lips as a silvery cone of air washed over the Grimm. Its momentum grinding to a halt, the Grimm once again began to punch divots into the ground in an attempt to press forward.

However, there was something different about the wind this time.

It wasn't noticeable at first, but after several seconds ice crystals could be seen blossoming across the Grimm's body, actually freezing one fist to the ground as crystals of frozen water vapor formed into sheets, the Grimm soon encased up to the neck in a thick tomb of ice, looking like it'd stepped out into a blizzard.

The teen's might exhale exhausted, his remaining hand went to his knee as he greedily drank in gulps of air, those around him wide-eyed at the display of elemental power they'd just borne witness to.

"How... How did you know what that Grimm was thinking?" Vincent asked over his shoulder between pants, the girl suddenly clamming up as she pressed the notebook to her chest.

Further questions were cut off as the sound of ice cracking and throaty growling echoed through the air, the trapped Grimm flailing its head from side to side, cracks forming along its icy prison.

"Super-macho mustache man!" the silver-haired teen shouted. "What am I supposed to do now?!"

"You finish it off after delivering a snappy one-liner of course!" Port chuckled heartily, soaking in the compliment about his physique. "Go on, lad! Clench your butt cheeks, dig deep down inside, and yell out from the depths of your heart!" he responded jovially, Glynda sputtering audibly at the sheer absurdity of the man's statement.

"Right! I will!"

Vincent's response caused Glynda to sputter even louder.

Cue My Hero Academia OST - You Say Run

Breaking out into a sprint, Vincent drew his right arm back, a loud *Bwe-we-we-we-woob-woob-woob-woob-woob-woob-woob!* noise began to fill the air as the inside of his gun-arm glowed brightly, motes of light being audibly drawn in, the weapon trembling as the energy gauge on the side glowed brightly.

"When life gives you lemons..." the teen said lowly as he closed the distance between them, raising his gun-arm into an uppercut aimed dead-center. "Make lemonAAAAADE!" he roared from the bottom of his heart, butt cheeks clenched as he discharged a powerfully-charged bolt with a loud *BWASH*, an enormous lemon-colored blast of energy ripping out of the gun-arm and blasting the Grimm clean in two.

"Wow...!" Nodoka gaped in awe as she beheld the silver-haired teen's heroic figure, right arm raised in victory as the remains of the Grimm evaporated away almost-instantly, his hair ruffling in the wind caressing hsi back.

"Well... never thought I'd hear that saying used that way..." Port hummed as his muscles began to deflate, the fight sufficiently ended. "Good job! That one-liner was masterfully orated, ha ha ha ha!" he chortled happily.

However, that sentiment wasn't reflected by everyone.

"Vincent Valentine!" Glynda growled as she stomped towards him. "What do you think you were doing out there?! Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?!" she demanded angrily, only to receive no reply in turn. "What do you have to say for yourself!?"

Before Glynda could berate him further however, a stray wind caused him to list to the side, a sudden loss of strength causing him to be felled, losing consciousness before he met the frosty grass.

*NEW WORLD*

"Nodoka! I heard what happened and came as soon as class let out! Are you alright?" Yang asked as she rushed over to Nodoka, forgoing a sitting lunch break to ensure her friend was alright.

When a Grimm escapes containment because someone on the Council shelled out for shitty cages and/or was filling their own coffers, word got around.

"H-Hai, I'm alright!" Nodoka replied nervously, glancing up at a vaguely familiar building before turning her attention back to Yang. "I'm fine, really."

"You almost got flattened by a Beringel. I'd call that far from 'fine'," Yang huffed. "So… What are you doing out here?" she asked glancing up at the nearby building. A building Jack had been admitted to several times since knowing him.

"O-Oh… well…"

"The boy who saved her was admitted after the fighting stopped. He just… collapsed after finishing that thing off," Yue hummed curtly.

"Oh-hoh~" Yang hummed contemplatively. "Looks like we have a maiden in love here, don't we~?"

"N-N-N-N-No, it's nothing like that!" Nodoka yelped, a light dusting visible on her cheeks behind the hair curtaining her face. "I just… wanted to express my gratitude, that's all."

"Oh, I bet you do~" Yang purred, the girl's face lighting up into a beet-red blush before she promptly fainted, Yue catching her with a grunt as she held the girl's weight from the ground. "Geez, Yue, you are out of shape," the blond chided.

"Not all of us can be muscle-freaks like you, Yang," Yue quipped back.

"You know you love me," Yang chuckled as she slapped Nodoka lightly on the face, the girl coming to a few seconds later. "So… Nodo-chan, how 'bout we head on upstairs, give your big strong hero a 'thank you'~" she said waggling her brow.

"N-N-N-No, really, it's fine!" the girl stammered insistently.

"Sorry! Not taking 'no' for an answer," Yang returned as she hoisted the girl off her feet by the armpits and striding confidently through the automated doors of the hospital, Yue training tiredly behind the two.

*NEW WORLD*

Meanwhile...

"Doctor, what's his condition?" Glynda questioned after the preliminary examination.

"Physically he's fine, not a scratch on him," the male doctor replied.

"But…?"

"But… He has yet to regain consciousness. Or rather, he is conscious, but isn't capable of moving. His pupils are still dilating, but if he's cognizant, he isn't able to express it."

"So then you don't know the cause of it?"

"Unfortunately, no. Whatever caused him to lose consciousness like this, it's outside my field of expertise," the doctor replied sadly.

"Outside of his maybe, but not mine," a new voice said haughtily, Glynda looking over her shoulder before her eyelids fell into a disgruntled half-stare.

"Veronica…"

"That's Doctor Veronica to you, Goodwitch," the woman replied, adjusting half-framed glasses as the other woman facially expressed her distaste for her current attire.

Outside of her surgical scrubs, the woman's fiery hair was let loose, the longest of it spilling over her right shoulder, the middle-longest loch spilling down over the right side of her face, with a shorter loch spilling down her hair between her eyes, the hair framing her face brushed outward like phoenix feathers.

Her attire consisted of black chicken-themed slippers with white eyes, dark-brown stockings, a large white lab coat with a gold epaulets and a billowing collar with gold trim, red inner lining, black streaks running downward, and white bands criss-crossing it in a vaguely woven grid-like pattern, two small bands of silver circling the coat around the small of her back. Beneath the lab coat she wore a baggy black-and-white striped zip-up top, the zipper undone well beneath her bosom leaving much of her cleavage exposed, only barely preserving enough of her modesty to prevent from being obscene. Black circular half-frame glasses framing her eyes, a diamond-shaped sapphire dangled from a diamond-shaped golden crown running down the top of her head, while from her left ear dangled a silver three-linked chain, a similar sapphire suspended in the link dangling from her ear while the one on the bottom had a small arrow shape.

"Doctor, Veronica. What are you doing here? And dressed like that no less?" the blond bit out.

"What, you mean this?" Dr. Veronica asked, placing a hand upon her bountiful cleavage, each mountainous peak nearly the size of her head. "I don't think you're in any position to be mocking my fashion sense, Ms. Cleavage Window," the big-bosomed doctor taunted in turn.

"The amount of cleavage I show is tasteful. What you show can only be described as obscene!"

"I don't see any nips poking out, do you?" the woman asked turning to the other doctor.

"Well, um, no, not really," the doctor stammered nervously, his eyes darting between the floor and the other woman's cleavage. "I'm uh… just going to go…" he said, excusing himself before he was caught staring.

"You know, we're a lot alike, Goodwitch. You turn men to ice, I turn them to stone," Dr. Veronica chuckled, well aware of the affect she had on the opposite, and even the same, gender.

"Just tell me why you're here before you offend anyone else," Glynda bit out.

"It's about the combat prosthesis grafted to the young man's body," Dr. Veronica said inclining her head to the door. "As the world's leading expert of Eldecraft, I have sufficient reason to believe that to be what it's made of."

"For the record, you're the only 'expert' on Eldecraft," Glynda huffed dismissively.

"And yet the contents of the Vaults now-discovered across Remnant have proved numerous earlier hypotheses of mine to be fact rather than mere theory or flights of fantasy," Dr. Veronica replied haughtily.

"You're just going to ride that forever, aren't you?" Glynda questioned angrily.

"Only as long as I feel like it," the busty doctor chuckled. "So… Are you going to let me in, or not?"

"I'd have to go with 'not'," Glynda replied coldly. "I don't want you corrupting his common sense while he's still in this vulnerable phase."

"Well it's a good thing I don't need your permission, now do I?" the woman chuckled haughtily, the woman across from her bristling. "Oh, don't worry, I won't damage your baby chick if that's what you're worried about."

"Excuse you?"

"Oh come now, don't be so cold. It's obvious you've entered Mother Hen Mode with the boy," the woman chuckled. "Honestly, I think it's really cute. You're way too rigid for your health, so I'm happy you found an outlet for those maternal instincts you've been burying so long. Uhuhuhuhu~"

This accusation of course caused Glynda to flush in embarrassment.

"Although I shouldn't be surprised this is the route you went for. You're way to frigid to get a man into your bed, so it only makes sense you'd aim for someone younger~" Dr. Veronica added mockingly.

Suffice it to say, that comment changed the woman's embarrassment to a cold fury.

"Anyway, you can stay out here and fume, or you can follow me into his room and 'supervise'. Doesn't matter to me," Dr. Veronica cooed, making air quotes as she strode past the woman and into the aforementioned room, Glynda begrudgingly following after her.

Resting in the room's sole bed was Vincent, clad in a hospital gown with his clothes folded up off to the side; much to her consternation, Glynda noted that the right sleeve of the clothes she'd gotten for him had been burned away. Turning her attention back to her charge, wondering what Ozpin was thinking letting someone so-vulnerable into Beacon grounds proper, apart from his slumbering visage, the woman took note of his chromed arm, still in its gun-arm configuration, though confused as to why the chrome of his forearm had changed to blue, even as the metal changed shape and even size.

"Hmmmm…" Dr. Veronica hummed as she slinked over to the bedside, running a slender finger down his chromed limb. "Oh hoh…" Idly, she circled her digit around the barrel of his gun-arm, drinking in every detail with a madness similar to Dr. Stein's own glinting on her lenses. "I see…"

"Well? Are you done yet?" Glynda asked tiredly as the teen's chromed arm was being fondled.

"With just a cursory look? Of course not," Dr. Veronica replied with a huff as she drew her Scroll from betwixt her bosom, Glynda huffing in consternation before the woman input a recall code.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Glynda squawked as the woman's RPL, a garishly-decorated black-and-white unit, sailed through the air toward their third-floor window from the distance.

Vaulting across the bed and throwing up a telekinetic barrier and shielding her eyes from any glass that might make its way around the barrier, after several seconds she blinked confusedly when there was no crash. Hazarding a glance upward, the woman's eyes went wide as, instead of the locker crashing into the room through the window, it was instead hovering just outside, a number of perpendicular verniers keeping it stabilized.

"You mean you weren't going to have that thing come in here?" Glynda asked aloud, half-relieved, half-confused.

"Who do you take me for? Brick?" the woman asked as she reached into the floating locker and extracted an implement from it; an ornate black staff with numerous gold decorations around the shaft and on the pommel, an angular gyroscope-like implement with angular hexagonal rings and ornamental spikes with a blue sphere in the center set onto the head. "Now, stand back please while I do my work," she said pushing the woman aside, her RPL returning to its launch coordinates behind her.

Holding the end of her staff over the slumbering teen's shoulder, the blue sphere within it glowed before a ray of light shot out of it, fanning outward into a triangular shape. Running the staff down the chromed arm like a scanner, a rectangular screen appeared above the scanning ray, streams of data rolling down it at a pace no Human could possibly comprehend. The scanner finally roving over the end of the gun-arm barrel, Dr. Veronica set the staff down onto the floor before adopting a thoughtful pose, the staff remaining perfectly erect even as the woman propped one arm with her hand and stroking her chin with the other. For several minutes Dr. Veronica scrolled down the data on the screen being presented to her, idly flicking a scrolling bar with her finger and humming to herself, nodding on occasion.

"Ah, there's the problem," Dr. Veronica hummed with a nod. "See this here?" she asked bringing up an impossibly-complex molecular schematic on her staff's holo-screen that Glynda couldn't even possibly begin to comprehend. "This is the energy readout for the onboard Nano Forge, and these are the claytronic subroutines," she said pointing to different parts of the readout as she expanded the screen to include and impossibly-complex string of code and subroutines, prattled off as-casually as one talking about the weather. "When the system finally rebooted after placing itself in Stasis Lock for auto-repair, that spooling process expended most of the on-board power supply as various combat systems were brought back online. Combined with the energy expended in combat after the fact, and the construct was forced to rely on chemical energy instead to undergo final self-calibrations to accommodate updated user preferences."

"Nano forge…? Claytronics…?" the confused woman said rolling the words over her tongue. "…What?"

"Oh don't you worry your pretty little head over it. It's outside your field of expertise anyhow," Dr. Veronica hummed, dismissively waving her hand like one would dismissing a toddler. "Let's just say that whoever designed this implement wanted it to be very versatile, and were still in the process of solving the energy draw before he landed in our laps. They solved the problem surrounding the buildup of glial tissue, but I'm not completely sure how. Hmmmm. Work for another day I suppose," she muttered to herself as she lifted the arm up, taking some pictures with her Scroll before turning back to the data she'd collected and entered some kind of command string.

The next moment there was the sound of metal sliding against metal as the construct changed from its dark blue to a matte dark-gray, that matte sheen soon transitioning to familiar rings of chrome.

"What did you just do?" Glynda gawked, still reeling from the impossible sight before her.

"Oh, just returned his prosthesis to the default setting is all. Wouldn't do the poor boy any good to suddenly find himself left-handed now would it?" the woman asked, waving off the display like it was nothing special to her.

"What… What is this? I mean I know that Collapsible and Foldable Frame technology have become more and more advanced as the years went by, but this…? This is on a level completely unprecedented! The realm of science fiction!"

"Which is exactly why you won't be sharing this with your little boy-toy Ironwood the next time you see him, lest you sentence this poor, innocent, defenseless child to being Dr. Stein'd on for the rest of his natural life on a slab somewhere back in Atlas," the woman cooed as she reached down and cradled the boy's head to her ample bosom.

"Did you just use his name as a verb?" Glynda asked with a raised brow, before angrily hauling the woman off of him. "And keep those things away from him. I won't have you smothering him like that."

"Oh, but what a way to go~ Hmhmhm~" the woman chuckled. "Ah, but don't you worry about a thing, I'll be more than happy to take on his upbringing in your stead. Give me plenty of time to study the... 'Transformium' his arm is composed of," she said as she groused for a proper term.

The arm itself was technically still made of a blend of titanium and other rare and exotic elements from the periodic table suspended in a cellular matrix, but calling it 'Transformium' was a lot swifter in conversation.

"I'm sorry, what?" Glynda questioned aloud.

"I mean, based on your earlier dialogue, it seems like caring for him is such a chore for you; babysitting Ozzy's new pet project when you could be doing a million better things with your time," the woman shrugged dismissively, palms turned upward. "Of course, since he means so little to you, I'll be more than happy to be his den mother. Unless... you've actually warmed up to the boy," she said leaning forward with a knowing smile.

"What, have you been watching me?" Glynda asked with a huff.

"Watching him, mostly," Dr. Veronica said jerking a thumb over her shoulder. "Whenever Ozzy takes an interest in someone directly, it's always interesting, though that little ball of sugar and ammo he picked up before doesn't really do it for me. So, I've taken an interest in this little stray," the woman chuckled as she glanced back at Vincent. "So, what do you say? I certainly have free time on my hands to look after him."

"How the hell did people like you and Stein get tenure?" the woman asked tersely.

"Trade secret, I'm afraid," the woman chuckled with a finger raised to her lips. "So, about the boy's upbringing."

Before the woman could formulate a retort however, there was a knocking at the door.

"Orderlies," a muffled voice sounded from the other side.

"Looks like our time's up," Dr. Veronica chuckled as she reclaimed her staff and tossed it out the window, the implement falling a few feet before lazily listing back upward, the woman hopping atop it before flying back to her lab side-saddle.

"Uuugh…" Glynda groaned at the sight, knowing that someone out on campus would get the idea in their heads that if a member of the faculty was doing so, they could traverse the school ground with their superhuman abilities too.

They had rules against such a thing for a reason.

"Vincent…" the woman said giving him one last look. "Good job… on saving that girl," she said with a soft, proud smile as she stepped out, the three orderlies letting her pass with bowed heads before heading in.

*NEW WORLD*

"I literally cannot believe that just worked," Yue groaned as she and the others removed the masks and caps they'd used to obscure their identities.

"W-Won't we get in trouble for this?" Nodoka asked worriedly.

"Not really. Not as long as we don't get caught at least," the blond chuckled before turning back to the bed. "Hey, I know this guy!"

"Y-You do?"

"Yeah, he's the new RA in our dorm," Yang answered with a nod before looking to the exposed Automail. "Whoa… Now that's some high-end hardware. I'm no weapon-nut like my sister, but even I can appreciate this sort of craftsmanship," she said walking over, tapping the chromed metal with a finger. "Huh… Weird. It almost feels like skin."

"What are you talking about?" Yue asked tiredly.

"I mean… just look at it," she said pressing her finger into it, the metal indenting just like a real flesh-and-blood arm would before bouncing back. She tried pinching at it, but the metal was too slick for her to get a good grip on him. "And it's warm too. That… doesn't really make any sense," she hummed lifting up the hand and holding it against her cheek. "Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely warm."

"Okay now I know you're just screwing with me."

"A-Actually, I felt it too. When he helped me up," Nodoka answered meekly.

"That… doesn't make any sense. Based on thermodynamics alone, his automail arm should be cold," Yue huffed.

"Hey, like I said, maybe this is just the really high-end shit," Yang shrugged. "So, you think he can hear us?"

"Not sure. Looks like he's sleeping to me."

"Hmmm... I wonder what's going through his mind. Oh if only we had someone capable of reading thoughts~" Yang said in a staged tone. "Oh if only~"

"I'm not really sure about this," Nodoka said clutching at her college rule notebook. "It seems a bit invasive."

"Didn't you use your Semblance to read that Beringel's mind earlier?" Yue asked.

"That was different," Nodoka huffed. "Grimm don't have 'thoughts', just 'instinct' they act on. For people... for people, it's just different, okay? Grimm aren't 'people'," she objected.

"Oh, come on, don't be such a stick in the mud," Yang said patting her on the shoulder. "You know~ He might be worried sick about you~ No way of knowing unless you c-h-e-c-k~" the blond purred as she tapped the college rule notebook.

Nodoka remained indecisive, at least at first, though eventually a blend of Yang's needling and her own curiosity won out over her moral obligation not to invade another person's privacy.

Looking down at the clipboard and learning his name for the first time, Nodoka opened her notebook to a fresh page, uttering the boy's name as a lavender Aura flowed from her fingertips into the pages. The next moment, lavender-colored words began to form, scrawling slowly across the lines of the page as though Nodoka herself were writing them.

However, like most times she'd used her Semblance on a sleeping person, mostly her friends who insisted she learn the "ins-and-outs" of her Semblance in case it was ever needed for something critical, the words her Semblance gleaned were a blurry, garbled, unintelligible mess. Exactly what one would expect when reading the mind of a sleeping person who wasn't actively monologuing internally.

However, it wasn't only a person's internal monologue that her Semblance could illustrate; it could also craft images as well. Albeit, the images her Semblance "drew" were usually simplistic with very poor details; like the lazy doodling of a middle-schooler. Whether the lack of realism was due to her Semblance itself, or something on Nodoka's part was unclear, but since she didn't train her Semblance like Ruby or Yang did theirs, she doubted the opportunity to make her "image mapping" more-crisp would ever come up.

Usually, while her images were crudely-drawn, you could still "see" what someone was imagining. However in Vincent's case, what was shown was even less than that.

Framed at the top of the page above his written thoughts, or at least the garbled mess that was going through his head, was the image of a tower on an island. However, the image was vague and blurry, almost as though someone had drawn it with charcoal before running the side of their hand across the page. The background itself was a black, blurred mess so you couldn't tell if it was mountains or trees or buildings. What was in the foreground was marginally less-blurry, though the exact shape and size of the tower couldn't be distinguished because of the blurry "filter" imposed over everything, and because there was nothing to scale it to.

In essence, Vincent's dreams were likely filled with garbled nonsense and a blurry image he wouldn't remember when waking. A note she'd make of later.

"Well that's a bummer. And here I was hoping for some juicy details," Yang pouted as Nodoka closed the book, the lavender Aura spilling from her fingertips ceasing as she let out a tired sigh.

While the Aura that Yang had unlocked for her was enough to stop a knife, maybe a bullet of the low-caliber variety, using her Semblance ate through what little Aura she had very quickly.

"Still, at least we've ruled out him being brain dead," Yue hummed, remembering that fact-finding mission.

"That's a relief," Nodoka sighed, "I'm glad he's okay," she added, glancing longingly at the sleeping teen, wringing her hands together.

Noticing aforementioned gestures, the blond chuckled as she got the message; loud and clear.

"We'll leave the two of you alone," she said grabbing Yue by the hand and leading her out, leaving Nodoka and her hero alone.

Cue – Utawarerumono OST – Kimi ga Tame (For Your Sake) by Suara

"I… I don't know if you can hear me, but…" the bookish girl began nervously as she twit her thumbs, looking down at her slumbering face. "You… You looked really cool back then. When you saved me, I mean," she clarified.

Of course, the girl received no reply, instead greeted by the sound of hospital equipment in the background, the silver-haired teen's quieted breathing, and people passing by the room in the hallway.

"I'm… not really good with talking to boys… Not like Haruna and Yang are…" she said idly brushing her hair behind her ear. "So… I guess I'll just come out and say it while you're still sleeping. Before I lose my nerve," she muttered, her face heating up as she slowly leaned toward his sleeping visage. "Thank you… for saving me," she expressed in gratitude as she planted a chaste kiss upon his right cheek.

*Chu*

If the following were in animated format, the sound that came next would've caused the running soundtrack to stop with the sound effect of a record being scratched.

*Click*

Looking up through the curtain of her hair, Nodoka's eyes went wide as Yang waggled her scroll, the blond peeking in through the door with a shit-eating grin on her face.

"Oh please, don't mind me," the blond said. "You keep on doing you."

"Wha-wha-wha-what are you d-d-d-doing?" the bluenette stammered as she suddenly bolted up straight, back against the window behind her.

"Oh, you know... Just getting some pics ready for Valentine's Day," Yang replied as she held up her scroll, a picture of Nodoka undeniably kissing Vincent on the cheek captured on the screen for posterity. "I ship it~"

She also teased Blake about Vincent, but Nodoka being her friend for longer took a little more precedence.

"G-G-G-G-Give tha-tha-that ba-ba-back!" Nodoka cried with a fluorescent red face, scrambling around the bed before chasing hastily after Yang who cackled all the while, Yue trailing behind them with a tired look on her face.

*NEW WORLD*

AN:
And thus the plot thickens.
I've finally had the opportunity to put Dr. Veronica Magdanus in her full attire, and while her inclusion in Giant-Slayer hints at potential plot points in the future, since it isn't a 1:1 adaptation, her involvement won't be completely the same as it was in Stella Glow.

Also, since Yang is a bit of a social butterfly compared to Ruby, I widened her circle of friends beyond the "silhouettes" seen in volume one because this offers up potential story avenues that the Canon hasn't been able to provide. I mean, it's like her "friends from Signal" just cease to exist after Episode 2.

Anyway, now that this two-parter is complete, I hope to hear from you again in the Review Column. Until next time!