Beacon Academy's cafeteria was honestly kind of awesome, though my perception was probably a bit skewed. For some reason, I was among the minority of people who thought guaranteed free food was amazing. It wasn't restaurant quality, but it wasn't leftovers in a dumpster, either. Somewhere around the quality of street cart food without the heart put into it. Breakfast for today was an omelet filled with hummus, tomatoes, and herbs, paired with a cup of orange juice. In what was very quickly becoming a pattern, just a little bit after my team sat down at one of the tables, Teams RWBY and JNPR came into the cafeteria, got their food, and joined us. Like us, all of them were in their school uniforms, prepared to head to class as soon as breakfast was done.
There seemed to be less of a tense air between Ruby and Weiss, the two of them sitting next to each other politely. The Heiress had seemed ready to take her team leader's head off at the end of Witch's Combat Class yesterday but had calmed down considerably. The only thing Weiss seemed unhappy about now was the quality of her omelet, poking at it with her fork as though she was expecting it to start moving.
"Got an issue with food that ain't served by a personal chef?" I couldn't help but snark. Ice-blue eyes glared at me.
"I expected better out of the best Huntsman Academy. This food is…lackluster." She stated.
"I fail to see how three healthy and nutrient-rich meals a day for over one hundred fifty people seven days a week could be called lackluster." Blake casually tossed out, eyes focused on the book in her hand.
"Diet is an important aspect of a Huntsman's training. I expected that Beacon Academy would recognize that and dedicate more of their budget to ensuring their students receive high quality in all aspects of their training."
"Short of spending unreasonable amounts of money on hiring a selection of dietitians," Cinder stepped in, "what could the school do to improve its cafeteria? As Blake mentioned, the entire student populace is already guaranteed appropriately healthy meals."
"I just feel the budget should be better allocated!"
"And what should be sacrificed in order to facilitate that?" My partner raised one eyebrow inquisitively. "The array of programs to support Huntsman-hopefuls who would otherwise be incapable of becoming licensed Huntsman? The already incredibly specialized curriculum that focuses only on skills necessary for the job? Or perhaps all the amenities relating to our combat training should be culled?" Weiss gripped her fork tightly.
"I get your point." She grit through her teeth. Across the table, Pyrrha offered a small, tight smile.
"I can understand that you might be accustomed to meals tailored to you, Weiss." The Invincible Girl politely said. "I can say the same. But our families needed only to focus on our individual growth, not that of the entire population of a school. And, in any case, we have the freedom to both go out to the city for food, as well as cook in the kitchens."
"You are right about that." Weiss relented with a sigh. "If worse comes to worst, then I can hire someone to prepare meals- Pyrrha?! Are you okay?!" The Heiress nearly shrieked, dragging everyone's attention to the redhead. Confusion welled up in me as we all collectively looked at her face, a few spots of already fading bruises upon her skin.
"It's just bruises?" I voiced automatically.
"Andrew hit harder than I was expecting." The champion fighter explained. "I was also surprised that it was hard enough to leave a few marks, but my Aura has almost completely taken care of them." A few wide-eyed stares from the others passed between Pyrrha and myself.
"Still, it takes a pretty heavy hit to bruise someone with Aura." Yang breathed. "You secretly got beef with Pyrrha that you haven't told anyone about?"
"Never even heard of her before Cinder told me." I hummed, my eye catching Cardin across the cafeteria, stepping over to Velvet with a superior look on his face. "That's just how I fight. Hitting fast doesn't mean much if you're not hitting hard."
"Still," Jaune frowned, "there's not many people who would have the ability to summon a weapon into their hand and choose to punch their opponent."
"Would've taken too long." I grunted, keeping my gaze on the leader of Team CRDL as he leaned down and started talking to the bunny faunus, too far and too quiet for me to catch what was being said. "Calling out my Semblance speeds up the summon time, but it's also a clear warning of what I'm about to do. Even if you don't know what I'm pulling out, it gives my opponent the chance to prepare for some sort of attack. As close as I was, socking Pyrrha in the face kept her from keeping her head on straight. No time to react, no time to defend, no time to plan. Hold that thought." I requested as I stood up, seeing Cardin reach out with a sneer and aggressively pull on one of Velvet's ears. The girl immediately let go of the fork she had been using to eat with, both of her hands snapping up to the base of that ear.
I didn't hesitate for a moment, stomping up behind the asshole and reaching out with my hands. He was too distracted with what he was doing to notice me, so I was free to grab each of his ears tightly and pull. The man immediately shouted in pain and let go of the faunus, his hands snapping up to wrap around mine as I forcefully pulled his head up by his ears. His fingers curled around my hands, but he wasn't strong enough to make me let go, so I stepped back, forcing him to follow me, then threw him to the floor on my left. He cradled his ears as he remained lying on the ground, glaring up at me.
"What the hell was that for?!" He yelled. I cracked my knuckles as I stared him down.
"What's the problem? You were doing it to Velvet, I figured it was just a Vale custom for saying good morning." Cardin's right hand went underneath him to help him into a half-kneel, his left hand still holding his left ear.
"Oh, I see. You're a sympathizer for those animals, aren't you?" He snarled.
"I prefer the term 'not a douchebag', but if you think it's an insult to say I don't think they deserve to be harassed, be my guest."
"You call that harassment? I was just reminding her what her place was."
"Didn't know you were the kind of student to remind others of when their classes start." I sassed. "How kind of you." The bully narrowed his eyes.
"Halvies like her belong in the mines." He stated.
"Surprised someone with half a brain like you isn't the first one down there, then." I snarked. The man flew into a stand, his shoulders tense and his hands clenched.
"You wanna go, Night Light?" He hissed. "There's no teachers around to keep track of the rules, I'll make you bleed." A wide, feral smirk tore across my face.
"There's no teachers around to reign me in, Daddy Issues." I corrected, stepping into his personal space. "You want a fight? Throw a fucking punch."
"No!" Velvet rushed in and pressed a hand to each of our chests, pushing us away from each other. I blinked in surprise at how easily she forced me back. She stepped up to inhabit the space we were just in, keeping herself as a buffer. "It was…it was just a joke! There's no need to get into a fight, not for me…" A frown crossed my face, as I looked down at her.
"Yeah, none of what he said was a joke and all of us know it." I stated. "Twats like him don't stop unless they know they won't get away with it."
"It's…not worth it." The faunus gave me a self-deprecating smile. "Not for this, not for me." My frown deepened before an idea came to me.
"Fine." I stated unhappily. A grateful expression took over the brunette's face, and she stepped back, lowering her arms. Cardin sneered victoriously, crossing his arms with a confident look. I immediately allowed a toothy grin to tear across my lips. "I'll fight him because I want to." Neither were given time to react before my left fist struck him in the nose, a rather satisfying crunch sounding from it. Immediately following my first punch was Cardin's wet shout of pain, Velvet's panicked squeak, a bloodthirsty cheer from who I thought was Nora, and then the chastising bark of my name from Witch. I unfortunately was telekinetically pulled away before I could throw a second punch.
As punishment for starting a fight right in front of a staff member, (Witch's words, not mine, which gave me ideas) I was immediately taken into Glynda's office and forced to help her fill out my paperwork for student aid. When I asked what punishment Cardin was getting for harassing Velvet, the Deputy Headmistress gave a knowing grin and said his trip to the nurse would be punishment enough. I didn't get it, but she seemed pretty confident, so I left it alone.
We had worked on some of the paperwork after I came back from the White Fang camp yesterday, but once it started getting late, she let me return to my dorm. Glynda had seen fit to sign me up for the John Doe program. There were three student aid programs, dependent on how much help a student realistically needed. There was the Low-Income program, the Orphan program, and the John Doe. Low-Income provided the least help, but could be used by the most. Those from low-income families, with single-parent families, and those with disabilities that would affect their performance. The Orphan program was for those who were, obviously, orphans. That provided more benefits because registered orphans were usually supported by the Kingdom they were registered with. Then came the John Doe program, for those who were from outside the Kingdoms or otherwise unregistered with any Kingdom. The John Doe provided me with a care package of clothes every month, a food card that could be used at markets and some restaurants, a debit card connected to a bank that would receive a weekly small deposit, and the option to get free lessons for things like a drivers license while I was at Beacon.
The big issue that was making it take so much to get signed up was that the John Doe program was incredibly paranoid. To prevent people fromcreating false identities to unfairly receive the benefits, it was a highly tedious process that had an incredibly pervasive verification system. Such as asking for various kinds of DNA samples to confirm that the person signing up for the program wasn't a registered civilian. Possessing the credentials to perform field medicine, Witch took what she needed from me while we were in her office. Once we finished filling everything out, she let me go, letting me know that my part was done and all that was left was for those who ran the program to talk to her. A smirk formed on my face when I realized that Port's class had long since finished by the time we were done.
I stepped into the classroom for Professor Peach's Plant Studies, and immediately dragged everyone's attention. I noticed quickly that Cardin was not present.
"Mr. Blaqreblu!" A faunus woman standing at the front of the class called my attention. She was spectacularly short, possibly even shorter than Mint, with deeply tanned skin. She had brown hair, so long that it reached her waist even when held in a high ponytail. A thick, wavy lock fell to the right side of her face, nearly reaching her jawline. A pair of prominent mouse ears were atop her head, covered in brown fur, and she had crimson eyes. She wore, ironically, a peach-colored dress shirt with grass-green dress pants and vest. Black dress shoes covered her feet, and she stood with her hands on her hips, a pleased smile on her face. I didn't see a weapon on her body. "Pleased to see you could finally make it." Surprisingly for a woman so small, she had a low and confident voice.
"Got caught by Goodwitch, I'm sure you know how it goes." I smiled back as I walked toward where my team sat.
"Yes, she messaged me once she realized her punishment for you would extend beyond Professor Port's class." She mused, tilting her head with interest. "Students are usually a bit more shaken up after being sent to Headmistress Goodwitch's office."
"Hard to feel bad when I got sent there for breaking a racist's nose." I smirked. Peach mirrored my expression.
"As a teacher, I'm obligated to discourage amoral behavior." Crimson eyes gleamed. "However, as a faunus, I don't see anything wrong with that." Weiss' head shot up from where she had been reading through what I assumed was the textbook for the class.
"Cardin's behavior may have been wrong, but that doesn't mean Andrew breaking his nose is an appropriate response!" The Heiress complained. "Or are you saying Beacon Academy teaches its Huntsman to react violently to unruly civilians?"
"Managing crowds and dealing with unruly civilians are taught starting from your second year, as your first year focuses more on establishing a baseline of combat ability." Peach informed. "But to give you a little bit of a head start, don't forget that everyone is human, including yourself. Grimm are attracted to negative emotions, and that means there is no one who needs to manage their emotions more than Huntsman. In the future, sure, Andrew would need to figure out a way to deal with people that piss him off that isn't through violence. But at the same time, Cardin cannot be biased against faunus as a Huntsman. He would need to value every civilian equally, and he cannot start emanating feelings of disgust just by looking at a pair of fuzzy ears."
"Hopefully he learned that when Andrew stood up for that Faunus." Yang crossed her arms over her chest in displeasure.
"He was sent to the nurse's office for a broken nose." The mouse faunus hummed, a note of satisfaction in her tone. "I'm positive being under Tsune's care will help. If nothing else, it'll make him wary of harassing students in front of Andrew." I was grateful that everyone else seemed as out of the loop as I was about whatever that meant.
"What, is Tsune, like, one of those nurses that gets angry over stupid injuries?" Mercury voiced for everyone. At that, Peach burst into uncontrollable laughter, attempting to brace a hand against the desk to keep herself up and failing. Uncertain expressions covered the faces of every student in the room.
Professor Mulberry was a rake of a man, his clothes hanging off of him even when it was clear it was intended to hug his form. He wore a long coat that ended just above his calves, colored grey, with all of the edges lined with silver. Underneath it was a black sweater vest that had 'Man's greatest weapon is a weapon' written in white on the front over a white dress shirt. Completing the outfit was a pair of beige cloth pants and combat boots. He possessed pale skin, swamp-green eyes, and faded ginger hair kept in a bun. He had a five o'clock shadow, deep rings under his eyes, and a perpetually irritated expression on his face.
"Welcome, all of you, to Weapon Crafting and Upkeep." Mulberry had a rough voice, not helped by how clearly his passive distaste was heard in his tone. "Who here is from Signal Academy?"
There was an awkward beat, before six people rose their hands. I recognized Yang and Ruby, but the other four were from other teams I had not talked to yet. None of the four were on the same team.
"Wonderful." The professor drawled sarcastically. "So there's only six of you who even have the slightest idea what kind of engineering goes into your weapons. Fucking great." He let out an aggrieved sigh as he palmed the upper half of his face, then let his hand drop. "I'm going to say this here and now. If you aren't able to deconstruct and rebuild the weapons of everyone on your team by the end of the year, I'm not going to let you proceed to the next year." Several shouts of shock and disagreement sounded through the room.
"Y-you're not serious, are you?" Jaune looked horrified.
"Ask Velvet Scarlatina." At the professor's declaration, the bunny ears I had seen out the corner of my eye flopped down in nervousness and anxiety. The girl shrank in her seat, attempting to hide away from everyone's gazes. "Her weapon is powerful, and a perfect match for her Semblance, but it's complicated and heavily involved with Dust. She had a lucky break in that one of her teammates just had a greatsword, but her partner's weapon was twice as mechanically difficult to make up for it. She couldn't complete the end-of-year assignment because of it, so I didn't let her pass with the rest of her team."
"You separated her from her team?!" Nora shrieked, her eyes focused on Ren, who similarly appeared unsettled by the thought.
"No." Mulberry folded his arms over his chest. "She's still a member of Team CFVY, she just has to repeat this class rather than be allowed to take the next course. If Team CFVY hadn't been the most capable team of their year, she'd have been forced to repeat the entire year, but Ozpin made a compromise." I spotted Ruby gain a determined expression, before exchanging a look with her sister. I wondered what was so distinct about Signal that the teacher had singled them out as the most knowledgeable. Shaking my head to rid myself of the distraction, I sat up straighter in my seat.
"Can my team be given an exemption for me, given my Semblance?" I asked. The ginger leveled a derisive look at me for a long moment, seeming to try to psyche me out of it with a dark look alone.
"What kind of stupid fucking question is that, kid? You one of those arrogant little shits that thinks your weapon is too advanced for others to figure out? Or maybe you have an overdesigned mess that has no right to be so complicated?" He spat.
"Neither." I grunted, bringing up my right arm and summoning Excalibur. "My Semblance lets me summon items into my hands. I have access to hundreds of weapons, and none of them mechashift." His head straightened as he dropped his derogatory veneer. Swamp-green eyes filled with contemplation as his lips parted subconsciously. He gave one slow blink.
"…What happens if one of your weapons breaks or needs maintenance?"
"Every time I summon a weapon, it's in its best condition. If it breaks or gets dull, I let it fade and summon it again." Was my answer. He closed his mouth and nodded with freshly humbled approval.
"Any weapons summoned by your Semblance are an exemption." He accepted. "Though, because your team therefore needs only be proficient in the upkeep of three weapons, I will be grading you more harshly at the end of the year." He turned to face his desk and pulled out a pen from his coat, grabbing a notepad sitting on the desk. "Which Team are you on?"
"FAME." He jotted it down.
"And your name, for when the exam comes up?"
"Andrew Blaqreblu."
"Uhhh, I'll just figure out how to spell your name when I mark it on your file." Mulberry slipped the pen back into his coat as he faced the class again. "Anyone else have Mr. Blaqreblu's unique circumstances?" No one moved. "Good. Let's begin the first lesson then. I'm going to assume none of you have ever provided maintenance on your weapons, so we're going to start with explaining what a whetstone is."
I had paid attention to the class for the simple reason that I would be expected to work on my team's weapons over the course of the year. Despite that he was a grating asshole, Mulberry was deeply knowledgeable and explained the concepts in a way that made it easy to understand. He lightened up over the course of the two-hour class, and I suspected it had a lot to do with how many questions the students asked to understand the material. When class ended, Team RWBY were the first out the door, Weiss and Blake practically dragged by Ruby and Yang. FAME followed after them, all of us but Mercury curious about the rush. Thankfully, they didn't go very far, so we didn't have to chase after them. However, Cinder and Emerald immediately lost interest as soon as we discovered that the reason Signal students had been singled out was that Signal demanded their students make the blueprints for their weapons themselves. Ruby went above and beyond in that aspect, in that she built her weapon with her own hands, having gotten permission to use their forge thanks to her father and uncle being teachers. I made a note to ask Ruby if she minded helping me out as we all continued walking down the hall toward Combat Class.
Hearing a yelp before the clattering of objects on the ground, I looked over my shoulder to the source of the sound. Cardin was standing before the downed form of Jaune, the blonde's school supplies all over the floor. The bully had one leg out, and it didn't take a genius to understand that he had tripped his fellow team leader. Keeping my hands in my pockets, I immediately started walking over.
"Whoops." The man sarcastically smirked, unaware of my approach. "My bad." He was too focused on watching Jaune meekly pick up his dropped supplies to hear my shoes against the floor.
"Whoops." I monotoned loudly, Cardin's only warning before I swung my left leg around and kicked him. I struck his left side, and he was launched straight off his feet to have his right side slam into the lockers along the wall. As I lowered my leg back down to the floor, the bully dropped to his knees, falling until his forehead was against the floor as his left arm cradled his right. "My bad." I copied.
"Gods, fuck off, Blaqreblu!" The leader of Team CRDL grit past his teeth.
"After you, jackass." I snapped back without hesitation.
"What, you following me around to make sure that I'm meeting your standards or whatever?" He spat.
"No, you're just the kind of metric dumbass that will fuck with somebody while I'm like ten feet away." I droned. "I see that your nose is fixed. Aura is a helluva thing, huh?"
"Yeah, it is." Cardin's smirk returned. "After an hour, it was like it never even happened." I crouched next to him, since he was still on his knees.
"You know, I've been real curious about what Aura can do. I've done a lot of research, but it's nothing but vague descriptions in between bitching and moaning about how it's unethical to test its limits." I explained, before looking him in the eye. "If you don't stop fucking with my friends, I'm gonna find out just how much Aura can heal using you as the guinea pig." The bully's skin paled and his eyes widened.
"…They'd expel you." His voice shook, and I grinned savagely.
"Trust me. No, they wouldn't." I swung myself up into a stand, and seeing that Jaune just finished putting all of his stuff back in his bag, I held out my hand for the blonde to grab. He took it, and I pulled him up, then threw my arm over his shoulder and walked him to the Combat Arena.
When one of the fights wasn't a drawn-out slugfest between myself and a fighter known for their defense, they went by quickly. The longest one probably lasted ten minutes. Six fights ended up going by, andno one on my team was called up for any of them. Because of that, I didn't pay much attention to the fights, even if I could feel Witch's glare poking me every now and then. Pyrrha was all I needed to know that I wouldn't be able to get anything from first years. I was used to going up against much higher skill levels, and more importantly, much greater physical ability. Pyrrha had been struggling against my speed the entire fight, which said a lot about what kind of speed the rest of my year was accustomed to. At my best, I was blindingly fast to wizards from my own world, and could outpace even Black Knights with my strongest spells. There was no point in trying to improve against teenagers who couldn't keep up with my base speed.
In light of that, I spent the entire class with a notebook in hand, working on a new spell. I had the idea for it simmering in my mind for a while, after I unlocked my Transport Imperium Spell. Until now, I always had something else to focus on, made all the easier by how vague the spell was. But in Beacon, I was encouraged to 'study', which meant I had free time to dedicate to working it out. I was certain the notes I was making for the spell and how to perform it would give any other mage an aneurysm since I had never made a new spell before and didn't know how to go about doing it 'properly'. But someone had to be the first one to come up with the formula, and I was never one to follow the rules in the first place.
"You seem really focused on that." Yang peered over my right shoulder from behind. "What'cha writing about?" I thought for a second on how to respond to that.
"New weapon for my Semblance." Was what I decided on. "Most of my weapons already have unique effects, I wanna see how far I can push that."
"What are you gonna try with your next weapon?" Ruby asked, sitting to my left, excitement all over her face. On my right, Cinder wordlessly turned her head toward me, her eyes on the notebook I was writing in.
"Keeping it a secret until I can make it work." I hummed. "But I'll say it has to do with music."
"You wish to create a musical weapon?" Weiss sneered. "You possess a ridiculously powerful Semblance that allows you to not only manifest powerful weapons, but create new ones, and you use it to create a musical weapon?"
"Talk shit all you want 'til I get it working. It'll make it that much more satisfying when I use it to beat you senseless."
"We shall see when such a moment arrives." At the heiress' words, everyone else turned to her while I kept writing.
"That's a pretty confident statement from someone who'd get their ass beat by Pyrrha." Emerald leaned forward to point out.
"Fights are all about matchups." Weiss huffed, lifting her chin haughtily. "Andrew's fighting style is a chaotic mess of constant movement. Freezing him in Ice Dust will leave him helpless, and there are few who have more experience with Dust than a Schnee."
"The faunus in Schnee mines definitely have more experience than you do." Blake narrowed her eyes.
"I would happily pay money to see you try to fight Andrew using Ice Dust. I'd set up a timer and see if you last longer than fifteen seconds." Mercury unapologetically steamrolled over Blake's statement. The white-haired girl paused for a moment, an unhappy expression on her face as she chose which words to acknowledge.
"If you're that eager to lose money, Mercury, perhaps I will ask Ms. Goodwitch if she can arrange a spar between Andrew and myself tomorrow."
"Ignoring Weiss digging her grave," Yang interrupted, "we were gonna try out the Beacon Gym after class, if you guys wanna join?"
"Just your team?" Cinder asked.
"Oh, nah. JNPR and JKPT are already in. If you joined in, we'd have almost half the first-years going as a group."
"I'm free." I shrugged. "We're down unless the others have plans."
"Even if we weren't keen on the social aspect," my partner nodded, "we would need to become familiar with the gym sooner or later. Might as well go now."
"Sweet!" Yang cheered. "We were gonna meet at the gym at 5:30, give everyone enough time to change into some work-out clothes. See you there!"
Stepping inside the Beacon Gym made it abundantly clear where the majority of the school's budget went. I had initially gotten it and the Combat Arena confused, thinking they were the same thing, until I made to head back and Cinder looked at me like I was mentally challenged. After some clarification, (and some internal questioning about how Cinder already knew the layout of the school so well) FAME made it to the gym about five minutes before the time Yang specified. It was an enormous building, larger than the rectangular structures that contained the classrooms. Upon stepping inside, we were greeted by some pleasant A/C keeping everything cool. Looking out, I saw the gym was a wide open space with only support pillars interrupting the floor plan. Along one side was a massive array of cardio equipment all facing floor-to-ceiling windows that had a pleasant view of the grass and trees surrounding Beacon. The opposite wall was covered entirely in mirrors, with a row of weight racks holding dumbbells and benches before the weight racks. The far side of the building had signs over doorways indicating bathrooms, a shower room, two different saunas, and a pool. In the main space, there was a boxing ring in the center, flanked on all sides with a wide assortment of exercise machines, none of which I was familiar with except the bench press. In total, there were probably around 80 total machines, around a third of which were currently being used.
At Cinder's practical demand, I had changed into a loose pair of navy blue shorts and a worn black shirt, keeping my white and green running shoes. My partner wore brown short-shorts and a crimson sports bra, her hair pulled back in a ponytail with a single loose lock curling around the right side of her face. She had dark red sneakers, and carried both a small white towel as well as a liter jug of water, with headphones around her neck. Emerald wore beige yoga pants and a sports bra of the same shade, and her wired earbuds werecurrently bundled up in one of her hands. She also held a plastic water bottle and a white towel, though I recognized it was the same kind as the hand towels that had been in our dorm bathroom. Mercury had a moss green shirt and loose black exercise pants that were tucked into his shoes. I thought it was an odd choice, but I didn't know enough about working out to mention it. Like Emerald, he had one of the hand towels from our dorms, but like Cinder, he had a dedicated water jug, made of steel with a thick plastic straw. His earbuds were already in, and I could faintly hear the music blasting from where I stood a couple feet away.
Mercury wasted no time in going over to the cardio section and getting on a machine. It had a pair of long platforms he stood on connected to a pair of handles that put his hands at shoulder height. He started at a light jog, keeping his feet on the platforms and pushing them to rotate along a wheel-shaped thing in the center that reminded me of train wheels.
"So," I spoke up, "the only things here I've seen before are treadmills, dumbbells, and the bench press." Emerald turned to stare at me, her face displaying thatshe was deep in thought. Cinder drew in a breath, then released heavily through her nose.
"It makes sense that you've never exercised inside of a gym before." The way she said it made it seem like she was trying to focus on logic. "I'm certain that once the others arrive, we all can help you become familiar with the machines. What is your typical routine?"
"Never worked out before." I explained.
"I understand that, I'm asking what do you do to strengthen your body?"
"Don't die." I clarified. Both of my present teammates stared at me, utter shock and bafflement on their faces.
"…Are you saying that sparring with a Huntsman in the forests outside the Kingdoms was all that you did to reach your current level?" Well, that and reading spellbooks while I healed, but it was better that I didn't tell them that.
"More or less." In the middle of Cinder's and Emerald's continued staring, the doors behind us slid open.
"Oh, you guys got here early!" Yang cheerfully noticed. The three of us turned back to see all of Team RWBY, each in their respective gym attire. Yang and Blake wore effectively the same thing, sports bras and short-shorts that matched their respective hair colors. The blonde also had her hair done up in a ponytail, like Cinder. Ruby wore a black tank top and black compression shorts that reached just above her knees, while Weiss wore ice-blue exercise pants and a loose white tank top over a sports bra of the same shade, all of it looking to be high-quality fabric. They also all held towels, headphones of some sort, and water jugs.
"It's good that we did." My partner spoke up. "Andrew just informed us he has never performed any physical training. I know how to use each of the machines, but I admit I'm not as familiar with how to use them to maximize growth." The four girls standing in the entrance blinked.
"Well, at least that explains why Andrew doesn't have water." The blonde voiced before stepping forward with a smile. "I'll need some time to think about it, let's get on the treadmills and I'll get back to you once we're all warmed up." My teammates nodded before starting toward the machines in question, with me following after. We took up a trio of treadmills that were all next to each other, with me on the left, Cinder in the center, and Emerald on the right. The green-haired girl started at a walking pace and put her earbuds in as she went, while Cinder set the same pace on hers but left her headphones around her neck. She turned to me while I inspected the touchscreen, with all sorts of electronic buttons and sliders.
"You said you recognized what a treadmill was. I assume that you know what it does, but not how to use it properly?" She asked. I nodded, and she leaned over to press down on the slider on the far right, before raising it up a single notch. The track I was standing on started to crawl forward, and she lifted her hand before straightening. "That will be all you need for today, since we're going to walk you through how to work out. Just set the speed at a pace that will comfortably elevate your heart rate, we'll stop you when we feel you're sufficiently warmed up." Since she followed that up with sliding her headphones over her ears, I just lifted a thumbs up. Now knowing which slider adjusted the speed, I took Cinder's advice to heart and started adjusting the pace. Team RWBY took up the treadmills to my left, Yang being the closest to me, then Ruby, Blake, and finally Weiss.
It was kind of awkward being the only one without headphones on. Running without music was no problem to me, it was rather old hand. But being the only one doing it made me realize why they all had headphones on. Shrugging, I kept increasing the speed, having passed walking and now at a slow, relaxed jog. These things really were high-end, I was amazed at the fact that I had already gone through seventeen levels and it was still a slow jog. I decided to start looking around at the others working out while still increasing the speed. It would increase in rate by a tenth of a level every time I pushed up the slider, and it forced me to increase the speed at a tightly controlled pace, so I basically had to wait for it to speed up.
I quickly spotted that Coco and Velvet were also working out right now, sitting relatively close to each other. Velvet was using the bench press, and Coco was at the dumbbells, the fashionista holding a dumbbell in each hand as she pushed them up above her head from shoulder level, her arms spread wide. I would have to see if I could talk to them in between everybody teaching me how to work out. The treadmill stopped speeding up. A noise of surprise leaving me, I turned to look down at the touchscreen, seeing that the slider was all the way at the top and I reached level 40. A frown pulled at my lips as I glanced around the touchscreen, seeing if there was any obviously labeled button that would increase it further. I was barely at a moderate jog. Lifting my head, I reached out my hand and gently tapped the shoulder of Yang, who was maintaining a decent jog. She hummed and pulled her right earbud out, ignoring it falling down into her cleavage.
"What's up?" She was breathing slightly heavier, but kept control of it. "Need some help with the settings?"
"Yeah, how do you set this thing to 'run'?" I asked. "I reached level 40."
"Level? What are you-" The brawler looked over at my console in confusion, before her eyes shot wide. "Holy-!" She accidentally swung her right foot in front of her left and tripped herself, sending her falling forward as her legs were pulled back by the track. The blonde attempted to catch herself on the touchscreen of her treadmill, missed, and her face slammed against the track, which then pushed her back until she had fallen off the back of the machine.
"Yang?!" Ruby immediately called out in shock and concern, jumping off her treadmill to kneel by her sister, who was already on her knees by the time Ruby and I had gone to her sides. While not moving off from the treadmills, Cinder, Emerald, Blake, and Weiss all turned back, shifting their feet so that they each stood on the unmoving plastic sides.
"I'm okay, my Aura blocked it." The lilac-eyed girl waved off, before looking at my treadmill. "You had that thing on 40?!" Her question incited the surprise from everyone else present.
"Well, Cinder told me to set it at a pace that would comfortably elevate my heart rate, so I kept raising the speed, but then it stopped at level 40. I don't know how to switch it off from the jogging setting."
"Andrew, treadmills don't have 'jogging settings.'" Ruby explained, silver eyes wide. "You had it on 40 miles an hour."
"Ooooh, that explains it." I announced. "40 miles an hour is nothing to me." The six girls stared at me.
"…Are you a faunus?" Blake asked. I tilted my head at the question.
"No? What makes you think that?"
"Unless amplified by Aura, the human body is not capable of performing such feats." Weiss stated matter of factly. "The land speed record by a human is 34 miles an hour."
"And that's different for faunus, why?" Somehow, my question made the bewildered looks sent my way grow even more potent. I started to wonder if my 'outside the Kingdoms' excuse was enough to justify why I didn't know this.
"Hey, you alright?" Coco asked as she and Velvet came over. "We saw you trip." Oh, perfect opportunity.
"Yeah, she's fine, just a bit surprised." I stated. "But, uh, I'm a little uninformed. Outside of the obvious, are there physical differences between humans and faunus?" The two brunettes blinked.
"Right, you said Velvet was the first faunus you've ever met." Coco muttered. "So, faunus are generally a lot more physically powerful compared to a normal human. More strength, more speed, higher durability, that kind of thing. Plus all faunus have night vision." My eyebrows furrowed at the explanation.
"Then why is Velvet the only faunus student I've seen at this school? Sounds like they'd make for great Huntsman." The air turned awkward immediately. Velvet was the one to answer the question, anxiously rubbing her right bicep.
"W-well, while faunus generally have stronger bodies, they also have notably less Aura compared to humans. …On average, a faunus will have a-around half the Aura a human would." My eyes widened, before they narrowed to a glare.
"Oh. I get it now." I growled. "Yeah, Cardin deserved a broken nose for that." Coco beamed.
"Yup, I heard from Vel that you did that. You're one of my favorite people now. Why are we on the differences between faunus and humans, though?"
"Glowstick apparently thinks 40 miles an hour is slow." Yang informed. The pair of brunettes turned surprised, before looking up at me. The fashionista tilted her head.
"You using your Semblance?" She asked.
"His Semblance summons items into his hands." Cinder stated, having resumed her walk on the treadmill but leaving her headphones off. The other girl, who was still wearing her sunglasses, lifted a hand to point at me.
"Then why are his eyes glowing?"
"They always glow." Emerald chipped in. "He woke me up yesterday morning by just opening his eyes." The information brought Coco to pause for a long moment.
"…What if his Aura is perpetually boosting his body?" She proposed.
"Is that possible?" Blake challenged.
"Vel?"
"It's…not…impossible…" The faunus hummed in deep contemplation, closing her eyes as she held a hand to her chin, supporting it with her other arm. "First and foremost, he'd have to have a lot of Aura to work with, and he'd have to start at a young age, or when his body is weak. It's not possible for Aura to innately be perpetually boosting him, but he could have been trained to keep it constantly active at a low level. If so, then doing that would affect how he heals, unintentionally making his body grow much stronger, much quicker. The rate Aura regenerates depends on how powerful the body is, so it might be possible for that to make his Aura regenerate faster than a normal person. Again, he'd need a very large pool of Aura for this to be possible, but in theory, maintaining a low boost from his Aura at all times would eventually reach a point where he would regenerate his Aura faster than the boost would deplete it."
"That makes sense from what Andrew has told me of himself." Cinder corroborated for me. Since they would never realize naturally why I'm so much stronger than a human, it was great that they came up with an explanation on their own.
"Well, there we have it then." Coco's smile returned. "Mystery solved, and it's all thanks to Vel always being the top student in our Aura and Dust Science Classes. Barely two days in and we're being fantastic upperclassmen. Do our juniors need any more help?"
"Since you're offering," an idea appeared in my head, "would there be any problems with Velvet helping me work out? Everyone was gonna help me since I've never worked out before, but someone closer to my level might be a bit more useful."
"That's not how that works." Yang corrected. "But, Velvet could be your spotter, if she doesn't have a problem with it. If your speed translates at all to your strength, then none of us would be able to spot your highest sets." Coco's grin turned utterly delighted, and the bunny girl's ears straightened with interest and excitement.
"Vel hasn't been able to push her limits for a long time now because none of us could spot her max. If there's that much of a gap between you and us normal folk, maybe you could help her actually push her limits."
"What are her PR's?" The blonde inquired. The fashionista's grin turned savage as she reared back a hand and slapped Velvet's ass. The faunus yelped, more in shock than in pain, and rubbed her bottom while shooting a very small glare at her partner.
"Vel's squat record is 1400lbs!" The sunglasses-wearing girl boasted. "This bun's got the best buns in the school."
"Coco!" The girl in question chastised as the blonde brawler whistled in appreciation.
"My PR for squatting is 550! The difference between a faunus's strength and a human's is insane, huh?"
"While your talk about weightlifting is very informative," Cinder interrupted, "I must remind you that all of this started because Andrew maxed out the treadmill, and can't get a warm-up in because of it."
"You don't necessarily need to go on a treadmill for a warm-up." Velvet spoke up. "Full-body stretches would also work."
"It does?" I voiced rhetorically. "I stretch all the time. If warming up is just to make my body limber, then I already am."
"Oh! That's good!" The faunus smiled. "Then we can start showing you how to use the machines!" Any more conversation was interrupted by the doors to the gym sliding open. Teams JNPR and JKPT walked in, all of them looking annoyed with dirt smudges on their skin. Jaune looked notably shaken, and Pyrrha was soothingly rubbing his back.
"The fuck happened to you?" I asked immediately.
"Cardin shoved Jaune into his own locker when we were on our way to the gym and activated the rocket function." Ren explained neutrally, giving out nothing of what he felt on the matter. "We had to scour through the Emerald Forest to find him, and enlisted Team JKPT's help to reduce the search time." Everyone, even Cinder and Emerald paused to look over at the group.
"I wanted to break Cardin's legs, but I got outvoted." Nora pouted, crossing her arms over her chest with a huff.
"Actually," a boy with straw-colored hair and brown skin lifted a finger, "she wasn't. We just couldn't think of a way to do it without getting caught." Coco opened her mouth, closed it, and then hummed thoughtfully as she rested a hand on her hip.
"There's this one camera in one of the hallways of the third year's dorms that's rumored to not work." She revealed. "I'll check for you how accurate that is."
"Why are you encouraging this?!" Weiss protested.
"He harassed Vel and he shot someone in a rocket locker into the middle of the Emerald Forest." The second-year student reasoned. "He's clearly an asshole."
"That does not justify breaking someone's legs!" The Heiress complained.
"First lesson of Beacon Academy: As long as the teachers don't see you do it, solving your problems with violence is perfectly fine, most of the time."
"Is that why Goodwitch was disappointed with me when I broke Cardin's nose?" I wondered.
"Probably." Coco shrugged.
"Why the hell are all of you just standing around and talking?" Mercury sneered, having finally gotten off his machine and taken out one earbud to talk to us. "We're in a gym, go work out."
Next Chapter: Party in the Back Alley