Chapter 7

Finally we were at the last class of the first week, I had double periods on Fridays which meant this last class was two hours long. Much like the Gun Course classroom with Mrs. Garand the sparring classroom was an amphitheatre, but instead of the stage that you could see the Kill House from there was a huge combat stage in the middle of the room with the seating wrapping around the room. The seats went up six rows and were on top of these seven foot tall stands spaced out pretty far from the stage.

As my team went up into the stands we could see the Deputy Headmistress standing in the centre of the stage looking over her Scroll which was currently pulled out into its tablet mode.

When everyone was sitting down and I'd say most of the seating was taken up our Teacher spoke.

"For the first years as this is your first sparing class I'm Glynda Goodwitch, you will refer to me as Miss Goodwitch and nothing else- and for the second, third and fourth years sitting in on the lesson with your free periods please keep to yourselves and don't needlessly distract the lesson." She glanced out into the upper rows of the stands where I realised the top section where the seventh row might have gone was a railing with lots of students leaning over and watching.

I noticed Manus and Yan Qing among them, like with how I met the two who I had become fast friends with and spent a fair amount of my free time with, they stuck out like a Goliath Grimm in a preschool.

That was probably an awful comparison wasn't it?

"For those of you older students you'll notice the upgrade to the facilities since last year, while it was a matter of updating facilities it's also to help students feel more comfortable in the amphitheatre of Amity Colosseum during the Vytal Festival's Tournament that Beacon is host to later in the year- for you first years only hearing about this now then do not think it hearsay." The blonde woman who I now realised was really tall seemed to notice something or someone on the top section of the stands above where we were sitting.

"Yes, what is it Mr. Saturnalia?" adjusting her glasses she waited for the student who I tried to make out and couldn't see until he started talking.

"But I thought the school upgraded the class because Jómsborg got pissed off with someone he was fighting last year and ended up damaging the building- we even had a complete school assembly about how 'The Arena's building had become structurally unsound' and-" whatever he was about to continue on with was cut off by Goodwitch.

"Thank you Mr. Saturnalia, I was hoping to save Mr. Jómsborg the embarrassment." She sighed. "Now I am going to explain the rules of the class and discuss the tutoring programs that those of you third and fourth years have signed up to run."

Going on to explain what she just mentioned, it was a recap of a lot of the things we had been hearing over the course of the week, when she finished talking about all that and discussed this tutoring program she mentioned. The tutoring was simply put just a way for the third and four year students to earn a grade in teaching as well as mentoring/leadership, on top of all that it meant all the first years had someone to look after them and make sure they were getting the help they needed and someone to help them.

The talking side of things went on for the first hour of the class and when the first bell rang to signal the end of what would have been a normal class slot, Miss Goodwitch let everyone take a ten minute break to let everything she had been talking about sink in.

While we were free to walk around the stands and stretch I wondered if Manus or Yan had signed up to be tutors for first years since they were here and brought my team along with me when I walked up around to where they were leaning on the rail and chatting with one another.

As we approached Yang said "Holy hell he's enormous!" before clamping a hand over her own mouth realising she had said that out loud.

It got the attention of the two though.

"Azrael, good to see you're here." Manus offered a smile as we got closer, he was wearing a plain tunic style shirt and hosen pants with boots.

"I see you've brought some lovely ladies to meet us. It's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm Yan Qing." said the tattooed man who was wearing a similar version of the outfit he wore when we first met.

"These are your boyfriends then Az? I must say they're pretty good picks." My blonde team leader laughed at her own joke. "I'm Yang Xiao-Long."

"I'm Pyrrha Nikos." My partner reached out her hand and shook it with both older students.

"Blake Belladonna." Our resident brooder introduced herself and said her surname particularly quietly almost mumbling it.

Manus definitely caught onto it because I watched as his eyes widened in surprise and looked very much like he wanted to say something but reserved himself giving both me and the raven haired girl a somber look.

A smile crossed the elephant in the room's face and it slowly turned into a grin.

"You guys want to know who your Tutor/Mentor is meant to be?" Next to him Yan was shaking his head and turned back to leaning over the railing.

"Who is it?" My partner said interested in finding out, she beat Yang to the punch it seemed, because Yang looked like she wanted to know.

"Well Glynda wants to tell everyone who theirs are before the class ends, but since you guys only get one person compared to those other teams who get a full team to tutor them I think it's fine to tell you ahead of time- after all it wasn't just coincidence that I bumped into you and asked about the mask Azrael, you just happened to be the easiest to approach."

"Y'know this makes much more sense than what I had in mind for your reason for approaching me." I said feeling a bit like an asshole.

"Wait, why did you think I approached you?" He wanted to know and everyone was looking at me now.

"Uhm… I kind of assumed you didn't have many friends so you saw me walking through the hall and decided to see if you could get a fellow weirdo for a new friend." That wasn't my greatest moment, that's for sure, he burst into laughter and Yang found it funny and slapped my back brandishing a massive smile of her own.

"So why are you our only Tutor? Is Yan Qing not your team member?" Blake asked with a curious question.

"Oh no he's just a friend that's all, and as for why it's just me- that's because my team disbanded before my third year at the school started." His eyes lost some of their light for a moment "They disbanded because we had a brother sister pair on our team where the brother ended up dying on a mission doing something stupid so the sister quit and our other member quit as well leaving me as the remaining member."

Blake seemed off put and offered a sympathetic expression lowering her head, looking like she didn't mean to dig up old memories like that. Pyrrha was wearing an uncomfortable expression herself while Yang looked sorry as well.

We didn't get a chance to follow up and change to something more bright and fun before Miss Goodwitch called out to everyone to return to their seats or at the least focus their attention on her and be quiet until she was done explaining the rules of the spars before she called for some volunteers.

[Time and a Half on Explanations]

"Mr. Solatium and Mr. Arc please step into the arena and sync your scrolls with the system so we can monitor your Aura, for everyone watching this first match a reminder that your first match doesn't count towards your score, but every fight thereafter will affect your grade in the class- Remember that your score for your ranking depends on improvement and how much growth in skill you make over the course of each term for your overall rank when the year finishes."

Rubbing the back of my head I cursed under my breath. I wasn't in the mood to actually spar or fight anyone at the moment even though my entire team as well as my two friends who we were still standing next to gave me some words of encouragement.

Looking across the stands to see my opponent standing up from where his team was sitting I found that he was the blonde that questioned Ozpin at the cliff before we got launched into the Emerald Forest. He was also the leader of team Cadet…

He looked worried and really pathetic if I was honest and I don't really like to say diminutive things about people, but he just looked like he was a walking ball of nerves.

"Please get your weapons and equipment on before you take to the stage." The Deputy Headmistress reminded us as I made my way down to the locker room that was the same one we kept our equipment in during the initiation.

Once I was in there I went straight to mine and opened it taking off my shirt, blazer and tie then putting on my maroon t-shirt and breastplate with its pauldrons on over it, stretching my Wings I realised the blonde Arc was across the room and could very clearly see them- it made me seize up for a moment as I noticed his amazed expression and just tried to keep my slightly embarrassed face hidden under the mask as I swapped out of the formal pants and shoes into dark grey pants and black boots with my greaves on.

Lastly I strapped my vambraces on as I unhooked Macellaio from inside the locked and put the handgun in its holster on my waist over my back, very quickly I checked it was loaded and grabbed one spare magazine putting it in my pocket before leaving the locker room just behind Arc as he was done before me.

Fuck was I really about to do this? After all my stupidity?

Man was I really going to-

Stepping out of the door and heading over to the stage there was cheering from some teams looking to see a fight, though it seemed like a lot of the cheer was coming from our seniors.

When I was in full view of everyone there seemed to be a lul of silence across some of my fellow first years who I had been going to classes with all week and who all thought I was Human and they took in the state of my enormous ashen coloured wings. When the silence lifted some of the cheering got louder particularly from my team's corner where Yang was being the most supportive along with Pyrrha, there was a small smile, meek as it was on Blake's face.

I was hoping now that maybe she might open up with the others and I could finally confirm it, that she was a Faunus too.

"Mr. Solatium and Mr. Arc, are you both ready?" Our green eyed teacher asked as she moved off the arena stage over to a raised position that reminded me of a podium.

I nodded and my opponent weakly said yes as his body seemed to tremble slightly, I wasn't sure if he was afraid of me, for me, or himself or if he was just jittery with nerves like I keep saying. Watching on as he did though he drew forth a longsword from its sheath before the sheath sprouted into a shield which I thought was pretty cool if I was honest.

"Okay, you remember the rules- Fight until your Aura's are in the orange or one of you is unfit to continue, otherwise the only way the match stops is if I call it or your five minutes is up- is that clear!" the tall woman commanded.

"Yes ma'am." I answered immediately as Arc made his answer sound more confident than his last.

"3… 2… 1… Begin!"

The moment she said go I shot forward not looking to wait around and get skewered by Arc seeing as his skill was still an unknown to me and I didn't want to get caught at a disadvantage- the moment I was on top of him I brought down my executioner's sword with one arm from having been resting it on my shoulder.

There was a louder thundering sound of metal clashing as he barely managed to raise his shield in time narrowly avoiding becoming one with the new arena floor.

Jumping back I used my wings to lift me up in a small gust of air as I backed up six or so feet before just throwing my sword at the boy watching as it slammed into him I grabbed ahold of it and as I was about to attack again he stood his ground firmly swiping at me with his sword- the blade bounced off my Aura and armour thankfully as it slammed into the underside of my ribs with a solid amount of force.

I responded by punching the slightly shorter boy in the jaw with my left fist and landing flat against his cheek, knocking him off balance as he swung his shield back around and narrowly missed my face.

Bringing my sword up with its flat side facing him blocking a somewhat more aggressive attack that I hadn't expected out of Arc as he…

It felt like he was growing, like he was learning and adapting to the fight after every strike I provided and sure I wasn't going all out, I was being particularly withdrawn in my advances and wasn't using all my strength because it was a waste and I wanted to know what Arc could do.

But here I was fighting him and seeing it in person as he seemed to display unnaturally quick growth while he defended my half assed attempts.

Looking up at the huge monitor that showed both of our Aura's and the time left in the fight I felt like I should push for the win and finish the spar.

Lifting myself into the air and backing away out of the blondes range I rushed forward with as much speed as several heavy beats of my wings gave- raising my sword so that that tip would spear Arc I lanced at him completely bypassing his guard and slamming into him at which point I felt one of his arms latch onto me as his body slammed into the base wall of the stands.

A cheer erupted around us and I wasn't sure if it was for what I had done, the match as a whole or what… there was still a lot I didn't understand about Huntsmen and the people around us.

Dropping away and letting Arc fall to the ground from the dent in the wall I had left him in I offered a hand to stand as I could hear Goodwitch call the match off.

"A good display from both of you, I look forward to seeing you both progress in the years to come- Now we will discuss the match before the next people are chosen to spar." The teacher said as I handed the sword back to Arc who had dropped it when I crashed into him.

He seemed to be in better spirits and accepted my offer to shake hands as we left the stage to the locker room again.

When I was in the middle of taking my armour off and setting it down so I could wipe it down after I was changed, I quickly grabbed my button up shirt and pants from my uniform and headed into the showers and quickly washed away the sweat I had managed to work up.

After cleaning myself up and walking back over to my locker two students I didn't immediately recognise walked past out into the amphitheatre in their gear.

Sitting down on a bench next to my locker I looked over my gear and pulled out the small tub of Renaissance Wax as the store owner who I brought my armour from had called it, they said maintaining your gear was imperative which was obvious, so they advised me to get a few tubs of it for keeping my armour and ever my weapons safe from rusting as well as making them stay shiny.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Arc looking in my direction with a little confusion as to what I was doing as I took a special cloth and put a blob of the wax on it and began working it into the breastplates front.

"Arc are my wings distracting or is there something else you're looking at?" I asked out loud hoping to find out why his attention was still focused in my direction.

"Oh- I- Uh…? No I just-" he stumbled over his words before sighing and looking dejected.

"Are you alright?" Arc was looking particularly depressed and just ended up leaving having finished changing before I went and cleaned up in the showers.

I spent another ten minutes on my armour and gear before putting it in the locker and heading back out up to the top of the stands where my team was with my two older friends. I hadn't bothered to hide my wings anymore since I outed myself, it was hard not to notice all the eyes on me as I reached the top of the stands getting a group smiles from everyone.

[Spreading his wings]

"Team BYSN your Mentors will be the fourth year team AJUV/Aqua, Manus Jómsborg will be making sure you get the help you all need-" Her eyes landed on our group before she adjusted her glasses. "Looks as though he's already found you."

"Next is-"

We were dismissed after our 'Tutor' was called and we left the amphitheatre with Manus walking alongside Yang and Pyrrha who it seemed had become fast friends with the large man, we left Yan Qing as it seemed he had his own team to see to.

By the time I was paying attention to the conversation being had and the world around me again, we were standing in a large outdoor gladiatorial arena like space and my eyes laid themselves upon the view of Yang convincing Manus to punch her so she could so him her semblance and the Elephant Faunus looked like he really didn't want to while Blake was trying to convince her partner to not get herself injured.

The arena was like an old run down stone ruins of an amphitheatre that had throws of grass and foliage growing onto and all over it, I would have asked our Senior about it if not for the fact at that moment I watched as Yang stood in front of him perfectly calm as his monstrous sized hand tore through the air sailing directly into her ribs and stomach-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Oomph!" There was a thunderous sound as Yang was sent crashing and a horrid slap of flesh as she smashed directly into the ruined walls of the arena.

I realised I had been watching from a barely intact seat next to my partner who looked absolutely mortified at seeing the giant punch Yang so hard she flew back into the wall.

This was relevant because I stood up in worry at seeing my team leader getting hit by someone who looked like they lived up to their Elephant heritage and could knock a building down through pure strength alone.

"Yang are you okay?!" I found myself yelling out to the blonde at the same time as everyone else only for not a minute later to have her pull herself from the rubble-

"I'm good! Man, that was the hardest I've ever been hit!" she sounded so cheerful as her hair blazed like an inferno creating a wispy fiery effect as it moved around on its own and her eyes had turned a bright red. "I can't wait to see what kind of damage this churns out!" The blonde laughed, approaching an old fifteen or so foot tall column and punched it with all the force of a pissed off deity I would wager seeing as it turned part of the column into rubble and dust while sending the rest of it flying off into the rest of the arena ruins.

"I'm glad you're okay, but please don't ask me to do it again. It was hard enough restraining myself to only hit you that hard." Manus said, making everyone's jaws drop most especially Yang who was the one who felt it after all.

"You mean you were holding back?! And you're stronger than that?!" Our team leader looked beyond giddy with excitement.

"Alright since we're already here, could you sit down with your team please." Manus said pointing to the bench my partner and I were sitting on.

"Fine." The blonde and her partner took their seats, Blake despite her distant brooding nature asked her partner if she was actually fine after being hit like that.

"Alright I actually bought you here so we could get started on this Tutoring so that I can get my grade faster and you all are prepared for what you're going to face over this year and those to come." Pulling over a massive chunk of stone the large man sat on it.

"Before I start what do you guys want out of this, you all heard Miss Goodwitch's explanation of what I'm here for, but this also about you lot so yeah if there's anything you want to ask then do." Manus looked at all of us expectantly, the others had been talking to him throughout the class since I introduced them and knew enough about him to understand what he was like, obviously I had a better idea from having been friends this past week and hanging out.

There wasn't anything I really wanted to ask that I didn't assume he was going to cover.

"How often would you be around to help us and are there missions you'd be going off on that would limit you helping our team." Blake asked with her curious expression.

"That's a good point, so as it would normally stand for a fourth year student I would be required to take four missions a month with two of them being day trips basically and the other two lasting at least three days- Since I've got you guys that means I only need to do the shorter two missions and I can do them whenever I like so it's unlikely that they'd ever interfere with my helping you all."

"Will we be expected to take missions in our first year or will we not end up doing any until we're second years?" Pyrrha asked with her green eyes staring at the large man.

"These questions aren't really related to what I asked you if you had questions about, however yes you will do missions in you second semester and if you can prove yourself to be a competent team then we might be able to go on an extra one early before the end of this semester but I've got my doubts as to whether your team will get that chance." Manus scratched the back of his head.

He went on to ask about our schedules, Semblances, fighting styles, things we were looking to improve upon and a list of similar things. Very quickly he set about setting up what times we would be with him or that he was free to come and help out in whatever way we needed, mostly offering training and teaching in the way of combat and such.

Finally we ended on a short four on one sparring match where he got to make very clear to all of us that aside from his great natural strength that he was an amazing fighter that easily kept up with all of us without issue- even when I started flying around and Yang really took to her position as leader and conjured up a plan or two for us mid fight.

It was interesting to watch how things unfolded, but if I really wanted to make excuses for us losing sorely then I'd probably use the fact that he was wearing very casual and less movement restrictive clothing whereas we were all still in our uniforms.

[Laying out a plan]

As I turned away from Manus and my redheaded teammate who were deep in a conversation that she had dragged him into about some fighting thing I didn't get, I found a familiar set of eyes staring at me from across the opening that was the ruins we were in watching us all with a warm smile.

I couldn't help but smile back, something in me made me smile the way I did as I walked off leaving my team since we had finished anyway and making my way over to Serqet.

"Your wings are beautiful you know." She said as I stopped in front of her and she reached out giving a hug that I reciprocated before she backed off saying. "I did wonder why you were hiding them, but I can see that you've forgone whatever stupid reason was keeping you from utilising your most attractive feature- because it's not like you've got a pretty face-" she laughed to herself after having poked the mask insinuating that it was my face.

"Thanks for that, anyway how're you doing? Also did you just happen to know where we'd be or did you come across us by accident?" She tilted her head at the question.

"You see that building over there-" she pointed to a vaguely familiar looking building that was a few hundred metres away from the edge of the arena's ruins. "That's part of the school's Medical wing so a good portion of the staff were able to see when that blonde on your team got her socks knocked off by the big guy. I volunteered to come out and make sure no one got seriously injured."

"Right."

"C'mon follow me your day is over and my shift just ended." With that the dark haired woman turned and began walking away, I followed suit.

I hadn't really been expecting to but she invited me to come stay with her over the weekend and I had no reason not to so I agreed to go. Something I realise now probably isn't very obvious but the last time we went on a date I asked her about what kind of relationship we wanted to have, in the sense of what we wanted out of it because my mother had made it pretty clear to me that it was something I should find out in a call I had with her the other night because she said if both of us wanted different things and didn't get it we may end up breaking up because neither of our wants or needs were met.

This leading to what she wanted and what I wanted, Serqet said she agreed with the sentiment and that what she was looking for in a very washed down explanation of what she actually said being that she wanted a fairly physical relationship in the sense that it would involve a lot of hugging or that type of thing and someone she could offload her heart onto from time to time to make things easier on her- there was more to it than that, but that's the gist of what she said.

What I had been looking to get out of it really was just… it probably sounded sad? But someone to come back to and that I knew would be there for me.

Anyway.

So I would end up spending the weekend with her at her apartment, going out during the day to shop on the Saturday and then for our normal date on Sunday where we ended up walking around a large portion of the city and I even flew us up onto a roof at one point.

Something did happen that was completely out of the blue that I never expected to though… but I- no it doesn't matter, don't worry about it.