Author's Note: Please review and favorite. Constructive criticism is wanted. I am going on a mini hiatus to rewrite the earlier chapters. Ch 1 rewrite is currently two pages longer than the original and better written. I will either post it on this or make a new fic titled Rewrite. The posting schedule will be the same, except they'll be for the rewritten chapters for now.
Early in the morning, the sun barely rises, and Gray walks alone, heading to his first class of the day and helping prepare the room by cleaning it. Checking his scroll, the time was 6:45 am. 'I like the empty classroom. I feel like my head will explode with everything I've been thinking about,' an image of Teddy dropping soda on him flashed in his mind, 'I sort out those thoughts in this empty classroom. Teddy Jin. The best thing would be not to get tied up with his business. But from experience and hunch, it doesn't look like I'll get off that easily without anything happening,' his face formed a frown with cold fury in his eyes, 'Also, before that, my rage won't subside that easily, either.'
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Eugene walked his way upstairs to the classroom Gray was in, thinking, 'This guy wakes up waaay too early. Making me worried and shit. Hopefully, I can get there before he cleans everything.' "Huh?" he said, noticing an empty room and someone inside. "Someone else is helping out as well?" He peeked inside and saw Gerard sleeping on a long table with a pink neck pillow. 'What the heck? It's Gerard. What's he doing so early? Why is he sleeping here in this empty room instead of in his dorm? Damn, what a jump scare. What is he a zombie? Those are some long ass legs,' thought Eugene. "Oh shit! I shouldn't be here wasting time! I should make it to Professor Peach's class quickly and help clean before Gray finishes. Entering the class, Eugene saw Gray sitting at his usual seat doing extra classwork in a spotless room. He could have sworn it was sparkling. 'He's already here. And he already finished cleaning. I feel bad not getting here sooner.' Eugene stiffened in nervousness and began speaking to Gray, "Um, I woke up earlier than usual, so… I'm sorry, I'll be here even earlier the next time." "That's fine. Just finish what you were telling me last time," said Gray.
"Oh. About Teddy. Right to the point, huh. He was an infamous maniac at Seong-il High School. He beat a teacher during a bag check for apparently dirtying his backpack," Teddy standing over his teacher with a bloody face flashes, "He did even crazier stuff after getting suspended for it," Teddy riding on the back of a motorcycle flashes, "He doesn't seem to be affiliated with any gangs, though. As you've probably seen, he seems to only hang out with his friend Chad Jang, with whom he goes everywhere," Teddy is standing on the head of someone while he and Chad smirk flash. "And from what I've heard from a Seong-il graduate. The brutal way they bully other students is on another level. They slowly bully them into submission, driving them into the worst situations. Like. They're the type that gets pleasure from the act," Teddy grabbing someone by the ear, threatening to tear it off while they cry, flashes, "There's a sizable bunch of Seong-il High School students who transferred or quit school altogether because of Teddy," a group of students walking with heads down as an image of Teddy and Chad laughing overlooks them flashes, "The guy's on a different level than Cardin Winchester or Dove Bronzewing. Seriously. You should do everything not to get tied up with him." Silence overtook them as Eugene finished talking. "Um. Do you mind if I ask you something, too?" asked Eugene. "Go ahead," responded Gray. "You always come to school so early. Earlier than the rest of us, only joining us to eat breakfast, and even today you got here really early. Why do you do that?" said Eugene. Gray stopped working and thought of his response, "To study ahead." "Study ahead?" "This right here," Gray taps his study book with his pencil, "Is what gives me an edge. Studying ahead," an image of Teddy smirking pops into his mind, and then it gets covered by the shadow of Gray's open palm, "On every given situation." After their discussion, the two headed towards the cafeteria to meet the others for breakfast.
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Back in the room that Gerard was sleeping in. He woke up. Still lying on the table, he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. Checking inside, he noticed that there was only one cigarette left. "Ah. It's the last one. Hmm." 'I should quit this crap. So damn expensive,' he thought as he threw the pack into the trash. Getting off the table, he walks towards the cafeteria, thinking what to say to Ben when he asks about Gogo.
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Jaune walked alone to the cafeteria because he told his team to go ahead of him as he was still changing in his uniform. When suddenly, his path crossed with team PCMN, unfortunately. "Aye yo Jauney boy," said Phillip with false niceness. "Oh. Hi Phillip," replied Jaune with apprehension, lowering his eyes to the ground, not wanting to make eye contact with him. "Ooh, what's with the attitude? I'm just being friendly," mocked Phillip. Jaune didn't respond, still looking to the ground. Phillip didn't like this, but an idea popped up, and he smiled wickedly as he said, "You know, Jaune, these assignments are killing me. And as the nice friendly guy that you are. I was wondering if you'd do them for me?" "Wait. Why would I do that?" said Jaune, still looking to the ground but with now defiant eyes. Phillip grabbed Jaune's hair roughly and punched him in the gut, causing Jaune to gasp in pain and hunch over. He crouched, forcing Jaune to look him in the eyes, and said, "Because Jaune. If you haven't noticed. I'm not too much of a nice guy," Phillip then gave him his most intimidating stare, "And I'll make your life here at Beacon a fucking nightmare. And one is going to stop me. Not that fucking animal Ben Park or that bitch Pyrrha Nikos. You understand me, Jaune?"
Jaune refused to answer. Phillip then started punching his face, saying, "I said! Do! YOU! UNDERSTAND ME!" Eventually, Jaune caved and quickly said, "YES! Yes! I understand!" Phillip let him go, stood up, and kicked him in the gut, pushing him away. "Good, we have an understanding. My cousin Royce will give you our daily work at the library after the day's last class. Always come alone. And If I hear a peep about this. You're fucking dead," Phillip turned around, motioning for his team to follow him as they laughed at Jaune's humiliation. Jaune lay there crying slightly. He then put up his aura, healing his bruised face. After that, he walked towards the nearest bathroom, rushing to wash away any blood on his face so that no one would ask questions, hoping that he could fool them. He stood at the sink, looking at the mirror, ensuring he was clean, and then calmed himself to make his lies believable. After taking a deep breath, Jaune entered the cafeteria and sat beside his team, seeing that team RWBY and most of teams GART and BWGE were already there.
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"Morning, everyone," said Ben cheerfully before he started turning his head and looking around for Gogo. "Hey Gerard, where's Gogo?" asked Ben. "Oh, he's not feeling well. So he's staying behind in our room," Gerard said nervously. "Really? Well, I guess I'll see him later," said Ben, buying Gerard's act and began to eat. 'Ben's really an airhead, isn't he,' thought Gerard as he started eating breakfast. And so breakfast went off as usual, with the only difference being that people kept secrets from each other. With Jaune getting bullied by Phillip, refusing to talk about it, RWBY and Gerard not telling Ben the truth about why Gogo's not there, and Eugene and Gray not speaking about Teddy's actions.
A special morning announcement was broadcast to the school speakers as breakfast went on. The person giving this speech was none other than Professor Port. "Hello, dear students. In the spirit of this year's new beginning, we will focus all our attention on making you all the greatest huntsmen in the world. Raise your heads high as proud students of Beacon. And receive the energy of the life within you and from me. Your favorite professor that you can all learn a thing or two from…" continued Port for a long and winded amount of time, turning the speech into another way to boast about himself. His speech began to make nearly every student, from first-year students to seniors, drowsy and bored. "Fuckin' heck. I might die of boredom. How can you even go on about yourself for over 30 minutes?" said Teddy as he began slumping over and his tail beginning to wrap around his side due to pure drowsiness. Many students fell asleep with their faces in their breakfast of choice.
Port was too boring for them to handle in the morning before breakfast. Even Gray, Weiss, Pyrrha, and Ren struggled to stay awake. "Urgh, even staying in detention with him after school doesn't help," complained Rowan as he slowly but surely headed into the realm of sleep. "Excuse me, Professor Port. Breakfast is almost over, and the students need to head to class," said Doctor Oobleck. "Oh. Indeed, breakfast is nearly over. Haha. You get lost when giving speeches like mine. Then, that will be it for this semester's speech. Now, please start heading to class, students," said Port, finally finishing his speech.
"I thought I was going to fall my ass to sleep. He really went on for thirty whole minutes talking about himself," yawned Teddy as his tail swayed slowly from side to side. He and Chad began walking to class. "The old fart must've lost it," replied Chad. "Students! Classes are starting immediately, so go straight to your classes!" commanded Professor Goodwitch over the speakers. "Goddamnit! Can't we catch a break after suffering through Port's never-ending talk of himself? That Goodwitch is really annoying," complained Chad.
Then, something caught Teddy's eye as his tail wagged more energetically. In front of him was a second-year rat-eared faunus member of Beacon's student council. Swiftly, Teddy went up behind him, but the student in question hadn't noticed Teddy's presence before it was too late. Teddy pinched his rat ears, making the poor guy yelp in pain. "You shitty drone! Port spewed self-serving bullshit at us for half an hour because of you!" smiled Teddy in a false tone of friendliness. Chad smirked at the display. 'How the heck is that my fault?' thought the poor faunus as his ears, even with aura, began hurting a lot. Teddy released the right ear and pulled a thick black permanent marker from his pocket. Uncapping it with his mouth, Teddy said, "This is your punishment for the old man's speech," as he drew fake sideburns onto the guy's face, "There he is. Elfish Prezley in the flesh. Free sideburns for you, sir. Now that's a good-lookin' fella right there!" 'Could you at least do it somewhere without other students? I feel so humiliated,' thought the faunus as people passed them. Some felt they should step in and stop it, but they reluctantly did not want to get involved since both were faunus. Others didn't care, and some were just scared. Passing across from them was Gray walking alone, which caught Teddy's eye. "My drone! I have your first mission. Elfish mode activate!" said Teddy as he held the ears again. Turning the poor guy's head by the ears to look at Gray, Teddy said, "You see that dickhead over there? That puss-boy who's said to be one of my year's top dogs. You will take this holy marker, draw him a big x on his back, and return. GO! I want each stroke to be at least ten inches each. If you don't make the length requirement, I'll take that as mission failure, and you'll be sentenced to a fiery beating." "But. But I don't even know him," said the faunus, wincing in pain. Teddy pinched his ears even harder, causing him to yelp. "Oh. You don't know him? Then, do you wanna take a trip to the incinerator with me instead?" said Teddy, smiling a sweetly evil smile as he pinched with more force. In a desperate yell, the faunus student yelled, "I'll. I'll do it," as he also imagined Teddy holding a flaming stick, threatening to use it on him. Teddy let him go, having him face him, and then sucker punched him in the face blooding his nose. Then, with an angered face, Teddy said, "Hey. Quit stalling and get that shit done already. Unless you really want me to kill you. "Okay!" cried the student as he dashed away. Teddy and Chad smirked at his fear. 'He could actually kill me. Cause that freak Teddy Jin is a real psycho. Why did I have to get caught in his crosshairs?' cried the student to himself as he ran up to Gray.
His hand trembled until fear overtook him, and he drew the X on Gray's back. This caught Gray off guard as he didn't expect to see a crying sophomore run up to him. 'A marker?' thought Gray. Then Gray grabbed him by the scruff of his uniform, yelling, "What do you think you're doing on my back!" "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," cried the poor faunus. 'What's wrong with this guy? His… Nose is,' thought Gray as he was shocked by the state of this person. Gray asked, "Who made you do this?" "Teddy Jin," meekly said the faunus. Gray looked around for Teddy but couldn't find him. 'I despise that son of a bitch, Teddy Jin, but that doesn't mean I don't hate this fucker either,' thought Gray as he then looked back at the faunus in anger. "I had no other choice," whimpered the faunus. "What? You had no other choice?" said Gray with intensified anger as what the faunus said triggered a traumatic memory. *Flashback* "We had no other choice, too." said a group of students without much care. *Flashback Ends* Gray grits his teeth and then lets go of the poor faunus. 'Not even worth talking to,' thought Gray as he walked away. "What. What was I supposed to do? That freak is an insane sadist," cried the faunus. Gray stopped walking mid-sentenced. "So, that lets you do despicable things to a stranger's back? In a pathetic attempt to preserve your body from pain?" said Gray as he slowly turned to face him again, but the Faunus couldn't look him in the eyes. Gray looked at him with an intense fury, fury so intense it looked like he was surrounded by fire, "You fucking lowlife. If you're gonna run away, carry that weight yourself. Don't rope other people into your shit." He walked away for good thinking, 'Delusional lowlifes who think their situation will improve if they just follow the orders of their oppressors without even trying to fight back. I haven't a drop of pity for such idiots. Run away from reality, blaming others for ruining your life all you want; not a single thing will change,' then he took off his jacket in a stunning motion, walking with conviction on his face, 'You must endlessly think and flail for freedom like it's hardwired into your DNA.'
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Ben sat in his seat, waiting for Professor Peach's class to start. He was on his scroll checking his messages, seeing if Alex responded yet to any of his messages. His messages were "Yo," "Alex," and "You skippin' class, bro?" "Hey," Heyy." Ben raised an eyebrow, thinking of why Alex had been ignoring him. In a rare instance of remembering him, Ben asked Waldo, "Hey, you know why Alex's been ignoring my messages? Wasn't he with you yesterday? You guys went to play pool, right? Was everything okay?" Waldo remembered what Alex made him promise and chose not to tell the truth, "Yeah, we split pretty early." "What's going on? Is he going through another phase, like back in high school when he wanted to see the ocean alone?" an image of Alex acting standoffish on a beach with a sign pointing at him saying stage four of sophomoric illness patient: Alex Go, "Should've stayed on campus like a good student. Is he mad at me 'cause I left him for my feast of ribs yesterday?"
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Due to Port's speech, students were given extra time to get to class. And in a men's bathroom, a random schmuck was getting his ass beat as he slumped into one of the stalls and sat on a toilet. "BOO-YAH!" yelled Teddy as he held himself on the bathroom stall, giving a swing kick to the face of the schmuck he was fighting. "You coming to your sense now?" said Teddy, now standing and grinning from ear to ear at the schmuck's defeated posture. Teddy then stood aside as Phillip Kim made his way forward to the schmuck, grinning, "That's why you should've just stayed in your lane, fool. If you just did that, none of this would have happened." The schmuck sat there defeated, with a bloody nose and a bruised face, not looking up. Phillip looked at him, thinking, 'Those who lost their will to fight can't even think about measuring their strength against a new opponent.' Phillip then started wailing on his face, saying, "You idiot," while also thinking, 'You can establish yourself above them without even a fight. Just by shoving your fist into a fallen competitor's face,' "Look at your noggin bouncin' around like a bobblehead." 'The hopelessness of a competitor who's entirely accepted his impending fall. This is the perfect time to establish your dominance. Phillip and co then left the schmuck as Phillip put an arm around Teddy, saying, "We're still on for tonight, right?" Teddy responded, "Yup!" while laughing.
Watching this scene unfold was Gray as he saw them from across another building through the windows. Gray clenched his fist around his Jacket in anger, thinking to himself with eyes of disgust, 'Teddy Jin… Philip Kim…'