Chapter 12: A Minor Hiccup

Did you know that nobody knows why Grimm exclusively hunt down humans? Sure, they'd attack the occasional wild animal and maybe even their own kind, but humans were always their number one target. Grimm didn't even eat humans, just killed, like it was their sworn duty as monsters. No one knows why Grimm seem to hate humanity as much as they do. It was one of life's greatest mysteries, and one Dante wasn't sure if he wanted to find out.

Despite the usual nonsensical ramblings Professor Port gave, the Huntsman teacher did occasionally peak Dante's interest in some of the things he mentioned. Grimm don't need sustenance of any kind, they're practically immune to experimentation and study due to disintegrating when killed, along with dying in captivity quickly, they're attracted to negative emotions, etcetera etcetera. And there were little to no answers as to why outside of religious beliefs.

Dante was merely only pondering these things, as nothing else in Port's class was interesting him at the moment. Jaune trying and utterly failing to ask out Weiss? Yeah, that wasn't exactly new. Skyler was pretending to listen by continuously writing, not what Port was rambling, but what plans he was creating to trap Yang into confessing. While that was amusing in and of itself, Dante was starting to get a tiny bit sick of it.

Then his eyes landed on Hazel. She had one cheek rested on one hand, and her pencil twirling in the other. She looked just about as bored as he felt, just waiting for Port to say something actually worth noting.

'Beautiful,' Dante caught himself thinking before turning his head away in embarrassment.

He had recently found himself in a unique situation, or at least in his own case. Dante had never really had any experience with girls other than Yang and Ruby, but those two were a completely different and platonic case. He was too busy trying to be the lighthearted jokester to really pay any sort of romantic attention to women.

Then one morning, he remembered waking up and seeing Hazel already out of bed. She wore her usual blue pajamas, her eyes were dark and baggy from studying just a bit too late the night before, and her hair looked as though a tornado had passed by.

And all Dante could think was, 'Beautiful.'

And thus, the desperately trying to hide romantic feelings began. He thought about consulting his closest friends on this, but immediately ruled out that option. Skyler and Yang would be no help, as Dante would get a taste of karma for his teasing of them, and the only thing Ruby knew about romantic relationships was with Crescent Rose. Walker was also ruled out, mainly due to his seeming inexperience with relationships in general.

So that really only left a few other options. Anyone on Team JNPR was ruled out, Jaune and Nora especially, for opposite reasons. The rest of Team RWBY didn't seem like the best of options either. Blake was apparently in a bad mood, and Weiss probably wasn't going to give any advice that would give the slightest chance of potential happiness to her rival. And then came the final option...

So about an hour after class, Dante knocked on one of the doors to a dorm room. And judging by the reaction he got, he was already gonna regret this.

Auriel opened the door and gave him a slightly creepy smile, "You came to the right place. But first..."

She held out a hand, "My upfront fee?"

Dante groaned, but complied, pulling out a hundred lien and handing them to her. She pocketed the money and gestured him in. He complied, meeting the sight of Team ATUM's room... with the rest of the team still inside.

Dante turned to Auriel with an irritated glare, "I thought you said it'd be just us two in the conversation?"

"We are!" Auriel insisted, "You won't hear a peep out of them! They won't contribute to the conversation in any way."

He groaned again, but nevertheless took a seat in a desk chair while ATUM's leader popped a squat on her bed across from him, "So... you finally realized you had feelings for Tikal, huh?"

Dante blushed at the bluntness but replied, "Yeah... So, what do you suggest I do about it."

"Other than outright confessing, I'm guessing?"

"Yup."

Auriel clapped her hands together, "Well then, the answer is simple! Here's what you do..."

"You conned that poor man," Uriel scolded lightly as he and the rest of his team walked through the streets of Vale.

"Come on, what did I say wrong?" Auriel shot back.

"Instead of him confessing outright, you told him to ask her to the upcoming school dance. How is that not terrible advice?"

"Well, I never said he had to ask her to the dance as an actual date. They could just go together as friends, teammates! He's smart enough to figure that out!"

Uriel face-palmed, "I don't know what's more idiotic, your advice or the fact that Dante actually took it."

"C-Come on, Uriel," Tatiana spoke up, "It's not the worst thing that could've been said..."

"I suppose that's true," Meta agreed, "It's not like she said for him to propose to her."

Uriel could only mumble in agreement before going back to the situation at hand, "So anyway, remind me of why we're out here right now?"

"Well, I figured that, as icy as she can be," Auriel replied, "Weiss had a point about scoping out the competition. We're gonna be a part of the Vytal Festival Tournament! We need every advantage we're gonna get."

"A good strategy," Meta complimented, "For a good hunt, it is important to know how the hunted will react in various situations, whether be it when they are aware or unaware of the danger they are in."

"Weird analogy, but precisely!" Auriel agreed with a thumbs up pose.

"I-I'm not sure that's such a good idea..." Tatiana said timidly, glancing around the area and eying a few Faunus, "I m-mean, do we really have to?"

Uriel looked at her funny, "You okay? You seem more timid than you usually are."

"W-Well-"

She was interrupted by the sound of a loud crash. ATUM turned to see a familiar figure in front of a truck... that had just slammed into her. It was the Penny girl from the docks that night, and she had stopped a speeding truck with her bare hands. Further inspection of the situation showed that she had apparently shoved one Ruby Rose out of the way to take the hit. And before anyone could process anything, Penny had taken off running into the nearby alley.

"Penny! Wait!" Ruby cried out, chasing after her, "Where are you going?"

Once the girls disappeared, ATUM blinked at the whole situation a few times before Uriel sighed and said, "So we're just gonna ignore that, right?"

"Oh, most definitely," Auriel replied.

By the time Auriel deemed their scouting done, the sun was already setting. Meta wasn't too bothered by it. He'd had longer hunting trips with his dad before going to Beacon to be a Huntsman. Though they really spent most of their time in various stores, not even paying attention to the Hunter teams they saw, as Auriel was too busy convincing Tatiana to buy something for her. Though it wasn't all a complete waste of time. They managed to stalk two teams in particular.

The first of which consisted of three Faunus (one male and two female) and one male human, one of the girls constantly slapping the human across the head every time he seemed to get something from a concession stand for absolutely nothing. The guy's name was apparently Felix, the girl's name was Scarlett, but the other two were complete unknowns. Uriel made a quick note to plug his ears if Felix tried speaking to him, as that seemed to be the key to his Semblance.

The other team was a team of two Faunus females and two human males. One of the males seemed to always be tinkering with something in his hands, the other guy was just a quiet kind of person (Meta could relate), the female leader of the group was oddly distant with her team (kinda reminding ATUM of Walker), and the other female Faunus constantly had Team ATUM asking themselves if she was too young to drink from that flask.

But nevertheless, the team found themselves at a cafe near the airship docks that would take them back to Beacon. They all waited for their scheduled airship, sipping on whatever beverage they had bought there.

"So... how do you guys think today went?" Auriel asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Rather well, I suppose," Meta shrugged halfheartedly, "The kill may come later than what I'm used to, but it will manage."

Tatiana merely nodded, a bit creeped out by Meta's constant hunting metaphors. Uriel groaned as he put his cup down.

"We have no idea if we'll even fight these people!" he exclaimed, "For all you know, we could be fighting completely different teams in our fights!"

Auriel gave him a look, "So? It's not like we're getting bad intel. Just maybe useless intel."

"See?! We-"

"Well, this is quite the surprise."

The entire group flinched as they turned to look at the voice. The new arrival wore a red collar shirt with yellow bar insignia on the shoulders, as well as black pants and combat boots. He had white hair, yellow eyes, and at his side hung a short spear. His piercing gaze seemed directed at Tatiana, who recognized the newcomer and shrunk down in her seat.

"And who might you be?" ATUM's leader questioned, glaring at the man, who didn't avert his gaze.

"Tatiana Epona," the guy said, disregarding Auriel in favor of her partner before repeating, "I have to say, I didn't expect to see you here."

"W-Well, u-um..." the timid girl replied, more nervous than usual, "I, uh, had t-to for prot-protection... Hello, Nathan..."

And with that, I'm finally done. It was about time I focused on Team ATUM for a bit. They are, after all, one of the main reasons I wanted to rewrite this. And I didn't expect to have so much fun writing them! Expect the next chapter to be like this one; you know, Team ATUM doing their own thing and avoiding Team RWBY's shenanigans.

But yeah, now we can be properly introduced to Nathan Bourbon, leader of Team EBNE and created by H20FLAME. I'm not gonna lie, without him, this entire story would not be nearly as interesting. I'd probably still be blindly following the canon instead of doing my own thing. Nathan and his team will play a vital role in the events to come, so watch out for them! Go check them out at H20Flame's account.

But yeah, that about wraps up this chapter. Team ATUM's about to talk with Nathan and it'll probably be pretty interesting. I have no idea what will be said, so I hope I can come up with something neat. And then after the next chapter, I'll explain how Aura works. Because that's something else the canon just kinda glosses over. Till next time guys!