A Molten Fox's Tale

Chapters

Chapter One: Start of the Beacon Arc
Ch 2
Ch 3
Ch 4
Ch 5
Ch 6
Ch 7
Ch 8
Ch 9
Ch 10

Chapter One: Start of the Beacon Arc

Snow. It’s cold, soft, and… white. So very white. Most kids love the snow, playing around in it, building snowmen and woman, playing snowball fights. Honestly, what’s there to love about it?

I for one, don’t like the snow. It’s cold, hollow, and just… cold. I looked up at the falling snowflakes that fell down from the sky again. It was the tenth time this week it happened and I bet it would snow again two or three more times by the end of the week. This time it was falling more softly.

“Viri… come close to the fire.” A voice said to me. I turned back to see a silver-haired woman in her early twenties with a number of jackets and scarves wrapped around her. Her eyes were a dull crimson colour, like mine, as she stared at me.

“Okay, mama.” I said, walking forward towards her, it was hard with multiple layers on me. I was eight at the time so I kinda waddled over to her. My mom chuckled a bit as she brushed some snow off of my bushy tail and pulled me close to the barrel with the flame in it. I snuggled up close to her, my fox-like ears flatten when she petted my head. I looked up at her as we heard people walk past our alley. We were so deep in it that we would be invisible to them, mom said it’s to make sure the bad people won’t find us.

We lived in a small town in the land of Atlas. Where the weather is harsh, and the people are harsher. You see both me and mama are something called a Faunus, an animal hybrid person that lives in the land and others like it. One place is where mama was born, a land with sand and the sun blazed down on the ground. I didn’t know what the sun looked like, never see it for myself but I was told it was big, yellow, and very, very bright.

Mama and I sat near the barrel for a few minutes, a snowflake falling close to my face, I instinctually stuck my tongue out to catch it. This got a giggle from mama which made me smile before she started to cough. Mama was sick for the past few weeks, and she hasn’t gotten any better. She rustled around a bit before pulling out a wrapped up package to me.

“Here honey, happy birthday.” She said with a smile. I looked up at her then at the package before taken it into my hands. It was hard to take the wrapping off since it was really a piece of cloth, so I bit into it and pulled before I unwrapped it and saw it was a book, the next one from a set that I’ve read over and over again. I stared at it before looking up at mama and saw her smile.

“How?” I asked, only to hear her chuckle.

“Mama has her ways, happy birthday.” She said. I wrapped my arms around her into a hug which she returned in kind before I opened the book and took a sniff of it. Yes, I sniff book that I got, I love the new book smell don’t judge. I read a few chapters in before it was time to go to bed. Mama crawled into our little makeshift shack with a few sheets to keep the cold out. I crawled in as well before snuggling up to mama. She kissed the back of my head before saying goodnight. I did the same and started to count in my head.

As soon as I hit three hundred I heard mama snoring. I turned back at her before slowly and carefully pull my way out of her arms. I sat up and headed out of our home and into the streets. Mama is doing everything to make my life better, I should do the same for her.

I went down different alleyways, turn some corners and made sure I knew my way back. I didn’t want Mama to worry sick that I was gotten myself lost, she was already sick as is. It was about ten minutes after I left when I got close to an end of the alley when I heard voices. I crouched down and sneaked my way towards the voices before peeking out. There were two figures, both in robes and facing away from me on a bench.

“I’m telling you, sister, there’s something here.” One of them said, who was female and I guessed that the other was female too. “You never question my judgement before.” The other figure, her sister, chuckled and spoke up.

“I can name just about a few occasions.” The other figure said. The first figure turned to the other for a moment.

“Okay, I didn’t know which cave it was the first ten times, you will never let that go.” the first figure said. I looked at the two of them for a few moments before I saw that, near the first figure, was a large pouch. My eyes widen at it, that pouch could have a number of items that could help mama and me with living out here. With that in mind, I got close to the cold snow and crawled forward towards the bench. Slowly and surely I got there and reached out to grab the pouch. I made sure they were still chatting as my gloved hand got close to the pouch. Holding my breath I grabbed it and pulled away, sneaking back into the alleyway to run. I got it! I got the pouch!

I ran as fast as I could, even if I heard a loud ‘Hey!’ from where I was. I retraced my path, through the twists and turns I soon got back home… but there were other people here, people I didn’t know. They were large, human, and male. They were muttering something before mama was thrown away from them, she was bloody and hurt.

“Bitch! You stole from us! After all, we did for you this is how you repay us!” one of them yelled at mama before kicking her. She let out a yell of pain as I watched.

“Faunus, nothing more than trash.” Another one said, spitting at mama. I stared at the scene before one of the men looked up.

“Hey, who’s that?” he asked, making the others look up as well. Mama looked, her one eyes was closed shut but the other showed fear in it as one of the thugs bent down and grabbed mama’s hair. “Oh, I see… that’s the little baby you love so much… we had a deal, Sarah, you do our work and we leave you alone… but you didn’t say anything about the brat.”

Her eye widens before she looked at me. “RUN!” She yelled before she was punched into the snow. I stood there, frozen in fear before seeing one of the men walking towards me. At that moments my body did one thing; run. I turned and ran as fast as I could into the alleyway. The sound of screams and grunts were behind me as the loud footfalls of the man chasing after me. I didn’t know where I was going, I didn’t care, I just wanted to get away… but fate is cruel as I turned and found myself at a dead end. I looked around in fear, hoping a way out would show itself but it didn’t. I turned back and saw the man walking up to me.

“Damn Faunus, nothing more than animals.” He grumbled as he got closer. My back was up against the wall as he towered over me with a smirk. “Maybe I could keep you, in a few years and some training you be a nice slave for me. How’s that sounds?” I trembled in my covers, hoping something would happen to stop him. “But first… some discipline.” he raised his hand up into a fist which I closed my eyes, too scared to watch.

But the hit didn’t come. I opened my eyes and saw someone grabbed the man’s arm and he grunted to pull free. “What the- let go of me!”

“Hmm, typical of you humans.” I heard the voice of the woman from before, the very same woman this pouch belonged to. The next sound that greeted my ears was a crack followed by the pained yell of the man.

“AHHH! THE FUCK!” The man screamed as I saw the woman holding the man’s arm, from the looks of it the arm was floppy like. “Wha- What the hell!” He turned around and looked at the woman, I still didn’t see as he was blocking my view. “What the fuck are you lady?!”

“Someone you have angered greatly.” The woman said before quickly adding. “Now kneel!” She said before grabbing a hold of the man’s other arm. The man screamed out in pain as he kneeled down, both arms were floppy. I looked up trembling at the woman… she was like me, a fox Faunus only her hair was blonde and skin was a bit brown, tanned from what mama said some people look like? With a frown, the woman put her foot on the man’s chest before promptly shoving him away with incredible force, the man’s saving grace so happened to be a dumpster surrounded by trash bags. “That takes care of that.” Said the woman before her gaze landed on me. I was trembling, tears ran down my cheeks, not caring that they could freeze from the cold.

“P-P-Please d-don’t h-h-hurt m-me…” I said with a stutter. I was terrified that the woman would do the same thing to me for stealing from her. Her steps were heard thanks to the snow and it only served to terrify even more.

“Are you alright, little one?” I heard her ask me. I looked up at her, her gaze didn’t look threatening, more worried. I was able to calm down a little from this, before remembering something big.

“Mama!” I yelled, pushing forward and past the woman before falling face first into the snow. That didn’t stop me from flailing a bit and crawling forward. “Mama, mama!”

“Where is your mother?” Asked the woman as she helped me up but instead of answering, I simply ran back and leaving the woman behind. I ran all the way back to our home in the alley, just to see all the men groaning and in pain. Like the one man that was with me, the others arms and legs were broken and standing in the middle was the other woman from before.

“Mortal men, think they can stand against me.” She whispered as she turned to me. Her hood was up but I saw glowing red eyes. I didn’t pay her much attention as I saw mama on the ground still bleeding out.

“Mama!” I yelled, running to her and shaking her. “Mama, mama wake up!” There was silence from her. I shook her some more before she started to cough. Her eyes open and looked at me.

“Vi...ri? Are you… alright?” She asked me weakly. I started to cry, feeling this was all my fault.

“I’m sorry mama, I shouldn’t have left you.” I cried. I felt her arm wrapped around.

“Shhh, shhh, it’s alright… You’re safe… that’s all I care about.” She whispered before started to cough up blood.

“Mama!” I yelled. She was breathing heavy as I heard footsteps from behind me. I looked back and saw the two from before, now staring at me. “Please! Help her! I don’t want her to die! I don’t want to be alone!” I cried, more tears ran down my face as I pulled the pouch and threw it at their feet. “Have it back, I don’t want it anymore! I want my mama!” The woman from before, the fox faunus, walked up to mama but ignored the pouch. She knelt down and just looked at her for a solid minute or two before finally placing a hand on mama’s forehead. I couldn’t explain what I saw happen next, the only word that could come to mind was magic and as if by magic, mama’s body shone a golden light and within a blink of my eyes her wounds were gone and her bloody stains have vanished. Mama let out a breath out of relieve, pushing herself up and pulling me into a hug.

“There there… I’m better…” She whispered to me before looking up at the woman. “Thank you… I figured you would find me again… after all this time.” I looked at her confused at what she meant. Did Mama know this woman?

“I’m sorry it took me so long.” The woman said with a sad smile while I was simply left confused. Up close I saw that the woman was a bit older than mama, some of her blonde hair had a few wisps of gray in there but after seeing what she did I didn’t question her age. Mama chuckled a little.

“It’s fine…” She looked around at the place and then at me. “Umm… not to sound like a teenager but… mind if we… crash at your place?” She asked the woman, making me completely confused on what’s going on.

“Umm, what’s going on?” I asked, voicing my confusion. Mama chuckled at this, pushing herself up and with me in her arms.

“Viri, this is Mavisath…” Mama looked at the woman with a smile. “She’s your grandma.” My eyes widen at this, this woman is my grandma?!

“Hello there, little one.” Said my supposed grandmother with a gentle smile and a wave of her hand. It then donned to me that I had tried stealing from her moment prior to all of this. I let out a nervous laugh as the other woman stepped up.

“It seems she just found out that she was trying to steal from her own grandma.” She said, shaking her head. Mama frowned at me.

“Viri, I told you that stealing was bad.” Mama scolded me, making my ears go flat on my head.

“Sorry, mama…” I said sadly. Mama sighed before pulling me closer, putting her forehead onto mine.

“Just don’t do it again, alright. Mama will know if you steal again.” Mama warned me. I smiled and nodded at her. My grandmother smiled at the two of us while the woman beside her, most likely her sister of the conversation from before is anything to go by.

“Now then… I believe we should get going, there is a very nasty blizzard coming this way.” I heard my grandmother say before a bright flash of light shone behind her. When I looked, I was slack jawed when I found a very well adorned set of doors before the opened by themselves, the light was too bright for me to see the other side. The other two walked through before Mama walked over to our shack of a home and grabbed a few things, all my books and some of her stuff.

“Can’t forget about these can we.” Mama said before she carried me through the bright doors. I screwed my eyes shut from how bright it was before, finally, opening them to look around. I saw that the place we were in was some sort of field, lots of green grass range as far as I could see, some mountains off in the distance and other colours that I haven’t seen other than in books. I looked up at all the blue sky with white clouds floated past before I saw something bright, very very bright.

“Ahhh!” I yelled, rubbing my eyes and saw many black dots in my vision. Mama laughed at me before saying.

“Viri, that’s the sun, don’t look at it straight on.” She giggled. I continue to blink to get rid of all the black dots but it’s not working. Curse you dots! The chuckle of my grandmother brought my attention to her, gone were the robes she wore and instead she wore a very pretty looking white dress. The woman beside her didn’t wore robes as well, she wore what looked like a black suit with a red shirt underneath. She was completely different from grandma; instead of a fox Faunus, she had what looked dragon horns sprouting out of her black hair. Her skin was a darker tanned colour and dark red scales covered her sides of her face and arms. I looked at the two of them, wondering how they changed so quickly.

“Now then…” My grandmother spoke before clearing her throat to catch both our attentions when I looked over I saw a few chairs set up and my grandmother was already sat down. “Why don’t we start from the beginning, Sarah.” She said.

It took some time, grandma somehow got some cakes and other foods to float in, literally, from the sky and set in front of us. I drooled at the sight of the food before wolfing down the majority if it. I learned that the other woman was named Axycia, Mavisath’s sister. It was also taken aback that Grandma and my aunt aren’t Faunus, more accurately, aren’t mortal. Another few minutes past and mama finished her story, our many jackets and sweaters were folded on a chair beside us and I sat on her lap, nibbling on a cookie.

“And… that’s it…” Mama said, brushing my hair as I nibbled on the cookie. Grandma hummed at this, her expression was one of guilt for not having found us sooner than she did.

“I am sorry for not finding you sooner, had I known you were living in such conditions I’d have dropped everything to help you.” Grandma said to mama. I frowned at this before mama gave me a squeeze.

“It’s fine, I thought it would be better for us but… after Ray passed… fate decided to be funny.” Mama said sadly.

“You mean fate is a b-” Auntie started to say but was cut off by mama.

“No.” She said firmly.

“What?” Auntie asked, looking at all three of us.

“Not when there are kids around if you do I’ll beat you with your chair.” Mama threatened, earning a giggle from me. Auntie crossed her arms and muttered something in a language that I didn’t understand. While this was nice and all, I still had questions of my own with one such question being why mama never mentioned anything about grandma before. I voiced this question to her when I had the chance.

“I wanted to tell you when you were a little older and when we were in a better isolation… that didn’t really work out well didn’t.” Mama said with a little chuckle. I frown a little before reaching over and grabbing another cookie, which I hummed happily as I ate it.

“I see you love the cookies I’ve made, your mother was a big fan of them when she was your age. She practically begged me to make them.” Grandma said with a soft chuckle and a smile. Mama chuckled at this as well as I looked up from my cookie, swallowing what I had in my mouth.

“So… What now?” I asked the three of them. Grandma and Auntie looked at one another before a door appeared once again, though this one was a tad bit smaller. Grandma stood up and walked over to said door before opening it, revealing a very well furnished room. She merely turned to look at me and mama before gesturing us to follow her inside, so we did. As we passed the table I swiped a few more cookies before entering the door with Mama and grandma. I looked around in awe at the place around us.

“This will be your new home, equipped with two bathroom and bedrooms. A large kitchen stocked full of everfresh ingredients and spices. Last but not least.” Grandma said before a large bookshelf materialized in front of my eyes, it was already stocked full books but it didn’t end there, the books shifted and moved aside before a door appeared between the now split bookshelf. “A direct hotline to myself and my sister, simply speak of whom you wish to see and it shall be done.” Finally, Grandma finished, all with a big smile as she turned to look at us. I stared at the split bookshelves in awe, wondering if there were any more secret passageways? Mama let out a breath of relieved.

“Thank you… so much.” Mama said with a smile. I looked up at her and gave her a hug, I could tell she wanted this so much instead of that shack in the alley.

“Sarah, I am very very sorry for what you have gone through but know this, I will find a way to make it up to you.” Grandma said to mama as she walked up to us. Her expression was that of sadness, she really did feel bad for never knowing about how we were living.

“It’s alright… this… this is fantastic mom.” Mama said before giving grandma a hug. This caught grandma by surprise but returned the hug with a tearful smile. I felt a little left out and squeezed my way in between them, which got a few laughs from the two. For a moment, I thought this was a dream as it was all too good to be true and as if on queue, fear began to set in because if this really was a dream then I would wake up soon and I don’t want to. I felt tears well up and blur my vision but a gentle hand wiped them away, when I looked up I saw that it was my grandmother giving me a soft smile.

“There is no need to cry, little one.” Was all she said and just by the sound of her voice, I found calmness. My fear vanished within an instant and without hesitation, I focused my hug on her as a way of thanks for all this though all I could do was hug her lower half basically only her legs, she was very tall.

This got a laugh from mama before she picked me up into her arms. “Now we have a home, time to get caught up with your schooling.” Mama said with a small smirk. I about to spoke out my annoyance over this, having had experience in a public school before mama ran out of money for me to attend. I didn’t want to go back to school or even a new one, I felt like an outcast when I did but before I could speak, Grandma spoke up.

“If you would like, I could tutor her. Homeschool her, I believe that is the term.” I heard grandma said, which got me confused. What’s homeschooling?

“Oh, you don’t have to do that… you’ve already done so much.” Mama said to grandma, who simply chuckled a little.

“My dear Sarah, it’ll be a pleasure to teach young Viri. Look at it this way if you will, you can trust me more than any ordinary school.” Said Grandma, the result of her words was a hum from mama as she thought.

“Well… you have a point there…” She said. I looked over at grandma for a few moments.

“Can I get cookies?” I asked her. This earned me a laugh from the both of them. My answer was given to me in the form of an odd looking cookie jar appearing in front of me, simply floating in midair. I smiled and grabbed the jar and looked inside for cookies.

“Thank you… so much.” Mama said to grandma as I pulled out a cookie. Mama hugged Grandma again, thanking her over and over again. Grandma was quick to return the affection while I sat and ate the cookies.

“Anything for my dearest daughter.” I heard grandma say to mama. I looked up at the two of them as mama pulled away, wiping her tears away. Grandma smiled before looking down at me with a smile. I smiled back as I pulled out another cookie and handed it to her. She smiled at this and took it before eating it.

Grandma soon left the two of us to explore our home. I was very excited to have my own bed, more so having a bed overall I believed things were looking bright for us.

Though I still didn’t know what homeschooling is.

Four years later

I figured out what homeschooling is. It was school at home. I feel a little dumb not knowing that. Grandma comes over to home and educates me in various topics from the basic history of Remnant, to very complicated math and science.

Right now she was teaching me math, mostly going over stuff we already did. I started to daydream and the corners of my notebook were filled with doodles of monsters and beings that fight them. Before coming here Mama told me stories about Huntsmen and huntresses of Remnant and so far my doodles reflect that.

“Are you even paying attention?” The words from my grandmother were clear as day, despite me being in la la land. I fumbled about on my seat and with my notebook before straightening up before nervously chuckling. Grandma has shown me that she is very patient, rarely ever annoyed or ticked off by anyone or anything for that matter. “Viri, I know this is boring for you but it’s important that you learn these things.” Grandma said to me in a sincere tone. She sat on the chair opposite of me of the table.

“Sorry.” I said as I looked at my notebook to find where we were. As I did my notebook glowed in a golden light and it floated over to grandma. I shrank a little as she looked at my doodles. She hummed as she turned several pages, finding more and more of my drawings.

“You are fond of the Huntsmen and Huntresses of Remnant?” She asked me with an arched brow, her gaze moving up from my notebook and onto me. I shakenly nodded, expecting to be yelled at for not having paid attention and not have written down any notes. “You’re just like your mother, fascinated with these Huntsmen like your father.” She said with a chuckle. I smiled up at her from this.

“Mama used to tell me stories about them, they sound so cool.” I said happily. She smiled at me before handing my notebook back, which surprised me a little as I was expecting her to lash out at me at any given moment. She then stood up from her chair.

“Come, young Viri, there’s something I’d like you to see.” Grandma said, offering her hand out for me. I looked at it for a moment before taking her hand with mine. She smiled and I began to feel lighter as if I was floating in midair and that seemed to be the case as I saw Grandma’s feet hover a few inches off the ground and so were mine. Before I could question it, the scenery changed from the dining room table to a large hall with statues and portraits of many men and women, all of whom appeared to be from different eras. I looked around at the statues before looking up.

“Where are we?” I asked grandma. She smiled at me as she let go of my hand walked ahead.

“This is the hall of Great Huntsmen.” She said to me before turning back towards me, once again offering her hand towards me. I was a bit nervous about this, I never been here before but I took grandma’s hand and stayed close to her. “Huntsmen have been around longer than you may think, in fact, you could say they have been around since the dawn of Remnant.” She said, showing me a statue of what looked to be a tribe of warriors, marking across their bodies and primitive weapons at ready. Behind the statue was a painting, a very detailed one depicting the very same tribe warriors just as they look in statue form only the painting showed the Grimm they were about to clash with. I looked up at the statue and leaned to the side to see the painting.

“Woah…” Was all I could say at this. Grandma chuckled at this before we continue on to the next one. This one depicted a single man holding the jaws of an Ursa Major open and the painting behind it detailed it, even more, showing the body of the Grimm riddled with spears and slash marks while the man looked to have been heavily bleeding. This must’ve been centuries after the last one as the painting also had a small village in the background with more people fending off the Grimm invaders. I frowned a bit, remembering the lessons in the public school I used to go to, saying that Grimm were monstrous creatures that would kill anything they find. The painting more or less confirmed that.

“Ah, here’s your mother’s favourite.” Grandma said as she walked a little ahead and I quickly followed her. The statue she was referring to was a little odd, this one being the first have the person smiling and the person being not only a woman but a faunus as well. The woman held what appeared to be a smithing hammer and a small shield. The painting behind the statue surprised me even more as it showed the woman riding a Deathstalker as they both fought a pack of Beowolves.

“She’s riding a Grimm!” I said in surprise before looking back at Grandma. “I thought you can’t do that!” Grandma chuckled this before walking up beside me.

“Ah but that’s no ordinary Grimm you see, that Deathstalker was raised by her since it was a lost little hatchling.” Grandma said to me, making me awe at the statue. I now understand why mama liked this Huntress a lot, she’s really cool. I looked down the hall to see what other huntsman or huntresses were here.

“This is so cool~,” I said before turning to face grandma. “When I grow up I’ll be like one of these Huntsmen! And I’ll be in this hall so others can see!” Grandma chuckled at this before she spoke.

“You know, I can train you under my wing.” Grandma said to me, though I was unsure if that was a joke or not. I stared at her for a few moments before I spoke.

“Are you… telling me the truth?” I asked her. She chuckled but nodded soon after before saying.

“I can teach you the ways to become an excellent hunter, even surpass your father and speaking of which.” Grandma said before stopping in front of another statue. I followed her and took a look at the statue when I stopped beside her. The statue was that of a man that was smiling. The painting behind the statue was that of a fight between him and someone that I couldn’t see, all I could tell was the man was using fire and the other shadows. On the statue’s base was the name ‘Ray Warren’. “He is your father, if you were wondering.” Grandma said as I stared at the statue.

“Woah…” Was all I could say. Mama did talk about him but, she never said he was this cool. Grandma patted my head, bringing me out of my thoughts and I quickly looked up at her.

“I think it’s about time we return, your mother will be home soon.” She said to me and I was clearly upset by this, having yet scratched the surface of this place. I pouted a bit but as I did this the hallway turned back into the living room.

“Awww…” I said, clearly upset that I couldn’t stay anymore. She chuckled and patted my cheek gently and saying.

“Oh don’t be like that, tomorrow will be better because then is when your training starts.” She said to me with a smile, offering up a new topic of homeschool. I couldn’t help but smile at this.

“Okay!” I said happily to her, seeing her smile more at me.

Author's Note

Okay! The start of the first chapter of the Rewrite of Molten Fox! Hope you all like it! :)

Ch 2

It was three years ago grandma said she was going to teach me to become a Huntress, what she didn’t say was that I was going to be studying the history of them since I was twelve and was too young to be training.

Again, that was three years ago, now I’m fifteen and I believe I was ready to start. My hair was done up in a ponytail, the silver-white colour of it seemed to sparkle a bit and I don’t know why and I sat out in the large field like an area I like to call ‘The Valley.’ It just sounded cool. The place always relaxes me no matter how bad of a mood I’m in with its gentle blowing breeze and the calming whistles of the wind, even the bed of grass I sat on. It was basically paradise.

“Aren’t you an early bird.” The voice of my grandmother brought my attention back up from my notebook. She walked up to me, wearing the very same dress I’ve grown accustomed in seeing her with.

“What can I say, I’m a bit excited,” I said with a chuckle. I closed my notebook an stood up. I wore a black tank top and some exercise pants that I got some time back, making me think this would be a good outfit to use.

“Now then, I suppose you are ready to begin,” Grandma said in a guessing manner to which I quickly nodded, earning a chuckle from her when I did. “Today we’ll be focusing on your speed. A Huntsman must be at their quickest to combat their opponents, so for today you must find three flags I have hidden nearby and you must do it in under five minutes.” She said before revealing a stopwatch in her hand. I blinked at this and looked around.

“Wait, when you mean nearby...ah!” I yelped as I saw her start it. I just ran in a random direction, hoping that I was going the right way. Honestly, it was by chance that I stumbled into two of them and when I say stumble, I mean trip over. I didn’t know how much time I had left before I had found the third hidden between bushes. When I finally came back to Grandma, I was basically a panting mess of sweat and exhaustion. “Got… them… ugh.” I panted, trying to stay standing in front of her. I soon fell onto my knees as my legs cried out in agony.

“Hmm, impressive yes but you’re still three minutes too late,” Grandma said before snapping her fingers and all three flags suddenly vanished. “You will do it again, under five minutes.” She added with a strict tone. I looked up at her and saw her face was serious. I groaned a bit before pushing myself back up and again I heard the stopwatch go off, meaning I had to run again.

Again I ran around, looking for the flags and then running back, this time falling face first into the ground when I got there with the three flags. My legs were so sore that I had to mutter ‘ow’ ever time they throb.

“One minute and forty three seconds late, again.” She said with yet another snap of her fingers and the flags once again vanished. I groaned as I pushed myself back up. I wanted to ask for a break but when I try my words freeze up in my throat from the look she was giving me. I simply turned around and ran out to find those flags again. I felt like I ran all over the Valley twice from this as I ran.

It wasn’t long that I was crawling back with the three flags as my legs so kindly gave out on me. I looked up at my grandma and showed the three flags.

“Got… them… yay…” I said before flopping back down. “... I can’t feel my legs…”

“Perfect.” She said with a smile before showing me that I had gotten them all in only three minutes… yay~. I could only groan at the moment but it was a happy groan, sort of. I saw the flags disappear from my hand as I tried to push myself up to be sitting.

“That… was… hard…” I said, panting. For some reason, I came to regret those words. She chuckled and helped back up to my feet before a chair materialized behind me, which I soon sat on with a heavy sigh. I looked over at her as some feeling returned to my legs… ow. “So… what’s next?” I asked with a small smile on my face.

“So you wish to continue rather than rest?” Grandma asked me with an arched brow and a barely contained smirk.

“After rest…” I said, not wanting my legs to fall off so soon. This earned me a laugh from grandma before a bottle of cold water appeared floating in front of me.

“Speed is the subject for today and I want to see how fast you can become. Your next test is to retrieve an item I have set up just ways away from our current location, that way to be precise.” She said, pointing at the direction to her right, which was in front of me. “The item in question has no value of sort but you must retrieve it in under five minutes, fail to do so and you will start again from the beginning.” Grandma said but the last bit confused me, what did she mean by the beginning?

“What do you mean by… beginning?” I asked as I open the water bottle and drank half of it already. Grandma chuckled at this before the three flags appeared in her hands, without her even saying anything I knew what she meant.

“From the beginning, dear. I never said this was going to be easy.” Grandma said before the flags vanished, leaving me to dread the upcoming failure. I groaned at this before finishing my water. I waited a minute before I was ready to do the next run. The three flags where a pain but I believe this will be better.

Some time later

Two… hour… of nonstop running… and repeating the three flags over and over again… I don’t know how I am able to still stand. I stood in front of my grandma, drenched in sweat and my outfit as was so soaked with my sweat that it felt like a second skin to me. I held up the flag that I got in my hand and stared at Grandma for what she has to say. Speaking Grandma, she was sitting down a large vine that shaped itself to be chair like. Sure it was an odd sight but it was Grandma’s doing so it didn’t have to be further explained.

“Outstanding performance Viri, not only have you set a new record in time but you’ve shown to be how you well you endure these trials.” Grandma said before the flag dissipated in a puff of smoke before the smoke formed the letter A with a plus beside it. I stare at it for a few moments as it appeared.

“Yay…” I said tiredly before falling onto the ground. “... Ow.” I soon felt myself rise up when a fine spiralled out from beneath me, forming some sort of chair or bed I can lay down on. I let out a sigh at this, now feeling all the aches and pain ease a bit. “Thanks…” I said to my grandma. She smiled at me when I thanked her.

“Now before you think that I will not tolerate failure, the truth is actually very simple. If I am to train you to become a Huntress, I want to be sure you are ready for anything and I’d rather not have to see you fall in combat like… like...” Grandma said though as she spoke, her expression became sadder and sadder before she looked down in silence. I frowned at this, feeling bad to see her sad. I wanted to ask what’s wrong but I believe it was personal. She soon teared up but she quickly wiped them away before saying. “You are free to go, today’s lessons are finished.” She said and before I could say anything, she vanished in a flash of light. The only evidence of her being there were a few droplets of tears that dripped from the vine she sat on.

I stayed there, worried about my grandma. Seeing her upset… it wasn’t right. I sighed as I relaxed where I was after my training, only to know that I have to do something like this tomorrow.

I let out a groan as I closed my eyes, about to take a nap.

Some time has passed before I woke up. I stretched a bit before standing up. My legs groaned with a dull pain from all that running but I pushed that aside as I headed off home. I don’t know how but when I think of going home, the door to the living room appears in front of me. I didn’t really question it since it was really useful.

I opened the door into the living room ro see mama sitting on the couch with a notepad on her lap. Now that we have a place to love she can focus most of her time on writing. I remember when I was little that she talked about it, wanting to write a book on adventure and magic. She turned her head to look at me with a smile.

“Hey honey, how was your first day?” Mama asked, making me groan a bit. This caused her to chuckle a bit. “I figured as much.” I sat down in a chair near mama as she wrote in her pad. I thought back to what Grandma said and remember her getting upset.

“Mama, did something evere happen to grandma?” I asked her, making mama stop what she was doing and looked at me.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“I mean, she was telling me that she wanted me to be at my best when I become a huntress… then she said she she didn’t want me to fall like someone, then she got upset.” I told her. Mama stared at me before sighing.

“Viri… she was probably talking about your grandfather,” she explained. Mama shook her head a bit. “He too was a huntsman, a good one at that. A mortal that captured your grandma’s heart. He… well, he went on a mission one day and… didn’t come back.” I frowned at this, feeling sad about what happened to my grandfather. “As you can guess, mom wasn’t… well, she… She didn’t take the news very well.” Mama added with a solemn look of her own. She let out a sigh before smiling at me. “Now, how about I go run you a warm bath.”

I thanked her as she went off to do just that. I leaned back a bit and let out a sigh, this was just day one I’m worried what grandma has in store for me in the days to come.

A year later...

The past year has been… something. First was the Huntress training grandma has been putting me through, even now after training my arms and legs feel like jelly and I’m sore until the next day.

Other days it’s either Grandma or my Aunt teaching me lessons on almost anything. It’s either I’m physically exhausted or mentally exhausted. I think most lessons I was taken were meant for much older people. Today I had expect grandma to train me like she always does, with the exception a few numerous occasion thanks to Auntie dropping by but it was Auntie who was waiting for me today at the Valley.

“Hello, Viri.” My aunt greeted me as I got closer.

“Hello Auntie, where’s grandma?” I asked her. Auntie gave me a look that she was thinking on what to say next.

“She’s… busy with something.” She answered. I frowned at her, I haven’t see grandma all day and I was starting to get worried. “I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t necessarily plan anything for today so if you want you can just take the day off or something.” Auntie said soon after.

“Really?” I asked her, arching a brow at her.

“I could throw you into a wall but that wouldn’t teach you anything other than walls hurt…” Auntie said before shaking her head. “Just go… do what you like to do.” With that, she disappeared into the shadows and I was left alone.

“Well… that was awkward.” I muttered to myself. I really didn’t know what to do really, this hasn’t happened before and now that it has, I kinda felt a little lost.

Deciding to explore a large door appeared in front of me. Blinking at it I walked towards it and went through it. I looked around and saw I was in the Great Hall, one part of Grandma’s world. Honestly, it was better than doing nothing but then I saw her, it was Grandma. She was on her knees in front of a statue, by the sounds of it she was quietly sobbing to herself.

Why the magic door led me here I didn’t know but I walked over to her. “Grandma?” I said, gaining her attraction.

“Oh, Viri I apologize I didn’t hear you enter.” She said, wiping her tears away before saying. “Did you need anything?” She asked me, her voice concealing her true emotion well but I’ve already seen enough to know it was a lie.

“Are you okay?” I asked her, glancing at the statue then back at her. She quietly sniffled and said.

“I’m alright, dear, there’s no need to worry.” She said, standing up as she spoke and dusted her dress off. I stared at her for a moment before walking up and giving her a hug. I didn’t know why she’s hiding her sadness, but a hug should help. She was surprised but quickly clung onto me, her emotional mask now broken with newly formed tears welling up her eyes. I really didn’t know why she was like this or what caused this at least until I looked up at the statue.

The statue was that of a man in his late thirties with a clean cut beard and short hair. His smile was warm and caring as he looked forward, as if he was seeing what the future holds. His hands were on top of an adelie weapon, almost like he was using it as a cane. I looked down and saw a plaque that says ‘In loving memory: Jericho Mal Kun.’

Behind the statue, I expected a battle of some sorts but instead, it was the man and a younger version of grandma in a white dress. The man’s hair was the same colour as hers, a sunny blonde colour and the two of them looked happy… oh, wait…

“This is… grandpa?” I asked grandma as I pulled away from the hug, giving her some space. She wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded.

“Yes, that man was your grandfather, your mother’s father and… and my husband.” Said Grandma sadly, she once again wiped her away from the tears. “He would’ve loved to you meet you, Viri.” Grandma then said to me with a shaky smile. I looked at her for a moment before looking a the statue of her husband. After that moment I walked up to him and stared up at the statue.

“Hi! I’m Viri Warren, your granddaughter. Nice to meet you.” I said with a smile on my face before pointing at him. “And you better be watching me because one day I’m going to be the best Huntress that’s ever been known in Remnant… no, in all realms!” I proclaimed. Lord that sounded so… anime.

As I stared at the statue I honestly saw the shadows shift a bit, making his smile bigger as if he was saying ‘We’ll see kid.’ I turned around to grandma and smiled at her. She smiled back before she looked at the statue.

“There will never be a day that I would stop missing you.” She said to the statue with a solemn look. She then grasped her necklace, one I’ve never seen her without and kissed the jewel that hung from the necklace. I looked at her as she did this before looking over at me, placing the necklace down with a little smile.

“So… Auntie said today is a day off due to last minute planning… What do you want to do?” I asked her. She chuckled a little at this before a door appeared behind me. It opened on its own and revealed what I could guess was a hot springs, not having seen one myself.

“I don’t know about you, but a dip in the warm water sounds pleasing for me.” She said as she walked by me and through the door. Upon walking through, she turned back to me, waiting for me to come through as well. I blinked at this before following behind her. The smell of hot water filled my nose as the warm heat past through me.

“What is this place?” I asked, looking around at the place.

“It is my own little hot springs. I come here from time to time so I can relax and unwind.” She said as she walked up to the water. The closer she got I noticed her dress was slowly turning into puffs of clouds that obscured her before she finally entered the water with a sigh of relief. “Hmm.” She hummed happily. I blinked at this and couldn’t help but blush at the idea her clothes turned into clouds… actually, it was kinda cool that she could do that. Need clothes? Get clouds! She soon looked back at me and tilted her head. “Are you coming, dear?” She asked me with a smile. I only fidgeted in place, kinda uncomfortable at the moment.

I lean forward to look at the water for a moment, kneeling down to it and dipped a finger or two to test the water. So far it felt like a really warm bath. I fidget a little bit, not sure who to react to this… until I felt the weight of my clothes disappear. I looked down and saw they turned into clouds. I let out a yelp at this, covering myself as the clouds hovered around me. I instinctively tried to cover myself but that didn’t do much as I was pretty much covered by the clouds. I looked towards Grandma in time to see chuckle a little before I slowly entered the small pool of warm water. As I entered the water the clouds seemed to stay above the water before I submerged into the water and the clouds floated away. The water felt… nice… even though I was sitting there naked with my grandma. I lowered myself until I could make bubbles in the water. Despite the first few awkward moments, it was really nice and it helped my still aching limbs.

I relaxed at this before I glanced over to grandma, remembering that she didn’t had anything on either. I turned a bit so I wasn’t staring… because it would be rude.

“Is something the matter, Viri?” Grandma asked me with a little hint of concern in her tone.

“No!... Uhh, no umm..” I fidgeted a bit before adding. “How are you… okay with being under clothed with someone in the bath with you?” I asked. Upon hearing this, Grandma chuckled and said.

“Just like your mother indeed.” Grandma said which only made me blush even more. “Viri, it’s alright if you feel a little embarrassed by this but there’s no reason to.” She said to me with a warm smile. I glanced over at her, I didn’t say anything but I did turn back to face my grandma again.

“This feels… nice…” I said with a smile as I leaned back a bit. Grandma did the same and for good reason too, the position we were both in gave us extra comfort in the water. None of us dared to speak to break the silence as we both simply heard the small natural waterfall refilling the pool. It felt like hours before Grandma had gotten up, thankfully the clouds were quick to form around her and as she walked out of the water, some of it trailed behind her like a vine before it coiled around her and spread from top to bottom, forming a beautiful blue dress as a result. I stared at her as this happened, blinking a few times before I notice that she was looking at me with an arched brow. I blinked a few times before blushing a bit and lowered myself into the water a bit, making a bubbly ‘Sorry’ to her. With a held back chuckle she spoke.

“Don’t worry about your clothes, they will come back to you once you get out of the pool and dry off. I’ll be taking my leave now but do expect me to come by for a visit, I plan to make you and your mother dinner this time.” She said with a smile before giving me one last wave and vanishing.

I was now left alone in the hot spring, which I happily sat in before I float around in the water. This was nice… really nice. Soon a few hours past before I walked out of the water, my skin was a little red from the hot water. As I dried myself off, the clouds formed into my body. When I went into the hot spring I wore a black and white shirt and jeans, now I wore a black and white dress that was perfectly fitted for me. It was soft on my skin, did all my clothes all turned into this dress? Right now I didn’t mind since it was a nice feeling.

I turned and headed out of the hot spring, going through the doors and ended up in my room. I looked around my room before walking downstairs to see mama. She asked me where I got the dress form and all I said was hot spring and she understood what I meant. She was about ready to start making dinner but I quickly stopped her, informing her of grandma’s visit soon and the promise of her cooking. While I have yet to try her cooking, mama was overly excited at the mention of it. The two of us spent the next bit getting ready for grandma to come over for dinner. When that was done I still wore the dress, feeling like it was needed since it was somewhat a gift, I think? Before long there was a knock on the front door. Mama went over and opened it and grandma walked in, seeing her smiling at me. After a short chat, Grandma entered the kitchen to begin dinner and while I had expected her to just magically make the food, Grandma actually did it all by hand and before we knew, we sat by the dinner table as she set our plates down. In front of me was a stew, the warm smell of the food made me drool. Mama seemed excited by the stew.

“This is one of my favorite! Thanks, mom.” Mama said happily before she started to eat. Grandma smiled at her as I took a spoon and ate a bit of it. My eyes widen at the taste and continue to eat.

“I knew you two would love it.” Said Grandma as she sat down with her own plate and began to eat it, albeit slower than me and mama. We were practically wolfing it down. Before long we finish the food and both mama and I let out a sigh at how good it was.

“Thanks again mom, I missed your cooking.” Mama said with a smile. Grandma smiled back at her and said.

“It’s always nice to have dinner with the family.” She said with a little smile, there was a tinge of sadness in her words and Mama picked up on this as well. Both were silent for a solid minute before Grandma spoke again. “If you two wish, I can make this a common thing.” She said to us with a smile.

“Yes please.” Mama said, making me giggle at her excitement at the offer. Grandma also laughed a little mama’s excitement before nodding, making it official that she will come by and cook dinner for us and it was later decided that it was at the end of the week that she will do this. It’ll only make the wait more unbearable as next week now felt like it was months away.

Author's Note

Mavis’ Training is like hell, she doesn’t hold back

Ch 3

I can’t tell if time moves faster here or it been really really busy with lessons and training. I was now eighteen and sitting out in the Valley with a ball of fire in my hands. Yeah, during one of the training sessions I found out what a semblance is, and what mine was the power to control fire… I also burned down the training area. Whoops.

Grandma made sure we mostly focus on controlling my semblance… which means I was sitting here floating a ball of fire and lava in my hands. It’s totally safe, really. Mama was shocked and happy when I learned what my semblance was, saying it was the same one my father had, this made it more important for me to learn how to control it. Right now I was so focused on the ball that everything around me was simply background noise.

That focus was soon was disrupted when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I jumped a bit, making the flame waver a bit but I got control again and it didn’t explode, again. I turned back to see auntie Axycia there, in a dark black suit that I saw before when I first met her.

“Good job, it didn’t explode.” She said, chuckling a bit which made me frown.

“Yeah… do you need something?” I asked, making the flame dissipated.

“Yes, I do.” She stated before helping me stand up. “Come with me.” She added as she turned and walked off. I followed her as we walked. “As you know, you have been training under my sister for the past few years, something that most huntsman would have dreamed to be in your position, but at your mothers suggest you should go to Huntsman Academy for further training.”

I blinked at this, mama asked of this. I was going to say something but she continue. “Your mother did have some hesitation about this, even asking for your grandma to… oversee just in case things go sour. I pulled some strings and asked a some favors but I got the both of you in.” Axycia chuckled at this with a smile on her face. I don’t know why, even though I knew her since childhood she kinda creep me out.

We walked for a few feet until we came up to a fancy airship at the ready to take off. It was a dark purple colour with the words ‘Mal Kun Industries’ on the side of it. Nearby was a male pilot playing a game of cards with another pilot. The both of them turned and saw us before cleaning up and, wordless, climbed into the airship. As auntie and I climbed into the ship there was a small shutter and the feeling of weightlessness as we flew off. I couldn’t see what was going on outside as Axycia was giving me some pointers and some information about the academy.

“Beacon Academy is run by a man named Professor Ozpin, the school is one of four top Huntsmen Academies in Remnant, the professors in this one respect the headmaster which you should as well. He also like coffee.” Auntie added with a chuckle.

“Right… why do you know all this?” I asked her.

“Well, as one of the owners of a highly successful dust company in Remnant. It’s part of my job to know things.” Axycia answered before going back to what she was saying before. “Most of all, try to make some friends Viri.”

I smiled at this and nodded before I felt the airship shook a bit. “Ah, we are here,” Auntie said before standing up. The door opened and we stepped out, me realizing that my clothes changed to more… clean. I rolled my eyes at this before looking up to see the large academy in front of me. All around me were what I guessed were students that go here. Some looked over at us as we passed them, me shrinking a bit as we walked for a few minutes before we stopped inside the building. Axycia talked to someone before we were ushered into an elevator. There was a small pause as we rode the elevator before it opened to a large room. Looking inside I saw that it was some kind of large clock as we walked in and towards the seats in front of the desk where a man sat in. He had silver hair with a small pair of glasses. He had a black jacket with a black vest underneath and some sort of green scarf. He was reading a scroll, an electronic tablet thing that works as a… well a tablet, music player, and a large number of other things.

Nearby was another man standing and watching us come in, not with much entente but simply staring at us. He had steel coloured hair and a bit of a five o clock shadow. He wore a dark blue vest with a black shirt under it and pinstripe pants and black dress shoes. On his belt was a flask of some kind which his hand was close to it.

As we walk I notice there was another figure, sitting in the third chair that had the back turned to us as we walked closer. The man looked to us with a warm smile on his face.

“Hello, I’m guessing you are the two that we were waiting for.” the man said before straightening up a bit. He turned to Auntie with the smile. “And hello again Axycia.”

“Ozpin.” Auntie said before looking over to the man nearby. “Indigo, good to see you again.” The man who I presumed was Indigo nodded at Aunty but said nothing. We walked over and sat down in the chairs.

“Now, I’ve believe that this one…” Ozpin turned to look at me. “Is the one that wanted to join Beacon Academy, am I correct?”

“Yes sir.” I answered him, earning a chuckle from him.

“Please, no sirs, makes me feel old.” Ozpin chuckled at this. “Now, normally we couldn’t take you in since we just finished grouping our students into their teams and there’s no room but… Your aunt can be persuasive.” Axycia chuckled at this. “So, here what we going to do; we will have another trial, one just for you, if you past you can stay, if not well, you can try again next year.”

Headmaster Ozpin looked over to Indigo with a smile. “And, as of request of me, Professor Indigo will be one of your teachers that will teaching you.” Indigo frowned at this and was about to say something but Ozpin continue. “And as requested, he’ll be the one that will plan out how this trial will go. Isn't that alright Indigo?” Headmaster Ozpin asked him.

“Yes…” Indigo said, finally allowing me to hear what he sounds like and learning that his voice was gruff. Before anything else could be said, Indigo popped his flask open and to a swig from it, possibly to calm him down. I'm not sure.

“Good.” Headmaster Ozpin said before looking back. “On another matter, we have a new professor in our mits, we were just talking and…” he glanced at Auntie for a moment. “Some recommendations from someone… we are happy to have you.”

I leaned forward to see who it was and my eyes widen. It was Grandma, only a bit younger from the last time I saw her. Her hair was still blonde coloured, only with no gray strands there. The wrinkles I saw before were gone and, if I had to guess, she was in her late thirties, early forties I think. I knew she could change her age and shape but it’s surprising to see it in front of me. She smiled at the headmaster as he said this.

“Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Ozpin.” Grandma said with a smile and a nod. The Headmaster began setting up my profile but not entirely, it was ready to be deleted upon failure of my entry exam and while Ozpin did this, Indigo was simply staring out the window, though his frown was gone and instead was an expression barren of any emotion. I glanced over at Grandma and Auntie who smiled at me.

“Well, I do hope to see you pass your trial… Ms. Warren.” the Headmaster said with a smile. Indigo glanced towards me, an arched brow detailing his surprise over my last name but he shook his head and looked back out the window. “Now then, if you wish you can explore the grounds and get a feel of the place we'll send someone when we're ready to start.” Headmaster Ozpin explained. I thanked him as Auntie, Grandma and I went into the elevator to leave. As soon as the doors closed I looked over at grandma.

“You're here?! As a teacher!?” I asked in surprise. This earned a chuckle from her.

“Hasn't my sister told you that I will be overseeing your stay here?” She asked me jokingly, knowing full well that Auntie had mentioned something like that to me. “And seeing as that I am professor, I cannot show favoritism over you just because you’re family. Oh and if calling me professor is a little odd, don't be afraid to call me grandma.” She said, lightly pinching my cheek as she practically cooed the last few words. This earned a chuckle from Auntie.

“Well, I believe this is going to be interesting.” She said with a smile. I arch a brow at her.

“The headmaster pointed out that you had some sway between me being here and grandma as well." I pointed out, again earning a chuckle from her as the doors open.

“When you're in my kind of work, you have to have to have some sway with everyone.” She said as she walked off, leaving the two of us.

“I know she's family but… she's really creepy.” I whispered to grandma. The latter arched a brow at me before nudging her sister.

“She thinks you are a little creepy, sister.” Grandma said with a giggle, this got a smirk and an arched brow from Auntie before she chuckled.

“Then I must be doing something right.” She said before disappearing down the hallway. Grandma then walked ahead of me before looking back at me, gesturing me to follow her.

“Come, Viri, let's go see what this Academy has in store.” Grandma said to me with a sweet smile. I smiled back and followed her as we explored the academy grounds. From the large courtyard to the spacious gathering hall, we walked around just about everywhere but I've yet to see the training areas, the one thing I was excited to see. Grandma could sense my excitement but she said nothing as we walked, gathering some attention from the passing students. I would've mentioned how we have yet to see training room but I shut my mouth when we stepped through a set of double doors, seeing a very, very big room with various training equipment ranging from training weapons, to high tech training dummies but what stood out from the rest was a lone robot that bore some resemblance to a human, minus the many key features. It hung its head low, showing that it was deactivated at the moment.

“Woah…” I said in awe as I looked around. Grandma smiled at my happiness and giddiness over the place. I would've stayed longer, maybe even try out some of the equipment but Grandma had to drag me out before I could and while I put out a good fight, I was no match for her iron grip. It was almost an hour since we spoke to the Headmaster and once it officially hit the one hour mark, Indigo appeared from around the corner of the hallway.

“You entry exam is ready to start, follow me.” He said without even stopping and walked by us. A moment of processing his words later, I found myself trying to catch up with the man. I didn't want to look like I was running but at the pace he was going I had to jog to, finally, keep up. Grandma was behind us, keeping pace as she walked, didn't know how but she was. When we finally stopped, we were near the edge of a cliff that overlooked a very lush forest. Indigo stood dangerously close to the edge before glancing at me.

“You entry exam is a rather simple one, find the ruins, get the relic and come back in one piece.” Indigo said simply before quickly adding. “Take two steps to the right and one step forward.” He instructed me. I didn't know why he needed me to do this but I did and once I took the last step forward, a click resonated from beneath my feet. “And go.” As if on queue, I was catapulted into the air.

Now, it's not a lie that I've had done something like this before, memories of auntie launching me into the air and telling me I had to land safely came to mind. It didn't help me that I screamed as this happened.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” I screamed over the trees. Soon I noticed that I was getting closer to said trees before I banged into one. “Ow! Ow! Ow!” I yelled until I fell into the ground with a thud. In the back of my mind my aunt was laughing at me.

“Rough landing, eh.” Indigo's voice rang and echoed around me and before I could speak he added. “You're being monitored throughout your exam and it's being broadcasted all throughout the academy. The reason you're hearing this is simple, pre-recorded messages are a godsend, don't you think?”

I frowned a bit as I pushed myself up and dusted myself off. “I feel like I'm in some sort of Survival TV show.” I muttered to myself. Looking around I felt a familiar sense of the finding the flags grandma put me through in my training.

With that thought I started to run into the forest. I didn't know if this is time but I'm not taking my chances. I ran through the forest, thinking to myself ‘Find the ruins, find the ruins.’ on repeat until I looked up to see large trees that towered over others. ‘Climb a tree, climb a tree.’ And I did, using the training Grandma taught me, I climbed up the tree like a gymnast. I soon reached the top with ease and looked around any odd sight before spotting the ruins in a clearing just outside the forest. It was a very long trek away but to me, it looked like a cakewalk.

My mind then went to a number of things that could happen, mostly traps. I frowned at this as something overshadowed me. I looked up and yelped as large talons came at me. I fell back at the top of the tree was grabbed and torn off. I peeked out to see the large bird-like Grimm, or better called a large Nevermore, flew off.

“Right, Grimm… forgot about them…” I muttered to myself. I climbed back down to the ground and headed off towards where the ruins were, as well as keeping an eye out for Grimm. While I did encounter more Grimm, they were easily dispatched with my semblance, using the fire to form a sword. From beowolves to wandering Ursa’s, I had encountered most of the basic Grimm and I was just about there. I finally entered the large clearing, seeing the ruins just up ahead. One step forward and a large stone wall rose up from beneath the ground, I didn't think much of it until I tried to go around it, that's when several more walls formed around me, forming a short hallway.

“Huh… if I find a Minotaur in there I'm going to laugh.” I said as I entered the maze. As I walked, the walls continuously appeared from the ground and at times I thought I was going the right way only to see that it was a dead end. This went on for what felt like hours going back and forth, sometimes even coming across the same dead end. It was beginning to annoy me, frustrate me even that I didn't notice until now that the walls stopped appearing. I stared at the walls for a moment before backing up to see where the ruins were if I was close at all, but due to how high they were I couldn't tell where I was.

“Ugh, this is annoying. I’m starting to hate this maze.” I muttered to myself as I continue walking. After a few minutes worth of walking, I found myself gazing at the ruins and nearly made a run for it but luckily held myself back. When I took the step forward, I expected a wall to block my path again but there wasn't. I took another step to make sure, still no wall. One more for goodluck, not a single speck of wall from out of the ground. That's when I sprinting out of the maze and towards the ruins, finally my destination was in sight and I can finally get this over-oh. I stopped and stared at what was laying within the ruins, an odd looking beowolf. Unlike the others bearing similarities to a werewolf, this one looks like the common canine and it laid across the center of the ruins. Looking passed the beowolf, I spotted… a chess piece? It was a rook as well and painted in gold.

I looked at the chest piece then at the Beowolf before getting closer to the chest piece. As I got close the ears of the Grimm twitched before it turned its head to me. I didn't know if it was some kind of new Grimm or a sub-race to a Beowolf Grimm but I didn't want to fight it. Some kind of gut feeling I have.

“Nice doggy… nice big doggy… just want to get that chess piece behind you…” I said slowly as I inch my way to said piece. It casted its gaze towards me before it sat up, looking like a very large and intimidating wolf. It blinked at me before it stretched and just walked away, exiting the ruins and laying down on the grass. I stared at the wolf, wondering if it just my lucky day or it's tricking me. Also, for some reason the sight of this was oddly cute.

I made my way to the chess piece and still had the wolf in my sights. I looked between the too, wondering if it's trapped. I picked up a nearby stick and carefully pushed the piece off of the stand and jumped back in case something happens. It only caused the wolf to look back at me, tilting its head as if it was questioning my choice of action. Soon its ear twitched and it faced towards a random direction before running off towards it. Finding this odd, I simply walked over to the fallen chess piece and picked it up, feeling that it was little heavier than a normal chess piece.

“Congratulations! You found your relic! Now to fully succeed in your exam, you need to bring that there relic back to the academy grounds and only then will you be accepted into Beacon.” I still had my doubts of that voice being Indigo as it sounded different than what I've heard, for one it wasn't gruff so maybe it was recorded some time ago? I shook my head at this as I looked at the relic and then looked around to see where I should go next… where was the Academy grounds?

Many, Many hours later.

This dumb… really really dumb. I've been in these woods for a few hours, some new holes were made in my shirt after falling into a very prickly Bush. Right now I was climbing up a large wall overlooking another set of ruins. I shouldn't have been this lost but I had no idea where I'm going.

I soon made it to the top of the cliff and pulled myself up and over. I fell into the ground as my arms were sore. Luckily I still had the chess piece on me, finding some vines and using it as a makeshift rope. I soon heard the familiar sounds of another person's footsteps, when I looked up I saw that it was Indigo looming over me with Grandma walking up as well.

“You passed.” Indigo said simply. I put up a fist and let out a tired ‘yay’ before unslinging the chess piece and put it beside me.

“I got lost… sorry.” I said to the two of them. Indigo simply shrugged before taking the chess piece and held it in his hand. He took a quick look at it, making sure it was the real deal. A nearby bark brought his attention and mine's over to the source of said bark. The wolf like beowolf from before had somehow got up here as well and walked up to Indigo. The latter patted the Grimm canine’s head with a small smile.

I blinked at this, oh… oh it makes so much sense now. After Indigo looked at the chess piece and nodded he turned away and whispered something to Grandma before leaving us with the Grimm following behind. I sat up and looked back to grandma. “Did I do good?” I asked her.

“You did great, sweety.” Grandma said with a smile. “I can't tell you enough how proud I am.” She added before getting on her knees and hugging me. I smiled and hugged her back. After a few moments the two of us parted and she helped me up.

“So… now what?” I asked her, not sure what to do. With a smile Grandma answered.

“First we will set up your living quarters. Ozpin and I have expected your success, so we have taken the liberty in assigning you a group and for today, your first class will be mine which is in two hours.” Grandma explained as she handed me a small card that detailed the classes I had to take, the professors and the classrooms.

“Cool.” I said as I looked at this. “I get to be in with a group! More cool!” Grandma helped up to my feet before she helped towards the dormitories. I've been told that I was given my own room as per Aunties request, which isn't really all that bad, a whole room to myself with nobody to bother me when I'm studying.

As we walked I took notice that the other students were whispering and looking over to me. I tilted my head at this, wondering why they were doing this. I wasn't too fond of being the center of attention, it just makes me feel uncomfortable, so I sped up along with Grandma keeping up. It wasn't long until we made up to my room. Upon opening, I saw the large room that would be my home for the duration of my stay here and it wasn't all that bad looking, just a little bland but it wasn't anything a little decorating would fix. Grandma entered the room and noticed my giddy smile.

“You seem awfully excited.” Said Grandma with a chuckle. I turned to her with a smile.

“Can't you blame me, this is… this is so cool!” I said before hopping on the bed that was in here. She sat on the bed next to me before snapping her fingers, causing the drawers to light up for a brief second or two.

“I've just your drawers with clothes and uniforms, so get dressed. You don't want to be late on your first day, do you?” Grandma asked me with a smirk. I chuckled at this before looking through the drawers and went into the bathroom to change.

I can't wait to see what will happen here in Beacon.

Author's Note

We are in Beacon! Indigo, and Oni return as well! Woot!

Ch 4

So here’s the thing about scheduling, sometimes things get screwed up. So grandma’s first class was pushed to the next day. So the two of us spent the day together, grandma gave a mock class to practice to be a teacher. It was hard to judge her since she was teaching me since I was little.

When the next day came around I saw it was her class first so we both went to the classroom and I went to get seated. I saw a number of other students were there already, talking and laughing. One thing stood out was that they were all grouped up in their teams and I was sitting by myself. It didn’t bother me that much, it just means I had more elbow room. As the bell went off Headmaster Ozpin walked out up front and got everyone's attention.

“Now settle down everyone, I have some important news to tell you all.” He announced and got everyone's attention. “As you all could tell, the last period of your first day was a little shaky, that because today we welcome a new student and a new professor to Beacon Academy.” His attention was moved towards and nodded at me. “As you all saw from your scrolls, the one student is here with us, please let Miss Warren feel welcomed.”

This drew some mutters from some students and some stares. I shrank a bit and simply waved at them as the Headmaster continued. “And now, for the Professor. From what I’ve been told she’s one of the best in her field. Please welcome Professor Mavis Mal Kun.” The Headmaster announced as grandma walked up beside him. There were a few claps from other students and more muttering. “Miss Mal Kun, you wish to say anything to your class?” Headmaster Ozpin asked.

“I simply wish to say that it will be honour to teach today's youth in the ways of the Huntsmen,” Grandma said all with a gentle smile, the mutterings, however, have yet to seize and I could hear almost all of them and they ranged from simple conversation while others simply muttered how hot she looked. I giggled at this as the Headmaster left and we started the class as grandma asked each of us to say their names. There were some men down near the middle of the room whispered something about this sounds something that kindergarten kids would do. Grandma arched a brow at the quietly laughing men before grabbing a ruler and smacking it on the nearest one’s desk.

“Names. Now.” She said to them, her demeanour changing drastically. This made everyone jump in surprise, making me wince a little at her demeanour change. Soon we went around and said each of our names and what team they’re on. Those are team RWBY, JNPR, CRDL, and one other that I kinda missed over some talking from said team. When it came to me I told them my named and I was on team V, since I wasn’t on a team at the moment. This got a few laughs before grandma got everyone's attention.

“Now then, I've taken the liberty in going through each and everyone's files here,” Grandma said out loud as she sat down on her desk before continuing. “Your semblances, weapons and aura strength.” She said, rolling her hand around in an etc motion before adding. “The majority of you are quite adept in fighting but there is always room for improvements I always say.” She said before snapping her fingers, changing the classroom around us into a small fighting arena… Wait do all classroom do this? I heard a small groan coming from the blonde haired guy from team JNPR, I think his name was Jaune. There was some more muttering, now interest became known for what grandma has planned. “Now then, what I have planned is simple. One team will come down here and face me, I will evaluate your skills in teamwork and combat.”

This was surprised to all but me, some looked at one another with odd and worried looks, one team seemed a bit smug as they looked like they can handle it.

“Now hold on.” One of the students, a white-haired woman with her hair in a ponytail that’s offset, her name was Weiss. “This is the first day of school, some of us barely know our teammates and haven’t gotten much time to work on our teamwork.”

“Hey, I believe we can do good.” The girl next to Weiss said she had black hair with some red highlights, pale skin and silver eyes. She had a smile on her face that screamed ‘Everything is Great!’ Weiss frowned at her teammate before grandma spoke up.

“If you wish to go first, come on down,” Grandma said, motioning them down to her with a smile. Weiss’ eyes widen, seemed to have gotten her and her team in a bit of a pickle for speaking out. The one beside her, a long-haired blonde woman named Yang, seemed to smile at this.

“Yeah! Bring it on!” She said happily, making some of the students chuckle a bit. Weiss put her head into her hand and groaned a bit. It was at this point that the four of them stood up and went over to where grandma was. They all had their weapons in hand or in the blondes case, hands. Yang looked at grandma and smiled at her, even winking at her. Grandma had a small blush before she placed down the ruler on her desk and stood up.

“Now don't be afraid to hold back,” Grandma said, an arm on her back while the other was at the ready. The four of them looked at one another but didn’t question it as the first one to throw the first punch, literary, was Yang. She ran up to grandma with her arms up in like a boxer and threw a jab at grandma. The latter was quick to grab the jab and simply move it aside like nothing, which nearly made Yang stumble down with the force Grandma used. Yang blinked a few times before turning back as Ruby, the youngest of the four, heck I think she’s the youngest out of everyone in the room, bolted forward leaving behind petals behind her. Her weapon extended to its full size and I saw it was a large scythe. I couldn’t help but ‘awed’ at the sight of it as she took a swing at grandma, only for her to dodge it effortlessly. Just before Ruby could try again, Grandma grabbed the blade of the scythe before pushing her away with the same force used against Yang. Now Grandma held the scythe in hand and by the look on her face, she was intrigued by its design.

Taking the chance, since grandma was distracted the woman with long black hair and a black bow in said hair threw her weapon off and used the ribbon rope, I think, to send it towards grandma as she was looking at Ruby’s scythe. Grandma glanced at this before quickly grabbing the ribbon, wrapping it around her hand before sending Blake out of the ring as well. All was left was Weiss, who was standing there with her rapier. She just watched three of her teammates got thrown out without breaking a sweat as grandma looked at her with the scythe in hand.

“Uhh, no.” She stated, stepping out of the ring. I chuckled a little as Yang jumped up.

“I’ll take her spot! I got to try again!” Yang said, looking like she was ready for round two. Grandma smiled at this before she handed Ruby her scythe back. The latter hugged the dangerously large scythe-like it was a lost child.

“Only this one Miss Xiao Long.” Said Grandma with a chuckle as she stepped into the middle of the ring, her regaining her earlier battle stance. Yang went around and got into the ring as Weiss went back to her seat with the other two, Ruby was still holding her weapon, now a bit smaller than before, as Yang bolted forward, this time a bit more alert as she threw a jab to grandma, only for it to be a feint as she tried to sweep grandma's legs. This actually caught Grandma by surprise but she quickly reacted before she hit the ground, simply pushing herself up with one hand. Now back on her feet, Grandma was impressed over how Yang was quick to deceive her and catch her off guard. Yang continued to throw punches, quick ones and throw some kicks in as well. This was the first time I met someone that was actually putting up a good fight against grandma. I even saw some of her punches get close to hitting grandma.

As this went on I notice one thing about this, grandma was smiling. She was having fun with this spar. It wasn't until Grandma noticed that this was dragging on and she still had a class to evaluate so with an open palm shove, Yang was sent flying back up her seat, nearly breaking the desk from the crash.

“Oops,” Grandma said, realizing that she put a little too much oomph into it. “My apologies Miss Xiao Long, I didn't mean for that to occur,” Grandma said apologetically.

“That… was… AWESOME!” Yang cheered, a big smile on her face as she chuckled to herself. “And it’s fine, I can take a few hits.” She added with a bright smile. Most of the students were quietly laughing at this, while others were quietly making fun of the team's performance against, and I quote, ‘An Old Hag.’ Grandma paid them no mind, not caring for her their insults but that didn't mean I did the same. I felt furious over their words and had half a mind to smack them against the wall.

The next group came up, team JNPR and as they started they all charged at grandma at once, something team RWBY didn't do when they went. Sure they lasted a little longer but they we all knocked out as well, Jaune was the first one out and he seemed like he knew it from the beginning.

“Should’ve stepped out.” He muttered as the rest of team stood by him, trying to cheer him up.

“Hey teach.” One of the guys from team CRDL spoke up, he had short brown hair and looked big. “You said everyone in their team gets to fight, but what about her.” He asked, pointing up at me. “She has no team.” Grandma looked at the man that said this, arching a brow before closing her eyes.

“Miss Warren, if you'd be so kind.” She said to me simply and I quickly stood up before heading down towards her. She stood on one side of the ring while I stood opposite of her. We both entered our battle stances before we dashed towards one another, attempting to trade blows but all we did was block the each other’s attack perfectly and without faltering.

I narrow my eyes a bit and as I threw a punch a trail of fire followed behind. This pushed grandma back a bit as I pushed forward, trying to leave her no real chance to recover… that is until my leg was kicked under me. I was quick to recover and landed on my feet albeit shakingly. Seeing as this was enough of a demonstration, she nodded at me and I was free to go back to my seat.

Everyone stared at me as I walked back up, in shock that, other than Yang and the Red haired girl from team JNRP was able to put up a good fight. I sat back down in my seat and looked back down to listen. Mutterings of shock and awe were mostly heard until heard before the guy that outed me out stood up, looking like he didn't want to be outdone by someone else. His pals looked at one another, silently questioning their supposed leader.

“Yes, Mister Winchester?” Grandma asked, crossing her arms as she did. He looked back at me before looking at grandma.

“I'm calling bull on that, there's no way a Faunus girl like her can put up a fight like that.” He stated, earning some frowns from me and some others. Grandma kept a straight face even after he said that before saying.

“Then prove it if you would.” She said, taking what is most definitely another easy win for her. The man frowned before marching down to her despite his teammates telling him not to.

“Shut up! I got this.” He said as he pulled out his weapon, a large mace. He stood on the other side of the ring. Grandma gestured for him to start and he was quick to do so, readying his mace for what would normally be a devastating blow as he charged towards her. When he swung his mace, Grandma only held out a pointer finger and stopped it, causing mace to ring as if it were a bell and shake violently. The shaking travelled down the weapon before greeting the dickhead and he was quick to make his uneasiness known as he dropped his mace and stumbled backwards. He shook his head before looking back at grandma, shocked at how she did that.

“You lack patience, Mister Winchester but go on, feel free to try again as much as you'd like,” Grandma said to the shocked burly man. I could've sworn I heard a whine behind me but I didn't know from who. After the man shook his head he picked up his mace he got ready to attack.

This went on for some time, ending up the same as the others soon started to do other things. I looked back to see team RWBY either reading, watching or, in Ruby's case, sleeping. I shook my head before the guy was knocked out of the ring, panting and gasping as he looked up at grandma.

“That's enough, Mister Winchester,” Grandma said to him as he stood back up, panting and using the mace as support to keep him up. He wanted to say something but was too out of breath before he went back to his seat. Grandma looked to the third team but they all shook their heads, not wanting to get beaten so easily. It was then that a bell rang, signalling everyone to move to the next class. Grandma said her goodbyes as almost everyone left.

All the was left was me and team RWBY, the latter was trying to wake their young leader from her nap. I walked over to grandma as the room turned back into a classroom.

“That was interesting.” I said to her with a smile. Grandma smiled at me and said.

“Thank you, dear and I must say that I enjoyed our little demonstration.” She said to me, chuckling while she did. I chuckled as well as we looked over at the other team, Yang was shaking Ruby awake, which earned a chuckle from Blake and a groan from Weiss. It wasn't until Grandma walked up to help them that Ruby finally woke up, though when she did she clung onto her weapon once more.

“You four should go along now, you don't want to miss your next class,” Grandma said with her calming smile at the four of them. The four of them nodded and they left, Weiss was scolding Ruby for falling asleep which the latter simply smiled at her friend. Right before they leave Yang looked back at us and smiled at grandma warmly before leaving. Grandma chuckled to herself before sitting down.

“You know, she reminds me so much of your grandfather.” Grandma said to me, surprising me when she did.

“Really?” I asked before arching a brow. “Was that the reason for that blush before?”

“She simply surprised me, I hadn't expected someone to find me attractive in my current form as I am, how mortals call… old.” She said to me, looking down at herself as she did.

“Well, some did say you look hot, Yang is just the only one to show interest…” I said before thinking about it. I know that having interested to say older or younger of you isn't a good idea but grandma is older than this place five times over so… I didn't know what to think. This got her to chuckle a bit.

“To be young and in love.” She said with a little chuckle, though I could sense some sadness from her voice. After all, if Yang, the blonde boxer of team RWBY, reminded Grandma of Grandpa, then it would be understandable. She looked over at me and arch a brow before I realized that I was going to be late for my class. I turned and ran off to my next class.

A few months later

It been a few months of school and so far its been enjoyable. Grandma continued to teach her classes, becoming a well-respected professor. It was funny how her classes mirrored Indigos as he mostly focused on combat while grandma focused education. Speaking of Indigo, some of his teaching methods were questionable and it doesn't help for the fact that he drinks… like a lot. I haven't really seen him sober once and I've even asked him, his only answer was that sobering up is nothing but bad memories.

I felt bad for him when he said that and there were times that I tried to cheer him up which led to no success. I did know that he did cheer up when talking to Blake. I raised a brow at this but didn't press it any further.

I became good friends with team RWBY, having some good fun with them though Weiss was somewhat cold towards me. The others say she's like that to everyone but I don't know… she seemed colder to me.

At the moment I didn't think about it as I was in the middle of a test grandma made for us. Rumours say that her tests were the worse as how hard they are, though if you studied they weren't that bad. Sometimes her tests are regular on paper tests while other times she pits one team against the other and whoever showed the most team cooperation has passed the test. It could lead with both sides passing the test or in the case of CRDL, only one as they have shown to lack coordination and it's not even the teams fault it's mostly Cardin. Luckily for everyone, today's test was on paper, so to whoever took the time to study can ace the test with no problem.

Grandma was simply sitting by her desk, reading up on some news articles in through her scroll while everyone did their test. I scratched my head as I was having a tough time with a few questions as I felt like grandma made my test a bit harder as she knew me and taught me all I knew.

I glanced around to see the others working on theirs, Weiss and Blake were doing alright while Ruby and Yang… not so well. Yang was so focused on hers and Ruby… well she looked like she was going to pull her hair out.

Before long there was a buzzer went off and grandma turned the timer off. She placed her scroll down and stood up from her chair.

“Pencils down everyone.” She said out loud and everyone did with some groaning for not having finished it. She went by from row to row and picked up each test paper while I tried to finish mine before she got to me. I was fortunate enough to finish just before she picked mine up and I could only sigh in relief when she did. She picked up Weiss and Blake's soon after me, both of whom looked confident with their answers. She then came up to Yang, seeing the boxer of the team sitting patiently with a smile, her smile brightened once Grandma picked up her test before coming up to Ruby. The latter looked to have given up beforehand. Grandma saw her test and arched a brow before speaking with Ruby silently, so no one else would hear. Whatever it was she said, Ruby, nodded and a little smile.

She went around to the others and picked up theirs before returning to her desk and looked through all of the tests before putting them into piles of each team. I knew were mine was as it was the one pile with only one test in it. Just as she sat down, the bell rang and Grandma quickly.

“Class dismissed, I will see you all tomorrow.” She said to all of us and upon hearing her words most of the students got up from their seats and moved along towards the next class. As I got my stuff packed so I could move on I heard someone walk up to me.

“Umm, Viri can I asked you something.” Ruby asked me. I turned to her and blinked.

“Sure, what do you need?” I asked.

“Umm, can you… help me study during lunch?” She asked before adding. “Professor Mavis said I could retake the test and I really need help. So please~!” I again blinked at her before smiling.

“Sure, I don't mind helping- whoa!” I yelped as Ruby hugged me.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!!” she said before letting me go and bolting out of the room. Grandma must've seen this happen because I heard her holding back a laugh, letting a few chuckles out instead.

“You are being a big help for her, she really needs it.” Grandma said to me, chuckling still. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her.

“Yeah… sometimes I wish she doesn't hug me every time out of the blue. Sometimes they freak me out.” I said to her as I finish packing. “So… did I do good on your test?” I asked. Grandma chuckled and said.

“Viri, you know I can't answer that. You'll need to wait just like everyone else.” She said to me, her words have yet to change since the last time I asked her this. I let out a sigh before chuckling.

“I know grandma, thought maybe you give in this time.” I said earning a chuckle from her. She was about to say something but there was a small intake of air. We both turned and saw Yang there, surprised to hear this.

“You two… are family?” She asked the both of us. I blinked a few times before realizing that most people didn't know that I was related to grandma.

“Yes, Yang. Viri is my granddaughter.” Grandma said to the surprised blonde. Yang looked between the two of us.

“Huh… I can kinda see it…” She said before looking like she realized something. Her face and stance slumped a bit and looked a little sad. “I… see you two tomorrow.” She stated before leaving the room. Grandma watched as Yang disappeared, her own taking a sadder one.

“Have… have I done something wrong?” Grandma asked as she looked back at me. I thought about it before figuring it out.

“She thinks you're married.” I answered, making grandma blink. Although she had known about Yang's interest in her, Grandma thought it was just an odd phase she was going through but I knew better than that. Yang had actually fallen for her but why is my only question. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like Yang having the hots for Grandma, it's just I'm curious as to why.

“O-oh my.” She said to herself, finally realizing that it was no phase. It even brought a blush to her cheeks.

“Yeah, I figured it was that after seeing her look at you. It's also why she is putting more effort into your classes than others… though it did leak over to other classes. I'm surprised that she fell for you hard.” I explained to grandma.

“I don't… I don't know what to say really. I mean I'm flattered and all but… shouldn't she find companionship in someone her age?” She said with a little confusion. She placed a hand over her chest as if to feel her heartbeat. I arch a brow at this, did she… also have feelings?

“I'll go talk to her.” I said to grandma before leaving her alone. After walking around I found Yang banging her head on a wall.

“Stupid… stupid… stupid…” She said over and over again. I walked up to her.

“Hey, you okay?” I asked Yang, after she bang her head on the wall for the last time she looked over at me.

“...No…” She said before signing. “Just did a dumb thing… again.” I blinked at this, again?

“What do you mean?” I asked. Yang sighed at this before looking at me.

“I do like to flirt with other people… but there are times when I flirt with people a bit older than me… and don't think it in a bad way, it's a weird thing that never really left.” Yang explained before looking worried at me. “She's not mad at me?”

“No… no more surprised and flattered really. She wonders why your not interested in others around your age?” I asked her. She simply shrugged at me.

“Just a feeling that's she different. Somehow special… I feel happy when I'm in her class… is that weird?” Yang asked.

“I… don't know… maybe not…” I said, scratching my head a bit before she sighed.

“Right… I guess her husband is really something huh.” she said with a chuckle. I shrugged.

“I guess, I haven't seen him since he died when I was young.” I said before realizing what i said and looked at her.

“Ohhh… that sucks.” Yang said as she scratched her head. I notice she Demeter changed a bit, a bit more brighter than before. It was odd that she would brighten up at the mention of Grandma’s deceased husband but I guess I could understand why, still didn't fix that it was a little creepy though.

The both of us headed to our next class and after a few hours it was lunch and I was in the library waiting for Ruby to study. I was reading a good book when my scroll that I got from my aunt buzzed as I got a call. I answered it and saw it was grandma.

“Hi grandma.” I greeted her.

“Hello dear, I'm sorry if this sounds selfish but I called to ask if Yang is alright.” She said, her voice concerned over the blonde boxer.

“She's fine, says she's used to this sort of thing since she does flirt with people who are older.” I paused a bit and looked away. “and uhh… might have slipped that you're single… sorry.” I said guilty to her. This only got a chuckle before she said.

“Oh it's alright, dear though I suppose I now know who left a bouquet of roses on my doorstep. It even came with a card.” She said with a little laugh, an excited one at that.

“You seem happier than before.” I pointed out to her, seeing her chuckle like this.

“Viri, you don't know how happy this makes me feel. It makes me feel countless younger.” She said to me, her smile growing before she said. “I have never felt this way since Jericho and while I'll always keep him close to my heart, I know he wouldn't want me mourn forever and not move on.” She said to me as she grasped the necklace around her neck. She looked down at it, smiling as she did. I giggled at this.

“Someone has a crush~” I teased her with a laugh.

“Perhaps I do.” She said, holding up a single rose flower. She smiled at it, spinning it between her fingers before she said. “I'll leave you to your business, I'm going to put these roses in a vase.” She said before waving goodbye and hanging up.

Just as she did Ruby came over and greeted me. The two of us spent the next while studying, Ruby also said that this was much easier and after the bell rang for our next class and was more than ready to retake that test.

When the school day was done and I went back to my dorm to study a bit and hang around. When I was reading I got a message from Ruby, showing me that she got a B- and was really happy. I smiled and sent a good job to her before going back to my book.

Author's Note

Now, normally I don’t condone romances between two people that their ages are way far apart, as in Yang is eighteen and Mavis looks Fourty... but Mavis is a goddess who’s older than everyone three times over... Don’t know how to make that more clear.

But anyway Team RWBY! Yay!

Ch 5

It was getting close to Summer vacation and everyone was getting excited about it. Yang has been pretty chipper over the months, her crush on the professor that’s my grandma seemed to keep going. Again it should be weird for an nineteen year old to have a crush on a forty year old but grandma Mavis is much much older and immortal. She seemed to get more and more happy with the gifts she was getting from her secret admirer, who was Yang.

Ruby’s grades has been getting better and better with me helping her, now becoming her tutor. Other than that we’ve been hanging out ever since. It been really fun and I enjoyed it, what was odd is the way mama, grandma, and my aunt giggle at me when I talk to them about it though I don’t know why. Weiss was still somewhat cold to me and I still don’t know why… I tried to ask her but she simply dodge the question.

Everything over all is great… other than Indigo. He still drinks, a lot, and sometimes comes to class so drunk that he crashes in his desk and we have a free period. It wasn’t until Blake asked me to help with Indigo. I didn’t know how to though but I did accept helping her, which is why I sat across from him in the cafeteria one day and he groaned when I asked him if he’s alright.

“What do you want now?” He asked me, clearly annoyed at me.

“I’m just checking to see if you’re alright. You’ve been… well you look like hell.” I told him, crossing my arms when I did. He looked at me as if I was Captain Obvious.

“And?” He asked me, not seeing what the problem was.

“And maybe help you. Hell you came to class a few times down right drunk. I don’t know how you are able to keep your job.” I said to him, a frown on my face formed upon finishing.

“Yeah, I wonder the same thing everyday.” He said, almost muttering it under his breath. Though his expression finally changed from angry frown a solemn expression. “Listen there's a lot of things wrong with me, to many to list out in fact.” He said to me.

“Then why don’t you get help?” I asked him. Upon hearing this, he chuckled and shook his head.

“I'm a lost cause.” Was all he said before he stood up from the table and left me by myself with a frown on my face. I pushed myself up and followed him.

“You’re not a lost cause, you can get help.” I said after him. “Indigo you’re making everyone worried. Blake even asked me to try and help you.”

“You're really not going to let this go, aren't you?” He asked me, stopping his trek and glancing back at me.

“Nope.” I said, crossing my arms at him. Indigo stared at me for a few moments with a frown. He sighed and said.

“You sound just like your dad.” He muttered a little under his breath but I was still able to hear him. He knew my dad? I stared at him in shock.

“You… you knew papa?” I asked him. He looked at me and nodded before saying.

“Yeah, he and I went in joint mission a couple of times.” He said to me with a shrug. I stepped forward a bit.

“What was he like?” I asked, making Indigo look at me oddly. He was quiet for a moment or two before he began to tell me what he was like.

“He was… well, Ray was an odd man, always looking at the bright side of things. Everytime we meet he had a smile on his face.” Indigo shook his head a bit. “He annoyed me for how happy he was, even yelled at him for it but all he did was shrug it off. He never really hold a grudge either, saying that grudges just push people away. He also like to spar with others, and… well it was hard to fight him, since he was able to control fire. I was always nervous when he starts getting angry but… never see that side of him…”

Indigo sighed a bit before looking at me… probably seeing my tears running down my face. Luckily I followed him out of the cafeteria and into the hallway.

“You okay, kid?” He asked me with an arched brow. I wiped away my tears a bit, sniffling a bit.

“I’m… I’m sorry… I… I never meet papa… I never knew him and…” I continue to sniffle a bit before looking at Indigo with a quivering smile. “Thank you Professor Indigo…” For once, I actually got a smile out of him albeit a small and sad one but it was something! It wasn't his usual grumpy look.

“I got to go, next class is in a few minutes.” He said before turning to continue towards his class room but stopped after taking a few steps. “Come by classroom after school… Then we'll talk.” He said. I nodded before watching him leave. I quickly stepped into the washroom to clean my face a bit before looking at myself in the mirror. I got more info on my papa, I knew a bit more of him. This made me smile a bit before the bell went off. I quickly calmed myself down and ran off to my next class.

I made it in time for grandmas class and took my seat. I saw everyone else was here and Ruby waved at me, which I waved back. Grandma soon got everyone's attention and started her class.

“Good afternoon everyone.” She greeted the class, something she had been doing since the first day. She then went on, detailing what is in store for today, which is by far some pretty basic stuff and for today's task, well… were once again pitted against one another to see how we have improved with the months she has been teaching us and everyone has actually, and I do mean everyone. Seeing how everyone improved greatly, Grandma rewarded us by allowing us to spar one on one with one another instead of a whole team.

Everyone seemed to be chatting with the others too see who will spar against one another. I looked around to see who I will spar against for the class before I saw someone walk up to me.

“Hey you,” Cardin said to me before standing next to me.

“Uh, I have a name,” I said with a frown. He rolled his eyes.

“Whatever, listen you’re going to spar against me.” He said with his own frown.

“Uhh… what?” I asked, confused on why he wanted to spar against me. His frown deepened.

“I said, you’re going to spar against me you dumb Faunus.” This made my eye twitched as he got closer. “I’m at the bottom of this class because this professor is being a bitch to me. And as it seems you’re her teachers pet.”

“Oh geez, you’re at the bottom, maybe you could, I don’t know… do your work and work with your team.” I said to him. I knew that he was the token bully in school and the fact he thinks he can push me around he had another thing coming. He growled at me but got closer.

“Listen, you don’t know what’s at stake here.” He said, nodding toward Team JNRP. “See the leader, the wimp Jaune, well as it seems he actually made fake documents that allowed him to get in. It would be really bad if say Headmaster Ozpin or one of the professors finds out about this. So if you want to keep this secret, spar with me and lose.”

I was shocked at this, blackmailing Jaune is low even after what happened during one of his classes, I thought Cardin learned his lesson but as it seems it didn’t.

“Fine.” I agreed, though I wasn’t going to let him win. I was calling his bluff on this. He smiled at me before walking away to grandma to tell her about our match up. Upon being informed of this, Grandma arched a brow at Cardin before allowing his matchup against me to happen. When everyone told her the pairings we all sat down and waited for grandma to tell us who’s first.

“Cardin and Viri, please step into the ring to commence your match,” Grandma said, saying that my match against Cardin was first. Maybe Grandma was interested in how this plays. I stood up and headed down to the ring where Cardin was there with his mace.

“Where’s your tool? Oh wait, you don’t have one do you.” He said with a chuckle. I frowned at him as I kept my hands open, maybe beat him without it. He got ready and the both of us waited for grandma to begin this match. When she did Cardin charged at me. I saw the mace over his head and rolled to the side to dodge. He turned with a frown as he swung his mace at me again, tearing up the floor when he did. I dodge to the left, making his swing go wide and threw a few punches at him. Due to his aura, he tanked the hits but annoyed him as I grabbed his mace.

“What are you doing? Do you want to see your friend shipped off?” He growled at me.

“I doubt you have the balls to go through the plan,” I said to him as I kicked him away. He grunted before coming back with more heavy swings, I guessed I pissed him off. I dodged his blows since he was a bit slow until he got me with a sucker punch and smacked me away with his mace, knocking the air out of me. I gasped for air as I pushed myself up and heard a gasp. I looked up to see him over me with his mace up. He’s not… oh, wait he is. I rolled to my right and used my semblance to form a flaming sword and slashed at his mace. As the two connected I saw my sword cut through the mace and knock Cardin back. I pushed myself up and looked at my sword, it was a flaming claymore and it felt light in my hand. Neat.

I looked up to see Cardin looking at the stump that was the head of his mace before looking at me as I marched over to him. He seemed to panic and back up before I was up in his face. The two of us stared before I gave him a smile and used one finger to push him.

“Bye-bye.” I said as I pushed him out of the ring, letting the alarm go off. He was stunned by this as I dismissed my claymore and walked away, hearing everyone clap at me. It was pretty good… for about five seconds.

“Hey everyone!” Cardin yelled, getting back into the ring. “I got something to say.” No, he’s not. Everyone muttered confused at this as he continued. “Jaune Arc, the leader of Team JNRP, made fake transcripts to get into Beacon!” Yeah, he said it. Everyone looked at each other, Jaune went white as grandma frowned at Cardin. Cardin looked at me with a smirk as if to say ‘You brought this.’

“That’s just… low.” Weiss said, but not looking at Jaune but at Cardin.

“Yeah man, just because you lost doesn’t mean you have to go make stuff up like that,” Yang said. Others started to say things that shocked Cardin, seems everyone didn’t believe him.

“I-I’m telling you the truth!” Cardin yelled before looking at his team. “Guy you believe me!”

I saw his team look away at him which seemed to anger him more. Cardin turned to me in his rage.

“Why you-” Before he could finish a hand grabbed his shoulder. He looked back to see Indigo there, finishing a swig from his flask.

“You sir, are coming with me,” Indigo said simply to the started leader of CRDL. Cardin would've argued but a glare from Indigo equals a very bad time.

“But… if I’m going he should too!” Cardin yelled, pointing at Jaune. Indigo looked at Jaune then back at Cardin with an arched brow. “He made fake transcripts!”

Indigo stared before taking another swig of his flask. “You know, Headmaster Ozpin looks at everyone’s transcripts and it’s almost impossible to fake something like that to him. The fact that mister Arc is here means they're not fake.” With that, he pushed Cardin forward and out of the room. He looked over to me and nodded and then at Grandma and said sorry for barging into her class before leaving. It took a little bit but the rest of the hour went by smoothly, the sparrings continued on until the bell rang. Everyone gathered up their things and I did the same before grandma came over to me.

“How are you holding up, Viri?” She asked me, concerned over what happened to me during my match against Cardin.

“I’m fine, can’t believe that ass tried to blackmail Jaune just to win,” I said, frowning at the thought. Grandma smiled but before she could say anything Yang came up to us. Also as I turned my head we were the only ones here in the room.

“Ah, Yang. What can I help you with?” Grandma asked the blonde. Yang blushed a bit, seeming to fidget a bit before speaking.

“Umm… so I got something to say…” She started to say before blushing some more. Wait was she… “I… I really like you and do you want to go out tonight!” Yang said quickly, surprising the two of us. Yup she really is. Grandma was surprised the most, she had expected Yang take a while longer to get it out of her chest, so she didn't expect it so soon.

“I… Yang, I'm flattered. Really I am and under any other circumstances, I would but a teacher isn't allowed to seek romantic relationships with their students.” Grandma said to Yang. Yang looked like she was crushed before letting out a hollow chuckle.

“Right… yeah you’re right and… sorry I just… that was dumb of me and… I-I should go.” She said before running out of the room. From the looks of it she was almost in tears. Grandma had her hand out, having tried to stop her. She looked down her hand, her expression changing from sadness to having formed an idea.

“I have to talk to her.” Was Grandma said before using her semblance to disappear in a brief flash of light, luckily it wasn't so bright. I blinked a few times before running out of the room and look for Yang.

It took me a bit but I found her in her room. The door was open and I saw her in bed crying her eyes out. I slowly closed the door and walked over.

“Go… away!” I heard her say into the pillow.

“Yang, please… talk to me,” I said as I sat down in Weiss’ bed, kinda nervous at how everything looked as it looked a little janky. It wasn’t for a few minutes that Yang looked over at me, eyes red and puffy.

“I’m an idiot.” She sniffled. “Why did I took interest in a woman way too old for me?”

‘She’s way older than you think.’ I thought before saying. “I don’t know Yang, but hey, it’s not so bad.”

“Why do you say that! Of course it’s bad!” Yang said before falling back. “Now she thinks I’m some sort of freak! A girl that goes after people way older than her!” Yang rolled over and screamed into the pillow. I frowned at this as I didn’t know what to say.

“Well… she did know that it was you who was sending her flowers and she was honestly happy that you did… even have some feelings for you.” I said to her. Yang turned her head to me.

“Really? She liked them?” Yang asked which I nodded. She pushed herself up in front of me. “Maybe… I could patch things up with her… I don’t want-” Before she could finish there was a knock on the door. “Go away!” She yelled, frowning as there was another knock. I looked over and stood up before walking over to the door and peeking out.

“Hello?” I asked to see who’s there. I saw grandma there, she wasn’t smiling at first but a small one formed when she saw me.

“Is Yang in there… I wish to speak with her.” She said to me, she was really hoping for me to say yes by the look of her expression.

“Uhh…” I said before looking back at Yang.

‘Who is it?’ Yang mouthed.

‘It’s her.’ I mothed back, making Yang looked at me in shock. ‘She wants to talk to you.’ Yang looked like she was shocked at grandma being here. After a few moments of thinking she motion me to let her in. I turned and open the door for grandma. She walked in and saw Yang's condition.

“Yang I'm… I am very sorry to have caused you such pain.” She said before surprising Yang by hugging her.

“Uhh, it’s fine… just me being dumb that’s all.” Yang said before giving grandma a hug as well. The latter shook her head when Yang said that she was being dumb.

“No… no you weren't. I was.” Grandma said as she pulled back from the hug. “Before I continue, I must know if you are willing to keep a secret for me. It is very important and I want to trust you to keep it a secret.” She said to the blonde. I blinked at them, wait was she going to tell her?

“Uhh… sure? I can keep a secret.” Yang said, confused to what’s going on. Grandma smiled before her entire body began to glow a heavenly light that filled the room, it nearly left us blind but when me and Yang regained our sights, we were shocked at what we saw. It was Grandma, no doubt about it, but she looked so young! She must be in her twenties or something. She gave Yang a small smile, awaiting her reaction.

“What… What!” Yang yelled, surprised to seeing this happen. “How! How did you do that?! I thought… how powerful is your semblance?!” The both of us looked at Yang before grandma started to laugh.

“Truth be told, I don't have a semblance and it's not like I need it.” Grandma said, her voice even changed to fit her age perfectly. As grandma… now seeing her like this kinda sounds weird, looked at her new body, Yang looked at me oddly.

“What does she mean?” She asked me. I chuckled as I scratched the back of my head.

“Well… she’s more… godlike then mortal.” I told her. Yang’s eyes widen as she looked at grandma… still weird.

“Wait, you’re a god?!” Yang asked in surprised. Grandma- screw it- Mavis giggled at Yang's shock before saying.

“I hope this doesn't change what you think of me,” Mavis said to Yang. The latter blushed madly once she got a full look at Mavis.

“I… Uhh… I… Back up a bit… your a god… or goddess, just… what?!” Yang said, still very confused at this whole thing. “Can someone please tell me what’s going on here. Please?” Mavis smiled as she came over and sat next to me.

“What is it you wish to know?” Mavis asked Yang, wanting the blonde to be specific in her question

“Well, for one, you’re a goddess!?” Yang asked/yelled in shock. “Sorry but that’s the only thing on my mind.” Mavis nodded at her in understanding before saying.

“Do you wish for me to prove to what I am is no laughing matter?” Mavis asked Yang with an arched brow.

“Uhh… sure?” Yang asked, not sure what she is asking for. Mavis giggled and as she was going to do something Yang added something. “Can I also point out that the two of you look very similar. Like, dye your hair blonde or silver and you look like twins.” I blinked at this and both me and Mavis looked at one another. Sure enough I saw what Yang meant, we did look very similar, I be it Mavis a little older than me. We could go off as twins if need be.

“Neat.” I said with a smile. Mavis thought the same as well, I mean seriously we really do look like twins! A snap of her fingers brought me out of my thoughts just before the scene around us changed and warped into the vast open space of… well space. Of course at first Yang panicked and held her breath, thinking that she wouldn't be able to breath but Mavis walked up to her and gently took her hand. Yang, feeling Mavis’s gentle touch, stopped panicking and looked around, seeing the many stars around us. Before she even realized it, she began floating up from what used to be her bed and she yelped a little surprised but Mavis once again calmed her down. Mavis turned to look at the empty region of space, devoid of planets and even a sun. She let go of Yang's hand, the latter not wanting to have let her go but she did. Clasping her hands together, a bright light shone from within her hands and I simply watched with excitement as I finally got to see Grandma at work. She planted a small kiss on her clasped hands before opening them, revealing a miniature sun. The sun hovered above her palms before she blew it away. The minutere soon flew ways away from until it was just a tiny speck in the distance and before anyone could speak, a muffled boom was heard before the sun suddenly expanded in size three hundred times its original size. Me and Yang were left speechless at this, more so Yang as she has never in her life expected to see something like this while I was simply stunned at how Grandma did it. Soon she hummed to herself while several large and misshapen rocks formed around her… Wait is that how she..? Mavis took hold of one and began to mold it as if it were clay, giving it a bumpy surface but a spherical body before leaving it to orbit around her when she was done so she could pick up another one. The next one was larger than the last one but again, that could change. Mavis began to smooth out part of its surface all while she hummed a happy little tune. This went on for a few minutes and she finally finished molding each of them. She soon grabbed one of the already molded ones and smiled down at it before she held it closer to her. Next she spoke out a few words on a language I've heard Auntie speak in, which reminded me to look into it later. The rock in her hands began to take in various colors from green to blue and even a little white before swirling in her hands and suddenly stopping. In her hands, Mavis now held a newly birthed planet. It was the size of a model planet, yet it was alive. The clouds moved and I could see the water move as well. Mavis walked up to Yang, planet in hand before letting the blonde see it first hand. I could resist in walking over to her to see it as well. Yes walking, shut up. After letting me and Yang see the tiny planet in her hands, she walked a little away from us letting go of the tiny planet, letting it orbit around her with the other soon to be made planets. Mavis raised her arm up high, hand wide open as it shone a golden light. One by one, the planets took their own color, creating life on the once dead chunks of rock before each of them flew away into the distance. One by one they all expanded into actual planets, orbiting around the newly made sun. Mavis turned towards Yang while I took a few steps back, sensing that I would be a third wheel if I didn't. Mavis walked up to Yang before taking gentle holds of the blonds hands.

“I know this is… a lot to take in and I'd understand if your feelings towards me have changed but… you are the second being in all of existence to have ever made feel so special.” Mavis admitted to the quiet blonde before she continued. “I never thought I'd feel this way towards anyone since… since Jericho.” She said to Yang, revealing grandpapi’s name to her. Yang was a little disheartened at the mention of grandpapi. “I've made my peace with his passing and I've moved on, so if you'd have me. I'd love to go on that date with you.” Mavis said to Yang. I smiled at her, seeing that she really has moved on and accepted that Grandpapi won't be coming back. A part of me was a little sad as well, wishing that I could've met him before his passing.

Soon the scene changed back to the room from before, Yang stood beside Mavis silently. The latter looked at her with a little worry before Yang sighed.

“You know, I was planning on taking you to a restaurant and maybe catch a movie… but after seeing that… how can I top that! Like wow… that was amazing.” Yang said, almost whining as she said this. Mavis’s smile returned soon after hearing this before giving Yang a kiss on the cheek.

“I wouldn't mind.” Mavis said, regarding what Yang had planned for the date. Yang blushed madly after the kiss. She smiled st Mavis before saying.

“Then it's a date Mavs,” Yang said happily. With a nod, Mavis reverted back to her older self before.

“You two should go on now, you're already late as it is,” Grandma said to the two of us. The two of us nodded and headed out, Yang looking back at grandma and smiled before we headed to our class.

It's going to be hell with telling the younger to older apart with names… ugh.

A few days later…

It's surprising how fast world goes around. With Yang going out with Mavis she's been more happy and chipper than ever, though there was a time that everyone thought Yang was dating me with how close Mavis looked like me other than the blonde hair. Luckily we told everyone that wasn't the case but now everyone thinks I have an older sister. I did want an older sister so it sorta worked out… kinda.

Yang and Mavis also had an agreement with this; when they're out of class they're a couple, in class they're not. Yang agreed to this deal as they continued dating. Throughout all this, I had spent most of my time trying to get Indigo to open up a bit more. I wanted to know what caused him to be the person he is now and while he has been giving me tidbits of his past like how he was apart of a team that went by the name of INDG and how close he was to his teammates. I'll admit it isn't much to go by but at least it was something. Blake had about the same results as me but still didn't clue us in what the source of his depression is.

This time though I will get that info, I'm bringing out the big guns for this.

“You sure this is a good idea?” Blake Belladonna asked as we stood outside of Indigos classroom after school. I smiled and nodded at her.

“Yes, out of everyone in the school you're one of the few that Indigo somehow trusts,” I said, making her blush a bit.

“I… don't know what you mean.” She said as she fidgeted a bit. I rolled my eyes and opened the door to the classroom.

“Indigo, you here?” I called out into the room. When I looked inside, I found him sitting on his chair, staring blankly at his flask with face barren of any emotion. Blake and I glanced at each other before making our way down.

“Indigo… are you… alright?” Blake asked him as we got close. He glanced at us before placing his flask down.

“Do you two need anything?” He asked us, rubbing his face a little as he said this.

“We came over to see how you are doing. You said that's alright.” I told him as Blake looked at him with worry. Indigo didn't answer immediately, only letting out a sigh as he looked down at his flask. Blake was silent throughout this, having no idea what to do or say.

I took this time to pull two chairs for me and Blake to sit down. “Indigo… are you alright?” This caused him to chuckle dryly before he spoke.

“Far from it.” He finally admitted to the two of us. Finally! Here I thought it was going to be awkward silence. Blake looked at him for a moment before reaching over and put her hand on top of his.

“We are here for you Indigo.” Blake said softly. It was a few moments of silence before Blake blushed and pulled her hand away. “Uh… sorry.” Indigo's cheeks had a hint of a blush on them… interesting…

“It's just… not that simple.” He said to us as he pulled his scroll out from his pocket. He typed a few things into it before both mine and Blake's scroll buzzed. We both looked at our scrolls and we saw a number of photos. At first it was a group photo of what I guessed is Indigo and his team. I scrolled through them, seeing him happy, before I let out a small gasp as I saw a Indigo rolling his eyes with a man smiling beside him I knew him to be Ray, my dad. I stared at it for a few moments before scrolling past, soon the photos were getting darker as one of four didn’t show up for a few photos, then a new one that wasn’t taken by Indigo, the angels were wrong from the others but this one made me sick as it was one of the female member of the group that hung herself. Soon it was snippets from the news of a degrading Indigo as he looked like he was getting more depressed.

“By Oum… Indigo… This is…” Blake didn’t finish as she covered her mouth from the shock of the photos. Indigo was just silent for the longest time, the only thing heard from him was his breathing.

“They were like family to me, the siblings I never had.” Indigo spoke, his tone sounding hollow. Blake and I looked at one another before looking back at Indigo. I wanted to say something but nothing I could think of will work right now. Blake didn’t say anything as she looked over to his flask.

“So that’s why you drink so much…” She said in a whisper.

“I wanted to forget the pain… drinking only helps in numbing it.” He said to her, looking down at the flask in his hands. I slumped back a bit, kinda understanding what Indigo means. There’s a lot I want to forget my time when I was out on the streets, in the cold. As he stared at the flask a hand moved to cover it.

“I’m… sorry, Indigo… I wish I could help but…” Blake said sadly, I couldn’t help but noticed that her bow twitched a little. Odd…

“Don't… just… don't.” Indigo said before taking a deep breath and saying. “Well… you got what you wanted.” Indigo said to the both of us this time. The two of us looked at each other before Blake nodded to the door for me to go. She then looked at Indigo as I stood up to leave. Blake didn’t seem to move but then again, Indigo didn't say anything to her. I left the classroom feeling a little hollow inside, I would've never thought it would've been this bad.

I walked towards my dorm and went to my bed to curl up a bit. I felt cold from this as I pulled the covers over me.

Author's Note

Carden Winchester... Never liked that guy.

Yang and Mavis are now a couple due to Mavis being able to de-age herself. Yay?

Ch 6

Some time has passed since mine and Blake’s talk with Indigo. I was really sad for him that I kinda tuned out the world around me as I continued the last bit of school before summer. If it wasn’t for grandma I might’ve been depressed for quite a while.

Finally, after two last weeks, it was summer vacation and I was happy to finally got here. I was busy packing my things from my dorm since I added a few bookshelves, a couch, and some electronics that I got over my time. As I packed I heard a knock on the door, “It’s open!” I yelled out and heard it open. Looking over, I saw that it was Mavis adorning her white dress. I've been seeing her out and about in casual clothing lately, maybe Yang convinced her to try them out but today she wore her normal dress, giving her the royalty look I've grown used to seeing on her.

“Hello, Viri.” Greeted Mavis with a smile before she entered the room.

“Hey Mavis, how is it going?” I asked her. I’ve gotten used to calling her Mavis when she’s younger over time since when she’s older she’s my grandma. She smiled as Yang walked in and up beside her.

“Yo.” She greeted as she wrapped her hand around Mavis with a smile.

“We came by to see how you're feeling,” Mavis said to me while Yang nodded to her words. I'd think Yang just tagged along to be with her girlfriend than anything else.

“I’m fine, thanks,” I said as I finished up packing my stuff.

“Going somewhere?” Yang asked, seeing the bag I already packed.

“Yeah, I’m going to go see my mama, been so long since I seen her face to face in the flesh after the year,” I said to her. Mavis chuckled at this, knowing full well that it was true.

“Oh dear, I'm not sure how would she react to see me like this and with someone,” Mavis said jokingly, laying her head on Yang's shoulder.

“Maybe she’ll be fine with it.” Yang said, resting her head on top of Mavis’.

“Maybe, though she’s been pretty busy with her book. You know, a number of drafts for her stories.” I said with a chuckle. Mavis giggled a little at this while Yang looked surprised at the mention of mama working on her book. She stared at me, then looked at Mavis and sighed.

“Still trying to get used to the idea that really you’re much older and have a kid, er… daughter, already.” Yang said, shaking her head a bit. Mavis placed a hand on Yang's cheek as she said.

“I pray you to get used to it soon, love.” She said to Yang, making the blonde blush at the gentle caress of her cheek.

“Will do,” Yang said quickly, almost squeaking from Mavis’ action. I chuckled at this before looking at Mavis.

“Is it just you want to come to see me or is there something going on?” I asked, earning Mavis’ attention as Yang leaned into her hand.

“Well, I had noticed how good your grades were and after speaking with my sister about it, we've come to the decision in giving you your first mission,” Mavis said to me. My eyes grew wide as dinner plate upon hearing this.

“Really?!” I said a little louder than it should be. Mavis giggled at this as Yang tried to clean out her ear or something.

“Yes dear but don't get too excited as while we've decided to give you missions, your first one will be a simple scouting mission,” Mavis explained to me. She then continued on by adding. “Simply arrive on the world, scout around for anything noteworthy and report to me or my sister.” She said to me, now this interested me more. World? I get to on another world!?

“Seems she existed now,” Yang said with a chuckle as she looked at me.

“Wouldn't you be as well?” Mavis asked Yang, looking up at her as she still had her head on the blonde’s shoulder. Yang thought about it.

“I would… but I think being with you is just as exciting.” Yang said cheekily. Mavis chuckled at this but gave her a kiss nonetheless. Everytime they kiss, Yang is almost always left with a goofy grin when they part and not even Mavis knows why but serves as a good laugh.

“Alright… so I go to a new world, scout around and see what I find, report back to you or Auntie, then come back?” I asked before adding. “Seems simple.” Mavis nodded upon hearing this while Yang giggled quietly to herself with a goofy grin.

“Yes but do keep your guard up while you're out there, you may never know what creature will come to pounce you,” Mavis said to me before making a scroll appear in her free hand. “Take this scroll, my sister has made various modifications. It does not require any sort of connection the CCT tower as all scrolls do and it's virtually indestructible.” Mavis said to me. I smiled as I took the scroll from her and looked at it before putting it in my pocket.

“Okay…” I said as I looked at the two. “So… what are you two going to do after this?” I asked them.

“Huh? Oh, don’t know. She said she has plans.” Yang said, now out of her blissful state. Mavis giggled at this, this one sounding a little mischievous.

“Oh don't worry, I'm sure you'll enjoy what I have planned.” She said to Yang, her tone taking a hint of seductive lust, a tone that surprised Yang in a good way. Yang blushed at this, laughing nervously at this as she pulled Mavis closer to her. I arch a brow at Mavis as she did this. “Oh don't give me that look, Viri. Don't you have a mission to do?” She asked me with an arched brow.

“Yeah…” I said as I looked around and walked to my door. “You two have fun,” I said before I walked out of the door. I turned around and saw… I was in a forest. I blinked a few times before looking back just as the door disappeared. I slowly nodded to myself as I turned and headed off into this new world.

A few hours passed and I noted down a few things about this place, for one it’s bright and… colourful as all heck. It’s almost like I’m in some kind of cartoon I used to watch when I was little… okay, that’s a lie… I still watch cartoons. I didn’t see anything that was dangerous yet but I still kept an eye out for anything.

Before long I heard a snap of a branch nearby that got my attention. I moved my way over to a tree to hide as there were large thuds coming closer and closer. Soon I saw a large Grimm walk out into the clearing. From the size and shape of it, I could only guess it was a Ghoul. A large deer like head with antlers sticking out over the treetops and long arms in front of it as it walked in front of me. What was odd about it was the colours, normally a Ghoul was black, white and red in colour, this one had a shade of purple in its fur and markings on its head. It looked around for a bit, letting out a few sounds before moving on. I turned to the other side of the tree and took a few pictures from my scroll before it disappeared into the trees.

“What was that? I knew it looked like a Ghoul but… what’s with the purple markings and… well purple.” I whispered to myself before taking a few moments before stepping out into the clearing and continue on. As I walked along I saw wildlife frolic around which made me smile a bit, seeming to take it easy at the serenity of the place… Right before an arrow hits the tree right in front of me. I let out a girlish scream before falling down onto the ground. I looked towards the direction of the arrow but all I could see was the foliage of the trees. I kept low and moved around and behind the tree. “I’m warning you! Come out or I’ll start a forest fire!” I threatened. There was no sound afterwards for the longest time until moments later something or rather someone dropped down from above.

The person in front of me was an odd sight, they were androgynous and maybe a year younger than me, wearing some dirty ish clothes. Their hair was a dark brown colour with two bat ears sticking out of their head, I guess they're a Faunus. Their eyes threw me off though since they were clouded over, were they blind? They held a bow at the ready as they turned their head, listening to anything around them. The Faunus walked over towards the tree they shot at earlier, feeling the tree up before taking a hold of the arrow and pulling it out. I looked at the Faunus as they were near me, my hand already had a small fire at the ready, it flickers around my hand as I waited for the bat Faunus to talk or something.

“W-who's there?” They asked the voice was that of a male and a nervose one at that so I guess the faunus was a male.

“Hi, nice to meet you… or should I say nice to meet your arrow,” I said with a frown. This seemed to spook him as he turned towards my direction with the bow at ready. He took a minute but he lowered his weapon.

“I-I'm sorry. I- I d-didn't know the-there was anyone out here.” He said genuinely apologetic over having nearly pierced me with an arrow. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“It’s… fine.” I said as I stepped out from behind the tree. “Who are you?” I asked. He took a moment as if waiting for me to attack or something. I guess the flame in my hand didn't help.

“My-my na-name… is Tak.” He said with a stutter in his words. His whole demeanour isn't really what I expected from the guy who nearly got me with an arrow. I dismissed the flame and looked at him.

“My name is Viri, hiya.” I greeted him with a smile. He blinked before shakingly waving his hand at me, a nervous smile forming him. My ear twitched a bit. “Uhh, you okay?” I asked him.

“I'm fine, fine fine… p-please don't hurt me.” He said, cowering as soon as he said this. I stared at him oddly.

“Why would I hurt you? I just met you… well, actually I met your arrow first then you but still.” I said to him, putting a hand on my hip and frowned at Tak. After a minute or so, he stopped shaking though he was still nervous.

“I- well… I'm not g-good with people or-or ponies f-for that matter.” He said, his stuttering wasn't as bad as before but it was still there. Progress? I think so… wait a sec, what? Ponies?

“Wait a minute, back up Ponies?” I asked, putting a hand out to roughly the size of a pony which was up to my waist. “You mean mini horses?” He blinked at me and said nothing for the longest time before tilting his head and finally shaking his head out of the confusion.

“No. They're like us, walk on two legs, hands and feet. We faunus are practical equals to them… if even cared enough.” He said this time his stutter was gone. He looked down and sighed. “They treat faunus as nothing more than animals.” He added in a defeated tone. I frowned, even more, I dealt with people like this in Beacon, but not to this extent.

“That's… awful.” I said with a hand on my arm as I felt cold.

“Yeah, I know but they don't seem to care as long as they find enjoyment.” Upon saying his, his hand travelled on his back and I could swear I heard a whimper from his once felt his back. I frowned darkly at this.

“What… what happened to you?” I asked him. He flinched a bit, it looks like it was painful for him to say. “Uhh, nevermind.” Nothing was said after that and for a solid thirty seconds, I thought of just leaving but our ears picked up a sudden twig breaking not too far from us and Tak panicked.

“Oh no, they're here.” He said, his voice now sounding distressed as he hooked his bow around him. “Can't let them see me, can't let them see me.” Was all he said before effortlessly climbing up the tree nearest to him. Wow, points for agility.

I wondered what he meant by ‘they’ as I heard someone getting closer. I soon hid behind the tree in some bushes and peeked out to see who's there. There was silence before I saw two figures walk out. My eyes widen when the two were, in fact, bipedal Ponies. One of them was a tall lengthy purple furred one with wings while the other was a short black furred one. They looked around before the tall one spoke. Lords they can talk!

“I hear it right around here.” the Purple one said.

“Yeah? Well, I don't see shit.” The short one said with a grumble. “This is what I get for listening to you.”

“Don't get mad at me, I heard some of those animals out here.” the purple one snapped, making the other roll his eyes.

“Again I don't see shit.” The short one said. The purple one frowned before looking up into the trees.

“Maybe they're hiding? Maybe up in the trees?” The purple one informed, making my hand tighten on the bark a bit. The short one shook his head.

“Well you can stay here and look, I'm got back where I can get a good cup of coffee.” With that, he turned and walked off.

“H-hey! Don't leave me here! This place is creepy as shit!” The purple one yelled back as his friend walked off. The Pony looked back where he was before running off after the short one. After a few moments, I stepped out of the tree.

“Coast is clear,” I called up the tree. Immediately upon saying this, the leaves above me rustled before Tak appeared from above, somehow keeping himself upside down. I remembered trying something similar when I was a kid, it didn't end well. He stayed quiet for a little longer, his ears twitching no doubt still able to hear them. He soon let out a sigh of relief.

“Some Ponies have been hunting us for sport for a long time, just because they can,” Tak said to me, a frown slowly forming on him. “But those don't compare to what the huntsmen will do to a Faunus,” Tak added, giving me a little more background as to what was happening in this world. So far all I've heard are bad things with little no good to combat the bad.

“That's awful… Huntsmen are supposed to protect life, not hunt down life. These huntsmen sound worse than the Grimm.” I said as I crossed my arms. Tak took this time to get down from the tree, landing somewhat on his feet albeit shakingly.

“I need to get going, I don't want to be out here at night.” He said before moving onto a bush before sniffing it, he then stuck his hand in it and pulled out a handful of blueberries before he put them away in the makeshift pouch he carried. “This’ll have to do.” He said himself. I looked around at the forest then back at Tak.

“Where do you live?” I asked. His answer was given to me by pointing towards the west, at least I think it's west, that's what my new scroll says.

“It's a cave not to far from here, I know it doesn't sound like much but it's home.” He said before he began to walk towards the direction of his cave home. Does he live in a cave?

I followed him west as he seemed to know his way of being blind. Surprisingly enough it wasn't long until we came upon said cave if it weren't for Tak going into it, it was basically out of sight. Upon entering, I was met with the living space of Tak. A makeshift sleeping mat, firepit and a place to put down his weapons which consisted of several spears along with his bow and arrows. Tak sat by the firepit and began to light it some flint with a torn scrap of steel. It took a few tries and I was about to step up but he managed to start the fire before he sat down.

“Someplace you have here,” I said, stepping in and looking around. It was better than the shack from when I was young, I can say that much. He took out one berry from his pouch and ate it before saying.

“I know it isn't much but… it's my home.” He said with a shrug. I know I didn't notice this before but I saw the lack of shoes on him and they certainly weren't anywhere here. I looked at Tak and saw him with a sad expression as he ate the berries. I know what it felt like be despised for what I am but this is a whole new level of hate and cruelty. One could only imagine what kind of cruelty the faunus of the land had gone through. I sat down just a bit away from Tak, knowing that if I got closer it would've made him nervous again.

As I sat I pulled out my scroll to type down what I learned, it was long as I put in my thoughts on what's going on. As I did this I saw Tak's ears twitched. He faced towards my direction and tilted his head a bit before speaking.

“What is that noise?” He asked with a curious tone in his voice.

“That's me, just typing out a message,” I answered him but this only gave him more confused.

“Typing? Don't you mean writing?” He asked me. I nearly flipped my scroll so he could see that I was indeed typing but stopped when I remembered his lack of sight.

“Uh, well… I have something called a scroll. No, it's not the writing kind, it's an electronic device used to communicate from long distances.” I explained to him and judging by his silence, he was more lost than before. I could only sigh to myself before I spent the next hour or so not only explaining the scroll but who I am and where I am from. He took more interest in the latter two, when I told him I wasn't from this world he was left speechless with mouth agape.

“Yeah, I was pretty surprised as well when I heard it,” I told him with a chuckle. He lightly shook head to get him out of his shock state. I couldn't help but chuckle a little, seeing the same reaction I had as a kid on someone else. After a moment of this, I had an idea. “Hey, you've been around here, mind if I ask you some questions? Would save me some time.”

“Um… Sure I guess.” He answered, placing the pouch he had on him beside his makeshift bed. The next while we talked and I note down everything I thought was important, which was most of it.

As it seems the place was called Equestria, there were three main races in the land other than Faunus; Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns ( I added a note that they should be subraces of Pony) as well as Griffins, Yakmen, and dragons. There was another race that only a few is around and they are called Alicorns. They are the embodiment of the pony races into one being. The only one that is known to be around is the leader of the land, Princess Celestia.

Supposedly she had the power to move the sun and moon which was dumb because I know my science and that's not possible. I was also told that there are rumours of a second princess but no one knew where she is. This went on before I was out of questions. I was busy typing this down in my scroll before Tak finally spoke up.

“So… What is it like where you're from?” He asked me as he faced towards the roaring flames of the firepit.

“Oh, uhh… it's… well, it's nice.” I told him. “Faunus are treated a bit better, not as great in some places but they're not being hunted down,” I told Tak. He looked down in sadness but a little smile formed, I guess the thought of Faunus being treated better as they are here is pleasing to him.

I stared at him then look around at his cave, sure he's fine now but how long is his luck going to hold out. “Hey… if you want you can come with me when I go back.” He immediately faced towards my general direction though not directly but it still allowed me to his look of surprise.

“W-what? But you just met me.” He said with confusion. I simply shrugged at him out of habit.

“Yeah… but I believe if I don't something bad will happen. If that were to happen I would feel bad, like really bad.” I told him. Truth be told, I wasn't sure if Grandma or Auntie would even allow this but it's worth a try at the very least. Tak seemed to consider this deeply, placing his hand on the rocky floor as he did before slowly nodding. I smiled at him before adding something at the end and sending the report to both grandma and Auntie. “There… and maybe with some luck, you can se-uh, hear what a real Huntsman can do.” I said with a smile. This got a smile out from him, one of excitement and lacking worry.

The two of us sat around for about an hour talking to one another before I saw a door from out of the cave wall. Tak jumped in surprise from the sudden noise as the door finished forming before opening allowing Mavis to walk out.

“I must apologize for the wait, your scroll is still experimental and while I did receive your message it was an hour late. Your sister is still working on a solution for some of the buggy functions.” Mavis said to me, regarding the latency of the message I had sent an hour ago. Tak had crawled a little aways from Mavis as the door had formed beside him. I sighed a bit as I looked at Mavis, arching a brow at her unkempt hair and the dress she wore looked like it was put on in a rush.

“Guessing you and Yang enjoying your time together?” I asked with a giggle. She merely rolled her eyes at me before finally noticing Tak.

“Is this the boy?” She asked me, glancing back at me when she did. I nodded at this before she looked back at Tak. “You are Tak, yes?” She asked him, to which Tak shakingly nodded. “Viri has informed me of your predicament and her offer to you. I will allow you to cross over with Viri and I will see to that you are provided with your own living quarters.” She said to him.

“I… thank you.” Was all Tak could say to not only Mavis but me as well. The two of us smiled at Tak as he said this. Mavis took some time looking around in Tak's cave as the two of us sat with our backs to the wall.

“Well, I see no sense in dilly-dallying so come you two,” Mavis said as the door opened once again. Tak stood up and dusted himself off before placing his hand on the cave wall and walked forward before feeling the doorway with his hand. I walked behind him until he stood in front of the door and stood there.

“Anything the matter?” I asked him. He didn't answer immediately, no doubt still letting this all sink in.

“No… I'm fine it's just… I would've never imagined something like this to happen to me.” He said to me. I stepped up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“I try not to question it, if things like this didn’t happen I might’ve been dead in an alleyway in the freezing cold,” I said sadly. Maybe those weren’t the right words as now I felt that cold feeling and sad. He nodded, understanding what I meant surprisingly enough. The two of us looked up and walked through the doorway together.

We stepped through and into a room that I know very well, it should since it’s my room back in Beacon. Mavis was standing nearby, smoothing out her dress and straighten her hair a bit as she waited. It was a funny sight seeing her like that, she was always so proper beforehand. I guess a little bit of Yang is rubbing off on her. It wasn’t long before she noticed the two of us stepped through the doorway and I was staring. I smiled at her as I looked over to Tak who had his hand on the wall.

“So, welcome to a new world. We are now standing in my dorm room.” I told Tak. He had a look of lost on him even after telling him where we were. Right, he’s blind… crap. I helped him over to one of my chairs I had and had him sit down.

“S-sorry. I'm not so good with new environments but I'll be fine.” He said to me, even giving me a reassuring smile. I smiled back at him as I looked at Mavis.

“Thanks for doing this, and uh, sorry for dragging you away from Yang,” I said to her. Mavis gave me a smile before saying.

“Oh don't worry about that, dear. Yang can be patient if under the right circumstances.” She said in a joking manner before handing me a key. It was an ordinary looking key, with the exception of it emitting a golden glow. “That key will allow you to traverse from home to here and back.” She said to me before turning to look at Tak. “As for you, young man, for the time being, you will reside in this room,” Mavis said to the blind bat faunus. I looked over at Tak with a smile

“I’ve been living in this dorm room for a year, it’ll be nice to have a roommate,” I said happily. What was even better was that Mavis was quick to make a bed just for him, which he happily took after a little searching. Once he laid down on his new bed, he could only let a sigh of pure bliss.

I looked over at Mavis before she said she had to leave and disappeared. That was… kinda rushed. I couldn't help but giggle a little before getting settled… even though I left here a few hours ago.

Magic, sometimes it screws with you.

Author's Note

Now for those of you that read the old story might see a difference in Tak. Tak used to be a workaholic but now they seem more... different. More on that soon.

Ch 7

Sometime has passed when I went to Eques and found Tak. I went to see mama and tell her about everything about school and what I've been up to. There was an awkward moment when I told her about Mavis and Yang. Mama took the news pretty well, thinking that she did need to move on with her life, even though the both of them missed grandpa very much. She offered that the four or five of us should have dinner one day and until today mama and I haven't picked a day yet. Haven't seen Yang or Mavis at all.

Getting Tak settled in was… well it was interesting. I took him out shopping for shoes and clothes so he didn't wear rags anymore but… it was hard to pick for a blind person. Tak reminded me of that a number of times.

Soon we got some clothes and shoes for Tak, which he said it was kinda odd for him to wear shoes before returning to the dorm room. As of now, I was reading or rather rereading some of my old books while Tak was doing… whatever it is he does. He usually spend his time here in some form of meditative state and I've noticed that he does this during times of stress. Another thing that I've noticed of him now that he was my roommate was his back, not his back entirely but the odd nubs on his back. I try not to look or talk about them since… well I believe its it's not something I should talk about.

After a few more minutes of reading there was a knock on my door. I blinked at this before getting up and seeing who it was. I opened the door and saw it was Weiss.

“Hi Weiss… you need something?” I asked her.

“Yes.” She said, I noted a little struggle in her voice when she continued. “It was… pointed out to me that I was… a little rude and harsh to you for the past year.” I arch a brow at this.

“Kinda.” I said before letting her continue.

“I… well… you see…” She let out an annoyed sighed. “Look, I have trust issues with Faunus due to my family and… well, my family doesn't like your family.” I blinked at her.

“What did my mama and me do-"

“No not your side of the family, mostly your aunt side.” She said, cutting me off. I arch a brow at her, not really sure what she meant but maybe if I ask auntie about I could get some answers.

“It's fine, no harm done.” I said to her with a smile. There was a tiny smile before her gaze went behind me.

“Who's that?” Weiss asked. I looked back and saw Tak in a chair spinning it a bit.

“Oh, that's Tak, he's been my roommate for about a few weeks now.” I answered her while Tak continued to spin in the chair. Weiss nodded at this before I looked at her.

“Come on, you should meet him." I said as I pulled her in, making her yelp. “Hey Tak, come met a friend of mine.” I said to him as I dragged Weiss inside. This got Tak to stop his spinning, the chair making its last round about with Tak facing us.

“Hmm?” He hummed questioningly. He must've been deep in thought, I guess it was fortunate for me that he heard me enough to get him out of his thoughts. “What?” He asked. I pulled Weiss up beside me, her frowning at me as she stood.

“Tak this is Weiss, Weiss this is Tak.” I introduce them and snapped my fingers to help Tak to face towards Weiss. Tak's eyes widened a bit at this before waving his hand and saying.

“H-hello.” He said with a stutter… right, not good with meeting new people.

“Why did you snap in front of me?” Weiss asked me with a frown.

“Tak’s blind.” I answered her.

“Oh…” Was all Weiss said about this. She kinda looked embarrassed at what she said, probably thinking she might've offended him in anyway. Tak merely gave her a smile, one that should Weiss that he was fine.

“It's alright, most people don't tend to look at my eyes.” Tak said to the Ice Queen herself and it was true. When me and Mavis brought Tak to Vale so we could get him some clothes, some people asked why we were guiding him without even noticing his eyes, which is a dead give away for Tak's lack of sight. “If it isn't much of a bother… mind if I feel you?” He asked Weiss, the latter of course blushed understandably so but Tak doesn't do that, he just feels the face of the person he wants to get to know. He did the same to me and Mavis as well.

“He means your face.” I whispered to Weiss. The Ice Queen blinked at this before she spoke.

“Right! I knew that… I don't mind if you need to feel me… j-just the face I mean…” Her eyes darted around as she said this, the red blush stood out on her pale face. Weiss walked closer to Tak, enough for the latter to cup her face within his hands. He knew to be gentle about this of course, so it wasn't an unpleasant experience. Weiss was blushing throughout the ordeal and soon enough, Tak was blushing as well.

“You're… beautiful.” Tak said in awe. Weiss blinked at this, blushing more as I held back a snicker.

“R-Really? I mean… uhh thank you.” Weiss said with a small smile. It wasn't until now that Tak felt the scar on Weiss left eye. I could see Weiss flinch when this happened, expecting Tak to say something or look disgusted but he never did. After a bit, he finally lowered his hands with the blush still on his cheeks. I mean, he blushed when he did the same to me and Mavis but not this much, he was nearly red as a tomato.

“Y-yeah… beautiful.” Tak repeated, a little smile curling his lips. The two of them stood there for a few moments, making me wish I brought popcorn before Weiss spoke.

“Umm… I should, uhh, I should go…” She said before saying goodbye and almost ran out of the door. I let out a chuckle quietly but with Tak’s super hearing he heard it.

“What's so funny?” He asked me with an arched brow.

“Oh nothing, just funny to see the Ice Queen of Beacon blush.” I said with a chuckle. He arched a brow at the nickname but said nothing though he did seem a little disappointed that Weiss was gone. I looked back at the door then at Tak. “I’ll be right back.” I said before I ran out of the door.

I ran down the halls until I caught up with Wiess. “Hey!” I called out to her before I came up beside her.

“Yes? What do you want?” Weiss asked as she continue to walk.

“What was all that about? I never see you somewhat stuttering.” I asked her. I still saw the blush on her face as we walked.

“It’s… nothing…” Weiss said before adding. “Why do you want to know?”

“I’m curious.” I answered her with a smile. Weiss didn’t say anything before we got to the library.

“It’s… I’m not really the one someone calls… beautiful…” Weiss said softly before looking back. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some studying to do.” With that she walked into the library.

“But… it’s summer…” I said, knowing my words went on deaf ears. I frowned a little at this before sighing and shaking my head. I didn't know why she would want to study during summer but to each their own I guess. I walked off back to my room, on the way I heard giggling nearby. The source of said giggling was Yang and Mavis as they walked around the corner. Mavis, for once that I’ve had seen, was wearing something other than her white dress; replacing that was a white tank top shirt with a pair of jeans. The two of them were holding hands as they happily walked down the hallway before Mavis saw me.

“Ah, hello Viri.” Mavis greeted me with a smile. Yang smiled at me as well and waved.

“Hey you two, how are you two doing?” I asked the two. Yang grinned happily.

“Other than amazing?” Yang answered me. This got a giggle from Mavis before she laid her head on Yang's shoulder.

“We're great, Viri.” Mavis said to me. I smiled at her before the three of us walked down the hallway towards my room. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of the two, if I look hard enough I could see small hearts coming off of the two of them.

“So how has your day been so far?” Mavis asked me as we walked. I shrugged a bit at the question.

“Pretty tamed, been reading some books.” I answered her, earning a snort from Yang.

“Egghead.” She said with a smile. I rolled my eyes at this before continuing.

“Weiss came over and met Tak, that was… something.” I said, earning Yangs attention.

“Really now~.” She said with a mischievous tone. That ment I had to be careful with what I say or Yang will bug Weiss about it.

“How did young Weiss fair with Tak?” Mavis asked me though her voice had a knowing tone to it.

“Well… they met in my room, talked and Tak asked for a feel of her face.” I told her, earning a weird look from Yang.

“Wait what? What this about feeling Weiss’ face?” Yang asked the both of us. Mavis’s gaze went onto the blonde who's shoulder she laid her head on.

“Young Tak is blind, Yang. He feels to see, he knows roughly what me and Viri look like, he was even surprised when he felt the similarities.” Mavis said to Yang. The latter was surprised to find out that Tak was blind. Yang blinked at this.

“So… he feels up someones face to get an idea what they look like?” Yang asked. Mavis smiled and nodded before she stopped when Yang stopped. Yang pulled away with an odd look on her face and before closing her eyes and started touching Mavis’ face. “Hmm, nose, eyes, forehead, mouth…” She said with a laugh until she had her hands on both sides of Mavis’ face and opening her eyes to look at her. “Face.” She said before going in to kiss Mavis on the lips. Mavis giggled, clearly amused by what Yang had just done.

“It's a little more complex than that, Yang.” Mavis said to the blonde. Yang smiled as she wrapped her arms around Mavis’ neck.

“I don’t hear you complaining.” Yang said to her with a smirk. We continued on walking before we came by my room and stopped, seeing that the door was open when I remembered having closed it when I left. I went inside my room and saw that Tak wasn’t here.

“Ah oh, that’s not good.” I said as I stepped out of the room and looked at the two. “Uhh, Tak’s not here.” Mavis arched a brow at this.

“Perhaps he wanted to explore Beacon’s halls. He has been cooped up in your room, dear, it was to be expected.” Mavis said to me, actually surprising me that she was expecting something like this to happen.

“Yeah… I should’ve thought of that through.” I said sadly, feeling like I messed up.

“Oh don't be so down, you should be glad that he decided to go out.” Mavis said after seeing my down expression. “He’s being bold by doing this, remember we had to convince him to come with us to get him some new clothes and that was no easy feat.” She said to me. I chuckled at the thought of that. I looked down the hallway a bit.

“I hope he doesn’t get lost…” I said quietly as I stood there for a few moments before I couldn’t take it. “I’m going to go look for him.” I said before I ran down the hallway. I ran from different dorm sections to even the hallway connecting the dorms to the Gathering Hall. I soon found myself out in the courtyard, panting after having been running all this time. When I looked up to plan where I would search next, my eyes were quick to spot Tak sitting under a tree. I blinked at this before heading over to him.

“Tak?” I said his name. He faced towards my direction.

“Oh, Viri… sorry for walking out without telling you. I got curious about this place.” He said to me, gesturing to Beacon Academy as a whole. I smiled at this before walking up beside him and sitting down.

“I should’ve given you a little tour, sorry.” I said apologetically.

“It's fine.” He said to me, giving me a reassuring smile. He then looked forwards onto the horizon. “This place is huge, I don't think I scratched the surface of it yet.” He said. I smiled at him before looking out at Beacon.

“You were always scared of the Huntsman from your home…” I started to say, feeling him tense up a bit. “But what if… what if you come here and learn to be a Huntsman yourself. What a Huntsman is truly meant to be.” He was silent soon after I said this, no doubt the memories of the heinous acts done to him by Huntsmen in his world coming back to him. I looked over. “You don’t have to answer but… What did they do to you?” I asked him. He began to shake at this but before I could say anything to disregard my question, he spoke.

“I-I… I used to have… wings.” He said though with some struggle to form the words, his fear nearly getting the best of him.

“You did, but I don’t-” I stopped when I realized what he was referring to. “Oh… oh lords Tak.” I saw him shake as if he couldn’t hold it together before I pulled him in for a hug. “I’m so sorry Tak… I’m so, so sorry.” He began to sob quietly, the memory haunting him still.

“They broke them and ripped them off.” He said though I had to take some time in processing his words as they were bordering incoherent with his sobs. I pulled him close and held him, trying to calm him down but, from the sobbing alone, it wasn’t going to happen soon. It was some time later as the two of us sat there before I head a voice.

“Viri?” The Voice said. I looked up and saw Weiss walking over to us. “What are you doing?”

“Oh… hey Weiss.” I greeted her as I heard Tak sniffle a bit.

“Did something happen?” Weiss asked, a very worried tone in her voice. I looked down at the bat Faunus.

“Just… talking about stuff, some memories came up and…” I didn’t finish what I was saying, didn’t feel right to bring it up. Tak wiped his eyes and spoke up.

“It's fine… better now than later.” He said to me, no doubt knowing why I had stopped. I looked at him with a worried look before sighing. I looked up at Weiss and told Tak’s story, leaving out the fact that it was Pony Huntsman because that would be too weird.

“By Oum… that’s awful!” Weiss said in shock. “I can’t believe some Huntsman would… Tak, that’s definitely not what a Huntsman is!”

“They are where I'm from.” Tak said, leaving out that he was not from here. Tak sighed shakingly. “Everyday I would wake up terrified, thinking that they'd finally find me. I always feared what more could they do to me, all because I ran.” He said though the last part confused me a little. Tak sighed a bit before Weiss did something that I never thought she would do; she kneeled down and gave him a hug.

“It’s okay, you're safe here.” She said softly. Tak was quiet but grateful nonetheless. The hug not only got him to calm down but it brought a little smile out from him.

“Thank you, Weiss.” He said to Weiss with a small smile. Weiss held him close before realizing what she was doing and pulled away quickly.

“I uh, no problem, that’s um, that’s what friends do for other friends and… yeah.” She said before laughing a little. She stood up and took a few steps back. “I need to go… and get back to my room since… it’s almost dark! Yes… Got to get ready for bed and… bye.” With that she ran off. I giggled a little, realizing what’s happening. Tak heard me and arched a brow at me in confusion.

“What's so funny?” He asked me, sounding very curious to know.

“Oh nothing.” I said to him. “Come on, it is getting dark.” With that the two of us went back to my dorm room. On the way back, Tak had his hand on the wall to keep him from bumping into it and it made me consider getting him one of those walking sticks blind people use to get around.

A few days later…

It been close to a week since Tak and I talked, to which Tak was quite about. I tried to ask what’s wrong but he simply answered that he wished to not talk about it.

I decided to get him a walking stick to help him get around. Tak was a bit hesitant about it but after some time he was happy he got it, saying that it really does help. It even helped get around outside a lot easier as he wasn't dependent on the walls anymore. While everything was fine and dandy, my mind couldn't help but come back to the talk we had, more specifically the offer of Tak becoming a real Huntsman. He never really gave me an answer but every now and again I could see him contemplating something. The offer maybe? I couldn't be sure.

After some time thinking I decided not to bug him about it, I don’t want to force something he doesn’t want to do on him. I laid in bed reading as Tak meditated in a corner, I wonder why he does that? Does it help? I have so many questions. Soon enough however there was a knock on my door, which I did try to ignore at first as I didn't want to stop reading but the second set of knocks brought me out of it again. I sighed and stood up from bed before going towards the door and opening it.

“Hello!” Ruby said happily. I blinked at this and saw the whole team RWBY there, even Yang without Mavis.

“Hey, what’s up?” I asked them.

“Oh nothing, we were going to go out into Vale, do you and Tak want to join?” Ruby asked before Yang snickered a bit.

“It was Weiss’ idea.” Yang said before getting elbowed by said Ice Queen. I chuckled a little before looking back and see Tak was out of his meditation.

“Hey Tak, want to come alone?” I asked him before explaining to him what’s going on. He briefly thought about before standing up with a smile and nodding.

“Sure, I'd like to come with.” Tak said, grabbing his walking stick as he said this. With that said the six of us headed off into Vale. We chatted and laughed as we walked, Weiss stood by Tak and chatted with him.

“Hey Yang, I thought Mavis would be here with us, where is she?” I asked the blonde boxer.

“Oh… she said she had something to do today.” Yang answered. I nodded to her, I haven’t heard much of what Mavis or grandma (Yes I know they’re the same person, shut it), I wonder what she’s doing? Tak and Weiss were really hitting it off with whatever they were on about, Weiss was thoroughly enjoying her conversation with the bat faunus and vice versa. Yang noticed this and couldn't help but smirk.

“Wow… It seems the Ice Queen has her eyes on someone~” Yang teased Weiss, who turned to her and blushed.

“Yang!” Weiss yelled, earning a laugh from Yang. I looked back at Tak and saw that he was blushing as well. I held back a chuckle as we continued on, stopping by some stores. Some clothing, some shoes and even a weapons part store. We soon stopped when we came by a fancy dress store, the topic of the dance coming up.

“Hey, should we go look for something to wear.” Weiss said, trying to change the subject. “They say that when the school starts back up there’s going to be a dance.”

“I don’t know… it’s still a few months away.” Blake said, almost making me jump in surprised. I completely forgot she was here.

“Well it would be nice to have it ready.” Weiss said. After some talking it came to an agreement that we will go in. As we did the four of them went off to look at dresses and shoes as I stood by Tak. It’ll be bad if I left him alone.

“Why don't you go on with them?” Tak asked me as we sat on some chairs inside the store. I arched a brow at Tak when he asked me this. “Wouldn't you want to get a dress for this dance as well?” He asked me.

“Well yes, but I didn’t want to leave you alone in a place you don’t know.” I told him. “Sorry, I get over worried about stuff.” He merely smiled at me and said.

“It's fine, it's not like I'm going to walk off by myself.” He said to me though I only arched a brow at him for this, remembering the time he did walk off by himself. He didn't need to have sight to feel my staring. “Hey, that was only one time and I was curious.” He said, crossing his arms. I chuckled a bit before heading off to find a dress. As I did I came close to the changing rooms when the door open and Yang stepped out.

“So, what do you think?” Yang asked, striking a pose. I looked over and saw her in a nice, sleeveless white dress. I arch a brow at this.

“You got the idea from Mavis.” I said, nodding to the white dress. Yang smirked and immediately said.

“Damn straight! She looks amazing in white so I’m getting one for myself.” Yang said before walking back into the dressing room. Speaking of Mavis, maybe she could make me a dress. It'll certainly save me a lot of money and most of the dresses here don't look like they'll go good with me. Making up my mind to ask her about when I see her I went over to Tak and waited for the rest to finish what they are doing.

I realized my error as the two of us sat there for some time as the four looked through the dresses and shoes. Tak didn't seem bothered by the long wait, his mind no doubt on something else. After nearly an hour, yes an hour, they finally picked out their dresses and some matching shoes for the dance which again is a few months away. We left the store just to notice that the sun was going down.

“Huh, didn’t realize we were in there for a long time.” Ruby said in surprised, earning a look from me and a frown. “Better head back.”

I rolled my eyes and the six of us headed back to Beacon. Again we chatted with each other, Tak and Weiss and Ruby with me. The latter is just me listening and Ruby talked… a lot. Not that I mind, it's just surprising how many topics Ruby can go through within a minute. Though remembering that Blake was with us got me thinking of Indigo and got curious. I asked her if we can talk in private which she nodded to and the two of us walked a little bit back, now Ruby was talking to Tak.

“Hey… how’s Indigo?” I asked her in a whisper. Blake frowned a little before making sure no one was eavesdropping on us.

“He’s… fine for the most part.” Blake said though for some reason she had stopped mid sentence.

“When you mean fine, you mean he’s not overly depressed all the time and drinking himself stupid?” I asked her. Blake was quiet after this though I kept quiet thinking that she was trying to come up with right words.

“He's still drinking but not as heavily as before. I've been giving him impromptu therapy, so he could talk out his depression.” Blake said to me, revealing what she had been sneaking off to lately. I nodded at her with a little smile.

“At least it’s something.” I said to her. She didn't say anything nor did she smile back, which got me to think that something was going on or something happened. “Hey, did something happen?” I asked, better now than later to ask.

“Well… I found out that Indigo and one his female teammates were romantically involved. Before you ask, it's the other one, Nava… the blonde lioness faunus.” Blake said and clarified which teammate it was.

“Ahh.” I said to Blake. I noticed she was a little saddened when she said this which made me wonder… could she?

“Anyway, he revealed that she was a part of the White Fang sent to infiltrate Beacon. This was before the White Fang turned violent and at the time there was an extremist splinter cell group in White Fang which eventually converted the entirety of the White Fang as the group they are today.” Blake said before sighing and adding. “When the conversion happened, Nava was sent a kill order from the new leader. Her targets… her targets were her own teammates.” She said. My eyes widen at this.

“Oh lords…” I said to myself. Blake chuckled dryly at this, no doubt having had the same reaction as mine when Indigo told her.

“He still has the ring as proof.” Blake said to me. A ring? It took me a little bit to connect the dots before feeling bad for Indigo. I looked at Blake for a confirmation and she nodded. “Yeah, that kind of ring. Before the incident, they've been together for a really long time, since they were second years at Beacon.” Blake explained as we walked. Oh jeez... I could only imagine what was going through his mind way back when it happened. Blake felt about the same as I did but for some reason, it hurt her more or maybe it's just in my head.

The rest of the walk was either in silence or chatting with the others before we all split ways and head back to our dorm rooms. I laid down in my bed, letting what I learned about Indigo turn in my head. I wanted to help him in some way but I didn’t know how.

I sighed and told Tak I was turning in for the day, too tired to do anything else. With that I closed my eyes, letting sleep take over. As this happened a smile formed on my face as I remembered what tomorrow is.

Ch 8

I want to point out that I hold myself to make sure I’m mature and kind when I’m in school and out with others. I smile at all I have done as an adult woman.

But all that can jump out of the window as today is my birthday and I can be as childish as I want! I woke up bright and early in the morning of my birthday, got some sugary cereal and orange juice and turned on the TV for cartoons. Yes, I can do that every saturday morning but hey, my birthday. Tak woke up to this and, even though he can’t see, he gave me an odd look.

“Morning Tak, it’s my birthday today!” I said happily. Tak rubbed his eyes, clearly still tired but he gave me a thumbs up as soon as he stopped. He reached over for his walking cane and quickly found it where he left it last night. I had to get up and help make his breakfast, a simple bowl of cereal.

“So… happy birthday.” Tak said to me, still a little groggy.

“Thank you.” I said happily as I poured him some cereal and handed it to him with a spoon in the bowl before we went to my couch and sat down. We both ate quietly, I was watching T.V. while Tak was listening to it. While we were both halfway through our breakfast, I noticed Tak with a troubled expression. “Tak? What’s wrong?” I asked him.

“It's nothing, you'd probably think it's stupid.” He said to me dismissively before taking another spoonful of cereal into his mouth. I arched a brow at this before I spoke.

“Try me.” I said to him. He glanced at me before finally saying.

“I don't… I don't exactly know what a birthday is. I only know that it marks the day you were born but that's about all I know.” He said to me, revealing what was troubling him. I blinked at it.

“Oh… huh.” I said, scratching my head a bit. It kinda made sense since he had a hard life so he wouldn’t have had a birthday.

“Like I said, stupid.” He told me with a chuckle just before he finished his cereal and stood up. I arched a brow at him as he headed into the kitchen and placed his bowl inside the sink. I returned to my own breakfast and was soon finished with it as well. After washing the bowls and cups, we both brushed our teeth and changed into some appropriate clothes. I basically skipped out of the bathroom humming to myself happily which got an odd look from Tak, who was blind by the way, when a knock came from the door. I went to open it and got a blast of confetti. I blinked a few times and saw Yang, Ruby, and Mavis there.

“Happy Birthday!” Both Yang and Ruby said happily. I smiled at the two and gave them a hug.

“Thanks you two.” I said to them before letting the three of them in. Upon entering, Mavis gave me a hug before she said.

“Happy birthday, Viri.” She said to me with a bright smile. She pulled away from the hug and revealed a small box in her hand. “Here, this is from my sister. She wishes you a happy birthday.” Mavis said to me, her voice was low enough so Ruby didn't hear. I took it and open to see a computer chip. I smiled as I took it out.

“Thank you.” I said before pulling my scroll out and putting the chip in. A red light came on which meant it was updating. I put it back in my pocket and looked at Mavis. She had another small gift wrapped box as well a large bag. She gave them both to me and I was quick to open the gift, seeing the necklace tucked within but the centrepiece is what left me breathless, it was a small clear crystal ball but within it was a miniature sun. “Woah…” I said in awe at this. I looked into the large bag and saw a red and orange dress. I stared at this before looking at Mavis who was smiling at me.

“Do you like it?” She asked me with her smile never wavering. Soon after she said this, Yang came up from behind her before wrapping her arms around Mavis and resting her chin on Mavis’s shoulder.

“I love them.” I said before putting the necklace around my neck. When I got it on I looked down at it and back at the two. “Does it look good?”

“It looks lovely, Viri. Don't you think, Yang?” Mavis asked her blonde girlfriend with a smile.

“Yeah.” Yang said with a smile before giving Mavis a nuzzle. Mavis smiled at this before Ruby came over and behind me to take a look.

“Ooo, that’s cool.” She said, pointing at the necklace. “It looks so real that it’s hard to tell it’s a hologram.” I was about to point that it wasn't but shut my mouth as soon as I remembered that Ruby was the only one in this room that didn't know about Mavis being an immortal goddess.

“Yeah, it’s really realistic.” I said with a smile that looked a little fake. Ruby smiled before realizing something.

“Ah! I'll be right back!” She said before she bolted out of the room, leaving behind her trademark rose petals. I blinked at this confusedly before realizing I needed to sweep the petals up later.

“Viri, you were about to correct her weren't you.” Mavis said to me with an arched brow. I looked at Mavis for a moment.

“Uhh, a little.” I said with a nervous chuckle. She gave me deadpanned look before she shook her head and said.

“You need to remember that what I am must be kept secret.” Mavis said to me, once again telling the number one rule, one that Yang has yet to come close to breaking while this was second time.

“Sorry…” I said, hanging my head in shame. She put a hand on my cheek before raising my head up.

“I will let you off the hook this time because it's your birthday, next time we'll go back to the valley and train.” She said to me and I nearly paled at the punishment if I were to screw up again. While I was pale-faced, Yang was a little confused by what Mavis said, not exactly understanding how training can be a form of punishment… if only she knew.

“Right, got it…” I said right before Ruby came back, panting and holding up a large box.

“Got it!” She said before walking over to us and looking around. “What’s with the tensed mood?” she asked us.

“It's nothing, Ruby. There's no need to worry.” Mavis said to the happy go lucky scythe wielder. Ruby blinked at this before shrugging and walked up to me and handed me the large box.

“Here you go! It took me forever to make.” Ruby said with a smile. I looked at the box before putting it down and opened it. Inside was a weapon, a weapon kinda like Ruby’s but smaller and shorter. The red and black colours of the weapon shined with polish as I picked it up. Almost instantly it shot forward into a sword like weapon.

“Woah… Ruby, you made this?” I asked before seeing Ruby smiled at me.

“That’s my little sis, the weaponsmith.” Yang said, ruffling her little sister's hair. Mavis held back a laugh when Ruby tried but failed to stop her sister. It was then that Tak walked, having just finished tidying his bed. He faced towards our direction and merely shook his head without wanting to question it. For the next half hour or so we planned on what to do and where to go today, with it being early in the morning we had plenty of time to decide. We all sat by the couch or rather me, Ruby and Tak did while Mavis sat on Yang's lap with the latter sitting comfortably on the floor. The conversation continued on with no signs of it ending but that was quickly changed when another knock on my door was heard. I got up and answered it, seeing that it was Weiss and Blake.

“Happy birthday.” Blake said with a smile as she and Weiss came in.

“Thanks you two.” I said as I closed the door. Weiss was quick to spot Tak just as he stood up from the couch, her smile brightened and was quick to catch up with him and this gained curious glances from me, Blake and even Yang.

“So have you got any plans to spend the day?” Blake soon asked me, bringing me out of my thoughts while Yang was busy teasing Weiss again.

“Hmmm, not really. Other than hanging out and enjoy the day before heading out see my mama.” I explained to her. Blake nodded at this before walking into the living room, greeting Mavis as she did. It was then Mavis looked up at me and said.

“Why not have a picnic to celebrate your birthday?” Mavis suggested but before I could think on it she added. “I know of a beautiful spot we can have it in.” She said to me.

“Ohh, that sounds fun!” Ruby said with a smile. I chuckled at this before nodding.

“Alright.” I said to Mavis. This got a smile from her before she nodded and getting up much to Yang's sadness, she went into the kitchen and soon asked what everyone would like for the picnic. Of course, they asked for different food, some similar while others entirely different but Mavis made it so with her godlike culinary skills. She even made a classic looking basket big enough to fit the food and drinks along with the blanket that we'll be sitting on. When she was just about done, my mind soon went towards mama and Mavis noticed this before patting my shoulder and saying.

“Your mother will be notified and invited, so don't worry.” She said to me with a quiet tone. I smiled up at her, silently thanking her for this. No matter what form she takes, she'll always be the caring grandmother I grew up with. Everyone was soon ready to go and I made sure to grab my new weapon, wanting to show it to mama when she shows up. When I was ready all of us followed Mavis out to the spot.

We all soon arrived at the spot; a large tree in the middle of the park with a small pond nearby with ducks in it. Mavis began to set up our spot with the help of Ruby and me but at the corner of my eyes, I spotted Weiss looking off into the pond in deep thought. I haven't really seen her like that before, was something up that I didn't know about?

After I finished up helping Mavis and Ruby I walked over to Weiss. “Hey, something wrong?” I asked her.

Weiss looked at me for a moment before back at the pond. She didn't say anything for a long minute before she did. “You know that feeling when you look at someone and your heart beats faster?” She asked me. I blinked at her before saying.

“Kinda, why?” I asked her which she turned her head and stared.

“I… may have feelings for someone…” She muttered. I arched a brow at her before thinking about it for a bit. With a smirk, I looked back and said.

“Is it… Tak?” I guessed, my brow arched and my smirk visible. Weiss blushed at this. It wasn't hard to deduce that my guess was correct.

“Is it that obvious?” Weiss asked.

“I don’t know, a complete guess.” I told her, earning another odd look from Weiss. “What’s the big deal? If you have feelings for Tak then that's great.”

“No, not great.” Weiss said before sighing. “I… I was raised by a father that doesn’t like Faunus at all, sure some work at my family plant but…” she didn’t continue for a few moments, looking like it was hard for her to say. “Point is I shouldn’t be having these feelings but… I do.” She was really conflicted with the ideals she was raised with and the feelings she has towards Tak. I put my hand on her shoulder which got her attention.

“How about you think about it, not with what you’ve been raised with, just what you think.” I said with a smile. It wasn’t really the greatest speeches I done but it’s something. She gave me a small smile before she headed back to the others with me behind her. It was really saddening have seen her like that, all because she's conflicted with her own emotions and the way she was raised. Soon however the picnic went into full swing without a hitch, friendly banter and joyful laughter was all anyone could hear from us. While Tak would've been happy to stay with the group, he had to move away as the many noises we made had given him a bit of a headache. Weiss seemed to notice this before going over to see what’s wrong.

It was a few minutes later before I saw mama walking over to us with a smile. She came over to me and kissed my head.

“Happy birthday sweetie.” She whispered to me, making me smile.

“Thanks mama.” I said before seeing everyone staring at me, and mama. “Umm, something wrong.”

“Uhh… it’s just…” Blake started to say but was cut off by Ruby.

“You look like an older Viri!” Ruby yelled. This got a chuckle from Mavis before Ruby added. “And Mavis if you had blonde hair.” Mavis arched a brow at the scythe-wielder but merely chuckled when mama saw her, it must've been the first time she has seen her in normal clothes judging by her expression.

“Yes… we uh… very close looks.” Mama said as she arches a brow at Mavis. “Mind if I speak with the two of you alone for a minute?” Mama asked me and Mavis. With a shrug from Mavis, she stood up and helped me up soon after before we went some ways away from the others.

“Is something the matter, dear?” Mavis asked mama with a curious tone.

“I just realized how much I’ve been left out.” Mama said before adding. “I mean, I don’t really know what’s going on. For one… did you make yourself look like an older Viri or did you really look like that when you were younger?” Mavis chuckled at this, no doubt understanding the reason for the question.

“This may come to you as a shocker but this is how I look if I were younger. Have you not seen my old wedding pictures?” Mavis said to mama, jokingly asking her if she had seen Grandma’s old wedding photos. Mavis then snapped her fingers and made a few of them appear in her hand before Mama took them and looked at them. Mama looked at them for a few moments.

“Ah… well that explains that.” Mama said with a little chuckle.

“Should I mention that some people think you’re my older sister due to how much we look alike.” I said to Mavis, though I believe she already knew that since the rumour went around school. Mama looked at the two of us confusedly before Mavis said.

“Yes because of how identical we look, people have begun thinking of me as Viri's sister. I keep up the charade, publicly acting as an older sibling to Viri here.” Mavis said this before putting an arm around my shoulders, similar to what Yang does with Ruby. I smiled at this.

“I always did want an older sister.” I said with a giggle. This leads to a laugh for the three of us before heading back to the others. I noticed mama pocketed the photos of grandma’s wedding. Somehow she pulled out a cake out of nowhere and we all had some cake while Ruby was going over how my weapon works. It seems that it has four modes; a short sword form, a claymore form, a rifle form, and a shotgun form. I blinked at how much when into this as mama chuckled at this.

“I don’t know if you can read minds Ruby but Viri’s father’s weapon of choice was a Claymore.” Mama informed her, earning a surprised look from both of us.

“Really?” Ruby asked before smiling. “I guess I’m lucky!” Mavis chuckled and so did Yang, for a different reason no doubt. Blake was eating her own slice of cake, staring out into the pond in thought while absentmindedly eating. Weiss was somewhat the same only she would occasionally glance at the meditating bat faunus, still internally debating.

Before long mama had another surprised as she pulled out a brown package and handed it to me. From looking at it I thought back to the time we lived out on the streets, her giving me gifts in the same brown wrapping, only this time it was clean. I thanked her and opened it, revealing that it was a dark red book with the title, ‘The Summer's Stranger’.

“It took me some time, less so since your aunt helped me getting an editor but this is the first book of my series.” Mama said, making my eyes widen at this. I got a book Mama wrote! I went and gave her a hug.

“Thanks mama.” I said to her. Mama immediately hugged me back.

“Anything for my little girl.” Mama whispered back. Everyone awed at the sight, which only made me blush from suddenly being the center of attention. Of course, this got a laugh out of mama as she soon got her own slice of cake and sat down by Mavis. At the same time, Weiss stood up and walked over towards Tak's direction.

I watched this happen as she sat down beside him as he was meditating. She didn’t say anything but crossed her legs like Tak, almost falling over at this.

I sat beside Ruby as I flipped pages of the new book, earning an interested look from Blake.

“Umm, Miss Warren-”

“Please, Sarah is fine.” Mama said to Blake.

“Uhh, Sarah, do you have any more books like that?” Blake asked. Mama smiled at this, seemed to get giddy.

“I have lots! The people who made the copies made a lot of them.” Mama said happily. This seemed to have gotten Blake excited at this as well before she was handed a book of her own. Blake took it before moving towards the tree with the book in hand.

Overall it was a fun time with everyone. We all stayed around, either talking to one another or eating more cake. Mavis was again sitting in Yang’s lap which the later had her arms around her. Soon though it was getting dark, the sun was beginning to set over the horizon and we began to pack everything back up.

Soon Mama went off back home and team RWBY, Mavis, Tak, and I were walking down the street. Before we turned the corner and saw Indigo hobbling towards us. I tilted my head at this before noticing that he had his hand pressed on his side… and it was bleeding. I stopped at this as well as the others when Indigo saw us. I was about to ask if he was okay but before I could even open my mouth he fell onto the floor, unconscious and heavily bleeding which was odd since his aura should've patched the wound up by now, yet it didn't and showed no signs in doing so.

Blake was the first to move first as she ran over to him. Soon we all quickly helped Indigo up with me and Yang holding him up.

“He’s bleeding a lot, his aura… it’s not working!” Weiss yelled in a panic I looked at the others as Tak hobble over and started to ‘See’ Indigo as he was feeling him a bit, gently so he didn’t bring the pain. He found the source of the bleeding and to our shock, it was a bullet wound.

“We need to get him to a hospital.” Mavis said with urgency in her tone. Yang nodded and pulled her scroll out to call an ambulance while Mavis took Tak's side to put pressure on the wound to keep the blood in. Blake was horrified during all this and understandably so.

Soon the ambulance came and we got Indigo into it before we all rode it to the hospital. Blake was holding Indigo’s hand as we rode the ambulance. Tak was mostly focused on Indigo until he finally felt like Indigo was going to be fine… then realized what's he in.

We soon got to the hospital and some nurses pulled Indigo to surgery and we were left waiting. Blake looked like she was going to break down from the waiting. I was worried for Indigo as I sat down near Weiss and Tak, the latter was a bit nervous about being in a new place.

“Tak, you okay?” Weiss asked him.

“I'm not good in new environments.” Tak said, surprisingly without stuttering in his words. Weiss didn't say anything at first for a few moments before saying.

“Anything… I can do to help you?” She asked, blushing a little. Tak was quiet for a minute or so before finally answering.

“Just… just being here with me is helpful enough.” He said with small blush forming on his cheeks as he smiled at Weiss. Weiss smiled at this.

“Alright… I'll be right here.” She said to this. To her surprise, Tak moved his hand on top of hers. She blushed at this but smiled as the two sat there.

Before long a doctor came out and said that Indigo will be fine. They removed the bullet and somehow his wounds started to heal. He said that he was tired but we can see him, as he said that Blake rushed in to see him. As Mavis and Yang followed her, Ruby, Weiss, and Tak headed off as they were getting tired. I said goodbye to them and went to see Indigo.

Sure enough, he was awake and bandaged and grumpy. Blake was by him, looking at him worried. The doctors removed his upper clothing for the surgery and wrapped his abdomen in some bandages. He was laying down so he didn't see us come in.

“Hey.” I greeted him as the four of us walked in. This got his attention but he still didn't sit up, merely cast his gaze down towards us.

“Hey.” He said with a nonchalant wave of his hand.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. He only grunted as first before he grabbed the remote for his bed, making the front of his bed rise up enough for him to be sat up. Once he did, he turned his gaze back towards me and said.

“Just peachy.” He said to me. Afterwards, he laid his head back on the pillow with a sigh. “This is not how planned for my day to go out.” He said. Blake didn't say anything at this, simply looked worried at him.

“What happened?” Yang asked Indigo.

“Unfinished business with the White Fang. By all accounts I should've been taken care of years ago by…” He stopped and sighed before shaking his head. It didn't take a genius to know who was referring to. “Taurus wants me dead, so he sent some of his lackies after me. It's not the first time it happened but this certainly the first in which they almost succeeded.” Indigo explained and surprised Blake that this wasn't the first time he was attacked by the White Fang. “They're using special bullets now, it negated my aura completely.” He soon added.

This made Blake gasp at this and Yang frown. I knew little of the White Fang while being in Beacon. They were some radical group that are trying to bring Faunus equal rights by force. Talking to Yang and Ruby about it some more I learned that Blake was an Ex member of the group. Mavis looked beside the bed and saw the bullet in question, of course, it was practically a pellet now with the way it was bent. With a wave of her finger, it floated over towards her palm. Luckily neither Blake nor Indigo saw this happen, even when Mavis willed the bullet to reform into its old self. Upon doing so, I noticed how the tip looked to have been laced with something.

Blake was damn well near the brink of tears, having nearly seen Indigo die right in front of her and she couldn't do anything about it. When she saw him fall, she was horrified and stuck in a state of shock, she really couldn't move. It wasn't long until the damn broke and she clung onto Indigo for dear life, surprising everyone in the room including Indigo.

She sobbed as she held Indigo close, the latter looked around in surprise as this was happening. It wasn't until Mavis said we should let the two be for now and we did, saying our goodbyes and promising to visit tomorrow, Mavis, Yang and I headed back to Beacon. The cheery mood we all had during the picnic was now gone, solemn looks donned all our expression. After a quick teleport back home in a hidden away alley, Mavis turned to look at me and Yang.

“I will make sure of it that he fully recovers. Viri, perhaps you should talk to my sister about this.” Upon saying this, she handed me the bullet. “There is a chance that she may know what this is.” Mavis told me. I gave her a nod as I took the bullet. She then looked over to Yang. “I will be back soon, love.” She said before giving the blonde a loving kiss. Upon parting, Yang looked as if she didn't want her to go but didn't stop her from doing so. Mavis’s body flashed and when the light dimmed, she took the form of someone else entirely with the attire of a doctor. With a nod she vanished with another flash of light, leaving both me and Yang alone in the hallway.

Author's Note

It's Viri's Birthday!... and Indigo is in the Hospital... oh boy.

Ch 9

It has only been a day since my birthday and a finding Indigo shot by the White Fang just a few hours after that. Blake spent all of yesterday and today at the hospital, no matter who called her on her scroll she wouldn't pick up. The rest of team RWBY were worried sick for their friend and professor. Just before going to bed, I had tried to contact Auntie but was only informed of busy schedule no matter what I said.

Even now, after having gotten up and ate breakfast, I tried again only for the same person to pick up and mention that Auntie is busy at the moment. I could only groan at this, it was way too early for this shit and the receptionist is driving my patience up the wall. I hung up before they could finish droning off the same words from yesterday. Tak was nearby, already mediating his stress away from yesterday. I looked back down at my scroll in one hand while I ate another spoonful of cereal and beginning to dial Auntie’s personal number.

It rang a few times before someone picked it up. “Hello? Who’s this?”

“Hey Auntie, it’s Viri.” I said to her.

“Oh Viri! It’s good to hear from you again. I hope that chip I sent you gets there on your birthday… Which was yesterday… you did get it right?” She asked me. I rolled my eyes at this.

“Yes I got it thank you. Where are you by the way I’ve been trying to get a hold of you.” I asked her with a frown before taking another spoonful.

“Oh, I’m on vacation.” She answered me before I heard my scroll gotten a message. I looked at it and saw that Auntie was on a beach in a dark red and black bikini and a sun hat. “Needed some time at the beach, so relaxing.”

“I’ve been trying to get in touch with you and you’ve been on vacation!” I said, upset at she’s taking it easy.

“Now now, no need to get angry. What do you need?” She asked me, a little edge in her voice for yelling. I sighed and explained what happened to Indigo and about the bullet. There was some silence from the other end of the call before I heard a soft ‘Poof!’ before she spoke. ‘Okay, I’ll take a look at it. You just-”

“How am I supposed to know you’re actually going to look into this and not go to the spa or something?” I asked her. Again there was silence before I gotten another photo, this one was Auntie in some sort a lab and had a white coat on, though she was still wearing her bikini under it.

“Does that answer that? If so good! Now send me the bullet.” She asked me before explained that my scroll can send stuff to her as long as it’s not bigger than the scroll itself. I nodded and sent her the bullet and was told that she’ll call back when she has the data, which should be in a half an hour or an hour tops. With that said she said goodbye and I was left with half of my cereal gone from eating it. I grumbled a bit as I placed my scroll down, that receptionist gave me such a headache for nothing! Nothing!

“Please don't set fire to the table, we eat there.” Tak said to me, no doubt having heard my frustration. I sighed a bit.

“Sorry, just… people.” I said with a little grumble. Tak shrugged a bit and when back to whatever he was doing. It wasn't long before I got up and washed the bowl before brushing my teeth and changing. I had promised to visit Indigo today and I don't plan on breaking that promise. Tak had already changed, having gotten up before I did and when he heard me walk out in shoes, he stood up with his cane and was ready to go as well.

We made our way to the hospital and headed to Indigo’s room where Indigo was reading the book Blake got from mama as she slept in the chair nearby his bed. Did she spend the night here? “Hey Indigo.” I greeted him as we entered.

“Hey.” He said, moving his gaze up to us. He looked at Tak in confusion but said nothing, perhaps he didn't bother wanting to know. We came in and closed the door as Tak sat down in one of the chairs he found as I looked at Indigo.

“How are you feeling?” I asked him as I walked up him and taking a chair before setting up near him. He closed the book quietly and setting it down by the table next to him.

“Honestly, pretty sore. A little mellowed out now despite what happened yesterday.” He said in a calm tone, which came to a surprise for me.

“For someone who gotten shot that’s surprising.” I said to him, earning me a shrug from him. I smiled and looked over at Blake who was still sleeping. “Did she really stay here all night?” I asked. He looked over to Blake and nodded.

“Yeah. I tried telling her to go back to Beacon but she wouldn't have it.” He said to me. I looked back at him, seeing that he was still looking at Blake. “I don't get why she cares so much.” He said with a shake of his head.

“I don’t know either, the whole time when we took you to the hospital she looked like she was going to break down into tears.” I told him. Indigo didn’t say anything for a few moments before he tired to speak but the door opened and a figure walking into the room. I couldn’t tell who this person was as she wore a hoodie that seemed to cover their face. The person turned to Indigo and spoke.

“Well… you look like shit.” the person said, finding out it was female. As the lady finished her line Indigo went from calm to down right pissed. It was a little frightening how quickly his demeanor changed.

“What are you doing here?” He asked through gritted teeth, he actually struggled to say this. He looked like he was going to jump off the bed, screaming bloody murder.

“Well hello to you to Indigo, long time no see and what not.” The woman said before checking out of the window and door before removing the hoodie. Her hair was short, dark red colour and her eyes were a deep green colour. Her features were sharp like an animal as she stared at Indigo. As I looked at her I notice that she also had a tail, a lions tail. She also looked familiar. She looked over at Blake and arch a brow. “Say, isn’t that… Oh it is, little Blake grew up.” Indigo's eyes narrowed.

“I'll ask again, what are you doing here?” He repeated his earlier question before saying. “Come to finish the job finally?” He asked mockingly before opening his arms up wide. “Well go ahead.” He said. I looked at the two of them confused as the woman shook her head.

“No, I’m not here for that.” The woman said as she crossed her arms. “I’m not like that anymore… Not that you believe me.” She said with a frown. I stared at the woman for a few moments before something clicked.

“Wait… you’re Nava. You were part of Indigo’s team back then!” I said in surprised.

“Please… don’t call me that.” Nava said to me with a frown. “My name isn't Nava… not anymore.” She said with a solemn tone. Indigo stayed silent, narrowing his eyes and lowering his arms as he did. The room settled into silence before she spoke again.

“Look, I know a lot has happened and there’s no fucking way you can forgive me, I doubt you will but after I heard you got hurt by the White Fang… I got worried.” She said, almost expecting Indigo to throw something at her or yell.

“Worried for what?” He asked, crossing his arms. Nava looked away from Indigo for a moment before looking back.

“You getting yourself killed.” She stated which made Indigo frown more. She sighed and spoke. “Look, what I did was wrong, I know that ever since… Dew… Indigo I’ve changed, I’m not like I was before, I left the White Fang and started over. I’ve… moved on.”

“Yeah… I noticed.” He said, his anger now gone. The Faunus woman sighed.

“Can I ask what happened to you?” She asked Indigo, leaving me and Tak in the background, wondering what’s going on. This caused Indigo to chuckle as he said.

“That's the stupidest question I've heard yet.” He said before sighing. “After everything went down, the depression was getting to me. I kept it at bay the only way I knew how.” He said to the lion faunus.

“Is that why I smell booze on you?” She asked him. “Out of everyone, you’re the last one to take up drinking.”

“It was either that or a bullet to the head.” Indigo said to the lion faunus with a nonchalant tone. This caught everyone by surprise, even Nava. Nava looked away in shame at this before saying.

“And what about yesterday? All I heard the Fang hit you hard and you got sent here.” Nava said as she glanced over at Indigo. Indigo removed his arms from blocking the bandages, allowing us to see that it was dirtied with blood.

“I was jumped by some goons, they used some special aura negating bullets.” Indigo said before laying back down. This got Nava’s attention.

“So… the rumors were true…” She muttered to herself before looking at Indigo. “The White Fang are starting to get more bold with this now.”

“Ummm, rumors?” I asked, now coming into the conversation. The two of them looked over at me for a moment before Nava continued.

“About some kind of ore that has the power to negate one’s aura, no one can look into it other than Sienna Khan and those she picked to know about it…” Nava said before shaking her head. “Here I thought it was just something to boost morale.”

“Well it isn't and it's very real, if they can mass produce that stuff. We're fucked.” Indigo said plain and simple.

“Umm, if you want to know… I sent a bit of whatever it was to my aunt.” I informed them.

“I’m sorry but what?” Nava said, looking a bit more irritated by this. “I don’t see why you go and send a bit of stuff that can stop aura with ease, to your aunt. Hell, I don’t even know you.”

“Her aunt owns the dust company rivaling the Schnees.” Indigo said just before I could introduce myself. There was a slight pause when he said that, making the lion Faunus blink a few times.

“Oh.” Was all she said. She didn’t say anything before looking back to Indigo. “Anyway, I just… wanted to check up on you. That’s all.” She said as she pulled her hood up. Nothing was said as she walked out, Indigo only sighed and hung his head. The whole ordeal must've really brought out some bad memories.

“You going to be okay?” I asked him.

“Yeah… I'll be fine.” He said in a low tone, which only only made me feel bad for him.

“You want to talk about it?” I asked. This got an odd look from Indigo as I shrugged. “What? My mama asked me that question if I feel bad.” He shook his head and simply said.

“I'd rather not… best to forget.” Was all he said to me, his shoulders sagging as he spoke. I frowned at this but nodded, I didn’t want to push my luck with him. As he sighed Blake shifted a bit before waking up. Wow, talk about timing.

“Mmm, wha…” She said as she rubbed her eye a bit. “Did I miss something?”

“Nah, me and Viri were just talking.” Indigo said to Blake, the way he said this make sound like if it were true. I arched a brow at him but said nothing. She nodded before yawning a bit. She then asked Indigo if he’s alright and everything, still worried about him and his injuries.

“Blake, I'm fine. You don't need to make such a big fuss over it.” Indigo said to Blake after the many health related questions given to him. Blake looked at him for the longest time without uttering a word, that is until she spoke.

“Sorry… I was, worried that’s all.” Blake finally said to Indigo. What Indigo did next actually surprised me, having known him as the always grouchy professor of Beacon, I had never expected to see a smile from.

It was about two hours before the doctors allowed Indigo to be discharged since he’s all healed up. We stepped out of the hospital after waking Tak up from his nap. Indigo was fully dressed in his clothes though they were still dirty from the blood but it wasn't too noticeable unless you're looking for it. It didn't take us long to get back to Beacon, thanks to a quick Bullhead ride courtesy of the Headmaster and parted ways from Blake and Indigo. Blake wanted to make sure that Indigo went back to his room safe and sound but while I expected Indigo to be against her coming with, he simply said nothing and let it happen.

Ch 10

Time flies when you’re having fun, or in my case, finding out one of your professor's got shot, had a birthday, and training, lots and lots of training.

With my new weapon, which happened to have been named Molten Fox by Ruby I thought it was oddly fitting with this situation, Grandma took me to the Valley for training with it… after a week or two my limbs weren’t able to move. During my many training sessions, Grandma had invited Yang to come with us to the Valley. The first time she was brought into the open fields she was speechless, much like I was when I first saw the place. She even got some training from Grandma as well… and she knew how hard it was.

After a month of that we returned to Beacon, Yang now sporting a scar on her cheek after dealing with one of the wild life from the Valley, she got a scar, the other had a few broken bones and a really bad headache. A downside to the new scar was the explanation she had to come up with for her teammates. Grandma was fond of the scar, saying that it made her look as if she were a warrior. This inflated her pride. Her cover up was pretty much what we did, Grandma took us out into the wood for some training and a Grimm came and attack, got a lucky shot in on Yang. So far she was right other than where we were and who attacked us.

The biggest development was between Tak and Weiss, before I left the two of them were hanging out and were good friends, and when I came back the two were a couple. Both Yang and I had so many questions. We weren't even been told about them being together, we just stumbled upon them already in the middle of a passion filled kiss. It was quite a shock really.

After the whole debacle of being shot and the talk with Nava, Indigo had sworn off his drinking habits. His reason was… well it's actually quite funny. After having gone a full day without drinking and managing to sober up in the hospital, Indigo was bed ridden with a massive hangover. He wanted to avoid the same thing happening another time so he just stopped drinking, though now he drinks diet soda, going so far as to refilling his flask with diet soda.

Along with the change of his drinking habits, he started acting… well normal is the only word I can come up with. For one, he didn't yell at the first person that annoyed him and he was a lot harder to piss off than before. Another notable change was his attire, while it was roughly the same there were some key differences such as the colors. Gone were the gritty black colors of his clothing, now often seen in a deep ocean blue color. He looked well kept and professional looking. He even took time time to shorten his hair as it was beginning to get a little too shaggy.

A lot of students and other professors has seen this and were both amazed and shock at Indigo’s look. Blake has also spent most of her time with Indigo, saying that she was still worried that he might fall back into his drinking days. I have some doubts on that and maybe there’s another reason. I didn’t say anything but I saw that Blake was happy.

Today was an exciting day, it was the beginning of the second semester and not only that, the date in which the dance is held will be revealed during lunchtime. I sat down at the table eating when I saw Ruby and co come over and sat down.

“Hey.” I greeted them as they sat down. They said hi and started eating and talking to one another. It wasn't long before Mavis showed up, brightening up Yang's already happy mood.

“Sorry I'm late, something came up.” Mavis said as she sat down next to Yang. This of course was an excuse of having graded today's tests. Yang smiled as she pulled Mavis closer to her.

“It’s fine.” Yang said before leaning over and catching a grape in her mouth. I looked over and saw Team JPNR sitting at a different table and Nora was tossing food to Yang with a smile. This got an arched brow from Mavis, a little confused over this.

I shook my head and continued eating before Ruby stood up and pulled a large binder with the words ‘Best Day Ever Activities!’ on it. “Sister, friends… Weiss.”

“Hey!” Weiss said with frown as Ruby continued.

“Four score and seven minutes ago I had a dream…”

“This is going to be good.” Yang said as she caught a pea from Nora who was already reloading. Mavis pulled away away from Yang, not wanting to get pelted with food at any point.

“A Dream that all of us will have the best day ever!” Ruby proclaimed.

“Is that my binder?” Weiss asked, pointing at said binder.

“I’m not a crook.” Ruby said quickly. Blake arched a brow at this.

“What are you talking about?” Blake asked.

“I’m talking about kicking off this semester with a bang!” Ruby answered, which made Yang smirk.

“I always kicked off my semesters off with a ‘Yang’, Eh eh?” She said, earning groans from everyone else. This lead Nora to throw an apple at Yang, saying ‘Boo’ at her. Yang frowned at this as Ruby continued.

“Look guys, With the new transfer students coming and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester will be great! But classes start back up tomorrow, which is why I took the liberty to plan out some fun scenarios for us to enjoy ourselves!” Ruby said happily.

“I don’t know if I should feel proud or scared of what you had plan.” Weiss said as Yang picked up some food and tossed it at Nora, missing a bit.

“I don’t know… I think I’ll sit this one out.” Blake said, earning a sad look from Ruby.

“Well, I for one think that for this last day, we should do it as a team.” Weiss said, earning an odd look from the others as she stood up. “I for one think-” She was cut off when a pie flew over and hit her in the face. We all turned to see Nora pointing at Ren who was facepalming. Luckily Tak was sitting beside her with a towel at the ready, wiping the pie off her face as if he was expecting this to happen. Mavis only sighed at this before Weiss retaliated only for her to miss and hit Pyrrha instead. Yang stood up with a pie on her own and yelled.

“FOOD FIGHT!” This lead to turn the cafeteria into a warzone. I pulled Tak under the table right as some food flew over at us. Mavis decided to simply leave, standing up and stopping any items of food midair and sending it back at the person who threw it. I crawled my way out from under the tables with Tak behind me.

“This is a waste of food.” I grumbled to myself as the doors opened and everyone ran outside, leaving me, Tak, Team RWBY and Team JPNR. The whole place was turned upside down, tables and vending machines were stacked up on one another and Nora was proclaiming that she’s the Queen of the casile. Then there was the battle between the two teams … a food battle.

“Uhh… Nope.” I said as Tak and I walked past two guys watching this and out of the building. Once outside, Tak and I breathed out sighs of relief. We sat down on the nearby benches, having ended up in the courtyard.

“That was… odd.” He said mostly to himself, having never heard of battles fought with food. We sat there for some time before hearing a loud crash and something flew out of the building… straight up.

“This place takes Food fights way to seriously.” I said to myself. It was then that I saw Indigo walking by, in his hands was his own tray of food. He must've been inside before the fight started, he looked a little annoyed but it wasn't worryingly so.

“They're using soda cans as grenades.” He said to us as he walked by. This got Tak and I to blink in surprise. I shook my head at this before some time later I saw Miss Goodwitch come stomping over to us.

“Students, Professor Indigo.” She said as she marched towards the warzone. Once Indigo was done with his lunch, we finally heard the fight die down and decided to check the carnage.

In side I saw tables were getting put back together and placed where they were. What ever mess there was was fixed by Miss Goodwitch. She looked over at the others as they were covered in different foods.

“Please… don’t play with your food.” She said sternly as Yang came falling down from the sky. She got up and brushed herself off as if nothing has happened. Indigo frowned at everyone covered in various foods but said nothing before raising his hands up and simply back away. I shook my head as I saw Mavis peek in and I went over to her.

“Everything is over… and for some reason Yang was launched up.” I said to her and looked up at the roof, seeing two holes in the roof. Mavis followed my gaze before humming a bit.

“I do hope this doesn't happen again.” Mavis said simply, walking into Yang's view while Weiss was handed several paper towers to clean herself off before she head back to her dorm. The others did the same and headed off, Ruby and Yang walked over to us.

“Hey, you two missed out the fun.” Yang said happily. Mavis gave her a deadpanned look before crossing her arms at Yang, no doubt unhappy she was nearly caught in the crossfire. Yang blinked at this, looking confused. “What?”

“Nothing Yang, just go get cleaned up.” Mavis said to the blonde. The latter was still confused and thought she did something wrong. She didn’t say anything before headed off to get clean.

“That uh… wasn’t part of my plans…” Ruby said with a sigh. Me and Mavis looked over at Ruby with arched brows.

“But you certainly enjoyed it.” Mavis said the scythe wielder, giving Ruby a smile. Ruby smiled back.

“Yeah, it was fun.” Ruby said. I smiled at this before asking.

“So, what’s the plan now Ruby?” I asked her. She blinked at this and shrugged.

“I don’t know really. Most of the ideas I had are.. Well, scrapped.” Ruby said with a small laugh. I couldn’t help but laugh a little as well. She looked over to me and asked. “Hey, do you want to hang out?” I blinked at this before smiling.

“Sure, I don’t have anything to do…” I looked over at Mavis. “Right?” This got a questioning look from Ruby while Mavis shook her head, smiling and saying.

“Not for today at least, sis.” Mavis said, putting up her sisterly act with Ruby still here. I smiled at her then looked at Ruby.

“I guess I’m free.” I said to her, earning a smile from Ruby before she left to get cleaned up, leaving me with Mavis and Indigo. The latter was talking to Professor Goodwitch, though the topic of the conversation was unknown to me.

Without anything else to do for now, Mavis and I simply decided walk around the Academy to pass the time. She even reverted back to her older self for the time being. During our walk, she began to tell me what she has in store for the whole semester and so far it sounds pretty basic. Upon saying that it sounded basic, Grandma immediately added that she was explaining the training she has planned for the others… oh fuuuck~

“Wait… what do you have planned with Viri?” Ruby asked, making me jump and realize she was following us. She didn’t seem to notice that Grandma changed her form, which is understandable since she’s good to keeping herself from being notice by others. Either by magic or just really really skilled… or both. Grandma glanced back at Ruby and so did I, seeing that she had gotten herself clean already and in different uniform.

“Viri is quite skilled in combat you see, what I have planned for the rest of the class just won't do for someone of her prowess.” Grandma said to Ruby, which only got her to be interested in this even more.

“And what’s that?” Ruby asked, I looked at her wide eyed.

“Ruby, careful what you’re saying.” I warned Ruby who gave me an odd look. Grandma chuckled a little.

“If you are curious to know, I train Viri personally and while the methods I use for class are good and all, nothing shows better progress than pushing someone over their limit.” Grandma said, chuckling to herself no doubt remembering the many times I just wanted to collapse where I stood.

“Right… can’t be that hard right… Viri why are you face palming?” Ruby asked as I was, in fact, face palming.

“Yang asked that same question… and now she’s part of the training list of hell.” I groaned which got a chuckle from Grandma and a surprised Whaaa from Ruby. I shook my head at this. “You asked… sorry.”

“I don’t get it.” Ruby asked, looking to Grandma for answers.

“Your sister had heard from Viri's sister that I had been giving different lesson to Viri. She got curious and talked to me about it, she wanted to see for herself what was so special about it. Now she and Viri are taking advanced lessons during my classes.” Grandma said to Ruby, explaining to her in a simple way that didn't complicate things. Ruby made a face that I knew pretty well. It was the same one that Yang had before.

“You want to be a part of it as well?” I asked, making Ruby look at me.

“Uhhh… kinda… maybe not.” Ruby said, looking between me and Grandma.

“You don't need to, it's your choice Miss Rose.” Grandma said to Ruby, giving her a sense of ease. Ruby was now in thought, all three of us stopped in the middle of the hallway with some but not many students passing us by.

“I think I’ll pass.” Ruby answered to Grandma after a few minutes worth of thinking. The latter gave Ruby a smile and a nod before saying.

“If that is your decision, I will respect it.” Said Grandma, gaining a smile from Ruby before Grandma turn to look at me. “Anyway, I must get going. I still need to prepare for tomorrow.” Grandma said to me and Ruby before heading off towards the direction of her classroom. I let out a sigh before looking at Ruby.

“So… what do you want to do?” I asked. She hummed for a moment before answering.

“Want to wander around Vale for a bit?” She asked me. I nodded and the two of us headed off. The rest of the was rather dull, though Ruby tried her best to liven it up a bit more and for the most part, it worked. She somehow made the dullest things a little more interesting and even fun. I was somehow roped onto a game of hide and seek with her, which she won everytime as a hider but never the seeker.

It was fun… but a little challenging, she’s so quick to go hide some place and she picks the most hardest places to hide. By the time we finished up our little game, it was nearing sundown and it was time to head back to Beacon. When we took the bullhead back, it was practically night already when we arrived.

“That was fun.” I said with a smile on my face. “But did you have to hide in the trees?” This made Ruby giggle.

“No one looks up all the time.” She said with a smile. This made me laugh a little as we got to Ruby’s door. “See you in class.” She said before heading inside the room. I let out a sigh.

“Yeah… class…” I said as I headed off, worried what Grandma had in store. I headed back to my room and didn't even check to see if Tak was here before flopping down onto my bed and letting sleep take me.

The Next Day

The first day back to class, and I had Grandma’s class first. I think someone out there has it out for me. I got up from bed and got ready for class. I made my way there and was a few minutes early, giving me time to sit down and read the book mama gave me. It wasn't long until Yang showed up, having made a habit on showing up early to this class. She was already panting when she got here, no doubt having ran all the way here. She then walked up to Grandma as she changed into her younger self, giving the blonde a sweet kiss before reverting back and ushering Yang to her seat. I smiled at this as I read, I don’t know how but mama knows how to suck people into her stories. I was absorbed in my book until someone put a hand over the book and I saw it was Grandma with an arched brow. I realized that class already started and was a few minutes in already.

“Please pay attention, dear.” She said to me, before grabbing my book and placing down on my desk.

“Sorry…” I said to her, which earning a chuckle from Grandma before she headed back up to the front of the class. She went on to explain today's lesson and what she plans on doing. Most of it went by my head, my mind was practically back on the book. I glanced at it every so often, my hand slowly inched its way over to it but I pulled away to listen in on the lesson. Now here's the bad part, just when I began to listen in was the moment Grandma stopped talking which left me screwed over. I felt my chair suddenly pull out from under me and so did the others. The desks and chairs of the entire classroom retracted into in the floor, forming a much larger training area which left everyone baffled.

“Oh yes, I've forgot to mention that I had some improvements done to this room.” As she said this numerous training equipment appeared from the walls and floors.

“How did you do all this?” Weiss called out, looking around as if this was something new. This got an audible chuckle from Grandma as she took a seat just as her chair popped up from the ground.

“It was only possible with some help but that is all I will say, Miss Schnee.” Grandma said to Weiss, leaving the heiress to look in awe at the changed room around her. Murmurings of the other students filled the room, making their surprise known to the person beside them and it was nearly headache inducing. A loud snap caught everyone's attention, looking over to Grandma as she lowered her hand. “Now class, before we begin I would like you all to welcome our late newcomers.” Grandma said just as the door opened, revealing… Tak!? He came walking in with a smile, with a new looking walking stick. Behind him was a man with short blond hair, tanned skin, wearing a white shirt that was unbutton, red gauntlets, blue jeans, and black and yellow shoes. A noticeable thing was that he had a yellow monkey tail.

Behind him was another guy with short blue hair with goggles on. He wore a red jacket with a black tie and black pants. Soon two others walked in as well, one had red hair that covers his right eye, wore a white shirt and pants with a red coat over his shoulders, it gave me a captain of a ship feel, the other wore a long white and green trance coat and had short black hair. He had darker skin than the others.

As the last four walked in most of the female classmates had dreamy looks on them as they watched. I rolled my eyes at this as they walked up to the front.

“Tak here…” Grandma said, helping Tak step forward a little. “Has been given a rather late acceptance into Beacon courtesy of the Headmaster.” She said before giving Tak a gentle nudge forward towards us. I walked up and helped him through the crowd. “And these four young gentlemen are transfer students from Heaven Academy, they'll be attending Beacon for the duration of the Vytal festival.” Grandma said. The four smiled at the rest of us. Most of the females were excited as I, again, rolled my eyes. Grandma told the five of them to stand with the rest of us. As he walked over I notice Cardin smirked at this and stuck his foot out to trip Tak. Right as Tak was going to step forward he stopped and side step around Cardin’s foot, earning a shock look from him as Tak continued. Class continued as normal, by that I mean nonstop sparring matches as today was endurance. Fight till you drop. Luckily I was spared from this, along with Yang and Tak. Though this wasn't all happy go lucky, me and Yang had to spar against Grandma for a while and were left beaten once again while Grandma had little to no scratches on her.

“You… trained… with her… for a long time… did you ever… get a hit off… on her?” Yang asked while panting.

“No… not… once… ugh.” I said panting as well before pushing back up with Yang. Hearing the sounds of our defeat, Tak was notified that he was up next and he stood up from his seat. He made his way over to arena and with the help of Grandma, he was positioned on the opposite end of her. Yang and I looked at one another as the others saw this as well, and starting to mutter to themselves.

“Oh this is going to be good.” Cardin said as he smirked at the sight of this. I frowned at this as I looked at the two. Grandma looked at Tak with a smile before she said.

“Now don't be afraid to give it your all.” Was Grandma said to the blind bat faunus. The latter nodded before charging forwards towards Grandma with alarming speed, it could rival that of Ruby's. Tak swung his cane as if it were a club, to which Grandma stopped but upon making contact with the cane, it extended and wrapped around her arm like a whip. This actually surprised Grandma and before she could catch her bearings, was soon thrown towards the spot Tak stood on mere seconds ago. This action of course left him very winded but he still stood tall. Grandma was quick to recover at the edge of the ring, shocking everyone around at how quick Tak was close to winning. Grandma turned back to face Tak in time to see his cane retract back to normal. The two clashed once again, this time Grandma wasn't caught off guard with the whole whip cane thing. They traded blows for the longest time before Grandma sent the poor guy flying off the ring and onto the floor. The latter groaned while Grandma panted as she was out of breath. Everyone was surprised at this as Weiss ran over to check on Tak.

“Wow… he’s good.” Yang whispered to me, only for me to nod. We went over to check on Tak while Weiss was beside him, helping him sit up.

“You okay?” I asked him. Tak placed a hand on his head with a groan, I could swear I saw his eyes have the cartoonist swirls in them.

“Y-yeah, I'm fine.” Tak finally said after shaking his head. “So… how did I do?” He asked us.

“Pretty damn good if I had to say.” Yang answered with a smile.

“Yeah, other than Yang, I haven’t seen anyone give the professor a surprise in a fight.” I said with my own smile. Weiss smiled at Tak and gave him a small hug before helping him up to his feet. Once he was up, I handed him his cane. The others were still talking amongst themselves, surprised at how well Tak handled himself against Grandma. I noticed that Cardin was frowning at this but I paid no mind to that before Grandma continued on with today's class before it was time to move to the next class.

“Remember to never slack off from your studying. You may never know when I may give you a written test.” Was Grandma's advice to everyone. No matter how many times she would warn them to study in case of a surprise exam, they never take her seriously. I made sure to grab all my things, including my book which I plan to read in the library during free period.

As I did I ran into Ruby. “Hey Viri, what’s up?” She asked me.

“Nothing much, heading to the library for free period.” I told her.

“Cool, mind if I tag along?” She asked me. I smiled and nodded as the two of us headed to the library. When we got there I sat down in a chair and opened my book where I left off. I looked up to see a number of books Ruby got, seems that she was studying, as well as some books on weapon design. I shook my head as I remember Yang telling me that Ruby was a bit of a weapon nut. It wasn't long until the others showed up, each of them holding a book of their own with the exception of Tak. Seems like me and Ruby weren't the only ones that headed straight to the library.

We chatted for a bit, I was convinced that I had to study as well, pulling me away from my book. I was a little bent about it but they were right as I was handed a book and started to study. During the time I had to lightly kick Ruby to wake up from napping on her book so she could study.

This continued until the bell ringed and we had to head off to our next class. The next class, along with the majority of the other classes were rather dull and it was killing me with how boring I felt. Professor Ports class was the worst of it, while he does teach some good techniques against certain Grimm, he has a habit of rambling on about some story he may or may not have made up of his past. When lunch came around, I swore the ringing of bell was a chorus of salvation.

I sat with Team RWBY and Tak at lunch and we talked about some plans we had before the bell ringed again and we had to head off to the next class.

This one was going to be interesting since it was Indigo’s class. If you don’t know the weight of this situation let me rephrase that for you, it was Indigo’s class sober. We all walked into the room and sat down and waited for the bell to ring for class to start. Once the bell rung, we waiting for Indigo to show up and it wasn't until five minutes in that the other started to get rowdy. With no professor in sight, some student pulled out their scrolls and began texting or playing games, others simply talked to one another. It wasn't until I looked down at my book that I noticed something odd, with the light shining over me there should've been a shadow under the book. I looked around and saw that other peoples shadows were moving away from their owners and it wasn't long till someone noticed. Some people yelped in fright at this, some even jumped up onto their seats as the shadows moved around. The shadows suddenly sprung from the ground, as if they had taken a life of their own before they all headed onto Indigo's chair, each of them sitting and merging with one another before leaving a silhouette of a man. A snap of his fingers and the shadows dissipated and reappearing where they belong, leaving Indigo sitting in the chair. Everyone looked at him in surprised, well everyone other than Tak who looked confused.

“There we go, took a few tries but I finally got.” Indigo said mostly to himself as he kicked up his feet on his own desk. “Afternoon, class and welcome back to a whole new semester of wondrous learning and hellish training.” He said in a chipper tone. Most of the students groaned at this, me and Yang though not so much. Indigo arched a brow at the others. “Oh get used to it. You all signed up for this, so act like you care.” He said to everyone who groaned while me and Team RWBY were still flabbergasted at the new Professor Indigo. I looked over and saw Blake smiling at Indigo. I shook my head at this and listened to what Indigo had to say. “Now as you all may have heard, I finally kicked off my bad habit, so gone are the days I keel over into a drunken sleep and gone are your scrolls from interrupting my class!” He said last bit while smacking his hands against the surface of his desk, startling those who still had their scrolls out. “My assistant will take care of those pesky devices.” Indigo said just before his beowolf companion, whom I've only seen a handful of times, jumped and took several scrolls into his mouth, carrying it back to Indigo's desk. Upon dropping them off, Indigo rewarded his canine like companion with a series of scratches behind the ears. Of course the students that had their scrolls taken away complained that he couldn't do such a thing. “You'll get scrolls back after class, any word from either of you will be given a minus twenty point disadvantage on their next tests.” He added with a frown. This got to quiet the complaining students now. It’s a good thing that I got my book instead of my scroll out. I'll admit that Indigo's class was somewhat similar to Ports but Indigo doesn't go on a rambling story about his past and his class doubles as training though the classroom wasn't like Grandma's, Indigo had been given his own training hall for us students to use as long as he permits it.

This went on before I heard some buzzing from my pocket. I frowned at this as I looked down to the pocket that had my scroll in it and ignored it. After a few minutes the buzzing was getting louder. I quickly pulled it out and turned it off before Indigo heard anything. I did that with a minute to spare as Indigo turned to say something before my scroll buzzed loudly that he stopped and looked at.

“I turned you off!” I said as I pulled my scroll out and saw it was a call from my aunt. I blinked at this before realizing that Indigo somehow got up to my desk and frowned at me.

“Have anything to share with the class, Miss Warren?” He asked me with an annoyed tone. I laughed nervously at this, not knowing what to do before he looked down at my scroll as it buzzed. “Hmm… fine. Go out into the hall and have your call.” He told me, I nodded at him before he quickly added. “But you only get one freebie!” He quickly said as I hurried down the steps. I went out to the hallway and closed the door, sighing before answering the call.

“There you are, I was wondering why you’re not picking up.” Auntie said before I could say anything.

“Sorry I was in class.” I told her with a frown.

“Really? I thought you had Indigo’s class, mostly he’s passed out drunk for most of it.” Auntie said in a surprised tone.

“Well since he was in the hospital for a few days it kinda sobered him up and made him go clean.” I pointed out of her.

“Oh, well good for him, never really like the sight of men drunk off their asses… speaking of Indigo, sorry for this being really long but I had to look into it some more.” She said to me, surprising me with the last part. I was left confused and decided to ask.

“Huh?” I asked, blinking in surprise. Not the greatest question but it'll have to do.

“That bullet you sent me, I finished doing some looking around and found some interesting stuff.” She started to say.

“Really?” I asked her.

“Yes, as it seems the metal that was in the bullet was most interesting, it could simply block the connection the Huntsman have with their auras, kinda like putting a stopper in their bodies.” She started to explain which made me frown, if the White Fang has this then it would mean trouble for everyone else. Luckily Auntie continue to add. “The bright side of things is that the ore that has these properties are scarce in all of Reament, and just so happens in some spots I’ve just planned to build and buy.” I let out a breath I was holding.

“Right… so we good now?” I asked before adding. “If that’s all then can I go back to class?”

“Huh? Oh yes sure, go ahead. I will go talk to my sister about this. Toodles.” She said before the line went dead. I sighed at this before turning my Scroll off and put it into my pocket before entering. Upon entering, I received glares from the few that had their scrolls taken away and I quietly made my way back to my seat. It was fortunate for everyone that today's class was a simple recap test that was fairly easy though I did get stuck on some things but I managed to finish it in time.