RWBY: Corrupted Save File

Part #22. - Evolution.

"Silence, midget." He flicked her forehead as he sat down.
"Wha-- You're shorter than me!" She objected.

But alas, it was already too late. For the little Ruby Rose had fallen into the boy's trap.
He adjusted his sunglasses and a smirk grew on his face.

"Not anymore." He said, his smirk widening.

"Wha-- BLASPHEMY!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Stand up... shorty." Saffron got out of the seat he had just sat down on.
Ruby immediately stood up, intent on proving Saffron wrong... oh the poor soul.

"Blake! You be the judge!" Ruby demanded.

"Yeah, he's taller." Blake said, glancing only once before returning her gaze to the fight.
"What?! No!" Ruby yelled.

Saffron began cackling. He saw the defeated Ruby Rose and he laughed.

"You're next." He declared, pointing at Blake, the second tallest in Team RWBY.

"Oh, nooo... the horror." Blake said in the most sarcastic way possible.
"And when I get taller, I'll put your books somewhere you can't reach."

"What?!" He had grabbed her attention. The battle was already won.
"I hold leverage now. I will be your undoing, Belladonna." Saffron sat down and crossed his legs. He held the tips of his fingers together like a supervillain and began watching the fight.

If Saffron never grew to be above five foot six, he would curse any living being for the rest of his days.
But moving onto the fight. It was Yang and Weiss versus two members of an Atlas team, called Team FNKI. (Funky)
Saffron had no idea how funky was a color, but they didn't seem to care, so why should he?

The fight began with the Atlas team overwhelming Yang and Weiss, Yang had no way to combat her opponent's use of roller skates, nunchaku, and dust.
Weiss was struggling against her opponent as well. He used sound-based attacks from a trumpet he played music with. The soundwaves were given physical form, which at least made it easier to combat. Whether by dust or by semblance, Saffron did not know. The tides of battle began to turn when Weiss threw her opponent into a lava geyser, along with herself.
Unfortunately, her opponent was still in the match, just barely.
Ultimately, Team RWBY won the match. But Saffron could see that it was just luck.

Weiss needed time to recover, so he would save his notes for later. The one-on-one battles would occur after a short break, so Saffron would use that to his advantage. He got out of his seat and left to find a secluded area somewhere on the floating island.

He found himself in a large hallway used by maintenance. There wasn't a sign saying he wasn't allowed there, so he just kind of... went for it.
He sat down, as he did before and closed his eyes.
Saffron found himself back at his hated obstacle. He was feeling a bit better, so now was the time to make some progress.
He pried once more at the connected cores. The fibres were interconnected tightly, but bit by bit, they loosened. After minutes that felt like hours, Saffron had disconnected a cluster of threads. All he had to do was pull it out of the knot that was the intertwined cores.
He inhaled deeply and tightened his mental grip on the rope made of the core sinew. He quickly pulled at it, almost snapping it off entirely, but it was resilient. But the question was, who was more resilient? Saffron, or this fraction of himself? The answer seemed obvious, and Saffron would force it, if necessary.

Saffron continued loosening the connection between the cores. Once it was weakened enough, a single tug would be all it took to tear the cores apart. Every thread pulled from the knot sent pain throughout Saffron's body, but he kept pulling.
Bit by bit, he felt the knot get looser. He got hasty and tried ripping out a dozen threads at once, this caused his nose to begin bleeding and no progress to be made. At its core, this was an exercise of patience, and the boy needed to overcome it.