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Beacon Academy
Noon
The towering campus of Beacon Academy sat surprisingly quiet as it overlooked the large lake, peering at the nearby city of Vale that was finally showing its first signs of Fall. Even Beacon itself was showing such signs, as shown by the trees as their leaves slowly began to turn orange, some even already falling.
As for the (relative) silence of the school, the Vytal Festival grew ever closer, and in order to clear the area enough for final preparations to be made, students were given a week long break from school activities.
Many students took this opportunity to head home and stay with their families, but of course there were those who chose simply to remain at Beacon. Whether it be to study, train, or even just enjoy the place while they didnt have schoolwork. And thus, the halls and paths were still accompanied by groups of students who wandered about, chatting about...well...whatever it was they were chatting about of, course.
There was an unusual amount of commotion, however, inside Beacons own combat classroom.
Ruby: "Hiyah!"
A leaping kick from Ruby Rose was swiftly and effectively blocked by a stern faced Y/n as the rest of team RWBY could be seen watching from the edge of the arena. Y/n waited not even a second to retaliate as he firmly gripped the leg she kicked with, and pulled her towards him.
Poor Ruby was forced to watch as a swift fist quickly connected with her face, sending her to the floor once again. Weiss, Blake and Yang collectively winced at the force of the blow.
Groaning with a mixture of pain and frustration from the arena floor, Ruby glared angrily at the ceiling as her aura made short work of the red bruise on her cheek. Y/n watched with his hands on his hips as his stern expression remained.
Y/n: "Kicks are great for throwing something unorthodox at your opponent, opening them up for other hits, and for flashy entrances. But when its just a one on one fight, they do tend to leave you open to a whole range of counter-attacks. Big kicks like that are best for catching your opponent off guard."
Ruby only groaned again in response as she sat up on the floor, clearly upset with what seemed to be her latest in a series of failed sparring matches with Y/n. The shade allowed his expression to soften as he let out a small sigh as he approached her.
"I know it sucks, but this will really help you out in the long run Rosebud. You need to be able to fight with more than Crescent Rose. You may not always be able to rely on it."
As he came to stand just in front of her, her held his hand out.
"Lets call it a day for now alright? I'm not exactly a fan of knocking you around either."
Taking his hand, she allowed him to help her to her feet, she rubbed her cheek in annoyance at the still remaining soreness from the strike.
Ruby: "To be fair, I literally asked for it...did you have to hit me that hard though?"
Y/n: "Do you think some thug trying to kill you is gonna pull his punches? You can't dodge everything unfortunately. Part of fighting for your life is learning to roll with the pain."
Ruby deadpanned at him slightly, trying to find almost any reason to not believe him.
Ruby: "Really? There's gotta be a better way..."
Y/n, sensing he needed to give an example, turned his head to the rest of team RWBY, who by this time had already walked over to them. More specifically he looked to Yang.
Y/n: "Hey Firecracker, wanna help me out real quick?"
With a shrug, Yang stepped into the center of the ring with Y/n, cracking her knuckles as she went.
Yang: "Alright bro, what kinda damage ya need?"
Y/n met her question with a steely gaze.
Y/n: "I want you to hit me. As hard as you can."
Yang blinked a few times in disbelief before making direct eye contact with. Y/n, finding steel in his silver irises.
Yang: "As hard as i can?"
Pulling himself into a rigid stance stance, Y/n placed his hands firm at his sides as he somehow hardened his stare even more.
Y/n: "As hard. As. You. Can."
Seeing that he was in fact, dead serious. Yang shrugged as she dropped onto her own stance.
Yang: "Alright. Don't gotta tell me thrice."
Several seconds passed, before with a mighty battle cry, Yang launched herself forward with a blast from her Ember Celica, closing the distance between them rapidly, as she brought her fist to Y/n's face with devastating force, as well as another shot from her gauntlets. The small explosion caused by the strike left Y/n completely obscured by smoke.
The stillness lasted only a second however, as Y/n reached out from the smoke fast enough to disperse the cloud, quickly grabbing and lifting a baffled Yang by the neck, and delivering a massive cross to her face, that connected with a loud crack and enough force to send the poor girl flying several feet, landing flat on her ass on the hard arena floor.
Yang: "Ooooww...."
Helping Yang back to her feet, Y/n spoke yet again as they both walked back to the rest of team RWBY, who all wore similar look best described in the words 'God damn...'
Y/n: "Being able to land a good hit is important. But you also better be able to take punches just as hard as you dish em out. There might even be a day when you face an opponent who's semblance allows them to ignore pain. If that ever happens, you'd better be able to take a hit, cause they can sure take yours."
Weiss: "That seems ridiculously specific."
Blake: "He does kind of have a point though."
Weiss: "I stand by what I said. But I suppose it would be useful for the tournament as well."
At the mere mention of the event, Team RWBY descended into incoherent chatter about the tournament. Anything from strategies, who their opponents might be, attack names, even food. Y/n however seemed...disinterested.
He took advantage of his teams momentary lapse in concentration, gazing back towards the door of the room. Where he had caught Mercury Black spying on them after his match with Pyrrha.
Since the second he and Ruby met that group in the hallway of beacons dormitories, he had hated them. And that was a hard thing to accomplish. Nothing about them seemed right about them.
Why didn't they know where the guest dorms were? Where was their other teammate? Why did they show up almost a full week before all the other Haven academy students? And who the hell names their kid Mercury-
Ruby: "Umbra?"
Blinking back to reality, he met the eyes of a perplexed Ruby as the rest of their team now seemed to be bickering over rather than agreeing on team names. Silently composing himself he responded.
Y/n: "What's up Rosebud?"
Ruby: "Everything alright? You seem really tense. And I get wanting to make sure we're ready for the tournament, or even to defend ourselves, but you seem way more on edge about all this."
Realizing he definitely wasn't slipping the topic past her, Y/n sat down on one of the benches nearby, quickly joined by Ruby sitting beside him. Y/n took a few moments to let his mind wander as he crafted his awnser. Of course, he didnt like Cinder or her team, but that wouldn't make any sense. He figured there was only one real awnser.
Y/n: "I guess maybe I'm just...I don't know maybe I'm paranoid? The last time I was witness to something like the Vytal Festival, I was killed alongside thousands of other people. Maybe it's just...I don't know, maybe I just don't trust it. I can't shake the feeling something big is going on. Bigger than any of us are ready for anyway..."
...
The silence that hung was interrupted by a sharp gasp from Blake, as Yang had just claimed that noodles were way better than fish. Unable to stop a smile coming to his face, Y/n let out a content sigh as he gently took Ruby's hand.
"I'm probably just getting worked up over nothing...things are different now."
Giggling slightly as she squeezed his hand. Ruby stood up, dragging him to his feet with her.
Ruby: "You've come a really long way Umbra. Now come on! All their talk about food made me hungry!"
Watching with a massive smile as she dashed off towards the rest of his team, Y/n slowly followed with his hands in his coat pockets.
'I guess I have, haven't I?'
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(Figured I'd give you all a nice little mini chapter for being so patient and awesome. Thank all of you! I'm finally starting to feel more spirit to write, and I'm out of my shitty job in two days. In short, things are looking good for the future of this story!)
(Until Next Time!)