Episode 1: Chapter 4: Learning in Fighting

Chapter 4 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

            “Jacob is your COUSIN?!” Nathan said with surprise. “He never mentioned that when we were growing up in Aequo.”

            “It’s not something easy to talk about.” Brooklyn said. “Nor is it something he likes to hold high above his head. Especially given what happened to Pyrrha back during the Vytal festival.”

            “How do you mean Brooklyn?”

            “Well, from what Jacob told me, he’s always wanted to prove himself as his own person, not just somebody that was in the shadow of his more successful cousin. And when Pyrrha faced off against the android from Atlas, once the whole incident was over, everybody at Sanctum looked at him like he was apart of a lineage of murderers or something.” Pyrrha lowered her head, clearly upset by this.

            “It wasn’t always this way. I didn’t realize that it was that bad for him.”

            “Why don’t you start from the beginning Pyrrha?” Ruby spoke up. “That might make things a bit easier to understand.”

            “All right then. Back before that event seven years ago, Jacob was living his life normally in Aequo, and I was living happily in Mistral, receiving all the praise and honor I had been receiving all my life. The first time I met Jacob, it was about 10 years ago, and I was just starting my initial training as a Huntress.”

            “Wait, you started training at age 8?” Evan asked. “Isn’t that a little young to start training to be a fighter?”

            “Eh.” Yang shrugged. “Uncle Qrow took me and Ruby on a field trip to watch him kill Grimm when I was like five. Please continue Pyrrha.”

            “Right. Well when we first met, it was just two kids meeting for the first time. We had fun, we played games together, we were just being kids. But all good things had to come to an end. Three years later, that event happened. At the time, Jacob was attending a combat school in Mistral, but he heard about what happened, and struggled for several weeks. I was there to help him as best I could and we pulled through the tragedy together.”

            “So why does he hate you?” Nathan interrupted again.

            “I’m getting to that. Once he started at Sanctum, I had already finished my first year there. And everybody had already started praising me as a talented fighter, a goddess in human form, and just about every compliment under the sun. But when word got out that Jacob was my cousin, people started expecting more of him. I had achieved a position so high up that everybody expected him to match that level of greatness. But that wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to reach his own goals. His own way, and with his own strength. We would constantly fight about this. He always saw me as somebody who people just simply compared him to. He never thought anybody else saw him as anything else but the next me, for the lack of a better term. When I left for Beacon, he promised me that he would go to Beacon as well, and finally surpass me. But I haven’t heard much from him since that day. All I know is that he won the Mistral Regional Tournament his final year, and made it into Beacon with high honors.”

            “I can fill in the gap from right before then.” Brooklyn jumped in. “Like I said, what happened during the Vytal Festival last year was a tragedy. But when it was all over, the world was ready to point fingers, and Pyrrha was their first easy target. That short time of everybody dumping on Pyrrha, led to everybody back at Sanctum believing that Jacob was that same kind of person as Pyrrha, a ruthless killer. He had to pull himself out of those assumptions with his own powers and abilities. He started by winning the qualifiers to the Regional Tournament with great ease, and then following through by winning every single match in the final tournament, leaving people to just simply accept him for who he is.”

            “Well, isn’t that a good thing?” Miles asked. “He proved himself while being doubted. He showed that he doesn’t need the spotlight that Pyrrha shared with him. So what’s the problem?”

            “He still wants to surpass her.” As soon as Brooklyn said this, all eyes turned to her. “He believes that the only way to fully get what happened to him these past few years behind him, he has to surpass Pyrrha in order to reach that place that he wants to be.” The room fell silent for a few minutes, and then Ty stood up.

            “I can understand where he’s coming from." Ty said standing up.  "My father was the famous Huntsman with the nickname Demon Slayer Vergil. And it wasn’t the world that placed expectations on my shoulders, it was him. I trained day in and day out to reach the pinnacle of meeting my father’s expectations. But then I realized something. He didn’t care about how high I climbed, because he didn’t want me to become just like him. He wanted me to be me. So, I decided to travel the world a bit and see what I could do to help others in my own way. That’s how I came across Miles in the first place. And here we are now. Everything came together nicely.”

            “That’s great and all Ty, but there’s still one problem.” Miles said. “What happened to you took place over your lifetime to this point, while Jacob’s situation is a bit more recent. Also, now that he’s your team leader, don’t you think that holding a personal vendetta against somebody who is on their side might prove distracting?”

            “Jacob’s not like that.” Brooklyn said as she stood up. “For as long as I’ve known him, he’s had this goal of surpassing Pyrrha, but he’s also had the goal of becoming the greatest Huntsman he can possibly become. As far as I’m concerned, just give him a little bit of time. Maybe I’ll convince him to talk to Pyrrha later on. But for now, we just have to deal with what we’ve got right here and now.” Weiss then stood up, with Zwei in her arms.

            “I would love to keep talking about this until the sun comes up, but it is getting late, and we all start classes again tomorrow.” Everybody in the room groaned as soon as Weiss brought up classes. “I’m going back to our room. I’ll see you guys tomorrow!” she walked out of the room, and team RWBY followed in suit.

            “OH COME ON!” Nora yelled in annoyance. “We just got here! Do we really have to go to bed now?”

            “Calm down Nora.” Ren said wrapping his arm around her shoulder. “Tomorrow we have combat class in the morning, and given what we saw today from these first years, we’re going to need our full strength. Shall we call it a night?”

            “Oh fine.” Nora said as she pretty much dragged herself out of the room, and the rest of Teams RWBY and JNPR followed in suit. Then the other three members of Team JCTB took off for their own room, leaving Team NEMN to get ready for bed.

            “So, does anybody have our schedule for tomorrow at all?” Evan asked breaking the silence.

            “I think that first thing in the morning is history with Professor Oobleck, then right after that is combat class with Professor Goodwitch. After that comes lunch.” Miles said with confidence.

            “All right then.” Natalie said, having emerged from the bathroom having changed into pajamas. “Let’s get some sleep team!” As she said this, she jumped into her bed, Nathan followed in suit, and Miles quickly jumped in the bathroom to change and get ready, leaving Evan as the last person to get ready.

            “Why am I always the last person to get anything done here?”

 

 

 

 

As the bell rang for the end of Professor Oobleck’s class, Team NEMN started making their way to the lockers to change into their fighting outfits for combat class. As soon as they had changed, they made their way into the stands, found Teams JCTB, RWBY and JNPR, all already sitting down.

            “You guys get lost or something?” Ruby joked as the team sat down.

            “Sorry for not being able to go faster than a speeding bullet and explode into rose petals.” Natalie replied sitting down next to her. As they got comfortable, Professor Goodwitch made her way to the center of the arena, her scroll in hand.

            “Today you first years will all be having the ability to face off against select second years in the class. However, as time goes on, you will see equal time going toe to toe with classmates of your own class and even third and fourth years. And as the Memorial Vytal Festival will be at the end of the year, as we get into the second semester, the qualification process will begin. Note that the number of teams that can qualify for the tournament from each Kingdom is eight, and if you fall short, then you can try again next year at the true Vytal Festival being held in Vacuo. But for now, let us begin the selection process. Each first year will be selected at random, and then second year volunteers will do battle with them. Now then, let’s spin the wheel.” As soon as she said this, she waved her riding crop and in flew the spinner to determine the first of the new students to fight. As it landed, each fighter’s face was loaded onto an electronic screen. To ensure fairness, all the screens would be black during the spin and would only reveal the fighter at the very end. Next to each screen was a number to make sure the screen matched the predetermined number of each fighter to remove any fixed matches. With a flick of her wrist, Professor Goodwitch spun the wheel, and let it come to a complete stop. And when it did, the face it revealed was Miles’.

            “All right then. The first combatant will be Mr. Watson. Now then, who is willing to face him in battle?” Instantly, the hands of Yang, Weiss, and Ruby went up.

            “Um, Ms. Rose, I do believe I saw your hand go up first. Are you prepared?”

            “I daresay I am! Just let me grab something real quick.” Ruby said as she grabbed a backpack with the Beacon logo on it. As she turned to head down to the arena via the locker rooms, Miles just simply jumped over the edge and smack dab into the middle of the arena. As he made his way to his corner, Ruby appeared, with an evil smile on her face.

            “So, you fancy yourself pretty strong, eh?” Ruby said in a sly cunning voice.

            “Um…yes. Yes I do.” Miles said, confused to Ruby’s approach to the matter.

            “Well then, how strong are you when confronted by something that STRIKES FEAR INTO YOUR HEART?! I CALL UPON THE POWER OF ZWEI!” As she said this, she opened the bag and out jumped Zwei, leading to several different reactions throughout the audience. “Now, you will quake in fear as…” Ruby started to say but then noticed Miles had an even more confused look than before on his face.

            “Ruby, I don’t like dogs. I don’t fear them to the point where I would be running away at the mere sight of one.”

            “Then what was yesterday then?”

            “Surprise and shock. But now,” Miles said as his face turned into a sadistic smile, “By having that dog here, you have given me permission to whale the tar out of it with no holds bared! This is a dream come true for me!” Ruby and Zwei both took a step backwards as soon as he said this, prompting Ruby to put Zwei back in the bag, run over to the side closest to the rest of her friends, and throwing him up to Yang before returning to her corner, preparing Crescent Rose for battle.

            “Ah well.” Miles sighed. “Maybe another time.” With that said, he got into his battle stance, and was ready to go.

            “Begin!” As soon as Professor Goodwitch yelled this, the two of them rushed forward and met blades right in the center. They then sparred for several minutes. Miles attempted to gain the upper hand by running along the walls, trying to draw Ruby closer to flip over her and land a powerful attack. But she instead used her sniper rifle mode to keep him at a distance for the time being. Ruby also tried to create a wind gust to blow him off his feet with her speed semblance, but that didn’t work as Miles just simply stood there as the wind rolled by. Nathan watched this battle with great intensity, seeming to be focused on Ruby’s movements.

            “Something wrong bro?”

            “I don’t get it Natls. I can’t seem to get a read on Ruby’s rhythm.”

            “Really? Maybe it’s because you’re not fighting her.”

            “No, even when I’m just sitting in the stands I can keep up with movements and see who’s got the advantage. But here, I can read Miles just fine but Ruby is a bit out there.”

            “She’s never had one real style of fighting for as long as I’ve known her.” Weiss chimed in. “She just goes with the flow, sees opportunities, and leaps at them.”

            “Yeah, even when we’re in the middle of a fight, she’ll just come up with a plan on the spot.” Yang said, continuing to watch the fight. “I guess that’s part of why she’s the team leader.”

            “We’ll see what happens.” Jacob said. “Far as I can tell, it seems that neither side has been able to dictate supremacy yet, and unless Miles implodes on himself again, this could go either way.” The match continued, with each side having about equal share of control of the flow of combat. But then, Ruby started charging forward, launching herself with gunshots to propel herself even faster. Miles took a quick look at his aura levels, and smiled. He then quickly put his swords to the side, and moved his hands in a sliding motion as if he was directing traffic. All of a sudden, Ruby started turning to her right, and she felt like she was losing all control. She then lost her grip on her weapon and careened into the wall, dropping her aura level to about 30%. Then Miles quickly jumped right behind her, slashed her twice in the back, and the buzzer sounded recognizing that the match was over.

            “Well done Mr. Watson. It may seem that you and your team may be able to qualify for the tournament if you keep up this type of performance.”

            “Thank you. I will attempt to do so with great vigor.” Miles said as he walked up the walls of the arena back to where everybody was sitting. As he sat down, he realized that Yang was sitting right where he was with Zwei in her arms. He quickly moved away from her as best he could while staying with the rest of his teammates.

            “Man! And here I thought this was going to be a close fight!” Ruby complained as she returned to her seat.”

            “It was close.” Weiss said. “He just managed to get the better of you this time around. Don’t worry about it too much.” Ruby just simply sat down and folded her arms and fumed for a few solid minutes. The next several matches were interesting, but rather one sided in favor of the second years. Then Christy’s name was called, and Weiss volunteered to fight against her. The match was definitely an interesting one. Christy tried to rush towards Weiss, but ended up getting caught in one of her glyphs, letting Weiss use her rush teleportation technique to knock her aura levels down super quickly. As soon as that was over, Brooklyn was called up. Immediately, Yang jumped down, pounded her gauntlets together and created an aura burn. As soon as the match began, the two of them went straight for each other. Yang tried to mess up Brooklyn’s approach by shooting a few rounds at her, but Brooklyn simply stayed the course, using her shield form to defend against the onslaught of blasts. As soon as she got close enough, she used her shield to basically cause one of Yang’s punches to send her flying backwards towards the wall. Continuing her assault, Brooklyn morphed her weapon into scimitar form and continued to put pressure on Yang, forcing her back more and more. Then, Yang did a spinning move around Brooklyn, looking to punch her in the back and into the wall, but Brooklyn noticed this in a quick instant, and stabbed her scimitar into the ground. She took the hit, but the sword kept her from flying into the wall and taking even more damage. Turning around, she continued to fight Yang to a standstill. But even Brooklyn noticed that with every strike she managed to land on her opponent, it was putting her at a greater disadvantage. She could see and feel it. Yang was just simply getting stronger.

            “I REFUSE TO LOSE TO SOMEBODY LIKE YOU!” Brooklyn screamed at the top of her lungs as she charged forward with another attack on Yang, her power growing immensely. The two of them continued to go at it, but it was apparent that despite her recent power up, Yang still had the edge over Brooklyn. With a quick motion, Yang managed to grab Brooklyn’s scimitar, and then throw her skywards to keep her off balance. Brooklyn tried to re-center herself by morphing her weapon into rifle form and firing a few rounds, but to no avail as she simply plummeted down to the awaiting fist of Yang. It was all too easy for Yang to just simply unload a few punches into Brooklyn’s side, causing her aura to plummet down to 8%. With that, the buzzer sounded and the match was ended. Brooklyn pounded the ground in frustration as Yang offered her a hand up. As they made their way back to the stands, the wheel was spun once again, and this time, it was Jacob’s name that came up.

            “Now then, who would like to challenge Mr. Strohl to a match?” Goodwitch asked. Nobody raised their hands, and most of them were whispering in fear and lack of confidence. Pyrrha was especially worried because she had noticed that Jacob was looking directly at her. She knew that he wanted to face off against her, and if nobody was going to volunteer, then Goodwitch was going to pick somebody at random.

            “Nobody wishes to face Mr. Strohl? In that case his opponent will be….”

            “I’ll do it.” Everybody turned to see Jaune standing with his hand raised, and making his way down to the arena.

            “Are you sure Mr. Arc?”

            “Yes.” Jaune jumped down, drew his sword and prepared his shield. Jacob rolled his eyes as he drew his katana and walked over to the starting position.

            “Do you think you’re protecting her by using yourself as a shield?” Jacob said with great annoyance to Jaune. “You hardly even know what has transpired in years past. Why do you do this when you know that all you are doing is delaying the inevitable?”

            “Because despite what happened then, this is now. I do everything in my power to help every single member on my team. That’s a no brainer. But Pyrrha, she’s like that with everybody. She’s really ignored the fact that she’s been on this pedestal ever since she came to this school. She’s become a huntress. Just like all of us.” Jacob started laughing a bit at this.

            “You really believe that she has humbled herself after all this time?! She is a person who stands as a goddess among fighters and relishes in that limelight! And since I share her blood, people expected me to stand beside her, but never pass her. I refuse such a fate. I will take her down, and establish myself the superior. But I guess I have to take down her self-imposed guardian first.” Jacob got in his ready stance, and waited for the bell. As soon as the match began, he rushed towards Jaune, and started clashing blades with him. Jacob was surprised at the fact that Jaune was able to keep up with him, but he calmed himself realizing that he was still moving forward in real time with his opponent. He decided to put on a little show for Pyrrha. He quickly entered his time manipulation state, and rushed towards Jaune. It was all too easy to see his simple movements. Jacob instantly started bashing Jaune left and right, as Jaune couldn’t keep up with his movements. Everybody watched from the stands completely stricken in awe. Nathan on the other hand, was completely intrigued.

            “Can you actually keep up with him bro?” Natalie asked him.

            “I can see his rhythm just fine, but his movements are so quick I doubt even I could keep up with him while empowered by fear. Heck, Ruby might even struggle to keep up with him he’s that fast. Jaune is completely outclassed.” While Nathan was saying this, Jacob had run out of time with his Semblance, but it didn’t matter. Jaune was now down to 20%, while Jacob hardly even had a scratch on his aura.

            “Just give up. I’ve proven that you can’t even compare to me, and you should just let Pyrrha fight her own battles.”

            “As long as I’m the leader of Team JNPR, I will put others needs before my own. And right now, the woman I love is being threatened by somebody from her past, and I’m going to protect her until you get your head on straight.”

            “Admirable, but foolish.” Jacob said as he spun around to behind Jaune, and attempted to slash him down to the last of Jaune’s aura, but in a sudden instance, as soon as the sword connected, Jaune started to glow brightly, and suddenly, the entire stadium was canvassed in light. And then from Jaune himself, a force blasted out of his body, and directly hit Jacob. He tumbled over, and immediately felt his aura plummeting. When he got back up, he noticed that his aura had fallen to about 25%, while Jaune’s had risen back up to about 65%. Jaune then quickly landed a few hits on Jacob while he was down and still trying to regain his senses, and finished the fight. Jacob was slow to get up. He was shocked at the result; he was in complete control of the match! How did Jaune turn it around so easily?!

            “Honestly, I don’t even know how I do that myself.” Jaune said offering a hand up to Jacob. “But I do know this. You and I both have teams now. And whatever you have going on with you and Pyrrha right now, you had better make sure it doesn’t hurt your team. That happened to me once, and believe me, I’m lucky to have this second chance here and now.” Jacob knocked Jaune’s hand away in frustration.”             “What do you know about not being able to live up to people’s standards?”

            “A lot more than you realize.” Jaune once again put his hand out for Jacob, this time he reluctantly accepted. As they made their way back to the stands, Pyrrha met them on their way up. Jacob walked right past her, heading back to his seat. Jaune in the meantime smiled, and hugged Pyrrha.

            “Thank you Jaune.”

            “Of course. Anytime. Don’t worry about him too much. I think once he’s ready, you to can talk it all out.”

            “I hope so too.”

 

 

 

 

The wheel was spun once again, as there were three more matches to be done before class ended. When the wheel stopped, it revealed that Nathan was next in line. He jumped down and pulled out his billy clubs. A few people in the audience chuckled as he did so.

            “Why does that kid have white and purple clubs?”

            “Seriously, did he even see them once he got them out of the initial design phase?” Natalie started getting a bit upset at this, and was about to jump up to his brother’s defense, but then noticed that Miles was already standing up, with an annoyed look on his face.

            “It doesn’t matter the color of his weapons. What matters is the resolve in his heart to do what is right. Watch this man fight, and then decide if he is worth your mockery, or if he is somebody you want to never mess with during your time here at this school.” He sat himself back down, having said his piece. He noticed Natalie was looking at him like he was an alien.

            “Your motivations are so confusing to me.”

            “Better get used to it kid.”

            “Hey, for the record, it’s TEAM LEADER.”

            “We’ll see.”

            “All right then, if we are done talking,” Professor Goodwitch spoke up, “then who is willing to face off against Mr. Grover here?” No one from the second years raised their hands.

            “No one? Then I’ll just call someone out at random who has yet to fight today. Ms. Belladonna. Care for a sparring match?”

            “All right.” Blake said as she jumped down to the arena and got in the staging area. The two of them entered a fighting stance, and the match began. Nathan started off with the first move, charging forward and attempting to knock Blake backwards. As far as he could tell, his first strike was a direct hit, but then he noticed what he was hitting was an image of Blake. She was actually right above him, preparing to hit him right in the side. But he was able to block it with relative ease, but something was off. Something about the way Blake held her sword. The way she used it. Sure she also used her sheath, but there was something about the grip, the ferocity, the style. Something seemed familiar, and that caused something inside of him to awaken.

 

 

 

 

Natalie was watching from the stands, and was keeping as close an eye as she could on the action. Both were very agility-style warriors, so she knew it would be a close match. But then something happened. Nathan threw one of his billy clubs to the side, and used the other to parry Blake’s swords. She recognized this technique right away. He was planning on keeping Blake in one place until the club hit her, and then he would land a powerful blow while she was confused. But then something happened. The club missed its target. Natalie stood up and got closer to the edge of the railing above the arena.

            “Something’s wrong.”

            “What do you mean by that?” Evan asked, as he walked up right next to her.

            “Nathan has always been great at anticipating beats and rhythms, as well as angles and motion. That’s how he uses his clubs and knows exactly where to throw them so they end up back in his hand no matter what happens. But just now, I’ve only seen this happen once before.”

            “And when was that?” Miles asked as he joined her on the railing.

            “It was when we found Adam Taurus for all of five minutes.”

            “What? You found Adam?” Yang said with surprise.

            “Like I said, for a few minutes. After what happened, he escaped in an airship, leaving me and my brother behind.”

            “Why did he spare you guys? In my understanding of Adam, he finished his enemies off right then and there if he can.”

            “Nathan achieved a power that he can’t control while fighting Adam.”

            “What kind of power?” Miles asked.

            “It’s happening right now! We have to get down there!” Natalie jumped over the side and unsheathed her weapon, running towards her brother. But as she got close to him, he let out a yell that created a gigantic aura burn. But unlike most aura burns, this one was colored like a rainbow. Red, blue, green, yellow, orange, indigo, and pink. He then looked towards Blake with glowing white eyes. Blake was too confused to even react, and Nathan hit her hard with one of his billy clubs, sending her into the wall. He rushed towards her for another attack, but then Miles landed right by Blake, grabbed her, and started running up the wall, while Ty jumped right in the path of Nathan, drew his sword, and blocked his club. While the sheer force of the aura burn would blow most people away, Ty stood firm, easily taking the damage. As the burn started to die down, Natalie rushed over to him, and whacked his head with the blunt end of her weapon. Nathan started staggering at this point, and regained his senses.

            “What…. what happened?” Looking around, he noticed all the burn marks, the damage to the arena, and Miles helping a startled and noticeably hurt Blake lie down in the stands above him. He dropped his clubs, and ran off out of the classroom.

            “Nathan! Wait!” Natalie yelled. But it was to no avail. Nathan was already gone. She put her thoughts aside and walked over to where Miles was helping Blake sit down in the stands. Medical personnel were almost there, but Christy was already healing Blake as best she could. After a few short minutes, Blake got right back up, and looked around.

            “Where’s Nathan?”

            “Not sure.” Miles said. “He just dropped his weapons and ran off. Probably realized what he did and couldn’t bear the thought of it.”

            “I know the feeling.” Blake said, slowly getting up. She then grabbed the two billy clubs, and started heading out.

            “Blake, where are you going?” Ruby asked.

            “I’m going to find Nathan. I think I need to figure out what’s going on for myself before anybody else talks to him.”

            “All right. Be careful, no telling what caused it and if it can be triggered again.” Miles said as Blake left the arena.

            “Criminy, I know your brother had a strong semblance, but I didn’t think it could reach power levels like THAT.” Jacob said.

            “Like I said, this is only the second time that this has happened. I’m going to go see if I can find him also.” Natalie quickly grabbed her stuff and headed out of the classroom.

            “Well then…I guess we should get some lunch or something?” Miles said towards the rest of the group.

            “Makes sense to me.” Evan said.

            “I think once Blake and Nathan talk it out, they’ll want to join us for some food.” Ren added.

            “OOOH! Maybe there will be pancakes on the menu!” Nora said excitedly.

            “Nora, we keep telling you,” Weiss sighed, “pancakes are breakfast foods. Just because you and Ren make them sometimes in your dorm room late at night doesn’t mean that they are going to be common food items during lunch in the cafeteria.”

            “Oh, you’re such a party pooper Ice Queen!”

            “Seriously! Why does everybody keep calling me that after a whole year!” Everybody started laughing, but Miles still felt a bit of concern, as he had this nagging feeling in the back of his head that he had seen that style of aura burn before. But he shrugged it off and joined the rest of the group on their way to the cafeteria.

Author's Note

Please review and enjoy!

Reviews

[Shep]

Very Nice. Very nice indeed. I loved this chapter as the teams went up against each other and to see each others strengths and weaknesses. nice pace and very descriptive chapter. Loved it all. Please be kind and return the love.