The Grimm Huntress

The Badge and The Burden Pt. 2

Weiss, now back in her regular attire, was readying her Myrtenaster at the growling creature in the cage barely visible. Her teammates cheered her on from their seats in the front row.

"Goooo, Weiss!"

"Fight well!" Blake waved a flag that said "RWBEY".

"Yeah, represent Teeeeam RWBEY!"

Eclipse simply smiled encouragingly, her braid now finished.

Weiss lowered her sword and looking over at her "leader". "Ruby! I'm trying to focus!"

"Oh, um... Sorry..." Ruby said sheepishly.

"Allllright!" Port was next to the cage, pulling out his weapon. "Let the match... begin!"

The professor swung down and broke the lock, dropping the cage door and revealing the Boarbatusk inside, which immediately charged at Weiss. She uses Myrtenaster to deflect its attack and roll to the side, readying herself for its next move. The Grimm stood a distance away from its enemy, studying her.

"Ha-ha! Wasn't expecting that, were you?" Port commentated.

'How unhelpful,' Eclipse thought irritated.

Yang tapped her and handed her a chocolate bar. Eclipse nodded in thanks. Yang usually carried around snacks for her since she knew how irritable she got when she was tired.

"Hang in there, Weiss!" Ruby exclaimed.

Weiss was now speeding towards the oncoming Boarbatusk, sticking her blade straight at its skull until they met and Myrtenaster was trapped in the beast's tusks. Weiss was still hanging on to the hilt, and was tossed around as she struggled to get the rapier back.

"Bold, new approach. I like it!"

"Come on, Weiss, show it who's boss!" Ruby encouraged.

Weiss turned to glare at Ruby, only for the Boarbatusk to turn its head and rip the weapon from her grip. Myrtenaster landed far away from its master, who was knocked back by the creature's tusks.

"Oh-ho! Now what will you do without your weapon?" Eclipse turned and glared at their professor only for Yang to tap her again.

Weiss looked up just in time to see the Boarbatusk charge again, rolling out of the way just in time to avoid getting trampled and make it crash into a desk. Weiss rushed at her sword and slid to get it back in her hand.

"Weiss! Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath-" Ruby tried to help but was cut off.

"Stop telling me what to do!"

Ruby looked hurt at Weiss' rebuttal. Meanwhile, the Boarbatusk leapt into the air and rolled into a ball, spinning rapidly in the air and landing on the ground, consistently gaining speed until it launched itself at Weiss.

It came closer and closer, but Weiss activated one of her blue-white circles and blocked the roll, leaping up into the, now black, snowflake symbol and turning it blue again so she could drive the blade into the Boarbatusk's stomach. It squealed and fell silent while Weiss gasped in relief.

"Bravo! Bra-vo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training!" Port congratulated as Weiss stood up at attention from her exhausted position and Ruby continued to frown. "I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and... stay vigilant! Class dismissed!"

Weiss glared and turned away, walking hurriedly to the exit past her teammates.

Jaune Arc watched her leave and asked the question on the rest of the team's minds, "Sheesh, what's with her?"

•••

Eclipse was in the student break room on her team's floor, studying and practicing her Semblance. The girl she had dubbed Snowflake walked in but stopped in her tracks when she noticed the noirette in the room.

"Hi," Weiss said awkwardly as she watched the teen stare at her hand.

"Hi," Eclipse greeted back, not looking away from her hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Practicing."

Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"What did you come in here for?"

'Right,' Weiss mentally slapped herself for getting so easily distracted.

"One moment." She prepared Ruby's coffee then left to give it to her. Once she come back, the noirette had taken her focus away from her hand.

"What exactly were you practicing," Weiss clarified her earlier question.

"My Semblance."

"I meant to ask you about that," Weiss said. When she realized that Eclipse had calmed the Death Stalker in the forest, the white haired girl had started wondering what her Semblance actually was. "What is your Semblance?"

Eclipse sighed and closed her eyes before gesturing for her teammate to sit down. She opened her eyes again and started to speak.

"Before I tell you, you have to promise not to judge me, okay." Weiss was confused but nevertheless agreed to the odd teen's terms. Eclipse took a breath before continuing, "My Semblance is something that I haven't figured out completely yet, but I do know that I have some sort of control over the Grimm.

"Not all of them. Not yet anyways. I've gotten full control over Beowolves now, but the bigger Grimm are a bit tougher," Eclipse explained shocking the girl sitting across from her. "I'm practicing with that and there's another part of my semblance that I discovered."

She glanced at Weiss who nodded for her to continue and she let her nicer side shine through offering a smile to the nervous teen.

"I-I can create Grimm. I don't know how or.. why, but one day I created a small Beowulf like the figurines on my bookshelf." Eclipse looked down expecting the worst but instead when she glanced up again, she saw a soft smile on Weiss' face.

"It's kind of like my glyphs." Eclipse tilted her head in confusion. "The Schnee family are supposed to be able to summon Grimm that we've defeated."

Weiss paused. She really wasn't sure why she was telling her this. She didn't know Eclipse well and called her a psychopath just last night but something about her was different than the others. Warmer, even.

Familiar.

So even with her uncertainties, Weiss continued.

"I've never been able to do it. No matter how hard I tried or how long I trained, nothing worked. So l understand how... frustrating it can be, but I'm sure that one day we'll both succeed."

Once she finished Weiss smiled softly again at the other. Eclipse gave her a closed eye smile back and an idea popped into her head.

"What if we train together?"

"What?"

"Think about it. We're both striving to achieve the same thing so we could train together. I found a place in the forest that could work. So what do you say?"

Weiss looked off to the side and thought about her options. She would be able to train privately with no interruptions.

"Fine, I'll try it," she sighed out. "Tuesday at 6. Don't be late."

"Of course not." Eclipse smirked.

"Goodnight Eclipse."

"Goodnight Snowflake." Eclipse gave her a lazy wave as the door closed.

By the time that Weiss registered what Eclipse called her, she was already back in their dorm. She furrowed her brows before shrugging it off and getting ready for bed.

However back in the break room, Eclipse still had a small smirk on her face as she finished her assignment.