BLCK

IX

It was the day of the entrance exam, and we armoured up quite quickly. As I walked through the hall to the cliff, I spied Ruby and wondered over.
"Hello again Ruby, how was your sleep?"
"It was amazing because you were in it." Mimicked Yang.
"Oh dear lord..." muttered Ruby, "thanks for that Yang, could you like, go away now?"
"Sure!" Yang then turned to me. "Man she's hooked! I swear if you ever cheat on her..."
I growled before replying, "get your mind out the gutter! We're not even in a relationship! Hell, we've only known each other for a single day!"
"Sure... " she replied with half lidded eyes, "and I'm a Grimm. Whelp, see ya at the cliffs!" And with that, she was gone.
I turned back to a scarlet Ruby.
"Are you okay?" I ventured.
"Y-yes..." she trailed off
I sighed before replacing my helmet. "I truly apologise for distracting you, Ruby," I then noticed her weapon, "what weapon is that?"
She immediately brightened as she unfolded her weapon. My eyes widened. It was a scythe. She remembered. "This is my beauty, Crescent Rose! I made her and she's mine!"
I nodded, I unhooked Soul Reaper from my back. "I too am a scythe-wielder, this is Soul Reaper. I got the idea of a scythe when I studied the most ancient warriors. What about you?"
"I-I had a promise to keep to a friend..."
I fought the urge to yell, it's me! I'm the friend! I saved you that day! I remembered my promise!
"Wow, you signed your entire future as a huntress over to a friends request?"
"He saved my life, and wherever he is, I wish him the best..." her small round face fell as she grew more sombre. I broke in and snapped her out of her reverie.
"Alright, let's get to the cliffs, I'm sure they're all waiting for us."
We walked out, I spied Weiss talking with a renowned fighter, Pyrrha Nikos, and the aptly named 'sick boy'. She saw me and waved, as I responded with a nod, and then we were outside. I looked down at the massive valley before me and took my place on one of the springboards. Ozpin began his explanation as the rest filed in.
"...the first person you make eye-contact with shall be your partner for the next five years..."
Then I had to make this count.
And then I was flying. I used my semblance as I fell, morphing the earth so it came to me, I landed on the outcrop of earth before dropping my semblance, and then I was standing on normal earth as everything returned to normal.
I looked around and saw most of the initiates had landed, but amongst the few still flying was Lydia. I marked her as she fell, before hurrying to her drop-site. As I arrived, I helped her stand before turning away to find an entire horde of Ursai. With a thin smile, I walked into battle, but these were stupid beasts and were simply slaughtered as they made contact with Soul Reaper. I barely saw Lydia, but knew she was fine, she was one to tantrum when things did not go her way, and nobody could ever drown out or mistake such a sound. I killed the last Ursa as I continued to walk through the clearing, I had simply strolled through the Grimm, I walked as I fought, I never ran, death never had to, it would always get you in the end.
I finally arrived at the clearing where Charles and Kristophe awaited me. I took the black knight piece as I arrived, before wheeling round to return to the cliffs. My team closed in around me and we made our way back without incident. No Grimm would come near us, we didn't radiate fear, to the contrary, we created the fear that others felt. It was our jobs.
We were the first group to arrive as we found handed in our matching chess pieces. Neither Ozpin nor Glynda made any comment towards our choice of piece. Instead, he was focussed on an ensuing battle between eight initiates and a nevermore and a deathstalker. I watched as the deathstalker was dispatched then turned to Ruby's team as the nevermore was pinned against the wall by Weiss's ice whilst the Belladonna stretched the rope of her weapon across two pillars and Ruby jumped on it, stretching the rope and forming a human slingshot, Weiss formed a glyph, holding Ruby in place. Their teamwork was admirable. I then watched as Ruby was thrown to the cliff face, her scythe hooking into the nevermore's neck. Weiss created a line of glyphs up the cliff face, as Ruby used her sniper to grant her further momentum, dragging the nevermore up the cliff by its neck. As she reached the top, she tugged one last time and beheaded the nevermore.
I felt a surge of pride as I watched the two young girls i once knew fight. Such strength, such power.
Well done, you two.
The entrance exam was over.

"...Introducing team BLCK, lead by Brutus Maul." I felt Lydia elbow me as Kristophe places his hand on my shoulder. Charles just grinned.
I watched as the other teams were announced. Team CRDL led by Cardin, team JNPR lead by puke-boy Jaune Arc and finally, team RWBY led by Ruby, this consisted of herself, Weiss, Blake Belladonna and her sister Yang.
I congratulated the teams as they walked past and gave Weiss a hug, before we were ushered off to our rooms. I sighed, this assignment would be much harder than I originally thought.
-How was your entrance exam today?
-not bad, miss Fall, I think I may have got a couple of maths questions wrong.
A pause, then
-How was it overall?
-I'm currently laying in my dormitory room within Beacon down the hall from teams RWBY and JNPR
-excellent, I wish to see you tomorrow evening
-your will be done.