A/N: This chapter is kind of... well, you'll see... also, the quality of writing dropped.
Yang had made it to the classroom in time, but rather than knocking like a normal person, she rudely swung the door open without any regard to the lesson going on in the room behind. "Howdy!" She shouted, leaning against the door frame as she caught glimpse of the situation.
His body was facing towards his student with his arms folded, his neck craned to look at the blonde. The new professor was already looking at the door, strangely enough. It was as if he had known she was about to barge in any moment.
Oh well, that was nothing. Her Uncle Qrow and dad both did the same thing all the time whenever she tried sneaking up on them.
The man who was very clearly copying Ruby's fashion sense narrowed his eyes at her before turning to his new student. "You brought your team for a demonstration?"
The cloaked girl quirked a brow, turning from Archer, then to her sister and back to Archer again. "What do you me-"
Before she could get a sentence in, the other two members of her team, Blake and Weiss, came to a stop behind the blonde who was still in the doorway.
"Don't just stand there." Archer said, his tone almost sounding like an adult scolding some children. To Yang, it just seemed condescending and fueled her irritation.
Shrugging, Yang walked into the room, followed by her two other teammates who had stood in place for a few moments first. "So... Is it okay if we watch?" She asked.
"What do you think those are for?" The young teacher extended a thumb and pointed to relatively small bleachers placed at the back of the room.
Yang and the rest of her team nodded before walking over the the stack of benches. Honestly, the situation was far too awkward for her taste. She almost wished that she could have been born in one of the earlier generations, maybe one where she wouldn't have to witness a very young professor awkwardly attempt to teach people his own age. Even worse, the guy's constantly relaxed posture annoyed her for reasons she failed to understand.
Sighing, she propped her elbow up on her knee before resting her chin in her palm.
"Are you ready?" Archer questioned, opening both of his eyes to look at his student, who, much to his dismay, was only two and three quarter inches shorter than he was.
Ruby reached behind and pulled Crescent Rose out of its sheathe. Several parts began to move, gears turning and hinges spinning. Soon, the handle stretched out and allowed her hands to rest. The blade, or rather blades, had unfolded in two places. The large sharp edge of the scythe contrasted the small sharp knife at the other end of the reaper's weapon.
"Ready!" Ruby confirmed.
Archer nodded, unfolding his arms as he held them down at his sides. "Don't hold back." He ordered.
The similarly red clad girl nodded back at him, however, something still bothered her. "Aren't you going to take out yo-"
Yang's eyes widened.
Before Ruby could finish her sentence, Archer seemingly vanished.
Then, he appeared before Ruby, a single arm raised to an overhead slash as he descended toward the girl. In response, she raised Crescent Rose's handle in front to guard the attack. However, something was off about this picture, something that bothered Yang to no end.
He didn't have any weapons on him.
Ruby let out a squeal of surprise when she noticed his empty hand as it passed under her guard. That squeal came back louder, however, when she spotted the crackling of blue light coming from the palm of his hand, stretching and shaping into something she couldn't make out just yet.
Either way, it made direct contact with her abdomen.
Once the light that flashed in his hand died down, a white, cloudy Chinese falchion had taken its place, a few wisps of blue, steam-like energy dancing across the edge before sliding up and vanishing into the air.
'Where did that come from?' Yang thought. It could have been embedded into his clothing with dust, but it wasn't in his hand until after he passed Ruby's guard. That must mean... 'Maybe it's his semblance?' A glance to the left spared her the sight of Blake and Weiss' inquisitive expressions, their eyes trained on the beautiful white sword in his hand.
"That's so cool!" Ruby gushed, only to be kicked in the side when she let her guard down.
The kick just now did a number on her aura and nearly sent her into the wall. A glance to the monitor above showed Yang that it had scratched off 17% of her already damaged aura. And it was in that glance that she had noticed something peculiar.
"Where's his aura meter?" Yang found herself questioning aloud.
Blake and Weiss shifted their focus from the fight and spotted the same peculiarity.
"Maybe he doesn't need one since he's teaching instead of sparring." Blake guessed.
"That makes absolutely no sense." Weiss narrowed her eyes, the one-sided fight below the monitor recapturing her attention. "Monitoring his aura would help with teaching in several ways, why would he choose to omit that?"
Weiss' question remained unanswered as all three of them placed their full focus on the fight below.
"That's no good, Rose." Archer stated as he batted a swing away before delivering one of his own. "Focus."
And so, she did just a he ordered. Pushing back, she gave herself some breathing room and took a deep breath. Being focused in battle came easy to her, if it didn't, using both a sniper and a scythe to this level would be an impossible task.
And then she charged.
Crescent Rose was deflected once again, drawing a frustrated grunt from its owner before the pommel of the falchion sent her flying back again.
"Your focus is too shallow. Ignore anything and everything that's unnecessary to this fight, then, analyze absolutely every move your opponent makes, no matter how slight it is."
The blonde huntress in training stared at Archer incredulously. To give her sister such an impossible task on her first lesson. Even professional Huntsman and Huntresses didn't have such control over their minds until after a several years of battle experience, and even then, such a feat seemed rare.
However, it seemed that his student didn't think that the task was so impossible.
Taking his order to heart, Ruby shut out all distractions. She wasn't going to think about Archer's strange semblance, she wasn't going to acknowledge the existence of her spectators, nor was she going to focus on the ultra-cool and very beautiful sword he had been fighting her with. All that existed in this room was her and the opponent.
Almost as if she had been taken into a trance, her silver eyes glimmered for a short moment, an ultra-focused visage taking place of her usually innocent expression.
Yang's jaw dropped at the pace the fight had taken.
Archer's sword was deflected off of Crescent Rose's blade, the owner of the scythe following through with the swing before pulling the trigger once the end was behind her. In an instant, she was in her teacher's guard, the dagger end of her weapon aimed at his torso before she pulled the trigger once more.
However, the lightning fast jab was blocked by the white sword. Rather than actually landing a hit, the attack only sent him skidding back a few feet.
The blonde brawler was visibly dejected, but her sister was almost the opposite. The red reaper's concentration remained unfazed even after her attack was blocked. In fact, as the fight went on, her focus was visibly growing. Her expression became devoid of any emotion or strain as she fell into the zone, dodging, parrying and attacking.
To the left and to the right, even the back, they zipped throughout the room, their blades screeching each time they abruptly clashed together. If the spectators were blind, they would be very confused over the noises happening in completely different places, despite it being only less than a second between clashes.
Yang wanted to cheer for her sister, tell her to kick Archer's butt or something along that line, but she held her tongue for fear that she might break Ruby out of her fighting trance.
It was almost like their leader's state of ultra focus was contagious, as the spectators had been unable to take their eyes off of the blade dance being performed below.
She had never seen her sister fight this well, it was surprising to say the least. If anyone had any doubts about the fifteen year old skipping ahead to join Beacon, now would be the point where such doubts would be cast aside.
Letting out a grunt of effort, Ruby dragged her scythe across the ground, firing a shot and delivering an upward swing. Sparks and dust followed her swinging arc and a shock wave was evident by the furious dancing of both hers and Archer's capes. The rhythmical dance of dodge and attack they had been doing up until now ending abruptly.
Then it happened.
Archer had just barely sidestepped the attack, his arm outstretched with the cloudy short blade, ready to launch another counter attack at any moment of his choosing.
It had rarely happened a few times before, but now was one of those rare moments. For a split second, from her vantage point on the bench, Yang had caught a glimpse of something she never really liked to see.
Ruby's eyes were wide open, her brows furrow and the corners of her lips curved downward in a defeated frown. The expression sent shivers down Yang's spine, it was very much telling of the hopelessness she had felt at that very moment.
Everyone had held their breaths, waiting for the attack to hit. Ruby herself had even seemed to freeze up, unwilling to move in the face of inevitable defeat.
Did she even get a single hit in?
However, much to everyone's surprise, Archer's sword disappeared into wisps of blue lights. "That's enough." He said, snapping everyone out of their shared daze. Turning on his steel-plated heel, he made his way to the center of the room before stopping and turning back to the girl he had been fighting. "Cheer up, you weren't half bad." Archer added, his expression unchanged in spite of his compliment.
Regardless, Ruby nodded, her usual innocent smile taking place of her frown as she sheathed her scythe.
"Catch, Rubes!" Yang shouted, causing the girl to glance in her direction.
By then, it was too late.
The bottle of water had hit the girl dead center of her face.
"Ow..." Ruby muttered on the way down to the ground, a trail of blood following her nose.
The pitcher jumped over the layers of benches, shouting a series of apologies on the way down before making it to her sister, who by the way, was sprawled out on the ground with a nose bleed.
"Ruby, talk to me!" Yang yelled. "How many fingers am I holding up?!"
"I told you, I can't eat anymore cookies, Weiss..."
Yang made the scene more dramatic by acting as if Ruby had died, while the heiress who had been mentioned furrowed her brow in short lived bout of disturbed confusion.
After a few minutes, Ruby had recovered from her delusions. Standing up, she reached for the cap of the water bottle, but was stopped before she could open it.
Archer held out a red handkerchief, which she gratefully accepted, wiping the blood off of her face before handing it back to him and downing the entire bottle of water in one go.
"Ruby, you were awesome in that fight!" Yang broke the silence, acting as if a dramatic scene hadn't broken out three minutes ago.
Weiss huffed, folding her arms before looking at her leader. "Your capability to follow the professor's advice to such an extent is exemplary."
The miniature celebration was stopped before it could even truly be started.
"It's alright to get excited over a small victory, but you've just barely scratched the surface of what I have to teach you." Archer commented.
Yang rolled her eyes. "Because you have much to teach her?"
"I do."
Archer's reply was less than satisfactory to the blonde.
"Look, not to be rude or anything, but I can't be the only one who thinks it's weird for you to be a professor here." She said.
"Of course not, because then you'd be original."
The blonde grit her teeth in irritation. She was looking for a legitimate answer, but he was just provoking her. Then again, her remarks weren't even proper questions, but it was still a form of inquiry. Any decent professor in his place would have actually tried to justify their own situation. And the way he nonchalantly stood with his arms folded and eyes closed pissed Yang off in a way she couldn't understand. It was like he was saying that he would rather be anywhere else without actually saying it.
"With all due respect, Professor, I agree with my teammate. I don't know what the headmaster was thinking when he hired someone so young. It would only discourage students to learn from you. Well, most of them." Weiss added, glancing at Ruby.
"If it helps, I'm actually older than all of you." Archer spoke, drawing out a glare from Yang and a pair of narrowed eyes from Blake. Ruby however, was not shocked by such a revelation considering that it didn't affect her. "That aside, the headmaster knew exactly what he was doing."
"Please. Enlighten us." Said Weiss.
"Pride."
Archer's statement changed the atmosphere completely. A single word that was followed by a lingering silence. Everyone's thoughts were being tortured by that one word repeating itself over and over, they already knew where this was going and they didn't exactly like it.
"How can you call yourself a Huntress if your pride gets in the way of improving yourself?" His words sunk in and more silence filled the air, no one willing to respond. "If you remain weak, you won't be able to save anyone, no matter how hard you try. Then, at the end of it all, you'll have no excuse for the amount of lives that were lost due to your incompetence. There will even be times where such a thing simply gets in the way of victory even if you're strong. Huntsmen and Huntresses have to toss their pride out the window if they have any hope of being saving anyone. If you can't do that, then you should give up now and find another career path, because you aren't worthy."
The rapier wielder clenched her fists, her nails nearly drawing blood. Her eyes were wide as her gaze bore into the red haired man...
But for a split second, it almost felt as if she were staring past him.
"Ozpin probably thought he could kill two birds with one stone by hiring me."
Weiss had discarded her manners and glowered at Archer. Even though both of his eyes were closed, and he shouldn't have been able to see it, the action seemed to prompt his next sentence.
"Unlike last time," Archer began, opening one of his eyes to halfheartedly return eye contact with the heiress. "He may actually be wrong."
Yang narrowed her eyes.
Just how did he know about that?
Did he read up on team RWBY's shaky history? No, that couldn't be possible. If he had done something like that, it would mean that it was on team RWBY's file or something, for anyone who had access to see. Either that, or it was common knowledge or talk among the staff, but the first guess seemed more likely. Craning her head to the left, she saw Weiss's glare deepen. It would seem that she had come to the same realization.
Ruby laughed nervously, stepping in between Archer and Yang. "So... Professor uh... Archer... what's next?" She asked, blatantly attempting to change the subject.
Archer rested his eyes, ignoring the presence of the two girls who hated him the most at the moment. "Just call me 'Archer'. As for your question, that's for to-"
The sound of his voice was interrupted by the ringing of a scroll.
Standing close by, it was obvious to everyone who's scroll it was.
"Ah, do you need to take that?" Ruby asked politely.
"No need." Archer replied. "That wasn't a call, it was an alert. Your teammate made an appointment to spar against me."
Even Blake's stoic expression was disturbed at the revelation.
If Yang recalled correctly, there were three advertised reasons to take up Archer's class. To learn how to make the most out of every battle experience and eventually use it to guide the flow and outcome to your favor, to host a sparring session between you and another classmate, and finally, to simply spar against him in an actual fight to test your own skills.
The blonde brawler held back the urge to curse, and a quick glance to side showed her that Blake was probably doing the same. It was made worse by the fact that the challenge was most likely issued out of pride.
Why did Weiss feel the constant need to prove herself? Just what was she after? Honestly, Yang was just hoping to call the guy a 'jerk' and leave it at that, never return to his classroom, only ever spotting him during lunch or in the halls on occasion, but she felt as if that were now a far off dream.
While the Yang of one hour ago would have disagreed, the Yang of now would begrudgingly admit that Archer was most likely stronger than all of them, considering how easily he dodged Ruby's high speed attacks, never even taking a single hit.
"Are you sure?" Archer questioned.
Weiss nodded. "I've made up my mind."
Archer smiled wryly, turning away from the group as he began to walk towards the exit. "If you're that eager to lose, you should challenge the invincible girl to a fight. I'm sure she'd be delighted to oblige."
"You're kind of a jerk, you know?" Yang called out at his retreating figure.
"I don't care." Archer replied, his pace not slowing. "I didn't come here to make friends." His hand grasping the doorknob, he turned it and soon found himself on the other side of the door.
Followed by the slam of the door was Yang's tired voice.
"Man, I hate that guy." She commented.
"I like him." Ruby said, drawing out stares from both her sister and Weiss, and from the back, Blake facepalmed. "He was super cool, alright! He made a really pretty sword from nothing and beat me up with it! Plus, we have matching outfits!"
"That's no reason to ignore every other bad thing about him, you moron!" Weiss yelled.
Ruby smiled nervously. "Well... you guys were kind of being mean to him..."
Both the heiress and the brawler's gazes burned into the little red reaper as she looked to her stoic teammate for help.
Blake sighed. "I agree with Ruby." Once the focus shifted to her, she elaborated. "Even if his remarks were a little overkill, you two technically initiated the conflict."
"Are you telling me you wouldn't mind having a professor the exact same age as you?" Yang questioned, not really caring about his age at this point, asking more out of curiosity than anything.
"Ah, he's actually older..." Ruby added, causing Weiss to roll her eyes while Blake and Yang ignored her.
"I wouldn't." Her remark sat in the air for a few seconds before she continued. "Ruby isn't a pushover. Watching her fight against him, it's clear to see that we could learn a lot from him. I'm not going to treat him the way everyone else does just because he earned that kind of position at his age."
Yang clicked her tongue. She hated being in a position where she was mostly wrong, but hated the other party to the point where it felt like they were in the wrong. Regardless, she was a little too old to linger on something like that for too long.
"I guess you're right, but he's still annoying."
The rest of the next few seconds were spent in awkward silence.
It was then that Yang realized that they were still in Archer's classroom despite the man in question having been gone for some time now.
"Weiss?..." Ruby broke the silence. "You okay?"
The girl mentioned took a deep breath, breaking out of her daze before acknowledging her allies. "No Ruby. I'm not okay." She replied, shocking the young girl. "And I won't be okay until I poke several hundred holes into our new professor with Myrtenaster." Weiss then proceeded to leave the room, leaving everyone else in awkward silence once again.
Ruby chuckled nervously and followed after her teammate while Yang shrugged, opting to do the same.
However, in the large, empty room, Blake lingered for a few more seconds.
She found herself wondering what exactly it was that Archer wished to achieve here. His snarky attitude, as well as his previous statement, told her that he wasn't here to socialize. At the very least, he didn't necessarily hate people in general, otherwise he wouldn't have treated Ruby the way he did. And more important to Blake, he didn't hate the faunus.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have helped one of them in the cafeteria.
Ruby casually strolled down the halls, a visible skip in her step as she thought about what she would learn the next day. Even if Archer had told her that she didn't even do much in their first lesson, she still felt as if she had accomplished a great feat. She had never been that entranced in a single fight before.
Looking back, it was also strange. A whole slew of things happened after she had followed the advice.
Her sister and the rest of her team had disappeared.
The entire room, save for the middle of the floor, had become swallowed in darkness.
Everything had lost color, yet Archer gleamed a sharp red.
It all moved in slow motion, but she still couldn't land a single hit. Their was something strange about the way that he fought, something that made Ruby swear to defeat him one day, even if that day was far off.
On another note, she would have to figure out how he made that awesome sword. The sword that was so beautiful, it became a major distraction for her at the start of the battle. If it was his semblance, then it was the coolest semblance ever, even if it was still very much unclear how it worked.
"Just tell us already!"
Ruby zipped over to the corner, peaking around the wall before catching a glimpse of the racket ahead.
Velvet stared at the ground in silence, not willing to reply.
"The fact that she isn't saying anything means she's got some info." Said Sky.
"Come on already!" Cardin shouted. "We'll leave ya alone if you just tell us who threw it."
Turning the corner, Ruby propelled herself forward with her semblance. "Stop!" She shouted, skidding to a halt in front of the bunny faunus, arms outstretched to the sides. "Leave her alone!"
This time for sure, Ruby would protect Velvet. At the cafeteria she was waiting for an opening, a moment appropriate for her to step in, but...
Huntsmen and Huntresses have to toss their pride out the window if they have any hope of being saving anyone.
This time for sure...
"Get out of the way." Cardin demanded, attempting to shove Ruby.
Ruby however, remained in place in spite of the action. "If you don't leave, I-... I'll... uh..."
The leader of team CRDL quirked a brow. "You'll what?"
"I'll throw a ladle at you!" She shouted.
Her words echoed throughout the halls. The shocked expression on Cardin's face hid the internal debate held within his mind. The rest of his team had looks ranging from surprised to irritated and full on disappointed.
It was an obvious sore spot for Cardin. Having received a bone fracture from a serving instrument that seemingly came from nowhere caused him to be the laughingstock of the entire academy. Soon enough, stories began to spread about the legendary ladle with a mind of its own, coming to life every five days to defeat the evil Cardin Winchester.
Of course, no one actually thought the legend was real, but the fact remained that Cardin was defeated by a ladle.
One time, someone had even thrown one at him in the halls, causing him to flinch before it softly bounced off of his chest.
"You're so gonna get it now!" He shouted, grabbing the short girl by the shoulders, attempting to get a good enough grip to throw her.
The rosy reaper was stronger than she looked, her retaliation coming in the form of ramming into the bully and wrestling him to the ground.
"Um... Please stop..." Velvet pleaded. Such pleas fell on deaf ears, due to it being far too quiet and neither party willing to give up.
"I'm telling you, Cardin!" Ruby yelled, holding one of his arm close to her with both of hers as she kicked at the other. "I'll run to the kitchen and get a ladle! And you know I can be back here in two seconds!" Her remark seemingly backfired as Cardin only got angrier, and therefore stronger.
However, before Ruby could be tossed into a nearby wall, the two were interrupted.
"What's going on over here?" A voice questioned, the authority laced in the tone causing both parties to freeze on the ground.
"Uh..." Ruby remained still as she glanced up at the newcomer, her boot still pressed against the bully's face. "Arc-!"
"She attacked me!" Claimed the leader of team CRDL.
"What?! That's not what happened! Tell him!" She shouted at Velvet, feeling a small pang of guilt when her rabbit ears flinched in slight irritation.
The bunny in question glanced at Archer, then to Ruby. "He attacked her first." She said.
"Cardin," The red clad professor began, glaring at the boy and his team. "If you're caught assaulting someone again, you're without a doubt, going to be expelled."
"You're just going to take her word for it?!" He cried, prying the small huntress in training's foot off of his cheek before standing up.
Archer scowled. "Unfortunately for you, her claims are backed by evidence." He replied, pointing to the security camera near the far end of the hall.
Even if he hadn't looked at the footage at the moment, to Ruby at least, Archer always seemed to know everything, which by the way, included the obvious.
"Your punishment will be decided later. Return to your dorm rooms."
With quiet grumbling, team CRDL sped past the young professor and left the halls.
As soon as they were gone, Archer spoke up.
"You."
Velvet turned at the sound of his voice aimed in her general direction.
"Next time you're being bullied, get a professor."
The bunny eared faunus nodded. "Is... is he really going to be expelled?"
"Don't worry, Cardin's only getting expelled if he hurts someone again, right?" Ruby said, looking to Archer for confirmation.
"I don't know." He replied. "Regardless, he'll think twice before doing it again."
"Wait... you were bluffing?!" The cloaked girl questioned. Quietly, she promised to raise Archer's place on her list of the coolest people she knew.
Her question remained unanswered, most likely due to how obvious the answer was.
Turning around, Archer made to leave. "The two of you should get some rest. It's getting late."
Eyes trained on his retreating figure, Ruby could only scold herself for forgetting to ask about that super cool sword. Turning around, she spotted the rabbit faunus staring at the door that had concealed Archer's form as it closed.
"Ah, sorry for causing trouble." She apologized, raising a hand to scratch the back of her head. "Anyway, have a good night!" Turning around, she made to leave.
"Wait!"
Spinning on her heel, Ruby made eye contact with the girl.
"Thanks." She said.
Ruby smiled at her before turning around to leave again.
With any luck, no one would find out about this incident. Otherwise, Yang wouldn't let her hear the end of it.
A/N: Er... I don't really like this chapter...
At first, I thought it was bad simply because I'd been writing all day, but it really was in Dal's outline... Maybe I didn't EXECUTE it right?... I know I said I'll not renovate any of this until the season ends, but I might make an exception for this chapter.
And before anyone talks about Ruby being out of character, for the second scene, I'd agree, but Dal did a soft rewrite of most of the characters, so I actually don't know what OOC even is in this loophole anymore. In fact, he also rewrote a lot of RWBY just because he didn't like it after volume 3, so there's that. Sadly, most of the planning from this point on is up to me now. Anyway, there are things we need to address.
First, Marx Avian II's critique is legit. He said moon cell by mistake, but his point still stands. This story isn't logical in major plot developments. Shout out to him.
It's going to change, but that seems to be a little bit far into the future. Unfortunately, I didn't have any time to plan the rewriting of this story, so I can't actually do so until it's on break or something. Now, there's another review that needs to be addressed. I'm going to take a page from Dal's book and quote it.
Any hardcore reader of this story, please don't attack this guy if you disagree with him. Be civil and calm.
Reviewer: "Nothing changed."
Slatyr: Of course not, it was only a 3000 word chapter.
Reviewer: "Just like all the other Authors out there, you make Archer Jaune's Teacher."
Slatyr: No I didn't. Archer literally banned Jaune from his class because he sucked.
Reviewer: "From there I can guess where your fic will take after that."
Slatyr: Oh no, we have a detective on our hands. He's figured me out to a T. Might as well pack up my bags and leave since he can predict my entire plot. Curses... he's probably going to leak spoilers as well. I hate to say this, guys, but we may all be at his mercy.
Reviewer: "Dude, some originality would be nice."
Slatyr: Well, I couldn't agree more, but what can ya do?
Anyway, this chapter was weird as heck, but I honestly can't tell if I'm the only one who thinks so. See ya.