Killing Demons

Fight to Win

Leone moved into action rapidly, rushing straight for Erza in an attempt to catch her off guard. Fist raised, Leone moved to punch Erza in the head, the redhead easily parrying. Leone swept at Erza’s leg, missing – just as she’d expected – and jerked her leg up to aim for Erza’s head once more. Erza caught Leone’s leg, sending a hard punch spiralling into the faunus’ gut with her other hand. Leone took the hit gracefully, sending a kick to Erza's knee with the same leg that was formally caught in an iron grip. Erza jumped back immediately, dodging the punch that was coming for her head once again.

She prepared to move again, only to pause in her steps, staring at Leone's gut. There seemed to be steam emanating from it, sizzling. Erza decided to wait it out to see what would happen, carefully surveying the scene before her.

“Impressive, right?” Leone smiled smugly, cracking her neck from side to side, “been able to do that since I got Lionelle.”

“Your Teigu?”

“Yeah, cool right?”

Erza chuckled, resting her right foot forward as she lowered herself towards the ground; sword flat and pointed towards Leone, “yeah. I have something pretty cool too.”

Leone smirked, knocking her arms together – to form an ‘x’ – twice, “bring it.”

Face going blank, Erza charged at Leone, raising her sword to swing down upon Leone’s head. Leone saw it, moving to block with one hand, keeping her other near her stomach – Erza vanished, suddenly appearing behind Leone, sword swinging towards her back. Leone jumped into the air, flipping onto one hand and vaulting away. She raised her arms to block Erza’s next incoming attack as she landed on her feet, barely managing to stop the fast strike. And then she felt herself being weighed down; her body being forced to the ground.

“What the-” Leone cut herself off as a sword was pointed at her neck.

Erza smiled, removing the sword and the red magic circle beneath Leone. “Gravity magic,” she said, by way of explanation. “This match wasn’t entirely fair to you. It’s obvious, unlike me, that you don’t have your usual equipment. You kept using your arms to block parts of your body rather than dodging completely, choosing to rely on your regeneration. Unwise.”

“Miss Scarlet is correct,” Professor Goodwitch added, clapping her hands as she stepped forwards. “But well done nonetheless, both of you. Although I didn't see very much, I can already see great potential. I see why Professor Ozpin felt it necessary to enrol you both. Take this opportunity to reflect. Miss Night and Miss Strauss,” she paused, turning to the two girls sitting in the stands, “you’re up next.”

Erza reached out an arm to Leone who took it with a grin. The two girls walked to the stands, Leone high-fiving Akame in the progress.

Mira and Akame stood at the centre of the arena, squaring off. Akame had taken a katana from the backroom that had a red and white sheath that seemed to fit her perfectly.

“Are you both ready?” Professor Goodwitch asked the two as they prepared themselves, putting themselves in a defensive mind-set.

“Yes,” Mira replied with an easy smile. Akame nodded, withdrawing the katana from its sheath attached to her belt.

Professor Goodwitch stepped away from the arena, “then you may proceed.”

Mira launched first, transforming into a leopard with white bangs, she lunged at Akame. Akame dodged the vicious bite aimed at her right forearm with ease. She then brought her sword down onto Mira’s head. Mirajane transformed once more, the purple smoke temporarily obscuring Akame’s vision. But it was enough. Mira had vanished once the smoke cleared, until Akame squealed, shaking her shoes. A little white mouse popped out, quickly growing in size once more. Mira stood in its place, raising a quickly transforming arm and launching a punch at Akame’s face. Akame dodged, swinging her sword hard at Mira’s gut. Mira blocked it with her arm, grabbing Akame’s sword and pulling it harshly towards her and Akame with it. Akame’s surprise was evident as she failed to block the hard punch that came at her face, her head knocking back at the force.

Unlike what Mira had expected, Akame’s head snapped back quickly, her sword continuing with their momentum and bashing into Mira’s stomach with the hilt. Mira gasped, trying to protect her stomach from further hits and releasing the katana. The girl in black moved quickly, appearing behind Mira in milliseconds and aiming for her left side. Mira blocked, realising too late it was a fake and found herself on the ground with a hard hit to her right side.

“Match over. The winner is Miss Night.”

Akame sheathed her sword and held out her now empty hand to Mira which she gratefully took, clambering back to her feet.

“I’m glad to see all four of you have accessed your auras and so no one was too badly injured. You’ll all be ready to join main classes by the competition for certain. It’s next week yesterday, Tuesday to be precise. You should join normal classes Monday but no fighting, simply observing. I want you all to see semblances in action. Take Saturday and Sunday to reflect over everything you will learn over the course of the rest of this week. I will help the four of you to coordinate and master working as a team with Miss Strauss as your leader. Team MEAL will be made official on Monday in which you will be announced to the rest of the school. Until then, abstain from revealing who you are and what you’re doing. Keep your heads down.”

The four girls shared a look at Professor Goodwitch’s words, all silently wondering as to why they were needing to keep a low profile (you know, aside from the obvious).

“Professor Goodwitch,” Erza spoke up, asking what they were all thinking, “why keep a low profile? I mean, sure we came from other worlds but what are the chances that someone will figure that out?”

“One day, you will return to your worlds. On that day, you cannot leave behind a trail. If everyone knows you – remembers you – if you all suddenly vanished, what sort of questions do you think will be raised? I cannot and will not put this school’s reputation at risk and neither will any of you.” Arms crossed under her bust and stern glare in her eyes, she was an intimidating figure to say the least.

“Understood,” the redhead replied.

After that, they had listened to Ms Goodwitch explain about semblances. They were powers unique to each person that could be considered their special ability, one that was meant to tip any favours in their odds. A semblance also often related to your personality which made it all the more tailored to each individual.

The school's goal was to train their semblances so that they could better blend in. Or at least, that's what they were calling their magical abilities and Teigu powers. Leone's amazing healing ability, Erza being able to manifest weapons and clothing at will, Mira being able to transform various parts and the entirety of her body at will and, well, unfortunately; no one knew what Akame could do yet. Not that she really needed it (her mastery of swords and physical prowess being more than a suitable substitute). It was more just for added help – as was the intended purpose of semblances. Professor Goodwitch wanted them to participate and win the exhibition match. Despite asking for them to keep a low profile, she still wanted to see if they had the potential of becoming their top students (talk about hypocritical).  The four girls left with their blood pumping through their veins, their hearts racing in excitement for what was to come as they headed to their next period.

The History of Remnant class did well in dampening their excitement, all but Erza who was fascinated the most in understanding this new world’s fundamentals. The others listened because of common sense. If they wanted to understand this world, they would need to pay attention.

Mira smiled as she watched Leone sneakily pass a note back to Yang. Looking at Weiss, she saw that she too had noticed but unlike Mira, she wasn’t amused. The teacher at the front of the class – Professor Bartholomew Oobleck – was speaking about the war between Human and Faunas (Weiss’ warning for Leone made a lot more sense now) as he wrote with chalk on the board, back turned. He was speaking just a little too fast for Mira to truly understand but she was getting the gist of it. It actually reminded her of the previous War of Worlds back in Earthland – when demons still waged wars against humanity. After all, no matter what world you were in, greed and conflict always remained. Erza seemed to be looking over Blake’s shoulder at something she was doodling, the two getting on well, looking up every once in a while, at the teacher. Akame and Ruby were sneakily munching on gummy bears from under the table, giggling to themselves. Mira frowned at them, turning to look back at Professor Oobleck. He was now zipping around the front of the classroom as he picked up various objects, setting them up on the table.

“Now then, think about war like this.” Oobleck pointed to the red hard cover book and the green hard cover book which were both stood up at opposite ends of the table. He then brought out a beaker filled with water, spilling it out onto the table. The little bit of water didn’t reach either book and stopped moving. “Red is humanity, green is faunas and the water – the Grimm. Notice that the water will at some point become stagnant and both sides;” he pushed both books down so they now lay flat on the table, closer; “as much as both sides clash, they will join to fight a common foe, unless, however, that foe is pushed back far enough. In this case, humanity felt that after pushing back the Grimm siege for a while, it meant that they could go back to fighting with the faunas. The faunas defended themselves until it become less about defending and more about revenge. Certain, but not all, wanted to do to us humans what we, not all, had done to them. Those caught in-between on both sides continue to fight for the rights of all just as we at the academy do. Others, extremists, will radicalise anyone they can with whatever justice they can so that they can hold all of the power and all of the control-” The school bell rung, signifying the end of the period, “and as they say the rest is history. You are all dismissed.”

Team RWBY and team MEAL stood and exited the class together, on their way to their next shared class where they would meet Jaune. Mira found herself walking beside Yang who, as it turned out, could be rather calm and mature when she wanted to be. Ignoring Yang’s sister, Ruby, telling them to stop being old, they talked about their families. It seemed Blake was the only person on the team without a sibling, whereas Mira was the only person on Team MEAL with siblings. Yang never met her mother, but Ruby’s mother had unfortunately passed away when she was still a young child. Their father, Taiyang, did his absolute best to raise them alongside Qrow, their Uncle. Mira couldn’t help but think he’d done an excellent job.

Arriving at the class listed Grimm Studies in their scrolls, they walked in and took seats near Team JNPR, greeting them on the way. The man at the front of the room smiled, a rather small man with gold piping on his burgundy suit, and began teaching. His name was listed as Professor Port on their timetable.

All of Team MEAL listened closely to this class, recognising it as being a discussion about the monsters they had encountered upon their arrival earlier that faithful day. Grimm: creatures born from the darkness that followed negative emotions. Anger, jealously, hate, and most especially – fear.

The thought alone (ironically) terrified Mira and that was saying something considering she had seen some scary shit (and was part demon, but that’s old news). But now, more than ever, fear was truly their enemy.