Breathe Chapter 51: Headway

Leaning back in my chair, watching Pyrrha and Winter’s sleeping forms, I glanced out the window to see the sun begin to rise. It wouldn’t be much longer before they woke up.

It was interesting... Week? Yeah, week. It was a little difficult to tell how much time had passed when I’d been awake for most of the week, only taking a few brief naps to offset my exhaustion.

It wasn’t all bad though, I’d made massive progress with my Aura, having managed to progress it to level 99 in a surprisingly short amount of time. I guess that’s what happened when I was able to devote several nights to experiment with my Aura. I just needed one more push to master it.

Having seen how Ozpin used his Aura in our previous spar, I had a few ideas on what might push it over the threshold. Doing that, however, would have to wait for some other time.

Stretching as she woke, Pyrrha’s eyes snapped open, staring up at the ceiling as she slowly came to. Humming softly, she rolled onto her side and smiled. “Morning.”

“Good morning to you too,” I said, giving her a knowing smile. “Sleep well?”

“Hmmm, yep,” Pyrrha replied. “I don’t think I woke up at...” She suddenly sat up. “You didn’t wake me up.”

“I didn’t,” I hummed.

“Then... I did it?” She guessed.

“You did. Congra... Guh.”

Throwing herself out of her bed, Pyrrha tackled me into my chair, causing it to slide back a little as she pulled me into a tight hug. Pulling back, she stared down at me for a few moments, before lowering her head to mine.

Wrapping an arm around her waist, I leaned up and met her in a kiss that only lasted a few moments before we separated.

“I’m sorry, I... I guess I just got a little too excited,” Pyrrha apologized, blushing lightly.

Reaching up with my free hand, I gently palmed her face with my free hand. “There’s really nothing to apologize for, Pyrrha.”

Leaning into my hand, Pyrrha smiled. A few moments passed, before she moved closer. Her hair draped over our faces as she stared into my eyes, before kissing me once more. Humming lightly, she grabbed onto my arms and shifted forward onto my lap, until...

“Ahem,” Winter coughed lightly from her bed.

Eyes snapping open, Pyrrha, in a panic, threw herself off my lap. Stumbling as she got to her feet, her face matched the colour of her hair as she stared at Winter, who, judging by the dusting of pink on her cheeks, was a little embarrassed herself.

“I... I... That is to say,” Pyrrha struggled to find the right words. Glancing towards the door, she ripped it open with her Semblance and darted out of the room. “I think I’ll go get a quick shower, bye!”

Reaching out towards the spot Pyrrha had been standing, Winter sighed and dropped her hand.

“Sorry about that,” I apologized. “I... We shouldn’t have done that with you in the room.”

Winter shook her head. “No, it’s alright. Compared to our last mission, some kissing is hardly anything to be embarrassed about. I merely wanted to make my presence known in order to keep from startling the two of you. It seems I’ve failed at that... At least where Pyrrha is concerned.”

That was true, we had shared our body heat with minimal clothing, or in Winter’s case, none whatsoever.

“Last night you only woke me a single time,” Winter said, changing the subject. “Does that mean I failed again?”

“Well, seeing as it was only the once when you first fell asleep and that you’re still using Total Concentration Breathing without any conscious effort, I’d say that you’ve mastered it,” I hummed. “Congratulations.”

Although she’d begun her training a little after Pyrrha and she had a few issues with relaxing her body, she’d put all her efforts into mastering Total Concentration Breathing and had made massive leaps in progress, fighting to keep up with Pyrrha. The amount of progress they’d been able to make really was quite impressive.

Winter smiled softly. Looking at her hands, she swiped it in front of her, forming several glyphs, each materializing a different kind of Grimm. Dispersing them, she looked up. “What happens now?”

“Now...” I began. “Your training begins for real.”

Taking another one of Ozpin’s missions might be just the thing to start us off... Although I might need to take a look and see what kind of Grimm we’d be facing next time. I didn’t want a repeat of what happened with the last Grimm.

I just needed to check in with Ruby first and see how far she was with Pyrrha and Winter’s weapons. Slipping my Scroll into my hand, I began paging through my contacts, looking for Ruby.

Finding her, I sent a message asking if Pyrrha and Winter’s weapons would be ready soon. I was just about to put my Scroll back in my pocket, before I suddenly got a response from her in the form of a thumbs up, before it showed that she was typing another message.

Checking the time, I raised an eyebrow.She was awake much earlier than I thought she’d be, even though it wasn’t that early.

...Breathe...

Falling into her seat alongside her team, Yang made sure that Ruby got into her own seat, before turning her attention downward, towards their professor for the class... Glynda Goodwitch.

The week since they’d begun training under Coal had been... Well, it hadn’t been what she’d expected. The training they were doing was almost entirely focused on mastering their breathing and they’d only recently been allowed to do some light sparring with one another. It’d been boring to say the least.

Although, she could kind of understand why they were taking it so slow. Using Total Concentration Breathing left them all more than a little light headed. If they hadn’t spent the week working on getting used to the breathing pattern, well, Yang doubted she’d be able to keep it up while fighting.

Outside of their evening training session, their time at Beacon had been fairly average. They spent their day attending Oobleck’s lectures on history, learning how to combat the various kinds of Grimm in Port’s classes and sparring with one another in Glynda’s.

Hearing a thud and Weiss begin to mutter something under her breath, Yang turned to see that Ruby had fallen asleep again.

That was one thing that had changed since starting Beacon.

Weiss had taken it on herself to be more active in their team, primarily helping Ruby with her duties as the team leader along with her studies. She’d even offered to help Yang and Blake with their school work. It had mixed reactions. Yang was all for it once exams came around, but Blake on the other hand didn’t appear as enthused.

Blake mainly kept to herself, but was open to talking to Ruby and Yang. When it came to Weiss, she seemed to actively avoid the heiress. It was odd because Yang had heard her listening to Weiss’ music on more than one occasion. Hell, she’d even seen her mouthing the lyrics to the song when she thought no one was paying attention.

It hadn’t caused any issues yet, so Yang wasn’t overly worried about it.

At the end of the day, it was still a school and they were students. It wasn’t bad, but knowing what was out there... Who was out there, it seemed a little pointless.

Who cares about what happened during some battle a hundred years ago or who signed what document after the Great War when there’s a shadow war between a seemingly immortal headmaster and a human Grimm hybrid that’s actively trying to put an end to humanity and might be the one responsible for their mom’s death?!

“Psst, hey... Yang.”

Humming softly, Yang turned around to see Nora sitting in the seat behind her alongside Ren. “Hey, what’s up?”

Her other two teammates sat a little further back. She wasn’t sure of what to make of team ACRN. Nora and Ren seemed nice enough, but the other two... Jaune didn’t seem like a bad guy, just kind of passive. Cardin on the other hand was a bag of dicks.

“Nothing much. What’s going on with your sister?” Nora asked, gesturing towards Ruby who was beginning to snore softly while Weiss attempted to wake her up. “She looks like she’s gotten a lobotomy and not the good kind.”

Yang blinked. “Nora, what does that even–”

“She means that Ruby looks tired,” Ren explained monotonously.

“Yeah, I got that, but how does that relate to a lobotomy?” Yang asked. Seeing Ren shrug, she sighed. “Ruby’s been pulling a few all nighters working on...” She paused, unsure if she should mention what Ruby was actually doing. “She’s experimenting with weapon designs.”

Ren stared at her blankly while Nora nodded at the explanation, taking it at face value. Technically speaking, Yang wasn’t lying, she just wasn’t telling the full truth.

Elbowing Ruby in the ribs, said sister groaned and began muttering something about carbon content and finding just the right temperature to shape metal.

“So I noticed that you guys aren’t really around in the evening,” Nora commented. “But then again, we aren’t really either. Too busy trying to move that boulder... Say, how about you come with us and we can take turns trying to move the boulder. It’d make it more fun. We could even bet on who can move it the furthest.”

“Um...” Yang hummed while glancing back at her team. “I’m not sure we can. We have a busy schedule as is.”

“Aw, c’mon,” Nora whined. “You can’t even spare an hour? We could be rock buddies... No, wait... Boulder buddies. That’s so much better.”

“Even if they did have the time, I doubt they would be allowed to join us,” Ren replied. “It is still detention after all.”

Nora slumped next to Ren. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. I just thought it’d be cool. It would have been nice to hang out with a team that actually gets along with each other.”

Seeing the sad look on Nora’s face, Yang sighed and ran her hand through her hair. “Look, I can’t make any promises, but we might have some free time on the weekends. Maybe we could hang out then.”

“Yes!” Nora pumped her fist, grinning mischievously.

Yang blinked, feeling like she’d just been played. “...Nora, did you just–”

“Thank you for volunteering, Ms. Valkyrie,” Glynda called out, nodding towards Nora who still had her fist raised. “If we could have another participant,” She said, scanning the crowd. “Perhaps Ms. Xiao Long.”

“What, no. Ren, why must my actions have consequences,” Nora whined. “I’m still sore from trying to move that boulder without Aura.”

“You’d feel better if you drank that smoothie I made you this morning,” Ren sighed.

That raised a whole lot of other questions, but that didn’t matter right now. She finally had a chance to cut loose against someone that was on even footing with her. Pyrrha was already way above her level let alone someone like Coal.

“Sure, I’m always up for a fight,” Yang answered Glynda, trying not to sound too eager.

Getting up from her seat, Yang quickly made a quick stop at the changing room, before heading to the arena. Making sure that Ember Celica was firmly secured to her arms, she briefly checked to see that her gauntlets were still loaded before nodding.

It didn’t take much longer for Nora to make her way into the arena with her hammer slung over her shoulder.

“I see the two of you have made it here fairly quickly... Something a few others could stand to learn,” Glynda said, eyeing a few key students in the bleachers. “Do I need to remind either of you on how this match works?”

“Not really,” Yang hummed. “We fight each other. The match ends when our Aura goes into the red or if you call it. It seems simple enough.”

“Indeed,” Glynda replied. “And you, Ms. Valkyrie? Do you need any further clarification?”

Nora shook her head. “I’m good.”

“Then the two of you may begin,” Glynda said, taking several steps back.

With the match started, Yang rushed forward with her arm cocked back, ready to land a hit on Nora, only to be forced to jump as Nora’s hammer sailed past her, shattering the ground where she’d previously been standing.

Okay, maybe this was going to be a little more difficult than she’d thought.

Recalling her past spars with Pyrrha, Yang decided to take a page out of the former Mistral Champions book and put some distance between Nora and herself, a decision that turned out to be the wrong one.

Choosing to not stand idle, Nora shifted her weapon into its grenade launcher form and started lobbing explosives at her.

Ordinarily, it wouldn’t be too much of an issue. All it would do is help charge up Yang’s Semblance, but she’d learnt that her Semblance wasn’t everything. She still needed to land a hit for it to be effective.

Firing off a few rounds of her own, Yang bought herself a little time as Nora was now the one forced to dodge. Despite using a heavy hammer as a weapon, Nora was surprisingly nimble, managing to weave her way through Yang’s attack.

“Okay, time to see if this past week’s been a waste,” Yang muttered softly.

Taking several deep breaths, she felt a little light headed as her blood began to rush to her head. Shaking it off, she rushed forward, moving a little faster than usual.

Meeting Nora in the center of the room, Yang brought her arm down, smashing it into Nora’s hammer, causing the orange haired girl to wince under the weight of the blow.

Feeling confident, Yang tried to catch Nora in a combo, only to be met by the broad side of Nora’s hammer as one of her grenades detonated, sending her flying across the room into one of the walls.

“Okay, I might have gotten a little ahead of myself,” Yang mumbled.

Another two more blows like that and she’d lose the match. The hit had helped her charge up her Semblance a little, but it wouldn’t count for anything if she failed to land a hit on Nora.

Seeing an incoming barrage of grenades coming her way, Yang dodged to the side. The match wasn’t looking very good for her. Nora was able to counter her really well.

If she was going to win, then she’d need to catch Nora off guard. She had all the tools to win, she just needed to use them properly.

Coming to a stop some distance away from Nora, Yang watched as several grenades descended on her position. Refocusing her breathing, she waited for just the right time, before using the technique Coal had taught her.

Kicking the ground ten times in a single instant, Yang disappeared in a blur of speed, reappearing in front of Nora with her fist smashed into the grenade user's gut. Eyes flickering red, Yang released the pent up energy she’d accumulated from Nora’s strike, sending the girl tumbling towards the other end of the arena.

Hearing a beep go off as the match was called, Yang glanced up at the Aura gauge and was shocked to see that Nora’s Aura had dropped into the single digits. She hadn’t meant to do so much damage... Hell, she’d only landed a single hit on Nora.

Was this what it was like for Pyrrha when they sparred? Just how much had the redhead been holding back?

“Yang Xiao Long is the victor,” Glynda announced, making her way back to the center of the room. “I trust you’ll learn to show a little restraint in the future, it wouldn’t do to seriously wound one of your classmates.”

“Yeah,” Yang muttered. “That might be a good idea.”

She might need to start holding back during Glynda’s class.

...Breathe...

Finding myself in the Amphitheatre once more, I waited alongside Pyrrha and Winter, feeling a sense of excitement. They’d be getting their weapons back today and I honestly couldn’t wait to see how it went.

It was a little funny in a way, it almost felt like I was more excited about seeing them get their weapons than I was when I got mine... Then again, that was quite a while ago and I hadn’t been told when I would be receiving it while, with this, I’d been forced to wait until after class was let out.

Hearing the door open, I eagerly looked towards it, only to feel a little let down when I saw that it was Ozpin.

“As early as ever, I see,” Ozpin hummed. “Or perhaps I’m just late. If that’s the case, I hope I haven’t missed the thing that you called me here for today.”

“No, you’re pretty much on time,” I said, checking my Scroll.

“Then, if I may. Could I ask what it is you’re planning on showing me?” Ozpin asked. “And why Ms. Nikos here looks so stressed.”

Panicking at being called out, Pyrrha briefly glanced at Winter, before turning towards Ozpin. “No reason... I’m just a little, um... Jumpy, that’s all.”

“Indeed?” Ozpin hummed, glancing towards Winter.

“That is correct,” Winter answered, crossing her arms behind her back.

“I’ve spent the last week waking them up randomly during the night as part of their training,” I said, giving Pyrrha a short nod. Ozpin didn’t need to know about this morning. “Last night was the first time that I didn’t wake Pyrrha up.”

“...I see,” Ozpin replied, accepting my answer. “Then if I could ask why we are here... Outside of you training Team RWBY, that is.”

“I...”

“I’m here,” Ruby announced, panting tiredly as she burst through the doors. “I brought the weapons like you asked. I left a little early to make sure that there’s nothing wrong with them, so the rest of my team will be here a little later...” She trailed off once she saw Ozpin. “Um, why’s the headmaster here?”

“I would like to know the answer to that too,” Ozpin said before glancing at the weapons that Ruby clutched to her chest. “Although, the answer is getting increasingly clearer. I take it that those are made out of the same metal I supplied you with.”

“They are,” I nodded. “You seemed pretty interested in learning about it and I thought you might want to see this next part.”

“Then don’t stop on my account,” Ozpin hummed, taking a step back. “Please continue as if I wasn’t here.”

Looking a little dazed, Ruby blinked the mist from her eyes, before stepping towards me, holding out the weapons. “Here you go. It took a while, but I managed to make them like you asked... Had to alloy the metal with Pyrrha and Winter’s weapons,” She yawned tiredly.

“Thanks, Ruby, but I can’t exactly touch those,” I replied. “At least not yet. Pyrrha and Winter should be the first to handle their weapons.”

When I’d initially talked to Pyrrha and Winter about having their weapons remade with another metal, I’d been purposefully vague with why it was necessary, deciding on leaving it as a surprise.

Giving me an odd look, Ruby shrugged and moved to offer the Pyrrha her weapon. “Sorry about how plain they look. I didn’t have enough time to paint them for you,” Ruby apologized as Pyrrha took her sword and shield. “I could do it sometime later if you want.”

“That’s alright, you’ve already done a wonderful job of reforging them,” Pyrrha smiled, while gripping the hilt of her blade. “It looks exactly the same and still has the... Same... Symbols...” She trailed off as a red flame-like pattern began to spread down her sword and across her shield.

Hearing the sound of something creaking, I turned to see Ozpin tightly gripping his cane, staring at Pyrrha’s sword with no small amount of curiosity along with a hint of what appeared to be frustration.

“Wait, what?” Ruby asked, looking far more awake than five seconds ago. “How’s it doing that?! Is that your Semblance?”

“No... No it isn’t,” Pyrrha muttered. Examining her weapon, she suddenly turned towards me.

“I’ll explain what’s going on once Winter’s handled her blade,” I said, answering Pyrrha’s silent question.

Seeing all the attention shift to her, Winter promptly took her sword and lightly palmed it. Much like with Pyrrha, Winter’s sword began to change, but instead of it turning red, with a flame design, it shifted to a solid white with several snowflake patterns appearing down her blade.

Separating it into its dual form, she saw that the pattern was consistent on both blades.

“You’ve done a fine job of reforging my blade, Ruby,” Winter hummed, recombining her swords. “If you weren’t intent on becoming a Huntress, I would have recommended that you do this instead.”

“Ah, well, thanks,” Ruby said, blushing at the sudden praise from the usually stoic woman.

“You’re welcome,” Winter nodded. “Now, I believe I would like to know why my sword has suddenly changed colour.”

That was my cue.

“It’s a little difficult to explain, so I’ll do my best to keep things simple,” I began. Drawing their attention. “As you’ve seen, the metal your weapons are now made out of has a special property, it’s able to change colour, but there’s a little more to it than that. It has the ability to... For lack of better words, resonate with your Breathing Style.”

“Resonate, what... Then why didn’t it change colours when I was holding it?” Ruby asked.

“Because you need some level of mastery over your Breathing Style and you haven’t even started on that yet,” I explained. “It’s also why I couldn’t touch them. The blades permanently change colour to the first person that holds them. If I’d handled them, there’s a very good chance their weapons would have turned black like my sword, which wouldn’t have fully suited their individual Breathing Styles.”

“If I may interject,” Ozpin said, stepping forward. “What benefit is there to having a weapon that resonates with your Breathing Style?”

“The biggest thing would be how it affects Grimm,” I answered. “While using my Breathing Style with my sword, even a single cut can become lethal.” Drawing my sword, I held it out in front of me. “Without this sword, I probably wouldn’t have been able to kill that Ancient Grimm.”

Ozpin’s eyes visibly widened while his grip on his cane grew tighter. “And the colours?”

“They resemble the Breathing Style of the user,” I replied. “Flame is red, Frost is white and Sun is black,” I explained while sheathing my own sword. “That’s pretty much it.”

Well... Excluding the whole bright red blade thing, but that was a whole other thing in itself. I wasn’t quite ready to explain the demon slayer mark and I hadn’t gotten around to explaining the Six Powers yet either.

Standing silently for several moments, Ozpin exhaled slowly. “Just when I think I understand everything, I learn something new that throws all of that knowledge into question,” He muttered. “You’ve left me with a lot to consider. I believe it would be best if I take my leave for now.”

“Alright. See you later, Oz,” I hummed, waving him off as he left. There was something oddly satisfying about catching a semi immortal man that’s lived for thousands of years off guard. “Well that was fun. Thanks again, Ruby for taking the time to make the weapons. If there’s anything you want, I’ll be happy to get it for you.”

“Sleep would be appreciated,” Ruby yawned.

Yeah, I got that. “I meant like a chocolate factory named after you, or something, but yeah, sleep is something I can do.”

Blinking tiredly, Ruby shrugged. “So does that mean I can take the rest of the day off?”

“...Sure,” I replied.

It shouldn’t really impact her training... In fact, it might actually be good for her to take a break, especially since she’d be prone to making mistakes, what with being this tired.

“Awesome,” Ruby cheered. “I think I’ll go take a quick nap over there. Do me a favour and ask Yang to carry me back to my dorm after she’s done training.”

“Sure thing, Ruby,” I hummed, watching as she made her way towards the stands. Finding a comfortable spot, Ruby pulled her red hood over her head and curled in on herself.

“Maybe you should go sit with her and make sure she doesn’t roll off the stand and hurt herself,” Pyrrha suggested.

“Why...” I began, only to pause when I saw Pyrrha glance at Winter. Things had been a little awkward between Pyrrha and Winter this morning. This might be her attempt at clearing the air between them. “...Sure, I’ll just go do that then.”

Looking between the duo, I turned and made my way towards Ruby, sitting down next to her. Maybe she had the right idea in getting some sleep. Crossing my arms, I leaned back and closed my eyes. A five minute nap couldn’t hurt.

Feeling something squirm into my side, I opened a single eye and found that Ruby had squirmed over and was using me as a pillow, drooling on my leg. Too tired to really care, I decided to ignore it and closed my eye feeling myself drifting off to sleep.