Tuesday, the 28th of April, 79AGW.

Dining Hall, Beacon.

12:57 PM.

“Yeah, but how does she do it?” Lux demanded.

“Maybe she’s like me and can turn invisible,” Claire shrugged, “You’re just mad because Lima made fun of you for jumping—”

“I wasn’t scared!” Lux cried defensively, turning on Teak in outrage. “Stop smiling!”

“Sorry!” Teak said quickly, covering his mouth with his hands.

Lima held up a single finger as she turned on him, fury practically wafting off her—and she paused.

“I already apologized,” Lima reminded, but his attention was elsewhere.

Cardin Winchester was beckoning his teammates over to him on the other side of the room. The reason he was even bothering to pay the guy any mind was that he was sitting sprawled on the bench next to Velvet Scarlatina, who was otherwise alone and looking quite uncomfortable.

“Whatever,” Lux huffed, “What do we have next again?”

The rest of team Cardinal joined the two, forming a loose group around the girl—it would have almost been a nice scene if Sky Lark wasn’t holding his fingers up above his head like ears while the others laughed.

“Hey, are you even listening to me?” Lux demanded.

He waited for Velvet to kick the shit out of them for picking on her, but she kept her head ducked down and leaned away from Russel Thrush when he planted one of his feet on the bench beside her.

“Nope,” Lima admitted, frowning.

What was she doing? He’d seen her fight in the forest, and she was a second year. She could easily get them to stop if she wanted to—Cardin reached out and snagged the older girl by the ear, painfully pulling on it.

Lima grinned.

“Where are you—” Lux frowned.

“Lima?” Teak said, concerned. “Um, I don’t think you’re allowed to stand on the tables.”

“Uh oh,” Claire said belatedly. “This probably isn’t going to end well—”

Lima kicked off the table, shattering the top of it in the process and sending everything a foot into the air. He reached the group of boys in less than a second before planting his foot down on the front of Cardin’s head and driving it down onto the table behind him.

The table shattered beneath the larger boy, and everyone in the vicinity quickly moved away in shock at the sudden attack.

“What the fuck—” Russel said, alarmed, staggering backward.

Cardin’s Aura flashed into visibility, faded but still unbroken, and Lima dropped down onto the other boy’s chest.

“Morta—” Cardin said but was cut off when Lima struck him across the face hard enough to tank the rest of the boy’s remaining Aura.

Lima got two more hits on the other boy’s face, leaving his lip split and his nose bloody before Russel kicked him hard enough to send him skidding through the remains of the table. He rode the momentum back to his feet and grinned at the other boys in a challenge, but none continued the attack.

Cardin actually managed to sit up, his face the picture of pain one might expect.

“You’re giving up already?” Lima said, surprised, egging the other boys on. “You were trying to bait her into a fight, right? I’m down—Let’s go!”

The sound of clacking from behind him answered the question of why they weren’t moving.

“Mr. Morta,” Goodwitch said dangerously. “What about your actions right now speak of good conduct?”

Lima winced as he realized just how much trouble he was in—he opened his mouth to explain exactly why it had been the best course of action before he paused.

“Yeah, I’ve got nothing,” Lima admitted, doing his best not to wilt under her furious glare.

Tuesday, the 28th of April, 79AGW.

Ozpin’s Office, The Beacon Tower, Beacon.

1:17 PM.

Lima expected Goodwitch to blast him verbally until the headmaster arrived, but instead, she remained coldly quiet, staring out at vale—he wasn’t sure which would have been worse, but the silence was tolerable at least.

The room was a strange one, large and circular, filled with gigantic moving cogs and with a massive half-clock serving as a window to the outside world. It actually kind of annoyed him that the roman numerals were all backward when looking from the inside of the building. He wondered if Ozpin thought the same.

He must have had a fetish for clocks or something because he could see their design in almost every decoration or furniture within the room. The man’s desk was uniquely curved, framed in metal, and filled with some kind of patterned glass that looked like it was designed to project a hard light monitor.

The sound of a low hum rose behind him that he recognized as the elevator reaching this floor, and the doors slid open a moment later.

“Glynda and Mr. Morta,” Ozpin said evenly, moving slowly to join her by the window. “I hear there has been an incident of sorts.”

Lima met the man’s eyes for a moment as he passed by.

“A fight in the dining hall.” Goodwitch clarified, turning around. “I witnessed some of it. Mr. Morta initiated the engagement and continued after Mr. Winchester’s Aura was broken.”

Ozpin glanced back at him for a moment, and Lima met the man’s eyes again.

“Was Mr. Winchester badly hurt?” Ozpin said seriously.

“A broken nose was the worst of it,” Goodwitch said, frowning.

“Ah,” Ozpin said vaguely, turning to face him and approaching his desk. “Mr. Morta, I see you are in no hurry to excuse your actions—I wonder why that is? Most people are quick to protest their innocence when faced with the opportunity.”

“I’m not innocent,” Lima shrugged, “He did something I didn’t like, and I beat him up.”

Goodwitch gave him the dread gaze again from over Ozpin’s shoulder, but he was quickly developing an immunity to it.

“I see,” Ozpin said, bemused, “If I may, what actions did Mr. Winchester take that you were so adverse to?”

Lima hesitated for a moment; he’d already dealt with him. Getting the guy into more trouble now seemed like overkill… but then again, it might save him from having to start another fight in the future.

“Cardin and his team were picking on second-year girl,” Lima said honestly, studying the head of the man’s strange cane that rests against the desk. “He started yanking on her ears and hurting her—so I delivered what was probably the most noble of ass-kickings.”

Ozpin glanced back over his shoulder for a moment, and Goodwitch’s eyes narrowed further before she turned her attention to the scroll in her hands, flicking through it.

“He also destroyed two of the tables entirely during the process—along with wasting all of the food,” Goodwitch said stonily, sounding vaguely defensive.

Lima didn’t point out that she had used her semblance to fix all the damage literally seconds later—he doubted it would go down well.

“He is correct,” Goodwitch continued after a moment, still watching her scroll. “Mr. Winchester and his team were physically harassing Ms. Scarlatina.”

Security footage?

“He’s got a tendency to pick on Faunus,” Lima added simply, “Although, in his defense, he also seems to pick on a lot of nonfaunus as well.”

“That piece of information was in his defense?” Ozpin said, amused.

Lima shrugged.

“Who else does he target?” Goodwitch said sharply, staring at her scroll. “I’m afraid I haven’t seen any of these incidents.”

“Jaune Arc and Teak Fawn,” Lima said before shrugging. “He’s argued a bit with Pyrhha, but I don’t think anyone can really bully her—at least not physically anyway.”

Glynda didn’t look amused at the joke.

“Alright, lay it on me; what’s my punishment?” Lima said, pushing forward and getting an eyebrow raised from Ozpin. “I’ve gotten in more than enough trouble at school to know that everybody gets punished regardless of the details.”

“I can see why you would have,” Goodwitch said, frowning. “Your lack of regard for the destruction of school property and your complete lack of seriousness in my class is beginning to annoy me.”

Ozpin looked vaguely interested in the derailment, so he appeared to be willing to let it slide. Lima couldn’t really say anything about the school property thing, so he attacked the one thing he could.

“I’m not going to kick the crap out of my teammates in front of our entire class; that would be the opposite of team solidarity,” Lima frowned, “We do serious sparring outside of class every day; I don’t want to humiliate him in front of everyone.”

“You spent several minutes humiliating Mr. Fawn by chasing him around the arena with his own weapon!” Goodwitch said incredulously.

Ozpin looked like he was watching a tennis match.

“We sparred properly for the entire first half of the fight, and he got to showcase how much he’s improved!” Lima insisted, “Besides, it was super funny—”

He cut himself off as the dread gaze returned and chose a different argument.

“Uh, I mean—it does wonders for his self-esteem,” Lima said quickly, “He was really worried about falling further behind everyone in the class.”

Goodwitch looked super mad at his continued arguing.

“I am the instructor Mr. Morta,” Goodwitch said, doing her own best to temper her frustration. “I understand you don’t wish to hurt your teammate, but this isn’t a new situation—every other person who has come through these halls has encountered the same thing. Please understand that failing to fight seriously in these bouts is actively detrimental to the growth of your peers and yourself.”

Lima sighed and slumped back into his chair—he knew a losing argument.

“I get it,” Lima conceded sullenly. “I didn’t mean disrespect you, Ms. Goodwitch, and I’ll fight properly from now on. Sorry.”

Goodwitch looked pleased with the apology and nodded in acknowledgment before Ozpin retook charge of the meeting.

“Lovely,” Ozpin said smiling, “Now I believe we were talking about a punishment? I’ve found myself with an absolute deluge of entry forms for the Vytal Festival combat tournament—all of which require manual entry into a database and some of which are missing key information required for entry. Seeing as you’ve found yourself with three weeks of detention, every day from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind handling this task.”

Lima looked horrified—the man was going to make him do data entry? Goodwitch looked annoyed at the man handing off the task to a student but didn’t speak up in objection.

“There are about three hundred entries at present, but I would expect that to increase several times over within the next couple of days,” Ozpin said, smiling. “I suggest keeping a list of the incomplete forms because you’ll need it to contact each individual student for amendments.”

To think he’d been more worried about Goodwitch—this man was just plain evil.

Tuesday, the 28th of April, 79AGW.

Hallway, Beacon.

1:32 PM.

Lima left the headmaster’s office behind him in defeat and a thousand questions in his mind—how could this have happened? Why was Ozpin actually the devil? Why hadn’t he kicked Cardin in the balls as well? He arrived at the classroom several minutes later and entered sheepishly.

“Mr. Morta?” Ms. Peach said, surprised, “I thought there were a few who were missing—are you alright?”

He spotted his team in the corner—and a few benches away, the three uninjured members of team Cardinal were watching him carefully.

“Sorry, miss,” Lima turned back and clapped his hands together in prayer, “I just got out of a disciplinary meeting with the headmaster due to a terrible injury I inflicted on myself.”

Teak thumped his head down onto the desk, somehow already knowing what was coming, but Lima completely ignored him.

“Oh dear me,” Ms. Peach said, concerned. “You’re not still injured, are you?”

“No, miss, they somehow managed to reattach the limb,” Lima said solemnly.

There were a few murmurs amongst the class at the obvious lie—and Pyrrha, sitting in the front row, was doing her best not to smile.

“Reattached a limb!?” Peach said, shocked. “What on earth happened?”

Lima hung his head for a moment in shame before raising it to look at her.

“I accidentally snapped my foot off in Cardin’s ass,” Lima said sadly, wishing he could fake cry.

Teak began to thump his head against the desk in a methodical pattern—clearly flirting with the death of a thousand headbutts.

“Oh—you silly boy!” Ms. Peach said, flustered before she shooed him away, “Go sit down—I thought you were serious.”

“Sorry, miss, just a joke.” Lima smiled, dodging around her in case she sought revenge.

He headed for his team and slipped into the free chair as the teacher regained control over the class.

“Oh, before I forget again—” Ms. Peach said suddenly, “We have an upcoming trip into Forever Fall on the 7th of May. I’ll be taking you all around to gather the sap from a species of tree that is quite common here but is extremely rare just about everywhere else in the world—”

“What happened?” Claire said under her breath.

Tuesday, the 28th of April, 79AGW.

Emerald Forest, Practical Combat, Beacon.

3:04 PM.

“Ensure that each of you has your scrolls on your person at all times,” Goodwitch said clearly, “This is a more structured version for our adaptive combat day, but you will need to keep a careful watch on your current points and your aura levels.”

Lima checked his own scroll and found his ‘Current points’ listed at one, ‘enemies defeated’ and his ‘Allies’ were both listed as zero.

“Each of you will begin the exercise in teams of one, with a single point at your disposal,” Goodwitch explained; Anyone you make eye contact with while in the forest must be dealt with in one of two ways. You may offer to become an ally, and one of the pair must spend their point to do so. Or you must fight, gaining one point for a successful enemy defeat.”

Allying with another student costs a single point; earn more points by defeating other students—Seemed pretty straightforward to Lima. Goodwitch caught his eye for a moment, and he got the message her dread gaze was conveying—he would need to start taking these things more seriously.

“Every additional ally you recruit will increase the cost of future allies by one point.” Goodwitch continued. “For those of you struggling to keep up—the first ally costs one point, the second ally costs two points, so on, and so forth. Any questions so far? Ms. Rose?”

“What’s the maximum team size?” Ruby said excitedly, waving her hand above her head.

“The maximum team size is six members,” Goodwitch said, smiling before pointing at another student. “Mr. Arc?”

“If I have one point, and my ally has one point, can we spend them on recruiting someone?” Jaune said thoughtfully, “Or does the person recruiting need two points on their own to recruit someone in that situation?”

Lima tilted his head at the rather specific question—obviously, Jaune was already making plans to team up with someone. Ruby likewise was probably thinking of making a massive team with her own team and two others judging by her own question.

“Your points will be added to a team pool once you have allied with one another,” Goodwitch said, surprised at the question. “So that situation will not come up.”

This could be a situation that became quite dangerous—the were probably only a few optimal strategies here. One would be to build a team of six and hunt solo people to afford the increasing cost of each additional ally.

Another would be to target all those he knew to be in leadership roles or that favored teamwork, disrupting any team building and ensuring that nobody worked together. That would be Ruby, Jaune, Cardin if here was here, Teak, Flora, and Crait, the leaders of their respective teams.

He didn’t know all of the members of the other teams present, but the ones most like to engage in teamwork that wasn’t already a leader—Li Ren and Yang Xiao Long stood out most of all in that regard.

“Like the vast majority of scenarios, Aura threshold will decide if you can continue or not,” Goodwitch said, studying her scroll once more. “The exercise will continue until there is a single team remaining. If you are defeated, surrender, or otherwise cannot continue, please leave the forest immediately—if you do leave the forest prior to elimination, you will be effectively surrendering, so be aware.”

Aura threshold, fight until only one team was left, and don’t leave the forest—None of these additions changed the main strategy in any real regard.

“To avoid you all entering together and forming teams with your first choices,” Goodwitch said wryly. “You will be split up along the forest line and entering at the same time, and the match will not start until you are all inside.”

Ruby slumped as Goodwitch destroyed whatever plan she had come up with for her early mega team.

“I suggest you begin preparing yourselves; you have five minutes,” Goodwitch said, nodding before a smile worked its way onto her face. “Oh, and before I forget—don’t bother bringing your weapons. They aren’t permitted during this exercise.”

There were cries of dissent from all parties at that—and Lima snorted, of course, she would mention that right at the end of the explanation and after everyone had already made plans. Now, everyone’s combat effectiveness would be different, and in most cases, completely unknown.

Claire, for instance, was far more adept with her weapons than she was in unarmed combat, and she would probably seek out teammates early to counteract that weakness. Whereas before the announcement, she most likely would have stuck to stealth and picked people off—something that would be incredibly difficult even with the element of surprise unless she could figure out a way to drop someone’s Aura completely with the first hit.

On the other hand, Yang would be at a natural advantage, as her unarmed skills were some of the best in the class—her shot-gauntlets merely adding some protection and range capabilities to her punches.

“Alright, I will begin calling names; please head along the forest line when you are called,” Goodwitch said clearly, “Keep at least twenty meters apart and no talking or shouting at Anyone nearby, or you’ll be disqualified. Once the mission begins, all of these restrictions will be removed. Ruby Rose!”

Ruby trudged away from the group and sent a sorrowful glance over her shoulder at her team.