The overhead view swept across the Emerald Forest
vast and green and indifferent right up until a black bird made the mistake of being in Ruby's flight path. She crashed through it in a burst of feathers.
Ruby: Birdie, no!
She fired off a burst from Crescent Rose to bleed speed, then converted it to scythe form and caught a branch on the way down, swinging into the treeline at a pace that was at least technically controlled.
Weiss stepped off a summoned snowflake circle and descended with considerably more composure.
Ren spiralled down a tree trunk on StormFlower's blades Nora visible for a half second beside him, moving significantly faster and with significantly less concern about it.
Yang came in over the canopy like a comet, gauntlets firing in bursts, laughing with each one, crashing through leaves, rebounding off two trunks, and hitting the ground.
Yang: Nailed it. (She ran off.)
Pyrrha punched through several trees, landed on a branch, and in one smooth motion shifted her weapon to rifle form to assess Jaune's ongoing freefall. She converted to spear, measured the angle, and threw.
A distant thunk.
Jaune: (far away) Thank you!
Pyrrha: (waving) I'm sorry!
Ruby landed in a crouch and was moving before the dust settled, one thought driving her forward.
Gotta find Yang. Or Kaito. Anyone nice, really.
Ruby: (out loud) KAITOOOOOO . YANGGGGGG
Okay. This is bad. What if I can't find them? She kept moving, her mind running scenarios she didn't love. I suppose there's Jaune but no one really gets me like Kaito does. Or maybe Blake, she seemed cool. Or it could be
Time slowed.
Ruby skidded to a halt.
Weiss Schnee stood directly ahead of her, in the process of turning around. Their eyes met. A pause followed long, weighted, full of recent memory.
Weiss turned on her heel and walked the other way.
Ruby: Wait where are you going?! We're supposed to be teammates…
Weiss pushed through undergrowth with quiet, dignified irritation, brushing branches from her path, until she stopped to catch her breath and heard something above her.
Jaune: Come on stupid
She looked up. Jaune Arc dangled a few feet off the ground, suspended by Pyrrha's javelin through the back of his hood, making no meaningful progress toward freeing himself. He looked down, saw her, and gave an embarrassed wave.
Weiss turned around and walked back the way she came.
Jaune: Wait
She passed Ruby on the way through, grabbed her by the hood, and kept moving.
Weiss: By no means does this make us friends.
Ruby: (being dragged through the bushes, delighted) You came back!
Jaune: (waving both arms) Wait! Who's going to get me down from here?!
Pyrrha: (appearing below him) Jaune? Do you… have any spots left on your team?
Jaune: Very funny.
Weiss moved through the forest at pace, Ruby trailing behind.
Weiss: I will not let my mission be delayed because you're too slow. I swear, if I get a bad grade because of your
Ruby appeared at her shoulder, matching her stride exactly, smiling.
Weiss: What the
Ruby: I'm not slow. You don't have to worry about me.
Weiss: (glancing back at where Ruby had been) When did…?
Ruby: Weiss just because I don't always know how to deal with people doesn't mean I don't know how to deal with monsters. (She got an arm around Weiss's shoulders.) You're about to see a whole different side of me today. And when it's all over, you're going to be like Wow, that Ruby girl is really, really cool slightly smaller) "and I want to be her friend."
She vanished in a scatter of rose petals. Weiss waved them from her face.
Weiss: (calling out) You may be fast but you still excel at wasting time!
Silence. Then rustling. Something in the undergrowth that wasn't the wind.
Weiss: Ruby?
The forest dimmed. She turned slowly, scanning the shadows. Red eyes stared back from the dark between the trees. More than one pair.
Weiss: Ruby
A Beowolf shouldered out of the bush ahead of her, full height, and kept coming.
Weiss: RUBY!
Kaito stood on nothing in particular,
approximately forty feet above the forest canopy, hands in his pockets, watching the treeline below with the unhurried attention of someone reviewing mildly interesting footage.
The relic was already pocketed. That had taken about three minutes, which he considered generous given how little the forest had actually tried to stop him.
I suppose I should wait around until they're both dealing with the Deathstalker and the Nevermore, he thought, tracking the distant sounds of movement through the trees. His perception spread outward without effort
aura signatures, footsteps, the heavy Grimm presence converging on two separate points further in. That's when they'll need the help. Before that, they're fine.
He could see Ruby and Weiss from here, if he chose to look. He chose to look. Weiss had Grimm incoming and Ruby was about thirty seconds from noticing. That was fine. That was within acceptable parameters.
He exhaled slowly.
A partner would slow me down. A team would slow me down. The whole structure of this initiation assumes that two people are stronger than one, which for most people, probably true.
He tilted his head.
Not for me.
Below, the forest moved with things that wanted to kill students who were genuinely, if he was being fair about it not ready for what was in there. Yang was heading north. Jaune and Pyrrha had found each other. Blake and Ren's aura signatures were deeper in and moving with purpose.
And Ruby was about to do something impressive, he could already tell. She had that forward momentum to her, even from up here.
He almost smiled.
Fine. He adjusted his position slightly, suspended on nothing, watching all of it at once the way he always watched everything completely, effortlessly, without any of it touching him unless he decided to let it.
I'll fly. Keep an eye on them. Be there when it matters.
He rose another ten feet and settled in.
We wait. And if u could see behind his eye cloth you'd that Sparkling blue eyes where Dimmed a little
A/N okay I am keep it 100% I skipped to this part because I feel like thier not much Kaito can do here Orgainly I planned to swap the teams about or make so they one team has an extra member
But I am struggling where to go with that so Kaito gonna go the Solo route
As you've seen from some scenes ive sorta had Ruby or hang be the one
To be his semi emotional anchor or tried to at least