14 A Chat with a Friend

From the perspective of a hormonal teenager, living under the same roof with four different girls should be nothing short of heaven. However, as a person with a constant fear of things going wrong this room has become nothing short of an absolute hazard zone.

I was the first to wake up among team RWBYK at five in the morning. The rest were still soundly asleep along with probably most of the student population in Beacon, considering classes start at nine O'clock here. I am far too used to living in Japan back during my BNHA heydays, so waking up so early has become the norm to me. Curses you Eastern Time standards.

My plan in Beacon is simple, learn about combat as much as I possibly could and then leave into another world. The details could be refined with constant improvisation. Unlike in BNHA there is enemy aplenty here in the form of Grimm, so racking up combat experience should be easy, and learning about combat techniques could be done from studying at Beacon.

Other than that there is no much to do. The events in RWBY take place over several months for the first three volumes, most likely between 4 to 6 months. The story was not exactly clear on hat matter and my memory being faulty is partly to blame as well.

However, that means three entire seasons worth of actions is packed under a few months, making staying here for at least the entire three seasons very lucrative. That is a very long period to stay in one place though, considering my stay ant BNHA was only around a month, with half of those spent training on my lonesome both during my punishment and before school started.

Decisions, decisions.

While thinking such thought I decided to take a shower. The school has provided us all with our school uniform already so I changed into that from my dirtied UA uniform. They were put to rest within my Dimensional Shooter. It would be nice to collect some stuff as memories from worlds I have traveled. From UA I have my school gym uniform which I wore during the assault and sword of the Hero-Killer.

Right now the only thing I have from Beacon is this mattress they gave me along with school utensils and my student clothing. It would be nice to carry a mattress around, can sleep whenever and wherever I want to that way. Not that I can't do so already, considering I can even sleep standing was I to use my Hundred Gauntlets.

"Have anyone ever told you that you space around a lot?"

"No, but then again I don't have many memories in the first place."

Blake has decided to wake up. I had since finished changing to my school uniform. Also how long has she been awake for, considering she knew I was spacing out right now?

"Did I wake you up? Sorry if I did." I raised a palm like a Buddha to state my forgiveness.

"No, I am a very light sleeper so don't mind it." She rubbed her eyes before looking at the clock. "Do you always wake up this early in the morning?"

"Have been for the past few weeks, might change the habit if things went south with it though."

A space for a lull. Blake hesitated a tiny bit before continuing the conversation, which was good since I barely know how to hold one at all. Or to be more accurate I do not care enough too actually put effort into having a proper conversation. Why should I when most of them are a boring nuisance that doesn't mean anything?

"What do you mean about your memories?"

"Oh, that. I have retrograde amnesia for a few weeks already, can't even remember my own identity. No traces of any relatives or acquaintances either."

Blake looked at me with piqued interest following those words.

What, never seen an amnesiac child before?

Jokes aside I noticed Blake's cat ears twitching a tiny bit as we delve deeper into our conversation, though it was hard to tell considering it was still hidden under her bow. How cute and endearing. It is nice to see the sign of someone interested in conversing with me.

She looked away from me towards the windows

"Is it hard?" She spoke to me. "Having nobody and nothing to rely on, I mean."

Thinking back Blake is an escapee from a terrorist group called the White Fang, which preach for equality between humans and Faunus. Have I mentioned how humans showing racism towards Faunus is a thing here in Remnant? I can't imagine why honestly, considering how Faunus seems to be the superior race with their inherent advantageous trait.

The White Fang started with good intentions for equality between races, but at this point, their deep-seated hatred with humanity as a whole makes them do horrible things which are frankly unjustified in my opinion. But then again I was not the one who suffered from oppression so what would I know.

Nevertheless, it is about time to answer the question Blake proposed. There was no need to even think about it.

"There are many kind people out in this world. Maybe I was lucky and met the right people or maybe the majority of people are just that kind. Either way, the world has been kind towards me, so there is nothing to complain about."

"And what about others?"

"Others? "

"About other people who are suffering!"

"I sympathize with them, but do not empathize. Their matters are beyond my reach."

"And how would you know without even trying!"

"I tried. I tried again and again but it's never good enough. The results are always far too lacking no matter what one does." I gritted my teeth. "That's why I decided to do what I am good at instead. I will leave the negotiation to the negotiator, the managing to the manager, while I hunt as the hunter."

"People are kind, but the world is not. There is a saying about not biting more than you can chew. If you wish to help the people then choose a path and fully commit to it. I chose to become a Huntsman since my physical strength is superior compared to my intelligence. Therefore I will do my best as a Huntsman and nothing more."

Overspecialization was my ideal form of job focus. To only care about one's ability to do their task rather than pesky things such as socializing or skills unrelated to their works. To judge people by how skilled they are at their expertise rather than anything else, the excuse of a social failure trying to justify his lacking parts.

The mood surrounding us two soured. Great going me, lashing out on someone you have met just one day ago. Blake does not seem willing to crack the awkwardness between us two and neither was I.

"…If anybody asked, I will be at the library until school starts."

With those last words, I left our dorm room and moved towards the school library, with guider making sure I did not get lost during the way. School starts at nine and this is barely six, so there are three hours left until my time is up. Now is the time to pile up the knowledge needed for classes.

I should be fine learning at classes without extra self-studying except for the tests, but there was nothing wrong with getting ahead of the curve. It might be beneficial to have good grades and get on the good side of the school staff.

After a few minutes of walking, I successfully reached the library. Good, I was worried it would not be open yet at this kind of ungodly hour but it seems my worries were unfounded for once. There was even a librarian, one I knew by name from the show.

Velvet Scarlatina.

"O-oh, I didn't expect someone to come so early. Can I help you?"

"Nah, I'm just browsing. Don't mind me."

That was entirely untrue but it's not like she needs to know the truth anyway. I am here to learn the basics of fighting along with the materials for the first few months of studying here at Beacon. That was a lot to cover but hopefully, I can make marginal progress by using HG to ensure the knowledge sticks to my memory.

HG is a strange skill that lets me manipulate the future to a certain extent, and at its current level, one could consider it as a game-changing reality manipulation ability. One might complain about using such ability for the sake of something trivial as learning pesky school subjects but if there was one thing about life I am sure about then it is the fact smaller things count just as much as the larger things, if not more.

Guider led me towards the books I seek without any problems. This is another very convenient Skill with high utility value considering it can lead me towards anything I want. The only problem is the fact it only tells me a vague sense of direction and distance rather than a clear coordinate of what I want.

After inspecting a few books around I took a stack of them and carried them to a table. The books were mainly on the first-year subject and stuff you could learn at a preschool like Signal before that. There was a lot of catching up to do considering most of my classmates have six years' worth of training and studying on me.

I contemplated learning about Dust as well but decided not to bite off more than I can chew. Besides those things are most likely expensive and far beyond my mediocre budget given by Ozpin.

HG: I will remember everything I read here during this session

There was not much to say about studying from these books. They were still as repetitive and boring as I remembered them to be from the shards of my memories. At least HG makes things much simpler and efficient.

It was boring but at least the quietness was enjoyable. Being all alone leaves me in a comfortable position, as you might expect from a loner. I absorbed myself in the atmosphere while continuing to read the books. There was no need for note-taking considering my memory won't fail me thanks to HG.

Most of the subjects here were the same as the ones in BNHA, with the difference mainly in history, Grimm anatomy, and combat study. The first was different for obvious reasons while the latter two did not even exist in UA. Well, combat study most likely exists in UA, just not so early in the first year.

Thinking back there were still many enjoyable events that I missed thanks to teleporting away from BNHA so early. However, it cannot be helped considering I have literally killed Hero-Killer Stain right before I left. At that point staying at BNHA was no longer a realistic option which caused me to hurriedly leave without caring about whatever it is that I am abandoning with the act.

I promised myself to be more careful if such conditions occurred once more. As an imperfect being having a mistake is inevitable, but repeating it a second time over is nothing but shame. As one of my fictional inspirations had said…

An experienced loner never falls for the same trap twice.

A lone warrior, surviving hundreds of battles.

When it comes to losing I am the strongest.

That is why—

"Okay, so you either really like to space out or you are flat-out ignoring me."

Note to self: train my spatial awareness, or better yet get a skill which can do so for me instead. Lovable system seems to have a Skill for everything so it shouldn't be too farfetched to find one which can detect people in my surroundings. I can already guess the name for the skill.

"Sorry, your first guess was correct. Mind telling me why you followed me here, Blake?"

"Arrogant of you to assume I came here for you."

"Otherwise I don't see a reason why you would go out of your way and seek me out in this corner of the library."

I shrugged while saying those words. This really is a random corner of the third floor of Beacon Library. I went out of my way here since I prefer a quiet and small corner to keep myself calm and collected. Besides, I still have my completely rational fear of height, and the center of both the second and third floor is empty, leaving free sight towards the first floor. I decided to go to a corner for the sake of evading that horrifying sight.

Long explanation short, there is not much reason for her to go here unless she came intending to meet me. In response, she merely averted her eyes before speaking once more.

"…I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted. Now mind telling me why you're apologizing?"

Do not tell me she did something troublesome such as changing her vote and intending to change the team composition or anything like that. Could it be that my discreet 400 IQ play was meaningless?

"For poking my nose where it was none of my business to do so, and for accusing you."

Huh, so she was feeling guilty for simple curiosity and hasty accusation. Then again that might counts as an offense to some people. I think I have a higher tolerance for them, mainly because of my failings in terms of social capability.

"No harm's done then."

Her cat ears perked at those words. At this point, I was simply wondering how bad was her teammates' attention to not notice something weird about her bow. I mean they were literally twitching all the damn time.

"No strings attached?"

She looked at me with disbelieve. How rude, my nature was certainly deviant but it was good deviant and not evil.

Then again I felt anger towards her words. What does it say if she thinks everyone will take advantage of her?

"Actually, just one thing."

Her eyes narrowed.

Overload 50%

[+5000% temporary physical strength]

"Overload 50%: Snatch!"

She widened her eyes, most likely not expecting the sudden assault. She protected her chest and face area, but those were not where my aim is at.

"You look quite cute without them." With those words, I returned the bow back to her. "Feel free to wear it again, I just wanted to see your real appearance."

And she was back to glaring at me again, though there was no mistaking the red hues on her cheeks. I want to pinch and play around with them if I was being entirely honest.

I closed the book on my hand. It was actually the last book among the stack I had hand-picked for myself. All the information left on them has entered my brain without fail, and now all that is left is to analyze them all together so the scrunched up bunch of information starts to make sense.

Organizing them all will probably take a while though, even with HG.

"Did you finish reading all these books already?"

Blake asked me with doubt. Oh, young girl of little faith, you have yet to see how busted my abilities could be.

"Somehow it is far easier for me to memorize these days than what I remembered. Maybe it was because of my loss of memories, letting me gain newer ones easily."

I said with a shrug, before moving to return the books back to their places. There is no good way of explaining the truth so dampening her interest is in my best interest. By the way, Blake followed me while returning the book for whatever reason.

It is currently seven in the morning. Another two hours and school will start, and the rest of my teammates still need to unpack their stuff, so this is prime time for them to get busy.

"Blake, shouldn't you return and unpack?"

She nodded and moved away for a few steps, before looking towards me.

"You're not going?"

I shrugged, before moving to follow her. There is nothing left to do here except satisfying my curiosity by reading some random books. That was my original plan considering there would be nothing to do at our doom since everyone else would be busy unpacking while I am entirely free, but helping them should be a fine option as well.

We walked in silence back towards our room. There was no conversation between us considering we are both quiet people.

It was at that point in time when the System popped up.

[Announcement: All Ranker has reached Rank 5 or above]

[The first Ranker Tournament will now commence]