96

Chapter 96:

Present day:

Ruby stood alone, surrounded by the whispering of the wind through the leaves of the trees that gave the Emerald Forest its name. This far out from Beacon and Vale, she could practice her technique without causing too much of a commotion. Assuming she was successful, the most that the people of Vale would notice would be some dark clouds on the horizon, which would dissipate harmlessly before anything came of them.

Of course, that was assuming she could do what she'd set out to do.

Granted, at the moment, calling down lightning wasn't really her goal. Well...it was...in the end. But what she needed to do first was recapture that feeling from her fight against Cinder, that moment where her awareness had reached the point where she could sense the One, the aggregate of the countless lives that passed through the world that gave Remnant itself its own Aura, an Aura that she was part of, an Aura that she could call upon to command the power of nature itself.

The problem was that, at the time, she'd been on the verge of unconsciousness, her Aura completely depleted by all the hits she'd taken and her exertions in the battle. It was the moment Cinder had been prepared to end her life, when everything was on the line. So Ruby's memories were a bit hazy. She needed to recapture the feeling of that moment, hopefully without running her Aura down to nothing, the way she had last time.

So she took deep, slow breaths, relaxing both her mind and body, allowing her awareness to spread out around her, much as she usually did in preparation for battle. But, this time, she wasn't looking for enemies or anticipating incoming attacks, but something else. Granted, she couldn't afford to let her guard down. This was the Emerald Forest after all. And she was farther out than most first-years typically went, farther out than where the relics were kept for the Initiation. This far out, there would be Grimm, and plenty of them...normally.

At the moment, Ruby realized that she was still well within the area of effect caused by her brother's presence. Having Kyo at Beacon meant that the Grimm within a score of miles would have hightailed it away as fast as their limbs could carry them. So the Emerald Forest was probably as safe as it could be at the moment. That was fine by Ruby. She'd do better without any distractions anyway.

She could feel it, hovering just at the edges of awareness, not in terms of distance. The Aura of the world was omnipresent after all, it was both near and far. Rather, it was almost like a radio that hadn't been tuned to the right frequency, a note that the instrument of her mind and soul needed just a tiny little adjustment to play. It was there, she knew it, and could feel it, but she couldn't quite fully perceive it.

The issue was her own Aura. It too was a part of the One, Ruby realized, marking her as a part of the great and eternal cycle of life being born, then being lost, and returning to the earth, her Aura being absorbed back into that of the world. Because she was a part of that much greater Aura, it was harder to perceive, much like how a person might have difficulty understanding how large a building they were in, when they were enclosed within a single tiny room within said building. Completely expending her Aura had caused her to...step outside, so to speak...allowing her to look at the building, at the One, from without, and see it for what it really was. Now she had to maintain that kind of awareness and understanding, without stepping outside the "room" of her Aura.

Rushing things wouldn't do any good. So Ruby relaxed her conscious thoughts...and listened and felt. Perceiving that greater power lingering at the edge of her awareness, Ruby did her best to fixate on that, to perceive it more clearly. That was all she did. She allowed nothing else to bother her. She set aside her doubts and confusion, simply focusing on the task at hand. To anyone who might have been watching her, it must have seemed as though she was doing nothing. But, to Ruby, this was the most important training of her life.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when the alarm on her scroll went off. Ruby had set it to warn her when she needed to start heading back to Beacon. It had been a long hike out here, after all. If she wanted to get back in time for dinner, she needed to start heading back now. At that moment, her awareness returning to her own body, Ruby's stomach chose to remind her of how hungry she was. She'd had a hearty breakfast before setting out, but had spent all day out in the forest, surrounded by nature. So it was only natural that her stomach was feeling rather neglected.

Smiling contentedly at a day well-spent, Ruby sheathed her sword, and turned back to Beacon.

Ruby arrived at the dining hall to the chatter of her fellow students, many of them waving and gesticulating excitedly. Normally, Saturday wasn't a day for large numbers of students to eat at the dining hall, many of them instead choosing to take the opportunity to travel to Vale for dinner. However, with the end of their mission periods last week, many students were taking the opportunity to catch up with one another, and prepare their plans for the upcoming Vytal Festival Tournament.

The Tournament and Festival wouldn't be for a while yet, but everyone's excitement was already reaching fever pitch. Challenges had been made. Rivalries had been formed. Everyone was wondering just which teams would be named to the tournament. Each school would be putting forth eight teams, which would be chosen from amongst all four years. While that technically meant that there was a potential for two teams from each year to participate, the even distribution stopped there. Many was the time over the past forty tournaments that an Academy had chosen not to send any teams from their first-year class.

At this point, Ruby wasn't overly worried. Between herself and Pyrrha, she felt her team was a lock for the tournament, as was Team RYNB. It remained to be seen whether any of Beacon's other first-year teams qualified; maybe CRDL, now that the boys had gotten their act together. Team CFVY was considered another surefire lock for the tournament, given that they were considered the best team in their year by a wide margin.

Glancing around the dining hall, Ruby looked for any sign of her teammates. Granted, with it being Saturday evening, there could have been any number of ways they might have chosen to spend their time, so there was no guarantee that they were here, right now. However, she found it a bit troubling that she saw no sign of them anywhere.

I wonder where they all are? mused Ruby, wondering if she ought to try ringing up Jaune, Weiss, or Pyrrha on their scrolls. In the end, she decided against it, figuring that her unease was from the lingering remnants of the fear caused by Cinder and her cohorts kidnapping Jaune not so long ago. That worry continued to linger. But; with Cinder gone, Mercury in custody, and Emerald almost completely incapacitated; that threat was no more.

"Ruby!" exclaimed a familiar voice exuberantly behind her.

Spinning about, Ruby grinned. "Penny!"

Her orange-haired android friend was racing towards her, an excited grin of her own in place. "I'm so glad I found you, Ruby," said Penny cheerfully.

"Where are your teammates?" asked Ruby, tilting her head slightly. "I thought Ciel or Piper would be around."

"I'm allowed to go out on my own more now," said Penny proudly. "Papa talked to Ironwood, and he agreed that I don't need an escort all the time."

"That's good," said Ruby, glad to know that Penny wasn't simply wandering away from her escorts again, which had a tendency to get her, and the people supposed to be watching her, in trouble.

Penny's father had arrived just a little earlier that week, arriving at Beacon's airdock in his own airship, a surprisingly large and blocky vessel that, according to Penny, not only housed much of her father's scientific equipment, but also the resources and facilities to ensure her maintenance. The latter case wasn't all that much of a necessity, as Penny's body had been designed to make it as self-sufficient as possible. But, according to Penny, her father was constantly designing new upgrades to her form. Some of them enhanced her performance, but many were based around improving her sensitivity and input to better simulate a more genuinely human experience.

To Ruby, she was guessing it was a sign that the love Pietro Polendina showed for his daughter was genuine. He wanted, as much as possible, for her to experience a human life, not merely the life of a robot mimicking human behavior. She'd been pleasantly surprised when the old, but exuberant, old man had greeted her with a hearty handshake and a laugh, saying that he was glad that Penny had made such a good friend.

Of course, Pietro had been busy. He hadn't actually come for Penny's sake, but because Ironwood had asked for his help in removing the virus that Cinder had planted in the CCT. Apparently, the program was extremely difficult to locate and remove, and the act of doing so had eaten up a considerable portion of the scientist's time...though Penny reported that he had been making progress.

"So why were you looking for me, Penny?" asked Ruby.

"Well...your brother's gotten in a fight with Team Coffee," said Penny in the same chipper tone she seemed to use for anything that wasn't a life-threatening emergency.

"What?!" exclaimed Ruby, her eyes going wide. "Where?"

"In the main sparring ring," replied Penny cheerfully.

Ruby groaned, slapping a hand over her face. Dinner would have to wait, it seemed.

Worried about what her brother might be doing to her friends, Ruby rushed off, Penny scrambling along in her wake, eager to see how things played out.

When Ruby had first heard Penny say that Kyo had gotten into a fight with CFVY, her first thought had been that they'd attacked him for openly wandering the campus. Ruby couldn't imagine anyone outside those involved with the affair in Mountain Glenn having any knowledge of the...complicated...circumstances behind Kyo's presence at Beacon. It was a bit of a relief to know that they were using the sparring ring, as that meant that they hadn't just up and attacked Kyo.

Granted, her assessment turned to be not too far off, as far as the instigation of the conflict went. Coco and Fox had spotted Kyo wandering the campus (well...Coco had), and wound up recognizing him. They'd immediately questioned what he was doing there, only to be shocked when Kyo revealed himself to be Ruby's brother.

There was little that was known about Kyo by the general populace, including Beacon students. So things like how he'd wound up a wanted man, or what it was he did out in the settlements, weren't well known to those living in Vale. Learning that this criminal claimed Ruby as a relative had led to Coco demanding a challenge, which Kyo had gladly accepted, bored after several days with very little to do.

So Coco had gathered her team, and they had taken the main sparring ring. Now they were engaging Kyo in a four-on-one match.

When she arrived, Ruby wasn't surprised to see that Team CFVY wasn't doing so well.

Kyo was toying with them, effortlessly dodging their attacks, even though they frequently came at him from multiple directions at once. Coco had relatively few opportunities to fight to her strength though, unable to deploy her minigun without one of her comrades being in the line of fire. Instead, it was up to Fox and Velvet to supply ranged support, with Fox using the guns built into his arm-mounted blades to attack, when he had the opportunity, or Velvet to use her camera apparatus to simulate projectile weapons.

Whatever they tried inevitably proved useless. Kyo wove through their attacks with an ease that bordered on careless, looking as though he wasn't even thinking about what he was doing, dancing aside from slashes, leaning out of the way of the occasional bullet, parrying an attack he wasn't even looking at with his sword. Ruby could easily tell that Kyo was holding back, not even bothering to strike out, fully aware that he could shift the course of the fight at any moment, at his leisure.

"How long ago did the match start?" asked Ruby, staring up at the screen that displayed the participants' Aura levels.

"Um...About ten minutes...I think," said Penny.

The members of CFVY showed varying degrees of loss to their Auras. That wasn't due to blows struck against them, but them expending their Aura for their Semblances and attacks. It was harder to read Kyo's condition, given that he didn't have an Aura gauge. Said gauges were provided by the users' scrolls, which monitored their Auras. Not having a scroll meant that there was nothing that would allow the spectators to see the quantified state of Kyo's Aura.

Still, just looking at Kyo's general condition, especially in contrast to the states of those on Team CFVY, it was easy for Ruby to guess that, if Kyo had had an Aura gauge, it wouldn't show much depletion on his part, if any at all.

Sweat was streaming down Coco's face as she closed in, swinging Gianduja by its strap, turning the handbag into an improvised flail, extending her reach, as well as adding centrifugal force to the strike, not that that mattered against Kyo, who leaned slightly to the side, so that the swinging bag breezed past him, doing no more than ruffling his hair.

From behind, Yatsuhashi approached, wielding Fulcrum, his massive, single-edged sword; its wide, orange blade descending towards the back of Kyo's head. Kyo's body blurred in place as he spun about, his sword rising up to strike the side of Yatsuhashi's, knocking the downward slash aside so that the blade instead bit into the ring beside Kyo's feet. The force behind the blow prompted the floor to shatter, which had thrown more than one opponent off-balance.

That was what Yatsuhashi had been aiming for. His left hand released its grip on his sword's handle, reaching out for Kyo's face. Just inches away from his fingers closing around Kyo's head, Kyo abruptly vanished from sight, Yatsuhashi's hand closing on empty air. Kyo had settled for dodging straight back, his retreat taking him at an angle that wouldn't lead to him approaching Coco. However, that didn't help all that much, as now Fox was behind him, the dark-skinned man lunging at Kyo's back with his blades. Sharp Retribution's blade also encountered empty air though, Kyo immediately jumping into a backflip that carried him over the line of Fox's leading slash, his body almost seeming to drift lazily through the air, before he completed his flip, touching down lightly behind Fox.

Instead of turning to try and continue his attack, Fox instead continued forward, going into a leap himself. A second later, it became apparent why. Coco had opened Gianduja into its minigun-form, while Velvet had used her camera-projector, Anesidora, to create a hard-light copy of the very same weapon, both of them taking aim at Kyo from offset angles, creating overlapping fire-lanes meant to overwhelm his defenses.

His smile widening, Kyo brought his sword up, pressing the first two fingers of his left hand against the flat of the blade, where it met the sword's hilt. He then brushed them along the length of his weapon, Tenro's Aura coming to life with a loud ringing sound, the sword shedding waves of light into the air around it. Kyo stopped his movement with his fingers resting near the sword's tip.

"Mumyo Jinpu Ryu: Timbe!"

Coco and Velvet's combined fire spattered against a curved hemisphere of condensed air that rose up between Kyo and them. Coco smirked, applying her Semblance to her attack. Hype allowed her to enhance the destructive potential of the Dust she used exponentially. However, there were no visual indicators to give away that she was using it. If an opponent was watching her Aura gauge, they would see it dip abruptly. But that was the extent of it. Otherwise, they'd have no idea what was coming.

Except that Kyo somehow did. His body abruptly vanished, right at the second Coco's Semblance-enhanced shots struck the shield, which cracked, then shattered. But her remaining bullets cut through empty air again, Kyo having jumped almost straight up. Coco and Velvet both looked up, trying to track Kyo's movement. They raised their guns, but Kyo was already descending, coming back down before the line of bullets they spat could catch up to him.

He landed next to Velvet, his sword descending to attack for the first time since the match had begun. He didn't target Velvet herself, instead cutting cleanly through the spinning barrels of her hard-light copy of Coco's weapon. Velvet herself released the hologram, jumping back as it dissolved into impotent motes of light. A new hologram appeared, this one forming a pair of hard-light gauntlets around her forearms. Ruby gasped as she recognized Yang's weapon.

"That's no good," said Kyo. "If you had that kind of weapon available, you shouldn't have tried to gain distance first."

To prove his point, he simply leveled his sword in Velvet's direction, so that, when she tried to reverse course, she nearly impaled her forehead against the tip of his blade, forcing her to stop cold.

Meanwhile, Coco closed in behind Kyo with an angry growl, Gianduja collapsing back into its handbag form, which Coco swung at the back of Kyo's head. Yet again, Kyo dodged effortlessly.

"You need to eliminate waste in your movements," chided Kyo, sliding aside. "Too much windup gives your opponent a warning. It also means you aren't fully controlling your weapon's weight and heft."

"We don't need your lectures," commented Yatsuhashi, closing in with a horizontal swing from Fulcrum.

Kyo vanished again. Yatsuhashi looked around, only to realize his sword was heavier than normal. His eyes widening, he turned his head to see Kyo crouched on the broad flat of his sword, Tenro extended out to his side.

"I think otherwise," replied Kyo, jumping off of Yatsuhashi's blade without striking back, landing a couple meters away. "Your size gives you an advantage in both reach and height, yet you aren't able to utilize either to their fullest. You need to do a better job of controlling the zone of your reach."

"Is this a fight or a lecture?" asked Fox, charging in and unleashing a series of slashes from Sharp Retribution, Kyo dodging them just as easily as everything else CFVY had tried to throw at him.

"I don't see why it can't be both," commented Kyo in an easygoing manner, indicating he wasn't even winded by the fight, able to talk while still dodging Fox's attacks. "For your part, you're too dependent on technology to make up for your lack of sight. But, with proper training, you should be able to perceive the world even more clearly than others do with their eyes."

Fox stepped down hard, thrusting out with his fists, turning his body so that his arms were extended parallel to each other, the left above the right. Kyo brought up Tenro, angling it so that the flat of the blade was set to intercept both hands, bracing the palm of his left hand against the flat of the blade on the opposite side. When Fox struck, there was a second's pause, before he was abruptly blown backwards, his arms flying back with such force that his shoulders were nearly wrenched from their sockets.

"Fox!" shouted Velvet worriedly.

"Stay focused!" shouted Coco, bringing out her minigun again.

Velvet flinched, then nodded, her weapon creating a hologram of a rifle with an extremely long barrel, which she aimed at Kyo.

They both opened fire, but Kyo dodged their shots again, abruptly vanishing, his body a flashing blur as it passed between them. Coco growled in frustration, trying to bring her own weapon around, while Velvet spun the rifle in her grip, so that she was now aiming it behind her, the barrel passing under her right armpit. She pulled the trigger, firing a shot with far less lag than there would have been, had she tried to turn all the way around before firing. But Kyo sidestepped her shot just as easily. His dodge brought him into position so that, when Coco turned around, she found Fox in her line of fire.

"And when the lynchpin to your teamwork is disrupted," said Kyo, "your coordination drops. If you don't have his telepathy, you quickly start to lose track of one another."

"H-how...?" asked Velvet, her arms going slack in shock.

Fox's Semblance was something of an open secret, not something they went out of their way to hide, but not something they openly advertised either. It was a Semblance that had made them one of the most effective teams at Beacon, enabling them to coordinate their actions without needing to speak a word. It was a difficult thing to counter, even when one knew what they were doing. But, when they went up against opponents who didn't know about Fox's Semblance, no one had managed to figure out what he was doing in the middle of a fight like this.

"When you attune yourself to the Flow of an opponent's Aura, you can learn more about what they're doing," said Kyo, resting the back of his sword over his shoulder, relaxing in the midst of this lull in their fight. "It wasn't hard at all to sense the Aura connecting your minds to his. He's managed to leverage it to create a sort of network for the four of you, allowing you to communicate freely without needing to say a word aloud."

All four members of CFVY found their jaws hanging slack at that. Never before had anyone so completely and accurately assessed the nature of Fox's Semblance, on the fly and in the middle of battle no less.

Kyo laughed, grinning sheepishly, while rubbing the back of his head with his left hand. "Sorry. Did I expose your trump card? It didn't seem like you were making much of an effort to keep it secret."

"W-we weren't, but..." Velvet began.

"That's enough!" snapped Coco, her hand tightening its grip on the strap of her handbag. "We're still in the middle of a fight."

The buzzer abruptly sounded. Looking over, they saw Ruby standing at the edge of the ring, just beyond the radius of the safety barrier, using her scroll to bring down the barrier. Doing so had triggered the buzzer, announcing an unofficial end to the fight.

"Ruby!" exclaimed Velvet, her ears standing up straight.

Ruby walked into the ring, heading straight up to Kyo, and staring up at him. "That's enough, Kyo-nii."

Kyo laughed again. "I'm sorry, Ruby-chan. I got carried away."

Coco gaped at them for a second, before finding it in herself to speak again. "W-wait a second! So this jerk really is your brother?"

"Yep," said Ruby, smiling at her friends. "It's not nice of him to bully you like that. I'm sorry." She offered them a small bow.

"I wasn't bullying them," complained Kyo.

"You could've taken them more seriously," Ruby admonished.

"Yes, well...I didn't want to actually injure anyone," said Kyo sheepishly, "especially since Sasame isn't here to put them back together."

Ruby sighed, running her own fingers through her hair.

"Injure...?" asked Coco skeptically.

"Most of Kyo-nii's techniques a little too...sharp," said Ruby, giving Coco a grave look. "Just his sword can cut through Aura like a hot knife through butter, so he could have cut you easily, if he ever went on the offensive."

"S-seriously?" asked Velvet.

"Yeah," replied Ruby, before turning around and directing an admonishing look at all five of them. "How did this even start, anyway? Penny gave me the basic idea, but..."

"We saw him just out walking around, like he belonged here," growled Coco. "Now, I may not have an encyclopedic knowledge of the official bounty list. But I recognized that he was on it."

"He even admitted to being wanted," added Yatsuhashi.

"I also told you that I had been invited here," said Kyo. "But you didn't believe me."

"He's sort of a guest/prisoner," said Ruby, a nervous chuckle escaping her own throat.

"What does that even mean?" asked Fox.

Ruby felt herself sweating a little. "W-well...to anyone who asks, he's technically imprisoned here, at Beacon. But he's more like a guest, since he can go where he wants, or leave whenever he wants."

"How can he leave whenever he wants?" demanded Yatsuhashi, his voice growing a little bit harsher.

"Well...because nobody could really stop him if he decided to," said Ruby, "which I think you guys know well enough now."

They were silent a moment, before Velvet spoke up. "She's not wrong."

"But I never expected you to take them up on a match like that," said Ruby, looking accusingly at Kyo.

"Well, it was either that or they attacked me right in the middle of the courtyard," said Kyo. "I figured that bringing our fight here would cause less of a disturbance."

"He's not wrong," said Coco.

"And you spent the last fifteen minutes or so toying with them," noticed Ruby.

"Well, it was a bit entertaining," said Kyo. "I don't want to pick on people weaker than me, but it was interesting to see so many different examples of how eclectic the weapons and styles of the Kingdoms can be."

"And then he started giving us advice," groused Coco.

"Well, Kyo-nii is one of the best there is at what he does," said Ruby. "So you might do well to listen."

"Huh?" Coco and her teammates blinked at that, flummoxed by Ruby's suggestion.

"In all the world right now, nobody's probably fought more people than Kyo-nii has," explained Ruby. "…Well…maybe his parents and the Elders, but no one else. I'd say that nobody's fought more Grimm than him either, except that the Grimm have been scared to come near him for so long that that's probably not true anymore."

"W-wait a second, you're saying the Grimm are scared to come near him?" gasped Coco.

"Yep," said Ruby.

"People seem to like that quality of mine," noted Kyo, "though I find it rather dull. I believe that's the primary reason why Ozpin-dono has requested that I remain a guest up through the upcoming festival."

"Wha-?" grunted Fox.

Coco, on the other hand, was staring at Kyo with narrowed eyes through her shades. "A few weeks back, when we took that mission before the dance...the Grimm just up and...disappeared before we could kill them all. We thought it was weird, but the people in the settlement just kinda laughed it off. But that was you, wasn't it?"

"A few weeks back..." Kyo hummed, scratching his chin. "What settlement was this?"

"Lower Cairn," said Coco.

"Ah yes, I did visit there, just before reaching Mountain Glenn," said Kyo. "They threw quite the party. Apparently the Grimm had had them pretty hard-pressed, before I arrived."

"Party...?" Velvet stared uncomprehendingly at Kyo.

Ruby sighed and explained the basics of Kyo's "arrangement" with the settlements. The knowledge came as a complete shock to CFVY, though they could now understand why no one in the settlements had ever tried to turn Kyo in, and why he was able to move about with so much freedom.

"So, the entire reason you're at Beacon at all is...?" prodded Fox.

"To visit Ruby-chan, of course," replied Kyo cheerfully.

"Yep," said Ruby, smiling, in spite of how awkward the situation had become.

"So...we picked a fight for no good reason," said Coco, slumping in disappointment.

"Now, I wouldn't say that," said Kyo. "I did have a fairly good time. It's been a while since I've had the chance to play with anyone."

"Play with..." grumbled Yatsuhashi.

"And there's certainly no reason you couldn't stand to gain from this experience," said Kyo. "I thought I gave you several good pieces of advice."

"You mean those things you were telling us?" asked Fox.

"Yes," replied Kyo. "I thought they were quite salient."

He pointed sharply at Coco. "The delay, when your weapon transitions between modes, is rather pronounced, so you either need to modify it or work out a better means of covering for the delay caused by transition. In a teamwork scenario, your teammates' actions should provide you the time and cover to do so, and they should be mindful of your line of fire, so that they can clear it without your opponent getting a warning."

He pointed to Yatsuhashi. "Like I told you, you need to make better use of your size and reach. With your physique, the range of your maai is exceptional, so you shouldn't allow your opponents to enter your space so easily. If you control your zone, then you can control the entire battle."

Next, he pointed to Fox. "You need to be less reliant on that gizmo in your ear. It might be helpful in finding your way, but it's actually an extra source of stimulus that you need to perceive in the midst of battle, a potential distraction."

"Sure, pick on the blind guy," grumbled Fox.

"Now that's hardly a matter of importance," said Kyo. "Believe it or not, blindness is not such a tremendous setback. After all, you've come at me from my blindspot several times now, but I was able to respond, even though I didn't see your attacks coming."

"It's true," agreed Ruby.

Finally, Kyo turned his attention to Velvet, who recoiled back from his finger. "And you...were especially disappointing."

"I...what?" gasped Velvet.

"Your ability to mimic the moves of others is absolutely fantastic," said Kyo. "An ability like that enables you to acquire techniques in a mere fraction of the time most people would require. So it disappoints me that you have done practically nothing with it."

"Nothing!?" exclaimed Coco furiously.

Kyo frowned. "Your entire weapon is designed around aping the the styles of others. However, your ability is limited merely to imitating physical motions. Given how many fighters integrate their Semblances into their fighting styles, how often have you been hampered by your inability to do the same, when you imitate them?"

Velvet squeaked, ducking her head, ears folding forward in mortification.

"On top of that, continuously switching between weapons and styles means that you are forever changing the pattern of your attack. While, in the short term, that can make for unpredictable changes that can throw an opponent off, in the long term, it will disrupt your ability to fully leverage the skills you apply. Each weapon has its own distinct use, range, and timing. When you change between them, you have to change everything you are doing in order to adjust to the new paradigm that each weapon sets.

"What you should be doing is seeking to take all the different techniques and styles you've experienced, and combine them together with a stable weapon to create your own style that leverages everything you've experienced to the fullest, rather than simply switching from one to another. Unless you do that, you'll never graduate beyond mere proficiency to full mastery."

"C-can I even do that?" asked Velvet.

"Of course you can," said Kyo, his hand coming to rest gently on Ruby's shoulder. "After all, it's nothing less than what Ruby-chan herself has been doing."

"Really?" gasped Velvet, her shocked gaze going to Ruby, who blushed furiously.

"Y-yeah...kinda," said Ruby, averting her eyes.

"Ruby-chan has had multiple teachers over the years," explained Kyo. "While it's nowhere near close to your ability, she is rather quick to pick up new techniques and skills, most of the time. She borrowed wind-based techniques by observing mine, while her two-sword techniques came from another of her teachers. Besides that, she has integrated numerous other aspects to create a style that is completely her own."

Kyo moved his hand from Ruby's shoulder to Velvet's. "The act of learning is the act of imitation. To copy another is to learn from them. But if you do not take that copy and do something to truly make it your own, then you are not completing the act of learning."

"I...I never thought of it like that," admitted Velvet, her head lowering.

"You have a remarkable ability," said Kyo. "But you need to make the fullest possible use of it."

"I'll definitely have to think about this," Velvet admitted.

"Right," said Ruby decisively. "I think that's enough for now. If we don't hurry up, we're gonna miss dinner."

"Shoot! Forgot all about that," said Coco, before bringing her hand to her stomach, which growled loudly.

They made their way towards the door. As they did, Coco clapped Ruby on the shoulder. "I gotta admit, I thought your brother was a psycho, at first. But he's actually pretty cool."

"He is," agreed Ruby.

"A psycho, or cool...?"

Ruby giggled. "Yes."

"I've got it now," said Pietro Polendina.

Penny's father stood before Ozpin, Ironwood, and Glynda, the light streaming in from the window shining off the white whiskers of his heavy beard, and gleaming off the bald crown of his head as the elderly man looked soberly at the people assembled before him. Beneath him, a four-legged mechanical apparatus, which served as his primary means of locomotion, whirred softly with each step it took.

"You've managed to isolate the virus' program?" asked Ironwood, leaning forward eagerly.

Pietro nodded. "That took some doing. The design of the virus' program is nothing short of ingenious. I've rarely ever seen something so advanced."

"Describe its nature for us," said Ozpin, "if you please."

Pietro nodded, bringing up his scroll, and flicking through it. "It's designed to be incredibly adaptive and prolific. Its adaptive algorithms made it absurdly difficult for me to decipher its code. They're designed to allow the virus to elude detection and infiltrate new systems. With less than a minute, it can download itself into any device or system that directly interfaces with a system that it has already infected."

"A direct interface?" asked Glynda, looking for clarification.

"So something like placing a call through the CCT would not be enough to serve as a vector," explained Pietro. "However, if you interfaced your device with a terminal, like to download a file for example, that would allow the virus to propagate."

"And what does the virus do in the systems it has infiltrated?" asked Ozpin.

"It's actual function is quite simple," said Pietro. "The virus is itself an interface. So someone who interacts with an infected system using the virus' program as the interface has complete administrator access and control. They can see every file, and control every function of an infected system."

"God! They would have had complete control over everything linked to the network," said Glynda.

"No wonder they were able to tamper with our security footage," added Ozpin darkly.

"And that's just scratching the surface of the damage this thing could do, if we hadn't found out about it," said Ironwood darkly. "Have you managed to counter it, Doctor?"

"I'm still working on way to do so," said Pietro. "Its adaptive algorithms mean that a standard antivirus program won't work to destroy it. So I'm working on creating a counter-virus, one that can match this one's adaptivity and destroy it in every device and system it has infected. That's going to take some additional time."

"Do you think you can manage it before the Vytal Festival?" asked Ozpin.

"It might be doable, but I can't make any guarantees," said Pietro.

"Do the best you can," said Ozpin. "That's all we can ask at this point."

"I shall," promised Pietro, before frowning. "However, I do have one definitive piece of information that I can give you."

"What is it?" asked Glynda.

"The creator of this virus...I know who he is," said Pietro. "There's only one man who could have designed something this brilliant."

"Who?" asked Ironwood.

"Arthur Watts," replied Pietro darkly.

Ironwood jolted, his eyes going wide. A creaking sound came from the metal of his prosthetic arm as that hand clenched tightly into a fist. "You're sure?"

Pietro nodded gravely. "No one else has this level of expertise."

"Who is this man?" asked Glynda.

"He was once the rising stars of the Atlesian scientific community," said Pietro, sighing. "A true polymath, the man was a genius in several fields, ranging from robotics to biology. It was said that there was practically no area of science that he couldn't develop an in-depth understanding of in less than a month. His ability to combine all those different disciplines was likewise incredible."

"I've never heard of this man," said Glynda.

"He's supposed to be dead," said Ironwood. "He died as a result of an accident involving the Paladin Project."

Pietro sighed. "He had always been sore that the Penny Project was chosen over his own proposal to enhance the defenses of Atlas."

"And he was always a smug bastard, completely assured of his own superiority," grumbled Ironwood.

"Not that such an attitude was unwarranted, given that he was legitimately brilliant," added Pietro. "It saddens me to think that he has turned his genius to such dark ends.

Ozpin exchanged worried glances with Ironwood and Glynda. They had been fully aware that Salem had other agents working on her behalf. But it was disturbing to realize that they had someone this dangerous, and apparently depraved, doing so. Even with Cinder gone, they weren't so foolish as to believe that the threat was over. So the question was if this Watts person, or any of Salem's other people, would attempt something during the Vytal Festival.

"We won't be able to lower our guards," said Ozpin.

"Not that we were planning to do that in the first place," added Ironwood.

"Please proceed with your work, Doctor," said Ozpin, turning back to Pietro, "as fast as you are able. But quality takes precedent over speed. We must not make any mistakes."

"Understood," said Pietro. "I shall begin immediately