In the small, localized world called Signal Academy, there are a few unwritten rules between students that the seniors pass on to juniors.
They are rules mainly used to keep those who think they are invincible, simply because they have Aura in check.
One of those rules is that, if you have beef with someone, settle it in the combat class.
Picking on your target's siblings, if they are also in Signal, or targeting them outside school or trying to use your parents or other adults in your life for revenge, is a huge no-no.
Unfortunately, there are always people who think they are above such rules.
Case in point? The idiot who is now the target of one Yang Xiao-Long's full wrath.
I recognize the fool, of course.
Cerulian Spade. A kid from a rather well-to-do family. Their family owns one of the biggest wine refineries in Vale.
The guy has above-average Aura, a good Semblance, and passable looks.
He has never seen actual combat outside of the occasional Grimm that the school takes us out to handle, and has never seen the true darkness that exists out in the real world. He is a kid who grew up in the absolute safety of Vale's walls and never had to struggle for anything.
A blessed life if I have ever seen one.
Sadly, such a life has truly dulled his survival instincts.
I winced as a thunderous crack echoed across the hall, followed by Cerulian's wail of pain.
But Taiyang did not call the match off. Not because he was biased. God knows the guy is as neutral as they come when in his 'teacher' mode. But mainly because this is how Signal handles Huntsmen training.
There are no such things as rules in a fight. Only winners and losers.
So, despite the clear crack that everyone heard, which meant that Yang's blow was so hard that it bypassed his Aura and attacked his internals directly, and made more than a few certain boys and girls flinch in fear, which indicated that the boy probably broke at least a rib or two, Taiyang simply watched on impassively.
Cerulian was not without fight.
He pulled back from Yang, whose eyes were still blazing red, and activated his overengineered weapon.
A rifle that could turn into a claymore.
The Mechashift core activated and turned it from the close combat mode into the rifle mode, indicating that the boy gave up on overpowering Yang, which he should never have hoped to do from the beginning.
....Then again, if he really was that intelligent, he wouldn't be in this mess, would he?
Yang, thanks to our various sparring sessions, knew better than to let an opponent have even a single second to compose themselves. So, the moment he pulled back, she was on him again.
Right cross, left hook, uppercut, knee strike, palm to the abdomen, elbow to the nose, arm locking, throat strikes, there was no mercy to be had here as Yang literally rained attacks on him while the boy only continued screaming in pain as tears streamed down his face.
This is what happens when you touch the reverse scale of this 'little sunny dragon'.
I glanced to my right, where Ruby was doing her best to disappear by holding up her hood, while to my right, another group of girls flinched with every blow Yang was doling out to Cerulian.
With a smirk, I spoke loudly enough for those girls to hear while acting as if I was speaking to Ruby.
"I really wish Taiyang had given me the chance to spar instead. I wanted to test out my new ammo anyway, and he would have served as a good target practice with his armoring semblance. Not to mention the very good reason he gave us with his idiocy."
The girls instantly went pale while Ruby's mouth hung open in shock, forgetting to hide from society as she was trying to do until now.
An understandable reaction, since I doubt there would be an intact corpse left if I really used my gun on the boy.
Aura or no Aura, it is really hard for most things to withstand a 9-foot long Punt Gun with a 1.68-inch smooth bore, 6-foot long barrel that can fire 1lb solid, Aura-Tungsten, Aura-Steel, or lead balls, 45 cal Buckshots, or literally anything else that I can fit in its barrel, at Mach speeds.
It is a power statement in weapon form, given that literally no one but I can use it to its full potential, mainly because of how it works using flash-boiling water and creating a steam explosion to propel the projectiles, producing recoil that would kill a civilian and cripple a seasoned veteran if they don't have super strength or super durability Semblance.
With my words, I also gave those stupid girls the warning that I intended to convey so that they would stay away from Ruby and wouldn't play their petty schemes again.
Although I don't have much hope for their common sense, so I really might have to step in one of these days.
After all, they pulled this stunt knowing fully what Yang can do and already did back when we first came to Signal.
Back then, when we first joined, Yang was a target of bullying, mainly because of how she was already attractive to the boys who were only then starting to hit puberty. This, in turn, made her enemy number one to nearly all the popular girls of the school, who mostly came from either civilian families or from rich families of Vale.
At first, Yang did not intend to use violence and tried to be as diplomatic as possible.
She stopped wearing twin tails, even though she liked that style. She stopped wearing fancy dresses that she usually bought with her own pocket money. She stopped using cosmetics and so on.
She compromised on so much, but the bullying from the girls won't stop.
As for why I didn't intervene? Because she forbade me from doing so.
It would have been really easy for me to take care of all this childishness, but she wanted to use the diplomatic route first.
Unfortunately, these entitled girls didn't know the meaning of restraint.
Then, they did the unforgivable.
They cornered Yang one day, who was still unwilling to use her full training against these barely trained civilians with their Aura unlocked. Then, they poured some kind of hard-to-remove dye on her hair.
That finally snapped Yang, who beat up the girls so badly that their parents showed up at the school the next day.
The response the school gave them was....something.
'Your girls can't handle a simple school-level fight on their own? When they outnumbered their opponent six to one? Then they don't belong on this career path.'
That really shut up the parents and the girls, who toned down things a lot from that day.
But I haven't forgiven them, and I don't think I ever will.
Because I remember how Yang cried to herself that day after coming back home, trying to wash out that dye.
The girl who never even peeped when she received bleeding wounds and broke her Aura all the time during our sparring, cried her eyes out.
I think, if I had not restrained myself back then, reminding myself that I am not in Mistral anymore, I might have done something truly terrible to these girls.
Of course, I did not let things be that easily. There is a reason why these girls' parents no longer have the guts to so much as look at Yang or our family anymore, but that is a different matter altogether.
With a sigh, I got up from the bench after Taiyang finally called an end to the spar, after Cerulian was reduced to a bloody mess, and Yang had a satisfied smirk on her face.
Then, I spoke up loudly again, making sure these girls, and those idiots who followed their words stupidly, thinking that these girls would give them the time of the day if they 'take care' of their source of displeasure.
'All in all, Typical high school drama'
"Well, Ruby, looks like big bro here didn't get the chance to test his sword or gun against the idiots. Next time someone messes with you, how about running to me instead of Yang? I promise I'll make things very quick instead of this...boring display."
If the girls were pale before, they now looked like they really will have a heart attack right at this moment.
Because they have already seen what I can do when I get serious. That field trip last year, when I obliterated that fully grown Goliath with nothing but my fists because I was really pissed about some stuff and had found the perfect target to vent, was still being whispered about in our graduation class, after all.
So, they might actually prefer to scrap with Yang than get in the ring with me. Because, in their eyes, I really might kill them on the spot, and there would be nothing they could do about it, mostly.
"Hey! No kill-stealing!!"
Yang roared at me with a grin as she walked towards us, overhearing what I said. Her Shotgun-Gauntlets, Ember Celica, already in their retracted form as the 17-year-old flipped her hair haughtily.
"Ruby came to me first, so that means I get to deal with them. Not you!!"
I clicked my tongue in annoyance, making Yang chuckle.
All the while, Ruby continued hiding behind Yang and I and whispered out.
"You two practically killed my social life here."
As one, we raised our eyebrows.
""Social life?/What social life?""
Ruby continued to grumble all the way home as we walked out of the school. With classes done, which were getting shorter and shorter for our term since we would be graduating in a month or so, we had nothing else to do at school, so we decided to go home and get some rest.
Walking with the girls, I could not help but reflect on everything that had happened in the past five years since I arrived here.
So many memories full of love and warmth. So much fun time. So much perspective that I was missing all along.
So much life.
For the first time since arriving in this world, I started to truly live instead of just surviving, only after coming to this household.
I smiled as Yang and Ruby continued arguing in front of me.
Family.
These two. Qrow and Taiyang. They are all my family. There is no denying that.
And soon enough, once I graduate from Signal and then from Beacon at 21, I will be ready to truly enact my plans in full and provide pleasant lives for this family of mine.
It is only a matter of going through another four years of schooling at Beacon Academy.
With these thoughts, I silently followed the girls back to our home.
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