The thrill of moving through the air at extreme speeds is really something else.
The last time I remember doing something like this was that field deployment exercise in our second year at Signal, where they threw us off Bullheads repeatedly so that we could develop landing strategies.
That was a fun time. Yang, in particular, enjoyed the thrill of it all and developed her landing strategy rather quickly. The other students? Not so much.
I heard the telltale noise of her guntlets going off with Fire Dust, making me smile.
'Yup. Definitely enjoying herself again.'
I glanced around at the peak of my curve, which was higher than the others since I used my Semblance to boost my launch, seeing various people fall in different positions, none of them obviously placed closer to another student.
'I guess this team selection really is up to fate.'
From the corner of my eyes, I spotted Pyrrha's lance spear Jaune to a tree during his fall.
'Looks like she is still intent on having him as her partner for whatever reason. Oh well, not my problem.'
'Now, where's Ruby at?'
I looked around for my problematic sister, who loves to put herself in trouble all the time, only to spot her speeding off into the distance with her sniper rifle acting as a propulsive force with its recoil.
'.....Damn. Looks like she panicked and defaulted to getting as far away from other people as possible.'
'One of these days, I will have to find a way to get rid of her social anxiety.'
I felt my upward momentum slowly bleed off, letting gravity reassert itself.
I spread my arms and legs, increasing my surface area, and boosted myself with Extremis, ready to land.
As the treeline grew closer and closer, I performed controlled dive bombs by pulling my body together to speed up, avoiding obstacles like branches and trunks, then spreading myself to slow myself again and repeating it again and again.
Finally, when I was low enough, I curled my fingers into claws.
'Wait for it, wait for it....NOW!'
The moment I spotted the biggest possible trunk, I dug my red-hot fingers into it, bleeding off a lot of my kinetic energy.
Then, the moment I felt the tree give way, I let go and then latched onto the next tree, repeating the process. Then, I did it again.
By the fourth tree, my momentum had been reduced to a state where I no longer needed external objects to slow myself.
The moment I touched the ground, I rolled over a bit, bleeding off the last of the momentum, and got to my feet.
As for the trees that I used as anchors? They toppled behind me, their charred trunks the only evidence of what happened.
"Fuuu. That was easy."
Taking a deep breath and exhaling, I jumped up again, climbing the nearest tree to the top, and looked at the sky.
"Let's see here. The sun was over there a little bit ago, and now it is there. So that is West. Which means, North is....That way."
I looked at the movement of the sun and used my hand to create a perpendicular line from the assumed movement, giving me the rough direction of the North.
Jumping down, I started my trek through the forest.
Truthfully, I am both dreading and feeling a little excited to see who my partner is going to be.
On one hand, I don't know if the person I partner up with can keep up with me, or worse, if I will be the one burdening them. Honestly, both scenarios are bad outcomes for me.
On the other hand, I can't help the slight optimism coloring my vision, thanks to the various stories of friendship and found family that Taiyang and Qrow talk about all the time in the context of having a partner and team.
Suddenly, I heard the noise of gunfire and explosions in the opposite direction of where I was going.
'Looks like the other students have already encountered the Grimm...How exciting!!'
I felt an excited grin form on my face.
I have really been craving a serious scrap with the Grimm for many years now. Especially after how every combat encounter I took part in the past four years at Signal always ended in a disaster of the elephant kind.
Hell, I can't even remember the last time I fought a Grimm that was not some variation of Goliath or something equally large.
For some reason, it feels like that particular species has developed a rivalry with me to the point that every Grimm I encounter is a Goliath of varying sizes and maturity states.
I stopped walking as I heard movement from the bushes nearby.
'Here it comes! God, Buddha, the Brothers, or whatever the hell passes for a god here, please let it be anything but a Goliath. I'll even take a Manticore or a King Taijitu, but no more Goliaths please!!'
With my prayer made, I pulled out my Jian sword and got into a stance, ready for anything.
Then, the Grimm made their appearance.
And I could not help but whoop in happiness.
"Fuck yeah! No Goliath!!"
The several Boarbatusks that appeared out of the bushes looked slightly confused. Then, they went back to normal and roared at me.
"You guys have no idea how long I've been longing for a proper scrap against something that doesn't demand me to use my Semblance to the maximum level or use my gun."
"Come at me, you overgrown pigs!! Let's have some fun! Hehehe!!"
———————————————————
Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, could feel her lofty image of the genius in her heart crumble to dust as she heard those strange words.
She knew she had heard that name, Ignis Ruben, somewhere before, but it was not until halfway through initiation, when she and her current partner, Ruby Rose, fought against a group of Beowulves and argued about their circumstances, leading to Ruby making an offhand command about TCS, that things clicked in the heiress's mind.
Ignis Ruben. The genius behind the revolutionary programming language called 'Python' and the one who brought forth the open-source OS called 'Linux'. Things that even her father was forced to admit were far more efficient than the programming in use by SDC, going so far as to contract TCS to rewrite the code of their machines nearly a year ago.
Nearly everybody in high positions knew that the current Director of TCS, one Taiyang Xiao-Long, was merely a figurehead and that the so-called Chief Engineer, Ignis, was the real decision maker in the company. The only reason for him not directly assuming the position of the Director is both his age as well as his clearly stated ambition of becoming a licenced Huntsman by Director Xiao-Long.
If Weiss said she did not admire the genius of the teenager after learning about his existence and his work, she would be lying.
Unfortunately, all that admiration and lofty image came crashing down as she beheld the madman in front of her.
Slowly, she turned to Ruby, who had long since buried her face in her palms, and spoke slowly.
"....Your brother...is something else."
"....Well, in his defence, he really can't help it."
Ruby smiled nervously as she watched the massacre happen by Weiss's side, unable to cleanly refute her new partner since her brother really was painting a bad picture of himself.
The manic grin as he used that ridiculously dense sword of his as a bat, smashing a rolling Boarbatusk headed his way into the distance while shouting something about a 'four!'.
Then, he held the blade up high and smashed it down like a club, as if he were a barbarian from ancient Solitas, crushing another Boarbatusk into a paste.
Then, finally, he decided to use it like a blade.
Superheating it with his semblance, he slashed at another Boarbatusk, cutting right through it, armor and all, like a hot knife through butter, before going back to smacking around another Boarbatusk.
He was clearly having a lot of fun, but he looked really ridiculous doing it.
Once all the Boarbatusks were dealt with, he went into a strange laughter with his head thrown back, making Ruby feel second-hand embarrassment.
Unable to hold herself back anymore, lest he make even more embarrassing actions, she burst through the bushes, making Ignis snap to attention again and stare at her with surprise.
Weiss sighed and followed her partner out into the open, holding a complex look as she stared at Ignis.
"Ruby? And Schnee? When did you two get here?"
"...About that time where you were using your sword as a club and shouting about something called 'four'."
Ignis grinned nervously at Weiss's words and scratched his head.
"...Oh. Well, sorry you had to see that. It's just that, it has been a long while since I've been allowed to deal with normal-sized Grimm, so I got a little carried away."
".....Right. So, you have a partner yet?"
Ignis shook his head.
"Nope. You two are partners then?"
Weiss nodded with her head held high.
"Indeed. Now, shall we get to the ruins? You can come with us if you want. You might find a partner along the way."
Ignis nodded at her reasoning. It was better to travel together with them since it would increase the chances of finding unpaired students by the process of elimination.
"Good. Let go then."
Weiss confidently strode forward, indicating Ruby and Ignis to follow her.
Unfortunately, her confidence deflated instantly when Ignis stopped her.
"North is this way. You are heading south, back to the cliffs."
Weiss gritted her teeth, wanting to refute the boy, but unable to do so as she remembered the last half an hour where she and Ruby walked in circles under her leadership.
"....Are you sure about that?"
"Very. I triple checked my direction using the sun's movement after climbing over the tallest tree."
"....Fine. Lead the way."
With that, the group of three started moving North, converging towards the Ruins.