A Deathly Silence (RWBY/Drakengard 3)

[X] "Miss Xiao Long... The schooling trip outside the Kingdoms is happening soon. Perhaps she will encounter one of the targets, as you predicted. Shall we observe to learn of our enemy?

It was Yang Xiao Long's third year at Signal Academy.

Really, it had felt longer. Considering how many different students had different semblances and different weapons, the curriculum wasn't able to be too advanced. A year to cover the basics of Aura, the most common weapon types and give students time to decide on and build a weapon, and then another helping the students learn to fight with their weapons.

The third year was rumoured to be where the most benefit was drawn from. The students had time to hone their skills, with both Semblance and weapon, so the teachers could stop focusing on making sure their combat style was sound, and start giving them real combat experience. It was also the hardest year- Where the students who couldn't cut it would be identified and given more training, and those who were skilled enough were sent to Beacon.

And in a sure sign of that escalation, the combat training stepped it up as well. In the first year, the students mainly fought teachers, to measure their skill in using Aura. In the second year, they mainly fought each other, to learn how to use their abilities, and get used to opponents who fought to win.

In the third year, they were finally moving on to the Grimm themselves.

...Well, officially, anyway. It certainly wasn't in the curriculum that students would sneak off to test themselves against a Beowulf in the Forest of Death, though it wouldn't surprise Yang if the only reason people got away with it was because they were allowed to. She was certainly a lot more successful sneaking off than those without Hunter parents, and being sneaky was hardly her speciality.

Really, Yang had it lucky. Ruby too, now that she thought about it. After Yang's poorly thought out plan to find her mother several years ago nearly got her killed, her father and uncle had decided that it might be worth it to teach the two how to defend themselves, and they went into Signal with a decent idea on how to fight already. It gave them a bit of an advantage, but since Signal was designed so that even people with next to no knowledge had a chance of making it to Beacon, it also meant a lot of what was taught was retreading old ground for Yang.

She hoped Ruby wouldn't find it too boring. She was good enough that Qrow had finally relented on teaching her how to fight with a scythe, so the basics on how to use your Aura to minimise damage would likely bore her.

But she could hardly think of Ruby right now. Ruby would be fine. She'd probably work through the boredom by thinking of more weapon designs, that seemed to be what she did when she was bored. Heck, Ruby had put more thought into Ember Celica than Yang had. She'd be fine.

Yang, on the other hand, was going to be taken outside her comfort zone.

She knew, going in, that the third year teachers at Signal would do something like this. Something to throw their students into the deep end, see what they do under pressure, and create more unpredictable situations to see if their combat skills were able to hold up with the unexpected.

But leaving the Kingdom? Not even to go to another Kingdom, but to just wander for a month to see how well a group of students could work in those conditions?

It seemed like a bit of escalation. The Forest of Death sounded intimidating, but the older Beacon students and staff controlled the Grimm population there. Everyone knew what to expect going in.

But outside the kingdoms? That went out the window. You didn't know what to expect out there. Stronger Grimm, Grimm which had learnt that certain environments could be used to their advantage, all sorts of things. And that's not to mention what the people out there could be like. It wouldn't be too surprising if they ended up encountering a group of bandits, or if they invited enough attention that they were swarmed in Grimm constantly.

Which, Yang pondered, sounded kind of fun.

But on the other hand, Yang wouldn't get to see Ruby's first month at Signal, wouldn't get to see her friends much, and depending on what group she travelled with, could end up adventuring with some real annoying people. And if the assigned teacher was too much of a worrywort, they might not even get that many fights out of it.

Well, hopefully, it'd be fun.

The groups were randomised, from what she heard. Three students in a group, plus a teacher or two to keep an eye on them and make sure they didn't wander off and get kidnapped or killed.

She had a week until the groups were heading out. A week to get prepared for a month-long journey. Living expenses would be covered by the teachers, but there was still a week, so that things could be rescheduled if one of the students was too ill or injured to go, while letting people gather up some ammo for their weapons so they didn't need to worry about buying too much of it out in the wilds.

She didn't know what students would be travelling with her, but she could ask the designated teacher who was coming. She'd been sent a letter explaining the situation which included the name of the supervisor, after all. She'd just need to talk to them, if she wanted to know who was coming.

But who exactly is the teacher supervising Yang on this trip?
[X] In a show of cross-Kingdom unity, your supervisor is apparently from the Atlas military. Uncle Qrow seems overly amused for some reason.
[X] Apparently, the original person lined up broke a leg a few days ago, so a teacher from Beacon is stepping in to fill in.
[X] This has to be his idea of a joke, right? He swapped the actual letter you got from Signal to make you worry that he was being too overprotective, right?

Yang will make preparations herself for the most part, but i need something to write next updateYou get some special actions which you can get some sort of advantage out of. (Pick 2)
[X] Spend some time with Ruby. Tinker away and upgrade Ember Celica a bit with her, figure out how she's doing with designing her own weapons, sneak some cookies out of the cookie jar, stuff like that.
[X] Spend time with some friends. Most of them are probably too busy preparing, but you could go out for the night with one or two at least.
[X] Get in touch with your teacher, figure out who else is travelling with you.
[X] Be lazy. Watch television. There's a tournament going on around now, isn't there?
[X] Go shopping. Maybe buy something nice. Some higher-quality specialised ammo, maybe. Or a storybook or pun book to pass the time if you get bored.