Akashic

'Don't we go to Forever Fall tomorrow?' Arthur realized, and turned his head to his door, while Fairy lazed atop his l.a.p, having sprawled herself over both Arthur and Summer while they watched something on the holoscreen. His thoughts wandering to the chat Jaune was probably having with Ruby now, a smirk forming on his face as he put the thought to the back of his mind, 'Ruby's got it'.

Moments later he felt something crunch down on his hand, bringing a twitch to his eyebrow as he turned his head down to Fairy, her teeth firmly planted into his hand, a bright smile on her face as she looked up at him, as if saying 'What'cha gonna do about it?'. An evil grin formed on Arthur's face as he raised his not bitten hand forming it into a claw, immediately sending a drip of sweat down Fairy's cheek.

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"Least it's not radioactive" Arthur muttered with a chuckle as he stared off into the bright red forest, his mind wandering to a famous red forest back on his home world, his hand rubbing over the oddly grey bark of the trees, before kneeling down and picking up one of the bright red leaves that dotted the ground, the leaf having slightly changed to a more darker red, probably having fallen a few days prior.

'I wonder…' he thought as he began to circulate his white aura into the leaf, quickly causing it to change colours, returning to its previous bright red colouring, it also having grown slightly due to the nourishment from his aura. Seeing the changes had come to an acceptable point he changed to his black aura, the effects being almost instantaneous as the leaf began to turn darker and dark, soon crumbling to dust in his hand, 'So the fire isn't necessary for the effects to take place…' he thought letting the leaf dust fall to the ground after wiping his hand off.

"Yes Students" Glynda began her instructions, while suddenly stopping and turning around, nearly causing Ruby to crash into her due to her looking around in awe at the forest, "The forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not her to sightsee. Professor Peach had asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep in the forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so" she said, a jar filled with red sap appearing in her hands.

"You are all to gather this" she said holding the jar up to the class, "Within the trees deep in the forest you will find this red sap, you are all to collect a single jars worth of sap, however, the forest is filled with the creatures of Grimm, and in increasing amounts the last few days" he gaze falling sharp as she looked to Arthur sending a shiver down his spine as he kneeled next to a small white flower with a stem as red as the rest of the forest, "So please, do stay with your teams, do not venture to far from the other groups and by all means, stay, on, guard"

"Arthur, you are to accompany team JNPR for the day, and please, don't get mortally wounded… again" she said her words causing a slight twitch to Ruby's lip, which calmed down when Yang patted her on her shoulder.

"Hey, that was two times!" he retorted, "Two times!" he said holding up two fingers, earning him chuckles from the other students, "It's not like I wanted to get impaled…" he muttered and began to rub his c.h.e.s.t where the scar from the Nevermore feather had impaled him.

"Yes, two times too many." She added, silencing Arthur, "We will rendezvous back here by 4 o'clock. Have fun" she said, her voice unusually cheery as she waved her riding crop creating a bench and table from the fallen tree limps and twigs, while also bringing out a canteen which she unscrewed, pouring out tea into the lid.

"Mono! I'm so happy your with us! Can you show me your arm! I remember it turning into a giant badass claw during initiation! Was that your semblance! Are you an alien? You're not going to probe me are you? Can you change the shape of your nose!? I've always wanted a witches nose!" Nora said, slinging herself across Arthur's back causing him to crash to the ground with a groan.

Turning his head up he began trying to wriggle from his captor, his eyes soon falling to Ren who was staring down at him with empathy, "Nora… please get off. I can feel a twig digging into my gut…" he muttered, his words going unheard as Nora kept blasting off whatever came to her mind. Ren's response was to raise his hands saying, 'not my problem'.

With a sigh, Arthur planted both his hands onto the ground and began to force himself up, luckily, one of the things he'd gained from Summer's training was better strength, so pushing himself off the ground was relatively easy, even with the combined weight of Nora and her weapon Magnhild the grenade launching hammer.

Off to the side Pyrrha let out a disappointed sigh after having seen Jaune dragged off by Cardin to another part of the forest, in his hand carrying a box filled with multiple empty glass jars.

Turning back to her team, and Arthur, she began to walk deeper into the forest, a smile forming on her face at the sight of Arthur's rapidly twitching eyelid due to all of Nora's questions, and inane rambling, "How, just how do you two live with this?" he asked pointing his hand to Nora.

"Patience… lots and lots of patience…" Ren replied, groaning as his speaking seemed to attract the attention of Nora, as she quickly swapped over to Ren to be the victim of her rambling.

"I actually quite enjoy it, it makes everything seem more 'lively'" Pyrrha added, "And Nora is actually quite wise, she just tends to be more rambunctious, it's really amusing just watching her" she explained, giggling at the sight of Nora using her hammer as a makeshift guitar, singing an off key song that strangely reminded Arthur of Country Roads.

"How much sugar did she have for breakfast?" Arthur asked.

"Too much, more than I've had since I started training" Pyrrha bluntly stated, "I'm honestly quite envious at how little it seems to have affected her form, if I have a lot of sugar in my breaks from training it all just seems to go to my t.h.i.g.hs and belly" she pinched her stomach, not really getting much in her fingers.

"Maybe it also has to do with her semblance? Her electrical charges superpower her muscles so maybe she's like in a constantly active state, even when she sleep, maybe her muscles get worked, so she's constantly exercising" he contemplated.

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Deep within the Forever Fall lay a large, black tiger with white stripes, bony plates running down its spine and across its shoulders, from which small spikes protruded, two large curved horns protruding from its mask and a bright red glow in its eyes. Had Arthur been here, he would recognize it as the same Grimm which had saved him during initiation, the Byakko.

Time passed, as the night turned to day, and upon morning break it quickly raised its head, it's eyes sharpening as it began to let out a growl as it also began to raise from the ground, turning to the direction where a dark shadow was quickly entering the Forever Fall, it's body crawling between the trees in relative ease, leaving dozens upon dozens of tiny holes wherever it stepped.

The Byakko let out a growl and charged in its direction, a dark mist pouring from the sides of its mouth.

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"Tracks?" Arthur muttered, turning his head slightly at the sight of the numerous large holes in the ground next to the tree he had been collecting sap from, his eyes following them into both directions, unable to figure out which way they were going due to their circular appearance, "Grimm maybe? But what kind?" he said, his finger going over the rim of the hole as he also looked about three meters next to the hole, finding another perpendicular to it, 'We need to go' he thought as he quickly grabbed his now full jar a sealed it, quickly walking to the rest of the group of RWBY and JNPR, them having met up with RWBY while they were walking, having come across a relatively open area with thicker trees than the outskirts of the forest next to a small hill where Arthur knew team CRDL and Jaune were, Cardin most likely having now turned to targeting him instead of Pyrrha after the numerous embarrassments Arthur had caused him, though he couldn't be sure that he wouldn't also target Pyrrha, but knowing that Jaune would refuse to help him calmed him somewhat.

"You guys got everything?" Arthur asked the group, his eyes constantly scanning the surrounding forest.

"I think so?" Pyrrha responded, her eyes falling to Nora who had her hand halfway down a full jar, who gave an awkward laugh when she was spotted.

"We're done here!" Ruby shouted to him everyone holding a full jar.

"Good, I want to get out of here, something doesn't feel right…" he muttere, earning him tilted heads from the others before they all gave a shrug.

"Sure, it's nearly four anyways, so we might as well start heading back" Yang said, her eyes also scanning the surroundings when she noticed Arthur's hand hovering around the handle of their mothers weapon 'SilverLight' which he had borrowed, "Something got you spooked?" she asked, getting the attention of the group.

"Somewhat, I just found these tracks, and I have no idea what their from, I barely noticed them, they weren't very deep, and there were a lot of them, and I mean A LOT, and the spacing between the two sides was at least three metres so whatever it was, was light and big, maybe some kind of grimm that focuses on ambushing, something quite, and they looked quite fresh" he explained, "I just want to get out of here before we run into it"

"We'll be okay, there's eight of us here, how dangerous could it be" Yang 'pffted' and waved her hand, just as a scream resounded through the forest as soon someone came bursting through the bushes screaming "Ursa! Ursa!" this being Russel, a known member of Cardins bird brigade, who soon runs into Yang.

"What!?" Yang says grabbing Russel's collar and lifing him into the air, unfazed by their collision, "Where?" she 'politely' asked, Quickly getting a response as Russel pointed behind him, saying "Back there! It's got Cardin!" while also slapping Yang's hands off and continuing his escape.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha muttered, her jar falling from her hand, her words being noted by Ruby, who quickly gave orders to her team.

"Yang! You and Blake, go get professor Goodwitch!" both not giving any comments as they both quickly began to run off to where Glynda was waiting for them, soon followed by Nora and Ren who had gotten the order to follow them in case there were more, leaving Pyrrha, Weiss, Ruby and Arthur to go after Jaune, albeit Arthur was hesitant due to the strange tracks, but soon opting to follow the three, albeit having to chase after them as they had already left.

"Wait!" Pyrrha said preventing Weiss from going in to assist Jaune with the Ursa, them having come to the scene just as the Ursa was looming over Cardin, its paw slashing down on him, but being blocked as Jaune dove in front of Cardin, shield raised blocking the attack.

Arthur had just broken through the treeline where he saw Ruby, Weiss and Pyrrha watching Jaune fighting, but just as he was about to run up to them he heard a light, almost unnoticeable sound of tapping against the ground, and lots of it, freezing in his spot he began to quickly circle in his spot, scanning the area around him, his hand now pulling the dual swords from his belt, quickly changing them into their more manageable short spear form.

His eyes soon came to a stop on a large shadow quickly scuttling between the trees, creating barely any sound apart from the rapid and light tapping, which he would have missed if he hadn't been focusing on listening for any sign that something was around him. He quickly turned his head to Ruby, Pyrrha and Weiss, his mouth opening ready to call for them and alert them to the presence, yet before he could say anything the bush in front of him rustled as a figure burst from it, its head crashing into Arthur's spear which he brought up to defend himself, yet, he soon found himself rapidly being carried away further into the forest by the Grimm, the others having not heard the sound as they remained watching Jaune's fight.

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Alternate Chapter names: [The Red Forest] [Stalker of the Forever Falls] [Well, uh, cliffhanger]

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