Forsythe — Roleplayer Guild

Sunday - Outside

@ABillionCats
Diamond nearly choked on a laugh. "Oh, that is precious. First Cobalt tries to not so subtly dump his job on me and now outsiders are starting to mistake me for our leader. Maybe I should just shut up and do it." she smirked before leaning towards Emerald, patting the faunus on her head. "Hey, how about we go ask the nurses if you can grow back together in your own bed? I'm sure if you promise you will not move around too much they'll let you - because you won't move around, right?" she suggested on a condition before moving to support the Faunus as they started walking back towards the infirmary.

Sunday - Practice grounds

@Harinezumikouken
Cigarette smoldering in between her lips, Esther stood with her arms crossed. A rather bored look on her face as she stared at her robotic training partner. Bearing striking resemblances to the new Atlesian Knights that were recently released, only much worse for wear. Displaying countless gouges, scratches, dents, dings, and even gunshot holes it was surprising how the training robot was even functioning at this point. Needless to say, ‘Bobbie’ as it was referred to, was a tough trooper. The Abyss Walkers were lucky enough to get their hands on the first few prototypes of the Atlesian Knights before they were all ‘prettied up’ and features added/removed to adjust costs per unit. Once ‘Bobbie’ was properly accounted for in their inventory and systems, the Walkers got to work putting the bot through its paces. Esther had ‘borrowed’ it for this weekend’s private lesson with one Ms. Diamond Frost.

Her hair had been pulled back into a tight, tidy, and neat bun. Rifle slung across her back, knife on her hip, pistol holstered on her thigh, Esther looked ready to fight at moment’s notice. Looking at the time displayed on her Scroll, she was quickly growing a bit irritated. Diamond had yet to show up early, as she figured. Eyes down at the ground, Esther absently kicked at the loose bits of rubber that saturated the ground of what she called the Practice class’ ‘Pit’ with her tan boots. The Pit being the class’ ground fighting spot, it was comprised of old and discarded tires that had been shredded and dumped into a big hole in the ground essentially. Might as well have Bobbie go through its paces.

Removing her cigarette to tap away some ash, Esther sighed.
”Bobbie.”
The bot blipped and beeped, ‘coming to life.’
”Conduct functions check of full range of motion.”
The bot nodded once in the affirmative and start doing a series of odd looking stretches and movements as it went through its tests.

Esther grunted and put her cigarette back to her lips, looking up at the bright afternoon skies with a sour look. Nice, bright, and warm. Perfect for a day of training. Looking around at the rather isolated Pit, Diamond still hadn’t shown up. No one that she could see as of yet hiding in the treelines. Just what was the girl playing at? Was she even going to take this all seriously or just waste Esther’s time? If that was the case, she would have to schedule a return/refund of whatever the girl decided to pay her.

‘Bobbie’ finished its test and notified Esther in an electronic young boy’s voice.
”Test complete, ma’am.”
Esther glanced at Bobbie before continuing to wait and grow annoyed with Diamond.
”Test result report.”
”Test results confirm. Lubrication, fluid levels approaching required replacement PM date. Full range of motion functioning at 89% of optimum operating rates.”
Esther grunted, exhaling a cloud of cigarette smoke. She wasn’t really concerned with the bot needing some new fluids, as long as it worked. 
”Run through basic hand-to-hand combat routines.”
”Aye, ma’am!” Bobbie nodded once and turned away from Esther, shadow-boxing with the open air as Esther waited.

First lesson and Diamond was already cutting it close. Right after she was done with taking care of her teammates, she grabbed a power bar, inhaled a can of soda and headed for the practice grounds. At 17:58 she finally made it, albeit a little shallow on breath. Suck it up, Frost. she told herself, looking around for a short while before finally spotting two people.

On second look, only one person plus one weathered Atlesian Knight. A bun? Great. Devil instructor of the battlefield it is.. “Good evening!” she pipped, hand reaching to tip the hat before her mind reminded her of its absence.

Esther and Bobbie both turned their heads at the same time to lock onto Diamond. It was clear Esther was not happy. Narrowing her eyes, Esther flex her jaw.
”Bobbie. Halt training routines. New training partner registered, Ms. Diamond Frost.”
The bot stopped and stood straight, unmoving as it processed the new information.
”Intermediate hand-to-hand close quarter combat session. And skip the Gentleman’s Bow, will you?”
The bot nodded once, turned to square up with Diamond and immediately charged at her. Swinging savagely with hooks, jabs, and kicks.
While Bobbie ‘greeted’ Diamond as its new training partner, Esther used her command voice to make sure she could be heard.
”I’m so glad you decided to join us, Ms. Frost! So, what’s your excuse for being late?! You really are starting to impress me with how seriously you say you want to improve! By the way, this is Bobbie! Bobbie is going to be your punching bag!”
Or rather, Diamond would become Bobbie’s if she didn’t provide Esther with a satisfying enough answer to calm her down. Off in the distance, Esther exhaled a cloud of smoke nearly finished with her current cancer stick. 

Barely having enough time to catch a breath, Diamond grabbed the infernal machine by the wrists in an attempt to stop it. “I’m on time, and actually I was trying to teambuild until now so get-” She growled, eyes flashing as she set to cooling the tin can’s shell so she could hopefully break it to pieces, “-off-” Woefully not enough time to do that. Combined with her exhaustion and the robots actually impressive strength, she would have to come up with something else. “-my case!” Letting herself fall back, her legs shot up against the robot’s ‘stomach’ in an attempt to boost it into the air and over herself.

Bobbie was a veteran in and of its own rights, which is why Esther had picked its model instead of any of the others. Of the first batch of Atlesian Knight prototypes, Bobbie was the oldest and most beaten down. Fond memories played a part in Bobbie’s selection but also due to the fact that it had been in the most number of combat scenarios when compared to the other models. The moment Diamond fell back to kick at its stomach, it took the hit but squatted down to dig into the ground, absorbing the impact as it grabbed at Diamond’s ankles. With its strength, Bobbie lifted Diamond up and slammed her back against the ground. Lifting her up a second time, Bobbie chucked her in some random direction before chasing after her flying body.

Esther continued to heckle Diamond from the sidelines, doing her best to get a rise out of the girl and taking satisfaction in knowing it was working. All part of the test, really. ”If you’re on time, you’re late! You’re on time only if you’re early!” With a mocking round of applause, she continued ”Well, that’s all fine and dandy but you’ve gone and hurt Bobbie’s feelings! Bobbie was waiting to meet you and now look at you two! Already getting to know one another so well!”

Diamond twisted as she was tossed about like a ragdoll, managing to land on her feet, her boots dragging two ditches in the pit’s surface as she slid to a stop. She took a breath to tell Esther something she wouldn’t like repeated, but then the gears in her head finally started turning. Oho? Right! You think I get too emotional in a fight. Trying to wind me up are you? Fat chance. Planting one hand on the ground she caused the ground under the robot’s feet to freeze over while trying to summon a dagger to use. The result was somewhat bent something, but it had a pointy end and a bulge that would guard her hand - good enough. Switching to forward grip for greater accuracy, she went straight for the robot’s optics - Technically, Esther didn’t tell her she had to stick to hand-to-hand.

Bobbie’s feet got frozen over, causing it to stumble and nearly fall over. Trapped for but a second, Esther issued it another command. ”Bobbie! Fight dirty.” lights blinked and flickered in its faceplate as it added a slightly different combat sub-routine to its own programming. Punching straight down at the ice covering its feet, Bobbie grabbed the shards and chunks of ice to crush them in its hands. As Diamond neared it with a shadow-formed dagger, Bobbie threw the now-powdery ice particles at her face. 

“Ahahaha.” Diamond chuckled as the ice particles simply melted when they approached her. Swinging her arm from above, she twisted it at the last moment to come from below instead, the tendrils of her aura surrounding the makeshift weapon to give it the punching power to go through the robot’s head. Let me enlighten you tin can - Fighting ice with ice does not work.

On another human or living thing, Diamond’s last minute swing adjustment would’ve spelled its end. But Bobbie is a military fighting machine, it didn’t rely on something as slow and unpredictable as reflexes. It had its own reaction time that was a step or two above that and as it saw Diamond’s attack coming upward Bobbie used its forearms to counter the attack by applying sudden force downward. Since Diamond was in Bobbie’s work space, it moved quickly right after the block. Locking Diamond’s attacking arm with one of its own and trapping the student, Bobbie followed up with strikes at the side of her neck, throat, and head.

The machine seemed to be a step ahead. If the block that wouldn’t have been humanly possible wasn’t a tell, then the dip Diamond’s aura just took from the strikes was a dead giveaway. It was becoming hard not to get angry, but the pair of brown eyes lingering on her just fishing for any mistake she would make so she could get chewed out for it made her stubbornly resist it.

It was ironic that the extra request she intended to make was to get her better at fighting at close range without a weapon. She was aware that with her semblance acting up she had no way around it. Locking the other arm with ‘Bobbie’s’ again, Diamond found the space to ask one thing. “How mad are you going to be if I break your toy?” the glow in her eyes turned paler as she put her spells to work. Since the robot wasn’t actually living, she had no trouble focusing on its specific parts.

Esther took one last drag of her cigarette before removing it and flicking it off to the side. Exhaling, she clapped her hands together once. ”I wouldn’t be. Bobbie, end training session.”

Bobbie seemed to freeze up, straightening its posture as its faceplate lit up. Beeping and blipping once more, Bobbie nodded once and spoke with that odd little boy’s voice. ”Aye, ma’am. Training session ended.” Releasing its hold on Diamond, Bobbie took a step or two back before politely bowing to Diamond. Turning, Bobbie walked over to Esther’s side and awaited further orders.

Esther reached into her trouser pockets and pulled out her packet of smokes, opening the top to slip one out before returning it. With her other hand, she pulled out a metal lighter and lit up. Flicking the lighter closed with a clink, Esther quickly eyed Diamond up and down before motioning at her with a hand. 

Esther put her free hand on her hip, thinking of removing the bun she had her hair in. Why she put it up in the first place, she wasn’t quite sure. Sure, they were on Beacon grounds but they weren’t exactly there during normal school hours. Esther wasn’t necessarily on the clock. She was dressed the part, but she hated fucking buns and ponytails. In a few minutes or so, she would probably take her hair down, thinking about it more. 

As the machine froze, Diamond gave esther a side look. “PAH!” She slammed her fist to the frozen machine’s chest, watching it slowly topple over with a silly giggle. Sighing and stretching her arms, she turned to the teacher. “You know I was about to ask for part of these lessons to improve my hand to hand, did you read my mind or something? I left my tinfoil hat at Atlas.”

Esther looked at Bobbie, lightly kicking at its chassis with the side of her boots. ”Bobbie. Get up. Go practice your combat routines on a tree or something.” She dismissively waved a hand at Bobbie as it stood. Nodding once, the robot said a quick ”Aye, ma’am.” and actually went to the nearest tree to start punching and kicking at it.

She shook her head, shrugging her shoulders. ”I had no idea. You were late which pissed me off and I decided to have Bobbie gauge your close-combat skills. Spoiler alert, you do indeed suck ass but I didn’t need Bobbie to know all of that. You’re quick to rely on your Aura, Dust, and Semblance before actually using any physical weapons or skills. Not that I’m saying you should hold back with that, but what if your fists were all you had?”

Sucking on the end of the cigarette butt, Esther took another drag and exhaled it to the side before looking back at Diamond with her cold dull eyes. ”So? Is that what you want to work on today? Your physical fighting prowess or lack thereof?”

“Wonderful work at stating the obvious. And you need to learn how to read the clock.” Diamond grunted under her breath. “What would I do? Improvise.” she said back in normal voice, “I am used to using the environment. True, mostly the city but the general principles still apply. There will always be something to grab or place to go to put some distance between me and whatever. Besides, I think I can work on that on my own well enough. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to focus on the casting and semblance?” she suggested. After all that was her comfort zone in a fight, so she needed to get the grip on those back again as soon as she could. Sighing, she looked up: “You’re going to want to hear about what happened right?”

Esther cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head when she thought she heard Diamond mutter something under her breath, but ultimately decided to ignore it. ”Suit yourself, it never hurts to improve basic hand to hand combat just remember that.” Another drag and another exhale, she was burning through her cigarettes rather quickly today for some reason. Was she particularly stressed about something? Perhaps it was merely boredom. ”This is your private lesson, whatever you feel you want to learn or work on, that’ll be the focus. I don’t have a syllabus planned out for you.” Finally having enough of her hair, Esther started to undo it. Her hair falling and resting in their natural state. ”Whatever you decide is important to tell me, feel free to and know that anything you say to me will have teacher-student confidentiality.” What could it be though? Something the girl wanted to get off her chest? If so, what was it? She had no idea what it could possibly pertain to. 

The assurance made Diamond’s mouth rise in the corners in a faint ghost of a smile. She wouldn’t bet on anything sounding so formal as ‘teacher-student confidentiality’, but… she would trust Esther with this. Frankly, more than her own teammates, because with her she was sure she would get an honest answer rather than a pep talk. It still wasn’t easy to talk about it though.

Diamond sat herself down on the ground tyres. Gods, how many times did she want to tell someone? How much did she crave for someone to tell her if she did right or wrong? But there was always an excuse. Never a good time. Not a person good enough.

“Well… It is what my discussed limit is and how I found out… I figure that might be important somewhat.” She started, her tone still sounding uneasy and hesitating. “It was… two years ago. Back when I had that unfortunate holiday in jail. Somewhere halfway through… It was after dinner, some two idiots put something in my food, thought they would make themselves a fancy evening or something. They gave something to the guard in our sector to mind his own business and cornered me, all hazy and wobbly thinking I couldn’t defend myself.” she continued, her voice picking up strength.

“When I saw a knife I was terrified! But then when they started cutting into my clothes and getting all grabby...” Diamond’s breath was becoming ragged at this point, “I got so angry!” she growled, her hands clawing on the ground, “I wanted them dead! And then… then...” Just as fast as her voice picked up, it fell silent again.

“I don’t remember much of what happened then. It was like somebody else was at the helm. But I’ll never forget the end. It was like… I don’t even know how to describe it… Like I [i]was[i] my shadow, not just controlling it.” She brought her slightly trembling hands in front of her, her eyes falling to them. “I’ll never forget how my arms looked, black talons with chunks of people hanging from them. And I’ll never forget their lifeless eyes. They looked like just seeing me would have been enough for them to turn into stone, even if I didn’t tenderize them. They looked so scared. It still keeps me up at night.” She looked up to Esther with pleading eyes, “Am I… A monster?”

As Diamond spoke, Esther stood without changing her expression or posture. Waiting until the girl was finished saying what she had to let out without passing judgement of any sort as her cigarette slowly burned away in between her lips. She wondered if she was the first and only person the girl had ever confided in. When Diamond finished and asked her question, Esther removed her cigarette and tapped away the ash. Eyes watching as the little ashes slowly drifted to the ground, Esther finally spoke up after giving herself sufficient enough time to process and digest what was said.
”No. You’re not a monster.”
Returning the cigarette to her lips, Esther took an especially long drag and gently exhaled a ‘lazy cloud’.
”To be honest, if I were in your situation...I would’ve done something similar. For whatever reason, those scumbags thought it’d be a good idea to take advantage and cause permanent irreparable harm to a young girl. At that point, I wouldn’t even consider them human beings. Filth, really. I would’ve put a bullet between each of their eyes. Playing the part of judge, jury, and executioner not losing a wink of sleep at night. But, that’s me. Obviously, you’re not me. You’re you, to be redundant.”

Esther blinked, now noticing she was nearly done with her second cigarette and reached for her packet. Opening it, she looked at how many she had left and stared at it while continuing to respond to Diamond.

”If you’re looking for an answer as to whether you were right or wrong, look at it like this. You’re here, aren’t you? If someone else thought you were wrong for what you did to them, wouldn’t you still be locked up in the clink? To me, you were right for what you did in every sense of the word. Morally, legally, whatever. Then again, many people may see that as rather extreme but I don’t really give a shit what other people may think.”

Esther absently shook the packet and touched her finger to each cigarette, counting them. Softly sighing, she figured maybe that was enough for now, smoking that was. Closing the packet and pocketing it, Esther looked up and locked eye contact with Diamond. 

”Have they gone over Semblance Theory yet in any of your classes? If not, then this is something to think about. If so, oh well it bears repeating. A bunch of people much smarter than you and I with fancy degrees have theorized that a Huntsmen’s Semblance is an extension of their souls. Their spirits, their personalities. Who they really are.”

Little stars appeared in Esther’s eyes as her fingertips lit aflame with the color of her Aura. Touching at her sheathed knife on her hip, she ‘pulled’ out multiple copies. With her pointer finger, she drew circles in the air, commanding each blade to form a slowly hovering and rotating ring.

”A good friend of mine, when he learned about that, said that it made sense. That my own Semblance is like how I can take the strength of my allies and expand upon it. Multiplying and reinforcing their powers to near infinite amounts.”

Pointing her finger at Diamond, the blades pointed their tips at her as they slowly circled around the girl’s head and neck.

”But you see, I was never always able to do this. Over time people change. Be it in the way they think, how their bodies function, et cetera. That part of your life occurred not that far off in the past, so I’d imagine you’re still recovering. You’re still healing from the wounds they had inflicted and it’s holding you back. At that point in time, that may have been the form your Semblance took because of how dark that event was.”

Touching her the fingertips of her hands together, she suddenly pulled them apart outward. Instantly the spectral knives she had created exponentially multiplied until hundreds of knives encircled Diamond. ”I’m under the impression that if you can overcome that traumatic event of your past and conquer your fears...Your Semblance’s true form may be very different. Even if it wasn’t, you can’t let your fears hamper your progress. If you’re serious about staying in this gun show, you’ve got to cut off and discard all of that baggage.”

With a snap of her fingers, every spectral knife shattered into pretty glittering shards of phantom glass. Softly landing on the ground before they faded away into nothingness.

”Your abilities are all your own. They don’t make you and don’t own you. So, seize control and embrace your strengths. People think Huntsmen are monsters anyways. I mean, when you think about it...How terrifying is it from the perspective of a normal civilian? That there are people who have the physical ability to go head-to-head with the Creatures of Grimm along with magic powers that can control the elements and bend the rules of this world? We fight. We kill. But most importantly, we survive. And we make it so that innocent lives can sleep peacefully at night, knowing that there’s a good chance that they’ll wake up tomorrow to resume their happy and boring little lives. I wouldn’t worry about how others may look at you, as long as you can look yourself in the mirror and be proud of who is reflected.”

Removing the now extinguished cigarette butt from her mouth, she flicked it away in the same direction as the first. Yes, she was littering. No, she didn’t really care.
”Did any of the Abyss Walkers tell you what their callsign for me was? I know Tony has a fat fucking mouth and has Chronic Word Diarrhea Syndrome.”
Turning her back to Diamond, Esther moved her slung rifle to her front and shouldered it. Raising its muzzle she placed a hand against its side and ‘pulled’. Slinging her rifle back behind her, Esther began to throw her hands about in a dramatic and exaggerated show as if she were some maestro of an orchestra. It didn’t long before a ridiculous amount of her copied rifle crowded the environment. To the point of where it even produced shade, blotting out some sunlight. Looking around at the countless phantom rifles, Esther turned back around to Diamond.

”They gave me the call sign ‘Death March’ because of one mission I completed in the past. I won’t tell you the specifics as they aren’t relevant, but the Walkers were in a tough spot. They needed a lot of Grimm exterminated and pronto. They were facing a swarm and were about to lose a lot of good men. So? They called for support and the higher brass sent my ass out on the HST. For some reason, higher command decided to only send me instead of a team. When my boots hit the ground, they couldn’t believe why I came alone. Hunkered down behind their defensive positions, they prepared to embrace Death.”

Esther smugly smirked, recalling the looks on the faces of her friends afterwards when everything was said and done.

”I, by myself, forced back the swarm. Eradicating every last Grimm and saving each of the Walkers’ lives. Even scarred the earth too, but I did it. Me. Not to toot my own horn, of course. But even though I pulled through and helped to rescue them…”

Esther’s smirk faded, changing into a sour sneer.

”They all feared me. Looking at me as if I were some sort of freak of nature or mutant. No one spoke to me. No one looked at me. They all stayed as far away as they could from me and even took lengths to avoid me altogether. They were scared of what I could do, because they didn’t understand who I was as a person. They didn’t know me. But after time, they all got over themselves and gave me that moniker. ‘Death March’. Wherever I march, Death follows. During that time, it hurt. Those people were supposed to be my comrades and yet they would rather have nothing to do with me. It hurt. It hurt a lot.”

Esther shrugged, looking up and admiring the ghostly weapons she made.

”I kept at it. I continued to work hard to better myself and do my job as a Huntress. I didn’t let it bog me down or bother me to where I couldn’t perform my duties. Now, here I am. Veteran of so many years and educating other Huntsmen so that they can do better than my generation. I’d say I made it pretty good for myself. You could do the same.”

With a single wave of her arms, every rifle simultaneously shattered. Falling to the ground like shimmering little stars, harmlessly. The environment returning to normal. 

Listening as Esther spoke, Diamond idly drawn shapes in the pit’s surface with her finger. Her own thoughts were hammering inside her mind like a thousand little voices.
Killer!

Barbarian!
Monster!

Animal!
Murderer!

SHUT UP!

She mentally cried out to silence them. “It’s not that easy. It can’t be that easy, taking a life must never be that easy!” she exclaimed, little bewildered by Esther’s way of thinking. Although honestly, that was hardly a rarity. “I could have… I could have incapacitated them. Maimed them, maybe. Something! If there’s no second chances then by that logic you should put a round in my head as well!” she grumbled, ”I won’t think like that. I refuse, no matter what baggage it makes me carry.”

Taking a breath and shaking her head, she opted to focus on a different thing. “Yeah I knew how semblances are supposed to work, even before coming here. I’ve had one since I was nine. But, here’s another theory: Given that it was at it’s strongest the single time I actually intended to kill someone, my semblance is an extension of my bad side. Something that has been getting considerably weaker since I came here.”

Falling backwards to lie on the floor, she did angels in the rubber chunks. “But that would mean it’s just going away, maybe for good. Or maybe that it’s incomplete or that there’s some other side to it I didn’t yet discover. But no matter what angle I approach it from, I am still getting to one conclusion: It might take an awful long time to figure it out, if I ever do. I’m not saying ‘Let’s forget it’, but maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to focus the lessons on something else for now, most likely my casting. Something I can use in the meantime. The implant is something I have readily available unlike a weapon to replace the shadow and it is reliable. What’d you suggest?” she asked, looking up to the teacher.

”Well, to be honest..”
Esther put her hands on her hips, looking up at the sky.
”You’re right. When I first started out, it was hard. It wasn’t easy to take a life.”
How many corrupt individuals did she deem too far gone, salvation lost to them? How many had she executed with cold indifference? She lost count long ago.
”But after some time, doing what we do especially in my case..It just became part of the job. You got used to it. Maybe not completely, but mostly.”
Esther looked over her shoulder at Diamond.
”Could’ve. Should’ve. Would’ve. But the fact remains that you didn’t, so no point in lingering on the past. Learn from it, grow from it, but you should move on.”

Esther shook her head, realizing how Diamond had changed the subject and didn’t want to speak of the matters any longer. Sighing, she let it rest. Shrugging, she repeated herself after allowing Diamond to finish speaking.

”As I’ve said, these lessons are for you. Anything you want to focus on and work on improving is all fine by me. For your Dust casting, I already have a basic idea of what we could do to help you. It’s not going to be fun, most of it will be repetitious drills. Such as pushing yourself to form something like an ice spear faster and faster. Seeing how many you can summon at once. Actually using said spells against stationary and then mobile targets. Question is, you know supposedly how far your Semblance goes. But do you know how far you can take your Dust casting? Do you know what you can or can’t do with your Dust? What are the side effects of using it other than feeling cold? With your Semblance your only real side effects is potential psychological and mental damage. With your Dust, however, the damage becomes clearly physical and beyond ‘just feeling really cold all the time’.”

Turning to face Diamond, arms crossed under her chest, she figured now would be a good time to start.
”If you’re ready, we can begin. First, we’ll discover your limit with Dust casting.”

Getting up and brushing the ground rubber off as Esther spoke, Diamond have her a nod. “I heard you the first time, but your job is going to include me asking for a second opinion.” she smirked, “I’m little worried about how exactly you intend to find that limit. I am not a fan of the idea of casting until I cripple the other arm, just saying.”

To be frank, Diamond has thought about it. The doctor said that with the damage done to her other arm, she would be able to do more than before. But how would she know where that limit is if she couldn’t feel when that arm was getting damaged even further? No, best play it safe and go for a level that would be safe regardless. She took a couple of breaths to clear her mind. “Ready.”

Esther smirked back.
”Sorry, but I’m not really interested in your opinion. I’m just going to speak my mind and that’ll be that. You would be correct though, Ms. Frost. I want you to summon as much of your Dust power as you can…”
Esther uncrossed her arms, balling her hands into fists.
”And hit me. As hard as you can.”

“Ohohoh, can do! Question: As much power as I can summon at once or do I have time to prepare? You might want to boost your defense if the latter.”  Diamond grinned, walking back a little bit to have all of Esther in her view, turned sideways just in case Esther would counter attack (Diamond just knew that was a very real possibility) to make less of a target and thought of where and how to actually hit.

Esther chuckled, not changing her stance or posture in any way. Whether it was arrogance or confidence, Esther didn’t appear to be worried at all. ”Oh no, by all means take your time. I want to see your strongest, hardest hitting attack. Do your best.”

“I don’t really have attacks per se, I can quite literally do whatever I feel like. Let’s see.” Diamond noted. Oh, she was happy to oblige. She remembered Esther’s regular gear being armored, so how should she do this? Aim for the joints? That would be a debilitating hit, if it connected. She had to remember that the teacher was probably pretty fast as well. Maybe something that could be altered easily? She chose to go with that.

Closing her eyes to focus, it seemed like she was doing nothing for two minutes, barely even taking a breath. All the while a blue glow was building up around her. After two more minutes, Diamond decided that perhaps she shouldn’t kill Esther now that she paid her ungodly money to do this. Her eyes flicked open and if one were to look, they would see the glow obscured the iris entirely, making the girl seem downright demonic. One snap of Diamond’s fingers later about fifty icicles as long and thick as her arm appeared from thin air. Swinging her other arm forward, they all oriented themselves and flown at Esther. Diamond kept her eyes on target - she accounted for a dodge and wove the spell in such a manner that she could alter the trajectory of the attack easily enough.

Esther stood there, staring down Diamond’s incoming attack as it came closer. What should she do, was the question? She could probably evade and dodge them all, as challenging as that may be. She could counter them using her favorite technique, Aura Counter. Should she attack back? Should she lead the attacks back at Diamond? Of all these thoughts, none of them occurred to Esther. She had already made her mind. She was just going to eat it, take it like a champ. As stupid as that may seem, especially taking into account that Esther would never do this in any other situation, Esther wanted to know what the girl had.

Making sure to stay relaxed and focused, not to tense her body, Esther just remained there. Standing stock still as the spears of ice flew at her, her eyes burned fiercely as her Aura flared and prepared to absorb the attack. 

Her attack seemed to be true on it’s mark. Which was strange. Hunter of Esther’s caliber shouldn’t have (much) trouble dodging this, or for that matter obliterating the icicles before they even made contact. After the first few spears shattered against Esther’s aura, Diamond swung her arm to the side, making the rest avoid hitting and bringing them back behind her to have another go. “Are you actually going to just stand there like a muppet or are you going to try to make this somewhat challenging?” she complained, “Frankly we don’t have time for me to go all out since to cast a spell that would deplete my aura completely would take hours and I have school tomorrow! So could you at least move around so I have to put at least some control into hitting you?”

”I can’t accurately gauge your limits if you’re afraid of getting a little tired or of ‘hurting’ me, Ms. Frost. I told you to hit me as hard as you can and you pull the punch?” Esther smirked, scoffing. ”You really are a sweet thing, huh? I don’t know about you, but I have all the time in the world. I don’t care that you have classes tomorrow and I don’t care if you’ll deplete your Aura. Remember I work at Beacon, Ms. Frost. If you aren’t willing to go all out and devote yourself to this, you’ll never improve and you’ll be left behind.” Esther continued to egg on Diamond. ”Come on, after all this you still aren’t willing to try and put a hurt on me? How will you learn to hit a mobile target if you can’t hit a stationary target first? Crawl before you walk, Ms. Frost!”

A pout appeared on Diamond’s face. “You know what? You’re right, forget I said anything.” Oh I’ll hurt you alright. Diamond thought, her fists balling up. “Apparently I’ll have to actually make this a challenge for myself all on my own.” She split the ice spears into two groups. The larger one she let group up in a tree thick column and launched it back at Esther.

The smaller group she decided to have some fun with. A bead of sweat appeared on her forehead, immediately turning into a hail and falling off. The few ice chunks she had remaining floated to the ground and shifted their shape before coming together to form a skeletal golem. Admiring her creation for a fraction of a second, she made it launch itself forward and throw a punch.

Esther grinned when Diamond reformed her attacks and sent them back her way, bracing herself. The larger column of ice slammed into her defensive Aura, but it was hardly anything to Esther to withstand. Deflecting the inert column upwards with an uppercut, she then twirled on the spot and roundhouse kicked it towards the incoming ice golem to demolish it.

Thumbing her nose, Esther stretched out her arms. ”If that’s the best you got, then I weep for the future of Huntsmen!”

Expecting something like that, Diamond made use of the control spell she woven into the attack. Esther’s taunting gone unnoticed as all of Diamond’s focus had to be pointed towards directing the fifty-ish ice spears. She wasn’t sure if it was an oversight or a second chance from Esther, but with a swipe of her arms the column broke apart and reformed into a couple of streams, flying off to hit Esther from four sides as well as above.

Theoretically she could keep this up until she had no more spears left. Practically Diamond was feeling like her brain had to fry any second from the degree of control she had to exert.

Esther’s grin remained plastered on her face. Truthfully, she was just passing off not actually combating Diamond because she was feeling lazy. It was the weekend after all, and she didn’t feel like going to the gym or exerting herself too much. But when Diamond displayed a bit of creativity in reforming the column of solid ice she had deflected, she couldn’t help but take the bait and bite. After all, she could always use the practice to keep her edges sharp. Might as well take advantage of the girl, in a different way.

And show off a little.
”Attacked from all sides, huh? I like it. This ought to be interesting...”

With an agility, speed, and precision that only a veteran Huntress of many years could display Esther remained in her spot and yet began to deflect and evade every one of Diamond’s spears. In a series of graceful movements, Esther dodged large groups of ice spears easily. Largely ignoring them and letting them fly by her unscathed. The ones she knew she would have difficulty with she practiced her favorite technique on,  Aura Counter. Using just very small amounts of her Aura and with near perfect timing, with only light taps and touches with various spots on her body Esther sent the would-be dangerous spears spiraling and spinning away.

Perhaps the most incredible part of it all, was that Esther refused to destroy a single spear. Diamond had already admitted to her that to expend all of her Aura casting spells would take an entire day’s worth of combat. So, how else to push the student to her limits? Let her practice her control of her spells on a large scale. She could craft, cast, weave whatever she wanted. But how well could she combo them together and chain them along? How well could she control them and for how long? That was what Esther wanted to see next. 

Slippery Snake! Diamond thought in a bit of frustration. Still, she got Esther doing exactly what she wanted, probably even thinking it was her idea. Smirking, she kept throwing the spears against her to keep her distracted while she moved a couple of the projectiles in slowly along the ground. Then with a snap of fingers she made the spears rise in an attempt to pinch Esther’s arms and legs in between two spears each and hold her in one place. “What was that about finding my limits? Do you think not fighting back is pushing me as hard as you can? Oh hold on, my accountant is on the line: She’s speaking of refunds...”

Esther faked a look of surprise when suddenly her arms and legs were locked in place by ice spears that she ‘hadn’t noticed’. Struggling against the spears, she looked up at Diamond and listened as she spoke.
”Hm. Creative, but not quite enough. So, she wants to go all out then..? She makes a good point.”
Ignoring the bit about a potential ‘refund’, Esther smirked.
”Alright. Just remember, you asked for this.”

“I’d rather leave bleeding than with any energy to spare!” Diamond taunted back, doing her best to brace herself for what was to come.

Curling her right index finger into a ‘C’ shape and slowly pulling at an invisible trigger, Esther mouthed the word ‘Bang!’ at Diamond. Gunshots rang out from different directions, cracking and popping as a hidden firing squad first freed Esther from the ice spears and then worked at whittling away each of the ice spears that still remained. It was over within seconds. Fingertips of her gloves glowing with those little green-blue flames that indicated she held control of some phantom copies of weapons, Esther dusted herself off of the frost that had accumulated on her after all of Diamond’s spears had been destroyed. As she did so, numerous specters of her copied rifle emerged from their hiding places and gathered behind her in a neat formation with their barrels pointed upward.

As it seemed, Esther hadn’t gotten rid of all of her earlier copies. Having seeded them undetected in spots all around the Pit. Looking at Diamond for a brief moment, a thought occurred to her.
”Ah, right. This is supposed to be a somewhat realistic combat situation. What am I doing?” She remembered.

Unslinging her rifle and shouldering it to point it at Diamond, the dozens of rifles in formation behind her did the same and snapped to point their muzzles at her. Fitting her fingers into the slots of her rifle, she twisted the insert with a click-click-click charging her rifle with Fire Dust, her copies doing the same. One hardly had time to blink and take a breath before the Hellstorm that followed. From sudden silence, the air erupted into a cacophonous orchestra of gunfire. Each shot imbued with an explosive flaming power as they threatened to shred Diamond to pieces.

No longer remaining stationary, Esther charged at Diamond as she kept her rifle up to continue firing. Her phantoms flew ahead of her, chasing after the young Huntress and looking to surround her to trap her in a ball of crossfire just as she had tried to trap Esther with her ice spears. 

Gunbarrels. What was it with the World pointing those at her recently. Well at least this time she expected them, although the fact that Esther managed to keep some of her spectral weapons took her by surprise. The shards of the broken copies must have hidden them for long enough to dig into the ground tyres before Diamond could notice them.

When she heard the clicks, Diamond knew she had only seconds to prepare. Dropping down to the floor, she dug her hands into the pit’s surface until she reached below, her fingers brushing against a layer of clay.

She didn’t like her situation. It forced her to assume way too much. But from what she saw of Esther, Diamond knew she had fire ammunition accessible to her and was guessing she would try to use it against her. She did tell her she had troubles dealing with high temperatures after all.

Casting her dies, she caused the clay to shift and form a dome around her just as the hail of bullets erupted.

It worked, after a fashion. None of the bullets hit her and the heat was turning the clay into a hard shell. The downside was that slowly but steadily, it was turning her makeshift bunker into a pizza oven, with her being the main course. She needed to get rid of those rifles.

The first idea that came to mind was to eliminate them at the source, but she quickly ruled that out. Hardly anything she could do to Esther would distract her enough to lose control, or so she thought. That left destroying the rifles themselves. But how? She needed to rid herself of all of them at the same time, until the dome hardened all the way through and started sending ceramic shrapnel at her-

“Heh. Heheh.”

The inside of the dome got bright as a day as Diamond’s eyes lit up white. She could feel her left arm tingling, her casting speed just bordering causing more damage. And after a short while, she pushed. To all sides, at once, making the semi-hardened dome explode like a frag bomb.

Esther brought up a hand to shield her face and eyes as the clay dome the girl created ruptured, but didn’t lose her focus on her ‘target’. Diamond’s quick thinking and acting impressed her, but it still wouldn’t be enough. She needed to coax more creativity and critical thinking from the girl. So what to do? Increase the heat and pressure, of course.

Diamond’s ‘attack’ did what she intended, and a majority of the phantoms  were destroyed in the explosion of shrapnel. Pouting and placing a hand against her cheek, Esther cried out in a mocking tone.
”Oh nooo...You got rid of my Ace~! Whatever shall I do now~? I have no hopes of possibly beating this up and coming Huntress in battle~! Woe is me~!”
Done with the theatrics, Esther reassumed her combat stance as the stars in her eyes increased in their bright intensity. The small balls of flames on her fingertips burning hungrily as she pressed her palm against her rifle and ‘pulled’ outward with a sharp swipe of her arm. Within seconds Esther recreated her phantom rifles, only this time she had tripled their numbers. With a quick few flicks of wrist, she separated the battalion of rifles into three platoons. Inserting her fingers into the slotted insert in her rifle, she twisted it once more and charged all of her ammunition with a different element.

”Click-click-click!”
A display in the sight of her rifle showed the word Fulmen
Her rifles crackled with arcs of electrical power.

Immediately, the first platoon of phantoms opened fire on Diamond directly from the front. Any shot that missed exploding with paralytic voltaic arcs. The second and third platoons angled away and aimed to move in at Diamond’s sides, entrapping her in a hellish pincer attack. A figurative claw of gunfire. While her guns did their work on the girl, Esther stood in place and placed her hand against her sheathed knife. Quietly repeating her incantations to herself as she began to summon and create a ring of blades surrounding her body, her hawk-eyes stared down Diamond with razor-sharp focus as the air thundered and shook with the sounds of gunshots. Music to Esther’s ears.

Think! Diamond reprimanded herself while Esther was running her gob. She had only seconds before the teacher’s blasted infinite everything cheat semblance caused her more hell. Thinking it would be prudent not to stay in one spot herself so that Esther needed to at the very least aim, Diamond broke into a run, trying to not run in a straight line and yet get closer to Esther.

One memory was brought to light. Her sword and the spectral copy of it Esther made, or rather what happened to it. That’s right. When the original dissolved, the copy went away. Which means… That if this works, she’s still likely to be very, very angry with me. Diamond gulped, but by now she could hear the many rifles cycling through their ammo choice.

With one last attempt, she tried to focus on the first part that would budge and rip it out of the rest of the rifle. Her time ran out before the spell was complete by the thundering sound all around her, and she did her best to stand against the lightning for long enough for the spell to activate, praying to everything holy her aura would last long enough.

The barrage didn’t last for long. Esther couldn’t have known at the moment and she would curse herself later for not remembering Diamond’s abilities sooner, but something  had created a catastrophic failure within her rifle. The firing pin within the bolt carrier group must’ve prematurely hit the primer of a fresh round, causing a dangerous ignition before being seated within the chamber. Flinching and shutting her eyes, she pulled her face away from the rifle as the material warped and exploded outwards sending pieces flying. Thank the Gods and Goddesses above Esther had Aura to protect her, otherwise that would’ve been her face. Or even worse, her life. 

As arcs of the electric dust ammunition crackled across her head and body, Esther’s perception of time had slowed as she blinked and stared at her destroyed weapon still in hand. Her personal, custom rifle. One that she had built from the ground up. One that served her loyally for years. She almost couldn’t believe it. Diamond actually did it. How many battles did her rifle go through with her? Beaten and battered countless times but always holding strong. Yet its strength as a weapon became its own undoing as now it was a useless hunk of metal alloys, polymers, and electronics.

Eyes flitting up to stare at Diamond, every fiber in Esther’s body screamed at her to just end the training session right now by punching a hole through the student’s torso. A snap of the neck vertebrae, maybe collapse the trachea. But no, Esther had to resist the urge to act recklessly and foolishly. It was just a weapon. Weapons could be rebuilt, improved upon, upgraded. Only she gave it sentimental value when truthfully it was simply an object. A tool to be used, and tools break down needing to be replaced or maintained. She could always repair it after, maybe even salvage some parts from the old rifle. It would give her a reason to shop for some new parts on her to-buy list.

Fighting down emotional struggles, Esther calmly exhaled and remained collected. Letting your emotions get the better of you in battle never ended well, and in the case of Grimm worked against you. She preached that all the time. How idiotic would she seem now if she lost her cool over her favorite toy? She made a mistake and she paid for it. Learn from it. Move on.

Time resumed its normal pace for Esther, having relaxed. The instant the rifle had failed, every copy created from it shattered in a spectacular display of shimmering starlight. Unslinging her rifle from her body, Esther tossed it aside to be properly retired later. For a brief moment, she thought to go for her sidearm and continue to put the pressure on but she hesitated. In part, she hesitated because Diamond would more than likely try for the same move. Discarding any issues she had with losing a second gun, the other reason she hesitated was that she was supposed to be teaching Diamond.

What was she teaching Diamond if she was going to try the same move again in a row after the first one failed so wonderfully? No, instead she withdrew her knife and called into formation the multitude of blades she had created while standing by. Making sure her grasp on her knife was firm, Esther moved at Diamond and began slashing at the air.

The hundreds of knives she had ready closely lay flat against each other and overlapped until they created an odd ‘wing’ with its ‘feathers’ like the serrated edge of a saw blade. With each flourish and wave of her arm or slash of her knife, the numerous wings mimicked her and raked themselves at Diamond from a distance.

”Well?! What are we training you for?! To know how to take a hit or to better your Dust casting?!”

The moment the rifle blown up, Diamond knew she struck more than the weapon. She struck a nerve. She could imagine she had the same look on her face when the deranged huntress ripped apart her hat. Oh dear, she should run for her life. Unfortunately she was barely standing. The hail of bullets might not have lasted too long, but their aim was true.

“Heh. That feeling right now? Remember that. Remember it next time you want to treat me like an incompetent child.” she managed to say before Esther’s fury resumed. Diamond tried to dodge, but she was too spent and the knives got her across the chest, breaking what little remained of her aura.

It didn’t make her stop. Diamond asked for a realistic scenario, well, she got it. Adrenaline was all that kept her going, her body flooding her in it so much she couldn’t even feel her fingers. She almost dodged the next strike, but the last tip slashed her under the right eye, making her hiss in pain and annoyance.

Drawing a deep breath she focused on the next attack. She dove under it. And then made a grab for the handles on the other sides of the knives, using the momentum of Esther’s attack to launch herself feet first against the teacher.

Again, another creative attack but one that lacked control. It lacked power and speed, really it could only be used to close distance and maybe surprise the opponent. Esther couldn’t help but cock an eyebrow as she saw Diamond fly at her. A quick and simple sidestep and Diamond’s attack would be harmlessly evaded, but Esther decided to punish her a little more than just that. After having evaded her flying kick with a sidestep, Esther quickly snapped her arms around Diamond’s legs and stole the girl’s momentum to spin the two of them around twice.
After the second spin, Esther skidded to a stop and lifted the girl into the air before slamming her back hard against the ground. With a few quick motions of her fingers, her blades then stabbed themselves in an outline around Diamond pinning her by snagging parts of her clothing. Swiftly drawing her handgun, she selected her electric Dust option and immediately shot at Diamond’s legs and arms. Aiming right for the girl’s ankles, shins, knees, wrists, elbows, and shoulders.

Pointing the barrel of her handgun at Diamond’s head, she stared at the girl for just a few seconds with a cold look as she switched to her flame ammunition. A thought passed and she switched back, shooting a phantom blade and controlling the electric Dust to arc between one another creating a paralytic snare. Humming and crackling tendrils sparking and jumping across whatever they could. 

Diamond did not expect to have much success. Really, this was all just her defiance keeping her going. She refused to give up until she was no longer able to stand. She expected she wouldn’t do that if the grimm were trying to eat her, so why should she do that now. At least she’d have an idea of how much would it take to keep her down.

The answer was: One sadistic c**t. The girl expected her to dodge, or block. She quickly bumped her expectations when she was thrown face first into the dirt with enough force to bounce back up and land on her back, only to be nailed back to the ground. It shouldn’t have even worked! How were the knives so stuck in ground rubber?! Oh, mind control, right.

Diamond managed to free one of her arms at the expense of the sleeve of her shirt, but she wasn’t given much time to do anymore before she was hit by the mother of all tasers. Not just once. Unfortunately other than twitching offensively she could do very little to fight back. At least she managed to give Esther the flipped bird with her free arm before her arms were targeted, freezing the sign her hand was making in a spasm. Diamond could have done without her nails digging into the skin of her palm, but in the end found it worth it. She clenched her teeth and waited until Esther got bored, unable to do much else.

Esther stood there, handgun still pointed at Diamond’s body. She had half a mind to shock the girl a few more times for good measure, but decided against it. Boy, did she have to fight the urge to do so too! Ultimately, that would be too childish and immature of her she thought. She’d done enough to Diamond at this point. She’d punish the girl at a later time and date for the obscene gesture. Holstering her gun, Esther crossed her arms and tapped a finger against her body.

”Well? Had enough? Are you done? Did you even learn anything from all this?” Esther said, rather dryly and boredly. 

Diamond didn’t want to give Esther the satisfaction of screaming, but when she poked her an involuntary whimper was unstoppable. She instinctively twitched away with as much control as she could muster. It took a minute for her to regain any semblance of composure and to at least sit up, staring Esther down with a gaze that could set things on fire.

“That you’re an angry child. And a sadistic torture freak. Also, no one is invincible.” she smirked, before sobering up, “And what it would take to take me out. Bit more than I would have expected, although getting in front of the power company’s firing squad again is not high on my to-do list.”

She tried to recall anything particular about the spells she cast, although she was having somewhat hard time focusing over all of her aching joints and limbs. “I swear if I didn’t have arrhythmia I have now.” she recalled her last lashing out to break the rifle. She could hardly say she was in control of the spell anymore, definitely not enough to target such a small thing as part of the firing mechanism. And yet she did make something in the rifle fail. “Maybe… maybe why I can’t target liquids and stuff is not a problem of focus, maybe I’m trying to do it the wrong way.”

Esther smirked, fighting back the urge to torture the girl some more. Something about the look in Diamond’s eye woke unspeakable things within her, that and the whimpering. She mostly ignored the rude comments about her, but she’d be lying if she didn’t take some enjoyment from making others suffer miserably.

”As long as you learned something, then this session wasn’t a complete waste. You still hadn’t answered my question yet. Are you done?”

As far as she was concerned, they were still in ‘combat’ until either party declared its end. She wouldn’t put it past Diamond to try and pull some more underhanded tactics and wouldn’t be satisfied until she was sure. Until she did, she wouldn’t offer to aide the girl to her feet.

“Am I do- the fuck is wrong with you! I can’t even keep vertical, my hair is never going to just lie flat again and- Yes! Quite done!” Diamond fumed. She understood the goddamn look in her eyes, but Diamond had no intention of giving Esther any means for giving her a few more zaps.

This wasn’t as she imagined a training session to go, but then again, it did fit her expectations of what Esther’s lessons were like. Considering she had voluntarily signed up for the regulars as well, Diamond suddenly realized she was in for a world more of hurt. Still, what she said was true, being put under such strain did help realize something. She would have to think on how to put what she found into practice later, right now she was still trying to put it into words.

Esther couldn’t help herself and actually burst out in laughter. If Diamond thought this was bad, she had no idea what the future held for her. In fact, she already had it planned to give the girl a particularly bad time during her class time with the student. Barring any interference from Professor Rowan, that was.
”Aww, poor girl’s worried about her hair.”
Esther reigned in control of her bearing and offered her hand to Diamond, to help her stand.
”Sleep it off. It’ll help you retain what you’ve learned and keep it in mind for any future training sessions.”
After Esther helped Diamond up, she turned her back to the girl and began to put her hair back up in a bun. Shouting at Bobbie to cease its tree-pummeling to have it return to her side.

Sitting up, Diamond grinned up to Esther, reaching up for her hair and tossing it in an elegant, shining flurry of red. “You know you love it.” She said before pulling herself up with the offered help. She was still a little wobbly and almost kissed the floor right back, but she managed to lean on the teacher before that.

“Regarding what I learned… When you think about it, your semblance is somewhat similar to what I do… How does it work for you in such large numbers? Do those apparitions follow your thought, imagination, are you aware of every single one or just the general, that kind of thing.” She asked, hoping to get more ideas if she heard different perspectives.

Esther slowed her walking until she stood still, messing with her own hair. She ignored Diamond’s comment about what she loved or didn’t, but instead turned to glance sidelong at her. Not exactly keen to divulge too much information of the specifics of her own special abilities. Even if it was to help a student further her own skills.

”The way my Semblance works...is a little difficult to explain. But to answer your question, I’m aware of each copy I call upon. My thoughts and intentions command every individual element. You already know I can pass ‘mastery’ of any phantom over to whomever I choose. Ultimately, I can also usurp mastery as the originator so don’t get any ideas with that. Satisfied?”
Esther cocked an eyebrow at the girl curiously, finished with pulling her hair back into a neat bun.

“Yeah, although I don’t think it will be of much use, your skill is too different.” Diamond sighed, “Well, if you have no further wisdom or pain to impart on me, then I suppose you’re dismissed for today.” the girl smirked, “And Vanessa? Take better care of your stuff.” she said and tossed over an item. It was Esther’s wallet which Diamond nicked when leaning on the teacher for support.

Esther chuckled and turned to fully face the girl, crossing her arms under her chest.
”Oho? Well, excuse me! I didn’t know you were the dismissing authority. Very well then. Dismissed, aye ma’am!”
She would’ve cut a salute but she was uncovered and Diamond was not a superior officer. Her light-hearted and playful mood immediately vanished when the girl tossed something at her. Reflexively catching it, she looked at the item in her hand for a moment. Realizing what it was, a priceless look of shock washed over her face as she patted her back pocket. Glaring at the girl, she slipped her wallet back to where it belong and corrected her misuse of her name.
”That’s Ms. Vanhomrigh to you.”
Esther said with restrained anger.
Turning on the spot, she walked back over to where her destroyed rifle lay. Squatting down she picked up her weapon to inspect the full extent of the damage. Mentally cursing when she saw just how warped and twisted the metal of the receiver was from the blow-out. After some struggle and fighting, she began to disassemble the rifle to inspect each individual part to salvage what she could. Bobbie joining her at her side and offering its assistance.

“Naturally. I pay you for this, so technically you’re my employee.” Diamond smirked smugly. It would be a lifetime before she was good enough to kick Esther’s ass in combat, but she could claim the little victories at least.

“So, Ms. Vanhomrigh, speaking of money... You really have to be more suspicious than this.” Diamond said, waving her fingers in front of Esther’s face, the teacher’s library permit appearing in her hand as if out of thin air, “Because-” another wave, the permit dropped and was replaced with her business card, “-I really-” Teacher’s ID this time, “-love card tricks!” she finished, now holding Esther’s Lien card. “Trust, but verify.”

Esther froze, more than annoyed when she was startled by Diamond snapping in front of her face. One of her major pet peeves. With each appearance of a new card that was supposed to have belonged in her wallet, the light in her eyes died more and more. Her expression growing more and more stone cold. Closing her eyes momentarily, Esther took a breath. After the pause, Esther opened her eyes and picked up the cards that had been dropped to temporarily slide them in her back pocket. Standing, she opened her hand palm-up. Waiting for Diamond to drop the jokes and return what was Esther’s without saying a word.

Diamond’s hand started moving forward, before an alarm bell rang in her head as she saw the look in Esther's eyes. The mental image of her entire arm being torn off forced it’s way into her head, and instead Diamond opted to throw the card, making it land spot on on the outstretched palm form a respectful distance.

Esther closed her eyes once more, taking another breath to keep herself calm as she pocketed what she supposed was the final card Diamond had swindled. Reassembling her rifle, she then slung it onto her back and turned away from Diamond.

”Ms. Frost. How often do you...exercise or go to the gym? When you go, do you make it a point to strengthen cardio?”

“I have no idea what your fancy words mean, I do gymnastics, does that count?” Diamond shrugged, “Pretty much every day that I am not swamped with something else, why?”

”Oh, no reason. I’m just curious. I wouldn’t really consider gymnastics to be intense cardio, however. As a Huntress, heart strength is very important you know.”
As she walked past Bobbie, she placed a hand on the bot’s body. Her fingertips burning brightly with little flames. Though Diamond couldn’t see it as Esther was turned away from her, telltale stars in her eyes signified the woman as utilizing her Semblance.
”I can help with that.”
Walking away to leave the area, she removed her hand as she swiped it away, instantaneously copying the robot ten times over. All of which stood staring at Diamond. After the Huntress had already walked some distance she issued a command to the bots over her shoulder.
”Bobbie! Execute basic hand-to-hand combat training routines! Your opponent is Ms. Diamond Frost!”
In unison, all ten copies of the combat trainer assumed an intimidating combat stance as they answered Esther with an ”Aye, ma’am.”
Waving back at Diamond, she said her farewells.
”Goodbye…~!” she said with a sing-song tone of voice.

As soon as the copies of the robot appeared, Diamond grown a shade paler (if at all possible) and sighed. “I hate people who can’t take a joke or a loss. I want you to know that I genuinely despise your continued existence!” she growled, already running like hell by the time Esther gave the order.

Sunday - Dorm

Diamond eventually managed to lose the robot clones. Being programmed as a training dummy apparently didn't include more advanced target acquisition, after all one would expect the opponent to stay and actually train. So when the girl left the ground and climbed to the roofs they quickly lost track of her.

She made it to the very empty dorm on sheer willpower. Damn, the crib was hers alone and she had no energy to party. Again! This has started happening too often for her own liking. The girl dragged herself to the sink and splashed some water on her face to wash away the sweat and grit. She saw the cut on her cheek and frowned -   that was going to leave a mark. 

Cleaning and patching up the slash she felt weak and useless. She could tell herself that Esther was an opponent too strong for her even on the best of days, but deep down she knew that ultimately that was a fault of her own. She played by the rules - since when?!

Looking up she stared at her image in the mirror. She looked at the long red hair she grown. It was nice, but easy to grab and it was a style more suited for some spoiled princess. The eerie blue glow in her eyes taunted her even more - she always loved her icy blue eyes, and now they were just annoyingly bright cyan. Why did she even had to do that? Did she really think she could solve her weakness with money?

The longer Diamond looked the more she grown appalled. She came here to change. But this was not the change she wanted. Without even noticing it she turned into the kind of person she despised. Weak, sociable and decadent. Without the looming threat of prison over her head she grown comfortable and entirely too nice. For a while she imagined the reflection in the mirror morphing into her younger self. That self looked at her with disgust. 

Her fingers gripped the edge of the sink as she clenched her teeth. This was not her. She would allow herself to be weak anymore. No surrender, no retreat. Diamond Frost did not tolerate anyone telling her what to do, she didn't let anyone mock her or play with her like a rag doll. Did she not survive alone on the cold Atlesian streets? Wade her way through gang wars? Made fools of the most powerful men and their private armies? She used to stand alone against the world and she beat it! 

Of course she did realize she could no longer go back to the way she was. The image of the infirmary came to mind - she grown to care about those three fools. Despite the unrequited attraction, despite the constant butting of heads, despite the general dissatisfaction, if only by exposure alone they were the people closest to her, she could no longer just wall herself in and not care. They were her gang.

But look at her now! She imagined Esther's mocking, scolding voice telling her that her emotions made her weak and a liability. What did she know! They were always her strength! Anger at her rotten luck! Defiance in face of the system that left her for dead! Grief at her losses! Fear of her own mortality! She took them and made them her strength, her drive to go on in face of the odds, even her semblance become a way to make them a tool!

Looking back to the mirror Diamond straightened up, pulling herself to her full height, her eyes narrowing as she looked at her reflection.

She would not let them turn her into one of them, pathetic obedient members of the system. Even if she had to fall all the way down, she would climb on top once more, and she would do it her way! So what if the Grimm hunger for negative emotions? She'll force feed them so much it will make them sick!

Reaching for the scissors, she took one last look on her present self before cutting her ponytail off. Tossing the excess hair into the trash she stormed out and fished the bleach, golden blond hair dye and a jar of gel.

In half an hour she was done, and even her teammates would have hard time recognizing her if not for the blasted glow in her eyes. No more miss nice gal. No. More. she spent a final thought on the matter, abruptly turning away from the mirror and heading to bed, unaware of her fingers turning pitch black for a second and scratching four gashes in the basin.

Monday - Dorm

@floodtalon
It was finally here. The worst day in the year by a long shot. Family day. Another reminder of the family she didn't have. I need a smoke... was the first think on Diamond's mind as she woke up. She still felt sore from the beating she received the other day... and on the mission before that. Her nerves needed their fix. Slowly opening her eyes she checked around to see if any of her team members made it home last night, her gaze falling on Cobalt being present. "'Morning." she greeted before stretching her arms as a yawn crawled out of her lungs.
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