Ch 80: Finals (3)

"Team CVFY. Please stick around for a bit. I would like to have a talk with all of you." Ray announced after the end of the last exam for the second years. Coco, Velvet, Fox, and Yatsuhashi glanced at each other in confusion.

[Any idea what this is about?] Fox sent opening their team's private team speak channel using his semblance, Telepathy.

[No clue.] Velvet sent back.

[Could Ozpin have assigned us a special mission for over the break?] Yatsu offered. His teammates considered the idea for a moment before agreeing that it was a possibility, but a remote one. Professor Port was usually the teacher in charge of watching over their team, and they had just finished his Grimm Studies exam, which he had been administering. If they had an assignment, he probably would have just told them about the mission instead of Ray arriving after the exam was over to talk to them while the professor left with everyone else. So, even Yatsu, who had offered the suggestion, found it unlikely.

[Hey, Fox. You didn't get caught using your semblance to ask Velvet the answers to any of our tests again, did you?] Coco sent to her blind teammate. With the last of their final exams over, they were looking forward to kicking back and relaxing just like everyone else. Learning that one of their teammates had been caught cheating and had to retake his test would completely ruin the mood.

[Of course not!] Fox replied indignantly. It had only been that one time shortly after they had become a team, but his teammates had never let him forget it. Now he knew that it was better to ask the stoic Yatsu for help if he was struggling on a question instead of the honest bunny who couldn't hold a poker face.

[Even if he had asked, I wouldn't have helped him.] Velvet reassured her leader.

[Gah, I know that, but why do I feel so betrayed by hearing her say it out loud?] Fox unintentionally broadcasted his true feelings through their team speak as he half doubled over in psychological pain from Velvet's unintentional jab. Seeing his friend suffering, Yatsu gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder as the last of their classmates filed out of the room, leaving Team CFVY alone with Ray.

"Is there a problem, sir?" Coco asked. While they may be friends outside of class, Ray's lessons had earned her respect, and she made a point of showing it by always addressing him with respect within the classroom. A trait Ray sometimes wished more of his friends would pick up. *cough* Nora *Cough*

"More a heads up at this point, but yes. I am discussing with Professor Ozpin about getting Velvet transferred to another team." Ray informed them with a cold face and his arms crossed in front of his chest defensively as he braced for their eruption.

"WHAT!?" "WHY!?" Coco and Yatsu screamed over each other.

"How Could You Do Such A Thing!?!" Fox hissed in anger

"Did I do something wrong?" Velvet whimpered as her ears drooped.

"You? No." Ray clarified with a shake of his head as he looked at the quivering young Faunus. "Coco, on the other hand?" Ray turned his stern gaze to their leader.

"What did I do?" Coco jerked back and asked in disbelief and confusion.

"Sir, this must be some sort of mistake. Coco would never do anything to hurt Velvet." Yatsuhashi stepped forward and subtly positioned himself in front of his two female teammates as he tried to reason with Ray.

"Not intentionally, perhaps, but let me ask you this. What is the point of school?"

""Huh?"" Team CFVY looked at each other in confusion at the question. The answer seemed so obvious that the question didn't make sense to them. "To train the next generation of huntsman and huntresses." Coco answered for the group.

Ray shook his head, "Not what is the purpose of this school. What is the point of school itself? After learning how to walk, talk, eat and not shit our pants, we spend at least the next thirteen years of our lives in school. So what's the point? What are we wasting almost the entirety of our youth on?"

""Umm..."" The members of Team CFVY looked at each other in confusion again, but not because the answer was obvious anymore but because they had never even considered that such a question existed. They had always just gone to school. It was what was required and expected of them as kids. They had never really stopped to consider any more profound reason for it or even that there was a deeper reason.

"To learn and grow?" Velvet eventually hazard a guess knowing that Ray was probably looking for something more profound but having no idea what it could be.

"Basically." Ray confirmed with a nod, "But do you truly understand what those words mean?" It was a rhetorical question. The confusion in their eyes from earlier was answer enough. So, he continued without waiting for their response.

"School is a place to stretch your wings, to throw yourself confidently from the mountain formed from the knowledge and efforts of our forefathers and see just how far and high you can fly, secure in the knowledge that your teachers and friends will catch you when you fall." Ray scanned the faces of all the members of Team CFVY as he spoke.

Coco, you care for Velvet. No one is denying that. But by trying to protect her, you are clipping her wings. You treat her as Team CFVY's secret weapon, and she is indeed worthy of such a role. Despite how cute and timid she appears, be it in tactical awareness, individual combat prowess, or general knowledge, she stands heads, rabbit ears, and shoulders above all of you. But school isn't a place for things like secret weapons. It is a place for learning and growth." Ray stopped scanning all the members of Team CFVY as he spoke and focused on Coco, looking past her black sunglasses to peer into the depths of her dark brown eyes.

"The only thing Velvet lacks is self-confidence, which is exactly what you are stealing from her by hiding her behind the rest of you. Outside your team, the number of students that don't think of Velvet as the weak link in your team can be counted on one hand. If Velvet were the type of person to stand up for herself, this wouldn't be a problem. But she isn't." Ray shifted his gaze to focused on Velvet, staring deep into her soft chocolate brown eyes.

"Velvet, you don't need their protection. You know it in your head and so do your teammates. You are the only one in my Aura Manipulation class to have reached the Aura Weaponization realm in my class besides myself and my siblings, after all." Ray's voice had a hint of pride in it at that. Proud to have taught such an exceptional student. Velvet's semblance, Photographic Memory, didn't just apply to copying physical actions. Once she had reached the Aura Sight realm and learned how to see and feel the Aura around her, her capabilities had skyrocketed. With just one look, she could know how to do any Aura Manipulation technique. She had even started helping Ray refine his teachings by comparing the varying capabilities of each individual student more precisely than even he could. Ray was incredibly proud of his adorable little bun-bun, which made it all the more painful for him to see such a cute, capable girl being smothered by good intentions.

"But I don't think you have accepted that fact in your heart. You still hear all those things people who don't know any better pretend to whisper behind your back, but because you don't believe confrontation will solve anything, you let them keep whispering. Trying to build confidence in such a situation is like trying to roll a boulder up a steep hill. If you had the chance to display your talents freely, you would show all those people just how wrong they are. A passive approach, no matter how aggressive, will only change the minds of those who care enough to look. If you want to change the opinions of stubborn, small-minded, or ignorant people, you need to be loud, proud, and undeniable. Then you wouldn't only be helping yourself, but all the Faunus students at Beacon who struggle with self-confidence just because they weren't born Human." Velvet's pearly white teeth peeked out as she began nibbling on her light pink bottom lip as he spoke, her chocolate brown eyes darkening as she thought hard about what he was saying. Ray looked around at her other teammates and saw that they were also seriously considering his words, and Coco was even hanging her head slightly in shame.

"SO!" *CLAP* After giving them a minute to contemplate what he had said, Ray raised his voice and clapped his hands to draw their attention back to him. "Ozpin and I have agreed that, as things stand, Velvet remaining in such an environment would not be conducive to her continued growth. That said, neither of us are very excited about the idea of breaking up one of Beacon's best teams either. So we have decided to give you guys a special test next semester. Now that I have told you our opinions, we want to see what you will do. Will you continue as you have been? Will you thrust Velvet out on her own? Will you develop entirely new tactics to better highlight Velvet's strength? You will have until the end of the Vital Festival to prove to us that Team CFVY is the best place for Velvet to be. I hope you will not disappoint us." Having said his piece, Ray turned around and walked away. Leaving a pensive Team CFVY lost in thought.

"I want to compete in the tournament." Several minutes later, after the clamor of students excited for the end of their final exams had long faded, Velvet's quiet murmur broke the blanket of silence that had descended upon Team CFVY. Her teammates looked over at the trembling bunny Faunus.

"I don't want to leave this team." Velvet's clenched fists shook at her side, "You guys are my best friends. I don't want to leave you. I want to prove to everyone that Team CFVY is the best team, not just for me, but the best team, period."

Velvet's head was lowered, and her ears drooped over her forehead, casting her face in shadows, but even so, her teammates could see the glistening tears pooling in her eyes, shining like diamonds. "So, please! Let me fight in the tournament!"

Velvet threw back her head and stare at her teammates with determination in her eyes as tears streamed down her face. "Let me prove to everyone that Team CFVY has no weak links! That I haven't been wasting this last year and a half at Beacon! Let me show them what I, Velvet Scarlatina, can do!"

"Alright then!" Coco shouted, pumping her fist in the air. "Then we are going to need to do some serious training over the break so that we can all do our best to support Velvet. Let's show them what Team CFVY can really do when we pull out all the stops! You guys with me!"

"Always!" Fox sent telepathically through their teams speak using his semblance.

"We're with you, Coco, Velvet!" Yatsu nodded firmly in reply. Ray's words about being overprotective of Velvet had mainly been directed at Coco. Still, Yatsu knew deep down inside that he was just as, if not even more, guilty of fussing excessively over the timid little bunny.

Just outside the classroom, hidden in the shadows cast by the setting sun, Ray quietly let out the breath he had been holding as he listened to their boisterous cheers of determination. [It looks like there was nothing for me to worry about after all.] Ray thought with a smile on his face as he slipped away unnoticed from beside the door that he had only partially closed behind himself when he had left so that he could listen in on Team CFVY's decision just in case they decided to take his little challenge completely the wrong way.

[I'm looking forward to seeing what an uncoddled Velvet will be able to achieve in the tournament and the coming war.] With one last glance over his shoulder at the crack in the door from where he could hear the subdued murmurings of Team CFVY already adjusting their existing tactics and creating new battle strategies, Ray disappeared into the evening shadows. Two more days, and then his first semester at Beacon would be over. It had been a lot of fun.