Capítulo 6: Ch. 6 Oh Good, You’re Finally Awake

"Run!!!"

Alabast hears that same word for what must be the millionth time. Looking forward he sees a faceless woman with disheveled pearly white long hair. The woman has her arms open and he tries going towards her. When he looks down at where he should be standing he instead finds himself to be pinned to the ground.

"The fun is just about to begin~" That sadistic voice rings through Alabast's mind as he gets his left ear clipped during this nightmare again.

He tries to get free but is unable to, and when he looks towards his mother he only sees the Darkness behind her wall of light grow until the wall shatters. The Darkness quickly consuming his mom, dragging her into its depths as her death screams ring out and mix with his own soundless shouts and cries. He tries to produce any amount of noise, but there's nothing. But even if he could call out for help, there's no one to help him.

——————

In the middle of the night Ruby randomly wakes up. She tries to go back to sleep but for some reason she just can't go back to the land of dreams. Unable to get some sleep, she takes her Grimm eyes sleep mask off to see if Alabast was awake or not. She would see if Yang was up but the loud snoring already gave her that answer.

She rolls onto her side and tries to spot Alabast in the dark. Luckily it wasn't hard and she sees him laying on his side facing her. As she is about to ask him if he's up when she sees his face grimace as if he's experiencing great pain. Worry and concern instantly hit her and she gets to her knees and looks down at Alabast who is nearly curled up into a ball as he holds his tail tightly to his chest.

"Ashy?" She reaches towards her new friends shoulder in hopes of waking him from whatever nightmare he was having.

Just before her hand is about to touch his shoulder it gets grabbed.

"Aaa-!" Ruby's heart nearly jumps out of her chest before she covers her mouth to stop herself from waking everyone up.

*Yank* *Thump*

Her hand was just pulled forward and her world spins for a moment. When her bearings come back she realizes that she is now pressing against Alabast's chest.

Ruby tries to get free but only gets pulled closer against the chiseled chest in front of her. She stops her futile attempts to get free without waking Alabast up and feels something fluffy under her head. She realizes that Alabast's tail is partly between them, keeping them somewhat separated. She wonders how long the tail is for it to be able to reach under her head, but when she puts her hand on it she forgets everything else.

As Ruby pets Alabast's tail she is reminded of a fluffy friend back home. She looks up at Alabast's face that seems to have calmed down slightly, but still twitches from time to time. Ruby reaches up to try and shake him awake but before she can get to his shoulder she is pulled in closer. She can feel Alabast's arms wrapping tightly around her like she will disappear and leave him all alone. But what she notices more is the muscular chest her hand is pressing against now. She had felt his back, but this was something else entirely. Yang has muscles, but Alabast's are just insane.

Just as Ruby becomes content with her fate she feels someone move behind her. She stiffens like a plank of wood and frantically whispers in a panic. "This isn't what it looks like! I just- Alabast was having a nightmare! I was going to wake him up but then next thing I knew I was here! I tried getting out but he's so strong and his tail is sooooo~ fluffy and… and-"

*ZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!*

A lions roar of a snore goes directly into Ruby's ear. And when she attempts to look back she sees some blond hair beginning to invade her space as the person behind her moves closer to her.

"Yang~! Now is not the time to sleep cuddle me~!" Ruby pleads.

After many years, Ruby has gotten used to her sister's over affectionate nature when it comes to hugs. It's so bad that even when Yang falls asleep sometimes she will end up finding Ruby and 'crushing' her in her sleep. It mostly happens when they go camping or sleep on the ground next to eachother… like they were a few moments ago. Yang wraps her arms unconsciously around her little sis and gives her a big hug. Ruby winces slightly, at least Alabast is being gentle.

Now Ruby finds herself stuck between a Rock and a Hard Place.

Ruby tries to move, but is now completely immobile since her sister is using what's left of the tail as her pillow. Alabast also moves his right arm from Ruby's back to Yangs back and pulls them closer.

Ruby is baffled that both Alabast and Yang are still asleep in a situation like this…

*ZZZZZZZZZZZZ!*

Ruby is baffled that Alabast is still asleep in a situation like this.

When she looks up at his face she sees that his expression has returned to his usual one. She sighs and moves her sleeping mask back over her eyes.

Ruby can't do anything but enjoys the warmth surrounding her. The tail pillow and muscle backboard are bonuses that she makes sure to appreciate as she drifts off to dreamland, even with Yang snoring loudly behind her.

——————

His mother being dragged into the Darkness and himself being used as a cutting board ends abruptly and transitions to a scene he nearly had forgotten.

From the darkness a bit of light shakily illuminates it's surroundings. Around the light Alabast can see 4 figures sitting on chairs looking down at the light. Their faces blurred, but Alabast has a feeling he knows who they are. Its his family from his past life.

His mom, dad, sister, and himself sitting around the campfire. It was probably the last time they all got along before he left for college.

The light flickers when he remembers how he fought with them almost as soon as he came back home… and then proceeded to die.

The overbearing darkness inches closer as the light begins to fade. But Alabast looks around what was probably their last camping trip, he can't be certain. They had a good time. Shared laughs and stories. But he can't remember what they said, how it started, how it ended, what they did after. His memory of his past life has gotten worse and worse after every day he has spent in this world…

Perhaps that's for the best. If he can't remember how good things were, it doesn't matter how bad they get.

The light goes out and the darkness engulfs the scene and Alabast himself.

Alabast counts his blessings since he doesn't return to that horrible nightmare and just enjoys the emptiness of the Darkness. That is until:

"Kehehe~!"

"Heeheehee~"

There is a pair of hushed giggles that stir him from his sleep.

As he wakes up, he realizes that was the best sleep he had gotten since… well, since he came to this world. There was weight on his tail, not enough for it to hurt but he was sure something was there. And there was this warmth he felt, it reminded him of his first experience in this world…

Opening his eyes, he expected to see the white haired woman holding him in her living embrace. His vision is blurry and he swears he could see the image of his faceless mother…. But it disappears as quickly as it had appeared.

"Shhhh! He's waking up!"

The giggling stops as Alabast's vision clears up.

His entire vision of filled with bright silver and vibrant lilac eyes, accompanied by the beautiful faces of his new "Friends".

Alabast tries to get up but only manages to get a few inches up before falling back down and onto his side again. His tail and left arm were pinned down and he wasn't fully awake to get free. He winces as his tail felt some pain and his left arm was completely numb. Now his head was spinning a little as he hears Yang "He finally let us go, I don't know if I should be happy or sad".

He scowls at the blond girl. "How about you get off me before I make that decision for you!"

Both girls get up and stretch, freeing Alabast's arm and tail. Alabast watches as his fur falls from both of them and he frowns. He hadn't noticed this problem before… except when he sleeps in his bed at the White Fangs base…

His arm started to get back to normal quickly, thanks to his aura. Sitting up, he puts his left hand over his bangs covering his face. He moves his tail onto his lap and then uses his right hand to pull on the fur and get the drool off it. Standing up, he glares at the sisters since he's ready to deal with them now. "So are either of you gonna explain why you were cuddling up to me without my permission?"

Yang and Ruby can tell he isn't happy. Yang scratches the back of her head and looks to the side while Ruby blushes significantly more than her sister.

Alabast narrows his eyes at the pair.

Ruby sheepishly answers fast. "I woke up in the middle of the night and you looked like you were having a nightmare so I reached over to wake you up but then you grabbed my hand and pulled me next to you and wouldn't let go and then my sister joined us and you reached over me and pulled us clos-"

"Ok ok! You were my fault and I will apologize for that. I'm sorry" Alabast slightly blushes but doesn't let his glare disappear when looking at Yang. "But I don't understand why you decided to join"

Yang gives a crooked grin and scratches her cheek. "Well, whenever Ruby and I sleep on the same surface be it the ground or the same bed… I almost always end up hugging her. And in this case you were hugging her. So I hugged Ruby and then you hugged me. And then Ruby here says that she tried to move but you wou-"

"Ok ok ok!" Alabast turns around so his back faces them and they see his tail moving slowly side to side. He drops his head into the palm of his left hand. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. This hasn't happened before…"

They could hear the sincerity behind his words. Then all three of them get distracted as they witness a guy with black hair get woken up by a lady with orange hair. That would be Lie Ren the guy, and Nora Valkyrie his lady... friend.

Nora shouts at Ren to wake up and then they go to the sinks near the bathrooms.

Alabast is thankful his wake up call was much… more tame.

Yang and Ruby look back to Alabast's tail and watch it slowly move side to side. Alabast looks over his shoulder and sees the two not moving but smiling at his back. Then he notices their eyes moving side to side and then he realizes what they are watching. He turns around and walks past them. "Why don't you two go change and leave me alone for a bit!"

After moving past them he goes towards the showers and gets dressed in his uniform for initiation later.

The shower allows him to calm down and get back to normal. He's not sure why he would grab Ruby and Yang like that. When that fox Faunus tried pulling something while he slept he woke up and instantly put her in her place. Why didn't he react the same this time?

When he comes out he sees Ren and Nora heading to the cafeteria for food. As soon as he is about to leave, and also get food, the back of his uniform is grabbed and is actually stopped from moving forward. He turns to see Yang behind him with yellow bracelets on. "What do you want?"

Yang lets his cape go and puts her left hand on her hip. "Just wanted to chat for a little is all, make sure you aren't still upset about this morning"

Alabast looks Yang up and down.

"If you ask nicely I might let you have a better view" Yang teases while leaning forward slightly.

"Not interested" Alabast instantly denies her. "And I'm fine. I've had worse mornings"

"Worse than waking up with two beauties in your arms? Oh you poor thing~" Yang smirks and rolls her eyes.

"Is this really what you wanted to talk about?" Alabast flatly asks, clearly not enjoying their talk.

"Not particularly" Yang shrugs and winks. "Just wanted to get to know the guy I slept with a little better ya know"

"Enough…" Alabast rubs his temples with his left hand and jabs his right thumb towards Yang's yellow bracelets. He hopes changing the conversation will help. "Are those your weapons?"

"Are those yours? Thought you had a sword?" Yang countered his question with two of her own. She points at Bestia Fang on his wrists.

"They are a weapon, but not my main. Your actual weapons are supposed to stay in your locker until we leave to go to the cliff side. I wasn't even paying attention and I heard that much Blondie" Alabast stands up to his full height and looks down at the girl semi-smugly.

"Apparently you really weren't listening because as long as they are small you can carry them with you" Yang has a super smug look on her face.

This ticks Alabast off a little bit, so he turns towards where the other students are leaving. "Where is little Red?"

"Awww, are you worried about her? Were you worried about me as well?" Yang moves to his left and looks up at his face.

Alabast frowns. "No! I don't give a d-!"

"Hey guys! Sorry to keep you waiting! Do you think they have cookies for breakfast!? That would be absolutely super duper amazing!" Ruby appears and immediately bombards them with her energy.

Yang gives Alabast a little space and the three of them go to the cafeteria and eat breakfast together. But it's more that Yang and Ruby follow Alabast while they talk about various things.

Ruby and Yang get average portions while Alabast completely fills 2 plates. He hasn't had decent food in basically a decade.

Alabast begins eating fast, like if he doesn't eat fast something bad will happen.

Yang smiles. "Hey Ashy, no need to 'wolf' everything down! Eh? Eh?"

Ruby groans and drops her head onto the table next to her plate. Alabast just glares at Yang but doesn't slow down.

Nora and Ren are sitting at a diferent table but are being somewhat loud. Even if it is Nora making all the noise and doing all the talking, she still manages to eat her mound of pancakes in between her rambling.

After eating, Alabast leaves to go get his weapon. He finished faster than Ruby who was complaining about the lack of cookies for breakfast.

On his way to freedom, he hears the Schnee brat ahead and speeds up his pace to walk past. His morning is already off to a… rocky start. He doesn't need to deal with a Schnee as well.

Yet as soon as he tries to walk past Weiss, and some redhead girl, Vomit Boy runs into him and collapses to the ground, knocking himself out. The blond guy hits the ground hard and everyone looks at Alabast as they take a step back, except for Weiss and the redhead that saw Vomit Boy run into him.

"Who's going to believe that he knocked himself out?!" Alabast loudly asks, expecting nobody to answer.

"I saw him run into you" says a soft voice near the Schnee Heiress.

Alabast turns his head and sees bright red hair pulled into a ponytail and two vivid green eyes. She is the tallest girl he has met yet, as she stands at a little above 6 feet in her heels. She is also dressed in her combat uniform that seems to look like an Amazonian woman. "Thank you….. Wonder Woman?"

"You're welcome. But it's not Wonder Woman, it's Pyrrha's Nikos. You?" The girl smiles kindly and asks for his name.

He pauses for a second before deciding to give his name and leave. "Alabast Noir"

"Nice to meet you Alabast" Pyrrha greets, hoping to start a conversation.

He just grunts a little in response and is about to walk past, but is once again stopped. But this time by a white dress, combat uniform wearing brat.

"Are you kidding me?! You should at least respond and thank her for even talking to you!" Weiss demands.

He is over half tempted to ignore her, but decides it would be easier to just do as she says so she will shut up. If all the brat wants is for him to greet the redhead, he might as well save some trouble and do it. It's easier than dealing with an annoying pissed of Schnee that he can't put in her place without getting in trouble.

"Hi, Pyrrha Nikos. It's lovely to make your acquaintance" Alabast sarcastically says and even bows to her putting his right hand across his chest and left hand behind his back.

This causes Pyrrha to blush a little bit, she didn't expect him to actually turn around and be this forward, even if it was sarcastic. He seemed to be the mean and highly aggressive type, but she was proven wrong in a good way.

Alabast looks over to Weiss after standing back up and irritatedly asks "Is that good enough…Princess?"

"It's not Princess! It's-.… You know what, not important right now. Do you even have any idea who THIS is?" Weiss points over to Pyrrha.

This causes Alabast to tilt his head sideways at Weiss. "Of course I know who she is. She's Pyrrha Nikos. I literally just met her!" He motions to Pyrrha with his right hand.

Weiss blushes at her mistake. "That's not what I meant! Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum!"

Alabast scratches behind his ears with his right hand, an uncaring expression on his face as he looks at Weiss. "Never heard of it. Is that her secret lair or something?"

Weiss scoffs. "She's won the Mistral Region Tournaments four years in a row! A new record!"

Alabast looks Pyrrha up and down. Then he smirks causing Pyrrha to blush more. "The what? Never heard of any fighting tournaments around here. I lived between Menagerie and Mistral until a few days ago. But even still, I could probably still beat her"

"You-!" Weiss waves her arms rapidly in anger. "She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!"

Alabast thinks for a minute. Then snaps. "Oh yeah! Never had any before, but don't they only do deals with star athletes and cartoon characters or something?"

He heard some kids talk about it after he saved them. They were trying to distract themselves from their unfortunate and disastrous fate. But Alabast made sure they made it out safely and the person holding them met an extremely unfortunate end. At least he knows that guy deserved what happened to him.

Pyrrha speaks up finally. "Yeah, it was pretty cool. Sadly, the cereal isn't very good for you"

"Shame" Alabast says, but doesn't continue.

"So, after hearing all of this, do you really think you're in a position to not properly introduce yourself and greet her?! And do you still think you can defeat her?!" Weiss says trying to get her point across.

Alabast is annoyed and wants to finish this quick. And at this point, he wants to piss of the brat in the process. Then an idea hits him.

He walks closer to Pyrrha and bends down closer to her height but not fully. He lifts her chin with his index finger to make her look up at him. "I don't really care for all those titles. I'm actually trying to leave a title of my own behind as well. Even still, I must thank both of you for not discriminating against me. How should I thank you, Pyrrha?" As he keeps talking he gets closer and closer to Pyrrha's face. She backs up but eventually backs up into a locker. Then Alabast puts his left hand against the locker next to Pyrrha. He remembered something like this from his last life and thought it would be fun.... and it surprisingly is.

Pyrrha is extremely flustered and can't believe that this guy not only doesn't care about her status, believes that he can defeat her, and is even willing to hit on her. "I…. I. Could you back... up pl….. please" she's barely able to stutter out.

Alabast leans next to her ear. "As you wish m'lady"

He finally takes two steps back and stands up fully. He bows mockingly once again and then walks away. Pyrrha is just left there stunned and blushing heavily. Then she slowly falls to the ground.

Ruby comes over and asks what happened and how she was able to get Alabast to do that to her. Yang also was really curious and wouldn't have minded Alabast doing that to her. Her request might not have been so innocent though.

Weiss is just left stunned and fuming. She watches Alabast's back and internally swears to get back at him. She was made a fool of, and she won't forget this.

The five of them having long forgotten or not even having seen Vomit Boy on the ground. Yang, Ruby, and Pyrrha become quick friends on their way towards the cliff and talk about various subjects. The main topic being about Alabast.

At one point the topic of nicknames came up and Pyrrha was told about 'Ashy' and his 'nightly tendencies' which made Pyrrha and Weiss blush. Weiss was just following Pyrrha while listening, and a few things caught her interest but she kept to herself.

——————

Alabast makes it to a cliffside and sees other students already lined up on some square pads. He takes the square farthest away from everyone else and looks at the forest below the cliff.

When the girls finally arrive they see that there are 5 squares vacant between Alabast and a student who clearly wants to stay away from the Faunus.

Pyrrha moves to the square next to Alabast with her weapons on her back. Her hands are clasped behind her back as she looks over at Alabast. She works up the courage to speak but-

"Ashy!!!" Ruby shouts as she waves her arms over her head. "Did you-"

Alabast doesn't turn towards the girls when he responds. "Get on a square, Glynda already looks impatient"

"Glynda?" Ruby tilts her head and looks to the side and sees the Hintress that saved her… and interrogated her.

Glynda Goodwitch did look impatient as she walked behind Beacon's Headmaster, Ozpin, as they walked in front of their potentially future students.

The girls quickly get on a square as Goodwitch and Ozpin reach the end of the line of students.

Ozpin gives a side glance to Alabast as he walks past and sips from his steaming coffee mug.

Ozpin begins talking, which Alabast tries to ignore but finds it difficult with the man standing directly next to him. And when Glynda starts talking Alabast continues to look out at the giant forest that goes on until some mountains way off in the distance.

As he looks down at the green canopy he can feel Glynda's glare on him, but his mind wanders to an unfortunate night. This specific forest reminds him of the forest he and his family used to go camping at, and the place his previous life ended.

"Ahhhhhhhhh~!"

A scream getting farther away grabs Alabast's attention from his thoughts. He looks to his left and sees students get launched out over the forest one after another.

He looks over at Ozpin with a raised eyebrow.

Ozpin smirks and raises his mug slightly towards the wolf Faunus before taking a sip and looking out at the students as they begin their initiation.

Alabast folds his arms and looks to his left and sees that almost everyone else has already been launched.

Yang pulls out a pair of sunglasses and flicks them open. Just before she puts them on she winks at Alabast and gets in a pose before she gets launched.

"Woo-Hoo~" Yang shouts as she begins falling in style.

Alabast slightly shakes his head after seeing Yang disappear into the distance as she does some acrobatic flips.

"See you Ashy!" Ruby gives him a wave before preparing to get launched. She doubts he will respond so she doesn't hold her breath. She gets launched and looks down at the forest as it quickly passes by her, ow all she has to do is find her sister or Alabast before she meets somebody else. No pressure at all…

Alabast watches Ruby go the complete opposite direction of Yang and shakes his head. He kicks himself that he didn't pay attention and see which direction Blake was sent, but he doubts she would even willingly be on the same team as him.

"Good luck"

He turns to his side and sees Pyrrha smiling at him before she prepares herself and gets launched.

Knowing he has a few seconds before his launch he looks up at the slightly cloudy blue sky. This is the start of a new chapter in his life… maybe he should have paid a little more attention to what the instructions were. It was something about relics and going North…West?

Yeah, probably should have paid more attention.

As he considers what to do Ozpin and Glynda watch his tail swiftly move side to side. They've known enough Faunus with tails to know that Alabast is happy… or as happy as he can be. They can tell he isn't the type of person who is usually happy.

Glynda looks at the way Alabast is standing and shakes her head. Ozpin hides his smirk behind his mug, he's waiting to see how Alabast will launch. At least the other students tried to prepare themselves for the launch, except the first poor sap.

Ozpin looks forward to seeing the students' landing strategies. He's particularly curious about Alabast's landing strategy. All the students are under heavy surveillance, and Ozpin looks forward to this years batch of Huntsmen and Huntresses in training.

The moment comes when the square beneath Alabast activates. It instantly sends him through the air over the forest.

Ozpin and Glynda look at the peaceful morning sky as the students all begin to land in various places.

"I hope this isn't a sign for what's to come…" Glynda rubs her temples with her left hand while her tablet is held in her right hand.

Ozpin holds back a chuckle. "The semester has yet to start, try not to stress so much. Everything will work out in the end, for now we can just sit back and observe for a change"