Yang 4

The wind off Miles kick rushes past my head. 

I twist, sensing the coming feint and pull in closer to him. 

I ready a punch and wait with a feint of my own. 

The feint takes, and

I find myself on the ground again.

"Well I suppose that was a bit better, at least you saw through the first feint." Miles says and lifts his foot off my back. "You're too one track minded. I can read all your attacks like a book. You're holding your arms too high and..."
Miles voice drags on as I groan and roll into a resting position. We had been at this for days. I would spend the first few hours of the morning taking down anyone and everyone who entered the ring with me, and then Miles would show up, spar a couple rounds and then give me a long lecture of every little thing I did wrong.

"Clearly you aren't even listening to me anymore. I guess we are done here then." Miles says breaking me out of my thoughts. "Eat and come back here, we'll train more when you're less distractible." He says and walks off. 

***************

RAHHH!
I scream and punch the change room wall. I hear the tiles crack under my fist and notice the trail of blood start down the wall. I barely even feel the shards that stick out of my knuckles. All I can feel is the frustration at losing again. I never lost, it was my thing. This place was making me slower. Complacent. I didn't want to go back to that wretched place, but at least there I was queen.

I take a deep breath.

That thinking wasn't going to get me anywhere. At least here I wasn't constantly fearing that I would die of starvation or disease. Still, I had to do something.

I sat down and started pulling the tile shards from my fist. I had done this enough times before that it didn't sting pulling them out anymore, still the sight of my own blood never left a good taste in my mouth.

After pulling out the last shard I let my hands drop to the side and I close my eyes. It felt good to rest against the cold floor, it reminded me of the my cell, where the cool earth was the only comfort. As I lay there I forgot the burning cuts in my hand and the painful spite I felt towards Miles.

"Ugh what the hell? What a mess!" A pair of white boots say as they click into the room. "You there Yellow, did you do this?" A girl in an all white outfit says waving around her fencing sword.

"Yang."

"Entschuldigen sei?"

"My name is Yang."
"Ah yes that's lovely, so did you do this or not?"
I raise my fist at her.
"So not then. Do you know who did?" She asks and I knit my brow. I look at my hand and am shocked to find no open wounds. Not even a scar.
"Wait, how is that possible?" I mutter to myself poking at my hand to make sure I'm not hallucinating.

"Hello! I'm waiting for an answer." She continues but I brush her off as I walk out of the change room. 

*************

“What is this?” I ask Ozpin and hold up my unscarred hand.

“Ahh I see, then you are indeed the one who has miss Schnee in a fit.” He says before sipping from his mug of coffee. “Its also nice to see the AURA system is fully functional.”

“Aura?” I ask.

“Yes of course. AURA is the Automatic Unit Repair Algorithm that is programmed into the nanobots we placed within your body. They repair any damage you may take in the field.” He says. “That does not, however, mean you cannot be hurt. The nanobots can only repair so much so quickly. So please continue to use caution when fighting.” 

I look again at my hands before i ask the real question.

“Just what did you do to me?”

Ozpin lets out a sigh.

“Lets save that for another time shall we? For now I would like your help with something.” He says and places the papers he had been holding onto the desk in front of me.

At first glance the letters on the page make no sense to me. But quickly they shift to form the Chinese characters I’m used to.

“Wait how did that...?”

“You should be able to understand and speak multiple languages now, as You have been doing for the past few weeks. Another thing you should know, we have sped up your processing speed a fair deal so it should be near instantaneous translation.”

“Wait, am I not speaking Mandarin  right now?” I ask, realizing the implications of what he was telling me. 

“Perfect German I’m afraid.” Ozpin says and takes another sip from his mug. “Now if you’d please look over the papers? My team would like to get started on your arsenal.”

“Excuse me?” 

“My dear you didn’t expect us to send you into the field without some way to defend yourself did you?” He says to me. “They are looking to make something custom fit to you. They asked me to get your opinion on the design. Maybe something that you are comfortable with.”

I slump into a chair across from him. I had never fired a weapon let alone held one. I had always relied on my fists to solve conflicts. I rub my hands around my wrists where my shackles used to be. Something I used to do when I had to think about things, the pain from the sharp metal helped me focus. The scars from them were gone now, but the habit wasn’t.

"What about some kind of boxing glove?" I ask. Maybe I could still use my fists to solve my problems after all.

"Hmm, I would have to decline that proposal. While I understand you are quite good in a one on one fight it simply lacks the range to make it feasible." Ozpin says quickly as if anticipating the the answer to begin with. "That said, I came up with a design that may be appropriate for both close and far range combat that may suit your fancy." He continues and slides one more sheet of paper towards me. On it is a schematic for a set of gauntlets with shotgun barrels embedded in them. To my further amazement it seemed they could collapse down to a more convenient size, forming what was essentially two bracelets.
"These look amazing." I say.
"I though so." he says, that stupid smug look on his face. "They still need a name though."
"A name?"

"Of course. A unique weapon deserves a unique name."

"How about Ember Celica?" I say, recalling the name of a comic book hero I saw when I still roamed the streets of Shanghai. 

"Heavens Fire? Not bad at all."