Ashibumi 1.3
I stared out at my surroundings as I stepped out of the car, my eyes taking in the strange new landscape around me.
So this was it.
This was Beacon Academy, the place I had dreamed of going ever since I had heard mom's fond recollections of meeting father there at a exchange trip from Atlas.
The place my mother now worked and lived at as an instructor, teaching the new generation how to be Hunters.
Mom looked very different from how I remembered her last time, waving me off on at school in a simple sundress and a large hat. Now she looked like a warrior, dressed in a combination of a light blue robes along with a few pieces of strategically placed white armor with intricate engravings. The breastplate bore the Arc Crest, the two curved yellow lines standing out prominently on the white metal. And the rapiers that I'd previously only seen mounted over the fireplace now rested easily, strapped by her sides.
I'd had to stay within Vale General Hospital for several hours as we waited for the results to come back from the blood tests, ensuring that I wasn't afflicted with any diseases or viruses during my time on the island and by the time I'd received my clean bill of health, the sun had just begun peaking over the horizon.
From there the man I now knew as Professor Ozpin, The headmaster of the academy and my mother's boss bought a car around to the back to avoid a torrent of reporters who had camped out the front of the hospital, their cameras clicking away like machine guns when I stumbled upon them, a dozen shouted questions blurring together as they tried to approach me before Hospital security had forced them outside.
I was confused. Why were these people so interested in me? I was nobody of any particular importance, just someone who was lost and then found again.
My mother's colleague Glynda informed me. Apparently one of the hospital staff had leaked the fact that I was staying here, and the newsrooms promptly went crazy with it, trying to find out as much as the could about 'the miracle survivor of the Schnee Flight Strom Tragedy.'
Which sadly seemed to include my name, and my face that was now plastered across the front of the newspaper.
I bit back a sigh. Well that was just…perfect.
Ms Schnee left me a message saying she had to continue on back to the Schnee Headquarters back at Atlas, but promised she'd keep in touch. It's the least I could do for the person who got me back home, so if she wants to keep in touch, I'll happily do so.
I started slightly as I felt a touch on my arm, but restrained myself from instinctively reacting to it, seeing it was only Mom, looking at me with an encouraging smile. "Come on, I'll show you your room." She said with a soft smile, giving my shoulder a squeeze as she did so.
I walked forward after her, my eyes scanning the many windows of the buildings as we went past them almost instinctively, looking for possible threats, points that would grant you a greater advantage as opposed to others.
I didn't see anyone. Not a single person. Odd, you'd think that Beacon would be packed with students about now.
Ozpin spoke up from where he was walking behind us. "We're just at the final few weeks of the end of year break, which means all the students have gone home for the next three to four weeks, depending on how long they choose to stay." Ozpin informed me idly, seemingly foreseeing my question before I had even asked it.
"The only people at Beacon currently are ourselves and a few other members of the staff who we'll introduce to you later." Glynda promised trying to subtlety watch me out of the corner of her eye as she did so. She wasn't very good at it and by the smirk Ozpin was hiding behind his mug, I wasn't the only one who thought so.
I felt Mom's hand squeeze my shoulder reassuringly again. I guess I still look a little tense. "In here, we're almost there."
We turned off to the left to a building that was separate from the school proper, seeming more like an apartment complex than a school.
"Here we are." Ozpin remarked before turning to me and gesturing at the building with his cane. "This is Beacon's Staff accommodations, where we all try and get some shut eye after a long day's work. Or at least everyone else does, I usually find myself falling asleep at my office half the time." Ozpin said with a chuckle.
Mom spoke up. "Your room is 206, the sixth room on the second floor." She said pointing to the window that I'm presuming lead into my room. "My room is right next door, room 205, so feel free to come in whenever you need anything."
I felt a small smile tug at my lips. "It's perfect." I said quietly, soaking in the sounds of the Beacon nightlife. It was a very peaceful place, even only listening with ones ears it suggested that much. I'd forgotten that a place could even be this calm.
Glynda coughed lightly, drawing me out of my musings. "Also we have an area set aside downstairs for training and sparring, feel free to use it whenever you want."
Training area. Well that saves time.
Mom walked ahead beckoning me to follow her, "Let's go put your stuff away shall we." She said a her eyes dragging over the case in my hands for a moment before returning back to me.
And the case. The one thing that I bought back with me from the island. It held several of the 'souvenirs' I'd collected from my time on the island, among them the bow that had been by my side for the grand majority of it.
But it was a shoddy thing, crafted with whatever materials I could find at the time to repair it, whenever it inevitably broke again from whatever latest trauma I put it through.
I needed a new bow.
Luckily I knew just where to get one.
Not buy one per say, but rather forge one.
With the help of the man who forged his weapon.
Although there's no way he'd help me without the sign.
I felt my fingers tense involuntarily on the box as I heard something metallic bounce around inside it.
Good thing I have it.
Just hope he's still where he was ten years ago, otherwise finding him could be a bit difficult. He's the kind of man who values his anonymity, and won't be found in the directory.
I was pulled from my internal monologue by the sound of a door opening, and realized that we'd arrived at my new room. Looks like Ozpin and Glynda are gone as well.
Uh, whoops.
The room was nice, very spacious if a little bare at the moment. A queen sized bed taking pride of place with a walk in closet off to the side, an en-suite bathroom nearby. There was an empty bookcase standing next to a desk, which had a computer and some kind of device sitting on the center of the desk.
I whistled lowly. Wow. Guess there's a reason why everyone wants to go to Beacon. I placed my box at the foot of the bed with a thump, the padlock rattling as it bounced around.
"Ah, yes, before I forget, this is your Scroll." Mom said walking over to the desk and picking up the device and handing it to me.
I twirled it in my hands, looking for any buttons or switched but the only identifiable one was the large yellow diamond in the center of it. I pressed the diamond and the device expanded suddenly, revealing the screen that had been collapsed within it. Icons appeared on the screen, depicting things like a phone, a musical note or a compass.
"You can use your Scroll to contact me or any of the others, as well as connect to the internet." Mom said looking at me with that content smile she'd had on her face before she spun around. "I've going to go pick up a few of your old things from storage, but I'll be back soon so just relax until then okay?"
I nodded and Mom gave me another tight hug, before she calmly walked out of the room.
I sat down on my bed and stopped as I realized that action. I had a bed. I had a room. This was…well it was good but it was very different from what I was used to. I sat on the bed and almost flinched away as it sunk slightly, as if I was sitting on a cushion. It was going to take some time for me to get used to sleeping on something this soft again.
But since this….'Scroll' was it? Yes Scroll, can access the internet I can see if the forge is still where it was before.
I typed in the address slowly, my fingers out of practice at the art of typing before I pressed the enter button. The scroll was blank for a moment before it loaded, showing the address, it's location on the map as well as the name of the business that operated there.
I grinned. Bingo.
I checked the website only to find that the store wasn't open today, but it would open briefly tomorrow for a few hours.
Looks like I'll be heading down to Vale tomorrow.
I closed that window and opened a new one hoping to catch up on what I'd missed over the past five years on the island when I nearly dropped the Scroll when I saw my face on the news headlines. When I felt my heart rate descend down into something more non-lethal I tapped the screen and waited for the video to load.
The video began, showing a reporter talking into a microphone, standing outside the Beacon Academy gates.
"This is Cyril Cerulean coming to you live from outside Beacon Academy, where we've been informed Jaune Arc is currently residing. For those of you just joining the program Jaune Arc is the miraculous survivor of the Schnee Flight Strom tragedy that was discovered late last night, having survived for five years on a desolate island. We've received no statement yet from either Beacon Academy or the boy's mother Charlotte Arc, an instructor at Beacon Academy in light of Mr Arc's discovery and his new residency at the premier hunter academy. I'll be reporting in later in the program if any new developments arise, thank you Lisa."
"Thank you Cyril. And from all of us here on the VNN this is Lisa Lavender signing off, join us tonight for the 6.30 report."
I sat there staring at the tablet, even as the video finished up and promptly closed itself.
Huh.
That was….
Well that was something.
I'm still working out if that was a good something or a bad something but it was most definitely a something.
I threw the Scroll onto the bed and knelt down by the box examining the padlock. Now I know that a few people probably tried to get into the box while I was unconscious but the lock was a lot more stubborn than it looked. Wouldn't have mattered if they tried every code on the dial anyway. The dials just there to trick you anyway.
I pulsed my aura briefly and the lock clicked open, the dust crystal within twirling the otherwise immoveable tumblers. I pulled the lock off and opened the crate, looking down at what was inside. A few of my hand crafted arrows, my bow, a few other more obscure fragments but I honestly didn't care about those. I reached in and retrieved the item I was looking for, locking the box again before lying down on the bed.
It was a audio recorder, one of the classic old style versions that you could recharge with nothing more than your aura. I closed my eyes as my thumb ghosted across the device's face, pressing down on the play button so I could here his last message to me again.
"Hey there kid. If your listening to this then in all likelihood I'm dead by now. Don't mourn me kid. I did a lot of terrible things in my time. Left behind a lot of bodies along the way. Didn't do much good in the end. Heh. How stupid is that? But one of the few thing's in this life I don't regret is meeting you kid.
I thought you were dead when you first washed up on this island, but you even then you fought, you refused to let your life leave you, you dragged yourself out of the water before you collapsed onto that beach. You're more than just stubborn kid. You're driven. You've got the kind of determination that's rarely seen these days, the resolution to get things done, regardless of the difficulty of the task at hand.
I want to warn you kid. To tell you to turn away, to not follow in my footsteps, not to make my mistake. But you'vegot something that I didn't have when I started out kid. Something more important than any amount of resolve.
You've got heart kid. You care about other people, you'll stick up for them, you'll fight for them, with or without their permission because you think it's the right thing to do. Don't worry. I've taught you everything you need to know to survive on the island kid. You'll thrive here, I have no doubt.
But there will come a day when your isolation ends kid. When you'll re-join the world, re-join your old life. Take the advice of an old man kid. Don't force yourself to be something you're not. Just do what comes naturally and it'll all work itself out.
Now you're going to need a weapon better than that peashooter you've got now when you get back so I'm going to give you a hand. In the city of Vale, you'll find a forge named the Steel of Valhalla. Go inside and ask for Wayland. Tell him you're there to redeem Gram for the old fool. Show him the crest. He'll help you make a mighty weapon fit for you.
Godspeed Jaune. Something tells me your going to need it."
