Chapter 4: Friends?
Amber eyes inspected the piece of machinery in front of them. Looking for all signs of damage in them. Then the Calico haired Faunus put her goggles on and started repairing the damages. The light of the welding torch lit up the dimly lit room illuminating her plain white t-shirt and her green overalls. She wore yellow machine working gloves for protection.
"Geez Trav, you always get so competitive during the games. Have you ever considered that the harder you push your mechanical arms, the more work I have to do?" the calico Faunus retorted as she continued repairing the arms.
"But the more work you do, the more experience you have, isn't that right Kika?" responded an armless Traverse sitting at a table a couple feet away.
"Yeah, but you think I enjoy this?"Kika asked sarcastically.
"Yup, that's why you went into this field in the first place right?" Trav shot back.
The Faunus' ears drooped with disappointment. She figured that she wouldn't make response to that comment, it seemed futile to try to squeeze appreciation out of this guy. She just continued with repairs, replacing components that were broken, fixing those that could be fixed. Her tail swayed from side to side as she worked.
Kika was training to be a weapons mechanic for the huntsmen and huntresses. A very valuble field of work. For if weapons weren't up kept regularly they would fail when needed most. Although a majority of the huntsmen and Huntresses maintained their own weapons, some would prefer that somebody else would get their hands dirty. Or for someone like Trav, they are unable to repair the weapon themselves.
"MY my Trav, imagine if an enemy caught you like that with now arms, what would you possibly do?" Kika asked with a smirk on her face.
However the boy didn't respond, not even a suppressed huff of annoyance to Kika's chattiness.
"Hellooooooooo? Traverse you there?" a voice called out from near the entrance of the shop.
Traverse still didn't respond, obviously hopeing that whoever it was would go away. That was because of his unsocial nature, he enjoyed the quiet. Therefore he resented people when they disturbed that silence. Kika waited a moment, but seeing that Trav wasn't going to answer she was going to answer for him.
"Yes he's in here honey," Kika called out.
"I hate you so much right now," Trav muttered.
Soon the corner dispensed Ruby, who walked cheerfully. She had come to discuss what they were going to do for the next game which would happen tonight.
"Hi Trav… OH MY GOSH YOU HAVE NO ARMS AND IT'S CREEPY!" Ruby exclaimed in shock.
Kika gave a giggle at the first year students reaction. It had been a while since she had seen that reaction. However the armless fourth year boy seemed less then pleased at the reaction. He gave a roll of the eyes and a huff of annoyance.
"What is it you want?" Trav asked.
"Hey you wanna go and do some training before the next event? Seth and Kota are waiting for us," Ruby offered.
"No, training will just make us exhausted," Trav answered.
"Oh okay then," Ruby said with a slight hint of disappointment in her voice.
"So, you his girlfriend?" Kika asked.
"WHAT NO! Nothing like that at all," Ruby said defensively.
"Good, cause if you were I would cut your heart out with this tig welder!" Kika said with a giggle and a creepily huge smile.
Ruby wandered over toward where Kika was working and gazed upon the work that went into repairing Trav's arms. For Ruby she got excited whenever she saw another person's weapon, to her it was always like meeting a new friend. The designs and varieties were always vast and unique in one way or another. So seeing the repair work being done on these was a fascination to her.
"So um, how do you power the arms?" Ruby asked.
"It's my semblance, my semblance is thunder. My body can generate electricity inside of itself. Although it normally would need to be channeled out into a weapon, I channel it out into the arms and my optical implants to power them," Trav answered.
"Oh that's cool," Ruby said, "but why do you have mechanical arms?"
There was a brief moment of silence, which told Ruby that it might be a touchy subject.
"You don't have to answer if you don't want to," Ruby said.
"Im all finished up right here!" The calico Faunus said as she lifted the two arms and brought them to the table.
She inserted one and then locked it into place, then putting the second one in its proper socket. Trav gave them a test to see if the mechanics worked still then he stood up. In total silence he walked away without saying a single word to his current partner.
"Don't worry he's always like that, It's the mysterious personality that attracts me to him," Kika said as she went over to her table.
"I thought he would like to spend time together since we were friends now," Ruby said.
"Ha, friends? As if, it took me a whole year just to be considered an acquaintance of his. An additional three years to be considered a friend," Kika laughed.
"really?" a dishearted Ruby said.
"Yup, that guy doesn't let anybody in, or at least not easily," Kika retorted as she started pouring herself some coffee.
"why not?"
"Because people bullied him, they would call him Lug head, Bolt Brain, you name it. They would beat him up and everything. It was really nasty the aftermath of some of those beatings. So he shut his heart to the outside world and put his guard up, it hasn't come down ever since," Kika explained.
"That's horrible that people would pick on somebody just because they're different. People shouldn't act like that," Ruby said.
"But they do, and believe me he got it even worse than the Faunus," Kika said.
"How would you know that?" Ruby asked.
However Ruby just realized that Kika was a Faunus, and that this particular Faunus was looking very angered right now. A slip of the tongue that Ruby couldn't take back. She just realized how inconsiderate that was.
"Um, never mind I think I know how," Ruby said guiltily, "maybe I should go and prepare for the next game!"
Ruby got up and ran for the exit, because she didn't want to stay behind to find out what the Faunus girl would do to her. She made it all the way back to her dorms when she closed the door and flopped on the bed ready to take a short nap before the next game.
"How can one person be okay fighting the entire world alone?" Ruby asked to herself.