"You're sure you're alright?" Pyrrha asked as she opened the door to their room, holding it so the other three members of her team could enter.
"Of course," Shirou answered. "I didn't get in any trouble. Professor Goodwitch just wanted to make sure I knew that I was making an enemy of Cardin."
"Really?" asked Weiss as she followed him through the door. "That seems a little irresponsible for a teacher. Either one or both of the involved parties should be punished when such a conflict comes to light, to discourage further escalation."
"Both?! Do you want Shirou to be in trouble?" Ruby scowled at her partner.
"N-no! Of course not! I fully believe Cardin got everything he deserved… and then some." If anyone noticed that she was basically saying he'd gone a little overboard, nobody mentioned it. "I'm just saying that the faculty should be taking some steps to end this before someone gets seriously hurt."
"Hey, come on," Shirou pleaded with his team. "Don't worry about it. Cardin messed with a student in the cafeteria, I beat him up a little bit over it. It's basically over already."
"Over?" Weiss asked, raising an eyebrow. "You basically humiliated him in front of everyone in his year. Your little quip at the end of your fight about pulling ears probably didn't do anything to help matters either. Now everyone knows that he's a bully who targets those who won't fight back – do you think he's just going to roll over and accept that hit to his reputation?"
"But it was so coooool!" Ruby chirped, having jumped up to her top bunk. "Nobody's going to pick on that girl again, not if it means risking the wrath of Team RESN! Besides, what can he do, after getting beat that bad? It's pretty clear he won't be able to beat Shirou in a fight."
Pyrrha nodded along with her leader's words, but Weiss frowned. "There are more methods to hurt people than by fighting them head-on, Ruby."
Shirou sat down on his own bed. "Weiss is right. He'll probably try something else, something that doesn't necessarily pit his own strength against me. But really, don't worry about it – I can handle myself."
Pyrrha crossed her arms and frowned. "I don't think any of us doubt that, Shirou. We just want to make sure you're safe. Just because you'll ultimately come out on top doesn't mean you won't be hurt doing so."
"I'll be fine. I promise." The smile he shot her was so carefree and confident that she couldn't help but accept it. "Anyways… I believe I promised to show you all my Semblance?"
Ruby's eyes and smile both widened, and she looked ready to hop off her bed the second a pretty weapon was introduced to the room. Weiss and Pyrrha both looked interested as well, though they couldn't hope to compare to their excitable leader.
"Alright, well, I guess a little bit of explanation is in order," he began. He'd spent a small amount of time trying to come up with an idea of just how it was he could do what he could. His team, which seemed to be loyal so far, would be his first test to see how well that theory held up under scrutiny.
"I've mentioned this to Ruby before, but there was a tragedy when I was a child, involving a great fire, and I don't have any memories from before that." He paused for a moment to register the looks of sadness and sympathy on the faces of the three girls before continuing.
"There's really no sense being upset about that – after all, I can't remember anything prior to it. The point of mentioning it, really, is because who I am today was mostly shaped by the man who adopted and raised me. His name was Kiritsugu." The next part of his story would be the diciest. The part that simultaneously told the most lies, or at least half truths, and also bared the most personal details about himself.
He was kind of excited by the act of telling them. After all, according to Rin, telling anyone else back in his own world would have led to him being dissected on a lab table. Here, however, where every Hunter had a unique mystery all to their own, he could truly display his own abilities.
"To really understand my Semblance, you have to first understand that Kiritsugu was… a mythology enthusiast. The town I lived in, Fuyuki, was very isolated from most of Remnant, and because of that, we had a huge amount of… local heroes. There were plenty of legends of extraordinary people that I'm sure you would have only heard of if you were from the same place I was. Kiritsugu was particularly interested in those tales – sometimes, it even seemed that he'd met some of the figures depicted in our legends." It was a stretch, to be sure, but at least the last part was pretty true.
"One of the things held in common between each of these local heroes was that each of them possessed at least one weapon that was legendary in its own right. Basically, each hero would carry a weapon with them for so long that, when they were immortalized in legend, the weapon itself would gain its own legendary status, connected but separate from the Heroes themselves." Alright. He clearly had them hooked. Time for the big reveal. He was pleasantly surprised to find his own heart aflutter with the excitement of being able to reveal a secret that he had been told he would never be able to share.
"I had the dubious pleasure, once, of meeting a man who… well, let's say he specialized in creating replicas of the weapons used by those legendary heroes. The man himself was kind of an asshole, but the weapons he made… they were extraordinary." The three girls were all fully engrossed at this point, none more so than Ruby, whose eyes were already sparkling as she merely imagined the kind of weaponry he was talking about.
"They were beautiful, each and every one of them. It wasn't until after I met him that I finally unlocked my Semblance… it allows me to fully understand the weapons I saw, and to create temporary copies of them. When I was able to watch that man fight, which he did often in the last few days that Fuyuki stood, I could observe hundreds of them. It also just so happened that another combatant, at the end, was a… collector, I suppose, who happened to own most – if not all – of the original weapons those heroes had wielded. Between the two of them, the amount of weapons I was able to record within my rea- my Semblance – grew impossibly quickly."
He paused once more to gauge their reactions to his tale. Good, no incredulity yet, despite his near slip. Ruby seemed like she was hanging on his every word, desperate to see the weapons he spoke of. Pyrrha and Weiss were more reserved, but it was clear that at this point they were both fully engrossed as well. "So, my collection of weapons that I can create is made up mostly of replicas and fakes, although I've seen a fair amount of the originals as well. Many of the weapons of those heroes, however, were imbued with a more… conceptual weight, and that's what my Semblance truly makes use of."
He smiled. "If, in a legend, a hero's blade was said to inflict wounds that never healed – so too does my copy of it. If they were said to be especially effective against monsters, then by copying them I'm more effective against the Grimm. And if a legendary sword was reputed to be able to be able to destroy an entire fortress in a single blow… then I can do the same."
Ruby's mouth dropped open. Pyrrha stared with wide eyes. Weiss, however, narrowed hers. "If what you're saying is true… you must have one of the most powerful Semblances I've ever heard of."
"Well, first of all, the more powerful the effect of a weapon, the more Aura it takes to copy and use it," Shirou reassured her. "But it kind of is really, really good. After all, I can make copies of legendary, basically magical weapons – so naturally, it's easy for me to make copies of most mundane weapons as well. And from there, it's not that much harder to make copies of a lot of other things too. The true power is in the weapons, but there's a lot of versatility in being able to make anything else that I want to as well. Except Dust. I can't copy that. Well, maybe if it was Dust in the shape of a sword, but I haven't seen anything like that so far."
"So, you could make a copy of Crescent Rose?" Ruby asked, hand unconsciously drifting towards the small of her back as she spoke, despite her weapon being stored in her rocket locker.
"Trace, On," Shirou silently intoned. He flushed prana through his circuits and drew the copy of his leader's weapon from his Reality Marble, materializing it in a flash of blue light in its collapsed form. He tossed the compact copy over to Ruby.
She caught it deftly, eyes wide. She jumped off the bed and immediately deployed it to full size.
"Not in the room!" Weiss quickly interrupted her as she made to swing it. "Remember what happened to the curtains?"
"Heh, oh yeah, sorry. But, I mean, look at it! It feels so similar! I can't even tell the difference, and I'm the one who built her in the first place!" She settled for looking over every part of the weapon in intimate detail, rather than testing it out.
"Yeah, my copies are pretty much perfect," Shirou said, without any pride in his voice despite the words that could be considered boastful. "I'm pretty good at copying the fighting styles of the original users as well, but that only goes so far. For example, I could copy Ruby's style, but without being able to copy the bullets she uses and move at super-speeds, I'd be really limited in what I could do with it."
"So if someone like Ruby became legendary…" Pyrrha asked slowly, "then you would be able to create a copy of her weapon with special properties? That seems… wow."
Shirou nodded. "Like I said, it's pretty good. It would probably take a lot for her to be recognized as legendary enough, though. Most of the heroes I mentioned were from really old stories."
"But they actually existed? And you said someone in Fuyuki still had the original weapons used by them?" Weiss asked. "Your town must have had a very rich history, if you can copy hundreds of them." She seemed slightly skeptical, but there was no denying the very large scythe that Ruby was still cooing over.
"Would you like to see one of them?" he asked. Before she had tie to respond, Ruby had shot over to him in a burst of rose petals.
"Yes yes yes yes! Bring out the magic weapons!" She bounced happily up and down in front of him. He noticed that she'd instinctively sheathed the copy of Crescent Rose at her back, and he allowed it to dissipate with a laugh.
With the sudden lack of familiar weight behind her, she overbalanced on her next bounce, falling forward onto his bed. She regained her feet quickly enough, and continued bouncing, slightly more subdued and lightly blushing. Shirou smiled at her. "Any requests?"
"Um, I know it's not exactly a common weapon, but… did any of the, uh, heroes, use a scythe?" she asked hopefully. "Not to say I'm unhappy with my baby!" she followed up immediately, hands raised defensively, protesting an accusation that nobody had made. "I just, kind of want to know how Crescent Rose might stack up to literally legendary weapons."
"Actually, yeah, there's at least one that I know of who used a scythe."
He was pleased to note Ruby's shock – like she'd really hoped that he would say yes, but that she'd expected that the answer was no, and had already been bracing herself for it.
"His name was Perseus. Legends say that he was cast into the sea as a baby, alongside his mother, but that miraculously he survived. When he was older, to protect his mother, he set out on an impossible task – to slay a monster whose gaze could allegedly turn people to stone." He recalled briefly that while studying the history of Remnant, he learned that the primary religion was ditheistic, which meant he could continue the story without needed to abridge it. "They say he was favored by the gods, and that when they saw the difficulty of the task, they took mercy and granted him five great treasures. One of them was his weapon."
With a pulse of prana, he Traced a copy of the weapon in question. In his outstretched hand slowly appeared a long, simple looking polearm. It had a shaft of dark grey metal, which was far lighter than it had any right to be, and the butt end was capped in more silvery steel. Beneath his hand, a portion of the shaft was wrapped tightly in a vibrant scarlet cloth. The head of the weapon was subdued – especially when compared to the blatancy of Crescent Rose. It was a simple U-shaped piece of metal, no more than a fifth of the size of Ruby's larger scythe. It tapered to a fine point and was sharpened on the inside edge.
"Its name is Harpē."
Was it irony that the monster Perseus had ultimately succeeded in slaying with this very weapon was Sakura's best friend?
The pleading in Ruby's eyes was honestly ridiculous. He would need to work on his willpower, he decided even as he handed the weapon over with a smile, or else he'd never be able to refuse her anything she wanted. "Be careful with it though, and I really mean it. This is one of the ones I mentioned that inflicts unhealable wounds – if you cut yourself, your Aura won't be able to fix it, you'd need to wait for it to heal naturally."
Everyone in the room looked on in concern as Ruby deftly spun and twirled it in a series of breakneck flourishes, completely disregarding his warnings. "Oh, it's so light! It feels like it wants to be used! Ooh, so pretty, yes you are! I know you wouldn't hurt big sister Ruby, now would you?" she gushed, apparently to the blade.
"Should we be worried?" Weiss asked drily, after the display, and the loving words, had gone on for more than a minute.
"Well, it certainly is a fine-looking weapon," Pyrrha answered. "I guess her… enthusiasm… makes some amount of sense."
Their team leader was now practically purring as she rubbed her face along the flat of the impossibly sharp cursed blade.
"Alright, I think that's enough of that," Shirou laughed, allowing his projection to fade into glittering blue lights, much to Ruby's disappointment. "Sorry, Ruby. It might not have any flashy effects, but that one is actually one of the more powerful weapons I have. If I let you cuddle with it all night, I won't have the energy left to show you any of the others."
Ruby's expression flipped instantly. She had been staring at the fading blue lights with the expression of someone who had just watched a friend die, but at his words, her face lit up once again. "More?!" she half asked, half proclaimed.
"Sure, why not? I'll show you the different weapons I've used so far since coming to Vale. At least, if… yeah, I suppose there's enough room in here."
Weiss raised an eyebrow warily. "And just what do you mean by that?"
Shirou laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. "Well, let me tell you about a hero named Heracles…"
o-o-o-o-o
"Well, we didn't want to disturb you any further than we already had, but I could see Ruby wanted to continue, so I let her drag me outside. It was pretty late before I finally managed to satisfy her. I swear, it's like she's just an endless ball of energy who would play with my weapons forever, if I let her. Eventually, I couldn't help but give in to exhaustion, and I was forced to tell her that I couldn't go on any longer. Only the promise of some more later, and soon, was enough to finally sate her desires for one night."
Weird. Why did he suddenly feel such a huge wave of killing intent?
Shirou was explaining how the previous night had ended to Pyrrha and Weiss. Eventually, after some minor damages, and much to the relief of her teammates, Ruby had declared that their room wasn't a large enough area to fully test the different weapons Shirou projected for her. Despite being suitably impressed by his 'Semblance,' the other two had at that point had quite enough of their leader acting like a menace, so they'd stayed in the room to try and get some sleep as he was dragged out to a nearby courtyard.
He'd let her struggle to lift Berserker's stone axe-sword, he'd let her play around with Rider's nail-daggers (unfortunately before they left the room, and had done his best to repair the new holes in the wall afterwards,) he'd let her smack a tree around with Tora-Shinai, and had even shown her Caliburn, asking her to treat the blade with a little more reverence than the other ones. It was special, after all, having belonged to someone who was very close to him.
She'd practically worshipped the beautiful holy blade.
After that, he'd amused her by just projecting copies of the various weapons he'd seen in Remnant, both those from the shops and those held by their fellow classmates, giving her the opportunity to mess around with new and exciting weapons that would in any other circumstance probably be off limits to her.
"Still, even if she would have gone on longer if I'd been able to, I think she eventually went to sleep happy," he continued, whisking together the pancake mix that he knew several of the girls, especially Nora, were looking forward to.
Teams RESN and RVBY were hanging out in one corner of the school kitchens, which Shirou had apparently somehow appropriated for their use. Unbeknownst to the others, he'd had to bribe the school chefs with some of his cooking techniques, and, in fact, a fair distance away, some of the less senior members of the staff were taking notes as he prepared breakfast for the two teams.
It wasn't any great sacrifice on his part, after all, and he figured that if the other students ended up getting better food out of the bargain, it was a win-win.
"Aww, that's so nice of you!" Pyrrha told him with a wide smile. "I'm sorry, I would have gone with the two of you, but I was already exhausted from earlier. We – well, you and Ruby mostly – really did a number on the room once you started letting her mess around."
"Yeah, sorry about that," Shirou laughed. "I'll try not to let it happen again, but you know how she is."
"Hey! I'm right here, you know!" their team leader spoke up indignantly from slightly further down the kitchen island they were sitting around. She looked a little tired, but content. "And as your leader, I hereby publicly condemn you for letting me try to handle that massive sword!" She pointed a finger at him accusatorily. "I know I insisted it was a good idea at the time, but you should have known better! Now I'm sore all over!" she complained.
Shirou only laughed in response, as Yang let out a strangled choking noise for some reason.
Ruby was right, but to be fair, she had insisted that she would be able to wield the axe-sword. He was pretty sure that even with Aura, without being able to draw strength from the weapon itself, such a task would be pretty close to impossible. She'd struggled for minutes to even budge the heavy blade.
He easily poured some of the pancake mix into an already heated skillet, practiced hands creating a perfect circle. As it began to hiss, he turned to a mixing bowl and began to whisk the eggs within. "Hey, Yang, are you alright?" he asked. The blonde was currently hunched forward, clutching the granite countertop with both hands, and seemed unbelievably tense, her fingers practically making indents into the stone. "Your eyes seem a little red. Trouble sleeping in a dorm with new people? Can't say I blame you, I'm a little tired myself. Although, I had my own reasons for being up most of the night."
He shot a glare at Ruby, but it was paired with a smile, so she accepted it with a small laugh and blush, rather than as a serious condemnation. Pyrrha chuckled along with her, and even Weiss smiled.
"Thanks for taking her off our hands, Shirou," the white-haired heiress said. "After you got her riled up in the first place, I don't think any of us would have been able to sleep at all if you hadn't taken her outside."
"Of course. It was my pleasure," he answered her, checking on the bacon happily sizzling away in another skillet.
There was a cracking sound as, somehow, Yang clenched the stone even tighter. No doubt trying to avoid falling asleep again by holding on tightly to something solid, Shirou reasoned. It must have been really difficult for her to adapt to the new sleeping conditions. Hmm, weird, her hair almost seemed like it was glowing.
In fact, most of team RVBY was acting a little weirdly, weren't they? Besides Yang, Blake was also looking much more… red than he remembered her. Her face was completely flushed, and she was refusing to meet anyone on his team's eyes. She also seemed to be trying to edge away from her partner.
Maybe she was just hungry? He bent down to peer into the oven beneath his stovetop work station, checking on the currently baking salmon that Blake had seemed so excited to see as being a part of a breakfast. Yes, it was coming along nicely. He turned to a nearby bowl and stirred the homemade sauce that closely approximated teriyaki, the result of several hours of experimentation.
Ren, of all people, also looked to be slightly discomforted, which, for the normally taciturn boy was practically a neon billboard pointing at something being unusual. Nora seemed the most normal of all four, which was something Shirou never would have predicted himself thinking, but then again, it seemed as though she had completely devoted her attention to the pancake batter and hadn't heard a single word spoken in the last few minutes.
Why was everyone acting so weird? He noted that Yang's red-tinted stare seemed to be directly focused at him. He shot her a disarming smile, intuiting the source of her discomfort. "Oh, don't worry, Yang. I'll take good care of your sister! There's no need to be worried on her account, if that's what's keeping you up." He turned his back on her and poured the eggs into yet another pan.
Weird, there was that wave of killing intent again. Oh well, breakfast was nearly ready, and he was surrounded by friends and allies, so it was probably fine. The rice-cooker was nearly finished, as well.
As he began to ready plates and dole out food, Yang forcefully tore her gaze away from the cook and affixed it to her younger sister. "Ruby. This… man, he's… treating you right?" she barely managed to growl out.
"Yeah, of course! He's great! Why do you ask?" The younger girl answered cheerily.
Yang ignored the question, answering with one of her own, again with a gravelly voice. "And your teammates. They're just… okay with this?"
"With what?" Damn her innocent face, Yang thought to herself.
She forced herself to answer, despite how much it hurt to do so. "With you apparently dragging Shirou off to play with his 'oversized sword,' after he tired both of them out!" She tried to keep her tone at least somewhat civil, but it still somehow came out as more of a snarl.
"Well, it was only polite of him to take responsibility for what he started in the first place," Weiss cut in. "None of us would have had any sleep if he hadn't." Pyrrha nodded, glancing at Shirou gratefully.
Yang fumed. How could they all talk like this so openly? What had Shirou done to her sister and the rest of his team, that they saw such things as acceptable conversation topics?!
"Yang, I don't know why you're so upset over this!" Ruby pleaded with her sister. "It was seriously amazing! I know you're not necessarily as interested in things like that as I am, but really, maybe one day he'll show you the things he showed me! I promise you'd enjoy it – I can't even imagine someone not thinking it's the best Semblance ever!"
Yang choked on the water she'd been trying to drink to cool down a little. Now his Semblance was involved?! What kind of deviant, or monster, was he, that his own soul would express itself in such a way?
And since when was Ruby of all people 'more interested' in things like that than her?! And why would Ruby be alright with Shirou showing her the same things?! Surely her teammates were already enough?! Just what would it take to satisfy Shirou's sick desires?
"Breakfast is ready~!" Shirou called out, sliding out plates and bowls to each of the Huntsmen-in-training.
Nora, of course, received a huge stack of pancakes, absolutely drenched in syrup. She dug in immediately, an expression of bliss gracing her features.
Blake sat, bow twitching happily, in front of a large fillet of salmon glazed in the closest approximation to teriyaki sauce Shirou had managed to create, alongside a bowl of a simple miso-style soup, and another of white rice. She smiled at the chef gratefully.
Ren had a bowl of rice as well, but it was much thicker than Blake's. The porridge-like mix of rice combined with pieces of fish as well as some leafy herbal greens, flavored to the cook's whims, was met with wide eyes. Ren nodded to Shirou as he dug into the congee, pleasantly surprised to see such a relatively obscure recipe served.
Ruby had also been slid a plate of pancakes, though it differed from Nora's. Rather than the thick purple syrup that the orange-haired girl seemed so fond of, Ruby's pancakes were instead covered in fresh slices strawberries and copious amounts of whipped cream. She gasped as the plate came to a halt in front of her, and for a moment she was stunned by the beautiful presentation of the food, but her instincts quickly took over, and she set to with fork and knife.
Pyrrha had a more traditional breakfast, not too dissimilar to what she would have normally grabbed from the cafeteria. Bacon and scrambled eggs, with a side of toast. Still, when she bit down into the first forkful of her food, her eyes shot open wide. She chewed in shock. How could such simple fare contain such flavor?
Weiss' plate was perhaps the most reserved. A tasteful arrangement of sliced fruit, topped with a small dollop of fresh whipped cream, served alongside a mug of piping hot tea. She raised an eyebrow in appreciation as she took her first bite. Truly, the flavor profiles of the different fruits complemented each other perfectly, especially when combined with the cream. And if the fruit had been powdered with just the right amount of sugar, as well – well, though her family might differ, she certainly wasn't going to complain.
And then there was Yang's meal, which mirrored the spread on Shirou's own plate. A well-balanced combination of omelette, containing a variety of vegetables, cheeses, and meats, served with a side of fruit. She noticed, however, that her own plate also came with a unique side of fried potatoes, while Shirou had opted for a small bowl of rice instead.
She tried her best to frown at the man who had stolen her sister's innocence as she took her first forceful bite – but damn if he wasn't a good cook. She stared down at her plate of food in shock, completely disarmed of her previous malice.
Sure, yesterday she had joked with her sister about Shirou being husband material, when he mentioned he knew how to cook – but how could she have been expected to anticipate something like this?
It was unreal. Had she ever tasted an egg this good before? What the hell?! How had he done it? Was this the mysterious Semblance Ruby had mentioned, somehow able to bring intense pleasure to others?
She cautiously took another bite, alert for any kind of supernatural interference.
Nope. The food really was just that good.
Alright. She might have to revise her original – or, she supposed, her secondary – judgment a little. Perhaps he was, in fact, husband material. If he made her little sister this happy, and also happened to provide her with meals of this quality as a matter of course, was it really her job to stand in the way of that?
A moment later, she forcefully shook her head. Of course it was! There was no way on Remnant that she was just going to sit there idly and accept the fact that this man had shown Ruby his massive sword and let her play with it all night! Even if he was able to create what was possibly the best breakfast she'd ever had, a breakfast that was even now making several of her friends – and Ruby! – moan in pleasure!
And – oh, gods, she was doing it too, wasn't she? She looked up from her plate to see that bastard's self-satisfied grin, as he took in her enjoyment of his food – as well as that of all the others he'd invited to breakfast.
Nobody had even thanked him, so engrossed were they in their own meals. Though, she supposed, that was practically a form of thanks in and of itself.
"Shirou…" Pyrrha was the first to be able to meet the man's eyes. Her own emerald gaze met his with an aspect of adoration clearly visible – or was it worship? Yang wasn't sure, and she wasn't about to risk the integrity of her own faith by looking directly at him. "Is there anything I can offer you to convince you to cook meals for us in the future?" the champion continued.
Surprising everyone, Weiss was quick to add to her teammates request. "I've been provided… a sizable allowance, by my father, to ensure that I be met with amenities of a sufficient quality for one of my station. I would be more than justified in allocating that stipend to you, if this quality of meal were to be made readily available."
"I'd do anything for more of this," Ruby added, her mouth stuffed with pancake and whipped cream.
Yang was slightly disgusted with herself for completely agreeing with her sister's sentiments. She noticed that Ren, Nora, and Blake were all staring hopefully at Shirou as well.
"Don't worry about it," Shirou answered the collective plea gracefully, with an easy smile. "I enjoy making food for people to enjoy. I'm glad to see you all like it. Of course I'll be happy to provide more in the future; no payment is necessary."
Gods damn him! How the hell was she supposed to be protective over Ruby, like any good older sister should, when he was so clearly the perfect man?
Okay, sure, he was kind of short. But apparently that wasn't a proportional issue – and why the hell was she trying to justify her own little sister's sexual shenanigans with a guy on their second night of rooming together? What was wrong with her?!
She stared down at what was left of the food on her plate in horror. First of all, where had it all gone? Had she truly already eaten so much of it, without even noticing? Secondly, was this the true power of high-quality cooking? Was it enough to blind her to the injustices taking place against her own sister?
And was it worth it? She couldn't help but ask herself as her arm unconsciously shoveled the last bit of delicious food into her mouth.
Was it truly protectiveness that urged her to pull her sister away from the man who was capable of creating such miracles of food, or was it… jealousy?
If, instead, she encouraged such a relationship to flourish… would she be fed like this regularly? Could Ruby really do any better? Was it, in fact, her duty to ensure that her sister ended up with a man that was able to provide for her the same way that Shirou apparently could?
Yang's eyes were wide as they rested unflinchingly on the empty plate in front of her.
Oblivious to her internal turmoil, Shirou collected it and began to wash it in the nearby sink.
Oh well, he thought. She was probably just tired.
o-o-o-o-o
Jaune Arc staggered through the streets of Vale.
His thoughts were in turmoil. Part of that, of course, was the fact that this 'morning,' he'd embarked upon a task that most would have considered impossible – and against all odds, he'd come back alive.
The other part of it was probably the blood loss.
He was really glad that the uniform for Junior's Club was black and crimson. The colors really helped disguise the bloodstains. Otherwise, people might have had something to say about the grievously wounded man limping through their midst.
They probably just assumed he was drunk.
Far from it, however! He, Jaune Arc, an untrained civilian, had slain a Beowulf!
If he was drunk on anything, it was on victory!
To be fair, he hadn't come out of the encounter unscathed. First of all, it was probably only the fact that he was so cocksure after his dream that had stopped him from being ambushed by a full pack of Grimm.
Rather, so assured was he of his own destiny to become a Huntsman, completely devoid of all negative thoughts, he was actually able to sneak up on a Grimm himself!
It had been a single Beowolf. Perhaps the weakest of all Grimm, save maybe for Creeps. Still, it was one of those creatures that Huntsmen so regularly fought. In packs, they could be terrifying, but alone, they were considered weak.
None of that analysis had passed through his brain when he first saw the monster. All that he could see was a different monster, one composed fully of purplish slime…
"Go show those Grimm who's boss!"
And that was exactly what he was going to do.
He had charged forward with a scream, somehow surprising the beast that was supposed to be made of mindless evil.
He had fought like a berserker. His arms had flailed wildly, one hand frantically slapping away counterattacks, and the other slashing wildly with a certain knife. This strategy had not faltered in the slightest no matter whether he was stood on his feet, pinned flat on his back, or straddling the already decomposing body of the Beowolf.
He had continued to slash and stab long after the beast was already dead.
He had won.
It hadn't been easy. Even with the element of surprise, he had nearly been overpowered several times. His abdomen had been slashed open, both arms were dripping blood from deep scratches, and he heavily limped along on the one leg that hadn't been nearly hamstrung.
Still, his wild flailing had worked! The advice of the monster from his dreams had worked! He had killed a Grimm!
What was pain, in the face of such a victory? Who cared if he'd been mere centimeters from being disemboweled, if he – normal, ordinary Jaune Arc – had managed to slay one of the creatures of Grimm?
The pain, in fact, barely registered to him. He'd managed to shuffle back to his apartment after his encounter in the forest, bleeding heavily, and pull on his work uniform, all with a brilliant smile on his face.
It was in that state that he finally pushed open the doors to Junior's Club and shuffled over to the position he would be expected to hold for the duration of his shift.
If his suit happened to be a little more wet than normal, black fabric stained slightly darker than usual, nobody though to mention it.
Except, perhaps, the Malachite sisters.
"Hey, Newbie. You know you're gonna get fired if you show up to work wasted," Miltia Malachite mocked the blonde henchman that stood near the bar. He was swaying back and forth, clearly barely able to keep to his feet.
"Bwuh?" was the man's eloquent response, accompanied by a frankly stupidly happy smile.
Melanie frowned on her sister's behalf. "Hey, fuckface, she's serious! You think Junior's just going to calmly accept someone coming to work drunk? You'd better find a way to sober up quick, or your days working here are going to be over quick."
The blonde man smiled at her. Her frown deepened. What was wrong with him?
He slumped like a puppet with his strings cut, falling forwards onto his face.
"What the hell?!" Miltia jumped back from him, startled despite her training.
"Relax. Probably just some kind of drug. You know how the fresh recruits are," Melanie laughed lightly, stepping forward bravely and grabbing the prone man by one arm. "I'll just drag him outside before any customers get here. He can sober up in an alley and then regret taking drugs before his shift at the Club."
She began to make good on her word.
"Uhh, Melanie?" Miltia cautiously ventured.
Her twin stopped in her journey and looked back at her. "What?"
"Are druggies supposed to leave red stains on the floor?"
Melanie looked down at the trail that she'd dragged the man along, and quickly paled. The tiles of the dance floor were heavily stained with what could be nothing other than blood. "Uh, Junior!" she yelled, slightly panicked. "We've got a problem!"
The man, to his credit, quickly abandoned his bar and ran to the aid of his subordinate. "What? What's wrong—oh."
He looked down as he approached the scene, following the trail of blood to the unconscious employee that was still held in Melanie's grip.
Junior's expression darkened. "Gods damn it. If other gangs think they can get a foot up over us by attacking the rank and file, they're in for a rude awakening. Melanie." He turned to his bodyguard.
"Y-yeah?" She asked, still staring, somewhat shocked, at the bleeding body in her grip.
"Activate his Aura. We're not letting one of our men die after being attacked like this. And after he recovers, and can answer questions, be prepared to take the fight to our rivals."
The woman in the white dress nodded, only slightly shakily, and knelt to the ground beside the body of the wounded henchman.
"For it is in notoriety that we achieve immortality…"
Hey, I'll probably switch to shorter chapters from now on – I feel like 6000 words is probably enough to satisfy most people, and is a lot easier to fit into a busy schedule that includes writing other more mandatory stuff as well! If people greatly disagree with that decision, either leave a review or shoot me a message, and if it becomes clear that people expect longer chapters, I'll do my best to satisfy, though it'll obviously take longer to write them.
Here's a more light-hearted chapter, anyways. Enjoy some wholesome team-building and innuendoes after the harsh punishment of Cardin last chapter.
Thanks to everyone for the reviews. As a fairly new author, I really appreciate each and every one of them. All of your input and encouragement is a large part of what encourages people like me to keep creating new content. Please continue to read and review!