Ah Amaama to Inazuma… how you touch my heart! As a reader of the manga, I'd been slightly worried how the anime would play out the cutesy/heartwarming scenes, but so far it's been doing a great job! Now to see if it'll keep up.

And a No Game No Life movie is going to come out! Man, next year is going to be a great one!

Oh, to suddenly switch tracks too, what would you guys think of a HOTD fic after this one has been completed? As usual, I brainstorm new fics even when working on this one and my second original novel and lately HOTD has been on the mind. It'll be borrowing a lot of elements from another manga, but for the most part I plan to make it fairly original in how it plays out. Let me know what you think!

Now onto the chapter!

Chapter 10

Amber stirred slightly within the capsule she was always stuck in. Still, no matter how notable her stirring was, the young woman was still very much in a near comatose state.

And yet… slowly but surely, she was pulling herself out of such a state.

Such a thing would be normally thought impossible if someone had been here to witness this, but in reality, it wasn't such a mind-boggling thing that much; as far as her body itself was concern, the damage she'd sustained from those three mysterious attackers had long since healed. It'd just been the subsequent draining of her Fall Maiden powers that had left her in her current state.

And while it'd taken more than some time to begin recovering, Amber's aura had returned along with a majority of her power.

Soon… very soon, she'd awaken for good.

And while it should have been impossible for this to occur, the still comatose maiden couldn't help but feel a slight sense of eagerness fill her very soul.

For she had much to look into upon her awakening, starting with that presence that still lingered here.

Jaune, having been in the midst of reading up on some faculty related material – finally available to him in brail now – suddenly shivered.

The Fall Maiden is recovering…

He could tell because he could, for lack of a better way to put it, sense it as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

And it left him with mixed feelings.

On the one hand, yay! Once the young woman had awakened and adjusted to having an incomplete power, she could really help out against what would inevitably come.

On the other hand, oh shit. Jaune was well aware of the sort of effect he'd likely have on a maiden and he highly doubted any maiden would be positively receptive to his very presence due to his, ah, condition. As such, it wouldn't surprise him very much if the Fall Maiden decided to take a 'crush first, ask questions later' approach to finally meeting with him – which would definitely be inevitable.

Raising a hand and making and unmaking a fist several times, Jaune tried to now calmly assess his current state.

While he was, as Ozpin had said during their initial meeting, considerably more powerful than any of the students here at Beacon – and at other such academies too – Jaune knew for a fact where he stood when compared to true huntsmen and huntresses. While he was certain to have the advantage in physical ability against the more 'average' hunters in Remnant, he knew he was still lacking in experience when compared to them. And when compared to a maiden of all people, he likely would be outstripped in not only experience, but also overall power as well…

…Well, not unless he used his semblance, maybe.

Stop thinking like that.

Jaune shook his head at that thought. True, thinking already in part on how to combat the Fall Maiden was likely a bad thing. After all, fighting her in any capacity wasn't even remotely his goal in such an unavoidable meeting – his goal was to simply try and defuse the situation without getting himself killed.

Grumbling to himself now, Jaune immediately tried to rid himself of these thoughts. They'd do him no good if he ended up following through on them, even if only by accident.

A sudden knock at his door – he'd been reading peacefully within his room/office space – nearly made him go falling out of his chair, but he'd managed to keep himself rooted in place.

Peering up at the door, his Aura Vision allowed him to see who it was before she could even speak.

And it made him quirk both of his eyebrows a little bit.

Nonetheless, he was already somewhat grateful for the timely distraction… and he could use some company too.

So without missing a beat, he spoke. "Come on in, Ms. Nikos."

Cinder… was feeling a little annoyed.

No, perhaps that wasn't really the best way to word. Annoyance, to her, implied that it would soon evolve into anger and that would lead to violence.

And while she was hardly a pacifist – wow, that would make for an interesting joke, somehow – Cinder liked to think she was above needless violence.

So no, she wasn't annoyed – she was merely slightly miffed.

"So you plan on explaining your lack of help again?"

Though admittedly, such a feeling could easily evolve into annoyance and go on from there…

"Roman… for the last time, enough. I won't explain myself anymore to you. You're lucky I even explained what had happened in the first place," she said, managing to keep her voice level as she talked with the thief before her.

It's been just a little more than a week since that little sidekick girl of Roman's had gone to bust him out of Atlas custody and while the so-called 'smooth criminal' and his little imp had only barely returned to this base of sorts a few days ago, Cinder had already found herself wishing Roman had remained locked up.

After he'd returned, he'd immediately made a show of sorts of barking orders, demanding fresh clothes to replace 'these pieces of shit called clothes' he'd said about his prison clothes. After that, he'd immediately tried to hunt her down – which had been a surprisingly easy thing since she'd been returning from one of her other endeavors at the time – and had started demanding why the hell she hadn't stopped his being taken into custody.

Even though she'd decided reluctantly to explain what had happened if only to get him off her case, the man had made it a point to pester her about this one point since then.

Needless to say, it was beginning to grate the woman's nerves. And if this kept up, she aimed to make it very clear that this was a bad thing for him and not her.

That being said, however… this punk standing before her didn't seem to realize that. Or perhaps he did, but conveniently forgot for the time being.

Cinder did her best to avoid gritting her teeth when Roman gave her that annoying smirk of his, twirling Melodic Cudgel in his right hand.

"Oh like hell you did! You really expect me to buy that? You still could've attacked from afar to drive them back! It wouldn't have been that hard to get me out of there!" he barked.

"Roman… you were knocked unconscious. Suppose I had decided to get closer and attack anyways… just how would I have pulled you up in time before the blond man intervened again? Or if a hunter had shown up to help those two?" Cinder calmly fired back.

She folded her arms under her breasts and leveled a stern gaze at the man, as if daring him to say something in response.

Thankfully, he seemed to remember his place in her little plan and merely grunted in distaste. "…Still could've done something about it."

Cinder had wanted to reply to that, but the man continued on anyways, throwing up his hands in both frustration and some measure of excitement. "Ah well! I suppose when you get down to it, it doesn't matter much! Cause I'm already planning to look into this blond punk."

"…Looking for some payback, I take it?" Cinder now asked instead.

"Something like that, sweetie," he shot back mockingly. Oh much Cinder would've loved to burn his sneer off right now for that. "Revenge is a thing I'd like, yeah… but it's also simply business. Reputation counts for a lot in the criminal world, so what had happened with this guy… it's a stain on my reputation. Bad for business, you see… can't have that."

"But of course…" Cinder made sure to make the sarcasm as obvious as possible. It grabbed Roman's attention, to be sure. "Well, you're going to have to put it aside for now; now that you're back, how about you make up for lost time and get more Dust for us?"

She'd said it so casually that even she felt somewhat taken aback by it. And she'd been meaning to say this from the start too!

And as expected, Roman looked surprised and not too happy to hear that. "Excuse me?" he began. "You want me to go around stealing more Dust for you? After letting me get caught like that?!"

"Yes," she said bluntly.

"Oh really? And just why should I do that?" Roman then said.

"Because if you don't, Roman… you'll never get to see how it all ends," she said simply.

And with just those simple words, the master thief paused. For she knew that he knew what she meant.

While she'd made it a point to keep him from being privy to all of her own actions and knowledge, she'd also made sure to keep him aware of what was to generally come about. And while Roman had made it quite clear what he thought of everything, he was a survivalist at heart.

Despite whatever sort of affection he may have for that helper of his, he would do whatever it takes to survive in any situation… and that naturally includes what was to come. It was why he still here at this base today instead of having gotten anything he'd have left behind and leave.

No matter how much he may bicker with her, no matter how he may whine of simply calling this all off and jumping ship, he was with her until the end even if it was purely for his own survival and self-interests.

So naturally, being so subtly threatened with death just now had reminded the criminal of this particular fact.

Muttering more than a few colorful curses under his breath, Roman then sighed and folded his arms across his chest. He began tapping his foot impatiently whilst glaring at her.

"Fine then…" he began. "So where do you want to me go now?"

It was very slight, microscopic even… but at his words of surrender, Cinder couldn't help but smirk.

Pyrrha considered herself to be a lucky girl right now.

After all, after having spent the past week and some odd days recovering from the Forever Falls incident and having to still tend to her studies and teammates, she'd been unable to speak with the young assistant professor sitting across from her until now.

Looks like she'd come at a good time too – from what she could understand of his expression, he looked like he could have used some company.

Such a thought made her very pleased with herself and even feel a little excited…. But she made it a point to keep such feelings contained.

She'd come here for a different reason.

"So is something the matter, Ms. Nikos?" Jaune asked of her after getting some tea for the two of them.

"Please… just call me Pyrrha," she replied with a bright smile. She didn't know why, but it seemed like that one time sparring with Cardin, he'd had no problem addressing the bully by his name whereas it seemed he used surnames with others. Somewhat odd if she had to confess and a little saddening… her reason for coming here aside, she'd like a close relationship to be formed between Jaune and he- the rest of the students! Not simply between the two of them…

"Heh, okay. Only if you'd be willing to call me Jaune," he said with a matching smile. Ah if only he knew just how it made her heart skip a few beats just now. "So what brings you to me?"

"Hmm, well to be perfectly blunt," Pyrrha began, looking a little more serious now. "I wanted to know about our performance during that incident a week ago."

"Performance?" Jaune questioned curiously and with also a smidgen of confusion. Pyrrha had the feeling he was wondering why she was asking him about such a thing and not professor Goodwitch. The look only lasted a second though before he looked more focused. "Not that I don't understand the reasoning behind the question… but why me?"

If Pyrrha was being truly honest, it was because she'd much prefer talking to him about such things instead of professor Goodwitch due to her, ah, budding fondness for him. That, and talking to him would be infinitely easier to do than talking to the much more stern and strict looking combat instructor.

Of course, she didn't actually say this. What she really ended up saying was: "Well, as you are my partner's older brother, you were sort of the first one I thought of concerning this matter." Using Jeanne as an excuse, which brought Pyrrha no small amount of shame for doing, she hoped to explain her reasoning. But just to play it safe… "And given your way of fighting that we've seen so far in spars, I was hoping for a very fresh opinion on the matter."

She hoped that'd be enough for him.

Jaune hummed for a moment before taking a quiet sip of his hot tea. "I see… that makes sense. Though, talking to Gly- I mean professor Goodwitch would've yielded similar results; we had both discussed the incident along with the rest of the faculty and we'd all more or less come to the same kind of conclusions on that particular matter."

Pyrrha's heartbeat skipped again, this time out of worry. He'd nearly said professor Goodwitch's first name. Were the two of them closer than she and others thought?

"I-I see. Even then, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this," she said with only a slight stutter. She mentally patted herself on the back for not stuttering more out of shock.

"…Do you mind if I'm blunt, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked.

"Oh please… go ahead," she responded.

Jaune nodded in thanks and then took a few seconds to ponder something, his expression becoming much more attentive. When his blind blue eyes blinked and then focused back on her, Pyrrha couldn't help but be reminded of her complete loss to him at the beginning of the school year. The look combined with this particular memory sent shivers throughout her entire body. Far from unpleasant shivers, it must be said…. she'd need to head to the shower for a while, she couldn't help but silently think.

And then Jaune spoke, snapping her out of her reverie.

"Everyone taken on the trip are a fairly talented bunch, with you, Ruby, my sister, and a handful of others standing out in particular," Jaune began. "However. You all were clearly taken off guard by the assault. Granted, I and professor Goodwitch were thrown back by it too, but we had begun retaliating right away. Absolutely none of the first years were able to do so; you'd all been so utterly thrown off by the Grimm that by the time you all began to fight back in earnest, many of you had been separated or otherwise boxed in."

Jaune leaned forward in his seat, placing his arms upon his desk in the process. "Furthermore, you all were far too reliant on your weapons and that sort of screwed you all over. Because of how large in general many of your weapons are, the students that ended up having to defend themselves from the Grimm amidst the denser parts of Forever Falls were unable to fight effectively since the trees and bushes obstructed their vision and prevented larger movements for their weapons. Not only that, but most weapons were meant for one-on-one combat or at least small groups of enemies… combined with most of your focus on fighting smaller numbers of Grimm, this made you all very unprepared for dealing with the waves at the time."

He then made a slight gesture with his left hand. "Even the ones that had fought the Grimm in much more open areas still had issues since if the Grimm packed in too tightly or if just one Grimm had gotten too close, using weapons became unwieldly anyways. The only ones that could've worked around that particular issue were Yang Xiao Long and your teammate Lie Ren… and those two have their own issues as well. In the case of the former, she's much too focused on simply punching or kicking or blasting her foes away… while certainly a skilled kickboxer, she lacks variety in technique and had no way of effectively fighting off so many Grimm in close combat. As for your friend, his endurance is pitifully low when compared to yourself and the rest of team JNPR – one serious hit and he'd be out of commission for the rest of the fight. He's lucky to have even survived in one piece."

Taking a deep breath now, Jaune finished up his talking with one final piece of information. "While I and the rest of the faculty are glad that everyone made it out okay, we're still more than a little worried about how things will go in the future for you if this is the extent of your abilities, collectively and individually. To be frank, it's a genuine miracle that all of you made it out alive."

The longer he'd gone on speaking, the calmer he'd appeared to become and the easier the words had seemed to leave his mouth. By the time he finished up just now, Pyrrha couldn't help but feel thoroughly chastised despite having asked for his opinion, never mind the fact that he hadn't even really been chastising her.

"…That's both my opinion and the rest of the faculty's opinion on this as well," Jaune then said. "Though it's based on the debriefings we had for all of the first years, yourself and my sister and your other two teammates included."

"I see." It was all Pyrrha could bring herself to say immediately. She tried not to grimace. Instead she nodded her head in thanks and confirmation of something.

She and everyone else clearly had a lot to learn before they could even begin to think of becoming full fledged hunters. But alas, that was why they were all here at Beacon, right?

"Then what do you recommend we all do to improve? I certainly don't want to be in that kind of situation again," she said.

Jaune smiled a little at her, even chuckled. Despite herself, it got her blood flowing a little faster, especially with how soft his gaze had become. Hard to believe he was blind. "Professor Goodwitch and I have spent the past week trying to figure out ways to resolve a lot of those issues and we've finally managed to come up with a good lesson plan. Starting next week, we'll be implementing that so hopefully it'll help out everyone." He paused to take another drink of his tea, an especially long sip this time around. "As for what you and other students can do personally? I honestly can't say beyond simply continuing your own training… and of course, perhaps solidifying teamwork amongst you all."

At that, Pyrrha could only laugh a little now. "I don't think you'll have to worry about that last part, Jaune. Your sister had been most enthusiastic all week long in training together. Just the other day, she'd spent a lot of time trying to come up with codenames for team plays too."

That got Jaune laughing now too. "Yeah, that sounds like something she'd do." When his laughter ceased, his smile grew a bit more. "You know, I'm really glad that you're her partner, Pyrrha."

"R-Really?" Pyrrha replied. Had it just been her imagination, but did Jaune's voice become a little huskier right now?

"Mhm…" He was speaking in a lower tone of voice, but in reality, he was hardly speaking huskily here. Not that Pyrrha knew this; she was a little too suddenly caught up in the tone change itself to think straight. "She used to watch your matches fervently back then, so she really looks up to you. Although she clearly wants to be her own person, at the same time she wishes to be just as powerful and as skilled as you are… ah! I hope she isn't off-putting to you or anything! She doesn't mean it!"

Pyrrha giggled a little airily, trying to retain her calm. "O-Oh, not at all! Jeanne is a wonderful person. She may have fangirled a lot at first, but she's also trying to get to really know me and vice versa. Combined with her own drive to improve, I couldn't have asked for a better friend and partner."

"I see…" Jaune's smile grew softer and his blind eyes softened upon her. Good lord, was it her imagination again, or was it suddenly getting blisteringly hot in this room? "I'm glad to hear that."

Unable to think of anything to say in response, Pyrrha could only laugh awkwardly, praying that Jaune wouldn't notice somehow her precarious state of being.

Jaune then hummed. "Hmm, if I remember the time right, it's beginning to get pretty late now… almost time to turn in for the day?" he asked the redhead.

Said redhead blinked stupidly at first, the change in topic being so sudden for her, before briefly glancing at the clock that virtually every room came with.

As her now not-so-little crush stated, it was starting to get fairly late in the day. While hardly the time to rest up just yet, there were still some things she needed to get done before heading off to bed.

"Oh! I hadn't noticed how fast the time flew…" She failed at keeping the disappointment out of her voice. Now that her main issue had been addressed, she'd been hoping to get to know her crush a bit more. Blasted time; always quick to pass by when enjoying herself, always slower than snails when she wished for the opposite.

Jaune chuckled, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Yeah, it tends to do that sometimes." He began to stand, drinking the rest of his tea in one go. "Sounds like you have other things to do. Here, I'll see you out," he offered.

"T-Thank you very much, Jaune," Pyrrha said as she stood as well, somewhat touched by his offer. It was a very minor thing really… but as people are wont to say: it's the small things that matter sometimes.

"Don't mention it. Always here to help, Pyrrha." As Jaune circled gracefully around his desk – amazing how coordinated he is despite his lack of sight, Pyrrha couldn't help but ponder – he closed in on Pyrrha and gently gripped her shoulder. "Please… if there's ever anything you need help with in the future, don't ever hesitate to ask me. I know I'm still adapting to things here, but I'll do what I can."

His touch was gentle yet very firm. Pyrrha could literally feel his strength through his light grip and it took a herculean level of willpower to keep from shaking in, ah, delight. "I'll definitely keep that in mind," she said airily as she began to walk to the door.

She felt most saddened when he let go of her just prior to moving towards it in the first place, but she hid it well upon opening the door. "Good night, Jaune."

His smile was yet again a wonder to behold as she walked out the door. "Good night, Pyrrha."

Walking down the hallway, Pyrrha lowered her head, deep in thought. Calming down a bit from the more 'entertaining' aspects of her talk just now with Jaune, the regional champion of Mistral seriously pondered the blind young man's opinion on the first years' combat performance during the Forever Falls incident.

It'd been most blunt as she'd wanted and now that she thought on and tried to analyze it, she began to try and think of just what this new lesson plan will be to address their collective issues. Given that this was clearly something new, Pyrrha could only think that it'd likely be an experimental one; no doubt it'll change to accommodate other unknown factors as it plays out. After all, there never is any telling how exactly a plan will play out.

That said, she and the others shouldn't rely upon such a thing to help themselves improve – as Jaune had said, they'd all have to work hard on their own and together in their teams to truly make progress.

In this respect, Pyrrha could only admire her teammate, friend, and leader Jeanne even more, for the somewhat clumsy blonde was already attempting to do just that with not just herself but the rest of team JNPR as well.

Perhaps siblings really do think alike? It was food for thought.

That little tangent aside, she and the others will have a long road ahead of them before they can become true huntsmen and huntresses.

Time to return to her dorm to plan some things out.

But first… a shower.

Bartholomew Oobleck was – 'le gasp!' many students would go – moving slowly about in his painfully overcrowded office, the large room filled with overstuffed bookshelves, all of the texts there being worn down history and archeological books, each one having clearly been read and bookmarked numerous times.

Truly, it was clear-as-day evidence of the green haired professor's passion for history and the other wonders of the world.

Normally at around this time, the usually hyperactive professor would be grading homework, reading up on the latest news (international news or the newest in scientific breakthroughs), polishing his mug/weapon or burning through the remainder of his daily coffee barrels.

Yes, barrels.

Often times, due to the sheer amount of energy he contained, he'd be doing any combination of these things at once, but this afternoon-turned-evening was proving to be a nigh-unprecedented exception.

Instead of bustling about his office/dorm at hypersonic speeds, the History professor of Beacon Academy was taking his time leafing his way through a particularly small and short book that had once been buried underneath a mountain of much thicker ones.

Unlike the vast majority of his collection, this book wasn't related at all to the general history of Remnant nor to any sort of archeological find. It was certainly history related, but not in the same manner as his collection nor as his teachings here in the academy.

Instead, this book was related more to the history of notable Grimm incidents over the past thousand years. Given how omnipresent a threat the Grimm provided to humans and Faunus, it really should say quite a bit that such a book would be so thin… Bartholomew – affectionately called Bart by those closest to him – had once looked upon the book in disdain prior to buying it years ago.

After he'd bought it, however, he'd come to change his tune very quickly and had referred to the short book on a few occasions in the past for some sort of guidance.

And alas, he found himself doing so now in the wake of the Forever Falls incident from last week.

For it vaguely resembled the type of incidents this thin book focused on.

Because of how many Grimm littered Remnant, both within and without the walls that protected the four kingdoms, Grimm-related deaths were sadly a dime a dozen, almost forever lost to the rest of the world.

If it were possible to record every single death and Grimm attack since the very first sighting of the Grimm, Bart had no doubt in his mind that such an endeavor would result in entire libraries filled with such literary recordings.

This book, however, only focused on exactly one thing, namely when the Grimm attacked in truly innumerable waves and with cunning that could otherwise be considered unnatural for them…

…Very much like what had happened last week in Forever Falls.

Or rather, Bart supposed it should be the other way around, that it was the incident in Forever Falls that had been only vaguely comparable to what is detailed within the book he held.

And considering just how many Grimm – mercifully no truly powerful ones – had flooded the forest and how well they'd been able to catch off guard all of the students, Bart felt that spoke volumes of the sort of numbers and terrifying intellect that the dark beasts had demonstrated in the events he was reading about.

And it was at this moment that he read this book again in hopes of some kind of answer, one that would explain why the Grimm had behaved in such a way now of all times.

Bart and other full-fledged hunters were no fools; they were more than privy to the sort of surprises the Grimm could pull off, unlike the students who'd been most ill-prepared for the conflict last week. Still, even then what the Grimm had done last week was truly unusual even to him and others in the know.

There was still so very much about the Grimm that the rest of the world could only guess at. Even Bart himself, for all of his intelligence, could only scarcely fathom what else the dark creatures could do if they really tried.

Frankly, it was a genuine miracle that no students had been critically injured during the incident and an even greater miracle that no one had died. But had much larger and more dangerous Grimm been around such as a Deathstalker or a Nevermore, Bart was certain that casualties would've been unavoidable if they'd been around and had been acting in a similarly surprising manner.

However, that all being said, there was one thing about this incident that didn't seem to be matching up with what was recorded in this book.

In all of the previous events this book was written about, the Grimm, for all of their numbers and terrifying cunning, had still followed the simple task of killing as many people as possible. They may have used surprising tactics and measured levels of sheer brute force to accomplish this, but at the end of the day, each event had been fairly predictable in terms of how things were carried out.

But in this Forever Falls incident, that wasn't quite the case; according to many of the students, many Grimm had outright passed them up to travel elsewhere in the red forest. Despite how many Grimm the students had to face off against, when compared to the overall number of Grimm that had been running rampant, it was almost as if the students had been mere afterthoughts in the grand scheme of things.

Something else had been the waves of the dark beasts' goal… but just what exactly could it have been? What could have possibly been so great a thing as to have armies worth of Grimm ignore far closer and presumably far easier targets?

Such a question was enough to make the green haired professor grit his teeth slowly in frustration. Such a thing had never occurred at all in the history recorded in this book and it was really beginning to eat away at him.

The incidents in the past where absolutely massive amounts of intelligent Grimm have appeared had been anomalies in and of themselves, impossible to truly explain and now it looked like this most recent event was going to be perhaps be an even bigger anomaly than those.

And that didn't sit well with Bart at all. Information was as vital to hunters as aura and semblances and skill were. Information could change the tide of any battle as easily as flipping a coin. To have so little – or rather more like none at all – on this series of incidents was extremely worrying.

For while there was no telling when such an oddity could occur, Bart could only fear that it'll be happening again far too soon.

She awakened slowly, almost groggily, coming out of a most pleasant dream, one of death and destruction of all mankind.

In her dream, screams had filled the air and carried across the land with the wind, the streets and buildings and walls of the kingdoms painted a deep red from blood.

Truly, a most pleasant dream she'd had and one she'd been experiencing for a quite some time now as she'd slept for weeks on end.

She'd have slept on for longer, content to let things play out until her little pawns finally completed the opening move, but alas she'd been awoken when the memories of her foot soldiers finally ebbed their way into her subconscious.

And as she mentally viewed what her fallen kin had seen, their ends brought about by the blond and blind young man who still pretended to be 'like the rest,' she couldn't help but sneer in glee.

Soon enough, it'll be time to begin the 'calamity' again.

Read this a few times over, hope it doesn't say anything unnecessary… because I really want to avoid giving away too much early on. At any rate, even if that does end up being the sad case, it'll still be a long string of surprises for you all once I get around to the reveals of this story.

Heh heh, not much else to say really other than that I will try, as always, to be a little bit speedier when it comes to updates.

Until next time, everyone! Take care!