Ruby panted as she rushed down the street followed closely by her new friend.
"Ruby wait!" she called.
"Can't miss it. Can't miss it." Ruby intoned as she dashed the final few feet. She flew through the door and tumbled into the front desk.
"Is it here?" she asked as she pulled herself up.
"Yep. You're the first one here." the man behind the desk said as he handed her prize to her.
"Ruby what is it?" her friend asked as she finally caught up to her.
"Its the new chapter of Jaune Arc's Bizarre Adventure. It's finally here!" Ruby squealed in delight.
/==========================================================================================================/
"Finally it's over." Jaune exclaimed as the hunters exited their first Grimm Studies class of the semester, happy to distance themselves from their professor Peter Port as he started packing his teaching tools and began preparation for his next class or whatever else the teachers at Beacon did when hey weren't teaching or supervising activities.
He sighed, his first class at Beacon had started off promising, that was until his teacher opened his mouth. First he tried to make a joke in a vain attempt to break any tension while making him seem more accessible and friendly towards the students. When it became obvious that he failed he quickly moved on and gave the class a brief introduction to himself and skimmed over his many, many accomplishments, which in hind sight should have been everyone's first clue to their teacher's apparently narcissistic and self-absorbed nature, but considering that he was a certified professor teaching Grimm Studies at one of the four top huntsmen training institutions in the world it was quite possible that he had actually accomplished several of the feats he had claimed to have done when he was about their age.
That was before he started a long lecture, no that was the wrong word, tall-tale would be more appropriate given that the professor had spent the first hour telling them about how he had tracked a pack of Boarbatusks across a dark forest sometime after midnight, lured them to a gully before he claimed to have diverted part of a nearby river to flood said gully using nothing more than his trusty blunderbuss-axe, physical strength and willpower before setting out to strangle the survivors with his bare hands. Jaune had stopped paying attention sometime when his teacher started imitating how he strangled the third Grimm to survive the man made flash flood and instead decided to keep himself busy by experimenting with his stand's ability to manipulate time hopping it could speed up time as well as slow it down only to find out to his distinct displeasure that it could only slow time, not make it move faster like he had then wanted leaving him to suffer though the boredom of listening to Peter prattle on about his past.
After concluding his experimentation with his abilities and discovering he still had about an hour left of class he considered drifting off to his private realm to ask Dio about the arrow but ultimately decided against it. Not only because it would be extremely rude to 'leave' and deal with his own personal problems while the professor was dedicating a couple hours to try and teach them important lessons -key word being trying- but because he didn't want to be called to answer some question he and currently half the class probably wasn't paying attention to, a mistake he did not want to make again, besides he guessed he still had at least a few hours until Nora decided to ambush him somewhere so their was no need to rush.
Finally the class concluded with a very one-sided fight between Nora and a single Boarbatusk that Peter kept caged in the corner of the room, in doing so she revealed a little more about her stand. Like the fight with the Nevermore the day before the bout ended far too quickly via a single strike of Nora's war hammer that the Boarbatusk should have easily been able to avoid or parry but didn't. With time slowed down to a near crawl and his vision focused entirely on Nora he saw the reason as to why, as her hammer started descending upon the Grimm's skull the metallic arm of her stand Electronic, materialized and reached out to grab the creature's snout, piercing it with the almost needle like protrusions and likely delivering a paralyzing electrical discharge before withdrawing leaving the Grimm to buckle under it's momentum before falling victim to Nora's hammer. Despite the slow momentum of time the stand seemed to move at lightning speeds, attacking and withdrawing in the time it took the beast to finish a single step, with speeds such as that it probably would be difficult to keep up with her should the worst come to pass.
"So what do we have next?" Nora asked, breaking Jaune's train of thought.
"I just hope whatever it is it's better than Grimm Studies." Jaune commented.
"I guess we shall find out." Pyrrha smiled.
/-/
"WHO!? WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!?" the woman known as professor Peach screamed at the crowd of students gathered around her.
Pangs of guilt passed through Jaune as he watched his teacher suffer from her very public breakdown, he couldn't help it as he was in some way responsible for this or so his conscience kept telling him. The reason she was so angry was because the classroom -her classroom- just so happened to be the same one that he had fought Yang in the day before and unintentionally destroyed, however she was currently more angry than he felt was justifiable for the demolition of her classroom.
"We should probably leave." Jaune whispered to his team trying to draw as little attention as possible to himself. Whether she lost something of importance to her or was simply venting her rage he did not want to be around long enough for her to come to her senses and possibly come to suspect him as being responsible.
"What do we do now?" Pyrrha asked once they had pushed their way out of the crowd.
"It seems as though we have a free period now we could look around and see what facilities Beacon has to offer." Ren pointed out.
"That's a grand idea. It would be better for us to discover what additional benefits and facilities Beacon academy has to offer us outside the standard curriculum before everyone else starts looking into them." Pyrrha said.
"You know what lets do that." Jaune agreed.
Without a classroom or a teacher calm enough to spend the period teaching them it freed up about two hours for the team to do whatever they wanted, time which he wanted to use to meet with Dio and get all the information he would need to satisfy or at the very least placate Nora. Unlike Yang Nora had a stand which could paralyze him should she get a single hit on him, but because it was apparently an electric based stand which could take down a giant Nevermore with a supercharged grenade he felt safe assuming that she would not even need to touch him to paralyze him meaning that any battles between him and her would be little more than a sudden death round with the victor being the one who could strike first. Now that he was going to spend a period wondering around the campus with his team he would need an excuse to separate himself from them so he could go meet with his mentor. That excuse came in the form of a bathroom break and a promise to meet with them in the cafeteria just before their lunch period began.
/-/
"Good day Dio." Jaune greeted his much loved mentor after he entered the private realm.
Dio greeted him with a sly smile. "Jaune, what brings you to see me today?"
"I am in need of your help." Jaune told him rather bluntly, time was currently not on his side for it moved differently in the private realm when compared to the real world, every moment he spent with Dio would take about one or two minutes of time in the real world. And while variation and exemptions did of course apply those tended to be few and far in between so he couldn't waste any time entertaining Dio with pleasantries.
"Oh? And what can I, Dio, do to help you Jaune?" Dio said, apparently catching onto his dilemma.
Jaune sighed "Their is a girl I have recently met who can prove herself to be either an excellent ally or a devastating foe. In order to secure her allegiance I need information, information about the arrow."
"Hmm, I seem to recall already telling you about it." Dio said coyly.
"Yes. You told me about the known history of the arrow, but the knowledge I require at this time is how the arrow itself relates to the acquisition of stands and if their are more than one in the world at this time." Jaune said as he leaned foreword.
Dio smirked "Very well, listen well for this information shall not be repeated again."
"I am listening." Jaune spoke as he focused all his attention on Dio.
"As you know much of the arrows history is unknown to the people of this world either having been lost with the fall of the civilization that discovered and created them or to the cruel passage of time. However what is known is that they first appeared over fifty-thousand years ago with a meteorite that landed in the dark continent." Dio began.
"Yes. Then some people found it and made arrows out of it thinking they would get the power of god." Jaune interrupted.
"Correct. However what I have not told you was that these people had made multiple arrows and of those arrows currently six are known to exist in this world. I know this because a man named Diavolo stole them from the Vacuan desert and sold 5 of these arrows to my faithful servant Enya the hag who aided me in the discovery of the gifts they can bestow upon the worthy, however he decided to keep the sixth one for himself. Since then the arrows have become scattered and as a result their fate and current locations are currently unknown to me."
"So their are at least 6 arrows out there." Jaune mused "How exactly does getting pierced by the arrows relate to people getting stands?"
Dio frowned "That is a mystery that baffles even the geniuses of the mighty Speedwagon Foundation to this day. However what has been confirmed is that those pierced by the arrow will gain a stand should they be strong enough spiritually, it does not matter if they are a man, woman, child, elder or animal. In that regard it would be best to think of the arrows themselves as living organisms, instinctively drawn to the mighty for my servant Enya once claimed that the arrow sought me out and compelled her to use it to pierce my body."
"Huh." Jaune intoned "Is their anything else you can tell me?"
Dio paused to think for a moment before speaking "Their are two more confirmed facts about the arrow's ability to bestow stands upon those it pierces. The first being that such power can be gifted to later generations through the bloodline of the one who was pierced, such was the case with the Joestar bloodline. The second fact is that the arrows will continue to seek out the worthy for as long as the insect carving on the head of the arrow remains intact."
"Interesting." Jaune mused as Dio concluded his lesson, it had -just as he had expected it to- given him all the answers he needed in order to deal with Nora and raised several interesting points to think about in the future.
"Before I leave I am wondering if you wouldn't mind answering a few more questions for me?" Jaune asked.
/-/
"So you skipped class as well huh?" his nemesis casually commented as she took a seat diagonal to him.
"Yeah, I mean how could we have class when the classroom itself had been destroyed and the teacher was having a breakdown?" he said hopping his posture or face didn't give anything away.
"I mean, who? Who would do that?" Weiss asked.
"A disgruntled student maybe?" Pyrrha suggested from next to him.
"Someone with a bad temper?" Ruby called out from across him.
"Someone with a score to settle." Nora intoned trying to be as dramatic as possible.
'Definitely all of those.' Jaune thought as nervousness started shimmying its way through him.
"This is unacceptable!" Weiss barked "We are students at Beacon academy, one of the most prestigious huntsmen academies in all of Remnant. We shouldn't have to suffer because of one person's negligence or vendetta."
"Uhh?" Jaune began.
"Don't mind her she's just mad that she doesn't have another professor to suck up to." Blake pointed out with a smile.
'Yeah that sounds like her.' a voice in the back of Jaune's head spoke as Weiss gawked at her team mate.
"Soooo. What did you do when you left the classroom." Ruby asked, subtly trying to change the conversation.
"We just explored the campus you?"
"Lucky you." Yang said with enough sarcasm to choke on.
"Weiss made us stay for almost forty five minutes to see if either the teacher would calm down or someone else would tell us that we are having her class somewhere else." Ruby started.
"Then when we received no instructions snow flake practically dragged us to the administrations office to demand answers." Yang practically growled.
"I did not 'drag' you, you simply followed me of your own volition to the administration's office." Weiss pointedly said.
"Keep telling yourself that." Jaune heard Blake whisper.
"Then when they didn't have the answers she wanted she 'insisted'-" Yang emphasized by flexing two fingers on each hand "-that we go to the headmaster about it."
"How did that go?" Nora asked.
"About as well as you would expect." Blake answered.
"He assured us that the situation would be dealt with appropriately." Weiss interrupted.
"He thanked us for informing him then told us to leave." Ruby said.
"He did not tell us to simply 'leave'." Weiss snapped.
"Fine, he 'ushered' us out. Better?" Ruby sarcastically intoned.
"I suppose." Weiss conceded.
"But it makes you wonder who is responsible." Pyrrha pointed out.
"The good professor did start promising bloody vengeance as we left." Blake said.
"Oooh, someone's going to be in deep trouble." Nora replied with an evil smile.
"Yeah, that poor person." Yang said clearly trying not to give anything away as she glared at him.
"Oh I am sure everyone responsible will be punished." he gentry retorted.
Jaune smiled as Yang frowned at him, despite her brutish nature she knew exactly what kind of situation she was in, it was a kind of mutually ensured destruction in that if anyone were to find out that they were responsible for demolishing Peach's classroom they would both suffer from Peach's punishment on top of whatever the administration would subject them to. He could only confidently smirk with as she focused her gaze on him, not only did she need to figure out how to throw him under the proverbial bus, but she also had to figure out how she was going to get off scoot free or at the very least with a lesser punishment for her role in the vandalism. Until then the only real threat he faced would be if someone else discovered the truth either through pure luck, negligence during their cover-up or through Ruby, but their was no way she was going to turn on them not when it carried the very real risk of loosing both her best friend and older sister via expulsion or worse. Although the look on her face oddly enough didn't reassure him at all once she realized the context of the silent conversation between him and Yang.
"So what class do we have next?" she asked, once again trying to change the conversation.
/-/
To his surprise he found himself back in the auditorium where headmaster Ozpin and his current teacher deputy headmistress Glynda Goodwitch had conducted the naming ceremony for the newly inducted teams the day before. As the hunters took their seats on the balcony he began to feel doubt creep into his mind and began wondering if they were in the right place, while the map and their schedule did tell them to be here at this time for combat class it was quite possible that the administration had made a mistake somewhere when placing the class as the auditorium itself looked more suitable for something akin to a theater class or a concert based on what he could see of it's design. His doubts however were quickly demolished when Glynda Goodwitch appeared on stage and gave them a frilly speech announcing how she would be supervising combat class as well as several other classes and activities designed to improve their combat abilities and effectiveness before explaining the rules of the tournament style combat they would be adhering to and calling for a volunteer to take part in the first match of the semester, when nobody did she scanned the audience for a conscript and ordered him to the arena almost as soon as she locked eyes with him.
He wanted to object to this but gave up as soon as he got a good look at his teacher's face, he didn't need to use his ability to accurate analyse facial expressions and body language to know she wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer as the look she gave him made it so blatantly obvious that he doubted even the dullest of students would misunderstand her intentions.
"Good luck." Nora called as he passed by his team.
"Kick some butt!" his best friend cheered.
'We have to fight him again?' a voice spoke as he passed a pair of bored looking medics loitering in one of the doorways.
"Uh, did you say something?" he asked one of them.
"No." the man's reply was short and to the point.
"Huh." 'Voices again, not good.' Jaune thought as he continued down the hallway.
As he entered the arena the ever familiar face of the boy known as Cardin Winchester smiled back at him, cocky and confident that he would achieve supreme victory over him. something about seeing Cardin's face made Jaune want to punch it, or at the very least throw a brick at him.
As he climbed onto the stage though he blinked in confusion as a very different sight greeted him, instead of Cardin there was a boy whose appearance Jaune could only describe as bizarre. He was slim and about average height with one of his most notable features being a lime-colored mohawk, he wore dark-grey pants, knee high boots, a very pale long sleeved shirt that for the most part seemed unnoticeable along under a green hoodie that was missing it's sleeves with a spiked shoulder pad on his left and only the left shoulder as well as a pair of bracers on his forearms with a bird design engraved onto them. In each hand he held a long bladed dagger with a slight curve each with a dust chamber augmentation where the guard would be. He stood with what Jaune assumed was a power stance with his feet parallel to his hips but pointing outward, one hand relaxing on his hip while the other was tense but straight as he let it hand in front of him he angled his chin upwards as though to look down upon Jaune despite being shorter than him with an expression of thuggish disgust on his face.
"Where's Cardin?" Jaune asked trying to make sense of what was going on while doing his best to keep his face as neutral as possible.
"What you think I am not good enough?" the boy demanded as he seemed to suddenly appear next to Jaune putting the tip of one of the knives to his neck.
"Russel Thrash volunteered to face you as soon as you had left Mr. Arc. He will be your opponent for today." his teacher clarified for him.
'A hallucination just before battle? This can't be good.' Jaune realized as Russel retreated several steps back.
"Aren't you lucky to be surrounded by such beautiful women." Russel jabbed.
"What about it?" Jaune questioned.
"Tch. I hate guys like you the most, you have it so easy when it comes to getting girls. You don't have to do anything and they practically fall into your arms while guys like me do everything we can and aren't given a second glance." Russel grunted.
"Oh really?" Jaune questioned.
"Of course I have picked up many hobbies such as ballroom dancing, gardening, whittling, knitting, acrobatics, playing the violin, and acting over the course my life all in an effort to charm women. All skills I am certain my great-grandfather, a powerful man named Okuyasu Nijimura could only wish he had when he was looking for a wife."
"Really?" Jaune asked, more in an effort to try to politely bring the conversation to a close than actual interest.
"Of course, having hobbies outside of killing Grimm is important for a huntsman's sanity, I just happen to have many hobbies which to fall back on. What do you have?" Russel challenged.
Holding back his temper Jaune smugly said "Much of what you will never understand." as he drew his blade and shield.
"Gentlemen if you are finished with the banter I would like to proceed with the match." their teacher interrupted.
Russel took a low stance, a hand behind his back as his other held the dagger down my his foot. "This won't be fun, and I won't hold back!"
'I should finish this quickly.' Jaune thought as he charged at Russel.
As he swung his sword at him Russel seemed to bend almost 90 degrees backwards in order to avoid the strike and like a bent branch launched forward with one of his main knives aiming for Jaune's face. In response Jaune brought his shield up quicker than he thought he could without slowing time, slamming the edge onto Russel's wrist causing him to let go of the blade.
'First knife.' Jaune thought as Russel swung at him with his second dagger. he smiled as he dodged what in the end was a lazy swing and knocked it away with his sword.
'Second knife.' Jaune happily thought as it landed with a thud embedding itself in the arena floor and swung his shield at his foe. As he recoiled Jaune charged forward eager to end the match, now that Russel was disarmed it would be easy to force him to surrender as per the tournament style rules that they were supposed to adhere to for these matches. As he did Russel twisted and flung himself backwards and something flashed in his vision. His fell backwards almost as if someone kicked him in the back of the knees while the momentum carried him forward.
'Third knife!?' he thought as it sailed harmlessly over him.
"Look what I found." Russel said after he cartwheeled backwards a couple times. He landed with a low slide and drew his hands out from behind him to unveil a half dozen daggers between them.
'Oh this is bad.' Jaune realized.
Pushing off the ground into one heavy front flip, he let loose a long volley of knives, one pinning Jaune's foot to the floor through his shoe, the rest tearing through his pants and anchoring him to the floor.
"Huh?" he yelled out as Russel flipped to the side and unleashed another volley at him, as he swung his shield to protect himself he found it pulled to the ground as the knives, each one connected by what had become a net of wires, effectively pinning his shield to the floor.
"What?" Jaune yelled out.
"This is the end Jaune." Russel yelled out as he leaped several feet into the air launching a final barrage of knives "This is my victory."
"Shit!" Jaune swore as he swung his sword knocking away a couple knives but failing to stop the rest as they sliced at his arm and body.
"No matter I can do this all day." Russel announced as more knives flew towards him.
Forcing time to slow down he swung his blade in wide arcs deflecting the majority of the knives Russel threw at him while the rest landed harmlessly around him.
"That attack won't work twice." Jaune barked.
"Who said it was the same attack?" Russel smiled. As a slight confusion gripped him the arena seemed to detonate in a blaze of metal fragments and light.
"Those knives were filled with red dust and primed to explode after about three seconds so in the end it did not matter if you could deflect them or not." Russel proudly spoke.
"Oh, that's, actually a nice trick." Jaune managed as he forced himself to his feet.
"Wow, you actually took all that reasonably well, I'm impressed. Although you did leave your shield behind" Russel almost mocked as he pointed to Jaune's shield still pinned by a net of wires to the floor.
"Who said I needed my shield to beat you?" Jaune had to ask.
"My good friend Knife Party." Russel barked as a barrage of knives flew towards him.
Forcing time to slow down he focused his vision on the knives coming towards him, while his knowledge of knives was limited to their use in the kitchen he could easily see which one contained an explosive charge via a packaged charge in the only knife with a handle consisting of a metal loop. He allowed the mundane knives to pass by as he maneuvered to grab the last one.
"I believe this is yours." Jaune yelled as he prepared to throw the explosive knife back at it's owner. He was interrupted when he felt something sharp slash into the back of his knee causing him to scream out in pain and fall onto that knee right before the knife he held exploded in his hand.
"You keep it I have many knives." Russel said as he caught a knife that was bizarrely enough shaped like a boomerang.
"Huh? What's going on?" Jaune asked as his vision blurred and his body started to stiffen.
"Oh did I not tell you? That knife had more than red dust in it, their was also some insecticide, quite toxic to humans I'm afraid. It causes symptoms like headache, fatigue, nausea, cramping, blurred vision and vomiting to those who ingest it, but don't worry it won't kill you in the dose I gave you but you will probably be spending the rest of the day in the infirmary."
"You bastard." Jaune managed before his stomach turned against him.
Clutching his sword to his chest as Russel walked around him, a new pair of daggers practically phasing in his hands. "I wonder, do you plan to turn this around still?" Russel asked as a smile starts to form on his face. Jaune coughed up a bit of blood, and was hardly able to get out a gasp as Russel threw a couple knives into the air, each landing on either side of Jaune's head.
"These are my singing sirens" Russel said as a harmonic vibration started to emanate from the daggers. The frequencies emanating from them threw Jaune's mind through circles, dazing and disorienting him greatly. "My singing sirens are specially tuned and crafted knives that take the air that passes through them and in turn emanate a frequency that is known to mess with the inner ear of humans and faunus alike, on it's own it causes whomever is next to them to loose any sense of balance but combined with my insecticide I very much doubt that you would be able to stand up let alone fight anymore Jaune, pity you were almost worth the effort." Russel intoned as picked up and lazily tossed one of his primary weapons into the air in an arc towards him.
"MUDA!" Jaune roared as the arm of his stand materialized and knocked Russel's dagger back towards him at surprising speed.
"What the-?" Russel started as he barely managed to block his own dagger but was interrupted as the ground underneath Jaune seemed to explode sending him flying towards Russel.
"MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! " Jaune roared as he wailed on Russel with his sword.
"So sloppy." Russel mocked as he blocked and deflected almost every strike before a ghostly arm grabbed Russel by the wrist. A simple "Huh?" was all the boy managed to get out before he felt his wrist twist in an unnatural angle. As he screamed in pain as he felt another fist collide with his face knocking him back at least a dozen meters landing him right next to the arena's edge.
'Now I begin my counter attack.' Jaune thought as he bent he angled his bent knees toward the crowd, twisted his upper body to face Russel and held his sword close to chest with both hands. Whatever Russel was going to do next Jaune would be ready to either block or dodge in any direction.
"You think you're so clever don't you?" Russel growled as he clutched his wrist. While it wasn't broken Russel would have a harder time using it now that Jaune had twisted it at an odd angle with plenty of force behind it.
"I do yes." Jaune mocked, his aura was working overtime to remove the toxins and alleviate the symptoms that came from Russel's insecticide and the bizarre knives that emanated that messed with his sense of balance.
"I guess I have to get serious." Russel smiled as he pulled out new knives and started throwing them into the air as he charged forward.
Jaune swung his sword aiming low as soon as Russel came into range and willed time to slow down as Russel flipped over it. He swung again aiming for the chest forcing Russel to block or take damage and smiled as he did, in response Jaune threw his fist foreword, now that Russel's wrist was injured he wouldn't be able to properly block his attack and even if he did he would still take a sizable amount of damage from the amount of force he and his stand were putting into this attack.
"MUDA!" he yelled as his fist connected, 'I got you.' he thought before pain exploded through his hand. 'WHAT!?' he internally screamed as he looked at his hand, it was injured, the kind of injury he would expect if he punched the sharp and pointy ends of at a dozen knives at once at a slightly odd angle, such an injury shouldn't have been possible not only because Russel failed to block his fist but also because their was nothing sharp or pointy on the spot he hit that could slice through aura like that unless-
Jaune focused his vision on Russel as he landed almost perfectly on his feet. He was indeed hurt with his posture being somewhat hunched from taking a powerful blow to his flank, he was breathing heavily with obvious signs that he was in pain, but most tellingly their was a trail of blood leaking down the side of his mouth a clear indication that he took far more damage than he should have. Since Glynda had not called the match yet that meant Russel still had enough aura and as such should have been able to cushion the blow relatively safely. As Russel began to move again that he willed time to slow further and rushed to quickly close the distance, in a panic Russel gasped and quickly but not so accurately tossed a handful of knives.
"So that's your stand." Jaune said as he kneed Russel in the stomach, the boy flew back a couple meters and did a backwards roll onto his feet.
"Cat's out of the bag huh, not like I was trying to hide Knife Party anyway." Russel said as he held onto his stomach with both arms.
/=======================================================================/
Stand name: Knife Party
Destructive power; ?
Speed; ?
Range; ?
Durability/staying; ?
Precision; ?
Development potential/Learning; ?
User: Russel Thrash
Abilities: Unknown
/=======================================================================/
Jaune charged again and this time Russel's stand fully materialized in front of him. It was ugly in appearance being grey in coloration and decorated with multiple spikes protruding across it's whole body practically ensuring that no matter where Jaune punched it from he would still take damage, however it seemed limited in it's range as it didn't go further than arms length from Russel. As Jaune closed the distance he it reach into one of Russel's pockets and pull out what appeared to be a small casing with a wick on the end and shove it into a hollow bladed throwing knife that was falling from a compartment in it's forearms into Russel's hand.
"MUDA!" Jaune roared as he knocked it away with his sword and roared again as he punched Russel under the jaw with his already damaged hand, he groaned in pain as Russel flew into the air and thoughts of murder and bloody retribution sneaked into his mind.
"I am not done yet." Russel announced as he threw a knife with a thin cord attached to it to the floor.
"Checkmate." Jaune yelled as he grabbed onto the knife and pulled on it with all his strength.
"Idiot, you fell for it." Russel yelled as he pulled a taser from his pocket and jabbed it into the cord sending bolts of electricity through Jaune's body right before Russel slammed into him dagger first.
"The best violin strings consist of a steel core and as such make for good conductors of electricity, since you don't play the violin like I do I doubt that you would have know that." Russel boasted as he threw several boomerang knives with cables attached to them in a wide arc.
"Damn you." Jaune growled as he tried to will his muscles into action.
"You're not going anywhere." Russel said as he closed the distance and struck Jaune with both Knife Party and his dagger both slashing a good chunk of aura away from him.
He screamed in pain as deep cuts emerged on both his body and armor. 'I am going to murder him!' his mind screamed out practically drowning out everything else as the boomerang knives surrounded and effectively tied him to the floor.
"I told you it was my victory Jaune." Russel proudly boasted before pinning one of the cables with his foot, making Jaune even angrier "You just were too stupid to realize it." he intoned as a barrage of explosive knives and a current of electricity surged toward Jaune. He shielded his face as the shock wave, smoke and shrapnel flew from where Jaune was and briefly covered the arena "And like that I win." Russel said to nobody in particular as he turned to leave.
As he did he stiffened as felt something strange, something frightening behind him, he turned around quickly to see Jaune standing at an angle, one foot facing him, the other facing almost 90 degrees to the right, he had a bizarrely relaxed pose as he held his legs together, one hand on his hip, the other hanging by his side and managing to lean back slightly with the most smug smile he had ever seen on his face.
"I suppose I have to give you some credit." Jaune, no, not Jaune said as he sarcastically clapped his hands twice.
"WHAT! HOW?" Russel yelled "You were tied up! Steel cables have a tensile strength of forty-thousand pounds per square inch, its impossible for people to break out of that and dodge all my explosive knives at once!"
"You imbecile." Jaune spoke his tone practically silencing Russel "Did you think for a moment you could stand up to me? Nothing awaits you now but a mongrel's death! Now let's give them a show!" Jaune said arms wide.
"Gladly!" Russel yelled as he tossed more daggers into the air each landing around Jaune trapping him in a wire net, followed by strange curved blades that seemed to resemble saw blades in flight and hovered around both him and Jaune. "These knives are my most aerodynamic ones yet, and will continue to circle around us until they run out of momentum, while you may be able to get out of my net unscathed I am curious as to ho-"
Russel fell to the floor, bloody, beaten, many bones in his body broken and bruises starting to form across him, he gasped for air as the pain started overwhelming him and his body started convulsing. 'How?' was all he could think when he saw that his aerodynamic blades, both meant to contain Jaune and protect him while he thought of a new plan were still circling around both where Jaune and he should have been although Jaune was now standing next to his swarm and looking at him the same way one would look down upon a hated mongrel. Fear gripped Russel's heart as the medics sprung into action lifting him onto a stretcher and taking him to the infirmary, he gagged and coughed on the way there eventually succumbing to this injuries along the way.
/===Russel Thrash temporarily retired===/
From the crowd Blake could only stare wide eyed in horror as Jaune smirked one last time before blinking and looked around confused as though he fell asleep in one place and woke up in a completely different one. Her body had frozen completely when she saw him change all her primal instincts screaming out in absolute fear as it became obvious what frightened her so much the first time she laid eyed upon him.
"What just happened?" Yang asked.
"It's like he was a completely different person just now." Ren answered.
"Was he always like that?" Nora nervously shifted from beside him.
"No whatever it was it clearly wasn't Jaune." Pyrrha said.
"Look how confused he is right now. Whatever that was is clearly something he is not consciously aware of." Wiess spoke.
"You mean like a split personality or something?" Ruby asked.
"Well whatever that was lets hope that's the worst thing we will have to deal with." Yang said as she got up to leave.
/-/
"After you." the boy smiled and bowed sarcastically as he opened the door for Roman Torchwich and his partner Neopolitan.
"Gee thanks." Roman intoned as he strode through the door.
"What does she want now?" He asked to nobody in particular as the door closed behind him.
Their was barely any light in the hallway as he proceeded, this was no doubt meant to try and unnerve him before he met her and while he was used to simple intimidation tactics as he often employed them when diplomacy failed what was bizarre about this situation was that she was meeting him here. This warehouse belonged to one of his rivals in the underworld a man calling himself 'Hammer' which he both knew and to some degree respected despite their mutual animosity towards each other. He was a man known for fighting till the bitter end for any advantage no matter the odds which both helped him earn a solid reputation in the underworld and put him in his current seat of power as 'manager' of the docks both legal and illegal activates.
He couldn't help but smile as for the first time in their shared history he didn't need to bring a small mob of hired thugs along with Neo to a meeting with 'Hammer', although having that woman there was no doubt going to complicate things. Should things get complicated was certain he could rely on his partner Neo to get him out of it, after all he had yet to meet anyone who couldn't be fooled by her powers.
As he opened the door at the end of the hallway he couldn't help but frown when he saw her, his 'employer' -as she so eloquently labelled herself- Cinder Fall as she turned to greet him she smiled, not a warm or friendly smile, the kind of smile you would make when your cute puppy came to lick your feet.
"Roman how good of you to come." she said with faux friendliness.
"Well considering your pests out front 'insisted' I figured that it was the least I can do." Roman retorted "Now what do you want?"
She smirked, then giggled as though she had been told a funny joke in polite company "Oh are you so eager to get rid of me?"
'YES!' was what he wanted to scream at her, but fought against it. "I have things to do, every moment I spend here is a moment I could be planning and executing the jobs you 'asked' me to do." he said instead.
The way she smiled made him nervous, it was friendly, too friendly. It looked more like a smile you would give your best friend when he delivered on a promise, the way his lover would smile when she got something nice from him or even the way Neo would smile before she started toying with her next 'plaything'. Cinder always smiled like that before she made some kind of demand from him.
"Roman it's precisely because of your duties to me that I have called you here. I am certain that you are familiar with 'Hammer'?" she smirked as the man in question, beaten, tied and bloody gagged something from his chair.
"What the hell?" Roman asked.
"You see Roman 'Hammer' failed to deliver what I asked him for and had the gall to ask me for more despite my already abundant generosity towards him." Cinder started as she placed a hand on the man's shoulder making him squirm and flinch "This is where you come in." she said as she sauntered towards him, pulling his cigar from his mouth as she did "Since 'Hammer' failed to give me what I asked of him I need someone else to do it for me." she said as she sauntered back to the man stuffing Roman's cigar in his mouth.
"Let me guess you want me to take over for him." Roman said.
"Correct Roman. I expect you to deliver to me results where 'Hammer' had failed. And should you fail well." she paused.
To Roman's horror 'Hammer's' eyes bulged outward and he started bloating, Cinder backed away as he expanded and eventually exploded outward leaving nothing but steam and ash behind.
"I do believe actions speak louder than words." Cinder said as she sauntered away leaving a fearful Roman to try and process what just happened.
/=======================================================================/
Stand name: Knife Party
Destructive power; C
Speed; B
Range; E
Durability/staying; C
Precision; A
Development potential/Learning; A
User: Russel Thrush
Abilities: Knife Party can materialize an unlimited amount of knives and place them in the hands of it's master. It can materialize as many as is needed in the moment. These knives can be dispelled at will. While materialized they can be detected and used by others, including non-stand users.
/=======================================================================/
Ruby fell into a kneeling position as she finished the chapter.
"Ruby what's wrong?" her friend asked.
"I finished the chapter." she said. "Now I have to wait a while for the next one to come out."
AN: special thanks to my friend who helped me finally get this chapter done. Sorry for the long wait everyone.