"...And that's my speech in full." Weiss finished to a somewhat drooping audience, composed of SABR and RYNN. The small group was sitting in SABR's dorm as it had far more space thanks to their bunk bed arrangement.
Weiss patted her stack of papers against a improvised speaker's platform, which had been made from a pair of studying desk, to make some noise and wake up the 'audience'. "So… you're welcome to clap now."
Yang waved her hands around in the air sleepily and managed to hit them together few times to make a sound that perhaps the most generous person in the world could call a clap.
"It was… very entertaining." Pyrrha managed to get out through a forced smile, although she couldn't quite stop herself from letting her eyelids droop slightly. "I… Haaaaahhh… I'm sure the people of Vale will find it very interesting." she continued while trying and failing to hold back a yawn.
Weiss sent a somewhat desperate look at Jaune and Ruby as Nora and Ren seemed to have fallen asleep, and Blake was entertaining herself by reading her book in Jaune's bed and whispering some of the scenes to furiously blushing blonde boy while Pyrrha tried to look like she wasn't listening, although she was leaning slightly against Jaune's shoulder with a somewhat sleepy expression in her face.
Ruby took the cue and hopped up from her seat beside now-sleeping and loudly snoring Yang to clap her hands together enthusiastically.
"Well, I thought it was interesting." Ruby said, although the fact she was wobbling slightly made her words slightly suspect.
"Thank you, thank you… No, please, this is too much." Weiss's words dripped sarcasm. "Anyway, the show is tomorrow, and I'd like for us to be ready for it. I'll assume that you all will be attending as well, right?"
"Yes, of course." Pyrrha told Weiss as she seemed to wake up more and more as Weiss's droning speech had ended. "It's the least we can do to help you."
"Thank you." Weiss nodded gratefully to Pyrrha and spared her a rare smile. "Now, I got a message from Glynda Goodwitch saying that she reserved the stage for us after the Atlesian products demo ends, so there shouldn't be any problems on that end, even if I had to pay a sum of Lien to get the stage time since miss Goodwitch wasn't willing to cover the entire cost."
"Speaking of which, how is your financial situation now that you're um…" Pyrrha started, but seemed to struggle to find appropriately polite word to describe Weiss's situation.
"...Now that I am no longer a official member of the Schnee company?" Weiss filled Pyrrha's sentence with a sigh. "My Schnee account is frozen, and all Lien has been pulled from it since it is technically part of Schnee company's property and I am no longer directly associated with them. However my private savings have not been touched. My father could have emptied them as well out of spite, had I not been in Beacon and therefore been recognized as an adult and thus being a completely independent person in the eyes of law."
"Huh?" Ruby tilted her head at Weiss. "Your dad could have emptied your private account?"
"Atlesian banks allow both mothers and fathers to access all bank accounts owned by their children until the children are recognized as independent adults by either emancipation or the children becoming eighteen years old." Weiss lifted her eyebrow at Ruby. "Becoming a student of Beacon means you are recognized as an independent adult for all legal purposes, or did you not look at that part of the papers when you applied into Beacon?"
"Uh… Headmaster Ozpin filled my papers, I just put my name on it…" Ruby confessed.
Weiss slapped her hand against her forehead so hard she might have given herself a concussion. "Ruby, we're going to have to talk about you signing official papers without reading through them…"
"Uh, sorry…" Ruby looked so sad that Weiss rolled her eyes and reached to pat Ruby's head reassuringly. Ruby seemed to cheer up from it, and she looked up with a puzzled expression in her face. "So um… technically, I'm an adult now, right?"
"Well… technically, yes, like we all are. But only technically!" Weiss gave Ruby a stern glare. "So no going off and drinking or doing something you shouldn't, am I understood?"
"Yes, ma'am." Ruby nodded seriously while striking a military salute, although Weiss sighed as she took in Ruby's completely unrepentant expression.
"Well… I guess the rest of the evening is free time, then?" Jaune asked as conversation died down. Yang snapped out of her nap as Ruby pulled Zwei from under Weiss's bed and put it on top of Yang's head, where the dog started to lick her temple. Blake traced the dog's movements warily from Jaune's bed and he could have sworn that she was expecting the dog to jump at her at any second or at slightest provocation.
'Not that she needs to worry about that…' Jaune thought as he looked up at Blake. '…That m҉ut́t pup would never get a chance to harm her, although I don't think Zwei is as aggressive as Blake thinks he is. I wonder if it's got to do with her being a cat faunus?'
"Ah, and I almost forgot. Jaune." Weiss turned towards the boy as Yang fought valiantly and lost completely against Zwei's adorable assault. "I need to speak to you about the upcoming demonstration, preferably alone, if you don't mind."
"I don't mind." Jaune said, although Blake lifted her eyebrow suspiciously at Weiss. He lifted himself carefully up from the floor in front of his bed, and helped Pyrrha stand up as well as she had been leaning against him.
"Let's talk in the kitchen." Weiss said as she grabbed Jaune's arm and led him out of the dorm.
.
..
...
"What's this about?" Jaune asked as Weiss stopped in dorm's small kitchen.
"I… well…" Weiss seemed a bit hesitant as she she was facing away from him. "It is slightly embarrassing, but…"
'Hold up, hold up, is she going to…' Jaune reared back in his mind as he looked at the ex-heiress who had a slight blush creeping up her neck. 'But… but I haven't prepared myself, is she going to confe…'
"I sort of... forgot to ask if you were okay with showing your Grimm form in front of entiere Vale and potentially entire Remnant." Weiss turned to face him and she had a slight blush on her cheeks.
'Oh. Figures.' Jaune wasn't sure if he was feeling relieved or slightly disappointed. His head told him that he should be relieved, but the incessant buzzing in the back of his head told him to be disappointed. "Ah… Well, I'm..."
"I apologize, but we must do this, and I am willing to do what's necessary to make this happen- I need to do this. I need to regain what I lost. I'm willing to do anything to make it happen." Weiss's eyes were determined as she looked at him and her hands seemed to shake a bit as she grabbed his hand in hers. "Can I trust you to help me here?"
"Um… Yes, of course. I'll do it. That's what friends and teammates are for, right?" Jaune told Weiss honestly, although he got sort of confused as the reply caused the white-haired girl to sigh in clear disappointment and let go of his hands. 'Was she expecting that I'd refuse? Or ask something in return?' "I mean, I'll try to do it, if it helps you clear your reputation… I just haven't done that in front of so many people before."
"Are you saying that you might lose your self-control in front of the crowd?" Weiss narrowed her eyes. "I… I suspected that it might pose a problem, but…"
"I'll do my best to stop that from happening, but you might need to keep the event brief." Jaune said seriously. "I… I may not be entirely in control during it, but I'll do my best to keep myself in line."
"Hm… I see. I'm just thinking aloud, but would a cage work to contain you?" Weiss asked. "I mean, if we locked you into a cage, and I showed that you were 'tame' by entering it? That way if something happened you'd be contained?"
"Eh… Maybe? Actually, that might be good." Jaune confirmed. 'And since the Shadow seems to accept Weiss somehow, I guess that would be alright? I doubt it would attack her anyway…' "Just… make it spacey. I was locked into a small, encased cage and starved before Beacon, so doing that again might cause some bad memories to pop up."
Before she managed to say anything they both heard someone knocking the door of their dorm-wing.
Weiss lifted her eyebrow at Jaune. He shrugged, and walked towards the door.
He opened it carefully, and saw a tanned, green-haired girl standing in the hallway.
"Hello?" He greeted the girl carefully and she blinked once before bowing slightly.
"Greetings. I am…"
"Good evening, Emerald." Weiss popped in front of Jaune and promptly drove him out of the doorway with enough force to almost knock him over. "How are you?"
"I am well, and so is the rest of my team... However, I was concerned about your health so I decided to come to visit." Emerald said. "Am I… interrupting something?" She added carefully as she looked past Weiss at Jaune who had barely regained his balance.
"No, no. Everything is fine." Weiss waved Emerald's concerns off. "Please come inside. Jaune, brew tea for her."
"Who is she?" Jaune asked as he pulled Weiss aside while Emerald walked into the dorm's kitchen and sat in front of the table.
"She's Emerald Sustrai, one of the new transfer students." Weiss whispered to him. "We met before, and I had scheduled team training with her team… which had to be cancelled because you and Blake wanted to chase criminals."
"Oh."
"Just… be on your best behaviour, okay?" Weiss asked while sending a glare at him, and he nodded somewhat nervously.
"So, what brings you here?" Weiss asked Emerald as she walked into the kitchen as well and sat down opposite to the girl, and Jaune started to work on brewing tea for the two girls.
"I was worried about you, Weiss." Emerald confessed. "I read that horrible article about you, and I was so worried that something had happened to you."
"Ah… Thank you." Weiss smiled at the girl. "I assure everything is alright…"
'Odd…' Jaune thought as he poured water into a electric kettle. 'These emotions…'
He had started to passively sense emotions as part of his self-training to make a sort-of radar that detects humans around him, and he had found out that humans tended to feel emotions when they spoke… but oddly enough, the feelings Emerald radiated were different from what her words should have caused her to radiate.
'I wonder if she's same as Penny? She radiated odd emotions as well… although it feels like Emerald is feeling regular emotions, just not the ones that match her words…' Jaune thought, but a dull spike of pain distracted him from his musings. "Ow?"
"Jaune? Is everything alright?" Weiss turned towards him as he was waving his hand wildly.
"Ah, it's nothing, I just burned myself on the steam." Jaune explained as he had accidentally kept his hand on top of the kettle's steam vent while in his thoughts. 'Figures that my pain resistance would let me know about the heat only after I've gotten myself burned properly… Being too resistant to pain is both a gift and a curse.'
"Very well. Anyway, as I was saying, I am doing a reveal event where I um… tell the people of Vale about my breakthrough in ability to control Grimm." Weiss turned back towards Emerald.
"So it was true then? What the article said, I mean?" Emerald asked quietly.
"Well… not exactly true, but it wasn't entirely false either." Weiss confessed and Jaune blinked in confusion in the background. "I have developed a way of controlling the Grimm, but the article just jumped to conclusions and slandered my reputation."
'Huh? Now even Weiss has started to radiate those conflicting emotions.' Jaune sighed as he pushed mentally against the scuttling mess in back of his head to suppress his sort-of sixth sense. 'I need to try to find out what keeps doing that… I wonder if the accuracy of the sensing starts to degrade if I keep it on for long periods of time?'
"Interesting. When are you planning on revealing the ability?" Emerald asked curiously.
"Tomorrow evening. Atlas is doing a public display with their newest line of robots, and I intend to use the chance to display my theory in practise there to both clear my reputation and bolster the morale of the people." Weiss replied while taking a cup that Jaune offered her, and Jaune placed a platter full of waffles and cookies on the table after offering a cup of tea to Emerald. It was was a risky move to open one of the many cookie jars, but it wasn't exactly healthy for Ruby to eat so much cookies anyway.
"Fascinating." Emerald said as she sipped her tea carefully. "I take it that mr. Arc is your one of your teammates?"
"How'd you know my surname?" Jaune asked curiously as he sat on the table as well, and Weiss promptly stomped on his feet. "Oh, sorry, nevermind. Yeah I'm Jaune Arc, I'm the A in team SABR. Nice to meet you."
"I'm Emerald Sustrai, E in team… eugh, team CEMN." Emerald sighed out the name of her team with no small amount of exasperation. Jaune lifted his eyebrow at her, and Emerald shrugged. "I just don't like the team name. 'Cement' is boring."
"Although it is far better than what the, hm, 'first iteration' of our team name was." She added after a moment of thought. "I sometimes wonder what the Headmaster was thinking. Perhaps he was tired?"
"Yeah, he's like that normally. He launched us off a cliff into Grimm-infested forest and told us to look each other in the eyes to form partners and fetch him chess pieces to form teams." Jaune told Emerald.
The girl blinked few times in confusion. "He did what?"
"Anyway, weren't you from Mistral?" Weiss not-so-subtly elbowed Jaune to the ribs while smiling at Emerald. "We have one student from Mistral in our dorm as well, although she didn't attend Haven Academy."
"Oh? I wasn't aware that there were other students from Mistral in here." Emerald seemed thoughtful. "But yeah, I am from Mistral, as is the rest of our team. We transferred from Haven to here as part of a Remnant-wide cross-training directive."
"Nice. By the way, I met Cinder before. She's your team leader, right?." Jaune asked. "She seemed like a helpful and earnest person, and I'd like to meet her again to thank her for her help."
"I… I see. I'll let her know." Emerald's smile became slightly fragile for some reason, and her eyes flashed dangerously. "Anyway, the event is after school hours, right?" she said as she turned towards Weiss.
"Yes, and I'd be honored to have you there." Weiss smiled politely.
"I'll be sure to attend." Emerald nodded politely to Weiss, although she sent an evil eye at Jaune for some reason. "Anyway, I need to be going. It was good to find out that you were alright amidst all this chaos."
She lifted herself up from the kitchen table, as did Jaune and Weiss.
"See you tomorrow?" Emerald bowed politely at Weiss, and Weiss nodded back.
.
..
...
"So… She's your friend?" Jaune asked Weiss after Emerald had left the dorm, and the white-haired girl turned towards him.
"Yes."
"She seemed… odd." Jaune told her and Weiss lifted her eyebrow at him. "It was… well... "
"Go on?" Weiss prodded.
"Actually, nevermind. It must be just my imagination." Jaune rubbed the back of his head. "I just thought that something was off with her. Kind of like with that Penny girl, but not exactly."
"I would disagree. Emerald seems to be completely normal and earnest student, unlike that… girl… who barged into our dorm yesterday." Weiss sent a small glare at Jaune, which caused him to drop the issue. "Anyway, you need to get enough rest if we are going to put you on a pedestal tomorrow. I'll ask Ruby and Blake to fetch enough materials for your transformation. You'll do it in Beacon, and we'll fly you to Vale in your Grimm form."
"Right." Jaune nodded while trying to ignore how his stomach started to do flips in preparation for the flight. "Did you decide what form I should take?"
"I was originally planning on having you take your Tyrant form…"
"My what?"
"The four-armed thingy, Ozpin told me that they had named it so and we're going to stick to it." Weiss crossed her arms. "Now, if I can continue, I had planned for you to take that, but Ozpin told me that it could be too dangerous. I figured that having a big and imposing creature under my 'command' I could assure the public that a victory against the Grimm could be possible, but I realize that in retrospect that having so big and imposing Grimm form in front of the crowd may not be a good idea, not to mention that it is fairly… unique… form."
"Agreed."
"Anyway, I thought about having you take your Knight shape, the tentacles and armor 'thing', since the public has seen it via the video that was taken of our fight in the docks, but I figured that since that form is so unique and outlandish the public may not believe that I've 'tamed' a real Grimm, rather they would believe that I've made a Grimm, which doesn't exactly paint me in a good light." Weiss told him. "I was thinking that if you took the shape of a Beowolf, like in Forever Fall, it would be more recognizable to the crowd as most people know what a Beowolf looks like."
"I see." Jaune thought about her words. "Wouldn't it make the people wonder what happened to er… my Knight form?"
"I guess, but I can just tell that it is not completely ready for public reveal just yet, and the docks incident was just me doing a test-run against a group of criminals. That way the public sees me controlling a regular Grimm, and I can tell that the Knight form is some sort of unique Grimm from faraway land, or something" Weiss turned to look out of the kitchen window. "I planned on blaming the Vale's press for making fake news from incomplete data, and discredit the article that caused the issue- They saw something and ran with it without doing proper investigation on the subject. If I play my cards right, I will get a written apology out of them"
"I guess so." Jaune shrugged. "Do you think you could regain your position as the heiress of your company with that?"
He immediately wished that he hadn't asked as Weiss's mood fell visibly although she did her best to maintain her usual composure.
"I hope that it is the case, but ultimately it is up to my father." Weiss said while facing away from him and wringing her hands somewhat nervously. "If he changes his official opinion so quickly after a publicly denouncing me, it could cause his investors to wonder if making hasty decisions based off incomplete data is going to become a habit for him, which hurts his public image… If I were to guess, he would require me to go to Atlas and give him some form of public apology or do something along those lines."
"Why would you need to apologize? He basically disowned you!" Jaune said with no small amount of heat in his voice. "He's your father, and he wronged you!"
"You need to understand that Jacques Schnee is a businessman through and through. If something becomes a hinder to him, he gets rid of it. It doesn't matter if it's a rival company, a disgruntled worker, or a family member. He wasn't always like that, but... something... happened and it changed him. Changed my entire family. It made him colder, and more ruthless." Weiss said while looking out of the kitchen window, although Jaune could tell that she wasn't looking at the scenery. "If… If I went back to Atlas and apologized to him publicly after gaining the people's trust back, he would get off the hook since the blame would get shifted back to me for not informing the public and the Beacon about my 'research' properly and thus being responsible the whole spectacle- he would be seen just as taking appropriate actions instead of rushing to hasty decisions."
"After that he could announce that he accepts me back into the family while appearing as a benign father to the public, and hopefully, eventually, I could regain my spot as the heiress of the company." Weiss finished while breaking off her staring contest with a tree outside the window to walk around the kitchen in circles.
"That's a lot of 'if's and 'could's" Jaune pointed out.
"He could also completely ignore me." Weiss acknowledged. "Although if my 'research' goes through to the public well, he may not have a choice as the investors are likely ask about his decision to exile someone who would be basically leading a research towards a potential victory over Grimm."
"But all of that would be build on a lie." the blonde shapeshifter told her while rubbing his face. "What if people realized that the 'research' doesn't exist in the first place? That it was just me?"
"I was planning on telling that the research didn't yield fruit after few months, and that the ability to control Grimm was too complicated and difficult to replicate in large scale." Weiss turned towards him. "That way I could explain how I had few Grimm 'under my control', but the lie would eventually fade into history as yet another failed attempt to break the deadlock Grimm have on humanity"
"I guess." Jaune wasn't entirely convinced if Weiss's plan would work out, and it seemed to show as Weiss lifted her eyebrow.
"I don't have many options here, if you're thinking what I'm thinking you're thinking." Weiss told him while crossing her arms and sending a glare at him. "It's either this, or I try to plead innocence, and we both know how well that would go. With all the 'evidence' piled against me, no-one would believe me."
"But…"
"This conversation is pointless." Weiss crushed all resistance before her, which equated to Jaune's doubts. "The stage is rented, and key people have been informed. We can't stop now. We have to do this."
"I… I suppose. Yeah." Jaune rubbed his shoulder. "Let's just hope that this works…"
"So that's what she is planning."
"Yes, mistress. She told me it herself."
"You did good, Emerald, although I remember telling you to not address me as a mistress..."
"Yes, Cinder. I'm sorry"
"Anyway, we can use this."
"I… I am… ghh... I am not a chair… ghh..."
"Quiet, Mercury. You failed your mission to find out who originally started to spread those rumors about the Schnee girl, so you must shoulder the punishment…"
"Heh… serves you right, Mercury. Anyway, please tell me what I need to do."
"Not you, Emerald. Neo?"
"...?"
"The Grimm become enraged from negative emotions. Hate, fear… panic. Schnee girl is showing what she claims to be a tamed Grimm in front of a crowd."
"..."
"Find a way to show the crowd just how 'tame' a Grimm can be."
"Weiss Schnee."
"General Ironwood, it is pleasure to meet you in person." Weiss shook the tall man's hand politely as she stood in the small backstage-room of the Atlas Robotics reveal stage, just before her announcement was scheduled to start. Weiss was pacing in the backstage while Blake and Ruby were outside guarding a large cage which had a thick cloth on it to prevent its contents from view, and Penny was standing beside Winter while humming happily to some tune that none of them managed to identify.
Jaune had already transformed and entered a Grimm holding cage made from thick iron bars in his Beowolf form by the time Penny had caught up with team SABR, back in Beacon, and the trip from Beacon to Vale had gone somewhat well- except for the Bullhead pilot discovering that Beowolves could apparently throw up, and the stench was… less than pleasant, and equally difficult to remove from interior bulkheads.
Luckily the girls had moved in a different Bullhead as the Jaune-wolf cage had taken the entire cargo hold of the first Bullhead, leaving just the pilot to take the full force of the furious olfactory assault.
The group had disembarked as the flight of air-transports had set them down near the Vale's town square where the event was supposed to take place, and general Ironwood had intercepted Weiss just as they had arrived to the backstage with Winter Schnee following in Ironwood's wake.
"Headmaster Ozpin told me of your… ambitious claims." Ironwood said as he motioned for Weiss to have a seat. "I came personally to witness you displaying your newfound breakthrough to the public… although I wonder just how you managed to accomplish what you claim to have done."
"Well, we tried our best as a team, and trusted each other…" Weiss started, but the look on Ironwood's eyes deterred her from continuing further.
"I am sure that kind of speech will go well with the people of Vale." Ironwood said. "However, I am interested in more practical matters. How did you do it?"
"Sir, you don't want to know." Winter told Ironwood, and Weiss sent a grateful glance towards her older sister. Weiss wasn't entirely sure why Winter's face seemed a bit pale though. "Trust me."
"...I'll be the judge of that, but I can wait." Ironwood conceded as he took a somewhat suspicious look at Winter's expression. "I look forwards to witnessing a live demonstration of your ability, then." He turned towards Weiss and nodded once before walking out of the backstage room.
"General Ironwood is introducing the latest line of Atlesian combat robots." Winter explained to Weiss. "Your demonstration will be after that. Are you ready for it, Weiss?"
"Yes." Weiss said resolutely. "Yes, I am."
"Speaking of your demonstration, where is your… hm… tamed Grimm?"
"He's in the cage." Weiss told her. "We caught a new one for the occasion."
"But didn't you say that your… taming… worked only on the Grimm that you were err… dating?" Winter asked carefully and Weiss blushed slightly.
"We… We managed to archive a breakthrough in the research which made it possible for us to uh... tame multiple types of Grimm." Weiss said. "Are… are you feeling well, Winter?"
"Yes, I was just… processing... the mental image." Winter told her with a gulp. "Regardless, General Ironwood should be done with his part soon, so you should probably get to a position to begin your own presentation."
"I'll be fine. I'll just go check if the Grimm is ready as well"
"Very well." Winter told her with serious voice. "Just remember… if something happens, I'll be there to intervene."
"Thank you, I appreciate your concern." Weiss nodded to Winter before turning and walking out of the backstage-room and changing few words with Blake and Ruby. A growl met her inquiry about 'the Grimm's' state, which let her know that Jaune was ready as well… although the somewhat low tone of the growl let her know that he was definitely feeling pressure from the crowd that was gathered to watch the event.
'Right… Here we go then.' Weiss sighed and steeled herself as she heard general Ironwood finishing his speech, which was her invitation to enter the stage…
…
"...And thus the research bore fruit, yet…" a female's voice droned on. He listened and smelled the air.
H͠e͟ wa̴s ͞s͟ưr̨rounde̡d̨ ͏o͟n̸ ̧alļ s̸id͝e͟s, yet͟ sa̵w̕ nơnȩ o͢f ͡h̡i͢s͢ ͢p̶r͜e̴y.͘
'Down… Down, now…'
D҉is͏tr̷us̶t, fear̷... ̶S̶eèk͜,͏ ͠Hu̕n̵t̀.̶.͘
'You don't get to tell me what to do…' Jaune growled audibly as he rubbed his face-plate against the thick iron bars of his cage to quell his growing restlessness. The metal dented visibly as he pushed against it, and he restrained himself before he managed to do anything stupid. '
The thick black cloth blocked his vision, yet he could tell that he was in the town square of Vale and Weiss's speech was mid-swing, judging by the barrage of emotions that the crowd outside his cage emitted. He could have sworn that the fact that he didn't see anything past the cloth further amplified his sensitiveness to the negativity. '...Or the sensitivity might be because this form… M͡y ̴͘̕f̧o̵r͜m͠… is so closely attuned to it…'
"...And to show a proof of my research, we have captured a live, commonly found Grimm form which has been tamed." he heard Weiss finish her speech. Before he had prepared himself mentally he saw as the dark cloth was pulled away, and he reared up on his two feet to look down at the crowd that was gathered to look at him…
'...!'
He felt as a saliva fell down from his lipless jaw, and his bone-covered face had drawn itself into a furious snarl as the crowd's emotions waxed over him.
'Fear… surprise…' he realized perhaps too late that it was likely that none of those in the crowd that weren't students of Beacon or Hunters by their own right had seen a Grimm with their own eyes before this- and a picture never did a justice to a real Grimm. 'This…'
"We have managed to a tame Beowolf Alpha." He heard Weiss state to the crowd, and he pushed his bone-covered snout as far between the bars of his cage as he could while growling at the crowd, all against his will. 'Stop…'
"A-are you sure that it is tame?" a voice called from the now-silent crowd. He focused his red-glowing eyes on the man who had spoken, and the man fell silent instantly while freezing on his tracks.
"It… It doesn't look friendly…" a shaky female voice came from the crowd.
"Rest assured, he is completely tame." Weiss announced, and a small clink alerted Jaune to a lock being undone.
'M҉̨͘i͢ņ͜҉ȩ̶͢' A thought permeaded his haze as he took in the form that had entered the cage with him, and he lowered his head to take in Weiss's scent. 'No, down, boy.'
"I assure that he is tame after the procedure." he heard Weiss tell the crowd, and felt the negative emotions, primarily fear, that the crowd radiated. "The proce… hey!"
Weiss voice ended in a squeak as Jaune felt himself tying his massive arms around the girl's body, and he pushed the side of his head against her chest to shield her from '...The th͢r̸e̛át… the crowd… No, they are not the enemy...'
"Ah… Beowolves um… when tamed tend to become very affectionate and… uh..." Weiss's words became slightly jumbled, and he felt as she reached to scratch him behind his ears to calm him down- yet it had the opposite effect as Shadow took it as a consent to continue.
"Come on, calm down. We can't afford to make a scene here!" Weiss hissed angrily to his ear as he lifted her off the mesh floor and pulled her against his chest...
'I'm trying!' Jaune wanted to howl, but what came out was a primal growl and he tightened his hold around the girl's waist. He felt unnaturally hot as the girl was in his grasp... 'Stop, stop… ҉̶͜į̷̶t̵.̨̢́.͟͡͞.̢'
He glanced to the side and saw Winter glaring all sorts of bladed weapons at him from near the stage, and he saw as she gripped her still-sheathed saber's hilt with white knuckles.
Standing out of the view of the crowd, Ruby wrung her hand nervously while watching him with her…
'Ah…' Jaune sighed in relief as he flinched from the wave of sickening frost that sunk to his spine as a result of his glowing red eyes meeting the red-clad girl's silver eyes. 'Thank you… Ruby...'
He carefully pulled his arms away from the white-clad girl while setting her down, and tried to make himself appear as non-hostile as possible while Weiss kept stroking his black-furred neck and scratching his ears.
"...And here you can see that tamed Grimm exist, even before your own eyes. While the future applications remain unclear…" Weiss continued her speech, and Jaune did his best to keep an eye contact with Ruby at all times while he curled into a half-ball on the hard metal-mesh that made the cage's floor. He couldn't quite ignore how Weiss sat carefully on his shoulder though, nor how she felt so incredibly soft against his fur…
'Come on, Weiss… I'm sure you are just trying to calm your nerves after that close call but… think about others as well...' he thought as he felt the girl's legs shaking slightly despite her tone being as professional as ever. 'You're not making this easy…'
And based off the expression Ruby and Blake had as they watched him from the backstage, and the expression he was fairly sure Pyrrha had as she was in the crowd, the aftermath would not be easy for either of them.
'Let's just hope that's the worst of it…'
A heterochromic girl was sitting on one of the balconies overlooking the Town Square of Vale, eating from her elaborate confectionary masterpiece of ice-cream and more ice-cream in a glass vase. The delightful treat had been made for her by a kindly elderly couple after she had let herself in to their flat, pretending to be a lost little girl.
It was always amusing to her how her height and cute, almost underage appearance made people drop their guards around her, usually leading to their demise- like how it had been the case mere minutes prior.
Still, the balcony had a view to kill for, and she wanted to see every second of the show that was about to start.
Neo Politan hummed soundlessly as she looked down at the pre-show that was happening in front of her in the Square, where a raised presentation stage had a massive cage containing a massive Grimm and a young white-clad girl that had piqued the curiosity of her employer- and the white-clad girl had just entered the cage, alone and unarmed.
A beep from her Scroll caused her to raise her eyebrow at it and break her eyes off the view where the Grimm was busy either trying to eat or copulate with the white-haired girl, if the way the beast rubbed itself on the girl was any indication. She wasn't sure which of the two outcomes she preferred, although she confessed she was curious about the latter possibility.
Neo wanted to see the face the white-clad girl would make if she was violated in front of the crowd by the very same Grimm she thought she had tamed... Neo could tell that the expression on the Schnee girl's face would be positively exquisite, and that picture would be worthy of joining the collection of photos she had in her Scroll- and that was before she remembered that the girl's oh-so-dignified big sister would be literally watching it all happen.
"I am ready, Neo. And for the record, this is madness." A second, more incessant beep from her Scroll caused her to roll her eyes and turn her attention to the text, and she sighed at her Scroll. Her partner and boss was always a bit high on style and planning, but a bit lacking in bloodlust for her tastes. Luckily he often let her take care of occasions that required the latter.
'...' Neo sighed again in disappointment as she glanced at the Grimm that had seemed to calm down somehow and had become a living armchair for the Schnee girl, and had not started to use the white-clad girl as some sort of living sex-toy like she had hoped.
Neo pulled a app she had made for her Scroll, and pressed a big smiley button on it.
She leaned back as the bombs she had hid under the event stage exploded.
She had to confess that the panicked screams from the crowd were completely worth the hassle of having to disguise herself as one of the Atlesian Robotics construction workers so she could put a few very discreet explosives under the stage where Atlas stored their exhibition robots- even if the payload delivery method meant that the actual effect of the bombs was far less than what she'd normally prefer. However, maximizing the casualties wasn't her priority here, so she paid little attention it.
After all, it was more important to make it look like as if Atlas had neglected safety...
She grinned as the burning stage crashed down around the Grimm and the beast let a blood-chilling howl, no doubt feeding off the fear and panic that the crowd radiated in so vast quantities that even she could feel it.
The howl was followed by a roar, and the beast broke through its weakened cage and charged towards the crowd.
Neo picked up her spoon, leaned back on her chair and continued enjoying her ice-cream and the show.
Next chapter: Around 11th.
A bit of a 'forever fall' case in here, or more rather a single chapter being split in two parts because a busy week didn't give me enough time to write.
