Well...this one got long.
Don't get used to it!
'Nother second Saturday 'nother upload. Was surprised at the amount of anger some people directed to the members of RWBY and JNPR. XD
I mean yeah, they did kind of a dick move, but still. Was surprising at the level of vindictiveness in some of the comments.
Well, this here chapter shines a light on some stuff, as usual, won't excuse stuff, but it will perhaps explain it. We also get to see some of the wider changes Shirou has caused! It was fun working out the logic behind said changes, will try to figure out how to do a flash back or something, maybe. I've got one of the guys I bounce ideas off trying to get me to write an omake, and while I'm not entirely sure I will, the idea behind the omake he brings up sounds hilarious, so I'm tempted to try.
Also, preemptive for those of you that will say 'But Ozping wouldn't think that!' try and think about it from his perspective peeps. He is operating with far more limited knowledge than the reader is.
Not really a lot to say on this author's note actually...Free Overtime season is over so I've had some more time to chillax. Set up a table for workin' on my miniatures, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.
And yes, I am decidedly sticking to the color naming rule! As much as I despise it! There is also a 40k reference in this chapter, kudos to whoever can find it/figure it out.
If you can't, that's fine. It just means no kudos to you. 8D
Again, don't get used to the length! It was accident! I'm trying for shorter chapters! ≧c≦
Once more, major kudos to Keeltheswift for betaing and fixing all of my horrifying punctuation as well as giving advice on stuff. Cookies to him.
As usual, reminder to, if you like it, drop me a review and let me know. Reviews help keep a guy writing.
If you didn't like it, drop me a review and let me know why. But do attempt to articulate why you didn't plz. That makes it more helpful. Do please remember however, there is no reason we can't be civil.
Strategische Snippet-Bombe! (ಠ_ಠ)
=][=
Glynda Goodwitch watched as Ruby Rose stomped her way to the door of the Headmaster's office with her back arched not unlike an angry cat.
Or…well…she tried. She was too svelte to get a good stomp on the glass floor, the end result being that she tinked her way to the door one exaggerated step at a time. She stopped at the door, turned back to them, puffed her cheeks out, tried to growl angrily and tinked the floor repeatedly while standing in place.
It was the most adorable thing Glynda had seen in years.
Ruby turned around, opened the door, tinked out, puffed her cheeks out at them one last time, and very slowly and carefully shut the door with a muted click.
Glynda could only be glad that the debriefings were finally over. She turned back to the Headmaster, who had left his hot chocolate on the desk and was leaning against the window, looking for all the world as if that support were the only thing keeping him up.
"Brothers, what a disaster." James sighed as he ran a hand over his face.
Glynda grimaced, disaster was putting it lightly. Two days they had searched through every corner of Vale in between rescue and stray Grimm extermination efforts, hoping against hope that the Sword Hunter had not escaped. Somewhere in all that mess someone uploaded a video to the CCT showing most of team RWBY and half of JNPR fighting against and eventually beating the Sword Hunter, before Glynda restrained him and his subsequent escape. It was lucky that Vale had such good natural barriers, otherwise Glynda suspected that the resulting spike in negativity brought about by the video, which had very quickly gone viral, would have been enough to overrun the wall's perimeter defenses.
The closest thing to a silver lining of the entire debacle was that most of the outrage was directed at Glynda herself and, by extension, Ozpin. The public thankfully assumed that the students had acted under orders. That wasn't to say that they weren't being raked over the proverbial coals, but at least most of the blame was centered on Glynda and the Headmaster.
"I'm…I'm sorry Ozpin," she said. Brothers, how long had been since she felt like a student in detention. "If I hadn't-"
"No, Glynda," Ozpin interrupted with a sigh, resting his forehead against the glass. "I must say that the fault of this lies squarely on me."
"But Ozpin-!"
"It was me who told you that I had to meet with him 'no matter the cost.' Furthermore you couldn't have known of Mr. Ren's…resentment. Nor could you have known that Ms. Xiao Long had learned of their…connection, or that she and Mr. Ren would stick to quite such a creative interpretation of an order to 'delay' him." Ozpin took a deep breath and his shoulders slumped further. "Not to mention that this was the first conclusive proof we have of his remaining with Raven. It would seem that Qrow's conclusion that she had 'grown tired' of him and abandoned him somewhere was…incorrect."
"Well, this doesn't really change anything," James said, ever the pragmatist. "The public will tire of this eventually, we just need to wait for the situation to blow over. We've not factored him into any of our plans except as a wild card that kills Grimm. So what does it matter?"
Ozpin drew his head back and hit his forehead against the glass with a soft thud. "I am afraid my friend, that you are very much incorrect. This…encounter has changed everything."
He fell quiet. They waited for him to elaborate but Ozpin merely slumped further against the glass. Glynda and James exchanged worried looks before turning back to Ozpin. She took a step forward and rested her hands on the desk. "Headmaster?"
"Tell me Glynda, did you see the light?" he asked without turning around.
"Yes, it was…" she hesitated, "rather difficult not to."
"Me too, I saw that light from here," Ozpin said as he brought his head back and hit it once more against the glass.
"What does that light have to do with anything?" James asked gruffly.
"I have not seen that light in years," Ozpin answered. "And I have not seen it in that…magnitude in millennia."
"Wait," James said taking a step forward. "You can't possibly mean-"
"You said he did not have silver eyes, correct?" Ozpin interrupted. "You said amber, or perhaps golden?"
"I…yes."
Ozpin brought his head back and once more hit the glass. "I had suspected…no, if I am to be entirely honest, I had prayed I was wrong."
Glynda and James exchanged looks again before he turned back to Ozpin. "Wrong about what?"
Ozpin finally turned around, and Glynda almost flinched. The Headmaster had always had an amused glint in his eye, as if he were enjoying a private joke that he was unwilling to share.
Not anymore. Each and every year of the centuries he had suffered was painfully evident in his eyes.
"What I saw the day of the Breach, Glynda. Was the radiance of Light Itself," he said as he walked to his desk. "Not to mention that the video we recovered showed the light disintegrating any Creature of Grimm that it touched and the testimony of the students of him beseeching a God for aid moments before that light was unleashed. I believe that Light has once more graced Remnant with Its favor. I believe that It has seen fit to send me…to send us another Champion. One to whom the Creatures of Grimm fall like wheat before the scythe. A Champion who is overwhelmingly powerful, yet kind."
Ozpin reached his desk and slowly collapsed into his chair. "And Raven Branwen has had him since he was a child and has thoroughly poisoned him against me—against us. She took him and has probably done all she can to claim his power for herself, and she has been allowed to do this, unimpeded, for an entire decade. And then the one time he comes within my reach, he does it to protect my city from the Creatures of Grimm. And what do I do? In my hubris…in my panic…in my utter stupidity, I have likely affirmed in his mind every lie Raven has fed him."
Slowly, he sunk his face into his hands, his shoulders pushed down by a terrible burden. "I may well have cost Remnant a weapon that could have tipped our shadow war in our favor. So you see James, everything has indeed changed, and I am afraid that it has not changed for the better."
"I…" Glynda tried and failed to swallow the lump in her throat.
Just what exactly was there to say?
=][=
Pyrrha fidgeted as Ruby stomped back and forth glaring at the walls. Teams RWBY and JNPR were currently enjoying relative isolation in the dorms, mainly by shutting themselves up in their rooms. They couldn't go anywhere at the moment without being either cheered or glared at.
A small and guilty part of Pyrrha secretly felt some relief that, for once, she wasn't the center of attention when walking down Beacon's halls.
The eight of them were currently crowded in JNPR's room and the silence kept growing thornier and thornier.
Ruby fumed and increased the speed with which she stomped back and forth. Yang sat on the ground, slumped down and head bowed, flinching any time her sister passed by her. Blake was pretending to read a book, but had forgotten to change the page for the last two hours. By the way her bow twitched Pyrrha guessed that she was using her cat ears to keep track of Ruby. Ms. Schnee kept her eyes riveted to her scroll, periodically turning the screen back on as it kept turning off due to lack of activity.
Ren was sitting on his bed, his elbows on his knees and his face buried in his hands. Nora was sitting next to him gently rubbing his back. Sitting at his other side was Jaune, who had a hand pressed on the other boy's shoulder.
Pyrrha felt utterly useless. She'd tried to chat with and cheer people up, but had eventually retreated to the corner desk, the furthest away she could be from anyone else. How to go about fixing things? Well there were seven of them, if she were fighting seven opponents, what would be her first step?
Ruby stopped in the center of the room, the sudden cessation of her soft stomps making the silence deafening. She took a deep breath.
"Ok, I had thought that we were all of the same opinion on Mr. Sword Hunter. Or," she paused with a meaningful glance at Weiss, "at the very least sort of tolerated Jaune's and my fangirlism. But two days ago... just what the heck happened guys? Why did everyone go crazy?"
Everyone exchanged glances, then looked away.
Ruby crossed her arms and settled in to wait.
The silence grew heavier and more painful until Ren sighed. "When I was a kid the Sword Hunter saved a village near my hometown."
He looked up and met Ruby's gaze. "People from that village came to Kuroyuri and spoke of how a child made it rain swords and wiped out a Grimm horde. I remember feeling…that we'd be safe. After all, we were bigger, of course the Sword Hunter would come if he had saved that village…
"And then Kuroyuri was attacked. He never came."
Pyrrha was not the only one to wince. Ren's utter lack of tone lent his words a biting edge.
His gaze flitted between Ruby and Jaune. "I felt…betrayed, let down. I remember feeling…thinking that…that he must have let Kuroyuri die out of spite." He took a deep breath before his eyes fell to the floor. "I know that…that I was being stupid, I'd just lost my home town and…and I needed something to blame. I honestly thought I was over it but…"
He dropped his face back into his hands. "But the moment I saw him raining swords down on the Grimm, it all just…it rushed right back, suddenly it wasn't nine years ago it had just happened. I hadn't lost my home and family a long time ago, they'd just died. And…"
He sniffled, prompting Nora to hug him and bury her face in his neck. Jaune gave his shoulder a squeeze. "It's okay buddy, I-"
"It's not!" Ren said gruffly, which was the equivalent of a shout from anyone else. "Because I'm still angry at him! I still want to hate him! I want to know why he did not save my home! So when he ran, I attacked him and…and he forgave me! He didn't even think to be angry or offended! And that makes it worse!"
"Oh Ren…" Pyrrha murmured.
Nora hiccuped and sniffled at the same time. "As for me? I just wanted him to go away because…because he was hurting Ren."
Silence once more fell among them until Yang took a deep breath and spoke at the floor.
"I think my biological mother fought him and took him away from the train," Yang said with a sigh. "I caught a glimpse of her…and…"
She looked up at Ruby with a pleading expression. "I called her Mom, Ruby. I called her Mom. It was just…spur of the moment but…but does that mean that I betrayed Summer?" Yang jumped to her feet and began to pace, waving her arms in agitation as she spoke. "The woman who raised me? Who baked me cookies and sang me lullabies? Cause it sure feels like that!"
"Yang…" Ruby muttered as she reached out for her sister.
"And then he came back!" Yang shouted, stepping away from Ruby. "And he swooped in and saved you! And plugged the breach! But…but all I could think about was that he had some connection to my…to her!" Yang's eyes turned a bright red and her hair began to rustle in an absent breeze. "That he could tell me why I wasn't good enough for her! That he could tell me where I could find her!"
Yang stopped, closed her eyes, and visibly forced herself to calm down. When she opened them again her eyes were lilac once more.
"And then…and then he wouldn't talk. He…he knew something but wouldn't tell me…and…and I thought that if he wouldn't answer me, then I would beat the answers out of him! And…" She sighed, sniffled and wiped her eyes. "Look I know it was stupid, and unfair, and dumb, and that I was a bitch to our hero right after he saved you and Vale. But…but I was so angry and…and guilty and…and…"
This time Yang accepted her sister's hug, and clung onto her as if little Ruby Rose was the only thing holding her up.
Everyone watched in silence for a few moments, until Ms. Schnee ran a hand over her face and sighed. "Well, since we're all taking turns here. I…my parents don't have the best relationship. My father was domineering and demanding, and my mother was…" A range of emotions flitted across her face, too quickly to name any particular one before her face settled into carefully maintained neutrality. "Distant.
"I was all but raised by my older sister, Winter. I love her, and she's kind...in her own way but…she has never praised me, not once." She set her scroll down on the desk and turned away from it. "No matter how hard I worked, how hard I tried, how well I did. My performance was never more than 'satisfactory' to her…And Winter…well, she's not a hypocrite. Her record in the academy was spotless, she was the top of all of her classes, she excels at everything she ever puts her mind to."
Ms. Schnee closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before turning away from Ruby. "There is only one thing she has ever failed at. For years now, her and the Ace-Ops have had standing orders to detain the Sword Hunter if ever he is in Atlas."
"What!?" Jaune said, jumping to his feet with a glare.
"It's not like that!" Ms. Schnee said quickly. "It's because General Ironwood would also like to talk to him. Anyway, the point is…he's been sighted in Atlas and Mantle several times since that assignment was given and…and it's been the only thing Winter has ever failed at."
She looked up, unshed tears quivering on the corners of her eyes. "And…and I thought that…that if I was part of the group that successfully detained him, if I succeeded at the only thing Winter has ever failed at…then…then she'd finally praise me, she'd finally tell me what a good job I did.
"I know that it's such a petty reason bu-"
She was cut off as Ruby tackle-hugged her in a burst of rose petals.
Slowly, hesitantly, Weiss returned the hug. An instant later, Yang joined in and lifted the two of them off the floor, ignoring their surprised squawks and Weiss' indignant "Put me down this instant, you brute!"
Pyrrha couldn't help but chuckle at team RWBY's antics, that is until Jaune gave a deep sigh. Yang turned towards him with a bemused look as he leaned back onto the dormitory wall. Her captives likewise stared curiously from her arms as he scowled down at his sword, opening and closing his mouth a few times before speaking slowly. "I don't know why he didn't save your town, Ren. Maybe he got held up elsewhere, or maybe he just didn't know until it was too late. And...maybe he is keeping secrets and stuff, but everyone keeps secrets sometimes. And he has saved a lot of people from the Grimm. And to be honest, if it weren't for the Sword Hunter…I probably wouldn't even be here."
"Eh?" Pyrrha asked eloquently.
Jaune gave her a rather brittle smile. "You know me, clumsy middle of the pack. My parents didn't want me or my sisters to be Huntsmen or Huntresses. A bit hypocritical because my dad was the town's resident Huntsman. And well…growing up, I wasn't exactly the strongest or the smartest…but…but I still dreamed about it, to be a Huntsman and protect people.
"And then he happened. And he saved towns and villages and killed Grimm with a simple sword even if he was just a kid like me, and I thought, 'If he can do it, then why not me?' so…I started training." He scratched his cheek. "And I wasn't very good at it, but I was able to win me a scholarship to a combat school where…I didn't do all that well."
"But Jaune," Pyrrha protested. "You're easily one of the best in the class!"
He snorted. "Yeah I'm good when compared to the worst of the class, but I can't hold a candle to any of you guys in a fight. The only reason I met the combat requirements for Beacon was that I outlasted everyone else in my class. I always turned the match into an endurance contest and well…" He sighed and shrugged. "I'm good at those. But there were so many times when I would have given up! And every time I was about to throw in the towel, he'd save another village or town, and I'd think that…if I gave up, I'd be disappointing him, so I'd stick with it for a while longer…and now I'm here."
Well, as far as Pyrrha was concerned, that was at least one thing to be thankful to the Sword Hunter for…or well…two, because he did basically singlehandedly stem the tide of Grimm. Or three, because he protected towns in the peripheries.
Blake shifted in her seat, causing the others turned their gazes toward her. She sighed and put her book down, then hugged her knees to her chest. "He is fair to Faunus."
Everyone blinked and stared at her.
"Look, I'm not good at talking, okay?" she growled and curled up tighter. "I was at a protest before…before the White Fang turned violent. And it turned ugly. Some people rushed the protesters and suddenly there was a wall of huge blunt swords between the humans and us.
"Some people tried throwing things and fricking swords knocked whatever it was off the air and then disappeared. And then he was just there, and all he did was stare from one group to the other." She chortled. "And he didn't answer any questions. He'd just look at us, then look at the humans then back to us. He didn't even react when people called him an animal lover or a race traitor. Then he shrugged and left, just up and disappeared…but any thrown stone was still knocked aside by swords for the rest of the protest.
"It kinda backfired on us because later all the news would talk about was whether or not the Sword Hunter was a Faunus. But…he stopped it from becoming a riot, and…well, until then I thought he just protected people from Grimm." Blake took a deep breath and let it out, then scratched her cheek. "Umm…that's it. I don't have some big Remnant-shattering history with him. I rushed into the fight because Yang and Weiss did so I-"
"Shut up and get in the hug," Yang said.
Blake rolled her eyes and made her way to the team RWBY pileup and lightly put her arms around her group.
Ruby wiggled until she managed to free herself and bounced around the room. "Weeeeeell, since we're all sharing. Mr. Sword Hunter has saved my life three times now!"
"Totally unfair," Jaune muttered, and Ruby stuck her tongue out at him.
"The first time, Yang and I were just kids…though I kinda missed that one cause I was napping," Ruby admitted with a giggle, then she brought her hood over her head and began to twiddle her thumbs. "Then later I was kind of being a brat and ran into the woods around my house because my sister told me not to. And I sorta ran into an Ursa, and it was gonna eat me, and then Mr. Sword Hunter killed it just like that. And…both times, he gave me this."
She drew a small, simple wooden knife from her cloak. "My magic knife, the umm…the first time he gave it to me, it appeared out of nowhere with a flash of light so I figured it was magical."
She presented the toy with a wistful smile as her eyes began to shine with unshed tears. "And I remember thinking that…that any time I needed him, he'd be there for me…and…and I think I kinda needed that a lot, cause it helped me feel safe after my mom died. It was like having my own Maiden…or I guess since he's a boy, my own Wizard, except you know, not a hermit, and a little older than me instead of super old. But uhh…my magic knife only ever hangs around for a few months before 'poof' and it's gone."
Weiss stared slack-jawed. "Ruby do you know how valuable that is!? I can name five institutes that would give you a King's ransom for that toy! It might be the key to understanding his Semblance!"
Ruby disappeared in a puff of rose petals and reappeared beside Jaune, she pulled him in front of her like a shield before hissing at Weiss. "My magic knife!"
Everyone looked like they'd gotten a great weight off their back. Maybe she should try it? Pyrrha brought her hands together and began to poke her index fingers at each other. "Ummm…I uhh…wanted to ask him for a fight?"
Everyone blinked and looked at her quietly, and she felt her face heating up. "Well…everyone was sharing about him and stuff, and…ummm."
Now that she thought about it 'I was feeling left out' was sounding like an extremely embarrassing way to end her sentence.
Her face felt hotter by the second until Blake rescued her, leaving Weiss to suffer as the only person trapped by Yang's hug, and since her feet were not on the ground she couldn't do anything more than grumble and wriggle ineffectually.
"Actually, there's…something I need to tell you guys, I ran into the Sword Hunter after he disengaged, he was…hiding in an alley and I was able to talk to him," Blake said hesitantly. She then told them of her conversation with him.
"Mr. Sword Hunter didn't give me an autograph because he was shy?" Ruby said, her eyes shining before continuing in a high pitched whisper. "Oh my Gods that's adorable!"
"You just let him walk away!?" Weiss growled much more to the point. "And why didn't you ask him what in the name of Remnant was so important that he couldn't spare an hour for the Headmaster!?"
Blake clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Why would he go meet with Ozpin if he thinks he can't trust the Headmaster!? Besides, would you just tell a random person that asked you something personal? After she tried to stab you multiple times?"
"He probably would tell you," Jaune said, crossing his arms.
"Yeah!" Ruby said. "Mr. Sword Hunter was willing to talk and all, so he probably would have. Though it's also a good thing you didn't, cause everyone was still looking and he needed to get away. All we gotta do is be careful around the Headmaster while we figure out where the misunderstanding is!
"What I wanna know is who his sisters are! Do you think they're nice?" Ruby gasped. "Since he makes swords, do you think his sisters make guns!?"
Pyrrha frowned, hadn't Yang said that her biological mother had taken him away? Could that mean that maybe…maybe he was their half-brother? Or well…they were half-sisters so he'd be Yang's…
"Omigosh Jaune! You have a bunch of sisters right!? Do you think I could bribe his sisters into telling me what he likes!?" Ruby asked, her eyes shining.
"Erm…" Jaune said, backing away slowly from Ruby who followed him each step of the way.
"And then I could get it for him and he'll forgive us for attacking him and me for slowing him down!" she continued, speaking faster by the word.
"I…Ruby, personal space." Jaune said, his face turning red as his back smacked against the wall and Ruby continued to press closer.
Pyrrha felt a stab of jealousy and quickly suppressed it. With her obvious crush on her idol, Ruby was not any competition Pyrrha needed to worry about…or at least she hoped so.
=][=
Vernal grit her teeth as the cobalt and rust colored junker shuddered like a thing alive. She hated off-roading with the thing but it was the most expendable out of the tribe's small fleet of vehicles.
And with what she was going to be doing today, it was always a good idea to risk as little as possible.
She turned to look at her driver. Sylvia had a…funny expression as she swerved between trees, something between a frown of concentration and a manic grin that pulled the scar on her cheek taut. It was rather disconcerting.
With one final painful bounce the junker entered a relatively flat area and she no longer felt as if her soul was being shaken out of her body, merely as if her teeth were being shaken loose, a huge improvement.
"Alright!" Sylvia said with a twinkle in her blue eyes and a barked laugh. "It'll be more boring, but it should be smooth driving from here!"
If Sylvia considered what they had just endured 'fun,' Vernal did not want to find out what the crazy girl would find exciting.
"Yeah well," Vernal said with a sigh. "Just remember that Shirou said to be careful with the car."
Sylvia's grin widened. "If I fuck the car right up, do you think he'll try and spank me?"
"I know Raven will kill you." Vernal answered with a roll of her eyes.
"Bah! She loves me and you know it! I just need her to figure that out!"
Half of Vernal prayed that the fight-obsessed idiot never uttered those words in front of Raven. The other half fervently hoped she did.
She leaned back into her seat and spoke with forced levity. "So…how's things between you and Shirou? Any progress?"
Sylvia's smirk vanished, and the woman sighed, running a hand through her short silver hair. "Nothing, I haven't even gotten him to fight me for the last couple days, he's usually a really good sport about that."
Vernal could guess why, Shirou always got especially…restless anytime he saw a girl with green eyes and it wasn't who he was looking for. He was taking it easy so he could heal enough and go look for her again. Being their support on this outing was the most physically active he'd been in two days.
"That fight at Vale must've taken a lot out of him," Sylvia continued. "Aura depletion sure's a bitch."
"So I take it he hasn't…returned your umm…advances?" Vernal asked after a lengthy pause, causing the other woman to grimace.
"You know how he is," she said, shrugging angrily. "I'd be more than down for a tumble in the grass with him, and I know he's into girls cause of that time I got him drunk and traded spit. But his head is so full of that girl he's looking for, he won't really consider bein' with anyone else. Lucky bitch."
The last was said in a low growl, a sentiment shared by nearly every woman in the tribe. As far as Vernal knew, Sylvia had gotten the farthest out of all of them, which was not nearly far enough as far as Vernal was concerned.
But she didn't dare voice her views carelessly in front of Shirou, or he'd make nothing but crappy food for a couple weeks. And while Vernal usually shared Raven's immunity to his 'enforcing discipline', even she was not safe if she ever brought up the fact that he should give up and be happy with someone else.
Maybe even Sylvia. He could do worse…he could also do a lot better, but Vernal was desperate and beggars can't be choosers.
She spotted a ramshackle-looking wooden stake fence and tapped Sylvia's shoulder. The woman grinned and gunned the engine, which was the exact opposite of what Vernal had wanted. The junker jumped, and she nearly bit her tongue. The vehicle roared out of the trees and skidded to a stop in front of a pair of surprised bandits.
Vernal activated her Aura and stepped out as it covered her with a teal shimmer. She heard Sylvia close the door on the junker as the two of them sauntered over to the two bandits.
They grinned and stood straighter, one of them holding a cleaver in a casual grip the other had a revolver of all things holstered at his hip. They were both dressed in dirty grey pants, a brown shirt, and a denim jacket with what she was fairly certain were old blood stains. The one with the cleaver stepped forward with an easy grin, "So, what's a pair of pretty little ladies doin' coming over to our camp? It's dangerous to travel the woods alone you know?"
Vernal's Fire Blade was dimpling the skin over his carotid artery in less time than it took to blink. A drop of blood began to bead on his neck, the fool hadn't even activated his Aura, amateur.
"Nah ah ah!" Sylvie said, drawing her shotgun-tonfas and pointing them at the man with the revolver before he'd even finished fumbling his weapon out of its holster. "Don't do anything rash unless you want a slug and some buckshot in the ballsack."
Vernal rolled her eyes and turned back to the man she held at knife point, she could see the rest of the bandit tribe had noticed them and was getting ready to tussle. The Karmesinweg tribe (And no, there was no way in any hell that Vernal would bother trying to pronounce that. Keep that Atlesian shit where it belongs), an exemplary group of wretches among scumbags.
She pressed her fire blade a little more tightly against the man's neck.
"Look fuck-o, if I so much as think you're activating your Aura, I'll slit your throat before it finishes coming up." Vernal said with as manic a grin as she could muster. "You've already wasted more of my time than you're worth. So how about you do me a solid? Suck up the fact that you are being manhandled by a pretty little lady such as myself and take me to the guy in charge, there's some discussing that needs to happen and I'm not gonna do it with an idiot like you."
She retracted her blade and placed the tips of the knife on his stomach, which also conveniently lined up the barrels of the shotgun to gut his worthless ass. She gave him a poke with the point of the blade. "Hurry it up, I'm a busy girl."
Sylvia and her walked the two sentries into the camp at gunpoint, Vernal looked over her shoulder as the enemy tribe closed in around the two of them. Hopefully they'd not think to scratch up the car, it was a dinged and rusted piece of shit sure, but dammit, it was her dinged and rusted piece of shit.
Well…technically it was the tribe's, but this also made it hers. Well, more Raven's than hers.
Semantics.
Contrary to her expectations, the one she was taken to was not a brute, but rather a whipcord-thin man of clear Mistralean descent, a small pointed goatee on his chin. He had piercing grey eyes and black hair with white on the temples, and was dressed in a fairly traditional green Mistralean outfit. And unlike most of the Karmesinweg scum, he was clean.
He sighed, his voice was deeper than she had expected for someone so thin. "Could you do me a favor and kill these two idiots? It will save me the trouble."
"Sorry old man," Sylvia said cheekily and holstered one of her weapons with a twirl. "We're not here to do laundry. Besides, we're legit-ish lawwomen; killing idiots that surrendered would look bad."
His eyes flashed as the men around them began to laugh. "So it's true? The mighty Branwens have gone soft?"
Vernal rolled her eyes. "Look fuck-o." She saw him press his lips into a thin line. "I'm here to deliver a warning, after that I'll be on my way, and if you're smart, you'll give up your banditry ways and not bother another soul for the rest of your miserable lives."
His lip curled. "And what warning would this be?"
"Get. The Fuck. Off our turf." Vernal drawled. "You are not welcome here, if we so much as see one of you near one of our towns or villages, we'll take it as a declaration of war, beat you all into submission, and turn you in to the nearest town that will pay a bounty on the lot of you and you'll be hung or shot.
"If you think I'm bluffing, go right ahead. We have more men than you do, we have better fighters than you do, and we have more and better weapons than you do." She shrugged. "There, warning delivered. If you're smart, you'll pack up and get the fuck out."
Vernal turned her back on him and looked at the men standing around her shoulder to shoulder. And placed a hand on her hip. "Well? Get the fuck outta my way, I've places to be."
The men laughed cruelly and cracked their knuckles.
"But wait!" She heard goatee say behind her, she could all but feel his leer on her, ugh. "I have a counter proposal. We'll beat you into the ground, rape you, and if we particularly like you, we won't even kill you."
Vernal turned to Sylvia, who beamed at her. "Oh oh oh! Can I do it? Please? You did it last time! You said it'd be my turn this time!"
Vernal rolled her eyes and waved a hand vaguely in Sylvia's direction.
Sylvia grinned and pointed a finger gun at the Karmesinweg's chief.
Vernal suppressed a smirk. Three, two…
"Pow!" Sylvia said, miming firing a gun, at that exact moment the ground exploded right next to their earnest host an instant before a sonic boom washed over all of them.
Everyone threw themselves to the ground or behind cover and pointed their weapons at Vernal and Sylvia, she was pleasantly surprised by their trigger discipline as they didn't open fire. Though that was probably because their chief was in the line of fire and from what she'd heard of these guys, grazing him was a death sentence, but still credit where it's due.
The dust settled, and everyone stared at the enormous solid steel corkscrew arrow sticking out of the crater directly to the right of his foot.
Vernal smirked at him over her shoulder.
"I might have neglected to mention. We brought support, and you just used up your one warning shot. You might not wanna move cause the next one is going through your chest, and word of warning, our guy only needs one of those to break someone's Aura." She began to swagger away, Sylvia skipping happily behind her, any bandit in their path all but throwing themselves out of their way. "You have two days, fuck-o! Any longer than that and we'll wipe you out! But seriously! Give up banditry, you'll just regret it otherwise."
Nobody bothered them as they got back to the Junker, climbed in, and started to drive away. Vernal settled in to endure Sylvia's driving as they started their mile and change drive to pick up Shirou.
She flipped off the camp behind them as they made their way into the trees, Gods above she loved protecting people.
=][=
Raven stared around in Shirou's tent. She looked at his bedroll, at the footlocker where he kept his clothes, and a small bookshelf with cook books, engineering books and other reference materials, and a small lamp.
And that was it. His possessions took up less than a fifth of the space of his tent.
She scratched her temple in irritation. Everything about her bundle of stupid was plain weird.
His Aura did not protect him, it turned his skin into hardened leather, his clothes into chainmail, and steel plates into something else entirely. Damage mitigation rather than nullification, she suspected that this made it more cost effective, freeing up more Aura to use his Semblance offensively.
He was the most sought after man in the camp and the villages around it, but where another man might take advantage and enjoy himself, he barely noticed. Obsessed as he was with finding a girl he didn't even properly remember.
He was the second best warrior in the tribe, and if Raven's suspicions were correct, he was the deadliest. But violence was always a last resort with him, and even then he often strived to end the fighting as quickly and as bloodlessly as possible.
She gave him a tent worthy of his position and skill, yet he used next to none of it. Hells, if she hadn't known better, she would have assumed the tent didn't have an occupant.
He worked himself to the bone every day, to such an extent that she had taken to threatening him with withholding her Semblance purely to force him to relax. And even then he studied rather than do anything for fun.
He was always willing to give, loathed to take or be helped. And most worryingly of all, the idiot never smiled. It was always degrees of scowl with him.
Well, not true, she had caught him smiling a time or two, but those smiles always seemed…hollow, like he was putting on an act to be polite or reassuring.
"Stupid swords-for-brains," Raven muttered sullenly and stepped out of his tent. The camp bustled around her. Things had…changed a lot since her bundle of stupid happened. The camp was larger for one, the wall surrounding it much more solid. Over the years Shirou had convinced the men and women of the tribe to have an actual layout, making the camp much tidier.
Which was a necessity as it freed up space for a large tarp where they kept the Branwen's small fleet of vehicles, all of them painstakingly refurbished and maintained by Shirou. That idiot kid just had an obscene knack for tinkering.
There was…order, a rotation of people on station in towns and villages, patrol schedules, even some of the smarmier members of the tribe dedicating most of their time to administration and, dare she think it, human relations.
Somewhere in the last ten years the Branwens had changed, and she had not even noticed. And again, the 'fault' could be placed squarely on one particular idiot.
The gate guards whistled the signal for 'incoming friendly vehicle, no threat' and Raven made her way to the gate. The blue junker rattled in and slowed to a stop. Vernal, Sylvia and her bundle of stupid stepped out.
Sylvia proceeded to jump onto and cling to Shirou; Raven caught something about a reward for being a good boy. She clicked her tongue in annoyance, seriously he could do a lot better.
She met Vernal's eye and tilted her head. Vernal shook her head slightly, flicked her eyes at Shirou, and gave her a small signal. Raven sighed and made her way over.
Shirou was currently trying to get Sylvia off him, while the girl did her level best to smother him with her tits. She didn't quite have a large enough chest for what she attempted, but she made up for it with enthusiasm.
"Shirou you have a perfectly good tent, don't make a show of yourself," Raven said with a smirk, there were a few muted (and jealous) chuckles from the men closing and guarding the gate.
Shirou tilted his head back just enough to get a breath of air and glare at her.
"Hey boss lady!" Sylvia called happily.
"Hi Sylvia, demure as ever I see." Raven said.
"Hey! Strut 'em if you got 'em I says!" Sylvia answered with a grin and tightened her hold around his head, once more burying his face in her cleavage. "Besides, he's super fun to ride."
Raven rolled her eyes and enjoyed Shirou's squirming for a little while before speaking. "Alright that's enough, I need to talk to him."
Sylvia jumped off him in an instant and slapped his back as he inhaled. "All yours, ma'am! Think I can get him for a fight when you're done?"
Raven fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Probably not, scurry away now."
Sylvia slapped Shirou's back one last time and walked away. "Talk to ya later lover-boy!"
"Sylvie!" he said petulantly. "I've told you time and again to call me Shirou!"
"Whatever you say stud!" She called over her shoulder. Leaving Shirou to grumble to himself.
Raven nodded toward her tent, turned her back on him, and started walking. She felt more than heard him fall into step beside her. She took a deep breath. "So how did scaring the Karmesinweg go?"
"Well enough, I guess," he answered neutrally. "I wasn't in a good place to listen in."
Raven blindly threw a soft punch at his shoulder, "Cut the bullshit mister 'I can count the leaves on a tree two miles out.'"
He sighed as they ducked into her tent. "By the look on their faces, I think it's safe to say their chief would have a hard time getting them to push further into our turf. They'll probably wait right until the end of the two days before packing up and leaving, but they'll leave."
They fell quiet while he prepared tea. He set a cup down in front of her and sat down across from her at her table.
"And?" she pressed and took a sip. How he made such a simple thing taste so good was beyond her.
He looked off to the side and grimaced, which was Shirou for 'I'm trying to look innocent.'
"And nothing, they'll leave. That'll be the end of that," he muttered.
Raven sipped her drink and gave him a long, flat stare. "You have that 'I'm going to do something stupid' face you do any time you're going to do something stupid."
His scowl deepened. "I don't have that face."
"And now you have your 'Raven called me out on the fact I'm going to do something stupid' face."
"I don't have that face either."
"No need to pout, Shirou," Raven said sweetly.
"I'm not pouting!" he groused, quaffed his tea and started to lever himself to his feet. "If that's all then I-"
Raven took hold of his wrist. "Sit."
He did, still not meeting her eye. She refilled his cup and sighed. "Why do you always do this?"
His eyes flickered to her for an instant before looking away again. "I'm not doing anything."
She reached out and flicked him on the forehead. "That's what you get for lying."
He rubbed his brow and grumbled.
"I'm going to start making some guesses, feel free to stop me the moment I get one wrong," Raven said as she placed an elbow on the table and rested her chin on her palm. "Let's see, I imagine you were about to come up with an excuse, such as going hunting, or getting an early start on the Grimm cull. You were going to explain that you'd be ranging far and be gone for a few days, maybe a couple of weeks, that Vernal should be able to handle the cooking cause you've taught her well enough."
She poured herself another cup of tea and took a sip to wet her throat. "Now this would not arouse any suspicion as you've done it fairly often before. After that you'd run off, on foot. And you'd kill Grimm as you said you would. By nightfall you'd be near the Karmesinweg's camp. And then you'd stake them out. You'd follow them when they moved, learn their patterns and guard schedules. You'd think something naïve like 'they might turn from their path of hurting people' and stalk along, hoping they'll somehow learn a lesson, maybe copy what the Branwen tribe is doing now. You'd wait until they attacked a town, and then you'd fall on them like the wrath of an angry God and cripple the lot of them.
"Of course since your Aura is weird and you'd be taking on all of their warriors at once on your own, after several days of unrestful sleep and poor food, you'd be tired, you'd make mistakes and get hurt. You'll be stubborn, you'll try to deal with it yourself, you'll wait until you're nearly delirious with fever before pulling out your fucking scroll and giving me a call to ask for a portal." The more Raven talked, the softer and colder her voice became. She quaffed her tea and set the cup down hard. "The entire tribe and I will spend several days so worried we will barely be able to get any work done until Flaxen says you'll make it and we'll all breathe a sigh of relief. Unless of course, you up and fucking die."
Shirou was glaring at the table, not meeting her eyes.
She reached out as her Aura covered her with a red flash, took hold of his collar and pulled him violently over the table. Slamming him to the floor, she straddled his chest, locked his arms to his sides with her legs and took hold of a handful of his hair. "You look at me when I talk to you! Go on! Tell me I was wrong! Tell me you weren't about to go off while you're still hurt from your last fight! Tell me you weren't going to do exactly as I said and possibly get yourself killed because you don't know when to retreat and refuse to do the smart thing and kill a bunch of worthless lowlifes in their sleep!"
He returned her glare, but remained silent.
"How many times have I told you Shirou! You don't do this shit to me! You don't do this shit to us! What do I have to do so you'll finally fucking listen!?" she growled at him, almost nose to nose.
His jaw worked as he tried to formulate a response, he opened and closed his mouth several times before finally saying. "I don't want to inconvenience you guys, and you might get hurt."
A red haze filled the edges of her vision as she cocked her fist back and drove it down. And for an instant she wasn't straddling a young man that outweighed her by fifty pounds, but a child whose tears were hidden by the rain. That glimpse robbed her of her strength and her fist thudded lightly against his chest.
Raven let go of his hair and leaned back, burying her face in her hands and muffling a guttural scream as she tried to get herself under control. Belatedly, she felt his arms around her and tried to throw him off, but his hold was too tight.
"Get. Off. Me. You. Shit. Head," she growled, punctuating every word with a punch to his gut on the opposite side to where he got hammered, each one causing him to grunt.
"I'm sorry Raven," he said as he buried his face into her shoulder. "I won't go, okay? I'm sorry."
Raven felt herself relaxing against her will. She punched him in the gut again. "Stupid."
She rested her forehead on his shoulder and took several deep breaths, her arms hovered around him for a moment before they dropped back to her sides. "Promise me that you won't go after the Karmesinweg alone."
"I won't."
She punched him in the gut. "I want to hear you say the words. Promise me you won't go after them on your own."
He remained quiet for a long time before sighing. "I promise."
She gave him a much weaker punch. "Say the whole thing."
"I promise not to go after them on my own," he said slowly.
She relaxed fully into his embrace, suddenly feeling exhausted. "I liked you more when I could throw you."
"Love you too, mom." he said with a chuckle, then grunted when she punched him.
She let herself be held for a minute before tapping his arm. He let go of her and she climbed to her feet then held out her arm to help him to his. She sat back at her table and refilled the cups with lukewarm tea. He sat quietly across from her, neither of them able to look at the other.
"So," she talked into her tea. "You probably wanna go look for this girl of yours, right?"
His breath caught. "I…Yeah, that'd be nice. But if you need me to stick around, I can stay."
She closed her eyes and sipped her tea. "No…I know how you get, Glynda has green eyes. Have you thought of where to go?"
"I…I was thinking Vacuo, the search got cut short last time," he answered hesitantly.
"Okay, you uhh…" She closed her eyes and sighed. "Look, I'll keep an eye on the Karmesinweg, okay? If it looks like they'll attack a settlement, I'll grab you and you can help stop them. How does that sound?"
He turned the cup slowly in his hands, staring into the tea as if it held all the answers. "What if…what if it's not in our turf?"
"I'll still keep an eye on them, okay? I'll handle it personally so you can fuck off and look for your green eyed girl in peace. Deal?"
His scowl deepened. "I can't…I can't inconvenien-"
She flicked him on the forehead. "Shut it, this is for my own sake more than yours anyways. Seriously it seems like half of all my days are spent worrying about you."
He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I…Thanks Raven, I appreciate it a lot."
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "So…Vacuo huh? You need to gather any supplies?"
He thought about it for a few moments before shaking his head. She waved a hand and a portal opened. "Off you go, give me a call when you wanna come back."
He quaffed his tea and finally looked at her. "Really. Thanks Raven."
"Yeah whatever," she brushed off with a soft smile.
He nodded and walked through the portal which winked out as she stopped supporting it. She pulled out her scroll and sent Vernal a message, a few minutes later her adjutant walked into her tent, looked around, and sighed.
"I take it he went off to search for her?" Vernal asked.
"Yup," Raven answered.
"Was it to distract him from attacking the bandit tribe on his own?"
"Yup."
"Think he'll be back in the next few days?"
"Nope."
"Did you promise to watch over the bandits and bring him back if it looks like they'll attack anyone?"
"Yup."
"Want me to put together a strike force so we can go wipe them out and save you the trouble?"
"Yup."
"Standard bullshit line about going on a raid for old time's sake?"
"Yup."
"I'll get right on it."
"Thanks."
Vernal turned around and left her tent. Raven for her part took the time to enjoy the rest of Shirou's tea. It really was unfair that anything he made tasted so good.