Chapter 17
Jaune grunted as he swung his blade down, ending another of the Beowolves. The Grimm had been dealt with quickly and now it was the tedium of clean up and making sure none survived. This was a strange feeling for Jaune, barely a year ago, a fight against even a single beowolf was likely to end his life and now they had been reduced to little more than busywork. Thoughts of his improvement brought back memories of the chaos at Beacon, but he had grown accustomed to pushing them out of his mind.
It had been around five months since Beacon had fallen, or so they thought. It was hard to tell these days. Of course, they had been travelling for far less than that, but even that time had grown hazy. It had all started to flow together. He'd joked that there was only three days in a week now. Yesterday, today and tomorrow.
It was easy to tell that time had passed of course. They had all grown, in height and otherwise. He was sure Ruby was a bit taller now. The biggest change though was in their attire, at least for some. He and Ruby hadn't had a chance to change yet. Her because she hadn't found what she was looking for, or so she said, and him because they didn't have the metals he needed for better armour.
The other three were all happy with their changes, however. Ren had a new, longer coat but had run out of hair ties, leaving it long, wild and free. Nora had gone for a similar style to her old outfit but had changed a few things, namely her new jacket. Pyrrha had changed quite a lot, however.
Pyrrha had taken a more comfortable approach to her gear, more suited for wearing it all day every day. A burgundy red t-shirt underneath a black sleeveless hoodie (which he had helped her pick out). Black fingerless gloves that reached up to her elbows and black leggings that reached to her mid-thigh. And then came her armour, still a bright shining bronze colour. She had a large chest plate, reinforced to protect her vitals, as well as large vambraces for her arms and knee-high armoured boots, all lined with red now. In honour of the fallen, she had also wrapped a pair of crimson cloths around her waist over a pair of shorts, one dropping down over her left leg while the other was closer to a miniature cape, covering the back of her right leg. Golden chains held them in place, pinned in place by a silver version of her emblem. To top it all off she had also run out of hair ties, leaving her hair mostly free-flowing, barring her circlet which was a little smaller than her previous one.
All in all, she looked as stunning as always and if Jaune was honest, he found himself… appreciating her updated style a lot more than he used to.
"Jaune?"
I mean, look at her! Since when could she be so casual! It looks good on her is all I'm saying.
"Jaune?"
And how often did she let her hair down? Not often from what I remember.
"Jaune!?"
And that hoodie. I have a lot of experience with them but I would never have guessed she would wear one so well!
"Jaune!" A hand lightly slapped his face, pulling him out of his thoughts. Ruby looked up at him, her face showing her annoyance for all to see. "And he returns to the land of the living."
"Uh yeah! Sure. What happened?" He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"You killed at Grimm and then stood there staring off into the distance for a couple minutes there. We're heading back." Ruby glared at him and he couldn't help but feel a little guilty.
"Right. Sorry. Won't happen again."
"Just keep your head in the game when we're on a hunt." She turned and walked away from him. "You can daydream back at camp."
"Yea, sorry." He sighed and followed. Sometimes he found it hard to concentrate out here. He'd never gone camping with girls his age that he wasn't related too. It might seem like only a small difference and logistically, it was, but to him, it made a world of difference. The worst part was he didn't have anyone to share his challenges with, Ren seemed perfectly used to it.
There was just something about waking up in the morning in a camp with three attractive girls. Not that he was attracted to them! Wait that didn't sound right. Jaune sighed in defeat and let it go. Ruby was right, he couldn't let it distract him on a mission.
No matter how hard it was every morning. Privacy was a hot commodity out here, and he had gotten precious little of it. Maybe he could get some alone time at the nearby village?
"Thank you very much! Those Grimm had been getting in the way of our hunters!" The elderly man in charge of the village gave them a deep bow. "With them gone our people won't starve."
"It was nothing more than our duty, sir." Ruby responded a little awkwardly.
"Of course but I can't let you go without a reward! We don't have much, but we will try to repay you!"
"If you have any extra supplies we could take that would be most helpful, but don't put yourselves out. We couldn't accept anything if it would harm the village."
"Of course! We have some preserved meats you could take!" The elderly man led her through the village to collect their reward. It wasn't what they needed but she couldn't take their money. The village needed it just as much as they did. The others took care of checking their gear, they needed to be ready at any moment after all.
"Here you are, little lady!" The man handed her a stack of packaged meat.
"Thank you. This will help us out a lot."
"It's nothing compared to what you've done for us!"
She bade the man her goodbyes and rejoined her team. Her new team. If she could get used to that. They stayed the night in the calm and peaceful village, still taking watches as always.
They would never be caught off guard again. She wouldn't allow it.
She awoke the next morning from another nightmare, filled with fire and death as usual. It was happening so often she was becoming used to it all. She didn't even make a sound this time. Maybe this is what everyone meant when they said it would get better. The pain didn't go away, you just learnt how to hide it.
The bright sun watched them as they quickly had breakfast and left without much fanfare, even if the people would have wanted to show some. It just wasn't their style.
Ruby took point as usual, Jaune and Ren in the centre with the map and Ren's sensing skills with Nora and Pyrrha covering the back of their little train.
The day dragged on, it consisted of little more than walking. And walking. And walking. But Ruby kept alert, even as the others' attention waned. Even as her own was threatened with thoughts of her father and Uncle, of teams CFVY and SSSN, of the teachers and students who had stayed behind to take Beacon back. Even Roman and his criminal friends popped into her mind every so often.
She didn't dwell on any of those thoughts, however. Her mind needed to be strong and on task. She'd admonished Jaune for daydreaming, she wasn't about to be a hypocrite.
Another long day of traversing the woods passed them by. And another. And another. It was exhausting, both mentally and physically. But that didn't stop them, not even from nightly training.
They swapped every night. Two trained together while one kept watch and the other two slept early. They only trained for an hour before moving into more normal shifts, with one awake and the rest sleeping for a couple hours. Then the next morning they had breakfast and moved on, travelling most of the day.
It was… boring. The only thing that kept it fresh was the occasional Grimm, and they never lasted long enough for the adrenaline to really kick in.
It wasn't quite what she had imagined.
Pyrrha took in a deep breath and focused, hand raised toward a tree. She closed her eyes and felt for it, the power that slumbered within. She'd used it on instinct before, but trying to bring it out willingly and creating a controlled effect was much more difficult.
It wasn't quite the same as using a Semblance. That was a part of you, once you figured it out it just clicked and you could use it. Perhaps there was more to learn but activation became second nature. For magic however, it took far more effort to draw upon. Pyrrha wasn't sure if it was just like that or if it was different due to how little of the power she held or the method in which she received it.
She shook her head and refocused, took aim and forced the power through her. A spear of jagged ice flew from her hand and pierced the tree. She smiled and wiped the sweat from her brow.
She turned, took aim at another tree and fired a blast of air, peeling the bark off. She pulled on the earth beneath her and drew the dirt together, forming a ball of tightly packed dirt and launched it at a different tree. The sphere broke upon impact, but not without leaving a sizable crater.
Pyrrha breathed a little more heavily now as she turned on another tree, summoning a bolt of lightning. It slammed into the tree, flash cooking it and causing a large steam explosion. Bark pelted the area, a few pieces bouncing off of her Aura.
She panicked and summoned a gust of wind, pulling it into a tight cyclone and drained the oxygen out of the area around the charred tree. The fires within died, deprived of their food. Pyrrha let it disperse and sunk to the floor.
"That wasn't the best idea…" She mumbled to herself. She stared at the burnt and charred tree. It reminded her of the battle on the tower. That could have been me. Probably should have been too. She shook her head. She shouldn't think that way!
She had learned a lot about her new power over the last few months. She didn't have much of it, but that little could be devastating. She could throw plenty of energy into each attack, like that bolt of lightning, if she only needed a few, stronger strikes. Or she could use smaller amounts, like using the wind to lightly push a target in a direction. That was similar to how she had learned to use her Semblance.
Using it in a small burst like that wasn't enough. It was just what she had always done. What had made her the Invincible Girl and what had made her lose to Cinder. What use was subtle manipulation against someone like that? There was no metal to move and Pyrrha doubted pushing her with wind would work very well.
She needed to learn her real limits. For both this new power of hers and her Semblance. Pyrrha took in another deep breath and stood tall, focusing her energy one last time. Winds gathered beneath her and pulled her up, it left her floating a few inches off the ground. She hovered there for about half a minute before she lost control and fell back to the ground.
"Whew… a couple more seconds than last time." Tension fell from her body and she smiled. She cleaned up what she could and returned to camp, where Jaune stood watch and Ren sat, training his senses.
She'd been learning a lot with them all, and was already starting to properly contribute. She had picked up hunting quickly enough and picking up firewood wasn't hard once you knew what to look for. She still didn't do so well with plants. But she had learned what a couple of edible berries and roots looked like!
But she felt better now that she could contribute. It added into the attitude she was taking. The Invincible Girl had died at the top of Beacon Tower, slaughtered by Cinder Fall. Pyrrha wasn't that person anymore.
All she was now, is the partner of Jaune Arc and member of team JNPR. And really that's all she wanted to be these days. She gave Jaune a bright smile, which he returned, as she returned to the camp and prepared herself for bed.
Well… there was one thing she wanted to change…
A/N: The beginning of RNNJR's adventures in Anima begin! Still not sure on that name though. Jaune takes a liking to Pyrrha's new outfit, they help out a village and Pyrrha trains hard. In regards to Pyrrha's outfit, I had some trouble initially coming up with it, but while trolling the internet I found some great art of a Post-Fall Pyrrha. Pretty sure it was of a timeline where Jaune died instead but I liked it a lot, so I based hers here off of it. I don't think I can post a link, but I believe it was posted to the RWBY subreddit by someone called TifaHaruno and I think the artist's twitter is y8ay8a. I liked it at least.
I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you next time!