Beta: ShadowMeister234
An: My other story A Series of (un)Fortunate Meetings had its last chapter posted so if you've been holding that one on the backburner, there's no better time to read it. That also means this story will return to being my main focus so hopefully chapters will be coming out a little faster.
Emerald was on edge as she led Jaune down the hallway. It didn't have anything to do with their destination and everything to do with that woman she had run into yesterday. Jaune put a hand on her shoulder to try and reassure her, and to his surprise, she actually leaned into it. "It's so stupid," she said. "It's not like she's going to attack me in the middle of Beacon."
"Ren probably thought something similar and look what happened to him. It's never stupid to be careful."
"Do you think she's the one that did it?"
Jaune shook his head. "I have no idea. I haven't even seen her."
"That's true," she sighed. "I think I just wanted to know if we were going to have to face her."
Jaune lightly shook her shoulder. "You know if you're scared, you can always bunk up with me during the night. I'll protect you," he teased.
Emerald scoffed and pushed his hand off her. "I'm not scared. After everything you've put me through, I don't think it's possible for me to be afraid of anything that isn't the size of a mountain or can't level a city with its mind. I just…I don't know. I guess I was trying to forget about the person I was before I met you and seeing her was a stark reminder that I can't do that. The past never goes away."
Jaune could understand. He also didn't like to think about the Jaune who thought they could get into Beacon with nothing more than a dream and forged transcripts, but at the same time, if he had never done that, he never would have become a caretaker and never would have met his girlfriend.
"Try not to let it get to you," he told her. "You're who you are now and that's all that matters. I'll keep a lookout for our mysterious woman when I'm on my shift, and if it turns out she is that dangerous I'll alert the staff."
Jaune had thought a lot about that last night and had eventually made the decision to keep this information between him and Emerald. It wasn't because he believed this mysterious woman was in Beacon just to sightsee, but he didn't even have her name let alone any evidence against her. He could only see crying wolf doing more harm than good. Of course, if there was any indication this woman would try and hurt Emerald then Jaune would break down the Headmaster's door to let him know. If Ren's attacker slipped away or hurt someone in the process, then so be it. He had already made the mistake of putting his mission over Emerald's safety back in Cryphilictal. He wouldn't make it again.
"We're here," Emerald informed him.
The entrance to training room #1 wasn't guarded or anything like that. In fact, the only thing that made it different from the other training room entrances was a piece of paper taped to the door that read, "Closed For Maintenance."
Emerald ignored that and held her scroll up to the reader and after a few moments the door slid open and revealed how much maintenance was actually needed. The room was completely wrecked. Panels were torn out of the floor, the wall was peppered with dents, broken glass from the destroyed light fixtures covered the ground, chairs from the small bleacher area had been ripped from their bases and tossed into the practice arena, and most concerning, hundreds or perhaps thousands of little pieces of the room had transformed from its normal substance into a transparent substitute. There was little doubt that Ren's attacker had been at work here.
However, Jaune and Emerald weren't the only ones admiring the wreckage. A tall woman with white hair and an Atlas military uniform was there as well. It wasn't hard for Jaune to recognize her as the final Schnee sibling. "You must be the custodians," Winter said. "I apologize, I didn't mean to disturb you."
She didn't seem to notice that Jaune was obviously not dressed as a janitor, but then again, with Emerald by his side Winter could have been made to see anything.
"It's no problem," Jaune said. "If you still need time for your investigation, we can leave and come back later."
"That won't be necessary. The investigation is already finished. I was only observing. Seeing if I could come up with some epiphany while I was here."
"Did you?"
Winter tried to hide it, but Jaune noticed her shoulders slump slightly. "No, I did not."
"I'm guessing that means your investigation didn't go well either," Emerald concluded.
Winter's lips thinned as she was unsure if she should say anything at all. The attack on Ren was impossible to cover up, but the destroyed training room wasn't nearly as hard. If Emerald hadn't been informed it was her job to clean it up, Jaune wouldn't have known this had happened at all.
Looked like being the janitor was the right decision after all although he doubted Emerald would agree with him.
Eventually, Winter seemed to decide it didn't matter what she did or didn't tell them. With a sigh, she explained that the investigation had turned up nothing. They didn't have a single lead or suspect.
"Really?" Jaune questioned as he looked to the top corner of the room where against all odds a security camera hung completely intact. Winter followed his gaze to the camera, but seeing it only seemed to make her more disheartened.
"Yes, the camera should have caught everything, but it didn't. It's not like the footage was tampered with or the camera malfunctioned either. It was recording the entire time, it just didn't see anything."
Jaune and Emerald looked at each other in confusion. "What does that mean?" Emerald asked.
Winter shook her head. "I don't know that myself. All I know is what the tech specialist tried to explain. It was the same when Lie Ren was attacked. The cameras didn't capture that time for the same reason they don't capture 8:65 because that time doesn't exist."
"That doesn't make any sense," Jaune said.
"I realize that, but it's what happened," Winter made her way to the exit. "I asked that you clean this up as quickly as possible. We don't want the students panicking any more than they already are."
"Can magic really affect technology like that?" Emerald asked once Winter had left them.
"Magic can do whatever it wants. I doubt there's much it can't mess with."
"Do you think we're dealing with some kind of time manipulation?"
If they were Jaune couldn't imagine how dangerous this could become. It was an unsettling thought, so Jaune pushed it to the side as he looked around. Sadly, he had just as much luck as the Atlas team that came before him. That was to say he didn't find anything even remotely helpful.
The destruction was extensive but other than the little flakes of transparent material, there was nothing unique about the damage. Jaune did chip a bit of the material off the wall with his sword. Maybe he could get Whitley to analyze it or something. The camera was another point of interest, but he didn't see anything wrong with it from the outside and he didn't think Beacon would take too kindly if he tried to crack it open or take it with him. He doubted he would find anything that Atlas couldn't even if he did.
With a crime scene this barren, Jaune was forced to consider that Ren's attacker might actually be a creature from the unknown world. Destroying the training room felt completely random. Sure, Ren had probably trained here, but the same could be said for every student in Beacon. The connection just wasn't there.
Then again why would a creature bother destroying the training room either? Attacking Ren, laying low for a day, then trashing a single room didn't really lineup with a wild monster. There were also the cameras to think about. Would a creature from the unknown world even know what a camera was, and even if it did, would it care enough to tamper with it. The unknown world didn't stay unknown because its denizens were kind enough to stay out of sight.
Jaune rubbed his forehead feeling a headache coming on. As little as it made sense, it was probably best to stick with the assumption that an actual person was behind this. One that knows about cameras and knows they don't want to be caught on its footage.
"I'm assuming from the look you're giving that you completed your investigation," Emerald said.
"Yeah, I think I'm done here."
"Good," she tossed him a broom and a dustpan, "then you can help me clean up this mess."
"Woah, hang on a second. This is your job. I have to be in the kitchen in an hour."
"Then that's an hour you have to help your girlfriend clean this place up. Get to work."
Jaune grumbled but started sweeping up the broken glass.
Jaune was impressed with Beacon's library. He hadn't expected a school that mainly focused on combat to have so many books. He supposed students were assigned bookwork no matter where they went.
The reason he had come to Beacon's library after his shift was more out of desperation than anything else. The investigation into Ren's attacker had hit a hard dead end. He, Emerald, and Yang had agreed to watch over the training rooms in shifts tonight in case the attacker returned to do more damage. It was a better plan than nothing, but Jaune wasn't expecting much from their stakeout. Even though he had been lucky enough to draw the first watch, there was still a few hours left before most of the students would be done with the rooms.
Jaune didn't want to spend the downtime twiddling his thumbs, so he was trying to gather any information he could. Beacon's library was large and housed many rare and unique books, and while caretakers and Huntsmen didn't share the same world, Jaune could easily see the two worlds overlapping constantly. He had already experienced it a number of times himself. If there was any place that might hold information that his book couldn't provide him, it would probably be here.
He found an empty desk and turned on the computer terminal. The library's search database popped up on the home screen, and he took his seat. Even if nothing came of this it couldn't hurt to try. The first keyword he tried to search for was "magic." As expected he got hundreds of results from simple bedtime stories to academic articles proposing the magical properties of aura and its connection to the soul. There might have been something useful to Jaune somewhere in the results section, but it would take too long to sift through. He needed to narrow his search.
The next word he tried was "caretaker." That only resulted in cleaning guides or self-help books. He supposed it wouldn't be that easy. Next was "unknown world" which didn't result in anything helpful. Then he tried "unnatural transparent material" which didn't result in anything at all.
He probably spent another thirty minutes typing keywords, but nothing gave him what he wanted. After trying "Beacon magic," and getting nothing, Jaune leaned back in his chair to take a break.
Trying random words wasn't getting him anywhere. He needed something more concrete. He tapped his fingers on the desk and thought about what he would do if he wanted to donate a book to Beacon's library in hopes a future caretaker would find it. The first criteria was clear, he would have to give it a title that would be obvious to anyone with knowledge of the unknown world, but not so obvious that anyone would just pick it up out of curiosity. Jaune had thought "caretaker" would be an easy part of that title, but he supposed that there was no way to know if his profession had always gone by that name or if they would still use it in the future. Assuming these books, if they even existed in Beacon's library, had to be timeless in order to appeal to any generation then abstract labels they had come up with themselves like "caretaker" would be pointless. That probably meant "unknown world" was out too.
How far would that go though? Technically all words were just made-up labels that everyone agreed on. Maybe that was the key, words that everyone agreed on. Nothing where the true meaning was known only to a certain group of people. "Magic" seemed like a good candidate since everyone more or less knew what that meant, but as he had already seen, that was too broad.
His tapping grew louder as he tried to think of a suitable title, but nothing was coming to mind. Maybe he was thinking too far into it. Before he thought about a title maybe he should have a specific book in mind. If he was to donate one he really only had two options. The book Roman had given him was the obvious choice, but Jaune was pretty sure he was supposed to pass that down to someone personally. That only left the journal he had made himself.
Jaune stopped tapping as an idea struck him. If the original books were always supposed to be passed down then the only books that could end up here were books that were created by their donors. In other words: a journal.
Jaune sat up and typed "journal" into the computer knowing he wouldn't lose anything if he was wrong. He was hit with just under a hundred results which was still a lot but much more manageable especially when he was just skimming the titles.
Two immediately jumped out to him. Regent's Journal of Magic, Oddities, and that Unseen and The Journal and Guide of the Mystic World. They were both labeled as fiction which might have been all they were, but Jaune was hopeful. Those two titles just felt different like he had some sort of connection to them. He wrote down their locations and left to go find them.
That was a task a bit easier said than done. As he had noted before, Beacon's library was big and their shelf numbering system, to put it simply, made no sense. He had to go up a level and onto the balcony that ran along the inner wall just to find shelf 101.
As he was exploring, he heard whispering coming from behind one of the bookcases. Normally, Jaune wouldn't have paid any attention to schoolyard gossip, but since he was still critically low on any information and was already heading in that direction, he couldn't really be blamed if he happened to overhear a few words.
He walked a bit slower as he approached the side of the bookcase. He still couldn't make out what was being said but there seemed to only be two of them talking back and forth. He thought it sounded like one male and one female although he was less sure on that point. As he got closer, he finally caught the tail end of what was being said.
"You can count on me. I won't let anyone know."
Hearing that surprised Jaune and he accidentally took his next step a bit too heavy. The conversation on the other side instantly grinded to a halt as even the soft thud of Jaune's boot hitting carpet was enough to alert Huntsmen and Huntresses. Jaune heard a brief scuffle on the other side and by the time he had rounded the bookcase corner only one person was standing there.
"Hey dude, what's up," the monkey faunus said with a flick of his tail.
Jaune recognized him from the cafeteria but it was like night and day. Jaune remembered this guy looking so defeated and out of it that he had been a little worried about his mental health. Now the guy was all sunshine and smiles looking like he didn't have a care in the world.
"Just looking for a book," Jaune replied, "but I didn't want to be rude and walk in on your conversation."
"Conversation? I wasn't talking with anybody."
"Really because I could have sworn you were."
"Nope. Must be mistaken." This guy wasn't a very good liar. He kept avoiding eye contact and his tail curled up behind him.
Jaune pressed a bit harder. "I don't think I am. I definitely heard you say something."
"Oh, you might have just heard me talking to myself. I do that when I'm studying. Helps me remember things. Anyway, I've got to go. See you around."
Before Jaune had any chance to press him harder. The guy had sidestepped him and made a comfortable jog for the library's entrance. If Jaune tried to go after him, it would be obvious he was trying to chase the monkey faunus down. It wasn't worth the hassle or the recognition. It more than likely had nothing to do with Jaune and his job. The guy was probably just talking to his girlfriend about sneaking out over the weekend or something like that.
Jaune forgot about the incident as he found the bookcase where one of the journals was, or at least where it was supposed to be. He combed through the entire bookcase twice and even the ones next to it, but couldn't find the journal anywhere. He tried the location of the other journal and it was the same thing. These two journals were nowhere to be found.
Eventually, Jaune made his way to the library reception to ask about them. "I'm sorry. It looks like those two books have been checked out."
If Jaune still had any doubts about the authenticity of those journals, they were gone now. Books with titles like those wouldn't help anyone in passing their classes and Jaune found it highly unlikely a student would check them out for some light reading. One of them being checked out would be strange enough, but knowing it was both of them sealed it.
Jaune had finally found his lead.
"Could you tell me who checked them out?"
"I'm sorry. Telling you that would be against policy. It would be a breach of privacy, but if you want, I can put them on hold for you and contact you when they're returned."
That didn't help him at all. He needed to know where those journals were now. The frustration must have shown on his face because the librarian asked him what subject he was actually looking for, so she could make some suggestions for substitutes.
Jaune was heavily tempted to come out with the truth to see if she knew but decided against it. If she was involved with the unknown world, he felt she would have brought it up when he asked about the journals. Instead, he told her to just let him know if the journals were returned although he was hardly holding out hope for that.
It was a shame Emerald wasn't with him. Her semblance would have been helpfully in convincing the librarian to break the policy. For now, he'd just have to be grateful he had gotten a lead at all.
As expected, the training rooms were all abandoned by 11:00. While there wasn't anything stopping students from using the rooms after hours, he couldn't imagine many were willing to spend their nights working up a sweat especially when they had classes dedicated to the same thing.
That was good for the investigation since anyone coming to the training rooms this late would be instantly suspicious, but it also meant Jaune had to sit here for the next three hours alone and with nothing to do until Yang came to relieve him.
Obviously, he couldn't watch over all eight of the training rooms at once, so he had taken position in the training room closest to the one that got attacked while setting up small cameras in the other training rooms with another two in the hallway. Whitley assured him they were the best on the market and constantly submitted everything they recorded directly to the CCT. In theory, that should make it impossible to lose any footage, but knowing how Beacon's cameras had failed Jaune wasn't so sure. He had left the door to his training room open, so even if the cameras did fail, he should be able to hear if one of the other rooms was being destroyed.
With all the setup done there wasn't much else to do but wait. He sat in the spectator area with his scroll on his lap. He wished he could have watched a movie on it, but then he couldn't see the live camera feed. Not that there was anything exciting going on there. He only took occasional glances at it while he fidgeted around and thought about what he had learned.
He had been set on trying to find a connection between Ren and his attacker, but he was starting to think the answer was much simpler. Maybe the reason he couldn't find a connection was because there wasn't one. Assuming whoever checked out those books was experimenting the attack on Ren could've just been a test, or possibly an accident. Someone testing their new power would also explain why the training room was destroyed. Where better to practice your magic?
It seemed a little backward that Ren would be attacked first and then the training room would be destroyed, but then again, there was nothing saying Ren had been the first instance of this magic being used. Broken furniture and busted equipment were probably an everyday occurrence at a Huntsman academy. Yang had only contacted him because she had noticed that Ren's attack had been magical. No one said smaller test runs had to be so obvious.
Even if the attack on Ren was an accident, the training room incident proved that whoever was behind this wasn't willing to quit which meant they had to be stopped. The only thing worse than a caretaker that knew what they were doing was a caretaker who didn't.
Now, if only he had any idea who that might be.
He glanced at his scroll to see nothing on the cameras and that he was 30 minutes into his watch. He was just so bored. He rubbed his nose trying to think of something he could do when his sleeve rolled down and he noticed the silver lines running down his left arm. Jaune pulled his sleeve down to his elbow and gazed at the tattoos Cryphilictal had gifted him. He rotated his arm and counted that all eight of them were there even though he knew that some of them had disappeared when he shot them at the angel. They had come back at some point while he was in the hospital although he couldn't say when. It wasn't that he had forgotten about them, but with everything that had happened since escaping that cursed city, he hadn't had any time to really experiment with them.
His eyes moved to the empty training arena. Maybe now was the time to test his new power out. What else was he going to do in a training room?
He stood on the slightly raised arena feeling kind of exposed. It wasn't like anyone was watching him, but somehow that made it worse like he was performing a show to an invisible audience. Trying to shake those thoughts away he held his fist in front of him in the exact same way he had done it the first time.
He concentrated on what he wanted and willed the mysterious power forward, and just like last time, it responded almost too easily. One of the silver lines was stripped away from his skin and formed a silver spear of light. What was also just like last time was the agony that came with it. The skin on his arm felt like it was being peeled off like a potato, and without the adrenaline he had pumping through his veins while fighting the angel, the pain was excruciating. He collapsed to his knees, and the silver spear dissipated into the air along with his focus.
As he kneeled in the middle of the training room holding his arm and trying to hold in the tears, he did notice that the silver line he used to make the light spear was indeed gone. There also wasn't any physical damage to his arm which he guessed he should be grateful for. Another thing to be grateful for was the pain quickly subsiding. Within a minute his arm felt completely normal, no stiffness or lasting tingling. It would seem this new power only had an upfront cost to use, even if it was a hefty one.
Having that knowledge in mind, Jaune stood up and held his arm out again. Emerald would probably be pissed if she knew what he was doing, but what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her, and more importantly, it wouldn't lead to her hurting him.
With a calming breath, he readied his second attempt. A silver line was ripped from his forearm like a burning arrow. Jaune's legs shook, his arms twitched, and he bit into his bottom lip, but he managed to stay standing.
The silver spear formed and rushed forward. Jaune quickly had to change its direction or it'd hit the wall. It only took a thought for the tip of the spear to shift 90 degrees upwards and then another 90 degrees backward so it wouldn't hit the ceiling. The shaft of the spear, or maybe tail would have been a better word, followed the tip's path perfectly. It reminded him of that snake game you could play on your scroll.
It was pretty easy to control, so Jaune decided to do some experimenting and he found out several things very quickly. One, there was no additional pain from continuing to control the spear. Two, he could only change its direction at 90 and 45-degree angles and he couldn't increase or decrease its speed. Three, he didn't need to keep his arm held out for it to work. Four, he could walk around without issue. Five, he could still control it even if it left his sight although he had to guess as to where it actually was. Six, the spear's tail was constantly getting shorter. Jaune timed it and it was about twenty seconds before the tail caught up with the tip, and when that happened the spear fell apart into quickly fading shards of light.
"Amazing."
Jaune quickly spun around, in slight panic, to greet the unknown voice.
Standing in the doorway was a girl with fiery red hair and bronze armor. Her eyes were practically glowing as she stared up at the spot where the spear had dissipated before they moved down to Jaune.
Jaune's wide-eyed surprise must have been pretty obvious because the girl blushed and quickly started apologizing. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry. I just noticed the door was open, and I was curious. Then I saw what you were doing, and I'm sorry I didn't say anything. I just got transfixed, and I'm sorry if that seems strange. I really wasn't trying to sneak up on you, I swear."
Jaune had to stop the poor girl before she broke her back with all the apologetic bowing she was doing. "It's fine, really. I just wasn't expecting anyone to be out here this late."
The girl seemed to take that as her cue that she was invited in. "I normally train this late every night. I don't really like practicing when others are around," she added when Jaune gave her a strange look.
"I guess that makes sense. You have a little stage fright?"
The girl shuffled in place. "Not really, people can just get a little much around me. But what about you? I don't think I've ever seen you around."
Jaune rubbed the back of his head. "Well, that's because I'm not actually a student. I took one of the cooking jobs that Beacon had open to cover for the Vytal festival."
The girl held her hand in front of her mouth. "Really, but that was your semblance wasn't it? It was really beautiful."
That was as good an explanation as any. "It is, but I'm not very good with it so I wanted to practice, and what better place than here?" Jaune looked around the room. "I actually wanted to be a student here, but I was turned down."
"Oh, I'm sorry." She seemed genuinely sad to hear him say that.
"Don't worry. I got over it."
"That's good."
The conversation degraded into an uncomfortable silence. The girl just looked awkward and out-of-place like she had stumbled into something she wasn't supposed to but also not willing to leave. He wondered why that was. It wasn't like there weren't other training rooms she could use.
Regardless, it didn't look like she'd be leaving on her own and it might be nice to have some company. He also might be able to get some information out of her. If she really did do her training this late, then maybe she had seen something. Assuming she wasn't the culprit herself.
Jaune doubted it. The girl had been the one to approach him, not really something you did if you wanted to sneak around at night, and she seemed so self-conscious, but looks could be deceiving. He'd ask Yang about the girl when he got a chance. Speaking of which, a name would probably be helpful for that.
"Sorry, I think I forgot to introduce myself. The name's Jaune."
Jaune expected that to be an easy transition from the awkward silence back to normal conversation, but the girl only seemed to grow more nervous at the thought of introducing herself.
"What's your name?" he insisted when the girl hesitated. He noticed how her shoulders scrunched up.
"Pyrrha," she said, then she waited. It was like she was expecting something to happen as if her name was some sort of curse. When whatever it was didn't happen she tried again. "Pyrrha Nikos."
Jaune made a mental note to remember that and look into it later. "Well Pyrrha, it's nice meeting you." He offered a handshake. If Pyrrha was the culprit and wanted to harm him, this would be her perfect chance. Instead, she just looked at his held-out arm like it was something alien. Whatever was going on in her head must have passed because she grabbed his hand with a genuine smile. It was something she had yet to give, and Jaune couldn't help but notice how pretty she was like this.
Was Emerald the jealous type? Hopefully not, but Jaune thought it was pretty likely.
Scratching his cheek, he asked Pyrrha if she'd like to take a seat which she easily agreed to. They retreated to the spectator area, and Pyrrha took a seat very close to him. So close that their knees were basically touching. It was like she was an entirely different person. Gone was the reclusiveness and distance. In was the confidence and closeness.
It made him a bit uncomfortable.
"So, Jaune I know you said that you were turned down to be a student, but do you think you'll apply next year?"
"I don't think so. I've found something I'm happy with and I couldn't imagine leaving it behind."
"Are you sure?" Pyrrha leaned into him bringing them even closer together. "If you think it's because you lack the skills, I'd be glad to help train you. I'm sure we can have you ready for Beacon within the year."
Jaune held his hands up feeling like he needed to call a timeout. "No, it really is fine, but thank you for offering."
Pyrrha fell back in disappointment. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure, but if we're talking about training, do you mind if I ask you something?" Jaune desperately wanted to change the topic.
"About what?"
"You said this is the time you normally train at. Have you noticed anything strange?"
"Like?"
Jaune wasn't quite sure how to explain it. "I'm not sure. Just something unexpected."
She tilted her head in thought. "I can't say that I have. I'm basically the only one ever training this late, so I think I would notice if something was off. Although, I guess meeting you was pretty strange." She giggled.
Jaune just shook his head. "That's not what I meant. What about last night. Did you see anything then?"
"Sorry, but I wasn't actually here last night. I had a meeting with the headmaster that day and it gave me a lot to think about." She started to trail off.
"Wait you weren't here last night?"
Pyrrha nodded. "I wasn't. Why, is that a problem?"
It wasn't a problem, but the one night Pyrrha wasn't here being the one night the training room got attacked sure was a coincidence. "Your normal training room wouldn't happen to be training room #1, would it?"
Pyrrha gasped. "How did you know?"
Jaune hissed. No doubt about it now. One way or another Pyrrha Nikos was involved. "Do you know Lie Ren?"
"I know of him, but I can't really say I know him. Isn't he the student that got attacked a few nights ago…oh, is that what this is about?"
Jaune ignored her for the time being. "Sorry, I just have one more question. It's going to sound really strange but bear with me. Did you check out any weird books from Beacon's library recently?"
She looked confused. "No. I've only checked out a few history books for Dr. Oobleck's class."
Was she lying? Jaune didn't think so, but he also wasn't the best judge at that sort of thing. Assuming she was telling the truth, where did that leave him? Honestly not much better than where he started. The training room attack was centered around Pyrrha, he had learned that, but that still didn't give a clear connection to Ren's attack.
Actually, there was one big connection. Both attacks had occurred around people who had a known schedule of being alone at some point during the night. What if the connection between the two wasn't personal but opportunity. If Pyrrha was the target instead of the culprit, then a lot of things fell into place. It was possible the culprit had just gotten unlucky and attacked the training room on the one night Pyrrha happened not to be there. Then all the damage could be the result of some tantrum when the culprit realized they screwed up, or they could have used whatever magic they had right out of the gate without checking to see if their target was really there.
Yes, Jaune liked this theory. It added to the idea that the culprit was just some novice playing around with their new powers. If he was right, then finding whoever checked out those library books was priority number one.
Deep in thought as he was, he pretty much completely forgot about the girl sitting next to him. "You're not a Beacon cook, are you?" She asked after watching his facial expressions for a while.
Jaune stopped his line of thinking to gaze at the girl that had cracked his true purpose so easily although that was probably his fault more than it was her deduction. "I am a cook, but I'm also a bit more than that," he admitted. "I've been asked to look into what happened with Lie Ren." Not by anyone official, but Pyrrha didn't need to know that part.
"I see," she played with her fingers in her lap before turning back to him almost eagerly. "Do you think I can help?"
Jaune was completely taken aback at this unprompted request. "What?"
"I asked if I can help out with your investigation. I might not have any experience, but I'm confident in my combat skills, and I have a lot of free time. Don't you think it would also be helpful to have a partner that can easily blend in with the students?"
He already had a partner that could easily blend into anywhere, but beyond that, the fact she was so willing to jump right on board was really suspicious. Not suspicious in that he was reevaluating her as a potential culprit, but suspicious enough that Jaune was starting to think this girl might have a bit of a screw loose. After all, she was still wandering around at night despite knowing a student was recently attacked for the exact same thing.
"Sorry, but I don't really think I can do that. I don't think Beacon would appreciate me recruiting one of their students to assist in a dangerous investigation. Not even to mention all the legal and liability hurdles I'd have to go through."
Pyrrha looked crushed. Frankly more crushed than she had any right to be for such an absurd request.
"If you don't mind me asking, why do you want to help so bad?" Jaune asked.
She continued to fiddle with her fingers. "I know it's not the noblest reason, but I just thought it would be nice to help out and work together with a friend."
Friend? Is that what she thought they were? They hadn't even known each other for a full hour. Even acquaintances would feel like too close of a title at this point. They were barely more than strangers.
"Don't you have a team to do that kind of stuff with?"Jaune immediately realized he might have said something he shouldn't since Pyrrha looked like she had just swallowed a lemon.
"My team and I don't really get along. They aren't mean or anything like that; I'm just too different from them."
Seeing the girl so sad and lonely forced Jaune's brother instincts to kick in, and he gave her a few comforting pats on the back. "Don't worry. It's still early in your school career. I'm sure once your team gets to know the real you it will get better." Somehow his words seemed to make her feel worse. He needed something else, and against his better judgment, he came up with something. "You know, even if we can't be partners I can still do some training with you while I'm here."
"Really!" That really seemed to brighten Pyrrha up as she snapped to attention. "I'm available tomorrow morning if that works for you."
Jaune winced. "I have work in the morning." Even if it was true it still felt like an excuse.
"Do you really have to investigate the attacker during that time?" She said skeptically.
"No, it's not that. It's my regular work as a cook. I'll be making breakfast tomorrow."
Pyrrha deflated. "Oh, I guess you can't reschedule that then."
"No can do."
"And I have classes throughout the day. I guess that only leaves us with night training."
Jaune winced again. "Actually, I don't think that's a good idea. The culprit is still on the loose, and students really shouldn't be wandering around at night. In fact, you should probably stop these late-night sessions altogether. It's dangerous and I have a feeling you might be a prime target.
If Pyrrha was sad before, now she was absolutely devastated. "I see, well maybe another day then."
"Maybe then."
The infirmary was dark, cold, and quiet. Three of Nora's least favorite things. She would put up with it for Ren's sake though. Not that she was really helping with anything. Ren's condition hadn't changed a bit. He just slept completely unaware of her increasing worry or sleepless nights.
Nora's teachers and her teammates told her she needed rest, and logically, she knew they were right, but they also didn't understand. Ren was much more than just her best friend or lifelong crush. He was her other half and without him, she didn't know who she even was. She'd give anything for him to wake up even if it was just for a moment. Just long enough for him to tell her what to do.
Her teammates were no help on that matter. It wasn't that they didn't care, they did, but they didn't have the attachment she did. She hated to think it because she knew it wasn't true, but sometimes it felt Weiss viewed Ren's attack as more of an inconvenience to the team than an emotional loss. It didn't help that her dear leader had been acting like a massive bitch ever since she had that lunch with her family. At this rate, Nora was starting to prefer Cardin's company.
She just wished they would act more concerned. In fact, she wished everyone would act more concerned, but it felt like the only thing anyone cared about was the Vytal festival. Even her teammates were still training for the festival as if that was more important than Ren.
Nora bunched her skirt in her hands and tried not to cry. Why did no one care? Why wasn't anybody doing anything? Why did it have to be Ren?
The door to the infirmary opened softly letting in some of the light from the hallway. Nora reached down where Magnhild laid at her feet. She wasn't just here to fret over Ren. She was here to protect him in case his attacker tried to finish the job.
She watched the door carefully as it opened in full and in stepped probably the last person she expected to see. Sulfur held a plastic box with a cake slice in his hand and a bottle of water under his arm. "I thought you'd be here." The ever-present smile he always had was firmly in place. Honestly, Nora had always found it a bit uncanny, but now she saw some comfort in it.
"What are you doing here?" she asked as he walked up to her.
"I thought you might like a care package." He pressed the cold water bottle against her cheek and it made her realize how thirsty she was. She couldn't even remember the last time she had something to drink.
She took the bottle and emptied half of it in one gulp. Sulfur only chuckled and handed her the cake slice. It was strawberry flavored and Nora dug into it with equal fever. "Why are you doing this? It's not like we know each other all that well?"
"Do you need to know someone to do something nice for them?" Sulfur grabbed a chair and sat by her side. "But if you want a real answer, I'm doing this because I know what it's like to sit by your unresponsive partner's bed just thinking about how it all went wrong."
Nora's eyes widened and her lips parted. That was exactly how she felt. The feelings that no one else seemed to understand.
Sulfur placed a hand on her shoulder. "I couldn't do anything for Ruby when she was like this and I can't do anything for Ren, but I can do something for you. I came here because it's what I wanted when I was in your position. Some food and some company really does go a long way."
Nora couldn't take it anymore. She broke down. She grabbed onto Sulfur like he was a life ring and sobbed into Sulfur's shoulder. "It's not fair! Why did it have to be him? Why doesn't anyone care? Why aren't they doing anything to help him? Why do I have to be alone?"
Sulfur rubbed her back. It felt nice. "I know it might feel like your whole world is collapsing in on you, but don't give up. I won't insult you by promising everything will be okay, but I can promise you that, eventually, it does get better."
Nora looked up at him with teary eyes. "You mean it?"
Sulfur rubbed the top of her head. "I do. Just listen to me and you'll get through this. I'll stay by your side as long as it takes."
For the first time in days, Nora smiled.
Sulfur did too.
Atlas Report
The substance (henceforth referred to as Specimen A) recovered from Beacon training room #1 by Specialist Schnee is highly unusual. After intensive analysis, we have determined Specimen A really isn't a new substance at all. In fact, Specimen A shares the exact same properties as its original material (in this case stainless steel) even on the molecular level. Obviously, the sole exception to this is the transparent characteristic the material gains.
The only explanation for this phenomenon seems to be the use of an unregistered semblance. While certainly interesting, there doesn't seem to be much practical use to this modification. Reinforced glass and dust shields are more than adequate at producing a transparent protective barrier.
The one use that may be gained should Atlas obtain this semblance could be the ability to produce entirely invisible Atlesian Knights or other machinery. It may even be possible to create invisible human soldiers (Lie Ren has already proved Specimen A can be created from organic material). Of course, this is not a recommendation as there would be serious ethical concerns since as of yet there are no ways to reverse the effect. Even use for Atlesian Knights is not recommended since repair and maintenance would be close to impossible to perform.