Not much to say here. Thank you for all your support Members and Guest I really appreciate it. Here is my longest chapter yet. I hope everybody enjoys.
Beta Reader: BlackJackHero
Chapter 4
Arslan expects a lot of things in her life. She is by no means entitled; blood, sweat, and tears have gone into everything she has accomplished. When she was named leader of her own team, she found herself overjoyed and ready prove she could lead her peers. Her partner, Reese, follows her orders and suggestions without any problems, and so did the duo of Bolin and Nadir, at first.
The initiation is fine, but afterwards things started to fall apart. Arslan voiced that the team needs to improve and began encouraging the others to pick up more training in addition to what they did in class. This was fine for the first few days, until she caught the boys slacking off and began to lecture them on how this will only hurt the team.
This continued as she saw them slacking off more and more during the time set aside for individual training. This made the boys feel like they were being pestered, and the irritation started to bleed into the team exercises. Little mistakes kept piling up until eventually it came to a head and erupted into a shouting match that Reese tried to stop. Unfortunately, things didn't work out and the boys feel like they had as much as they could take.
They asked to resign, pointing out their lack of motivation. Arslan expected the next pair to be highly motivated, put together, and ready to listen. So, when she enters her common room with her partner and is greeted by two very smelly boys, passed out and contaminating the furniture, she is at a loss.
"No seriously, they smell really bad." States Reese still waving her hand. "Like the boys' bathroom after that prank Sun pulled. Oooo, Oooo, or like a pet that got attacked by Grimm and was left to die on the road. Or-"
"Yeah, I get it Reese, they reek." the dark-skinned girl grimaces and approaches the couch with the blonde on it. "And they are staining the furniture." She places her foot on the back of the couch and with a little force, sends it flipping with the blonde still on it.
Two sets of eyes snap open, as Jaune hits the floor he reaches out and grabs the small coffee table, swinging it towards where the couch was. Cardin springs up from the chair before slamming his foot down, causing a small quake that makes the unsuspecting girls stumble. The table connects with the stumbling Arslan causing her to fall, but before she can really grasp what's happening, Jaune clambers on top of her and freezes while Cardin charges Reese and pins her against the wall, fist drawn back and ready to strike.
"Cardin, wait!" yelling Jaune tries to catch Cardin's attention.
Pausing mid swing, "What?" questions the ginger boy.
"Friendlies."
Cardin blinks a few times before moving his arm, letting the small green haired girl slide down the wall till her feet touch the floor. "Sorry bout that, kinda wound up."
"It's...ok" answers Reese a little apprehensively. "But you might want to help your friend up before Ars-" a confusing sound from the male blonde causes both Cardin and Reese to look at where the two are on the ground.
They see Arslan holding Jaune up with one hand as she rises from the floor. The suspended boy begins to flail about a little after being lifted so suddenly. "Wha...Um, would you mind putting me down..." scratching the back of his head, he looks down from his elevated position, pausing as if trying to remember something. "Sorry, I don't think I got your name."
She uses very little effort and tosses her fellow blonde over to the flipped couch. He collides with the couch and lets out a small grunt. Cardin walks over and offers his hand to pull his partner off the couch. After standing back up, they face the girls on the opposite side of the room and take the time to look them over.
Both are shorter than the boys, with the dark-skinned blonde being a little taller. Her hair is platinum blonde, her eyes are an olive green, and she is dressed in a yellow robe with one loose-fitting sleeve over a black tube top that matches her black pants and shoes. For accessories, she wears a red sash with an endless knot on it and sticks of the same color in her hair leaning to her left side.
The shorter one is wearing a dark purple hooded sweater over another sweater that is mauve in color and black shorts. Her green hair, that almost matches her teal eyes, draws attention to her face where she has one thick stripe under each eye taking up most of her cheeks. Bringing the whole look together are some black elbow and knee pads, and some high-top sneakers.
The girls inspect the boy in a similar manner, but the boys horrible state doesn't give them much to go on. "Well, I'll start. Hi, my name is Reese Chloris." sticking her hand out before quickly pulling it back after smelling the boys' stench. "And you guys kind of reek."
"Yea we haven't really been able to bath properly for a while." Jaune laughing continues "Jaune, Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, and ladies love it." Arslan shoots him a deadpan, while Reese laughs a little. "Yea, that's about the usual response."
"Cardin Winchester." crossing his arms and puffing his chest out. "No cheesy pick-up line needed."
Everybody turns slightly looking at Arslan. She rolls her eyes. "Arslan Altan." looking back at the two boys she asks, "How long are you two gonna stand there stinking up the place?"
"We just got in from a really rough trip and we don't have anything of our own." Cardin speaks up
"Yeah, we looked around the room when we got here and decided to clean off. But then we remembered we lost all of our belongings at the start of the trip." Jaune continues "We would've requested something from the headmaster but..." trailing off, he motions to the state they are in.
"Oh yea, here." Reese holds out two scrolls for the ginger and blonde duo. "Headmaster asked us to bring these to you." The boys take the scrolls while offering thanks. "And he also said you should call these numbers when you get a moment."
Jaune looks at the names on the paper, and he seems to freeze briefly, before giving a slight nod in confirmation. "Yea...when I get a chance." I wonder why Ruby and Nora want to talk to me? Maybe they just want to talk? Or maybe they just want to berate you for lying and hurting them? I…I think I'll just put this away till I feel ready to call. I'm just glad to know that they've woken up.
"You shouldn't ignore girls like that. Or, is it some kind of complicated relationship thing? Funny; you don't look like the type, maybe your sisters? Or -"
A knock stops Reese from continuing, she walks over and opens the door to come face to face with Ms. Faunt. "Hello Ms. Chloris, I have brought your new teammates some temporary supplies until they can get their things in order."
Arslan walks over and takes the bag containing some clothes, razors, soaps, and other basics. "Thank you, Ms. Faunt, we'll take it from here. And we'll show our new teammates around and help them get familiar with the school."
"Thank you, Ms. Altan. If you boys are in need of anything else, you can use your scrolls to notify the staff. This window will only last for the next two days, after that you'll both be the same as any other student." Both Jaune and Cardin bow slightly to the Faunus teacher and offer thanks.
After the teacher leaves, Arslan throws the bag to the blonde, "Well? Hurry up, shower, and get changed so we can show you around the place."
"Which one of these is the bathroom?" Asks the ginger boy.
Reese points to the two doors to the right of the kitchen, "Those are our rooms, mine is on the right and Arslan's is the other one." Pointing to two of the rooms on the other side, "Those rooms are empty, so you are free to have them and the far room is the bathroom."
"We have a couple rules here: keep your stuff in your room, always knock. Always." Arslan whole face seems to grow sterner at that. "If you use the kitchen, clean up after yourself. This common room belongs to everyone so treat it with respect."
"And never, under any circumstances, are you to enter our rooms." Arslan's hand begins to emit a cracking sound as she half closes it. "Do so, and the Grimm will be the last of your concerns. Now get cleaned up."
"Yes ma'am" comes Jaune's response as he stands up straight, before he notices Cardin has already run into the bathroom, leaving him standing there awkwardly with their new teammates. "So, what do you guys like to do?"
"I like riding around on Fairy Fire, hanging out, going clubbing, and eating." Reese answers swiftly. "If it's fun, I believe it's worth doing at least once."
"Sorry, what is Fairy Fire?"
"That's the name of my hoverboard; it's really cool. I'd let you try it, but you look like the type to fall after two seconds."
"Hey, I would last at least four." Jaune's serious response makes Reese pause and then start laughing. "What about you Arslan?"
She just stares at Jaune for a few seconds. He doesn't look like he will be able to handle the responsibility. Their reaction wasn't bad, but he clearly needs work. He moved very clumsily, even when he had the element of surprise.
"You don't seem like much." Jaune visibly flinches at these words as if he was punched. Looks like he might also have some confidence issues. "What kind of leader do you think you're going to be?"
"Wait, what are you talking abou-"
"The Headmaster has named you leader of Team AACC. Even with your supposed high leadership score, you don't give off the feeling of a competent leader."
Jaune flinches again. "I-"
"Jaune, the bathroom is free." Cardin speaks out, cutting through the rising tension in the room. "Can't feel good standing around smelling like that." Jaune gives him a small nod in thanks as he gathers his portion of the stuff they were given.
Now that he is cleaned up, shaven, and in Haven Academy shirt and sweatpants, Reese and Arslan are able to get a better look at him. The ginger is well built, clearly a strength type fighter who relies on his physique to make up for his short comings. He looks to be stand around 6ft 5inches and seemingly radiates confidence.
This one seems to be the arrogant type, probably gifted most things from birth. Most likely hasn't been put in his place judging by his body language and the picture he took for the scroll ID. I don't want to judge just based on that little bit of info, but he isn't really showing me anything different.
"Hey Arslan." Reese interrupts her thoughts. "Don't you think that was a bit much?" Their attention is drawn over to Cardin who walks into the kitchen and begins to make some type of drink after searching the cupboards.
"What? No, if he is going to be our leader, we need him to show he can be." She answers
"You would need to give him a chance first." Comes Cardin's voice from the kitchenette.
"We should be able to see it in his every action." Arslan shoots back, and notices Cardin staring back at her flatly. "You got a problem with what I'm saying?"
"No." comes Cardin's curt reply "Just reflecting." It isn't much longer till a clean-shaven and better smelling Jaune emerges from the bathroom, wearing the same attire as Cardin, the girls take this time to look him over. He looks to be about three inches shorter than the ginger and at first glance most would say he is on the scraggly side, but he has a slim muscular build, still a work in progress but well on its way, though it would normally be hidden by that ruined sweater he arrived in.
"That is just what you need after a couple weeks on the road. Just wish there was a bath." Sighing in relief, Jaune grabs one of the three warm cups Cardin sets down.
"The school does have a bathhouse." Reese chirps trying to get thing back on track while following suit. "We'll show it to you during the tour."
"Cool, it's been a while since I've been to one of those. Do you girls mind if me and my partner get a second?" Both girls nod and step out for a second. "Thanks for the drink man, it's really waking me up."
"No problem, what'd you wanna talk about?"
"I'm going to tell them about my situation."
"Now? Why? I don't know about the green one, but the other blonde doesn't seem like the type to take it well. I heard her ripping into you before I got out here."
"Yea, but at this point, I just want to focus on getting better without the distracting secrets and all."
"Are you gonna tell them I'm the one who sold you out?" Cardin ask in a slightly trepid manner.
"No way, I'm already about to cause a bunch of trust issues for our new team." Jaune waiving his hand in front of him goes on. "Plus, that's your thing to tell, not mine. I already know and trust you, but you should probably give them time."
Scratching the back of his head Jaune doesn't stop "But knowing my luck…Arslan would commend you for your actions." Cardin just stares at Jaune face before sighing guiltily. If you're like this, I can't help but think how bad I've been till now.
"Right, at least wait till after the tour before you tear our new team apart." patting the blonde's shoulder as he makes for the door.
Reese leads everyone through the school pointing out things like the forge, workout areas, library, and sparring arenas. "So where are you guys from? I'm from Windpath."
"I'm from a small settlement not too far from Vale; it's called Ansel." Jaune responds
"I'm from Vale proper. Born and raised there." Cardin answers.
Everybody turns slightly to a silent Arslan as they continue to walk. She doesn't answer and just faces forward not paying the small talk any attention. Jaune carries on "Ok then, so did you two know each other before coming to Haven? And what happened with your last teammates?"
Arslan bristles at the last question and sharply turns to face her fellow blonde, causing him to stumble a little. "Why do you want to know?" she says aggressively.
"Um, just curious? I wanted to know why they decided to quit."
"Are you implying we made them quit."
"What? No, I'm was just wondering if they had some special circumstances." Pausing a little, he questions the dark-skinned woman. "Did you make them quit?"
"No! They just couldn't handle the responsibility of being huntsmen!"
Reese pops up in front of Arslan. "Yes, we knew each other before coming here. We met at Sanctum Academy and decided that we would both attend Haven. We've been friends for a long time."
"Nice cover." Cardin states sarcastically, causing Reese to glare up at him. "Woah, chill out little green. I was just messing around."
"Reese." Cardin looks at her in confusion. "My name is Reese, not little green."
It's Jaune's turn to divert as he asks, "What is Sanctum Academy."
"You've never heard of Sanctum? It's a primary combat school."
"Ah, that makes sense, but I feel like I've heard the name before."
"Well yea, most people have, it's the school the Pyrrha Nikos graduated from."
At the mention of Pyrrha both Jaune and Arslan flinch, but only the female blonde notices Jaune's reaction. Reese and Cardin don't catch this, so the conversation continues uninterrupted. "So where is it at?" the ginger questions.
"It's in Argus. You know, the city with that big Atlas base in Mistral."
Jaune rejoins the conversation, "Oh yea, my sister lives there." The small talk continues as does the tour ending with them back at their room, but Arslan never really participates and continues to eye the male blonde. Once they got back to their common space, Reese pulls Arslan into her room.
"You know, if you stared at him any harder, people would start to talk." Reese says when they close the door.
"Please, no one would talk like that."
"But really, what do you think of them?"
"Pretty much what I guessed from their pictures. The big one is arrogant, but I will admit he seems deeper than I first thought. As for the blonde, I still don't believe him to be much of anything."
"What? Really? He seems like a nice guy, kinda corny and goofy, but still nice. And it looks like he's earned the respect of Cardin somehow."
"Who?"
Reese shoot her a deadpan, "The big ginger." Really? She didn't even listen to them when they introduced themselves. She's really hung up on this leader thing. Maybe I can help her get it back.
"Right, well it doesn't matter what we think of them. They're our teammates now."
"Maybe we can get you back into the leadership role? We might be able to appeal to the Headmaster."
"Yea, we can always bring our dissatisfaction up with Headmaster Lionheart and Ms. Faunt."
A knock at the room door brings their conversation to close. Jaune's voice comes through "Can you girls come out here to the common room? I have something to tell you."
The girls leave the bedroom and join the boys in the common space. The couch and chair the boys ruined seem to be as clean as new. "Did you guys clean the couch and chair?" Reese asks.
"Nah" Cardin waves it off. "We contacted the staff since they were broken."
"They were broken?"
"Yea, my semblance broke the legs on the chair and Jaune's body broke the couch."
"So, what do you want to tell us?"
"I just don't want there to be any secrets to distract us. I want to let you to know why I transferred here and a little bit about my circumstances." Jaune states while taking a seat and motioning for them to sit.
"I'll start by saying that it has always been my dream to be a huntsman. I used to bug my dad about training me every time he was home from a mission or was working locally. My family has a long history of being heroes and has always managed to make a name for themselves… and I wanted to be like them." The blonde leans forward with his hands together as he continued.
"But my dad always turned me down. Eventually I took drastic measures and ended up forging my transcripts to get into Beacon."
"You did what!?" Came Arslan's voice accompanied by the snapping sound of the couch frame as she kicked it with her heel.
"I know it sounds bad, but I wanted, no, needed to be a huntsman and was willing to do what I had to."
"You could've gotten yourself hurt or killed." the lioness continued. "What would your parents have thought. They probably would've blamed themselves for not training you."
Jaune and Cardin just stared at Arslan as she continued to talk about the risk to himself and how his death or injury would've hurt those around him. Jaune leans over to the ginger boy, "That is not the kind of response I was expecting."
"Yeah, this side of her really catches people off guard." Reese chimes in
Arslan turns to them after her small tirade and Jaune takes this opportunity to continue the story. "Someone found out my secret and used it to blackmail me into doing stuff for them. I was writing reports or getting food for them and their team, and before I knew it, they were asking me to help them get back at my partner, Pyrrha, for embarrassing them." Hearing this name Arslan tensed again, but it goes unnoticed.
"Things came to a head and I finally stood up to them, but during our fight the rapier wasps still got out," Reese gasp at the mention of the dangerous Grimm, and Arslan's face grows solemn. "But instead of hitting the person they were aiming for, the leader of another team and one of my teammates got caught up in all of it. This caused them to get injured and both our teams blamed me for it."
"Both me and the person who was blackmailing me, ended up in trouble with the staff. Turns out Headmaster Ozpin was aware of my fake transcripts and allowed me into the school because he saw potential in me."
"But if he knew, then how did you end up transferring over here?" Reese questions
"I was given the chance to talk to our teams about the incident and explain what was going on, and if they could forgive me, I was hoping to stay. When I went to tell them everything, Pyrrha was in the middle of telling them about my transcripts. And their responses were…less than friendly, so the headmaster gave me the opportunity to transfer instead."
"And your friend came with you? Wow, you seemed kind of dick-ish at first, but I can respect someone who sticks by their friend."
"Agreed, I can respect someone sticking with their friends." Arslan follows up. "But this just reinforces my thoughts on your leadership. You should've gone to your team and friends about the problem, even if it meant exposing your own lies."
"Yea, I get that now. Which is why I am telling you girls about this."
"It's good you understand. Now all we need to do is appeal to Headmaster Lionheart and have me reinstated as leader."
"Hold up." Cardin interjects "Who said anything about changing leaders? This isn't a knock on you but," the ginger jerks his thumb at Jaune. "I think Jaune will be the better leader, even if he isn't trained."
"Excuse me?" Arslan raises an eyebrow. "And what makes you think Nikos's throw away is a better leader than me."
Jaune stands up with hurt and anger in his expression, "The fuck did you call me!?" Cardin and Reese are shocked by his volatile response, but the ginger is more so, not expecting his blonde partner to bite back.
Arslan not backing down responses in kind, "You heard me! I'm not gonna take orders from a partner she throws away!"
"At least I could lead my team. Seems to me the only thing you were good at was driving yours away!" At these words, Jaune finds Arslan's fist crashing into his face, and he is sent flying into a chair. The force carries him and the chair into the wall where the seat breaks into a bunch of pieces.
Jaune rises to his feet, shaking his head, he sneers at the blonde girl. "So, violence is your go to. Trying to force me to bend the knee."
Taking deep breathes, Arslan visibly calms down. What does he know? I put effort into making our team the best. He just shows up and is handed the position, he didn't prove himself capable of being a leader.
"You don't know anything about how hard I tried to prove I'm the best leader for my team. You haven't even proven you belong here."
Growling Jaune snaps back "Proof! You want proof? I'll be more than happy to prove it to you, just tell me where, when and how."
"Good! Tomorrow evening, you and your partner will fight me and mine. This will give us both the chance to lead someone into battle and for you to prove you're more than Nikos's discarded trash." She then storms over to her room and is set to slam the door, "The winning Leader will be the leader of team AACC." The door then slams closed violently.
Reese looks at Arslan's shut door and then up at the ginger who has moved next to her at some point. "I don't think you guys are bad dudes…but I'm gonna follow Arslan."
"You already know where I stand." he responds never really taking his eyes off Jaune as Reese goes into her room not looking back. It takes some time, but Cardin speaks, "So, the thing with Nikos is still bugging you?"
"I know it's stupid to still be mad about it."
"Nah, I don't think so. You ask me, it's kinda weird that it hasn't come out till now."
"Well, we were kind of busy. But I'm not going to lie, she pretty much hit the nail on the head with how I feel. I know I'm not guilt free in what happened, but I just want to be a hero. Why do they get to judge me, when all I'm doing is trying?"
"I don't think the girls, or your old group of friends can really understand how you feel. Maybe Little Red and Valkyrie, maybe even Ren, but no way in hell do Ice Queen, Hothead, or Nikos understand, or care to."
"What, no Blake?"
Cardin shrugs, "Don't know enough about her." There is a small pause as both boys seem to realize they know next to nothing about the B in RWBY. "What's the plan?"
"You know, some input would be nice." Jaune jokes
"You're the leader."
"A good leader knows how to listen, so start talking."
The next morning, Arslan knocks on Reese's door, and after a few moments the green haired girl emerges dressed in shorts and a top designed for working out almost mirroring Arslan's current outfit, but with a few differences in colors. The girls make a quick cup of tea to wake them up for their morning routine.
They stretch out after leaving the building, "You ready?" Reese ask cheerily
"What is the bet this time?" Arslan ask while continuing to stretch.
"Loser has to wake the boys."
This answer brings scowl to Arslan's face as she remembers the words her and Jaune exchanged last night. "Can't it be something else? Like, clean up the mess they probably left in the bathroom?"
"Nope!"
"Fine," Arslan sighs "on three?" The green haired girl to her side nods in response, and a few moments passed before the lioness shouts out.
"Three!"
Both girls shoot off like rockets, with Reese slightly in the lead. They race across the campus aiming for the gym. This is their ritual, a warm-up sprint to the workout areas, they started to add bets to it as they did it more and more. Arslan is strong but Reese is more fleet of foot, though most people don't realize this because she uses Fairy Fire to get around. It takes them around 6 minutes to cross the distance with Arslan ultimately being the winner.
"No-" "Fair-" "I would've-" "Won if-" "Not for that guy." Reese says between breaths.
Arslan takes the time to catch her breath, "Should've looked-" "Where you were-" "Going."
They enter the workout area and find an open bench, gathering the weight they need, they set up for today's before breakfast routine. Arslan lies down on the bench and begins to preform reps with some heavy looking dumbbells.
"So, are we going to talk about last night?" Reese brings up what is on her mind. "I mean, I'm all for you being the leader, but don't you think that was-" rolling right wrist she can't quite find the word.
"Harsh." finishes Arslan. "Yea, I think so to, but it just doesn't sit right with me." setting down the weight she switches spots with Reese. "Being led around by someone she cast off."
Grunting, Reese talks "I know how you are with things that involve her, but still, there was no reason to insult the guy like that. It seems like he wants to be in this for the right reasons." Stopping her reps, Reese gets up and adjust the bench to an incline and lets her partner sit down.
"Honestly? His past doesn't bother me. He can get stronger and from how they attacked us, I'd say he is on his way. But I still have to prove that I can, and will, be better than her."
"Well, you'll have that leadership position back before you know it." The conversation goes on with the girls talking about meaningless things, as they finish up their morning workout. Upon arriving back in the room, they decide to go to the bathhouse instead of taking turns in the bathroom.
"Don't forget to wake the boys." Arslan smiles while entering her room to grab clothes.
Walking up to the door next to the bathroom, banging on the door Reese loudly calls out. "Time to wake up! I'm sure you've got stuff you need to do today!" No response comes, so she bangs harder as she goes on. "Cardin! Jaune! Come on; Get up!"
A banging at the front door stops Reese, opening the front she is greeted by a boy rivaling Cardin in size. The boy has dark green hair, wing tattoos on his chest and roman numerals around his neck, he isn't wearing much in the way of clothing besides black sweatpants.
"Oh, Hey Sage." The large boy just continues to stare at her. "Sorry, did I wake you?" He slightly nods his head. "Just trying wake up my new teammate." Reese chuckles slightly, and the dark-skinned boy's eyes narrow. "Right, keeping it down."
Come on, all that banging even woke the guys across the hall. How did that not wake them up. Maybe they are heavy sleepers. Or…maybe Arslan's words from last night set them off and they're ignoring us. Oh! Maybe they're in the middle of some mystic ritual to bring them favor!
Her curiosity eventually catches up to her and she reaches out, touching the doorknob and twisting, it gives way and an empty bedroom greets her. After checking the other bedroom, she finds the same result. Oh, guess they left at some point.
"Hey Arslan, it looks like they left."
"That's fine. Let's get going."
The day continued without any excitement popping up. The girls hang around the campus, talking to other students, finishing some assignments, and Reese rides around on Fairy Fire. In the afternoon, they go down into Mistral and pick up some dust and whetstones. They walk the path leading back to the Academy and Arslan pulls out her scroll, after pressing a few buttons a sound rings out signaling something.
"We're good to go. Message the guys and tell them to meet us at training field four in forty-five minutes."
"Ok...What are their scroll numbers?" Reese asks blankly looking at her blonde friend.
"Wait, you don't know?" said the blonde surprised.
"Um, no, I never really got them." They both stand there and stare at each other and after a few seconds walk up the path leading to Haven. Just as they reach the top of the path that takes them into the courtyard, Reese's scroll goes off. "It's from Cardin, it says to meet them at training field five in thirty minutes."
She quickly types back asking how he got her scroll number; a response comes back quickly, and after reading it she smacks her forehead with her palm. "I feel so stupid."
"Why; what did he say?"
"Says our contact info is listed in the team directory that all four of us have access too. All you have to do is pull up the hub and tap on the person's face and-" She holds up her scroll, the image is Jaune's face with his current aura level, contact information, and an emergency GPS button.
Without another word the dark-skinned girl begins walking in the direction of the locker room with the laughing purple wearing girl following behind. It doesn't take them long to reach the fifth training field after gathering their things since they are already outside, and everything is in the same general area. The boys are already there and waiting, each one wearing the armor they arrived in over their Haven t-shirts and sweats.
What catches Arslan's attention is the weapons both boys have in their hands. Jaune is holding what looks to be a type of short sword but unlike a normal one it lacks a guard and is thicker at its base, on his right hip is a small pack that looks like it is meant to hold knives, and finally a staff on his back that almost looks taller than him.
Cardin has a large double-sided axe, but it is attached to his left arm like a shield and appears to be missing its shaft at first glance, but upon closer inspection it can be seen running up the ginger's arm. In his right hand, he is holding a mace, or maybe flail judging by the thin shadowed line where the head and shaft meet.
"Looks like you guys are ready for this. Is that where you've been all day, in the forge?" Arslan asks as she inspects them.
"Yea we had to get a few things ready." Jaune answers scratching the back of his head, indicating his nervousness. "I think we should set some rules to avoid injury."
"That's fair, ring out or red aura means you're done."
"I agree. Let's avoid hurting each other as much as possible, but most importantly is no matter the results, we should all respect it so the team can move on and work as a unit."
"Sounds perfe-"
Interrupting Arslan, a male voice cuts in. "Everybody who wants to make a bet, please line up with your Lien out!" Another blonde boy chimes in as well. "Neptune here will be keeping the books." An equally blonde monkey tail motions to the boy with blue hair standing next to him.
"That's right. You guys can trust me to count your money." As he says this he puts on a large smile and his teeth seem to sparkle. "Refreshments will be provided by the remainder of team SSSN." he points out his two other teammates, one large male with dark green hair and another who was shorter with dark red hair that covers his right eye.
Cardin catches sight of the blonde's tail and Jaune can see him starting to tense up. He grabs the gingers shoulder just as he went to step forward. "Hey. Remember, you're working on it right?"
"Yea, but he's-" Cardin begins but is cut off
"Doing something dumb yea, but it doesn't really hurt us. This also isn't a private setting, so we can't fault him for having a little fun."
The girls are having their own conversation about the intrusion of team SSSN and the spectators. "What is he doing?" asks Arslan with a sigh.
"Looks like he is taking bets and using Nep as a bookie."
"Not what I meant. I want to know why."
"Probably as payback for waking them up earlier." As they talk about team SSSN's usual antics, they watch as the blonde boy from their team approaches the duo of Sun and Neptune. He gets their attention and talks to them for a few moments with the occasional hand motion thrown in. Neptune steps forward and does the same in kind.
The girls stare at the scene with confusion on their faces, their blonde teammate and Neptune shake hands before Jaune walks back over to his partner. Not long after a ding comes from Reese's scroll, she reads it, gawking the whole time. "His message says to wait a little bit, so they can gather more of a crowd."
"Why?" Reese types back Arslan's question
"He says it's to make more money. He convinced team Sun and Nep to give us forty percent of the profit. Nice!" Reese ends the brief explanation with some joy. Another ding alerts her to a new message from Sun. "It says to do some warm-ups to excite the crowd."
Sure enough, glancing over they see Jaune stretching out. "Wow, he's oddly flexible." Cardin next to him is taking some practice swings with his mace, the sound of it cutting through the air can be heard across the outdoor area. The crowd of onlookers seem to be eating it up and debating amongst each other as more and more people gather to place bets.
"We can't let them have all the fun." Reese says as she pulls out her high-tech bladed hoverboard, which lets out a faint hum as its green glow pulses a bit. She throws it down and it suspends itself a few inches from the ground, before hopping on as she begins to ride it around the area.
Rolling her eyes, Arslan places two rings on each hand, one on each of her index fingers and the others on her ring fingers. She pulls out four golden chakram with bright yellow edges and holds them in front of herself over lapping. When she pulls her hands apart, the rings join together to create a large ohmlatl with a handle wrapped in a red cloth.
"Is that a hula hoop?" Cardin hells from across the arena, before having to dodge the mentioned weapon as it ripped a thin trench between them and the girls. Jaune watches as it reverses its rotation and cuts through the air along the same path returning to Arslan's outstretched hand.
"Deadly hula hoop." Jaune corrects the ginger with a smile.
"Hula Hoop of Doom." The ginger tacked on with a smirk.
"It is not a hula hoop! This is Delkhiin Del, my ohmlatl!"
The boys ignore her and are already back to warming up, while Sun and Neptune are to the side laughing about the hula hoop comments. As they warm up the boys' minds drift back to a conversation, they had earlier today.
Jaune wakes up early in the morning like he and Cardin agreed before grabbing the armor from on top of his bag, along with the staff, the last of his arrows, and his short sword. Cardin meets him in the common room holding his axe, and his armor in a bag over his shoulder. "Alright, let's head out to the forge and drop off the armor to have the dents knocked out."
"I'm thinking about asking for a mace."
"You should, it is still the weapon you're most familiar with."
"Yeah but-" the ginger looks down at the axe "I don't wanna get rid of this guy."
"So? Don't, just use them both."
"I think I know how to make that work. What about your arrows?"
"I'm going to see if they have some compact ones, but I'm still not sure about my quiver." They walk to the forge talking about what they think about the school so far. As they drop off the armor for some quick repairs and Cardin puts in an order for the mace, Jaune asks for a guard-less hilt on his blade as well as for compact arrows. After leaving the forge, they open their scrolls to look at the weapon stipend that is granted to each team and make their way down to Mistral. "With this much, I might look into getting some dust-tipped arrows."
Walking into the weapons store, Jaune briefly considers selling the quiver but decided against it. He purchases fifty compact arrows that expand to their full length from an arrowhead, as well as two fire and two lightning dust tipped arrows. Cardin buys some earth and fire dust crystals along with a small pouch that he places at the small of his back.
Walking back, they talk about the plan for the fight. "Arslan is probably a CQC expert, and more of an agile strength fighter than anything else. The idea is I distract her till you manage to take out Reese, and then we both go after Arslan."
"You think that's going to work?"
"No, but I think it's a good starting point. Reese mentioned a hoverboard by the name of Fairy Fire. I bet that's her weapon, and main mode of transport."
"I think I should focus on getting a ring out on her. It will probably be the quickest method given our difference in physique. You gonna be able to hold out till then?"
Chuckling the blonde answers "I'm going to have to." Cardin scroll dings with a message notifying that the mace he ordered is ready. Jaune pulls out his scroll and reserves a training ground for the fight later. The boys spend their time doing extremely light training with their updated weapons to get used to the weight, stopping for a late lunch before picking up their armor and settling in for a small nap before the spar.
"Alright! All bets are closed, I hope you people are ready." Sun yells out to the gathered crowd, stepping to the middle of the field he points to the girls' side. "On this side we have the Noble Lion and her Green Nymph. Arslan Atlan and Reese Chloris!" The crowd responds to the monkey Faunus's enthusiasm with a cheer.
"What are your names?" Neptune whispers to the boys while the crowd is distracted.
"Jaune Arc."
"Cardin Winchester."
Upon hearing these names Neptune whispers something into Sun's ear and he gives a small nod, before motioning to the side with the boys. "And on this side, we have the Valiant Knights of Vale. Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester!" Sun is met with another cheer and the monkey faunus is eating it up with a beaming smile.
"This is a spar for the leaderships rights of the new first year team AACC, also known as ACE, and depending on the victor, either Arslan or Jaune will be the one in charge!"
"How does he know that?" Arslan whispers harshly at her green haired partner who is looking anywhere but at her.
"I want this to be clean. No attacking after a ring out or the aura reaches red. If your aura falls to the red, you need to walk out of the ring."
Walking up to Jaune, Neptune holds out his hand. "Scroll please? We need to hook it up to the display." Jaune hands it over in confusion, and watches as the blue haired boy walks to a pedestal. He taps something and above him appears a holographic screen displaying the team and their aura levels.
Sun holds up his hand, "Ready! Go!"
Without hesitation Cardin charges forward with his shield up while Jaune crouches down hiding himself from the girls' view behind the ginger's imposing figure. Arslan begins to move to the side while Reese coasts away on her board. "Now!"
Reacting to the yell of his partner Cardin burst towards Reese with surprising speed, shield still up. She meets his charge by flipping her board up and pushing the flat side against his shield. It emits a brief whirling sound before releasing a pulse of wind, thanks to the already loaded wind dust, which pushes both her and the charging brute back a few feet.
Cardin is on her within seconds, swinging his mace down. The green nymph quickly flips her board into her hand and matches his swing with one of her own. This catches the ginger by surprise and allows her to continue the momentum, bending forward the board spins on her back from one hand to another letting out little wind blade. Luckily, the knightly ginger manages to get his shield up just in time, but is once again pushed back.
Tracing a path from high to low she continues to spin the board, hitting the boy's shield. Finally, sick of the quick attacks, Cardin picks his moment and activates his semblance stomping on the ground to cause a small tremor. Having seen this before, Reese jumps into a spin kick.
"Gotcha." Comes Cardin's voice. To the purple wearing girl's surprise, no tremor occurs, and with his semblance now active the mace of the large boy follows her into the air. Upon impact, she is launched further into the air, wincing in pain she controls herself and shifts the board into its gun form. Pointing both barrels at the knight, she let loose with a barrage of wind bullets.
Getting his shield up in time, Cardin yells out one word "Pull!".
"What?" Is Reese's response as she starts her fall back to earth. Until a few second latter she is yelling out in pain as electricity courses through her body from something hitting her back.
Right before yelling out "Now", while crouching Jaune nocks and let fly an arrow tipped with fire dust right at his partners back. At his partner's shout, Cardin put on a burst of aura and angles himself towards Reese, just as the arrow passes him by, striking the ground between the purple clad nymph and her lioness partner.
A small explosion kicks up some dust and dirt, creating a small smokescreen between the female partners. This also forces Arslan to jump a little bit further in her initial dodge. Suddenly, she swings the large ring weapon in front of her, swatting aside an arrow that was aimed for her body. Using the swing's momentum, she launches the large ring at the still crouching blonde boy, just as he is nocking another arrow.
Jaune dodges the "Hula Hoop of Doom", as Cardin calls it, to avoid being cut in two, before coming out of the roll he tries to square his shot up again only to see the lioness charging him, and in a panic, he releases the arrow, watching as it goes wide right. Arslan raises her hand and pulls it towards her body like she is reaching and grabbing something. Jaune remembering when she threw it earlier, stands and went to move further in the direction he rolled as Arslan smiles.
Instead of pulling Delkhiin Del towards her, she is pulled towards it at a frightening speed, landing in the spot next to where Jaune just started moving from. Taking a hard step following his retreating path, she delivers an aura empowered palm thrust into his side. Jaune feels as if his side is caving in from the impact while he is violently launched across the arena, skipping across the ground once before righting himself.
He quickly avoids the giant ring blade again by ducking, fully aware that it seems to be hell bent on taking his head. "Pull!" hearing Cardin's voice, the blonde snaps his head in that direction. The back of Reese's figure falling through the air is what enters his line of sight. Without giving it a second thought, he knocks a lightning dust arrow and aims at the unprotected back of the girl, and releasing his breath, he lets it fly, striking her in upper back right behind her shoulder.
"Ooooo, that is a devastating one, two from the Knights of Vale!" yells Sun effectively commentating on the match.
"I wish we had replay on that, it was a really great set up and execution." Comes the voice of his blue-haired partner.
"What do you mean Nep?"
"Not only do they have quick commands set up, but they also used the distance that Arslan created against her own teammate."
A laugh breaks the boys from their excitement, "Close but not quite, Mr. Vasilias." Turning around, they are greeted with the sight of Headmaster Lionheart and the combat instructor Ms. Faunt. "This plan most likely took form only once Mr. Winchester fooled Ms. Chloris by making her think he was going to strike the ground with his semblance."
"And from the way Mr. Arc reacted, I believe they have a number of scenarios worked out that can be started from any instance. They only prerequisite is to meet the first condition, such as getting someone in the air. "Pull" is probably the most basic command set they can exchange" finishes the female professor.
"So, are you saying that their plan is to work with what they can?" Asks Sun. "Isn't that like flying by the seat of their pants?"
Another chuckle from the Headmaster and Ms. Faunt responds. "In some situations, that's not a bad thing, but even when "flying by the seat of their pants", they still have a plan to execute when conditions are met."
"Isn't there a saying for that? "Plans are nothing, Planning is everything." Right?" Neptune chimes in.
"Nerd!"
"Intellectual, thank you!"
Arslan swipes her hand towards Cardin, causing the ohmlatl fly right at him, stopping his approach on the falling Reese. As she succeeds in stopping the ginger, an impact hits her right shoulder making her stagger back before a follow up attack cuts her across the chest, forcing her back even more.
Jaune has taken the chance to close the distance between him and the blonde girl. After stabbing her in the shoulder with his short sword he follows up with a series of quick cuts, but due to his lack of training, the damage done is minimum. They engage in a brief CQC mix up where she easily begins to overwhelm him, landing solid punches and palm strikes.
Reaching out and pulling her blade back to her, Arslan drives it into the other blonde's back, following the momentum he rolls forward and watches the large ring return to her hands. Catching the blade, she spins it around and swings it down towards her fellow blonde, who jumps back. Even though he jumped back, she can still feel it cut across his body, doing significant damage to his aura. Using this retreat to her advantage she checks the aura meter, and the results cause her to gawk at the projection a little.
Jaune Arc: 63%
Arslan Altan: 72%
Cardin Winchester: 68%
Reese Chloris: 35%
Looking at where the other two are fighting, she sees Reese barely dodging a strike from Cardin's Axe as he dual wields it along with his mace. "Reese! Switch!" Shit! This was a bad match up. Of course he's used to people more mobile than him trying to use hit and run tactics. He only needed to wait to hit her a few times while she ran around.
"Cardin group up!" Jaune's yell gives Arslan pause, as the ginger disengages from Reese and takes distance away from the now joined up girls.
Catching her breath, the lioness takes a defensive stance in front of her partner. "What happened? After the shock, your aura was still in the fifties."
"As soon as Jaune got your attention back, Cardin was really aggressive, switching between the mace and axe while throwing in some dual wielding to throw me off. He didn't give me a chance to get back on my board."
"You should've been able to outdo him in CQC."
"I was, but his aura is pretty thick, and he just tanked the shots he couldn't dodge or parry."
"Shit…they got us; I should've gone after the big guy. I would be able to power through his defense while you ran circles around the one without the shield."
"I don't know, he seems pretty sturdy too; he's still standing after tanking some of your attacks."
A rumble stops the conversation, as stone spikes separate the talking partners. Fearing the worst Arslan breaks down the spike separating them only to see her partner looking at her and shouting something, but the breaking rocks drown out part of what she is saying.
"-Out!"
"What?" Abruptly the world is moving sideways, and something is hammering into her side. Planting her foot, the ground is torn up as she kills the force that almost sends her out of the arena. Then the sound of something hitting the ground next to her catches her attention, looking down she sees a fire dust tipped arrow, just before it explodes and sends her flying.
"Hell yea!" Cardin yells as he holds off Reese with his axe while the shaft of the mace is in his other hand, watching Arslan fly out of the arena. This mace is designed to launch its head at high speeds, adding on one semblance powered swing from the ginger knight and its might is unmatched.
"Not yet!" Jaunes shouts out in return and begins running forward while looking around. I saw her stick out her hand and I don't see the weapon on her back. Meaning she is going to pull herself back in, but where? It takes a few moments, but he manages to spot the other blonde's spinning weapon and charges to the landing point.
Reaching into his pouch he pulls out a sturdy metal coupler and attaches that to the hilt of his short sword, while attaching the other end to the staff, effectively make a 9ft spear. She hasn't seen me use this yet, so even if she is expecting a stab, she should misjudge the distance.
Jaune reaches the landing point before his fellow blonde and begins his stabbing motion. Their eyes meet for a millisecond, and the next thing Jaune feels is a burning sensation on his back while being unable to see past the hand gripping his face. The crowd audibly cringes at seeing one blonde drag the other across the ground at a high speed.
Meanwhile Cardin joins the shaft of the mace with the one for the axe effectively extending the shaft to form a war axe. He spins it in front of himself diverting the Green Nymph's board attack as she tries to cut him down while riding on it. A series of flipping jumps with slashes from wind dust mixed in has him on the back foot.
The ginger presses forward onto the offensive to throw off her rhythm, and with a shove manages to create some distance between the two. It is just enough time for the ginger to go for a powerful overhead swing, to which Reese holds up Fairy Fire in defense, both of them knowing it will hold and Cardin will be hit with a rebound of wind dust.
So, he lets go on the weapon while on the down swing, and charges the smaller teen with his body, quickly grabbing one of the arms supporting the board. With a twist, he launches the girl out of the arena while grabbing Fairy Fire from her, finally earning that ring out.
"What the hell just happened? I swore the guy had Arslan dead to rights." Neptune shouts excitedly after watching Arslan turn the tides on Jaune.
It looks like his lack of training is starting to show the longer this fight goes on. Sighing Ms. Faunt speaks up, "It's nothing too complicated Mr. Vasilias, Mr. Arc simply missed. Though it doesn't look like he did so completely." Everybody watches as Arslan tries to stand back up to her full height, but instead hunches over in pain.
"Looks like she felt that one through her aura." Sun cringes at how bad that would have been if it hit dead-on. "Oh, looks like things are finishing up on the other side. The big guy pulls a fast one on the Nymph, making her block and then goes in for the throw! Nice!"
Luckily he missed a bit at the last second; he almost had me with that one, but this is still my win. Arslan looks down at Jaune and whispers out to the prone blonde. "Good job for someone so untrained." Jaune just lays there silently as she begins to walk towards Cardin ready to end this.
The ginger is standing there looking at her with determination. "You know, it was a pretty good effort. Too bad your partner couldn't fully deliver."
"Nah, it was enough, gave me time to take out little Green, so we are back on track. Right?" The lioness rolls forward just as something passes over head, and she quickly calls back her ohmlatl and raises it, blocking the descending spear.
"What!?" Arslan shouts with surprise.
"You should really keep an eye on the aura meters at times like these." Yells Cardin as he sweeps his war axe low aiming for the crouched body of the lioness.
With quick and precise movement Arslan separates her ohmlatl back into her 4 chakrams, allowing Jaune's spear to hit the ground as she jumps slightly over Cardin's sweeping attack. While spinning, she launches one at each boy forcing them back.
"Oum, what are you? The Grimminator?" Jaune asks jokingly. Arslan takes a moment to look at the display.
Jaune Arc: 23%
Arslan Atlan: 25%
Cardin Winchester: 24%
Reese Chloris: Out
"Cross!" comes Jaune's war cry, both him and his ginger partner charge Arslan, ready to end this. I'll stab while Cardin swings to put her in a bad spot, this sho -. Cutting off his thoughts Arslan charges the blonde knight, throwing her chakrams backwards at Cardin.
Taking a hard step after passing Jaune's spear point, she fires her right hand out for another devastating palm strike. As the palm is about to strike, Jaune brings his left hand around, barely diverting the heavy strike and dropping his spear from his right hand. He reaches into his pouch and pulls out his last dust arrow and jams it into the lioness taught stomach, sending electricity coursing through both of them.
"And that's the match!" Commands the voice of Headmaster Lionheart.
Sun jumps in "Winner, Knights of Vale!" Causing some clapping and cheers to ring out. "Holy shit, that was kind of intense."
Arslan falls to her knees and strikes the ground, creating a small fist sized indent. Dammit! How could I lose to him? It wasn't even her this time. Just some untrained goof who Nikos threw away! Damn it all!
A tapping on her shoulder brings her out of self-admonishment, causing her to look up to see her partner is standing there with a strained smile.
"The Headmaster is calling us." Taking the hand offered to stand, the girls make their way over to the headmaster where the boys are already standing.
"Team AACC, while it is fine to have spars, please keep in mind not to take it too far. Now, to address the little wager you made. Even if Ms. Altan and Ms. Chloris had won, I would not have made Ms. Altan leader."
Holding up his hand and stopping the girls before they can speak, he continues. "Your inability to accept my decision shows that it is the correct one. While it is fine to have your own beliefs, you must know when to listen and when to make a stand. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir" Arslan answers dejectedly.
"Well then, on to the review. Ms. Faunt, if you please?"
"Of course, Headmaster. Since we are on the subject let's start with Ms. Altan. You were clearly the best fighter out there. You did not let it go to your head and continued to treat your opponents as threats."
"But since you are aware of your own prowess, you tend to believe your first decision is the best one. For instance, when you sent Mr. Arc flying, I'm sure your believed you did some heavy damage, but because of his honestly ridiculous amount of aura, he took your attack with little damage sustained. The only thing this did was give him space to work with. It is ok to think a little more."
"Yes ma'am." Answers the blonde lioness.
"That said, your willingness to protect your teammate is admirable, and saved Ms. Chloris from an early ring out. And though it led to receiving a hard hit, you still prioritized your injured teammate." This explanation brings a smile to the tanned girl's face.
"-tiful" comes a murmur from Jaune.
"What? Arslan asks.
"N-Nothing" Jaune brushes off quickly.
"Mr. Arc, your plans and ideas were brilliant. Even when you were getting pushed around you still manage to keep your wits about you and capitalized the moment opportunities presented themselves. Your first strategy to separate the girls was well thought out and well executed." Jaune is happy about this and smiles to himself.
"But, while you continued to alter and change your plans on the fly, you were unable to finish. The best example is when you missed that stab against the recovering Ms. Altan and ended up getting dragged across the ground a good distance. You are already aware of this, but you need to train more."
Scratching the back of his head the blonde confirms, "Yes ma'am."
"Now Mr. Winchester, you had the best performance in this match. You knew your strengths and stuck to them. You recognized when to be aggressive and when to wait. This allowed you to capitalize when the moment presented itself." Praises the water buffalo faunus.
"That said, you are not without fault. Your lack of mobility was brought to the forefront in this match, and because of this, Ms. Chloris was able to hold you back with her more agile movements. It is only thanks to your experience that you were able to suppress and defeat her."
"Yea, I gotta work on that. People have been jumping and flipping around me a lot."
"You don't have to be agile, just mobile. Pick a place and get there quickly, that should be your goal."
"I'm last huh, guess I didn't do too well?" Reese dejectedly throws out.
"Contrary to your belief, you did an excellent job. You used your mobility and superior CQC skills to put your much larger and heavier opponent on the back foot. Your tricky moves and usage of your wind dust worked quite well." Ms. Faunt explains in detail continuing to highlight different parts.
"But you were unable to deal significant damage. My recommendation is to commit to being a dust slinger, I believe your semblance is quite suited for it, and it should solve your problem of stopping power. You just need to practice with it more and explore its effects using different types of dust."
"I'll get right on it." comes the now cheery response of the green-haired girl.
"Now with this, you are all dismissed. Team AACC, I recommend you go get cleaned up and get some rest since the sun is starting to set." And with those words, Headmaster Lionheart leaves the scene with Ms. Faunt following right behind him.
Sun walks up and places a hand on Jaune's shoulder, "I'll get you the money after Nep here finalizes how much we made." he takes off after his retreating teammates.
"How do we know we can trust that-" Pausing with a grimace, Cardin recomposes himself and begins after changing his wording. "You think we can trust him?"
"He hasn't really given me a reason not to trust him yet." Jaune counters, not mentioning the ginger's near slip. Turning to his two new teammates Jaune extends his hand, "It was a great match, and I look forward to working with you two." Arslan just brushes his hand aside and keeps walking, making sure to shove into his shoulder as she makes her way past him, while Reese gives him a small apologetic smile before following her friend.
"Cardin?"
"Yea?"
"Is running a team supposed to be this hard?"
"Good luck Bud." Answers his ginger partner heading off in the same direction as the other half of the team.
(VALE)
A jingle from the door gets her attention, and before Ruby even looks up from the counter, she begins to recite "Welcome to From Dust till Dawn. From regular power to firepower, we have it all."
"Heya Ruby, how's it going?" Comes a voice she had been growing more familiar with as of late.
"Hey Nora, what brings you here? Looking for a new dust mixture for your grenades? If so, I've been trying out a few things in my down time and I think you will like some of the results."
"Oooo, Mama likes, but not right now. I wanted to know if you've heard from Jaune-Jaune yet."
"No, I haven't heard anything yet." Sighs Ruby. "I hope he's ok."
"Me too." Nora responds rubbing her arm. "Speaking of ok, how are things with your team?" Ruby's face contorts into a complicated expression, one that seems to mix sadness, anger, and annoyance. "That good huh?"
"Ever since the incident with Jaune, Blake's only grown more distant, and whenever I try to bring up talking to Jaune, both Yang and Weiss snap at me saying things like, "Why do you care?" or "You should just forget about that criminal." They both think it's a good thing he's gone, or that he deserved worse." Ruby walks around the counter and begins to review the bottles on display.
"Pyrrha and Ren have pretty much convinced themselves that they did the right thing. My opinion might as well not even exist, because every time I bring it up, they say I don't understand the gravity of the situation. They act like my happy-go-lucky attitude is the only part of me. To make things worse, our new team member will be here on Monday. It makes me feel like Jaune is gone…and isn't coming back."
"I understand; the only time I feel at ease now is when I'm hanging out with you. I Don't have to worry about setting off some big argument when it's just us, meanwhile, Yang is pretty insistent about me not deserving punishment."
Nora snorts, "Shouldn't she be the one turning herself in? What she did was way worse. I bet there are guys in the hospital because of her."
"Trust me, I've talked to her about it, but every time she gets defensive and yells about it being a "bad guy bar." When I went and checked it out, they seemed nice eno-"
"Wait, you went there? Why?" Nora interrupts waiving her hands around. "Knowing you, it wasn't to dance."
Laughing awkwardly, Ruby answers. "I asked my Uncle where I could get some information, and he pointed me there. Turns out, the guy that runs the place is an information broker. If you pay, he will try his best to get you the information you want. Huntsmen use him all the time to track down bounties, find missing people, or even just getting the layout of an area."
"So, you're telling me your sister not only beat on civilians, but in the process, took out a valuable resource for the huntsmen and huntresses in Vale." Nora half exclaims.
"Yep." putting extra pop on the p.
"She ever tell you why?" The ginger watches as the cookie loving girl continued doing more tasks around the shop.
"Nope," she responded popping the p again. "but she says it was for a good reason." Ruby visibly deflates. "She clearly thinks she was justified doing what she did, and I can't convince her otherwise. Anyway, I went there to see if they could help me reach out to Jaune."
"Where did you get the extra money?"
"Old Man Shopkeep pays me. I keep trying to turn him down, but he insists, saying Beacon covered all the damages. I got him to compromise though, so he pays me half of the normal rate. Now I'm just waiting to hear back from Junior."
"Oh! I just got a great idea! How bout I work here too!?"
"Why?" asks the semi-red head as she sweeps the floor.
"To save up money silly."
"For what?"
"To go see Jaune-Jaune, of course."
"We don't even know where he is."
"But we should soon, and we can plan it for one of the breaks. Maybe we can convince him to try and re-enroll and get another team." The ginger bomber is almost bouncing off the walls at this point.
"Yea…Yea! we can totally do that! Let's plan it out later, first, fill out this application." Ruby walks back behind the counter and hands Nora an application.
"Oh, Ruby, speaking of new teammates, have you met the new leader of CRDL, or VRLD I guess they're called now."
"Still don't understand why they're called "Veridian" when there isn't an "L" in that word."
"There isn't a "W" in Ruby."
"Touché."
"Anyway, you mean the girl Yang tried to rip the head off of? Heard that was a fiasco. Also heard she is a major b-" pausing Nora looks at the younger, red themed girl.
"Bitch. Yea, she really is." Ruby said pulling out a lien card and handing it to the bomber.
"Uh, what's this for?"
"The swear jar, duh."
"Ah. Anyways, what was her name?"
"It's Vernal. Vernal Branwen."
"Right; well I hope our new teammate is nothing like her."
"You finish that application?"
"Yep, let's get me that job. Operation Return of the Jaune is underway!" Says the ginger boldly.