Heya everyone! SO! My friend Phoenix Warehouse Productions, aka Adrian from Remnants of Dimensions and Viewing Jaune Arc, the Elemental Swordsman. Long story short, he put on a poll on his profile, and I'm asking you guys to go and vote on that poll.
As I said he's a friend. I already went and voted and I'm attaching a link to this announcement. All it'll take you is 5 seconds to choose, plus the page's loading time. Literally, it'll take a sliver of your time. So do me a favour, go and vote. The poll closes on the 1st of December so hurry up.
This announcement will remain in next chapter's AN, so don't worry about this replacing the chapter.
This is the link to my friend's profile (why does FFN ruin even inside links!?). Go and vote.
h ttp s: (slash slash) www (d0t) fanfiction (d0t) net/u/2602698/
As for me, Khor... well, I feel fine. A little under the weather but otherwise fine. Enjoy this chapter. Mainly just shits'n'giggles, with an important ending.
Ruby couldn't stop her giggles as she pried Jaune off a wall… for the third time that day. "Come on, let's try that again. Or maybe -I don't believe I'm saying this- we should lower the calibre, because if you fly like that with the scythe, using the katar mode will break your arm outright. Maybe we didn't need a bigger gun, after all…"
"Just stop talking," grumbled Jaune, forcing himself out of the wall and glaring at the reason for his plight. His new weapon, still unnamed, in scythe mode. He snatched it from the ground and returned to the shooting range once again. He almost had it, he knew it. He just had to learn how to handle the recoil. He had learned how to allow it to send him flying like Ruby said she did with her Crescent Rose, he only had to master how to remain standing. It shouldn't have been that hard. "Let's go again."
"Are you sure? All these hits must be damaging your Aura…"
"Ruby." She looked at him, and his silver eye seemed glowing with rage. "I am going to try until I get the hang of it. I don't care how much time it'll take I am going to learn how to wield this damn weapon. There is no changing it now. I refuse to give up."
He stomped over to the shooting range and aimed before pulling the trigger. A boom and a second later, Ruby sighed as he imprinted himself in the wall once again. She didn't know what to do… it was like his whole stance was unstable. She would probably be unable to handle such a recoil, but he should've been able to master it in no time, especially given just how much stronger than her he was. She had seen it in the forge, he was definitely not 'weak'.
As Jaune hit the wall for the eleventh time that day, she grabbed his arm and stopped him from going back to shooting. "Jaune, stop, let's take a breather before you collapse, your Aura is taking a beating," she told him as sternly as she could. Which wasn't much sternly, but at least she did get her point across. "We'll continue later. Besides, I doubt you are enjoying hitting the wall so much. Why don't we take a break and do something else?"
The boy grumbled and pressed his lips together because sighing. "Whatever. This is getting nowhere, let's just give up for now," he agreed tiredly before popping his back with a wince. "Ouch. I guess Aura can only do so much… especially if I continue hurting myself."
He shifted his weapon back into sword and placed it at his hip before retrieving his shield from the shooting lane. With an awkward wave at the small crowd who had gathered up to look at him being sent flying, he and Ruby left the building. Luckily it wasn't raining any more, but Jaune's personal storm cloud over his head was more than enough to drag down the mood. His eyes were glued to his side, glaring daggers at the weapon that stubbornly refused to be wielded by him. When swinging in scythe mode, he had almost beheaded Ruby. In spear mode, he had almost beheaded himself. In katar mode he hadn't dared shoot for fear of the recoil, but he definitely wasn't used to it. And even in sword mode he wasn't all that good. For Oum's sake, when he had tried it against a training droid he had gotten his ass handed to him, and had received the message 'Please, do not fight while asleep'. Whoever had come up with that message was an ass.
Seeing his mood, and knowing the reason for such mood, Ruby immediately went to the rescue… more or less. "So… have you already decided how to call it?" she asked innocently, pointing at the sword as if it was a mere sword and not the key for hell. Jaune was pretty sure it was the latter. "Have you thought of a name?"
"Honest, the only thing I've thought is that it's a nightmare to wield," he grumbled unhappily. He knew he wasn't skilled, but Auntie Glyn's 'secret' training should've done something at least! He wasn't sure how cooking and cleaning would help him fight, but his Aunt had him do that all the time, so it had to be the key! "And that I may have found something I hate more than getting sick."
"It's not that bad…" Ruby trailed off when Jaune gave her a 'are you serious?' look. Well, to be frank, he was right. It was that bad. "Well… then why don't you call it that?"
"Huh?"
"You said it's a nightmare to wield, so call it that," she offered. "Nightmare. You even have the right colour for it."
"Nightmare… Cauchemar." Jaune glared at the sword. "She doesn't deserve such a name, she's been a bad girl, but since she's the reason you're alive right now I guess I'll take Cauchemar." When Ruby looked puzzled, he shrugged. "It means 'nightmare' in one of the ancient tongues. My name too is in that language."
"Oooh, really? Mine is just a gem," she exclaimed. "What does yours mean?"
"Err… 'yellow', literally." He groaned as she giggled lightly. "Come on, I wasn't even the one who chose it! Not everyone gets a cool name or something! Besides, Yang's name literally means Little Sun Dragon! And Weiss means just 'white'!"
"Sorry, didn't mean to offend you," she continued to giggle. "It's just how you said it."
He sulked, and she laughed even harder.
"S-Sorry, you just c-can't pull off a sulking face," she apologized between laughs. "That w-was just ridiculous."
Jaune's expression darkened as he kicked a stray pebble into the garden. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," he grumbled, irritated, stomping ahead.
Ruby stopped laughing and immediately berated herself. That was not something friend were supposed to do! She shouldn't have laughed at him, especially since he was already in a bad mood! Argh, she was terrible at social interactions. For whatever reason, Jaune was already in a very bad mood, he did not need her ridiculing him over something he hadn't even had a say in. Sure, Jaune had taken it too personally but he could be excused, he was already irritated, while she couldn't because she just didn't consider the consequences of her actions! Okay, that wasn't completely true but it didn't matter. She had to think of a way to cheer Jaune up, and immediately!
Ideas went through her head, and were promptly discarded. The arcade? Better not to, it was in Vale and she wasn't sure if Jaune would've liked it. Beacon's library? They could read comics together! But… that would probably not solve the problem. Then… the gym? Jaune was basically the fittest -even if not bulkiest- student of Beacon since he never used Aura to enhance his body before so he had kept himself in shape with the normal methods. That was a good idea, but then again she would've been forced to work out too, and that was a big fat no. Plus she didn't really know if Jaune liked working out, he visited the gym every day but that didn't mean it would've been a good way to vent off steam. A walk in the park was among her ideas, but she had just ruined the one they had been having mere seconds before, so that was a no as well. Studying or doing the homework together? No, that would probably end up with her asking him to do her homework and him calling Goodwitch to get some of the answers. Homework was just so boring. Almost as boring as Professor Port himself, and that was saying much.
What else could they do? No arcade, no Vale at all, no library, no gym, no walk in the park, no studying or homework… what else did Beacon had? A sign on the Beacon grounds' map caught her attention. It was a building sandwiched between the forge, the training rooms, and the gym… the pool! Of course, that should've been the most obvious option! Jaune was awful at fighting so the training room were not an option, but the pool sounded great! Plus it was kind of warm, so it would've been refreshing. And even if there were other people it wasn't like Jaune had to be alone to vent off some steam. It was a perfect idea… if not that she didn't have any swimsuit. And she didn't think Jaune had any, either. Maybe Beacon had some swimsuits the students could borrow? It was worth a try. But not at the pool… Beacon was built right on a cliff that dropped vertically into a lake, right? She was sure it would've been so very fun to take a break by swimming a little! The poll was for the spineless! Only invertebrates would be afraid of going to take a swim in Beacon's lake!
"Hey, Jaune!" she called out at the blond ahead. He sighed and turned around with a tired expression on his face. "I've got an idea! Follow me!"
/-/
"I seriously can't believe Sky actually left us here to go with Blake," huffed Yang. "Did I say something wrong? Or did I do something wrong? It's just a club!"
Behind her there were all members of Team ARTR, who had had the misfortune to follow Yang right to their doom. They looked around for a few seconds before Richard actually worked up the courage to address the elephant in the room. "Err… Yang, you do realize that everyone here is pointing their guns at you, right? You aren't blind or something, right? Because we are a little worried here. We are without weapons, we'd like not to get involve in any fight with civilians, and we'd like not to get pierced by a hundred or so bullets…"
"Oh, don't worry, they're friends," grinned Yang, taking a single step forwards. Immediately all guns were cocked and shots loaded. She dropped her smile and scowled at them, making them step back, some of them rubbing some still sore spots from the last time they had angered her. Thankfully, someone saved the day.
"Stop! Stop! Stop! Nobody shoot." A tall and burly man divided the crowd and looked at the girl. "Blondie… you're here. Why?"
"You still owe me a drink," grinned Yang.
"And you still owe me the money for everything you destroyed and everyone you injured," he shot back, unamused. "And we're talking about several thousands Lien. I ain't serving you anything until you pay up, plus I'm pretty sure you are underage."
"Didn't stop you last time," retorted the girl, stepping forth, but she stopped when she caught sight of a woman behind the crowd of henchmen. Yang paled as she stepped forwards, meeting her with a hand outstretched. "Juniour, you… you hired… you hired a… a… a…"
"My name is Myn Xiong, Mr Xiong's cousin," she introduced herself as Yang continued to pale. The blonde looked behind her, but the four other students had seemingly turned into thin air, because she didn't see anyone. "I'm here to talk about the damages you caused to Mr Xiong's premise. I am a lawyer."
Yang let out a squeak.
/-/
"Still reading?"
"Yes Sky, this is a library, it's used for reading."
"There are also games." She glowered at him from over her book. "Okay, okay, don't give me that glare! I knew I should've gone with Yang. What's that book about, anyway?"
Blake felt her cheeks heat up. Of all the books in the library, why did he have to ask about that one? Oh, right, because it was the one she was reading. Hiding the cover didn't really matter when Sky didn't even suspect what the real content of the book was. Or maybe he did and he was just messing with her. In any case, she had to be quick and deflect the question, she-
"It's porn, I know, but does it have a story too?" he asked, appearing over her shoulder and peering at the book. Blake tried to close it, but unfortunately a second was enough for him to read some words. And some words were more than enough. "You know, you'd think that the serious and bookworm of the team would be into some normal stuff, and instead… I find you reading this filth. Seriously, you know no one on Remnant's got one that big, right?"
Blake's cheeks probably started steaming from that single comment. Sky had learned too much from Yang. Far too much. "It's just a particular kind of literature," she replied stiffly, her shoulders so tense they might've snapped. "Just… different tastes."
"Plus I'm pretty sure a gallon is almost four litres. Drinking or… ejecting it would probably just kill whoever drank or ejected it," continued Sky. "And if you put it there, I'm pretty sure the poor girl would simply explode."
Blake blushed bright red and tried to hide the book, but Sky snatched it from her embarrassment-weakened fingers and continued to read. "And sorry to disappoint you girl, but no one -male and females alike- can go for… how many?… oh yeah, six times in a row with no breaks. You'd probably die of dehydration," he commented mercilessly. "Plus-uh?" He looked down at his pocket and took out his Scroll, allowing Blake to take back the book. "Yes?"
"Sky?"
"You called my Scroll, who were you expecting, the God of Candies?" snorted Sky. "What's up?"
"…"
"Yang?"
"I… I got arrested, could you come and pick me up?"
Sky almost dropped the Scroll in shock. "Wait a damn second, arrested? Yang, what the hell did you do?" he almost shouted in the mic, with Blake looking halfway between worried and I'm-about-to-laugh-my-ass-off. "Where are you? What happened?"
"I… I trashed a pub before coming to Beacon and I returned to that club today. They had a lawyer ready and they called the police. Beacon and my family will take care of this mess, but I need someone to pick me up at the police department. C-Can you drop by?"
"Holy shit Yang, you sound on the verge of crying!" exclaimed Sky as he quickly gestured for Blake to get going. He could guess being arrested was a scary business especially since she was still just seventeen, heck he would probably piss himself in her place, but hearing Yang sniffle just felt wrong. As if something had just gone against the basic rules of the universe. Yang Xiao Long made others cry, she did not cry herself. Understanding the graveness of the situation, Blake sat up and placed her book back on the shelf. "We're coming, we'll be there within the hour."
"Thanks…"
"Don't even mention it, it can happen to anyone." To be arrested for trashing a pub? Well yeah, anyone who did something like that would've been arrested. Yang had been extremely lucky not to have been sued for the damage. Maybe because she had gone to Beacon immediately afterwards? Beacon was what basically accounted as a stand-alone kingdom within Vale's continent. There were more than a civilian asking for Beacon's independence to be removed, not trusting a 'kingdom' full of superpower-wielding warriors with no direct loyalty to Vale's rulers.
Put like that, Sky could understand the worry.
He closed the call and hurried to the exit, ignoring the snickering Blake jogging behind him. Damn it Yang, why did she have to interrupt his lecture! He was about to change Blake's mind about those books. Maybe then she would've bought some good smut books and he would've been able to 'borrow' them for a light read. But no, Yang had to go and get herself arrested, and now Blake was never gonna read near him again. Perfect. Just perfect.
"How the hell did she get arrested, anyway?!"
/-/
"No."
"But-"
"That's still no. You aren't moving from here, and that's final," stated Jaune, sternness in his voice, forcing her back down. When she pouted, he didn't even blink. "Nice try, Ruby, but as horrible as I am at sulking, I've practised my pout longer than you have. I'm immune to it. Not even you can move me."
Ruby's pout turned into a sulk and she crossed her arms over her chest. In doing so, her blankets fell, and Jaune was quick to lift them back up to her chin. She tried to grumble, but her throat ached and she swallowed her words back down. Since her pout had failed, she obediently opened her mouth for Jaune to feed her some hot soup. It just wasn't worth arguing over, plus it was both delicious and warm. She hummed happily at the taste. Jaune was one hell of a cook. Or was he one heaven of a cook? Hell might've had good ovens and grills but wasn't hell a bad place? Surely they wouldn't serve such wonderful food. And that was a simple soup!
So Jaune was one heaven of a cook.
She quickly swallowed and opened her mouth for another spoonful. "W-What soup i-is it?" she croaked out, wincing as the words scratched against her throat.
Jaune fed her a few more spoonfuls before replying. "It's something Ren and I have been working on together for a while. It's supposed to go with noodles, but it can also be cooked as simple soup," he told her as he temporarily placed down the bowl and pressed a hand to her forehead. Sighing in relief, he retrieved the food and continued to feed her. "At this pace, you should be fine soon. But anyway, about the soup, it's mainly chicken, with a hint of curry, some meshed potato, and a few herbs and spices like oregano. Plus of course a little bit of salt."
Wow, from stuff like that he had cooked that wonder? Correction, Jaune -and apparently Ren too- was on another level altogether. Heaven probably couldn't afford someone like him.
A few more minutes passed in comfortable and delicious silence, until the bowl was empty. Jaune stayed by her side, although her aching throat prevented her from speaking. Devoid of conversation, he just fetched a couple of books for them. Thankfully not Blake's. The quiet lasted for a grand total of seven minutes and eighteen seconds before an upset Yang burst through the door, followed by a resigned Sky and an amused Blake. The currently red-eyed girl stomped over to her bed and threw herself on it, crossing her arms over her chest in mid-flight. A few seconds passed, and then Jaune decided to ask. "Err… Yang? What happened?"
Yang huffed, refusing to reply his question, but unfortunately for her Blake was ready to cut in. "Apparently, before coming to Beacon she destroyed a pub, and when today she went back, they had a lawyer ready for her." Everyone winced at that word. Only the Grimm weren't afraid of lawyers, and even they weren't sure. "They called the police and she was brought to the police department. Her family and Beacon will probably take care of that mess, but she'll still have to pay the several thousands Lien to the guy."
"That asshole!" exclaimed Yang from her position on the bed.
Jaune gaped at Blake, then at Yang. "You destroyed a pub?" he repeated, incredulous. "And you got away with that up until now?"
"That seems like a good short version," commented Sky, plopping down on his own bed. "But anyway, how did you two start playing patient and nurse?"
Ruby blushed and hid under the covers while Jaune sighed, this time in slight annoyance. "Ruby wanted to go swimming," he stated plainly. When the others just stared at him flatly, he continued. "We borrowed some swimming wear from Beacon's pool, since no one brings swimwear to school. But then Ruby got it in her head that apparently the pool was for invertebrates or something, and she dragged me down the Beacon cliffs to the lake."
"But isn't the Beacon lake filled with Grimm?" asked Blake.
"That's what I told her, Blake, but she wouldn't listen. We didn't even have our weapons, and you know that she's even worse than me unarmed. Her punches tickle more than hurt. Maybe she was planning on tickling the Grimm to death." Jaune shot an unamused glance at the hiding form of Ruby and tapped where he was pretty sure was her head. Her silver eyes appeared from under the blankets, and he grabbed a mug from the nightstand, handing it to her before turning to the others. "That's an herbal infusion, Ren made it. But anyway, guys, she ignored everything I told her and insisted. Before I could stop her, she dived straight into the water. The problem? Not Grimm… temperature." He gestured to the heavily covered Ruby. "It's October, it's not exactly toasty warm now. She shot out of the water, shrieking like a banshee, and basically Semblance'd her way back up the cliff. Moral of the story, freezing cold water is not warm, and she got a cold. A cold we're now tending to."
Sky and Yang started to laugh at their little story, while Blake was just smirking in amusement. Ruby punched Jaune's arm, but as he had just said her punches did nil. Jaune laughed and ruffled her hair, smiling mirthfully. "Come on, Ruby, you made the cake, now you're gonna eat it."
"T-This is not a ca-k-e," she rasped, trying her best to avoid hurting her already aching throat any more.
"Would it be any better if I promised you that, when you're healed, I will bake you a real cake?" offered Jaune, grinning as her eyes lit up so much they were basically illuminating her blanket-hooded face. "Salted caramel? I know it might sound weird but I can assure you, it's really good."
Weird? Maybe, but that didn't mean Ruby Rose wasn't getting that cake. If Jaune was as good of a baker as he was of a cook, then even a carrot and cabbage cake would've probably tasted good. She trusted him on that. Not wanting to scratch her throat, she just nodded energetically, ignoring the twinge of pain shooting through her temples at the quick movement. Then she focused her Aura and threw the covers aside, jumping out of the bed, magnificently glowing red as she tackled Jaune to the floor, hugging the life out of him. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" she squealed happily. "I want a huge cake with lots of caramel!"
Yang detached her sister and held her up in the air while the redhead flailed to try and continue hugging the poor boy, who hacked and coughed to regain her breathing. "Whoa, pulling the ill trick now, Rubes?" she asked cheekily, making the smaller girl blush in shame. "Why didn't you use your Aura sooner?"
"I knew something was wrong!" exclaimed Jaune, pounding the floor and earning a 'what's up?' from the inhabitants of the dorm below theirs. "Aura should've protected her from getting a cold!"
Ruby blushed further. "Well… Jaune was in a bad mood so I thought that maybe taking his mind off the problem could've helped," she replied meekly, poking her indexes together and looking anywhere but at her teammates. "Plus-"
"Please, may all students gather in the dining hall. Repeat, may all students gather in the dining hall."
"Saved by the intercom, I can't believe it," sighed Yang, dropping her sister – coincidentally, dropping her on Jaune since he still hadn't regained enough breath to stand up. She ignored the two pained groans and marched to the door. "That was the Witch's voice, let's see what she wants."
/-/
"Do you have any idea of what she's about to talk about?" asked Sky, leaning ever so slightly toward Blake, probably the most intelligent of the group. The girl could only shrug helplessly.
Team ARBYL stood on the stage right behind Ms Glynda Goodwitch, who was patiently waiting for the students to arrive. They were in their uniforms, everyone was in their uniforms, and the only thing out of place in the colourless hall was Ruby's red cape, that she wore at basically all times.
Before them, Goodwitch's patience was finally rewarded as the last student entered the hall. She smiled slightly before brutally murdering said smile and hiding the body in the back of her body. "Good afternoon, students. I do hope you still remember Ms Rose, and her reason for being in the school, am I right?" Murmurs of confirmation went through the student body. "I am sorry to inform you that… we have lied to you."
Before anyone could speak up, Goodwitch continued. "Ms Rose is a normal person like any of you, not a so-called 'Avatar' of Mr Arc's Semblance. Actually, Mr Arc's Semblance does not involve his weapon, but is a special kind of bond with his 'mark'. You will find the details on his BDSM's profile." A few snickered while Jaune groaned and face-palmed. Even his own team had small smirks, except for Ruby who just wore a confused expression. "Ms Rose is a young prodigy we have found after she prevented a Dust robbery led by the infamous Roman Torchwick. Unfortunately, the fight put her in a coma, and we had to ask Mr Arc to use his Semblance to help her out of it. The authorities believed her to be dead, and as such her name was added to the morgue's list. As you can see, she is far from dead."
She raised a hand to stop the oncoming questions. "We accepted Ms Rose into Beacon as a special student, but we had to solve the mishap with her 'death'. Enrolling someone reputed dead into Beacon would've raised many questions, and as such we came up with this decoy, to avoid political problems until we managed to solve the misunderstanding." She raised a few papers in a folder, confident that no student would've been able to read their true content from that far away. "We are sorry for having misled you into thinking Ms Rose to be the result of a mere Semblance, but it was necessary. We do hope you understand, but to clear any doubt, Ms Rose is a person like anyone else in here, with a soul like any other person."
Goodwitch's eyes then narrowed to slits. "But." With a single word, the atmosphere in the room froze and fled out of the hall in terror. All students looked at the wrathful professor. "I did say that any mistreating toward her would be severely punished, and all thorough her permanence here in Beacon I have caught each and every insult hurled at her. And I am not happy. As for your punishment…" She grinned, and Jaune could tell the students were about to piss themselves in fear. "I have talked with all the professors. All homework will be double for a month, and Professor Port has gracefully accepted to take over both Professor Peach's and Professor Ozpin's classes for the very same month. I hope you will learn from your mistakes, students."
The students gaped at her, paling rapidly. A few of the weakest-willed fainted. That was the end of the world…
Wow, that must be the cruellest thing I've ever done in all my stories...
Anyway, as you can see they didn't keep Ruby as Jaune's Avatar for long, just long enough for someone to mess up the morgue's list. Whoa, Ruby Rose is back to being officially alive, who would've guessed? And yes, now the students will know they have been harassing a person.
But after all, who wouldn't like being lied to for some subtle decoy to avoid political problems? It's every teen's secret dream! So why should they protest? No reason! Wink.
Romance Status: ...you won't be satisfied with a simple "Nah", will you? *sigh* Okay... Ruby's starting to notice Jaune a little more, but you'll have to wait still before she gets it's a crush. As for Jaune, not yet, he thinks she's pretty and nice to hang out with but nothing much.
Next chapter: Thou Ain't No Cheat. Finally some good stuff! Obviously, Jaune is gonna tell Ruby about his trascripts, and of course Ruby will just nope it off. As for Cardin... he still hasn't understood Jaune is Goodwitch's nephew, has he? Well, maybe he will...
Until next time,
Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh