Jade "Jei" Lily—first born child of The Witchhunters (half of them, anyway), second in line to inherit the Schnee Empire (and entirely uninterested in doing so), Princess of the Kingdom of Menagerie (technically), Huntress-in-training (enthusiastically), hater of bedtimes (because, duh ), and lover of staring at cute butts (again: Duh )— sat at her desk, and watched the clock.
She wanted to be respectful of all those still taking their Introduction to the Cultures of Remnant midterms. They had just as much right to a focus-friendly environment as she did. It wasn't their fault Jei had blazed through the test like her 'dad' blazed through books during her downtime between assisting with the Amnesty.
Technically she could leave the classroom at any time since she had already turned in her test, but Jei had promised Rea—Jei's partner, Reaper Abyss, who's parents either hated them as a newborn, or wore too much black makeup on a regular basis—she'd stick around for moral support. And when Jei made a promise, she did her best to keep it. Even if they were taking literally forever to finish a test that was basically 'how to not offend everyone' in multiple choice form.
Jei was offended she even needed to take the test at all.
She also needed to work on her internal monologue's sense of humor, but maybe when she wasn't trying to keep quiet. Talking to herself correctly required vocalization after all.
Instead of causing everyone around her to question her mental state, Jei slumped forward across the long gallery desk she was sitting at. Her elbows successfully hung over the edge, but her brow only made it about three fourths of the way. Clearly, this wasn't the way to pass the time she was looking for. But it did shake loose an idea she'd had earlier in the week.
During her mom's class—where Jei had gotten to 'fight' not-actually-her-aunt aunt Velvet, the Moonminder, head-on for the first time ever —Jei had watched Miss Fall cycle between several styles of dagger absentmindedly while waiting for her own fights. Jei probably couldn't copy it exactly, but she liked the idea of nonchalantly flicking at least one of her simpler summons in and out of existence. If for no other reason than to look cool standing in a doorway or back alley one day.
Sitting back up, Jei moved her hands below the desk to keep from distracting those still testing. Her first step had to be deciding just which summon she wanted to use. Couldn't be too big, or else she'd run out of space and maybe bump someone still testing. That ruled out most of the actually useful weapons, honestly. Jei settled on a roughly forearm-length fang from a Sabyr—a mid-sized Atlesian Grimm that looked kind of like a prehistoric cat fossil stood up one day with a thirst for destruction—after a bit of intense self deliberation… and a coin flip.
She brought her hands together, palms up, just to get warmed up. Closing her eyes, Jei took a deep breath and brought up a mental image of a Sabyr. The black body was hazy and poorly defined, but the white of the bone was easy to see contrasted against the colorless void of her mind. Focusing on the fangs Jei opened her eyes and began to push the image into her hands. The feeling of her semblance channeling power into a tangible shape always just felt so right .
Where her mother's summons were heralded by a pristine and perfectly calculated circle containing crisp illustrations, Jei's looked more like some unknown creature was clawing and carving profane rituals into the air. Replacing the neat and pristine snowflakes, swords, or something equally mother , Jei's glyphs were often filled with images of bones, teeth or predatory eyes; though they did share the same bluish-silver glow. Some people found the appearance of her summon glyphs off-putting—like Rea, when they'd first seen one during initiation—but Jei had always thought the jagged lines looked exactly how they should.
Watching the small rips in space open in slow sequence always had a kind of macabre beauty to it. And while Jei didn't need to be so methodical about her semblance after years of practice, she was trying to kill time and figured doing it the slow way could help. Once the glyph completely formed, Jei let her instincts take over. The now-spinning glyph began to do its job, her semblance directing itself to form a sharp, curved blade of Grimm fang took shape.
As it reached the last third, Jei began to take a more active role in the process again. Moving her fingers in small twitches, she carefully altered the circle of her glyph into what looked like a poorly-drawn heart—the actual organ, not the simple shape—and pushed energy through her semblance once more. The result of the misshapen glyph caused the newly forming bone to warp and bend in odd ways, forming a kind of handguard and naturally-worn hilt.
Just as the last few touches were being finalized a tap on her upper ear jolted Jei out of her concentration, causing the carefully modified glyph to dissipate into the aether and taking the dagger along with it wholesale. Well, guess that's what I get for taking my time .
Letting out an annoyed sigh, Jei looked up expecting to see Professor Sitryss admonishing her for causing a distraction. Instead, the apologetic face of her partner greeted her. Rea wasn't sitting though, and their desk was bare of the thick test packet. It took her a second, but once Jei connected the dots that she wasn't shackled to the classroom anymore she collected her sparse testing supplies and (as silently as possible) led the way to the back of the gallery and out the door to freedom.
Once the door was shut, and the soundless void within officially closed off from the outside world again, Jei breathed as deeply and loudly as she could. Punctuating the return to real life with a moaning sigh of relief. " Gods , it feels good to be able to talk again."
"You ever feel weird, saying that?" Rea asked as they motioned for the two of them to move somewhere not just outside the stress-den that was Cultures .
Giving a nod in agreement, the pair started towards one of the many seating areas scattered around the school. Considering the question while they walked, Jei… had no idea what Rea meant. "Saying what? How relieved I am? Not really."
"Not that. Like, your moms met the Brother Gods, didn't they? So isn't saying 'gods' like that just kinda, I dunno, like saying 'Team JNPR' for you?"
"I mean, if you wanna get technical, I think they met or visited every myth-y person and place on Remnant. I'd be completely out of things to swear by if I let that limit me," Jei countered as she picked one of the solid wood chairs and sat down. "I'm pretty sure one of momma's stories is about how she died and went to the afterlife. Whenever she tells that one she usually get something thrown at her—" Jei shrugged "—so she's probably just being lewd."
"You didn't answer my question." Rea rolled their eyes in annoyance as they leaned against the window sill behind them. Light shone through the glass, wrapping them in a downright heavenly aura and accentuating their curves and contours. Showing off Reaper's muscles underneath their skin-tight arm socks, and glinting off the hard lines of their copper and dark metal chestplate and pauldrons. Their legs stretched for what seemed like miles, covered with form-fitting pants and from the knee down by angularly armored boots. Their long, slender hands were currently free of Rea's usual gauntlets and were between the cold stone and Rea's downright hypnotically cute ass.
Jei's eyes may have lingered for just a second.
What I wouldn't give for those to be my haaaaaand okay! Clearly there's some of that Xiao Long lewd passed down to me. Trying her best to keep the conversation going without being too obvious she'd just had a tiny little chain of rapid fire brain-mushening mental images of a certain teammate in a variety of situations which were… less than family friendly, Jei managed to kind of remember what they had been talking about. "Y-yeah, I answered around the question. Much better. More room to wriggle—" which was, unfortunately, a word that just added more fuel the raging fire of mental image tsunamis inside Jei's head, "—b-but ignoring my terrible segue skills for right now. Do you think there's any truth to the rumor that initiation partners usually end up dating?" Jei tried to pass the question off nonchalantly, but she was fairly sure her face was redder than her mom's hood at the moment.
Luckily, Rea had her own face turned away when Jei looked up. "Ignoring the partners who don't uhh… match up in the first place? I dunno. Kali and Nyanza—" Kali O'sha and Nyanza Lush, The other two members of Team ORNJ "—seem like they kinda hate each other," Rea shrugged as she looked back to Jei. "But then there's PWKL going for broke and trying to Entire Team it, kinda like your moms. Don't think that's my game to play, though."
"Yeah, they say it's not for everybody."
"How about you? Planning to follow in their footsteps? Woo the hate birds into a happy little harem? Seduce me with promises of power and mangos?" Rea waggled their eyebrows in the least seductive way Jei may have ever seen as they finished; contorting them in a wave so it looked like two Blind Worms flopping across their forehead.
Jei couldn't hold a straight face very long after that. Breaking into giggles first, and then literally falling out of her chair as she tried to breathe between fits of laughter. She kept just enough mental coherence to file away the fact that Rea could supposedly be paid off in mangos.
Eventually Jei managed to pull herself off the floor, standing to her full height and staring Rea directly in the… collarbone. They were very nice collarbones, but gods — y'know, that does sound kinda weird now that I think about it— did Jei hate that half of her genes were just variations of 'short'. Moving her gaze upwards, Jei definitely found herself stuck at their lips for a split second. With an incredibly strong urge to kiss Rea out of nowhere, just to see what might happen.
Snapping herself out of that train of thought, Jei finally met the infinitely deep navy blue pools with her own heterochromatic eyes. " That would be telling," Jei teased, her blush totally having not faded from her bout of hysterics and for no other reason.
No other reason at all .
Expertly breaking eye contact, Jei then successfully changed the subject to something far less tumultuous and anxiety inducing. "Anyway, we should probably get moving if we're gonna meet up with Nyanza and Kali after their test."
Rea's own slightly red face relaxed as they have an animated eye roll. "You're just saying that because you wanna oogle the Grimm Studies teacher."
Jei's face twisted at the accusation. "Wha- Ew! Gross, Rea. No. I've known Professor Pie since I was, like, three . No, I wanna go see the Grimm, " she said with far more glee in her voice than was normal when speaking about the living nightmare creatures. Jei knew her eyes were practically shining with wonder just thinking about watching grimm in a classroom arena. She wished they'd really shine someday.
One of her eyes was silver, but apparently that wasn't enough to be a Silver Eyed Warrior like her mom. She'd tried, several times, to trigger the Light inside of her. There had been Grimm, there had been a desire, and there had been Jade Lilly… but there had been no blast of anti-Grimm Magical Light.
Rea let out an exasperated sigh as they pushed themselves out of their lean and back to a standing position. "You are so weird. Are you sure you're not related to the Headmaster?"
Jei spun around as she led the way to Professor Pie's classroom, walking backwards and trusting Rea to give her warning of any incoming obstacles. "uhh... I am . Uncle Oscar's got some really cool pieces too."
"Like, genetically though."
"Well, he's my cousin's dad." Jei stopped her backwards stride to strike a pose with her arms at silly angles and her hands held in completely ridiculous shapes "Hashtag Dust-baby-gang."
"Dork," Rea shook her head in disappointment.
"Edgelord."
Rea stuck their tongue out and walked past Jei, leaving a scent in their wake that smelled like fresh cut grass. Jei quickly followed after.
As they walked, Jei's mind completely failed to wander away from the person in front of her. She probably should have been concerned that practically out of nowhere Rea had become one of the most interesting, noteworthy subjects that had ever passed through Jei's brain. It wasn't bad, but it was definitely hard to be coherent through. Everything from their smell to the way their undercut silver hair swayed with each step just demanded to be remembered. It didn't feel like her crushes back in combat school had, but it wasn't wholly a new feeling either. Jei needed advice, and not moms advice. Emmy would probably know. Maybe I can ask her this weeken—
"Hey, isn't that Miss Fall?" Rea asked, breaking Jei's concentration. "Oh dang, it is! And it looks like she's fighting… Uhhh… Jei, what is she fighting?"
Jei followed Rea's pointing finger through the wide observation window positioned so that those not in the circular classroom could still watch whatever was happening at ground level—without needing to watch over the heads of any students, who were in elevated seating above the hallway—and sure enough saw Miss Fall standing on the combat stage, preparing to release a caged… "Oh my gods! They actually managed to wrangle a Splitback into the classroom! Those things are crazy dangerous."
"It looks like a duck, a cactus and a beowolf got drunk and had a threesome. Why is it called a Splitback?"
"You can't see it from this angle, but along the back there's a massive bone plate with a Kraken behind it."
Rea looked away from the window, confusion clear on their face. "A crack in behind it?"
Jei shook her head, but didn't look away from the still-caged monster glaring down the black-haired woman with a glass bow in hand. "No, a Kraken . Grimm squid, in the same way a Levithan is a Grimm dolphin. Lots of hooked suckers, tentacles and a nasty beak at the center. Nobody's been able to figure out of the Kraken even exists separate from Splitbacks either."
Rea shuddered beside Jei. "I'm glad Professor Pie only had a King Tajitu for us."
"Oh, and the Alphas get a venom coating on all their spines," Jei added, not really paying attention to her partner's words. Too fixated on what promised to be an incredible display of skill from the woman Jei had only known through stories from her moms and Emmy before this school year.
"Jade… please tell me you aren't thinking of leaving the wonderful safety of being not in the same room as that thing to watch the fight."
Jei pulled herself away from the window so she could bring her unamused reaction—upper ears laid back and all—to bear at Rea. " Reaper Abyss , how dare. If we left now, we might miss the fight by the time we slipped through the doors up top. I'll survive not being able to smell the thing. I want to see it. Besides they have the Hard Light field up, not even a nevermore could get into the seating area when those are going full tilt," she offered before returning her attention to the two soon-to-be combatants.
Miss Fall squared her stance, and signaled to someone outside of Jei's view. The ring of field emitters around the area pulsed with increased power, making the plane of Hard Light Dust briefly visible above the area. With another signal the cage holding the Splitback opened, signaling the fight to begin.
Miss Fall made the first move, launching a volley of glass arrows at the Grimm before the cage had even fully opened. Most struck its thick hide and stuck there, some uselessly deflected off the bony plates or 'duck bill' on its face. One arrow was swatted out of its trajectory by a meaty paw, and embedded itself into the wall behind the Splitback so deeply only the fletchings were still visible.
Jei wasn't quite sure if that power had come from the Grimm, or Miss Fall's bow, but either way this was not a friendly fight.
The Splitback, not appreciating the sudden addition of multiple arrows to its body, retaliated by charging headlong towards Miss Fall. It's massive 'backpack' of plating added weight and made for a slow start, but once it got up to speed the Splitback could hit—literally—like a bus. Luckily the distance it needed to get to top speed was something like the length of Amity Arena's main stage, not a training hall.
Miss Fall did something Jei had never expected to counter the charge though. First: a panel of her cybernetic arm opened. Instead of a hidden weapon though, a cloud of something poured onto the ground. Second: Miss Fall didn't so much as flinch while the massive deadly platypus picked up speed. Third: with her flesh hand, she reached to the back of her belt for a Dust reservoir. Miss Fall flicked a switch and Jei saw a series of runes etch their way across her combat gear; dust channels sewn into clothing both for aesthetic and to deliver the supplied type. Finally: Miss Fall waved her hand and the accumulated pile at her side shot forward and assumed a heated glow as the cloud traveled towards the Grimm. The area between rapidly transformed from a dull flat surface, into what looked like an off-kilter ice cavern.
Instead of a one-eyed TA, The Splitback found itself running headlong into a field of newly-formed glass spikes. With no space to halt its momentum though, the Grimm instead threw itself back-first at the hazardous terrain. Smashing through with its massive bone shield, the Splitback skidded to a halt barely a foot away from Miss Fall.
Before Jei could even see through the cloud of flying shards, most of it again began to glow and swirl in the air. They formed into thick globs around the majority of the Grimm's limbs, trapping the Splitback on its side. Miss Fall stalked forwards and Jei swore she could hear the menacing click of her heels even through the thick observation window.
As Miss Fall rounded her opponent, the large bone plate on the Splitback's back came into view. It was damaged, but only superficially. It's job done, the jagged crack running from top to bottom split slowly, with a collection of tentacles worming their way out and prying the 'egg' wider as they went.
Apparently the process was a quiet one since Miss Fall didn't seem to notice, staring at the Splitback's front like she was. Her lips were moving, and she was pointing to something on the fallen Grimm. If the demonstration Jei had from her own Grimm Studies midterm was any indication, Miss Fall was explaining to the class how one could use a dying Grimm to search for weak points on that type for use in future encounters.
Reaper was pounding on the glass, while Jei waved frantically, both trying to catch the woman's attention before the Splitback could launch a sneak attack.
Unfortunately, Miss Fall wasn't the first to notice them.
As the back plate pried open wider, the Kraken's eyes found the two students behind a window located directly in front of it, instead of Miss Fall behind. The Kraken bunched it's tentacles, before it released the stored energy by launching all of them at the wall. The slight pause as the suckers latched on to both glass and stone equally was the only warning before the Splitback was launched forwards like a slingshot. The long, sharp beak impacted the window directly in front of Jei and sent a massive spider web of cracks across it.
The Kraken pulled itself back, and rammed its beak once more into the thick glass. This time, it breached through. The hole was relatively small, but still large enough to fit a person through.
Jei could hear screams from inside the classroom as the Grimm pulled away again. Professor Pie was shouting for her students to calm down. The Splitback was screaming in rage and pain. Its cries punctuated by the solid, meaty thumps of arrows impacting Grimm flesh.
Before Jei could even react properly, Rea shoved her out of the way, sending Jade sprawling across the floor. Safe, but alone.
Looking back, she could see Reaper Abyss nearly enveloped by the ghastly arms of the Splitback. Their hair flung haphazardly from the sudden rush of motion, and their muscles tensed in fear. Rea's deep blue eyes were relieved as Jei made eye contact, and quickly filled with fear as tentacles fully looped around their waist.
As the Kraken's black arms ensnared Rea, Jei felt a shock of something run through her body.
Reaper Abyss' armor groaned under the building pressure and Jade Lilly's world went Silver.
A/N:
And there we go, 30 chapters (well 27). and we finally get some Jei occurrences outside of the classroom!
Damn, i was really hoping to get this out before August. Oh well, upside is i started my new job this month, and will be moving (again) sometime during. not to mention my birthday is just around the corner... man, my August is busy.
as always, big thanks to WhatOtherPlanet and shockfactor. y'all doin great work.
and side note: Chapter 1 has been completely rewritten. no strictly new info has been added, so don't feel like you absolutely need to go back if you don't want. but it's certainly better done than my initial foray