Important Notice
I won't be able to update new chapters for three weeks. For the first week and a half, I'll be on vacation. And the last week and a half, I'll be staying at home. Which means I'll be busy with family and friends. I apologize, but I'll have the next chapters up as soon as possible.
"Ice Flower?"
"Yeah, don't you think it's a perfect name for our duo combo?"
"Ruby, it sounds absolutely silly."
"Okay fine. How about... White Rose?"
"That also sounds silly."
"Come on Weiss, work with me here."
"We'll figure it out later," she sighed.
Weiss and I were heading to our next class, history. It wasn't until after our field trip from Forever Fall that Yang and I can head back home as previously planned. The week went by tortuously slow, and the over excitement bubbled inside of me didn't help either.
We sat down next to Blake and Yang, while a part of Team JNPR sat behind us. Jaune was missing from the group as he sat on the other section alone. For some reason, he seemed troubled and awfully distant in these past couple of days. Once the bell rung, Dr. Oobleck started the class about the Faunus War. It was an intriguing subject, I have to say. Even I was deeply engrossed and actually took notes.
Well, I tried to take notes considering how fast Oobleck talked.
"Now, have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?" the professor suddenly brought up.
I whipped my hand up and shot an annoyed glare at Cardin on the other side of the room. I was about to honor him with my magnificent middle finger, but Weiss slapped my hand before I could.
"Dreadful, simply dreadful..." the professor disappointingly shook his head as he watched a few hands go up. He continued to lecture about the war, asking the class questions to test whether or not we paid attention in class. And to summarize the whole seminar, let's just say Jaune and Cardin didn't satisfy Dr. Oobleck's expectations which prompt him to assign extra readings to them.
"Don't you think Jaune seems a little off?" I wondered aloud. The bell already rattled its metal, and we were escorting ourselves out of the classroom. Team NPR were outside waiting for Jaune, at least Pyrrha was, while my team and I decided to head back to the dorm considering we were done for the day.
"Seems like the idiot he normally is given from his embarrassing answer," Weiss deadpanned. "Seriously, binoculars? How can the Faunus overwhelm General Lagune's forces with a simple optical instrument."
"Easy. Get enough binoculars and throw it at them until they drop dead," I humorously joked. I scanned my scroll onto the lock and we entered our room.
"That doesn't sound very efficient," Blake had a small smile.
"Jaune might think otherwise," Yang laughed as she tossed her academic materials off to the side of the room. "Hey Rubes, you want to play some video games?" She hollered over her shoulders, waving a game disc and her scroll for me to see. "I got Ninja Kombat II!"
"Sorry Yang, I told Weiss that I'll go with her to the training room."
"You can ditch Snow Angel for today," my sister horribly proposed.
"Don't call me that," the heiress hissed.
"And you let Jaune?" The brawler playfully retorted with a smirk on her face.
Weiss said nothing but rolled her eyes and shook her head. We all knew that no matter what the heiress says or does, Jaune was quite persistent. My partner couldn't seem to catch a simple break from him. Majority of the week, she had to deal with his flirts and desperate pesters for dates. Despite how many times the heiress bluntly rejected him, the tenacious blond boy always sprang back onto his feet to try again the next day. I wasn't exactly mad or jealous of Jaune's persistence. At first it was amusing, but then it just seemed kind of... Sad to watch.
"I wish I could play, but I already ditched Weiss last time." I declined my sister again.
"Then who's going to play Ninja Kombat II with me?" Yang voiced out sadly and looked like a kicked puppy.
"Ask Blake!" I suggested before I waved a short goodbye and walked out of the room with Weiss.
"You do understand that Blake would much rather read her books than strain her eyes at a pixilated screen," Weiss commented after shutting the door behind us.
"I figured," I shrugged and waved a dismissive hand down. We were heading straight to the locker room to pick up our weapons. "But I think this is more important than video games."
"Didn't you ditch me last time?" She scoffed.
"Because you wanted to study, not to train. Totally different," I pointed out to her. We then arrived to our destination and took our weapons from our lockers. "Besides, we still haven't come up with our duo combo. What's wrong with White Rose? Or Ice Flower?"
"It sounds silly," she retorted as she spun the cylinder of rapier, inspecting her cartridges of dust.
"But you were fine with Checkmate and Freezerburn," I mumbled as I clipped Crescent Rose behind me. In spite of it being a Thursday afternoon, the training room was fairly empty once we stepped inside. One section of the area contained a wide range of weight bars and elliptical machines for body strengthening purposes. The enormous section next to it was a multipurpose arena, mainly used for spars or as a shooting range.
"That's because they don't sound childish compared to Ice Flower or White Rose."
"They sound perfectly normal to me," I huffed. Weiss and I entered the arena floor. "Okay, let's take it at the top first."
A row of practice targets sprung from the floor, straightly lined up in the training room. I unfurled Crescent Rose, hooked its blade onto the ground, and lowered myself into sniping position. Weiss then waved her rapier down and summoned a series of glyphs in front of the scythe's sniper barrel. With a few clicks, radiant spirals of energy perfectly nailed each and every target, prompting large ice crystals upon impact.
"Okay, tell me how that doesn't look like an ice flower." I pointed at the line of targets and rose an eyebrow at the heiress.
"Fine." She rolled her eyes, caving in a bit."Maybe it does look like it."
"Then it's settled. Our duo attack is Ice Flower." I smiled, finally satisfied we reached a decision. Though a part of me thinks that she relented because she didn't want to discuss about it anymore. Then my eyes brightened as an idea lit like a light bulb. "Hey Weiss, do you want to have an unarmed practice match?"
"Ruby, we both know that it's going to be a one sided match." The heiress gave me a skeptical look, already knowing who'll be the true winner.
"I just thought that I could help you with hand to hand combat or something."
"That's actually... Thoughtful of you," Weiss looked into my silver pool of eyes with surprise. "And how are you planning to teach me?"
"Normally I would do the old fashion way."
"And what's that?"
"Pound you silly," I flashed a sly grin. Weiss nervously took a few steps back, not pleased with the idea. "But..." I trailed off as I close the distance between us. "I think it's better that we work with basic techniques. We can go to the weight room next time to build you to your physical peak condition — but for now, try copying me." I brought my two fists up for display, and she does the same.
"No, make your arms more sturdy. Your arms looks like overcooked noodles," I frowned at her stance.
"Wha — How dare you! My arms are stronger than a flimsy string of pasta," she scowled before correcting position.
"Perfect! Now shoulders straight, chin down, feet apart, and knees bent."
Weiss followed through my instruction. "Okay — now what?" She asked, holding her stance.
"Alright Princess," I cracked my knuckles. She frowned at the pet name, but didn't protest. "Parry, block, receive, redirect, or dodge, but definitely take notes. I'm going to attack you very slow so you can see it. Ready?"
"Ready."
My body cried for sleep even though the night was still young. Weiss was so eager to learn that we ended staying at the training room longer than we were suppose to. Before I called it a night, I saw Jaune dejectedly standing right out his door.
"Hey Jaune," I called out to him. My sudden voice made the blond boy jump out of his skin with stiffed shoulders. He had a bright smile on, but his eyes obviously told the opposite. "Are you... Okay?"
"Y-Yeah, of course!" He continued his to fabricate a smile. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Jaune," I said sternly.
His shoulders lost assurance and he slumped down. The fake smile dropped as he lost all confidence. "How do you do it?"
"What do you mean?" I looked at him funny.
"You're that admirable, strong leader. You always know what you're doing, and your team even looks up to you." He held his head down and his face dropped solemnly. Jaune was always the kindhearted goofball. It was unusual to see him look so crestfallen.
I hummed quietly to myself then said,"let's go for a walk." He followed me outside into the cool night as we aimlessly walked around the school's perimeter. There was no specific destination I wanted to be at, just mindlessly walking for fresh air.
"I'm not that leader Ozpin sees me as." He sighed dejectedly, breaking the deafening silence. "I — uh. I messed up. Cardin strapped me on a leash, and Pyrrha... She won't talk to me."
"I can always make Cardin disappear for you," I offered with crossed arms and a frown.
"Don't you think that's a little... Over the top?"
"The worse that'll happen is I get expelled," I nonchalantly shrugged.
"It's... It's okay Ruby," he sighed. "You should be here in Beacon. If there is someone who doesn't deserve to be at this school, it's me. I'm an absolute failure." He stopped walking and depressingly sat down on a nearby bench.
"Nope." I sat down with him and leaned back into the bench. I lifted my chin up and stared at the countless stars in the sky.
"What?" His voice sounded confused.
"All leaders are bound to be failures at a certain point of their life. What makes you any different?"
"I... I'm not following."
My face turned back to him and my metallic eyes met his blue. "We all make mistakes, and we all fail at something. That's normal Jaune. You're not any different than me in that aspect. I make mistakes and I fail at things. We're the same. But do you know what separates a bad leader from a good leader?"
"What?" He asked, wanting to know the one answer to solve all his problems.
"The choices we make," I answered. "When Ozpin appointed me leader, it was rocky for me. Weiss didn't enjoy the fact she wasn't the leader, and there were turmoil between Blake and I. But I made my choices. Sure you could be a failure now." Jaune groaned and lowered his head from the negative word, but I placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "But right now, you also have a team to take care of. The decisions you make can greatly affect your team, not just you."
"The choices we make..." he spoke barely in a whisper.
"Yep," I took my hand off shoulder and hopped off the bench. "So think about what you're going to do Jaune. Are you going to sit around and let your failures trample you? Or are you going to pick yourself back up and prove the world that Jaune Arc can be a great leader?" I then proceeded to walk back to the dorms. "Have a good night, Jaune!"
A faint chime of a scroll beeped off in the distance behind me, but the noise weakened then died, once I was out of its range.
Forever Fall was probably one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen on Remnant. Red-leafed trees swayed back and forth, dancing with the wind. Red leaves fell down and landed onto the red grass. Even the red forest harbored red sap in its tree bark.
Maybe I found it beautiful because it was indefinitely red, and I liked red.
"We will rendezvous back here by four o'clock. Don't be late and have fun," Glynda stated and left us alone in a forest full of grimm to complete our task.
"Don't you think it's weird that Professor Goodwitch just left us unsupervised even though she said that she was here to make sure we don't die?" I had a bizarre look on my face as I watched the professor walk off to another direction.
"More freedom for us," Yang smiled. "Come on, let's get some sap." My team stayed nearby Team JNPR, except once again, Jaune was missing from the group. I had an idea where he went off to, but I didn't bother to bring it to light.
"Nora, please stop eating all the sap," Ren scolded her.
"But Ren, it taste so good." Nora licked her lips and then licked all over the glass jar to scrape what was left of the red glop.
"Really?" I asked and inspected the red liquid that brimmed to the top of my container. It didn't seem appetizing from the way I sloshed it around.
"Try some!" the bubbly girl recommended, moving onto the next jar to eat.
The red liquid barely touched my tongue as I took a light sip, and my eyes widen from the spectacular taste. I expected it to be viscous like tar, but surprisingly, it was easy and thin to swallow. The sweetness level was not overwhelming, and yet, not underwhelming. Despite its vibrant red color, it was a perfect syrup.
"Blake, you have got to try this." I shoved my mason jar in front of the Faunus's face.
"I think I might pass on this one," Blake politely pushed the container away. "I prefer tea."
"You can put this in your tea. Just try it." I insistently pushed it towards her again.
"People normally don't put molasses in their tea," Blake once again pushed it away.
"Fine your loss," I pouted. "Yang, try it. You too Weiss. Nora just showed me a whole new world."
Weiss hovered her nose at the entrance of the jar and breathed in. She had a disgruntled look and immediately capped the lid back onto her jar. "I'm with Blake on this one," she passed.
"But you haven't even tasted it!" I complained.
"No thank you," the heiress replied.
"Come on, one sip. Just a tiny one," I tried to convince her.
"I prefer black coffee. Not an overload of sugar," she rationalized.
"She takes her coffee as black as her heart," Yang teased, earning a thwack at the upside of her head from Weiss.
"Her coffee must be cold too."
"Nice one Blake," my sister laughed, unfazed of the heiress's attack she just received. "Up top!" She held her hand up, but Blake left her awkwardly hanging and continued to stare at her with the same expressionless face. "We'll... work on that." Yang brought her hand down before she courageously sipped the mystery sweetener. Like me, her eyes widened in astonishment and downed more gulps. "Wow, this is good."
"See even Yang likes it," I pointed out.
"I think we're supposed to be collecting samples, not eating them," Pyrrha lightheartedly giggled. It was the first I've seen all day that the champion gladiator lightened up from her notable solemn mood. After a moment of recollecting our samples, my ears perked up to the distant roar. I glanced over to Blake, and she too, picked up the same sound. She nodded at me in confirmation and I nodded back.
"There's a grimm nearby," I voiced out loudly to the others. They all abruptly stopped with what they're doing and noticed the remaining Team CRDL coming towards us from another direction.
"There's an Ursa!" One of them shouted. "And it got Cardin!"
"Good," I retorted with an eye roll. "It can keep Cardin forever." If we sacrificed Cardin to the grimms, Beacon will lose its notorious school bully and maybe the taste of his body will placate the monsters. It was a win-win situation.
"Jaune," Pyrrha gasped as she dropped her jar of collected samples.
Oh shit, Jaune was also back there too...
"Nora. Ren. Go get Professor Goodwitch," Pyrrha commanded.
"Blake. Yang. Go with them just in case," I ordered. "Weiss, you're with me. Let's go Pyrrha."
We ran to the said direction and caught Jaune struggling to defend a helpless Cardin against a giant Ursa. I extended my weapon into its scythe form but Pyrrha held a hand up to stop me.
"Wait," she said.
"Oh this isn't for the grimm," I replied and rubbed the handle of Crescent Rose. I was absolutely certain that he had everything to do what was currently happening. This would be a perfect place to bury Cardin's body. . The place was bloody red, no one would find his trail of blood, and I could make it look like an accident too.
"Just wait," she trailed off in a whisper.
We watched as Jaune attempted to slay the beast. As much as I wanted to step in to help him, I couldn't. It was blatant to everyone that it was a one sided match, and that he was going to lose. He fought gallantly, but it wasn't enough. At this rate, he would die before our very own eyes. But for some reason, he didn't. The corner of my eye caught a sudden movement and I curiously turned my head. Pyrrha had her hand held up, and a thin film of dark aura manifested around it.
What is she doing?
At that moment, Jaune wondrously blocked a swiping claw and beheaded the grimm with his sword. I took a few double takes, trying to link the two and two together. Then it dawned on me.
"What did you do?" Weiss looked at the champion gladiator skeptically.
"I think Pyrrha possessed Jaune," I whispered softly. "How else can he block something that he didn't mean to block?"
"Not quite on the mark," Pyrrha chuckled with a smile. "While possession is... An interesting semblance. My semblance is polarity."
"Whoa, you can possess metals," I spoke softly in awe.
"You dunce." Weiss's palms met her face as she let out a deep sigh.
I watched Jaune help Cardin to his feet, but I couldn't catch what they were saying. Though there was definitely one thing I caught. The school bully was frozen in the middle of the field and had an apologetic look on his face. I guess there might be hope for him to change after all. I hummed softly to myself as I followed Pyrrha and Weiss back.
Next stop, home.
Hope you enjoyed it! See you guys next chapter.