It had been a rough night but June had woken up quite well. Her grogginess, however, didn't seem to reduce the awkwardness of eating breakfast with her dad. The kids didn't fully catch on, but August had. She came to Oraculi after they ate as June had went to hang out with March.
"Is something going on?" She had asked him, concerned with his daughter's relationship with him.
"It's nothing. She was going to the bathroom in the middle of the night and thought she would get in trouble for being up so late. That's all." Oraculi's delayed, but still fast, response had set her at ease.
"Sheesh. I wish March would be like that. She can be a hassle sometimes." August had sighed after that, showing her disappointment was genuine.
"It can't be helped. Amica became her role model instead of you, so naturally she would get the Vacuo way of thinking from him. Very much unlike Mai."
"I guess you're right," she had gotten out. However, her face changed after a couple seconds of silence, indicating she remembered something, "Oh, right. Amica said that you and June should stop by the shop before he closes down for the day."
"Hm? I see he still hasn't stopped being cocky about his work. There's no way he could be done so soon."
"I may be biased, I wouldn't doubt his ability. When was the last time you saw him work?" Her questioning was precise and undeniable.
Oraculi could say nothing in response and she took his silence as her victory. Although he was smart in battle tactics, he didn't exactly excel in small talk. The rest of the day went by slowly, considering he didn't have much to do. He could only guess that June felt the same as she looked less cheerful than she had yesterday.
He knew she was tough for her age, but that Huntsman killing part she heard must've been affecting her a great deal. Unfortunately, she was smart enough to understand what that meant and that realization would impact any innocent young adult in an academy, much less a nine year old. He couldn't exactly blame Amica for saying it; he didn't think that anyone would be listening either. June surprised even him with her stealth, so it was just another thing he had to stop underestimating.
As proud as he was, he still didn't like having to treat her more like an adult every day. Not to mention that it was more specifically a Huntress he had to treat her like. Eventually, he thought he was thinking about it too much and that it was something for another time. Soon enough, thankfully, it was nearing the time Amica would close shop, so he went to get June.
"June, we're heading out to catch Amica at closing time." With that, June's eyes filled with wonder.
He was going to tell her she shouldn't get her hopes up, but stopped himself before he did. I guess she already feels scared around me for getting angry last night, so probably wouldn't be wise to add that. He was a great Huntsman but his parenting skills weren't very good, so he'd hope this trip would help him. The only reason he could guess June even looked up to him is the fact that he was training her. However, he would still try to make amends for what happened.
June was excited after hearing where they would be going.
She wasn't sure how long a weapon normally took to make but she got the impression that it must take some time. Truly, though, she felt it was kind of dumb to get excited about it quickly, thinking this would be a check up. For herself, she preferred a complete product to be shown to her instead of being shown updates. Although, she understood the reason for such check ups: Making sure everything was fine with the person who requested it. But if that was the reason, he would've done it earlier, right?
Her thoughts were interrupted by her dad.
"Are you ready to go?" During that thinking process her auto pilot had helped her put on her boots and desert cloth.
"Mhm mhm," was all she said in response.
She was still concerned with what was brought up last night, but she wasn't particularly scared of her father. It was mostly the Hunter killer part. If anything, she understood that it was her dad training her like that, but she looked up to him, so she knew that there was some motive to it that had good intentions. Still, though, she felt weird about what had happened.
Of course, walking through this place didn't provide much comfort. She wanted to see the outside world so much, but this was a horrible example, considering the stories she heard. She held some optimism, though, and knew the world was a large place. Her thoughts were then interrupted.
"So, how do you feel about finally getting a weapon?" She was slightly shocked by her fathers question. He was usually quiet.
"Um… I guess it sounds cool. And it should help me kill Grimm, right?" Since the last part was rhetorical, she went on, "Especially since I heard about all those fantastical weapons."
"I see. They are truly something. Even thinking some weapons might be overkill can't let someone ignore the creativity one needs to come up with such things." His opinion was loud and clear. "To be honest, I'm quite excited myself to see what you came up with."
Hearing this, she became pretty relieved. She didn't even realize that him getting angry at her had affected her a lot, and she wasn't sure why it had. Even more shocking was that she didn't even know. With that mood changer, the walk to Amica's had been nice. She was even able to ignore the scenery a bit.
When they got there, it seemed the timing was perfect. Amica had just put finished a blade and went to put it away. He noticed them while he was carrying it but stayed focused on the blade, telling his visitors to wait a second. After that, he came back out to get them.
"I see you two are punctual. A tip June: If there's one thing you should take after your father, it's his timing." Although it was a joke, it had some serious undertone to it that June was able to pick up on.
Wait, that's not right. She realized it was the first time she ever picked up any undertone to his voice. Does that mean he was treating me like a child before? The thought crossed her mind, but she didn't bring it up, thinking it was a bit rude and possibly embarrassing.
"C'mon, I'll show you what I've got done," Amica said, taking June out of thought. Hm, guess that means I was right about the check-up thing.
The two of them followed the weaponsmith back inside. It was messy, but the way he traversed it with familiarity showed it was organized chaos to him. He walked past one room where all his unfinished products were. Well, that's what June guessed. The room they entered after was quite different from the first, however.
It was neatly decorated with wall mounts for different weapons. The walls weren't very fancy, but for Vacuo, it might as well have been tended to by an interior designer. Since there was a weapon mounted higher than the rest, she assumed that it was important to him in some way. There was a partially cleaned off table under said mount and it only had an open box covered by a cloth of some kind. Amica walked over to it and motioned for June to come over. Once she did, he got excited.
"Well… Voilà!" he said it as he took off the cloth.
A sparkle of silver appeared as the light started to hit it. The handles had some engravings to add to the look but there weren't many other visual cues that made it look special: They were just a single pair of metal nun-chucks. However, to June, it had looked amazing.
"Woah!" She couldn't say anything else, only looking at Amica as if to confirm something.
After he nodded, she picked it up by both handles. She swung them around a bit, trying to get a feel for it. She had only practiced a tiny bit with dummy ones she found in her dads arsenal. She then started to check if it could use the other functions she asked for. It was then, though, that Oraculi had cut her off.
"As excited as I am to see it myself, I think it might be better for you to keep that hidden from me," he told her. She took that as a command and, understanding what he was implying, put it back on the box.
"If you want me to be honest, I didn't realize how good of a weaponsmith you had become, Amica," Oraculi had said it earnestly.
"Hm. I'm disappointed you would think I wouldn't improve. Besides, my semblance has only grown overtime," Amica said back, but it took June's eyes off her weapon for a bit. Noticing this, Amica started to explain, "Oh. He didn't tell you? My semblance allows me to enter a state that helps me perceive the world around me better. It can range from hearing things better, judging a distance perfectly, or being able to gather the precise temperature of something simply by being close-"
"Or, in other words, the perfect semblance for a weaponsmith." Oraculi followed right after Amica appeared to finish talking; although, he wasn't.
"That's what you remember, Oraculi. You don't think I've advanced it since Shade?" With that comment, Oraculi's curiosity became visible.
"A couple years after moving to this village, I noticed something that started to become a trend. I swear it was déjà vu, but it was happening too often for it to be a coincidence. Then, it happened. I got wondering and tried focusing hard on one of my uncompleted projects, and boom. I could sense the exact time I would finish it, had a general idea of what it would look like, and I could determine if it would function."
With that last comment Oraculi was visibly taken aback. June, now interested in what he was talking about, blurted something out in response.
"So, you can have premonitions?"
"Yep, and I've been right one hundred percent of the time, but that's where the 'perfect for a weaponsmith only' comes to mind," Amica said, implying it wouldn't work for anything else.
June had educated herself in the nature of semblances since discovering her own and she was able to grasp that hers wasn't very special. It was useful, but not to the extent of seeing into the future useful. Even if it was hyper specific, it was ultra useful. With that all in mind she could only aw in what he could do.
"So does that mean my weapons works fine?" June had asked him. He grinned and gave a confident nod.
"If you want, I can even guess its name with astounding accuracy."
"That would be great!" June jumped at the opportunity while hoping it could prevent her from giving it a bad one. However, he told her to calm down and explained that he would do it tomorrow when he wasn't exhausted as he could only still only use it once a day.
She felt stupid for jumping at that so fast, but the mood and the adults told her she didn't have to apologize. The three of them then closed down shop and went home. On the way back, Amica said that the painting would be done by noon the next day if he got to the forge at the usual time. All her father did in response was pat him on the back for his proficiency. It was admirable, but not knowing fully how these things worked probably meant it would be more impressive if she knew more. Both her father and Amica talked more; although, she was paying attention to something else.
Whenever the talking would die a bit down her father would usually go back to his stoic expression. Usually. This time, however, the looks he made had given off… Concern? She couldn't tell, but knew it wasn't normal. If it is worry, what would he be concerned about? Maybe it was something said recently? June started to analyze her memory more intently than she did before. She was so focused on her weapon and Amica's semblacne that she hadn't caught any deeper meaning in anything that was said. "I'll have it done by tomorrow and roughly around noon," was what Amica told them. She didn't find any deeper meaning to it, but, from memory, that's when her father's mood changed. After a bit of thinking, she still couldn't tell what it was, and it was bothering her. Seriously! What could it be! Something I don't know about? Did I act weird? Jeez, if he were like Mom, I could read him e- Her own thoughts were interrupted by a realization.
He expected the trip to take longer, so Oraculi was expecting to leave Angelus home alone longer than this. Still, though, the thought that they could leave the next day started to make him worry, and a little anxious. He tried not thinking about it while also logically explaining to himself that it was highly unlikely anything would happen to his wife, especially since she was from Vacuo. What he didn't notice, however, was that his face was still giving off some worry. It withered away the more he talked to Amica, though, and all without him realizing it.
It was a short walk and they were greeted by August once they got back. She was quick to make something for her husband. June had gone back to the twins room as well, which didn't really make Oraculi feel any better. He wasn't expecting her to just talk to him a lot all of a sudden, but he didn't really feel like much changed from before the walk. Next time she came out, which was right before she would go to sleep, he tried to talk to her.
"June," he said and got her attention, which she responded to with a nod. "I forgot to say sorry about getting mad last night. I didn't really mean to."
To his surprise, June nodded her head again and her entire body gave the impression that it had just relaxed. Her expression even lightened up. So that did help? he told himself and felt better. This trip had been a bonding experience for them, and he was happy that he was getting better.
The night went by quickly after Oraculi cleared things up. For him, at least. He still wasn't entirely sure that June felt better, but he had to go with what he could read on her face. In the meantime, he had another conversation with Amica after everyone went to bed, ending up in the dining room again. This time, though, it was just to have a normal conversation without any interruptions.
"Can you really see into the future with your semblance?" Oraculi asked, very invested in learning.
"Yeah. I was quite shocked when I learned about it. It does have it's setbacks though," Amica had responded rather quickly.
"I know semblances can be unique, but I don't think I've ever heard of something like that."
"I know, right? Still, I wish i could use it for fighting, even if I'm not a Huntsman for a living anymore."
"About that; what makes it so difficult to use for engagements?"
"Hm, 'engagements.' You don't have to use vocabulary like that," Amica picked on his vocab.
"You know damn well that's how I talk." The way oraculi said wasn't hostile; it was more joking as he smiled while saying it. Amica picked it up and chuckled at it.
Still the same Amica, I guess. Oraculi thought to himself as he restated his question.
"Anyway, is there any reason for it not working?"
"Yeah, unfortunately. It takes a long time for my mind to get used to using it for specific cases, so I can use it for smithing because I practiced with it. However, it still takes about… Ten seconds, give or take, of my undivided attention to get a premonition. Even then I have to think for a couple seconds after to recognize what I saw."
"I see. So even with an advanced version it takes an unreasonable amount of time in terms of an actual fight."
"Bingo. Besides, my skills good enough as is." With that remark his cockiness was apparent.
"Hmf, you couldn't beat me now. Even in your prime." Now it was Oraculi's turn to sound cocky.
"Says the warrior prodigy," Amica had shot back quick, knowing Oraculi's distaste of the legend.
It was a rather apt example of a Vacuoans harsh joking. It sounds even worse among best friends; well, if you're an outsider, that is. As antagonzing as it was, Oraculi had only chuckled in response, but didn't respond in the same manor. He was always more lighthearted to the people close to him, mostly because his parents taught him that way. Since he was raised the same as June, even being in the same house, he didn't share the same hardened heart as most Vacuoans. He only shared their distasteful looks that came from being a Huntsman.
"Sounds like you're just jealous," Oraculi shot back.
"Yeah right." With that they both had a good laugh, even if they were being quiet.
"Well, I'd hate to ruin this, but I have to make sure you two can leave by tomorrow." Amica then got up to leave.
"I guess you picked that up, eh?" Oraculi said aloud.
"Yep. I know you want to leave this junk heap as fast as you can," he said in a sarcastic tone before he left, but Oraculi knew what that meant. Usually, he did that to brighten the mood, so he for sure knew how Oraculi felt. He sighed and then chuckled a bit, realizing that he was too easy to read. He followed Amica's lead and went to sleep in the guest bedroom.
June woke up later than she did the day before. Albeit, still before everyone else. This time, the first half of the day would be hectic. It was mostly doing chores; even her father was forced into helping around. They had to pack, but that didn't take too long compared to everything else that was happening. Eventually, though, noon had come and her father and herself were ready to leave. Oraculi said goodbye to them all and March had looked gloomy that she was leaving so soon.
"Don't worry. I'm sure that I'll be back some day," June told her to make her feel better.
"I hope you're right, and I'm sure I'll beat you next time." The March said showed she meant it, so June agreed and said she was hoping for it.
When she looked at her father, he had a faint smile. She wasn't sure why, but she thought that it was the fact that they were going home. She felt happy about it too; however, she still wanted to travel more after going home. With that in mind, she joined her father and waved one last time to Amica's family.
Similarly to last night, the trip to the forge wouldn't be long, so they would be there a little past noon. However, something was off. Since they were being expected, Amica would've been there to greet them, but he wasn't. Oraculi thought of a worse case scenario and went to check, telling June to stay in front. It was worrying. Thankfully, though, Amica and Oraculi came out fine.
With him, Amica was holding a box. June could guess what it was as she opened it. She liked the weapons silver, engraved gleam from before, but now it was painted black and blue like she asked for. The blue was a primary while black took the tertiary and secondary colors. The handles were sloped and gripped her hands while she held. She could even feel the trigger mechanisms in the handles when she held it. She loved it already. She was so distracted, actually, that she didn't notice Amica had been a bit off.
Her overjoyed face made his mood a little better, but Amica couldn't get over what he found out. Oraculi didn't ask about it, though, which he thought he would. It wasn't much longer until they left. Actually, Amica had intentionally tried to stop talking and be inclusive to get them to leave faster. Just go! Maybe it can be prevented! he wanted to tell them that, but he knew that wouldn't help. His premonitions were always correct. The father and daughter left him alone, and Amica just kept that emotionless face. I wonder how they'll react to it, or maybe I'm overthinking this. he thought to himself.
Before they had got there, Amica was just waiting, so to pass the time he got the idea to check what the weapons name would be, just in case the girl asked. That was a mistake. Once he understood what it meant, he didn't want to move, which is why Oraculi had to come get him. Why did I do it? The question was pointless. My damn curiosity had to lead me to that name.
Angeli Cadunt.
This time the trip back wouldn't be very entertaining. Her father told her he didn't plan on any Grimm fights this time, either, so it would be even more uneventful. Still, June liked the sight seeing, even if it was mostly desert. She got to see more animals than she did before, especially since it was day time. Her dad even knew some of the animals, too, so it felt like a bonding experience as well. That would come to an end following nightfall, though, as June went to sleep relatively quickly.
Even though he was used to it as a Huntsman, trogging through nights having to stay awake were still quite tough. Oraculi always had to break through that first wave of sleepiness. Thankfully, he was still good at it, despite his age. He constantly checked a map and compass to see where they were going, but it was mostly to have something to do as nights like this were boring. There weren't any Grimm in their direct path either, so he couldn't even occupy himself that way. Eventually, the sun started rising in the distance, which made him feel a little better. There was still a long way to go after that, however, so he just tried to push on.
June woke up when the sun had been high enough to shine into her eyes. It still took her ten minutes to wake up completely, though. Her father hadn't changed much to her surprise. She knew he was a Huntsman but it was still impressive to go through the night and keep on; however, she would get better at everything. It was mostly out of friendly competition, so she didn't dislike her dad in any way. With thoughts like these and the occasional conversation, they were back at the house in no time.
Something's off. He couldn't put his mind on what, but he felt an ominous aura coming from the house. A bad omen as the house felt… Lifeless. As the word rang through his mind, he got off the camel they were riding for the last part of the trip and told June to stay put. He then kept hold of his weapon, which was hidden under his clothes.
The way he entered and told her to stay back made her suspicious. Mom should be home to greet us, right? When she realized it was a question, she grabbed her nun-chucks and went into the house anyway. When she came in, it did feel quite lonely. It looked as though things hadn't been attended to for a day. Looking around, she ran into her father. He told her to leave, which she responded by showing her weapon. He kept his concerned face, but let her follow and help him.
He went throughout the house, June behind him. It wouldn't take long before they reached the backdoor that led to the training area and a small garden. When he opened the door and stepped out, he stopped...
Confused why he stopped, she pushed past him to see what was happening, her curiosity taking over, but the pool of red liquid at the furthest point in the garden was indicative of what he saw…
Angelus was dead. Her mother was dead.
They weren't given time to grieve, though. A boney white Grimm, an old Beowolf, had been on the other side. The way it was there showed that it was waiting for prey. Once had come out, it had charged them. Oraculi was able to get back to his senses; albeit, slowly. He braced and prepared to take it.
Then a blue flash encircled it.
There was warcry as he heard a stabbing noise within the second the flash surrounded it. It must've been one of her weapons hidden features. The fight couldn't be called that, as it was over the next second. However, as its body stopped started to dissipate, she kept stabbing. She only stopped once it was fully gone. Oraculi had only looked in shock by the response. He couldn't tell if the blade was sharp, or if she was just going that fast. Proboth.
She then started to cry as she stayed knelt down where she was. In the meantime, Oraculi had went to see Angelus. There was a giant claw slash on her chest. It was recent but not recent enough to make it preventable. He just looked, extremely angry at himself for thinking this was a good idea. She didn't need a weapon! I could've jus- He grunted and went inside to get the things he would need to clean up. When he came back out, June wasn't crying anymore, but she sat still in the same position, motionless. After he moved the body, he was quick to find a coffin-like box for her to stay in. He sat looking at her for some time, confused about what to do. I'll just focus on the now, so I should give her the best grave I… Could do. He prepared to bury her tomorrow since they got there close to night.
Oraculi woke up early to do it. It wasn't on purpose, but his body had done it for him. After grabbing a shovel, he went to the garden. Her garden was a given place. Besides June, it was the most precious thing to her. He measured the box and knew how big it would have to be. He would have to figure out how to deal with June, but maybe letting her be alone this day would be a good idea?
When he got to the garden, there was already a mound of dirt and hole. Sure enough, it was the exact size, and when he looked towards the training ground, June was practicing with her weapon. The sweat and dirt that he could see on her from the distance implied she'd been out there for awhile. Why? That's… Awfully grim.
He went to get her, but she didn't need to be told anything aloud to understand why he was there. He brought out the coffin himself and set it in. Oraculi told June he would take care of everything else. She didn't rest, though, as she went back to the grounds to practice. How can she be so fine. She's different, but there's no signs of coping. He didn't realize who she got her poker face from if that's what it was…
