Chapter 21
The auditorium was filled with students from all four schools. For being allies, there was very little mingling going on, each school mostly just kept to themselves. Adam stood at the back with his friends, waiting patiently for the Headmaster to begin his speech. He ignored the strange looks and the distressed faces of his team and confused looks from JNPR. He simply smiled back at them all.
Ozpin began his speech and it went as Adam expected. He droned about unity, friendship and the Great War, ending on how they were all allowed to choose their missions, but to remember to be safe and do their best. Nothing out of the ordinary really. The room was almost instantly filled with noise as the Headmaster left the stage.
"Alright, so all we need to do is shadow a Huntsman in the south-east right?" Ruby asked.
Yang nodded. "Yup. Follow them during the day and wander off at night. Easy."
Adam shook his head. "Let's check the search and destroy missions." The team moved over to one of the hovering boards.
"This is ridiculous…" Weiss muttered as she followed behind him. Adam couldn't help but smile.
"Let's see…" Ruby said as she scrolled down the board. "Here we go! Grimm clearing in Quadrant Five."
Adam nodded "Sounds perfect." Ruby tapped on the screen, selecting the mission and inputting their team code. The board beeped at them: This mission is not available to First-Year Students.
"Great. Just great." Yang drawled.
"We could try mailing ourselves there!" Ruby provided while glancing at Adam.
"That is an option." A voice spoke from behind them. Ruby let out a quiet eep as Ozpin stepped around next to the board. "Unfortunately we decided that the concentration of Grimm was too much for First-Year students. It seems that particular region is very…" The older man cut off as his eyes passed on to Adam. The man's eyebrows raised in confusion. "Mr Taurus… I must ask, have you done something to your hair?"
Adam smiled as innocently as he could. "No professor, I've done nothing."
"Bark!" His hair replied.
Ozpin blinked, seemingly unsure on how to respond. Adam didn't look, but he was sure his team were looking horrified. "I… see. Are you sure that's the response you want to go with?"
Adam folded his arms and took on a more serious expression. "Professor Ozpin, it sounds as if you don't trust me!" He said incredulously.
"Mr Taurus, it looks as if you have a dog on your head." Ozpin said plainly, clearly tired of beating around the bush. Got you. Adam took on a shocked expression.
"Professor! If I didn't know any better, I would think you were racist, you should really think about what you say!" A part of Adam took pleasure in Ozpin's reaction. His eyes looked caught between trying to widen in surprise and narrow in suspicion or perhaps annoyance.
"I see. Well then, knowing all of you, something like this will not stop you. So instead of letting you break the rules, we shall just have to bend them." He tapped a few buttons on his scroll and they watched as the board accepted their code. "Now then, have a pleasant trip and do be careful." Ozpin looked directly at Adam before sighing and leaving.
A few moments of silence passed before Yang broke it. "What?"
"I second that." Weiss said.
"You called the Headmaster racist!?" Ruby cried out in horror. Adam started laughing. A hand reached up and scratched the corgi perched on his head.
"I did."
"Why!?"
"The vast majority of people have an aversion to being called racist. They may or may not be racist, but the term can be used to ruin a person's image and everyone wants to avoid that. As such it can be used to put someone on the backfoot and get what you want. You've just got to be careful not to use it so much that it loses its meaning"
"So you tried to what, shun the Headmaster into ignoring a dog?" Weiss asked, equally horrified by his actions.
"In a way."
"You're crazy." Yang muttered.
Adam shrugged. "We have the mission. We can take the dog. Let's go."
Ruby sighed. "Right. It says here to meet our guide at Beacon's docks." The red-head led the team out of the auditorium before she turned back to him with a massive pout. "Oh, Adam. As your leader, I forbid you from doing anything like that again! Got it?"
He blinked down at the girl. He shrugged. "Fine."
"Nope. Put meaning into it!" She poked his chest with her finger and frowned at him.
"Alright. I promise I won't do anything like that again." She scanned his face before nodding and continuing on her way.
Perhaps it was a bad choice. Too late now.
Adam was perhaps the only member of his team not horrified or shocked at the Huntsman they would be shadowing. Professor Oobleck gave them a wide smile. "Who's ready to fight for their lives?"
"Professor Oobleck?" Weiss asked, filled with shock.
"Yes! I'm afraid those bags of yours are unnecessary. We are on what has recently become a reconnaissance mission! I can assure you, we shall not be establishing a single base of operations; rather we shall be traversing several miles of hazardous wasteland and making camp in any defendable locations we may stumble upon. I packed all of the essentials myself, plotted our air course, and readied the airship!" He spoke as quickly, as usual, zipping around as a blur. He appeared in front of Weiss, finger raised. "Also! It's Doctor! I didn't earn that PhD for fun you know!" He zipped away.
"Uhhhh…" Weiss didn't have an answer.
"Come now, children! According to my schedule, we are three minutes behind!" He zipped off towards a Bullhead.
"He didn't even say anything about Zwei…" Yang rubbed her head, confused.
"I will never get used to that man…" Adam said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Alright well, it looks like we're going with Profes- Doctor Oobleck." Ruby awkwardly corrected herself. "This will definitely go well!" She smiled.
"You guys are going with Professor Oobleck?" Jaune called from behind them. The team turned to face their friends.
"It's Doctor Oobleck actually." Yang said, trying to smile as well.
"Don't know why you all are so worried. He's a trained Huntsman with years of experience." Adam folded his arms.
"But he's so weird!" Ruby cried out.
"So, what mission did you take?" Weiss asked.
"We're going to shadow a sheriff. See how smaller towns are defended and the like. It was Ren and Nora's idea." Jaune answered.
"We set out tomorrow." Ren added.
"That sounds awesome! We're hunting Grimm in the south-east!" Ruby replied.
"What!?" Nora shouted. "That sounds like so much fun!"
"Four minutes!" Doctor Oobleck yelled at them from the Bullhead.
"Oh! Looks like we gotta go! See you guys later!" Ruby gave team JNPR a thumbs up and rushed off to their teacher.
They were off soon after.
Mountain Glenn was quiet as they dropped in. The ruined structures around them look to have been untouched for decades. Even in the White Fang, they had avoided places like this the Grimm lingered for a long time after the people were already dead. It made places like this far too dangerous to camp in or try to rebuild.
But that had changed apparently.
Adam let Zwei down and placed a hand on Wilt. Doctor Oobleck had gotten a little hyper over the addition of the corgi to their group, but had ultimately approved for similar reasons to Adam's. Though the Doctor didn't realise the full benefits. Zwei would help them locate the White Fang, without a doubt.
It wasn't long after their arrival that the Grimm came, primarily, the pack was composed of Beowolves with a few juvenile Nevermore and Boarbatusks scattered within. Their teacher left them to dispatch the beasts while he scanned the area.
It was… boring. They posed little threat, even to their dog. The biggest problem was pacing themselves, something that he and Yang had no trouble with due to their large stamina, which Ruby and Weiss lacked. It left him in the front more often than not but he was alright with that.
He had some stress to burn off after all.
Slowly as the hours passed them by they began to fan out, the Doctor had a conversation with each of them. Soon enough came his turn.
"So Mr Taurus, why did you choose to become a Huntsman?" The Doctor asked from the branch of a tree as Adam cut down another Beowolf.
"You should know why."
"Ozpin told me you sought redemption, but you didn't need to come to Beacon for that. You could have become a farmer or a scholar. Perhaps a doctor or professor. Why a Huntsman?"
Adam sheathed his crimson blade and gave the teacher a quizzical look. "I already had the skills for it."
"Do you believe you couldn't have learned to be anything else?"
"No. I could have put the effort in." He paused, a part of him wanted Oobleck to ask more questions but the man remained quiet. "I suppose I came to Beacon because I saw it as the only way to atone."
"I see. Do you believe you have?"
"No, not yet. I have a long way to go."
Oobleck hummed and jumped from the tree, landing next to Adam. "Mr Taurus, I believe you and I have different views on redemption."
Adam took a few steps back. "What do you mean?"
"You believe you have yet to achieve it, while I think you already have." The Doctor pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I believe that by putting in the effort to change yourself, you have already atoned. You have decided to change and be better, that should be enough."
"How? After all I've done-"
"Throughout history, there have been people who have done great things and terrible things. Some have done both. There have been those who atoned for their past misdeeds and those who wished too but never did. Do you know what separated them?" Adam shook his head. "What separated them was whether or not they tried."
"I don't follow."
"Those that changed came from the point of view that whether or not atonement was possible they would still try! They changed because they tried! Those that didn't even try to become better never could. It is the act of trying to move past and make up for their mistakes, that is redemption!"
"So just by trying I'm already redeemed?"
"Yes! In my view anyway. You have started walking down this path and until you leave it I will always say you have atoned for your mistakes. Whether you agree or not."
"I… don't agree. It seems too easy. Too simple."
"I understand. Perhaps you are correct, and you must do something great to atone. But at the very least remember what I have said. As long as you do not change course you will find yourself redeemed, at least in the eyes of history." The Doctor patted Adam's shoulder and whizzed away to chat with someone else, leaving him in the ruins of a park.
Is it that easy? Just keep trying?
No. Redemption takes far too much effort! You should kill him for that insult!
Adam shook his head, banishing the darker thoughts. He was outside the walls after all. I'll ask Yang her thoughts. I did ask for her help after all. He did have to wonder if their teacher was giving them all such advice, or if it was just him.
A/N: And so we reach Mountain Glenn. I had to decide between a more serious way for Adam to get Zwei there or for the more humorous way. I went for this one because the other option was basically canon's way. Felt boring because we had already seen it and all. I enjoyed writing Oobleck this chapter, he brings a different perspective on the matter.
I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next time!