Watched Edgerunners last night and have to say it was brilliant. Great storytelling and characters, great music, and a powerful conclusion. I was very impressed with how much they could fit in ten episodes. That and Arcane have been so good lately, and I hope it's the sign of more quality western anime/animation to come.
No spoilers, but I did get emotional a few times.
Cover Art: Mysterywhiteflame
Chapter 5
Jaune knew he had a lot to catch up on when it came to becoming a huntsman, and so it was that the lights in his pod-bunk flooded red and the bed vibrated, the silent alarm alerting him that it was six in the morning. He woke with a grumble, took a second to orient himself and then luxuriated in the surprising luxury Atlas offered by taking a glass from the nearby cabinet and holding it under a nozzle. Ice-cold water flooded down into it, and he took a long drink, getting changed inside his bunk before drawing the door back. Everyone else was asleep, and the pods were sound insulated enough that he could barely hear them snoring, and they didn't hear him creeping to the door.
It was tempting to just coast along and get through by the skin of his teeth, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to. The initiation had been hell and he hadn't won through any skill on his part. That had to change before he got someone killed, and so he made his way clumsily out of the interiors of Atlas by using the app on his phone and up onto the surface. It was 6:30 when he arrived, and he expected the place to be empty. It was anything but. A good sixty or more people were stretching and talking over by the grassy fields.
There were students among them, but also a lot of soldiers, and there were men and women both. One was familiar, Ciel Soleil, and she noticed him and approached. Rather than her usual short skirt and boots, she was wearing tracksuit bottoms, a tight-fitting sports bra, and sneakers.
"Good morning." She sounded fully awake and both surprised and pleased to see him. "Are you also out this morning to run?"
"Uh. I planned to do a few laps of the pitch," said Jaune. "What's all this?"
"They call themselves Suffering Incorporated." said Ciel, with complete seriousness. "Apparently, they are a running club who welcome any who want to top up their fitness. I was surprised myself, though I suppose I shouldn't be. Good conditioning is important for both huntsmen and military, and Atlas takes both seriously. Did Penny not wish to come?"
"I didn't invite her or the team. I figured they could decide for themselves how much they want to train. I need to work on mine."
"Understood." Ciel nodded. "Personal improvement is a noteworthy quality. Shall we join the pack?"
It didn't feel like he had much of a choice now, and maybe running with others would make it a little less dull. Jaune nodded and followed Ciel back, surprised by how easily the much older soldiers accepted them into the group. "You're welcome to join any days you want," said the woman in charge, "but we do have one rule. If you run with us, you die with us."
"Eh? Do many people die here?"
"Not physically, but we sure get ourselves punished every now and then. No one tattles. You're one of us now, newblood, and that means you get to suffer with us." She rubbed his and Ciel's heads. "I hope you don't mind singing."
It turned out once they got started, jogging at a good clip some ten wide and however many deep, that she was referring to those marching tunes he'd seen used in movies. Those had always been overly patriotic and about victory and hard work in the action flicks, and he'd honestly thought them a little cringe.
They must have agreed because instead of the stereotypical "Atlas is the best" songs, the things the soldiers here shouted out were crude and lewd in equal measure, and usually followed a song that everyone would sing with random soldiers able to chime in with the lyrics. Jaune caught on soon enough and joined in, and even Ciel didn't appear to mind too much.
"Oh, we used to work in Vacuo, we used to work in the store! We used to work in Vacuo, we don't work there anymore!" sang the pack.
"A woman came into the store asking for a ruler!" one person took the lead.
"A ruler from the store?" they all replied.
"A ruler she wanted, twelve inches she got!"
"Wheeeyyyyyy!" cheered everyone. "Oh, we used to work in Vacuo, we used to work in the store. We used to work in Vacuo, we don't work there anymore!"
It carried on from there as they jogged around the entire circumference of the floating island of Atlas, with almost all the jokes being crude sex jokes aimed at both men and women, but some of them obviously being much more local jokes that you'd only understand if you lived or trained in Atlas, some so specific that neither he nor Ciel understood them. Probably barracks puns or insults to their commanding officers. There had been a few aimed at both Winter and Ironwood, and even some aimed at the Schnee in general, who he was starting to think weren't entirely beloved by the rank and file.
By the end of it, a good hour later, he was a wreck. He'd have backed out twenty minutes ago if not for the fact no one else had and he didn't want to be seen as weak. It resulted in him throwing up in the bushes while Ciel rubbed his back, her face flushed red and slick with sweat as well. "T-That was quite intense," said Ciel, stammering as she gasped for air. "I shouldn't expect less of… of Atlas soldiers. Hah… hah…"
It took them a few more minutes to collapse down and pull out their half-empty water bottles to finish off. It was a good job he'd brought it with him, or he might have fainted out there. Jaune knew he wasn't the most athletic person alive, especially not here, but he'd always saw himself as more fit than not. That average level of fitness had risen drastically on reaching Atlas Academy, and he'd have to work on his. More running. Ugh.
"I'm going to come every morning if I can help it," groaned Jaune. It wasn't what he wanted, but it was damn well what he needed. Getting that out in the open would hopefully help him stick to it. It'd make it a promise.
"My thoughts exactly." Ciel smiled, and she did look remarkably pretty like this. Sweaty, flushed and with her overly calm façade cracked by sheer exhaustion. He wasn't sure it would have been much of a compliment to say someone looked better on the verge of collapse. "I will see you here tomorrow then. I… I need to take a shower before morning training."
"You're adding training on top of this?"
"For the team," she explained. "I'm not sure I'll be in any state to join in. Thank you for running with me today." Ciel bowed her head and pushed herself up. "It would have been awkward having to approach them alone."
He was surprised it wasn't just as awkward as him since they'd only met and talked the one time before at the leadership meeting, but Ciel was already limping away before he could ask. Huh. Maybe he'd made a friend. Or started on it. That wasn't so bad.
Now if only he could feel his legs.
/-/
If there was one thing Jaune had learned about Atlas Academy, it was that the whole thing was a trap. It lured you in with its comfortable barracks and its great food and its futuristic infrastructure, then rubbed your shoulders with its open lesson plan and copious free periods before tucking you in with the gentle sound of raindrops falling on a jungle played through its holographic bunks. It was all designed to get your guard down and make you think things were easy.
Indolence was the trap. It was so easy to look at all the free periods and take them for what they were, laze off with your team and muck around. Some of the other teams were already doing that, but Jaune was… well, he wouldn't say he was smarter, but he was more panicky and paranoid about being caught out, so he'd been paying close attention to the older students so he could figure out how to best mimic being a huntsman. It was part of faking his way in after all. What he saw from his staring was that the older students were looking at the first years lazing around and alternating between shaking their heads dismissively or laughing and whispering to their teammates as if involved in some internal joke.
He knew that because he'd been the butt of many such jokes in his time, and this felt all too familiar. Something was up. And since he wasn't smart enough to figure out what, he took the news to his team at lunch and explained himself, then went further by having them hover around the common rooms so that Flynt and Neon could see the same reactions from the older students.
"You're right." Neon sounded surprised. "They know something."
"How perceptive are you to notice all that?" asked Flynt. The sad answer was that he had just played the victim enough times to recognise the signs. "You're putting me to shame over here. So, what do you think it means?"
"I was hoping you'd know." said Jaune.
"It looks to me like they're making fun of us. Doesn't feel like hazing, though. It's not enough for that. Maybe we should ask?"
"I can tell you what they're saying if you want." offered Penny.
The three of them turned to her. Neon looked astonished. "You can hear them from here? Do you have super-hearing or something?"
"I… I…" Penny's eyes roamed wildly, all but confirming the lie before it came out her mouth. "I can lip read! I am reading their lips. I-It is with high accuracy," she claimed, "so I can tell you what they are saying." Then to distract them entirely, she went ahead. "They are talking about how much of a wake-up call it is going to be."
That caught their attention. Jaune winced. "It…?"
"They aren't referring to it by name I'm afraid."
"No need for them to if they know what it is." said Flynt. "Well, we'll have to take a guess, won't we? Something everyone isn't preparing for that is going to bite us in the ass. You don't think we're going to be thrown out against the Grimm, do you?"
"They wouldn't be joking and laughing if we were going to die." said Neon.
"It must be a test of some kind." said Jaune. The two of them nodded; it wasn't that extreme an assumption given this was a school. "It's probably not a written test if they're having this kind of reaction though."
"It's a Huntsman Academy." said Penny. "It's likely to be a combat exam."
"One in which a lot of us will be embarrassed if we're not prepared. I'm guessing it's not expulsion because there'd be no one left otherwise." Flynt rubbed his chin and frowned. "Doesn't make sense for it to be a pass or failing grade thing either. They're laughing like we'll be embarrassed, not in any real danger."
"Maybe it's a wakeup call." said Neon. When they looked at her askance, she explained. "You know, like to show us we need to take this seriously. Break down arrogance, teach some humility, get us understanding why we need to put the effort in."
It wasn't a bad guess. He'd been to a couple more leadership lessons and Penny had volunteered herself as the team's medical officer, being surprisingly insistent that she be the one to conduct surgery on them if the need arose and not the other way round. He imagined she didn't want anyone else seeing her prosthetic limb. Neon had offered herself up as the engineer/mechanic, leaving Flynt in the enviable position of being able to pick a specialty course. He hadn't yet, saying he wanted to make sure it was a good one. Neon was egging him to take a cooking course so he could have them eating better than field rations on any missions.
Of course, he continued to jog in the mornings with Ciel and the soldiers and even a few other students had joined in. No one from his team had. Penny had medical appointments most mornings and Flynt and Neon were confident in their fitness and would rather sleep in so they could train on actual fighting later in the day. It was a fair exchange, and he did his best to join in on both, and it at least provided a good excuse for why he got his ass smashed so easily in spars. He was too tired from running all morning to put up a fight.
The more he thought about it however, the more he realised how few teams were putting that kind of effort in. He had to because he'd be screwed otherwise, and his teammates were doing it so they didn't look lazy compared to him. Ciel was doing it because she had a stick up her butt and was also a straight-A student. The others were doing maybe one training session a day but otherwise using the free periods as times to rest and relax. That obviously wasn't what Atlas and Winter had spoken of before, and a wake-up call might be just what they had planned. Nothing proved a point like making an example of people.
"Yeah, there's definitely something about to happen." said Flynt. "Question is, what do we do?"
"Up our training?" said Jaune.
"We're already working hard."
"We get a lot of free periods though. I think we're meant to use them for more than mucking around."
"Like a university." said Neon. "You get lectures there, but you're expected to do study in your own time as well. My sister graduated last year and said half the people who failed did so because they only attended lessons and didn't spend weeks in the library researching."
"We could be reading into things."
"Do you want to take the chance when the older years are looking at us like we're about to be the show of a lifetime?"
No. No, he did not. And neither did Jaune, Penny or Neon. Their silent pledge made – and if they were wrong then so be it – they made their way out the common rooms and to the training fields. He hadn't had much of a chance in the last ten spars with Flynt or Neon, but that didn't mean the eleventh would be a little better.
As soon as he figured out how you were meant to fight a guy with a trumpet or a girl on roller skates. Seriously, what was wrong with wanting to use a normal weapon nowadays? It felt like the whole world had collectively decided guns and swords were out and hobby equipment was in and forgot to tell him.
/-/
After a week of heavy training and lessons and spending time with the team, they were all starting to think that maybe they'd gotten it wrong – which was when the anvil finally dropped. The first years were summoned to a meeting with Winter Schnee, brought back into the same room they'd had their first initiation in. General ironwood was nowhere to be seen, but Specialist Schnee stood upon the stage with her hands linked behind her back, watching them all in silence as they filed into the room and sat behind the long benches. Rain took the spot to his left, offering a silent grin and a fist bump while Ciel's team slid into the bench in front of them.
"Greetings teams." said Winter once they were all seated. "It has been two weeks since you started your journey here and we hope that you have had a chance to experience and enjoy Atlas Academy thus far. Four years still lay ahead of you, four years in which you will be shaped into the best huntsmen and huntresses you can be. Of course, it's only been two weeks and there's much more work to be done. There's only so much improvement you can achieve in so short a time. I trust you've all been making the most of your free periods to train hard and prepare for the challenges ahead."
And there it was. Jaune wanted to say, "called it" and claim the glory, but it had been a group effort. He, Flynt and Neon exchanged fist bumps, but Penny didn't understand and shook his fist instead. Eh. Close enough. There were several other teams who looked a little embarrassed or guilty, but they weren't worried yet.
"To better afford you opportunities to test yourself and improve, Atlas Academy runs assessment tests every two months – starting this weekend." Tomorrow. It was a Friday now and there would be no time to prepare for those who hadn't started. The panic was setting in now. "These won't influence your attendance in Atlas or see you expelled if you fail them," explained Winter, "But passing them will afford you liberties to reward your hard work. I'm sure you've all had the time to enjoy your luxury bunks."
Jaune felt his blood run cold as Winter smiled. Oh no. No, she wouldn't. Not the bunks. Their rooms were the best thing about Atlas, literally the best part. He thought he might die if those were taken away from him. Sure enough, Winter hit them where it hurt.
"You have been granted luxury bunks in recognition of your hard work passing the initiation, but such rewards are for those who deserve them. As such, any who fail to reach the minimum grade in the upcoming assessments will lose the privilege until the next assessment." She waited for the cries of dismay and the complaints to die down, smiling all the while like she hadn't expected just this. What a monster. "Come now, it will only be two months between assessments and I'm sure you will all do fine. You have been using your first weeks here to train hard, I am sure."
So cruel. Jaune watched the dismay spread and whole teams slump. People would be blamed, there would be shouting and cursing, but he couldn't argue that lessons wouldn't be learned. It was a cruel and punishing method, but that might be what some people needed to really learn their lessons. On the other hand, it's punishing the weaker people. I bet there are lazy people here who have stronger Semblances and they'll pass because of them. That doesn't feel fair. Maybe that was another lesson – that the disadvantaged needed to work harder. It was a harsh thing, but probably more reality than not. No amount of complaining would change the fact Semblances and backgrounds were made unequal. Training might.
"The test will not be like initiation." said Winter. "There will not be some hidden meaning or purpose to this. We are testing you on combat capability this time. Teamwork is advised, as you will pass or fail as a team, but do not think you can offload your responsibilities onto others. If anyone slacks or refuses to carry their weight, I can and will penalise your entire team."
"How is this fair?" someone dared to ask.
"This is a military academy." said Winter. "You are expected to show discipline here. That means that when we give you time off, you are the only ones who can decide how to use it. Your lives, and the lives of others, will hang in the balance when you graduate. I think a little extra work now justifies that. As for punishing you by taking your rooms away, keep in mind that we gave you those in the first place. At any other Academy on Remnant your rooms would be of far lower quality. We are offering you a bonus for good performance – try to remember that instead of complaining about being punished for the opposite."
"Any other questions?"
Ciel raised her hand. "What will the test entail?"
"It will be a team-based test involving you and your team attempting to escape a training field while being hunted by two second-year teams."
Jaune hissed through gritted teeth. No wonder the upper years looked so pleased with themselves. They were the ones going against them. Damn, that really put the odds against them, especially with how weak he was.
"Two teams?" groaned Rain. "How are we meant to fight two upper-year teams? We'd struggle to beat one."
"That is for you to decide, but in the interests of being clear I said escape them. Not best them. You will be placed into a building representing a house and given fifteen minutes to fortify the location and make plans. The two teams assaulting will then decide how best to go about capturing you. No two scenarios may be the same as the method will be left to those teams."
"Doesn't that mean some of us will have a harder time than others?"
"Inevitably." answered Winter. "But such is the unpredictability of life as a huntsman or huntress. Rest assured that this is their assessment as well. They will all be trying their best to succeed because failure for them means the same result. I'm sure they are thinking much the same – what if we are paired against teams that have taken the first two weeks to train to exhaustion?" This time she didn't even try and hide what this was about. Those who had taken the lazy option cringed. "The better prepared will always have an advantage. Your job is to exit the house by whatever means and make your way to an extraction point. If two or more of your team escape, you will pass the test. If your whole team escapes, you will receive additional benefits."
Heads rose as curiosity won out over despair. Winter smirked. "I see that has caught your attention. Those that manage to escape with their entire teams will be rewarded with an all-expenses paid spa trip down to Mantle courtesy of high command. That includes an eight-hour session of massage, pampering, hot springs and a meal at a high-class restaurant."
Interest spread and even Jaune found himself being nudged by Neon urgently. There was a hunger in her eyes, and he wasn't sure if it was for the pampering or the food. Winter Schnee looked vaguely amused by it all, but she was probably so rich that all this was spare change for her.
"We seek to reward hard work and performance here at Atlas. While other schools will pat you on the back and hand out merits or compliments, we understand that a tangible reward is easier to enjoy. You will find that excellence will open many doors for you in real life and we want to show that to you now. Teach you good habits, as it were. I do not expect many of you will achieve a full four-person escape here and now, but the same rewards or greater will be available in future assessments, so take the time to train hard in those two-month gaps."
Jaune held his hand up. "Are the upper years getting the same reward if they capture us all?"
"They are indeed." Winter confirmed his fears. "If none of your team escape, they will be rewarded. You should therefore expect them to be rather determined in their assault. Any further questions? No?" Winter nodded to them all. "Then I wish you all good luck."
Everyone filed outside, most leaving rather quickly to plan or try to get in some last-minute training. He wasn't sure how much a difference that would make, but then he wasn't sure how much his two weeks' worth would, either. Predictably, Neon and Flynt were less willing to hold on and yanked him and Penny aside, out the way of the rest and into a small alcove between one corridor and the next.
"You're my damn hero!" Neon told him.
"Huh?"
"Figuring this out." said Flynt. "It's a good job you noticed the upper years acting weird or we might be going into this blind. We want to keep our dorms, right?" They all answered in the positive. "Then we need to make sure at least half our team escapes."
"Or all four." said Neon. "I really want that trip."
"We've not been here a month." argued Jaune. "There's no way we're good enough to beat two teams older than us." No way he was anyway.
"We don't need to win. Only escape."
"It's the same thing." said Flynt. "They know what we need to do, and they'll do their best to stop us. I think we're going to have to take the L on the big prize and go for the consolation. I am not losing my sleeping pod and going back to some shitty dorm room."
"Getting two of us out is much more realistic." said Penny. "But it will depend on who is sent against us and their plan. There will be no way of knowing what exactly they intend until the moment. If they both attack, we might be able to slip by, but if one team attacks and the other encircles the house, one of the two who try to run through will be caught and we'll fail if only one escapes."
"We need a plan." said Flynt. "And for that we need our leader."
Jaune balked. "Me? Flynt, I've been a leader for two weeks. They haven't taught us battle plans yet!"
"I know, man, but you're our leader and this is a military academy. There has to be some books you can access, right? A library?"
Atlas Academy did have a library obviously, both one for students and one for the soldiers including a restricted section for officers. Despite his position as team leader, he didn't actually have a rank in the military sense and couldn't access those areas, but Flynt made a good point. If they were here to learn how to do these things then there had to be instruction manuals in there. He wasn't sure how much you could learn in a single night, but by that same logic there wasn't much he could have learned in two weeks. Better to try and fail than not to try at all.
"Okay. I'll give it a go."
"We all will." said Neon. "Bring back any books you can find, and we'll all go through them."
"I can search the databases." said Penny. "I will look for past military exercises surrounding assaults on houses or escapes from such. Our antagonist teams are likely to be using the same Atlas-sanctioned tactics we will find."
"Good point. They've probably done this before from our side as well, so they'll know what worked and what didn't." Flynt winced. "Man, this whole thing is stacked against us."
"That was obvious the moment they set two older teams against us." said Neon. "I guarantee there won't be many teams passing this. I'd wager money no one will manage a four-man escape. Maybe on the next assessments with two whole months to prepare, but not now." Her tail flicked in clear agitation. "What a wake-up call this is. Literally waking us up and turfing us out our comfy beds." Her tail flicked so hard she caught it in her hand and started playing with her fur. "I don't want to lose our beds! They're too comfy!"
"We won't lose them if we put in the work." said Jaune. Hopefully. He wasn't convinced at all but one of the first lessons he'd been through had talked about how morale could make or break a squad. It didn't matter how good you were if you didn't think you could win. "I'll go check the library. Penny, search online. Neon and Flynt… Can you look for recordings or something? There has to be someone who has a video of last year's assessment. Maybe they posted it online or will let us see it if you ask. Not the second years since they're going against us, but the years higher up wouldn't care."
It turned out he wasn't the only one to come up with the idea of checking the library. There were six other team leaders there including Rain and Ciel, and they were all of them fighting over books in the tactics and command section. The librarian didn't look like he cared to intervene, reading a book with his feet up on his desk despite the raised voices arguing. When he waded into the fray, it didn't get any easier.
"Chill!" hissed Rain. "We're all on the same sides here, guys. How about we stop fighting each other and start fighting the second years?"
"There are only so many books." said another leader.
"We'll not find them at all if we keep competing for them." Ciel was the voice of reason. "Rain's plan has merit. We should combine our efforts to find what we can and then share them. If there are less books, then we divide them out and message one another what we found tonight. Combining our information will give each of our teams the best odds of survival."
"I'm for that!" said Jaune quickly as if he hadn't only just arrived. "I agree with Ciel and Rain. Think about it. There's only so much we can manage on our own and there's no rules against copying homework if it's a fight. We can have six teams of four – that's twenty-four people – going through these books. We'll have the best tactics sorted out in no time."
It took a little more wheedling, but the seed had been planted and the panic over losing their swanky dorms had the soil nice and fertile. After a little more arguing, everyone decided they didn't need to fight each other, and when someone pointed out that military-standard tactics would be copied by everyone anyway, there was no real fear of being told off for having the same plans. From there it was an exercise in exchanging numbers, adding them to all the scrolls and agreeing a time to host a group call and collate all the info they'd found.
Twenty-one hundred hours was the time decided. Late, but they needed time to decide on their own plans as a team and staying up any later might have them too tired come the morning and the assessment itself. "What about the other teams?" asked someone.
"What about them?" replied Ciel. "If they did not think to come here then I don't see why we should care to assist them."
"If this works, we should do this again next assessment." said Rain. "Give all of us the best chance of getting through, or even getting the big prize."
"Like a study group?" asked Jaune.
"Yeah. The lot of us meeting before each assessment to share resources."
"I agree." said one of the other team leaders. "We'll set that up later. Call it a study club. Let's get this shit out the way first. I don't know about you lot, but my team will have my head on a stick if we lose our dorms."
He wasn't alone in that.
I am considering taking part in NanoWriMo this year. Bit of a ridiculous idea given that I already have an updating schedule for my fanfiction, and this is suggesting to add yet more, but I thought it might be fun (in a self-destructive way) to try and write a full novel in a single month. Well, NanoWriMo is that you're meant to write 50,000 words towards a novel, but I want to see if I can just go and write a full one from 0 – 100% in 30 days. Should be interesting.
I won't cut down on my fanfics or anything during it if I do. Don't worry.
Next Chapter: 29th October
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