Chapter 37: The Fall Maiden Arrives
The food, while edible, did serve to remind Mr. S of his predicament. That the reception wouldn't last forever.
He'd have to set up another wedding before next week, definitely.
Maybe the Fall Maiden… he considered.
Still, despite his assurance that the reception wouldn't last forever, it sure seemed set on reaching the halfway mark, because the servants still hadn't managed to set everything ready for the Fall Maiden's exit.
They stood around the great bullhead, poking and prodding at the vacuum pumps and locking mechanisms with long sticks and delicate machinery.
Mr. S was content to wait, sampling the various dishes and spreads that hadn't been rendered inedible by the Bullhead's rougher than usual landing.
Eventually, however, Mr. S had eaten his fill, and they still hadn't managed to extract the door.
And, waiting as he was, with nothing to do, Mr. S began to worry.
If what Schwarz had told him was true, then it's likely that the fall maiden herself was flying the vehicle, somewhat explaining the inexpertly handled landing. And, though all hunters were required to attain a minimum bar of flying skill, Mr. S was content to forgive the mess she'd made of things upon landing. But, he still couldn't help but worry, that her recent landing might have been a sign of her carelessness.
Because, what if she was a diva?
I mean, back on earth, people started getting detached and calling themselves emperor of the universe whenever they controlled more than a million square miles of land, or got more than two platinum albums.
And, Mr. S really didn't want to consider what would happen when you gave a teenage girl literal magic powers.
Of course, from what he'd seen, Winter was straight laced enough.
But, would this Pyrrha girl be different?
"What's taking them so long," Mr. S asked looked around himself worriedly, now, trying to waylay any of more notorious expectations, as the constant wait, and continually closed ramp set his worries flying.
"I think they're just trying to clean up the landing area before they open up the door, sir," Schwarz answered.
"Why?" Mr. S asked, "did she ask for there to be no mud? Is she going to throw a tantrum if she sees anything that isn't chrome colored?"
"Uh, no sir," Schwarz answered, wide eyed at the proposition. "From what I've seen, her record of behavior is spotless. And all of her letters of recommendation paint her as a consummate huntress. Not to mention, Ozpin has vowed, personally, to vouch for her behavior."
"Hm," Mr. S answered, not too eased by Schwarz's assuage. That all sounded too good to be true, if you asked him. Nobody was that nice.
And, it was at that moment, with a death-star hiss, that the Bullhead depressurized, and the ramp began extending.
Pyrrha soon came out at the head of her group, in all her glory, and Mr. S immediately discarded all of his worries when he saw her, replacing them instead with fatalistic awareness of how many drugs this girl had to be taking.
Because holy… shit.
"Pyrrha" as he'd recognized the girl, was dressed in a very scuffed and burnt armor piece Mr. S wouldn't have been shocked to see in a game manual, with how low cut it was. The armor, despite its sparsity, seemed to weigh heavily on the girl, with how solidly her armored shoes impacted into the red carpet that had been rolled out for her: a carpet which she hardly took notice of, as she walked straight across its curving surface, leading herself and the rest of her team out onto the open grass as they made their way over.
Other than her armor, small hints of black and charcoal made up the hints of her outfit, and very dark bags were apparent under her impatient, and malevolent, eyes as they scanned about her surroundings, only holding still to give whatever fell under her present attention a contemptuous look before moving on to whatever would capture her fancy next.
At last, she arrived close enough that she managed, for a moment, to focus her attention onto Mr. S.
And she smiled a tight, impenetrable smile, that seemed constructed to display her unhappiness.
"Greetings," she said, with a polite gesture that hinted at a bow.
"Welcome," Mr. S answered, holding out his hand, and hoping very dearly she wouldn't rip it off.
Pyrrha took his hand in her surprisingly gentle grip, and started shaking.
"Well," Mr. S began, recalling his short speech for the occasion. "It's an honor, truly, to have the Fall Maid-"
"My name is Pyrrha," the girl cut shortly, "I hope you'll be able to remember it." Mr. S felt her grip tightening, and he quickly pulled away from the shake.
"Of course," he answered, with his own, now manufactured, smile. "Well, Pyrrha, we're glad to have you, anyways. I'm sure someone can show you to your rooms," he said, gesturing to the trio that stood, lined up, behind the girl.
"Hey Pyrrha, hey team Juniper" Ruby waved at the girl, smiling politely, "how are you guys doing?"
Pyrrha didn't answer, but Jaune was already there to fill the silence with a practice that belied experience. "Oh, us?" he asked with a raising voice. "We're doing fine," he gestured easily to the rest of the team.
"Yeah! We took the all-school, after-tournament championship, after all!" Nora yelled, pumping a fist into the air. "Me and Ren even got the power-couple award!"
"Actually," Ruby corrected with refined taste, "it's 'I and Ren', Nora."
"Ren and I, Ruby," Weiss corrected with bored appease.
"Actually, that's really only a matter of etiquette," Nora replied.
"Etiquette matters!" Weiss said.
"Anyway," Yang said, interrupting her futile effort to comb the mud out of her hair, "what's been up with you guys?"
Jaune perked at the prompt. "Well, like Nora said, we had a lot of success in the tournament-"
"No thanks to you," Phyrra muttered, just loud enough to be heard, directing her eyes in a sideways glance over to where Jaune stood, deflating, behind her.
A sullen silence fell over everyone, one which Nora worked to quickly patch over. "Well! Yeah!" she said, smiling, "Jaune's still got the mad strategies, though! I mean, he definitely held us back from-"
"That seems to be all he's good for." Phyrra said the words quietly, as if talking exclusively to herself. Still, it was surprising how easily they, in all their reserve, cut through Nora's bombastic cheer.
Nora petered off to a standing still, looking aghast.
Mr. S noted with flowering tension, the deep discomfort that ran through the group at Phyrra's comment, and how it manifested itself individually in each of its members.
Jaune, as Nora had named him, only chuckled lightly, looking very tired as he tried to defuse the tension, and moving to put himself bodily in between the two girls.
Ren, for his part, seemed stiff and quiet. This, Mr. S didn't find as strange as the sideways glances that affected the boy every so often, as if he were forcing himself to stay and watch the coming extravagance.
Nora, yelled.
"Would you stop!" she snapped, losing her formerly cheerful face in a heartbreaking second, and turning to face Pyrrha with a confrontational tone. "Why are you always saying these things! Jaune never did anything to you!"
"You don't know what you're talking about," Pyrrha said with unbroken aloofness. "Besides, why shouldn't I say it? He's not even a real hunter, after all!"
"I told you to shut up!" Nora was held back from moving any further forward by Jaune's sudden appearance before her.
"Come on, Nora," he pleaded. "Now isn't the time." Jaune spared an embarrassed glance at the surrounding staff, who were now all staring at the scene as he tried to push gently back against the fiery girl.
"Why don't you listen to him?" Pyrrha suggested helpfully.
Nora ground her teeth, and stamped her foot. Swinging her arm out, a loud ratchet sang through the air, as her hammerhead sprang out to extend with her side-long arm. "Get out the way, Jaune," Nora said, scowling deeply.
"Look, I know we had a long trip, but we can take a break now," Jaune was increasingly frantic, now within arms length of Nora as he pleaded with the girl. "We really won't have to… see each other-"
"Get out of the way, Jaune," Nora repeated, and Pyrrha stepped a half step forward. All across the courtyard, a sudden and powerful wind kicked up, gusting intermittently and at random places as if in time with an erratic heartbeat.
"Please!" Jaune whispered, looking earnestly into Nora's eyes. "Don't start not listening to me, too!"
Nora sucked in air through her teeth, and looked wildly at Pyrrha.
Jaune, again whispered pleading words, and that seemed to do the trick, as Nora's hammer shrank back upon itself, and she took a calming breath to go with it.
"Someday, I'm going to hit her," Nora whispered with shivering anger.
"This isn't a fight you could ever win," Pyrrha answered seriously.
"Fine," Nora retorted, returning to a more wicked turn of her previous smile. "I wouldn't trust you not to kill me, anyway, considering I'm not Cinder."
The wind, which had been streaming lightly, with occasional, sudden gusts, blasted into overdrive, as obscuring lines, like hurricane winds, painted themselves with mud and water, covering the landscape as if they were drawn onto it. The air seemed to whip about like a living beast, and its gales seemed like solid walls whenever they hit. Slowly, in the background, a large table began to hover gently, tilting unsteadily in the howling air, and banging intermittently against the ground, which kept it, for now, from flipping.
Pyrrha, electric with energy, walked as easily as if the wind weren't there, approaching Nora who, once again, extended her hammer and crouched low to brace against the blustering gales. Ren trawled slowly against the wind, coming to Nora's side.
And then it all stopped.
In a soft moment, hardly noticed for its absence, the air came to a crashing halt all around them. And the small bullets of mud hovered, and then fell, driven into the ground by some unseen force; and the table crashed with a thud of wood and clatter of porcelain onto the increasingly muddy garden grounds.
Mr. S, looking around himself at the supernatural stillness that overtook the atmosphere, found difficulty breathing, as if every breath had to be stolen from the tightfisted grip of a greedy goddess, and then forced back out into a car tire.
Pyrrha looked around herself with equal confusion, noticing the sudden lack of energy sparking about her body.
Quietly, Winter made her presence known with her soft foot steps, standing straight backed with an arm folded behind her lower back. She stopped, standing side to side with Schwarz.
She turned a cool glance onto team Juniper, and particularly at Pyrrha. "Is something the matter?"
"Nothing," Pyrrha ground out. "I was just leaving."
"Where are you going?" Jaune asked, speaking in a way that showed he didn't expect an answer.
So, it was no great surprise when he didn't get one. And Pyrrha stomped madly off into the distance, fists clenched angrily as her sword clanged heavily against her side-skirt.
Mr. S, seeing his plans for the girl go up in metaphorical flames, turned now to Ren and said:
"So, I hear Nora and you won power-couple…"
