And here's the next chapter! The wait for the new ep of V5 is killing me :"D
Coco stood before the Doctor's door, her arms hanging at her side, shadow's casting over the door. She sighed and knocked on it.
"Come in!" a voice called from behind the door.
She opened the door, holding up a hand in greeting. Doctor Duerf looked up from the paper he was reading, giving her a smile. He motioned for her to take the seat in front of his desk.
"Nice to see you, Coco. How can I help you?"
She sat in the chair, crossing her legs and resting her arm behind the chair. She looked around the office. It was brightly lit, the walls a soft shade of beige. She inhaled, held the breath, and then exhaled as she looked at him. His face was warm, his gray white hair receding. His eyes were hazel behind his round glasses; his skin ebony.
"My team thinks I need help," she finally said. Duerf set the paper down, folding his hands on his desk.
"What kind of help, Coco?" he asked gently.
"They think I'm going crazy." She said. His face remained comforting, no judgement in his eyes.
"What makes them think that?" She sighed, readjusting herself in her seat. She rested her hands in her lap.
"During my fight in the doubles round, when I was in the forest with Emerald. I… I saw something that wasn't really there."
"What did you see?"
"My teammate, Yatsuhashi. I heard him walking up behind me and saw him when I turned around. When I looked at the scoreboard and saw he was knocked out I couldn't see him anymore."
Duerf rubbed his chin.
"I see." He watched her for a moment. "How did the initiation test go for you?"
"My team holds the record for the fastest completion of it."
"I know, Coco. It was very impressive. But, how did it go for you? Is there anything that happened in that hour that you still think about?" Coco looked away.
She struggled against her parachute, screaming, trying to unsling her purse, the strap stuck on a branch. The boy below her screamed in pain, a Beowolf ripping his sword from his hand as another wolf bit down on his neck. His screams became gurgled cries as his aura broke, the wolf's jaws sinking into his neck. It ripped back, tearing his throat open. The wolves tore into him, ripping off his limbs, ripping open his stomach. Coco yanked her purse free, the strap snapping, and her Gatling gun springing out.
"Coco?" She shook her head, looking at Duerf. "Are you okay?" he asked, concerned. She rested her hands on her knees.
"Yeah, I was just…" she sighed. She shook her head. "During the test I got stuck in a tree. I was calling for help, for someone to come cut me down, and this boy showed up." She snorted. "He barely looked old enough to be there. He had a sword with him so he was going to climb up and cut me down." She squeezed her knees, feeling tears well. "The Grimm showed up. He managed to kill one of them but he was fighting an entire pack of beo's. They tore him apart limb from limb, they started eating him. Right in front of me. And all I could do was watch because my stupid gun was stuck on a branch." She looked up at him, feeling the tears slide down her cheeks. "He was supposed to be my partner instead of Velvet. None of my team knows that. I ran into Velvet at the castle, and we hauled ass to that Dust forsaken hill Oz was at."
Duerf's lips parted.
"I see." He reached for a box of tissues on his desk, offering one to her. She shook her head, sniffing. He left the tissue near her. "Headmaster Ozpin has also given your team personal missions. Have you experienced anything similar to that while out on them?" She nodded. She scooted her chair back, yanking her pant leg free of her boots. She rolled her pant leg up and set her leg on the desk, the scars clearly visible.
"Last mission I was on for Ozpin I got ambushed by an Ursa. I couldn't get my gun out in time and it broke my aura with one swing. It knocked me down and I was trying to crawl away when it bit into my leg. It tore it open, and if Velvet hadn't shown up when she did it would have killed me." She ran her hand over the scars, wincing a bit. "Sorrel says my aura was able to fix most of it but I'll be stuck with leg pains for the rest of my life." She lowered her leg from the desk.
"You fought in the Breach, didn't you?" he asked. She nodded. "What did you feel going into that?"
"I was scared shitless. I had to tell myself throughout it that I could handle it. And I couldn't let my team or the freshmen see me looking afraid, I have an image to uphold." He nodded.
"Have you taken up any habits since joining Beacon?" he asked.
"Yeah." She hesitated before she pulled the pack of cigarettes from her pocket. She set it on the desk, gripping her knees as Duerf looked at the pack.
"Any other habits? This is just between you and me, I won't out you to the police or to Ozpin." He said. She sighed.
"I started drinking as well. It started out just as something I would do for fun with the team but I uh. I'm doing it a lot more now." She shook her head. "Velvet keeps nagging about how much I drink, like I'm some kind of alcoholic."
"I see." He said. He slid the cigarettes back to her. "How have you been sleeping?" he asked.
"I don't get a lot of sleep." She said. He nodded his head, closing his eyes. He rested his hand on his chin, thinking. Coco fidgeted as she watched him.
"We done playing twenty questions?" she asked. He chuckled, and opened his eyes.
"We are, Coco."
"So what's the verdict, you shipping me to a looney bin?" He shook his head with a comforting smile.
"Of course not, Coco. It sounds to me like you have a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. And that you are abusing substances to cope." Her shoulders slumped. "What you saw in the tournament was most likely a stress induced hallucination."
"Will it happen again?" she asked.
"It's a possibility." He adjusted his glasses. "It is ultimately your decision, but I would think that it is best if we were to start a counseling session. I won't force you to, but I think that it would greatly help you. And that the next time Ozpin asks you to go out on a mission for him, decline it. You are just a student, you can't be going out on missions meant for Hunters." She sighed.
"If you think this will help me, then fine." He smiled. She stood up, heading to the door. "I'll clear out some space in my schedule to stop by." She grabbed the door handle, and looked back at him. She smiled. "Thanks, Doc." He nodded at her.
"Anytime, Coco." He said.
She opened the door, stepping out into the hallway. The door clicked shut behind her. She smiled as she stood in the hallways light.
Penny kicked her legs in the air as she watched Yang change into her gym clothes.
"The one on one rounds are soon, aren't they?" Penny asked.
"Yep! And there's no way I'm gonna lose." She started putting stuff into her gym bag. "But I gotta train until then, those two almost beat me and I don't want to make it this far just to lose it." Yang zipped up the gym bag, slinging it over her shoulder. She looked back at Penny with a mischievous grin. "Ruby's birthday is coming up, you have anything special planned for her?"
"I am not sure honestly. She does not seem to have very many material needs and I do not have any money." Yang went to the door, talking to her as she left.
"Well, I'm sure Ruby would love it if you made something for her. She's always liked those types of presents more." The door clicked behind her.
Penny laid down on the bed, her arms hanging off the sides. A present that she made for her…
She gasped in pain, clutching her head, squeezing her eyes shut.
"Do you like it? I made it myself."
"I love it! Thank you so much!"
She rolled around the bed, squeezing her hands against her head, the pain increasing.
"How did you make it?"
"I took a piece of wood and used this." The sound of a blade being pulled out. "To make it into that rose."
The pain subsided, and Penny slowly opened her eyes, lowering her arms. She blinked.
She knew that voice.
Weiss gnashed her teeth, sweat dripping down her face. The glyph spun faster and faster until a sword tip rose from the glyph. Weiss gasped-
- and the glyph shattered.
She groaned in annoyance, stomping her foot. She heard Winter clap, and she looked over at her sister. Winter was beaming at her.
"Well done, Weiss!" Winter said. Weiss wiped the sweat off her face with her sleeve.
"I didn't summon it completely, how is it that praise worthy?" she asked. Winter came to her side, resting a hand on her shoulder.
"You didn't summon it completely, but you're making progress. And that's what's important. You're taking to this faster than I did." Winter's hand slid off her shoulder. "Now let's take a break, I think you've earned it."
Blake wandered around the fairgrounds aimlessly. There were some interesting weapon and food stalls but she wasn't having any luck finding a book stall. Vendors from every corner of the world and not a single one thought to sell books. She stopped when she saw a familiar set of brown rabbit ears.
"Velvet!" Blake called. Velvet looked up from the camera she was inspecting, grimacing for a split second before smiling and waving at her. Blake frowned as she walked over to Velvet's side. "You feeling okay?"
"I'm fine, why do you ask?" Velvet asked, going back to inspecting the camera.
"You didn't look to happy to see me." Velvet shrugged.
"Sorry, I was busy looking at these. I was just annoyed at being interrupted." She said.
"You going to buy any of these, rabbit, or are you just here to scare off paying customers?" The stall owner asked. Velvet set the camera down, annoyed, and walked away from the stall. The stall owner looked at Blake. "Damn Faunus. How can I help you, ma'am?" he asked. Blake scowled at him and spat on his stall, the stall owner shouting in surprise, before turning and leaving.
She caught up to Velvet as she stormed off.
"That guy was a jerk." Blake said. Velvet stopped, spinning on her heels to face Blake.
"And yet if I wasn't there you never would have known that." she said. Blake was taken back. Her ears being held in place as she tried to flatten them.
"What?" Velvet jabbed a finger at Blake's bow.
"I really appreciate what you did for me against Cardin last semester but I'd rather not associate with a…" Velvet's eyes lingered on her bow, the word dying on her tongue. Blake balled her hand into a fist, snarling.
"Go on. Say it. Call me it."
"A vaara." Velvet said.
Vaara. Those who reject Devi's blessing; a Faunus who wants to be human.
Velvet crossed her arms.
"When Coco invited you all to our room for drinks I was going to ask you why you hid your ears but I know the answer now." Blake glowered at her. "You're really friendly with Weiss. With a Schnee. You know, the girl whose family makes that man look like Coco." Velvet snorted. "You hide your ears because you don't want to be a Faunus. You're ashamed of our heritage; you can't handle the persecution. You want to be one of them." Blake jabbed her finger in Velvet's face.
"You have no idea what kind of torment the humans put me through. You have no idea what Weiss is like. I hide my ears because I want to be treated like a person for the first time in my life." Velvet snorted.
"So passing as human makes you a person, huh?"
Blake narrowed her eyes before turning and storming off.
Yang raised a hand as she entered the gym; Sterling, Drey, Violet, and Jet were waiting for her. Drey waved at her.
"Thanks again for wanting to help me train," she said.
"No problem, Yang." Sterling said. Violet brushed a strand of hair behind her ear before saying
"Think of it as being our way of saying sorry for flaking on you so much lately." Jet nodded in agreement.
"We've been really busy with our own stuff, and you've been busy being a hero so we haven't gotten a lot of time to hang out since we got here." Drey said. She pumped a fist in the air, smirking at her. "So no holding back when we train! We want you to win!"
Yang nodded; it was good to be with them again.
Ruby opened the door, looking over her shoulder with a smile as she said
"Thank you, Doctor Sorrell!" she stepped forward, and yelped in surprise when she hit something. She stepped back, clutching her medicine against her chest. "Sorry, I was-" she cocked her head to the side. "Jaune?"
He looked at the medicine bag clutched against her chest, and looked at her quizzically.
"Are you sick, Ruby?"
"Huh? Oh no, I was uh." She hid her medicine behind her back. "Why are you here?" she asked. Jaune stuffed his hands into his hoodie's pockets, looking around.
"You're my friend, right, Ruby? No matter what?" he asked. Ruby nodded.
"Yeah, why do you ask?" He chewed on his lips, and leaned forward, speaking in her ear. She gasped in surprise, dropping her medicine, clapping her hands to her cheeks. "You're-!" he nodded, looking away from her.
"Is that a problem?" he asked. Ruby shook her head, a smile stretching across her face.
"I am too!" He looked at her in surprise, his eyes widening.
Jaune stirred the straw in his drink, Ruby sipping from her strawberry lemonade. The air was frigid, people chatting around them as they ate at a food stall.
"So does anyone in your team know?" she asked. He shook his head, grabbing a fry and eating it slowly. "Do you plan on telling them soon?" He shrugged.
"I don't know. I told Pyrrha I'm not comfortable doing anything physical and she told me she's willing to wait as long as she needs to but I'm worried about what her reaction will be when she finds out when we do try something. Nora and Ren I don't think will care; Ren might even know since I think he saw my binder when I was trying out some of the dresses we wore to the dance." He smiled. "Ren really rocked that qipao he picked out." Ruby cocked her head to the side.
"Were you comfortable wearing a dress?" she asked.
"Sorta. Ren wanted our team to wear matching outfits but that kinda fell apart when we got there and saw all the different kinds of dresses they had. I would have preferred a suit but I didn't want to ruin their fun."
"Is Ren…?" He shook his head.
"Nah." Ruby pouted and picked up a fry, drowning it in ketchup before eating it.
"Does your family know? I remember you having short hair in that family photo you showed me." He shook his head.
"I never told them." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I grew my hair out after that photo. And I cut it before I came here."
"Is that why you haven't talked to them?" she asked. He shrugged again, eating a fry.
"That's a part of it. I didn't have a good relationship with my dad, and I uh… I kinda ran away from home when I came here. So I don't think it'll go well if I call them." He looked at her.
"How about you? You're team know?" She nodded.
"I told them after the dance."
"And?" She smiled.
"They were completely okay with it. So was Penny. My dad and Uncle know too, and Doctor Sorrell." She picked up a fry, ketchup dripping onto the table. "I think you should tell your team, I'm sure they'll be okay with it. And maybe you can call Dijon or Aurélie and check up with them. I'm sure they might have figured it out since you were on tv for the Tournament." Jaune's eyes widened.
"Craaaap. I never thought about them seeing me on tv." He placed his hands on his face, groaning. And it had been his idea to fight in it to begin with. "I'm so dead if I call home." Ruby's face darkened.
"Like, literally, dead? Would your family disown you?" He shook his head.
"I have no idea. My dad didn't like me because I was too weak to be a Hunter. He wanted me to be like Dijon and I couldn't be like her."
"And you're sisters?" she asked.
"We got along. But I'd still be worried." Ruby stirred her drink, looking at the pink liquid.
"If they reject you, you know that you'll have me, right?" she asked. Jaune's hands slid off his face. He gave her a weak smile.
"Thanks, Ruby." She smiled back.
"Any time, Jaune."
And that's it!