Jaune got back up and stood ready once more; his breath began to become heavy and ragged as the fatigue began to set in. His muscles ached from the lack of oxygen, but he knew that he had to push himself to get better, not only for his team, but also to prove something to himself. After Jaune had stood up to Cardin in order to protect Pyrrha, on whom Cardin had planned to pull a "prank", Jaune decided to accept Pyrrha's offer to help train him.
Pyrrha, his secret sparring partner, glared at him straight in the eye with her mind set on the fight; she never went easy on anyone, especially him. She always fought to test herself to the fullest extent of her abilities, as well as to test her opponents, and Jaune was no different than any other opponent that she had faced before; but she prepared herself nonetheless in case he got lucky. She bent down to make herself a smaller target, her shield raised and her spear arm back in order to quickly counter.
Jaune's feet shuffled as he debated when to charge at his opponent; finally he kicked himself forward and charged at Pyrrha. However, Pyrrha noticed his moment of hesitation, used that to guess when he was going to attack, and moved out of the way just as he stepped forward.
Pyrrha was just about to counter, however, as Jaune began to feel desperate to get at least one hit in before the night ended. He quickly swing his arm back to try and strike at Pyrrha; coupled with the fact that he broadcast his movements, he took too long to wind his arm back, and she was able to dodge his attack again with ease.
Pyrrha rolled just underneath his arm mid-swing, and swept her leg behind his, which made him fall to the ground. Jaune then used a little trick that he had picked up from Pyrrha and landed on his shield, before rolling back up. However, Pyrrha was relentless in her attack, and rushed forward and was already within arm's reach just as he got back up. With a backhanded motion, she swung her shield at Jaune and hit him in the temple.
Jaune reeled to the left, and instinctively raised his sword arm up in case she followed up on her attack, which she did, as he felt something connect with his sword, much to Pyrrha's surprise.
As sword and spear ground against each other, he pushed his sword down, which left a momentary opening in Pyrrha's defenses; her eyes widened as she quickly realized this, a lot faster than Jaune did, and she hopped backwards to gain some distance. She smiled for just a moment; for the first time in one of her sparring matches with Jaune, she felt an adrenaline rush that she had felt with so many other opponents before.
However, this was a little different, and she couldn't quite figure it out, but she banished the thought and her mind reverted back to the fight. She got down low again, as she anticipated another attack, at which point, Jaune swung with a backhand motion with his sword but missed Pyrrha by more than half a foot as she simply backed away.
Then she noticed something again, his footwork was improving, as he always kept a foot back with each swing, ready to fall back in case he needed to back away or abandon a strike in an instant. She noticed that with each swing, he advanced onto Pyrrha and how he took a half step back after each swing. The adrenaline rush then swelled into pride within her, for after such a short time it was noticeable that he was improving, but it still wasn't enough.
With ease, she managed to dodge each strike with the help of her Semblance, which was polarity, the ability to control metal through magnetism. With sleight of hand, she waved her spear arm a little to influence the movement of Jaune's sword by an inch; which gave her enough clearance to seemingly dodge quickly.
After another swing, she noticed that the fatigue had begun to set in, as the tip of his sword struck the ground, and he heaved to bring his sword up again. At that moment, she grabbed him by the wrist and twisted his arm. He yelped slightly, as the pain shot through his limb, but was then replaced with a confused whimper as he realized that he was in the air now.
Pyrrha had kicked him behind the legs with a swift, and fluid motion, she continued to flip him in the air, and grabbed him by the scruff of his hoodie with her shield arm. The indentations on her shield encircled his neck and she slammed his body onto the roof, and he landed with a loud groan.
"Ow," moaned Jaune, as he tried to get up, but instead writhed on the ground as moving only added more to the discomfort. He wasn't in any real pain, but was left sore after the long night of sparring. Pyrrha gave Jaune a soft smile and bent down to offer a hand to help him up.
"You are doing better Jaune!" Pyrrha exclaimed, as she genuinely felt that he was a new man under her strict tutelage.
"I was still unable to land a hit on you," Jaune groaned as Pyrrha lifted him off the ground, his footing a little shaky as he tried to correct his posture before finally standing still. He recalled his shield back into its basic form, as it folded into a sheath, and placed it on his hip then inserted his sword.
"But your footwork has definitely improved!" She continued, the smile on her face widening upon thinking about his progress, and how he finally began to utilize what she had taught him, and made it a part of him. Rather than thinking about his movements, they now became a subconscious part of his mind; allowing him use them without thinking about it. She then likewise returned her spear and shield back to its resting place, placing her spear, which could also be reconfigured into a sniper rifle, in a sheath she kept on her back, and her hoplon shield over it.
They both made their way to the door that led back into the dormitory; however, they didn't go through it. Instead, they both stopped just short of the opening, and Pyrrha knelt down to pick up a jug of water as she poured a cup for Jaune, but he politely waved his hand and picked up his own cup, and drank from it. His throat was dry after the long exercise, and the water felt like a smooth elixir that seemed to give him renewed life as it went down his throat.
Jaune leaned back on the wall and slowly slid down until he instead sat on the roof of the dormitory's south wing, which was two stories shorter than the rest of the building, allowing them to spar on the flat roof above. She cupped both hands around her cup and she carefully took a sip from it as well before joining him.
"We are a team, Jaune; we need to help each other," she replied, and they both shared a moment of silence as they both looked down onto the lights of the Kingdom of Vale. It was dark, but lights still littered the skyline of the Kingdom, mostly streetlights as most of the Kingdom's residents were already asleep.
"But I know that as a leader, I should already be good enough for you guys," Jaune finally said, unlike Pyrrha, he wasn't enjoying the sight, but rather he was lost in silent contemplation.
"You have really improved, Jaune!" Pyrrha replied in an attempt to reassure her friend, her leader, but then her facial expression changed to a more somber one. "You have room for improvement, but to be honest, I am a little jealous."
Upon hearing this, Jaune looked over to her with a raised brow and saw that she was looking down at her cup. He was speechless by this revelation and his mouth dropped open, as he didn't know what to say.
"But why would you be jealous of me, of all people, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked.
"I am 'the invincible girl', Jaune, everyone expects a lot from me; but with you, you don't have that kind of pressure," she elaborated.
"Oh, yeah I forget that you are famous sometimes," Jaune said with a slight chuckle. "Yeah, I know, I am a nobody when it really comes down to it."
"No! Jaune! That's not what I meant," Pyrrha immediately jumped in upon realizing how he had taken her statement. Her cheeks turned red with embarrassment and her eyes darted back and forth as she thought on how to make up for what she said.
"Relax, Pyrrha," said Jaune again, "I know what you are talking about."
"You do?" she asked, as she genuinely wondered if he really did understand.
"You are 'the invincible girl'; when they hear your name, they expect you to be the winner every time," Jaune continued. "For me, the most they expect is for me to lose a sparring match, or at best to kill a single Grimm, like the way I beheaded that giant Ursa when I saved Cardin."
Pyrrha decided to just keep quiet from here, she knew what it took for him to get here. To forge transcripts and having to lie to people about who he really was, in a way, the pressure on him was more than she could understand.
"So how are you doing in your classes?" Jaune asked and this forced Pyrrha out of her own little world.
"Oh, I'm doing well," Pyrrha responded, with a quick nod of her head.
"Have you asked the instructors to take a look at the grades you have so far?" Jaune asked again.
"I'm confident that I am doing well," Pyrrha replied again. "I do take my studies seriously, Jaune; you would do well to do the same."
"Hey now, at least I'm passing," said a defensive Jaune as he turned away to scratch the back of his head. "All I have to do is pass my finals and I'll have done well for the first semester."
Pyrrha watched this reaction with a hint of amusement before looking out again onto the expanse of the Kingdom; deciding that it was probably time to head back to their dorm for the night.
"Come on, Jaune," she said as she heaved herself up from her seat; the exercise and the time of night had left her tired. Jaune nodded and finished his cup of water, and grabbed the pitcher before getting up with her. He then nodded to her to signal that he was ready and he was the first to enter through the door. However, right as Pyrrha was about to come through, Jaune stopped for a moment and he turned to face her.
"Pyrrha, I just want to say thank you," he said to her, which made her stop where she was and she looked at him with a quizzical expression.
"'Thanks?' For what, Jaune?" She asked.
"For your help in training me," he replied to her and he looked down for a moment, as if he was collecting his thoughts so as to best convey what he felt. "You have always believed in me when others have doubted me, and I really appreciate your help."
Pyrrha then felt a wave of heat flush into her cheeks and she immediately turned away; in her mind she cursed herself for not being able to control her emotions and she turned away as her cheeks began to turn red. Silently, she was thankful for the darkness; there was no chance that Jaune could see her blush.
"Well, that's all I wanted to say," he said before turning to walk away. Upon hearing that this was all he wanted to convey, Pyrrha felt a sense of relief, as he hadn't noticed her in such a vulnerable state. For a moment, she felt a hint of confusion as to why she would feel this way, but then decided not to dwell on it so as not to draw his attention, before finally picking up the pace so as to walk beside him.
"You know what to do, right?" Emerald asked with a a playful smile as they both approached the gates to Haven Academy in Mistral. Just like the rest of the Kingdom, Haven reflected the nation's culture and the architecture made the academy look like a giant castle.
"Of course, Princess," Mercury said with a smile as he made a passing joke at the Academy's architectural design, while Emerald rolled her eyes before shaking her head at him.
"Whatever, just get us into the system, then we finally can head over to Vale to meet with Cinder in a few weeks," Emerald replied and walked away, all the while she read from the notebook that Ash had given to them, which made her appear like any other student.
"Security is rather lax," he thought as approached the doors to Haven with an air of confidence and tried to appear to be an ordinary student. Just for fun, he would wave to the other students, flashing a smile for a moment but it would quickly disappear once he left from view. Not even the instructors at the Academy, those who should know that he wasn't really a student, took the time to stop him. Then again, there were many students attending the Academy, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the instructors couldn't remember them all; this provided the perfect cover for him and Emerald.
He stopped in the middle of the corridor and leaned back against the wall; all the while, whistling to himself as he pulled the sides of his Scroll apart, turning it into a data tablet, and looked down at it. Before he had killed Brunn, Mercury had gotten him to retrieve the schematics to both Haven and Beacon, which made it easier to locate his target for this mission. He realized he was in the correct wing as he studied his position on the map.
He scanned the schematics a while longer, trying to make a mental plan for what path he should take to get where he needed to be. Once he had gone over the plan in his mind, he pushed the sides of his Scroll back together and put it away, then resumed his whistling as he continued down the corridors.
After a couple of turns, and a few flights of stairs later, he stepped in front of the door to the data center. This part of the school was restricted, and he already had had to knock out a couple of witnesses to get here. The thought of killing them passed through his mind, but they were not his targets, and he would rather not leave any clues to his whereabouts.
He leaned down to pick the lock, and after he had broken through, he stepped into a cramped room with computer towers all standing slightly taller than he was, and all in rows of eight. This was the room he was looking for, a central hub for all of Haven's systems, which gave him access to everything. He could have hacked from any other computer, but by hacking the data center, he couldn't be tracked as he broke through.
He slowly stepped into the room, looking at each computer as it blinked with different colored lights; all of them indicating some different status or system activity. He had forgotten which one he was supposed to utilize, especially since there was a specific one that he had to hack to get into their systems quickly.
However, they all looked the same to him, and he remembered that he might have dozed off when Emerald was explaining this bit to him; afterwards he just shrugged and pulled out his Scroll again, then pulled out the cord at the bottom of it and jacked it into a random computer. Immediately, files began streaming across the screen of his Scroll, too many for it to handle, and he just began to swipe at each folder that showed up, clearing away the ones he didn't need.
Instructor profiles, psych profiles, curricula, grades, and he swiped past every single one, letting out a bored sigh as he continued to skip past the many different files until finally he came across the one he wanted: Student Rosters.
He thought that he should have been relieved at this find, but he had spent so much time sifting through all the other garbage files that he just wanted to get this over with. He opened up a separate file that was already on his Scroll, and inside were his and Emerald's profile, made to look like the many students attending the school. Inside was also Cinder's and Neo's, as per Cinder's request.
Once the files had been transferred, he closed the file and instead opened a separate program on his Scroll; on it were the lists of Haven's students. He did a quick search of his own name, as well as Cinder's, Neo's, and Emerald's to make sure that they had transferred correctly. A grin fell on his face upon seeing that the four of them were now "students" at Haven, however, there were still two last things he needed.
After a long day of studying and lectures at Haven, Team SSSN were enjoying a much needed break at one of Mistral's many outdoor restaurants. Their team leader, Sun Wukong, a monkey-Faunus, was treating himself to just a simple banana while the rest of his team, which was comprised of Scarlet David, Sage Ayana, and Neptune Vasilias, were enjoying various treats. Their laughter often disturbed the other patrons at the restaurant, while they laughed about their day and talked about the sparring matches at Haven academy.
"I don't know man, Arslan is pretty killer with her martial arts," Sun commented, while also referencing a member of one of the other teams in Haven academy: ABRN.
"Still, I am worried that one of these days she's going to tear something," Scarlet said with a slight whimper in his voice as he fixed the bangs in his hair that hung over his right eye, while also he also fixed the scarf over his neck.
"I'm more worried about the fact that you needed to use your Semblance to beat her," Neptune added with a smile as he took a sip of his drink; setting it down afterwards next to a saucer with a bagel on it. "For two reasons."
Neptune then took a deep breath and repositioned himself in his seat, while Sun shook his head and turned away; a grin fell on his face as he waited for Neptune to finish.
"First, you can't rely on it too much. You need to be able to fight without it, and secondly, we need to be strategic for the tournament, so we can't let everyone see you use it, especially during joint training! We need this tactical advantage if we are going to win the tournament."
"'Tactical advantage'. Nerd," Sun commented with a chuckle as he finished the last bit of his banana, and Sage also chuckled to himself lightly.
"Hey. 'Intellectual'." the smile on Neptune's face disappeared as he corrected his friend, however, the right corner of his mouth rose just a bit higher as he began to grin.
"So, when will we go to Vale?" Sage asked.
"We're caught up on our homework, so we can technically leave in a couple of weeks if we want," Sage suggested.
"Ugh, speaking homework, it sucks that we will have to attend Beacon's classes as well," Sun commented.
"I heard that things there are pretty strict, and their students are some of the best fighters around," Scarlet commented as well as he marveled at the idea.
"Good! Maybe that will rub off on a certain someone," Neptune added as he made a passing reference to a very specific friend, while Sun ignored the comment.
"Okay!" Sun clapped his hands and rubbed them together as he took a quick glance to each of his teammates. "Travel itinerary; how will we get to Vale? Maybe we can take a calming ride on a ship?
"Woah!" Neptune yelled as he straightened himself in his seat while wearing a nervous grin. "A ship? You mean there will be water?"
"Yeah, I guess that wouldn't be such a good idea, then," Sun leaned back with a grin, having deliberately teased Neptune for his comment, and began to think again. Scarlet looked over at Neptune for a bit, amused at his fear of water but once he realized that Neptune had caught his gaze, he immediately shifted his eyes away and scratched the back of his head.
"Besides," Sage joined in again, and everyone turned their attention towards him. "It would take weeks to get there by sea, and we would have a lot of backlogged homework that we missed."
"I guess all that is left is an airship, then?" Neptune eagerly suggested with his face expressing relief.
"I guess so," Sun replied and stood up as he looked at a clock inside the shop and noticed that it was getting late. "Well, let's go back to the dorm. We can discuss travel a little more over there. If we're taking an airship, we've still got a nearly a month before we have to leave for Vale."
Mercury began to swipe faster and faster through the school's files on his Scroll, as he continued to look for the list of the exchange students that would be going to Vale for the Vytal Festival Tournament. He kept the profiles of his team on hand, so he could easily sneak them in when he finally found the file that he needed; as he searched, he started to recount the two other things that he needed before he was ready to leave: first, some of the school's uniforms.
From photos that he had seen, as well as the students he had observed on campus, they wore black jackets with a white arm band while the leggings differed from men to women, with men wearing black trousers, and the women wearing skirts of black and grey tartan. Maybe he could just ask the school's quartermaster for sets for himself, as well as his team.
Lastly, some passports, that one however, would be the trickiest part, but he decided he would deal with it when he came to it. He needed not just any passports, but ones specifically from the exchange students to Vale, because they would have the required visas. Then it would just me a matter of changing the photographs and identifying data; a little creative forgery, and they would be set.
Finally, he came to the folder that he was searching for; a folder filled with the names of the contestants who would be going to Vale to attend the Vytal Festival Tournament as fighters. With a swipe of his finger, he copied the profiles and placed them into the folder which pretty much solidified their positions; not only would they have a clearing into Vale, but for fun, they could cause as much chaos as possible from within by being participants.
However, he had spent too much time in the school's server room, and he knew that he had to leave before someone stumbled upon him, and he would have to kill them; not only would that be against Cinder's orders, although she wouldn't care for a single dead person, but it would potentially blow their cover and alert the school to the fact that their systems had been breached.
As he was about to cut the connection from the server, he stopped for a moment as he continued to look through the other list of contestants. The rosters were huge, something that would make the tournament one of the best for many years to come; however, some of the contestants seemed to be skilled fighters and realized that getting rid of some of them right now by outright deleting them wouldn't work, as they would just be added back onto the list.
Instead, he reasoned that he might eliminate some of them when he stole their passports. It would take a while for them to be replaced, and they would possibly miss the window for admission by the time they were replaced and their visas re-issued. He noticed a few likely targets, and he cut the connection and swiftly left the server room without leaving any trace that would arouse suspicion that anyone had been there.
As he moved down the western corridor, Mercury scanned each plaque on the doors as he passed by; he gradually got closer and closer to the one he needed before his mission was complete. The uniforms were easy, and he already carried what he needed in a plastic bag; he had explained to the quartermaster that his and his team's uniforms had been scorched in sparring practice, and that was literally all it took.
Then, his attention immediately snapped to as he came upon the room he was looking for: 21W; he quickly scanned around the hallway to make sure that no one was watching before he bent forward and began to pick the lock. A satisfying "click" was heard upon success, and he slowly opened the door to peer inside and saw that no one was in the dorm.
"Ok, time to find the Box," Mercury thought, as he began to scan the room. Back during his youth, when he often broke into people's houses for fun and profit, Mercury had come to know that people always seemed to have "a Box", something into which they would stash anything important, things they wouldn't normally keep on themselves at all times, whether it be valuables, such as jewelry, pictures or mementos, or important papers such as passports.
A lot could be told about a person by their Box and its contents. Time was of the essence, but he also had to be meticulous; making a mess would leave evidence that someone had been there, and this further frustrated him. He began to scan the room; the only things that he displaced were the contents of shelves and maybe some books, but he couldn't find anything. His target was originally from Vacuo, and he knew that meant he was probably poor, and his Box would probably reflect that. Finally, he noticed a package on one of the night stands, and upon closer inspection, he realized that it wasn't a package, but a crudely made oval box with floral contact paper wrapped around it.
This was the Box of a poor person, to be sure, possibly handed down to its owner by a woman, possibly his target's mother, from the looks of it. It would ordinarily belong to a woman, but there were only men in this dorm, so his supposition was very likely.
As he went to pick up the box, he felt its weight and its texture through the contact paper, and concluded that it was made of cardboard and it had no lock on it, typical for a piece of trash. He slowly removed the lid to it, only to see just some worthless trinkets, letters, and personal photos inside of it, as well as crude necklaces and pendants, but then noticed something at the bottom of the box.
As he moved all the crap to the side, he saw what he was looking for: a Vacuo passport, and not just any passport, but one belonging to one of the people he had chosen to remove from the tournament. He opened the passport, and inside was a Vale visa, he read the name in his mind: "Sun Wukong".
Sun walked down the corridor to his dorm, his team had gone ahead without him, as he wanted to quickly nab a can of soda from a nearby kiosk. He was used to stealing back in his home Kingdom of Vacuo, as it was the poorest of the Kingdoms. His family did try their best to support him, but the fact that he had to steal often, and got into fights made him pretty infamous in their town; however, his lifestyle did add to his skill set, and it made him a formidable fighter, so in order to avoid him getting into trouble, his parents managed to gain admittance for him into Haven Academy in Mistral; moving here seemed strange at first. Mistral was clearly a lot wealthier than Vacuo, and people were more shirt and collar kind of people; not something that he would be into, even if he could afford it.
As he downed the last of his soda, he heard someone behind him, and he turned to see who or what it was, only to suddenly be bumped into. When he regained his footing, and after fixing his sleeve, he turned to apologize, only to see that a grey-haired student had completely ignored him and kept walking. Sun felt that he should have been offended, but simply shrugged and threw away the can in a nearby trash bin before returning to his dorm.
As he entered it, he noticed that his team was not there; either they had stopped somewhere, or they went to hang out with the other students over at Haven. With a smile, he let out a yawn, and jumped onto his bed while placing his hands behind his head while staring at the ceiling. He eyes began to feel heavy, but he wanted to wait for his team to arrive so he got up again and stretched to let himself feel a little loose.
But from the corner of his eye, he noticed that his Box had moved, that it wasn't in the spot where he left it before going out with his team. He slid his feet from off his bed, and let them hang from the side and reached for the Box to pick it up. It felt the same, its weight didn't seem altered so he didn't think much of it, but then a feeling of homesickness came over him, and with a smile he opened the Box and one by one he pulled out each item.
First was a crudely made necklace, just made out of string that was woven together; he stared at it for a few moments as warm thoughts filled his mind which forced him to smile. Then he pulled out another necklace, this one with a pendant that was carved out of wood. As he continued to pull out each item, he was finally able to see the bottom and that's when he realized that something was definitely off.
He dumped the contents of the box onto his bed and frantically pushed everything aside as he tried to find his passport. It had cost a lot of money for his family, and it allowed him to go between Mistral, Vacuo, and just recently, Vale. He covered his mouth as he thought about what this meant, by not having his passport, he would have no way into Vale, and he and his team would have to back out of the tournament. He got out of bed and turned it over, desperate to find it quickly before his team returned and he would have to reveal that his passport was missing.
He silently cursed himself as he placed his hand over his mouth again and gritted his teeth angrily; he put his hands behind his head as he thought about how to fix this. He could order a new one, but getting one from Vacuo and getting his visa renewed could take months, and cost hundreds of Izziks to get a replacement, then another fifty for the visa, and then he would miss the window to get to Vale in any event.
However, that wasn't the main issue, as he simply didn't have the money to replace it. He crossed his legs, and took deep breaths as he began to think to himself, mulling over the different options as to how to fix this. Then his head shot up, and he quickly got out of bed as he went over to their desk and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen, and began to write:
Passport stolen; going to Vale ASAP.
See you there. -Sun
PS: Can you pack one of my uniforms for me?
He left the paper on top of the desk, and groaned at the thought of all the backlogged homework he would have by the time he made it to Vale; he quickly left the dorm, but not before locking it before as he left. He made his way down the hallways, almost running into fellow students along the way, who would give a second glance as they wondered why he was in such a hurry. Once he made his way out of the school, he jumped down the flight of stairs of the main entrance and used his Faunus ability to land safely at the bottom as he made his way out of the Academy grounds.
With a grin, he hurried to Mistral's docks, and began to scout for a ship that would best suit him; he spotted a cargo transport ship that was just loading a new shipment of produce and hoped that it would be going to Vale, however, he had to be sure. He approached one of the workers, who glanced back at him with a hint of disdain as he eyed the monkey-Faunus from top to bottom.
"Hey, how are you doing?" Sun asked with a smile, as he offered a friendly wave.
"What do you want, kid?" the man responded with a hint of disgust in his voice, he held a clipboard in his hand,clicked his pen, and put his hands onto his hips.
"I was just wondering if you guys needed an extra hand on board. I need to get to Vale, and I can work in exchange for a ride over there," Sun said with a smile, however the man laughed and gritted his teeth.
"We are headin' to Vale, but I don't need no damn dirty ape aboard my ship, besides, you would probably hide away and be lazy anyway," the man responded with a gruff voice.
"First off, I'm a monkey-Faunus; there is a big difference between that and an ape," Sun replied with a grin, which made the man freeze and he kept his gaze on Sun. "Secondly, I'm not as lazy as I look."
"Beat it! I'm not letting you or any Faunus on my ship!" The man yelled out and turned his back on Sun, which signaled that the conversation was over. Sun shook his head and raised his hands over his head and let out an exasperated sigh; his hands then slapped against his thighs once he brought them down and he began to wonder again about how to get to Vale.
He couldn't go back to his dorm, by now his team would have gotten back and seen the note. He turned around and began to look around for another ship that would trade passage for work, when he noticed that most of the ships had already left, he let out a groan and sat on the balls of his heels as looked around the docks once more; scanning the berths for anything of interest, until his gaze was set on a barrel that was next to the crates that were being loaded onto the ship.
Then, Sun had another idea; his gaze switched over to the man again and noticed that he was not looking in his direction. When he thought the coast was clear, Sun quietly ran towards the plastic barrel and opened it to peer inside. The smell that emanated from it was horrid, the smell of urine, feces, and blue Anotec, and that's when he realized that it was the honeydipper barrel, the barrel they used to clean the septic tanks and chemical toilets on the ship. A wave of disgust washed over as he began to think of what he had to do, and almost felt ashamed of it; with slight reservation, he climbed inside.
He waited patiently, but also hoped that no one would open the lid by some random chance, but suddenly the barrel began to rock when the crew picked it up. While it rocked, he held his breath in the hopes that he wouldn't be spotted, and feared that they would realize he was inside if he as much as breathed. His lungs ached, but he was grateful for the reprieve from the smell.
However, once he realized the situation he was in, a grin fell on his face.
"Monkey in a barrel," Sun thought, finding the situation a bit amusing, as well as realizing the irony. "How clichéd."
Haiiden spun his pen in his hand as he listened to Professor Port's lecture while resting his palm on his cheek. It was the same lecture as usual: just Professor Port boasting about his many missions with his head held high, and of the many exploits in his life which he would mix with the lectures he should be teaching. Out of curiosity, he began to look around at his other classmates, first to his team, who all groaned to themselves as they trudged through the class; Zed napped next to Haiiden, while Cecilia sat with her hands over her face, however, her twin brother, Vaughn, was the only one who was listening to the lecture with any intensity.
"Vacuo then called upon me to deal with a rogue Goliath that had broken off from its herd and was devastating settlements along the border of the desert," Professor Port continued, and some of the students then began to raise their heads at the mention of Goliaths. Huge, elephant-like Grimm with giant curved tusks that usually traveled in groups, Goliaths were extremely difficult to kill. Their thick skin, as well as the bone-like masks were excellent defenses that made the thought of fighting these monstrosities scary. Instead of a chalkboard, Professor Port had pencil sketches of the various different Grimm he had encountered in his lifetime; Professor Port then pointed to a pencil sketch of a Goliath behind him, and he waved his hand to direct the class's attention to it.
"I would have brought a live specimen, had I been able to take it alive, but a mature Goliath would be larger than this very room, at roughly seventy to eighty feet in height, and over a hundred feet long," Professor Port continued. "As you all well know, my fame didn't come from my amazing ability to fight, but because I was the first to capture live Grimm."
At this mention, Byeli hopped in her seat happily at the mention of Port capturing Grimm, especially since it was with his help that they were able to bring Grimm into Mistral for her shows.
A smile grew on Haiiden's face when Professor Port, again, had to mention what it was he was most famous for; he always felt the need to show off his accomplishments and to let people know who he was. At first glance, some would think he had an over-inflated opinion of himself, as he always had his head held high and even had a large gold bust of himself next to his impeccable desk, as well as his rather large blunderbuss that he hung over the sketches. Although his demeanor was annoying, most were forced to admit that his fame was well earned, as his own field research on the Grimm helped in fighting them.
"But that is beside the point! As we are talking about my latest exploit in Vacuo," Port continued. "Remember children, as a skilled Huntsman, even I am wary of these beasts. Goliaths are not to be trifled with, their naturally thick skin and bone masks offer a great defense. However! As I have learned from my time in the desert, they do have a single and critical weakness!"
The professor then pointed to his sketch of a Goliath, his finger pressed against the mask of the Grimm, which confused some of the students. Even Haiiden was left wondering as to why the mask would the weak point, and watched as Port then traced his finger along the red line that ran down the top of the Grimm's mask and ended between the eyes.
"Right there!" Port exclaimed as he stopped at the tip of the red line and tapped on it to further emphasize his point. "This is the Goliath's weakness! It's the thinnest part of the mask and with a well-placed shot, it could bring down this seemingly unkillable creature."
"Seemingly," Haiiden thought, the word seemed strange, especially coming out of Port, as he should know how dangerous these Grimm really were. Sure, if you were to shoot, you would probably kill it, but taking the time to aim was another matter entirely; it could be just Port's usual, egomaniacal self that was speaking. He genuinely cared about his students, and he wouldn't intentionally fool them to make them think that the Grimm weren't all dangerous.
"Oi, mate," Haiiden heard Zed whisper next to him, and he turned to see that his friend had awoken but still kept his head low. "Do you have any notes for Ossea's class?"
Haiiden felt his heart race at the thought of the name, he had tried not to think of it lately but he knew that he would have to go back to its class tomorrow for another lecture. It even made him wish that this class would go on forever just so he wouldn't have to go there again.
"I don't, Zed, that's the class I am struggling on the most," Haiiden said with a frown.
"You and me both, mate," Zed replied.
"Shouldn't you be paying attention to Port's lecture anyway?" Haiiden asked, but also looked over to Port just in case if he realized that his students were whispering during his lecture.
"You kidding? Port's tests are easy! They are just multiple choice questions about his missions, and the right answers are usually the ones that make him seem off his head!" Zed pointed out, and Haiiden couldn't help but let out a laugh, but quickly shut his mouth and turned to Port again. It didn't seem that he noticed, but he kept his mouth covered as he turned to Zed, who was silently laughing to himself. Even Cecilia and Vaughn couldn't help but find amusement out of this, as it was technically true.
Then the bell rang, which signaled the end of the class, as well as the end of the day, and the students all got up to leave. Haiiden had made an appointment to meet with Oobleck to discuss some tutoring for his homework, especially in Ossea's class, as they both taught some sort of history; however, Ossea's history was more like social studies.
" And Haiiden, stay after class, please. Maybe you would like to recite word for word what my lecture was about, since you seem so well versed in it as to be able to talk with your teammates during my class," Port announced out loud so that the whole class could hear and his mustache rose again.
Doctor Oobleck was quickly running around his classroom as usual as he gathered the variety of papers that was strewn around his class. Every few minutes, he would check the clock on the wall for the time and would sip from his thermos before he ran around again. Suddenly, the door to his class swung open, with a heaving Haiiden emerging from it, and he quickly descended the stairs and stopped in front of the Doctor.
"Sorry- that I'm- I'm late," Haiiden panted as he took in large gulps of air, while Oobleck looked down and took another sip from his thermos.
"Port sent word of what happened. You should know not to ignore his so-called 'lectures', Haiiden," Oobleck responded with a grin and he turned away to retrieve more papers, this time he had slowed down now that he had a guest.
"Yeah," Haiiden swallowed again, but was able to regain just enough of his breath to speak normally. "He had me recite his entire lecture."
"Oh dear," Oobleck joked and let out a single chuckle as he thought of how it probably went down.
"Well, I'm here now," Haiiden continued, but then Oobleck quickly turned around with his hand in the air to stop him.
"Yes, but you are past your scheduled appointment, and now it's time for even me to turn in for the night," said Oobleck. Haiiden felt a pang of confusion, maybe since he was so used to Oobleck being on the move that the thought of him sleeping was almost unimaginable, but he shook off the idea.
"But Professor, I need-"
"Doctor!" Oobleck exclaimed and he turned to Haiiden and ran at him with such blaring speed that it was as if he had teleported to him. "It's 'Doctor' Oobleck! And I am sorry, but you should have come in at your scheduled time."
Haiiden let out a sigh in defeat, it was still a couple of weeks until Ossea's end of the semester exam, but he was having trouble in its class; he really needed Doctor Oobleck's help to pass since his doctorate was in history, and he thought that it would help in this case.
"But Doctor, we have finals coming up, and at the rate I'm going, I'm going to fail Professor Ossea's final. Isn't there anything I can do?"
"As a matter of fact, there is, my dear lad. In fact, I thought you'd never ask, my boy! I haven't taken this out in years! Read this, and I guarantee you will receive top marks for your exam." Oobleck said with a hint of glee in his voice as he zipped to a cabinet and threw open the doors, which revealed dozens and dozens of seemingly identical binders. Oobleck threw out papers and folders from the cabinet, and with a heave, he pulled out something big from within the cabinet. Its weight was incredible, judging by the way Oobleck was carrying it and with another heave, he lifted it just above his desk and dropped it with such a thud, that it shook the ground. Haiiden stared at it with his mouth hanging wide open as he eyed three seemingly identical green binders, each of which was at least a foot thick. Haiiden looked at the title of the top binder, which said:
From the Great War to the Faunus Rights Revolution:
Conflicts of the Modern Era - Causes and Consequences
By Bartholomew Oobleck.
Volume 1 of 3
"Your- your doctoral dissertation?" Haiiden asked incredulously. He opened it a few pages and groaned as he realized with dawning horror that the pages were double sided. Haiiden was so taken by the size that he couldn't keep his eyes off of the trio of binders, but he couldn't help but quickly glance back at Oobleck, as he felt that this was a joke. His response was just a rather large grin that came from Oobleck.
"It's time to get serious, my boy. Do you want to ace your exams or not?" Oobleck said.
Haiiden sighed and picked up the binders, resigning himself to a lot of sleepless nights in the coming weeks.