You know the drill.
Chapter 9: An M32 Rotary Grenade launcher
Qrow walked into the Bullhead station, looking towards all the booths. The Ticket booths were all full, but you don't exactly Need tickets if you're a huntsman to get on a bullhead. They'll take you just about anywhere, so long as you showed your Identification. So why was Qrow Looking at the booths if he could just get someone to fly a bullhead over to Hajimari?
Well you can guess that he already fucking tried that.
The main problem is that Hajimari isn't exactly a welcoming place to Hunters. After incidents in the past involving Hunters abusing their power and strength in the small town, Any Hunter is not welcome within the town.
This also means that Hajimari has forbidden any and all human Transport Bullheads. The only Bullheads are for trading goods, and those are only shipped out once a month.
And Its Just his luck that the Bullhead left half an hour ago.
Smuggling yourself on a bullhead, disguising yourself as a bird, and flying out without suspicion is honestly a good plan, so long as you execute it properly.
Its kinda hard to execute if you don't have the bullhead.
So the next best thing, would be to get some poor sap of a Bullhead pilot to fly him close to Hajimari, then have him dropped off and extracted when he has information, or to just be extracted with the boy. Unfortunately, that means getting information about bullhead flights.
Qrow finds the shortest line, and waits….
And waits…
And waits…
After about forty five minutes, Qrow is up to the front, where the lady says:
"Hello sir, welcome to Haven Air Transport. How may I help you?"
"Ah, Yeah. Lady, I'm trying to see If I could Get a flight to as close to Hajimari as Possible.
"Ah, Sir, the Bullheads don-"
"I know, I know, I'm just trying to get close without breaking the treaty or whatever."
"Well, Bullheads can't just go into the middle of the wilds, tha-"
"I understand, But what about if I was a Huntsman? Huh? Could you set up a Bullhead to take me as close as possible?" Qrow shows his Hunter ID, which the lady looks at briefly, before saying:
"Umm… Mister Huntsman, I'm afraid I can't do that." Qrow just opens his mouth slightly and mutters:
"What?"
"It was made a law yesterday that Bullheads are not allowed to take Huntsmen to drop off areas, but they can be extracted, if needbe."
"What kinda bullshit rule is that?!"
"It was a decision made by the council and headmaster after several Bullheads crashed or went missing by order of Hunters. I'm sorry sir." As she says this, she bumps into her mug on her desk, effectively spilling its contents everywhere, including her pants.
"Shi- Oh dear, I'm sorry sir, Give me a moment."
"Yeah. I'll just be going." Qrow says, as he leaves the building.
'So much for shortcuts.'
Bryzan&Company
"Please, Nora. I only know so many songs to play on this thing!" I say, laying flat on my back.
"MOAR!"
'Apparently Bardic inspiration has an addictive element to it.'
"Nora, You'll be worn out by the songs before we even get there. We don't need to listen to it all the time." Ren tells her, giving me a sympathetic look. Nora Pouts for a second before saying:
"Fine… But I wanna hear more!" I look up at the darkening sky, right next to our camp for the night.
"I'll take First Watch." I say, sitting myself up. Ren Just nods while Nora Rolls her eyes.
"What's so special about first watch? You always volunteer for it." I just take a glance at her, and say:
"The Sunset is pretty. Besides, I have a hard time sleeping at earlier times." 'Complete truth. Hell yeah.' Its currently Seven, while it is a little early for most people to head to sleep, if you have to wake up at five, and then leave fifteen minutes later, Its quite nice to sleep for as long as you can consecutively.
Ren simply nods, and tries to start a fire.
I debate taking out the tome, when I hear a faint rustling to my right. I raise an eyebrow, not sensing any danger. I can't see it either, since its deep in the trees and foliage. I stare for a little longer, barely seeing a silhouette before my eyes light up.
"Hey Ren, do you know how to smoke Meats?" Ren, who was just barely getting a few embers going, looks up to me, with an eyebrow raised, and says:
"I do. Wha-"
"Nora, Have you ever dried Venison?" Nora Perks up, looking directly at me.
"What's that?" 'Venison. You don't know what venison is? I guess that's not what its called on Remnant.'
"Yeah, I think I found something neat." I say, taking out a Shuriken.
"I'll be gone for a few minutes." I stalk out of the camp area, tiptoeing into the foliage.
"Say, Renny?" Nora asks. Ren just looks up, getting a small flame going.
"Yes, Nora?"
"What do you think of Bryzan?" Ren stops for a second, before trying to get the fire really going.
"I… I'm unsure, Nora. When we first spoke to him, I could tell he was hesitant to tell us some things, and he had an… Odd Aura about him."
"What's wrong with his Aura?"
"Not his aura itself, that much is fine. But being around him made me feel untrusting. I could tell he was hiding something."
"Soo, Should we ditch him then?" Nora says way too casually.
"What? No. That was just at first. Over the past few days, I got to know him a little better, along with training his Aura, I feel like I can understand him. Just with talking with him I know that he feels as if he has to be 'in charge'."
"So he's bossy?"
"Nora, No. Its like how a mother protects her children, he feels as if what he says will be best for everyone. You know how when you ask him to do something, he hesitates, thinks for a moment, and then responds?"
"Yeah. What's that about?"
"Well, think about it. Someone tells him what to do, he processes it, and decides whether or not to do it. He'll respond appropriately to what he thinks. The thing is, Bryzan seems untrusting because he trusted us from the start."
"That doesn't make sense. Why would he trust us, and why would that seem untrusting?"
"The thing is, Nora, Trust is earned, and trusting someone immediately is suspicious."
Nora just nods her head, remembering something herself.
"Well, that doesn't explain why his Aura was Odd." Ren is silent for a moment, before he shakes his head.
"It's difficult to explain, Nora. but his Personality and air around him simply don't match. I don't think He's a bad person, but please be careful around him. I don't think he could hurt you or me, but I believe he could be dangerous if provoked." Ren finishes, now with a nicely hot fire. Nora is silent for a minute, before she says:
"I'm tired of not trusting people, Ren." The boy looks up, finding Nora looking into her lap.
"I didn't say to not trust him, just be careful."
"But its the same thing. I don't wanna feel like Bryzan is an enemy. We're going to see him when we get to beacon, either way. Why can't we trust him now?" Ren Just sighed and stoked the fire.
"I said it felt like he was hiding something, withholding information. Whether or not it was bad, I don't know. That's all." The two are silent for a minute, before the two hear a somewhat loud:
"FUCK!" The two turn their heads to where Bryzan ran off to, hesitating for a minute, before he yells out:
"I'm Okay!" Nora just looks over, and shakes her head, looking back to Ren.
"I like him. He reminds me of you a little bit." Ren gives Nora a confused look, before she continues.
"I mean about how he carries himself, confidently. Of course, he has a lot more energy, but I think he thinks a lot like you." Ren takes a deep breath, thinking thoroughly, before just saying:
"How did you come to this conclusion?" Nora Smirks, before she says:
"I just know these things." Ren shakes his head, and stokes the fire a little.
Its not long, before Nora Lets out an ear-piercing shriek. Ren jumps, and takes out his weapons, and aims them towards Nora, and then at the figure she was screaming at.
Firing three rounds, they pinged off a pink and white Aura, before Ren looked at who it was. Being honest, he might have screamed himself, had he not just fired at him. He was looking at Bryzan, who might as well have been covered face to knee in blood.
"Did… Did you kill somebody?" Ren asks slowly, still aimed at Bryzan.
(…)
I blink twice, before saying:
"Ahh, Sorry? No, I didn't kill anybody. I just so happened to catch that deer I heard earlier. I was cleaning it when I guess it had built up blood pressure, so it splurt all onto me." I shrug, holding all the meat in my hands. Ren just looks at me, and nods, slowly putting his weapons away.
'Huh. I didn't think I looked that bad.' I look down at Nora, who is wide-eyed, and twitching.
"Ahh, Nora? Are you Okay?" She doesn't answer, and responds with more twitching.
I just nod my head, looking back at Ren, who is whittling some stakes with his Knife. I nod and just hold onto the meat while Ren does his thing.
We sit in awkward silence for a while, before Ren says:
"What's your goal?" I glance at him, with a questioning look, before he elaborates.
"I mean, What's your goal in life, or as a Huntsman, to be precise?" I simply lean back a little, and think for less than a minute before I say:
"To… Not." Ren gives me a confused look before I continue.
"The only reason that Huntsmen and Huntresses exist in this world is because its fucked up. Granted, there are things outside the Grimm that make it a little messed up, but that's not my point. My point is I want to be a Huntsman and to live my life so that I don't have to anymore. To just stop it. To eradicate Grimm presence altogether so that its one less thing we'd have to worry about. Because there are monsters far worse than the Grimm out there. Murderers, rapists, even people who intend to conquer the world with an iron fist. Getting rid of the Grimm will have to be the first step if we want to get our shit together… I remember as a kid, the first time I heard that people hurt each other, I was shocked. There were so many other things we could do to fix our world, but infighting seemed so… Odd. Of course, the Grimm were always a threat, and probably always will be, but If you want to start with peace, you have to have violence. A lot of violence. Its why I'm here rather than still studying how to swing a fucking sword." I stop to take a breath, and look at Ren, who is staring into the fire, with a few meats on the sticks.
"Even though I don't particularly care about anything in this world, its still a place. People, minds, hearts… Fucking souls. They're things to protect. Or, rather, they're things worth protecting… I… I learned from a young age that in order to protect life, sometimes you have to take it. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take a bunch of Grimm Life, all that I can, so that I could possibly kill every last one. Even if it means ki-... Destroying anything in my way." We sit in silence as I finish for a minute, before Ren says in a low voice:
"That's… Interesting." I look at him, to find bright pink eyes locked directly onto me.
"That doesn't sound like what most people would consider a goal." I scoff and ask him:
"What's your goal then?" Ren just sighs and says:
"To make sure nobody suffers a horrible fate… I knew this kid a while ago, who lived on a frontier town. Needless to say the town is destroyed now by Grimm. But there were no huntsmen to help them, they were alone. The boy survived, and escaped, but wasn't the same. I talked to him, and he told me his story. It made me think, and here I am, along with Nora." I raise an eyebrow, but don't say anything.
'It's a very abridged version of his story. So he obviously doesn't trust me yet. Fair enough.'
"Either way, Bryzan, it doesn't sound like a goal, but rather like an excuse to kill something." I look at Ren, and chuckle a little. It isn't long before I'm full-on laughing my ass of. It takes me a second, before I calm down, to which I say:
"You're not wrong. But Its more of an Excuse for me to kill, so nobody else will have to." I state as a matter of factly. Ren looks at me, and back at the meats.
"Bwuhazug!" Nora mumbles, bolting straight up. She takes a look in both directions, before looking directly at me.
"Whathappenedtoyou!?" She shouts, pointing to my blood-covered form.
"Cleaned a deer." Me and Ren state at the exact same time. She just nods, apparently speechless for once, when I say:
"We got some Venison now." Nora looks puzzled, when she asks:
"What's Venison?"
"Ahh, fancy term for Deer meat. Thank you, By the way." I say, directed at Ren. He shrugs and tells me:
"You caught it." I think for a moment, and shrug, leaning back a little, while looking at the sky become orange.
"I think I'm going to try and get this blood off of me before I start smelling too much." I say, getting up from my log seat. Ren nods while Nora starts chewing on some Deer.
I walk for about two minutes, before I come across a small lake, with crystal clear water. I shiver a little bit, making sure the water key is in my inventory, and start taking off my outfit. I'm left in my underwear, when I just shrug, and hang all my non-bloody stuff off a nearby tree branch. I start scrubbing out the blood from my outfit.
Its surprisingly easy, as the blood was fresh, and I'm done in less than five minutes. I shrug and hang them up as well, and finish stripping, while diving into the lake. I swim around for a few minutes, before i sit on some rocks in the water.
'Might as well get some reading in.' I open my inventory and take out the Tome of water for the first time. The book itself is probably about as big as a laptop, and not really thick.
Opening the book, I find that its not actually words, but figures, showing how to properly do the sword strokes.
"Interesting. This style isn't really a method of typical swordplay at all. Its all attacking from what I see here. And two-handed grips, at that. Let's try this first one…" I stand up, and take Underdog out of my inventory, and get into the stance. Its very basic, right foot forward, left foot squared, two hands on the grip, pointed outwards. I take a focused breath, and pull the sword back, keeping it pointed forward, while stepping forward with my left foot. As the hilt passes by my head, I change my grip, swinging the blade in a wide arc, diagonally. The tip of the blade impacts the water with a tiny splash. I flinch a little as it splashes back at me.
"Huh. aparently the impact let a small splash occur even though the blade went in the water. I like this." I reset myself and do it again, trying out some other moves.
'This obviously relies on either speed or being tanky enough to land the hits, because I leave myself wide open when I go in for these strikes.' I take note, performing the move: "Unyielding Tide". In essence, the move is a combination of single and two handed strikes, not letting up on an opponent. The movements were in wide arcs, growing consecutively stronger with each strike. Effective against one person, but total ass against a group, with anyone else being able to get in a cheap backstab.
New Sword Style learned: [Blade of water]: Novice
I nod and put the tome back in my inventory, stretching a little bit, when I look behind me.
For one reason or another, I'm stuck in place, looking into the blood-red eyes of a black bird in the tree in front of me.
'Oh. I really should learn the difference between Ravens and Crows, Observe.'
Name: ?
Title:
Lv: ?
Backstory:?
'Great, now I know that whichever sibling this is, they'll kick my ass ten ways from sunday.'
Raising my sword, I point it at the bird, and say:
"You can piss right off with that, Branwen. I really don't want anything to do you right now." 'Great, completely neutral about who it might be, but they know I know they're a bird… Why did I reveal that I have this knowledge again? It would make sense if I knew it was Qrow, I might get places, but with Raven? That's just asking for investigation on her part. Actually, it probably is Qrow. Raven wouldn't want anything to do with me right now. Probably.'
"Go home." I say, walking out of the lake. I look down and realize I'm in the nude, in front of who is possibly a future ally. The bird squawks and flaps its wings, appearing to cover its eyes, as it flies away. I squint at it, and shrug, walking out of the lake.
Raven
'What the shit is that kid doing?! Why is he just talking to me completely naked?! How the fuck does he know about me?' She lands on a tree a little bit further away, tests the branch a little, and transforms. She scowls, looking at the light of the fire from the camp. She just shakes her head, and Unsheathes Omen, slicing through the air. A red portal appears, floating just inches off the branch. She waits a few seconds, and Vernal Sticks her head through.
"Vernal, tell everybody to start moving north. A few miles away from Tochude Village. I won't be able to bring him back peacefully." Vernal just nods, and looks around.
"If I may ask, is-"
"It doesn't matter. I'll need to speak with him either way." Vernal nods again and leaves the portal. It closes after a second, and Raven sits down on the branch.
'He called me Branwen, which is my last name. Why not just use the first if he already knew it was me? Unless he thought I was Qrow… That would make sense. But why would Ozpin want this random kid? Scratch that, how would Ozpin even know about this kid? Unless of course, there has already been an altercation.' Raven lets out a small growl and mutters under her breath:
"I'm starting to see why Qrow drinks so much."
(...)
The next day
I shudder a little as another beowulf slides itself off the edge of Underdog.
Hey, after a couple weeks, you actually managed to level up!
Unlocked: Loadouts!
'Oh, fuck off. I don't need this right now.'
"Bryzan, Are you okay?" Nora asks me, smashing in the head of another unfortunate grimm.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, nothing. You just seemed a little down. That's all!"
'Do I?' "Do I? I'm just thinking a little about the future." I say with a shrug.
'A lie, but its one to protect them. I'm more just concerned about how exactly I've been found out by Qrow. Or either of the branwens. Its not all that bad if Its Qrow, even though its way too early for me to even consider trying to get to Beacon. I still need to ally with Salem first in order to fully get my plan rolling. If Its Raven, I might as well say a prayer. I have no Idea what could happen if she decided to start hunting me. Or even worse, Recruit me. That would set me back quite a bit if I'm going to be able to properly do this.'
"Bryyyzaaaan." Nora calls out. I snap out of my thought and look over to her, where she's leaning against Magnhild. Ren, on the other hand, is looking at a map a little behind her. They're only a few yards away, so I just walk over.
"Duuh, Right!" I call back, waving her off. I take a few steps forward, before Nora's Eyes widen, and she smacks Ren upside the head.
"Behind you!" My own eyes widen, as I feel it.
Sense danger!
I take a quick step forward, and narrowly avoid a massive paw aimed for my head. 'That's a fucking Ursa! Observe.'
Ursa Minor
Lv: 25
HP: 30,000/30,000
Now, I don't exactly panic, since its only a couple levels above me, and a yellow name. But the way Nora reacts, made me panic a little on the inside. Drawing Underdog, I quickly slice at its paw. It retracts a little, but jumps forward a little. I asses my options and shrug, opting to jump on its arm, and stand on the shoulder. I do so, and raise Underdog above my head, heaving it down on the neck.
Critical hit!
HP: 10,462/30,000
It wisely thrashes me off, as I fall just off the shoulder, and roll to my knee.
Now, Normally I would have this in the bag. The water spirits showed me that crits really matter. But Fucking Nora…
Don't get me wrong, she was just trying to protect me from imminent death.
Let's take a moment to talk about grenade launchers.
In a previous conversation, we were talking a little when the topic of weapons came up. We explained ours pretty well, with mine being the simplest. Nora's Weapon, Magnhild is a mix of a war hammer and a Grenade launcher. To be specific, a Milkor MGL. But for the sake of simplicity, Its an M32 rotary grenade launcher. The M32 is obviously designed for firing specialized grenades, and does a damn fine job at it. However, there is a safety function built into the M32 and the ammunition for such, so that the user doesn't blow themselves to shit if they shoot at something too close. This is known as a "Minimum Arming distance" Which often times is just a timer for how long it flies through the air before it is available to detonate. Of course, they'll detonate after the timer goes off and they impact something. This feature is turned off when in hammer mode, so Nora can still launch herself in the air if need be. So when Nora fired her Nade' launcher in the M32 mode, she was, I kid you not, four feet away from the Ursa minor.
The Grenade traveled in an instant, pinged off the Ursa's face, and bounced off harmlessly…
Right into my open hand. Of course, I look at it for a second, and my dumbass decides to observe it.
Grenade: Live
Fuse: 3 seconds
Description: Hasta la vista!
"AHH!" I let out a short yell, before tossing it into my inventory. Nora proceeds to smash the Ursa's head in, while she stares at me. I turn around, and see Ren, wide-eyed. We wait.
1…
2…
3…
55..
So obviously it didn't do anything. Cautiously, I open up my inventory, and search through it.
Grenade: x1 Fuse: Lit
'Oh, Shit.'
" I think we're good. I say, closing my inventory. Nora blinks a few times, and says:
"Your semblance is so Cool!" Ren just takes a deep breath and tells me:
"Indeed. Its a good thing that it didn't outright explode on you." I nod, and lightly smack myself.
'Why didn't I just throw it away?'
"Let's go. Best not to waste any more time!" I say cheerfully, marching towards the next town on the map.
'Hey, System, Can I allot my points now?'
… Of course.
Bryzan Jade: LVL 21
Title: Master of Yugai: +50% ATK when using the Yugai sword Style.
Sub-title: Bane of water: +25% ATK when fighting any water-aligned creature.
Class: Swordsman
Career: N/A
XP: 100/5,750
HP: 4,100/4,100
AP: 42,000/42,000
MP: 50,000/50,000
SP: 965/965
STR: 60
AGI: 85
DEX: 92
VIT: 40
END: 35
INT: 45
WIS: 102
CHA: 66
LCK: 5
Available Stat points: 20
'Okay. I think I'm comfortable with a few of my stats as of now. Going to the Land of Darkness to meet with Salem isn't going to require a lot of speed or muscle. Charisma is a must. I'm super close to level 100 with both DEX and AGI, but I need to dump my points into CHA if I'm going to make Salem believe me. Cause I don't want her to see right through me and splat me against the wall. Put it all into CHA.'
CHA: 86
I exhale and shake my head. 'I'll deal with Loadouts tonight. If they are what I think they are, then I can't afford to fuck around with them while traveling.'
I look back, to find Nora and Ren having a small conversation behind me. I smirk a little and take out my Ocarina again.
'I guess Misty mountains won't be too bad here.' I think, starting to play as we go over a hill, finding a town in the distance. Ren walks up from behind me, and says:
"That's it, after that town, we'll be in Mistral after another three weeks or so." I nod, not breaking my tune.
'We'll be there soon. Step one will start soon.'
That's all this time, Folks!
There's a lot of stuff that I could say here, like a response to the people who enlightened me on Magic, but I'm kinda tired at the time of writing this, sooo, yea. Thanks for the insight guys.
Some slipped knowledge and a concerned raven. Qrow is unfortunate, as per usual. Nora is… Nora.
So My 18th birthday is coming up on sunday, and I decided that I'm going to do a little thing. Since I can now (Legally) View porn and such, I decided that I'm going to write some smut in a bit. Thing is, i really have no Idea how it should go or a scenario. So I'll leave this up to you guys. The first person to get the correct answer to the question wins. They'll get the choice of what characters, kinks, or whatever the hell that person wants in the story.
This will be seperate from this story, by the way. It'll mosty allow me to get a correct grasp of how this shit works so that I can improve upon myself.
Anyways, the Question is:
What is My leastfavorite romantic ship in RWBY. (Note: This does not mean I inherently dislike any ship in the show. Just which is my least favorite of the bunch.)
Have fun! I'll reveal the winner in the next chapter, which will hopefully be next week!