Author's note: Sup? Busy, busy, busy as always. Currently doing summer work for the old major, don't have much time to write, so this chapter will be a bit shorter
-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Chapter 6: Point
Voices.
Nothing but scattered voices was what Mono 'heard', even more voices among those in the room quietly whispering among themselves. Subtly was wasted on some of these people, including Carbine off to her side. He could have been considered an animal as he bared fangs towards the straight postured former General of Mantle. Even if she did not talk she still was highly quizzical over bringing in what many here, including herself, would consider an 'enemy' up until recently. And as for Carbine, all she could read from his mind was a blinding rage, much like a grimm. Taking a deep breath she focused on Carbine, past the protective shell of his aura, the first time she had met him she was surprised by the fact he had one. She didn't think the basic foot soldiers of Mantle were given aura since they were, for all intents and purposes, seen as cannon fodder. Slipping through the cracks of his aura, she reached his consciousness, in her head it looked like a amorphous shape constantly breathing in and out rapidly. The more active the mind, the more emotional it is, the animated the consciousness reacts.
"Why!? Why are you here!?" Came the resonating sounds of Carbine's mind, in Mono's head it sounded like echoes bouncing off of cavern walls late in the night. "You couldn't just rot in that frozen wasteland!?"
Curiouser and curiouser Carbine became the more Mono read his mind, whether he knew it or not, whether he approved of it or not. Normally she didn't bother reading most minds outside of the criminal brought in and wouldn't cooperate to the investigation. But when she overheard Carbine mentioning that he was from Mantle, and his disposition was much more antagonistic than usual she thought it would do some good to watch him. While Amid was also from the 'enemy', she hadn't displayed the same volatility that Carbine had, Amid was just a bit of a jerk at times. Carbine though, he was something of a different beast, the cool and calm suddenly replaced with fiery anger and murderous intent not just on the battlefield but also off. She had been there when Carbine fought off against the Vale soldiers when they tried to take his gun. The hatred in his eyes was something she had seen seldom times. That same eyesight firmly there as he looked towards 'Professor', not General, Orwell.
"Carbine, whatever you are thinking, you need to calm down," she told him, ignoring the glare he gave her. He didn't speak but he just narrowed his eyes at her.
"What did I say about reading my mind?" His thoughts read, probably to avoid speaking aloud.
Well he certainly was a quick learner, not many realized that people could 'talk' to Mono back by using their thoughts. It was a two way connection, although they didn't get the added benefits that Mono did. In that way it was a one way connection for them, and a two way for her.
"Hold up!"
Mono certainly wasn't expecting a shout from the back, when she turned she could barely see the student due to her height. The room had silenced itself and the professor moved his gaze towards the upper row of seats. However she could make out blazing red hair, it was a male student too, he had forgone the traditional uniform and hung the blazer atop his shoulders letting it act like a cape. His white dress shirt was unbuttoned at the top showing what looked to be scales as it loosely hung off his neck. He looked like a freeloader, a lazy individual, unimportant in Mono's eyes.
"If you're the former General of Mantle, as in the one that served in the war, then shouldn't you be in a prison or something?" He asked.
Well at least he didn't appear to be stupid, but perhaps she shouldn't be too rash in her assumption.
Orwell coughed into his fist, "Yes of course, that would be natural. Technically speaking, students," the way he said it made it sound like he was annoyed by the idea, "I am not a free man, I won't be for a very long time. While I was sentenced for the rest of my life for war crimes I was given a second chance by your King of Vale. I teach at his academy, and I get a chance at parole. Make no mistake, I do not wish to teach at this academy, but if the King of Vale wishes to give me a chance, then so be it, this is much better than rotting in a cell."
Lesser of two evils, interesting, so while it appears that King has set up grandiose plans, not everyone was on board with it. At least not with their own motives.
"However, I will admit that with coming here, I am still a prisoner of war, the reason why the soldiers are here are not to protect you but to shoot me if I make any attempt of escaping. So really all I have is a comfy bed and a lesson plan to think of rather than a jail cell and handle the laundry of my cell block."
"I will gladly shoot you if you feel inconvenienced," Carbine's thoughts were easy to read and it was here that Mono thought it would be a good time to leave his mind. Not because she was scared, if anything Carbine's mind was like that of a basic brute, but because it was getting rather annoying to hear his prattle.
"Which brings us to our first lesson," Professor Orwell coughed into his fist, "as official hunters, you will not just be serving the Kingdom of Vale, Mistral, Mantle, and Vacuo individually but all of them and those outside the walls. Can anyone tell me where the term huntsman or huntress comes from?"
Orwell waited in silence as some students exchanged looks amongst themselves. He adjusted the collar of his shirt as it looked tighter than someone of his size and musculature should wear. "No one?" He questioned, a hand shot up and Orwell looked over to Mono's general direction, but not at her.
"The huntsmen and huntresses were unofficial titles given to those who could fight the grimm," to Mono's left, Amid spoke with authority and clarity.
"Correct, miss…." Orwell responded.
"Valroya," Amid replied with a roll of her eyes.
"Miss Valroya, thank you. Yes, in the years before the war the tales of huntsmen and huntresses defending those against the grimm have been around for centuries. Unlike the typical knight, or our modern soldier, the hunters were effective in small groups or in most cases worked in by themselves. They're weaponry, on occasion if they were well known, often had used dust that was infused within the metal. A technique seldom used in the emergence of firearms which use dust loaded cartridges."
Orwell walked to the chalkboard and picked up along white piece of chalk and started to scribble. "The first tales date back to the emergence of the four major kingdoms back in the times when there was still many more smaller ones. One could argue in their emergence they were more akin to bounty hunters or freelance hunters for food that would also have experience with grimm, they rarely if ever, aligned themselves with a particular kingdom. They might have traveled between three or four of the smaller kingdom with accordance to the hunting seasons, growing seasons, or accompanying caravans to other kingdoms but hunters rarely were 'bought' out. Can anyone tell me why?"
Orwell once again waited for an answer, but this time none can. Almost sickeningly, Mono could see the corner's of Orwell's mouth creep up. "Well let me tell you. It's not the fact that hunters didn't align themselves with kingdoms, some did. But what do you think happened to them?" It was a rhetorical question, and one he gave little time to let an answer be heard. "If a hunter becomes loyal to one kingdom they become an exclusive asset to that one kingdom. A fighting force that is loyal to one kingdom is called what, children?"
"A soldier," Carbine's rough voice sounded out, eyes of steel locked on to Orwell.
"Correct my boy!" Orwell sounded off with glee, "A soldier, like many of you sitting in here, you were once soldiers, you were once apart of armies, you were hunters loyal to one kingdom. It is now our job, at Beacon Academy, to reverse this process. To turn you from soldiers, into huntsmen and huntresses." Orwell chuckled, and adjusted his collar once again, "Shall we get started?"
-City of Vale-
This was the big break The Vale Times needed, the smell of smoke pungent as it hung like a low cloud in the main room. Typewriters clicking like mad as several people were writing for tomorrow' headline. Papers flying about like made as they flew off of desks, picked up quickly by interns, and madly put onto other worker's desks to look over for tomorrow headlines. Behind the door that read 'Editor in Chief' was a very old gentleman with a lit cigar about half way through its life, the ashtray already holding the blunted, smushed remnants of a previous cigar. His face sagged, his cheeks looking like they were holding on for dear life, his round spectacles drooped so far down his nose it looked like they might fall off with the simplest motion. The sleeves of his white collared shirt were rolled up to show his worn arms showing a lifetime of stress and freckles, a necktie that at one point in his younger career might have been black but now was an off grey. The unnatural yellow light from above only obscured from the slow circular swinging of the ceiling fan making a slight creaking noise at one spot in particular. His chair had been shaped to his aging body, once he sat up right, now it was more accustomed for his leaning posture caused by years of reading.
Tomorrow's paper was in his hand, as it was marked with tomorrow's date both in number and calendar accordance. Middle pages filled with the same humdrum such as kingdom politics, although these recent months with the new Council taking full effect later this year had made politics a hot topic and sometimes front page worthy. Other times it was usually other kingdom politics that were on the front page, Mantle and Mistral usually. With all that has been changed it would make sense. Not to mention the occasional group that decided that the war was not over would take center stage when they were crushed by any of the kingdom's military. Faunus rights were a more popular topic now too, the more the man thought about it maybe politics was always a front page issue. There was a knock at his door and he could see a silhouette, peering down to his watch which ticked away with two golden hands
"Come in," his old voice croaked out, agitated by years of smoking and shouting at interns.
The door opened and revealed a young female, perhaps twenty five at the very most, she quickly closed it. She was a lithe girl, slim legs, slim waist. Her face graceful but with pointed features and the lightest application of makeup enhanced the way she looked. A pale purple skirt suit wrapped around her small, thin body, in her hands a clipboard. Her pale purple hair tied in a bun kept in place by a ballpoint pen contrasted from her pale white face and dirt brown eyes.
"You wished to see me Mr. Lavender?" She asked.
Barely moving the newspaper down just so his eyes could make contact with her for a moment before it was brought up. "I suppose," Mr. Lavender replied, "you've been at my newspaper for how long Miss Chronicle?"
Sarah Chronicle looked up and thought on it, "Four years Mr. Lavender."
"You've been doing what now? Basic secretary work, sorting stories, taking calls, and the like?"
"Yes, Mr. Lavender."
"Hmm, hmm, I see, newspaper sales have been down since the end of the war," he said, straightening out the pages as they started to teater on itself. "Small little economic downturn, soldiers looking for jobs, rise in unemployment, people make small cuts on amenities they can't afford. Newspapers are one of those things."
"I see sir," Sarah replied, feeling a bit of dread from his tone.
"Newspapers aren't free, they cost money to print, to buy ink, to get the paper, to pay reporters, typewriters, and keep the lights on. At the end of a day we're a business, we need to sell advertising and newspapers."
"Yes sir."
The editor in chief let go of one page to sprinkle off some ash into the tray below. "The smart business owner would cut costs down, maybe downsize or charge more for advertising. The shareholders told me the same ideas yesterday, but I told them they could stick their non existent money up their whiny old asses." Finally he let the paper fall down to look at Miss Chronicle's utterly confused face. "Something big happened in the kingdom that up until a few weeks ago no one knew about. The king set up some sort of training facility on the outskirts of the kingdom past the Emerald Forest. They sent us a letter asking if one of our field reporters wanted to travel over there in a few weeks to do a tell-all on it. Normally, I would send Anderson or Cooper, but they're both on vacation so I'm gonna send you."
Sarah's face beamed with a wide smile of that like a toddler given a lollipop, she began to vibrate with excitement on the spot but was stopped by Lavender's hand.
"Do. Not. Squeal," he said slowly, he wasn't even looking at her but he knew, "my hearing is already shot enough as it is. You'll leave in a few weeks, maybe a month, getting there is supposedly tricky even though it's pretty close. This is also to be kept secret from any of your friends and family, consider yourself under NDA from this moment."
"Yes sir," she nodded quickly with a smile.
"We've been given exclusive access to this, no other news organization has this scoop. So keep your lips sealed, don't even tell people in this buildings. Now get going, this meeting never happened."
"Yes sir," quickly she turned around with a smile plastered across her face.
With a sigh Lavender shook the paper back upright and continued reading tomorrow's edition.
"*Squeeeeeee*:"
At least she waited until she was out of the room, now it only hurt his hearing a little.
-Beacon Academy-
The only time you would know that there was almost one hundred students at Beacon Academy would be during the lunch period. The mess hall, cafeteria, or lunch room; whatever the collection of students referred to it as, was also not made for how many people it was holding. Lynae found it incredibly cramped, stuffy, and the food was subpar. The bread was dry, the vegetables were just sad looking, and the meat was lukewarm by now. The tray it all sat in clanked as she walked behind Oro, who was walking behind Ilios. When Oro had introduced her to the insect faunus he did so by pretending there was an infestation around and then pointed him out.
She wasn't sure if it was slightly racist or incredibly racist.
He seemed fine, although that could have been because it was early in the morning and they had a history class. It was not that history was boring it was just….yeah history was boring. Professor, or General, Orwell could talk for hours, in fact that's what he did. Almost three hours passed before the bell finally rang, three long arduous hours.
"Okay, just a second," Ilios said followed by his usual clicking, Lynae had been thankful he hadn't been doing it during class. If he did it would only accelerate the timeline of her going made between him and Orwell, "He should be here somewhere." It didn't help he was a little on the short side, even Lynae who was average height had a good few inches on him, and that wasn't even acknowledging Oro who could probably rest his arm on his head like a stool.
Speaking of, the lizard faunus ahead of her seemed to be examining his food with great curiosity, if he had been sitting he might have poked with a fork to see if it was still alive. It was voted on that he would be between Ilios and herself since he seemed to get distracted by everything. Even light fixtures perplexed him for a few minutes. Perhaps he too was actually some kind of insect faunus but just in disguise. He also had a habit for speaking and talking quite a lot, he spoke first in Orwell's class and under his breath he seemed to make side comments. Although what they were she had no idea.
"Ah-hah, there he is," Ilios spoke pointing to someone in the crowd, "Akihiro!"
The group of three rushed to a group of four situated at the table. Two females, two males. Lynae immediately noticed the smiling bear faunus waving back to them. He was tall, not too massive or overly muscular. Then she noticed the two females. Even when Ilios, Oro, and herself st down she didn't stop to spare a glance at her and instead kept her gaze forward towards the mass of people, black hair in a bob cut. The other looked her way and kept her gaze towards Oro, she seemed much more….reactive and spared a barely passable greeting with a silent handwave.
"Well, Ilios, why don't you introduce us to these lovely people to us," Akihiro, she assumed, said with a pleasant smile. At least he seemed normal enough.
"Oh, yeah," Ilios coughed into his fist, "this is Lynae Kyanos, and the one looking at his food is Oro."
"Huh, what-what, my name was mentioned?" Oro suddenly sparked to life, dropping his fork although because of the structural integrity of the meat it stayed upright. Slightly worrying. When he looked up he was met by new faces, "Oh, I appear to have missed introductions, apologies."
"Not at all," Akihiro waved off, "I'm Akihiro." He then motioned his hand over to two women beside him. Oddly enough there was an open seat between Akihiro and the black haired girl.
From the far side, the silver haired girl smiled more like a normal girl in this not so normal environment , "I'm Amid Valroya, pleasure to meet you."
The other girl, however did not make a move, staring into the open. There was an awkward silence so much that Oro got into her field of view, but that didn't work. "Is she….broken or something? Is she supposed to do that?" He asked.
"No, it's just that Mono isn't paying damn attention," came a more deeper, gruffer voice.
Mono was soon jolted by a swift pale hand smacking her in the back of the head. When she looked up she saw, Carbine's face scowling back at her. Immediately Lynae did not like him, he had this edge about him, this aura of hostility. There just seem to be something that made a few hairs stand on end. Mono, as Lynae had been told, simply scowled at Carbine and shook off the slap.
"Mono doesn't like to talk much, but she's a rather annoying telepath," Carbine informed as he sat down with a ray of food. He sat across Oro, Lyan sat from Mono, and Ilios across from Akihiro.
"Her name is Mono?" Oro questioned.
"Her full name is Mono Chrome."
Oro paused in confusion, not even the questionable food could distract him, "Her name is Mono Chrome?"
"Yes."
"As in?"
"Color movement," Carbine answered.
"Man you civilized types and your naming schemes," the answer seemed sufficient for Oro's taste, even he knew of the ideological revolutions of the kingdoms
"Umm, you're just listed off as Oro, you don't even have a last name."
"Oh, how funny, Carbine hates being called by his first name," Akihiro said, "together you guys could make a full one."
The group looked to Carbine who avoided eye contact by keeping his eyes closed while eating some off his tray. "I have my reasons."
"See?" Oro glanced over to Lynae, "He gets it."
Just from her initial reaction, Lynae was rather wary of likening anyone to this Carine fellow. That sixth sense of hers just going wild when she looked at him. Oro though didn't seem to care too much.
"So mister last name," he joked, "where you from?"
Carbine slowed his chewing and cracked an eye to star back at Oro. "Lizard faunus," were his immediate thoughts as he looked at him.
He coughed twice into his fist, "I'm from Mantle."
To Carbine's surprise though it wasn't Oro who made a look of shock, in fact he seemed more intrigued, but it was Lynae who was taken slightly aback.
"Oh, that is very interesting, I never met anyone from Mantle," Oro replied.
"Probably for the better," Carbine shot back carving another piece of the dried meat, his eyes gone back.
"What did you do in Mantle?" He asked.
This time Carbine spared a glance over to Akihiro who shrugged in response, then over to Mono who just stared back at him. The two stayed like that for a brief but noticeably long period. "I was a soldier in the army."
Oro's mouth opened for another question but the slam of the wooden doors caught the attention of everyone. Two soldiers, followed by a more decorated officer stepped into view. "Would Miss Kyanos and Oro please come with us!" He barked out while standing at attention.
The two looked at each other, Oro shrugged at her. What was he supposed to know? He didn't do anything against the rules, at least hopefully. The two stood up and the entire lunchroom stared at them as they walked away. When the door slammed the lunch resumed, Carbine really hadn't looked so he just kept eating.
"Soooo," Ilios said, to Carbine and Mono's surprise he had stayed remarkably silent, "what did you think?"
"They seem pretty chill," Akihiro said, "I like them."
"Oro's kind of funny," Amid told him. In all honesty, Ilios had been surprised, back in the forest she had been so much more serious and….scary.
All eyes fell to Carbine, the group had accepted that Mono just didn't speak. They didn't know of her telepathic abilities. Or at least Amid may have, Carbine wasn't sure quite yet. Following the whims of the group he sighed.
"The faunus girl, she's fine," Carbine grunted.
"Her name's Lynae," Ilios had corrected.
"Sure, whatever." he blew off, "That Oro guy?" Carbine to some credit he actually did pause to think about it.
"I absolutely despise him."
-X-
Monet looked out the window looking at the courtyard of Beacon Academy, a small grassy field filled with flowers. A fountain with several benches surrounding it, the sun making it picturesque view that only spoke to the elaborate construction of the academy. The only issue: she never remembered getting to the academy, she remembered being overwhelmed by a sudden ambush of grimm back in the forest. She remembered how she escaped momentarily as a small butterfly flew onto the windowsill, its wings slowly fluttering. Her wounds were pretty much non-existent, aura was truly a magnificent little gift for that. Doctor Verdant, the head medical personnel, had explained she had been brought to here by some students. Naturally she had asked to see them along with a chance thank them for saving her.
"Hey! Hey, wait for us to check in with Dr. Verdant!" A rushed, harsh voice shouted from the other side of the wall.
"Oh, please what's the harm? What's the worst I could do?" Came a much more relaxed and jovial voice. The sudden thud spooked her a little, as did the rushing of the door as it was swung open hittin the backside of the wall. "Well I'll be a boarbatusk's uncle, you are awake! Thank the gods for that!"
To say she was not expecting someone like Oro to come bursting through the door would have been a massive understatement, not even in her top one thousand. When Lynae came walking in and smacked the fellow faunus once again she relaxed more. "Don't scare her, that last thing she needs is you barging in here and giving her a heart attack."
"Oh, Lynae you're such a worry wart," Oro chided by pinching her chin which Lynae certainly did not enjoy judging by her facial expression, "your face might get stuck like that."
"I am sorry for Oro, all that Vacuo sun really got to his head," Lynae smacked his arm away, and then punched him in the nose all with a smile on her face. "I'm Lynae Kyanos, you've already gotten your weekly dose of Oro."
Monet just sort of stared at the sight before her, mainly Oro clutching his nose after Lynae socked one right to him. "Uhh…" she quietly said, "Oh, right where are my manners. I'm Monet. Monet Linda, I suppose I should thank you for saving me in the Emerald Forest."
"Don't worry about it," Lynae waved it off, "just helping someone in need."
"Funny," Oro stood beside Lynae holding his nose a little, "I didn't see you carry her for miles and hours during that period. I don't think you even offered."
"You calling her fat?" Lynae asked bluntly.
"She's at least lighter than you," within another second Oro was back on the ground after Lynae punched him again, a little harder too, in the nose. "Son of a pickle farmer!"
"Forgive him, he's an idiot."
"Uhh…" Monet started.
"We were told you were being discharged today, once you're dressed we can give you a tour," Lynae offered.
Monet stared at her, then slightly off to the side towards the lizard faunus nursing his nose on the ground.
"Don't worry I'll keep him line," Lynae was two steps ahead of her.
"I guess," Monet replied.
Lynae walked over to the white wooden closet and in it revealed a girl's uniform, "Excellent. Oro, leave."
"What?" He managed pinching his nose, "Why?"
"You saying you want to watch her change?"
"I grew up in a recluse tribe in Vacuo, it was only natural I saw the female body in all aspects of all ages," Oro's comment not only made Monet's face light up bright red, but also Lynae's to the point where she stopped functioning.
"Okay," Lynae said slowly as she got up, as she walked over to Oro she grabbed him by the collar "we're gonna have a talk."
"Is this going to be an actual talk or one of those sessions where you tell me not to do something?" Oro asked, from his casualness this appeared to be a regular occurence.
"You tell me?" She said with this sick smile on her face as she dragged Oro out of the room. She pulled her head back in the room as Monet held the uniform, "Just come on out when you get done changing., I'll handle him."
Monet stared at her uniform shirt and then back at the door and shrugged. She turned to the butterfly that was still on the windowsill, "Welcome to Beacon I guess."
-Location: Undisclosed Vale Communications Center-
"Sir, we've received reports that another ship has gone missing in the south Vistral Ocean."
"Another?! Gah! How many does this make?"
"Fifteen sir. Some of the kingdom's trade unions are demanding for an answer. Should we release a statement?"
"No, we have no idea who is doing this and why, if we go public now we could stoke anti-peace sentiments. Even if this isn't another kingdom they might be blamed for it by some of the more reckless officers."
"Sir we did retrieve what looks to be final transmission from the VSS Opal, no one's listened to it yet."
"Play it boy, close the doors, leave afterwards."
"Yes sir."
There was a prolonged pause as the sound of locks clicking and footsteps slowly getting quieter and quieter. Then a click on the recorder.
"-kzzt- Hel -kzzt- Hello, this should be -kzzt- king now. Ahem, I prepared a speech for you treacherous kingdom dogs. This ocean is mine, from the far southern shore of the continent of Sanus to the far northern tip of Anima. Any and all trade vessels, civilian or not, will be shot down, their riches plunder, and all passengers will be eradicated. Think of this as your punishment for the abandonment of all the sailors lost during your abysmal war. For the angry souls of those sailors now walk my ship's deck waiting for their revenge. And at the helm will be I, Captain Marrow. And if you're thinking of sending some elite force after me, let them try, I can always use more of the damned souls you send to their death on my ship."
-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-
Not much to report here, outside of spooky pirates. As I mentioned, a bit of a shorter one, kind of skimped on Monet's intro but then again I have spent literally three chapters alluding to her. There'll be more on her in the next chapter whenever that gets written. See ya later suckers.
Credits
Jermiah Carbine- chronoman
Oro- chronoman
Akihiro Cedar- Avis B
Amid Valroya- DeathTheManiac
Mono Chrome- ObieSenpai
Lynae Kyanos- Fool Arcana Kaiju
Ilios Sand- ObligatoryCoolName
Monet Linda- ElectircalZats