Ch 16
The Ghoul let out a half roar, half screech, before jumping at the human in front of him. This proved to be a mistake, since being airborne prevented it from dodging the black sword that pierced its chest. It jerked a few times, then stilled, its black skin turning pale white.
"You sure you can keep this up? You still have those Wraiths to take out." Jaune looked up at the man who just spoke.
Clay was an older man, around mid-thirties. His weapon was an odd mix between sword and polearm, with around a meter and half handle, and a double edged blade with the same length.
True to their leader's words, he didn't seem fazed at all by the Ghouls, or the way their bodies changed when Jaune purged them. In fact, after crippling a beast, usually removing all their limbs in three quick strikes, he stopped paying any attention to them, trusting Jaune will do his part of the job.
Jaune pulled Eclipse out of a now human corpse, and shrugged.
"Yeah. Ghouls barely have any Aura left in them. Could kill a hundred, and I would be ok."
"If you say so. Just don't overdo it, we can leave these fuckers for others. We need you to take out those Sleepers."
Jaune nodded.
"Yeah. Anyway kiddo, aren't you a bit young for a Witcher? You sure you up to the task?" Asked Ori. He was a massive man. Not nearly as big as Tob, but still impressive. He wielded a...thing… that was probably supposed to be a battle axe. Jaune wasn't sure - there was so many mech-shifting elements, and it changed shapes so often it was really hard to tell.
"Old enough. Killed my share of Harrowed too."
"If you say so…" He grunted, catching another Ghoul mid-air by its neck. The beast flailed its limbs trying desperately to reach the human holding it. Its struggle mostly came to an end when he removed both its legs and an arm. Some of creature's blood splashed at him, but the Hunter didn't seem to mind. He tossed the mostly crippled creature behind him.
It landed heavily, spilling more of its blood, bounced off the ground few a times and stopped about half a meter from Jaune. The blond sighed, and walked to the dying beast. The Ghoul tried to lash out with its only remaining arm. Eclipse removed it near the shoulder, before piercing its back, pinning the creature to the ground.
"Anyway, how do you know the old man?"
"Me and my teacher worked with him a few times."
Ori scanned their surroundings, and confirming there were no threats, he turned to Jaune.
"Teacher? I thought you were from Beacon."
Jaune smirked.
"I am now. But I was on the road for the past four years - just me and Leon."
"Oh." The older Hunter shrugged. "Then I guess you know your shit after all. Just do me a favor, and don't fuck up with those Sleepers.. Fuckers creeps me the hell out."
"Really?" Asked Jaune, walking towards the two older men. "Why?"
Ori winced, and took his place at the front of their formation.
"Because you can't kill the fuckers with normal weapons. I chop its head off, and it just reforms. I split the bastard in half, and it just comes back together. And even when I put it down, it comes back after a few months. Freaking creeps."
Jaune snorted.
"Yeah, I'll admit Wraiths are annoying. But you could always make yourself proper weapon to deal with them. It's not like you need a special licence for it." He said, lifting Eclipse for emphasis.
Ori looked back, eyed the black sword as if it was a poisonous snake and the snorted.
"Yeah, no thanks. I saw what that shit does to people. No way in hell I'm carrying something like that around."
Jaune shrugged.
"Whatever you say."
From then they walked in silence. Ori in front, Jaune in the middle, and Clay covering their backs. They would stop from time to time, to check the city map on their scrolls.
"Ok, it looks like this is the place. You ready, kid?" The massive Hunter asked, nodding towards one particular house.
Jaune checked his own scroll, and after confirming it truly was the right place, nodded.
"Sure. You guys try to stay around fifty meters away."
Both Hunters nodded, and took their positions. Clay continued observing the road in the direction they came from. Ori was keeping watch over the Wraith lair, and the other end of street.
Jaune walked towards the building sparing only a few glances around. They cleared most of the Ghouls in this area, and the second group was doing a good job of drawing the attention of those that remained.
He picked two Elixirs from his belt,and drank both. It took a bit longer than usual to stabilize them - but that was to be expected.
When he reached door, he slowly peeked inside. Just because he was certain the area was clear of Ghouls didn't mean he would just rush in like an idiot.
Well, I guess I know what happened to the people who lived there.
Jaune through, noticing the half-eaten male body in the middle of the room. There was a second one not far from it, much smaller, and mutilated to the point it was impossible to determine who it was.
So father and child died together.
He paused over the larger body, looking it over. There were multiple claw and teeth marks on it, but they weren't too deep, and most of the bones were relatively intact.
Whatever killed him had rather small, round claws. Not very sharp. Teeth weren't too big too either. Probably killed by a very young Ghoul.
He rose up, and made to walk further in, but paused. Something wasn't right here. He examined the larger body again, then checked out smaller one. Nothing strange about them - besides the fact that they were dead.
He looked the room over, but nothing caught his attention. Jaune took a few steps back, and looked at the bodies again. Something about them was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
And then it struck him.
So the big guy, probably the father, was running with child in his arms. He tripped, or was tripped by something. He drops the child, and rolls on his back to try to either break free, or stall his attacker, so kid can get away. It didn't work out - he either died fast, or there was a second attacker.
Jaune nodded to himself. He could picture this scene easily. The family was spending time together in the living room, perhaps watching TV. Suddenly a Harrowed outbreak starts, and Ghouls break into the house. Parents try to carry their children to safety. The beasts catches the father, who drops the child,and tries to buy time for his family to escape, but more monsters pour in.
Yes, that made sense. There were only two problems.
All the windows Jaune could see were intact. The doors were clearly blown open by force - but from the inside. And judging by position of the bodies - they were running towards them, and never made it.
Which left only one option - a Ghoul spawned here, in this house. There were no way that the family living there didn't notice a dead body lying around long enough for a Ghoul to spawn.
This doesn't make any sense. How could it spawn in such a small house, without anyone noticing?
Jaune winced recalling one job from Vacuo.
Unless they kept one as a pet.
He shook his head. There was no way they could hide something like that, not with so many people living around. Someone would notice something.
Jaune scoffed, and pierced both bodies with Eclipse, just to make sure they would not be going to be getting up anytime soon.
It didn't take him long to check the first floor of the house, and besides a few bloodstains, and stairs leading up, and one more set leading down, he found nothing.
Now, up or down? Sleep Eater is probably in the basement. They prefer dark places,and it's still bright outside.
After some brief consideration, Jaune decided to check out the rest of the house before heading downstairs. Better to make sure he didn't leave any hostiles behind, before what could be a hard fight.
The first thing he noticed when he reached the second floor was the smell. Surprisingly it wasn't blood -though he could make that out too. No, this smell was quite pleasant.
The second thing he noticed, was the open door to one room - and the quiet scraping noise coming from it.
Jaune's eyes narrowed.
Ghoul? It should have been drawn out by all the noise we made.
He readied Eclipse, and started slowly making his way towards the open door. Just before he reached it he paused.
Now, how should I tackle this one? Burst in and try to overwhelm it, or try to sneak up on it?
After some brief consideration, and recalling how his last few attempts to sneak up on his prey went, he made his decision.
Guess it's time to accept I'm not exactly the sneaky type.
Taking a few deep breaths to steady himself, he burst into the small room.
Surprisingly, first thing he noticed wasn't a hideous beast trying to bite his face off, but the fact that the herbals scent was much stronger here. A quick glance over the room revealed several small scented candles. Most of them went out, but a few were still burning.
The second thing was that the room was small, and in very good condition. Nothing was broken, no claw marks on walls, and no corpses or bloodstains.
Jaune frowned, but didn't let his guard down. He was long past a point when he could believe his senses were playing tricks on him, especially when he enhanced them with an Elixir. If he heard the sound of something scratching a wooden surface coming from this room, then that meant there was something scratching a wooden surface in this room. Or at least he would assume so, until proven otherwise.
He spent a few moments listening, and eventually heard the sound again. It came from one of the corners of the room, where a sizable wooden box stood. Smiling clouds, suns, and various animals were painted on its side in bright colors.
It's a bit too big for toy box, unless the kid had very impressive collection.
Slowly making his way towards it, Jaune noticed that there was no lid. Eventually, he made his way close enough to peek inside.
Small.
That is only thought in his head, as he gazed at the Ghoul inside the bed. For it was a bed, one of those high-wall types, meant for small children.
And what was once an infant, probably not even a year old, resided inside. Jaune stared at it for a few moments, watching as it clumsy moved around, scraping at the wooden walls with its tiny claws, sometimes trying to stand up and falling. It eventually noticed him, and started letting out strange noises, something between a growl and a giggle, flailing its tiny arms around.
Jaune took a deep breath, and slowly, to not the damage tiny body more than absolutely necessary, thrust Eclipse through its torso, nearly splitting it in half.
The Ghoul looked down at the black blade that pierced it, then looked back at him, and continued to let out the noise, arms still reaching to him, and moving slightly, even as blood poured from its wound. It took far longer than it should, but eventually its tiny arms fell to the side, its head hung low, and one last, quiet whimper escaped its lips.
Jaune took a deep breath, the subtle herbal scent not doing anything to calm his nerves, quite the opposite. He scowled and put out all of the remaining candles. Then he turned around, and without looking back, he walked out, heading straight to cellar.
There were two female corpses there, one, belonging to a young girl, probably around fifteen, that didn't had any visible injuries. The corpse of the older woman was dried up, as if all moisture from it was drained out. The Harrowed hovering over them was just a regular Wraith, barley formed.
Not even minute later Jaune walked out of house, his face set in stone.
"Job done. Let's head for the next mark." He said, when Ori asked him how it went. He nodded, and took his place on the front of their small group, focused on the road ahead of them.
I hope the next Wraith is tougher. I really need to blow off some steam.
Fuck.
Jaune ducked, avoiding a lampost. He could feel it ruffling his hair for a split of second, before it embedded itself into the wall behind him.
Crap.
He rolled to the side, avoiding a brick the size of of his fist, shattering where his head was just a moment ago.
Shit.
He almost made it out of the way of the table. It caught him in the arm. It staggered him for just a moment, but it was enough for a rock the size of his head to slam into his chest. He barely registered that he was hit, before his back slammed into a tree nearly ten meters away. He groaned, but thankfully the attack didn't do much more than knock the air out of him, his armor absorbing most of the impact..
He send his silent thanks Weiss, who set it up for him to… 'field test' the HIDE armor.
With a huff he got up - and instantly threw himself to the side, narrowly avoiding the next projectile.
It hit the tree hard, groaned, and slumped down.
"You could have caught me, you asshole." Ori complained.
"Sorry, acted on reflexes." Answered Jaune, not even looking at the man - and not feeling sorry at all. All his attention was focused on their opponent - a glowing ball, about the size of soccer ball, floating about fifteen meters away from them and two meters above the ground.
It changed color from red, to brown, then to green and back to red. It started glowing brightly, a few red sparks shooting out of it. Then it ended, its color shifting to grey.
Jaune relaxed a bit.
"What the flying fuck is this shit?" Ori wheezed, slowly rising up, using his weapon as support.
"Warper. It's a type of Wraith… I think. "
The older Hunter shot him glare.
"You think? You are a Witcher, right? Shouldn't you know this kind of shit?"
Jaune glared back.
"It could be a Wraith. It could be an Aberration. No one is sure. Judging by its unusual shape, it should be the latter. But it has a lot of similarities with normal Wraiths, so people can't agree on how to classify it. Not that it matters. Its abilities are known, and there are ways to deal with it. It all depends on how much collateral damage you can afford."
He let out a heavy sigh.
"Though we probably will have to improvise." He murmured.
Ori swung his axe-thing a few times, and rested it on his shoulder.
"Why?"
"Because we don't have time and resources to pull out safe way, nor can afford the easy one."
Ori opened his mouth to ask something, but instead just cursed and jumped to the side to avoid another object thrown at them by Warper.
Clay hit the same tree, breaking it in half.
"You could catch me you assholes." He groaned, slowly getting up.
"I said the same thing…" Ori murmured, watching as the Warper slowly floated their way.
Clay scoffed, but refrained from answering, focusing on the Harrowed instead.
"So, what the fuck is this? And how we kill it?"
Jaune took a few deep breaths, coughed, and glared at his opponent.
"Well, most common tactic is to gather as many people as you can and shoot it until it weakens, then someone tries to finish it. Rinse and repeat, until you succeed."
"We shot it. It didn't work out well for us." Clay pointed out.
"That's because you need more people."
"How many?" Ori asked.
"One time I did this with twenty people. I heard some folks did it with fifteen, but they got trashed pretty badly."
The massive man winced.
"We have only eight, if the Old Man will come with rest of our team."
"I know. I don't suppose any of you have a Semblance That can cause an explosion? It can't reflect those, so it would be more effective."
"Well…" Clay trailed off. "Kinda? I can mark things, and then either superheat or freeze them. If you give me something like a red Dust crystal, I can turn it into grenade."
Jaune considered something for a few moments, not taking eyes from the Harrowed.
"Ok so here is plan. Clay, you check out surrounding buildings, gather every speck of Dust you can find, or anything that could potentially explode. Gather it in that house with the fancy blue roof, and let us know when you are done."
Said man nodded, and ran off to nearby house.
"Ori, we need keep it busy. Just charge at it, and don't even try to reach it. Try to keep at least ten meters distance, it shouldn't be able to reach you."
"Wha..."
"By the way, our talk break is over."
"Wait, why…" Ori called out, but Jaune was already gone.
The older man cursed, and made to go after him, but paused, taking a few moments to observe the young boy being flung around the small square like rag doll.
"Well, fuck." With this battlecry, Ori lept into the fray.
"So.." The older Hunter coughed a few times, and tried to push himself up the wall he just slammed into. "I didn't have a chance to ask last time, but what is the safe way?"
There was no answer, besides sound of someone desperately fighting for breath, and to not throw up.
Ori looked down at the blond boy lying beside him in the fetal position, coughing and wheezing. He winced when Jaune started to push himself up.
Kid is a tough one. Even with that fancy armor of his, the amount of damage he took is absurd. Just how much Aura does he have?
"You ok there kid?" He asked aloud.
"Yeah." Jaune answered after coughing a few times. He basically crawled to the older man, and pushed himself against the wall into a seated position.
Ori let out a tired sigh, and glared at the floating orb around twenty meters away from them. It was now pale blue, sometimes changing color to green for split of a second. He took another look at his companion and scoffed. The kid was not ok. He had nasty cut on his forehead, and was breathing heavily. Aura would heal it, in fact it already started. But how much longer would he last?
Not that he himself was in better condition. A quick check of his scroll, by some miracle still intact, revealed that both of their Auras were at slightly below fifty. Things were starting to look bad.
What the hell is Clay doing? Ori thought, wincing as another wave of pain washed over him.
And it all started so nice. He huffed. The landing was an easy one, the few Ghouls they encountered were not much of a challenge. The rest of the Hunters were professionals, many of whom he knew, if not personally, then by reputation.
Once they landed, everyone was doing their damn job, without complaining, or getting in each other's way. And even though he had some concerns about the second Witcher that joined them at the last second, by order of Headmaster Ozpin no less, the young boy quickly proved that he not only knew what he was doing, but also wasn't some elitist prick, like many young Witchers.
They moved through the city fast, eliminating all the Ghouls, and a few stray Grimm. The first Wraith was dealt with relatively fast, yet again proving that the kid knew his craft.
When they reached the second spawn was when things went to hell.
First Clay tried to contact the other group, since the sound of gun fire stopped a few minutes prior, but it turned out their communication devices had stopped functioning. Ori tried to call them by scroll - but there was no signal.
Moments later, Jaune the left building in hurry, by means of being thrown through the wall by a fridge, slamming into ground, skidding a few meters before finally coming to stop, not far from them. All he managed to do, was to shout 'down' before the whole front wall of the building he just flew out of exploded. Shortly after, this damn thing lazily flew out.
He sighed again, happy for another break. Ori spared another glance at the young boy next to him.
"So what is this safe way?" He repeated his previous question.
Jaune winced, and coughed a few times, before answering.
"You smash it with a truck, or a bullhead. Preferably one filled with as many explosives as you can fit in."
Ori winced. Yeah, they didn't have such things to spare.
"Wouldn't it bounce it back?"
"Nah. Too much mass, traveling at too much speed. It needs some time to take control of an object, the heavier it is, the longer it takes."
Ori huffed. Then blinked a few times, when a thought occurred.
"Wait, does that mean that someone fast enough could easily take it out?"
"Yeah. But honestly, it would take some serious bullshit for a person to travel fast enough."
"I see." They both rose to their feet, glaring at their opponent. Then threw themselves to the side, to avoid a piece of furniture that slammed into the wall they were leaning on.
"I guess that means break time is over?" Ori asked, reading his weapon.
"Yep." Answered Jaune, doing the same.
They both charged at the same time, flanking the now pink ball of destruction.
"So, why are we even doing this? Holding it off I mean. It doesn't seem to be going anywhere." Asked Ori between harsh pants.
"Because the motherfucker will be constantly storing energy if left alone, making itself stronger. Give it enough time, and it will over-charge and explode." Jaune answered, gasping for air.
The Harrowed's last attack sent them crashing through two walls, right into the living room of one of the buildings. The old Hunter pulled out his scroll - seriously, what was this thing made of? - and checked they Aura levels. He was around twenty. Jaune was almost out, with only around five percent remaining.
Why couldn't it throw me just half a meter to the right? I would land right in that chair. He thought, trying to get up, then giving up.
"How strong would the blast be?"
"Enough to level most of this city."
Ori winced.
"Then just out of curiosity. What is the easy way?"
Jaune coughed a few times, and rolled to the side, clutching his left arm. It was badly swollen near the wrist and elbow.
"Just that." He said.
Ori shot him questioning glance. Jaune coughed a few more times before answering.
"You piss it off, and then run the hell away. It's slow as fuck, so it will never be able to catch up. Then you just wait for it to overcharge and self destruct."
"Not an option here."
"Yep."
They both managed to push themselves up into a sitting position.
"So…" Ori trailed off "Why are we even getting these breaks? Wouldn't it just use this time to recharge?"
Jaune sighed.
"Nah, it won't start gathering as long as it's agitated."
"How do you know when it starts charging up?"
"It starts glowing white."
"Fair enough." He took a few deep breaths before getting up.
"Anything else you can tell me? What about it changing colors? Does it mean anything?"
Jaune tried to get up too, but stumbled, and would have fallen if older man didn't catch him.
"No one knows for sure, but general opinion is that its colors means only that is agitated. Only thing to watch out is how strong it glows - it indicates how angry it is. If we piss it off to much, it might release a big attack, like that last one. It will cost it a lot of energy, so it's actually good way to weaken it, but…"
Jaune shrugged, and Ori winced. Neither of them wanted to get hit by that again.
They slowly walked towards the hole they made in the wall, Ori reaching it first, peering outside.
"Hey, is there any way to tell if it's going to go ham on us?"
"It starts sparkling. Best thing to do then is to just run. Its power falls out very fast with distance. If you get around seven, eight meters away, it wouldn't be nearly as powerful." Jaune answer with a shrug.
"Sparkling? Like that?" Ori said, pointing outside.
Jaune peeked out, to see the Warper not more than five meters from them, glowing fiercely red, and sparkling viciously.
"Yeah, just like that."
"Fuck." Ori offered his educated opinion.
"Shit." Jaune agreed.
A wave of energy flung them all the way to next building. This time Ori did land in the chair - not that it did much to help him out.
Jaune winced, probing his left arm. It didn't look like anything was broken, but it was badly bruised. Well, to be honest, his whole body ached, the result of beating he received in five minutes he and Ori had to hold off the Warper alone. In the end, it turned out Clay wasn't slacking off at all - it's just that your perception of time tended to get warped when you get your ass flung around by a monster with immense telekinetic powers.
He gathered a good amount of Dust, and various chemicals and and made an improvised bomb out of them. Several actually. They managed to lure Warper close to it, and blow it up. Of course it was not enough to take down the damn thing, but it did cause it to lose a lot of energy, and the resulting explosion was big enough to catch the Old Man's attention - just as Jaune hoped. The rest of the team joined them soon after, and together they took out the weakened monster.
I think I'll need to buy Weiss something nice once I'm back at Beacon. This would be much worse if not for my armor.
Jaune smiled fondly. He still remembered the day when the heiress presented him Bear HIDE. She was trying her best to pretend she hadn't just pulled all the strings she could to allow someone who wasn't even a licensed Hunter, with no affiliation to Atlas, to receive top-tier equipment, normally reserved for Atlas military elites, because she was worried about him.
What excuse did she used again? Something about 'giving her employee the right equipment for the task he was supposed to perform' I think.
He chuckled.
She could be cute like that sometimes.
If I recall correctly, they have special word for that kind of behavior in Mistral. What was that again? Tsundere?
Jaune smiled, but it fell when he recalled what happened the one time he actually called her that. Never again did he made that mistake.
Tsundere or not, this armor you gave me yet again saved my ass. Thanks for that Weiss.
"You are either a masochist, or in much better shape than I thought you are, if you can smile like that kid. Which one is it?"
Jaune winced and looked up at the sound of the gruff voice. The old man - and Jaune wished he knew the man's real name - was staring at him with his usual scowl.
"Neither. Just recalling old times."
"Kiddo, you are at least fifty years too young to be recaling 'old times'. Right now you are still at the phase where you're supposed to be making memories."
Jaune snorted and shook his head.
"Sure old-timer. Anyway, what's the situation? Since we are setting up a camp, I presume there were some complications?"
"Oh you presume? Well, good fucking job, because you are right on fucking point." The older man glared at Jaune, but the blond held his gaze. After a few moments, the older man started speaking.
"A few things happened youngster, and none of them are good. First thing, around half an hour after we separated, our communication devices started to die, one by one. You checked your scroll?"
Jaune nodded.
"It says out of range. But it's shouldn't be - we are not that far away from Vale."
"True. But it is. So for now, we have no means to contact the outside world. And this is just beginning of the trouble. Before communication went down, we tried to contact the other teams, since there was no sign of combat elsewhere in the city. We got no response to any of our calls. We split up, searching for them. I ran into Team Two. Or rather, what was left of them." He pulled out his scroll, and shown Jaune some photos.
Massacred was only way to describe the bodies he saw. There was very little left of them.
"Ghouls? Grimm?"
"Hard to tell. Could be either, could be both. Or neither."
Jaune's eyes narrowed.
"We found two people from Team One not soon after. Look at that."
This time the bodies were in much better condition. Not nearly as mutilated, wounds cleary made by sharp blades, not teeth or claws.
"Bandits?"
"Maybe. But I knew those people, kid. They were some of the best out there. It would take something more than a simple bandit to take them out."
"So, to put it simply - we are neck-deep in shit, right?" Asked Ori, limping to them. He had his right arm bandaged up, white material stained red already. Both him and Jaune got trashed pretty hard in their fight against the Warper, with Jaune barely escaping with a sliver of his Aura left - and only thanks to the fact that Ori pulled him down, and shielded with his own body from the Harrowed's last attack. They both got knocked out by it, the older man losing all his Arua. Thankfully, rest of the team pulled them aside and managed to finish Warper off.
"Well, maybe not neck deep. Yet." Answered the Old Man, throwing another piece of wood into the fireplace. They were gathered in small house, around halfway towards the city center. It was already dark outside. Ori and Jaune got patched up, and were now resting. The rest of the team got to barricading the house as best as they could. They would be spending night here after all.
"Yeah sure." The massive man sat next to them, and started counting out.
"Our short-range communication does not work, so we can't spread out without losing touch with each other. Our long-range communication is down too, so we can't call HQ to report, call for backup, or evacuation. Out of three teams sent here, one got wiped out, and other is missing with two members confirmed dead. And we have to spend night in a Harrowed-infested city. Did I miss something?"
"There is only one bathroom." Someone shouted from the back of the house.
"Ah yes, how could I forget about that one. Oh, and two of probably only eight people alive in this shithole are out of Aura. So, yeah, I think this classifies as 'neck-deep in shit'."
Jaune winced. Yep, this looked bad.
The Old Man sighed.
"Yeah, maybe you are right. But for now you two go and catch some rest. We will split watches between the six of us."
Jaune made to speak, but was interrupted by a loud howl. A second one responded, then a third and fourth. The strange song continued for almost a minute, then everything went silent.
For a few moments the only sound in the small house were the breaths of eight people, and crackling wood in the fireplace.
"That wasn't a Beowolf." Ori finally broke the silence.
"I know." The Old Man responded
"It wasn't a Ghoul either." Pointed out Jaune.
"I know."
"This is bad." Said Clay, sitting next to Jaune.
"Yeah. It is." Answered Old Man, throwing yet another piece of wood into the fireplace.
"Go get some sleep youngsters. I'll take first watch."
Jaune nodded and grabbed one of the blankets they salvaged from the nearby houses.
Leon always said that every situation looks better in daylight. Maybe this will be true for this one too? Jaune thought, lying down near the fireplace.
He wished he believed it.
AN: So yeah, this is it. Be careful what you ask for - you might get your wish granted.
I saw some people being concerned that I will kill Sam off. Let me assure you - I have no plans of writing such scene. Anyway, not much to talk about this week, so let's just jump straight to the omake. This is a continuation of the one from last week (and yes, it too was written by JJD).
JJD: Sam for life kids.
Letter to a Friend
Dear Jaune,
I'm sorry it's been so long since I last wrote you! It's great that you and Leon are getting along (guys show affection through beatings right?). Things couldn't be going better for me and Pierre. He's a picture of professionalism. We're like peas in a pod!
"Pierre, so help me if you're drunk on the clock again!"
"Wha clock? Der iz no clock!"
"There's a clock when I say there's a clock! I'm the customer, and the customer is always right!"
"Only if dey pay!"
"You'll get paid when we make it! That's the arrangement!"
"Der iz no arrangement! Ew jus said dat once!"
I'm learning so much under his tutelage. Just the other day, we were going over some advanced movements that I'd think you'd love. I think we might even collaborate together on a new dance routine!
"It'z one, two, dree, how 'ard iz dat!?"
"It's not hard, it's boring! I can come up with something better!"
"It'z a classic, ew need to learn da basics!"
"It's classically boring!"
"Ew are killin me."
"Not yet, but keep this attitude up and I will!"
Our dance academy is truly top of line. Pierre spared no expense in making sure that it's the best around!
"Why iz it on fire!"
"I don't know you old drunk, it just started by itself! Probably because there's enough liquor and old newspapers around here to burn down half Vale!"
"Put it out!"
"The water's not working! Why is the water not working!?"
"Oh no! Eye forgot about da billz!"
"We are going to die in here you old codger!"
And just like you and Leon, we keep up a strict diet to keep in peak physical condition.
"Pierre, what is this?"
"It iz food, eyat it."
"No Pierre, this is not food. This is Ramen noodles and ketchup."
"And wine."
"Yeah. Pierre, do you know how old I am?"
"Old enough to be a payne in my azz."
"It's illegal Pierre."
"Who iz da man to 'ell Pierre how to drink iz wine!?"
But I think my favorite thing is just how supportive he is.
"What iz your parentz' number?! I'm zending ew home!"
"I am home Pierre! This is our dance academy now remember?!"
"Yez, eye remember, and I'm about to burn it down to get ew out!"
"Much like the many diseases that I'm sure you have Pierre, I'm with you for life!"
"Dis iz punishment for a great crime Pierre committed in another life, he iz sure ov it."
"Shut up and teach Pierre."
I think we're going to be opening soon! I know you're super busy, but I'm going to try to send you some tickets! Bye for now!
Love, Your friend,
Sam
And that wraps it up. If you liked chapter, please leave review. If you didn't - leave one anyway, I'm always open to helpful criticism.
Well, I'll see you all next week.