Here comes ch 27.
Jaune's mind raced, as they ran down the rocky path as fast as they dared. What could have happened? Did one of the parties get wiped out? No, they should have been able to call help if something went wrong. Was the main camp attacked by Grimm or bandits? There were ten Hunters there on guard duty, so it would have to be a really big group to warrant calling lookouts down. Plus, he hadn't heard any sounds of combat through the scroll, so that probably wasn't it.
Maybe the expedition party ran into trouble? It was a twenty person strong group, all of them experienced Witchers, some of whom Jaune worked with in the past. There was no way that they would be overwhelmed by Ghouls. They might have run into something more dangerous, maybe some kind of invisible Wraith, or Aberration… But he knew for sure at least two people there had techniques to detect invisible enemies. It was hard to imagine any Harrowed could wipe out a group that big out.
Then again, it didn't have to be a monster. The mine hadn't been used for years. Maybe some of the support pillars had weakened, and were broken in the fight? Several tons of rock falling on your head would easily take out any Hunter, no matter how much Aura you had.
Should he send Ruby ahead? With her Semblance, she could reach camp much faster than any of them, and she didn't have to worry about tripping and falling. But what if camp was under attack? If it was Grimm, Ruby would be fine, but if it was a large horde of Harrowed, or worse - bandits…
Was Ruby ready to fight humans? Seriously fight them? He didn't doubt she could knock someone out. Even if she went against adults, and was outnumbered, he was sure she could wreck a small bandit tribe on her own without breaking a sweat.
But how would she react when the killing started? If someone attacked a camp guarded by Hunters, they had to have some kind of advantage. Either numbers, military grade weapons, or Aura users of their own.
The memory of his first kill flashed in his mind. He lost something that day, he knew that. Leon knew too, even though they didn't talk about it too much. What terrified Jaune the most was not fact he had killed, but how… unbothered by it he was. He knew that killing a person was something wrong, and that he should feel something. But he just didn't. Not then, not after.
When he told Leon about it, his teacher said it was probably because Jaune didn't think about those he killed as people. It helped get the job done, but was risky.
"We are supposed to kill monsters, no matter how many legs they walk on, or if they can speak. Just watch out to not become one of them along the way." Were his words.
Jaune winced. He wasn't bothered by it anymore, but somehow doubted his friend could accept killing others so easily.
Well, no point in over thinking it. Thought Jaune, jumping over a fallen tree.
He would get his answers when he gets back to the camp. He just hoped he wouldn't be too late to help.
The first thing Jaune noticed when he and his friends burst into the clearing where the main camp was located, was that it was still standing. The second was the makeshift barricade in front of entrance to the mine. Third - numerous bodies, thankfully, all belonging to Ghouls.
"Go to the barricade, see if they need help. If not, go grab something to eat, but be ready to fight at anytime. Ruby, you are in charge until I come back."
The red Huntress nodded, and sprinted away, followed by the rest of his friends. Jaune made his way to the big tent in the center of the camp.
"What happened?"
He asked as soon as he was inside. There were five people inside. The man that hired them all, and four Hunters that Jaune recognized as part of his escort.
"The thing is, we're not sure." The older man said with sigh. "I got contacted by team Alpha that there were some complications. Moments later there was an explosion, and we haven't had word from them since. Not long after, some Ghouls started to run out of mine. At first there were only a few, but the number kept increasing. That's why I had to call down some of the lookout teams."
Jaune cursed. None of the Witchers form team Alpha would be stupid enough to use explosives against Ghouls. In the depths of a long abandoned mine nonetheless.
"Are we sending a rescue party?"
"I'm not sure we can afford it. It's calm now, but more Ghouls can come in anytime. I already called in some reinforcements." He paused for a moment, looking at Jaune.
"Say, kid. You have a sniper on that team of yours, right?"
Jaune nodded, confused.
"Thing is, after I called down the lookouts…"
"Sir, Alpha team returned!" Someone called out from outside.
Everyone in the tent relaxed, the boss letting out a relieved sigh.
"Bring the team lead to me. Any casualties?"
"No. Just a few scratches and burns."
A few moments later, a surprisingly young looking man with platinum blond hair and light armor entered the tent. Beside some dirt on his clothes and face, he looked unharmed.
"What happened?" Their employee cut straight to the case.
"We ran into a fire Wraith not fully formed yet, but it was sending out waves of fire from time to time. Before we could decide what to do, something exploded. Not sure what, but probably some old mining explosives, or maybe Dust. We decided to not check out if there were any more, and retreated."
"Shit." Their boss eloquently summed up. Jaune couldn't agree more. Fighting a fire Wraith in an enclosed space? When there was potentially some old explosives just lying around? Not his definition of fun.
"What are the chances it will come out to us?" Jaune asked.
"Small. It was pretty deep inside."
The blond boy let out a tired sigh.
"So we gotta go and deal with it in its lair? Great."
"Well, me might not have to. One of my men said he can try and make some bait. Hopefully it will lure the Wraith out."
Jaune blinked, surprised.
"Bait? I didn't know you could make bait for Wraiths."
The other Witcher shrugged.
"Neither did I. You learn something new every day, don't you?"
Jaune nodded, a smile slowly appearing on his lips.
Bait for Wraiths? Now that's something I would like to learn how to do.
"Yeah, you are right. Am I needed for anything? If not, I will go back to my team before they mess something up." He said aloud.
His temporary boss hummed, considering him for a moment, then shook his head.
"No, not anymore. We will... Wait, did you have any Ghoul encounters up there?"
Jaune nodded.
"Five. All taken care of."
"Good. You can go now."
Jaune nodded and left. He found his friends manning the barricade, weapons at the ready. He quickly explained the situation to them, and left to look for the mysterious bait-maker. Who knows? Maybe he would be willing to share his recipe?
"What are you reading?" Asked Ruby, peeking over Jaune's shoulder.
"Just some notes I took." The blond answered with a smile. After proving that he wouldn't blow himself up, the older WItcher was willing to teach Jaune how to make the Harrowed bait. It was much more complicated than he expected, but he was certain he would manage somehow. And a few tricks that he learned along the way should prove helpful in his own research.
Jaune smiled. So far this little job proved to be a very good idea. The fire Wraith was a complication, but not as bad as it might be. So far there were no casualties on their side, not even serious injuries.
So far, so good. Thought Jaune, closing his notebook and stretching.
"So… we just wait now?" Asked Ruby, sitting next to him.
"Yep."
She sighed.
"Something wrong?" Jaune asked.
"No… it's just that there is a lot more waiting that I thought."
He chuckled.
"Let me guess - you thought we'd burst in there, guns blazing, killing monsters by the dozen?"
She blushed and pouted.
Jaune laughed.
"Unfortunately, this is what it usually looks like. Leon always said that the most important trait for a Witcher is patience. Hunting Harrowed takes time, since unlike Grimm they won't just charge at you head-on. There is usually a lot of preparation that needs to be done. Investigating terrain, figuring out what type of Harrowed you are dealing with, how many of them there are, and so on. It can sometimes take weeks of investigations before you even start hunting. And then you might spend a few weeks more trying to track one down."
"That's sound a lot less exciting than I thought…"
Jaune shrugged.
"That's life for you."
She hummed in agreement.
"Hey, guys, hate to interrupt your alone time, but I need to ask something." A new voice sounded from behind them. They turned around, seeing the leader of team Alpha approaching them.
"Jaune Arc, right?" He asked, extending his hand.
Jaune shook the offered hand.
"Yeah. And you are…?"
"Ash. Your company profile says you have some sort of Aura vision?"
Jaune nodded.
"Can you be lookout? Tell us when the Wraith starts forming? We have a lot of firepower here, with a bit of luck we should be able to take it out before it fully forms."
"Sure thing. When are we starting.
Ash shrugged.
"As soon as the bait is ready. Shouldn't be too long now."
"Got it."
Jaune got up and stretched.
"Let's join up with the rest. There are a few things we need to discuss before the fighting starts."
"So? Any sign of it showing up?" Asked Ash.
Jaune shook his head.
"Not yet."
The older man nodded, and ran off when someone called him.
"So, Ladykiller, what was this important thing you wanted to tell us?"
Jaune didn't turn, his attention focused on the area in front of him.
"We are about to face a fire Wraith. There isn't time for me to get in too much detail, so here is what you need to know. Wraiths are very different from Ghouls. Unless you know exactly what to do, you should never fight one, at least not in melee. Every Wraith has a bunch of special abilities, one of them being the ability to drain Aura from their surroundings. You can resist it with some practice, but since you guys have none, you need to keep your distance. At least twenty five meters, thirty to be safe."
"Got it. Anything else we should know?" Asked Ruby.
"Wraiths are very agile, it's hard to damage them with guns. Explosives work better, but be careful to not hit a friend. They can turn incorporeal, making them immune to most attacks, but also greatly reducing their attack power. They use it mainly to escape, or to close distance when attacking from range."
"So, what's the plan?" Asked Yang.
Jaune's muscles tensed when he noticed small bits of Aura flowing out of the mine entrance. When they didn't start to consolidate into a Wraith, he relaxed.
"There is a brief moment, just before it fully forms, when it is vulnerable to damage, but can't yet use its abilities. Sometime it's a few seconds, sometimes it's just half of one. If we're lucky, we might be able to take it out then. On my signal, just shoot it."
"And how will we know what to shoot?"
Jaune smirked.
"When you see a giant fireball pop out of thin air, that starts taking on a vaguely humanoid shape, that's probably it."
Yang chuckled.
"Yeah, I guess…"
"Get ready, it's coming!" Jaune suddenly shouted.
It happened in an instant.
One moment she was looking at an empty space between them and entrance to the mine, the next it all exploded in flames. Blake barely had time to take aim at the center of the inferno, before the flames congregated in one spot, forming the Wraith. Or at least she assumed that's what it was. Judging by what Jaune had said earlier, it probably was. It took barley a second for it to form fully, and the Harrowed let out a loud screech.
She heard someone curse, and judging by how everyone lowered their weapons, she guessed that the opportunity to shoot it was gone.
"So, what now?"
Jaune shrugged.
"Now we watch. It's bad idea to send too many people to fight a Wraith. They can attack a wide area, and the more people that are close to them, the more Aura they will be able to drain."
Blake noticed four people move into the empty space between them and the Harrowed, each with a black sword in hand. It noticed them almost instantly, letting out a low, humming sound.
The four men tensed, but kept moving forward. When they were about ten meters away from the Wraith, the sound stopped.
Instantly, every Witcher jumped to the side, narrowly dodging pillars of fire that erupted in the spots where they had just been.
"Like I said earlier, fighting a Wraith is very different than fighting Ghouls, or Grimm. They have a bunch of special abilities that you need to either counter, or dodge. That's why you can split fighting a Wraith into three phases. First one is testing. You take it slow, keep your distance, only throw attacks from time to time. What you focus on is observing the Wraith. Every special attack they make is telegraphed in some way. There are slight differences between each Wraith, but once you fight a few, you can guess when they are about to pull something."
Blake nodded. It made sense, especially when she saw how the four Witchers acted. They moved in unison, as if the whole fight was choreographed. This continued for about a minute.
"Now, the second phase - damaging. Thing about Wraiths is, since they continuously drain your Aura, you can't afford to drag the fight for too long. With some practice, you can learn how to resist this effect, but you can never eliminate it completely. On the other hand, if you go at it too aggressively, you not only risk taking a lot of damage from its attacks, but also letting it escape. If you damage a Wraith too much too fast, it will just turn into mist and run away, so you need to set the right tempo. Not too fast, not too slow."
"There are different ways to approach this, it really depends on person, their weapon, and how the Wraith acts. But the most important thing is to judge how much damage you are doing to it. One way to do so is by its attacks. When it uses..."
Jaune suddenly paused, turned away from the battle and covered his ears. Seeing as everyone else did the same, Blake followed his example.
She had only a second to wonder if she should somehow cover her additional pair too, before the wave of sound hit her. It was the most terrible noise she ever heard in her life. She felt as if her soul was being ripped out of her body. It only lasted for a moment, and when it ended, Blake realized she was kneeling, something wet dripping from her nose. She tried to get up, but her vision swam. She staggered, and would have fallen if someone hadn't held her.
"You ok?"
She looked up at the blond team leader.
"Y-yeah. What the hell was that?"
Jaune shrugged.
"One of the most annoying skills of Wraiths. They start using it when they are heavily damaged. Leon used to call it a 'rage attack'."
She nodded, lifting a hand to wipe her face. It came away stained red, and only then Blake realized her nose was bleeding. She looked back at her friends, noticing most of them had shocked expressions, similar to her. The only ones seemingly to not be affected by the attack were Jaune, which was not a surprise, and Ren, which was a bit of a surprise.
"Beside this scream..." Jaune continued, once all of them regained their bearings. "Another way to judge the damage you are doing is to observe the Wraith's color. The pailer they are, the more damage they've taken. So, when they get to be almost white, it's time to go for the killing blow. If you are using a normal weapon, that is. With a black sword, you only need to stab it, and keep the blade in its body for a few seconds. Of course it's hard to do when the Wraith is at full strength, so weakening it first is a good idea."
A loud scream announced the end of the fight. From what Blake had seen, two Witchers worked together to draw the weakened Wraith's attention, while the remaining two backed off, and circled behind the creature. When it got distracted, they sprinted forward, burying their swords in its back.
The Wraith's flames burst out, and disappeared, leaving only its transparent shape. Its pained, angry scream slowly faded away, as did its body, turning into motes of white light. After just a few seconds, the Wraith was gone. Blake could have sworn she heard a relieved gasp from the creature, just before it disappeared.
"It's over?" Ruby asked. Her voice was only a whisper, and somehow Blake thought it appropriate.
"Yes."Jaune said with nod. "The Wraith is gone. But I guess we still have some Ghouls to deal with."
"Damn right you do." Blake had to force herself to not scowl at the man that just passed her. Not only was he techincialy her employer now, but it would be also rude to act hostile towards someone who never harmed her in any way. Afterall, not every mine owner was exploiting Faunus.
"I ran some numbers, and based on your reports, at least a hundred Ghouls still sit in there." He looked up at the darkening sky, and shook his head.
"But I guess we'll have to deal with it tomorrow. Ash?"
"Yes, Sir?"
"Keep at least two people on the watch at the entrance. Also, send some lookouts to the spots we called people from. I don't want any of those Ghouls to run away."
"Understood."
"Ok people, you have earned your rest. Unfortunately, we will have to camp through the night."
A few groans sounded.
"Fortunately, because I like to be prepared, A bullhead with food and a few good cooks should be here shortly. So at very least you will have a decent meal.
A lot of cheers sounded.
The second day passed without any incident. They were stationed at the same spot as the previous day. Ghouls started to show up much faster now, and new groups were appearing often. Not often enough to push them too hard, but often enough to keep them on alert the whole time.
After five hours, it was over. They returned to the main camp exhausted, more from having to stay on alert all this time than from fighting. After a quick meal, and some debriefing, they boarded the first bullhead back to Vale.
"Ok guys, I need to take care of a few formalities. I'll see you back in Beacon, ok?" Jaune said as soon as they landed.
They nodded, and boarded another bullhead, this one with the Beacon logo on its side. The trip was short, and they spent most of their time in idle chatter. Though their mood dropped a bit when they saw who was waiting for them at Beacon's air docks.
"Welcome back students. I hope your trip went well?" Asked Glynda Goodwitch.
Seeing as no one else was saying anything, and her traitorous sister pushed her in front of their little group, Ruby gulped and nodded.
"Y-yeah. It went well."
"I see." She looked them over, with a stern expression. Which was her normal expression, Ruby guessed.
"Mr. Arc didn't come back with you?"
"No.. Yes! I mean… he did come back with us to Vale, but then he said he had something to take care of, and he went off, and told us we would meet back at Beacon, and… yeah." She finished lamely. And still, none of her so called 'friends' came forward to help her. Traitors, every last one of them. Jaune was the only one she could count on!
"I see. Well then, when he comes back, please tell him to visit my office." She nodded once towards them and walked away.
Ruby frowned. Jaune didn't get into any trouble, did he?
"Now, Ladykiller, what did you want to talk about?" Asked Yang, leaning on a desk in the unused classroom that had become Jaune and Ren's laboratory.
The blond laughed nervously, trying to not stare at her cleavage. Yang was honestly amazed by how different Jaune was on the mission, compared to how he acted at Beacon. It was almost as if he become a different person.
"Well… I wanted to talk a bit more about Wraiths." He said, rubbing the back of his head, his usual dorky smile in place.
Now, which one of you is real the Jaune? Dork Knight or Badass Witcher?
It didn't really matter, she supposed. What did matter was the squirming blond boy in front of her. She pouted, and looked him in the eyes..
"That's all? You call me out here to talk about monsters? I thought it would be something different..." she lowered her voice to quiet whisper, but kept it loud enough for him to still hear her words.
"Yang…"
"I mean, you call me out here alone, saying you have something important to tell me, a girl will get her hopes up, you know?"
A cough from behind her made Yang sigh. Couldn't they stay quiet? Didn't they see she was working?
"Xiao-long, I would appreciate if you kept your fantasies to yourself. If Jaune wants to share some knowledge with us, I for one would like to hear it."
Yang rolled her eyes. Leave it to Weiss to ruin the mood.
"Yeah Yang. Stop your flirting and let Jaune speak."
Yang shook her head. And now Ice Princess was corrupting her adorable little sister.
"Fine, fine. So, you heard the nerds over there Ladykiller. Speak up."
Jaune sighed, shaking his head.
"Ok, I just thought it would be good if you understood what makes Ghouls and Wraiths so different. But to explain that, I need to go over how Harrowed are created first."
He sat on one of the desks, considering something for a few moments.
"In order for Harrowed to appear, a person has to die surrounding by a lot of negativity. It can come from said person, or from those around them. It can even be from the place they died."
"The place? How does that even work?" Asked Weiss.
Jaune chuckled.
"No idea. But it was confirmed that Harrowed appear more often in places where some great tragedy struck, even years after it happened. Old battlefields, towns struck by plagues, and so on. Not everyone who dies in such place will turn into Harrowed, but there is much greater chance they will."
"If the amount of negativity in the moment of death is high enough, the bits of Aura remaining in the body will become corrupted. What kind of Harrowed will appear, depends largely on what condition the body is in. It's not one hundred percent accurate, but as a general rule, if it was damaged to the point it can't move anymore, it will turn into a Wraith, otherwise it will be a Ghoul. And that is where all the differences come from."
"Ghouls are basically a dead body. Corrupted Aura makes it retain basic consciousness, and something akin to survival instinct. We know Ghouls will hunt regularly, and weaken greatly if left to starve, but we are unsure if they can die from starvation. Wraiths on the other hand, are basically sentient Aura. They do not have physical bodies, instead they gatherer Aura from their surroundings in order to take a more material form. There is a legend, among some folks, that if a Wraith gathered enough Aura, it would come back to life. It's untrue, of course."
"What you should keep in mind, is that even if you kill a Wraiths body, it's not gone. Its… I guess you could call it 'essence' will remain, allowing it to reform. It could take weeks, months, or even years, but it will be back eventually. In order to get rid of it for good, you need to purge their essence. There are two methods. Witchers use a special Dust mix, and burn it at the place Wraith spawns, or use black sword to kill it." He smiled, patting his own, lying in next to him. "The second method is prefered one, since with the first one you can never know for sure if you succeeded. "
"Question!" Nora shouted, raising one hand.
"Yes?"
"If those black swords are so convenient, why doesn't everyone use them? I know you said they are expensive, and hard to make, but still they sound useful. And when I asked one guy back at camp, he said, and I quote, 'I don't want to carry a thing that devours my soul'."
"Devour your soul?' Weiss repeated, and scoffed. " Please, Nora, he was cleary playing with you. Right, Jaune?"
The blond laughed nervously.
Weiss' eyes narrowed.
"Jaune? Explain."
"Well…" he ran a hand through his hair. "That statement is… not entirely inaccurate?
"Why did you phrase that as a question?" Weiss growled, then sighed and shook her head.
"Nevermind. Just stop dodging the question, and tell us already."
"Ok, just don't freak out too much ok? You remember when I said that those swords are very Aura sensitive?" He waited for them to confirm before continuing. "So the thing is, they are so sensitive that just carrying them around will drain your Aura. Not by much, but it's there."
"But that's not all, right?" Asked Pyrrha.
"Yeah" Jaune sighed, and drew Eclipse. "Another thing is that if you put enough Aura into it…' the sword in him his hand started humming, black mist flowing out of the blade. "Some interesting things start to happen."
They watched in fascination as the sword changed. Some of the black mist settled on Jaune's arm, but most of it was surrounded by a soft, white light and compressed. A few seconds later, the transformation was complete. Eclipse's blade was pitch black, as if it absorbed all light, And it didn't look like a solid piece of steel - instead it swirled around, like smoke trapped in a container.
That container appeared to be a soft glow surrounding blade.
"Well…" Yang trailed off "At least now we know why you called it 'Eclipse'."
Jaune chuckled.
"Yeah. And just to make it even more fitting - the day I finished it, there was a solar eclipse." Jaune said, slowly waving his sword around. "Anyway, this white glow you see is actually my Aura. In this form, the sword can get into reaction with any other Aura source. This allows me, for example, to drain the corrupted Aura of a Harrowed, or Ghoul, and absorb it. After some time, depending on how much I absorbed, my own Aura will… cleanse the corrupted one."
"Wait, wait, wait" Yang shook her head. "You want to tell me, this thing," she pointed at sword Jaune was holding. "Can literally drain out, and absorb Aura? The thing that is basically our soul?"
"Yep."
"That's... creepy as hell, you know that?"
Jaune chuckled.
"That's the same thing I said to Leon when he explained it to me. But it's also best way to deal with Harrowed, so, yeah. And as added benefit, it increases my Aura pool."
Yang blinked, then shook her head.
"Really? Is it why you have so much of it?"
"Only partially. It's not like I gain a lot. Ghouls have next to no Aura in them. Wraiths have more, but I can't absorb all of it, most of it gets dispersed. Plus, I have to use my own Aura to cleanse the corrupted one, so it's bad idea to absorb a lot. All in all, after two years of hunting Harrowed, what I gained is barley noticeable. So no, it's not some super-secret, dark way of gaining ultimate power."
"Awwwww, and I got my hopes up." Nora whined, before perking up. "But If one killed tons of baddies then…"
"Well, you could, but there are downsides to absorbing Aura from Harrowed. Besides the fact you will be weakened until you cleanse what you absorbed, you also absorb Harrowed essence. So the very thing that turned the dying person into a monster."
"You mean…" Pyrrha began slowly.
"Fear. Pain. Hatred. Sometimes other things, like loneliness. Very rarely, fragments of memories from the time they lived."
"Ok, I changed my mind. It's not creepy. It's super creepy." Yang said after a few moments of silence.
"So is this how you made the Ghouls turn back to humans so fast? Your books said it can take hours, or even days, but after you stabbed them, it took only few seconds." Asked Ruby.
"That's right. It's not necessary, but…" Jaune shrugged. "I like to think that it brings them some kind of peace. That they don't have to be monsters for any longer. A bit lame, I know, but..."
"No, I think It's cool." The red Huntress said with a smile. "Especially the chant you were saying!"
Jaune laughed.
"Really? Well I came up with it like a year and a half ago. Me and Leon hunted down a Ghoul, a young one, it still looked mostly human. When we did get it… well,I just felt like I should say something."
"Ok!" Yang clapped her hands, standing up. "No more gloomy talk. It's Sunday! Let's go do something fun!"
"Like, for example, our homework? I'm pretty sure you still have some left." Weiss called out.
Yang hummed, and nodded to herself.
"Ok, so let's get back to gloomy talk. It sounds much more fun than the alternative."
Jaune smiled, watching the two girls banter. Eventually Yang gave up, and both teams left the classroom. The blond team leader smiled. He hadn't planned on revealing details about the black swords to his friends just yet, but they took it better than he expected.
His eyes focused on one person in particular. Now, should he do something, or leave it be? Did he even needed to do anything?
The ringing of his scroll broke him out of his thoughts.
"Something happen?" Asked Pyrrha, a hint of worry in her voice. Jaune didn't blame her. Considering most of the messages and calls he received in the past few weeks ended up getting him in trouble, he even felt a bit of worry when he opened his scroll.
He frowned when he noticed the sender was one of his sisters. With resigned sigh, he opened the message.
It contained only two words, but it was enough to bring broad smile on his lips.
So here it is. A bit more info about Harrowed, and about the black swords some Witchers use. And what is this mysterious message Jaune received? Could it be good news? Certainly it's not more trouble?
Well, you all will find out next week.
Feeling the Rainbow
He was vaguely aware of the nagging thought that you couldn't actually feel colors, but it was quickly quieted by just how amazing the purple on the scarf in front of him felt.
It felt like a silk...but more...silky.
Apparently, what his new Elixir did not do was make him a poet. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. What was it supposed to do again? Something about Harrowed…
Really, it didn't matter. He had purple, and that's what mattered. He wasn't sure how long he stayed there, caressing the color with his eyes and hands. Minutes? Hours? Days? It didn't matter, he had pur-
"Um, can I help you, or do I need to call security?" A feminine voice called from behind him.
He growled as he turned, ready to give this interloper a piece of his mind. Didn't she understand how special purple was? How Important it was? Didn't she know that purple-
-Was bullshit compared to the vision that greeted him. Brown. So much impossibly warm and beautiful brown, calling to him and soothing his soul.
The girl wearing it was ok too he guessed.
"Wow." He mouthed in awe.
She hummed as she looked at him over her glasses. "Yeah, I get that reaction a lot. Now, I ask again, do you need help, or should I leave you and the scarf alone? Just know that you're paying for it if you get past second base."
How could she think he'd cheat on brown with that dirty, filthy purple? Brown was so perfect. They were meant to be together. He slowly reached out a hand to touch the majestic brown that she swatted away.
"Yeah, calling security is started to look real good."
Maybe he just hadn't explained it properly.
"Brown..." He articulated.
She sighed. "It's Coco actually."
He gasped, it was too perfect. "Your name is a color!"
She cocked her head to the side. "Yeah, all of our names are."
"My name is a color?" He whispered, staring at his hands in wonder.
"You ok kid?"
He shook his head frantically. How could he be? He wasn't able to touch brown. He pointed dumbly to her blouse.
"It's so beautiful!"
She gave him a small smile, pinching at the material. "Yeah? This old thing? I've always liked it, but I'm honestly surprised you noticed. Most guys aren't too concerned with the clothes a girl has on, they're focused on what she's left off, if you catch my drift."
He wasn't too sure about drifts, unless it involved driftwood, which was also brown his brain told him. He was sure of one thing though, if those boys couldn't appreciate the glory that was brown, then…
"They're dumb." He stated confidently.
She chuckled. "Yeah, I think so too." She smirked. "You're not so bad blondie. Weird...but not bad."
Good, the keeper of the brown approved of him.
"Can I touch it?" He pleaded, his hand already reaching out again, before she caught his wrist.
Nooooooo!
"Let's call that a third date type thing, yeah?"
He groaned, and she laughed.
"I get off a seven, want to try you luck at getting the first one out of the way?"
Yes! He'd do anything to be near brown.
The girl was ok too he guessed.
"Yes!" He cried.
She grinned and looked at him over her glasses. "My, my, aren't we eager? How does coffee sound?"
Coffee? His brain was telling him something about coffee.
"Is coffee brown?" He asked slowly.
"Umm….it can be?"
He grinned. "Coffee sounds wonderful!"
Stoned Jaune strikes again. This omake was brought to you by JJD.