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To Live and Learn

CHAPTER 13

"When I decided to 'see no evil', my first wife disappeared. Really makes you think."

-Taiyang Xiao Long

I still had little rest even after beating Cardin. Following the match, I spent the entire day working on another stupid essay. Having the need to write another thousand words made this one of the busiest couple of days I've ever been in Beacon so far that I wasn't able to participate in daily practice with my team. On the bright side, I wasn't having it as hard as Cardin who had to do the same thing I have to do while having to suffer through total humiliation along with a week of detention.

Thankfully, my work was sped up for a bit when my team decided to help me, even though they didn't have to since they owe me nothing. It's probably because I acted too much of a good leader to them that they're always here to help. Although while I'm grateful for that, I'm worried that we'll never be even, they'll spend these years saving my rear and I find myself guilty that I may never properly repay them, hence I never felt comfortable getting help from people who were supposed to be my glorified meatshields.

After that eventful day, Cardin and his team were noticeably quiet, not starting any trouble as they would normally do. Velvet mentioned that he and his team simply walked past her without a word or anything aside from brief glances. I guess they were able to learn their lesson that day and detention was working out for Cardin. This is a relief because it means I no longer have to keep my head down for any more incoming spitballs or hold my books tightly so they wouldn't be able to knock them over. Their immature crap was one of the few things that nagged me about those four numbskulls.

Professor Peach pardoned me for being absent from her class yesterday after she was informed of what happened. She had my essay graded for me instead of Cardin but she also reminded me that I still have a lot to make up for since my performance in Dust Studies wasn't exactly the best even then. She also announced that the class would have a brief field trip to Forever Falls on the next day starting after recess and ending at dismissal, which meant that while there won't be any combat class for the day, Miss Goodwitch agreed to chaperone us during the trip. Once classes were over, I decided to finally take it easy after two days of fighting bullies and homework restlessly.

Following another day of classes, the field trip to Forever Fall began as scheduled. We traveled to Forever Fall via airship, which was a sight that I did not miss after recalling my past travels with it. Although the trip was short, lasting around only ten minutes or so, I was doing my best not to repeat the incident that almost gave me a bad first impression on the first day; Ruby and Yang noticeably even kept a distance from me during the duration of the flight. When we arrived, I left the airship with some minor headache, but I thankfully didn't throw up for once.

"Here we are students, Forever Fall! Now I want all of you to follow me and stay with your team, I don't want any of you wandering off," Miss Goodwitch said, leading the way.

Forever Fall was somewhat an odd forest, it had red grass and leaves instead of green as if it was in a perpetual autumn, hence the name. Other than that, there was barely anything out of the ordinary at all. Aside from a few Grimm since it was the wilderness we were in. Still, I enjoyed the picturesque environment of the forest; it gave some sort of an unearthly feeling that you won't experience in most other exotic places.

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so." Miss Goodwitch stated while we were following her in the forest before halting after she turned back.

Cardin jolted on me while carrying a case with empty jars on it. He gave me a single scowl before moving along, seemingly unable to do anything else. That seemed to have annoyed Miss Goodwitch, who was visibly hoping that he learned his lesson the other day. "Be careful, Cardin. Those are fragile." Miss Goodwitch warned before turning back to the whole class. "Each of you is to gather one jar worth of red sap," she pulled out a jar filled with red fluids. "However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm—so be sure to stay by your teammates and try to suppress any negative emotions."

Of course, it wouldn't be a forest without the Grimm lurking around and ruining what would otherwise be a nice view of Northern Sanusian nature. I checked my belt to make sure I still have my sword and scabbard. Everyone was armed just in case. Can't afford to let your guard down these days.

"We will rendezvous back here in sixteen hundred hours. Have fun!" Miss Goodwitch said.

While the class split into their respective teams, I had mine accompany Team RWBY just to be safe and convince them that it was more the merrier. They didn't seem to mind since we were close since the first week, not to mention Ruby wanted her team to get to know us better. This outdoor activity was a great opportunity for both of our teams to improve cohesion as allies.

For whatever reason, I didn't feel comfortable collecting sap—I suspect that I might be allergic to this stuff similar to my lactose intolerance. [1] It made me thankful that I only had to fill one because this stuff could potentially kill me. I almost feel like I would rather take another airship ride than touch sap again. The worst part was since they are sweets, they also mean that wasps are aggressively attracted to them, so there are some places in the forests swarming with wasps and those are places you want to avoid especially when collecting sap.

I looked at my surroundings and saw the others filling their jar. Ren handed his filled one to Nora, who chugged all of it even before he was able to fill her jar. As someone who was unable to imagine someone drinking that stuff, I watched with slight repulsion, and she just did it without much effort or thought. Unsurprisingly, Ren was going to need to fill another one.

Looking back into my jar, I found out that it was suddenly opened and empty. I shook my head to assure that my vision was not playing with my head and looked closer and saw that it was empty indeed. I looked at my side and saw Nora with her mouth covered in sap. "Mmm."

"Nora!" I yelled.

"Oops, sorry!" she giggled before dashing away.

I couldn't even be bothered to be annoyed by her because I was too busy wondering how she was able to digest them. But then again Nora was just being...herself for a lack of a term that wouldn't sound derogatory. At least I don't have to deal with six more of them, well, Ruby might count since she is basically 'Nora: Lite', but she's not in my team and her enthusiasm is more uplifting than annoying. [2]

Proceeding to another tree sap, I noticed someone approaching me while I was trying to fill my jar yet again. It was Blake and she was not the type to talk unless it was important, so I had to hear her out. Giving her some attention at least made the process a little less excruciating. "Uh, hey," she greeted.

"Oh, Blake. Is there something you need?" I asked, trying not to show too much of my discomfort with the red sap.

"Just want to tell you something," she said, prudently glancing around her surroundings, initially confusing me for a bit. "Be on the lookout for bandits. I heard that there are some criminal camps in this forest."

I blinked for a bit to process what she just said that I didn't notice that I was done filling my jar. "I think you're worrying too much. Even if there are few of them nearby, I doubt they'll be stupid enough to bother us," I told her, pointing to my sheathed sword as emphasis.

"Yeah, I know. Just wanted to give you a heads up, that's all," she said, holding her arm for a moment.

Regardless if we were safe or not, that was genuinely something I needed to be aware of. I had her show a little gratitude for that small yet noteworthy piece of information. "I appreciate it."

"Stay safe," she nodded before walking away to regroup with her teammates as I enjoyed the opportunity to stare at her adorable behind once again.

"Is everything alright?" Pyrrha asked as she approached me.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," I replied, shaking the thought of Blake's backside and feeling disoriented again from the sap. "I think I'm allergic to this stuff though."

She analyzed me for a second and noticed my somewhat less-than-ideal state. "Huh. Well, be sure to keep an eye on your jar. Nora drank mine too.."

"She did? Well, she's going to end up making us stay here longer if she keeps this up," I remarked.

"Well, at least one sap is all we need each. I'm sure it wouldn't kill me to fill another one up," she said, sighing a little.

"Alright, you do that. I'm going to submit this before Nora would sneakily drink this again," I replied.

"Good idea," she nodded as she continued to collect more sap.

I walked away from Pyrrha to look for Miss Goodwitch. On the way there, I suddenly felt something sting my back. I touched it to see what it was and saw red fluids on my fingers. Turning around, I saw shattered glass lying on the red grass. I looked up and saw that it was none other than Team CRDL, who were pointing and laughing at me.

They had the audacity of doing that after serving detention and while their leader was still serving it. It's almost as if they want another term especially since Miss Goodwitch was not far from us, and they seem to have no concern over being caught while doing it. A pretty stupid way to exact petty revenge if you ask me. But then again, this was coming from the poster boys of reckless bully stupidity.

"What's going on?" Pyrrha asked, entering the scene after hearing the ruckus. "Oh, that does it." Pyrrha started marching toward Team CRDL once she saw them.

I was content to let her do whatever she was planning to do with them as I tried to carry on and report them to Miss Goodwitch (again), I still had to submit my jar so I was about to meet her anyway. The four birdbrains became frightened and hurriedly tried to throw a jar of sap onto Pyrrha, only for her to effortlessly dodge it. They began to panic as they started opening a box and released a swarm of Rapier-Wasps. But since Pyrrha wasn't covered much by sap, they passed her and went after me.

When I heard the swarm racing towards me, I was so startled that I dropped my jar. So I turned back and made a run for it. What made Rapier-Wasps worse than normal wasps was that they were Grimm that could kill me once they get past my aura, so this felt less of a prank and more of an attempted assassination on Team CRDL's part and that made me furious enough to have the urge to have them killed for it.

I ended up going outside the class parameter, trying to shake off and was chased by the rapier-wasps around the forest in circles and repeating the process until I inadvertently gathered enough negative energy to attract a nearby Ursa Major which I ended up running into. Not knowing what exactly to do because I was afraid of a repeat of the Podunk disaster I ran back to the groups in hopes that they'll be able to get rid of it while I still try to elude the rapier wasps. I couldn't reach my own back to wipe the sap that was attracting the swarm off and I didn't want to take off my armor yet, especially with an Ursa behind my rear.

"Ursa!" I screamed after I saw Pyrrha grabbing Cardin by the collar. She turned her head, dropping as she pulled out her shield and xiphos and thrust herself towards the Ursa, beginning with a shield bash to its forehead followed by thrusting her blade at it.

Cardin ran off, Pyrrha was holding off the Ursa, and the rapier wasps were still after me. I kept running aimlessly trying to think of a way to get them off my rear. I even tried snatching full jars of sap from other students and throwing them at trees but that only got the attention of a small part of the swarm and the rest was still at my tail. The other students bailed out of there with their jars after seeing the Rapier Wasps, thereby denying me to repeat the process until the swarm was finally gone from my rear. So all I could do was stick to the only plan I still had: the good old 'run and live'.

I ran as fast and hard as I could through the forest, not looking back nor caring about where I was going. Shaking off the swarm was the only thing I had in mind, so I kept fleeing away without regard for my location. As a result, I wasn't aware that I went a little too deep into the forest that I eventually found two armed men wearing white vests and black hoods outside a cave entrance. Without thinking about whether they were friendly or not, I took my chances, going ahead and running past them.

"Hey, what the hell?" One of them said before they saw the rapier-wasps coming after them.

I went near the side of the cave, looking back and seeing the two men getting swarmed, both of them struggling to get the wasps off. I watched with horror before I felt a barrel of a gun pointing behind my head. "Hold it right there!"

There was no other choice than stand still and slowly raise my hands. More men of the same outfits came out of the cave, watching the two men run away getting consumed by the swarm that their comrades just fired at them, trying to aim at the rapier wasps without regard for their comrades as their bodies turned into a bloody mess, and then panicking and whimpering afterward.

The sight was terrifying knowing that my short-sightedness was the cause of all this but I wasn't able to think about it much because I was more focused on the other men who were aiming their guns at me. It gave me a clear look at their visors which were similar to Grimm masks, a sign that says that these people aren't exactly affable.

It didn't take more than a minute to realize that they were bandits, the ones Blake warned me about. I wandered too far from the class and I ended up in a camp full of them. Everything went from bad to worse. Great. Just great, I thought.

If they would go as far as to kill their own just to shoot at rapier wasps, which was either a ruthless, desperate, or foolish move, probably all of the above, then it's credits to carrots that they'll do the same thing to me, and since I was surrounded without any backup, the safest course of action was to comply at the moment and hope for the best. I was taking this surprisingly well for someone who ran and screamed like a little girl when being chased by Grimm flies and was currently at the risk of being kidnapped by people who I just saw shoot their own men without much care as I was sure that my team will find me. I had my scroll's tracker turned on. And I doubt that a bunch of lowlife criminals could handle some Huntsmen, well, Huntresses and a number of Huntsmen-in-training, really crazy Huntsmen-in-training. Besides, if they were really that stupid and desperate, then trying to escape from them wouldn't be too hard at all.

I would have let myself get stung several times if I saw this coming though. I hope the 'prank' was worth it, Losechester because I obviously wasn't going to take very kindly to it when I get back.

=o=

1. One of Jaune's confirmed syndromes. Though fortunately for him, it is not as prominent as his early motion sickness as he regularly takes medication to digest dairy products safely or relied on alternatives such as soy and nut milk especially for this Marshmallow Flakes breakfast which I can personally confirm remains to be his all-time favorite.

2. As her former partner, I can confirm that they're both true.

Editorial Note:

Unbeknownst to Jaune at the time, the group he encountered was actually The White Fang, the most infamous faunus extremist group in modern history. And one of the most recurring groups of opposition during his career to the point that a major part of his reputation involves his conflict against them.

Ruby also recorded her experiences with the Forever Fall Field trip in her personal diary. Her accounts were able to fill the gaps in what occurred to the rest of the class while Jaune was preoccupied with wandering off being chased by the rapier wasps before being captured by a 'bandit camp' and thus providing us an outlook on the events outside of Jaune's typically self-centered perspective.

The Red Rose Diaries: Trouble at Forever Falls

Yesterday during Dust Studies, Professor Peach and Miss Goodwitch told us that there won't be any combat class the next day, because we will have a field trip at Forever Falls. I don't mind that at all, I love visiting pretty forests especially the ones that have their own unique flair to them.

Forever Falls was just as beautiful as I imagined it to be. There is something gorgeous about a forest having red leaves and grass as if it was always Fall, no wonder why it's called that!

Miss Goodwitch told us that the reason we were having the field trip was because Professor Peach needed some samples of red sap for her research. It wouldn't take too long because all we needed to do was fill one jar each but we still had to stick together and watch out for any Grimm.

Getting sap wasn't too hard. They were sticky and had this funny smell. I was told that they're not like strawberries and I shouldn't try to drink them and I can see why. While we were at it, Blake seemed to be nervous during the entire trip, when we asked her why she just told me to watch out for bandits and that was it. Yang said she's just being a scaredy-cat and that I shouldn't worry too much because even when trouble comes, we had our weapons and we were very strong together even if we're not full Huntsmen and Huntresses yet.

Then things just got suddenly weird real fast. The next thing we knew, we heard screaming and I saw Jaune getting chased by a bunch of rapier wasps. Pyrrha was really mad at Cardin, which makes me think that he had Cardin might have to do something with that. It was chaos, but it wasn't too bad until Jaune came back with an Ursa Major chasing him. Pyrrha let Cardin go so she could try to stop it. I got Team RWBY to go help her out. Ren and Nora weren't able to help because it looks like Nora passed out after drinking too much sap and Ren had to look after her. I don't even know how she even managed to drink that stuff.

I ordered Blake and Yang to bait the Ursa into slamming trees, causing it to get stunned, giving me, Weiss, and Pyrrha the opportunity to absorb its damage safely. We repeated it a few times until we finished it off with a team attack to finally kill it. Blake gave a few slashes, then Yang punched it a few times before throwing it off the air when it would be trapped by Weiss's glyphs and I used my semblance to get close to it and sliced it down with the Crescent Rose. The Ursa fell as it started to evaporate. Miss Goodwitch came in and demanded what was going on. Pyrrha told her that Cardin and his team threw a jar of sap at Jaune and had rapier-wasps chase him, and that was when we found out that he wasn't with us anymore.

Pyrrha pulled out her scroll to find where he was, she found her location and got Ren and Nora (who just woke up and was recovering) to follow her. We were ordered to stay and guard the area in case more Grimm came.

I couldn't help but worry about Jaune. There were more Grimm out deep and the forest, and maybe worse if Blake was right—bandits. But I knew he'll be fine and that he wouldn't let Cardin and his goons get away with what they just did. After all, he has been through worse and he always comes out as a hero.

And it didn't take too long to find out that I was right.