As expected, Cinder and her team were playing things safe for much of the festival. It was now the fourth day of the Vytal Festival, and things were heating up for the participating teams. Yang and Blake ended up going against Bolin and Reese, while Pyrrha and Ren fought against Dew and Octavia. Blake and Pyrrha were chosen to represent their teams in the finals singles match tomorrow.
While I was happy on the outside, I was feeling much more concerned and nervous on the inside. I was unsure how this would change things, which made focusing on the matches and on my friends difficult.
Which is why I asked to see Ozpin in private in his office an hour after I woke up. I was sitting across from him as we went over everything once again. "And you're certain they'll know of Amber's condition?"
"Yes. They find her nonetheless, and Cinder takes the remainder of the maiden's power," I said. "The original attack involved the Grimm wyvern in Mountain Glenn, the White Fang assaulting Beacon, and Atlesian forces being hacked and turned against the populace. The last is not an option for them anymore...so I don't know if they have any contingencies for that. It's safe to assume anything can happen at this point."
"Yes, well Ironwood's armies and ships are on constant alert, and we have Torchwick away from the ship. Still, I'd say it's integral to have the maiden power transferred as soon as possible," Ozpin said. "Liya has given her blessing to receive the power and-"
"Bad idea. Cinder will probably have spies, intelligence networks of her own," I said. "She'll know if the power is transferred since she has the other half. I don't know much of the specifics about the maiden powers, but I'm pretty sure if it's split in half, both will probably seek each other out."
"But if we don't do it now, she'll have the full power," Ozpin argued.
"And if Liya gets it, Cinder will find it even sooner and kill Liya to get it," I argued back. "At least this way, we can delay the process and keep Liya and Amber safe. I'm not saying to not give it to Liya, but doing it now will only speed up the main attack."
Ozpin was clearly against it, but he relented for now. "Alright," he said. "I'm surprised you aren't trying to fight your partner's decision."
I frowned. "I don't want to take my partner's choice away from her. If I did, she'd be nothing more than a pawn, dividing us with mistrust and pain. It's what she wants," I said. Ozpin looked down, expression unreadable. "If Liya becomes the half maiden, she has to be protected at all costs. She can't be left to wander for attack like Amber was. Secrecy is out of the window, especially since the enemy has been biding their time."
"I understand. Trust me, I learned my mistake when Qrow brought Amber back..." Ozpin said, and I fell silent. We both were quiet, looking down as the gears clanked above us. Ozpin and I were victims of the same burden: the fate of Remnant bearing down on us, one without knowledge but all the time with the world and the other with all the knowledge in the world and without time.
"We can't screw this up," I said. "Her plans start in the finals. And we have every contingency available. If the White Fang or Grimm appear, we'll be ready. There won't be any program to turn Ironwood's forces against Beacon."
Ozpin nodded briefly. "Indeed," he said. "Still, I know her. She always has backups in mind, she will always be prepared. She has time on her side, after all."
"Then we'll fight that as well," I quickly said. "Winging it is some of the best ways to fight an unexpected threat."
Ozpin sighed. "Even if I did agree with you, it'd be too late to readjust," he said. "I can only hope that we can still stop her minions here and now."
"Unlikely," I mumbled. "But hope is always nice." I got up and held out my hand. "Thanks for listening to me. I know...my ideas aren't some of the best in your eyes."
"Sometimes the perspective of one man can be clouded over generations and generations of time. I used to think I knew best how to deal with Salem. Until you came along. Now I see: Salem always plays the unexpected, works her way around with my hubris, my ignorance," Ozpin said, briefly shaking my hand.
"Plus Salem has her Grimm. You have a small circle of trusted people," I said. "Sooner or later, Salem will become public. No secret is hidden forever."
"I know. And I'm doing my best to work with it, but I don't think Remnant can handle such a threat," Ozpin said.
"Then bide your time. But be ready for the secret war to turn into an all out world war," I said. Ozpin nodded and politely waved a hand to dismiss me. I exited the tower via elevator and lobby, making my way down the path to the courtyard. I didn't have much to do other than wait for tomorrow.
As I walked, I was passed by a tall blonde man, lean with armor and medieval style modernized weapons on his body, specifically two swords on his waist and two on his back. I didn't notice much else other than his looks. He was likely a fully fledged huntsman due to his scratched up armor, but that wasn't what was going through my mind at the moment. The first thing I noticed was that he was storming towards the tower where Ozpin's office was, scaring a few nearby people as they hurried to get far away from him.
I was glad that I couldn't see his expression, it must've been livid. Gods help whoever pissed him off. As I made my way down the semi-crowded path, I heard a distanced commotion further along the stone road. Specifically several female voices.
"Huh," I mumbled as I walked. My confusion would turn into shock, however, when I saw who was making that noise. Jaune Arc was waving frantically over a crowd of eight blonde females of varying ages crowding and yelling at him. They'd even gathered up a crowd of people who were interested in what was going on.
First Taiyang and now Jaune's family? That man who passed me earlier had to have been Jaune's dad. What prompted these changes?
I decided to intervene, pushing my way through the crowd and reaching the friend who was about to be verbally slaughtered by his mother and sisters. "Jaune!" I said, catching their attention and saving Jaune, who showed the expression of someone who had been spared both the possibilities of the death penalty and the life penalty in a court of law.
"M-Markus!" Jaune said, coming over and wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "I was just looking for you! Say hi to my family!" I turned to see a small group of girls and women, all with blonde hair and blue eyes. There was Saphron Cotta-Arc holding Adrian, six more sisters, and their mother, who was a beautiful older woman with short blonde hair and blue eyes behind thin eyeglasses. She wore blue jeans, a golden T-shirt, and a white denim jacket.
"Oh. You mentioned you had a lot of sisters," I said as two of them, twins, simultaneously squealed over my caracal ears. "Care to introduce me?"
"Right. This is Saphron, Olivia, Azura, Violet, Scarlet, Ashley, and Pearl," Jaune said. Ashley waved when her name was called, and Pearl stuck her tongue out at me and Jaune when her name was called, to which Saphron smacked her hand. "And this is my mom, Sapphire."
Scarlet was the oldest, having medium length blonde hair and a soft expression. She was likely in her late twenties and wore a red dress with a blue jacket. Around her neck was a golden pendant on a chain, and she had a few bracelets on her right wrist and a glove on her left arm. Side by side with their mother, she was taller than her by about half a head.
Olivia looked to be the roughhouser of the family and three or so years above Jaune's age, wearing blue short shorts and a green shirt with black boots. Her hair was short cut in a messy Pixie cut, and she had seven bandaids on her, one on her cheek, one on her nose, one on the right side of her forehead a centimeter over her eyebrow, two on her left arm, one on her right finger and one on her knee. Like in the framed picture I saw in Saphron's house in Volume 6, she had a tooth gap. She wore black fingerless gloves. Like she seemed, she looked rather mad as she glowered at Jaune.
Azura had large widely framed glasses, and long smooth blonde hair with a blue headband. She wore an equally blue dress with a smooth skirt area and a collar. Her dress had no sleeves, and she wore a white T-shirt underneath. Along with her relatively nice looking clothes, she wore white knee high socks and casual shoes. Like Scarlet, Azura looked to be around Jaune's age, maybe a little older by one or two years. Her expression showed nothing of particular interest.
Violet looked somewhat similar to Olivia, but without all the band-aids and the rough clothing. She didn't have any missing teeth, and she seemed a bit paler than Olivia, while looking around a year younger than Jaune. She wore a blue denim skirt and a lavender colored hoodie. Her hair was semi-long and tied up in a rather short ponytail above her head. She had a shy expression, waving awkwardly at me.
Ashley and Pearl were indeed identical, all except for their clothing color coordination. They looked around five years younger than Jaune, with both having identically long hair and identically placed bangs with identical giggly expressions. Ashley wore black jeans, white socks, and a closed white jacket while Pearl wore white jeans, black socks, and a closed black jacket. Both had gray identical shoes as well. They were both about as tall as up to my chest.
"Hi," I said, wondering if these were their canon names, which was likely given how most of them were named after colors of the rainbow. "So, how're you finding Beacon so far?" I asked them as I sat down at a bench near the side of the sidewalk.
"It's great! Can't wait to see the students fighting up close!" Olivia said as she came up to a nervous Jaune and me. "Anyways, why're you friends with him anyway?"
"Uhh...cuz he's cool?" I said as I ruffled Jaune's hair. "And we've been friends since initiation."
"Oh? And how exactly did he perform in initiation?" Saphron asked in amusement, as some of the crowds around them began to disperse, as things weren' exactly as loud as earlier anymore.
"Pretty well, I hear," I said, recalling both the events of Volume One as well as footage from the battle I'd watched in my free time thanks to Ozpin. It was surreal watching animated events happen in real life, even if it was on camera. "He got partnered up with Pyrrha Nikos herself, and they managed to kill off a Death Stalker."
"No way! The Invincible Girl?" Olivia asked in disbelief, the girls all gasping in amazement.
"Yep. Guess what?" I said, enjoying all their awestruck expressions. "He had no idea who Pyrrah even was."
"Hey, you didn't know who she was either!" Jaune pointed out as his sisters all laughed.
"I was playing along, only wanted to piss off Weiss at the time. You know, before she warmed her icy heart," I said. I practically felt Weiss shudder somewhere in the distance.
"Weiss Schnee?" Violet asked curiously.
"Yep. Jaune's friends with all of them," I said. "We've been a big happy group of weirdos ever since Beacon started."
"Oh, really? And how has he been doing in academics or training?" Scarlet asked. She now had a stern expression on her face, which was aimed directly at Jaune. I guess she was one of the more protective ones in Jaune's family.
"He has help from Pyrrha and Ren studying for academics. But for training, he's way ahead of me," I said, which surprised the girls.
"Really?" Olivia asked. "This stupid goofball?"
"Hey!" Jaune cried while their mother chastised Olivia for her blatant insult. "I'll have you know that I'm plenty smarter than you now that I'm here!"
"Oh, really? Even if you didn't earn your way in?" Olivia asked.
Jaune flinched as the Arc mother sighed. "You do know he never received any formal training before now, right?" she said to me. "If he got in, he most likely faked his way in."
"And even then, he refused to contact us to let us know if he was alright. We thought he was dead!" Olivia said, her mean girl facade cracking for a split second. The other girls showed uncomfortable expressions, all except Saphron who sighed sternly at Jaune.
"We came here to convince him to stop this stupid dream of his and come home. We heard about criminal activities increasing around Vale, and the attack on the city. We saw him alongside soldiers in the aftermath. And then we receive a letter. After so long!" Sapphire said, wiping her eyes behind her glasses before glaring at a subdued Jaune. "I refuse to allow my son to foolishly get himself killed in his blind pursuit to become a huntsman."
Ouch.
"Mom, you know how much it means to me," Jaune said, exasperated.
"It means nothing if it gets you killed!" Sapphire shot back sternly.
"Do you not have any faith in me?" Jaune cried.
"After you being so much of a klutz and an anti-social weirdo back at home? No," Azura said. She sounded rather blunt.
"Guys, come on..." Jaune sighed. "I have responsibilities here."
"They can be omitted over family," Sapphire stated.
I cleared my throat. "Right," I said. "Counterpoint one: he's the leader of his team. Counterpoint two: he's been improving at a very fast rate, faster than I am. Counterpoint three: he's dating Pyrrha and if you take him home, she'll be incredibly sad."
"You're dating the Invincible Girl? Fat chance," Pearl said, Ashley laughing alongside her.
"Don't believe me? Let's call her," I said before getting up and going over to Jaune. "Also, what did they mean you never wrote to them?" I asked quietly.
"They would've forced me to come home right away...I didn't want that," Jaune admitted.
"Still, not letting them know you're alive?" I whispered before sighing. "Either way, they're here now. And you did send one letter."
"Yeah...Pyrrha asked me to write to them after the breach, told me that they deserved it," Jaune explained, which made their appearance make all the more sense now that I think about it.
"Well, call her," I said. Jaune turned on and selected Pyrrha's icon on his scroll and switched on the speakerphone option. "Well, you can ask her if they're dating and she'll answer honestly."
"We'll see," Azura said.
The scroll ringing stopped as Pyrrha picked up, the moderately small screen showing Pyrrha's face on it. She was wearing nothing but a blanket over her chest. Her headpiece was off and her hair was loose, draped over her shoulders like a silky waterfall. She even had the bedroom eyes aimed at Jaune through the camera, her light green eyeshadow and eyelashes being extra noticeable, though not as noticeable as her lip bite. Jaune paled immediately and tried to hang up, but his finger wasn't quite fast enough.
"Hey Jaune," she said in an admittedly smoldering voice, which caught all of us off guard, especially the female Arc family members. "About time you picked up, babe. How about we go back to our dorm and...have some good luck sparring on the bed all until lunch time, and again afer dinner? I could always spend some more time training with that big sword of yours..."
The ten of us stared at the scroll as Pyrrha giggled. Jaune went bright red, as did many of the sisters. Sapphire was gaping, and Saphron was trying so hard not to guffaw. Adrian cooed curiously, though not loud enough to be heard through the scroll.
Wow. Dating changed her.
I just snorted before peeking my head between Jaune and the scroll. "Wow, Pyrrha. Confident much?"
The scroll dropped, and we heard a crash and an oof before Pyrrha spoke up again, less lustful and more embarrassed as she quickly pulled the blanket over her shoulders and neck. "I-I'm so sorry! Markus, what're you doing?" she said, her cheeks bright red.
"Oh, Jaune's family doesn't believe us when we say you were dating Jaune, so we were gonna have you confirm it for us," I said, taking the scroll and turning it around to the various expressions of the eight Arc ladies. "Though, I guess you already confirmed it."
When I turned the scroll around, she had gone from having bright red cheeks to a very very red face and upper neck, almost as red as her hair. "I...I...I..." she stuttered before she squealed loudly and cut the connection. Jaune was silent as the girls gaped at their brother, finally believing that not only was he dating the world famous Invincible Girl, he was doing the deed with her. They were bumpin' uglies. The no pants dance, baking the potato, the horizontal hula, riding the bologna pony.
I kept coming up with more and more euphemisms until the girls recovered, which took a long while. Nonetheless, the silence eventually shattered. "WHAT?!" Olivia cried.
"How'd you score a total babe like her?!" Pearl cried.
"Is she open to sharing?" Violet asked, much to the horror of Sapphire.
"Is Pyrrha gonna be big sis Pyrrha?" Ashley asked excitedly.
"Way to go, baby brother!" Saphron giggled.
"Okay okay, that's besides the point!" Jaune shouted over the questions. "Let's all calm down. I want to stay at Beacon. I have responsibilities as a team leader, a boyfriend, a student, and a future huntsman."
The girls looked sternly at Jaune, save for Saphron. It was clear none of them supported Jaune's choice, likely having no faith in him whatsoever. The silence was rather palpable.
"Can I pet your ears?" Ashley asked, being brave enough to change the topic.
"Me too?" Pearl asked, a bit more haughtily.
I laughed. "Sure, if you say Jaune's good enough to stay in Beacon," I said teasingly.
"Jaune can stay here," Ashley and Pearl synced before they jumped up on the bench, one on either side of me, stroking my ears and giggling. I just started purring as they played around with my furry appendages. "That feels soooo gooood..." I whispered.
"Mom, I chose to join Beacon, I was accepted, I survived, and I will continue to study here," Jaune said. "It was my choice to leave. It's my choice to stay."
"Yeah, and Ozpin won't let him abandon us like that," I said.
"My husband is talking to Ozpin right now. He'll change his mind."
"DAMMIT!" a voice boomed from above. Many of us, including me, looked up to see the clouds parting around an elevator lowering from the top floor.
"Are you sure about that?" I asked, as the echo faded away into the distant sky. Eventually, the man stormed out of the bottom floor door of the tower, and made his way over to us after several minutes of intimidating and awkward waiting.
Now that he was facing us, I could see Mr. Arc's face properly now. He looked like a Jaune twice and a half times his age, with lightly growing stubble and shorter hair. He had a scar on his cheek and a cut eyebrow. He was indeed intimidating, but not as much as I'd thought he'd be. I wondered how older Jaune would look with that Volume 7 haircut.
"You're going to go up there and tell Ozpin you're dropping out of this damn school," he hissed as he jutted a finger against Jaune's chest armor. "This is no place for you, son."
"I'm not going to just drop out of Beacon," Jaune said back angrily. "I refuse to abandon my friends."
"At the cost of abandoning your family?!" the patriarchal figure of the Arc family demanded.
"My friends are my family too, dad!" Jaune shouted back. "I'm sorry I never wrote but you would've forced me back home without waiting or giving a damn about how I felt. I never meant to make you worry, but I won't choose to leave them."
"You don't know what you're getting into!" Jaune's father said before I cleared my throat, interrupting the squabble between father and son, the two of them turning their furt on me. "What?!"
"I...I'm still here," I said, a frozen Ashley and Pearl's hands on my ears still, the petting having stopped when their father turned his expression of anger on them and me. "Care to introduce us?"
Jaune's father sighed before he cleared his throat and stood up straight. "Nicholas Arc," he said, a bit more politely - but not polite enough to hide most of his anger.
"Hi Nick. Just wanted to say, if you don't trust your son's word, why not trust his friends?" I offered. "Have those who fought alongside Jaune vouch for him."
"Yeah!" Jaune said, jumping aboard that idea at once. "They've been with me for all of my time so far, let them explain!"
"They'd be biased and selfish. Of course they wouldn't prioritize his safety. We know best, not you," Nicholas retorted. "We don't have time for this."
"It's the middle of the damn Vytal Festival!" Jaune cried, his anger fading as he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths in order to calm down. "Just...lemme take you to our room. Then we can talk things out there. And not in public."
The family turned to see they were still indeed making a big commotion. "Fine," Nicholas gritted. I began to get up, but Ashley and Pearl tugged my shoulder.
"Carry us," they demanded.
"I-uhhh," I was about to say when Jaune shook his head at me with an expression of resignation. Sighing, I let them climb up and sit on my arms as they kept playing with my ears. Luckily, they didn't try anything like tug the tips or stick their fingers down there. All the while, Olivia and Azura were asking about training and dating respectively.
We eventually reached JNPR's room, with Nora outside. When she saw us, she gasped. "Oh my gosh!" she gasped. "Are you Jaune's family? Come in!"
She opened the door and shoved all of us inside before shutting the door. "Welcome Arcs, now that we are all here, we will-wait, I didn't know you were related to Jaune," Nora said before gasping again. "Oooh! Are you our fearless leader's cousin?"
"No, I was dragged in," I deadpanned.
"He can stay," Jaune said. "We'll have to talk about this all together anyway."
A click was heard, and we all turned to see Pyrrha in her combat outfit exiting the dorm room bathroom. Upon seeing the family, she blushed bright red and bowed. "I-I'm so sorry for my unprofessional behavior!" she said, prompting some giggles from the other girls.
"Don't worry about it," Sapphire said. "So, how do you find my son?"
"Oh, he's grand!" Pyrrha said, grinning despite still blushing. "An absolute gentleman, and a fantastic partner in dating and school!"
Sapphire smiled pridefully before Nicholas spoke up. "I believe my wife meant: is our son useful in Beacon or not," he said.
"What? Why?" Pyrrha asked, confused.
"My parents...and sisters, they want me to leave Beacon," Jaune said.
Pyrrha's face went from confused to horrified, to suddenly unable to hold back tears. "You can't!" Pyrrha wailed as she latched onto Jaune's back. "You're so important to all of us! You're our leader, you're our friends! Do they think you're not training hard enough? We can spar, I can prove you're more than good enough to stay here!"
I winced at how emotionally stubborn Pyrrha was. And I always thought she was unable to defy one's wishes. I guess having a boyfriend allowed her to indulge in selfishness every once in a while. Sapphire coughed nervously. "M-Miss Nikos, we just worry for our son's safety, he did fake his way into the school-"
"I was the first one he told, and we!" Pyrrha sniffled. "We all worked so hard to make him stronger, to make himself see that he's good enough to fight! And he has!"
"Pyrrha, I'm not leaving!" Jaune interrupted, halting Pyrrha's sobs and tears in their tracks. "Ozpin said he can't force me out and my family can't drag me out, I can only leave if I ask to drop out. And I said no."
"Oh, Jaune!" Pyrrha said, suddenly relieved and cheerful. I swear, having a boyfriend has changed Pyrrha Nikos.
The sisters all awkwardly looked aside, except for Saphron. She and Nora were playing with Adrian on the bed, Adiran cooing while Nora continuously tickled the baby boy while constantly going "coochie coochie coo!" playfully.
I cleared my throat. "Just so you know, I had no training whatsoever when I started Beacon. I was actually noticed by Ozpin when Ruby and I fought off Roman Torchwick before Beacon started. Heck, I didn't even have my aura unlocked," I said.
"What? Why would Ozpin do that?" Nicholas asked.
"He told me, but it's a pretty big thing that I won't say. But Jaune and I were in the same boat. And now we're some of the best in our year," I said. "Just look at the leaderboards if you want."
"Yeah, well Jaune's probably mooching off the Invincible Girl," Olivia muttered, to which Pyrrha scowled at the young woman. "What, that's the only explanation!"
"Or your brother worked extra hard to prove he can be a part of Beacon, and he has," Pyrrha said, vehemently defending her boyfriend. "We never do anything for him, we only study alongside him, as friends and teammates do."
"Yep!" Nora said. "Our fearless leader's a smart cookie! He comes up with most of our attack plans!"
"Are you doubting Jaune's abilities or his standings in school?" I asked. Ashley and Pearl had stopped petting my ears when Pyrrha and Nora spoke up. "If you don't think he can fight, just watch their team battle in the Vytal Festival."
"Not good enough," Nicholas said.
"Well what do you want as proof then?" Jaune asked, clearly exhausted. I would be too if my family refused to have faith in me for anything I wanted to do.
"We just don't want you at Beacon, it's too dangerous and we refuse to let our son get himself killed because he ran off and decided to become a hero," Nicholas growled.
"What he means is that being a huntsman is not something cut out for you," Sapphire quickly interfered. "You do remember how you were before, right?"
"Yeah," Olivia said. "Crybaby, always wanting sweets..."
"Refusal to exercise, never standing up for yourself," Azura stated.
"That was before, this is now," Jaune interrupted. "And I've changed. I have work, responsibilities, how many times do I have to say that I like it here? I'm happy here. Or does that still not matter to you?"
"Enough!" Nicholas boomed, getting up. "We are going to Ozpin and you will tell him you're leaving Beacon."
I got between Jaune and Pyrrha at once, stopping Nicholas in his tracks. "He said no," I said darkly. I was having a really hard time trying to keep my anger in check - but Jaune's family was making it incredibly hard.
"I'm not abandoning my friends," Jaune said, clutching Pyrrha's hands and looking back at his dad with more ferocity than I'd ever seen before. Dating Pyrrha changed some things about Jaune as well, I guess.
Still, family drama was always something I despised. I was really hoping we weren't going to fight, not because Nicholas could whoop Jaune's and my butt with no effort, but because Pyrrha would likely step in against him. And judging by Pyrrha's very angry expression, she would not hold back at all.
The door opened and Ren, Liya, Taiyang, and Yang peeked in. "Hey, Yang and Liya are looking for Markus-oh, there he is," he said. "Jaune, who are these people?"
"My family..." Jaune said. The four new arrivals looked back and forth between us and Nicholas, before Yang sucked in an awkward breath.
"Family drama? Yeesh," she mumbled.