The rhythmic beeping of the respirator fill the room accompanied by the pungent smell of various chemicals and disinfectants. Pretty standard stuff for a room in the ICU all things considered. What worries me and the others at the moment is just how extensively Lionel has been fucked up.
Lionel Lazuli (Mortally wounded)
Title: Unyielding Undead (Immune to any and all mental damage)
Level 35
Race: Undead
Exp: 0/10000
Hp: 121/3300
AP: 20/330
Atk – 37 (+30) = 67 (33)
Def – 92 (+100) = 192 (91)
Str – 41
End – 92
Vit – 92
Dex – 33
Int – 28
Wis – 26
Luck – 23
The debuff basically details how his body will not make a full recovery at least for several days while suffering 50% more damage from all damage, health will not exceed 20% of max and Atk as well as Def are halved. I'd say he's crippled but that would be a hell of an understatement.
"I'm going to be frank with you here, your friend should not be alive." The doctor gives his ominous opinion.
"Throughout the entirety of my medical career never have I seen someone withstanding such damage without being a veteran Huntsman AND have a protection semblance." He pulls up an x ray showing various fractured bones mostly in the torso but minor cracks along the legs are also visible.
"This isn't to factor in the fact that mr Lionel doesn't have an aura. This might as well be a miracle." He sighs deeply.
"How long will it take for him to recover doc?" Barry asks.
"My guess would be a week if we can manage to get a healing expert down. He should thank his lucky stars that he isn't rendered a vegetable with how much concussion his brain suffered." The doctor turns to leave but not before facing us one last time.
"When you finish with your visit there's someone wanting to talk with you outside." Odd, I'm pretty sure it can't be reporters as they're not allowed here.
"Is there truly nothing we can do to help him, no magic nor elixirs capable of fixing his current conditions?" Maria looks at me.
"I'm afraid this is beyond our current capabilities. On the bright side though, the prize money should be immensely useful in the near future." 200k for each of the three of us along a whopping 1m from Lionel's challenge with another 2m for actually winning.
"Yeah. Besides I don't think the injuries are permanent so this is still a win." Lionel gives a thumb up with his arm that isn't completely wrapped in gauze.
"I'm surprised you're the one saying that considering the pain you feel at the moment." I'm mildly uncomfortable at the possibility of him being a masochist.
"Oh they gave a crap load of painkillers. I'm high as hell and numb all over at the moment." No wonder his eyes seem more distant than usual.
"Anyway we should leave you to rest. Let's go meet who's looking for us in the waiting room." Maria helps prop Lionel up comfortably and Barry hands him the remote for the tv before following me out.
A short moment later we find ourselves at the waiting room where dozens upon dozens of patients are waiting for admission. Another section is filled with family members and visitors alike waiting their turn, some at ease some on the verge of a panic attack. The very strong emotions running rampant did make some of my grimm instincts go haywire for a bit but it disappears as fast as it comes.
The receptionist points us to a corner where our visitor waits being an amber eyed woman with striking red hair in a rather weird attire if I do say so myself. I mean, who wears trench coats into the hospital of all places? It's like she's here to assassinate someone.
"A-ah hi there. I'm sorry for what happened to Lionel." Huh? No way, is this who I think it is.
"YOU'RE THE CHAMPION?" Barry exclaims.
"Quiet down Barry." Maria admonishes him gesturing to our surroundings.
"Indeed, I'm Myra Nikos, now former undefeated champion I suppose." She smiles gently and I smack myself internally for not seeing the similarity in fighting styles during the tournament. We are rather far in the past before canon and Pyrrha's mother being a badass warrior really isn't that outlandish. It would certainly explain how her fame came to be if she has Myra as a mentor.
"Pleasure to meet you, I'm Onyx, this is Barry and Maria." I introduce.
"I'm sorry I got carried away in the moment, I didn't mean to injure your friend like that. I had thought he possessed aura to attempt such a bold move." She bows in apology.
"It's not your fault, Lionel is just far too stubborn and foolish for his own good. We're not pressing charges if that's what you're concerned about, it was his decision to take that hit after all." I wave off.
"But it just seems wrong just to let it go like that, surely there's something I can do to make it up." Kindness runs in the Nikos family and judging by those eyes she's not letting us have it any other way.
"Well we are rather new in town and don't have a place to stay at the moment Perhaps you can recommend a place?" At my request Myra beams in joy and starts speed dialing someone on her scroll.
"Oh I can do you one better, I have a modest property that I'm not using at the moment as it's more of a business home. My precious girl's birthday is coming up and I've already asked for a week off so you can use the place until your friend recovers." That's a rather generous offer though how does a business home fit 3 people?
[At the so called business home]
Rich people are bastards. Granted the Nikos are all saints but their sense of financial welfare is utter bullshit. How do you call the equivalent of a mansion modest!
3 stories tall with yards the size of a miniature park covered in intricately hedges of swans alike even some aristocrats are not privy off. There's so many gold engravings everywhere from the fences to the doors as well as the decorations that if all melted down would probably fetch enough of a price to buy another mansion in of itself. How much money would it cost to live here for a day let alone as a permanent resident?
"Damn, even the Cainhurst castle wasn't this extravagant." Maria whistles.
"My inner college student is crying." Barry looks down onto the ground and refuses to acknowledge the absolutely irresponsible spending in front of him.
"You tell me, just how low is the tax for rich folks." The IRS would have a field day with this one.
"I mean, it's technically not mine? The city just decided to gift it to me when I've reach 10 years in being the champion. Apparently it used to belong to one of the old king and has been well maintained up until today." Myra shrugs.
"I really can't help but doubt that there's some sort of catch to this like the whole place being built upon burial grounds or haunted by other supernatural forces." Then again fighting ghosts wouldn't be that hard with our current strength as a team.
"On the contrary, the king was very religious and this place is considered the most blessed site on the whole continent." Well that raises several other red flags. Are grimms considered evil beings religiously? Will I just disintegrate just by setting foot inside?
A few minutes later and we're beginning to settle in the overly luxurious accommodations. It took longer than I expected to calm my inner penny pincher, I mean for Christ sake I was used to eating 2 meals a day to save money for a Steam sales before all of this!
Myra has already excused herself to the port to begin celebrating Pyrrha's birthday prior to this and now we're huddled around a computer scrolling through some odd jobs to take. Organizing the ones most suitable for each of our skill sets, we have to go separate ways as most of the work comes from different clients/companies.
In the end the distribution was as following. Barry got dog walking and a delivery gig. Maria volunteered for some cleanup duty at the old sites needing demolition and somehow passed the survey for a waitress position in an extremely fancy place, one usually frequented by the 1%. As for me, I've picked up a job to be a bodyguard for some kid.
"Good luck guys." Barry bids farewell heading for his first job.
"To you as well." Maria does the same and I start doing some research on my bounty.
[With Barry, dog walking]
"…and he hates hats as well as the scent of mint, did you get all that?" Barry tunes back in to the advices of the woman who is his client for the day. Don't get him wrong, he's no irresponsible or anything but she has been repeating the whole thing at least twice by now and it's starting to grate on his nerves.
"Uh huh, gotcha. Don't worry, the little guy seems well behaved enough, I'm sure it'll be fine." He reassures, having taken off the hat earlier.
"Well alright, mommy will be back soon Dean, try not to chase the postman again." Barry shuts the door after her and looks down at the golden retriever he's tasked to take care of. The dog is fit for sure being built more like a dobermann than anything and otherwise rather lazy. Its ears drooping low and eyes barely open most of the time.
"Hmm, hard to believe you're the kind to cause any trouble at all." Barry comments.
As the sun is rather harsh out at the moment he decides to sit down on the couch and watches some tv but not before filling Dean's bowl with a bit of treats. An hour or two passes by uneventful and the hunter deems it fit to start taking the good boy for a walk. It was all smooth sailing until they reach the park.
"Weird, that phone looks eerily similar to my old one." Barry unknowingly gets distracted by an advertisement and when he snaps back as he hears aggressive barking with the leash no longer in his hands and Dean bolting after a stray squirrel.
"Ooh crap, come back here boy!" He shouts after it giving chase.
Only now does Barry realize how deceptive the dog's behaviors have been as he struggles to keep up with the lightning fast pace of the chase even if he himself is by no means slow. It didn't help that the dog has zero sense of collateral damage knocking over practically everything in its way that Barry have to clean up.
At first it was just a bird nest and some junk laying around but it only gets worse. It took him entire minutes to tidy up the garbage bins knocked over and he even had to flip a bench back to where it was. He decides that Dean must be aura enhanced like zwei to knock steel objects like that with ease having not slowed down one bit.
"Alright boy, just *huff* stop already, you got him good *huff* let's head back." Barry catches his breath with Dean cornering the squirrel in an alley.
Suddenly, the rodent leaps up and clings to Barry's coat and the dog lunges after it knocking him over in the process. Scrambling to get up, Barry was unprepared to dodge as Dean unexpectedly bites into his arm. It did draw blood but compared to the wounds he suffered before, it didn't so much as sting. In the scuffle his hat landed on his head again and that must have ticked the dog off.
"Great, I'm going to have to patch that spot later, come one let's get you home, your owner will be back any minutes now." And so Barry proceeds to lead the now oddly quiet dog back to the apartment he picked him up.
As he was dressing his wounds he notices the bizarre twitch Dean was having then notices the smell being way off. He knows what blood smells like yet whatever is leaking out of his arms definitely doesn't smell of iron. Then it hits him, according to Onyx, he's supposed to be part Great One…and the dog just swallowed some of his blood.
"Oh shit spit it out! Spit it out boy!" The damage was already done as he brushes aside a patch of fur on Dean's head to reveal a third eye. The unwelcomed addition stares at him blankly and he stares back, both at a lost. *Ding* The doorbell makes Berry jolts out of his daze and cleans up all the bloody bandages around and brushes the fur back over the eye just as the owner enters the apartment.
"Aww, he looks so satisfied, you did a great job dearie." Barry nervously sweats as he takes the payment, immediately fleeing the scene.
"Who's a good boy?" the woman coos.
"I have vast knowledge of all that is good and evil and it is me, I AM THE GOOD BOY." The endlessly echoing voice coming from the dog did nothing to deter the woman from giving it affectionate belly rubs.
[With Maria, demolition clean up]
Cole isn't one who others would call sexist by any means. He have been a foreman for a long time and it's just a fact that there's barely any women in the industry. Most if not all of them tend to be architect as it suits them more and the mass would agree with his notion that the heavy labor is just not for the ladies.
Imagine his surprise when the lineup of workers for the upcoming cleanup project includes a porcelain skin woman looking straight of a rich Atlesian family. He's not the only one staring either as the other lads can't comprehend someone like her having any experience with this kind of work.
Nonetheless, he remains professional and keeps a stoic exterior calmly giving instructions on what to do. Needless to say he was pleasantly amazed that the woman barely broke a sweat clearing rubbles and moving the old furniture. At first he thought that she must be a huntress off duty yet no matter how much he focuses he can't seem spot any aura flaring up during the work.
"Sir, can you call up a bulldozer, some of the walls are too strong for sledgehammers to bring down." One of the men reports.
"Is it now? I'll make a call right away." He goes to grab his scroll but not before a commotion breaks out, one that he would remember for the rest of his days.
"Hey miss what are you doing? We have to wait for the dozer to get here." He hears someone calls out in the distance and pauses.
"What does it look like? I'm saving us time." The woman casually answers and tosses away the nearby tools rearing back her fist. *BAM*
Cole's jaw his the ground as the punch comes clean through as if the wall he was staring at was nothing but cardboard instead of concrete. Again and again she continues to mercilessly pummel the walls until it come crumbling down into fine dust. Even standing at least 20 feet away he can still feel the impact of the punches as they hit.
Usually he'd chide his coworkers for recording any shenanigans during work hours but perhaps just his one he would make an exception. After all, it's not every day you see a woman with no aura pull off something even a huntsman would struggle with.
"And that's the last one. Are we done here?" She turns to him and he could only dumbly nod.
"Yes and I'll pay you extra if you allow me to post this online." The woman seems a bit confused at his words but gives him the go ahead anyway. Before he could post one of the most trending video of the year however, he had another call to make.
"Hey it's me again, about that bulldozer I asked for…"
[With Onyx, bodyguard]
You have got to be shitting me. How did it just so happen that at this time of the year, at this exact time of day localized directly at the city I'm in were the entirety of Jaune's family who happens to be my clients? I look at the job description again to see if it's the wrong address yet no matter how I stare intently into the piece of paper the words didn't change.
This is outrageously bizarre as the advertisement specifically states bodyguard not babysitter. Requirements of combat knowledge along possession of adequate weaponry and so on, this would make more sense if it's the Schnees but for the Arc and to protect Jaune, who's the most likeable kid around? What butterfly effects did I cause for this to happen.
I need to start making a list with pictures to distinguish who each of them are, apart from Jaune most of the 7 sisters are almost impossible to tell apart. Coral, Sable, Sapphire, Jade, Hazel, Lavender and Amber, even remembering the names are already a doozy.
Alright let's make some quick notes. Sapphire's the one with tomboy hair and glasses, Coral's the one with the gentle almost shut eye gaze and big floofy hair, Sable's the worrywart with hair tied and tucked to the left side, Jade's the shy one with hair bangs covering one her eyes, Hazel is practically a carbon copy of Yang with the exception of blue eyes and attire, Lavender has pigtails and Amber is the smol cinnamon roll of the group.
AN: I did look up images of the arc family and this is taking reference from the picture at couerpedia starting left to right, top from bottom. Just imagine them younger since we're around 9 years before canon.
"I'm sorry to have troubled at such late hours but a family urgency came up and well this is the last one method we could think of." Nicholas apologizes.
"No it's no problems I'm just a bit overwhelmed I guess." I try to phrase it politely.
"How much did your boy suffer living like that?" I whisper this part to the man, morbidly curious about Jaune's pain.
"Far too much, he'd be lucky to be able to use the shower before dinner and don't get me started on the *shiver* make up session." He tiredly sighs.
"Rest assured, I'll protect the little man's masculinity." Or maybe not, he does get good at dancing from this and that's a potential advantage for Arkos.
"Come on Nicholas, the bullhead's leaving in 15 minutes, we'll be late!" Juniper should by no means be able to drag her husband effortlessly to the car given the size difference but I've long since forsaken logic when it comes to women.
"Sooo…how bad is the bullying that your parents have to file for a bodyguard?" I draw out watching the taxi leaves.
"Actually…we were the ones to put that in." Coral speaks up.
"Yeah, if mom found out that big bro was being picked on then she would've filed for a hitman." Although not completely unexpected it's nonetheless unsettling to hear how casual Jaune's mother is about murder.
"Usually I'd discourage such troublemaking but they're right, Jauney needs help." Sable agrees.
Jaune looks like he's about to defend himself but at a single glance can tell that no one including me is going to buy it. Calling him a horrible liar would be an understatement.
"Say no more, what will it be, straight up execution or simply humiliation?" I offer in manic glee.
"Hmm, it'll be bad to have a criminal record so let's settle for the latter." Sapphire suggests.
"We could trip them and make them BREAK THEIR LEGS." I'm afraid of the day when Hazel gets together with Yang and Nora.
"How good are you kids at keeping secrets?" I ask with a hint of mischief.
"We won't say a single word if you make the jerk suffer big time." Jade speaks up for the rest and Jaune gets peer pressured into keeping silent as well.
"Alright here's the plans…"
[Cardin because of course it'll be Cardin]
Cardin Winchester is a bit miffed to say the least, he was having a great day showing the stupid animals their place until some dumb blond kid stepped in and told on him. It doesn't matter much though, it just gives him a new punching bag, now if only he can find where the coward scurry off to…
"Hey! You're the one picking on our brother!" Jade and Hazel call out earning a scowl from Cardin.
"Yeah? That little sissy so weak that he has to hide behind his sisters?" Cardin taunts.
"H-hazel not so loud, t-the grimms will hear you." Jade looks around cautiously.
"Cowardice runs in the family huh?" Cardin continues oblivious to something shifting in the nearby alleys.
"Hey stop that! This is serious!" Hazel suddenly loses the fire in her voice and backs off.
"Or what? The big bad grimm will come to get me?" Cardin only raises his voice echoing off the empty street.
A low growl fills the air out of the blue and Cardin falls flat on his butt when a large shadow leaps out of the dark and tackles Jade out of sight, her screams fading away at an alarming rate. Eventually comes the sickening crunch and it goes back to the suffocating silence.
Hazel falls onto her knees letting a cry of despair and Cardin ran. He ran for the hills a hundred questions going through his head. How is there a Grimm in the city? Where is the security and huntsmen won watch? Is he going to be blamed for their deaths? There didn't seem like to be any cameras so there's no evidence and is that a huntsman in the distance?
He looks ahead of him and see someone in black and white plate armor facing away leaning against the wall. Must be of those old fashioned eccentric coot to be wearing such things in this day and age but he could care less, they can keep him safe.
"Hey! Help me, there's a Grimm in the city!" He calls out yet the figure remains still.
"What are you deaf? I need help!" Still no response.
As Cardin approaches them he freezes hearing whispers coming from all around in the voice of the 2 girls who definitely should be dead back then. The whispers blame him, calling him out all sorts of names then gets louder as the figure stops leaning against the wall and turns around. Claws. Extremely sharp and lengthy claws, gleaming blood red eyes greet him. The helmet of the knight's lower half splits open revealing beastly fangs and it speaks in a garbled voice.
"Sinner!"
Stumbling back in absolute terror Cardin bumps into something big and hairy. He turns to find a beowolf face inches away from his, red dripping from its teeth.
"AAIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!" Cardin faints on the spot.
[POV switch back]
Oh jesus I'm neve doing that again, my jaw hurts like hell. *snap*
"Did you get all of that Sapphire?" Further down the street, the girl pops out holding a scroll recording Cardin's extremely high pitch scream. The playback prompts giggles from the rest of them filing out from behind phone booth.
"That was priceless! Quick get some photos of him too!" Hazel urges.
"Eww, I think he wetted himself." Lavender cringes in disgust.
"W-was that all really necessary?" Sable asks with Jaune nodding along.
"He deserves it." The statement comes from Coral of all people slightly putting me off.
"That's such a cool illusion semblance! I can't tell it apart from the real thing at all." Jade points to the beowolf being ridden by Amber who's currently licking off the rest of the ketchup we used.
"Eeyup definitely an illusion it just…goes away with time." I mentally tell the beowolf to act naturally and try not to react to Amber's enthusiastic petting.
"Are we really just leaving him here?" Jaune speaks up in mild concern.
"The garbage truck is going to make a round here soon it'll be fine. Remember, this never happened, capiche?" The girls all make a zipping motion with their mouth as well as Jaune though noticeably more reluctant.
As it's nearing dark already I dismissed the beowolf and dearly hopes it will somehow fade away before raising a massive alarm while leading the girls home to watch some movies. Dinner is simple enough, I order some pizza from a local place that the girls seem to enjoy. During this Juniper calls back mentioning that her and Nicholas should be back soon and says that I can leave when I finish tucking the kids in bed.
Before I do this though I gather them all in the living room and addresses the thought on their minds.
"Let's be frank here, you girls want Jaune to be a huntsman so he can stand up for himself right?" I get small nods from all of them.
"Then take this with you. Don't worry you'll uh grow into it." I hand Jaune the old beowolf set that's several sizes too large for him at the moment.
"Being a huntsman isn't just swinging a cool weapon around and he needs proper training, which is why you girls need to convince your parents to approve of it so he can do so." I remind them hoping for Jaune to have some level of skills before meeting Pyrrha.
"Don't worry, leave it to us." Hazel assures me.
Well that's my work done for the day, wonder how Maria and Barry is holding up.
[With Maria, waitress]
"Look ma'am is there any reasonable explanations for what we're seeing at all?" A police officer asks Maria incredulously.
"What? He tried to dine and dash so I apprehended him." She replies.
"And you did this while he had an invisibility semblance on?" He deadpans.
"Yes." Maria shows no signs of being surprised.
"With no help from any nearby huntsman or anything?" The officer presses.
"Nope." Maria shakes her head.
"Noted. Someone get the suspect down already." He pinches the bridge of his nose seeing said man had his clothes pinned to the wall by at least several dozen knives and forks.
[Back to the Nikos mansion]
"So how did your jobs go?" I ask Maria and Barry after having regrouped for a rest.
"It was a nice learning experience and I had fun, the currency they use is weird though." Maria pitches her pay on the table.
"I…don't want to talk about it." That sounds ominous.
"I got to meet the whole Arc family, Jaune sure has it hard growing up with seven sisters." I put my pay forward as well.
"You're not joking are you? Dear god I pity the poor boy." Maria mutters.
In the end we manage to make a total of 5000 Lien from the work which is a lot though considering our needs for the future it's peanuts. Maybe I should ask Summer or Mocha where to find bounty hunter work, those surely pay more. Wait, didn't Barry have another job.
"Hey Barry what happened to your delivery?" I turn to him.
"Oh it's actually 30 minutes from now but the whole thing is fishy as hell man." The hunter rubs his chin in thought.
"They specifically instructed me to NOT inspect the cargo or ask any questions no matter what happens and the address given is just an abandoned warehouse. Even the pay itself is wrong, no way is someone paying 10 grand for a simple delivery of what's listed as fragile glass ware." That does sound suspicious.
"And get this, I stopped by the place earlier to ask around and I caught a glimpse of the crates being loaded into the other trucks. All of them had holes poked into them and I think we both know what that means." Barry grimly states.
"Indeed, Maria grab your sword, I think we have big trouble on our hands." She obliges and heads off while borrow Barry's scroll to make a few calls.
"Mocha, how fast can you arrange law enforcement support, we have a potential trafficking taking place in half an hour
Omake: Totally reliable (canon)
Elsewhere on the island Patch Summer is seen relaxing on a couch after having asked for some time off to train. That titan in Mistral were too powerful even for her and she would need to be prepared if more of them are to show up.
On another note, she needs to ask Onyx about more those heavenly oreos, she is going through packs of them way too fast.
Tai: Hey Summer do you think we can really trust them to lay low?
Summer: They seem reliable enough, why?
Tai: I just get this feeling that something has gone horrible wrong you know.
Summer: I'm sure you're just *ring* Oh it's Juniper calling, we haven't talked in ages.
Juniper: Summer! How have you been?
Summer: Great all things considered, how about you?
Juniper: Well there was this whole accident at Gramps' place but turns out he just didn't know how to use the appliances and ended up setting off the fire alarms.
Summer: Jeez I imagine that must have greatly started you and Nicholas, what about the girls and Jaune?
Juniper: Oh we managed to get a babysitter in time and he's one of the strangest fellows yet.
Summer: How so?
Juniper: I don't know if he's a huntsman or something but he has this whole black knight look about him. His semblance is even crazier, not once have I heard of an illusion semblance that can create realistic Grimms.
Summer: Realistic…Grimms.
Juniper: Yeah, sweet Amber talked about how she loved to pet the beowolf during breakfast, must have been a secret or something as the rest of the kids freaked out. No one got hurt or anything so I suppose it's fine.
Summer: That does seem unbelievable, I'll talk to you later, there's something I have to tend to *beep* Stop giving me that smug look Tai.
Just then Qrow walks into the room carrying a very long package. He doesn't elaborate and proceeds to unpack in front of them revealing none other than Raven's sword covered in some dried black liquid.
Qrow: Well? I'm waiting for an explanation here.
Summer: Eh he well you see oh what's that!
Qrow turns away for a second to look at the window but that was second was long enough for Summer to grab a vase and smashes it over his head to knock him out.
Tai: Totally reliable huh?
Summer: Shut up and grab the rum, hopefully it will make him forget about all of this.
Author's note: And that's it for this chapter. I ended up writing more for the odd jobs than I expected so the whole Faunus trafficking ring will be in the next chapter. Afterwards if there's still more to write I'll do the final damned soul confrontation with Lionel back in the party.
Also guest, nice guess with Elm and Neo but we're still way before canon so they're practically kids at this point. The girl is only mentioned in the show though, it has something to do with a certain man who can't feel pain.
