Jaune forcibly suppressed the sigh that was attempting to leave his lips, settling for allowing an expression that was halfway between a frown and a silent snarl to settle itself firmly on his face. The past few months in Atlas had been… eventful… although not necessarily in a positive sense.
While he had managed to get his hands on a bullhead and confirmed his semblance's ability to store it (up to a handy new personal vehicle tab in his menu) his expectations for the quality of said bullhead were only met due to the seller informing him flat out that it would be of poor quality at best before Jaune had even purchased it. As it turned out, while the Atlesian black-market did have a small channel to acquire top level technology and occasionally prototype goods, they were rather distrustful of unknowns and those premium products came at extreme prices.
This was a result of both Atlas's well-known military hard-on and its emphasis on unity and order; which in this case translated to far too many cameras and far to close an eye kept on people's day to day lives for an organized criminal underground to flourish freely, although it was still a fair bit healthier than Atlesian officials would ever care to admit.
While his… activities… back in Mistral had left him rather flush in terms of Lien, he was still an almost complete unknown wearing a somewhat sketchy mask who had occasionally glowing irises that -supposedly- looked like the eyes of a vengeful wraith. Admitting or trying to use the fact that he was an Arc would just explode in his face in that it would either make people convinced he was a plant for the government or send his family right on track to his location.
He had high enough skills to 'acquisition' some of the better tech and gear from some of the underground groups if he so desired, but at the time he had decided that that was a bit too high risk for him to attempt. Unlike back in Mistral, where he'd managed to stow away on a ship to Atlas that had been following the Coast, all naval transportation to and from the Atlesian continent was reliant on 2 ports, one of which was frozen over half the year. With both of said ports closer to the southern end of the continent and nothing worth noting north of it, the number of ships that did anything other than head directly to and from Atlas's major ports could be counted on one hand.
This of course meant that if he wanted to catch a boat ride out of Atlas on short notice, he had no choice but to do so from one of those two ports, which was just short of telling his family his exact location, especially considering his father's connection to General Ironwood. While Airships were also an option, Jaune's family probably had enough favors piled up around Atlas to stall their operation long enough for them to catch up to him, and even as a last resort Jaune was most assuredly not confident in his ability to swim his way to another continent, he'd just probably end up drowning.
…it somewhat worried him that the first follow-up thought he had about that at the time was wondering how his semblance would respond to asphyxiation while underwater. Would running out of oxygen just result in a slow hemorrhage of health? Because in that case it was probably possible for him to eventually reach a high enough health regen to literally just disregard drowning and meander around the seafloor all the way to another continent. Of course, he somehow doubted that marine Grimm would just be content to watch him do so, but then again, a deathmatch at the bottom of the ocean sounded pretty cool. And what about space? Could he eventually reach the point of surviving in a vacuum? Were there space Kaiju Grimm?
'…Something is seriously wrong with me' Jaune had noted at the time 'why am an actually going to test that out later… the water bit, not the space bit' he corrected himself, forcing himself to not add a yet to the last part of his thought.
His continued affronts to common sense aside, Jaune had decided it was best to refrain from any potentially high-profile actions until he had ensured that the Bullhead wouldn't simply give out half way across the ocean the first time a Grimm gave it anything more than a glancing blow. Since his V.I. was still a work in progress he wouldn't be able to defend the bullhead himself mid-air until it was done.
This of course meant that in between his time working on his V.I. Jaune spent most of his time acquiring new parts for his bullhead and slowly bringing it up to a decent standard. Seeing as most criminal groups in Atlas were more or less united against outside threats (a necessity considering Atlesian security protocols) Jaune was unable to target or steal from one of the larger criminal groups without the risk of stirring a hive and drawing immense amounts of attention to himself.
This left him only able to target the handful of radical or fringe groups that fell outside of this protective web, something that severely limited any possible gains from his actions. He had initially felt somewhat guilty in regard to his current target, something that had rather quickly changed as he realized the old white fang was on its last legs, or perhaps already dead.
'This is far worse than I'd ever imagined'
Jaune didn't know what else to think, dust robberies and vandalism were one thing but this? This was a whole new beast. It was to the extent that he remained frozen in his spot hidden within the rafters of a warehouse watching as the white fang members below him continued with their preparations, with almost all his attention centered on the device set in the center of the room.
A bomb.
Not an improvised explosive or some dust chucked into a container, but a genuine professionally designed high-tech (if not near prototype) explosive that probably had enough power to level a city block.
Jaune knew when and where it would go off, he had already gotten the gist of their plan from another outpost he snuck in and out of unnoticed, but the scale of the explosive was still enough to shock him, worse still because he knew it and the deaths and damage it would cause were nothing more than a distraction to those involved.
The SDC were holding a fair tomorrow afternoon at one of the city's handful of indoor parks for good PR, and the plans he'd stolen from the white fang indicated that a sewer line close to the surface ran directly underneath it, not a conventional security risk but with a bomb like the one here a few feet of soil and concrete wouldn't mean much at all. The explosion(s) and subsequent chaos would serve as a distraction to allow the White fang members to assault the SDC's private party -held on the other side of town- filled with investors, business partners, and -of course- the Schnee family themselves.
While the private party had too much security and focus on it to attack directly from the get-go, the chaos from the bomb going off would be enough to take the spotlight off of the venue and allow the white fang a short window of opportunity where they wouldn't need to worry about hunters or soldiers. This is ignoring the fact that the massive influx of negative emotions would likely force Atlesian high command to divert a considerable number of people to the exterior defenses of Atlas. While this alone was enough to infuriate Jaune almost beyond words the worst thing of all was that there was nothing he could do about it… for the moment anyway.
Adam Taurus Lv 189
Corsac Albain Lv 151
Fennec Albain Lv 150
Ilia Amitola Lv 56
Blake Belladonna Lv 63
Jaune was actually lower level than the strongest white fang member and the other two could probably prove a rough match against him at the moment, fighting all 3 of them plus the assorted mooks (generally between level 50-60) and the mini-boss looking motherfucker leading them (a brute of a fellow sitting at Lv 120) was a bit (okay more than a bit) out of his league at the moment.
It was actually rather surprising that two of the people here were around his age, particularly considering they were actually slightly stronger than the majority of the people there, despite being what was likely less than half the age of most members of the rank and file. That was to say nothing of the fact that the level 189 bull faunus was probably only in his early or mid-twenties or so, considering he physically looked perhaps 19 or 20 and -judging by his level- was probably peak C or low B rank in strength, suggesting a strong aura.
Jaune was broken from his thoughts as one of the two younger white fang members spoke up
"Adam… are you sure there isn't another way?" The stronger of the two children, a cat faunus by the looks of her, spoke out "I mean I don't have anything against targeting the SDC, but the fair is filled with people who have nothing to do with it…."
"Nothing except being content to watch on and benefit as our brethren are worked to death in SDC mines you mean" the apparent leader of the group replied carelessly "the SDC couldn't do what they do if everyone else wasn't content to let it happen." The red-haired bull faunus continued, a spark of contempt slipping into his tone.
"but…" the girl -Blake- made to respond before stopping, looking conflicted and eventually just nodding hesitantly "… if you say so Adam…"
Adam paused momentarily before sighing "I know you don't like it when we kill Blake, but in the end, this will save a lot more people than it harms. If we can take down the entire higher echelon of the SDC and its business partners the whole company will collapse and splinter into several fragmented groups, none of which will be able to exert the same power the SDC can right now through its near monopoly over dust." He preached "Not to mention anyone who would otherwise try would be too afraid now that they've seen what would happen to them if they do. With that gone we can free our brethren from the mines, something that'll save thousands of faunus in mere years and probably tens of thousands over the course of the next few decades. That's more than worth the lives of a few hundred greedy humans."
The girl seemed to remain uncertain before replying "Yeah, you're probably right".
"Indeed, he is" one of the twin faunus who had until then been looking on added "you might have great talent and skill for your age as would be expected from our former leader's daughter, but you still have yet to experience the world enough to understand how things work."
"It's nothing to be ashamed of, of course, one can hardly expect one not even into her teens to have a full grasp on the state of the world. Your father's Naivete -well intentioned as it is- hardly helps in the matter." The other twin commented.
"Everything has a price that must be paid, humanity too must pay the price for oppressing our brethren, as they will continue to do until they cease their affronts." The first twin affirmed.
The girl seemed to curl in on herself slightly as most of the room watched her "Of course" she managed, in what most would see as an 'I get it now' manner (but Jaune could recognize as simple suppression of her own emotions out of nervousness), before attempting to change the topic "But, how did we get all this, I mean the bomb and the other stuff seems a bit out of our reach".
Apparently content with the girl's response, most of the white fang members nearby looked away as Adam replied "From a certain group of benefactors, they didn't ask for much, or rather they did but it was something we'd have done anyway. In exchange for this all they want is Jacques Schnee's head separated from his body, along with a few other individuals we'd want dead anyway." He paused checking the time "we should move, we still need to check over a few other sites before we're ready to go. Corsac, Fennec keep watch over the bomb until it's been set and is ready to detonate remotely."
""Of course, leader Taurus"" the twin faunus agree "We'd advise you to take young Ilia with you though, her camouflage abilities may prove useful to you."
The bull faunus nodded once "Right, let's go" he said signaling before setting off, around a quarter of the rank and file white fang members following along with their apparent leader in addition to the two younger faunus.
Jaune waited for a few minutes after they left before internally sighing and silently checking over his gear once more 'so much for keeping a low profile' the thought shot through his mind as he slipped out of the warehouse and into an isolated alleyway nearby.
While at first glance it might appear that simply getting rid of the bomb would solve most of his issues (no explosion meant no distractions which meant the whole of Atlas coming down on the White fang) but of course, things were not nearly that simple.
For while the large bomb that was steadily being prepared in the center of the warehouse was indeed the most prominent of the explosives that the Fang was using, it was not even close to being the only one. In order to ensure that the attack on the SDC wouldn't stand out too much during the chaos, the Fang had apparently set up countless smaller more rudimentary explosives at points around Atlas, typically targeting specific individual's that had oppressed or hurt Faunus in some manner, as well as certain areas that indirectly assisted in Atlas's defenses which -when destroyed- would force more of the military forces within Atlas to be deployed to make up for their loss.
While common sense might suggest telling Atlesian officials Asap was the best course of action (seeing as it was actually fairly easy to point out the various hidden explosives as evidence) the fact that said officials hadn't already noticed those explosives told him that the white fang (or their supposed benefactors) had likely discovered just how shit Atlesian security was, or otherwise had infiltrated their ranks and knew Atlesian protocol well enough to casually plan and act around it.
Jaune had wanted to scream when he realized that basically everything security related was formulated down to an exact science with literally no variation, which might seem good at first glance but became considerably worse when you realized they only inspected certain areas (vents, maintenance tunnels, etc.) once every 2 months with a schedule that didn't change in the slightest, ever. Which of course meant that if you put a bomb somewhere the day after the inspection they wouldn't find it for 2 bloody months.
'If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.'
Or so Sun Tzu had said in his book 'The Art of War' which happened to be a downright ancient classic, one of the few to somehow survive the fall of the old kingdoms a millennium ago, and considering its significance Jaune was sure the Atlesian officials and tacticians should have read it…
…And then proceeded to decide that 'knowing one's self' obviously meant it was a good idea to make your entire military structure so god-damn precise and concrete that a 10-year-old (a normal 10-year-old) could probably understand it perfectly from the correct perspective. So, while the Atlesian military might be in a perpetual state of knowing itself, it was also depressingly simple for anyone with some level of tactical acumen to know them too (which to be fair, isn't normally attributed to Grimm). And while the Atlesian military might know itself, the white fang clearly knew itself and its enemy.
It was to Jaune's understanding that Atlas's apparent status of 'for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat' against the fang's apparent status of 'you need not fear the result of a hundred battles' meant that according to status quo Atlas had a 50% chance of getting royally fucked and a 50% chance of a Pyrrhic 'victory' that was much more Pyrrhic than it was victorious.
Which in this case likely translated to fending the White Fang off… after they had already killed all their desired targets and were trying to leave anyway.
Regardless Jaune had a sinking suspicion that if he reported the issue to officials then the leader of the White Fang would probably know before anyone in a real position of power in Atlas and if worst came to worst that homicidal jackass would probably just blow up everything he could anyway even if it wouldn't have the initially desired results.
So, with the Authorities out of the question Jaune had been forced to turn to the only other organized group with a stake in the matter that had already been clearly shown to be less than happy with the Fang's actions, even before this shit show.
Speaking into the microphone he was wearing Jaune spoke mildly "You get all that?" before he unmuted the headset, now free of the risk of Faunus hearing blowing his cover.
He was met with an apparently already half-finished stream of curses "…stupid god-forsaken pieces of inbred, animal fucking, syphilis infested, shit! what the fuck are they thinking!" The man Jaune knew as a rather suave, almost gentlemanly (by appearance at least) thief ranted in overflowing furry.
"So, I take it you believe me now, Roman?" Jaune spoke once the man finally trailed off, his heavy breathing still audible over the microphone.
A few moments later the man responded, his tone tight with now ill-constrained anger "I had a few of the boys check out some of the alleged bomb sites already, the small ones you said the fang already set up, so far we haven't come across a single one without something explosive rigged up to destroy a building or two." The man admitted "So I believed you about that part already and that was bad, but this? You've got to be fucking kidding me, those stupid animals are going to set the entire Atlesian military on a fucking warpath. Atlesian protocol might be easy to exploit day to day but grabbing their attention like this is suicide, if something like this goes through, the absolute best result is the entire fucking underworld getting purged! Everything I and every other competent criminal in Atlas has built up over the years is going to be destroyed and torn to the ground because a bunch of holier-than-thou animals decided to shit everywhere!" he finished with a roar.
"Unless we stop this." Jaune noted.
The man sighed heavily "Stop this? Shit I don't know if we can. Reduce it in scope? Ensure that Atlas's top brass know exactly who did it sure, but stop it?" he paused "But I guess we have to try, if only because a lesser crackdown -for a certain sense of the word lesser- might give me and a few others a chance to pack up what we can and bail out... maybe head to Vale, criminal presence isn't too developed and they don't have much military save for hunters, who are rarely organized if I've heard right."
Jaune paused at that 'Sorry mom and dad, but lesser of two evils and all that' "Alright then, so I'll have your support?"
"And that of every other criminal group I can get in touch with that is even mildly competent, we're going to need the manpower" Roman mumbled "We can't even start defusing the bombs yet either, since that damn bull is apparently running checks still, we'll have to focus on mapping them out for the moment and defuse them in a rush tomorrow once we get everyone we can organized. Can you deal with the larger bomb yourself or will you need backup?"
"Depends, those twin faunus were pretty strong, one on one I'd win" probably "two on one and I'd have to pull a miracle out of my ass, so if they're still guarding it then I'm going to go with a probably no, although I can probably deal with the bomb itself. Time is still a question though, it'd be hard to do that and catch up with the SDC's party crashers."
"Right, I guess me and a little helper of mine will come along with you then." The man mused "I might not be needed, but I still want to take a crack at these damn animals." He grunted.
Jaune hummed softly "Sure, I assume you've at least mastered the basics of stealth then?"
The man scoffed "Of course, and I'd trust my helper to snap your neck without you being able to even respond in that regard, hypothetically of course, so just try and keep up tomorrow."
Jaune snorted slightly at that "Right, anything else you need out of me so everything doesn't fail dramatically or can I be left to my own devices oh great master thief." His own devices, like trying to figure out who the White fang's unknown benefactor was, although he already had his suspicions.
"Your own devices," Roman replied haughtily "Like trying to figure out who the White fang's unknown benefactor is, you mean?"
Jaune froze at that "Please tell me you don't have some type of damn mind reading semblance."
"Don't need one," The thief replied "it was the only factor linking you to actually doing something about all this when you have virtually no stock in the underworld here, especially considering how one of your priorities is catching up with the group going to murder SDC officials. The fact that the Fang was specifically funded under the sole condition of killing Jacques Schnee and some of his close associates by some unknown group suggests a coverup. Said benefactors have gotten what they needed out of the SDC and are now going about the course of destroying the evidence, they probably have someone on the inside that will ensure any paper evidence is 'lost' during the fighting, all while leaving the White Fang to take the blame." The thief paused and Jaune could almost literally hear his smirk "As for you? You are hunting those benefactors and the information Jacques' is hoarding is probably of great use and value to you."
Jaune remained silent.
"Well, how'd I do?" Roman gloated.
"Y'know Roman" Jaune responded "You can be pretty goddamn scary when you want to be, for a man that wears mascara, that is."
"I do not wear" the man began before Jaune cut him off
"L'essence du noir number 5, you left it out on the top of your dresser yesterday" Jaune noted blandly.
Roman's complaints immediately died and he was silent for a moment "You were here yesterday…" he trailed off.
"I had no idea if the Fang's benefactor might have been related to you lot, I mean this whole thing is a death sentence for most underworld groups but the world is filled with idiots so I didn't really want to take the chance." Jaune replied conversationally.
"You were here yesterday…" Roman repeated himself "…In my base…"
"Yes, we've established that" Jaune noted.
"… and neither I nor Neo noticed you." He continued.
"Ah would Neo happen to be that -rather appropriately named now that I think of it- girl with the heterochromatic eyes and multi-colored hair and the fancy umbrella that's been reinforced to block bullets and has what I'm guessing is a hidden blade at the tip?" Jaune asked mildly before continuing without waiting for a reply "Cause I was actually just going to talk to you face to face yesterday but I felt like she'd just try and stab me if I popped out of nowhere in the middle of your base, so I just left and wasted like 12 hours getting into contact with you through the 'proper' illegal channels."
Roman didn't reply for a moment "Why is it always the short, crazy ones with freaky eyes that have the skills of hyped up super-assassins" he asked despairingly.
"Now that's just rude, Heterochromatic eyes aren't that odd, one of my sisters has them in fact, calling them freaky is really small minded, your friend Neo might be fine with it but some people might be genuinely hurt by that Roman." Jaune chided "Oh and by the way, your cane's almost out of dust, you only had about 20% left in your current cartridge, last I checked, which means you have about five full power shots and one-half power shot until you run out, you're going to want to replace that by tomorrow, since the reload time is a bit too long for combat"
Roman was silent, but Jaune could just barely hear mechanical clicking as the man presumably went to check the amount of dust left in his weapon before the sound stopped abruptly as Roman froze. The clicking resumed after a moment before stopping, as Roman presumably returned his cane to normal "Ignoring that… I heard something that is a little hard for me to ignore based on the horrifying implications I'm getting from it." He commented in a strained voice "So against my better judgement, one of your sisters?"
"Yep" Jaune replied easily "I've got seven of them in fact"
A strangled sound came from the other end of the line "They wouldn't happen to be… involved with your line of work, would they?"
Jaune grinned predatorily "Well, of course" he replied, his tone even "It's the family business after all, last we met I was quite a bit behind most of them, skill wise, but well I am the youngest so that's only fair, although don't get me started on mom and dad." Jaune's smirk widened at the all but audible sound of Roman paling "Well if that's everything I've got work to do, bye~"
"Wait a-" Roman began only to be cut off by Jaune hanging up and promptly stowing the scroll he'd been using the headset with into his inventory.
"The number you have dialed cannot be reached from your calling area." An emotionless voice repeated for the 5th time from Roman's current scroll.
"You're sure he wasn't lying" Roman asked softly for the 10th time.
"You know my semblance as well as I do boss, doesn't matter if it's over the phone or in a video or in writing, I can tell when someone's lying… he wasn't." A man responded, "You know I wouldn't dare lie to you about it -and why would I- that little demon of yours still gives me nightmares, and you can see through me nine times out of ten anyways."
"I know" Roman admitted "I'm just trying to deny the fact that there's some masked freak with stealth skills high enough to kill me in my sleep… and that he's apparently got 7 sisters that are better than he is."
"And his parents"
Roman let out a slight strangled sound "… and his parents… why are you so calm about the fact there's apparently 10 people as good as or better than Neo running around Remnant that no one I know has ever even fucking heard of before? Which for assassins -a group of assassins at that- is a horrifying resume."
"Cause I'm small fry, boss" the man replied "I didn't like it at first, I didn't admit it till you came around to make me, but now? Now I'm actually pretty happy about it." he noted "After all, no way people on that level are going to waste their time on small fry like me. You? With were you want to go? With were you probably will go? Maybe. but not me." he noted "also, why'd you think he told you all that."
Roman sighed "Because frankly, who the fuck is going to believe me?"
"I believe you, boss" the man replied, "But only cause I heard the conversation and my semblance, otherwise I'd say you were off your rocker if you told me that."
"Normally I might get offended, but I'd have told myself the same thing an hour ago." Roman admitted "Now get going, we're pulling out all the stops for this".
"I thought we were going to do what we could to get the most of our assets out of Atlas?"
"Yes, yes, but the thing is we -now more than ever- have to do the best possible job to clean up the white fang's mess before it becomes a problem. If that masked bastard finds out this didn't go the way he wanted it to because we prioritized getting our stuff out -and if we do that, he will know- we'll probably be on his shit list, something we can't really afford for obvious reasons and because of Neo." Roman replied with a grimace "In fact we'll be kind of screwed if we can't manage to earn at least some brownie points, maybe prove ourselves to be a potential asset once we've reestablish in the future, with him before this is over."
The man frowned "I don't get it."
"Which is why you're small fry." Roman noted "Let's put it this way, assassins hate competition in their line of work: The more assassins there are the more idiots find holes in defenses then fuck up anyway, ruining that weakness for a more competent assassin, if there's too many, people start getting more attentive to it, and the fact that the best defense against an assassin is arguably another assassin who can run interference, etc. etc." Roman rambled half to himself "And Neo is good, damn good, especially for her age, given a decade or two I'd reckon she'll leave that masked midget in the dust."
"He seemed pretty young, actually."
Roman waved his hand dismissively "It takes decades to develop skill to that level, he said himself that he could beat one of the Albain brothers one on one but would probably lose to both of them, those two are supposedly high C rank or so, meaning Mr. Mask is probably low B-rank or so. World record for youngest B-rank is 22, for Mask to actually be 12 or whatever like he looks he'd have to have beaten that record by a decade, which is just too stupid to even consider." Roman scoffed "Anyway the point is the largest threat to an assassin is a better assassin, and even if we could deal with Mask the rest of his family would fuck us over."
"Assuming they actually work together, assassins aren't exactly renown family types"
"Normally yeah, your right." Roman agreed "Hell, in most cases, if I heard there were 10 assassins at Neo's level that knew of each other's existence, I'd find a rock to go hide under for the next year or two and when that was up I'd be surprised if more than 2 or 3 were still kicking, but it doesn't look like we're that lucky." Roman sighed "The fact that both his parents are assassins and still alive was the final nail in the coffin killing off that possibility."
"What do you mean?"
Roman scoffed "Really I can't believe you tried to be one of the leaders of Atlas's criminal underground." He shook his head in disbelief "It means his mother has gone through at least 8 pregnancies and is still alive, and his father has slept with said mother at least 8 times and is still alive."
"I kinda get the first part, but you kind of lost me on the second one"
"Weird shit with aura during sex, something about how it requires cooperation between two auras -dormant or not- for reproduction which makes it so your aura shield doesn't work against someone you're screwing, its why so many strong hunters have died cause some chick slits their throat after seducing them" Roman commented idly "Anyway point is his parents apparently trust one another and judging by the fact that his siblings don't appear to be killing each other off that extends to the rest of the family, which is why it's so horrifying."
"Because they aren't gonna kill each other?"
"Because instead of their being 10 assassins as good or better than Neo running around remnant, there are 10 assassins as good or better than Neo running around remnant that are working together." Roman paused for a moment "let that sink into your thick skull for a moment: 10 Neos. Working together."
"Oh, that's bad"
"Yes, it is… why the hell am I even bothering to tell you all this"
"Because you ordered me to continuously give you largely stock answers when you were pissed, shocked, or otherwise unnerved, that you could rant in response to so the sound of your own voice and the familiar feeling of being smarter than some idiot would calm you down."
Roman paused, blinking "oh right… I totally did do that didn't I… huh, go me."
'What was the purpose of that, Jaune?' A curious voice reverberated in the masked Arc's soul.
'Of what, the thing with Roman now thinking my entire family is comprised of super assassins when by family business I technically meant being a hunter?' Jaune thought (souled? Spirited?) back.
A wordless feeling of confirmation swelled within him in response.
'There's a saying: Better the devil you know than the devil you don't. But the thing is, that also works in reverse, if you're going to try and make sure someone doesn't betray you through fear don't try and make them scared of what they do know, make them scared of what they don't. I'm strong enough to pose a genuine threat to Neo and Roman yes, but the same applies in reverse. They know that and I know that, on the other hand the possibility that even if they kill me at my moment of weakness, someone much better will come along and slaughter them means they likely won't want to deal with the risk of betraying me, so they won't.'
'If they don't believe you?' the voice queried.
'They will' Jaune refuted 'the very fact that Roman took so much of what I said seriously means that that dude I saw with the lie detector semblance was probably with him at the time, otherwise he would've at least shown some level of doubt at some of my claims, but as it is, I technically never lied, hunting -the trade I consider myself to be in- is indeed the family business and -as of the last time I saw them- all of my siblings were indeed better than me, even though I've likely surpassed all but Mordred by this point.'
'I suppose it isn't even really a falsity, considering that if they did betray and kill you I would likely find my way into your father's possession next and inform him, now that I'm awake, which would indeed likely lead to their bloody drawn out and violent deaths as they screamed for mercy that would never come, knowing your line's tendencies towards those who slay their family members, anyway' the voice acquiesced.
Jaune paused at that for a moment 'That was somehow both slightly disturbing and oddly reassuring, thanks Crocea.'
'Of course, dear partner' The spirit of his sword replied, its soul tinted the sound of happiness.
Jaune rubbed his forehead slightly as a headache began to grow.
'It appears you are still not yet able to endure prolonged spiritual conversation, I shall allow you to recover now, my apologies.' Crocea Mors apologized.
'Don't worry about, it's something to work on in the future I guess, although I'm afraid I've got some rather pressing issues at the moment.' Jaune noted as the distance between him and his sword widened somewhat gently breaking their direct contact for the moment. Placing his hand on the pommel of his sheathed sword Jaune smiled slightly as a small pulse of warmth from the blade pushed away the chill of Atlesian weather for a few moments.
"Whelp," Jaune mumbled to himself "Back to work I guess" The possibility that the White Fang's benefactors were part of or connected to Rook was too real to ignore, and even if that wasn't the case he still needed Jacques Schnee alive in order to get whatever he probably had on Rook, not to mention how the SDC's collapse would likely make any trail related to the Dust itself get buried under a tumulus market. The reality of the situation setting in fully now Jaune shook his head slightly, undergoing a moment of fierce introspection.
"This is my life: I have to go save the man who is possibly the biggest douchebag in the universe for the good of mankind… why does this somehow not surprise me?"
"Unsurprisingly, he's definitely not in Vale" Qrow Branwen mumbled to himself as he walked towards the outskirts of city. "He's not stupid enough to still be in Mistral after being spotted there recently, and my friends in the city haven't seen anything either… which leaves Atlas and Vacuo"
Pausing to take a drink from his flask Qrow sighed "Okay let's see, I've got dozens of contacts in Vacuo, plenty of friends, and the headmaster of Shade academy understands that sometimes secrets need to be kept even from allies and that helping another member of the inner circle without asking questions is necessary at times." He took another drink "On the other hand we have Atlas, everyone has a stick up their ass, the criminal underworld is tight lipped as hell, Jimmy doesn't trust me as far as he could throw an airship and would probably tell Alexander the second he heard a damn thing about anything related to the kid even if I asked him not too…"
He took another sip from his flask.
"Okay so the kid's in Atlas" Qrow nodded sagely, setting off without a second thought.
A/N
Recovery/buff/powerup Items: yes or no?
While I stand by my assurance that there won't be random full recovery potions or item drops from Grimm, Jaune's semblance -as I have described its mechanics- does leave room for some lesser items to be somewhat feasible. This process would function as allowing Jaune to momentarily borrow the existence or traits of something through an item relating to it. This would be something like a feather from a famously fast bird being able to provide Jaune with a temporary boost to DEX in the form of a flat bonus (typically) added after Aura bonus. This would only function a single time per item and, as the item itself (in this case the feather) is just functioning to allow Jaune to draw on the 'speed' from the bird it came from, using it a single time would serve to expend the available excess 'speed' from the bird. Simply put, plucking all of a bird's feathers would give only 1 usable item and a bunch of feathers, while plucking one feather from it would give the usable item.
As far as recovery items go, these would be less 'provides a recovery effect' and more 'removes impediments to body/aura healing/recovering itself effects'. An example of this would be something that temporarily negates or at least reduces the 90% debuff to health and aura recovery rates during combat by suppressing or influencing certain body functions. The 90% debuff itself was something I implemented both to combat perpetually excessive regen and due to considering how the human body ceases or slows certain non-vital processes (like digestion) when a fight or flight response is triggered in order to have more available energy to focus on escaping or fighting. While for most people, removing this would make them more easily exhausted while fighting, Jaune's Gamer semblance makes this a nonfactor, meaning that all the temporary removal of the 90% debuff would do is accelerate his health and aura recovery.
Lastly, the concept of consumables that provide a permanent small boost to stats might be acceptable following the rules of Jaune's semblance, as it would be incorporating that consumable item into Jaune physically (cause he ate it) and through that his semblance would let him gain some benefits from its existence conjoining with his. The items in this category would be single use per specific type/source and might already have some affect upon consuming it even for people without Jaune's semblance, with Jaune's semblance simply acting to enhance the effect. This would be something like water from a natural spring located at a spiritually powerful location, fruit from a famous or rare plant, etc. etc. The water from that spring might -for a normal person- minorly expand their aura reserves or something, but for Jaune his semblance would actively process it and boost the effect.
While I'm not putting this to a vote, I would like to hear opinions regarding it as I'm still up in the air about it and won't be implementing it (if I do end up doing so) for some time, as it would be something Jaune unlocks as a result of another tier up in aura mastery (which also functions as semblance mastery) which is still a way off.
This is mostly a result of me trying think of methods of having Jaune's semblance grow (as they apparently do as per canon) without upsetting the -quite delicate- balance preventing Jaune from being OP (compared to his opponents at the time at least, he's already OP compared to his age group)
Possible Omake idea
Although I don't really have any structured idea of how to write it properly at the moment, I've been tempted to try and write a few non-canon future Omakes about after Jaune saves Vale surrounding a certain premise. It's basically a 'dating cat woman' scenario between LegendaryNevermoreKnight!Jaune & Cinder (who makes up her own cliché supervillain identity that everyone except Salem, Ozpin, and Normal!Jaune think is cool -if evil- for some unfathomable reason) with Salem noticing numerous hints to the fact that the female supervillain is Cinder yet remaining in intense denial and the rest of her group being somehow incapable of putting together obvious clues to figure out the relationship between Cinder and her alter ego (except for one random underling who is completely ignored by everyone).
On the other side of the table Ozpin has realized Jaune is the Legendary Nevermore Knight but despite pointing out numerous pieces of evidence supporting this and the fact that they trust him about literally anything else, no one (not even Glynda) within his inner circle believes him, saying he's just sleep deprived and needs more coffee (which he can't refute properly because, well, more coffee).
Meanwhile Jaune is stuck in the middle, drowning in shame and embarrassment at his own actions, seeing as his title has reached the level that it nulls any embarrassment or shame regarding his actions while he is the Legendary Nevermore Knight, meaning he only feels the humiliation and self-loathing in regards to his actions after he's already done them, all while he is in a semi-relationship with an evil chick he can't seem to stop trying (with considerable success) to seduce while in his alter ego.
Even more trying to Salem and Ozpin's sanity is the fact that their subordinates only seem to act incompetent in regards to Jaune and Cinder's alter egos and are completely normal (For their standard of normal anyway) and competent in regards to literally anything else. Little do they know that the fame level of Jaune's title has reached counter-stop, creating a reality warping compulsion powered by the entire human race so strong that when the title is equipped it effectively forces everyone below S-rank to act like characters out of a Sentai show and even while the title isn't equipped makes them incapable of realizing Jaune's (and, by relation, Cinder's) secret identity no matter how flimsy their disguises or how blatant the clues.
Jaune has gotten to the point where not equipping the title (even when he could technically escape momentarily to do so) does not count as holding back because he considers it a fate Worse than death. And will only ever use it if other people would otherwise be in danger and there isn't an alternative.
As I mentioned this would all be in the form of Omakes not canon to the main storyline considering how much it would interfere with any level of seriousness within the story. Even if I don't end up writing it, I hope the idea got a laugh out of a few of you, in which case I will feel the hours I wasted pondering this when I honestly should've been studying worthwhile :)
