Disclaimers : I do not own any of this but the oc's, everything else belongs to there rightful owners
"Normal " - speaking
italics- thinking \ flashback
"italics"- Reaper talking
Bold - yelling
The Unforgiving Path
Ch 8: Faith and Virtue
Most people would consider never doing an activity again if said activity brought discomfort or pain. No one wants to feel any pain, but sometimes, it just can't be helped. Especially for Jaune, because said activity was just simply being in anything that moves faster than he can run. He couldn't help it with his motion sickness, even now as he rubbed a hand on his gut to soothe it to keep him from vomiting. He didn't know why he was on air bus to Vale, Reaper said that he would see when they got there. But for whatever reason it was, he would get Reaper back for it, he would be sure of it.
'I hate you, I hope you know that.' Jaune thought, wincing as he gut flipped. He had to bare with this the whole ride, the people near him had moved away from him the moment he sat down.
"Yeah I figured that the moment you threatened to send whatever you puked my way." He deadpanned inside his head. Although he'd rather be out of Jaune's body, but he had to be inside to in order to get him in the bus. In order to do that, Reaper had to take over and walk him in the bus and seat him until it took off, dealing with all curses and threats he threw his way. Jaune would have threw another curse at Reaper if the intercom hadn't interrupted him.
'We will now be arriving to our destination, we advise that you take the closest available seat. Thank you.' A male voice said, presumably the pilot. Jaune let a sigh of relief escape his lips, thankful for the announcements.
"See, the ride wasn't so bad." Reaper chuckled,
'You'd better pray that you have extra clothes.'
(Vale's docks)
After getting off the bus and, sadly, puking out his guts into a waste bin. Jaune went into an alley that he was sure nobody would look down, and waited for his bastard of a partner to come out of the shadows. Jaune watched as his shadow shifted into the corner of the ally and in a matter of seconds, his partner appeared with a nervous smile, praying that Jaune had emptied his stomach in the trash. He was wearing a plain black t-shirt, along with grey cargo pants and black running shoes. On top of his head was the same black hat that he refused to take off,along with the gloves on his hand. He did get rid of the mask, however, probably so that they wouldn't attract attention.
"Whats with you and dark colors?" Jaune asked, eyeing Reaper's outfit with a critical eye. It seemed that he didn't wear any other color.
Reaper shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, I just can't help myself." Reaper replied, doing some small stretches, taking over Jaune body had left him sore. Especially with all the resistance that Jaune put up.
"Whatever, so where are we going?" Jaune asked once again, he felt that he should know, since he didn't follow through with his threat earlier.
"We are going to get you a weapon Jaune." Reaper said, walking past Jaune's frozen form.
"Wait! A weapon! What weapon are we getting?" Jaune asked, getting out of his frozen state. Reaper turned and stared, didn't even say a word before turning around. "Really, you're just going to stare and not say a thing."
"Yes I am."
"What did I do to piss you off?" Jaune mumbled, following Reaper down the alley and onto the sidewalk.
"Hey do you know what street this is?" Reaper asked, looking for a sign to give him the name. Jaune nodded.
"Secura Lane." Jaune answered, walking next to him and put his hands in his jacket pocket. Reaper nodded and took walked down the sidewalk, letting Jaune catch up. As they walked down the sidewalk, Jaune saw some people staring at them and whispering to each other, mostly him. Jaune sighed and let them talk about him, he would rather have that then be glared at and mocked.
"Here let's get something to-go." Reaper said pointing to a building. Jaune looked up and saw a small building called 'Robin's Tea'. The building was gray with windows almost all around the building, inside there were a few people sitting at tables either talking with whoever they brought or enjoying what beverages the place had to offer.
"Why?" Jaune asked, walking in besides Reaper into the building. Reaper immediately brought a hand to the back of his head and adopted an apologetic look.
"Think of this as a sorry for getting on the bus and making you throw up half your weight in the trash." Reaper chuckled with an awkward smile.
"Oh yeah, I still have to get you back for that don't I?" Jaune said, putting a hand to his chin and walking to the counter where a guy their age was. The teen gave a pleasant smile as they walked to the counter.
"Welcome, What can I get you both?" He asked, never losing the smile. Reaper placed a hand on the counter and gave a smile of his own.
"I'll just have a taro tea with whip cream." Reaper said, the teen nodded, looking to Jaune for his order. Jaune looked at the menu about and realized that he had no idea what was on the menu.
"Um... just give me what he's having." Jaune asked, pointing his thumb to Reaper. The teen nodded and added up the total, to which Reaper paid.
"Thank you sir, please have a seat while we make your order." The teen said walking through a door. Jaune and Reaper walked to a table near the window and sat across from each other. They stayed silent for a minute, just to enjoy the quiet.
"So," Jaune said, breaking the silence. "You said were going to get me a weapon, but from where?" Jaune asked, placing his forearms on the table and leaning in.
"You're not going to stop are you?" Reaper sighed while Jaune nodded. "We're going to a blacksmith that owes me a small favor." Reaper explained. Jaune raised a brow to this.
"You have people that owe you favors? Jaune asked skeptically, Reaper looked at him with confused eyes.
"Of course, don't you?" Reaper asked, Jaune gave him a look that said 'are you serious'.
"I did, but it usually had to do with having them do my homework. Not give a weapon to someone." Jaune deadpanned, Reaper rolled his eyes to this.
"Well yeah, because you were in school, that's as large of a favor you're going to get. If you go out there and help people, you'll see how many people will be willing to pay you back." Reaper said, when he finished the teen from the counter came with the drinks.
"Here you guys go, two taro tea with whip cream." He said, placing a purple beverage with black orbs in them. they both thanked him and took them outside. Jaune took a sip from the thick straw and tasted the tea.
"Not bad." Jaune complemented, the tea had a sweet and bitter taste. The sweetness coming from the tea, and the bitterness from the orbs. They continued down the sidewalk drinking the tea and talking to each other.
"Are we close?" Jaune asked, throwing the cup that once held tea in the trash. They had been walking for nearly an hour with no break, they started to walk on the shady parts of Vale.
"Yeah, we're close. We just need to turn this corner." He said pointing at an alley. Jaune wasn't sure if he was serious about going down an alley until he actually turn and walked down it.
"Uhh are you sure you just don't have the wrong directions?" Jaune asked, but still followed him down the alley. Reaper nodded and continued to walk.
"Yes, I'm sure." Reaper said. "As a matter of fact, we're already here." Reaper said, stopping at a metal door. The door look rusted and the building that was around it looked like multiple Grimm had came and attacked it. This didn't look like a blacksmith's shop, in fact, Jaune was sure that he had saw a house like this in a horror movie. Jaune flinched when he heard Reaper knock on the door, it sounded like he was slamming his hand on the door instead of knocking. Real settling.
"What the hell is it!" Jaune jumped when he a man shout on the other side, Reaper on the other hand, didn't even flinch. "Do you not know how early it is, dammit!" The sound of stomping was present before the door was almost yanked from its hinges. What replaced the door was a fair-skinned man with blue-eyes and dirty blond hair with an extremely irritated look. The man's hair was pulled into a ponytail that reached his mid-back and also sports a chest-length beard, although the man seemed to be in his late fifties, he was well-built. He wore a green robe that fell down to his feet, the robe had a slit goin up his right leg, revealing the black pants underneath them. On his arms he wore red bracers with overlaying metal, both looked like they had been worn.
"Nice to see you to Mr. Kataigída." Reaper said with a small smile, the man's face looked less irritated and more relaxed.
"I thought you wouldn't be coming here until tomorrow." The large man said, pulling out a scroll and checking his messages. While he did he moved to the side and let them into the building, Jaune eyes widened in surprise as he walked in. Inside the building had a hard wood floor up to a counter. Behind that was a concrete floor along with a forge, sanders, multiple tools, and other items. It really surprised Jaune, the inside of the building was completely different from the outside.
"I know, but it turns out that we're going to need to get him a weapon now." Reaper said, pointing to Jaune. The older man looked at Jaune as if to size him up.
"So this is the boy that you were talking about." He said, walking around him to get a better image of Jaune body. "You were right, he really isn't much right now." The man said, stopping in front of Jaune and put his hand out. "Nice to meet you young man, My name is Kítrino Kataigída." He introduced himself like he didn't just insult him, but Jaune still took the hand and shook it.
"Hi, uhh,,, my name's Jaune A-Miles." Jaune quickly corrected, looking away from Kitrino. Kitrino caught this immediately.
"Look me in the eyes when you talk to me, and speak clearly." Kitrino commanded, his blue eyes hardening while trying to meeting Jaune's. Not wanting to get on his bad side,Jaune looked back almost instantly the words left his lips
"My name is Jaune Miles." Jaune said with more volume to his voice.
"There we go." The older man said, nodding in approval. "So you are here to get yourself a weapon?" He asked, looking at both Reaper and Jaune. Reaper nodded to the question.
"Yeah we need one now so we can get him used to using a weapon. We only have six days to train." Reaper explained, Kitrino nodded
"I understand. Jaune," He looked to Jaune. "Follow me." He commanded, walking behind the counter to the shop. Jaune followed him until he reached the back of the shop where there was a door. Kitrino opened the door, revealing a staircase that lead to a lower part of the building. "Go down there and chose a weapon, remember, chose a weapon that will help you, not hold you back." Kitrino advised, Jaune nodded and walked down the stairs slowly. Behind him he heard the door shut and the sound of voices, Jaune continued. When he reached the bottom of the stairs he saw a long hallway, on the walls there were weapon cases with one weapon in each of them. The weapons ranged from a pair of pistol to a double headed axe. There were too many weapons for Jaune to chose from.
"Which one do I chose?" Jaune groaned, most of the weapons in the room, he had no experience with. He reached the end of the room and groaned again, there was at least twenty weapon in this hallway and yet none of them would work for him. "Great, What now?" He almost got up and went back up the stairs until he noticed a large metal crate near the corner of the hallway. Curious, Jaune walked up the the crate, unlatched it, and opened it. In the crate were two swords both were one-handed straight swords that had a mirror polish. Their blades were silver and slender, though not to the extent of weiss's rapier. Their cross guards were perpendicular to the grip, both having the design of daggers and at the center of both crossguards were a white crystals where the small fuller of the blade connected. Their grips were silver, but one was wrapped in white cloth, the other black. Jaune gaped at the design of the blades, they were simple and elegant but looked like they can get the job done, just what he needed. He looked in the crate again and found their sheaths, they were both a simple black color, with thick straps.
"Hey did you chose a weapon yet?" Jaune heard Reaper call from upstairs. He looked at both blades and picked both up and sheathed them, they were the perfect weight for him. He walked up the stairs, he gave an excited smile to both Reaper and Kitrino stood. Kitrino gave a surprised look when he saw the blades in Jaunes hands, before laughing.
"Of all the weapons you could have chosen, you choose the one of my mistakes." He laughed, placing a hand over his gut. Jaune raised a brow to what he said.
"Your mistake? What do you mean by that?" Jaune asked
"I crafted these blades when I was a younger, do you see the crystal on the guard?" Jaune nodded. "That was originally a fire dust crystal, the dust would run through the fuller to evenly spread it's element, But the dust in it ran empty. The mistake was that I never gave the blade a mechanism to eject the crystal, so now it's stuck on the blade for design, no purpose." He explained, catching his breath.
"Well the blades are still sharp," He said, pulling on one of the blades and ran his thumb on the edge. "So they should work just fine for me. I was never one to deal with fancy weapons, too complicated." Jaune said, smiling at his reflection from the blade, one he hadn't seen in awhile. Kitrino shrugged.
"If you say so, I won't be missing them anytime soon. What are you going to name them?" He ask. Jaune looked at the weapon for a bit before coming up with their names.
He held up the the sword with a white grip. "Faith." He looked to his other blade. "And Virtue, that is what I will name them."
"Good names, but what about a symbol on the weapons?"
"A symbol?" Jaune asked confused, Kitrino nodded.
"Yes a symbol, something so to make your sword different from the rest." He explained, Jaune thought about it. Did he want a symbol, did he need a symbol?
"Yes, I would like one." Jaune said, The older man nodded and held his hands out.
"Good, What would you want it to be and where." He asked, gripping both blade in his large hand as Jaune handed them to him.
"I would like the design to be a Phoenix on crystal and if you can, the sheaths." Kitrino gave him a questioning look.
"A Phoenix? Interesting choice, any reason why." The man asked putting the blades on a work table and grabbing a sketchbook and a pencil and began drawing.
"There was a myth before the war about Phoenixes, that they were once nevermores before a Phoenix. It is said that when a nevermore is killed by fire that it is burning away all of its sins. When the Nevermore is completely burned to nothing but ash, a new creature will arise from the ashes of its former self. A creature of negativity and darkness reborn as one of fire and light That is what I wish to do, I don't want to dwell on everything that has happened to me. I want to raise above all of that and be reborn as a new person. That is why I choose it." Jaune told in pride, he noticed how both of them listened closely to the story, it made him somewhat embarrassed.
"Well said Jaune." Kitrino said, holding out the sketch book for Jaune and Reaper to see. On it was a well draw image of a Phoenix, it was simple enough to fit on the crystal and sheath, but had enough detail to know what it was.
"Wow, You're good at drawing sir, and I hadn't even been talking for three minutes." Jaune said, admiring the work. Kitrino shrugged.
"You have to be if you want to be a blacksmith, it has a lot of drawing for using mostly hammers and anvils. So you're alright with this design?" Jaune nodded. "Alright, just wait for awhile, it shouldn't take more than an hour." He said, and with that he went to work on the crystal and sheaths.
It was at that exact moment that that Jaune felt his scroll vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out and read what was on his notifications. It was a message from the headmaster. The message had the details about his fight, as Jaune read the message, he felt his blood go cold as he got to the team name.
"What happened Jaune you look like you seen a ghost." Reaper joked, but Jaune really wished that he had seen a ghost. He would have been willing to see any ghost in place of this name.
"I-I know who I'm fighting." Jaune stuttered, showing Reaper the scroll and seeing his eyes go wide as well.
"Well," Reaper coughed. "That's unexpected."
(End of Ch:8)
AN: I wonder who Jaune will be fighting, ah who am I kidding I know already. But still, I'll leave it to your imaginations. Now as you can see the dual swords won the poll, if you're having trouble with with what the blades look like look up an image of Dark Repulser and it might help. And for the Phoenix design look at this:
display_pic_with_
That is what the design will be, and that artwork isn't mine just so you know
There is something that I want to talk about and that's upload times. Recently i've been uploading chapters for my stories every week, one chapter for one story. The only reason for that is because i've recently had my schedule cleared up. So don't expect me to upload every week, I try to upload when I can. That's all I have to say, if you have any questions leave them in the review, or pm me.
So until next time, Lupus out