(February 1, 2016)

Chapter 13. Threads Between Us

It's been three weeks after the All Hallows' Eve when Teams BRNZ and AZRE executed their plan to get Team PLTM together. It was a success which was applauded by Professor Ozpin himself. He seemed quite content with the outcome, although there was something off with him, Zelony thought. Bruin dismissed these thoughts from his partner's mind, telling him to focus more on their strategy.

Team BRNZ's leader decided that they should start learning to cooperate with each other. And in order to do that they were coming up with names and execution of their team attacks.

Bruin's team was training in the amphitheater with Pearl watching them. She thought that by studying them she'd be able to improve her team's cooperation as well. Although by the looks of it, it didn't seem that Team BRNZ's training wasn't going all that well.

"Nic, you are supposed to cover the ends of my spear, not my whole spear!" Bruin complained.

It was an upteenth time today when they tried to execute "Ice Lance", as Bruin called it. The move seemed pretty simple: Nicandra coats the ends of Bruin's spear with ice, while he thrusts it at his enemy, then pulls it out, and follows it with a full backspin in which he strikes the enemy with the other end of the spear. However, enchanting the leader's weapon wasn't an easy task for the girl.

"It's 'Nicandra'," she replied, clearly annoyed that she was called so. "How am I supposed to make such a thing? My Semblance is more offense-oriented, not support."
"Then what do you suggest we do for our linked attack?"
"Do we actually need those 'linked attacks'?"
"It's team building," Bruin pouted. "Do you understand what that means?"
"That things should be done together," echoed Pearl's voice from the stands. Then she jumped down from them and approached the training team. "I see you have problems, Mr. Leader," she said with a sly smile.
"I'm doing very well, thank you very much."
"Bruin, don't be like that," Zelony said. "Weren't you the one who wanted our two teams to bond?"
"Technically, it's three," Rouge corrected.
"I can help you," Pearl said and added after a brief moment of silence, "if you want it."
"What do you mean?" Bruin asked.
"Me and my partner against you four," she proposed.

Two against four... Wasn't that a bit brash, if not stupid? They could do it, but her partner was nowhere in sight.

"But Maize is not with you," Bruin commented and as if on cue the blond boy with the messy hair appeared appeared out of nowhere, shooting a shy "hiya" at them.
"That was... scary," Zelony said.
"Us four against you two? That's gonna be a piece of cake," Rouge shot Pearl and Maize a wink, the boy startled a bit with the girl's behavior.
"Shouldn't we have a judge or something?" Bruin wondered.
"It's just a friendly match, right?" Rouge replied with a wicked smile. "There's no reason to involve more than needed."
"Alright," Zelony sighed in resignation. "Let's prepare."

Maize, as appropriate it might be or not, was counting down till the battle's start.

"3. 2. 1. Go!"

First to strike was Pearl: she went straight for Bruin and her fist swiftly connected with his guts, knowing the wind out of him. Then Zelony went it to repay Pearl for attacking his leader, but was suddenly met with a wall of floating rectangles, gold crossed cards pictured on them. His attack didn't break the wall and instead resulted in him bouncing off and hitting unsuspecting Rouge.

"How are you doing that?" Nicandra asked.

The response was Pearl jumping from above her, ready to strike her down. Then a spear flew through the air and caught on the fox Faunus's clothes and was impaled into a wall, the girl hanging loosely.

Not loosing any moment Nicandra quickly conjured a glyph which created a fiery tornado and sent it towards Maize. The boy however repelled the attack with a wall of cards, all bursting a healthy amount of water on contact with her attack.

"Okay, I underestimated you. Point for you," Rouge then noted. "But not anymore."

She then went head on, her weapon in the sword mode and started to slash at Maize who was skillfully dodging her attacks with backsteps and backflips. As he was about to evade another slash, the girl summoned Gnome and blocked the boy's way with an earth wall which she quickly turned into a dome. Her smile turned wicked and she summoned Sylph who assaulted Maize with a series of air slashes. The attack was so severe that his Aura quickly reached critical level and he couldn't fight any longer. Rouge's Aura also dropped substantially due to the earlier hit she got and also by expending a large amount of it to finish her opponent off. She was so tired she fell on the floor and couldn't stand up.

Meanwhile Pearl was actually toying with Bruin, Zelony, and Nicandra. She was sliding on the stands' rails skillfully avoiding their attacks. Irritated, the blue-haired woman conjured an ice wall in front of fox Faunus's trail. Its sudden appearance caused their opponent to crash into it and fall onto the arena. Zelony was about to deliver a punch when suddenly Thistle appeared between him and his leader, blocking the attack with his shotstaff.

"What's going on here?" the purple-haired boy asked. "Why are you fighting against my teammates?"
"Practice match, nothing else," Bruin replied. "Although we might have gone a bit overboard," and he laughed nervously.
"If anyone from our team went overboard it was certainly Rouge," Nicandra said. "Look at Maize, he's got cuts everywhere."
"Rouge, you're okay?" Zelony approached his team member, his expression filled with worry.
"He was a bit... tough... but I managed... Thanks for concern, Zel," and she winked.
"I'm taking her to the infirmary," he said.
"And I suppose I need to take Maize too," Larimar suddenly appeared from behind the corner.
"Aye!"

Bruin was caught by surprise with Larimar's arrival. The blue-haired boy just looked at him rather intimidatingly but said nothing. He retrieved Maize and followed Zelony and Rouge to the infirmary. When Larimar was out of view, Bruin deeply sighed, relieved that the boy said nothing in regards to him.

"Pearl, are you alright?" Thistle asked her.
"Do I look like a damsel in distress?" she asked him with slight venom in her voice. "I was handling the situation pretty well."
"Well, I must admit that your team has become quite synchronized, or at least you and Maize," Nicandra commented. "I don't think many first year teams are that quick on harmonizing their moves."
"It was a team effort to train together, all thanks to you!" Thistle beamed.
"Oh, it was nothing," Bruin awkwardly scratched his head.
"Yes, involving more people than it was needed, including the headmaster, was certainly nothing," Nicandra commented.
"Nic, don't be like that."
"Well, time to get going," Pearl said. "Keep going with those team attacks, you'll get there someday."

Pearl left with a happy Thistle, Bruin and Nicandra doing the same. The two members of Team BRNZ went towards the cafeteria to eat something and recharge some of their lost Aura.

When they were about to enter the cafeteria building, Bruin's Scroll suddenly rang. The boy took the device from his pocket and noticed it was a boy whom he saved a few months back from the White Fang grunts. They shared contacts back then if the other boy was in some kind of tight spot so he'd have someone to rely on. It was kind of strange for him to call now, after months of not sending even a text.

"Hi, Bruin's here. How are you?"
"Bruin, thank Dust!" a scared voice echoed from the Scroll. "I've been trying for hours to contact you."
"But I keep my Scroll always on. Maybe the service was off, but I have a CCT tower a few hundred meters away from me."
"Please, come to the airship dock in Vale. You're the only one I can trust on this."
"Bruin, who are you talking to?" Nicandra asked.
"An acquaintance of mine," he replied and focused once again on the Scroll. "What do you mean? We barely know each other."
"I have no one else to turn to. Please come, as soon as you can."

Bruin sighed. They were still strangers to each other. And now the other boy wanted to entrust something onto him. He was definitely nuts, that much was certain from the sound of fear in his voice. He should probably look into it.

"Alright, just... wait there and don't move anywhere."
"You don't have to tell me that twice." The boy paused and added, "But please, be quick."

Bruin ended the call and looked at Nicandra. He was about to speak when Nicandra cut in:

"From what I understand you need to leave school grounds, correct?" Bruin nodded. "I realize I'm possibly asking too much but could I accompany you as well? I am curious in what is going on."
"Yes, that'd be nice. Thanks."
"Just one question: who is this person we're going to see?"
"Canard Klein."
"What!? That Canard Klein!?"
"You know him?" Bruin was surprised.
"He's my stepbrother."

Author's Notes

Like I said my Tumblr, here is the new update for Tales of BRNZ. Nothing really exciting here, except probably for the wild appearance of a "new" character, although it's more of a "return". It's short than usual, but there are no rules about how long a chapter should be, aren't there?

Fun fact: I came with Canard being Nicandra's stepbrother kinda on the go; I don't really have any plans set for him, but with this such information I think things will get interesting for the three of them.