A/N: And we are BACK, everybody! The week has passed, I have everything set, and now it's time to officially start the next chapter of JPLL! Hope you all enjoy this start, and I'll see you all next chapter tomorrow!
The days in Beacon Academy ran their course, leaving teams JPLL and ACMM with little to worry about, at least for the time being. With the investigation taken over by Beacon's staff, and Ozpin in particular, the two teams were left with very little to do outside of their school activities. Sans, at least, the occasional psychological checkup each of them was obligated to attend, in order to treat the periodic nightmares some of them still suffered from the ordeal they had to go through a few weeks prior. Soon enough, however, the Eldritchan threat started to fade from their immediate memory, despite talking about it here and there. Ash still showed some spite for not being able to look into it anymore, she too fell in line sooner or later, agreeing that a normal school life was better, at least until all of them fully healed up mentally.
Then, of course, came the Vytal tournament. After discussing it as a team, Leila and Perci managed to convince Hue and Jin to join them in getting signed up for it, both as a test to their skills and as a way to push the team further. Jin, for the most part, seemed less reluctant to fighting other auras in general. While she still showed some restraint in her punches, after what she was forced to do to save Melody, it seemed that something inside her clicked. A realization that sometimes she had to fight. At the very least, seeing so many cheerful students around her helped boost Jin's mood greatly, leaving her as jolly as ever. And so, as Leila entered the arena that morning looking for her partner, she saw Jin, as well as Ash and Undine, who both easily dodged her powerful, albeit primal slashes.
Leila cleared her throat, stepping in. The other three greeted her, and she bowed to them, glancing around for a quick moment. "Good morning everyone..." Her voice trailed, still lost in thought, hoping she might have found Perci there, but alas, no dice. "I don't suppose any of you have seen Perci around, have you?" She asked, wishing that instead, one of them might have seen her around. Perci had this tendency to vanish when she wanted, going to places only the Lord knew about.
Ash walked a bit closer, smiling calmly. Now that she didn't have an investigation on her mind anymore, her laid back mood settled in fully, grinning for a bit before scratching her head under her fedora, trying to remember. "Umm... She was here like an hour ago with us, but I dunno where she went after that..." Ash herself seemed to be under no pressure whatsoever, in stark contrast to Leila's rather stressful mood to find her partner as soon as possible. After handing out the papers for participation in the tournament, Glynda decided to call them, of all people, though she already suspected why. "Oi, U," Ash turned to her teammate, looking a tad slouchy. "Any idea where P went?"
"Nnnope." Undine chimed in, emphasizing the 'P' slightly, making a popping sound with her mouth. "I mean yeah, she was here, but you know how Perci is. One minute she's here, the next she's probably off in town spending her monthly student allowance something stupid like that gift she got Mel a few days ago."
Leila stared at the fish faunus curiously. "Hmm? I was not aware that she bought Melody something." Even if Perci was genuinely growing closer to them, her love life was a complete mystery. Sure, sometimes Melody would divulge some details, saying that Perci was treating her like royalty, but at no point have they actually seen the two of them on one of Perci's now infamous dates. "What did she get her?" She couldn't admit it outright, but Leila was a bit curious as to what it was, being too busy practicing for the tournament herself to know.
"A tiara," Ash answered. "She actually got her a damn tiara with gold and jewels and everything. I honestly have no clue where she even got the money for something this expensive, but there you go, Melody now has a tiara." She couldn't help but laugh lightly at the absurdity of the situation, shaking her head afterward. "I'm tellin' you; she spoils that girl far too much... One of these days I'll have to talk to her about it." She mused, surprised nonetheless.
Regardless, seeing as she wasn't here, Leila departed, looking towards the door before saying goodbye. "Well, then when I find her I'll tell Perci to come talk to you about the matter when she is available. Until then, farewell." Leila bowed, walking outside, and resuming her search.
After touring the entire interior of the student dormitories, as well as the main building of the school, finding nothing, Leila headed outside. Praying she'd find her partner somewhere within Beacon's borders, she scoured the courtyard, asking any passerby her eyes laid on for anything they might have known about Perci's whereabouts, with no new leads coming out of it. She was about to give up, and just going to Ozpin herself, going by the dorms one last time to check, circling the building.
And then, she heard the cackles.
It was impossible to mistake those cackles for anyone else. Only Perci had this laugh, which she employed ever so often, and Leila ran behind the dorms, already prepared to catch Perci blackmailing someone, or doing something else illegal. Last she remembered Perci still had some of those cigars left, and possibly a bottle of jack stored up somewhere, if she knew her partner as well as she thought.
The scene that was revealed to her, however, was not something she expected. Perci stood near some section of the wall that had the sun shining on it, with a large section of the wall covered in moss almost entirely. Perci stood near it, using a key she had on her to scribble things on the wall, carving them onto the moss with rather copious amounts of enthusiasm in her actions. As she walked closer, she could recognize the letters, reading some of the sentences that were now immortalized on the wall by her delinquent of a partner.
'Smoke weed every day.'
'Monaters.'
'You can't touch the Kingpin.'
All of those, and a few more were scribbled down, carved in the moss, as well as sections of the wall itself. Leila sighed, reading them as she got closer. Perci, alerted to her presence and without shifting herself towards the nun, opened her mouth and greeted her. "Sup?" She was in the middle of carving yet another sentence, and after finishing the last letter she was working on, finally directed her full attention to Leila, turning towards her fully. The letters all seemed crudely made, as the wall and the moss didn't particularly allow smooth carving in them, but regardless, they conveyed the message just as well.
Leila, weary of her shticks, observed over the wall one last time. "And what, if you don't mind me asking, are these?" She pointed to a few of them, not really approving of the coarse language and the messages, having no idea that most likely Perci just picked those up from pop culture she was so fond of, as well as the RemNet.
"Oh, these? Those are my legacy." Perci spoke, her voice beaming with actual pride. "See, a while back I stumbled across this wall, right? And there's like, a ton of moss on it." She pointed to the rest of the wall, with plenty more to cover it. Even with her carves taking a good proportion of the wall, there was still ample free space for more words and silly jokes to be put there. "Now, here's a funny fact about moss: If you cut only a piece of it, then it grows back relatively to that specific spot."
Leila gazed at her explain her twisted little logic, looking rather confused and perplexed. "Which means?..." She wasn't entirely sure where Perci was going with this, and thus, asked her to elaborate, spinning her hand in place a bit as a gesture to continue. In truth, she just wanted to get this matter done with, as so to finally get Perci to come with her to Ozpin's office and get the registration to the tournament done with. After all, it was Perci who first brought up the whole ordeal to the team, and for someone who was more than eager to sit Hue down and talk out all the reasons as to why it was perfect idea, Perci sure seemed complacent to just ignore being called to discuss this very specific subject with the headmaster.
"Well..." Perci actually did some build up to this, seemingly proud of her master plan. "It means that when it grows back, what I carved in here will stick around, even if the moss around it keeps growing. I have made myself immortal Nun." Perci looked outright giddy, to a slightly cartoonish degree, even. "This will stay here forever." She seemed utterly convinced of her silly notions, raising her hand for a thumbs up of approval to her own silly idea.
Leila, on the other hand, wasn't particularly amused. She actually raised her hand to her face, audibly giving herself a face palm at the sheer stupidity that came out of Perci's mouth. "You... Do now that it doesn't work like that, right? The moss will most likely just regenerate sooner or later, and you'll either have to re-carve all of this absurd nonsense again onto the wall, or you'll just forget about it and leave it be." She tried to at least speak out of her own logic. It only seemed sensible to assume no plant on Remnant actually grows this perfectly aligned and layered. "Anyway... I hope you realize that we had a talk with Ozpin and Glynda scheduled about the tournament, right? He said he couldn't let us enter it before we get a matter settled with him."
Perci looked at her rather bored already, but regardless shrugged, starting to pace slowly towards Ozpin's office. "Fine, fine... I guess. I just know what he wants to talk about already." She mentioned off hand, Leila following her towards his office, raising an eyebrow curiously.
"Really?" She couldn't help but ask, pondering the subject herself for quite a while. "Well, do you mind sharing what it is then?" She had her own ideas, but it was just as good to hear what Perci had to say.
Perci nodded, though she seemed displeased talking about it for some reason. "I'm betting like ten grand that they won't let me in there because of my fuckin' semblance or some shit." She explained briefly, and Leila sighed, as Perci's tones got a bit gruff and annoyed, as she usually does when something upsets her. It was almost like a childish tantrum of sorts, only placated by more adult mannerisms.
Leila shook her head, looking at Perci a bit somberly. "Perci..." She came to say something more, but the words escaped her lips, gazing to the side in silence. It was true, in the end, that tournaments and sparring sessions were all based on aura level, and with Perci's ability to take away aura directly, all she needed was a single chance and she could easily win any fight in the tournament. Even fourth years could very well fall under the power she held, all things considered. "Look... We don't know what he wants to talk about for certain, yes? I am sure that it might be something else." She tried cheering Perci up, remaining optimistic to a degree.
Perci, on the other hand, didn't buy her bullshit, shaking her head. "Well, you can keep believing that, but I for one live in this thing called reality. And I know that it's hard for you to get it Nun, but reality is shit." She muttered, looking to the side. "Most likely Glynda is gonna be more than pleased telling me I can't compete. Bitch hates me anyhow."
Trying to dissuade her pessimism, Leila grabbed her by the shoulder. Stopping her in place momentarily. "Well, if this is the tone you'll have when talking to them, then most likely yes, this is what will happen. But, if you try for once to be a bit more positive about things, you'll see that it might not be as bad as you make it out to be." By now, the two of them got close enough to the tower, Leila pressing the button to call the elevator to take them up. "Just trust me on this one, alright?"
LINEBREAK
"Your team can't compete in the tournament."
Glynda's voice echoed through Ozpin's office, with Perci and Leila standing across them. Perci crossed her arms while rolling her eyes, a visible frown appearing on her eyebrows, looking at Glynda with discontent and a hint of hate. Leila, on the other hand, didn't give up so easily, addressing the headmistress sitting next to Ozpin and asking for the details. "And why, if you do not mind me asking, is that?" She didn't drag Perci all the way to his office to be rejected so bluntly, and while she would never argue with the law, she would argue against an unjust or unexplained ruling.
Glynda kept her calm, watching the two of them with a rather cold gaze. "Very simple. Ms. Valiére's semblance is outright cheating is such a scenario, as she could easily dominate the tournament and take out everyone in her path with relative ease. As such, I do not approve of her being a participant."
Hearing this, Perci groaned audibly, staring at the two of them disappointed. "Oh come on! It's not like I can just touch someone and then 'boom! I win.'" She tried to defend herself. "Besides, I need to get into close range, too. Do you really think everyone will just run at me and not try and snipe me from afar?"
Glynda didn't buy her explanation, shaking her head. "Regardless, with your ability to drain aura, you also possess a far larger threshold to being defeated than anyone else in the tournament. Even with people with higher aura capacity around, you still trump them with ease with sheer numbers." Glynda kept her stance still, refusing to give them any sort of leeway. It was true, however, that to some degree she felt a bit spiteful towards the delinquent. While it was quite unprofessional of her to be biased, Perci cussing at her on and on during her lessons, showing her little to no respect, and overall making jokes on her expense did have an effect on Glynda's decision making, even if she refused to admit it.
Ozpin, who so far sat still, with nothing in particular to say, finally cleared his throat. Giving a slight cough as well, he easily caught Glynda's attention, as well as the two students, taking a deep sigh before coming to give his own input on the matter. "With that said, however, it would be quite improper of me to ban a team that is trying to find a solution." He explained. "So, with this in mind, if you have any opinion as to what we should do with your team in regards to the Vytal Festival Tournament, I am all ears." He already had a few ideas of his own, but it was more important to hear Perci and Leila say something first.
The two of them glanced at one another for a minute or so, each saying nothing and thinking internally. Pondering the various solutions that could be implemented, it slowly dawned on them that there was really only one solution to this that would be the most acceptable. Perci tried to argue about it wordlessly, but with Leila telling her she had no choice with her face alone, she begrudgingly agreed, slumping over her chair and looking back at the principle and the academy's headmistress. "...Fine." She muttered, not seeming happy about this in the least.
"Fine, what?" Glynda questioned her, having little to no patience for Perci's snark. To some degree, she expected the girl to throw another temper tantrum, and threaten to beat both of them or something if she didn't get what she wanted.
However, what she thought notwithstanding, Perci continued, seeing as it wasn't obvious to them. "Fine... I won't drain aura within the tournament." It was a tough choice, to give her most powerful advantage in combat away. "BUT," she continued before any of them could interrupt her, having one last thing to say on the matter. "I still want to be allowed to drain before the battle. I don't care what happens after the bell rings as long as I can at least come prepared. For me stocking on aura is the same as stocking on bullets." She ended her rebuttal, eyeing both of the adults in the room, a slight smirk making its way onto her lips.
Glynda and Ozpin stared at one another briefly. They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, unease clear on their faces. After a few minutes of solid silence, Ozpin finally turned back to the duo, nodding in spite of Glynda's surprise. "...Very well. As long as you do not drain anyone within the arena, it is fine." He chose his words extra carefully, even compared to his usual self. The last thing he needed was Perci clinging onto technicalities and offering what she called her 'handshake of doom' to her opponents before the match actually begun, thus draining them beforehand.
"B-But Ozpin!" Glynda tried to argue back against it, still not buying her act. "If she comes into the arena with as much aura as she wants-"
"Then she'll just have extra armor around her. Nothing more, nothing less." Ozpin argued back. He saw combat data from Perci before, and if he was to judge her by what he saw, her use of aura was liberal, to say the least. True, she held massive reserves, but at the end of the day, her control over it was rather lacking, needing a lot more aura to heal wounds that for others would require minimal amounts. "With everything in mind, I do not believe she holds such a risk against the other competitors, as long as within the arena's boundaries, she doesn't drain aura from anyone." He then grinned lightly, giving Perci a rather sly look. "including teammates."
Perci snarled at him lightly, clicking her tongue against her teeth as she realized he got his bases covered from all directions. However, at the back of her mind, she still had one advantage over him. One thing she could do Ozpin didn't know about yet.
And that was giving aura away.
"...Fine, whatever." She nodded once, keeping up the act of being defeated. Great minds like his always fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book, and just as she expected, Ozpin called down the meeting, and Glynda walked over, having the two of them the form again. "We'll need you to fill the form again and specify the limitation we discussed here," Glynda explained briefly, walking away to tend to some other business, her heels clicking quite audibly as she stepped into the elevator, going down.
Once she was fully gone, Ozpin glanced at the two students, addressing Perci in particular. "You know, there is really no need to antagonize the staff so." He uttered, still slightly disappointed in her childlike tendencies. While it was true that Perci's grades have been improving lately, and at least within the student body she seemed to stabilize, when it came to most of the teachers, with the notable exception of Port, Perci still showed little to no respect to any of them, her snark reigning supreme.
Perci gave him a bit of a condescending look, shrugging. "...Meh." she didn't particularly care either way, as seeing Glynda's stern expression grow even more pissed each time was pure gold for Perci. Her reactions always managed to surprise her anew, and she always passed a chuckle internally watching Glynda flip her shit over being caught contradicting herself over the most minute of details. "I'll stop when I feel like it." Then again, Perci was just as hypocritical, on one hand readily annoying others, and then being angry that they treat her badly.
Ozpin wasn't really happy about her behavior, but for the most part, she showed improvement. "Well, regardless, I hope you all train hard for the tournament at hand. Remember, you only have a few days of preparation, so I hope to see you at your peak for the first match." He gave them his blessing, looking down at the papers piling his desk again. "Anyway, this will be all for now. I hope you have a pleasant day." He dismissed them at last.
Leila was the first to get up, bowing to Ozpin happily. "Thank you, sir!" She exclaimed, putting some happy tones into her voice. "We will do our best!" After that, she went towards the elevator, pressing the button and patiently waiting for it to arrive. Perci, on the other hand, simply got up slowly, her gaze remaining rather gruff, walking after Leila with her hands in her pockets, standing by her side until the two of them were finally alone in the elevator, watching the ground level approach them steadily.
Once they were finally out of Ozpin's reach, Perci grinned lightly to herself, cackling at her victory. "Heh heh heh..." She couldn't help it, having managed to pull a fast one under Ozpin's careful eyes.
Leila stared at her teammate with slight concern, not knowing what passed through the delinquent's mind. Whatever it was, it was most likely something Leila wouldn't abide by, and so, she tapped on Perci's shoulder, looking at her with a bit of a zealous expression. "And what is it now, Perci? I hope you don't plan on cheating and breaking the rules Ozpin had just put in place for you."
Perci turned to her with an almost innocent face, which Leila might have actually bought if it wasn't Perci giving it. "Who, ME? Please Leila, I would never break the rules that Ozpin set in place for me..." Her tone was far too polite for her usual self, and the dragging of her words at the end of her sentence only drew more and more suspicion out of the nun. "Yes, I'll follow the rules. All to a tee..." At this point, her cackles began to sound like a Saturday morning cartoon villain's, if weaker in volume.
Leila tried to decipher the need for such laughs, thinking back on everything Ozpin had told them about the tournament. It didn't take her long, even with her not really bright intelligence, to realize the flaw in his ruling, eyes widening in surprise. "...He doesn't know about the aura sharing ability."
Perci chuckled again, leaning on the wall. "Bingo." She confirmed to the nun, who instinctively came to stop the elevator and bring it back up to Ozpin's office. Before she could press the button, however, Perci grabbed her hand, looking rather annoyed. "Whoa, Nun, what's your deal?! Come on, don't you want some sort of advantage here?"
Leila shook her head. "Not like this. You deceived Ozpin, and I will fix this situation by telling him the full story. Now let my hand go." She commanded, stuck in her own morals and righteous will to see the clear advantage in this.
Perci shook her head, growing more and more serious. "I ain't lettin' you do that. Enough that I had to declaw myself just to enter this fucking tournament, I'm not lettin' you take away the one thing I can still do with my semblance! Besides, it's good for you too, you know. You burn through your aura like it was made of oil!" She leaned in closer, giving Leila a stern glare. "You need me, Leila. Admit it or not."
Leila looked to the side, avoiding Perci's piercing eyes. Gazing at the outside of the elevator, she let her hand down, agreeing for a change to let it slide. "Alright... But only because this power is used for the benefit of others. I will pray for forgiveness from the Lord, and we can put this behind us." It was a coping mechanism of sorts, to pray for the Lord in order to excuse doing things that didn't particularly stand hand in hand with her ideals. Sure, there were actions she would never take, no matter the situation, but on smaller matters such as these, she found it acceptable lately to let them slide.
"Trust me Nun; you ain't gonna regret it!" Perci leaned back, closing her eyes and cackling to herself over her small, but nonetheless present victory over the know-it-all headmaster.
Now, with everything set, team JPLL could finally compete in the Vytal tournament...