Well we got another chapter here for your viewing pleasure...

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Come on people! Where are the faunus lovers out there... stop being Cardin...

Naughtbeast

Chapter 23:

"AND THE WINNER IS… JOSH!" cheered Ruby, earning a death stare from Weiss as she stormed off stage.

"How… did… that… happen…" Demon said, trying to comprehend the battle that had just taken place.

He had honestly thought that Josh had stood no chance of beating Weiss… but he had been proven wrong. The battle had started just like he thought it would go… Josh being hesitant to shoot because of his 'pacifist' side and Weiss being pissed and just playing with him using glyphs to continuously knock him into the air. But then, Weiss had just given up and was about to walk away, when something in Josh snapped. He had grabbed her hair and yanked her back, pulling the rapier out of her grasp. He had chucked her a few metres away and then proceeded to run over and fire his carbine constantly into her face, cutting her aura gauge significantly as well as distracting her. He had then just dropped his carbine and repeatedly curb stomped her face, Blake having to step in and pull him off her with Gambol Shroud. Weiss had stood up with a look of anger on her face, picked up Myrtenaster and then stormed off the arena.

Surprisingly to him, just as he was contemplating the fight, the voice in his head spoke to him.

"Well that was an interesting fight…"

Let me guess… you had something to do with that outcome…

"Pacifists piss me off… they're no fun. So I just took over his body for a more… interesting outcome"

How did you manage to take control of him?

"I just linked with his mind…. It's not that much of a big feat…"

So you can mind control people… and you haven't told me this yet?

"I can do more than just that… but there is a time when all shall be revealed"

Grrr… stop speaking in damn riddles and just tell me the truth!

"My presence within you is reliant on the fact that you know as little about me as possible… all you need to know is that I will always be here…"

But why do you have to be here?

"We both know your moniker has more truth to it than just a name… I will be of more help to you as the days pass and I will gain more power…"

Gain more power?

"I am still chained down by the forces that fight to keep me at bay… although that will change soon"

Soon? What does that mean?

"It means that soon I shall pass on my knowledge to you… I have no intentions of taking control of you and enacting my own intentions. My powers are yet to be fully released but when they are, I will no longer be able to control them on my own… hence, my presence within you"

So I'm just some sort of channelling device?

"In a way… although you must learn that I am also technically you… I am just unlocking my powers and giving them to you…"

But why?

"You are needed…"

Demon waited for a few more seconds, expecting an answer.

Needed for what?

"You are needed… that is all I can say"

Grrr… you piss me off sometimes…

"And you piss me off when you continuously spare people's lives…"

How can you be that sadistic?

"To me, it just feels right when something dies… it is like closure in a chapter of a book, ensuring that you know how the end occurs…"

Umm… I'm just going to leave it there because you're not making any sense at all. How come you've become all meaningful and nice all of a sudden? Just a couple of minutes ago, you were all like 'KILL' and then now you're suddenly giving me life advice…

"I get caught up in the thrill of the hunt… the pain and suffering causes me intense pleasure…"

Should I get worried that you like killing things?

"Don't worry, I ensure to direct my killings to those who deserve it… I didn't kill your sister did I?"

I suppose you didn't…

"Exactly… now if you show me a bit more respect I might just show you some as well…"

Wow… a sadistic voice inside my head is deciding to be respectful… never thought I'd see the day

"Neither did I… and it is very insulting to just call me a voice in your head… give me a name at least as a courtesy?"

Hmmm… well it's a start but how do you feel about Kalazar?

"Well considering my finest work was done there I find it fitting…"

Finest work?

"Considering that was the day I was awakened then yes…"

Ok then… back to the previous topic, what did you do to Josh?

"Well… as you know I found the fight incredibly boring so I took control of his body and took care of Ice Queen… it was fun actually. She is a bit of a snob…"

Not you to… why does everyone think she's a snob?

"Are you kidding me?"

You have a point… but why did you put up with Icarus or the others?

"Because they could have killed us…"

We literally killed a million IMC troopers… and you're worried about 1 person being able to kill us?

"The troops at the base had no orbital support, I destroyed their air support so they were stuck on the ground. This made sure that they couldn't get enough forces in time to where we were before we'd already moved on to a separate location… If we even managed to make it within a couple of metres of him, we'd be tried for an assassination attempt and be hunted down by both IMC and Militia at once… and that is why I didn't try to kill the General… he did manage to help you find your mother and sisters, though, so you should be a bit thankful…"

I would never thank that bastard of a man… but how are you that good at tactics?

"I have my ways…"

Really?

"Remember that I am linked to your mind… I know everything you know… hence, I was able to formulate a plan that wouldn't get us killed…"

Well… that's some conciliation that it was at least my plan technically…

"No offence, but you would have never managed to have think of something like that… your animalistic instincts would have taken over and you would have fled knowing you were the only available support to take down the entire base…"

I suppose you're right…

"Why thank you… well enough with insulting your primitive brain, it seems your teammates are trying to get your attention..."

What?

"DEMON!" screamed Rosaline right in said pilot's ear.

"AHH CRAP!" stumbled Demon as he came back into focus and fell of the side of the bleacher in shock. He stood up and found everyone looking at him, excluding Weiss. "Umm… yes?"

"What's happening? First you stab yourself without warning, then you phase out of reality and it takes us nearly a minute to snap you out of it? How are we meant to not worry about you now?" stated Yang, crossing her arms sternly.

"It's nothing you need to worry about, just remembering something is all…"

"Remembering what?" asked Josh, looking at him with weary eyes.

"You damn well know what…" he retorted.

"Ok then… I'll leave it. Anyway, we were going to go get some lunch and chat, wanna join?"

"Umm yea sure… wait? Is it already lunch time?"

"Yes…"

"I need to get some sleep! I haven't slept in ages"

Demon immediately packed up his stuff and headed off to his dorm, taking off his armour and weapons before dumping them on the floor next to his bed. He saw that Sid was shut down in a corner so he went over and pulled out the canvas tarp he had stored in case he needed a stretcher. Using his knife, he cut out a strip and wrapped it around his head as another make-shift bandana, before falling into bed and trying to get to sleep. He laid there for about a minute before he decided to speed up the process.

Ahhh… sleeping pills… the saviour at the end of any soldier's day…

And with that, he slipped into the warm embrace of sleep. Luckily for him, he managed to sleep through the entire night and woke up in the morning feeling refreshed and regenerated. With a smile he got out of bed… and then immediately bumped into something and fell back. He turned on the optical implants and saw that Kira was standing over his bed with a stern look on her face.

"Fifteen minutes…" she deadpanned, acting as if that was all that needed saying.

"What"

"I have been here for fifteen minutes trying to wake you up. I tried shouting, I tried a whistle, I tried to get Sid to kick you in the side… and you still didn't wake up…"

"Yea…" he said guiltily, rubbing the back of his neck "I kinda took some sleeping drugs again…"

"Well that would explain it, anyway, you promised to teach Jaune to shoot!"

"I did?"

"YES! We were chatting yesterday and he said that you promised to meet him in the training area, but never got to because we were kinda beating you up after nearly killing Pyrrha"

"Oh…. I see…"

"Good. Well you better get down there now and make it up to him!?

"Hmm… ok then, go tell him to meet me in the training area in an hour… I have to get breakfast"

Demon got out of bed again, had a small shower, and then changed back into his combat gear. He went down to the dining hall and stocked up on pancakes (about 30 this time) before finally heading back to his pod. He grabbed a spectre, attaching a backpack to it, as well as stocking it full with every type of weapon and the training ammunition. Having made sure everything was stocked up, he went down to the training area and saw Jaune sitting in a corner reading a comic, no other people being in the area.

He decided to have a bit of fun and stopped the spectre before it could enter the room, activating his pilot cloak as he did. Moving as quietly as he could, Demon walked over to Jaune and tapped him on his shoulder, scaring him half to death. He threw the comic into the air and fell back onto the floor, a look of complete terror plastered on his face. Demon laughed and de-activated his cloak, having to stop himself from splitting his lungs from laughter.

"Sorry there Jaune!" he managed to blurt out between laughter and gagging for air.

"Not funny…" deadpanned Jaune, standing back up and picking up his comic. He went over and put the comic in a duffel bag and came back to stand in front of Demon. Said pilot had finally managed to stay his laughter and was looking Jaune up and down, trying to figure out what weapon would suit him best.

"Well… what type of weapon were you looking for?"

"I just want something that can hit something far away because I only have my sword as a weapon…" Jaune replied, eyeing Crocea Mors that was sheathed at his hip.

"Well then, that immediately takes the shotty off the list…" Demon said, chucking the shotgun out of the pack. "You probably don't want to lug a gigantic sniper rifle around so the Kraber's out…" the sniper rifle clattered to the floor "And carrying an LMG around isn't going to do anyone any good, you already have Nora for heavy weapons…" the Spitfire was dropped to the floor.

"Ok then… what options are left…"

"Well, you have the Carbine, Compact SMG, Smart Pistol, Longbow DMR, G2A4 Rifle, Hemlok BF-R and the C.A.R SMG…"

"What would you recommend?"

"Well for someone who's new to guns like you, I'd recommend the G2A4, Carbine or the Hemlok mainly because they are easier to control"

"Umm…"

"Ok then, I'll just start for you…" offered Demon, pulling out a generic Hemlok BF-R.

He walked over to the firing range, Jaune following, and showed him the basics.

"First off, you need to know how to load it" Demon then demonstrated how to correctly load the rifle. "Now you try…"

Jaune managed to load it after a couple of seconds of inspecting it a bit more and seemed happy at his feat. Demon simply took the rifle off him, dropped the clip out, then reloaded it in half a second.

"I want you to be able to reload it that fast, unless you can do that this training will not be that effective"

Jaune simply nodded and continued practicing the loading. About 5 minutes later, he managed to get the loading time to around two seconds but Demon seemed happy.

"Congrats, you managed to match the time that the IMC recommends for their recruits… now onto the firing drills…" Demon said, smiling underneath his helmet.

4 hours later…

Jaune groaned loudly and collapsed onto a chair, gulping down water out of the bottle he brought.

"Oh come on! You can't seriously be giving up now!" Demon complained, lifting Jaune back out of the seat.

"Can't you just give me that auto-aim pistol that Rosaline has?" Jaune asked, giving his best puppy dog eyes.

Demon walked over to his backpack and pulled out the Smart Pistol, Jaune gaining a bit of hope… until Demon shot the pistol to pieces with his Wingman.

"You're not getting out of this easy…"

"Well you could at least tell me how to shoot!"

I guess I really should have started with that…

He had just handed the gun to Jaune and pointed to the target 20m down the range and told him to shoot it. He first got a bit confused when he pulled the trigger and only one burst of fire came out, Demon having to explain the concept of semi-auto fire, receiving no other instructions other than Demon watching him as he fired. He was missing just about every shot, probably managing to hit it once with sheer luck out of the entirety of the 4 hours they were here.

"That would help… but the four hours weren't for nothing. I think I found the perfect weapon for you…" Demon chimed, walking back over to his backpack. He reached in a pulled out his G2A4 Rifle, spending a bit of time to properly mod it. He added a hand-stop for more accuracy, a AOG zoom scope for range, and an extended mag to let him not have to reload as often.

"Ok… this should suit you. It has the range you need and little recoil to compensate for, the mag has more shots and the scope should help out with aiming"

They moved back to the firing range, with Demon actually showing him how to properly fire, and Jaune seemed to improve significantly. After the small number instructions, Jaune was able to hit the bull's eye every time when he took his time to aim… which was about every ten seconds.

"Good, you're going great… the only problem is that you're not going to have that much time to shoot a Grimm before it gets too close. Now try to fire a bit faster, even if it doesn't mean hitting the bull's eye"

Jaune nodded and began firing again, managing to make every hit land somewhere on the target except one.

"Nice… well I can't really teach you anything more… which basically means I can but don't want to, but you're going to need to practice more to master the weapon"

With a nod, Jaune went back to the firing drill while Demon began walking off, leaving behind a couple of mags for Jaune to practice with. He exited the training area… and immediately ran into Pyrrha. He knocked her over and had to grab her arm to stop her hitting the ground, pulling her back to her feet after he caught the redhead.

"Sorry about that" Demon apologised.

"Oh no you don't need to say that, it was completely my fault…" she said, looking a bit guilty.

"Hmm… so what brings you to the training area?" he asked hesitantly.

"Oh it's nothing…" she lied, her face turning a bit red.

"Nothing… well if nothing is a white knight with blonde hair then sure it's nothing…" said Demon, smiling as he saw Pyrrha's face go even redder.

"I don't know what you're talking about…" she tried to defend.

"Sure you don't… well anyway, I'm going now and Jaune is still trying to learn how to shoot a rifle, so if you want to help then go ahead" Demon offered, walking away after he finished, turning back to see Pyrrha entering the training area…

Well… I see the masts and sails being built… not long before the ship sails… He joked to himself, laughing a bit at his own thoughts. He went and had some lunch, a massive hamburger with enough barbeque sauce to drown a pig, before heading to the combat arena, having a feeling that would be where everyone else was. Sure enough, he walked in to see Yang and Tempest getting ready for a fight, both showing off with badass shotgun moves.

Well this is going to be interesting… shotgun vs shotgun… insane Dragon badass vs insane Explosion psychopath… what could possibly go wrong?