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Item: L. Adamant
Threat level: low
Description: Latest spawn of the Adamant Clan, L. Adamant was declared to be the next Heiress of the family roughly one year after the graduation of M. Adamant. L. has been known for a laid-back and uncaring attitude towards most events in the family and has been home-taught instead of attending a Combat School.
Open attachment Alpha: Lisa Adamant has had repeated clashes with J. Mauve Cho during her timebefore Beacon and has problems with M. Adamant, who is currently teaching at Beacon Academy.
Warfare module, 8:43
"As it says on page nineteen, drawing conclusions from battles is vital to your next victory. This book will help you gain insight in the finer workings of warfare, as soon as-"
"Insight my ass…" Dove Bronzewing muttered from behind his book, much to Pyrrha's annoyance. She wasn't even sitting next to him and even then she could hear him as clear as day, meaning that the Professor would most likely be able to hear him too. If that kid wanted to insist on disagreeing with the Professor, he should either do so very softly or out loud. Not somewhere in-between.
But it looked like the Professor had a similar vision. It happened so fast that she didn't even see it; she had just turned to Weiss to tell her something when a blur in her peripheral vision got her attention again.
"AS SOON AS YOU WORK THROUGH THE BASICS!" The Sergeant-Professor yelled, with his six-inch long cigar trembling on his lips as he scolded at the young male –a mere two inches away from his face.
"Pyrrha! Did you see that?" A shocked Weiss asked her.
"I must have missed it." And it appeared that they weren't the only ones who missed it. Pyrrha felt sort of bad for Bronzewing; he wasn't the worst one of the group, but his recent actions had still been bad enough for a faint feeling of satisfaction to arise within her chest. "It seems that this Professor does not tolerate random remarks."
"So fast…" Weiss then said. "…and so stern. I think that the module Warfare will be better than I had initially thought."
"As I said…" Johnson continued while walking down the steps again, "The first chapter will cover the basics of cataloging warfare. History, taught by my colleague, will also stress this. This assignment will be your homework for the next session, so finish it before you set foot here again. Now that we have handled the basics behind chapter one, we will continue with its true subject.
"Are you kidding me?" Sky softly whispered.
"I'M AFRAID NOT!" Johnson screamed in his face from a distance of two inches.
Pyrrha shook her head and tried to keep a straight face. Johnson was a…peculiar teacher, but at least he knew how to remain in tight control of the class. Perhaps it was part of his heritance as a soldier or a simple part of his unique personality, but he managed to get CRDL to shut up without really trying. Or at least what had to be 'not really trying' as all he did was somehow stand in front of them to yell. It was a bit reminiscent of Nora's random jumping.
As soon as Sky was left quivering with fear and Johnson was calmly back down at his desk, he continued talking. "Chapter one: what is War? …I asked you a question Nikos!"
What? When had he done that? Or did he mean the title of chapter one as question…had he been looking at her? She had probably missed that. "Sir. War is a prolonged conflict between two or more groups."
"Correct. Arc! What did Miss Nikos miss?"
Jaune seemed shocked that he had been asked a question. He shot upright and quickly looked around him, probably hoping that someone would inspire him give a proper answer. He couldn't afford to sleep through this college, Johnson would not tolerate that.
She hoped that he was able to form an acceptable answer for the Sergeant-Professor.
"Ehm…war…would be…said conflict…where…" He frowned and his hands tightened, looking like he was desperately racking his mind for a proper answer. "…where people die? A lot?"
"Hmm…" The Professor seemed thoughtful. "I can count that as correct on the coming tests, but now that you bring that up we can follow that example. Good work Arc!"
So this module would also give tests. Interesting.
"As you all know, war brings death. Lots of it. It will be my task to prevent you from becoming a statistic as well! But I can not do so unless you-" he pointed at the class in general. An impressive feat. "-give me a hundred and fifty percent! Am I making myself clear?"
The students all replied with a loud "Sir! Yes sir!"
"Good," he said. "Now keep in mind that war does not always result in a large amount of casualties. Sometimes, a war is declared and never fought. Sometimes, two factions are at a constant state of hostilities without ever declaring war. Remnant has had its fair share of wars, both long as short, the most worldwide ones being the Human-Grimm war and the Faunus-unification wars. Even today, there are groups and factions at war with each other. Vacuo, Atlas, Mistral, all of these Kingdoms have their own wars. Atlas for one is a region ripe with combat. Fronts are opening and closing everywhere." He paused to let that sink in. "Now then. A quick overview at the beginning: there are a few major factions at work in this Kingdom. "
"A few, sir?" Cardin asked.
"Did I stutter student?"
"Sir! Yes sir! No sir!" said the shocked and obviously confused Cardin.
"As mister Winchester was so good to point out, three. Mauve! Which ones?"
"Sir…the Grimm…the Hunters…and organized crime?"
"Correct. Questions?"
Blake stuck her hand in the air and Johnson mentioned for her to speak, taking his large cigar out of his mouth and releasing a long column of smoke.
"Hold on..." Cardin muttered in annoyance and spoke his mind again. "Where are the Faunus in this little picture?"
"Use your brain kid! Use your grey cells for something besides than keeping your hair up!"
Pyrrha snickered and quickly placed a hand in front of her mouth, shocked that a bout of humor had escaped her in such a way. Johnson was plainly insulting his students…but he did so in a strangely compelling way.
Cardin clenched his fists and threw Johnson an angry glare, but kept his mouth shut. He probably didn't want to risk another humiliation like that.
"The Fauna are there! We got the White Fang: organized crime. We got them in our school-"
Please don´t make a racist remark, Pyrrha thought, don't be another racist.
"-as fellow Hunters. You seein' the picture here Winchester?"
The brown-haired boy grumbled a soft reply that did not sound like Johnson's important 'sir! Yes sir!' but more like something that should not be repeated aloud. It was good to know that the new Professor didn't harbor any negative feelings towards Faunus-kind …in general at least. If he was military, he would be a master at hiding his emotions and feelings, meaning that he could still be racist but just too professional to show it.
"Want to repeat that?" The Professor asked him.
"No sir." Cardin sighed.
"Good! Now then, Grimm and criminals. When we fight against the latter, it is not warfare but conflict. When faced with the threat of destruction of our species, we arrive at war. A prolonged conflict with extreme violence between two factions, coupled with severe social and economic disruption. Chapter one tells us the basics of the meaning of war, coupled with the origins and reasons for war. For example: the Human-Grim war. Schnee! What was the reason of that war?"
"Well, everyone knows that!" replied Weiss. "The Grimm came to destroy mankind and everything that it had created."
"But what was the reason?" Johnson urged her to continue.
'Their attacks?" Weiss added.
"Correct. What else can be seen as a cause of war?"
"Extreme violence…people traversing on your land…unfair behavior?" Weiss quickly summed up.
"These are all reasons why war can be started, yes." Johnson then said. "Anyone want to elaborate on that?"
Cardin stuck his hand up again, obviously wanting to join their conversation like that. When the Professor beckoned for him to start talking, he opened his big mouth again.
"War is eventually always the same; one group wants to kill the other group." He said.
What nonsense. Just because that was the case with the Grimm doesn't have to mean that every single war in history has always been like that.
"That is not true." Grace spoke up. "In the end, it is one group that wants something and one group that suffers from that."
Johnson crossed his arms and watched the two students argue with each other.
"Yes, with that something always being the death of the other group!" Cardin condescendingly said.
"The Faunus-Human conflict says otherwise." Pyrrha added, not wanting to let someone like Cardin take the upper hand in the argumentation. "The cause was not humans wanting to murder all Fauna or otherwise."
"You are all correct." Johnson shut them up. "And you are all WRONG!"
How was that possible? How could they be right and wrong at the same time? Unless…unless they had told the partial truth It was a rather philosophical debate after all.
"War is caused by the leaders of countries; a collection of older men and women that all agreed on wanting a benefit. Whether that benefit is survival or material gains is irrelevant."
His definition of war was the basic combination of all their arguments? Interesting. This Johnson might seem like a strange and simple man, but he knew his subject, she had to give him that.
"Your second assignment for next week: together with your team you will research a major conflict that was part of a larger war! Each member of said team will then clarify just why they chose that sweet subject. But for now, read the article about the main causes of war."
And then the entire class went silent as they started to read the three pages that were dedicated to the subject.
'The one cause of war:' It read. The gist of the text was about the same as the Sergeant-Professor had told them. Someone wanted something and the other one did not agree. But those terms were only reserved for human enemies; creatures that could think and act rationally. Not monsters of death and darkness like the Grimm; those creatures only existed to destroy. Their main purpose was destruction; an extermination of untold boundaries. It could not be identified as war…not the normal kind anyway. It was with the sheer simplicity and singular focus seeking out Grimm and Grimm seeking out men that the conflict worked.
The kingdom of Vale, amongst others, might be a safe haven from the death-dealers but they were still out there. The situation of mankind was not the most optimal out there; the cities in Vale barely did anything with each other and outside, the Kingdoms were not exactly working together. Arcadia and Luna were still locked in their cold war that had arisen after the extremely violent actions of their last conflict, from two years ago. The consequences of that "Death-war" were still felt today. Traveling through those regions was complicated to put it simple.
The Kingdom was governed by a council that made decisions, supported by the governments of all the cities. But alas…Vale's government did not consist of the most competent individuals in Vale. A collection of old people that made democratic decisions for the rest of the population, that was basically all that their government had to offer. Then there was the Vale Police Department, whose job was mainly providing security for the citizens and catching petty criminals; because they were not competent enough to catch the superpowered ones.
And then there was Beacon Academy: literary the sole point of light in their city. Things were not really looking bright, but they would at least change…for the better. With unaffiliated mercenary groups ready to assist them with actions that identified them as murderers, their precious city would need heroes to save it. The Hunters would be those heroes…the rays of light coming to vanquish the darkness.
"Lark! Tell me, when should war be initiated?!"
And the strange Professors like Matt, Johnson and Port would show them the way.
9:28
The lesson was almost over now. They had their homework for the coming week, though Ruby did not really understand the point behind it. Strange assignments aside; the man seemed like a competent teacher. His method was strange and brusque, yet somehow also comforting to witness. The sheer idiocy of the situation was enough to make her forget about the traumatizing events that she and her team had been put through during the battle. But now that the lesson was almost over, she could already feel the hurt coming back. The wounds were just too fresh, too large to heal overtime.
"Lie Ren!" Johnson yelled and broke the silence. "What did you learn today?"
"That war is always brought on when one party or more wants something and one party or more disagrees…" Ren replied, "…the meaning of war and the way that you can categorize the battles."
"Correct." The professor took out his cigar and gestured with it to the class.
"Don't you point your cigar at me," Weiss muttered softly, just audible enough for Ruby to hear.
"Today's session is OVER! I expect all of you to return next week for more. IN THE MEANTIME! Read chapter one and start with two: the consequences of War! DO NOT DISAPPOINT!"
And with that, the lesson was over and they were free to have forty-five minutes of breakfast.
Or so she thought.
"Except for Miss Rose, Miss Schnee, mister Arc and Miss Nikos, of course."
Ruby froze when her name was mentioned alongside the names of her friends. What had she done wrong? What had she not done? How had she disappointed this man? Perhaps he DID hear Weiss and he wanted to set an example by publicly condemning all four of them…or perhaps he wanted to give them additional homework?
"What-" Weiss stuttered and Jaune nervously scratched his arm.
"Why us?" he asked.
"Don't argue son…" Johnson then said and sat down on his desk, sticking his cigar back in his mouth. The seven-inch large device was kind of intimidating…and even more so when actually seen from up close. She carefully stood up and made her way down, trying her best to avoid the gaze of the Sergeant-Professor's very dark eyes. They betrayed absolutely nothing…well, except for one thing but that could not possibly be correct….right?
She could hear Cardin laughing mean at Jaune and then a little cry of pain as the blonde was pushed into a nearby chair. It occurred to her that Johnson had not sounded like he wanted to punish them for something…he had referred to them as 'Miss' and 'mister ' and he had even called Jaune his 'son'. The only reason why her youthful heart hadn't exploded out of excitement at that name was because…well, Jaune had mentioned his father a few times and the man did not sound like Johnson.
She silently gasped as realization dawned on her. Johnson was Jaune's stepfather! That explained why Jaune didn't look more like Johnson, because his mother had married another man!
"Jaune…" She whispered as the boy joined her down there. "Is Johnson your dad?"
"No silly…" Weiss smiled and rubbed her head. "That's just a figure of speech."
Oh…another illusion popped like a balloon.
"First and most important of all…" The man said and took a long puff of his brown cigar. Then he exhaled it in a different direction than the one they were standing in, sparing them the sensation of having to breathe in those fumes. "You-" he pointed at Ruby, "-and you-" he pointed at Jaune, "-are the leaders of your teams, correct?"
"Sir! Yes sir!" They both yelled in chorus, causing the Professor to grin with pleasure.
"Good…now then. Yesterday's battle, at the compound. how did it make you feel?"
"Excuse me sir?" Pyrrha asked.
"The fighting. How did you feel?"
"Horrible," Jaune muttered and looked down.
"It started pretty well though." His teammate kindly said and laid her arm over his shoulders. "Despite overwhelming enemy numbers, we were quite effective in fending them off."
"But then their reinforcements came and almost killed us!" Weiss then said, probably a little louder than she had intended to. "We weren't trained to expect that! None of us was."
"It was what happened after the fight that hurt the most…" Ruby said, glad that she could finally speak to her heart's content to someone that had initiated the subject. Her mother had always taught her that talking over things eased the pain. "When those five men appeared in their large ship to save us…I felt so happy. I felt…rejuvenated enough to continue the fight. But then…"
"The men did their jobs." Johnson finished the sentence for her, placing the cigar back where it belonged.
"What?" Jaune then said with a surprised voice. "How can you say that, you weren't even there!"
"No, I wasn't. Tell me, what did they do then? Plunder? Rape and torture?"
"What- I- what?" The blonde tried to reply with his distressed tone. "No! But they shot all of them!"
"I read the files. The five soldiers shot and killed the criminals that wanted to shoot and kill you, young kids training to defend humanity. There were no hostages to keep track of and their forces would have overwhelmed you all. Seems fair to me."
"But…" Ruby stuttered, not wanting to believe the ruthless attitude of the man that had made her feel better after the fight with his mere appearance. She was appalled at his casual mentioning of those previous crimes…things that were only attributed to terrorist and monsters. "They were surrendering! They planned to turn themselves in and they were executed in cold blood! Soldiers don't do that!"
"Soldiers do what they are ordered to do," Johnson then growled and sighed. His face, normally as hard as steel, softened and he brought it closer to hers. "Tell me this Rose. Whose lives are more important to you? Yours and your friends' or the lives of that scum?"
"You can't think like that!" Shocked that this man would even ask her such a question. "You can't think in measure of lives, or you will have already made the decision that no man should make!"
"Hmm." The man loudly snorted and leaned backwards. "I see. So theoretically then. Nikos, whose lives?"
"I would say the lives of our comrades." The long-haired girl softly said. "But Ruby is right, you can't think like that."
"Well, soldiers do. When faced with the consequences, they will do whatever is needed to win. They didn't play nasty games by torturing or otherwise desecrating lives, did they Schnee?"
"No…" Weiss whispered. Johnson did not yell at her for not calling him 'sir'.
"Now then Rose. What is your idea then? What should they have done?"
She shook her head, not wanting to listen to the casual mentioning of lives like they were cookies to be chosen at will. "A soldier should be the same as a Hunter! They should value the lives of everyone, trying to save everyone! Professor, we had them! And they just wiped them all out!"
"I see." The man muttered and exhaled a large volume of smoke. His face –which had hardened again during his speech- softened up and she was able to see the expression that she had briefly seen upon being called down there for the talk.
It was the expression of sympathy and kindness.
"Well kiddos…the job of a soldier is to protect the innocent. You are right about that. But what would have happened if they DID go through the extent to capture those that surrendered? All multiple dozens of them?"
"They would be stuck with them." Pyrrha sadly said.
"Indeed. Five soldiers stuck with dozens criminals that were not only opening fire on a bunch of teens, but also using illegal hardware in an attempt to fully murder them..."
He took his cigar out and his dark eyes focused on hers. "…but executing Prisoners of War is forbidden by the Symposium of Genève, established fifty years ago. It is…very rarely broken…but doing so always ends in a dishonorable discharge from the army with a very strict punishment. Those five…'men'…should have thought twice about the murders. You got the right idea Rose…you just need to think about it some more."
He raised his head and looked at Weiss. "Schnee. You cannot linger on the deaths of people that you did not know. The dead don't need your pity…"
Then he turned towards Pyrrha. "…but the living do, Nikos. They are the ones that suffer. Safe your tears for those that you CAN safe."
Jaune's turn. "And remember that only monsters kill without remorse. No' one pure of heart can kill without regret. Those that can…"
He put his cigar back one final time and his eyes rested on hers again. "Those that can…are the ones that you have to fight. As a Hunter." He sighed and got to his feet. "You are dismissed…except for you, Rose. Stick around."
Jaune and Pyrrha smartly saluted the man and then left, but Weiss didn't budge an inch. "Is there something wrong sir?" She didn't look like she was planning to leave and she already had her arms crossed. Her face dialed to extremely stubborn…yes, Weiss wouldn't leave anytime soon.
"Depends on your vision of wrong Schnee. I said…DISMISSED!"
…so after Weiss had vacated the room and Ruby had been left alone with the Professor, he finally started talking. Again.
"I have never shot a prisoner before, Rose. Not once. But I have witnessed others doing it. There is no shortage of crimes of war…and in your career, you will encounter more. Sometimes, you will have to make steel your soul. I want you to know that people choose, Rose, and if you choose poorly you WILL suffer the consequences…yesterday's battle only served to prove that .That is why Ozpin made sure that there will be no poorly made decisions, by choosing the right leaders. Remember this in the fights to come."
Ruby cautiously looked at her teacher. "That…was it…?" The message was pretty clear and resembled Ozpin's pep talk about leadership a while back. It did serve to ease her fears but…there had to be a hidden double message behind it. Johnson had to mean something else with his words. There had to be…a secret meaning. And he was about to spill it all…she could see it in his eyes.
""Uh-huh. Damn right it was! Now move it out!"
First time for everything. "Sir! Yes sir!" She yelped with fear and disappeared out of the lecture hall with a speed that was only rivaled on the battlefield, leaving Johnson behind with his thought. Or thoughts; heck she didn't know what the man was thinking about. She did take his warning to heart though; Ozpin had chosen the leaders of the teams for a reason. That reason would be that she wouldn't mess up. She knew what the consequences of her decisions were and how to deal with those. The Sergeant-Professor had been right; those people had chosen and their decision had fired back at them. But still…the 'soldiers' that had executed them all were wrong. Killing without merit was NOT the answer…she would forge her own ideals.
"Hey Ruby!" Her teammate greeted her when she exited the lecture hall. "What was that all about? Why did the Professor want to speak to you alone?"
"Just…a speech about the consequences of leadership," She replied and smiled. Weiss seemed worried, even though she tried to mask it with the normal snarky attitude. She could see it in her eyes…the subtle pull of the muscles around her mouth and even the way she stood.
"Leadership? Why was that?" The white-haired girl replied.
"No idea." She told her and led the way to the dining hall. Yang and Blake were waiting for them in the next corridor, just a dozen meters ahead. It was to see that her friends wanted to wait for her before they got their breakfast.
"What took you so long?" Blake asked them.
"Yeah. Did that man chew you out for your cape being too red or something?" Yang laughed.
"He is a bit strict…" Blake then added.
"A bit strict? No, Glynda is a bit strict. Johnson…is…a whole new level."
"He…wanted to make sure that we felt better." She told her friends, before a new idea popped in her mind. The Sergeant-Professor resembled the true image of a Drill-Sergeant: rough, completely badass yet also professional. Yet this didn't possess the usual levels of meanness that normal Drill Sergeants had.
"Better?" Yang asked.
"You know…after yesterday." Weiss replied.
"You know?" Ruby told her bow-wearing friend. "Johnson seems a bit like Mombasa.
"Who?" Yang and Weiss asked simultaneously, but Blake merely smiled and nodded.
"I can see what you mean, yes. But the Professor is…even more unique."
"Hello!" Weiss angrily said. "Who are you even talking about?"
"Just a character from…a book…we both read…" Ruby cautiously replied.
"Let me guess!" Yang snapped and rolled with her eyes. "Soldiers of love?"
Blake's gaze met hers. "No."
"No."
The blonde looked at them incredulously while Weiss merely groaned with frustration. Well…not merely. "Why do you two keep insisting on talking about that strange book?"
"Hey!" She replied to the Heiress. "It is not a strange book! It is a jam-packed with action, charged with emotional rollercoasters of sensation and very erotic book!"
"Not best argument to win me over, sis'. " Yang sighed and walked past them to lead the way to the dining hall. "Now if you two would quit fussing around, I'd be a happy Yang."
"We're not fussing around!" Weiss said with a shocked tone. Why did she take such offense to that remark of hers? It wasn't like Yang had told them to quit 'messing around'. Now that would have been embarrassing.
"Yeah!" said Ruby. "We're just messing around!" …not what she had intended to say.
Blake looked back and forth between her and Weiss, before frowning.
Ruby made a mental note to train in impulse control and smiled as sweetly as she could. Blake was thinking about possible possibilities and who knows what strange accusations would be spilled that day. So…she opted to distract her normally so reclusive teammate.
"Don't you find it weird how Johnson's cigar changes size?"
20:15- Beacon gardens
That evening, Ruby left the dormitories again to go for a small walk in the gardens that had been planted on the Academy's left flank. She needed time and fresh air to process everything that had occurred that day. It didn't happen to her a lot that she had too much to think about, but this was one of those times. Thoughts and images flushed through her mind, some good and some bad, all equally unwelcome. She was ready to let go of what had happened yesterday, in time. She was very much not ready to accept that murder could ever be a solution. It was not what she wanted to become a Huntress for. She wanted to become a hero to prevent useless deaths, murders and violence. To beat villains, save the day and be an example of hope. She knew that if people started thinking of deaths as acceptable, they had already lost.
And she would never accept that. What happened in that compound was completely uncalled for. She knew that Yang had taken the helicopter down with full force, not holding back for the life of the person inside. And that was okay. Everybody's innate Aura could protect them from such things. But they had taken care of most of the hostile people in there; they had made a dozen prisoners and the rest had surrendered. Of course many of them had died from infighting, but that was a different thing. Those deaths, as regrettable as they were, were not linked to their actions. They could not have been prevented.
And that meant that the slaughter following that had been completely unnecessary, but not completely unavoidable. The people there had started dying long before teams RWBY, JNPR and LACG had arrived. She needed to get over what she had seen, but she knew that she couldn't. Even if she could bring herself to accept that those soldiers had come to help them, she could not forget the terror and blood and death she had seen. The corpses, their expressions still frozen in time as the bullets riddled them…who could ever live with that? She could not live with shooting someone to death. She would never. Real heroes didn't kill.
Ruby spotted a white bench in the garden, amidst the roses and bushes. She loved the smell of flowers; they reminded her of the future and better days to come. Of hope and happiness. She knew that she was an emotional person, just like Yang was. Things that might not bother Blake would greatly bother her…and perhaps the other way around as well. Emotions were complicated things and just because she could see what others felt, did not mean that she understood what she felt herself.
But that was why she was here. To calm down and attempt to process everything. It was so easy to see the world in black and white; gangsters and criminals were evil and Hunters were good. And then, in her mind, everything had turned the other way again. Soldiers were evil for killing defenseless people and that made criminals…victims, probably. But the truth was that nothing was so simple. Johnson, for example, was a very good guy. But he was also a soldier, having probably killed people. Why couldn't things be simple? Why couldn't things ever be black and white for once?
She sighed and sat down on the bench. There was a lamppost nearby that faintly illuminated that part of the garden, giving her just enough light to see the colors of the plants around her. She could smell the scent of blossoming roses.
She needed to stop thinking in terms of evil and good. It was bound to do more harm than her in the future and, more importantly, harm to her team. Had Blake been right in the end? That the world was never going to be a fairy tale, never going to change? If so, what use was there for people like Huntsmen and Huntresses? That couldn't be true. There had to be something she was missing, a part of the bigger picture.
Some bushes behind her rustled and she jumped up, her heart-rate fastening. Was someone there? Had someone else had the idea to take a walk in the evening, or was she under attack/
No way she was going to take a risk. Not with everything that had gone down recently. She reached behind her back, pulled Crescent Rose out and unfolded it, before aiming the rifle at whatever was shaking that piece of shrubbery so much. She narrowed her eyes and tried to see if it was Grimm or human, but it was just a bit too dark; she couldn't see a thing. This was beyond the reach of the light.
"Hello? Is someone there?" What she wouldn't have given for Faunus-eyes now.
She wished that Yang were here.
At that moment, just as she was starting to think it might be a good idea to take a few steps backwards, a figure emerged from the bushes and stepped into the faintly-illuminated area. It looked human, but Ruby didn't yet lower her scythe.
Because right now, she recognized the person. And that wasn't really possible. "Will? Is that you?"
The boy didn't look like he was going through the healthiest period of his life. There were some pretty dark circles underneath his eyes and he looked paler than Ruby remembered human beings to be capable of looking. He was wearing some strange bodysuit that covered his body, but nothing else. No helmet, no suit and no other form of clothing. His outfit was torn in places, scraped in others. No way it was going to keep him protected against the coldness of the night, what was he thinking?
Actually, what was he thinking? He was supposed to be recuperating at the hospital, not sneaking around in the evening. That was impossible. No living creature –be it Grimm or man- could heal from such injuries in the span of just one single day. The boy should by all rights barely be able to walk. That meant that he was still wounded…but that didn't explain how. Why was he not showing the pain he was feeling?
He stared at her with unblinking eyes. There was something different about him. His eyes, once dull, empty and emotionless, now had something haunted to them. "Ruby?"
His voice was all raspy and she took notice of a purple bruise on his throat. Though he looked creepy as always, Ruby put her weapon away. He wasn't going to try and hurt her, she knew that. There was an air of vulnerability about him, as if hewas expecting her to attack instead of the other way around. That was…odd, to put it mildly.
"Are you alright?" she asked. "Do the people at the hospital know you are gone?"
Still he did not blink. "Yes."
Ruby awkwardly rubbed her shoulder. He wasn't lying, she could see that, but he didn't look like he had legally left the hospital either. They wouldn't have let him go looking like…this; still covered with sores, wearing probably the same thing he had been wearing the night he had gotten hurt. Why had he been sneaking around in the gardens? "You don't really look good. Are you sure you're alright?"
This was one of the rare times that she was able to take a proper look at him. His skin really was unnaturally pale, even more so than Weiss'. A nasty bruise defaced his right cheek and he had a painful-looking split in his lower lip.
He didn't address her question. "Are you alone?"
That set off alarm-bells in her head. What did she know about him? Apart from the fact that he had spearheaded an attack on a compound with gangsters all by himself, getting himself nearly killed in the process? Though she did not like the thought, there was a possibility that he had been stalking her here. She was fairly certain that wasn't the case, but she needed to be sure. "Why are you wandering around like that?"
"It's the most direct route."
"From where?"
"From the hospital."
Ruby was going to trust him. Everybody deserved a chance. She didn't just see the world in black and white; there was a little bit of good in everyone. Will had never given her a reason to suspect him of anything bad, except for yesterday, when he disappeared on his own. And the rest was history.
"So what happened?" she asked. "Who hurt you? Was it the mobsters at the compound?"
"No."
No? There hadn't been anyone else to see as responsible. If it hadn't been them, who else?
Will didn't offer any explanation. He just…stood there, looking like a bunny caught in the headlights of a rapidly-approaching vehicle. He still gave off bad vibes, even though Ruby trusted him not to do anything weird. "Who did?"
"That's classified."
Ruby grumbled. At least that part of him hadn't changed. Old habits die hard, it seemed. "So why the bushes? Why not just the main entrance?"
"I didn't want to stay in the hospital."
…alright, not the answer to the question she had asked, but an answer at least. This was the most he had spoken in the week she had known him. It was progression, just like Yang saw the interaction between RWBY as progression. "Alright. So you left."
"Yes."
"Makes sense, I guess…" Judging by that, it was fairly safe for Ruby to assume that the hospital Will had spent the last night in would be precisely behind him, a few kilometers into the city. In that way, from there to Beacon, cutting through the bushes in the garden really was the shortest, straightest route. But nobody could be that single-minded, right? She had met a lot of different people at Beacon. She had met the quiet, calm types, the snarky confident ones, the laid-back and relaxed ones and even the bullying types. She wondered where Will fit in.
"And they let you?"
"Partially."
Again, he wasn't lying. His face betrayed a lot of different things when compared to before, such as mild confusion and pain, but nothing that resembled a lie. But it was hard to believe that any hospital would just "partially" let anyone go. He had snuck out.
They didn't do a good job patching you up," she told him, smiling faintly. "Come on, let's get you inside."
She casually walked towards him, offering a hand, but he backed off and kept his eyes pinned on her. That stopped Ruby cold in her tracks; she had never seen anybody act with any form of fright towards her, ever. On the contrary; people always seemed to think that she was no threat at all. Was he afraid of her? What had she ever done to warrant that reaction?
She slowly lowered her arm again and stared at the boy. Was he intimidated by Crescent Rose? Intimidated by her?
Throughout it all, she observed his eyes. The expression on his face, normally the most controlled and emotionless she had ever seen. There was no small measure of fear in his eyes, but that could have easily been discomfort. Both were possible and neither made sense. Had whatever happened at the compound traumatized him in some way? But he already had scars, right there in his face. He couldn't be a stranger to pain, even though what happened to him was no small thing. Never had he shown any sign of any form of discomfort. So why? What had changed, except for him being beaten by someone?
"I guess you're not looking to go inside yet?" she carefully said.
Finally he blinked. "I'd like to go back to the hangar bay now, if that is possible."
"Sure," Ruby said without even thinking it through. "I can take you there, but-"and then she remembered that the hangar bay was currently being used by people she really did not want to see at the moment. She stopped herself from continuing that sentence. "Actually…that might be difficult." If it had simply been about facing them, she would not have hesitated. But if Professor Adamant had been right, the soldiers were actually using the hangar bay. "Do you know how the battle ended, yesterday?"
"No."
He's lying, Ruby realized. But she kept quiet about that. "Somehow, Beacon Academy managed to send allies to help us. A large airship, carrying five soldiers. They murdered all the goons we had beaten or captured there."
He listened to her without pulling even a single muscle. Her analogy to a frozen bunny came to mind again.
"And now…basically, they're using the hangar bay for both their ship as equipment."
"That is not going to be a problem," said Will.
Right. They all acted with that military zealotry; perhaps they would understand each other. Or perhaps Will would drive them out. Either way worked with her. "Alright. You don't…have a problem with this? Them using your "room"?"
"It is not a necessity."
Not a necessity? The more she found out about him, the less certain she felt. Old doubts and thoughts, such as him being without a team and disappearing at random, sprang back to her mind.
But she ignored them. For now, she was just glad that he was back.
Day 9 –Beacon hallways -10:10
Breakfast in the morning went by faster than Jaune had wanted to, with teams RWBY, JNPR and LACG spending every second of it by recuperating from the heavy implications and thought-processes that had been enabled and further pushed during the warfare module. As soon as the clock had hit 10:10, all four teams –including CRDL this time- made their way to the next lesson that they Beacon supplied: History. And not just any sort of History, but the complicated kind. It was a bit strange how none of them really knew what to expect, other than the mere 'complicated history' portion. Of course they hadn't really received a lot of information except for the schedule for the rest of Wednesday,
"Jaune, aren't you troubled by how Cardin acted during the Warfare lesson?" Ruby asked him, shaking him out of his musings.
"Well…not really…I guess he was just messing around expecting me to like that 'guy to guy brawl' attitude. I don't really think he meant anything by that."
He answered Ruby with the perfect reply that he had been honing for at least twenty minutes. He did not like Cardin nor did he want to have anything to do with the guy, but things that Cardin seemed to see as funny did disturb him. Not only was the badmouthing him, he was also starting to mess with him physically.
Like tripping him when they all exited through a single door, or knocking into him to make him drop his books. Or at the end of the Sergeant-Professor's lesson where he had attempted to knock him off the steps; something which would have inadvertently led to a whole lot of pain had Pyrrha not interfered and grabbed his arm, preventing him from falling down.
So basically, the last few lectures had not only been taxing on his lack of knowledge but also on his confidence. Between him not knowing a damn thing that was being explained in the lessons, his teammates proving time and time again that they were better fit to a life as a Hunter than him and Cardin Winchester repeatedly trying to bully him in the presence of said teammates, he was starting to doubt his own competence.
He also knew little to nothing about the Professor that would be teaching them the coming hour and a half. So he was practically charging into the blind there.
"You really think so?" Ruby then said.
"Yes…guys tend to do that kind of stuff."
"Alright…if you say so…" And with that the young Rose dropped the subject, not imposing any further. That was a good thing; he was too preoccupied with the looming threat of him not living up to the expectations of a teamleader to allow others to worry about him when it involved Cardin or tough subjects at school.
They soon reached the next lecture hall they needed to be and found the door still closed. CRDL was taking the lead in their 'voyage to knowledge', while RWBY closely following them, with just a few meters to spare between them and the four guys. JNPR in turn walked a few meters behind RWBY, while LACG made sure their name was honoured and lagged behind.
Ruby and he were both filling the gap between JNPR and RWBY, talking about subjects that he didn't really feel like talking about.
He was just about to ask Pyrrha something from behind him when a loud voice cut through his attempts at communication. It was the sound of Cardin being surprised at something…which wasn't really a surprising thing on its own seeing as the guy wasn't all-knowing –far from that- but it was still enough to surprise him in turn.
"What the hell is this guy doing here?"
This guy? Who was 'this guy' supposed to be? Had Cardin seen the new Professor…or had he seen someone else? Was it Matt? Had he seen the bowtie-loving man strolling by…or had they perhaps seen one of the five black-armoured soldiers, still rummaging around the school for some reason?
"Oh get lost!" Yang angrily snapped at Sky Lark, who was slightly unintentionally blocking the way by standing still in the middle. Before Sky could react in any way, Yang swept him to the side and knocked him into the wall.
That wasn't very nice, but it was funny. Jaune looked at Ruby, who shrugged and gestured for him to join her. She looked over Cardin's shoulder and her expression turned into shock. But then she smiled.
"Well Jaune…wanna see something interesting?" she quietly asked him.
"Something tells me I haven't got much choice."
"Nope."
Jaune edged around to see what was going and felt his mouth drop open.
It was Will, standing against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. Cardin stood right in front of him, their faces only ten inches apart. The rest of team CRDL was glaring daggers at Cardin's subject of mockery, but they kept a good distance of at least four feet.
He swallowed. Cardin looked menacing. If he had been staring at him like that…he had no idea what he would have done if Cardin had been doing that to him.
But Will didn't look the least bit intimidated. His features, pale and sharp, were utterly calm and emotionless as he stared back at the bully, who was taller than him. He had a collection of tiny crisscrossing scars over the left side of his face, standing out only because they had a different tint than the rest of his skin. He was wearing the Beacon outfit for once, though there was no tie there. Jason Cho wouldn't like that.
Jaune remembered that team CRDL had a grudge with the student, because of the mud-bath fiasco.
"I thought he was in the hospital?" muttered Weiss.
"Apparently not," replied Blake.
"Hey Will," Ruby greeted him, as if nothing was wrong at all. How did she do that?
The boy didn't respond and Cardin's expression turned into a scowl. "So you've got a name now, huh? I heard you got your ass kicked."
The only people that replied were the people who had been there, that day. The day they had been fighting for their lives, where a lot of people had died. And it didn't go over well. Jaune heard Yang growl in anger and her teammates edged away from her.
But before she could say anything, Jaune found himself shouting at the bully. "You keep your mouth shut Cardin! You don't know a thing!"
Cardin looked at him with an expression that looked like a mixture of shock and anger, but the anger-part was way more obvious.
Behind him, someone opened the door to the lecture-hall. "It's open!" said Lisa, from team LACG.
Will took a small step forwards, away from the wall, and Cardin nearly jumped out of his skin. Sky quickly stumbled out of the way, but none of that was really necessary. Will took one more glance at Cardin, his creepy eyes looking many times more intimidating than Cardin could ever be, before walking towards the classroom.
"Ruby," he muttered to the redhead, whose smile grew wider.
Jaune shook his head and walked inside as well, wondering what wonders would await them there.
As it turned out, the name of said wonder was Professor Oobleck. And boy, what a wonder he was. The man talked faster than Professor Adamant, appeared and disappeared faster than Johnson did and drank more coffee than three teams and Headmaster Ozpin in an entire day.
And that last aspect of the man was rather strange, seeing as there were only two filled cups standing at his desk. And during the entire ninety minutes of lecture, he did not once seem to run out of coffee. He did talk a WHOLE lot…parts of it were lost in the inevitable grey zone of listening and not listening. Sometimes he would hear someone from CRDL make a snide remark and he would snap out of his trance of boredom to pay attention for the next fifteen minutes.
So when he heard Cardin snicker loudly, he shook awake again and stared at the flickering Professor again.
"Yes Cardin, one does choke from that name indeed," Oobleck said as he took another big gulp of his seemingly never-ending supply of coffee.
Jaune raised his hand and hoped that Oobleck would forgive him his…neglecting tendencies. "Excuse me sir…can you tell me that again? But then…slower?"
"Ah yes! Mister Arc!" Oobleck spoke up, slowing his pace down considerably. "As I stated before, this lesson will be aimed at the general purpose of history and its lay-out. I named a few examples dating from far back: the Human-Faunus war, to recent: the Arcadia-Luna conflict and the Final Solution Killings."
"The Final Solution Killings?" He repeated, dearly hoping that his tone did not sound too…guessing.
"Yes. The recently acquired name for the Schnee Dust Company murders. The death of forty-three White Fang protesters two years ago, remember mister Arc? Where an unknown perpetrator shot and killed up to forty-three of the actually peaceful White Fang members that were protesting in front of a Schnee Dust Company facility?"
"Y-yes?"
"The more…well-known name for the event was the Final Solution Killings."
"But why call it the final solution?"
"Because the name rolls off the tongue…" Cardin quietly laughed. Jaune was about to turn around and throw an angry glare at the jerk, but Blake beat it to him. She looked at the brown-haired male with the most hateful, destructive and venomous glare he had ever seen in his entire life. If looks could kill, Cardin would have disintegrated ten times over. Why did Blake find it necessary to attempt murder with her eyes? Did she feel so strongly for Faunus-kind in general or was it just the completely unethical question of Cardin's laughing stock?
Whatever the case was…the entirety of team CRDL seemed to be intimidated to such a degree to shut up. All four of them. For the remainder of the entire lecture.
"It was called The Final Solution because there were so many doubts about the true identity of the murderer AND the motive. Whether the Schnee Dust Company was responsible-"
"They were not!" Weiss loudly hissed.
"-or if someone else had interest in executing those poor Fauna, they must have been desperate to do so. To slaughter an entire group of good-willing protesters in cold blood like that. Those poor people."
So that was the explanation of the name Final Solution. Because someone had exhausted all other options? It sounded rather fitting…and kind of…off. Mass-murder was never an option…so who could have possibly done such a thing?
"Now then, to continue our excellent subject of Faunus and war and suppression, we arrive at…" And then Oobleck slipped into his own personal race to beat himself at the 'amount of words that could be spoken in one second' game. It became increasingly hard for Jaune to follow the Professor, to the point that he simply gave in and allowed the words to glide inside of one ear and then immediately shoot out of the other one.
Eventually the clock that was hanging so enticingly behind Oobleck´s green head hit the 11:15 and he realized that he had been sitting in the classroom for roughly an hour. How much longer did he have to endure the impossibly fast words of Professor Oobleck and his magical supplies of coffee? It did not make sense. Of the five Professors he had had up to now, only two of them had made actual sense. Johnson was…the Sergeant-Professor. Matt still had to teach them and Oobleck broke the laws of nature by simply being Oobleck.
But as things turned out, he only had to endure for another ten seconds. Then the Professor looked up at the clock and sighed. "I-am-afraid-that-this-is-all-the-time-we-have-for-now. I-will-let-you-all-go-with-the-knowledge-that-you-realize-how-important-history-is. Good-day!"
And with that he simply disappeared. He did not leave the classroom, as his legs never moved. The man was there one moment and the next he was gone, never once allowing them to see just how he actually moved.
"What…" He said, hoping that he was not the only one that had trouble with seeing what had just transpired.
"I think that means we are free to go now." Ren said and they all stood up from their place, shocked by the sheer absurdity of their teachers.
Main dining hall, 11:42
The multiple teams –and the one student- had all made their way back to the dining hall where they now had forty-five minutes to spend instead of fifteen. Funny how things could go. Lisa had half expected the tie-less boy to once again disappear into his dark hole where he usually lived, but that had not happened. He had stuck close to team RWBY –meaning that behind Ruby's team stood Jaune's team, behind Jaune's team stood her team and two meters behind her team stood him. Which was close enough.
"Yes. And then the collective informational course…thing…starts." Yang replied. "Hold on, we should be having half an hour of coffee-break according to the schedule…meaning quarter past twelve."
"My head hurts," said Jaune.
"Don't complain. Your family-name hasn't been scorned in your very first lesson with a new Professor." Weiss angrily said. Oobleck's choice of words had not been very fortunate and Weiss had taken it even worse than unfortunate. It was never fun to be linked to a mass-murder by your family name.
"He never officially blamed the Schnee Company, you know?" Pyrrha tried to calm her down. After all of them had actually entered the dining hall again, the three teams that did not exist out of psychopaths or jerkweeds had sat down on what was now becoming increasingly known as the first-year table. With RWBY sitting next to Cho and Grace on one side, JNPR sitting next to her and Grace on the other side and mister 'I-am-technically-alive' sitting next to Blake…of course with ten feet of spare room between them. He was still terrified of people, it seemed.
"Other subject then." Cho quickly said to aid Pyrrha. "What about Johnson? He was a nice guy."
Grace scowled. "Says you…"
"Hey! There is nothing wrong with him! He IS a nice guy. He has been ever since I have known him."
"So you know Johnson?" Ruby asked curiously, causing Lisa to realize that she had made a big mistake. "Well…yeah. But it is not a big deal."
"What was he like back then?" Yang then asked.
"Seriously…no big deal."
"You started the point. Now finish it." Cho told her.
"He has a point, you know." Grace replied as she stacked an apple on top of a grenade, trying to determine the best section to stick a knife in and blow them all to hell, knowing her.
"Come on!" Nora happily yelled. "I want to knooooooowww!"
"Fine." She smiled and looked at Cho with a teasing smile. "If our lovely Professor interests you so much…"
"He does." Cho deadpan replied, not aware of the double meaning of her remark. Pyrrha and Jaune smirked at each other from behind his back.
Lisa frowned. He was so boring sometimes…"Fine. It happened quite a while back…I think it was either before Matt graduated from his combat school…or afterwards. Anyhow, he went on a mission to a distant town…I believe it was somewhere in another Kingdom…but something happened there.
"Yes?" urged Yang..
"He went on a dangerous mission there to safe a town from a Grimm invasion somewhere near the borders. The basic hero crap…and he told me that he had found Johnson there, back as a lousy Sergeant.
"Lisa…" Grace interrupted. "The man might be a total jerk, but he too was never lousy."
"Whatever." Lisa waved the remark away and tried to remember where she was. "Anyway…ehm…"
"Finish it." Alessa softly said from behind her cup of tea.
She gave the girl an angry look and then sighed. It seemed that whenever the said something, it had to be either a clever, sarcastic or a smart remark. "So long story short…shit went inadvertently up, tits went inadvertently down and the whole thing exploded into problems. Magical heroic Matt eventually saved the butts of the entire town and won Johnson's heart."
Cho remained silent, but she could see that he was contemplating. "What?" She bit at him.
"I don't think that is the whole story." He then said.
"I doubt that, yes." Ren added.
"Maybe Johnson and Matt were lovers." Grace remarked.
No fair –Lisa had just taken a big gulp of her own coffee when she heard that remark and now the taken gulp was spread all over the table. Cho had somehow seen it coming and protected himself with a dinner plate. She wasn't the only one; Jaune nearly choked to death on a sandwich and Nora's eyes went all glazy.
"What the hell Grace!" She yelled at her friend just as team RWBY entered the dining hall. "That is such bull-"
She felt a pair of angry eyes burning in her back and she chose to rephrase that comment. "-Bull-honkling!"
Alessa's head turned ever so slightly towards Grace's general direction. "A strange creation of Lisa's mind," the demolitions expert told her.
"So basically…Johnson knows Matt and he knows Johnson. That leaves just one question. How do you know this?" Ren annoyingly pointed out.
She could feel heat stinging her cheeks at blood rushed up to say 'hi' to her ears. She had so desperately hoped that they wouldn't somehow put the link between her and her crazy brother, but the idea of her knowing Johnson made for an interesting subject…and a sensitive one at that. If she refused to tell what had transpired she would only make herself more suspicious but…she had really hoped that she could somehow pull it off to quench her new friends' thirst without compromising herself at that. So basically, she had hoped to bluff her way out of this by telling the one thing that could link her to…him.
"I…" She muttered, not knowing what to say. "He…mentioned it to me once…"
"Who? Johnson? He only arrived the day before yesterday and he's been working nonstop since,"Yang remarked, destroying that part of her argument.
"Perhaps it was Matt." Blake said and sat down with a cup of steaming tea and a tuna sandwich. "But we have yet to be taught by him."
"So when did he tell you? And why?" Ren then added.
She was just about to give her answer when Weiss suddenly flicked with her fingers and exclaimed a victorious 'aha!' and thereby drew everyone's attention. "Now I remember! Matt Adamant! The famous Hunter!"
Another loud chorus of 'Aaah!'s' nearly deafened Lisa as everyone suddenly managed to place that missing link between the goofball that her brother was and the gifted and well-known Hunter that he had once been. She couldn't save this anymore.
"I-I have n-no idea what you are talking about!" She angrily said and tried to hide her blushing face behind a newspaper, but Weiss saw fit to destroy that piece of argument as well.
"Look!" The Heiress to the Schnee Company yelled triumphantly and pulled a magazine out of flippin' nowhere. "It has been staring me in the eye for a while now! The famous Hunter that goes by the name of Matt Adamant. Adamant. As in your last name, Lisa."
"Nope." She said and kept her gaze strictly on the very interesting coffee-stains on the table in front of her. "No idea."
"The facts are kind of there…" Ruby said.
"Maybe it is time to go clean here Lisa." Grace said and finally concentrated on what was going on. And she was being very annoying right now, mostly because she was right. She couldn't keep on denying what had happened and what would happen.
"Fine…" She growled and focused at Weiss, who seemed to care the most about the whole situation. "Yes…Matt is my older brother, born six years before me. Happy?"
"You don't sound too happy yourself," Pyrrha smartly pointed out.
"It's just that he and I do not really like each other." She sighed and wished to whatever unfair deity floated around in the sky that they would not pursue the subject. Then she saw Cho's face and realized that he had managed to magically shift the topic from Weiss' family name to that of her own. Perhaps he could save her this time?
She threw a pleading glance at Grace, who nodded at her and then very subtly stood on Cho's toes once again. Instead of crying out in pain or somehow uttering a single, confused sentence, he merely sighed. "And here I was thinking that there would be optimistic subjects."
"If you don't want to talk about it, we'll drop it." Blake said, much to her relief.
It was quiet for a few seconds before Yang suddenly spoke up again, this time aiming her words at Will. "I can't believe you just snuck out of the hospital like that."
The bruised student –who had been observing their interactions prior to Yang's words- glanced in her general direction, before he averted his gaze and looked at the table, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. "Irrelevant." He said with a soft voice, obviously sounding softer than he had done before. That was what happened when someone who couldn't talk normally strained himself too much.
"Don't make it hard on yourself. Why did you risk your own health just to visit another lesson?" Blake asked him. The boy was silent for longer than two minutes after that question and she was starting to think that she should throw a fork at his head for ignoring Blake like that. The black-haired girl might be strange…and too silent…and creepy at times…but that was no reason to ignore her like that. It wasn't as if she was a Faunus.
And just when she had armed herself with two specially prepared forks, Will finally replied. "Classified."
Was it just her, or was he slipping even more into his single-word behaviour? The deadly duo…'classified' and 'irrelevant'. That was his vocabulary. Did the fight knock the rest of his words out of his head or something like that?
Ruby sighed and grabbed her scroll, checking the coming schedules. "So…tomorrow will be the first of our practice courses, right?"
"That seems about right, yes." Jaune added.
A loud 'ping!' echoed through the room as Grace finally succeeded in jamming her knife through the apple and into the grenade, somehow preventing it from exploding but actually sticking it to the apple. "Hey, look at that!"
"Is this sort of behaviour actually encouraged in your team?" asked Weiss.
"Don't ask about the details of our sensitive operations," Cho replied in a voice that could have also fit with Will.
"Don't ask about any explosive matters at all," Lisa added.
A bout of laughter attracted the attention of most of them and when she looked over at the table of CRDL, she spotted two of them grabbing plates filled with some sort of nasty substance. Then, without any warning at all, they threw the food-filled plates at their table.
That would make a really nasty mess when those projectiles impacted.
"Hey guys, do you see this!" Grace happily said and stuck her knife-grenade-apple in the air –just when a plate with mashed potatoes sailed through the same pocket of space that she occupied with her creation. It happened as in slow-motion; the plate crashed into her stick and smashed it away. Sent her hand crashing into the table with her rather-impressive creation covered in gross food-items. It was so sad.
The table exploded into action as CRDL's projectiles impacted on their table. Ruby and Weiss both began screaming in fear when they thought that pockets of food had been smeared on their clothes, Pyrrha and Jaune threw an angry glare at their team and Lisa attempted to threw her forks them, only to be stopped by Cho who lunged over the table. Will instantly drew a knife and was ready to throw THAT as well, but Blake interfered with his action and reached for his wrist.
All that left Yang still capable of retaliating though and she grabbed the grenade-apple stick. In a brief fit of fury, she threw the explosive device at CRDL's table and it impacted dead-center on their table…right beside their own plates of food…
…and promptly went off, destroying the table, sending them all crashing into the ground and completely showering them with food.
"Whoops…" Yang said as she witnessed her massacre.
"Yang!" Grace yelled in despair. "I aced that grenapple stick! Why?"
"What?" Weiss exclaimed in surprise as she heard that term. "What is wrong with you?"
Lisa smiled and patted her childhood friend on her head. "The murder of a grenapple is wrong, Weiss….it's brutal murder. CRDL will pay."
And she deliberately forgot that it was Yang who had thrown the device.
"Grimm behavior pattern in Northern continent suggest something more than simple animal instincts driving them. Repeated patterns have been spotted in Atlas, but have yet to appear in Mistral and Vacuo. The new behavior suggests that the Grimm are not only capable of learning, but also of coordinating with each other for matters like large-scale attacks, patrols and on one occasion, downright communicating strategies. The source of this new behavior has yet to be determined.