LXVIII - Wind Root

Apologies for the lack of updates, pretty sure it's seasonal depression? I hate that I get it since I prefer fall and winter over the other seasons; it sucks this is a thing (No need to worry about me, just unmotivated). For the last few years around this time I have lost a lot of motivation to do anything not critical to my survival (like work) and hobbies take a hit. Happened last year when there was no update to this fic for a few months. Might be a while before I do updates with any regularity. I have seen people finding and following the fic, which did surprise me. I wonder how long folks had to scroll to get to Successional, let alone follow a fic that might look dead. IT'S NOT!

I am just going through something dumb rn. Also switching jobs from a park to a ski resort. I'm going to try and make myself do at least some writing for this, but please bear with me. Instead of wildlife and geysers, I'm dealing with the Uber rich. Not enthusiastic about the change lol.

Sorry.

~~~(LXVIII)~~~

They definitely had a… uh… a wardrobe change… in the days they were apart. Whether they were good changes, he wasn't sure. Sure, he liked a good belt to keep things in place, but not in the strange manner they seemed to have taken it to. He had one to hold up his pants, another for his revolvers, and one for New Leaf. But he used them! His belts also had bullet and shell loops to keep ammo ready, but half of what he saw was useless or could be replaced with something else.

Looking at Ruby's thighs was a big example.

"Any reason you're staring at my partner's legs?"

"Disappointment."

Ruby's sounds of confusion were drowned out by Nora laughing.

"Ox… why..?" Said girl in red looked down at her outfit and back to him in puppy-like sadness.

"Not even sure how to begin, Red."

"Sister bashing aside." Yang walked up holding a familiar bag over her shoulder; strapped to the right and left sides were Bulls Breath and New Leaf respectively. Once in front of him, she slung it off her shoulder, put it on the floor, and opened the top and showed off the contents inside. Inside he saw his guns resting atop the rest of his armor. "Here's your stuff. It's all there, hidden boot knife you never told us about included. Just a fair warning, Atlas did a bit of tinkering with it."

Oxon looked down at his hands, wrists specifically. "Yeah, sounds about right." Oxon got to quick work putting his gear on over the gray clothes given to him by the academy.

Once wearing his armor, and feeling a bit more comfortable, he noticed the same restraints fixed onto a fancy new pair of boots. Dull purple rings above the ankle aside, they were great quality. Nice leather, good grippy treads, and half inch spikes slid in and out with a duo of quick flexes. With a loud cachunk, Virginiana folded out with ease, clearly not having been affected by the "modifications" his other gear had gone through, though there was now leather padding on the inside. At least all the changes weren't bad.

Last and may or may not be least, his helmet had been tinkered with as well.

It had been a fairly simple piece of protection and he had been willing to give it up after the Adam incident. Thankfully, it no longer had the massive gash left by Adam's blade, having been reforged by whoever worked on it. Compared to before, it was mostly the same helmet it used to be. The horns were still attached to each side and were angled forward, but the points had been blunted. Annoying, but not something that meant much, they still could do damage. I could always just sharpen them myself.

The main change was to the face plate. Before it covered his nose and eyes, but left his mouth free. Now though, there was a steel plate that was attached to the top of the helm and ran just a few centimeters under his chin. It was smooth and undecorated and only had openings for his eyes. Putting it on, he noticed it had an inner lining of leather along it and while it didn't quite touch his face, it would make it a bit more comfortable to wear. Especially for headbutting Grimm and other enemies.

"Yeah, that was one of our ideas." He looked over to Oscar who looked a bit guilty. Oxon had a guess as to why he had such an expression. Oxon was about to say it wasn't a big deal but was interrupted when Yang tapped him between the eyes, metal finger making a slight clinking sound on the metal mask.

"Yeah, while we may see you for who ya are, the rest of the kingdom won't. It's better you not get recognized by the general public when you go out."

"Good idea." Oxon nodded. "I wouldn't really like to be harassed in the street." With the new changes to his helmet approved, he looked down to inspect his weapons.

His revolvers were seemingly untouched it seemed, though the same couldn't be said for the larger weapons. New Leaf had some kind of dark gray mechanism wrapping over the barrel break and the hammer. The weight was marginal, but upon trying to insert some shells, he saw what had been done. Instead of an easy and crisp snap down, the barrel did not move, and he couldn't load any shells.

"What the he-eck is this?" He tried a few more times before there was a beep, letting him load two shells and snap it closed. Looking up, he saw Yang with her scroll out. A new one at that.

"Yeah, in the infinite wisdom of whoever came up with this, you need approval from us or whoever you are on a mission with to be able to reload. It's not on a reload by reload basis, thank goodness there was at least some common sense, but reloading can be disabled in a "just in case" scenario." Oxon gave her a raised eyebrow as she used her fingers to indicate heavy sarcasm alongside her voice. "Yeah, total BS, but if you're with us, we won't be locking it. Though if you're with other members of ironwoods teams or the Ace-Ops…"

"I'll just need to be aware of that..." Looking at the dumb thing he let out a frustrated sigh. "Good to know about it before I tried it at least. I'm guessing Bulls Breath is the same?"

There was a shake of the hand, indicating it wasn't exactly the same. "Ehhhhh… Not quite, I'd recommend you try loading it." She reached into the bag she'd left on the floor and made a quick toss. He caught the box of ammo the blonde girl threw with ease and pulled out a handful of rounds and stowed the rest in a pouch. He cautiously loaded the gun, in case there was some trick mechanism. After the first one went in with ease, he loaded the rest of the bullets. After a moment, he knew what had been done.

"Well that's stupid." After six rounds went in, he couldn't put the other six he normally could. They'd put in a tube plug, the bastards. He levered a round into the chamber and put one last bullet into the tube before lowering the hammer safely. "From thirteen to seven... That's so stupid."

"Trust me, we know."

Blake stepped forward next to Oxon and gave the guns an annoyed look. "It took a bit of convincing to allow the six in the first place. Ironwood wanted no long range munitions at all." He gave the faunus a smile and a pat on the shoulder.

"Thanks, and yes, I will admit that I'm mad." He saw her ears go back a bit at his words. He gave her forehead a flick only to receive a glare from the girl and rolled his eyes with a slight smile. "Mad at Ironwood, not you, obviously. I don't have any doubt that you guys had nothing to do with his decision. Besides, it wasn't like I was expecting open arms from the kingdom, remember?"

"You're right." She smiled back at him. "I'd have thought you'd be more upset about this. About your rifle especially."

Oxon shrugged and gave Bulls Breath a twirl before hooking it on the back of his shoulder. He was if he was being honest. This was his baby. His trusty rifle he'd had since Prism. To have some smarmy Atlas assholes mess with it rubbed him all kinds of wrong. But like a bitter medicine, he swallowed the anger with the knowledge it could be fixed.

I just need to prove to the general that I can help. Once I do, they'll reverse this.

"It's not so bad, all things considered, seriously." He ignored the scoff from Yang. "For now I'll deal with it." They didn't touch his father's or brother's revolvers. If they fucked with those, there would have been words with the food general.

Dust powered words…

"Moving on!" Nora suddenly appeared between him and the girl, a big grin stretching over her face. Looking at the girl, her outfit had also changed, and he had to admit, it looked good. The whole of her team seemed to have made more reserved upgrades and used far fewer leather belts. Thank fuck. "Time to test it all out!"

"Wait, what?" He went ignored and was instead bodily spun around by the ginger powerhouse. "Test what out!?"

His words were ignored, as Nora is to do. "Should we pair off for solo fights or do team battles?" Her grip on his shoulder tightened menacingly as a bead of sweat ran down his forehead.

"Uhhh, there's nine of us, somebody would be left out. That or uneven sides."

Logic almost won out until the petite heiress spoke up. "I don't particularly need to fight, myself. Myrtenaster wasn't upgraded after all."

"Great idea Weiss-Cream, you can be the judge then!"

His confusion decreased just as fast as his apprehension increased as he watched the others pull out their weapons.

It seemed like most of them, bar Weiss and Oscar, had new features on their weapons courtesy of the icy kingdom.

"I propose one on one bouts." Ren stepped forward, gently prying his partner off of Oxon. "There are things we all should work to improve upon, especially now that we need to get accustomed to new improvements in our gear. We should use this change where we are all together to our advantage."

"Sounds like a plan!" A burst of petals heralded Ruby's arrival to the huddled group.

"I can't wait to try out the battery!"

Everyone looked over at Nora who was wielding her hammer with a maniacal grin, small bits of static pulsating from the haft. They each took a step away from the girl.

Noooopeeee..!

Oxon looked at the others for a moment, wondering who he would fight. Not Nora, that was for sure. Ruby or Blake? It had been a while since he tested his aim on speedy targets, and getting rusty would be bad. He took a few steps towards the girl in red when Jaune stepped in front of him.

"It's been a while since we last sparred, right?" Oxon blinked away the mild surprise and shrugged in noncommittal acknowledgement. "Yup, last time was right before the festival. A lot has changed since then."

"Right right, I remember now, it was when I taught you that fighting dirty is critical." He'd made sure to keep up his skills, but after what that Hazel guy did to him at Haven, Oxon realized his defense needed to be stalwart. Yang had been a great sparring partner for that, especially when she let him hit her to power up her semblance. It left a few bruises and dents, but it had genuinely helped him improve his own gift.

He'd even trained with Oscar in a similar fashion. Teaching the boy how to deal with a much larger and stronger opponent.

And while Yang and Pine had been good training partners, he'd purposefully avoided doing so with the remnants of team JNPR. He didn't want to reopen any wounds that were thought to be closed. He didn't want to ruin the improving mood. Though it seemed like the knight wanted to test it all himself.

"Yeah… Not wrong there." The blonde boy, no, Huntsman motioned for Oxon to follow. With a mental sigh, he followed. Catching up to walk side by side, he tried for some small talk. "It's certainly been a while."

"Yup, and I'm pretty confident that this time will be much more different compared to Beacon. I'm not the same "weakling willow" I used to be." The blonde puffed out his chest. "We've all come a long way. Even you, Oxon."

"Thanks, seriously." Those words were few but had a lot of impact. Jaune was one of the two who he had done the most damage to after all. "Speaking about that, how's it feel to be fully licensed now? Gotta feel good, yeah?"

"Unbelievably so." Oxon noticed Jaune's grip on his sword tighten, his knuckles were likely white underneath his gloves. "We've finally made it to Atlas, and now we have General Ironwood on our side. And he swore us in as actual Huntsmen, I've wanted to be one for so long, it's kind of surreal that it's finally happened."

Not for him of course, but it was never a goal he had in the first place. Oxon was doing pretty well at his original goal of survival. Now though, it was different. The Salem threat was real and dangerous.

They'd hit two kingdoms so far and each to different effects. Vale lost its Huntsman school while Mistral lost almost all of its huntsmen and huntresses. He and the others were worried about whether Atlas or Vacuo were next.

"Do you think Sun will be alright in Vacuo?"

The blonde paused for a moment before answering. "He should, Vacuo is known as a rugged kingdom. He and his team should be able to combat whatever happens next."

"Unless she goes after us…"

Jaune paused but nodded, firm expression setting on his face. "Yeah, unless she goes after Atlas. Though, with how we've been doing lately, we should be fine."

"Yeah," Oxon nodded back. "We've been on a roll since Menagerie. If not for Adam, Argus would have gone much smoother."

Once the two walked to a spot far enough away to not be interrupted, they stood a few places apart.

Guess it's time to get to it.

Slipping Bulls Breath free, Oxon pulled the hammer back and set himself into a ready stance. Jaune answered by pulling Crocea Mors Free with a flourish. "You haven't fought me in a while, maybe I've gotten better than you." From behind the white shield, Oxon could see a slight smirk on the former wimp's lips. If Arc wanted to goad him into getting sloppy, he'd need to try harder.

With a smirk of his own, Oxon got ready for the bout. "I've got a perfect streak going, I don't plan on letting it end anytime soon."

With the words said, both shield users moved forward.

~~~(LXVIII)~~~

Sorry for being a short chapter, but better than none lol. Kinda glad I took so long on this, it helped me prevent a few less than stellar parts.

I hope these nerfs are not as awful a. I wasn't going to actually takeaway any gear, just tweak it a bit to where it's obvious that the kingdom is taking him seriously while letting his fighting style remain mostly untouched. Will these tweaks mean anything? Will Oxon be just fine? You'll just have to wait and see!

~~~(LXVIII)~~~

Omake - Belts, Belts, Belts, They're All The Rage These Days.

(AU where Ox isn't enemy of the state and everyone is happy)

"That should do it." Oxon looked down at his form and smiled. After seeing the options available, he spared no time making his new outfit as dependable as he could. "I'd like to see anything get the better of me now!"

He walked out of the changing room with a confident smirk as he joined the others.

Immediately he was subjected to a variety of stares and more than a few laughs.

"Buddy, what am I looking at?"

"And I thought Ruby went overboard…"

"Weren't you supposed to be the straight man to our comedy routine?"

He shook his head slightly and blinked at the odd comments. He looked down and confirmed he hadn't accidentally worn a bright pink cape and vest. Nope, he still has his new and improved gear on.

"I don't see what's so strange, I just made things easier for myself."

"Yeah, I feel like I'm looking at an anthropomorphic Atlesian army knife."

"So many pouches…"

"Did you even look in a mirror when putting that all on?" He looked at Blake who was looking him up and down. She didn't look impressed. She gestured to one near the far wall. "Just, try and find the problem…"

Rolling his eyes, he humored his stepsister. Walking in front of the reflective surface he saw himself in his suit of armor. New and improved.

"His two revolvers sat on a belt each, suspended above the one holding his new kevlar-cotton jeans. No change there, but the two belts above them were. They were covered in bullet loops the whole way around his torso and gleamed with two dozen bullets each. One held revolver ammo while the other held rounds for his rifle.

On his biceps, he had a thick leather band on each arm that held eight shotgun shells of different varieties. Some slugs, others buckshot, all dust infused courtesy of Atlas's grand reserves.

He also had a few pouches affixed to his leather chest guard. Each had more ammo inside.

On his right thigh was another pouch which held medical supplies. On his left was one that held field rations.

On his back was a medium waxed canvas backpack filled with other supplies like rope, a tent, a sleeping kit, and a weapon repair kit. It was a great improvement over his old one which had taken a few swipes from grimm. And now he could hold anything they might possibly need.

You know, the essentials.

"This is all practical." Oxon put his hands on his hips in satisfaction as he looked himself over once more.

"Practical-ly insane…" Oxon narrowed his eyes at the muttered words.

He knew his outfit was perfect, he'd ignore the haters. To fully put away the issues they had with his armor, he brought out Bulls Breath.

"I didn't improve just my armor," He turned to face the others once more. "I also requested a few neat upgrades for my weapons."

A spin of his ax and a flick of a button halfway up the hilt of the weapon, Oxon looked in awe as a blue light began to grow around the large ax head. He'd taken inspiration from Arc's idea for his shield and applied it to his main weapon. With the hard light extension, the size of his blade nearly doubled and the surface area of the blade made it so that he'd be able to cut through larger targets much easier.

"Oh gods… It's the Sword Sword all over again."

"Why do men always overcompensate..?"

"Don't paint my Renny in the same light of sin!"

Oxon felt his eyebrow twitch in frustration and embarrassment. "Hey, it's not a bad upgrade! It's soooo gonna come in handy!"

"Anything else?" Looking to the side, he saw Oscar looking over his other weapons. Deactivating the energy blade, he placed the weapon on his back.

"Nah." Patting a hand on each revolver, he clarified. "These aint mine to change, besides, they already do their job well enough, just needed higher quality ammunition to be better."

"And your shield?" Jaune seemed to escape an exasperated Ruby and came to inspect his fellow "Shield Bro's" upgrades. "Any changes there?"

Oxon silently answered by activating the mechashift mechanism, letting Virginiana fold out. Instead of a full metal barrier, there was now a hole for Oxon to see out of. It was made of some sort of composite Atlas techs used before hard light dust, they tried to explain it, but it went way over his head. It wouldn't run out of power, though it would need to occasionally be replaced if severely damaged.

"A peep hole, huh?" The blonde knight leaned in to inspect the change. A rap of his knuckles on the window, made a slight hum of approval, and gave a thumbs up. "Nice."

The two shared a fist bump and Oxon inspected his friend's new gear. The armor was nice, it covered his vitals and seemed of higher quality than what he had before. Even his unassuming shield had been packed full of goodies in the labs. His eyes looked over Jaune's form and weapon, searching for a certain detail. "How about you? Finally get a long range option?" The guy had been the only melee-only member until Oscar joined. It had been a point Oxon brought up whenever a flying enemy showed up, much to Arc's annoyance. Which was becoming much more common lately.

He didn't see anything…

Predictably, the knight shifted his sapphire eyes to avoid the flat emeralds of Oxon.

"Jaune…"

The blonde spun on his heel and looked to the others and clapped his hands together. "So guys, what say we head to the training room and test out our new gear?"

"Jaune."

"Great, let's all he'd down, I can't wait to try out my shield's newest buffs!" His cheery attitude was about as frail as a June frost. He put an arm around each of his teammates and began ushering them towards the door.

"Jaune!"

"Hurry, before some other teams reserve them!" The leader was halfway out the door when Oxon began to give chase.

"Jaune! Get back here! We've talked about this!"

"I don't need to use a gun and you can't make me!"

"I'll get you to use firearms even if I need to graft one to your arm!"

~~~(LXVIII)~~~

Jaune… get some damn long range ISTG.