They said I was mad! That if mortals were meant to go past the 400 follower barrier, we would have been born with more than just the eight fingers and two thumbs! But thanks to all of you, I have finally proved the naysayers wrong! WRONG I TELL YOU! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!
But no, seriously, I cant thank all of you enough for your continued support, reviews and following my story. You all rock (and just might be the real MVPs)
And, all that said, I down own RWBY, Highschool DxD, or make a single penny off of this. Enjoy the update folks.
Pyrrhas thoughts are coming in a slow, tangled mess as they make their way through the forest away from... where they had been. Back to camp, towards safety. Safe like – no. She cant dwell on that. She knows that Rens hand on her shoulder is half of why she is even able to walk right now, instead of just dry heaving by the sooty streak that used to be people. His semblance has her emotions, dulled, slowed just enough that she can think. The other half is Jaunes arm around her waist as he helps guide her through the undergrowth, which is really nice, and she wishes he would-
If it weren't for Rens semblance dulling her emotions, she realizes she would be a blushing blubbering mess right now. That isn't what she needs to work out in her head right now. Really, it isn't. "I... I killed two men, Jaune." she distantly hears herself mumble. Somehow having killed the fallen angel as well doesn't feel as bad. She doesn't know how she feels about that. She'll need to figure that out later, as well.
He pulls her more tightly into his side. Blushing blubbering mess, any other night. Not that she doesn't like it. No. Focus. "It's, unfortunately part of being a devil. Between the different political factions in the underworld trying to get rid of each other, rogue fallen angels and their human servants, and other pantheons servants or dissidents trying to use the instability to make a power grab of their own not many conflicts can be resolved bloodlessly. I wont lie to you and say it gets easier, but you do get used to it."
Pyrrha frowns, and is aware of Nora whimpering behind them as well as Rens eyes graying out for a moment. "I don't wanna get used to killing people. Don't wanna kill." She does want to lean her head over onto Jaunes shoulder, snuggle into his side, armor clanking and in the way or not. But that isn't what she needs to work through right now. That's for Later Pyrrha, not for her right now.
"I didn't want to either. Still don't like it when I have too. But it isn't healthy to fight or deny reality. Better to accept it, then work to make a better world, one you are okay with." Jaune replies levelly. "That's what Sairoarg and I are going to do. Most Rating Games stop short of killing or maiming the other side. And most of our political enemies are smart enough to know better than to try using lethal force on anyone closely associated with Sairoarg."
"What about you?" Ren prompts, face grim, but eyes their natural pink again.
Jaune shrugs "Right now, they're afraid of Crocea Mors. Once we start making waves in the Underworld, I'm pretty sure we'll end up in the same category as my mentor." Jaune sounds confident enough that she wants to believe him.
Considering what she thinks is her sacred gear did to those poor men, he's probably right. "I, I need to learn fine control."
Jaune nods in agreement, and squeezes her a bit with the arm that's still wrapped around her waist, half guiding her. "We can worry about that later Pyr. Right now, just worry about working through this. Remember, you didn't do anything wrong. They were the ones who went for lethal force first, however misguided they were in that decision."
The team falls into a somber silence as they traverse the rest of the distance to where the two teams and their minder had made camp. At least until they can see said camp. Standing at the edge of the small clearing they had chosen to set up in is Aurora Arc, arms crossed, foot tapping, her face a mix of tiredness, anger and worry, Stalwart Guardian on her back. That is, until she can make out their faces in the light cast by the campfire team RWBY is nervously gathered around and poking at. "Jaune, what happened? Why the hell did you and your team go haring off into the woods instead of staying on watch?!" she demands as she hustles over to the quartet of freshman.
"Some bandits were getting ready to make a move at the camp, we chased them off." he lies, well, modifies the truth. They had fought bandits after all.
Aurora shifts her gaze from Pyrrha for long enough to glare at her younger brother "So the four of you thought it was a good idea to chase after them instead of keeping watch or waking the rest of us up!? What if a pack of grimm had found us?"
Jaune does his best to keep the condescension out of the look he's shooting back at his sister. He lets out a quick set of whistles, the first long and ascending, the second a staccato at the lowest point of the first, and the third another staccato tone, this one higher than any of its predecessors. The whole Arc family knows it well, and moments later Saber trots out of the woods where he had been patrolling the perimeter of the camp. "I had Saber watching out for you all."
Aurora's glaring at Jaune intensifies. "Right, because a dog can totally-"
"We were both there the first time he dragged a half-dead beowolf home. A beowolf that was trying to flee for its life, but couldn't because he had ripped two of its legs off." Jaune cuts his sister off.
She points at him, opens her moth, then says nothing. It had become a regular occurrence for the family to find their dog happily waiting for them in the yard with a mangled, scared grimm, or a grimm limb in its mouth not to long after he had finished growing from just a pup. She shakes her head, and shifts her focus back to Pyrrha "What happened then."
Jaunes partner shrinks back, clearly not wanting to talk about it. "The bandits... one of them had a flamethrower. Some idiotic mix of fire dust and liquid fuel I think. Pyrrha spotted him and another moving around to flank me, took some pot-shots at them." Jaune starts, not sure where he can go from there to explain his partners despondent state and cover the truth of the story at the same time.
"She, got, lucky, I guess." Ren picks up the thread, voice somber. "Hit the fuel line, the tank and dust all went up at once. The bandits had, some, aura, but not enough. Two got away when they broke after the explosion, we left the rest tied up by the weird ruins we chased them too. The other three..."
"An arm from one, a foot from another that might have burnt up by now, and everything from below the waist are all that's left of the other three." Nora finishes, a slight, sick, waver in her voice.
A blur of red is swift to Pyrrhas side, babbling soothing nothings, followed rapidly by yellow and brown. Behind them, Blake is taking willful, if measured strides, and Wiess is uncertainly trailing behind, either lost in thought or uncertain how to sooth the the Mistrali champion. Aurora grabs Jaunes arm, considers the other two members of his team, pale-faced, sad Nora, and Rens casual placidity, before grabbing the other mans arm and dragging them off away from the gaggle of girls. After the trio clears earshot of the rest of their group, Aurora shoves the boys forward, plants her hands on her hips and all but barks out "Spill. Both of you."
Really hoping he can avoid this, Jaune opts to play dumb. "Umm, spill what, Aurora?"
His older, and possibly favorite, sister glares at him. "I'm not an idiot, Jaune. Cobalt told me what happened last weekend in the Emerald Forest. Flora got her throat ripped out close enough to you that some of the arterial spray might have hit you. Seen the pictures of Corvis too. That's about as grisly as wounds get, maybe even preemptively career ending. You didn't flinch, fought right through it." Her face softens a bit, before she adds "I don't like the idea of my baby brother having been through enough bad fights and battles to be desensitized to death before he even got into beacon." Jaune shifts uncomfortably, sunrises first rays poking through the canopy to cast the scene in a strange orange pall. Aurora looks over to Ren. "And you, Lie," he cuts her off just long enough to correct her on which of his names he likes to be called by "Cobalt didn't list you with the students who didn't react to death the way they should. But then you come back from a fight where one of your teammates turned three men into ash and charcoal, just as calm as my brother. Explain. Both of you."
Ren, for his part, just reaches out to grasp Auroras shoulder. The coruscating grey swirl indicative of his semblance being used engulfs both of them for a moment. He releases his hold and semblance, and, a few seconds later, Aurora gasps. "My semblance allows me to mask, or, in less extreme situations, dull, negative emotions. Normally I use it for hiding from grimm to set up ambushes." He takes a breath, wipes some of the grime from the battle earlier from his brow, and continues his explanation. "I figured out a year or two ago how to manipulate it to dull emotions as well. Good for dealing with panicking people, or working through things logically in high stress scenarios."
Aurora shrugs at his explanation "Doesn't exactly sound like the healthiest way to deal with things, and I cant imagine that Nora girl being too happy about you putting yourself through that, but I can accept that." Her head snaps back to Jaune. "Alright Mr. Rabbit, spill."
He winces, and shoots a pleading look at Ren, who nods, and pantomimes zippering his lips shut. Jaune then sighs, and begins his cover story in case any questions like this were to come up. "I think it was something like two years ago now. Some mobsters wanted to get at one of the other students to send a message to one of their rivals. Attaced the school. We..." he does his best imitation of a man reciting memories he'd rather leave buried "we fought them off. It got bloody. All of the students who made it had weekly sessions with one of the staff psychologists. By the time the semester ended, I'd dealt with it. Didn't want the rest of you to worry, so I just, left it out."
Aurora crosses the distance to slap Jaune across the face hard enough to rock his head to the side, before wrapping him up in a bone-crunchingly tight hug. "You idiot. If you could have told anyone it should have been your family."
Feeling guilty as hell, Jaune replies "You, Dad, maybe a few of the other girls would get it. But Mom?" He pauses to force a chuckle. "Hey everyone, school was great this year, and boy am I glad to be home!" his voice held a bit higher, trying to imitate what he had sounded like a few years ago. "A bunch of gangsters attacked my school, and while I don't really know how many people I've killed, I know its more than three. Oh, and I saw a few of my friends get their brains splattered against a wall, so that sucked. Don't worry though, I saw a shrink once a week for a while so I'm better now!"
Aurora cringes as she releases the hug "I mean, you were better at talking with people than that..."
Now its the younger sibling to employ a flat, silencing glare. "That's how mom would hear it, no matter what words I used. I'd be bundled off to a normal school before I can sneeze, and all the girls younger than me who want to become huntresses would lose the chance." Aurora winces, they both know he's right. "And I don't think Saphire can actually kick my ass, but I know she'll try to if something I do stops her from chasing her dream like you and I were able to."
The elder Arc sighs in defeat. "Fine, but you will be telling the rest of the family the whole story when we come to visit for the Vytal Festival."
"Summer after the school year is over. Saph'll be enrolled for her second year at Signal by then, so even if Mom has a meltdown, our families youngest huntress so far will still get her chance to be one." Jaune counters, earning him a grumpy frown from his sister.
"What about you though, mister selfless?" She retorts sulkily.
Jaune shrugs "Right now being a student at beacon has me technically a legal adult. After my birthday in a few months, it'll be official. And I have enough lien squirreled away to finish here the same way you and Plum did in case Mom decides to get panicky and over-protective."
"Alright, fine. This summer, after Saphires signed up for her classes. I'll get Dad and as many of the others as I can as ready as I can for you, but you owe me big for not just taking out my scroll and starting a family group-call right now. Lets get back to the others." The trio ambles back to their camp, quietly. Hearteningly, they can hear talking, not weeping or vomiting. Pyrrha is leaning against one of the bigger trees, Yang holding her in a one-armed hug, and Ruby snuggled into her other side, the sisters quietly talking with the much calmer seeming champion. Across the crimson-grasses clearing Nora is pacing back and forth talking at Blake, gesturing wildly. Weiss, looking quite lost, is tending the fire from a spot where she can hear both conversations. Glancing at one or the other uncertainly. She probably doesn't even realize that her usual haughty features had melted away to show genuine worry. Jaune cant help but think she looks so much prettier that way then she does with her mask up.
_-*R-DxD*-_
"Hey everyone, I'm Rojoa Karat, I'll be your Teachers Aid in grimm studies from now on!" The new professor, well, Aid, exclaims from the middle of the space normally occupied by Professor Port. Standing half a head shorter than the Grim Studies professor, with shoulder length platinum blond hair, deep red eyes set on a face that would be earnest and innocent save for a scar running from brow to chin across the right side of, his, face. And that's the hanging point, Rojoa has a slender, toned body that could honestly be a poorly endowed womans or wiry mans, and a face which could be an effeminate mans or a masculine womans. "I spent a few years with Pete working out of Argus, so I'll be able to cut through some of his more, florid, stories." Rojoa chirps in an upbeat, earnest voice, even as their professor sulks in his chair.
Rojoa, clad in a white t-shirt, sky blue jacket, baggy dark jeans and sturdy looking combat boots moves to the side of the lecture area as the Professor stands from behind his desk to saunter to the stages center. "So, I heard that a few of you had a run-in with a beringel the other weekend. Easily the mightiest bipedal grimm currently known, but far from the smartest..."
As the professor begins to blather on, Pyrrha, Weiss and a handful of other students set about transcribing the entire diatribe. The rest of the class, well, some are polite enough to keep it to texting or passing notes. "So, the new aid is awful cute, isn't she?" Nora chirps just quietly enough to not be able to be picked out over the din of chattering teenagers.
Yang shakes her head. "Nah, he's real pretty though, if you ask me."
Jaune shakes his head. He's more than used to it now, but it still isn't exactly something he's proud of that his group of friends are one of the ones out-right ignoring the lecture. His opinion on how his friends are carrying on isn't exactly helped by the fact that its his partner still paying attention to keep them all passing the course. A brilliant flash of silver all but blinds the sextet that aren't taking notes. The sudden flash sends Nora toppling from her chair, Ruby lets out a startled scream, both Blake and Ren flinch back with a hiss. Jaune reaches for the sword that is far away in his rocket locker as he tumbles backwards over his chair into a ready stance, Yang lunging forward in an attempt to do the same, tumbling over the table in front of them to pile into Weiss and Pyrrha both of whom let out a startled, grumpy shout.
As his vision clears, Jaune feels his stomach drop down to his feet and heart leap to his throat. Busted. Rojoa is standing in the middle of the scattered or frozen hunters in training, arms crossed and a slight scowl making the TA's disapproval clear. "Look, I know Profesor Port tends to run on and toot his own horn, and can be really boring about it, but now that I'm here, his classes should get better. Pay attention, you might learn something." A scroll is fished out of Rojoas pocket, and, after a few rapid glances from the device to the two teams the Aid adds "Arc, Ren, Valkyrie, Rose, Xiao Long and Belladonna; you all have detention with me, here, after classes let out for the rest of the week."
As the six punished teens groan, and rub their eyes, the TA vanishes in another flash of silver, earning another round of startled yelps from them, and team CRDL as they all jump back from the sudden addition to their group. Jaune thinks there had been an approving glance shot at him and Yang, but with how shot his eyesight is right now, he cant be sure. "That's a hell of a semblance." He opines as the two teams resume their seats, all but the two that had been taking notes rubbing still sore eyes.
Yang, instead of climbing up another level and potentially flashing anyone below them in the lecture hall, or walking all the way to the aisle, up a level then back to the middle of the row of seats, takes the empty chair near Weiss. The brawler holds her hands up, and, with a roll of her eyes, Blake tosses her partners bag into the waiting hands. "Cant be very draining either with the way he's popping around the classroom."
Ruby, actually shaking a bit, cuts through the conversation "We can talk about it later guys. Lets not get any more detention today." Ports lecture, as it turned out, is better with his apparent old friend acting as a teachers aid, and most likely editing the lecture before class. Granted, with how Ports lectures usually go, saying this one is better is like saying something is more pleasant than being waterboarded.
As the two teams stumble out of the lecture hall along with the rest of the flow of freshmen headed for the dust labs, Yang crows. "Well, that sucked. At least we'll get our detention out of the way quickly. Rojoa busted , like, a third of the class I think." Blake nods in agreement, a good number of the busted students had gotten second visits pushing the detentions back, or moving them to all-day affairs over the weekend, or pushing them back to next week. They had certainly lucked out in being busted early, it seemed.
Nora nods enthusiastically "Yea, and, is it just me, or did Professor Port seem weirdly attracted to beringels? I mean, the way he described their muscles..."
Ruby shudders at the other hyperactive girls hanging question, and replies "Toooootaly just you Nora. Yup. Just you."
Grinning, Yang ruffles her younger sisters hair as a disgruntled team CRDL shoulder their way through the middle of teams RWBY and JNPR. Once everyone regains their balance, Nora making a rude gesture at the bullies backs and Ruby sticking her tongue out at them, Yang glances over to Pyrrha. "Say, P-money, where'd ya get the bangles from? They look killer on you, by the way."
The champion goes a little pale, but is quick to hide it with a chuckle and, forced, nervous rubbing at the back of her head. "Jaune got them for me, gave them to me when we started our watch in Forever Fall Saturday night."
Cheshire grin splitting her face, Yang waggles her eyebrows at the now blushing Pyrrha and Jaune. "Ooh, jewelry? Making a run at the Invincible Girl, loverboy?"
Weiss, mouths 'please' in a way she probably thinks is stealthy, which hurts Jaune more than a little. He hides his reaction to his crush's lack of reciprocated interest with a wince. The snakes that make up the body of the physical manifestation of Pyrrhas sacred gear are thumb thick, the scales etched to look like the tips of tongues of flame. And the rubies that serve as eyes are expertly cut, and the size of his pointer fingers nail. Bronze setting or no, they do not look cheap. "What jeweler did you get them from, Jaune? They're excellently crafted. If the shop does commission work I may be interested." The heiress queries.
Crap. Crap crap crap. Pyrrhas answer had been a half-truth, since his reincarnating her as a devil is likely the only reason she had unlocked her sacred gear. However, that is as close to a lie as his partner can convincingly get. And going by the fact that all of team RWBY look interested in Weiss' question, he isn't going to be able to get out of giving them an answer. "Um, I actually went to a few places before I settled on the shop I went with. Let me check the notes back in our dorm and I'll get back to you." The team of girls all nod, or make otherwise agreeable noises as the octet closes in on the dust lab. He'll have to call Sairoarg soon. On earth, most major cities have one or two jewelry shops run by Extra Devils for situations exactly like this. Normally, he would need to get in touch with the current head of the House he is client to, not the heir apparent. That said, whichever devils are posted to Vale need to be the sort who would be willing to switch their allegiance to Arc instead of Bael when the time comes.
Jaune lets that train of thought drift to a halt as Professor Shars statuesque form leaning against the dust labs entrance becomes visible. Darkly tanned with wavy, shoulder-length red hair flecked with gray at her temples, small teal eyes and harsh frown-lines adding an air of severity to the womans plump face. All of the students fall silent at the sight of the suit-clad Professor. While she isn't as exacting about being referred to as Doctor as Doctor Oobleck is, she is draconianly strict when it comes to extra chatter in her classroom compared to the History and Grimm Studies professors.
The students split off by team to sit at the widely spaced tables, each supporting a wide array of scanning, testing, refining and rendering equipment for dust. Team RWBY take seats at the table across the aisle from Jaunes peerage as the professor stalks to the whiteboard at the rooms front. "Today we will continue our work on identifying raw dust of a high enough quality to be prepared for use in the field. Be sure to continue paying careful attention to this lesson, as on a long term mission, or one gone sufficiently wrong, this skill could save the lives of yourselves, or your teammates."
_-*R-DxD*-_
Weiss shoots a glance over to Pyrrha. The two of them, being the only members of their respective teams to have avoided detention, are spending the hours after classes let out, which, normally, would be devoted to joint training – something JNPR had been drawing back from the last few weeks – studying. Well, Weiss had been studying. She thought Pyrrha had been as well. In fact, Weiss knows that the tournament fighter had been studying, well, working on an essay for History, when she first got back from her session with one of the academies psychiatrists and joined Weiss.
Then, maybe half an hour ago, Weiss had noticed Pyrrha was browsing the CCTnet on her laptop. And it wasn't remotely related to their schoolwork. At first, Weiss had been able to disguise her disappointment by throwing herself at her own essay and research. Which worked. Until she finished her work as well. "You finished too, Pyrrha?" she prods.
"Yep. Working on a side project my team picked up over the weekend." the redheaded Mistralian answers. Weiss' first impulse at Pyrrhas reply is to go and grab her book. When Blake, Ren and Jaune had recommended the Cycle of Eras series she hadn't expected it to be half as good as it was turning out to be. Then the second half of the girl she had once hoped would be her partners statement sinks in, and the need to know what happens next is swiftly surpassed by a burning desire to know how lurking on supernatural forums could possibly have anything to do with huntsman and huntresses in training beyond a hobby or curiosity.
With a quick, surreptitious, glance at her friends screen she has a website to start at. She had been expecting to find a good enough answer to slake her curiosity. Then she could close her laptop, plug it in back in the dorm room, grab her book and curl up in one of the more comfortable armchairs by the table she and Pyrrha are currently sitting at. That is, until she had ran across one of the threads about summoning circles and whether or not they actually work. She had to slog through a dozen pages of idle chatter before she could find out that they were supposedly summoning devils of all things.
After an hour, Weiss is just about ready to head for the library to see if any of the books people had said they got their information from are available. Until the rest of her and Pyrrhas teams got back from detention. "Worst. Detention. EVER!" Nora shouts as the six teens slump into the common room.
Pyrrha looks up from her laptop "What did Rojoa have you doing?"
Jaune heaves a sigh "It was an extra class. No credit, but he wasn't letting anyone leave until they got passing marks."
Weiss looks up from her screen. "What was the new TA teaching for this detention?"
Ruby drops into one of the plush leather armchairs by the table Weiss and Pyrrha had been sat at. "It was a bunch of cobbled together montages of huntresses hunting down criminals. Security cams, scroll captures, even some police incident reports. We had to guess what the huntsmans next move would be, or figure out where they went wrong and what they could have done differently."
"And it was sooooooooo boring. Most of the operations he had us going over didn't even have fights." Yang adds from the couch she had claimed, remote for the common rooms TV already in hand.
Ren, with a small, satisfied smirk on his face "It wasn't that bad, actually. Pattern recognition, deduction and predictive thinking. Certainly better than calisthenics with Professor Goodwitch or transcribing Ooblecks notes."
Blakes bow twitches as she swivels her head to glare at Ren "You're only saying that because you and Russel were Rojoas favorite students."
"Well, they were doing better than everyone else." Ruby speed-mumbles. Weiss does her best to ignore the fact that at the start of the semester that habit of her partner had been unintelligible, and now she can understand it as plainly as she could Winter giving orders to manor staff back home. The raven haired girl shifts her glare to their team leader, then softens her gaze upon seeing Rubys embarrassed, dejected posture.
Like many prodigies, Ruby isn't dealing well with being merely average at something. Or, at least, that's what Weiss has read about prodigies. To better understand her fr- leader. As the rest of the group settle in to do their homework, Weiss returns to her, surface check, of Remnants supernatural enthusiast community. Well, she is able to call it that until Tuesday evening. When she started to check books out of the library to further investigate, she couldn't help but notice that while all of them are centuries old, none had been available for more than a few months. This is what leads to her starting to set up her own profile on some of the more active supernatural community forums to see if anyone else had noticed that there was no announcement of an archaeological find to explain the appearance of the tomes in question.
Or that almost all of them have at least one mention of summoning devils. While some of the other users, like RebornFlame and Conquering_Blade were of absolutely no help, often downplaying what she had found to try to move conversation to their desire for the serial killer in Vales docks to be something supernatural in nature, more than a few others could corroborate her findings and happy to brainstorm with her. Still others, like ChicPhantom and FrozenThunder317 only seemed interested in going on about how the summoning rituals actually do work, and can be quite beneficial.
She definitely doesn't point out that the sigil at the center of the 'confirmed functional' summoning circle is the same as the emblem proudly emblazoned on the shield of a certain dense blonde acquaintance of hers. Or that there is a tickling sense of recognition nibbling at the back of her mind about Phenex, Gremory and Bael when she looks over some of the other summoning circles. None of that, however, is anywhere near her train of thought as she glares down the teammate she had thought was becoming one of her closest friends. The running debate had started off, shakily, Friday evening. And had been carrying on for hours now, striking more than a few very raw nerves and bad memories. And the girl refused to see reason. So Weiss had poured her heart out. Blake had tried to evade the gauntlet Weiss had thrown, so she had made her opinion perfectly clear. "Maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!"
The room goes still, and the apparent faunus terrorist realizes exactly what she had just revealed. Her eyes slowly widen, stubborn scowl and hard eyes giving way to shock and terror. Then the girl dashes off, gone down the hallway and into the staircase before anyone else can so much as blink or move to apprehend her.
_-*R-DxD*-_
Shouting, banging doors, followed by stomping interrupts team JNPRs planning of their stray hunt, and, with how late in the day it is, has all four of them peeking their heads out of their dorm to see what the commotion is all about. While they aren't the only cluster of four heads poking out into the hallway still barely lit by twilights gloom, they are surprised to find themselves directly across from a door bouncing back open on abused hinges. "Blake, wait!" Ruby shouts down the otherwise empty hallway.
The other dorm doors slowly close as the patches of surprised, curious heads retract back into the rooms they had sprouted from. Excluding their floors RAs dorm, which Coco strides from, an exasperated look on her face, already clad in her black silk pajamas. Which Jaune still can't fathom how clothes for sleeping in can be comfortable enough to serve their purpose, but still hug curves and hang loosely enough to provide enticing glimpses of midriff and cleavage. But he's staring. "Anything I need to worry about Rose?" Their RA queries, signature sunglasses nowhere to be seen, hair hanging about her head in an untamed curtain with a highlighted patch on the right side of her face.
Ruby forces herself to chuckle, clearly worried and nervous. "Nah, Weiss and Blake had an argument. Everything will be smoothed over by Monday."
"After we call the police it will be!" the heiress in question half-shouts from her teams dorm.
Ruby shoots an actual glare back into her room, which is both adorable and a little scary. Ruby never gets mad. "Good to hear. The Academy doesn't much care what we do on the weekends, but if Belladonna isn't back in her dorm by lights out Monday..." Coco trail off, her voice stern enough to convey just how much trouble Blake may be in.
Ruby nods, her anger at Weiss shifting to determination "Like I said, taken care of by Sunday."
Coco nods, shoots a pointed look at Jaune, and turns to strut back to her own room, dust motes swirling in her wake, as visible in sunsets glare as the huntresses in training still standing in the hallway. JNPR retreat to their own room at that, Both Jaune and Pyrrha shooting a concerned look Rubys way before the door closes."So, is it finally time to stop spamming forums and start actually hunting this stray?" Nora quips as she slumps back down onto the couch.
The dorm is, well, a bit of a mess. Empty soda cans and water bottles are scattered across all four desks, with more than a few having spilled over to the floor. All of their garbage cans are full, and the wireless printer their laptops are all synched to is out of paper. A small map of Vale is tacked to the wall next to the TV, colored pins and string roughly outlining half of the dock district, with just over half a dozen more planted inside the denoted area.
Jaune grimaces as he feels the tug of a summons at the back of his head. One only a few doors down the hallway. "Tomorrow we'll start canvasing the area we think it''s hiding in. I don't know about you, but the idea of trekking though the slums with my brain half-fried from two tests and a weeks worth of extra class detentions doesn't sound like a fun time."
Pyrrha looks over at the other three members of JNPR, before walking over to her dresser. "Jaune is right, and I don't think finding out how many intoxicated lechers cant tell the difference between a huntress and a streetwalker would be an enjoyable experience either."
Nora winces, Ren bristles, well, anyone who knows Ren would recognize it as that. Then both Jaune and Ren are spinning in place to turn away from the now changing Pyrrha. "So, we start our hunt tomorrow, early." Ren summarizes.
"Can we keep an eye open for Blake too?" Pyrrha adds, her voice wavering between worry over their friend and her sense of duty.
"Yea, because Blake would totally be hiding from her team by abandoned warehouses that are being used as brothels." Nora shoots back, playful derision making her voice even bouncier than usual.
Jaune shakes his head, a small grin forming on his mouth as he sets about changing into his pajamas as well. "It could be a trap house or smugglers warehouse, if we're gonna believe all of the rumors we tracked down."
Nora sighs "Alright boys, me and Pyrrha are decent." The two men turn around, as Nora adds "So, tomorrow we start looking for an abandoned warehouse that was formerly being used for crime and is now the den of a murderous stray devil that may or may not have other people doing its work for it. Easy, right?"
_-*R-DxD*-_
Blake, strides through the park, still seethingly furious, but slowly calming with time and distance. Luckily the rain had calmed, but its well past sundown. The rain had also more or less hidden her tears, not that she cares about what the random strangers she passes think about her, but a crying girl would have had a much harder time grabbing a bullhead out of the academy compared to a water-logged one who looked like she was in a hurry. Or the guy who had been at her heels since she stopped running at the monument in Beacons courtyard. "So, seeing as your done stalking and snarling, are we gonna stake out some benches or what?"
Blakes striding grinds to a halt. "Stake out some... benches?" she queries, knowing there's confusion writ large across her face, and not able to do a thing about it. "And I wasn't stalking."
Suns accepting grin doesn't falter, which makes the fact that he'd called out her behavior even more grating. "Of course you weren't." The grin is still there, and going by his eyes and posture, leaned back slightly with his arms outspread by a hair, its a genuine one. "Plus we gotta sleep somewhere, that's why you took us to this park, isn't it? Plenty of side trails with good benches. Though, I'm pretty sure the best one are already taken with how late it is."
Blake blinks. She blinks again. Sun doesn't shift from his pose, nor does his grin falter. He doesn't even blink. "I'm sorry, good benches? Don't they all work the same in parks?"
He chuckles. "Not for what we need. Don't wanna be too close to the main paths, or the jerk cops will wake you up or haul you off. You wanna try to find one with a tree or something over it so you don't get totally soaked if it starts raining. Some people think one by a newsstand is good so you can make a newspaper blanket, but with how thin that is it doesn't do much good."
Blake realizes he had meant to find benches to sleep on, and suddenly feels insensitive and stupid. She glances around, actually paying attention now, and realizes she had wandered to a part of Vale her team like to frequent and sets off, motioning for the monkey faunus to follow her. Once he catches up, trailing half a step behind her, she cant help but ask "So, how do you know so much about what makes for a good park bench to sleep on?"
"Vacuan street rat, grown up and moved on here!" He all but crows, which, no one should sound that chipper about. Well, he did say he moved on, but, he also had stowed away on a cargo freighter to get to Vale.
Blake leads the duo out of the park, pausing just long enough to look at street signs at every corner until she knows exactly where in the city they are. Now armed with both a destination, and aware of where she is, she adjusts their course. "But, didn't the ship you got here on come from Mistral?"
"Well, yea." He answers as if it had been the most obvious thing in the world "Who would stay in Vacuo if they could help it?" The foot traffic picks up as they move closer to the part of town more or less dedicated to bars and nightclubs. It is a Friday night, after all.
Blake glances over her shoulder at her, new friend? Hopefully. A light breeze, the last vestiges of the evenings rainstorm probably, tussles her hair. Suns eyes bug out a bit, but the grin holds. "Why Mistral though? Wouldn't it have been easier to get to Vale from Vacuo?"
The blonde shrugs. "A hunstman from Mistral got me a job and off the street. Decided to learn where he did. And an airship ticket out of Vacuo costs the same pretty much wherever you're going."
Blake stops in front of a nighclubs side entrance, and knocks on the door. "Mistral is as far from Vacuo as Atlas. There's no way it wasn't cheaper to get to Vale than Mistral. Plus, with how good of a stowaway you are, why even bother with a ticket?"
That gets the grin to falter. But the pout doesn't last long either. "Hey, I was a kid. Logic isnt kids strong suit. And I bought the ticket because I was starting a new life, ya know? Hard to do that starting off with more petty crime."
She shakes her head "But you stowed away to get to Vale."
"Well, yea. If we had bought a ticket Headmaster Lionheart would have canceled it on us and made us wait until the rest of the temporary transfers leave. Totally not cool." Sun quips, shooting a wink at her as he does so.
Before Blake can reply to that Crimm opens his clubs staff entrance to his nightclub. He glances over the two faunus, and a mischievous glint shines in his eyes. "So, finally decided to get back into the game, Belladonna? " Before Blake can so much as twitch to reply or react, he presses on "Looks like a good pick too, if you don't mind me saying so."
She suppresses a growl, and, doing her best to keep her voice level, answers "No, Crimm, that isn't what this is. If it was, I'd be at the main entrance like a normal person. I know you had to cover up the Broken Tusk, but do you still have..." she trails off, not really sure how to finish asking for what she's looking for. Especially with a guy all but hanging off her arm.
The glint is still in the club owners pale green eyes, his close cropped black hair and pointed beard making his smirk seem more devious than should be possible. "Ah, a one night stand then. Hope you don't mind if I swoop in to try to pick up the pieces after you break the poor guys heart then."
Blake can feel her cheeks heating up against the early evenings crisp air, and Sun had gone rigid. A breeze whispers through the more or less clean alleyway, and Blake shakes her head "No, Crimm, its not that either. You know who my teammate is."
The bartender quirks an eyebrow "What, the blond bombshell? She sexile you with one of your friends friends?"
Blake cant suppress the growl a second time, and barely notices Sun taking a half-step away from her. "Not her, you relentless gossip. Weiss Schnee! She saw that" Blake jerks her head in Suns general direction "numskull running from some cops after blatantly jumping clear of the boat he stowed away on to get to Vale. She said some things I don't think she really believes deep down, and I let it get to me. I got heated, and let enough slip that she was able to put one and one together to come up with two." Blake pauses, and takes a deep, steadying breath. "I, we, just need a place to sleep while the princess calms down." despite knowing that she is still blushing, and fully aware that without the bow, the fact that her ears are drooping and making her uncertainty obvious, she does her best to make light of the situation. "Blondie here was ready to camp out on park benches. I think that'd be a pretty lousy way to welcome a fellow huntsman in training to Vale."
Crimm blinks a few times as the mirth slowly drains from his features. He straightens his suit-jacket, centers his belt, and replies "Yea, I still have all the rooms set up. They're all in the basement, little studio apartments with windows. I can put the both of you up all weekend, but, since your both academy students..."
Blake nods "That's fine. I have a feeling that all of this will be resolved, good or bad, by then."
The pair of hunters in training follow the club owner into his establishment. The door they had been at led into a mostly abandoned hallway. Storage rooms, walk in fridges, and the occasional employee breaking up the almost silent hall. The low thrum of the busy nightclub, and busier kitchen all that can be heard aside from the trios un-rushed footsteps. Eventually, Sun breaks the silence after the third corner, just as Crimm opens a door to reveal the stairs leading to the basement. "Blake, not that I'm not happy to be sleeping in a bed tonight, not on a bench, but..."
"Tomorrow, Sun. I promise. Today has been..." She takes in a deep breath, closes her eyes, and turns to face her fellow faunus. She opens her eyes as she exhales, greeted by a look of earnest concern from the second fit blond hunter in training she has met in as many months. "I want to be honest, and need to clear my head. I'm sorry for getting you caught up in my mess."
Suns tail twitches hard to the right as he waves her off and looks to his left, where, well, nothing, is lying on the ground. "Don't worry about it, helping people out is one of the best ways to make friends there is. And there aren't many things more satisfying in life than helping a friend." the group goes silent again at that, as the buildings owner leads them ever deeper into a warren of hallways, back rooms and spare equipment.
Crimm gestures at a pair of rooms after slowing to a halt nearly half an hour later. "Both are set up, plenty of microwave food in the cupboards and freezers. You don't owe me anything, but I'd like to know when you leave. I don't have the signs painted on anymore, but, between word of mouth and rumors..."
Blake nods "Yea, that wont be a problem." is all she says, before walking into one of the rooms Crimm had waved his hand at, closing the door behind her as soon as she walks in. The floor has what looks to be cheap vinyl flooring covering it in a generic black and white tile pattern. In one of the corners opposite the door a plain white comode, matching white sink with a plain medicine cabinet on the wall above it. Along the wall between the toilet and door rests an enclosed shower/bathtub, stocked with the antibacterial combination shampoo/bodywash most gyms and schools have in their locker rooms free of charge.
The corner opposite the toilet, which is in a straight line from where the door is nestled in another corner is a small counter-top, cabinets above and below it, a battered black microwave and coffee pot sitting on the surface. Between the two far corners is a full size fridge/freezer combo, a window covering the rest of the distance between the kitchen area and bathroom.
A twin bed with plain white sheets and blankets covers most of the wall between the door and kitchen area. She spots a decentish looking armchair in the rooms last corner, an outlet with a scroll charger near enough it that she could rest and read a book on her scroll to unwind, without having to worry about it dying on her. However, all she really wants is to wake up in her bed back in the dorm room to find the last twenty four hours had been a bad dream. She flicks the light back off, strips down to her underwear and makes for the bed. Maybe, for once, her desires and reality will align, and she will wake up to her alarm clock blaring, safe in her bed at Beacon with her team groggily rousing around her. Wouldn't that be nice?
_-*R-DxD*-_
Team JNPR is awakened to the sound of someone beating on their door. Jaune is the first to the ground, Pyrrha being her usual, nearly impossible to rouse self, while Ren and Nora, having been more recently reincarnated, are still pretty well out of it thanks to their new status as night owls. Without bothering to put a shirt on he pads over to the door and pulls it open. "Jaune! I, uhh..." Ruby starts her usual relentlessly chipper self, then trails off, blushing, looking away from his teams doorway, eyes darting to him then back away, fidgeting the whole time.
After nearly a minute of awkwardness, Jaune decides to act "Did you need something, Ruby?"
Still not able to hold eye contact, or still, the prodigy half-stutters back "Well, um. You see, er... I just, kinda thought that, well, since your team saw the end of Weiss' and Blakes fight yesterday, and since Blake hasn't come back yet. Maybe, you and your team could help us look for her?" Rubys voice tilts up hopefully as she asks her question. "I mean, its not like I think she actually is guilty of anything, or a bad person, but I think Weiss does so I'm kinda worried that she wont be looking all that hard, and she's already mentioned calling the police like a half a dozen times since we all woke up this morning, and even more times than that last night after Blake left, and I just realized that I'm rambling and not giving you any space to answer so I'll just shut up now but could you pleasepleaseplease help us?"
Jaune cant help the smirk that crosses his face, before resting a reassuring hand on Rubys shoulder, which, for some weird reason has her blushing even more, and gone completely still. "Let me wake my team up and ask them, but I'm sure they'll all be happy to help out. You guys are our friends after all. Ruby lets out a startled 'eep' for some reason when he turns around to rouse his peerage and tell them a golden opportunity fro them to hunt down the stray devil had just dropped into their laps. He closes the door behind him, and, glancing down to make sure he doesn't trip over any of the junk, or dirty clothes that are scattered about the disaster zone of a dorm room they have had since entirely too many things to worry about had been dumped on JNPRs plate.
He quickly realizes two things that have him just about ready to die of embarrassment. First, his comfy, flannel pajama pants had been tugged down on his waist, and that he had been maybe a quarter inch from flashing Ruby. Second, he hadn't bothered to grab anything to cover his groin in case he had morning wood, which he does. Not that he is ashamed of what he's working with downstairs, but, that, combined with the fact that the button on his pants isn't done up properly, and the fact that he had nearly flashed the first friend he had made at Beacon, who is only fifteen, about as innocent as a girl can be, and has a hyper-protective older sister...
Suffice to say the icy knot of dread in his stomach, along with the mortification at what he had just done has him calming down in short order as he rouses his team. Resigning himself to his fate of death by Yang should Ruby ever tell anyone about what had just happened, Jaune sets about shaking lofted beds to rouse his peerage. It takes a few minutes, which is good, as it allows him time to fix his pants and finish mentally calming himself down before anyone else can notice his faux pas. Once Pyrrha, Nora and Ren are all on the ground, wiping the sleep from their eyes and fixing their sleep-disheveled pajamas, he starts explaining the situation. "So, it turns out Blake didn't come back after her fight with Weiss last night. Ruby asked us to help the rest of Team Ruby find their missing member. Normally, I'd say you only have to if you want to, but, since we have a Stray to track down and put down, this is a perfect cover for us to get out and start searching."
"Makes sense." Ren replies with a nod "And, after not doing anything for them the last time they were having issues, helping out with this will feel good."
Pyrrha heaves a yawn as she stretches, left arm curling, fist pointed at her head as her right extends up and out, back arched, taught stomach bared for a long moment before she returns to a more normal posture. "I take it we'll be splitting up to cover more ground as soon as we get a chance to?"
What? Oh, right, finding Blake and the Stray they need to hunt down. "Yea, I'll let Ruby know we'll help, then we can get washed up, dressed, and hit the streets. His team sets about grabbing their shower kits and combat clothes, and Jaune heads back for the door. He pulls it open to find Ruby, pajama pants tugged lower on her hips, tank top rolled up maybe an inch and a half, doing her best to look nonchalant and confident. Trying. Any success she had had is shattered by her eyes bugging out and face going as crimson as her namesake again. Jaune can feel the heat spreading across his face, and, once again, cant quite remember what he had been doing. He does have the presence of mind to look away, down the hallway towards the common room, however. Something is making noises though. "Huh?"
"I said, umm, so, did you guys decide to help us out?" Rubys voice repeats. Jaune darts a rapid glance towards the prodigy, and is relieved to see her once again wearing her clothes normally, not... Not how she had tugged at them while he had talked to his team.
He takes a deep, steadying breath as he turns to properly face his friend again. "Yea, yea. We'll help you guys out. We just gotta get dressed and everything. How about we all meet up in an hour at the bullhead docks?"
Ruby nods, embarrassment rapidly replaced by a bright, grateful grin. "Yea, sure, that sounds good. We gotta get ready to head out too." At that, the prodigy dashes back across the hallway, a slight trail of rose petals drifting to the floor in her wake. Luckily, the rest of the morning proceeds far more normally. Showers are had, clothes put on, weapons retrieved and a bullhead ride down into Vale taken. Most of it interspersed with speculation as to where Blake may have run off too.
The hours drag on, and still they find no sign of Blake. They shuffle the groups they are canvasing the city in at each meal. Change where they are searching. Places Blake likes to visit. Bookstores and quiet parks for a few hours. Then theaters or malls for a while. Busy stretches of the city where there are plenty of shops and idle entertainments. Abandoned or near abandoned districts where solitude is easy to find, but only safe for those who can defend themselves.
Team JNPR is able to check more than half of the spots they suspect the Stray may be hiding out before Saturday gives way to Sunday, still with nary a sign of Blake. The entire time Weiss won't stop going on about the police, signs of guilt, and predictions of her own vindication. The arguments, and they can only be called that almost feel scripted by the lunch on Sunday. "And I think Weiss's hair looks wonderful today!" a chipper voice cuts through the rote squabbling.
Ruby and Nora actually scream in shock as the seven trainees spin on point to the source of the new voice. Jaune has Crocea Mors halfway drawn as he stumbles though a sloppy rotation, and is greeted by an innocent looking ginger haired girl who seems to be roughly their age. Taller than Nora, but shorter than Yang, roughly the same build as Ruby and Weiss, with curves leaning more towards the heiress' build than the younger prodigies, though her utilitarian gray and taupe dress/blouse combo makes that difficult to judge. "Penny! Where did you come from!?" Ruby continues to shout at the girl, her piercing green eyes just a hair paler and nearly the same shade as the electric green highlights on her dress and high colored blouse, a powder-pink bow holding the hair not hanging loose at chin height out of the way.
A blushing Pyrrha slides Miló back into its sheathe as the newcomer, Penny, apparently, replies "Hey guys, what are you up to?" The timber of her voice and the way her words are spaced has Jaune just a hair uncomfortable, and Ren still hasn't shifted from Nora, right arm held straight out, preventing either girl from being able to close on the other without going through him. "And who are your other friends?"
Ruby, panic slowly draining from her features, voice still a bit manic however continues her, surprise, conversation, with her, apparent, friend. "Uhh..."
"We're looking for our friend Blake." Yang bails her sister out. "And these four are Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora. Team Juniper. They're helping us."
Penny, face almost too rapidly shifting from near confusion to seeming understanding, makes a nod that involves just a hair too much upper body motion and over-stressed facial expression to get her emotions across, replies "Oh! You mean the faunus girl!"
Nora waves a hand at her fellow ginger, unrelenting smile already back in place on her face. "Pfft, what are you talking about, there's only humans on our teams Penny!"
"Wait, how did you know that?" Ruby queries not even a heartbeat after Nora had finished correcting Penny. Falsely, apparently, going by RWYs shocked blinking and overly-still forms.
Penny points to the crown of her head, again, her left arm telegraphing the action just a bit too much to seem normal. "Uhh, the cat ears."
"What cat ears?" Yang shoots back, looking more than a little uncomfortable, and the low, almost grating tone of her voice somewhere between confusion and hurt. "She wears a... bow..." A tumbleweed of all things bounces past the gathering of teenagers, as Ruby mumbles what is possibly the most racist thing she can, barely loudly enough for Jaune to hear. Hopefully none of the others caught that. And luckily, the street is oddly empty, so no passerby's will be calling his friend out on her, less than tactful, observation.
"So, where is she?" Penny asks, again, most of her body too still as she tilts her shoulders from left to right, head unmoving, to glance at all of the assembled trainees.
Jaune shrugs "Don't have a clue. She ran off on Friday, and we've been looking for her ever since." As Penny takes a few, quick, wooden steps to clasp Rubies shoulders and start to reassure the other girl, Jaune spots Yang and Weiss slowly backing away, until they clear what they must figure earshot is, and start sprinting. Jaune doesn't really blame them, but, something feels off about the new girl, and he isn't about to leave his friend with her alone. He makes eye contact with his team, before jerking his head first in the direction of Weiss and Yang, then at a nearby alleyway. Pyrrha takes off after the heiress and brawler, while Nora and Ren dart into the alley to continue their search for Blake and/or the Stray devil. At this rate, Jaune will consider finding either a win.
_-*R-DxD*-_
"So, whats the plan now?" Sun asks, easy, confident strides marking him a huntsman in training as readily as Blakes measured, even gait does. It's been windy all day, which has many of the other pedestrians swaying and stumbling periodically, but neither of the aura enhanced teens are much bothered by that. Even if they were, the slightly larger amount of personal space most civilians afford armed huntsmen and huntresses, which their clothes mark the two teens as as readily as their posture and bearing do would ensure that a collision with someone is the last thing that's likely to happen. Another gust catches Suns open shirt, and merciful gods you could grate cheese on those-
No. No, you've barely known him for a full day. Stop that. "I still don't think the White Fang is behind these robberies. They've never needed that much dust before." She knows she is being a bit over-expressive with her hands at the end of her statement, but she needs to do something to hide the fact that she had started by half-mumbling into her fist in an attempt to avert her gaze.
She is glad for the extra motions though, as the turning of her body allows her to spot a familiar patch of orange over pink and white, and pink-streaked black over green exiting a side alley. It doesn't take a genius to guess that Ruby had gotten team JNPR to help search for her. And Blake isn't ready to face her team yet, she just isn't. She needs to know, needs to be positive, if the Fang is behind the robberies, needs that reassurance about having left that chapter of her life behind before she can face her friends again. Acting on instinct, she grabs Suns arm and dashes down another alley away from her fiends. The jerky, haphazard motion has her, and Sun, stumbling before they get more than ten feet into the alley. Sun, the overly caring nice guy that he apparently is, catches both of them. Mostly. She slams into a brick wall, but stays upright, thanks to her fellow faunus left hand catching her hip, his right bracing out against the wall she had run into. Between his broad shoulders and the fact that he's a full head taller than her, she knows she is all but invisible aside from a vague feminine form to anyone not in the alleyway. To anyone not them, they look like a couple sharing a moment somewhere out of the way. Her heart, still thumping – from nearly being caught – is slow to calm. Those same, earnest, non-judgmental ocean-blue eyes gazing down at her in concern have nothing to do with her agitated state. "Not that I'm complaining, but, what gives Blake?"
The goofy grin and half-shrug with his left arm, which had left her as soon as she had been stabilized, breaks the sp- returns her thought process to what is important. "I, spotted some of my friends, who are probably looking for me." She looks down the alleyway, and is relieved to see Ren and Nora ambling down the sidewalk none the wiser to her presence less than a dozen yards from them.
Sun backs up to a decent distance for friendly acquaintances who had just met when he notices her relaxing. "Who you probably don't want to run into until you have your proof that it hasn't been the White Fang stealing the dust, right?" Blake nods, glad for the bow restricting the mobility of her emotive ears. "So, then, if we are going to prove that they didn't do it." he backs further away from her, chopping at the air and pacing a bit as he thinks out loud. "Then what we need to do, is go to where they would be if they were doing it." Even his tail is twitching in agitation as he works through their problem. Well, hers, that he decided to help her with, despite being total strangers two days ago. "And to not find them there." He slows to a halt in front of where she is still leaned up against the alleys wall, arms held apart as he presents a perfectly reasonable resolution to their – her – problem. With one major hole in it. "Right?" Just like that, the thoughtful, logical, grounded in reality illusion is shattered with a vibrant smile and a pair of pointing hands that may as well be finger-guns.
No, wait, they are finger guns. "The only problem is, I have no idea where that would be." Blake shoots back as she steps away from the wall, out of the 'line of fire' of Suns finger guns, left arm folded across her stomach to clutch the opposite elbow, right hand scratching at her chin.
The goofball goes away, overly-chipper timbre replaced by thoughtful, serious, measured sense once again. "Well" he plants his hands on his hips "when I was on the ship, I heard some of the crew talking about a huge shipment of dust coming in from Atlas."
Love it? Hate it? Have been constipated for the last six months and just cant hold it anymore? Drop me a review! I love those things! They're what makes this all worth it.