Ch. 35 The broken
"Did you hear? Professor Branwen's group is coming back today."
"Yeah, heard team CFVY got ground into the ground."
"You mean Adel's team?"
"Ya, I'm not surprised though. I mean they were out there for weeks."
"I heard some fourth years say that professor Branwen is like… cursed or something."
"I mean they never let him lead excursions in Signal so…"
Penny just so happened to be walking by the group of gossiping Beacon students and overheard the whole conversation. It took her a mere fraction of a second to make the connection between professor Branwen and her friend Ruby.
And as a good friend she saw it fit to inform her friend of the new development.
=O=O=O=
"Qrow."
"Glyn."
Qrow looked tired, more so than usual. He walked down the ramp of the transport with a slight limp. Though what bothered him the most about his current condition was that he was sober. It was just his luck to get roped into keeping a bunch of students alive for long enough that his supply ran out.
"You're lucky Ozpin needs you for the debrief, otherwise I would make a you shaped imprint in the sidewalk." sighed professor Goodwitch in exasperation.
"I got them home alive didn't I?"
"From what I heard, it was team CFVY that did most of the work."
"Yeah having a minigun or two fucking helps. But yeah, props to them. They did good."
"And you did what?"
"Elder Geist dragged a whole damn swamp with it. Plus I am me, I can't exactly be around the kids for too long. Now let me be, I need a bath and some dry clothes."
=O=O=O=
When Ruby and Yang arrived at the docks, Qrow was already leaving. All he did when he noticed them was give them a look and continue walking. Though with the amount of barely dry mud all over his clothes his nieces knew exactly what the situation was. It wasn't the first time he returned from a mission in this state.
Luckily he wasn't the only one they were here for and a few minutes later they caught a glimpse of team CFVY. They were in a similar state, even Coco had mud on her clothes, something she would ordinarily never allow. Surprisingly the least dirty one of them was the blind Fox Alistair who only had mud up to his knees and not a speck above them.
"COCO, VELVET! You're back!"
"Hey guys! How was the mission with our uncle?"
Upon hearing Yang's question Coco's face twitched as she slowly turned to face the blonde.
"Yang, a word of advice. If you ever get assigned a mission with that man? Run."
"Oh come on guys, sure it was rough, but it couldn't have been… that… bad?" replied Ruby in defence of her favourite uncle, though she did trail off when she noticed the soulless stare Velvet was giving her.
It was Yatsuhashi that deemed it necessary to enlighten her on the situation. Daichi wasn't overly familiar with either Yang or Ruby, but he knew the girls had a good relationship with each other.
"Ruby. Coco and Velvet both fell into the muddy swamp water so many times that Coco begged me to erase her memories with my semblance. Velvet made me promise early on that I wouldn't even if she begged me to later on. And honestly I don't blame either of them. My semblance is pretty dangerous at the best of times, but that just shows how bad the experience was that Coco didn't want to remember."
"But… but that's not uncle Qrow's fault."
"I want to agree with you, but…" Daichi didn't finish his sentence and only shook his head.
"Things always got worse when he checked up on our team. And the other's said the same thing." added Fox, gesturing to one of the other teams that came back with them, their own mud covered figures telling a story of their own.
It was silent for a while before Velvet finally spoke for the first time since Ruby greeted them.
"And the smell, oh gods the smell."
It was then that Yang realised that the dry swamp mud smelled foul. And that was now after it dried. And Velvet was faunus and could smell so much better than the others.
Yang felt nothing but sympathy at this point, and while Ruby did too, she felt another thought creeping in. Maybe it would be better to avoid getting an assignment with uncle Qrow.
=O=O=O=
"Miss Scarlatina, are you sure you're alright?"
"Yes professor. We can't go to class yet, but I figured I could at least observe. Plus I was hoping I could take some photos today. The mission has me running low."
"You may take as many photos as you'd like, so long as you aren't disruptive."
"Thank you professor."
"Now take your seat, the lesson is starting soon."
Velvet nodded and made herself scarce as people started filing in. There were some familiar faces in the crowd but a good chunk of student's were teams visiting for the festival and that meant new weapons and new fighting styles.
"Now without further ado, let's begin the lesson. Miss Nikos, miss Xiao-Long. Mister David, mister Ayana. You'll have the first fight today."
"Oh it just had to be SSSN versus SWNY." grumbled Sky when he noticed the feral grin on Yang's face.
=O=O=O=
Needless to say, Scarlet and Sage stood no chance against the duo that was the Dragon of Patch and the Mistralian Champion as the two came to be known amongst the transfer students from Haven.
Fortunately for the next students to go against them, Yang's fighting style heavily relied on her semblance so by the end of the second match she had to retire from the arena. Pyrrha however remained virtually untouched for the next three matches even though Goodwitch put her up against a whole team on her last match.
"I believe that is enough for today, miss Nikos. Next up…"
It was then that Mercury raised his hand "I'd like to go next."
"Very well, mister Black. You'll go up against…"
"Actually, I'd like to fight her." he pointed at Pyrrha, who just barely made a step out of the arena.
"I'm sorry but you should have made that request before she fought five matches in a row. Mister Arc, get ready you'll be mister Black's opponent."
Jaune wasn't exactly thrilled at having to fight the guy. He had entirely forgotten about the unpleasant feeling he got from Mercury, the experience being overshadowed by the encounter with general Ironwood the next morning.
In the back row of the spectator seating of the arena Velvet readied her camera. Jaune was an enigma to her since the cafeteria incident, but his teammates were tight lipped and the only thing she got out of the teachers was that he was in a similar position to her when it came to semblances, though she had no idea what that was supposed to mean.
It could be the case of their semblances being functionally identical, it wouldn't be entirely unheard of. However it could easily be something else entirely with the only similarity being the encouragement to not flaunt it unnecessarily.
"Fight!"
As sword met armoured foot, Velvet was pulled from her musings. She observed Jaune exchange blows with the transfer student, switching her attention between them.
It didn't take her long to figure out that Black's muscle memory was… it was meticulously honed but also damaged. There simply was not muscle memory to how he moved his legs from the knees down. Mercury Black was an amputee with huntsmen grade mechanical prosthetics. It also didn't take much to realise he was holding back.
As for Jaune… well she could say with certainty he had improved. His muscle memory now included a bunch of assorted styles of footwork, most not even remotely associated with sword fighting. However when it came to actually using his weapon; the black bastard sword, there was nothing. His body didn't so much execute those moves as much as it was moved by an outside force.
Or an inside one, realised Velvet. If it was his semblance that moved his body, it made sense that her own semblance couldn't read his muscle memory.
However with one mystery solved another reared its head. Despite the fact that she couldn't copy Jaune's style directly, that didn't mean she couldn't use something as simple as a sword on her own merit. So obviously she took a picture of it at an opportune moment when both combatants clashed.
There was just one problem. The image of the black sword refused to develop properly on the special hard light dust film. Instead, it burned through the positive in a perfect shape of where the sword would be in the picture.p
=O=O=O=
Jaune had the distinct feeling that Mercury was toying with him. Then again so was Jaune to a degree since he was restricting himself to Atra Aurora only.
The feeling of unease he got every time their aura came into contact didn't exactly help things either. Of course it was just a matter of time before the emotional recoil left Jaune open to a strike.
The kick square to the middle of his chest plate was unpleasant enough for Jaune to decide to show one of his cards. As Jaune recovered his stance, he let his aura ignite around his body.
However a moment before he could land a hit Mercury dropped his stance entirely, proclaiming "I give up."
"Wha?"
Jaune stumbled as he had to suddenly stop mid strike.
"I can see when I have no chance of winning. I give up."
Professor Goodwitch furrowed her eyebrows. This sort of blatant info gathering before the tournament was fairly common, but most students at least had the decency to finish the spar in one way or another. This way of doing it just didn't sit well with her, but at the end of the day it was a valid move.
"Well then, mister Arc is the winner. Mister Black, I would appreciate it if you didn't try to pick a fight with our top student only to surrender to someone on your level. Mister Arc, I understand playing your cards to your chest but all in moderation."
=O=O=O=
"So?"
"His skill is… below average I'd say. My guess is he is used to relying on that massive amount of aura to overpower or outlast his opponent. A real monster when at full aura. I wouldn't want to be hit by that last strike."
"Hmmm, it's no Nikos, but maybe we can still use it."
Mercury sat lazily next to Cinder, who smiled while looking at another spar taking place in the arena. Emerald was doing the same, though her emotions were more muted, guarded behind a hardened exterior.
Then there was Neo, her exterior a carefully crafted mask of aloof disinterest. Under that mask however a scowl marred her face. She didn't know much of what the plan was yet, but she knew about Cinder's little excursion to the CCT during the dance.
She would have to be careful about her next move, but it was time to put her own plan into motion.
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
CFVY is back, Qrow is back, Cinder is scheming, but so is Neo.
Jaune at this point is probably able to comfortably match most combatants at the school one on one (with the exception of the teachers of course). About time honestly, the tournament is around the corner.
But fret not my dear readers, there is quite a bit of story left before we get there.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch.36 A crack in the facade
P.S.: A special thanks to everyone reading this chapter at the time of posting, since the email notifications seem to be broken at this time.