A/N (2/28/2022): Edited scene with Jaune deciding that the things Light brought up aren't that important.
A/N (2/28/2022): Path beta-ed it, so too many fixes to count!
A/N (2/28/2022): Removed 'block number' joke from Yang and Jaune phone call.
A/N (2/27/2022): …
Thanks for all the comments, but no matter how many nice things you say… I - I won't change my mind! I swear! I - I'm sure on this!
Hm, I also saw a number of well thought out criticisms, which now that I think about, I usually just read and accept and don't respond to. I will see if I can improve the areas that were pointed out.
I do agree that I seem to have made many tangents… I think here I may be thinking of the character progression of Jaune too much, which has made me ignore the plot itself. You guys are probably looking forward to him actually going through canon events, but we're seven chapters in and we're still in initiation lol. Sadly, there's still a bit more for initiation in order to set up the Forever Fall arc in a way that I feel like should improve the Cardin arc. Since we're already here, I think straying away from my plans would detract from you guys' enjoyment.
I agree that there is a tonal issue that developed across the chapters. Whenever I read my previous chapters, I can see how the first few don't show this mix of comedy and serious discussion that the story became. That's kind of because I had planned for the serious undertone to be far less apparent on the surface than it is right now. The story's current state of mismatched "promises" is, well, one of the reasons I'd like to go on a training journey.
Lastly, to those who are worried that I'll be putting this on hiatus and never returning… Well, my training journey will involve going back to old stories, so technically that should be proof that I'll be back?
Beta: Path of a Writer
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
Ruby dragged Jaune towards another section of the clearing along the fissure in order to play around with Jaune's supposed 'Gamer' semblance. This was most likely to give them some room and avoid collateral damage to the camp, where the rest seemed to be still setting things up.
This was after they took a quick detour back to camp and deposited both Jaune's sword shards and the chess pieces into separate empty cloth bags in his locker, so that their hands and pockets became free.
"So, what's first?"
Ruby excitedly hopped from one foot to the next. "If you say that it allows you to treat life as a video game, does that mean you get some HUD elements?"
"Heads-Up Display? Sort of…" He spoke to Ruby about the notifications and menus. Speaking of notifications, he had been slowly raising his reputation with Ruby as he talked to her, but it had become so commonplace he hadn't taken a second look.
"Didn't you say it was an RPG shooter? Is there text above my head with my health, name, class, and level, then?"
"Well, no…"
"Then, what kind of RPG game is it modeled after?"
"The bad kind." Jaune instantly replied.
"Right… there are RPG's that don't have that, you know. Like Mast Effect, the game where you sail around on a ship and prevent squids from ending the world."
Jaune twitched for more than one reason. "That one has two out of four elements, the health and the name of the enemies, so I'd still count that in the same type of game."
"So your semblance isn't the ability to perceive reality perfectly then?"
"Nope." Jaune gave her a look. His conversation with Light hadn't left his mind… neither had his warning. "More like… A glimpse of it. A separate glimpse from our mundane gaze." The words left his mouth with a mysterious tinge. They were strange, leaving him with the tiniest sense of superiority, like a man in on an inside joke.
Ruby eyed him for a second. "Then, why don't you tell me a bit about these menus? You mentioned you had stats, does that mean you have a 'profile menu'?"
Jaune closed his eyes for a moment, letting the feeling pass. "Close. A stats menu rather, as it's called there."
"What does it tell you? What are the different attributes?"
"Status Menu."
[Back]
[Stats]:
Offense: 100
Defense: 500000
Dexterity: 27
Stamina: 31/100
AP: 687/1000
?: 1%
HP: 23995
PP: 38
Other stats hidden due to low intelligence.
He tilted his head. It's been a while, but he had already forgotten about all the different attributes there were. He tried to commit as much as he could to memory, before closing the menu.
"Right, so - "
"What was that?!" Ruby's eyes were wide with shock.
"What was what?"
"That!" She pointed at his face.
"That's my face."
"No - "
"But it is my face…" He said sadly.
"It is your face, no - " She pulled at her hair. "I - I mean how your head just teleported!"
He blinked. "Ah! You mean, like - " He connected the dots. He had moved his head during the menu, the only part of his body that he could move while everything was frozen. He'd noticed it before, but hadn't thought too much of it other than that it was annoying. "You've noticed it?" They've never noticed it before, but that could just be because I didn't move my head much or they weren't paying too much attention.
"You already knew?!"
"Yeah… When I have the menus up, time freezes."
Ruby mouth dropped. "You can freeze time?!" She squeaked.
"Well, yeah, it's a menu…" His own eyes widened. It was a game, so upon discovering that menus paused the world he hadn't been that surprised. He did note back in the forest that it's cool he had time to think, but now that he thought about it, pausing time… wasn't that also an incredible superpower?! This was on par with superheroes like…
He paused.
That's kind of odd, I can't think of many time-freezing superheroes. Time traveling, yes, but time freezing is a rarity. If we're including manga, there's Dio at least.
Maybe that's why I hadn't started thinking about ways to exploit this. There just aren't that many existing examples and I'm not a big Jojo fan. His eyes twitched. Not that that's a good reason to not have thought about this more, I should rely on my own creativity rather than copying off others. His eyes twitched again, as he remembered the thoughts running through his head during both the prose he had to write for his 'history of walking' class and his solution to his inability to use offensive Aura. I said I 'should', not that I do.
He shook his head, letting his personal opinions disperse. No, no, I'm blaming myself too much. There's a lot of stuff stopping me from using this as a superpower. "Sorry Ruby, but it's actually really bad."
"Why?"
Jaune said it before he had compiled the reasons why, so he took a quick moment to recollect. "Uh, so, it can't be used in combat."
"That's okay, since most of the time you aren't in combat, right? You can sneak past Grimm!"
"Well - I can't move anything below my neck while time is frozen."
Ruby sighed. "That does suck." She perked up. "But what if you move using just your head?"
Jaune stared. "You want me to move around using just my head like… like… some kind of inchworm?"
"W - Well it'll be awkward… but you'll be able to teleport if you can figure it out!"
Jaune placed a hand on his forehead. "I do want to gain a teleport skill like the one you have… but this isn't the way I wanted to learn it."
Ah yes, let me pause reality and drag my body across the field using just my mouth, my neck, and determination.
"Just try it!"
"Fine."
Jaune stood up and brought up the menu again. This time, he tried what he had done at the very start of the RWBY:Online game, that is, shifting his weight backwards using his head. Very quickly, he was successful, and his frozen body tipped backwards.
And he cracked his head against the ground.
He swore as Aura protected him from damage, but not all the pain.
Holy shit, I was lucky as hell I didn't break my head open during that first attempt in the aircraft!
It would have been quite the fast game over.
Now that he was on the ground, he tried moving the rest of his body with just his head, only to realize since he was on his back, he couldn't bite into anything. Arcing his neck and thrashing around only made his neck hurt, and he wasn't playing his music so Aura was also out. Not like I can use music here, anyways, since my phone would just be frozen like the rest of the world.
He unpaused the world with a 'menu'.
"Ah!" Ruby flinched a little at Jaune's sudden positional change.
"Just a sec…" He flipped onto his front this time and tried the same thing. "It doesn't work, Ruby, I'm not strong enough."
"But you actually teleported!"
"I fell over! ...I guess I still kinda did. But it's not that good, is it?"
"As if! Just pausing time is awesome enough! You have more time than anybody else in stupid history exams. There will also be no annoying, nosy clerks that come bother you, just because you were staring between the .30-30 Winchester and the .300 Savage all day…"
The what?
She continued. "Even if it uses a lot of Aura, that's a lot of utility!"
…Jaune decided to keep the fact that it actually didn't take any Aura at all to himself. He had not forgotten that he was able to use this before he unlocked his Aura.
"Huh, Jaune, weren't you in a similar laid down position the first time I met you?"
His eyes widened, quickly getting up. "Nah, I was… just resting my eyes."
"Ah, that makes sense!"
He resisted the urge to face palm. Well, that's fine, then I don't need to cover that up. If she kept asking, I'm not too sure if I'll be able to keep the fact that this world, and her by extension, are… sort of fake.
"So, I was thinking… what if we use the other abilities of your semblance to make this stronger?"
Jaune eyed her intensely, not entirely focused on what she had said. How would she react to the fact that she might not be real? "What do you mean?" Does Ruby have her own perspective about that too?
"You said that you had stats, right? What kind of stats?"
I guess knowing that you don't exist isn't that scary. It just means whatever you do is meaningless, ready to be wiped away as the 'truth' comes in and ruins everything. "Uh," He pulled the status menu back up quickly to double check. "Stuff like 'Offense', 'Defense', 'Dexterity', 'Stamina', um, then 'AP'... Their values are…"
[Back]
[Stats]:
Offense: 100
Defense: 500000
Dexterity: 27
Stamina: 31/100
AP: 687/1000
?: 1%
HP: 23997
PP: 38
Other stats hidden due to low intelligence.
Ruby took out her scroll, and as Jaune listed them out, she wrote them down. Done, she took a glance over the entire list. "...That's a really strange set."
"Yeah…" He said, still not really listening.
"It is quite confusing, and it makes you think, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, I wonder if there is any way we can deal with the ambiguity of reality."
Ruby stared at him for a second as Jaune realized he accidentally answered her rhetorical question with his other thoughts instead.
He rolled with it. "Have you ever thought about if you existed, Ruby?" There was a sudden reputation change at the side of his screen, but he didn't give it another look. He was instead focused on Ruby's expression.
She looked bewildered. "Eugh?"
Jaune stifled a laugh at her noise. A bit of red invaded her cheeks. He carried on. "You've ever thought about how little we know of the world we live in?"
It took a second for Ruby's brain to wrap itself around the subject change. "...You mean like how all this time, and we know so little about the Grimm and Aura?"
"Sure. How do you deal with it? What if the Grimm are actually poor cuddly creatures, deserving of our pity rather than our bloodthirsty violence?"
"That'll be the day they decide cookies are bad for you."
"Ha, yeah, I know it's impossible, but technically you can never be sure… Wait a second, Ruby, cookies aren't - "
"If they could talk to us, they would have already!"
"...Talk to us… The cookies…?"
"No, no, I'm talking about how the Grimm are bad for you…"
They both paused for a second, letting the confusion wash over them.
Jaune coughed. "I mean, like, there's so much uncertainty in the world, right?"
At the word 'uncertainty', an expression passed over Ruby's face. Jaune didn't catch what it exactly was, but it was certainly more complicated than he'd expect from such a normal word. Clearly, from what he had seen of her in the past day, there was more to the young huntress other than her prodigious talents.
"Y - Yes," She said. "But that's what's fun about the world too. It'd be a bit boring without things to discover. New ways to improve Crimson Rose, better sniper ammunition, better ways to save people using heavy scythes, there's so many different kinds of things - "
"The way you said it made them sound like the same category."
" - very different kinds of things to find out more about!"
Jaune tilted his head. "But wouldn't it have been better if we were all equipped with the very best equipment from the start? Is the world being more interesting really a good justification for putting everyone at a disadvantage, if there was a grand design?"
"You are talking about what the god-believers think? There's no guarantee that there is - "
"If there is a good, all-powerful god," He interrupted her. Something flared inside of him. "Can you justify the state of your world?" He was not so stupid as to not have started to realize the immense threat the Grimm posed to those who had no Aura. They would have torn him apart if Ruby wasn't there. And even if these huntsmen were doing their job quite right and keeping the monsters at bay, no one could ever say that mistakes don't happen. Not to mention Light's recitation of the 'The First Huntress' story speaking of untold atrocities happening in this world before the huntsmen appeared… Though there was a chance that it had happened in a different Cycle.
The two's gazes lay unbroken on each other.
"If there is a god… and he's good… and he's all-powerful…" She was clearly making an answer on the spot. "...Then… I don't know, they'd be far more powerful, right? Then maybe they have a plan."
"And that's okay, then?" Jaune pressed. "You are fine without knowing that your actions mean something, that you aren't just in a simulation?"
"Jaune, why are you - "
"Please!" It was accidentally far too loud. He corrected himself. "...Please, just give me an answer."
"I - I don't know… How did our conversation get here?"
He wasn't too sure why, but he was looking for an answer from Ruby. For some reason, it felt like she should know, and that whatever answer she would give would… would do what? What am I looking for? There's this uncomfortable feeling within me and all I know is that getting the answer to these questions might soothe it. A tinge of regret, a bit of… feeling responsible. "Imagine all those people you could save, if you were born perfect. That's a huntress' job, right? Saving people. This uncertainty, this veil of obscurity over reality, it's hurting everyone. If it wasn't there, then those who die before their time due to disease, children whose fires are extinguished before they even knew the world, and mothers, gone before they can watch their progeny take their first steps into the adult world - "
Ruby's eyes widened.
" - due to the dangers of childbirth… they could all be saved." Jaune finished. Why'd she react to that last one so visibly?
There was a moment of silence as Ruby dropped her gaze to the ground.
"We can wish all we want that things are different, but the world is bound by rules that we can't say no to." She says.
"Then why aren't you distraught? You've been improving Crimson Rose since you were young, right? Isn't it annoying that ever so often, what you thought was the best was wrong, and that there were better ways to get maximal output out of that… sniper… scythe… thing?"
"HCSS."
"...What?"
"It's a HCSS. And I don't think it matters. I know I'm getting closer to the ultimate Crimson Rose."
"Yet, you can't know that."
"Yes I can."
"No, you can't."
"I totally can!"
"Nuh-uh."
"Uh-huh."
Jaune shook his head. "Think about this. If you saw nine white geese, and only these nine white geese your whole life, what would you guess the color of the tenth goose to be?"
"...White?"
"But nothing says that has to be true, or that you've gotten closer to the truth! How would you know that the geese you saw weren't the only white geese in the world?"
"I can google it."
"No, that's not - I mean you are right, but you get the point right? It's like flipping a coin four hundred times and getting all tails does not mean your next coin flip has any higher chance of being heads."
"What do you want me to say, Jaune? There's nothing I can do except go off what I saw. If I saw nine white geese, all I can do is go with probability and say that the next one is most likely also white."
"But that doesn't fix anything! Imagine you have this prized, er, bird. This prized bird. It wishes to go outside ever so often in order to stretch its wings, or else it'll get depressed. You love it with all your heart, and it hurts to let it go free into the wild, because you don't know what could lay outside."
She turned around to face the forest. "...Then, one day, she really does not come back and prove all your fears right." She finished in his steed.
Jaune's mouth stilled.
"There's no point in thinking about it. It's a waste of time. The best thing we can do is to know the world as best we can. Because…
"Life…" Ruby finally said. "...Is not a fairytale."
There was silence.
It wasn't what Jaune wanted to hear. There had to be an answer, right? A definite solution to this conundrum. But why did Ruby go silent? And those words she said, it clearly felt like he was stepping on several landmines. At this point, his… fury, energy, or whatever it was, had fizzled out, making him feel like stopping might be a much better idea. I probably have tanked my reputation with her too… Shit, regrets, man… Oh.
He realized now what had been driving him.
Guilt.
For perhaps cursing her with his choice with the quest.
But she turned back towards him, reading something on her Scroll. "That's strange. Like, why does Stamina have a max, but not Health?"
Ruby, that was the shittiest topic change I've ever heard.
But it was acceptable. "Hah… Yeah, really strange!" I better buy her some apology cookies after this, especially since she's helping me too. He quickly reopened the status menu to refresh himself on its contents.
Looking at Stamina again, I guess it really is like those energy bars in mobile games. Don't tell me I need to pay using premium currency when I run out.
"Who even names stats 'Offense' and 'Defense' these days?"
Shitty - er, strongly below average gods.
Thunder boomed in the distance, making Ruby look up with a bit of confusion. "That's weird… It's a pretty clear, sunny day."
"Must have been a semblance."
"...You can't explain everything with a semblance, Jaune."
A crazy woman cackled in the distance. Jaune, swearing it sounded familiar, looked up at just the right moment to see a long thin strip of black ribbon, attached to something, swiftly pass above the trees, before getting pulled back down. Then, the crackling of thunder once again, but this time, not as loud.
"Well, why don't we do a quick workout and see if 'Offense' is similar to the 'Strength' stat we were talking about?"
"I… I don't think so. We ran around a bit, right? That's got to count towards serious activity."
Ruby laughed, sounding a bit forced. "Ha, that would just count as a small jog!"
"Did it?! We got chased around by Grimm and almost died!"
"Don't worry, the teachers would step in if we were in any real trouble."
Would they?! You are telling that to the guy who died here once!
"With Aura, we are far stronger than regular people! That also means you need a lot more exercise to feel the burn."
"Yeah, yeah… then what do you want me to lift? I'll do some deadlifts or something."
Jaune sighed. To be honest, I'm a bit tired, and it's not just because of my low Stamina - assuming that's what it even does. It's because of everything that has happened. The past few days felt like a joke, in which something exciting was always about to happen, but then I'd be hit with the punchline.
Oh, status menu? Leveling up? Guess what, the different stats either have non-standard names or are acronyms. Fuck accronyms! Additionally, the stats either automatically distribute themselves, or require you to figure out how to do so. Haha, very funny.
Great, so you found the inventory menu? Guess what, you have limited slots and any extra items over the limit get automatically trashed.
At this point, all the humor was gone and it was just plain frustrating!
Therefore, at this point, Jaune's spirit was a bit worn down. While he still had high hopes that Ruby would be able to help him, his expectations were kept low in order to not get disappointed when - if she failed.
They found a number of trees that had been knocked down by all the fighting.
"So let's do a few reps to see if your Offense stat changes at all."
"Chances are we won't see anything…"
"You're not wrong, it took me more than ten years to get to where I'm at."
Jaune sighed, before the image of a six year old Ruby lifting dumbbells came to his mind. "Then, is there a point in this?"
"Who knows, don't see harm in trying."
It turned out, however, that getting a correct grip around a thick tree was very difficult due to their large diameter. He could hug it, but that made it difficult to lift since his body would be leaning over. Additionally, they also had a problem with him getting his Aura to work continuously, as every time a song ended he'd get distracted and lose concentration. Realizing this might have been a bit much, Ruby helpfully cut down a thinner tree. This time, he was able to lift it, raising it to about half his height, which was, in his opinion, pretty awesome already.
No, seriously, it's actually insane! He peered at the entire length of the tree. It was long enough to be at least four of his bedrooms long and had a diameter about the length from the tip of his fingers to his wrist. It wasn't the thickest tree, but for a human to lift it at all, was awesome.
"You're hurt!"
"Hm?" Jaune let go of the latest tree trunk he was trying to lift. "Where?" He felt quite a bit tired.
Ruby grabbed his hands, flipping them so that they were palm up. Beside a pair of long thin scars, there were fresh scratches on his right hand. Now that I think about it, there was a new notification that appeared in my HUD that looked longer than the usual reputation changes.
Jaune stared. He felt like he would have noticed if his hands were scarred, though that might be because he had been busy. No wait, that's from me grabbing the sword to stop Light from hurting Ruby. Shit, it scarred? I guess Aura heals you, but anything powerful like the goddamn Master Sword - or Excalibur - will leave a mark. He frowned. No, that doesn't explain these bleeding scratches… wasn't Aura automatic?
"...Is it possible that you are concentrating so hard… That you are turning off your automatic Aura?"
Jaune stared back.
Ruby blinked.
"Yo-You can do that?!" He smacked his forehead with his unwounded hand. "That's bullshit! Go back, go back, let's first try to learn how to use Aura right first."
"Right, uh, offensive Aura. Uh, first you, erm, go woosh… like this…" She reared her fist back. "Then, zoom, and bang!" She punched a tree, making a sizable dent. "Just like - "
Jaune rubbed his temples in frustration.
"Jaune?"
"That explained absolutely nothing, again! We already did this gag!"
"We did?!"
He sighed. "Let's take a break for today…"
"Sure… Why don't we go see what they're doing for lunch?" She offered.
Why not? Perhaps food could restore Stamina, too, maybe? Eh, he was hungry anyway.
"Just a sec before that. Tell me your stats again, and I'll write them down."
Jaune did as she asked.
[Back]
[Stats]:
Offense: 100
Defense: 500000
Dexterity: 27
Stamina: 22/100
AP: 687/1000
?: 1%
HP: 23999
PP: 37
Other stats hidden due to low intelligence.
Ruby looked up from her phone. "Hey, how did you get more HP?" She showed him her notes. His HP had increased by 2 points since the beginning of the exercise.
"Oh, maybe you can increase your durability by taking more damage!"
"That's got to be it!" Ruby cheered. "Now that's a semblance!"
"Yes, that would be a great superpower!"
"Wait, wait. We're getting too excited. We should determine if it really is that."
"Right! It's a pretty bullshit game after all. But how can we test that?"
"I could punch you."
He stared at her innocent face. "When did you become a yandere?"
"In the arm! I meant in the arm!" She amended. "Don't try to use Offensive Aura so that you don't accidentally turn off your Defensive Aura - "
"Ruby!" He interrupted. "Defensive and Offensive Aura?! Could that be related to these two stats?!"
Her eyes widened. "Maybe so! Yeah, that might be it too! …There's just a teeny problem, Offensive Aura is more commonly called Aura Evocation. That's the, er, more technical term for it."
"You really think a semblance would know the difference?"
"Maybe not. Still, just because two of the names are similar, doesn't mean they have to be related."
"I guess that's true…"
Neither of them brought up the 'uncertainty' problem.
Ruby shifted uneasily. "Then, why don't we try the punching thingy I was talking about? If you gain Defensive stats, then we'll know you gain defensive stats by getting damaged."
And there we go… She really isn't as chipper as before. Shit, it's kind of my fault the atmosphere's like this, huh? I better try to bury it.
Jaune had read a Gamer-ish manga before in which the main character adapted to different damage types by taking hits. Could this be something similar? A kind of 'what doesn't kill me makes me stronger' scenario? That could be insane! I already have super high defense and lots of Aura, which, combined with this, will make me the brickest of brick walls!
With that thought in mind, it was easy for him to get fired up again. He took a moment to shake loose himself, before standing straight and tightening his abs. "Alright, Ruby, let's do this! Hit me with all you got!"
"Eeehh…" She suddenly looked a bit unconvinced. "You sure?"
"You think I can't handle it?! I just got mauled by a Grimm fifteen minutes ago! In fact, you can even try with Crimson Rose. Did you see my health pool?"
"But…" She looked up at him worriedly. "You'd die."
"Die?!"
"If you straight up took Crimson Rose head-on, you'd die."
"W - Why would I die?!" Jaune replied. He felt a tiny bit indignant, even if his high Aura capacity had little to do with his own efforts, unlike skill.
"It's because you don't have the skills."
Jaune flinched. "So it was about my skills after all!"
Ruby realized what it sounded like and quickly tried to clarify. "I meant that you didn't have the ability!"
He stumbled backwards. "D - Didn't have the ability…"
"N - No! It's like a technique, you're missing a technique! You can't just rely on the Aura you're born with, you need to work hard too!"
A critical hit.
"S - So you're saying…" Jaune let his head hang down, letting the sun shadow his face. "...That I'm like one of those people who coasts along on natural talent alone?"
"NoooOooo, don't change what I said! You just started, you have lots of time!" Ruby hurriedly added, waving her hands in denial.
He laughed. "I'm just kidding. We do have lots of time, after all. We're young."
Seeing the change, Ruby finally realized she was being played. "You were baiting me!"
"Lots of time." He ignored her with a smile. "How many years at Beacon was it, again?"
"I think Four to five… Could be more if you are going for specialist positions."
He smiled. "Four to five years… No, that's not actually that long at all." His smile tightened as he changed his tune. "It's long enough to sound long at first, but short enough that it can pass in a blink of an eye, and you realize you haven't done anything."
Ruby opened her mouth.
"So punch me, Ruby!" He flexed his abs again. "You're right, let's get this started now!"
The girl looked between her raised fist and her target. "...Does it have to be there?"
"I am distinctly proud of my abs!"
"...Do you have abs?" She asked awkwardly.
"...Everyone has abs." Jaune looked aside. "But mine are definitely above average!"
"That doesn't sound like you have abs…"
"Definitely above average." He shot her a cheesy grin.
Ruby punched him in the stomach.
He barely registered the hit itself, but did feel it tip him backwards a little. He stumbled back, catching himself before he could fall. "Wow, that felt like nothing."
"It's not that bad! And it's not like I need to learn to punch!" She pouted.
"...Why?"
"Giant scythe."
"Good point…" He eyed the weapon on her back. Shouldn't her punches still be strong because of her strength, built up from wielding it? He supposed it was possible that the weapon wasn't as heavy as it looked. "Kind of odd how your blow still moved me, though."
"That's because your Aura prevented you from getting hurt, but it didn't stop the attack."
Jaune blinked. "That's because my Aura prevented me from getting hurt, but didn't stop the attack…" He repeated, trying to process it. "Isn't that the same thing?"
"No way! Erm… Lemme think. Imagine…" She looked around, "...A pinecone."
"Okay, a pinecone."
"It's round… and spiky, right?"
"Yeah… Sort of…" Jaune thought of the classic pine pinecone. It's not really spiky, more like it has protrusions from the core. And are the pinecones from a pine tree really called pine pinecones? Cause we have spruce pinecones, cedar pinecones, and other coniferous pinecones… So it's got to be pine pinecones, right? "Do you have pine trees in Vale?"
Ruby stared. "Yes, but why?"
"And spruce trees?"
"...Also yes?"
"What do you call a spruce's fruit?"
"Spruce trees have fruit?"
"Yeah, the pinecone."
"Pinecones are fruits?!"
"Yeah, I think I heard that somewhere."
Ruby took out her scroll to furiously google search it. "No, here it says they aren't fruit."
"Oh. Huh." Jaune looked away, already starting to become disinterested.
"And the spiky things are called scales. Huh, that's cool. Looks like as they dry, they open, making the seeds fall out. Plus, they aren't called pinecones in general. They are called 'conifer cones'."
"But no one says that. Literally no one says 'conifer cones'."
"Guess everyone's wrong."
"Huh."
"So, why bring this up?"
"No reason." He shrugged.
"No reason?!" She looked exasperated. "So back to the main topic, imagine a pinecone."
"A conifer cone."
"It sounds stupid, so I'm going to say pinecone." She says petulantly. "Imagine a pinecone."
"Yes, I am now imagining this conifer cone and its scales with an excess of detail.."
"Now, if this pinecone hits you in the face, it will do two things. It will prick you, and it will also smack you. That's what I mean with what I said about Aura before. It will 'hurt you' by impacting you, which the Aura, by default, will prevent by uniform-aly spreading the force over your entire body. While this will stop you from getting damaged, it means that you will still get moved."
"Wat."
"It's simple!"
"Is it?!" Jaune rubbed his forehead. "Thank you so much for teaching me, but I feel like you're not… the best teacher."
Ruby's expression drooped.
"I - I mean - " He hurriedly added in. "You usually don't teach, right? Think of this as you just starting out, nobody starts out perfect! Plus, it's probably my fault, I'm stupid, okay? I really appreciate what you are doing right now, using your time to help me out instead of, I don't know, decorating cake or something."
Her expression morphed into a mix of embarrassment and annoyance. "...Why are you treating me like a baby?"
"I guess you remind me of my younger sisters. A big brother's instinct, maybe."
She shook her head. "A - Anyways, let's try from the other angle then. Why don't you bring up your status menu and we can check what changed."
He did so.
[Back]
[Stats]:
Offense: 100
Defense: 500000
Dexterity: 27
Stamina: 31/100
AP: 687/1000
?: 1%
HP: 24073
PP: 38
"Health increased again! Then, you were right?"
"Yeah… I guess I …was?"
Jaune lifted an eyebrow at Ruby's narrowed eyes. "You don't sound so sure."
"You said you got notifications whenever you took damage, right?"
"Yeah…"
"Does it say how much damage?"
Jaune sighed, taking a look at the corner of his vision. Honestly, they were quite useless and bothersome. Did he really need to know he took damage when there was something super convenient called 'pain' that already told him that? Plus, the 'pings' were quite the distraction.
[System]: Jaune Arc took impact damage.
"Nope, it doesn't." He answered. "Why do you think we're not right, Ruby? That's clearly what it says."
"It's just kind of weird that Stamina is written with both the max and the current number, while health isn't. Plus, health and Aura points are both displayed, which doesn't make any sense."
"Aura points?"
"I assume that's what AP is, since it matches the percentage on our scrolls."
He took a quick look to verify. It really was the same. "Maybe health is my actual health, like how healthy my body is, and the AP is my Aura?"
"Then, why would your healthiness increase the more damage your Aura takes?" She perked up. "Ah! Maybe you are like Yang! She grows stronger the more damage she takes, maybe your body becomes healthier the more damage you take!"
He stared. "...That sounds really fucking stupid."
"I know! But semblances don't always make sense. It's your soul, after all. You think I wanted to turn into flower petals?"
"I feel like you would have liked to rather turn into a gun."
"Hahah, funny." There's a pause. "That would be cool, though."
"Still.. shit." He placed a hand over his face, suddenly tired. "Why does my semblance being like that actually seem like something that could happen?" Something that they would do. Light, seriously?
She shrugged, writing down the idea. "Well, that's a theory we can pursue at least. Unless we figure out something else."
Jaune considered his options. While that was a good idea, it didn't seem like it had lots of ground to stand on. Actually, I just really, really don't want it to be true, cause it sounds incredibly stupid. He sat down onto the ground before flopping onto his back. He sighed in defeat. I hate this gameeee.
When I had first received the status menu, I considered it completely useless. However, talking to Ruby has made me realize that there is something I can still get from it, even if it isn't apparent on the surface. After all… This is a game created by a god who is obsessed with his own rules, something that he has affirmed multiple times. If a creation mirrors the creator, then is it not surprising that this game will have its own rules and actually follow those rules?
Light wishes for me to face his… game… with all I have, rather than let the events drag me along to an uncertain end. His motives look to be just amusement, but… Can I treat his games the same way? As just for amusement? I am not a god, I am bound by the mortal coil. These memories will stay with me, and they will be significant, due to my life on earth being so short.
Jaune stretched, looking at the realistic graphics around him. Between the falling leaves, the musky smell of the forest, and the soft earthy dirt beneath him, he was speechless.
They might change me. Then, this fake world will become just as important in the foundation of my future actions as the 'real' past.
He raised a hand over his eyes, in order to block part of the sun and peer at the clear blue sky. In the past, humanity used to make up stories about this vast unknown. What lives beyond its embrace? Who made the stars above? What is the orb of light that gives us warmth in the day and why does it set every evening?
Were they curious? Probably. But they were most likely also seeking order out of necessity. In this chaotic world, disease, war, and famine struck them seemingly without warning or explanation, and they seeked - no, needed - to understand the why. For if they could know the laws, they could steer clear of breaking them… or even exploit them. To pierce the veil of ignorance was a matter of life and death.
Light wishes me, in this game, to walk the same path my ancestors have once paved. He showed me the narrowness of human knowledge, and I am… well, a bit surprised at just how much I don't know.
But that's where the problem lies.
He also showed me that I can't know.
Because of this veil upon reality, I can never know if my senses are being deceived. I can never know the truth because I have no certainty to base my findings on. In this game, I have the status menu, but can I even trust that it is not one of Light's jokes? He says that I don't have the intelligence to see the other stats, but I am not stupid - most of the time. My test grades, ignoring the fact that they are not a perfect measure, tell me that I'm around average. That's quite far from an idiot.
The uncertainty problem seems to… invalidate everything.
You can't live while accepting that truth.
Yet, the world still goes round, and engineers and scientists make creations and new discoveries every day. Can you say that technically there was a chance that the world that humanity has built was a world built on lies? Yes. You could. But there was no way to invalidate… or validate that.
Then, is the answer… To stew in our ignorance?
Jaune didn't like that thought one bit.
Thoughts of the real Ruby came to him, but with a tired grunt, he banished them away
"What if we check the other menus?" Ruby suggested. "Maybe we'll get something."
Jaune gave another sigh. "Man, we've been working on these menus for so long and we have nothing. Why are they so incomprehensible? If there was a developer who made this… If there was, they'd be pretty bad. I'm saying 'if', of course, as it's a semblance, so there shouldn't be. But if there was, they'd suck and be really terrible - Hey!"
Ruby had started poking him with a stick she found somewhere.
"Hey, hey! Stop it!"
"You said you had a 'skills' menu, right? Why don't we check that out?"
"Fine. Fine!" He sat up. "Skills Menu."
[Back]
[Skills] (Prestigeable at Lv. 10):
Sugar Addiction - Rank 3/10
Video Game Addiction - Rank 2/10
Advanced Burger Flipping - Rank 2/10
Novice Customer Service - Rank 6/10
Bachelor of Arts - English - Rank 3/4
̴sight - Rank 0/100 [Activated]
[Aura Skills]
Dropping the stick, she wrote these down too. "Bachelor of Arts? You went to college before Beacon?"
Jaune facepalmed. Woops. I think I'm seventeen here, so the timeline requires some explanation, not to mention I would have to make records somewhere. Might be easier to lie. "...It's a metaphor."
She blinked, confused.
"A metaphor is a figure of speech - "
"I know what a metaphor is! I'm not five! I'm trying to figure out how that could even be a metaphor."
"Don't ask me, Ruby. It's my semblance. Perhaps playing the guitar and my studies in the humanities made it automatically recognize it as such."
"That makes sense. No one really gets semblances, anyways."
Deception check passed! "So, what do you think about it?"
"I think you may want to take it easy on the sugar."
Says the woman who kept talking about cookies!
Seeing Jaune look, she amended. "It's fine for me since I'm a huntress. We burn a lot of calories, you know. Therefore, cookies are healthy and, like, a requirement! You were not a huntsman in training, however."
'Hey, I could have had a very active lifestyle too!"
"Oh… That is true. Did you?"
"..."
"That's telling."
"I run every morning, but that is certainly far off from the exercise I got when I was younger." Jaune admitted.
"That's still better than a lot of people. Anyway, what's this 'sight' thing? Is it really written that way?"
"Yeah…" Jaune debated if he should talk to her about the glitch. A moment of consideration told him that there was little harm. "This is one of the things that happened after… A bug."
"Your semblance can bug?"
"It is trying to imitate a game."
"...Jaune, this semblance of yours is loaded with far too many things…" She looked a bit suspicious. "Are you sure you aren't just delusional?"
"Delusional?!"
"Hm…"
"But you've seen the effects, right? With the teleportation?"
"Maybe that's your semblance. Stopping time. That'd fit better."
"Then, what about my 'Sprint' - ?!" Jaune slammed into a nearby tree. It broke in half. Ruby dodged out of the way as it landed where she had been moments ago with a boom.
Ruby stared at his sprawled face-down body. "...Okay, maybe you just have a really OP semblance, like the Schnees. Nobody really understands how they have such a powerful and dynamic semblance either."
Jaune brushed some wooden shards from his body, standing up. Didn't Ruby just blow all those Grimm away? All that Weiss did was buff Ruby, right? Compared to that… Can you really say Weiss' semblance is that good?
"I can't imagine how learning long lost Aura techniques is part of a semblance… But I can't argue with all this."
"It's just an aspect of it, like how your petals have wind attached to them for some reason."
"But… the scale of different things it does… Like, since you learned it, can you teach me it?"
"I… Don't think so. I just say the word and it happens."
"Ah… Poop."
"Oh shit, that'd be insane if you had both your flower semblance and 'Sprint' - "
Jaune hit another tree.
Ruby giggled a bit.
He spat out a wood shard. "Oh for fuck's sake!"
"You might want to stop saying 'Sprint' out loud."
"Oh yeah? I say what I want! 'Sprint' you motherfucker!"
[Skills]: Sprint is on cooldown.
Jaune slapped a hand over his face.
"Huh, how come it didn't work this time?"
"You don't want to know, Ruby." He shook his head. "Why don't we get back to figuring the skills themselves. I was talking about the glitch, right?"
"Yeah… Does this have anything to do with the '?' stat?"
Those did seem to have appeared at the same time. Did the Echoes appear with it too? They are in a strange font too… No, I think they appeared far earlier. "I think so. But that's all I have."
"Hm, that's something to keep an eye out on. What about 'sight'? Have you used the skill yet?"
"Sight."
Nothing happened.
Jaune spoke up. "I think that's a skill I can only toggle in the menus."
"It's a toggled skill? Did you try looking at the world with it on and off?"
"Well, yeah, but I don't see any differences."
"Damn. It does have many levels, so maybe it's not noticeable at level 0. I wonder how you level up your skills…"
"Probably by eating Snickers or something equally as inane." Jaune mumbled.
"Can you open up the 'Aura Skills' menu?"
"Sure."
This one was different from the others as it was really wide. Really wide. And also really tall. The window took up most of his horizontal field of view, enough that he couldn't see any of the far sides clearly. Especially since, as he discovered at the beginning, if he turned his head the window would also move. He had to force his eyes as far as they could turn to see anything other than the center.
Who beta tested this shit! Probably a god with unlimited sight. Oh wait.
From what he could see though, the content seemed to be four skill trees. Each of them were located in their own area and branched out as they stretched upwards. He couldn't see the names at the bottom because they were too far.
He wanted to face palm.
"You know, I think I've played enough with your system to know what to do now. Up." He tried. "Move up." Nothing. "Scroll up." This time it worked, as the entire menu moved down, allowing him to see items further up.
Jaune paused. Does… Does that make sense? Is content supposed to move down when we 'scroll up'? It seemed counterintuitive to him. Light probably screwed something up again.
"Scroll down. Scroll down."
He didn't take a longer look at the skills at the top, as they were represented with grayed out squares and blurred out names.
Arriving at the bottom, then scrolling left and right, he got the skill tree name and the basic skills of the first one.
[ ] - Basic Speed - Rank 1/4. . . . . . [ ] - Basic Strength - Rank 1/4 . . . [ ] - Basic Enhancement - Rank 1/4
[Aura Evocation]
This was the first bottom tip of the Aura Evocation skill tree, located on the very left. Extending above 'Basic Speed' was the following:
[ ] - Sprint - Rank 1/10. . . . . . [ ] - Dash - Unranked . . . [ ] - Novice Speed - Unranked
[ ] - Basic Speed - Rank 1/4
Jaune thought it strange that he couldn't see the skills that branched from 'Sprint', but he quickly found the reason. Skills hidden due to low intelligence - oh for the love of everything! I'm not that dumb, you whipersnapper!
He closed the menu in order to tell Ruby what he found.
Ruby blinked in confusion. "Isn't 'Sprint' already more of a dash? Then what's 'Dash'?"
Jaune rubbed his temples. "Probably a spr - Probably a S-P-R-int." He spelled out.
"...Why would your semblance do that?"
"Clearly because it hates me."
"Your own soul hates you?"
"Now that's depressing."
"Aw, Jaune, don't think that! I'm sure it doesn't have that kind of thoughts! I'm sure it's just shy."
"Don't worry, I'm not even fazed."
"Jokes aside, this doesn't really help." Ruby pondered. "How do you acquire skills? Do the stats factor in? It also doesn't help with figuring out the glitch. How did the 'glitch' come to be, anyways?"
Jaune had a good feeling he couldn't answer that directly. "...It just happened."
"Yeah, but how did it just happen?"
Dammit Ruby. "...The screen glitched and this appeared." He lied.
"That makes sense, but certainly doesn't help." She looked more focused on the data she had recorded than his bad excuses.
Still, he had seen something that might be related on the Aura skills menu. "Aura skills menu. Scroll right. Scroll right. Scroll down. Scroll down."
The skill tree on the far right side was certainly strange.
[ ] - The Call - Unranked
[?]
Everything after the first skill was blurred out. Memorizing the skill tree, he then communicated it to Ruby.
"...Have you tried calling someone?" Was her answer.
"I don't think I've called anyone recently. Hey Ruby, what's your number?"
"Ah!" She looked surprised. "It's - " There was a bit of a hesitation before she handed it over. "You can actually just call one of us using the team-link."
He called it. "Hello."
"Hi…?" She seemed to decide to go along with it. "Who's this?"
"Jaune here. So, how's the weather?" He asked with a bit of a high pitched voice, imitating one of the dizzy girls he had seen on tv.
"Oh, it's fine. Raining some Beowolves, but other than that, it's a great day for a picnic or going to the firing range!"
He turned expressionless. "Of course it's about food and guns. I'm more surprised it wasn't about crafting…"
"Dummy, the Forge is indoors!"
"...I'm hanging up on you."
"Bye!" She waved at him.
We're such idiots… "Let me check if anything's changed. Aura skills menu."
[ ] - The Call - Unranked
[?]
"Nope. Huh, what if I…" He eyed the square. "'Click'."
[Back]:
[Skill]: The Call
Unranked
Prerequisites:
None
Description: The mask of self-deception was no longer a mask for me, it was a part of me.
Cost: 1
[Attain]
"That is not a skill description." Still, he was quite excited. These ones actually had some explanations attached, even if the description was iffy. Exiting from this window, he quickly scrolled over and opened 'Dash'.
[Back]:
[Skill]: Dash
Unranked
Prerequisites:
Agility: 25 (MET)
Description: Evade in the opposite direction of current momentum.
Cost: 3
[Attain]
He stared. He couldn't believe it. Yes, he had no idea what stat 'Agility' was, or what currency it cost, or even if it would be useless, but at a glance this was an actual skill. "Halleluyah!" He stopped, realizing what he had said in his moment of joy. "I'm thanking Dark, not you, Light."
There was no response.
He closed the menu. "Ruby! I got it! I figured part of it out!"
"Really?!" She shared in his excitement.
He quickly explained to her what he had found.
"Open the other skills!" Ruby told him. "The stats we can't see can be clearly found underneath the 'prerequisites', and we can even get a general sense of where your stats are by if the prerequisites are met or not!"
Jaune's eyes widened as he processed it. "Damn, that's a great work around!"
Opening the other ones that he had access to, they determined that the following stats existed: Agility, Strength, and Constitution. He also learned about Vitality, which he did want to bring up, but had a bit of a problem. It was listed underneath the third skill tree, one that was tagged 'Semblance'. Mentioning that or lying about it could create a whole bunch of possible problems.
What the heck is the difference between Vitality and Constitution? I guess I'll have to figure that one out myself. Also strange that 'Dexterity' wasn't mentioned once.
At the end, they figured out that he had more than 25 Agility, less than 25 Strength, less than 30 Constitution, and more than 15 Vitality.
"So chances are, if you work out your arms, your neck muscles might also get strong!"
"YEAaah… Wait no, Ruby, I'm not getting buff just so that I can crawl like a damn centipede around during the menus."
"Why not? You want to teleport, don't you?"
"But… Uhhh… Fine."
Ruby looked up at the sky. "It looks around past noon, so we should head back and help out soon with lunch. Why don't we see if we can figure out the 'cost' of each skill?"
"Yeah, that's kind of odd."
They both thought about it for a second.
"I have no ideas."
"Yeah… I wonder why the semblance left it blank. Still, you had that skill that cost only 1 unit of whatever it was. Maybe we can try to buy it and see what has decreased?"
…It's gonna be my money, isn't it. I really don't want to… "Ehh… I don't feel like it. What if it's a precious resource…" He tried to think of one. Diamonds? Gold? Who knows, it might even take away something I don't have and leave me in debt! "Like money or something."
"Why would your semblance rob you? I don't think it understands the concept of cash."
"Oh you'd be surprised…"
"Huh?"
"Aw, fuck it." The god had marked pretty clearly where it would use real money with a dollar sign.
He 'Attained' the skill.
[ ] - Vassal - Locked. . . . . . [ ] - Heir - Locked
[ ] - The Call - Max [Deactivated]
[?]
He eyed the strange text. "Again, that's… That's not a skill." He reported back to Ruby. Opening his stats menu, they quickly noticed the change.
"It's PP!" They both cried.
Ruby frowned though. "It's an acronym though, so it doesn't really help figuring anything out."
He nodded. Two words that start with 'P'... the second one was probably 'Points', but the first word eluded him. "Could it be Power Points?" I think that was the 'energy' for each move in Pokemon. "No, I'm starting to remember something." PP… Power Points… I swear I have seen something similar in RWBY:Online. He snapped his fingers as it came to him. "Potential Points! I receive Potential Points when I level up! …I think. I need to double check to make sure…"
Ruby stared at him.
"...What?"
"How could you forget that?!"
"Hey, I had lots to think about!" He quickly thought of an excuse. "I had the mafia after me, remember!"
"Right… Sorry."
Thank you mafia, you are very convenient.
"Why don't you try out the skill, then?" Ruby tried.
"Watch, it will just call you on your cell phone."
"Cellphone…?"
"Scroll! Your scroll! Of all things, why did you change that name, Light…" He sighed to himself.
"Well I think it'll call the kraken!"
"We're on land, Ruby."
"There's a stream nearby."
"A kraken… in a stream?"
"Baby kraken for a baby huntsman-in-training!"
"You know what… I'll take that." Jaune cleared his throat. "The Call."
Nothing happened.
"Looks like it's similar to 'sight'. I'll activate it." He went back into the menus and flicked it on. The moment he did so, something yellow appeared in the air in front of him and fell to the ground. Unpausing the world, he knelt down to grab it.
It was a plastic domino mask. One that wouldn't look out of place as part of a superhero's costume.
Ruby summarized it well. "Your semblance is really weird, Jaune."
He just threw up his arms, throwing the mask somewhere. "I give up. I give up! I don't understand anything! I'm hungry, let's go eat, Ruby." He quickly deactivated the skill and the mask poofed away in midair.
"Sure, maybe we'll have more ideas after lunch!"
Jaune, while still exasperated at the odd skill, was in a good mood due to all the progress he and Ruby had made. He chatted excitedly with Ruby as they theorized about the different stats and abilities they had seen. A huntsman training regiment came up in their conversation and he started dreaming about his future more competent self.
Such was his excitement that his battle with Light from yesterday was not even an afterthought. Perhaps it wasn't an issue after all.
/-/
It didn't take long for the two to return to camp. As they arrived, they saw, in the middle of the camp, Ren sitting near the portable stove that Yang must have been talking about, making a pot of something. Pyrrha and Weiss were nearby, side by side, standing at one of those plastic, easy-to-store, outdoor tables.
"Very good, that's it, Weiss."
"Hmph, I knew I could do it with a little learning. I just hadn't done much of this before."
Before the two women was a cutting board. Weiss was holding a knife, and below it, her victims: A set of half-hazardly cut carrot pieces as if a wild, feral beast had savaged them.
"...Pyrrha. I do feel like they could look better."
"Now, now, I'd say it's a great improvement upon this." Pyrrha held up a second carrot. It was filled with holes, as if someone took a rapier to it.
Jaune just rolled his eyes. The tsundere, rich woman not knowing how to cook? The writer was clearly an uninspired hack.
"Hey guys!" Ruby called out, getting their attention. "Anything you'd like us to do?"
"No, I think we're fine." Pyrrha answered her kindly. "Ren foraged a good deal of wild vegetables for us, and among us, we have all the necessary tools. Worse comes to worse we have Weiss' rations."
Weiss crossed her arms. "Atlesian rations are one of the best of the best, it puts you into the mood of hunting Grimm. A taste of the battlefield."
"Huh, I kind of want to try some…" Said Jaune. He had heard about military rations a lot and was very curious about what they actually tasted like.
"I would suggest you pass on that." Ruby winced. "It tastes like the battlefield because it feels like the battle was brought to your stomach."
"Hey! They are very nutritious and - " An alarm rang. " - Just a second…" Weiss reached underneath the table. Then, she stood back up and placed an entire freshly baked cake onto a heat protector pad on the table.
Jaune and Ruby stared for two different reasons.
Ruby raised her hand. "Can I decorate it?"
"Hmmmm… Only if you don't mess it up."
The girl gasped. "No way!" She pointed at herself with her thumb. "I helped Yang all the time with cookies! My hand is steady like… Like a sniper's… Which I am."
"If she'll be helping me with the cake, then maybe you should help Yang with getting some protein, Jaune." Weiss moved to shift through one of the boxes.
"Sure, where is she?"
"I think she jumped down the ravine."
"Great, I'll go check!" Now, where was the - "Wait a sec, what?!"
"Weiss said my sister jumped down the cliff!" Ruby nonchalantly called.
"I know where you said she was, I meant the cliff part!"
"Hmph, I had forgotten you didn't have a landing strategy, as a newspark."
Jaune inched towards the edge, peering down carefully. It was a long way down and he did not want a repeat of what happened at the beginning of Initiation. In fact, he didn't even want to look. Great, I have PTSD now. Thanks, Game.
An idea came to him and instead of standing, he laid down onto his stomach. This time, as he crawled to the edge, he felt far safer.
There was a loud explosion.
Confused, he peeked over the edge, as more explosions sounded. He was treated to the sight of a small figure making punching motions near a creek… And the creek exploding.
He called Yang on her phone. I mean, 'scroll'. Same thing.
"Hey Yang, are yah winning?"
"Oh, it's Jaune? Hey! I got us some fish."
The creek exploded again. "Using explosives?!"
"Hey, if you aren't doing it with explosives, then you aren't doing it right!"
"Who says that?!"
"Some person I met online in a game once. She was also a great fan of hammers, sloths, and people with a streak of random color in their hair... Not sure how those things are related."
"It was rhetorical!"
"Killjoy. I think I got enough fish, so even if you wanted to, sorry, you can't come help dynamite fishing. I'll be right up!"
She hung up.
He laughed a bit. I did kinda want to try out fishing with dynamite. A bit disappointing, but nothing I can do about that now. Huh… How will she get up here? It's a long way down -
There were explosions.
Jaune turned towards the forest. Sure, there were some explosions coming from below, the sounds of Yang making her way up, but there was a set of secondary ones coming elsewhere. What he saw was a small mushroom cloud peeking out through the trees. Then… Sirens? Sirens that grew louder.
Looking above, he saw a large projectile that was soaring through the sky from the direction of the explosion. It was headed towards their camp. "Oh, shit! Guys, get the fuck out!"
It didn't take long for the huntsmen-in-training to all scatter, having also heard the sound.
That's strange, the sirens sound more like screaming now that they're closer.
Moments later, impact happened, blasting part of their hard work apart.
Jaune ran towards it.
"My cake!"
"Our cake!"
"..."
"We should check if they're fine!"
Jaune arrived to see Pyrrha try to pull off a pot that got stuck to a guy's head. That man was entirely drenched in burning hot soup, though he didn't seem too worried about it. The rest were groaning and moaning, each having crashed through different items.
"Dumb idea, Sky! How the hell was hugging going to help!"
"Well, shithead, did you have a better idea?"
"No, but it's better than missing your target entirely and breaking someone's shit!"
"Shut up. We have company." A redhead said as he stood up from the ruins of Weiss' table, a crudely drawn smile that once decorated the cake now was imprinted upon his face. He spat out some whipped cream. He put a hand on his weapon, a mace. "Didn't mean to intrude on this party of yours." Jaune gasped as he realized that these were the first people he saw since a while that had armor. They actually looked like they were here to learn to fight, rather than participate in a fashion show.
Weiss lowered her rapier and placed her other hand on her hips. "I hope you had a good reason for that."
There was a pop as finally Pyrrha ripped the pot off one of the men's head.
The teenager gave a laugh. "Yes. This crazy girl was throwing around grenades and had the bright idea of latching and detonating multiple grenade belts together… For a bigger boom." His hand didn't leave the handle of his weapon.
"Hmph. I had quite my share of crazy today too." Jaune didn't need to look at Weiss to know what she'd meant.
"I see we've… Intruded upon your camp and ruined your preparations." He looked around at the six huntsmen surrounding the four of them. "Would you be fine if we gave two relics, and you'll let us leave in peace?"
"Ha? Let you leave?" Weiss stepped forward. "As if!"
Jaune and the four others he had met over these past few days looked at her in surprise. The four newcomers also all dropped into combat stances.
"Weiss - " Ruby tried.
She shushed her. "You think you can come in here, spill Ren's soup, splatter Ruby's hard work, ruin Pyrrha teachings, and break my one hundred thousand lien tent, and just leave?!"
"...I think she's mad about one of those more than the others - "
"Hey, girl." One of the men stepped up. He had a very distinguishing mohawk. "Sorry about your stuff, but it ain't our fault. No one could have predicted that Nevermore to cause the bombs to set off early."
"Ah?" Weiss smiled brightly. "Mr. - Sorry, what's your name?"
"...Russel?"
"Mr. Russel. Strange, I believe I heard the contrary. Something about 'missing your target'. Heard it from you, in fact."
"Ugh!"
"Russel you dumbass!"
"You're the idiot who screwed up your semblance!"
"Weiss," Pyrrha tried, "I know it's probably a lot of money, but it's not like they meant to miss their target."
"The tent is actually insured."
"Ah, so we're fine…?" Pyrrha tried again.
"Isn't what I want obvious?"
No.
"If it really comes to it," The redhead male steps up. "Then I suppose as the team leader I will take responsibility and pay for the increased insurance premiums."
"Don't fucking do it, Cardin, we stand by you! If we have to pay, we all pay!"
"Yeah!"
"Agreed!"
The leader snorts. "You can't pay for anything, you're all broke, you dumbasses!"
The other three look like they all took a critical hit.
Weiss put both hands on her hips. "Do I look like I only care about money or something?"
Silence all around, until Pyrrha replied with a 'No…?'
"Seriously?! The tent's not the issue!"
One of the men whispered to his teammate. "Shit, that's a Schnee for you, a few hundred thousands of lien is nothing."
"Oh, now it's 'you don't care enough about money'. What do you want me to say?!" Weiss sighed. "Look, it's merely a nice thing to do to help clean up the mess you made. Do that, and I'll call it even. You can even stick with us, if you'd like. The more people there are, the safer it is."
The one with the mohawk raised a hand. "..You sure? We don't need to be permanent wage slaves or anything?"
"I'm getting mad."
The redhead laughed. "Ha, ignore Russel. It's just a joke, Schnee. I'm happy you are… quite generous."
"We can discuss more about working together. But first, you have me at a disadvantage. What's your name?"
"Heh. Remember it well, as my family deals with yours on Vale business. It's Cardin Winchester."
There was a glimmer of recognition in Weiss' eyes.
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
"It wasn't me. It wasn't me! Believe me, Ozpin!"
A cane tapped on the floor.
"Ozpin!" A squirrel-faunus desperately cried, kneeling on the floor. Her hands were chained together by a pair of manacles, with a strange extra device on one of the hands that glowed red hot. On each side, was a uniformed man and woman. Each had a logo on their back composed of Remnant's continents and dust sculptures, primarily in a soft, peaceful baby blue that contrasted sharply with the black material it was imprinted on.
The headmaster of Beacon stood in front of her impassively, gaze not on her but on his tablet, held in the hand that wasn't holding his cane. His mind was set. There are few who have a semblance that is able to evade detection like this… Thermal, radar, visible spectrum… They all came up empty. It is lucky that I kept the old outdated pressure plates rather than taking them out as the paperwork indicated. Someone who wasn't privy to insider information would have been more wary of where they stepped.
Vigilance… I must be constantly vigilant to keep the basement and its precious cargo safe.
"Ms. Peach." Ozpin finally said. "We've been friends for so long… I still remember those many Vytal Festivals that you have organized…" He reminisced with a smile. "We have seen so many wonderful students grow up to become great huntsmen. All that time has meant a great deal for me… but clearly nothing for you."
"Ozpin - "
The headmaster kneeled down such that their faces were inches apart. "I know what you did with Mr. Arc. What you didn't do."
"That's… That's a different matter!"
"Is it?" His eyes had none of his usual elderly warmth. "It is… difficult to forgive you twice."
"I swear I didn't go down there, I don't even have the elevator codes! But Jaune Arc should not be part of your machinations. You've overstepped your bounds by getting a civilian involved!"
"That should have been a discussion, rather than action, Ms. Peach. Not to mention the endangerment of his life that had resulted from your inability to follow orders."
"If everything went right, he would have been kicked out."
"Which didn't happen, because you were outplayed. But by whom…" He let his sentence drift off. While he was uncertain at why exactly these specific events had happened, he still had some insight into his old friend's psyche.
"...I will give you access to my Scroll and every message on there. I am on your side, Ozpin, my only involvement was in the Arc incident. You know I wouldn't risk the children!"
The headmaster sighed. "When you've lived to my age, you will realize that people can betray you for the most unexpected of reasons. Be it ignorance, be it love, be it even kindness." He looked at the two around her. "Take her away." He commanded.
"Ozpin…" The anger and indignation left the woman, leaving only resignation and defeat. "This is why I didn't talk to you."
The elderly man didn't let it bother him. With Salem on the move, he did what had to be done.
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
A/N: Oh, you thought the disappearing pinecone in chapter… Chapter… Chapter something was a joke from Light? Ha!
…Well, it was!
But it was also not!
I will also comment on a few varied things:
Cardin's team will be written a bit differently. Hopefully it'll be far more interesting to read!
And yes, I know the Schnee semblance isn't that powerful. In this fic, they will though… for story reasons in a similar way to how the distinction between 'Huntress' and 'Huntsman' mattered here.
In terms of the skills trees… Dammit they don't accept the symbols I used to format them, that's why they look so naked.
Next Chapter: 3/27/2022