TM11: Remind me again, in what chapter does Ruby mess up by not killing or taking the shot?
Re: Chapter 42: Bitter Sweets.
LoamyCoffee: Well this started off amusing. Nice variant of the Pickle Rick joke, even it was a dream.
I actually haven't checked on that series in a long time. Look at you bringing in the rare characters.
Ah yes, the darker parts of being a Huntsmen. Which I get is for advancing the characters, but damn if I don't like it.
Weiss dropped a notch over bringing that back up over Ruby's hesitance.
Starting to get flashbacks of the Atlas seasons.
Re: I'm getting surprising amounts of mileage out of that "Doctorate in Poultry Science" joke I used ages and ages ago from off of that DEATH BATTLE! episode~
Don't quite remember how I happened upon trash. I think it happened when I got into stuff like Murcielago, Killing Bites, and Arachnid. That and I feel like Rushia & Marin would prosper financially in a world like Remnant, where someone always wants someone dead.
As for Weiss… her expulsion was on the line, so of course she'd take issue with Ruby. And the entire exercise happened because Ruby made Beacon look bad. In Canon she's held up on a pedestal for getting into Beacon years early, so I thought it'd be an interesting exploration for her to actually make the school look bad through her youth. And Yang not being able to come to Ruby's defense straight-out was also a fun bit of story continuity because it highlights the differences between the "Slayerverse" and the RWBY Canon.
A little thin on the Reviews, but I still have a story I want to tell, so before the more action-centric chapters…
*NEW WORLD*
Nora dragged Ren off into the woods almost immediately. As for everyone else, they were terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought of Rushia's hand-made ammo, so they took the proverbial "Not It" option and booked it in opposite directions from one another.
Ruby, unable to face her team at present, went off into the woods with Jaune. This served Weiss just as well because neither she nor Yang could face her as it was, and Pyrrha, wanting to give Jaune his space to talk things out with his fellow Team Leader, went with the two of them.
With Jack and Rushia making for the most-terrifying couple either RWBY or JNPR had seen, Marin was left to vault up onto Goldie's saddle in front of Vincent and Blake, intruding on the implied "alone time" that the latter had been promised/inferred.
And thus did the teams of RWBBY, JNPR, and "Bullet & Francesca" (as they were known to the criminal underworld) scatter like the four winds.
*NEW WORLD*
"Yang."
"Yeah, Weiss?" she returned once the silence had been broken.
"I'm… sorry for what I said."
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."
"I know that, but… as her sister, I figured you were owed an apology too."
"Yeah, well… I can't exactly fault you for it. You were going to be expelled if two of us hadn't stepped up, and I've killed bandits before too, so I couldn't really say Roland didn't have the right idea…" Yang admitted.
"It's a complicated issue, yes," Pyrrha admitted, Yang and Weiss looking over their shoulders at her with flat expressions. " . . . Okay maybe not that complicated," she admitted after an awkward moment.
People didn't become Bandits or Raiders for deep, philosophical reasons like Rebels or Freedom Fighters did in times of strife. They became as such because they were "too lazy" to work for a living and had no compunctions with taking what little others had by force. Unlike criminals inside the big cities where their evils were self-contained within the Walls, Bandits and the like actively sabotaged the survival of those trying to eke a living outside the main population centers, and sympathizers were eagerly reviled by the surrounding populace.
Ruby for her part had done Signal proud by getting into Beacon two years early. Of course, there had always been those who said the whole thing stank of nepotism because both of Ruby's parents had been star pupils of Ozpin's from back in the day. No matter how-skilled a person was, there would always be those who rightly or unrightly tried to tear them down, whether out of legitimate concern or out of pure envy.
To complicate matters further, not only had Ruby's publicly-known failing embarrassed Beacon and Ozpin both, but it had also trickled back toward Signal itself. That a child had lost her mother and had it paraded about the Kingdom on a nation-wide news broadcast, would always be a point against "the young Ruby Rose", who Ruby's detractors now had near-fatal ammo to criticize Ozpin's vetting process with.
Eventually, Ruby executing a Bandit would reach the masses. But that "bitter work" she had done would always be eclipsed by her first, publicly-touted failing.
"We all knew what we were signing up for," Yang sighed. "Bandits and raiders… sometimes they're worse monsters than the Grimm. But I'd hoped that Ruby of all people could've stayed innocent for just a bit longer."
"Well, maybe if someone hadn't spent the girl's formative years filling her head with fantasies and nonsense…!" Weiss growled critically before relenting. "What's done is done. Ruby messed up; maybe not as badly as Jaune did, but she still messed up. And like Jaune, she's going to spend her career making up for it. Fact of the matter is, we're all going to have detractors. We can't please everyone. Maybe that's why Jack acts the way he does? Because he's accepted that part of the life?"
"Well, here's hoping Team JNPR can come out better for it when you go out for missions next week," Yang sighed Pyrrha's way. "You take care of him, alright? If some racist asshole gives him a hard time, you'd better have his back, you hear?"
"If you send him up the river, we'll both have your ass," Weiss added. "And not in the way Jack would."
"O-Of course!" Pyrrha replied. "Race never bothered me… but I can understand that it might become a problem with our work…"
All the horror stories that Jack told her about his experiences with Humans… It really put all the enmity Faunus felt towards Humans in perspective. And since Jaune had come to Jack for help, in order to become a better leader, she hoped that between capitulating to the figurative "masses", or being loyal to his close allies, that he'd make the correct moral choice, even if it weren't ethically-correct to do so.
" . . . I should apologize to her," Weiss said bringing up her Scroll.
"Maybe… Maybe give Ruby a bit of time," Yang said putting it down with her hand. "She's seen people executed, and then participated. I'm sure talking with the first friend she made at Beacon before hearing your apology, will help her decompress, you know?"
" . . . I guess I'll have to take your word for it," Weiss sighed.
*NEW WORLD*
"Hey Jaune, how you holding up?" Ruby asked as she finally broke the silence.
"Oh, you know… Sorta," he said with slumped shoulders, hands trembling.
"Yeah… Yeah, me too…" Ruby replied, her own hands trembling.
"I never really thought about it until now, but all those stories of Huntsmen saving village girls from Bandits, or of Heroes fighting Highwaymen strangling the life out of some far-off town… The real people those stories were based off of, they probably didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. If they'd roughed the bad guys up and let them go, as soon as the hero left, those bad guys would've gone right on back to doing what they did before," Jaune said wringing his hands together. "Roland said our battle was a 'war', but it didn't really dawn on me until I had to face that truth. We can't be the paragons of virtue from the stories. Wanting the Heroes to win… it's the same as wishing for the Villains to fail. The same as wishing them to…"
"Die?" Ruby asked with a quirked brow.
"Yeah… That…" Jaune nodded, remembering that Ruby was probably grappling with the same moral quandary as he was. Hell, she probably, definitely, had it much worse because she'd gone to Beacon early. Some would argue that she were adjectives like 'undercooked' or 'unripe'.
And ever since that news story had run, he'd heard all sorts of mutterings from people who had formerly been singing Ruby's praises back when she'd had celebrity status. Some of them were tactful enough to say that she'd been admitted to Beacon too early and left it at that. Others had said less-flattering things about her, like that maybe she'd "bribed" Ozpin into letting her into his school; and not necessarily with money.
Ruby didn't know that, and Jack certainly didn't otherwise the flowerbeds would be blossoming more-profusely. And he couldn't tell if it was better or worse than what people said about him behind his back, or even intentionally in front of him.
Sure, he'd come clean about his failings and was making every effort to remedy what he'd done, but he'd still always be known for the massively-fraudulent way he'd been admitted to Beacon. People subtly or not-so-subtly said that he was "dragging Pyrrha Nikos down", and that there were dead pools for how-long it'd be until he bit it.
New Huntsmen-in-Training were always the subject of controversy because everyone, and he did mean everyone, had such high hopes for them. And sure, he'd heard people talking shit about Jack, wanting him dead because of what "his kind" did during the last war, calling him a racist even though his profiling was pretty much spot-on. But to suddenly be on the receiving end of such anger and disappointment… It made him feel all the worse for being happy about thinking- "At least they aren't talking about me."
"Jaune."
"Y-Yeah?" he asked coming out of his contemplations.
"Thanks for being there. I don't think I could've gone through with it if I were by myself up there. And if I hadn't been able to step up… I probably would've lost Weiss' trust forever if that'd happened."
"Well, I guess what's important is… We're both colossal fuck-ups and we're both trying to be better."
"Not how I would've put it, but yeah, I get what you mean," Ruby sighed at Jaune's particular choice in vernacular. "You think Weiss will ever forgive me?"
"I mean, at least you actually got into Beacon on your own merits. You only messed up after Ozpin let you in. Me…? Well, I think my chances with her are pretty much nonexistent…"
"Hey, c'mon now, I'm sure you still have a-"
"Ruby, you don't have to patronize me. It's obvious she only has googly-eyes for Jack. Jack, the guy that hated her guts and she hated back…"
"Well, you know what they say… 'Opposites attract'," Ruby said trying to dull the edge.
"You know, I actually used to hate Jack for that. I got the idea into my head that he'd 'stolen' Weiss from me, and that I had to 'save her from him'… And it wasn't because he was a Faunus, but because he was 'the bad boy', 'the bad influence', and I had to be her 'white knight' and save her," Jaune blurted out. "But after thinking long and hard about it, I realized all of that hate… That hate was always for myself. Hating that I treated becoming a Huntsman as my 'fallback plan' after I made a royal embarrassment of myself in the civilian sector. That I didn't put in the same effort as even the laziest of our classmates who even then had spent years in training to reach this point…"
" . . . That must've taken a lot of strength to admit," Ruby said after a long moment.
"Yeah… Yeah, it did. And I actually feel loads better for it," Jaune nodded, expression brightening. "After our 'fried chicken party', I'll be sure to give the two of them my blessing."
"Jaune. I might be socially inept when it comes to 'adult relationships'," she said making air quotes, "but even I can sus out that if you do that, all you're likely to get is a slap in the face. From Weiss," she deadpanned. "Jack might not care, but Weiss would probably think that's really condescending. Like, the worst kind of condescending."
"Yeah, you're probably right…" Jaune admitted, shoulders slumping again. "Man, why is growing up so hard?"
"I know, right?" Ruby said feeling her lips turn up in a grin. "I mean, sure, you've been doing most of the talking and I've just been 'the good listener', but it feels like a huge burden's been lifted from my shoulders too, you know? I'd have never been able to bounce back like this if I were with anyone else."
"Well, I'm happy I was able to do something to help you out," Jaune replied. "We should probably get around to foraging, you know?"
"Yeah, probably," Ruby said as she took out a field guide from her pocket, the two of them looking around for any edible plants.
*NEW WORLD*
Of course, Blake was having a crisis of her own, even if it wasn't nearly as intense as what Weiss, Yang, Ruby, or Jaune were going through…
"Who's a good boy, Goldie? You are! Yes you arrre~" Marin cooed as she rubbed the giant Chocobo's neck from her place in Vincent's lap, the white-haired teen practically hugging her as he held the reins. And while Blake didn't mind the excuse to 'practically hug him' from behind, Marin being there kind of ruined it.
To make matters worse, she felt incredibly self-conscious because the axe-wielding girl wore her Faunus heritage like a badge of honor, whereas she still couldn't come clean about her own. And that she had a close-enough relationship with Rushia, a Human, that she'd agree to be a surrogate mother for her and Jack's "Maybe-Baby"… It just felt like a slap in the face to her regarding all of her own personal failings.
"Blake, are you alright?" Vincent asked over his shoulder.
"Huh-Y-Yeah, why do you ask?"
"Well, I heard what happened in Roland's class. That must've been very hard for you. Just… killing a guy so you wouldn't get expelled."
"Killing's easy," Marin suddenly chimed in. "It's sleeping the night after that's tricky."
"I think I get where you're coming from," Vincent hummed. "Tests are easy. It's the answers that are the hard part."
"I know, right?" Marin beamed enthusiastically, ears flitting merrily.
'Oh great, now they're bonding…' Blake groaned to herself as Vincent and Marin got more-comfortable around one another. "Vincent, how have you been holding up, lately?"
"Oh, you know… One day at a time," the whitette sighed tiredly.
"Head's still foggy?"
"It's like pea soup up there, and I'm all out of spoons."
"Soup?" Marin blinked, ears straight up at attention.
"There isn't actually any soup here."
"And like that you've lost me," the cat-girl said as she turned back around, cat-like eyes panning the darkness as Goldie took the more-trodden paths. "Hold on… I smell apples!"
"Which way?"
"That way! That way!" Marin said grabbing his hands and turning their mount in the appropriate direction. "Hyah!"
"Auugh!" Blake cried as Goldie picked up the tempo, almost throwing her from his back.
*NEW WORLD*
" . . . It really is a good look on you."
"What look?"
"The school uniform. You settling down," Rushia hummed as the two of them strode through the shady woods, shoulder to shoulder and hands brushing together. "Sometimes I wonder if I should quit the life. Get a steady job."
"What's stopping you? Apart from the obvious."
"Can you imagine Marin mingling with polite society?"
"Probably not…" Jack admitted. "If she got left to her own devices, someone unscrupulous would probably take advantage of her."
" . . . "
"Wait… Rushia, what the hell happened?!"
"Occupational hazard. We got the guy in the end," Rushia summarized. "Although while we're in town, I would appreciate it if you helped… re-train her."
" . . . It's exactly what it sounds like, isn't it?"
"Yeah, pretty much," she said taking off her eyepatch and scratching at her face, revealing that her eye was completely intact the whole time. "Also, if you could help hide someone for us, that'd be appreciated too. Maybe at that hospital with you-know-who?"
"That depends. What's the story?"
"Well, it all started when a rival gang stole our boss' money," she said as she readjusted her eyepatch.
*NEW WORLD*
Elsewhile, with Nora and Ren…
"RUUUUUG!" Nora shouted as she ran after a giant Saber Rabbit with light brown fur, war hammer flailing madly, the thing having the good sense to run for its life.
"Didn't we finally get that first Saber Rabbit skin rug just the other day?" Ren inquired.
" . . . "
" . . . "
" . . . FOOTIE PAJAMAAAAAS!" Nora said changing tack, pink sparks flitting down her legs before she suddenly leapt through the air, warhammer raised high.
*CRACK!*
"Rest in peace, poor woodland creature," Ren hummed as the Valkyrie found her mark.
*NEW WORLD*
"Think these are enough?" Pyrrha asked as she looked down into her basket filled with edible plants
"Yeah… Yeah, let's take a break," Weiss said sitting on a nearby rock and taking off one of her shoes, Yang doing the same. "Ugh! Yang! Don't you ever wash those things?!"
"Hey, they aren't that bad…" Yang pouted as the heiress cupped both hands over her nose and mouth.
*SQUAWK!*
*Thump*
" . . . That proves nothing," the blond stated a moment later after a bird fell out of the sky stone dead.
"I'll… take your word for it," Pyrrha said as she and Weiss backed away from the brawler's boots. "Sooo… What'd you think of Jack's, um, lady friend?"
"She's like something straight out of a dirty magazine."
"Well, as long as I didn't have to say it first…" Pyrrha deadpanned.
"She's like if my sister were a crazy party girl…" Weiss muttered, hands going to her chest.
"Weiss, don't tell me you're still hung up on your bust size," Yang tutted.
"Yes, you're perfect just the way you are," Pyrrha added.
"Your words do not inspire confidence," Weiss deadpanned as she leveled a look at their cleavage, the two growing a little self-conscious.
"I-I'm sure you're still growing-"
"Don't patronize me."
"Weiss. I don't think Jack's the sort of person to let bust size influence his romantic decisions," Pyrrha cut in. "You two care for one another, don't you? Plus, I'm sure you getting over his race is more of a leap than whether or not he prefers large, um… talent."
"It's just… Winter has always been so amazing. Better grades, better performances, better potential suitors and hangers-on, better…" she deadpanned as she made a swelled bosom motion with her hands. "Compared to her I've always been second best, so just once I'd like to have a quality I'm not her inferior at."
"Does she have a boyfriend? Because if she does, I think your boyfriend can kick her boyfriend's ass," Yang stated optimistically.
"I don't think it really 'counts' if the metric she's using to surpass her sister is whatever man she's dating," Pyrrha deadpanned.
True, gender inequality had largely faded since the passing of the Dark Ages, but there were still pockets of antiquity where double standards lay. You treat a Huntress as someone who needs protecting because of her gender and you're likely to get your ass kicked, but if you fail to treat a civilian woman as someone who warrants the exacting same protection and suddenly, you're a scumbag.
"No, no, wait, she might be onto something…" Weiss hummed contemplatively. "Hmmmmm… It might not be my first choice, but I suppose I could take pride in that at least. I just hope Jack doesn't think I'm being disingenuous for my petty in-fighting."
"As long as you take him home to your dad to give him a heart attack, I think he'll forgive your trespasses," Yang grinned with a pat to the shoulder.
" . . . I feel like that's some of the weirdest 'girl talk' I've ever participated in. And I room with Nora," Pyrrha hummed after a long moment.
"At least you get to have 'girl talk'. Team RWBY can't do that sort of thing anymore if Jack's around," Yang pouted. " . . . Okay, so maybe Ruby and Blake weren't exactly interested, but the point still stands!"
"Maybe, but I would think the tradeoff for his wisdom would be more than amenable," Pyrrha hummed. "If I'm being honest right now, I'm actually kind of excited to work in the field with him."
"Just don't ask him to keep the potential bloodshed 'to a minimum'. I'm pretty sure that as soon as he's out of earshot of Ruby, he's going to let out many of his more violent urges," Weiss hummed thoughtfully.
"Speaking from experience?"
"Was there ever any doubt?"
"No, but it felt polite to say so anyway," Pyrrha conceded.
" . . . I should give Ruby a call," Weiss conceded, realizing she couldn't put it off forever. " . . . C'mon, pick up, pick up…"
"You know, you've really grown, Weiss."
"I'm not the only one," the heiress commented as she held the line.
"No, I mean it. If past-you looked present-you in the eye, you wouldn't even recognize yourself."
"I'll take that as a compliment-Sh! Shut up!"
"Weiss?"
"Ruby. I'm sorry about what I said. It was out of line, and I shouldn't have pressured you like that."
"Weiss, it's… It's okay. You were completely right. The lives of a few bandits weren't worth our careers."
"Ah, well… I'm glad we were able to get through this hurdle, then."
"Jaune and I talked things through. I think it really helped."
"I really am sorry."
"There isn't anything you have to be sorry for. I just… needed to grow up a little more, that's all. Maybe if I'd seen my time at Signal through to its conclusion… Point is, I'm ready to move forward from all this. As a Team."
"Hm. Then, I'm glad we could have this talk. How has the foraging gone on your end?" she asked changing to a lighter tone.
"Pretty well, actually. I'm sure that only 10% of our haul is potentially poisonous!"
" . . . We'll have Jack give everything a once-over before we get cooking," Weiss conceded.
"Okay! We'll see you later!" Ruby beamed. "Jaune says 'bye'."
"Bye, Ruby."
*Beep*
"You didn't say goodbye to Jaune."
"Don't push it."
*NEW WORLD*
" . . . Well that went well," Jaune hummed once the call ended.
"As well as I could expect," Ruby hummed, her hands still shaking.
"You okay?" Jaune asked, catching her tell.
"Yeah… Yeah, I'll be fine," she said clasping her hands. "I'll give Arthur a call once I have a better signal. Talking to him always helps me feel better."
"I wish I had a sweetheart to unload all my problems on."
"Hey, there's still time," Ruby said putting a hand on his shoulder. "And if all else fails, you could shack up with some 'Village Girl' somewhere; like in one of Port's stories~"
"You were paying attention?" he asked raising a brow.
"No… Weiss made me sit through one of her lectures after I fell asleep one too many times," she said slumping her shoulders. "Even if it did sound like one of my uncle's dirty stories."
"What is your uncle like? You mentioned him once or twice but I don't really know a lot about him."
"Hmmmm… He's sorta like a blend between Huntsman and a drunken sailor."
"Huntsman? Oh, I love that guy!" Jaune grinned.
"Uncle Qrow claims Huntsman is based on him, but you gotta take everything he says with a grain of salt. Even if he is a super-cool swashbuckler that makes bad stuff happen to other people."
"Well, it takes all kinds," Jaune hummed as he plucked some berries from a nearby bush. "Maybe I could become a symbol for others. That even if you mess up, you can get up and try again."
"You know, Jack gave me some advice when he was teaching me the Flash Step. 'When you fall off that horse, you get right back up, and you eat that horse. Come eat that horse with me, Ruby'," she recited with a raised finger.
"What the hell was he on about…?" Jaune asked confusedly.
"I don't know… Half the time I feel like he's screwing with us, but then he says something really profound and insightful, only to kill the mood minutes later with one of his downer comments."
"Hey, he's your teammate."
"And I don't regret taking him on. I just wish I could make the world 'a better place' already so he wouldn't have to be so hostile all the time. Don't people realize the Grimm are a bigger threat?"
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew that Remnant was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew Remnant was flat. Fifteen minutes ago-"
"Is this from Guys in White?" Ruby blinked.
"Point is, people have always been kinda stupid that way. Maybe all of Jack's downer comments are to get us ready for that? Admittedly, city life has pampered us."
"I'll have you know I'm a 'country girl', city slicker. I lived in a cabin, in the woods," Ruby replied imperiously with crossed arms and an upturned nose. "Wait, did you hear that?" she asked raising a hand to her ear.
"Yeah… Sounds like poultry."
The two of them dropping into a crouch and walking over toward some bushes, parting the foliage to make as little noise as possible, they spotted a large clearing in the forest, more like a plain, actually. It was scenic, grassy, and filled with large white land fowl with red crests on their heads. There were other colors mixed in as well like grays, dark blues, oranges, and beige, but predominantly the cuckoos were a startling shade of white that made them stick out against the dense Emerald Forest foliage in the backdrop.
"Look, there they are."
"Yeah… Man, those are some big birds, aren't they?"
"Think we should call Jack?"
"Naw, I think we can handle some poultry by ourselves," Jaune said drawing his M-12 Locust.
"Alright. I'm with you," Ruby said drawing her Crescent Rose.
*NEW WORLD*
"Damn that smells good…!" Marin gulped, wiping her mouth as they stared up at a deep forest orchard, apples glistening like ornaments.
"I didn't even know this was here," Blake nodded, also awed that something so-idyllic could exist in a Grimm-infested forest.
Or at least a forest more-infested with Grimm than the rest of the Frontier.
"I did, but only because I had a map," Vincent said holding out his Scroll, his own locator icon surrounded by red apple-shaped icons. "Guess those Survey Corps guys are really good at their jobs."
"Caramel apple slices, apple ring pancakes, apple turnovers, apple salsa, apple popsicles, apple frittata, apple cinnamon bread, baked apples…" Marin muttered before she hopped up off of Goldie's back and into the tree line, unfurling her Francesca axe and expertly cutting the stems.
"Shouldn't you be checking if they're ready to fall off on their own?" Blake asked worriedly.
"No need. I can tell the difference," she said tapping her nose with her free hand.
"Hey, that's really cool!" Vincent beamed as he scurried below and caught the apples as they fell.
'I can do that too you know…' Blake pouted.
Or at least she wished. As it stood, her Faunus senses had actually dulled since she'd begun her grand charade. Jack hadn't called her out on that, but even if he hadn't noticed, Blake couldn't hide that truth from herself.
'At least she won't be around long-term,' the closet Faunus hummed to herself.
"Hey Vee, you think this is enough?" Marin asked looking down into his filled basket.
"I think so. We'll leave some room in the other basket for things other than apples."
"Hold up… Is that deer I smell? I'll be right back!"
'Yeah you'd better run…' Blake huffed to herself as Marin leapt off into the trees, axe in hand.
"Hey Blake," Vincent hummed bringing a hand up to his ear. "Why's the ground shaking?"
"Huh?" Blake blinked before noticing that leaves were rustling in the far distance, the sound of people screaming meeting her ribbon-clad ears. "Are those… chickens?" she blinked hearing the *cluck*cluck*cluck*BA-KAW* of poultry in the distance.
"Cuccos," Vincent corrected before something up in the trees caught his eye. "Goldie! Grab Blake and get out of here! I've got one last thing to grab!" he said as he leapt up into the apple tree overhead.
"Vincent wait-" Blake cried before Goldie shot his head down between her legs, threw her onto his saddle, and galloped away.
And not a moment too soon, because as soon as the two of them had vacated their post, Ruby and Jaune came through the orchard screaming at the top of their lungs, a veritable tide of pissed-off feathers, talons, and beaks in their wake.
And it wasn't a mindful tide either. The tide of feral Cuccos bulled into the trees in their wake like water through rapids, a deluge of ruby red apples falling to the ground like rain.
Unfortunately, it wasn't only apples that fell that day.
*NEW WORLD*
"You know, I can never get over how-good that nose of yours is," Rushia hummed as she watched Jack dig through the dirt in the shadow of a tree before coming up with a round black mushroom.
"My senses aren't especially acute among my kind. Human senses are just really dull," Jack hummed as he eyed 'the other black gold' in his hand before tossing it into his basket.
"Maybe, but still," Rushia said looking into his basket, a fair quantity of black truffles intermingled with all the other edible plants he'd collected. "With the way you gather food, I might have to worry about Marin wanting you for herself."
"Are you sure you still want me to re-train her?"
"Once was one time too many," the gunwoman conceded. "Just don't blow her mind too badly."
"Don't worry. I'll stay well away from bar gags, shackles, drugs, and spreader bars."
"The quintessential gentleman," Rushia chuckled. Though obviously not 100% a "ha ha" chuckle.
"Hold on, I'm getting a call," Jack said pulling out his Scroll. "Rub-"
"JAAACK! HELP US! WE FUCKED UP! WE FUCKED UP REALLY, REALLY, REEEALLY BAD!" Ruby shrieked from the other end, the sound of feral poultry in the backdrop.
"Dammit, Ruby, didn't I tell you not to piss them off! Why the hell didn't you let me know you'd found them?!"
"WE THOUGHT WE COULD TAKE THEM!" another voice cried shrilly.
"When'd Little Red pick up another girl?" Rushia blinked.
"Well obviously you couldn't!" Jack snapped as he hid the Call icon and went to his short-range map. "Alright listen up you two! I want you to bear left at 10 o'clock, Rushia and I will be on an intercept when you pass the buck!"
"Uh, we will?" the silver-haired woman blinked, thinking back to the other bodies they'd found out in the woods.
"YOU'RE A LIFESAVER!"
"Ruby wait-FUCK!" Jack swore.
"What happened?"
"Blake's team just meandered into their new bearing, and I can't get back in touch with those two!" Jack swore as he eyed the new map data. "Pick up, pick up, pick up…! Damn! Looks like we're gonna have to hoof it!"
"Not sure how much good I'll be. I've only got so-many of my special rounds," Rushia said looking at her Beretta.
Sure, her special rounds were real good at killing anything made of meat, doubly-so any kind of meat with a self-preservation instinct, but against a mass of smaller targets…
"Don't worry. I've dealt with Cuccos before," Jack said throwing her over his shoulder and running through the woods, the wind whistling in their ears. "You know, just once I'd like to go foraging for food without things going tits up."
"Yeah~ Sometimes you like your tits facing down~"
"Oh ha ha," Jack eye-rolled before the sounds of Ruby and Jaune screaming their heads off met his ears. "Ruby! Jaune! Over here!"
Extending a finger and firing a Spirit Gun overhead, the two screaming teens adjusted their bearing and headed his way, Ruby grabbing onto Jaune and dragging him into a tide of rose petals as she briefly left the river-like wave of feral poultry in her dust.
A scant few moments later and the swirling red tide recomposed itself behind Jack, dropping two exhausted teens to the forest floor.
Cue Toriko OST – Zebra's Theme
"Oh god… Can't breathe…" Ruby panted.
"I'm gonna hurl..." Jaune groaned off to the side.
"Huh. Guessing a speed-type with a side of intangibility…" Rushia hummed thoughtfully.
"Analyze later," Jack said as he strode forward, crimson aura bleeding out of his body like paint rising in water. "Hear that? Sounds like the dinner bell."
"Hm~ God, you're so corny~" Rushia chuckled, Ruby and Jaune's vision clearing up in time to see the familiar shadow of a fur-covered dragon manifesting around the older Faunus.
"HRAAAAGH!" Jack bellowed from deep in his diaphragm, and even deeper from the pit of his stomach, as he unleashed the full weight of his Appetite upon the approaching tide of feral poultry, his pupils gaining cross-like slits as his presence rolled off of him in all directions.
*NEW WORLD*
"GURAAAAAAAAWGH!"
"What was that?" Nora looked up from what she was doing.
The operative "what" before the other-operative "she was doing", being bashing the Saber Rabbit's head in until the thing went unconscious so she could drag it back to Beacon and turn the skin into a set of footy pajamas.
"Knowing Jack… that's the sound of the dinner bell," Ren said catching the sound of terrified poultry in the air.
*NEW WORLD*
"So, do we have everyone?" Jack asked once everyone was at the meeting place, a large tree branch slung over his shoulders like a yoke, a litany of Cucco strung up by the ankles and bleeding profusely by the neck. Marin was carrying a decent-sized deer over her shoulder, holding the decapitated head by one of its antlers. Ruby and Jaune for their part were on the "table", sitting Seiza with the words Dweeb and Doofus painted on their foreheads respectively with berry juice.
"Hey, aren't we still missing one?" Rushia asked.
"Yeah, you're right. Where is Vincent?" Jack hummed, Marin staring down into the baskets filled with food.
"Vincent…" Blake spoke up. "During the stampede… he fell in and…!"
"Hey, guys. I'm back."
"UNYAAAH!" Blake yowled as he came up behind her.
"Dude, you look like a bus backed over you," Nora blinked as they got a good look at him. He was covered in in dirt and grass stains, his hair a mess, and there were foot prints and claw marks all over his clothes.
"No bus. Just lots of feral chickens. But hey, I got the thing!" he said holding up a golden apple.
"Is that the Apple of Discord?!" Pyrrha cried, backing away.
"No, just a regular Gold Apple," Jack said as his eyes honed in on it with laser focus. "Very rare, very… potent."
"I also found this."
"HYAAUUGH!" Ruby and Jaune squealed as they leapt up from their punishment spot, landing in Weiss and Pyrrha's arms respectively as Vincent held a Cucco by the neck.
A cuckoo with gold feathers!
"A-A Golden Cucco?!" Jack gawped. "How in the literal hell did you kill one of those?!"
"Oh, I accidentally landed on him back at the orchard. I felt so guilty I carried him back."
" . . . What?" Yang blinked after a moment, the golden poultry's head lolling bonelessly.
"Hm?" Vincent blinked, ever the picture of innocence + ignorance.
" . . . Let's just cook some damn chicken…" Jack grumbled as he rubbed his face.
*NEW WORLD*
"Good heavens! Is that what I think it is?!" Tonio Trussardi gasped as he beheld the Golden Cucco that Vincent had inadvertently slain, all the other Ingredients completely forgotten.
"Sure looks like it. And that guy's Food Luck must be through the roof if he survived a Cucco stampede and killed the golden hen," Jack said jerking his chin in Vincent's direction, the teen cleaning his face with a warm towel.
"I'll say…" Tonio hummed, eyes never leaving the glittering bird laid on the counter before him. "No ordinary oil is good-enough for such a prize. We'll have to use Mors Oil."
"Mors Oil? What's that?" Ruby blinked.
"A nutrient-rich water where the Shining Gourami lives. Because it holds all the nutrients of the Mors Mountain Range, its constitution is more like oil, and is composed of unsaturated fats and oleic acids," Ren hummed academically.
"You actually have some?!" Weiss asked incredulously. "Even my father can barely get a hold of any!"
"I helped the 'Oil King' Wabutora through a nasty hangover a while back, so he got me some in exchange," Tonio answered as he went over to a cabinet, revealing a locked safe with a complicated series of digital and biometric locks. The climate-controlled box coming open several seconds later, the man drew out a canister filled with a glittering golden liquid that sloshed like oil but shone in the light.
"You have any Platinum Wheat to go with it?" Jack inquired.
"Ah, if we're going all-out for poultry of this caliber, we should also use White-Haired Cinderella Milk and Ten Yolk Egg."
*Sniff*Sniff* "Is that Melk Stardust I smell?"
"I can't understand a word of what they're saying…" Jaune deadpanned as Jack and Tonio went back-and-forth about Ingredients that might as well have been McGuffins for fantasy game fetch quests.
"You aren't the only one…" Ruby deadpanned as she looked off to the side, watching as some of Tonio's own students plucked and gutted the Cuccos, leaving the golden bird untouched.
"Excuse me, Vincent," Pyrrha spoke up. "Whatever happened to that Golden Apple? I don't see it on the counter anywhere."
" . . . "
*Past*
"Vincent. That apple you have there," Jack said after pulling Vincent aside upon their return to Beacon.
"Yes?"
"It's very important that I get that apple to someone who really needs it."
"Sure. Here you go."
"I'm willing to pay a large sum for-… What?"
"All yours," the white-haired teen repeated, Jack looking down at his hand to see that Vincent had already placed the Golden Apple in his grasp.
"What's the Catch-21?"
"I don't know what that is, but you said someone really needs it, right?"
Jack nodded.
"Well there you go," Vincent shrugged. "You wouldn't ask me to hand it over if it weren't important."
"And you aren't even going to take my money?" Jack blinked. "Because after fleecing these suckers so many times, I'm pretty liquid."
"Nah, I'm good."
*Present*
"I donated it to a good cause."
"Oh, I see…" Pyrrha blinked, wondering what he could've meant by that.
While Vincent was effectively an open book, hiding nothing, his openness counterintuitively made him impossible to read.
She was beginning to understand certain people's infuriation with the guy, and she herself could understand why such enigmas made others wary. "The Fool" in ancient, classical, and modern literature always represented a tactical chaos bomb that could completely upend the narrative flow of whatever work they were in. Scholars argued what came first; the Plot Twist, or The Fool.
Elsewhile, off to the side…
"Blake."
"Hm?" Blake blinked as her surrogate brother stepped away from Tonio and pulled her aside.
"You picked a good man for yourself. Never let him go."
"Wh-What's that supposed to mean?!" the closet Faunus blushed all the way to the tips of her ears.
All four of them, by the by.
"All of you get cleaned up," Jack said turning his attention to the others. "I'm not letting poultry this fine be eaten by a bunch of smelly bums."
"Wow, way to rub it in…" Jaune deadpanned, having soaked through his clothing in what Nora affectionately called 'fear sweats'.
Not that she wasn't wrong, but it was the principle of the thing!
"Tonio, you and your students get started on the prep-work, but don't touch that poultry until I get back."
"There's a shower down the hall for cooking-related emergencies. Just look for the sign."
*NEW WORLD*
Given the emergency shower only stood for one, Teams RWBY, JNPR, and Bullet & Francesca all returned to the HIT dormitories to use either the private or communal showers; Ruby, Blake, Nora, and Pyrrha chose to use their ensuites, while Weiss, Yang, Jaune, and Ren took to the communal showers for their respective genders.
"Rushia, Marin, mind if we join you?" Yang asked as she and Weiss followed the two of them out of their room.
"It's your school. You can do whatever you want," Rushia shrugged.
The four young ladies swiftly disrobed, and even from behind, Rushia's beauty couldn't be denied. When Marin's bandages came off, their idle curiosity was both satisfied and piqued further as they saw that the long tally mark-shaped scars did in fact go all the way down to her wrists and ankles.
"So… just gonna come out and ask… What's with the scars?" Yang asked flat-out.
"Carbon steel."
"That answers… none of my questions…"
"Boron nitride."
"That just raises even more questions!" Weiss cried as Marin talked around her finger as she tugged the corner of her mouth aside.
The four of them had the showers to themselves, Weiss sharing her product with Rushia while Yang shared hers with Marin. After several minutes, the girl-talk started.
"So… You and Jack, huh?" Yang groused.
"Jack and I, yes," Rushia said as she cleaned her hair.
"We know quite a bit about him ourselves, you know," Weiss hummed.
"I figured you two were his main squeeze," Rushia nodded.
"So what drew you to him if you weren't interested in other men?" Yang asked.
" . . . I hate myself," Rushia said suddenly as she looked up into the showerhead. "Maybe that's why Jack and I get along so well; because deep down he hates himself too. Heh. The two of us're a match made in hell~" she chuckled self-deprecatingly. "And he probably sees his unborn sister in every girl he's in a position to nurture but isn't romantically interested in," she hummed reaching over and ruffling Marin's hair. "Ruby and Blake couldn't ask for a better brother figure."
"Jack and Blake actually are kid siblings, from way back," Yang nodded. "Found out from his uncle that their moms knew one another back in the day."
"The kabuki guy?" Marin blinked.
"Yes, him," Weiss nodded.
" . . . "
" . . . "
" . . . "
"There's something else I wanna ask you," Yang said breaking the silence.
"Oh?" Rushia blinked.
"What'd you mean by 'damaged merchandise'? Because from behind you looked pretty damn good, and I doubt you were talking about the thing with the midget and the cannibal and the briefcase."
"The cannibal was the midget," Weiss corrected.
"Oh, you know what I mean," Yang pouted.
"You sure you want to know?" Rushia said as something glinted in her eye.
"Don't do it," Marin chimed in. "I'm warning ya, don't do it."
"How bad could it be? We already saw Jack's naked body," Yang said as she left her stall and walked around to Rushia's.
The silver-haired woman turning to face her full frontal, Yang's lilac eyes went wide and the color bled from her face. Her legs giving out from under her, eyes transfixed, wide and terrified, Weiss abandoned her stall and took a knee beside her. The heiress' eyes panning before Yang could stop her, the color drained from her face as well.
"I tried to warn ya," Marin said as Rushia stood before the two schoolgirls in all her naked glory, and from there, Rushia told them the entire, sordid affair.
How her dad was the president of a big company and owned a mansion. How she was a spoiled young lady. How one day, on her way home from school she was dragged into a car by six men and imprisoned in an abandoned building on the outskirts of the city. How after that she lost track of time and even after the sun set, they continued to violate her in every way imaginable. All of her private parts, over and over again, until she couldn't think or feel anything anymore.
And then came the body bag. The first body bag. How from that day on, every day she shot the bag. How every time she hit it the bag twitched. How it stopped moving after about 5 or 6 shots. And in the meantime, of course, they continued to rape her.
How the Huntsmen and Police finally came the day after she finished shooting her seventh bag. How the criminals had already fled, and that she was the only one left, desperately clutching a Beretta in her hand. How it took three grown men, all Hunters, to pull the gun from her frozen grip.
Then came the opening of the bags. How the forensics team found her sister, father, mother, her classmates Emi and Rumi, the boy from class she had a crush on, and even her dog Jerry.
How the thought that her captors were never caught and lived on committing crimes, and how she could never forgive them, made her decide to kill them all. How she quit being human. How if she was going to go to Hell anyway, she might as well drag as many evil bastards as she could down with her. How she did what she did to increase the number of criminals she encountered, all on the fleeting, chance hope that she'd cross paths with the evil bastards who defiled her in every sense of the word. All so that she could do to them what she was made to do to her family and loved ones.
The worst part was the story about the scars. How the rapists did it to her right before they escaped, that she scratched herself even more and screwed in the crucifix that belonged to her mother. The mother she'd shot with her own right hand. How she'd add more scratches every time she killed someone.
From there the story actually got a bit better; though it didn't stop the two of them from crawling out of the showers and into the nearest toilet stalls before emptying the contents of their stomachs.
After "Jack the Ripper" and "Bullet & Francesca" steamrolled dozens of guys and double-teamed the quote/unquote "criminal mastermind" who thought it was a good idea to try and set them up against one another without an intermediary, drinks were had, Marin passed out, and Jack and Rushia did not. Clothes came away, and when they saw the others' naked glory for the first time, libidos quelled, and stories were swapped. After all that, Jack claimed Rushia's flesh, and Rushia indulged in his, and the rest, as was said, was history.
"So, you know. The usual 'Boy Meets Girl' story. Like in all the movies," Rushia shrugged nonchalantly as Yang and Weiss continued to upend the contents of their stomachs, even as they came up dry.
"I think you broke them," Marin chimed in, a towel wrapped around her slender frame while Yang and Weiss were heedless of their nudity.
"Eh, it builds character," Rushia shrugged.
"That is hardly… what I would call it…!" Weiss said as she finished dry heaving.
While Yang was hit by that story in the sense that her imagination filled in Ruby taking Rushia's place in a totally-fucked-up "What If…?", for Weiss it hit much closer to home.
She'd actually heard of what happened to the Ishikawas in Mistral, back when she was still living in Atlas. Not all of the gory details, and the story had definitely mutated and warped as it crossed international borders. She just never would've guessed that the Rushia before her was the very same one from all the stories. Rushia's father hadn't been nearly as liquid as the Schnees were, but if they'd been given a generation or two, they could've climbed up to similar standing, had the entire family tree not been so-rudely uprooted. And it went without saying that abductions and what came after were the nightmare of every rich heiress, even before that particular story spread.
"At least you girls are finally ripping the bandage off. Maybe we'll cross paths someday if we ever set the same scumbag in our sights," Rushia said as she began to towel herself off.
"Yang…"
"Yes, Weiss?"
"People are fucked up."
"You don't have to tell me twice."
"I'd rather not have been told once."
"I did warn you," Marin chided as she concealed her long tally-mark scars with bandages, which in of themselves were purely decorative.
*Elsewhile…*
"Jaune."
"Yeah, Ren?"
"Good job."
"Oh… Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
They weren't completely copacetic. Not yet.
But… Jaune setting his morals and his ego aside for the good of the Team… was an excellent start.
*NEW WORLD*
"Yikes, what happened to you guys?" Ruby asked as Team RWBY met up in front of their dorm, the W and Y in their ranks pale-faced and shrunken in on themselves.
"Oh… you know…" Yang gurgled out.
"Just learning a very harsh life-lesson…" Weiss stated more eloquently.
"Is this one of those 'boob envy' things?" Ruby asked as she eyed Weiss' slender frame, Rushia's hourglass curves, and then Weiss' again.
"…yes. This is exactly one of those things," Weiss deadpanned with a strained smile.
"I don't see what you have to be ashamed of. I think you have a very lovely body~" Rushia chuckled.
"Don't test me," the heiress said back.
"Yikes, what happened to you guys?" Nora said bluntly as she and Pyrrha stepped out of their room, fresh as daisies while Jaune and Ren came out of the communal showers.
*NEW WORLD*
While Tonio Trussardi was a world-renowned gourmet chef with Eight Stars to his name and a degree in molecular gastronomy, Jack Braxton's own doctorate in poultry science made their collaborative efforts more-even than one would assume. The two exchanged dialogue like men of equal standing, giving one another advice on the proceedings, until it was time to move to their own tasks.
Tonio Trussardi plucked, deboned, and butchered the Golden Cucco in a lightning flash, Jack preparing the Ten Yolk Egg in a lightning flash of his own before using an array of spices to season the Platinum Wheat, an extremely high-end form of the foodstuff used in only the finest breading in the culinary world. Even the non-Faunus in the room could tell that the Ingredients being prepared were extremely potent.
While Tonio tended to the Mors Oil, which according to Ren had a Capture Level exceeding 80 and thus had no fixed price tag on the commercial market, Jack in turn directed his efforts at the more-mundane Cucco. Though the herbs and spices used upon them weren't nearly as-extravagant as what their golden sibling were receiving, the sheer attention to detail he directed towards them had those that were hungry for fried chicken salivating all over themselves.
And it didn't help that Cuccos were at least twice the size of ordinary chickens, with the Golden Cucco being even larger still.
As for Tonio's students, they made short work of the forest vegetables and fruit that had been brought back, including a bucket-full of black truffles that in of themselves would've cost a pretty penny.
The sheer dynamism of the prep-work and cooking kept everyone enthralled. That and the scent of the food for the gaggle of hungry teenagers.
"I still can't believe what I'm seeing… even when I'm looking at it with my own eyes…" Weiss said in awe as Tonio laid the Golden Cucco strips and pieces into the oil one after the other. As the Platinum Wheat-based batter turned an iridescent golden brown and the pieces were draw out, the Mors Oil retained its clarity as though nothing had been cooked in it at all.
"That's why Mors Oil is so valued," Ren hummed. "You can use it over and over again. The trick is not losing any."
"Jack's chicken smells good too, you know," Yang hummed as Jack went to work with the fryer.
Compared to the sound of the Golden Cucco meat in the Mors Oil, which was like a classical orchestra, the mundane Cucco meat frying in equally-mundane oil was like the rattling of a garage rock band. And not a particularly good one, either. But even still, Jack's fried chicken had a charm all its own that couldn't be denied.
"Must be that doctorate at work," Ruby hummed. She was more of a cookies & milk kinda girl, but now she could understand why some people obsessed over a good bucket of fried chicken.
"Whooooo! Fried chicken party!" Nora whooped excitedly.
*NEW WORLD*
"Bon Appetit/Here's your chicken," Tonio and Jack said in tandem as the last of the foodstuffs were laid down.
Spread across multiple plates and laid atop paper were Fried Cucco made with various cuts of the bird from wings to breasts to legs and even cut into strips. Next to those and anathema to Nora were large stacks of waffles, glass cups of heated syrup, and a litany of forest berries in nearby serving bowls. Various forest vegetables were either steamed, grilled, or fried tempura-style, with black truffle gravy as something expensive to smother it all in for those not too keen on eating vegetables at a fried chicken party. Adding another sweet kick were caramel apple slices, apple ring pancakes, apple turnovers, baked apples, apple slices shaped like little bunnies, and even just regular apples with a lovely polish.
And finally, at the head of the table and glittering like a pile of gold coins inside a pirate's chest of booty, was the Golden Cucco fried in Mors Oil with a batter made with Platinum Wheat, Melk Stardust, and a litany of other herbs and spices that Jack and Tonio collaborated on.
"To think I would have the chance to work with Golden Cucco," Tonio said, he and his students wiping tears from their eyes.
"Waffles… The source of all evil… EEEEVIIIIIL!" Nora bellowed dramatically like a geriatric old man in a mermaid costume.
"I mean, 'chicken & waffles' does go together better than 'chicken and pancakes'."
"You shut your whore mouth!" Nora shouted Yang's way.
"Geez, this is one big chicken leg…" Jaune said grabbing one of the mundane fried legs with serving tongs, easily as big as a leg of mutton.
"The fresh forest apples are a welcomed addition," Weiss nodded appreciatively.
"And then we have the mainliner…" Pyrrha hummed as she and everyone else's attention turned back to the Golden Cucco and its lovely crust.
"Let's eat!" Ruby beamed before Yang slapped a hand over her mouth.
"I think someone else should have the first bite," Blake chastised before turning her attention to Vincent, the teen glancing side to side before pointing at himself with a tilt of his head.
"Yes, you, doofus," Yang chuckled.
"Well, I feel like we should all eat together… Although I'll grab myself that lovely looking breast in the center first."
"You hear that, Blake? He knows how to handle-"
"Yang, quiet," Blake huffed as Team RWBBY, JNPR, Bullet & Francesca, and Tonio and his chosen students all grabbed pieces and tenders of the rare bird.
"With thanks to all the Ingredients in this world, let's eat," Vincent hummed somberly, and then bit down into his breast, the others following suit. A conga line of *crunch*es filling the air, almost an instant later all of their backs arched.
"Oh! The outside is deliciously browned and crispy!" Pyrrha awed.
"It's like a lightly coated rice cracker with several layers…" Ren hummed thoughtfully.
"My body is brimming with power!" Yang said flexing her arms, veins throbbing against biceps.
"The meat is silver! I've never seen the like!" Weiss gasped as she looked down at her wing.
*SHRIIIIIP!*
"AUUUUGH!" Yang cried as her clothing began to tear away, her muscles growing three sizes that day. "What the hell is this?!"
"Wha…?! Yang, what happened to your body?!" Ruby cried as Yang's rippling muscles almost flung her from her seat, the blond draping an arm across her chest.
"Did you get taller?" Nora blinked as the busty brawler literally towered over everyone else, even while sitting down. Her muscles had grown so large it looked like she was smuggling watermelons in her shoulders.
"Hmmm… I guess Golden Cucco is an Ingredient that's compatible with you," Tonio hummed before taking a turkey-sized hand and reading her palm. "Hm, yes, it seems as though your Gourmet Cells have been activated. Congratulations."
"Is this always what happens…!?" Weiss gasped incredulously as veins throbbed powerfully through Yang's skin.
"Don't worry, Yang. The swelling will go down. Eventually," Jack hummed as he grabbed another tablecloth before draping it over her shoulders.
"Hey… Blake…?" Vincent gulped, the closet cat-girl looking over, her eyes going wide as he began turning transparent. "I… I feel funny…"
"Vincent! Vincent, what's happening to you?!" Blake cried as she held him in her arms as he continued to fade.
"Oh my gosh! He's being aborted from time! Just like that old gypsy woman SAID!" Nora gasped bombastically.
"Vincent! Vincent don't leave me!" Blake pleaded, only for the young man in her arms to vanish completely.
"He's… he's gone…!" Ruby gasped.
"No he isn't," Jack hummed.
"What?" everyone blinked.
"He's still there. We just can't see him."
"Yes… *sniff* He'll always live on… Right here…" Blake sniffed as she put a hand to her chest.
"No, I mean he's literally still there, but we literally can't see him," Jack deadpanned as he tossed a cloth napkin through the air, which landed atop an invisible person's head.
" . . . I'm sorry what?" Jaune blinked.
"Ah, I see… His Gourmet Cells must have also been activated, only instead of massive muscular growth, his Mirror Neurons have been super-charged," Tonio hummed thoughtfully; a pose ruined by the crumbs on his face.
"And how does that translate into 'invisibility'?" Rushia deadpanned.
"Perhaps he's 'assimilating' the background?" one of Tonio's students groused.
"That sounds completely ridiculous," the silver-haired woman deadpanned.
"Gourmet Cells by their very nature are 'ridiculous'," Tonio deadpanned.
"I mean… He's not wrong," Jack hummed, while inwardly, he was thinking about how Vincent had become even more dangerous. Not the invisibility thing, there were plenty of workarounds for that; but if his Mirror Neurons were now being power-boosted by Gourmet Cells, stacked on top of his present ability to devour what he sees in front of him…
"Oh thank god! I wasn't aborted from time after all!" Vincent gasped as his opacity returned to him, Blake's face going redder and redder in proportion before she backed her seat away, walked over to a corner, sat down, rested her face in her hands, laid on her side, and sulked moodily while mewling in embarrassment.
*NEW WORLD*
"Hey, I just thought of something."
"Hm?" Jack hummed when Vincent broke the silence of everyone eating.
"Shouldn't we give some of this to Goldie? He did carry a few of us and our food through the woods."
"I thought Chocobo were vegan. You know, Gysahl Greens," Pyrrha hummed.
"That's just the domestic breed and to get rid of the musk. Wild Chocobo can eat just about anything and people don't mind the smell unless you own one," Jack shrugged before piling a little bit of everything onto a plate and leaping out a window.
"I kinda wanna watch," Nora hummed.
"Really? You wanna watch a giant bird eat smaller bird?" Yang deadpanned.
"Yang, I think there's something you don't understand about the world around you," Vincent said patting her on her watermelon-sized shoulder.
"Says the guy who doesn't understand anything about the world around him…" Yang muttered.
"Pretty much every miserable thing in this shitty fucking universe is fucked. And has been fucked since time began. We experience mere islands of decency in a great sea of what-the-fuckery," he lectured sagely, everyone's jaws dropping at what had just come out of the mild-mannered RA's mouth.
"That's also just like that old gypsy woman said!" Nora gasped.
"If Goldie decides to eat Cucco, it's because that's just another of those things about this universe that makes you go-"
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Jack's voice cried out from outside, a brilliant aura of silvery light shooting up into view before vanishing.
"Yes, exactly that," Vincent nodded, everyone staring at him and then at the window before rushing out of the room.
*NEW WORLD*
"What… What… What the fuck?!" Pyrrha gawped.
"My thoughts exactly…" Jaune deadpanned as everyone stared at Goldie, whose feathers had now turned a brilliant platinum white, sheer energy radiating off of the majestic creature and whipping their hair and clothes back, the Wild Chocobo's owner staring up at him with a slack-jawed expression on his face and an empty plate in his hands.
"Oh my, it looks like something on that plate caused his Gourmet Cells to awaken as well," Tonio hummed from the window that Jack had previously leapt from.
"Wait, animals can have Gourmet Cells too?" Yang blinked, her tablecloth wrapped around her uber-muscular body like a toga with a little help from Pyrrha.
"Uh, yeah! What do you think makes them so delicious?" Nora guffawed.
"Gourmet Cells aren't only to make animals more-delicious. More-powerful cells make it easier for animals to breed," Vincent said matter-of-factly.
"But if Gourmet Cells make animals more-delicious, what would make them take that gamble?" Pyrrha asked, both in awe and fear of the power radiating off the giant avian steed.
"Because it's their primary drive! The meaning of their very existence! They, all of us, are compelled to painfully fuck and reproduce in an unending cycle of misery!"
"But, humans-"
"Are the same!" Vincent said getting right in her face. "We too are merely vessels for our DNA. It drives us to strip naked and in sweaty howling, we give ourselves over to humiliation, heartbreak, and the pain of childbirth so that this little molecular overlord can see itself replicated, into infinityyy."
"Blake would be so red-faced if she were here to hear this," Ruby said with a blush of her own.
"What's gotten into him?" Weiss added. "No, seriously, what has gotten into him that'd make him act like this?"
"Some kind of allergic reaction?" Yang hummed.
The next moment the pressure Goldie was putting out abated, his platinum-colored plumage returned to gold, and the tension in the air evaporated as the loyal steed acted like nothing was wrong.
" . . . Well that was a thing…" Jack admitted as he regained his composure, rising to his feet in time for Goldie to bowl him over again and nuzzling his beak into his chest. "Yes, yes, I love you too, boy."
"So we're just gonna ignore the fact that Goldie has a 'Super Chocobo' transformation?" Jaune inquired.
"Yes."
"Yu-huh."
"That's what it looks like."
"Okay, just checking," the blond hummed.
*NEW WORLD*
Huh. This one went on for longer than I anticipated. Definitely been a while since I got into 10K+ Words (in one chapter) territory for this story.
Anywho, hope to see some Reviews, or some comments on my Discord, and I'll see you all next time on Vigorous Vitality!