Ho boy, here we go again with another chapter of Blind Huntsman. Let's get straight into the review responses.
Masso 2010: Hey now, who said there was going to be something bad about to happen? I could just as well make everything go perfectly well for everyone and lead into a happy ending for this arc… could is the key word there. I am not against writing some dark stuff for any of my stories, and I could very well do what you implied with Marron, but Idk, we'll just have to wait and see first. So far, what I meant by the Volume 3 thing is that I have a lot of plans up to that point, the story will continue after that of course, I just need to plan for the next three volumes.
Arctech: Thank you for placing me in those categories of your favorite stories! I write the best I can with the time that I have. Like this story for instance, I plan for it to be updated once a week, but end up updating it every 4-5 days or sao, with it rarely actually being a week.
SuperKaiokenGoku: That was the plan! I am glad it worked out well. That Omake was in my head since the chapter before last chapter, and I am glad it was enjoyable for you.
The Storm Master 567: I've acknowledged your question on what Kai's features and clothes look like, and if I haven't done it yet, I will PM you the details soon. I can also neither deny or confirm your little prediction about what could happen soon. We'll just have to see for ourselves.
AstralBound: Lol, now I've imagined a baby between Yang and Kai with nature powers and Yang's semblance put together. That's going to be a fun thought.
Thank you all for the reviews!
Poll results as of now:
Yang Xiao Long- 60
Ruby Rose- 60
Blake Belladonna- 24
Orchid Rosa- 23
Weiss Schnee- 23
Neo- 22
Pyrrha Nikos- 20
Damn, look at that. Things are getting heated with Poll now. Another tie.
And yes, this is the chapter where I originally planned to end the tournament and get to the Beacon arc, but alas, things changed. I don't know exactly when this arc will finish, but it will be soon. I can say that much. Thank you all for being patient.
The Blind Huntsman
Chapter 25- Volume 0, episode 23
Who would win in a fight? A Flamingo or a Dragon?
"-and now, let's give it up for Orchid Rosa! The… do I really have to read this? Yes? Okay. Ahem. The Beautiful and colorful Flamingo, who is the best friend, and only best friend of Kai Matsuoka's, also known as The Blind Huntsman."
Somewhere in the crowd, Kai facepalmed so hard it was going to leave a mark on his face when he moved his hand away. It didn't stop him from laughing though. It was something Orchid would somehow manage.
Somewhere else in the crowd, Nora Valkyrie pestered her own companion for not coming up with the idea himself, which earned her a silent treatment as a form of punishment.
"Who is also from Signal Academy! There, I read it, can you leave now?" The commentator asked someone else who was in the commentating booth with him, he sounded a little scared too.
"I love you sweetie! Good luck!" The next thing they knew Orchid's mom screamed into the mic next, which was quickly followed up by sounds of struggling and fighting before the audio cut out completely.
"I love you too mommy!" Orchid screamed at the top of her lungs as she ran out into the arena, her hands cupped over her mouth so that her voice could be amplified.
"While we look for a new commentator and make some repairs…" Headmaster Ozpin announced over a different, slightly quieter microphone. "I shall commentate in his absence, the match will begin in ten seconds. Both fighters must ready themselves for combat immediately."
Yang and Orchid got into their respective stances. Both in a offensive low stance. Orchid let her greatsword rest against the ground behind her, and was ready to spring off her feet to charge right into Yang, who was in a similar position, her fists aura infused and at the ready, her weapons loaded and her eyes still a calm lilac. Their aura percentages were on display on several different big screens, and one thing was for certain for all of their friends.
That stage was not going to be in one piece after this match was over. Probably is going to be a wreck when the match starts.
"Three, two, one… BEGIN!" Ozpin declared as if he were a referee of the bout.
As soon as he finished the word 'one', the two girls already managed to destroy a tile of the arena. Sending pieces and rubble flying behind them as they both kicked off of their back feet at the same time. They met in the middle in a clash that shine yellow and a hot pink color. When the shine receded it was seen that Yang's fist connected with the flat part of Orchids long blade. Orchid must have twisted her blade to use the flat part to block Yang's punch, she realized that at close range like this, with a large blade like the one she has, Yang had the advantage.
Which was why instead of buckling under the monstrous strength of her blonde opponent, she instead, twisted one half off of her greatsword off into a small longsword that trapped Yang's fist between it and the flat part of the second blade. It all happened in less than two seconds, and Yang's punch was fully nullified and redirected at no cost to the aura of Orchid and with the small cost of about a quarter of the percentage of Yang's aura, giving Orchid a .25% lead over her with her healthy one hundred percent aura level.
Yang twirled once before stopping with a short skid, and observed her opponent before her before she thought about charging right back in. Orchid was now dual wielding swords now, smaller, faster blades that could much more easily counter and defend against her fist based combat style. She smirked at the challenge, no matter how Orchid may act when they are in school and out of it, she was actually a genius when it came to fighting, at least when she kept herself under control.
Orchid was the one to attack next, not letting Yang have any more time to plan as she got into her personal space, twirling one of her swords into a reverse grip as she spun to the side at the last second, slicing away at air as Yang leaned back like she was playing a game of limbo to dodge the attack at the last second. When Orchid landed on her front foot, she used her momentum to twist back to face her current enemy, and sprung herself off back in Yang's direction, twirling her sword back into a orthodox grip as she slapped her two swords back together into a greatsword and slashed downward at Yang, who blocked the powerful overhead attack with both of her forearms mashed together. She felt the pain in her muscles and her bones shake from the sheer intensity of the strike, but it only made her stronger.
With a grunt Yang pushed Orchid back up into the air, in which she recovered by flipping and landing on her feet, transforming her greatsword back into it's dual sword form as she prepared to defend against the already up close and personal Yang Xiao Long. She barely blocked a liver blow with the flat of one her blades, but wasn't fast enough to block the second fist that drove itself underneath her ribcage. Making blow out some spittle and the air in her lungs as she was rocked back into the air a few inches.
Instead of trying to slow down her backwards momentum, she stabbed her right sword into the stone and used that to redirect her whole body up into the air. It looked so flamboyant and elegant that it looked like she simply flew into that position, and Yang certainly wasn't expecting such a move. Orchid flipped on top of her sword, using her left foot to balance herself as she used the back of her left handed sword to slash at the back of Yang's head, she used the dull side as a simple kindness to not cut up her friends hair, however that didn't make it hurt any less as Yang was knocked off balance and tripped over herself.
She recovered easily by firing off one of her Ember Celica gauntlets to halt her forward momentum and blast her back up to her feet. She cocked them again and fired off two flaming flares at Orchid, who had to jump off of the handle of her sword in order to dodge them both, she landed a small distance away from her second sword which was still stabbed into the ground, and before she could make to go grab it, Yang fired off her gauntlets again, this time from behind her so that she could propel herself forward to take advantage of the half-disarmed Orchid, who groaned in frustration as she was forced even further away from her second sword. She was right handed as well, so she was forced to use her offhanded sword as her primary source of defense and offense. Which didn't bode well against Yang mostly ambidextrous kind of fighting with both of her fists, with the occasional kicks thrown into the mix.
Orchid did her best to defend herself, but with just one offhanded sword she wasn't able to do a whole lot against Yang's relentless assault. She unfortunately ended up the victim of a combo, first a liver blow, then a body blow to buckle her over, and then a right hook straight into her face, blowing aside some of her hair as she flew into the air horizontally for about twenty feet to the left.
She managed to keep hold of her sword, and pushed herself up from the ground while holding her side, that whole attack hurt, but her aura held up well. Orchid doesn't have any worries about anything so far, for she has an idea just for a situation like this.
She trembled for a second, and out of her left breast pocket came out a pair of magenta colored glasses, which were placed on her face. She assumed a fencing stance, similar in the way Weiss Schnee fought earlier in. This personality, was left handed.
Yang recognized this personality as `Nerdy Orchid`, and she didn't know that Orchid could use her different personalities to fight with. She was confused with the way that the longsword was held out like a rapier, but didn't think much of it as she ran towards her. She would see for herself how this personality of Orchid would hold up against her barrage of fists.
Nerdy Orchid held out her sword eye level, her right hand rested on her lower back and she exhaled as Yang's punch got closer to her body. In a flash, she parried Yang's fist by her gauntlet, driving it to the side and making three quick stabbing motions toward Yang's knee, hip, and then chest. Before using her leg to kick her in her midriff to both kick herself away from Yang and also pushing Yang away from her, giving her the distance she desired in one fluid movement.
Nerdy Orchid smirked and adjusted her glasses, the lens shone in the spotlight that was placed around her. "I'm afraid you'll be finding this style of combat frustratingly unbreakable." Nerdy Orchid said as she held her longsword out like a fencing sword, one of her knees bent slightly and with her right hand now resting on her hip as she awaits for Yang to make the first move again.
"Oh that is just cheating!" Yang complained as she realized just how many more personalities and combat styles Orchid has at her disposal. She had to be ready for more, but for now. She had to find a way to get close to this completely different style of combat. The main question however was; How many more styles of combat does Orchid have at her disposal?
/-/
"I-Is that...?" Weiss didn't finish her question, but she didn't need to for Winter to understand what she wanted to say.
"Yes Weiss, I do believe that style of combat is very similar to your fencing style of combat." Winter said as she held a hand up to her chin. The girl's weapon was similar to her own, except that this… Flamingo person seems to have two separated slightly curved longswords instead of two thinner and lighter swords that she had. For someone this girls age to have this many styles of combat was very impressive, and also nearly impossible. It took years of training and experience to master even one style of combat, yet this young lady has an impressive amount of skill for the two styles of combat she has. Unless… it was her semblance. "I am intrigued in this particular match, I hope you will take some mental notes Weiss, she would have proven quite the formidable foe if you were up against her instead of Kai Matsuoka."
Weiss winced under the harshness of her older sister, but also understood the lesson she was trying to teach her. "I… I understand Winter, I shall observe, and learn whatever I can from her."
"You will also call father like he requested for you to do so over an hour ago." Winter added.
Weiss winced again and averted her eyes to the ground, already not looking forward to that talk. "Yes… Winter."
"Ooo, Weiss is in trouble." Whitley childishly accused her.
He learned to keep his mouth shut straight after.
/-/
Back to the fight, Yang is now faced with a difficult decision; Attack her head on, or use what she was taught by her father and uncle? It was difficult indeed, since she now has a lot of power stored up from the amount of times this Nerdy glasses version of Orchid has countered her attacks while taking little to no damage to herself. Even when presented the opportunity, she didn't even go after her second one handed sword. Though, at the pace they were going at now, she wouldn't need it.
Wait… that's it!
Yang roared and punched her fists together, her golden blonde hair busting out into pale yellows flames, her eyes going red and Orchid wasn't able to keep up with her enhanced speed and strength, and wasn't able to perfectly parry her next punch which drove itself into her hip.
If Yang wasn't going to be able to outskill her in this personality, then she'll just have to overpower her! She made the mistake of giving her a lot of power to play with, and Orchid is just now realizing her own mistake. Ironic that the intelligent version of Orchid Rosa managed to make the mistake of charging up Yang's semblance with her strong counter attacks and kicks. While she may have been up on aura by a much wider margin than before. The gap was quickly closing.
"So much for an unbreakable defense." Yang taunted as she continued her assault.
Taking that hit to her side not only knocked her off balance and threw her into the center of the ring, and even farther from her secondary sword, but it also seemed to have literally knocked her out of that specific personality. With a tremble, Orchid removed her glasses and stuck them back into her breast pocket. She then changed the grip of her left-handed sword back into a reverse one, and slashed upwards at the already close Yang, barely grazing her on her right shoulder, but enough to make her miss her mark by a tiny inch. She attacked again by thrusting her knee up into Orchid's midriff, which she took but spun along with the offending momentum and as she made a three-sixty maneuver she cut along Yang's chest, before landing into a wide low stance with one of her hands resting on the ground.
"あなたは強い反対者です、続けましょう." (You are a strong adversary, let us continue.) This new Orchid personality which has never appeared before spoke in a language unrecognizable and never before heard of to Yang's ears.
"What the hell was that!?" Yang questioned as she rose her fists up in defense, and successfully managed to block the now curved blade with one of her gauntlets, and then thrusting her other fist forward in an attempt to counter. Samurai Orchid dodge it by a mere centimeter, her hair being blown back by the sheer force of her punch. She flipped backwards to gain some distance, but Yang anticipated this and fired a shot in the general direction of where she would land.
"たわごと!" (Shit!) Samurai Orchid widened her eyes and tried to slice the flare in two, and to her credit she did. Only for it to explode right after her blade cut through it, blowing her back several meters and sending her into a skid as she tried to slow herself down by stabbing her sword into the ground. Taking damage changed her personalities again, and with yet another tremble. Orchid grinned psychotically and dashed with great speed toward her other weapon. Dodging the follow up explosions and ripping her sword out of the ground, using the rocks that followed with it as makeshift return fire by throwing it toward Yang, who easily took the attack without so much as wincing. It only added more fuel to her semblance.
"HAHAHA! NOW YOU'RE GOING TO GET IT!" Pretty much psychotic Orchid gripped both of swords and attached them back together, reforming it's greatsword state. She grinned when she pressed down on a button to add a slight curve to her own weapon, much like she did with one of the other swords while she was still in her samurai personality. Her now curved greatsword was dragged up from behind her, and met with Yang's semblance empowered fist, causing a shockwave around them as both attacks met in the middle.
Yang grinned just was wide as this maniacal Orchid did, and with the two of them roaring and pouring there aura into their respective attacks. Yang's overwhelming strength came out on top. Her opponents knees buckling under the strain and her weapon forced to the side, she once again took the next hit into her shoulder this time. She spun to her right to avoid being hit in the face or body, and minimise the damage as much as she could. Orchid didn't go flying this time, and instead simply skid back a few feet. Her feet dug into the stone as she forced herself to come to a stop, and with her long weapon she swung it across her body when Yang least expected it. She thought that Orchid was going to fly back much farther, and thus wasn't prepared for the greatsword to cleave into her side and knock her away to the side.
Both girls were panting heavily as they recovered from that exchange, and all the energy they put out throughout the whole fight is finally catching up to them, Yang exhausted the power she got from her semblance, and was now tuckered out, but with little less than half her aura, she was more than ready to keep going. Orchid on the other hand, was not back in her base personality, down on one knee with her sword arm resting the heavy weapon on the ground. It has felt like hours to them, but really it has only been four minutes of straight fighting so far. A wide range of skill down to a berserker kind of fight, and all the fun stuff in between.
Orchid smirked, despite being slightly below on aura, she still had one more trick on her sleeve. Her semblance.
"I still got one more trick Yang! Think you can handle it?" Orchid said as she stood up, her greatsword held with both hands in a neutral simple position.
"Oh please, I can handle anything you throw at me!" Yang proclaimed, standing up straighter and preparing herself for another round within the round.
Orchid smirked, and closed her eyes. Letting out a soft exhale as she concentrated and allowed her semblance to apply itself. Her magenta colored hair glowed dimly as she concentrated, the symbol of an orchid flower appearing beneath her as she focused every drop of aura she had left into this ability she rarely uses.
In a light blue flash, another Orchid appeared, with the same exact look but this time with a light blue color pallet. Even her eyes and hair color changed to blue, and a pair of glasses were on her face. She smirked and held her left handed sword out in a fencing position. "We meet again, this time I will not be caught off guard." This Nerdy Orchid claimed as she prepared herself to attack.
Before she could, a dark red flash appeared next, and another Orchid appeared. This time with a different wild hairstyle, and like her other clone, all color of her features and clothing turned red. "AHAHA! I'VE COME BACK FOR YOU!" This maniacal Orchid screamed as she broke her greatsword apart into two different lighter swords.
Yang widened her eyes as a third one appeared, this one being green with the same tradition as her other clones. This one held a curved sword in her left hand in a backhand grip, and crouched down into a low wide stance, her right hand pressed onto the ground. "私はこの戦場に戻って私たちの戦いを終えました、しかし今回は私は一人ではありません。" (I've returned to this battlefield to finish our battle, this time however, I am not alone.) This projection, dubbed Samurai Orchid said as she bowed her head slightly in respect toward Yang.
That projections stopped there, and the original Orchid was still in deep concentration, standing behind them all with her eyes clenched shut and her greatsword still held out as she concentrated with all of her might. On the aura screen, her aura was draining rapidly, in the next minute or so she will be below the critical point, and would lose the match.
"Attack!" Orchid ordered, and the red and blue projections of her fired forward, with the green one hanging back to defend the actual Orchid as she concentrated on keeping her semblance active.
Her mother named this semblance `Mood clone`, for reasons that Yang is figuring out right now. She is able to create real life versions of herself, and with the many personalities she has in her head, she can transfer to those clones. Each have their own fighting style, and the main three are categorized as Nerdy Orchid, Angry Orchid, and Samurai Orchid. She honestly doesn't know what the latter is saying every time she speaks, but she pretends to. She can only create three at a time, and she has to keep still and concentrate in order to keep her semblance active and the aura projections alive. She can stop this at any time, and can see through their eyes as they fight, in this case. She is keeping shared vision with the Samurai Orchid active.
"Now this is just cheating!" Yang complained as she was immediately put on the defensive as the red projection of rage attacked her wildly while cackling creepily. Constantly harassing her as the lighter blue and more intelligent clone of Nerdy Orchid looked for an opening, finding it when Yang turned her back to her for barely a second.
"Argh!" Yang cried out as she felt a weaker but not any less painful attack pierce into her side, her aura flaring to protect her body from said attack. She wasn't able to counter as the enraged red one forced her to block taking another attack against her other sides. Letting the one who hit her get away. She groaned her frustration as she realized that she was in trouble and was losing aura rapidly. She wasn't nearly as fast or as strong as she was in the beginning of the match, her semblance took a lot of stamina out of her and just as her father warned her many times before this point, her semblance was a great fallback, but she shouldn't use it just for the sake of it. She was learning that painful lesson now as the red Orchid landed one of her strikes across her shoulder.
This particular mood clone of Orchid flickered a bit straight after, and almost went out completely. Yang noticed this and widened her eyes in realization. She glanced toward where the actual Orchid was left stationary back near the center of the arena, sweating profusely as her aura drained rapidly. This was taking as much out of her as Yang was losing. At this rate, they might even be forced to leave it to a decision by some judges. She didn't want it to lead to that.
With a wince, she tanked the next hit from the Nerdy Orchid, and activated what little power she had managed to gain from the relentless assault. She batted away the psychotic Orchid, and ducked under the blade of the Nerdy Orchid, kicking her away before firing her gauntlets off behind her to propel herself toward the concentrating real Orchid. The green Samurai Orchid moved to get into her path, but right before they were about to engage in combat, she disappeared completely.
Yang widened her eyes in shock as the real Orchid, hair and body slick with sweat, bursted in from behind the disappearing Samurai Orchid. Her greatsword thrusted forward already and it being much too late for Yang to react in time to form some kind of defense. The tip of the large blade jabbed itself into Yang's midriff, and dealt the last amount of damage that she needed.
Once the bell rang to signify the end of the match, Orchid looked up to the aura gauge.
Yang was below ten percent, the critical point of which the match needs to end.
She had 8.53% left.
Orchid was also below ten percent, she had…
8.67% left.
"YES!" Orchid cheered, falling onto her knees and throwing her fists up into the air, letting her greatsword fall to the side and loved the sound of her own name more than ever when the headmaster of Beacon declared her the victor. She then stood up and rand over to Yang, who was keeled over and on one knee as she recovered from that last attack. She cracked one eye open and looked up when she heard someone run up to her, Orchid smiled happily and offered her hand out to help her up.
With a chuckle, Yang gripped her hand, and let the multi personality girl help her up. They then shared a hug together in the center of the ring which only made the audience applaud even louder. They both turned around and waved back to the crowds, both content with the way the match ended.
"Your semblance is bullshit." Yang said with a straight cheerful face, but meant nothing negative behind it.
"Says the one who gets stronger by taking damage." Orchid winked as she shot back her retort.
"Heh, touché." Yang said with a shrug.
The two girls walked together shoulder to shoulder back to the same waiting room, closer than they ever have been before.
"Woah! Did you see that!?" Ruby asked Kai as she patted him on the back of his shoulder from over the seat above him, her silver eyes wide with excitement. She barely even regarded the fact that her sister lost.
Kai simply sighed and shook his head. He tried his best to focus his senses out into the center of the ring, and to a small minor degree, it worked. He just couldn't tell who was who, and really couldn't tell who was who when Orchid used her semblance in the match.
"It was an exciting fight." Kai said instead of pointing out the fact that he is still actually blind and couldn't see the entire time.
"Hell yeah it was!" Shae agreed. "I didn't know your partner could be so awesome! Why didn't she do any of that back in school?"
"I am flattered by the faith you have in me to know everything about how Orchid functions." Kai said with a small roll of his eyes, reaching a hand up to scratch an itch behind his ear.
"Don't you?"
If Kai could use his eyes, he would have blankly stared at Shae, as if that would answer her question on it's own. "Shae, do you know Orchid?" He asked instead, answering her question with his own, rhetorical question.
"...Fair point."
Kai nodded to himself, satisfied with her reaction. He did know Orchid well, perhaps even the one who knows her best except for her mother. She was a lot of things, her personalities made up both of them, so far, he has managed to become friends with about… seven of them? It's hard to count them, but he likes to think that he at least has the majority vote from within his partners complicated mind. He remembers the first time he met the version of Orchid she calls `The Samurai`, he is still trying to figure out what language that one uses, it wasn't any he has ever heard.
The fight was one he was conflicted on to root for, Orchid is his partner, his best friend, the first one outside of his family that he has willingly showed his eyes to. But Yang was also his best friend, he lived with her so he saw her every day, along with her came Ruby, an adorable girl that looks up to him already. In the end, he ended up rooting for both of them, he couldn't see what was going on, of course, but with the cheering and gasp from those around him he could tell when one was winning over the other.
"That's some partner you got there." Malikai commented, the first words besides `Oh my God she's pregnant` he has said in the past hour. "She has a very unique way of fighting that I have never seen before, multiple different fighting styles to go with her personalities… very unique." He would never admit it, but Malikai was one of those kinds who would always analyze things relating to combat very thoroughly, Marron liked to tease him about it in their younger days.
"That's Orchid for ya," Kai smiled. "Always the kind to surprise you when you least expect it." He didn't want to admit it, but he actually didn't know she could do something like that. He knew that her attitude changes along with her personalities, that was something she was popular for. The only question he has left in his mind is why she has never done that before when she had plenty of opportunities to do so before the tournament.
"I wanna go congratulate them." Ruby pleaded with her father. "Pleeeease, I've been stuck up here for hours."
"You've been stuck up her for one match," Taiyang corrected with a roll of his eyes. "but sure, I don't see why not." He said as he stood up, Ruby happily ignoring the first part of that sentence as she skipped on beside him. "We'll be back- oh, it's you." Tai cut himself off, eye to eye with a tattooed woman standing in front of him, multiple packs of candy and a gummy worm hanging out of the corner of her mouth.
"What's that supposed to mean dickhead?" Vernal asked, her ice blue eyes narrowing as she swallowed the rest of her candy, and then without even looking away from him she let Ruby take a pack of chocolate chip cookies and proceed to rip it open and munch away at them.
"It means that we are happy to see you again." Malikai joined in before a fierce glaring contest can happen. Tai was let into the know of the presence of Malikai and his new apprentice, along with the news of Raven playing her little games with the two of them. He has no reason to dislike Vernal, but he can't help but feel a little irritated around her just by association with the woman who left him with their daughter all those years ago. "Where have you been?"
"Yes, where have you been Vernal?" Marron echoed before Vernal could answer him. "What a coincidence for you to disappear suddenly right after we find a room full of Kai and his friends passed out drunk."
"Actually, I was right in front of you for a few minutes during Kai's match against the Schnee girl." Vernal pointed out as she reached into her bag of goodies, and let Tai and Ruby stroll past her. "So you had the chance to ask me that before."
Marron resisted the urge to slap the shit-eating-grin off of her, but refrained from doing so. "So… let us address that Goliath in the room shall we?" Marron leaned forward. "Did you buy my son and his friends alcohol for them to drink?"
"Yep."
Marron's eyebrow twitched and her fingers clenched around the armrests so tightly that they cracked from the strain of a mother's anger. She was barely able to calm down even when Malikai tried to get her to by placing a hand atop of hers, whispering to her to think of their unborn child whom she is already convinced is a girl.
With one last deep breath, she spoke what kind words she was able to get out.
"Thank you for your honesty."
"Eh, want a snickers?" Vernal asked as she tossed a bar of chocolate at her, which was caught with the use of her tail. "Heard it was good for a bitchy mood."
Marron lunged for the throat, only for Malikai to catch her by wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her away. It would have been a short fight if Marron actually managed to get her hands on Vernal, and it would have ended up with him kicking the shit out of Vernal, and he didn't feel like he was in the mood for any of that today. "Vernal- Marron stop!- I am going to have to ask you to not buy our son drinks again." He paused for a second. "Or any of his friends, or any minors in general for that matter." He added as an afterthought.
Vernal rolled her eyes and sat down in a random open seat, thankfully out of range of Marron's grasp. "Whatever, you Matsuoka's aren't any fun." She said as she took a fistful of gummy worms out of her goodie bag and stuffed them in her mouth, chewing disgustingly as she enjoyed that taste of her new favorite snack.
Kai shook his head, amused with the antics of his family and his new maiden friend. He wasn't that bothered by the way she was eating in truth, if anything he was just surprised that someone like her would have liked candy. But knowing her past and with her relationship with Raven she probably hasn't had the time to eat candy that much. If this is the first time that she is eating something like that, then by all means he was going to let her enjoy it.
But he couldn't shake this suspicious thought he had in the back of his mind.
"Where'd you get all that anyway?" Kai asked, genuinely curious. He had the feeling that she didn't get it from anywhere legal.
"Stole it from a few kids who were looking at me funny, do you want some?"
Ah, that was why he had that feeling…
"...Sure." Kai said as he held his hand out just in time for a piece of candy to land in it.
"Adam, I really don't think we should be doing this." Blake said for the umpteenth time as they blended in with the crowd. Adam wore large black sunglasses to hide the upper half of his face, and a long jet black coat that hung down to behind his knees, keeping his weapon concealed. While Blake simply wore a black hoodie to hide most of her distinctive features much like her companion is doing with a dark blue beanie over his head to hide his horns. Thanks to someone on the inside, they were able to just stroll right in without being checked. Though even if they were, they could have claimed to be huntsman wanting to see the tournament, and if that didn't work, they could have easily snuck in on their own.
"This is the only time we will be doing this, after this, there is no way we can be ignored. The world will finally see the faunus for what we really are. People who demand equality." Adam said to her without looking back, keeping his gaze transfixed on their intended meetup spot.
"I want the faunus to gain the equality just as much as you… but isn't this going a little far?" Blake asked, her voice barely above a whisper as she gripped Adam's hand to get his attention. He stopped and looked back at her, his mouth set into a thin line.
"We can't hope to gain the respect we so deserve if we are not willing to fight for it, you know that my love. Sienna ordered this herself." Adam said in a softer voice, his fingers wrapping around her hand. "If there were another way… I would have gladly taken it." This was a rare moment of warmth coming from the bull faunus. Gradually, Blake has noticed that Adam has been getting more violent, and unhinged. He has taken more lives with the excuse that he is doing it for the sake of faunus kind. No matter how much she cared for him, she can't ignore that the path he is going on now will only lead him into darkness. Something like this though? A plan to terrorize the entire stadium with a promise that no one will actually be hurt? It sounded too good to be true, and it didn't help that the White Fang have surprisingly called upon aid from an outside source. She didn't trust them at all, but if Adam says that this will make great progress to their main goal...
Blake sighed, and agreed with a reluctant nod of her head, letting Adam lead them along. He let go of her hand as they grew near to their destination, and she grew comfortable enough to take down her hood to reveal a pair of black ears set in a mop of black hair, and to place on her White Fang mask to hide her identity as was requested by her parents, she hated their guts at the moment, but was willing to go the extra mile for them in this case. Adam took off his sunglasses to reveal a black blindfold wrapped around his face, before his usual White Fang mask was taken out and placed on his face.
Their contact looked at them with her golden multicolored eyes, her smirk dangerous and thin. Much like the patience she has for them.
"Ah, the guests of honor have finally arrived." Cinder greeted, not sounding like she was happy to see them at all.
"Come, we have much to discuss."
Huh, I feel like this chapter is a lot longer than it really is. Some things happened this chapter, some didn't, I don't know if you guys like that Orchid won the fight or not, but hey. At least you found out what her semblance was finally! The title for this chapter was really hard to come up with, so I just went with what I had up there. There's so many characters for me to keep up with in this arc of the story, and thankfully the roster is going to shorten down considerably once this arc is over. And no, that isn't what you think it means.
Also, I have finally picked myself up a Beta! You got anything you wanna say bud?
I now check, and fix stuff too, not much else to say really, just know that now chapters will have my seal of approval. -Crowskull
The man of few words has spoken!
Omake: Summer babysits baby Kai
"Thank you for this again Summer, I can't thank you enough." Malikai said as stopped at the doorway to her house. "With this mission I'm about to go on and Marron working hard to save up money for our child, we really needed a babysitter.
"It's fine! Tai is going on a mission too, but I'm going to be free all week!" A pregnant Summer smiled widely as she rocked a sleeping Kai in her arms. "I'm sure Yang is going to love to have someone else to play with!"
"Hah… yeah. Good luck with that." Malikai muttered that last part under his breath.
"What was that?"
"Nothing! Thanks again!" Malikai shut the door before Summer could open her mouth again, she tilted her head in confusion before looking down at the growing baby in her arms.
"Your daddy thinks you're a trouble maker doesn't he?" Summer gushed as she poked baby Kai's cheek, his eyes twitching underneath a white cloth that wrapped around his eyes. He simply whined in response, waking up from his nap. "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't know you were sleeping." She apologized as she rushed off to grab a baby bottle full with warm milk.
Kai rejected the bottle with a wince, he seemed to be looking around for a few seconds, before his tail reached up and looked for the face of the one who is holding him. Summer moved her face so that Kai could pat his tail against her face, she giggled as she felt tickled by the fur on his tail.
Baby Kai screamed like a banshee not a second later, his tail flailing around wildly as he tried to crawl out of Summers grip on him.
"Ah! No! Kai, don't you recognize me!?" Summer cried as she struggled to keep hold of the baby without hurting him. Kai only screamed louder as he managed to kick his foot up into her nose.
Summer cried out and held her nose with one hand, which gave Kai the opportunity to jump out of her arms, landing on the ground with a scary sound that made Summer's heart drop.
She then widened her eyes when she saw a flare of silver aura flow around Kai, and him crawling around at a faster speed then any baby really had to right to. He bumped into things and crawled around in a circle. It took a few seconds for Summer to realize through her shock that she just dropped a baby and now it was crawling around bumping into things.
"Why does a baby have aura!?" Summer yelled as she chased the baby, but out of pure luck, Kai managed to slip out of her hands every time.
Yang was screaming upstairs, Kai was screaming downstairs, Summer was screaming trying to catch Kai, things were being knocked over, and his milk was getting cold.
Half an hour later, she finally managed to catch Kai by his tail, which only made things worse in terms of how badly her ears were ringing, but at least now she was able to give him his drink.
She held him down on the table with one hand, and stuck that tip of the bottle into his mouth. He seemed to calm down instantly as the milk poured into his mouth. He stopped struggling and happily drank away at the bottle of milk. Summer let out a loud sigh of exhaustion as she sat in the seat beside him, letting the baby drink away for about a minute before taking the bottle away from him. He didn't even fight back as Summer scooped him up in her arms again, and rocked him until he burped.
Was this what she was going to have to deal with when her child was born? If so, she was going to have to get used to mom thing fast.
"Sahmur?" Baby Kai asked with a simple word, the nickname he has given her the first time they met after Raven finally let him go to her.
Summer widened her silver eyes and smiled widely, he finally recognized her!
He then filled up his diaper not a second later, the stench of such a disaster making her face go pale.
Kai then giggled happily as his tail brushed up against her face again.
"I poo." He said like he did something really commendable.
"I love you too Kai." Summer said with a tear in her eye as she started to change his diaper.
I gotta say, this is one of my funnier ones I think. Summer and baby Kai's second meeting, was quite the eventful one to say the least.
Please review and let me know what you think of the story so far!
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