Chapter V: Final Preparations
Yang, Nora, and Weiss were up in arms. Pyrrha's shriek had them ready to take on whatever invader had slipped under their noses.
They were in a Beacon dorm room not either of their previous rooms. To avoid any bad memories, they requested a new one. After careful consideration, read as 'without the slightest hesitation,' they accepted Ozpin's offer and were given the devil fruit. Once they heard Pyrrha was to be their team leader, the vote was easily made that she should be the one with the fruit; however, that did not mean she was prepared to take the drawback of it. They went to their new dorm and waited as Ozpin was setting up for their departure and while Pyrrha made her decision.
Now, three girls with weapons stood ready for a fight while Pyrrha covered herself in a blanket. "What's wrong? Who was it? Whose face is getting smashed?" Yang was quick to fire off the questions, looking rapidly left and right.
"Yeah, and we'll break their legs too!" One could imagine who added that.
The bump under the blankets shuddered. Pyrrha's voice was quiet, but noticeably shaken, "I-I'm fine, just l-leave me alone." That caused them to lower their guard a bit, but none left the side of the bed. Yang's and Weiss' eyes met before they both turned to Nora, silently asking the one previously on team JNPR with her if she knew anything. Nora dramatically shrugged, even moving her weapon so it almost seemed Magnhild shrugged too.
"Pyrrha, what's wrong?" Yang took the lead, stepping towards the bed.
Despite not being able to see them, Pyrrha clearly knew Yang was getting closer and shifted away. "Nothing's wrong, just leave me alone."
Yang grabbed the blanket. "Come on, something is clearly wrong. I've had to deal with Ruby saying the same thing all my life. Do you think I would believe something so obvious?" She yanked on the blanket as she said the last line.
"No!" Pyrrha yelled. "Don't look at me!" It was too late. They all saw it, and it was impossible for them to unsee something like that. Pyrrha's face no longer looked human. Her ears were longer, pointed, and stuck upwards; there was now a thin layer of red fur across her face and down her neck; the most obvious feature was the elongated snout she now had. It was like some horrible science experiment to mix a human with a horse.
"What the hell?" Yang breathed out, and the other two by her seemed to agree with her.
Pyrrha clutched her hands tightly, trying to find some comfort in the action. She turned away from them and spoke in the other direction, "It was the devil fruit. I decided to eat it and after trying to see what it did, I felt my face changing. When I got my scroll out to see myself, this is what I saw."
Needless to say, they all felt sorry for her. It was Weiss who tried to comfort her, "After professor Ozpin told us he did not have enough time to research what devil fruit that was, I decided to do some research myself. I learned that there are three types: paramicia, logia, and zoan. Logia fruits let the user become and summon an element of nature. Zoan fruits let the user gain powers of a certain animal. Paramicia fruits are any powers that do not fit in the former two.
"This seems to be a zoan fruit, and I would assume a horse one at that. From what I've read, you should be able to control how much or little you resemble the animal from your fruit. You should even be able to completely hide it."
Pyrrha sniffed, but nodded in understanding. "So I just need to work on controlling it?"
"From what I understand, it should be as simple as using a semblance."
Pyrrha frowned, but began trying to get herself to go back to being human once more.
Coco was in the midst of precisely folding her clothes when her teammates returned to their dorm. Pausing at the odd sight, they turned between each other, seeing if any of them knew what was going on. Not wanting to deal with her eccentricities, the two guys on the team pushed her partner forward.
Velvet whipped her head back to protest, but ultimately decided it was not worth the effort. "Uh, Coco? What exactly are you doing?" Velvet approached her, looking closer as if it would reveal some hidden sign.
"What does it look like? I'm packing."
Velvet was far from impressed. "I can see that, Coco. I have eyes. Why are you packing?"
"Well, I'm going to be leaving for quite some time, and I'll be cold and six feet under before leaving with just one outfit: so, I'm packing." She reached under Velvet, nudging her a bit to the side, as she grabbed a sweater, neatly folded it, and set it on the pile of clothes that was growing to a worrying size.
"It's not cold yet, why do you need a sweater?" Fox jumped in. Coco glared at him as if that did anything to answer him, and she returned to folding clothes. Being up close, Velvet was beginning to notice this was not just Coco's usual mountain of travel wear. This was every article of clothing she had at Beacon.
"Coco, how long will you be gone?"
Their leader sighed, setting down the jeans she had just folded into thirds. She pulled her glasses down in what would normally be a cocky manner, but her eyes said it was so Velvet could see past her shades. "Bunbun," the infuriating nickname did little to dispel the sudden tension, "I wanted to say this after I packed since I know you'll try and stop me."
Yatsuhashi and Fox shared a look. The former moved closer to the door, guarding it from escape, and Fox moved beside Velvet for support. He crossed his arms and put on a false bravado, "What did you do? Sounds like you're in trouble or something."
Coco didn't particularly deny the point. "Really, my target will be leaving, so there's no reason for me to stay at Beacon." In just a moment, the uneasy tension grew until it was suffocating. Yatsuhashi straightened his back and locked his position in front of the door. Fox did his best to form a human barricade as well while Velvet suddenly looked lost.
When Coco reached for her pile to return to packing, Velvet caught her wrist. Their eyes met. "Coco, what are you talking about? Your 'target?' What are you not telling us?" This was particularly what Coco wanted to avoid. She could deal with this all if she was already on her way out, but now it was slowing her preparations. She could always buy again what she was missing, and she knew she would be able to remember each and every item; however, the Grand Line had a knack for being overly expensive. Something about being filled with rich pirates.
Coco gently pulled her wrist away. "Bunbun, the truth is that the reason I came to Beacon was to be a spy." She heard a gasp to her side as Velvet took a step back.
Fox, who was facing her general direction, narrowed his eyes. "You're a — spy? Then do we really know you?"
Coco actually laughed at that. "Please, how could all of this be faked?" It was an interesting argument to say the least. It would be difficult to craft such a bold personality, but Yatsuhashi brought up a counterpoint.
"Such a unique facade would be easier to use than a nuanced one."
Coco rolled her eyes while pushing her glasses back in place. "Please, my job was to keep my eyes on a single person. Honestly, the worst part was how he overplayed the black with a tiny bit of green. On occasion it is fine, but wear the same damn emerald every day and you start to burn the eyes around you." Her prideful tone threw them off.
"Who were you watching?" Fox decided to ask what they were thinking.
Coco huffed, as if it was the most moronic question she could fathom. She halted packing, just to stare at him. Knowing he could not see her, she made up for it with sound so there was no chance he could mistake her demeanor. "Who, in all the halls of Beacon, wears nothing but ink black and emerald even in spring? The headmaster is who."
Velvet was growing impatient and spoke up about it, "Are you going to tell us what's going on, or do we need to force every bit from you one at a time?"
Coco seemed to have enough and caved to the request, "Fine, but listen up, I won't say it twice. Out on the Grand Line, there's a bunch of corruption in the marines. There's a group that's made up of those fed up with that and want to do something about it: the Revolutionary Army. In order to operate, they need to keep track of important figures like Ozpin, so of course they would send in a spy. On the other hand, being one of them also means that I agree with the principles of being a huntress — go figure that someone wanting to stop corruption wants to help people. I never had to fake who I am, just not say who I was watching; however, now that Ozpin is going to the Grand Line, I have no reason to be here. So I'm leaving."
Her words washed over them, almost becoming meaningless as they struggled to follow along. It was Velvet who had done the best, being acutely aware of the talk surrounding a certain Cardin Winchester. Being able to look past the odd comments about the Grand Line and marines, one thing stood out to her above the rest. "Coco, that almost sounds something like the White Fang."
"Vel, the White Fang are terrorists. The Revolutionary Army is a group of freedom fighters that want the best for the world. The White Fang are bombing and attacking innocent people while the Revolutionary Army is stepping in when the governments and marines are the ones attacking innocent people. The only crime they have committed is not obeying the marines when they do horrible things. Well, they've done more than that, but it's the gist of it."
"And why are you part of it?" Velvet stood a bit taller, advancing once more. She was determined to get the entire picture if nothing else. If her team leader, her partner, her best friend, was going to just leave them, she needed to know why. "If it's no different from being a huntress, why are you choosing to go back to them over staying with us?"
"Because they need me. Take a look at this," Coco replied while pulling a photo from her cleavage. Velvet took it, scanning over the small square. It showed a scene with several soldiers standing in a line, saluting to someone off frame. They wore what she would have thought an outdated uniform: stark white shirts with blue neckerchiefs, matching white hats with blue trim, and blue pants.
"What have they done?" Velvet asked, trying to figure out what the picture was showing.
Coco scoffed in response. She returned to packing, but made sure to answer while she did, "They've committed a most heinous crime! Look at them right there and tell me that they aren't the most dastardly villains around!" Her words made Velvet search harder, but it seemed that Coco was not actually waiting for her to find anything. She finished with a triumphant, "Look at those uniforms! They've committed a crime against fashion, and I cannot let that stand!"
"Jaune!" They had little time to recover between their worry for his safety being nothing more than ill-tasting fruit and watching him sink into stone. Cardin lunged to pull Jaune up, but his hands just crashed into the rock, as solid as it ever was. Ren stood up, thinking through the events while trying to come up with any plausible explanation. Blake had closed her eyes and was sifting through each narrative she had read and was trying to remember various devil fruit powers that there were. Ruby was in a full blown panic.
"W-what just happened?" Ruby asked the ground. She started slapping the spot Jaune fell into. "What just happened? Give me my friend back!"
Ren gently, but firmly, gripped the younger girl's shoulders and pulled her up. "Ruby, that won't help. We need to figure this out right now. Devil fruits can act oddly, but they usually aren't a danger to the user. In fact, we should be more worried about Jaune doing something to the town by accident."
"Like what?" She asked, almost hysterically. "Should we be worried the town will just sink?"
Blake faintly noticed their other crew member sprinting behind her. Not to them, but toward the pier where their bullhead was. She debated asking for help from a person she really did not trust, but by the time she glanced up, the pink and brown haired girl was already gone again. She sighed, deciding to address the trustworthy group and Cardin, "There weren't many devil fruits in my readings, and this doesn't really match any that I know of…"
After giving a review of devil fruit types, mostly for Ruby, they concluded it was some sort of paramecia — not that it narrowed down the list much. While discussing this, their mute crewmate sped past multiple times. While the others paid her no mind, feeling the situation with their captain was too dire to worry, Blake had to do her best not to whirl around at her.
After almost two minutes of frantic arguing, and Ruby nearing hyperventilation, they heard a large gasp and all turned to see Jaune's head surface from below. He was gulping down air and pulled the top of his torso out by placing his forearms flat on the ground and pushing. He looked, bizarrely, as if he had just surfaced from a pool. The fact that his body still seemed buoyant only added to the image.
He finally caught his breath and looked up at them. With the fatigue written on his face as he panted deeply, he looked as if he had survived a near death encounter. He informed them why. "I just learned how to swim."
"You don't know how to swim?" Of course Blake would be on his case for something so miniscule. It was almost as if she had forgotten their worry from moments ago. "What kind of pirate can't swim?"
"The kind who expected to eat a devil fruit and would never swim again." Jaune told her. He, with the help of Cardin, pulled himself out of the ground like it was water. During the act, he almost missed the pink and brown blur passing them all. Once his feet were mid-air, the ground stopped rippling and he touched down once more. This time, it was solid ground. That did little to stop him from staring at it like he would be swallowed whole any minute. "I'll need to get used to that. I almost drowned in stone."
"Um, guys?" Ruby piped up, "What is Neo doing?" They all turned to see the results of their pilot's labor. The bullhead they had flown in on now resembled more of a bucket than any other vehicle. Large scrap metal walls hastily thrown on, that somehow looked smooth and water tight, now lined the body in a circular fashion. There were rungs on the closest side forming a ladder that looked welded on. The wings were now crooked, dipping downwards, and had large paddle-like windmills attached to them. Most impressive was that the bowing wood under the contraption had not given in yet.
"How?" Blake asked for the group.
Neo smiled happily and pointed behind them. If any one of them expected some semblance of an answer, they were sorely disappointed. There was no explanation, but rather they were met with the sight of an angry mob. One of the tool merchants from farther inland had even moved shop and was selling torches and pitchforks to the growing crowd. Blake, ever the voice of question, as there was no reason with Neo, asked for the group once more, "What did you do?" The accusations from the townsfolk did little to answer their questions.
"My plumbing is non-existent now!"
"How am I supposed to get to work?"
"We're in financial ruin!"
"The trout population will be affected by this."
"The cheese!" One very passionate soul, leading the mob, called out, "Why the cheese?"
Ruby temporarily stole Blake's job. "Cheese?" Then it all happened, each event like a domino in line: Neo dropped and dead-sprinted at the bucket, the mob charged, the rest fled too, and poor the pier was no match for the bucket and the crew. The wood shattered, splinters flew with splashing water, and the windmills kicked in. Neo had already made it to the front and was now piloting them across the water. Their heavy anchor of a solid metal aircraft was cruising the waves with ease.
"Should I even question anything at this point?" Ruby asked. "I felt like I was starting to understand the whole pirate thing, and now this? I don't think I can follow along anymore."
Blake suddenly gripped her arm tightly in fear. She pointed with a shaking finger and Ruby's eyes widened in horror. The whole crew, even Neo who should have been paying attention despite there being no laws about texting and sailing in open waters, turned to stare at the target of Blake's finger: Jaune Arc. They waited for the moment to come. It was bound to be any second. They waited. And they waited. And they waited.
"Guys, I think I actually feel fine."
"Don't say that!" Blake hissed at him. "That's what people always say before the worst happens!"
Jaune shook his head, "No, I actually feel fine. Something about it being water is actually — soothing?"
It was Ren who figured it out. "Have boats been an issue in the past?" Jaune nodded. "You said you had to swim with your devil fruit? Maybe your fruit compensated for water and you won't get motion sickness on the sea anymore?"
Everyone sat with bated breath, Jaune included. In fact, their captain was the first to release it and relax when he realized Ren must be right. His crew soon followed. Cardin reacted the least, having only sat up taller before relaxing back in his seat. Ruby had almost passed out, already holding her breath for the stench, and let herself fall back onto the floor when all seemed well.
"Thank the brothers." Jaune groaned, palming his forehead. "Can you imagine sailing with something as bad as that? It would almost be as bad as having an always drunk captain or a crewmember that was afraid of the water."
The dark cloth and paint he had bought were forgotten, tossed hastily to the side in their new ship.
"I wish the fact he is perpetually intoxicated while on a vessel would make it easier to locate them." Winter vented to Clover, though it was mostly to herself. Clover was far more intrigued by the two Mistralian students they had picked up. It was quite entertaining watching the blue haired one avoid the windows of the airship like the devil, and the blond try unlicensed, brute force exposure therapy.
"He's got bad luck and I've got good luck. Shouldn't that make him easier to find?" Clover questioned her while not once turning to face her. He was content watching navy blue and sandy blond swirl around the front area of their ship. In truth he was only returning the gesture as Winter was positioned at the front and had not turned from her aerial vigil.
Finally deciding enough torture was enough, Clover lifted the blond boy by his collar and sat him down in one of the chairs the boys were supposed to be in the entire time. Sun considered using the fact that his shirt was open to slip out, but thought twice about testing the Atlasian specialist. Neptune got away with cowering under a small staircase that separated two levels in the room. He spread himself out to look relaxed as if he was intending to be cool.
With them situated, Clover tried to press the odd circumstances once more. "Tell me again why we're flying two students not from Atlas, in a minimally manned airship, off to a semi-charted part of the sea I've never heard of — oh, and while you stare at the waves the entire time?" Winter was as tight-lipped as the previous thousand times he had asked. All he was informed was that the General was traveling separately with Ozpin and would meet them there. When questioned about the sudden changes in traveling arrangements, Clover had received an elegant and verbose 'because I said so.' With even now revealing little more, he was growing irritated. Though for a specialist like him, there was a severe difference between being irritated by a lack of information and taking a single step out of line.
Instead of pushing his fellow specialist, who seemed content to speak only when it was ill of a certain drunkard, any further, he sat down next to the only one of their special guests in an actual seat. The only interesting fact a quick glance over gave him was that this Mistralian student was wearing a very Vacuan style. He was on the verge of forming a deeper analysis when he glanced at the boy's expression, down to his abs, and back to his face. He decided to just be blunt.
"Do you have any idea why you're with us?"
Sun, with all the intellect it took to be a captain, shrugged. "They wouldn't believe we were just here for the Vytal festival, so we admitted we were going to the Grand Line to become marines." Clover tapped his chin in thought, giving the roguish looking boy another study. He gave a non-committal hum in response.
"So you, along with your ocean-phobic —"
"Aquaphobic." Sun interrupted. "It's all water."
"Right." Clover sighed and reset himself. "So you, along with your aquaphobic friend, were heading out to the Grand Line to become marines. Yeah, I believe that without a shadow of a doubt. I can tell just by looking at you."
"Stop antagonizing them." Winter came to Sun's rescue, though he hardly looked as though he needed one. Neptune would have desperately clung to one earlier. "Ozpin wants them out here, and General Ironwood agrees. We should not question their orders. Also, we will be approaching Reverse Mountain soon. If you remember the report, we are searching for an unauthorized bullhead in this general area."
"The only report I received is that we will be meeting the general—not when, not where, not how, nor why. Simply that it will happen."
Winter had been all but motionless for the majority of the flight, but Clover noticed the subtle way her posture stiffened at his admonishment. She turned about face, as formal as would be expected from a private to the general himself, and stared at him down.
Now at attention, Winter Schnee declared, "Specialist Clover, we are under a direct mission from General Ironwood." How often did they receive a mission from anyone else? Even if it went through their council, their orders only ever came from one source. "We have a report of an unauthorized bullhead in this locale. Our mission is to search for it and keep an eye out for a suspicious sea vessel before rendezvousing with General Ironwood regardless of success."
"How does this involve the two kids?"
Winter turned back to her search. "That is all." Clover sighed, wondering what exactly was up with her today.
Qrow, Port, and Junior were huddled together and marching through the Emerald Forest. They took what was a tiring task for Beacon students — it was not that daunting to students if they held their initiation there, even in the safer area — in stride like a casual stroll. The sheer amount of grimm present was enough to at least exhaust the resident students, but Port alone was often called to cull the forest of the beasts for fresh faces every year. Their concern leaned more towards their cloaks. After all, three men, two of which were currently being searched for on high priority, walking onto school grounds while obscuring themselves did nothing to arouse suspicion.
"Is it a good idea to get this close to school grounds?" Junior questioned his captain, but his tone of voice said that he knew his worry meant little to the man. Qrow's laugh, not at all attempting to be quiet, showed how he felt.
"Oz and Jimmy won't even be here right now. If they are, they won't be focussed on us. Relax and keep your eyes peeled — there is one person who will notice us, but it's exactly who we want to find us."
Port would have joined their conversation, but he was busy making stories to be told. He had already swung a beowolf by the tail so hard into another beowolf that it had killed both. The man was quite intent on finding actions to top that. Junior gave up on trying to convince their captain. Of their entire crew, Onyx Feather Qrow and Port the Legend were not known for their common sense. Especially the former, and he was the one in charge.
They were still marching toward school grounds when Qrow suddenly stopped. He held his hands up and his companions halted. There was a thud as an ursa Port had been dragging along dropped: it was time to be serious. They all waited, familiar enough with her entrance to know what to expect.
Junior was the target. He simply raised his hands as cold steel materialized against his throat. Plum was scary sometimes, but he was ever glad she was on their side.
Miltia and Melanie stood side by side, staring at the letter Junior had left them. It simply read 'I really couldn't care less about the club right now. I have a government to fight through piracy. Good luck.'
They could both feel their eyes twitching, but Melanie spoke for both of them. "What the fuck?"
AN:
Poor Pyrrha, not everyone can get a devil fruit they're proud of. It also would never lead to anything terrible…Also, more obscure characters for Qrow's crew.
Part of the reason I chose to go with this devil fruit was a sort of strong-arming to avoid his motion sickness…It would be way too annoying to write about a pirate who gets an upset stomach inbetween each stop.
Then there's Coco…I love the story line I have laid out for her. It's mostly in the background, so it won't be too prominent or often until later on, but I'm excited to see it to fruition.
Anyways, next chapter: To the Grand Line!
