Chapter XXIV: Dance Off!
The shot from the dial clipped past his shoulder, but his aura took the hit. Jaune knew that if he kept this up though, he would run out of aura soon enough. Dipping below the surface, he surged forward and launched his attacker against a tree. Another came after him from behind, but he dropped into the surface entirely before he could be struck. Blake joined in, flipping over the DJ she was fighting to kick over the one that flanked Jaune.
When the G.O.A.T. attacked, Wyper decided they couldn't waste time on him. With a portion of the Shandians left behind, enough that the rest couldn't be pursued, they kept going. The sun hadn't been up too long, but Jaune wasn't sure how much longer he could keep going. The DJs weren't particularly strong, but no one could keep fighting forever, not without rest.
Blake noticed him beginning to lag behind, and fell back herself to join him. After a few glances toward him, she made up her mind. Hooking an arm around him, she dragged him away from the fight. Jaune only got one more shot off before they left.
Satori was more of a challenge than they had initially expected. Ruby's speed could only carry her so far with lights flashing into her eyes. Not to mention, the man was surprisingly fast for a human ball. He moved loftily around and even seemed to be able to predict what they were about to do. He had called something like 'mantra,' but whatever it was, it gave him an edge they didn't have.
Ruby watched Ren get knocked back, protecting himself with Stormflower crossed in front of him, but the force of something in Satori's gloves was too much. He had some sort of weapon there, and Ruby was determined to disarm him. She used a slanted root like a ramp with her semblance to launch herself into the air. Pivoting mid-flight wasn't easy, but she needed to angle herself enough to attack his gloves.
A light flashed in her eyes, she felt a force hit her gut, and she was slammed back against a tree. All the while, that taunting disco music kept playing and the man kept laughing.
"We can't keep rushing in," Ren admonished after helping Ruby up. "We need some sort of plan."
Ruby grit her teeth. She knew he was right, but it was one thing to say it and another to follow through. Her mind raced through many possibilities and ideas, most of which led to nowhere fast. Then it clicked. "We need to get just one of those gloves off. If we can do that, I have a plan."
Oobleck stared at the letter incredulously before setting it back down onto his desk. They were claiming him, of all people, to be a poor headmaster. Did they not realize how hard he had fought tooth and nail for their academy to be at least functional. Well, they had gotten to that point at long last, but it seemed Vale had differing ideas. In all honesty, it shouldn't have been as much of a deal as it was. The council of Vale did not have authority in Beacon, something Ozpin had been quite fond of; however, it wasn't impossible to strongarm him through Vale's connection to the academy.
He stood and paced the room, which would look more frantic to one not used to the movements of those at Beacon. At the moment, they had only sent him a threat veiled as a complaint, but soon it could be much more. From the council's view, the options were simple: step down from his position as headmaster, or be forced to step down. However, Oobleck would not give up so easily. No; not when he had already invested so much into this academy. For years, he had worked as a professor, kindling the spirits of the next generation and guiding them on the path to becoming huntsmen. Now, he had spent restless nights, pushing himself beyond what any normal person should bear, and he had come out on the other side having success.
That begged the question of how it was he should fight this. Any other academic facility might cower beneath the might of the council, but Beacon was not like other academies. While it would be reckless for it to be at odds with Vale under normal circumstances, Beacon was a place of change and it was in the middle of one of its largest changes to date. That did not mean he could afford to be careless here. One wrong move and he might lose his support or enter a stalemate, and a war of attrition was not one Beacon could win. This required a balance of show and restraint.
Perhaps it might even be best to call in an ally for support.
"You're always so hasty," Blake muttered to Jaune, but it was more to herself. It wasn't as if the sleeping boy could hear her. "You're always jumping in without a plan, but you have a crew to think about now." She sighed. "I guess that just means your crew can help you. We're not exactly a normal pirate crew, are we?"
She hoped this corner of the jungle was secluded enough to give them some security. She had found a bay that was, for the most part, quiet. Settling just inland of it gave them the coverage from the canopy, but let her have a broad visual of the land across the cloudy waters. The thought of hunkering down for a bit made her want to catch some fish and grill them over a fire, but she didn't even know these cloud seas had any fish and a fire would send up smoke.
She settled for pulling a book out and reading. Back at Beacon, she had stowed the series with her before they left: her first act of piracy. Hopefully, it couldn't be traced back to them, not that it would matter much. An overdue book felt smaller in the grander scheme of things. In fact, such thoughts clouded her mind to the extent that reading felt pointless. Letting out a deep breath, she closed it and set it aside with her bag.
There was so much for her to think through, where did she even begin? There was her father, a kind and noble man who had done everything he could for her, and she returned the favor by leaving. She had never expected that the first time she called since, he would tell her that he was proud. He was proud of her for standing up for what she believed in and proud of her for becoming a pirate. How odd was that? Throughout her entire childhood, she grew up never knowing that her father had sailed the seas — these seas. It made her wonder if he had ever made it here before. Then there was the fact that her captain knew him. In such a crazy world where everything seemed to be branching out past what she could fathom, it made it all feel oddly small.
Then there was Adam. She had cared for him deeply, but she did what she felt was needed at that train. It hurt her more than she could express to do that; she wasn't even sure if he would survive it. Now she's learned that he helped not just a human, but one in their group. She might have taken a bit of her frustration out on Neptune, and she would have to apologize. Yet, it all spiraled back to the question of if she ever really knew Adam. She thought she knew him well, but if he had connections out here in the Grand Line, did she really?
Then, there was their dork of a captain. The one who made it all possible, really. Out of the blue, he went on and on about crazy things, and here they were. They were living through an adventure and, despite all the chaos, she was enjoying it. First, they went to a place she thought was only in stories, then they encountered non-grimm monsters that dwarfed their ship, and now they were on an island two skies high. She glanced again at Jaune, a peaceful expression over his face. It didn't quite have the missing element of her books yet, but her story was turning out alright so far.
She pulled her book back out and tried to go back to reading. It was easier now, though she didn't let herself get too dragged into it. She still needed to keep watch for Jaune.
It was more than just a few ruined buildings. Neptune stared in awe at the sight before him. Unlike the scattered structures they had seen before, this area was the remains of an ancient city half-sunken in the clouds. Neptune walked around the clouded roads, taking in the towering stones. Then something clicked in his mind. Quickly, his hand darted into his pocket and emerged with his scroll. Just because they had no internet here didn't mean he couldn't take pictures.
Off in the distance, Neo was zooming around like a kid given too much sugar. It was almost like she wasn't affected at all by the sleepless nights here. Along the way she managed to don some sort of explorer's hat that made her look like a movie character, but Neptune couldn't find himself to question it. If she had two, he might have taken one for himself.
The stones were all carved to be square-like in structure. Some were broken pillars while others looked like they might have been homes. There were platforms covered in ivy and moss, and on the far side was a giant structure: a pyramid.
Neptune found himself gravitating toward that side. It looked maybe three stories tall, and he felt smaller the closer he got to the base. There was a staircase leading up, one with narrow stairs that made him nervous with each step. If the atmosphere wasn't already thin enough, it was nearly suffocating when he finally reached the top.
From where he stood, he could see over the tops of the trees. In the distance, he swore that he could see flashes of light through the leaves, but they didn't seem to be partying at the moment. He turned to observe the rest of the room at the top. It was nearly empty with flat, stone walls, floor, and roof. There was, however, a small item on the ground in the very center. It was difficult to see with the lighting, and Neptune wasn't sure he wouldn't pass out any second now — being deprived of both sleep and oxygen at once was not a smart idea. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be an old, wooden box. It was tied closed with old vines that crumbled at his touch. The artwork and design didn't seem to match the architecture around him, but it did seem like it was just as old.
Neptune walked to the edge of the room and then carefully began opening the box. The last thing he remembered was the thin air and his tiredness getting the better of him before he plummeted forward down the pyramid stairs.
Ren twisted in the air away from Satori. Mid-air he fired a volley of shots, but the round man twisted out of the way in time. Ruby followed up behind, swinging wide with her scythe, but Satori angled his hand so that the tip struck his palm. The force flung her weapon back and she tumbled after it.
Ruby looked over to see conflicting emotions on Ren's usually stoic face. Then they faded as his semblance washed over himself. Without warning, Ren rushed in like they had before, but when Satori's palm angled toward him, Ren grabbed the man's arm and pulled it closer. Ren barely got a hold of his prize in time for him to sail away from one last strike of Satori's hidden weapons. Ruby watched as Ren crashed into a rock, his aura shattering from the hit.
Rushing over to him, Ruby checked to see if he was okay. He had passed out from the hit, but he was breathing and she didn't see any blood. What she did spot was an orange object gripped in Ren's hands.
"Oh hoh hoh! If you give up now, I might just let you go. Is all of this conflict really necessary? Let us have our parties in peace." Satori sang, still spinning and flashing lights everywhere.
Ruby ignored him, messing around with the item Ren had gotten. After a few moments, she stood up and began smashing the back of her scythe against the rocks and roots around her. Satori stopped momentarily to view the scene. It was a tad disappointing, but she was pretty young after all, despite her strength.
"No need to get so frustrated. You're the ones that came to our island uninvited. I'm letting you live if you go, so just go."
Ruby suddenly stopped. "I think that's enough," she mumbled to herself. She deepened her stance and angled herself at Satori, though she began holding her Scythe oddly, with one hand behind the blade. "You're the one not letting people sleep in peace, you big jerk! Take this!"
Ruby used her semblance to launch forward, and Satori danced back to avoid the strike. Then, there was a click and Satori realized what was missing from his hand: one of his gloves that held his impact dials. The dial behind Ruby's scythe activated, propelling the blade forward with a small shockwave and flashing off of Ruby's aura. Though the blade never touched Satori, a jet of air propelled off of the end, knocking him into a trunk.
As the dust settled, Ruby could see that her opponent was unconscious. Ruby limped over to Ren and did her best to drag him away from the area. She didn't want them near Satori if he happened to wake up for one reason or another. She didn't get very far with how exhausted she was and Ren being unable to help her. While she made a second trip for Ren's weapons, which had been left on the ground, she thought over the contraption she had just made.
The glove that she had used to tie the dial to Crescent Rose was shredded and barely holding them together. Also, in the future it wouldn't do for her to manually activate it. Her hand still trembled from being on the receiving end of such a powerful attack.
After getting back to Ren, she sat down by him and did her best to get some rest. Hopefully, the others would be fine with her taking a break after a fight like that. As she faded to sleep, she couldn't help but feel proud. Their enemy had been nothing like what they had faced before in Beacon, and yet she and Ren had overcome it together. The Skypieans would be sleeping well soon enough.
Usopp crossed his arms as he observed the other three people in the room with him. Two of them were students from Mistral and one was someone from the Grand Line. While the girl, Nami, looked to be similar in age to him, she didn't really make it sound like she was a student at all. "So, let me get this straight. You took money from the government? And they just let you go?"
Nami scoffed, as if he was belittling her achievements. Though, she was a bit delayed in her response from the difficulty she had understanding his fast speech. "They paid the money to me, and there was nothing wrong with that. It's not my fault that they decided it wasn't right that they gave me the money and wanted it back."
"So we have a criminal and a coffee addict," Sage muttered.
"Oi! Didn't you just hear? That was all legal!" Nami yelled at him.
"I'm not a coffee addict," Usopp insisted, sipping his caffeine. "It's all espresso."
"Right," Scarlet said, nodding as if it suddenly changed his mind. "Well, whatever the case, we're going to be on a team now. We'll need to get along."
As an effort to get Usopp on a team, find something productive for Nami to do, and repair Sage and Scarlet's team, there were efforts to put them together. The finality of it was in the air, especially with little response from Haven's headmaster, but they were promised that the specifics would be hammered out before the end of the Vytal Festival.
At the moment, they had all met up for the first time in their dorm. It didn't take long for Nami's story to be told, though Usopp was certain there was more to it than what she had admitted to.
Of everything Scarlet found himself thinking about, one thought never left his mind: their team name actually spelled out sun now — team SSUN.
If Neo had been just a bit faster, she would have been able to catch Neptune before he hit the ground. She did, however, get there in time to pull him out of the clouds he had sunken into. Since the pyramid was so steep, he managed to fall without hitting a single step along the way, and that let Neo feel better about finding it amusing how he had stuck into the clouds like a dart.
He was holding a box, which was intriguing, but she set it aside for the moment. Pulling him out was tougher than expected. She felt like she was prying a human-sized nail from wood with her bare hands. When he popped out, Neo stumbled a bit, but managed to catch herself. Neptune tumbled to the side, but that could be written off as his initial fall. Turning back, she noticed that there was still a hole there. Leaning over and looking through revealed that it seemed to go down at least another layer.
Well, that could wait for now. She dragged Neptune in a way that almost made it look like she was off to bury a body. However, when she got closer to the edge of the city, she spotted a figure almost waiting for them.
"So I did sense someone," he said, more to himself than to Neo. "I thought I sensed you passing, but I didn't see anything. Really, my eyes were just rolled into the back of my head." Neo blinked at him and shrugged. "Hold on, I have my snail pods in. Can you repeat that?" He asked, pulling a small snail from his ear. Neo just repeated her shrug. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to speak up."
Weiss had been eerily quiet ever since she talked with her sister. It was as if she had a new uneasy aura around her. Pyrrha tried to bring it up, but Weiss had simply forced a smile and assured her that everything was okay. Not wanting to pry further, the rest left her be.
Nora was pre-texting Ren on her bed. She knew he must not have service or something, so she was just typing out each of her texts to send him all at once. She was in the middle of a paragraph when Yang unceremoniously sat by her. Nora looked up and waited, but Yang seemed to be taking time to collect her thoughts. It was strange to see her this way, since Nora had always seen Yang so confident and sure of herself.
Shifting uncomfortably, Yang turned to look at Nora. "You still talk to them, right?" There was a length of silence, since Nora thought it was best to neither deny or confirm. At the same time, Weiss and Pyrrha began subtly listening in. Sitting up from her relaxed position, Nora waited for Yang to go on.
"It's just that no matter how mad I've gotten or how I've felt all this time, deep down I'm just a big sister worried about her little sister." Yang stared off into space as she continued. "When Ruby first joined Beacon, I was overjoyed. My little sister was getting to follow her dreams right alongside me. And yet, I was also terrified. She was two years behind everyone, and I was worried that she wasn't prepared."
Yang looked down at her hands. "I guess I was wrong. She's shown that she's more than capable of protecting herself now, so I should worry less. That would be logical right?" No one answered, and Yang shrugged to her own question. "The issue is I'm not always that logical. I still worry about her, and I want to make sure she's safe. So, I wanted to ask if you would see how she's doing the next time you talked to them."
Nora thought over her response for a bit. "As a marine, I shouldn't be talking to pirates." Before Yang could say anything, Nora continued, "But, if I happened to be talking to them, it might not slip my mind to ask about her."
Yang gave her a soft smile. "Thanks, Nora."
Cardin was pushing himself past his limits. Surely, he was dying the way his arms and legs felt like they were going to fall off at any moment. Sweat drenched him, and he had to gnash his teeth just to keep up. Unlike him, his opponent was swift and decisive. Each movement — every step — was calculated and executed with ease. It was like he was going up against a well oiled machine.
Far to his left lay his maces, discarded for the moment in favor of dexterity. Anything weighing him down would only bring him suffering in the end. And yet, he was still no match. Maybe his skills just weren't up to par, or maybe he was destined to fail. That mattered little to him though. When faced with the decision of conceding or carrying on, he would always stand back up. If he wanted to call himself part of the future pirate king's crew, he needed to be prepared to crawl through hell and back. This was nothing.
His legs burned as they moved,threatening to collapse at any moment. His breath had grown ragged and his heart was pounding in his ears. It was almost as though reality was slipping from his grasp with every passing moment, but he still hung on to it. He couldn't lose — not here.
"What's wrong? Are you getting tired already?" His opponent gloated to his right.
Cardin wanted to tell him to shove it, but his voice was gone by now. He almost thought that if he tried to speak, he might just vomit. Why was this so difficult? He had done these stupid dancing arcade games before, what was so different now? His feet moved across his square, trying to land on the smaller ones in sync with the screen, but it felt sloppy. When he started, it had felt mediocre at best, but now it was a lost cause. First he wobbled, then his balance left, and he began to collapse. That was when an arm caught him.
"Man, why do you look like shit?" Sun smirked down at him.
"Sh-shut up, Goldilocks. This guy is better than he looks." Sun turned to regard the man. Laying Cardin carefully by a root, he began stretching and walking over to the game's square.
"So all I have to do is outplay you in this game?"
"Don't think this will be easy," the man simply said. "I, Shura, am a master of Groove Groove Uprising. Don't believe that it will be a simple matter to best me!"
Instead of responding, Sun jumped onto the platform and waited for the next song to begin. The music began and so did Sun's feet. Like a flurry, they tapped over the squares in near perfect sync to the song. He even began free styling movements on top of the basic patterns, and on occasion he would use his tail just for the sake of style. All Cardin could do was leave it up to Sun, but he had faith.
AN:
I wrote this chapter in a single day. The DDR was something I was excited for, having planned it out a while back. I wanted so badly to get to it, but I knew it should be at the end of a chapter, so I just had to get through this one to get there.
Anyways, next chapter: Record Scratch
