Oblivious IJ: *Bashes head against wall* So... close.
NeoNazo356: Yes, well, I always could take the "easy way out" and write Jaune out of the story entirely, but that just feels lazy. Also, even if it's misplaced, with how "unfocussed" RWBY has become, even if no-one on RoosterTeeth knows about this story, I want to at least state that Jaune's arc (pun not intended) can be concluded in a satisfying fashion, as opposed to the Canon where it was left as a "loose end" that never got tied up.
Plus, if I can actually inspire writers to treat Jaune as anything other than a "flawless Messianic figure" for use in Power Fantasy or Wish Fulfillment-type stories, all the better.
TM11: Hm, not exactly what I was expecting. I still think Jaune got off lightly. I mean, yeah, he came clean, good for him. However, that doesn't change the fact that he lied, that he took away the opportunity to go to Beacon from another person and put in danger the peopel that that person would go on to save. It doesn't matter if his intentions were good or not, that he lied and caused all that trouble is still a problem. He should really be punished, and I mean really punished. I also don't like Ozpin's cavalier atittude to Jaune faking his way into Beacon, that speaks of favouritism and and bad administration.
What I'm trying to say is that, had it been me, I would have sent Jaune back home and brought him back for next year when he could pass the exams on his own skill. That's me, though. This is your story, so you do what you think is best. I didn't really like how this went as of right now, but I still like this story, so I'll keep reading it.
Keep up the good work.
NeoNazo356: Well, I always strive to be a bit unexpected. Keep things fresh.
As for Jaune "getting off lightly", believe me, he won't. Unlike in the Canon where this whole hot mess gets swept under the rug (I suspect by "lazy writing"), in the Fanon, people will actually remember and follow up on this; like in this chapter for one. Ren has suspected and will definitely remember this sleight, as will Weiss since Canonically she was always under the assumption he'd earned his way into Beacon, despite his complete and utter ineptitude; the very reason why if this came to light in the Canon, Weiss would never become romantically involved with him. Blake, Yang, and Nora are largely nonplussed by this development, but Ruby feels somewhat betrayed, but not to the extent of Weiss. Jack actually respects Jaune, if-only in the sense that he came clean about something so-humiliating; he still dislikes Jaune, but that dislike has now developed a half-life. Like weapons-grade Uranium-237 isotope.
Oh, and you can't discount the student body's reaction to this. Beacon is lauded up as a prestigious school, so of course this incident is going to cause a scandal. Especially amongst those who worked their asses off to get where Jaune lied his way into.
Suffice it to say, he will be punished, and the faculty won't even have to lift a finger.
As for Ozpin's "cavalier attitude", Canonically, he inducted Ruby into Beacon 2 years early, explicitly because of her Uncle (Qrow) who then-presently was a faithful agent of his agenda. For Jaune, at least in the Fanon, it was because he came from a prestigious family, and because Ozpin, during his time as Ozma, saw a bit of his earliest self in Jaune; the diamond-in-the-rough, crude and unpolished, but a little effort and that bitch can shine. Seriously, it would only take "one phonecall" to where Jaune claimed to have gone to school, for his entire charade to fall apart. All that being said, since Ozpin admits to making so many mistakes, and has continued to make more and more mistakes from that point in the Fanon, at the very least he admits he makes mistakes; even if he does absolutely nothing to compensate for those mistakes.
It's rather obvious that in the Canon, Ozpin planned on eventually using Ruby to replace Summer in his ranks of "secret police", especially after Raven went AWOL after learning the truth. The difference is that in this Fanon, with someone astute and world-wise like Jack around, he can't risk doing something so-transparent, so he's trying to win Jack over to his side first with the only currency that really matters; political favors. In fact Jack himself states that having the most-influential man in Beacon owe him a favor or two is worth a little legwork, so at the very least they'll be able to meet in the middle, and since Jack was a literal "battle slave" (ala Jack Rakan (Negima) or Yondu (Marvel Cinematic Universe)), Ozpin knows to tread carefully with him.
I hope that this lengthy explanation is satisfying, and look forward to continued, detailed Reviews in the future, because these are an utter joy to reply to; it shows that readers really care about events that happen in the story, and that it isn't simply being "consumed" with no thought about it being made.
Blaze1992: F**king Ozpin.
NeoNazo356: Like has been made obvious in the Canon, Ozpin definitely has his favorites. I think he's just been "spinning his wheels" so long with the whole Salem thing that he honestly wants everything to "stay the same" since he can't "move forward" or "pull back" in this shadow war…
Something I hope to change in this Fanfic, many of which on this site tend to get re-drafted with each new Season, even when they actually had pretty unique twists to them.
*NEW WORLD*
Pyrrha, happy to see that Jaune had not only come clean to everyone, but somehow managed to pass through the entire ordeal without everyone on hers and Ruby's team completely reviling and rebuking him, was able to sleep soundly the previous night. It'd been a long time in coming, but Pyrrha hoped that this act of honesty would finally allow Jaune to start Beacon anew. Sure, the damage that'd been caused by his dishonesty in the interim was incredibly damaging, but now that the cat was out of the bag…
Hopefully Jaune could recover from the fallout of the whole affair and finally move on to become the person she knew he could become.; even before she'd become infatuated with him.
No diamond was made without a bit of bevel and polish, after all.
Pyrrha, despite her "picture perfect" portrayal by the media, could become incredibly lax over the weekends. Like any other person, on Sundays she wanted nothing more than to "sleep in until noon" as it were, because the opportunity to do so would no longer present itself until the weekend to follow.
What eventually roused the red-head from her slumber however wasn't the usual and rather ironic tiredness of doing nothing, but muted grunting and the barest whiff of perspiration.
Cracking an eye open, if only to temper her sense of decency for the scenario that a more lewd part of her mind supplied, Pyrrha was both relieved and surprised to see that the source of the sound and smell wasn't… that… but was instead of Jaune clad in light clothes, muttering to himself under his breath as he did squats.
"Ninety-five… Ninety-six… Ninety-seven… Ninety-eight… Ninety-nine… One… hundred," the blond panted, a bit of a sweat worked up, limbs visibly trembling. "Alright then… Now onto the ten-kilometer run…" he sighed, wiping the sweat from his brow.
"Jaune?"
"Ah, Pyrrha, did I wake you?"
"No, no, I was beginning to wake up on my own," the red-head replied. "So… I see you were training."
"Yeah, well… I figured, now that the cat's out of the bag… if I actually want to stay here, I need to make the faith that others put in me worth it," Jaune returned, recalling the words that Ozpin had said to him.
Even the infuriatingly cryptic ones.
"That's good to hear," Pyrrha nodded, rising from bed and stretching her arms above her head. "I'm happy you finally came clean, despite certain… damages to your reputation," she added a little uneasily.
"Yes, well, let's just say up until that point I'd had a long time to think things through," Jaune admitted, his left eye twitching as an episodic flashback of a skeleton-shaped Grimm ripping his guts out with its bare, bony hands, came to the forefront of his mind.
A moment later and it was repressed to the dark recesses of his mind.
"So how about you? You have any plans for today?"
"Would you mind me joining you for your run?"
"Sure, I don't mind," Jaune waved off, his nostrils flaring slightly. "Although… I'm kinda grimy, so I'll take a quick shower first."
"That's fine. It'll give me some time to freshen up," the red-head returned as she ran her fingers through her hair, in vain, to tame her bedhead with anything short of a good brushing. "That sound good to you?"
"Sure, sounds like a plan," Jaune nodded.
*NEW WORLD*
A quick shower for two (in separate showers) later, and "Arkos" as they'd later come to be called left their dorm building, clad in light jogging suits. With a Scroll App set to ping them when they hit the ten-kilometer mark, the two set off without any real destination in mind.
Though there were far from the usual amount of bodies out and about on Sunday, it was still very much like any other day at Beacon Academy, students from all walks of life and career paths milling about from one place to another, or simply hanging out. However, it was partway through their jog that Jaune's shoulders began to slump, his pace slowing.
"Jaune…?"
"Look. It's him. The faker."
At this, Jaune flinched away from the whispered remarks, Pyrrha turning her head to track the source.
After panning the grounds for a moment, Pyrrha found a trio of civilian students huddled together, textbooks under their arms, whispering in hushed tones.
"I can't believe they let him stay."
"Guy must've bribed someone if he hasn't been kicked out yet."
"I sure as hell wouldn't trust him to protect anyone."
"Yeah. Guy can't even protect himself."
"Jaune…"
"It's okay. I knew this sorta thing was coming," Jaune said in a resigned tone, shoulders still slumped as he continued jogging. "I just… I didn't know it'd hurt this much."
It was one thing to have someone resent you in secret, but to have everyone resent you, even the object of one's affections, was infinitely worse.
"Well… You know, it could always be worse," Pyrrha offered.
"Tell me about it…" Jaune groaned.
At least Weiss hadn't bitch-slapped him. That was something in his corner at least.
*NEW WORLD*
"That was… exhausting…" Jaune sighed as they made their way back into the dorms, the blond receiving scornful looks even there as they made their way up to the top floor. "In more ways than one."
"It'll get better," Pyrrha said putting a hand on her shoulder. "You just have to get some results and I'm sure everyone will accept you."
"I sincerely doubt that."
"Jack!?" the two of them yelped as they crested the top floor.
"Sup?"
"How long were you standing there?" Pyrrha asked.
"Long-enough," Jack shrugged. "So… How was your run? For the first time?"
"Exhausting."
"From the run, or the hateful looks sent your way?"
"Yes," Jaune sighed. "Am I… Are you still going to help train me?"
"Only if you want me to," the Faunus said glancing Pyrrha's way before turning his eyes back to Jaune. "Fair warning. I can be very spiteful, and I have plenty of ideas that'll whip you into shape."
"I don't doubt it," the blond sighed.
"Assuming you don't croak," the Faunus added nonchalantly.
" . . . Pyrrha, could I have a minute alone with him?"
"Of course," the red-head nodded, sending a worried look Jack's way only for the Faunus to wave her worries away. "After you're done, I'll see about getting the team together for some breakfast."
"I'd like that," Jaune nodded, watching Pyrrha leave until the door clicked shut, his attention turned back to the older Faunus. "Jack… I know that if Nickie had been the one to air my dirty laundry yesterday you would've dropped me like a hot potato," he began. "That you're still willing to put up with me… well… I appreciate it, and I promise to work harder than I ever have before."
At this, Jack could only pause, looking at Jaune with a completely neutral expression. " . . . What the hell happened to you before yesterday?"
"Uh… What?" Jaune asked after a moment.
"I mean, the day before yesterday you were an idiot Level 1 Swordsman, but then out of nowhere you roll Nat-20 for Wisdom. When'd you suddenly grow a pair, and how'd you even come across 'em?"
"I-I don't know what you're talking about! I've always been this wise!"
"Liar!" Jack snapped back, catching the stammer. "More-specifically, you're a terrible liar. Something happened between then and there and…"
A pause.
"You said you knew I'd drop you if Nickie'd been the one to air your dirty laundry," he said as his tone shifted. "Did you… get some kind of time-looping Semblance or something?"
"And what makes you think that?"
"Your explosive growth in wisdom was a little too explosive," Jack answered frankly. "I can understand you having a sudden epiphany, but even then, whatever epiphany you had to admitting about the seventy-year-old librarian and the broken penis was way too profound to be all-natural. That and, I've seen a lot of weird shit, so if you really have manifested some kind of time-looping Semblance, you need to tell me, otherwise you might 'wink' yourself out of existence one day."
" . . . And let's say I did get a time-looping Semblance out of stress…" he said neither confirming nor denying the allegations. "What would you do about it?"
"Well, first I would ask what triggered it; is it something you consciously did, is it pain related, or did you die and 'respawn' like something from a light novel?"
"Actually… I'm not sure if it was any one thing…" Jaune found himself admitting. Looking around to make sure no-one was listening, he crooked a finger to draw Jack in closer before whispering into his ear. "The first time it happened, I'd just gone to bed wanting to die because I got the 'Bad Ending'. A few times after that it was the same but after that I began looping back after dying."
"So then this Groundhog Day-type episode of yours isn't consistent…" Jack hummed. "In theory, time-altering Semblance are among the strongest Semblance out there, but their strength comes from the creativity of the user and the consistency of its Plasmological mechanics more than the Semblance itself. If what you're saying is true, then either your ability isn't as all-powerful as you think it is, or…"
"Or…? Or what?"
"It's possible that this epiphany you had may've caused a Semblance Shift, to the point that this 'Time Loop' ability isn't even your Semblance anymore."
"Semblance Shift… That's when a trauma or life-changing event causes your Semblance to change, right?"
"Yes, exactly right. And since there's no way to really test if you still have this 'Time Loop' ability other than waiting to see if it happens again… Maybe you shouldn't be so eager to die and hope you still have this ability."
"Yeah… That doesn't sound like something I'd want to 'stress test' either," Jaune admitted.
While it would be great if he still had this time-looping Semblance, soul-crushing aside, it was explicitly because of that soul-crushing that he desperately hoped his personal growth turned his Semblance into something that wouldn't fracture his psyche into a million pieces.
And it really wasn't like he could 'stress test' his Semblance to see if it was still [Time Loop]. Sure, it'd be great if he could change the outcome of any given event, but if he had to kill himself to make that happen, if that wasn't his Semblance anymore…
Game Over.
"Jack… Time-looping abilities are the stuff of science fiction, so why're you giving me the time of day on this?"
"Like I said, I've seen a lot of weird shit," the Faunus waved off. "If you still have this time-looping ability, bully for you, you could save a lot of lives with it to make up for all the bullshit, but if you don't have it anymore… Like I said before, you shouldn't stress-test it and find out the hard way."
"Yeah, well that goes without saying," Jaune sighed. 'I really hope I unlock my Semblance soon. The not-knowing is killing me.'
Even though he didn't have any proof, he had a 'gut feeling' that his time-looping days were well behind him. Though that just begged the question…
What had Jack seen that he even contemplated time-looping as a plausible explanation?
*NEW WORLD*
"Jaune." -was the blond's curt greeting upon returning to the room.
"Ren," the blond returned.
"NORA!" the ginger whooped.
"So… What happens now?" Jaune asked, realizing this was the first time he'd actively spoken with Ren since… the episode.
"I don't know," the raven-headed teen sighed. "I don't know why Ozpin's letting you stay if you really lied your way in, but that's his choice, and I'm just going to have to put up with it. What I won't put up with, is you putting mine or Nora's lives in danger because of your incompetence."
"Wow, Ren, just… twist the knife why don't ya."
"Don't tempt me, Arc. You're still in hot water as far as I'm concerned."
"Yeah, I mean have you heard the rumors about you?" Nora asked, her tone completely different from Jaune and Ren's conversation. "Let me tell ya, what people are saying about you… Crayyyzeeeeeee~"
"Do I even wanna know?" Jaune asked.
"You really don't," Ren shrugged. "You really don't."
"I'll just take your word for it."
"Ironic, since your word isn't good for anything at all."
"Ren!" Pyrrha chided.
"Pyrrha, don't try and pretend that everything's 'okay'," Ren bit back. "Jaune lied to us. All of us… Or maybe not all of us," he said narrowing his eyes at her, the red-head wilting under his glare. "Pyrrha, if Ozpin insists on having the likes of him be our leader, then he needs to do a very good job, or else I'm gonna-"
"MUTINYYY!" Nora whooped.
"I was going to say 'write a very strongly-worded letter to the Hunter's Union', but 'mutiny' works too," Ren said lazily, causing Jaune to wilt.
"Look, Ren… I know I let you down but-"
"I'm not the one you let down. Everyone counting on you to save them are the ones that've been let down," Ren bit back.
Growing up in the Mistrali Frontier as he had, he'd heard plenty of horror stories of how entire villages would vanish almost over-night because over-hyped Huntsmen with no real skill to speak of were wrongfully tasked with ensuring the well-being of a given settlement. And Jaune reminded him a little too much of those sorts of stories.
"Look, Ren… This is out of my hands-"
"Is it?" Ren asked harshly. "Who says it's out of your hands? If you were concerned with anyone other than yourself, you'd pack your bags and go home right now, let someone even remotely qualified take over. Hell, Jack would be a welcome replacement to a liar like you," he bit out, Jaune flinching at the soft-spoken teen's words.
"He is right now you. If Jack took over, it's not like we'd have to change the name or anything," Nora nodded as she bounced on the bed; Jack replacing Jaune on the Team would still make it 'Team Juniper', just under new management.
"Nora… Is that really what you want?" Pyrrha asked, seeing a very clear divide amongst teammates.
The sorta thing that'd cause entire squads of Huntsmen to vanish in the Frontier, never to be seen again.
"I mean, sure, Jauney-boy getting his dick ripped off by a seventy-year-old librarian was a bit of a shock-"
"It didn't get ripped off-"
"-, but it isn't like we all don't have secrets. Some of us just had more-embarrassing secrets than others," the ginger said with an understanding look. "I say we give him another shot," she said turning to Ren.
" . . . Fine," the Mistrali teen conceded. "But he'd better not fuck up, because I'm not helping him out of whatever hole he digs for himself next."
"I guess that's about the best outcome I could hope for," Jaune sighed, extending his hand. "So… Friends?"
"Don't push your luck," Ren spat out as though the blond's hand were a venomous serpent.
"Ooh. Crash and burn, Jaune. Crash, and, burn," Nora winced.
"Well…" Pyrrha said nervously. "It could always be… worse?" she guessed.
"But not by much," Ren said getting the last word.
*NEW WORLD*
"So…" Ruby began nervously, standing across from Team Juniper in the hallway.
"Hey…" Jaune returned just-as-awkwardly as he stood across from Team RWBBY.
"I… I forgive you for lying," the red-hooded girl said after a moment. "It's easier to forgive than to hold a grudge, and that you came clean about everything… It says a lot about your character."
"I'm glad someone feels that way," Jaune sighed. "Weiss-"
"Don't talk to me until I've cooled down," Weiss said angrily.
"Fair enough," the blond sighed.
"And don't you dare ask me out until you've ceased to be a liability to everyone around you," she said icily with narrowed eyes. "Especially Pyrrha."
"Oof. Went straight for the jugular, huh, Weiss?" Yang asked with a wince.
"Yang, that sword he was swinging around like a blunt instrument was a priceless family heirloom, and more than that it belonged to someone else. As someone with a legacy to uphold, this hits very close to home, and I'm very disappointed in his conduct so don't you dare judge me," the heiress said with narrowed eyes.
"Yeah, well… You didn't have to be so mean about it," Ruby pouted.
"I think it's for the best that we air out any grievances we might have with one another," Ren interjected. "I think we all know the kind of damages keeping secrets from one another could cause if we left them to fester."
At this Blake flinched slightly, but her micro-expressions were hidden from her place behind Jack.
Jack… It was hard to know what was going through his mind.
"Talk Smack About Jaune Day? Heh, I'm already a pro at this," Jack chuckled.
Okay, so maybe that was what was going through his mind.
"Let's see… Blake, you have anything to say?"
"Not really. It isn't like my life's in his hands," the ravenette said plainly.
"Yang?"
"Well… Honestly, a lot of stuff makes sense now that I know about Broke-Dick-"
"Please don't call me that…" Jaune wilted.
He'd heard that, among other less-flattering nicknames, being made for him that morning.
"-but honestly, since I'm not all that close with him, I don't feel all that betrayed, personally," Yang said with a shrug.
"Glad to see someone feels that way," Jaune sighed.
"And as long as you don't put my baby sis in any danger, I won't have to… finish the job," she added ominously with a crack of her knuckles.
'Yeah, that figures,' Jaune thought morosely.
"So… Is that everyone?" Jack asked.
"I believe so," Pyrrha hummed. "Ren really laid into him earlier."
"As he very well should, as Nora's babysitter," Weiss huffed.
"Nora on the other hand didn't really seem to care," Ren sighed.
" . . . Makes sense," Yang shrugged. "Jack, you have anything to add?"
"Not right now," the Faunus shrugged. "That and that horse's already been beaten to death already," he added lazily.
"Well that's certainly an interesting change of pace," Nora hummed.
"Besides, now I have the rest of Beacon to do that for me," he tacked on.
" . . . Well that's certainly an interesting change of pace," Nora hummed, completely nonplussed.
"At least you're being honest," Jaune sighed.
"More than I can say for some people around here," Ren stated plainly.
"Wow . . . Yikes," Yang hissed, Team Juniper coming apart at the seams right in front of her.
"Well… At least they're speaking to each other… Even if what they do have to say to one another isn't very nice," Ruby sighed.
"I still think they're being too soft on him," Weiss stated.
"Well, it is mission season. Give it a week and this problem could solve itself."
"Well that's rather cryptic," Jack said turning Blake's way.
"What? We were all thinking it. Especially you."
" . . . Okay, you got me there," Jack conceded.
"Guys… I'm right here you know," the inept blond wilted before them.
"Quiet, you. The grownups are talking," Ren cut in.
"Yeah!" Nora whooped.
"Kill me…" Jaune groaned.
"Later," Jack huffed like one would to a head in the fridge.
*NEW WORLD*
"Is… Is it always going to be like this?" Jaune asked as the two teams made their way to the mess hall, passerby shooting him dirty looks and muttering under their breath.
"Well, you did tell a pretty big lie," Nora chirped with fingers interlaced behind her head, her strides high and exaggerated. "And I'm not talking a 'little white lie', I mean 'black as pitch' lie."
"Honestly, I'm surprised no-one's throwing rotten fruit at you," Ren hummed.
Fate succinctly tempted, a moment later Jaune received a rotten red projectile to the back of the head.
"Whoo! Headshot!" someone in the crowd whooped.
"Hey!" Pyrrha cried, causing the fruit-thrower to wince.
"Damn. I knew I'd put a standing bounty on your head, but I didn't think anyone'd cash in on it so soon."
"JACK?!" Jaune and Pyrrha gaped at him confusedly.
"Wait, you did this?" Ren asked, a mix of amusement and confusion in his tone.
"Technically, that guy did. All I did was offer a cash prize for it," the Faunus shrugged.
"Why would you do something like that!?" Pyrrha cried, her face flush with anger as Jaune scraped rotten tomato out of his hair.
"Because if I beaned him in the head with rotten fruit… Jaune wouldn't get back up again," Jack whispered cryptically.
"Ooooooh~ Ominous~" Nora cooed fascinatedly.
"Hey Jack, I got him, so pay up," the guy who'd beaned Jaune said coming up to him.
"Sure. Here ya go."
"One Lien? What gives?"
"Read the rules, smart guy. Ten for a face-shot, anywhere else on his head with rotten fruit and you only get one, and you have to buy your weapon of choice from a pre-selected vendor," Jack said holding up his Scroll, a picture of Jaune's face beneath the word BOUNTY present on it, a set of rules and guidelines beneath that.
"Jack, doesn't this seem needlessly cruel?" Pyrrha asked with a huff.
"Oh trust me, if I had any less self-control than this, Jaune wouldn't even be breathing right now," Jack said with a twitching brow as the sullen student walked away. "And besides, Jaune can think of it as training."
"Training?!" Jaune asked incredulously.
"Yeah. 'Training'," Jack repeated. "Attacks can come from anywhere at any time, so you've always gotta stay vigilant."
"SMAAASH!" Nora yelled as she pie'd Jaune in the face… with half a watermelon.
"FREE FOR AAAAAAAL!" an upperclassman suddenly cried out, a rotten grapefruit held in his hand, a deluge of rotten fruit screaming towards Jaune's head, the blond squealing like a pig as he bolted, scurrying beneath a nearby bench before running for the treeline.
"What the…?" Blake gawped as she observed the sheer pandemonium going on around them.
"Where's all this rotten fruit coming from?" Weiss similarly gaped. "Not that Jaune doesn't deserve this in some part, but still…"
"Oh that? I made a deal with the kitchen staff to set aside the castaway fruit that doesn't get eaten for this little… training exercise," Jack answered. "Since they don't have to pay waste disposal to take care of it all immediately, I actually come out of this making a pretty decent sum of money," he said with a wry smile.
"Jack. This is cruel and you know it!" Pyrrha said, putting her foot down as Jaune scurried into the canopy of a nearby tree to escape the assault of rotten produce.
" . . . "
Staring at her with a blank expression, Jack walked over to the vendor cart filled with rotten fruit that had gone unnoticed to Teams RWBY and JNPR until just-then. Grabbing a tomato and giving it an experimental toss in his hand, the Faunus drew his arm back and chucked the piece of rotten fruit at blinding speeds, the projectile screaming through the air before it took a baseball sized chunk out of the branch Jaune was sitting atop, the blond screaming as he fell haplessly to the ground in a heap.
"No. That would be cruel. If I was the one to hit him," Jack clarified. "Pyrrha, just because Ozpin won't punish Jaune for what he did, doesn't mean he should get off Scott Free. There are many people who believe Jaune should get some comeuppance for what he's done, and the way I see it, giving people an avenue through which to exercise their rage will stop them from taking more… drastic actions against him."
"Well when you put it like that, how can I say no?" Ren asked, a pleased smirk forming on his face as Jaune took a rotten grapefruit to the left cheek in slow motion, his face rippling like oobleck.
As an elderly, crotchety, shotgun-wielding soldier in red armor with an orange visor once said; Life finds a way.
"So what, you're trying to say this is actually good for him?" Pyrrha demanded.
"Hey, the sooner everyone gets this out of their system, the sooner Jaune can have some modicum of a normal school life," Jack waved off dismissively. "Instead of letting it steep and fester, I'm hitting the pressure relief valve while the gas is still high."
"So you really think everyone will get over this sooner if they partake in something like… this?" Weiss asked.
"I've seen it happen plenty of times in the past. A man gets put in the stockade and has fruit thrown at him, and as soon as he's out of the stocks, everyone's out of steam to hate the guy," Jack shrugged. "Trust me, this is for his, and his critics', own good."
"If you say so…" Yang said, still on the fence about the whole thing.
"So… Who's hungry?" Jack asked with an amicable smile a few moments later.
*NEW WORLD*
"Jack… You… are a roooooooyal asshole!" Jaune panted as he rejoined the others at the food court, his hair steeped in every kind of fruit juice imaginable, his cheeks mottled with bruises, though no direct shots to his nose had been made.
"Yes, Jaune. Yes. I. Am," the Faunus said shamelessly.
" . . . Let's just get some damn food," Jaune grumbled as he walked inside, trailing in water from the dip in the fountain he'd taken.
"Look on the bright side, Jaune. As soon as you learn how to dodge, this won't be a problem for you anymore," Nora chirped happily, having gotten ten Lien from beaning Jaune in the face earlier.
Sure, it was at point-blank range, but it was still with fruit that she'd bought from a pre-aproved vendor.
"It is a 'training exercise' after all," Ren hummed, feeling somewhat vindicated.
"Don't worry. There isn't any money for anyone once you're indoors," Jack offered consolingly.
*SPLAT!*
"Of course, that doesn't mean people won't pelt you with rotten fruit for their own reasons," Jack chuckled as someone in the building shouted- "Take that, faker!"
"Fraud!"
"Broke-Dick!"
"Like I said. 'Vigilant'," Jack nodded.
"Oh I'll stay vigilant all right... And I'll learn to dodge this just to spite you…!" Jaune bit out, a bit of vitrol in his tone.
"That's the spirit!" Nora whooped. "But until the fruit-flingin'-flurry continues, let's eat!"
"UWAUGH!" Jaune yelped as he dodged an apple. "HEY! That one wasn't rotten!"
"Which means you really must've pissed that guy off," Ren hummed.
"Hey Jack…?" Weiss began nervously.
"Yes, Weiss?"
"If I find this entertaining in some fashion… does that make me a bad person?"
"I don't think so."
"Okay. Just checking," the heiress nodded, satisfied with the Faunus' answer.
*NEW WORLD*
By some miracle, the two teams were able to get their food without any further fruit-flinging-related incident.
"Hey guys! Good morning!"
"Vincent, good morning!" Ruby greeted chipperly.
"So, what've you guys been up to? . . . What happened to you?" the odd-eyed teen reiterated as he turned to Jaune.
"Oh… you know… Just, reaping what I sow…" Jaune admitted, a strand of fruit-stained hair stuck to his forehead.
Hearing the whistle of an oddly-shaped projectile streaming through the air, Jaune ducked down to avoid a banana sailing through the air, Nora snatching it out of the air as it passed with a call of- "Thank you!"
"Oh, you mean the thing with your school papers?" Vincent asked with a tilt of his head as Jaune scrambled to keep his food on his tray.
"Yeah… That," Jaune sighed, rising back up to full height.
"Well, the important thing is you came clean of your own free will," Vincent said with a charming smile. "Oh, and the thing about your genitals… Don't feel so bad about it. I hang a little to the left too," he said innocently and without an iota of shame.
"That's not what happ-… Thank you. I appreciate the sentiment," Jaune conceded, deciding to take the win.
"Sooo… The RA's a leftie, huh, Blake~?" Yang asked as she ribbed the cat-like girl.
"Anyway, just because it's Sunday doesn't mean we should dally. Let's eat!" the RA said happily.
*NEW WORLD*
"Sooo… Jack here put out a bounty on your head for people to hit you in the head with fruit, and you're supposed to dodge as part of your training?"
"That's right," Jaune nodded.
" . . . That's so thoughtful!" Vincent returned with a smile.
"YOU'RE MISSING THE POINT COMPLETELY!" Jaune yelped.
"Well, it's nice to see someone's so understanding," Jack chuckled, Pyrrha fuming off to the side.
The RA sufficiently brought up to speed on what his charges had going on, the group of nine partook their meal in silence. Sure, there was the occasional jeer directed Jaune's way, but apart from that nothing too eventful took place. To the bulk of RWBBY and JNPR, Vincent was still the "odd man out", the "tenth wheel" as it were, but slowly and steadily tthe gap between them was closing.
"Hey Vincent, you look like something heavy's on your mind. Penny for your thoughts?" Nora offered once the joviality on the odd-eye's visage faded.
"Well… It's just this dream I had the other night. Felt like it lasted a month straight."
"PFFFFFFFFFT!" Jaune spit-take, the girl sitting across from him dodging at the last possible second, rose petals scattered everywhere.
"Aaugh! Gross!" Ruby groaned as she shook droplets of milk out of her hair, before giving Jaune the most-irate, yet incredibly adorable, look she was able.
"When you say 'a month straight'…" Ren began.
"I mean it felt like I'd been reliving the same day over and over and over again for a month straight," he groaned, rubbing his forehead. "Then again, I guess that's what dreams are for. To waltz away from the real world," he hummed as he grabbed a spoonful of oatmeal. "Augh! Dammit, not again."
"What's wrong?" Nora asked.
"Damn trick spoon's screwing with me again," Vincent groaned as he held up his utensil, the thread bent 90 degrees just before the shoulder.
"Whoa, really? I didn't even know they made those!" the ginger awed, taking the spoon from his hand and turning it over in her hands.
"Yeah, me neither. And it's a real pain in my keister, let me tell ya," he groaned, zipping out of sight before dropping back in his seat, a fresh spoon in his hand as though he hadn't left at all. Jack for his credit only blinked, but the Faunus swore he recognized those high-speed movements from somewhere. "Gah! Shizno!" he swore as he raised the oatmeal to his lips, only for the spoon to defy him sustenance once again. "What the actual hell, did someone replace all the spoons with trick spoons or just the ones I'm using?" he groaned, zipping to and from the silverware kiosk once more, this time with a fistful of spoons instead of just one. "Gah! Are! You! Kidding! Me?!" he cried as trick spoons defied him in rapid succession, his platinum lochs alighting each time.
Jack looked like he wanted to say something to this, but he just decided to let it go.
Being everyone's exposition broker was becoming an enormous pain in the ass.
'Sometimes it really sucks being the smartest guy in the room,' the Faunus thought.
"I… don't see how a spoon can be rigged to do that," Blake began as she moved to return to her breakfast.
It took her only a moment to realize her fingertips only met empty air.
"Here, Vin. Try this," Yang said with a cheeky smile, a spoon in her extended fingertips.
"WaitYangdon't-!"
"Ah, finally," Vincent sighed, successfully wrapping his lips around the silverware and swallowing the contents. "Thanks, Yang," he said with a smile, digging into his oatmeal with gusto.
"No problem. Your gratitude is reward enough~" the blond purred as she glanced Blake's way, the ravenette red as a lobster and stammering- "I-n-d-i-r-e-c-t k-i-s-s." -over and over and over again in a jerky fashion like a robot with a busted voice module.
*NEW WORLD*
"Thanks for the spoon, Yang. I thought I'd never get to my oatmeal at that rate," Vincent said at breakfast's end with a grateful smile.
"What can I say except 'you're welcome'~?" Yang sung aloud, Blake blushing up a storm off to the side.
"Oddness aside… What do we do now?" Weiss asked aloud.
"Well, there's always club activities," the RA offered.
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.
"You mean Ozpin didn't tell you yet? Now that your first month of schooling is out of the way, you now have the option to pursue extracurricular activities in whatever spare time you have," Vincent offered, the others going to their Scrolls.
"Hey, he's right. Must've come in during breakfast," Nora hummed.
"So… Do we get extra credit or not?" Yang asked, getting an elbow to the ribs from Weiss.
"Some more than others, I guess. For purely recreational stuff like the Movie Watchers' Club, you don't get extra credit, but for stuff that makes you more well-rounded like Cooking or Sniping-"
"Did you say Sniping?! Like a Sniper's Club!?" Ruby asked excitedly.
"Well, yes, I did say that, but… If you want to join the Sniper's Club you'll need a spott… er…" he trailed off as Ruby, Weisss in tow, vanished into the distance, a flurry of rose petals in their wake. " . . . Like I was saying, anything that makes you more well-rounded or looks good on your resume will be treated as extra credit," he said addressing those that were still there. "If you want more information, you can try the school website or the Rec Center."
"Waddya say, Jack? You wanna do something together?" Yang asked.
The moment she heard "Sniper Club", the blond just knew Weiss wasn't going to be available for anything else.
"Sure. Let's see what we find," Jack shrugged.
"To the Rec Center!" Nora whooped with an arm wrapped around Ren's neck, leading him away.
"Jaune," Pyrrha said getting his attention. "Do you want to find something to do together?"
"That… actually sounds pretty nice," Jaune nodded. "Sure. Let's see what's available."
"Incoming," Blake said plainly, Jaune yelping as he dodged, ducked, dipped, dove, and dodged away from rotten fruit sent his way.
"Wow, he's actually getting pretty good at that," Vincent awed as Jaune and Pyrrha fled from the fruit-flingers. "So… You going to join a club?" he asked turning to Blake. "I think there's a Book Club that'd be great for you."
"I appreciate the sentiment, but I prefer to read at my own pace," Blake returned. If the others did find club activities that worked for them, she could take advantage of that and find some solitude from all the unique personalities dominating her shared room.
"That's fair," the odd-eyed teen nodded. "You want me to walk you back?"
" . . . I don't see why not," Blake conceded with a small smile. Without Yang nearby to tease her relentlessly over it, the Faunus girl found it much easier to be open with the odd-eyed teen. "So… Do you plan on joining any clubs?" she asked as they walked back to the dorms.
"Honestly…? I'm just trying to find out what I'm actually good at. What I want to do with my life," he conceded. "Sure, I could always join the Cooking Club, but if Wok ever found out I'd used my place at Beacon to do 'more of the same', he'd probably be quite cross with me."
"So then you want to do something different?"
"Yeah. Different," he nodded. "There's a whole world out there for me to explore, so many things I could do with my life, so I might as well try as many of them as I can."
"That sounds like a lovely sentiment," Blake nodded. "I hope you find what you're looking for."
"Me too, Blake. Me too," Vincent said with a grateful smile.
*NEW WORLD*
Later, at the Beacon Recreational Center…
"WOW!" Nora awed as she stared at the end-to-end wall of corkboards covered in club-advertising posters. "There's so many!"
"Well, Beacon is an incredibly-large campus with enough rooms and staff to accommodate almost every occupation Vale has to offer, so it's a given there'd be this many clubs," Ren hummed as he looked the wall over; of course, if Nora decided the two of them would do something together… it'd just be easier to go with the flow.
"Yeah, but most of them seem a little self-indulgent," Jack sighed. "Ramen Appreciation Club… Sports Car Appreciation Club… Gourmet Appreciation Club… Wait, hold the phone…" he paused, rubbing his eyes as though he doubted what he was looking at. "A Keijo Appreciation Club?" he gaped visibly, eyes large and blinking. "How'd that get past the faculty screening?" he asked incredulously as he eyed a poster featuring a womanly side-silhouette within a circular emblem posed in such a way that her bust and buttocks were made doubly-prominent.
"Why? What's Keijo?" Yang asked, eyeing the poster as well, though unable to read the Japanese font decorating one of the sides.
"It's a rather niche gambling sport prevalent in the eastern parts of Mistral that's somewhat… risqué in nature…" Pyrrha admitted nervously, a dusting of pink on her cheeks. "It's a water sport, but it can get very… fierce."
" . . . Well that doesn't tell me very much," Yang muttered.
"It's probably for the best you not dig into it. The Vale Council won't let Keijo air, even on pay-per-view, so there's a bit of a black market for it on certain circles. As far as I know," Ren stated plainly. "So I really do wonder how this passed Beacon's club screening process."
"Well, Ozpin has done weird stuff in the past. Between letting a fifteen-year-old or a complete failure into the Hunter Course, letting weirdo clubs into the extracurriculars isn't all that odd," Jack said shrugging his shoulders, Jaune wilting since it was obvious which of the two he was.
"Hey Ren, you think I'd be good at Keijo?" Nora asked hopefully, crossing her arms behind her head making her bosom more prominent.
"I don't think they actually play the sport, I think they just watch the matches," Ren answered.
"Awww…" the ginger whined.
"If nothing else works, I might just join. Maybe. Well, soft maybe," Jack hummed.
"Why? What's so special about Keijo?" Yang asked, rolling the unfamiliar word on her tongue once more.
"It's… hard to describe unless you see it in person. I'm not sure how much 'justice' a recording can do, but I think the higher-tier matches use 3D imaging so you can see the matches from all angles with VR… But I digress," Jack waved off.
"So then you have seen it before."
"Let's see what else Beacon has to offer," Jack said hitting the Emergency Exit button to that conversation.
The pairings of Jack and Yang, Nora and Ren, and Jaune and Pyrrha perused the wall of membership posters, intermingled amongst other students who mostly clustered together in their own cliques. Not all of the posters were placed with consideration in mind, some placed in such a way that they covered a quarter or half of another. Whether this was intentional sabotage or laziness had yet to be determined, but it seemed that Nora had certainly found what she'd wanted because twenty minutes into perusal she had grabbed Ren by the wrist and dragged him off.
"He has my sympathy," Jack said as Ren was whisked away by the syrup-powered ball of energy that was Nora Valkyrie. "What about you two?"
"Well… We could try cooking," Pyrrha said hopefully, directing Jaune's attention to one such poster, pictures of fine, mundane, exotic, and miscellaneous foods lining the edge of the flier.
"Well…" Jaune hummed. "If being a Huntsman doesn't work out-"
"Which it prob'ly won't."
"-then it'd be nice to have a backup plan," Jaune said as Pyrrha elbowed Jack in the ribs.
"What about you two? Would you like to join us?" Pyrrha asked, more to Yang than to Jack.
The fact that she was only looking at Yang made it all the more obvious.
"Eh… We've got all semester to decide. I'll take my time with this," Jack shrugged.
"Make sure to save us leftovers!" Yang said with a smile as she waved the two off.
*NEW WORLD*
Elsewhere on Beacon grounds…
"Ruby, where are you taking me?!" Weiss demanded as she was dragged along by the hand, even after Ruby had stopped by her weapons' locker.
"To the Sniper's Club, of course!" the red-head said excitedly.
"And you expect me to be your spotter?"
"Don't you want the Team to be able to snipe a Grimm from a mile away and finish missions with the least-expended energy possible?" Ruby asked, her clever young mind letting her say the words that would most-appeal to the heiress' long-advertised practical sensibilities.
" . . . Fine, I'll indulge you this one time," the heiress asserted. "Now put me down!"
"Right! Sorry!" she apologized. "So… I've got Crescie. What about you?"
"I don't have that kind of Scope on my person; I certainly never expected to play second-bananna to a girl with a gun fetish."
"I'm an enthusiast! Not a fetishist!"
"Coulda fooled me!"
"Hey um… Are you here for the Sniper's Club?" a voice cut in, Ruby and Weiss turning sidelong to see that they'd made their way to one of the overlooking cliffs at the edge of campus, a long firing range-like section of land cut out of the Emerald Forest to accommodate long-range firearms. Particularly of the extra-long-range variety.
"Oh look, we're here already," Ruby hummed, realizing they'd already reached their destination, a couple dozen other teams of Snipers and Spotters in attendance. It wasn't only Huntsman and Huntresses from other classes that were taking part, but Border Patrol and Wall Guards as well as those who aspired only to become Soldiers of Fortune.
In short, the highest number of Snipers and Spotters in one place Ruby had ever seen in one place.
"So, you're Ozzy's new pet project, huh?" a new voice spoke up to Ruby, the gathered pairs parting in reverence as a grizzled old sniper stepped through the crowd. "Name's Mordecai Sokolov. Nice to meet ya," he greeted lazily.
Mordecai was a rather slender man of unimpressive height with little real muscle to him, clad in a gray tight-fitting T-shirt, black cargo pants with an open-air ammo belt around his waist tucked into brown leather boots, a sleeveless dark-brown top dominating his torso with a red sash around his abdomen, dark brown leather gloves, with the majority of his face covered in a brown leather mask exposing the bottom half of his face and black pointed bead with a few dreadlochs spilling out the back, red-tinted goggles over his eyes. Dangling languidly from his right hand was a silver Jakobs revolver.
'Ugh. This man reeks!' Weiss gaped as her fingers went up to her nose, the man before her taking a large chug from a nondescript green bottle; aka, a liquid breakfast. 'Still…' she hummed. 'Why do I feel like I've seen this guy somewhere before?'
*Urp* "So… Had a feelin' you'd make your way here. My old drinking buddy Qrow said you fancied yourself a sniper."
"Yep!" Ruby replied, completely nonplussed by the very Qrow-like smell.
Even when the man had tried to sober up before his visits, her uncle still reeked of alcohol, despite his best efforts.
"Well good for you… but do you really think you can measure up to a real sniper?" the man asked smugly as he raised his left arm. Moments later a large falcon-like bird with white and gray plumage with long legs and leathery bat-like wings settled down to roost, squawking menacingly causing Weiss to yelp back while Ruby stood her ground.
"Oh I'll show you!" Ruby snapped back. "Pick a target, any target, and I'll hit it!"
"Well… At least you're confident," Mordecai said feeding the bat-like bird a scrap of meat from one of his pouches. "Let's start with something easy. Try to hit any of the targets at the 500 meter mark," he said jerking his thumb over his shoulder.
"Ha! Easy!" Ruby smirked as she unholstered her Crescent Rose, dropping the bipod and dropping on to the blanket a few feet away from the cliff's edge, angling out toward the target-riddled clearing in the distance. Getting the center of her chosen target in her sights, Ruby drew the trigger back with a confident pull of her finger.
*BANG!*
"Miss."
*BANG!*
"Miss."
*BANG!*
"Miss."
*BANG!*
"Miiiss."
*BANG!*
"Miss again…" Mordecai said lazily.
"What the-!" *BANG!* "I'm aiming dead-center!" *BANG!* "So why!?" *BANG!* "CAN'T?!" *BANG!* "I!?" *BANG!* "HIT?!" *BANG!* "ANY!?" *BANG!* "THING?!" Ruby demanded as she fired shot after shot, only to miss all twelve shots.
It was only when her finger uselessly *Click*ed against the trigger that she realized everyone around her, sans Weiss, was laughing at her expense.
"What? What's so funny?!" Ruby demanded angrily.
"Kid… You really don't know how sniping works, do you, little girl gray?" Mordecai asked condescendingly as he twirled his revolver in his hand, firing off six shots in rapid succession before discarding the spent casings, all the while chugging beer like it were water.
"Excellent work, sir. A flawless volley," one of the sniping students praised from behind his scope, eyeing six perfect center-shots at the farthest end of the range, well over a thousand meters away.
"Well, don't feel so bad, kid. There's a reason Qrow uses a shotgun; the guy's so wasted he could barely hit the broad side of a barn," Mordecai said with a belch as he emptied his anonymous bottle. "If you thought this was going to be easy extra credit… you've got another thing coming."
Ruby for her credit could only fume, while Weiss' eyes went wide with realization.
And not because Ruby was complete rubbish at using a sniper rifle at its intended distance.
*NEW WORLD*
Meanwhile, back at the Recreational Center…
"So… Anything catch your eye?" Yang asked, she and Jack still eyeing the wall of flyers.
"Not particularly," Jack stated, eyes roving the pinned-up sheets as well but inevitably drifting towards the Keijo poster.
"Well… We could always join the 'Stay in our Room' club," the blond suggested. "What do you have to say to that~?" she asked with a waggling brow.
"Let's give this a little more thought before jumping to conclusions."
"I know what I wanna jump~"
"Behaaave…" Jack stated, his eyes never wavering. "Hm…? What's this?" he asked lifting two of the posters in the middle upward, revealing one hidden underneath. "Oh."
"You find something?"
"You tell me," Jack said pulling it free of its tacks and handing it over.
" . . . You think it could be a typo?" Yang asked after a moment.
"Maybe, maybe not. Only one way to find out," Jack shrugged. "You in?"
"Heck yeah!" Yang whooped with a pumped fist.
*NEW WORLD*
After another bout of dodging fruit from all sides, markably with less vitrol than the morning prior, Jaune and Pyrrha made their way into one of the buildings owned by the Cooking Course. Making their way to the room on the flier, the two's eyes went wide as they beheld a massive classroom as big as one of their own lecture halls, rows of cooking stations hewn in stainless steel glistening, dozens of students in pairs or cliques gathered up.
"Well, I doubt any of the fruit here will be rotten," Pyrrha nodded. "And it looks like we're just in time for the meeting," she said looking up at the wall clock.
"Buongiorno!" an ecstatic voice proclaimed from the front of the room, everyone's eyes turning to the front of the kitchen hall as a man of above-average height and medium build walked in, his light brown hair short and neat with a genial expression on his face. The man was clad in a chef's uniform; white double-breasted jacket, a loose red tie, a matching apron, and a tall cylindrical hat; his attire was further decorated by metallic golden T shaped emblems at the corners of his jacket and hat, while a badge-shaped pin with a t-shaped section cut out was pinned to the frontal hold of his hat. "I am happy to see so many new faces in attendance today. I am-"
"Tonio Trussardi…" Pyrrha spoke up, her eyes wide with awe. "Eight-Star gourmet chef and master of Italian, medicinal, and esoteric cooking, holding a degree in molecular gastronomy and able to use ordinary palm-reading to diagnose physical ailments as well as any physician…" she tacked off, all eyes falling on her as they realized who was in their midst. "Your antipasto recipe for salad with mozzarella cheese and tomatoes with your special dressing is…" *Sluuurp* "…utterly captivating," she said visibly salivating, wiping the drool with the back of her hand before flushing beet-red at the realization she was openly drooling in front of a crowd.
"Ah, Ms. Nikos, so glad to see you hold my cooking in such high regard," the now-named Tonio said jovially in turn, aware of the girl's own fame. "Though I will say I'm quite surprised to see you here."
"Yes, well, Jaune and I thought we could broaden our horizons a little," Pyrrha answered, mutterings spreading through the crowd as recognition dawned on some of their faces at Jaune's presence, though if there was any malice, they certainly weren't acting on it.
"Well, I'm never one to turn away someone willing to learn," Tonio said with a kind smile. "I can't promise to impart all the knowledge available to those partaking in the cooking course, but I certainly don't intend to leave you inept in the kitchen. But first… WASH YOUR HANDS!" he roared, suddenly turning quite vicious if the spine-straightening was any indicator.
*NEW WORLD*
Elsewhere…
"This is nice, isn't it?"
"It sure is," Blake replied, enjoying the peace and quiet, book in hand.
Though it wasn't within her own room, Vincent's abode was a nice change of pace, the large couches allowing her to lounge in a way that her bed just couldn't provide; even with a fluffy pillow against the headboard.
And that wasn't to say that the company was by any means unpleasant either. If anything, the aloof teen reading across from her only made the ambiance and the tea he'd prepared for them all the better.
"I have to ask… What kind of books do you like to read?" Blake asked as she looked up from her camouflaged volume of NoL.
"Well… This is a little embarrassing to admit, but this 'Other World' genre just… speaks to me for some reason," he said peeking out from behind his own light novel with upturned eyes. "You must think I'm totally weird, don't you?" he asked meekly, Blake's face heating up from the combined gesture.
"N-Not at all. In fact, it kind of suits you," Blake replied kindly.
With how out-of-place Vincent was, it was almost like he was 'from another world'.
Of course, the very notion of such a thing was complete nonsense.
At least as far as she was aware.
" . . . Hey… That dream you had last night," she said after another few minutes of silence. "What happened in it?"
"Oh… All sorts of stuff," he replied setting his book down. "I jump-kicked a couple guys in the face… Jack took an axe to Team Juniper's door… Jaune ran off the side of a cliff… All sorts of weirdness. To be honest though, most of it kinda blurred together, and all I have left is the feeling that I relived the same Saturday for a month straight. Weird, right?"
"Well, it's your dream, so…"
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" the odd-eyed teen pouted.
"N-Nothing! Don't worry about it!" Blake returned hastily.
" . . . Okay!" Vincent said with a bright smile, Blake sighing a sigh of relief.
The two returning to their reading, the silence was interrupted only by the sipping noises of tea, and the AC swirling around the various antiques decorating the room. The solitude growing a bit lonely, Blake found herself opening up to the RA once more.
"So… What do you think the deal was with all those 'trick spoons'?"
Before the odd-eyed teen could reply, there was a- *Knock*Knock*Knock* -at the door.
"Excuse me for a moment," Vincent said before turning toward the door. "Who is it?"
*NEW WORLD*
Later that afternoon…
"Well look at that, the gang's back together again," Blake said cooly as at around the same time, three of the pairs from their clique reunited.
Nora, clad in a white and pink V-neck T-shirt, pink gym shorts with white stripes running down the sides, matching pink sweatbands, knee-high socks with pink stripes, and pink converse-style shoes with white laces, looked positively tickled pink, a light sheen of sweat on her body. Ren, clad in a more-masculine version of her attire with his own colors, looked rather drained, borderline emaciated as though he'd been "wring out" to the last drop and given no reprieve.
"Whoo! Worked up a good sweat!" Nora whooped ecstatically.
"Kill… meee…" Ren pleaded out-of-breath. "Don't let Jaune do it, he'll just screw it up and make me immortal or something," he then said more-articulately.
"I think I liked you better when you didn't talk so much," Jaune wilted.
Jaune and Pyrrha on the other hand looked pretty much unchanged from that morning; heck, Jaune even managed not to get totally drenched in fruit juice up to that point. The only thing off about them that Blake noticed was that their hands had been scrubbed completely clean to the point that their nails glistened as though polished, and bits of a white powdery residue was evident on their clothing.
"I'mmmmmmm saaaaaaad…" Ruby moaned.
"Yes, Ruby. You've made that abundantly clear to me," Weiss huffed, Blake turning her attention over to the two.
For the most part the two of them looked completely unchanged, aside from the fact that Ruby's personality had done a complete 180; for as-happy and peppy she usually was, now, she was equal amounts sad & depressed, looking as though her entire world had been crushed and turned upside down before her. Weiss on the other hand just looked mentally drained instead of emotionally, though by the creases in her clothing she'd been lying on her stomach for some time, further supported by her hands rubbing at her neck.
"I need a big sis huuuuuuug…" Ruby moaned, holding out her arms and waggling her hands expectantly.
"Well, it seems like she's kind of absent, so you'll have to make due with your partner," Blake said gesturing to the girl beside her, Ruby's arms wrapping around Weiss as a pitiable whine left her lips. Weiss for her part didn't protest too openly, since it actually would've been futile to do so with how-depressed the girl was.
"Hey come to think of it, Jack's missing as well," Nora hummed.
"Well, the two of them could have just gone off to the same club," Ren stated.
"That is a distinct possibility," Weiss nodded. "What about you, Blake? What did you do this morning?"
"I read a book at a friend's place," she returned noncommittally.
Without Yang's incessant teasing around it was actually much easier to admit as such.
"Where did our RA go?" Jaune asked, taking note of his absence if only for the fact that he'd swiftly forgiven him for what had transpired the day before.
"Some kind of physical, I'm guessing," Blake shrugged, since she didn't actually know Dr. Veronica's field of expertise.
Of course, if Dr. Veronica had said as such, it wasn't as though Blake were any position to pay attention…
"So… Ruby… What happened to you two?"
"I'm saaaaaaad…"
"Yes, as you've made us all aware. What I'm wondering is what happened."
"Ruby dragged me off to Sniper Club to be her Spotter, and… well…" Weiss paused. "Ruby actually sucks at being a proper sniper."
"You didn't have to put it like thaaaaat…" the red-head whined.
"But it's true, isn't it? I mean, who taught you how to snipe back at Signal? A drunk?"
" . . . I neither confirm nor deny that accusation," Ruby said after a moment.
"So Mr. Sokolov was right, then. You really were taught by a drunkard."
"Uncle Qrow isn't a 'drunkard', he's a social drinker… whooo just so happens to always be social," Ruby admitted awkwardly.
"Right…" the heiress sighed tiredly.
"So… How did things go with you?" Blake asked turning her attention to the social pariah.
"Well… Pyrrha… She is not the person we want on Kitchen Duty…" Jaune admitted extremely awkwardly.
"What makes you say that?" Blake asked.
"Well… She can burn water."
"Don't you mean boil water?" Weiss asked.
"No, I mean she literally burns water."
*MINI-FLASHBACK*
"Hey, Pyrrha. Can you get the water boiling for me?"
"Sure thing," the red-head nodded, filling the pot with water and setting it on the stove. Setting the corner unit to high, moments later a column of flame belched from the pot, almost singing the red-head's eyebrows.
"AAUUUGH! MY EYEBROWS!"
Unfortunately, someone else lost their eyebrows that day.
*MINI-FLASHBACK END*
"And then there was the incident with the cheese grater…"
*MINI-FLASHBACK*
Pyrrha, grating the cheese for their "Team Juniper Macaroni", suddenly screamed as fire belched out from the space the cheese used to be.
*MINI-FLASHBACK END*
"And then there was the time she grabbed some cold-cuts from the fridge for sandwiches."
*MINI-FLASHBACK*
Cold cuts in hand, Pyrrha closed the door with the necessary amount of force, and walked away.
A moment later and fire began to belch out from the ice-box underneath.
"Oh come on- How did that even start?!"
*MINI-FLASHBACK END*
"Yeah… I guess Pyrrha does do to kitchens what Jack does to regular people's couches," Nora nodded.
For those that don't get the joke… "Fuck yo couch."
"I'm sorry," Pyrrha wilted, an embarrassed flush on her face.
"Well… I'm certainly seeing you in a new light," Blake hummed.
"How the heck do you set water on fire? It's water!" Nora gawped before getting an elbow in the ribs. "It's like trying to set a water park on fire!"
"Well, technically you don't have to set the whole park on fire, just the park part," Ren stated jovially.
"By the way, what did you two get up to?" Blake asked. "You look exhausted."
"We got our swoll on!" Nora whooped pumping her arms. "Ren and I are gonna get sooo bricc!"
"Kill me…"
"Oh Ren, you're such a kidder!" Nora cackled as she slapped him across the back, the hitting the floor face-first a second later.
"Well you're clearly suffering. Why join Nora for whatever club she signed onto if it's making you so-miserable?" Weiss asked.
"Would you want to leave someone like Nora unsupervised with the general student populous?" Ren tiredly asked.
" . . . Fair point," Weiss shrugged.
"So… Where do you think Jack and Yang are?" Blake asked, noticing their absence.
"I dunno. They went off to join a club at the same time we did, so they should've been done by now," Ruby hummed.
"Not unless they were otherwise… preoccupied~" Nora cooed playfully.
"What're you talking about?" Weiss asked tersely.
"I'm just saying…" she said with a cheeky grin. "With everyone out of the room, they would've had all the freedom they needed to explore their… interconnectivity~"
"Are you insinuating that while the rest of us were seeking to better themselves the two of them might've been… fooling about?!"
"Fooling around."
"What?" Weiss asked turning Jaune's way.
"The expression is 'fooling around', not 'fooling about'," the blond argued.
"No, I distinctly remember that the expression is 'fooling about'."
"That's what you said about 'horse-doodling'," Ruby argued.
"People say it all the time," Weiss snapped back.
"What people?"
"Oh, lots of people, all the time. But nobody you would know."
"Weiss, don't let Nora wind you up. Even if Jack and Weiss had been… 'exploring their interconnectivity'… I was down the hall from our room and would've heard them," Blake stated tensely.
"That reminds me… Where were you during all this today?" Nora asked waggling her brow.
"W-What?!" Blake gawped, finding the tables turned as all eyes fell on her, narrowed in scrutiny.
"Yeah, Blake. Where were you while all of us were out joining clubs? Who was this 'friend's' place you were at, huh?" Nora asked. "Were you hanging out with that ramen chef? The one with the superpowers?"
"You mean the RA?" Ren asked with a raised brow.
"Yes, but I was trying to be a bit more subtle than that," Nora pouted, hands on her hips.
"W-What does it matter if I hung out with him? All we did was read books!"
"Oh yeah?" Ruby asked with a raised brow. "What's his favorite genre?" she asked in an accusing tone.
"Isekai light novels."
" . . . Oh. Well… I wasn't expecting such a succinct response," Ruby admitted awkwardly.
"Like. I. Said," Blake bit out tensely. "All we were doing was reading."
"Really? But you had the whole floor to yourselves probably," Nora said with a confused tilt of her head.
"Well, I'm sure we can get his side of the story too," Jaune hummed.
"And why is that?" Blake asked.
"Because he just came into the room behind you," he said pointing over her shoulder.
"WHAT?!" Blake yelped with a flushed face.
To Be Continued…