"Come on! Put your back into it!" Lavs was close to passing out as the Courier dropped more weight onto her back, her arms wobbling as it struggled to keep her upright, she didn't get a lick of sleep at all last night, "This is the first step in your endurance training, focus your Aura onto your back, we'll be doing this until you can lift a bullhead."
Lavs shook her head vigorously; she turned to the person next to her, some blond-haired Beacon student who was passed out on the ground with a couple of dumbbells sitting on his lower back, "Don't look at him! He'll be punished later!" Her head snapped back into place, staring directly down at the ground as she maintained a straight-arm plank, sweat dribbling down her head as she breathed heavily.
Judging by the weight on her poor back, Lavs guesstimated that there were a total of five barbells, two dumbbells, and at least twelve ten-kilo plates distributed all over her back, both upper and lower. Mr. Courrier said that the large amounts of weight was to simulate the struggles that a person without Aura would feel when they train, as Aura allowed for people to lift more and withstand a lot more.
She wondered if Aura can heal the back pain that she'll felt when she grows older…
She then felt Mr. Courrier hand chopped the back of her head, sending her to the ground as the weight crushed her back. Thankfully, her Aura was still up. Unfortunately, that didn't alleviate the pain by that much, "I'll leave the weights on, this'll teach you to keep your Aura on twenty-four-seven!" Lavs groaned, "My friend used to say that there's a fine line separating being prepared and being paranoid! I said that that's bullshit so you'll be training on how to keep your Aura up permanently! My training will make it so that you subconsciously activate your Aura whenever you see me or any other people!"
The ground cracked beneath her body as the weight began to feel heavier and heavier, "I'll just drop off a few more plates and check on my second student, have fun!"
Lavs scream was muffled by her face being buried in the hard concrete ground of the training hall. She glanced at Mr. Courrier who swallowed some hard candy (?) from a colourful box with the word 'Mentats' on them before passing out completely.
Blake sneakily watched Mr. Courrier go through his torture routine with the random girl and Jaune, both of whom were face first on the ground with a mountain of weights on them… well only the girl had a lot of weights on her, Jaune only had a five kilo dumbbell on his back before he collapsed two minutes later.
The woman, whose name was Lavs apparently, held on for a pretty long time before crashing down into the ground, creating a small crater below her as the weights pushed her Aura down so much that it cracked the ground. Blake shuddered, she mentally thanked her teachers back at Menagerie for teaching her how to fight or else she might've been the third member of Mr. Courrier's training club.
Normally she'd sign up for an extracurricular club that would specialize in training because she needs to improve her skills if she wants to defeat Adam, and maybe Mr. Courrier too when she saw who was going to run the club. She didn't sign up mostly because she saw Jaune being carried back to his team's dorm like a ragdoll after his first session.
He looked pale, his eyes were rolled up to the back of his head, there were bruises everywhere on his body, his shirt was ripped and in tatters, and Blake was pretty sure that she could see his soul threatening to escape from his body.
"Don't think I can't see you, girl!" Blake stiffened, "What're you hiding for? I'm not going to beat your ass like that time on the train! I'm different now, promise, trust!"
Blake didn't move from her position, "I know you were a part of the White Fang!" she furrowed her brows and poked her head out in anger, "Don't just scream that out loud! What if they hear you saying that?!"
"Bah! These two? Don't worry, they're knocked out cold," Mr. Courrier crossed his arms and nudged Jaune's unconscious body with his foot, "See? No reaction, besides, you got questions and I have answers so why don't we just make this easier for everyone?"
"…How can I trust you? How do I know that you're not some kind of White Fang spy here to capture me or something?"
"Oh please, Adam moved on from you pretty easily and the White Fang's doing its own things now, don't be so self-centred!" Mr. Courrier laughed before sitting down on the weights lying on top of the woman, he then patted the weight on Jaune's back, "Here, have a seat and let's chat."
Reluctantly sitting on the weighted plates on Jaune's back, Blake looked nervously at the woman Lavs, who wasn't moving, "Is she okay?"
"Well her Aura's still up so she should still be alive, maybe."
"That's not very reassuring."
"Just like your relationship with Adam, hey-yo! High five!" Blake stared at him blankly, "Damn okay lame-ass."
"You said you have answers?"
"Sure, shoot."
"Why did Jaune join this club?"
Mr. Courrier glanced at the blond-haired teen beneath her, "I convinced him, during that whole sparring thing before the Festival, which is coming in a week by the way, he was the one that most consistently sucked ass," he sighed, "He has abysmal fighting skills and extremely low Aura response times, his Aura doesn't even activate without at least a one second delay! I'm surprised he survived this long… he does have an abnormally large Aura pool though but that isn't worth shit when he himself ain't shit!"
"What are the White Fang's future plans?" Blake asked another question, Jaune's problems are Jaune's problems, and it's clear that the boy is trying to improve himself, no need to comment on that.
"Yeah… I can't really answer that one yet? It's still like a work-in-progress…" Mr. Courrier rubbed the back of his head while chuckling, "Hey, don't tell anyone but I'm going to be attending a White Fang meeting at one of their hideouts, Adam's going to be there if you're interested…"
Blake's eyes widened at this, but before she could say anything Mr. Courrier held up a hand stopping her, "Ah-ah, I've read your records Belladonna, running away to do illegal shit seems to be second nature to you apparently," she looked down embarrassedly, "I'll relay the details to you eventually, you're not allowed to infiltrate any more White Fang meetings seeing as how shit you were the first time you did it."
"You knew?!"
"I'm a teacher, well assistant but whatever, I have access to the student records," he cackled, "The whole incident was written down to the letter! How embarrassing!"
"Are you going to actually give me any real information or did you invite me here just to laugh at my mistakes?!"
"Mistakes? More like catastrophic fuck-up! Hey-yo! High five!" She just glared at him, "Aight, fuck you too I guess."
"Why are you acting so friendly now? You're not as… intense back on the train…"
"Oh that, I was drugged out of my mind during that fight."
"What?"
"Oh yeah, I was like completely fucked up during that whole encounter," he motioned to his head, "I was like in my own different mind state during that…"
"Why are you dressed so differently?"
"I'm not going to wear a bodysuit for seven days in a row!"
Blake scrunched her nose up, "What's the deal with you and Adam? How do you two know each other? You don't look like a Faunus…"
"No, no, look here," Mr. Courrier opened his mouth and pointed at his teeth, "See? Fangs, really short ones but still fangs. Faunus on Faunus racism isn't common but it still happens, some Faunus just got the short end of the stick on their ancestry."
"What about Adam?" Blake questioned, wondering what he was up to after she ran from him all those months ago…
"Oh yeah, you leaving him really fucked him up like big time," Mr. Courrier laughed; he really likes laughing doesn't he? "He was in his full like 'emo' phase, you know what I'm saying?"
Not surprising to Blake, Mr. Courrier continued, "Adam was basically the stereotypical jealous ex that you'd see in old novels, although he hid that part of himself really thoroughly," he leaned back slightly, having his hands push the weight down more on Lavs' back, Blake tried not to move as much on Jaune though, if she did then the boy might actually die, "Took me drugging him unintentionally and getting him drunk for him to realize that."
Blake did a double take, "You drugged him?!"
"Yeah, he's a lot better now, not as obsessed anymore. He got plans for the White Fang, good ones this time, not like that train shit but he did try to alleviate casualties… White Fang casualties that is, who cares about civilians?"
Blake felt a surge of anger go through her, "How could you say that…? People died!"
"Pfft, so what? Everyone dies; does it matter if they die now instead of a hundred years later?" Mr. Courrier leaned towards Blake, his eyes glancing at her Gambol Shroud, "My perception of death is very much different to yours… You haven't taken a life, your blade not yet marred by the blood of the enemy… You'll learn soon."
Blake continued to listen to Mr. Courrier, who was now bouncing his leg up and down as he waved his hands about in order to emphasize his points, "At this rate, and judging by how you're dealing with all this shit including Beacon and the White Fang… I can see you just running away all together."
"On one hand, the flower, the Rose, your team leader, the one that tried to help you and the one with the most noble of intentions. When the time comes and you have to choose between her, the Flower, and Adam, the Bull, can you do it?"
Blake looked up, offended at such a question, "Of course I can! I trust-" "Not a fucking chance."
"Face it Blake, you're a coward, and not a very smart one at that," she looked down in anger, biting her lip, "Not using a fake last name was your first mistake, I did some research and found some things out…"
"You're a hypocrite and a coward, daughter of one of the most influential people in all of Faunus-kind? And what did you do with this gift that you've been born with? Did you stay and try to change things for the better from the inside? Use your influence and power that you've been clearly born with to at the very least try to make a counter-movement against the White Fang's terrorist sect?"
"Don't call them terrorists!-" "You've proven my point again. You implied that you were done with the White Fang when clearly you have not. You're still torn between the Flower and the Bull. And that'll kill you later in the future."
Blake gritted her teeth, "Who are you to say anything?! Where were you when Faunus were being oppressed and discriminated against?! If you're so strong then why didn't you do anything?!"
Mr. Courrier just stared at her blankly while she breathed out heavily after her outburst, "Where were you?" He replied, eyes boring directly into hers, "You were born, raised, taught, fucking given all this power… and what did you do with it? What did you do you fucking coward? You ran away from it all, your parents, Menagerie, and for what? To play Huntress while your fellow Faunus continues to suffer in Mistral and Vacuo and Atlas?"
"You were born in Menagerie at the very top of the ladder, you haven't faced hardship a day in your life, you haven't visited Mistral or Vacuo and see how it's like over there, you ran here, to Vale, one of the safer places for Faunus to come… yet you still choose to hide your features anyways."
"While you continue to run away from yourself, I advise you to think like how I think," she raised her head, Mr. Courrier points his fingers at her bow, "I like being me, I fucking love being me, I'm proud of who I am and what I do, I'm proud of what I am, no matter what anybody says. I am me and that's more than enough."
"You hide your features either because you're ashamed of yourself or you're afraid of bullies or whatever the fuck, Cardin and his cronies are only four people, what're you afraid for?" he dropped his hand, "Answer me this Blake, are you proud of being a Faunus?"
"Yes."
"Do you like yourself?"
"…Yes."
"Then why hide something that makes you 'you'?"
"…"
"I know you're a smart girl Blake, I know you can do great things when you put your mind to it, but right now you're not," Mr. Courrier stood up and lifted the weights off of Lavs' back effortlessly, the girl letting out a sigh of relief as the weights were literally lifted off of her shoulders, "I assume that your team knows what you are, right?"
Blake nodded, still sitting on Jaune's back as he slowly wakes up and groaned from the weight, "You can't hide forever Blake, it's better to get it out now than wait for it to explode in your face. The teachers all know of course, who's fucking stupid enough to use their real name when trying to run away?"
"Anybody with a functioning Scroll and some basic rudimentary knowledge about the White Fang would be able to find out your entire family history from a simple search, I advise that you use a fake name next time… if there is a next time that is."
Blake stayed silent, "Alright! This chat is over, would you be a dear and help carry Weakboy over there back to his dorm? Tell his partner that he needs more training too by the way, or else he's never going to make it through the preliminary rounds of the Tournament."
The Courier's a bit of an asshole, eh?
I watched a couple of episodes of Mushoku Tensei recently and I cannot recommend this series any fucking less!
Rudeus makes me want to cave his skull in, I came into the series thinking it's going to be a Lolita type situation, where Rudeus is like Humbert Humbert, a character that you're supposed to hate but apparently not! He suffers no consequences for his paedophilic actions and all of the perverted shit is played off like average anime fanservice shit!
Mushoku Tensei dickriders will say that the series is about Rudeus' second chance at life to not be as shitty of a person, and that is an interesting thing... if not for the fact that Sylphette exists and the series wants you to root for them to get together with her even mentioning a fucking harem!
Y'know, the elf girl that's basically been groomed by Rudeus, the forty-something shut-in. If Rudeus really wants to improve as a person then he needs to basically come clean to all the women that he manipulated when he first got reincarnated. Eris is like the textbook groom victim, always vehemently defending Rudeus for basically every fucking reason!
Another argument is that Rudeus had a rough upbringing and that he was bullied and went through traumatic shit or something like that, this is funny to me because do they not know that just because you had a terrible childhood doesn't mean you get to get away with doing equally terrible shit to other people?
I believe in second chances, I like redemption stories, but Rudeus' only redemption is death.
Sorry for the rant, instead of watching bottom of the barrel Isekai trash may I recommend you some cooler fantasy manga and stories.
Frieren. Dungeon Meshi. Reincarnated As A Sword is awesome, I love watching slavers be killed. Overlord is dumb fun. Konosuba's also dumb fun.
And if you want heavy worldbuilding then read some fantasy books instead of manga, you got literary classics like Dune and Lord of the Rings right there.
Thanks for reading this chapter by the way, your reviews help me fuel my ego so that I can write more so get writing too!
