There it is. Man, that's the first chapter I wrote with over 10 000 words (author notes before and after the actual chapters excluded, of course.)
First off, The-Anti-Akuma: Thank you for the corrections. I went and fixed the mistakes you pointed out. You'll also be happy to know that I'm not going to repeat the 'Grimm with a s' mistake. Sorry about that, I didn't know that Grimm was both the singular and plural.
Some of the mistakes I made in previous chapters were pretty embarrassing to be honest. I mean, 'holded'? I knew the past tense of 'hold' was 'held'. How did I make that mistake?
To answer your question: Gemini assumes that the option to use his Skill Points is locked with one of his aura fragments because 1) he know some of his semblance's functionalities are missing and 2) He couldn't find a way to use the Skill Points he already had. The Game shows him he has Skill Points, but there's nothing allowing him to spend them for Skills.
So he just connected the dots and assumed he had to find the aura fragment to get access to this function.
I'm sorry if I failed to make it clear. The sweet spot between 'doesn't explain enough and confuse people' and 'explains too much and makes people think I takes them for idiots' is something I worry about and sometimes overcorrect in the wrong direction.
Also, there's a lot about his semblance that would make more sense if it worked in different ways. Something I wanted to go for in this fic was to have the Gamer semblance be bugged as hell because instead of being a power generated by the world (like Jihan's power in the webtoon) it's made by a single human soul, which are limited. This imperfection is why there was an aspect of the Gamer's Mind that had to be erased at the beginning because there was a contradiction in the 'program'. It's also why the attribution of Stat Points is so painful and why its attempt at simulating a collectible quest resulted in Gemini losing max aura and functionalities that are stuck in the aura fragments all over Remnant.
Muffin Man: 'this well written'? This mean a lot to me, because while I'm confident in making decent scenarios, I don't have that much trust in my ability to put it on paper. Everytime I re-read what I wrote down, I can't help but cringe at the writing quality and wish I could have done better.
So your comment, to me, means that I'm judging myself top harshly, again. It really lifted my mood up. Thank.
And I'm taking note for how numbers end.
CinderBestGirl: ''I Look forward to seeing what you do with Cinder, though I'm curious how you'll handle the pairing. You've kinda hinted at it, but it's up in the air.'' Uh? The way you mentioned the pairing in the same sentence as what I'll do with Cinder makes it sound like you think I hinted at the pairing being Gemini and Cinder. I'm confused, when did I do that? I'm pretty sure the only hint I've given concerning romantic relationships was Gemini unknowingly breaking the 4th wall and mentally begging to not have a harem as a joke toward how much fics there are like that and mentionning being monogamous (this is a good christian fic and he wouldn't accept polygamy even if he had the opportunity.)
So I'm curious, what 'hint' did you see?
Also, Gemini and Ruby are both currently 12 years old, though Ruby's age will change soon. Gemini is roughly 4 month younger than Ruby (and because girls, on average, hit their growth spurt before guys, she's also a little taller than him right now). So there's no getting to Beacon even if he wanted to, since he doesn't have silver eyes to make Ozpin recruit him early. That door is just closed.
And I think I forgot to answer your question about how many soul fragments he found. He only has two so far, the one he found in chapter 1 and the other he mentioned toward the beginning of chapter 2. He's been training on Patch since then and hasn't heard of any other fragment. Odd, we know (even though Gemini doesn't) that one appeared in Ozpin's office, but where could the other's be if nobody noticed the floating and glowing green crystal? Hint, hint.
Thanks for the control f advice, that advice is a godsend.
selfishgecko: Eh, a bit off. Honestly, both names have two aspect to the foreshadowing. One which hint at Gemini's state of mind, and the other which foreshadow major plot points. I'm not going to spoil, but I can talk about the psychological aspect without any problem.
First off, it's a bit unfair to make people guess when some cards are missing, so here's a bit of behind-the-scene. In the earliest draft of chapter 1 (God I rewrote that chapter so many time) the placeholder name for the protagonist was Jiminy. But it felt too generic of a name, expecially when I considered that people would refer to him as Jim as a surname. 'Jim' felt more like the name of a grunt working for Junior than the name of a protagonist, so I changed it. Jiminy became Gemini. Alexandrite was another attempt to choose his name, but I didn't like 'Alex' much more than 'Jim' so it became the middle name.
'Jiminy' was the placeholder name because I took inspiration from 'Jiminy Cricket' as the fairy tale inspiration for the character Gemini. Specifically, the aspect of Jmiy giving advice to Pinocchio that Pinocchio should have really listened to. Meanwhile, Alexandrite was inspired by Cassandra of Troy, sometimes referred to as Alexandra (hence, Alexandrite), who was cursed to utter true prophecies but never be believed.
So, 'Gemini' because, having informations than other people don't have, others might regret not listening to him, and 'Alexandrite' because he know the future but feels that he won't be believed if he come out and say it. That's the meaning of the names concerning his state of mind.
Gemini is also a constellation which represents Castor and Pollux, who are twin. And it's literally latin for 'twins', yes. That also matters, but if I explain further, then I'll start spoiling. Though I'll say that what it foreshadows is less about twins and more the basic concept of two. Alexandrite, meanwhile, isn't a color, but a gemstone with two colors. Green in high luminosity, red in low luminosity.
I'll stop here to avoid spoiling and because the author note is already pretty long. Enjoy the chapter.
Another level gained, another session of intense pain.
I awaited on my bed, like a blade being worked on an anvil.
Until my screams grew silent, as the pain receded.
And it was slightly stronger that I stood up.
"Here." Perry offered me a glass of water, which I drank bottoms up.
"Thanks." I said, with a hoarse voice. My throat really needed that.
He rubbed the back of his neck. "...Say, do you really need to go through this? Isn't it a bit too extreme to be worth it?"
I considered his words, before shrugging.
"Meh, not really. Pain is a normal part of training, it just looks worse in my case because mine is condensed in short burst instead of being spread out over time."
"...Still, your semblance sucks."
Wasn't that the truth.
/-/
"Your semblance is awesome!"
Wasn't that the truth.
Since the first time I found the Xiao-Long/Rose's household, I'd been coming back every once in a while to hang out with Ruby.
I hadn't realised before just how much my isolated routine was keeping my moral down. Just because I was a socially awkward introvert didn't mean my mental health could get away with starving myself from human contact.
Of course, I'd been coming back to much more reasonable hours.
I was currently showing off my semblance to Ruby. She didn't have her volume 1 outfit yet, except for her cape, apart from that she wore a red hoodie with short sleeves, a simple black skirt and running shoes.
Anyway, I was worried my semblance would look lame compared to the flashier ones, but she seemed to find my pocket dimension pretty cool. Thankfully, too, because my semblance didn't have much else to show off.
I almost laughed at the face she made when I pulled out a box full of books.
She seemed less impressed with the content of the books, though.
"'The creation of the four kingdoms', 'Malik the Sunderer', 'Philosophers of the ancient world', 'Humans and Faunus throughout history', 'The encyclopedia of the gods', 'A dissertation on the Great War and its impact on modern society' 'Basic economy'... Why do you only have boring books?"
"Boring? Boring? We're talking about the development of human civilization, studies of the past, geopolitical subjects and the functionnement of a society. How is any of this boring?" I asked, incensed at her dismissal of such fascinating educationnal literature.
"...Gem?"
"Yes?"
"You're a nerd."
I blinked. Yes I was, and? She scolded me for an hour when I recognized my cane sword exposed in her bedroom. She was as bad as I was, just on different subjects.
"Hi pot, I'm kettle. Remember the rant you gave me about treating my sword better, miss weapon nerd?"
She blushed, and averted her eyes. "Erm, anyway, this 'pocket dimension' you have, if your semblance is based on video game logic, shouldn't it be called your inventory?"
"...Yeah, I guess it should." How did I not think of it myself? "Thanks for the idea."
"You're welcome. Say, wanna play video games before I have to train?"
"Sure. Lead the way."
"Cool, I've got the perfect one in mind." She said with a smug grin.
/-/
Sooo... Turns out Ruby completely crushes me in FPS games.
Which, you know, wasn't much of a surprise considering these have never really been my kind of games and she's... well, Ruby.
But, even if the only FPS I'd played in my last life was Halo and I never played one before in this life, I was still hoping to avoid such a crushing defeat... So much for that, the score of the game was 15-1 in her favor.
And I only got that 1 kill because I blocked her view of the screen.
"One thing my father taught me is: 'If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying.'" I had told her when she complained it was cheating.
"Uh, that's funny, uncle Qrow has a similar saying. 'It's only cheating if you get caught.'" She had said in response.
I guessed I didn't have to worry about being a bad influence for her, Mr Branwen didn't sound much better.
The FPS we played wasn't a bad game, I just couldn't compete with her shooting skills.
For God's sake, she even no-scoped a grenade out of the air.
The game we played had an interesting concept in that the weapons were built from the ground up by the players, there were over 2 000 gun parts to collect and build weapons with. The customization of that game was insane.
Obviously, Ruby 100% that game and had all parts unlocked, but even though she helped guide me through making myself a good gun, I still coudn't come close to being a challenge.
She had this min-maxed sniper rifle that priorized reach and damage per bullet. I was pretty sure I would have had nightmares because of that sniper if it wasn't for my semblance. That thing could shoot far enough to reach a target on the other side of even the largest pvp map, and even though it only fired one bullet before needing to be reloaded, that one bullet hit so hard it killed anyone in one hit.
That included when I was inside a goddamned tank.
Granted, the one-shot it could make meant that missing a single shot made her vulnerable while she reloaded, but while most players would mess up and get punished for it, Ruby wasn't someone that could be decribed as a bad shot.
Yeah, I definitely had to recognize my defeat, she won that one.
/-/
"Eh! Looks like your little friend won that one." Qrow said after I threw Ruby out of bound.
I stumbled upon Ruby being trained by her uncle and he decided that a little spar with someone her age would be good pratice. She was really happy to show me how her 'super cool' uncle made her super strong.
I went along with the sparring idea in part because I was curious to see how I myself would fare against something other than a Grimm. Also, because the better Ruby will by the time Cinder arrived in Vale, the better I'd feel.
As it was, she was doing better than I expected for her age. Apparently, he started training her when she was pretty young, even if it started lightly and he waited for her to get older before raising the intensity up.
I guessed that was normal for kids raised by huntsmen.
"Aww, that's so unfair. How much aura do you have?" Ruby complained.
"A lot, but I don't know how it compare to others. Is it that much?" I asked Qrow, who was keeping track of our aura with his scroll.
The rules of our spar were simple. We traced a circle around us and we lost if we were out, if we lost half of our aura, or if we surrendered, with Qrow as our referee. Of course, since Ruby didn't have Crescent Rose yet, she used a wooden scythe and I fought with a wooden sword for fairness's sake.
"If it's that much? Kid, I don't know what you're made of, but you're only down by a third after taking twice the hits I know for a fact that Ruby can take."
"Only a third!? No wonder you weren't going down" Ruby grumbled.
Yeah, Ruby controlled the fight until the very end. I kept taking hits and only managed to hit her back two or three times before I got past her guard and created an opportunity to throw her out. A polearm might have better reach than a sword but once someone was past that reach, it became a lot more awkward to defend oneself.
"Uh, so I have around six times more aura than Ruby. Is it that much?"
Qrow sighed. "Yeah, Ruby herself has almost twice has much as the average huntsman. You calculated that pretty fast, by the way."
She did? I never really thought she would... Then again, the only measure of aura the show gave was Jaune having 'a lot of it'.
"I'm pretty good at math."
More than the average civilian at least.
The development of maths on Remnant was quite different from Earth. That wasn't to say that it was backward or anything, but where sciences on Earth depended entirely on a deep understanding of physics and the maths that rules it, the sciences of Remnant depended on magic rocks. This was why the maths on Remnant branched out differently from Earth. Both world's mathematicians would probably have a field day if they could compare notes.
But when it came to public education? Remnant's schools didn't really bother teaching beyond the equivalent of Earth's third year of high school, except for people seeking careers that required it or the advanced courses for mathematically gifted students, and the huntsmen academies didn't even bother with maths in their curriculum. Not that it was a problem since you didn't kill Grimm with algebra.
Of course, the people of both world didn't remember crap about most of their high school maths once their final exams were finished, so the majority of both world's population were in pratice pretty even when it came to maths. Glad to see some things were universal.
"Oh, does that mean you could help me with my homework? I've been having a bit of trouble with it."
Could I? Probably, yeah. I doubt I'd have trouble with it.
I was in an advanded math class in high school during my last life. Even if it was a long time ago, her maths should be easy enough.
"I- I mean, it's fine if you don't want to. Just forget-" Ruby, flustered, tried to take back her demand. likely taking my silence as me not wanting to, but I cut her off.
"Sure, I can take a look. How hard could it be?"
Sheesh, calm down Ruby, I was only thinking about it.
"Oh... Thanks." She calmed down and smiled.
"Right. If you two are done being cute, could we get back on track?" Qrow asked.
"Oh right. You were saying Ruby had more aura than the average huntsman?"
"Yep. The best huntsmen are usually the ones with the most aura."
"Eh? Really? That's kind of weird." Ruby said.
"Yeah. I mean, it makes sense that having lots of aura would help a huntsman, but being able to take more hits doesn't really replace skill... Right?" I added, not seeing how it worked anymore than her.
"That's because you two aren't thinking far enough." He chuckled. "Having lots of aura doesn't just mean you can takes lots of hits, it also mean you can train for longer without risking injuring yourself. That's what makes the difference." The veteran huntsman explained.
Uh, that made sense.
"So the best of the best are those who work the hardest, and those with more aura can work themselves harder than others." I summarised.
"Yep. Makes me wonder how good you'll turn out, kid. You have the opportunity of becoming one of the best, I hope you won't waste it by going easy on your training."
I threw my head back and laughed. This confused him, and Ruby's explaination barely helped him.
"Gem's semblance turns him into a video game character, he can't really train like we do."
"...What?"
"Like Ruby said, my semblance mimics a video game. I have levels and stats and I can only get stronger by gaining enough exp. Exp that I can only gain by killing Grimm." Or people, presumably, but I sure wasn't going to go and test that for the sake of learning about it.
Mr Branwen rubbed his eyes. "Oookay, guess it takes all kind of semblances. Does that mean sparring don't do anything to help you, then?"
"Sort of? Getting used to fighting something smarter than the braindead Grimm of Patch can't hurt, at least. But yeah, I'm not going to level up from sparring."
"Uh, your semblance is one of the weirdest ones I've seen... and I'm not sure if it not being the weirdest one is a good or a bad thing." He shook his head. "Anyway, how much Grimm do you need to kill to level up?"
"Well...I'm level 23, so I currently need 2 300 XP to level up-"
"Because it's scales with your level too?" Mr Branwen puffed, making it clear he considered it an annoyance. He had no idea.
"Yes, because why would it pass an occasion to make my life harder?"
"Eh, I like your sense of humour, kid." He chuckled.
Now that I thought about it, he also had a semblance that made his life harder.
Mood kindred?
"Thanks. Anyway, the average Beowolf gives me three or four XP, depending on how old they are."
Both Ruby's and Mr Branwen's eyes widened when they heard that.
"That little!?" Ruby exclaimed.
Mr Branwen looked thoughtful for a moment, before asking "How many do you need to kill to level up?"
"That would be somewhere between six and seven hundred."
Their faces paled at the number.
"It's not as bad as it sounds," I added. "I can get between 60 to 80 XP each night, so it takes me around a month and a half to level up. I should be level 30-something by the time I'm fifteen."
"Wait, did you just say you go fight Grimm every night?" Mr Branwen asked.
Of course an adult wouldn't like a kid my age fighting Grimm alone, especially during the night, where they were more active.
"Don't worry, I'm fine."
"But-"
"I'm fine. I know better than to fight a group of Grimm head on. I get my XP by leading lone Grimm into traps."
"...I guess it's reassuring to know you're not reckless about it, at least." He conceded. "But with how long it takes for you to 'level up', you might lag behind the bests, instead of surpassing them. Kind of a shame, to be honest."
"I still won the spar." How was that for lagging behind?
"And you were on the losing side of it until the end where you won by ring-out, your point?" Mr Branwen countered. "Ruby still has more aura left than you, despite the ridiculous amount you have. Add to that the size of the ring limiting her use of her semblance and her mobility was far more restrained than yours."
"Wait, you put me at a disadvantage on purpose, didn't you?" Ruby accused her uncle, who smirked at her in return.
"Of course I did, pipsqueak. How could I make you a better huntress if I didn't force you out of your comfort zone from time to time?"
She glared at him, visibly unhappy at the logic.
"But I like the comfort zone, it's comfy." She complained, before an idea hit her. "Wait, so you're saying I'd have won if there was no ring?"
"Probably, yeah." "Pfft, as if." Were Mr Branwen's and I's respectives answer.
"What!? You heard my uncle, I'd kick your butt if we fought without a ring!" Ruby claimed. She was taking this to heart, so much so that she made it very tempting to challenge her on it.
"Doubt."
"Kiddo, I have to agree with my niece here. You wouldn't be able to win by ring out and she'd be even better at fighting if she can move around at will. Your chances aren't great."
"Again, doubt."
"Then how about we test it?" Ruby challenged me.
"Sure, but let's not do it right now, so that our aura will be full."
"Fine! When?"
"Tomorrow, same hour?"
"You're on!"
"Perfect. Mr Branwen, would you mind to be the referee for tomorrow's spar as well?"
The old crow sighed.
"Sure, why not?" He said, before grumbling something about 'stubborn and prideful brats'.
/-/
Tomorrow, in the beginning of the evening, Ruby and I were standing at a few meters apart. Mr Branwen stood to the side, about to clarify the rules of the following spar.
Mr Xiao-long, Yang and Zwei were watching, too.
"Alright," Mr Branwen spoke. "the rules are simple. You two fight one versus one, and you win either by making your opponent's aura fall to 50% or by making them surrender. Understood?"
""Got it."" Both Ruby and I said, determined to win and confident we would.
"Yoohoo, go sis! Kick his ass!"
"Yang, language!" Mr Xiao-Long admonished his eldest daughter.
"Sorry. Kick his butt!"
Mr Branwen sighed. "There's no ring limit, but please, don't go fighting inside the house. You will clean up the mess youself otherwise. At 0; 3!"
Ruby gripped her wooden scythe. I kept a relaxed pose, with a hand in my pocket.
"2!"
I would indeed lose if I tried to take her head on.
"1!"
But that was why I bought a little something to help me hid from her sight.
"0!"
To her credit, she didn't charge at me the moment the spar started. Instead, she remained at a distance, prepared to react to anything I might pull. When it became clear I wasn't going on the offensive first, she used her semblance to move in quickly.
She still wasn't coming directly at me though, she moved toward me but also a bit to my left, where my side was more exposed since I wielded my sword in my right hand.
Not that it mattered, since I wasn't going to fight her just yet. Instead, I took a smoke bomb out of my pocket and threw it between us before she could actually attack me.
"Ninja vanish!" I yelled as we were both engulfed by the cloud.
Ruby coughed, unprepared for the smoke.
It was time to use the Torchwick family's special technique.
"See you in the forest." I said as I ran toward the woods.
Nigerundayo!
I hid in the trees as soon as I was out of sight. Or at least her sight, Mr Branwen might have stayed closer to her, but I didn't think I'd be able to hide from him if he really wanted to find me.
Not that it mattered, he wasn't the one I was fighting.
After less than a minute of hiding, I heard Ruby running in the forest, her steps disturbing the crunchy leaves of fall. Judging by how fast she moved, she was using her semblance to scour the forest.
So she was trying to use speed to cover as much terrain as she could, hoping it would allow her to find and catch up to me? Too bad for her, I was hiding, not running.
That being said, I wanted her to stop close to where I was, not zoom past me.
Time for the good ol' rock throwing trick then.
...I forgot to take a rock before climbing the tree. Oops?
I couldn't go down the tree without risking Ruby finding me in the open either, so what should I do?
...My eyes drifted to my wooden sword. Well, the wooden sword I was lent, same difference.
Should I? I didn't really need it after all. I didn't go to all this trouble for my sneak attack to be a single blow followed by a drawn-out fight, but to win in a single move. Hitting Ruby once with this wooden sword wasn't going to achieve that.
So I might as well.
I lifted my right arm, ready to throw the sword as soon as Ruby would be close enough to hear the sound, yet still far enough to not see it.
It didn't take long, and so I threw it as hard as I could against another tree.
I heard Ruby stop, before she ran in my direction and stopped close to the tree the sword hit.
She stood here, looking for the source of the noise, as the petals of her semblance slowly fell down around her and the red leaves rose from the ground, disturbed by her speed.
As she found the sword resting on the ground, Mr Branwen arrived on the scene.
The old crow's eyes looked toward me, immediately noticing where I was.
I kind of expected not being able to hide from him, but wow, even then that was quick.
Nevertheless, he didn't say anything, waiting to see how things would turns out.
So I walked silently on a thick branch, moving closer to Ruby, who was looking around, attempting to spot me.
And when she turn her back toward me, I dropped on her, wrapping my legs around her neck and crashing both of us on the ground.
She screamed in surprise, of course, but it was already too late.
"Get... off..." She tried to pry my legs off her neck with her arms, but she remained prisoner of my grip.
"If I did that, you'd wipe the floor with me. No, you're going to stay like this until you surrender."
"Ne- Hrrk!" She was cut off by me lightly squeezing her neck.
"You don't seem to understand, so let me explain. Legs are much stronger than arms, and in the positions we're in, I barely need to exert myself to deploy more strength than you could hope to. You aren't getting out."
"You can't force me to surrender! You'll have to let me go and fight me." She insisted, still not understanding how screwed she was.
I decided to educate her by choking her again. This time, I stretched it for a few seconds, where she panicked and tried to punch my legs to make me let go of her.
Unfortunately for her, she didn't have much in the way of leverage, so it didn't do anything.
I stopped the choking and resumed my explainations as she panted for air.
"But I can choke you until you do. Tap three times with your hand to surrender." Then I squeezed again, harder and for longer than before.
"Well, you're a pretty ruthless kid." Mr Branwen said, before adressing his niece. "So, do you want to continue or just surrender?"
"Never, I haven't lost! Just wait until I get him off of me." Ruby answered.
Having decided that she had enough time to breath, I cut off her oxygen intake. Come on Ruby, you had to have seen it coming.
"Hrrrk."
She flailed her limbs, trying to kick me in the face. It almost worked.
Mr Branwen sighed. "Dammit kiddo. My sister wasn't getting out of Tai's grip back when we were in Beacon, I really doubt you're getting out of this one."
Ruby remained stubborn, hitting my legs again. It helped her as much as the first time.
Then Mr Xiao-Long and Yang found us, their eyes locking onto Ruby and I.
"Whoa! What happened here?" Yang said.
"Gemini sneak attacked Ruby and is now trying to get her to surrender." Mr Branwen told her.
"Uh, so he use grapples, that's rare. Takes me back, too." Mr Xiao-Long said.
"Eh, yeah. In insight, I'm not sure what freaked me out the most back then. Realising that Rav and I weren't the strongest students, or how she started to act tsundere after you choked her."
"Tsundere?" I asked, not recognizing the foreign word.
I relaxed my leg's grip on Ruby's throat, allowing her to gasp for air.
"It's a mistrali word for someone who like someone else but pretend not to, usually by being a mean jerk to hide their crush." Mr Branwen explained to me.
Ah! So it was Remnant's equivalent of tsundere. Didn't even sound similar.
"Hey, Ruby. Feel like giving up yet?"
Going by how she was trying to pry my legs open, I guessed that was a no. Oh well, she'll just continue to choke between my legs until she did.
...Aaaaand I just realised how that sounded.
Since I didn't say it out loud, I was going to pretend I phrased that better.
Oww! Did she just bit me?
"Wait!" Yang suddenly exclaimed. "So my mother started liking dad after he choked her?"
Mr Xiao-Long and Branwen looked at each other, realising that they've talked about Raven in Yang's presence.
Was it that much of a problem? She was what, fourteen? fifteen? She was old enough to learn more about her bitch of a gene donor.
"...Sort of?" Mr Xiao-Long said.
Yang pinched the bridge of her nose. "I know I've asked a lot about my mother, but that's really not the kind of info I wanted."
Mr Xiao-Long rubbed his head, visibly unsure of what to say.
Mr Branwen, on the other hand just took a sip from his flask.
I squeezed my legs harder, hoping Ruby would concede already. This was getting tiresome.
It did the trick, as she taped my leg three times soon after, like I had told her to.
So I let her go without delay, and Mr Branwen announced my victory.
Ruby coughed as she tried gasping for air.
"Take slower breath, That'll help you." I advised her, before helping her sit and keeping my hand on her back. "Now, Ruby. What did you learn from this spar?" I asked her with cheer.
She threw me a dirty look. "That you're a big, mean, cheating jerk?"
"I mean, yeah, but that's not really what I was referring to."
"That my baby sister needs to work on her hand to hand combat? Like I've told her many times already?"
"I don't think that's what he meant. Though it would help you from being beaten like that." Mr Xiao-Long said.
"So what? I'm going to be a huntress, I'm going to fight Grimm, not people."
I going to have to doubt that, given that most of her fights in volume 1 to 3 were against my father and the white fang.
She had a point, though. Her job was to kill Grimm, not arrest criminals. She'll always be using a weapon. Nevertheless...
"You could still be disarmed during a fight with a Grimm, you should at least pratice getting your weapon back. But no, that's not what I was referring to either."
"Erm, so..."
"He's talking about being led into a trap." Her uncle said.
"Yes, thank you Mr Brawen." I smiled, ignoring his following complain about being called mister. "Ruby, when you know that your opponent know that you're stronger than them, the one thing you don't want to do is follow them straight into a trap. Make that mistake against a Grimm and it might be your last."
"Hmm, that's a pretty good assessment of the spar." Mr Xiao-Long said. "It's also something I already taught in my class, but it looks like the lesson didn't stick. I'm going to have to teach it again."
"...But dad, Grimm are too dumb for that." Ruby said.
"Nah, Grimm get smarter as they get older." Mr Branwen refuted her.
"It can't be as bad as it sounds, though, can it? I've never seen a Grimm that dangerous." Yang said.
"That's because the Grimm close to civilisation are constantly culled. They're always young ones." Mr Xiao-Long said.
I nodded. "The farther from the kingdoms we go, the older, bigger, stronger and smarter the Grimm will be. Go far enough, and who really know how smart Grimm deep in the Grimmlands really are. Maybe they might even match people in intellect."
Both adults looked at me, suddenly worried.
Ah, they must be thinking about Salem.
"Do you really think that's possible?" Yang asked, skeptical of the idea of a Grimm being as smart as a person.
Well, there was Salem, although she was an unique case. But even without her, the first thing I thought about in Volume 2, when Dr Oobleck explained that the Grimm got smarter with age, was if there was a limit to how smart they could get.
Deep into the Grimmlands, there might be Grimm far older than all of Mankind. They could be a million years old, or ten millions, or even more. Grimm so old that they were big enough to destroy an entire kingdom on their own, their hide so tough that even our strongest of weapons wouldn't even leave a scratch, so smart that they made us look like idiots.
And the only reason we still lived was because they were so far away from any human that they likely doidn't even know we existed. Our greatest of accomplishments, beneath their notice.
Yeah, that's where my mind went back then. Thankfully, the show never showed such a terrible Grimm. Even that Leviathan Grimm in Volume 6, while bigger and more resistant than any other Grimm seen before, didn't seem particularly intelligent.
I kept those old thought for me, however, because I probably shouldn't give Ruby and Yang existential dread.
"Eh, probably not. We may not know if there's a limit to how much the Grimm can grow, but I'm pretty sure if something like a mountain-sized Grimm existed, an airship would have notice one from a distance by now." Then again, we may not have heard of it if it had happened. There was no 'free speech' or 'freedom of press' on Remnant, as being surrounded by the Grimm, who could feel negative emotions, gave politicians a strong argument to justify controlling which information was allowed to reach the public. Spreading information that incited panic amongst the public was criminalised.
But censorship was rarely an efficient measure when the population was otherwise free, so there was still a fair chance that information about such Grimm would have leaked in some way, as many information the council tried to keep secret eventually was revealed to the public.
Unsurprisingly, most of the censoring done by the council was to protect their own butts from scandals instead of preventing a Grimm attack due to panic. Of course, each of these political scandals were made worse by the fact the councilmen abused their authority to hide their misdeeds, so the laws giving the state that power had the opposite result of what was intended, but I remembered Earth's political climate so I was way past the point of expecting a governement to be competent and acting in good faith.
At least people on Remnant disliked their politicians about as much as Earthlings did.
"...It'd be so cool if a Grimm like that existed, though." Ruby said with an odd smile. "I wanna kill one."
...
...
...As we all looked at her with raised eyebrows, I was reminded that silver-eyed warriors were 'destined to lead the life of a warrior'. Did this mean that they had natural blood knight tendencies?
Come to think of it, her first reaction when Dr Oobleck showed her the Goliaths in Volume 2 was 'so cool. Let's kill it.' Or something like that.
Suddenly, a crow (or was it a raven? I could never tell the difference) cawed at us from above, drawing our attention from Ruby's strange words to it.
The bird was perched on a branch, much closer to us than wild animals usually were to people. Its cawing almost sounded like it was mocking us, and the two adults threw it an annoyed look. Weird.
Meh, either way, there was only one way to deal with these winged rats.
I picked up a rock and threw it at the stupid bird. It flew away, cawing angrily at me.
Mr Branwen and Xiao-Long looked at me, incredulous.
"What? I hate birds." I said, before bird poop landed on my head. "Ewww!"
Yang reacted similarly, stepping away in disgust, and Ruby laughed at me.
"Looks like I'll have to lend you my shower again, uh?" Mr Xiao-Long offered me with a chuckle.
"Yeah... Looks like it." Some of it spilled on my hoodie, too, but at least I had a t-shirt under it, so I wouldn't have to borrow his old clothes again.
We walked back to their house, although Ruby and I trailed behind the rest of her family.
The future huntress smiled. "You know, with this talk about Grimm, I wonder what kind of monsters we're going to fight once we'll be huntsmen."
Huntsmen?
"I can't wait for when we'll be students at Beacon." She continued. Wait, what was she talking about? "Do you think we'll be in the same team? That'd be so cool!"
"But I'm not planning to go to Beacon." I said.
We both stopped walking, as Ruby looked at me with surprise.
"Oh. You're planning to go to another academy? Why?" She asked, her voice filled with disappointment.
"Uh, no. You know I've never said I wanted to become a huntsman, right? You're just assuming things."
"Eh? Wait, wait, wait, hold on. Why are you training if you don't want to become a huntsman?"
"That's because..." I paused for dramatic effect, hiding half of my face with my hand. "There is someone I need to kill."
"Riiight," Ruby rolled her eyes, "sure you do, Mr edgelord."
"Not falling for the joke, uh?"
"Of course not. We've been hanging out every other weekend for a few months already, I think I can tell when you're joking by now." Ruby said. "You know, if you don't want to say it, you can just say so. It won't stop me from being curious, but I'm not going to force you to answer either."
"Thanks, but it's fine." I reassured her. I technically told her the truth, but there was also more to it. After all, I didn't live only to kill Cinder, I had my own ambitions I wished to see realised. "Tell me, Ruby, how did humans managed to survive the Grimm?"
To her credit, she did think about it, rather than replying thoughtlessly, but the answer was still a bit disappointing, if not unsurprising.
"...Huntsmen?"
The four kingdoms did make lots of propaganda to make the public view huntsmen as these grand champions, guardians of Mankind. So I couldn't really blame her for her answer.
"Nope, think about it, huntsmen have only been a thing for roughly 80 years, and last I've checked, Mankind has fought against the Grimm for a little longer than that." A thousand years of recorded history related the fight against the Grimm, and who know how long before that. Huntsmen, in the grand scheme of things, were actually pretty irrelevant. "So I'm afraid that's not it."
She looked puzzled, so I decided to help her a bit.
"C'mon Ruby, you've had to have seen this in class. It's part of the curriculum for everyone."
That seemed to do the trick, as her eyes illuminated with recognition after a few seconds.
...Or maybe it was the light of the sun reflecting in her silver eyes, giving it a mettalic shine. I wondered how I only now noticed her eyes did that. It was kind of pretty.
"Aaaaah, it's dust, isn't it?"
"Bingo. It was thank to dust that our ancestors survived the Grimm and it's on dust that all our technology runs. Despite those miraculous magical rocks, however, we still are only able to establish civilizations where we possess significant geographical advantages. Such as Vale's mountains and shallow waters. So tell me: What happens when we run out of dust?"
"...It becomes harder to beat the Grimm?"
"That's understating it a bit. The problem isn't just fighting them without bullets, it's that we also depend on dust to power modern agricultural machineries. Keeping the Grimm outside the walls with melee weapons only would already be a problem, but in the middle of a famine? That would be an extinction level catastrophe. We run out of dust, and Mankind is doomed." That was without mentionning keeping us warm in winter, though Vacuo didn't have to worry about that one, unlike Atlas.
"But we aren't running out, we still have lots of dust mines."
"And you have the SDC to thank for that. If it wasn't for them, we'd be running out... around now, actually, according to the best experts' estimations." Say what you wished about Jacques Schnee, and there was a lot of bad to say, but he was damned good at running the SDC. "They're the only ones able to search for and mine dust that far out in the Grimmlands. Most dust mines close to the kingdoms are empty by now, and the other mining companies simply don't have the wealth to push further into . The SDC gave us an extra 70 years, though they might manage to find more mines by then and extend that time further."
We made it out of the woods, Ruby's home not hidden by the trees anymore. But instead of going inside, she stopped walking and looked at me, visibly frustated by my little 'the end is near' speech.
"So what, everything is hopeless, so there's no point fighting back? Please tell me that's not what you're trying to say."
"It is not. There is one solution to save Humanity from the Grimm."
"Great... Uh, what is it?"
I smirked and pointed my finger upward.
She looked at my hair. "...The bird poop?"
I sighed, hoping she was just joking. "Higher."
"...The clouds?" She said with a growing smile.
"Okay, now you're just messing with me."
She snickered. "Sorry, it's just that you're being way too dramatic with your guessing game. You're talking about space, right? But Atlas already tried that, dust don't work up there."
"Pff, if you can call that trying. They gave up at the first problem."
Did the United States give up when their first rocket blew up and the whole crew died? No, they tried again, re-replaced the dead crew, tried again, re-re-replaced the new dead crew and continued like that until they got to the moon.
Sure, they lost 10 rockets and... I dunno, 15 astronauts? But hey, they got on the moon and came back with nothing valuable for their exploit. Worth it.
"But... There's nothing that can be done if the dust don't work." Ruby said, confused by my reply.
To be fair, what I was saying was the Remnant equivalent of saying that having no gasoline was no reason for a car to not work.
Except that Earth's cars weren't limited to just gasoline, they could run on electricity, too.
Actually, now that I thought about it, Remnant's cars were pretty much electric cars, it was just that the battery was a magic rock.
"Yes, but the atlesian ships themselves are pretty much spacefaring already," well, except for the lack of radiation shielding (Remnant didn't even know radiation existed, that was admittedly a problem) and the lack of cabin pressurization, and a bunch of other things. But I meant that the airships' propulsion system worked well enough to go to space with it. It wasn't FTL, far from it, but it should be reasonable enough to travel inside the local planetary system. "so the energy source is really the only issue to solve. If we can find an alternative to dust, then the stars are ours to take." I said, though it didn't look like Ruby was convinced.
"There's no other option than dust, though. There's a reason everything runs on it."
I smirked, knowing that was technically untrue. "And that Ruby, is where you're mistaken. We do, in fact, already have an alternative source of energy."
Her eyes grew wide. "Eh?! We do?"
"Yep! It's called fire." She gave me a flat stare, clearly unimpressed. "No, really. We burn wood as fuel to make heat and light, that's energy."
"Gem... We can't light a bonfire inside an airship to power it." Ruby deadpanned.
"Obviously." I rolled my eyes. "Nonetheless, it's proof that another source of energy exist outside of dust and if there's one, then there's bound to be others. Huntsmen are important because they're needed to hold the line against the Grimm, but ultimately they can only limit the damage and delay the inevitable. Time is an ally of the Grimm, and our only option for long-term survival is by leaving the planet before running out of the energy we need to sustain our civilization."
Or as Salem put it in the prologue of the show: 'There will be no victory in strength.'
I fully agreed with her on that point.
"Sooo... This is all well and good, but what does this have to do with learning how to fight?" Ruby asked.
"Eh, not much. But if I somehow managed to discover-" more like 'introduce' "-alternative ways of producing energy that doesn't require dust, that's going to ruffle the feathers of the people who profits from dust." The SDC wasn't going to take their main source of income's value being deflated like that lying down, and if all else failed, then they might go as far as taking the threat out. "I'd rather being able to defend myself if it came down to it."
"Isn't that a bit paranoid, though?"
"I guess it kind of sounds like that. But to be fair, I have other reasons to want to be able to fight. I'm just not ready to share the most important, and relevant, one yet."
"See? You should have just lead with that."
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Though I'd also like to add that I just like having the strength to protect myself and those I care about. My best friend is also an aspiring huntress, and I kinda expect her to get into loads of trouble. It would be unbearable to watch a friend being in danger without being able to do anything, regardless of if I wanted to be a huntsman myself."
Honestly, I didn't even like fighting. I could enjoy winning a fight in the sense of being proud of a victory I worked hard to be able to get, but fighting for fighting's sake wasn't something I enjoyed.
"That's fair. Wait, did you just say your best friend wants to become a huntress?"
"...Yes?" Why was she even asking? She already knew what she wanted to do with her life.
"You have a best friend who wants to become a huntress and you never introduced her to me? You should totally bring her here next time you come visit." Ruby said, grinning at the idea of meeting this friend of mine.
... "You know what? Sure. I can even introduce you right now."
"What? Wait, how?" She asked, puzzled.
I held my arm in front of her, in a manner similar to someone introducing people to each other would, though in this case my arm would not go from person to person and remains toward Ruby.
"Ruby, allow me to introduce you to Ruby. Ruby, meet Ruby."
"...Oh, right. We're each other's only friend. Now I feel dumb." She blushed, embarrassed.
"Eh, moments like that happen to the smartests of us, don't feel too bad about it." I said with a small laugh. "But I think we've talked enough, I'd like to go inside and get rid of the bird poop in my hair."
"Maybe we should've kept the chatting after you did that?"
Yeah, maybe.
Still, it felt good to talk about what I wanted to do in my life. Saying it out loud made my life feel more concrete beyond 'kill Cinder and ruin Salem's plans for this generation'.
Sure, I wasn't going to bring Remnant into space during my lifetime, but if I could only fund researches for a new way of producing power (honestly, I didn't see anything other than nuclear being able to do the job before we ran out of dust,) then the next generations could improve upon that.
A civilization rose when its society was filled with people planting trees they knew they would never enjoy the shade, and it fell when it was filled with people who only wanted to enjoy the shade of trees they never planted.
Thus, I shall plant the most magnificent of tree, whose glorious shade will cover the next generations as they made the stars above our heads ours.
"Wait a minute!" Ruby suddenly said while we where about to get inside her house. "What do you mean, you expect me to 'get into loads of trouble'?"
Aaaah, I should have been more careful with my words.
/-/
The one thing that surprised me, in episode 2, was when Ruby said every students made their own weapon.
Because let's face it, most people weren't smart enough to make something like Crescent Rose, that weapon was way too complicated.
So how could all students be able to learn to do something like that on top of the time they need to train?
It was simple, they couldn't.
Most huntsmen-in-training had much simpler weapons. Like team CRDL, whose weapons weren't even mecashift, but ordinary medieval steel weapons, like my swords and knives.
Even most mecashift weapons weren't as complicated as Ruby's. Myrtenaster, for exemple, had a revolving dust chamber mixed in the guard, but was otherwise a normal rapier.
And then there were things like fire or electric swords, normal weapons whose dust was added during the forging proccess. Again, much easier to design than Crescent Rose.
It turned out most students at Signal didn't learn to be able to make the more complicated stuff there was in the show. The school had an optionnal, advanced, engineering class for the gifted students who really wanted to go for the insane stuff.
So while Yang's Ember Celica was on the more complicated side of the normal course, Ruby was part of the advanced course. For all that she was a bit childish and immature sometimes (which any mentally healthy kid her age was supposed to be) and that she had some trouble with complicated words in the show, she was actually really smart when it came to weapon crafting and the related school material.
This meant that her homework had maths more advanced than the usual ones Remnant's schools offered, and that these math were more geared toward pratical engineering than Earth's more general algebra. Thankfully, algebra was algebra, so there was still some overlap. And she was still in her first year
This did mean, however, that helping her with her homework was a bit harder than I expected. I still managed to help her with some of it, though only after half an hour of trying to remember what I learned on Earth (Hey! You try to suddenly start touching algebra again after over a decade of staying far away from it.)
I didn't think I'll be of much help for her in her later years, though. Maybe if my memories were fresh, but even then I doubted I'd be able to help her for her fourth year anyway.
Still, I was impressed. Not only was she a combat genius who could make it into Beacon two years in advance and still be amongst the best first years, but she was also an engineering genius on top.
She kinda made me feel dumb, to be honest.
Good, if amongst all the allies I had against Cinder, I was still the most competent one, then I screwed up hard long before the final confrontation.
/-/
That night, after Gemini was gone and both Tai and Qrow made sure Ruby and Yang were sound asleep, the two adults were sitting at their kitchen's table.
"So," Tai said, after Qrow took a gulp from his flask, "your verdict?"
"It's shit. Atlas always had the worst alcohol, glad to be back in Vale."
Tai sighed at his drunk teamate's answer. "You know that's not what I'm talking about."
Qrow gave out a hearty laugh. "Yeah, yeah. Don't worry, I looked into it. You were right about the kid. Definitely related to that Torchwick thief."
"You found proof?"
The drunkyard shook his head. "Nope. Only circumstancial ones."
"What do you mean by circumstancial?" Tai raised an eyebrow. "We're not throwing baseless accusations around, are we?"
Qrow took a picture from his pocket and put it on the table. "Judge by yourself. I took a look in the public record, that's a picture of Torchwick when he was a teenager."
He took a look at it. If he thought Gemini looked a lot like the infamous thief before, then looking at a picture of said thief when he was around the same age as his supposed relative made the resemblance even more striking. Gemini's eyes shape was different, his eye color was blue instead of dark green and his mouth was a little smaller than Torchwick, but everything else was identical.
"Uh, I guess they do look alike. But is that all?" The retired huntsman asked. After all, physical similarities alone weren't enough to claim a blood relation. Plenty of people shared similar features, though a near copy like Gemini and Torchwick would be on the rarer side of genetics.
"Pfft, who do you think I am? Of course that's not all. I also took a look at the Lampwick name, there are three families with that last name in Vale. None of them look like him and there's no record of a 'Gemini Lampwick'. That's at least proof he gave you a fake name."
"...He did stutter when he told us his last name. It sounded like a 't' sound, before he caught himself and introduce himself as Lampwick." That was partly why Tai was suspiscious in the first place, though it was also because of his invisible... guardian.
He wasn't sure who or why, but there was someone covertly following the kid. Probably someone working for his father, making sure he was safe. Although Torchwick was know to work alone.
"Guess that settles it." Qrow shrugged. "But does it really matter if he's born to a thief? I mean, I come from a bandit clan, but I turned out alright."
"...You drink all day and have terrible self esteem issues."
"Yeah, that's what I said: alright." The drunk laughed.
Tai gave him a deadpan stare, unimpressed.
"Whatever." He sighed. "You might be proof that someone can grow up in a bandit and still become a good person, but Raven is also proof of the opposite."
Qrow winced a little. Yeah, his sister was a terrible person. He'd say she was the most morally bankrupt person he'd ever met, if it wasn't for some of Salem's agent having been worse. Yes, some.
Oh, and that one child trafficking gang Team STRQ ran across in the south of Mistral. The only time Summer killed people. Albeit if one were to ask Qrow, they didn't really qualify as such.
"You can't seriously believe he's as bad as Raven?"
"Well, no. He seems like a good kid." Exceptionally polite too, given that he looked so uncomfortable at the idea of calling adults by anything but Mr and their last name. He kinda wished his students had as much respect toward him too, that'd make teaching them so much easier. "I just can't help but worry for my girls."
Qrow nodded, he himself worried about them all the time, after all.. "Fair enough. But I don't think he's cause to worry us, his friendship with Ruby seems genuine. And we know he's a bad liar too, so he's trustworthy in my book. Even if he fight dirty, very dirty."
When reminded of Gemini and Ruby's spar, Tai grinned.
'Uh oh, I know this smile. Please Tai, don't.' Qrow recognized his old partner's telltale sign of an incoming pun.
"Yeah, I guess you could say his fighting style is... breathtaking."
"Dammit, Tai."
/-/
A few nights later, Qrow soared over Gemini, following him as he hunted Grimm.
Honestly, Qrow doubted the kid's word when he insisted being careful about fighting Grimm. Y'know, like any reasonable adult would.
The heck did kids knew about being careful, anyway? Most of them were reckless morons who didn't realise how easily they could die.
He should know, he was one once.
But now that he saw his niece's friend, he understood better how he fought... no, hunted really was the more accurate word.
Qrow was worried the kid might be putting himself in danger by fighting Grimm at his age, but that was the thing, he wasn't fighting Grimm. Instead, he stayed hidden, tracking and observing his prey before either leading it into a trap or killing it with a surprise attack. And it looked like the kid actually had a basic grasp on what being careful meant, since he sneaked past any Grimm too strong for him to kill before they reacted to him, or Beowolves packs, too numerous to get rid before being noticed.
'Sheesh, no wonder he was able to beat Ruby with a sneak attack.' The man in bird form thought.
After all, sneaking past Grimm was one of the hardest challenge one could try.
There was a reason why huntsmen usually didn't care for stealth. It was really hard to remain undetected by something who could feel your fear, nervosity or other emotions that were common when Grimm were around. Only people with a naturally calm mind could hope to pull this off reliably.
And even then, huntsmen had to regularly fight Grimm in large numbers, so being able to kill one or two before the fight made little difference. It was a difficult skill to learn, and the return was almost non-existant.
Qrow had only met a handful of huntsmen having trained themselves in stealth, one of which was also a ninja. Mistral's reclusive ninja clans actually trained their stealth on Grimm, to ensure they mastered the art of remaining calm at all time.
It worked like a charm when coupled with the aura concealment technique. So much that if the Branwen tribe hadn't trained Raven and him to wake up at the slightest disturbance, team STRQ wouldn't have survived its fourth year as Beacon students. Tai almost bled to death that day. At least Raven made the asshole who hired the ninjas regret it, turned out he worked for Salem. Good ridance.
In Gemini's case, his semblance forced him to kill Grimm to get stronger, even if he wasn't strong enough to fight them. That would have been an insurmontable obstacle for most people, and Qrow knew something about having a semblance that worked against you more than it helped. So if the kid found a workaround through an unusual skillset, then good for him.
He watched as the kid tricked a Boarbatusk into knocking itself on a tree, allowing an easy kill as the tree fell down.
'Uh, so he's the reason why there's so many broken trees on Patch. I was wondering what was up with that.' At least now he knew the problem wasn't with the local flore.
He did notice that there was someone else following Gemini, just like Tai told him. A girl, considering the traces on the groung matched that of high heels. She was good too, because he had a hard time keeping track of where she was. Looked like she some kind of invisibility semblance on top of being able to conceal her presence. Neat.
Then Gemini came across a Beowolf pack.
It was a bit on the smaller size, compared to the usual ones found on Patch, only numbering at around 20 of the lupine looking monsters.
Maybe that was why the kid decided to attack them, rather than avoid them like he did with the other packs.
He stabbed one before jumping at another, killing two before the rest became alert and threw themselve at him.
Qrow watched, as Gemini dodged the pack's onslaught, only managing to put in a strike of his blade when the pack's lack of coordination allowed him an opening.
He did manage to kill a few more that way, before he tripped on a rock, allowing the nine remaining Beowolves to encircle him and gang up on him, turning the fight into one of attrition, where he would kill the Grimm as they bit and gnawed on him.
"...Was that my fault?" His semblance did have a habit of screwing other peoples over, after all.
The airborne huntsman noticed the invisible bodyguard drew her weapon, even though assisting Gemini would definitely reveal her. Lucky brat, when he, as a kid,got ganged up by a Beowolf pack, his sister took pictures before helping him and then shared those with the rest of the tribe. He'd been their laughingstock for a good week afterward. Bitch.
Well, he should probably jump in, since it might be his fault if the kid was in trouble.. He wanted to talk to him anyway.
Before invisible girl killed one of the Grimm, he turned back into human form above the kid and the Beowolves using him as a chewtoy and dropped on them, Harbinger deployed and killing a handful of them in one hit.
Gemini shrieked in surprise.
"Eh, bit off more than you could chew, did ya?" Qrow kicked another Beowolf away from them, before taking the kid's hand and lifting him up. "Come on, kid, you've got a few more left."
"Ah... thanks, Mr Branwen."
Qrow let the kid fights the remaining Beowolves on his own. There was only four of them left, after all, so he could just watch. And since Beowolves were the weakest of Grimm and were cut easily, Gemini had no trouble getting rid of what little of them there was left.
"Eh, that was pretty good, you know?"
"Good? How was that good? I'd have died without your help. Wait, how much aura do I have left?" The kid took a look at his scroll and he frowned. "A little less than half. If I didn't have so much aura or if you hadn't sa-"
"Whoa, let me stop you right here kiddo. With enough 'if' you could put Vale in a bottle, what matters is that you're alive." Qrow flicked the kid's nose, who glared at him in return. "And I said your performance was pretty good because even if you were in trouble, you still put up a better fight than any twelve years old brat has any right to."
"I guess..." Gemini nodded, before raising an eyebrow. "Wait, how is it that you're here in the first place?" Then he started to panic and raised his hands up. "Ah, not that I'm not thankful for the help, Mr Branwen, it's just that... well... it's kinda 4 a.m."
The kid ended up muttering with a blush, his eyes turned toward the ground.
Another reason why Qrow found it easy to trust the kid was because he was as socially awkward as Ruby.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm usually sleeping by now, but I'm used to all-nighters, don't worry about it." Qrow waved the concern away. "I'm here because I wanted to have a talk with you."
"Couldn't you have done that during the day?"
"Sure, but I doubt you'd want to talk about it in front of my nieces, they're a bit too naive. Don't get me wrong, I love those two to bits and wouldn't exchange them for anything in the world, but they still have a very black and white view of morality, and life isn't that simple." Qrow added, after the first sentence made Gemini frown.
"Right... So what did you want to talk about?"
"I don't really do the whole 'having tact' thing, so I'm going to be direct. Your father is this dust thief guy, Torchwick, right?"
When he said that, the kid had a brief flash of panic on his face, and Qrow felt the point of a blade touch his neck. Not an attack, but a warning. Overprotective much?
Gemini, unaware of invisible girl and her weapon resting on the huntsman's neck, quickly camed down, and now wore a more calculating look, ready to bolt anytime.
"Don't worry, I just wanted to tell you Tai and I know, but we don't really mind much." Qrow calmly moved invisible girl's weapon, disguising the act with a relaxed handwave. His words and gesture meant for both of them. "I mean, it'd be pretty hypocritical of me, considering I was born in a bandit clan."
"...The Branwen tribe." Gemini nodded, to Qrow's surprise.
"You... You know... How?" The tribe was mostly infamous in Mistral, but not so much outside of it."
"Ah, well." The kid scratched his cheek. "My father is somewhat paranoid, and made sure that I know about the most dangerous figures in the world. The leader of the Branwen tribe, the 'Demon of Mistral' is one of them."
Qrow flinched a little at the mention of his sister's nickname. Most Mistrali weren't aware of her name, so that's how they called the current leader of the Branwen bandits.
Couldn't say he was a fan of the title, even if it was fully deserved, as it was nothing but a reminder of how horrible a person his twin had become.
'Or rather, she's always been like that. I'm the one who fooled myself into thinking she had changed like I did.'
Still, if the kid already knew about the Branwen tribe, that cut down on explanations.
"Yeah, growing up amongst criminals didn't make for a pleasant childhood. I don't want to suggest your father is as bad as them, but some part of me still worry. So, are things alright for you?"
Gemini stared at him, his face blank. "Yes. My father... He might be a criminal, but he's a good father, or at least as good as a single parent with no experience can be. There's nothing to worry about."
Qrow nodded. "Ah, sorry then, I guess I was worrying for nothing."
"It's fine, I understand why you were concernced." Gemini said, his voice coming out a bit harsher than his words.
There was a lull in the discussion, as Qrow took a sip from his flask.
"Was there anything else, Mr Branwen?"
"Mmh? Oh, yeah, there's one other thing." Qrow said. "Ruby's birthday is coming up in less than two weeks. It's the same day as halloween, actually, though we celebrate early in the day before going at the festival. You're invited, so if you want to come, come at around 10 o'clock."
"Eh?" Gemini's eyes widened. "Wait, but i don't have any idea for a gift." He said, hoping the huntsman would give an idea or two.
But Qrow just shrugged his shoulders. "Meh, doesn't matter. You're just a kid, we don't exactly expect you to have the Lien for gifts. Just show up, Ruby'll be happy enough to have a friend at her birthday."
With that said, he went back to the Xiao-Long's house and left Gemini alone.
WICKED CHIBI
Chibi Ruby brought Chibi Gemini to the shooting range.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Chibi Gemini asked as Chibi Ruby set up the target and lend him a handgun. "That's just going to be a waste of time."
"Have you tried shooting before?" Chibi Ruby said.
"Not really, but-"
"Then try. Semblance or not, if the gun is pointing toward the target then the bullet should hit it."
Chibi Gemini shrugged, before pointing the gun at the middle of the target. He could tell that it was aimed properly.
He pulled the trigger.
"Uh, that's a miss." Chibi Ruby said. "Well, what are you waiting for? You still have bullets left."
Chibi Gemini shot again and again, until there was no bullets left. Yet every time he was about to shoot, knowing it should have touched the middle of the target, his wrists shifted just enough to make him miss.
He wasn't the one moving his wrists like that.
"Seriously? 20 Bullets and no a single touch? You can't have that bad of an aim." Chibi Ruby complained.
"Not my fault, I think my semblance is moving my body against my will to make me fail."
Chibi Ruby thought for a bit, before leaving with a burst of her semblance and coming back with an automatic rifle. "There, I never thought I'd say this one day, but try, ugh, 'spray and pray'."
Chibi Gemini did so, pointing the weapon in the general direction of the target and emptied the magazine without bothering to aim.
Once done, Chibi Ruby glared at the unarmed target.
"So it's going to be like that? Alright then." She said.
"Can I just go home now?" Chibi Gemini asked.
Chibi Ruby lifted Chibi Gemini by his collar. "Nobody is going home until you hit this target at least once!" She said with narrowed eyes, before bringing more guns for Chibi Gemini to try.
"...Am I being held against my will?" Chibi Gemini asked to himself.
"Only if you think too hard about it. So don't." Chibi Ruby said. "Now shoot."
So Chibi Gemini shot one weapon after another, yet even the cartoonishly large rocket launcher didn't hit close enough to the target for the explosion to damage it.
"Alright, that's enough!" Chibi Ruby declared after a few minutes of this, her voice somehow not buried under the deafening bangs of the firearms. "We'll try something else."
She brought the target closer to Chibi Gemini, to the point he could just touch it with by extending his arm.
"Here, take this. It's a shotgun with a very wide spread. There's no way you can possibly miss in these conditions." Chibi Ruby said.
Chibi Gemini sighed, before attempting to shoot the target. But just when he was about to try, his arms yanked down, sparing the target.
His legs and feet, on the other hand...
Chibi Gemini fell down on the floor, screaming in pain.
"Oh gods! Are you alright, Gem?" Chibi Ruby asked.
Chibi Gemini, still holding his legs and feeling the pain, answered with a pained voice. "R-Ruby, I think I'm bleeding out. It's the end for me."
"...But there's no blood?"
"Please, tell my family that I loved them."
"You never talk about your family, I have no idea who they are."
"And tell Cinder that I hate her and I hope she met a terrible end."
"...Who?"
"I am die. Argh blah."
"You're not dead, you drama queen. Your aura blocked the shoot. Even if it's painful, you're still unhurt."
It was a rule on the shooting range to keep aura activated at all time to prevent accidents.
"Oh, right." Chibi Gemini said. "So.. do we still continue this."
"Nope. I officially declare you to be hopeless with guns and I better not see you try to fire one ever again. Seriously, that was an insult to marksmanship. Let's just go."
A man covered in a white powered armor watched the two exit the shooting range, before looking at the untouched target.
"Man, that kid's an even worst shot than me." Chibi Church said.
The chibis at the end is a bonus written at the last minute.
It was supposed to be a canon scene somewhere between Gemini showing his semblance to Ruby and the spars, but it was cancelled because I couldn't find a way to make it fit in the chapter and be satisfied with the writting. It's still canon that Ruby took Gemini to a shooting range, but the exact details aren't all canon (such as Ruby holding him here against his will, the rocket launcher, Gemini mentionning Cinder and Church being there.) A chibi omake allows me more freedom to put funny things in without disturbing the plot. I hope you enjoyed, there won't be an omake every chapter, but I may make more in the future (haven't decided yet.)
And yeah, Gemini's attempt to hide his identity might have worked on Ruby and Yang, but Tai and Qrow saw through it easily. Also, Tai and Qrow tends to reminisce about the past because of their age, something I notice was more common the older people gets and even I noticed I started doing it on rare occasions despite still being in my 20s. I think that's just natural to think more about the memories of the past as we accumulate them.
You might also have noticed that the chapters have a theme going on. Like how Chapter 2 is Tutorial because it's mostly about Gemini figuring out how his semblance work and this one is Training Mode because Gemini doesn't gain exp from sparring with Ruby, similar to how the training mode in fighting games doesn't unlock or level up anything. I'm going with a game-related theme for all chapters, but I just wanted to say that it's not limited to only video games terms. Some future chapters can have names based on boardgames, card games or even ttrpg.
Next chapter, Screen-peeking, will be out October 31th (did I get this one right for once?)