Chapter Thirty
Watching Cardin harass Velvet merely because she was Faunus and looked weak, I repressed my first instinct. I knew it was only a matter of time until he reached out and started yanking on her rabbit ears, and while some part of me wanted to then grab his ear and yank him back, tit-for-tat, that was a bad idea. I'd dealt enough with administrators to know that doing so would, at best, mean he'd just get a warning since 'we both were violent', context be damned. At worst, when he and his friends lied about what they were doing, especially if Velvet did what she was currently doing and remained quiet, I'd be disciplined and Cardin would just be emboldened.
No, there was a certain way to do things.
Slipping out my scroll, I started recording, ignoring Pyrrha's, "Jaune?"
Sure enough, it was less than ten seconds later that Cardin, getting mad that his victim stood up to leave, ignoring him and thus making him feel weak and ignorable, reached out and grabbed Velvet's ear with a full-fisted grip. "That hurts!" the girl cried out in pain, as Cardin and his friends laughed, and I had all I needed, forwarding the video to Ms. Goodwitch.
Setting it to record again, I walked over to Pyrrha and gave her the phone, requesting, "Tape this, please," before striding over to the bully, even as Velvet, trying to be calm, asked Cardin to let go.
Instead the bully yanked on her ear again, and she grimaced in pain, as he told his laughing friends, "I told you it was real." Seeing me stalking forward, he sneered, "This isn't your business, lizard."
"Dragon," I corrected, polite, but with my voice automatically pitching down into a low growl. "Now let her go."
"Or what, you'll make me?" he questioned, incredulous, yanking again for emphasis.
I just smiled, baring my teeth, a bit of Fire rising up to peek out from my lips, but under my tight control. "It's a huntsman's duty to protect others when they're attacked. Besides, Cardin you obviously think us Faunus are animals. Do you know what happens when an animal is threatened?"
Letting go of Velvet's ear, Cardin stood, hands balling into fists. "You tryin' to start something?"
I let the Fire in my mouth burn itself into the air, diminished, as I looked at him in disgust, "I knew humans had poor eyesight, but are you deaf as well?"
"You can't talk to me that way," he yelled, glancing back to see that his teammates were starting to back up, okay with bullying a rabbit girl, but, having seen me fight, not wanting to risk it.
Jokes on them, from what I'd heard, she could've taken them all out, I thought. I hadn't seen Velvet fight before I'd stopped watching, but if she was on team CFVY, she had to be good. "And why not, boy?" I questioned, noting his hands. Normally, letting someone get the first hit was the height of stupidity, a single lucky blow enough to cause serious damage and decide a fight, but with Aura I could tank it with nothing more than momentary pain. Still, tracking possible attacks was a good habit to stay in.
A look of confusion flashed across his features, before a smug sneer replaced his anger. "My father's Thomas Winchester."
". . . Is that supposed to mean something?" I asked, honestly confused, having a guess by the way he'd said it, not really liking the possibilities that his phrasing suggested. From the show, Jaune's harassment by Cardin was literally ridiculous, and I'd wondered how he'd gotten away with it. If daddy's pull was enough to get Glynda to look the other way?
Well, we'd see how this went. If things went too far?
I didn't bother to hide the expression of contempt that welled up inside me at the possibility. If the bully's father tried some political bullshit, he'd learn that some people should not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for they are crunchy, and good with ketchup.
"He's on the Vale Council!" Cardin insisted. "What kind of freakin' backwater are you from?"
Yeah, that's what I thought. "So, what?" I asked, opening my arms. "I should lick your boots because or else you'll go crying for daddy? Is he going to kill Grimm for you too, or just get you a cushy job where you'll never have to actually fight. Oh, maybe he should, given what we've seen of you in class."
"I'm gonna make you eat those words!" he declared, taking a step forward, though he hesitated, maybe realizing I was baiting him, maybe something else.
I waited a moment, before looking around the quiet cafeteria, even the couple of cooks poking their heads out form the kitchen to watch. "By standing there and glaring at me? Sorry, I only have so much time to waste on weaklings," I informed the boy, turning my back on him.
Trying this for real would be dumb, the possibility of my opponent getting a lucky hit in far too high, but with Aura, that changed things. Sure enough, I heard him charge forward, Pyrrha's call of "Jaune!" breaking the silence, and I appreciated the concern, but I knew what I was doing.
Cardin punched me from behind, right in the back of the head, and I tensed the moment before he did so, firming my stance. It hurt, but the boy didn't know how to amplify his unarmed attacks like Ren did, so I barely felt my Aura dip.
Pausing, I turned to look at the bully, eyebrow raised. "Attacking me from behind? Like a coward. Why am I not sur-"
Snarling, he punched me again, in the mouth and I felt the flare of Aura where my lip would've been cut on my own teeth, which smarted, but, again, barely did any damage.
"-pfised?" I finished, mispronouncing the word from the blow. On one level, this was some serious 'oh look I'm so tough' bullshit. On the other, when I could pull it off, this kind of thing usually worked on people like Cardin.
The boy flexed his smarting hand, looking unharmed, but possibly with the same shadow of pain that I'd felt as Aura took the hit instead.
"That's twice. A third time and I might think you're actually trying to hurt me," I grinned, and the boy, hate in his eyes, pulled back for another blow.
"Mr. Winchester!" Glynda's voice cracked like a whip. "What do you think you're doing!"
The boy hesitated, and I glanced behind me, seeing the vice-headmistress. My smile shifted from malicious to actually friendly as she stalked forward, furious. Or I could be wrong, I thought, stepping to the side.
The boy, eyes wide, took a step back as the Huntress stalked up to him. "Well?" she demanded.
"I, he attacked me! I was just defending myself!" the boy lied, rallying. "Keep him away from-"
"Given what you were doing to Ms. Scarlatina, he would've been right to do so!" she interrupted. "Even if the girl didn't want to attack those weaker than herself."
"Weaker?" Cardin echoed, "That little bi-Faunus?" the boy corrected, as I wondered if Glynda's Semblance would accidentally activate and decapitate the idiot, given her glare.
"The member of Beacon's highest ranked sophomore team? Yes, Mr. Winchester, you would be considered weaker than her, by every metric. Now, you and your team will follow me, as we bring this to the Headmaster's attention!"
"Come on!" the boy complained. "All over some ani-waaah!" he cried, as a purple glow outlined him, and he lifted off the ground.
"Walk, or be carried," the vice-headmistress informed the rest of team CRDL, who quickly moved over to the door. The woman nodded to me and strode off for the exit, a slowly spinning Cardin trailing behind, leaving the cafeteria silent.
Not having really expected things to go this well, I awkwardly walked back to my team, taking my Scroll from Pyrrha, and sending the second recording off to Glynda, to give her move evidence to use after Cardin dug himself deeper with his lies.
"So, that happened," I smiled, getting a laugh out of Yang. "I'm gonna go get some food," I added, not really sure what else to say. As I moved over to the front of the room to do just that, I was stopped as Velvet approach me.
"thank you," she said quietly, looking down, seeming about ready to cry.
"Um, you're welcome?" I replied, unsure. "It was just the right thing to do."
At that the girl seemed to wince, and I had no idea why. "You didn't have to, though."
Is she arguing against me helping her? "I mean, I kinda did. Wouldn't be the first time, probably won't be the last. Besides, I'm sure if I hadn't done something, someone else would," I deflected, even though I knew that no, no one would've.
She hesitated, and nodded, before hurrying away. Getting my food, and returning, the cafeteria had gone back to its low hum of conversation. Sitting down, my team focused on me again, except for Blake and Weiss who were pretending not to, while watching me out of the corner of their eyes as they read.
"What?" I asked, looking around.
"That was a good thing you did, Jaune," Pyrrha smiled, her look warming even more as I shrugged.
"Takin' that punch," Yang asked teasingly, "was he really that weak, or was that some macho bullshit?"
"Bit of both," I admitted, "how'd it look?"
"Sooo cooool!" Ruby gushed. "He was all like bang, and you were all like 'I'm sorry, was that supposed to hurt?' and it was awesome!"
Yang smiled at her sister, "Guy's form was as shit as his attitude. I woulda taken you off your feet."
"Well, duh," I smiled. "That's why I don't let you get free hits. Do I look that stupid?"
"Sometimes," she shot back, though the smile defanged any bite that statement might've carried. "Like a big blonde puppy."
I gave her a dry look.
"Yeah, kinda like that," Yang teased. "Only your bite is way worse than you B-Arc!"
As the table groaned, fries and vegetables thrown the brawler's way, I couldn't help but chuckle, and my scroll beeped. On it was a message from Glynda, with just two words. 'Thank you.'
I blinked, having to shake my head at that, still ready to have some kind of backlash, but not quite so certain as I was of it a few minutes ago. That was. . . weird. Not bad, just. . . weird. A comment from Weiss about 'uncouth barbarians' got a catty 'you have room to talk', and I put my thoughts aside, trying to play peacemaker along with Ruby, though feeling ever so. . . lighter.
DR
Classes continued, Cardin glaring at me from his seat on the other side of the room in Oobleck's class, only to get called on and try to make Mistral's post-war economic slump the Faunus' fault. Yang metaphorically sat on Blake, to keep her from pouncing, while Oobleck's response condensed down to 'did you even do the reading?'
Calling on the boy next to him, the one with the green mohawk, Cardin's teammate quietly answer the question correctly, getting a sour look from his team lead before things moved on. Tim's class was more of the same, and soon enough we were done for the day.
"Everyone has tomorrow's homework done, right?" I asked as we walked out, getting nods from the rest of my team, having asked them to do so last weekend. "Good, then I'm making dinner, we're doing something different."
"Right, you were gonna do that for me when I taught everybody how to bare-hand it, but we hadn't had my lesson yet," Yang nodded. "Cause we realized ya were too cool for school, when that really should've been ice queen."
"Fortunately for all of us, reality doesn't warp to fit your crass humor," the Schnee sniffed. "And those lessons were and are still needed!"
"Never said they weren't," the blonde rebuffed, "Just I was lookin' forward to that food bribe."
"It wouldn't be a bribe," Weiss corrected, "it'd be payment." She eyed me. "But why is she getting paid for her services when I haven't?"
I laughed, "You never asked." The girl gave me a significant look. "I'll make something for Sunday," I promised.
"Guuuys," Ruby chided. "Don't make him cook if he doesn't want to!"
"If it's your turn to teach, he might make cookies," her older sister suggested almost salaciously.
The small girl burst forward in a swirl of rose petals. "Would you?" she asked, standing in front of me excited fists clenched and pressed up to her mouth, eyes wide. I shrugged, nodding. "TOMORROW IS. . ." she started to cheer, before pausing. "Um, what am I good at?"
"It's been suggested your specialization is weaponry," Ren offered.
"TOMORROW IS WEAPONS!" the girl cheered. "All our stuff is good, but it could be better! Except for Jaune's. Sorry Jaune. It's kind of basic."
I took no offense, agreeing, "It is. How's that redesign coming along?" The girl froze. "You forgot about it, didn't you?"
"No!" Ruby disagreed instantly. "It's just been. . . on hold." At my disbelieving look she folded, "I kinda got distracted with the trip to the forest. Started trying to redesign Crescent Rose, and came up with some ammo ideas, that Weiss helped with. But it's almost ready!"
Weiss? "Dust rounds?" I asked, getting a broad grin from the girl.
"Those aren't cheap," Yang warned, but the Schnee sniffed disdainfully.
"No teammate of mine is going to be less capable because of something small like a lack of Dust," she announced, her team lead giving us a chagrined smile and a 'what can you do' shrug that did nothing to hide her excitement.
Reaching our dorm building, I stopped. "Well, if it's gonna be ready in time, I need to go cook. Our room's kitchens are nice, but not enough." That and there's no way in hell I could explain away how I made it without leaving any dirty cookware behind, unlike the breakfast blood smoothies, I added to myself.
"Do you mind if I come along to help?" Pyrrha requested, and I nodded.
Nora started to offer her help as well, but I cut her off with a hand. "Just you, though, Pyrrha. The kitchen I reserved is small, and more than us and we'll start to get in each other's way." Ms. Valkyrie, noting that I was really talking to her, nodded and smiled, not taking it badly.
"Too many cooks spoils the pot," the ginger-haired girl agreed. "But when you make pancakes, I'm helpin'!"
Ren asked dryly, "Because you can't spoil pancakes!"
"Exactly!" his not-girlfriend chirped. "Except for the first one, which is a burned offering to the pancake gods! And then eaten anyways, because pancakes!"
Handing Yang my notebook to drop off at our room, Pyrrha doing the same with Blake, the two of us split apart from the group, turned a corner, and, with the coast clear, I opened a portal Home.
"Coming here, I always feel like I'm sneaking out after curfew," Pyrrha laughed as we stepped through, closing it behind us as we headed upstairs to the kitchen. "It's a pity that we can't all just meet here."
I hesitated, mid-step, and looked back to her, but she was already shaking her head.
"I know why you don't want to, Jaune," she reassured me, "and I'm not saying we should, just that it would be nice."
Continuing up the stairs, I still thought about it. Without someone to direct them, they literally couldn't see the portal, but. . . I wasn't worried about them, I was worried about the twin threats of Oz and Salem. Semblances were limited in a way that Magic, as far as I could tell, wasn't. That meant that depending on the protections as stated in the manual, about how 'neutral, hostile, and uninvited eyes will not be able to see or enter', might not be as airtight as it first seemed. Hell, something that tricked sensors into believing that it was friendly, or that it counted as 'invited'(and wasn't that vague), could enter with ease.
Double hell, it was even a bit of a risk doing this under Oz's nose, but the man's detection abilities seemed. . . lacking, given Cinder's actions, which meant I was likely safe opening them as I had.
"After the Vytal Festival," I announced, getting a surprised smile from Pyrrha. "By then we should know if we can trust the others on our team, but we'll need to make it clear they can't tell others. Especially Nora, Blake, and Weiss." With any luck that'll stop the 'invited by someone who was invited by someone who was invited when they shouldn't be' problem. But that was the problem with these sorts of things, where the more people were involved, the less safe it became.
"All right. We'll talk to. . . our team, then," my girlfriend agreed, stressing one word oddly, only smiling broader when I shot her an inquiring look. "So, what are we making?"
Taking a second to focus, feeling the area shift in ways I couldn't really explain, pulling on an unseen reserve, I moved to the fridge, taking out the newly generated salsa, ground beef, cheese, and wonton wrappers. "Finger-foods. Something to eat while everyone gets used to the concept, and goes over the game systems. To start with, have you ever had mini-tacos?"
She shook hear head, and I grinned, already feeling the instincts as my cooking talents awakened. "Grab the mini-muffin pan from the cabinet, and pre-heat the oven to four-hundred and twenty-five degrees, then we'll get started!"
DR
"Holy shit, Arcs!" Yang smiled as I rolled in the cart laden with food, as well as a few carafes of coffee and tea, while Pyrrha carried in the folding tables that we'd need. "I was expecting some sandwiches or something, not this."
"Our Jaune's quite the cook, Yang," Pyrrha added with a smile. "Can you go tell your sister-"
"I smelled food!" Ruby announced, bursting into the room. "Yay! I'll go get the others!" she announced louder, speeding back out.
". . . nevermind," my girlfriend smiled, setting up the space with Blake's help, while Yang snagged a bite, moaning in appreciation.
Soon enough, everyone was seated, snacking as I started the explanation. "From your self-assessments, and with Pyrrha's help to make them more. . . accurate, I've come up from this," I announced sending them the files to open up on their scrolls.
"What was wrong with my questionnaire?" our resident cat-girl asked, eyes narrowed.
It was Pyrrha who answered, "Blake, you're fast, but you're not as strong, nor as tough, as you said you were. I've seen you fight. You avoid being hit, and you are very good at that, but for your strongest attack you use your weapon's extreme leverage, not brute force."
I reflexively winced, remembering the skull-splitting pain of said attack, "The only one who was spot on was Ren." Mind you, that was because Pyrrha under valued herself, I added internally. "So, here's your sheets. A score of ten is human standard, but deals with how good you are at everything involved with-"
"Why is my intelligence only a fifteen!" Weiss complained, before I could finish my sentence trying to head off that very complaint. "It should be at least a twenty, if not more!"
"Mine's only a twelve," Yang remarked, giving me a look that said 'Really?'
Blake added her own "Thirteen," with a similarly challenging expression, the 'are you saying she's smarter than I am?' obvious.
"As I was saying," I insisted. "base stats are how good you are at everything related to that, with sub-stats that base off them, and skills that are built off of them in turn. A twenty, Weiss, would have you be a polymath, good at literally every intelligence-based skill, on the level of professionals in their field without studying yourself. Is anyone here really going to debate that, academically, she's got more of a natural talent than any of us?"
Looking around, while Blake wasn't happy with it, no one disagreed, at least verbally. "However, when it comes to something like mechashift weapon design, under skills, Ruby far outstrips you, though your natural abilities let you keep up with her in a way that, for instance, Yang would have trouble with."
The blonde winced, "Like, ouch. But you're not exactly wrong," she admitted when I shot her a questioning look, wondering if the stats I'd pulled from the book were incorrect. "When she gets goin', dad and I just kind of smile and nod."
"Yang!" Ruby shot back. "I'm not that bad!"
In reply her sister adopted a blank smile and nodded, causing little red to growl cutely in annoyance.
"Oh, well, I supposed that isn't all bad," Weiss noted, "but why is my strength an eight? I'm strong!" she complained, before pausing. "Wait, what skills are based on strength?" Without waiting for an answer, she started reading through documents on her scroll. "None of them? They all seem based on dexterity, but why is my dexterity only an eleven! I've very dexterous!" she informed me.
Blake, taking a sip of her tea, added a smug, "Fifteen."
"Dexterity informs all skills, including combat skills. You've trained, Weiss, but you are not as naturally dexterous as Blake, or even Ruby is. While they were out, building up those attributes, you were studying. That said, you also have more skills than she does, which is why in, for instance, acrobatics, she only is slightly better than you. At least, from what Pyrrha and I were able to tell."
Weiss wanted to argue, but couldn't, shifting back to, "I still don't think I only have an eight in strength!" Nora, seated beside her, reached over and tapped her on the shoulder. When the white-haired girl looked over, Ms. Valkyrie shoved her,hard, sending her flying across the room. Weiss, surprised, still flipped over mid-air, landing on her feet against the wall, before falling down onto Pyrrha's bed.
"Twenty-one," Nora smiled, as Weiss got back up, dusting herself off with a sour look and a muttered, "Fine."
"Ahh, you think I'm beautiful?" Yang asked, batting her eyelashes, and I blinked, starting to slowly nod, before I realized she'd hit the advantages/disadvantages section. That was one I'd needed to heavily redact, as while Blake's Fanaticism: Faunus was accurate, as was Weiss' Overconfidence, Ruby's Easy to Read, and Yang's On The Edge, they'd all start arguments that we didn't need to have, at least not now. Nora's Impulsiveness and Pyrrha's Selfless, however, could stay on their sheets without issue, as both girls knew about the character flaw, while also not seeing it as a flaw at all.
"With one obvious exception, everyone here is good looking," I told her, ignoring the still present, but fading pain saying so stirred within me, but I was just stating facts, "enough for the Very Beautiful advantage." My own sheet, which read Hideous, Pyrrha had started to argue with, before just giving me a hug and informing me, with confidence, that that disadvantage would change with time.
"Jaune," Ruby frowned, but I waved it away, continuing down through everyone's stats.
Having, finally, gotten through it all, I told them, "And the point of all of this is for tactical exercises. Everyone knows what they can do individually, and in conditions they're comfortable with, but being a Huntsman is all about finding yourself in bad situations, because if you don't step in, a lot of people are going to die. The three six-sided dice will simulate general probability, so if you'd miss a shot one time out of a hundred, well, that's rolling a combined total of seventeen, statistically speaking."
"Oh!" Weiss interjected, eyes widening, "Like running a theoretical company given certain market conditions, labor disputes, and geographies!"
"Um, yes?" I replied, but the girl looked a lot more interested than she had a moment ago. "So, let's set the scene. Both of our teams have been dispatched to a small town here in Sanus that's had issues with Beowulf packs. Their local Huntsman has been able to handle it, but there's a lot more than there should be out and around, and the town could be over-run. A bull-head drops you all off, the flight uneventful, at the town's main gates, which are closed. You don't see any guards, but that isn't odd for a place like this. What would you do?"
"Wait, wouldn't you be there with us?" Ruby frowned.
I nodded, "Pyrrha will be running my character, but the problem is that I know what's going on, I have to in order to run this, so I'd either consistently point you guys in the right direction in a way that doesn't happen in reality, or consistently point you guys in the wrong direction as I tried not to do the first, which, again, wouldn't happen. Now, you're standing at the gates, what do any of you do?"
There was a moment of awkward silence, which was why I was glad I'd prepped with Pyrrha, who stated, "I try to open the gates."
Nodding, I narrated, "You push against them, and find them barred from the other side, but you here a man's voice coming from behind the gates as he says, 'Gimme a mo'!' A moment later you hear something slide, and the gates open. On the other side is a middle-aged man who looks over all of you before saying, 'You be the Huntsman ol' Roy asked for?'" I said, with a thick southern accent.
Ruby giggled, "Are you gonna be doin' voices for everyone we meet?"
"Yep," I replied, smirking a little myself. "So, how do you all respond?"
It was Weiss who, imperiously nodded, telling me, "Indeed we are. Could you direct us to this Roy, so we may better understand the situation? All we've been told is there is a Beowulf threat."
"The man nods, motioning for you to come through the gates," I replied. "Do you?" They all nodded, Ruby and Yang both saying, "Yeah," in unison. "On the other side you see the sliding bar used to seal the gates. Anyone who has skills with engineering or knowledge of the Grimm, roll and tell me both results," I instructed.
"Ugh, an eighteen already!" Ruby groaned, rolling the minimum and prompting laughs.
With the others reporting in, I nodded, "Ruby, you think it looks pretty secure, obviously the bar is internally reinforced or something or else it wouldn't be here, Blake, Nora, Pyrrha, and I all think it looks okay, but Ren, Yang, and Weiss, you three know this thing'll break if either eight Beowulfs, or two Ursa, try and rush it. It's more a notification of larger threats than a true barrier. Everyone remember, you don't know what you rolled, but do know that, for instance, Weiss tends to be pretty knowledgeable about these sorts of things. Now, the middle-aged man, whose name you don't know, locks the gate and starts to lead you to a building near the center of town, who's roof is broken up by a small tower that would let anyone in it see across the entire space."
"Who wants to bet that's Roy's house?" Yang asked.
"'You'd be right,' the man nods," I narrated, surprising the blonde, who nodded, seeing what happened. From there the basic Grimm Extermination mission unfolded, my team getting more comfortable with it as the mission progressed, able to finish the last threat off without anyone getting hurt, and relaxing as they started to have fun with it, and more and more I found myself smiling as the night progressed.