Ch. 70 Upgrades
Unfortunately for Jaune and the others Neptune and the other students decided to celebrate retaking the school. Once the fire was put out, Lionheart was handed over to… let's say authorities, if you could even call the corrupt law enforcement that. Neptune and the rest of the Haven students then decided to party hard, now that they had access to the admittedly barren cafeteria.
The lack of fresh food didn't dissuade the Huntsmen in training much though. Nonperishables were dug up out of storage and several teams were sent out all over the city to get pizza, drinks and whatever else they decided the party needed.
Few noticed the proprietor of Dragon's Bonsai joined the festivities as well, along with the surviving professors of Haven. They were of course Huntsmen and under Leonardo's management of their missions their numbers thinned out uncomfortably. Nonetheless they were happy to be back with their students and eager to get them trained up to join their dwindling force.
Jaune sat with the others in a somewhat quiet corner of the mess hall. Yang was more or less back to normal now, at least on the outside. But there would be time to talk about that later when there weren't so many people around.
And so Yang did what she did best when times were hard: joked around and ribbed her friends and family.
This time her target was the scythe he lent Qrow, which Qrow was still lugging around together with Harbinger.
"It's perfectly functional, if not pretty!" Jaune defended himself.
"Jaune, not that I don't appreciate the save, but that thing looks like it's held together with duct tape." Qrow added jokingly.
"...I hate that you're right…" Jaune slumped his head in his hands theatrically.
"...looks like shit." Yang gave her final remark on the topic which prompted everyone in earshot to nod, cementing her words as the agreed upon truth.
"Hey! It wasn't originally meant to be used in combat in the first place. It's all a bunch of prototypes put together." Jaune explained with more than a bit of exasperation.
Yang suddenly remembered something that she didn't focus on before. Crescent Rose was broken back at Beacon but even if Yang was fairly distracted with dealing with Cinder she was sure she saw Ruby fight tonight. She decided she might as well ask, what was the worst that could happen. "Prototypes for what?...Ruby what are you…"
It was then that Yang saw Lunatum Cor Rosae properly for the first time.
"So uh, remember when I said Jaune did something very nice for me?"
"...semper fidelis? oh… OH!"
She might not have taken any of Doctor Oublecks Ancient Valian classes but she didn't have to understand the words to get the imagery of their combined sigil. As realisation dawned on her, two conflicting feelings bubbled up in her exhausted psyche. On one hand Ruby got herself a boyfriend or a fiance, on the other Yang was going to kill him.
"Arc, I don't know what you think you're doing…" she growled out.
"Oh, you don't have to worry. Ruby and I are no longer dating." Jaune said grinning.
"Jaune, that's a horrible way to tell her we're married." Ruby added, staring her husband down in exasperation.
"HAH!" Raven let out a sharp and loud laugh. She was quietly mourning Vernal's death in the way of the tribe, by enjoying the spoils, and fully intended to dip once they returned to somewhere private where questions could be asked. She filled in Qrow on the most important stuff right after they left the vault anyway, no reason to spend time with the immortal parasite.
Now that she knew Summer's brat got hitched in secret though she wanted to hear the details. If for no other reason than to hear how Tai got his ass handed to him…
That was when Yang stood up and ran away from the party. Pyrrha stood up but a hand on her shoulder from Raven stopped her from following.
"You should go, Little Rose." she spike to Ruby who was already on her feet. Before she could leave only red petals behind though, Jaune stopped her.
"Take the bag with you, she'll appreciate it right now."
She wordlessly sped her way to where their luggage was pulled a smaller satchel from it and disappeared in a flurry of rose petals to follow Yang.
The rest of the table looked towards the door and then at Jaune.
"I guess I have some explaining to do… well it all went down something like this…"
=O=O=O=
"Yang?"
The blond was leaning on a wooden bannister looking over the nighttime Mistral and the clear sky. The moon was receding and was almost entirely whole this evening.
"Yes, what is it?" she replied to her sister, her recent crying audible in her voice.
"I made something for you." Ruby said. For a moment she felt like she was five again, showing Yang the macaroni art she made for her.
"Is that so? And is that supposed to make me feel better?" Yang's voice was once again teetering on the edge of tears.
"...no, it's just… Look, it's for your weapon. We get into danger on the regular, it's literally our job. I was hoping it would keep you alive… I don't want to lose you…" maybe she should have led with that.
"Oh that's funny, because I feel like I just lost my baby sister to another tall and punny blonde." the laugh that punctuated that sentence was obviously forced to stop herself from crying.
"Yang, you know it's not like that. I'm still your sister. Nothing has changed. Not really anyway. I just put Arc in the middle of Ruby Rose."
Yang turned to her upon hearing that.
"Wait, you… you kept it? You kept mom's name?"
"Of course I did. Did you think I'd throw away my mother's name? One of the only things we have left of her?"
"...no I just… I didn't think. I'm sorry Ruby."
Yang could no longer hold back the tears. But suddenly she felt Ruby embrace her in a hug.
"Hey, it's alright. We both lost her. But we still have each other… don't we?"
"we do…"
=O=O=O=
"And then we rode the rest of the way here… and you know the rest I guess. Or that's the short of it anyway. Pretty sure I already shared a bit too much about how Ironwood runs his ship… And would you look at that, I'm sure my better half will be willing to answer any questions you may have."
Nora looked like she was going to bust if she didn't get to ask her questions immediately and Jaune was quick to push that can of worms onto Ruby.
"I'm sure she will, Jauney boy, but first I was told she has a gift for me and I want to see it in action."
As Ruby put the bag on the table with a thud Nora whipped her eyes towards the bag, equally curious about the new toy.
"Ember Celica please, I'll attach the upgrades right away." Ruby was beaming as she unpacked the toolkit from the bag and turned half of their dining table into a workshop. As she started disassembling the outer shell of Yang's weapon, screwdriver and small wrench in hand she grinned and spoke up "While I'm working I'm sure Jaune can answer those questions of yours."
The table laughed at that, even Ren let out a soft chuckle, though it was lost in the loud roar that was Qrow and Raven.
"Hahaha, she's just like her mom."
"Have you seen his look, he looked just like Tai when Summer did this shit, hahaha!"
Once the Branwen half of team STRQ finally quieted down enough for conversation to continue Nora opened her mouth to speak but Ren was faster.
"Do either of you regret taking that step in your relationship? …I mean do you think you were both ready?" he glanced at Nora as he rephrased his question.
Jaune looked at his sworn brother and at the girl next to him. Nora was holding onto her question and from the look of it onto her breath too if her puffed cheeks were any indication.
Before Jaune could, Ruby spoke up from her work.
"Were we ready? No, I don't think we were. But Beacon showed me that we may never be ready, never live long enough to be. As for regret? I didn't regret it once."
Jaune focused on Ren again and nodded "Beacon changed us all, I certainly wasn't ready to be married on the spot, as I said, I didn't know about that law. But the intention was there and there wasn't a smidge of regret in me when Taiyang told me. There still isn't."
Jaune knew why Ren would ask that. Even the fact that it was the first thing anyone had the chance to ask was telling.
He glanced at Nora and back to Ren and silently mouthed "Go for it." to which Ren subtly nodded.
Their "will they, won't they" relationship was about to change, perhaps without either of them making that step. But Ren was ready to make it, he just needed a little push.
Nora meanwhile finally ran out of breath and patience to ask her questions so after taking a deep breath she finally did.
"How did you survive the ambush in Forever Fall? You said the Amity nearly exploded so what actually happened?"
"We got some help from a friend. I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate me revealing what and how he did in our present company… I'll tell you later?"
Jaune's eyes looked over the other students in the room but inadvertently stopped his gaze when he came to Oscar.
"Okay! I'm sure your friend is really cool though! Is he a Huntsman? He's gotta be a Huntsman right?"
As Nora went off speculating, Jaune thought about the two men he was looking at, one young and one incredibly old.
He looked over at Ruby as she was almost done with her work before turning back to Oscar.
"By the way, I'll want to talk to you in private soon Oscar… Oh and Oz? I'll be holding onto the Lamp for now. There's still a question left too so maybe think about how to use it before we find somewhere to put it."
Oscar's eyes gained a goldish tint before he spoke up.
"I am under the impression it would be best to put it back where it was as it is…"
"No way Oz-man, I have a big enough target on my back as is. I won't be your key. The Vault is locked and I'm not opening it for you." Raven piped up.
"Be that as it may, it cannot stay out in the open."
"...as I said, think about it. For now I'll hold onto it though, non-negotiable."
"Very well, mister Arc." and with that Oscar's eyes returned to normal and they both withdrew from the conversation, likely discussing things between themselves.
Luckily though that didn't matter much as Ruby had finished upgrading Ember Celica.
"Well? Put them on Yang."
Yang nodded, took the gauntlets from her and put them on.
They were notably heavier than before though that was to be expected. It didn't feel too bad though and Yang was certain she would get used to it.
As she moved to unfold them from their compact form though she didn't expect them to expand so much, or well, the one of them anyway.
Her right arm was now covered up to her shoulder in armour ending in a gunmetal black pauldron.
Her left only expanded a little. Her elbow was now covered over but her bicep was mostly uncovered. On the front part the triangular chevron piece that covered the top of her hand was now connected to a large mechanism that was responsible for most of the left side's weight.
She tried moving around her left wrist and as she bawled her hand into a fist and tried to move it in a particular way she encountered resistance.
When she overcame the resistance she felt the click of a trigger, separate from the one that fired her shotguns. In an instant everyone at the table saw exactly what the bulky mechanism was as the two dust powered pistons extended, pushing the handguard chevron forward with force.
"Whoa!" Yang exclaimed as she felt the recoil of the weapon.
"Do you like it? I modelled it after Jaune's Hidden Blade."
As the table looked over to Jaune he held up his armoured hand and clicked Occultus Ferum open and closed a few times.
"Hey, that was my idea! At least credit the right guy!" Qrow exclaimed pointing at Jaune and Ruby before settling down and adding. "That thing can do some serious damage now."
"Well, I like it, now I just need someone to test it against." Yang pulled the conversation back to her.
"Fine, I'll do it, but tomorrow. We all need sleep and I assume the PEOPLE LISTENING IN WILL WANT TO WATCH!?" Jaune shouted to the surrounding tables where the students had the decency to look sheepish after being called out.
Not all of them of course, Neptune unashamedly walked over to them with a plate of food and a can of drink and sat down between Jaune and Pyrrha.
"Oh don't be too harsh on them, it's not everyday they hear someone willing to walk to their death. Yang and Pyrrha are infamous at the gym for their spars and Yang just got an upgrade to her gear. Mate you're toast. Hey Nora, ten Lien on Yang?"
"Oh you're on, Jaune-Jaune will kick her butt and solidify himself as the most powerful blonde!"
And with that the frenzy of betting between the students began. Mostly outside of the group though Ren put five more on Jaune both in solidarity with Nora and because he believed that if anyone could then Jaune would do it.
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
I originally intended for the fight to happen in the same chapter but I have too many ideas for it to fit here, so I guess it deserves it's own chapter.
I was very tired yesterday and didn't prepare this in advance so I'll cut this short here.
But hey if you want to support me you can do so on P a treon . com (slash) OlympianScribe
Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch. 71 Dragon Maiden versus Arsenal