Chapter 6 – Their Emerald Forest

Team Job becomes a far realer thing than either of its founding members had initially planned.

Jaune didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around Blake as soon as he was finished internalizing his terror over the numerous near death experiences he'd just gone through.

"Oh, thank you so much! You saved us both!"

Blake pulled away, and Jaune immediately felt like a jerk for grabbing her.

"S-Sorry, I'm so –"

"It's fine, Jaune."

The sort of salty way she disingenuously said she was sorry did happen to remind Jaune that, in spite of his hero worship of his savior, he still had some questions to ask her. Questions that he really didn't want to ask, because he was sure she would have a good answer and he would feel like even more of a jerk for having brought it up.

"Um…B-Blake…couple o' things."

"Hold on." Blake stepped over to the ledge. "I need to verify all of the Grimm die before we can let our guards down and chat. So is it more important than that?"

Jaune shook his head. The curiosity was storming like a Vacuoan desert sandstorm inside of him, but he could agree that it mattered more that they didn't get their heads chomped off by a Grimm or something.

Just to see what was down, there, Jaune came up alongside Blake and peeked over the ledge. The fires were still steadily crackling, but they weren't burning out of control or something crazy. It honestly reminded Jaune of a campfire.

Still, it seemed to be enough. Controlled or not, the Grimm weren't immune to fire, and there was nowhere for them to run. A few of them were trying to scale the walls of the sinkhole, but most burned to death before they made it a quarter of the way out of there.

Crazily enough, there were no dead bodies, though. Jaune had seen the ones Blake killed just vanishing, but it was a surreal thing to witness the horde of monsters that had threatened to tear him apart mere seconds ago now just…up and gone, like they'd never even been there in the first place. No reminders or traces of them existed after a few minutes of burning.

"Okay," Blake said, sweeping her head from side to side and walking along the rim of the circular pit to get better vantage points. "They're all gone. Keep your eyes peeled, but we can start heading back to Lemuria." Her eyes lowered down to Jaune's leg. "Once your aura heals up that wound, that is."

Jaune had almost entirely forgotten that he'd scratched his leg against the tree…okay, maybe scratched wasn't the best word here. He's nearly slit his skin from kneecap to ankle, but the adrenaline of the fight and whatever…whatever…the whole mystical chant Blake had performed to empower him…it had been enough to push him past the pain.

"You had questions?"

Jaune stopped rubbing the leg wound (ignoring the fact that it seemed to be getting slightly smaller ever time he looked at it) and nodded his head. "Y-Yeah. Um…did you…uh. I really don't know how to ask this. You just left during the middle of the battle…um, where?"

To answer, Blake switched her sword-thingy into a gunnomatic and popped out the presumably empty clip. "Refill. I had no chance of killing all those Grimm without some extra Dust."

Ah. Dust refill. Of course. It actually made a whole lot of sense when he thought about it.

"And you said something to me before you left."

Blake's expression dropped. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to tell you what was happening, but I trusted you to hold them off while I got the ammo. Every second counted, and if I'd given you a detailed explanation…oh, and I couldn't have sent you, since you don't know what kind of magazine Gambol reloads with."

"No, that's…okay, good, good, but that's not what I meant." Jaune found himself getting tongue-tied here. He had no way to describe what she'd said since he had absolutely zero idea what it was supposed to be, and he didn't remember any of the words. "You said some spiritual speech or something to me, and then I felt…empowered, I guess?"

"Oh! I unlocked your aura."

Aura…hadn't she said that before? It was the thing that huntsmen used to gatekeep their private community and keep civilians out, he thought.

"So, final question here. What's aura?"

By the time they found themselves at the gates of Lemuria, Jaune finally understood exactly everything that he'd done wrong when coming to Beacon.

This whole time, I thought it was just a gap in skill. I thought that a huntsman with a sword and a civilian with a sword only differed by the number of hours they put in. They literally have superpowers that make them stand out above the rest of humanity and the Faunus.

And the Grimm, the Grimm are indestructible! If I'd tried to stab them through without super strength from aura, then I wouldn't make it an inch through their hide. Maybe I could have shot them, but they'd mow me down in one punch if I ever let them get close enough. Thank the gods I never actually tried my hand at hunting before…

The guy at the gate seemed really stoked to see him. Jaune assumed that he'd probably seen Blake coming back alone, desperate for ammo, and jumped to some conclusions about Jaune's fate. Still, the concern was appreciated.

"He's back! Oh, thank the Elder Brother!"

Jaune just shot the guy a thumbs up. It wasn't like he wasn't equally stoked at the fact that he'd survived. Blake declined the offer to be escorted over to the mayor's house and instead lead Jaune forward towards their destination.

"Do you need me to, you know, smooth things over?" Jaune asked. Last time they'd spoken, it was only his charming visage that could quell the mayor's disapproval at their age and unlicensed status.

"No, I think it'll be better if I handle this," Blake said. "All that's left is handling payment and both sides approving the mission for completion. The posting boards are essentially a virtual contract, and I'm probably more familiar with how it goes than you."

Jaune was fine with that. Finance and legality wasn't really his area of expertise. Actually, come to think of it, neither was combat or mission planning.

Do I even have an area of expertise? Beyond, you know, tree bark combustion science?

"I'd still like you to be there, though," Blake added in afterwards. "Just in case."

"Of course," Jaune said.

The mayor's house was probably a whole lot bigger than the other people's houses. Jaune had to wonder if it was because the guy was personally richer than the people who'd elected him or if it was a perk offered to whoever got the job. Blake knocked the rather ostentatious lion doorknockers twice and stepped back.

There was the sound of shuffling on the other side, and then the door opened up to reveal the mayor. His eyes roved over the two hunters, and then he threw his head back and let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank the gods. You're alright."

Again, everyone seemed really…

Jaune just shook his head.

"The mission is complete, sir," Blake said, stepping into the man's house. "All that remains is –"

"Yes, yes, I know. I have done this before…" The man mumbled something under his breath that Jaune couldn't quite make out. "Your payment, tendered in lien chips."

He handed them a small rectangular box that looked like it was the kind of thing that would have a disassembled instrument inside like a clarinet or a trumpet. Blake took the box and opened it up, with Jaune glancing over her shoulder.

He had no idea what the reward actually was for completing this mission, as he'd left all that sort of stuff to Blake, but he assumed she would count the cash and make sure everything was in order.

Blake lifted up one of the top lien chips, then she lifted the chip on the layer beneath that up. There were no more chips below, just the padding of the case. She looked back up at the mayor wordlessly.

"As you can see, I removed the price of the Dust from your payment, as per our…agreement," the man said. His lips flattened out as Blake returned the money to the case.

"I understand, sir. I merely forgot that the price of Dust had recently risen. Silly me."

The man smiled. "I'm glad this all worked out. The mission was a resounding success, no casualties were sustained…we can all walk away from this happy as a clam Faunus."

Blake clicked the locks on the briefcase and let it swing down to her side. "As am I. Do you have a datapad for me to sign off on?"

The mayor turned around to a table behind him and picked a tablet off of it. "I've already signed."

Blake took the small screen and began to tap the buttons on it. Jaune looked over her shoulder to see if he could maybe get a glance and familiarize himself with some of the more technical terms, but Blake just shifted to block his view without a word.

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you, sir."

The man took back the datapad without a word. Jaune waited for him to respond in kind, but he never did.

"Mr. Parientes can esc –"

Blake cut him off. "We know the way out."

"I'm sure you do, Miss Bellanna."

"Belladonna," Blake said with a smile that Jaune wasn't 100% sure was genuine. "Have a nice day."

And with that, they left Lemuria behind.

True to his word, the pilot from the cruddy rental place they'd gone to was back in the exact same spot as before. Jaune even believed that he'd touched down with the landing gear in the same place as last time based on the pressed down patches of grass.

"You kids a'ight?" he'd asked from the cockpit when they landed.

Blake nodded. "Yup. We'd like some privacy, if that's okay."

The man pushed a button and the doors between their chambers slid closed. Blake sat down in a seat of the bullhead and gestured for Jaune to take the one opposite her rather than beside her.

That doesn't seem like a good sign…

"Alright," Blake said, putting the case down on her lap and crossing her arms on top of it. "We made less money that we'd expected."

"Because…Dust?"

Blake closed her eyes and nodded. "Because Dust. Now, we'd initially agreed to a division of 85-15, but –"

"You did more of the work. You deserve more of the share."

Blake's lips sucked into her mouth a little bit. "…okay."

"It's only fair," Jaune said.

The case was opened up by the Faunus, and she removed only two of the many lien chips. They were in denominations far larger than Jaune had really ever seen before. Allowances and summer jobs tended to not pay in two-hundred lien increments.

Jaune accepted the money, not really sure where he was supposed to put it. Shoving so much into his pocket just felt like it was asking to have it slip out or be stolen, but he really had no other place to store it.

Blake shut the case.

"We started with six thousand lien, but between the cost of the hotel, our meals so far, and this airship, that figures dropped by two thirds," she explained. "Since we both benefitted from those equally, I think it's fair we both take one thousand lien back."

"'Kay," Jaune said.

Blake had the checks with her, so she reached into her briefcase and handed Jaune five more chips. That brought him up to having exactly one thousand, four hundred lien in total. It was less than he'd started with upon leaving Beacon, and he'd only spent a single night in the city.

There was a silence between the two of them, filled only by the hum of the engines and the whipping of the wind outside. Jaune looked out the small window on the side to see if he could spot Lemuria receding into the distance and maybe snap a photo of his first real mission, but it was already gone by the time he looked. They weren't close to Vale just yet, but the distance between the kingdom and most settlements was enough that much of the flight would just be a long stretch of nothingness and trees.

Currently, they were exiting the redwood forest areas and getting closer to the non-coniferous deciduous trees that made up most of Sanus.

"What the fuck is wrong with me?" Blake said out of the blue, staring down into the briefcase.

"Huh?" Jaune scratched at his ears. "You…what's what?"

Blake opened up the case once more. Clutching a large stack of lien in each hand, she offered them out to Jaune.

"What's this?" he asked. To avoid making an idiot of himself in case it was something obvious, he took the money, but he really didn't know why it had been given in the first place.

"What's wrong with me?" Blake just said once again, her ears bending back behind her head.

It was a lot of lien that she'd given him, far more than they'd agreed upon. Jaune didn't want to count the stacks in front of his partner, but it looked like it was easily twenty or more total. That was a whopping four-thousand lien or maybe even more.

"Are you alright, Blake?" he asked.

The girl didn't even look up, her glazed eyes just staring down at the closed suitcase.

She's really out of it. Was this how I looked when I checked out after Ozpin sent us away?

Blake just clutched the case to her chest like it was a teddy bear or security blanket when they landed. Jaune had to be the one to say their thank you's and goodbyes to the pilot, accepting the punch-card with one hole punched out of it.

"Yer tenth flight with us is free," said the pilot, lighting up a cigarette once they were far away from the airship. "Perks o' cust'mer loyalty."

The two juvenile hunters walked over to the lockers where they'd stored their luggage that they couldn't take on their mission. Jaune occasionally tried to rouse Blake by saying things to her, casual small-talk stuff, but she just ignored him entirely. It wasn't like she was snubbing him or being rude or something; Jaune could recognize that whole 'lost in thought' look on her face.

Jaune considered taking them back to the hotel to discuss their next plans, but he decided against it. There was no real reason to return. Payments were nightly, it had only ever been a stopping point for them, and they hadn't left any stuff back there. Their few possessions were in their hands right now, and on account of Blake's inexplicable generosity, they now had more money than they'd started with…a lot more.

There weren't many hunters using this bullhead agency, so the locker rooms were all theirs. It wasn't like a sports locker but more like a storage rental place where large four sheds were lined up side by side, two on each wall and facing one another.

Blake's one bag was all they'd put inside their locker, leaving the room mostly empty. Jaune, hoping to be optimistic, decided to see it as partially full.

"Hey, can we talk?"

One suitcase in each of her hands, Blake woke up from her trance and nodded. "Yeah. I think we need to."

There weren't seats or anything, but Jaune was no stranger to just sitting on the floor. Propping his back up against the wall, he kicked out his legs and rubbed off some of the dried blood. The wound was now fully healed – aura magic properties, as Blake had explained back in the forest.

"I'm not a huntsman," Jaune finally admitted. He'd used euphemisms before, so Blake already knew that fact, but he felt like he needed to say it aloud to be on the same page as her. "I'm not anything. I snuck into Beacon with no qualifications."

Reaching into her pocket, Blake pulled out Jaune's application form. "I know."

Jaune accepted the paper as his partner also slumped down against a wall. Both of them were bone-tired, but her more so than him.

"But I want to be," Jaune admitted.

Blake didn't sound all that pleased with his goals. "It's not so easy. I grew up with…in a place where you had to fight, or you would die, but everyone starts early. You can't just pick this up late in life."

"Sure you can," Jaune said. "I've already killed Grimm. I have aura. Aside from some training, there's nothing separating me from a hunter."

"Jaune, you can't. It's not my choice."

"Exactly." Jaune tapped his chest. "It's mine."

"You're not getting back into Beacon –"

"Not Beacon." Jaune smiled. "You."

Blake's eyes flicked upwards. "I'm not a teacher."

"Why not? Why in the everloving heck does Beacon have to be the only place where huntsmen can be made? You're practically already a huntress in your own way; I'm sure you could teach me."

Reaching into his hoodie's large tube pocket in front of his belly button, Jaune pulled out much of the money she'd given him (all but two lien chips) and placed it on the ground between them.

"I'll pay you," he said. "Consider it fees for the lesson…the lessons. Train me to be a huntsman, Blake."

"I…no, Jaune. You and I have done our business, and now we're done."

Jaune scoffed at that. "Nah, we're together in this one. You and me, we could start up a company with what we've got here. A pair of freelancers, a team of two, Jaune and Blake's private security. We can call it…ummmm…Arc Corp!"

"Jaune, I said no."

"Nah, you're right. Team Job has a better ring to it. Team Job Security…" Jaune blew a chef's kiss and laughed. "Perfect."

"We're not partners, Jaune. We did a good mission, and it worked out well, but I'm not going to train you to be a huntsman." Blake slid the money back towards him with her foot. "No offense, but I don't want anything to do with you anymore."

Jaune just grinned. "Nah, you do. You need me."

Blake growled slightly.

"Not like that," he clarified. "You need me as a partner. You left me for dead, but then you came back for some reason."

Blake immediately froze like the proverbial deer in the headlights. It was impossible not to grin even wider now that he knew he'd gotten her.

"I'm not mad or anything; I wouldn't be suggesting we partner up if I was. But, Blake, you went through all that effort to drag my sorry butt out of danger, and I'm not buying your BS anymore. It wasn't the kindness of your heart. You saved me for a reason. Lemme guess…my people skills?"

Blake said nothing.

"Well, maybe it's less people skills and more, hate to say it, species? You more or less admitted that people don't do business with Faunus."

"S-Some do," Blake weakly argued.

"But they'd rather not. You need me to be the front, don't you? I think that's why you saved me, your blond-haired, blue-eyed meal ticket. To schmooze the clients while you get the job done, like we did in Lemuria."

"This mission didn't go all that well," Blake said.

"Blake, I have eyes. Everyone was looking at me like I was forged from solid gold. Things only went sideways when you came out of the village alone."

Jaune wasn't stupid. Well, in regards to hunting, he probably was, but he had common sense enough to reason what had happened when he was gone. Blake, the 'youth program' huntress who'd lied her way into getting this job, had come back to the mayor and informed him that she'd had to leave Jaune behind. He'd gotten mad at her for getting a 'huntsman' killed in his village, and she'd reversed course out of necessity.

Maybe he might have bought her story about going back for Dust if she'd said a single word before leaving, but she'd just vanished. She said it was because time was of the essence, but shouting 'I'll be back' as she ran off would have cost zero time at all.

Her and the mayor exchanging coded messages and blaming them being shortchanging on high Dust prices was also phony-baloney. He'd ripped them off, and he'd done it because Blake had known that the mayor could hold Blake's actions against her if he'd chosen.

"Yeah, okay, this mission was kinda the dumps, but we're smarter now," Jaune contended. "We know one another better and what our strengths and weaknesses are. You can kill Grimm better than anyone, and I'm someone people can trust. I look the part of the knight in shining armor. We can make this work."

"Jaune –"

"Eighty-five, fifteen," Jaune said quickly. "Our original agreement. I'll do my part on missions when the time comes, but we'll consider the difference…tuition in exchange for a little on-the-job training. It'll be a nice way to offset the whole Faunus wage gap thingy a little bit."

Jaune wanted this – no, he needed this. Being a huntsman was his dream, and being paid seemed to be Blake's. He was content with lower earnings, and he trusted Blake to have a good enough head to handle their finances. They were talking about working together here, meaning that if she screwed him and left him too penniless to afford food or housing, it would only backfire on her.

Assuming she agrees, Jaune thought, but I think she will.

She was silent again, but he could tell she was just thinking it over. Jaune was willing to make whatever negotiations or concessions he needed to get this to work. Even if Blake wanted to make some sort of legal contract dividing up their jobs and responsibilities, he'd be down.

"A spar," she said at least, meeting Jaune's eyes. "We spar regularly, and the day when you beat me in a spar, we switch to fifty-fifty even. I won't be a monster, here."

"So…you're in?" Jaune couldn't help but smile like a schoolboy. So much had gone wrong recently – losing Beacon, the cruddy first mission, a lower payday than expected. It was just so great for things to finally take a turn for the better for him. "Team Job Security?"

Blake rolled her eyes and nodded. "Yes, Jaune. I'm in."

Mission Complete: Lemuria Settlement

Client Review: All Grimm slain, professionalism satisfactory. [3/5 stars]

Current Holdings (lien): Ⱡ 10,000

Current Holdings (assets): Benson Airship Rental punchcard (one punch)

Current Holdings (realty): none

Employees: 2

Coming Soon: The Birth of an Empire

Blake and Jaune build their nascent company from the ground up.

Author's Notes

I realized when writing this chapter that I'm writing an Arc Corp/Ratatouille crossover. I always was aware of the first, but as for the second, I mean…

Jaune/Linguini: Let's think this out. You know how to cook, and I know how to appear, uh, human! We just need to work out a system, so that I do what you want in a way that doesn't look like I'm being controlled by a Faunus/tiny rat chef!

Blake: *nibbles on cheese*

I even have Blake run away from Jaune but turn back to him, like Remy the rat does at the river in Ratatouille. You know what this means?

THE RAT IS REAL! I'VE FINALLY ACHIEVED MY NAMESAKE!

Yeah, but in all seriousness, my username RatCrimes was just a joking name I had for Ratatouille (new RatCrimes lore just dropped).

Happy rats, and don't do crime!