The reason why there was no update on Thursday, if people missed it, was because I had a biopsy at the hospital – just a routine thing to check up on some things – but what should have been a 1-hr appointment turned into me being there from 10am-6pm dealing with delays, issues, mistakes, etc.

So many drunk and disorderly people coming in sick or injured, too.

Cover Art: Aristeo Storm

Chapter 27

As much as unlocking his Semblance was a big deal to Qrow, it wasn't much of one in the grand scheme of things, and neither was this uneventful Vytal Festival in Mistral. The competitions came and went, Atlas raked in another victory, and the overall excitement kind of plummeted. It felt like half the people in Mistral had only been interested in the pre-festivities and the tournament itself, for while the festival was planned to go on for another week, the crowds thinned out and there wasn't much excitement.

That was fine with Qrow. He did wonder why he hadn't bothered to gamble on Atlas. He hadn't been here to see this festival, but he'd known Atlas had been on a winning streak when he and Raven made Beacon, so it was a safe guess. He'd been too distracted with Taiyang and Willow, and he supposed there wasn't actually any need for the money.

He had people back home ready to pay him for weapon work, and Nicholas Schnee had arranged some weird stipend, and then there was the simple fact he didn't have any bills. Ozpin took care of all that and food, lodging and heating were given to him and Raven for nothing. It was an odd reminder that while 99% of being a kid again was annoying, there were some silver linings. No bills, no taxes, and less trips to the doctor because your body kept trying to sabotage you once you hit your late thirties.

The downside of it coming time to leave, however, was having to say goodbye to Taiyang. And it was just him. He'd done his best to drag Raven along, but she wasn't having it, and Summer felt it'd be far too weird for her to go when she hardly knew the guy. Hearing her say that about her future husband stung, but he had to remember Summer was a child right now. This wasn't the woman who would become Yang and Ruby's mom.

"No Raven…?" Taiyang looked disappointed.

"My sister isn't very good at sharing her feelings."

"You don't need to lie to make me feel better."

"I'm not." If Raven scared Taiyang off, Qrow would be furious. "Look, I wasn't lying when I said she knows you more than she does most guys who fancy her. You get on her nerves, but they don't even register. Have some faith and play the long game." Qrow did his best to impart some of his confidence into the future Casanova. "You should come to Beacon with us. I bet we could end up on a team."

"Beacon, huh? I mean… I guess I could…" Taiyang shrugged. "I hadn't really made my mind up but I figure a lot of people will be applying to Atlas after this win."

"All the more reason to skip the crowds and come spend time with us. Ray is only going to grow more beautiful."

"Dude. That's your sister."

Idiot teenagers and their dirty minds. There was nothing wrong with acknowledging his sister had grown into a looker, any more than there was anything wrong with him saying Ruby was as cute as a button. It was just stating facts.

Though he was grateful Summer knew Raven enough to call her bullshit on the incest thing, not that it had stopped Summer saying she might keep that as blackmail material if she ever needed it. That was the thing about having a dead friend. You tended to remember the moments they'd been saints and forgot how much of a bitch they could be when they were in the mood.

Summer might have been 99% best mom on Remnant, but she'd also been other things before then. A hard ass team leader, an overly-teasing friend, and a constant collector of blackmail material to use against them whenever they got – in her words – uppity. In the future, that blackmail material had even included pictures of him and Taiyang trying on Raven and Summer's underwear, caught with horrified expressions in skirts and bras before Raven blew her lid and beat them into a pulp.

Benefit of coming back is getting to skip that one, I guess. We just wanted to know what it felt like to wear skirts. Sheesh.

"Think about it," he told Taiyang. "But keep in touch, yeah? We should exchange numbers."

"Okay. Sure."

They handed scrolls over and switched the numbers over, then Qrow casually added Raven's as well with an obnoxious love heart next to it that Taiyang would find later. Would Raven thank him for it? Fuck, no, she'd do her best to strangle him, but he wasn't going to let Yang slide out of existence like that. Besides, Ray had been over the moon when she married Taiyang. It wasn't until after when things started going to shit.

"I guess this is goodbye, then." Taiyang offered him a fist-bump, too cool for hugs. "Good luck in your exams."

"You too. I'll send you some photos of Vale while we're at it."

Photos which would, of course, include Raven and Summer in shot at all times. There was no reason not to drip-feed Taiyang their faces as they grew up and into themselves. Give the man a little reminder of why Beacon was the place to be.

When it came time to leave, Qrow headed to the airport with Raven and Summer and the rest of the students from Beacon, many of whom were in sour moods since their school hadn't won. Qrow liked to rag on Atlas as much as the next guy, but they'd earned the victory this year. Just plain old-fashioned superiority of their students, and without any bullshit like AI machine competitors like in Ruby's time.

And that was bullshit. Good kids doing their best had been robbed of their chances by what was essentially a custom-built superweapon from Atlas. If shit hadn't gone down there already, it would have been one hell of a scandal when it was found out.

"Is that everyone?" asked Ozpin, checking a registrar. "I think so. I swear if anyone is left behind, I'll just write them out the school at this rate. Yes, Mr Brown, that does mean you. Get on board now. I do not care for what excuses you intend to make – and yes, I smell the alcohol on you. Drowning your sorrows, was it?" He sighed. "I don't care to hear your excuses. Get on the airship." As an afterthought he added, "I hope you don't end up like that, Qrow."

A little late for that.

Settling into their seats, Qrow yet again surrendered the window to Raven, with Summer leaning over her legs to peer out and Qrow taking the aisle seat. Ozpin took the one across the aisle but immediately put on a face mask and tried to ignore the loud students all around him. The man was either able to fall asleep in a hurricane or was a damn good actor. Maybe both.

"Well," Qrow said, mostly to himself. "That wasn't so bad. And nothing bad happened."

"What the fuck!" growled Raven. "How does Taiyang have my number and why is he texting me!?"

"And nothing bad happened…" Qrow repeated.

"Qrow, you dickhead! I'll kill you!"

/-/

Raven did not in fact kill him but only because life took a sudden turn for the busy once they got back to Vale. For the first week, the rest of the student body were insanely jealous they'd got to go see the Vytal Festival and pestered them relentlessly on it – even going so far as to approach his famously anti-social ass and expect him to sit down and gossip.

That soon changed when the mid-term exams came along, and everything became a whirlwind of panic and revision. The exams didn't determine whether or not you'd get into an academy but they sure as hell helped, forming a predictive basis for how you'd do on your full exams that could in turn grant you conditional acceptance into your chosen academy. That condition was obviously on doing well in your finals, but while these exams didn't technically decide anything, they still set a grim tone.

Do badly and your teachers would start subtly suggesting you look for a career elsewhere.

To Qrow, it was a breeze for obvious reasons. The revision and questions in mock tests were like a driving exam to someone who'd been driving for over ten years. Most were easy, some jogged his memory, and the few that eluded him weren't that important. It helped that he'd literally held these very same mock exams for his students back in the day.

It also helped that a lot of them were physical exams. Combat, weapons and general fitness tests – because it didn't much matter how good you thought you were with a sword if you couldn't log a set number of kilometres in time. A huntsman had to get both to and away from dangerous spots in a hurry, and even the best fighters died once their stamina ran out.

Qrow spent most of his time helping Raven ("I don't need your help, Qrow!") and Summer ("I need your help, Qrow!") and sticking to his own devices.

Raven spent so much time on his ass about his own lack of revision that he gave in and faked it just to calm her down. He knew she was just worried he'd bomb out and not get into Beacon with her, and that was endearing in a sense – but not the sense that he enjoyed being kept up to gone midnight by the two of them quizzing each other. He was an old man, damn it. Teenager's body or not, he liked going to bed and getting a lot of sleep, and his young body was for once better at it than his old one. He could literally sleep ten to twelve hours in this body if he wanted to and it… was… glorious.

Eventually, their saviour came in the form of the mid-term exams themselves and whole days were dedicated so silent exam conditions followed by much less silent combat exams, and then somewhere-in-the-middle field exercises where they had to show decent ability in tracking, map-reading, reconnaissance and a few other useful things. The only thing he felt was missing was camping and wilderness survival, but Signal evidently hadn't been able to get the insurance in place, or had run into a brick wall convincing parents to sign off on their children being left alone in the woods for a couple of days.

Grimm did exist on Patch after all. They might not have come too near the town but they'd been common enough in the woods around where Taiyang's future home would be built, and Qrow doubted that had changed any going back twenty years.

And, sure, he and Raven and Summer would be fine, but they were at the top of their classes. They were the exceptional above even the "above averages" of their year, and there were so many below that who would have given that Arc kid a run for his money on being dead weight. Kids who were being "indulged" in attending Signal, but who everyone knew wouldn't make the cut to go any further.

Say what he would about Ruby's friend (crush?) but the Arc kid had good fitness and a strong drive. There were kids here who couldn't run three laps of the track without puffing and panting, who were cruising by on smarts and revision in written tests thinking it'd somehow mean a thing against the Grimm.

It was a harsh fact, but it was true. Signal didn't necessarily have a selection process like Beacon and the other upper academies did. Given it took kids at eleven, it was accepted that you couldn't really separate the wheat from the chaff at that age, so it was better to accept everyone and try to make something of them. Remnant needed its huntsmen, after all. Naturally, that meant a whole lot of dropouts, but that was just the way it had to be. There was no better solution.

So, naturally, the combat tests went by in a breeze for them. Qrow was confident he'd scored highest in his year with Raven in second and Summer maybe a place or two below. As much as he bitched, there were some good kids in the pack here. Kids that'd go on to make names for themselves. They just couldn't compare to his extra decades of experience, and that wasn't their fault.

/-/

A couple of days after the exam, the results were posted on the public boards. He'd never liked the public humiliation aspect but accepted it was a required thing. If shame could give those struggling a push to work harder, it'd be worth being a bit of an asshole. Knowing he was at the top made finding his name easy – even if it felt arrogant.

"I don't get how you can be at the top when you barely even studied!" Summer growled, sounding genuinely furious with him. She and Raven had worked their butts off.

"I guess I'm just that smart."

"Not smart enough to know when to keep your mouth shut!"

"I don't see why you're angry. You came in the top twenty for the written exams. You smashed it."

Summer hissed like an angry cat and stomped away from him. Maybe he'd been a little too cavalier, but it was hard to get invested in this. The exams were silly, and so punishingly easy! He could have finished in half the time and left the halls if they let him.

"Smooth," said Rosebud. "Real smooth."

"It's not my fault if she worked hard and didn't beat me. Is that what this is about?"

"Do I look like a mind reader? All I know is when a girl is pissed at you, you don't answer back."

"Tough man," Qrow joked, making the six-foot teen roll his eyes. "Look, if Summer ever really gets angry at me, I've always got the fallback option of making her an axe. That'll bring her back nice and quick."

"Best not let her hear that or she'll chop your head off with that axe—"

"What did you say to Summer?" demanded Raven, interrupting with sharp eyes.

"Nothing. I just did better than her and she didn't like that."

"I somehow doubt that's all you did. She sends you a message, by the way."

"What's—" Qrow slammed his hands down to catch Raven's shin before it could finish its path up between his legs. "Whoah! Whoah!"

"Summer asked me to kick you in the balls."

"I'm fairly sure she was joking!"

Raven shrugged. "Not my business to be sure."

"It'll be your business when I can't give you any nephews and nieces to dote over."

"As if I'd want to. Children are disgusting."

Now that was unfair, and a little concerning given he fully intended for Raven to have at least one in Yang. It still felt weird to talk like that, as if he was planning the impregnation and birth of his sister to another man.

Which he was but not in that way!

"Kids are fine if they're raised to be mature. You're just used to seeing little shits raised by parents who let them scream and cry in supermarkets while they're too busy talking to their friends on scrolls."

"I swear, Qrow, if this is another Taiyang talk then I will cut your balls off."

"This isn't about him!" Qrow lied. It totally was. "I'm just saying keep your kind open. I bet any kid you had would be a kickass huntress in her own right. How could she not be if she was raised by you?"

"Hmph." Raven turned away, but she didn't look displeased. He'd defused the bomb. "I'm not interested in talking about that. I came second in the combat exams." Raven glanced back at him, as if she was expecting something.

It took an embarrassing amount of time for him to realise what.

"That's great, Ray! Not that I doubted you. I mean, everyone knows you're one of the strongest people in the whole year."

Raven smiled, pleased with his praise. "Hmm. It's still good to be able to prove it. Not everyone was able to."

It was a callous comment, but it was hard not to notice the air of depression around almost half the student body. When lives were on the line, Signal couldn't afford to lie and say people had done a "good enough job", so there was a purple line through the middle of the students. Those above it were considered "above par" while those below… well, they hadn't made the cut.

They wouldn't be expelled from Signal by any means, but they might be encouraged to talk to teachers either about remedial training or, in some cases, considering another career. The skills learned here weren't entirely useless elsewhere, and law enforcement, military or security companies loved to hire from academy dropouts. Having your fresh recruits come pre-trained and with unlocked aura was a huge boon to them.

"Don't be cruel to them," Qrow whispered.

Naturally, Raven ignored him. "They get what they earn." Her words brought angry eyes her way. "Got something to say about it?" she challenged. "Qrow and I didn't get the years of schooling and training you lot did. We had to pick it up from scratch and we're still better than you. Goes to show how much effort you put in."

"That's not fair," said a girl in the crowd. "You have that strong weapon."

Raven snorted and tossed Omen to him. "I don't right now. Care to come and say that to my face?"

No one did.

"That's what I thought. If you can't even stand up to me, what hope do you have against the Grimm?" Raven was 100% correct, and it was a lesson Qrow had tried to impart in his own time, but being correct and being a bitch weren't mutually exclusive. Nor did one excuse the other. "Weaklings, one and all. You should drop out now and save the teachers the disappointment of having to try and fix you."

"That'll be a detention, Branwen." Their combat instructor, who had come over to check on the ruckus, didn't bother to distinguish which Branwen he meant. Everyone knew. Raven clicked her tongue, but didn't fight it, nor did she apologise. "And the rest of you – while what she said may in some ways be accurate, let me remind you all that if these two could pick up so much in so short a time, then so can you."

"If you're below the line, take that as a kick up the ass to stop dicking around and start putting the hours in. My door is open to discuss fitness plans and times for extra training." He sighed. "But let me make one thing clear. If you're below the line and you're not prepared to put more hours in, or if you think you can fix this on your own… then put some real thought into quitting. As a huntsman, you have to be the best of the best. That means working harder than everyone else."

Silence greeted him.

"There's not a person here that can't make it above the line if they start trying," he said, lying as every good teacher did.

There were some, quite a few, who had no hope. Too unfit, too unprepared, just lacking in the right mentality or even the aggression needed. There was nothing wrong with being a pacifist, but you had to have a certain amount of fight in you to become a huntsman. Because even if you decided to only every fight Grimm, you wouldn't be able to get stronger without competing and testing yourself against other huntsmen. Aggression was necessary.

It was why bullies often did so well, as much as Qrow hated to admit it. They were aggressive, confident, and prone to throwing their weight around – which often meant they had to back it up when someone fought back. Sometimes they won, sometimes they lost, but it was all useful training either way. Those that got into more fights – those like Raven – naturally did better than those who avoided conflict.

Because conflict was their way of life.

Qrow dragged Raven away before she could start any more trouble, listening to her complain the whole time. "Tell me I was wrong," she challenged. "I wasn't wrong."

"You weren't wrong, but you were a bit of a bitch."

"They'll die if someone doesn't give them a dose of reality, Qrow."

"Again, you're right, but I don't think helping them was your primary reason for talking down to them, was it?"

Raven looked away guiltily. "Maybe not, but it's the result that matters. Isn't it?"

"Probably." He sighed. "I'm not criticising you, Ray." He caught her pleased grin. "Just mind yourself. You never know how crazy those who think they have nothing to lose can get and I don't want to see you in trouble."

"I'll be fine. Besides, I live with you. If anyone starts shit, we'll fight them together. Summer, too."

He wanted to say that was a bad attitude but here was Raven Branwen, who had run away from Team STRQ and abandoned them, extolling the virtues of teamwork and camaraderie. Even if it was the right thing to do, he couldn't criticise her.

"Yeah, we will." Qrow grinned and linked his forearm with hers in a warrior's grasp. Raven's grin was wild, her eyes blazing. "But that doesn't mean we need to invite trouble. Watch yourself when we get into Beacon, too. There will be people there who can fight back."

"Good. I could use the challenge." Raven took her arms back and shoved them in her pockets, pinning Omen to her side as they walked together. "We're a shoe-in for Beacon, aren't we? I'm not being arrogant about that. There's no way we fail."

"I mean, there is a way we fail but that's only by going completely off the rails or committing murder."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I meant there's no way we fail with how good we're doing. Not that we can't find some way to bomb out if we try hard enough."

Was she worried? He supposed it made sense. Even with her grades and combat scores being so high, watching so many others fail was enough to make anyone doubt. Doubts were pervasive like that, always sneaking in where they weren't welcome.

"We're doing great," he said. "And we'll definitely make it into Beacon next year. Then we can be on a team together."

"Hm. You, me, Summer—"

"And Taiyang."

"Or someone else. Anyone else."

"Nope. It'll be Taiyang.

"Why, though? He's so laaame!"

"Didn't he text you to wish you good luck?"

"Yeah, and? I told him to worry about his own grades instead of mine."

"That's sweet of you to care about his education, Ray."

His words earned him an irritated glare from her.

"It could be your girlfriend instead," she mocked. "Did Willow wish her boyfriend good luck?"

Qrow blushed despite himself. Not because he liked her, but because it was humiliating to imagine that happening. "Yes," he gritted, "but only in a professional way. And we're not dating, Raven."

"Yeah? Funny that. Neither are me and Taiyang."

"Not yet anyway."

"Not ever!" she promised. "I've no interest in that loser."

They'd have to wait and see on that one. See how her mind changed after Taiyang grew up and out, and after he showed how much of a reliable and powerful huntsman he could be. It was hard not to feel happy, though. They were less than six months out from applying to Beacon, and then Team STRQ would be back together once more.

It felt like nothing could get in his way.

Next Chapter: 27th April

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