Chapter 24 - Cornfields, Cows, and Calamity

Jaune helps out around the farm, engages in single combat with an endangered species, and has a nighttime chat with Velvet before bed.

"They're after me, I'm telling ya!"

Mr. Alizarin was 100% correct in the second statement – he certainly was telling Jaune. He'd told him when he'd woken up in the morning and called his security escort to watch over him, he'd told him as they'd hauled bags of feed out and dumped it in numerous big piles for the animals, he'd told him as they walked among the fields and inspected the crops for beetles while simultaneously harvesting anything that looked ripe, and he was telling him now, just as he'd been telling him for three days now.

It was impossible not to feel at least a little sympathy for his client. The man was clearly overworked, for even Jaune with his little to no farming experience knew that animals weren't supposed to eat from upended sacks. And if that weren't enough, the entire first half of the day covered less than about a tenth of the field. There was no way they were going to be able to do the entire farm in one day, and Jaune wasn't even sure that Mr. Alizarin would be able to go through that much land in the full week they'd be here.

The pity was offset a little bit by two things, though.

Firstly, the dude had entirely brought this upon himself by not hiring other people to work his land. Pride could only carry you so far, and as an employer himself, Jaune had learned that one person, no matter how much they dreamed a dream, would need help every now and again.

Secondly, Mr. Alizarin simply wouldn't shut up about these vague threats to his life. It was impossible to tell if he was offended by the assassin's very existence, morosely consigned to his fate at the hands of what he saw as an impossible enemy gunning for him, or fearful of every stalk of corn that swayed in the morning breeze.

"I've known they were coming for days. They've been after me, you see, after me for years. No, my entire life! No, forever! They've always been after me! Always! They want me dead, and they won't stop until my blood is running through these fields. But this is my land, my farm, my home, my world! I own it, and I'm not going to give it up for anything! I won't let them win."

Even though it was gibberish, Jaune still paid close attention, hoping that he might be able to hear some nugget of certainty in the myriad of nonsense that might give him a better idea of what exactly they were planning on doing here.

If it really is assassins like he thinks, I wonder how much we can do to protect him. All it takes is a single gunshot from a sniper hiding in the tall stalks of the corn to end it instantly. We could unlock his aura, but training me on how to defensively use it was an ordeal, and it'd only attract more Grimm in the long run. Eventually, we will have to pack up and leave, and they'll overrun the farm. He's a solitary man living alone out here – unlocked aura should only be considered an absolute last resort.

In all likelihood, there probably was no danger closing in on this farm, not when the only evidence of these murderous assassins was an incoherent hermit's ramblings.

But if that's true and we're safe, nothing is lost by staying on my guard at all times. And if I'm wrong, an innocent man could die.

"I see their faces when I sleep, you see. Hundreds of them. There's men and women, humans and Faunus, rich and old, young and poor – they won't rest, and they won't let me rest. There's nowhere to run, but I'm not going to run. No, sirree, no running for this man. Let them come – you'll turn the tables on all of them."

Huh. Jaune hadn't really thought about that. If the assassins did try to kill the client, would he actually be able to stop them?

Maybe…Maybe Ozpin had been…

Lives were on the lines, and Jaune was just…

Except it isn't just me. Unlike Mr. Alizarin, I'm not choosing to be alone here. A single scroll call, maybe even a single loud yell, and Blake and Velvet will come running. And there's no doubt in my mind that they can fight like demons and stay the hands of any assassins.

Every huntsman in the world had some limits, but that didn't mean they should just give up and live a life of fear. It wasn't as though a few years at Signal and Beacon would have made Jaune into some immortal god-king with a magic semblance that instantly slew enemies. He was just a man with a sword and a solid white aura no matter what.

"Right-o. That's enough for now." Mr. Alizarin heaved up the wheelbarrow full of collected crops that had ripened or been ready early. "Let's head in for lunch."

Jaune nodded. He was staying at a slight distance behind Mr. Alizarin. It might be better if he were closer so that he could jump in and protect him from any sudden attack, but Jaune felt like it was a worthy trade-off for having a better view of the row of crops down which they were walking.

Looking about the field in which he stood, Jaune asked, "If you don't mind me asking…there's no way you could harvest all these when the bulk of them ripen. How do you –"

"I don't," Mr. Alizarin curtly said. "No way I could. I used to rent out a Dust-powered corn harvester, but the lady I got it from died from the plague, and the machine broke down when he son-in-law tried to repair it. When that time comes, I usually just let the animals out into the fields to eat the leftovers. It's not perfect, but it's what I can do."

It was extremely not perfect. In fact, it was so imperfect that Jaune was almost ready to scream at the inefficiency. His employer was seeding a full field, tending to it for months on end, and then just letting it go to waste. It was as far from perfect as you could get.

But it's not my place to –

A noise caught his ear, and Jaune whirled around. He heard Mr. Alizarin's breath suck in from behind him. Fumbling once or twice out of haste, Jaune drew his sword and shield and backed up a few steps to bring himself closer to his charge.

"Stay close, sir. Can you reach into my pocket and grab my scroll? I don't want to lower my weapon."

"Got'cha."

Regardless of how cantankerous he could be during his daily routine, he was at least completely willing to leave his safety in the hands of the (semi-)professional without any backseat ordering. Jaune felt a hand slip into his pants and grab out his scroll.

"Ok. Call the contact listed as Velvet."

She was currently awake and keeping watch over the house while Blake rested. Mr. Alizarin had initially wanted her to watch over him as well, but Jaune had been able to convince him (using the pre-prepared talking points Velvet had armed him with) that having someone to make sure that an assassin wasn't sneaking into the house to poison his food or lie in wait for night to fall was a better use of their time. It was a schedule that had worked for then for almost half of their week, and now it was going to be put to the test.

"Okay," said the young man's voice behind Jaune. "I'm dialing…okay. V-Velvet, it's Augustine, we're out in the fields…"

The sound had been little more than the rustling of corn, but spending an entire morning among the stalks had given Jaune a good ear at determining what was rustling from the wind and what was not. It had been a concerted noise, something moving about the dense thicket of tall plants that had alerted him to its presence.

"In the fields! In the fields, you – ! They aren't labelled or somethin'! Just run out here and shout!"

He couldn't see anything. The enemy clearly knew where he was, and he didn't know where they were. That meant that they had the advantage here.

"Okay, Mr. Alizarin. We're going to back away from here. Don't run, because that could make you trip. I've got my eyes on our six, so you just look straight towards the farm. Let me know the second you hear or see any –"

An opening formed in the fields of corn, and something stepped out.

It's a cow? No, cows aren't so brown and furry, and this thing is much bigger. What is this animal?

"It's a bison," said Mr. Alizarin. "I'll be damned…I thought they hunted them to extinction."

"A what?" Jaune asked. He'd never heard of 'bison' before.

"You might've heard of it as a wild buffalo. It's a wild animal. They used to live in the plains of Sanus…essentially the crawl space between Vale and Vacuo. Hunters – animal hunters, that is, not you lot – used them as a cheap source of food to lighten the load on caravans between the kingdoms. Vale and Vacuo are the only kingdom linked by land, so –"

Jaune enjoyed the pedantic lecture as much as the next guy, but now wasn't really the time. "Is it dangerous?"

"As dangerous as a bull with the disposition of a wild animal. It should just leave if we don't bother it."

The bison-thing didn't leave, but it also didn't bother them. Kicking down a stalk of corn with one of its broad forelegs, it dipped its head down and took an unhusked cob fully into its mouth with a soft low.

Okay. This is fine. I can work with this.

The farmer said what was on Jaune's mind in literal seconds before he himself could. "Let's just back away slowl–"

"JAAAUUUNE!" screamed Velvet from afar. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"

That got the cow thing mad. Well, not mad, maybe, but agitated. It scarfed down the last bit of corn that was in its jaws and lowered its head, huffing loudly. It didn't take a biologist to know that this animal was preparing to charge him.

"VELVET!" he called out, for the need for calmness was long gone. "HERE!"

Jaune dug his feet into the ground and raised his shield in front of his sword. This animal was far less dangerous than a Grimm, and assuming nothing went wrong, he would likely be able to fend it off without killing it. Assuming that Mr. Alizarin was right about it being endangered, it would be better if he didn't raise that status up to extinct.

"Go to Velvet, sir," Jaune ordered Mr. Alizarin. "I'll repel it, but there's no need to risk you safety."

Taking a single second to look over his shoulder, Jaune confirmed that he was fleeing in the direction Velvet had come from. Unlike the theoretical assassins out to get him, this bison could care less for one human leaving when there was still another one for it to honk at. Planting his feet, Jaune braced himself as it charged.

The horns were obvious dangers, but Jaune knew that on any ungulate had more in their arsenal than sharp points. Quadrupedal beasts tended to be well-built and quite muscular, and the wild cow in front of him was no different.

The mountain of frontal fur snapped its neck upwards when it collided with Jaune's shield, and he found himself losing ground. A normal person would probably have been knocked right over and trampled, but his aura boosted his strength enough to endure the blow, albeit just barely.

Its entire body is probably as strong as an Ursa Major's paw-thrust. But this is a wild animal, not a Grimm. All I need to do is push it back until it knows that retreat is better. Cows aren't carnivores; it's only defending itself.

The next time that the buffalo thing slammed its head into Jaune's shield, he dropped his sword entirely and pushed his own body forward, leaning his own full fight into the metal barrier. The animal let out a hollow roar and tried once more, but Jaune strained his muscles and let himself tank the hit.

Dang, this dude is strong! No wonder rodeos can be so dangerous.

It took one more solid defense against the charging beast to convince it that the fight wasn't worth it. Jaune was gritting his teeth by that point, but the bison decided it had had enough and nodded its head up and down in short, jerky movements. Its breath came out with spat out flecks of corn and even some strands from the husk, and it turned around. Jaune kept his eyes on its retreating haunches until it was full out of sight.

Wiping his brow, Jaune bent over and retrieved his sword. It would have been child's play to kill the bison with it, but he was here to stop assassins, not wild creatures stealing corn ears.

Speaking of which…

"HEY! THE BISON THING'S GONE!"

"You don't need to shout."

Jaune nearly jumped out of his skin when Blake's voice came from behind him. His attention had been so entirely fixated on the bison that he hadn't seen her arrive during the fight.

"I was planning on intervene, but you looked like you had it," she explained, her arms folded. Gambol was in one hand, shifted into its gun mode. "Velvet's escorted the big boss back to his home."

"Good, good," Jaune said, bending over to lean on his own knees. "It would suck if the assassins killed him while I was distracted asserting dominance with a feral cow. Lemme catch my breath for a second."

Crocea Mors had a few minor scratches on the paint from where the bison's horns had scratched into it, but it was otherwise undamaged. Jaune shifted it back into a sheathed sword and holstered it on his belt.

"You know there aren't assassins, right?"

Jaune looked up at Blake. "Huh?"

"Jaune, he's crazy."

"Yeah, no S-word. But we're being paid to protect him either way."

"We're being paid to waste time. Hunters are in short supply for the kingdom; we could be out there killing Grimm instead of playing bodyguard for a farmer who's in zero danger."

Jaune wasn't entirely sure that zero danger included nearly having been mauled by a bison just seconds ago, but he did have to admit that it was most likely just a random encounter, not the first stage of a grand murder scheme.

"We aren't hunters, Blake," Jaune reminded her. "I mean, like it or not, we should probably stick to low key, easier missions for now. You might be good, and I might be okay, but we're both trash compared to Velvet, and she's only a third year. Beacon students normally get four. I don't like Ozpin, but he was speaking the truth about us not yet being ready for the responsibility of entire village's worth of lives in our hands."

Blake didn't seem to be too pleased, but there was nothing untrue in what Jaune had said, so she let it go. "Let's just go back to the farm."

Jaune learned afterwards that Blake had already been awake when they'd encountered the bison, and Velvet had just gone to sleep around the time they'd called. After having some mixed vegetable and beef stew for lunch, the rabbit Faunus had returned to her slumber, leaving Jaune and Blake on their patrol.

In the interest of fairness to the entire team, Blake had volunteered to be the one to escort Mr. Alizarin into his fields in the afternoon and listen to him vent about how much he hated…basically everything. It was a welcome respite for Jaune to just be able to do nothing but watch over the homestead.

When Velvet had returned to her sleeping bag in the loft, Jaune had climbed up the ladder just behind her. Crawling through one of the holes in the roof, he'd exited the shelter of the barn and lifted himself to the top of the roof, where he currently sat. It gave him an eagle's eye view of the entire farm. If anyone tried to sneak up on them, he would see it.

Blake was probably right about the assassins, but Jaune had no intention of slacking off either way. It was impossible not to feel a little bit of sympathy towards the man who'd hired them, given how plagued by his fears he was. If putting in a tiny bit more effort here and there to ensure he felt safe was all it took to ease some of that torturous fear, Jaune would gladly go the extra mile.

Basically nothing happened for the rest of that shift, so Jaune mostly just watched the barn animals doing their thing out in the fields. When Blake and Mr. Alizarin came into view, out there among the fields of crops, he would keep his eyes on them for as long as he could before they disappeared behind a tall ear of corn. It was just something for him to do to pass the time.

Velvet woke up a few hours before she'd gotten her full shift of rest, but she said she wasn't able to go back to sleep, so she joined Jaune up on the top of the roof. It was roughly 8 o'clock PM, and given the season, the sun had just begun to set beyond the forest on the horizon.

"We never did anything like this back in Beacon," she said to him, kicking her legs off the edge of the roof. Jaune himself was seated a few feet back, for his comfortability around heights was a little less than hers.

"See?" he said murmuringly. "Not even four missions in and you're already experiencing new things."

Her ears twitched as she smiled. "Team Job." She raised her hand in the air and swept it out like a shooting star. "Join up, and see the world! From atop a barn…"

Both of them chuckled a little bit at that.

Blake would probably be coming back soon to relieve Jaune of his duties. At night, Mr. Alizarin would be asleep in his bed, and he valued his privacy, so the girls were going to be posted outside. Neither would have direct eyes on him, but at the same time, there weren't any assassins out there, so it didn't matter.

Topping backwards to lie on her back, Velvet let her arms fall straight out on the roof in the shape of a starfish. "Hey, Jaune."

"Hey, Velvet," he said right back.

"I'm pregnant," she said.

"Oh."

Jaune's brain took a second to remember what the word pregnant meant.

Velvet's head tilted upwards from where it rested on the barn roof to look back at him. "Jaune? You still there?"

He held up a finger. "Gimme a sec."

Pregnant. That means she's pregnant with a baby, but Velvet isn't pregnant.

Jaune looked over at her, specifically her stomach. It wasn't bumpy like a pregnant woman's stomach was supposed to be, but it wasn't flat either. He hadn't really noticed it under her vest, but there was a decent curvature to it.

Okay. I think I've got it.

"You're what?!" Jaune exclaimed. "WHAT?"

"Voices down, Jaune." Velvet's second set of ears flopped a bit. "I can hear you loud and clear."

"B-B-But…But you're you! You're…you?"

"Yeah, I'm aware."

It was impossible to wrap his mind around. "You're nineteen! Y-You're a huntress, one from a Beacon!"

"Yes, I'm nineteen, and no, I'm an ex-Beacon ex-huntress." Velvet sat back up and put a hand over her stomach. "Why do you think I quit?"

The conversation that they'd had at her job interview came rushing back to Jaune's memory in full technicolor. She left Beacon abruptly because she didn't think they would be able to accommodate her schedule, and the reason why had been a mystery up to this point.

"I…what…why?"

"Why what?" Velvet asked. "Why did I get pregnant? Because I didn't take enough precautions. Why did I hide it? Because I didn't want anyone to know. Why am I telling you now? Well, I'm already starting to show, and you're a bit more approachable than Blake, so I wanted you to know first."

Jaune knew he wanted to ask more about this revelation from straight out of left field, but he had no idea what question he wanted answered. Thus, the defaults came out. "How? Who?"

"How…" Velvet coughed out a weak laugh. "Don't really wanna explain that to my boss. As for who, you wouldn't know him. Before you ask 'when,' it was at the end of the previous school year, when I was still in Beacon."

Jaune had no idea how he was supposed to process this. Velvet had just up and dropped it on him, and tons of half-formed ideas were crawling around the empty inside of his head like ants on a log.

Is she okay? Is it safe for her to fight Grimm with Team Job? When is she going to give birth? Is she quitting the team? Is the baby a boy or a girl?

Nothing came out of his mouth. There was just too much to focus on any one thing, and Jaune didn't trust himself to not say something stupid or potentially offensive.

"I'll tell Blake on my own time," Velvet muttered. "Please don't…b-but I understand if you have to." Now that Jaune looked at her, Velvet was suddenly looking a lot more nervous than he'd realized.

She's telling her boss that she's with child. Of course she'd worried.

"I won't. B-But…"

Velvet looked at Jaune, waiting for him to say whatever he was going to say.

I think I need to process this and figure out what I want to ask before I have this conversation. I should make a list of questions.

"I need time…is that okay?"

Velvet furiously nodded up and down. "Of course, sir."

"Jaune," he instantly corrected. "It's still Jaune."

Regardless of Velvet's status of motherhood or not, she was still the same Faunus as before…his friend. That didn't change just because she was pregnant.

"That's Blake," Velvet said, pointing out to the third member of Team Job as she and Mr. Alizarin came out of the corn fields with a wheelbarrow so fill it was spilling. Blake was picking up the dropped ears as they fell, and even at this distance, Jaune could see she was annoyed at having been relegated to such a role.

"You'll be joining her for the night shift, then?" Jaune asked.

Velvet nodded without a word.

"Okay. Good luck. A-And, if you're worried I'm upset or something…I'm not. We'll all sit down and have a talk eventually, but…just –"

"Later," she finished for him.

"Later," Jaune agreed. "Later."

Jaune awoke to his sleeping bag being shaken violently.

"GAH! WHAH?"

Blake, kneeling over him. easily blocked a random punch he threw her way and stopped shaking him. "Jaune, you need to wake up."

"I'M…a-ah. What's going on? What's wrong?"

He looked around and saw that Velvet was standing above him. She was wringing her hands nervously.

"What is it?"

"It's Mr. Alizarin," Blake answered, her voice a bit shaky. "His house is burning down, and he's gone missing."

Coming Soon: Missing but not Missed

With their distrustful boss missing and a slew of unseen enemies roaming about the farm, Blake is in for a long night.

Author's Notes

As you may have guessed (from the fact that I wrote this), I've been sitting on that one for a while. It's tough, to not mention spoilers for things that haven't even happened yet. Like, at one point, I nearly referenced a spoiler for B- Parenting in response to a comment (on AO3) only to remember that that chapter comes out next year and no one would have any idea what I was talking about.

Oh, also sorry farm guy I guess. But, like, who cares about him when Velvet's out here dropping bombs?

Okay. So: How could Jaune be the father? The time to air your nonsensical but admittedly creative theories is now.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!