Chapter 33 – Chatter
A little conversation between friends gets out of hand.
"My semblance?" Jaune repeated, when asked by Yang. "I don't have one."
Blake could have cringed at how foolishly that would be taken by the Beacon hunters. It was a known fact that any aura user could produce a semblance, and Jaune denying that would make him sound foolish in their eyes.
"Sure you do, champ," Yang said, knocking his side with her hips. Jaune nearly fell over from the friendly shove. "Everyone does."
"Well, obviously, but I haven't unlocked mine yet." Jaune said it like it was the simplest thing in the world, and Blake grew only more concerned with him and how he was making this sound. "I mean, I'd like to get a power-up, but it's shown no signs of appearing so far, so…yeah."
"But how can you not want a semblance?" Ruby nearly shouted, personally aggrieved at the thought of a huntsman eschewing their greatest power. To some extent, Blake felt the same, but she knew Jaune personally and how well he was progressing. A semblance might be nice, but what he needed first and foremost was great aura control and a better coordination between his sword and shield.
"I've managed," Jaune said, shrugging again.
The problem wasn't that he was wrong. It was that he wasn't normal, at least when surrounded by professional hunters. To someone who'd gone their entire life dependent on a semblance or at least surrounded by those who, it was absurd that someone would willingly spurn such a power. Most would either see it as arrogance, laziness, or foolishness.
But Jaune's new to this, and he's outing himself as such. He's been a civilian for most of his life, where most don't even know that semblances don't exist. Every mission he's run has been done without a semblance, and the idea of getting some random enhancement that might not even be combat-relevant doesn't appeal to him.
His mistake was in expressing his lukewarm insouciance in front of people – Ruby, Yang, and Velvet – who believed that he'd attended a primary combat school. Jaune wasn't saying anything but the truth at the moment, but the truth ran contrary to his prior lies, and therein lay the problem.
"I can't imagine not having Petal Burst," Ruby said. "It's practically who I am at this point. I've even got it in my name…which is, like, kinda weird when you think about it."
"Gotcha beat, sis," Yang said, pumping her fists and somehow igniting her hair on fire. "Burn's basically my entire fighting strategy."
"If it's a contest for semblance dependence, then I think I'm the queen," said Velvet, whose arms were tangled up in both Neptune's and Ren's.
I won't judge. Blake bit her tongue. I promised not to judge.
"My entire weapon and fighting style are based around my Photographic Memory. When I was younger, I was originally planning on using a missile launcher that mech-shifted into a mace and chain. I drafted the blueprints, named it, chose a color scheme – hell, I even got as far as screwing together a frame for the launcher-side. But then I unlocked my semblance and learned I could be as powerful as any huntsman or huntress, and the rest was history.
"So what happened to your missile-mace thing?" Jaune asked. "Did you just scrap it? Just like that."
Velvet nodded. "Yup. There was no place for Vayu in the hands of someone with a semblance to utilize other's weapons freely. I needed something looser, something with more flexibility. Sentimentality is nice and all, but it's never worth more than victory."
Blake saw Jaune's eyes tend towards Velvet's camera for a second, and then towards the sword that dangled from his hip. But he shook his head after that.
"I dunno, you guys," Neptune said. "I barely use my own semblance at all. Not because I don't like it or anything; it's actually a goated semblance that kicks major ass, and water's cool, I guess. I just never, y'know, need to." He flipped his hair and winked at Velvet, who winked back.
I know Velvet will probably bang him if he's willing and they can find a quiet spot on the mission, but I like to believe that he actually has no charisma and it'll only be because she'll bang anyone with a pulse.
"My own semblance is best used in brief spurts," said Ren, who'd taken the moment of attention on Neptune to sneak out of Velvet's grasp. "It's meaningful when deployed the proper moment, like a fateful sniper shot from Ruby, but a powerhouse it is not."
"Maybe there's a difference between guys and girls," Yang said, looking among them all.
"Don't I know it," Velvet hummed.
"I mean, Ren, Jaune, and Neptune all don't rely on their semblance, but the three of us do," Yang said. "I guess Blake's gonna have to be the tiebreaker."
All six heads turned her way, and Blake suddenly felt like now might be an ideal time to give them all a firsthand presentation of the powers of her semblance.
"I…"
Being the center of attention had never been Blake's strongest suit. That wasn't to say that she couldn't lead from behind the scenes, but having a face to stay behind, be it Adam's or Jaune's, had always been a source of her confidence.
Shit, I really don't want to talk about my semblance to some random people I've never mind. How can I get out of this?
Blake scanned her surroundings for a distraction, hoping to find something that might be able to take the attention off of her. They were mostly in an arid flatland with some tall grass, meaning there wasn't all that much to point out, but Blake did see something off in the distance…some dark black shapes…
"It's the Grimm!" she announced loudly. "Oh thank the go– I mean, oh no! We've got to stop them!"
"Grimm!" Ruby repeated fervently. "Team River, go! Let's put an end to their –"
"Hold up!" Jaune stepped in front of Ruby and blocked her path. "Wait, we're supposed to find out their deal, right? Before we go shout out our presence and lose the element of surprise, what's our plan?"
"But…t-the Grimm…"
The professor stepped forward, nodding Jaune's way. "He's right, Ms. Rose. Our assignment is not to mindlessly destroy, or we'd be no different than the Grimm themselves. Grimm tend to possess social structures or dominance hierarchies, be it a pack of Beowolves, a flock of Nevermores, or even a horde of Goliaths. If we remain unseen, control our emotions, and give them no hints as to our presence, we may yet be led by the stragglers ahead to a larger group, or even the source of their increased presence."
"We have the advantage of numbers," Blake pointed out. "We need to use it."
Their best bet would be to split off into multiple groups, perhaps two or three. One would stay close to watch the insectoid Grimm that were up ahead, and the others would break off to the north and south. They could go around the Grimm and inspect the territory up ahead for more. If they found that this was the only hive, they would need to watch like a clock. Otherwise, it would be less useful to them then a pack that was closer to the reported sightings of higher Grimm activity.
We're close to the target destination, but we're not there yet. Is this just standard swarming of the Grimm that we happened to have chance on, or are we seeing the build-up that Jkonna feared?
"Due to the mission parameters, I'm going to have to ask that we keep Team River together," the professor said. "As a first mission, I must oversee them all at all times. However, your team may distribute themselves as they see fit."
Well, that sort of put a sock in that. It was Beacon's five people that gave them their greatest advantage; Team Job was three-strong, so them breaking off into two smaller groups kind of defeated the point. They could still sneak around the Grimm as a whole, though.
"I have the power to mask my presence from the Grimm, professor," said Ren, bowing in her direction. "This would enable me to bypass the Grimm or obscure us if captured. We should be the ones to go ahead."
It took Blake self-control to not balk at his request. Him asking to go ahead and leave Team Job behind was sounding more and more like Beacon completing the mission while they stayed in the background, much like had been intended last time.
Remember that we already have been paid. Remember that keeping eyes on the Grimm is what you asked of them originally.
"Jaune, how about you go with them?" Blake said. "Velvet and I will be enough to keep eyes on the Grimm up ahead."
It was all Blake could do to keep Team Job at least relevant to the mission. Jaune was their least suited to combatting the Grimm, but he was an expert romancer when the time came to lie. It made the most sense to have Velvet and her stay behind to monitor the Grimm and to have him continue on with the other huntsmen and huntresses.
"Are you sure?" Jaune asked.
Blake nodded. "I'm sure."
The Grimm up ahead she could now make out as Sulfur Fish, relatively small insect variants that only proved dangerous when they grouped up in large numbers. Up ahead were about forty that hadn't seen them, which may have sounded like a lot if not for the fact that it took at least one hundred to typically endanger a huntress. Two huntresses could probably crush and entire hive if it came to it.
"We'll keep our scrolls at the ready if you need backup," said Ruby. "Alright, Ren. Do your thing."
Ren bowed once again, to Ruby this time. "To converse aura, I would recommend only engaging my semblance when Grimm approach. The tall grass should keep us sufficiently hidden if we remain low to the ground."
"Okay. Let's go, then."
The six of them got a little bit lower down and broke off to the left, entering a particularly tall patch of yellow stalks of the grass that grew out in these parts. Jaune shot Blake a look before he left, and she replied to it with a sharp nod. He nodded back and trudged after Yang at the back of the ground, leaving Blake behind with Velvet.
There was no cover out in the plains save for the grasses. The two kingdoms of Sanus were as different as they came, with Vale consisting of mostly lush woodland forests and Vacuo being the exact opposite in the form of the harshest deserts on Remnant. However, the space in between them was just enough of a mixture of both to support some of the more durable flora and fauna without crossing the line into inhospitable territory.
Blake knew from experience that most of the people of Vacuo were roaming tribes, whereas Vale preferred to stake permanent claims on the lands. Out in these parts, there was just enough water to justify the latter, but a hundred miles further west would make that idea unthinkable.
As long as she and Velvet didn't draw much attention to themselves, the Grimm would mostly choose to leave them alone. Blake kept her scroll on silent but in her hand, so that in the event that Jaune called for help she would see it on the display.
"Hey, Blake," Velvet said, at a regular volume. They weren't close enough to the Grimm to bring attention their way just by talking. "Can I ask you something? Do you, uh…d-do you hate Beacon?"
Blake looked over at Velvet, furrowing her brow.
"Why do you ask?" Crap, that could be misinterpreted as a 'yes.' "I mean, no, I don't."
"It's just that whenever you talk about it, you always have that same look on your face that you show when you're talking about the Grimm or some big expense for Team Job or Jaune doing something you find silly, like you're annoyed."
"I've had a few too many negative experiences with it to say that I'm fond of the school, but I don't hate it. Nor do I blame you for any of that," Blake added at the end.
"It's just that…o-okay, can I speak freely? I don't wanna offend you, but if I'm trying not to say anything that might set you off, I won't be able to ask what I mean to ask."
Blake gave her an uncertain nod. She really had no idea what was supposed to 'set her off.' At no point had she ever expressed anything passionate about Beacon; her worst was just a passive displeasure at the name, and even that was pretty tame.
"Jaune told me how you guys applied to Beacon and were accepted at first but then rejected."
Blake tensed up a little bit at learning that Velvet knew about that, and she could tell that Velvet saw it.
"I just…I worry that the reason you may dislike the school a little might be some displaced…" Velvet's long ears flopped down to the sides of her head. "…jealousy?"
Taking care to not give away anything, Blake kept her eyes on the Grimm and far away from Velvet's. "How much did Jaune tell you?"
"Just that the mistake in your files wasn't caught until you'd already arrived and were a day away from initiation. He didn't actually say what the problems were."
So he'd duplicated the lie they'd told Ruby. That was clever; if Ruby had told Velvet anything she'd heard, it would be consistent with Team Job's official story.
No. Not Team Job's story. Mine and Jaune's. Velvet is a part of Team Job, and I refuse to start excluding her, even in my own head.
"I'm not jealous of Team River, if that's what you're asking." Now confident that Velvet wasn't accusing her of anything, Blake could finally face her head-on. "I'll admit that I'm probably a little resentful over how the matter concluded, but I probably would have let it lie if not for Team LTUC and Ozpin's little excursion down to Vale the very next day."
Velvet sucked in her lips. "Blake, I…I chose to go to Beacon. It's a part of me, even after I left it. A-And it's where the hunters that keep the kingdom safe come from, so it's not like it's bad or something. I'm not trying to be rude, but I think you might be being a little unfair."
What was unfair was Blake having her history as a member of a civil rights group lead to her being turned away Beacon when Atlesian who'd done just as morally objectionable things in their military got to waltz right into their countries' history books as heroes and champions. What was unfair was Jaune never even having heard of primary combat schools until it was too late. What was unfair was the headmaster of one of the four academies almost declaring that someone who had nothing to do with him was a criminal just because they dared not cease and desist their entire lives at his very whim.
Velvet's partially right; huntsmen and huntresses weren't something we fought a lot in the White Fang, since the SDC preferred cheaper and more controllable alternatives like droids, but there's no doubt that we and they were on opposite sides at the time. I'm used to not liking hunters, and I only ever applied because I needed a career to put food on the table. I really don't think I'm jealous, but I do probably have a grudge against the academy as a whole when it's only the fault of a select few.
What Blake needed to do was reconcile the fact that Beacon wasn't just Ozpin and Team LTUC. Ruby and her fun little team were also from Beacon, as were the normal hunters who didn't decide who got to attend the academies. Velvet herself was a former student of Beacon, and she was probably Blake's second closest companion.
I just don't see her as such since I've only ever known her as a dropout.
"I'll…I'll try to be a bit more open-minded about it, then." Blake paused. "And I'm sorry if I've ever made you uncomfortable as an ex-huntress because of the way I acted, be it consciously or unconsciously."
"You don't need to apologize for this too," Velvet said. "You didn't, just for the record. Make me uncomfortable, that is. I just…I mean, eventually I'll probably revisit things with Team Coffee and see if we can get back together, and I'd like it if you all could be –"
Had Blake's scroll not been made out of an expensive poly-resin with enhanced durability that had specifically been designed for aura users, she might have snapped it in half right then and there. Even still, the screen cracked from how firmly she bent it.
"What did you just say?" she asked, the apologetic tone of her voice dying an ugly death as a venomous one replaced it.
Velvet recoiled a little bit. "I…I…"
"You want to go back to them?" Blake asked, gritting her teeth. "After everything?"
"Blake, I…see, this is what I was talking about!" Velvet pointed a fat finger right at her. "I knew that even mentioning Beacon was going to set you off."
"You're not wrong; I am set off." Blake pocketed her scroll.
I should have known she was going to do something like this the moment she admitted to having planned to manipulate us. You know, between this little betrayal of hers and all of the other interactions I've had with Beacon, maybe the really are the monsters she feared I saw them as.
"Blake, you're being unreasonable!" Velvet threw her arms down at her sides like a toddler having a temper tantrum. "Can't we discuss this like adults? It's my life!"
"You're right. It is your life. And firing you would ruin your life."
Blake could see Velvet suck in a breath. It hurt to wound her own former friend so much, but Blake knew she was immediately going to regress on the threat, so letting it sting for just a moment was some much needed satisfaction.
"But I'm not some monster. I'd never take the job away from a pregnant woman, and there's no way I can bear to keep working with you if you're just planning to run back to your old team after everything we've been through. So you can consider this my last mission with Team Job. After we finish up here, I'm quitting."
Coming Soon: Golem
Jaune does his best to be the leader no one knows he isn't.
