To LoamyCoffee, the Apathy seem under-utilized, though they are extremely situational instead of the more upfront Grimm that are like RPG monsters you can encounter in any forest or field.
As for Ren's Semblance, I didn't really change it up, I just made it a bit more "consistent" and gave him his "Awakening" ability earlier, because this Ren is stronger than his Canon counterpart. Obviously, I'm drawing from the DC Comics universe, which is evident by the Lantern Corps commissions I had Razenix-Angel on DeviantArt make.
As for Toriko, I highly recommend the Manga; obviously. And given the fact that there were two official Collaboration Specials with One Piece, and another with One Piece & Dragonball Z, Toriko was really up there at the height of its popularity. And even if the ending seems a bit rushed, it ended satisfactorily; the very reason I keep coming back to the 43-volume run over and over again.
And it wasn't like Midora was entirely wrong in his motivations. Froese's compassion was taken advantage of by selfish Humans time and time again, people always wanting "more food" or "better food" even when the Gourmet War was at its peak. Like Naruto in Naruto, Midora in Toriko is a mama's boy at heart, and he doesn't aim to be a "sympathetic villain", he's just a guy who's gone without his mother's cooking and nothing ever truly satisfied him afterwards.
But I digress.
To Raidentensho, yes, I imagine Vivi will elicit much high-pitched gushing. Not to mention, if there's anyone who needs an Emotional Support Animal, it's jack. Iggy couldn't do that, though, because he was Jill's guard dog, and that's a full-time gig.
As for Cowboy Bebop, I have something in mind along those lines, especially since I've mixed in the concept of "Sweepers" and "Erasers" from the bounty hunter-centric Black Cat. Of course, the Bebop might be a little tricky to mix in since it's "a converted interplanetary fishing trawler", and RWBY doesn't even have communications satellites, let alone anything "interplanetary". And with so many types of flying Grimm out there, one-person Fighters like the Swordfish II and the Red Tail are unlikely to get past the prototyping stage, let alone larger fixed-wing aircraft.
*NEW WORLD*
"Good news, everyone!" Jack crowed to the rest of Team Junpier. "I just got off the phone with Professor Port. I was able to get a leave-of-absence for all of us by spinning an impressive yarn."
"Whoof! Man, that takes… That takes pretty much all of the load off!" Jaune gasped as all the tension left his body.
"So when will we get back to Beacon?" Pyrrha asked, happy they didn't have to choose between their attendance records at Beacon or leaving this little hamlet undefended.
"Assuming all the flights in Rockwell run on time, we should be back by late afternoon on Monday," Jack nodded. "It'll be a mark on our records, sure, but saving an entire town and making sure it's not undefended will look… really good on our mission history. Even with a perfect attendance record, you can still wind up as a sub-par Huntsman if you don't make the most of your years in academia. There's more to being a Huntsman than what you learn from books."
"Still, we should probably try to avoid having this happen too many times," Ren hummed aloud.
"Not that we could help getting side-tracked, what with the killer dinosaurs and the brain-sucking man-leeches," Nora went on.
"Once again, not an actual dinosaur," Jack corrected. "Anyway, new protectors from the surrounding settlements should be settled in by tomorrow morning, so let's try to keep everyone relaxed and calm; maybe whip up some beef broth. The villagers've been wasting away for a couple days at the least, so they're not really in any shape for real food."
"What about the chocolate?" Jaune asked.
"Make them hot cocoa, not solid food."
*NEW WORLD*
Of course, it wasn't quite as simple as watching the villagers until its new defenders came in and keeping out the Grimm. There were enemies from within as well.
Or at the very least, enemy in the singular tense.
"Stupid dog! You made me look bad!"
-said a curmudgeonly lout in wide-fitting overalls that weren't quite wide enough.
While Professor Port was portly, there was still muscle under that layer of insulating fat, and in spite of his bluster, he had bite to back his tall tales up.
This man on the other hand was just plain out of shape, riding his glory days of being a Huntsman who only ever did the bare minimum to get by. And now that he was at what should've been his golden years, his lackadaisical lifestyle had finally caught up with him.
Not every Huntsman who lived to old age did so by power of arms or even guile. Some merely out-lived everyone else.
"Let me guess," Jack hummed dryly as he eyed this unimpressive Human specimen. "When this village was being founded, you offered your protection for cheap when no-one else would, hoping to make yourself a little fiefdom with all the wine and women you could imbibe. But as soon as something out of your weight class attacked this little hamlet, you buckled like a house of cards. And I imagine next, you're going to try and frame the Apathy as our fault for making someone of your… esteem… look foolish. Further your own waning career at the expense of young blood that'll ultimately leave your generation behind."
"Hurk!" the man choked at being called out.
"Wow, and I thought cheesy plotlines like that only happened in HuntsMan comics," Jaune hummed aloud.
*Ka-Chick*
"Maybe you'd better get movin' along. Things here were just fine until you showed up."
"And theeeere it is," Nora hummed as the old man pulled a pump-action shotgun with an axe blade on the barrel's underside at them.
"Pyrrha, if you'd be so kind," Jack groused.
"What if I hurt him?"
"What if he misses and incinerates a villager?"
" . . . Sir." *Click* "Put down the rifle."
*NEW WORLD*
And then they had to dig another hole in the town graveyard.
Not because Team JJVNPR killed the old guy on accident or on purpose, but because he just so happened to have a heart attack right then and there, and very few of the village were inclined to help the old parasite. And of those that were inclined, none of them knew how to perform CPR without outright killing him.
Which actually happened because they caved in his ribcage without actually palpitating his heart.
Pyrrha and Jaune were a little upset that they just left the old man to his fate, not that it wasn't wholly unearned, but Jack pointed out that in new villages like that one, if you didn't work, you didn't eat. And just as many villages had fallen to ruin from layabouts as they had from Grimm.
In many other cases, the one led into the other…
It just so happened that in this case, the old timer wasn't in the sort of shape that even if he had been given the boot, he couldn't exactly turn to banditry either.
*NEW WORLD*
At the crack of dawn the following morning, the new town's –now named "Jack Hill", much to his embarrassment—defenders arrived from the surrounding area, freeing up Team JJVNPR to continue on to Rockwell and then Vale proper.
The sendoff was modest, given most of the villagers had yet to recover fully from their imposed fast, but Jaune and Pyrrha certainly felt uplifted at making a real positive change in the world. To Ren and Nora, it was just a part of the job, and it certainly wasn't like they were going to just stay in that village; a popular troupe in TV and radio dramas. It also took place in movies, but only with middle-aged Huntsmen with an "Insert Tragic Backstory".
Thankfully, the path to Rockwell was well-trodden, adequately salted to prevent undergrowth from devouring it, and with just a few hours of "enthusiastic hiking", legs burning as they circulated their Aura, they arrived at the half-mining half-refining town. Or city. Either or.
"Guys… I don't think we're getting back to Vale on time," Nora said looking up at the perimeter wall to see its red warning lights blinking in sequence.
"Now hold on a second," Jaune spoke up. "Maybe we can help wrap things up and still make an evening flight. What do you think Jack?"
" . . . "
"Jack?" Jaune asked as he turned to where the older teen was standing moments before, only to find a metaphorical silhouette of broken lines blinking at him. "He just climbed the wall, didn't he?"
"No. He didn't."
"Oh? That's surpris-"
"He cleared it in a single bound," Pyrrha said motioning to the shock of monochrome hair that had already mounted the wall and was navigating its length down the side.
"Well, what're we waiting for? Let's go!" Nora whooped eagerly as she threw Ren over her shoulder, riding her Magnhild upward with a *BOOM!*
"I… guess we'll just find a checkpoint…" Jaune admitted.
Pyrrha for her part opened and closed her mouth, unwilling to admit that he himself was the only one on their team who couldn't make that jump.
*NEW WORLD*
By the time Jaune and Pyrrha managed to navigate Rockwell's perimeter wall to what was causing the warning lights to shine their sequence, Jack was already in the thick of it, Nora offering some form of covering fire while Ren held Vivi by the scruff of her neck and feeding Nora grenades with his off hand.
Not to say that Jack and Nora were alone in their efforts, because they weren't. Flanking Nora on the walls were numerous marksmen with high-powered rifles that went off like hand grenades. Jack on the other hand had joined dozens of muscular men and women, all fighting with analogue weapons be they axes, clubs, or staves, as well as more… interesting weapons like massive meat cleavers, tenderizing hammers, ladles, woks, and other culinary implements. Quite a few even fought with their bare hands, and almost all of them were ridiculously jacked, but a few had more "normal" proportions.
Of course, it wasn't the Creatures of Grimm they were fighting, but instead, massive cockroaches. Massive as in, up to three meters and pushing past six-hundred pounds massive, with swooping scorpion tails tipped with cruel-looking blades, their chitinous hides a deep maroon with vivid crimson almost Grimm-like markings on their backs, and piercing amber-colored eyes above maws filled with shark-like teeth.
In other words, the Capture Level 7 insect-type Ingredient, the Scorpion Cockroach; worthless as food, but sold at a high price to those with a taste for exotic and dangerous pets.
Obviously, a black market commodity.
"HEY YOU!" Nora shouted at one of them. "DON'T GO OFF ON YOUR OWN!"
Jaune and Pyrrha following her gaze, saw a normal-sized man in khakis with twin tenderizers in his hands doing exactly as Nora warned him against; wandering away from the wall and the safety of his fellow warriors, wading into a veritable tide of monster cockroaches armed with plus-sized kitchen implements, high on a few meager victories.
A moment after he realized his error, the massive scorpion-like cockroaches were upon him. A small hill of chitinous bodies overwhelming him before he could even cry out, parted ways a moment later with little more left in their wake than a Human skull, half a ribcage, and his twin tenderizers.
"Th-Th-They sucked every scrap of meat from the bone!" Jaune squealed at the sight.
"Like a tasty rack of ribs~" Nora drooled, Ren nonverbally chastising her.
"Hey, there's Jack!" Pyrrha pointed out, his shock of monochrome hair like a banner over the chitinous wave as he leapt to and fro, cleaving off bladed tail-tips with acrobatic two-handed axe strikes, his body always in motion with little wasted effort. "His movements… They're more-graceful than when he and I fought…"
"That's because you only ever fought for trophies," Ren hummed as he adjusted his grip on Vivi. "This is his Regional Tournament. If you lose on this battlefield, you'll wind up like those guys."
Blinking at his use of the plural instead of the singular, a startled gasp escaped Pyrrha's lips and her hands went to her mouth as she spied several other skeletonized bodies among the chittering masses.
It had been one thing to see the wounded, maimed, and crippled back at Minegarde in the Savage Deviljho's wake. But seeing the deceased, and how un-well they had died, was a whole other kettle of fish.
"Wait a sec, is that…? Jane?! JANE, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!? GET OUT OF THERE!" the armored blond shouted down into the tumult, Pyrrha following his eyes to see Jaune's blue-haired sister amidst the chaos, her sleeves rolled up and her muscles twice as big as she remembered them.
To hers and Jaune's shock, the girl smeared the monstrous roaches' heads upon the ground with powerful one-handed hammer blows. In comparison, men whose musculature dwarfed even her own required at least three mighty blows to achieve the same results.
Jaune visibly wilting as his sister felled monster after monster with little effort, when three came at her all at once, Jack was quick to loop back around, wielding severed Scorpion Roach tails like whip swords, taking the three's implements off and freeing Jane up from their counterstrikes with three cries of-
"MEAT MALLET!"
*THUNK-THUNK-THUNK!*
The Scorpion Roaches brains smeared on the ground, Jaune and Pyrrha were still goggling at the sight when an AV-14 Hornet swooped in on a strafing run.
"INCOMIIIING!" Jane cried out as she threw Jack over her shoulder and hauled ass back to the wall as the VTOL began firing guided munitions. Those that couldn't out-run the missiles affixed gas masks to their faces and instigated a fighting retreat.
"HIT THE DECK!" Nora cried tackling Ren and Vivi to the ground, stuffing the prior's mead into her bosom as the missiles went off in a line in front of the Scorpion Roaches, emitting wide plumes of mustard-colored gas.
While the gas mask-wearing warriors retreated through the smoke with seeming impunity, the Scorpion Roaches let out horrified squeals, retreating back up a wide concrete-reinforced road, a large mountain in the middling distance.
"Jane!" Jaune cried out as his sister vaulted over the wall. "What… What in the hell did we just wander into?"
"Well… That's a bit of a long story," the Bishokuya hummed as she set Jack down.
*NEW WORLD*
The village of Rockwell, which would eventually grow into a town, and then its own city, was obviously a mining and refinery settlement. Its purpose, was to process the ore dug out of the massive ore-rich mountain from which Rockwell derived its name, as well as process the ore from across the continent in massive volumes. Generation after generation had been eking out their livings off the wealth below the earth, and though you couldn't tell from a distance, the mountain of Rockwell had been mined almost completely dry, both above and below. Especially after the advent of stable international commerce.
When unsanctioned mining operations into the lower strata continued, even after Rockwell reached the lowest permissible threshold as set out by the IGO, the way to a vast intercontinental underground labyrinth, Labyrinth Caverns, was opened. And with it, a super highway for countless subterranean horrors that nature never intended see the light of day.
Or at least in the literal sense. The Labyrinth Caverns were their own self-contained ecosystem, perfectly healthy on its own, but an invasive species if it ever broke through to the surface.
For the time being, it was only a colony of Scorpion Cockroaches that were venturing to the surface in pursuit of the easiest meals they've ever had, but it was only a matter of time until something truly monstrous made its way up.
"So what the hell scared all those bugs away?" Nora asked.
"Devil Durian Fragrance, extracted from the Devil Durian Fruit; its stench is powerful enough to repel bugs up to half a kilometer radius," Jane answered.
"Wouldn't it have been better to lace the walls with the stuff?" Jaune asked before Jack smacked him upside the head.
"Idiot! That shit was used as a weapon to make people leave their walled cities!" the Faunus hissed irately. "If that much of it were undiluted, we'd all be laid out on our asses right about now!"
"Jaune, listen to me, the Devil Durian is an ultra-dangerous fruit that's restricted by the IGO for a damn good reason," Jane chastised. "When it falls from its perch and bursts open, all vegetation in a 100-kilometer radius withers away in an instant, fish in neighboring waters float to the surface, and Class 8 hazmat suits will melt like soft cheese."
"Oh gawd!" Nora cried, pinching her nose at that rather vivid imagery.
"We were lucky to get our hands on as much as we could on such short notice, but even then, we still had to dilute it to its absolute limit. At best we have a day of coverage, two if we're lucky, before those Scorpion Roaches can come back," Jane finished. "It's a small miracle that they care enough about their eggs to retreat underground after we beat them back, but if they get a beachhead, we're looking at a major ecological disaster. Worst-case scenario, we lose half the continent before nature regains its equilibrium; and not before they eat their way across every Human settlement in their wake."
"So then we just have to blow the tunnels letting them up," Jaune nodded.
"Not that simple. The Scorpion Roaches have almost completely taken over the Rockwell Mountain mines, and if you half-ass it, it's little better than a suicide run," Jack chastised.
"Like a tasty rack of ribs," Nora repeated, this time somberly.
"She's right. And the only reason they're still bothering with Rockwell itself is because all the animals had the good sense to run away once their sixth senses went off," Jane added. "Now that Rockwell has a perimeter, we can finally start worrying about the more immediate problem."
"Well, let us help you. I'm not letting my own sister go out there alone," Jaune said puffing out his chest.
"Jaune, that's… really sweet of you, but you should just focus on your schooling," Jane said trying to wave him off.
"What she means is you'd be next to useless out there," Jack huffed. "That butter knife of yours wouldn't even scratch those things. Stick to your own weight class, why don't you?"
"Jack!" Jane chastised.
"What? I'm just being straight with him. People tend to die when you don't know that."
"Yes, I'm aware of that, but…"
"You… don't think I can do anything to help?" Jaune asked in a wounded tone.
"I mean…" she trailed off in a way that only hurt him more.
"Jaune, listen. You might've started improving back at Beacon, but that's just sport fighting, and anything multiplied by zero is still zero. You step into that arena, and you'll wind up like that one guy who ran ahead all on his own," Jack said laying down the facts. "If any Grimm show up, you and your team can fight those, but there's a reason Gourmet Hunters and Huntsmen aren't interchangeable. Huntsmen defend, Gourmet Hunters attack. Bishokuya bring in the bacon, and the Huntsmen housesit."
"W-Well which are you?" Jaune squeaked.
"I'm someone who actually can do both," Jack huffed. "Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source, and the only antidote is humility. I'm humble enough to know where my limits lie, but I'm also strong-enough to step over that line in the sand if I really need to and it not be a death sentence. Don't mistake one or two successes you had a hand in for your own competency. If you wanna back-track every time your pride gets a little bruised, maybe save us all the trouble and go back to public school where the worst that'll happen to you is you'll get a bad letter on a piece of paper. Because out in the real world, the stakes are a lot higher than that."
" . . . "
"Dude…" Nora hummed. "Someone send in a call to the burn ward."
"Nora!" Pyrrha gasped.
" . . . "
"Jane," Jack said as he turned away from the girl's brother. "You need an extra set of hands?"
"Yes," she said turning away from her younger sibling. "Every helping pair of hands helps."
"Well, maybe not all of them," Jack hummed as the two of them walked away, leaving Team JNPR to their own devices.
*NEW WORLD*
"Ren, can you level with me, here?" Jaune asked as he and his team looked up flight times between Rockwell and Vale.
"No, Jaune. I don't think Weiss will go to the movies with you if you slink back to Beacon ahead of Jack."
"Th-That wasn't even remotely what I was thinking about!"
"Well, what were you thinking about?"
"Do I… Do I really backpedal that often?"
"Maybe just a little," Ren shrugged.
"Your ego does bruise easily," Nora nodded sagely. "Like a peach. Or maybe a strawberry? Pears also bruise pretty easily…"
"Can we please stop talking about my ego and fruit?" Jaune groaned. "For some reason it's making me very, very hungry… And I watched a guy get eaten earlier, so that thought actually mortifies me!" he said going a little green in the face as his stomach demanded sustenance.
"Jaune," Pyrrha spoke up. "Just because you can't fight on the same battlefield as Jack or your sister, doesn't mean there aren't things you can do to help," she said as she gestured to the terminal around them. "People are still in a panic, which will draw the Grimm, so maybe while Jack is off closing that breach, you can help protect Rockwell in their stead."
" . . . Maybe you're right…" Jaune sighed after a moment. "I… You guys deserve better than me. But, seeing as how Team Ruby doesn't plan to let Jack go any time soon-"
"Cause he's gonna be bonin' half of 'em~" Nora chuckled.
"-I guess for now you're kinda stuck with me," Jaune continued, forcing down that particular image.
" . . . Eh. I can think of worse assholes to work with," Ren hummed after a moment's thought.
*NEW WORLD*
"Hey, Jane."
"Yes?"
"Why are those three dressed like cavemen?" Jack asked pointing to three Gourmet Hunters in the gathering away party. Two looked like normal dudes in caveman cosplay, but the third was huge, rippling with muscle, not all that handsome, and in general looked like a gorilla; who was also wearing caveman cosplay.
"That's Zongeh and his sidekicks. Apparently, he and Toriko are on a first name basis," the artificial bluenette answered.
"Hm. Muscles aside, he must be quite adept at suppressing his power, 'cause I never would've guessed he had an in with one of the Four Heavenly Kings," Jack admitted. "So what's the plan?"
"Plan is, we fight our way to the new mine tunnel, plant the charges, blow it up, and if need be, collapse the whole mountain on top of it."
"Is that even safe?"
"Which part of it?"
"Obviously none of it, but I'm specifically asking about the 'collapse the whole mountain' bit."
"I mean, the mountain isn't completely depleted, so Rockwell would like us to try and save the mountain. But if they had to choose between finding a new mine and getting eaten by giant Scorpion Roaches…"
"Right, so basically a bunch of Level 7 arthropods in close quarters."
"The benefit of our wave tactics is those in the front can take breaks, but if they dogpile you, there's not a lot we can do to save you."
"Heh. And those normies think the little flesh-eating fish are scary~" Jack chuckled laconically.
*NEW WORLD*
Cue Toriko OST – Premonition of a Grand Adventure
With the looming threat of a complete ecological disaster threatening the continent of Sanus, all Bishokuya in the area readied their best equipment and fueled up on the best food they could get their hands on.
These essential preparations complete, a lone truck driver ferried the away party toward the iconic Rockwell Mountain, the concrete road perforated like a bad MIG weld by the countless mega-arthropod feet that'd trod upon it.
The extra-wide road spilling into an open field around the whole of the rocky mountain, pock-marked with countless mine entrances dating back countless decades, when the driver's own survival mechanisms bade he go no farther, everyone piled out. Numbering around two dozen in total, every pore in their bodies exuding raw power, they consulted their maps before determining which of the numbered tunnels they had to venture through.
Of course, like all things in nature, their hunt was not one that would go unopposed.
*RUMBLLLLLLLLLE!*
"What the hell was that?" one of the Bishokuya blinked as the whole of the mountain shuddered.
A moment later from on high, one of the elevated mine shafts erupted outward, allowing an enormous serpentine form to slither into the light of day; and though it be for the first time, with a monstrous grace, it took to the terrain around it like it'd lived nowhere else.
The thing's body was almost all muscle, long and sinuous, but that was where the comparison between it and ordinary snakes came to an end. The thing had three golden slit-pupiled eyes, each protruding from a muscular eye stalk; its maw was filled with crimson-colored knife-shaped teeth, not unlike a sauropod; billowing out around its neck like a lion's mane was a voluminous mass of platinum-colored hair; but what most delineated it from ordinary serpents, was the fact that it had powerful muscular limbs sprouting from points along its body seemingly without rhyme nor reason, three pairs of crimson claw-tipped fingers on each of its many "hands".
"Holy shit! Is that the Final Boss?!" Zongeh gawped.
"D-D-Ddd-Devil Serpent!" one of the man's sidekicks gasped.
"Worse. It's a Demon Devil Serpent," Jane said as she held up her Scroll and snapped a picture, an estimate of the thing's Capture Level reading 25. "Zongeh!"
"Yeah?" the caveman-like man answered, staring transfixed as the thing slither/clawed its way toward them.
"You lead the others into the mines, close the breach! I'll hold this thing's attention!"
"It's a noble sacrifice you're making!" Zongeh said as he swung his axe forward, leading the charge into the mines.
"Ain't a sacrifice if I'm here!" Jack chimed in, locking eyes with the Demon Devil Serpent. "Jane! Let's give the others some covering fire!"
"Right!" she nodded, the two of them stepping forward, their feet falling powerfully and their muscles swelling against their clothes as they leered at the enormous serpent.
Cue Toriko OST – Toriko Counterattack
The two letting out a bellowing- "HRAAAAAAAAAAH!" -in stereo, as their cells howled out in hunger, their Appetite Demons manifested above them. Jack's Appetite Demon, a fur-covered dragon with four cross-pupiled eyes, was contrasted by Jane's hunger which manifested itself as a buff humanoid pig covered in short golden fur, four curved tusks protruding around its diamond-shaped snout.
Their Intimidation causing the Demon Devil Serpent to stop short, all the other Hunters poured into the mine, telling themselves that they could simply double back and render aid after closing off the shaft leading into the Labyrinth Caverns.
The beast's paralysis, however, was only temporary, as it surged forward a moment later, its own hunger powering through.
"Ladies first?" Jack offered like he were holding a door open.
"How gentlemanly of you~" Jane smiled with a faux curtsey before her expression turned fierce, drawing back her fist and snapping it open into a four-finger claw. "FLYING FORK!"
Throwing her arm forward, a golden construct of Appetite Energy shot through the air, taking the form of the attack's namesake, as long as a telephone pole.
"Let's make it two for two! FLYING LEG KNIFE!"
Kicking out his leg with a practiced motion and a surge of Appetite Energy, a flying knife of crimson as tall as a telephone pole shot forward through the air in pursuit of its mate.
Both attacks closing in on the Demon Devil Serpent, with explosive power the monstrous snake coiled through the air around the two attacks with inches to spare, every muscle fiber in its body tensed like bridge cables. Not only did its serpentine body grant it an impressive clip, but its numerous clawed limbs allowed it to change direction in an instant as Jack and Jane sent a flurry of smaller projectiles at where it would've stopped.
"Hey Jack, you have Antibodies against this thing right?" Jane asked hopefully.
"Devil Serpent, yes," Jack answered. "Demon Devil Serpent… No. No I do not."
"Well…" the bluenette hummed awkwardly. "No time like the present."
"If we both live through this, I'm calling dibs on the prime cut."
"Not if I get to them first!" Jane snapped as she exploded into motion and rushed the thing, Jack right on her heels.
*NEW WORLD*
At the same time, Team JNPR had joined the other Huntsmen of Rockwell on the wall in patrol, keeping an eye out for the Grimm. For the most-part they stayed on the peripherals, back in the shadows of the trees where the woodline had been drawn back from the no-man's-land around the settlement, but every once in a while, a more-daring specimen would rush the embarkment.
That said, the more-experienced veterans would either leap out to meet it in combat that swiftly ended, or fire off a snapshot into an eye that left even Pyrrha impressed.
Of course, that didn't stop some of the more-affluent citizens of Rockwell from fleeing to Vale, at least for the duration of the goings-on. The mining/refinery settlement was still in a state of high alert, so the skeletonized remains left in the wake of the Scorpion Roaches had yet to be collected in full; an array of tiny monuments to Human ego.
On the upside, Vivi had been left in their care, giving JNPR a little pick-me-up, as well as helping dispel some of the "negativity" that would draw in yet more Grimm. For a settlement as large as Rockwell, it was barely more than a drop in the bucket, but Vivi served as a good-enough morale-booster for those in the immediate vicinity.
A short while after Nora was finally able to catch some Grimm in the treeline with a grenade, Vivi's ears perked up, the little Spirit Best scrambling to get out of Ren's grip and leap from the wall.
"Vivi, what's the matter, girl?" Pyrrha asked worriedly right before a mushroom cloud of dust erupted in the middling distance, right at the base of Rockwell Mountain.
" . . . We're going out there!" Jaune said resolutely, the firmity of his voice spurring his team into action alongside him, the four of them rushing to the motor pool and leaping into an ATV only for the blond to realize- "Um… I can't drive a stick shift."
"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha said as she hip checked him out of the driver's seat into shotgun, the pretty red-head starting the car and shifting out of first gear with a practiced hand as they shot into the checkpoint's first lock.
" . . . "
"W-Well I thought you sounded cool!" Pyrrha squeaked as the second lock opened up for them.
Jaune's kneejerk- "Don't patronize me." -was instead replaced with a- "Thanks."
*NEW WORLD*
Pyrrha following the dust cloud Vivi was kicking up, out of nowhere the redhead slammed her foot on the brakes. As a consequence, Jaune smacked his forehead on the dash, Nora herself crashing into the back of Jaune's seat, since only Pyrrha and Ren had actually put on their seatbelts even amidst their haste.
"Why did you stop?" Ren asked as Pyrrha unclipped her seatbelt and ran up to Vivi, the fox-shaped Spirit Beast standing frozen in the road and trembling.
"Oh my goddess! She's frozen with fear!" the red-head gasped as Vivi shook, her eyes terrified even as Pyrrha held her in her arms.
"Ren…" Jaune said as he climbed out of the car. "Do you feel that?"
"I can taste that," Ren said as another mushroom cloud erupted from the distance, an enormous black serpentine coil undulating above the tree line.
" . . . Pyrrha, watch over Vivi, I'm going on ahead."
"But Jaune… You still can't drive stick."
" . . . "
" . . . "
" . . . Can anyone else drive stick?" the blond asked embarrassingly.
"I can!" Nora whooped. "Just don't ask me to drive an automatic."
"Wait, why can't you drive an automatic?"
"Jaune," Ren cut in as another mushroom cloud erupted from the distance.
"R-Right," Jaune amended, realizing they were kind of on a time crunch.
*NEW WORLD*
"INCOMIIIING!" Nora cried as an enormous black reptilian limb tumbled through the air, its shadow growing larger by the second.
"ABANDON SHIIIIIP!" Jaune cried as he and his chauffeuse bailed out of opposite doors of their ATV, which was flattened by the tumbling limb with a loud *CRUNCH*.
"What the hell was that?!" Nora squealed, their ride resembling a soda can under a heavy boot.
"Well, it's not a Grimm arm…" Jaune said as he examined the limb, blood dripping instead of ash evaporating. "Guess we're going the rest of the way on foot."
And go on foot they did. Ducking into the woods along the road, Jaune cutting his way through like his sword were a machette, when they eventually got to the site of the battle at hand, it looked like something from a monster movie. Jaune almost mistook the thing for a King Taijitu, because he couldn't have possibly imagined an animal getting that big, but seeing the discarded limbs scattered about and the blood stains, reminded him that there were in fact, animals larger than what Humans could cultivate inside their walled cities.
The thing was definitely a "monster", but what shocked him most were the straits he found Jane and Jack in.
His sister was pinned underfoot by a massive, clawed forelimb, the ground cratering beneath her and blood on her lips as the beast's added pressure made her cry out in shock. Jack on the other hand was held between two massive, clawed hands, little bigger than an action figure in the hands of a child, with long sinewy tendrils from the thing's mane visibly pumping something into the Faunus' body, his pronounced veins filled with black and his struggles enfeebling. Both of their clothes were ripped in places, the open area around them utterly ruined for anything but an ATV, but at the moment, all Jaune could think was-
"JANE!" Jaune cried as he rushed forward, golden Aura shimmering off his body as he rushed forward, heedless of his teammates' cries as he broke cover.
The thing's three eye stalks swiveling to regard the screaming Human as he let loose his battle cry, Jaune got to where his sister lay, his sword already drawn back around his shoulder before he let loose at the thing's wrist with a guttural cry.
*Thunk*
Like an inappropriate blade bouncing off the bark of a tree, Jaune's blade was effortlessly rebuked by the thing's jet black skin. His arms left trembling in the wake of his failed strike, Jaune felt predatory eyes on him a moment later, the blond barely having the chance to look up before a pair of massive red claws skewered him through, heedless of his armor.
The last thing he heard as he blacked out was his sister's horrified outcry.
*Rewind*
"Agh!"
Jaune letting out a gasp as the end of his life flashed before his eyes, those very same eyes almost goggled completely out of his skull as a yellow silhouette of himself rushed forward to fight the Demon Devil Serpent, moving in exactingly the same way as he had in what had to have been a waking nightmare.
Shaking himself out of his funk, the blond scrambled to catch up to his spectral doppelganger, an echoing war cry sounding from the duplicate's lips and drawing the thing's attention to itself. All the while, he himself remained… beneath the thing's notice…?
'THINK LATER!' Jaune raged at himself as he ran at Jack, funneling his Aura into his legs before shooting off the ground.
Biting back a cry as both legs fractured underneath him, with one hand he grabbed a fistful of Jack's hair, the blade in his free hand slicing at the syringe-like tendrils making Jack sicker and sicker by the moment.
A moment later a number of those same tendrils skewered him through, one eye going black before the other as his head was snapped back.
*Rewind*
Over and over, Jaune charged at the thing, dying each time like the Villager challenging the Demon Lord after being the Hero for only one day.
But each time he redid things, with each "Time Doppelganger" expended, he got a little closer to saving his sister and comrade from certain peril.
A pattern his adrenaline-addled brain swiftly recognized was that as long as he didn't directly interfere with the actions of his own past incarnations, future/past events would play out unaltered.
What's more, while the monster he raged against failing to notice him at all may've been a blessing, with each "re-do", the blond felt himself going weaker, coming to among his team with less and less Aura as time went by.
By the time he felt his tank starting to cough up fumes, the Demon Devil Serpent was swarmed by golden doppelgangers of an amount he abstained from counting multiple deaths ago. All of his focus instead was on inflicting a single wound so-grievous that the thing would ignore his sister, Jack, or maybe even the both of them in the best case.
Several deaths ago, he'd finally figured out how to empower his limbs with the right amount of Aura as to not make them explode beneath his skin, and what felt like his final leap carried him upward. The thing he'd been fighting, its eye stalks criss-crossing as countless light clones assailed it, failed to notice Jaune coming down at it until his unassuming blade found itself sucked down to the hilt in the thing's center pupil.
A terrible squeal ripping out of the thing's fanged maw as it whipped its head about, the massive forelimb pinning Jane to the ground had finally loosened, the frenzied undulations of its body sending him whirling through the air as his blade came free in a geyser of ocular fluid.
A pained- "GAAH!" -leaving Jaune's lips as be bounced painfully off the ground, with the *KRA-HISS* of breaking glass, his Aura finally came undone in its entirety, two unwounded eyes leering hatefully down at him while the third dribbled milky white blood.
"Heh... Looks like you've got sword in your eye~"
-was hardly the sort of last words Jaune would imagine himself saying right at the very end, but somehow, it felt good to get the last word in.
Even if the thing he bandied banter with couldn't technically speak…
The Demon Devil Serpent lunging at him with a great crimson maw, right as Jaune prepared himself to close his eyes for the final time-
Cue Toriko OST – The Four Heavenly King's Great Techniques
"Flying Fork ARMOR!"
Jane's voice piercing the tumult, a moment later Jaune felt countless shards of golden energy, formed into cutlery, wrapping around his body and forming a full set of armor made from forks.
"Hellflame FORK!" Jack raged after breaking free, the Red Dust on his forearm ignited as he skewered the thing in the neck with a four-clawed hand, its fangs raking sparks off the second layer of armor covering Jaune's body as its attack went wide.
"Flying Leg KNIFE!"
"Aura SPHERE!"
Jane and Jack swiftly blasting the thing back and away from him, a moment later hot pink grenades exploded against the thing's face, its center eyelids clamped shut over its wounded eye as the rest of Team JNPR came into the fray, Pyrrha and Ren dragging their leader away by his shoulders while Nora broke a sliver of Gold Dust between her teeth, arcs of electricity coruscating around her body before she shot at the Demon Devil Serpent with a cry of- "Nora SMASH!" -, the full weight of her hammer breaking teeth from its mouth.
"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha apologized as she grabbed Jaune's sword, enveloping it in a black aura that made his hairs stand on end before a cry of exertion shot the thing out like a bullet, taking out another of the thing's eyes.
An instant later Jack and Jane were crouched under the thing's neck, their pants exploding as muscles swelled with a cry of- "TWIN LEG KNIFE!"
Energy blades of crimson and gold meeting neighboring quadrants of the thing's neck before crossing away, after a painful eternity of nail-biting anticipation, the thing's head slowly fell from its neck with a wet *SCHLUCK!*, striking the ground with the force of a small building falling over, its body undulating in its death throes like a derailed freight train.
"Hah… So… Hah… Did we get 'im?" Nora asked between pants.
*NEW WORLD*
Cue Toriko OST - Tranquility
Though the Demon Devil Serpent's venom made Jack look like complete shit, surprisingly enough, his life wasn't actually in danger. Even now, his body was concocting new antibodies, helped along by the fact that he and Jane were stripping meat from the Demon Devil Serpent's discarded limbs and giving it a quick roast to replenish their energy.
The carcass itself was enormous, having to be carved into quote/unquote "manageable" pieces. I use the word manageable with air quotes because aforementioned pieces had to be hauled back to Rockwell with airships usually meant to ferry their fallen kin into drydock after they've been ripped from the sky by weather, the Grimm, or outside intervention.
Jaune of course was hardly lucid through most of the clean-up, the blond having physically, mentally, and spiritually exhausted himself as he fought to the death time and time again in an attempt to turn the tide. This time, with a bit of help.
By the time he came to again, he was thankful to find himself at a hotel in Rockwell, his sister nearby and indicative of the fact that time hadn't rewound itself to before that entire episode started.
"Hey there, baby brother."
"You aren't that much older than me…"
"Yeah, but you'll always be my baby brother~" the dyed bluenette giggled as she mussed his hair, his armor and clothes set aside.
"Jaune, how are you feeling?" Pyrrha fretted worriedly.
"Like a stray breeze could bowl me over," the blond said tiredly.
"Well, yeah, whatever superpower you pulled out of your ass looked pretty draining," Jane shrugged. "I guess Nike taking back the family sword was ultimately a good thing, huh?"
"That's… debatable…" Jaune muttered, remembering, and remembering, and remembering all that had gone down.
Again… and again… and again…
"Jack… Was I, I mean were we, able to get to him in time?"
"Ratel Faunus are already predisposed with 'Poison Resistance', so as long as he doesn't put his body under any extra duress until he recovers in full, he should be fine."
"So what we really need to be worried about, is someone he cheesed off in the past finding out and coming out of the woodwork to finish the job," he chuckled laconically.
"I'd call such a prediction outlandish, but at the same time, it doesn't ring as un-true…" Pyrrha admitted bashfully.
"Well, it's a good thing you woke up when you did. That big turkey you helped bring in is almost finished being carved, so us Hunters and all the workers in town are having a huge-ass party!" Jane grinned. "Come on, up, up! Don't wanna miss your own feast, do you?"
"My feast?" Jaune blinked.
"Well, for you and everyone else that went to Rockwell Mountain," the older sister amended.
*NEW WORLD*
The feast to celebrate the breach into Labyrinth Caverns being plugged up was held at the town marketplace, all of the usual stands moved to the very edges to accommodate the massive amount of fair, as well as all the working class people and Hunters of both dispositions who helped bring Rockwell through its darkest hour.
Jaune for his part had been up close and personal with the Demon Devil Serpent; quite often, to a fatal extent. So to see the thing all carved up and skinned, its body sections looking like massive racks of ribs the size of small buildings, was quite jarring for the only-moderately-exhausted HIT.
Individual ribs of meat had been laid out on massive tables, with dozens of ordinary citizens scrambling over each one like piranhas, or maybe ants, the things slathered in drums and drums of sauces if the empty wholesale food drums piled off to the side were any indicator. And even though the thing had brough no shortage of misery to him, the smell made his mouth water.
Not that he had his sister beat in that department. It was almost like an entire waterfall had been rerouted through her face-hole.
Nor that she was alone, either. The other Gourmet Hunters were enjoying themselves in earnest, with a giant of a man dressed like a caveman and the face of a gorilla raucously regaling anyone who would listen with tales of valor.
"Hey, there's Jack," Pyrrha hummed as she pointed over to the Faunus in question. At the moment he was staring up at an enormous slab of cardiac tissue on a bed of ice the size of a car -the cardiac tissue, not the bed of ice-, seemingly lost in his thoughts before he looked over his shoulder, Jaune wincing slightly at the pitch-colored veins spreading up his neck from under his clothes.
"Hey there, Snake Hunter. Glad to see you didn't miss the feast."
"Snake Hunter?" Jaune blinked.
"What? Would you rather go back to 'Vomit Boy'? Or maybe 'Broke Di-"
"Snake Hunter is fine," the blond cut in. "Though really, does that even qualify as a 'snake'?" he asked pointing to one of the severed limbs being spun on a massive rotisserie, with strips of crispy skin and beat being carved away as they cooked; the skin seemed to being going like hotcakes.
"A snake 'with extra steps' is still a snake," Jack dismissed. "Anyway," he said bandying his Sentoku Knife about, "I was about to carve into this bad boy, bit of a ritual feasting. Thought you might enjoy the fruits of your labor."
"More heart…?" Jaune asked disparagingly as he looked up at the thing responsible for pumping blood through the body of the other thing that passively terrified him, even cut up into foodstuffs.
"Hey, this time you were more than just live bait, so I think you've earned it," Jack said as he stepped up to the massive heart and carved out a few steak-sized pieces of coppery-smelling meat. "Really, though, with this line of work, can you really afford to be squeamish?"
" . . . I guess I won't always be spoiled for choice," the blond sighed, his sister smiling fondly as she clapped him on the back with a massive hand.
"Come on, princess. Let's fill that belly."
"I'm sorry, 'princess'?" Jack snickered.
"Hey guys, let's eat!" Jaune cut in eagerly, hoping to keep that particular episode in the family.
*NEW WORLD*
Jack, Jane, and Team JNPR had taken their cooked portions over to a tavern where it wasn't quite so raucous. The scent of cooked Demon Devil Serpent was still quite profound since the place was downwind, but some preferred to eat their portions in peace and quiet, so at least they weren't alone in that department.
Jaune's slab of Demon Devil Serpent heart, when properly cooked, looked hardly distinguishable from a large steak.
Assuming you tilted your head and squinted to the point of blindness, at least.
There were plenty of side dishes as well, the whole town coming together to make a huuuuge potluck in the wake of so much wild game of the more… exotic variety, but the Demon Devil Serpent was the centerpiece of the whole affair.
" . . . This thing is safe, right?" Jaune asked worriedly.
Sure, he'd eaten "not-a-dinosaur heart" once before, but this thing came out of something that had three eyestalks, poison-injecting hair, and limbs it could generate along its body length seemingly at will.
"You gonna eat it, or not?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, Jaune? How're you gonna take in its strength if you don't bite into its heart?" Nora inquired.
"Nora, I hardly think what happened to Reinhardt will happen to me," Jaune said as he cut himself a bite-sized piece, plugged his nose, and choked the piece down. "Hurkk!"
"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked worriedly as Jaune got up from his seat, doubled nearly all the way over as he held his stomach, his body going into convulsions.
"You think he got some kind of heartworm?" Nora asked.
"Heartworms don't take effect straight away," Ren deadpanned as Pyrrha went over to help Jaune, only for a sudden flexing of his body to throw her onto her ass, his muscles suddenly swelling to half-again their normal size and snapping the straps on his armor, as well as shredding most of his clothes.
"Whoa! Now that's a katana," Nora hummed sagely as Pyrrha went completely red in the face, a very… phallic shadow cast across her face in the tavern's light.
"I'd say I'm scarred for life, but this doesn't even enter into my Top 10," Jack said as he bit into his Demon Devil Serpent heart with a completely straight face, Jaune continuing to howl uncontrollably as his veins throbbed and his eyeballs bulged out of their sockets.
*Later…*
"Jaune. I see that the swelling has started to go down," Jack hummed as he sat on the skyport roof, the Faunus idly watching the ships come and go.
"Oh… Yeah…" he nodded as he looked down at his sweats. "Um… Jack… About what happened with that big dragon-"
"Snake. Trust me, if it were actually some kind of dragon, that fight would've gone way different."
"My point being… I think that was my Semblance that came in, for real this time, but…"
"Buuut, you have a better idea what the 'activation criterion' is this time around?"
"Yeah…" Jaune said raking his fingers through his hair. "First time around, I went off to save my sister, and then I got skewered, and then I 'came back'. While my 'time doppelganger' was off doing what I did before, I went off to try and save you and got killed again."
"So then… your Semblance put you through some kind of 'Death Loop' until you were able to spam enough clones that you finally won?" Jack guessed as he put the pieces together.
"Honestly, the well was running pretty damn dry by the end there, so I think if I got killed after I skewered its center eye, that'd have been the end for me; Do not pass Go, do not collect 200 dollars."
"Hm. I can see why you'd be worried about that being your Semblance," Jack hummed. "All things considered, a Semblance like that sounds pretty damn 'broken', but if you run out of Aura before accomplishing your objective, I can see why you'd still be worried about 'Permadeath'."
"Yeah," Jaune nodded, the sensation of coming so-close to death still fresh on his mind. "Assuming that's still my ace in the hole the next time I go on a suicide mission, I guess I can call my Semblance… [Time Shift] , or something."
"Yeah, but maybe keep that on the downlow. If some criminal thinks he can off you to reverse-import lottery numbers from the future…"
"Right…" Jaune said raking his fingers nervously through his hair. "Um… Do you think maybe we could not tell anyone back home how all my clothes… you know… exploded?"
"I think your time would be better spent telling Nora to keep her mouth shut, instead of me."
"Oh, shit, dammit, you're right…" he groaned, remembering how-much his teammate liked to run her mouth.
"Well, I don't think anyone took pictures before Ren wrapped that tablecloth around your waist, so I think you'll be fine. And hey, even if someone did take your picture, you basically looked like a hairless erect gorilla with your head on top, so maybe no-one will even believe that's you~"
"Oh, if only…" Jaune said rubbing his aching biceps. "Hey, um, how-awkward do you think things will be with Pyrrha since I… uh… I mean, you know…"
"Flashed her the goods?" Jack quipped with a wry smile. "Honestly, nudity with co-ed teams isn't going to be a problem forever; you aren't always going to have the luxury of bathing in shifts. All I can really advise is, maybe don't walk around with an open bathrobe, and the embarrassment will be kept to a minimum."
"Right…" Jaune nodded, once again raking his fingers through his hair. "Hey, um… Getting a little off-topic, do you think I should cut my hair?"
"What brought this on?"
"Well, I mean, now that I'm actively wearing a helmet…"
"Ah, yeah, that tracks," Jack hummed.
"Did… uh… Have you ever worn a helmet?" he asked lamely.
"As the situation called for it," Jack shrugged, making Jaune feel slightly less 'lame'. "My advice, know exactly what you want beforehand; don't tell the barber 'Surprise me', because a parking ticket or a bad breakup can make you into an interweb meme in a heartbeat. And remember, pain is temporary-"
"But the interweb is forever," Jaune nodded as he began to flit through his Scroll. "Yeah… Yeah, I guess if I'm going to change, for real this time, maybe I should really commit."
"Just don't get any face tattoos. The street cred it'll get you is only short-term, and if you can't live up to the hype, you'll come off as a complete poser," he said with a sour look like he'd bit into a lemon.
"I see… I see…" Jaune hummed, deep in thought, his mouth opening and closing for another minute afterward.
"You look like you have something you want to say."
"It's just… I know the 'what' I want to say, but I don't know how to put it into words…"
"Well, we've still got a while before the next airship to Vale if you don't want to share it with mixed company."
" . . . You and Jane. Pound for pound, you're way stronger than most of us at Beacon if you go all out."
"That's right."
"And that 'Demon Devil Serpent'… It was stronger than any Grimm I've ever seen, even that one from the Foreverfall Forest."
"Plausibly."
"So why… Why aren't you Gourmet Hunters out there fighting the Grimm if you're so-strong?" he asked, a bit of irritation seeping into his voice. "I mean… Port talked about those Behemoth Grimm like they were the top of the mountain outside of those 'force of nature' anecdotes… but that thing we all fought today was probably way stronger, so why…?"
"Ah, so you did notice," Jack nodded. "Tell me, Jaune. If a plumber goes to a bathroom stall and the can isn't broken, do they just stand by and wait for it to break again?"
"Huh…?" he blinked. "Um, no, of course not."
"If a taxi driver parks on a street corner and there's no fare, do they just let the cab idle until someone shows up?"
"I mean… I don't really think so…"
"Does a used car salesman try to sell a soccer van to a mom whose kid plays the clarinet?"
"Where exactly are you going with this?"
"If a Bishokuya is asked to go after a bunch of Grimm but they've gone to ground, should they just wait around for them to come back?"
"What do you mean they've 'gone to ground'?" he asked confusedly.
"Grimm already figured out a long time ago that when they go up against Gourmet Hunters, even the strongest of them will lose when the other guy can level a mountain," Jack began.
"But if that's the case… couldn't they have Gourmet Hunters stay at every settlement, keep the Grimm at bay that way?" Jaune asked as the cogs began to mesh in his mind.
"Jaune, do you really think normal folk can strong-arm a Gourmet Hunter into squatting at every settlement, just to keep the Grimm away?"
"But… But that would solve everyone's problems!" Jaune protested.
"Everyone but the Gourmet Hunters," Jack said shaking his head. "You cage a hungry animal, refuse to feed it what it wants to eat, it'll bite the hand giving it pittance for an enemy that never shows up."
"So that's the tradeoff then? You get too-strong, and you can't even defend the people from the real monsters?" Jaune scoffed.
"Idiot, the real monsters are already inside the walls; the Grimm are just an inconvenience," Jack huffed. "If people got over their 'this-race/that-race' bullshit, we could've dealt with the Grimm centuries ago as a united front; as one world. But we didn't. Why? Because when you just up and give people safety, they don't feel the need to fight for it."
"But it's the responsibility of the strong to protect the weak," Jaune argued.
The irony, of course, was not lost on him…
"Not if the weak go out of their way to give the strong as much grief as possible out of spite," Jack said flatly. "Why do you think Gourmet Hunters are out on the Frontier all the time in pursuit of new flavors?" he asked dryly. "It's because the politics of the 'Human World' is complete bullshit, and they all know it."
"So that's it? You and Jane have just… washed your hands of the rest of us?" Jaune asked, realizing that Jane had never, even once, bragged about what kind of Grimm she'd killed. Only massive animals that, up until now, Jaune had assumed were hyperbole instead of tangible fact.
"Jaune, when your Gourmet Cells become strong-enough, your own appetite and wanderlust takes precedent over everything else," Jack said matter-of-factly. "My own GCs might be activated, but they're nowhere near as strong as the real heavy-hitters in the IGO, so I'm not a slave to my appetite like your sister is."
"And Jane's aware of this? That no Grimm will ever go out in front of her?" he asked, feeling like all that power, power that he was genuinely envious of, was going to waste when there were Grimm out in the world that could flatten villages.
"It's not like she ever wanted to fight inedible monsters for a living, so what does it matter?" Jack shrugged dismissively. "The only reason I stepped foot into that World of Flavor, was because there was someone who wasn't going to make it if their Gourmet Cells weren't triggered. And the only reason I'm still going in is because all those beatings I took along the way will kill me before I graduate if I don't. Yang triggered her Gourmet Cells on that Sunshine Fruit, but as long as she doesn't go too crazy with the foodgasm-inducing, you know, food… she and Ruby will still be able to kill Grimm together."
"Well… I guess it's a good thing that the bad people with Gourmet Cells are more interested in food than world domination, huh?" he asked jokingly.
"Mmmmm-no. No, if they get their hands on GOD, it's going to be an individual meritocracy all-around until someone strong-enough and altruistic-enough overthrows them."
"Oh… Oh, that is bad," Jaune winced once it dawned on him that Jack was being completely serious.
"Yeah, well, that's the way things go. We have to keep civilization intact, and she might have to go to the Red Line someday to stop the Gourmet Corp from getting their hands on GOD."
"What kind of food even is GOD?"
"No-one can really agree, but it was universally powerful-enough to stop a global war and usher in the current Gourmet Age. Does it really matter what the most-coveted Ingredient in the world looks like?"
"Mm. No. No, I guess not," Jaune sighed tiredly.
He might not've liked the answer to his question, but he supposed there wasn't anything inherently false in what Jack had told him, either. All power came with a price, after all; an activated Aura for example may've given you a "forcefield", but it also made you a beacon for whatever Grimm was on the prowl.
"Getting back to what I was talking about before things got all… heavy…" Jaune groused. "Any advice on how to get my Semblance to work without, you know… dying?"
"Jaune, the only Semblance I've ever had to use was my own. How the heck am I supposed to help you with yours?"
He did of course abstain from bringing up what happened to him and his rival on what they colloquially referred to as "Mind-Shredding Monday", because that was a one-off.
*AN*
A good while back, I happened upon an interesting-looking game on Steam; Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior. The premise is essentially that you use "Time Clones" of yourself to achieve certain objectives within a time limit, like fighting clusters of enemies and flipping switches. All stuff that would be physically impossible to do with only a single corporeal body on ahard time limit. Real Legend of Zelda-style stuff.
That they all happened to look like Sun Wukong's [Via Sun] Semblance, and that this version of Jaune Arc is one that has a lingering need to do things over, or make up for his own mistakes, made having his Semblance be [Time Shift] instead of the Canon [Aura Amp] all the easier from a narrative standpoint. Especially because the way I portray this version is more-true to how someone wanting to go to a Huntsman Academy, without putting in the prerequisite work, would act.
I mean, come on, people, I know he was meant to be "the everyman" for audience members to vicariously live through, but the guy didn't even know what Aura was; let alone how to, you know… fight! I mean, I get that he grew up sheltered with seven sisters, but he should've picked up on the bare minimum, right?
It's also a great nod to his previous Groundhog Day-style misadventure, which Ozpin may or may not have had a hand in. Nudge, nudge, wink, nudge.
All in all, I feel pretty satisfied with building up this version of Jaune, who for a long time I held in contempt in the same vein as Hercule Satan from Dragonball Z, and partly King from One-Punch Man. In Hercule's case, he knows he's a fraud, but does it anyway and revels in the profits from fleecing the entire world. King on the other hand has gotten caught up in the lie and he's in too deep, but as of recently in the manga re-drawn by Yusuke Murata, he's genuinely been trying to become strong so that his strength "won't be a lie". Hell, the guy whose hard work he's been profiting off of was cool with it, and was even the one who suggested that King "just become strong" so he won't have to lie to everyone.
Anywho, originally this was going to be part one of a double-update for Giant-Slayer, but the next chapter is hardly done, and I want to do something nice for all of you before Christmas/New Years, so in light of that, I hope you all have a merry holiday, and a happy new year.