Chapter 20: The Price of Humanity
Part 1: Rust Bucket, ahoy
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(((Jaune)))
I rushed over packing my things in my room. I got some change of clothes. Some toiletries and some mementos from back home. It escapes me that I actually didn't have much stuff, so my luggage is rather light. I sold most of my stuff back then for some money back before I cam to Oldtown.
"So you're leaving now?", Velvet came into my room, watching over me as I checked my combat equipment for the last time. A silver sword, a spare dagger, my handgun and an ammo bandolier hand by my shoulder. I look more like a cowboy with a sword rather than the knight I had envisioned myself to be.
For some reason, I didn't mind.
"Yeah Velvet. Sky's pal overseas call him up for help. So we're moving tonight, in an hour."
"Is that so? I was planning a farewell dinner but it looks like we couldn't make it."
"Sorry Velvet."
"Don't be." Velvet hush over me. "There's nothing to apologize about going to help people. I just thought we have time to say goodbye."
"Yea… Velvet."
I face over Velvet, looking down of her. While training under her, I never noticed how much taller I actually am than her. She done a lot for me.
"Thanks. For everything. And I will use your sword to save many people."
She smiles.
"Remember to be careful, Jaune. Don't get swept up by Soren's pace. Back out if you think it's out of your league. Remember what I told you?"
"Soren operates at a different standard. I have to remind him that we're all normal."
"That's right. Come here."
Velvet hugged me to my surprise. I was flustered for a bit then I hugged her back.
"You have a good heart, Jaune. Remember that you don't need to agree to everything Soren's do. Be your own person. Find your own Drifter Creed. And most important of all, be safe."
"I will, Velvet."
(((Narrator)))
"Wow, really taking your time huh?"
"I'm sorry Sor… I mean I'm sorry, sir!"
"Just get aboard."
Ruby says goodbye to her father, Qrow, and then carry up her heavy luggage onto Rust Bucket.
Meanwhile, Soren spit to his side as he face Qrow Branwen, the strongest Hunter in Vale.
"Please look after her, Soren.", Qrow asked.
"Yea yea. Pops is her godfather. In a way that made her my lil sis. That means I'm responsible for her. Not that she knows about it."
The atmosphere is tense between them. When Ruby was five, Summer Rose had gone missing in her mission to stall thr Grimm Wesen, Lycanus. Being the fastest Drifter at the time, she went ahead as Ozpin raise the call of arms to subjugate the Wesen-in-hiding to stall the Ever-Hunger while the rest of high ranker Drifters arrived to end it once and for all
However, the Wesen was gone when they arrived, and all that was left at the scene was Summer's white cloak, soaked red from blood.
The white-now-red cloak which Ruby's now done for herself.
Qrow Branwen had choose to join Beacon Hunting Company, working under Ozpin directly. By doing that, he broken the Branwen's Oath of Enmity against Ozpin and he is expelled from the tribe.
Ruby was told the gist of her heritage but not in full. She doesn't know about the extent of her connection to the Drifters. She was raised in Vale, knowing only the city and the Hunters before moving to Lake Lullaby to study in Beacon.
"I just want her to be safe.", Qrow excuses himself.
"So much for safety. Do you even know how much work I'm gonna have to do to get rid of her bad habits from learning in Beacon? At least Jaune is a blank slate and a villager. I won't have to break out any bad habits. Ruby is a thoroughbred city girl. Aaaa, I'm already feeling annoyed with her naivety before we even begin working!"
Qrow just chuckles. "You'll do fine. I didn't even want her to become a Hunter, let alone a Drifter. But at the end of the day, she too inherit the blood of a predator. There's nothing I could do to stop her to start hunting monsters eventually."
Soren scoffed. "Yea, no shit. It's not the monsters I'm worried about."
During the goblin quest, Ruby had no issue massacring even goblin babies. Innocent and naïve she may be, the Silver Eyes bloodline within her stirs her instinct to hunt and kill monsters. Like many old legacy bloodline Drifters, she has the blood and instinct of Remnant's natural predator over magical beasts and demonic monsters.
However, the real issue will come when Ruby is forced to fight another human being. Can Ruby slay monsters wearing the skin of man?
The Alghoul Quest will test her resolve.
"Now enough chit chat, old man. Go scram."
"Hmph.", Qrow smirked. "May the wind bring us together again, Soren." Qrow greet him farewell.
"As the Wind's howling.", Soren replies back.
Then, a flock of crows appears out of thin air and circle around Qrow. When the flock disperse and disappear, Qrow's gone. Teleported to somewhere
"Fucking Branwen with their teleportation powers. What do Coldforges got as their bloodline power? Oh gee we know how to kill shit~. Sometimes I think my ancestors has no actual special power so they just made it all up." Soren ranted over his family's rather lackluster bloodline trait despite being the oldest Drifter lineage in Remnant.
Shaking his head, he board Rust Bucket.
"Alright Rom! Lets get this Rust Bucket to the air!
"Roger, cap!", Roman salute him from the bridge.
"Whoa!", Jaune balance himself as the zeppelin rise up.
"Easy there.", Ruby chuckles as she hold Jaune from slipping off the deck.
Sun is on the crow's nest, overlooking the horizon on top of the levitation barrel of the ship. He saw a flock of giant bats, their silhouette faintly covers the luminous broken moon. "Giant bats incoming, cap!", he reported through radio.
"Nep, turn the shield on."
"Aye!", Neptune, the ship engineer respond to the order and activate the shield. Rust Bucket, still rising up the sky is then cocooned by an energy- field.
The giant bats hit the shield, and burned to crisps by phasing energy shield. Their ashes disperse into air making the ship looks like a smoky orb from afar.
"Take down the shield.", Soren orders.
"Shield down."
"Look at that Jaune!", Ruby pointed to the glowing flow of energy that faintly illuminates the Remnant's skyline across the world.
"whoa… I saw it at night ever since I moved here, but it was too faint to really see. What is it?"
Ruby giggles. "That Jaune, is what we call as the Duststream. When you enter Yellow Zones and above, you will see thess rivers of Dust ever flowing across the planet. The Duststreams are constantly warping, their path changes depending on the flow of the wind. Do you know why intercontinental-class Zeppelin like our Rust Bucket here is shaped like a boat, unlike other type of airships like Bullhead?"
"I don't know. Why?"
"Because unlike other airships, Zeppelins like this sails on Duststream like a boat on a river!"
Roman then fly the zeppelin up above one of the many Duststreams up to 10000 feet in the air. He gently guided the ship to hover above the river of luminous Dust, and then he gently landed on the river of energy.
"whoa!!", Jaune hold tight the handlebar as Rust Bucket speed up on the Duststream, the flow of energy moving fast to the east.
"You sure this is a good wind?", Soren asked Roman to confirm.
"I told you, cap. I am the best skysailor in Gulf of Vacuo! No one read the wind and Duststreams better than me!", Roman boasted.
"I'll hold you to it.", Soren smirked as he gone out the bridge and went to the deck.
"Its like we're sailing on a river of stars.", Tessa is at the side of the deck, looking down at the Duststream the ship is sailing in.
"Careful to not drop into the stream. Just a dip is enough to send you into shock from Dust poisoning. That is pure Dust particles."
Dust. Or the full name, Cometdust. It is the material that forever changed Remnant from a regular planet to a world of magic and monsters when the mysterious comet crashed into the moon and its dust particles spills into Remnant's atmospehere, along with the comet debris. "It's so beautiful. But to our ancestors, this beautiful river of stars up above the sky were nothing but an omen of catastrophe, wasn't it?", said Tessa.
"Yeah. For our ancestors, Dust is nothing more but a source of calamity.",
Soren faintly smile.
"But I wouldn't change the world a single bit.", He snapped his finger and a spark of fire lit up then immediately extinguished. "Monsters and magic? This is home."
Soren hold Tessa by her shoulder as she sees the river of stars up close for the first time.
And Jaune admires the wonder of the world with Ruby.
Sail forth, Rust Bucket. Drift across the sky, guided by the howling wind. Bring your crew across many villages and settlements as you brought along the Drifting Legacy.
Saving people, hunting things. The family business.
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(((AN)))
Finally this story is starting for real.
Anyway, thanks to all for reading this far. It's been a pretty long prologue. Man do I hate writing training arc. As you may noticed, I skipped a lot of the training and had Jaune go through some tutorial quests instead.
Now Jaune has entered the big leagues. He will go through many fun adventures.
But he will also go through so many tragedies.
The Drifters are not heroes. They can be described as a group of wandering sellswords that profit off people's tragedies. They slain monsters be it literal or figurative for some money, with many of them are gruff, rough and unfriendly, unlike the heroic image of their counterparts, the Hunters.
As you can imagine, one group is less desired than the other.
As Jaune journey across Remnant, he will meet the Drifter Clans, all with their unique quirks and Creeds. He had met one, the Winchesters and learn of their Creed, Saving People, Hunting Things. The Family Business. Jaune will grow as a Drifter and eventually form his own Creed as a legacy to be passed on to his descendant. Just to be clear, this not an Arc is a special bloodline fic. The Arc was a regular knight Nobility at east coast Sanus before losing their land and status to Nightshade Empire and they fall into ruin, becoming a regular blacksmith family in Ansel.
The Branwen will not be a lame ass bandit goons like in canon. Calling them a bandit tribe will be an embarrassment to actual bandit tribes. No that they are a bandit tribe in this fic
The Schnee is not a Drifter clan. Just a heads up. The Lie is one though. Or was it Ren? Whatever, let's just say they are Lies. I had loved Lie Ren debut, especially his Aura Punch move, and then they made him as nothing more than an idiot firing a useless gun.
Fuck that shit! Ren here will be fucking Hawkeye! Bow Fu goes pew pew pew!
Now, just in case, Drifting Legacy will have some humor chapters but I want to clarify that this fic will not be the memefest insanity that is Nobody in Naruto. I may have slipped up sometimes before but I will try to keep the insanity in check while writing this fic.
Drifting Legacy is not a story about heroes saving the world. This story is really an SoL about a group of Monster Slayers for hire and their daily lives of investigating unknown monster attacks and taking down the threats. If they happened to solve a world ending crisis? That's just coincidence. I don't plan to write this as an overarching story to eventually beat Salem. Salem had already been beaten in this fic. She just popped back into existence sometimes and get taken down on the spot before she could grow more power.
I'm very bored of her, you see.
Well, this AN had gone long enough. See you in the next chapters.