Chapter 116: 18
Chapter 18 – Jaunenapped
"It'll turn up," Yang said softly, even as Weiss and Ruby waited nearby. "Blake, you need to calm down."
"Calm down!?" A pillow flew past Yang's face as Blake dug deeper into her bed. Nothing. Why wasn't he answering her? She swore if this was some stupid prank of his she'd make sure he regretted it! "Less talk, more help!"
"Blake it's eight in the morning," her partner sighed, "we need to get to the cafeteria if we want to get any breakfast before lessons start."
Breakfast? Lessons!? As though either of those things mattered when Jaune was missing. Couldn't they see how important this was? Ugh, of course not, they didn't know the truth of the matter.
"Go then, I'll catch up."
"That's a lie and we both know it," a pair of arms came up under her armpits, lifting her away from the bed even as she kicked her feet angrily. If Yang thought this was a joking matter she soon changed her mind when Blake slammed the back of her head back into the girl's nose. "Fuck, ow!"
"Blake!" Weiss snapped, stepping between them as Yang's eyes started to flash crimson. "Yang, both of you calm down, this is ridiculous!"
"Can say that again," Yang grumbled, "just a stuffed toy."
"Enough!" A sharp whistle blared as the three held their ears. Weiss giving their leader a baleful `why me?` look. "Blake – I realise your bear is important, but it's not going anywhere in the time it will take us to eat. We can even check out the lost and found before lessons and see if he's there. Yang, this is clearly important to her – don't be mean about it."
"Sorry," they both mumbled, though Blake's was half-hearted at best. This was a disaster; oh she'd just known she shouldn't have let him out at night. If something went wrong and she wasn't nearby, then he had no way of actually getting out of the bear he'd possessed.
She could only pray Ruby was right. Thievery in Beacon was pretty low, and besides, Jaune could walk about on his own. Wherever he was, maybe he was just waiting for less people to be in the hallways so he wouldn't raise suspicion.
She should have sewn a scroll into him or something. If his ghostly voice could even be transmitted over physical technology… she wasn't sure it would work like that, since his voice didn't technically exist.
"Come on Blake," the girl two years her junior said kindly, taking her arm and leading her from the dorm, even as her heart pounded and her head ached with worry. "We'll sort this out – just you see."
"Sorry, we didn't receive anything like that," the woman behind the counter said in a bored tone, clearly uninterested in her plight. "Certainly didn't get anything within the last day or so anyway, just some lost ID cards, the usual."
"Thanks anyway," Weiss said uncertainly, her ice-blue eyes flashing over to their faunus friend – who even now was staring at the floor. He wasn't there… that meant whoever had impeded him hadn't handed him in… which meant they'd decided to keep him.
To kidnap him. Or steal him, rather… Either way, that meant he was in trouble – and that it was her fault he was in that state. Because, at the end of the day, he'd been running around after dark to help her, hadn't he?
She'd abandoned her first partner, was another one to be taken from her now?
"Problem, Belladonna?" The hated voice called out as the four of them re-entered the cafeteria. She ignored him, as she always did, even as he made to step closer to her.
"Go bother someone else Cardin," Yang snapped, "maybe your boy-toy Russell, looks like he hasn't had a good bothering from you in a few hours, if you know what I mean."
A few people around them laughed as the bully went red in the face, only to let out a long breath and visibly calm down.
"Funny Xiao-Long, you're always a regular ball of wit. And here I just wanted to see if I could help."
"Yeah well, help yourself out the room if you can, some of us are trying to eat."
"Tch, fine then. I need to get ready to send a gift back to my family anyway, found a cute little yellow chew-toy for my dogs out in the halls."
What!? Her head snapped up at the words, amber eyes zeroing in on him as she leapt forward, past Yang's hands that sought to stop her, so that she stood in front of the man – hand outstretched.
"Give him to me."
"Huh, give what?" The brute grinned, cocking one brow as he leaned his head backwards. "You'll need to be more specific than that."
"My teddy bear," she said immediately, "give me my teddy bear back."
"I can't hear you," the teen said as he cupped a hand at his ear suggestively, "why don't you try a little louder?"
Louder? Her eyes glanced around as she saw his three stooges watching with grins on their faces, scrolls out as though to record her – even a few others were listening in. Was that what it was all about, humiliating her in front of the others?
How childish…
"Give me back my teddy bear," she said loudly – loud enough that anyone could hear her – "my teddy bear which you have stolen, give it back."
There was laughter around her, boys and girls alike covering their mouths as they laughed at her for daring to speak up about such a thing. She cared for none of it, eyes locked onto his as he frowned, clearly displeased by her lack of embarrassment.
"Don't know what you're talking about," he shrugged, "just a chew toy for my dogs – won't last long, I imagine. But it'll do."
No… she could imagine it now, his tiny form torn to pieces by hell-beasts as he screamed and flailed, Cardin laughing over it all. All because she had abandoned him to his fate, when she was supposed to be his partner.
Her fist flew before she could even comprehend it, and clearly it was before he could either – for his eyes widened as her knuckles smashed into his face, knocking him a step back. There was choked silence around them, even as she took another step forward.
"Miss Belladonna!" A feminine voice snapped angrily as she was forcefully shoved back by some invisible hand. Miss Goodwitch strode between them, crop swishing angrily. "How dare you do this!? Apologise to Mr Winchester this instant."
"He stole my property!" She accused, even as she refused to back down before the older woman. This was a matter of life or death, as though she cared for something like a petty detention – Jaune could be killed, again!
"I don't know what she's talking about," Cardin responded instantly, "she just lashed out at me – surely you saw that?"
"I did, Mr Winchester," the blonde woman snapped, "as for you Miss Belladonna, I'd prefer if you came to us with a little more proof before making accusations like that."
"Everyone here heard him say it," Blake pointed to the crowd that had assembled around them, "ask any of them." It had been clear as day – Cardin had as good as said it.
"Is that so? Anyone?" Naturally hands from both her and Cardin's teams shot up, but the woman waved them down, "anyone not so clearly biased?"
Silence… her yellow eyes widened as she looked around at them all. Cardin's team she could expect not to say anything, and obviously her own team wouldn't be trusted by Goodwitch… but everyone else?
They just… stood there.
"This is how it is then?" Blake said out loud, looking over them. A few looked away uncertainly, but others seemed pleased. It was the same crap all over again, except that this time it wasn't because she was a faunus. They just hated her for something else. Personality, looks, skills – who even knew anymore?
"Detention this evening Miss Belladonna, at seven. Do you hear me?"
"I hear you," Blake pushed away from the crowd, hands clenched into fists even as Goodwitch shouted after her. Yang caught up first, the other two trailing close behind – each of them silent as Blake stormed away.
"He doesn't have any dogs here," it was Weiss who broke the silence, "and he won't be able to send anything before the weekend Blake. We'll sort this out."
The weekend… that was four days away… so much could go wrong in that time. What if he got bored and just tore Jaune to pieces? Or tossed him off of Beacon? No one was going to do a damn thing about it.
Could she walk away from another partner, like she had with Adam?
"We'll confront him after classes," Yang promised, "violently if we have to – just, let's just hold on til then, okay?"
The team came to a stop as she did, her shoulders rising and falling as hands clenched into fists. She was normally more controlled than this. The last time she'd been so angry was when Weiss had spoken so poorly of faunus – when her secret had been revealed and she'd run away.
She'd been prepared to become a criminal then – to kill Torchwick if she had to.
This… didn't feel much different.
"If he hurts him," she said softly as she turned to look each of them in the eye, "then you'd best be prepared to stop me from tearing his throat out."
She smiled grimly at how worried they each looked at those words.
For they were completely true.
"I don't like this," Dove complained as he rubbed his arms, "there's something up with that thing – it's not natural."
"Damn it Dove," Cardin rolled his eyes as he threw the book he was reading at the mantelpiece, knocking the little stuffed bear on its ass. "It's a toy."
"I know that," Russell chimed in, "but I can see where Dove's coming from too – I swear sometimes when I look away and back, it's like it moved."
"Tch, idiots." Cardin scoffed as his eyes narrowed on Belladonna's bear. It was complete nonsense of course… complete nonsense…
Damn but he hated the way the thing smiled… like it was watching him, no matter where he was in the room. Taking a deep breath, he stood up, disturbing the pillows he was sat on as he reached over and placed a glass jar over the bear – placing a few heavy books on top.
"There, you pussies happy now? Feel safe to sleep with a teddy bear in the same room?"
"Don't be like that," Sky laughed as he checked his watch, "anyway, time for the grind – shall we go?"
Cardin grumbled but collected his books nonetheless. He'd deal with the bear, and that bitch, later.
Jaune watched as the door closed shut behind the four of them, eyes narrowing as a snarl escaped him. With a sudden burst of movement, he threw himself angrily against the glass, slamming off its rounded surface as he slid back to the middle.
Again he pushed himself up, and once more he pushed against it –hands making a loud high-pitched noise as they strained against the smooth walls. The books were too heavy, his weight too little. The hardest part of him was literally his little button eyes.
He reared back and slammed his face into it, making a tiny plastic plink as absolutely nothing happened.
"Rarghh!" He threw himself one final time, everything he had as his body slammed into the barrier keeping him from getting back. It didn't even wobble in the slightest. Instead he slid down it, coming to a rest back on the hard wood.
"I... just want to go home…"
Sad-face x 2.
Poor Jaune and poor Blake… your first time truly apart. Also I always found it weird that RT only ever really uses Cardin and not the whole student body. Except that well, assets and work and all that, I suppose. Don't want to model all those people.
But either way, we tend to just assume RWBY would be a popular team, but I kinda don't imagine they would. Or at least, I imagine some would hate them.
Over-achievers who make everyone else look bad, a team of girls that are both beautiful, skilled and dominant over pretty much everyone else? Not to mention with a leader two years younger? The Heiress of the Schnee, the popular girl from Signal – and a silent bookworm who gives attention to nobody?
Those aren't exactly characteristics of people who would endear themselves to the general student body I would imagine. Or at least, they are ones that would inspire jealousy in many.
Ghost Jaune Rules so far – Spoiler free (i.e. there are more rules, but I list only the known and spoken ones here).
1 – Jaune in ghost form cannot travel far from Blake, she acts as an anchor of sorts – determining the radial distance he can travel.
2 – Jaune can possess animate and inanimate objects to a degree. Inanimate objects are easier due to not having any kind of mind of their own. However, a chair is still a chair. If the object has no means of locomotion, he cannot move it. The bear has legs; thus it can move.
3 – Possession of animate humans seems to be when they are unconscious, and has been shown that when they wake up, he is removed. Also evidence shown last chapter points out that Jaune is expelled if they are re-knocked unconscious.
4 – When possessing something or someone, Jaune can travel beyond the boundary of Blake's presence. However, when he does so – he CANNOT leave the object. He is essentially bound do it, until he returns to Blake's presence, where he can then choose to vacate it. Blake is the anchor, not the object he possesses.
5 – Spirit Jaune cannot interact with anything, and even when possessing his voice cannot be heard. However, upon possessing a living entity he can speak, but only the host's voice is audible.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone