Kapitel 106: 8
Chapter 8 – The Arcsorcist
In her defence, there were many things that had been draining away at her patience. Her arms still stung that morning when she woke up, and the ointment she needed to rub into them thanks to the infirmary had run out.
To make matters worse, that idiot Winchester had decided to bump heavily into her after class – knocking her into a wall and setting off all the nerves in her arms once more. She'd literally had to restrain Yang from causing some kind of scene, and only Jaune's intangible nature prevented the fists passing through Cardin's face from doing some serious damage.
Predictably Yang hadn't agreed with her desire to avoid any trouble, nor had she seemed particularly enthused at the notion that Blake could ignore the blatant bullying. She was just like Jaune in some ways… neither of them seemed to understand that to her, bullying was only so if you let it bother you. Winchester's little barbs and passive-aggressive assaults just made him look stupid in her eyes, and the focus on her wasn't really any skin off her nose.
Also it did seem to have slowed down the bullying on other faunus, which was a plus. If he truly felt the need to be an asshole to someone, then perhaps it was better it be her – who just didn't care about it.
But the whole incident had been wearing her patience thin nonetheless, which was why she'd accepted the idea of a trip into Vale, even on what should have been a quiet Friday afternoon. It was meant to be a time to relax, to get away from all the crap that was going on at Beacon.
And it would have been, if not for Weiss being a complete bitch.
"You assume he's part of the White Fang on nothing but his species, you're discriminatory!"
"Well excuse me for being correct in almost every case, he's already a thief – the next step might as well be the White Fang."
"Oh my God," Jaune whined as he seemed to collapse mid-air, "how can you two keep going!?"
"Why do you think faunus were moved to this in the first place?" She ignored the dead teen, golden eyes focused on her own teammate who she wanted nothing more than to slap. "You think they wanted to be forced to take those measures?"
"I don't see why not, they certainly went from peaceful protests to kidnapping and execution fairly damn quickly!" The white-haired girl spread her arms out, as though inviting others to comment. "That's not exactly a small shift there Blake."
"It's the racism of others, people like Cardin, like you – you're as much a scoundrel as you claim that monkey faunus is."
"Blake… seriously, scoundrel? I wasn't aware we were in some kind of period drama."
"Shut the hell up!" Blake snapped.
"Don't talk to me like that," Weiss shouted, no doubt mistaking Blake's words for being aimed at her, "I am your teammate!"
"What's your problem anyway?"
"My problem?" Weiss laughed bitterly as she walked up to the open window. "My problem is that the White Fang have been at war with my family for years now Blake, actual war. With bloodshed, people who are just doing their job being murdered – family members disappearing. Children, dead."
With each word she could feel herself backing down. It wasn't… it wasn't meant to be like that, they'd started out peaceful, but no one had listened.
"If the SDC wasn't so cruel toward its workers…" she tried, only to step back as Weiss span about and pointed at her.
"If the threat of death wasn't over the head of every worker at the SDC, then they wouldn't feel so bitter toward the miners, do you think all of the people we hired started off racist? Do you!?"
"I-…"
"Of course they didn't. They learned to watch their back around the faunus, because those who didn't were found face down in puddles of their own blood! Hate goes two ways Blake, and I'm sick of hearing my family painted as the bad guys."
"She's got a point," her cursed companion said which only served to drive the stake into her heart all the harder. "Maybe one side was at fault for starting it, but now both are at fault for keeping it going."
"As for faunus wages – do you think we keep them in cages? Our wages are the best they can get, why else do you think so many work for us!?"
"They're still lower than what regular people get, paying the most when it's still not enough doesn't make you the good guys."
"Nor does everyone else paying faunus nothing make us the bad guys! You want to blame someone for how poorly the faunus are paid? Try the rest of the world, because we pay the most!" Weiss slammed her hand down on the dresser, knocking books to the floor. "Our miners are employees, not slaves – if they want to leave they can do so. They choose to stay."
"Because there's nowhere else to go."
"How is that our fault!? Why are we being punished for that?"
"Why are we being punished for you two arguing?" Jaune sighed, nodding toward Ruby who seemed frozen in indecision, and Yang who was tiredly sat in a nearby seat. "Why are you even arguing? We don't know if that store was robbed by faunus at all."
"You want to know why I hate the White Fang so much, why I don't trust faunus?" Weiss hissed as she turned toward the black-haired girl, "because they are thieves, criminals – and murderers."
"Well maybe if you'd all listened we wouldn't have been forced into that!" And then those damning words slipped from her own mouth, before she could so much as process them, or make even a token gesture to keep them back. Weiss stepped back, one hand coming up before herself in what could only be considered a defensive gesture.
Her eyes snapped to the left. Ruby, silver eyes wide as she too looked at Blake with some emotion she couldn't place. Yang, making to rise from her seat. Even Jaune, looking down on her in shock.
"Bl-" The words were just out of Yang's mouth when she fled, slamming the door open with her shoulder as she sprinted down the halls. No, no, no! This couldn't be happening – not after she'd spent so long hidden without being discovered, it just couldn't.
"Blake! Wait!" His voice called behind her, but she only increased her pace, as though by running fast enough she could escape him too. Walls and doors blurred, before they gave way to sparkling stars and a dark sky. Her breaths came out in tortured gasps, her muscles straining against the sudden activity.
"Are you done? You know you can't exactly outrun me…" He floated before her, an embarrassed expression on his face. "What you said back there…?"
She laughed, the sound coming out tortured and fragile. Even now he wanted some kind of confirmation, as though he didn't already know. She'd as good as spelled it out to everyone after all. Instead of answering she reached up and drew the ribbon from her hair, letting it fall down as two furry appendages twitched in the cool night air. Aspects of herself that it seemed she could never hide.
"Yeah… it's true," she said as her faunus eyes easily adjusted to the low light, "my dirty little secret."
Jaune winced, looking uncertain for a moment, before floating down to her level. His feet touching the ground softly.
"Hey now…" he grinned, "I thought I was your dirty little secret?"
"You're my perverted little secret," she scoffed, though she did relax at the way he didn't demand answers from her. Of course she knew he wanted them… no doubt everyone did.
"I thought that was Ninjas of Love?"
"Stop talking Jaune…" He made a zipping gesture, even as he slowly began to vertically rotate for some reason, doing a full 360 anti-clockwise motion that served to make her dizzy. She remembered asking him once why he kept doing things like that, so casually thwarting gravity. His rather simplistic answer of "Because I can" hadn't exactly done much for her.
"We're going into Vale," she said as the two made their way to the Bullhead docks. It was fortunate for her that the shuttles continued to run all night, a service for those who found themselves stranded for one reason or another.
"Not back to the dorm?" He looked uncertain at the prospect, though he followed her regardless – though she supposed at this point he didn't have a choice.
"I don't think they will want me back after that."
"Of course they will," he laughed, "they're your friends."
"Not anymore." The words escaped her lips in a whisper as the Bullhead took off, even as Jaune continued to look at her as though she were making some great mistake. Gods, she'd been so foolish. To just think that her past could be erased by little more than a bow and a fresh start, she should have gone to a different Kingdom at least. Somewhere the Fang weren't so prevalent.
"Hey there, nice to see you dropped the bow." A male voice cajoled from nearby. One that wasn't Jaune.
"So…" the monkey faunus said, slowly drawing the word out to fill the silence. "You do this often?"
"…" What kind of question was that? Did she completely ruin herself, so that she could no longer be with her team – that her place in Beacon would be in jeopardy, did she do that often?
"The whole ignoring you thing, while giving you dirty looks?" Jaune said conversationally, as his fingers phased through his tea-cup, "yeah – she does that a lot."
I do not…
"Because all you've been doing is ignoring me and giving me these little looks, yeah like that one."
She could feel the urge to smash the porcelain into his face rising.
"Is this seat free?" An elderly man asked as he walked up to them, Blake smiled and nodded, even as he dragged away the seat Jaune was sat on – somehow sending the ghost tumbling to the floor.
"Well that was mature," he whined, though she couldn't stop the smirk that came to her lips. That's what he got for annoying her.
"So you want to know more about me then," she sighed as she turned back towards her fellow faunus, "I take it you've heard of the White Fang?"
"Who hasn't," he laughed, "faunus who use force to try and get their way. Give others a bad name, a bunch of creeps if you ask me."
"Ixnay on the eeps-cray!"
"I was… once a part of the White Fang." To her pleasure he seemed to realise exactly where he'd stuck his foot, as he coughed and choked on his coffee.
"I…" he hacked and pounded his chest, "love those guys – very cool people."
"Hey Blake… I kinda think this guy maybe likes you." Jaune stroked his chin as he said those words, eyes widening as though he'd just come to some kind of great deduction. Even as Blake rolled her eyes and wished for a slightly more perceptive undead partner.
Men…
The two blondes listened intently as she talked about her past life, and how she'd gotten involved in the Fang. Back then she'd been just as much of a rebel, but it had always been for the right causes. Protests at first… then eventually stealing food for the hungry, breaking into warehouses to take medical supplies for injured miners.
Even then, any criminal activity they had done easily masqueraded as heroic.
The problem wasn't that they had learned to love the violence… but that the criminal actions worked so much better than the protests. Before long they'd gone from picketing the businesses of racist employers to smashing windows. To destroy equipment and paint messages across the walls…
When the larger companies showed they wouldn't cave to that, they'd moved onto more aggressive measures. It had all just… spiralled from there. Before long they stopped asking what they were doing, and anyone who got in the way? They stopped being just regular people working their jobs as security guards – and started becoming enemies.
"That's messed up," the other faunus said as he finished his tea, "and your team turned on you once you fessed up?" She looked away at those words, unsure how to answer.
"More like Blake made up her own mind what their reactions would be."
"They didn't say as much," Blake defended herself, aiming the comment towards the both of them, "but it was clear they weren't pleased with the news."
"Yeah well obviously… it's kinda big news. But that doesn't mean you were right to just run away."
"Did they actually say it though?" She fought back the urge to growl when Sun proved to be just as annoying as Jaune – seriously, was it some kind of league of blondes that had to disagree with everything she said? "I mean I had trouble with being a faunus at first too – but now my team is totally cool with it. They just needed some time to adapt."
"It doesn't matter, if the White Fang are behind the robbery in the store then I need to find out. More likely it's Torchwick or someone else pinning the blame on the faunus as usual. If I can prove it wasn't the White Fang…"
Then maybe she could convince everyone else that there was nothing wrong with having been one. That there was nothing wrong with her.
"Sounds like a plan," Sun cheered as he rattled his teacup onto his saucer, "so how are we doing this?"
"We?" She dared to ask, a migraine already beginning to form in her skull. She already had enough blonde in her life with one man… she didn't think she could handle two.
"They're calling you again," he nodded down towards her scroll which was vibrating – as it had been on-and-off for the better part of five hours. She waited for it to stop, before reaching down and flicking it off. Perhaps they'd assume the battery had died… "This isn't fair on them Blake. Or you."
"This isn't about them," she disagreed, "this is about the White Fang – and that is my business, and mine alone." It wasn't his either really, though obviously there was little she could do about him tagging along.
"Do you ever intend to go back to them?"
How was she supposed to answer that? How could she? If only she'd kept her mouth shut… she'd been able to put up with Cardin's racism for weeks, but the first time Weiss ran her mouth she snapped. Sure the pressure from Cardin could be blamed, but she knew the real reason was because it was a Schnee.
If anyone else had said those words Blake might have just ignored them, expressed her disgust with a quick sneer and moved on. Instead she was so used to fighting the Schnee that she felt the need to fight with Weiss over her opinions.
Opinions which were honestly probably a little warranted… of course the Schnee would hate the faunus, who didn't hate the group they were at war with?
"Maybe…"
"You know…" Jaune said softly as he lay down beside her, head propped up on his arms, "I guess I'll stick around with you even if you don't. Just so you're not on your own."
"Like you have a choice." She chuckled, eyes still focused on the docks below them. If the shipment Sun had mentioned was coming in, then it would be too big a prize for any dust criminals to miss up.
"Yeah well… even if I had a choice… I think I'd do the same." She glanced at him from the corner of her eyes, watching as he scanned the docks – his ghostly blue eyes flickering in the moonlight. Even if he had a choice? She wasn't sure what he was trying to say, but she appreciated it regardless…
"…Thank you," she whispered quietly, hoping he wouldn't catch it.
If it came to the worst… that she would have to leave. It might be nice to have something to remember her team by, as much as that thought pained her. She didn't want to leave Beacon behind.
"Hey, they here yet?" Sun asked as he flopped down on top of Jaune, making the undead boy squawk at the intrusion. A few loose pieces of fruit rolled away from the unrepentant thief.
"No," Blake sighed at his complete lack of stealth, "they're not."
"Yeah," Jaune coughed, "they kinda are."
What the…
Her head snapped back to the docks, even as her ears picked up the sound of a Bullhead approaching. Pressing herself deeper into the rooftop she watched as figures armoured in grey made their way down the ramps.
No… damn it.
"This is their great and sneaky plan, fly Bullheads in? Wouldn't this alert like… everyone? People in nearby houses, police, air-traffic control?"
Why? Why were they there – what could they possibly want with so much dust? Dust didn't sell well on the black market, especially not SDC refined dust – it was too hot, and honestly it was already available everywhere. There was no way this was going towards the White Fang's coffers…
Which only really left the option of it being used in combat.
"You really thought it wasn't them, didn't you?" The blonde faunus beside her said – his voice soft and full of sympathy. Damn it, damn it! Weiss was right.
Damn it.
"Hey, hey! Careful with the merchandise." A cocky voice called over the gloom, even as he strolled nonchalantly down the ramp of the nearest vehicle. "I don't know if you're aware – but this stuff is volatile."
"Torchwick?" Sun knelt down to present a lower target, "suppose it makes sense he'd be involved with something this big."
"This isn't right," not right at all… "why would the White Fang be working with someone like Roman Torchwick?"
They hated humans, they wouldn't trust even the best of them – so asking them to trust someone as internationally famous for deceit as Roman Torchwick? That was ridiculous…
"Blake?"
She had to find out what was going on, and the only way that was going to happen was if she got down here.
"Blake!" Sun hissed as she leapt from the rooftop. With Jaune echoing the same as he fell down beside her. There had to be some kind of mistake… could it be rogue elements of the White Fang? Or worse… someone dressing as them so Torchwick could frame them for the crimes? Sure some of them were clearly faunus – but not all faunus were part of the White Fang.
"Blake, what the hell?" Jaune gasped as she slipped closer to the enemy, her back pressing into a metal container as she peeked round the corner. "Okay, we're close – definitely close enough for you to get a good look. Can we go yet?"
"Get them moved onto the Bullheads, our entrance wasn't exactly subtle so we're on a bit of a time limit here people."
A few of the faunus raised their masked faces towards him, she could even see some of them sneer – but lo and behold they followed his orders, fanning out to tie long cables to various containers. Her fingers settled on the hilt of Gambol Shroud, even as she lowered herself to the ground.
"Blake… let's not do anything we might regret now…"
"Brothers of the White Fang," she shouted as she slipped behind the tall criminal, her blade held up to his throat – which was harder than she thought it would be given his height. "Why are you working with this human?"
"Oh for fu-" Roman began.
"Oh for fuck's sake Blake!" Jaune interrupted. "This? This I regret!" He floated above her, out of her vision as he spoke, no doubt recalling how little use he'd been in the fight against Cardin. It was better that he didn't obstruct her vision.
She ignored both the men, tightening her grip as she watched the faunus arrayed before her. A few of them had raised their weapons when she struck, but some lowered them instead. Without her bow in place they obviously recognised her as a faunus, she wondered if any of them actually recognised her.
"Well brothers?" She said again, "why are you following this criminal?"
"Blake… your brothers… they don't look too happy to see their sister."
"Didn't you get the memo kid?" The man she held hostage laughed, completely unconcerned with his Adam's apple bobbing against her blade. "The White Fang and I, we're going on a little bit of a business venture."
She wanted to demand more, but her ears twitched as she heard a small click – and it was only her instincts as a huntress that gave her the warning necessary to release and leap backwards from the man. The ground between them exploded violently as whatever he'd fired from his cane struck. Dust and scattered pieces of concrete pelting against her as she jumped back. Through the smoke something glowed, she back flipped away, leaving a clone to take the second shot.
"Things appear to have escalated," his voice echoed from the smoke with a sigh. Blake dove to the side, scrambling onto her feet as she fled more shots from the criminal. Okay, seriously – how had no one heard all of this by now?
"I had noticed Jaune!" She yelped as the heat from a blast singed her.
"Oh really, is this regret I hear? Or is it you admitting that your diplomacy needs work?"
"Oh bugger off." She stopped as she came across a container, ducking behind it as she stealthily approached Torchwick. He was so focused on firing towards where she'd been that he didn't see her… if she could just close the distance and take him in melee. He wouldn't have a chance.
"Come out to play kitty-cat," he taunted, "this mouse is hungry."
She watched as he turned about, waiting for the smoke to clear. Waited until he reached into his pocket to pull out another cigar. The moment he raised it towards his mouth, she struck.
"Oh hey," he greeted as he blocked her strike with one hand – using the other to casually light the cigar held between his teeth. "Fancy meeting you here."
What!? She pushed down on his guard, hoping to use her superior strength to break through, only to gasp as he threw her backwards with a single push – right before stepping into her guard and struck towards her face. Sparks flew as their weapons clashed, Torchwick chuckling as he parried and deflected her every strike. Even with her training and natural agility, the larger man seemed to have no problem keeping up with her.
Slowly, almost lazily, he blocked another – before the very hand he had just used to put away his lighter struck out, smacking her in the collarbone and sending her hurtling back.
"He has hunter training…" She gasped, even as Sun leapt into the fray to distract Torchwick. "Why did no one bother to mention he had hunter training?"
"I thought it was pretty obvious…" Jaune shrugged, "I mean this is a city where a good proportion of the children are strong enough to kill a normal man. Don't you think someone would have caught him by now if he wasn't trained?"
"I don't need your logic Jaune…" she pushed herself to her feet, grateful for the pain which helped counteract the humiliation she felt. "No one could have expected him to be hunter trained."
"Literally everyone-"
"No one!" He took one look at her gaze and decided it wasn't a battle worth fighting, possibly the wisest choice of his un-life.
Sun grunted as he was pushed back, and she was there a second later – distracting Torchwick while her ally regained his balance. The orange-haired criminal continued to laugh as they fought, keeping her busy even as his green eyes watched the monkey-faunus trying to get behind him. Her eyes narrowed, and when his next blow sailed towards her she allowed a clone to take it, pushing him off-balance.
Sun saw the opening, diving in even as the criminal tipped forward from over-extending.
"Not today," Torchwick laughed as he ducked, avoiding Sun's attack while also sweeping his cane into the back of her knees, knocking her from her feet even as he kicked her away. Her back slammed into a metal container, driving the air from her lungs as she slid to the base.
"Look out Blake, move!" She didn't even bother to open her eyes, instead dashing to the left at Jaune's words. Something fell behind her, an explosion of dust and concrete which lifted her from her feet and flung her forward. "Shit, Sun's down!"
Damn it… one golden eye opened as she coughed at the smoke around her. Sun lay flat on his back, clearly out of the fight. And worse, Torchwick was strolling towards her, his cane spinning idly in one hand.
"You know, a little kid like you messed up one of my other heists recently. I was beginning to think I was losing my touch." He deflected her first strike, before driving a fist into her stomach. The blow keeled her over, her body wrapping over his arm as air and blood escaped her mouth. "Thanks for proving it was just bad luck." A hand clamped down on her collar, lifting her up and throwing her aside once more. She bounced on the concrete floor, Gambol Shroud slipping from her fingers as she fought for breath.
Damn it…
"Anyway kid, looks like it's the end of the line for you. Better luck in your next life, eh?"
No… it couldn't be. Not so soon, not when there was still so much she had to do. She could hear the click of his boots as he approached, could just make them out as he casually walked up to her. One of her hands pushed down into the floor as she tried to get up, only to waver and give way beneath her. Leaving her flat on her back looking up at him. The criminal smiled, taking a long puff of his cigar as he aimed his cane at her.
I'm sorry guys… I messed up and now I'll never get to apologise…
Her eyes drifted shut, unwilling to let him be the last thing she ever saw. Instead she thought of her team. Of Ruby, Yang, even of Weiss – and one annoying addition that nobody else seemed capable of seeing.
She flinched as she heard the gunshot. A second, and then another – before an explosion sounded a good ten metres or so away. One golden orb dared to peak as she cracked her eye open, seeing Roman Torchwick dodge away from her body. Her other eye cracked open, her hands coming up to feel her chest for blood. Nothing?
"You're a persistent one aren't you?" The older man taunted, though she could hear the frustration in his voice, "I keep knocking you down, and you just keep getting back up."
"Sun?" She gasped as she saw his trainers, the blonde faunus standing in front of her with his staff twirling. But… he'd been completely out, unless that had just been a ruse? He turned to face her, a wide smile adorning his face.
His eyes though… those small blue flames within them, emanating a soft glow as they flickered.
Those were new…
"Well, well, well…" Sun intoned, the words echoing as he spoke – as though both his voice and another's were overlapped. "This is new…"
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein