章 1917: 147
"What a fucking clusterfuck the last few weeks have been… good news, bad news, and everything in between," Qrow sighed as he leaned back in his chair and thought about everything he'd learned in the last while- Team CMNE, Glynda, and Oscar's return to Vale from Atlas, learning that Team JNPR was presumed dead, reuniting with Ruby for the first time in a year or so- with only a month or so before the end of the semester, learning that Atlas wanted to redo of the Vytal Festival held in Vale again because the last festival had been completely ruined. It was entirely unprecedented to have a Vytal Festival held in the same place twice in a row, but apparently the other Kingdoms agreed that redoing the festival in Vale was appropriate, what with the grimm incursion and the terror attacks that had canceled the Festival a year ago anyway.
Ironwood was going to bring the Colosseum over and have the redo set during the breaks between semesters, apparently, with extra fortifications and additions to make sure that nothing like the Cataclysm could happen again, nor could the Colosseum be crashed into the city like Team VERM had tried.
Also, Team VERM was dead, as was Team CALC, and a bunch of their Spider allies, which meant that the Mistral council suddenly felt emboldened to try and finally actually strike out against Spider to regain control over their country via sweeping social reforms and concentrated Huntsman effort… with aid from The White Fang of all people- headed now by Ghira Belladonna and Sienna Khan in tandem as some statement of saying that the organization wanted to regain an air of legitimacy without backing down from their previous strengths as a terrorist cell.
Blake, Yang, and Weiss had returned to Vale as well, in the intervening time- they looked healthy. Regretful that they hadn't made it back in time for Ruby's awakening, but with the state of travel around the world being disrupted by late fall weather and increased grimm attacks as a result of said almost-winter weather… Qrow couldn't fault them when the three girls had spent an entire hour burying their team leader in a hug so intense and tight that Qrow literally would have thought the room was going to catch on fire from the amount of warm fuzzy feelings.
That it didn't with two pyrokinetics and a laser wielding robot girl was a miracle attributed to one Weiss Schnee, whose Aura kept the fire risk low, thankfully.
Well, up until the point that Ruby sneezed out a fireball and accidentally set one of the hallway paintings on fire.
Thank gods it was just one of the cheap paper prints that Ozpin bought in bulk as tasteful and subtle decor for the dorms.
…
Speaking of dorms, gods, Ruby had thrown a fit when she'd learned that Team RWBY wouldn't be returning to their dorm room should they decide to attend their second (or, well, third) year on campus- with the WBY part of RWBYP having tested out of second year thanks to Weiss' studious nature, Blake's access to a wide variety of combat arenas throughout the wilds of Menagerie, and Yang's sheer enthusiasm and Penny having also tested into third year directly, their first year dorm was being left behind in favor of something larger. Something a bit more suitable for five girls entering into adulthood.
Also, Ruby had tested into third year as well, once she'd had some time to study up, remembered that second year was largely about field experience which she had in spades , and let go of her team and girlfriend long enough for Qrow to actually give her said exam.
It said something about the state of Huntsman academies in general that, unless one was going to a type of niche Huntsman track involving some kind of intense specialization in one field or another, the average Huntsman Class C only needed to know, essentially, how not to die to grimm and how to kill one without wasting all of their bullets and stamina.
Jaune could have taken a Class C exam halfway through his first year and probably done fine. As it were, Beacon prided itself on its minimum graduation ranking being a Class A, with a large portion of its student body going so far as to graduate as Rank 0 Huntsmen and Huntresses with no restrictions as to the type of grimm they could hunt.
Qrow hadn't managed it- he'd been a Class A, rated for anything about the size of the giant sized grimm in the Emerald Forest or smaller, with some caveats up and down either way. Summer had been a Rank 0 and was a terror for all of the biggest, scariest motherfuckers out there. A Class C huntsman just needed to be able to handle a pack of normal Beowolves.
Regardless. Ruby had actually cried when she'd learned they'd be leaving their dorm room behind- the room itself having gone completely untouched since the school's early closure during the end of their first year for repairs, though Team RWBYP had needed to spend at least get everything moved out and into their third year dorm.
Why Ruby insisted on performing a funeral service for her long dead bunk bed constructs was beyond him, but…
At least she was happy now.
Even… even if Team JNPR was gone.
Gone…
What the fuck.
It seemed like just yesterday he was seeing the squirts off and waving goodbye to Glynda, and now an entire half of the Relic Hunt party was gone - hadn't even gotten the bodies back, just their camping gear and travel bags that had been left behind. Some spare clothes, a few armor and weapon bits…
They'd need to hold a funeral, probably. Let Jaune and Pyrrha's parents know, contact whoever Ren and Nora listed as their next of kin, if they had…
"Fuck…" Qrow sighed again, the churning of the tower's gears ringing in his ears as he stared up at the ceiling, tapping his finger against the armrest of Ozpin's chair as he waited. A moment later, Glynda strode in- a little worse for wear, but not so much so that she looked any different from the strict, harsh, utterly in control disciplinarian she presented herself as. He would have said she looked good, but she didn't. None of them looked good, not since the six of them had come back to Vale accompanied by Winter Schnee again.
Qrow would have reveled in Winter's disheveled state if it hadn't come with news of the deaths of a bunch of kids he'd already started to think of as extended family.
World just wouldn't be the same without Team JNPR. He couldn't blame Winter for looking like a mess when she was there , had been just barely too late to stop any of it.
"So… finally came back to save my ass from paperwork, huh?" Qrow mentioned, blinking slowly at Glynda and feeling like he needed a drink- more than he ever thought the same thing in the entire time that he'd been sober. "Fuck. Don't know how you and Oz managed to keep on top of everything. I'm barely holding on after even almost a godsdamned year of trying to get used to this clusterfuck."
"I'm used to having to take care of messes. I see the school hasn't burned down," Glynda stated dryly as she took a seat across from Qrow and sighed, dropping her riding crop down on the table and groaning as she buried her face in her hands. "You were right, Qrow. You should have led the hunt, not me. I… I wasn't fast enough, and my skills were too rusty. At every turn, I… even when I managed to do anything, I felt like I was useless . Like I couldn't save anyone. I am Beacon's primary combat teacher … why am I so pathetic compared to some of our students? You would think that I'd be able to stop a team under my supervision from falling into an endless void but… fuck… "
"Can't change it now, Glynda," Qrow sighed quietly, chewing his lip and shaking his head as he continued to stare at the ceiling. "We made the choices we made. We have to deal with the events that happened because of our choices. We can regret 'em all we want, but at the end of the day we have to keep moving forward because there are other people who need us more than we need to wallow in our own bullshit. So… you wanna switch places? Let me go out and fight all the bullshit out there while you handle all the hard stuff and politics?"
"... One would usually imagine that the difficult part of our lives would be fighting an endless horde of soulless monsters that want to devour every last remnant of humanity," Glynda snorted humorlessly. "And yet here you are saying that handling a school full of children is more difficult than that."
"... It is. Doesn't take much to fight grimm. Just gotta stay aware, do your best, and make peace with the fact that you might not make it back," Qrow shrugged, setting Harbinger down onto the glass topped desk and standing as he walked around to the other side, leaving the seat open for Glynda as he leaned against the edge with his hip whilst crossing his arm. "I made my peace a long time ago. The only hard part is making sure everyone else makes it out if you can't. Politics? File organization? Administration? Shit's got lower stakes in people's lives, but it's a lot more of a pain in the ass. I'm surprised I managed it at all."
"Well. I suppose I'll take over, since you seem so desperate to have your easy life back," Glynda responded after a moment, rising from her chair and patting Qrow on the shoulder as they swapped seats. "Thank you, Qrow."
"Anytime, Glyn. And hey- just cuz Summer's not around anymore doesn't mean her offer ever closed. Anyone gives you trouble… whatever's left of STRQ will help."
"... I'll hold you to that, Qrow."
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット