Capítulo 1934: 164
"Y'ever feel like the other shoe's just about to drop on us? Like some fucked up shit's just about to go down?" Coco asked quietly as she slowly turned Gianduja's barrels in order to check for any damage that might have happened in the last match they'd had, pursing her lips as she went over everything with as fine an inspection as she could manage in a place that wasn't the specialty workshop that Ruby hung out in. The upgrades her baby took weren't particularly all that impressive in the grand scheme of things, but they were… truly something when combined with her Semblance.
While Coco's Semblance wasn't something impressive, flashy, or powerful like Weiss' Glyphs or Yang's Burn or even Cinder's Scorching Caress, Hype was pretty much the single most useful thing possible for a heavy Dust using weapon like Gianduja, and Ruby knew it. Every last bit of Gianduja had been nearly entirely replaced, to the point that it was less Gianduja and more Gianduja II , threads of crimson and lime green threading through internal components while the outer shell retained its normal gold, black, and silver decoration. The drum size had been improved, the mass had been adjusted, the barrels re-machined and remade to handle larger, more powerful rounds… It was, overall, just a complete rebuild, and the main upgrade to Gianduja's entire functionality was just stronger rounds . Ruby's custom tooled multipurpose anti monster rounds bumped Gianduja up to an impressive .50 caliber, and the resultant weight in bullets more than made up for the reduction in actual weapon weight.
It hit harder, unfolded faster, shot harder, and did so much more damage that Coco actually didn't even need to use Hype sometimes. Just holding down the trigger alone for a half second burst could kill something around the size of a Goliath if she aimed right, and with Hype active…
Well. There was a reason why there was a hole in one of Beacon's live firing buildings.
"I dunno- I think there's definitely some kind of tension in the air, but I don't know if that's just because there's so many teams we have to do multiples of every stage or if it's because something's actually going to happen," Velvet answered from where she was working on Anesidora, the hard light projecting weapon having gone through very few revisions in the preceding year given the lack of Beacon's premier weapons expert- and no, not Professor Mulberry, though he did take a vacation for a few weeks in the middle of the spring semester. She huffed, going over the projectors with a fine cloth and idly adjusting the controls ever so slightly to modulate her weapon power a little- while Ruby had been able to adjust the efficiency and strength of Dust use, the majority of Anesidora was taken up by the camera function, and while Ruby was good with lasers , she wasn't so good with cameras… not that there was any connection beyond being objects with lenses that dealt with light. Regardless, Velvet was still working on increasing the duration of Anesidora's copies, plus boosting their strength without overly affecting her Dust supply… plus also making it so that she didn't lose the copy when the timer ran out.
Something about the medium seemed to be extremely unstable, and it was still killing her that she hadn't figured out how to fix it yet. Maybe it had to deal with the camera itself? Something about how her fighting style worked? Maybe the recording media was just too fragile… Whatever. She'd figure it out eventually.
"Yeah… I dunno either. You guys getting bad feelings about today or nah?" Coco asked, turning her attention to Yatsuhashi, who had Fulcrum propped against the wall and was currently being weirdly and disgustingly sweet with Mercury via scroll. She could see the heart emojis from here. Ugh. Gaaaay. Also Fox, who was silently meditating with Sharp Retribution set to the side. "Like… I dunno, I keep feeling weird shivers going on and I feel like something's gonna happen."
"Mmm. There might be something going on, but we don't know what," Yatsuhashi answered, looking up from his scroll for a moment before shrugging and returning to giggling like a schoolgirl as he and Mercury flirted. Coco just sighed, eyes passing over Fulcrum for a moment to get used to its… slight new upgrades. In Yatsuhashi's case… a twin Dust injector for a mix of Gravity and Wind Dust that allowed him to add even more force to his attacks and send ridiculously deadly giant wind blades downrange.
Ruby had somehow turned a giant melee weapon into something resembling a gun. Again.
Fucking hells.
"Fox, what about you?" Coco asked, tearing her attention away from the faint green and purple lines running down the back of Fulcrum's blade and turning her attention to the last member of their team. "Anything?"
"Just noise. Noise, people, fighting… nothing special. There's some tension, but nothing like before. I think we're… mostly safe for now. I think we're allowed to relax," Fox answered calmly, continuing to meditate with his eyes closed, head bowed as he sat there with his legs crossed. Coco just shrugged, then turned her attention to Sharp Retribution- again, not many upgrades there. Ruby had just replaced some worn out parts, added in stronger barrels to handle the mildly more powerful ammunition that Fox used now, and strengthened and sharpened the blades using that ridiculous grimm metal she made. Fox didn't even add any Dust to his weapons, since he was more than capable of using Sharp Retribution without anything special except for his reserve magazines. "Why do you ask?"
"Just… thinking. What if some shit happens again? A whole lotta people all gathered in one place? Seems like a recipe for disaster. Wasn't even that many people all in one place last year, and Mountain Glenn still exploded," Coco answered, crossing her arms and unhooking her sunglasses from her scarf as she flipped them in her hands, carefully rubbing away a tiny smudge on the lens and frowning to herself as she slid them on to hide her eyes. "Can't stop thinking about it, feels like it's gonna throw me off my game… just… the idea that something bad happens today."
"Well. Hopefully nothing bad happens- no one's said anything about anything bad going on, so I'm pretty sure it'll all turn out fine," Velvet answered, sidling up to Coco a moment later and nuzzling her girlfriend with as comforting a smile as she could manage while her ears came down and gently patted Coco's head. "And even if something does go wrong- we've got all the help we could possibly need, all in one place. Y'know? Should be fine, especially if we've got CMNE helping out. And RWBYP, I guess."
"Yeah… you're right Bunbun," Coco smiled, gently holding her hand out to cradle her girlfriend's cheeks, grinning a little as Velvet did a full body happy shiver and tapped her foot against the floor as she nuzzled harder against Coco's side. "Well. No use thinking about it, huh? We got fights to win, hearts to break, friends to cheer for… asses to kick…"
"And if we make it far enough, we might get our asses kicked by Team RWBYP," Yatsuhashi mentioned idly, rolling his neck a little as he picked up Fulcrum and sheathed it on his back. "I hope whoever we send to the finals is ready for that."
"Tch. Yeah. Sucks that they're basically a shoo-in for winning, but… That's that, I guess. Ruby's just too damn strong," Fox muttered, crossing his arms a little petulantly. "You can't even feel mad if she's won either- she's too damn nice too."
"Truly, the little rose has it all," Coco sighed, swooning a little in jest as she leaned against Velvet and the two of them just sat there a moment, letting their Auras press against each other with a gentle vibration of synchronization- Velvet's cheerful calm against her nervous energy, a wave of peace spreading through Coco as she nuzzled back against her girlfriend. "Ugh… Well… whatever. When's our next fight anyway? Today or tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow, I think," Fox mentioned, then tilted his head. "We shoulda gotten a notification for it, right?"
"Yeah. Our next fight is tomorrow to weed out another set of teams, then it'll go straight to triples, then doubles, then singles. Hopefully, we'll be able to make it all the way to the singles round," Yatsuhashi hummed, rubbing his chin slowly. "Coco, you or me?"
"... Think I'm gonna take point on this one, big guy. Keep Velvet's secret a little longer, make sure I get to show Ruby how her baby is doing up close and personal."
"Alright. We're going doubles, right?"
"Yup."
"Cool"
The four of them sat in silence for a moment as they finished their bits of maintenance and re-settled all of their weapons, then Coco stood and stretched as she shifted Gianduja back into its bag form, yawning while she wrapped one arm carelessly around Velvet's shoulder. "Ahhh… well, if we've got nothing to do until tomorrow… Bunbun- you wanna go watch a movie or something? Get dinner, fool around?"
"I'd love to, Coco."
"Great, let's go!"
Status de energia semanal
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