Capítulo 153: 55
Chapter 55: Portrait of Jaune
"I don't think it's a good idea."
"I won't grope you, honest."
"I didn't mean that!" Blake sighed and rubbed a hand through her fringe. Her hand that was, since her other hand was being used by the undead spirit of the most annoying man in history. She glared at the limb, as though daring it to try anything untoward. "I just mean that I'm going to need to concentrate in this fight. If I need my left arm, then the last thing I want is to have it not move when I tell it to. That fight with Yang was one thing, but I couldn't see then – and nor could Yang."
"I get that," her arm said, "But I'm not going to be able to help at all in my bear or spirit form. I'll let you have full control, but it'll still be easier if I stay inside you." She wished he could have phrased that differently. "Wait, you're embarr- oh geez, I didn't mean it like that. Wow Blake, dirty mind."
"S-Shut up." Damn him for being able to read her emotions and vice versa the other way around. It wasn't her fault her mind had jumped straight to that. He should have picked his words more carefully. "Enough about that, you need to be more reasonable. If we want to face off against Cinder's team, then we need to win our first match."
The tournament layout had been revealed that morning, or at least the first stages. Apparently the following ones would be done without as much warning. But right now they only had a few hours until the first match, Team ABRN of Haven Academy in Mistral. She would have liked to have known more about them, but the tournament seemed designed with surprise in mind. Even the arena wouldn't be decided until they were already in the ring.
"And remember," she went on, "once we're in the fight I might not be able to talk to you in case other people hear."
"I get it, I get it," her arm sighed dramatically. "Look, if I ask a question just nod, or make a clear `yes` or `no` hum sound or something. I'll be on best behaviour, I promise." Somehow she doubted that alr- "I can feel you doubting me by the way. Not cool."
I hate this emotion sharing thing.
There was a knock on the changing room door, Jaune going silent (even though he couldn't actually be heard) as Blake sighed and opened it up. "Hey," Yang greeted, leaning against the frame. "We've got time before the first match. You want to grab some food?"
"Ooh, I like food!" Jaune had discovered that inhabiting her arm let him taste food somehow, and had been eager for meal times ever since. It was probably because he only controlled her arm, but his spirit was in her head or something. Either way, she had bad news for him.
"We shouldn't eat before the fight. I suppose we can grab a meal after."
"Aww…"
"Guess so." Yang didn't seem fussed. "Ruby's absolutely freaking out, you should see it. Weiss is trying to calm her down even now."
"Shouldn't that be big sister's job?"
"I gave her baths when she was younger. I'm happy to let Weiss deal with this losing battle. Ruby will panic right up until the fight starts. It's just how she is." Yang grinned to show it wasn't mean as an insult, not that Blake thought she would ever say such things about her little sister. "She'll be fine once it gets started, just you see."
"I don't doubt it. She's been a good leader so far." Yang sighed and crossed her arms, looking Blake up and down with a neutral expression. "What's wrong?" Blake asked.
"Shouldn't that be my line? You've been acting off for over a week now."
"Busted."
"Off?" Blake laughed softly. "I've been fine. At least I think I have."
"You're thinking wrong then." Blake's eyes widened at Yang's forceful words. Had she really been acting strange? Blake looked to Jaune for a little support, but her arm was the same as it always was. "This whole taking my place thing's one such example, but you were moody at the carnival too. It's like Torchwick 2.0, except this time the guy's behind bars so I'd have figured you'd be in a better mood. What's up kitty-kat?"
"Nothing, I-"
"Blake…" Yang had never sounded so disappointed, which made Blake stop speaking instantly. "I'm not trying to pry into your life Blake, but you said you wouldn't keep things like this from us again. You said you would come to us when something like this comes up. Are you going to break that promise already?"
"No, I-" Blake winced. In truth, she'd forgotten all about that promise. It wasn't that she'd willingly broken it, but that she hadn't remembered it at all. Was that better, worse – or just as bad?
"We could tell her a little bit," Jaune whispered, even though he didn't need to. She could feel his guilt, a sickening sensation that said he felt just as responsible as her. "Not about how, obviously, but at least about why you need to fight them."
Would Yang understand, though? Blake wasn't so sure. Her team liked Emerald and Mercury, and while none of them really talked with their final team member much, she'd made a good enough impression on Ruby. But was that so hard?
"Blake?"
"I'm thinking…
Yang grimaced, "Thinking whether to tell me?"
"Thinking how to tell you," Blake corrected. "I want to… it's just whether you'll believe me."
"I'm your partner," Yang said. "If you can't trust me to believe you, who can you trust?"
Jaune? But then that was cheating, wasn't it? He had to believe her. He had been through everything with her and seen it first-hand. Yang would have doubts.
"I have a bad feeling about the tournament," Blake said. It was a good start; it was the truth. "I've also got reason to suspect another team has been trying to gather information on us."
"Good reason?"
"One hundred per cent certain." Yang raised an eyebrow but didn't argue. "And yes I know, digging for information isn't exactly illegal since they could be competitors, but this is different."
"Emerald's team?" Yang didn't even hesitate.
"How di-" Blake cut her words off, but the small smile on Yang's face said she'd already as good as confirmed it. In her arm, Jaune laughed.
"Blake, it's not exactly hard to guess. Who else have we even hung out with lately?"
"I take it my guess was good," Yang's smirk was entirely too self-satisfied. "I figured it wouldn't be Penny since, no offence to your friend, she's a bit too blunt for that. As for Sun's team, yeah right – the only thing he wants to find out is what you're hiding under your clothing."
"Me too." Jaune drawled – nearly making Blake choke. She stared at her arm in shock, but from him there was nothing more than a sense of surprise, at her reaction perhaps? "Blake?" Damn it, he'd meant it as a little joke, but since she could sense his other emotion beneath, she'd taken it as a serious statement. Too late now, she'd just hope he wasn't able to read her emotions as well as she could his.
"So you think Emerald and Mercury's team are up to no good, then." Yang sighed. "Are we talking breaking the rules no good, or White Fang no good?"
"I'm not sure," she admitted. "That's what I'm trying to find out."
"And you think fighting them will show it to you?"
"Wait… you believe me?"
"Should I not?" Yang frowned for a moment before letting out a little sigh, uncrossing her arms and staring into Blake's eyes. She didn't dare move, transfixed by the lilac gaze. "I'm not sure when you started to forget, but I'm your partner Blake. That's supposed to mean something."
"It does!" Yang didn't look impressed, so Blake pushed on. "It does mean something; the whole team means so much to me. I'd give up everything to keep things as they are."
"Then why not open up to us a little more?" Yang pushed on, but also into the changing room, squashing her frame into the too-small space so that Blake couldn't escape. "Why do you insist on doing everything on your own? Is it to protect us, is it because you don't think we'd be strong enough, is it pride?"
"But I'm not," Blake shook her head. She wasn't doing things on her own, she was doing them with Jaune! She looked down to her arm once more, almost imagining it looking back up at her.
"I think we are…" it said sadly.
"I'm not!" Blake argued, both to Yang and to him. "I- Yang, I mean…" Blake buried her face in her hands, taking deep breaths. How could she explain this?
"You don't have to tell me if it hurts that much," Yang said – but it was clear from her voice she didn't agree with her own words.
"I do have secrets… I can admit that, Yang. But please believe me when I say they won't hurt the team. The only secret which could have was my past, which you all already know."
"But you can't tell us?"
"Not yet. But I will one day, I promise. I'm just… it's about my illness." A lie, and yet not a lie. "The Doctor, Penny and I are working on a solution to it, something which could solve everything." She wouldn't have Jaune within her any more, he could be his own person – with a real body. "It could make everything so much better."
"Blake. You're saying too much," Jaune warned. "You're backing yourself into a corner."
"Is it killing you?" Yang looked terrified and Blake rushed to comfort her.
"No, no, no – absolutely nothing bad is happening to my health," she promised. Yang took a deep breath, perhaps sensing the honesty. "It's just that if this works, things will be even better. Not just for me but for all of you too, for R-"
"Stop it!" Jaune's snapped command cut her off, the pure anger rolling through their connection shocking her. "Don't give false hope like that. Not to Ruby."
"I can't tell you more about that," Blake said. She glanced down to her arm once more, wishing that she could ask him what he meant. "There's some things that I can't tell you, mostly about that. But I can tell you that I have very good reasons to suspect that team of being up to something. Reasons that relate to what I've just said."
"Reasons given to you by Atlas' top scientist?"
"I can neither confirm nor deny that, if you know what I mean." Yang's guess was wrong of course, but at the same time they were related, so it was close enough. She would believe it, which was all that counted for now. "But you shouldn't tell Ruby," Blake hurried to add. "She'd-"
"Confront them, I know," Yang sighed. "I grew up with her Blake, I know what she's like. Sheesh… and you think you can figure something out if you fight their team?"
"I know I can. I've got something that will let me find things out if I can knock one of their team unconscious." More truth, in every sense of the word except for what Yang no doubt assumed. Blake never said they had given her that, only that she had something. But Yang would take it as meaning Atlas had given her some tool, some high-tech gismo. "But I need to be in their fight for it to work."
"I get it, I get it…" Yang rubbed her forehead with one hand. "This is getting deep… as usual when it comes to you. You're a really troublesome partner, you know?"
"Tell me about it," Blake laughed, thinking of the things Jaune had been through with her. He remained unusually silent, nothing but a faint sense of… what was it; defeat, inevitability?
"What can I do to help?" Yang asked. "I mean better safe than sorry right, even if you're wrong in the end."
"I'm not wrong." She was sure of it… there was just something about them, even beyond what they had said. She almost felt that she should remember them from somewhere, and given her past that was not a good thing. "Just… fight as best you can, which you'll do anyway." Yang winked. "And other than that, can you watch them carefully in and out of their fights?"
"Done and done," Yang nodded, a small smile slipping onto her face. "Once you feel you can, you'll tell me the whole story, right?"
"I swear it."
She would… the moment she could, the first chance she had – when Jaune had his new body, Yang would be the first to know. And Blake would apologise too, for all the hassle, the secrets and misdirection. Ruby would be thrilled to have her first friend back, though, which would make it all worthwhile.
"That's enough for me," Yang clapped a hand to Blake's shoulder. "We're a team, remember. Good or bad, we do it together."
"Together," Blake nodded.
A moment passed, and then another, before the awkwardness of the two of them being stuck in so small a room arrived, and with it the nervous chuckles from the both of them. She almost expected Jaune to pipe up, to give some kind of perverted comment and make her flush, but he was as silent as- no, she wouldn't joke about that. She could still feel him, still nervous, but also determined – and sad?
"I'll let you get ready then," Yang grinned and stepped back, her cheery expression in place once more. "We've got a few hours til the fight. Don't be late."
Blake nodded, watching her go.
"I think we need to talk." Jaune's voice was calm, resolute and serious. Blake glanced down at her arm, lifting it up before her eyes, if only because it made talking to him seem politer.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "You've been strange ever since Yang came in."
He sighed, and she felt a burst of emotion from him.
"Isn't it about time you gave up on getting me a new body?"
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder