Chương 463: 19
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Neo smiled, a melody tittering about in her head as she stalked the short girl in the black uniform, watching her walk Vale's streets by herself, seemingly shopping or just playing the tourist. Her Semblance meant she could emulate anyone, but it was far easier to act the part when pieces matched. This girl had a similar bust as her, and stood around the same height, which meant she wouldn't need platforms or a corset to bind back her chest, always an impairment in fights.
The streets were mostly empty too, this early in the morning, and she was slowly closing on the girl when she turned a corner. Neo followed her and smiled when she saw the girl sitting on a bench in the shade of a building, right next to an alley, and slid a hand into her pocket to thumb a knife. As she approached, she extended her Semblance in a bubble so no one saw either her or the girl for what they were, she looking like an older woman and the girl looking like a young man.
The girl saw her approaching, but missed the knife hidden in her hand's palm, and waved happily. "Hi! Do you live here? I'm kind of lost, and I forgot my Scroll…" Neo nodded, smiling happily, and the girl's own smile widened, her pale face lighting up under the blue hair on top of her head, "Great! Could I bother you for some directions then? I need to get to the Bullhead docks in, like, fifteen minutes."
Neo had to resist the grin she felt trying to form and fished out her Scroll, typing with her left hand quickly and showing it to her. 'Mute, sorry. And I can get you there if you follow me, but you'll need to cut through some alleys to make it. Walking around will take twice the time you have.'
She looked wary for half a second, but Neo smiled kindly at her and she relaxed a bit, standing up and nodding at her, "Alright, lead the way, I guess."
Neo nodded back, walking back the way they'd come for a bit and dipping into a small alleyway that was there. Stepping over the trash and typing on her Scroll, Neo stopped to show it to her companion, 'Don't mind the mess, it's normal, but this way will cut out twenty minutes of street crossing and walking for us.'
"Great! Back at home we don't use the alleys so much, they can be kind of dangerous." Neo raised an eyebrow at the girl and she smiled, shrugging, "I'm a Huntress though, don't worry, I can protect us."
Neo would have laughed if she could, and instead kept leading her down the alleys between the street buildings, stopping when they were across from the Bullhead Docks as she'd promised. Gesturing at it with a friendly smiled, she lifted the Scroll once again, 'See? Plenty of time to spare.'
"Thanks!" The girl chirped, stepping past her and turning around, "My name is Citrine, by the way, if you go to the Vytal Festival. Maybe we'll run into each other? I'd love to introduce you to my sister, Opal."
Neo nodded, smiling wickedly when she turned around. Grabbing her by the neck, she spun her victim around and slammed her head into a wall before she could so much as squeak. This stunned her long enough for Neo to throw her onto her back and mount her, straddling her chest and whipping the knife out. Using a rag on the ground, she blocked the blood from staining the girl's uniform when she slammed the red blade into the girl's neck. Her Aura bypassed and bleeding out like a pig, the girl's terrified eyes quickly rolling back into her head. Standing, Neo checked behind her and dragged the fresh corpse further into the alley. It was time to get changed.
All according to plan...
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"Too slow, kid." Qrow growled, appearing behind him and kicking him in the leg, Jaune grunting and glaring at him in response, "Just because you know I will be there doesn't mean you can react in time." "And not reacting fast enough could be a death sentence."
"Then why aren't we doing speed training or something actually useful?" Jaune asked quietly, standing up when Qrow let him go, and turning around as he raised his fists again, "And why can't I use Crocea Mors?"
"Because this is much more fun." Qrow laughed, shrugging and stepping in, swinging at Jaune almost too fast for the blonde to dodge. Certainly too fast for him to see, but that was largely irrelevant thanks to the brat's Semblance, "And besides that, imagine every instance you wouldn't have your sword on you. This is training for that." "You're training as a spy. Not something to let you carry weapons openly everywhere."
"Fine… I really don't like it, though, so can we-" Qrow kicked him in the stomach hard enough to throw him into the air, then caught him and tossed him onto a nearby mat with a sigh.
"Fine, guess we can take it easy today, since the dance is coming…." He walked out of the small training room, smiling when he saw the redhead waiting patiently on the floor by the entrance, "Patch him up and take him on to your dorm, kiddo. Have fun tonight."
"I wish you'd be more gentle with him… he's still learning." Pyrrha mumbled, standing and brushing her skirt off.
"His enemies won't, and he has to catch up already." Qrow said with a shrug, fishing in his jacket for his flask absently, "I train survivors, not dead kids, Red. No one is going to be around to protect him, so my job is to make sure he protects himself. Or he dies. Seen that happen a bit too."
"He won't die because you are kind to him." Pyrrha argued hotly, hard green eyes boring into disinterested red ones, "And his team will protect him, should he ever need such a thing."
"Really? Forever? Twenty-four seven?" Qrow asked quietly, frowning in agitation, "Heard that before, too, then my partner was killed because of it. I'll coddle students when I want them dead, and never when I don't. I'm the Huntsman here, and you're just a student. You need to respect that difference, kid."
"Maybe if you weren't a sorry drunkard, I would be inclined to do so, but as yet I have seen nothing in you of a Huntsman's honor or valor." She turned, slamming the door to the training room behind her. Qrow sighed, holding the flask up to the light to examine it sadly.
The small S and R stood out faintly, and he sighed again before taking a drink and walking away. "Kids these days…."
Half an hour later, Jaune and Pyrrha were walking through Beacon's halls, the boy's mood improved by the girl's immensely, "Honestly, Pyr, it's fine. I'm improving, right?"
"Yes, but-"
"Then relax, okay? Me improving is what matters, after all, and that's his job. To help me improve faster." She pouted at him and he smiled back warmly, trying to raise her mood with his, as he knew tended to work on her, "I'm okay, I promise."
"It just… bothers me, I suppose." "My trainers were never so rough as to leave me lying on the training room floor…." "And I feel that he thinks lowly of you as well." She argued quietly, looking at him worriedly and frowning, "He won't even seriously spar with you, even for the sake of training or demonstration."
"That's because he's a veteran, Pyr. A 'serious spar' would probably break my leg or something." She gave him a worried look and he threw an arm around her shoulder, hugging her slightly, "Which he won't do, Pyr. That's why we don't spar normally, except for our hand to hand, even if I complain about it while we do it."
She sighed and smiled at him, leaning into the hug after a second's hesitation before she spoke again, "I'm… looking forward to tonight, Jaune." "Especially if you spend a lot of the time holding me like this." "I think it will be quite... enjoyable, you know?"
"I do." He sighed, giving her a gentle squeeze before letting go and pulling away - much to the redhead's disappointment, he could sense. "I have to go and see Ozpin now, he promised to… to introduce me to Amber, formally, and I don't want to blow her off."
"Oh… I see." He could sense her irritation and a flare of… something he couldn't quite identify - jealousy? - and gave her a small smile.
"Nothing like that, I just… she's been through hell, kind of lives there now, and I'm the only one she can talk to, so.…" he shrugged, sighing quietly, "It's the right thing to do, you know? I have to."
She was quiet for a moment before Jaune felt her mood improve slightly and she sighed, "I… understand, Jaune. You must do what you think is right, and in this I agree with you. If she lives as you say, it is almost a Huntsman's duty to bring some comfort to her." "Even if I cannot accompany you there…."
He ignored a sense of conflict there and nodded, smiling and turning away, "I'll see you just before the dance, okay? Ozpin said he wanted to discuss a few things as well, so… I may be a while."
"Just arrive on time, or I shall fetch you myself, Beacon security doors or no. You may tell the Headmaster that much as well." He laughed and she giggled quietly, and he turned a corner, leaving her there.
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Jaune smiled when Ozpin stepped into the elevator, swiping his Scroll across the reader and pressing one of the nondescript buttons with the 'maintenance' label. Jaune raised an eyebrow and Ozpin chuckled, "Everything below that button sends an alert to my Scroll and locks the elevator until I personally unlock it, and surprisingly, spies don't frequent maintenance areas as much as one might think. Too many cameras and too few ways for them to get in, you understand. Especially short on excuses should a security guard catch them, as well."
"But they do that all the time in Spruce Willis movies… I always thought they made sense." Jaune half-argued, eliciting another chuckled from the older gentleman.
"Jaune, if those movies portrayed infiltrators and spies accurately, those people would either kill the directors or alter their approaches." Ozpin smiled warmly at him and sighed when the elevator dinged and came to a stop, the smile vanishing, "This, young man, is Beacon's Vault. And a closely guarded secret as well." "A janitor was once jailed for coming down here, thanks to James' lack of trust."
"That's, uh, cool…" Jaune said, only half listening as he looked around, "Where's Amber at?"
"The very back." Ozpin said simply, walking past him and leading the way, "Nearest the elevator, we keep dangerous weapons locked away, as well as documents and the like. After that we keep servers and, on rare occasions, prisoners that can't be trusted to be placed in Vale's care and that James doesn't convince me to give over to his… interrogators." "Torturers, frankly…."
"So this is… a big deal. Me being let in here, I mean." Jaune said quietly, almost reverently, looking around at the walls dimly lit by what looked like torches. He could see rooms filled with computers, cells, and more leading off of them into hallways with lights and torches glowing from more unseen rooms, "It's... huge."
"Indeed. A Huntsman's Academy is home to trained warriors around the clock, Jaune. No one is sacking it before whatever Kingdom it calls home can respond - without significant effort and loss of assets, that is." Ozpin said solemnly, shaking his head, "The Grimm are among the only force that could accomplish such a task and not mind the lost fighting force, and they are on the other side of a rather large wall, for the most part." "Aside from the forest near Beacon, but it can't sustain enough Grimm for the task."
"So the only real way to get down here is by accident, or with an army…. That's effective, I guess." Jaune said, making Ozpin sigh almost tiredly.
"There's only one of those accidents, and his name was Adam… He's still locked up in Atlas, I believe. Private cell, though, so not all is bad." Ozpin stopped, turning to look at Jaune in front of what look like a huge cylinder, "Amber is in here, I'll… lower it, so you can see her." "Though the sight is rather rough…."
Jaune nodded, and the old man leaned his cane against a terminal while he entered commands, the large cylinder lowering after a few seconds and letting Jaune look in. The woman inside was tanned rather heavily, making him guess she came from Vacuo, and dressed only in plain underwear. Scars crisscrossed her body, obviously from old fights and the wounds those brought. Her hair was brown and cut short at the shoulders, and her eyes stayed closed. He grimaced at the jagged white scars on her face. They were like fingers had seared the flesh painfully.
Standing there beside her, he could feel the pain radiating out from her and laid a hand on the glass, "She's in pain, you know, Ozpin."
The man turned to him, grimacing slightly, "I… did not know that." "Though Tsune had theorized it to be possible…." "That said, before you have your talk with her, we need to discuss some things. About her, and the Maidens in general."
The woman's eyes opened slightly, turning to him, and he sighed, "Fine, I guess…. What do you want to talk about?"
"Your…." He sighed, taking a breath and straightening, "We have been actively looking for someone to attempt a transfer of the Maiden's power with. Because of your joining our group, it… makes the most sense to offer it to Miss Nikos first, and see if she would be willing to risk the procedure."
"Risk it?" Jaune asked quietly, raising his head and giving the man a suspicious glare, reading his thoughts faster than he could speak, "You mean risk losing everything about herself, right?"
"I… yes, as I was going to explain, we fear that is a possible outcome." Ozpin said quietly, "And Amber's death is likely, of course, given the nature of the procedure. But whoever struck her down like this stole part of the Maiden's power, and if we don't force it elsewhere before Amber… expires on her own, it will likely go to someone more than willing to use it to the detriment of the entire planet."
"And you… want me to help you convince her?" Jaune asked quietly, sighing and looking at Amber, the girl shifting in her semi-conscious state, "You want my help to convince my partner to… to risk a fate worse than death? All to secure a power that will get her killed at some point anyways?"
"Yes." Ozpin said quietly, turning to look at Amber as well, "Because that is what I have to ask you to do for the good of the rest of Humanity and Faunus alike. Because without this power, many lives could be lost. And if it is used against people… even more lives would, not simply could, be lost."
"I just…. Why her?" Jaune asked quietly, leaning on the glass pod with his hand, looking at the dying woman, "Why ask her?"
"Because Glynda is too old, frankly, to learn everything she'd need and adapt to the power? Because Miss Nikos is a good, kind hearted, and dutiful young woman who would happily defend people?" Ozpin sighed, smiling at the blonde grimly, "And because she'd be useful and easier to convince thanks to your joining us, frankly."
"I won't help you… that would be manipulative." Jaune said simply, looking at Ozpin evenly, "I won't stop you from asking her yourself, but… it needs to be her choice. If I ask, she'll agree for that reason alone, even if she hates the idea. If you can convince her yourself, though… I'm fine with that. I'll back you on it."
"Jaune, if she says no-"
"Then you'll ask someone else. I'm sure there are other people you've considered for this, Ozpin." Pictures flashed through his mind rapidly. Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Nora were among them, and Jaune grimaced, "Do what you have to, Ozpin, but do it right… I won't help you manipulate anyone though, not into this."
Ozpin sighed, smiling tiredly at him, "I suppose you have a right to make that demand, in the end." He turned, walking away calmly, and Jaune only turned his back when the man was gone, not out of distrust, but irritation. He'd known Ozpin was fine with his decision, or at least not angry with him, thanks to his ability.
Closing his eyes, it only took him a second to find Amber's consciousness again, even if it had been some time since they'd last spoke, "Jaune?"
"Yeah." He said quietly, smiling sadly and grunting when the wave of her pain slammed into him as always, "I'm sorry I've been away for so long, Amber… I came to visit you in person, though."
"How? I'm in the Vault, right?" She sounded, and felt, surprised at the news, "I thought I heard you talking, but… I didn't think they'd let you in here."
"Yeah… Ozpin, uh, found out about my Semblance and sort of recruited me. He agreed to let me down here, to see you." Jaune said quietly, smiling even though he knew she couldn't see him, "They… he said they didn't know you were in so much pain. I could ask for him to give you more for it, if you want."
"Please do, it would… it would help a lot, Jaune. Thank you." He smiled and felt her relief washing over him, "I must have missed so much, though, what have you been doing all this time?"
So he started filling her in on everything she'd missed, and she was happy enough just to have the company.
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Pyrrha sighed, standing outside the elevator's door in her dress, waiting on Jaune. He wasn't late yet, of course, she simply... decided to be earlier at meeting up with him than normal. She wanted to make sure he got ready for the dance instead of showing up in anything other than the suit he'd bought.
She felt a hand tap her shoulder and turned, looking down slightly a shorter girl in a black dress with blue hair, smiling at her warmly, "Oh, hello. Did you need something?"
The girl pulled out her Scroll, typing for a second and holding it up, "Yes, please, I was wondering if you could help me find the ballroom. I can't find it."
"Yes, of course. It's down the hall you came from, turn right, then follow it and make a left…." The girl looked confused and Pyrrha sighed, pushing off from the wall, "Alright, I understand it's a lot to absorb. How about I just show you instead?"
She nodded brightly, holding up her Scroll after a second, "Thank you! I'm Citrine, by the way. Who are you?"
"I'm Pyrrha Nikos." She said, smiling slightly when the girl didn't react, and stepping past her to lead the way, "Just follow me, Citrine, and we'll be there in no time at all."
'Citrine' grinned, following the girl and raising her Scroll, looking at the file Cinder had sent to her. The 'P' in JNPR…. A good catch indeed, even if everything else fell flat tonight.
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Emerald grunted lightly as she let her Semblance fade, wiping her bloodied blade on a cloth and watching Mercury drag the body into the bushes. Imperfect, yes, and the cameras would have them if anyone looked - though thanks to Neo that wouldn't happen for a few hours yet - but they only needed it to work for tonight, and they'd be gone.
"Got the last grenades we needed." Mercury said boredly, standing up and holding the small disks up, "You want to plant them, or should I?"
Emerald rolled her eyes at him and sighed, "I killed the soldiers, you plant the bombs. That was the plan, so do it." He huffed and marched off, tucking the grenades into a bag with a dozen or so more.
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