Chương 1801: 32
Chapter Text
"Y'know, Ruby, as much as I'm glad that you're training me how to use a sword and shield better now that Team CRDL's been dealt with-"
"GUARD UP!"
"YES MA'AM! Er- uh! Oh gods, holy crap-!" Jaune winced as he and Ruby sparred- or, really, Ruby just swung her sword and shield around slowly enough for Jaune to actually learn the movements before doing the motion again at higher speeds, the two of them essentially dancing around each other while the sound of steel clashing against steel rang out- either from Jaune's strikes being blocked, or from Ruby's own impacting his shield and glancing off of the weirdly tough ceramic coating that gave the sheath its gleaming white color.
Team CRDL, in this case, had been expelled for attacking classmates on a supervised excursion in an area known to be infested with grimm. Fake transcripts and bullying in the halls was one thing- directly trying to break the Aura of a nominal ally in a place that could become a combat zone at the drop of a hat could have been grounds for a lot worse than expulsion depending on how far things went.
In the bleachers surrounding the training arena, the rest of Team RWBY and Team JNPR sat and watched as Ruby lead Jaune through a bunch of beginner sword exercises and techniques- Pyrrha seemed rather put out at the fact that Ruby was teaching Jaune first, but… Ruby's reasoning the other day had been sound. She had forgotten a lot of her beginner lessons as her style evolved and her skills bounded upwards to where they were now. She would have forgotten some, if not most of the most basic exercises meant to ease one into proper sword fighting if she hadn't been watching Ruby actually help Jaune figure them out.
It was almost embarrassing- she'd wanted to teach him some of her easiest patterns and combos with her sword, but… there were too many key differences between how she fought and how Jaune fought to really reconcile their basic training like that. Maybe at higher levels, where Jaune was stronger and more agile instead of being a largely defensive, grounded fighter…
She shook her head, simply watching Jaune as he went through the motions and improved bit by bit, his steps gaining confidence with every passing moment as Ruby's surprisingly calm voice (well, when she wasn't yelling out rapid instructions for Jaune to react to) eased Jaune through slashes and stabs, hand positioning and grip changes, foot positioning and all of those other things she sort of… maybe… kinda… started to forget (consciously- her body still remembered) as she shifted from traditional sword and shield/shield and javelin/shield and rifle fighting to the more acrobatic, showy style she used now.
Hm. Maybe she should change her style again. Stagnancy was the bane of victory, and she hadn't really updated her style since her fourth win in the Mistral Regional Tournament.
"Haah… hah… whoo… right…"
"What were you saying, Jaune?"
"Oh, right… um…" Jaune paused as they took a break, straightening up and panting slightly as he wiped his forehead on the back of his orange half-sleeve and shook his head to clear it from the fog of tiredness that swept over him after nearly an hour straight of Ruby's coaching. "I'm- how are you so good at… sword and shield fighting? It's really different from your normal style… it's just… really weird seeing you actually use a sword, y'know?"
Ruby blinked, tilting her head slightly as her ears perked up and her tail swished slowly behind her, cloak flapping about as normal as she processed Jaune's words. "... Is it really that weird? Usually people go through two or three weapon styles before they wind up with what they really match with when they go to combat school…"
"Yeah, and then they forget the other styles, or they didn't deviate enough from their original design to make a difference!" Nora pointed out, sitting up suddenly from where she'd been theoretically napping and pointing accusingly at Ruby. "Almost no one keeps up with any skill sets that're so different from their actual weapon! You're definitely weird for doing that!"
She paused, then shrugged and grinned. "In a cool way!"
"Ah…" Ruby cleared her throat awkwardly, looking away with a light blush and sheathing her sword back into her body along with the folding circular shield she'd been using- she had a heater shield in there of course, but the folding shield was more familiar to her since she used it a lot more when she used her Rosebuds to train. "Well. I… thanks? I guess… I practiced with a lot of weapons… Uncle Qrow always said it's best to learn how to fight with whatever you can if you lose your weapon, even if it's just an Aura infused stick."
"Rubes is pretty damn good with like… shit, Rubes what was your collection count at?" Yang asked, drawing attention to herself as she sauntered down from the stands and rolled her shoulders as she took over from Ruby- Jaune's next bit of training would be conditioning, where she and Nora would switch off every other day- Nora would get Jaune's arm, grip, and core strength up, Yang would handle most of the rest. At the moment she'd also somehow found a trans flag sticker and slapped it on her cheek. "About a hundred or so?"
"Over two hundred weapons- and that's bundling all of the throwables and sets together," Ruby answered, huffing as she withdrew her sword and shield again- the sword was a simple Dust blade styled like a traditional hand and a half sword, the shield expanded from a buckler to a full sized targe almost as large as Crocea Mors' shield/sheath. The sword was named Chargebreaker, and the shield was named Stalwart. She'd… procured… them from a gang of bandits that had a habit of going after weaker Huntsmen out near the border to Vacuo. After a moment, she set the two weapons onto one of the benches nearby and then… started pulling out more, her chest literally splitting open to reveal a yawning, gaping chasm of pure shadow that the items were swiftly retrieved from with horrible cracking, crunching, squelching sounds like that of tearing flesh and shattering bone, much to everyone else's disgust (except Yang, who was just kinda used to Ruby's sense of theatrics).
"Let's see… there's Crescent Rose and Augury and Chargebreaker and Stalwart and Windbreaker and Storm Surge and Survival Kit and Strikethrough and Rock and Roll and Rocketeer and Lawbreaker and Kitchenmaster and Royale and Siegebreaker and Morpho Wings and Kurotora and Hattori and Quickstrike and Demon Fangs and Stormsailer and End of Line and Lotus Bloom and Stiletto Runway and Thresher and Staccato and Brokker and Whisper and Viper Fangs and Chelicera and Troublemaker and all of my generic swords, knives, guns, kitchen knives- wait when did I… oh right, those were… from home… ahem. And my training scythes and also my-"
"WHERE ON REMNANT DID YOU GET SIX ATLESIAN MILITARY RIFLES!?" Weiss shouted, leaping to her feet and pointing in shock as she interrupted Ruby's mumbling of weapon names, the sheer mass of metal and Dust and firepower spread out over several benches threatening to break said benches under the combined weight- was one of those a fucking giant boomerang?
"I… got them… off of some dead soldiers in a cave while I was hunting Centinels in Solitas?" Ruby shrugged, scratching her head a bit and looking a bit awkward as she looked to the side. "They were kinda wrecked when I got 'em… I brought the soldiers up to the surface so Uncle Qrow could take 'em back to Atlas for a proper burial. So I kept the rifles and fixed 'em up and… well, I guess I never really used them for much outside of regular maintenance and training?"
"... That… I- that was a noble thing you did," Weiss acquiesced, at least agreeing with Ruby's choice to let the Soldiers be buried somewhere closer to home rather than some grimm infested cave out in the frozen nowhere. "Well… I suppose that explains that… but how did you manage to use them at all? As I recall, any Atlesian battle rifle produced in the last twenty years is supposed to only unlock its trigger if you have a valid ID for one!"
"... I bypassed the circuit while I was repairing them because it wasn't… really doing anything," Ruby answered, then hummed as she looked over at the pile of weapons she'd made. "This… is barely a fraction of what I've got, but I don't think it's safe to unveil my entire collection in here. There's… a lot."
"Jeez, no kidding Rubes- where'd you even get half this stuff? Some of it looks like stock mechashift components straight off the shelf…" Yang muttered, picking up one of the weapons- the bo staff named Troublemaker- and turning it around in her hands for a moment before setting it back down. "Wait, isn't half of this from Mr. Bronze's back room inventory?"
"Mhmm! Mr. Bronze let me take all of the junk prototypes that he'd collected from the Signal students using his shop forge and finish 'em on my own!" Ruby answered, giggling a little at the thought of all of the long afternoons she'd spent at her favorite shop on Patch as a kid (and even up until today), working in the back forge and fixing up all of the little bits and bobs that some of the students left unfinished in their weapon designs- correcting for some initial design flaws and making sure every last bit was strengthened by Aura infusion and Dust treating. "Also I stole most of the rest from bandits or really jerkish Huntsmen and Huntresses who were extorting protection money from the further out settlements. Mostly in Mistral, but I think I got Lotus Bloom from this one jerk in Vacuo…"
She cocked her head and hummed again, shrugging. "But yeah! I practiced with all of these until I could use each and every one!"
"Where did you even find the time?" Jaune asked incredulously, stretching out after his workout and grimacing at the soreness in his muscles that even his prodigious amount of Aura probably wouldn't fully heal by tomorrow. "You said you had even more weapons in there?"
"Well yeah but like… outside of learning the mechanisms and adjusting the fighting style, most of the weapons fight exactly like each other in one form or another. A longsword is a longsword, a staff is a staff, so on and so forth," Ruby answered, then paused and focused in on Nora, who had Magnhild in her lap and was currently tinkering with it slightly. "... But um… yeah. Hey Nora?"
"Hm, yeah?"
"... I don't have a giant hammer or a grenade launcher in my collection yet. Wanna help me make one?"
"OH FUCK YEAH!"
Ren sighed, pinching his brow. "We're doomed."
[This wall of weapon doodles was literally one of the first things I made for this fic, oddly enough]
Notes:
My headcanon for Beacon is that stuff that happens in the school is basically free game because if you're training to solve the world's problems then unless something super egregious happens you're free to solve your own shit. Someone's bullying you? Beat the shit outta them until they stop. Failing your classes? Study harder or go to office hours. Medical problems? Probably go to the infirmary on that one. As long as it stays below the level of permanent damage, you're expected to handle it accordingly. But the moment you step out into any kind of real world scenario, you're expected to act accordingly and appropriately- which is to say, shelve the bullying until you're back in the halls, don't slack off, keep your guard up, work together, and try and keep negative emotions to a minimum. In regards to Jaune and Cardin, it means that Jaune's increasing academic performance allows him to stay, if while on academic probation, despite the faked transcripts because he is proving he can keep up. Cardin's academic dishonesty puts him on academic probation but has no other consequences- it takes a lot to fail out of Beacon by grades alone. By attacking Jaune in grimm infested woods while under the supervision of a professor and attracting a number of grimm towards what should have been a safe-ish expedition, he and CRDL signed their own expulsion warrants. This does mean that if all of Team RWBY and JNPR teamed up to kick CRDL in their dicks until they stopped being assholes without causing permanent damage, that would have been fine.
...
Actually, now I kinda regret not doing that instead.
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