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"Iwou. Your ambitions are at an end. You now have one purpose, do you understand?"
"...yes father." Iwou Goten grit his teeth, not daring to look up at the smug face of his elder brother.
Fuck. The only thing that he had was that he was born first. Although not far weaker, Iwou himself was decidedly stronger. The fact was merely that he'd never been able to build up the support needed to usurp his brother's seat.
"Good. Then take up that spear and feed it your Aura. You will not let it go until the end. The moment that leaves your hand is when you will die for the Clan."
Iwou stared down at the velvet pillow where the Bolt of Ozrai lay, the lost fabled weapon of Ozrai the Soaring Lightning Fist of the South Star.
Though lacking the original core of the weapon, this was rumored to have split the peak of the Singing Mountain in two where the Capital now rested, the show of domination that forced the houses of Mistral to come together under the weight of his banner.
It should have been lost to time, stolen away by some master assassin that had taken the man's life in his twilight years.
The original core of the weapon, a segment of the haft, was clearly missing, as it had supposedly been two weapons in one, but the core had been replaced by someone working alongside the Great House of Goten. The same collaborators that had retrieved the legendary armament.
If the man had been born a mere twenty or thirty years later in history, he would not have lost to the Prophet King of Vale. He might have been a drunkard and a violent pragmatic who could not be controlled by the heat of his loins, but he was also The Great Conqueror.
The man that had unified Animus through violence and blood.
He'd put together the plans to fight and attempt to conquer all of Remnant, utilizing Mantle as an ally in the Great War, but he'd died before any such plans could come to fruition.
And his designs were perfect, but Mistral's own leadership had been lacking after the legendary man's death, resulting in Vale of all Kingdoms dictating the shape of modern Remnant.
Damned Prophet King.
How he'd known all of Ozrai's plans for domination was beyond comprehension. This could have been a world shaped by Mistralian hands alone! He and his people could have lived like gods.
That beautiful reality, stolen by a 'genius' that had transcended beyond mortal limits.
Just like Jaune Arc, the Little Professor, the Centennial Genius. The hateful Faunus boy that had RUINED EVERYTHING.
"Your very life shall be the fuel for its core." His father continued as Iwou kept his head bowed.
Ever since he'd backed down against the Faunus rat he'd lost everything, his own support began to crumble. Everything had gone wrong because of Jaune Arc.
"You know what it is that you must do."
"Yes, father." Iwou agreed.
His hand reached out to grab the weapon, already feeling the strange blackened crystal core of the spiraling bone begin to drink in the light of his soul.
Hungry. Cold. He felt so cold.
But perhaps it was the weapon of The Great Conqueror that was partly to blame for the man's innumerable successes. Iwou's eyes widened at how demanding the spear was, humming and throbbing in his grip, promising violence. Violence and POWER.
Wouldn't this be powerful enough? To usurp both his father and brother? To be the Head of the Goten Clan?
If only patricide was a legitimate way he could gain leadership. It would be easy, as with the Bolt of Ozrai in his grasp, he was stronger than his father and brother. Perhaps even together, but using the Bolt-
"Now return to your chambers. Remember your purpose. All for the Clan."
"All for the Clan." Iwou repeated robotically, his mind already filling with the whispers creeping from the weapon in his grasp.
Storms thrummed beneath his fingertips.
Ren snapped another picture on his Scroll.
Although Weiss was back out of disguise (having explored the Argus Limited in full with her friends and brother earlier), her wig currently on her lap, she was now currently unconscious and sleeping in her seat, her head leaning on Jaune's shoulder. Pyrrha too was snoozing away on the other side, her own wig in her lap.
Her much taller form unable to do the same as Weiss, rather finding rest on Jaune's head, one of Jaune's Faunus ears flopped over the top of her head like some sort of velvet headband, curling down to meet her own ear.
Jaune too was asleep in the middle, his head sort of sandwiched between the two girl's heads, but his neck (Jaune often emphasized the importance of training his neck muscles, stating that it was critical as the spine was delicate and important despite Aura) held miraculously still, preventing much pressure to pass down onto Weiss's skull.
The three had equally stayed up too late hanging out after the last day of the Spring Festival. Then after waking early, resorted to coffee and caffeine to catch the Argus Limited into the Capital, finding themselves enjoying a bit of exploration. All three of them were just too excited to act more as normal kids rather than the celebrities they were.
And naturally not long after they returned back to their cabin on the train, they ran out of energy and suffered a hard caffeine crash.
Ren stared down at the forbidden power he currently held in his hands. Hmmm.
He sent a copy to his adoptive parents, with the explicit note that they'd all not gotten much sleep. They'd be mindful enough to not let that image spread, even if they'd tease his brother endlessly about it.
Sorry, Jaune. It wasn't Ren's fault that his brother was giving him too much easy teasing material. Nope.
And it came with the bonus that the more Jaune was busy having a life with his family, the less he'd get himself wrapped up in something crazy again.
Mmm. Yes. This was the way.
Nora mumbled in his lap, sprawled over their side of the cabin seats as she snoozed casually without a care in the world.
His fingers ran through her short hair, enjoying the sensation of it.
She still got surprisingly shy about public affection, but she was really needy in private. They'd been also having their own private conversations about their newfound relationship, Nora beginning to wonder and worry that she wasn't sure who she even was without Ren sometimes.
That she was afraid of mucking something up and what would happen if they broke up.
But she had seven sisters and another brother to help catch her if she ever felt she was lacking or struggling with relationship issues. Nora wasn't alone. Ren had pointed that out to her, all while admitting that he was a bit of the same.
They'd just figure it out together.
Ever since the Attack of Kuroyuri, their fates had been bound together. Though tragic, it had also given him something amazing in return. A girl he loved more than he could somehow put to words.
"You know, I can wake up Nora if you'd like to sit down." Ren whispered at Emerald who was leaned up against the door to their cabin. "I feel bad that we're taking up all the seats on this side."
"That isn't necessary." Emerald shook off his concern with a small smile. "I am content."
Really Emerald was either too strict on herself, or truly only cared about being by Jaune's side, seemingly enjoying the sight of him sleeping and resting.
"Are you sure?" Ren couldn't help but to find himself asking. Not meaning merely the fact that she was being forced to stand, but the situation she clearly found herself in.
It was pretty obvious to the whole of the Arc family that Emerald worshiped the ground Jaune walked on. Well, perhaps not quite to that extent, but it was clear that from a young age she'd thought the world of Jaune.
And yet she merely sat back, seeming to be happy to witness Jaune share such intimate moments with other girls. All despite Nora having whispered to Ren multiple times that the girl obsessively kept everything Jaune gave to her as gifts and took great care of them in their shared dorm room.
"Yes." Emerald's eyes were clear and honest.
Well, at least they appeared that way to Ren himself.
She'd become quite adept at putting up a front, more than anyone else Ren knew. Frankly, he didn't know what was running through his mint haired friend's head most times, despite the fact that while not official on paper, she was more or less an Arc girl, same as Nora.
She was a sibling in all but blood and Ren didn't want to see her suffer either.
"...if you say so." Ren frowned, his fingers parting Nora's orange locks contemplatively.
Emerald gave him a soft, genuine smile.
"Thank you for your concern, Ren."
He closed his eyes as he let out a sigh.
"Of course, Emerald. Anytime."
"Neo, your pacing is giving me a headache." Team Mom complained as she sipped at a glass of iced oolong tea. Ever since coming to Haven (Cinder refused to step out into the Capital stating that she had awful memories of the place and wouldn't do so if she didn't have to) she'd found herself touring various teahouses on campus, purely out of boredom.
And it turned out she found herself really enjoying tea recently, even getting her own tea set, though one meant more for Huntsmen and Huntresses, able to be taken outdoors without much issue.
Well she didn't have to come if she was just going to nag. Neo grumbled as Trivia began typing rapidly on her Scroll.
Naturally her Scroll reflected the same thought that Trivia and Neo both shared.
"Somebody has to keep you in line just in case you start a fight, Neo." Cinder sighed. "You're the one that wanted to have a good showing at the Festival for Jaune, right? Can't do that if you keep showing off."
I'm not showing off. She argued back on her Scroll. People pick fights, I just show them their place. What's the deal?
"Well you do it enough that people are trying to figure out specific weaknesses. They're not fighting to win, they're gathering data."
Trivia scowled.
She certainly didn't like it, but Cinder was right.
Not like they'd really get to really do much in the end, either way. Sure her Semblance was a game changer and strong battlefield control with a slew of utility, but in the end Trivia was strong.
Maybe in another life she'd have slacked and relied more on her natural advantages, been hyper reliant on her Semblance to do any real damage, but she'd grown enough that she could even hold her own without it and still pull a win. You didn't live and fight alongside Jaune without being inspired by him to learn to fight better.
He just had that effect on her, somehow. She wanted to be better for him. It was vexing, but a feeling she couldn't live without.
Ugh, people are so annoying. Neo grumbled, Like information gathering is its own skill, but the Festival is a joke. It's just for fun at best, it really means nothing.
Still the Argus Limited was beginning to pull into the station.
Finallyyyy.
Trivia grinned, Hush and Whisper spinning around her gloved wrists.
"Just keep it controlled. He's here with his classmates." Cinder reminded helpfully, "His family won't be here for a bit longer."
Ugh, that meant no kisses. That sucked. Well, she might still be able to sneak one in if she was smart. Or lucky. They'd see what fate had to say.
"Alright everyone! Stick together and don't wander off." Class Prez called out over the crowd, "We'll be headed up to the middle levels to a hotel called The Candlelight. Nobody be rude to the staff, since they're all giving Sanctum huge discounts!"
Jaune knew that discount was an understatement.
Because it was a place that Roman owned and he wasn't super concerned about profits from anything from the Mistral side of things, they'd more or less be hosting Sanctum's 5th, 6th, and 7th years all for free.
Not because Roman even knew that Jaune was his Captain, but because the way the man had figured, getting both Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikkos to both stay at one of his establishments was worth more than money. That branding and prestige couldn't be bought with Lien most times. At least now without it being needlessly wasteful.
He'd bragged about the idea recently when Jaune had last checked in on him, believing that it might help rocket up The Candlelight's reputation, allowing him a much stronger information network in Mistral using the hotel as one of the lynchpins of his operations.
He really did enjoy the fact he could make things miserable for the Spiders back in Mistral if he was smart about it.
Frankly, since it was an information hub (and not even where the actual intel was bought and sold) the money that it made as a business wasn't really that important. As long as it could run itself and ensure the security and livelihood of its workers, that was enough.
Either way, he lined up with the rest of his classmates, chatting with Weiss and Pyrrha who were both a bit embarrassed at how all three of them had fallen asleep like little kids (they'd woken up before him too) on the ride over.
At least there wasn't also a bunch of paparazzi waiting outside. Considering it was the Vytal Festival, even Pyrrha and himself were allowed to fall a little under the radar. And nobody should really be expecting Weiss and Whitley to come to Mistral this way.
"Good job, President Vasilias." Their homeroom teacher Rishu Kyrielight complimented, his PileBunker-TowerShield Lordvessel hanging off his back, layers of alternating light pink and black hair shading over wire rimmed glasses. "We'll be walking so everyone gets to see the sights of our dear Capital a bit, so don't wander off! Nikkos and Arc, as well as our Schnee guests will stick in the middle of 6-A so we don't have any issues with rabid fans, eh?"
Jaune would have said his teacher's hair reminded him of Trivia if it wasn't for the fact he'd grown up knowing Professor Kyrielight's hair first.
"Thank you once again for letting my sister and I tag along." Whitley bowed politely, getting a few giggles from Jaune's classmates. He'd been tagging along with Robin for the train ride over here because her cabin had room for a spare passenger, like Weiss was in Jaune's own.
"No problem, young man. I got Jaune's newest coffee machine which was more than enough payment for any potential headaches to come. Uncle Romani is going to be pretty jealous." Their teacher laughed casually, waving it off. "Besides, I've gotten used to things getting weird around mister Arc."
"Please don't talk as if I'm just some sort of trouble magnet." Jaune pouted, getting a laugh and a pat on the shoulder from his teacher.
"I mean. You are, though?" His teacher grinned with a shrug, not mocking, but not quite teasing either.
The doors to the Argus Limited opened, allowing all of the passengers to disembark.
Jaune took the opportunity to step out before everyone, turning to his class, holding his arms out to his sides.
"See? No trouble!"
Then he blinked as he instinctively curled his arms up to catch Trivia, who appeared in shattering pink glass, in a bridal carry. She'd been waiting for him, which shouldn't have been a surprise.
Still he was a bit surprised that she hadn't waited for him to be properly alone.
Whisper unfurled, blocking their view, so that she could quickly sneak in a kiss on his cheek, followed by Neo stepping in to do the same just a bit higher on his cheekbone.
My hero, her demeanor read teasingly, making his heart skip a beat, as she furled her parasol, as she 'shattered' into glass and disappeared as she simply hopped out of his arms under invisibility, a hand stroking his other cheek.
The corner of his eye caught Cinder facepalming as she leaned up against a Mistral Central Station directory. She just gave him a casual wave as she walked away a bit to the side, pulling out her Scroll as she sort-of hid from Robin, more than a bit nervous about meeting her in person after so long. They were arranging a method of meeting up together after years of only communicating via Scroll and Jaune had the feeling that Cinder might rope him into it if she began to chicken out.
"No trouble my ass!" Neptune Vasilias roared in jealousy as he ran up to grab Jaune by the shoulders and began shaking him. "The hell was that? Who? You just WALKED OUT and a hot girl just fell into your arms?! What sort of light novel protagonist looking-"
"I think what Class Prez means is, Jaune, who was that?" Pyrrha was smiling as she pulled Neptune off of him, but Jaune could sense her heart rate elevating and a vein by her temple pressing against her skin. She'd noticed how instinctive (from reading his muscle movement alone, impressive) it was for Jaune to catch Trivia out of the air like that, even without being able to see her. "You seemed to recognize her."
Weiss, too, was giving him a complicated look, though she was still standing by her brother's side.
"This all has a… well there's no good and easy explanation, but there is an explanation." Jaune promised as his classmates were already beginning to spark up the rumor mill.
Jaune let out a sigh.
Great.
"That girl is a fourth year at BEACON?" Weiss felt her eyes widen as they ignored the whole class leaning into their somewhat private conversation.
How? She was so small that Weiss had assumed she was closer to their age, maybe even like Ruby, Yang's younger half-sister! Or Whitley who was one year her junior!
At least Jaune was aware they were still in public and somewhat being picky about the shared information.
"Yup. Neapolitan Rider of Team CRXN (Crimson), partner to the team's leader Cinder Fall. She's the strongest member of their team." Jaune nodded, casually offering up that information as Weiss and multiple other members of Jaune's class looked her up on their Scrolls.
Her eyes narrowed.
"They're Beacon's Favored Team?" She muttered a bit incredulously, "They've got the highest odds in the festival just based on their mission record."
Jaune smiled proudly (clearly not understanding that it was making Pyrrha jealous) as he puffed his chest as if it was a direct compliment at himself. Even having a bit of a proud bit of laughter attached like some sort of doting father or brother or… something. THAT was odd. Jaune almost never showed an expression like that, always happier to brush any compliments to the side.
Well it wasn't at HIM, but… well he was strutting like it was. That was weird.
"Yup! I've known Neo since I was, like, six and a half? We're longtime friends."
And this was the only other girl aside from Pyrrha (and technically Ruby, but she was clearly like a sister to him) that Weiss had ever heard Jaune give a nickname to. Actually only Pyrrha and this Neopolitan had a nickname. That felt sort of unfair.
"So she's like an older sister?" Whitley asked, nodding as he seemed to be trying to figure out what their connection was like as well, taking a bit more of a vested personal interest.
Ugh, this was because he was seeing a possibility of himself and Clarent due to Jaune's closeness with this Neopolitan character, wasn't it? Boys.
And here she'd been feeling both mortified and embarrassed finding herself sleeping on Jaune's shoulder. Partly because of how comfortable it had been, half because she suddenly felt as if she'd intruded on Yang and Blake's claim on Jaune, no matter how technically 'unofficial' it was.
Apparently that was more normal for Pyrrha, but for Weiss it had been a rather big deal! She'd just finally found a way to bury the hatchet with Yang and get along (honestly it had been nice finally being able to be friends with the girl) with her and Blake. The last thing she wanted to do was jeopardize that!
"Uhhhh-" Jaune's eyes narrowed. "I-I wouldn't say that. Neo and my friendship is… well it's special, I guess. Hard to… put it exactly into words."
Weiss ignored the odd pang of jealousy at that.
Jaune didn't have a LOT of friends, but he worked hard to maintain close friendships with a small group of important friends instead. He went to actually quite some ridiculous lengths to do so, even.
Rather she was quite (almost painfully) aware of how much he cherished every one of his friends and it was something that she rather liked about him. It was an admirable quality that was hard to find in anyone.
But hearing him put it like that about another friend and not her was decidedly, weirdly uncomfortable.
Jealousy was unbecoming of her, but she also hadn't heard Jaune describe anyone else as special like that. Not even Yang and Blake which was… concerning, but also not really Weiss's problem.
Even if it felt like it.
It did sort of make her want a nickname as well (she'd never had one before) but Weiss wasn't exactly long enough to justify a nickname either, and she didn't want a pet name.
Jaune had apparently accidently asked Winter if she was an angel when they'd first met, so Weiss would end up being a Snow Angel or Snow Fairy or something equivalently embarrassing.
That was too mortifying to be allowed.
"Why? I mean, what makes you say that?" Pyrrha quickly corrected herself, still maintaining a perfectly photogenic smile, even if one of her hands were balled up in a fist, as they walked through the Capital.
Really at this point they weren't even sightseeing.
"I-I mean, it's… kinda not comfortable talking about her family situation. Or current lack thereof. But you know, even when they were alive, it wasn't great. She still helped me as much as I helped her, so we have more of an equal standing thing going on, but you know…" Jaune drawled off, his mouth twisting into an uncomfortable look.
Ah.
"Say no more. If it's something on that sort of personal level, we don't need to hear it. Especially not in public." Weiss cut off this inquiry as Pyrrha joined her in a somewhat reluctant nodding of the head.
The corner of her eye caught Neptune Vasilias turning away from listening in on the conversation to pull some straggling classmates back into their group, his luggage dragging on the ground behind him.
Luckily she and the rest of Jaune's friends and family had Jaune's Semblance to rely on, allowing them to travel with only their weapons.
Naturally Myrtenaster rested comfortably on her hip as Edelblume, his Dust-Casting Gauntlet, rested comfortably in its folded state on her brother's wrist, ready to snap onto the rings on his index and ring fingers. Unlike Weiss who preferred both blade and Dust-casting, he preferred to go all in on his Dust-casting and Semblance, only creating blades of ice in case of emergency.
Neptune on the other hand had some sort of Third-Gen Assault Rifle on his back, clearly loaded with Dust as well. She was still miffed at the handsome boy, even if she respected his dedication to his role as Class President.
That Teal girl was lucky. Neptune had a nice butt. Well, so did Jau- nonono.
Weiss didn't want to get tangled in that situation which was only looking more and more complicated the more she thought about it.
Neapolitan Rider appearing caught her and everyone else (actually now that she thought about it, Ren, Nora, and Emerald hadn't seemed very surprised at all) off guard.
Nor did she want to jeopardize her friendship with Jaune, especially knowing what kind of power she had over him. No matter how genuinely pretty he thought she was and also liked her as a person, having that much control over Jaune was an uncomfortable thought. It would be like… ok, not on the same level of her father's control of her mother, but close, except Jaune would actually just accept whatever she wanted.
Even Pyrrha seemed relatively in the same boat as Weiss herself, having some interest in Jaune, but taking no action in regards to it for the sake of their friendship. At least it was clear enough to Weiss, even though Yang had only been vaguely concerned and Blake hadn't seemed to take it in that way at all.
"So, yeah, I've only got two teams I'm really cheering on for the Festival, Team CRXN and KRCA (Karacha)." Jaune moved on from that part of the conversation with casual grace, "The leader of Team KRCA actually helped me tutor Emerald for her Sanctum Sponsorship back in the day."
"Kamina-sensei was a fair but demanding instructor." Emerald nodded, a rare smile at her lips. It was a real smile, rather than her polite butler smile that she'd learned while working as Klein's understudy. "He is a good man."
"Yeah. He's become Clan Heir for House Hitenmaki, too. All while being a part of the Idealist Faction. He's cool."
"Hold up. My sister's on cousin Kamina's team!" A green haired girl (one of Nora's friends, what was her name… Chora? Chloris?) chimed in, "She got really injured super recently, but said that a really famous doctor came in to heal her up."
"Ah ha ha." Jaune's gait didn't falter, but his right foot did tap the ground a bit as he walked. "I'm glad to hear she's gotten better then, Chloris."
…Jaune had warped over to help out his old, what was the term, senpai, hadn't he?
Organizations capable of healing with Aura itself only existed in Mistral and they were both apparently a rather selective lot. Thank goodness Atlas pioneered medical techniques had been spread plenty in modern day Remnant, otherwise Mistral with their odd and hyper-conservative policies would have more sway than they already did.
"Yeah! Cousin Kamina's cool as heck! Not only is he pushing for further reform, he's been pressuring other Houses to do more to help people in need." The girl floated on a hoverboard (Atlas tech, surprising to see it in Mistral, but maybe not as she was from Argus) as she slung a simple black duffle bag over her back. "It a super shame my sis isn't into boys. Like she's in a team of all guys, hot guys, and she's not yearning for anyone. Ain't that a kicker?"
"I feel like you might be oversharing." Jaune snorted out a laugh, "That's her choice, isn't it?"
"But speaking of being swimming in the opposite-"
"I'm already going to stop you there, Chloris. We're not close enough for me to talk about my lovelife."
Thoughtfully he did look at Weiss, as she stepped a bit closer to his side. It was still necessary to maintain their facade, after all.
It was something she'd… grown used to. She might even miss it a bit once it was gone, but it wasn't as if they'd stop being friends. It was fine.
Weiss figured that she might even grow from the experience, even if there was a part of her that just wanted things to stay as they were. She suppose change was always a bit painful.
She'd grown comfortable with it. Maybe even taken it all a bit for granted. It was an oddly bittersweet feeling, half lonely and wanting, half dreading the end of their little not-quite secret.
Mmmrrr. Well, maybe she should take a page from Yang's books? Indulge a bit in a bit of skinship, but toned down. Tasteful and more chaste. A little hand-holding would be alright, right? Yang and Blake wouldn't get all defensive over something so basic.
Right?
Weiss just gave Jaune's classmate a polite smile as she slipped her hand into Jaune's, trying to not giggle as he flushed and gulped shyly. Really, his reactions were so oddly genuine.
It was a sort of shame he lacked confidence outside of a fight. Watching him spar with Pyrrha had been a genuine eye opener. Sort of exciting, actually.
Jaune coughed as he turned back to Reese Chloris (ah, now Weiss recalled the girl's name) as he shrugged wordlessly in Weiss's direction as Pyrrha stepped a bit closer to his other side in a protective way.
"Let's just leave that alone." Pyrrha's voice was calm and casual, though her smile was practiced to the point it looked mostly genuine to all but the strictest of observers. "It's not exactly your business."
"Also we're starting to draw a lot of eyes. Thank god we're almost at the hotel." Jaune sighed as he pointed at a building in the distance. "It's right up there.
Odd. The name wasn't even visible yet, but he'd recognized it immediately. How?
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