Chương 86: 86
Also I am sick, while I still have Sunday and Monday's chapter's complted and Tues is half done, it might affect the uploads down the line
Thanks to: Andrea Shultz, Shukuen, Terran, and TheHealerOfPleasure for their support!
The Vytal Festival was certainly exciting.
Frankly it was enough to even pull Jaune's attention away from the concerns he'd been having about what was brewing in the background, just a little. Once he had the time (he'd find it later when he could) he'd try to weedle a bit more out of Qrow and Raven without getting on their nerves.
But being surrounded by his friends was nice. So nice. He just… wanted to indulge in it. Suffuse himself in their presence. Not quite drown in it, but something close, he supposed.
Weiss, Whitley, and Pyrrha were disguised in wigs and shades, Blake, Yang, and Ruby had traveled officially to come and enjoy the festivities (though it was necessary for the Belladonnas and himself to hide their Faunus heritage just a bit) and were dressed in their usual clothes alongside Ren, Nora, and Emerald.
Just a group of Huntsmen and Huntresses in training living life.
Since Blake had sort of claimed his old usual beanie, he'd opted for a new one, this in a gray that matched Yang's Parabellum coat's colors. Speaking of Blake, she'd surprisingly taken a bit to trying on Mistralian clothes, already walking around with ankle length black hakama pants in addition to her Huntress outfit. A easy pull away kind that seemed half a 'cloth sheathe' to hide Umbral Hare, half fashion choice.
She'd already shared pictures of her new kimono sleepwear in his and Yang's private group chat, too.
It was a kind of rare moment when Jaune just sort of forgot some of his responsibilities, just being able to be a kid and have fun. Not only that, but there was an extra sense of friendliness in general as whatever conversation Yang and Blake had with Weiss back in Sanctum had resulted in the three properly getting along.
A marked improvement after years of both sides merely putting up with the other when they were forced to interact.
Even the fact that he'd end up missing watching the Tournament live as he'd be getting ready to perform publicly with Weiss on the fourth day of the Vytal Festival couldn't put a dampener on his mood. Rather he was even becoming sort of excited for it now. Well, in fairness they were both always sort of excited at the idea of it, just that the both of them were a bit irritated that the Schnee patriarch had sort of pressured it upon them both.
And it was amazing how much Mistral changed in preparation for the Vytal Festival.
Usually only the middle and upper levels were kept clean and well maintained, but even the majority of the lower levels, slums included, had gotten a bit of a touch up. Emerald had noted that the year before he and she had met it had been much the same (and had been great for building up a bit of a nest egg, though it had been stolen from her hideout when it was ransacked by other street kids when she was away), though it took next to no time at all for the grime and crime to settle back in.
But normally the lower levels where well off citizens were hesitant on visiting had been turned into streets of endless parading and partying. Actually the bigger concern were all the free drinks that were being handed around and passed about and not enough IDs were being checked.
A few of them had to step in, however, and make sure some of the more impulsive and curious members of their group (Yang, Ruby, Nora) wouldn't go off and accidentally drink anything before the age of majority. Really, they only had to wait two more years. Some tempered curiosity wouldn't hurt in the slightest.
"Yang, you'll have to make do with a virgin Strawberry Sunrise." Jaune sighed, his arm hooking into her elbow to pull her away from a woman dressed in flamboyant robes and headdress advertising a local club. "I can mix one for you, if you want. Outside of the alcohol in the liquor, it's just strawberry and orange juice mixed together."
"Alright alright." Yang laughed, "Only because you're promising to be my personal bartender."
"I believe that my master has recently proven he looks rather fetching in a uniform." Emerald chimed in, getting a few giggles from everyone but Ruby who pouted as she'd been left out.
"I still can't believe Yang ditched me!" She pouted, though since she'd been taking advantage of her shapeshifting to become closer to Yang's height so it looked a bit less adorable than usual, just being rather cute instead, "I coulda stayed up late to come with! Or taken naps just like her! Nobody's even shared any pictures!"
Jaune just rolled his eyes as he turned to offer her his back, the younger girl leaping and latching on like a turtle shell.
He felt her faintly shrink on his back, grip tightening as a result, just enough that he was pretty sure nobody would notice without super close inspection.
"Ruby backpack mode go!" The white hooded girl cheerfully laughed as she squeezed against his back. "Wooo!"
It was almost like he was the one wearing the hood at this point, as Ruby clung to his back like she was just a second layer of skin.
Yang just snorted as she rolled her eyes.
"You know you'll have to outgrow that one day, Rubes."
"Nope! Never! Backpack Ruby is forever!"
"That does look kinda fun." Nora looked thoughtfully at Ruby. "Scale of one to ten, Ruby?"
"Ten!"
Ren just chuckled as he whispered in Nora's ear, his hand snaking out to wrap in her's, getting a blush from his sister. It was good that they were finding their stride.
"That does look fun." Pyrrha laughed a bit wistfully. "I remember when I used to enjoy piggybacks from my dad when I was younger."
Weiss and Whitley both said nothing, as they'd both never experienced as such, and had grown to a point that asking for any would be embarrassing.
"Eh, Ruby's just a bit spoiled." Jaune chuckled, a hand rising to pat her head over the hood. "She's a big baby."
Ruby gasped, her head jerking back.
"Am not!"
"Two cookies to admit it." Jaune slapped a teasing offer down on the table.
Ruby's traitorous gulp made the whole group let out a laugh.
"Two and a nibble later."
"Eh," Jaune shrugged. "Sure."
"I am the biggest baby." Ruby shamelessly flaunted as she latched tighter on his torso. "And cookies are MINE!"
"Speaking of cookies," Blake pointed at a cafe they were passing by as the group all enjoyed a laugh. "That place over there claims they have a bunch of handmade sweets. Anybody else want to stop by?"
Emerald peered at the entrance sign, nodding.
"Ah, the grandpa that owns that shop is legitimate. They're one of the few small places that can accurately date their operations back to the end of the Great War. It's apparently good enough that they act as peace grounds for the Suzaku Street Boyz and Shinryu Samurais, unless something's changed since I was here last. At least, that's what the rumors said when I used to live in the slums. Kept those groups from going to war multiple times."
Weiss gave a wide eyed look at Emerald.
"What?" She blurted in confusion, though not particularly judgemental (there was a very faint subconscious disdain for the word slum). "Emerald, you're a former slumsfolk?"
Emerald just nodded casually, not ashamed of her roots.
"Before my master found me, I was once referred to as the Trickster of Koishi Street. That's the market street we passed just two blocks down. Ah. Trickster is often used as a title to describe the best pickpockets and swindlers in Mistral."
"Wait, hold up. Nuh-uh. You? I don't believe it." Yang also gave a confused look. "You're way too proper to be a thief."
"Was." Emerald clarified, her hands rising to reveal Ember Celica to prove her claims, getting Yang to yelp and her hands to snap at her wrists, finding them bare. "Although I'm still quite capable. I usually don't even need my Semblance."
"That was awesome." Ruby mumbled in surprise, her mouth hidden behind his shoulder, fangs beginning to tickle Jaune through his haori coat. "I didn't even see her do that. Even they seem surprised."
…what did Ruby mean by that exactly? 'They' in what context?
Naturally she easily handed them back, having proven her point, as Yang gave her a bit of a glare.
"...Jaune, we can't let father know that Emerald could have robbed small valuables or important data from the Schnee Manor twice over while she shadowed Klein." Weiss sighed, pinching her brow as Yang snatched her weapons out of Emerald's hands. "Never."
"Emerald wouldn't steal anything unless I asked her to. And I wouldn't unless it really was that important." Jaune just chuckled, feeling as if his friends were taking Emerald's jokes too seriously, "Right, Em?"
"I would steal anything if you requested it of me, master." Emerald nodded in agreement.
"That… wasn't the answer Jaune was looking for, Emerald." Ren sighed.
Emerald just gave a polite smile as Pyrrha held in peals of laughter.
Paper bombing is a method of somewhat malicious compliance.
In many schools of thought it could be seen as purely peaceful, as with the exception of an errantly unlikely papercut, nobody would be hurt by such. At most it would just be a pain to gather and recycle, if not just used for errant kindling outright by some of the slumfolk.
In many ways, the system viewed it as a nuisance at best, littering at worst. Outside of the political implications, of course.
But considering that fliers lauding the Black Knights (with one in three levying accusations against the Noble Houses and Crime Families that they wished to keep hidden) had been slipped into the confetti that the leadership of Mistral was raining down on the Capital already, who would even know any better?
All it had taken was a few sympathetic Faunus to the cause that worked for the packaging companies that processed the orders for the slew of colorful festive balloons that floated all around the Singing Mountain.
It definitely helped that despite all the discriminatory laws in Mistral, it still had a rather sizable Faunus population, mostly because they could not afford to pull up roots and go elsewhere as a result of their economic subjugation. They were already struggling just to house and feed themselves for the most part, how would they have the funds to travel?
Yet, there were those that risked the roads to Oniyuri, sometimes even scraping together enough to get a boat to Menagerie.
Either way, it was true that few Faunus wouldn't look the other way for a bribe and a way to rebel against Mistral's leadership without risking too much.
And the Black Knights paid well.
They were pretty eager to burn Vacuoan blood money anyways, especially when it seemed that Red Mane had already betrayed their trust and sold off their tech to some unknown party.
That burned.
Nobody had really thought much of their Vacuoan sponsor, just accepting it as a necessary evil, but they'd been naive in how they handled the man.
He was the man that tied the Vacuoan cartels of Almurawij together, after all. Regardless of the method, the fact that he'd managed that in any way was always a sign that the lion Faunus was dangerous.
And yet their leader still insisted that their feigned compliance was necessary, though he'd pretty much cut off his access to their Quartermaster, Cid, without explicitly making any such thing obvious. That on top of the fact that Red Mane was currently back in Almurawij taking care of business.
As much of an issue was that they were dependent on a single mostly self-taught engineer to make their whole operation work, it would be even worse if he fell entirely in Red Mane's pocket. At the very least the man had been furious and horrified when he'd seen the aftermath of Gold Leo Brigade facing the strange armor of Hazel Rainart.
With the Grimm that followed, without Qrow Branwen they wouldn't have gotten out unscathed. Relative, of course, as one of the current Gold Leo's were currently being treated for some horribly pinched nerves, and another was going to be replaced after trauma via Grimm trying to pry open his armor like he'd been a can of baked beans.
And now Jaune Arc's surrogate uncle knew their allegiance to Menagerie.
While their leader insisted he'd run damage control beforehand, there were a lot of concerned parties in the Knights that believed their time would be running out sooner than later.
If that was the case, all the more reason to make the one last pass.
While the Amity Colosseum floated by Haven, drawing all the greedy eyes of the Noble Houses and Crime Families, the Black Knights would look down below, deep inside the bowels of the Singing Mountain.
To the Imperial Vault.
The name of a sort of private bank not available to the public, where the Great Houses stored not only the majority of their wealth, but hid documentation of nearly every dirty secret of Mistral's nobility. At least nothing that they hadn't cleansed and excised with blood and flame. Of course it was never their own secrets but the secrets they had over other competing families, but either way the place was a cesspit.
They'd take that legacy of wretchedness and drag it to the surface.
And if some of that impossibly vast wealth disappeared as it was scattered from on high to the masses it truly belonged to, well.
They might be able to cut ties with the Red Mane of Golden Sands for good. Who knew?
Huntsmen were unpredictable. They were elite combatants, the best of the best.
At least, it was such in theory.
But that didn't change the fact that without standing armies like Atlas, most Kingdoms needed to make sure that they had as many Huntsmen and Huntresses working under their banner as possible.
That meant while standards were high, they weren't always all too impressive. Not everyone could truly be an elite, after all. Or the concept wouldn't even exist. Ugh, now she was sounding like her dead mother.
She didn't really want Carmel Vanille on the mind right now. Especially when she knew Aurelia was somewhere at home watching her live. Despite being only maybe fifteen years older than Trivia herself, her former tutor was the closest thing she had ever had to an actual mother.
But aside from Beacon who had some sort of old magic fart running some bullshit, it was Trivia's opinion that Atlas had to be the actual best Huntsman College. They had to be, right? Jaune was apparently super tight with their General and since they had a professional military force, they had to have the highest standards of the four Kingdoms.
While Beacon had pretty expectant standards as well, they tended to be pretty lax about a lot more than Trivia had expected (really good for her personally, but it made no sense why Jaune would want to come here so much, aside from the freedom) so it was Atlas that she wanted to use as a measuring stick.
That was why when Team CRXN of Beacon was pitted against Team BERI of Atlas Academy, Trivia had stepped up first, asking her team if she could test herself against the team of Atlas fourth years.
Considering that their doubles match tomorrow would be the lovebirds and Trivia wouldn't get to have any fun then, they agreed.
Ah! I found Jaune! Neo pulled Trivia's attention towards the stands, giving Trivia the opportunity to give him a happy wave, smiling at her special Partner. Ugh, he's sandwiched in by THOSE two.
Patience, patience. They'd only need to put up with it for a little under two years. They'd been patient this long. They could hold out just a bit longer. Even if it was a bit unbearable.
The buzzer rang as some idiot Professors from Haven began to do some weirdo announcement.
Leaving behind an illusion of herself, Trivia let the wind (only a hint of mana, allowing it to be pretty much undetectable without direct contact) lift her into the air as Whisper unfurled. Her invisible form flew above the rain of bullets and Dust-casting from the opposing team.
Naturally her teammates took shelter behind Rakan who just casually tanked the blow, his Aura rippling over his shield.
Meanwhile the shattering form of her illusive clone drew the attention of her enemies, calling out warnings about her missing form.
Whisper folded up, Hush drawing with a whispery sound, the atmosphere compressing above, sending Trivia flying down, glass shattering from her stealth as she formed right above Team BERI's leader.
An open mouth was perfect to stick her sword into, getting a look of fear and shock as the blade ran partly down the esophagus, draining the Aura harshly as her razor sharp weapon cut into the fleshy internals.
Feet planted against his shoulders, her blade twisting like a blender, Whisper opened to block another burst of bullet fire from what looked like a pair of giant scissors, barrels built into its length. Judging from the pressure on her Aura over her parasol shield it was on the upper end of rifle ammo, not sniper caliber though.
The hidden blade in Whisper fired, razorwire weightlessly trailing behind, to deflect a long needle-like estoc (the pommel actually had a cord tied into a 'needle head'), the two handed thrusting blade being knocked back by Whisper, used like a baton, as her weapon carried a weightier force by a bit of 'Earth' magic that temporarily gave the bit of blade much more 'mass' than it should have.
If she wanted to be sneaky, she pretty much could only apply it to small objects, but that was sort of the best part. Nobody thought that the little two inch blade would carry more impact than a two handed maul.
Her foot twisted, breaking the sudden grip of her current platform on her ankle as she vaulted in a backwards somersault, kicking Team BERI's leader in the jaw as she drew Hush from her throat. Whisper furled up again, making it easier for Trivia to whip her arm to the side, letting the sharpened wire whip around the woman's neck twice, the blade hooks at the base of the blade tip conveniently snapping over the wire to lock in place.
Now she had two shields. And the living one still couldn't bark out commands.
Trivia casually ducked under a heavy swing by a heavy gauntleted fist, letting her right leg rise like a flexible whip, the knee meeting the shoulder on the same side as the steel toes of her boot slammed into the base of his chin, tucking his head downwards. His attempt to grab her leg was knocked away by a sharp strike from Hush, letting her leg descend to twist and stomp sideways against his knee.
It said much about his training that he neither winced or hissed in pain, his fist descending instead to return the favor. But a hard jerk of Whisper pulled down to replace her leg as Trivia twisted her body in a one-eighty. The armored fist met the outer tip of her parasol, giving some easy momentum as Trivia added onto the impact, carrying her arm in a circle, slamming down like a blackjack against the top of his head.
Her human shield pulled back against Trivia's grip, trying to pull her in the way of the charging estoc and giant scissor user, but she simply parried the former, guiding their weapon into the gauntlet wielder's side. The scissors on the other hand slammed down like clamping jaws where her neck was moments ago.
As if she'd let them cut into her favorite choker. It matched Jaune's silver anklets.
Still, she was less happy about that attempt.
A wind assisted pull yanked BERI's leader into the way of an opening scissor blade, slamming against their chin, rattling their skull as lightning crackled down the length of Trivia's cane blade.
Since it was channeled in her weapon, only the person it would make contact with should feel the unnatural weight of magic, but that should be overwhelmed by the who knows how many volts rattling their system. Eenie, meenie, you.
Her thrust at gauntlet's eye was intercepted as his heavy gauntlet gripped over the length of her blade. Ugh. Insulated. Actually that was pretty smart. Maybe it was expected of someone from Atlas?
But Trivia twisted, her left leg extending as did her right arm, the blade sparking as it thrust deeper into his grip, jabbing into the soft jelly of his eye as his face twisted in severe discomfort, Aura bleeding against the tip of her weapon. Whisper pulled to block an overhead swing, the giant combat scissors having separated into twin bastard swords that rippled with a heavy application of Recoil Tech.
It would have driven Trivia to her knees if she didn't just perform a casual split instead, letting the impact pull Hush's blade back loose from its metal grip.
It did rattle her pelvic bone a bit as it slammed into the ground, but unlike the currently brutalized Team BERI, Trivia had plenty of Aura left. Not to mention-
A crackle of lightning erupted down the length of Whisper's wire, stunning the leader as Trivia pulled them into the estoc user, extending the chain of lightning. Hush jabbed into scissor's thigh as Trivia let an illusion of her pop up, leaving her lower invisible form, shattering into glass as twin halves of a scissor thrust through her illusory torso.
Hush jabbed lazily into his groin, getting a yelp of pain as Trivia casually stood up, her form reappearing in pink shards of glass.
Her left leg swung up nimbly, the knee meeting her shoulder as she flexibly knocked the scissor user out. Their knees slammed heavily onto the ground as Trivia felt her supporting leg get swept out from under her by the gauntlet user, who was the only remaining conscious member of their team.
Wire unhooked from the blade tip of Whisper's hidden weapon mechanism as it reeled in with a quiet, high pitched zip, pulling into the parasol completely just before Trivia used it as an improvised 'leg', spinning herself over it sideways with just a bit of a breeze to slam a roundhouse into gauntlet's chin.
The victory horn blared, confetti blasting down from above, getting Trivia to frown.
Awww. Neo pouted. That was too fast! We were just starting to have fun!
Trivia agreed, ignoring the announcer, lazily flicking Hush to flick the saliva and mucus from the blade tip, if it hadn't already flown off from the thin blade whipping about.
She looked up to see giant screens above flash WINNER: TEAM CRXN!
The follow up screen revealed her bored looking face with her Huntress symbol next to it, a little ice cream cone with an iconized rabbit head acting as a 'scoop'. A little nod to her other half.
His reaction to it when she'd initially showed it off to him in the first week after Beacon had been pretty delectable. Adorable.
Trivia just sheathed Hush into Whisper, letting the parasol rest casually against her shoulder as she gave a confident V and wink to Jaune up in the stands.
"She just one vee four'd them." Jaune worriedly turned to Yang who was gripping the edges of her arms rest as he finished waving at Trivia and Neo below. "Just rolled them like nothing. The hell am I supposed to do against that? She's crazy!"
Pyrrha (sitting on Yang's other side) had also pulled up her Scroll, having begun to record the fight after the moment that Trivia had shoved her weapon down Team BERI's leader's (Brunstead Briecomb) throat, realizing instinctively something crazy was about to go down. She really did have really good combat instincts, even if she completely lacked a killing edge somehow.
That particular maneuver had disturbed a lot of people though it seemed, mostly forgotten by the follow up where Trivia had gone and shown off her combat ability. She was still uniquely suited for fighting other people, more than Grimm.
"That was incredible." Pyrrha was already slowing down parts of the fight and replaying them on her device. "I can't even tell where she's housing the Lightning Dust in her weapons. I can understand it being hidden under the parasol half, but the cane blade lacks any visible seams at this distance for restocking Dust."
He held a hand over his right knee as it bounced a bit, getting a quiet side eye from Blake.
"Prolly just hard to see from this distance." Jaune assured, reminding himself that he might have to make a small aesthetic modification to Hush as Pyrrha noted something about Trivia's sneaky incorporation of her Spring Maiden powers into her combat style.
Only someone truly observant like Pyrrha might notice such a small discrepancy, but better to take no risks, right?"
"I'm more concerned about her Huntress symbol, to be honest." Blake's voice was even but Jaune could hear how her teeth were faintly clenched together. It was subtle enough that only him with his weirdly broken brain would have processed and caught that detail, however. "Has she been going around with that this whole time? How did we not notice back on Menagerie?"
"It's only engraved on her belt. Neo isn't exactly loud about most things." Jaune chuckled. It was true that she was flashy, but Trivia fought more like an assassin than a normal warrior, despite her bright white and pink colors. "Probably wouldn't have unless you were specifically looking for it."
"Tsk." Yang clicked her tongue. "At least she doesn't have it tattooed on her."
"Yang, Neo's got one tattoo. Heck, so do I. And you know they're not matching."
"Oh, the one on your hand, yeah. You've had that as long as I can remember." Yang nodded, clearly recalling that moment almost eight years ago on Menagerie when he'd summoned his brother Juniper as a Heroic Spirit. "That's true, huh?"
"Oh? Jaune's had that since he was little?" Pyrrha's head turned curiously at the back of Jaune's right hand. "How long have you had it?"
"Oh, uh, since I was like, six? I kinda needed it for a… a thing. It's difficult to explain, but it was really important. Still kinda is." Jaune coughed, trying to brush the topic to the side.
Thanks to his Drachen Mail's bodysuit (or just fingerless gloves) usually his Command Seals were covered from view, but Jaune would forget here and there, or not have gloves on for whatever reason. Pyrrha had asked about it twice before (but only remembered one of the instances), but he'd just brushed past it, not wanting to leave a second gap in her memory when he tried to explain about anything Gacha related.
At least he could say that he gave it an honest try to explain everything to her once, even if only he could remain knowing the truth.
"Wait, you were allowed to get a tattoo when you were six?" Whitley asked curiously from his seat, located past Weiss who was sitting on Blake's other side. "If I can't get a piercing, then could I-"
"Jaune. You're an amazing friend. Please stop being a bad influence on my baby brother." Weiss sighed with a slightly annoyed look. "I've had to endure him asking about getting earrings for two months when you first got your ears pierced."
"But I could get something where nobody could reasonably see!" Whitley argued, weedling a bit, "Also I'm only ten months younger than you, sister Weiss!"
"That still makes me your elder, thus baby brother. No means no."
Whitley scoffed as he crossed his arms, slouching into his seat with a pout.
"I'm never allowed to do anything cool."
"I mean, there are inks that only show up under certain-"
"Jaune."
"Shutting up, Weiss."
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