章節 13: 13
The sound of Jaune rolling out of bed was enough to wake up Ren and Nora.
Not that it would matter when the three of them currently shared the same bed, unable to sleep without each other. The displacement of Jaune would wake Ren next to him and Ren's awakening would awaken Nora like falling dominos.
The Mistralian boy was the middle spoon.
Occasionally one of Jaune's sisters joined them for an additional spot of snuggle company and his two friends, now sort of adopted cousins, at some point in the middle of the week. And the two of them stayed up waiting for him on Fridays because of his promise with Yang and his 'pre-reform' of Trivia and Neo.
They didn't wake up early like this on Saturdays. Saturdays were for rest.
Today was Monday.
Wordlessly they followed Jaune as they filed out of his room, the humming of his Multi-Fabricator and Disassembler still in operation as they'd been running all through the night as usual. It was still amazing to Jaune that dumping his Trash rarity Gacha Items into the machine resulted in no smell at all.
Jaune began whipping up breakfast as Ren and Nora fell into a rhythm handing him ingredients like a well oiled machine.
Before Kuroyuri, Jaune had pulled the SR Ability: 2 Star Michelin Chef from the Gacha but had refused to use it worrying that it would worsen his imposter syndrome.
Now he no longer cared.
Rather he feared that if he didn't use every tool at his disposal better he worried that he'd fail again.
Even if all the Gacha Item did was as simple as assisting in making as robust and delicious a meal as possible, it could matter. General Ironwood taught him that an army ran on its stomach.
Eating proper meals was important, having them sate both body and soul doubly so. If he wasn't well fed, wasn't in his best condition, maybe people would lose fathers and mothers. Brothers and sisters.
And it would be his fault again.
That fear of being a fake was nothing compared to the fear of guilt from failing.
Fighting fear with fear was probably unhealthy, but that was the only thing he could do. The only relief from it all was his breathers with Trivia and Neo at this point and that was a different tangled mess at the best of times.
He'd truly felt nothing when Durindana had possibly evaporated the owl helmeted sniper with the miniature portal semblance that fateful day when he'd first met Summer and Raven. Actually nothing at all, not like the comic books when the heroes were forced to kill for the first time. Jaune worried he was broken in the brain, but being unable to protect Li Ren still sometimes made him wish to empty his stomach.
He was sure that meant he was still somewhat normal, even if he felt awful.
He didn't care that the small town had celebrated Jaune and his father's defeat of the Elder Grimm. For him that night had been a failure. He'd failed as a Hero, even if his father assured him that he'd done everything he could.
Because of him Lie was now Ren. It was his fault that his first male friend no longer had parents. He blamed himself even if Ren didn't. Because someone had to.
Juniper assured him that he'd done his best. That it wasn't his fault. That the Nuckelavee was a foe that he never should have had to face at his age. That he should have been proud.
Jaune hated that he did feel pride when his Big Brother Juniper gave him those comforting words. Like as if he didn't deserve to feel that way.
If only An Lie's upper half had been what had been recovered from the stray Nevermore. Even if just the brain he could have…
Jaune couldn't bring himself to cry in front of Ren and Nora as he was cooking, too much in autopilot still.
Plates of food were dispensed, the rest of it was left covered with aluminum foil to keep warm for the rest of the Arc household when they awoke. His hungry bedmates dug in voraciously, Nora with much more sound and much less manners than Ren.
It had become a habit for Jaune to make enough breakfast for the whole family, even if he woke up before the crack of dawn to train. He still wanted to do things with and for them. And even if he didn't see them eat breakfast and their compliments and praise of it made him uncomfortable inside, he loved seeing them smile because of it.
Maybe he'd have to learn that the smiles alone could be enough. Maybe that was the secret to life.
Somehow seeing his family smile made him feel that everything would be fine regardless.
His dad could be heard yawning as he descended the stairs, his heavy feet thumping surprisingly softly on varnished maple.
Their relationship had taken another rocky turn for the first week after returning home from their two man, then suddenly four, caravan trip to Oniyuri. A simple bonding trip between father and son gone so, so wrong.
Nothing was supposed to go this tits up. Heck, they hadn't even taken any guards with them because his dad was confident push come to shove he could escape while protecting Jaune alone. It was Jaune himself that made things complicated by trying to fulfill Big Brother Juniper's request.
After completing their contract and delivering the goods, Julius almost wordlessly took the three of them back to the Arc manor and without skipping a beat. His father didn't sleep as he drove the six wheeled caravan transport truck back home in one long trip like a man possessed.
They were fortunate that Noelle sort of adopted the two like they were a niece and nephew. Maybe even a daughter for Nora, actually.
Jaune knew he'd messed up when he forced his father's hand to stay in the defense of Kuroyuri. Honestly he knew he was being unfair to his father from the beginning.
At first he didn't understand why his father wanted to leave.
He was a Huntsman. A hero! He was supposed to stay and defend the town.
He realized now that all his dad wanted was to keep him safe. But without the two of them, the small settlement would have fallen. The Nuckelavee would have likely extended its rampage even further to Oniyuri.
The both of them understood that. But tempers still flared.
His dad still hadn't asked Jaune any questions, only watching from the window of his office as Jaune began training the next morning after they'd returned home. Jaune had decided to no longer coast on the strength and power he'd gained from the Gacha the first day back, that something had to change.
On the second day Ren and Nora tried to join Jaune in the exercises, but with Juniper's guidance and reminders that they weren't like him, borderline magically enhanced, he made them do something easier as they weren't on the same level physically.
Ren hadn't been a very active boy before all of this even if he did technically know some self defense. And Nora, while surprisingly strong, was underfed for a long time, still suffering from malnutrition. She didn't remember her parents, growing up with a small group of wandering beggar children, losing track of them in Kuroyuri and having been accidentally abandoned in that small settlement as they left without her.
They must have been a rather large group to have not noticed one less mouth in their ranks. Or perhaps they never cared much for stragglers when it was already so hard to fill all their mouths in the first place.
It just made Jaune burn with anger. The world was so cruel. He felt bitter for the injustice, he hated the guilt of being born into a big and loving family when compared to Nora.
Remnant was unfair. It was shit. An awful world to be born into and live in. He was so blessed compared to them, and that… that made him feel guilty too.
That guilt drove him to train Ren and Nora well. The exercises and training methods of ancient Troy served to help set a baseline for the two, especially after Nora's Aura was unlocked via an accident.
A very curious urchin girl wandering into a room of live batteries powered by the sun sounded more like the set up to a joke than what actually occurred.
She'd accidentally blown a door off the hinges with lightning enhanced strength, her Semblance, it seemed. Juniper had already dubbed it High Voltage, so that's what they began calling it. She had paled and cried thinking she'd be kicked out for causing damage to the house.
Mommy Noelle took none of that, telling the girl that she was an Arc girl now. That big Arc girls didn't cry.
Nora Arc, obviously, cried into Noelle's arms. His sisters also began to associate with Nora more, spoiling her with friendship and snacks. They did seem a bit jealous of how close she became with their only brother so quickly, but they understood that she'd gone through something quite difficult.
His sisters were always quite empathetic, even if they could be right menaces to society. Maybe that was one of the reasons Jaune loved them all so much.
After a week of silence, Julius Arc started waking early as well, joining them for their morning training. Helping guide it all, more Ren and Nora rather than Jaune. His father still asked no questions. And Jaune didn't know if he was expecting an explanation or not. So he stayed silent about his ability to fight. Of the nature of Durindana.
He was a coward.
Another week passed with father and son still struggling to communicate, despite Juniper and Noelle's efforts. Both were too stubborn.
Jaune knew he'd have to have gotten that from somewhere.
It ended up taking Ren, Nora, AND Noelle to get Jaune and Julius to talk more than three words to each other at a time. They didn't yell or argue, his father just apologized softly as he held Jaune in his arms who cried for over an hour.
He'd only been able to respond back that he was sorry. Again. And again.
After that it was like everything was almost normal, as if Kuroyuri hadn't happened.
Not quite. But close.
Nora Arc.
Her name was now Nora Arc.
Not Street Rat. Not Beggar. Not Trash. Not Animal.
Nora hadn't even been her name before Kuroyuri. The kids in the band of nomadic beggars just called each other by the color of their hair. She knew she had a mom once that traveled with her when she was even smaller, who called her something she didn't remember, but she'd abandoned her and Nora didn't know why. She ended up being found and raised by the older kids instead.
She'd been Orange before this. Sometimes Mikan. Once Sunrise.
She liked being called that. It didn't stick.
When Uncle (or was it daddy now? She was too scared to ask) Arc had asked for her name, her reply had just been "No… err… ah…" and he'd mistaken her stuttering for her name.
It would have made her burn with embarrassment if it didn't bring her such joy.
She had a warm bed but didn't have to sleep alone. It was still familiar, like when she and the other beggar kids huddled for warmth in the cold months. But it was warmer. Softer. Better.
Jaune, her new cousin/brother made the most amazing breakfasts every day except Saturday. Ren held her as she slept and she felt safe. It was more than anything she could have ever dreamed…
But it came at the cost of Ren's parents.
She could still… hear it.
Hear the rending flesh and bone as An Ren died in front of their eyes.
Saw it sometimes when she closed her eyes against her will.
She'd had nightmares about it. Ren couldn't sleep without both her and Jaune because of it. Jaune couldn't sleep without the both of them and his favorite pillow, a silky purple one that gave Nora an uncomfortable feeling that she couldn't place.
But it was Jaune's favorite.
He'd wake up, train, and practice music. Beautiful music full of energy and life. Sometimes sad though.
Except Saturdays.
He'd explained that he had promises to keep after Friday midnights. Or was it Saturday at that point? Something about timezones, and that they needed to keep it a secret he'd disappear after midnight for a few hours every week. The first night when he'd seemingly turned into a droplet of shadow she and Ren just held each other, not sure if they should alert Mr and Mrs Arc.
He had reappeared like magic a few hours later, just as promised, though he seemed surprised to see the both of them still awake. The three of them fell asleep soon after.
Then that weekly disappearing act soon became normal for the trio too.
The following Saturday Jaune would give them snacks and treats in apology and for their silence.
But she and Ren would spend those moments, just the two of them, in the darkness, huddled against each other for comfort and warmth as Jaune's tinkering machines filled the room with little bits of white noise.
It made her heart beat. Recalling when he held her under that house in Kuroyuri. Just the two of them. It made her heart beat.
But aside from Saturdays, after their morning training Jaune would play and practice on his guitar as she and Ren laid on the ground, enjoying the music under the shade of delicious smelling grape vines. Hearing Jaune's voice fill the air like a songbird as they recovered from their screaming muscles and sore bodies.
He said that the purple pillow let him dream. That he recalled the music from it.
Nora borrowed it for a nap once, with permission, of course.
But all she dreamed about was the days that she traveled with the begging children, them looking more like shades and shadow than people. Then at the end the face of her mother, emotionlessly staring at Nora.
She called her by a name that Nora didn't recognize. Didn't acknowledge.
She never asked for it again.
Nora laid in the grass, like a human starfish. Ren was the same but his head was next to hers, seemingly upside down compared to her, as Jaune sang.
"Waiting~ but ne~e~ver finding~ the only thing~ the only thing I dream of~"
Her happiness was only born of her friends' suffering. Nora hated it.
The good things in her life only came at the cost of their pain.
She hated it because she wouldn't, couldn't give up this joy. She'd never allow it.
"The warmth of a smile~ that stays for a while~ the face of a friend that won't leave~"
The fingers on her left hand gripped the ticklish and soft grass, desperate to assure her that this all wasn't a dream. She could hear Ren's breathing in her ear. The sweat clinging to her skin, pale in a way that wasn't native to Mistral. She fit in well with her new sisters, rather, hair color aside.
Valean. She must have been once Valean. Just like the Arcs.
"I heard a song once~ it posed this point of view~ that wishes made on stars~ are likely to come true!"
If some dark, twisted god had granted her wish of wanting a family she was thankful. She'd thank it till the end of time.
As long as nothing more was taken from those she loved.
Her Aura rumbled, the feeling of storms, like ozone and cooking sugar, like caramel syrup filling the air in her lungs. She heard Ren take a deep breath, his head rolling to the side, his temple meeting with hers, his eyes closed as he relaxed in her Aura's presence.
Her heart roared in her ears.
She could feel Ren's Aura, cool spring water and the scent of a flower, fruity and sweet.
She wouldn't change anything if she could keep this moment. Even the death of Ren's parents. Even with that guilt eating at her small heart.
Dark thunder rumbled in her soul.
Juniper wished he could embrace the oblivion of sleep.
He no longer had human biology, but he was sure that a human's mentality wasn't meant to be able to handle a full twenty four hours of wakefulness day after day. The best he could manage was closing his eyes and embracing the silence for long lengths of time. Mimicking sleep to help maintain his sanity.
Fighting the Nuckelavee… boy didn't that feel like a mistake.
He knew Ren and Nora would manage to survive. That they'd meet Jaune at Beacon if he'd let it be. If he'd stop meddling with the flow of time.
He was losing more and more advantages. Losing his ability to predict the flow of the future.
But… was that so bad?
Kuroyuri still stood.
Oniyuri now stood. It would be allowed to build without the Nuckelavee to attack it. Mistral would have a city for the Idealists to try to change their Kingdom. A future for something greater than what they'd had in his own lifetime. It might even ensure that Jaune might be able to grow up in Mistral with less discrimination.
Though Ren had still lost his family, he and Nora were safe now with Jaune's own. They wouldn't have to grow up as traveling orphans, begging and working themselves to just barely survive.
Wouldn't have to join in Mistralian gangs for food, shelter, and Lien to eventually apply for scholarships into Beacon.
All it had cost was Jaune's innocence.
Both he and Jaune had thought they could take down the Nuckelavee in but a single blow, but it managed to trick Jaune with its sinister, dark experience, only costing the Grimm but an arm.
And Li Ren had been the one to pay the price of that mistake, the horse head ripping off an arm as it chewed up the man's weapon. Its hooves trampled the man underfoot as it screamed in pain, desiring vengeance against the boy that dared to harm it.
His own father, Julius, almost died as well, only holding on due to the power of his Semblance of Enhancement, strengthening his body and shield to just barely endure the Elder Grimm's onslaught.
It served his father well, but was ruined beyond recovery in the fight.
The Nameless Shield. The most reliable friend which protected Julius's father and his father before him. That had protected Juniper as well in a future that would now would never be. When Juniper was allowed to also be Jaune Arc.
It now hung above the fireplace, its form shattered and broken. A small bronze plaque finally gave it a name posthumously.
The Saving Grace.
Juniper stared at the shield, his core feeling muddy and tight.
It would never see combat again. Never become what it meant to him. A reliable partner that he'd stolen from his father.
One that saved his life time and time again.
Until the end.
"Thank you." His words were soft, inaudible to all the world. "Thank you for everything, Saving Grace."
But Juniper couldn't stall here. Though he now flew and couldn't walk. His metaphorical steps couldn't falter.
Jaune had more to grow. And he had more guidance to give.
He'd… he'd stop making and demanding such big choices from Jaune again. Despite the end result, in Juniper's eyes this had been a mistake. He'd have to let Jaune be the one to decide, to make these choices going forwards.
Especially when he knew that Jaune likely would have fought the Nuckelavee anyways.
At least Jaune would then have been able to have face the results like it was his own choices, not something that his precious Big Brother had requested of him and feeling as if he'd failed him.
That was worse for Jaune's development at this point.
Juniper felt sick that he was foisting such expectations on a child. Is this what Ozma felt when he'd awoken in Oscar's soul?
He saw Farbiglas walk by the living room, perusing the internet via booster relay on her Scroll.
She'd been documenting every song sung by Jaune for some reason, even going as far as to sneak by after training and record her brother from behind a tree when the trio were too exhausted to notice her.
These casual performances of Jaune, tired and a bit sweaty after training, had become quite the hit, regardless of Jaune's Faunus heritage. Perhaps because music knew no boundaries. Perhaps because they'd also been rather popular in his future.
Even Ren and Nora's faces were becoming known by association, though simply as the Boy in Green and the Ginger Girl.
Juniper couldn't help but to think that the internet was an odd place.
It had garnered enough attention that Farbiglas and Noelle were in communication with Atlas, the General trying to curry further favor by connecting them to a record company. Without Jaune's knowledge the mother and daughter were making sure that Jaune's songs were considered his intellectual property, despite the fact that they were merely songs from other creators that hadn't even been conceived yet.
It was confusing and odd and Juniper decided it wasn't worth stressing over unless it became an issue. Making sure that his little brother was in a healthy mental state mattered far more, despite the messy situation.
If this white lie kept his brother going, that's all that mattered right now.
He was just glad that somehow he'd never actually heard any of Weiss's old performances and wouldn't be stepping on her shoes.
He still worried that one day Jaune would notice that the girl in his dreams he listened to music with was Ruby. That he'd notice something was wrong.
Maybe he'd be lucky and Jaune would be just dense enough to never catch that. Or that he'd just assume it was his dreams imagining a more grown up Ruby and that it had been frighteningly accurate.
He wanted to sigh, feeling tired. But he lacked the means to do so. He could mimic the sound, but it would gave no relief.
He felt aimless. Most of his most important knowledge didn't even kick in until he'd reach Beacon. And even then there was no telling how many ripples he and Jaune had already put into play that changed everything.
Why was he even here? What was he even doing? What could he even do?
He knew that was being hard on himself. He'd actually changed significant strokes by assisting Jaune. Not even the fact that somehow he'd become a pillar of faith for his younger self.
Summer was alive. Ruby's mother was alive. Raven was now rejoined with Team STRQ. Yang had her mother now too.
Though likely they might lose track of the Spring Maiden now.
He'd helped guide Jaune to Atlas, spreading technology and handed over books and recorded lessons that provided a whole new coding language that hopefully would prevent the hacking of the CCT in the future as well as everything else that culminated in the fall of Atlas.
A desperate bid to stop all that hacking work done by someone that Juniper and the whole of Team RWBY, even the ACE-OPS, had never even DISCOVERED. Some… nebulous super hacker on Salem's side. Or Cinder's. Who even knew at that point with their convolutedly impossible to predict enemies?
He'd assisted Jaune to make a play to attempt to keep the White Fang from their descent into madness and would even be visiting Menagerie in the winter. They were preparing everything they could to sate the bitterness of his fellow Faunus, praying they'd never fall down that path this time.
Despite their inability to save Ren's parents, Kuroyuri and now Oniyuri stood.
So why did he feel so stagnant? Was it from his inability to sleep? His lack of physical form?
Juniper wanted to laugh.
He just hated only being able to be involved in the shadow, a voice of advice in Jaune's ear.
For as much as Team RWBY, JNPR, and Qrow found themselves hating Ozma, Ozpin, whatever he wanted to call himself, unlike Juniper he'd have physical form and agency. Juniper burned jealously at that.
There was also the fact that now he felt more empathy for the man than ever before.
The real problem was that he'd always lied about having a plan. If not for that, he was just… pitiful.
"What am I even here to do?" Juniper clutched at the wisp of his shoulder, where his missing arm seemed to stretch out with wisps of ethereal smoke. "Help me, Pyrrha."
Juniper closed his eyes as he muttered helplessly in front of the Saving Grace.
"What am I supposed to do?"
Memories of Team JNPR flashed through his mind. Fond memories of Beacon, of Vale, of halcyon days.
"...Well… Conditioning is important and all but…" Jaune took a deep breath. "They'll need to train with weapons too. Wonder where Jaune's wandered off to. I'll have to suggest some prototypes for the Multi-Fabricator to machine out."
Nora and Ren both knew Jaune was… different. Special even.
After all it was Jaune the sort of dorky, but way too serious and mature at times kid their age that somehow slew the giant Grimm trying to destroy Kuroyuri.
They sat shoulder to shoulder as Jaune assembled a series of complex metal pieces and fastenings together, the tip of his tongue pinched between his teeth in concentration. Kids like them didn't know how to do that. To make machines that churned out blades and twisting steel.
The smell of soldering metal flashed on occasion, sparks flying in the corner of Jaune's room dedicated to whatever crazy invention or object he was working on next. The walls and floor of it had been layered with what he called flame-retardant.
Mommy Noelle had been mortified, but ultimately said nothing when she first saw Jaune spray the blue coating on the walls and floor.
All the Arc kids had decorated and painted their walls with their personal touches at some point, this was just what Jaune chose for his.
Farbiglas was crouched as she held a small shield of padded material with the same blue coating on the walls and floor of Jaune's work corner, a welding mask hanging over her large glasses as she observed her brother work.
Even her new sisters had given up on understanding Jaune's eccentricities, just taking the boy as he was, loving him regardless. Farbiglas might have been the only one attempting to make any sense of her brother left, though she also asked no questions.
Jaune certainly didn't fight back, craving their affection and attention plenty, not unlike herself.
Which was why he was currently sitting with the twins Avaline and Rhona were tying little ribbons into twists of his hair and dressed in one of Saphron's old sundresses, treating it more like some sort of work apron.
Unlike Jaune who didn't seem to even notice his sister's snickering ministrations, Ren shifted closer to Nora, twisting away as Aurora tried to convince him to get his nails painted.
"I can't paint Jaune's so you gotta do." Aurora pouted, a full cosmetic kit unzipped and open in her lap. "Hand." She demanded.
Nora would have offered her own, if her's weren't already painted minutes ago, a pretty shade of pink, now with a clear coating that was drying. She hated the smell of it, but it was pretty.
Metal clanked and clattered as the silvery steel in Jaune's hands came to life. A heavy and thick framework for the butt of some sort of large rifle or some other heavy firearm twisting and straightening into a staff of sorts.
Jaune looked over his work in his hands, nodding along to the twins jabbering about some bird they'd witnessed earlier today. Some black bird that seemed to watch them and pecked a Creep that'd gotten too close to the manor to death.
Weird.
His hands ran up and down the staff to make sure it was seamless before twisting it back into the gunstock frame.
Some more sparks flashed as Jaune finalized some soldering, adjusting his body to carefully shield the twins (Farbiglas was still plenty protected) as Ren was forced to give into Aurora by their side on Jaune's bed. Nora giggled as a forest green nail polish was applied to Ren's fingernails.
A large five round revolver with an odd barrel and grip shape was locked into the frame stock like an extra short carbine. The barrel was long but the bottom of the barrel extended downwards further than it should, as if a metal book was lending its spine as the channel for the bullet.
The grip extended at an almost ninety degree angle, as if to give support under the forearm to the elbow as Jaune held it in his hands. Combined with the staff-stock it looked as if the design was meant to be to take a chunky and large handgun and turn it into a stockier carbine revolver rifle.
Another twist and clacking of metal ensued as the barrel of the revolver split half way, forming right angles that curled back to form the face of a light hammer head. The grip also split and rotated as it curled up to give form to the neck and cheek as it curled up and around the body of the revolver, forming the framework of a loose hammerhead.
The framework stock straightened out into the staff again, now obviously the haft of a relatively light two handed maul.
A small trigger popped out in the haft, Jaune pulling on it to hear a click inside the head of the maul as the cylinder cycled after the hammer of the revolver inside the light maul's head clicked as it pulled back and slammed into the empty cylinder.
She got the feeling that a proper version of the weapon would have used something heavier for the head of the maul. Something meatier and weightier, but Jaune had purposefully gone with something much lighter while trying to give it some power.
Jaune gave it a few light test swings in one hand as if testing the weight and balance.
"Mecha-shift weapons are weird." He declared, staring down and flipping open a leather bound notebook, reading through the notes of some weaponsmith from Vale. "This just wouldn't work without ambient Aura to strengthen the smaller components."
Another casual twist and the weapon collapsed back onto itself, reforming into the strange hand cannon carbine from its light maul form.
Jaune grabbed a smaller pen-like torch as he etched a heart with the twin cresent crest of the Arc family into the long twisted length of metal that made the strange gun's L shaped grip.
"Nora." Jaune called out, "Do you have a name you want to give your weapon?"
She blinked in confusion.
Her… weapon?
Ren also looked confused, but also a little jealous.
"We get weapons now?" She asked. "Is… is that mine?"
"You've both been training for a month and dad unlocked your Aura early to match Ren and me. You can start learning how to swing a hammer. You've got the strength for it. If you don't like that, we can make something else."
"What about me?!" Ren shook his hands, trying to get his nails to dry as fast as possible. He seemed more excited than jealous, which made Nora's heart thrum under her skin. "I want a bow!"
"Uh, ok. I've got something else input into the Multi-Fabricator for you, but we can make a bow too."
"What are you making Ren?" She asked, staring at the green nails on Ren's hands. His hands were pretty.
Maybe a sword? A spear like Jaune? Something slender and elegant would fit his pretty hands.
"A pair of bladed machine pistols. I'm going to make the blades detachable in case it's too heavy for now with smaller replacements."
"I can carry it!" Ren declared, his eyes flashing in fuchsia. "We've been training hard!"
"It might be too heavy anyways for the way you move. Ren you've got really fluid movements and already knew some hand to hand self-defense so we don't want to weigh that down too much. And that's not even including the firearm melding I think would be cool for when we're older."
Jaune brushed a rag quickly over the whole of the weapon to give it a rough polish before continuing.
"I'm more worried about how to get you to learn the gun kata. I have a manual for it that I didn't have a use for before, but I don't know anything about fighting like that. You'll have to figure it out yourself even if I can help as a sparring partner."
Ren looked pouty as he stared at the humming and rumbling fabricator.
"What about my bow?" His voice was quiet and whispery.
Jaune paused, his index fingers tapping against the metal of the light maul. Her weapon. With her symbol, the Heart with the Arc crescents. At least, Nora assumed that it was meant to be her symbol.
"I… could make a motorized collapsible compound bow? For silent attacks and mid range? It could expand and collapse and be held in a hip holster with some arrows. Dust infused arrows too if we want to get fancy."
Ren smiled brightly, making Nora's Aura rumble under her skin.
"Yeah! That sounds good!"
Jaune nodded before scooting over to the Fabricator, fingers clacking at a keyboard and monitor that was attached to the side of it, occasionally dragging his fingers over the monitor as he began to whip something up.
"I don't have materials to make a proper power cell, so we'd have to use Dust, but we could also let you use the collapsed state of the bow as a power knuckle. With some Electric Dust it could even boost Nora in a pinch. Like a combo attack."
Nora liked the thought of that. Ren did too, judging from his calm expression being betrayed by him bouncing slightly in place. Aurora scolded him for moving too much as she tried to finish the coating on Ren's nails.
She didn't know what name she wanted for her weapon.
She just wanted to go and already test it and swing it around. She and Ren had just started to learn to swing a sword and staff around to get them acclimated to the sensation of basic weapons and Nora had constantly wanted something a bit weighter the whole time. The Revolver-Maul seemed just like what the doctor ordered.
Seeing her excitement Jaune just sighed and procured what he was calling recoil emulation training rounds which were filled with something he called smokeless gunpowder instead of Dust. That it didn't fire actual bullets, but could burn things if she pulled the trigger on the maul after making contact.
He showed her how to change the weapon's mechashift form between each state and how to load the ammo. Sadly she could only do it when it was in the gun form.
He etched in a name for her since she couldn't figure one out, his ear twisting to the right as if listening to the voice of his imaginary friend Juniper.
Nora had fun swinging her new weapon, Magnhild 1.0.
The scorched remains of their training dummy did not survive her onslaught.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票