67Arc's Ironworks: Chapter Four
A knocking on the front door made Jaune stop mid swing. He looked down at the metal before him sighing, he'd been working on it for a solid two hours, and it was only now starting to look like the chain-hook it was suppose to be. Blasted customer and damm high carbon steel, why must it be so hard to mold, and why this high in carbon? Low carbon steel is just as good, made more sense for a chain, and most important of all, it made his life easier. Briefly thinking it was Ruby, shook it off. It had been almost three months since they had meet, and it was quite the friendship they had made for themselves. He had meet her older sister Yang, and in turn, Ruby had meet his, Joan. Joan was the only one to support Jaune in his dream, and often came to visit, as her husband was member of the council. How they had managed to meet was beyond his knowledge.
Pyrrha had become another good friend of his. After her father realized that having his daughter live in the same town, it was decided that Pyrrha would be his representative to Jaune's shop. Many times however, talk of work turned into talk of hobbies, childhoods, and dreams. She had even introduced her teammates to him. Ren and Nora and come to easily like Jaune, so much so that it seemed he had become an unofficial member of team LVN (liven) and many times he was pulled into their team outings.
While the social part of his life had been going well, the money part of life had come to a squeeze. While his friends would come in and pay for ammo and repairs, they hardly needed his other utilities. Roman had gotten sent to somewhere unknown to him, and so the usual orders for robbery items had come to a stop. So now he had to repair used tools and weapons in his downtime, which decreased to amount of time he had to experiment with other weapon designs. So while so far he had managed to keep a grip on his store, at times it felt like it would slip from his hands, and that made his once simple life filled with immense amounts of stress.
Taking off his protective gear, Jaune sighed, often times his friends would ask if they could do anything, Pyrrha occasionally offering to cover bills he had just in order to help him. He refused, stating that this was his dream, so he had to work for it, ignoring the crestfallen look on her face because he wouldn't accept her money. (Monty knew she had too much to deal with) Walking out of his forge and into the main space, there was a girl with long silver hair and a white dress was looking at the new product he was trying to sell. It was a combat cloak, specially designed to work as light armor for people that wanted to be fast, look cool, and have protection from light attacks. He had managed to create it based on a two layered system. The first was a reinforced leather covering, followed with soft fur to make up the inner layer, making the wearer comfortable. It was strong enough to prevent penetration of slice attacks, and so far it had been reported as a decent insulator in cold weather. He was proud of it, and it had been doing good enough so far for him to keep making them.
The girl turned as he walked towards her and Jaune had to admit, she was very attractive in the aristocratic kind of way. She had a rapier attached to her hip, showing her status as a huntress. He rose a brow, if he was being honest, it looked like she had enough money to buy from one of the more well know stores. As he was regarding her, it looked like she was doing the same to him.
"Hello there, my name is Jaune Arc, the owner of this fine establishment. Is there anything I can do to help you?" He asked, despite knowing that he had to finish this meeting off so he could return working with the chain-hook before the iron cooled and he had to reheat it, which was in of itself a pain in his ass. The silver haired girl nodded and introduced herself.
"My name is Weiss Schnne, I was wondering if my partner Ruby was here?" A Schnne? No wonder she looked like she had money, she was the 1% that his father often bitched about when the bottle hit a little to hard after work, also the cold tone she used, it got colder in the room after she spoke to him. Another thing, partner? He hadn't pegged Ruby as one to swing that way, but then again Ruby probably doesn't think of him for the kind that would work for criminals, so who was he to judge. Then again, she is still fifteen, an age to be trying out new things, finding herself maybe?
"No, not yet. She is to come in a few minutes to train with me. Do you want to wait here for her?" Jaune asked. Weiss nodded looking around distractedly around his store. He sighed, looks like that order was going to have to wait until later to be finished. "So, when you say partner, do you mean Ruby is your girlfriend?" Could it have been possible that Weiss thought Ruby was cheating on her, with him? It would make sense, she does spend an awful lot of time with him. Weiss's face quickly grew red, and she started sputtering indignantly before she narrowed her eyes angrily.
"No! I am interested in men. By partner, I mean we are paired together at Beacon as part of our team. She left immediately after class had finished and had failed to inform me of her destination. We, being her sister and myself, got worried and decided to look for her. Her sister is looking in town, and since she frequents this shack of yours, I figured she would be here." Well that was a relief, if not a bit rude, his store was so much better than a shack. Though a bit of relief made its way into his heart. There was no way Jaune wanted to have a part in being the cause of relationship problems, though he guessed that meant Ruby wasn't a lesbian. He was about to come back with a witty retort to his store being call a shack when the door jingled open and in walked to reaper in question, still in her uniform. Behind Ruby walked in Pyrrha looking somewhat conflicted with something.
"There you are! What has gotten into you, leaving without telling us. Do you know how worried we were? What do you have to say for yourself? No, I don't want to hear it, why didn't you tell us you were leaving in the first place!" As Ruby continued to get grilled by her partner, Jaune looked on in confusion and irritation. Did they have to do this inside his store, especially when he had work to do? Pyrrha motioned him over so they could speak privately.
"Hello again Jaune. There is something I wish to ask of you, if that is alright, assuming your not busy right now." Pyrrha refused to meet his eyes for some reason. He thought back to that hook he needed to finish, then decided that whatever Pyrrha needed would be a better thing for his sanity to work on. (He really hated working with high carbon steel.)
"Sure, what is it that you need?" Jaune asked as he leaned against the wall, noting that Weiss was still going at it while Ruby appeared to have stopped paying attention and was instead comparing the chain-sickles on the wall to Crescent.
"Well, I was wondering if we could have another spar. So far, you have been the closest one to beat me, and it's been so long since that has happened, that quite frankly, I missed it." The spartan girl said, looking embarrassed to have said something like that. Jaune on the other hand was stunned, sure he had some talent using his creations, but being a close match to Pyrrha Nikos, that he never would have expected.
"Well, not like it could cause any harm helping her and myself get any better." Jaune thought inwardly, outwardly he agreed. Leaving the three girls to themselves, he went to get his gear. While he did that, Ruby looked at Pyrrha quickly before talking.
"Hey Pyrrha, I know i said that you could hop in on my training sessions and all, but Jaune is suppose to be helping me." Ruby had noticed that whenever it was supposed to be just Jaune and her, Pyrrha would come in for some reason, being news from her Dad to Jaune, to repairs on Akoúo, to anything really. It was starting to bug her, Jaune was her friend first after all.
Just as she was going to reply, Jaune walked back in, and both girls questioned the new look that their friend had on. A forest green hoodless version of the cloak he had made (which in of itself was an inspiration off of Rubs cloak) y adorned over a lighter green shirt, regular blue jeans and sneakers. Attached at his side was a Colt M1911 pistol and a broadsword, with a M16 assault rifle with an ACOG scope on his back, gesturing them out towards the back, the three girls followed Jaune out the back to see what the new outfit would cause to change the battle.
"Jaune, that pistol is a really old model and that one on your back even older an even older design. How do you know how to make something like that." Jaune grinned, pulling it out and handing it to her, already knowing that she wanted to inspect it.
"Well, my Great-grandfather's brother was Nickoli Arc, the blacksmith to design collapsable weapons. The blueprints have been in the family for generations, but I was the only one to be interested enough to learn how to make it." Taking it back from her, Jaune strode over towards the end. Turning back he nodded, and getting one in response, got into position, Pyrrha doing the same. At once, the two sprinted towards each other. Jaune swung the sword down, predictably blocked by Akoúo.
Smacking her stab down with the pommel of hi sword, Jaune moved to hit her in the face with his free hand. Pyrrha smacked his fist end down with Akoúo, and Jaune followed through with pulling back and swinging with a over head arc. Blocking with her shield, Pyrrha was unprepared for the sweeping leg kick that put her flat on her back. Switching into spear form, Jaune was forced to back up to avoid a spear to the face.
Over with Ruby and Weiss
"I can't believe that he's keeping up with her. It doesn't look like she's going easy on him at all either." Weiss exclaimed, surprised that a person, not even a hunter in training, was able to stand on solid ground with Pyrrha Nikos. Ruby could only shrug, this wasn't the first time she had seen them sparred. Though, in her personal opinion, Jaune could wipe the floor with anybody that wan't a fully fledged Hunter. After all, there had to be a lot of skill for someone able to utilize so many different kinds of weapons, each to a amazing degrees of mastery. It made her proud to be his friend.
"You haven't seen anything yet, Jaune is just getting warmed up, he hasn't even pulled out his Colt yet." Ruby was about to say more, only for a knock at the door to alert them that a customer might me trying to enter. Knowing about the financial crisis, ok crisis was a bit of a stretch, she and Weiss went over to help with whatever they might need. (She had been there long enough to know the prices and placement of most of the things Jaune kept. No that was just being a good friend, not trying to get on his good side so that they could go out on a date or anything.) When she opened the door, the last thing she was expecting was to see a girl with pink and brown eyes. She gestured for something, and both she and Weiss was at a loss on what to do.
Back with Jaune and Pyrrha
Once more rolling onto her stomach, Pyrrha pushed herself upwards, Miló changing back into Xiphos form and heading straight to his abdomen. Blocking, Jaune pulled his Colt out and peppered Pyrrha, who had retreated behind her shield. Rushing forward to press his advantage, only to not have learned from his previous encounters and was promptly introduced to Akoúo face to face. Landing on his back, he put his feet to her shield and shoved himself into a backwards roll and unto his feet. Pyrrha capitalized and stabbed once more and was meet his fist in her face.
Engaging once more in another bout of blades, they separated once and they where immediately back at each others neck. Sheild slamming into Jaune's guard, Pyrrha returned the favor by smacking him in the face, but she wasn't expecting for fall onto his back, with his legs wrapping around her waist. Back rolling with her still trapped in his legs. He was about the bring his blade to her neck before he was blasted back by Miló in gun form. Once more Pyrrha was at his neck, Miló poised to his trachea, only to feel the Colt pressed straight between her eyes.
"No offense, but I don't think you could stab me before this bullet runs through your head. Lets consider this one my win" Jaune said, tired. Nodding the two once more were lost in each others eyes. This time however, Ruby interrupted them by saying something very different.
"Jaune, we have a problem. You have a very unique person coming to see you." Jaune was about to question what she meant when he was interrupted by the sound of glass crashing.
It was just his luck that Neo decided that it was time drop in after so long. Weiss, Ruby, and Pyrrha stood confused on who this girl was and how she managed to get in with ice cream, which just so happened to be his, god dammit. "Neo, long time no see, what's up?." Jaune questioned, used to his treat beings stone by the shorter girl. He was responded by a bunch of singles, lucky for him he had been exposed to enough that he vaguely got what she was saying.
"Right, so, he does know that I don't have much experience with explosives right? He doesn't care, go take a class if I need to. He knows those aren't cheap right. He'll cover it, just need it in two months time? Alright, go tell him I'll get right on it.' While to the other girls, it looked like Jaune was just asking things with a vague response from the girl, the two had seemed to come to a conclusion. While turned away to gather his supplies, Neo looked at the other girls, and made gestures that Ruby and Pyrrha immediately understand. "He is MINE." Giving a ink at the two glaring girls, she broke into glass.
Once Jaune was ready, he escorted the girls back to the plane. All the way, Ruby and Pyrrha were telling him all the things they were going to be doing together over the next couple weeks. They had made sure to "suggest" that he join them. Seeing no problem with it, he agreed, making sure to schedule his classes earlier on the day to make room for them later. Waving good bye, Jaune started his walk back, but he couldn't stop wonder what the hell Roman needs explosives for.
Yay. Are you not proud of me. Sorry about the long wait. I went one way, then decided to back track and go another, then got For Honor. It was a very long reason why this is only coming out now, but fear not, for the next chapter is already in the works. Well done if you all read this far. Anyway, see you all in the next chapter.