2,853Welcome to a new chapter!
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Today seemed…. Different. Jaune couldn't explain why it was. Everything seemed normal to him, to be honest. The patients came and went, nobody complained or did anything drastic. All in all, it was a successful day. But something just felt….. off, and he couldn't tell why. Jaune glanced at his schedule and shook his head. Nothing was wrong there, it had been a full schedule with everyone coming on time.
"Maybe it's because I haven't seen Pyrrha and the others for awhile?" mused Jaune to himself.
Team RWBY and PLN had taken missions that would take them outside Vale for some time. Apparently there had been a rise of Grimm around the borders that needed culling. With the Vytal Festival coming closer and more and more people arriving to Vale for it, everyone was working full time to make sure the surrounding area was safe.
Jaune shrugged as he prepared for the next patient. As he stretched out his limbs, he could hear the door open. Quickly relaxing, Jaune went to greet the last patient for the week before blinking.
The first thought was that she was beautiful. Then again, Jaune worked with a lot of Huntresses, including Glynda, and pretty much all of them were in great shape, so that thought process didn't last long. Especially since he had seen a good chunk of them almost naked.
"Hello, how can I help you?" asked Jaune politely.
"I believe I have an appointment under the name of …. Ashley Taylor," said the patient.
Jaune glanced at his scheduler to see the name before nodding.
"I see it's your first time here. You can just head down this hall and the showers will be on the left," instructed Jaune as he gestured towards it, "I'll be heading into the room first to prepare."
Ashley Taylor, or rather the disguised Salem, nodded as she walked into the bathroom. Taking her time with a nice warm shower, she pondered about how much she was putting her own plans at risk being in Vale, so close to Beacon, or specifically, near Ozpin.
Salem shook her head, forcing her mind away from Ozpin. It would not bode well for her to think of him at this point in time, when they were so close to their plan date, as well as the fact she was on a little vacation. If she kept thinking about him and her daughters, she was afraid she might snap and attack Ozpin, throwing her masterful plan out the window. Salem needed to be careful not to be discovered in Vale.
"Then again, Ozma rarely comes out of his little tower now," chuckled Salem to herself as she let the warm water wash down her nude body, "How the roles have reversed. The irony."
Finishing her rinse, she used magic to dry herself instead of a towel. Inspecting herself in the mirror, she made sure her disguise was still immaculate before wrapping herself in a towel. Making sure everything was in place, Salem walked towards the room where Jaune had just finished up his preparations.
"Any choice of oils?" asked Jaune, "Just got a special batch for the last day."
Salem hummed as her eyes wandered for a bit. She was ready to choose one at random when one oil caught her eyes. On the label read Four Seasons Massage Oil. Her mind couldn't help but flash back to her four daughters, lost and gone due to Ozma and the meddling Brothers.
"... I'll take that one," said Salem, pointing to that specific massage oil.
Jaune picked up the one that Salem pointed to, taking a look at it before blinking. He didn't remember putting this oil inside his basket of choice. Especially since he knew this oil was used for a more intimate massage.
'Did Neo somehow sneak in and put this in?' pondered Jaune to himself, 'I haven't seen her ever since I got into Beacon. Speaking of, I would've thought she would've made an appointment.'
The fact was that Neo did try to sneak in to get a massage. But in order to keep up their disguise, Cinder had taken them on a mission that lasted through the week. They had only gotten back on the last day.
Funny enough, Neo had attempted to 'knock out' Salem to take her spot, but had been stopped by a panicking Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury, dragging her away.
As Salem laid on the massage bed, bereft of her clothing except her underwear, her mind couldn't help wander. It had been thousands of years since she had let someone even touch her. The last one to do so was obviously Ozma after his first reincarnation.
She would let this masseur have the honor of touching her body after so long, and from what she could gather from Hazel and Cinder, the man was very good at it, especially with Aura involved. Watts had scoffed at the report from Cinder, but Salem was not blind. She saw that Watts always trying to belittle everything Cinder did, but merely chose not to do anything unless it went too far. It wouldn't do to coddle Cinder, even if she had chosen her to inherit one of her daughter's powers.
Salem glanced over to Jaune, noting his behavior and nodding in satisfaction that the boy wasn't staring and drooling over her perfect body made possible with the help of magic and, despite hating what the Brothers had done to her, immortality. Instead, she saw Jaune preparing himself, getting ready to do his job in a professional manner, not even sneaking peeks at some of her exposed areas.
Jaune, finishing up warming his hands, began to slowly but meticulously press down on Salem's back, probing her muscles to find any knots. He could only blink as he felt her skin feel somewhat different from what he was used to, and considering he had massaged Faunus with scales on their back, it was very different from usual. Still, Jaune kept at his work, tackling any knots he could find, though there weren't many.
"You must keep a good skincare regimen," commented Jaune, "I don't feel or see any blemishes."
Salem merely hummed, uninterested in making small talk. She had to admit, the boy knew how to give a proper massage, but so far, nothing that made an impact. Then again, she couldn't be too harsh, as she took care of herself, not to mention her immortality made her body stay the same for the most part.
Deciding to ask, Salem turned her head a little towards Jaune before asking, "Can you do this Aura massage that I've heard about?"
Jaune paused for a second, giving Salem a glance, "Do you have your Aura unlocked? I have to warn you that it's only available for those who have active Auras. I've been told that it feels invasive to those who don't have their Aura unlocked, like looking to someone's soul without permission.
Salem chuckled at the thoughtfulness of Jaune's words, but waved it off. She knew the soul better than anybody in Remnant, perhaps even more than Ozma. While he was reincarnated into like-minded hosts with his souls merging into theirs, she personally experimented on it. It had been one of her first experiments in hopes of being able to kill herself after being cursed with immortality. It had led her to tossing herself into the Grimm pools in the Land of Darkness, hoping the destructive powers would kill her.
Getting Salem's permission and go ahead, Jaune lifted his hands up, streaming Aura into his hands before pushing down on her back.
In an instant, Jaune was feeling something he had never felt before. When he used his Aura massage, he felt like he could see and feel something. Exploring a person's soul without realizing what he was doing. To be fair, there were no studies in regards to this sort of field, as Jaune was truly pioneering into a new field. Aura studies were mostly studied and applied to battle, not massages.
What Jaune didn't tell anyone about his Aura massages was that he could, for the lack of a better word, feel someone's soul. Or at least when that's what it felt like for him. He wasn't even sure he knew what he was feeling, but for the most part, they all felt the same. The only major variance was with Ozpin and now, Salem.
What Jaune was feeling was like swimming through thick and murky waters. He could feel his Aura running through Salem's body, but the flow was slow and uneven. Jaune questioned as to why this could be, but didn't voice it out. All he knew was that it wasn't as effective as what he did before.
'So what to do?' thought Jaune to himself as he lifted his hands up to think. It wasn't like he could just ask anybody about this problem. He pondered about it for a second before coming to a rather….. interesting solution.
'It's like a pipe. Not enough power to go through, so just add more Aura to increase the pressure!' thought Jaune naively as he began to increase the amount of Aura into his hands,
Salem had felt Jaune's Aura coursing through her body, and though it felt 'intrusive' as he warned, it was nothing new for Salem. Afterall, the Brothers had violated hers as did the Grimm pools. It did feel a little warm and nice, but once again, nothing of note.
'Perhaps it is only effective to those mostly human or Faunus,' thought Salem, 'This is nothing to what those blasted Brothers did to me.'
Salem noticed Jaune's Aura reserve, making her raise her eyebrow slightly. She had heard from Hazel about the boy's Aura reserves being quite high despite his age and lack of training, but seeing it was quite something. Of course, it was no threat to her, but it did make her think about some of her side projects. One of them involved utilizing those with the Silver Eyes that could harm the Grimm with their eyes.
Then Salem felt Jaune raising the amount of Aura into his hands, raising her other eyebrow. Was the boy planning to attack her? It would be a futile effort, but there was no indication as to why he would do so. Salem checked her bracelet, making sure the disguise was still on.
Seeing nothing was off, Salem was about to make a snide remark about attacking her when Jaune pressed down on her back once more, his intent clear.
As soon as Jaune's Aura filled hands pressed down on Salem's back, Salem's eyes suddenly snapped open wide as did her mouth. And for the first time in many, many centuries, she let out a sound that she had not pronounced for a long time.
"AAAAHHHHHH~~~~~~!"
Salem couldn't believe that she had moaned so loudly, but Jaune, who was used to this sort of situation, plowed on through.
'There we go! The Aura is flowing a little more smoothly,' thought Jaune to himself without a care, 'It's not as smooth as I want it, but it'll do. Maybe I need more lessons in Aura control?'
Jaune merely shrugged his shoulders as he went about the massage, ignoring the moans and pants Salem was giving out. At one point, as a special service as she was his last patient, Jaune pulled out a massage gun, the piston already pumping. Jaune glanced at the massage gun, pondering for a second.
'Can I stream Aura into this?' thought Jaune to himself, 'But how would that even work?'
Jaune decided to test it out, streaming Aura into his hands….. where it stayed there.
"Guess not," shrugged Jaune before using the massage gun to give a deep massage while the remnant of his Aura was still on Salem's skin.
Of course, Jaune never knew that his Aura actually seeped into his client's body.
Salem took a deep breath as Jaune finished up with her legs and left, giving her some time to get dressed. The massage had been… rather enlightening, to say the least. Getting up from the bed, Salem stretched her body for a second before putting her clothes back on after using a wet hot towel to clean herself a little more.
"I can see why Cinder and Hazel had good words to say about him," hummed Salem, "But it changes nothing. A mere amusing distraction to the long run."
Salem walked out, paying her bill. It amused her to do so when she could easily use magic to trick Jaune into believing that she had paid, but the boy had been entertaining enough to give him proper credit.
As Salem walked out, Jaune couldn't help but glance at Salem as she left. Her body certainly was one for the books, but that wasn't what Jaune was concerned about. It was what he had felt when giving her the Aura massage. The murky feeling had persisted throughout the whole massage, leaving Jaune a little troubled. He had no idea just why, though. Still, he merely shrugged, leaving it as a coincidence. He was no Aura expert, so he couldn't say what was right or wrong, so long as it worked. He did note that the murky feeling seemed to have lessened after his massage, but it would need a lot of treatments to make it disappear, if that was even possible.
To him, it was like his Aura was water and Salem's body/soul was caked in mud, and with every spray of his Aura, the mud slowly slid off. Jaune honestly didn't know how to compare it correctly, though.
'Maybe it has to do with her past?' mused Jaune to himself, 'A dark past? Oh well, not my business.'
Salem hummed as Hazel began packing up their items to leave back to the Land of Darkness, aka Evernight. Going into her private room, undressing herself once more before removing her disguise. Taking her time, Salem slipped into the warm bath that Hazel had prepared for her beforehand.
Salem let the water flow off her arms as she raised them before noticing something was off. She quickly stood up, inspecting her body once more with the full view mirror in the room.
'Nothing feels off,' thought Salem to herself as she looked around herself and glancing at where she had the bracelet on, 'There's no lingering magic either.'
The biggest reason why she was inspecting herself was because of the visible dark purple veins that had been growing over the milleniums had receded quite a bit.
'But how?' thought Salem before her find flashed to Jaune, 'Him. He's someone responsible for this.'
Salem was not thinking of murdering Jaune. No, Salem was and still is, a woman. And though she never aged, she did still like to look her best. When the veins had first appeared, she had panicked slightly before accepting the fact she would have them due to the Grimm pools that she had dove into. A consequence that she would have to accept. In fact, they had appeared shortly after that argument that she had with Ozma that resulted in the death of all of her family members.
The fact that Jaune's Aura was able to alleviate her condition was something to look at.
'Is it because of this Aura massage in general?' contemplated Salem, '... No, it's not that simple. Aura is the manifestation of one's soul, and that hasn't been fully explored. But there is one more factor, and that is whom the Aura is manifesting from.'
Salem could tell that Jaune's soul was full of naive kindness, which she theorized why it managed to help fight the corruption from the Grimm pools. She doubted that those in her inner circle had the same wavelength as Jaune. Tyrian was a maniacal assassin, Watts was a sadistic and arrogant scientist, and Hazel was the stoic wounded man. None of them had the same soul that Jaune had, nor was Salem willing to let them touch her like Jaune and once upon a time, Ozma, had. She knew their reactions too well. Hazel was the only one who wouldn't do anything insane or hold it over others, but all the same, she didn't want others touching her.
Salem stared at the mirror, pondering what to do. Jaune was showing himself to be more valuable than she thought, but not by much. Sure, she didn't mind having a dedicated masseur who could potentially not only remove the protruding veins, but perhaps even remove what was thought impossible.
'Both are byproducts of the Brother's curse, afterall,' thought Salem, 'Should I arrange for him to be kidnapped? No, if he is taken out of his comfort zone, it could drastically change his behavior, and if not, his soul. But perhaps convincing him to relocate may be possible. Maybe Mistral? Lionheart, the cowardly headmaster, is still under my thumb, and finding a new location to open wouldn't be too difficult.'
Salem was left to ponder her thoughts privately as she finished dressing up. Jaune may have moved up in priority, but ultimately, his fate would be left to luck. Though she would make sure not to send someone to actively hunt him down.
A Bullhead slowly made its way towards Vale, carrying just one cloaked passenger. The pilot glanced over at his passenger with a weary look. The passenger had been muttering the whole trip, as if praying or something. Still, he was being paid handsomely to transport the man to Vale, and chose not to question it.
Said passenger was Tyrian Callows, who had been whispering to himself.
"The goddess cannot be tainted by such mortal hands. I will hunt down this heretic and show him just how unworthy he is!" muttered Tyrian.
Watts had 'accidently' told Tyrian about Salem's trip to Vale, manipulating Tyrian with 'misguided' information. In short, he was being very petty because Cinder had found something completely useless, and yet was rewarded for it, at least in his point of view.
Tyrian glared at a photo of Jaune Arc, his tail itching to stab the man as soon as possible.
Dun Dun Dunn! Who's coming to town!
Anyways juyst a heads up, I will be taking a break this month. Something rather drastic has happened in my life that has thrown me off. I could barely even finish this.