31Watcher Curse
Chapter : 10
Artist : RachiePieUwU
"Again, Jaune." She held her stand, waited for him to get back up, the other had a much easier time with fighting her solo.
Jaune was panting, but he still stood up. She respected that, going from fighting style to another is hard.
Yet no matter what, Jaune kept on standing up, ready for a fight.
Pyrrha prepared herself, and Jaune lunged her way, swinging. She stepped back, then lunged herself forward, rammed her shield into his, cause sparks.
"He fainted that attack, clever, he got way better and way too fast for anyone who just picked the sword." She thought with a smile.
She quickly kicked the shield off and went for a finishing blow, but a glow from her partner stopped her midway.
Jaune was glowing white. She was stunned by that, which gave Jaune an opening to ram his shoulder into her chest, knocking the wind out of her.
The sudden strength made her fall to her feet, and Jaune continued. Pyrrha, however, was used more to fighting.
She quickly spanned on the ground, kicking his feet from under him, then punched him in the stomach, sending him out of the arena.
"And the victory for Pyrrha Nikos, by knock out and aura depletion, 78% to 19-, I mean 20%" Yang said dramatically.
They were in the training arena, team RWBY, and Sun wanted to watch team JNPR train, while team JNPR went with partner against partner, which meant the weakest member against the strongest.
"That was awesome, Jaune. You improved a lot." Ruby said cheerfully, helping him up.
"Thanks, Ruby. I still have a long way to go, though." He accepted her help. They walked to the others who finished their match already.
Ren and Nora fight was something, Ren dodging Nora's attacks while Ren tried to take her aura out slowly, it worked for a while, put one hit from Nora later, and he was almost out.
"Not bad, Vomit boy, although it would have been nice to have another fist fighter like me, Ren is alright though." She added when she saw Ren raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, haha, I had to keep the family tradition." He laughed nervously.
It was the lie he and Rusty decided on, while Rusty did learn a little from his Yang, the power he showed when beating up CRDL was of a pro, so everyone thought his bad swordsmanship was because he switched his fighting style, it was better than the alternative, and Weiss knew.
"What was that at the end?" Pyrrha asked him, stars in her eyes. She looked excited, which was rare.
"Ahhh, what?"
"When I kicked your shield, you glowed while before knocking me, which was stronger than before." She tried to explain.
"Yeah right, his aura at the end also went up, I saw the count change from 19 to 20%" Yang added.
Jaune only laughed nervously with all of a sudden attention. He didn't know how to explain that. He didn't even know if it was even possible outside his dreams.
"It's his semblance." They all turned to Weiss, who sighed while her head was held by her hand.
They all gave her confused looks.
"While we were training, he unlocked it. As far as we know, he can use his aura to boost others and himself, making his aura regenerate faster and boost his strength." She explained, but the weird look stayed.
"Since when did you two train together? Ruby asked.
"You both were missing this morning." Blake said, taking her eyes off her book for the first time since they got here, while Sun complained about getting ignored the whole time, Yang's eye shined while Pyrrha's dimmed.
"He asked for a few pointers and said he couldn't ask his team because of some kind of bias, I'm not really sure." She sighed and let the attention turn to him.
"I thought you guys would go easy on me, to not hurt my feelings. I thought ice queen over there could help, and she tried to kill me, which resulted in my semblance awaking." He said, glaring at Weiss, who scoffed.
"Hey, you stopped the snow angel only to use ice queen?" She glared back.
"Well, clearly, this nickname suits you better." Everyone started to feel the heat.
"Oh really? Then I'll gladly start calling you vomit boy since you love dragging people with you on your stupid adventure, just like what you did to Yang's shoes."
"Hey, the training Idea was a good one." Pyrrha tried to defend but got overshadowed by Jaune.
"Said the girl whose only attack move is a circle." Weiss wasn't happy at that.
The rest of the two team saw them fight for a while, even mis Goodwitch looked stunned at the fight when she came to close the open arena.
The fight still hasn't ended until they reached their rooms. They kept insulting each other, and their teammates gave up.
"The Headmaster office?" Pyrrha asked.
"Yes, something about Leader things, and because I'm planning to stay here in the break, I just need to figure things out." He assured her and went on his way. Leaving them alone.
"So, this is their first fight, huh." Yang put her hand around Pyrrha's shoulder.
"You know I still have a crush, right?" She sighed.
"Yep, still, you lost the second you hesitate to tell him, and now Weiss have him, she is my friend, but you're also my friend, I want you two to be happy. Which is hard with you two having a crush on the same person." Yang dragged Pyrrha to her bed, Nora went to shower while Ren saw the situation and left to take a walk.
"So, how's things on your side?" Pyrrha asked.
"Not much. After the Docks, Blake and Weiss were back better than ever, Weiss rarely talks about Jaune and always dodged the question. "She sighed.
"If I didn't see how much time they spent together, I would say she hated him, but at this point, it is obvious something is happening between those two." Pyrrha didn't look at her. Instead, she kept her eyes low.
"Do you think I still have a chance?" She asked, unsure.
"You always do, until they get married, it's a free game, my mom did the waiting game, and Ruby was the payoff." Pyrrha chuckled at that, making Yang smile.
"Listen, this is your first crush, and I won't say it's a bad one, Vomit boy is good-looking and a dork, but I'm not sure whether this is anything more than a crush, he's the first person to not care about your fame, but shocker, none of us cares, we have Weiss, a famous singer and the heiress to the biggest company in the world, but we still don't really care about that, that's the cool thing about huntsmen."
"So, what if Vomit boy is with Weiss, you'll find someone else, anyone would be lucky to have you and hey, maybe it's for better you guys stay as partner not partner."
They sat in silence for a while, not really doing anything.
"Thanks, Yang, that means a lot to me." Yang smile grow.
"No problem, Pyrrha, to be honest, I haven't known you that well, but after hanging out with you before Blake went dark on us. I've seen how cool you are, and I'm happy to help you." Yang waved goodbye before leaving the room.
"And where are you going?" Yang asked after closing the door behind her.
"To the Headmaster's office, I got called." Weiss answered with a raised eyebrow.
"Ohhh, someone in trouble." She laughed.
"I might be after putting you in the Infirmary." She made a small glyph behind Yang to throw her into their dorm room and close the door.
/-/
She saw him resting beside the elevator, humming. She wanted to smile and greet him, but a reminder of what happened came back.
"You're late." He scowled at her.
"Because I took the time to make an excuse, I'm not an idiot, I made an actual acceptable excuse, not like you who says he's going to the bathroom while having one in the room." She shot back, walking into the elevator.
"Hey, that was a good excuse with Nora." He paused for a second and continued. " I don't remember telling you about that." His eyes narrowed.
"I don't need to be informed. I have my sources."
"White." He deadpan, but she didn't back down.
"Why are we fighting ?" He asked, with forced calm.
"Are you kidding me? Do you seriously not know?" She asked, flabbergasted. When he didn't argue the point, she slapped her face.
"You dolt, you keep doing things that will blow our cover, beating up CRDL single-handedly, knowing about the Grimm in forever fall, and then using Rusty's semblance." She explained.
"And then you have the audacity to get mad at me. Look at how much you screwed up." Jaune didn't take this laying down.
"My screw-ups?, what about yours, you forgot the fight with Blake, then, you left and didn't look for her sooner, I was with the Headmaster, literally fighting Fake fall, what was your excuse again? Nothing." They both glared at each other.
"So what Glynda said was the truth." They both froze and turned to the voice.
The Headmaster had his cup in hand and looked disappointed.
"What bring you two here at this hour, I hope everything is alright?"
"Well, we may need to have a talk." Weiss said.
"And how long will that talk need?" He raised an eyebrow.
"You'll need more of this coffee." Jaune answered, walking past him to sit down, Weiss did the same.
Ozpin sighed and went after them, pressing a button that closed the windows, the elevator, and all recordings.
/-/
The conversation wasn't easy, especially since they needed to fill him up about everything, knowledge from 3 different worlds that may or may not be accurate in this one.
But he took it with strong will, at least most of it, hearing about Rusted Rose and her event physically hurt him, his face twisted in agony.
The information about the brothers intrigued him, but he kept quiet for the time and let them speak.
Jaune still wanted to keep Cinder a secret, but Rusty told him that it would lead to more problems, and Cinder agreed with him.
"Then it's a good thing I kept all the information from leaking." The Headmaster said, and then continued when he saw the confused looks.
"When you two first mentioned Cinder fall, I sent my own agents, and they found out she was a somewhat normal person, which led me to doubt you, but then that happened." The screen showed the reports that Jaune already saw, Weiss eyes widen.
"The moment that happened, I knew something happened to her, and unfortunately, my informer came after your encounter with her."
"Her family are all gone, Fake fall, as you call her, didn't hold back, the same way she didn't with Amber."
Another report came, this time, they all were surprised, even Rusty and White.
"Isn't she…" Weiss trailed off.
"The fall maiden? Yes, you both mentioned she was in the basement on life support, she wasn't, a few days after you came and told me that, I sent a warning to her, unfortunately, Fake fall still fought and killed her on the spot."
Fuck, that means she has the full maiden power, that's why we couldn't beat her.
"What are we gonna do now?" Jaune asked.
"Right now? We need to prepare, judging your encounter with her, she just wants power and destruction, and most importantly, vengeance on you Mr Arc." Rusty sighed.
"We both are staying here during the vacation, we were planning to investigate Fake fall and all of Salem pawns, while also prepare for the fall of Beacon." Jaune said, hoping the Headmaster or Rusty would add to it.
"That's a good idea Mr Arc, you're both more than I ever hoped for, if your semblance ever acts up again in the same manner, I want you to keep me posted." Jaune nodded.
"With you two, I can finish this damn war for good." He sighed. Jaune and Weiss shared a look.
"What about the brothers?" Weiss asked.
"I have no intention to work with Salem, and I can't spend time and resources to find something that may exist, the brothers may not come back, but that's for the better." He said, pushing up his glasses.
"But the Tree is the one who put us all in this, we need to stop her, she's the one who put fake fall in Cinder's body, her entire family is dead because of that." Jaune yelled, pushing Ozpin's mug by accident, which fell and broke.
He only sighed.
"We can't, I trust the two knights knows this very well, but for you two, Salem wasn't always Grimm-like, when she was cursed by the brothers, she swore vengeance and united humanity against them, she succeeded and humanity marched an army from all around Remnant, yet it didn't work, and the sky is a reminder of that." He let that sink in, Jaune and Weiss eyes widen.
"Do you mean…?"
"Yes, you can imagine my surprise when I got back, and saw half of the moon gone."
And yet, Summer's Salem killed them with some kind of ruin.
Jaune didn't react to Rusty, still overwhelmed with the power that could destroy their world with such ease.
"You two rest now, tomorrow you're going to say goodbye to your friends, and after that we're going to have a hunting trip." The Headmaster smile mysteriously at them, none of the five people in front of him liked that.
"Well then, excuse us, Headmaster." Weiss said standing up, and Jaune followed soon, but stopped midway.
He turned back and picked up the broken mug, he pushed some aura into his hand, and the mug started to glow red.
"Here, sorry about it." Jaune handed the mug back, it was fix, the broken lines still showed, but the mug was whole once again.
Ozpin was surprised, he accepted the mug and Jaune made his way to the elevator, whispering a thanks to someone
"I hope you too can figure out your problem, we can't fight among ourselves while fighting her."
They looked at each other then at him, then nodded.
/-/
The next day was a dreadful one, they had classes, and after that, almost all of the students were going to leave the academy to go back to their families.
Of course, the people who didn't have one, could stay in the academy, with the cafeteria working normally and a few teachers staying to keep an eye on them.
The two team held pretty well, there was party planned by Nora and Yang, which surprisingly, turned out ok in Weiss's opinion.
Although the entire time, she felt like all of her friends kept their distance, and the only one who also noticed that was Jaune, of all people.
Sun was with them too, he kept chatting to everyone, getting along with Ruby and Yang, and even Ren.
But he kept glancing at Jaune, who haven't noticed or choice to ignore it. Either way, he clearly wanted something.
"So, Sun, how did you know Penny?" Ruby asked him while eating her cookies.
They were watching a movie together, as the whole two teams, plus Sun.
"Oh I haven't told you, her brother is my teammate, pretty close friends, actually." Sun explained.
"In Summer break, the team decided to go visit everyone family together before each goes home, when we got to Atlas my teammate, Mercury, Introduced us to his younger sister, it was awkward at first, but we got along fine."
"Penny has a brother? How is he? What weapon does he use? Is he cool?" Ruby started to ask more and more.
Sun smiled and answered all of them, happy to take his mind off the problem in front of him.
"He's staying here, I can Interrogate him as much as I want." He thought, glancing at Jaune.
"Oh shit, Ruby, the bullhead will be here in 30 minutes, get ready now." Yang shouted, running around grabbing her clothes and stuffing them into her suitcase.
Ruby rushed too, forgetting about the rest of her teammates and her friends, who watched the two sisters running around the room, until one of them knocked an empty dust vial, cracking it.
"Shit, sorry." Yang shouted.
"Dammit Xiao-Long, do you know how expensive this is, I needed that to get Blake dust." She held the vial in her hand and went to continue watching the movie with the rest.
Sun notice Jaune whispering something to her, then she gave him the empty vial ,the hand that held the vial started to glow a faint red.
Nobody noticed it, and Sun's eyes narrowed at the familiar hand motion.
His team Leader hand motion, who were specifically used to manipulate glass.
His hand clutched into fists, he already called the rest of his team, they'll arrive with the rest of the students for the Vytal Fastival, and Sun couldn't wait for them, he needed to know what's up.
/-/
"And make sure you came and visit us." Ruby said as she finally let go of her partner.
"Yeah Yeah, sure, I'll come and visit you two dolts, I'll even drag Blake with me, just make sure to stay out of trouble."
"Don't worry, Weiss-cream, I'll keep an eye on her." Yang assured her.
"I was talking to you." She deadpan.
"JNPR is also doing their goodbye." They all looked at their sister team, they were out of ear shot, but they could see the hugging and the tears, it wouldn't be too long, just two weeks, yet, they acted like this was the end.
"Pyrrha said she invited them all to her home in Argus, she also invited us, apparently Jaune isn't coming." Yang said.
"Yeah, he said he's going to his family tomorrow, then back to Vale for something, he didn't tell me." Ruby huffed, puffing her Cheeks out.
Weiss rolled her eyes, and waved goodbye for the two going back to their home, leaving her with the cat problem.
"So what's that business that you need to take care of here?" Blake asked, besides her was Sun, waiting for team JNPR goodbye to end so he can talk with Jaune.
"SDC contracts, father saw fitting to let me handle this as a test for the future." And unfortunately, that wasn't a lie, her father wanted to see if she was fit to take over the company after him, and by what White said, it won't matter anyway, but a convenient excuse for her friends.
"What about you?"
"I just don't have any other place to go, so I'm staying until we go to patch."
"What about menagerie?" Blake went still, her covered ears turning to Weiss, while Sun went to face Jaune without noticing the sudden shift.
"… How?" She asked.
"Are you joking? Blake Belladonna?, Ghira Belladonna, the chief of menagerie, the home island and semi kingdom for faunus." Blake deflated under Weiss's gaze on her.
"Without all your complaints about being a faunus-" she gestured to Blake's Bow. "-you would be basically me, but without all the extra money." Blake wanted to argue, but the sound of an argument draw their attention.
"You know something." Sun accused.
"Yeah, I knew her, before she tried to kill us, we were friends." Jaune said, holding his hands to calm Sun down.
"You know something more, you know something about what's happening to her, tell me." Sun gripped him by the caller.
"Mr Wukong, please calm down." The voice got everyone attention.
"You four, would you like to help me with a little hunt?" the Headmaster said, smiling.
note: So, what does Oz have in his mind, will see next chapter, get ready, cuz we won't have the normal fall of Beacon, shit about to get real now