"Thank you, Doctor!" The man marveled at his hand. "It's like nothing ever happened."
Jaune just calmly wrapped a bandage where the angelskin graft was bonding with the otter Faunus fisherman's skin.
"Don't worry and just rest it. It's not a full metal prosthetic where you slap it on and you're set. This has artificial skin that needs to bond against your own. No working with your right hand until it all sets properly, ok? Try not to get it wet or might just darken like a blotchy scar. And make sure to take the painkiller exactly as prescribed no more. Less is fine."
The fisherman laughed with a bit of a sigh.
"Not being able to fish for a few days ain't ideal, but I suppose I'll spend some time with my kids." The man sighed, "Can I at least enjoy some time at the Green Laurel?"
"If you stay out of the steam room and don't let your arm soak, sure." Jaune shrugged.
"That's great! I've become a sucker for a good soak in the evenings. Just wish it wasn't so far from the coast."
Jaune gave a weak chuckle, his right foot tapping a bit.
"Finding a natural hot spring isn't easy, sorry. Especially an actually good one."
"I suppose it must be difficult." His patient bemoaned, "To think, a Mistrali bathhouse in our lands? You know I've invited my cousin to see it, he works as a hireling for a lesser house and he said that the decor aside, he thinks yours is better, doc!"
Jaune just laughed.
"Well let's just say," He grinned knowingly, "that I found a Peak quality source."
His patient laughed back with deep belly laughs in the way that men of the sea often had.
"Well gods be praised. Something good had to be on this sandy rock somewhere!"
Sometimes Blake felt guilty for monopolizing her best friend Jaune's time.
Th-they were best friends even if neither of them said it out loud! Like how she and Yang were. Ilia was just always a best friend and- wait that wasn't what was important right now.
"Thanks again for helping me put this together." She spoke, her voice a bit quiet but truly thankful. "I know how busy you are."
"Always have time to make for my friends." Jaune just laughed it off like water off a duck's back. "I'm happy to help."
That was true, but also not.
Oftentimes, she felt Jaune worked because he would feel oddly responsible for things he owed nothing to. That he held himself accountable for way more than he should. He felt more grown up than Blake and she… well she strove to be just a little bit more like Jaune. A little more responsible, a little more helpful.
Her pulse quickened faintly.
Her father, Ghira, often called Jaune 'Menagerie's North Star' in secret, always too embarrassed to admit how much he liked her friend to his face.
Sometimes Blake wondered if he wasn't Menagerie's North Star but rather her own. It was selfish, of course, but Blake liked the thought of it anyways.
"Ok. Ideally the padding should keep from any chafing even without any layer underneath, but I'd still recommend some thigh-highs or stockings under your new weapon just in case." Jaune spoke casually and quickly as he helped buckle up her prototype weapon over her legs.
Her skin burned like fire when his fingers brushed against her bare skin, his Aura rich with the scent of Juniper berries.
Blake took a deep breath, calming herself from the odd tingle that suddenly flared through her.
"If you like this, you and I can work on motorizing and automating some mecha-shift processes to let you just walk into it, rather than having to put it on piecemeal. This is just for testing purposes, after all."
Blake just nodded silently, weirdly unable to trust her own voice at the moment.
Maybe she should have put on some stockings today. Jaune touching the skin of her thighs as he finished locking her weapon in place was weirdly… something. It was something Blake didn't have words for. That was embarrassing.
Jaune had literally made her legs. He probably knew them better than she did and oh gods that was embarrassing to think about.
Blake hadn't ever thought about that, but he'd always be so careful with her legs even though he'd known how durable they were. Something about that made her feel funny.
"Blake? You ok? You're a little red." Her thoughts were pulled away as she saw Jaune look up at her with confusion.
He'd just finished locking it all into place.
"Itsnothing!" She blurted a bit too quickly. "R-really. Just excited, I think."
Jaune nodded with a laugh.
"I mean, I might have helped bring it to life, but this weapon was your idea. You've got every right to be excited." Jaune just chuckled warmly and gave Blake a reassuring hug that she reciprocated, feeling the muscles of his shoulders and back as she was washed in his Aura, feeling it mingle with her own.
"Thanks for that." Blake sighed contentedly. "I wouldn't have the faintest idea where to start with it all."
"Eh, from what I've heard it's not uncommon for Huntsmen and Huntresses to create rough designs, but have someone else do the actual building. You just tweak and customize to your personal tastes bit by bit after." Jaune sighed too, his cheek rubbing softly against hers, their Faunus ears brushing against one another's.
Her Aura, the scent of parchment and ink, the sensation of fresh dew in the moonlight, mingled with the warmth of Jaune's Aura, tasting the spiced fruitiness of juniper berries on her lip.
"People say that a weapon is an extension of the Huntsmen or Huntress, that it needs to be tailor fit for them, and I think that's true. But not everyone's going to have the metallurgy or engineering to pull it off. Most of us are just fighters. Sometimes you gotta get help from a thinker."
"All hail, Jaune. Fighter and thinker." She teased with a giggle. She immediately felt Jaune begin to pull away, feeling his sheepishness and discomfort, but she held on tighter instead. "No. Not this time. Don't try to slip away. You don't give yourself enough credit. Don't run from my compliments."
"Sorry." He apologized, clearly not meaning it much as his hug weakened, his arms growing limp around her. "I just don't really feel very prideful about my knowledge."
"It's not about your knowledge." Blake angrily hugged harder, why could Jaune be so dumb? "It's about how you've used it. How you've always used it. You could have sold off your inventions, made billions. You could be the new SDC but without the baggage. You could be out there living the high life, but you chose to be here. To help Menagerie, the White Fang… w-with me."
It burned her up inside whenever she saw how little Jaune seemed to value himself.
That she didn't like. Jaune was her best friend. He was special. To her. To her parents. To all of Menagerie. But he always had hangups about the weirdest things.
"This isn't me complimenting your big brain, just how you use it ok? If you feel like you've got a weird advantage for being a genius and don't like that, fine. But you chose to make the world a better place with it. And I… I think that's beautiful."
He truly just gave and then gave some more.
Blake could feel her face on fire and was glad Jaune couldn't see it. But she felt a sudden tightness as Jaune's strong arms tightened, his fingers almost desperately digging into her back as he hugged her back just as tightly. His Aura flared, overwhelming her with the scent of Juniper berries, tasting spicy but sweet.
She could feel his heart roaring in his chest like a furnace. Or was that her own? She wasn't sure. Either way she liked it.
Blake just wanted to hold onto Jaune like this forever.
"...thanks Blake." Jaune's voice was rumbly and low in her ears, making the bones of her cheeks vibrate. "I… really needed that."
"Anytime." Blake felt breathless. "W-we should h-hug like this more often."
Jaune laughed as he lifted her up and spun her around and around even with the heavy armor plating of her new weapon that covered her legs up to the middle of her thighs. Blake wasn't sure who started giggling first, but they both were laughing like loons when he finally let her down, her feet touching down onto the ground again with an armored thump.
"Absolutely." Jaune agreed, and she couldn't see his face but there was a faint wetness at her shoulder now. He must have been crying, the big baby. "But, uh. We should. Should get around to testing your prototype."
Blake shook her head.
"Just another minute." She said selfishly, closing her eyes.
"Sure." Jaune replied. "Sounds good to me."
Blake's new weapon was simple. Straightforward even.
Her greatest strength in combat was that her legs were designed for Nikke. For android warriors that fought against the Raptures, creatures born of steel and alloy that were tougher than any Grimm. Well. Most Grimm.
Sure they used firearms, but even their submachine guns were more akin to rifles in firepower. And it was the legs that were what braced against all forms of impact, sometimes even lashing out with devastating kicks in moments of true desperation.
The scale of strength they were required to output was mind-numbingly scary when you thought about it.
And Blake's legs were enhanced with Aura.
Summer had told him while she could fill her body and support it with Aura, it felt more muted than her original body. It actually prevented her from using her Semblance correctly, though they'd managed to rectify the issue somewhat recently.
The creation of Penny had taught him there was a lot he didn't understand about the energy of the soul. Well obviously, but even Dr. Polendina's discoveries were half due to luck, the other from sheer perseverance.
But in the creation of Victory Wing, Summer's spare body (which she had chosen eventually to swap into for the upgrade, allowing her easy access to her Semblance once more, though Summer chose to keep her new appearance), as well as Blake's legs he'd incorporated the Aura Channels that were the foundation for Project PENNI with his own modifications.
Jaune could never take credit for it, but technically it could be argued he'd created a new generation of Nikke. That on Remnant now existed the tenth generation of Nikke technology.
Black metal with silver edges crawled up Blake's legs like pieces of a suit of armor. It was sleek but also primal in a way. She'd clearly taken some inspiration from his Drachen Mail, as it also took the silvery shin spikes (three instead of two) and the blade at the back of the calves into its design, though that's where the similarities more or less ended.
Shotgun rifling were installed beneath the impact plate above the lower knee that that acted as the trigger for extra devastating shotgun shredding knee strikes.
Additionally the armoring by her feet which were armed with retractable twin talons by the toes and another at the heel. Bands of shotgun shells were protected by an additional layer of armoring, one band feeding each knee with two bands for the rifling that ran down the outside of the achilles tendon, automatically feeding the second band of ammunition once the first band ran out.
It was a logical decision to make the best use of her strengths, adding the ability to rip, tear, and shred on top of the raw blunt mauling power of her powerful lower body.
Reloading mid combat wouldn't be easy without taking cover or intense practice, but Jaune had an idea for a motorized feed system that could take a length of shotgun shells in a banded ribbon and make it near instant as long as the first shell was loaded in properly.
For now it was more important that the concept for this weapon and fighting style was to Blake's taste and that it would hold up under pressure before more moving parts were added.
But by how Blake effortlessly ripped through the iron bamboo training dummies, he had a good feeling he should get started sooner rather than later.
"Did you see that, Jaune?" Blake's eyes were glimmering like gems as she bounced on the balls of her toes, the twin talons of the front of her Dual-Shotgun-TalonGreaves digging lines in the dirt. "This is amazing!"
"Really loud though. I could modify the barrels and make it quieter, but it'll never be silent unless you want a giant hunk of metal sticking out of the ends of the barrels."
"It'd be nice if it was a little quieter." Blake nodded. "It's super fun and sort of exciting how strong it is, but when I hit that second dummy with a flying knee it rang my ears a bit."
"Still, it can be done. I'll machine out two versions, one attempting more of a full silencer into the rifling itself and the other just to muffle the sound so that it's not always so booming. Actually if we stick to a twelve gauge and not the ten gauge I'm kinda confident we could make it pretty much 'silent' without it jutting out all weird. Besides, it's not like your shotgun blasts are aiming for the longer range stopping power of a ten gauger anyways. The ones by the knee can't even fire without striking the impact plate. You're never really going to hit a ranged enemy with those."
Blake rolled her eyes, though still running on a bit of adrenaline as she performed a few roundhouses in the air in a little shadow kickboxing.
"I've no idea what any of that means. Whatever you think works best."
"Twelve's got more power closer up. Yang's going to be using the same things for her gauntlets too. Honestly you two have got a bit of a matching vibe going on."
"I like that." Blake smiled, "Although I'll have to prove to Yang that kicks are superior."
"They've both got their strengths." Jaune rolled his eyes. "We're talking power and speed versus versatility and flexibility. Well. You've both got power in spades for different reasons though."
"Only thing that I don't like is my lack of a ranged option." Blake frowned, "What do I do if something's too far away to deal with? Closing gaps are nice and all, but I don't want to throw myself into a throng to chase a single target if it came to it."
"Blake your hands are free." Jaune deadpanned as his friend blushed in embarrassment. "We can literally just give you a rifle to round you out. Short barrel or a mecha-shift collapsible option for portability will probably do and we can just give it a sling or something."
"Maybe something lighter? I'm still fast with all this extra weight from Umbral Hare, but I'd like to keep things light regardless."
"Umbral Hare? That's what you want to call your weapon?"
Blake coughed into a balled up hand, looking away from him as her other hand played with a strand of her shoulder length hair, radiating embarrassment.
"I-I mean. I designed but you made it. We did it together, so I wanted to put a bit of you into the name as well. Just because that would be fair."
Jaune just felt warm, smiling at her brightly.
"I'm honored Blake. I'm glad we were able to make Umbral Hare together. It's like our own little baby. Blake? Blake?"
He couldn't read her vivid crimson face or her flickering amber eyes.
"So how's she doing?" Raven asked Vernal who was whittling something with a knife as she leaned back against a tree, a single headphone wire leading to her right ear.
Of course she was listening to the brat's music.
"Pacing, raving, fucking off her rocker that bitch." Vernal shrugged, her knife shaving long thin bits of wood from the giant gnarled tree root she was messing around with. "Keeps asking for you and demanding the truth or some other bullshit."
"Got a lotta guts for someone that wants protection but doesn't have the Lien to buy it or the will to fight under my banner for it." Raven snorted, leaning back against the walls of the Branwen camp. "I'm not sure if she'd entitled or just fucking losing it."
"Definitely losing it, Boss." Vernal's hand shaved off more wood. "She's weird too. Sometimes her Aura flares but it ain't right somehow."
"You let me worry about that and keep that to yourself, Vernal." Raven warned, getting a quick nod from her protege. "The fact she's important is all you need to know."
"Whatever you want, Boss." Vernal shrugged. "Issit true what Greene's been claimin' tho? That Jaune'll be upgrading weapons for whoever wins this month's challenge?"
"It'll be good incentive to keep everyone sharp. Besides, you've been begging to be allowed to go and fight him again, haven't you? Win and he'll stop by for a while and figure it out then."
"Hell yeah." Vernal's bloodthirsty grin was infectious. She reminded Raven a lot of herself as a child, actually. Probably why she favored her a bit. Plus despite her also being a 'rival' for her daughter, Vernal was more obsessed over Jaune's fighting ability than his affection.
Plus it was also a bit Raven's fault back when she'd first met Jaune that after Vernal had lost to him, she'd forced her to attend to his needs. Usually that was a sort of proposal in the tribe, though nothing official. Hell, even if a lot of her own didn't take that old tradition seriously. Vernal took most things seriously though, despite how she acted or appeared.
There was a reason Raven was training her up to be her Adjutant in the future once old Seymore finally got too old and tired of dealing with the Clan's petulant warriors. He was one of the few in the tribe that had Aura before Raven started her forced reform regime and someone that had looked after her when she'd been young and weak, even if a bit heavy handed.
"Alright then. I'll go see if I can't keep that dumbass from causing an incident in my camp. If she thinks she can throw her weight around with nothing to provide and show for it, she'd better think fucking twice."
Raven walked forwards, hearing Vernal's "Good luck, Boss!" from behind as the wind whipped at the insides of her open armored coat, more cape than coat in the way Raven wore it.
"-long I've been waiting? This is ridiculous! This is why natives of Sanus are such barbarians, not at all refined like we of Anima. I've been patient for days-"
"Alright, alright. You keep talking the ear off my men like that and I'll tear yours off in revenge, eh? I'm a busy woman and you're not a paying customer. You're a backlog. So be glad I'm giving you time of day at all." Raven cut in, waving her men away as she entered the tent. "I've been a busy woman. Besides Branwens only became more Sanus based when I took over. We've got camps in both continents connected by my Semblance."
Which was true. While Raven had once been the Great Khan of Sanus, that was more because it allowed her to keep better tabs on Yang and the continent of two Kingdoms had less organized crime outside of the capitols, making it easy for her to bully her way into power.
She'd been feared plenty in Anima too, but she used to make the more useless ones of the tribe handle the Anima end of things as Mistral's wealth was too localized in their capital. It just wasn't worth the persona effort.
Although Oniyuri was doing real well for itself nowadays.
"I tried to make contact with you four years ago and you shoo'ed me away! Four years isn't a backlog at this point!" The haggard form of a dirty pink cloaked woman spat angrily. She looked like she'd not slept well in days. "That's why I ended up under Ozpin and we both know how that's gone for the two of us!"
Raven spat on the ground at the mention of the parasite, and the woman, the Spring Maiden joined along, stomping into the spit and grinding her heel for good measure.
"I can't go on like this. It's impossible!" The woman sat down in a chair, holding her head in her hands. "I didn't know that it was ever that bad! We're all doomed! The bastard's got no plan at all!"
Raven nodded, taking the woman's mental breakdown completely seriously.
"Been there, done that." Raven sighed. "As long as the Queen exists we're fucked and well. We can't do shit 'bout her."
"But you distanced yourself from him once you found out, right? And you've found a way to thrive. There must be an answer! You're working towards that goal, right? There HAS to be SOMETHING."
Raven's thoughts suddenly flashed to Jaune. How he'd summoned Juniper that first winter in Menagerie. Saved Summer. Formed the Glacier. Somehow against all odds had magic that even Ozpin didn't know about.
"Well." She grinned. "I've seen a certain miracle, I suppose."
The pink cloaked Maiden let out a desperate choke of a laugh.
"There's hope?"
"There's a longshot. Better than dealing with the parasite that'd rather sit on his hands and work to maintain the status quo and nothing more." Raven shrugged. "I can't tell you more."
"Please, you have to let me know. I need something to believe in." The Spring Maiden begged.
"Fuck, you're a stranger to me, you know. I can't spill my secrets to you. Nobody'd be that dumb." Raven snorted, "I'm fine keeping you off his radar because of nothing more than self-satisfaction, but if you keep driving my clan fucking crazy like this? I'll kick you out myself. If you want anything more than food and shelter, fucking earn it or don't bitch and moan about it."
Gods if she'd been just two or three years younger or wasn't trying to stay true to Summer and Taiyang she might have just tried to kill this whiney bitch to become the Maiden herself. Hells she might still qualify, as cut off points to be a Maiden hovered around thirty and she was thirty two now.
She knew that Triana, the Fall Maiden before the current one, Amber, had technically been thirty four when she'd stumbled into her Maiden powers, according to the parasite, so it wasn't impossible, just less likely.
It wasn't like the Wizard in the fairy tale was some sort of fetishizing creep that only cared for a woman younger than the age of thirty. It was more of a dumb guideline from a trend that the parasite observed.
Plus she wouldn't be able to hide that shit from the rest of Team STRQ. Also it wasn't a guarantee at her age either. Even if the thought of getting literal magic powers made her salivate.
Raven never did forget the sight of Juniper Arc unleashing the full might of his version of Julius's Crocea Mors. That blade must have been one hell of a weapon back in time when Juniper must have been a normal living person and not some sort of freaky ancestor spirit.
Raven hated having to give up something like that, but eh. She'd make do. Between a borderline cursed power that made herself a target and her family, she'd choose her family now without hesitation.
She was more scared of losing what she'd regained than Salem herself.
"I can't work for you, my powers are too obvious. People can't tell if something's a Semblance or Magic from a distance, but once they're close enough to feel it, you can't hide that it's different. It's not like Aura, heavier, more unearthly. I can't give you what you want."
"What you can't work or fight without that?"
"I wasn't trained to be a Huntress until I even got these powers! I still haven't even figured out my Semblance! That's harder to grasp the older you are when you're Aura's unlocked! I used to be an heiress of a noble house, not a fighter! I'd pay you if I wasn't cut off thanks to my situation! And I'm not going to be able to provide any value to you as a mercenary, most Beacon initiates could beat me in a one on one without my powers!"
"Then get comfortable, cuz like I said, I'll shelter you, but I've no responsibility to ya." Raven just shrugged as she turned to walk out of the tent again. "Word of advice? Running away's one thing, but stop biting the fucking hands that feed you and leave my clansmen out of your pity party."
She cleaned out her right ear with a pinky as she opened up a portal back to Menagerie as the broad screamed out slurs from behind Raven.
"Fuckin' blue bloods." She growled right after stepping through. "I hate Mistrali punks."
Her vision caught the sight of Jaune sitting in the shade of a tree to her right, that Blake girl laying in his lap like it was a pillow unconscious.
"Cheatin' on Yang already?"
"Raven, you're a moron." The brat rolled his eyes. "She just overworked herself testing her new Huntress weapon."
"Hmph." Raven grunted with a narrowed eye. Yang seemed ok sharing her time with the Belladonna brat so she didn't give him too much shit. "How's Yang's going?"
"Well as it can. She definitely likes the punch to fire a shotgun blast thing we've managed to get going. I still want to include something else for some proper distance, but Yang seems to feel it's unnecessary."
"You're too obsessed with versatility and firepower for somebody that doesn't use a gun himself."
"It's because I realize my own limitations that I don't want that for others." Jaune sighed. "And I could always just whip out a rifle from my Semblance if I had to. Other people can't do that."
"We'll just get her some Slugs and teach her to hit center mass under fifty meters." Raven shrugged. "That'll be good enough and she'll have teammates to cover her in the future. Nobody has to cover every base alone, brat."
Kid thought through every encounter like a soldier. He was training to be a Huntsman. He needed to start thinking like one.
"I guess." His ears waggled contemplatively.
"Before you came along Team STRQ didn't even do long range. Sure we could slap a sniper into Tai's hands and call it a day with his Man at Arms if the situation required, but we're Huntsmen, ya brat. We're not usually fighting from afar and bombarding the enemy, we usually get close up and in and slay Grimm on the front lines. Don't worry too hard."
"Me worrying now might be what saves Yang down the line." Jaune argued, giving her a bit of a sense of pride at how much he cared for her daughter's safety. "I won't risk her for that logic. I won't risk any of my friends for that."
Raven found herself grinning.
"Hmph. Then figure it out then. You're a smart kid. I believe in you."
Raven blinked at how naturally those words spilled from her lips, the smile leaving her face instantly.
Even Jaune looked a bit surprised, though his tail flicked side to side as the two wordlessly shared a look.
Hers told him to never mention what she said out loud.
Jaune's was just a big dumbfuck smile that made her think of Tai and Summer.
Just a look of wordless thanks and affection.
Raven scowled as she pulled her peaced cap down over her eyes and stormed off, feeling pressure build up behind the bridge of her nose as her neck became warmer than she'd like.
Next time she'd warp in further away from the fucking brat.