Mythical (RWBY Pyrrha Quest)

Πρωταθλητής 8

Your gaze flicks from interest point to interest point. A pair of white and black haired girls, a gang of three knights and a rather scared scout, a somewhat bombastic trio of shady characters complete with a red haired pirate, some jock mechanic kid and his machine-like pets, a lion mane of golden hair-

Wait.

You focus back on the lion's mane. It glints soft gold in the firelight. Yang Xiao-Long. You recall her distinctly from before the initiation when you had that little conversation with her and her little sister, Ruby. That girl is there too, more than two thirds of her body hidden behind a rich scarlet cloak, just as before. They both appear uninjured and fresh unlike you and your bedraggled party. They're sitting around a campfire, Yang looking on amusedly while Ruby chats animatedly to-

You're going over there.

Branches and leaves are violently crushed in your wake as you storm out of the brushes, abandoning your cover at a furious pace. You stomp ahead several meters before you remember your companions. With an annoyed look on your face, you turn back. Nora's moved up to occupy your former position, but Ren is still just standing there, just with eyes on you rather than the camp now.

"What are you waiting for?" You ask tersely. "Come on."

"Come on… where?" Ren's brows knit together in an confused expression.

Nora wrinkles her nose. "You can't simply expect us to follow you without a word of explanation."

They're blind, aren't they? You can't think of any other reason they'd be so obtuse. An exasperated sigh escapes your lips. Yet again you lower yourself to enlighten your lessers on the obvious. Truly, burdens of the mighty. "Do you remember the boy who took a head start over everyone else?"

"...yes?" Ren cocks his head at you, still not understanding.

"I saw him over there." You jerk your thumb in the direction of the camp. "Going to go ask him about a few things."

It takes a few moments, but you see understanding dawn on Nora's face. She rushes over to your side. You've got to admit that girl is overly egotistical and is too arrogant by far, but at least she understands the important things. She takes a few steps forward, and then turns back too, just like you had before. "Ren, what are you waiting for?"

"An explanation?" Ren replies in an even more confused tone. "Why are we going over there again?"

You and Nora both sigh exasperatedly.

"Ren, she saw that boy who started early during initiation."

"I told you Ren, I saw that boy who started early during initiation."

Both you and Nora patiently explain the relevant details to him once more. Ren still doesn't seem to get it which is quite strange to you because in the privacy of your own mind, you had always considered him to be the smarter one between him and Nora.

"Ren just come," Nora commands, exasperated. With a roll of his eyes the quiet boy comes plodding over. The exchange is familiar enough that you expect that the two of them must have done it before.

You and Nora cut through the camp with purpose, Ren trailing behind. One of the shady looking trio you spotted before, this one dressed in a heavy coat that obscures everything but his cap-with-a-feather clad head, attempts to waylay you with offers of ration packets and dust but you brush him aside easily. His prices are exorbitant and you have places to be and things to do, and no time to spend bargaining his prices down to what they should really be.

Yang spots you before the other two do, as they are caught up in scratching something in the dirt and arguing over it. The golden haired girl walks up to greet you, smile on her face. You nod cordially back at her. You have no issues with her.

It's the other blond you're going to beat until he coughs up some answers.

"Hey Nikos," she says with a wave. "I see you've found some friends, yeah?"

"Xiao Long, this is Ren." You introduce the black haired boy. He inclines his head slightly. "And Nora." The ginger girl flexes her right bicep. Yang stifles a laugh. "We met in the forest and fought some Grimm together."

"Seems like it took you awhile. We were half afraid you weren't going to show up."

Ah. You manage to control the unpleasant feeling that threatens to bubble onto your face from deep inside your gut. She just had to poke at that sore point didn't she?

"Well," you manage to grit out through a somewhat mangled looking smile. "I wasn't expecting to run into so many Elder Grimm and Greater Grimm in the forest."

It's not an excuse. You don't give excuses.

It's an explanation. A clear difference that you intent to impart on anyone (by force if necessary) who gets the wrong impression.

"Greater Grimm? Really?" Yang sounds impressed. She should be impressed. "I thought the Emerald Forest seemed pretty tame. I guess it's more dangerous than I thought it was if you can encounter stuff like that in the forest."

"Yeah, it was pretty bad," Nora pipes up. "Fortunately, me and Ren-" Ren and I, you correct her idly in your head. "-were there to save her from the Nevermore."

Oh.

Oh.

She didn't just go there. Again. You literally just had a duel to settle this matter and yet it seems like she has learned utterly nothing from the whole endeavor. You spin on your heel and turn on the oath breaking Valkyrie.

"As I told you," you enunciate every word extremely clearly. "I did not need your help at all. The Nevermore was wounded and I was about to land a killing blow on it. We have established this point of order already."

Nora makes an extremely exaggerated put out motion. "Even now, I receive no gratitude from saving you."

There was nothing for which to be grateful for!

You hear a noise like someone's be strangled from the side and snap your head around to catch an eyeful of Yang trying to stifle her laughter. She manages to swallow the noises bubbling up from her chest and looks up with the smuggest smirk you've ever seen. "Sorry, sorry," she says in a tone that clearly isn't sorry at all. "Go on."

That part about not having an issue with her? You are beginning to reconsider that.

"Yet I carried you away from the Greater Grimm so if there is any debt, which there is not-" you interrupt yourself to make this point very clear. "-is more than settled."

"I-"

"More than settled." You repeat yourself one last time to put this argument to death once and for all and then quickly turn to Yang to plant the tombstone on its grave. "And how have you and your sister been?"

"Hm? Us?" Yang wobbles her hand in the air. "You know. Alright. We pushed through the forest pretty fine, we didn't see any Elder Grimm or Greater Grimm so we had a pretty easy go of it. Made it here before anyone else did. Like next guy to arrive, banner boy over there, only got here like a full twenty minutes after us. We're kind of stalled on the next portion of the test, though. It, well…"

She licks her lips a few times and shrugs. You can't help but notice how red and glossy her lips are. "Well, it'll be easier if I just get Ruby to explain it. You all coming with?"

Ren looks at Nora, and some sort of silent communication passes between the two friends before Nora smiles widely. "Sure," the girl says.

Yang motions for the three of you to follow her. As you approach Ruby, you can hear bits and pieces of her conversation with her newfound friend - her newfound friend you intend to interrogate.

"Even if I get past her, there's no way I'll be able to carry enough back for the whole team to pass. I have to bypass her and get back, you know. The guardians have to go down."

"If the guardians go down, you won't be able to get past her guard. And the only way she's going to let you back is if you beat her."

"Mmm, you're right. I feel like there's something we're miss- oh, Yang's back!" The scarlet cloaked girl spots her sister and leaps up to her feet. Her eyes light up even further when she spots you behind Yang. "Oh! Pyrrha!"

You hold up a single fist like you used to do after arena victories and are immediately latched onto by the red clad girl. Her arms wrap around your waist in a suction tight clamp and she squeezes for all she's worth- which turns out to be quite weakly. You let her hug away and look towards Yang, who on her part simply shrugs.

This feels distinctly familiar.

The hug doesn't last long; Ruby lets you go after a few moments and you watch her flush just as red as her cloak as she realizes what she just did. "O-oh," she stutters. "Um, sorry about that. I just, I uh-"

"It's fine," you brush it off. You don't mind. Overeager fans are not something you're strange to and besides, the kid's cute. That lets her get away with a lot.

Besides, you have bigger things on your mind. You gently push Ruby aside and stomp up to the banner holding boy sitting there, watching your little display. You stare down at him imperiously, the glint of challenge in your eye. "Do you know who I am?"

Up close the boy looks abnormally placid and his expression is calm and relaxed even as you barge into his face. Perhaps he doesn't get your note of challenge. Or maybe he's just stupid. He glances at your face and over at Ruby.

"Oh, yeah Jaune, this is Pyrrha Nikos!" Ruby lights up as she misses your intent completely and introduces you to her newfound friend. "She's really good at fighting and she won the Mistral Championships four times in a row."

The banner boy- the Jaune- smiles cheerfully. "Oh, that's great! Congratulations."

He reaches out a hand for you to shake which you ignore completely. "It's nice to meet you Pyrrha. My name's Jaune Arc."

Arc. The name rings bells in your head. One of the few Vale aristos families you bothered to remember and one of the few that are still relevant after the death of their king. You know just enough about them.

Just enough to know that the boy's story doesn't add up. Your eyes narrow.

"That's funny," you say deceptively casually, like you're just mentioning the day's weather in casual conversation rather than cross examining the boy's story. "I wasn't aware that Jacob Arc had a son. I was under the impression that he intended to send all seven of his daughters to Sanctum."

"That was the plan." Jaune nods. You can hear Yang whisper something to Ruby behind you. You brush it off as unimportant. "I'm… somewhat of a family failure. My father neglected to send me to combat school. I shouldn't be here at all."

"Yet here you are."

"Yet here I am," the boy agrees. His smile is a little less solid now. More queasy. "I, well, it was a bit of a lucky break. I passed the Tarots entrance examination and the Headmaster agreed to allow me a spot in the year's examination."

"Well, you seem to have done well." The fake pleasantries slip their way out of your mouth. "That early start at the beginning of the exam caught us all by surprise. You didn't even bother listening to the rest of the headmaster's instructions, yet you made it here so quickly. What's your secret?"

"Yeah!" Nora pipes up behind you. You'd almost forgot she was listening to this conversation. "What's your secret?"

"Er, well…" Jaune licks his lips nervously and his pupils narrow to points. His lips move so slightly that you can't read off them and he goes trancelike for a single heartbeat.

Just for a moment. Then he's back.

"It's, uh, my semblance?" he offers, like he hadn't just completely switched off for a second there. "I'm good at finding places."

If you lick the air, you might be able to taste it. The taste of a liar.

That boy is hiding something.

[ ] Dig deeper into his so called 'semblance'. You're going to ferret out what he's hiding, no matter how hard he tries to conceal it.

[ ] He mentioned Ozpin and the Tarot Examination. Interrogate him about that. You'll be better able to find out what his secret is if you dig peripherally.

[ ] ...you'll let him keep his secrets. For now. Move on and ask him how me met Ruby and Yang. You doubt he'll reveal anything more anyways.

[ ] All this is wasting time. Move on the big point that Yang mentioned, how they're all stalled on the next part of initiation. If the boy passes, you'll have four years to discover his secrets anyways.

[ ] Write in.

QN: Logic did some minor editing work, and attempted to turn Jaune from remnant!French to remnant!Spanish.

In other news I'm going to set out how the voting in this quest goes. How votes affect scenes if more along focuses and priorities rather than a clear cut option by option. By putting in a vote option, you're putting priority on a specific option. Subvotes add subpriorities, which are subordinated to the initial vote when writing a scene. This set of foci is then further altered by what I read in discussion.