Mythical (RWBY Pyrrha Quest)

Πρωταθλητής 9

You think that the most suspicious part of his story is his edging around his 'semblance'. He was oddly dodgy about it and more importantly, even if his semblance made him really good at finding things, it wouldn't have told him what the initiation objective was or how to achieve it.

But a semblance is a tricky and delicate thing to ask someone about. Nobody really knows what anyone else's semblance is capable of, and noone is eager to share the strengths and weaknesses of their semblance. And though this Jaune boy has the demeanor of a too accepting by far fool, if you push directly at his explanation no one will fail to notice what your aim is.

Instead you lay off that point and prod at another point in his story. "The Tarot examination? I've not heard of anyone passing that before."

You've heard of it, of course. Everyone has. There are three methods to get into Beacon: recommendation from a Primary Hunter School, a practical combat exam followed by interview, and the Tarot examination. But of those three entrance examinations for first years, the prized students raised from beginning to end in Beacon unlike later entries and people who tested in based on field-proven merits, the Tarot examination is the most controversial because it is supposedly based solely on pure luck. Its mechanisms are obscured in a veil of obscurity and rumor. You had no interest in it, so you never bothered piercing that veil.

You don't need luck. You have skill.

"Last time somebody passed it was… twenty-something years back?" Ren notes as well, clearly struggling to remember the last occasion. You're surprised. You never pegged him for an enthusiast in esoteric lore. "The pass rate is extremely low. I too, would be interested in what you did for the Tarot examination."

Pinned between your suspicious glare and Ren's own inquisitive stare, the Jaune boy begins to sweat. "Ah, well…"

"That was my mom. The examinee you're talking about," someone offers and you turn to see Yang raising a hand. Today really is full of surprises, isn't it? "Mine and Ruby's. I remember Summer telling me about it."

"Wait really?" Ruby leaps up and practically vibrates in excitement, shining eyes locked on her sister. "How come mom never told me about this?"

"Dunno. Never came up, I guess?" Yang shrugs.

Ruby makes a noise like a whistling steam engine and shakes like a boiler reaching pressure. She explodes from Yang's side and jumps at the Jaune boy. You dryly note that she's very interested in her mother. "Jaune! Jaune! You've got to tell me everything about the Tarot examination! Please Jaune!"

You smirk as you watch the boy nearly get bowled off his log-perch, hard pressed by the overexcited munchkin that is Yang's younger sister. Normally you'd feel bad for setting the girl on someone like a warhound, but the the boy's suspicious and besides-

He stole the spotlight at the beginning of initiation. Nobody does that to you.

Nobody.

"C-can I have some space please?" Ruby relents and backs down, surging back with clear reluctance as the Jaune boy regains his bearings. "Thanks. Er, the Tarot entrance examination. Right."

"It wasn't that bad." His hands motion, weak and ineffectually, as he talks. You rightly think it looks stupid. "So first they do the regular tarot reading. Then, they shuffle up the cards and have you predict the order that the cards are dealt in."

He stops and you wait for him to continue, but he just stops there. It takes a few moments before you realize that he's done.

"That's it?" Nora says incredulously. You can't really believe it's that simple, either. What sort of exam is that?

"That's it, yeah." The Jaune boy shrugs. "I thought I'd have to fight or something, that's why I got this sword-" he motions at his side and you see a simple plain dusteel blade strapped against his side. "But Headmaster Ozpin just shuffled the cards back up and told me I'd passed."

No.

There has to be more to it. Otherwise this is really just complete and utter luck. You refuse to accept such a talented prodigy like Ozpin basically just rolls a dice to choose his students.

That's just moronic.

"Are you serious?" Nora speaks for you. Disbelief is scrawled across her face. "Me and Ren had to save up for years to be able to rent the forges to make our weapons. We had to beg some old Huntsman for weeks on end until he agreed to train us! And you just read some cards?"

"I offered to display more," the Jaune boy replies with a shrug. "But that was all he wanted."

Nora collapses onto a stump-seat, one hand laid over her eyes. "That's so stupid." She says, and groans as she begins to rub her eyes.

It is stupid. You have no idea what to say in response. And apparently nobody else knows, either.

Ruby attempts to break the silence. "Um, I also had to do that Tarot card prediction thing." She offers up cautiously, then flinches back when all eyes turn to focus on her. "But that was after I killed a Grimm in front of the Headmaster!" She quickly elaborates, spitting out the words in a rush.

"Wait hold on," Yang holds up a hand. "When did this happen?" Her eyes narrow… and sort of redden? "I never heard about this."

Ruby hastily backpedals. "Ah, well, it was just a small thing. I mean, it was big enough to impress the headmaster, but like it was pretty small so I didn't bother telling you about it-"

"Ruby."

"Um, well, I was just visiting Granny Finta, right?" Ruby gestures frantically with her hands as she talks. You think it looks cute. "The one who lives out in the wood? Near mom's grave?"

You put the words 'mom's grave' in your internal notebook to remember for later. That explains why Ruby was so interested in her mother's entrance examination. You look towards Yang, but she's not really fazed by it so you think it's probably something that has happened long before, something she's moved past by now.

"The one Dad and I told you not to visit unless you brought someone along with you?"

"Um…." Ruby swallows audibly. "Yes?"

Yang smiles. Somehow the expression looks humorless on the golden-haired girl. Next to her Nora shivers and scoots two seats away to lean on Ren. "Go on."

"Well, it turns out that she was dead- not from Grimm!" She quickly interjects into her story, probably from Yang about to open her mouth again. "It was just a heart attack like two days ago."

"But…"

"But a Geist was possessing her corpse. I figured it out over the course of our conversation. Something didn't smell right about her, even though the tea and cookies were delicious as always." That's actually somewhat strange. You've never heard of people literally smelling out Grimm. "So when she wasn't looking I just whipped Crescent Rose out-"

The scythe unfolds in her hands with the same whirring, clicking, and snapping sounds as the last time you saw it do that. You don't really quite understand why she felt the need to take that out- she could have just explained to everyone what Crescent Rose was- but Nora, Ren, and the Jaune boy clap politely.

"And then I lopped her head off!"

"Wait hold on." You hold up your hand off to stop Ruby in the middle of her story. "You just chopped her head off based on a bad smell?"

"Yyyyyes?"

"And that was the only sign you had that she was possessed by a Geist?"

"Yes?"

"What if you were wrong?" You ask the obvious question after the girl completely misses all your implications. "What if there was no Geist?"

"But there was?" Ruby blinks in confusion.

You sigh. Is she being deliberately obtuse? "But what if she wasn't possessed and she was actually fine?"

"Then I wouldn't have killed her." Ruby blinks again and tilts her head the other way, perhaps even more confused than before. "I mean she was a Grimm, so I killed her but if she wasn't a Grimm then I wouldn't have?"

You take a good look at her. A real good look at her. She's not being deliberately obtuse, or anything of the sort. She's genuinely confused, as if she can't understand the possibility of making a mistake. Her eyes gleam silver in the dying light of the day, deep pools of confusion which swirl inwards and inwards and inwards-

Yang puts her hand on your shoulder. "Let it go," she mouths. "She won't get it." She turns to her sister and prods her into continuing her story. "So if that was it, then how did Ozpin see you kill the Grimm?"

"Oh, er," Ruby smiles nervously. You think you see her eyes dull. Strange. "So, it turns out that the Geist wasn't alone. After I finished the tea and pastries and left the cottage a bunch of Beowolves ambushed me."

"And you ran straight home, right?"

Ruby lets out a sickly sort of laugh. It sounds a bit like a rubber toy being squeezed to death. "Nnnnnnot exactly. At first I thought there was only one, right?"

"Right."

"So I had Crescent Rose with me and went 'one's not a big deal. But there was a lot more than one, right?"

"Right."

"So I ended up killing all of them." Ruby makes some pew-pew sounds and swings Crescent Rose around. Ren pulls Nora back, the Jaune boy ducks, but you and Yang just stand still as it slashes the air in front of your faces. "Anyway, it turns out that Qrow and Ozpin are actually like friends, or something, and they heard me shooting in the forest and saw me in the middle of a bunch of Beowolf corpses."

Yang hmms contemplatively. Ruby waits in anxious tension for her response. After a breath, Yang just says, "We're going to talk about this later."

Ruby's shoulders fall and she makes a noise like a kicked puppy.

"Right now the sun's going down and we don't have enough time to give the relics another try." You look up and indeed, Helios is ending his ministrations so that Selene's light can shine forth for another night. Time has slipped away from you while you were talking. "We should probably set up for the night."

"That would be a good idea, yes," Ren pitches in. "Sleeping arrangements needs some time to set up and I am getting rather hungry."

"Right." Yang seizes control of the situation. "Jaune, can you host Nora and Ren in your tent?"

"I'm fine with that." The boy nods, pushing himself to his feet, banner still over his shoulder. "My tent has enough space."

"Pyrrha can bunk with me-" You smirk. "-and Ruby." The smirk falls away. "Go ahead and show them where your tent is, banner boy. I'll make something to eat. Ruby-"

"I'll go with them!" Ruby disappears in a whirl of crimson in one second reappears besides the Jaune boy in the next. You notice that she's carefully putting his nonexistant bulk between her and Yang. For all the protection it provides. "You know, show them around the place, right?"

"....right." Yang's last look at Ruby promises that there will be words later. She shooes them off and turns to you. "What about you, Pyrrha?"

[ ] You'll keep her company while she's making something to eat. You figure you could always use some more conversation with the golden haired dragon.
--[ ] Anything in particular?

[ ] Maybe you're curious about what the Jaune boy's tent looks like. Maybe you want to stick with Nora and Ren some more. Maybe, miraculously, you haven't gotten your fill of Ruby's chattering yet. Either way you're going with them.

[ ] Don't you still need to restock on dust? Go pick your way through the markets.

[ ] Write in

QN: Logic helped edit this at 3 AM in the morning.

Pyrrha thinks either Jaune is concealing the scope of his semblance and thus, his strength, for unknown reasons which looks really suspicious - or he's weak as fuck and totally got past the entrance examinations due to luck. Or maybe his semblance is that he's insanely lucky- there was someone like that back at Sanctum.

She still beat the fuck out of that dude, though, so it's not like luck will save you from her.