Miracles of Ancient Wonder
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Chapter 2.4
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"All you need to do is put more money into the bus and train systems. This would lower transportation costs for workers and improve the economic activity in the outer city."
"And better transportation within the city still does nothing to help those who live outside of the city. Though, it might work if more railways were built."
Ruby woke up to another debate between Weiss and Blake. It had become a daily ritual for them. Each time some new piece of news started it. They always went on and on about topics that she barely knew anything about.
"That would never happen. You can't turn a profit by serving those communities and the average cost of rail maintenance per mile would be…"
She rolled over and looked at them. Weiss was leaning against the wall and gesturing into the air; whereas Blake kept referencing her scroll. Ruby didn't get what Weiss having a perfect memory meant until now. She could pull all sorts of facts and figures out of thin air. They almost always wound up being accurate too. Or at least, Blake thought that Weiss believed they were true, and trusted her. Ruby was pretty sure about this because Blake didn't twitch whenever one was used that sounded weird.
"We can't just leave vulnerable people alone in the wilderness because it isn't worth it to build new rails." Blake countered, drawing a frown from Weiss. She always knew just what to say to make Weiss annoyed and throw her off of her game, usually something that the heiress overlooked regarding how other people did things.
"If they don't see an economic benefit, then the people who have the money to build it won't. Rails are notoriously hard to protect from the Grimm. The only good method is to build them underground, and I don't think the people of Vale would want to try that again anytime soon." And Weiss pivoted to a new argument, a new method of attack.
It was a fascinating way to fight with words. Each would try to throw the other off balance, but needed to enter the other's domain in order to actually make the attack. Kind of like a knife on spear fight where the knife-fighter was trying to taunt the spear-user into overstepping. Then she'd grab the shaft with her off hand and close in for the kill. Only the knife was really a multi-weapon gun-knife, but they were also different spears that worked better against different sorts of armor so… That analogy only went so far.
Ruby shook her head and looked around their room. Weiss and Blake were ready to go, but Yang was still out like a rock. Somehow, her sister was able to sleep through all of this arguing.
After a moment of deeper listening, Ruby hopped out of bed and started getting changed. The pulses of Aura weren't present, it must be because the topic was so boring. If they weren't really fighting, then it was safe to interrupt for breakfast. She never wanted to be on the receiving end of both glares again.
"In the process of expanding the city, they found subterranean Grimm that destroyed all of Mountain Glenn. We still don't know where all of these underground pockets are, so it would be very dangerous to build within the border." Weiss shifted the topic all the way back to yesterday's debate. Blake grumbled under her breath.
"As you said before, we've improved our surveying technology since then. Are you telling me that you wouldn't invest in being the only person to have trains like this and potential access to the other areas in the countryside?" As Blake spoke, Ruby flinched. That was really close to the topics that stirred the flames. So long as they didn't directly talk about the SDC or White Fang, they were usually good.
"Maybe. I would need the right subsidies from city districts that benefit from the additional work force." Weiss nodded and smiled, ending the debate.
Blake rolled her eyes and smiled back. Ruby looked from one of them to the other and back again.
"Eeeeeee!" She squealed and dashed over to them. Ruby wrapped both of them into a hug while yelling, "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!"
"Grah, Ruby why?" Weiss fought back slightly, Blake just froze like always.
Ruby let them go after a moment and hopped back to the center of the room. She and Yang would get them used to random hugs, eventually. "You both were smiling. At the same time!"
"What? That-that's not. You-you argh!" Weiss blushed and turned her back to Ruby, who laughed in response.
"Come on Weiss," Yang said with a yawn. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up. "You really don't smile all that much."
Weiss gave Yang a look and shook her head. "I suppose that's because I've never had a chance to match wits with someone on my level." She smirked at Blake, who returned it.
"Aww, Weiss." Ruby stepped forward for another hug. She was being so nice today.
"Not you."
"Aww… Weiss." Ruby sulked in an exaggerated manner, sinking as far down as she could. Then she fell into a fit of giggles. She collapsed to the floor, drawing an eye roll from her monochromatic teammates.
Eventually, Yang pulled her up and they finished changing. When team RWBY left their room, they found Jaune walking back from the locker rooms.
He was soaked, just wearing a towel, and had one hand pressed against the side of his head. Weiss immediately rubbed her forehead while Ruby and Yang ran up to him.
"Jaune!" They cried. "Are you ok? What happened?"
"Oh, umm…" He looked at Weiss and blushed all the way down to his chest. "It's nothing really. Cardin just replaced my shampoo with superglue. I was going to find Ren because Nora glued her hand to her desk last weekend he had something that helped."
"Why are you...?" Ruby pointed at his towel.
"Oh, Cardin kinda hid my clothes too. They'll show up again sooner or later."
"Jaune, if you want us to do something about him…" Yang slammed her fists together.
"No, no." Jaune waved his free hand, then snapped it down to grab the knot of his towel before it fell. "He just likes to mess around. There's no problem."
Ruby and Yang looked at each other with a grimace, but let him go by. If Jaune didn't want help, who were they to interfere.
~~~
Lunch right after fighting was the best!
Ruby got a chance to spar this time and burned a lot of energy! Her opponent was a little disappointing, but it was still fun. Sparring class with actual sparring got her full approval.
Her friends being together also got full approval. Getting them all in the same place was really hard, meals were about the only reliable time. Especially since she was going into the lab as often as Doctor Oobleck let her. She wasn't allowed to have her own key because of all of the other dangerous things in the room.
Ruby sat down in the middle of the group. She was between Weiss and Blake, and across from Nora. She'd been trying to get Nora to consistently remember her all week. Some days she did, on others it was like meeting a very sorry and very huggy friend all over again. Nora was kind of like her dad in that way.
"Hey, Nora." She waved.
"Mmph? What's up, Ruby?" Nora mumbled through a mouthful of noodles.
"You remembered me!" She thrust an arm into the air. "Also, cookies."
With her mission accomplished, Ruby looked over to the end of the table where Jaune, Yang, and Pyrrha were continuing their endless game of who would beat who from their favorite stories.
"No way, Major Marvelous would totally beat Lucy Skycutter." Yang drew a circle in the air with her fork. "He'd be all like, whoosh, binding chains on her arms and legs. No Dust blade could save her from those."
"How would she get caught? Lucy can see the future." Jaune brought his hands up to his face like they were googles. "She'd figure out what he was doing before he even thought of it."
Weiss groaned. She didn't join in on the more silly conversations very often. Instead she just played with numbers on her scroll. It looked like a business game of some sort, but Ruby didn't know why anyone would want to play those.
Of course, Weiss still participated more often than Blake and Ren, who were all the way at the other end of the table. Today they were reading 'The Darkness Within' and 'Ancient Mistrian Recipes' respectively. Ruby had been borrowing some of Blake's happier books, what few of them there were, but she couldn't keep up with how quickly Blake devoured new ones.
Without taking her eyes off of her book, Blake proved that she had been listening. "Seeing things doesn't matter if you can't react fast enough to prevent them from happening."
"Yeah, but how hard can dodging magic be compared to parrying bullets?" Jaune shot back, but got no response.
Ruby couldn't help giggling because he'd just taken several rounds to the face in class, only blocking one of them by accident. She felt a little bad about laughing because Jaune had gotten a lot better. Even so, he was still missing a lot of what she thought of as basic skills.
Nora slammed her fist on the table and made all of their dishes bounce, drawing everyone's attention. "I think there's a much better 'who can beat who' question we could be asking."
She grinned and looked from one side of the table to the other. "We've only seen three fights between our teams so far. Sooooo, bets on who can beat who for the next sparring class?"
Ruby looked at everyone nervously. She was pretty sure she'd be up there, but hadn't done an all out fight with Yang since the summer. That was before everything happened in the woods. She was a lot better now, but then again so was Yang.
"Pyrrha." Weiss broke the ice without looking up from her game.
"Wanna justify that?" Nora leaned over the table, leaving her only a few inches away from Weiss. She met Nora's manic grin with cold indifference and looked back down without emoting.
"I think it should be obvious why she'd win."
"Thank you Weiss." Pyrrha rubbed the side of her neck and stared at her salad. When Ruby thought about it, she was the most obvious choice. Pyrrha was a multi-year combat tournament champion. Though, it was a little weird that Weiss mentioned this fact more often than Pyrrha herself.
"Ok, yeah. I've gotta go with Pyrrha too." Nora sat back down. "Sorry Ren, but you've already lost one." She gave him a shoulder pat.
Ren smiled at Nora, then shrugged. "I think Yang has a good shot."
Ruby nodded. "I'm giving it to Yang too, sorry Pyrrha."
"Aww, thanks sis." Yang leaned over Weiss and lightly punched Ruby in the arm.
"Well, I think Weiss could do it!" Jaune chimed in next. He gave Weiss a goofy smile. She responded by shaking her head.
"Come on you guys. We're tied." Nora poked Pyrrha and Blake in turn. Yang was just out of arm's reach for her, but she tried anyway.
"I'm really not sure. Each of us has a different style and would match up better against different opponents. Judging an overall winner would be difficult." Pyrrha said while looking at her plate.
Blake shrugged and continued to read her book. "Ruby, I guess. She has the biggest weapon."
Pyrrha looked at Blake for a moment, then laughed. "I can't really argue with that logic, I suppose. However, if I were considering rate of improvement, I'd pick Jaune." She paused to smile at him. "But Ruby is two years younger than us and is still incredibly talented. By the time she's our age, she'll have surpassed all of our current skills."
"Who?" Jaune looked around the table, passing over Ruby twice before he noticed her.
Ruby groaned and waved to him. "Jaune, open your scroll and look at the note titled 'I forgot about Ruby again'." She'd asked Blake to write him a note to make this easier. It usually worked, but he still hadn't managed to remember to read it without prompting.
Nora groaned and dropped her head to the table. "You two suck! Now we have a three way tie."
Ren gave her a reassuring pat on the back while almost everyone else laughed. Blake and Weiss rolled their eyes instead.
Nora rolled her head to the side to get a look at her new target. "Alright. Yang, it all comes down to this." She suddenly sat back up and pointed at Yang. "You need to break this tie! Who will win?"
"Uhh." Yang looked down the table and bit her lip. "Well, I'm not really sure, you know? Everyone's pretty good."
Nora slammed both of her palms on the table and scowled at Yang. Yang groaned and looked around. "Ok fine. I pick…" She paused and ran her fingers through her hair. "Blake."
"What?" Everyone else said at once. Blake was good, but she made no sense as far as Ruby could tell. She hadn't fought much and her Aura was so quiet that Ruby almost missed it whenever she did something.
"I mean, she's faster than me and still hits really hard. She's also good at all ranges, just like Pyrrha. So… yeah, Blake."
All eyes turned to Blake, whose cheeks were bright red. She raised her book up to cover her face. "Uhh, thank you, but I really don't think I could do that well."
Nora's head hit the table again.
Everyone waited for someone to break the silence. Pyrrha, Blake, Ren, and Yang were just looking around, their faces forced to be as close to neutral as possible. They alternated between each other mostly. Weiss and Jaune were engrossed in their scrolls, the former occasionally glanced at Ruby.
Weiss kept making weird facial motions when their eyes met; a nod toward Yang here, a raised eyebrow there, and sometimes she held eye contact for several seconds past the point where it became uncomfortable.
Ruby had no idea what Weiss was implying; so she just played with the crumbs of her cookies. Cookies and milk were a complete lunch; no matter what dad said.
"Ohh, you're the one who helped me with my 'Beowolves Suck!' paper," Jaune said as he finished reading the note, looking right at Ruby. After a moment she giggled. Then Yang joined in. Shortly followed by Pyrrha. And then they all were laughing again.
"Huh? What'd I say?" Jaune laughed along, even though he hadn't been paying enough attention to know why.
"Nothing Jaune." Pyrrha laid a hand on his arm. She pulled it back quickly, to wipe the sides of her eyes. "Hehehe, thank you. We just, really needed that."
"Umm, ok." He grinned and scratched the side of his head. "Well, I'm still kinda hungry. Who else wants ice cream?"
~~~
"...not very subtle Nora."
"..worked didn't it?"
Their voices were muffled as they came through the walls. Jaune bumped his head against the mirror while he brushed his teeth. He tapped it several times with his forehead before pulling back.
Ok Jaune, you can do this. You're a team leader now and you need to act like it.
He rinsed his mouth, splashed his face with water, and stopped right in front of the door. After a deep breath he opened it. His teammates were sitting on Pyrrha and Nora's beds, the furthest part of the room from where he was. All three of them went quiet after he came out.
"I could still hear you in the bathroom you know." Pyrrha avoided looking at Jaune when he said that. Ren and Nora just shrugged. He shook his head before continuing, "Come on guys. You heard Professor Goodwitch. We should be making friends, not this. Team RWBY are our friends, so… So why are you so worried?"
The rest of his team gave him a look of disbelief.
"Ok, ok. Stupid question."
"Jaune, we're worried because they are our friends." Pyrrha started slowly. She held her hands in her lap and ran her thumbs over each other. "They're our friends, so we don't want them to be…"
She made a fist and stopped speaking. Nora cut in before Pyrrha could find the right words. "We don't want them to get hurt. If one of them winds up being, you know." She tapped her forehead. "Then the others are gonna get messed up worse because they're probably already messed up a little."
"It's best to think about this early, before you get too attached," Ren said softly.
"Ren, you're talking like it's a sure thing," Jaune plopped down onto Pyrrha's bed. "Come on, you can't really believe that? Can you?"
He shook his head, but still looked very uncomfortable. "I hope not, but some things feel too similar for me to ignore them."
"There are other, more subtle, signs than just the ones we've been told about in class so far." Pyrrha kept her eyes on her lap while she spoke. "Multiple semblances, inhuman abilities, and implausible skill: each of these can also be important to look at."
Jaune wasn't sure how she knew so much about this, but nodded anyway. "Ok, but if they were well, you know what, then they're supposed to be man-eating demons who want to destroy the world or something, right? They're all good people. I mean." He said while scratching his head, "I kinda freaked out when Yang first did her fire thing and Weiss is kinda scary and really smart, but I'm sure she's also a good person and just…
amazing."
"That. That right there is why I'm worried." Nora waved her finger at Jaune, but he didn't really get why.
"What? Weiss? I mean, you've seen her right? And heard her singing? Anyone would.." Jaune waved his hands for emphasis, but Nora just shook her head. He grumbled. "Ok well, you're a girl so that probably doesn't… Unless you… No... Ren, you know what I mean, right?"
He looked at Pyrrha, who was staring at her lap, then shook his head.
Jaune sighed. "Alright, I can tell when I've lost. But, back to my point. Yang had a good explanation for her fire and none of the Professors are doing anything."
"They're doing a lot Jaune." Nora frowned at him. "Us and Team RWBY... we're the only teams who've had everyone fight more than once. We also get called on a lot in other classes."
"Urgh, don't remind me." Jaune dropped his head down in a very exaggerated movement.
"Doctor Oobleck does pick you more often than anyone else." Ren smiled.
"He has it out for me, I swear." Everyone else laughed a bit and the heavy air in the room retreated. They were just four friends complaining about classes again.
And then Pyrrha spoke up, bringing the tension back. "What Yang said today made me realize something. I've been paying so much attention to Yang, that I missed how Blake fights with the same degree of skill. Only, she doesn't showcase the discrepancy as much."
"What do you mean?" Jaune groaned slightly. He wanted them to get off of this topic.
"Jaune, how would you describe Yang?" Pyrrha finally looked up and met his eyes.
"Uhh, blond, tall, kinda," He gestured towards his chest. When the others just looked at him confused, he made large, curved motions in front of it. Pyrrha narrowed her eyes and made a fist. Jaune bit his lip and continued, "Ok, fine. She's really strong, aggressive, and showy. When I fought her, she literally ran circles around me until I got dizzy."
Pyrrha smiled, but her voice was wavering, unsure. "Right, she's showy. She wastes movement and leaves a huge number of openings. This is all so that she can show off more when her opponent fails to follow through properly. She fights like a champion going up against a novice, even against very skilled opponents. And she wins each time. She doesn't just win, she wins decisively."
"Pyrrha, you do the same thing!" Jaune said much louder than he meant to. Pyrrha pulled back, bringing both hands up to her mouth to stifle a gasp. "You're amazing in the ring. When you get out there, it's like watching some action movie heroine wiping the floor with everyone around them."
Nora winced and hissed. "Oh no, Jaune. You didn't just-"
Jaune looked up and saw the shock on Pyrrha's face.
"I'm sorry!" He cut Nora off and grabbed Pyrrha's arm, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it like that, I just…"
"No, no," She didn't pull away, but also didn't look at him again, "Don't worry Jaune. I-I understand what you meant. I hadn't thought about it like that is all… I learned how to fight in that manner to please the crowds. It has become, something of a reflex."
Jaune leaned forward and stared at the floor. He went over what he wanted to say a couple of times before looking back up.
"Look guys, I really don't think we should be worrying about this. I might've missed what our Professors were doing, but all of you caught it. That means there's probably other stuff we're not even aware of." He locked eyes with Ren and then Nora. "Your old teacher did the same thing and they weren't even trained Hunters. So, really I don't think you should be stressing about this. We should trust them. Can you all do that, at least?"
After a few moments, Ren and Pyrrha nodded. Nora rolled her head back and forth while the rest of them looked at her expectantly. Eventually she sighed and caved. "Ok, fine."
