When the Vytal festival came to a close with about as much pomp and ceremony you could expect from this sort of event, Jaune heard a sigh inside his mind.
Everything alright, Second?
Yeah, I just… actually getting through the tournament without anything going wrong feels a bit wrong. Like, I’m glad that it happened, you know? No Cinder, no White Fang, no curve balls… But even with the way things had worked out before this, I kept waiting for something to pop up that I hadn’t expected and screw us over.
Well, it’s a bit late for anyone to try something now.
Jaune turned towards Pyrrha, seeing the wide smile on her face as she held up the trophy, all of their friends gathered around as they made their way away from the crowds of fans and well wishers.
Team JNPR had won.
It felt a little surreal to think about, what with his initial being front and center. Him, Jaune Arc, winner of the Vytal festival.
Sure, he would readily admit that it was all thanks to Pyrrha that they had achieved that much. He liked to think that JNPR’s great teamwork had gotten them through the team rounds, but after that point… well, as much as she might hate the attention that came with the title, she was the invincible girl.
No way she was gonna lose to other students. Legitimate ones, anyway, Second remarked.
But she would lose to illegitimate ones… Jaune’s mood fell a bit at the thought.
It didn’t happen, Jaune. We prevented it. Vytal festival went off without a hitch, Beacon still stands, and you guys have years of schooling left before you have to go out into the world and risk your lives beyond simple grimm culling. Hopefully.
Did you have to ruin it at the end?
I’m a pessimist at heart, I don’t know what you want from me. Just enjoy the fact that your team won. Quite an accomplishment for someone who faked their way into Beacon, or at least it is in my eyes.
Maybe it was. Not that many people knew that tidbit of information. To think he’d been on the winning team after stealing Crocea Mors from home and running off without even having his aura unlocked…
Maybe I should contact my family….
Second Thoughts didn’t respond to that errant thought, unusually quiet for a moment.
The cheers and cries of his friends distracted Jaune from that fact.
“It was a lucky shot! I swear, the next time it’s just you and me, I’m gonna wipe the floor with you!” Yang growled, but everyone could see the playful smirk she was trying to suppress.
“What’s that? I can’t hear you from the highest spot on the podium!” Nora replied,a cocky grin on her face.
“Nora, we’re not in the arena anymore and they didn’t even have a podium. We just stood in the center while they did their photo shoot.” Ren tried to bring his partner back to reality.
“Then I require that one be provided!” Nora pushed on. “It can go next to my throne when I’m crowned as Queen.”
“Queen of what?” Penny inquired.
“Queen of Beacon, obviously! I did just win the Vytal festival.” Nora bragged.
“You didn’t even do the singles matches yourself!” Ruby argued.
“Neither did you, Rubes.” Yang reminded her sister. “Are you ready to give me all the credit for getting as far as we did?”
“I- well-” Ruby stammered before giving up.
Blake rolled her eyes. “If anything, wouldn’t Pyrrha be the one who gets that position? She’s the one who won the final fight.”
Pyrrha blushed. “Me? Queen of Beacon? There’s no need for all of that, I really didn’t do anything all that impressive…”
“Pyrrha Nikos.” Weiss frowned at her with disapproval clear on her face. “You just won the Vytal festival in your first year. This isn’t a tournament in Mistral anymore. You proved yourself on the world stage. You should be proud of yourself.”
“Seriously,” Neptune lamented, hanging his head in shame. “You kick all of our butts and then act like it’s not a big deal? What does that make us?”
“Ah, no! That’s not what I meant!” Pyrrha panicked.
Sun elbowed their blue haired friend. “Knock it off, Neptune. Our performance was pretty lousy.”
“It’s not my fault we got the water match!” Neptune tried to defend himself.
“Neptune’s phobias aside,” the trident user winced at Blake’s dismissal, “You really should be proud of yourself. I would really appreciate if you took half of Weiss and Yang’s ego for yourself.”
“What is that supposed to mean?!” The two shouted at their faunus teammate.
“I believe friend Blake is implying that the two of you have over inflated egos.” Penny explained.
“I think they already knew that Penny, they’re just upset about it.” Jaune finally joined in.
“I see! Thank you for informing me, friend Jaune!”
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“You’re being too quiet, fearless leader!” Nora reprimanded him. “If Second is going to distract you he should at least come out and say it to the rest of us!”
Does she think I’m shit talking or something?
“Ah, no, it’s not Second’s fault. I’m just… in shock I think? I don’t know what I’m going to do when my family finds out that I’m on the winning team…”
And he would find out. Even if this wasn’t his father’s sort of thing, somebody back home would surely congratulate one of his family member’s on his success. It was only a matter of time.
Maybe winning would make them overlook the whole theft and lying and running away thing?
…
Probably not, but he could dream at least.
But as his musings about his own family faded into the background and he looked back to his friends, it seemed that his words had some mixed reactions.
You’re not the only one with some family problems.
Luckily, Sun decided to save the group’s mood. “You can worry about that later! We’ve got the winners with us, it’s time to party until we drop!”
“Hell yeah!” Yang whooped, giving her fellow blonde a high five.
With how stressful things had been lately, that was probably a good idea.
I wonder if I can get drunk? Second pondered.
Nevermind. It was probably a bad idea.
----------------------------------------
An hour later, the group was high on life. Stuffed inside team JNPR’s dorm, they found themselves enjoying drinks, of the non-alcoholic variety, food, stolen from the school cafeteria, and a bracket tournament of their favorite game that Yang had challenged everyone to in order to “regain her honor” or some other nonsense.
She was losing to Nora instead of Pyrrha now, much to her chagrin.
This was the scene that Qrow walked in on when Penny opened the door for him.
“Greetings and salutations, Mr. Branwen!” She said with a smile. “Have you come to harass your nieces? I’m told that bachelors such as yourself often try to fill the void in their life left by having no children of their own with-”
“That’s enough of that.” Qrow shut her up by shoving his hand over her mouth. “Damn kids these days…” he grumbled as he walked into the room. “Oi! What do my nieces think they’re doing, slacking off right now? You made me look bad by losing and then you think you can just play some games?”
“Uncle Qrow you’re embarrassing us!” Ruby whined.
“Shut up Uncle Qrow! It was a lucky shot! I’ll kick Pyrrha’s ass, and then your ass!” Yang growled.
The drunkard smirked. “I’d like to see you try.”
“Oh? Does a new challenger approach? I’d love the opportunity to stomp you into the dirt!” Nora taunted him.
Qrow laughed. “You’d be the one getting stomped. I might just have to take you up on that. But first…” His eyes scanned the room, finding his very blue target talking to the woman of the hour.
“Congrats on your win, kid.” Pyrrha didn’t seem to know how to handle being referred to that way by the huntsman. “I’m gonna have to steal your friend for a few moments, though.”
That got everyone’s attention for a moment.
“Relax! I just got a couple questions for him, I’ll give him back in five minutes tops!”
“If I’m gone for more than three, call the police and tell them a bad man who reeks of booze took me away.” The little shit said as he walked towards the door.
“What did I do to deserve this?!” Qrow tried to defend himself.
“Oh, just something a little birdie told me.”
Only the blond brat the semblance belonged to seemed to understand that remark, the rest of them playing it off as some sort of weird joke.
“I really don’t get paid enough to deal with kids anymore.” Qrow lamented before leading Second Thoughts out into the hall.
Once the door closed behind them, Second’s expression grew serious. “What do you want? I already told them to ignore any offers made to them by strange old men. Though I suppose I’m not sure if they’d count Ozpin in that category.”
Qrow frowned, but didn’t respond to that comment. He didn’t exactly like the idea of one of the kids being cursed with the burden of becoming a Maiden either, but Second’s idea of making Neo one was even more outrageous in his eyes.
“I don’t trust my nieces to not be listening in, let’s go for a walk.” The scuttling on the other side of the door indicated that he was correct, so the pair began to wander the halls of Beacon, making sure to avoid anyone that might overhear their conversation.
“Back in that meeting…” Qrow hesitated for a moment. He’d been following Oz for so long at this point. Followed his orders because the man knew best. Doing something like this…
It made him feel uneasy, but he needed answers. “...we had talked about getting information.”
“We did.” The blue boy raised an eyebrow at him. “You want to know who to go to then? Huh. I really thought you would have deferred to Ozpin on that…”
Qrow really didn’t want to have that conversation. “Look, can you tell me who I’m looking for or not? You said it wouldn’t be easy, but that it was possible. I could probably get Jimmy on board if it’s necessary.”
“Eh, you’d probably have better luck if it was him requesting it rather than you. He might have to bribe her as well.”
“Bribe her? That’s… eh, I’m sure we can figure something out.” He wasn’t exactly keen on that sort of behavior, but if it meant getting the Spring Maiden to work with them, he’d do it. “So who is it then?”
Second hesitated. Qrow didn’t like the look on the kid’s face. “You’re not gonna like this.”
“I don’t have to like it. I just need to know.”
“Keep in mind that something could have changed, what with the shifting timelines and whatnot. Or actually… now that I think about it, to have it at the age she does, she’d have to have had it for quite a while now, so unless she’s dead…”
“Would you spit it out already?” Qrow demanded.
Second stopped his rambling. “Fine then. But if you want to blame anything, blame your shitty semblance.”
Why all the caveats? How bad could it really be? If she could be bribed then obviously it wasn't someone working for Salem, so Qrow really didn’t understand what could be so bad about having to work with this person.
“It’s your sister, Raven.”
Ah. That explained it.
“Fuck my life.” Qrow complained as he reached for his flask.
“Your life is doing a great job of fucking itself, Qrow.”
He was going to need another drink. “Any chance that the kids have some alcohol in there? Beer? Spiked punch? I’ll take anything right about now.”
“I’m afraid not, but you could take out your frustrations by demolishing them in whatever game they’re on now.”
It wasn’t a drink, but it would have to do. Not many sources of that in a school, or at least, not many that would be willing to share with him. “I think I’ll do that.” The two began making their way back to JNPR’s dorm.
“Fair warning though, don’t let them goad you into going up against Penny. She’s banned from competing against anyone because of her whole… situation.”
Her situation? What was Penny’s deal again? He couldn’t keep these damn kids straight with how many of them were running around.
Oh well, he’d figure it out.