Blep
Watching her million year long boyfriend scarf down an entire platter of fish, Ruby almost forgot how much of a glutton Jaune was at times. This was made no more apparent when he shoved an entire fish down his gullet-scales, meat and bones, the lot, without issue.
As for the divine reaper herself, she ordered a simple dish comprising of some lettuce, fish fillets and a side chips. She was never one for gorging on food (disregarding her obsession with cookies and strawberries), so she only had what was necessary.
And despite this being something she's seen countless times over the last few million years, watching her boyfriend eat lots more than needed never failed to surprise her.
"If I asked this before then I forgot, but where the hell do you put all that?" she asked incredulously, Jaune raising his piercing eyes up to her, a fish tail hanging out of his mouth. Slurping it up like one would a noodle, Jaune answered honestly.
"No idea, but I'm always fit so that's nice. Plus, don't see you complaining." Jaune flirted with her, Ruby lightly blushing but not refuting his words if only because it was true. Part of her had forgotten what he looked like outside of being a 100 odd meter tall lizard, so she was committing his physique to memory. To the average person, Jaune's clothes would be considered baggy or at least loose; but Ruby's eyes were far beyond the average person, easily making out his tense muscles and just mouth-watering body.
Though there was something about him that struck at her wrongly-not necessarily Jaune himself, but rather something clinging to him that made her just a bit aggravated (read: possessively murderous). Sniffing slightly, Ruby's face went blank upon discovery.
Someone else's scent...
"Jaune", she said lowly, Jaune himself tensing at her tone-knowing for a fact something was wrong. "Care to explain why you smell like a cat?" she asked blankly, some sweat beginning to drip down Jaune's brow. Swallowing his current fish, he tried placating her.
"Well, I wound up on an island with only Faunus, got taken in by some kind strangers-both of them being a cat and panther Faunus, stayed there for a bit before eventually coming here." he narrated, hoping that quick explanation would be believable enough.
Unfortunately, the universe said a colossal "fuck you".
"And just who exactly was this cat Faunus?" she enquired, her blank tone still present but with a hint of dark possession seeping in.
Gulping, Jaune simply decided to face his funeral music, "A woman named Kali Belladonna." Typically, he would of had some hesitation in his tone of voice, but as stated, simply accepted his inevitable demise.
"'Belladonna'? As in?..." Ruby trailed off, her silver eyes hardening into cold steel.
"Blake's mum." he answered.
He didn't see what hit him, only that he was suddenly in the air after bursting through the top of a building and making a trench in the street upon impact, right in front of a certain blonde brawler.
=With Yang and Co. (5 minutes prior)=
Walking down the streets of Mistral, Yang alongside Weiss and Nora decided to simply sight see. Everyone else was currently back at Haven, with Pyrrha training almost religiously ever since Ruby's return to them.
It was no less shocking for the collected group, seeing someone they had believed to be outright dead with no hope of survival suddenly walk in through the door, dragging behind her a still shocked Qrow.
Wasn't hard for Yang to see why the Spartan was almost delving into a sleep deprived state, having been training herself to redeem herself in Jaune's eyes-Yang almost the same for Ruby. The only reason why Yang wasn't doing so was that Ruby herself said that such a thing was pointless.
"I'm going to work with you lot as a partner, but never again as a sister. You made sure to ruin that back at Beacon."
So here the brawler was, walking down Mistral with the Schnee heiress and pancake lover hoping to take her mind off things, though from what Yang noticed, Weiss and Nora themselves weren't doing well either.
The heiress was silent, having been contemplating on Jaune's return-especially given what his last words to her were before the incident, and the eventual sleepless nights from there on and past the Fall of Beacon. Yang suspected Weiss regretted everything she did to Jaune much like the brawler herself, but more so as well regarding the constant rejections.
Nora, however, was an entirely different story, the ginger having seen the knight as an older brother before his transcripts were revealed to them, which is when her hostility towards him began out of a feeling of betrayal and deceit. Yang could remember the 'sparring match' between her and Jaune in extreme detail-one does not forget the sight of Magnhild swung full force into a man's jewels.
Though after that match, Yang noticed something about her behavior to Jaune had changed, appearing almost hesitant to pick on the blonde anymore. Yang never enquired before, deeming it none of her business back then.
Though now, with the revelation from Ruby that Jaune himself was back amongst the living as well, that must've rekindled past regrets massively so. Yang herself wasn't exempt from this-the pain of ultimately driving away her sister struck her hard, only further nailed in upon Ruby's statement.
Shaking herself off that train of thought, Yang simply looked over the streets of Mistral. Honestly, the streets honestly gave her flashbacks of Vale during the Vytal Festival-stalls lining the road side selling all manner of things, with major shops behind them. If it wasn't for shadow war with Salem looming over them, Yang would say it'd be peacefu-
*boom* *BAM*
As soon as that thought crossed her mind, something blew up several streets down from the trio's position and was launched into the sky with a plume of dust following it. After a moment, the object crashed but a few feet in front of them. Readying Ember Celica, Yang saw out of the corner of her eyes Weiss and Nora getting their respective weapons out.
As the dust began to clear, the object that crashed was revealed to be a person when it began to stand. Once the area was fully cleared, Yang's breath caught in her throat with a ragged gasp. Currently, the only things she could make out were the dark black clothing, 6ft stature and shaggy hair. However, despite the black tips on the end of his hair, Yang could instantly tell who had such shaggy hair.
Her theories were proven true when, upon hearing her choke up in shock, he turned around and it was thus the boyish face and cerulean blue eyes of Jaune Arc stared back at her. Unfortunately for Yang, whom reacted with shock, Jaune's reaction to seeing the trio before was gaining a scowl on his face whilst muttering "oh great..." before another bang shook the street.
Whirling back around, Jaune and the girls behind him watched as Ruby slowly stood up from her hunched position, a blank expression on her face with dark emotions swirling within her silver eyes. Cussing internally, Jaune held up his hands in a placating gesture.
"Ruby, I don't know what I did to piss you off, but I'm sorry." Jaune said, Ruby slowly stalking towards him with a frigid presence emanating from her. Behind him, the Beacon trio were freaking out seeing the renowned happy Ruby Rose come closer with a less than inviting aura.
"Really, Jaune. Then kindly explain why Blake's skank of a mum has her stench all over you." she questioned-more demanded, really-in an emotionless tone that contained a layer of life threatening hostility.
He held up his hands in placating manner, "I may have helped resolve an issue regarding her marriage, and she gave me a hug as thanks," he said, voice solid as the truth was told to his overly possessive girlfriend.
Tilting her head sideways, Ruby though over his words in order to ascertain if it was the truth or a lie. After a few seconds, she couldn't pinpoint any hint of a lie in his statement, which made a bright cheery smile appear on her face.
"Oh good!" she launched right at Jaune, wrapping her arms around his neck and legs around his waist. Nuzzling against her boyfriend's chest, Ruby relished in his presence, Yang and the others behind him getting ignored for the time being.
Looking down at his affectionate mate, Jaune heaved a sigh of relief at dodging a massive bullet there. Rubbing the back of her head, he felt her shiver pleasurably at the touch before relaxing some more. Turning his head, he saw out the corner of his eye as Yang, Weiss and Nora stood stock still whilst beholding the sight before them.
"If you'd kindly fuck off, that'd be great." he said in a bland tone, his eyes conveying annoyance at the mere sight of them. Flinching, Yang took a hesitant step forward with Weiss and Nora having concerns about Jaune's reaction.
"Hey, uh, Vomit Boy-" she flinched when Jaune's eyes narrowed at her, "-sorry, Jaune. Listen, we need your help." she stated meekly, Jaune having the most unhappy face possible in this situation: a blank face with narrowed steely eyes.
"Oh really? What with?" despite his immense dislike of the trio, he was still curious as to what would get Yang of all people to ask for his help. From his past knowledge of the brawler, she was quite prideful in herself-ranging from her appearance to her overall personality. Though, looking over her now clothing choice, it seemed to Jaune that she's had a bit of a change. Additionally, though Nora seems to have kept pretty consistent in clothing choice, Weiss seems to have managed to snag herself a fancy pale blue dress get-up.
Though he couldn't care less about that.
Feeling Ruby untangle herself from him, he looked down at his girlfriend as she equally stared back up at him, her silver eyes conveying that this was a serious matter.
"Trust me Jaune, this is something you're gonna want to hear."
Not willing to fight her words, he sighed in exasperation before nodding begrudgingly, flicking his head to the left silently telling Ruby to lead the way, the moth girl guiding her boyfriend to the shared living space. Not paying attention to the trio following them, Jaune's attention was solely focused on Ruby's sashaying hips, a small growl emanating from his throat.
'Dammit, what is wrong with me. Sure I had a decently sized libido, but wasn't this bad before!' he thought, the frustration on his current state of mind boiling higher but thankfully he was able to put that off. As long as he didn't do anything heinous, he could live with the frustration.
Didn't stop him from subconsciously ogling his girlfriend's backside.
=Haven Lodge: 10 minutes later=
Walking through front door, the group of 5 was greeted to the sight of Qrow, laying down on the couch, a book on his face with snoring emanating from the scythe user. Deadpanning, Ruby walked over and yanked the book off his face, revealing the drunkard to be open-mouthed and leaking drool.
"Of course." if she knew her uncle, and needless to say she did, Qrow probably read the book just to shortcut himself into sleeping. Not gonna bother with it, Ruby put the book on the table and left it at that, whirling around with a fake smile that conveyed immense annoyance at her uncle's state of being.
"Disregarding the unconscious alcoholic next to me, we should catch you up to speed," she announced, Jaune sweat dropping at the forced enthusiasm while Yang, Nora and Weiss quietly scooted on past him to stand off towards the side. Looking around, Jaune could tell that their current residence was quite a nice looking place, having everything needed to live comfortably for an extended time.
"So, what's the big problem at hand?" he asked, looking at his girlfriend with curious eyes. Expression dimming, Ruby sighed and looked up with a serious yet mournful stare.
"A couple of months ago, Beacon and all of Vale was attacked by the combined efforts of the White Fang and a horde of Grimm," Ruby began, recalling all that her father told her, "Already, the two working together is baffling and curious on its own, but there was a third party involved; and from what I've pieced together thanks to the trio next to me, they will be coming here to do the same."
Mulling over her words, Jaune's confusion and curiosity continued to grow. Its known that Grimm hate both Human and Faunus alike, so the White Fang working with the dark beasts should be a concept deemed impossible, yet it obviously happened. The only that could work in Jaune's mind is the White Fang's efforts would generate enough negativity (mainly fear and panic) among the civilian populace that the Grimm were tempted to ignoring the WF, letting the terrorist group continue forth in their efforts.
But that left one tidbit out of the equation, "And what of this third faction?"
Grimacing, Ruby knew for a fact that he wouldn't take this well, "They're Velvet's killers."
Freezing with a blank expression, Jaune tuned out the world around him and focused on that singular statement. They're Velvet's killers, that resonated throughout his mind on repeat, various images of the possible scenarios regarding the rabbit Faunus' death taunting the ancient king, his fist clenching tighter and tighter by the second.
"What?" he growled out, small wisps of smoking leaking from the corners of his mouth. Wide eyed, Yang, Nora and Weiss began to back away from the living nuclear weapon, their survival instincts telling them 'back the fuck up, NOW!', the trio not disagreeing in the slightest.
In a complete opposite move, Ruby walked closer towards her boyfriend, gently cupping his face with sympathetic hands. Ruby knew for a fact that if she hadn't got with him, Jaune would've most likely got together with the rabbit Faunus. Regardless of that, while Ruby enjoyed her friendship with the second year student, Jaune had treasured it to the point of them developing a sort of brother-sister relationship.
"Velvet got included into some top secret shadow war, and she had put up a fight against a member of third party during the attack on Vale. Despite her talent, the enemy managed to achieve victory by just the slightest bit, Velvet falling in that battle," she explained, further growls emanating from Jaune's throat. Not saying anything else, she wrapped her arms around his torso in a comforting embrace with the black-clad blonde recuperating. resting his chin on the top of her head while letting out a sigh.
Watching the love birds, the trio of huntresses left the room with Yang and Nora also picking up Qrow so that he didn't wake up and interrupt the duo. Walking into the kitchen area, the heavy hitters of group unceremoniously dropped the alcoholic on the ground which earned a grunt and an exasperated "What the fuck?!" from the man.
Ignoring him, the trio saw as Ren finished cooking the group lunch with Oscar and Pyrrha waiting patiently for their meals. Hearing the drunk get dumped on to the floor, the looked over to the doorway spotting their friends looking a bit pale.
"Hello, you're back early," Pyrrha said, remembering when the trio left to explore Mistral for a fair bit, only for them to have come back earlier than anticipated.
"Yes, well, something happened that had us return," Weiss stated, the three huntresses taking their own seats at the table (Weiss on the left of Oscar, Nora to his right with a seat next to her for Ren with Yang taking the seat next to Weiss), silence consuming the normally talkative group, Pyrrha and Oscar looking back and forth between themselves and the trio with curiosity in their eyes.
"Can I ask what that was?" Oscar said meekly, still feeling slightly awkward about being in a group of trained Hunters while he was just a simple farm boy. Despite Ozpin's attempts to dissuade such a deprecating mindset, it always remained in the back of his mind.
For the moment, neither of the tree wanted to spill the news so soon but knew they would have to. However, they had taken too long as seemingly out of nowhere, Jaune and Ruby walked right through the kitchen doorway, everyone bar the Faunus duo and Oscar freezing up, even Ren who had walked to the table carrying plates only to have dropped them in shock.
Looking at the table with his eyes having followed the fall, Jaune lifted his back up towards Ren, "Really? You've become so incompetent that you drop plates now?" he asked sarcastically, the visage of Pyrrha and Ren igniting the anger in his heart. However, he was content to ignore them and trailed his eyes towards Oscar, an eyebrow being raised at the young man.
"Who's he?" he asked Ruby, the farmhand looking a little too young to get involved in a conspiracy as big as the one he's been informed of.
"That's Oscar Pines, good kid if a bit shy. Turns out, Professor Ozpin reincarnates into someone else when he dies, and Oscar was the end result." she explained, Oscar shrinking in on himself.
"Hmm, is it possible for him to talk to us?" Jaune asked, Oscar narrowing his eyes for a bit before they widened.
"Un, not now, no. He's being oddly silent," he said, the situation feeling odd to the small teen having not expected for his mental roommate to suddenly be so unexplainably quiet. The experience honestly felt relieving yet uncomfortable due to how often Ozpin spoke to him.
Humming, Jaune waltzed into the kitchen while ignoring the shocked stares from Pyrrha and Ren when they looked at his tail, intending on making a nice warm cup of cocoa to help stave off the annoyance and rage he's felt today. Putting some cocoa sachets in a cup, he heard footsteps coming into the kitchen, the ancient 'teen' waiting for them to speak before jumping to any conclusions on how to act.
"Jaune?" they said meekly.
He tensed, immediately recognising the voice as Pyrrha's angelic one, though now its been replaced with a trepid and hesitant tone. Pausing in his efforts, he turned around whilst keeping a tall and commanding posture.
"Pyrrha." he said simply, no hint of any anger, rage and contempt lacing his voice which was somehow worse for the redheaded champion fighter.
Hesitation increasing, Pyrrha was unable to formulate any words which created and awkward silence between the two-one consumed by guilt and regret while the other felt nothing for the girl before him.
"I'm just gonna cut things short and simple; I hate you Pyrrha," he said, the girl flinching with tears brimming in her eyes. Unfortunately, she'd get not sympathy from him, "I hate you, and frankly I don't want anything to do with you from here on out. And If you so much has bring up the fact that I'm here right now, that's because Ruby informed me of Velvet's killers potentially coming here, so I'm here to end them." not waiting for a response, Jaune finished making his cup of cocoa, leaving the kitchen and taking a sip of the warm beverage, managing to feel a semblance of between his drink and his girlfriend's presence.
While back in the kitchen, Pyrrha had collapsed to her knees while shedding silent tears, the pain in her heart stopping her from emanating a single sob.
=Southern Glacier=
Standing on the icy cliff edge, Ghidorah surveyed the surrounding sea with a calculating gaze. Looking upwards to the high hanging Sun, the golden tyrant deduced that he was currently facing North thanks to the Sun moving minutely towards the left of him.
"Hmm, so he is on this world as well." he said, deep concentration allowing him to feel his instincts guide him towards his long time rival, his thirst for a rematch ever increasing by the second.
Oh yes, he could feel that with these new bodies, because it would be stupid to assume his black-scaled enem would remain in his original state, their battles would perhaps be more interesting.
"What are we waiting for then? Let's hunt him now!" Ni exclaimed, Ichi grunting at his excessive volume.
"And we will. Soon, our rematch shall occur." looking towards the sea-filled horizon, a bloodthirsty smile crossed his face, battle instincts kicking into high gear in preparation. Before any of the other personalities could get a word in, Ichi spread their wings-a decent wingspan that had his wings longer than his arms by a meter each.
In one powerful flap of his wings, Ghidorah launched high into the sky and let his instincts guide him towards his ancient foe, eager to see how his ner body holds in the fight.
A storm was coming to Mistral, and it showed no signs of slowing down.
AN
And that my friends, is the long awaited new chapter to KOTM. Obviously, I've finally got myself in order and managed to get off my ass, so now I will hopefully be able to update on a regular basis once more.
I do hope you enjoyed this little installment, and feel free to give your own thoughts and suggestions.
Until next time, Redsummer out.