After Tjaden woke up, he explained only to his teammates what he saw at the bookstore. He told them about the mint haired girl and silver boy and what they did. Kropp sugested keeping an eye on them, since they didn't have any sufficient evidence to prove what those 2 did for now. Tjaden also told Paul where he would find the books he had taken from the store.
They would've kept talking but the doctor came into the room and told them it was time for Tjaden to rest.
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Paul was walking through the streets of Vale yet again. He was walking through the street Tjaden told him he would find an alleyway with a blue dumpster. He walked approximately for 10 minutes before spotting the blue dumpster. Beside it was a bag with 4 heavy books
While walking back he noticed a light pole with a poster stuck to it advertising something called the "Vytal Festival". The poster had the image of a stadium with all flags of the kingdoms of Remnant. He examined it for a moment wondering what that was before taking the poster from the light pole and put it in his backpack before continuing with his walk back home.
The street he was walking in was filled with life. There were multiple restaurants and cafés, a park among other things. The people of the city were doing their normal tasks,children played, people walked their dogs, and the weather was wonderful. People all around were setting up banners and decorating the streets, it seemed like a celebration was going to be held soon
Paul was lost in his thoughts while walking. He wasn't paying attention to anything around him, until a loud boom was was heard. He blinked once and he was no longer in Vale.
Paul opened his eyes to see he was standing in no-man's-land. He clean uniform was now stained with mud and blood. All around him, men in similar uniforms were throwing grenades at an enemy trench. The enemy retaliated by throwing the grenades back at them. The multiple explosion caused Paul to panic and jump into a nearby crater. The explosions kept getting louder and they weren't stopping. All he could do was stay in a fetal position and cry.
He stayed there for what he thought were hours. As he wiped the tears from his eyes, he realized he was in Vale again. Multiple people were staring at him from the other side of the street. Turns out it was only a hallucination. That explosion he heard was just some balloons popping, and the crater he jumped into was a fence that surrounded a nearby park. Looking at his watch he saw that the whole ordeal lasted less than 2 minutes
When the initial shock passed and he realized he made a fool of himself he walked back home with his head down, completely embarrassed
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Beacon library
He had finally made it to Beacon. He was tired from the long walk he did. It wasn't the best way to start his day but he's had it worse. He sat down in a corner and opened one of the books Tjaden had gotten him. This particular book was about the history of Remnant. The first part of Remnant's history seemed normal, from hunter gatherers to developing agriculture. They had a good amount of wars and empires throughout their history just like earth.
Semblances and aura were seen as a sign of love that God had given the people of Remant to protect them from evil.
Grimm were seen as demons who had to be eradicated from the world. Since faunus had animalistic features early humans believed they were related to grimm.
The faunus were seen as inferior by human ever since first contact. When something went wrong they were the scapegoat. There has been countless genocides committed against them for thousands of years, and even today in most kingdoms they're second class citizens. They've always wanted a kingdom of their own but the closest they got is modern day Menagerie, which isn't even a kingdom.
The most important discovery in Remnant's history is dust. Humans had known dust for thousands of years by that point, it was a very common rock that you could find everywhere with little value. It wasn't until the scientific revolution 1200 years ago that the qualities of dust were discovered.
The empire of Yaviza was the first to truly capitalize on this discovery. They began to industrialize quickly using dust as a main power source. With their newly found power they were able to conquer all of the Saunus continent and most of Mistral. They used weapons never seen before. The first guns, planes, tanks and artillery were invented by the Yavizan Empire
Their collapse came when the emperor died leaving his 5 year old as the heir. Since a 5 year old wasn't fit to rule this caused a power vacuum in which multiple provinces seceded from the empire.
The most destructive and recent war had been the Great War. The name caused Paul to chuckle a bit. This war saw the most deaths out of any other. It was also the war that ended faunus enslavment. Unlike Earth's Great War, this one was fought with more house to house fighting. There were still trenches but they weren't really used.
He also learned of the multiple truces that had to be made to fight the hoards of grimm. That last part seemed familiar. When he was on leave he used to walk besides a POW camp containing captured Russians from the eastern front. One bearded soldier told him of a truce they made with the German army to take out hoardes of wolves who ravaged their trenches.
"I guess we aren't so different after all" Paul thought
Paul was interested in Remnatian history and he wanted to keep reading but his stomach suggested otherwise.
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Beacon cafeteria
Teams TAPS and RWBY sat in one table. They were speaking about their most recent missions. Everything was going fine, tho Paul was quiet, remembering what happened earlier.
"So, how's class been?" Asked Kat. "The usual." Answered Yang. "Not combat class." Said Ruby entering the conversation. "Ever since y'all brought Himelstoss here it's been nothing but hell." Ruby said angrily. "Was he always like this?!"
"Yeah, Himelstoss can be a real piece of shit sometimes, but you'll get used to it." Said Tjaden trying to lighten the mood. "It's been 3 months since you guys arrived and I'm still suffering in that class" Replied Ruby sounding tired.
"If it really bothers you that much you can do what we did." Said Tjaden as a grin began forming on his face. "What is it" Ruby replied tilting her head.
Tjaden explained to her how they had taken revenge on Himelstoss some years ago. Ruby and Yang seemed to like the idea, much to the dismay of their other 2 teammates who liked staying out of trouble.
Paul was quietly eating his oatmeal until he remembered the poster he snatched earlier.
"Girls, does any of you know what the Vytal Festival is?" Paul asked. His teammates looked at him confused but the faces of team RWBY lit up. "OMGHOWCOULDYOUNOTKNOWWHATITISITSTHEBIGGESTFIGHTINGTOURNAMENTINREMN-" Ruby's excited rant was interrupted when Yang stepped in. "Calm down sis" she said as she shook her sister. "Right sorry" replied Ruby now calm.
"The Vytal festival is an annual competition where huntsmen from all around the world show off their skills in battle." Ruby explained before continuing. "There are 3 phases. The squad, duos and solo phase."
"Is that why there was so much decoration in the streets this morning?" Paul wondered
"So all that stuff we learned in combat class, can be put in use?" Asked Kropp. Ruby nodded her head as Kropp turned to his teammates. "You guys think we should enlist?" He said to his team.
"We can barely win a fight against Arc, you think we'll be able to take on some of the best huntsmen in the world" Replied Kat.
"Besides, their weapons would most likely end up killing is" added Paul "Since we have no aura"
"When is the festival taking place by the way" Asked Kropp. "In 2 days the tournament will begin, but you will see the preparations being set up a few days earlier" Replied Weiss.
Both teams talked some more until the bell rang indicating they had to go to their classes
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As Weiss said, the preparations for the Vytal festival started being set up. Classes were suspended for the whole week due to the tournament. Most preparations were put up by students trying to get community service hours.
Tjaden found himself helping Sun set up one of the many stands that were being set up in the field behind the school. To say he was exhausted would be an understatement. Kat would usually help him carry heavy objects, but right now he was to busy and couldn't help him. It also didn't help it was a hot day. His throat begged for some water. He was so thirsty that he would drink the water trapped in craters back in France. Luckily for him a cloud covered the sun, refreshing him a bit.
After stretching for a bit he looked up at the sky, and saw what actually covered the sun. It wasn't a cloud but a massive floating stadium. Tjaden couldn't believe what he was seeing. He was aware that this world was more technologically advanced but he could've never imagined this. What shocked him even more is that the students around him didn't seem to give a damn and continued like normal.
After the initial shock passed he resumed with his tasks and finished setting up yet another stand alongside Sun.
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The next day
It was already nighttime and the tournament had officially begun. The outside of the stadium was filled with people from all over the world. Transports were arriving every 2 minutes bringing in even more people. From the ground people could see fireworks of all colors. The Germans were already at the stadium eating all sorts of snacks that they bought at the stands they set up hours earlier. While waiting for the opening ceremony to begin they were joined by teams SSSN and RWBY.
Ruby was the most excited out of all. She couldn't wait to see all the new semblances and weapons the other huntsmen would have.
The teams chatted about various topics for a while. Paul was in the midst of a conversation with Sun when out of nowhere, the lights went out, leaving the stadium in complete darkness aside from the small light emitted by Tjaden's scroll. The krauts thought there was a technical failure but their friends reassured them nothing was wrong and this was just the beginning of the opening ceremony.
The stadium was in darkness for about 45 seconds. Suddenly the lights turned on, and multiple people dressed in traditional clothing from all 4 kingdoms were standing in the middle. They performed some cultural dances and sang the national anthem of the kingdoms, followed by even more fireworks. Once that was over with they brought some artists to put up a show.
The whole ceremony lasted 20 minutes and to Paul, that was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen.
"That was pretty nice" said Kat turning to his friends.
"Honestly, I think they could've brought a better rapper for the performance" Mentioned Sun
"Should've brought Carti" Replied Tjaden looking up from his scroll
"Who?" Asked Paul looking puzzled
"Vergessen Sie es" (Forget about it) Replied Tjaden shrugging it off
Before anymore questions could be asked, a voice was heard over the PA system.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WELCOME TO THE VYTAL FESTIVAL!"
The crowd went absolutely crazy after that was said. There was cheering whistling among other things, even the Germans joined in on the fun.
"Let's get straight to the point" the announcer said more calm now
"The first match of the tournament will be between team BRNZ of Vacuo, and team SPHR of Mistral!"
The crowd began cheering once more for the teams who at this point were already standing in the swamp and mountain themed arena.
Soon both teams took their positions and the battle began.
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The battle ended in victory for BRNZ. It wasn't bad for the first match of the tournament.
Ruby was still distracted, drooling over the different weapons each huntsmen had.
There was a 10 minute break between matches.
Kropp and Scarlet went to get some more snack while the rest waited for the next match to begin.
None of his friends were competing today but tomorrow team RWBY would face off against another team. The girls seemed confident in their skills, and were sure they were gonna win. Paul just hoped they didn't get to hurt
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It's finally here!
The first chapter of volume 3
I had a hard time writing this chapter because of the several roadblocks I hit.
This volume is my favorite and have big plans for it and the rest of the story
See y'all in chapter 11