Chapter 197: Distracted

To say Weiss was distracted was quite a bit of an understatement. No, in fact, Weiss was struggling to focus on just about anything except one. Their teacher. Every time she looked at him it was like he sparkled in her eyes. Though often she would be distracted for a moment when Ruby suddenly cheered for Jaune and his team who were currently attempting to combat another team, team SPHR.

The battle itself was… intense? If it could be called that. SPHR was intent on beating down Jaune who's only saving grace was his unearthly stores of aura keeping him intact. After a while, the others seemed to catch onto what SPHR's plan was. That is to knock out the weakest link of their team, the one who could barely hold a sword let alone swing it.

Their plan itself was going off with little issue, the S of the team, their leader was the one who took Jaune as his primary focus with the rest of his team acting as the Pyrrha defence league. In that they were doing their best to keep Pyrrha at bay whilst also juggling Nora and Ren between themselves.

Jaune would duck the odd swipe by a hairsbreadth while Pyrrha would dash to him only to vault to the side when an explosive dust arrow would come volleying towards her from the H.

She kicked off the ground, tossed a nod to Nora who smirked like the sugar rich psychopath she was and got her to mechashift her hammer into a grenade launcher and sent a salvo across the field. Most of said field exploded into minute fragments that would have otherwise shot out towards the watchers were it not for the glass wall professor Evans had put up after a past E.N.I, Explosive Nora Incident. The professor was still repairing the cliff face after that, happened.

On and on the battle went with Jaune just barely hanging on and resisting S' assault. S wasn't anything like Nora and Ren and certainly nothing like Pyrrha, so not particularly skilled with his claws. Yet somehow Jaune was still 'alive' as the professor tended to call those who had not yet failed his blood sport matches.

Weiss though, she was barely getting any of it. Barely taking in the panicked screeches of Jaune or the manic cackling of Nora and her babies. Otherwise known as her bombies. She would catch the odd glance when a shot would crackle against the glass but just as quickly her eyes would shift and fall upon the professor.

He stood there, legs tight together, arms crossed and eyes darting around scanning and analysing each and every event that occurred. Though he had noticed Weiss' intent stares and had lifted his gaze onto her.

Weiss of course darted her head away and 'focused', in the loosest sense of the word, on the fight. Catching in her peripheral vision his smirk at her faintly reddened cheeks.

This of course did not go unnoticed by her team, more specifically, Yang. Whom, after seeing Weiss hunched over, elbows on her legs and head rested in her palms, followed Weiss' eyes to see what had started the unusual flushing of the princess of ice.

"Oh, another one bites the dust."

Yang chuckled, her expression morphing to malevolence as she leaned down to Weiss' ear and whispered.

"Someone's in love."

In an amused and harmonic hum.

Weiss straightened her back in an instant and incapable of hiding her already scarlet cheeks did what she normally did.

"Quiet you. I am not. And if you say that again I will have my lawyers sue you for slander."

Divert.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure you will. Just like you did the last time, oh wait. No, you didn't."

Yang continued chuckling, the tone a morbid mockery of Weiss and her failing control over her own bodies physical aspects.

"Be careful Weiss. I don't trust him. Not a bit. Neither should you. Even if he saved you, there is something off about him."

"I know. I'm just as confused. He doesn't exist—he's never, existed. And yet he knows more about me, about the white fang and all that."

Blake perked up hearing that.

"But…"

She paused in thought of her next words.

"But, he actually seemed to care about me. He ignored my father like he wasn't even there and went straight to me. That doesn't happen Yang. People don't just ignore my father. Not for me."

Her hand inched to the feather she'd had held close to herself, having placed it inside a small pocket on the inner lining of her jacket and plucked it free. Her fingers rolling gently over the vane, feeling each of the individual barns all connected to the pitch-black rachis like a roll of exquisitely soft cotton.

"It can't be that bad."

"It can. Parties, balls, meetings. People would talk to me then my father would come in and suddenly I'm no longer interesting. They would run off to speak with him. Then, when I was younger, barely seven at the time, I was attending my father's business ball, I got a bit rowdy, like all children do. I tripped and a man, I forget his name, knelt before me as if worried I'd scraped myself. I had. Not that he noticed as my father appeared not long after and took the man off to have a conversation about the political climate of vacuo and a potential purchasing of dust rich land. Meanwhile, I was left on the ground, wincing as I patted my cut knees. So yes, it can be 'that, bad.'"

Yang went silent, unable to respond as her mouth hung open at the girl.

"Your dad is a dick." She suddenly exclaimed.

"I am fully aware… don't… tell him that." Quickly correcting herself, Weiss turned after wincing from a particularly loud 'Kill him Jaune! But don't you dare harm that beautiful shotgun!' from a nearby Ruby. Her gaze ultimately landing atop the professor where her heart decided to patter a beat faster and sent her ruby. The colour. Not the noise machine.

Diverting her gaze when her heart got a little too rowdy, Weiss ended up directing her vision Yang's way and saw the knowing smirk on her face. Just past her, Blake, narrow in the eyes and with a clamp over her nose she said was to stop her nose from bleeding. Though Weiss knew it to be more for the smell, she'd been able to surmise from the reactions of plenty of the other faunoid students, particularly the females, that they get a little… loose, whenever Professor Evans is near

"Ok. Yes, I might have developed a crush." she huffed and spun her head away.

"Hey, hey, I'm not blaming you. If he weren't a murderer, I might have already tried to get a romp in for some nice, juicy tokens."

Yang licked her lips and rubbed her hands together, greedy for that platinum and maybe that strange crimtane one for Ruby. She's been wanting to get her grubby mits on one of those for a while now.

"You… are vile Yang. He is our professor."

"I know. And I'm trapped living in the same room as two wet sponges. Oh, and would you look at that, they're both wet for the same guy. Our teacher."

Weiss recoiled in disgust, could Yang be anymore depraved than she was now? A sudden jolt and shiver warned Weiss to not push her luck. Yang could almost certainly be worse.

As the fight between JNPR and SPHR was drawing to a close, S rapidly shot towards Jaune. Pyrrha attempted to cut him off but P and R blocked her. One taking a downwards slash that sent Pyrrha rolling over them while the other headed her off just after with a sidelong smash against her shield that sent her careening off to the side.

Pyrrha being, well, Pyrrha, nimble caught herself on on hand and flipped herself to her feet and went on an immediate bullrush to Jaune. She wouldn't make it, nor would Ren and Nora as H was proving to be an irritance with her semblance that temporarily blinded people.

"Oh crap."

Jaune watched as S approached, sweat lathering his body and panting heavily. He was out of it, out of aura. Any attack that hit him would certainly break him. Er… his aura.

Though him breaking was still a possibility. It was Jaune after all.

S reeled his fist back, threw it forth and felt the crunch of Jaune's nose beneath his knuckles.

Jaune fell back, staggering as his white aura shattered like glass and for just a split of a second the world went dark.

By the time he'd regained consciousness he was already fumbling onto his but on the purple stone arena floor. His nose aching with blood trickling out of one nostril. Then came the bellow.

"That's it! Team JNPR has lost the battle!"

A shocking sound, something incomprehensible for the Invincible girl. For her to lose was something Weiss just couldn't understand.

That was if she were not on her own and being hindered by dead weight.

"Ah, my noth, I fink its brokhen."

Speaking with mangled words, Jaune pinched his nose, wincing at the spike of pain it caused.

Moments later Pyrrha was by his side, ignoring the panting and cheering SPHR. All of which threw their hands up in glory and fell onto their bottoms, thoroughly exhausted.

"Renny! Where are you my eyes! I can't see my pancakes! Mama can't live without seeing her pancakes!"

In the background Nora was hastily running around, feeling the air in search of Ren. Or pancakes, it was honestly a toss up with that girl. As she did so while Ren stood still and silent, eyes shut but cheek twitching, Nora's nose flared and she breathed in 'it.'

She gasped and exclaimed, "Renny! I can smell them cinnamon pancakes!" seconds later she kicked off the earth and lunged to the origin of the stomach starving smell. She gripped them, her palms pressing into her pan- "why do the pancakes have abs? Renny! Did you make another pancake man?"

"Nora… just… what?" sounded Ren, just as confused as the rest.

"Because Nora, those pancakes, are your professor."

Parc said whilst Nora continued to grope at his chest in search of her pan of cakes.

"Huh. You smell like pancakes. Weird. And nice. Mama likes pancakes. Ohhhh, I heard there's these flat pancakes called crepes in Atlas do you think Ren will make me some? Did anyone tell you smell like pancakes? It's making me hungry… for pancakes…"

Snorting and shaking his head Parc responded.

"If you stop groping me I'll personally make you as many crepes as you want. Hell, I'll even make you a Gâteau de Crêpes."

"Gata de what now?"

"Gâteau de Crêpes, it's basically a bunch of crepes stacked on top of each other with some type of filling between all the layers. In other words, Crepe cake."

If stars sparkled like nuclear bombs, that is what Nora's eyes at that very moment would be.

"Renny! Did you hear that! A crepe cake! A pancake cake! Pan ca-cake! I want one!"

Parc wached with sallow eyes as Nora dashed to Ren. He was looking to be nursing a heavy headache.

"I may have done something really bad."

--

"You'll be fine. It's not broken so just give it a bit and the bleeding will stop."

Gently patting away the blood with a handkerchief.

"You shure?"

Jaune's head tilted back and replaced Pyrrha's hand for nursing his wounded body parts.

"I'm sure Jaune. I've had plenty of bloody noses."

"ahm gonna doubt that."

"I really did. Even with my current epithet I still started somewhere, and my trainers were particularly merciless in the training. I'm actually quite lucky I never broke my arm whenever those two made me challenge them."

Saying this, Pyrrha, and the rest of the class—teachers included—were suddenly jolted by a creak and an unusual cracking noise like walking atop a frozen river but the ice was cracking beneath your feet.

Heads turned and lifted, soon landing upon one of the golden statues lining the walls. Its 'skin' taking on a thick crystalline white frost that chilled even the bones of the students seated besides it.

Then, 'tink' hairline fractures coursed the statue and the wall and soon, it crumbled apart.

Behind it a dark torchlit tunnel was seen and stood at the entrance was a woman. Her belly bloated with child and dressed like a soldier, though what soldier wore a jacket that left a portion of her bosom open and a skirt so short it was risking something inappropriate being revealed, that was.

"Goddammit, Esdeath.