Chapter 102: News Report

Chapter 102: News Report

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

News Report

My meeting with Raven so arranged, I caught up to my sister at the store as promised. I didn't spend much time shopping since I generally didn't need a lot, but I figured out where everything in the store was in a second or two and methodically went about getting exactly what we needed. My sister browsed with a bit more whimsy, but we weren't in a hurry so I didn't say anything about it. I offered to pay for it, she stepped in and insisted on footing the bill, and then we left.

The downside of shopping with other people, however, was that I couldn't simply store everything in my Inventory. Between the two of us, we didn't have any particular trouble with the weight, but there were still several dozen bags for us to carry. Even if it felt light as could be, actually needing to carry stuff was a bit annoying. As Hunters, neither of us had much use for a car in day to day life, either, so we did it all the old fashioned way. It would be a lot easier if I'd had a chance to talk to her about my power, but I was still trying to decided what I should and shouldn't tell my family. I didn't really care about them knowing about the fact that I was the Gamer or even that I was Jian Bing, so I planned to tell them just to avoid needing to keep it a secret or having to reveal it at a less convenient time.

Even so, I was a bit concerned because once I brought them in on those secrets, it was going to raise a lot of questions about what had happened to me recentlyit wouldn't take a genius to connect that stuff to the fact that I'd been involved in the fight that killed Dad, even if I hadn't told Bianca I'd been along. The thing is, what did I tell them? I couldn't get them involved in this Rider business; even if they were, as far as I could tell, clean, they wouldn't be able to tell if the people around them were and the paranoia of that whole mess was enough to get to anyone. But on the other hand, with what had happened to DadI could leave out Conquest and just mention a Pandora Shell, but

Should I tell them I'd been the one to kill him? I wasn't concerned with them being upset with me or anything, because I was pretty sure they'd understand why I'd had to do it even if I was forced to edit out everything about Grimm-possessed humans, evil monster makers, and battles in the soul. Butdid I want to force them to live with the knowledge that I'd been forced to kill him? Even knowing that I'd done everything I could to free his soul, that still hurt me; for them

There were other things, too; stuff I couldn't tell them, mixed in with stuff I needed to. The stuff with the White Fang blended with secrets, the explanations for some of the things I'd doneI needed to tell them, but I also needed to figure out what not to say. There were things that would bring them nothing but pain and fear, secrets that would put them in danger, and flat-out awful truths. I need to choose my words wisely and maybe speak to Ozpin or my grandmother about it.

Beyond that, though, it just wasn't something I felt like talking about in public, even if I could shut down the sound around us. If nothing else, I had a feeling what I had to say would get some type of visible reaction, something other people might see. And then they'd wonder and ask for proof and examples, on and onbest to wait a bit until we were surrounded by people. And, well, to be honestI just didn't want to have to explain it multiple times. It was going to be a long story as is.

It can't be helped, I thought at last, biting down a sigh as I balanced two cases of water on my forearms as my fingers hooked through the loops of many of the bags. Several more were stacked on top of the waters, partially obscuring my view, not that it really mattered. I followed my sister back in the general direction of the Residential District before swinging into a restaurant I'd never been in, but which the girls had apparently agreed on silently. That didn't matter to me much either, since I didn't need to eat, but I ordered something large enough to keep either of my sisters from complaining and set stuff down around the table. I thought someone might, you know, say something about that, but apparently my sisters left lasting impressions. The staff continued to work with a general air of 'Same shit as always.'

"Hey, I saw this while I was shopping," Shani said the moment I'd taken a seat. She held up a newspaper that I blinked at before glancing over it and reading the front page. It was me and how I'd healed the hospital, but the photograph on the front was at least a year out of date. I hadn't really waited around for a photo-shoot, though, so that was fine. "I didn't know you were a healer!"

"He mentioned it to me while we were walking," Bianca said, reaching over the take the page from Shani's hand. "Why? Is something wrong?"

"Not wrong, really," Shani replied. "Justwell, I was pretty surprised when I saw your name all over the front page. Is this the first time you got in the news, Jay?"

Hell no. Although usually, it was as a wanted terrorist.

"Maybe," I said aloud, shaking my head. "I did that thing in Mistral, remember? I might have gotten in the news over thatto be honest, I didn't really check."

Shani snapped her fingers and pointed at me.

"Oh, that's right," She replied. "That thing with the girl. I heard that was all over Mistral for a while, too. Grandmother's work?"

"Yeah."

"She does that, now and then," Bianca murmured, reading the paper. "Likes to show off the superbabies, butwow, Jaune; I think this is more impressive. 'Hospital emptied by healing prodigy Jaune Arc,' it says. Is that true?"

"Uh," I shrugged. "Sort of? Not literally, because there were a few people too hurt for me to heal yet, but I fixed up most of the people thereand it'll be a while yet, but I hope to get good enough to fix the others, too. I can't regrow limbs yet and there are still a few things beyond me, butI'll figure it out, I think."

"Wow," Shani said as Bianca continued reading. "That's amazing! Is stuff like that hard?"

"Saying no makes me feel kind of arrogant," I frowned slightly before shrugging. "Butno. Stuff like that comes pretty easily to me, to be honest."

"A talking dog, a sapient flower, and now this?" She wondered, shaking her head. "Do you have some type of Biological Semblance?"

"Notreally," I hedged. "My Semblance is responsible for it, though. It's not something I really want to talk about in public, honestly."

And, of course, it served as an explanation. It would answer why my mother, missing three limbs and liable to remain that way for days or weeks yet, would abruptly be able to walk again and live her life normally. Why Onyx would regain his leg and Ren his hand, injuries that were already on record and which weren't known for spontaneously healing.

Yes, this was the path that let me heal my mother and save lives. This was the choice that might let me go where I needed to be, unquestioned. I could use this the same way I used Jian Bingwhatever else came up, I'd deal with it, or Ozpin would. It's not like I couldn't handle the burden or that I wouldn't be able to just leave if I felt like it; once my mother was healed up, I doubted I'd need to worry much about indirect threats, either. I still needed to speak to Ozpin about it, arrange some things, but

"Yeah," I told her smiling. "I'll be okay. I've spoken to Grandmother and Headmaster Ozpin about it, so it's not like I'm in this aloneand if something comes up, I'll just make one of you handle it."

Shani snorted at that, rolling her eyes.

"And there's the catch," She said. "All these years and you're still gonna make us fight your battles for you? What's the point of all that stuff you showed off in Mistral, then?"

"Well," I replied demurely. "If possible, I'd like to avoid fights that would make me feel bad about myself afterwards. So how about I handle anything big that comes up and you just deal with everything else? You can be my bouncer!"

"Oh," Shani drew out the word. "Mr. Big Shot Healer's feeling full of himself, is he? I'll have you know, I'm pretty fucking expensive"

I reached under the table and drew about ten thousand Lien from my Inventory. Lifting up the large stack, I flipped through it with a thumb, letting the sound of paper on paper do the talking for me. I'd have taken out more, but after a certain point, showing off how much money you have is hard to do with your bare hands; even in hundreds, a hundred thousand iswell, a thousand hundred Lien bills. Funny how that works.

Still, even if ten thousand Lien wasn't all that impressive at a table full of Hunters, it was enough to make a point.

"Son of a bitch," Bianca sighed. "I should have known after you told me you were a healer, now. I should have just made you pay for everything."

"Hey, I offered," I defended. "It's not a big deal for me right now, but if I need money, I can make it pretty damn fast in a bunch of ways. You don't need to worry about me on that front."

"Ugh," Shani snorted in disgust as she looked down at the stack of bills. "You whippersnappers and your high-paying part-time jobs. Why in my day"

I was in the middle of a chuckle when I felt a sudden shift and turned abruptly, prepared for a fight even if I didn't so much as rise from my chair. For a moment, I was staring into an empty corner of the roombut the darkness exploded out of it, crawling from where the walls met. There was a chill as air flowed into the shadows, a flickering of the lights, and the corner was promptly occupied by a woman. She wore a light purple shirt beneath a black vest, pairing it with leather pants. Beneath her hat, her shoulder-length blonde hair was tied back clear of her blue eyes and a set of headphones lay hooked on her neck.

Recognizing her, I relaxed back into my seat.

"I finally found you," She said, taking off her hat and she approached and pushing it down onto my head, pushing down at me as she made my head bow. "The house was empty when we showed up. How have you been doing, Jaune?"

"Better then I think anyone honestly could have expected," I replied, turning my head slightly so I could smile up at her. "We were just talking about you."

"Good things, I hope," She smiled back, letting up to rest her arms on the back of my chair.

"Of course," I promised. "We were just wondering if you'd come over with Grandmother, since you were in Mistral. Did you and Violet just decide to go on ahead?"

"We just made good time," She shook her head as the shadow's in the room stretched to congregate around her own as if drawn by some type of dark gravity. Looking down at it, I gave my sister's shadow a polite nod and watched as it returned the gesture, tracing a clockwise path around her. "The others are waiting by the house."

"We shouldn't keep them waiting, then," I said, rising and reclaiming my money. I hadn't even gotten my food yet, but I guess it didn't much matter. Giving her a one armed hug, I tipped my hat at her. "Welcome back, Indigo."

The Shadows That Hunt the Night

LV 90

Indigo Arc