PFK 36 - Patch (Patreon)

To my mild surprise, Qrow didn’t insist we go tearing off on his mission immediately, as I had half-expected from his comments to Amber about not staying with us. Maybe seeing his nieces relaxed him a little.

I spent the rest of the weekend hanging out and training with my team as usual while he ‘made arrangements’. On Sunday night, I found a notification on my Scroll with an addendum to my — sure enough, Journeyman — license, indicating that I was officially registered as an apprentice to Qrow Branwen, Master Huntsman of Vale.

A trip to the library to peruse the Beacon Student Handbook revealed that students with apprenticeships were allowed to miss class to accompany their Mentor on missions with the teachers’ and headmaster’s approval. Consequently, each professor held me back after one of their classes the following week to assign a month’s worth of advance work. I would need to turn it all in and take a test in each subject on my return, to make sure I wasn’t falling behind in my education.

Damn, I really imagined Remnant being much more lackadaisical, considering RWBY’s mission to Mountain Glenn, I grumbled mentally, as I sat down on Thursday for the fourth consecutive evening of nonstop quizzes and essays. I guess paperwork really does run any society above a certain level of complexity.

[By rapidly absorbing and synthesizing new information, you have increased your knowledge base! Your INT has increased by 1!]

[A skill has been created through a special action! Writing by hand for several hours five days in a row created the skill [Penmanship]!]

[Penmanship (Passive) LV 2 EXP: 0.00%][A skill that represents your ability to write legibly, neatly, and quickly. As this skill increases, you will find fewer spelling errors and misunderstandings from others reading your handwriting.][Passively increases DEX by 2%.][Improves handwriting speed by 2%.][Improves handwriting legibility by 12%.]

The new skill certainly came in handy. None of it was difficult given my boosted INT, but the usual 1-2 essays a week was suddenly multiplied into a dozen in a single week. Still, I was determined not to fall behind due to the sudden privilege; even if I didn’t strictly need Beacon to be a Huntsman, I was actually growing close to my classmates and didn’t want to just bug off.

At the same time though, I definitely wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to work with a Master Huntsman, much less one with the kind of connections Qrow had. He had ins with not just the Guardians, but likely with quite a few less-savory contacts both in and out of Vale that could be very useful in the future, whether my loose plans for navigating the Vytal Festival succeeded or not.

I didn’t see Qrow again until dinner on Friday. I was pretty familiar with the strongest Auras at school — the teachers’, naturally — so the appearance of another powerful one drew my attention as soon as he entered my passive range. I looked up at the door before it opened. Blake, beside me, noticed my attention shift and glanced up from her book, following my gaze just as the door opened. Neither Ruby, who was chattering about a class from her first year at Signal, nor Pyrrha, who was eating and listening, noticed anything.

Qrow took a lazy glance around and spotted me, then smirked and pressed a finger to his lips as he walked toward us.

“–nd then Trixie’s brother Xerxes chases him off and says,” Ruby effected a deep voice. “‘Didn’t I tell you kids to stand up for yourselves?’”

Qrow flipped Ruby’s hood up over her head, pushing it down over her face as he leaned down and spoke in her ear. “Maybe take the advice of a guy who starts so many street fights he’s in jail every few months with a grain of salt, Little Rose.”

Ruby flailed her arms. “Uncle Qrowww, get offfff!”

“You need better situational awareness, too,” he chided, dropping into the empty seat beside Ruby and stealing one of her cookies.

She pouted at him, but didn’t try to swipe it back the way she would when Yang did the same thing. “What are you doing here?”

“I can’t come see my adorable niece?”

Ruby blew a raspberry. “You could, but you didn’t, ‘coz you’re a butthead.”

Qrow grinned, ruffling her hair. “Is that any way to treat someone who’s taking you and Yang home to see your dad this weekend?”

Ruby gasped. “I wanna see Zwei!” She leapt to her feet and blurred over to SYRN’s table with her Semblance. “Yang, we need to pack! Come on, come on, come on!”

Yang grabbed Ruby’s shoulders to stop the smaller girl from shaking her. “Rubes, what are you talking about?”

“Uncle Qrow’s here and we’re going home for the weekend and we need to pack so we can pet Zwei hurry up!”

“Oh.” Yang set Ruby down, looking over to find Qrow waving lazily. “Why didn’t you say so?”

“That… uncouth-looking man is your uncle?” Weiss asked. Qrow, who was taking a swig from his flask, lifted a finger in the heiress’ direction, eliciting an indignant, “Hey!”

“You did just insult him, Weiss,” Ren murmured, and she bit her lip.

“I promise he’s heard worse,” Yang snorted. “Heck, I call him worse every time I see him. Right, Drunkle Qrow?”

“Just trying to give you a fighting chance, you overgrown firelighter,” Qrow called back.

Yang slammed a fist on the table as her eyes turned red. “What was that!?”

“Case in point.”

Yang closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. Then, reluctantly it seemed, her lips twitched. Her irises were lilac again when she opened them. “Yeah, all right, I had that coming.” She looked across at Weiss. “I’m gonna go pack for a weekend with my uncle. By your leave, Team Leader?”

Weiss blinked. “I… Yes, very well, a-and I appreciate you saying something,” she stammered.

“Glad we could Patch things up, Weissicle,” Yang grinned.

“Boo!” Nora yelled immediately.

Qrow, who was snickering, also got to his feet, glancing at me. “You should get packed for a longer trip, Punk. We’ll be leaving for our mission from Patch.”

I rose. “Anything in particular I should pack?”

“Besides your kit, shouldn’t need anything special.”

“Bringing everything it is,” I nodded, and he laughed.

The funny thing is I wasn’t even joking. I love my [Inventory].

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A few hours later, we stepped off the ferry to Patch

“Such a cheapskate, Drunkle Qrow,” Yang grumbled. “We could’ve taken a flight and been here in ten minutes.”

“Do you wanna crack open your wallet to cover airfare for four?” Qrow rolled his eyes. “Getting all of us on the ferry cost less than a flight for ONE; it’s not even dark, get over it.”

That was admittedly a slight exaggeration, as the sun was already out of sight behind the forest on the west side of the island, but it was plenty light enough for us to make our way through the town square. People called out to Ruby and Yang, and even Qrow got a few nods. The looks I got were curious but not hostile the way small towns sometimes were. Probably because I’m with locals.

I was following Ruby, who was skipping ahead of Yang and I eagerly with Qrow bringing up the rear, but I noticed our route was dotted with signs for Signal Preparatory Combat School. A kilometer or so down the road, Ruby turned down a well-worn dirt road into the woods, then dug in her toes and dashed off with her Semblance, yelling, “Zweiiii! I’m hoooome!”

Yang rolled her eyes, smiling tolerantly, and a minute or so later we stepped into a clearing with an honest, actual log cabin in the middle of a couple fruit trees. It was two stories tall, with a side porch visible and even a chimney, though being April it wasn’t cold enough to merit a fire. Instead, there was a barbecue grill being tended by an amused-looking man with pale blond hair, of a more muted shade than Yang’s. He was an inch or so taller than Qrow or me, though the breadth of his shoulders alone put him in a weight class somewhere between me and Jack Arc.

The amusement clearly arose from watch Ruby, who was rolling around in the grass with a small corgi and squealing in delight. “I missed you I missed you I missed youuu!”

“And what am I, chopped liver?” Taiyang demanded.

“Eh, liver and let live,” Yang called back, eliciting an eyeroll from Tai and I and a guffaw from Qrow.

“Don’t encourage her, Qrow, that was awful,” Taiyang chided, flipping over a burger. Then he exchanged the turner to his other hand and lifted his left arm, allowing Yang to slam into his side for a hug. “Hey there, kiddo.”

“Hey Dad.” Yang’s arms corded out, clearly squeezing for all she was worth, but Taiyang barely reacted, simply patting her back and rolling some sausages to cook evenly with his other hand.

“Pfft, he gets hugs and I get insulted when you see me?” Qrow demanded. “I call shenanigans.”

“I didn’t insult you, I called you a drunk,” Yang shot back.

Tai looked over at his brother-in-law. “She’s right, that’s not really an insult when it comes to you. It’s just a fact.”

Qrow laid a hand over his heart. “That hurts, Tai.”

“Truth does that,” Taiyang smirked, before turning to me when Yang finally let him go. “And you must be Ruby’s team leader. I’m these girls’ father, Taiyang Xiao Long.”

‹So Comes Snow After Fire›LV 67Taiyang Xiao Long

Is that a quote from The Hobbit? ‘Even dragons have their endings…’ Fuck, that’s so sad.

I shook his hand. “Jaune Arc. And yes, she’s been doing pretty well; she and Pyrrha are good for each other.”

“I’ll want to hear all about it, but let me get dinner wrapped up. Ruby, Yang, wash up and go set the table. Jaune, make yourself at home. Qrow…” he glanced up. “Don’t touch my whisky.”

“If you can enforce that, you have to tell me your secret, Professor, because he stole mine last week,” I quipped.

Taiyang laughed, stacking the burgers and sausages onto a serving plate. “It took years of beating the hell out of him every time he did it to figure out the trick is to cook him dinner when he doesn’t.”

“…I can do one of those things.”

Taiyang set the tray on the table, then looked down at Zwei, who had trotted over to his food bowl and was sitting patiently. He smiled. “Fortunately, positive reinforcement is generally the more successful teaching method.” Patting Zwei on the head, he picked up the bowl and filled it, putting it back down as everyone sat down to eat.

It was quiet for a while as everyone dug in; Qrow nursing his flask but not drinking particularly hard.

Eventually, Taiyang set his burger down and asked, “So Jaune, what led you to signing on with this reprobate?”

I shrugged over my own burger. “We sparred and he decided to offer.”

“You mean sparred with him for like two hours straight until you puked and couldn’t get back up,” Yang corrected.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “He took like twice as long to wipe me out as my sister does, so I guess I’m getting better.”

Taiyang’s eyebrows shot up. “Really now.”

“I went easy on you!” Qrow insisted. “Don’t get a swelled head, Punk, you’re a hundred years too early to hang with me.”

“I don’t think I’ve heard that saying, is that an Animan idiom?” I wondered.

“Yeah, Qrow, your Animan is showing,” Taiyang teased. “Next thing we know you’re gonna be meditating and making a pilgrimage to the homeland.”

Qrow pulled a face. “Don’t even joke about that, Tai.”

Taiyang shot him an apologetic look, then turned back to me. “Anyway, that’s pretty impressive, Jaune. It’s a bit late, but maybe we can spar in the morning,” he offered.

“Nah, we’re taking off tonight,” Qrow said before I could answer, ignoring Ruby’s ‘What!?’

I raised an eyebrow at him, then asked Taiyang. “Rain check, sir?”

“You bet,” he smiled. “And skip the ‘Sir’ stuff, I’m not your teacher. I hear you’re a licensed journeyman, which technically makes us coworkers. You can call me Tai.”

“All right, but I don’t know what I’m gonna do with these lessons in etiquette if neither you nor Qrow will let me be formal with you, Tai.”

“Did you actually have to take etiquette lessons, Ladykiller?” Yang asked.

At the same time, Ruby burst out, “You have a Journeyman License!?”

“If I did they’re lost to the amnesia, I was just quipping,” I shrugged. “And yes, apparently Professor Gale at Shade put my name up. I’m not sure my performance against Amphivena really merited it, but on the other hand, we did all come back alive.”

“The Grimm died and you didn’t, that’s all you can ask for,” said Qrow. He glanced at his flask, but put it away. “Shower if you want and take a nap, we’ll be leaving a bit after midnight.”

“Where are you going, Uncle Qrow?” Ruby asked excitedly.

Qrow shot Tai a sour look. “…Making a pilgrimage to the homeland, technically,” he admitted. Tai and Yang both stifled laughter, and Qrow sighed. “Oz heard some rumors out of Mistral that there was a Grimm spotted in the city. No one’s been able to confirm it and there haven’t been any deaths… but Leo missed his last check-in.”

“Don’t you miss check-in all the time?” I couldn’t help asking.

“I’m not a teacher anymore,” Qrow pointed out, though tellingly he didn’t deny it. “School’s in session; Leo should be in his damn office. If he’s not answering, either he’s not there, which means something’s wrong… or he’s ducking calls.”

“Which also means something’s wrong,” I finished. “Midnight, eh?” Easy enough, just set my sleep timer for a few hours. “Show me to the couch.”

“You can have the guest room,” Tai insisted, and I thanked him before wishing everyone goodnight and dropping onto the bed to review the quest popup before sleeping.

[Quest Alert!]

[If I Only Had The Nerve]

[You’ve heard of a Grimm being spotted in the city of Mistral that seems to not be killing people — no doubt meaning it is intelligent enough to be doing worse. Find it and deal with it.]

[Bonus Objective: Confirm once and for all whether Leonardo Lionheart has betrayed Ozpin’s Guardians.]

[Reward: 50,000 EXP, 100,000L, increased reputation with Ozpin’s Guardians, decreased reputation with Salem’s Circle, catch the attention of ???.]

[Bonus Objective Reward: +100,000 EXP, skill book “???”, greatly increased reputation with Ozpin’s Guardians.]

[Failure Penalty: , catch the attention of ???.]

[Accept/Decline]

So someone’s gonna notice me either way, huh? I mused. Tch, as if I’m ever gonna hit Decline.

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Name: Jaune ArcLevel: 59 (Next: 67.87%)Title: Academy StudentRace: HumanAge: 18Job: Beacon StudentClass: PaladinSemblance: The GamerHP: 7834/7834MP: 4335/4335STR: 222 (100)CON: 274 (102)DEX: 156 (53)INT: 136 (51)WIS: 110 (52)CHA: 148 (52)Points: 102Money: 953,788LStatus: Cursed – Yellow Death [High]

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A/N: If you’re enjoying this story, feel free to check out my discord server at https://discord.gg/H6V854Fvbg

So there you have it, we’re headed back to Mistral for our next arc.

Since I don’t think I have actually defined the ranking system, in my Remnant Hunters have to be licensed to take missions. Attending one of the Academies is not mandatory, but is a massive leg-up in terms of both experience and networking since it means learning from multiple Hunters who as noted previously are usually the best of the best, plus working with a team of other Hunters that you’re likely to keep in contact with after school.Hunters outside the Academy track are licensed, in order: Tyro -› Amateur -› Journeyman -› Professional -› Veteran -› Master. Student Hunters instead go Student -› Trainee -› Graduate -› Professional -› Veteran -› Master.

A friend of mine pointed out that ‘paperwork’ is either the setup or punchline of many a joke in fanfiction (I’m thinking here of every Naruto fic to bring up the ‘Hokage should just use shadow clones’ cliché) and ever since then I haven’t been able to unsee it.

Seriously, it comes up so much, what the hell.