[Other FULL] [IC] As the Dust Settles; A RWBY RP [M] [EPILOGUE]

"That was pretty exciting, huh?" Nel said with a smile, taking her seat beside Sahn once more. "I was kinda nervous about it, but they both managed to fight without killing each other. I wonder who gets to fight next? Do you think it'll be as exciting?"

Sahn shrugged. "I've never enjoyed watching fights." she said, watching Jairo and Mira as they made their way back to their seats, with Jairo silently pushing through Mira to sit on Sahn's side. "You two going to be fine?" the latter asked.

"Yeah, we're good." Mira smiled weakly. "Certainly an interesting fight."

"It was really cool!" Nel encouraged, giving both Mira and Jairo a rather bright grin. "You both are really strong. It kept going back and forth and everything! I wish I was half as strong as you two!"

Jairo crossed all four of his arms and spat at the ground, ignoring Nel's comment. Sahn rested her hand on his non-injured shoulder. She leaned slightly towards Nel. "Try avoiding mentioning the fight for a while." she whispered.

Nel glanced between the two siblings before nodding at Sahn's request. She could tell Jairo was a bit sore after losing the battle, though not just in the physical sense.

Meanwhile, Bullrush seemed to be discussing something with his assistant, though it was impossible to hear due to the all of the noise in the classroom. Soon after, both nodded, and he began shouting instructions through his loudspeaker. "Alright, settle down! We're done evaluating the first fight, now we'll be picking the next two participants! WHO'S HYPED?!" he asked, and the students replied with a loud cheer. "Carla, if you may." the bull faunus instructed.

The deer faunus looked through the crowd, her eyes appearing to literally scan the students one by one. A few seconds later, she leaned over to Bullrush and whispered two names in his ear. "All right, could ah, Phel- oh, my bad- Nel Phelia and ah, Kab- Kar- what was his name... ah, screw it. Snake kid and bird kid, show your faces! LET'S GET MOVING!" he shouted, the sheer volume of his voice causing the loudpeaker to crackle with feedback. It was strange that his assistant somehow knew their names and appearances without even asking.

Nel froze as she turned her attention towards the two instructors. As if to make sure she heard him right, she glanced between all three of her teammates and then pointed at herself. "M-Me...?"

"Go on!" Mira ushered her on. "It's fun as long as you don't die." she added, coughing. "Aura heals most wounds anyway."

Nel looked over at Mira and gave her an unsure nod as she made her way down to where the fight was to take place. Feeling every students' eye on her made her stomach start twisting in knots. She soon found herself standing in front of the two teachers, giving both a quick wave.

"Nel Phelia, reporting for battle!" she said, giving both a quick grin and a quick salute despite her nervousness.

"I like your enthusiasm, kid!" Bullrush laughed heartily and smacked Nel in the back, knocking the wind out of her. "NOW GO GET 'EM!" the burly wrestler added before stepping out of the stage and leaving it to the fighters.

As he did so, Nel's opponent appeared before her. A mostly average-looking character; moderately tall, dark hair, well-toned but not heavily muscled. He carried a large club, and on his neck and cheeks were a few pale scales, meaning that he was some sort of snake faunus. He was also carrying a sort of flask, which he occasionally took a few swigs from. "Nel Ph... hold up, that ain't right... Kab the snake dude battling for report..!" he bumbled, waving at the two professors while swaying from side to side.

Nel gave Kab a curious look. It looked as though something about him was a bit off. Still, she decided to put her best foot forward and introduce herself properly. After all, it was what her mother taught her to do. She extended her hand towards he snake Faunus, offering him a hardy handshake. "Nice to meet you, I'm Nel Phelia! I hope we have a good fight, yeah?"

Kab extended his left hand for the handshake, before retracting it at the last second. "Wait, wait wait wait... you -hic- hear that?" he mumbled, looking around.

"No...?" Nel replied, looking around. She frowned slightly, turning her focus back onto Kab. "W-What is it?"

The snake faunus motioned for her to get closer. "That's the sound of me whoopin' your sorry ass." he murmured, dead serious. He threw his head back and laughed, spilling some of his drink as he tried to take another swig.

Nel rubbed the back of her head. A small pout forming across her lips as she looked away from Kab. "I didn't hear anything..."

"Three..." Professor Bullrush began counting down. "Two... One... GET PUNCHIN'!"

Nel took a deep breath as she reached down to the belt around her waist, pulling off two circular blades. She had practiced with their handling, sure, but the hawk Faunus had never actually had a situation where she actually had to use her dual chakram before. Nel quickly lept off her feet, running towards her opponent, and swiped one of the blades in his direction. It was not exactly the most cunning of attacks, but Nel was sure it was an okay tactic to initiate with. Probably.

Easily blocking the slash with his club, Kabrok deflected the blade and swung his weapon in an attempt to disarm Nel. Nel staggered backwards in surprise with how quickly he managed to deflect her attack. The short girl quickly fell to the ground, planning to take another swing at him by aiming at his legs this time. Kab was obviously much too tall to be tripped by a single swing, but the impact of the two weapons as he blocked the attack again was enough to make him lose his balance.

Seeing that Kabrok was about to fall over, Nel quickly jumped back up to her feet to take advantage of the situation. And she decided to do it by the most fantastic way she could think of as well. Without any warning at all, Nel quickly gave him a forceful, yet simple shove. Kabrok fell to the ground, his flask spilling a sizable amount of drink on the floor. He took another swig before getting back up.

"Ugh, you're not my type. Too shove-y." he said, his speech almost incomprehensible under the influence of alcohol. "I'd apologize for this, but... eh." He shot towards Nel at a shockingly high speed, his club aimed at her face.

"Wha-" was all Nel had time to get out of her mouth before Kab's club slammed right in the poor girl's face. She was hit with enough force to literally go flying up into the air, before sailing back a bit slamming hard right into the ground in a rather crumpled looking heap. Nel groaned in pain as she laid on the ground, her arms shaking as she tried to push herself back up to her feet. Mere seconds later, she glanced up as a dozen spherical projectiles flew in her direction, their fuses all sparked.

Nel's eyes widened as the bombs quickly sailed in her direction. Cursing under her breath, the hawk Faunus quickly forced herself off the ground and out of the way of the "bombs" through a quick blast of wind. It was just enough to cause Kab's attack to miss their intended target, much to Nel's joy. Unfortunately, the sudden dodge was not exactly planned for, so her landing was not as graceful as she might have hoped for. It was at that point that she finally realized the rather coppery-taste in her mouth... as well as something wiggling inside of her mouth. Taking a moment, Nel quickly spat at the ground. She cringed a bit as she noticed a small pool of blood with what she was fairly certain was one of her teeth sitting in the middle of it all.

The crowd of students winced at the sight of the tooth. Sitting in the front row with Jairo and Sahn, Mira was biting her nails nervously. "She isn't doing too well..." she muttered, turning to Sahn. The bulky spider faunus crossed her arms and sighed. Jairo didn't seem to be paying much attention to what was going on, just muttering curses under his breath every time he moved his shoulder.

"H-Hey! He just tried to blow me up!" Nel exclaimed towards the instructors. "Isn't that like, against the rules or something?"

Professor Bullrush laughed, looking back at his assistant as if Nel had just made a hilarious joke. "Good one, kid! The more explosive, the better! Guess you could say he..."

"Blew us all away... Hey, that was pretty good!" Nel exclaimed, sharing a laugh with Bullrush. Her moment of rest was short-lived, however. Getting more and more violent the drunker he got, Kab was beginning to go on the offensive, aiming the club for Nel's midsection this time. A loud "oof" echoed through the room as Nel crouched over in pain, holding her stomach. Her legs were shaking, as if trying everything in their power to keep her from falling over flat on her face. "H-Hey... that was kinda rude, ya know?"

Kab chuckled and grabbed Nel's chin, lifting her a little. "Like -hic- hell it was." he momentarily put his weapon down and took a swig of his drink once more. He picked up his club. "Time for a -hic- home run!" he let go of Nel's head and grabbed his weapon with both hands, ready to knock the daylights out of her.

Nel grabbed hold of her chakram tightly. Moving quickly, Nel summoned all her strength to jump back and away from Kab's club. A small smile quickly formed across her lips as she leaned back, tossing one of her chakram in the direction of her opponent. The ring-blade flew towards her opponent, but it seemed to miss the target. Rather than slicing at Kab, it flew a bit low and just brushed by the side of his waist. At least, that's what it looked like... until the sound of a jug shattering on the ground echoed through the room.

"I'm cuttin' ya off," Nel said, with a smirk. "Time to pay the tab~"

Kabrok raised an eyebrow, having been much too tipsy to even notice that his drink was gone. "Heh, and they say I say weird sh-" he began, reaching for his drink once more. After a few moments of patting his belt in confusion, the truth hit him. He looked at Nel, fuming. "Oh, you've done it now, b****." he muttered.

"Why? Can't fight without booze?" Nel questioned. "I think you might have a problem..." Her voice trailed off as she saw what the snake faunus meant. It started slowly at first, but with every step he took in her direction her already tall opponent was getting bigger and bigger, and his club along with him. Kabrok smashed his club down at Nel, both the weapon and it's owner still growing in size. Though the hawk Faunus was just barely able to dodge the smash, the force was enough to knock her back and away from Kab. Nel slowly took a step back, her eyes never leaving the form of her now much taller opponent. "W-Well... A-Aren't you a big boy..."


Bullrush grinned as his eyes flashed and he snapped his fingers. Carla looked at him, confused. "Sir? You disabled the-"

"Hush, Carla. We ain't supposed to 'hinder' students' learning, are we?" the bull faunus turned back to the crowd of students and continued his ever-enticing commentary.

"Did he just turn off the forcefield? Why?" Mira turned to Sahn as she noticed the web that Jairo had stuck to the invisible wall earlier had now fallen to he ground. Sahn stayed silent once more, shrugging and shaking her head.

Meanwhile, Kabrok was continuing to grow in size, his head almost touching the class's ceiling now. He roared angrily and lifted his foot, stomping down at Nel.

The force of the ground shaking around Nel was enough to cause the hawk Faunus to finally fall flat on her face. She really was not sure how either of her teachers managed to stay standing, but Nel knew she did not have the time to question such things at the moment. She tried to pick herself back off the ground, but the loss of balance caused by the small quake was making that a bit more difficult than it needed to be. Giving her no time to recover, Kabrok stomped his other foot in her direction, sending another shockwave her way. This was followed by another smash of his club, and the latter was now big enough to probably break every bone in her body if it hit hard enough.

Nel tried to move as quickly as she could, but the shockwave did its part to keep her balance at a less than optimal level. With no other option, the much shorter of the two Faunus quickly did her best to roll out of the way. Luckily for her, most of the club missed its intended target. Unluckily for her, some of it did not. A sharp, pain filled scream filled the room as Kabrok's club slammed down into Nel's left leg. And while most may not have been able to hear it over the sounds of the floor rumbling and Nel's screams of pain, the hawk girl did manage to hear something that distinctively sounded like a snap and crack.

The whole room fell silent. Bullrush looked at his assistant; she shook her head. "Keep going until you give up." he said sternly, frowning and crossing his arms.

The room erupted with protests. "This is madness! End this right now!" Mira screamed at the two instructors, wincing in pain and clutching her injured side. "She's clearly out, she can't surrender! That drunk f***er's gonna kill her!" she tried to hop over the edge of the barrier, but was pulled back by Sahn. On the other hand, Jairo was apparently paying some kind of attention to the fight now, his fists clenched in frustration. "Get back up." he muttered between his teeth. "Get back up."

Kabrok laughed and picked up Nel by her now clearly broken leg, leveling her to his face. "You dead?" he asked jokingly, poking her. "Can't... -hic- give up, you little ****?"

Nel winced from the pain, dangling in the air as she stared directly into Kabrok's massive, gloating face. Her brain was practically screaming at her to accept defeat and give up. Yet, despite it all, Nel remained silent to his question at first. Slowly, the smile somehow managed to return to her lips. "Mom t-taught me that q-quitters don't win..."

In a rather surprising move, Nel opened her hands and released both of her chakram blades. The metal rings fell to the ground with an echoing clang, now leaving the girl unarmed against her massive opponent. "Heh... H-Hope you don't mind me breezing through this fight..."

Despite his size, Kabrok was able to feel a small breeze starting to flow around the duo. It started off slow at first, almost as if it was a relaxing burst of fresh air that one might use to cool off with on a hot, summer's day. However, it did not take long for the breeze to start picking up in intensity. In fact, one might say it had a rather sharp feeling to it. Then, just as soon as the breeze had started, it stopped. Nel gave Kab a small chuckle, giving the giant snake a smile that gave him perfect view of her now-missing tooth.

"Sorry 'bout this," she whispered.

The hawk Faunus shot both of her hands forward at Kabrok. It was at that moment that it all came back. The cool, crisp air started to gust forward from the palms of Nel's hands. However, it was not as refreshing as it once was. It came bursting from her hands as a sharp, razor-like force. Kabrok, or anyone else with an extremely keen-eye, would be bound to notice that the blast of air had a faintly visible shape, almost as if it was resembling two curved blades. And these blades of air wasted no time in slicing upward at Kab, right through his massive, glaring eyes.

The room was filled with the bloodcurdling scream of Kabrok covering his eyes as blood splattered all over the two fighters. And yet, the counter attack of Nel Phelia's was still not finished. As if called by the wind themselves, the blades were lifted back up to the hawk's hands. The smile on her face somehow grew even more as she gripped one of the blades tightly, swinging it at Kabrok for all she was worth. The ring sliced across the side of the giant's throat, gushing out more of the crimson liquid at Nel... who honestly seemed to look quite delighted with herself and her retaliation against Kab.

It didn't take long for the snake faunus to fall over and slowly revert to his normal size, letting go of Nel and dropping her to the ground. The other students looked in horror as Kab lay on the ground, clutching his eye and neck all while bleeding profusely and trembling from the pain. Mira clasped her hand over her mouth in shock and even Sahn herself looked horrified. The only one who wasn't wearing the same expression as everyone was Jairo, whose smile was as wide as Nel's.

The smile never left the girl's face as she fell towards the ground, her rings once more fell out of her hands, both hitting the floor once more and landing on top of one another. With one final push of air, Nel managed to flip herself back over as she fell. This caused her to land on her feet as opposed to her head, but the sudden burst of pain from landing on her now broken leg sent another scream of pain echoing out through the room. It only took a moment for Nel to fall forward, the sharp wave pain causing the girl to finally pass out.

Bullrush didn't even need to consult his assistant this time.. The battle was over. Without commentating on the who the winner was, he pulled out a small device and spoke a few instructions into it. Moments later four men with a couple of stretchers appeared, and Nel and Kabrok were put in them, the latter still whimpering in agony as one of the medics put pressure on his throat. One of them stopped Mira and Sahn as they tried to approach their teammate.

"They'll be fine. Please, return to your seats."

"But we-" Mira began to protest. Sahn put her hand on her shoulder and motioned to the seats behind them. The owl faunus reluctantly followed her back to her seat. As they sat down, Jairo got up. "I'll go." he said.

"You sure?" Sahn asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They wouldn't let us see either of them." Mira added, looking back as the two wounded fighters were taken away.

"I've got my ways." Jairo responded calmly.

A few more moments of silence later, after the medics had left the room, the burly combat teacher broke the silence. "Now THAT, is what I want your fights to be like!" he said enthusiastically, "Who wants to go next?"

A joint post of Foxrally and Frozen Heart​

It was with the somewhat soothing sound of a violin that Nel slowly opened her eyes, the sight of white-panneled ceiling tiles being the first thing to greet her as she did so. The hawk Faunus was tired, to say the least. She could not remember the last time that she had to defend herself in such a desperate manner, but at the same time... she honestly found it to be sort of fun. Thinking back to her fight against Kab, her usual smile worked its way across her lips.

"Heh... I kinda wish I could do it again..." Nel mused quietly, a small giggle escaping in the process.

"Heh. That was a way to go out if I ever saw one." Jairo chuckled and continued playing. "Expected you to be out longer."

Nel shook her head, gazing over in Jairo's direction. "What can I say? Guess you just struck the right chord to wake me up..." She took a moment to give her own, rather bad pun a quick giggle before slowly sitting up. "Wha'cha doin' here anyways? Weren't you interested in seeing the other fights? I'm pretty sure that the instructor wasn't gonna stop the matches just because I went on a slicing-spree."

A small, crooked smile appeared on Jairo's face as he continued playing. "Not a fan of sparring matches. What's a fight worth for if nobody dies, anyway?" he joked, though his tone made him sound almost serious. "And yes, you sliced up that webhead pretty damn good, I'll admit - cleaners are gonna have a hard time cleaning up. Bet you wonder what happened to him."

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious," Nel responded. She glanced down at her and, noticing that there was still a speck of now-dried blood on the back of her left hand. Licking her right thumb, Nel began to try and rub it off. "...Is he even still alive? I mean, I know that him shrinking down probably made the wounds smaller, but I did cut his throat and eyes. The blood spray was almost like a shower."

"Nah." Jairo answered bluntly, slowing down the tempo of the song. "Not in the building anymore. Turns out your wind blades did some-" he stopped and winced as he hit the wrong chord. "Dammit." he cursed under his breath. He restarted the song from the beginning. "You practically ended that dude's chances as a hunter, to put it bluntly. Paralysis in his neck, permanently damaged eyeball and socket, and ah... what was it again?" he asked himself. "Just a sec."

He stopped and hopped off the chair he was on - which was clearly too tall for him - and walked over to the small medicine cabinet near Nel's bed. Nel watched him curiously, wondering if perhaps one of the nurses who worked in the medical ward had tasked him with giving her some sort of pill to reduce pain or something of the sort when she woke up. The hawk Faunus was quickly proven wrong however, when she watched Jairo open the cabinet. There was not so much as any medicine waiting inside for her. Rather, there appeared to be the form of an unconscious nurse inside. Well, at least Nell assumed it was. She was wrapped in a rather large, webby cocoon of sorts, something that immediately told Nel it was Jairo's doing. The spider faunus reached into a small opening in the cocoon and fished out a printed report. "...a collapsed liver. Don't think that was you though."

Nel did not seem to react to badly to this. She merely raised an eyebrow in confusion as she returned her focus to her teammate. "A, is she still alive? B, why do it in the first place?"

"Yeah, yeah, calm your eggs. I just reckoned we needed a little privacy for what I'm about to tell you."

Nel smirked a bit at Jairo's need for privacy. "Look, I'm flattered, but I don't know you that well yet... Besides, a little dinner should always come first, you know?"

Jairo gritted his teeth in frustration. "You're lucky you're injured." he muttered, and checked the door to the infirmary, which was sealed shut by yet another web. Deciding that the coast was clear, he turned back to Nel and grabbed the closest chair. "Okay, listen. You've got a family back home, right?" he began, looking her straight in the eyes.

Nel smiled softly at Jairo. "Nope."

Jairo recoiled slightly at Nel's response. "Well, friends. Someone you care about."

Nel shook her head. "Nada."

Jairo raised an eyebrow. "Money?"

"Yep, we're known for being real money-bags, right?" Nel retorted, before shaking her head. "Nuh-uh, not a dime."

Jairo cursed under his breath and dropped his arms in defeat. "You're missing the point. What I mean is, you got a reason to get back home?"

Nel sat in total silence, the hawk Faunus merely staring back into her teammate's eyes. "Not really..."

The latter sighed again in frustration. This is never going to work. he kept telling himself. The girl was a lost cause, her display against the goliath was merely luck after all. He tried once more.

"You're telling me that your life before being sent to this silk-hole in the middle of nowhere has improved. You're telling me that being forced to the lowlest ranks of existence, and watch everything you've aspired for be muffled and tied down by some prick in a military suit, and watching everything you thought was your comfort be torn to shreds, is okay?" he hissed. Suddenly his eyed widened. "You're telling me the death of your mother meant nothing?" he spat into her face.

Nel's eyes visibly darkened at Jairo's comment. Aside from that, she looked almost as nothing had ever occurred between the two... aside from a small, familiar breeze starting to blow through the room. The smile on Nel's face grew wider all the while.

"You don't mention her. Ever. You don't even think of using her as a bargaining chip," Nel replied, her voice a bit unsteady as she spoke... almost as if she was about to break out into a strange fit of giggles. "Unless you want to learn how to play that violin without any arms..."

Jairo smirked at the mention of the violin. "Don't toss these empty threats at me, birdbrain. I know what you are." he taunted, the effects of his semblance coming into action. "You're just a scared, scarred little girl, are you?"

Nel felt her face start to heat up at Jairo's taunts. Each passing moment after his comment caused her heart to race more and more. The gentle breeze started to pick up in pressure more, causing the curtains to start flapping much harder than they had been previously. On a small nightstand by the hawk Faunus' bed, a glass suddenly tipped over before being blown off and onto the floor, shattering into pieces instantly.

"I said knock it off..." Nel replied, the small girl gripping the bedsheets tightly. "You... You weren't there... You didn't... You have no idea... How it felt to watch her..."

"Pitiful. First you dishonour her death, now you dishonour her life too." Jairo scoffed.

"I... I said... shut... THE... HELL UP!!" Nel yelled.

The wind began to pick up violent at this point. Familiar, sharp blades of wind shot out from all directions, proceeding to slice and cut up everything around the room that they could and on. The drapes of the room were diced to shreds. The blades slammed into the glass of the window, causing it to crack and shatter with ease. The nightstand was literally lifted up into the air and launched across the room. Jairo's chair was blasted off into the air at the same time, knocking the spider Faunus into the air with it. Nel's smile changed, looking almost demented as she sent Jairo a glare that looked to send him to a slow and (for her) enjoyable death.

"TELL ME WHY I SHOULDN'T DECORATE THIS ROOM WITH YOUR BLOOD? I BET A LITTLE COLOR IN HERE WOULD DO WONDERS. IT MIGHT MAKE ME FEEL BETTER ABOUT HOW I COULDN'T STOP HER DEATH WHEN I WAS FIVE YEARS OLD, RIGHT? MAYBE THAT WOULD HONOR US BOTH, RIGHT?!" Nel yelled, tears starting to form in the corner of her eyes.

Jairo slowly pushed himself back up. "Go on." he taunted. "You're too scared to do anything to me. You're too scared to do anything at all. You'll just spend the rest of your life rott-"

Nel did not give Jairo the chance to finish. Another burst of wind shot forth, slamming the boy against the door of her room. Without even thinking, possibly from the adrenaline rushing through her, Nel staggered out of the bed. She only managed a single step before her broken leg gave out from underneath her, causing her to fall flat on her face. Then, just as soon as it all started... it stopped. The wind just... died down. Nel just seemed to lay there for a moment, before all at once... she just started to sob uncontrollably.

Jairo gunted and clutched his now reopened shoulder wound. "Do me a- no, do yourself, and your mother a service. Honour what she died for." he said slowly. "Join me, and when we return home, we will show them what it means to take everything from us."

Nel slowly starred up at her teammate. Her cheeks were now stained with tears and what was left of Jairo's web-spit. "...A-Alright... I... I'll go with you..." Nel whispered, another loud choke and sob escaping her mouth at the same time.

Seconds later, the sound of people running towards the room could be heard not too far away on the other side of the room, as well as a feeble groan coming from the now-smashed cabinet. Jairo cursed under his breath, and wasted no time getting back up and hurriedly helping his wounded teammate back to her bed, then hopping out of the now-smashed window.

A joint post of Foxrally and Frozen Heart​

Mira stomped her foot angrily, the sound echoing through the long hall which was the academy infirmary. "Let us through, dammit! She's our teammate, we have a right to visit her as per the aca-"

"I'm sorry, but it's a no. We're having an emergency situation here and visitors are not allowed inside any of the patients' rooms." the short nurse replied, shaking her head. She spoke determinedly, but was visibly intimidated by the rather large spider woman staring right at her.

"Emergency? Jai- I mean, Sahn, do something! Tell her we need to go through!" Mira said and turned to her teammate.

"We need to go through." Sahn gladly obliged. The nurse crossed her arms, unmoved. Sahn shrugged and looked at her teammate. "We tried."

Mira sighed in frustration. "Well at least tell us what's going on!" she pleaded, looking over the nurse's shoulder to see numerous medics walking in an out of one of the rooms in a hurry.

"Eh, I'm sure it's nothing anyway." Jairo replied, appearing behind the pair, a sly grin on his face. "I'd be more worried about the other dude, to be honest." He appeared to have a few cuts on his face, though most were unnoticeable; and was in a surprisingly good mood compared to a few hours earlier. He hopped onto his sister's shoulders and motioned for them to turn around. "Come on, we'll be able to visit her tomorrow." he said. Mira sighed in frustration and reluctantly followed her two teammates back to the main academy hall.

"Did you get to see her?" she asked after they had walked some distance away from the nurse.

Jairo shook his head. "Nah. Too difficult." He cleared his throat as Sahn looked up at him with her two extra spider-eyes, the jet-black beads eyeing him carefully. "What'd I miss?" he asked.

"There were a bunch of more fights – a wolf faunus, a horse faunus…" Mira listed, flipping through her notebook. "I wrote down their weapons and fighting styles, in the event that we are ever put against them. Oh, and Sahn fought against a big Rhino faunus as well." she added.

"Oh?" Jairo asked, letting out a small chuckle. "How'd it go?" he asked his sister mockingly, stretching two of his arms while he rested the other two on her head.

"Swimmingly." she replied, and pulled out a small chink of metal which had somehow lodged itself in between her teeth, flicking it away.

"I've listed him as weaponless from now on." Mira smiled. "Our team's performed very well today, though I'm still worried about Nel…" she said, her expression shifting back to anxiety. The corridor opened into the large hall where the opening announcement was made. The sun was beginning to set outside, and students, teachers and teams were now starting to leave the building. One student cursed loudly as he stepped in what looked like a pile of dung in the middle of the hall. Team JSMN - or rather team JSM – exited the academy and headed for the main town near Faunus Academy, which also happened to be the 'capital' of Menagerie, Porsh. Capital was more of an overstatement as the rocky nature of Menagerie meant there were very few habitable places on the large island, and the only relatively safe place to live in was the city of Porch. Dubbed 'Porcherie' or pigsty by some people, the city was for the most part a dirty, claustrophobic slum with narrow alleys and small unkempt apartments provided by the humans when the faunus had been moved to Menagerie. Despite this, some areas were better than others, though the houses there were mostly reserved for the rich and influential inhabitants of the city. In the center of it all was a community-run soup kitchen, used by whoever couldn't get a job and pay for food themselves.

The small dingy shops were beginning to close up as the three teammates walked down the narrow street. "So, where do you two live? Got an appartment somewhere?" Mira asked as they turned a corner and nearly bumped into a woman carrying 2 large grocery bags.

"Nah. We got pairs of hammocks set up across the town, so we usually just pick the closest one." Jairo replied, shrugging.

"He's really picky about cleanliness, too." Sahn chuckled, to which her brother hit her on head angrily.

"I've got an appartment just a few blocks away, so you can always come to me if you need a place to stay." Mira offered. "It's a little small, but it should probably accommodate all of us."

Before Sahn had a chance to reply, Jairo put all four of his hands on her face and cleared his throat loudly. "It's cool. We don't want to ah, take up space or whatever. We'll be fine." he declined, faking a smile as Sahn pried his hands off her mouth.

Raising an eyebrow at how cheerful he was, Mira nodded respectfully. "As you wish then. I'll see you two tomorrow morning, and we can check on Nel." she said.

"Night." The two siblings replied simultaneously as they parted ways.

Some time later, they had finally reached a suitable building. On the roof were two hammocks tied between clusters of old chimneys and half-broken ventilation units, one being impressively large and the other much smaller. Cans of dried peaches were strewn across the floor, along with a few books and magazines.

Jairo hopped off his sister's shoulders and yawned. "Home sweet home." he said sarcastically, kicking an empty can across the ground and taking off his breastplate.

Sahn sighed and sat on the ground, leaning against one of the pipes as she took off her heavy armor. "What'd you do to her?" she asked bluntly, looking at her brother.

"Nothing serious, calm your eggs." Jairo asked, waving off her concerns. "Turns out birdbrain just needed a little… convincing."

---

Mira reached the entrance to her building, and sighed. Just walk straight and ignore everything. She told herself. Just stay the course. She slowly opened the door to the ground floor. The second she opened it, an overpowering smell filled her nostrils – or rather, combination of smells. Alcohol, cigarette smoke and urine had all fused into the horrific stench that wafted through the entire dimly lit room. A few feet away from the door was a table, and around it were a group of men playing cards. As she stepped inside, one of them whistled at her to come over. Mira ignored the man and headed straight for the door across the room leading to the staircase. To her left was the bar, lined with various bottles of different drinks, each likely more intoxicating than the other. The bartender who also happened to be the concierge was an elderly llama faunus with a thick mustache and eyebrows. He waved amicably at the young owl faunus. Mira opened the door to the staircase and closed it behind her, unable to stand the intolerable stench on the ground floor. Light is broken… again. she thought to herself, climbing up the poorly lighted stairs to the fourth floor. After a few minutes of struggling with the lock, she managed to pry the door open.

The difference between this floor and ground floor was like night and day. Aside from the cracks in the concrete and plaster peeling off the house, the small appartment was spot-clean. Two relatively clean mattresses were laid on the floor in the two corners of the room, and a small cooker with various boxes and cans of food were in the corner. The steam resulting from the fact that someone was showering in the bathroom filled the single-room appartment. I'm surprised we even have hot water today.

"I'm home, Val!" Mira called out over the noise. Her tiger faunus roommate probably hadn't heard her over her own singing, but it was fine. Mira dropped her weapon and notebook and fell onto her mattress. After getting changed, she had a quick, unsatisfying meal and returned to her mattress. A few moments of sitting in silence and listening to the sound of her roommate's… subpar singing, she sat up turned to her nightstand, which had a small radio on top of it. She looked at her watch and hurriedly took the radio and turned it on. After a second or two of crackling, the radio fell silent.

"H-hello?" Mira asked tentatively.

"Geez, took you long enough!" a voice suddenly replied, causing the radio to screech with feedback at the volume.

"Quiet down, Misk!" Mira hissed, quickly lowering the volume of the radio. "You know I've got a new schedule now."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that! So how was your first day of girl scouts?" Musk teased.

"For the last time, it's an academy just like Beacon. And yes, it was a fairly good first day. It went better than I expected, that's for sure." Mira replied.

"Ah, cool off, sister, I'm just teasin'. But then if it's like Beacon, it means you got a team, didn't you?" she asked.

"Yeah, four people. It's me, this other bird girl, and two spider faunus siblings."

"Whoa, damn! Spider faunus? That's some exotic shit right there." Misk laughed, causing the radio to crackle a little.

"Yeah, I've never seen anything like them, and we have a lot of different animals in the academy. Oh, and we also had fights today."

"Oh! And how'd my fragile little sister do?"

"I won, obviously!" Mira answered, frowning. "What do you mean, fragile?"

"I'm just jooookiiiing. Who was it against?" her sister replied.

"One of my teammates, actually – one of the spider siblings. We fought to see who would be the leader of the team, and I won. After that, the bird girl fought against a giant snake guy, and they both got hurt pretty bad. The other spider also fought too, literally tore a sword to shreds in her mouth."

"Damn, sounds like a reliable team you got there. At least I know someone out there's gonna keep your weak ass safe!" Misk laughed.

Mira sighed. "Well, what about you? Found a group yet? "Mia asked half-heartedly.

"Dammit, you had to ask, didn't you? I was gonna keep it a surprise. But yes, I finally found a group of other faunus. A bunch of families actually, so no chances them being creeps like the last bunch. I get a feeling the kids are gonna piss me off though."

Mira's eyes lit up at the revelation. "That's amazing! How big are they?"

"Surprisingly big, actually. They travel around a lot to avoid humans – smartest thing I've heard anyone do around here – and they mostly just scavenge around. Found 'em on a hunting trip and they practically accepted me with open arms."

Mira grinned, despite knowing that her older sister obviously couldn't see her. "You can finally be safe now! We-"

The radio suddenly began crackling, which was suddenly followed by the sound of children talking. "Ah, crap. Kids got into my tent. I'll talk to you later, need to put this thing away before the little shits break it or something." And with that, the radio crackled one last time before dropping back to silence.

Mira sighed, took off her glasses and fell back into her mattress. What a day…

A joint post of Foxrally and Frozen Heart​

"So when you're flying one of these smaller guys, you gotta keep your head on your shoulders, y'know? Can't go daydreamin' or dozin' off. I always take a good shot of black coffee in the mornin'." the airship pilot began. "Real good for ya sinuses and such."

Nel nodded, her hands resting behind her back as she gazed around at all the different buttons and levers on the console. She smiled as she nodded at the bat faunus, giggling softly in the process. "Oh, I get ya. I can see where it'd be pretty hard while your up here to not have your head in the clouds."

The two flying faunus shared a hearty laugh over the horrible joke, the pilot slamming the control board in his laughter. The plane shuddered a little and the distinguishable sound of something tearing off and falling could be heard below them. "Ah, shucks. There goes the spare wheel." he said, wiping a tear off his eyes and still chuckling to himself.

Meanwhile in the back, Jairo, Sahn and Mira sat in the passenger seats, doing their best not to fall off of them in the shaky airship. "I may be wrong, but I don't think this man is qualified to fly a plane!" Mira shouted over the deafening noise of the engine and propellers.

"I'd be more concerned about birdbrain sitting right next to him." Jairo replied, peering through the small window of the door separating the captain's cabin from the rest of the airship. "But it's the only way to actually have her learn to fly one of these things..."

Nel gave the pilot a curious look. "Should we be worried about that? I mean... I don't wanna go to pieces here or anything, but couldn't we have needed that?"

"Nah, you kids won't be needin' em anyway." the pilot replied and adjusted his thick glasses. "Actually, since we ain't got much time left, you wanna have a go at this? Never know when you're gonna die out there, that's my motto!" he cackled.

Nel gave the pilot a nod. "Sure, sounds like fun. Besides, I do kinda have flying in my blood." The old bat moved from his spot before giving her control of the steering wheel, and fell over into her chair. The hawk Faunus took hold of the helm and glanced over her shoulder at the pilot. "Like this, right...? I just wanna keep her steady for now?"

Her question was met by no response. The old man had fallen asleep right in his chair, his snoring even louder than the engine. Nel turned her attention back to the wheel, a small mischevious smirk gracing her lips as she gripped the wheel tighter. With no warning to her team or the now sleeping pilot, she gave it a sharp, hard spin, causing the ship to shift quite suddenly in the air.

The entirety of the ship's contents were thrown to one side - boxes, bags and passengers. Jairo barely managed to dodge a crate full of ammo by dodging to the right, slamming him into the wall right next to Mira. Nel grinned, looking over shoulder. "Sorry about that! We hit some unexpected turbulance!" And then, just as soon as she said it, she suddely shifted again, turning the wheel back in the opposite direction. "Looks like we're hitting a bit more!"

The contents of the ship were tossed aorund once more as the ship shook again. Sahn, who had managed to hold on to a handlebar near the door, suddenly toppled over as the bar broke. Before the smaller spider and owl faunus had time to say "oh, f-" the giant spider woman fell right on top on them.

"Wha-whatamatter, cap'n?" the pilot woke up suddenly and looked around in panic. "D'ya hit somethin'?" he stammered.

"Nope, nothing's wrong at all," Nel responded, a purely innocent smile gracing her lips as she spoke. She glanced over at the bat Faunus from over her shoulder. "Maybe you had a bad dream or something? It looked like you startled yourself awake there." The two were suddenly startled by someone banging on the door, threatening to kill Nel if she didn't open it and to kill her nevertheless if she did. Nel gave the ship's actual pilot a small nod. "You should get that. My hands are a bit full."


"I wonder why the pilot got so upset...?" Nel questioned. She crossed her arms over her chest, glancing back towards the door of the now-closed cockpit of the airship, a small sniffle being heard, as if she was starting to tear up a bit. "I thought we were all having fun learning new things. He could have at least asked me politely to leave..."

"Just be glad he didn't kick us off the ship, or turn straight around back to the academy." Mira sighed in frustration as she massaged her arm.

"He's not allowed to anyway. We got this mission assigned to us, so he's forced to drop us off there." Jairo said, applying an ice pack to the side of his head. "Yeah, 'assigned'..."

Nel glanced between her three teammates and frowned before turning to Jairo and Mira. "What happened to you two, anyways? Sahn doesn't look anywhere near as banged up as you two... Didn't your mom ever teach you to buckle your seatbelts?"

Before any of them had time to answer, a voice crackled over the intercom. "RIght, plane's close enough to the island. Get off my ship now, I'm gettin' low on fuel."

Nel grinned as she placed her hands behind her back. "Manners, Mr. Pilot! Manners!"

The doors to the side of the airship flew open, letting in a gust of wind which quickly stabilized a few seconds later. Mira peered off the edge of the ship. "It's a pretty high fall... Aren't we supposed to be at least a little lower than that mountain over there?" she asked, pointing to the towering landmark in the distance.

"I'm sure we can wing it," Nel replied, giving Mira a reassuring pat on the back. She glanced over at Jairo and Sahn. "Oh... But you two, not as much..."

"We'll be just fine. Right, Sahn?" Jairo nudged his sister in the ribs. The latter seemed to have gone paler at the sight of the ocean below them, but had not said anything so far. "If anything goes south, one of you two just help out."

Just as Nel opened her mouth to respond, the weight of the ship began to shift once more. It was very similar to how it happened when Nel was piloting the ship earlier. Before any member of the team could properly brace themselves, Sahn slowly started to tumble forward, bringing her brother along with her. Nel's eyes widened as she felt Jairo grab hold of her ankle as he and Sahn started sliding out of the ship, to which she retaliated by grabbing hold and dragging Mira out the doors with her. Before long, all four members of Team JSMN were now out of the airship and into the... air.


Mira was the first to regain her bearings. With a quick flick of a switch her glasses snapped into aviator goggles, shielding her eyes from the wind. She looked around at her teammates. They all seemed to be falling rather... chaotically, although Nel seemed to be enjoying it. The wind around them was ice cold and low on oxygen, meaning that they could only breathe in small gasps of air.

"We're-" Mira gasped. "Much too high!"

"But this is... so cool!" Nel shouted back, putting her goggles down and over her eyes in the process. The grin on her face growing wider as she opened her arms wide.The four continued to fall for a few more excruciatingly long moments. "So how do we land?!"

Jairo seemed just about ready to pass out from the lack of oxygen. Using his two free arms to reach behind his back, he pulled out a medium-sized canister from his violin case. Realizing what he was about to do, Mira did her best to attract his attention to stop him. "Don't! If you use the net as a parachute at this velocity, you could get something dislocated!"

"Oh, not me..." the spider faunus croaked. before ramming the canister between Sahn's breastplate and shirt, and pulling the cover. The two instantly shot back up into the air away from the two bird faunus.

"That was a pretty cool trick!" Nel shouted. The hawk Faunus took a moment to tuck her knees to her chest as they fell. Apparently, she was having so much fun that the thought of doing a backflip was irresistible to her. "I guess that means they're safe, right?!"

"I hope so..." Mira replied, doing her best to keep a secure falling position. The air was thickening now, making it a lot easier to breathe. Trying to keep calm, she stuttered "D-do you have a plan to get out of this? My semblance can't operate at this height..."

"You wanna quit already? But this is so much fun!" Nel shouted, doing a quick twirl.

Mira gritted her teeth and looked down. From such a high altitude, the ground seemed so distant... But her knowledge of physics told her that at this pace, they would either hit the water or the ground in merely a couple of minutes. "A-are you insane?! We're going to die! Can't you, I don't know- use your wind powers or something?" she shouted at the hawk faunus who couldn't seem to care less about their situation.

"Oh, yeah. I totally could," Nel replied, giving Mira a rather toothy grin. "But, you should totally use your manners! Didn't we already learn that from Mr. Batface?"

"This is not the time to be playing games, Nel!" Mira screamed, looking down in panic.

"Manners are a serious business," Nel replied, her face turning stone-cold serious. "Say please..."

Mira coughed as she recieved a faceful of cloud, meaning that they had broken the last cloud barrier. Through the coughs, a not-so-subtle curse could be heard, followed by a desperate grab towards where Nel was. "We're both going to die, you idiot!" Mira shrieked, the ground getting closer and closer.

"Looks that way," Nel responded. "Shame too. All it takes is one word. Manners go a long way, ya know?"

After a few more furtive glances towards the ground and back at Nel, the owl faunus finally gave in. "PLEASE! JUST GO, YOU ****ING BIRD OF ****, ****, GO!"

Smiling, Nel grabbed hold of Mira's hand and began to pull the owl faunus closer to her. "Grab hold of my waist, and don't let go."

Feeling the weight of Mira shift, Nel glanced down at the approaching ground and began to think about how to exactly pull this off. She had the ability to slow her own decent, but Nel had never actually tried to do this with someone else... not that it actually mattered in the long run. Nel figured that she needed to learn how to keep more than herself alive at some point...

"And what better way than to learn on the fly... Hey, that was pretty good! Better save that one for later..." Nel thought, a small giggle escaping her lips in the process.

Returning her attention to the problem at hand, Nel slowly moved her hands forward and began to focus on the air around the bird faunus duo. It took a few seconds, but Mira was soon able to feel the air pressure around them slow down. Their hastening descent to the ground below also came to a rather sudden slow down. Using her semblance, Nel was able to take the air around the duo and use it to push themselves up ever so slightly... Not in a way that would push them back up high into the sky, but rather in a method that would allow them to slowly land on the ground, as if they were merely walking down a incredible lengthy amount of stairs.

"Now... was that so hard?" Nel asked. "See, just using little manners now and then can really go a long way," she said as the pair slowly descended to the ground. The owl faunus stayed silent, trembling and clutching her teammate tightly. The second their feet touched the sand, Mira let go and fell backwards, exhausted. Nel raised an eyebrow at her teammate looking so tired, giving her a small nudge at the same time. "Hey... You're supposed to say thank you. Manners don't die in the sky." Suddenly, a loud splash came from behind the two, towards the ocean. A few seconds after the moment of impact, a pair of heads surfaced, gasping for air. One seemed to be splashing around rather awkwardly, before stopping when they realized the water wasn't very deep. They wasted no time swimming to the beach.

"Bah, stop your -cough- crying!" Jairo coughed as he spoke to his sister, who was shivering and doing her best to warm herself. Jairo fell to one knee as they reached the shore. "We're bloody alive, that's what counts! You two on the other hand..." he spat. "Should've been bloody dead on the spot."

Nel glanced over at the two spider siblings. "What about us? You look like you came out of the situation just fine."

Holding his tongue on the death wish he was about to spit out, Jairo removed his removed his breastplate and violin case, and did his best to rid them of any water they might have been filled with. Sahn did the same, emptying out her gauntlets. "Are you both okay?" she asked, looking at Mira, who was still shivering on the ground.

"Couldn't be better!" Nel replied, giving Sahn a thumbs up. "We both worked together and used some quick wit to get us on the ground with no issues at all, right Mira?"

The owl faunus didn't even bother answering the question. "We... were meant to be dropped off near the ground... I'll... We..." she stammered, sitting up and blowing into her hands to warm them.

"We're fine, thanks." she added, clearing her throat and regaining her complexion. "Let's... rest a little."

A joint post of Foxrally and Frozen Heart​