The Games We Play

Chapter 110: Sendoff

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

Sendoff

"Mistral?" Indigo asked once the liquid grace of coffee had returned some semblance of life to her eyes. "You're returning with us to Mistral?"

"Mhm," I sounded back, leaning a shoulder against the doorway while my sister's scarfed down the food on the table with a ravenous hunger. Bianca got a fair number of dirty looks for stealing the choicest bits beforehand, which, given her emotional state, seemed to do nothing but make the food taste better retroactively. Ozpin had just left, having business to attend to in Signal, probably related to the upcoming batch of graduates, but he'd promised to send all the necessary files to my scroll as soon as possible.

After he'd left and the rest of my sisters managed to filter down to the kitchen, questions had abounded. Azure and Violet had already known, but to the others, my plans were news.

"That means half of us will be in Mistral," Olivia mused.

"We are returning to the motherland like magnificent salmon," Violet rephrased, tapping Olivia's shoulder. Unlike everyone else in the room, she was sitting on the back of her chair, resting one foot on the seat itself and another on the armrest.

"What about the rest of us?" Shani wondered.

"You're not magnificent," Violet explained. "You're just salmon."

Shani just looked at her and shook her head no, while Indigo leaned over to rest an elbow on Violet's free arm rest.

"Was it salmon that swam up a waterfall to become dragons?" She asked. "Because I could live with that."

"You mean the Vacuo legend thing?" Violet frown and slowly shook her head. "I think that was carp. But I'm pretty sure salmon do swim up waterfalls, so it probably counts, right?"

"Are you going to go to Haven?" Olivia asked curiously, completely ignoring the conversation going on beside hera skill which had been deeply ingrained into all of us and which she had perfected. Shani, seemingly upset out of her lack of magnificence, had failed to do so and was trying to refute the point, moving to the other side of the table. "I'm actually not sure what the rules would be in that case, since I'm going to be a teacher."

"Probably not," I answered. "But even if I did, I doubt it would have any real problems. I know there are at least two teachers at Signal who have relatives going to school there, and I'm sure plenty of teachers at Haven and Beacon have had children that wanted to be Hunters. And besides, Grandmother could sort things out if there was an issue."

Down the table, Sienna chuckled a bit at that and muttered about 'making them an offer they could not refuse' under her breath. I doubted she'd even need to, honestly; if the Headmasteror Headmistress? I actually didn't knowhadn't been handpicked by the Families, I'd eat my shoes. I couldn't imagine they'd leave the training of the most powerful warriors in their Kingdom to someone that wasn't completely loyal.

"Where is Grandmother, anyway?" Azure asked from beside Sienna. While most of the others had taken coffee or tea with their breakfast, she had chosen a glass of water, which she drank until it was half-fulland it was definitely half-full, because she had promptly animated it into one of her minions and had it crawl out and onto her plate. At the moment, it was in the process of making a castle out of her scrambled eggs and was lining the walls with hash brown-based weaponry. Sienna had shifted her body to hide the construction from sight, but already it was nearing completion and taking aim. I could tell she'd given it some thought, too, because none of the people that had noticed the process were being targetedand thus, were placidly allowing it to happen.

"She brought her work with her," I told her, knowing what was to come and watching it amusedly. "Can't just abandon her work, right?"

Azure nodded and a moment later, the hash brown weaponry flew. Shani spun on a dime and destroyed the projectile with the flash of an eye, but Azure had planned her attack wisely and using some combination of syrup, sweetener, hot sauce, and various other food items, had rigged something to react to the counterattack. It exploded into a dusty mist.

Olivia didn't even look up as the powder was guided away from her and Indigo's shadow rose into an impossibly thin wall to block it, but though Shani's eyes flashed again and most of it vanished, some of the dust touched her face and clung there. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, lifting a finger to brush away the specks.

"Because I'm older and vastly more beautiful and mature then you, I will give you the chance to surrender now before I take your actions as a declaration of war."

Azure looked at her mildly and blinked once before sliding her eyes over to Sienna. Without so much as glancing back, Shani's older twin reached over and grabbed Azure's little friend off her plate. The tiny, amorphous creature curled instantly into a ball as she drew her hand back and threw it hard at Shani's face. Shani's eyes flicked to it the moment it was raised into the air, but none of us would seriously harm one of Azure's creations, so she leaned to the side and let it go soaring past instead, passing between her and Oliviabefore abruptly changing direction and splattering over her face as it came back. Shani jerked once before spinning to face her youngest sister.

"The hell was that for?" She demanded.

"It was a refutation of your baseless claim to magnificence," Olivia replied, taking a sip of her tea. Violet laughed and hopped over from her chair to fall into Olivia's lap bridal style, and almost instantly the room seemed divided by Kingdom. Shani lifted a hand to the creature that still hugged the side of her face and it immediately fell off, rolling up into a ball once more. With the calm that proceeded a karmically retributive storm, she gently tossed it back towards Azure and it changed shape at the apex of its arc, most of its mass unfolding until it was a parachute attached to a tiny ball and could glide to safety.

"So," She said as she rose. "Evidentially, some of you have forgotten your places while you were away. Well, class is back in session. Now it's"

She paused abruptly, looking around with a frown.

"What teams are you guys?" She asked. "Bianca and I are team Beautiful Disaster, I remember that, but did we ever do Sienna and Azure? I know we didn't do Violet, Indigo, and Olivia."

"We did Sienna and Azure once," Bianca sounded more amused by the apparent draft than anything else. "I don't think we ever decided on a name though, partially because it never happened again and partially because you kept swearing. I'm pretty sure you were initially the Ice Bucket Challengers, but you spent more time getting called the Stone Cold Bitches."

"I'll allow it," Sienna nodded before raising an eyebrow at the trio. "That still leaves you three nameless, though."

"Magnificent Fishies," Violet supplied immediately, making Olivia lean over and tap her arm to draw her attention.

"Magfishicent," She whispered conspiratorially, causing Violet to point at her and nod.

"That one's better," Violet agreed before tilting her head. "What about you, Jaune? You want to play?"

I raised an eyebrow from where I'd been observing as all the attention in the room turned my way. I'd always been more of an observer to my sister's rougher games, butwell, things change.

"Uhsure, why not?" I said. "Team Jaune is ready whenever. What are we doing?"

Shani, the challenged, opened her mouth at once to supply the rules of the game, but Bianca interrupted.

"Jaune and I spoke earlier," She began. "About Father's funeral."

The room fell silent at once, turning her way and then mine. Our eyes met and I understood at once. I'd expected it, of course, but even I was surprised that we were doing it so soon. But

"Yeah," I said. "Shall we send him off in style, then?"

In moments, we stood in a loose circle, safely fenced off from normal reality by my barriers. With the issue of cutting loose rendered null and void, the only things left to do were to set the ground rules and start the fighting.

"Should we start in five?" Shani asked. "Go our separate ways and then get things rolling?"

"If we all go crazy in here, I'm not sure it'll much matter," Azure mused, looking around. "Will this thing hold up, Jaune? I can't really say portable pocket dimensions are my forte."

"Destroying it isn't a matter of destructive power," I answered. "There isn't a physical barrier to actually hit or anythingthe 'barrier' is between this world and the real one. While you might want to avoid doing anything you think might affect it, just in case, I don't think simple firepower will touch it.."

She nodded, considering that.

"But there are ways to break it?" She asked.

I nodded, remembering Ozpin and Conquest.

"I've seen it happen twice," I told her. "Both times it seemed to be an attack directed towards thestructure of the barrier. I'll keep an eye out, regardless, so just be prepared to stop if I say so."

"And, not that it needs to be mentioned, keep an eye on your Aura," Bianca put in. "You're all smart enough to know your limits, so remember them and don't put yourself at risk. Don't do anything that might put anyone else at risk, either; tempting as it might sometimes be, we're not trying to kill each other."

She drew her scroll from within her suit, typed a few things, and held it out expectantly. One by one, we followed her example with our own scrolls and there was a chorus of high-pitched beeps from each. Bianca opened hers up to check and saw all of our names and faces beside bars measuring our Aura's, each very similar to the ones I could see above their heads and with Observe.

"I'll keep an eye on that, too," I promised. "I can see that type of thing on my own and I'm the best equipped to get messages out fast."

"Anything else?" Shani asked, looking a bit impatient. "Or can we get this show on the road?"

"One last thing," I replied, smiling at her apologetically. "While physical force can't break into or out of Naraka, there is one thing to look out forthe Grimm can still get inside."

"Fuck, really?" She sounded incredulous. "Those sons of bitches can get anywhere, I swear."

I nodded and shrugged as they all shifted slightly, not as if afraid, per se, but in simple preparation for the possibility of danger.

"I do my best to keep them out," I answered, lying about how my barrier worked. "Only the smallest can usually get inBeowolves and such. Nothing for any of you to worry about, but just be on guard."

Bianca nodded once at that without so much as a glance my way and then patches of white light began to appear on her skin.

"Five minutes, then," She said again as she rose into the air. "Go."

I felt Bai Hu rise around me and threw myself back, watching my sisters as I did so. Violet and Indigo vanished with a flash of light and a tide of shadow respectively, while Olivia rose into the air after Bianca. That left Azure, Shani, and Siennathe ones who needed to walk to get aroundmoving much more slowly, which was part of the five minute rule, the other being a matter of preparation for those who needed it.

I didn't, thankfullymy power leant itself well to dropping out of the sky and laying waste to the place. Within a few seconds, the vast majority of my powers were equipped and I was on the move, tearing through the walls of the house so easily I barely felt them. The moment I was outside, I twisted in place and landed on all fours, title and body already shifting to show the face of Jian Bing, and then I Accelerated. Exploring the true power of my Aureola for the first time, I felt the air impact my skin like it was solid but pushed through it as easily as I'd done the walls, fire burning hot against my Adamant skin in the process.

My sisters were undoubtedly heading towards positions that gave them the biggest advantages and so I was quick to do the same. While I considered following Bianca and Olivia's example and taking to the skies, I could already tell that was going to get crowded soonso instead, I headed for the river, rushing onto the water as if it were ground and turning to follow the stream up to its mouth. When I reached the center of the massive reservoir, I shifted my feet and stomped with my next step, the force of the blow sending a tall wave and pillars of steam rising in every direction, even as it let me fling myself high in the air. As I rose over the cliff, I switched off Acceleration to save power and picked my target, hands out to my sides. Thrusting both down at the same time, I switched directions and flew even higher into the air, contorting my body in midair in anticipation of my landing, slowing my descent even as I did.

With barely a sound, I landed on top of Beacon's highest tower and sat down to wait out the other four minutes and fifty-nine or so seconds, letting my power return as I looked back over the city of Vale. Looking back the way I'd came, I could see the trail of fire and steam I'd left in my wake and Bianca and Olivia hovering in the sky, eyes fixed in my direction. Bianca's face had already been consumed by her light form, but I was able to see the surprise on Olivia's face, as well as the consideration. Slowly, her eyes dropped to the ground below and she began to float away from Bianca's stationary form and, presumably, in the direction of Violet and Indigo. Setting down on a building nearby, I saw her power begin to take effect, spilling out into the space around her slowly.

Of the eight of us, she and Azure would benefit the most from these five minutes, given time to workthough on the other hand, that might well make them the biggest targets once we began, with the possible exception of me. Absently, I began to set up a few barriers around myself, raising my Haven, Temple, Sanctum, and Sanctum Sanctorum in short order. The already rapid pace at which my power returned to me increased even more, paying back what I'd spent in seconds, and should Violet or Bianca attack me, the physical barriers might even buy me a moment to think.

Keeping my eyes focused on the city, I wondered how the battle would begin. While weak at the beginning, allowing Olivia or Azure time to work would be foolish. On the other hand, while they were great dangers late in the game, it wouldn't do to ignore the threats in the here and now, eithersure, Bianca's power may not grow as the battle drew on, but she was horrifyingly dangerous to start with. Bianca and Shani had enough power between them to be a dire threat to begin with and everyone knew it, so if I were the others, I'd try to keep at least Bianca busy. Team Magfishicent would have the easiest time of that, both as a three member team and as the team with Violet on it. She and Indigo would likely focus on safeguarding Olivia until her power was fully in place, which would give them a massive advantage. I'd say those three were probably a bigger threat then Sienna and Azure, but they'd also be the threat that would be focused on, giving Azure time to set up shop.

Tilting my head, I watched as they reached the river side. Azure thrust a hand into the water and color spread from it to darken the surrounding liquid. She keep it up as the seconds ticked by, focusing on it for nearly a minute as her power spread both out and down. At last, she leaned back from the water's edge, taking deep breathes as the new creature rose. It was much like any of her creations in that it was an amorphous blob with transitory eyes and mouths, but there was one thing that set it apart.

It was the size of a subway train.

Calmly, Sienna and Azure stepped aboard and some of the creature's mass rose around them as a shield before it slipped into the depths, form twisting and shifting until anyone without my eyes would have seen nothing but a vague and distant blur beneath the water. Even in my case, I had to unscramble the refracted image to get anything sensible out of the bizarrely distorted image. Moments later, other shapes began to rise, smaller creatures climbing onto the shores to attack anything they could reach, transporting parts back to their mistress.

Yeah. Ignoring those two would be a bad idea. Already, I could count over a dozen creature's and with Azure's Aura, there may well soon be a hundred, all working in perfect unison to construct things far from sight until Azure was ready to rise on a wave of twisted beasts and horrifying technology. Stuff like this was why nobody complained about the disproportionate team sizes.

I wonder what it said, that my team was the smallest. But then, I suppose it wasn't, was it?

With a vague thought, my Elementals were by my side once more waiting for my signal- seven of us for seven of them, which I supposed was fair enough under the circumstances. I left them in their spirit forms for the moment, but moved to get into place, Xihai in particular preparing to dive off the cliff into the water below. At the same time, I switched my clothes with Airavata, donning the armored kasaya with a gesture on my status screen. I belted it with Orion and slipped Hero and Leander onto my ring fingers. If we were sending off my father, then it seemed fitting to send off the others as well. I drew Kronos from my inventory as well, brushing a thumb over the chain necklace as I looked down at it.

I'd gotten Hero and Leander from Keppel and Carmine, while Tenne had dropped Orion. Kronos, however, I'd received for killing my fatherand I hadn't looked at it since I'd stored it in my Inventory, had never even put it on. I could say it was because I hadn't needed to fight anything meaningful since that battle or that I'd been busy, but while both of those things were true, I was too Wise to lie to myself. Maybe they were part of why I hadn't put the necklace on yet, but they weren't the only reasons. When I'd gone to fight Conquest, I'd worn the items dropped by the other Hunters, telling myself I was borrowing their power to turn it against the one who'd truly killed themand I'd believed that then and I believed it still.

And yet, somehow it was harder to tell myself that while looking at this delicate looking chain. Maybe it was because Conquestor at least the part of him that had done these things to uswas dead or because it was my own father, but either way, it was the truth. In the same way a big part of me didn't want to tell my sisters about my involvement in our father's death, it didn't really want to wear the chain my father's death had awarded me, either.

But funerals weren't for the dead, I thought. They were meant to comfort the living and the people left behind. So if there was ever a time to wear it, it was now. It felt wrong to wear one of the masks of Grimm to send of the Hunters who had fallen in battle, whether the ones in my Inventory or the ones I grew for myselfbut this was to show them that we'd be able to carry on at once without them and with all the things they'd left behind. Friendship, knowledge, memories, and, in a more literal sense than normalthese.

So I put it on.

KronosRank: Mythic

A necklace named for the scythe of time. Crafted in ancient days by the hands of a desperate father, it was intended to render the wearer immutable, immune to harm, disease, and even the passage of time. Yet the nature of time is that it runs out and he failed in his missionyet from his grief was created this wonder. What he intended to save a life, however, brought only greater death as blood was spilt for generations to obtain it, until it too was lost to time.

Increase all resistance to all harmful effects by twenty-five percent, up to a maximum of ninety-nine percent.

I took a breath and exhaled slowly, fingers rising to touch the golden chain.

"I guess even now you're looking after me, huh Dad?" I whispered before looking up. "Then watch this."

The five minutes of peace came to a close with a light that split the sky.