62

"Oh thank the gods that we're not doing a parade this year." Jaune sighed happily. "Last year was too much. Never again."

The sun was beginning to get close to setting as the Marching Finn pulled into Kuo Kuana, the large green transport ship beginning to slow as it approached the shores of the Faunus Kingdom.

"Awww, too much attention for the big hero?" Yang teased, her shoulders rubbing against his, skin meeting skin as their Auras mingled under the orange light.

It was warm and smooth.

Jaune tried to not let his embarrassment show as his heart beat felt heavy as he laughed back with an awkward chuckle.

"It just seemed a bit excessive, is all. Even Blake was apologetic, because it was something the Fang decided to do, not the Belladonnas." He scratched his cheek. "I don't mind them being happy that I'm here, just would prefer something more quiet, personally."

Yang's eyes fluttered, drawing his eye to her lilac pools.

"Well, y'know, if you want something more personal and private we could-"

"There you two are!" Ruby snapped onto his back with an almost gravitational pull, red rose petals scattering in the air. "I've been looking all over the ship for the both of you! What're you doing down here in the lower deck? The ship's pulling into Kuo Kuana!"

"Hey Rubes." Yang sounded a bit irritated for some reason, speaking through grit teeth. Jaune felt both her love and frustration for her younger sister flash at the same time. "Yeah, Jaune and I were having a moment."

"What kinda moment?" Ruby asked innocently, not noticing her sister's frustration. "Is it a secret? I wanna know!"

"We were just talking about how I'm glad that I don't see any parade or festival stuff like I did last year." Jaune just chuckled as he patted her on the head as her chin tucked between his rabbit ears. "That was embarrassing."

"It was crazy." Ruby agreed with a nod, her legs wrapped around his ribs as she hung off of his back. "I've never seen that many people hyped up for Jaune before and he's got a lotta fans at Signal."

"Ha ha…" Jaune laughed weakly. It was a happy thing that people liked him for his music, but some of the hungry eyes of some girls and boys had made him feel as if he was in danger, despite there being no killing intent.

If anything, killing intent might have been preferable somehow. He knew how to deal with that. Apparently not other kids his own age though. At least the large majority of them.

Jaune accepted that he didn't have a lot of friends, but that was fine because the friends he did have were all amazing. He was incredibly lucky to have the friends he had. Wouldn't give them up for anything.

Was he maybe too sheltered? No, that couldn't be. Right? He traveled the globe on the regular. He was plenty worldly. His dad had even had the conversation about (very confusingly named) the birds and the bees. Plus he'd known biologically how that all worked for a long time.

"Well it doesn't matter." Yang just hooked her arm around his, his arm was pressed up against-

SOFT. Focus, Jaune. Focus. This is Yang. You can't look at Yang like that. Right? Why was she so SOFT.

"-to the front. Jaune? Are you listening?"

"Hmm? Yeah, sorry. Was, uh, remembering… nevermind." Jaune shook his head. "We should get ready to get off the ship, right?"

"Hmmm. What's wrong, Jaune?" Yang smiled at him, light glistening on her lips, "You seem distracted."

"It's, uh, fine." Jaune assured again, a bit weakly. "Wondering if Sun and Velvet will be ok in Menagerie without his uncle."

And that was true, but that did put a somewhat contemplative frown on Yang's face. It did put a faint dampening on her pretty features, letting him think a bit straighter despite the sensation still pressed against his arm.

"Yeah. That sucks. We can check in on them together later though. We could even, maybe y'know make-it-a-double-date-or-something. I'm just glad we managed to keep it under wraps from our parents though. Seriously, Jaune, two minutes and you find a crime scene. What the hell?"

"It is, admittedly, a bit of a record, even for me." Jaune chuckled, shifting his arm to grab Yang by the hand instead so he didn't have to have an incessant physical reminder about the size of Yang's chest. "But come on, the others will worry."

"Kay." Yang gripped his hand hard, but not hard enough for his Aura to flash as he quickly pulled her along. "You don't have to walk that fast though."

She pulled his arm a bit to slow him down, making him match her pace a little better, which was fine by him. Having their bare arms brushing by each other so much was surprisingly embarrassing though, even if he kept that to himself.

"Wait, is Ruby asleep? How?" Jaune muttered incredulously as he felt a soft, small, rumbling snore utop his head. "She's not letting go at all."

"She didn't sleep much last night after she almost got launched out of our bed." Yang snickered as she smiled prettily. "The big baby."

"Giant baby."

Yang's laugh was as pretty as always.

"Blake! It's been so long!"

She couldn't stop the girlish giggle that passed her lips as Jaune picked her up and swung her around. The fact that he could so easily lift her despite her heavy legs sent a thrill through her spine.

"I assume we'll have to schedule an appointment tomorrow so we can plan for some more prosthetics adjustment, right? And- wait, sorry, I didn't mean to get into work mode so immediately. I'm glad to see you!"

A childish part of Blake compared this to the scene in Office 96 where the husband of the female lead came home after a long day's work for a scene of romantic affection to follow.

…even if it was she herself that had come home late to the Belladonna Estate while desperately hunting clues to no avail. Actually she'd been so caught up in it that she'd missed his arrival time entirely. Funnily enough it was Jaune that ended up waiting for her. Jaune in an apron? Mmmm.

The other, logical part of her reminded her that this was reality and she shouldn't let her fantasies overtake her reasoning right now.

"We can do that anytime. I'm not in a rush." Blake assured as she embraced her friend, feeling his Aura wash over her with the scent of juniper berries. Spiced pine and fruit. Hmmmm. It was comforting. It almost made her forget the fact that his Multi-Fabricator was missing. Almost. "If anything… there's something more important for us to address first."

"Nothing's more important than my friends." Jaune snorted, making her feel warm to the core. "It can wait, whatever it is."

"Then I'd like to address my daughter's wedding day~" Blake flushed and turned to hiss at her mother who whistled from around the corner, peeking at their private moment with eyes glinting with amusement.

"MOM!"

"Kya ha ha!" Blake glared as her mother quickly ran off.

"Wedding? Huh?"

"Ignore her!" Blake half-shouted, "I-I should have told you sooner, but I thought I could fix it without your help, but…"

She took a deep breath.

"...the Multi-Fabricator you leant us for the miners went missing. I'm so sorry!" Blake bowed, her head hung low. "It shouldn't have happened! I don't know what-"

"Hey, hey. It's ok, Blake. That's not your fault." Jaune reassured, though he did look a bit worried.

Actually maybe more confused than worried.

"I'm surprised to hear that, but you can't blame yourself for that, Blake. I know you're busy all the time just helping out Chieftain Ghira and your mom. Other people were responsible for protecting that stuff. Whatever happened to it sucks and I'll be honest… I didn't expect this." Jaune let out a long breath of air. "Honestly all of today's been all sorts of odd. Sadly, I don't actually have any way of tracking it down off the top of my head, but I'll stop by all my other equipment and make sure to give myself a way to track stuff down in the future. Mmm. Preferably tonight. Just in case."

She did see Jaune frown as the gears in his head turned.

"Actually it's a good excuse to ride around town a bit and see what's changed. Oh! Did you get a driver's license yet?"

Blake blinked, suddenly not sure where this was going.

"No? I do know how to drive a dune buggy, though. Do you need me to drive for something?"

"Oh, nothing like that." Jaune laughed, scratching the back of his head. "Actually Yang and I got our driver's licenses so I made her a bike. I know there's less of a need for that in Menagerie with the Cable Cars and all, but I figured it's only fair that I offer to make you something for your next birthday once you had one."

"Oh! I… suppose a bike would be better so I don't take up a lot of space, but I've never driven a motorcycle. Only four wheeled vehicles. Plus I don't know how useful that would be if I needed to run it in the desert. Actually maybe I should talk to dad about having a proper driving license system set up here in Menagerie as well. We only require a boating license at the moment. Not much reason to drive in these parts even if some people do own cars. Nobody wants to buy the Dust for them if they don't need to."

"Maybe I should make a bunch of electric scooters and buggies." Jaune muttered, already beginning to enter work mode. "Tracking them would be a pain, so maybe we just produce and sell just a bit over production cost inside the Kingdom and up-sale if we export any. Easier than any rental system straight up. Yeah I- I'm doing it again, aren't I?"

Blake giggled as Jaune blushed, his lean arm rising up behind his head as he scratched the back of his neck.

His new look (surprisingly dark) clashed a bit against his cheery and sometimes goofy personality, but aesthetically it suited him really well. He'd already often worn a lot of darker clothes, but the small splashes of gold and green he'd added worked for him. Also the clothes were tight on his body.

"Did the piercings hurt?" Blake suddenly found herself asking, her amber eyes hovering towards his earrings. Why was she suddenly asking that, of all things?

"Hmm? Ah. Honestly a little. Not too bad though." Jaune grabbed her wrist and pulled Blake's hand up so she could feel the part of his ear around the piercing.

They weren't kids anymore, so this felt more intimate and a heck of a lot more embarrassing, but Blake wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, feeling the cartilage of Jaune's ears. Her fingers grazed against it gently. His hair was soft but faintly bristly near the ends. The cartilage by the piercing itself felt a bit thicker and rougher.

"Luckily thanks to Aura I don't need to clean it as thoroughly with rubbing alcohol, but it still doesn't hurt to make sure it's cleaned here and there. Plus the fact that I pretty much leave it in all the time just in case it starts closing up faster from my Aura. It's like a double edged sword in this case. Aura keeps it cleaner and prevents any infection, but it'll also close it up almost overnight if I pull the earrings out. Believe me, I had to reopen the holes and I'm not repeating that mistake."

Blake hummed, only half listening as she somewhat embarrassingly focused on the feeling of Jaune's ears in her fingers instead.

"Maybe I should try one?" She muttered. If it closed quickly and it turned out she didn't like it, it wouldn't be a big deal, right?

"Huh? No!" Jaune frowned at her, "Your ears are pretty, you shouldn't."

Blake blushed a bit as she laughed at how suddenly he'd replied.

"What and your's aren't?"

"Uh, I mean, it was more recommended by the friend of a friend." Jaune chuckled, "And I figured, why not? My hair's so bright a little darker accent suits it well, but your ears are perfect as is, you don't need anything."

Blake rolled her eyes at Jaune's usual self-depreciating attitude. Even if the compliment made alongside it made her smile.

"You just said it closes up quickly if we have Aura, right? What's the big deal?"

"I mean, the mark still remains! If you end up not liking it, that scar is still going to be there."

"Well maybe I don't see that as a problem." Blake found herself teasing, enjoying Jaune's over-worried and flustered expression, suddenly feeling braver about the idea of getting a piercing of her own. "You can help me with them later. We'll just test it with one."

"Urk." Jaune looked nervous. "That's a lot of trust you're putting on me."

Blake couldn't stop the giggles that erupted from her at that sentence. Because it was ridiculous.

"Jaune, I've always trusted you."

The somewhat awkward but genuine smile he gave back in his dorky Jaune way made her heart flutter.

It was pretty dumb that he'd never considered somebody might want to steal his tech. That was obvious in hindsight.

He'd just always viewed Menagerie as someplace inherently safe after he and his Big Brother Juniper had fought to save it from the Grimm almost… had it already been about seven or eight years already? That was crazy to think about. That was almost a decade.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Crazy.

Was it complacency? Or was it perhaps that nobody was incorruptible and he'd just put too much faith in his fellow Faunus?

Maybe it was even the faith he'd subconsciously built up in his head about his own name, even though he'd never valued it before. Maybe he should have done so, even maybe- no. No getting hung up on what ifs. Taking action to prevent a bigger mess was more important.

"JAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUNNNNEE!"

Blake's arms squeezed around his torso as Fenrir tore through the sands of Menagerie, its tires being an all-terrain type.

He'd have to make the tires for Blake's bike wider (assuming she did also decide she wanted one) so that it could run in a more sandy environment. Maybe even design a unique tire that could shift into sand tires if needed?

But still this was cathartic. The feel of the open road (If there was no actual road, did that count?), the thrum of an engine from another world between his legs (purely emulated, as in truth it was modified heavily to run off clean fusion), the wind ripping against his form as Blake held onto him for dear life.

"TOOO FAAAAAAAST!"

The truth was that his fusion tech was more or less completely safe. He'd just made a show of minorly irradiating a distant bombsite for Atlas because the last thing that Kingdom needed at the moment was another tech gap. It drove his brain crazy whenever he saw how weird their technological leaps were, the last thing Jaune wanted right now was to contribute to that.

…there was something weirdly enjoyable about hearing Blake scream. Just a little bit. Just a little.

"YYYYOOOOUUUUUU JEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRK!"

And unlike with Yang, even though Blake was pressed up against him and it made his body act all funny, it didn't fully make his brain melt into goo so he could actually enjoy messing with her without feeling like a drooling idiot.

"HA HA HA HA HA!" Jaune couldn't stop the laughter that erupted from his lips as his helmet was bumped into from behind by Blake's, both of them modified for their Faunus ears to not be painfully squashed with a bit of custom work.

It was completely worth her teary eyed smacking against his shoulder he had to endure, though even Blake couldn't help but smile a bit. Clearly she'd enjoyed the experience as well somewhat, even if he'd taken his teasing slightly too far.

It was later in the evening, the sun just having set maybe half an hour ago, so not too far from eight o'clock one way or the other, as it was summer down in Menagerie. And Jaune had full clearance to pretty much any security door on the budding Kingdom outside of the main White Fang HQ and private businesses, so it only took an hour or two to bounce about and attach a Shadow to any Gacha devices.

Honestly he'd already been phasing out his Multi-Fabricators and had been replacing them with more dedicated machinery and making them as simple to operate as humanly possible, so there were only two of them to tag alongside a trio of Deconstructors that was pretty much working overtime to break down all of Menagerie's trash into base components to be sold as raw materials or reused in some manner like recycling.

Nobody would be dumb enough to steal the Deconstructors if they cared for Menagerie at all, but the Multi-Fabricators were a different story. He was reliant on the Gacha for them, so when he needed to pull one out of use for something new he'd have to manufacture a construction and repair line to replace it.

He'd proven that they weren't a necessity for his system. Just a convenience. And it was on a level that anybody would want.

Honestly it made him wonder if one had been stolen specifically because he'd begun to phase them out and recollect them for other jobs. Though they were heavy, his Gacha items were portable in the way that they could be moved about, though once again, they were heavy.

That meant in a way they had significantly more value than the assembly lines he'd create after confirming that some part of Earth Culture he introduced to Remnant through Menagerie would stick, after all. Not only that, but as long as one knew how to operate the machine and had sufficient engineering and design capabilities (plus materials) the Multi-Fabricator could create nearly anything.

Well he'd only really trained Ruby and Farbiglas in it, really, but while the actual program interface was a bit complicated, it wasn't impossible to figure out with some experimentation.

Jaune could see how that was tempting to someone greedy. Unless what they wanted was to produce more exoskeletons? That would be odd. They were sort of worse than just having Aura for protection. Nor were they armored, just supported the body and amplified strength output.

It was a bit of Nikke predecessor tech that was occasionally used to support a Commander of a Nikke Squadron should they suffer an injury that didn't require any full prosthetics. It had never made any combat standard high enough to fight the Rapture, and while Grimm weren't quite as tough, they were roughly in similar ballparks.

It just seemed like it would take too much to be practical from Jaune's perspective. Maybe his standards were too exacting, then? Maybe he didn't think it to be impressive enough, when to others it was game changing? That wasn't impossible.

Hmmm.

As he and Blake chatted about some inane changes in the day to day of Menagerie as a whole, Blake's mostly self-imposed new duties, and books that Blake recommended (though oddly her list of shared literature had shrunk a lot over the past year, presumably due to her own work as Chieftain's daughter) his Scroll rang.

"Hmm? Oh Yang's messaging me." He pulled his Scroll out of his pocket, a habit he forced himself to make because while carrying it in his Inventory alongside everything else in his life (honestly, Jaune acknowledged he might have a bit of a hoarding problem) doing so would mean the Scroll would be unable to pick up a signal. "She wanted to go on a bike ride together. Whoops."

"Ugh, I'm going to have to learn to ride one myself to keep up, aren't I?" Blake bemoaned softly, even though she had a small smile on her face. "You'll have to teach me, Jaune."

"Sure! I can do that, no sweat." Jaune smiled. "I'll make yours less loud too. Honestly the roaring engines on Yang and my bikes are pretty much just for show. Makes them feel more conventional."

"Oh, so you can tell that I thought it was too loud and did nothing about it?" Blake pouted, lightly bumping her hip against his.

Jaune laughed, giving the girl a hug apologetically, feeling her tense, then lean in quietly to his embrace.

"Sorry, sorry. Just too excited to share things I like with a friend. I can turn it off for the ride back."

"I didn't mind the sound of it, just thought it was a bit loud, Jaune. And more than that it was how you went full speed without warning me at all."

"That wasn't full speed."

"That's terrifying."

"Want me to show you full sp-"

"Jaune? You're one of my best friends, but I will kick you."

"Khe he he he." "...pft, ha ha."

"And it's secure?"

"It was important enough that I went myself to make sure it was." Sienna rolled her eyes. "Unless you think you're big enough to micromanage that shit too. You just got back from Almurawij, relax."

"I only ask because we both know that we won't be able to take a second, nor will it have the designs Jaune created to this point upon it. We'd lose our one advantage, especially since it's difficult to find an engineer smart enough and dedicated enough to agree to the duty full time and swear to secrecy."

"Oh? Since when were you so unconfident in your knights?"

"We're not Knights yet. Right now we're just a bunch of disgruntled people. None of us bear that title until we make ourselves known to the world at large. But we are sworn to Knighthood. This is the only path left."

Sienna laughed, shrugging off her White Fang Leader's Robes.

"We've all been disgruntled for a long time. If it wasn't for the fact that we have to put up a good positive PR front and Menagerie didn't require it to keep earning Jaune Arc's loyalties I could have used that for a more positive purpose." She sighed, stretching as the backless top she wore beneath her robes let her skin breathe. "That and perhaps I wanted to believe in old Ghira's dream too, just a little. Ha. What a gentle dream."

"Maybe if it wasn't this star it might have even worked." Her companion agreed in his own way. "In an ideal world it would have worked. It's the right method and message. But we don't live in such a world. Our star is not so gentle. We need to wake up. Wake others up too, if need be."

"Still, we needed peace after the last war regardless. Regardless of cause or creed, following war after war just means everything ends in destruction. Otherwise I'm certain more than four Kingdoms might have remained in this era. We couldn't have asked for a better peacetime leader than Ghira Belladonna."

"Hear hear." Her conversation partner agreed. "He's done right by us all."

"And yet here we are. Planning on betraying that trust entirely."

"No. There will be a simple uprising of Knights in foreign lands. Without the involvement of the Fang. Of people following their own code of justice, their own agendas. It'll just so happen that it includes Faunus Equality in the mix."

"How convenient. A band of Knights that support our cause that we cannot champion. We'll have to make a grand show about denouncing such violent actions on the surface. The White Fang are moderates now, but while Faunus in other Kingdoms might be amenable to those Knights, Menagerie has grown fat on peace."

"It's better that way. We have somewhere for those that can't stomach the fighting to have peace. Somewhere that Knights that need to forget the violence, to be with families, can come back to. To have tangible paradise on this star. To remind them why they must rebel, why they have sworn their oaths."

"You really are an old man in a young man's body." Sienna scoffed as she slipped off her long skirt, letting her toned legs and hips sway as she crawled into her bed, slipping into silk sheets as her eyes turned her amber eyes in the darkness. Her Faunus darkvision meant she could see him clearly, lean but powerful, standing proudly and burning with purpose as always.

"I'll take that as a compliment, Sienna."

"Well either join me or leave then." She pulled her top over her head, tossing it to the side, preferring the direct sensation of silken sheets on bare skin. "Standing there in the dark like that as a woman undresses is rude."

"That sounds like a personal problem." Adam replied as he cracked his neck, blue eyes gleaming in the darkness. "Ordering rebel Knights comes with consequences, Sienna."

That was a fat lot of posturing for someone that stepped forwards to join her anyways.

She was a replacement for him, his eyes were on her, but his heart was elsewhere, as usual. She could feel it. His gaze didn't crawl over her body, but fixated on her amber eyes and black hair, seeing someone else in her place.

That hardly mattered to Sienna. She had a lot of stress to work off, as always, and she was the one that had to somehow maintain a secret from the brightest mind on their star. She'd even barely gotten away with it, only maintaining her facade due to her own tiredness and disbelief at the way Adam's Guardsmen bungled a simple request by taking things a bit too far.

That and her genuinely apologetic feelings towards the accident that had happened to Novak Sanzang when she and Adam had effectively been the one to try to hire the man. Regardless of whether the students he trained would be for the public or their private plans going forward, he would have been a boon.

He wasn't exactly a legend, but he was a smart man that was a good teacher. Had more than a few students that ended up making their way into Shade Academy. He'd have been useful and it was a shame for him to die in such a freak accident.

Tabitha was her beloved pet, but man if she couldn't give Sienna the biggest-

She let out a gasp as her body was filled.

"Without even a word of warning." She growled, her hands clenching at her sheets as Adam pressed down upon her. "What a bastard you are, Adam."