7

Chapter 7 - The Blake Witch Project

"Split up into your teams, but remember to stay together – this is Grimm territory." The stern deputy instructed to the gathered hunters-in-training, looking over each of them from her rimmed glasses. "We will rendezvous here in two hours, make sure you've collected your allotment of sap by then. Dismissed."

Blake sighed as she followed her team, an empty glass jar in hand. Forever Fall truly was a beautiful place. An eternal autumn that constantly shed blood-red petals in the light breeze. Leaves crunched underfoot as the four of them strode deeper into the dense foliage. Or the five of them she supposed, if you counted the spirit who was excitedly looking around.

"I've never seen anywhere like this before, it's incredible."

She didn't answer. Not in front of her friends. Though she herself hadn't ever been to Forever Fall, unusual locations like it weren't uncommon across Remnant. Perhaps it was something to do with dust, or Grimm – but the fateful train she had separated from her past life on had travelled through a similar forest.

"So do any of these trees have sap?" Ruby poked at a nearby trunk with her scythe blade. "I mean, why even spread out if we could just land and tap the nearest trees?"

"I don't think it's all of em sis," Yang laughed as she tossed her bottle in the air, catching it behind her back. If she dropped and shattered that… ugh, there was no telling that girl sometimes. "Just the older ones or something, look for the really big ones and give them a good tapping."

"Well let's split into twos then," the heiress suggested as she took hold of Ruby by the sleeve. "We'll cover more ground, but it's probably best to stay in shouting distance."

Blake shrugged, even as Yang nodded. When had those two made up, just yesterday they had still seemed to be at each other's' throats?

"I heard they had a chat yesterday, cleared the air between them," Yang said in answer to the question she had never asked. "Still don't think miss heiress is happy, but looks like she's agreed to give Rubes a chance."

"Awfully generous of her."

The blonde girl laughed as she dragged Blake towards some nearby trees, testing a few with her hand to see if any were oozing sap.

"Well Weiss is the prickly sort like that, but then you're not all that better are you?"

"Pardon?" Did Yang just compare her to a Schnee? That was ridiculous, preposterous even. Weiss was a spoiled princess. Someone who wanted the position of leader for no other reason than the prestige it would bring. She, on the other hand, had needed to fight for every little thing she had in life. Even her position in Beacon had been hard won by the experience she'd gained from the White Fang – her and Weiss were nothing alike!

"Well you're both about as friendly as one another, I mean at least Weiss is trying to make amends with Ruby."

She spared him a brief disgusted glance, showing exactly what she thought of that particular comment.

"I just mean you both seem to have a little trouble adapting to being on a team," Yang laughed as she made to rub Blake's hair. The agile girl ducked back, unwilling to take the risk of her partner feeling more than just hair atop her head. "Give Weiss a chance will you? You might find yourself liking her, I mean you had no problem with Rubes – and she's not exactly little miss socialite either."

"That's different," Blake argued, though she couldn't find a way to explain her reasoning without giving anything away. "She just… rubs me the wrong way."

"Looked to me like you didn't even give her a chance to rub you the right way." Jaune sounded critical, before pausing and stroking his chin. A quick grin came to his face. "Heh, I see what I did there."

"Well maybe undifferent it," the blonde girl rolled her eyes dramatically, "I'm not saying you have to be BFF's or anything, but I can't see any reason for you and Weiss to not get on."

She couldn't argue with that either… because the only reason Yang couldn't see the reason was due to Blake's own lies. But liking a Schnee wasn't easy… it wasn't just Blake's own prejudice at work, but seventeen years of racial prejudice heaped on her, and another seven or so since she had joined the White Fang. It had been the Schnee to break up their peaceful rallies, or their money used on mercenaries and hunters.

"I'll try," she said once it became clear her partner was waiting for an answer. "I can't make any promises, but I'll try."

"Kiss and make up!" Jaune promptly ruined the moment, as he tended to. Though his predictably perverted comment drew a small smile to her lips. Oh Gods, he was corrupting her already.

"That's all I ask. Now here, hold these for me while I drill into this baby." Blake accepted the empty jar, holding one in each hand as Yang began driving the metal corkscrew into the tree, twisting it into the bark. After a few solid turns of the handle it seemed to suddenly slip deeper, before a purple liquid began to slowly ooze from the wound. "Come to mama~"

Blake shook her head as she knelt at her partner's knees, one jar held out beneath the steady drip as she watched the viscous liquid slowly collect. It looked disgusting to be honest, with the consistency of a thick syrup, but the colour of dark purple. But apparently it was quite the delicacy. Smelled pretty pungent too, though maybe that was just her.

It was because she was so focused on the tree that she didn't hear anything behind her. Not the shaking of bushes, or the muted crack of snapped branches. Nor the whistling of something flying through the air.

She certainly felt it though, when solid glass shattered on her back. Small shards of glittering glass rained down around her, even as she gasped in pain.

"What the-!?"

"Oh God, Blake, are you okay!?"

"I'm… fine?" She said as she gingerly felt along her back. Her hand came away wet, and for a moment she panicked, before seeing that it wasn't blood – but thick purple sap on her back. Of course her aura had protected her from it. "What the hell was that though?"

"Someone wanting to die is what it was." Her partner snarled, as she kicked away some shattered glass behind them. "Someone tossed a full bottle of sap at you, who would even do that?"

"I saw silver armour," Jaune bounced agitatedly in the air before her, "definitely that creep Cardin. We should totally mess him up!"

"Forget it," Blake said – to both of them. "It's not worth getting worked up over."

"What!? Blake, they threw a fucking glass bottle at you!"

To a huntress that isn't really anything though… even as a faunus I've had worse thrown at me. Stones, bricks, sometimes even make-shift bombs.

"If this was someone's idea of a joke, then it's pretty messed up." Yang stroked one hand through her hair as her eyes flashed red. "If I find who did this…"

"It's fi-…" She paused, ears twitching beneath her bow as she heard an unusual sound. Humming? "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"I hear the sound of Cardin not getting what he deserves!"

She ignored them, golden eyes scanning the forest before them. She knew her senses weren't failing her, simply that she could pick up frequencies they could not – and could often hear things a little sooner.

Though as the swarm burst from the red bushes, she found herself frozen in shock regardless.

"Rapier wasps!" Yang shouted, as she fumbled with Ember Cecilia, trying to shoot them out of the air. Shrapnel blew past her fact as the blonde unloaded, cutting a swathe of the insects down, but it was nothing compared to the size of the swarm. There had to be about fifty of them, each as big as her finger.

But why were they- her eyes flicked down to the sap coating her hand, and no doubt the rest of her back.

"They're after the sap," Blake cursed as she tore Gambol Shroud from her waist, lamenting briefly at the idea of unloading valuable rounds at insects, before doing it anyway. A few fell, the rounds tearing through them and killing those behind – but before Yang could even fire a second round they had descended upon her – biting and stinging as little legs danced across her arms. "Arghh!"

"Drop and roll!" Jaune shouted, "Crush them with your body!" Blake didn't bother to think, instead diving onto her side and frantically rolling around on the soft leaves as she heard little carapaces crush beneath her – but even then the stingers were driven deeper into her flesh. Her aura protected her from any serious harm, but the painful stinging toxin still dug deep.

"Ruby! Weiss!" Yang shouted as she grabbed a nearby branch and started knocking the insects off her, sweeping the leaves across her body like some kind of natural flyswatter. But even then there were too many, that all Blake could do was cover her eyes and continue rolling.

"Heads up!" A bubbly voice shouted before a wave of force and heat washed across her, singing her slightly as something exploded loudly nearby. Tiny bodies rained down on and around her, as the shockwave from the blast decimated those wasps still remaining.

"Oh God, Blake are you okay?" Ruby cried as she helped the faunus up. Blake winced at the contact, already feeling the burning itching across her skin. It felt like she had rolled around in a patch of nettles, except that it would only burn worse before it got better.

"Rapier wasps? Out here?" Weiss kicked at one of the small corpses. "They're not indigenous to Forever Fall, what were they even doing attacking you?"

"They wanted the sap," Blake said with a pained grimace, "it's all over my back… someone threw a jar at me."

"Threw it at you?" A male voice asked, as her attention was finally drawn to those who had come to her rescue. It took her a moment, through the haze of pain, to notice it was the three they'd fought alongside in initiation. The very team Jaune had likely been destined for. "Odd for someone to just throw sap around – and then for rapier wasps to also be in the vicinity. Awfully convenient."

"You think someone did this on purpose?" The tall redheaded woman asked, with such horror in her voice that any possible suspicion it could have been the three of them was erased.

"That is…" Weiss paused, looking for the words, "it's ridiculous… but also definitely too convenient to not be true. But why would anyone even care to do that to Blake?" The white-haired girl turned to her, one brow raised. "You didn't see who it was?"

"It was Cardin," Jaune phased directly through Blake, stopping between her and the heiress as he stared directly into her golden eyes. "He said he was going to get you back, literally yesterday – it's too obvious, not to mention I saw silver armour. No one else wears anything like that!"

"No," Blake said as she stood up, "I've no idea."

"What!?"

"Tch- what a crock, thanks for the save anyway you guys." Yang nodded toward the three teens, which only seemed to excite the orange-haired one.

"No probs! Ren was all like `they need help, Nora your grenades will clear the wasps` and I was like `okay Renny, I can do this` and-" The girl continued, while Yang nodded along with the patience (or ability to ignore) that only an older sister seemed to have.

"Sorry we didn't come sooner," the quiet one, Ren she supposed, said to Blake as she rubbed her arms, "we only came when we heard someone shouting. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, thanks."

If only she could actually stop the infernal stinging then she would be fine, damn it. At least she hadn't proven allergic to the things, or it would likely be a lot worse.

"Why didn't you say anything about Cardin?" Jaune complained as he sat down on a rock by the river she was knelt at. From the corner of her eye she could make out the impressive pout on his ghostly features. She shook her head, focusing on washing her arms in the cool water once more. She couldn't wash away the pain, but it was soothing – and would help to remove any stingers still stuck in her arms.

"I can't exactly prove anything." Luckily the two of them were alone, her team trusting her enough to be able to wash her hands without an escort. Team LVN had decided to stick with them, strength in numbers they claimed – though Blake suspected it was their leader's attempt to offload the loud one on their team. Not that she could blame him, she thought to herself with a smirk.

"Does that even matter? They would have believed you over him, and I saw him."

"And what if you were wrong? I can't just go off half-cocked because you have a suspicion." Not that she doubted him… Cardin Winchester really was the only person in the school she'd managed to anger. Why had she felt the need to run her mouth like that?

She knew why… to punish the little snot for his treatment of the faunus Velvet. And now it was coming back to bite her... she should have expected that really, but all this time away from the White Fang had dulled her instincts. She'd gotten so used to being abused because of her faunus nature, that she'd assumed hiding it would make her invincible.

There's more to hate someone for, than just their species.

"So you're going to let this go? Someone attacked you, very literally, in a Grimm-infested forest. What if some Grimm had been drawn to the fight?"

"Then we would have killed them Jaune," Blake sighed as she started to splash some water into her face, enjoying the chill. "There were four, no – seven of us with the other team. We'd have been fine."

"Damn it Blake…" He sighed, looking up to the sky as though for answers. She felt like suggesting he fly up there to try and find them, maybe he would get stuck and pass on. "Just tell me one thing?"

"If I must."

"Why are you treating this like it doesn't matter? Even to the others, they express their concern and you're all just `I'm fine` - when you're clearly in pain."

That was… quite the question she supposed. Instead of answering she just looked at her reflection in the water, watching the ripples disturb it as they passed by. Jaune didn't know anything of her past… and that was for the best, he didn't need to know.

For a faunus child alone on the streets, your biggest concerns were food, shelter and survival. For a faunus in the White Fang, you had shelter and food – but the survival aspect became much more difficult. The strong thrived, and the weak? Well… they still survived, in their own little way, but there was always that risk. Schnee bots didn't discriminate when they decided you were a foe.

"Because things like this," she said as she held her arm out to him. Her pale skin was dotted with small red marks, where the swelling was already beginning to slowly recede. "They don't matter. The pain is temporary, and it stings yes, but it's nothing compared to what a Huntress will have to face. If I allow myself to be dragged down by insects, then I don't deserve to try and fight Grimm."

"I suppose… but still…"

"No Jaune, that's all there is to it. Just forget about this, it's really not important."

"And if it continues?" He just had to ask. Blake sighed as she dashed her hands back into the water, destroying the image of her face – and the pained expression on it.

"It won't." The water began to slowly calm again around her hands, showing another figure behind her. A claw tore through her, passing through her body too easily as it dug into the dirt. The red-eyed monster grunted in confusion, even as she swung behind it, Gambol Shroud poised. A single solid strike was enough to cut a deep furrow into the back of the Ursa's neck, leaving it to tumble gracelessly into the water.

It began to dissolve, even as the running water was stained with red.

"It won't continue," she said again as she sheathed her weapon, ignoring the look on his face as she walked back to her team.