[ACT 2]: Dead Man Talking

[CHAPTER 16]: Bedhead Redemption

[ALTERNATIVELY]: In Which Harry Gets Schooled By Pyrrha, But In A Good Way

Professor Goodwitch's voice rang out across the Combat Class arena, "As you may remember, we finished the initial sparring circuit before the break. Hopefully, you all have a good idea of your skills and shortcomings by now. If not, rest assured that at the very least I do. For the next two weeks, you will be working in pairs to hone your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses; pairs that I have taken the liberty of assigning in advance. Please come down to the arena floor and find your partner."

Every Scroll in the room buzzed in unison as students began to rise and make their way down to the arena. Harry read the name off the display and smirked. "Pyrrha Nikos, huh? Sounds like some kind of hotshot, I bet I could take her."

Weiss pouted. "Lucky. I'm stuck with Rose."

Harry snorted. "You act like she's the problem in that relationship. Who does everyone else have?"

Yang grinned, waving her Scroll in the air. "Nora! Heck yeah!"

As one, the three of them turned to Blake.

She shrugged and wiggled her Scroll. "Lie Ren. I guess we've all been paired up with Team RRVN?"

Weiss tilted her head and tapped her chin. "I suppose it makes sense. We're probably the two strongest teams this year."

Harry clapped her shoulder cheerfully. "And we still got absolutely wrecked by Team CFVY, so don't go getting a big head!"

She flipped her ponytail indignantly and stood up. "As if!" She turned on her heel and marched down the stairs.

Harry grinned and vaulted over the railing, flaring Aura in his legs to take the brunt of the drop. As the last of the students filed down, a low grinding echoed through the room. The bleachers that had seated the class for the past few months slid downwards into the floor, expanding the arena surface to fill the entire room. Numerous glowing rings appeared scattered throughout the room.

Professor Goodwitch continued speaking, "Once you have found your partner, find an unoccupied ring and begin. If you need more space, let me know and I will assign you to one of the auxiliary training rooms."

Harry scanned the mass of students milling about in the center of the room, quickly spotting the shock of blood-red hair that marked Pyrrha. She slipped out of the crowd and jogged over to him.

"Hello, again!"

He smiled and gave a little wave. "Hey, Pyrrha! What do you want to work on first?"

She raised her eyebrows and tapped her chin. "Well, a little someone told me that you don't actually have previous combat education, so I thought we might do something about that."

Harry clenched his fist and shook it at the ceiling. "Damn you, Weiss! Is this still about Rufus?"

Pyrrha blinked. "It was Ruby."

He clicked his tongue disappointedly. That meant he couldn't be petty about it without Yang ripping his arms off. "Exposing my deficiencies to the coolest kid in school? Not a bro move, Rose."

She frowned, attempting to sort that last statement out. "...Thank you? If it helps, I think we all already knew."

He winced. "Yeah, okay, fair. You, uh, wanna get this show on the road, then? Tackle my weaknesses head-on or something?"

She grinned and patted his shoulder encouragingly. "That's the spirit! I'll go reserve a training room, start doing Aura control exercises in the meantime."

Harry looked down at his hands in confusion as Pyrrha ran off to talk to Goodwitch. Aura control exercises? He'd sort of assumed people on Remnant had a normal elementary to high school career and then decided to become Huntsmen after graduation, but that was… probably wrong, now that he thought about it. Pyrrha was a four-time annual champion before showing up, and unless they just threw random kids into gladiator matches that implied at least, what, five or more years of ridiculous murder school? What the hell kind of lives did these people lead?

His questions went unanswered as Pyrrha returned, grabbing his arm and pulling him out to one of the auxiliary training rooms.

Harry stared at the smooth metal face of the standardized sword-type practice robot as he prepared to fight; someone who'd used the bot before them had drawn a frowny face on it with a permanent marker, and it really wasn't helping the mood.

"Don't plant your feet," called out Pyrrha from her position to the side. "You need to be ready to move in any direction. Normally I would start you out at level one and let you work your way up from there, but I only have two weeks with you. We're starting at level 3 and skipping the even numbers."

Harry swallowed nervously. "What's the difference between the levels?"

Pyrrha tilted her head. "Strength, speed, and fight pattern complexity, all scaling exponentially. I usually warm up against four level 9s, so we're going to try getting you up to at least one of those."

That sounded… very dangerous. "So what do I do, hit it until it dies?"

She laughed. "Not quite. Your first lesson is in damage avoidance. Try and last as long as you can without taking a hit, because getting hit is bad!"

And then she turned on the robot, as if she hadn't just given him the least useful advice he'd ever heard come out of her mouth.

The robot whirred to life and charged at him, startling him with its speed. He surged Aura in his legs, jumping backwards out of the path of the slash.

Gladius Duo.

He whirled his blades around himself as the bot lunged towards him, batting the strike away with one blade as he lashed out with the other.

The training robot brought up the hilt of its sword, deflecting his swing with the handguard of its weapon. It thrust its blade at his chest.

Ascendio.

Harry shot into the air, twirling to build up momentum before slamming back down with a devastating strike.

A devastating strike that was neatly deflected to the side, exposing his back to what promised to be a hefty chop from the robot's blade. He rolled forwards to avoid it, twisting back to face it even as it continued its assault. He raised an arm, deflecting its next strike with his bracer-

The sensation of a hefty chunk of his Aura suddenly going down was like a splash of cold water on his face as Pyrrha blew her whistle. The robot immediately stopped and returned to its original position.

What was that? He didn't have armor, why did he do that? When did Pyrrha get a whistle?

She pointed at him. "Harry! What was that?"

He shrugged. "I dunno, for some reason I thought I was wearing armor."

She put her hand to her forehead and sighed. "Then get some armor, the last thing you want to do is make that mistake stranded in the middle of the Grimmlands. Next question: who trained you?"

He blinked. "Isn't, uh, isn't that what you're doing now?"

She tilted her head. "Well, technically, but who did you learn swordsmanship from? Your style relies heavily on muscle groups you haven't developed yet. Whoever is teaching you needs to give you a workout plan."

He blinked again. "...Nobody?"

She gave him a flat look. "So you're saying you just… spontaneously grew sword skills?"

He shrugged helplessly. "I guess? I have no idea what's going on."

She sighed again and sat down, pulling out her Scroll. "Of course he just grew sword skills that don't fit his body," she muttered to herself as she began typing furiously. "He's a wizard, he's not supposed to make sense."

Harry raised his hand. "Am I fighting the robot again?"

She frowned at her Scroll. "Can't hurt, I guess. I'll send you the workout plan when I'm done making it."

He grinned. "Thanks!"

He turned back to the robot, twirling his blades experimentally. If he was going to spontaneously get good at dual wielding swords, then he was going to see how far it went.

Pyrrha looked down at Harry amusedly as he lay gasping on the floor. She dropped a water bottle into his hand and crouched down next to him. "So, Harry, what have we learned?"

He twisted the cap off and poured it into his mouth. Or rather, some of it into his mouth and most of it all over his face. He put the bottle down and thought about Pyrrha's question.

"I learned," he began slowly. "That I do not have the physical endurance I think I have."

She nodded. "For a Huntsman, not knowing your limits is dangerous. So, change of plans, for the next two weeks I am going to be working you to the bone so you can get a better grasp of exactly how far you can go."

He laughed. "Y'know, this is not at all how I thought this thing would be going."

She smiled wryly. "I have a suspicion this is going exactly how Goodwitch thought it would."

He groaned and theatrically clutched his stomach. "Ouch, oof, does everyone just have low expectations of me or something?"

She shrugged. "Something like that."

He snorted. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She tilted her head in mock incomprehension. "I've no idea what you're talking about. I'm going to go give Professor Goodwitch a status report."

He blinked as she stood and left the training room. "Pyrrha? Pyrrha, wait, what was that supposed to mean?"

The light of Jaune's Aura flickered as the unmistakable sounds of something massive approaching echoed through the cavern. He tightened his grip on Crocea Mors as his eyes flicked around him; while the golden glow was comforting, stalagmites (or stalactites, who knew?) and the scattered chunks of rock cast long ominous shadows against the stone floor.

He raised his shield, facing the direction he was pretty sure the sounds were coming from. He had his cool super force field, he was way stronger, he had a cool sword. Whatever this thing was, he could handle it.

A massive bone-plated head descended into the light of Jaune's Aura. It alone was as tall as he was, with orange snake-like eyes and serrated ridges along its top. It screeched at him, revealing that its wide, jagged maw stretched a solid six feet into what he would have sworn was its neck.

And then the rest of its body lumbered into view. Jaune snorted— he couldn't help himself. From a proportional and biological perspective, it was some kind of a lizard giraffe. The neck was twice as long as the body, and sure it might have given it far better reach and yeah the whole neck-maw thing was terrifying, but it also gave the general impression that at any moment it could start wiggling like one of those wacky wavy inflatable arm-flailing tube men.

The Grimm did not take kindly to his irreverence and reared its head back, neck beginning to bulge.

What… what was it doing? Was it going to spit acid at him? Lasers? Some sort of nuclear blast that would kill him instantly? Jaune was disappointed that he could not immediately rule any of those out.

The head whipped forwards and Jaune rolled to the side, even as it screamed.

It… screamed? That scream had formed a sonic projectile that shattered the floor where he had been standing. What was wrong with these Grimm? First the goddamn Diggles, now some sort of lizard-giraffe with sonic attacks? What kind of bored, mad god created these things?

Harry flicked his wand as the team returned to the dorm, conjuring a whiteboard on one of the walls. He popped the cap off of a purple dry erase marker, launching it over his shoulder. "Okay, let's get down to business. What's on the agenda for our cool kid vigilante club today?"

Weiss frowned. "I thought it was strange that there was no security on that Dust shipment, I can probably go to a CCT terminal and get the paperwork for that from the SCD Records; they have terminals in the library, right?"

Harry wrote 'Weiss' on the board and (badly) drew the CCT tower next to it. "Okay, Weiss gets to hack into the supercorporation archives, anyone else got anything?"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "It's not hacking if I just ask politely."

He dropped his jaw at her in mock surprise. "You know how to do that?"

Yang snorted, then raised her hand. "Uh, I know an information dealer I could probably hit up?"

Harry frowned. "Should I set aside a portion of the Team PWBL Miscellaneous Funds for that?"

She grinned and shook her head. "Nah, I got this."

He shrugged and wrote 'shady stuff' on Yang's spot on the board. "Blake, what do you have?"

She frowned. "I think there's supposed to be a White Fang recruitment rally tonight? I was thinking of sneaking in."

He wrote 'rejoining terrorist organization' next to Blake's name. "Okay, so I think it's most prudent if I go with Blake, so she doesn't do something weird again. Yang, Weiss, you okay with riding solo?"

A gentle tap on the glass had the four of them turn around. Sun Wukong, shirtless as ever, stood in the open window of their dorm. "Sounds like you guys could use some backup?"

Harry frowned. "Did you tap our Scrolls or something? This is the third time you've shown up with perfect timing."

Sun laughed and shook his head, stepping off the windowsill and into the room. "I was gonna ask if you guys wanted to hang out, but this sounds funner. I even brought Neptune!"

Neptune slowly shimmied his way into view, clutching onto the windowsill for dear life. "If I've told you once I've told you a million times, Sun! Just because I have Aura doesn't mean I want to have to use it! The front door works just fine!"

"Don't be a nerd, Neptune. You gotta live a little!"

Neptune sighed in relief as he fully entered the room. "Forgive me, but climbing all the way up to fourth story windows for no good reason doesn't seem very conducive to living for any amount of time. And the politically correct term is 'intellectual'."

Harry clapped decisively. "Okay, so I guess we're splitting you two up between Weiss and Yang?"

Weiss straightened up. "I'll take Neptune!"

Yang waggled her eyebrows at her. "I understand that nerds following rules is what gets you going but this isn't the time or place for that, Weiss Cream!"

She shook her fist at Yang in outrage. "I was thinking no such thing, you brute! I'm going to a library, to look at paperwork, and I think a self-proclaimed intellectual will be a little bit more useful there than the shirtless ruffian!"

Yang grinned smugly. "Sure, sure… just be back by eleven!"

Weiss glared at Yang. "You will rue the day you decided to cross me, Xiao-Long."

Harry grinned and spoke back up. "Weiss' pitiful attempts at romance aside, that leaves Sun with Yang if that's agreeable to everyone?"

Yang winked at Sun. "Sounds good. You ready to roll, monkey boy?"

Sun grinned and pointed finger guns at her in response. "You know it, partner!"

Weiss raised her hand. "Weren't we going to change?"

Harry nodded sagely. "Right, we're going undercover. At least, Blake and I are, Weiss still has to be recognizable and I have no idea what kinda shady stuff Yang plans on getting herself into. Regroup in ten? And close the window this time, we're good on team composition. Think I should look into warding this place?"

Yang shrugged. "Maybe later. Boys out, now!"

Harry looked at his three teammates flatly. "What are you wearing?"

Yang grinned and posed. "Our secret undercover cool kids clothes!"

Harry blinked, and turned to Blake. "Yang, I get. Weiss… rich people have no idea how normal people act, I already know that. But you? I expected better from you, Blake."

She held her arms and looked down at herself. "What's wrong with this?"

Harry brought his hand to his forehead. "You don't look like a normal person, Blake. If anything, you all just look like you're disguised as other Huntresses."

She crossed her arms and glared at him. "I'd like to see you do better."

He grinned and waved his wand over himself, Transfiguring his clothes into jeans, sneakers, and a faded Gryffindor hoodie. "Boom, civilian casual."

Blake raised an eyebrow at him.

He looked back at his wand. "On second thought, let's actually disguise ourselves. Would you rather be a blonde or redhead?"

She grimaced. "Are those my only options?"

He shrugged. "I was gonna make you either a red panda or a golden retriever, but if you have a preference that isn't yourself let me know."

She hummed thoughtfully. "Red panda, I guess."

He nodded and waved his wand, turning Blake's hair red and Disillusioning her ears. "You normally have ears so I'm giving you a tail for this. Don't flare your Aura, by the way. That'll probably push all the magic back off."

She shivered. "Oh, that felt weird."

He shrugged and started on the tail. "Yeah, magic tends to have interesting sensory effects. Hey, do you know how long faunus tails are supposed to be? Is it just, copied right off the animal, proportioned to body mass, or scaled up or down so the vertebrae match?"

Blake blinked. "I… I don't know? I never really thought about it."

He tapped his chin, then snapped his fingers. "I'll just go with the last one and if it looks weird I can change it once I'm done."

Blake squirmed uncomfortably as her spine elongated and grew fur. "Oh, damn, that feels weird. What are you going to do to yourself to pass as faunus?"

He grinned. "I'm thinking deer horns, with spiky blonde hair? Nothing says 'this man is not Harry Potter' like blonde hair. Oh, and I'll ditch the glasses; there's probably a spell or two that'll temporarily let me see without 'em. Worst comes to worst, I'll just transfigure my eyeballs into working properly."

Harry and Blake posed dramatically in front of their team and Sun and Neptune.

Well, Harry posed dramatically, Blake was just kind of there.

"So, whaddya think? We're James Blanc and Bethany Rouge, two completely normal, albeit open to terrorism faunus who wanna stick it to the system and fight for our rights!"

Yang cheered and cupped her hands to her mouth. "Why do you want to join the White Fang?"

Harry clenched his fist. "Every year at the Christmas Parade, they always cast me as one of the reindeer! Every year! I wanted to be Santa, damnit!"

Weiss blinked. "You're… a lot more into this than I thought you'd be. Which is saying something."

He nodded. "Yeah, this is surprisingly fun. How about you, Bethany?"

"My parents died in an undocumented SDC mining accident and I seek vengeance."

The room was silent.

Harry rubbed the back of his head. "Well, that's depressing. I can't even say you're a killjoy because that's actually why people join."

Blake eyed everyone, unimpressed. "Now that we've stopped making fun of an oppressed and abused minority, can we get on with this?"

He cleared his throat, embarrassed. "Right. Team PWBL+2, move out!"

Yang frowned and looked down at her hand. "Sun Wukong, Neptune Vasilias, Harry's still leader… that works out to… HWNXWB for Honeycomb? It'd be BYHWVS for Beehives but Blake isn't in charge."

Harry pursed his lips. "That's kind of a stretch, you know."

She rolled her eyes. "Like PWBL for Purple isn't?"

He tilted his head. "Yeah, fair point, I'll take it. Team HWNXWB, move out!"

[OMAKE #9] MageTide Part 4: A Warmaiden's Introduction To Basic Economics

You surge your Aura and, with a cry of exertion, heave the massive chunk of Dust up onto the back of the wagon. You turn to Throckmorton. "Is that the last of it?"

The Dust trader nods. "We would need specialized equipment and more manpower than we currently have to mine the rest of it."

You grin and begin securing the cargo in the wagon. The two of you managed to harvest enough Dust that only a tenth of it actually fit in the wagon's lockbox; the rest was simply covered in cloth and strapped in. In all honesty, it's a disaster waiting to happen, but the two of you are still riding the high of your victory over the Crimson Widow.

Once the Dust is secured, you jump into the wagon and kick your feet up onto the bench opposite. "So, Mr. Schnee, do elaborate upon your proposed venture. The only details I have are that it will supposedly allow me to fight plenty of Ancient Grimm."

Throckmorton Schnee smirks and climbs into the driver's seat of the wagon. "Are you familiar with the basic principles of supply and demand?"

You frown. The words sound familiar, but you don't remember what they are; you never really paid attention to your non-combat subjects during your childhood. "The names ring a bell."

He laughs as the wagon starts rolling. "I suppose you wouldn't have much reason to remember it. In essence, an object's value rests heavily upon how easy it is to get, and how much people want it. This is its supply and demand; if the supply is greater than the demand, the price goes down, and vice versa."

Your eyebrows rise in understanding. "So Dust is expensive because the demand is high and the supply is low?"

He nods in affirmation. "Precisely. Dust is an interesting example because it is an abundant resource; the reason the supply is low is because of all the Grimm in the way, and the danger of going out to mine it. Of course miners can hire mercenaries, but there is no guarantee they will find enough to pay them, let alone make a profit."

You think you're beginning to see where he's going. "And miners have already taken the easy to get to Dust, right? So your plan is to…"

His smirk grows wider. "Wander around Vale selling Dust and investigating rumors of Ancient Grimm. If we find one, we fight it, scour the territory for Dust, rinse, and repeat. You get 34% of profit originating in the territory of any Grimm you've defeated."

You grin widely, mirroring Throckmorton's own. "Fame, fortune, and a fair bit of excitement along the way? I'm in."

He twists in his seat to face you. "Miss Arc, it's a pleasure to have you."

A/N: So that's chapter 16! Harry has sword skills and doesn't know how, Pyrrha is gonna beat the crap out of him for the next two weeks, and Sun and Neptune joined Team PWBL's extracurricular counter-terrorism activities to create Team HWNXWB (Honeycomb)! And in the omake, Noir Arc witnesses the birth of the Schnee Dust Company.

I know I'm not the best at updating regularly, but I've set a goal for myself: at least 1 chapter of something per month. Whether that's this, or Titanium Soul, or a new project? That remains to be seen. I'd aim for something every other week but I have a lot of non-fanfiction stuff to work on as well.

Did something make you laugh? cry? throw your laptop across your room? Did I do anything particularly well, or is there anything you think I need to improve on? Let me know in the reviews! A key aspect of improving skills is feedback, and that's what reviews are there for!

Thanks for reading!