Act 1 - Chapter 6: Raucous Jongleur

"IT'S FINALLY DONE!" Ruby declared triumphantly as she and I walked towards the outside arena, where the rest of Team RWBY and JNPR stood and looked at us.

She presented a green and black electric guitar with silver traces defining its body and outlining the green pattern on the body, which surrounded the pickups and the vibrato bar.

"This is it?" asked Jaune, almost unimpressively. "Looks like a regular guitar to me."

Ruby pouted, "We worked hard on this weapon."

"You're the one who kept wanting to make last-minute adjustments..." I countered.

She aimed her pout at me, which I barely flinched at, "I wanted to make it perfect. Besides, you made your own adjustments, too!"

"No," I corrected, "I kept retuning it. You wouldn't stop fidgeting with the blade's size and the balancing."

Everyone chuckled at Ruby's exasperated explanation of the currently unnamed weapon's intricacies. I, on the other hand, noticed one of those looks that Yang kept giving me before she looked away. Again. It was a look that was an odd mix of sisterly overprotectiveness and embarrassed confusion.

She's been doing that for the past couple of days now… I thought, I'm going to have to deal with that, aren't I?

"Well?" Nora shook me from my thoughts, literally, "Show us, show us, show us!"

I rolled my eyes. "Fine," I jokingly groaned as I activated the mechashift mechanism.

Instantly, the guitar's neck extended to more than double its length and became narrower and rounder as it folded around the strings. The tuning keys then retracted into the head of the guitar. The outside of the head itself sharpened and extended, forming a blade at the end of the pommel.

The bottom edge of the body sharpened and extended outwards, forming a slight arrow-shaped blade. Half of the lower body popped from its place and extended further into five sections. The outer panels of the sections turned inward before they collapsed back into each other, forming the axe head and butt. The head turned to the right and snapped into place.

The beard of the edge extended further, forming a hook at the heel. The right side of the upper body collapsed and extended in an upper left diagonal direction in order to make room for the head of the axe.

I flipped and twirled the axe in my hand testingly, checking the balance.

Ruby looked at Jaune with a haughty expression that would've looked far more natural on Weiss, a smirk on her lips and a brow high on her head.

"Okay," he admitted, "not just a guitar." Once I was done trying some swings in the air, I activated the mechashift mechanism again.

The axe head popped out of place and extended itself again. The edge retracted and dulled as the head positioned itself in a lower right diagonal direction before snapping in place and collapsed, forming the stock of the shotgun.

The right side of the upper body folded back around, forming the shotgun's forend and the lever-action trigger. The left side of the upper body shifted into a diamond-shaped holo-reflex sight that was visible even in the dead of night.

The haft of the axe configuration collapsed to about just-under two thirds of the original length, becoming the barrel. The guitar head extended itself slightly down the barrel, becoming the muzzle brake.

Holding the hunting shotgun close to my shoulder and looking down the sights, I rapidly snapped from one person's face to another.

"Gaaah!" Weiss called out, "Watch where you're pointing that thing!"

I rolled my eyes again. "Weiss, it's not even loaded." I took out a magazine of Fire Dust shells and loaded it into the shotgun. Then I pointed it at Weiss.

"What's wrong with you?!"

"Safety's still on." I'd never seen Weiss' cheeks become so red from frustration before… I could only chuckle. "Now, I need to check if it works with my Semblance."

"Do you think it won't?" questioned Ren.

I shrugged, "Better safe than sorry."

/~/

We had entered the Emerald Forest, walking between the trees, looking for some poor Grimm for me to entrance and hack apart.

"Man," Yang said out loud, "this sure brings back memories, huh?"

"Yeah, initiation was kinda crazy," Ruby reminisced.

"That's one way to put it..." Weiss said flatly.

"C'mon BFF," Ruby gently elbowed her partner, "it wasn't that bad-"

Weiss gave Ruby a withering look. "We nearly burned down half of the forest, you left me holding onto the back of a giant Nevermore, and you nearly got impaled by a Deathstalker."

An eyebrow slowly rose on my face as I looked at the two.

The reaper giggled half-heartedly as she chose not to add anything further and instead touched the tips of her fingers together guiltily.

I looked around and asked, "Was the rest of your initiations like that…?"

Yang and Blake shrugged while Pyrrha and Jaune tried to look inconspicuous.

"I rode in on an Ursa!" Nora cheerfully said aloud while Ren hung his head.

My face went blank. What did I get myself into? I thought in dread.

After a while, we had stumbled upon a fairly large clearing, perfect to slay some Grimm. I decided to play some music as I waited for some to walk over as the rest hunkered down behind some bushes.

I strummed a couple of times, adjusted the tuning keys a smidge, and strummed a couple more times.

Perfect.

Just then, a pack of nine Beowolves crept into the clearing, attracted to the music. I looked off to the side, to the bushes, where everyone else was waiting. I looked back to the Beowolves and waited for them to creep closer.

They were cautious, but got bolder as I didn't move. I began to play a song*, and like always, the Grimm froze in place.

I walked to the closest one and looked it up and down. It looked back with red, hateful eyes. I narrowed mine as it reminded me of what had happened in Forever Fall.

Mechashifting the guitar into it's axe configuration, I swiftly and brutally decapitated the Beowolf. I went to the nearest Grimm next and severed it's arms with two quick downward and upward strikes.

Finally out of their stupor, one of the Beowolves swiped with its claws sideways, determined to take my head. At the last minute, I leaned backwards, dodging and feeling the air from the attempted attack on my face. I performed a handstand-backflip and blocked the fourth Grimm's overhead slash with the axe.

The creature leaned it's face in close and snarled. I narrowed my eyes at it in return.

Ever heard of mouthwash?

I unceremoniously kicked an Aura-enhanced foot into the Grimm's chest in with a sickening crunch. I heard it weeze as it flew into and knocked down a different Beowolf. The third one from before came in with its claws in a wide sweep. As the axe transformed into a lever-action hunting shotgun, I ducked under the attempt. Pointing the end of the barrel right up under the Beowolf's lower jaw, I shot the front of its head off with a blast of Fire Dust.

Two more tried to jump towards me.

Blam-blam! Blam-blam!

I shot both in their faces, twice. Though the double taps didn't kill the Grimm outright, they did blind the creatures with the concentrated pellet cone of the Fire Dust, burning their faces.

I mechashifted the weapon back into a guitar and continued the song as if nothing happened. The five Beowolves that were left became still almost instantly.

I walked around to the two whose bone masks were still singed. Although they couldn't move, they still growled as the Dust in their eye sockets burned. Since they had lined their necks next to each other nicely enough, I mechashifted the guitar into an axe again and severed the back of the beast's necks. Their heads leaned forward disturbingly from being severed.

Beowolf number seven managed to rush me and knocked me to the ground. It tried to stomp my head into the dirt, but I rolled out of the way in time. I snagged the Grimm's ankle in the axe's heel hook as I got up. I felt the Grimm essence in my arms, legs, and shoulder, enhancing and tightening the muscle fibers as I flipped the Grimm in the air. After it spun in the air a couple times, as if in slow motion, I swung the axe like a bat and sent it flying headfirst into the trunk of a thick oak tree.

It twitched there for a few seconds, it's skull caved in, before dissolving.

Well, that's different… I looked at my arm in quiet disbelief. I could already feel the Grimm essence retreating back deep into my body. Was this just going to happen randomly?

The eighth Beowolf tried to backhand (backpaw?) me, but my Aura enhanced right arm blocked it. As quickly as my Aura had enveloped my arm, the Grimm essence seemed to retreat even faster.

Intrigued, I decided to experiment a little.

I tried to concentrate the Grimm essence into my left arm. I felt some tingling, but nothing near what I had felt before.

Something to definitely look into.

I punched the Beowolf in the face, but that only staggered the creature a little. It stumbled back before snarling back at me and tried to take a mouthful of Vireo. I flipped the axe around and impaled the blade at the end of the pommel up through its lower jaw and into where it's brain should've been. The Grimm became lax on the axe as it died and began to dissolve into the air.

Boom!

I turned around to see the last Beowolf had been dropped, only a few feet from me, seemingly preparing to attack while I was trying to untangle the axe from the other Grimm.

I looked to the side and saw Ruby holding up Crescent Rose (in sniper mode). She noticed me looking at her (her weapon, to be specific...) and appeared sheepish for a moment.

"Sorry," she said, "the last of 'em tried to get you from behind-"

"It's fine," I interrupted her. "No harm, no foul." She beamed at that and sped-walked to me as the others got out from behind the shrubbery.

"Sooo~" Ruby sang coyly, "How is it?"

I shrugged, "Good."

The red-hooded girl pouted towards me. "What do you mean just 'good?'" I could have felt Yang grimace.

I paused as I looked over the weapon. She got defensive all of a sudden…

I rolled my eyes as I answered, "Since I've only used an axe once before, I have nothing concrete to compare it to. It's going to take me a minute to get used to a weapon like this. But for right now, I have no complaints to make."

"Oh." Ruby's face became blank before looking down, finding the ground very fascinating.

"Anywhooo..." Yang said as she tried to plow through the sudden awkwardness, "What do you think of this thing?"

I flipped the unnamed weapon in my hands testingly. "The haft isn't too long, the blade isn't too heavy, the frame is sturdy. Like I said; no complaints."

Ren spoke up, "What was that maneuver where you flipped one of the Beowolves into the air?" I thought back to what he meant.

"I thought I'd try pulling a Nora," I lied. He narrowed his eyes at me before Nora rushed me to give me yet another bone shattering hug.

"They grow up so fast..." the excitable ginger sniffled like a doting mother. Ren smiled while he shook his head.

"Have you thought of a name for it yet?" Pyrrha asked.

Now that was a good question, a question that I had been thinking long and hard on… I stood there for a couple minutes, contemplating. The others looked at each other.

Jaune began, "It's alright if-"

...But I interrupted. I shot a determined look and said, "Weiss!" The white-haired girl flinched at my sudden near-shout. "What's a fancy word for 'noisy?'"

Everyone blinked twice, as if they didn't understand what I had asked. Weiss squeaked an, "Eh?!" out of her confusion.

"What's a fancy word for 'noisy?'" I repeated myself.

"Um… Raucous?" I let the word roll around in my head for a moment before continuing.

"What's a fancy word for a traveling musician?"

The heiress somehow looked even more confused. "Do you mean a minstrel?"

I shook my head, "No, I think it starts with a 'j…?'"

Weiss scrunched her brows together before saying, "Jongleur?"

"Is that what you're going to name your weapon?" Blake asked, "Raucous Jongleur?"

I looked down at the newly named axe and mechashifted it into its guitar form and smiled. "Irving sometimes called himself that; a 'noisy jongleur...'"

The others looked surprised at this admittance, but relaxed with concerned, but hopeful smiles. They seemed to have appreciated that I told them about Irving and what happened to him and the 'side effect' of my Semblance over the pancakes that we had a couple of days ago. They mostly took it in stride and reassured me, like Blake and Yang had before.

"I think it is a fitting name," Pyrrha said reassuringly. She always had an air of positivity around her, but unlike Nora, Yang, or Ruby, Pyrrha's felt comforting in contrast.

I smirked. "Then you don't mind giving me lessons alongside Jaune?" I asked half-honestly. I knew that Pyrrha training Jaune so he could become a better Huntsman was only half of the reasons that she had suggested them…

The ex-champion blinked a couple times before giving a beaming smile. "Of course I don't mind! I'd be happy to!"

Weiss checked her Scroll and said, "No one is doing any training, at least not until we have some dinner first." At that, I stretched a bit.

"And suddenly, I'm starving."

Nora gasped in excitement, "Pancakes again?!" I instantly felt Ren cringe, and I'm pretty sure that everyone else felt it, too. Poor Ren, we had way too much pancakes…

I chuckled, "I think Ren is all pancaked out, Nora." He seemed relieved while the energetic ginger looked downcast. "Maybe for your birthday." Nora squee'd as she hugged her closest friend. Ren could only shake his head at her antics, even though there was a smirk on his face.

We began to walk back to the school, trying to discuss what we were going to have, all the while Ruby and Yang were trailing further behind…

/~/

Once the sisters were far enough away from the group to not be heard, Yang turned sharply to face her sister. The two waited further before Yang whispered harshly, "What was that?!"

Ruby whispered back, "I could ask you the same thing!" Which seemed to take the blonde back a bit.

"What are you-"

"That look that you keep giving Vireo- and yes, Yang, you are giving her a look. And I'm pretty sure she saw, by the way."

Yang bit back a curse. "Can you blame me? Dad told me to give any 'male suitors' a beating; I didn't expect there to be a female one!"

Ruby rolled her eyes at her family's ridiculous overprotectiveness. Ruby had plenty of guy friends back at Patch; the only problem was having them over to study sessions. Taiyang would no doubt try to spy on them during. Yang probably would've tried the ol' creeper routine, hovering around, but pretending to grab a soda or something, while taking sidelong glances at the study group.

Yang's voice took Ruby out of her frustration, "You didn't even try to find out, did you?" Her cheeks turned a shade of red, not unlike her hood.

Yang groaned, "How are you going to find out if she even has a...thing...for you if you don't try?"

"I don't know!" Ruby folded her arms, "And excuse me, Yang Xiao Long, but some of us can't just flirt with strangers at a drop of a hat."

Yang looked down at her sister and put her hands on her hips. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

Ruby immediately deflated, her arms hanging loosely at her sides while the Huntress-in-training's head hung low. "I've never been good at this sort of thing, Yang..." Then she whispered, "And you know it..."

Neither sister was blind to the fact that Ruby wasn't exactly a social butterfly, even with Yang's encouragement. Ruby had even felt a twinge of jealousy over how Yang could make a friend near instantly with a really bad pun and a quick smile, even though she knew that being jealous was complete nonsense.

But the pugilist had heard that last bit and deflated, too. Yang knew that this stuff didn't come naturally to Ruby, but she had to make sure.

The blonde held one of Ruby's shoulders with a hand and lightly shook, "Hey." Once she looked up, Yang looked right in her sister's eyes. "You are hella cute."

Yang had to hold back a laugh at Ruby's bewildered look. "And any guy- or girl- would have hit the jackpot to be with you."

Ruby gave her sister an unimpressed look. "If you, Dad, and Uncle Qrow don't drive them off first."

Yang could only scratch her cheek guiltily. "Well...if it only takes a couple of glares to drive 'em away, then they aren"t worth it."

Ruby sighed in exasperation, "I don't know what to do! I've never been into that mushy, girly stuff!" Yang gave her her own unimpressed look at possibly being called girly, of all things. "Can't you ask her or something? Maybe do a secret admirer thing or one of those magazine quizzes?"

"First, Rubes, that whole 'secret admirer thing' is bull. We're in a Hunter's Academy and that's elementary school stuff. And second, wouldn't me asking Vi if she has a crush on you be, I don't know, suspicious?"

It was only then that Yang recognized Ruby shaking her head and waving her hands in an 'x' shape-

"Vireo has a crush on Ruby?" Blake asked from behind her partner.

Yang sighed, not even bothering to turn around, "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough, apparently," she answered. Ruby's head hung low, again. "What makes you think she has a crush on you?"

Ruby shifted her weight from foot to foot, "Well, mostly because she doesn't look into my eyes and whenever she tries to, her cheeks become red, like she's embarrassed...like..."

"Like a crush." Ruby nodded. Blake hummed to herself, chin in hand, "Now that you mention it..."

The red-hooded girl began to jump up and down and said, "See! I'm not the only one."

Blake waved her hand, "I thought it was because she felt guilty over what happened in Forever Fall. Are you sure it isn't that?"

Ruby nodded, "Vireo wouldn't look at me in the eyes even before that Grendel Grimm showed up, but I didn't think anything of it then. Afterwards, it got way more noticable… Aren't those the signs that a person has a crush on you? Nervousness, they can't look you in the eye, blushing… Like on those dumb teen drama shows that Yang forced me to watch-"

"I did not make you watch those!" Yang said a little too defensively, with a blush of her own.

"You kept hogging the remote!"

"Well-"

"Girls!" Blake yelled, getting both of the sisters' attention. "Ruby, do you have feelings for Vireo?"

The girl shifted uncomfortably under the question. "I… I don't know," she sighed in defeat, "What if I don't have feelings and she does? I don't want to hurt her like that… And what if she doesn't have feelings? It would just make everything awkward!"

Ruby zipped up to the dark-haired girl and pleaded, "Do you have any advice? Please help me!" Ruby used her deadliest weapon: her puppy eyes. Blake tried to resist, she really, really did…

"I'm sorry Ruby, but my dating experience is...limited." The younger girl looked downcast, but Yang quirked a brow in curiosity.

"Really? I figured you had to beat the guys back, with your 'mysterious, book-obsessed, ninja-girl' persona and whatever."

Blake rolled her eyes, but looked downward after a moment. "I don't want to talk about it..." And before Yang could apologize, seeing her dejected expression, she added, "It's fine, really."

It obviously isn't fine, Yang thought. One crisis at a time…

Ruby groaned, "What am I supposed to do?!"

Yang sighed and shrugged, "I don't know Sis… Maybe this is something that you have to figure out yourself."

Blake patted her back comfortingly as Ruby groaned again.

/~/

"And what took you three so long?" Weiss asked impatiently as everyone had waited for the three members of Team RWBY to exit the forest.

Yang waved her off, "Relax Weiss-cream, it was just a little sister-to-sister powwow."

I narrowed my eyes slightly, first at Yang and then at Ruby. The latter of the two felt jumpy? Concerned?

She seemed to have noticed me staring and quickly looked away from me. Wait… Wasn't I supposed to to be one looking away from her?

I could feel a headache coming on…

I shrugged and began to walk towards the cafeteria. "C'mon, I'm hungry."

"So sayeth the princess-"

"Nora, no."

…

We had gotten our food, which everyone seemed to have deflated when they saw the stack of food on my plate (weird...), and sat down at our usual table.

I began to dig in to my towering plate of spaghetti, garlic bread, and melted cheese when I overheard a hushed conversation:

"Hey, didn't they fight off that aberrant Grimm a little while ago?"

"In Forever Fall? Yeah."

"That's what I heard."

"Man, dealing with an elder Grimm is kinda terrifying enough, but they're sorta recognizable. An aberrant?" The student shivered slightly.

"Isn't everyone calling it Grendel, now?"

"That's what I heard, too. Apparently, it had tentacles."

"Gross..."

"No kidding-"

A gentle shake from my left took me out of the conversation. Ren spoke up with a concerned look, "Are you okay, Vireo?" I looked around and saw everyone else looking at me with concern.

I tried to wave it off, "It's nothing." Everyone looking at me with a deadpan expression, a single brow rising on their faces in unison, telling me exactly how much they didn't believe me.

I scowled in return, "I will be fine. I just have a few questions that I need to ask."

"Well," Yang shrugged, "ask away."

"They're more for...the teachers than anyone else."

"Maybe we can help," Ruby suggested anyway.

I sighed in resignation, "Fine then, what's an aberrant Grimm?" The table became silent as the question sunk in.

"Y'know," Jaune commented thoughtfully, "I wanted to know that, too..."

"Isn't it part of the junior curriculum?" Blake asked out loud.

"'An 'aberrant' Grimm,'" Weiss suddenly spoke up, as she read from her Scroll, "'is an extremely rare Creature of Grimm that is completely different from any recognized types of Grimm. They're appearance, adaptations, and behavioral patterns are completely abnormal from established studies on Grimm. There has been no known duplicates of documented aberrant Grimm.'"

"'They may show small similarities to some lesser Grimm, but these are considered coincidental. Stories from Hunters that have encountered and survived against aberrant Grimm have several details in common: they seem to have near human-level intelligence for strategy and cruelty, command a much larger hold over lesser Grimm, even when compared to documentation on named elder Grimm, and they exhibit a strange fluidity in body structure during combat.'"

I felt Ren become very...well, there was way too much to shift through to find any significant singular emotion, but all of it was negative. Nora must've felt Ren's mood change (not that he showed it...), because she looked over at him, worried, and put a hand on his. His mood seemed to have lessened with that.

"'There have only been...'" Weiss' eyebrows shot up as she stopped reading out loud for a moment. "'Ten confirmed sightings of aberrant Grimm in the past two centuries?!'"

"So a super-ultra rare kind of Grimm just happened to stumble on us?" Yang asked, "What are the odds?"

"Let's hope it doesn't 'stumble on us' again..." Jaune answered, obviously not liking what he heard.

As they talked among each other, I sat there and contemplated.

Am...I an aberrant Grimm? It sorta matches up- I immediately shook my head of the thought. For some reason, it didn't sound right…

"Vireo?" Pyrrha's voice took me away from my thoughts, "Did you have any more questions?"

I nodded, "What's a 'Grendel?'" Everyone became silent again, until a voice answered instead.

"'Grendel' is a Grimm that some hero in Atlas tried to get rid of several centuries ago," The pale, salt-and-pepper haired boy said, standing behind Yang and Ruby. It looked like he was about to put his tray away when he had spoken up.

"The hero fought Grendel to a standstill until he chopped one of its arms off and it ran away. Happy ever after," he shrugged.

Ruby seemed to have been hanging onto every word, "That's amazing… er-"

"Name's Owen Lorelai, leader of Team OMEN," Owen chuckled at Ruby's embarrassment at forgetting about introductions.

On closer inspection, Owen was a tall young man with a pale complexion, ghostly pale green eyes, and whose undercut hair was black around the sides and back and the hair on top was grey. There were seven gold-colored studs in his left ear while three studs were in his right eyebrow. He had a kind, but mischievous smile on his face.

"Wait," Blake suddenly said, "'Lorelai?' As in-"

"Yup," Owen shrugged, "the one and the same."

"Can someone fill me in on what's going on?" asked Jaune.

"Never heard of the Cliffs of Lorelai near South-Western Vale?" Most everyone shook their heads.

"Apparently," Owen did his best impression of sounding like someone telling a ghost story, "one of my ancestors threw herself off of a cliff when her lover didn't come and save her from a pack of Beowolves. And ever since, you can supposedly hear her sing on a silent, foggy night..."

Owen chuckled, "Sorry for eavesdropping before, but when your name is a part of local legend, reading that kind of stuff sorta becomes a hobby."

"It was quite enlightening," Pyrrha said, "thank you."

He waved it off, "No prob. It makes sense in a way; Grendel runs away after getting injured and this aberrant does the same. Kinda like history repeating itself."

He looked at me while absently scratching the back of his head, "Glad to see you back to normal. I definitely know that Naomi would be ecstatic..." He shook his head and chuckled again. "Sorry about her, by the way… She drinks way too much caffeine..."

I shrugged, "I've noticed that weirdness seems to be an underlying characteristic amongst Hunters." Everyone at the table looked at me with unimpressed expressions. "What? You know I'm not wrong."

"Well," Owen suddenly said, waving as he left, "later." The others watched him leave as I thought to myself.

"He seemed...nice," Weiss commented after a while.

"And very informative," added Ren.

Yang looked to her partner and asked, "Have you ever read that Grendel story before?"

Blake shook her head, "I read more contemporary literature."

Yang gave a devious smirk. "Oh? I didn't know that stuff was considered contemporary..." Blake blushed and swatted the blonde's arm, eliciting a laugh from her.

I ignored RWBY and JNPR's conversations as I started to think to myself, If I'm not an aberrant Grimm, then what am I? And who was that cultist-looking person? What was that damn bell? Whoever they were, I need to be careful…

I looked down at my plate of spaghetti. Well, better not let it get cold…

Worrying about what I can't control right now can wait for tomorrow, I guess…

...To be continued.

/~/

* Viral by Amaranthe

Next chapter will continue The Plot (TM), pinky promise. Writer's block made this one a real pain in my ass...

And I know that my fight scenes suck (trust me, no one is more aware of that than me), and they will probably suck until I get better at writing them with some practice. Practice makes perfect!

And speaking of sucky scenes, I have ABSOLUTELY NO idea how to describe RWBY weapons or how they transform. I tried looking up anatomical terms and pictures for guitars, axes, and shotguns, but I have no idea if that helped any. Probably not. Maybe I should find someone to Beta this story…

To be completely serious here, I'm honestly thinking of making Ruby asexual. I don't know why, but I just have that feeling about her. But then again, I could be mistaking her introverted behavior for something else… Like I said, I don't know. Maybe give your opinion on this idea, perhaps?

And yes, Vireo is pretty much the gadfly of the cast.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

Do NOT repost or steal. That is rude!