Professor Arc

Chapter 12: The Devil's in the detail

"I'm telling you... something was off about her."

"Nonsense Jaune, you're imagining things."

"I woke up strapped to a bed!"

"It's not unusual to strap patients down." Glynda laughed softly. "It's to make sure they don't injure themselves."

"With chains and leather!?" He could still feel the bruises on his wrists where they had bitten into his flesh, along with the stinging in his arm from yet another booster. Two hours ago! And it still hurt. He was no doctor, though perhaps he could fake his way into the profession (it seemed to work for everything else), but he was fairly sure you weren't supposed to have a booster every eight hours or so.

"No doubt for those with semblances that could break lesser material." Glynda stoutly defended her friend, a theme he was beginning to think might be recurring. Seriously... could no one else see what he saw!?

"Argh..." He groaned, shuffling some scrambled egg into his mouth in an effort at distraction. "Have you... ever been injured here?" He asked around swallows.

"Me?" Glynda said, pointing towards herself. "Not that I can recall, I mean I've had a cold once or twice, but never something that necessitated a visit to Tsune."

"And suddenly everything becomes clearer." He grumbled, rubbing his arm. How had someone like that gotten a career in medicine, especially around children? Did no one do the required background che- oh wait... yeah...

"Cheer up lad." Peter laughed, thumping him on the back hard enough to make his plate rattle. "I know what'll make you feel better – a good day out in Grimm-infested wilderness."

Oh yeah, that sounded great... seriously, was that what real hunters did for fun, or was that just Port? Either way, he'd prefer to avoid that if he could-

"Ah yes, the field trip is tomorrow." The blonde woman to his left nodded. "You and I shall be in charge of all the first years Jaune." Or then again, a romp in the wilderness with a bunch of teenagers sounded awesome... yeah. Maybe he could just slip off and prepare his will before they did that. Oh Gods...

"Isn't this a bit sudden?" He asked worriedly. Surely a single day wasn't exactly considered the right amount of warning for something like this... or had they mentioned it, but he'd been too distracted with everything else? "I mean I just got out of the infirmary, and I've not done any preparation. Maybe we should delay it until next week."

"No can do, lad. It's already been delayed once."

"That's right Jaune." Glynda agreed. "The trip to Forever Fall was actually supposed to take place a week or so ago. Pushing it back even further would make things worse, particularly with the transfer students arriving soon."

"Ah yes!" Peter crowed. "New students from Atlas, Mistral and Vacuo – I can hardly wait."

"Hang on a minute. Can we get back to this trip please?" As much as a slew of new students sounded terrifying – and it really did – he had more immediate concerns to deal with. Like how he was going to guard a bunch of skilled combatants against bloodthirsty monsters. "Like, what is it we're doing?"

"The Forever Fall field trip is an annual event for first years." Glynda explained, settling her cup of flavoured hot-water down on the table. "It's a chance for them to learn about the environments Grimm frequent, while also getting a chance to work on their teamwork in a more realistic setting."

"Okay... so how come it's been delayed?"

"Normally I handle the trip, escorting and supervising the students." Glynda went on. "It's not an easy task on my own, and with you joining as a support teacher it seemed the obvious choice to have you come along under my command. We would have gone a week or so ago, but we had to delay it until you had your combat bout."