Professor Arc

Chapter 30

Jaune stifled a yawn as the four teenagers and three adults sat in the middle of the girls' room. Or rather, it was really five teenagers and two adults, but that was just his hangover being pedantic. Bran and Tai sat on either side of him, the two of them handling their morning pain with the poise and experience of men more used to the aftermath of drink than not.

Pyrrha finished her report from the previous day with a forlorn expression, "So the Mayor says we have free reign but he isn't willing to help us. Apparently he's paid good money for both a team from Beacon and freelancers. He says we should be able to handle it on our own. I'm sorry I couldn't get more."

"I'm sure you tried your best," Jaune said. It wasn't like any of them could have done any better. Not since the man's first impression of Jaune was of a guy stooped over in the bushes throwing his guts up. "Don't beat yourself up about it." The redhead nodded, as she received a comforting pat on the back from Nora.

"Me and Velvet were able to find some stuff, though," said girl cheered. The power of the hangover allowed Jaune to ignore the casual butchering of language as the girl upended a number of old newspapers from her pack. He could only let out a long sigh as he realised she hadn't actually gone through and picked out the relevant ones, which meant more work for them. Was that ignorance on her part, or a cunning plan to avoid the work herself?

"I'm sure these will be useful," Tai agreed. He lifted up one paper only to grimace at it, no doubt having the same thoughts as Jaune.

"You said you and Velvet?" Jaune latched onto the real point of interest, however. Not that there might be two sets of intel gathered, but that someone from Team RVNN had actually done something with their faunus teammate.

"Nora followed me to the coroner," the quiet girl's brown eyes bore into Jaune's for a second, was that her way of challenging him? Of saying that she knew what he was thinking? "Sadly, the bodies had already been sent to their final rest, but he was willing to give up the records he had of what happened to them." She laid out a thick brown tome before them, bound with leather and with pages bursting from the seams. "He's fairly detailed."

"And also really into Velvet," Nora added for good measure. The words earned a frown from Velvet, along with a short shiver.

Poor guy, Jaune shrugged as he picked up the book. He could feel Tai and Bran looking over his shoulder. I wonder if she's grossed out because he was ugly or just because of his job. Can't imagine it's easy to pick up a date when you work around dead bodies all day.

"Ugh," Bran frowned at one diagram, "detailed is one way of putting it."

Jaune wanted to be sick. It was perhaps another example of how different the real Hunters were from he. Bran scoffed while Tai looked disgusted but grim, yet when Jaune looked at the photographed image of a slaughtered young woman, he wanted to immediately throw up. It was only the fact that he was already holding down vomit from all the booze that allowed him to keep this down as well. With a grimace he handed the book over to Tai, eager to let them peruse it.

"What about you?" Pyrrha asked.

"Pardon?"

"I mean what did you all manage to find out?" she clarified. "You went... uh... information gathering, wasn't it?"

Oh shit. Jaune felt a little sweat bead atop his brow. In all the alcohol and talk and... well, alcohol, of last night, he'd forgotten all about actually finding anything out. Had they even spoken to a single townsperson?

There was only one thing he could do in a situation like this...

"Well Ren?" He turned to the young man, immediately throwing him into the firing line, "It was meant as a learning opportunity for you, did you find out anything from last night?"