Homeless Bunny 33

  Tianyu Yue

  I’d heard about the Forever Fall field trip, but I wasn’t particularly interested. Though the red sap was somewhat unique, it alone wasn’t enough to hold my attention.

  From what I could tell, the red trees were a variety of maple that wasn’t found anywhere on Earth. They were very similar to sugar maples, with an extraordinarily high sugar content that was perfect for syrup-making.

  The moment I heard about those, I went out and gathered a few bottles for personal use, along with a few preserved cuttings, just in case I wanted to plant them in the Lunar Palace someday. The sap had a unique, woodsy note that gave it some depth of flavor. It wasn’t anything special however; I didn’t feel the need to claim the entire forest as my personal cultivar or anything.

  I placed a hand on Amber’s shoulder and gently brought her back to solid ground. She’d been quite literally floating away. “Relax, Amber, we’re just going to go tap some trees.”

  “Yeah, farm girl. I know you’re thrilled to get back to nature,” Miltia said as she slung her backpack over one shoulder. It carried a few empty jars to meet the quota, a drill and spike to tap the crimson maples, and the lunchbox I’d lovingly made for each of my teammates.

  “I am, actually. I mean, I take walks around the campus all the time, but it’s just not the same,” Amber said with a happy sigh. “There’s just something special about the woods, you know?”

  “Joy, we can get eaten alive by ticks while we violate innocent trees in unspeakable ways.”

  “That’s not what I’m saying!”

  “You’re right. I guess a farm girl would be used to shoving catheters in thick shafts of wood,” Melanie joined in. She’d tied her long ponytail into a tight bun to keep the leaves out of her hair. I just knew that half our friends were going to have an even harder time telling the twins apart.

  “No! I mean, I saw a vet do that to our horse once but that’s not the point!” Amber squeaked, face burning an atomic red.

  “Enough,” I chided as I handed each of them thermoses full of cold-brewed tea. I opted for oolong this time, with a hint of lemon and lavender to suit the lunches I made for them. “Do remember to take your weapons, you two.”

  “Yes, daddy~” the twins sang, eyes rolling like the bratty children they were. They still made a show of checking over their blades. They’d finally graduated from the basics of the Moon Bunny Combat Arts and I’d rewarded them by forging them retractable claws for their hands and feet.

  I swatted the backs of their heads, just slow enough for them to duck. It was nice, letting them sass me like this; so few people had the nerve these days.

  Back home, just the possibility of my displeasure was enough to make seasoned mage knights panic. I had no idea why, either. It wasn’t like I butchered their entire families to the fourth generation or anything. I typically left mortal punishments to mortal authorities.

  “Hey, if Tianyu’s the dad in our team, does that make Amber our mommy?” Melanie said with a snicker.

  “It does not,” Amber shot that down primly. Her cheeks pinked adorably.

  I’d come to find that Amber had a thing for the domestic life. Her ideal life was on a small farmstead somewhere, with homegrown veggies, chickens, a cow, the works. Which wasn’t to say she wanted to get married anytime soon, but she really loved stories about wholesome families. Slice of life was her jam and she’d checked out more than a few books from the campus library.

  I ushered them towards the bullheads. “Lay off, you two. If you tease Amber any more, she’s going to turn redder than the trees.”

  “Not you too, Tianyu…”

  “Relax, today’s supposed to be a day off from school.”

  “I’m the only one on our team who actually does all the assignments,” she huffed.

  “Would it make you feel better if I took the twins for a few hours? You could take a hike, enjoy the beauty of Forever Fall Forest without them wisecracking every five seconds.”

  “You know, that does sound nice…”

  “Then that’s what we’ll do.”

  Of course, said twins couldn’t help themselves. “Hear that, Miltia? Daddy’s going to take care of us so mommy can have her alone ti–Eep!”

  The two girls lept six feet into the air, clutching their sore asses. If Amber looked a little too smug at that, I chose not to chide her for it. I nodded subtly, our eyes meeting in mutual understanding. Her mastery over wind had improved a great deal; she’d easily rival a great knight from my world.

  X

  I smiled and pretended to listen as Weiss regaled me about the Beacon Dust Company’s newest business deals. TAMM, RWBY, and VALN had separated from the group to set up a picnic in a nearby grove. Or rather, I’d set up a picnic and the rest had followed the food, giving Amber plenty of space to go off for a relaxing, solitary flight.

  Things were going well with the Beacon Dust Company business. I’d named Weiss as the chairwoman and Ozpin and Glynda hadn’t been fool enough to deny me.

  Weiss was supposed to be the figurehead, at least until she graduated, but had insisted on attending every board meeting she could to familiarize herself with her newfound megacorp. In the end, though she still didn’t make most of the decisions, her family name lent the BDC a fair bit of legitimacy.

  I was glad. Weiss was talented enough to be a huntress in her own right, but I felt that she would soon reach a plateau in her abilities. I could forcibly break through that bottleneck for her, but I wanted her to find something she was truly passionate about. By her own admission, becoming a huntress wasn’t something she chose out of some noble calling like Ruby.

  No, it was a spot of teenage rebellion against her asshole father. She wanted to make something of herself using her own two hands, to become more than just her family name. As understandable as that was, I didn’t want her to continue this path out of social inertia alone.

  I had a feeling she’d find running a business satisfying, but I’d been wrong before. Even if I was, the kind of resources she’d have at her disposal meant she could easily pivot to something else that caught her eye.

  “Are you listening, Tianyu?” Weiss asked as I laid my head on Miltia’s lap. My partner was getting really good at ear scritches.

  I lazily opened one eye. “Yes, little sister. Congratulations on securing the packaging facilities for delivery. I’m proud of you.”

  “As you should be. It’s not easy starting a corporate empire while attending school, you know,” she preened. She’d deny it, but she puffed out her chest when she heard that. It was cute, like a child showing off her macaroni sculpture to her big brother. “Not that my grades have dropped of course, I can’t allow that either.”

  I smiled indulgently as she continued to brief me on her business exploits. I had the sneaking suspicion that Weiss was sorely starved for affection. Then again, it wasn’t just me she was trying to impress. She’d been getting along better with her team as a whole.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  To be honest, I was prouder of her improving interpersonal relationships with her team than I was of her role in business. Perhaps associating with an obvious “faunus” like me helped, but those relationships were gems she’d polished through her own efforts, and that with the Schnee name actively counting against her. Well, it wasn’t like the two were entirely separate.

  Blake saw this as a chance to take a bite of the SDC’s profits while steering the next corporate giant in the right direction. She’d first tried to act as Weiss’ advisor, or really, her moral conscience. It was like the kitten felt morally compelled to ensure Weiss used her newfound wealth for good.

  I suggested that Weiss take on Blake as a secretary. That way, Blake could see for herself how the corporate world worked. She and Ilia were always going on about how the faunus didn’t have a voice. Well, she had it now, the ear of the wealthiest woman on Remnant and an eye inside the fastest growing corporation. I wanted to see what she would do with such power.

  So far, it was “Be surprised Weiss has morals.”

  The gobsmacked look on the kitten’s face when she didn’t need to convince Weiss to pay her workers fair wages was hilarious. The poor dear spent days researching scholarly articles on workplace productivity and prepared an hour-long presentation for it, poster board diagrams and all, only to find a quick coffee date would have sufficed.

  Overtime, livable wages, and unionized employee representation were all things Blake intended to fight for, and got for free. Weiss codifying equal treatment of faunus into the corporate charter won her a lot of goodwill from the former Fang members. She’d even gotten a few mentions from the Vale News Network I heard.

  My ears twitched, briefly knocking them out of Militia’s tender ministrations. The forest was alive and I could hear the soothing sound of its chaotic melody. Even better, it seemed as though things were going to get livelier.

  Team CRDL were up to their typical antics. Perhaps being out in a new environment had emboldened them. I could hear the boys whispering as they stalked through the woods. Honestly, I was a little impressed. The unfairness of being against a bunny-Campione aside, they were doing a respectable job of sneaking through the forest.

  One of the more forgettable boys, the one with the green mohawk, had taken the lead. He clearly had training as a woodsman; he wasn’t just sneaking, he was doing so in a way that compensated for his more heavily armored team leader. Not all huntsmen fought other humans and his calling was evidently out in the frontier.

  The four boys veered away from my group. At first, I’d thought they’d developed the basic survival instincts to not interrupt one of my meals, but no. They’d merely found other prey.

  One of them spotted Amber flying overhead and decided she would make a better target. Not only was she alone, I personally had little to do with the boys; it was Amber who went out of her way to stamp out any form of bullying. Well, Amber, Blake, and Ilia, but Amber obviously drew the most attention because of her ridiculous “Semblance.”

  That wasn’t all. Off in the distance, I could hear the forest grow silent. It was like a wave of stillness that traveled towards us, growing larger with each step. Far away, the earth rumbled as an ancient creature clawed its way to the surface once more.

  It rose sluggishly, as if waking from a deep slumber. I couldn’t tell what it was through sound alone, but the many discordant notes of something hard scraping against stone told me it was heavily armored. Two, massive wings beat the air as it took to the air. An armored bird?

  No, the sound wasn’t right. Feathers muted the sound a flapping wing made, but this was different, like leather. So a dragon or wyvern of some variety, then.

  To my surprise, it did not approach. Rather, it gathered its horde and waited like a general. I wondered how much intelligence it truly had. Or was this Salem’s influence?

  It seemed that this Salem person was finally making her move. I wondered what she wanted.

  Truthfully, I didn’t consider myself a master strategist. I wasn’t stupid by any means, and living for so long had certainly opened up new insights into people, but whatever could be said of my experience, I lacked a natural talent for scheming.

  Salem had isolated herself for so long that Remnant’s societal expectations simply didn’t apply to her. I truly had no idea why she was doing this.

  Did she see me as a threat and want to kill me?

  That seemed like the most likely possibility, but the entire world was grimm territory. If she was truly the “Queen of the Grimm,” surely she could do better than this pitiful army. She also wouldn’t be mobilizing them in neat, easily defeated waves either.

  It could be that her control over the grimm wasn’t perfect. Or, did she think she could level Beacon to the ground regardless of my presence?

  Any mage from my world would have laughed at the notion, but it wasn’t an unreasonable conclusion. No matter how strong I was, she would naturally think that I couldn’t protect the castle fully. No one could be everywhere at once.

  Then again, there was Amber to consider. Hadn’t that Cinder brat tried to kill Amber for her magic? This could all be a smokescreen to kidnap Amber.

  I snorted. If so, that was fine. Amber had improved by leaps and bounds. Though she preferred to use wind over any other element, that was a restriction imposed on her for class, not a true limitation.

  She could probably use a chance to be tested now that I thought about it. As my lovely wife said, “Martial enlightenment can only be found upon the martial dao.” Which was to say, if you want to be strong, fight.

  I tweaked my ears towards the approaching grimm. Glynda had begun to notice something off. She alerted the nearest team but realized that some of her students were too far away to load the bullhead in time. She shouted and began preparing defensive fortifications.

  And… There it was, the soft footsteps and the measured heartbeat of a woman I’d first mistaken for a Maiden. Yes, it seemed Amber was at least an auxiliary target here, which meant I ought to ensure the two got their duel. Maybe it was cruel, but this was something Amber should find closure in, lest it become a “heart demon” for her later on.

  I stood with a languid yawn that popped my jaws. “Pack up, you lot. We’re about to have company.”

  “What do you mean, Tianyu?” Ren asked, eyes scanning the woods cautiously. I liked him. He wasn’t the best in a straight fight, but he had a sharpness to his senses that his peers lacked.

  I learned that he and Nora grew up in the frontiers of Mistral, in a village called Kuroyuri. He told me about the grimm, how his village was overrun and his mother bought him and Nora time against the nuckelavee. He awakened his Semblance and led Nora back towards civilization.

  Guiding not just himself, but a friend out from a grimm tide? Navigating Mistral’s wilds until they could meet friendlies? At the age of what? Nine? Twelve? The bare details alone would be a decent premise for a blockbuster thriller.

  He claimed he was just lucky, but I disagreed. That wasn’t luck, that was talent, and a ridiculous amount of it. The ability to become undetectable to empaths helped, but Ren had a talent for the subtler aspects of combat I hoped to nurture in the future.

  That, and he appreciated good tea. Plenty of people liked a good burger, but true tea aficionados were a rare breed, especially among the youth.

  Yes, few men could claim to have impressed me. Lie Ren was one of a handful who held the favor of the Jade Rabbit.

  Before I could respond, I heard Glynda activate an emergency broadcast through the parked bullheads.

  “Attention all students. Return to the landing zone immediately. An ancient grimm has awakened. It is leading a grimm tide in our direction. This is not a drill. I repeat–”

  I waved in her general direction. “Yeah, what she said.”

  It was funny how everyone bolted to their feet. They went from “relaxed at a picnic” to “holy shit, we might die” in less than a second. To their credit, Nora and Ruby took charge as team leaders, swiftly getting into formation.

  I clicked my tongue in annoyance. They left the plates and bentos. I graciously decided to let it slide. A heartbeat later, I had everything stored in my pocketspace for later cleaning. The extras went to the twins; they’d need the nutrition later.

  The twins formed up on either side of me. Melanie looked around but could not find her partner. “Farm girl’s still off humping trees or whatever. What do we do, Tianyu?”

  I tilted my head slightly, listening for the winds that marked my teammate’s passage.

  She wasn’t hard to find. She was cursing up a storm, though not in shock or pain. From the sound of it, she’d found Team CRDL and was in the process of beating them silly. I heard her pivot at Glynda’s announcement.

  “Don’t worry about her. I’ll get her if things get too dicey,” I promised. I couldn't fully suppress the giggle that followed. It wouldn’t do for only Amber to face a trial today. I handed them the extra food. “Acquit yourselves well.”

  Then, I did as all good masters did: I bailed.

  Author’s Note

  Now that I think about it, Team Tamale is a bit like a family unit, isn’t it? The twins are mischievous brats. Amber is the responsible tiger mom who rides herd and makes sure schoolwork gets done. I guess that makes Tianyu the househusband, lol.

  Let’s buck the trend a bit and have a plant fact:

  The cashew plant produces two edible products: the cashew “nut” and the cashew “apple.” The nut is what we eat commonly and is covered in a double shell that is coated in anacardic acid. Said acid is a potent skin irritant and related to poison ivy. Therefore, all cashew nuts, even “raw,” are at least a little cooked so you don’t choke to death.

  The “apple” is a pear-shaped fruit that grows above the seed. Its flesh can be extracted into a sweet drink but isn’t nearly as popular abroad.

  Thank you for reading. To reach a wider audience, and because I enjoy a more forum-like setup to facilitate discussion, I like to crosspost to a wide variety of websites. You can find them all on my Link Tree: .