After the Fall

by E. C. Myers

  Coco realized that Topaz wasn’t the only one who had been lingering near their table. A small crowd had gathered around them, the better to eavesdrop on their conversation. No such thing as privacy in Vacuo, not when most of the walls were made of adobe and canvas, and someone else’s business usually affected your own.

  A crash came from the other side of the saloon, followed by the sound of plates breaking. Two people started yelling. Coco stood and saw two men circling an overturned table, fists raised.

  “It’s already starting.” Slate sighed. She carefully wiped her mouth with a napkin and rose. “This is what I was talking about.”

  “We’ll get to the bottom of it,” Coco said. “Just try to keep everyone calm.”

  Slate nodded and walked toward the impending fight.

  “What can we do here, anyway?” Fox asked.

  “We can start by learning more about what’s been happening here. There has to be a reason for these fights breaking out,” Coco said.

  “There you go again, making decisions for us,” Velvet said.

  “Excuse me?” Coco felt a surge of anger. “I’m the boss.”

  “You’re the leader, not the boss,” Fox said.

  “Whoa,” Yatsuhashi said. “Calm down, everyone. We’re tired—”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that! I didn’t mean it.” Velvet took a piece of flatbread from Slate’s plate and chewed it quietly.

  “Anyway. Clearly something is causing people to get … emotional.” Coco studied Velvet and Fox. Where had that outburst come from?

  “We could interview the nomads.” Yatsuhashi was also casting a worried eye on Velvet.

  “It’s a start,” Coco said. “As soon as we’re done eating, I’ll find the CCT relay tower and let Professor Rumpole know we made it and we’ll be staying a few days.”

  She sat back down to sip her cooling coffee and watched Slate at work. When the brawling men saw the mayor coming, they lowered their fists and looked deeply embarrassed. Slate talked to each of them softly. She took a deep breath and let it out, watched as they mimicked her. Then they shook hands and picked the shale table back up together.

  Slate looked plenty tough to Coco. It was no wonder these nomads—even the strangers who had joined the group from other settlements ravaged by Grimm—looked to her as a leader.

  Like Slate, Coco hadn’t chosen to lead Team CFVY; she had been chosen. Sometimes she still didn’t know if that had been the right choice. In the beginning, she hadn’t particularly wanted responsibility for her team, or now the nomads in Feldspar; she was just trying to do her job.

  Coco hoped she’d be as successful at it as Slate one day.

  The First-years had been at Beacon for barely a day, and they were all about to die.

  The twenty or so new students were currently flying through the air over the Emerald Forest. More like falling, really. And if they did nothing to slow or cushion their fall, they would certainly go splat. In about fifty seconds. Even if they survived the fall, they would be in a forest lousy with Creatures of Grimm, left to fend for themselves.

  Fifty seconds was plenty of time to consider the choices that had brought each of them there. Plenty of time to regret them.

  Coco Adel had no regrets. She was loving initiation so far. This was why Beacon Academy had been her first-choice school. Professor Ozpin had a reputation for being very mysterious and a bit reckless with his students. Coco liked a challenge.

  Besides, Vale had been her home all her life.

  She still wasn’t sure what to make of Ozpin. The youngest headmaster Beacon had ever had, he had a mischievous streak and a boyish charm that reminded Coco of her younger brother. But at the same time, Ozpin seemed oddly ancient—not just because of his silver hair but because of how he always stood tall, how he talked like he meant much more than he was saying out loud.

  Professor Glynda Goodwitch, on the other hand, was the strong leader Coco aspired to be. She might have been Ozpin’s second in command, but she gave the sense that she was the one in charge. She was a bit severe, utterly humorless, and her body language said she was all business. And to top it off, she was also hot, with impeccable fashion sense. Her whole outfit worked—with that blouse, the pencil skirt, that cape, those heels!—and she seemed very comfortable with who she was. The fact that Goodwitch clearly respected Ozpin somehow conferred more authority on him than his title.

  Coco prepared to land, assessing the tree line ahead and all her options. She yawned. Okay, maybe she had one regret. Even though being flung off a cliff kind of woke you up and got your adrenaline flowing, she wished she’d had a second cup of coffee at breakfast.

  Forty seconds.

  About twenty feet away from Coco, also falling, Velvet Scarlatina had some regrets.

  She couldn’t believe that on their second day at Beacon, their headmaster, Professor Ozpin, had catapulted the entire first-year class into a Grimm-infested forest.

  Toward a Grimm-infested forest. There was still the little matter of landing in it safely. But more than the falling, more than the Grimm, Velvet was worried about whom she would be partnered with.

  Everyone had known they would have a partner for their four years at Beacon, but Velvet had thought she’d have some control over who it would be. Turned out it was going to be completely random.

  “Each of you will be given teammates. Today,” Professor Ozpin had said. “These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years.”

  “What?” Velvet said.

  If she had had a choice—which she apparently didn’t—she would have chosen Coco Adel. They’d both come to Beacon from Pharos Combat School, so Velvet knew her … sort of. Coco probably had no idea who Velvet was, but Velvet knew all about her. Coco had been popular at their school, breaking performance records—and breaking girls’ hearts.

  Even from twenty feet away, Velvet could see Coco was falling with style. It wasn’t only because of the shades, but because of her whole form. She wasn’t slowly tumbling in the air like most of their classmates—she had her feet pointed toward the ground, as if she expected to just land like a cat.

  As far as Velvet knew, Coco wasn’t hiding cat ears under that beret, though. One hand was keeping the hat on her head, the other was at her waist holding on to her purse. And Coco was smiling. Anyone who could look completely confident and happy while plummeting to the ground at thirty-two feet per second was someone you wanted on your side.

  Mostly, Velvet knew who she didn’t want to be paired with. At the top of her list was the tall dude from Mistral. Less than a day, and Velvet had already been bullied by some of the upperclassmen at Beacon for being a Faunus, and of course, her tormentors were from Mistral.

  Velvet loved her ears, which only made it worse when people called her “bunny girl” or made those awful jokes she’d heard hundreds of times before, from the harmless-but-hurtful “hop to it” jabs to the squicky comments that made her feel threatened … the boys who joked about hunting rabbits or asked if she could teach them multiplication.

  The big kid hadn’t said anything like that to her yet, but his people didn’t like Faunus and didn’t mind letting them know how they felt. Thinking about working with him for four years, Velvet didn’t want a partner at all. She’d never had any close friends before, and besides, everyone managed to disappoint her sooner or later.

  Thirty seconds.

  The “big kid,” Yatsuhashi Daichi, knew more about being bullied than anyone could have guessed. He’d always been the big kid growing up, and because of his size most people had assumed he was stupid, or they were scared of him. Other kids didn’t want to play with him, thinking he would hurt them, either accidentally or intentionally. Consequently, Yatsuhashi had grown up afraid of what he might do, always self-conscious
about his size, his strength, and his Semblance, especially around his parents and little sister, who were pretty much his only real friends.

  Yatsuhashi tried to keep his mind free of distracting thoughts like these as he fell, eyes closed and arms crossed over his chest. The wind whistled past his ears, and he blocked that sound out, too, trying to imagine himself floating like a leaf on the wind. That wasn’t making him any lighter, but meditation did leave him clear-eyed and ready to handle the situation, which was going to resolve pretty soon, one way or another.

  He was always thinking several steps ahead, but until he actually met his partner, he couldn’t see his path to the abandoned temple in the forest and the relics that Professor Ozpin had tasked them with finding. Yatsu didn’t like leaving anything to chance, and the next four years at Beacon had a big question mark hanging over them. The events of today would have a tremendous impact on his Huntsman training and likely set his course for the rest of his life. He wondered how such a momentous decision could be left to chance.

  No.

  Yatsu opened his eyes. He had to take control of the situation. This was too important to let the whims of a professor, or Fate, or the gods decide.

  Yatsu thought about classmates he had researched and who would make a good partner. He ranked them and then picked out their coordinates as they descended toward the Emerald Forest. He made up his mind quickly, already angling his body into position and considering how to get himself on the ground safely at exactly the right moment.

  Twenty seconds.

  Today was the day Fox Alistair had been waiting for, not just since enrolling at Beacon but for practically his whole life.

  So far it was kind of a disappointment.

  Growing up as an orphan in Vacuo, he’d never had a permanent home, or even permanent people in his life. His tribe, the Kenyte—the tribe his parents had belonged to—had taken care of Fox communally. He was grateful for all the sacrifices it took to raise him, but he knew he didn’t truly belong there. He had given a lot of thought to the place he would want to call home and the family he wanted one day.

  As he had survived the tense, quiet years in the desert, he knew he would become a Huntsman one day. He’d always been drawn to Vale, which seemed to be the opposite of everything he had grown up with. Lush plant life, plenty of water and food, friendly people, fewer things trying to kill you on a daily basis … Vale sounded like a nice stable place to settle down and make a life without the constant fear of encountering Grimm—or worse. Vacuo was probably the one place in Remnant where some of the natural wildlife could be considered more dangerous than the Creatures of Grimm.

  He figured this whole wild initiation thing must be some kind of ill-conceived hazing for First-years. They couldn’t really assign students to each other so randomly—that would be almost as bad as how nomadic tribes and settlements formed back home.

  That was probably something the professors said to make the exercise more interesting. And Fox was 100 percent sure Ozpin wouldn’t actually put students’ lives in jeopardy on their first outing, without any adult supervision … not that Fox needed the help, of course. But still, Fox hadn’t even signed any kind of liability waiver.

  Fox wondered what Ozpin had been thinking when he decided to throw a blind boy off a cliff. He thought it seemed a tad irresponsible, but then again Ozpin also seemed like someone who appreciated a good joke. And that’s all this was: a joke.

  For his part, Fox liked practical jokes, too, especially when he was the prankster. But on the off chance that some or all of this scenario was exactly as advertised, it was time to get serious.

  Fox flipped forward in the air and pointed himself headfirst in the direction he was falling. He tapped the almost-invisible earbud in his ear to activate voice commands on the Scroll in his belt.

  “Ada, engage proximity alert. Silent mode.”

  “Engaged,” the Accessibility Dialog Assistant said in its female monotone voice, at its lowest volume.

  His Scroll immediately began buzzing in periodic pulses, increasing in intensity the closer he got to the forest.

  Fox relied on his Aura for more than just shielding or special boosted attacks like most people; it was one of the ways he could orient himself in his environment without vision. His Semblance allowed him to track where his classmates were in relation to him, at least over short distances. But since they were basically strangers, all he had was a strong impression of their presence. There were very few people Fox had known well enough to pinpoint their locations more precisely, and they were all back in Vacuo, or dead.

  His Scroll buzzed steadily. Fox crooked his arms so the blades of his weapon, Sharp Retribution, were ahead and extended to either side of him, just as he breached the canopy of trees. He grimaced with the impact as they sliced through the treetops, but his Aura held and his momentum slowed.

  Trees cracked and snapped in his wake as he cut his way through the forest, Ada continuing to send out pulses that helped him feel his way through the canopy. It was exhausting. Around him and in the distance, he heard gunfire, explosions, trees crashing as his classmates found their own methods of arresting their descent.

  When he had slowed down enough, he brought his arms up and hooked the blades around a thick tree branch. He spun himself around it several times, stripping away bark and cutting into the wood before he jabbed his elbows downward and launched himself up and over to a higher branch. He grabbed it with both hands for a moment, then let go, falling at a much more manageable speed toward another branch a little lower. As the trees grew wider and closer together toward the ground, he sprung from a branch and kicked off a tree trunk, landing lightly on a lower branch. Drop. Kick. Grab. Spin. Flip.

  Fox landed in a crouch.

  “Yes! Too bad nobody saw that,” he said.

  Someone clapped behind him. He felt a nearby presence in his mind, and he smelled chocolate and caramel. He turned to meet his partner for the next four years.

  Just before Coco reached the top of the forest, she flicked her purse and it unfolded into her Gatling gun, Gianduja. Coco swung the massive weapon under her and pointed the muzzle down. She braced it between her knees.

  She fired Gravity Dust rounds and hoped no one—at least no people or harmless animals—were in the way as the bullets shredded leaves and wood. Enhanced by her Semblance, the Gravity Dust slowed her fall. For a moment she hovered in zero gravity, hanging in midair, and then she began drifting slowly down into the forest.

  The world was darker under the canopy, especially with sunglasses on. As she fell and picked up more speed, she yanked her gun up in front of her and angled it toward the ground again, mowing down trees just moments before she would have slammed into them. Her designer shades protected her eyes, but splinters lacerated her face and she tasted sawdust and smoke. The recoil slowed her fall even more.

  When she saw an opening in the trees, she pressed the release switch and collapsed the artillery back into a fashionable accessory that no trendy Huntress should be without. Holding on to the strap of the purse, she flung it out and it caught on a branch, forming a slingshot around the limb. The bough bent and then broke, and she was falling again, only slightly out of control.

  She used the purse again to lasso another branch, this time spinning herself around the tree trunk, letting go, and repeating the maneuver in the other direction. She slung through and down the trees this way until she was near the forest floor.

  Then she opened up the gun again and fired another round straight down, amplifying the Dust’s explosiveness. The shock wave from their impact gave her another small boost while also creating a crater in the dirt below. She landed on the edge of the new pit and slid gently down the slope to the bottom.

  Coco crouched there for a moment, listening. Someone was slicing through the trees above, sending branches raining down around her. She glanced up and saw a flash of red pass overhead. That had to be Fox Alistair, one of the possibilities on her list of potential
partners.

  To her left, she saw another classmate, Iris Marilla, float down to the ground. That was a cute trick, and she was cute, too, with those flowers in her hair, but Coco knew Iris also had an annoyingly high-pitched voice that would get old real fast. Besides, Coco wasn’t looking for a girlfriend, she was looking for someone who wouldn’t hold her back or get her killed on the field. Someone who could keep up.

  Coco folded up her gun and sprinted away from Iris, up the side of the crater and deeper into the forest, following the sound of Fox’s progress through the trees. Then she couldn’t hear him anymore.

  She stopped, listening, wondering if he had landed badly—if she needed to save him. She thought that would be a shame, especially because it would mean she had misjudged him. But no, there he was, springing down silently from the trees. He landed ten feet in front of her, catching himself on his hands and one knee. He was facing away from her.

  His arm blades looked wicked sharp. People must always be giving him plenty of elbow room.

  Fox turned around suddenly and looked straight at her.

  “Hello?” he said.

  Coco waved. No reaction. She lowered her sunglasses so she could see him better.

  “Oh. You’re blind,” she said. So much for her thorough research.

  Fox clapped his hands to his eyes. “Oh no!” he said. “Whyyyyyy?”

  Coco put a hand on a cocked hip and grinned. “You are not what I expected. I like that. I’m Coco Adel.”

  “Fox Alistair.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you suppose this counts? ‘First person you make eye contact with’ and all?” Fox asked. He aimed two fingers at his own eyes, then pointed them at Coco.

  “Do you want it to count?” Coco asked.

  “You have an absurdly strong Aura, and you smell nice. Uh, don’t take that the wrong way.”

  He can sense Auras? Coco thought. That’s a high-level technique. Fox was turning out to be even more interesting than she’d first thought. She could work with that.