Akashic

Chapter 126 - Ball 2/4

The girl who walked up to him, a familiar one, one he had seen before, she wore a long green ball gown, with light yellow high-heels, a relatively simple dress when compared to the others here, this girl, one he hadn't expected to see at least for the next few weeks until people started to arrive in Vale from the other academies.

The girl happily waved to him, whilst also looking him up and down with curiosity on her face, "How unusual, my scanners can't seem to identify what you are" she began to walk around him, curiosly poking at his body before grabbing his right arm and looking it over.

"Are you a grimm? What about a human grimm? I can't differentiate you, and you're arm, is it artificial? It is similar but different, a human grimm cyborg?" she mumbled "That is sen-sational!" she excitedly exclaimed, "Father would be absolutely fascinated to meet you, and learn about what you are" She didn't seem to take her location into account as throughout her examination of Arthur she was getting cold and annoyed glares from the other people in the ball room.

Arthur couldn't help but find a smile rise on his cheeks as he began to chuckle at her not so socially appropriate for the location actions, "Well, I can tell you this, I am a human, born and raised" he told her, raising his hand to her to give her a handshake, "Arthur" he said, his hair having turned back to white

"Hello, I am Penny, it is a p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e to meet you" she said introducing herself and once again circling him with squinted eyes, "Are you sure?" she asked in a slightly doubting tone, ignoring his offered hand, he was unsure if she meant to do it or if she just didn't know what he meant with the gesture.

"As far as I'm aware" He chuckled even more as he put a hand on his hip, "But I won't deny that I'm a little special compared to the others, I'm sure you know what I mean" he gave her a knowing wink.

"I must apologize I do not comprehend what you are trying to say" she tilted her head slightly in confusion, while Arthur just sighed.

"Never mind" he muttered, "So… how's life?" he asked her.

"I must apologize I dot comprehend what you are trying to asked me, if you mean as to what I do, then father primarily reads me books. I f you mean as to how my life has been in terms of length then I am unable to properly answer you're inquiry at this moment without direct permission from father or General Ironwood" She answered him

Arthur weakly chuckled, "What books does you're father read you? Story books?"

"Father reads to me books on Biochemistry, micro-biology, medicine, advanced engineering and aerodynamics, grimm biology, human and faunus biology, history, theoretical books on the creation of the world along with the origin of faunus and humans, various legends, virology, theories on the influence of aura, dust and semblances on the world, marine biology, geographical maps, encyclopaedias, dictionaries…" Arthur could already feel his head growing lighter and lighter as he listened to her continue listing various books that would make him slam his head into his desk if he so much as read the back of it, and she just casually began to list them out as if it were nothing more than a child's story book.

"Though I do much prefer the stories on human and faunus interactions, they are quite inquisitive into the complexities between the different races, though I can never wrap my circ… mind around this thing called 'racial tension' it is truly a strange phenomena" And Arthur learnt penny could be very chatty with the correct type of question

"Th-thanks Penny" Arthur began to awkwardly laugh, soon hearing the sound of the speakers turning on as someone began to tap on the mic as the lighting began to die down with a spot light on the stage, turning his head to the stage he saw a rather bulbous man with a white suit top, black pants and a red under shirt and tie on, and a very large bushy moustache that curved upwards to his cheeks.

"Ahem, testing, testing" he said, hearing that everything was good and seeing everyone in the ball room had turned to him, "Perfect" he chuckled, "Well, ladies and gentle men, I do believe we have kept you waiting for tonight's celebration for those honourable hero's who risk life and limb to keep all our livelihoods safe and running without harm" he said walking around the stage making exaggerated movements to add flair to his words.

"To the honourable scientists and research that advance our technology and medical understanding through each and every day that go's by" his exaggerated movements and overly excited wording "And that, is why we have al gathered here today, to properly give our thanks and to reward those of us that keep everything we know standing amidst the pillars of these peaceful times"

"And to such a degree that they affect even the life's of the smallest of us, to designing a machine that could potentially heal those with physical trauma making even walking difficult and to those that came to such an understanding of our aura that creating true, sentient life, is but a few mere mere years away" he went silent as he looked over the crowd.

"Now I will not keep you waiting, tonight we have three very special guests of honour, and to begin I would like to introduce to you a man I am sure many of you have heard of, the creator of the miracle machine, the Bravos Chamber, Pitaya Star!"

The announcer excitedly moved to the side as the spotlight moved to the right side of the stage where Arthur could see a familiar hulking muscle bound man with tan skin and bright red hair, and the second person he feared the most in this world behind Summer in her drill sergeant mode.

Arthur began to shiver his hand unconsciously rubbing his neck at the memories of the torture he went through back when Summer took it upon herself to 'train' him. Pit soon came to stop in the centre of the stage, wearing a dark red suit coat and pants with green shoes and an equally as green under shirt and tie.

Applause resounded through the hall as Pit gave a short bow to the guests, "Well, Pitaya, would you be willing to give a short explanation as to what the Bravos chamber is?" the host asked as he handed the mic to Pit, getting a small smile from him.

"Well, the Bravos chamber is something I and my many, many colleagues have been working on for years now, I started it nearly ten years ago as just a theory, what if I could create a machine that could assist in the healing of the body, helping even those whose aura's were sealed to heal at a rate as fast as those with it unlocked, and I am more than happy to say, that after various testing and tweaking, I was able to fine tune the very first prototype into a functional state suitable for even normal people"

Applause sounded out once again, "But" it began to die down as he continued, "I honestly could not have done it without the help of every single person on my team, the researchers, the data analysts, the engineers, even my good friend who you will all be seeing later this evening in offering to be the first to test the machine" Arthur could just feel the twitch in his entire face as he muttered "I didn't offer to go into that death trap"

"So, thank you all, I never could have done this without each and every one of you" he said, handing the mic back to the announcer before giving another short bow, whilst at the edge of the stage Arthur could see a woman in a dark short skirt dress step up and begin to walk up to Pit and the host, in her hands a red velvet pillow with a small round box on it, which Arthur imagined had the medal in it.

Stopping just to the side of Pit whilst facing the host who walked up to her and opened the case and pulled out a small, silver medal with the logo of the Honour ball on it with a small ribbon on it that could bin onto Pit's coat.

After doing just that the host took a step back letting another round of applause resound through the hall, as Pit gave one final bow before following the woman off stage, Arthur swore he could see a faint sway in her h.i.p.s as she walked in front of Pit.

"Now, sadly, our next guest of honour could not make it this fine evening, and will be receiving his medal in person later this week. But he will not go unnamed, for the honour of digging deeper into the origin of what makes us, us, bringing us one step closer to the amazing feat of creating sentient life that could replace the workers in the most dangerous of jobs to fighting the scourge of grimm without true casualties…" His words disgusted Arthur to no extent.

How heartless must you be to think that even synthetic life… synthetic SENTIENT life is disposable, "This is to professor Osiris Polendina, for the future of man and the safety of life on remnant!" the hall filled with cheers as the aristocrats all raised their own glasses in cheers, very few looking disgusted by the hosts choice of words that condemn artificial life as being nothing more than tools to protect others.

After the cheers had died down Arthur realized it was his turn to go on stage so he began to walk towards where he could see another woman hastily looking around the dark hall looking for him, as he got closer the woman locked eyes with him and let out a sigh, before running to him and grabbing his wrist and pulling him backstage.

She had long red hair, a shade darker than Pyrrha's her dress black, and incredibly sparkly and just as short as the other woman he had seen walk off with Pit, and bright equally as red eyes as her hair.

"You should have been here ten minutes ago, now we can't do any touch ups" she complained as she looked him up and down, seeing his outfit was good enough and also going on her tip toes grabbing as his chin whilst moving his head around to see if there was anything they needed to quickly hide, yet letting out a sigh of relief when she saw that was not necessary.

As Arthur looked around he noticed one of the doors backstage open as Pit walked out, looking pleased with himself soon followed by the woman who had brought him the medal, her dress skew and her hair in a mess, sweat dripping down her brow as she shakily walked her way towards a chair, collapsing into it whilst panting.

Running to the entrance to the stage she gave the host a thumbs up which he saw, and began to finish up his speech on professor Polendina, "Now, ladies and gentlemen, tonight's final guest of honour, is a boy I am sure you have all heard of, a huntsman-in-training at Beacon academy and nicknamed the Angel of Vale, ladies and gents, may I welcome, Arthur Fielder!" Applause… once again.

Arthur felt himself pushed forward by the same woman who had dragged him backstage, deciding not to comment on her rude action Arthur began to walk forward, coming to a stop in the centre of the stage where a small blue X was on the floor.

Taking his spot Arthur looked to the crowd, an awkward smile on his face as he did a slight bow, the applause soon going quiet. The bulbous host handing him the mic before taking a step back, looking across the hall he could see most of the more, business like people staring at him, even a few l.u.s.tful ones from the women who wanted to use their bodies to get him connected to their companies.

Taking a deep breathe Arthur tried to come up with what to say, his mind somehow wandering to a certain happy go lucky Fairy, "Honestly, I have no idea what to say, all I did when I got this nickname was save a child from a fire, something I'm sure many, many other people would have done without hesitation, human, faunus, hunters, non-hunters, what I did was not unique, I didn't fight in wars, I didn't save a village, I saved a child, a single one of thousands upon thousands of orphaned children" His words were slow as he looked around the hall.

"I didn't do it for a medal, I didn't even think about it. But that little girl, the one I save, she lost her leg, her hands can barely close properly from wounds she got when her family was attacked, killing both her parents, there is a scar across the entire side of her body from another fire" His voice turned serious as Fairy's image seemed to appear in front of her.

"No, I don't deserve this medal when there is a little girl out there standing on two legs, one flesh and bone while the other of wood and metal, a little girl who's favourite word is 'Aye!', who will take you're fingers away if you even so much as hold food in front of her… this little girl, brave enough to stand up, not caring about her own disabilities, trying everyday to pick up a spoon just to throw porridge over her own dress and face, to dance around the room as if she had never lost her leg. She… she deserves this little medal, so much more than me" Arthur went silent as he looked to the expressions across the hall, many having small smiles on them whilst others had bright smiles on their own as they saw him become even more valuable due to his humbleness.

His eyes soon wandering over the cameras at the back of the hall which had been recording and undoubtedly streaming this live across remnant. The host took the mic from Arthur, the woman who had pushed him to the stage soon coming out with his medal.

"Your humility is as much a honour as saving a child" the host whispered to him, as he pulled the medal from the case and pinned it to Arthur's vest. Taking a step back as an even louder applause filled the hall than any of the previous times as he gave another bow before following the woman off stage, a very obvious sway to her h.i.p.s.

As they exited the stage Arthur could hear the host giving the crowd a short fair well and explain that the first act of the night would be coming up for everyone to dance to, before exiting the stage where Arthur and the woman were, quickly running in the direction of the bathroom with visible sweat on his face, "Bloody god damned shrimp" he grumbled as he hastily passed the two.

"Please follow me" the woman said as she placed the pillow and case on a small stand with 'Arthur Fielder' labelled on it, for Arthur to collect the case at the end of the night.

Arthur was confused as to where she wanted to lead him as he saw her enter the room directly next to the one Pit had exited from and where the other woman was still weakly laying on the couch, uncaring for her dishevelled appearance.

"Oh, ohhhh" He muttered, halting his steps when he realized why she wanted him to follow him. The woman hearing him stop turned around and looked to him, a warm, sultry smile on her face. "No need for the hesitation, being on stage can be very, very stress full, think of this as a way of releasing you're pent up stress" she giggled and walked up to him, "I'll be waiting inside for you, but just in case you don't feel like it" she moved to the side, grabbing a small card from the table and a pen, quickly scribbling down her name and number before going back to Arthur and pushing it into his coat pocket.

Standing on her tiptoes she whispered into Arthur's ears, "I live in Vale, If you're ever feeling pent up, just call me, I'm open whenever you want" and kissed his cheek, Arthur silently watching as she walked into the room, throwing the door open which began to slowly close, revealing she had unzipped the hidden zipper on the side of her dress letting it fall to the ground, revealing her lingerie, turning back to him before the door shut she quickly blew him a kiss and mouthed 'I'll be waiting'

If this was a cartoon he swore he could just hear the two Ashe's on his shoulder, one wearing an angels costume while the other wore a devils and held a pitchfork, one whispering for him to do it, the other say, so go, he didn't need it.

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Alternate Chapter names: [Angel Ashe, Devil Ashe] [The medal of honour]

Words: 3,099

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Polls

Next World (Runs until the end of the RWBY storyline)