I owe all inspiration for this chapter to Coeur Al'Aran, and I'm sorry that I'm putting something else out without touching any of my other stories, but I think it'd be an interesting premise. I don't want to come across as plagiarising him, but I gave it my own spin, and I was hoping that Sempai might Notice me.
Jaune is definitely not the most cooperative of clients, but he is assuredly the most frequent I've had recently.
-Death
It should have been obvious when his uncle died in that sewer, seeing as he had been buried in a nice cemetery in Ordon for six years. even more obvious when he found Roman Torchwick attacking some poor girl on the other end of the tunnel, but he refused to accept it all the way up until he heard the boss music. It was a quest, and he was facing the first boss. He hated quests, but he had to admit, it was a good score for an opening conflict piece.
He tried turning around and leaving through the door he entered, but when he opened the door, all he saw was a janitor's closet and a small treasure chest. "Ooh! Please let it be a weapon!" He popped the lid of the treasure chest and sighed as the bright light and the catchy jingle drew quite a few people to his location, all for:
"Two hundred Rupees...great...I can beat them over the head with it..." he shivered as he turned around slowly, raising his hand above his head, only to stop and stare as the familiar yellow arrow appeared above the distressed looking goon's head. The goon took a step back and shot Jaune a look. "What? Never seen a guy in a tunic before?"
"Hand over the dust." The thug said, reaching out to take it, and reeling back as it completely disappeared. "Hand over your wallet?"
Jaune pulled it out of his hammerspace and watched in boredom as it hovered a foot above his hand lazily bobbing up and down. The would-be thief just took a couple steps back and ran off. "You just can't find a good mugger anymore, can you?"
"Not for lack of trying. I tell ya, it's just the job market these days?" Roman Torchwick peered over his shoulder and Jaune shook his head. Turning into a hostage was awkward at the best of times, and inconvenient at the worst. People had a horrible habit of shooting him when they were done, and after that there was the whole interface recalibration. "So, would you mind complying, it'd make this easier for both of us?"
"No, but I would love to turn around and just walk away." Roman sighed and shook his head, pointing his cane straight at Jaune's head. "I didn't think so...Well, we do this the old fashioned way. If talking doesn't work, you have two options."
Jaune smacked away the cane with the back of his hand and took another step closer to Roman, only for another voice to shout out from behind them. "Hey!"
The girl couldn't have been older than fifteen, but considering the size of the scythe she was holding, he wouldn't bother pointing out her relative age. Roman had balls of steel, and no qualms about fighting something that big.
"Isn't it past your bedtime, Red?" Roman Torchwick, notorious criminal and debonair mastermind stepped through the broken plate-glass window.
"Seriously? A condescending taunt in the middle of battle? Aren't you a bit old for that? You're what, sixty? Next you're going to say something about respecting your elders?" Jaune leaned on one leg and smirked, holding out his hand, twirling a red cleaver that he had pried from an unconscious goon's grip.
"Weren't you going to try diplomacy first?" Roman asked in faux curiosity, leaning his cane on his shoulder.
"You're wearing mascara, there's obviously no reasoning with you." He took the blade in his left hand and frowned. "So, on a scale of one to ten, how many times do you think I'm going to die in this battle?"
"Probably only once, unless you're very unlucky." Jaune nodded and turned to Roman, hurriedly searching for something he could use as a shield.
A short cut scene ensued, where Roman spun his cane with pizazz and panache before launching himself at Jaune. He knocked Jaune back, but, as usual it took no hearts. Jaune finally found what he needed and hefted the ruined wagon wheel, now a makeshift shield, with practiced ease, swiftly deflecting Roman's first blow, but the second pushed his shield to the side and left him stumbling back. Roman tried to fire a shot at him with some kind of glowing orb inset in the base of his cane, but he performed a quick backflip, landing lightly on his feet before taking the explosive shot straight on his shield. By this time, the other redhead had regained her senses and shot forward to counter Roman, but instead of catching him with her scythe, she too was blasted back by his cane, giving Jaune just enough time to shield bash Roman, causing him to stumble back at the inordinate amount of force that such a small kid could produce.
Jaune leapt over him, swinging his sword toward Roman with his spin. He blocked it barely, ducking down and deflecting it off his cane. Ruby slid toward the Red-headed rogue and caught him inside the nook of her scythe, unfortunately, she also caught Jaune, and in that moment of hesitation, Roman whacked his cane across Ruby's knuckles, causing her to reel back, leaving an opening for Torchwick to fire another blast into the young girl.
Jaune was there before the round left the barrel, smashing his makeshift shield into the side of Roman's cane, knocking his aim off course. Roman shoved past the two and toward an errant fire escape, hopping over the edge of the roof before Ruby could fire off a shot. Ruby looked to the store owner and asked a question of some kind, but Jaune was already on his way toward where Roman had gone.
Rule 1: Never give the enemy a chance to rest. (See Appendix 1)
Rule 2: Stay close to your opponent. (See Appendix 2)
(App. 1) Unless there's loot.
(App. 2) Unless they display obvious elemental attributes, i.e. Freezing breath, fiery breath, electrical discharge at random intervals, etc.
Dad may have been the Knight of Hyrule, but mom was a princess, and thusly, one hell of a lawmaker, and a stickler for protocol.
Anyway, there was no loot, so it was down to Jaune to chase after Roman, and bring out the most recent feather in his cap. "Hey, Torchwood!"
Roman growled and turned around, angered almost as much as he was amazed at the speed that this blonde runt got here. "It's Torchwick!"
"Whatever! Say cheese!" He held up a strange tablet, and suddenly Roman was flying off the edge of the roof. Fortunately for him, (and for plot continuation), there happened to be a chariot hovering not too far from where he would have fallen.
It swerved just enough to catch Roman and sped away. Jaune sprinted toward the edge of the roof and hunched over, and a voice began to speak until a bang went off beside him, knocking him off balance. A figure stood on either side of him, both extending their weapons of choice, one a scythe with a rock of some kind protruding from the shaft, the other, a riding crop. Normally, a six foot long scythe with a no doubt explodey bit in the shaft would be far more intimidating than a foot and a half long riding crop, but when considering the person at the other end of the two, Jaune had no doubts that the scythe was the safer of two options. Once the Chariot was well and truly away, Jaune turned toward the tall blonde woman wielding her weapon of wrath and held up his left hand as if to fend off her withering glare. "To be fair, I almost had him."
It wasn't the best thing he could have said at that point if the sudden tense background music was any sign. The girl behind him squealed in delight and the music took on a light and jovial tone. "You're a real huntress?!"
Jaune turned to look at the short girl behind him and rolled his eyes. "Can I have your autograph? What class are you? Was that glyph thing an active?"
"Dude, can you stop? I'm trying to write my eulogy here." Jaune said testily.
"You two are in major trouble."
"So I'm sitting there, and one second my dad is just sitting there, completely silent, usual green tunic in place, and next thing I know, he's six feet away, sword drawn and shield up, facing down a now unarmed Darknut. So I, being 12 at the time, walk over to this Darknut's HUGE two handed claymore and try nudging it with my feet, only for it to cut into the sole of my boot. The thing was so sharp that it cut through leather, rubber, cloth and a sheet of molded steel just being nudged." Jaune did his best to distract both the angry blonde and the distant seeming silver haired man as he awaited some form of salvation. The music was suggesting that he was in danger, but it didn't look like either of his interrogators was going to attack any time soon.
"A Darknut, you say?" The silver haired man inquired, looking deep in thought. "What exactly does a Darknut look like- Mr. Arc, was it?"
"Yeah! A Darknut is about Seven feet tall, covered in armor, usually dark armor, but occasionally it'll be gold. It's got a freaking huge claymore or a morningstar, and when it has the claymore it's usually got a pretty thick shield as well. They're weakness is how easy the armor can be knocked off-"
"Stop talking." A stern blonde woman with long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes strode into the room, stopping beside Jaune and turning to face Ozpin and Glynda. "Are you arresting my son?"
"No, in fact I had planned on offering an alternate option." He turned to face Jaune and gave him a distant look. "How would you like to attend Beacon RPG?"
"He is not interested." His mother responded.
"I'm sorry, I don't believe we've been introduced. My name is Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon RPG." He stood up and held a hand out to her to shake.
"My name is Zelda Anaeuthemia Hyrule, Queen of Hyrule, and this is my son, Jaune Arc Hyrule." Zelda brought herself to her full height and stared down the pair without the slightest shred of fear.
"Well, I wouldn't say I'm not interested…" Jaune spoke up from beside his mother. He tipped his head to the side and adjusted the collar of his tunic, not making eye contact with anyone. "I mean, it could be nice to meet some more kids my age. The closest thing I've got to a friend my age is Riju, and she's- well, she's always either surfing or stuck in the palace. Come on! It's a chance to meet kids my own age, it'll be great, and the best part is that they'll be training too!"
"Jaune…" Zelda sighed and looked between the two men in the room. "I swear to the goddesses, if you fail even one class, I'm pulling you out. No questions, no ifs, ands, or buts, and no second chances. And no talking to strangers!"
"Mom! You are the best! Don't worry about the classes, I'm sure I'll do great!" Zelda nodded and looked him over again.
"Your dad is going to go bug nuts when he hears about this." Jaune froze, turning to face her slowly before smiling a brittle grin. "And he will hear about this."
"Well...this'll end well…" Jaune muttered sarcastically.
Against all expectations, the conversation went well...
"Yes dad, I- I know you didn't have to- well-. "
"Yeah…well, I'm not quite as well equipped as you. You have the Triforce of Courage, I have-"
"No dad, I'm not-."
"Look, there're no monsters out here that can-"
"Dad, can you quit interrupting me?"
Zelda stalked through the halls elegantly and plucked the phone from Jaune's hand. "Link, he's joining the school. I've considered the options, and he will receive training from heroes with decades of experience, including Urbosa."
"I know that you are technically the hero of Hyrule, but you don't have nearly as much experience as these heroes will."
"Mom, what is going on?" Jaune let his face fall into his hand and moaned grievously. As he looked up, he spotted the girl from the robbery prattling away at the woman who had also been on the rooftop. Man, she was intimidating.
"So, because my class and subclass have conflicting weapon requirements, I figured that either I could double-fist it, but I'm way too small for that, so I decided to combine the two weapons to form one cooler weapon."
"But don't you face the same problem, even with a combined weapon? It's still the same weight?" Jaune interrupted, much to the shorter girl's chagrin and the taller woman's relief. "Sorry to interrupt, but why do you even need to have these two weapons?"
"You didn't go to Signal, did you? That's basic Class theory!"
"He was homeschooled with an emphasis on combat." Zelda interrupted with a fake smile.
"Well, certain classes have predispositions and preferences, leaving them stronger when they use certain weapons. For instance, I'm a Paladin, subclass Witch. Now, a Paladin needs to have a long, bladed weapon for Smiting, and a Witch needs a long staff with a neutral ore in the end for casting and channeling." Jaune nodded along and scratched the back of his head.
"But why put them together? You never answered my first question." Ruby looked affronted for a moment before she realized that Jaune wasn't criticizing her weapon, rather, he was investigating it.
"Well, if I one handed either one, it would half my dexterity and strength with it, but since the two are now one, I can use both hands for both weapons at one time!"
"That's dope."
"No one says that anymore. Anyway, I guess I'll see you at Beacon RPG." Jaune waved goodbye and looked up at his mom. Zelda ran her hand through her hair and gently took Jaune's hand, guiding him from the police station and toward an ornate carriage, guided by two stallions and a soldier in elite armor.
"Archibald, take us to the nearest library. It's time for Jaune to learn more about the outside world."