New Path, Same Job

Rejection. You would think that Jaune was used to that word by now, but no, here it was again, and here was the same twist in his gut as he read the letter…

Dear Jaune Arc.

The staff and I of Signal academy have come to the unanimous decision that you would not be fit for any sort of combat academy. Although it does seem confusing, how the son of an Arc has not received any sort of formal combat training from anybody in his family, but the facts are still the same. Your current level of combat is not up to par with even the worst of our students, and not only that but I have received word from your family that they haven't even taught you what Aura is. I think, along with my colleagues, that it would be best for you to not pursue the dangerous dream of becoming a hunter, it would only put yourself and others in danger.

Sincerely, Qrow Branwen

Well if that did not spell failure, than what the hell did? Honestly, it was kind of funny. If I heard somebody went out and tried to get into a school where they trained to protect humanity from the threat of Grimm while not having any sort of combat training as well as not knowing a damn thing about Grimm, I probably would have laughed right and said that it was impossible.

So this was the infamous rock bottom huh. Signal was my last ditch effort, I mean after the rejections from Atlas, Mistral, hell even Vacuo, who was infamous for just letting in people and then just allowing the weak to heard themselves out by a literal tournament style death brawl, had rejected him. Signal was his last hope, but looks like luck wasn't going to be on his side this time.

"Juane? Are you ok? Do you want me to come in?" His mother called. Of course she would be worried about him, he had been isolated in his room after the second rejection, and couldn't stop crying after the third. To say the rejection was a secret in the Arc household would be blatant lie. The entire family had been trying to coax Jaune out of his room, Ceil saying that she'll prank him if he didn't spend time with his family, Rouge With her constant begging and pleading's outside of his room, and don't even get him started on Violet. She had been trying to kick down Jaune's door the second she heard him start to cry, the only thing preventing her was his bed, mattress, and even the dresser barricading the door just to keep her at bay for an hour.

However, the one that got to Jaune the most was his twin, Joan. She had been trying to talk him out of his room, either with kind words or with bribes. At one point she had told him that she'd personally storm in to any of those schools and "convince" them to let him in, if convince meant get the rest of his sisters and beat the living tar out of everybody there. But even those kind words wouldn't convince Jaune to get out of his room.

Now here he was, sulking. "Don't be so hard on yourself, it doesn't matter if you can fight, you can make a difference no matter what you do," he could hear his sister Violet say in the back of his mind. He didn't need sweet words right now, he just needed an escape. Something to get him out of this forsaken house of hero's that has made him feel like an outcast since the day he was born. So that's just what he did, he escaped.

"No Violet, you can't go in there!" Joan, Jaune's twin sister, said. She was a spry young girl, blonde untamed hair going down to her neck, and above all her brilliant blue eyes. She was only a little shorter than Jaune, reaching 5'7. She'd be the spitting image of Jaune had he'd been a girl like the rest of the Arc siblings. After the recent news of Jaunes denial into the academies Joan had been completely understanding of Jaune, unlike like the rest of their sisters. Understanding of why he did it and especially how he reacted. She couldn't even imagine what it must be like, to grow up in a house where everyone has succeeded at something, be it being a hunter, sticking up for their selves, or just "honoring" the arc name. Joan didn't care about the arc name, or what stupid sort of symbol it was supposed to represent, she just cared about her brother. So when they all heard of the news Joan had given Jaune his space, so that he could come to terms with the news and then ask Joan for her help. Violet however…

"He's family!" Violet continued walking towards Jaune's room, convinced that the only way to cheer Jaune up was to break down his door and force him to talk with her. She gripped the Signal pamphlet in her hands, crumpling into a ball as she continued marching towards Jaune's room, purple hair swaying back and forth. Violet could now see Jaune's door, orange eyes glaring at the door as if she were getting ready to pounce.

"B-but Violet, you know that h-," but before she could finish her sentence Violet was already at the door.

"Jaune, I'm coming in!" and with that said Violet oh so subtly kicked down his door. To say Joan was shocked would be putting it lightly, almost passing out at the violet display of force. Joan was on the verge of chastising her older sister for breaking into her twin brother's room, if not for what she heard. Rather what she didn't hear in fact. You would think after getting your door abrasively kicked in you would say something, a boyish screech, a minor yelp, at least a grunt, but no, there wasn't, not even a peep.

"Jaune? This isn't funny. Look I'm sorry for kicking in your door, that doesn't mean you have to hide from me." Violet said, voice squeaking as she wiped away tears.

"Violet?" and to answer Joan's question, she peered the corner to look into Jaune's room, to find it empty, with no Jaune.

"Ahhh, fresh air, finally out of my room, although that's probably not what you meant, huh Violet?" Jaune said as he walked the streets of Vale. Sure, it was kind or a dick move just running of like that, but what else would he have done, stayed back as Violet would probably kick down his door and force him to talk with the family about this? No, thank you very much. If Jaune was going to be miserable he would be miserable by himself. The only question now would be what to do? He had racked up the courage to leave but didn't really have a plan after. He could go to the local arcade, but he'd most likely run into his friends there, you know the ones who actually got excepted into a combat school. He could go to the park, but his parents had told him that the local crime rate around that area had gone up so there was no way he was going there. Actually, where was he right now?

"I'm not going to ask you twice, give me all the money you have, unless you want to find your way into a ditch!"

The park. Just his luck. However it wasn't him being robbed right now, no it was some helpless woman across the street from him. She was wearing a yellow sundress, the look of an innocent.

"Someone help me!" the woman screamed but sadly, no one heard. Well except for Jaune.

Oh know, what do I do? I could call for hel- but before Jaune thought of calling for help something happened, he hit her.

"Shut up bitch." The attacker said as kicked the woman down. Jaune's gut kicked in, he started running. But not away from the crime to get help like the smart man would do, instead straight towards it. No reasonable man would have done this, however Jaune wasn't a reasonable man. As he ran he was only filled with more false bravado when the attacker seemed to real back and hit her again. Jaune rushed as fast as he could at the attacker, hitting him with his shoulder and knocking him to the ground.

"You little shit! You'll that in a minute." The attacker said, trying to get up but then quickly meeting Jaune's shoe. If Jaune was going to act hero, well then he should play the part to the end right. Trying his best to keep the scum down, Jaune pressed the heel of his shoe in the attacker's chest, forcing him back down to the ground.

"Oh thank you so much sweetie, but I'm afraid you're not going to be a hero today." The woman said as she plunged a knife into Jaune's back. It all went into slow motion, the slow slushing sound of the blade plunging into his back, the sputter of blood that escaped his lips. Everything went numb; he couldn't even feel his toes. Jaune collapsed to the ground, while blood, his blood, started to pool around him. Vision blurred, everything cold, not enough strength to even breathe. A kick was deleivered to the side of his face.

"To many kids want to be heroes". The woman said, with a smile that could only resemble a demon plastered on her face.

"Alright Tim, you know what to do, take the kids money and let's get out of here." The woman told her lackey.

"Actually Elaine we might have a problem, he doesn't have any cash on him." Billy said an obvious annoyed tone in his voice.

"Hhhhmm, well at the very least he made a funny sound when he died," Elaine let out another chuckle at the thought of it "come on let's get out of here."

Why? Why did this shit have to happen to him? All he wanted to do was try to save someone, being a hero really wasn't a part of that deal. Hell he had gone up to the criminal with no doubt in his mind that he wouldn't be coming back from it. But like this? Killed by the very person he was trying to save. Out of all the ways he could've gone out, it had to be like this? He tried to resist his fate by picking himself up every now and again, only to get the boot of his killer.

"Still alive and kicking huh, well here, let's fix that real fast," said Elaine, picking Jaune up by his throat. She grabbed her knife and slowly raised it to his throat.

"Playing the hero is so overrated." Elaine said, but then she became distracted by the cracking of a match. She dropped Jaune, turning to face the new figure across the alley.

"You know," a woman said as she raised the match to light her cigarette, "Normally when I walk by a stupid boy going in way over his head it's when I'm in some bar and he's trying to talk up some girl that he thinks he has a shot with." She took a long draw of her cigarette and then blew out. "But instead I get some kid trying to play hero while he's bleeding out on the floor. And what type of person would I be if I just let that happen?"

"Hey you better back off if you know what's good for you, or else you're going to end up just like him!" Tom said with a very threatening tone in his voice, but something else that almost sounded like, fear?

"Did it look like I was talking to you? No, it didn't so how about you scram while I play the hero and the kid can be my damsel in destress. Sound good to you?" the woman said with the irritation of a drunk. Which by the way she talked wouldn't be far off. She now stood at what appeared as a fighter's stance, slightly bringing her foot forward and puffing out her chest.

This time it was Elaine's turn to talk, and boy did she sound pissed, "Listen you bitch, how bout' you crawl back to the distillery you came from and leave us alone or else w-"

The last thing Jaune saw before he passed out was the image of a woman with long, elegant brown hair, planting her fist into the side of Elaine's face.