Jaune quickly got himself up and extended a hand to the girl who took it. The young girl was surprisingly light as he lifted her up onto her feet, and as the girl dusted himself off he chuckled some nervously. "Sorry about that...I just was not looking where I was going."
The young girl shook her head quickly and started to stutter out an apology of her own while tumbling upon her own words. Jaune looked up and down her body, the girl was very petite and wearing a lot of red and black. One of the most noticeable things about her was the piercing silver eyes she had. Just looking into them with a glance, Jaune could see a burning desire and hope much like had himself.
"N-no it is all my fault Yang always tells me I should be looking where I am going more often...Guess what she was saying is true huh?" The girl gave out an awkward chuckle as she sighed some, the girl was clearly not very used to these sudden social interactions and Jaune decided to take pity on her and extended his hand again.
"Well, either way, it is nice to meet you, seems like you are pretty nice after all. My name is Jaune Arc, short sweet and the ladies love it." Jaune recited the lines his mother had drilled into him like they were second nature before blushing at how it sounded out loud. He was not all that impressive after all.
The young woman raised an eyebrow as she took the hand, not quite sure of what to think about this young man. "Do they really now? Anyways my name is Ruby Rose, and I guess you seem pretty nice as well. But I have to ask why are you here so close to Signal? You don't look like a huntsmen in training.
The words hit Jaune harder than he expected they would but shook his head some before he got emotional. This girl did not know what happened to him or about what he dreamed to be, she was just curious about the young man. "Oh well...I wanted to be a huntsmen but my parents just refused to unlock my aura. They did not want to give me "false hope" of being a huntsmen... I know I can do it if they just let me try though! I am not weak as they say!"
At Ruby's shocked face from his yelling, Jaune blushed once more not realizing just how emotional of a topic this was for him before he started talking. Now he expected her to just say a hasty goodbye and run off, but to his surprise he was almost blinded by the girl's beaming smile at how he wanted to be a huntsmen. "Well if you want I could unlock it for you! Then you can train and get into Signal and prove them wrong! I could even help you design a weapon for yourself!"
Ruby's exclamation was a huge shock for the young man, to just find someone so willing to support his dream after years of it being criticized by his parents was not expected to say the least. He had opened his mouth to say something when a blond girl came up from behind Ruby, panting some as she put a hand on her shoulder.
"Ruby...What did I say about just running off like that without me? I am not as fast as you ya know? So who is this guy?"
Jaune assumed that this girl was the Yang that ruby had mentioned before as she looked him over as if she was trying to recall something. Ruby then interrupted her thoughts with an excited tone in her voice. "This is Jaune, he said that he wants to become a huntsmen but his parents told him no. They won't even unlock his aura for him which I think is dumb as it is just a good thing to have, even if you are not going into combat that extra defense is just good you know? Anyways I just offered to unlock his aura for him and then he can train and get into Signal with us and then we can even design his weapon together!"
The crimson hooded reaper was practically bouncing with excitement as she spoke at a mile a minute, it was obvious to Jaune that this girl either really liked helping others or really liked huntsmen...Probably both, but at the mention of his name Yang seemed to have a moment of realization as she looked at Jaune again and nodded. Putting a hand on her little sister to stop her Yang looked Jaune in the eyes, hers were deadly serious as she started to speak.
"That is fine and all Ruby, but you do know one can only attend Signal with their parent's permission right? Beacon is a different story but he could never get into Signal with his parents saying that, he also doesn't seem much like huntsmen material."
Yang then let go of her sister as he stepped closer to Jaune, leaning in as if trying to intimidate him from his position as she continued to speak. The words piercing Jaune as she stared into his eyes she was clearly trying to test him in some way.
"You do know that being a huntsmen is not all fun and games right? It is not something that you can just say you want to be on a whim. There needs to be some sort of reason that you want to be one and I refuse to allow my sister to get her hopes up about you when you might just die like a fool or give up halfway. Now tell me why you want to be a huntsmen here and now. None of that legacy crap as it will not last you a minute out in the wilds with grimm where no one cares who your daddy is, just if you can fight well."
As Yang challenged him and his determination, Jaune growled under his breath and stared right back into her lilac eyes his pure blue ones, his ironclad determination waivering against his own self-doubt. The blond brawler did not step back, however, a little tint of red starting to emerge as she waited for him to answer. Jaune had to really think about it for a few seconds if he was not doing this to uphold his legacy than why was he in this for? There had to be more to his motivation than his family name. A simple desire like that would not have been enough fuel to keep his determination going for these years of resistance. He then he spied Ruby out of the corner of his eye with her bright smile on. Hoping for him to survive her big sister... Wait that was it!
Jaune then opened his mouth to speak, voice full of confidence for one in his life as he stood up to his fellow blond. "I am in this because as an older brother I would do anything to protect my little sisters, I would die for them and if they ever got hurt because I failed them...I would never forgive myself. I am sure you feel the same way about Ruby! Well...Well my reason is to protect everyone so no one will feel like that! I want to protect others so families and friends to not have to say goodbye to their loved ones early! That good enough for you?!"
As the boy spoke his voice got louder and louder, more filled with passion as he truly believed every single word. When he saw Yang's smirk once he was finished, that passion was replaced by confusion. The young woman then started chuckling some to herself as Ruby's own eyes seemed to grow in size at another person that was fighting for similar reasons to her.
"So I guess they were right. You really are as idealistic as my little sister, not necessarily a bad thing but I needed to make sure you were for real and not just saying empty words." As Yang talked between chuckles Jaune became even more confused and opened his mouth to just ask why but Yang stopped him.
"Dude, there is not a person in Signal that has not heard of Lila and Ciel's younger brother. They brag about you all the time and how you are going to be one of the greatest huntsmen of all time. Personally, I thought they were just spewing hot air, and when I first saw your noodly body that all but confirmed it. That exclamation there though? I can kinda see the spark they were talking about in you. Rubes go ahead and unlock his aura if you are sure, I mean you do know what you are getting into when you do that right?"
Ruby nodded and approached Jaune. In all cultures across Remnant, the unlocking of your Aura from someone outside of your family was something special wherein Mistral, it was considered a marriage proposal and in Atlas a dedication that you would be forever loyal to the one who unlocked your Aura. In Vale it was believed that because one must use a part of their own soul to unlock another's potential a bit stayed behind in the soul that was unlocked and the person who unleashed this power would have a bit of their comrade's soul left behind within each of them. This would forever tie their destinies together whether that be good or bad.
Ruby placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder and started using her aura actively as she spoke the incantation "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." Then Jaune lit up like the sun as his aura was unleashed to the world. Forming a comforting and warming embrace all around the young man.
Jaune then hugged the girl, giving off a million thanks for doing for him before he looked back and nodded. "If you want, you can still help me develop a weapon I had in mind but I need to go home. There is something I need to test first but we can meet here same time tomorrow right? I can explain more then!"
The blond then dashed off as Ruby nodded, he ran towards his home and entered the door to run up into his room without so much as a word to his parents as he shut the door to his room. This was something he needed to test for himself. The young man then pulled out his notebook and went over a few things before nodding to himself.
"Alright, everything points to this sort of thing being possible, one can directly create barriers and enhance the body with Aura so I just need to apply it to that right?" Reassuring himself mentally, the young man started focusing his aura into his palm, wanting it to form a barrier right then but got nothing not even a twitch of his aura. Maybe his palm was too big for a start? So he then focused further on his pinky finger and tried the same thing. In his mind imagining a knight's steel armor like his ancestors used but all the same, nothing came into being as he tried for half an hour.
Cursing to himself, the young man got up. Knowing his potential idea had just died he almost yelled out in frustration as he went to read something to calm himself down again. He grabbed up an X-Ray and Vav comic from his bookshelf, the colorfully clad superhero duo proudly posing in a confident stance. This made yet another idea pop into his head, however... If aura was one's soul then it would only make sense to reflect look one's essence would look like right?
Putting down the comic, Jaune turned internally to himself and asked what was his essence. He thought long and hard about it. His family was all full of knights but he was not really the typical Arc in any way...That was not what Jaune wanted to be really no, a knight was a warrior that usually only served one lord. While media had corrupted the true knight's image, what a true knight really was had not changed. Jaune lay back onto his soft pillow as he tried to come up with what he truly was then if not a knight or paladin of that sort. Then the image of a masked man came into his mind, fighting alone with only his partner by his side against an almost unstoppable evil. The image within his mind had started out blurry but as Jaune dweled on it it slowly became clearer. All the little details of the man's superhero outfit came into mind naturally as he fought off the monster, the monster quickly solidified into a giant Goliath with a town behind the hero in his mind.
The daydream became more and more real by the second as the town was set alight, hell on remnant was being raised because this monster had decided to feast on innocent men and women. Jaune could practically hear the panicked screams in his ears of civilians desperately trying to escape but feeling no hope, only for it to surge back up as someone burst onto the scene with a commanding presence. His triumphant voice heard throughout the town and bringing some semblance of hope back. "Shining Aura Breaker!" The name of the attack echoed throughout the burned village and the young hero slammed his foot into the face of the elephant like grimm, pushing it back before the hero landed on the ground gracefully with a pose. The dream bringing a smile to his face, knowing what he would truly be now in some way. He wanted to be a superhero that protected everyone no matter what.
Going back to his training Jaune started his focusing once more, instead of trying to form a small bit of armor like before, he was focusing on forming a bit of the ideal superhero costume for himself in his mind. While it took another thirty minutes of solid concentration, eventually a white, second skin appeared on Jaune's pinky finger and the young man cried out with joy and quickly willed it to spread to his hand. The Aura quickly spread and formed a white glove on his hand, the back had the Arc Family symbol on it with gold spirals all around the glove converging on the back and front of his hand. Jaune had managed to form his first piece of armor made out of his very soul.
Just so everyone is aware of this, I will be doing my best to keep updates consistent, though to me that includes fiddling with my previous chapters to make sure that everything is on the up and up.
