Right so, here's the second chapter of Signal Woes, far earlier than my normal upload schedule would allow, because we had it mostly written up already. Thank you so much to everybody that favorited, reviewed and followed this story and I can only hope that chapter 2 lives up to what some of you were expecting. Also, quite a few reviews asked whether or not this fic will be a dragonslayer fic. As much as I'd love to answer that right now, myself and my friend have both decided it is best to keep that to ourselves for now. We're sorry if that upsets some of you, but remember, that isn't a no~

Chapter 2: Fight Club

"To summarize what I've been trying to teach you all for the past hour or so, observation plays a large part when fighting an enemy, whether they're a person or Grimm. It doesn't matter. Constantly keep watching and looking for anything to exploit-" Whatever Qrow was about to say was cut off by the bell, causing Jaune's homeroom and combat teacher to sigh, resting his head in the palm of his right hand.

It was the start of Jaune's second week at Signal and honestly, week one had not gone over all that well. It had honestly been pretty boring, consisting of mainly ordinary subjects like history, math and geography to name a few, along with a few lessons on combat theory that were insightful, if sometimes difficult to pay attention to. The drawling voice of Qrow Branwen could only hold attention for so long before it began to slip and Jaune was many thing, none of which consisted of being a saint or having the patience of one.

"Well, looks like that's all for right now. You guys get a 15-minute break, then meet me at the grey combat hall, alright? Now scram kids." Immediately, students scrambled from their seats, making their way for the exit of the classroom with Jaune following just a little behind, lost slightly in thought.

The first week had been a disaster socially too. Efforts to make friends hadn't gone super well, though he supposed it didn't help that there were only a few students he shared all of his classes with. And it wasn't like he hadn't tried, either! Because he'd definitely tried, but some of his classmates were straight up just impossible to get along with. Others were nice enough and he could just about manage to carry a decent conversation with them, but he couldn't definitively call any of them friends. It was actually kind of sad.

Not that he'd expected to be the cool kid, there was little chance of that happening after all, but he wasn't that boring, was he? He'd heard many of his classmates sharing stories of their days training with their parents and bragging about how awesome they'd be when sparring started. It looked like they'd be able to strut their stuff a little earlier than most had thought.

Looking around, Jaune noticed that his legs had subconsciously taken him to door to the correct combat hall, with nobody else there yet. They'd probably all headed for the cafeteria to grab snacks or drinks, most likely.

He idly wondered if he should follow their example, before sighing and shaking his head, despite the fact that he was alone right now. He wasn't sure when he'd taken up the hobby of communicating with himself, but no doubt it didn't add any positive traits to his character in the eyes of the rest of the class. Again, it wasn't his fault though! Ever since that first day, he'd been seen as lazy and tardy! One late morning and it'd painted him in a negative light!

With slow, deliberate movements he whipped his Scroll out, sending a quick message to his father about the upcoming sparring session. Hopefully his old man would have some words of wisdom to impart before one of the more dangerous classes.

He didn't. Jaune had waited until even Qrow had arrived and still, his father hadn't responded. He tried not to be upset, it was obvious his dad was just on a mission or something, but it was still kind of unnerving to not receive any advice when he felt like he needed it the most. He'd never even been in a fight before and now he was about to be sparring with somebody using actual weapons? This was totally crazy. Hopefully that aura thing that Qrow had unlocked for him would come in clutch.

"Right kids, take a seat in the observatory." Qrow was walking towards the combat stage as he said that, students quick to follow his command, with Jaune being no exception. Maybe they wouldn't have time to go through every student and he'd get this class to analyse everybody else's fighting styles? Maybe copy some of their moves?

It worked on tv and in the movies, so hopefully learning through observation would also work for him! He'd become an awesome badass simply by watching his fellow classmates and blending all of their styles into one mega fighting style!

Oh, who was he kidding? Of course that sort of thing wouldn't work! This was real life, not a video game or a cartoon! There was absolutely nobody that could copy a person's fighting style by watchin them! Nobody at all!

"Okay kids, nice to see you're all excited about this class, some more than others." Why did Jaune feel like Qrow had targeted that one? "So welcome to your first sparring class, kiddos. Things'll be a little different to the theory classes, obviously. Rule number one, my word is law in this room. If I say to end a fight, the fight is over."

Jaune fought the urge to sigh at that one. At least somebody was going to be looking out for their wellbeing. He had confidence in most of his classmates to stop spars before somebody got hurt, but as with every rule there were exceptions. Some looked like they'd like to hurt people and others looked like they'd be having too much fun.

Take Yang Xiao Long for example, the blonde that had spoken to him in the cafeteria. She looked like the type of person that enjoyed a bit of rough play, teacher's daughter or not. Hell, the fact that she was the daughter of a teacher probably meant that she was better trained than anybody here. And hey, Mr. Branwen was still talking.

"Rule number two, fights end when somebody's aura breaks or enters the red. No exceptions. Those are your only two rules in the ring." Wait, that was it? No rules against aiming below the waist, or anything like that? That was odd, he was sure there'd be a conduct for fighting in a class like this. "So with that said, I'm going to call down the first two of you to fight now. When you're called down, you enter via the two side doors…"

Now that Qrow mentioned it, Jaune took notice of the two doors leading to either side of the combat stage, one of which probably being how Qrow got up there. What were those two side rooms?

"Through those doors is what you might call an armory. As you're all aware, we make you create your own weapons, it's a requirement to graduate. Until then, you use some of the stock we have here. Or don't. If you want to try to go at it with your fists, be my guest." Jaune scoffed as Qrow mentioned that last part. Who would be crazy enough to just go straight up without a weapon?

"Alright, with that said, would Yang Xiao Long and Vester Raye get down here. You're both first up." Yang and a fairly short boy with orange hair with yellow tips that spiked upwards in a manner that simply defied gravity, appearing to add another few inches to his height, got up, making their way to opposite rooms. A minute or two passed before they both emerged, Jaune's attaention immediately being drawn to Yang.

"Looks like I got my answer. Yang is definitely crazy enough to go into a fight barehanded." Not to mention that she looked pretty good when she was ready to fight. Like her dad, she wore a lot of brown and orange, but that was about where the similarities ended. She wore two leather bracers around her forearms and a set of fingerless gloves. She looked readier for a bar brawl than a spar in Jaune's opinion, which made it actually a rather intimidating, if impressive, sight to behold.

Jaune turned his eyes to her opponent, finding himself a little less impressed. Vester was on the smaller, more lithe side of the spectrum and his combat gear wasn't all that impressive. You couldn't really be too scared of red shorts and a striped yellow and black vest, after all. The golden leather bracers were a little cool, but all in all, it looked like the guy was more prepared for a pool party than a spar.

A pair of beeps drew Jaune's attention upwards for a moment, where a monitor with pictures of both Yang and Vester, along with a pair of green bars, one for each of them. That was so cool! It was like a fighting video game! Oh man, this was going to be awesome!

"Alright you two, you know the rules. No going overboard, got it?" Was it just in Jaune's head, or was Qrow looking straight at Yang when he said that? "Alright, begin whenever you want. I don't care." Classic Qrow Branwen.

In an almost immediate flurry of movement, both Vester and Yang launched forward at one another, Vester crouched low to the floor clutching some sort of one-handed scythe in his left hand. The guy was fast, that was for sure. He was running faster than Yang was, especially since she'd stopped moving. Wait, what?

Sure enough, Yang had stopped running towards Vester and was awaiting his approach, grinning at him in a way that made Jaune glad he wasn't the idiot sprinting towards a girl like that. The guy was definitely making a mistake, especially if an amateur like Jaune could tell he'd screwed up.

And screw up Vester did. Attempting to remain out of arm's reach of Yang, he slashed across her left arm with the Gama in his hand, shifting to the right as he did so, before a hand became tangled in his hair and he was thrown bodily across the combat stage, skidding across the ground and landing on his knees. Jaune noticed that the impact hadn't done a whole lot of damage, a mere sliver of the boy's bar was gone, but now as he scrambled to get to his feet, Yang was closing in fast.

Without time to successfully get to his feet, Vester threw himself to the left, narrowly avoiding a fist that had been on a collision course with his face, which instead left a nice series of cracks on the floor. There had been a lot of strength behind that punch, but now Vester found himself on the floor again with Yang closer than she had been, chasing after him to follow up with the previous punch. He yelped, pushing himself to his knees and slashing across Yang's chest with the handheld scythe, which was easily dodged with a twist of her waist, before an open palm slammed into Vester's forehead.

Jaune winced, sparing a glance up at Vester's aura bar to see it firmly into the yellow after just one blow. Was that normal? It couldn't be, right? He tore his eyes from the screen to see Vester backpedalling away, a look of terror on his face. Jaune's heart went out to the guy, but man was it impressive watching Yang stalk towards him whilst cracking her knuckles. She was like the badass main character out of an action film!

Yang lurched to the right, causing a panicked Vester to try to dodge in the opposite direction, before shifting back and following his movement. It had been a feint, Jaune realized, as a fist lodged in Vester's cheek and he was sent stumbling backwards whilst lashing out wildly with his weapon. He was panicking and it was clear to see, at least it had been until Yang ducked below a swing, pushing herself upwards and nailing the boy with an uppercut that lifted him off of his feet, landing flat on his back as his aura shimmered, the bar next to his name on the screen above them a deep crimson. It was over.

"Oh yeah! Just call me the combine harVESTER, eh?" Jaune did find, however, that he wasn't quite so impressed with Yang's victory phrase. A pun? Really? He groaned in his seat, as did the majority of the class, before he began to clap his hands together. He'd been pretty impressed. Vester wasn't a bad fighter, per se, but he'd just been up against somebody far better than he was.

"Alright, not a bad first fight." Qrow drawled as he made his way back to the two combatants, pulling Vester off of the floor with a single arm. "Yang, you did well. You're skilled, props to your dad for beating you into shape, but you need to be more mobile and wait for more openings. Once we start letting you all use guns, I assure you that standing still will be a mistake."

Yang, to her credit, seemed to take the critique in stride, a wide grin stretching across her face as Qrow turned to face Vester.

"Now, I think you know what I'm going to say. You panicked, thinking only of retreating when Yang got close. Your default response is to move in the opposite direction to a threat." Vester hung his head, whether in shame, disappointment or anger, Jaune wasn't really sure. He wasn't in any position to judge though, no doubt he wouldn't have done as well as the guy. "You've got potential kid, I'd wager that you could be a pretty impressive marksman, but you need to grow your nerve."

The two nodded, uttering thanks to Qrow before making their way to the side rooms to change back into the academy uniforms and exit, taking a few minutes before the stage was mostly clear.

"Alright now, Jaune Arc and Umber Scarrlow, up on stage now!" Jaune found himself gulping as he made his way from the observatory to his little armory, pushing through the door with shaky hands. Inside was a wall, white from ceiling to floor, covered in multiple weapon racks, though some were empty. Those were probably the racks for the firearms, they'd be given access to those later on in the year.

All around him were weapons of various kinds. There were shortswords, greatswords, axes and gauntlets of all different shape. There were even weapons he didn't know existed and some things he didn't really think of as weapons, like canes. Who wielded a cane?

He slipped into his combat gear, not nearly as impressive as the gear everybody else wore, being a simple breastplate, a pair of jeans and a black hoodie, along with some thick leather gloves. Maybe one day he'd be able to afford some actual armor, or something that looked cool. He spent most of his time browsing through the different weapons, picking up multiple weapons and shields to test their weight, before he found himself drawn to a war scythe in the corner of the room. That was what he'd use.

He stepped out onto the stage, war scythe clutched loosely in his left hand with the bottom of the handle pressed against the floor as he waited for his opponent to leave his side room. Honestly, standing like this with a scythe in his hand made him feel like death itself, he even had his hood up for added effect. Maybe he was quite the intimidating opponent now? Hopefully.

It took another few minutes for his opponent to enter the stage. Umber was quite the intimidating guy himself, just his eyes were kind of spooky and the pair of Wolf ears adorning his head didn't much help things. Jaune was used to Faunus, but Umber just looked and felt so wild and uncontrollable that it was kind of terror inducing. Sure, he wasn't too tall, but his sun-kissed skin and dark brown hair along with the fur coat and armored greaves made him look like he was already a pretty capable guy.

"Alright you two, start any time now." Qrow's voice rang out, yet Jaune wasn't in much of a rush to start moving just yet. Neither was Umber by the looks of things, who just stood there and observed Jaune calmly. Intensely.

"God, I feel like a cornered rabbit or something. Get it together Jaune, you can do this!" He'd have been lying if Jaune didn't say he was less than confident in his own abilities, but he had to try, didn't he? He shifted, catching his scythe in his right hand so he was clutching the handle in both hands, the shaft crossed over his chest. "Alright Jaune, think! Watch him! He's not got a weapon with him, but he looks confident. I don't see any weaknesses. I've just got to catch him with this. I've got the reach advantage and it can't be very difficult, right? It's a scythe, I just swing it and hit things!"

He took a step forward, intent on testing how Umber would react, only for the boy to settle into a low crouch and sprint at him. In shock, all Jaune could do was step backwards and shift into a more defensive stance, glaring forward at his opponent.

Umber shifted even lower as he reached Jaune, placing a hand on the floor and sweeping out with his right leg to take Jaune's feet from under him, forcing Jaune to hop backwards to avoid it. Undeterred, Umber pushed forward with his hand, lifting himself off of the floor and swinging his other leg up at Jaune's face, Jaune ducking backwards to dodge, before Umber swung the leg down and slammed his heel into Jaune's chest.

With a grunt, Jaune pushed forwards and clumsily swung his scythe at his opponent, who twisted to avoid the slow swing and lashed out with another kick mid-twist, nailing Jaune in the gut and throwing him across the stage, landing with a loud thump.

With a cough, Jaune clambered to his feet, watching his opponent sway in a non-existent breeze, glaring in both annoyance and confusion. And pain. Lots of pain.

"I stand corrected. This thing is difficult as hell to swing and I have no clue how much that damaged my aura." He coughed, holding the scythe with the head out to his side, ready to swing it horizontally. "He kicks a lot and they really hurt, but why is he swaying? He sways more and more each time."

This time, Jaune was the one to push forward, charging at Umber and swinging the scythe horizontally, almost like a farmer cutting through wheat. Of course, Jaune was no farmer and Umber was not wheat, sliding under the swing and grabbing the long handle of the scythe, using it to swing himself upwards and slam his knee into Jaune's chin. Jaune stumbled backwards, or at least he tried to, but Umber didn't give him the chance. Keeping a hold of Jaune's scythe, the boy span, slamming his heel into the side of Jaune's head before reversing his spin and slamming his knee into Jaune's shoulder, causing him to let go of the scythe with that hand. From there, it was easy to wrestle the weapon from the still disoriented Arc's grip and toss it across the stage, away from its wielder, who was summarily sent backwards with a straight kick to the sternum.

Jaune's back flared with even more pain as it slammed into the back of the stage, pressed against the wall. Damn, now he really was a cornered rabbit and he'd even been de-clawed. What was he supposed to do without a weapon? How much Aura did he have? He span, eyes wide as he narrowly avoided the wolf Faunus' foot, which slammed into the wall next to him, causing slight cracks to appear. Thinking he was out of the way for a moment, Jaune was almost able to think about moving before Umber pushed off of the wall with his foot, spinning and slamming his free foot into the side of Jaune's ribs, knocking him to the right and sending him stumbling, though he managed to stay on his feet.

"Damn it! How am I going to win this? I can't go for that scythe, it was just dead weight anyway!" He really did feel like he was out of options. He'd picked the wrong weapon, just because a scythe looked cool and he felt awesome holding it. A sword or a dagger would have been better! How was he going to win without a weapon? Who could beat this guy without…. a…. weapon….

Yang!

That was it! He just had to mimic how she'd fought against Vester! It would be easy, he'd been watching that fight carefully after all! Plus, he could improve upon her performance by implementing Qrow's advice! It was perfect!

He rose his fists into an amateur boxer's stance, bouncing in place as he waited for Umber to approach him. This was it! It was time for Jaune Arc's comeback! He let his opponent get close, wanting to be ready for the exchange this time. He wouldn't have time to observe and react if he was also charging forwards.

"Okay Jaune, you know he likes to build up momentum for each strike and throw his whole weight into every attack if he can. Which direction will give him the most momentum?" He watched as closely as he could, fully aware that he had to commit to a plan soon or it'd be too late. The guy was closing in, swaying even as he ran. At this rate, he'd be at the peak of a sway when he was about to attack. "The right. It's coming from the right!"

This would be it, all or nothing. Jaune watched, teeth grit and eyes steeled with determination as he took a step forward as Umber reached him, the wolf Faunus falling down backwards and springing off of his outstretched hand, aiming a kick high towards Jaune's face in a move reminiscent of their first exchange, with Jaune repeating his previous act of ducking the kick, only this time he ducked forwards. From there, it was different. He rose, swinging his right fist upwards as he attempted to stand beneath his opponent, slamming his fist into the boy's lower back with a powerful uppercut and pushing, forcing the boy off of the ground and upwards.

From there…. Jaune hadn't really had time to come up with a stage two to his master plan, so all he could really do was wing it. There wasn't much time before Umber hit the floor again, so he had to hit him again. With a wordless yell, he swung his left fist in a wide arc, slamming it into Umber's side just beneath his ribs. Then a hand clamped onto Jaune's wrist and before he could even react, Umber was twisting mid-air and the heel of a boot was getting closer and closer to Jaune's face. In a bid of desperation, Jaune ducked, swinging his arm down in an attempt to slam Umber into the ground, yet he managed to land on his feet.

All of a sudden, there was a pain in the side of Jaune's head and he was falling to the floor, attempting to brace himself with his arms, though his forehead still slammed into the stage as his arms gave out. He was so tired all of a sudden. What happened?

"Jaune's Aura is in the red, so Umber is the winner." Was that Qrow? What did he mean? Had Jaune lost? He turned, seeing Umber with his fist still outstretched, feeling a cold twisting feeling settle in his stomach. He'd been punched. After fighting the entire battle using only his feet, Umber had ended it with a punch. Of all things, a simple blow to the temple had been what finished him?

"Umber, you fought well and were clearly in charge of most of the battle. You did let yourself get confident though. You let yourself rush in when Jaune didn't appear to be able to win, which let him hit you when you should've been able to avoid it." Boy, Qrow was pretty good at analyzing the fights and Jaune was pretty nervous to hear the commentary about his own performance. He knew it hadn't been the best, but he'd tried! That had to count, right!

"Now Jaune, I want you to be honest with me here kid." He was starting off with a question? Well, it wasn't like he could choose not to answer it. "Why'd you choose a scythe when you can't wield one?"

"I thought it looked cool and I felt better holding it. I didn't think it'd be that hard to use and all I'd have to do is swing it." And boy, did he feel ashamed actually admitting his thought process out loud. It sounded way better when it was in his head.

"Right, I thought that was the case. Look kid, you didn't do all that great. You picked a weapon you couldn't use and didn't seem to know how to swing it the right way, but you have one sharp mind there." That was a compliment! An honest to god compliment! Jaune couldn't help but grin. "If all it took was brains to be a huntsman, you'd be pretty good already. We could all watch your mind work and you even managed to, albeit sloppily, adapt what you saw a classmate do and use it against your own opponent."

It felt good being complimented on what he'd managed to do well, even if he was only being complimented on his mental achievements. "But you need to find a weapon and learn how to use it, or learn how to fight properly without one. Just observing your opponent won't win fights for you."

"Sure, thanks Mr. Branwen." Jaune's reply was given accompanied with a goofy smile, before shifting into a confused frown as Umber filled his vision for a moment, a hand outstretched to shake. Pressing his hand into Umber's, Jaune found himself briefly shaking hands with the quiet guy before being handed his temporary scythe back. Now he didn't quite feel as cool holding it as he had before the fight had started.

It didn't take long to put the scythe back and get back into his uniform, closing the door to the side room behind him gently and looking over the observatory. There was a hand, waving over at him, attached to a female body with a full head of blonde hair. Yang? He shrugged, moving over to sit next to her.

"Nice moves out there, copycat." She grinned, slapping a fist against his left shoulder, unusually friendly for somebody that had just had one of their moves copied. Was this how people were? Was copying moves okay? Did the games and films get it all wrong? "Well, I guess they were nice for your standard. Seriously, a scythe? My little sister could have done better than you with that."

"You have a little sister?" Yes, that was the part of the conversation that Jaune had chosen to lock onto right now. It came from having 7 sisters of his own, some older and some younger. Sister stuff just clicked with him, especially after some of the stuff his own family had put him through. His hair was not supposed to be braided damn it!

"Yeah, she's gonna go here too in a couple of years. She could already take on some of the students here, I reckon." Gee, did Yang have some sort of super soldier sister or something? What did they put in the cereal here in Patch if their kids were growing up this strong? "You got any siblings?"

"Seven sisters, actually. Four are older than me."

"Seven!?" She exclaimed at the top of her voice, glaring around as a few heads turned to glare at her. They'd missed Qrow starting up a new match, but it wasn't too interesting anyway. Two people that had selected swords were basically having some sort of honorable duel or something. "Damn, how busy have your parents been? Sounds like a real action-packed house."

"Oh yeah, it's a real thrill sometimes." The sarcasm was downright impossible to miss and Yang swat him on the arm for it, ignoring his chuckling. "But really, I do love 'em a lot. They taught me a whole lot and they're family, y'know?" He grinned, which she returned with a much wider grin of her own. Maybe all he had to do to make friends was copy people? Wasn't imitation the greatest form of flattery?

"Well, they sure as hell didn't teach you how to fight. Who did?" Okay, never mind. Hadn't she been impressed with him a few minutes ago?

"Nobody did. Dad didn't have enough time between work and mom didn't want me to be a huntsman. Didn't want any of the family in this business." Yep, good old mom. Looking out for her family in any way she could, even if it meant almost crushing their dreams. She just wanted her kids to be alive, even if they weren't quite as happy.

"One of the protective ones, huh? I can dig that, I guess. At least it proves she cares." If he'd have been looking properly, Jaune would have seen a particularly reflective look on Yang's face, but instead he was taking some time to watch the fight below. Still two sword users, fencing it out. Yawn. "But yeah, I guess it's kind of impressive for somebody with no combat training to take out a guy like him. He looked like a pretty tricky guy, really put his foot down, you know?"

"Oh god, tell me that's not a thing you do." Jaune groaned, pressing his head into his palms with his elbows rested on his knees. That was just a god-awful thing and he was upset that he'd had to live through it. "Do you do that at home? Does your sister have to put up with that?"

"Hey screw you. I'll have you know that my sister totally loves my jokes!" Yep, she was totally lying and it absolutely showed on her face. Jaune broke out into a chuckle, before wincing at the palm that slapped against his shoulder multiple times. Damn! Even when she was joking around she could still make it hurt!

"Alright, now that exciting match is over, will Nix Schwarz and Sylvia Zoloto get up on stage now?" Qrow's voice stopped Jaune and Yang dead, watching as the guy who'd tried to get under Jaune's skin in the cafeteria climbed to his feet. He hadn't even changed out of his uniform, he'd just thrown his black trench coat on over it.

"Huh, so that guy's up now, huh?" Jaune hummed, watching Nix emerge from his side room with, um. "Yang? Does that guy have two shields?"

"I think so? That's, uh, that's pretty unique?" Yang was in as much disbelief. It'd be easier to understand once they'd made their own weapons, but whilst they were using rentals from Signal? Why two shields? "Think he doesn't like how unequal only one shield makes him look?" It was really the only excuse she could offer and honestly, Jaune was almost considering it as the truth.

"Oh, hey look! Sylvia is coming out now!" True to Jaune's words, Sylvia emerged from her side room, her platinum blonde hair tied in a neat ponytail behind her head. She was wearing a pair of tightly fitted jeans with an armored shirt and was wearing both bracers and shin guards. Clutched in her hands were a pair of daggers, short and curved slightly. "A pair of daggers, huh?" That likely meant she was fast, right?

"Alright you two, begin on you own time!" Qrow drawled, stepping away again. Even as he'd been speaking, Nix had held both shields in front of him and began to charge at Sylvia, who just smirked as she charged at him in turn. She backpedalled once she was in front of him, leaping upwards instead and stepping off of Nix's shields, landing behind him and lashing out across his unguarded back. Instead of stopping, Nix continued charging forwards, out of range of Sylvia. Her attack hadn't done much damage to his Aura, but it hadn't really been the point. She'd been testing how open he was.

"So, you're a bit reckless, huh?" Sylvia spoke, being one of the few people to have actually spoken mid combat. It was a bit of a shock, if Jaune was honest. She didn't look like the type to banter mid fight, but then again looks could be deceiving. "Not very bright if you ask me. You really supposed to be here?"

"Ugh, shut up!" Nix's response was more of an animalistic snarl, almost like he'd regressed back into some sort of primal instinctive rage, charging at Sylvia yet again. Again, she made to jump over him, slashing at his back, only this time he spun with her, connecting a shield with her face rather violently. Jaune had to wince at the drop of her Aura. More than 50% in one blow? She didn't have much of the stuff, did she?

Saying that, she barely flinched, ducking down under a second swing and stabbing upwards, causing him to lower his other shield to block the dagger. Sylvia smirked, sweeping a leg out to trip Nix, who jumped into the air to avoid ending up on his back, only to hastily slam his eyes closed as Sylvia slashed across his face with her free dagger. With his eyes tightly shut, he could do nothing as she slashed a second time across his chest, before his knee raised, slamming into Sylvia's midsection. This time, Sylvia stumbled backwards, before leaping away.

"You know, you're lucky we don't get guns yet. You'd be toast already." It was either a brag or a taunt, but it came from Sylvia either way as she circled around Nix. She already had experience with firearms then? That was pretty cool, Jaune supposed. "I mean, seriously. You're so slow and straightforward." She giggled, before immediately tossing one of her daggers at Nix's face. He scowled, reaching up with a shield to block it, only for a dagger to slam into his gut, held by Sylvia. His Aura dropped to the orange. "You see, dual wielding has its perks. You shouldn't have cove-"

She was cut off, her Aura shattering as Nix's other shield slammed into the back of her head. Looked like she'd expected to beat him with one blow to a weak spot. "You're right, dual wielding does have its perks. So does being tall, not that you'd know." Okay, that was a low blow. So Sylvia was on the short side, what did that matter? "And so does having at least an average amount of Aura. You can barely take any blows. Kinda pathetic, really."

"Enough kid, leave her be." Qrow's voice broke through the insults, drawing all eyes to the teacher. He did not look amused. "You might've won, Nix, but you didn't do all that well. Even Mr. Arc, who used a weapon he had no skill or experience with, managed to fight more impressively than yourself. You cannot rush at every problem head on."

"Why the hell not? I won, didn't I? That's all that matters!"

"Enough! Go take your seat." Qrow seemed to be done, ignoring the fuming bully as he stalked away angrily, slamming the door to the side room. "Don't worry about the loss, Sylvia. You fight too opportunistically though. You wait for openings or try to create them if there are none, but in doing so you create your own openings. You get tunnel vision. That'll get you killed. Now go on."

When all was said and done, Jaune and Yang were still sat together, watching the final spar of the day wrap up. They'd carried a few conversations and they'd been going pretty well, honestly, he felt like he actually had a friend now.

"So I kept having to get my own tent, because they wouldn't stop braiding my hair." He finished regaling Yang with the tales of his family trips to Shion, frowning at her giggle with a roll of his eyes. "Yeah yeah, the idea of me being in pigtails is hilarious. I bet I rocked them better than you could."

"Yeah, probably. But anyway, you wanna start sparring together? Work on your hand-to-hand? My sister is garbage at it and it's hard to get dad to spar now." He almost dove for cover. She wanted to spar with him? Did she want him to die or something? He thought they'd been getting along until just now! "Hey, don't look so scared! I can hold back, jerk! If you just Yang in there, you'll be fine." The pun did not fill him with much confidence. He sighed.

"Sure, when and where?" Her grin also did not do much to calm his nerves. Why did he agree to this? Was this the sort of sacrifice he was going to have to make for friendship?

"My house, after school. We'll walk together, there's a clearing outside of my home that's perfect for sparring." Well, it was official. He was really going to do this and if it didn't break his body completely, maybe he'd come off better for it?

Right?

So, thanks for reading chapter two of Signal Woes. As you've read by now, hopefully, this chapter dealt primarily with some combat to showcase exactly where our characters are at now, along with some much needed bonding between our two favorite blondes. It also goes to show that whilst this isn't quite the same Jaune we know from canon, he's also not too far off. He's better at applying that intelligent brain we all know he has to more than just barking out orders to his team. If he can think, he can analyze an opponent. If he can analyze an opponent, he can try to counter them. As you can also tell from this chapter, that also doesn't always go well.

This chapter also served as a good medium to properly introduce some OC's that are going to play minor/slightly important roles in the fic, at least for a while. This is kind of a strange spot for me. Usually I'm the type of person that doesn't like it when an OC is important in a fanfiction, but with where and how we've set this fic we've decided that OC's were pretty much necessary. If you're like me and aren't too keen, do be aware that they will be popping up again, though so will the main characters you know and love, so don't worry.

As with last chapter, feel free to review, favorite and all that good stuff if you're liking the fic. It really lets us know that you appreciate what we're writing and creating and is a huge help for motivating me to actually get writing!

Thanks all!

- Culaco & Friend