Chapter 1 – And Then There Were Jaune
Two months after starting my new life in Vale were met with obvious boredom. The school was a regular high school. Nothing interesting. Nothing out of the ordinary. No giant robots, no magical cosplay girls, no zombies, no ten girls fawning over me, no mystical swords, no anything. The most interesting part of my schedule was a break time where I could go hang out in the courtyard. It was there that I noticed a beautiful girl with silky red hair. She was always talking to a girl with long brown hair, so I never got the courage to go introduce myself. That was the highlight of my day. Stalking a beautiful girl.
But today was different. The brown-haired girl did not show up to school at all. The red-haired girl was sitting by herself and looked like she was texting someone, probably the brown-haired girl. I wanted to walk over to her and strike up a conversation. Anything to show that I wasn't creepy or harboring sick agendas against her.
I turned back to look at where she was sitting and she was staring directly at me. My heart jumped in my chest. She knew I was watching her now. She got up and walked over to me. She had a determined and strong walk, like if she were a warrior. She finally stopped at where I was sitting. I was aghast to notice that she wore a look of disgust instead of the carefree smile she normally had.
"I know you've been watching Velvet and I for the past few days. It's kind of getting on my nerves." These were words I never would have dreamed to hear from someone like her. "If you want to say something to me, go ahead and say it."
I got nervous because I was put on the spot so suddenly. I gathered what words I could think of and answered her, "I like your hair!"
"What?!" She was even more disgusted at this point. She probably thought I was some pervert.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait! Let me explain! I think it's beautiful!" I recoiled waiting for a slap or a punch in retaliation.
But it never came. She looked at me with shock and slight worry. It wasn't a look I was expecting, but it came as very little surprise.
"You're weird! Please, don't talk to me again." She started backing away. "I'm sorry!" She ran away with a quickly reddening face.
I had to blink a few times just to assess that that really happened. "What's that girl's deal?"
The red-haired girl began to avoid me after our encounter. She wasn't scared or disgusted, she always looked at me and lifted her nose. It was actually kind of arrogant and getting annoying.
The next day, the brown-haired girl returned to school. During the break, the two were talking again, this time the red-haired girl would point over at me every now and then as if saying something negative about me. The brown-haired girl didn't express any disgust, rather she began to walk over to me with the red-haired girl in tow.
"Do I know you?" The brown-haired girl asked in a gentle voice. "You look oddly familiar…"
"I just moved here this year from a different part of the country. I don't think I should look familiar." I was getting nervous. This girl seemed inquisitive. More so than the red-haired girl.
"Hmm…" She put her finger to her chin and seemed lost in thought.
The red-haired girl was intentionally fixated on a squirrel nearby on a tree. Every time I looked up at her, she averted her eyes immediately. Was she looking at me?
"Ah! I think I've got it!" The brown-haired girl exclaimed in glee. The red-haired girl was thrown off and nearly fell over from the sudden outburst. "Aren't you Jaune Arc?"
My heart stopped. She knew. That means she knew my history. "M-maybe. Why? Who wants to know?"
"Hey now! Is that any way to be talking to a girl!" The red-haired girl chided me.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way…er…what's your name?" I didn't even remember her name. The red-haired girl had told me yesterday and I can't remember.
"Oh, how silly of me. I came over here, guns blazing, and didn't even bother to introduce myself!" The brown-haired girl reached out her hand and introduced herself, "my name is Velvet Scarlatina. It's a pleasure to meet you!"
I shook her hand, "it's nice to meet you Velvet. You already know my name is Jaune, so I guess I don't have to do that." I looked over at the red-haired girl who was looking up at the clouds, away from the conversation. Velvet elbowed her and the girl turned back to us. She had obviously been paying attention because she instantly stuck out her hand.
"My name is Pyrrha Nikos. Just because Velvet wants to talk to you doesn't mean we're friends, okay?" I shook her hand.
"Forget her. She's a bit mean sometimes. She doesn't actually mean it, though." Velvet smiled warmly.
"Velvet?! What the hell?! Don't say that!" Pyrrha was reddening in the face. Not from anger, but for some other reason.
"Anyways, I wanted to ask you something, Jaune." Velvet turned the attention back towards me. "You're a person of interest here. You see," she leaned in to whisper, "I know what happened to you."
"You do?" My heart was beating irregularly now.
"Yes. And unless you do something, it's going to happen again." Velvet backed away from me, leaving me in awe of what she said. "Okay! Let's be the best of friends!" She smiled determinedly.
Who is this girl? What does she know? How come she knows more about me than I know? How does she know that the incident will happen again?
These are all questions that I wished I never wanted to have answered.
Velvet Scarlatina, what do you want with me?