Arc Life #2: Ready, Set, ...
Beacon-Auditorium
After the ceremony, I looked amongst our group of friends to see who would be willing (no matter how reluctant) to teach me the basics. I would have asked Nora, but she quickly wrangled Ren and ran towards the kitchen so as to make pancakes. Somehow, Nora running away before I could ask felt as though I dodged a bullet.
Ruby had made for a mad dash for the workshop to see what sort of high-end equipment the shop had to maintain her baby. I was half surprised that she hadn't grabbed me to accompany her, but this was Ruby. As nice of a girl she is, she also seemed like the type to instantly forget the world once something grabs her attention.
"Yo, how about a few rounds in the ring, Mr. Adorkable," Yang called out as she managed to wrangle my head in another headlock.
"Sure," I managed to choke out.
How convenient for me. I got a volunteer as my personal tutor without even having to ask. Though, I'm not too entirely sure that Yang being my (unknowing) teacher was exactly a good thing for me. I may survive this and the encounter with the Grimm during Initiation, but something tells me that I would be begging for the sweet release of death. I would be the only living expert on that since I am a guy who has in fact died.
Also, why was Yang so seemingly interested in sparring with me in the first place? I wasn't exactly built in a manner that would suggest that I could fight. I was both awkwardly lanky in certain areas while others were a bit more developed. Nothing exactly consistent.
"Let's see if we can catch a teacher to tell us where the dueling pits ar_"
"Left door. Follow the corridor until there is an opening to the plaza. The door opposite of it has something that looks like a stage to fight on."
"Why do you know that?"
"An upperclassman told me before."
Yeah, Ruby and I got hopelessly lost last time. We had thought that the giant plaza would have been connected to the auditorium, but no such luck. We had then followed the giant red cross attached to one of the rooms right next to the plaza in hopes that the nurse would be able to redirect us, but with no such luck either. Though to be fair, the nurse was probably getting ready for the assembly (even if only Ozpin spoke for like a minute). We had only made it just in time for the speech because we had heard a loud and rapid stream of gunfire across the infirmary. When we found the source to be the door right across the plaza, we found a girl wearing shades and a beret standing in the middle of an arena with a few robotic parts strewn across the ground. She gave us this weird look before kindly pointing us in the right direction.
In any case, that was before. I hadn't met her this time since I had not gotten lost like last time.
"Wait, I thought you met my sister right off the airship? When did you have the time to talk to an upperclassman? Ruby would have said something about that."
"Just because I came here today doesn't mean that I have never been to Beacon before."
"Tour?"
"Why else would I have been here before."
You know, besides in a previous life.
"Fair point. Well, lead on, Mr. Adorkable."
"Are you ever going stop calling me that?"
"Only when something more appropriate or humiliating comes up," Yang said with a chuckle.
"Something tells me that I know which one you are rooting for," I deadpanned as we both began walking towards our destination.
Beacon-Dueling Classroom
After Yang had gotten the ring set up by sweeping out the leftover debris that was carelessly left by the upperclassman, she got in a ready pose with no obvious weapon drawn. But she was a real Huntress in training, which meant that either it was a hidden weapon or she had enough confidence to handily serve me my own ass. Knowing that she was dangerous, I had settled for a stance quickly. She immediately knew something was wrong. At first, she thought I was screwing around, but she quickly realized that I had no clue what I was doing. Not wanting to risk her ire, I quickly folded on my charade and try to explain my situation as best I could in a manner and a few tweaked details so that she wouldn't cave my skull in and hopefully refrain from turning me into the teachers.
"So let me get this straight, you're basically a civvy trying to become a Huntsman?!" the blonde bombshell worriedly asked/yelled as she tried to wrap her mind around what I told her.
"I did have my Aura unlocked," I sheepishly added.
"Yeah, in the last twenty-four hours! What in the hell were you thinking?! How the hell did you get into Beacon?!"
"Maybe the staff saw something in me that was worth ignoring my obvious inexperience?"
There was no way in hell I was going to tell her that I had forged my transcripts. If she was mad already, I didn't want to push her to actually getting more physically angry. For crying out loud, her being worried already has her lilac eyes flashing red. Literally. Not figuratively, but literally turning red out of rage.
"What could possibly be so amazing that zero experience would be okay?!"
"I have large Aura? Because I'm from a family of heroes?"
It was all I got. I couldn't even say that I was strong for my age given that I had set on this path prior to unlocking my Aura, and I have felt the monumental difference between the two states.
"There is no possible way a large reservoir of Aura could compensate for zero experience," Yang muttered with an unamused expression. She then proceeded to mutter to herself, "Knew that there had to be something," as she stalked up to me... to ominously grip my arm.
"Yang, why are you grabbing my arm?" I asked in fear as she may possibly break my body to prevent me from going through Initiation.
"Checking how big your Aura i... Holy Shit!?"
"Pardon?"
"Jaune, you've only had Aura for a day, right?"
"Yang? What's wrong?"
"There's nothing wrong per se, but maybe you're onto something with how large your Aura is."
"Really? I was just spitballing. I didn't realize that the amount I had was that special."
"Jaune, you have more than four times the amount of Aura I have!"
"That's a lot?"
"You really don't know? Of course, you don't know. You are a literal noob. The noobiest of noobs you can be."
I intelligently responded with an, "Uh?"
"Newbie. Right. The basic gist is that Aura is the energy produced from our soul that we use to protect and heal our body, activate Dust and our Semblance, and to empower our attacks. So more Aura means you can fight harder and longer. Bigger is better in this case for the most part."
"So I have an absurd amount for a Hunter? Enough to warrant me getting into Beacon?"
"Kind of, you have an absurd amount for my level. You have an astronomically huge amount for your level. But compared to actual Hunters, you're slightly below average."
"But you just said_"
"The amount of Aura you have at your disposal is always increasing. The amount of Aura you can use naturally only increases with time, and/or taking hits. I have a large amount of Aura because I've had my Aura unlocked for a few years and have taken a lot of beatings in my spars as a part of my fighting style and Semblance. My pool of Aura is very large because I constantly put it through the ringer for years. You naturally have a pool that dwarfs mine upon awakening. If I'm in the top five percent of our age group, you don't even register on our scale. That's how goddamn broken your pool is."
"So you're saying that I should be a shoe-in?" I asked confusedly.
I was pretty much one-shotted by the scorpion. I'm pretty sure I sucked that bad. Were the Grimm really that strong to pierce through that much Aura? How in the hell were Hunters expected to beat off the Grimm? A one hit kill is kind of not something to take lightly.
"Haha, no. You still have no clue how to use it properly, but I can at least see why Beacon might have allowed you to even attempt the Initiation."
"So what am I going to do? I don't think I have enough time to learn how to properly fight to get through Initiation," I nervously questioned.
"You're right, we don't have enough time to get you up to standard," Yang said with a nod.
Did she say we? Does that mean that she was going to help me?
"Please tell me that there's a but in that statement," I pleaded hopefully.
"We're going to cram only the things you need to know to pass this test."
"Like what?"
"How to block, parry, dodge, and counter. Specifically Ursas and Beowolves."
"That sounds like a lot to cover in one night. Will it actually be possible?"
"Kind of too late to have second doubts right now," Yang muttered unamusedly.
"True, so where do I start?"
"Get into your fighting stance again, Newbie," Yang sighed. Before flicking her arms to deploy her weapons from the golden bracelets on her arms. Which turned out to be golden gauntlets covering her fists with some sort of firing mechanism given the ominous looking hole dead center on the metal part behind her fists. Good to know that she hadn't got them out the first time. If she had went guns blazing in the first place, I might have been knocked out instantly.
I quickly brought my sword in front of me and turned my sheath into a shield. As I stood there waiting for the next step. Yang gave me a look over again.
"..."
"That bad?"
"Not for long. Spread out your legs a bit more and line your body behind your shield instead of your sword as best you can. Don't hold it to your side or behind you. You're trying to block incoming attacks that you see. No use having it someplace you can't protect properly."
I quickly shifted my stance to fit what Yang described. Looking at her expectantly with hopes that I did as she asked, I awaited her judgment.
"Getting there, but..." she hummed before gently before gently prodding my body at certain parts to try to get them in the right places.
"Newbie, lift only your heels slightly and tuck your sword arm a little bit closer to your body move your shield further out. Right there. Good," before she quickly pushed my shield hard.
"How does that feel?" Yang asked as she kept circling me to see what else she could do.
"I didn't fall."
Yang just gave me an eye-roll for that.
"I meant if it felt natural. You know, not like anything feels jarring as though you're fighting your own body to move. Sword arm doesn't feel like it's holding anything too heavy?"
"I feel good?"
"Good, means your stance is solid enough to at least endure hits. Not that that will do much against the Grimm, but it's a start."
"So the next step?"
"You're going to learn how to jump away and getting back into stance as quickly as you can," Yang confidently stated before throwing a punch that I quickly blocked by hiding behind my shield.
"Let me rephrase that order. Dodge or I'm going to repeatedly smash your shield until your arms breaks," Yang growled before throwing another punch at a much faster speed.
This time I had enough sense to quickly dodge by hopping back, but my stance returned back to what I had before the lesson.
"Do a dodge roll and get back into your fighting stance. Your life depends on you always being ready to fight. So learn to dodge and get ready dammit!"
This went on for quite some time. As I slowly got better at the drill, I felt as though she kept upping how soon she would go at me. Every swing was initiated sooner with each repetition and each swing progressively became faster and harder. It soon became a game where I had best get into my stance or my ribs be punished by a devastating blow, block said blow and attempt to run before it became a massive beatdown on my arm. After an uncountable number of repetitions, she finally relented her assault. A light sheen of sweat starting to appear on her brow. Her body lightly shifting as she started to catch her breath.
"A hundred and thirty-seven."
"What?"
It might have been just the blood rushing through my system, but I had no idea what the number was about. My arm and ribs ached. My blood was pounding in my ears, and I tried to hold in whatever fluid was in my stomach at the moment. I just did not have the mental focus to even think what Yang was even on about right now. I was doing my level best in trying to stop myself from doing another dodge roll.
"It took you a hundred and thirty-seven tries for you to properly dodge a hundred times. Honestly, I'm damn impressed how quickly you picked up the lesson. You sure you've never had any training or is this just some way to get a private hands-on lesson with me," Yang managed to smirk.
So I screwed up thirty-seven times. I died thirty-seven times. Damn it. That's a terrifying thought. Yang was going easy on me, and I still would have died thirty-seven times over. No matter how impressed Yang might sound, I knew that in reality that my best still wasn't good enough even with her help.
"Jaune, this is practice and your fighting someone with years of experience. Believe it or not, you are actually doing really well. Especially since some of those screws ups were you being taken surprise in the beginning and me going a tad bit overboard at times. Plus I didn't exactly give you time to practice your dodging without the threat of me pummeling you," Yang huffed out.
"Really?" I asked hopefully.
"Did a hell of a lot better than I did my first few times you adorkable idiot. God, you're like a puppy when you look at me like that," she grumbled out as she nervously began scratching her scalp.
"Well, I had a great teacher," I piped up a bit more exuberantly than I hoped I sounded.
"Damn straight, so do you need a break or are you ready to break?" Yang said in a gungho posture over the simple compliment.
"I'm ready for round two," I eagerly yipped.
"I'm going to simulate how a Beowolf will attack you from your shielded side. I want you to use your shield to block my arm and swing your sword to hit my side. During all this, I want you to shift your front foot with your shift as you are redirecting my arm. Got it?"
"Yes?"
"Say it with confidence, Newbie!"
"Yes, Coach!"
"Good, now get ready."
As soon as I got in position, I saw her come swinging at me and I immediately tried to put into motion the movement.
"Too early, you have to time it right! You want the shield to bash where my wrist is. Try again!"
Yang quickly repositioned her arm and swung again. This time, I timed it right, but as I try to turn my body, I toppled over.
"Pivot your back foot. Gives you stability and more power. Again!"
I immediately hopped into my stance as I saw the fist descending already. I quickly parried the arm with shield and swung my blade and smashed it into Yang's side.
"Shit, Jaune! That hurt! Use the flat side!"
"Sorry!" I said horrified. I had hit Yang pretty hard. If she wasn't a Huntress I could have cut her in half with that move.
"Don't! It's okay, Jaune. It's good that your first instinct is to use the blade. Just this is practice, and I can't exactly help you if I have no Aura left. I can handle the flat just fine, but the bladed part is going to drain me pretty quickly. Especially if you go that hard through the whole drill," Yang quickly said.
"But I hurt you!"
"And I'm damn proud you got it right on your third try! I should have been more clear in my instructions. This is training, better to get hurt in the ring then killed out there."
"But_"
"No buts! Now! Again!"
Instinctually, I braced myself to repeat the procedure and successfully countered.
"Again!"
I parried and swung.
"Again!"
I parried and swung.
"Again!"
I parried and swung.
I parried and swung.
I parried and swung.
We repeated this drill again and again in silence. The vocal calls becoming silent as I had to only prepare with visuals cues of the impending attacks. With each and every attempt becoming more refined as I spent less energy in wasted movement in an attempt to keep fighting as my energy started dipping and as my body started aching once more as the muscles that I had not used before began to ache from the repetition. Soon my blade began to swing naturally as though I wasn't hefting a tool, but rather swinging a mere extension into my target.
At one point, I held steady as I saw her arm linger in the air. Never coming down. My eyes focused on it, waiting for it to drop.
"Good, so your not just going through the motions," Yang panted. Her face red from all the blood flowing through her body. Traces of exhaustion starting to make itself apparent.
"How did I do this time, Coach?" I joked as I tried to catch my breath before collapsing on the ground as my muscles finally gave.
"A hundred and twenty-four," Yang said with a beautiful smile.
"That so?"
"Who knows, maybe you'll be a hundred for a hundred by the end of today."
"Not exactly the greatest fighter here," I said as I finally caught my breath and steadily brought my body up despite how sore I felt at the moment.
"Wait a second there buddy! No need to get up until your ready. You have got to pace yourself there."
"You sure it's me you should worry about or yourself. You seem to be panting harder than I am at the moment," I cheekily stated as I finally managed to right myself up.
"Seriously, Jaune. Pace yourself. This isn't exactly easy on your body since you're actually being wailed on. No need to try to impress me. Plus we can't have your body... breaking...?"
"Yang?"
"Jaune, how does your body feel right now?"
"My body? Tired, sore, and..." I started without questioning as I knew Yang was looking out for me. But as I was assessing myself, I noticed that despite my exhaustion and the amount of exercise I was going through my body was rapidly feeling better. Yeah, I was still exhausted, but the aches and pains were rapidly disappearing. Looking at my body, I saw the slightest glimmer sparking on and off.
"I feel good, but exhausted... no just a bit out of breath?"
"Let me check your Aura for now."
I extended my arm so that she could get a good grasp.
"You have about three-fourths of your Aura left and it's steadily decreasing. Guess your body is desperately trying to compensate its lack of conditioning by using your Aura to heal itself. Yeah, not going to lie. You're going to be a monster of a Hunter by the time you leave Beacon," Yang whistled as she appraised my condition.
"I guess Ozpin and the staff weren't wrong about me then."
"Surprised that you were allowed to be a newbie for so long if your Aura was this responsive. This must be something hereditary. It's too absurdly broken to be anything other than luck on top of your lineage. Honestly, if you had been trained like the rest of us or at least like how I'm training you... Well, you definitely going to make waves at this pace. Wonder when your growth will slow down."
"So, what now?"
"Well considering you still have a lot left in you, we're going to keep going until your either learned everything for tomorrow or until I turn you into a smear on the ground after grinding all of the techniques into your body. So, Newbie! Brace yourself!" Yang stated as she got into another stance to attack me with and another lesson on her lips.
"Round three?"
Beacon-Cafeteria
Five hours of nonstop training. Yang and I couldn't even stand under our own volition anymore. We both had to half carry each other as we limped and hobbled our way to the cafeteria. Somewhere near the end of our training session, Yang's Aura finally dropped to the red zone. Almost none of that Aura lost was used to heal her body, unlike mine (a given since my Aura was also trying to make my body into one of a Huntsman due to the liberal training on my lacking body). My Aura dipped well into the red zone, not that it really meant anything to me given that the zones were determined by percentages rather than raw amount. Just meant that me running low was enough to keep others going for quite a bit.
Though my Aura suspiciously stopped healing my body as quickly and my attacks became much weaker the moment it dipped in the red. It seemed to be the same for Yang, at least in terms of how hard she could hit and how quickly she could do so. Perhaps the benefits of Aura was limited by the general amount and need. I had much more left compared to Yang, but I still was in just as bad of a shape as Yang. Does that also mean that my rate of recovery would suffer? Would Yang jump up more quickly since she could get more Aura back in terms of percents despite my massive Aura pool giving me the edge in terms of the start of a fight? So much of my Aura had been dedicated to preventing my body from giving out and it was still like this.
"Yang?"
"Yeah, Newbie?"
"Never again," I groaned as we finally collapsed on a table to wait for Ruby and the others to grab us a light dinner for Yang and a loaded meal for me after we had messaged them.
"Suck it up, Newbie. I've enlisted the others' help for the next part of your training," she said with a smile despite how exhausted she was.
"There's more!" I nearly cried.
"Last part. Trust me."
"I can barely move."
"Tough shit, last part is going to involve a lot of movement... well, either that or a lot of pain."
"Are we going to be able to fight during Initiation at this rate?"
"Me? A good night's rest is all I need. You and your monster Aura will be fine. You might not be fighting with all of your Aura, but you'll definitely survive long enough to pass Initiation if you finish the last part of your training."
"... Thank you, Yang. Truly. You don't know how much you training me means to me."
"Hey don't go getting soft on me now. Thank me after you pass."
"Yeah, after we pass," I said with confidence.
"So have you thought about who you wanted as your partner here at Beacon," Yang asked to simply keep the conversation going.
That's right. Partners were an integral part of being a Hunter. Hadn't really thought about it since I was desperately getting ready for my second Initiation. Wonder how Pyrrha is doing right now. I haven't seen her at all this time, but then again, even when I was exploring in my first life, I only met her right before our test. I doubt we were going to be partners again since the method of matching just seemed too random. The only reason we had gotten partnered in the first place was that Pyrrha saved my ass from becoming a smear on the ground. There was no guarantee that that was going to happen a second time.
"Definitely not Weiss," I said with a light chuckle.
"Oh yeah! I feel sorry for the poor unfortunate soul that gets partnered with Ice Queen."
"Can you imagine if she got partnered with either Ruby or me?" I cringed as I tried to imagine how that would have turned out.
"Yeah, what do you think her deal is?"
"Not really interested. Do you really need to know someone's deal if they're trying to make your life miserable?"
"Very true. Guess that's like trying to ask why someone is trying to stab you. Doesn't really matter since I'd rather not get stab_"
"Mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is occupied," a familiar voice chimed in politely despite interrupting the conversation.
Looking up, I saw my first partner with a tray in her arms with a slightly nervous look on her face.
"Sure," I automatically responded as I pathetically tried to flop myself a bit closer to Yang to make room.
"Are you okay?"
"He's just playing a bit of catchup. He'll be fine after some food, or else. Right, Newbie?" Yang said as she threw a punch into her other hand. What was supposed to come off as something inspirational or threatening just came off as a sad unenergetic flop.
"Newbie?"
"Name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies like it."
I give up. I suck at introducing myself.
"Seriously, Newbie? You still have the energy to flirt with a lame line like that again?" Yang groaned.
"I'd like to note that it's because I'm so exhausted that I said that," I said more into the table than to anyone in particular.
"My name's Pyrrha," the redhead chuckled at our antics.
"I know. I'm wearing your hoodie."
This lead to an uncomfortable pause in the conversation. Pyrrha was blushing up a storm but briefly scanned my hoodie as though she was trying to pinpoint what I had meant by that. Yang, for the briefest moment, could only give me an incredulous stare as though she could not believe what she just heard. What was so weird about what I just said? The hoodie I was wearing was...
Oh...
The realization came like a ton of bricks on my head.
"You have no idea how creepy that sounds right now, Newbie," Yang finally managed to spit out as the shock worked itself out of her system.
"Pumpkin Pete's. Fifty box tops."
"You ate fifty of those things?! How_"
"Seven sisters. Not that hard."
"You_"
"Yes. And before you say anything; Bad Yang!"
"I wasn't_ Wait, you said that you were wearing her hoodie right now!? Are you telling me that if we took that armor off right now that_"
"No! It's just the rabbit logo from Pumpkin Pete's!" I yelped over the insinuation.
God, I feel mortified right now.
"Pyrrha, quick! Help me strip him!"
I made the token effort of trying to get away. All it could manage was a light fidget as my body refused to move. Not like Yang was actu_
"Oh my god, Yang. Please have mercy."
"That wasn't me," Yang denied with a hint of awe in her voice as though she couldn't believe what was going on.
"Pyrrha?"
"I'm sorry?"
"You don't sound sorry."
"I was curious," she laughed heartily.
"Oh fine, just give me a sec to get this armor off."
I slowly traced my fingers to where the latches were and began to unbuckle them. An endeavor as my fingers kept fumbling since I couldn't see where they were going.
Yang gave a half-hearted, "Strip! Strip! Strip!"
"Really, Yang? You really have the energy?"
There goes the last latch.
"Oh my god! It's a cute little bunny rabbit!" an exuberant voice called belonging to one Ruby Rose who apparently had just arrived with several plates of food on her tray.
"Yes, Ruby. It's a cute little bunny rabbit. Also, say hi to your fellow redhead," I said quickly to distract the little reaper as I quickly began to grab plates to stuff myself with.
"Hi, I'm Ruby."
"Pyrrha."
"Nora!"
"Nora?" Pyrrha asked after having Nora pop up from behind her.
"Yes!"
"Hello?"
"Hi!"
"That's a lot of pancakes?"
"Don't ask. It's just Nora being Nora. My name's Li Ren by the way."
"Pyrrha."
"So the gang's all here? " I joked.
"Depends. Does your soulnemesis count?"
"Did you really go there?"
"Soulnemesis?"
"Turns out Newbie and Weiss Schnee get along like water and oil. Both were at each other's throats the exact moment they saw each other."
"Oh my, I'm sure that just an exaggeration."
"The sad part is Yang, for once, wasn't putting it mildly. That's pretty much exactly how our first meeting went."
"Better than mine! At least you didn't actually explode!"
"She sounds rather... volatile. Should I avoid her?"
"Uh... probably not the best group around to give you advice about that. We've probably only seen the bad sides of her," I quarter-heartedly attempted to allow Pyrrha to give Weiss a chance. My heart wasn't in it, but I'm sure that if anyone could get along with Weiss, it would be Pyrrha. Just because my experience was soured didn't necessarily mean that Pyrrha couldn't get along with Weiss.
"Newbie, I can't tell if you are being cruel by encouraging poor Pyrrha into meeting your soulnemesis or being overly nice by encouraging poor Pyrrha into meeting your soulnemesis."
"Hey, just because she's my 'soulnemesis' doesn't mean she's everyone else's."
"Who has she not made an enemy of in our little group?"
"...Ren?"
"Sorry, Jaune-Jaune. If she's your soulnemesis then she's my enemy as well. Renny is on my side, therefore, Weiss is his enemy as well."
"Right... Pyrrha, as I said before, we aren't exactly unbiased in our opinion of Weiss. You should go meet her yourself and decide if you want to be her friend or not," I tried one last time for the mere sake of being polite.
"Perhaps I will if the two of us cross paths," Pyrrha diplomatically stated.
I nodded since that was the best I was going to get from the group, and already more effort than I was originally going to give to Weiss.
"So, how was everyone's first day here at Beacon?" Pyrrha broached, likely as a means to see more of our personalities given how she was the newest member of our little group.
"Great! Renny and I spent the whole day together, but you know, not together-together because that would be weird," Nora exclaimed first with Ren merely nodding his head as she hung off of him.
"I got to see the forge here. I can't wait to be able to use everything there to make my baby even better!" Ruby gushed as she affectionately hugged Crescent Rose.
"Newbie and I were getting up close and personal for the last five hours. The guy can just keep going and going at it. A real monster of a man here," Yang supplied with a slap on my back.
"Ow."
"You beat up, Jaune!? Yang! Why?" Ruby asked, not at all misconstruing what Yang had said.
"He actually jumped up at the chance."
"And he's still standing!?" Ruby asked with an extremely surprised look, and a look of respect if the glance I saw her give me was of any indication.
"Standing is a strong word, Ruby. More like hobbled. Besides, what's so impressive with walking out of a spar?" I said with a slump.
"Jaune, Yang is like the best fighter I know! Even fully trained Hunters and Huntresses have difficulty standing on equal ground with her! I've seen her knock out opponents with one good combo! You fighting her for five hours is like... headbutting a train or something."
"Considering we weren't sparring so much as her drilling the basics into my body with her trains that she calls fist, I think that's probably why I survived."
"You took her punches?! As in you willing let her slam her fists into your ribs and other fleshy body parts?! And you're not in the hospital?!"
I would have pointed out that Ruby's description was a bit far-fetched until I remembered that the only reason nothing was broken was that I had enough Aura to just chug along.
"Hey! Give me some credit, Rubes. I was training him. I wasn't using your friend as a glorified punching bag," which was cut off as Ruby gave the blankest stare at Yang that screamed that she was onto Yang's plot.
Yang guiltily added, "Of course, I held back my punches. He even gave me a lot of good wallops back as well," which Yang accentuated with a grimaced expression and subtle gesture towards her ribs as she tenderly rubbed her side.
So she did call me out for a specific reason. Oh god! She was holding back. I suspected, but I still felt inadequate knowing how hard she could hit when she was training me. Had I been the least bit competent, she was entirely willing to kick my ass. But why?! What had I done to warrant such a treatment?
"Wait, and you want us all to help Jaune train! You're going back for more!"
"More like dragged back, but that's the gist of it."
"Is there a reason as to why you seem to wan-need so much training?" Ren asked calmly as a look of sudden comprehension graced his face. He probably some inkling of what my circumstances were given he saw me breakdown before. He likely came to the correct conclusion, but not for why I broke down.
"Kind of a last minute walk on here," I sheepishly supplied.
"Last minute?"
"Only had my Aura unlocked for a day," I simply stated.
"How did_"
"As I said, he's a monster. He is the definition of quantity over quality when it comes to his Aura. He has a ridiculous amount of Aura and it seems that a lot of things with it come quickly to instinctively for him. Not that he really knows how to use it properly given a lot of the excess just bleeds off, but it does come to work with his movements rather than against. Plus it seems to try to heal him as quickly as possible, though that might just be because he has so much of it and his lack of conscious control has it leeching into everything he does naturally."
"So he's actually a 'newbie'? A civilian? Not just some nickname?" Pyrrha questioned with a hint of worry as it dawned on her that I was as inexperienced as physically possible. By all rights, I would (did) die tomorrow due to my naivety.
"Yep! Can't beat another student any time soon, but will definitely be good enough to take on an army of Grimm after tonight! I mean, who needs finesse against the Grimm when you can just go swish-swish stab-stab at the moment it can't dodge."
"But how? It takes years of honing one's senses and forms to even have the basics mastered to a usable level."
"Not if you effectively bash the forms into their body. Especially one that can get right back up and ask for more," Yang smirked as she deployed both her gauntlets.
"Yeah, a really memorable lesson if painful," I grimaced as I recalled the few times my guard wasn't up to snuff. Never again if I can help it.
"Oh don't be like that, Newbie. You actually picked up on the forms really well. You managed to succeed like eighty-five percent of the time."
"How many times did he screw up?"
"Only like a hundred and fifty times out of the thousand-ish repetitions."
"How are you not dead?"
"Aura, Ruby. That's the only explanation I can come up with."
"And he still has enough in the tank for Round Ten after dinner."
"I think I'm going to be sick," I said as a haunted look dawned on my face and my body instinctively curled on itself as the terrifying of the prospect of our after dinner workout became more and more of a foregone conclusion.
"But why do you need all of us to help? Wouldn't having too many teachers at once be a detriment to his ability to learn?" Ren the ever observant one asked.
"It's not so much as teaching I need help with so much as it is getting him used to fighting a large number of Grimm back to back. I taught him the basics, but I can't exactly make him accustomed to fighting a small horde if I come at him by myself. I just need a bunch of people to bum rush him with a specific attack so that he can get used to keeping an eye on his surroundings and getting him to smoothly chain his techniques. If he can do that consistently, he'll last long enough for one of us to find him. And if the worst should come to happen and we can't find him, I'm sure he'll manage to fight and run his way through the Ursas and Beowolves to the finish line."
"Yang, that is the most thought out plan I have ever heard come out from you. Who are you and what have you done with my sister?"
"Come on sis_"
"Yang, you went looking for information and that somehow led up to you blowing up a club last week," Ruby deadpanned.
"Name another_"
"You set one on fire that last time you planned a girl's night out."
Looking at Yang, I could see her usually confident persona fracture as a blush ran through her face.
"Just to be clear, I'm never going clubbing with you."
"Oh shut it, Newbie. You and I are definitely going to go set the town ablaze after Initiation."
"I'd rather not become a wanted pyromaniac like you, thank you very much. Take Pyrrha with you, I'm sure she would love to go on a girl's night out with you."
"How about it, Champ? Interested in ditching these dorks for a night of debauchery?"
"That sounds quite grand," Pyrrha earnestly stated.
Huh, I did not expect that considering how polite and quiet she is. Can't judge a book by its cover I guess. Note to self, take Pyrrha out to a club at some point. Maybe I can show her some of my dance moves.
"Oh my! It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Nikos!"
"And that's my cue to go," I said as I quickly got up, picked up my armor and departed for the door. The dinner and time spent talking being more than enough for my body to recover enough. I was not going to interact with Weiss at all if possible. If she managed to make friends with Pyrhha, then good on her. But that certainly was going to be impossible if Ruby, Yang, Nora and I were there. Too many factors to blow up, and I really rather not get in the way of any honest attempt of friendship. Even if Weiss couldn't appreciate my gesture with her very quiet, "Rude."
"You know you might have swayed Pyrrha's opinion of the girl, right," Ren asked as he quickly caught up to me.
"Would it be any worse if Pyrrha saw us try to rip into each other?"
"I suppose not, but you could have left with a tad bit more tact. If you were trying to give a Weiss a chance, you didn't exactly give her a good opportunity to impress Pyrrha."
"Yeah, there was probably a better way. I just... I guess dealing with her just started bringing out an ugly side of me," I replied guiltily.
"It happens. Sometimes some people just bring out the worst in us. At least you were well-meaning enough in your intentions to leave," Ren said as he patted my shoulder.
"I suppose. But I still feel kind of bad for putting her in a bad position despite how she treats me."
"Then simply be better. If you feel bad then make the conscious decision to be better."
"You have an answer for just about everything, don't you Ren?"
"Not everything. Just the ones that matter."
"Thanks."
"No problem. So ready for some training?"
Ren flicked his sleeves, which shot out two green weapons that he held quite ominously as he looked at me.
I could only whimper, which earned a laugh.
Beacon-Main Hall
"My everything hurts."
I was lying face down on my sleeping bag. I couldn't move and hadn't bothered to get into my onesie. The last training session was brutal. While I think I did well, the punishment for making a single mistake was pretty devastating (especially when the others would start dogpiling if I faltered). As much as I was thankful that everyone chipped in to help, would it have been that bad for them to hold back? Nora and her Magnhild were no joke. I could barely dodge Ruby's dashes. Yang just got progressively more aggressive with each attack. And Ren just kept popping up out of nowhere.
I'm just so glad that Pyrrha didn't join in. She would have likely wiped me out from the get-go by accident.
Also glad that Weiss didn't even know about the training. She would have likely wiped me out from the get-go on purpose.
"You'll be fine, Newbie. Aura works wonder on the body," Yang gently said as she patted my back.
"Did we overdo it, Yang?"
"Is he still alive, Rubes?"
"Ugh... the pain..." I pathetically groaned.
"Pain means that he's still kicking, therefore we did not overdo it."
"Jaune-Jaune is just fine. A fellow sloth warrior will never go down so easily."
"Kill me..."
"Come on give me a sloth warcry!"
"Boop..."
"You can do better than that!"
"Boop... mother fucker..." I lifelessly deadpanned.
"That's the spirit!"
"Aren't you going to change into something more comfortable?"
"No."
"Embarrassed about your pj's?" Ruby asked with a less than an innocent glimmer in her eyes.
"No," which prompted Ruby to quickly dive into my bag.
"Oh my god! It's a onesie... and it has rabbit ears!" Ruby hollered as she fished it out of my bag.
"My sister made it, and don't knock it until you try it. It's actually very comfortable," I gave a muffled grumble.
"I'm calling you Mr. Buns from now on!"
"Didn't realize you were staring at_"
"Yang!" Ruby hollered horrified while I groaned in increasing discomfort.
"Quiet! You're causing a ruckus!" a familiar shriek rang out.
"Not you again!" both Ruby and I exclaimed before sleep mercifully swept me from this current nightmare.
Author's Notes:
1) No Blake as of yet since there is no need for the cast to interact with her yet.
2) Aura is also a completely ridiculous thing since allows normal human beings to take on ridiculous attacks, unleash devastating blows and seemingly heals the majority of wounds in the show with only a few notable exceptions. The fact that Jaune is specifically noted to have a large pool is largely swept under the rug since he has been relegated to more of a side character given the nature of the show (especially when he basically is told he's a priest/support rather than a knight).
3) Jaune is a ridiculously quick learner in canon. He essentially became a somewhat competent fighter in the span of 3/4 (1/2 if you remove all the times where he becomes Cardin's lackey or is too stubborn to accept help) of a year when it took every other student years to achieve what he has. He also notably increases in skill when people encourage him (Pyrrha) compared to being berated (Goodwitch). Though this could be more due to an age factor and a smidge of desperation.
4) As for pairings, I make them as I go.
