The beach was warm, the fiery golden sun and clear blue waves beautiful, and the scantily clad women were a'plenty. Jaune felt right at home in his lawn chair with his succulent coconut and vodka smoothie, petting his sleepy crocodile. A white horse in gleaming silver armor waited like cold stone in the distance behind Jaune, dark storm clouds looming just behind it. Jaune made a special effort to ignore the horse, not that it was that hard, seeing as how a supermodel was approaching him with an eye catching sway to her hips.
"Jaune" she whispered as she put a finger to his lips. It felt real. The authenticity of the feeling however brought senses to Jaune, much to his chagrin, and he quickly realized that everything else was just a dream.
His eyes opened, not that any of the patterns of light that struck them made any sense in the first couple of moments. Jaune thought hard to respond to the woman saying his name, barely managing to let out enough air to mutter "did we... did we remember to feed the snakes?"
"Jaune," she whispered again softly, this time cupping her hand around his cheek and tilting his head towards her.
"Oh," he whispered. Jaune made sense of what he was looking at, or rather whom. Pyrrha was waking him up dressed in her gray night robe, the room was lit sufficiently with morning sunlight, and Jaune wasn't on a beach; he was in his dorm bed.
She put her other finger to her own lips, gesturing him to remain silent, and nodded her head to somewhere out of his view. He rolled the long way around under his sheets to see what she was referring to, and stared for several seconds to figure out what he was looking at. He knew he was looking at people, then he realized he knew them, from somewhere, then his full conscience came to bring clarity to all. What he was looking at was Ren and Nora sleeping at and on the room's main desk. Nora was on the desk and leaning against the wall, her head tilted so that her chin was tucked into her shoulder, and her legs were propped against the burrow lined against the perpendicular wall. Ren was hunched over in his seat just beside her, his head in his arms over his new Storm Flower blue-prints.
Jaune looked to Pyrrha, she being the one who wanted him to see this scene. He met her eyes and she gave him what he thought was the most endearing smile before silently mouthing 'awww'. He smiled back in agreement.
Having changed into his school uniform, a similarly dressed Pyrrha handed Jaune the guitar she got him the year previous, of which he struck a pose with on the closest bed to the desk, Ren's, and waited for his partner in crime to finish capturing the moment with a picture. He didn't see what the picture turned out like, but she indicated for him to go ahead, and so he did.
His calloused finger tips tickled the metal chords, and from the hallowed wood emanated an acoustic euphony, the classic Morning Song that many a culture had taken to associating with the rising sun and peace with the world. Nora was the first to react.
She blinked repeatedly before standing up and yawning, taking a minute to act like a regular person fresh from waking up before going to her base state of hyper activeness, Ren soon following.
Once everyone was fully dressed and ready, they sat on their beds to listen to Jaune's first speech of the year, something they decided was going to be a thing since yesterday. He stood by the door and rubbed his brow in slight lethargy, this being one of the few times he wasn't the first awake with plenty of time to adjust, and spoke plainly. "So, as second years, we all start a new zero-period class devoted to aura studies, and it is the only class we'll share with our entire grade this year. That's alot now that I think about it. And uh... oh yeah, Glynda teaches it." They clapped half sincerely and half teasingly.
"A marvelous speech from our fearless leader" joked Pyrrha. Jaune did a bow with a royal and thespian arm wave.
"Ready to go?" Jaune asked as he rose.
Ren checked his scroll for the time. "Couldn't hurt to leave now."
Outside their dorm they could hear their neighbor's leaving, prompting Jaune to open the door and lead his team out to meet a cheery team RWBY. To their mild surprise, Yang was at the back of the party with a blindfold and earmuffs, something they felt compelled to ask about.
"What's she trying to do? Transcend senses?" Jaune quipped.
Weiss answered "No, she's trying to-" interrupting herself to tell Jaune "shut up" continuing, "-she heard that there's this thing where you can use a seventh sense using aura. At least, that's what Coco said, and me and Blake are betting 20 lien that she's screwing with us. Coco told Yang that if you train without sight or hearing that you could invoke it."
Pyrrha looked to the side confused for a moment. "But we already use aura as a sense..."
Weiss defended herself saying "well yeah, kinda! To a degree, sensing danger and whatnot, sure, but she meant sensing like, specific attacks and stuff, like Fox." Her arms were folded of course by the time she finished.
"I thought that was his semblance," Ren said, "not a acquired skill."
"She said for Fox it was both, I don't know..." Blake chimed.
They laughed as Yang walked clumsily into a doorframe. They also laughed when she slipped on the wet marble floors of the hallways closer to the meeting hall, or rather the arena they were heading for. Not being able to hear or see had the predictable effect on Yang where she didn't make any sound herself or talk, so her reactions weren't as great as they maybe had hoped, but the scared face she made when she found herself parallel to the ground and in the air was good enough.
"You all know me, so I don't see a reason for an introduction." Glynda tapped her scroll rapidly, inputting the attendance for the entire second year class as she looked around the filled seats of the bleachers from her center stage position in the exact middle of the room. Yawns plagued the air, eye rubs too, but no chatter. The huntsmen and huntresses in training were curious to what Glynda would start them off with their first class in learning more about the elusive aura they used everyday to fight for their lives. They figured it had something to do with the aged equipment set around the arena floor, metal contraptions with seats and what looked like a clamp to put one's arm through, but few recognized what the sets were exactly.
"Bets are that today they kill off the weaker ones!" Nora excitedly suggested, rubbing her hands together like some sort of evil villain. Her friends disregarded her comment, but not far behind her a group of students with little confidence started to sweat in fear.
Their professor finished her busy work finally and lowered her scroll in her usual way, signifying she was about to talk. They sat in apt attention. "As you are all aware, this is Aura Class. In this class, we, and by we I mean you, will explore and comprehend the individual limits, capabilities, and known mechanics of your auras. We will-" she sighed, "yes, Ruby?"
Having raised her hand, Ruby didn't waste time to ask "why didn't we do this class first year?"
Glynda gave a small shrug as if to approve of the question as passable, answering confidently, "in your first year, we make sure you're able to perform with the skills you brought with you, and push you to improve upon the most obvious flaws you may have, and to make sure you really are ready for more rigorous training. In your second year, we figure you're ready to commit, so we start working on finer subjects, such as pushing the limits on your aura and semblance. Third year gets even harder and more esoteric." The students murmured among each other satisfied with their given answer, and decided unanimously to let her continue.
Goodwitch smiled. "First lesson and important detail before we start with our task for the rest of the week, and something probably few of you know..." Yang chuckled lightly, surprised to find Glynda was one to enjoy blowing people's minds from what she could read on her face and from her tone. "Also as a warning, you will be hearing the word 'aura' frequently in this class often, so I don't want to hear any complaining. First lesson; the body is like a battery, but the capacity of each individual regarding their own aura is determined by a myriad of factors. Size, will power, physical energy and hunger, common mental state, and so on. Aura levels are indirectly tied to physical energy, so starving oneself will lower it, along with fatigue and exhaustion, but the relationship doesn't work quite the same backwards. Between physical energy and aura, if your physical energy drops, aura drops, especially if you let your moral and mental state drop, as those let slip more physical stamina and strength too, but if you get hit and your aura drops, you still keep your physical stamina. Basically, you will always have proportionally less aura than stamina. This explains why more skilled and confident fighters can take more abuse is because they have more aura because their bodies give a larger lease on storing the life-force we call aura. In short, your body will jack up the amount of aura storage it has the more you forget your own mortality and the physical ability to contain it. Veterans whom have never lost a fight are nearly indestructible in this manner as they no longer believe they can lose or die and have learned how to minimize wasted energy, and a veteran who has a reason to fight will only get more adrenaline pumping and more stamina or a second wind."
"Wow. That explains-" someone started before Glynda continued.
"Thats the stored part of aura in relation to the body. That's what you use to absorb direct hits. By the way, the amount of aura lost when defending against attacks to the body lessens when the part hit is protected, even if aura is spent strengthening everything wielded by the owner. Otherwise using melee weapons and shields would be ridiculous, and case in point, our very own Jaune Arc here I have seen personally take a much heavier beating thanks to his armor. Aura will protect you, but armor protects your aura, remember that." Jaune avoided making eye contact with the multitude of looks his way. "The other aspect of aura is constant regenerating aura, the aura you use to perform actions with semblances, jump higher, run faster, hit harder, strengthen your equipment, and so on." Anyone who wasn't listening before was now, as the paradox they all had wondered about up till now seemed to have an answer to it. Everyone had always wondered why they or where they got this aura that was spent on aggressive actions that didn't detract from their aura pools, and Glynda had always known apparently.
"For variables again, myriad, different people produce passively different amounts of aura to spend at any given moment on direct action, but only passively produce if they are aware they are going to be needing it. Some of this generated aura can be used to defend, such as when a stiff arm blocks a heavy kick or something similar. If some stored aura is lost, once out of combat and relaxed, the regenerating aura will be used to replenish it." At first Yang thought Glynda turned to look at her when quickly she realized that she was looking at her and Ruby. "Some people also however can either have little control over their aura and it leaks out, or produce so much that it manifests as something relating to the semblance of the owner, case in point, Ms. Rose and Ms. Long, whom exude either fire or rose pedals even if they are performing exhausting maneuvers. I suspect you two inherited it from your father." The two of them blushed as they too like Jaune made themselves smaller in their seats to hide from the jealous looks of their classmates.
"So today and every day till Friday will be spent figuring out your specs, how much aura you hold, how much you produce, and your recovery time. We will do this with the machines you see up here. I need a volunteer."
The room went still. Except Jaune and Nora. Nora was rocking back and forth in pleasant contentedness. Jaune was shimmying down into his seat, hiding from Glynda's gaze. She was feeling a mean streak about herself and decided to choose him. "Jaune Arc, would you care to grace our presence with your volunteered help?" she said, sarcastically.
He gave a sigh.
Down in the arena, Jaune sat in the old seat and pulled up his sleeve and armor, putting his right arm into the iron socket of the wicked looking contraption. Glynda typed into the computer that was built into the configuration, explaining the concept of the machine. "This chair will keep track of your aura levels and record according to the name you put into the database, along with date, time, and speed. This arm contraption will drive a piston repeatedly into the bottom side of your arm and spend your aura until the exact point where it no longer is capable of preventing any physical damage, rendering you totally mortal and normal. We will test each person at least once on each speed setting to get a spread sheet of your limits and the database will produce a number regarding your capacity."
"Why the bottom side of the arm?" Cardin asked out loud, some people agreeing in their curiosity.
"Because if you relax, it is the best spot to test soft skin and your aura's ability to defend it. Flexed muscles, bone, armor, all of it lends it's self to less or inconsistent aura usage, so a constant variable such as soft skin is needed for accurate measurements. After you test yourself in the chair, grab a paper slip and stick it into the automatic hole punch, and the computer will record how many lbs. of force it takes to pierce the aura enhanced paper slip you're holding. Then after at least ten minutes, test yourself again in the machine, and a measurement on your recovery will be recorded too. Final results will be announced Friday." She turned to Jaune and held a finger over a green button in front of the computer. "Since we had to spend time lecturing today, we will all use the fastest setting for draining aura. Expect a pinch. Ready Jaune?"
He looked at the conglomerate of shadowed classmates looking down at him curious to the degree of pain this retro apparatus would inflict for the next four days. "Yeah, I'm ready" he somewhat lied.
"Alright, make sure you relax your arm as much as possible. Here we go."
Jaune thought to himself how much it would hurt, the likely hood of it being excruciating, how he didn't want to be hurt honestly, and was as shocked as everyone else along with Glynda when the small punch made it's first impact on his skin and shattered with a flash of bright light, presumably sparks, and metal chunks of iron clattered on the floor at his feet. The unburdened piston drive ran gleefully as Goodwitch stared at Jaune half mad and half freaked out, confused as to whether she should berate him for breaking the punch or be impressed with... whatever it was that he did.
"None of these have broken for twenty years" Glynda said in disbelief.
Jaune sighed. "...shit."
-End Chapter 3-