Pyrrha's POV

I sat in silence, wondering just what had happened to Jaune,

'He was fine this morning, but whatever that substitute professor was saying to him seemed to change him into a whole different person than he was five minutes prior…'

I visibly shuddered as I remembered the dark aura that had surrounded the boy as he spoke in a tone I had never heard before

'Jaune… what is going on with you?'

"Pyrrha! Are you even listening?" Nora accused, annoyed at having been ignored.

"Sorry" I replied "I'm just worried-"

"About vomit-boy?" Yang chided with a sly smile. "You worry too much, he probably just got up on the wrong side of the bed today" She concluded before taking another sip of her apple juice. Ren looked contemplative

"Normally, I would agree, but it's what he was saying that worries me, insulting the higher ups, calling them cowards, did you hear how he fixated on 'village boy'? Sounded almost like he was comparing himself-"

"To who exactly, Ren?" I jumped as I heard the familiar voice, it sounded honestly curious The rest of the table looked up to the newcomer to confirm that he was really-

"Jaune!" I greeted shocked at his sudden arrival. Ren had his eyes fixed on the blonde boy, seemingly analyzing him before he looked away.

"To no one…" He said dismissively. Jaune's eyes narrowed slightlybefore he turned to me.

"Sorry about earlier Pyrrha, I don't know what came over me" He said smiling at me, but this smile didn't warm her heart like all the others, there was a sudden feeling of unease in me as he turned around.

"So what was with you anyway? It was like a black cloud was hanging over you or something" Yang asked as the others waited for his response that he gave without hesitation.

"Oh, I just got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning" He confessed sheepishly, causing her to smile triumphantly at me.

"See? Nothing to worry about, besides I don't really think Jaune has the mental capacity to go all dark and mysterious" The others smiled at this, but Blake seemed irked for some reason.

"What, are you saying that Jaune is stupid?" She asked, setting aside her book, a rare sight, seemingly offended.

"Well he's not exactly the prime candidate for the Beacon honour roll" She chuckled, I was about to step in and defend him when Blake beat me to it, seeming angrier than I have ever seen her.

"You have no idea what he is truly capable of, you ignorant-"

"Blake, please calm down" Jaune interrupted calmly, soothing the cat eared faunus as she nodded calmly. It seemed that the entire cafeteria had heard the outburst as all eyes were fixated on their table; the stares seemed to last hours before Jaune spoke up.

"Uh, sorry everyone, we were practicing a scene for the short play I wrote" he lied with an embarrassed smile. One boy scoffed at him

"You wrote a play?" he jeered, causing several snickers to sound throughout the room. Jaune had to restrain Blake with a stern look before looking like he had forgotten something.

A yell drew my gaze as I saw the jeering boy now covered in his own lunch with team CRDL surrounding him with mischievous smiles, laughing at the boy's misfortune as the snickers were now directed at him. At that moment, I could've sword I saw a small smile grace his lips before his face turned back to his sheepish grin as he took a seat next to me, before biting happily into an apple as conversations began yet again in the previously silent room.

I watched as the cheery boy went back to his usual routine, laughing with his friends even when he was at the butt of the jokes. However, there were small things that she noticed, the way he wouldn't look offended at the insults anymore, just taking them in stride, almost enjoying the mockery.

My eyes went over to Blake, she had continued reading her book, but I saw her constantly looking over to Jaune, taking in every word that left his mouth like an adoring fan.

'Why did she get so worked up over Jaune being mocked like that? She is normally such a calm and collected girl that spoke when necessary, come to think of it, she had left earlier saying she had to get some books from her locker but she returned empty handed after just a minute..'

My eyes then wandered to team CRDL who were sitting around, mocking the other students as usual, but occasionally they would look over, at first she thought the looks were directed at her but upon further inspection, she found that they were directed at the blonde next to her.

'They had gone out of their way to make a fool of the one who insulted Jaune, just what is going on with everyone?!'

One thing she also couldn't help picking up on was his attitude towards a certain icy heiress at the table, he seemed to direct most of the conversation towards her and what was happening in her life that she answered without any problems, probably because she was raised being the centre of attention, but Jaune had usually just hopelessly flirted with her or ended up being her cushion to fall on, but now was different.

He had her attention and seemed to get along unusually well with him as he wasn't constantly calling her 'snow angel' anymore. I couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy when the two seemed to get lost in their own conversations, oblivious to what was happening around them.

"So Weiss, how do you keep up with schoolwork and training? I mean surely the heiress of the Schnee Dust Corporation has a lot of responsibilities." He asked curiously

She smirked at that "Of course I do, but its normally just giving updates on how Myternaster is doing with different Dust sets and sometimes confirming orders of large containers of Dust when they are ordered by the school"

He seemed to perk up at that answer.

"I've got to say, I've always wanted to spar against a Dust operated weapon, do you think we could spar sometime?" She seemed like she was ready to reject the offer but suddenly looked thoughtful.

"I suppose I could practice using the fire cartridge, it didn't really work out last time I used it thanks to someone's poor communication in battle" She indicated to the cookie munching girl to her left who looked up instantly.

"Hey, I'm not the one who set the forest on fire!" She defended before going back to her cookies as Jaune chuckled.

As the bell signalled that they needed to head to the training grounds for the 1v1 matches they had talked about last session, Jaune went out of his way to help wish the other's luck, but I could tell it was mostly directed at Weiss. He sent one last smile at us before departing with Blake following quickly behind.

I turned to see Ren dragging a still babbling Nora along as Ruby, Weiss and Yang followed confused at their teammate's quick exit. I stayed there for a few seconds before shaking off my thoughts as I headed to the portable lockers.

Noir POV

'Damn, I've got to do a better job at playing my old self, Nikos suspects me now as well as Ren. I just have to spar like I did before. Then again, my old self did get better after being trained by her, so I shouldn't lose by that much.'

I grimaced as I picked up the sword and shield my supposed 'grandfather' had used, I hated the thought of using an Arc's weapon but pushed that aside as I headed to the training fields.

As I approached, I found the teams sitting in a set of stands as Yang was sparring against a nervous looking Sky as Goodwitch supervised, I couldn't help but frown at that.

'I chose them for their reputation, but their fighting skill needs serious improvement, in fact, I don't believe I've even seen the members use a weapon besides Cardin.'

I greeted the others as I joined them and sat by Pyrrha.

'I need to remove her suspicions'

"Jaune? Are you okay?" I acted surprised at that before turning on a sympathetic expression.

"I'm sorry Pyrrha, I don't like seeing you worried" I put my hand softly on the side of her face, making her slightly blush.

"I've just got some stuff on my mind right now" I said as I removed my hand and I could've sworn I saw a flicker of disappointment on her face.

"It's okay Jaune, just don't worry me like that okay?" She asked as she smiled at him.

'Got her'

"It's a promise"

As expected, Yang made quick work of the blue haired boy, much to my disappointment.

"Now, would Mr Arc and Mr Ren please come down to the field please?

I made my way downstairs after wishing Ren luck. I got into the defence pose that Nikos had shown me, it was not the one I would've used but it was still rather effective.

As Goodwitch explained the rules, I looked over to my opponent who met my gaze with indifference. I kept my smile but his expression remained unchanged.

'Ren, didn't you ever hear the phrase 'Curiosity killed the Lotus Boy'?'

Before I knew it, Ren had his guns raised and began to fire at me as I raised my sword instinctively, knocking them away. I mentally cursed at that,

'In order to keep up appearance, I'll have to use the shield to defend rather than my sword'

Ren seemed shocked at my swordsmanship before he raised his guns to release another flurry of pink projectiles.

'Quite a one-track battle plan you have there, Lotus Boy' I thought as I charged at him with while avoiding most of the projectiles but deliberately let myself get hit by some of them. As I reached him, I swung like I did during Nikos's lessons, it had some form but I tended to reach too far during lessons, missing the opponent slightly, leaving myself open, so I did the same then.

Ren saw that opportunity and directed his aura into his palms as I let myself get hit with it, sending me flying backwards to the other end of the training field. I looked to the others to see their reactions, they mostly looked slightly sympathetic, but Yang looked unamused.

"Come on vomit-boy! Fight like an Arc!" She shouted, seemingly wanting the match to get interesting.

I had vowed not to let comments like that hinder my act, but that set something off inside of me. 'Fight like an Arc?! Fight like a coward who faces enemy without honour, defiling the name 'hunter' itself?! OK, Yang, you wanted interesting… here I come Lotus Boy…'

I let out a small roar of anger as I engulfed my hand with my aura before swinging my sword, sending the aura in a crescent shape towards the unexpecting boy as he was sent back, his SMGs flying out of his hands as he let out a grunt of pain.

The training field was silent for a few seconds as everyone had wondered the same thing

'Where the HELL did that come from?'

Everyone was shocked as Goodwitch announced that Ren's aura was almost completely depleted, making me the victor. I cursed quietly to myself.

'Well, I'll have to explain that later…'

Ren's POV

I woke up to find myself in a recovery room with my hand seemingly being crushed; I looked over to see Nora asleep by my bedside as she held my hand in a deathgrip with her strength that I wasn't at all surprised at. I had seen her hold her grenade launcher doubling as a massive hammer before.

I chuckled at that before I remembered why I was there in the first place. Jaune had been fighting as usual, up until Yang had shouted out, anyone would assume it was a look of pride as he remembered his heritage, but I saw differently.

'It was as if he was angry just by being called an Arc. Then he released that massive aura attack, Pyrrha wouldn't be able to teach him something that powerful would she?'

I took notice of a vase on the table next to my bed, it had Lotus flowers inside of it.

On it, a label read "Saw these and thought of you J, your buddy, Jaune. P.S I hope you get better soon!"

'Jaune… sooner or later, I will figure you out'