The Last Maiden

Chapter 4

Ozpin looked at the young man seated in front of his desk. His straw-colored hair and stature could not be more reminiscent of the Arc lineage. A great line of warriors who had served in every war fought, typically turning the tide of the battle to whatever side they fought for. Anyone who had watched this young man fight would not guess that he had any inheritance of that legendary prowess. However, Ozpin was not just anyone.

"Sir, if I may ask. What happened?" Jaune started up nervously.

"Of course you may ask. As far as I saw, today has been very unusual for Beacon. A student returned from the clinic after a dueling accident, and immediately found himself on our front lines as we were under a terrorist attack. Quite the day for the school, and for you."

Jaune wasn't sure about the word 'accident', but in the grand scheme of things, he had forgotten about Cardin's assault. Especially given what had actually occurred during the battle.

"I meant, more specifically. Like what happened to the White Fang leader's sword? Why did it shatter?"

Ozpin paused, and looked at Jaune with gray eyes that were the only indicator of his age. "Well, to put it simply, you've discerned your semblance. Some are specific to one individual, but the Arc family line has traditionally had one. It is unique but also incredibly dangerous, which is why I asked you to come to my office."

Jaune was confused at how the semblance could be so dangerous, but nonetheless, he listened to what Ozpin had to say.

"Perhaps once a week we should meet here in my office, and I can make sure that you learn your semblance to the full effect. It would be a controlled environment that way. In the meantime, I would encourage you to not use it in duels, if you even are able to call upon it at the moment."

"Why wouldn't I be able to call it, Professor?" Jaune thought about Ruby's and Pyrrha's, both who could use theirs fairly proficiently.

"Well, let me ask you this. How did you activate it this time?"

Jaune actually really didn't know. In the heat of the battle, he saw Pyrrha lose her shield and appear defenseless against two of the White Fang. While he was sure that she could've survived and won, he wanted to do anything he could to protect her. Tossing her his shield just seemed like the right move, and he forgot about his own defenses for the time being.

"I can see that you're struggling to answer. Don't worry, that's how I expected it would be." The Professor said calmly, even with a small smile, "You should be confused. Not all semblances are able to be used whenever you would like. Some require…specific circumstances. The Arc semblance is unique in that it relates very strongly to a characteristic of every Arc I've ever met: selflessness. However, the specifics we will get into next time we meet."

Ozpin nodded at Jaune and turned around toward the floor-to-ceiling windows behind him. Jaune smiled back and started to walk to the elevator.

With all of Vale spread out below him, Ozpin hoped he would be able to handle this task. It was incredibly important.

Jaune made it back to the dorms to see that team RWBY had crowded into the JNPR room alongside the usual inhabitants. Nora had just finished recapping everything that happened, including quite a few sound effects and some minor embellishments. The discussion that followed entailed everything from how awesome the battle sounded to concerns over the boldness of the White Fang. Never before had they dared attack a school. When Jaune joined in the conversation, the topic quickly changed to him.

"So Jaune, what did Ozpin want to talk about?" Ren asked quietly.

"FIRST, how did you break that guy's sword?!" Nora butted in.

"What, he broke someone's sword?" Ruby's eyes grew huge.

"No way! Well, I guess he does have a thick skull." Yang grinned.

"HOLD ON!" Jaune chuckled at the group, "One question at a time, please."

Everyone went silent, and Jaune decided instead to just start from the beginning. He quickly covered what his semblance seemed to do in the battle, and then flowed into the conversation with Ozpin. He noticed that while he was talking to the group, Pyrrha had been having a lot of difficulty making eye contact with him. She also seemed unusually red. He hoped that he hadn't offended her by tossing her his shield, or making it seem like he thought she needed the help.

"So you have regular meetings with Ozpin now? Wow, you must be an especially terrible student." Yang laughed, never letting up with her jokes.

Everyone else laughed at this.

"Alright everyone, we've got some free time tonight so I figured I'd make everyone dinner in a bit. See you all in an hour or so?" Blake shocked the group with her offer, but they all agreed that this sounded like a great deal as long as Blake didn't kill them all with terrible cooking skills.

Pyrrha looked at Jaune. "Hey, want to spar a bit? I figured there's no reason to stop practicing, even though the first duels are already out of the way."

Jaune grinned and the two of them headed to the arena.

Wow, that was a cool move. I wonder if I -, Jaune had to actually pause his thought to duck under Pyrrha's attempt to take off his head. She had just leapt over his raised shield by using it as a bounce pad. She landed nimbly behind him, and Jaune could hear the spear shifting into its rifle form just in time for him to roll out of the way and circle back around. Two bullets rang off of his shield while one grazed his left calf, forcing him to kneel. Jaune let his shield revert into its sheath form and ran at Pyrrha. She swung horizontally, but Jaune rolled under the spear. He swung in a full circle, clashing with Pyrrha's shield. The two locked eyes while keeping the weapons locked, and Pyrrha almost recoiled as she saw Jaune with a full grin. He glanced down, and she did the same. His sheath was in between her feet. As it began to expand back into the shield, she had to adjust her footing to avoid falling, allowing Jaune to force her back and get in a few good hits. The battle was still over moments later as Pyrrha managed to knock the sword out of Jaune's hands, but she had to admit; he was a very clever fighter.

The two stood in the middle of the arena, both panting. Jaune looked over at Pyrrha to see her shaking a bit, and was worried until he realized that she was laughing.

"What? Was I that bad?" Jaune said with a smile.

"No no, nothing like that. You just fought really well, but pulled some really stupid tricks in that duel." Pyrrha said back with a friendly snarl.

"You're just jealous you didn't think of them first. Not my fault I'm a tactical genius." Jaune looked sarcastically haughty, and strode with an exaggerated importance. At this, Pyrrha lost it laughing.

"Hey, Jaune…I, uh, just wanted to…" She was still laughing, but didn't even realize what she was doing when she threw her arms around Jaune. Luckily, they couldn't see each other as they both went dark red. "You risked yourself to help me during the terrorist attack, that was…"

"Don't worry about it," Jaune cut her off, "I'd do it every time."

The two hugged for what felt like forever, but neither was complaining. Pyrrha could've hugged him for years longer, but when they broke apart she found herself struggling to say what she wanted to. Jaune seemed to beat her to speaking, and what he said made her heart leap into her throat.

"I know you probably don't remember, and there's gotta be hundreds of guys who have already asked you so it's cool if you're already busy or something like that. But if you're not, do you still want to go to the dance with me?" Jaune spoke as quickly as he could, and any bystander would've been convinced that he had just become fascinated with his shoes.

Alright, be cool. You know you've been waiting for this, but try not to sound too excited. Guys like when girls play hard-to-get, right? "Yeah, I'd love that!" Pyrrha squeaked out. Well done, Pyrrha. That was terrible.

"Awesome." Jaune had no clue what to say now, and both of them had gone deeper red than before. Fortunately for him, Ren picked this time to come collect the two duelists for dinner.

"Hey you two, I hope you're hungry. Blake just got done cooking…or whatever you would call it. I'm not really sure what she's done yet."

Jaune couldn't help but laugh. Ren had better not start being the joker of the group, it didn't seem like him at all.

Ruby and Yang were awfully excited at dinner. No one dared interrupt as they two of them talked back and forth, often looking over at Ozpin and Goodwitch. Finally, Nora built up the nerve to say something.

"Alright you two, what on earth is going on?"

Ruby looked back at her with huge eyes. "Oh geez Yang, we didn't even tell anyone!"

"Our uncle, Qrow, is coming to Beacon! We overheard Goodwitch and Ozpin talking and apparently he is coming in to see how our first semester went, since its about to end with the dance!" Yang said, looking equally as psyched as Ruby which was unusual.

"What's he like?" Ren asked softly, hoping to keep the volume of the conversation quiet enough to calm the girls down.

"Well, he's pretty amazing. He uses a scythe like I do, he's a really good fighter, and amazingly good at video games too!" Ruby mentioned weapons and fighting first, as was expected. "I'm sure he will have to meet with the professors too, they all know each other and worked together way back."

"I just hope he's a bit more…sober than usual. He does like to drink. A lot." Yang said, with only a hint of somberness in her tone. "It's never really gotten in the way of anything though, thankfully. I just know he used to argue with my…parents…a lot over it."

Jaune and Ruby shared a look at the odd mention of Yang's parents, and Jaune was going to speak up but Ruby gave a quick shake of her head. He would have to talk to Ruby later.

Yang immediately lightened up again though. "Either way, it'll be great to see him again."

Ruby nodded in agreement. "Alright, it's probably time for me to crash. We've got the dance coming up, and I need all the sleep I can get if I'm going to win any dance-offs."

Yang pushed her plate away from her. "I'm not sure if I want to fall asleep just yet, I think Blake's cooking might just kill me. I want to enjoy my last few moments with some video games.

Blake scowled while everyone else laughed as Ruby and Yang stood up to leave, and eventually the rest of the two teams followed suit.