Jaune dodged, sending a series of quick slashes at the incoming small white nevermores before he used his semblance to materialize behind Winter, who in turn created a red glyph just behind her while propelling herself forward with a yellow glyph to dodge a swipe from Jaune. Hitting the red glyph Jaune caused it to explode in his face, sending him flying. Turning his body in the air Jaune landed in a crouched position facing Winter. Standing up he slightly leaned forwards, bending his knees slightly further and sheathed his sabre before bolstering his body with aura and effectively put his semblance in overdrive as they stared at each other, Jaune's irides faintly glowing their natural blue colour, anticipating each others next move. It was Winter who broke the staredown, as she created a yellow glyph under herself and a red one under Jaune who used his semblance to move so fast that Winter wouldn't have been able to even perceive if it wasn't for her yellow glyph, even with that She could only catch his after images as he kept circling around her to look for an opening, knowing that once he actually entered the yellow glyph he'd get even faster thanks to the speed boost of the glyph which worked in an area of effect, she broke the glyph and instead replaced it with numerous small black ones circling around her to act as shields. Taking his revolver out Jaune fired at the shields, thrusting his sabre every time one broke and hitting Winter. Hearing his revolver click dry Winter moved her glyphs above and started raining them down on Jaune, who even with his semblance in overdrive couldn't dodge every glyph before she created a small brown glyph and fired a rock towards Jaune which sent him flying, but also granted him a moment to recover. He recovered by rolling into a standing position before using his semblance again, materializing in front of Winter and hitting her with an aura powered slash, but he had to dodge once again as she righted herself in the air and created a large yellow glyph on the ground with many small black glyphs in the air all positioned to circle him before she started jumping from glyph to glyph with a hastened pace as she tried to hit Jaune, who in turn used his semblance to parry and counter attack. Winter broke the status quo by breaking the yellow glyph while circling all of the black glyphs around Jaune, who couldn't get out of the makeshift prison before she created two large red glyphs around him and ignited them, sending Jaune crashing into the arena wall as his aura broke, last thing he felt was his consciousness slipping away.
Waking up, he opened his eyes and noticed that he was lying on a bench with his head on Winter's lap as she was gazing on his face.
"How are you feeling?" Winter asked softly.
Lifting his left arm hand up, Jaune started caressing her face, "Good… did you transfer aura to me?" Jaune asked.
"Yes, sorry about breaking your aura…" Winter said.
"No problem. How was i in the spar?" Jaune asked.
"Not bad. But you would have had a better chance if you used your stamina instead of using more aura to strengthen your semblance, you're already fast enough to dodge most of my glyphs as long as you're aware of them." Winter said with a smile.
"How far did i get your aura down?" Jaune asked.
"Fifty six percent, actually. You've gotten stronger." Winter said.
"Still not strong enough to become a proper Specialist…" Jaune said.
"I didn't become a Specialist First-Class until i was sixteen, which means you still have two whole years. Also i'm strong even by Specialist standards, you're not weak." Winter said.
"Well… your semblance is pretty overpowered." Jaune said with a joking pout.
"Says you." Winter replied with a chuckle, "It's nearly noon, let's get something to eat." She continued.
"Nah… i'm too comfortable to get up." Jaune said.
"Come on Jaune." Winter said with a chuckle, tussling his hair.
"And the lovebirds are at it again…" They heard a deep voice say.
Turning their heads they saw Earl and Ciel walking towards them.
"Hey Earl, Ciel." Jaune and Winter said at the same time before looking at each other.
"That isn't creepy at all…" Ciel said.
"What are you two doing here?" Jaune asked.
"To train, what else? You guys are over your booked time." Earl replied.
"Well then…" Winter said as Jaune got up.
It was about a week ago that he learned there was a bank account opened for him once he became a student and all of his mission rewards were pooling in said account. While it wasn't large enough for him to consider himself rich, at least not in comparison with his family, it would be enough for him to buy a cheap apartment by downtown Vale standards after another year. The first thing he wanted was to buy his own clothes. Now don't get him wrong, he had his own clothes but they were mostly cheap academy uniforms or casual clothes. Many huntsmen had their own styles and custom outfits to express their personality and to be different from each other which is exactly why they were currently in the academy's own tailor and clothing shop, though he chose his outfit not just because he was a Specialist but also because it was originally used by his family's duchy back before the Great War.
Winter looked over Jaune, who was currently modeling for her in a male Specialist uniform with his own custom colour palette, white trousers tucked in knee high black riding boots and fastened with a white belt that had a golden buckle, a white button-up shirt tucked in his trousers under a white undercoat with a dark blue jacket with golden buttons, epaulettes and as well as white lapels, cuffs and collar piped gold on top. The jacket's front only covered his chest rather than his entire front torso and flared out into coat-tails that reached the back of his knees which almost completely covered his backside, the look was finished with white formal gloves. All in all the outfit was almost a complete design rip off of the cavalry uniforms of his family's duchy back at the start of 19th century. Though unlike the cavalry of those days, Jaune didn't let his sabre dangle off his belt but rather fastened it much more firmly as he preferred it that way in combat. Looking in the mirror he liked how the outfit fit him and he thought of himself as looking mature or older and indeed his hunter physique combined with his taller for his age height of 1.77 meters made him look like he was in his late teens, in fact he was the same height as Winter when she wasn't wearing heels. Letting his shoulder length hair loose Jaune started to try a few different styles before deciding on his usual low ponytail which actually fit in with the outfit.
"That outfit fits you, Jaune…" Winter said with a slight red to her cheeks.
"Not going to lie, i actually love the design." Jaune said, thinking of using it as his everyday clothing like Winter does with her uniform.
"Hmm… maybe i should leave for Beacon a year early, buy an apartment in Vale and simply train myself enough to not get rusty… it would be like a vacation. I do still have three years until Beacon." Jaune mused as Winter and him were walking back to their dorm when they both got a message from Ironwood, summoning them to his office for a mission.
Entering his office, both of them gave a salute.
"Sir." Winter and Jaune said at the same time.
"At ease." Ironwood said, "This mission is a bit different than usual. You will be traveling to Vale on board one of our Air Cruisers and use it as as a base during your stay. The task is to deal with an exceptionally large grimm horde moving into one of the designated areas that Kingdom of Vale wants to expand in, you will be supported by both Atlesian troops from an Atlesian base in Vale and Valean huntsmen."
"Where is this area?" Jaune couldn't help but ask, depending on the location there could be a chance to meet with his two oldest sisters, who should have graduated last year.
"South east of Vale, around 1000 kilometers away from the city itself. Anymore questions?" Ironwood asked.
"No, sir." Jaune and Winter replied.
"Dismissed."
They were currently in the docks, boarding the designated Air Cruiser named Helios. It was a large arrow shaped vessel with two large nacelles with three main thrusters each, one under, one larger just on the back of the nacelles and one above as well as struts that extended from the back of the hull carrying directional thrusters. Weirdly enough the bridge, officers quarters as well as the mess hall were placed under the hull while the hull itself extended way beyond the bridge, Jaune could see laser cannons on tracks on the side of the ship, able to move and change directions if need be as well as anti air nests on the bottom and the top of the hull. The crew quarters were above, inside the main hull just next to the main gravity dust generator room which was located on the center of mass while smaller gravity dust generators lined the spine of the ship for balance. The distinguishing feature was the figurehead hanging from the bottom of the bridge, a blonde half naked woman with white angelic wings wearing only a white cloth acting as a short skirt and a halo shining from the back of her head.
"Helios is the sun god from mistrali myth, but he's a she and… an angel? Weird." Jaune thought.
The ship was on the ground, with large landing struts from both under the officers quarters and the parcelles, the boarding ramp was just under the figurehead connected to the middle landing strut. The insides were spacious for a warship, with a main corridor connecting a web of smaller ones as well as a large spiral staircase in the middle connecting the decks. While the ship may have received a figurehead, the insides were pretty much devoid of any decoration, with every object and furniture having a clear purpose. They were currently walking towards the bridge, to meet with the captain.
Inside of the bridge had two floors, the elevated back one and a front with with the main controls. The captain was waiting them.
"Specialist Schnee and her apprentice Arc, i assume?" The captain asked. He was a tan skinned, short brown haired, middle aged man with an average height, muscular build and a mistrali face. The nametag on his uniform read Takagi.
"Yes." Winter replied with a curt nod.
"I'll show you to your rooms, this way." Captain said as they exited the bridge and started walking down the hallway.
Soon they arrived at a smaller corridor with four rooms.
"Both of the rooms on the right side are empty, make yourselves at home." Said captain as he walked away.
"Wait… we'll be in separate rooms?" Jaune asked, disappointed.
"Well the rooms are for one person use…" Winter said.
"Oh? We can work with a single bed…" Jaune replied with a smirk, getting an eye roll but a small smile from Winter.
"Come on now, let's unpack." Winter said, entering her room.
"Boo…" Jaune muttered, entering his own room.
The room was pretty spartan. A single person bed in the right corner, a desk on the other wall with a circular, medium sized window just opposite of the door.
"Huh, no wardrobe or dresser… eh i guess i could just use my suitcase as one." Jaune thought, leaving it at the foot of his bed.
Deciding to play video games a little he sat on his bed, taking out his scroll, he opened an action mmorpg he had recently downloaded named Remnants of the Ragnarök, he had created a thunder mage, but instead of a regular mage that could hurl lightning spells he chose to go a buffer route that could buff his own physical abilities with electricity, inspired by how some huntsmen could use dust to do the same thing if their semblances were compatible in real life. Though since he was new at the game he was still in a low level area, currently in the main city of his chosen kingdom of Celeste -the Light side in the game- named Olympia.
As he was doing story and side quests of talking to npcs and killing mobs in the plains outside of the city he saw a scythe build character struggling with an area boss and decided to try to help.
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : need help?
Red_Reaper : yes please!
Casting his only two buffs on himself he attacked the boss with his a couple active skills, dealing six percent damage before getting a backhanded attack that just removed thirty percent of his health
"Oh fuck come on…" Jaune thought as he tried to spam health potions, attacking further but getting hit again, he was still struggling with dodging as he was used to the classical autotargetting mmos with dodges being tied to the character stats rather than something that was done consciously.
Dodge, attack, dodge, dodge, attack, attack. "Heh, it's easy once you get used to the bosses rhythm." Jaune thought, just before the boss broke its rhythm and bodied Jaune.
"FUCK." Jaune growled, respawning at the cathedral in the city, followed by the character Red_Reaper, she was a cute little thing, dark red hair that reached the characters chin, white eyes and the shortest height possible in the character creation.
Red_Reaper : that… didn't go so well…
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : … wanna try again?
Red_Reaper : maybe after a couple more levels… we're gonna die otherwise.
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : wanna quest together? what quests do you have?
Red_Reaper : sure. invite?
They were currently in the city, accepting whatever quests they both could do and just lolling around in the market and talking
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /p ASL?
Red_Reaper : /p 12! girl! Patch! getting ready to attend Signal… and after that i'm thinking Beacon.
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /p nice! i'm in Atlas, will be traveling to Vale soon. I'm thinking of attending Beacon as well… though i'm 14… so we won't be in the same year. oh and i'm a boy.
Red_Reaper : /p aw… wait you're not in a combat school?
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /p apprentice :p so no.
Red_Reaper : /p i guess i could be counted as my uncle's apprentice… he's the one teaching me how to fight. though he goes on mission and stuffs a lot so can't teach all the time.
Leaving the city gates they started doing their shared quests one by one, thinking of bulk turning them in.
Red_Reaper : /p so… what weapons do you use?
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /p that's a bit personal isn't it? also… that's a peculiar thing to ask someone you've just met.
Red_Reaper : /p oh come on… our weapons are a part of ourselves!
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /p … fine. a type of pre-Great War cavalry sabre and an m1917 revolver.
Red_Reaper : /p ooh… there is nothing wrong with the classics i guess… what are their names?
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /p so what do you use? i haven't named them… still can't think of good names for them.
Red_Reaper : /p you should always name your weapons! i'm currently designing mine… since its my uncle teaching me i'm also going to make a scythe! don't want a shotgun though…
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /p wait… a scythe? you're going to fight with a gardening tool?
Red_Reaper : /p you take that back! :( Harbinger is not a gardening tool!
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /p fine… fine… i'm still not sure how it can be better than a sword.
Red_Reaper : /p it does have a buster sword mode…
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /p you mean big clunky paddle mode? no thanks.
Red_Reaper : /p heretic! buster swords are awesome!
"Uh… fine fine i'll just accept that." Jaune thought.
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /p why not… anyways most of the quests are done.
Jaune heard his door knocking and opened it to see Winter.
"Hey." Jaune said.
"Crew are back and the ship will be leaving soon. Do you want to get dinner?" Winter asked.
"Sure, one minute." Jaune said, giving his attention to his scroll.
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /p gtg dinner… wanna add as a friend?
Red_Reaper : /p aww… sure! we can quest together when you're back. She wrote to the chat as she sent an invite.
Accepting it Jaune logged out of the game and started moving towards the mess hall with Winter.
It was the evening of the second day in the journey and the ship was almost in the Valean airspace. It was not a long journey, a Bullhead would have been able to cross it in around 8 hours but a large warship like Helios took significantly longer.
Jaune was sitting at a table with four other crewmen, who were waiting for their night shifts to start while playing blackjack.
"17… if i get a card i'll likely go over with my luck. Fuck." Jaune thought. "Stay." He said.
18 house, 13 , 15 and 20.
"Give em here boys, haha!" the one with the 20 hand said.
"Fuck you." Jaune said drawling the end as he pushed his bet towards the guy.
"What's going on here?" He heard Winter say behind him.
"Hey Winter." Jaune said, looking at Winter by leaning back with his chair.
"Gambling… really?" Winter said with a raised eyebrow.
"Eh… passing time." Jaune replied as he turned back to the table, placing a fifty lien card on it.
"Come on, there are better ways to pass time." Winter said as she took Jaune's arm and started dragging him towards the exit, someone whisper-shouting "Whipped." and causing Jaune to gesture a middle finger towards the table.
"Wait where are we going?" Jaune asked.
"I asked the captain, there is actually a small gym for the crew to keep in shape during long voyages. You haven't did any workout today, did you?" Winter asked.
Speeding up for a couple seconds Jaune started walking next to Winter as she let his arm go.
"Alright... " Jaune said.
Jaune was standing next to the window, watching as they were slowly nearing city of Vale, the lights of the city painting the sky in an orange glow. The workout was good, but the shower afterwards was a little weird since he had to share it with other people, though luckily shower rooms weren't mixed, or it would have been ever worse.
Hearing a notification he saw that he had gotten a whisper in the game Remnants of the Ragnarök.
Red_Reaper : /w hey
He couldn't help but feel a somber tone from the message.
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /w hey… did something happen?
Red_Reaper : /w how did you… well yeah… we were training with my uncle and he said he had a job to do in Vale. so he won't be teaching me for a while…
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /w oh? is he one of the huntsmen we were assigned? there is a grimm horde moving close to Vale… we're supposed to deal with it and i heard we were going to be working together with Valean huntsmen.
Red_Reaper : /w GRIMM HORDE!? wait is that why you're coming to Vale?
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /w yes… in fact we're almost at the city of Vale… i'm watching it right now.
Red_Reaper : /w really? we'll travel to Vale with my uncle to see him off and go shopping.
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /w hmm… we'll most likely spend 1 or 2 days gathering everything and everyone together before embarking to the mission area… wanna meet?
Red_Reaper : /w meet!? i mean uhh... sure why not… my sister will be there too. she's the same age as you.
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /w tomorrow right? pm me when you arrive in Vale.
Red_Reaper : /w uh… sure! cya!
Sir-Arthur-D-Arc : /w cya.
Closing the game, Jaune went to sleep.
It was the rocking of the ship that woke Jaune up before he heard a couple faint shouts from outside of the ship. Looking outside he saw that it was still fairly early in the morning, half of the sun still below the horizon. Finishing his lavatory routine he donned his cavalry uniform and weapons before moving to the bridge.
Entering the bridge he saw Winter, the captain and someone in a ground forces uniform conversing.
"Morning." Jaune said.
"Morning." Winter replied.
"Who's this?" the new person asked with a look of distaste towards him.
"Could ask you the same thing." Jaune said back, a bit miffed at his attitude.
"Hey, no need for that here." The captain warned them.
"Why are you here, Jaune?" Winter asked.
"Came here to see if there was anything i needed to do, if not i'm thinking of spending some time in the city during the day." Jaune said.
"Hmm… preparations will most likely take us the entire day, and we'll leave the city tomorrow morning. Very well, you have permission to roam the city of Vale until 20:00." Winter said.
"Alright." Jaune said as he exited the room.
Jaune was currently in the naval docks in the commercial district leaning on the railings on one of the piers and listening to music as he waited for the Red_Reaper to arrive, it was the late hours of morning nearing noon and he had directly traveled here after his usual morning workout. It was only an hour ago when he had received a pm from her just as he exited his shower telling him that she was on a boat with her sister, dad and uncle.
Feeling the warm breeze of the Valean summer, he felt like he was at home for the first time in years and started to sing a long in a low voice, his singing lessons that started when he was eight and ended when he ran away giving him some skill.
"It was a wicked and wild wind. Blew down the doors to let me in" Jaune started singing, "Shattered windows and the sound of drums. People couldn't believe what i'd become"
"Revolutionaries wait. For my head on a silver plate", He continued, "Just a puppet on a lonely string. Oh who would ever want to be king?"
"I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing. Roman cavalry choirs are singing." He raised his voice a little, "Be my mirror, my sword and shield. My missionaries in a foreign field", "For some reason i can't explain. I know saint peter won't call my name", "Never an honest word. But that was when i ruled the world". As the verses ended he noticed a couple people staring at him, a blonde man, a blonde girl that looked around his age, a black haired man and one that looked pretty much exactly like the character Red_Reaper. Short Dark red hair turning lighter towards the tips that was only short enough to come to her shoulders, light silver eyes on a face that couldn't decide if it wanted to be cute or beautiful and a short slender figure. She was dressed casually, black skinny jeans tucked into combat boots and a red and black checkered button up t-shirt left untucked.
"Hello.", Jaune said as he faced them, "Are you Red Reaper?" He asked, smiling. The rest of her group looked pretty confused.
"Maybe she didn't tell them? Huh…" Jaune thought.
"Hi… you're Arthur?" She asked, her voice was high pitched a bit timid.
"Well, real name is Jaune Soleil Arc, nice to meet you." Jaune said as he removed the glove on his right hand, he heard a faint "An Arc?" from the blonde man
"Ruby Rose." She said, offering her hand for a handshake, but Jaune took her hand by the fingertips and turned her palm downwards, gently pressing his lips on her knuckles before letting go of her hand.
He looked at the group as he put his glove back on, only to see Ruby's face completely red and her group with wide eyed expressions.
Recovering from her shock first, a blonde, wild haired girl with lilac eyes stepped forward.
"Hi, i'm Yang Xiao Long! Ruby's older sister." She said with a smile and offered her hand for a handshake, this time Jaune simply took it as a normal handshake, he noted that her face structure was similar to one Raven Branwen he met a year ago.
"Hello." Jaune said, applying strength to his grip as she tried to crush his hand and failed miserably.
It was the blonde man with blue eyes that stepped forward next, if it wasn't for his light tanned skin, he could pass for an Arc.
"Taiyang Xiao Long." Tai said as he offered his hand.
Nodding, Jaune took the handshake, just like her daughter Tai also tried to crush Jaune's hand, though he was slightly successful but Jaune tried not to show it on his face.
It was the black haired and wine red eyed man next, Jaune thought the features looked somewhat familiar.
"Qrow Branwen." Qrow said as he too offered his hand.
His eyes widening at the name, Jaune's hand went for his sword. "Branwen!?" He said, "do you have any relation to a certain Raven Branwen?" Jaune asked coldly.
He saw Qrow's expression change to an annoyed one, "What are you going to do? Arrest me?" Qrow asked.
"Might just do that." Jaune stated, taking a combat stance as he pumped his aura, his irides starting to glow faintly.
Qrow's hand went to his weapon, but Tai got in between them. "Okay that's enough. Jaune, Qrow's not wanted nor is he a bandit himself." He said before turning to Qrow, "And you! Try not to add fuel to the fire? Please?" Tai asked angrily.
Eyeing the rest of the group his gaze softened when he saw the sad and worried expression on Ruby's face.
"Fine." Jaune relented with a sigh, turning his aura down and removing his hand from his sword. "I don't think i have the jurisdiction to arrest you anyways, at least not inside the borders of the kingdom of Vale." He continued with a smirk, getting an eye twitch from Qrow.
"So, where did you and Ruby meet?" Yang asked, most likely to change the subject.
"We met in an mmo." Jaune replied.
"Oh, is that why you've been playing that game so much, sis?" Yang teased.
"Yaang…" Ruby whined, "Can i look at your weapons?" She asked as she turned to Jaune.
"Sure." He replied, unsheathing his sabre and giving it to Ruby, who marvelled at the sword as the group started walking eastward towards the Bullhead docks of the naval docks.
"This is the first time i've seen a sabre in real life… looks historical too." Ruby said.
"It is a historical design, just without any engravings on the blade itself and my family crest on the guard." Jaune replied.
"I think i've seen that crest in a history book…" Ruby said.
Jaune chuckled, "Well it is the Arc crest, we're pretty prominent in the history of Vale."
"Oh? Are you a noble or something?" Yang asked.
"Huh… okay not everyone knows i guess. Ever heard of the Duchy of Arcadia?"
"Wait, are you Jonathan's son?" Tai asked.
"You know him?" Jaune asked.
"Yeah, we were assigned to same missions a couple of times, that doesn't explain why you're here though." Tai replied.
"Well… i kinda got into an argument with my parents and ran away?" Jaune said.
"You ran away from your own home!?" Ruby almost shouted, almost.
"Look… there is a story." Jaune said.
"Oh… is it bad?" Ruby asked.
"No actually… it's not bad or evil per se. I may have just been a tiny bit hasty at the time…" Jaune said, a bit ashamed.
"Hasty enough to run away from home?" Yang said.
"Yeah." Jaune replied.
"So your sabre doesn't have a name yet?" Ruby asked.
"As i said, nope." Jaune replied.
"Hmm… i don't want to leave her nameless…" Ruby said.
Jaune looked at Ruby with a sideways glance, her lips were pursed cutely and she had a serious look on her face.
"She's absolutely adorable…" Jaune thought.
"Hey there, eyeing her?" Yang said, though he noticed both anger and teasing in her voice.
"Shut up." Jaune said with a tint of red to his cheeks, getting a laugh from Yang.
As they entered the Bullhead docks, the group, minus Jaune, said their farewells before Qrow boarded a Bullhead bound for the Atlesian base, while Tai said he had something to do in Beacon boarded another Bullhead himself.
"So… you said something about shopping, Ruby?" Jaune said asked.
"Oh yes! We're buying parts for my project." Ruby said.
"Project… wait, your scythe? Have you thought what you wanted it's secondary function to be?" Jaune asked.
"Yeah! Sniper-Scythe!" Ruby said, proudly smiling.
"Sniper-Scythe… alright, not gonna argue about its feasibility." Jaune said, causing Ruby to stick out her tongue.
Normally Jaune didn't like childish people, despite being able to joke around himself he always kept it more mature, even if some were technically immature but those kinds of jokes still couldn't be childish due to their more not safe for work nature, he always found more childish humor annoying, but her? He couldn't help but smile at her childishness. She didn't annoy him at all.
"Oh! A huntsmen shop!" Ruby said, handing Jaune his sabre back and using her semblance to run to the front of the shop.
"Ruby-" Yang was cut off as Jaune also used his semblance after sheathing his sabre to materialize just behind Ruby and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"AH!" Ruby shouted in panic as she turned to him.
"Hey." Jaune said with a wink.
"How did you…" Ruby asked with a smile.
"Speed semblance." Jaune replied.
"Yeah! … wait same semblance?" Ruby asked.
"Well… from what i've seen of your semblance just now, our semblances work quite differently even if they're both speed based." Jaune said, before he turned to the sound of food steps as Yang finally catched up to them.
"Damn speed semblances." Yang mumbled, getting a laugh from Ruby and Jaune.
"So, this is the shop?" Jaune asked.
"Yeah!" Ruby said, pushing the door and entering the shop, prompting the group to follow her.
The inside was somewhat cosy, dust tubes lined the left wall with a large counter held dust crystals on display, the right wall however had both weapons and what seemed like weapon parts as well as books lined up on the counter with titles on them reading various categories of weapons and books about ores, metals and weapon engineering. The counter at the back wall of the shop had a register on it and a floor-standing magazine rack filled with various weapon and huntsmen magazines in front of it as well as a shopkeeper standing behind it, the wall itself had various advertisements and a large television on it.
Jaune saw Ruby take out a notepad and beeline straight to the shopkeeper and decided to follow her.
"I'd like to buy these." Ruby said as she showed the notebook to the shopkeeperer.
"Hmm… yeah, we should have them." The shopkeeper said as he entered the backroom.
"What are those?" Jaune asked.
"Weapon parts for what i'm going to build… not all of it but i should be able to finish her before the Signal semester starts." Ruby said.
"That long? My sabre was forged in a week…" Jaune said.
"Well your sabre is a basic design with no mecha-shifting. My design has a lot of intricate little parts, also even if my family is well off, she's really expensive… the little moving part has to be high quality or the whole mechanism would break easily." Ruby said.
"Oh… well then." Jaune said, looking around more, inspecting the weapons on the wall to pass time as they fell into a comfortable silence.
The silence was broken when the shopkeeper came back with a large box and put it on the counter with a heavy thump before he said be right back and went into the backroom once again.
Ruby sighed, drawing Jaune's attention.
"What's wrong?" Jaune asked.
"Nothing… just all of the allowance i've saved will be gone with this." Ruby said with a small frown.
"You know what dad said, rubes. You need to learn spending for yourself instead of relying on him all the time." Yang said, causing Ruby to grumble.
The shopkeeper came back with another box, this time empty and started scanning the prices of the items.
Jaune looked at the total screen of the register, the price going up by around a hundred lien with each item before it stopped at 11286 lien.
"Heh… could outfit a fireteam with modern rifles at that price." Jaune thought.
Jaune watched as Ruby got her wallet out with a bit of a slowness to her movements, looking at her face his heart broke at her expression.
"Eh, fuck it." Jaune thought before fishing out his debit card and handed it to the shopkeeper, "I'll pay." He said.
"Really?" Ruby said with a huge smile as she turned to him, getting a nod she used her semblance to hug him, almost toppling them, "Thanks!" she said.
Jaune returned the hug for a few seconds before letting go, though Ruby didn't.
"Oh? Not gonna let go of your boyfriend, sis?" Yang said with a cheshire smile.
"Yaaang." Ruby said in a high pitched and embarrassed voice as she let go of Jaune.
"Fucking shit my ears." Jaune thought as he grimaced, his hand going to his right ear.
"Ehm." shopkeeper coughed to gain their attention, "Password." he said as he pointed to the register.
"Wait!" Ruby said as Jaune was moving to enter the password.
"What's up?" He asked Ruby who was busing writing to the notepad.
"Can i get these too if that's the case?" Ruby asked the shopkeeper, who grunted in affirmation before going back to the backroom once again.
"I'll pay for them." Jaune said with a small smile.
"Oh… i was thinking of splitting the bill." Ruby said with a red face.
"Eh… i don't mind." Jaune replied.
"Isn't that kind of… weird? I mean that is a pretty significant amount of money and you've just met her today…" Yang said with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm not exactly known for my ability to hold onto money to be honest… i especially don't mind if i'm spending it to make someone else happy." Jaune replied with a shrug.
The shopkeeper came back with a smaller crate, and a large empty one that was even larger than the one he had brought before. Scanning and adding the new items to the bill the price jumped to 16372 lien. Adding all of the items to the new large box, shopkeeper pushed it towards them.
Entering the password Jaune took the box and the receipt and handed them to Ruby, getting a cheerful yay from her before getting his card back
"You're going to be okay with that? The box is pretty heavy." Jaune said as Ruby struggled with it.
"I'll be okay…" She said with a strain before Yang took the crate from her.
"Easy there, sis. I'll carry it." Yang said as she held it under one arm.
Exiting the shop they stopped after a couple of steps, not really sure where to go.
"So… what should we do now?" Jaune asked.
"Dad's going to call us when we're going back… we should have some hours until then."
"Hmm… you girls wanna watch a movie?" Jaune asked.
"No… what about an arcade?" Yang said.
"What about going to a shooting range? Can we, can we?" Ruby asked Jaune with a pout.
"Of course, sure." Jaune said quickly as he caved in instantly, "Welp, that's a dangerous weapon if i ever saw one." He thought.
"Yes!" Ruby said triumphantly.
Finding one wasn't hard, just a quick CCT search and they were at the reception of a shooting range. It was mostly empty save for the doors on the right side and an entire wall dedicated to weapons with a counter going from one end of the wall to the other.
"You two look a bit young to be here…" The receptionist said as she eyed Yang and Ruby
Fishing his Specialist Third-Class license out, Jaune showed it to the woman as Yang showed her Signal student ID while Ruby had nothing to permit her to use the guns.
"Aww…" Ruby said.
"Don't be sad Rubes, i can technically coach you, meaning you can use the gun range." Jaune said with a wink, earning a yay.
"We'll need to rent though, my ember celica aren't exactly the most conventional of firearms." Yang said as she brought her hands up.
"Holy shit did you have your weapons on you this entire time!? Huh… never noticed them." To say that Jaune was surprised would be an understatement.
"Hey, i carry them everywhere i can." Yang replied.
"So Ruby, what do you want to rent?" Jaune asked.
"Hmm… i kind of want to try your revolver…" Ruby said.
"Sure." Jaune said replied.
They were inside the range, Ruby and Jaune were in a lane themselves as he instructed her while Yang was in the next lane trying an exotic Atlesian smg called the bizon.
"Pfft… your hands are so tiny in comparison to the gun." Jaune couldn't keep his face straight as Ruby was holding it, she wasn't struggling with it… but Jaune found it funny nonetheless, it didn't help that he literally towered over her, she was tiny! Though to him it kind of made her even more adorable.
"Gah, it's not my problem you're almost as tall as uncle Qrow. Aren't you like fourteen? How are you so tall!" Ruby protested.
"Eh… good genes?" He joked, getting a raspberry from Ruby, "Anyways… cock the hammer back if the trigger is too stiff for you." Jaune instructed.
Taking a couple shots, Ruby lowered the gun to look at her target.
"No, no, keep your finger off the trigger when you're not firing please." Jaune chided, "Aren't you training with your uncle?" He asked.
"Yeah… but i'm currently getting training on scythe use and aura as well as on how to incorporate my semblance with them. What i know is from magazines and such so i don't have any habits yet." Ruby said.
"Huh… Yang seems to know what she's doing and her personal weapons aren't even proper guns." Jaune said.
"Well… she's a Signal student, they teach a lot of combat stuff there." Ruby replied.
"Oh. Well i've never went to a combat school so… didn't know." Jaune said.
"Oh i remember you saying that." Ruby asked.
"Yeah, as i said i'm an apprentice… whatever i learn, i learn from Winter." Jaune replied.
"Winter? Who's Winter?" Ruby quickly said, causing Jaune to lift an eyebrow in surprise.
"The name of my mentor." He replied.
"Okay." Ruby said as she went back to shooting.
"You're good at this, i wouldn't believe if you said that you were new to shooting if i didn't know you." Jaune said, impressed at her proficiency with the gun.
"Thanks… my uncle always says that i have a talent for it." Ruby replied.
"Nice, you know how to reload?" Jaune said as he opened a small box of range rounds.
"Yeah!" Ruby said as she swung out the cylinder, pushing the ejector rod she emptied the chambers before she started inserting new rounds.
It was after around another hour when Tai called them, currently Jaune, Ruby and Yang were walking towards the naval port. Jaune was also thinking of what to do when they were gone, as it was barely 15:00, the Bullhead ride only took around half an hour so he still had four more hours to spend.
Arriving at the docks, they entered the main building to sit down and wait for Tai.
"Today was nice…" Jaune said as he looked at Ruby with a smile.
"Yeah… it was." Ruby said as she replied in kind.
"I wouldn't mind meeting with you more." Jaune said, getting a small blush from Ruby.
"Yeah… me too. But you're going back to Atlas after your mission, right? When will you be back in Vale?" Ruby asked with a small frown.
"Oh… right. Not sure, but i'm thinking of coming back to Vale once i'm sixteen, buy an apartment and just have a vacation until Beacon starts." Jaune said, frowning a little himself.
"Two years? … i can wait." Ruby said, crestfallen.
"Hey… wanna exchange scroll numbers? I know we can just chat in the game but… wouldn't it be better to, you, know talk? We would at least see and hear each other." Jaune said, trying to cheer her up at least a little bit.
"Sure! That could work…" Ruby said, feeling slightly better as she got her scroll out.
Swapping scroll information they looked up to see Yang looking at them with wide eyes and a smile, just as Ruby and Jaune shared a confused look Yang suddenly glomped Ruby.
"Aww i can't believe my baby sister finally made a friend!" Yang said.
"Yaaang! You're embarrassing me in front of the said friend!" Ruby said as she tried to get out of the hug.
Jaune chuckled as Ruby was able to finally break out of the hug and immediately ran to hide behind him.
"Don't worry Ruby, i'll protect you from the big bad dragon" He said as he put an arm around her shoulders.
"Aww you hear Ruby? Your noble knight in shining armour is gonna protect ya" Yang said as she pretended to be a dragon but they were cut off by a cough, turning, they saw Tai looking at them with an amused yet angry expression.
"Hey dad" Yang and Ruby said, "Time to go?" Yang continued.
"Yeah, finished my business in Beacon." Tai said before looking towards Jaune and Ruby, "You gonna let go of Ruby?" Tai asked with an edge.
Ruby's face turned red as she noticed how physically close they actually were and tried to let go but Jaune applied strength to his arm and kept her from moving, "What if i don't?" Jaune said with a coldness in his voice and glare that surprised Ruby and Yang and caused Tai's eyes to narrow.
It was Tai that broke the staredown after a couple minutes when Yang grabbed his arm, "Dad?" She asked.
Tai sighed, "Well… at least you're not spineless." He said as he looked at Jaune, this time without much hostility.
Jaune smiled as he let go of Ruby, "I didn't get where i'm by being a coward." He said.
"Okay edgelord" Tai said with an eyeroll, though his smile suggested it was a joke.
"Oh shut up." Jaune chuckled.
Buying tickets for Ruby, Yang and Tai, four of them moved to the pier to wait for their ferry to arrive.
"So… i guess this is it for today?" Jaune asked.
"Yeah…" Ruby replied with a sad face, her somber mood from before returning.
"Don't be sad… i promise i'll see you again. And an Arc never goes back on his word." Jaune said, causing her face to turn red, Tai accompanying him on the second sentence.
"You know our family motto?" Jaune asked, surprised.
"Yeah, your parents were pretty involved with Oz, so we met a lot." Tai said with a far-off look in his eyes.
Ruby, Jaune and Yang shared an awkward glance, not sure on how to reply. They all turned towards the sea as a ferry arrived.
"Time to go. See you, Jaune" Yang said as she started walking towards the boat.
"It was nice meeting you." Tai said as he followed Yang.
Ruby and Jaune looked at each other, despite starting to talk a couple days ago and only meeting for the first time today, they already were somewhat fond of each other.
"We'll meet again?" Ruby asked, playing with her hair.
"Of course." Jaune said.
"So… see you later?" Ruby said with a sad smile.
"Yeah. See you later." Jaune said as Ruby started walking towards the boat.
Jaune stayed still as he watched them board the ferry, but at the last second Ruby used her semblance to quickly run to Jaune and hugged him.
"Thanks." Ruby said before running back to the boat just as quickly as she came, not giving a chance for him to return the hug. Not like he could, though. He was too surprised to do it.
Recovering from his shock, Jaune grabbed one of the rose petals she left in her wake and ate it.
"... i don't know what i expected. It tastes like what i'd guess a regular plant tastes." Jaune thought, grimacing but managing to swallow it.
Seeing the boat manoeuvre to leave, Jaune turned back and started walking towards the city.
He was currently sitting in a café alone, drinking coffee and listening to music. The time on his scroll showed 16:26 and he had received a message from Ruby earlier, stating that they had arrived at patch safe and sound.
Jaune released a sigh, he had fun with her but wasn't going to be able to meet up again for two whole years.
"Huh… maybe i should a buy a house in Patch instead of Vale… would be closer to her. Would that be too much? Hmm…" Jaune was brought out of his musings when his scroll rang, looking at it he saw that Winter was calling him.
"Hey Winter." Jaune said as he answered the call.
"Hey Jaune… sorry to say but it would be best if you came back to the base." Winter said.
"Is there a reason for it?" Jaune replied as he paid for his coffee and exited the café.
"You mean other than to be present here for your own preparations for tomorrow? No. Absolutely not." Winter said in a deadpan voice.
"You said 20:00… sure. I already did the main thing i came to Vale for. I'll be there." Jaune said.
"Alright. See you." Winter said before closing the call.
"Alright…" Jaune mumbled, walking towards the Bullhead docks.
When the Bullhead he was on landed he wasn't expecting to see at least fifteen to twenty Atlesian dropships lined up getting prepped for tomorrow, they were slightly larger than bullheads with narrower but longer hulls and had more armaments that included rockets and rotary cannons. Winter was also on the yard with at least six teams worth of huntsmen and huntresses in front of her talking with each other. Jaune started jogging towards them.
"Hey Winter." Jaune said as she stopped next to her, prompting the group to turn to the newcomer.
Looking at the group, he noticed a couple of familiar faces, one was Qrow looking at him with indifference, the other two were his oldest sisters, the firstborn twins, Joan and Jean looking at him with shock… "Our parents were so creative with our names…" Jaune thought with sarcasm. They both had the signature Arc pale skin, blue eyes and blonde hair but the most distinguishing feature about them was that they were identical twins, meaning you wouldn't notice the difference if they wore the same clothing and hair. Luckily at least their jackets were different. Having been trained by their parents, all of his sisters had adopted the Arc fighting style which included the usage of spears, poleaxes, different types of sword, though all of them were knightly, and… guns, curiously enough. Both Joan and Jean had opted for awlpikes, a type of polearm used almost exclusively for thrusting. While a spear and any polearm that was used mainly for thrusting would have a disadvantage in a one on one, it wasn't that much of an issue for the twins outside of single tournament rounds as even if they were facing a person one of the twins could always stand back and poke while the opponent was focused on the other, and even then they weren't helpless as they were carrying arming swords as backup and were proficient in their use.
"Hey…" Jaune managed to say before both of them just slammed onto him with a hug, but he was able to remain standing. Putting an arm around the waist of each of the twins he returned their hug.
"We missed you, Jaune" The twins said as they hugged Jaune from both sides.
"I missed you girls too." Jaune said as he squeezed them with all his strength, getting grunts in reply.
"When did you get so strong?" The one wearing a dark blue jacket asked, causing Jaune to chuckle.
"And so tall?" The one wearing a white jacket asked, having to crane her neck a little to be able to look at Jaune's face, despite their parents being giants, something some of the sisters and Jaune seemed to be sharing, the oldest twins weren't able to grow any taller than 1.70 meters.
"So which one of you is which?" Jaune asked, getting pouts in return.
"I'm Jean." The one wearing the white jacket replied.
"And i'm Joan." The one wearing the dark blue jacket replied.
"Hate to break your family reunion but we got something to do." Qrow said to them, prompting Jaune and the twins to break their hug.
"Ah, right." Jaune said as he and the twins turned to Winter.
They were currently inside the mess hall of the base eating dinner after the mission briefing. The twins, Jaune and Winter sat next to each other while Qrow was just a couple seats down at a large table that was shared by all of the huntsmen and huntresses assigned to the mission.
"So little brother, how did you even get to Atlas?" Joan asked, Jean leaning close with anticipation.
"Well… i just walked to be honest. I spent a year just walking from town to town doing odd jobs that ranged from manual labour to grimm hunting, arriving at a port town at the northern coast of Sanus i just bought a ticket to the city of Mantle." Jaune replied, "What were you girls doing? You left to attend Shade when i was nine…" He asked.
"Well… we came back home a year ago… we've been working as professional huntresses in Vale ever since." Jean replied.
"How's home? Did they start training our younger sisters? And also how was Vacuo?" Jaune asked.
"Not much change at home, and yes rest of our sisters decided to become huntresses so they're getting trained by mom and dad… and Vacuo is… fragmented." Joan replied.
It kind of angered Jaune to know that his parents only excluded him from training… while it was somewhat of a moot point now that Jaune found a place to train, he wasn't exactly the most forgiving of people… in fact one of his worst qualities was that he was vengeful.
"Wait what do you mean by fragmented?" Jaune asked, a bit confused.
"There are several warlords and clans in Vacuo that live separately from the official Vacuan government, they control sizable territories with at least around ten or more villages in them. We know at least a couple of those warlords to be extreme religious authoritarians… though the city of Vacuo itself has the Shade Academy, which acts as a surrogate government and is the sole reason the city still stands. We often had to take police missions too." Jean replied.
"Hmm… why did you guys go to Shade instead of Beacon anyways?" Jaune asked.
Sharing a glance, the twins opted to stay silent.
Jaune glared at them for a couple of seconds, but cut it off with a sigh when he saw them getting unnerved.
The rest of the meal was eaten in relative silence, at least for Jaune as he didn't join the conversations between the others. He was currently inside his room in the Helios as Winter and he didn't want to share their space in the sleeping quarters of the base.
He was currently in his bed, he had missed sleeping with bare minimums… as Atlas was far too cold to sleep shirtless. He was also talking with Ruby through a video call.
"Told ya we'd see each other again." Jaune said with a smirk.
"Didn't think it would be this fast…" Ruby replied with a light chuckle.
"So… how was your day?" Jaune asked.
"Well i've started working on Crescent Rose as soon as i got back… she's going to take some time." Ruby said.
"Crescent Rose… i like it." Jaune smiled.
"Thanks." Ruby giggled, "I should be able to finish her before the Signal starts… i can't wait! Uncle Qrow promised to take some off time and just train me for some time once i have Crescent Rose ready." Ruby said, getting excited.
"That's nice…" Jaune said as he yawned, getting sleepy. "Well-"
He was cut off when a feminine voice called out, "Hey sis, whatcha doin'?" Yang came into view.
"Oh, just talking with Jaune." Ruby replied to Yang, getting a hmm in return.
"Oh? He's even half naked… you sure you guys aren't doing anything inappropriate?" Yang asked with a smirk.
"Ugh, Yang… no." Ruby said with a deadpan expression.
"Wait, really? I thought you liked my striptease." Jaune said with a serious tone as he flexed, which turned Ruby's face crimson.
"Wait what!?" Yang shouted, red faced and angry.
"Pfft… I'm joking." Jaune said between laughs.
"Why are you even shirtless, then?" Yang said, miffed at the fact that she got played.
"It's Vale mid-summer… of course i sleep shirtless." Jaune said with a raised eyebrow.
After a few seconds, Jaune talked again. "Anyways, we're moving out tomorrow morning and i'm sleepy… c'ya later Rubes." Jaune said with a smile.
"C'ya Jaune…" Ruby replied with a wave.
Closing the call, he tucked himself in his bed and went to sleep.
Well... this concludes this chapter i guess. Not gonna apologize for the lack of action scenes in this one, next chapter (or chapters, depending on if i do make it a 8-10k word one like this or go back to regular 4k weekly ones) is going to be a huge battle. Also yeah... i'm thinking of Lancaster, just saying so i'm not leading those who doesn't like the ship. Yeah... Lancaster here is going to be much a slower burn that what happened with Winter, she was never my main ship in this story and i kinda did it by mistake..? Anyways, i'll deal with it but i'm also learning from it. C'ya when the next chapter is ready i guess.