After the fight we had relatively little problem with the Grimm as Pyrrha, Nora, Ren and I made our way back up to Beacon. Oh, there were Grimm - but they were all relatively minor ones, and not really in numbers large enough to be considered a true threat by someone like Pyrrha. Ren and Nora helped naturally - whenever they weren't helping me hobble around anyway - but truthfully the lions share of that particular endeavour fell to Pyrrha. Honestly, it was like watching someone so good at a video game that you weren't actually sure why you were bothering to play yourself. The friendly, overprotective girl was like a machine in a very real sense. Her strikes and movements were so accurate and brutal that it looked less like she was fighting the Grimm and more like they were throwing themselves at her weapons.
Truthfully, even though my Aura hadn't really recovered much yet, my Prana had, and so I didn't really need help moving about. I hadn't honestly suffered much in the way of injury in the first place, but I suppose when you live your life training to fight with a supernatural damage shield protecting you from all consequences of your actions - losing that shield must feel like being on the edge of death. I didn't really follow the mindset because I had only had my shiny new Aura for a little under a week now, and most of my training had left me positively riddled with injuries that required healing. But since it was out of worry, and more importantly, because there was no way they would be able to detect my available Prana the way they could Aura - I let them take turns helping me around.
That had been a couple of hours ago - right after the fight with the Deathstalker. I had yet to see Ruby or the three other girls that had gone with her to fight the bird Grimm, but Archer assured me they had survived their fight and made their way back to the school only a little bit after we had left. Now, I was standing languidly at the back of a growing group of new students, once more in Beacon's auditorium. Upon arrival, each of us had been given a package with a uniform in it that fit strangely well considering no one had actually measured me at any point upon my arrival. It was suspicious to me in ways that free clothing had no right to be, and I had to really stop and ask myself if I was so afraid of another Master trying to get to me that I was going to put my whole life on hold to avoid it.
The answer was no, of course, but I still took the time to analyze the package of clothing regardless. Needless to say, there was nothing wrong with it. Nothing non-magical wrong with it anyway.
'Hey, Archer?' I asked hesitantly, not sure how to phrase my request.
'I told you your little girlfriend and her group are fine.' Archer answered a little sternly, clearly still annoyed by how insistent I had been that he watch over them while I was returning to Beacon.
'No it's not that.' I sent quickly, not sure what to make of his foul mood since the battle with the Deathstalker had started. He hadn't exactly been mad at me per say. Just... passive aggressive.
'I was wondering how you knew there were wards in the school? Can you like see magic or something?' I hurried on, not wanting him to start ranting to me about some stupid thing I may or may not have done.
'Most Magi can detect magic through one of their five senses. Which one you get is a crapshoot, but the ones widely considered to be the best are via Hearing and Sight.' Archer answered, his tone relaxing slightly.
'Why?'
'Because if you regularly see combat then hearing is the most acute way of determining if magic is being fired at you from out of sight, and if your a researcher sight allows for a much greater amount of detail to be derived from an object or person.' Archer rattled off, clearly quoting something at me from a textbook - or at least, a really boring sounding lecture.
It made sense. I couldn't think of a whole lot of ways that being able to taste magic would be useful - least of all in combat. But that still begged the question, which one did I land on? I already knew I wasn't seeing magic, because obviously I hadn't noticed the wards on the grounds. I didn't think I could hear or smell it either - I had never really noticed anything along those lines when using reinforcement on myself.
So it was touch or taste. I groaned, knowing I was going to have to test this at some point and dreaded the point in time at which I was going to have to lick a Mystic Code. Why the hell was Magecraft so damn complicated? Aura and Semblances were easy. You willed it, and it happened. Simple, easy, and from what I could tell - instinctual. But nope. Good old Jauney boy had to take the less traveled path.
"Ooh! Here he comes!" Nora called out from behind me, far louder than was strictly necessary given the whispered conversation in the room. I turned from her to Ren, who had the stoic blank look of someone who long since gave up the ability to be embarrassed. Or angry. Or anything really. Honestly, if I didn't know Ren to be the slightly mothering, compassionate guy he was, I'd have best been able to describe him as 'dead inside'. Giving up my quest to understand the newest of my friends for a moment, I turned back towards the stage, where Ozpin had arrived and a large screen had slid out of the ceiling to his right, facing the crowd of students below the podium.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see Ren shift slightly so that his hand was covering Nora's mouth, and the excitable hammer-wielding girl had wrapped her arms around his waste and was shaking him like bag of marbles. On my other side Pyrrha shifted uncomfortably, although she wasn't really looking at the headmaster. Instead she glancing about the students surrounding us, who were all sending hopeful looks in her direction. They weren't being subtle about it either. Some of them made thumbs up motions at her, and still others gestured frantically for her to come join them. I could see why - I'd only fight three times, and I was reasonably certain she could take half my family at once if she put some effort into it. Maybe the whole damn Arc clan. Still, Pyrrha was clearly discomforted by the attention. So, I quietly slid forward and stepped around her, non chalantly hip checking her back towards the secluded position on the wall I had previously been occupying. There were still students that could look directly at her - it was an empty square room, so there was hardly a bunch of cover - but it did turn my six-foot frame into a very convenient obstacle to vision. Nora likewise seemed to subconsciously note the situation and shake her way slightly to the left so that we had enclosed Pyrrha in a small circle of bodies.
Nora caught my eye and smiled knowingly at me. Huh. Maybe she was smarter than she acts.
Nora immediately refuted my rogue thought by opening her mouth, turning her burgeoning smile into a failed attempt to bite Ren's fingers - which were still covering her mouth. She had to know he had enough aura to just ignore her, and there was no way she was going to bite hard enough to deplete it - so I really couldn't see the point of the exercise.
And yet here we are.
"Welcome Huntsmen and Huntresses in training. I'm happy to see that you all made it through initiation safely. I will now be announcing the teams you will be spending the rest of your time at Beacon with. You and your partner will be put with another pair of students to form this team - so do not worry that you will be separated from your new friends." Ozpin's bland voice wrang out. He took a long draft from his coffee immediately afterwards, apparently expecting the explosion of whispered conversation that started within mere seconds of his pause. Somehow - possibly via literal magic - he managed to finished his drink at the exact moment silence once more descended on the room.
"Now then. The teams will be as follows." Ozpin said, eyeing his now probably empty coffee mug with a forlorn expression. When no more coffee appeared to be forthcoming - note to self, mug of infinite coffee, new research topic - He sighed and gestured at the screen to his right.
"Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark, will hereby be known as Team CRDL - Cardinal, led by Cardin Winchester," I blinked once, staring at the screen as it displayed each name, then plucked the appropriate letters from them to form the team name. Did he...? No there's no way a place as esteemed as Beacon was just picking teams and captain based on what would make the name work. That was ludicrous. Cardin was probably just the best suited to lead his team. Probably the strongest too.
"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao-Long, will hereby be known as Team RWBY - Ruby, led by Ruby Rose." He continued, and I relaxed a bit. Yeah, that made sense. Ruby was clearly good at what she did, and her team had followed her without question back in the forest. She was the first to charge the Deathstalker and had been doing okay at it before the bird thing - a Nevermore apparently, according to Ren - had arrived. By that logic, the captain for our team should be Pyrrha so -
"Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, and Lie Ren, will hereby be known as Team JNPR - Juniper, led by Jaune Arc." Oh god. I was wrong. I was so very wrong. These people were insane. I couldn't lead a team of Hunstmen. I could barely lead myself through the halls of the damn school. How the hell was I going to get anyone to listen to me when evenI didn't think I should be in charge.
The thought had barely managed to run through my mind when Nora was in front of me, scooping me up in a huge hug that was strong enough to drain a minute amount of my Aura via sheer force.
"Yes! I knew we were gonna be the best of friends! We are gonna have so much fun!" She crowed, swinging me left and right so hard I could barely take enough air in to breath let alone demand she put me down. I looked past the orange haired girl swinging me around like a doll to Ren, hoping against hope that he would get me out of this. He had the shocked look of someone who was expecting to be hit and had flinched away from the attack - only for it never to come. His eyes flicked from Nora to me and then down to himself before returning to me again.
And then the bastard smiled at me. It wasn't a reassuring smile, or even a friendly one. It was the type of smile your cellmate gives you while he's explaining the rules of the prison.
He knew. He knew Nora was like this and was happy to have two other people to spread the pain around.
I swore to myself then and there, that I was going to remember this, and I was going to get my revenge.
Just you wait, Lie Ren. I will have four long years to obtain my vengeance!
-ooo-
Forty minutes later found the four of us stood in front of a wooden door with a cooper plate embossed with the word 'JNPR' on it. We had each been given a key to the room, and now that we were here I was sort of nervous. This was where I was going to be living for a good long while, and I really hoped it was nice.
With a deep breath, I hiked up my bag on one shoulder and unlocked the door.
Some things immediately jumped out at me as I stepped into the room. For one, it was literally just a single room with four beds in it. Each bed had a little dresser next to it that barely rose high enough to serve as a bedside table and certainly wouldn't have enough room for more than the most utilitarian of people to keep their things. I could see how between the dresser and the underside of a bed I would have room to keep most of my things, but I had no idea how much stuff the rest of my new teammates might own. Nora and Ren looked like they travelled pretty light, but Pyrrha was a girl. I had seven sisters, and even the most boyish of them had more accessories than I had possessions in general. I didn't even bother categorizing Nora that way - she was more like a force of nature than a woman.
"Ow!" I yelped as Nora happily stepped past me, accidentally slamming her heel down on my foot.
"What the heck Nora!?" I cried hopping backward to sit on a bed and pull my boots off to massage the hurt appendage.
"I just felt like you were thinking something rude is all~" Nora crooned, flouncing past me to the two beds on the far right of the room.
"I hereby claim this bed for myself and Ren!" She declared proudly, sticking her chest out and pounding it with one fist.
"You mean these beds, Nora," Ren said neutrally as he slid past the exuberant girl to drop his rucksack on his new bed. His back was turned to so he missed it, but as he began to systematically unpack his things, Nora turned to glower at him. How a guy could be that oblivious to a girl that had literally just implied she would sleep with him was beyond me. I mean, how dense can you be?
"I guess that makes us neighbours." Pyrrha smiled at me, pulling the golden circlet that held her hair in place off, then taking a seat on her own bed to begin unpacking. She kicked her legs like an excited kid and darted a few furtive glances at me while she worked.
It was so god damn picturesque that I could tell the exact moment my hormones kicked in, reminding my body that I was a friggin teenage boy. And that brought with it several complications that I felt it was important to note - right after I hastily dropped my own bag in my lap.
"So... I think we might have a problem," I spoke to the room in general. Ren and Pyrrha stopped unpacking to look at me attentively, and Nora came down from the most recent jump on her bed, landing in a crosslegged sitting position facing me.
"Jaune?" Pyrrha said hesitantly.
"You guys haven't noticed? We have one bedroom and one bathroom." I said, pointing over at the door to said bathroom.
"So?" Nora asked, her head cocked to one side.
"We're teenagers with superhuman endurance and equally superhuman physiques," I explained, helpfully omitting the fact that my physique was anything but superhuman at that moment. Again, Nora just looked at me blankly, clearly missing the point I was trying to get at.
"We're teenagers with hormones that have superhuman endurance." I tried again. This time I could see the light of understanding in Nora's eyes when I spoke. Her eyes darted towards Ren behind her and then back to me, a lopsided grin breaking out on her face.
"So~ ?" she said again, and I just about wanted to die of embarrassment.
"I'm just saying, maybe we should set up a curtain and - "
"Jaune. Don't worry about it." Nora said, with a finality that made me flinch, even though the smile on her face and the happy tone in her voice never once faded.
"Ooook," I said, turning back to Pyrrha who was studiously not looking at me.
"I guess we'll all just have to take turns changing in the bathroom." I apologized to her. Oh I would regret nothing if I were to somehow catch a glimpse of her changing. I was just pretty sure that I wouldn't live long enough to regret anything after that point.
"That's... That's fine Jaune. I'm sure we're all trustworthy here." the red head said after a moment of thought, and when she turned to look at me again, making my heart nearly leapt out of my chest.
I had seven sisters. Most of whom I had seen naked at some point in my life. So why was the simple act of Pyrrha letting her hair down sending me into fits!? This wasn't freaking fair! I wanted a do-over! Put me on Team CRDL!
Shaking the fantasies of smooth skin and red hair out of my head, I turned around and waited, pulling a dust crystal out of my bag to examine. I wasn't really going to do anything with it - least of all in front of all these people. But if there was one thing I knew for sure right now it was this.
This bag wasn't coming out of my lap until Pyrrha and Nora had left to go change.
-ooo-
It was five am in the morning and I had gotten approximately three hours of sleep. I couldn't tell if it was because of all my pent up stress, the bizarre twist my life had taken when Archer entered it, or just a natural result of doing Magecraft, but in the end it didn't really matter. I had barely gotten more than four hours of sleep a night at best, and that seemed like it was a trend that was likely to continue. It's not like I wasn't tired - because god help me was I ever. It was more like some inner part of me simply couldn't allow me to sleep that long. 'Keep moving' it demanded. 'To be still is to die' it whispered.
It was annoying because I had never lived in a situation that would necessitate this type of habit. Sure I was a bit worried about the other Magus on campus, but I somehow doubted they were going to have my bedroom blown up in the night. Magecraft is powerful, but there's no reality where someone who assassinated a student at Beacon got away alive. Half the Hunstmen in Vale could claim Beacon as their alma mater and if they heard someone had gone after the institution? There would be blood.
But even with that said, I just couldn't get to bed. I had been laying down and staring at the ceiling for hours now and it was starting to get old. The evening before had been both relaxing and trying at the same time. Between trying to keep the fact that I had a platoon's worth of dust in my belongings secret, Nora not so subtly flirting at Ren and Pyrrha watching with detached amusement, it felt sort of like my family had before everyone started growing up and leaving home. It was chaotic, but it was a good kind of chaotic.
With a sigh of defeat, I quietly flipped the covers off of myself and rolled out of bed to slip into my boots. If I wasn't going to sleep I might aswell be doing something productive.
'Archer, how are we?' I asked as I closed the door to our room with a gentle click of the lock.
'Same as yesterday. No activity, lots of wards.' He said.
'Where the heck have you been anyway? Haven't seen much of you.' I asked pensively, trying to decide on what I wanted to do now. I couldn't work on my jewelcraft because even if it wasn't weird to be caught carving weird symbols into a stone at night, the noise of doing so would probably wake my team up. I couldn't work on my sword forms because... well actually I probably could work on my sword forms, but I had left Corcea Mors in my room and didn't want to go back for it.
'Roof. I can see pretty much everything from up here.' Archer admitted easily.
'Doesn't it get boring up there?'
'You kidding? I've got a whole school of stupid kids to spy on. There are whole dramas where I'm from about this stuff. There's a girl three doors down from you who desperately wants to get this guys attention, but she doesn't want to seem desperate so -'
'Neeevermind. Please don't tell me my classmates secrets unless its relevant to me. No wait, don't tell me their secrets unless they're dangerous to me.' I quickly cut him off. Great, my Servant was a voyeur. At least he was more relaxed now than he had been the day before.
'Hey, can you help me find one of those ward thingies?' I asked, an idea forming in my mind. I had walked out into a courtyard of some kind by now and was enjoying the cool night breeze as it blew past.
'There's one at the base of the tree between it and the bench.' Archer said, and I slowly spun on the spot to get my bearings and locate the tree he was talking about. I didn't bother asking him if he was talking about the tree in this courtyard. No doubt he could see me from wherever he was and had just directed me to the nearest ward.
When I walked over to the tree, I just stood there, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did, and I stared at a patch of dirt with a baleful intent, willing something magical to pop up. It didn't, and after a few seconds I gave up and kneeled down, feeling around in the grass like I had dropped a contact lense. I really wanted this to work. I really didn't want to half to bend over and try licking the dirt. To my great surprise, as my hand passed over a certain spot, I could feel something. It was almost impossible to describe the sensation. Like the pop of an old camera's bulb flashing, only... only it was a texture and not a sound. All the hairs on my arm stood up, and somehow I could just tell that there was something there. And the more I waved my hand over it, the more I got a feel for the 'texture' of the spell, the more I understood about it.
I frowned. If I had a piece of paper with me and something to write with, I was pretty sure I could even write out some formulae that would do more or less what this ward was doing. Hm. There was a thought. Should I be learning to make wards? I did my best to memorize the feeling of the Magecraft, knowing I wouldn't be able to get it perfectly, but also knowing that just some of the knowledge would be of great benefit to my own research.
A rustling behind me drew my attention, and I turned my head to see what had caused the sound. Standing in the archway leading out to the courtyard was a girl. She had long brown hair and was staring at me with wide eyes as though I had just caught her doing something particularly heinous. But more important than any of that - she had freaking rabbit ears. I stood slowly, turning towards her.
"Do you -" I started before she darted off with a fluorescent red flush on her face. " -... have two sets of ear canals." I finished.
Damnit. Was this going to happen to every girl I tried to talk to? Was I that unappealing? She hadn't even let me finish embarrassing myself before she vanished. Giving up on pondering the fairer sex for the moment, I trundled off to write some spells. The first thing I was going to do - was put a ward on my room. Preferably one that did bad things to anyone entering against my wishes. Hm. But then again this is a highschool, and any number of people I might not know about could technically get into my bedroom. Any teacher, any cleaning staff. I could probably key the ward to my teammates so that should be a problem... Hm. Maybe I would hold back on the booby traps and stick with a warning trap...
'Oi. I know what your thinking.' Archer interrupted me by saying.
'Oh yeah? Whats that?' I drawled at him.
'You can't just put a ward up on your room idiot. The magus that already lives here is immediately going to notice that only one room has protection on it. Your safer with nothing than you are only covering for yourself.' Archer pointed out immediately. Damn. He was right. I hadn't thought of that. But... but...
'But its so coooool!' I complained. 'I basically only know like two spells you stingy bastard! throw me a bone here!'
I was not being a baby just because I couldn't play with my new toy. I was just... disappointed at losing the opportunity to perform live research? Yeah. That's it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
'To bad. I can't teach you anything else.' Archer said bitterly.
'Go practice your alteration or something.'
Practice my...
'Archer...' I said carefully.
'What?' he answered belligerently.
'What the fuck is alteration!?' I mentally shrieked at him. 'You literally never taught me that!'
'That's because it's just a modified use of reinforcement! I thought you figured it out and just never bothered!' Archer answered, confusion plain in his tone.
'How the hell is that something I would just figure out, you dick!?'
'Well, it's how I learned it! You literally just make the prana your using to reinforce something add stuff to it. It's way easier than Tracing!' He retorted to my insults.
'You never taught me that either.' I reminded him.
'...' No reply came this time.
'Oh, so that's how it is huh?' I grumped. Still no answer.
'Fine! But this is going on the board for me!' I warned him, not quite sure when I had started to take the scoreboard we had been faking this seriously. Sometimes it felt like the only way to end an argument with my Servant was for someone to score a point on the damn thing.
Now silently fuming, I stomped back to my room, quietly slid inside, and grabbed a dust crystal from my side table. It took me approximately two minutes to get twice as mad as I had before because that's exactly how long it took for me to figure alteration out and use it to re-engrave all the required formula for my as yet unnamed Mystic Code onto the damn thing.
Two minutes. I had spent hours on the first one, and that was without having to worry about disturbing any roommates. Painstakingly scratching tiny numbers and runes onto a gem one quarter the size of my palm. Now I could produce super dust in nearly no time at all. The only thing required to complete the process and allow me to trigger the thing at a distance was a to dribble a drop of my blood on it. How the hell was I supposed to have figured this out on my own? What asshole starts with reinforcement and then thinks 'I don't like this sword, better make it into an arrow?'
-ooo-
I woke from possibly the best sleep I had ever had in my life, to find Jaune with bloodshot eyes staring at the ceiling in the bed next to mine. I blearily pushed a strand of red hair out of my face and sat up in bed, not quite sure what to make of it. I hadn't known Jaune for long really, but in the time I had known him, he'd been a patient if an awkward man. So see to my friend so obviously distressed by something sent a pang of heartache running through me.
And wasn't that such a lovely phrase? 'My Friend.'
What a novel concept. Jaune was my partner and first friend. He wasn't the most competent fighter - insanely powerful dust bomb aside - but he was so earnest in his interactions. Always hesitant to speak, but never willing to be silent. He tried his best, and that's what really mattered.
Well no, best not to lie to myself. He had no idea who I was. And that was what really mattered. With Jaune, I could be sure that every kind gesture or quirky joke was an honest attempt at friendship. To Jaune, I wasn't 'The Invincible Girl', I wasn't a prize to be won or an ally to be made. I was just me. It was such an oddly liberating sensation to not have to pretend at perfection around him.
Something that made me blush slightly as I wiped the drool from my face.
"Jaune?" I called after him, drawing his attention. He blinked owlishly at me, turning slightly so he was looking across the narrow distance between our beds. Ah, best I not tell my agent about that. I didn't have a purity clause in any of my contracts, but public image was important. Or so I'm told. I largely just played along because it would be embarrassing to do anything else.
"Morn' Pyr." Jaune mumbled tiredly at me, truncating both the two words in the sentence almost off handedly.
"Are you alright? You don't look like you slept well..." I hoped it wasn't the sleeping arrangements. I admit it was unorthodox, but not that much more so than the locker rooms of any of the dozen coliseums I'd fought in. I'd found most people were much more apt to mind their own business than torrid magazines would lead one to believe.
Then again, I'd never been in a change room with someone I hadn't defeated in combat. I supposed there could be something to that.
"Just... just noticed I was making a really really stupid mistake with my gear and couldn't get over it. Don't worry about it." Jaune said with a stretch as he too rose from his bed.
"Alright. So!" I said trying to change the topic. I wasn't good at small talk. Well, not small talk I actually wanted to have. I was exceptional at pretending to be interested in things other people said, but that was a very different proposition. So instead I fell back on the limited advice my agent had given me when public speaking, even if I balked inwardly at using the disingenuous tactic on people I genuinely liked. But... I didn't want them to hate me, so... so this would have to do until I could make something else work. Something better.
Head tilted, small smile, cocked head. Easy. Approachable. Friendly.
"Are you excited? For class I mean." I questioned, adding a little lilting laugh to the sentence. People liked laughter, it meant things were going well. It meant you liked them. I, of course, was not really looking forward to class - least of all combat class. I enjoyed a good fight - I had dedicated a significant portion of my life to it after all - but I very much did not want to draw such attention to myself this early in the year. I had come to Vale precisely for that reason, and I wasn't keen to throw it all away on the first day.
Even if it did seem like everyone I met already knew me anyway.
"Ah. Uh." Jaune stammered, and my heart fell as his eye twitched and he turned a bright red before sitting up and gathering his sheets in his lap. Damn. I was going to have to work on being more genuine with him. I really did like him.
I'd like him a bit more if he wasn't sleeping in apparently his entire outfit...
B-but only because I was interested in seeing what kind of training he did. You can tell a lot about a person from their musculature.
Yes. It was for that and no other reason that I tracked Jaune's hurried path across the room to the bathroom.
Ah. Hormones. We had such a lovely relationship before this.
When my gaze flicked back across the room to Nora and Ren, intent on seeing whether they would require waking for the day, I found Nora staring at me. Well. Staring might be generous. She was really leering at me. Her eyebrows rose and fell twice and she gave me a conspiratorial wink.
Nope. I, Pyrrha Nikos, am going back to sleep. Tactical retreat is a valid and time-honoured strategy after all.
-ooo-
Professor Port was boring. No, Boring would imply he was saying something important, but that I could bring myself to pay attention. Calling Professor Port boring was an insult to boring people. Truthfully, Professor Port was nothing. He was empty calories. Food without sustenance. Like popcorn with no butter. Or salt. Or flavour.
Within mere moments of stepping into the room, Pyrrha, Nora, Ren and I had rushed to a corner of the lecture hall near the front. We had nearly been late for class, the general chaos Nora was capable of causing and Ren's resigned acceptance of that chaos making it so we hadn't noticed the time until Team RWBY - who it turned out was across the hall from us - had run out of their rooms screaming about being late.
It had all been down hill from there. Despite having arrived to class ready and willing to learn about all the Huntsmen related knowledge I definitely didn't have, Professor Port had set me straight. He had begun a long rambling story about his adventures in the Grimm lands that had been going for nearly an hour now. There was so little actual information in this lecture that I had actually withdrawn a small vial of dust from my bag to fiddle with under the table. Structural Analysis meant I didn't honestly need to be looking at what I was working on, and since I apparently sensed magic via touch it wasn't much of a stretch to work with Alteration and instinct while pretending to be paying attention. Not that Port would ever notice. Half the class was literally asleep. In fact, the only student who appeared to be raring to go after the last hour of this auditory assault was Weiss.
"So!" Port bellowed, which seemed to be the only volume he was capable of speaking in.
"Who among you fancies themselves a true Hunstman?" He asked the class. It took me a couple of seconds to register that he wasn't still going into absurd detail about the exact composition of the detritus on the forest floor where he wrestled a beowolf barehanded.
"ME!" Weiss howled, shocking a portion of the sleeping students awake before coughing lightly and then sitting back down.
"I mean, me sir!" she said again. The sudden jerking of half the class shook the table I was working under, causing me to jerk back in surprise and drop the vial of frost dust I had been fiddling with. The goal had been to reinforce and alter the dust in a way that would give me more power for longer. Right now my aura trick pretty much used up the entire vial of dust for a single moment of an extremely high energy effect. In essence, I wasn't draining the vial and then using some of the power over time - I was using all the potential energy in the vial, all at once. If I used blue dust for instance, I wouldn't freeze the area around me by sitting in it. I would flash freeze everything around me in the two seconds the effect lasted and then my aura would return to normal. That was useful in scenarios where I wanted a burst of power - the yellow dust I had used to obliterate seven Beowolves comes to mind - but other types of dust not so much.
So when I dropped the little vial of blue dust, it was with my life flashing before my eyes that I watched it roll across the room to land perfectly under Weiss' foot.
I actually held my breath. It wasn't like I was actively empowering the stuff so she might not die. Maybe.
Blessedly, the vial actually rolled into the arch between her high heels and I quickly released the breath. Weiss seemed to notice the disturbance, because just as Port said; "Wonderful! Young lady why don't you come down here and prove you have what it takes to be a Huntress hmm?" she leaned over to pick up the vial. I tried to catch her eyes as she passed me, but she breezed past me to change into her combat attire as coldly as ever. Man, she really did not like me. She was also walking away with my highly unstable experimental magically altered dust.
Oh boy.
-ooo-
Finally! The people of this school simply have no respect. First Ruby with her exuberant ignorance and brash personality, and then that blonde idiot that kept trying to get my attention. I had dealt with his type before and - as is the trial of anyone truly worth knowing - likely would again. It was best that I not even attempt to be cordial or polite to him. People like Jaune Arc would read too much into any action, and assume that for whatever reason they honestly had a chance with the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company.
I glanced at the vial of dust the fool had dropped, bouncing it in my hand.
Really, I was not a petty person. But compassion, as father would say, is a weakness.
I eyed the vial of blue dust, then eyeballed how much remained in Myrtenaster. It could use a top up.
And if he complained well. I didn't know it was his after all now did I? It's not as though he told me.
-ooo-
Weiss stepped back into the classroom wearing the white dress she for some reason thought was somehow a good idea to fight in. She neither looked at nor acknowledge me when I waved for her attention and a sinking feeling of dread filled me.
No its fine. Its fine. I'll just catch her after class. She's probably just really focused right now. And for good reason.
Within moments of Weiss leaving the room, Professor Port had pulled the tarp off of a cage that had been making snuffling noises on one end of the classroom to reveal a Boarbatusk. It was another one of those semi-common varieties of Grimm native to Vale so I was passingly familiar with it. It was basically a horse sized boar covered in spines and the trademark white mask all Grimm wore. They were famous for their tenacity. It wasn't so much that they were hard to kill, but where other Grimm began to vanish the moment a fatal blow had been landed on them, a Boarbatusk would remain in existence for several seconds after it had apparently died, struggling and flailing at its killer before it actually faded away.
This one had taken to ramming itself into the bars of its cage the second Weiss had entered the room, rapier in hand. She peered at the Grimm impassively, a poise to her that helped mitigate how abrasive her personality was.
"Go get 'em Weiss!" Ruby yelled from somewhere behind me, causing the white haired girls eye to twitch. It was immediately apparent to me after arriving in class that Ruby and her partner didn't get along. The only thing more constant than Port's boisterous voice in this class had been Weiss' constant nagging and needling of the younger girl. Still, Ruby seemed to be taking it in stride, no doubt hoping the cold girl would warm to her with time. I hoped she did - Ruby was too nice to have to deal someone who hated her for four years.
"Are you ready miss Schnee?" Port asked from his position next to the cage.
"Yes," Weiss said calmly, nodding.
"You got this girl!" Yang hollered from off my right. There was another twitch but otherwise nothing.
"Very well! Begin!" Port barked, slamming a meaty fist into the cage that caused the front of it to swing wildly open.
The Boarbatusk needed no more than that, because it immediately sprinted out of the cage at Weiss. She did well at first, dancing out of the way of its rapid charges before lashing out at it with her rapier. But a problem arose pretty much immediately.
She couldn't hurt it.
Each time Weiss counter attacked the thing in passing, her rapier just skidded across it's armoured back. The beast looked no more trouble after five minutes of fighting than it had at the start, but Weiss was already started to display fatigue. The constant dodging and concentration were getting to her - not to mention the stress of doing this while her whole class watched.
"Get him in the clinch!"
"It's got a soft tummy!"
"Do the thing with the ice!"
The peanut gallery certainly didn't help, with Ruby and Yang yelling a constant stream of unsolicited advice at her. Eventually, Weiss whirled on the two girls, fury in her face.
"Stop trying to help!" She screeched at them, unfortunately taking her eyes off the Boarbatusk just as it decided to curl up into a spikey armoured ball and fling itself at her. Her attention returned to the Grimm just slightly too late, and it clipped her as she jumped away, causing her to drop her weapon.
"The floor! Ice the floor!" Ruby called out in good humour still. I had no idea how she was so relaxed about this. I had nearly jumped from my seat to help a number of times, even if all I could do was tank the fast-moving Grimm with my huge aura reserves.
Weiss scrambled across the floor for her weapon, reaching it just as the Boarbatusk spun around and renewed its charge. Instead of pointing the blade at the incoming threat, the stabbed the weapon into the ground spinning the chambered dust cartridges in the handle and doing... something. I hadn't really gotten a good look at Weiss using her semblance before, even though I knew she had used it to slow her fall back in the forest.
Now though, I was staring directly at it when the circle appeared before her, between herself and the Boarbatusk. I couldn't understand what the hell the inscriptions in the ring actually said, but something about it piqued my interest as a Magus.
It was like looking at the source code for reality. I could physically feel the energy gathering in the circle before changing itself to perfectly match the instructions she had willed upon them. And she had willed them done. It wasn't Magecraft - it wasn't powered by Prana, I could tell that right off. But it was clear she hadn't had to do the painstaking calculations required to produce the effect that I would have had to with blue dust. She just decided what she wanted to happen, flicked her semblance on, and it happened. Weiss, whether she knew it or not, had a semblance that basically turned Aura and Intent into Magecraft.
My hand was halfway to my pencil so I could try to write down the runes and formula I had just witnessed when I realized something was wrong. There was to much power in that circle. The math I had quickly run in my head when I saw it told me the goal was just to slick the floor with ice while making a ramp with the same stuff so the Boarbatusk would fly over Weiss' kneeling form.
Instead, a veritable glacier erupted from the ground, quickly encompassing the half of the room the Boarbatusk was on and obscuring the floor of the classroom. Port had to hop smartly out of the way to avoid the spikes of ice that promptly eviscerated the Boarbatusk and most of the wall behind it.
Suddenly I knew what had happened. Hand still halfway in the air, I slowly turned my head back towards Weiss, unsure of what I would see when I did. You could have heard a pin drop the room was so quiet in the aftermatch. When my eyes finally fell on Weiss, she was looking right at me.
God damnit. She knew.
"Wooo! Go Weiss! How did you do that?! How come you never did it against the Nevermore?! That would have been so cool!" Ruby yelled jumping up from her see and flailing her hands in the air in complete defiance of the the quiet she was interrupting.
"I didn't -" Weiss started, turned her head towards Ruby but keeping her eyes firmly trained on me.
"Ah. Well. It appears I'll have to call some of the janitorial staff to clean up. Worry not! Class was nearly over anyway. What say you all leave a bit early for your next class with Miss Goodwitch hm? Weiss, a word?" Port said pleasantly, waving the destruction off like it was a pretty common side effect of his classes. Weiss' head snapped around to look at the Professor like he had just accused her high treason, a shocked look on her face.
"I... was going to ask to speak to you after class anyway Professor." She said, recovering quickly.
I quickly decided I didn't want to be anywhere near her when she finally got free of the Professor, so I turned to Pyrrha and said;
"Come on, we can get good seats in the next class if we leave now. Nora, Ren!"
My team quickly fell in around me and we hightailed it out of there.
Once we were in the halls, three pairs of eyes turned to me.
"Jaune, I had been meaning to ask after your display in the forest but - do you perhaps have some faculty with Dust?" Pyrrha asked me gently.
"Boy does he!" Nora cackled from next to her. "Was that his fault?"
"I did notice Weiss picking up a dust vial he had dropped prior to her display yes." Pyrrha admitted easily, shooting me an apologetic smile as she spoke. Shit. She was too pretty for me to be mad at. This must be why Dad always just does whatever Mom says. He knows better.
"Hah! Jaune, you have got to make me super duper dust grenades!" Nora begged, practically vibrating with excitement. I had only known her for a day and a half, but even I was wise enough to step smartly back to avoid her grasping hands while she spoke.
"I uh... It's a family secret?" I tried, using the same line I had used on Ruby. I could say it was my semblance - but then if I ever actually figured out what my semblance was, I'd either have to hide it, or find another excuse to cover it. I was pretty shitty at lying in the first place, so I figured 'family secret' was close enough to the truth to go with.
After all, I had technically learned Magecraft because of Leon Arc's magic book.
"So your family are Dust technicians then? Researchers perhaps?" Ren asked me curiously.
"Something like that yeah." Huntsmen are basically Dust Technicians, right? They use the stuff after all.
"Is it difficult?" Ren asked.
"What?" I said not sure what he was getting at.
"Fortifying dust so that it behaves in that way. Is it difficult." Ren said, pointing back to the classroom for emphasis.
"Oh. To learn? Yes. Don't even ask about that one. But I could probably do a few clips of ammo in an hour or so if I had the time and space." I supplied, mentally going over just what I had done to the vial in class and trying to think about how I would do it if I was looking for a more toned down effect. I liked the word 'Fortify', so that's what I was going to call the stuff. Fortified Dust. I liked it. It was wholly and truly mine. A part of my original Magecraft that even Archer couldn't make heads or tails of.
"Soooo~" Nora said, sidling up to me.
Wait.
I looked to Ren, who was smiling placidly at the middle distance, completely ignoring me as though we had never had that conversation.
"I was thinkiiiiiing~"
This son of a bitch.
Several minutes and a few promises later, I was sitting in my first combat class. True to Archers word, it was literally a concrete box with bleachers in it. A screen was attached to the far wall, and lights hanging above were aimed at the center of the room where a large clear area was. There were no desks, and there was no black board. It was just a concrete room with Miss Goodwitch in it, standing patiently to one side of the well lit area where fights were obviously meant to happen.
Once everyone had arrived - I made a point of avoiding Weiss - Miss Goodwitch spoke, her eyes scanning the crowd of teenagers like a farmer examining cattle.
"Welcome everyone, to your first day of Combat Class. As you might expect we will be doing a significant amount of fighting here, and as such, starting tomorrow I will expect each of you to change into your combat attire before arriving in class." She said, and I just about melted in my chair with relief. If she wasn't expecting anyone to be ready to fight then -
"Arc. Winchester. Go get changed and get in the ring."
Aaand there it is.
Cardin stood up from his seat immediately, flashing a daring smile at his team. I got up from my own seat with significantly more effort. I could tell without looking that most of the room was watching either me or Cardin as we both trudged to the changing rooms. Cardin's locker was apparently much farther away from the class than mine was, because even though we both jogged out of the class at the same time, I grabbed my gear, changed, and made it back to the class without ever seeing him.
I stood nervously in the center of the room under the scrutiny of my Miss Goodwitch and the class. Absently, I started surreptitiously rubbing my finger over the Dust vials at my belt. Without really thinking about it, I started altering the the purple gravity dust, enhancing its properties. It was complete in record time, and I had almost started to reach for the next vial on my belt when Cardin finally arrived.
He was dashing I'll give him that. Looked like a real knight and everything. Full body armour, well-coiffed hair, a literal phoenix embossed in gold on the chest of metal armour. If there was anything that ruined the look, it was the menacing looking two-handed mace he lugged into the room over one shoulder. That thing looked like bad news, and I considered it a point of pride that I didn't immediately chicken out after seeing it. Cardin's smug grin didn't do much for my confidence either, and he alternated between sneering at me and shooting furtive looks up at the crowd of girls (plus Ren) that made up JNPR and RWBY.
Heaven above, I'm going to get pummeled because he wants to impress girls. There was no justice in this world.
Resigned to my beating, I rolled my shoulders and withdrew Crocea Mors and my shield, taking a stance.
"When you are ready, you may begin." Miss Goodwitch said, stepping away to watch the proceedings.
We circled each other for a bit, and the slow pace of the movement allowed me to make a solid attempt at keeping my footing solid and stance strong while I moved. It was an act of course. I was terrible at this, hence the need for practice. But at least it let me avoid looking like a complete moron in front of everyone I know.
"Go Jaune!" Ruby cheered from the bleachers.
"Kick his ass!" Yang hollered right afterwards
"Good luck Jaune!" Pyrrha called tentatively.
Every cheer in my favour made Cardin's face turn a deeper shade of red until eventually, something gave, and he charged at me. Thanks for nothing team. Now he was mad at me.
I ducked under the first blow, a wide swipe that would have taken my head off if I hadn't avoided it. I tried for a thrust as I ducked, but stumbled backwards as Cardin's knee came up to crash into my nose. Still seeing stars, I only barely had the presence of mind to raise my shield against the next attack, an overhand slam that kept me off balance and probably would have broken my arm if I didn't have an aura.
Panic and instinct kicked in, and I found my sword arm lowering as I considered reaching for a dust vial.
But then I stopped. I already knew I could total the whole room if I wanted to. Pretty much everyone here could if they put their minds to it, but for me, it would be especially easy. Only, I wasn't here to learn how to demolition a room of people. I was here to learn how to use a damn sword, and if I tried to cheat my way through with Magecraft at every turn, then Magecraft was the only thing I was going to get better at. That would be fine, given lots of Huntsmen have specializations - but unlike them, I couldn't exactly be open with my Magecraft.
Plus, it's not like I was in any real danger. This was school. There was a Teacher watching.
So instead of grabbing a vial and flattening the immediate area around me, I continued my desperate attempts to defend myself. The moment of hesitation I had shown when considering my options hadn't been missed by Cardin, and he feinted left before stepping into my guard and kicking viciously at my exposed legs. The pain was vast, a sure sign that that would have been a bone breaking blow for anyone without aura, and I felt the ground go out from under me.
"Whats wrong Arc?!" Cardin jeered as I rolled to the left, desperate to avoid the hammer blows he was now raining down on me.
"Come on, what are you just gonna dodge the whole fight you pansy?!" He continued, scoring a solid blow against my shoulder.
The fight continued like that for a good two minutes. An admirable time to last for someone like me in my humble opinion. But it definitely wasn't going well for me. By the time Miss Goodwitch called a halt to the combat, most of the room was watching me with disappointed expressions that made me wince far more than the pain of Cardin's blows had.
"Stop," Goodwitch called, and Cardin's mace stopped mere inches from the side of my head. I immediately relaxed, bending over to put my hands on my knees so I could pant in peace.
"A good showing Mr. Winchester, though you have a tendency to over-commit to your swings. Make an attempt to hold back a bit - there were a number of times where if Mr. Arc had been even slightly faster he could have retaliated against you. Remember, as Hunstmen we are more frequently faced with overwhelming numbers than we are a single skill foe. You will rarely be able to overwhelm the odds in this manner." Miss Goodwitch praised Cardin, or well, as close to praise as the woman ever seemed to get at least.
"As for you Mister Arc... you are certainly adept at minimizing the damage you take. However, you seem to have trouble actually fighting back." She said the last while looking at me with a contemplative expression.
"Come on M'am it's not like he's going to blow the room up to win!" Nora called, no doubt thinking she was helping.
"Oh right! Jaune's got family secrets!" Ruby said, her voice slowly raising from subdued to hyper active over the course of those few, short, damning words.
If the baleful glare I sent their way was noticed, then they chose not to react to it. I was already turning out to be shit at hiding my Magecraft around these people - the last thing I needed was Ruby and Nora telling everyone they met about my 'family secrets'.
"Family... secrets?" Miss Goodwitch asked, her tone somewhere between annoyed and curious.
"Ah... it's just some stuff I can do that I didn't think would be productive in a duel?" I tried. Hey it might work.
"Mr. Arc, I can understand wanting to hide a semblance or other skill, but things like 'holding back' and 'hiding a trump card' are usually reserved for people competent enough to defend themselves without their use. You clearly are not, and I can't see a reason to teach someone who isn't willing to bring their all to my class." The witch said pointedly.
Ugh. Fine. I'd show her once and then she'd never let me do it in class anyway. Sighing deeply, I sheathed Corcea Mors and let my hand fall to the belt holding my dust. I didn't actually need to be touching it, but it did make it easier, and it's not like I was going to actually attack anyone.
With a quick flick of my will, my Magic Circuits burned to life, the metaphysical rasp of steel wrang through my soul. Eyeing the distance between me and Goodwitch, I stepped away from her. I wasn't worried about Cardin - he had already swaggered his way back to his team and was watching the proceedings with a childish, and malicious glee.
All at once, I raised one booted foot, reinforced myself to the max, and actualized the mystery that would allow me to change my Aura to a wave of pure gravity. Gravity that bent to my will. The results were interesting. I felt as though I had a much greater control over the phenomenon with the altered dust than I did when using it unmodified. Maybe that was because the stream of power rushing into me was a constant instead of a flash in the pan. Either way, I willed gravity to increase as I swung my aura clad, reinforced foot downward.
The result was impressive. The concrete floor pretty much exploded. As before with the Cyan Crystal I had used on the Deathstalker, the room suddenly sported a concave dent in it, though this time the force of the blow had sent concrete shards spraying across the room to pepper everything for several meters around the new crater that was suddenly there. A pleased coo of appreciation escaped my lips as I rubbed a thumb across the gravity vial. Yeah it had take a lot of my remaining Aura - the ability was cost prohibitive that way - but the Dust was only about a third of the way used up. And being able to get more usage out of my dust was always a good thing.
The second of consideration had been enough to distract me from Miss Goodwitch and the rest of the class. A state of affairs I would have preferred to keep, except that Nora began cheering immediately afterwards, followed by about half of team RWBY - Yang and Ruby specifically - and all of JNPR.
Cardin was looking at the hole in the ground I was standing in with equal parts rage and fear, and Goodwitch was...
Still just looking at me pensively.
"I take it, Mr. Arc, that over-reliance on this ability of yours is the reason your record looks as it does." She queried. I had... no idea what the meant, but if it helped sell my fake transcripts I was all for it. So I just shrugged in response, hoping she would take that as a yes. I was a crap liar after all.
"I suppose it would make sense that you would turn your interest towards swordsmanship. You would like to be well rounded I presume."
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak lest I gave away the game.
"Very well."
Yes. Yes yes yes yes. I was good. I was scott free. I had made it work, I had covered my ass and explained why I was so bad at using my sword all at once. This was great. I was going to have to do something nice for Nora after this. Maybe apologize for glaring at her. And Ruby to, since she -
"We shall have your primary practice partner be Miss Schnee then. You both seem to rely heavily on dust enhanced attacks, and so should be good sparring partners for the purposes of improving your swordsmanship."
I nearly gave myself whiplash turning to stare agape at her, then turning again to stare agape at Weiss.
Who was smiling.
Evilly.
God. Damnit.
-ooo-
Lets see things to address. So with regards to Shirou and Gradation Air - as far as I can tell after a run over of some of the material, Shirou never learned Gradation Air, in fact, he only inveted Tracing because he was ignorant of how the spell was supposed to be cast. It was literally an achievement only possible because he had never learned the normal version of the spell.
I'm also definitely aware of lucks place in the Fate universe, but its easy to use as an excuse to blame Archer for stuff, especially from Jaune's point of view, who doesn't know any better and isn't likely to get it explained to him by anyone competent any time soon.
Finally,the Beowolf pack strength thing. I've found over time that despite The characters in ruby acting like Beowolves are a threat, they really aren't. It takes really no time at all for Beowolves to become established as the generic mook character among the Grimm, and I always felt that didn't easily match up against the way the show wants Grimm to be perceived in general. If Beowolves were that easy to kill I feel strongly that even normal citizens with a gun could handle them. So in this fic I've introduced the 'Stronger the more of them there are' rule. It means a swarm of grim is a threat instead of an excuse to animate a bunch of cool looking fights - not that I don't appreciate those. Oh and as always,
Thanks for reading.