Ruby and Nora were like two little children informed they were going to an amusement park as they talked and skipped ahead of the group (Ren relieved he wasn't carrying the girl on his back, instead he had a big backpack with both his and her stuff). Pyrrha talked with Jaune in a clearly happy and easy mood, showering him with questions while Blake walked behind them reading a book, but listening to any information the knight was willing to give. Weiss walked by her side carrying three big suitcases with her stuff, despite the heiress saying it was just essentials. Behind everyone was Yang, unusually quiet and pensive.
"Are you alright, sunshine?" Jaune called for her and she stared back at him, and she gave him a smile.
"Yeah. I think I really need these days off, that's all." She answered back and winked at him, prompting the boy to smile back at her.
"So, how cramped is your house?" Weiss asked using the opportunity to asses her future accommodations. "Will we have to share rooms with your sisters?"
"Only if you want to. There's plenty of space there, maybe too much. It was reformed recently, so you can expect all the modern conveniences we have here." Jaune informed them as they finally arrived at the air docks. Chifuyu was waiting for them carrying a small briefcase, but pretty much as Jaune she was only carrying it and her sword. Ozpin and Glynda were also there, surprising the teenagers.
"Good morning, children." Ozpin started.
"Uh, I never knew you would be so happy to see us going away to come and send us off." Yang commented and everyone froze for a moment before Ozpin chuckled a little.
"Different from what you might believe I'll indeed miss you all. Things tend to become dull around here." Ozpin declared with a smile.
"What he means is that he has less excuses to not do his job." Chifuyu added with a smirk.
"On the other hand, for some reason I feel like Oobleck and Port turn back in teenagers when the students aren't around." Glynda added while wondering what the two teachers were up to.
"So, same bet?" Port asked while holding his blunderbuss axe.
"Exactly. Loser has to run around Beacon naked!" Oobleck declared as he programmed the launching pads at the cliffs.
"I can't imagine either of them as teenagers…" Jaune commented back.
"Oh, here comes our ride." Chifuyu commented as she observed an approaching airship.
It was bigger than a bullhead, but painted in a pitch dark matte black, with only the tail painted a dark purple with a silver fleur-de-lis. The ship maneuvered and landed almost silently, revealing its angular lines and odd design fully. Ruby was jumping in excitement while some of the others stared back at Jaune with questions on their heads. The boy just stared at the ship and hoped for the best.
The back door opened and a petite girl walked out, wearing light grey armor over a purple dress, carrying a sword on her side and a lance with a purple flag with the same fleur-de-lis in the middle, and stood in front of them. She had platinum blonde hair in a braid that reached her waist, clear purple eyes and a silvery headpiece framing her young face.
"I'm Jeanne D'Arc from the Kingdom of Arcadia and I'm here to escort Jaune Arc and his entourage." She declared solemnly, if with a light accent, while everyone was too shocked to answer. The blonde boy just face palmed loudly.
"And here I thought Nero would be the one making a fuzz." He said as he walked towards the girl.
"It's nice to see you again Ah!" He simple hugged the girl, which seemed confused at first but then hugged him back tightly. After a minute or two he grabbed her hand and took her close to his friends.
"Let me introduce you. Everyone, this is my twin sister Jeanne. Jeanne, you remember Ruby and Yang?" Jaune said, and three girls left a relieved sigh when learned they were siblings.
"I do remember. You two grown up since the last time we met." Jeanne answered in a very polite manner.
"You grew up too, especially around the chest." Yang said and was slapped in the back of her head by Blake, while Ruby and Weiss stared at their own chests complaining about the unfairness of life. Jaune groaned loudly and resumed presentations, while Jeanne just tilted her head slightly.
"The others are Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee, Yang and Ruby's partners respectively."
"Nice to meet you too, mademoiselle Belladonna, mademoiselle Schnee." Jeanne answered with a small curtsy that Weiss answered in kind, while Blake just nodded.
"They are my friends, Jeanne, no need to be so formal." Jaune chastised his sister.
"I don't know. I like the sound of it. Mademoiselle Schnee." Weiss repeated to herself with a smirk in her face.
"Just call her Weiss as everyone else. Going on, these are Nora and Ren." The two of them smiled at her. "And finally but not least this is my partner Pyrrha."
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, mademoiselle Nikos. My brother speaks highly of you."
"You can call me Pyrrha, Jeanne." The champion answered with a bigger smile in her face now.
"Now it's us. Jeanne, these are the headmaster of Beacon, Ozpin, and deputy headmistress Glynda Goodwitch." Chifuyu introduced them.
"Miss Glyn!" Jeanne said happily. "You haven't aged a day!"
"Well, at least someone recognized me promptly." The teacher answered while glancing at Jaune, which gave a nervous chuckle and scratched the back of his head.
"My sisters will be glad to see you again next week. In fact, I am also here to deliver your invitations, and if possible ask you to deliver others to certain Valean notables." She said as she gave a small box to Glynda.
"Don't worry; we'll make sure they reach their destination. I'd love to talk more, but I'm certain you all want to proceed with your trip promptly. Send your parents my regards, young man." Ozpin finished addressing Jaune and left with Glynda.
"OK, let's go on board." Jaune called them all and they did as he asked.
Inside was very different from outside. Clear colors filled the interior, and two fox Faunus women dressed in pilot uniforms helped them with their luggage. After putting the entire luggage in place, they took to admire the interior of the ship. It wasn't luxurious but it wasn't economic class level either. Two rolls of five executive level seats graced them, covered in what Weiss knew it was real leather. All of them had private terminals and tables, and could turn into beds. In the front, there was an oval table with seats.
"We'll be taking off soon, so make yourselves comfortable." One of the pilots said as she helped them to put their weapons in a shelf near the door. "Time of flight till our destination is six hours with fair weather all the way. On the right…" She pointed to one of the lockers near the front of the ship. "You can find cold beverages and snacks; the restroom is on the left."
With that the pilots closed the door and moved to the cabin. Chifuyu sat in one of the big seats and inclined it, deciding to put some reading up to date as she accessed the terminal. The teens sat around the table while Nora assaulted the fridge and grabbed some foods and drinks for everyone. The ship vibrated only slightly as its engines revved up and they took off, and as soon as they were in the air they barely could feel it moving.
"Alright, now the pressing question. Jaune…" Ruby turned to his friend. Pyrrha was sitting by his left and his sister on his right. "I do think you might have left out some itsy bitsy information about your family."
"Little things like owning a private bullhead that I expected Weiss to have and something called Kingdom of Arcadia." Blake added with her eyes on him.
"Are you a prince?!" Nora asked with her mouth stuffed with some cake she found.
"I think I have to talk a bit about my family story to explain this all." Jaune said as he scratched the back of his head.
"Good, then you can explain why you lied to us." Yang asked a little angrily.
"To be fair, I never lied to any of you. Every question I was asked was answered truthfully, you all just didn't ask the right questions." Jaune defended himself.
"We'll be the judges of that, smartass." Yang answered as she crossed her arms.
"Alright? Well, let's start with the beginning. I told Blake this already, but my great-great-grandfather was a general during the Great War, leading Human and Faunus alike. After the war ended, he discovered that the promises they made to the people wouldn't be followed, so he decided to find a land to create a place where such promises would be filled." Jaune started as he activated a holo-screen on the table to show a map of Remnant. "He did find a place here." He pointed to the 'head' of the 'dragon' in the east, between Vale and Mistral, and the image zoomed in.
"Our ancestor found a land full of rivers and waterfalls, with green forest and fields, surrounded by mountains in all sides but the exit to the sea. In the biggest river he found an island and called it home, building the first fort of our nation and initiating the cleansing of the Grimm on it." Jeanne added.
"Even today it's hard to clean any big stretch of land from Grimm." Ren mentioned and the Arc twins nodded at the same time.
"It took two years and many lives to completely clean that island, and more than once they were on the verge of giving up but they pressed on. Once the land was cleansed, the first town was built and the first farms established, and the first settlers came from Vale and other places, and the ideals that would serve as the basis for our country were determined." Jeanne completed.
"Equality, fraternity, freedom." Jaune mentioned with a small smile. "Only those who wanted to live by those simple concepts where welcome to the settlement. Ten years after, our people cleansed the whole valley from Grimm, and more and more people came to help us with our dream. Luck struck twice as we found Dust on the mountains, and our home become virtually independent from the four great kingdoms."
"But… why we never heard about it before? I mean, I read that the settlement existed, but if it's such a successful endeavor…" Weiss asked them.
"Seventy years ago, years after our great-great-grandfather died and our great-grandmother assumed the role of leader of the settlement, we received an unexpected visit. A Valean warship escorted by two Atlesian ones. With them a councilwoman from Vale, saying she came to assume her function as superintendent of the settlement, collect the taxes we 'owned' Vale and apply the Valean law." Jeanne told them in a slight sad tone.
"Valean laws at the time would enforce segregation against the Faunus people." Blake said as she clenched her fists tight.
"Exactly, and it would force us to give them control over our Dust mines…" Jaune added.
"And probably give them to the Schnee Dust Company…" Weiss ended in an apologetic tone.
"Half of our people are Faunus. Accepting those demands would mean that our neighbors and friends would lose their freedom. Everything our country was built upon would be destroyed if we accepted their demands to avoid war." Jaune talked again. "We would have peace but not freedom, our lives but not as equals. My great-grandmother, Lunamaria Arc, took the hardest decision she ever had to."
"We had an advantage our enemies didn't, and that was our Faunus brothers and sisters. And since the lesson from Fort Castle was not learned yet, we used it to our advantage." Jeanne spoke again. Jaune made a gesture with his hands on his eyes.
"Binoculars?" Ruby asked while tilting her head and eating a cookie. She actually brought a family sized bag of the treats with her.
"No you dunce, night vision! They used the Faunus to attack at night!"
"We captured every single soldier and their ships, and we declared our independence, sending a message to the four kingdoms that we wouldn't submit to them. While the kingdoms had such names but no kings, the people decided to crown my great-grandmother as queen to make it more official. Of course there were threats from Atlas and Vale, but now we had three battleships and we started, sadly, arming ourselves and creating our first army." Jaune explained, not too proud of that part of their history.
"After months of tension, we came to an agreement with the kingdoms. We would free our prisoners and pay for the ships, sign a non-aggression deal with them and hold our independence but there was a hefty price. We would be forbidden of making our independence public and we couldn't interfere in any of the other Kingdoms business." Jeanne completed once again.
"That doesn't sound so bad." Nora affirmed.
"Oh, but of course things didn't end there." Chifuyu finally spoke from her seat. "Politicians have their way to subvert their deals."
"She's right, they do and they did. The four kingdoms cut us from the world, in a way. Our ships were forbidden of navigating on their waters our docking on their ports, and they forbid anyone to make business with us. Not only that, they started erasing our existence from their books and press. Because of that, when the Faunus War started we couldn't help the fight for what was right: freedom." Jeanne said and both she and Jaune looked dejected.
"We're sorry, Blake. But if we had fought with the Faunus for their rights, we would end up risking our own people." Jaune said to the girl, and she clenched her fist for a moment. It was true that the support of a whole Kingdom could've helped them, but what she was asking was the sacrifice of Jaune's people for her own.
"It's the past, not your fault." She finally said and received a comforting hand from Yang.
"In a way it ended up being good for us. We created our own currency, our own language even, based in an old one my family preserved. It helped us create our own identity. But while we were isolated, we didn't stop bringing people in, even if using less… honorable means." Jaune resumed his story.
"We created a net of smugglers and spies, and we offered asylum to people escaping the other kingdoms from persecution and oppression. We brought in scientists whose theories displeased the powerful, activists and artists whose works clashed with the status quo, people whose ideals were the same as ours but that created unrest in their own kingdoms." The Arc sister added again. "And thirty years ago we decided it was time to make our presence in the world recognized again."
"That was just after the Faunus war." Blake commented.
"Exactly. It could be said it was a little mean of us, but we used the chance to make our presence know and especially what we could do. So we invited the four kingdoms leaders to show our own kingdom. And we signed a new deal with them, though I don't think it was because they saw their mistakes." Jaune said.
"Our grandfather showed our military capacity, mostly, and offered a simple deal: be friends with us or risk creating an enemy, in a moment they couldn't afford one. The new deal opened the path for commerce and trade again, and we struck cooperation deals with Vale and Mistral, including treats of mutual protection. Atlas was the only kingdom to adamant be against those deals, and thanks to them we still were forbidden to reveal ourselves as a new kingdom, but forced to call ourselves an 'autonomous settlement'. But thanks to this deal our mother could study at Beacon and meet our father." Jeanne added with a smile.
"Yeah, that was how those two met. So in short we have being able to go around and make connections between our kingdom and the rest, but Atlas was always blocking the reveal of Arcadia as an independent kingdom with the same status as the others. Our equality laws would be used by the Faunus movements as example and such. The reason Jaune couldn't openly admit his status was to avoid a conflict between his kingdom and the rest." Chifuyu concluded and everyone went silent for a moment, letting the information sinking in.
"So Jaune's a prince and Jeanne a princess!" Nora yelled suddenly, prompting everyone to stare at her in shock.
"This is what you concluded after hearing all this?!" Weiss screeched in indignation.
"You're just mad because you lost the chance of becoming a real princess." Yang stated with a smirk, making Weiss scoff.
"I'm not that shallow!"
"But you admit you're somewhat shallow." Blake added and Weiss started fuming.
"A prince…" Ruby and Pyrrha said at the same time as they stared intently at Jaune.
"Don't call me that… Look, first, being king or queen in Arcadia is different from what we read in old books. Every seven years when we elect the Parliament, the current monarch is put into a 'vote of confidence' from the people. They decide if the current monarch is fit to its job, and if they approve of him or her, the rule is extended by more seven years. If not, a new queen or king should be elected and any citizen can run for the throne."
"So it's a democratic monarchy? First time I hear of such arrangement." Weiss wondered.
"It worked until now. Of course, the current monarch can retire this way instead of getting stuck in the throne forever, and she can point an 'heir' if she wants. And my brother is the heir apparent." Jeanne affirmed with a smile but Jaune groaned loudly.
"Please no. I'm just Jaune Arc, student at Beacon. My mom is the queen but I have no special treatment and want none." The boy begged them.
"I can relate to that." Pyrrha murmured to herself and Jaune smiled at her.
"My friend is a prince! And his mother's a queen! Please tell me you all live in a castle!" Nora asked as she vibrated in her seat, apparently unable to hear anything else. Jaune groaned again while Jeanne just giggled at his struggle.
It took a long time before everyone calmed down enough to stop asking Jaune and Jeanne questions, and now everyone were relaxing a little. Nora fell asleep in one of the seats and Ren sat by her side, also sleeping. Ruby tried her best to not do the same, but soon she fall sleeping and was now a little red ball in her own seat. Blake was calmly reading her book, while Chifuyu kept using her terminal. Weiss and Pyrrha were enjoying some tea with Jeanne, spending the time in small talk. Jaune rested his head on the table, utterly tired from the ordeal of dealing with his friends.
"You know our friends back at Beacon will be as surprised with this info as us." Yang talked with him and he simple groaned. "Imagine Winchester's face when he discovers you're a prince!"
"That almost make this ordeal worth the hassle." Jaune answered without moving his head. "I said it before, I'm not special. I'm just me."
"I admire your humbleness, Arc." Weiss said with a small smile.
"Thanks."
"Talk about the festivities we are going to." She asked and he finally lifted his head.
"Oh, it'll be great! See, my mom's crowning, our Independency day and our Founding day all falls next week, so it's a whole week off in the whole country. People fill the streets with food carts, lots of street parties and there are fireworks." He said and the girls smiled at him.
"Sounds my kind of holiday!" Yang said promptly.
"Wouldn't you being busy with them?" Pyrrha asked worriedly.
"Nah. There's an official party on the first night, but after that we just go around. Mom says is because that way we can spend time with our people and know them better." Jaune answered and Pyrrha planned a way to spend time with him.
"This year there will be a special event since we will be celebrating one hundred years of our foundation. So you will be busy on that day." Jeanne affirmed and Jaune groaned.
"At least is right in the first days… I'd rather spend the time on the streets. No protocol to be followed or fancy clothes."
"That's my Jauney. I hope you know the best places to party then!" Yang asked with a smug face.
"You better behave while there, Xiao Long. Charlotte won't use her position to get you out of jail." Chifuyu said as she turned her terminal off and sat with them. "Remember that while on there you all pretty much will work as ambassadors. We don't get foreigners visiting often, after all."
"Don't worry, Chifuyu-sensei, I'll do my best to avoid my teammates of creating trouble." Weiss stated proudly.
"I'd be careful if I was you. The Schnee name isn't the most loved there. Many of the Faunus there have bad memories of the name." Chifuyu warned.
"Oh… I can see that…" Weiss answered as she stared at her own tea.
"And the same goes for you and your previous association, Belladonna." Chifuyu warned and Blake eyes widened. "Of course I know, Beacon checked on you and so did I. The fact Ozpin allowed you in shows the trust he has on you."
"But why…" Blake started questioning.
"A few years ago, when the White Fang changed from rights activists to terrorists, they came into our country, tried to rile up the Faunus over some old wounds, planned to kill the Arc family to put someone more… sympathetic to their cause and actions on the throne. That was why we kept Jaune and his sisters off the country a few years ago." Chifuyu explained.
"So when I spent that break with Yang…" Jaune started.
"It was us hiding you in a safer place. After we captured all the White Fang infiltrated in Arcadia we took you all back." His aunt finished.
"But Jaune told me Arcadia is very equalitarian to the Faunus!" Blake asked with clear despair in her eyes.
"And it is. But all you need is some disgruntled people eager to pin the blame for their bad luck on others to cause a mess. As I said some old wounds still hurt, and it won't be a hundred years that will end this kind of hate. And I'm warning you to keep it quiet about the Fang for your protection. Not only the humans, but most Faunus disapprove of the Fang and wouldn't be kindly to you. They do love the royal family." The teacher explained and Blake finally understood what she meant. If the Faunus loved the family that helped them achieve what she always dreamt, any attack at them, no matter the excuse, would resonate poorly.
"You could've told us." Pyrrha said to Jaune, both to change subjects and to get to understand his reason to hide it from them, meaning she wanted he had told her, at least.
"If you had asked I'd tell you. But if I had from day one declared my position, would any of you treat me the same?" Jaune asked and there was a moment of silence.
"I think… none of us could say we would." Blake spoke first, staring at him. "Though you would treat anyone the same even if you learned a secret of their past."
"Attention, we're now in Arcadian airspace." The voice of one of the pilots came from the speakers, prompting Jaune to go talk with them.
"Hey, can you do a low flight? I think my friends want to take a good look on our homeland." He asked and one of the pilots agreed. He proceeded to wake up the sleeping ones.
Thankfully for Ren as soon as Nora heard they were arriving she glued her face on the window, as did Ruby, but everyone but Jaune and his family did the same. They passed the mountain range that worked as natural walls for the kingdom and flew now over a green valley with forests and rivers. On the mountains they saw many waterfalls and streams proving water to the rivers bellow. When the forest ended they saw farms and small villages, and railroads connecting them, and in the rivers now there was many boats of several sizes.
"Jaune-Jaune, what about that city in the mountainside?" Nora asked as she pointed and everyone moved to the same side she was staring.
In the mountain there was a town with several tall buildings built on its side, coming from the base to the middle of it, with two rail lines moving big gondolas built like giant elevators moving from the top of the city to the bottom, and many foot bridges and cat walks linking the buildings.
"That is Montagne. The Dust mines are underneath it. The miners built the city so they didn't have to go back and forth from the capital, and many of our industries are based there." Jaune explained as the city passed behind them.
"How many people live here?" Weiss asked as she returned to her city and saw the many lovely little towns and villages beneath.
"We are almost as big as Vale. Montagne and Charte at the seaside are the biggest cities aside the capital." Jaune explained with a smile.
"And all of this in a hundred years… Impressive." Weiss admitted.
"It wasn't easy, but people can build amazing things when working together… and destroy everything when they don't." Jeanne wondered.
"Are we far from the capital?" Ruby asked from her seat.
"We might see it in a few minutes." Jaune answered and petted her, making her smile.
And as he promised they didn't had to wait long to see it. Settling in the shores and banks of many rivers and islands in the rivers was a city made of many houses with colorful roofs with wide streets separating the blocks, most built in the same size. Many squares and parks also dotted the landscape, and many trees were groomed in the sidewalks. A trolley system apparently connected all the neighborhoods of the city. Near its center there were bigger buildings in horizontal size but no skyscrapers, and what they imagined to be stores, business centers and even a stadium. But in the very center of the city it was the most magnificent construction.
"They have a castle!" Nora shouted to Ren.
There was tall grey stone walls surrounding the center of the city, from where trolleys, cars and trains came in and out from under its arcs, and inside there was many old buildings made of stone with dark red roofs, with a square gothic style castle with nine towers in the middle, but the castle and all the building had colorful flowers in their windows, and many gardens surrounded the area, with many people walking around.
"This is Avalon, our capital city, and that is called simple the Castle, where our government works and our family lives." Jeanne told them and there was astonishment and awe in their faces as the airship maneuvered to land in an airfield by the other side of the castle.
"A castle! We're going to spend our break in a real castle with a real prince, princesses and a queen! Oh my gosh DO YOU HAVE DRAGONS?"
"Nora, I don't think dragons are real." Ren tried to calm her.
"We don't have dragons, but we do have a garden with lots of friendly cats." Jeanne said with a smile and an expression that told them she loved cats.
"Almost as good!" Nora declared as she now stood at the door eager to get out.
"Wait!" Weiss shouted from her seat. "Protocol! Jeanne, Jaune, what's the correct protocol to talk with you and your family in public!? What is the right way to address and behave! And we have Yang, Nora and Ruby!"
"Hey!" The three girls in question made clear their opinion about them.
"Protocol?" Jaune questioned with a curious look. "Protocol?" He wondered while staring at Jeanne, who just smiled and shrugged. "We don't have any, just be polite and be yourself and mom will love you. We are normal people and none of us are into formalities."
"What? But…" Jeanne put a hand on the heiress shoulders and calmed her.
"Yeah, it's not like Aunt Charl will cut your head off if you slip… or will she?" Ruby asked Jaune.
"Nope, but you might have to go to your room without dessert."
"This is as brutal!" Nora declared and they ended up laughing. They stopped when they felt the airship touched down on the ground and now everyone got nervous, surprisingly, especially Jaune.
"Well… No more postponing it… I want to apologize beforehand for any weird behavior my family might show, especially dad. He tends to be too carefree… and Nero, she really doesn't take 'personal space' and 'hands off' as a rule. And…"
"Jaune, calm down." Pyrrha started.
"Yeah, we are used to weird people by now, I mean, we study at Beacon." Yang completed and he nodded.
"Yeah, right…" Jaune said as the door opened and he walked backwards outside. "I mean, they will behave since there's visAAAAHHH!"
As soon as he stepped outside he was surrounded and pushed down by six girls speaking at the same time. Yang laughed loud as she saw the scene while Pyrrha gave a concerned look at him, but their attention turned to a couple approaching them.
"Aunt Charl! Uncle Ichika!" Ruby said loudly and disappeared in middle of petals to reappear hugging the petite blonde woman with bright blonde her and motherly purple eyes, while the tall dark haired and bearded man smiled at the scene. "I missed you!"
"I missed you too. Look at you, a lady now." Charlotte answered while petting the young girl. "So, since my son is busy with his sisters, why you don't introduce me to your friends?"
"Sure thing! Aunt Charl, these are my teammates, Weiss, Blake and you remember my sister Yang, right?"
"It's a pleasure to meet you, your majesty." Weiss said with a curtsy, prompting Charlotte to giggle.
"It's my pleasure, Weiss. You don't need to address me like that except in an official meeting, you all can call me Charlotte. And I see Ruby is not the only one who grew up." The queen spoke with Yang and the brawler smiled.
"It's nice to see you all again. You really don't get old, Charlotte. And you look good with a beard, Ichika." Yang commented and the man laughed and caressed his beard.
"Yeah, I thought I needed a new look anyway. Students don't take you seriously if you look the same age as them." He affirmed.
"I'm pretty sure some girls really appreciate the change." Yang added making him laugh before freezing as Charlotte gave him a cold stare.
"Do they now, my husband?" She asked coldly but with a deadly smile. He just scratched the back of his head and chuckled nervously, and now they knew where Jaune took the habit.
"And these are Jaune's team, his partner Pyrrha and then Ren and Nora." Ruby finished the introductions.
"Thank you all for taking care of my son. I hope he didn't create too much trouble to you all."
"Jaune have being a great team leader, partner and friend, Charlotte." Pyrrha said proudly and with a sweet smile.
"I see." Charlotte gave a knowing look to the champion before turning to her children. "Jaune, stop playing with your sisters and come introduce them to your friends."
"Coming!" He shouted as he was able to pull himself up and came back surrounded by the young women. "So let me introduce the pairs. First we have the Saber twins, Nero and Artoria. They are sixteen."
"Pleased to meet you all." Started Artoria. She was very similar to Nero, except she had a slightly different hairstyle, wore a simple combination of shirt and skirt and had a regal and proud air around her that reminded a bit of Weiss when the heiress was calm and collected.
"Umu! You all must be quiet happy to meet such beautiful sight as me!" Nero, on the other hand, was closer to Yang, including in body type as her red dress showed plenty of her curves.
"Sister, please, can't you keep your ego in check for a moment?" Artoria chastised her twin sister.
"Dear sister, my mere presence is a gift to them! Umu! How can I not praise myself when I'm clear a gift from the gods to the people!"
"You're more of a nuisance."
"You just say that because you didn't develop as much as I did." Nero stated as she pushed her chest forward, clearly enraging Artoria, while both Weiss and Ruby stared at their chests and murmured something about unfairness.
"You two, no fighting now." Jaune prompted and both nodded and smiled at him. "Next is fifteen years old Anastasia and Ranko. Anya doesn't speak the common language very well."
"Pleased to meet you all and thanks for caring to brother." She said in paused words thick with an accent similar to Jeanne's. Anya had blue eyes and silver to gray hair and whore a simple white dress.
"You all have the gratitude of my kindred for tending to the one of the same blood as us." Ranko said in a pompous manner while twirling her umbrella. She wore a gothic dress of dark colors and strong makeup, and had dark grey hair in twin tails and red eyes. They all stared at her in a moment of shock.
"Are you sure Anya is the one with trouble speaking our language?" Nora asked creating a series of nervous laughter and Ranko to blush a little.
"Ranko actually loves the language and she likes the fancy words." Jaune justified while petting his sister. "She's thanking you all for taking care of me in name of my family."
"Oh, no problem. Jaune-Jaune is really easy to take care of. He's low maintenance." Nora said with a big smile, prompting Jaune's father to laugh loud to the boy's dismay.
"Now last but not least we have Miki and Makoto." Jaune said prompting the last girls to move upfront. Miki was a blonde the same type as Yang, except with green eyes instead of lilac, and had the same level of curves despite her young age, and wore a green dress.
"Miki is happy to meet you all and thankful you brought my big brother back. This time Miki will make sure to not let him go away again nano!" She proudly declared making certain girls to scream internally.
"Miki, you can't just hold him here. Big bro is doing it so he can get stronger to protect our people." Makoto said. She was a tomboyish girl that was closer in looks to her father, except with her mother's eyes. She wore a pair of tight jeans, white t-shirt and a black vest.
"Ren, she's like you, but while you're a boy who could pass as a girl she is a girl that could pass as a boy!" Nora shouted again, making both Ren and Makoto sighing, then stare at each other as a mutual understanding filled them.
"Well, now that everyone was introduced, you might be hungry as it's already pass lunch time." Charlotte prompted and the Arc sisters apparently calmed down at the mention of food and lined up in front of their mother. "Come on you all, let's go inside."
As they walked, the Arc sisters happily talked with Jaune's friends while trading stories featuring the poor Knight who couldn't stop groaning over it. Ruby quickly linked with Anya, while Weiss and Artoria found much in common in their personalities. Miki and Nora became fast friends, Yang and Nero teasing everyone and Blake found herself in quiet a comfortable dialogue with Ranko. Ren and Makoto could just try to keep their impulsive friend and sister respectively under control.
"So, who's big brother girlfriend?" Miki shouted all of sudden, making everyone froze for a moment.
"Jaune, I thought you didn't have one yet." Charlotte asked with a scary tone in her voice.
"Or maybe all those lovely ladies are your girlfriends? I told you confidence was key, son." Ichika said and laughed, missing the several murdering glares aimed at him, while Chifuyu just face palmed at all the situation.
It was clear their stay in Arcadia would be anything but uneventful.