There are many times in my life I have looked back on my actions and questioned the sense in them. Many times I have moved forward while burying my regrets.
"That- that sneak!"
It is perhaps merely a side effect of those situations that I am significantly more self aware than other people my age. Much more capable of thinking of my actions and how they affect the greater picture of life.
"To hide something like this from me. From me! A Schnee! One of the foremost names in dust production and refinement!"
Unfortunately, that self awareness is something that can be hard to pass to others. And not for the first time since arriving at this school I found myself watching a teenager behave like a child.
"Um, Weiss?" Ruby asked hesitantly from her position across the room.
"What!?" The heiress yelled back.
"Don't you think your kind of over reacting?" Ruby put forth, glancing to her side where her sister sat watching my white haired team mate self destruct.
"Jaune Arc has a means of proccessing dust that the Schnee dust company could never even dream of! I assure you I am not over reacting!" the stuck up heiress howled.
I was of two minds on the subject. On the one hand, Jaune had proven himself capable of standing his ground against Adam Taurus - a man with more blood on his hands that I would freely admit to myself until recently. He was clearly highly skilled at what he did - which, if combat class today had been any indication - was not using a sword and shield. The sword and shield were a fairly old affectation as far as weapons went. Huntsmen didn't strictly need them because we had Aura. So I could only assume that to Jaune, it was a purely sentimental affectation. The man who had growled at me to run away while he fought Adam had not seemed like a protector. He had the grim bearing and determination of a death row inmate walking to the gallows. In the few seconds I had watched him exchange blows with Adam he had not seemed like a Hunstmen at all. He had seemed like a weapon without a master.
And ofcourse there was the fact that he was here. Really, when I added everything I knew about him up it made complete sense. Jaune seemed to only have two modes of combat - Murder or Defense. There didn't seem to be an in between if his casual display of power in class had been any indication. So he was undoubtedly trained to kill. There was no other way he could have defeated Adam otherwise. Combined with the fact that he was clearly trying to change himself - from the dual sword wielding storm of death he had been on the train to the defensive rock he seemed to be trying to mold himself into - and it told me one thing.
Jaune was here to escape his past - just like me.
Which brought me to the second thing. If he was like me, and didn't want to be a bad person. Didn't want his life to be about doing whatever it took to achieve the goal. Would it really be fair for someone like me - who he had helped - to tell anyone else about his past? He had seemed content enough to ignore my deception when we had met. And frankly, I slept entirely too close to Weiss to be comfortably allow her to put herself on his list of bombing targets this early in the year.
I was also starting to kind of like the stuck up heiress, even if I would never admit it out loud.
"I think antagonizing him is a bad idea." I said with a flat tone, keeping my worried expression hidden behind my worn copy of 'Ninjas of Love'.
"What!?" Weiss asked aghast. "But you don't even know him!"
"Neither do you." I answered darkly.
"You know Weiss-cream he did call it a 'family secret'" Yang pointed out.
"Even more reason to make contact!" Weiss sniffed indignantly.
"Small family traditions like that disappear if even one bad thing happens to the family! This could be knowledge that would be lost forever if someone doesn't get it written down somewhere!"
There was a pregnant pause in the room for a moment as Ruby, Yang and I exchanged tired looks. This conversation had been going in circles for an hour name - pretty much from the minute class had ended, not to mention the fact that Weiss had been watching Jaune like a hawk the entire time before that.
"Weiss." Ruby said after a second, trying for stern and landing somewhere closer to desperate.
"Your company doesn't technically own dust. Can't you just leave Jaune alone? I think you scare him..." Our team leader trailed off. I snorted in derision at that. Jaune was probably about as scared of Weiss as I was a civilian with a stick. I was willing to bet that 'Family Secrets' was code for 'Proffessional Murder Techniques'.
"Whaaaaat Rubes is trying to say Weiss, is well. Your being kind of a bitch." Yang chimed in. Weiss instantly deflated, falling in to her chair with a defeated sign.
"But... but this could be revolutionairy!" she whined. I was actually somewhat surprised by the tacit acceptance of the insult on her part. I wasn't sure what had happened but somewhere between the morning and now Weiss seemed to have come to terms with Ruby being the team leader - even if she still bossed everyone around like she was our nanny.
"You could conisder asking politely?" I said, weighing my words carefully. I was as curious as anyone else about Jaune's background - but I wasn't willing to offend him over it.
"He'd never respond to that!" she continued forlornly. "He probably thinks I hate him!"
"I mean... you did hate him." Ruby pointed out sourly.
"No I disregarded him. It's different." she corrected petulantly.
False.
"He's a teenage boy. That's probably worse than just shutting him down." Yang pointed out.
True.
"Well maybe one of you can talk to him?" Weiss asked hesitantly. "Your friends right?"
"I'd rather not." Ruby immediately said. "I don't wanna take advantage of our friendship."
"Go Rubes! Yeah I gotta pass, Jaune's a nice guy but I don't know him that well." Yang agreed, bumping her sister with an elbow and smiling conspiratorially. She whispered something in her little sisters ear right afterwords, something I would have been able to hear if it weren't for the ribbon on my head blocking my faunus features from sight. As it was, Ruby turned a bright red and buried her face in the pillow she was hugging.
"So we need someone who he doesn't know personally, but doesn't have a bad relationship with." Weiss pondered from her bed. Slowly, every eye in the room turned to me, where I had been mostly avoiding the conversation and hiding behind me book. I could feel my ears tugging at the ribbon on my head as they tried to lay flat against my head in surprise.
"Blake -"
"No."
"Not even if -"
"No."
"Pleaaassseee." the heiress begged. I rolled my eyes. It was going to be a long night.
-ooo-
It had been two fairly quiet days since my impromptu outing as some kind of dust manipulation prodigy in class. It hadn't taken all that long for two things to immediately make themselves apparent to me after that little debacle.
One, the people in this school were completely shameless. Not a day went by without someone I didn't know approaching me to ask about my 'prices'. I naturally turned down all offers - primarily because selling my Magecraft seemed like a particularly stupid idea to me. Secondary to that was the sheer destructive power of Fortified Dust. Giving it to a teenager felt like handing an ape a handgrenade. It was absurd in its ludicrousness.
Two - Cardin had decided that I was his mortal enemy. It wasn't just a simmering hatred either. He had taken every opportunity to make my life a living hell - and unfortunately for me, I didn't really have any good way to handle it. The teachers seemed curiously uninterested in the problem, though Cardin did make a point of never harassing me directly in front of one of them. I could physically fight back but, as I had so pointedly demonstrated in class, I couldn't really defeat Cardin in a fight without breaking him down into his component parts. To be sure, the first time he had slapped my lunch tray out of my hands I had considered it to be a fairly worthwhile option. But then rational thought kicked in. I had been bullied for a decent amount of my life - being the kid who's known for hiding behind his sisters all the time will do that. So I was pretty used to this scenario. The best thing I could do for now was keep my head down, and keep practicing. Once I was stronger with a sword, I would revisit the problem.
At least thats what I told myself.
"Cardin! Cardin this isn't funny! Let me out of here!" I complained. My most recent encounter with the larger boy had ended with me unexpectedly jammed into my own rocket locker. I could, if pressed probably kick the door off if I used an Aura Burst, but I was sort of hesitant to do so for two simple reasons. One - I had no idea if the door would hit a random passerby, and two, I wasn't sure if I would have to pay for the locker if I broke it. It was more the second thing than the first. If I wanted I could technically sell some of my Fortified Dust to pay the costs but... I really didn't want to do that.
"Funny? Hah. Your right Arc, this isn't funny its god damn hilarious." Cackled the deep voice of Cardin while the rest of team CRDL chuckled and guffawed in the background.
"Yeah Yeah, real funny Cardin. Come on man what have I ever done to you?" I said exasperated.
"You made me look like a god damn ass Arc! You let me beat you in class and then rolled out that big attack like it was nothing! You made me look stupid in front of everyone!" Cardin raged. The declaration left me sort of speechless. What the hell was wrong with this guy? Was his pride seriously worth that much to him?
"Come on boys. Wouldn't wanna be late to class." Cardin said smugly after he had calmed down and the excited breathing from the other side of the locker door faded away. I gave it a couple seconds, knowing that if I opened the door while he was watching he'd just do something else to me in retaliation.
Silently, I stretched a palm out to lay it on the door to my rocket locker, intending to use alteration to shift the lock and open the door. It was a fairly unnoticeable use of Magecraft, but I still wasn't willing to 'magically' unlock the door while someone was watching. It was too specific an ability to be anything but a semblance, and unlocking doors definitely isn't what I wanted to be known for. However, before I could even begin to use my Magecraft, another sound stayed my hand.
"Jaune? Are you okay?" a worried voice asked from outside my locker. It was familiar but I couldn't quite place it.
"Yeah I'm just... hanging out... in my locker..." I said, not sure how to answer the question without coming across as snide. Of course I wasn't okay, I was locked in a god damn locker. But being rude to someone here to help me probably wouldn't help so...
"I can open the locker if you tell me the combination?" the voice said again, still hesitantly.
"36-12-05" I rattled off instantly. I didn't keep anything useful in my locker. Crocea Mors didn't even go in this thing. I'd rather take it to class with me than let the weapon with a literal demon in it hang around unattended.
A few seconds of passed with no sound save for the frantic clicking of the combination lock as the dial was turned, and then the door swung open to reveal Weiss and Blake standing idly infront of my locker. My eyes boggled, and I stared at them in blatant confusion.
"What?" The white haired girl asked, turning away from me so I couldn't see her expression. My lock hung limply from one of her fingers.
"Sorry just... don't you hate me?" I asked, too flabbergasted by the experience to embarass myself.
"Of course not! I merely thought you were..." the Schnee bit her lip in thought.
"Beneath you?" Blake put forward with an amused expression that fell from her face the minute I turned to make eye contact with her.
"Hey Blake." I greeted the Faunus absently. "I kind of thought you hated me too to be honest."
"W-What?" the dark haired girl sputtered, letting her book fall away from her face and into one hand.
"But- but I've never done anything to you!" She decried.
"I mean we met on the train here and you didn't try to talk to me so I figured..."
Weiss' eye twitched and she whirled around on her opposite colored friend.
"You knew him this whole time!? While I've been trying to find an opportunity to speak to him!?"
"You mean while you've been stalking him Weiss. S-t-a-l-k-i-n-g."
The two girls immediately got into an argument, and not for the first time in the last two days I found myself trying to figure out if they were friends or enemies. Weiss apparently had that effect on people. She was adversarial to the point of insanity, but when you really examined it she was rarely wrong, and seemed mostly just distressed by the fact that people didn't want her help.
"So... I better get to class..." I tried, just as my rocket lockers door slammed shut and it began to quiver. I quickly stepped away from it, and Weiss and Blake did likewise. Right before our eyes the thing shot into the air, vanishing from sight as it tore a hole in the room and sailed... somewhere.
I felt a bead of sweat drip down my back. If Weiss and Blake hadn't noticed me getting stuck in there, I would have probably still been trying to alter the door to let myself out when that happened. I'd either have been stuck in the locker, or flung out of it when the door came free during my flight.
"Seriously Cardin?" I mumbled, unmindful of Weiss and Blake who immediately broke off their argument to share a look.
"Ehem. So. Jaune." Weiss began, shuffling her feet slightly. "About your special dust..."
"I'm not selling any and I can't teach you how to make it." I immediately rattled off, already having grown used to the requests. Figures. It would have been nice to actually befriend the monochrome colored members of Ruby's team. At least then I could bring JNPR to sit at the lunch table with them instead of having to navigate around both them, and Cardin.
"What? No I was just... just...going to ask if you could explain it in greater detail?" Weiss tried, some of the haughtiness leaving her tone. Ah. Thats why I didn't recognize her voice from the locker. I'd never heard her use any tone but imperious before this.
"That falls under 'teach you to make it' " I pointed out, gathering my things from the floor where they had fallen after Cardin had accosted me.
"Just one vial!" Weiss exclaimed, stomping her feet stubbornly.
"Fine. Come on. Glynda will kill us if were late for combat class." I said, pulling a vial of blue dust from my belt and holding it over her head like I was teasing a child.
"But you have to be nicer to Ruby." I tried, going for broke.
"Seriously, she's trying her hardest okay?"
Weiss and Blake stared at me like I'd grown a second head.
"What?" I asked when they didn't say anything.
"Why do you care?" Blake asked.
"Because she's my friend? Duh?" I said, trying not to pout. Grown men don't pout, no matter how much they just wanna get on with their day. It was a true testament to my luck that here I was, faced with two very pretty girls that wanted something from me, and I wanted nothing more than for them to leave me alone.
"Hey speaking of which. Are you okay Blake? The train thing was pretty dark, I'm pretty sure I k-"
"-issed! By mistake! Yeah don't worry about it - it was dark." She said, sliding forward and shoving her hand over my mouth like I was Nora. Oookay so she hadn't told her friends about that. Fair enough. No idea why though - I mean, she had pretty much single handedly saved all the people on that train. She was a Hero in my book.
Weiss narrowed her eyes at the exchange, but snatched the vial of dust I was holding out of the air none the less, packing it into an inside pocket of her jacket with care.
We spent a few seconds darting glances between the three of us, before we all took a step back and began to walk to class. Weiss was darting me curious looks every few moments, and Blake was doing the same, although her looks were more 'murderous' than 'curious'.
Oh yes, the famed Arc luck with women strikes again. Seriously dad, take your love at first sight crap and shove it up your-
-ooo-
"Jaune!" Pyrrha called to me as Weiss, Blake and I trudged into the hall containing all of the combat cells. Today was the first day of training where we would go largely unsupervised. Miss Goodwitch had gotten through the list of students just yesterday, having made each one of us fight once so she could provide a direction for our training. Today each of us was to split off into pairs to train separately. It made sense - we weren't going to get a lot of practice in if only a few people got to actually fight per class. There wasn't enough time in the day for everyone to take a turn.
Ofcourse, this left me with a problem.
"Hey Pyr. I answered, slumping against a wall next to her while the class waited for Goodwitch to show up and assign our rooms to us.
Blake peeled off to head towards Ruby and Yang, sending me a warning look, but Weiss didn't bother, just waving at her teammates and stopping beside me. Pyrrha, Nora and Ren looked at me curiously so I shrugged.
"We met on the way here." I lied. I hadn't told them about Cardins bullying. I'd had quite enough of other people fighting my battles for me back in Ansel thank you very much. The last thing I needed was Nora deciding to blow up Cardin's bedroom or something in retaliation. She was a nice person once you got past her bizzarre personality, but I had never met anyone so casually vicious as Nora.
"It's as he said. We found each other in the halls and simply chose to walk to class together." Weiss confirmed, probably noting the lie but choosing to follow my lead on it. That was nice of her, considered I was pretty sure she didn't really like me all that much. But at least she didn't let her dislike get in the way of being a good person - and that made her okay in my book.
"I... see." Pyrrha said, and for a second I thought I could see a darker emotion flicker across her face before it was replaced by the beaming smile she always had on.
"Eh, Jaune's fine. Weiss wouldn't do anything to our leader now would she." Nora spoke. Weiss stiffened at the implied threat, but quickly relaxed when everyone either shrugged it off or rolled their eyes at her. It had only been two days but I had heard Nora threaten to violently assault people for pretty much everything from soggy pancakes to oggling her thighs. At this point I'd be more surprised if she didn't threaten Weiss.
"Alright students." Miss Goodwitch said, cutting off all other conversation. "Here are the room assignments."
With an easy flourish she pulled a page from the stack of papers she was holding and pinned it to a nearby wall, one that was covered in all sorts of flyers and recruitment advertisements for various clubs and activities around the school.
In short order, the majority of us had shuffled off to our designated locations. Which was how I found myself standing awkwardly across from Weiss.
"So." She said perfunctorily.
"I don't think it's fair that I should have to help you improve your swordsmanship. I can't gain much from it. No offence." Weiss stated primly.
"Thats fair." I admitted. Mostly because it was. I was so crappy at sword fighting that if I forced Weiss to spend the whole class on only that topic, she'd never get anything out of it. She'd essentially be wasting the time just to teach me how to be competent - something I really should have been already by now.
"I could... help you with your semblance?" I offered.
"What could you possibly know about my semblance Arc. You've seen it precisely one time." Weiss sniped, rolling her eyes.
"Well..." I considered it for a moment.
"Do anything with your semblance. Throw a fireball at the wall or something." I said finally.
She rolled her eyes but did so, waving her rapier lazily towards a wall and creating a red glyph in the air, which promptly fired a bolt of fire into the concrete opposite it.
I nodded once, having been staring at the Glyph with as much focus as I could for the few seconds it had been active. Pretty simple effect to be honest. It had all the basic stuff in there. Direction, energy consumption, velocity. I could do that. But to make my point I'd have to go a bit farther than that.
"Well as you've figured out by now." I said dryly. "I'm something of a specialist in dust manipulation. Your semblance isn't magic you know. All the fancy letters and symbols in it are a programming language."
This was going to be such a hard sell. I was basically explaining the principals of Magecraft to her and hoping she would mistake it as a fancy way of controlling dust simply because her semblance obviously did the same thing.
"So, if someone with some resources were to do something like this..." I said, pulled a vial of red dust from my belt and using Crocea Mors to scrape out a magic circle similar to the glyphs Weiss created when using her semblance on the concrete. Gently, I allowed a tiny amount of the red dust to fall from my vial into the center of the circle.
With a bit of focus and a quick touch of my finger to the circle, I released my prana.
"Ten Seconds, Fireball Barrage." I mumbled.
And that is exactly what happened. For exactly ten seconds, a barrage of fireballs equal in size and strength to the one Weiss had launched slammed into the wall opposite me, all of them originating on the ground where I had drawn my circle.
"See? Your semblance is pretty much letting you speak a language you don't actually know." I explained. When I turned around Weiss was across the room from me, pressed into the wall of the room like she had just seen my kill a puppy.
"Uh... Weiss?" I tried.
"So...So your telling me that as far as your concerned, my semblance - which has been inherited across my family line for generations - is just an easy way to do something your family figured out ages ago." She said shakily.
"Well... sure?" I said.
"I changed my mind. My father can never find out about you." She said, apparently making a snap decision then reaching into her pocket to throw my highly volatile dust vial back to me. I caught it out of the air, unsure of what was going on.
"You were going to tell your dad about me?!" I asked in dismay.
"Well not anymore I'm not!" Weiss retorted.
"I came here to escape that old man's machinations! To try and live my own life! If he finds out someone who can do that-" she waved a hand towards the burnt circle in the ground of the cell.
"- is here, then he'll start trying to marry me off to you, no questions asked."
I stared agog at her. Me and Weiss? No. No way. I mean, she was pretty but the last few days had left me with a less than stellar mental image of her. She was kind of... well, something. Not sure what really.
"Ooook. So... you don't wanna learn this?" I asked timidly.
"Want? Jaune, I'm afraid I must insist you teach me." Weiss said, a new edge to her tone that I was sure would have sent a lesser man into a fit of panic. She stalked toward me like a cat that had just caught sight of a particularly stupid mouse. There was a glint in her eyes that spoke of intense focus and determination.
Oh boy.
"Alright Weiss lets just... calm down..." I said drawing my weapon up before me and stumbling backwards as a quick thrust of her rapier tore through the air ahead of me and slamming point first into my shield. It hadn't been a particularly strong strike, but it had made the point that I should probably starty trying to defend myself.
"I am calm." She said in an eerily chipper tone I just couldn't associate with Weiss Schnee - Ice Queen of Beacon Academy.
"But I'm a Schnee, and a Schnee never does anything half way. So, you will teach me this language, and I will make you a great swordsman." She said sweetly, punctuating each sentence with a thrust of her rapier that I either had to duck away from or hurriedly put my shield in front of to avoid being pierced.
-ooo-
"Jaune!?" Pyrrha exclaimed at me as I exited my training room to find the members of both team RWBY and JNPR waiting outside. Weiss slipped past me with little to not respect for my personal space, breezing past in her usual detached manner. Despite the sheen of sweat on her face there was an eagerness in her eyes, a profuse satisfaction with herself that was hard to pin down.
I, on the other hand, looked like shit. Weiss was an extremely demanding task master, and had managed to work our session in such a way that I was desperately barking bits and pieces of magical lingo at her while she did her level best to murder me. It had not made for a peaceful or relaxing session. The fact that she would frequently retort with bits of fencing advice - that she would either attack me for failing to head, or attack me to demonstrate, or both - did not help in that respect. All in all, I was feeling extremely run down. I didn't have the same honed physique most Hunstmen had by the time they made it to Beacon. I was just a slightly above average fitness guy. I got by mostly using reinforcement to cheat, but a solid two hour session of getting my ass kicked was making me reconsider the neccesity of a solid work out routine.
"I'm fine Pyr. She's just a really demanding partner." I said with a sigh. Six heads turned towards Weiss at once, no doubt curious about what she had to say.
"We have reached an agreement. I'll see you at launch Jaune." She said kindly, and then skipped - skipped - up the hall.
Six heads turned back to me, silently asking me what had just happened.
"It's... look I guess were friends now is all." I said weakly.
"Just friends?" Nora asked salaciously, elbowing Pyrrha who stiffened at the words.
"Right? Man Jaune, the way she left you must have Yang'ed her." Yang chimed in with an equally suggestive tone. Ruby blanched, and Blake lowered the book she was holding to look more closely at me. Instantly I could feel my face heat up. This was not happening. This was not happening.
"Seriously? Nothing happened. We just found out we had more in common than we thought." I tried again, saying... well partially the truth. Her little outburst about running away from her fathers influence had interested me, and I could certainly sympathize. But really, Weiss and I were 'friends' now because we both had something the other wanted. Even if I was starting to reconsider how badly I wanted to be good at swordsmanship.
"Boooring." Nora booed, wrapping an arm possessively around Ren and leaning unneccesarily on him. The man was as stolid as ever, barely reacting to the sudden bodily contact.
"I doubt a single session of training is enough to turn someone like Weiss Schnee into a lovestruck girl." Ren pointed out in my defence. Mentally, I lowered the degree to which I would punish him for his earlier transgressions.
"I dunno, you read alot of books where the heroine and the love interest get hot and heavy in the middle of a fight..." Yang spoke up, flicking the cover of Blakes book. The raven haired girl yelped and turned bright red, hiding the book behind her.
"Yang!" Ruby shrilled, finally having had enough of the imprompty interrogation. "He said it's nothing so it's nothing!" She huffed.
"Like you'd know." Yang said sarcastically.
"Hey! I know about... stuff..." Ruby said, her voice falling with each word.
"Yeah. Stuff. Nice Rubes." The blond teased her sister.
"I think Jaune's had more than enough stress for one day." Pyrrha said hurriedly, putting a hand on my shoulder and spinning me towards our next class.
"See you later Jaune!" Ruby called after me, before the three girls descended back into bickering.
"Soooo." Nora crooned from next to me as Pyrrha hustled me along to our next class.
"Details!" she yelled, bouncing up and flinging her hands in the air.
"Seriously. Nothing happened." I said sourly.
"I'm sure Jaune had no ulterior motives." Pyrrha said, reaffirming my faith in humanity once more. Even if only denoting me in her statement was oddly specific.
"Right?" She said, her grip on my shoulders tightening impercetibly.
I just nodded as fast as I could. The truth was I did have an ulterior motive. I wouldn't just explain runecraft to weiss for no reason. The truth was, I didn't know it any better than she did at the time. But getting to see the runes in her Glyphs at work provided me with enough frame of reference to actually figure the damn things out. All I had really been doing was explaining my realizations on the subject to her as they came up. Pretty much noone except Weiss could possibly benefit from the information.
In exchange I got to watch Weiss use her semblance. Spell combinations and ways of constructing spells I had never thought of before had been revealed to me the longer I looked. The fact that she could simply will something done meant she never really needed to learn the rules of Magecraft in the first place. At best it would give her slightly more versatility in combat. I, on the other hand got to see something new everytime she even thought about changing the way she used her semblance.
It was like a Magus' wet dream, and she didn't even know. Which was pretty much the primary reason I had put up with the abusive 'training' Weiss had to offer.
"See? Everythings fine." Pyrrha said in a tone that broached no argument.
Nora seemed doubtful. Ren seemed apathetic. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a pair of bunny ears vanishing around a corner.
I just prayed no one tried to insinuate to Weiss that anything other than fighting had happened in that room.
-ooo-
"Weiss?" Ruby asked as she approached me from behind. It had been a productive day. Jaune was apparently some kind of idiot savant in a language that noone used or spoke anymore, and through some insane quirk of luck that had a direct effect on how I used my semblance. Already I was starting to see little inefficiencies in my Glyphs that had never occurred to me before. I mean, how could I? For generations my family has passed this semblance down. Generations, where everything we knew about it was passed down from one Schnee to the next.
"I don't think she can hear you Rubes." Yang chortled.
And it would all barely a thimble compared to what Jaune had helped me realize. In many respects, I had always ignored the visual effects of my semblance. It wasn't as though it meant anything. If I wanted to throw fire, I tapped a dust well and threw it. That was all. But if there was order to it, if there were rules, then that meant there were loopholes. It meant there were things that could be done that I - and my family had never considered.
"Weiss?" Blake asked from nearby.
Take summoning for instance. The 'penultimate' use of my semblance. One my sister had mastered earlier than anyone else in our families history. And that I had failed to even succeed at once. It was simply too whimsical for my tastes. Training on the subject largely boiled down to 'think very hard about something to summon and then summon it.' If your image of what you wanted to summon broke down once, then you failed. Many people would decry this apparent lack of imagination on my part but the truth was, when most people imagine things, they are imagining them in general. The details aren't present because they aren't neccesary. The texture of a material. It's smell. How it reacts to heat. All of the little things that ground an object in reality are absent from a normal person imagination.
But they were absolutely neccesary for me. Until now. Because if Glyphs had rules - if they were like math. Then I didn't need to imagine a hypothetical magical creature. I could program it.
"Is she humming?" Yang laughed.
"I think she is. Oh god, she did sleep with him." Blake said in faux horror.
My mind, and consequently, my stride, ground to a halt.
"WHAT!?" I screeched, whirling on my team.
"Oh so you can hear us." Ruby chided petulantly.
"Blake! How dare you!" I accused, jabbing a finger at my teammate.
"Weiss, you wen't in pissed and came out with a rosey glow and a jaunt in your step. What are we supposed to think?" Yang pointed out helpfully. I spluttered helplesly at that. Were they insane? Had they no sense of propiety? Did they think I had no sense of propriety?
"Nothing happened!" I yelled finally, drawing eyes from all over the hall.
"Ahem. Nothing happened." I repeated in a more normal tone of voice.
"So whats got you so happy then?" Ruby asked out of what appeared to be genuine curiosity, and I adored her for it. It was uncomfortable for me to admit but, maybe I had been a bit harsh when we first met. Port hadn't exactly been polite when I'd asked him about being a team leader, and Jaune certainly seemed to think I was being somewhat rude...
Not that Jaunes opinion mattered of course.
"Jaune's family tradition of Dust manipulation bears a shocking resemblance to my own semblance. It's likely his family has a semblance similar to my own that he has studied well in, and it turns out that I actually had a lot to learn from him." I said, explaining my observations of the blond. True, he refused to call it his semblance, but there really wasn't any other explanation for what he could do. Really, to call his semblance and my own similar was almost a bit too accurate. Certainly he had to go through a few more steps than me, apparently having to manually create his glyphs - but it was close enough to be a curiosity.
I would have to make a note of looking through the family tree. Maybe a branch of the family had ended up in Vale at some point unbeknownst to anyone in Atlas.
Ruby, Yang and Blake all breathed a sigh of relief, and I had to roll my eyes. As though I would ever hop into bed with the first boy I spent more than a moment speaking too. How crass.
"So you were just trading pointers or whatever?" Yang asked with a bored expression now.
"Yes Yang we trained, in the training room, during class. Shocking, truly." I intoned dryly.
"There you go Rubes. He's still single." The blond nuisance quipped at her little sister.
"Yang!" the younger girl cried out.
Ah. Equilibrium. The more time I spent around these people the more this chaos started to feel normal. Comfortable. Dare I even say, good. God, I was going native. Daddy would hate it.
And surprisingly, I didn't dislike that fact.
-ooo-
I had been at beacon for two weeks. Two weeks of speed reading runes out of Weiss' glyphs. Two weeks of dodging and parrying while trying to explain them and the rules behind their use to her. Two weeks of Cardin's constant pestering and abuse. Two weeks of my new workout routine - one that Archer had audited and deemed appropriate for someone trying to get ripped in as little time as physically possible. But most importantly;
Two weeks of Magical R&D.
Using the runes I had been cribbing from Weiss, and my lexicon for the magical equivalent of 'grammar' I had found a whole new breadth of options in my Dustcraft. Archer had pointed out that I was hardly doing anything even vaguely recognizeable as Jewelcraft anymore, and so the new moniker had been born. It had been a personal high to know I was developing a brand new field of magical research - something Archer said was exceedingly rare, and the type of thing major families were known for where he was from.
I now carried on my belt two pouches practically bursting with Mystic Codes of varying shapes and uses. The pouches and belt had also undergone some slight changes. My run in with Weiss during Proffessor Ports class had put me on notice - it was way too easy to lose track of my dangerous magical bullcrap. So I had spent a good three days reinforcing the crap out of my belt and pouches. They were now nearly as durable as Crocea Mors itself, and wouldn't open for anyone but me. Sure I had use alteration to spread some force and gravity dust throughout the things composition to power the enchantment, but the power draw was so miniscule that I could happily ignore it save for a once yearly replenishment.
I had even managed to put together a few lesser options that I could use to fight people without instantly murdering them. I still wasn't all that intent on using them in class - I had surprisingly been making pretty good progress with Weiss on my swordsmanship - but the option was always nice.
I could happily say that despite all the intense physical labour, I was doing pretty well.
"Alright ladies, who wants to make this game interesting." Barked Nora from next to me in the lunch room. JNPR and RWBY were sitting together, as had become the norm for us, and Most of the table of the table was presently engaged in a particularly fierce game of Go Fish. They had started out with Poker, but when RWBY confessed to not knowing how to play, things had quickly been rearranged for the simpler game.
"Do not." Ren warned immediately, drawing a pout from his long time friend. Or girlfriend. Honestly it was hard to tell with those two sometimes.
"Aw whats the harm Ren? Whatcha got girl!" Yang spoke ignoring the warning.
"Winner gets to decide what everyone does this weekend!" Nora declared. Several heads perked up at that. Even I was kind of interested. I had honestly expected something more stupid from Nora, like 'winner feeds me as many pancakes as I can eat' or some similar nonsense. I constantly had to remind myself that Nora wasn't actually an idiot. She just often enjoyed behaving like one. Which... wasn't that different, but was enough of a difference that I wouldn't bet against her if given a choice.
"I'm in." I said easily.
"I'll play." Ruby chimed in.
"Fine." Weiss grumbled from where she had been studying the notes she made on our sessions.
"Pass." Blake called out.
I glanced at Pyrrha, ignoring Ren's stoic refusal to look at anyone present. If Nora was playing, so was Ren. There was literally no reality where he denied her something she wanted. Well. Something he could comprehend anyway. I had once caught Nora carefully arranging pamphlets with dating advice and locations on them on his pillows. When Ren had arrived he'd just acted confused at how they'd gotten there and dumped them in the trash. Needless to say, JNPR ended up training together that evening, and unsurprisingly Nora decided the Ren needed experience fighting multiple foes at once.
For the whole session.
"I'll join." Pyrrha agreed readily, stretching a hand out to receive a hand of cards.
All in all it was just a normal day at Beacon for me. I had friends, I was making progress in my life. I didn't have a girlfriend but hey, I had four years to work on that. I just had to do literally the opposite of what my dad would do. In theory anyway. Since my Dad would probably just talk to every girl he encountered until he found one that clicked I was already sort of failing on that front. Pretty much all my friends were girls. But that was it. Friends.
"How are these even attached?" A crude voice wrang out in the cafeteria, and I looked up, several turns into our game when I realized the room had gotten very quiet near me.
"Ow!" cried a a soft voice in a tone that was clearly just on the verge of tears.
Across the cafeteria, Cardin and his team were standing about, giggling and guffawing at the plight of the Faunus girl who's animal ears he had grabbed and was pulling at as hard as he could. I realized with some surprise that it was the brown haired rabbit girl who I'd been seeing around the school since I started here. She was always scurrying about, headed somewhere I didn't know. I never saw her with anyone else, even though intellectually I knew she must have a team.
And there she was, whinging and trying to pull herself out of Cardin's grip while he yanked and pulled on her ears, in what was clearly a painful experience.
"Seriously?" Yang growled. "How does that guy make the cut as a future Hunstmen?"
"How has nobody done anything about him yet?" Ruby asked in a huff.
"His father apparently faught in the Faunus Wars. He's not very fond of the animals." Weiss sniffed, dismissing the situation but still keeping an eye on Cardin that was full of distaste.
"I'll be right back guys. Just skip my turn." I said, scooping my empty glass of milk off the table like I was going to head to the counter for a refill. I really wished Cardin could have had some self control. I could actually kind of understand why he didn't like me. Everything he said about me making him look stupid was pretty much true. I had yet to see a single woman in our class so much as look twice at him after that first day. He had managed to display arrogance, and ignorance all at once. They weren't attractive character traits, least of all when combined. As I moved across the lunchroom I flipped one of my pouches open. It was probably unneccesary, but I kept my 'toolbelt' as I had come to call it, on me even when I was in my normal school uniform. I could survive being caught without Corcea Mors, but this thing was my lifeline. It was the culmination of every ounce of research I had done since learning about Magecraft.
The problem with Cardin was, until this point, I had kind of just assumed he only bullied me. If he was only my problem, then I could comfortably ignore him. It wasn't worth getting in trouble to handle him, or worse, show too much of what I could do to the other Magus on campus. But this? This was the type of thing I used to get beat up in school for stepping into all the damn time. Only now I had an Aura. I had Magecraft. I had friends. Which meant I had a lot more to lose if I let this slide.
"Quit it." I spat smacking lightly at Cardin's hands to force him to let go of the girls ears and step away.
"Are you okay?" I asked her politely, not stepping to close to her. She looked like a wounded animal, ready to lash out at the next target that made itself available. I could sympathize.
"I'm fine." she said, a hint of resignation in her voice.
"Good, thats -"
"Oi Arc. What the hells your problem? You actually care about these animals?" Cardin jeered at me, and his three lackeys copied the gesture.
I sighed. To call what I was feeling anger would be wrong. I was mostly just... disappointed. Beacon was supposed to be a school for Heroes. For people who pursued that heroic ideal. For people who wanted to make saving everyone in front of them their mission in life. Cardin and his behaviour could - if I squinted - still line up with those ideals when he was just bothering me. Heroes are people too after all, and it's not like he'd ever really done anything more than annoy me. Now though, he was basically spitting on everything I wanted to be in my life. Why even be here if he was just going to be a petty schoolhouse tyrant? He could do that in normal school.
Eyeballing it, I guessed the radius of the sphere that would encompass all of Cardin's team to be something like two and a half metres with a little clipping here or there. Using that, I quickly extrapolated the rest of the math I would need, feeding the information to my spell as it formed, runnig my Prana through the gem I held tightly clutched in one hand. I could feel the steady drain of energy from the Gravity dust on my belt as the Sphere gem in my hand shaped its power into a gravity well perfectly centered on team CRDL.
Like a switch being flipped, all four members of the team fell flat to the ground, like a giant had slammed a palm down on them and held them there. Idly, I noted that Sky Lark was positioned in a way that would prevent breathing, so I walked around the edge of the sphere and kicked out with a foot, flipping him over. Then I walked calmly back over to the girl.
"Hey. Sorry about that. My names Jaune. Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue." I said pleasantly, completely ignoring the groans from the four boys on the ground behind me as they struggled to get up when their bodies weighed in the multi ton range. I'd have to cut the spell soon. If their Aura's ran out while they were like that they'd probably break a few bones.
The brown haired girl looked behind me with wide eyes, before turned back to me.
"Velvet. You can call me Velvet." She said with a touch of fear in her eyes. Hm. Maybe the gravity well bit was too much. But most of my other options were in varying flavours of 'kill' so I wasn't sure what I could really do about that. Note to self, figure out the exact electrical charge required to knock a human out through their Aura.
"Nice. Ah. Um. Will you be okay Velvet?" I asked again, not really sure what to do at this point. The cafeteria was still curiously quiet.
"Y-yes." She said quickly, stepping away from me. She looked like she would prefer to be literally anywhere but near me.
"I'll ah... I'll just go then." I apologized. Velvet accepted the apology silently, and turned to flee the second I stepped away to return to my seat.
When I finally reached my seat, I undid the spell, glancing over at the CRDL boys just to see how they would react. When they sat up, gasping for breath and sweating like they had just undergone a track marathon, the entire cafeteria burst into laughter at their expense. It was only at that point that it occurred to me that I hadn't actually said a single word to any of them while I was over there. I was in such a rush to escape the embarassing debacle with Velvet that I had completely forgotten the speech about heroism I wanted to give them.
"So... Cool..." Ruby crooned, and I looked up from my cards, where I was trying to figure out what to do next.
"What was that!?" Weiss chimed in, curiosity fully evident in her voice. I rolled my eyes at her, and then ignored the question. She never let me look at her fancy notebook on runes, so I felt absolutely zero reason to tell her the details of my own research. In a way, Weiss and I were two researchers studying the same thing for different reasons. It was almost a scholarly rivalry, and it was one I found surprisingly entertaining.
"Gravity dust mostly. I just pointed it at a single spot and used alot of it." I brushed off the question as non chalantly as I could. It was neither that simple, nor that draining, but explaining that would be way to much lying for me to be succesful.
"How long have you been able to do that?" Pyrrha asked curiously. She was doing the upturned eyes thing again, and I had to immediately turn my head away from her lest I descend into a ferocious blush and render myself unable to stand or leave the table.
"A few days. Figured it out while watching Weiss do her ice the ground thing." I explained, once again not bothering to explain all the ways it was nothing like that, because no one but Weiss would understand, and as previously stated, I wasn't handing out free information to the white haired demon.
"Ah yes. I have been thinking Jaune. Would you like to meet in the evenings sometime to do some more research? I had a particular project I had in mind and -" Weiss began with a predatory glint in her eyes.
"Doesn't Jaune help you with your semblance enough? I have yet to see a marked improvement in his swordsmanship during group classes." Pyrrha objected. I wasn't the only one who was caught off guard by that fact. Pyrrha was the type of girl who would walk across the room to pick up a remote for you that you were sitting next to just because you asked. She was so nice, and charitable that it bordered on ludicrous.
"W-Well its true isn't it? He's gotten faster and his stance is stronger but he still lacks the fundamental ability to strike back." Pyrrha defended.
"She's gotta a point Weissy. Seems like you might not be holding up your end of the bargain." Yang agreed easily.
"He hardly needs to use a sword." Weiss said with a childish pout on her face. No one really said anything to that, but I did see a sort of general agreement on the faces of everyone else at the table. Everyone except Pyrrha that is.
"The ability to defend ones self in melee is important to every Huntsmen. Dust runs out, skill does not." Pyrrha said primly.
"In fact, if you're willing Jaune, maybe... I... could help you practice in the evenings? We have similar styles!" Pyrrha thought aloud, turning to me and hastily explaining her reasoning.
"Actually that sounds like a pretty good idea. Your the only person I've ever met that uses a shield besides me." I said thoughtfully.
"Plus your pretty much the best fighter in the class. Can't go wrong there." I added after a moment. Then I shrugged.
"Sure. 6 in the courtyard good for you?" I asked after considering my timetable for a second. I'd have to cram my R&D time into the short period before six but after class, but I could probably make it work.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world." Pyrrha beamed.
"I'll bet." Nora and Yang snorted at the same time, then looked at each other in surprise. Pyrrha and I turned as one to shoot them both a questioning gaze, to which they both just sighed.
"They're both just so dumb." Yang complained, rubbing her head in frustration.
"Worse than Ren." Nora agreed.
"Wait, what did I do?" Ren squawked indignantly.
"It's more what you don't do Renny." Nora explained kindly.
"Is anyone besides me confused?" I asked, sticking a hand in the air. Everyone except Yang and Nora put a hand in the air, confirming my suspicions.
"Welp, Looks like Nora's contagious. Sorry Yang." I quipped, and ducked out of the way when an apple sailed through the air where I had just been sitting. I noticed Cardin and his gang quietly sneaking away from the cafeteria, and made brief eye contact with him. The moment seemed to stretch out for an eternity, but Cardin broke first, fleeing after his friends.
Ah, I love this school.
-ooo-
Several hours later I was out in a secluded corner of the schools grounds. Beacon was more of a castle estate than a school in many respects, and so it boasted several courtyards that students could sit in when the weather permitted. JNPR only ever used one of these courtyards when we wanted to train together, and it wasn't hard to time our visits so that no one else was here when we did so. Beacon was stupidly large. It was really, really easy to find somewhere else to be if you didn't want to be around other people. Something most other students decided was the case whenever we arrived on the scene. That had more to do with Nora than anything else, but I wasn't going to complain if the rambunctious girls personality had helped us out for once.
It was cold. Not winter cold. Just... chilly. There was a stiff breeze blowing past, and it made the cool night air just cold enough to be uncomfortable. I had Crocea Mors sheathed at my hip, and was in my combat gear.
'So thats how my day went.' I finished my nightly update to Archer. There were alot of parts of the school the Servant just couldn't go, so it had become our habit to keep each other updated on new developments each night. Mostly I was the one doing all the updating though. Archer hadn't noticed a peep from the enemy Magus in the time since we had arrived here. He also couldn't detect any other Servant's in the area, though he told me to be careful because that was no guarantee. There were any number of abilities and Noble Phantasms that could hide a servants presence.
'Hm. I'm a little surprsied you were so harsh with the bully.' He opined. 'You've mostly just ignored him till now.'
'Yeah well... he was mostly only my problem till now. It's not fair to let other people get caught up in my splash zone.' I said. I had come to recognize that Archer hated very few things. But among them the word 'Hero' and almost anything related to it, was one of the things he hated the most. I didn't think he'd be overly supportive of my decision if I told him the real reason I had shut Cardin down, and I didn't feel like getting the silent treatment from him for two days just because I offended his delicate sensibilities.
Whatever the hell those were.
Abruptly, the skin on the back of my arm raised, and a shiver ran down my spine. There was something... something disquieting on the wind. A whisper of something that should not be.
And then all at once that 'something' made itself known to me. One minute I was waiting calmly for Pyrrha to arrive so we could start training - the next, I was pressed firmly against the wall of the school in a corner perfectly positioned to be invisible to anyone watching the courtyard from the windows above.
"Call you're Servant." spoke a voice that sounded as though it's owner hadn't tasted water in millenia. It was cracked, and broken, scratchy and raw.
"W-what?" I cried out, trying to buy myself a few seconds of time.
'Archer, S.O.S, seriously I don't know what the hell is going on!' I sent to Archer, who was no doubt already on his way.
'What? How did - damnit it's Assassin isn't it?" He replied.
'Pitch black skin, White skull mask, looks like a humanoid Grimm?' I supplied.
'Yeah thats him.' Archer answered before I sensed his presence appear next to me in the courtyard.
"Good. Reveal yourself or I will kill the boy." Assassin called out, a boney hand lashing out lightning quick to wrap around my throat, a single thumb pressed firmly against my wind pipe. I new full well how strong a Servant could be, and I had no doubt that Assassin could crush my windpipe in a nanosecond.
There was just one problem.
Archer couldn't reveal himself. It simply wasn't possible. I had summoned him wrong, and now we were stuck with this sort of kind of summoning.
'Jaune, trust me - just switch.' Archer said carefully. Carefully, but not worried. I tried to gulp but couldn't find the strength to do so in Assassins grip. So instead I did as I was asked. A single moments concetration, and suddenly Archer was in the drivers seat. Assassins head whipped towards us the second the change happened, like he somehow knew what was going on the minute it happened. But before he could squeeze hard enough to kill me, Prana rushed through me, reinforcing me to levels I could never manage on my own. I diligently fed Aura to my circuits, not all at once but just enough to keep myself topped and Archer primed to fight.
Even with all that, it was a close thing, Assassin still made an attempt, but with our reinforced body he wasn't able to do any serious damage. Not before we lifted a food at slammed it towards him, launching the emaciated man across the courtyard and into a wall. Before he even landed, a wave of something slid over me. A sense of incongruity filling my awareness.
'What's going on Archer?' I asked, not bothering to specify what I meant.
'Bounded field. Someone is making it so noone watching can tell what's going on down here. Or rather, people will naturally refuse to acknowledge anything is happening.' He answered me.
"Trace, On." He called and Kanchou and Bakuya immediately appeared in our hands.
That was good, it meant that noone would get curious and end up stuck between two Servants duking it out. There was no way a student was going to be able to handle that kind of confrontation. When the dust cleared, Assassin was gone. He was simply no where to be seen.
Our lips pursed in concetration, and we waited, our eyes darting left and right until nearly the last second, when Archer pitched forward narrowly avoiding a strike from behind us that concluded with a dagger sticking out of the wall just ahead of where we had been standing. Like lightning we came out of the roll and spun around, raising a sword overhead to block the downward slash of another dagger. Archer swung his other arm at the stick thin mans legs, but was thwarted when he leapt upward, flipping over us to plant his feet on the wall behind. Instantly he pushed off, disappearing into the shadows of the courtyard again.
"My Master wishes you to know that she does not bear you a grudge - but merely feels unsafe in your presence." The creepy skull masked guy stated, his voice coming from everywhere at once in a rasp that I couldn't have been more scary if he tried.
"She huh?" Archer snarked.
"Hey cut the shit. Your an Assassin, if you were here to kill us you wouldn't have started a straight up fight like this." The servant of the bow said, standing up and rolling our shoulders once.
"True. A single Assassin servant could never hope to defeat one of the three great knight classes. But what about two? or ten? or a hundred? You are after all, much dimished yourself Saber." The voice rasped again, and with each questioning statement, new faces bearing skull masks rose from the shadows around us. They crowded the courtyard like an army of wraiths, standing on the roof, hanging from window sill's, emerging from bushes. There were so many I stopped bothering to count them as they appeared.
'Well at least we'll die knowing they got your class wrong.' I offered, somehow feeling the fear of death only as a mute sound in the distance. I was afraid. Terrified. But strangely, it wasn't so bad with Archer there. Maybe I was just afraid of dying alone. Guess I'm just selfish that way.
'Shut up Jaune.' Archer grumbled at me.
"Trace Bullet, Load." Archer chanted under his breath. Dozens of plain steel swords appeared, hovering in the air about us like an impromptu armory worthy of an army. Each sword was pointed at a different Assassin, each one quivered with barely restrained force. I found myself shoving more Aura into my circuits just to keep pace with the expidenture.
There was a stillness then in the courtyard, broken only by the passing breeze.
And then the door to the god damn school opened, and Pyrrha spilled out.
Several of the Assassin's turned to her at once, and she stopped to gape at the bizzarre display infront of her. It must have been quite a sight, walking into the yard expecting just me, but instead finding this shit show. Pyrrha looked like she was still processing things when everything began to move.
The swords quivering in the air fire as though launched by some unseen hand, several of them curving through the air to reach their targets, who were pierced to a man. Over a dozen Assassin's launched themselves at Pyrrha, and Archer sent us shooting forward to intercept them.
But we were too slow. The Assassin's rushing towards her had been the ones closest to the door she had entered through. There was no way we could travel the distance faster than them.
And then I bore witness to a freaking miracle. Instead of Pyrrha dying in a hail of daggers. Instead of being forced to watch a member of my team - easily my best friend dying right in front of me. She just didn't. A light came on in Pyrrha's eyes, and she whirled, slamming her shield into one Assassin and diving out through the hole in the encirclement it's absence made. A storm of daggers launched through the air at her naked back, but to a one they simply stopped mere inches away from her, curving away like they were being moved through a stream of water.
Pyrrha rolled to her feet and placed her back against the wall just as Archer reached the encirclement, slicing a path through them that did minimal damage to our enemies but cleared away to my red haired teammate.
"Jaune." Pyrrha said tensely. "What's going on?"
"Talk later. Fight now." Archer growled, waving his arm and creating another volley of floating swords.
"Gladly." She answered, taking a stance against foes she honestly had no right to be able to stand against.
'She's a keeper. I approve of this.' Archer said to me inwardly.
'Shut up Archer.'
-ooo-
Merry Christmas everyone! Or Happy (Insert appropriate holiday here). I threw this chapter together during a fit of insomnia, and I don't have a bunch of time for editing because you know. Christmas. I'll probably come back and do a pass at it with grammarly or something tommorow, but for now, heres my gift to you. 10k words fresh from the mind of a sleep deprived man. If there are glaring errors in grammar or anything I assure you - it's because I haven't slept in 36 hours and I've had enough Monster to turn my blood to coolaid.
Here we see a few developments. Blake assumes Jaune has a similar background to her (wrong), Weiss assumes he has a similar semblance to her (wrong), and everyone assumes that because Jaune is shit with a sword he must be 'weak'. Jokes on them I guess.
Blakes an interesting case for me. She'll get more face time around the point in the story she starts to do the whole 'I'm obsessed with the White Fang' thing, but before that she seems really dead set on flying under the radar - going so far as to leave Velvet to get bullied when she obviously doesn't want to during the lunch scene with Cardin.
Honestly, this chapter was hard for me because there isn't alot of canon information on JNPR in the early seasons of RWBY. I don't mind that because obviously I have to find space to fit the other aspects of my story that aren't canon, but its still a bit nerve wracking. I'll note that I haven't really decided on a pairing for this story. I'm just sort of letting things flow and seeing how I feel about it. Pyrrha is Pyrrha and even her theme music from the show pretty much explicitly states that she fell in love with Jaune basically in the first forty seconds of their encounter in the forest, and the vague antagonism you might see her show to Weiss is explicitly something her music hints at too - largely as a result of Jaune being a dumbass.
Under normal circumstances she absolutely wouldn't be able to go toe to toe with a servant of any kind, but the assassin class has naturally shit stats, and Hassan's extra bodies have a fraction of that score, which should just about put them in the upper limit of what a Hunstmen should be able to handle individually. And well... Pyrrha is Pyrrha so. She'll manage.
Actually this has been a conundrum for me. In terms of a normal back and forth, (For the purposes of this example, the fight between Archer and Lancer at the beginning of UBW), Servants aren't honestly that much faster or stronger than a trained Hunstmen. I think its only when they start using Prana Burst and Reinforcement with stupid amounts of mana backing them up that they fall outside the range of what a normal fighter from the RWBY universe could handle. Berserker not withstanding because he's... Berserker... I'm basing this purely on the fact that Shirou seemed capable of keeping up with alot of the Servants in his war despite being just a shitty normy in a lot of respects.
Lets see what else... oh. Still need a beta reader. Just putting that out there.
And as always
Thanks for reading.