Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY. RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.
A/N: Finally back ^_^. I'll have another chapter out the day after tomorrow to make up for my tardiness. Hope you all enjoy
The remainder of the day passed without incident, team AWBR returned to their tasks with their lunch period completed, Blake disappearing to the library, and Ruby tending to Crescent Rose to ensure it was in perfect condition for the coming days of initial training and possible sparring. This left Weiss to discretely pull her partner away and force him into one of the training areas for what she figured would need to be some thorough reconditioning in how to fight against human opponents. Weiss had spent much of their lunch time planning out what would need to be covered and sorting out a schedule for them to do these sessions between their classes. Once she had come to a plan that she deemed acceptable she had set about pulling her partner into one of the training rooms to begin the regime she had in mind.
The school provided students with several practice rooms, intended for combat training and sparring between team members. The pair each had changed into the usual combat attire and made their way into one of these enclosed spaces, the room featured two benches side by side across the room from the door and a reasonably sized arena to fight in. Upon entering the ring, each student would link their scroll to the sensor attached to the ceiling which would monitor their aura levels and ensure that neither party became seriously injured.
Jaune set down his bag on one of the benches and turned to the heiress, having resigned himself to the situation previously. "So, what's the plan for today?"
Weiss placed down her own effects, deciding to respond to him in a more physical manner. She turned and handed him a file folder with some papers inside. She had prepared prior to their meeting, "This is the plan for the foreseeable future."
Jaune opened to folder to find a weekly calendar with training information on it, and meeting time for sparring. Finding that the current day was slated for said sparring match. Realizing that she had taken his class schedule without his knowledge and added these training sessions to it left him a bit unsure again about what he had gotten himself into. "What is this exactly?"
Growing slightly more irate as she clipped Myrtenaster to her hip, she turned to him. "I told you what it is; this is the plan for the foreseeable future." She had come up with this plan for him to do as much training as she figured was expected, and also made sure to plan around the classes he would have. Taking into account her own classes and those of their peers to ensure that they would each be able to meet in the sparring rooms only on days when they could avoid the others questioning them. It was meant to be a favour, one that he clearly didn't appreciate.
Jaune looked down again at the page with a confused look, he could tell that despite his usual mindset on school and training; he would have to get used to being quite busy going forward. Looking back at Weiss and finding her disarmingly powerful expression looking back at him; he relented for the time being and placed the folder down with his things. Attaching Crocea Mors to his hip, he also walked onto the platform. Now wasn't really the time to anger her more, when she was moments away from beating him into the ground.
Weiss spoke up; deciding that now would be a good time to give out the details of what she had in mind. "Today, I want to simply fight you and get a feel for where we should go from here." Beyond the match with Cardin earlier, she didn't really have anything to go on for his ability to fight against another person.
Jaune nodded, his fears being realized in that moment. Having seen Weiss in combat before, he knew that he didn't even hold a candle to the speed she displayed, let alone her precision with her rapier. Nevertheless, he drew Crocea Mors and positioned his shield before him, seeing that Weiss began to unholster Myrtenaster.
"To conserve on aura, we will avoid using semblances for the time being, and reset on each successful strike." She decided to mimic a routine that one of her own teachers had put in place during her private lessons at home. In the couple moments before they readied themselves to fight, it occurred to her that she had no experience with training another person to fight. While she could emulate the regime and actions of her previous instructors, it still left her feeling uncertain about if an unexpected situation could arise. Shaking her head lightly, she resolved that she would be able to handle whatever might happen, she couldn't really get by with telling herself anything else.
Jaune rolled his shoulders slightly, taking a deep breath and preparing for the coming assault, the best he could do was try to weather the storm behind his shield. Seeing Weiss moving into her coiled charging stance, he brought Crocea's shield between himself and his attacker, keeping his sword prepared behind it for the unlikely event she gave him an opening.
In an instant, with a high pitched ringing noise, she glided toward him and drove her rapier at the outside of his shield. Turning his shield slightly to deflect the attack, with a flick of her wrist the blade retreated for him and angled around to his exposed ribs. He attempted to turn the shield back in time to deflect the new angle of attack, but the tip of her blade collided roughly with his breastplate, knocking him off balance and causing Weiss to turn away from him to return to her original position.
She had already begun to walk away before he even collided with the ground, well this is embarrassing. He quickly returned to his feet and his own starting position. Happy that she hadn't spoken about his poor reaction, at the same time the neutral expression that she held at the moment made him feel even less sure of what was coming next.
Weiss looked back at her partner for a moment, taking some time before gesturing for them to restart. He had reacted to her attack as one would expect, but his speed in recovering from her feint left her wanting. While most Grimm didn't use very complex attack patterns, his inability to overcome such a simple maneuver confirmed her fears about his lack of higher level training. It was quite confusing how he'd managed to get into the school with so little knowledge of fighting against a skilled opponent. Deciding it wasn't worth questioning the thoughts of Ozpin any further, she readied herself again and nodded to Jaune.
Again Weiss closed the distance in an instant, choosing to repeat her feint. Jaune's shield again turned to deflect the initial attack, but when she retracted and re-angled her strike, his shield met it with force. Deflecting the force of her body to the side of his, and exposing her back to him. Weiss re-acted quickly, using the momentum to put herself into a spin; Jaune doing a similar turn to follow-through on his deflection. He intended to bring his sword down on her before she could recover.
He underestimated her ability to pirouette, as he came around to attack, the side of his body was exposed to her attack. Turning faster than him, she drove Myrtenaster into his side and again left him tumbling to the floor. She waited for a moment this time, he had learned from her attack and immediately put into action an attempt to counter-act it. Her curiosity piqued, she decided to continue this line of attack and see how he would re-act.
Resetting again, she took a deep breath and moved in for her attack. The attack went exactly the same as the time before, however as she turned to attack him, Jaune reversed direction and retracted his shield in time to deflect the newest of her strikes. This action opened up his body and gave him an opportunity to strike back at her, as his sword came down in an overhead strike, she shifted her weight and back-stepped out of his range.
Having committed to his attack against a much more agile opponent left him unable to stop her return thrust, as she reversed direction and closed the distance again. Driving her rapier into the center of his chest, not knocking him to the ground this time however, she returned to her original position. Jaune did the same, his eyes deep in thought, Weiss examined him more and more deeply, trying to discern how he could be learning so quickly, but be coming into the fight so ill-prepared.
She was expected to constantly improve and train herself to be the best of the best; her family's prestige demanded that they be second to no one. Thus she had been several different trainers and sparring partners throughout her time growing up, none of them had fought in the way the boy standing across from her did. Every one of them had their own training, style, patterns of attack and defense that had been rehearsed over hours and hours of training. Contrary to that, Jaune seemed to be learning and making this up as they progressed, adding on to his plan with each new piece of information set before him.
Movement from the boy in question shook her from her thoughts; he had dropped his shield slightly and was looking on her inquisitively. She locked eyes with him for a moment, for once during their exchanges over the past few minutes, she was at a disadvantage. A level of intensity had set into the usually softly sapphire depths before her; blinking a few times she nodded to let him know she was ready to go again.
Their exchange continued, each encounter adding another motion to the dance they were choreographing along the arena. Jaune following Weiss' lead, attempting to wrench control from her wherever possible, adding in his own step forward, only for it to be absorbed by her superior control, forcing him to follow along with the next several steps she added before finding a new opening.
Weiss stood in their reset positions and looked to her opponent across from her. He stood ready for their next attempt, unmoving behind his shield, despite every hit she connected with his aura and stamina seemed relatively unaffected. She knew that her physical attacks from Myrtenaster weren't damaging on their own, but considering how long they had been fighting; and that she hadn't been struck even once, she had figured that he would be at the very least exhausted.
Engaging once again, Jaune's actions were suddenly different from every other clash they'd had, taking her off-guard. His shield collided with her chest, knocking her onto her back foot. His offensive breaking the routine that had set in over them throughout their entire session to that point, Weiss was unable to react in time and leaving her off-balance far longer than she would normally have been.
Jaune had noticed her heavy breathing, and found that each strike had become less and less impactful as they progressed. The entire time, he had been mulling over every possible angle of attack against the heiress. Her speed simply outclassed anything he could do, but he could tell that she lacked much force in her strikes; he surmised that her smaller weapon and stature left little weight behind her attacks. This time was probably the only opening he would have to go on the offensive against her; he followed his shield with an overhead swing of Crocea Mors.
The blade connected with her shoulder as she leaned onto her back foot, knocking her to the ground and leaving him standing over her. The match having ended, he reached out a hand to help the girl up. He froze at the look that was returned to his hand, adding another disarming look to her repertoire.
Her eyes seemed uncertain; they held a questioning glance at his hand and then back to his own eyes. The icy pools of her eyes seemed thawed and questioning of what to do next, the searing cold replaced with a more vulnerable and warm look. Jaune could almost feel as though he'd won the entire session, the way she reacted betrayed a completely different outcome than the forty to one outcome that was the reality.
Weiss reached out to the proffered hand tentatively, feeling Jaune lift her back to her feet. Uncertain of what to say to his sudden change in tactic, despite the overall scoring of their fights, the final clash had left her shaken both physically and mentally. She had fallen so comfortably into their practiced motions that she could still feel the rest of the movements that should have been playing out. He had moved against the current they had worked up and left her behind in an instant, part of her unable to fathom being so far from him so suddenly.
Taking a breath for a moment, she looked to her scroll to find that they had been fighting for about an hour and a half. Deciding that she would need some time to re-access the events that had transpired, she looked at the owner of the hand she was holding. "That should be enough for tonight."
Jaune nodded, unable to argue with the girl given the current situation. He decided to gather his things and leave her for the time being. What little experience he had with his sisters let him know now wouldn't be a good time to press her for conversation.
Weiss sat on her bench for a moment to ponder the turn of events. It was clear to her during the initiation that Jaune was sharp enough to be able to react to changing situations and come up with different plans of attack. She had seen it with him fighting Cardin and his choice to switch the hand he was holding his weapon in, and now with his recognition of her lack of focus and responding with using his shield as a weapon.
She was beginning to understand why he might have been selected as the leader of their team, while she still didn't agree that he was the best choice. His individual skills weren't up to par with some of the other students, but he was clearly able to discern a good course of action against a superior enemy. Sighing to herself, she didn't truly know how she should move forward, with the way things hard turned out during this session. She had fallen so comfortably into a rhythm fighting with him, that she had nearly forgotten what they were there for, and it left her feeling more vulnerable than she ever had before.
However, she would not stand for things continuing at their current status quo. She decided it would be a good idea to continue their training as she had mapped it out, she would need to reconsider her stance on his abilities to some extent, however she didn't want to let up on his need to improve his individual skill. This will be tricky. Resolving to try to find a balanced approach to the confusing boy, Weiss stood and made to return to her dorm.
Team AWBR had all returned to their room and set about their own specific tasks, Ruby and Jaune looking over some comic books, Blake reading her own 'literature', and Weiss working on her own personal notes. Managing to avoid any further complications from the day, they all turned in without incident. The ensuing morning was considerably more difficult for their leader however.
His scroll vibrating on his table awakening him, he stumbled from his bed to see what might be the emergency. His blurry eyes finally focusing when he managed to look over the screen to see the 5am time, the alarm note before him nearly induced a bout of violence toward electronics.
The schedule that Weiss had set out for him had been programmed into his scroll now, leaving him with a 5am alarm for running. Part of him wanted to ignore the task, and simply go back to bed, however another part of him felt the extra hour or two of sleep wasn't worth his partner's wrath. Giving one more sigh of resignation, he looked over at the object of his frustration; she seemed too cute and non-threatening when she had her hair down, curled up in bed to be the same girl who had wrought this early morning upon him.
Turning away, he retreated to the bathroom with a pair of jogging pants and a shirt to change, deciding to focus on keeping on top of all the things he would need to do in the future. As much as he was having difficulty adapting to the idea of following a strict training regime, part of him was happy to know that he had some help with being able to catch up to his peers.
The idea of being able to work on his skills and abilities going forward felt like a good thing to him. Jaune could feel some of his anxiety escape him from the previous days, just knowing that he would have a reasonable opportunity and a plan for how to get better. While he hadn't seen any of the results yet, just the hope of getting there was enough for him at the moment.
Nodding to himself, he changed and went about his jog, acknowledging the need to be back to the dorm in about an hour and a half to catch the shower empty before any of the girls awakened. Making his way across the grounds of the school, he noted a few upperclassmen doing similar jogging trips or running about looking like they had already been busy with work.
The school year had started in the early fall, meaning that the morning was still fairly warm and bright. Vale was fairly warm overall, but still had four distinct seasons, the crisp morning air of the mid-autumn weather was a nice feeling for his morning. Despite how hard it was to get out of bed, he felt substantially more awake than he normally would throughout the run. He could get used to this feeling, somehow not sore from the previous day; he managed to cover a considerable distance, before stopping to take a break on a bench in a grassy area of the school grounds.
Taking a deep breath, and trying to calm down for a few minutes, he thought back on the training session he had with Weiss the day before. He'd been able to figure out several different ways to combat her agility, but he still wasn't able to keep up with her relentless attacks. Every opening he thought he had was followed by a seemingly effortless reversal. He knew that there was a skill difference between the two of them, and that was why in the final encounter he had resorted to using his strength to overpower her. The routine they had set into had clearly caused her to let her guard down and gave him that opening, but he knew that wouldn't have been the case in a real match.
He needed to be faster, to be able to have his body keep up with his mind when it came to fighting. Even if he could come up with a plan of attack, and figure out all the moves he needed to make; he needed to be able to execute each motion of his plan. His teammates had kept him alive during the initiation, being able to execute his plan to perfection in an instant, but for him to be able to keep going with them he would need to be able to do the same. Being a leader is about actions, the onus was on him to be the one to lead the way and put a plan into action.
Nodding to himself, he figured the best thing he could do was to keep training with Weiss, and try to improve his ability to fight at the speed that his peers would be going at. Standing again, and deciding that he would need to return to his dorm to set about his day, he began the jog back. One step at a time.
Having gone much further than he had expected he would, Jaune made it to their dorm room with a few minutes to spare; entering the room he meandered his way to belongings and extracted his school uniform for the day. His muscles were beginning to tighten up now that he was no longer running, he figured it would be a good idea to have a warm shower and give them some time to relax before finally seizing up completely.
Checking his scroll, he noted that the others would be getting up soon, so, he rushed over to the shower to get in before the girls took up the bathroom for the foreseeable future. Opening the door to the shower he was hit was a wall of steam unexpectedly, triggering his brain to go into a frenzy to figure out what was happening before him. Looking up from the door, his vision cleared enough to see the lithe figure of his partner standing before him.
Normally the bathroom was laid out, such that anyone in the shower could not be easily seen from the doorway. Even if someone were to open the door, there was a solid divider between their vision and the shower; however, he had come into the room at the exact moment which the usually white clad girl was leaving said shower.
The two froze, eyes wide with shock at the turn of events. Jaune made every attempt her could to restart his feet moving and reverse himself back out of the door, but they wouldn't answer. They maintained eye-contact for what felt like hours, part of Jaune knew that was the only thing keeping her from killing him. Don't look down, don't look down, do not look down. He fought with his instincts as every bit of brain power he could spare, despite what felt like an eternity, it took only a few seconds for Jaune's resolve to buckle.
The instant that Jaune's eyes deviated downward, Weiss sprung into action conjuring a large and blunt piece of ice and hurling it at the offending boy. Jaune had only that moment to commit the view to memory, and hope that the upcoming blunt force trauma didn't knock it out of him. With a loud thud, his world went black.
A/N: Thank to everyone for being supportive after my accident (I have no serious injuries, for anyone wondering), and being understanding about needing time to get back on track. I'm gonna try to get more writing done again, I've got a bit more time on my hands now that I don't have a car :P.
AntonSlavik020: I know that Weiss is coming off as a bit unlikable, she's working on it. She has her reasons, and hopefully in this chapter you can see a bit more of what she thinks she's doing correctly. My take on her character is more that she feels what she's doing is actually the right thing to do, it's less that she's actively being negative, just that she doesn't really know any other way of looking at things.
theycallmebeanz: It'll take some time to get to know Jaune's backstory, aside from spilling that he has several sisters, his character doesn't really talk much about his family. So, it leaves a lot to interpretation, which is good for me ^_^.
For anyone wondering about any other projects I might be working on, since I know some people have chosen to follow my account and not just Aubretia. I am planning to work on some other projects branching off of this one. I really enjoy the idea of making a slight change, and it significantly changing how the story and characters play out.
If any of you have ever played a visual novel, or Fate/Stay Night specifically, you know how big a difference there was be from just a couple small choices. I kind of want to try my hand at something like that, so, the landing strategy and a few of the choices leading up to that will be our prologue for future stories.