Gah, pulling this out of my head was a pain!

-Y.A.R.N.

Jaune sat at a table and chewed a small pile of mashed potato from the mound of food on his plate. It wasn't even close to his mother's food, but it was just about Beacon quality, and they had pretty good meals. He sat at a spot that was in the corner and surveyed the cafeteria that was slowly filling up with people. Lunch was one of the few times he could find a bit of solace from the humdrum monotony of school and allowed for a brief moment of calming introspection.

He absently wished he knew actually someone other than Qrow and Yang. His classmates weren't unsociable, but he had no real inclination to try to get to know anyone. He wasn't the best at making friends, and didn't know if he would be well received. What really made him shake his head in fond disbelief, was - as per the usual - Yang. Despite being in the top bracket of freshmen of note however, Yang wasn't exactly - or even remotely for that matter - in the same boat. With her naturally outgoing and upbeat personality, she was making friends, admirers, and acquaintances with barely any effort.

He never thought she'd have any trouble, though it was surprising to see just how well she succeeded.

He sighed as she plopped herself down next to him, "What'd you get?"

He twirled a spoon in his hand as he motioned at his mashed potatoes with his free hand, "A heavy load of potatoes with a splash of gravy, multiple chicken nuggets with a liberal dousing of ketchup, and all topped off with a single chocolate chip cookie for dessert."

"That's not alot." She remarked sacastically.

"Well, you know how us fragile-ego men have to be careful about how much we eat so we don't get fat." He replied haughtily, chin jutted up as though trying to come across as snooty.

Yang took a single glance and burst out laughing, She managed to gasp out, "Of course! So unlike us tough and uncaring women!"

Jaune composure broke and began laughing as well.

After they calmed somewhat, Jaune took a deep breath and grinned, "But honestly, I don't have much of an option when it comes to meals. I cook better than this without trying all that hard. The main reason I usually eat here is because I get hungry if I don't, which leads to me being cranky and irritable until I get home and eat there."

Yang raised an eyebrow, "You can cook?"

Jaune nodded, "Yep. Pretty well too... if my mother is to be believed."

Yang fired a challenging grin, "Now I've got to try that."

Jaune smirked, "Wanna bet, you're stacking things in my favor by not believing."

Yang gave him a scrutinizing look before huffing, "I'll take your word for it."

Jaune snapped his fingers and growled in mock-frustration, "Damn, and here I was, hoping to score an easy twenty lien..."

"Seriously?" Jaune commented in a deadpan at the article on the scroll that was shoved in his face, "You want me to participate in that?"

"Yeah!" Yang said, kicking her legs up on the chair opposite her as they sat in the library, "You won't believe the sort of cred you get for fighting, and I'm just about sure I'll win. I want to see you beat up the competition so we can really square off in the finals. So what if we are freshmen? We'll show that we're gonna be the best!"

Jaune absently wondered if telling Yang he was heading to the library would've actually deterred her by any appreciable amount. Her 'do what I want' attitude was only slightly less matured in that regard, and she seemed dead-set on talking to him about this. And the libraries at Signal had incredibly similar (which meant lax) rules to Beacon. Even so, Jaune sighed in fond exasperation, Yang was much the same as she was in Beacon.

Maybe a bit more childish, but still Yang.

Jaune hummed as he scanned the details more closely, "So it's basically an organized number of fights where people get to kick other people's asses in front of important people, teachers, mentors, family members - if they can attend - and other spectators and hopefully get some recognition and some prize cash if they win or finish in the top three?"

Yang punched his shoulder lightly, "That about sums it up. It's also no holds barred fight each round as well. Semblance, weapons, practically anything anyone can use from their entire arsenal and cut loose. No killing of course, but there's no school year restrictions or age limit and it follows regular school rules."

"Reminds me of the Mistral's tournament to be honest..." Jaune said as he minimized the article."

Yang pondered that, "What do you mean?"

Jaune turned to her, with an raised eyebrow "I think Mistral has this huge tournament where people compete to kick ass and get sponsorship deals and all the while look good, right?"

Yang grinned brightly at that, "Yeah, it's alot like that, just not as apparently huge or as widely known as that tournament. A lot of hunter prep schools have these smaller inter-school tournaments and it basically a test to see who deserves to be in the AP classes or needs help. Alot of the students who fight in it actually just want to test themselves."

Jaune rubbed his chin, "I guess it wold be a good idea to see how I stack up against some of the seniors here in Signal. I might as well check it out, if nothing else, it would be a decent chance to fight people who have actually trained with their weapons. Where do I sign up?"

Semblances were similar at times and vastly different at other times, but that would make this experience almost invaluable. If he fought people with varying abilities, it would be very helpful if he had to go up against possible opponents that had powers that were similar as he could plan countermeasures against them.

He'd just have to try his best then.

"I think there's a signup sheet that's on the office bulletin board, but it's still a couple of months off not even considering how before everybody who wants to signup might not because they might lose face." Yang replied, stretching her arms out before resting them behind her head, "I bet it will be a blast! I hope Ruby can watch me wipe the floor with the opposition."

Jaune blinked, he actually hadn't heard of Ruby in all the time while he had been interacting with Yang.

Might as well 'learn' about her then, besides, there was no time like the present...

"Ruby?" he queried.

Yang blinked, before smiling, "Yeah. Ruby's my little sis. Sweet kid, I love her to death."

Jaune tilted his head, "She gonna be a huntress too?"

Yang smirked, "Yep. She's pretty good with the scythe she uses, modeled it after seeing Uncle Qrow with his. She's a bit of a weapon nut. There was this one time she tried to pack fire dust in a bullet without supervision..."

Jaune smiled as he heard Yang go on about Ruby and her lesser-known escapades.

Jaune gritted his teeth as he finished the last of his routine as he dropped from the pull up bar he had been using. He took a moment to catch his breath after he rolled his shoulders and picked up the towel he had been using and slung it over his shoulder. He looked around to marvel at the facilities that he had access to in the city. Most of the time back in Beacon he'd train at night with Pyrrha without having much time to workout and build any appreciable muscle until Pyrrha deemed his skills as decently polished, they'd have to stick to the rooftop as the school workout centers would be closed. When the day rolled around, most of his free time was dedicated to studying, keeping up with everyone else, and attending classes.

He smiled, if he kept up with this, he would be leagues above his old strength by the time Beacon rolled around.

He used the facilities to take a quick wash and threw on some clothing as he left the lockers.

After stepping outside, he shouldered his duffel bag more securely and began strolling back to his apartment, he might as well get done with the homework he had left. The sooner he got that over with, the sooner he would get a free schedule. As he walked, his mind wandered to the tournament that would be held during the winter break. Would it be anything like Pyrrha's tournaments in Mistral? He wasn't averse to the ida of winning, Vale was a lot more lax in terms of ability. There wasn't a whole lot of 'you-are-of-a-higher-class-so-do-not-associate-with-these-kind-of-people' sort of thing here.

Heck, the only person who even remotely did that was Weiss and she was the heiress to The SDC and came from Atlas.

Vale tended to be more 'hey-this-person-is-famous-let's-see-what-we-can-make-off-of-them' in truth.

He honestly didn't think that was any better though.

He blinked and realized he was standing in front of his building, his feet instinctively carrying him as he pondered.

With a sigh, he entered and waved at the receptionist as he went to his apartment. He unlocked the door and noticed David passed out on the couch, remote in hand. Jaune didn't want to disturb him so he quietly swept into his room. He threw his bag into a corner after fishing out his scroll and flopping onto the bed. Jaune sighed from his bed as he laid down, staring at his scroll after he typed a few keystrokes.

He had dialed Pyrrha's old number.

His thumb hovered over the call button before he huffed and closed it. It was a stupid idea to even really consider. He'd only ever known her Beacon number and they had only gotten those when they went to Beacon. Even if - by some miracle - the number was the same, what if she didn't know him?

'Just some random guy called and then hung up after asking if I knew him.' she would think, 'What a weirdo.'

He was just tired.

Tired of seeing strangers and people wearing familiar faces.

Tired of wanting something that seemed so impossible it was laughable to expect it.

Tired of being the only one who had memories of things that no one else knew.

And even more so, he wasn't with his family anymore and that ached like gaping hole in his chest.

He shook his head like a dog shaking water, cutting his nosedive of depressing thoughts before he could mope about it. He had a second chance, and even if he may not have all that he had before, he was far more prepared to defend what he could have.

It would simply have to be enough.

If it wasn't, he MAKE it enough.

He glanced at the clock on the wall and decided he wanted to sleep in, he could always do his homework early or something.

He didn't want to do anything right now except sleep.

He grumbled wordless complaints into his pillow as he woke up facedown. He didn't even need the clock to know he had woken up way before he wanted to and was probably not going to get anymore sleep unless he wanted to cut class.

"Erg." He growled as he pushed himself to kneel and blink the sleep from his eyes.

The room was dark except for the faint light coming from his clock that read 2:52 in the morning.

Argh.

"Welp..." He sighed, "Might as well do that homework..."

He fished out his textbooks and opened his book to the necessary pages and began reading. Learning about the Faunus Revolution wasn't bad, but Jaune snorted when he read it. For as much as he like humanity, their treatment of faunus-kind was nothing short of despicable. Blake told them of how they were given an island and the equivalent of a 'you-can-have-this-now-shut-up-and-go'.

It wasn't fair.

Not in the slightest.

He quickly shook his head, now wasn't the time to dwell on the bigotry of people and his friends, he'd only make himself depressed - he really needed to stop thinking of his past/future as well as the people he associated with it, this was getting ridiculous and annoying - if he kept that up. He swiftly finished his homework and put it away in their proper places in his binder. He leaned back in his chair and noticed his guitar leaning against the wall in the corner. He hadn't played as much as he used to, going to Signal and then heading out to slay grimm had been using up almost all his spare hours.

He walked over and ran his hands over the strings, hearing the faint sound of strings as he closed his eyes. He smiled in contentment before gently strumming the stings and beginning to play. He gently played a lullaby that his mother would sing when he was a toddler. He heard it when he had nightmares and his mother would sing to him as he slept, calming him and easing his pain.

Pyrrha Nikos panted as she rested her weight on her knees and took stock of all the metal she had lifted and threw. Not by much, but there was definitely more metal that she had been able to lift. Not all that much more noticeable than her habitual check, but she was improving, albeit slowly. Her aura was running low though, and it's drag was enough to make her want to stop to rest otherwise she might loose the ability to stay on her feet and would collapse. She looked up at the sound of footsteps and saw her father walk up, eyebrow raised.

He let out a low whistle, looking surprised.

Her father walked over and hummed appreciatively, "Well done. You've been growing in leaps and bounds, far faster than I thought possible. You should be proud."

Pyrrha smiled tiredly, "Thank you."

"I must ask though,what is with the sudden interest in strengthening your aura and semblance? You already have a decent amount of control and knowledge. It's nothing to be sneeze at with you being as young as you are." He asked casually as he walked over the cooler Pyrrha had set out earlier and withdrawing a water bottle.

She shut her eyes tight, remembering Cinder battle with her, loosing despite all of her strength and skill.

"I can't be decent." She replied firmly, "If I want to be a hunter, then I have to keep growing. I cannot allow myself to stagnate and say this is good enough. Something like that only allows for arrogance and foolish mistakes. No matter what, there is always someone stronger, able to defeat you at your best. I won't let that happen."

Her father stilled, his face twisting into a solemn expression before he took a deep breath, "Well, don't worry about something like that this early, you've still got a long way to go before you'll meet anyone truly dangerous and wanting to kill you."

Pyrrha flinched but strengthened her resolve.

'This time,' she thought fiercely, 'I'll beat Cinder. She won't win. Not again.'

Jaune let out an angry growl as he lunged to the side. Avoiding the fist of the beringel as he threw out a lance of shadow through its head and twisted Nirgredo against the claws of a beowolf. As the beringel's dissolving corpse fell, he moved with the momentum of the strike, allowing the force to push him into the air. He rolled in the air before landing on one hand - fingers digging into the dirt - before he pushed hard off the ground to land in a crouch. His senses screamed and he darted to the side, not even bothering to slash or parry but simply try to gain distance so he could formulate a plan. His gaze narrowed at the Ursa that was glaring at him - paws right on top of where he was standing - before it gave chase.

This was ridiculous.

Sure it was a rather old town ruin he had managed to find, but the grimm gathering here was a lot heavier than he expected. And - as if that wasn't enough - they were much tougher than his usual opponents. Jaune didn't usually mind, pushing himself was something he required sooner or later, but it was annoying as hell to deal with at the moment. He didn't want to push himself to the point of exhaustion, otherwise he'd have to wait in an grimm infested area while waiting for his aura to refill to an acceptable level which was just going to put him in even more danger. He could draw in shadows to replenish them, but too large of an amount would make him lose control over his grimm and force him to go on a rampage.

Kinda why he needed this training in the first place.

He'd have to do this with the most perfect control of aura he could manage so he wouldn't tire himself out too much.

Fine.

"Alright then." He growled, "Let's see how you bastards handle this!"

Jaune twisted, dragging the edge of Nigredo against the floor. He had already done this using his bone gauntlets, so channeling that feeling through Nigredo was only mildly difficult. A single spire of bone impaled an oncoming beowolf and Jaune was moving. Ducking away from the lunge of a beowolf, he stabbed Nigredo into the arm of a beringel and used it to haul himself up and smash the ape grimm in the face with an armored knee. As it recoiled, he yanked Nigredo out of the arm and decapitated it with a swift slash. He kicked of the chest of the dying grimm, using it as a springboard as he sliced through an ursa's arm. He spun and lunged, making a upward swiping motion with his hand and shadows erupted from the grimm feet, slicing the beast to ribbons.

A rumbling caught Jaune's attention and he turned, seeing a rolling blur of white heading for him.

'Boarbatusk...' he mused.

He swept his occupied hand outward as though backhanding a invisible person and the writhing darkness of the shadows shot outward as a single mass towards the grimm. It squealed in pain as the impact from the shadows sent it flying into a tower. Jaune directed the shadows with a swing of his sword, and they descended on the tower, smashing it and anything inside to fine dust.

When Jaune lowered his hand, the mass shadows followed; slithering out of the ruined tower to pool and gather at his feet like black puddle of water that was expanding. Red eyes and black shapes of grimm surrounded him, circling like a slow and dark whirlpool. Jaune's irises turned completely red as bones fully covered him and his bone helmet closed over his face with a sharp 'clack' of bone hitting bone.

"Come on then!" He roared as the shadows began to rise, "Come and claim your death!"

The grimm seemed to pause, muscles stretching taught as they tensed.

Then the wave of monster converged.