After class, Jaune was on his way to meet up with Ruby when he passed through a horde of students meandering through campus. He merged in with the crowd, letting his thoughts wander as he auto-piloted toward their meet-up location next to the door to the Velvet Room. He wondered how Blake was doing, and what he was going to do about the whole Weiss situation...
"Jaune! It's good to see you."
Somewhere from out of the crowd, Blake was suddenly beside Jaune. He didn't even see her approach, and it nearly gave him a heart attack to see her keeping perfect step with him out of nowhere. "H-wo-hi-uh Hey, hey Blake!" Jaune managed to stutter out finally.
"I was wondering..." she began as they pushed their way out of the crowd, heading straight for the tower where Ruby was waiting, "if you had heard the news about last night?" She was holding a book in her hands. Jaune gave it a quick glance and could see "Ninjas in Love" written on the spine.
"Uhh, I don't really follow the news all that well..." Jaune thought about how his night really went, and wondered how Blake would react to the fact that he was in a magic version of Beacon that was an arena for fighting shadows with his Persona alongside team J-PWR... was he really using that name now?
"Apparently a store related to the Schnee company was vandalized." Blake said it matter-of-factly. If there was any hint of panic in her voice, Jaune couldn't find it. As she said it the two of them approached Ruby, who was waving at Jaune with a somewhat confused expression toward Blake.
"Hi there, I'm Ruby! Are you guys talking about the break-in?" She leaned forward away from the tower, eyes hopping between earnest and concnerned as she looked from Jaune to Blake. "Supposedly someone's got it out for Weiss's family."
"Hello." Blake began bluntly. "Supposedly they tagged the walls with the phrase, 'The Snow Runs Red With Blood'." She looked at Jaune, then to Ruby, then back to Jaune. "I was hoping I could talk to you about it, Jaune." Her eyes settled on Ruby again. "Preferably alone."
Jaune raised his eyebrows at Blake and looked over to Ruby, who was shrugging. "Um... Ruby, this is Blake. Blake, this is Ruby. She's pretty cool - I think we should let her in on the conversation. Are you..." he paused, thinking about the most delicate way to phrase his next question... "Are you afraid Adam had something to do with it?"
Blake's eyes widened at the mention of her beau. She cast her glance aside, then took a deep breath. "Yes. That's... that's exactly what I'm afraid of." She looked at Ruby. "I... I hope I'm not intruding, it's just... I don't know who else to talk to." She looked back to Jaune.
"I like books." Ruby chimed in the middle of the conversation, pointing to the book in Blake's hand. "My sister used to read to me all the time when I was little. I think it had alot to do with me growing up to be who I am now." She stood up, holding out her hand toward Blake. "If Jaune and I can do anything to help, we'd be happy to. Right, Jaune?"
Blake blushed slightly as she shook Ruby's hand. "I... that's really cool. I don't really... know what to do about it yet. I don't want to report Adam to the police but... he hasn't been responding to my messages..." she fiddled with the ribbon in her hair for a moment. "I just... I was hoping Jaune could help me find out if it's really him."
"Y-yeah! I'd be happy to help. I... don't really know where to start though." He looked to Ruby, and to Blake. Ruby smiled and gave a thumbs up.
"Well, three heads are better than one Blake. We can get our friend Pyrrha to help too. We'll have this case cracked in no time." She smiled a big bright-eyed smile, and Blake couldn't help but smile back.
"Thank you. It... it means alot." She beamed to Jaune and Ruby, and then looked around as an awkward silence settled on the trio. She coughed politely. "Um... here's my number. In case you find anything." Ruby and Jaune flipped open their phones and added her quickly. "Thanks again." She smiled. "I um... have somewhere to be." She waved and started to shuffle away quickly, leaving Jaune and Ruby alone.
"See? I told you you'd make a new friend." Ruby said, smiling from ear to ear. "Who needs bossy Weiss anyway?"
"Thanks for that, by the way." Jaune said as he watched Blake leave. "Blake gave me another Social Link. I wanna check out the Velvet Room and see what's changed... she'll be the first person not on the team to give us a Persona to use."
"OH! That's a good idea. Well, you do your thing, I'll stand watch." Ruby smiled, leaning against the tower. Jaune shrugged and reached into his pocket. Ruby watched as Jaune pulled something invisible out of his pocket, held it up to the door, and turned his wrist.
"Mister Arc, it's been too long."
Jaune glanced up from his desk to see the same old Velvet Room. This time, however, there was no one next to Ozpin's desk. He was alone, his bespectacled eyes staring straight into Jaune. The board displayed, written in chalk, the word 'Fusion.'
As Jaune glanced around he could see the Ruby and Pyrrha dolls in their normal seats - however, off to the side, away from the group, sat a matching Blake doll with a card infront of her as well. The Weiss doll, though here, was leaning over its desk, like a student sleeping in class, obscuring all of her cards from Jaune's reach.
"It seems you've had quite some social interraction since we've last met." Ozpin steepled his fingers and leaned back in his chair. "An arcana in reverse... what a shame. But new friends made at the same time. Such is life, young man. We cannot hope to move forward without risking a step or two backward."
Jaune frowned as he looked to the Weiss doll, but was happy to see Blake there. He glanced at the cards on his desk. Cu Sith and Pixie were still on the desks of Pyrrha and Ruby, but now he had three new cards sitting infront of him to be grasped. They were to the side, face down. His own Persona, Hodr, stared up at him from the large 'Fool' Arcana card that sat infront of him.
One was of a mostly naked man wrapped only in a red cloth, with long flowing blond hair that was growing a simple flower atop of it. The card read 'Narcissus' of the Lovers Arcana. Next to it was a creature seemingly made entirely out of heads, all mouths agape, like a giant ball of faces. It read 'Legion' of the Fool Arcana. The last showed a horse standing on its hind legs, with hands instead of hooves raised to the sky. It read 'Orobos' of the Magician Arcana.
"Sweet, new Personas to play with." Jaune smiled to himself, grabbing both cards. He stood, and went to put the Legion card on Pyrrha's desk infront of him. Before he finished, he heard a cough from behind the teacher's desk.
"Ahem, perhaps now would be a good time to begin an important lesson for anyone holding the Wild Card." He gestured lazily to the blackboard. "It is time for you to learn Fusion." Ozpin gestured to Jaune to come to the teacher's desk. Jaune did so, placing the cards infront of Ozpin.
"With the power of fusion," Ozpin began, "you will be able to take two or more Personas that you have obtained and fuse them together to create an even more powerful Persona." Ozpin took the cards and flipped them face down, spinning them in wide circles around the desk infront of him. "The resulting Persona will carry traits of the originals, but will be a new creature all its own. This will be a significant boon in the trials that you are to face."
"Well, I guess I should keep Orobos..." Jaune looked at the card and simply knew that it provided fire skills, something that the team lacked thus far. "In that case I'll try fusing Narcissus and Legion." He took Orobos back, leaving the other cards down.
"Perfect. The resulting Persona will be of the Priestess Arcana, a Social Link you have yet to establish. This means that the resulting fusion will not be as strong as it were had you already established this connection, but it shouldn't be a problem. The resulting Persona will still be more than able to assist you." Ozpin smiled as the two cards floated off of the table, still spinning around eachother in mid-air. As they collided with eachother, a dim blue light surrounded them, growing brighter until there was a blinding flash.
The newly manifested persona card floated down onto the desk infront of Jaune. Jaune picked it up, and looked it over. A pure white horse with a long, thin horn stared at him from the card, reading 'Unicorn' of the Priestess Arcana. "There doesn't seem to be a whole lot to it. I just bring you cards and bam, new Persona?"
"More or less." Ozpin smiled. "There is an art to it, you see. The stronger your links, the more powerful the resulting fusion will be."
Jaune nodded, grabbing the card and turning around to scan the seats. He walked over to Blake, with a curious look on his face, and dropped the Unicorn card onto it... as he half-expected, absolutely nothing happened. "I guess you have to already have a Persona to make it work." He then meandered over to Ruby and Pyrrha's desks, but then stood there for a moment looking at his own.
"I have Hodr now!" he was so excited to accept his new Persona, Jaune had completely forgotten that this meant that he had the chance to use new Personas as well. He slid the Unicorn down onto his desk and waited for it to light up... nothing happened. "... huh?" He picked up Unicorn and placed it back down... still nothing.
"Are you having trouble, Mister Arc?" Ozpin leaned down, glancing over his glasses sitting at the bridge of his nose. "Perhaps," he said calmly, "your personality has not yet matured enough to endure the hardship of multiple Personas."
"That's..." Jaune looked at the Unicorn sitting on his desk. He clenched his fist slowly, looking around the classroom. He saw Ruby and Pyrrha's dolls, their personas infront of them. He saw Blake sitting over in the corner... and he saw Weiss, face down. He glanced from Weiss to the dim card on his desk, and thought only of his failures. "That's not fair." He mumbled to himself.
"Speak up, Mister Arc. It's quite hard to hea-"
"THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Jaune pulled his fist into the air and brought it down on the Unicorn card, onto his desk, hard.
-WHAM-
"I do all of this work! I establish social links! I fight in that dungeon! I work with my friends!" He gestured to the Ruby and Pyrrha dolls sitting there. "Why do I have to sit in the back row?"
-WHAM-
His fist came down again. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. "Why do Pyrrha and Ruby get to fight for themselves while I'm stuck here... sitting on the backline..." he exhaled slowly as he slumped into the desk. "Why can't I do anything right?"
He put his hands over his face and breathed deeply, pushing back the tears and the warmth he could feel flooding toward his face. He sat there for a long moment, in the dim blue Velvet Room. Ozpin sat and stared at him, motionless.
Jaune slowly removed his hands to see the transparent, floating figure of Hodr staring back at him on his desk. The Unicorn card was still dim. He directed his anger at his Persona, then at himself, then the rising heat just gave way to a feeling of worthlessness. Then, Jaune felt a hand on his shoulder.
He jerked up and saw that Ozpin was no longer sitting behind the teacher's desk. Now, he had a hand placed gently on Jaune and was looking down at him with an unreadable look in his eyes. Ozpin gave a very calm, gentle smile that Jaune had never seen before.
"Sometimes, Mister Arc..." he began, an almost wistful tone in his voice, "it's not about being on the frontlines. Sometimes, Mister Arc, being a hero means simply doing what we are able, when we are able, to the best of our abilities."
Jaune looked up and met Ozpin's gaze, and he felt himself calming down. He felt the water fading from his eyes, he felt the warmth fading from his cheeks. He continued to breathe deeply as Ozpin continued.
"And most importantly-" Ozpin adjusted his glasses and began to walk back to the front of the classroom. "Sometimes, Mister Arc, one simply needs to realize that life is a team sport, and one that can not - and should not - be played alone."