Glynda had given him ample time to prepare, no doubt seeing this as a punishment for him but also important enough that she didn't want him showing up in a panicked rush, with little in the way of preparation.

He had enough time to grab breakfast, shower in his room and gather and don his equipment. There had been enough time even for a nap but missing a little sleep had long ago stopped being a problem, he could if necessary survive for days without actual sleep, he didn't like to do that but it was something he could if necessary, so a single night had no effect on him.

He did consider his outfit as he prepared though, he had been told to bring his gear and equipment and while he had no real issue with doing so as in two months he would show up to Beacon dressed and equipped the same.

His clothing while well made was plain to look at and without a close eye of scrutiny no one would be able to determine it was actually from an expensive place like 'Semblance Stitches' and his weaponry was similarly easy to disregard.

His Armguard while heavy was deceptively compact, hiding what existed within it expertly, and his two swords, Celica Mors strapped to his left hip, and Crocea Mors strapped and centered squarely between his shoulder blades looked to be just what they were, simple blades. Honestly more people spent time scrutinizing the odd placement of Crocea Mors than anything else and that wasn't even something he had intended when he placed the blade there.

Crocea Mors lived on his back for the simple reason, the damn thing was heavy, the metal sheath that expanded into a shield was a heavy item. With just that he could have easily placed it on his other hip with little difficulty but the addition placed in it doubled the weight of the sheath, and made carrying it at the hip simply too clumsy, so he wore it like a backpack, with that the weight felt barely noticeable and he had the added benefit of being able to expand the sheath into the shield with a switch concealed in his Armguard, just another hidden feature of his equipment.

His ride up to Beacon was in a Bullhead filled with similarly aged people, a few of whom he recognized, who would make it into Beacon, but most of the people his age he couldn't place, maybe they were all students who quit in advance of the initiation, a strange prospect since it was so close but he couldn't think of any other reason why some many clearly aspiring Huntsmen were on this craft yet he did not recognize many among them.

With so many unknown faces he kept to himself, making it clear to those who approached him he didn't want to be bothered, he had seen enough instances where a simple interaction on his part could alter a persons path, and if those here choose not to come to the initiation he would try not to affect their decisions, god knows what circumstances might change if any of these extra's attended the initiation and got placed onto team they shouldn't. It could cause untold ripples he would be unable to alter or predict and while he might have looked forward to that in other lives this one he did not.

As the Bullhead rose above the cliffs gradually, many on board were given their first clear look at Beacon Academy, many pushed to the windows in awe, marveling at the scale up the buildings as well as exactly how large the academies campus was.

To not appear wholly out of place, he at least pretended to look through a window at the school but that was simply an act, he was instead looking at two Bullheads already landed and powered down that clearly did not belong. Both crafts were also starkly different in design, built to handle difference environments and temperatures.

One craft was almost similar enough in design to pass for what the general Vale citizen would see but on closer inspection, they would notice it had a thicker hull as well as larger engines, designed for higher elevations and colder temperatures. If those two signs were not enough to point out it was different from the rest lined up beside it the large 'SDC' markings and Schnee family emblem were a clear giveaway.

The other craft was one of Mistral's flying boats, it bore no special marking's aside from a single decal proclaiming it was from Mistral, not that it needed that as the design was clearly enough.

The appearance of the two crafts did leave him greatly concerned though, he couldn't say for sure who had been aboard the Mistral craft but if he was a betting man he would guess strongly for it to be Pyrrha.

The Atlas craft was clearly Weiss, that was easy.

He knew through time spent with both of his friends that they had both had the choice to attend any academy they wanted, and had toured each beforehand before both settling on Vale but he had never known when that tour had happened or that the two had both been at Beacon at the same time.

This was a bad situation to be in and he knew it, he might affect their decisions to come to Vale if he did the wrong thing and as he stepped back from looking through his window he sat down and groaned silently to himself, wishing that he had never run across Roman last night anymore.

He remained seated until the Bullhead eventually touched down and everyone on board was forced to disembark. He wished the interior of the craft had any space to hide so he could have simply ridden back to Vale and skipped this entire event but sadly it did not and he could not remain inside as Glynda Goodwitch stood just outside, and had both clearly seen him and was making note's on a clipboard she kept tucked away safely under her arm.

"I'm glad you could make it Mr. Arc."

He could feel the scrutiny of Glynda as she looked him over, no doubt doing a mental calculation on just how fit and ready he was, it was an ability she had developed over many long years of being Beacon's combat instructor and it was rarely wrong in her case. It was only for a moment but once the visual inspection was over he could immediately feel the absence of her gaze, there were no other words spoken by Glynda as she turned back to her clipboard as he disembarked, following along behind the pack of others at a slower pace, not overly keen on interacting with either Pyrrha or Weiss before Beacon and messing something up unintentionally.

Unfortunately no matter how slowly he walked the assembly area was nearby and he arrived with plenty of time to spare, he briefly toyed with the idea of wandering off but doubted by the number of Beacon staff he could see nearby that such an effort would be successful and would ultimately lead to him ending up exactly where he currently stood, just with a few more pairs of eyes focused on him.

So he stood near the rear of the crowd and spent his time scanning the crowds, wondering where the Schnee group was and also if his assumption that the Mistral ship had brought Pyrrha as well, secretly hoping she wasn't here so that he would have fewer opportunities to mess up today. His secret hope was dashed almost immediately as toward the front of the crowd he spotted a pair of figures he recognized through his many lives. Pyrrha stood beside her father, a tall and stern looking man, one who cared very deeply for the wellbeing of his family.

The Atlas group he eventually spotted, completely separated from the crowd by several feet. Weiss stood alone in front of her entire escort, no immediate family member could be seen as present from where he stood but he did recognize one figure among the crowd behind her. Jacque Schnee's personal assistant, a stern woman who was fiercely loyal to the Schnee family and no doubt one of the only people whos opinion Jacque respected, or listened too.

As he had been looking through the crowd he noticed the commotion of talking parties settling down as Headmaster Ozpin made his entrance and stood on a small elevated stage so that everyone could see him clearly.

"Greetings everyone, welcome to the Beacon Academy. Today is a day set aside by the Vale council to attract exceptional foreign students to our prestigious academy. For myself and my staff, it is simply another step in the process of attempting to provide our world with the greatest Huntsman we possibly can. You will all be given a tour of the Academy and your guides will very much impress upon you exactly how amazing our school is with its facilities and campus as well as its training regime's. That is of course what the Council wants so we will as always acquiesce to such a simple request."

He frowned at this speech by Ozpin and wondered what exactly was the message it was supposed to be conveying, as many among the crowd he had ridden with to Beacon looked uncomfortable at the weird direction the speech was taking. There were some near the front who simply through body language he was able to tell were visibly angry by the speech so far, likely council members or aides attached to the Vale council.

"I don't believe for a second any of you present will make your final decision on where you choose to attend with a simple tour and someone telling you all the great features any academy has to offer. You will still be given the tour, but we will also be showing you some exhibition matches to show the skill of our students, and even a few graduated alumni as well. Of course, we also hope some of you attending today might also be interested in testing yourselves against my students or possibly even each other, who knows what might become of such meetings."

He watched as Ozpin left the stage and had to hand it to the crafty bastard on how well his speech worked, he had been listening but had kept his eyes on the crowd and knew almost immediately that that speech alone had probably gone a long way in convincing Weiss to attend Beacon, Ozpin's disregard for the authority of the Council likely heavily being focused toward her specifically, and it showed as Weiss almost looked smug as she likely saw another like herself in Ozpin resisting the authority of the Council in his own little and meaningful way like how she had no doubt herself begun stubbly pushing back against her father.

He couldn't get a guess on what Pyrrha's reaction to Ozpin's speech had been as she was turned entirely away from him but he doubted the speech was made to convince her, no that was for Weiss, the exhibition matches later were for Pyrrha. Ozpin no doubt hoping he could find an opponent somewhere in his school's older generations that would tip the scales for Pyrrha and make her settle on Beacon as her choice.

He himself knew that that was a meaningless effort on Ozpin's part but that's only because he knew Pyrrha so well, she wanted to attend Beacon for her own reasons and had already made up her mind well before this point, but Ozpin didn't know that and the only thing he did know was that she was always looking for an opponent that could match up to her and he hoped to find several for her.

The tour began almost immediately after Ozpin departed and also much the same as how Ozpin had laid out in his short speech. People who were clearly not Beacon staff and most likely attached to the Council in various capacities struggled their way through the tour, doing their best to outline anything at all that might interest those attending, paying special attention to point of things that might interest either Weiss or Pyrrha, neither of whom seemed to care that much, though each showing their expression of that differently.

Pyrrha being patiently polite, while Weiss being dismissively polite.

From the far rear of the tour he couldn't help but silently laugh at exactly how well orchestrated everything had been by Ozpin, he didn't care for the man but couldn't deny that he could be masterfully effective if he was allowed the time to plan.

The tour ended thankfully at the combat classroom, everyone glad the awkwardness was finally over, well except for himself, he was having quite the fun time laughing to himself silently at the back of the group as the guides became more and more flustered as the staff members that were traveling with them kept being called away and replaced frequently, in a pattern that somehow made the staff look like a perfectly functioning system and the council aides looking like ill-prepared buffoons.

Glynda Goodwitch's training room was filled to capacity with the tour group filling the stands. On the training floor below there was a mixture of second and third-year students he could recognize by appearance and name, having interacted with all of them at some point in one of his many lives.

The mixture of students was an impressive one, being some of the top performers in combat or tactics, in some cases both.

As soon as the crowd found their seats the exhibition matches began and he could feel an attitude shift in the room and he understood fairly quickly that this was the reason many he saw today, that he never knew to see again were not present at initiation.

The practice fights below them were fast, and brutal affairs, effectively showing what Huntsmen needed to be capable of to combat Grimm.

Many civilians did not quite realize what such a fight looked like first hand. There were combat tournaments as well as the Vytal Festival that was censored and had limitations in place for what was and was not allowed but here, at this moment many were getting their first example oh what exactly a real fight looked like and it frightened many.

Some present even began to look quite squeamish as the fights progressively became more aggressive, a few even needing to leave.

This was something he had never considered about the civilian population that skipped a prep academy, they would have no idea what exactly they were planning to get into and an event like this would effectively filter out those who knew they would not be up to the task, making his original entrance into Beacon seem even luckier than ever before, had he attended something like this he couldn't say with confidence that he would have shown up for initiation either.

As the last bout ended, a hard-fought match between a pair of men that could have easily been in Qrow's year, he guessed by their appearance's. He watched as Glynda took the stage finally.

"As demonstrated by a mixture of some of lowest and highest ranked combat students this is what Beacon can offer if you choose to attend here. Now though I would like to invite anyone interested in testing our facilities themselves please feel free to make your way down here."

It was hardly surprising to find the Pyrrha was the first to her feet, nor that surprising for Weiss to follow suit but it did shock him slightly to see everyone who remained in the room make their way down below, even those with unsure expressions weren't about to give up just yet. Being the only one attending to remain up in the stands would likely be seen in the wrong light so in concealed annoyance he made his way below as well, desperately hoping he would not have to face anyone who he knew would show up at initiation, though having that being what he wished for he was hardly surprised when he found himself facing off against Pyrrha Nikos, no doubt a continuation of Glynda's punishment for his appearance this morning outside his hotel.

"Hello, I guess we will be opponents for this."

Pyrrha's light voice reached his ears and snapped him into focus. "Uh, yeah, I guess so. Jaune Arc." He thrust his hand forward in greeting.

"Nice to meet you Jaune, I'm Pyrrha Nikos."

He winced at the way she spoke her name, quietly, hoping he wouldn't quite catch it and potentially recognize it, though he never understood why she feared people recognizing her name more than just recognizing her, she was a standout in any crowd. "Nice to meet you as well Pyrrha." He gave no hint that he recognized her by name or appearance, an act which was successful as her smiled broadened slightly, he noticed from the corner of his eye.

"Excuse me for being a little forward but I'm a bit of a fight enthusiast and I have seen many weapon arrangements and combinations but yours is certainly unique."

"Pyrrha are you fishing for information to have an advantage?" He asked with a serious expression which he held for only a moment before breaking into a wide grin. "Hah just kidding, imagine if I was like that, god how awful would that be." He motioned to his setup. "Yeah I get more than a few odd looks, but trust me it's set up like this for a reason." He was glad to see Pyrrha still smiling alongside him, glad that his joke hadn't put up a wall, though he was still unsure exactly where to go from here, he shouldn't meet her for two more months and at that time he could have used Weiss as a buffer to introduce himself and pretend to no know who she was.

"I'm sorry, you are right though, to have a fair match neither of us should know anything about each others weapons or styles, to have the fairest result play out."

His smile faltered for a second. "Yeah, it's not going to be a fair fight Pyrrha, I already know I stand no chance." He shrugged his shoulders slightly, the motioning meaning to convey to her that it was alright.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't realize you knew who I was."

The disappointment on Pyrrha's face was immediate, and it felt bad for the moment he let it exist. "What do you mean who you are? Are you someone I should know?" He put the most baffled and confused expression on his face he could manage, it being enough that Pyrrha's expression brightened back up somewhat.

"Do you really not know who I am?"

He leaned forward slightly, looking at her face intently for a moment, and deeply furrowing his brow like he was deep in thought before leaning back and giving a shrug. "I have no idea who you are. Sorry?"

"Oh, no need to apologize. But if I must ask, if you don't know who I am why do you know you are going to lose?"

"Eh, it's part of my Semblance, I haven't had it for long, only about a year so I don't really know everything, but it gives me an insight into people or events that I'm about to meet or are about to happen, it doesn't tell me anything in exact terms but I get a feeling on whether something might go my way or not or how I perceive people. It's honestly all kinds of confusing at most times but every so often I get a pretty clear picture of something and as far as our fight, yeah, sorry, it's going to be you pretty dominantly." He shrugged apologetically as he explained his fake Semblance, one that he had come up with entirely at random when put on the spot by Ozpin in his life living with Yang. It had withstood the test of time and as more and more people he tells about it the more people seem to look the other way when things naturally seem to go his way.

"You have that kind of a Semblance and you still don't know who I am?"

"I mean," he shrugged his shoulders and looked away for a moment. "I know that everyone here knows you somehow so I assume you're famous but I genuinely don't know, I'm actually kinda embarrassed that I don't, feel's like I'm missing out on something. You wouldn't care to fill me in would you?" He looked back to Pyrrha to see for a split second a heart-melting smile that was quickly replaced with a mischievous grin.

"I think I won't offer that knowledge up to you freely but how about this. If you're so confident you will lose to me how about I give myself a handicap and if you win I'll tell you all about who I am."

"Hah, fine, though I doubt you can give yourself enough of a handicap to make up for what I'm capable of, so be prepared to keep your secret then."

He settled done on a bench alongside Pyrrha and watched as the exhibition matches between applicants got underway, few of the fights were anywhere similar to what they had previously witnessed from the bleachers and that seemed to drive home the point to many of them, realizing they probably didn't belong here, especially considering when some of the more skilled applicants who he knew would appear at initiation showed what they were capable of.

Weiss's dust manipulation being a truly humbling experience to observe as it had been the most one-sided encounter so far.

Eventually, it was his turn and he took the stage alongside Pyrrha, opting to take the far side of the stage he paced over with his left hand gently resting against the hilt of Celica Mors. When he arrived at the edge of the stage he turned to face Pyrrha giving a small shrug as he placed his left arm and heavy armguard before himself and signaled he was ready.

He could tell from both Pyrrha's and Glynda's expressions that neither understood this tactic as he had only raised a single arm to fight and his right arm was tucked away behind his back, seemingly hidden to make himself a smaller target.

Confused or not Glynda had started the match and Pyrrha had drew her blade and approached cautiously, his odd stance making anyone with any prior fighting knowledge no doubt at least a little apprehensive as he seemed to be giving away his body to be struck, goading his opponent to close to attack in melee which might be exactly what he wants or for his opponent to take the option to show they had a ranged weapon and give away an advantage that might come in handy later.

The stance he himself was in was exactly what it looked like, a fake pose that was near impossible to strike or guard against effectively. It did, however, allow him to remain completely motionless and feel for any shifts in his equipment.

It was a simple thing Pyrrha would do at the start of a fight, find anything magnetic that her opponent might be wearing or using so that she could, when needed, immediately take hold of. She had said she would give herself a handicap and after several long moments of not feeling the slightest shift in his equipment, he guessed that she had meant to not use her Semblance.

The fights so far had been nothing but a staring match and the crowd who had witnessed a great deal more watched this starkly different confrontation with interest, the entire room becoming quiet as they watch Pyrrha slowly approach himself.

He kept a careful eye on the distance between them and as Pyrrha neared the edge of where her spear would begin to reach him he took action.

His right arm that had been tucked carefully behind his back whipped in front of himself, loosing one of his hidden throwing knives with force and accuracy, the distance between the two making his throw seem even more impactful as Aura was brought to deflect the attack in place of Pyrrha's shield which was too late to reach to the quick maneuver.

His right arm did not stop with the release of his throwing weapon though, as it continued until it reached the hilt of Celica Mors and reversing his arms momentum he drew the blade in a quick hiss of air, slashing hard as he stepped forward into the broad sweep of the blade.

His swing stopped mid-arc as it struck hard against Pyrrha's shield, angled to perfection and sending his remaining momentum swinging both his blade and himself toward the floor of the stage. Instead of attempting to prevent the dive he increased his rotation, sweeping his arm and blade back up as he swung wide with his heavy left armguard, it connected with Pyrrha's shield in a much more solid fashion, the weight and momentum behind it no doubt catching her off guard as he felt the shield be pushed back and away, as he finished his rotation and for the first time since he led with the knife took a moment to look at Pyrrha.

She was as usual smiling and enjoying every moment of this fight, delighted to find an opponent who could surprise her in so many ways, her eyes flashing brightly as they roved over his equipment, taking in what was visible again with greater care as she also lept in to attack.

He kept his grin hidden as he watched Pyrrha enjoy herself in the fight and press her attack, her blade weaving and jabbing at perfect interval's that she herself had hammered into his mind of so long ago. Her starting attack's he made clumsy parries against, backpedaling while doing so, the act showing a clear gap in skill still between them, he gradually began to let attacks through and hit him, connecting painfully against his Aura.

He didn't just sit back and take the beating either, he knew he was going to let Pyrrha win, without her using her Semblance it was basically a no contest fight that he could easily dominate in, but he was going to let Pyrrha enjoy this, as much as he could anyways.

He would clumsily parry or dodge a few attacks, maybe even taking a blow, somewhere where it wouldn't devastate his Aura and then retaliate. He struck with both accuracy and speed, enough that it would force Pyrrha to react and compensate but not enough where Glynda, who was watching from the sidelines would think his increase in skill from earlier in the year was some fantastic leap in ability or at least he hoped, his sudden increase in skill was rarely mentioned when he attended Beacon.

During Beacon, he would play the role of a student who simply excelled rapidly with combat training but his strongest trait would always be how tactfully he fought. His tactics were what he currently displayed here in this fight, very quickly giving up ground and hits to Pyrrha and fighting from the position of an underdog, which to the eyes of everyone present was what he was, he should realistically have no chance against Pyrrha.

So he kept being pushed back, but occasionally, during the brief moments when Pyrrha had to return to her rest position in her swings he would strike, powering through her guard as he would lock his blade against hers, turning the fight for moments from a sword fight to a brutal grapple where he would send down clubbing blows with his armguard before being pushed back by the graceful moments of Pyrrha as she slipped through his grip.

The exchange of her sword strikes and his clubbing hits led for a longer more drawn out encounter as the fight came down to one of who would run out of Aura first, or it should have if he rained down his blows with greater accuracy than he had been.

He had been raining down the strikes whenever he managed to lock up Pyrrha's sword but out of every five blows thrown with his armguard at best one would connect properly, the rest would slide off in glancing hits that amounted to little in the way of Aura loss.

He had made the fight look good, Pyrrha was smiling and enjoying every moment, used to this kind of fight from all her tournaments and not one to shy away from a slugfest if that's what her opponent would try to attempt. His Aura was nearly spent though as he was kicked free of his most recent Grapple, Pyrrha had walked up his legs and used her own weight and both legs to kick him straight into the floor of the stage, a theatric end to the fight as he brought up what little Aura he had too late to soften the blow, and in doing so ended the bout with his back planted firmly against the floor.

"Sorry."

Pyrrha's typical response made him chuckle as he groaned and sat up, rubbing the part of his back that absorbed the impact. "It was a fight, no need to say sorry or apologize." He waved off her concern and gently got back to his feet, returning his ineffectively used Celica Mors to its scabbard.

"You fought remarkably well Jaune, taking into account a difference in skill, I must say it would have been a much closer encounter if more of your strike hit their marks."

"Thanks." he allowed Pyrrha to help him to a seat off the stage, doing so mostly under his own power but appreciating the hand she offered when he looked to ease himself down onto the seat. "That's' what going to Beacon is for, my Semblance can give me prompts for when to attack or not but I don't really have the skill to really put it to good use. Thank you though for not making the fight horribly one-sided in your favor."

"I only gave myself a small handicap, nothing really that impressive."

He raised an eyebrow as he cast a glance at Pyrrha who had sort of just mumbled her response. "You might not think that but remember, my Semblance is Insight, I had a brief flash of it before we fought after you told me you would give yourself a handicap, it was still very strongly in your favor, but there was at least a hope for me that I could pull out an upset. I wonder, how exactly did you handicap yourself." He watched as Pyrrha did not look to him immediately as her eyes first went to the stands above them, where her father still sat. politely making conversation with another but keeping a close watch on his daughter at the same time.

"That's uh, something I can't tell you, my family is one of those who are protective of our Semblance's, not really liking spread knowledge of what they are unless it was to people we trust."

"Ah, say no more, I have heard something like that from enough Huntsmen I have run across this past year so it makes sense, I guess, at least for the less visually noticeable Semblances, keeping them secret can be like a hidden trump card."

He could tell his response was enough to put Pyrrha at ease that he wouldn't press the issue as a comfortable silence passed between them as they watched the rest of the match's continue on from that point before eventually saying their farewells as the day ended and Pyrrha disappeared into the horizon about the Mistral Airship.

He was just about to board the crowded one, meant to take the group of Vale based applicants including himself back down to Vale when he noticed once again Glynda Goodwitch standing outside the craft, clipboard gone from sight and her expression, while still stern as ever appeared to be searching the crowd, and lighting up for a moment when she locked eyes with himself. She did not move to approach him as he was clearly trying to board the Bullhead.

Having no avenue of escape he just found himself wishing today would be over already, the positive of bringing Roman back had already been nullified by his entire day of working to not interact with Weiss or Pyrrha, the latter of which proved impossible, though he was fairly confident to say that he hadn't messed anything up that would drive the redhead away from Beacon, ultimately he probably gave he another reason to attend.

"Mr. Arc, would you please follow me."

"Ah, what about the ride back to Vale?" A carefully acted look of apprehension crossed his face as he looked at the ready to depart Bullhead then toward Glynda.

"I will arrange another for you when we are done here."

Frustration, it was what he currently felt as he desperately wanted to board the Bullhead but ultimately, only lingering for a few seconds to continue to show a false attitude of apprehension at missing the Bullhead did he finally follow along behind Glynda. "Did I do something wrong Professor Goodwitch?" The question kept up his act with a perfectly reasonable question that also fished for information.

"Not at all, you actually made an impressive display today, your performance at the entrance tests almost a year ago were above average but not so much that we at Beacon would single you out as anything special but your performance today, barely a year later has allowed us to alter our original assessment of you."

'Oh god's what have I done, please don't let this be anything major.' Special or standing out, those were things he did not care to be associated with, at least not without the act of visually being observed at making great strides in his ability. "And that means what exactly?"

"That means we need to have a longer conversation, and you will have an offer presented to you. Now please follow me quickly, we were not expecting this today and we have needed to make an adjustment to schedule to compensate."

Having no real out to his situation he dutifully followed along, even pickup up his pace slightly so he wasn't looking to be intentionally lagging behind, that was until he followed Glynda into an elevator with only a single destination that he could be being taken too.

The ride was short and the door slid open, immediately into Headmaster Ozpin's Office, where the Headmaster was currently alone but was currently invested in a call, one that was loud enough he could hear both sides fairly clearly.

"-made a mockery of our aids, and purposefully sabotaged our efforts to recruit some high profile student to your academy this year."

"I don't believe I have done any such thing. Forgive me again Council Members but your efforts were never going to prove successful, these are not simply aspiring Huntsmen looking for the most up to date facilities to continue their education. If that was the case then the Atlas Academy would be overflowing every year with transfers from the three other kingdoms and we all clearly know that Atlas has one of the worst Enrollments out of the four academies. Honestly mandatory military service for a time it not an incentive. Besides we have already secured one of your two hopefuls today, Pyrrha Nikos applied to enroll today shortly after the combat demonstrations, I would say largely in thanks to one of our own Vale born applicants. As for Weiss Schnee as your aide's have no doubt informed you Jacque Schnee did not attend personally so I feel that is a clear enough indication that his daughter was only here as a formality and that she will be enrolling in Atlas much the same as her older sister Winter had."

"You are treading a thin line of what we deem as acceptable behavior Ozpin from someone of your position. If it were within our power you would be removed."

"Ah see that threat is without teeth councilman, You have no power over the academy much as I have no Power over Vale politics, a system that was set up far before either of our times so please do not waste your breath. Now however I have other matters to attend to so if you see fit to continue this discussion feel free to come visit."

He watched and listened to this conversation between Ozpin and at least a majority of the councilmembers with an inward grin. While Ozpin and Salem were definitely his opponents they also weren't exactly the worst, well Ozpin wasn't anyways, Salem in this timeframe was legitimately evil and unredeemable, add maybe a couple hundred thousand years of solitude with nothing but sifting through his own memories and apparently, she's not all that bad. The real worst people and part of the overarching reason why the Relics would never be able to fulfill their purpose were the politicians. That wasn't to say they were all bad either, many were actively pursuing their careers to improve their kingdoms but many, like the man who had attempted to threaten Ozpin just now were only looking out for themselves and the power they wielded.

"Glynda, so glad you made it so quickly, I'm glad to have had an actual excuse to cut that call short."

"You do know that hanging up on them will just incite them further."

"Oh yes and I can't wait to see what form of petty payback they will see fit to attempt this time, but enough of this, we are no doubt boring our young guest."

The change was immediate and the pair went from Ozpin's banter to a look of focus, and Glynda, well she did not change at all as she had turned to look his way.

"This is Jaune Arc, he passed the Beacon entrance exam on his first attempt a year ago at the trails, scoring a respectable grade on the written portion of the test, his prior education was done in the town on Ansel where he proved to be an excellent student, no doubt helping him greatly with the written portion of the test."

He fidgetted at this, he always assumed that the examinees would be screened in certain ways and was rather pleased that his performance back in Ansel had merit toward his ultimate goal in his lives, it gave him a reason to continue with the school in Ansel even though he found the entire thing mindlessly tedious at this point.

"The provisional combat trail held immediately after the written exam is completed and graded was handled by myself and participating against Jaune was Team LVDR, a competent third-year team. At this time Jaune claimed to be self-trained and conditioned and with further investigation after the trail was completed this became an accurate fact, which made his elimination of one opponent as well as lasting until the remainder of the team was in the ring and feat worthy of praise."

The way Glynda explained his feat in such a simple and matter of fact tone made himself want to frown but he kept his face forward and look neutral, playing the part of someone currently feeling out of their depth with the situation.

"Ah yes, I remember you telling me about that. Quite an impressive feat young man."

"Yes it was impressive but not so much that it was extraordinary, we have similar events happen frequently enough to make us take note of but rarely if ever do we follow up those displays with a meeting like this."

It wasn't exactly hard for him to keep his act up, his feats, as acted as they were on his part were barely scratching the surface of what he was capable of, and praise he was receiving even if it was muted by the way Glynda had been delivering it made his slightly uncomfortable expression all the more sincere though for reasons neither would expect.

"This meeting has been arranged in large part due to your performance today, one that legitimately surprised me. When we met this morning and I requested your presence it had been in my eyes a punishment for assumed inappropriate behavior, unbefitting what a Huntsman should be."

He watched hiding any giveaway as Glynda's expression bore a deep frown as she no doubt thought of the company Ozpin kept in Qrow. Ozpin's expression did not waver, keeping his eyes squarely on himself but he did seem to hunch down slightly at the topic.

"A punishment that I further compounded upon when I placed you against Ms. Nikos. Your display in combat against one of the most decorated fighters in all the four kingdoms has, however, impress myself greatly, and with my recommendation, the Headmaster has asked to meet with you to discuss some options that might interest you in advance of you joining Beacon in the coming months."

"Uh, okay, cool. Sounds great?" He wanted today to be done, he had no way to leave though so he simply remained patient as he stood before Ozpin.

"Before we get to those options though, the one's Glynda has lined out for you anyways I would like to discuss this impressive progress you have seemingly made. By all reports, and Professor Goodwitch keeps of so many of them, you have barely spent any time at any of the training facilities you had been directed too."

He watched as Ozpin pulled open an embarrassingly thin looking folder that was already on his desk.

"The only facility that you have spent any time in at all was one meant to teach Aura control, spending only a total of three weeks at the facility. While you were there though the instructors praised your natural ability at controlling your Aura, accomplishing in weeks what takes people normally months of hard work to effectively master. Aside from that, you visited no other facilities in preparation for attending Beacon Academy, with that information in hand I would like to know how exactly you have increased so dramatically in skill before we offer you anything."

The way Ozpin spoke as he pulled out the folder was the man he knew the Headmaster to be, the questions had purpose but he was already looking at him with an eye of interest, lining him up to be another of his stooges if he became a powerful Huntsman, or preparing to deal with him if he was perceived as his enemy. "Uh, could I say it was a Semblance thing and leave it at that? I know some people like to keep their Semblances a secret for a variety of reasons and mines kind of well, it feels a lot like cheating." He shrugged his shoulders in a sad gesture, playing up the act in as best of manner he could. He had no problem sharing his fake Semblance with people but he had to go through the ritual of pretending he was reluctant every time, or at least reluctant when talking to certain people, one of whom was definitely Ozpin.

"A Semblance, interesting, Glynda did you notice him doing anything during your time observing his fight with Ms. Nikos, anything that seemed out of place?"

"There were many opportunities that Mr. Arc seemed to capitalize on and grapple with Ms. Nikos but then ending up doing an ineffectual amount of damage, it happened enough times that it was noteworthy but no, I did not recognize anything that would be immediately identifiable as a Semblance."

"Uh, that, kinda, sorta, was my semblance, or at least the outcome of it." He felt both pairs of eyes turn toward him immediately. "Look I don't really have a full grasp on how it works. I don't fully understand how it works and I don't really have any control over activating it, it sort of is just on all the time, honestly, like right now it is still telling me all sorts of things." This small piece of information had caused Glynda to raise a single eyebrow in interest, Ozpin leaned forward in his chair, his expression being one of polite interest but his posture spoke of a much greater interest.

"An entirely passive Semblance, while uncommon are nothing out of the ordinary, you say it is giving you information? If I may ask what kind of information does it give you?"

"Uh, sorry, it's not exactly information. Like it doesn't tell me something it's more of a flash of 'Insight'. When it comes to fighting or training or even mastering my Aura control I would get an idea if I was doing something right or wrong just by doing the action, which is how I progressed so rapidly and why I haven't trained in any of the combat facilities, my 'Insight' just sort of told me that it was the wrong choice." He cast his eyes from Glynda who he had been responding too to Ozpin for a moment, before awkwardly coughing and looking at the floor in front of himself before speaking. "It also gives me 'Insight' into people, though those flashes it gives me are a lot harder to discern, I think it's because of different emotions or ideologies that people have, causing conflict on how exactly it helps me to perceive what I should from other people." At this line, much like the times, he would divulge his fake Semblance in his other lives Ozpin's expression faltered for an instant before being replaced by a carefully practiced facade.

"That is quite a robust Semblance, and no doubt quite helpful and likely the reason for such a sudden increase in skill, consider yourself lucky Mr. Arc, many Huntsman end up with less than ideal abilities considering their chosen profession."

He watched Glynda bow low to confer with Ozpin for a few moments in a series of quick private whispers before turning their combined attentions back to him, this time it was Ozpin who spoke, after taking a long sip from his coffee mug, seemingly composing his thoughts, though his eyes never strayed from himself.

"Mr. Arc, thank you for sharing so much about your Semblance, I hope I can see it put to use myself in the future, maybe in the coming days. Glynda has offered up her own limited time in hopes that you might agree to some preemptive Beacon Training, hopefully, to sharpen your skills and also so that she might observe your Semblance and potentially help you focus it if that is possible."

He paused for a moment looking neither interested or disinterested in the offer. "I, refuse."

"Are you absolutely sure young man? This is an offer that is rarely extended to anyone, many rich Huntsmen families would pay a large sum of Lien for such an opportunity."

"Be that as it may I still refuse." He could tell immediately that neither had expected this result and both looked unsure of where to go from there, before Glynda stepped forward.

"Is this to do with your Semblance?"

"Yes." He looked at Glynda for a moment, before flashing his eyes toward Ozpin, the movement had been instant but with both people carefully watching him he knew neither would miss it.

"Well that is unfortunate, thank you for your time Jaune."


He watched the young man step into the elevator and frowned.

Jaune Arc had an interesting and Unique Semblance, and judging by his reactions told a great deal. He had hidden his feelings well throughout the meeting but when he had turned down the offer which was very generous, the quick look he had received from the young man told him everything he needed to know.

Jaune's 'Insight' made the boy wary of himself, he wouldn't know why he would feel cautious but he ultimately would and it would likely be impossible to win the young man over.

He looked at the thin folder on his desk still and sighed, closing it and placing it off to the side, turning on his monitor and going back to watch Glynda's combat demonstrations, watching as Jaune interacted with Pyrrha Nikos and wondering what exactly he should do with the young man.


Whew that was a long one.

Not much to really say though on my part, aside from Ozpin is aware of him on some level and due to the Fake Semblance there is an immediate gap between the two.

Anyways, as always, please let me know what you think, even if it is to tell me I suck.