Edited because I forgot that ff-net obliterates lone question marks.
Also, can you believe that I somehow managed to misspell reunion? That's so embarrassing. ← (BCCHP7 you dumbass you misspelt that one too.)
Also ff-net un-underlines my crap and it's getting really frustrating. It's the reason I've decided to make a reboot of my main fic on AO3.
This makes it a total of three separate times I've come back and had to edit this chapter.
Prologue 5a: "Psych Bitch You Thought There'd Be No More Prologues."
-/-
[Beginning of the 'Vacation' Period]
['Arcadia' | Third Person; Following Jaune | Early Morning | Rem-English]
-/-
Jaune let out a yawn as he and his mentor made it to the clearing just outside the walls of his town.
He was excited; He just couldn't express right now… because it was-
"Hey Matthius; What time is it?"
Matthius looked over at him, looked down at his watch, and read aloud, "Three Ante-Meridiem.".
Jaune assumed that was just the full form of 'A.M.'.
What was the term again? Matthius taught briefly about three things he could generally ignore when someone spoke to him; 'Baseless Supposition', 'Empty Rhetoric', and 'Verbose Garrire'. All of them basically translated to:
-Is trying to be correct but none of what they're saying is founded on fact or any sort of observation or experimentation.
-Is trying to be poetic but none of the techniques or devices they use actually carry across any ideas which have meaning.
-Is trying to be smart but none of the stupid amount of overly complicated words they use actually fit the context, resulting in skewed definitions.
He then said, "there was some kid named 'Jimmy Neutron' who had all of that last one in spades; but I can't remember if he was ever real or not.".
((1))
Jaune also remembered Matthius telling him that he, "was really just a huge hypocrite on that last one as well; but at least with me, I teach the pointless hard stuff before the vital easy stuff so that you're more willing to ingrain the essentials in your head while keeping a vague note of the complex stuff.".
As the pair of them continued towards the large gates, Matthius began to recount past lessons with little effort; and Jaune responded to each testing question with little effort as well.
When they reached it, they had been stopped by the two men stationed there. The one on the left seemed to be two seconds away from dozing off, but always snap backed up to check if anyone was there; when the two of them came into view, he immediately corrected his posture into one befitting of a guard. Jaune noted that he had dark reddish-purple hair, yellow eyes, and swore he had seen this guy before at the barracks. ((2))
The man on the right, though, had a helmet on; hard to really see past a thick sheet of steel.
Actually, Jaune had a sneaking suspicion that Matthius could see past surfaces, but that was defunct when he seemed to show a surprised reaction to Jaune's 'Gilded Spark'. Yes, he had named it Gilded Spark, but to be fair, he had been put on the spot. ((3))
Both of them wore everyday clothes you expect to see on any passing civilian, but with bits of armor added to various parts of their body—like how the man on the right wore a helmet—and the Arcadia Patrol's crest, which, like any other crest of Arcadia, was just a remodel of the original Arc Crest. So much so that eventually, the original Arc Crest was the simplest and most 'common' design in the entire town, and you could get away with using the Arc Crest as long as it had something added on or changed and it was registered within Arcadia's town hall.
"Hold it strangers; our town has been on tight security after the son of the Arcs was supposedly kidnapped." Said the helmeted one.
The other guard stared at Jaune, who stood there impassively; "Hey- Doesn't that kid look like the son of the Arcs? I've seen the kid around personally.".
The first guard that spoke held a gloved hand on his chin as he examined the blond; "Woah! Plum! Dude! I totally see the resemblance!".
Jaune looked over at his mentor, and could immediately tell what was going on inside his head; "Well he lost all his professionalism real fast." He must have thought. Jaune liked to imagine there'd have been an amused smirk instead of the slight scowl that Matthius was currently putting on.
"Yo kid." The guard, the one with the helmet who wasn't 'Plum', addressed him, "How old are you?".
"Twelve, turning thirteen in two weeks."
The guard nodded, before turning to his partner, "Hey Plum… Wasn't the Arc's missing kid also supposed to turn thirteen in two weeks?".
Plum lowered his head, "Yeah. I can't imagine what it must feel like. No ransoms, no nothing. Mary still hasn't recovered from it; even after trying John's suggestion to have another kid.".
Jaune immediately narrowed his eyes at that tidbit. He didn't want to assume things, but even if his absence has caused that much of a void in his family… didn't that just sound like they were replacing him?
No… That was absurd. His parents were always baby-crazy, even if it has slowed down since they had him… it was probably just a coping mechanism; Nothing more.
Not-Plum sighed, "But still… it was supposed to be his thirteenth… It's such a special occasion, and the Arcs will probably spend the entire day mourning.".
Jaune sighed exasperatedly, and he could see that Matthius was also getting tired of these two treating them like they didn't exist.
So to jog their memory, he pulled out Crocea-Mors.
"Woah! Plum! Ain't that the Arc heirloom? The same one that was stolen along with the kid?"
"Huh… I think you're right."
"Freeze-"
"But wait! These two might not be our culprits… -actually, if my suspicions are right, the brown haired man is our culprit."
"What suspicions?"
"Think about it; Blond hair, about to turn thirteen, wields the Arc sword?"
Not-Plum gasped, "Then that must mean you're Jau-".
"Oh my god! More needless exposition that I could do without!" Matthius yelled as Jaune witnessed him blur behind the two and strike them at the back of their necks which knocked them out. Which was a marked improvement really; since he'd not have seen a blur before.
"And before you ask, Jaune. Gallbladder twenty. You want to strike, with precision, at the base of the back of their skull, on the sides." Matthius explained, in case Jaune wanted to try such a thing out later… which he did. ((4))
As the two walked past the gate and into the town, Matthius felt the need to ask a personal question.
"So, this place is called Arcadia… Your disappearance is enough to basically place the whole place on shutdown for more than a year… Is your family… the equivalent of this place's royalty?" ((5))
Jaune sighed more tiredly this time; "From what I understand, my family is the one that built Arcadia from the small settlement it was before, to- well- what the name suggests… a utopia. My grandad Johannes believes that we have royal blood, but my dad always told me that heroes were always born from the common folk; that the earliest recorded ancestors who held the name Arc were actually just farmers who had a bit more sway than all the others. ((6))
Huntership was a pretty big thing in the family until my generation. My great-grandfather Johnathan fought in the war and after, trained my grandad how to defend Arcadia against the Grimm threat. He in turn trained my dad to become an official Huntsman, but after he had been dragged around everywhere being face-to-face with death everyday, he and his partner, my mum, Mary, retired early and came back to Arcadia to continue the age old tradition of being its stalwart defenders; They settled down and had me and my sisters, essentially.
Still, I always wanted to be an actual Hunter, even though our parents always insisted on having us choose a different life. My grandad always contested that decision whenever we brought it up, but I know better now; he supported their choice but was too proud to say it out loud. He would regale us with tales of our ancestors, but he only ever trained my oldest sister, Sherri, simply because she was the firstborn; someone had to become Arcadia's defender when the time came. ((7))
But I think I understand now, most of the tales he told us didn't even include Hunters, if only because his dad was the first of us to be Hunters in technicality, but he actively avoided talking about anything involving Hunters and their practices. And with the Arc family being somewhat of a patriarchy, despite my dad's assurance that quite a few of the Arc's greatest were women, I am supposed to become somewhat of an heir; because I am the only son. That's why grandad was especially careful around me. Didn't want me getting any fanciful ideas now, did he?" Jaune laughed.
"And look at you now." His mentor actually smirked; "What does being an 'heir' even entail anyway?".
"I get the 'privilege' of being cooped up in Arcadia for most of my life, unlike my siblings; with the exception of Sherri."
"Ah-"
"Have you noticed how I never mentioned any cousins of the sort? Old tradition states that all the other children would leave Arcadia and live their lives elsewhere when they were old enough. My second oldest, Saph—remember her?—she's the one who's currently living with her girlfriend all the way in Argus, but she comes over every now and then; and with my birthday coming up, she'll be here too. From what I remember, this practice was to eliminate 'inbreeding' because supposedly, in very old times, keeping track of who was related to who was difficult. And at points, half of Arcadia was believed to be just the Arcs."
Matthius reached his own conclusion; "So to increase genetic diversity, your family introduced that practice and likely welcomed many settlers from outside as well? How many people have the name 'Arc' then?".
"Not a lot actually, and my dad told me why. Part of the tradition meant that they'd have to take the names of their partners, or any children they had would take the name of their partner. It's a lot more lenient now. From what I remember, dad said that if Saph was serious about marrying her girlfriend, Terra Cotta—which I'm sure she is—she and their children get to use the name 'Cotta-Arc', instead of discarding the name and leaving the family altogether." ((8))
"That… makes a lot of sense, actually."
Jaune nodded, before taking a deep breath; "We're here. The Arc Estate.".
He didn't think that the sight of his own home would bring about so much trepidation within him, but he guessed it was because he was scared of what his parents and his grandpa might do the moment they laid their eyes on him.
"Good luck kid, I'll be around if you need me.". Jaune watched as his mentor went about town; ignoring the looks of everyone who just saw this stranger walk in with their 'missing prince'. ((9))
"Deep breaths now. You can explain everything the moment you make eye contact."
Slowly, he knocked on the doors to the large manor.
Once.
Twice.
Before he could knock a third time, Jaune watched as the door was opened abruptly and a woman peeked her head out; "It's too early in the morning for this… Go away! Can't you see we're dealing with enough as it-". The woman, his mother, immediately held her tongue as she looked at him dead in the eyes; tears slowly building up in her own.
"Go ahead Jaune! Say what you need to!". He couldn't. Seeing his mother like this, reduced to such a state, he couldn't.
Mary reached out to grab a hold on him, but stopped; as if she feared touching him would make him vanish forever.
So he hugged her instead.
"I'm back, mum."
He could hear her crying freely now, and had to fight back his own tears.
"Honey?" A different, male voice echoed throughout the front hall and Jaune's heart nearly broke at how empty it sounded; "Is everything alright?".
Jaune steeled his heart as he broke the hug and walked forward, into the house to face his father.
"Honey-" John had a similar reaction to his wife. "No- It can't be. Jaune?".
His dad's voice hardened, "We have a lot to talk about, boy.".
"I could say the same to you, dad." -And Jaune's voice cracked.
-/-
[Unknown]
-/-
Something was wrong, she could feel it.
She would have never lost hope that her twin was still alive; that was her thing after all, holding on to hope. Before his disappearance, she'd never failed to inspire hope in others, no matter how small or how dire a situation was.
When he disappeared, she'd struggled to hold on to her own hope, let alone continue to incite hope from others.
They'd done almost everything together; it was hard for one to keep a secret without the other knowing.
That was why she'd found the real reason for his disappearance before anyone else.
She and Jaune shared a room, and on the night of their disappearance, she had checked a place no one else would have thought to check.
It was the 'Pumpkin Pete' hoodie; Jaune would have never gone anywhere, even at night, not wearing it. Sure, everyone else in the family knew that, but she knew better than all of them just how much it really meant to him.
No- Instead, she remembered his little 'stash' of 'Pumpkin Pete' box tops.
~"I'm gonna grow way too big for this one some day. I need to get another one when I do."~ He'd told her seriously; and offered her one as well. She had snorted at the time, because she reckoned he'd have outgrown the Pumpkin Pete hoodie in a different way than he was thinking.
She just didn't believe it would have been so soon. That's why she checked his stash.
And sure enough, it was all gone; all replaced by a torn piece of paper that said–in a crude style of writing only her Jaune could manage:
'Gon To become hunTsmen; goT mAp if u wAnT follow?'
In that moment, all of her remaining hope was rekindled and turned into rage.
They'd done everything together; And he skimped out on this?
In an hour, her rage turned into resolve and new hope. She took this as a promise.
She'd done her own training in secret, pestering every single Hunter that came by into giving her tips and pointers.
In her mind, the only way she'd meet her twin again was by becoming a Huntress and meeting him at Beacon; the academy he'd said he wanted to graduate from.
A year after, her training had been uncovered accidentally by a Saphron who'd arrived home a few hours later than she usually did. She'd had an argument with her parents and grandfather, overreacted, and blamed them for Jaune's disappearance.
The mention of the missing Jaune had soured everyone's mood, and she'd been sent to her room.
That's right, not hers and Jaune's room, just hers; that only set her off further.
Did mum and dad really believe Jaune was never coming back?
That night, she'd gone back to the note her twin left behind, and did something reckless.
She followed the map.
She had snuck out that night and made her way over to where the note had said he would set up camp. Only to find a tree stump and what looked like the aftermath of a war; and whomever made these marks was the sole survivor.
Normally, she would have been ecstatic as this meant that her dear brother Jaune was still alive, but she was more analytical.
These marks were that of a spear, not a sword, and she'd know because she had been training to use lance-like weaponry. Besides that, there was no way Jaune could have done this; this was only about a day or so after he 'disappeared'. He wouldn't have had the skill. ((10))
With her hopes shattered once more, the twin of Jaune snuck back into the Arc Estate and cried herself to sleep.
It had now been almost two years, and she'd heard talking directly outside the front of the house. Out of curiosity and sheer boredom, she'd glanced through her windows to see who had the balls-
Only to find her long-lost twin standing beside a brunet stranger.
Her gaze grew dark, as she retrieved her weapon from its hiding place and rushed out under the cover of the dying night.
She had found the brunet man, sitting down near Arcadia's pond, watching the ducks. "I know you're there." He called out without so much as turning to face her; "Jeanne, right?".
"How do you-" Jeanne stopped herself, "No- That's not important. What have you done to Jaune?".
This man posed his fingers in a 'Come at me' gesture; "Why don't you come and find out?".
Jeanne snarled and immediately revealed her weapon, a crude spear made from a flagpole, and thrusted it towards his sternum. Only for it to be caught in a single motion. Still holding her weapon hostage in his hand, the man pulled, and sent Jaune tumbling toward him.
"Looks like you need some training as well."
Still seething from anger, Jeanne wrenched her weapon away from the man before slashing it towards his neck. As he made no motion to dodge, the spear continued on its path to slicing open his throat; and her rage turned into horror in a split-second.
*Clank-*SNAP!*
Fear.
That's what she now felt.
Her 'spear' might not have been durable, but anything that was sharp enough to kill a beowolf was at the very least sharp enough to turn a normal human into a shish-kebab.
And it snapped off.
That could only mean one thing; Her target had Aura. ((11))
-/-
[Third Person; Following Matthius]
-/-
"A Huntsman!" He heard her growl; but there was an undertone of resignation too.
"At ease lass, I'm not gonna kill you or anything." Matthius placated tiredly.
As Jeanne picked herself up on the floor, he was able to see just where the similarities lie between the two twins.
He supposed that a majority of their family had blond(e) hair, but Jeanne was pretty much a carbon copy of Jaune, so it might be easier to point out the differences.
She had longer hair, her skeletal structure was beginning to match a feminine profile—so did all her other proportions—and she was a tad bit taller than Jaune.
…
Right, females reached puberty earlier than males didn't they?
Other than that, he only drew a few parallels between her and the Jeanne d'Arc; likely because he didn't know what Jeanne looked like as a kid.
"So you found Jaune and brought him back home?" She asked quietly.
He couldn't help but chuckle, "That implies that he could survive out in the wild for more than a year.".
"He's gone camping before!"
"Yes- With two retired Hunters, a veteran, and an unofficial Huntress-in-training; bite me."
"So then how did he survive that long?"
Matthius snorted, "How do you think? He was about to be Beowolf food when I found him… about twenty months ago.". ((12))
Once again, this girl's anger was on display; "You mean you found him the day he disappeared and you didn't bring him back?".
"He wanted to become a Huntsman, and he made it very clear he couldn't achieve that goal with his family; for reasons I've yet to fully know. I'm not cruel enough to send him back empty-handed after he's shown me that he has both the potential and conviction to become a great-" "killer-" "defender…"
"Dad will likely challenge you-"
"He's retired."
"He's got twenty years over you!"
…
…
Matthius tilted his head, "How old's your father."
"Forty-two-"
"Twelve million, four hundred and twenty-three thousand, nine hundred and sixty-six. {12,423,966}"
"… What?"
"My age." Matthius clarified, "Though to be fair, about ninety-nine-point-nine-nine-nine-nine-six percent {99.99996%} of it was spent perfecting… a technique I can't really tell you about.". ((13))
…
"Just kidding- It's a joke. Don't look at me like I'm some sort of foreign creature.". He laughed at the expression of clear doubt on Jeanne's face. "I mean seriously- Why would it take me over a million years to master anything?".
*thwack*
Clearly tired of his 'jokes', Jeanne kicked him in the shin.
"Ow! Ow! Okay! Geez."
"You're a clown." Jeanne muttered.
"Don't you have to be in bed?"
She paled. She swore she just forgot something.
"Wait, if you and Jaune shared a room, and then you left that room… What do you think will happen when your parents lead Jaune to it, only to find that you're missing?"
…
"You really didn't think this through, did you?"
-/-
[Third Person; Following Jaune]
-/-
"Damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit-"
Jaune had to admit, this was extremely funny; he'd never seen Matthius so irritated before. Frustrated, yes, but more in himself then placing all of the blame on him; "If the student does not learn from the master's example, then there is fault on both sides." was something Matthius had told him before.
"Would you like to explain what you were doing with our daughter?"
"Clowning her ass in one-on-one combat apparently."
John looked over at Jeanne, who tried her best to act like she wasn't all that bothered; "I didn't think he'd be a Hunter.".
"So what I understand-" His mum cut-in, "You, a fully fledged Huntsman, took it upon yourself to fight our untrained daughter over a simple misunderstanding.".
"Considering you've yet to understand the 'misunderstanding', you should come to realise that all I did was grab her weapon; I never fought back in any meaningful way." Jaune's mentor then paused, "Also, uneducated and inexperienced in combat, that much is clear. Untrained, though? She's probably stronger than half the adults in this entire village; those jokes of a Defense Force you call your 'Guards' included. She's clearly been practicing while you two weren't looking; In fact, maybe if we hadn't come sooner, you'd be having [Incident- Jaune Two; Electric Boogaloo!] on your hands.". ((14))
Mary was about to retort angrily at his mentor, but his dad stepped-in.
"Let me talk, Mary.". John stared Matthius square in the eyes, "You say you're a Hunter?".
"Freelance; but yeah, I've got qualifications."
"I don't want you teaching my son."
"And your son wants me to keep teaching him; Who should I listen to?"
"I am his father!"
Matthius continued glaring, "Why yes, you are his father; How could I have not realised that before? Hey Jaune, do you want to suddenly give up your dreams—to the same man you basically ran from trying to achieve them—right now, because he says "He's your father."?".
He didn't like the way his mentor phrased that, but Jaune shook his head anyway.
"Well now we're at an impasse."
"No; If you really think you're worthy to continue teaching my son, then I challenge you to single comba-"
"Challenge Jaune."
Everyone in the room, including Jaune, was shocked.
"I apologise, I don't think I heard you correctly; wha-"
"Challenge. Jaune."
…
"Are you saying you won't even face me yourself?" John growled menacingly.
Jaune should have expected it, but Matthius immediately began to lay into his dad; "By the gods, maybe I understand where Jaune used to get his stupid from… Look- I could be as strong as I want, but that doesn't mean shit if I can't teach your son correctly; Got that? I mean seriously, think about it. People get taught all the time by people who are 'less knowledgeable' than them in some way; but it's usually never in the field the master would be teaching their student. To deny based on the principle that you are 'know more' than they do isn't a testament to any of your—clearly non-existent—knowledge or wisdom; It's ignorance! You've done what all rookies do and instantiated a clear example of Dunning-Kruger Effect!
Would I refuse learning from a master of astrophysics because I knew more than him in molecular biology? No! That's stupid! It's like if you refused to learn from the best—and I use an impossible descriptor because I want to reiterate that they are 'better' than you in this regard—kick-based martial artist because you could punch better than them. If anything, there should be an exchange of skills and information; But even still, that's not my main point!
I've been teaching Jaune how to fight human opponents. You, on the other hand, are more than likely used to fighting Grimm; though that's my biased analysis of you. There's enough of a difference in style and movement that I've been able to create a sort of 'Anti-Anti-Grimm-Personnel' technique. If Jaune can't beat you despite a theoretical advantage in the style he learnt, then I wholeheartedly agree I'm not fit to teach him; That make any sense to you?"
Matthius stopped, and took a calming breath, before turning to look at him; "I'm tired. Just kick his ass already Jaune.".
Jaune gulped, but remained resolute; "Of course.".
*mini-break*
They were at one of the training grounds for the town's guards and militia. Jaune remembered sneaking off to watch the people here spar against each other; he always believed that they were at a level of power he couldn't reach. Now here he was, with his mother and twin sister as an audience, in hopes to show them just what level of power he could really reach.
"Look son, you can still back out of this; I don't know what that 'Matthius' has been telling you."
"Beat his ass kid!"
"-But you don't have to fight me over this… unhealthy and fleeting fascination you have over this dream of becoming a huntsman."
Jaune remained silent, but was starting to lose his cool inside; "Fleeting? I ran away for more than a whole year and braved it out in the fucking wilderness and you have the nerve to call it fleeting?". Jaune calmed down quickly though; This was not something he should start losing it over. ((15))
"Do you want a countdown or is this a proper fight‽" He heard his mentor shout.
"What does he mean by tha-". His father's words were silenced when he pushed Crocea-Mors firmly into his neck; having crossed more than ten metres worth of distance within the second that his father was distracted.
"It means that from the moment you two made eye contact on the field, both of you could begin to make a move against the other! Of course, you could forgo the eye contact part; then that'd just be an ambush, or an assassination! Trust me, you don't want to know how many rounds it took until Jaune learned that properly! Too busy trying to be the 'honourable' Huntsman!"
"Master-". Jaune didn't look away from his dad for even a moment; "you're about twenty metres away, you don't have to shout.".
"Okay! But how 'bout I do anyway! Though judging by the way your dad's been glaring at me, I doubt he'd accept this as a 'proper win'; despite how valid it is!
Anyways!…
Back to your starting positions!"
Jaune lifted his blade from his dad's neck, giving a quick apology before following Matthius' instructions.
"Five!"
He watched his dad draw his own weapon, Chrysaor. There were no big mechashift features besides just unfolding the weapon itself; mechashift was more his mum's thing; not being born an Arc and all. ((16))
"Four! Three! Two!"
John fell into a battle stance and Jaune could feel an overextension coming immediately. Matthius had told him that whilst you had to control your swings against a more intelligent and dextrous opponent, like another human, Hunters against grimm would almost always use wide, sweeping strikes with any of their melee weapons in order to go through as many grimm as possible. ((17))
While you didn't aim to cut a human in twain off the bat, "any grimm that isn't completely dissimilated, vapourised, or otherwise sliced into an uncountable number of tiny giblets should be treated as if they were still alive; dying at the very most, but not 'dead' until you couldn't see a body anymore.". ((18))
Matthius gave a lot of very specific advice.
"Juan!"
Jaune held Crocea-Mors at his side; merely waiting.
"Zero!"
The student of Matthius immediately stepped inside John's guard and slammed his pommel into his sternum; following up with a glancing blow to the side of his head. Jaune stopped and ducked underneath a swing from his dad, before grabbing the blade and rendering it inert. He then placed his right foot behind his dad's, throwing him over it. Foregoing mercy at this stage, Jaune slammed his foot on John's hand; once, twice, thrice, four times, five times. After the sixth stomp, his hand finally gave way and Jaune kicked away Chrysaor.
It was over in six seconds. ((19))
Once again, Crocea-Mors was firmly placed against his dad's neck. Jaune knew better than to let this get to his head. Like his mentor had said, he was in a situation where he could only practice against another human; and thus developed skills and techniques against human enemies. True, on occasion, he'd fought against small packs of Beowolves with Matthius' help, but Beowolves were still pretty humanoid; just less not-stupid.
"Hah! You got your ass kicked by a twelve year-old!"
"Thirteen!" Jaune shouted back.
"It sounds more embarrassing when it's twelve!"
"Hey John! You got beat by a twelve year old without Aura!" ((20))
His dad, who had remained relatively quiet up until now, erupted once more; "YOU HAVEN'T EVEN UNLOCKED HIS AURA‽ WHAT KIND OF-".
"Enough."
Jaune sighed. That was the same technique Matthius had taught him before; one that he didn't know what to do with. 'Aural Projection', specifically 'Verbal Objection', a skill which significantly amplified the dynamic of his speech. It sometimes manifests itself within kiaps and foci, or when somebody accidentally releases a little too much killing-intent, but normally people didn't really have a way to do it without killing their voice.
It was obvious why he couldn't do anything with it. What was he supposed to do? Project his voice at the grimm? Regular shouting worked pretty well at getting their attention already.
"Aura's kind of a crutch." Matthius, now a few metres away, began to explain things. "It's a shortcut that lets you do things you otherwise could have done with a little bit of extra training. And what happens when that Aura runs out? Ya fucked.".
Matthius continued, "Protection through passive cloaking?". He nodded to Jaune, who responded by swinging towards Matthius at full force, only for it to bounce off; which elicited some quirked eyebrows from their small audience. "Already covered. And this is just natural toughness; no need to waste anything other than maybe a few joules of energy.". ((21))
"Offensive measures?". Matthius stood there, with an expectant face.
"Excuse me, but what is supposed to be happening?" His mum asked.
"I was expecting Jaune to demonstrate. Ahem… Jaune! Do the thing!"
The pre-teen in question froze, before once again holding out the Crocea-Mors; building up magical energy at its tip.
Once there was enough energy, he fired; "Gilded Spark!".
Once more, an extremely violent yellow laser of magic came barreling towards his mentor, who once again blocked it with only his hand.
With Jaune constantly supplying energy and not being told to stop, he watched as the Gilded Spark slowly ate away at Matthius' left hand; skin, muscle, bone and blood were being ripped from their places and consumed by the laser.
"So, question." Matthius posited as if he wasn't slowly losing an arm, "Is that dilapidated building, in fact, completely abandoned?". With his right hand, he pointed towards a large, run-down building.
His dad, who was still reeling from their earlier fight, answered, "It is; And it'll take a good while to demolish all of it. But more importantly-".
"How are you so nonchalant about missing half your arm‽" His twin sister shouted.
"Wait, since when did she start wearing my Pumpkin Pete™ hoodie?" ((22))
Shaking that unnecessary thought out of his head, Jaune could see that, yes, his blast had indeed swallowed Matthius' arm down to the elbow.
"Eh- Had worse." His mentor shrugged, "Watch this-".
Matthius grabbed his Gilded Spark with his right hand, and with a quick motion of his wrist, flicked it towards the abandoned building.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooom!*
And now there was a massive crater. That explosion would have woken everyone up who hadn't already been roused by the previous fight.
"Sorry- I'll fill in the hole later." Matthius apologised; "Anyways. Healing; Simple.".
Within mere seconds, Matthius had regrown the part of his left arm that he had lost; flexing his new digits.
"Okay, now I know you have to be using Aura; There's no way-"
"No, Jeanne." His dad interrupted, grimly, "That's no Aura. Mary and I, being Hunters, can sense Aura; And I can tell you right now, none of it was used in any three of this man's examples.".
"My name is Matthius; Use it."
"Matthius; Are you trying to say that my son can do all of this, without even unlocking his Aura?"
"Yep. It'll take him a full three hours to heal an injury on the scale I did. Three weeks to regenerate his entire body–brain included; if he had the willpower to do so." ((23))
That was new; Jaune didn't think he could do that, even if Matthius said so.
"I… see… Allow me to unlock his Aura then." His dad asked- no- pleaded. "I understand that whatever you've trained him in has made it redundant but I still need to know that he'll also have his Aura to protect him should he need it.".
Jaune glanced over at his mentor, who had his eyes closed in thought.
"Yeah, sure. The Academies are probably gonna be way more strict on having Aura than the Academy where I live… er… came from- I guess."
John nodded, and knelt down in front of his son; "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul and by my shoulder protect thee.".
…
Nothing happened?
"Hah! Your Aura's too weak to unlock his!"
…
Damnit, Matt.
-/-
[The Following Morning]
-/-
Jaune—without the company of his mentor, who was still trying to convince his dad that a lack of Aura was not, in fact, going to hamper his performance in any significant way—was currently wandering around Elizabeth Plaza, in Cousteau Boulevard; which was the 'main street' of Arcadia, but not the commercial street.
That would be Virgin Street; originally known as Dick Street, but better known as High Street for those that wanted to save themselves the embarrassment or were new to Arcadia.
Closer to the Arc Estate was Richard-Henry Avenue; where all the rich people lived… as posh as you could get in Arcadia without being the Arcs. Though the ones who came close to that feat would have lived on Charlemagne, which housed families that were nearly as old as the Arcs… supposedly; they were a different kind of snobby compared to the ones who lived on Richard-Henry Avenue.
Jaune enjoyed tea sometimes, and bread too, but both the Richard-Henry families and the Charlemagne families honestly needed to shut up.
Because they still held a small area, all their medical services were simply put on one street; Nightingale. And all the actual chemists and pharmacies were put on Pasteur Street.
Anything regarding their protection and law enforcement departments were put on Wallace Street. With the Patrol's barracks and other such training grounds located along Charles Road.
All their power was generated in Dust reactors down on Curie Street but Jaune did not know much about that.
While Jaune waited around doing nothing, most of his sisters attended the local schools on Oxford Street.
((24))
~"Listen here Jaune, we can't let your sisters see you yet or else it'll distract them from their school. Just wait a couple more hours; Okay, honey-bun?"~
Jaune hated when his mum called him that; and it all started with the Pumpkin Pete™ hoodie.
…
"Oh my god I left all my box-tops in the forest."
-/-
[Four Hours Later]
-/-
"Phew! I'm glad we killed all the Grimm beforehand." Jaune cheered as he played with his bag full of Pumpkin Pete's™ box-tops.
He was walking through Fawkes Alley, which was the fastest way to get to school and back. It was always empty because the Patrol took extra measures making sure nobody was stupid enough to actually do anything illegal here. ((25))
"Stop it! Please!" A voice, unmistakably that of a girl, rang throughout the empty surroundings.
Jaune's cheerful demeanor was replaced with ice-cold intensity as he locked in on the voice.
With a single breath, he travelled towards the source of the disturbance.
Landing on the roof of a mostly empty apartment, Jaune watched the scene from above.
"C'mon, you know you want to-". His ears shut out this idiot's nasally voice.
His third eldest sister, Chartreuse, was about to be assaulted by a group of dead men he couldn't give two shits about.
And the one shit he did give was because they had the gall to try and fuck with the Arcs.
"Seriously, your brother just had to go get himself killed, and now I can't go out to the city and have some fun; This is fair compensation don't you think?"
*thud*
With practiced grace, the non-knight landed behind the hooded thug and shot him twice in both his kneecaps; four holes total.
A complete waste of bullets, but he had a point he needed to get across.
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHH- mmfph!"
And the best way to sell a statement violently was to emulate his mentor; Matthius was pretty insane in more ways than one. ((26))
"Sshhhhh… Now now, let's not scream. Screaming is what the innocent people do when they suffer at the hands of people like you; or end up collateral. You are supposed to grunt in pain and then sell me some weird, unsolicited speech about why you're doing what you're doing- maybe give me a generic sob story or two to try and garner what little mercy I have left.". Jaune loosened his grip around the thug's mouth.
"Who the hell are-" *BANG* "AAA- mmmmffph! MmmMMPH!"
"And just like that, there goes all my mercy."
Jaune could see that both his companions were absolutely shitting themselves; and rightfully so.
Sure, they had looked uncomfortable being there, but~ Guilty by association. It's a fallacy, sure, but right now the only things more wrong than he was right now were these jokes.
"Leave. Now."
The two of them scurried away like the dirty rats they were. And one of them actually did piss themselves as they did; leaving a small trail of urine.
"Gotta remember to avoid that later." Jaune idly thought. "And you, girl, leave too.".
He was lucky that she didn't push it further; his sister must be too traumatised to think straight.
"Now then, worm, let's come back to that question you had for me before. Who are you?"
Receiving only a whimper of pain in response, Jaune sighed and walked around the kneeling thug.
His eyes widened in response; "Oh? You're one of the rich kids from Charlemagne. The one with the stupid name… Yaourt, right?".
The poor fool must have taken his surprise for compunction; "Hah- Yeah. Scared now that you know my parents are gonna kill you huh-".
"A worm emblazoned in gold is still a worm."
Jaune crashed his fist straight into the nose of 'Yaourt', putting a noticeable depression in the centre of his dumb-looking face.
"And I care why? Fear of retribution from your parents isn't going to stop me from- oh, I don't know- killing you and destroying the evidence? Who's gonna tell them? Those two lackeys of yours? The very thought of me will petrify them on the spot."
Jaune holstered his M45A1 and grabbed Yaourt by the sides of his deformed head; "Now it's your turn. Recognise who I am?".
Yaourt weakly met his gaze before studying his features; with each gear that turned in his empty head, he became more and more panicked.
"Wait- you're the Arc's missing son!"
"Yeah; Want a signature?". Not awaiting an answer, Jaune instantly deployed Crocea Mors and carved out a random mess of lines on the coward's forehead.
He wasn't going to carve out his actual name; What if the body was still around? This 'crime' (good deed) would be linked back to him in an instant.
"You're… the reason… everything… went to shit… Should've… just let me… have my way… with your sister… The whore… would have… enjoyed… it…". Yaourt tried to put on a smirk but Jaune knew bravado when he saw it; that was all he had for a while before he met Matthius after all.
Even then, Crocea-Mors shone with a baleful golden hue. What should have been a beautiful bright auric light was warped and twisted by a spiral of pure black which furled around the entire blade.
"How… does it feel… to live… with… eight slu-"
With a swift kick, he shattered Yaourt's rib cage, sending him sprawling to the floor. This was followed by Jaune stomping on the base of his neck, almost killing him. To actually stop death from claiming the worm too early, Jaune healed him with what he had picked up from Matthius' demonstration earlier.
He didn't actually want to let him live, but this way would let him suffer more and be eternally silenced even before he kicked the bucket.
Jaune chuckled as Yaourt tried to crawl away. He swiftly ripped a piece of rebar from a broken wall and stabbed it between the legs; still keeping him alive through magic. ((27))
As he turned to leave the scene of the 'crime', Jaune realised that there was still plenty of evidence left behind.
He remembered briefly about what his mentor had taught him on the subject of forensics. Forensic scientists could still collect and identify knuckle-prints. Though Jaune doubted his knuckles were on any sort of record, if they decided to start analysing the knuckles of all of Arcadia's residents and put the town on lockdown for a second time?
And even if he solved it in the future by wearing some form of gloves, if the worm really did survive this and they managed to get a statement?
Jaune stopped, spun on his foot and quickly made his way back to Yaourt. Stomping his head hard enough that it cracked the concrete beneath them and left nothing but a viscous red paste which slowly made its way into the gaps.
"No chances."
-/-
[Meanwhile, with Matthius]
-/-
"Ah- Looks like he's made his first kill. Neat."
Matthius took a sip from his tea as he sat in one of only three cafes in the entire town.
"Matthius? You look distracted by something." John voiced.
He suddenly snapped back when he realised what he was doing; "I'm sorry, I missed the last six seconds of what you just said.".
"I was going to ask if you wanted to join us for the reunion. And by 'join'… I mean you are going to help explain this whole thing to our daughters."
As Matthius stared blankly at the two parents in front of him, he took another sip from his cup of black tea and uttered a single word;
"Fuck." ((28))
John sighed and put his own cup down; "What even is that? I didn't even know they let you bring your own tea in here.".
Matthius snorted, looked at his cup and then back to John; "English Breakfast.".
"… I feel like that was supposed to mean something else." Mary muttered.
"Hai; A bas les Français - A melltitho'r Prydeinwyr hefyd - Und aus irgendeinem Grund fick die Deutschen."
{Yes; Down with the French - And fuck the British too - And for some reason, fuck the Germans.}
((29))
Prologue 5 End
Author's Notes:
Power Levels:
Since I did these for AO3 I might as well give a brief idea of the current scale here. Just a note, these are NOT related to Dragon Ball's Power Level system. These 'Power Levels' are completely linear, factor in skill and various other things. Don't try to make sense of it right now.
{Theoretical} Matthius (Beyond Max Suppression via Sparks): 550,603,142,183
Danger Level: 450,000,000,000~ [Ehh?]
Breaker/Blocker Level: 523,200~ [Building Demolisher]
Threat Level: N/A
Hazard Level: 3 [Harmless]
Effort Level: −1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000~ [Trying really really hard not to try.]
Focus Level: 3,000,000,000,000,000~
Control Level: 134,323,600,150~ [Absolute Control+]
Cognitive Level: 1,210,200~ [Big Brain Time]
{Theoretical} Matthius (Max Suppression via Sparks - Non-Combat - Relaxed): 5,199,402,105,010×10^33
Danger Level: 5 Quattuordecillion [Oof]
Breaker/Blocker Level: 4,560,152,240~ [Town Razer]
Threat Level: N/A
Hazard Level: 12 [Safe]
Effort Level: −5,000,000,000 [Trying pretty hard to not try.]
Focus Level: 530,159,241,140~
Control Level: 984,145,774,105,302,400~ [Beyond Absolute Control]
Cognitive Level: 6,240,300~ [Biggest Brain Time]
Matthius (Power Discarded - General): 149,223,589
Danger Level: 600,000,000~
Breaker/Blocker Level: 9400~ [Extreme High-Grade Mineral Breaker]
Threat Level: N/A
Hazard Level: 0 [Completely Harmless]
Effort Level: 0 [Not trying at all.]
Focus Level: 10
Control Level: 1,200,000~
Cognitive Level: 630,000 [Battle Instinct]
Jaune (Max Suppression - Non-Combat - Relaxed): 1512.2
Danger Level: 1500~ [Welcome to the Danger Zone]
Breaker Level: 800~ [Brick Breaker+]
Threat Level: N/A
Hazard Level: 0 [Completely Harmless]
Effort Level: 0 [Not trying at all.]
Focus Level: 130
Control Level: 91,140~ [Complete Control]
Cognitive Level: 52,000~ [Student Prodigy]
Jaune (Minimal Suppression - Combat - Relaxed - Versus John): 533,975
Danger Level: 200,000~ [Oh shit]
Breaker Level: 1200~ [Steel Breaker]
Threat Level: 21 [Intent to Subdue]
Hazard Level: 15 [Safe]
Effort Level: 134 [Some Effort]
Focus Level: 4290~
Control Level: 112,420~ [Highly Decent Control]
Cognitive Level: 320,000~ [Master Tactician]
John (Minimal Suppression - Combat - Full Aura - Relaxed - Versus Jaune): 663,582
Danger Level: 30,000~
Breaker/Blocker Level: 1600~ [Steel Breaker+]
Threat Level: 12 [Intent to Defend]
Hazard Level: 4 [Fairly Harmless]
Effort Level: 815 [High Effort]
Focus level: 3195~
Control Level: 91,950~ [Fairly Decent Control]
Cognitive Level: 160,000 [Battle-Hardened Mind]
Jaune (Zero Suppression - Torment - Angered - 'Versus' Yaourt): 1,195,884,473
Danger Level: 200,000,000~
Breaker Level: 21
Blocker Level: 3394
Threat Level: 1250~ [Intent to Make Suffer]
Hazard Level: 362 [Get the fuck out of dodge.]
Effort Level: 2522 [Very High Effort]
Focus Level: 19,299
Control Level: ?
Cognitive Level: 210,000~
Chapter Notes:
0- Yeah, I'm bringing this back.
1- He wasn't, not even where Matthius came from.
2- Should Plum even be an important character?
3- I can't think of anything else better so it is what it is.
Fun Fact: Matthius calls it ExcaliSpark for certain reasons.
4- Unnecessary explanation of pressure points, barely avoided. Every time this comes up, I will just say, "they hit a pressure point" and be done with it; I'm not gonna look up the name and exact location of the pressure point each time.
5- It's a bit of a trend; and going off Jaune's ancestry, we are following this assumption.
6- Yeah… a 'little'.
7- This entire thing was basically my take on why Jaune is so clueless to Hunter shit despite his general reasoning for becoming one in the first place; ergo, how he became the exposition character.
8- I also thought this made sense. Why the hell aren't there more Arcs running around? Is the whole 'lotsa children' thing exclusive to Jaune's parents?
9- Don't worry, I don't think it'll come back to bite him in the ass.
10- Progress mark; He still hasn't reached that level.
11- Dramatic irony.
12- One day, I'll mess up a single date or number in a calculation and this entire system will collapse.
13- Zero Sparks; Though that probably means nothing to anyone yet. Oh, and no, he really isn't that old.
He's only about a sixtieth of that.
14- That was something I had considered; but then it wouldn't make any sense.
15- Yes, I started to make Jaune slightly insane here.
Only slightly.
16- This also felt like it made sense.
17- I think I saw this explanation in another fanfic.
18- Of course we know that's not true for the most part; they die quite easily. But Matthius is operating on past experience.
19- This is a very clear indicator of how the rest of this fic will turn out.
20- Actually, Important Question:
Should I:
A1) Keep things the way they are; let Jaune clown on everyone Auraless and call it a day.
A2) Jaune does his whole Aura Augmentation shtick or whatever… BUT… I turn it into a full on esoterica.
B) Scale all the other characters to match Jaune's level somewhat; which means that he has to put in effort to prevail.
C) Have Matthius teach the protagonist's cast (as well as the rest of the supporting cast); having them start weak but catch up quickly.
D) C, but all the antagonistic forces also get a plot device which has them match the protagonist's; same as canon, somewhat, but way flashier.
E) OC opponents embedded inside the RWBY universe to provide a challenging force against Jaune.
F) OC opponents from Matthius' past to provide an overwhelming challenge for Jaune.
G) Fuck it, actual characters related to this Matthius' 'past' will come; making it kinda crossover. Biggest possible threat to Jaune (and Matthius).
H) Dragon Ball levels of Power Creep; "I'm sorry, are you saying that Jaune just beat God but there are STRONGER Gods that have somehow slipped under the radar for so long until they're revealed at a convenient point at which Jaune can face them?"
[Any option except either A`s will mean that Matthius becomes more involved in the story; which isn't really the original goal. It will also 'BUFF' him, though obviously not to the extent of the two theoretical power levels above.
Though, even if A is chosen, he'll still be in the background.]
21- Everything costs energy. Currency of the universe and all assumed reality.
22- Trademarked as a joke because it's an actual thing apparently. Matthius is the only one who bothers to add the '™' and Jaune only tacks it on because he's a student of Matthius.
23- Ah yes, I do believe Willpower is one of the more important Resource Stats.
24- For anybody who hasn't caught on; these are significant French and British figures.
25- Sadly, somebody decided to knock out some of the Patrol members; I wonder who.
26- And so is Jaune now.
27- Yes, Jaune did in fact, stab him in the testicles. Also, please don't question how he knows how to heal; just assume he managed to learn it in the timeframe between Matthius' demonstration and this incident.
28- Not getting out of it that easily.
29- This can have many meanings depending on how the story goes -but for the most part:
French- Referencing 'Yaourt'
British- Referencing Nennius / It's really 'Welsh' so it should be 'Nynniaw'
German- Referencing Weiss
Yaourt and Weiss are a little obvious; so I'll just say that, for Nennius, it has to do with how he would 'influence' Jaune's willingness to kill.
True Word Count: 7300~
Total Word Count: 8600~
Date of Upload: 13th of May (13/5/2021)