Chapter 6

Roman made his way through the Emerald forest, Melodic Cudgel ready to strike at a moment's notice. He was quite certain hed seen a nevermore flying up above him at one point, and hed be damned if a stupid grim would be the end of him after everything hed been trough.

Roman took a turn to the left and made it into a large clearing. The vegetation in this part of the forest wasn't as thick as it was where he had landed, but it was still nice to get into more open terrain. As long as he didn't run into any more students things would be just fine.

Sadly that was not meant to be. Ten seconds later and he was standing face to face with little Red. What had he possibly done to deserve that?

"Oh heeya!" Little Red was at it just as always. she ran up to him, leaving a trail of rose petals in her track. Where did those even come from?

Roman sighed as he turned his attention to the girl coming in behind Red. White hair, white and blue clothes, looked like a complete prick. Definitely a Schnee. Why couldn't he get some more tolerable people? Was it too late to go back to Blondie and Nikos? He would have to hold himself back to avoid the temptation of robbing the Schnee.

"You!" The Schnee shouted. She looked quite angry. She had probably recognised him.

"What's up brat?" Roman said, giving the Schee a cocky grin. For good measure of course.

"You are Roman torchwick, you're a criminal! What are you doing here?!" The girl looked quite nasty actually. But Roman was used to Neo, and Neo was a lot more than this girl could ever hope to be. This really was nothing compared to that. So Roman just shrugged it off.

"My name is Roman Candle, and if you keep calling me a criminal, you could be up for detention before the term has even started." That shut the brat up quite quickly, however it did nothing to stop Red.

"It's so nice to see the two of you get along so well!" Little Red spurted out. She was grinning like a madman and was jumping up and down. At Least the Schnee looked at the mad girl with as much disdain as he did. Perhaps they had something in common? Roman seriously doubted that a shared distaste for a certain red haired girl would be enough to force them to unite under a common cause.

"Whatever, shall we get going?" The Schnee brat asked. Well it was more a complaint disguised as a question.

That's when they all heard a roar. Quite a scary one at that. Red stopped jumping and the brat stopped complaining. Their combat training was undoubtedly kicking in. Perhaps he'd be able to stand them in a fight. He could always hope.

An Ursa charged at the Schnee. She drew her sword and proceeded to jump out of its way. She looked extremely focused, analysing her opponent, looking for weak points. This was of course completely unnecessary, it was an Ursa after all. Little Red proved his point a fraction of a second later, jumping into the fray and cutting its head off.

The Schnee looked durious at that, but Red did not seem to notice at all. She just smiled happily at him and the brat. Looking like she had just done something really cool. Roman couldn't help but chuckle, the pests did have their moments.

Another Ursa came out of the forest and charged at Red. One more arrived and charged at him, Roman proceeded to blast the head of the incoming grimm, but when that was said and done two more came at him, with another one going for the Schnee. The Ursas just kept on coming.

Roman was used to fighting against humans, not beasts like this. That was his excuse for his mediocre performance. Little Red managed to slay dozens of the incoming grimm while the Schnee and himself killed about ten or so each. Roman supposed he would have to adapt to fighting these mindless beasts. There was no need for tricks or deception here. At the moment he was no better than the Schnee. Romans ego would never stand for that. Ever.

Before Roman knew it he, Red, and Schnee had covered the ground with Ursas. But as the bodies disintegrated yet another roar was heard. This time what emerged from the forest was an Ursa so enormous Roman was wondering how he had missed it. It was easily two to three times the size of a normal Ursa, with extra claws and what appeared to be an extra row of teeth. If that thing got a hold of any of them, that would be the end for that person.

Perhaps he should let it take Red and the Schnee brat? That would preemptively deal with a lot of headaches. He did consider it for a while, but it was too obvious. It would without a doubt get him thrown out of Beacon, head first. And if this was the treatment the headmaster gave to his students, what would he do to his enemies? The risk was just way too big for Roman to make a move.

Romans thought process was interrupted when Red charged at the beast. Scythe in hand and petals trailing behind her she moved at quite the speed.

"RUBY, what are you doing!?" The Schnee shouted, but her partner was already engaged with the huge grimm. The brat just sighed and leapt into the fray, cutting at the beast from the side while it was busy dealing with the Red speed maniac.

Roman decided the best and more importantly safest move was to provide fire support with Melodic Cudgel. After all, he needed to preserve the life of his favourite person. That was not a matter to take lightly, he was sure the headmaster would understand that.

The beast didn't go down easy, it took several barrages of blows, cuts and dust to bring it down. There had even been quite a close call when the grimm nearly got a hold of Little Red. Roman had been able to fire a shot at its eyes at just the right moment, causing the grimm to be temporarily blinded as it tried to devour the girl. Even if roman never would admit it Little Red was growing on him. Perhaps she could one day make it onto the list of his favourite people. That would require her to stop being so god damn clingy tough.

As the beast went down Red made a celebration squeal. Schnee looked somewhat tolerable, and Roman let a genuine smile grace his face. It was quite nice to beat up these stupid creatures. Though the thrill of killing mindless grim could never match the thrill of crime, it was still a welcome surprise.

Roman really should have known it wouldn't be that easy, of course the headmaster had made sure the forest would be plenty full of dangers. This realisation hit Roman as a giant Nevermore descended from the sky. Making a horrible shriek as it did so.

Why couldn't his life just be easy? Was that too much to ask for?

.

When Jaune woke up he felt really strange. Not in a bad kind of way, but still strange. The first strange thing he noticed was the girl standing over him. Her name was Pyrhha if he remembered correctly,

"Are you awake?" Pyrrha said, she looked very worried for some reason.

"I'm fine." Was his answer. It was close enough to the truth, so it didn't feel like lying.

"You got knocked out about 20 minutes ago. The fact that you did not have any aura did not make the matter better."

Aura? Knocked out? Where was he again?

"Uhh, where am I?"

"You're in the emerald forest, a bit from Beacon. we partnered up and had just started moving to get us a relic."

That's when everything came flooding back for Jaune, Beacon, the mad headmaster, the landing, his partner-. Yeah, quite a lot of stuff over all.

"So then? What happened to me? Why do I feel so different?"

"The safety professor decided to unlock your aura, I honestly don't know why you didn't have it unlocked already."

Great, just great. He had aura now, but how was he supposed to explain this. He couldn't exactly tell his partner he'd faked his way into Beacon.

"Well, who was the professor who helped me out?" Jaune hoped the change of subject would do him good.

"I think his name was Roman?"

Jaune knew the guy had looked familiar. How had he missed it? That was the crook who had forged Jaunes documents. What was he doing at Beacon, and why had he helped Jaune?

Perhaps the man was trying to reform? Perhaps he'd seen the evil in his way? If that was the case then who was Jaune to stop him. In fact Jaune would help him. That would surely prove to everyone that he could be a hero.

Yes, Jaune Arc was going to help the man be a good person. First he just had to get himself into Beacon.