The Man of Many Swords Chapter 2: A True Man's World, a rwby fanfic

Hey guys, I hope all of you are doing alright. It's almost time for this god forsaken year to be over. Hopefully, next year wont be as bad. Of course, that's just hopeful thinking, seeing as things don't get better just at the drop of a dime. but anyway, here's the next installment of The Man Of Many Swords. Enjoy!

We open back up to see that the group had gotten more comfortable with the area and were now exploring the space that they had been transported too. It appeared that only an hour had passed since Konshiro had left them to wander around. All of them had gathered together, wanting to know more about who their counterparts were and more about their worlds.

"So you have the ability to learn things instantly?" Ren asked Smol Jaune. He nodded his head, floating on the air as to keep up with the taller friends around him. They were all still a little amazed that such a small and cute kid was capable of controlling the elements freely.

"Yup! Though, I never would have been able to get very far if it weren't for Amber." Smol Jaune said with an upbeat tone. The woman herself was smiling at him, feeling flattered that he held her in such high regards. Though, the fact of the matter was, she herself would not have been able to take on those three assailants by herself either.

"Come on Jaune, you know you would have been able to make it to the next town without me." Amber said with a slightly embarrassed red hue in her cheeks. Jaune shook his head lightly before continuing.

"Nu-uh. If you hadn't been there for me when you were, I would've died of starvation!" Jaune said with a very high tone of gratitude. His smile beamed up at her and the rest of the group. Team RWBY's response was to almost coo at how adorable he looked. Nora let out a squeal, wanting to pinch his adorable little cheeks off. Ren was refraining himself from doing the same while Pyrrha...

'Our children will be so cute.' Was her simple train of thought. That was before she realized that she thought that about a little boy and immediately tried to clarify to herself that she meant that with her own Jaune where he was a grown man that she wanted children from. She in no way had a Shota fetish!

...

But he was rather adorable...

Amber herself had no choice but to pick up the bundle of sun and hug him tight while he giggled within her arms. The other Ruby laughed at how nice the scene looked while Swol Jaune almost had to shield his eyes at how bright and radiant those two were. He was rather happy though, to know that another version of him could find happiness even through their own strife and hardships. Made him hopeful for his own world.

He glanced over to Ruby for a moment before shaking the thought away.

"That's so cute~! You remind me when Ruby used to be your age!" Yang teased, bringing her leader into a fierce hug. Said leader was now struggling to wriggle out of her grasp.

"Yang! Come on! I'm not a little kid anymore!" Ruby complained as her sister refused to let her go.

From the side lines, an invisible Konshiro watched the whole interaction before him. The last line giving him an idea. 'A little kid', huh? He could do something with that.

"Hello everyone." Konshiro greeted, showing himself to them all at last. The entire group seemed surprised at his presence, not having expected him to show up so soon. They thought that he was trying to find another world for them to watch.

"Oh, Hi!" Smol Jaune greeted with a wide smile. Konshiro seemed to almost smile, even though that alone should have been impossible given the fact that he had no facial features to speak of. Either way, the body of flames had something to say to them.

"Sorry if I interrupted your conversation, but I just wanted to try something, if you wouldn't mind?" Konshiro asked in a casual manner. The rest of the group were a little skeptical, but otherwise quite curious as to what he wanted to do. Amber had put Smol Jaune down and let him stand on his own. It was then that Konshiro looked down to the small child.

"Jaune Noir. Would you mind if I took your hand for a moment?" Konshiro asked. Smol Jaune tilted his head for a moment before slowly walking towards the ethereal being. Amber seemed a bit reluctant to let him go, but the Purple figure of energy assured her in a calm voice.

"Don't worry Amber, I can assure you that I will not hurt him." Konshiro said, his eyes flickering in her direction before moving back to Smol Jaune, who was now directly in front of him. He held his hand out, waiting for the smaller one to do the same. With a bit of hesitancy, he did so and placed his hand into the host's palm.

After a moment of concentration, Konshiro's flames started to shift. Going from it's usual chaotic path upward, towards the palm that held Noir's hand. Smol Jaune eyed the process with wonder and awe. It all looked so fluid, as if there was a method to the madness. It continued like this until the energy stockpiled within a single point; Within his hand.

The others were a little more worried than Smol Jaune, still not entirely trusting of this Konshiro man. However, that worry skyrocketed when that same energy completely engulfed Smol Jaune in an instant, a pillar of purple flames rising, causing them all to cry out in alarm.

"Jaune!" Amber cried out before bringing forth her Maiden powers and glaring at the still calm looking Crobrasha. Swol Jaune lightly furrowed his eyebrows, not knowing what this being was doing. However, he wasn't entirely sure if this was necessarily bad. He could still feel Smol Jaune's energy signature. But the confusing part of it was that it seemed to...not be the only one in the same space? Eh, one way or another, Amber charged at him, powers at full strength, ready to try and stop him from whatever he was doing with her little brother.

"Let him go!" Amber cried, jetting towards the two in nearly an instant. It was fine though, Konshiro had already finished what he wanted to do and released the small boy, creating a gust of wind strong enough to knock back Amber and make the others protect their faces from the bright light that flashed as well.

After they were able to recover from having been flash banged, the group looked back toward Konshiro to see what he did to Smol Jaune...only to see that Smol Jaune wasn't alone anymore.

"Whoa." Smol Jaune said to himself as he noticed that he was accompanied by someone else now.

"Jaune?" Amber asked as she got up from the ground to see Jaune's new friend. Though, they weren't that new to begin with. They had big silver eyes, a cute and youthful face.

They blinked once, their silver eyes filled with confusion. One of their fluffy wolf ears twitching on top of their head as well. Their hair was a little long, being able to touch her shoulders. A prominent wag of their tail always accompanied them wherever they went. Their curiosity having them become a little excited at exploring a new place. It was almost akin to a puppy being introduced to a new environment that it had not known previously. Their outfit consisted of a turtleneck like shirt, being black in color. On her legs was a pair of tiny black leggings and a deep red skirt. And finally, on their back, was a familiar, very distinctive red hood.

"Ruby?" Noir all but whispered as he looked upon his Faunus friend. He couldn't be mistaken. The red tinted hair, the Silver Eyes, her Faunus traits. This had to be her. And it made Jaune's heart swell with emotion at being able to see his friend again.

Faunus Ruby had turned to the voice, finding it all too familiar. She almost couldn't believe that it would be him. She had just gotten out of the car when she heard his voice. He sounded the same as when he left, so there was no doubt that it was him. The one person that she had imprinted on. The person that made her feel special in ways that no one else could. It had only been a few months since she last saw him, but even then, she knew that the boy that stood before her was none other, than Jaune Noir.

"Jaune!" Faunus Ruby exclaimed, practically teleporting into Jaune's embrace as she hugged the air out of him. The whole time, her tail had been wagging uncontrollably. If she wasn't careful, she'd sprain it from wagging it too much.

The speed at which she moved shocked most of them. The two other Rubys couldn't even track the movement. They could see the rose petals that accompanied the usage of their Semblance, but it was impossible to see just how fast this other version of them went.

"I missed you so much!" Ruby nearly cried into his shoulder. Jaune had been shocked for a moment before smiling and hugging her back.

"I missed you too, Ruby." Jaune said to her as he kept her in his embrace. He was overjoyed that he could be reunited with one of his dearest friends. Of course, he would love nothing more than to be more than just friends, however, that would be for another time. It wasn't like she would be thinking about something like that or anything. She just got here. And it was literally a single minute since they saw each other again. He was fairly confident that she wouldn't do something so rushed and rash like that.

"I am glad that you find the addition acceptable. However, there is one more thing I would like to try. It involves you, Arc." Konshiro stated, looking directly at the large man. The GI clad teen looked to him with curious eyes, wanting to know what he could possibly do for him. From what he could tell, he was perfectly fine with who he had.

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Swol Jaune asked as he stared directly into the host's eyes. Konshiro seemed to give a small chuckle before he raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Almost instantly, Arc could feel a sudden rush in his soul, like something had shifted and changed. He took a gasp of air before letting it back out. He gripped his chest lightly. The rushing sensation had faded as quickly as it had arrived. Though, there was this tingling feeling that remained. He looked down to his palms and back up at the somewhat amused Konshiro.

"If you are curious, I have taken away the restraints on your powers. You have no fear of overloading your body. Besides what it can handle physically, It cannot and will not be overloaded with KI." Konshiro clarified. Arc took another deep breath, taking that in before nodding. He chuckled a bit before letting a smile take hold.

"Eh, It's not going to be of much use here, but It's a nice feeling. I think I'm going to test out the limits of my body if that's the case then." Arc said, popping his neck and cracking his knuckles. Everyone else was keenly interesting in what Swol Jaune could do before, but now that he was apparently unrestrained, they were even more so. However, It would seem that Konshiro had one more thing to he wished to do as his 'eyes' widened, as if an idea struck him suddenly. He contemplated what he was going to do for a moment before realizing that it would do nothing to the timeline from which they would come from.

Konshiro stared on blankly as he stared at the previous few paragraphs of his work so far.

He had to rewrite so much of this chapter...

"Renny! Look! They're so cute!" Nora nearly squealed as she shook her childhood friend. Ren himself was indifferent to the shaking, having gotten used to these kind of things, but did indeed find the scene rather adorable. He did however, look over to Pyrrha and saw her...actually cooing at the sight of Smol Ruby and Smol Jaune hugging each other tightly.

"That's so adorable~!" Pyrrha whispered to herself as she witnessed the Faunus Ruby basically treat Noir as if he were her owner. The thought alone was almost bringing Pyrrha to a heart attack.

IT WAS JUST SO CUTE~!

...

Ahem.

Tough, regardless if he was young or not, to see Jaune with someone else just seemed so unfair to her! She thought that their relationship would be multiversal! Call it childish, but a girl can dream, can't she!? She just wanted to be with Jaune...was that too much to ask?!

'Maybe instead of pussyfooting around the subject and getting right down to the point, you'd get your 'happily ever after'. But who am I to judge. That's just my outside viewpoint. I'm sure there are actual reasons why one would avoid it, but I've always been rather upfront about things like that. You do you I guess.' Konshiro thought to himself, wondering why it would take so long for Pyrrha to tell the knight of her feelings. To the point that she would only tell him when she was about to die. Confused him to hell and back, but go off he supposed.

"Dang, put a leash on her why don't you?" Yang said, half joking and half scared of what was supposed to be her sister in another universe. She seemed way too affectionate and open with other people. It almost freaked her out. She's used to weird, socially awkward, gun loving Ruby. Not...this.

"..." Blake was conflicted, looking on at the two childhood friends. On one hand, this Ruby was a Faunus, to which she was actually kind of happy for now that she could relate to her on that level. However, on the other hand, she was a wolf Faunus. You know, the ancestors of dogs? But this was Ruby they were talking about though. She could probably get over it pretty quick if she tried...maybe.

...

Oh, that, and the fact that she could easily imagine the sub/dom, master/servant relationship with those two when they were older. Hands down the collar and leash thing would be used, no arguments on that.

Weiss was having a small mental breakdown. One Ruby was bad enough. Two was definitely pushing it. But three? That is where she drew the line. Who in their right mind would bring THREE of her into one reality!? It was insanity!

While she was trying to reboot her systems, Swol Jaune looked on and could almost imagine himself and his Ruby doing the same. However, before that thought could be given any more power, he shook his head and turned around to go somewhere else.

"Well, that's enough sugar for me today, I am going to go see exactly what limits my body can go to now, good day." Swol Jaune said as he walked towards the room that he saw passing by. He had seen a training room somewhere around there...

"Hey wait up! Don't you have any questions for them?" Swol Jaune's Ruby asked as she tried to chase after her partner. Jaune just kept on walking.

"No." He replied, inspecting every door he passed. Now where was that room?

"Come on! There's another ME! And she's a Faunus!" Swol Jaune's partner tried to argue. However, Arc was having none of it.

"I'm fine with just the one, thank you." He called back, still walking. The entire time the rest of the group watched on, kind of wanting something else to focus on other than the cavity hazard in front of them. Weiss overhearing his comment, decided that maybe, just maybe, this Jaune wasn't so bad.

"At least somebody is making sense here. Allow me to join you. I wish to see what the dunce can do in another universe anyhow." Weiss said as she walked briskly, intending on following the giant. Swol Jaune just grunted at her, feeling passive towards the Heiress.

"Do what you wish, doesn't bother me none...here we are." Jaune stated as he came across the training room. He opened the door to see that it looked much like a normal gym. Looking to the far back, he could see another door with the label 'Arena' on it. He lightly smiled before heading strait towards it.

Noir took a moment to look away from his childhood friend to notice that the other Jaune was already gone. He was confused for a moment before he saw him enter a room. He turned to Konshiro for an explanation.

"Where is he going?" Noir asked as Faunus Ruby was still wriggling in his grasp and just trying to meld herself into his frame. Konshiro glanced at her for a moment before focusing back on him. This Ruby really was a hazard to one's health.

"He went to...train I guess is what you could call it. I would advise you all to join him. His power is quite the sight to see. In fact, Noir, you could show off your powers as well." Konshiro suggested. Noir thought on this for a moment, considering if he really should. The rest of them, however, were rather quick to decide for him.

"Yeah! We want to know what you two can do!" Nora exclaimed getting some form of confirmation from the others.

"Heck yeah! I wanna see some action!' Yang exclaimed as she looked to Noir expectantly.

"I just wanna see what kind of weapons they use." Ruby said simply, wondering if these Jaunes use Crocea Mors like her own Jaune. Or even if they use a sword at all for that matter.

"It would be interesting to see." Blake said as she pulled a book out from...somewhere.

"I think it would be splendid!" Pyrrha responded. She definitely needed the distraction from-

"Oh Jaune~!"

Awww~!

"I don't think I have a say in the matter anyway, so why not?" Ren relented, feeling the iron grip of his partner on his arm.

Noir looked to them all, only briefly glancing towards Faunus Ruby before smiling brightly.

"Sure, I'd be glad to show you guys!" He beamed as he gave them his signature smile. Only this time, it wasn't adorable, it seemed more endearing than anything else. It made them feel like they were safe. It was a nice feeling. Almost like Noir was a Symbol of Peace or something.

Konshiro chuckled to himself at that. That wasn't exactly what he was going for, but it was a start.

"Alright then, let's go." Konshiro stated before snapping his fingers. In an instant they were displaced from their previous location to be within the sparring arena's spectator seats. Everyone had been shocked and taken aback by the sudden disposition of space. With the only exceptions being Noir and curiously enough, Faunus Ruby. They just looked around the new area with some curiosity.

Noir was used to the sensation of teleporting. However, it had been a while since he was able to do it. The only thing that came close to the sensation was stopping time. And that was only because reality had to register that he had moved while it had stayed. However, he noticed that his Ruby was faring as well as he was. It made him curious as to how she was able to register teleporting so easily.

"I think I'm gonna hurl." Yang said as a huge wave of nausea washed over her. The rest of them had similar reactions, though varied. Nora just looked a bit dizzy and dazed. With Ren only having to shake his head a little to get back his barrings. Blake was similar to her partner in wanting to spill her guts, she was much better at hiding it. Pyrrha however...

"Hurp...oh no...bleeehhhr!"

Was not so great at holding it in.

"Was that necessary?" Pyrrha asked as she looked up at Konshiro, still feeling groggy. She also felt a little weak after hurling up her lunch. Was...was this how Jaune felt when he got motion sickness? It would seem that there were apologies that would need to be said when she got back.

The man turned his head to her, fully knowing the answer.

"No..." '...but it is pretty funny' Was the unsaid comment as he chuckled to himself. He twirled his finger willing away the...mess, that was made by the red headed spartan. He left her to clean herself up though.

"Fantastic." Swol Jaune groaned as he saw the new spectators teleport in. He was just about to start powering up to see what exactly the extent of his powers were now, having forgone the top part of his GI and his boots. He would have done this in his undergarments, but Ruby was there, so...a no go on that. And considering others came around to watch, that was a good call on his part.

Still kind of uncomfortable with even this though.

"Damn, I knew he had some muscle on him, but that Jaune is RIPPED!" Yang exclaimed, pointing at Swol Jaune. Swol Jaune in turn just clicked his tongue before tuning them out to concentrate on powering up.

Just as everyone was starting to gain their bearings, they felt a gust of wind start to pick up. It caused them all to stare and Swol Jaune as a ferocious white aura manifested itself around him and twisted violently as it began to grow bigger and even more wild. All the while causing the gust of wind to become stronger and stronger. Swol Jaune all the while was simply concentrating on bringing out more and more power from his soul. It came to a point where he knew he should have felt the pain that accompanied him trying to pull out more power than his body could handle. But it never came. So he pushed further and further...

Until he couldn't pull any more.

It was a strange sensation. Like pulling on a length of rope that was tied to the ground. The amount you had was definite, a constant. But when you reach the end if it, that was it. He opened his eyes to look at his hands and body, seeing and his KI was...no longer as wild as before. It seemed calm. Like a calm river flowing across his body, but nowhere off of him. He could feel the power dancing across his skin, waiting to be called upon.

It was nice.

The entirety of the group were blown away by the display of power. Almost literally. It took Konshiro creating a force field around them to prevent any non consenting sky diving from happening. For a few brief moments it seemed like Swol Jaune would destroy the while room, but an instant later, the white aura that surrounded him quickly started to compress and collapse in on itself. In a moment, Swol Jaune opened his eyes and took a breath.

"Well, that's a new one." He stated, clenching his fists and turning his head towards the purple being that had been observing this entire time.

"So is there a reason you gave me this power, or was it just for shits and giggles?" Swol Jaune asked. Konshiro levitated over to the edge of the arena and prepared his answer.

"All I wanted was for you along with everyone here to see exactly what kind of power you have. That is all." Konshiro stated, making Swol Jaune sigh and shake his head.

"You know, for basically being a God, you have an almost painfully simple mindset. So now what?" Swol Jaune asked, looking Konshiro directly in the eyes.

"If you wouldn't mind, I would like you to fire off one of your attacks." Konshiro suggested. Swol Jaune's face formed into a small frown before letting out a sigh. He then brought his hand up and fired a rather powerful Big Bang Attack. the act alone blowing up the adjacent wall and almost sent the entire structure falling to pieces. It was Konshiro who once again had to use his godly powers to morph everything back to normal. Everyone else, excluding Noir himself, were at awe of the casual display of power.

"Holy Mackerel! What in the world was that?" Nora asked, looking at Swol Jaune as he let out a small breath.

"There, I did as you asked, now what?" He questioned, now wanting to get away from the group. He would have been fine with just his partner there. That wasn't the issue. As for the other Weiss, he could just pretend that she wasn't there. However, now that everyone was staring at him. It made him a little uncomfortable. Konshiro on the other hand, was not satisfied with the lack of effort coming from Swol Jaune's part.

"No no no. I wanted you to show real power. I want you to let loose and really tear it up. Here, allow me to give you a bit of motivation." Konshiro stated, pointing a finger at the opposite wall from Swol Jaune. The taller teen turned to look at the training drone that had been residing there and bore witness as it came to life with the same purple energy that signified Crobrasha's work and suddenly started to emit a hologram.

"You see, these drones have a feature to them that allow you to simulate a fight with your chosen enemy. It could be anyone. A fellow classmate, one of your professors, a Headmaster, a random Hunter, or even..." Konshiro trailed off, letting the drone walk onto the arena as it finished morphing into it's designated persona. Swol Jaune's eyes had turned into pinpricks as he stared at the opponent standing against him.

The manic yellow eyes that watched over his torture and filled with perverse glee as he emptied his lungs of air due to his screaming.

Jaune's teeth were almost straining at how much he was gritting them.

The insane smile that he always wore when he tried and failed to escape. The cackle spilling through that haunted his nightmares.

His muscles were tensing. His fists long haven clenched hard enough to draw blood from his palms. His KI skyrocketing.

Standing there was his tormentor.

His tail swaying carelessly as he stood there.

The one that had taken his family. This...

"it's good to see you again, boy."

Was a DEAD MAN.

Immediately, Swol Jaune charged up KI again, pulling on that rope. Quickly reaching the tied down end...

"GYAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

And ripping the chain off, taking the wall attached with it.

In the blink of an eye, taking most of the rest of the group by surprise, he grabbed the Faunus by the face, slamming him down onto the ground before proceeding to pummel him over and over again. Each punch causing the whole building's structure to shake and crack. The two teams along with the two other Rubys were concerned about just how destructive this Jaune was. Not too long ago, he seemed like a very laid back, if not apathetic, person. What the hell made him this angry?

Noir looked on at the display with sadness. He was still rather new to the concepts of emotions and reading them. But it was clear as day to see the amount of pain that this other him had suffered.

"Is that all you got, boy?" Tyrian taunted as he laid there, seemingly unfazed by the assault. It only caused Swol Jaune to become even more livid and bellowed as he grabbed the assassin by the throat and chucking him up into the ceiling, making sure that he was embedded deep in there before charging up even more, taking his technique to it's most EXTREME.

"GO TO HELL!" Jaune roared as his now blinding white KI enveloped the entire room. The force of his power-up causing the entire room and rooms adjacent to start to crumble. Konshiro once again had to create a force field to protect everyone. Entire chunks and slabs of concrete were falling around them. A hefty portion of the ceiling fell onto the force field, turning to dust as it made contact. Konshiro seemed to be enjoying the show, finding that the display of power was reminisce to the things he would watch regularly where he came from. However, the rest of the group were freaking out over the fact that everything was starting to fall apart due to Swol Jaune's rampage.

"What the hell is happening!?" Yang exclaimed as she along with everyone else were having trouble keeping their balance. Noir was relatively fine, holding on to his childhood friend as she whimpered into his form. He looked closely at the other Jaune as he brought his arms together to the side of his waist, charging up his attack. He could just barely see his face through the raging storm of energy washing off of him. A small tugging of his heart at the sight of the tears flying off the man's face.

So much pain...

Konshiro on the other hand, merely let out a small chuckle as he stared on, not at all seeming bothered by the fact that the entire area was nearly crumbling to pieces. It was concerning to the rest of the group at how the being was almost enjoying the destruction.

"This, is a display of raw, spiritual power. Unlike any other you will ever see. One of three aspects of existence that must be mastered before reaching strength like no other." Konshiro said calmly as they all saw a swirling blue energy gather within the raging Jaune's hands. the entirety of his KI starting to gather into the attack.

"KA..." Swol Jaune started, his focus solely on the scorpion Faunus that stayed embedded into the wall, staring down at him. His eyes showing glee like no other, a cackle coming out like this were all some big joke.

"Go ahead and do it, Boy! Avenge the ones that were taken from you!" Tyrian cackled, prodding Swol Jaune to let out a low growl in anger. The energy around him flaring even more now. This new attained power he had was insurmountable, many ties higher than he had before. However, even with the apparent restraints removed by Konshiro, he could still feel the strain on his muscles, on his soul. Begging to be given a break. But with this monster. This demon that had tormented him for so many years, his judgement was clouded by rage. He needed to make him pay! He needed to wipe him off the face of existence!

"...ME..." Swol Jaune continued, his entire being shaking from the strain and anger coursing through his veins.

"Jaune!" His Ruby cried, trying to call out to him. This wasn't the same Jaune that she had met that night in Vale. This wasn't the same teen that she had spent the night in the forest with. This was someone that had allowed himself to be consumed by anger and revenge.

This was a man in pain.

She could tell on some level that he was hurting so much on the inside. On that night when they went out into the forest and he laid bare all but the details of his past to her, that he still grieved over his late family. She wanted so bad to reach out to him and try to comfort him so that he wasn't hurting so much. But the barrier created by Konshiro was preventing her from doing so.

"...HA..." At this point, the only things left of the room were the bare minimum of load baring support beams, the chunk of ceiling that kept the still cackling Tyrian in place, and the area that the rest of the group stood on.

"Do you see now? Not only how powerful your Jaune can be under the right circumstances, but also how much pain they experience to gain such power?" Konshiro stated, seeing that Swol Jaune was nearly there...

"...ME..." In a moment, there was silence, all of his powerful KI converging on the orb of blue energy and compressing into the single focal point.

He threw his arms forward, finally unleashing the torrent of energy towards his tormentor.

"...HA!" Swol Jaune roared as a giant column of blue sparking energy burst out of his hands, moving like lightning towards his item of hatred. His voice reverberated as the beam of pure destructive power had quickly found it's mark, the cackling Tyrian laughing even harder as he was completely engulfed by oblivion. Just as he was being obliterated by the attack, he had one last message to impart.

"Sleep well for now boy, I'm not even the beginning of your worries! That honor goes to my goddess...Salem." Tyrian all but whispered at the end, having finally succumbed to the void. The beam tore through the roof and continued into the void of nothingness.

As the attack finally subsided, so did the rumbling and destruction of the facility that they resided in. Swol Jaune was left panting, already feeling his body being affected by the whiplash. He almost expected to see his body start to fracture and break apart before turning into a mist, but only felt a severe fatigue of overexerting himself.

"That was...super anti-climact-" Swol Jaune tried to say before falling over, passing out on the spot. After he collided with the floor, Konshiro decided that they were safe enough and let go of the barrier so that he could reform the room and building to a more suitable condition. Immediately, Swol Jaune's Ruby dashed over to him and tried to see if he was okay.

"Jaune! Are you okay?! Jaune!?" She asked in rapid succession, using all of her strength in conjunction with both her Aura and KI to turn him over. She moved his hair out of his eyes and tried to feel around his neck to even see if he had a pulse before Konshiro spoke up once more while fixing the room.

"He is fine, just unconscious. He will wake in a few minutes. He'll feel sore, but nothing too major." Konshiro clarified as he willed his flames to wash over a majority of the room, reforming the walls and ceiling that had been destroyed. It was then that the two teams had snapped out of their shock at seeing such a massive display of power.

"T-talk about bringing the house down." Yang said offhandedly, still a little dazed. Instinctively, the rest of them cringed at her pun, but were shaking at just how powerful this alternate Jaune was.

"I'm...not sure If I should show my power anymore." Noir said, hugging Faunus Ruby close to his person. She was shivering in his arms, her base instincts screaming at her that there was imminent danger associated with the Jaune down at the arena. She didn't really know what was happening here, but there was a lot happening in a very small time-frame. But at the very least, she could hold on to her own Jaune for comfort.

"Hmm...fine. It's about time that I showed you all another universe anyhow. Now brace yourselves, Teleporting in three...two..." Konshiro started, bringing his arm up to transport them back to the viewing area. However, it was then that the group collectively decided to break from their shock and address him directly.

"NO!" They all shouted. stopping the being from causing them to go through that nauseating hell again. Konshiro looked to them and to his arm before letting out a huff and...pouting?

"You're no fun. Alright, fine. I need to get the others as well. You know where you need to go, I'll meet you there." Konshiro turned and started levitating away, causing the rest of them to let out a sigh of relief. They started making their way towards the exit, only giving Swol Jaune and his Ruby a moments glance before continuing their trek.

It was then that Konshiro turned his head, something akin to a smug grin on his face forming as he brought up his hand again.

"Oh, that's right, Pyrrha doesn't have that great of a sense of direction, does she? Let me help." Konshiro stated, causing the rest of them to look at him with some confusion before Pyrrha's eyes widened and tried to voice her opposition to the idea.

"N-now hold on-"

*Snap*

And was promptly ignored as Konshiro snapped his fingers and sent Pyrrha away to the viewing room. The group was surprised at the action, first turning to the spot where Pyrrha once was, and then to a now retreating Konshiro as he let out a deep chuckle. It was at that moment that they fully realized that there really was no way they were going to be leaving unless he willed them to.

"Who was that?" Faunus Ruby asked, finally calming down from earlier. Noir looked down at her before letting out a sigh, carrying her towards their destination.

"I'll tell you on the way there."

Prison Jaune and Qrow were currently sitting in a bar, seated at the stools, just discussing the fact that they were in the middle of a situation that neither of them enjoyed while having a drink.

"You sure about this kid? I'd suggest having some of the lighter stuff first. Wouldn't want you passing out on me here." Qrow said as he held a pitch black drink in his hand. Being a certain concoction of liqueur that was pitch black.

The Grim Eclipse.

"I'm fine. it's not the strongest drink I've had. Certainly not the first." Jaune grunted out, remembering that his home life had led to his brief addiction to alcohol. He stopped only three months before Beacon, and that was only because he wanted to get away from his home life to try and become a better person as a Huntsman. That was obviously thrown out the picture now, but at this point, with all that's been happening within the last few days, he felt like he deserved a drink.

"...Alright." Qrow relented, handing him the drink. To his surprise, he saw the kid take the whole cup in one go. A prominent shiver went up Jaune's spine, signaling the drink's unique effect taking hold.

"Ah, cool as the night time air. Don't know what I was thinking trying to quit." Jaune said, feeling the calming effects of the drink wash over him. Qrow slightly winced at that. There was always a reason that someone would turn to hard liqueur. His was because his sister-in-law and best friend had died while on a mission. Not to mention the fact that his nieces and brother-in-law had disregarded the death like it was yesterday's news. But he cringed at what reason the kid would turn to it.

"So...what do you think about all of this, Jaune? From what we were told, those kids were from another universe...or whatever. Not really clear on that front." Qrow said, swirling the drink in his hand. A flash of anger swept over Jaune's face before he calmed down, wanting another drink already. Surprisingly, the cup in his hand filled back up with another Grim Eclipse. He downed the whole thing again before speaking up.

"I'm not going to lie to you, Qrow. I want to gut them alive. Regardless of what that purple bastard says, they are the same shit stains that could very well do the same crap to their own Jaune that happened to me. I don't want that happening. Not If I can help it. We'll need to look around here to see if we can travel to their own universe and do what we can from there." Jaune said as he downed another cup of the black liquid.

'Still not enough.' Jaune thought to himself as he swished another cup of his drink.

"Alright then...got nothing better to do other than watch what that...Crobrasha guy puts on." Qrow said, not really caring what happened from here. He's been living with nothing but that dark cell for the past few years, a little action was just what he needed.

"Do I feel my ears burning? Or is that just me?" Konshiro stated as he manifested into the room. Qrow just looked at him curiously before rolling his eyes at the pun he made. Jaune let out an aggravated breath before speaking up, still not looking at him.

"I assume you're here because It's time to watch another universe?" Jaune asked as he took a drink of his beverage. Konshiro nodded before bringing his hand up and snapping, teleporting them both into the back of the viewing room still seated. Immediately, they both felt nausea consume them, Qrow being the only one out of the two to shake it off. While Jaune instantly downed his drink, filed it again, before downing that one as well. He still had to nurse his head from the sudden motion sickness either way, but at least the drink helped.

"Fucking Oum, I do not want to do that again." Jaune cursed with closed eyes. Qrow lightly chuckled before patting him on the shoulder. It was then that he noticed the redhead from earlier hunched over in her seat, a bucket in her arms, looking recently used. Her hair was frazzled and she looked about half a step away from death. Qrow payed her no mind as the doors across the room had opened, showing the two teams from before had returned. Upon further inspection, He noticed that while the giant version of Jaune and his Ruby were absent, they had gained a new(?) Jaune along with a Faunus Ruby. He shook his head and disregarded it all, just waiting for what the next universe had in store.

"Welcome back everyone, I am glad that you made it back safely." Konshiro greeted, floating towards them with arms spread wide. From behind him, Pyrrha let out another whine, holding the bucket close to her chest. The rest of her team and Team RWBY were unable to refute the similarities between her and their Jaune right now, but said nothing on it, knowing that she must be feeling like hell at the moment.

"Right, well, let's get back to-" Konshiro started, only to be interrupted by Amber.

"Hey, hold on. What about that other Ruby and Jaune...and speaking of which, there's another thing that I don't understand. What should we call them? They have the same names, right? So how are we supposed to differentiate them from each other?" Amber asked, causing the other members to nod along. They too had similar concerns for when they wanted to talk to them together. Konshiro stayed silent for a moment, not realizing that he had only been referring to their differentiated names in his mind and text.

"Huh, good question. I called him Smol Jaune...you know, because he's just so...Smol. As for the other one, I've been calling him Swol Jaune." Konshiro admitted, getting a small chuckle out of some of them. 'Smol' Jaune pouted a bit before looking down at his Faunus Ruby. Seeing that she was also giggling at his nickname, he warmed up to the idea a bit.

"I suppose you could call him Blanc...considering that's his hero name..." Konshiro said, immediately causing the Rubys present to gasp with sparkles in their eyes.

"He's a hero!?" They both shouted at the same time. One was vibrating on the spot while the other's tail was wagging like crazy.

"Yes, he goes out in a suit of armor as the vigilante 'Justice Blanc'. Quite the sight to see really. In any case, I suppose you three Rubys should have altered names as well...perhaps another time. I cannot think of one at this moment." He stated, causing the two Rubys to deflate a bit. They wanted cool named too!

"Speaking of, what about the other Ruby and Jaune?" Ren asked, raising an eyebrow.

"One thing after another, I swear this is more tedious than I was told it was going to be..." Konshiro whispered to himself as his arm stretched out to his side and rotated, his energy flaring just a tiny bit. After a few moments, he stopped and looked to the doors, to which they opened to see a redressed Blanc and his partner.

"Sorry about making you guys wait so long. Did we miss anything?" Blanc apologized, seeming to be more...relaxed? None of them were quite sure. But he just seemed to be a bit different.

"Not...much. What did you do?" Blake asked, looking back to Konshiro for an answer.

"I simply advanced time outside of these walls as to shorten our wait for them to return." Konshiro answered.

"Yeah, 'simply', okay..." Yang breathed out, feeling a little annoyed with how blatantly this guy was throwing around power like that. Konshiro ignored the comment and just continued.

"Alright, with no other interruptions, would any of you-"

"BLEERRRRR!"

Konshiro snapped his attention to Pyrrha as she wiped her mouth from the recent upheaval of her most recent meal into the bucket. Realizing that maybe teleporting someone twice in quick succession might have not been a good idea. So with a sigh, he twirled a finger to not only clean up her appearance, but to also clear up her nausea. When he was done, Pyrrha blinked twice before throwing the flaming body a small glare. He simply rolled his eyes before re-addressing the group.

"As I said, with no other interruptions...would anyone like to volunteer to choose the next viewing?" Konshiro stressed before taking a breath and calming down. It took a moment before someone finally walked up.

"If no one else is going to step up, then I might as well." Yang said offhandedly as she stared up at the ethereal being. He nodded before waving his hand in a low arch, a slew of small stars coming out of the embers. Yang looked at them all for a small moment before shrugging and pointing at the one in the middle. A yellow one of considerate shine.

"Alright then, lets see...Ah, one that is rather commonplace in the multiverse." Konshiro stated, taking the other stars into his being while taking hold of the one chosen. The rest of them rose an eyebrow at that before Nora spoke up.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked, making Konshiro glace her way before returning his attention to the star.

"Well, much like your world has tropes for stories, the multiverse has an entire archive of different 'kinds' of universes. None of them the same, but have a base premise that links them together. This one in particular...follows the Idea where humanity, somewhere down the line, diverged into a different path of evolution. One where the gender ratio is bias towards the female than the males." He stated, making them all think about it for a moment. But wasn't their world already like that?

"Last I checked, the gender ratio of men to women is already 1 to 3.4, so how different is it to ours?" Weiss spoke up, not seeing how different that world was to theirs. Konshiro hummed, still setting up the star for viewing.

"You're not wrong. However, for this world in particular, the gender ratio is much more, how would you say...split. One man for every...fifty women to be exact I believe." Konshiro stated. His information bomb caused all of them to widen their eyes. One man for every how many women!?

"Holy crap!" Amber exclaimed, wondering how such a world could sustain it's population with that much of a disparity.

"That's not all. In these universes, the gender disparity doesn't stop at merely numbers. In this world, the women are also the only ones to have ever gained the ability to unlock their Aura. Even further than that, after so long of the women having this amazing power, and the ability to access Semblances, they had quickly come to a single conclusion." Konshiro stated, his voice monotone and face blank. The more book smart of the group had quickly caught on to what he was going to say and were shocked at their own conclusions.

"Men were worthless." Konshiro finished. Those that hadn't realized it yet were equally shocked as those that had. Men were what?

"What? What do you mean they came to that conclusion?" Ren asked, not fully grasping the concept. Konshiro stayed silent for a moment before deciding to answer him.

"If you think about it on a purely analytical standpoint, completely ignoring any morality of the situation, they would be right. If no man had Aura or Semblances to speak of while women did, they couldn't do any of the protecting that is essential when dealing with Grim. And with Women outnumbering men by that wide of a margin, the men would be the ones holding the women back during a Grim invasion. In essence, the only thing that would be keeping them from completely erasing men from the equation, is the need for procreation. And even then..." Konshiro stated, having long since finished his work on the orb. He just kept it in his hand until he finished his explaining of the world and it's logic. The rest of the group, having heard him, felt appalled at the implications of such a world.

"That's just so...wrong! I can't even imagine a world without Fearless Leader!" Nora exclaimed, mortified at the idea. Konshiro chuckled a small bit before shaking his head.

"You're right, it is wrong. Which is why in this world, men still have rights...albeit less than women. This viewing takes place at a time where society is just starting to expand upon men's rights. Before, they were simply viewed as breeding machines to produce more powerful women. It was even at a point where men couldn't be legally considered rape victims...the 'Free Use' system was the blame for that. The ability to use men however you pleased so long as you were a woman...disgusting." Konshiro said, for the first time since they were there dripping with real venom. His flames dripping a liquid fire that burned through the floor. He took a moment to compose himself before continuing.

"Over time, men had started to evolve to be breeders. Not much changed physically on either men or women, but for men...they reached mature and fertile age at a much earlier time. Men also have hormones within themselves that cause them to recede to a primal state where they will obey a woman when they are near. Only triggered when near a woman, as they too have evolved to release such a pheromone. Pretty much, even though society is starting to change, the damage had already been done and will take decades, or even centuries to go back to the way that it was. And that's not even counting on the majority of the female populace that refuse to see men as anything more than below them." Konshiro continued, staring into the orb, once again dawning a blank expression.

"That's fucked up."

They all turned to Blake, surprised that she had said that.

"That's just like how the Faunus are treated. But even then..." Blake trailed off, thinking that even the Faunus have their continent of Manegerie as a place for kinship. That entire world though...

"Either way, this one in particular shows Jaune as he enters Beacon as the first ever male student. Needless to say...it's not easy." Konshiro finished, finally letting the star in his hands drift into the screen. The teams had more questions and concerns about this world, but decided that they could be answered as they watched this and simply took their seats.

The scene opened up to the outside of a rundown building, a warehouse upon further inspection, in what was obviously the slums at night. A scene change moved them to the inside, being very dimly lit. The sounds of welding reached the audiences ears, bright lights syncing with the sounds. One last scene change showed the back of the Blacksmith manning the bench, standing over their project as they worked. They were wearing a dark grey jumpsuit over their bodies, some timber boots on their feet and a welder's mask covering the owner's face as they worked. However, the blonde, scraggly hair gave tell of who exactly the person was.

"I think that's Fearless Leader." Nora whispered to Ren as he nodded back, worried about where he was considering what he knew about that world.

"What do you think he's working on? A new weapon maybe?" Ruby asked, slightly excited at the idea. Yang looked at her weirdly, finding it strange how she could be like that after learning what this world was like.

The scene stayed like this for a few seconds before the figure stopped what they were doing and turned their head to the side, putting their tool down on the workbench and turned around fully as if to address someone. It was then that the figure finally raised their mask to reveal one Jaune Arc with a rather disgruntled look on his face. His face itself had a few small scars littering it with noticeable one going over his right eye. Being an inch or two wide and going from above his eyebrow to just under his cheekbone. That wasn't the most noticeable feature though. It was the glowing dark blue mechanical eye that was in the socket in place of a real one. Along with this, some of the surrounding flesh and bone had been replaced with bionic reinforcements. Really giving focus on the fact that the eye was robotic.

"Oh my god! What happened to him?" Pyrrha asked, wanting to know exactly what cause him to need such a thing. However, while the same question plagued the rest of their minds, Weiss was more interested in the eye itself. From what she could see, it was some really advanced stuff. Even more advanced than what they had over at Atlas.

'Where did he even get such a thing?" Weiss thought to herself as she watched the eyes shift a bit, taking in what it was viewing. Konshiro looked to her for a moment before giving a short answer to Pyrrha.

"All will be answered with the viewing." Konshiro stated simply, leaving it at that. Pyrrha seemed even more worried now, but figured that he was right.

"What do you want? I'll have you know that this is private property. You are trespassing. If you don't leave, I will contact the authorities and have you escorted off the premises." Jaune stated, crossing his arms while looking at someone past the screen. There was silence for a moment before the clacking of heels was heard. The camera changed to show a set of heel clad feet walking toward Jaune. They stopped once they were in the light that hung over Jaune's work space. Once Jaune was able to get a good look at them, his eyes narrowed.

"Oh, so it's you." Jaune relented, his voice no less irritated after the fact. The camera finally revealing who Jaune was talking to. They were clad in a dark green three piece suit, a white dress shirt underneath it. A faded green scarf wrapped around her neck with a pair of small glasses resting on their nose. Her chest length hair that was tied into a braid jostled a bit as she shook her head, an amused smile on her features.

This was the Headmistress of Beacon: Professor Ozma.

"Oh that is fucking weird." Amber whispered, weirded out at the image of a female Ozpin. The rest of them were also weirded out by the image. Though, Nora simply laughed at the fact, saying that the two didn't look too different from each other. And she wasn't wrong. It was the same situation as Ren had with his female counterpart. Small things were slightly tweaked and moved. Other than the hair length, nothing much had changed with her. Ren had felt a little better at the fact that he wasn't the only one who didn't look terribly different as a woman.

"Greetings, Jaune Arc. I am here in regards to your application to Beacon." Ozma stated, a voice not unlike silk. A woman of class and wisdom, she held no ill will towards the man in front of her, neither did she have any ulterior motives regarding him. She had learned enough in her time that she grew past any thoughts of sexism or prejudice. She simply wished to talk.

Jaune however, was unconvinced of any of this.

"Right. So what? Are you going to tell me that I can't because I'm a man? Bribe me so that I don't attend? You and I both know I'm qualified to attend." Jaune stated in a gruff voice. Both his regular eye and the prosthetic one dilating at the woman in front of him before his mouth settled into a deep scowl at his next statement.

"Or perhaps the more likely scenario where you threaten me out of attending. With your reputation as the Headmistress you could do that without much repercussion." Jaune said with no small amounts of malice in his voice.

"Why is he so angry?" Ruby asked as she stared at the screen. Konshiro simply bobbed his head to the side before answering, feeling that was a valid question.

"Well, think about it Miss Rose. In a world where women rule and men are treated as less than human, there is going to inevitably be some form of resentment or malice for the other gender." Konshiro stated, making her nod in sad understanding. She just didn't understand why they would do that...

Blake's grip on the armrest tightened at the similarities between that world and the discrimination that the Faunus face in her world. Konshiro let out a quick breath before speaking up again.

"The only good thing that came out of that world is the fact that prejudice against Faunus is nonexistent anymore." Konshiro started, making Blake start to lessen her grip before Konshiro spoke up one last time.

"All of that hatred and bias went towards males. Both races agreeing that they should be the ones oppressed." Konshiro said simply, causing Blake to slump in her seat, feeling worse than before.

Ozma seemed unfazed by his accusations, only seeming amused by his statements.

"That is true, I very well could get away with all of that." Ozma said with a small giggle. Jaune however, found no amusement in this conversation.

"Let me tell you something, Ozma, I will be attending that school whether you like it or not. And nothing is going to stop me." Jaune stated, promptly turning around, flipping his mask back on his face and picking his tools back up to work.

"Now leave." Was all he said before resuming his tinkering on whatever it was that was on the bench. Ozma raised a delicate eyebrow before her smile widened a tiny bit and turned to leave. However, that wasn't before she was able to get a small peek at what it was that Jaune was working on. With blueprints hanging on the walls and different pieces of technology littering the place, she nodded to herself and walked away. The idea of extendable mechanical arms being intriguing to her.

'I knew I was right when accepting him. I for one am going to have a field day seeing how Glynda will react to this.' Ozma thought to herself as she walked out of the building. The scene then faded to black.

The audience sat there curious. Was that it?

"Don't worry, It's just shifting to another time." Konshiro clarified, getting a few nods from the audience. It was then that Weiss spoke up, recalling some of the details from the man's explanation.

"Hold on, if it's true that only women had Aura and Semblances in that world, then why would Ozp-...ahem, Ozma accept someone who would be unable to protect themselves?" Weiss asked, genuinely curious. Konshiro didn't react physically, but answered back as quickly as ever.

"Why would Ozpin accept someone who had no training to speak of?" Konshiro asked back, causing not only Weiss, but the rest of the two teams to lightly wince. It was Ruby that spoke up next though.

"Because she saw the potential in him to be great! Right? It's why Ozpin brought me in two years early after all...I think." Ruby said, scratching her head. Pyrrha looked to her with appreciation, though, some lingering awkwardness stayed from their last viewing and what happened during it.

"That's right. Now, this next part should reveal just how bad the prejudice is." Konshiro stated ominously. The audience with them were getting real sick and tired of the vague way that he was saying things. Amber especially. She already dealt with Ozpin's cryptic bullshit every once in a while and she hated it. But having to deal with that kind of crap constantly with this person was starting to get old real fast.

The scene opened back up with a Bullhead flying above a lush green forest heading towards the easily identifiable Beacon Academy. Inside this Bullhead, we turn to Jaune as he sits at the back of the vehicle, no longer wearing a jumpsuit, allowing the audience to see exactly what he had been hiding under all that clothing.

A chiseled body that pushed the physique to it's furthest capacity.

"Wow! He looks so much like, uh, what was it again? Blanc! That was it! He looks like you, Blanc!" Nora exclaimed, having truth to her words. Though, 'Blanc' went from staring at her with confusion to lightly glaring at Crobrasha for probably telling the rest of them of his alter-ego. He rolled his eyes before studying the Jaune on screen. He could recognize a type of physique when he saw it, and right now...

"No...I'm more built for power and endurance. He's built for precision and sturdiness." Blanc explained, making some of them look to him in confusion.

"What's the difference between endurance and sturdiness? Aren't they pretty much the same?" Ruby asked, eyes scrunched up in thought. It was understandable due to the fact that she didn't work out as much as some of the other people in the audience, so Yang took it upon herself to explain the differences.

"Actually, being durable and sturdy are pretty different. There are similarities, yes, but while endurance focuses more on how much pain you can take, being sturdy is what you can take without budging." Yang explained. Ruby thought about it for a moment before turning to her sister again.

"I still don't get it." Ruby relented, still finding trouble in seeing what made them different. This is where Blanc finally took over.

"Think of it like this; taking a bullet wound to the gut and still being able to fight. That's endurance. Being able to stop a speeding car without moving an inch? That's being sturdy." Blanc elaborated, causing Ruby's eyes to light up with understanding.

"Oh! I get it now. Thanks for clearing that up!" She thanked, beaming at Blanc while he lightly shrugged before turning back in his seat.

'I...need to stop talking to her. She's a danger to my health.' Blanc thought to himself while trying to keep his blush internal. His own Ruby looked at him with skepticism before turning back to the screen.

Or, at least he would have, if there wasn't something that was nagging him about the version of him in the viewing.

"That body...something doesn't seem right about it." Blanc whispered, catching the attention of his own Ruby.

"What do you mean?" She asked, turning to him after shoving another cookie into her mouth. Blanc didn't turn to her when he spoke, but he still seemed perturbed by something.

"I'm not sure exactly, but his build just seems, I don't know...too artificial. Too perfect. Almost like it was machine made..." Blanc finished, causing Ruby to look up to the screen and notice that, yes, that Jaune's body seemed to be too solid. Like it was made of colored steel. And while Blanc's body could be comparable to steel as well, there was always the distinct look of natural tissue and skin to it. With that one though...she didn't get the same feeling.

Jaune had a pair of rather advanced goggles on his face, hiding his eyes from view while he hunched over a pack in his lap. He held a small screwdriver in his left hand while a soldering Iron was in the other. His clothing consisted of a lab coat that hugged his frame tightly and went down to his feet, while a simple black tank top laid beneath it, only going down to just bellow his abdomen, showing his chiseled stomach. Curious though, was the small cylindrical disk looking thing that seemingly poked out from underneath his shirt and resided on the left side of his chest, right above his heart...

Probably just a fashion choice.

On his legs were a pair of tight fitting black jeans. they hung low, showing his prominent sex lines. However, covering these lines were two crisscrossing utility belts. There were various tools attached to them, however, one item stuck out from the rest. A rectangular object that was mostly white with marine blue lines running along it's surface. He was minding his own business, simply adding the finishing touches to what was in his lap when somebody decided to approach him, snow white hair being flipped over her shoulder as she let out a huff.

"You." She called, looking at him expectantly. Jaune just ignored her and kept at his work.

"It's you, Weiss!" Ruby exclaimed, seeing one of her best friends appear already. Though, Weiss was none too thrilled to see herself there, especially considering...

"Wasn't she a total bi...prude at the beginning of the year?" Yang asked, stopping herself from saying what she was originally going to state when she caught the scalding glare from the Ice Queen. She still sent her a heated stare from her, but Weiss relented and sighed.

"I will admit, I wasn't the best to others. But You have to admit that I've gotten better." Weiss said in a boastful voice. The rest of them deadpanned at her. Her team looking at each other with knowing looks before Ruby turned back to her chair.

"Yeah, sure thing bestie."

She only waited for a moment before her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth set into a small frown.

"Ahem!" She tried again, trying to get Jaune's attention. His face only twitching once in what could only be called annoyance before he ignored her again. She didn't take this lightly as she let out a scoff before stomping her foot.

"Excuse you, Agninus, a woman is talking to you. You should be groveling at my feet for even having the privilege of being near me." Weiss said, her chest lightly bouncing from her huff...wait.

"Hold up! What the hell!?" Yang exclaimed, getting out of her chair to point at the screen that showed Weiss in her full form. Nothing had changed, same dress, same hairstyle, same attitude, same more-expensive-than-your-soul-is-worth earrings...but there was one thing that was different.

She had a slightly bigger chest.

That was it. Her chest just went up two cup sizes.

"That's a little weird, but nothing out of the ordinary." Blake spoke up, not finding this to be strange enough to jump out of their seat like her partner did. Yang on her part, sputtered once or twice before letting out a breath and sitting back down, acknowledging that she may have overreacted a bit.

Pyrrha on the other hand, was more interested in something else.

"Agninus? What does that mean? Is that his last name in that universe and they know each other somehow?" Pyrrha asked, making Konshiro immediately shake his head in denial.

"Absolutely not. Agninus is a derogatory term that's used for males in that world. Short for Agnus Hominis." Konshiro began, still not shedding any light on what those words meant. Nora was the one to try and voice their confusion.

"I don't see how that could be a bad thing." She said, scratching her head trying to figure out what those words could mean.

"Translated, it roughly means 'Man Whore'. Used because they are more often than not used for procreation. Not exactly helping that men have taken advantage of their high demand by selling themselves off to companies and women so that they could become stupid rich by becoming nothing but dumb breeders. They don't even try to finish basic education. As soon as they reach mature age, they sell themselves off to the highest bidder." Konshiro finally explained. It made the rest of them become more than a little bit disgusted. That made them practically no better than cows! And if they don't have to do anything for that...then they're physique would be grotesque!

"Jaune though...he decided at a very young age that he would try to rise above his peers and go for something that no other man has even attempted; Attend Beacon Academy and become the first ever male Hunter." Konshiro said, making the rest of them feel inspired by the man. He was going to take the high road and become the better person, proving to the world that not all men were worthless? So noble!

"I heard you loud and clear Ice Cocotte. Now what do you want?" Jaune said in a cool and levelheaded manner. Weiss looked at him with anger. Talk to her like that would he!?

"Why you! I will have you know that I am Weiss Schnee of the Schnee Dust Corporation! You should think better of talking to your future mistress like that you worthless worm!" Weiss exclaimed, staring down at him. The statement caused Jaune to stop what he was doing, slowly putting his tools back onto his belt.

"Excuse you. Did I hear 'Future Mistress'? Is that what you said?" Jaune asked, getting up after placing the pack he was working on to his side. When he fully stood up, his height dwarfed Weiss' five foot four with his own being seven foot eight. She couldn't see it, but he was giving her the hardest glare that he could muster. Despite this however, she glared at him harder.

"That's what I came over here for. I was under the impression that Beacon was going to have a man here. Obviously it was sent over by Atlas for me to retrieve. I couldn't care less for any of the barbaric activities that would entail having one, but I could make money off of it by renting it out. But obviously, they failed to properly condition you." Weiss complained, poking a hand into his chest. Jaune on his part started shaking with anger. Memories of his childhood being dug up from the deepest recesses of his mind. However, before he could lash out at the vile creature before him, another person came up and tried to diffuse the situation.

"Hey!"

/0-0\

Ruby had been a little nervous when she got on to the Bullhead heading towards Beacon. She had been accepted two years early by the Headmistress herself! But she was still nervous. Especially when her sister had quickly dashed away further into the ship with her friends after giving her a quick hello and a message about making new friends.

Pfft, new friends...

"Hmm, 'Cocotte'...where have I heard that before?" Yang whispered to herself as she rubbed her chin. Blake heard her and wondered what she was on about.

"Yang, what are you on about this time?" Blake asked as the blonde wracked her brain for where she had heard that word before. It only took a few moments before her eyes lit up with a sudden enlightenment before she burst out laughing, catching everyone's attention.

"Is everything okay over there? Are you alright?" Noir asked as he looked at the buxom brawler with some concern. Yang waved her hand while she calmed down before answering.

"I-I'm fine. Hehe, It's just that I realized where the word 'Cocotte' comes from." Yang chuckled out as the rest of them were still in the dark.

"I still do not understand what's so funny about it." Ren said simply, making Yang shake her head before finally revealing to the rest of them what it meant.

"You don't understand because the word is from Eastern Atlas. The word has two meanings really. Either he was calling Weiss an Ice Casserole..." Yang trailed off, snickering at the end, making some of them look to each other in confusion. Casserole?

"Or?" Blanc asked, already knowing what it meant. Traveling around the four kingdoms required a specific set of skills if one wanted to go shopping at certain places without seeming out of place. One such skill being the requirement to be multilingual. Besides, where do you think he got the name 'Justice Blanc' from? Yang calmed down enough from her fits of giggles to finally answer, making sure to look at an already slightly agitated Weiss when she did.

"...He called her a high class prostitute." She all but whispered. But everyone heard her. clear as day.

...

"Huff!" Weiss let out, too angry to even respond to that. She wasn't even going to dignify that with a response!...Ice...

"That's kind of clever actually. I might need to use that when I get back." Blanc said to himself as he brought a cup of hot cocoa to his lips. His Ruby lightly punched him in the arm for it, but the small smirk on her face told of the Idea that she wasn't completely against it.

The rest of them laughed a bit, not finding it particularly funny, but Yang's sister did have a question.

"Wait, since when did you learn Eastern Atlesian?" Ruby asked, making her sister turn to her before scratching her head.

"I have the language class as an elective. Figured if I could learn another language, I could tell even more puns!" Yang said, giving a thumbs up. Everyone else that knew her groaned, thinking of all the terrible puns that she could inflict without them even knowing it.

Besides, Ruby already had her sister and Crescent Rose! She didn't need anyone else. She's proven that she could work alone. Take the Dust robbery from a week or so ago! She was able to handle that situation just fine on her own. Though, as she was thinking about just how much she could work solo, another girl had shoved past her, not even bothering to apologize or anything. She looked over to the girl and noticed that her wardrobe consisted of mostly whites.

'Must be a nightmare when trying to eat' Ruby thought to herself, slightly pouting at how she didn't even say sorry. Though, as she was going to turn away, something caught her eye. It was the spark of someone soldering something. She looked closely and noticed another girl(?) sitting there with a piece of technology in their lap. Even from here she could tell that it was a real fine piece of work. She was almost mesmerized by it's design before she noticed that the same girl had approached them. She couldn't hear what she was saying, but after a few seconds, the sitting figure looked like they had spoken up before shortly thereafter standing up. It was then that Ruby finally realized that it was not actually a woman...

But a man.

That had immediately caught her attention. Her family was one of the only 'complete' families on the planet. Both her mother and father had taken care of her and her sister...well, her father and three mothers. Taiyang, her father. With Summer as her birth mother, and Raven and Robin as her adjacent mothers.

...

"What."

"The."

"FUCK."

Was the general consensus of everyone in the audience. They were mostly shocked at how that Ruby's family consisted of one man with multiple women, not even counting the fact that one of them they didn't even know...

"Hold the god damned phone! Who's Robin?" Yang asked, looking to Konshiro for an answer.

"Better question, who was in your parent's team?" He asked her back, making her furrow her brow for a moment before thinking.

"Well...Summer was the leader. My dad Taiyang. Raven my...mother. And Uncle Qrow..." Yang listed off, remembering what her father had told her of the team he was on in his Beacon days.

Then it hit her.

"She's a female Qrow." Yang said in a monotone voice, her brain trying to cope with that image. Ruby beside her heard that and shifted her eyes trying to imagine a life with her Uncle Qrow as a woman. It was kind of hard considering some of the things that he's done.

"I said that most of the population was female, didn't I? Obviously there was going to be a difference of people's genders among your group." Konshiro stated, turning back to the screen and leaving the rest of them to stew in that new knowledge.

He really did enjoy messing with them sometimes.

Despite what others told her about men, her parents had taught her that they weren't worth any less than her and should be treated equally. Of course, that was what her father, mother and adjacent mother Robin tried to teach her. Raven...was a bit of a work in progress. The only reason she had gotten together with Taiyang was because he had 'proven his worth' to her. He blushed whenever she brought that up, but she didn't really understand why.

...

Okay, maybe she did understand, it's just that she really, really really didn't want to think about it.

Either way, she noticed the white haired girl had gotten aggravated with him and had even poked him on the chest. She knew when a fight was going to break out and figured that here wasn't the best place for that, so she decided to intervene.

"Hey!"

/0-0\

Both Jaune and Weiss had turned to the source of the sound and saw a girl that must have been a year or two their junior and confused them. Weiss, however was the only one who was willing to voice this.

"What do you want?" Weiss asked with a bite. Ruby slightly winced at her harsh tone, but persevered.

"I-I just noticed that you two were having an argument and was worried that one of you would try to start a fight or...cause a scene." Ruby said, nervously looking between the two. Weiss clicked her tongue before sighing, knowing that a Heiress should always look presentable. Jaune just let out a grunt before turning and going back to his seat.

"Fine, this Agninus is probably broken anyway." Weiss said, turning around and walking away, fully intending on filing a complaint to the Headmistress for having such low quality items in storage.

Ruby stood there for a moment, watching her go before turning to Jaune, who had gone back to working on his gadget. Getting a closer look at it, she notice that the machine had some of the best craftsmanship she had ever laid her eyes on. She also noticed that the rectangular device on his hip was no ordinary rectangular device! But a-

"Attention Beacon Applicants, We Have Arrived At Our Destination. Please Make Your Way To The Exit." The speakers announced, interrupting Ruby's train of thought for a moment, causing her to look around at the leaving crowd. She only took her eyes off of him for a moment, but when she turned back, he was already gone.

"Aw fiddlesticks."

"You know...I'm starting to get the impression that he's not very nice." Amber said, thinking about all the interactions they've seen that Jaune in. Ruby turned to her with some confusion.

"What do you mean?" She asked. Amber stayed in her seat as she pointed out what she saw.

"Well, the only times he's talked, he's looked down on the other person or even ignored them. Even when he does speak to someone, he's almost always sounded angry or agitated and insulted them constantly." Amber said, making them realize that she was right. Though, Faunus Ruby for the first time since arriving spoke up to defend the Jaune on screen.

"Hey, that's not fair! That Weiss lady was talking to him like he were an object! He was acting how anyone would in that situation." Faunus Ruby argued, her mouth in a cute frown with one of her canines sticking out. Before Amber could give her rebuttal, Konshiro spoke up.

"I thought I already explained this, but if you take into the account that it has become a social norm to treat men lesser than human, that it would absolutely cause resentment and malice for women. And if you knew about that Jaune's past..." Konshiro stated, whispering the last part to himself so that he didn't spoil anything too early.

"I...guess that makes sense. If the Faunus are any indication, then it must be a similar disposition." Noir said, rubbing his chin. He wwas learning so much about the social problems and interatial disparities of the world just watching things here. Who knows how much he'll learn by actually being out there in the world! He had so much to do and fix!

Jaune was making his way through the crowd and towards the Auditorium. Ozma had told him that it was to be mandatory. He didn't like it, considering there were going to be nothing but women in there, but he wasn't going to stay out of there and show that he feared any of them.

...

Scratch that, he hated the idea.

His goggles were still on as he walked among the crowd. Most them had already noticed his presence and were eyeing him with various looks ranging from curiosity, disdain, lust, etc.. He'd seen it all.

And it made him absolutely livid.

He mostly kept to himself as he walked, not really wanting to waste time, he tried to make it there as fast as possible. Though, some of the women around him tried to get his attention by grabbing his arm. He simply shrugged them off, sometimes even thrusting his shoulder away. Pretty soon everyone had learned to keep off of him...for now.

'They'll try again eventually. They always do.' Jaune thought with no small amounts of agitation. He was just going to go over his schedule for the day when he heard an explosion a few meters to his left. He turned his head and saw that the same white haired bitch from before standing over the other girl that got her off his back. He watched as the Schnee yelled at the one on the ground before storming off, leaving the hooded girl alone on the floor.

'Not my problem.'

"Geez, I know he's a little jaded and all, but you'd think that he would at least help my little sister after she helped him get Weisscream off his case." Yang complained, seeing just how uncaring that Jaune was. Ruby herself felt a little saddened that they wouldn't become friends here. She just couldn't imagine a world where Jaune hadn't befriended her on that day. Even the one in the back had been friends with herself once upon a time. Even if that Ruby was a stinky butt.

"I'd say something, but I'm just going to let this play out for a few moments." Konshiro said to himself as the scene continued on.

"Welcome to Beacon I guess." He overheard. His face twitched. He shook his head, clicking his tongue.

"Don't you do it, Jaune. It's not worth it. You're already getting dangerously close until your next dose is needed. She's not worth the time." Jaune said to himself as a small voice in his head was telling him to help her. A voice that he had thought died so long ago. One that he had tried to smother every time it reared it's head due to the amount of trouble it's gotten him in. He took a few more steps, fighting with the voice until he heard another whimper from that direction and stopped. He shook for a few moments until he seemingly won over the voice and went to take another step, until he suddenly turned on his heel and headed towards the girl sitting in the crater.

"Fucking damn it."

"Huh. Wonder what changed his mind?" Nora asked as she saw the Jaune on screen cursing under his breath as he approached Ruby. Pyrrha thought on this for a moment before giving her best answer.

"I don't think that Jaune is really that heartless. I think he wants to be as sweet as our own Jaune, but due to that society, he was forced to suppress that side of him. I feel bad for him. Poor thing." Pyrrha said, looking saddened.

"Your not completely wrong, but suppressing his kindness was not a conscious decision. He does indeed have the heart of a true Huntsman and the mind to back it up, but his anger and spite have clouded his perception of the world around him, believing that every woman was the same...that, and a little bit of something else as well." Konshiro stated, making some of them nod their heads. Though, Blake had caught on to that last part, curious as to what he meant by that.

"Hey." Jaune grunted out as he stood in front of Ruby. The small Reaper looked up from her gloom state and could have sworn the sun had reflected off of him in just the right way to make him seem like an angel.

"Uh, hi." She squeaked. Jaune raised an eyebrow at her before letting out a breath and leaned over to give her a hand. She stared at it for a moment before smiling slightly and going to take it.

"Come on, let's get you up." Jaune said as he pulled her to her feet. She was a little surprised when she practically rocketed up from her position to a standing one. She let out a nervous chuckle before introducing herself.

"Hi, my name is Ruby Rose!" She greeted, sticking a hand out. Jaune's face twitched, deliberating over it for a bit before slowly going to shake it.

"Jaune Arc." He said with some trepidation. He gave her only two shakes before he heard a beeping from his goggles. His facial features immediately tightened up before he grumbled to himself, reaching into his lab coat. Ruby looked at him with worry, wondering what that beeping meant.

"Hm? What's wrong?" She asked, seeing him quickly retreat his hand back from his coat and pull out a small metal cylindrical device that contained a peculiar purple liquid. He only grunted in response before he pushed a button at the top, a small needle popping out from the bottom before he quickly injected it into the circular device in his chest. He lightly twitched at the action while Ruby's eyes widened at him just stabbing himself with a strange liquid.

"What the hell was that!?" Pyrrha exclaimed as she saw the Jaune on screen just stab himself. Konshiro sighed, pinching what would be the bridge of his nose.

"A lot of questions today aren't there?" He said to himself before letting out another breath.

"Don't worry, that's just-oh forget it, just keep watching and you'll find out. impatient little..."

"Hormone suppressants. Nullifies the effects of women's pheromones. I need to take them whenever my last dose works out of my system. This device in my chest allows safe injection strait into my heart. Was a pain in the ass to install though. I think it stopped beating for a solid five seconds." Jaune said as he felt the chemical flow across his body. The stuff made him calm. A certain tingle ran up his spine as his mind cleared of clutter that he didn't even know was there. A small smile made it's way to his face as he refocused on Ruby.

"That's..." Blanc's Ruby started, quickly turning to Blanc. There was a number of similarities between that and the Virga Terra Blanc used. However, before she could bring this up, Amber spoke up from her spot on the couch.

"A drug. That's a drug." Amber said plainly, thinking that the Jaune on screen had made and became addicted to his own drug.

...

IT'S NOT A FUCKING DRUG DAMN IT!

Amber leaned back in her seat, feeling as though the screen had talked to her directly.

Ahem.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense...sorry about that." She apologized, knowing that her own pheromones were also being emitted from her. Jaune looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

'That's new.' Jaune thought to himself, never having encountered a woman that apologized to him. It kind of weirded him out, but made this girl a bit more interesting to him. However, He noticed the time was getting close for the meeting in the auditorium.

"I'm done here. Farewell Ruby." Jaune said as he turned to leave and started walking away. He only took a few steps before he stopped again and turned around to look down at Ruby...who had decided to follow him for some reason.

"What are you doing?" He asked her after shaking his head and continuing to walk. Ruby was right behind him, wanting to talk to the only other male that she had ever seen.

"I was just going to ask you where the auditorium was. I'm going to try and get into Beacon you see." Ruby said with a nervous giggle. Jaune raised his eyebrow at her, more out of interest than surprise. After all, who was to say that a girl her age...fifteen if he had to guess, couldn't get into a school meant for those who were seventeen? He was a man trying to get into a school that was only for females, so he wasn't going to deny her a dream like so many had done for him, not like his mother who-

Stop.

Deep breath.

Okay.

"Is that right? Well then, I guess we have the same goal." Jaune said, walking forward. His statement cause Ruby to gasp at him, her eyes wide with wonder.

"Really!? That's so cool! I've never heard of a guy becoming a Huntress before. But I guess the word would be...Hunter then? Bah, doesn't matter. That's so amazing!" Ruby praised, happy that a guy was going above and beyond what the status quo told of him. She once again prompted Jaune to stop for a moment before continuing on.

'What the hell is with this girl?' Jaune pondered, not having ever met a girl like this before. He was a little more than skeptical of her motives, but he'd tolerate her for now.

"Yay! We're still friends!" Ruby celebrated, a cute giggle spilling out from her lips. Yang next to her dawned a knowing smirk as she draped an arm over her sister's shoulders.

"Yeah, and maybe down the line you two become more than friends, yeah?" Yang teased, not having forgotten the contents of the last viewing. Ruby froze up at the words and turned a cherry red as she turned to deny her sister's words.

"W-what? Yang, I told you that Jaune doesn't like me like that." Ruby said as she poked her index fingers together. Yang's smirk grew even more at her choice in wording.

"But do you like him like that? Hmm?" Yang prodded, getting even closer to her sister, pressuring her into telling the truth. Ruby's voice died in her throat, preventing her from saying anything else.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha was putting her fake smile to it's absolute limits.

'He likes me more. He likes me more. He like me more. He likes me more. He likes me more. He likes me more. He likes me more. He likes me more.'

"That...is going to boil over pretty soon." Konshiro whispered, staring at the almost visible stress in the Spartan's eyes.

"By next chapter, tops."

"Trust me, I'm not doing this because I want to save people or fight Grim. I am doing this simply because I want to spit in society's face. That I'm better than everyone else. And with the Huntsman's license, I'll never have to worry about being some bimbo's personal slave. As soon as I'm finished with my four years, I'm done." Jaune clarified, his tone holding a finality that told of his conviction. It made Ruby purse her lips, feeling awfully awkward now.

'I...don't know what to say to that...oh I know!' Ruby thought, an Idea popping into her noggin.

"Well, I've got this thing." Ruby said after a few tense moments of silence. She had brought out her pride and joy, Crescent Rose, and turned it into it's scythe form before stabbing it into the ground between them. Jaune turned his head at the noise, at first not paying it any mind and turning his head back, before his head suddenly snapped towards it fully and inspected it thoroughly.

"The craftsmanship is impeccable. Nice attention to detail. Advanced mecha-shift function. Efficient use of materials. A sniper scythe that can fire sniper rounds, but can turn into a full rifle for more precise aim. A compact form as well..." Jaune mumbled as he looked at the weapon from various angles. Ruby stood there, watching him mumble to himself about various things, all about her weapon and the things that he noticed.

'Is...Is that how I sound when I do the same thing?' Ruby realized before she heard Jaune speak up again, a ghost of a smile on his face.

"Impressive. You made this yourself?" He asked, looking directly at her. She shook herself from her own thoughts before beaming up at him and nodding.

"Yup! I made Crescent Rose all by myself! Took me almost three years to make the final product. Had to go through a few dozen prototypes to get to it right though..." Ruby said, remembering how many versions of her weapon that had blown up in her face, both metaphorically and literally.

"Makes sense. If you get everything right on the first try, then you weren't aiming high enough." Jaune stated as his hand brushed upon the rectangular object on his belt. The slight movement catching her eye before she commented on it.

"Hey, I was going to ask you on the Bullhead before we got off, but what's that?" Ruby asked, pointing at the thing on his belt. He looked down and took hold of it, simply gripping onto the device.

"That's..." Jaune paused. Did he want to show her?

...

'Eh, it's not like my other project. Besides, she's probably going to see it tomorrow anyhow.' Jaune relented, shrugging his shoulders before detaching the device from his belt.

"That's my weapon, Avenir." Jaune stated, holding the 'weapon' in his hand. Ruby looked at it a bit, wondering what it was before looking up at him.

"I'm going to guess that it shifts into something else?" Ruby asked, making him nod. He then pushed a button on top before it started unfolding and extending, a handle appearing underneath near the rear while the top showed an accessory that could be flipped back for a more stable shot. The barrel at the end being a little bigger than what would be considered normal. The entirety of the futuristic weapon being white with glowing marine blue lines.

"Yes, and I could spend the afternoon talking about it's functions and how it works, but considering we still have to get to the Auditorium soon, I'll just simplify it for now." Jaune said as Ruby was practically drooling at what was in his hands. That's...

"It's also a gun."

"Isn't that the same thing you said you told him, Ruby?" Weiss asked, still staring at the gun in his hands. It looked to be based off of a Spas 12. Though, with how it looked, it most likely took Dust based bullets if not just pure dust.

"Ruby?" Weiss called, turning to her partner and seeing that she was also drooling at the weapon. She rolled her eyes at her, knowing that's exactly how she would react.

"Wow, drooling over his gun already? At least buy him dinner first." Amber joked, getting every Ruby with them to freeze with shock while the both Blanc and Noir choked on whatever they were trying to eat. They all turned to her, a look that simply asked a single question.

"Amber...why?" Noir whined, his body trembling from the shock. Amber simply laughed at him before waving him off. Although, she felt a disturbance behind her and saw that Yang was narrowing her gaze at her, giving Amber the 'I'm watching you' gesture. The Fall Maiden shrugged and returned her gaze to the screen.

But she could have sworn she felt an even more heated gaze from someone else...

'S̸̺̤̋̒À̶̧͙̆Y̵̖͌͌ ̸̩̏Ṫ̴̡̳̒H̴̢͒̕Ā̷̲̘̏T̵̟̰̆ ̶̮̖͒S̷̹̠̄͝H̸̱́͆I̸̗̹̾T̸̥̎̚ ̶̧̯̽A̶̤̳̅G̴̱̈́ͅÄ̵͍̟́Ḭ̴͂N̶̮̒̄ ̶̯̰̂Ã̷̢̺͋B̵̫̖̅Ǫ̶̟̾͊Ů̷̱T̴̜̚ ̶̰͂M̵̟̯̎Y̵̪̮͛̒ ̵̥̾͑͜J̷̮̰̌A̸̭͛̍Ù̶̪Ņ̴͔̄̑Ë̸̟̳́̈ ̶̫͐A̷̻̽͝Ṉ̵̺̿D̶̜̩̓ ̴͕͆I̶̥͖̔ ̸̗͛͐S̴̭̓̈́W̵̙̆E̷͉͒Ä̵̪R̶̪͗̾ ̸̥̂̏T̸̢̗͂̋H̴̒͘ͅĚ̸̻̌Y̴̯̗̿̕ ̵͎̞͑̑W̵̰̽̂ͅI̴̹̓Ĺ̴̮͐Ḻ̶͍̑ ̷̺̥̓N̸̲̙̄Ẽ̸̦̤̑V̵̤͎̉̕E̶͓̻͐̐R̴̮̐ ̵̥̏͘F̷͚̲͂̚Ȋ̶̟̱̐N̸̟̄͝D̵̙̘̀ ̴̼͂̑Ṫ̸̡̀ͅH̸̠̎Ȅ̷̱̍ ̴̳̩̿́B̶͓͋Ǫ̶͝D̵̻͐̌ͅY̸͖̍.̷͎̋'

"That's so cool." Ruby whimpered out, hands reaching out, but never daring to try and touch it. Jaune let out a small chuckle before compressing the gun back into it's compact form and putting it back onto his belt.

"I think I've shown you enough for now. How about we head over to the Auditorium?" Jaune suggested, turning around and walking towards the building in question.

It took Ruby a second or two to snap out of it before she rushed over to catch up to him.

/0-0\

"Here we are, just in time too." Ruby said as they entered the Auditorium. She noticed though that as they neared the building and were getting closer to the other applicants, he had grown eerily quiet and tense. She figured that with how he was talking about them earlier that he didn't like women all that much. She felt bad for it honestly. Not all of them were bad! Take her sister for example. She was real nice! Though she hadn't seen another guy other than her father either, she was almost certain that she wouldn't treat him any differently.

Before she could think any further, the Headmistress had walked onto the stage and quieted down the entire room, briefly looking to Jaune directly for a moment before going back to idly sweeping her eyes across the crowd.

Jaune didn't care either way. He just tuned her out to focus on something else. Aptly, his goggles.

While they may look like some run of the mill standardized eye-wear, they were anything but. Though, they were designed to be unassuming. The inside of the goggles actually had an entire HUD with specs on not only himself, but thanks to a database from the Atlas Military that he may or may not have hacked, he has specifics on almost everyone that he sees. He's also able to bring up different blueprints and maps and info on wherever he is.

He would be lying if he said that he didn't get some inspiration from old time video games that he may or may not own...

"Pfft, maybe that purple stuff from before helped him relax more that he thought." Yang commented, thinking that the resentment stuff that he was flaunting beforehand wasn't as bad as he made it seem. A just assumption, only going off what she had seen. No one tried to correct her on her opinion as everyone else thought the same thing. Of course, this wouldn't be an interesting story if there were no conflicting effects, right?

Jaune barely caught on to something or other about where they were to be sleeping, but that didn't matter.

"Sleep is for the weak." Jaune said absently as he started walking away, against the flow of women as he stared strait ahead. It wasn't hard considering he was taller than most if not all of them. He kept his hands in his lab coat pockets as to keep his hands from being touched by any of the filth around him.

"Hey Jaune! Wait up!" Ruby called out to him. He didn't stop his stride, not even turning his head to her direction. If she really wanted to talk to him, then she was going to catch up to him eventually.

After a minute or two, the crowd had thinned out and Ruby had finally caught up to the tall man.

"Hi Jaune, where are you going? We're supposed to be going to-" Ruby tried to explain, but Jaune shook his head, interrupting her.

"I'm heading to the workshop. I need to add the last few tweaks on my equipment." Jaune stated as he pulled out something from his pocket and pushed a button before it morphed over his arm and created something akin to a smart watch that covered most of his forearm. He looked to the wide screen that was on his arm before swiping a few things and pushing a number of commands.

"Wow! That's some really cool tech! You made that yourself?" Ruby asked as he continued to walk and check a number of things on his wrist screen. He grunted in confirmation before pausing and bringing up a diagnostic of sorts on the screen showing that it had a bar that was about half way full. He frowned at the sight before continuing walking to his destination.

"So are you gonna..." Ruby tried to start before Jaune sighed and turned his head to her, still typing a few things onto his device.

"Don't you have someone or other that's expecting you?" Jaune asked, slightly irritated. He may have tolerated this woman before, but as time went by, his patience had started to stretch dangerously thin. A side effect of his hormone suppressant serum. Increased aggressiveness and irrational thought. Though mostly negated by his high IQ, Jaune's innate and deep seated HATRED of women directed that irrational thought and anger towards them. And though Ruby proved to be different from the others, he didn't know her all that well. So for all he knew, she was just trying to make him let his guard down. He wouldn't-no, couldn't let that happen.

Not again...

"Well my sister might be looking for me, but I'm sure she'll understand that I'll be gone until we have to go to bed that I'll be hanging out with you! You should meet her actually! Then we can all be great friend-" Ruby tried to say before Jaune finally had enough of her blabbering and motor mouthing. He was visibly shaking with anger as he turned to her, the only thing keeping him from completely blowing up was his ungodly amount of self control.

"Listen here Ruby. I am not here to make friends. I am not here to socialize. And I am especially not here to be lured in by some doe eyed, simple minded, silver eyed little brat, just to be branded as your slave for the rest of my days! You may think that I'm wrapped around your little finger, but I'm telling you this right now, I am NO ONE'S slave. I'm only here to spit on everything this world seems so keen on keeping pristine. Now stay out of my way before I cut you down." Jaune threatened before storming off, leaving a deflated Ruby.

"I take it back. WHAT AN ASSHOLE!" Yang exclaimed as she watched the Jaune on screen belittle her sister before actually threatening her if she 'Got in his way'. A general agreement was met from the rest of the audience, though, a shattering of glass next to her caught everyone's attention. They looked to see that the shards of a glass cup were on the floor, and deduced that it had been thrown from...

"He's got the right Idea distancing himself from all you fuckers. All you seem to do is bring him pain and ignore his wants and needs. You're all just obstacles in his way of being what he wanted. I should know." Alcoholic Jaune claimed with a slight slur to his speech. In the time that they had settled down and started the viewing, he had drank more than his fair share of alcohol and was now in the possession of a brand new cup before chugging that down as well. The rest of the group shifted uncomfortably in their seats as they knew that things were not what they should be back in their own world and the ones that they knew of now. Though, Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed at the character behind them.

"Why is he even still here? I'd assume that his use would be done with once we knew what happened to him." Weiss asked as she stared up at Konshiro for an answer, another thrown glass that nearly hit her head before Brude Jaune spoke up again.

"Fuck you, that's why." He lamented as be brought yet another new drink to his lips. Konshiro sighed as he cleaned up that mess too. He'd take away the alcohol if he didn't know that it was one of the only things that was keeping him from flaring up in anger again. Either way, he was going to go back to his world without any knowledge of this experience or any lasting effects from this either. So he didn't really care too much about that.

"Cant you send him back or something?" Weiss asked as she gave the stank eye to Brood Jaune while he just flipped her the bird, drinking yet another shot of alcohol. He really was a drinker...

"...No, I don't think I will." Konshiro said, leaving it st that even as the rest of them kept asking him either 'Why not' or 'What the hell'.

All in the name of entertainment, people. All in the name of entertainment.

Ruby stood there for a moment, trying to figure out why exactly her new friend had gotten angry at her, but thought about it for a few moments.

She remembered something about him saying that he was no slave, or something. Now she was no fool. She knew that most women out there often branded men they find as their own property and use them however they see fit. Due to some recent laws, women were supposed to relinquish 'ownership' of the men they had branded and would instead have to convince a man to sign a contract that they would both work over and agree to before they would work in tandem with each other. Where one would either be given a 'donation' and he would be on stand by for another one should she want it, or be let go as a one time thing. Or they would stay in constant business with each other with her selling his 'goods' with the both of them being paid equally for the goods and services. All this so that the men could have a say in what they wanted to do with their bodies and have more freedom. That was the idea. Equality.

However

Almost ninety percent of all women had found loopholes in the system that allowed them to not only keep their 'property' but to also continue to grow their collection unabated. By the time that men grew to be around twelve, about ninety nine percent are claimed or sold off by some rich woman with the resources to maintain them. With Atlas being the main offenders on that front. Pretty much being the human breeders for males. It was actually a wonder that Jaune had snuck around like he did without being claimed now that she thought about it. It brought her sadness that he was so angry though. It wasn't his fault that most women were like that! She wanted to make him see that she just wanted to be his friend...

"That's it!" Ruby suddenly lit up, turning on her heel and making her way over to where she remembered everyone else going. She needed to talk to her sister about this to work.

After she was done, she'd befriend the socks off of his feet!

"That's...nice of her..." Amber commentated, feeling that she was just slapped in the face with information. That world was seriously fucked up. And there were more of these!?

"Its naïve. I've seen people like him who are so driven to prove a point that they would tear down everything in their way to do what they feel is needed. She's playing with fire at this point." Blanc said, leaning back in his seat and shaking his head. There were too many people like that in the world. Too trusting. They're most often the first to get killed.

His Ruby lightly glared at him while smacking his arm before turning to the rest of them.

"Don't mind him, he's just a bit of a pessimist." She said with an awkward laugh.

"The term is 'realist' and you underestimate what exactly men like him can do." Blanc stated, thinking to the one in the far back. It was only a few seconds later that he felt something collide and shatter with the back of his head, causing him to turn around angrily. He locked eyes with Brude Jaune, the shorter of the two manifesting another drink in hand and taking a drink from it without breaking eye contact.

"Bitch." Brude Jaune insulted causing Blanc to lightly growl.

"I could eviscerate you before you have the chance to even think." Blanc stated, glaring daggers at the alternate version of himself. Brude Jaune sat back into his seat before answering, a matter of fact tone to his voice.

"But you can't. And you wont. Because, like I said, you's a bitch." Brude stated. Blanc wanted to argue, but found that if what Konshiro had said was true, then he didn't want to incur the power that the being could summon on an offhanded whim. Conflict here was more than likely a death sentence with him around.

Konshiro would disagree strongly, but he wanted to keep everyone on their toes so...

"Do you remember the plan?" Ruby asked as she and her sister got ready for the next day.

"Yes. I remember, Ruby. Once initiation starts, one of us becomes their partner and the other gets on their team." Yang droned, placing her Ember Celica on her wrist and making sure that it was locked and loaded. After a satisfying click of an ammo belt being locked in place, she nodded. Though, she still had one question for her little sister.

"Who even is she? You haven't told me anything about them. All you said was that they're blonde, had 'Really cool gadgets' and were angry...wait, are you sure it wasn't that one chick? The one with the white hair and resting bitch face? Because if it is, then I'm gonna have to leave that mess of a project up to you." Yang said as she closed her locker and walked along side her sister.

"I mean..." Nora started, scratching the back if her head while looking away. She may not have known any of Team RWBY around that time, but she had heard all that she needed to know from Fearless Leader to know that Weiss was a...well...

Weiss grumbled to herself as she sank into her seat with, what appeared to be, a pout on her face.

"I don't need to be reminded." She all but groaned. Not her best moments, she will admit that.

Ruby giggled as she made sure that Crescent Rose was placed firmly on her hip for later use before replying.

"First of all, saying that I told you that, means that I didn't tell you nothing. Second, they're not a she." Ruby smiled as she continued walking. Yang nearly tripped over her own shoes as she finally processed the information. She stared wide eyed at her sister, trying to see if she was joking or not with her.

"Geeze sis, and I thought I was supposed to be the jokester of the family." Yang got out as she recuperated from her shock. However, before either Ruby or Yang could say anything else, the doors to the room burst open, revealing a messy haired and slouched Jaune lumbering in. A prominent shadow on his face. And even with the goggles covering his eyes, one could clearly see the bags under his eyes...eye. Neither of the two sisters could figure out why only one of his eyes had bags under them.

Immediately, the room became quiet and still, all eyes watching as HE, a MALE, strode across the lockers, checking over his weapon one last time before placing back onto his belt. His annoyance was almost palpable as he passed the two sisters. He briefly turned to the two sisters and shot Ruby a glance before turning his head back forward and continued his trek and out the other side of the room.

"...Holy shit there's a dude." Yang said finally after a long pause of silence. As if her comment had knocked everyone out of their trances, the room burst out into whispers, all wondering what a guy was doing there. Most were just lecherous comments about how they wanted to make him theirs the next chance they got while others were praising the school for 'providing' such resources to their students. Some even gloating how they have several men at home that their mother owns and how they wouldn't mind adding this Agninus to their collection.

"There's that word again. 'Agninus'. Are all women going to be like this?" Amber asked as she stared at the characters on screen with scrutiny. They acted more like bandits than Huntresses with how they talked about men as objects.

"Not all of them. Most. But not all." Konshiro said as he answered. It caused most of them to let out a breath of annoyance. This was just going to be one of those days, huh?

There was one however, that simply stared on in fascination. Emerald eyes glinted with curiosity and wonder as she tried to comprehend what a man was doing here.

/0-0\

Jaune stood on one of the launch pads that faced the cliffs, posture merely slouched and face uncaring. Another side effect of another concoction that he made to get rid of sleep altogether was that it caused his emotions to become dull and mute. Used in conjunction with the purple serum makes for a jaded, cold and uncaring man. Jaune mistook these side effects as his mind being cleared and his logic shinning through to guide his actions and reasonings.

For all the knowledge and smarts that Jaune may have had, none of it could quite shine through the haze that was his deep seated anger.

The rest of the students slowly trickled out and also got onto their own launch pads and awaited further instructions. Luckily for Ruby, the spot next to her soon-to-be-best-friend Jaune, was open!

Unluckily for Jaune, she took it.

She smiled brightly at him, and was going to speak to him before his head slowly turned to her. She could feel his gaze trying to burn through her skull through those goggles, promptly causing her voice to die in her throat before it even got a single syllable in. Luckily for her, It was then that the Headmistress decided that everyone was accounted for and began speaking to them.

"Hello future Huntress hopefuls. As you may know, I am Headmistress Ozma. I understand that you are all here to have a chance at becoming the next big Huntress that comes out of Beacon Academy, however, the admission into the school is not so easily obtained by any woman. You must be skilled, talented, strong and have the iron will that comes with being a woman." Ozma stated, looking at everyone there with smiles. That smile nearly increased in size when she turned to Jaune for a moment and then just as quickly turned back to the other applicants.

He was fucking pissed.

"Wow, even this female Ozpin is prejudiced against him. What is wrong with this world!? How is this a common thing for you to find!? How!?" Amber asked, exasperated from how absolutely horrible these people were being.

"Amber, come on, you cant be surprised that out of all the world's that are out there that there wouldn't be one like this. And if there's one like it, then there must be billions more like it considering the-" Noir tried to resonate with his sister, though, she held up a hand while rubbing her face with the other, a tired breath leaving her.

"Yeah yeah, the multiverse theory and all that crap. But still, come on. You cant tell me that we got two heavy hitting viewings back to back as a coincidence." Amber complained as she sunk into her chair and looked disgruntled. Konshiro on his part tried to stay out of that conversation, because...well...he's not about to lie to her or anything...

"I don't believe that this Ozma character actually means what she is saying." Ren spoke up from his chair, causing everyone to turn to him with a curious look in their eye. His partner was the one to ask the question, however.

"Watcha mean, Renny?" Nora asked aa she tilted her head to the side, not getting why her childhood friend would try to defend someone that was being mean to their leader.

"Well, if you remember how her interaction with Jaune at the beginning happened, it stated that she wasn't prejudiced at all. And with her behavior, we could deduce that she was simply stated all of that just to make that Jaune motivated to prove her wrong and push him to really try." Ren explained, causing more than a few eyes to widen. That was a rather deep and well constructed analysis of the viewing. It would seem that Ren didn't have the highest grade among his team for nothing.

Ozma having felt that she had revved Jaune's motor enough, knew that she should address his presence and really force him against the wall~.

"...Is it just me, or does this Ozma seem just a tiny bit..." Noir started, not liking the wording, or the look that Ozma gave that Jaune. It was as almost...

"Somebody needs to call Dateline and get Chris Hansen on this, 'cause that woman needs to take a seat. God damn." Amber finished for her brother. It was already weird enough that Ozpin was a woman in this universe, but to also see that the old wizard was also looking at the Jaune like a piece of meat was a little too much for her to really stomach.

Blanc stared at the screen with a perturbed stare. Lips set into a straight line while his eyes wide and told of enough annoyance to break any lesser man's mind.

'Dear lord there's another one.' Ruby thought as she held her head in her hand. She was well aware of what her own Pyrrha had in mind for her partner, but she was terrible at tense situations so she would figure that Blanc would address it himself. And with the Pyrrha in the room, she could already tell that she had a crush on anyone who's name was 'Jaune'. Another problem that she didn't want to deal with but knew that would inevitably be necessary pretty soon.

One does not just keep their position in Beacon without having an eye for the smaller details.

For some reason, Jaune felt a chill run up his spine but ignored it and hardened his glare at the Headmistress as she continued her speech.

"Now I know some of you are curious as to why a man has joined you here on the cliffs. The answer is simple. He will be taking the test just the same as all of you." Ozma stated, taking a sip of her coffee. The statement itself immediately caused a reaction among the applicants.

"What!? A man!?"

"Sweet! Do we have to retrieve it to pass Initiation?"

"Oh oh oh! Can we keep it if we do?"

"Great, they've somehow creeped their way here now? What next? Your going to tell us that it's going to be attending classes too?"

That last statement was met a rather smug smile from the Headmistress. Waiting a few moments before staring at all of them knowingly. More silence permeated the clearing as Ozma said nothing to refute the claim. The females of the group quickly deducing that he was indeed taking initiation to try and get into Beacon like the rest of them.

"You cant be serious! That Agninus cant possibly be allowed to even attempt initiation! He's...a MAN!" Weiss screeched as she pointed to the man in question. Jaune was simply staring ahead with a deep scowl on his face, seething in anger that everyone around him was speaking as of he were a lower race, that he was merely an object. His emotions overpowering the drug, making him unable to notice that Ruby was trying to defend him.

"Hey! I'll let you know that his name is Jaune Arc. And you should see some of the stuff that he has. He's made all of his weapons and gadgets himself! I'm sure that he could do this just as well as anyone else!" Ruby huffed out, glaring at the Schnee with an agitated look. Weiss herself scoffed at the girl as she fixed a haughty scowl at her.

"Do you realize what you're even saying? Your defending a lower barbarian who probably is only here because the Headmistress wants to show once and for all that Agninus are and always will be below us." Weiss said as she turned away and ignored anything else that the small reaper would have said. Ruby was going to try and further push the argument, but Ozma finally shook herself from ogling at the tensing, rippling, sexy muscles of one Jaune Arc.

"Ladies, please calm down. You still have initiation to get through." Ozma warned as she stared between the two. Weiss simply let out another scoff before turning the other way and Ruby sighed in displeasure. Jaune still shook in anger as he was completely left out of the conversation as if he weren't right there.

Ozma had to wipe off a bit of drool as she addressed the applicants again.

"Now children, your objective today is to head north and retrieve a relic placed within a few ruins. You will also be attaining a partner. As you all know from the pamphlet you read before coming here, your partner is decided by who you make eye contact with first. The two of you will bring back a relic for the both of you by the end of the day. If the relic is lost or damaged before time is up, you will have failed initiation. Do not hesitate to cut down everything in your path. Otherwise you will die." Ozma instructed. The students all nodded before focusing on the forest that lay before them at the bottom of the cliff.

One by one the students started being sprung through the air and into the forest.

"Do you think that there were pamphlets for initiation? Because honestly I was just winging it the entire way." Yang said as she thought back to the fact that she had no idea what the relic looked like and was just really banking on those chess pieces being the relics. There was silence among her peers as they all looked to each other and thought about it.

"Oh my gosh! I thought I was the only one!" Nora said suddenly, realizing that her blind search for a 'relic' wasn't just a one queen quest. Ren turned thoughtful, as if remembering something.

"Now that you mention it, I think I remember something that was supposed to be given out as we made our way to the ballroom." Ren said as everyone else really thought about it. It was Pyrrha that broke the silence as she turned to Blanc.

"How was your Initiation, Blanc?" Pyrrha asked, causing the tall hero to look at her with a flash of discomfort before humming in thought. That...was kind of hard to explain. Thankfully, his partner came in and explained for him...

"Oh, well, as we were waiting on the platforms, Blanc was meditating. When I tried to take him out of his trance, he freaked out and nearly jumped the whole Academy when he leaped back." Ruby started, causing a small rosy hue to appear on his cheeks.

"You startled me. And I was...deep, in meditation." Blanc tried to excuse. The resident ninja of the group, who knew a thing or two about meditating, could almost relate to him on that front. He hadn't been able to get too deep into meditating in a hot minute, but he knew how the feeling of being knocked out of it was not pleasant.

"Afterwards. We went into the forest, I met up with Weiss and Rei, we...er..." Ruby continued, only to hesitate as she remembered exactly what had transpired before, or rather when, Blanc had showed up to the scene. Blanc rolled his eyes before continuing further.

"Then she along with both Schnee and Rei blew me up as I entered the same clearing as them." Blanc revealed, causing more than a number of eyes to widen. They did what!?

"Are you serious? That actually happened?" Blake asked. Looking incredulously at the two. Ruby was red with embarrassment as she looked away. Blanc pursed his lips before confirming their concerns

"Yes, they did indeed 'blow me up'. Though, in all fairness, they were perhaps anticipating a large Grim due to the fact that I may or may not have been up turning trees in my wake." Blanc revealed, causing a number of them to remember just how much power he had displayed not too long ago and decided to leave it at that.

"Then I partnered with Ruby, we found the ruins, got our relics, to which then Yang thought it would be a good idea to go full murderous overprotective sister on my ass and tried to merc me. She broke my concentration because of...reasons, and I was knocked out of the clearing for a solid few minutes, got back into the fight, finished the Deathstalker and Nevermore, got back to Beacon and passed initiation." Blanc said, wrapping everything up in a brief summary. Ruby wanted to point out exactly how they had been able to kill those Grim before Blanc gave her a look that told her to specifically not do that. She relented, wanting to know what happened next in the viewing.

Jaune had already been rather pissed that morning having had to stand so close to all those women, but decided that he should focus on just getting through Initiation. So he did as such, having landed on the ground safely after utilizing the gravity Dust on his person to make sure that any force that would have otherwise made him a stain on the forest floor was negated. He had looked around at the surrounding area as he pulled his weapon from his hip and mech shifted the weapon into its gun form. He stalked forward, using his goggles to lead him I'm the right direction of the aforementioned ruins.

A rustling of bushes sounded from beside Jaune as he made his way through the dense woods and caused him to turn his head. Once he saw that it was a singular Beowolf, he casually turned his crosshairs to it with an impassive look before putting pressure on the trigger.

/0-0\

With a resounding bang, Ruby had disposed of yet another Beowolf that stood in her way. Her plan right now was simple.

Find and befriend Jaune Arc.

She was sure that Jaune was just in need of a friend. He was about as socially awkward as her, if not more so because of something or other, probably due to the fact that he was a man in a women's school. But that didn't matter right now. All that mattered, was that she could make him see that not all women were terrible. She was a little disappointed in the women that were at the cliffs and more than angry at those who had treated him as nothing but an object. It seemed that not even the Headmistress was really on his side. She felt bad for him. Honestly. Not like a pitying kind of bad either. Just a genuine concern for her friend.

Either way, she had been walking in what she hoped to be north for a while now, finding that she was grateful that her sister had showed her the pamphlet regarding Initiation. Otherwise she would most likely be very Ill prepared for this. Though in her musings, she had not noticed a Beowolf sneak up from behind her and tried pouncing on her, its loud snarl and howl making her quickly turn her head towards it and widen her eyes in fear. She was literally watching her death lunge right at her!

Until a flash of light erupted from out of her peripheral and completely decimated the Grim and blew off almost eighty percent of its body to oblivion. Ruby only took a moment to recuperate before she quickly turned her head to the source of such a destructive shot.

There she found Jaune Arc standing only ten or so yards away, his gun in hand and the muzzle smoking from its last shot. He cocked back the pump at the bottom, causing a crystalline shell to eject before it was disintegrated into tiny square pixels.

'Its a laser shotgun. So cool!' Ruby nearly squealed in her head. Her eyes were wide in wonder and amazement. She thought that it only used Dust rounds like hers, but to see that it used actual freaking lasers was AMAZING!

"So cool." All three Rubys whispered. It caused Noir, Blanc and Yang to look at their respective Rubys before shaking their heads and sighing. All having varied smiles on their faces.

No matter what universe it was, Ruby would always be the same.

After shaking her head of her own daze, Ruby went to try and talk to him...

Only to find that he had already passed her.

"Hey, wait a minute! Jaune!" Ruby tried to call as he kept walking. He didn't even show a reaction to her as he continued to walk. He was focused solely on passing initiation. Ruby huffed for a moment before suddenly getting an idea.

She dashed in front of him and pointedly stared into his goggle lenses.

"Ha! Now you cant ignore me! We made eye contact. We're partners now." Ruby said with a satisfied smirk. Jaune gave a small breath before he ignored her again.

"Out of all the people here..." Jaune stared before suddenly being interrupted by a familiar beeping noise. He promptly stopped before blanching again.

"What in the!? I know that meter wasn't that full when I woke up this morning. Oum damn it." Jaune grumbled as he once again pulled out another metal syringe filled with purple serum and injected himself with it. He shivered a bit at the sensation before shaking away the shiver that ran up his spine. He quickly checked his goggles to check something.

'These things are supposed to last me a whole day. But they're only giving me a few hours at a time now. Is the serum faulty? No, I made sure it wasn't. The only way that they wouldn't be as effective is if...' Jaune quickly turned his head to Ruby and quickly scanned her, and more importantly...

The amount of pheromones she was emitting.

Instantly he was nearly blinded as he was assaulted by a cloud of the strongest pheromones he had ever seen.

'Holy fuck! No wonder my serum was only lasting so long, she's emitting enough pheromones to produce for nearly the whole school over! I need to get away from her, stat.' Jaune thought to himself as he turned back around and walked at an even faster pace away from the Rose, trying to put as much distance between the two as possible.

Ruby just looked at the whole interaction with confusion before he nearly bolted away from her. She recoiled at his sudden burst of movement before she stomped her foot on the ground and let out a whine.

"This isn't fair! How am I supposed to make friends with him and make him see that some of us are awesome if he keeps running away from me!" Ruby complained before quickly running after her new partner.

"So, is the fact that she emits more pheromones supposed to mean something, or is it just a genetic coincidence?" Yang asked as she tried to think about what the purpose of bringing up the fact that the women of that universe let off such chemicals in the air. Konshiro found it to be a great question, seeing as it was something that would be a big plot point.

"You see, because of her..." Konshiro started before realizing something.

They don't know about her silver eyes.

They aren't supposed to know about those until Pyrrha and Penny die.

...

Fuck It.

"Hey, before I answer that, how about I tell you a little something about a certain pair of Silver Eyes?" Konshiro stated, looking to each of the Rubys present. They blinked at once before tilting their heads to the side. Their designated caretakers each looked to them before asking the flaming body their shared question.

"What about them? What's so different about her eyes?" Noir asked. A bit of a brow raiser considering out of everyone here, that Jaune in particular would be the one to know the answer to that question. Oh well.

"Now see, in each and every universe, Ruby's eyes are rather special. No matter where you look. No matter what you look for. Her eyes are always Silver in color. And in almost all of them, they have the power to flash freeze any and all Grim. Powerful in it's own right." Konshiro explained. The Reapers present went starry eyes as they thought about the apparent power that they had. The others however, were pretty amazed by the sudden development. She could potentially do that? Awesome!

"Huh. I don't think I've ever given them that before I was banished." Noir said to himself as he thought about what could have given them that ability. A mystery for another time he supposed.

"Wow! That's so cool! How do I unlock it!? Tell me! Please! Please please please please!" The Rubys all chanted as they crowded around the host. Konshiro rolled his eyes in mild annoyance before shifting his position to be across the room, away from them.

"The way you would have unlocked it in the prime universe would have been through the means of severe mental trauma. Having your eyes 'opened' to the real world if you would. And that meant that any and all sheltered mindsets you might have had were shattered with the act of seeing one of your closest friends taken from you. Right in front of your eyes without any way to have stopped it. Watching Pyrrha killing Penny before seeing Pyrrha being impaled through the heart and disintegrated." Konshiro said bluntly. The three women having not truly understood what he said, mostly for the fact that he had sighed, and made it so that his wording had stayed only on the text and not to be said out loud. No need to cause a mass panic for no reason.

"...Training. Lots and lots of training." Konshiro said plainly, sounding bored. It caused the rest of them to be a little skeptical as to the almost too simple answer they were given. Either way, Noir and Blanc thought about their respective Rubys and about how each of them would look using such a power on the battle field and wasting so many Grim in a single stare.

'I'd be a little disturbed if it weren't for the fact that it's a purely romantic imagery. Pretty wholesome actually.' The fiery body thought to themselves. A rather vanilla image of either pair holding the other close and just enjoying each other's company. Nothing more though. Their own emotional copacity was still growing after all.

Ignoring the thought, Konshiro turned the audience and gestured to the screen once again...

Or tried to, before Ren spoke up.

"That still doesn't reflect how her Silver Eyes relate to the amount of pheromones she was letting off." The stoic ninja questioned as he stared up at the ethereal man.

"Do you want the censored answer or the uncensored one?" Konshiro asked, thinking of all the...'things' that the Summer of that timeline did. Thankfully, Yang was there to answer.

"The censored one, please." The brawler said, looking to the too curious for her own good sister of hers. Konshiro nodded in understanding.

"The Silver Eyed Warriors were revered fighters of their time. However, the evil forces that they fought against were growing tired and weary of them. So they decided to kill them of one by one and at various times so that they may not assume that they were being targeted specifically. However, soon enough, they were becoming rather scarce and had realized too late that they were nearly all gone. So being more reserved and reclusive, they still fought, but found to try and find a soul mate sooner than most as to produce the next generation of Silver Eyes as soon as possible before they were killed themselves. Eventually, they evolved along with the rest of the women of the world to produce pheromones. However, due to their rather dedicated cause of producing the next generation and their scarcity, especially since with the evolution also made their enemies stronger as well, they were able to produce even more pheromones than the average woman. The production of such chemicals only grew with each passing generation. It also doesn't help that both Ruby and her mother are the last remaining Silver Eyes in their world." He explained, making each of them think on that for a moment...

"Oh." Blake suddenly realized. Knowing that what the uncensored version might have told.

'They must get very...busy.' Blake thought to herself as her cheeks were lightly dusted pink.

"So does that mean that they like to fu-" Nora nearly blurted out before Ren quickly placed his hand over her mouth, giving her a glance telling her to stay quiet. She pouted at him before relenting and staying silent.

"Thank you for answering my question. It has given me much insight on the situation." Ren said, slipping into a more recluse state of mind as to not imagine the implications of the answer.

"Right, so let's get back to the viewing, yes?" The man asked, looking the the crowd. Since he wasn't met with anymore questions or denials, he promptly let the viewing resume.

Jaune was still running through the forest, promptly trying to both make it to where he was told the relics were, and to get away from Ruby. However...

"Hey Jaune, can I see some of the other cool stuff you made? I want to compare designs and see if we can't bounce ideas off of each other."

Running from her was a little difficult seeing as how she had a speeding Semblance.

"Ruby, please, I'm just trying to get through Initiation, so if you could just-" Jaune tried to say before he suddenly did a front flip over a Beowolf that tried to lunge at him. He seamlessly transitioned into a combat roll and into a crouch where he just as quickly fired a beam of energy through the head of the Grim. His goggles telling him that a rather large pack of the Grim had accompanied it and were now focusing on the two Beacon students-to-be. He let out a breath and ran the calculations of what the best course of action would be.

He didn't necessarily like it, but he knew that he'd have to team up with Ruby if he wanted to get through this as quickly as possible.

"Alright Ruby, get ready, I'm going to be giving you cover fire while you go in with your scythe and cut them to ribbons. Your sniper is good when you can focus on one at a time with ample room to spare, but in the forest like this, it's better to move quickly with a melee weapon." Jaune stated, twisting the grip of his gun before it suddenly started retracting up his forearm and transforming into...an arm cannon!?

Ruby was nearly drooling over the device before Jaune tensed his muscle, the cannon's end showing multiple rows of gun barrels spinning both clockwise and counter-clockwise of each other.

"Not now, Ruby. Grim to fight here." The blonde stated as he jumped back from a swipe at him before bringing his free arm back and landing a punch that landed with an audible crunch to the Grim's bone plating. It was able to knock Ruby out of her trance before she nodded and promptly took the head off of the Beowolf that Jaune had punched. Jaune grunted in confirmation before he open fired on the rest of the Grim, dozens of smaller energy shots whizzing through the air and leaving devastating damage onto the Grim that tried to get close to Ruby as she worked on the Grim that Jaune wasn't focusing his fire on. It was a good synergy, if one that Jaune wasn't entirely into. She would deal with a Grim on her right while he would kill the other Grim on her left that tried to tear out her jugular. All great from a purely technical standpoint. But to Jaune, this was a bad omen. Seeing that they were good at fighting together, she would be bolstered in her attempt to try and 'befriend' him. Of course, he didn't believe a damn word of that. All women were looking for an opportunity to exploit men and take them away from their younger...

Jaune shook the thought from his head as he mowed down the last of the Beowolf pack. Now wasn't the time for that.

"So while I try to fix my sister, I'd like to know what that last bit was about. Was he talking about a younger sibling?" Yang asked as she waved a hand in front of her sister. Each one of the Rubys in the room had gone catatonic when they saw the laser-gun turn into a laser-Gatling gun. At her question, Konshiro had to add another tally to the board for how many sighs he had let out today.

"You know, if you would just watch, you would have the answer to that question, right?" He questioned back. Yang just shrugged a shoulder before responding.

"I mean, if we don't have questions or have comments to voice, then what would be the point of us being here to watch these things in the first place?" Yang shot back. Konshiro went to respond in kind before pausing.

That was...actually a good point.

"Huh. I see. Well, I guess you have a point there, but I really would wait and see your question answered by the viewing. It's pretty neat. I've already seen the entirety of it and let me tell you...it's some pretty serious stuff." Konshiro said. At this, the rest of the group looked at him a little weirdly.

'Is he starting to become more relaxed, or is that just me?'

With one last flourish, Ruby sliced the final Beowolf in half, killing it. As she let out a breath and saw it start to dissipate, she turned to Jaune as he continued walking through the woods, his weapon still in it's arm cannon form. Ruby smiled at this, despite the fact that he was still walking away from her without checking to see if she was okay or not, he at least wasn't running anymore!

'Progress!' Ruby thought to herself as she used her Semblance to catch up to him.

"So, Friend-" Ruby tried to start, but was quickly interrupted by Jaune's low voice.

"Partner." Jaune spat out. Ruby backpedaled before returning with her smile again.

"So, Friend-Partner..." Ruby tried again, this time getting a grumble from the man. She smiled as she saw this as a confirmation.

"Are you sure we're heading north? I'm pretty sure we are, but I just wanted to see if you think so too." Ruby said, trying to make him believe that she genuinely wanted to hear his opinion on the matter. His frown twitched before he let out a breath and nodded.

"I've got a built in compass in these things. We're headed in the right direction." Jaune said as he tapped on his goggles. Ruby nodded with a smile before striking up another conversation.

"So...where are you from, Jaune?" Ruby asked as they moved through a thick brush. He showed no visible reaction as he answered her question.

"Domremy." He answered with no emotion in his tone. Ruby was perplexed though. She hadn't heard of a Domremy.

"Where's that? I don't think I've ever seen that place on a map before." Ruby stated, thinking of all the towns and cities that she was taught in school. Jaune shook his head and let out a grunt, absentmindedly shooting a single Boarbatusk dead before answering.

"It was a small town outside the borders of what used to be Mantle. Got destroyed by Grim almost ten years ago." Jaune said with an undertone of anger. He remembered exactly what happened when that Grim invasion came in and destroyed everything. But at the very least, he was able to avenge his-

"Jaune!" Ruby's voice called as he was made aware of the Ursa that tried to swipe it's claw at him. Ruby tried shooting it in the head, but each shot just kept bouncing off of it's surprisingly thick bone plating. Ruby was going to try and pull him out of the way, but Jaune actually moved forward and brought a hand up to stop the paw. Ruby's eyes widened as...

*Thud*

Jaune was actually able to block the swing and completely stop the attack. It wasn't just Ruby that was shocked, but the Ursa as well. It stayed still for a moment, allowing Jaune to drive the hand that his arm canon was on into the Grim's gut and proceed to fire. Not only did the actual shots drive into the beast, but the actual rotation of the cylinders were shredding the dark skin of the Ursa as well! It only took but a few moments before the limbering Grim was killed and Jaune let it topple to the side. He then brushed whatever got onto his coat off, and continued walking.

'Stop thinking about the past, Jaune. You're getting distracted.' Jaune thought to himself as he walked off, tensing his muscles to get his mind off of what happened then.

What happened all those years ago...

"Argh! Stop teasing! I want to know what happened!" Nora exclaimed as she shook Ren at her side vigorously. He on his part was handling it pretty well, being used to this and all. Though, to be completely honest, he was rather curious as to what actually happened to the Jaune on the screen. But the thing about this scene was the fact that this Jaune was able to stop the attack of that Ursa barehanded. Now everyone in this room could do it as well. Even Ruby and Weiss could if they really tried. But they could only really do that due to the fact that they all had Aura. However, since they knew that in this world men did not have Aura, that meant that this Jaune would have had to be strong enough to not only stop a full swing of that Grim naturally, but also have done it without breaking a bone.

The average amount of force a single swing of an Ursa amounts to about ten to thirteen thousand newtons of force. A human femur, the strongest bone in the human body mind you, breaks at only four without the aid of Aura. And he just stopped one of those swipes with only his arm. Casually. And seemingly without struggle.

Ren turned his head towards the rest of the group to see if any of them caught on to that fact as well. Though he saw that most of them were only caught off guard by the act itself, he did see that Blanc and Amber were able to catch on.

"Wow. He was able to do that without Aura? That's...pretty damn impressive, actually." Amber said to herself as she continued to watch the Jaune on screen walk further into the woods. Blanc sat back in his chair and contemplated a few things. Most notably, his previous assessment about how he would possibly do if he never had the powers that were forced upon him.

Would he still be able to fight as well as he could now? Survive as long as he has now? Be able to get revenge on that scorpion bastard?

These thoughts brought him back to when he finished his attack in the arena. What Konshiro told him and Ruby before they rejoined the rest of them.

"Are you okay Jaune?" Ruby asked as Blanc came to, rubbing his head and sitting up from the floor. He looked around to see what was going on before he remembered what happened before he conked out and thought about how he was finally able to kill the person that looked over his torture. But he felt no different than when he came in here.

'That doesn't make any sense! I killed him! That's all I've ever wanted! All that I've trained for! So why the hell do I feel so...empty?' Blanc thought to himself as he tried to figure out why killing the assassin did nothing for him. Ruby looked at him with worried eyes as he slowly sat up with a trouble expression on his face. It was then that Konshiro entered the scene with a rush of flames.

"Are you okay?" He asked, looking down at the two with as much concern as his ethereal body would allow. Blanc momentarily broke out of his funk before huffing at the man and getting up.

"Are you happy now? I did what you asked. I showed what I was capable of. Anything else you want this monkey to do for you?" Blanc spat out sarcastically. Konshiro looked down, seemingly in shame before letting out a sigh himself.

"I apologize for forcing that upon you. However, you must understand that what I did was for the betterment of our other guests. I wanted them to see that their Jaune is capable of so much." Konshiro explained, trying to make Blanc understand his reasoning. Blanc however, was still unconvinced.

"Oh yeah? Then why didn't you have the small me demonstrate instead?" Blanc asked angrily, feeling used. He never wanted to be like this. All he ever wanted as a boy was to live a happy life with his family. He never asked to become this super soldier!

"Jaune, come on. It can't be that bad. Who was that guy anyway? There's a lot that you're not telling me. I want to know. Please." Ruby interrupted, standing infront of Blanc. He stared down at her eyes before diverting his own. There were a lot of things that he hasn't told her, yes, but those were things that he never intended on telling her in the first place. However, even despite the large height difference, he couldn't resist the silent plea from her to look back into her silver eyes with his own cerulean.

"You needed to be the one because you too need to have learned a lesson. When you finally took Tyrian down, why didn't you feel any satisfaction? You know yourself that he was the reason you started training in the first place." Konshiro stated. Blanc pondered on his words for a few moments before closing his eyes and bringing a hand to his face, rubbing his forehead. Everything has been happening too fast for his tastes. He went from a lone traveling warrior that was only concerned with living to the next day to a student of Beacon that has to deal with angry classmates, clingy psycho teammates, and...his conflicting feelings for his partner.

Shaking away that thought, he quickly came to an answer of his own for the question.

"It's because...It's because you just served him to me on a silver plater! My mission in life is to hunt him down myself and kill him the way he killed my family!" Blanc exclaimed, Konshiro closed his eyes and shook his head, knowing that Blanc wasn't going to snap out of this mindset. Not until he experienced it within his own world. But he said all that he needed to for now. Because as he looked to the Ruby before them, he could see the sympathy and surprise clear on her face.

"That guy...he's the one that killed them?" Ruby asked as she grabbed Blanc's hand. Blanc flinched, knowing that he had let that information slip, but didn't retract his hand.

"Ruby...yes. That...Tyrian was the man that killed my family. He took me from my home and made me into this...monster. I didn't just promise myself that I'd kill him, but I promised my parents and my sisters that I wouldn't stop until he or myself fell to the floor dead." Blanc revealed, rubbing the back of her palm with his thumb, unable to stare her in the eyes. He couldn't bare to see how she would see him now.

Ruby stared at him for a few moments before reaching over with her other hand and grabbing his free palm, bringing them both together and letting out a small giggle. It caused Blanc to look at her again, his tired and almost dead eyes staring into her own energetic and hopeful ones.

"Silly. I don't know anything about what you've been through...but I don't think you're a monster. You're just Jaune Arc to me. My partner. And a good partner won't let the other go down that path. So until you change your mind about all this killing nonsense, I promise to get you through anything you need." Ruby vowed, giving the giant her most supportive smile.

"But-" Blanc tried to say, attempting to make Ruby see that he had his very being set on killing Tyrian. But the small Rose woman interrupted him, going to her strongest counterargument.

"Nope!" She quickly said, already setting her mind to bringing her friend out of his funk. She was terrible at super emotional conversations anyhow.

"Ruby, I-" Blanc tried again, wanting Ruby to understand how much he needed this. But once again, Ruby shook her head and refused.

"Don't care! You are going to stop feeling sad and we're going to go and join the others for the next movie." Ruby proclaimed. It caused Blanc to pause. He just stared at his partner for a few moments before wiping his face and shaking his head.

"I'm not going to win this argument, am I?" Blanc asked. Ruby tilted her head in curiosity before answering him.

"Who said this was an argument? Now come on, let's go!" Ruby told him, holding onto his hand as she dragged him out the door.

Well, it was less her dragging him, and more him allowing her to pull him along. Blanc said nothing as he moved, wondering how carefree Ruby could be. In the end however, he decided that since none of what happened here mattered anyway, he should just enjoy this while he could.

Everything that he talked about there made him really think about what he really wanted out of life. His adamant promise to put Tyrian into the ground was seeming less and less important. But even if he wanted to, he couldn't find it in himself to even begin to think of an end to their confrontation without one of them hitting the ground dead. Even further from that, the idea of not gaining this power of KI was still almost unthinkable. But he supposed that a calm sea never made good Mariners.

'At the very least, I've put the idea into his head.' Konshiro thought to himself as he continued to watch the viewing...after thinking to himself about the remark Ruby made on this being a movie.

'These are not movies god damn it. If I wanted to show them a movie, I would just switch out the cast of jumanji or something with them! But that's too lazy I thought, that would be too easy I thought. Yeah, well, It's already been a year and only two chapters of this has come out. And one of them is just a shameless self-plug. Whatever.'

Ruby was amazed at the sheer strength that her partner displayed so casually. Sure she would be able to do the same, and her sister wouldn't even bat an eye at the same swing, but to see that Jaune was able to block that attack without Aura amazed her! He was so cool!

"Holy cow! You were able to block that swipe like it was nothing! How did you do that? Tell me!" Ruby asked excitedly, jumping up and down in front of Jaune. He glanced down at her before answering, finding the distraction from his thoughts welcome.

"I've engineered this body to be the perfect fighting machine. Altering the biological structure and structure of my muscles, organs and skeleton to fit my needs. Further from that, I've also surgically fitted an endoskeleton into my body for optimal performance. In short, I am the perfect soldier."

Ruby stared at him for a few moments before turning her head from him and really contemplating his words. Thinking about what he meant. She didn't really get what he meant by restructuring his entire body, but it sounded hard. And the whole endo-whatchamacallit was a little out of her depth, but she got the gist of it.

"Are you the Terminator?" She asked innocently enough. It caused Jaune to pause, looking back at her with his face still blank before the feintest traces of a smile crept onto his face. She was an amusing one, if nothing else.

"Let's just say that I'm...built different." Jaune simplified for the young reaper. Ruby shrugged at his words, still not able to fully grasp what it was that Jaune had revealed to her.

"I have some concerns." Noir said quickly, already seeing a number of red flags pop up with what the people on the screen just said.

"He did what now!?" Pyrrha exclaimed, looking at the Jaune on screen with shock clear on her face.

"Oh yeah, this Jaune completely changed the fiber structure of his body. Just like he said. He studied the entirety of the world and came to the conclusion that while humans do have the superior mind, they severely lack in other areas when compared to other animals. So he changed his body to take on traits of those animals." Konshiro stated, garnering the attention of the entire group. Blake especially, seeing as how this Jaune would effectively turn himself into an artificial Faunus.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Blake asked, her curiosity peaked. She wasn't the only one to be curious, however. Noir was curious as well. They all were really, but Noir was just curious as to what another version of him would do if they were given the chance to alter themselves into what they felt was the perfect body.

"Well, for starters, he augmented his body to have the proportioned strength of...a dung beetle." Konshiro stated with some amount of trepidation based purely on the fact that the animal he listed was...well, a dung beetle. Of course, it was Nora that wanted to ask the most obvious question.

"Does that mean he can-" Nora tried to voice, but was quickly interrupted by Konshiro who simply gave her a flat look.

"No, it does not mean he can make large quantities of his own fecal matter and roll it up into a ball. He hasn't spliced his own genes with other animals, just based his own body structure to try and mimic them." Konshiro stated with the tone of a drained parent. Nora herself seemed disappointed while Faunus Ruby giggled at the absurdness of the conversation.

"Hehe, dung." She giggled to herself. Noir shook his head at her in amusement before turning back to Konshiro.

"Then why did he base his strength on a dung beetle?" The child asked, really not getting the reasoning behind such a decision. Neither did Yang as she gave her own opinion on the matter.

"Yeah, why a little bug and not an awesome dragon?" Yang jested, mimicking the roar of said mythical creature. It was her teammate Weiss that talked over her and gave a more reasonable suggestion.

"Or a gorilla? They're probably one of the strongest animals out there." Weiss reasoned, trying to find out why on Remnant did Arc choose a dung beetle.

"For one, dragons aren't real." Konshiro stated, though, Yang felt it necessary to pitch in again.

"You don't know that!"

Konshiro simply ignored her.

"And second,, in proportion to it's own size and weight, the dung beetle is indeed the strongest animal on the planet. Being able to lift over a thousand times it's own weight. And translating that over to a human..." Konshiro trailed off, letting that information sink in. It was really an eye opener for them all. Trying to think about how much a person could lift with that kind of strength.

"They'd be able to lift an entire Bullhead full of people, if not more." Ren answered. Konshiro nodded, knowing that Ren had hit it right on the mark.

"Exactly. And that's not even mentioning the endoskeleton he implanted into himself." Konshiro added on, making everyone wonder just how strong that Jaune made himself. But more importantly, Amber wanted to ask about the endoskeleton part.

"About that. How exactly did he implant it in the first place? He couldn't have done it by himself. There had to have been someone that helped him. I mean come on. Implanting an endoskeleton into your own body by yourself? That's impossible." Amber stated, waiting for their host to tell her that she was right. When he didn't, she quickly widened her eyes in realization.

"Oh my fucking god he did." She said, almost not believing it. Those around her were also in a state of disbelief.

"Though the process was a long and arduous one, that Jaune was able to do it. Now I would disclose all the other animals that he based his body off of, like a cheetah's speed, the eyesight of a hawk, a barnacle..." Konshiro trailed off, making all the others look at him in confusion, not knowing what he could possibly have meant by barnacle.

For those of you who know, you know.

"It would take much too long to list it all, and we still have this to watch, so..." Konshiro gestured. The rest of the group were still a little concerned that this Jaune would go so far just to prove a point and alter his own body in such a way. But, in a matter of speaking, it wasn't unheard of. Considering that some people have completely replaced their limbs with robotic prosthetics.

"..." Brood Jaune stayed quiet, his clouded mind being cleared for the moment to really contemplate what was just revealed. Thinking if he should do the same.

'...No. I want to kill them with my own strength. With the fruits of my own labor I will show them exactly the heat of my hatred.' Brood Jaune thought to himself as he hardened his features. He looked down to his drink and threw it to the side, realizing that he needed to get as much information on how to access the other universes before he was sent back to his own. He stood up and gestured for Qrow to follow him before heading out, knowing that no one else would be paying attention to him. Qrow quirked an eyebrow at him before shrugging and walking after him. If the kid was serious about what he talked about earlier, then he would try to help him as much as he could. He was rather curious as to what other universes were like after all.

With everyone else allowing this to slide purely because they wanted to see what was going to happen next, Konshiro allowed the viewing to continue. He cast a quick glance to the two that left before shaking himself of the thought.

Continuing into the forest with the aid of his goggles, Jaune and Ruby only had to kill a few more Grim before they came across a cave. Jaune finished snapping the neck of a Beowolf before walking towards the entrance. Ruby followed close behind, looking around and seeing the different carvings on the walls. Depicting long gone hunters forcing a scorpion looking animal into a cave.

There was obviously a large Deathstalker in there. It didn't take a genius to figure that out.

"Hey, Jaune. I don't think it's a good idea to go in there. From these drawings, I think there's supposed to be a giant Deathstalker in here." Ruby warned, turning to her partner before noticing that he was already heading into the darkness. Her eyes widened before trying to go after him.

"Wait! What are you doing? I just said that there's a Deathstalker in there!" Ruby cautioned once more. Not once did Jaune slow his stride, however. His pace consistent and strong.

"I understand that. I intend to kill it." Jaune stated, adjusting his weapon accordingly to fire a higher caliber. In order to do so, he would have to overwork the small nuclear reactor he's put into it, causing it to go a bit unstable, but so long as he doesn't allow any severe physical force to impact it, he shouldn't have to worry about any sort of nuclear detonation.

...If something like that does happen however, he would have to run about a mile or so out of the initial blast radius. Not to mention the resulting fallout of the nuclear detonation would have to be accounted for as well. Thankfully, Aura is able to protect the body from any radiation poisoning so long as you weren't there for the actual explosion.

"...What's a nuclear reactor?" Weiss asked, not knowing what such a thing would even look like. The rest of them were rather curious as well. wanting to know what the Jaune on screen was talking about. Konshiro turned to them with mild surprise before he realized that they really wouldn't know what that was, all things considered.

Any sort of fuel or energy source they would need would be found in Dust. Either for vehicles, aircrafts, home appliances, or even weapon ammunition would be supplied by Dust. So any real deep exploration of their planet would be to find more Dust.

"That...is a rather hard question to answer. One that would require many years of education in the field to fully explain. To simplify it, however, It is a power source that requires an element named uranium. It is a clean energy that gives no emissions, plenty of energy, and is self sustainable. It's even able to produce enough power to fuel entire continents, and allow space travel." Konshiro explained, telling them all of the feats that nuclear energy would allow them to do. It made more than a few of them flabbergasted that such a thing was accessible in their own worlds.

"Holy...are you serious? That's crazy. To be able to go to space..." Yang commented, thinking about all those sci-fi movies she's seen where people went to space in all these absurd and crazy space crafts. But to think that they could actually go up there was mind boggling.

"With that kind of power, we'd be able to do so much." Original Ruby whispered to herself, thinking of all the different things that she could do with something like that.

The amount of new modifications she could do to her Crescent Rose!

"But...that can't be it, can it? There has to be some kind of drawback. Something that powerful has to have some kind of danger to it, right?" Noir asked, thinking that any massive amount of power should have an equally large flaw. Konshiro nodded to the child, having to look away from him and his own Faunus Ruby, his ethereal heart not being able to handle the aura of adorableness that was radiating off of them. Though, speaking of radiation...

"That is true. Though incredibly useful in it's own right, nuclear energy is also incredibly dangerous. If one were to be directly exposed to the energy emitted from a nuclear reactor, their cells would start decaying at a rapid rate, being poisoned and eroded irreversibly. They would die within seconds. If someone were to be exposed a small leak of the energy for a time and walk away alive, they would still be affected in terrible ways. They more than likely will develop a form of cancer. They will also likely have their physical appearance morphed and altered due to the radiation as well. Not to mention they will probably become infirttle after the experience. Even further from that, if they are able to procreate and have children, their offspring will have a higher chance of growing birth defects as well." Konshiro told them, explaining to them some of the dangers that nuclear energy poses to people.

After that information bomb, the previous thoughts that some of them had about the energy were thrown out the window. The two Rubys that were currently drawing up new designs for their weapons were both appalled at the thought of what that energy could do to people. That was some incredibly dangerous stuff!

"That's not...terribly bad. We could just have a few robots make sure that the reactor is functioning properly, no?" Weiss asked, thinking that if they just got a few machines like the Atlesian Soldiers do all the work, they wouldn't have to worry about human casualties. This did bring a bit of comfort to those around her, finding that the reasoning had some merits. Take away the human aspects, take away the human related risks. However, there was one last thing that made nuclear power a very big risk.

"That would be true, and those that have found this power source have pondered on the thought of leaving everything to automatons, there is however one thing about nuclear energy that blows everything else about it out of the water." Konshiro warned, gaining a serious tone. Everyone payed close attention, being concerned about what else about this energy would be so serious.

"If a nuclear reactor is to go critical beyond repair, The resulting explosion would be catastrophic. Once, a nuclear reactor that was supplying a town called Chernobyl had a meltdown that resulted in an explosion that left a fallout reaching over thirty kilometers. It left the area inhospitable for a number of decades. Any that would go within it's radiation zone would be subjugated to radioactive poisoning. Not to mention the wildlife that remained were mutated by the radioactivity as well. While an evacuation of the town was commenced, many people still died from the explosion and in the attempt to find others within the town after the fact." Konshiro said, leaving his guests shocked to the core. The thought of such a thing happening was horrifying. A risk like that being so prevalent in using nuclear energy. Would it even be worth using?

"It is for these reasons that Nuclear energy is almost never used for commercial purposes. Only in government facilities and sanctioned projects. Strict regulations and laws have been put into effect to prevent another tragedy such as the Chernobyl incident to happen again." Konshiro finished, staying quiet thereafter, leaving the room silent. That was all just the general use of nuclear energy. He didn't want to tell them the absolute destructive power of a nuclear bomb. Or even the hydrogen bomb for that matter. Maybe another time, but not now.

It was Blanc that broke the silence when he asked about the weapon within the hands of the Jaune on screen.

"You're saying that a miniature version of one of those is within his hands? Does he know just how dangerous that is?" Blanc asked as he thought about how much power the version of him on the screen was holding within his hands. He himself could pull off similar feats if he tried, but he could only keep it up for so long before he had to power down. Even then, his attacks were only like a regular explosion on impact. Once it had done it's purpose, that was it. There was nothing left to show that he had been there to begin with. But this was beyond any of that.

"This Jaune knew the risks he was taking when he decided to make his weapon nuclear based. He's used the necessary equipment and protective gear needed to create it safely. Even so, he's infused his body with lead, an ore that is more or less able to block the radioactive waves that his weapon would emit should it be damaged." Konshiro told them. With all the things he's told them about this Jaune, they were starting to wonder if he was more machine than man. He wasn't even in a situation where he was forced to do that to himself. He could have just as easily layed low, or simply given himself a few mechanical enhancements and be done with it. But all these things he's done to himself, it was all voluntary. He wanted to be like this. All for what? To prove that he could be a better Huntsman than the women around him? To prove a point?

'Why? Why do this to yourself? There has to be more to it than just that." Noir thought to himself as he leaned forward in his seat. None of them said anything further as they watched more of the viewing.

With a worried look on her face, Ruby was torn between going in there and trying to talk him out of it, or staying out here and waiting until he came back. She debated over her decision before she heard a loud rumbling coming from within the cave. She let out a loud groan before taking out her Crescent Rose and dashing after her partner with her Semblance.

/0-0\

Jaune was currently duking it out with the Giant Deathstalker within the dark cave, his goggles giving him perfect sight with it's built in nigh vision. He calmly ran circles around the behemoth as it thrashed about. He picked his shots carefully and only fired when he knew he had a clean hit. It's carapace was a lot thicker than he had thought it would be, but it didn't matter. So long as he was able to get a good shot in, he should be fine. Even so, he could tell that the integrity of the cave was starting to fail, and that he needed to end this as soon as possible before there was a cave in.

'Just one more shot.' Jaune thought to himself as he lined up his gun with the exposed part of the Grim's body. A small chunk of it's bone plating had been blown off in the dead center of it's skull. A single blast would be enough to put it down for good. He was about to take the shot when he heard the call of Ruby to his right.

"Jaune!" Ruby shouted, seeing that Jaune was about to be crushed by a falling boulder. She used her weapon in it's rifle form to blow it to bits, however, the distraction caused Jaune to miss his shot, the intense beam of energy impacting the cave wall and shaking everything within it. It was then that the entire cave started to crumble, more boulders started to fall around them and made them realize that they needed to get out of there. Now.

However, after Jaune missed his shot, the Deathstalker was given a brief look at it's surroundings and saw the human that attempted to bring it down. Being as enraged as it was, it took the opportunity and swiped it's claw at the man and caught him by surprise, knocking him away and into a wall with a loud thud. He fell to the ground disoriented before he looked to his right and saw his weapon next to him...

With an alarmingly large indent to where the chamber for the nuclear reactor was.

Jaune immediately checked the device on his arm and looked for the weapon's condition before his blood ran cold.

'Alert: Nuclear Core Going Critical. Alert: Nuclear Core Going Critical'

The young man immediately got back up and made his way towards his partner who was now trying to keep the Deathstalkers attention on her.

As the Deathstalker buried it's stinger in the space that used to be occupied by Ruby, the young reaper used her Semblance to dodge out of the way while trying to shoot out it's eyes. She was preparing to dodge another one of it's attempts to strike her when she saw Jaune leap a great height and grabbed it's tail before bringing it with him onto it's back. Immediately, the Deathstalker tried to take it's tail away from the thing on it's back, but with tremendous strength, Jaune is able to hold onto it and proceeded to rip half of it's tail off and threw it away. Leaving the Grim to screech and writhe in agony while Jaune jumped off and ran towards his partner.

"We have to get out of her now!" Jaune commanded as he ran towards her. Ruby was still a little baffled after seeing her partner dismember the Deathstalker before being confused at his words. They had the thing on the ropes!

"What? Why?" She asked, but Jaune said nothing as he ran up to her and quickly scooped her up and held her over his shoulder. She cried out in surprise before demanding what was going on.

"Jaune! What are you doing?! What's going on!?" She demanded. Jaune looked at his arm again, seeing that he only had less than a minute before his weapon would detonate.

"My gun's nuclear core is going to blow, that's what!" Jaune answered. His response left Ruby gobsmacked, that thing was what!?

"You're gun was powered by a nuclear reactor!? What were you thinking?!" Ruby scolded, fully knowing the kind of risks such a thing would entail. Jaune saw the light of the exit as he answered with a snarl.

"If you hadn't distracted me, I would have killed that Deathstalker no problem and I'd still have a weapon!" Jaune argued, now at the mouth of the cave. He stops before letting Ruby off his shoulder. He turns back and looks at the cave before he walks up to one of the walls and starts smashing his fists into it. Ruby looks like she was just slapped across the face as she looks at him with angry eyes.

"If I hadn't-are you kidding me!? You were about to be crushed by a boulder! What was I supposed to do!? Just let you die? I saved you!" She yelled at him. Jaune started striking the cave walls with even more force before once last hit caused the roof and subsequent rocks to collapse and close off the cave.

"I was fully aware of that boulder and would have moved out of the way after I took my shot! Now we have to move in the next fifteen seconds or we're going to have super heated rock shrapnel blow up in our faces." Jaune said, running into the forest. Ruby was still miffed at him, but relented and ran with him.

Deep within the cave, as the Deathstalker is starting to make it's way towards the exit of the cave with it's hateful eyes intending on killing those two humans that dared to oppose it, Jaune's weapon that layed on the floor was starting to glow red with heat before it started to bloat. Soon after, the weapon finally reached a breaking point, and exploded in a blinding light, quickly filling the cave and enveloping everything in it.

As Jaune and Ruby were already a good few meters out, they heard a loud explosion erupt behind them. They only briefly turned back to it before they continued to where they were supposed to be. They didn't know the ranged the radioactive waves would reach, and they didn't want to find out.

Well, Jaune knew the range, but he wasn't going to be taking any risks.

The room stayed quiet once more, seeing the quick divide between the two people on screen and the events that caused it. The quiet was actually kind of disturbing Konshiro.

'I know I wanted the questions to slow down, but this is getting ridiculous.' Konshiro thought to himself as he looked across all of them.

The original teams were varied in expressions. Ruby was worried that the two on screen weren't going to be friends anymore. Yang was a little angry that this Jaune was being an ass towards her sister even though she was just trying to help. Blake was worried that someone such as Jaune was carrying that kind of firepower and what it could do if it fell into the wrong hands. Weiss was just observing the kind of technology that this Jaune had and wondering if their own Jaune would be capable of making the same things.

Pyrrha was conflicted about whether she should be trying to defend the Jaune on screen or be angry at him. Nora was enjoying the action while Ren seemed disturbed by his partner's obsession with the explosion.

The other's such as Blanc and Noir were simply curious as to what was going to happen next, seeing as this Jaune was now without a weapon. They were wondering if he knew how to fight hand to hand, or if he had a trick up his sleeve. They did hear that he had another 'project', so they were waiting to see if that held any merits.

The alternate Rubys were mostly the same as the original Ruby in worrying about the wellbeing of the two on screen.

'Should probably think of a nickname for those three soon.' Konshiro thought as he turned back to the viewing.

As the two walked forward in tense silence, they once again had to fight a few Grim that were rustled by the sound of the explosion and attracted to their negative emotions. At the very least, it was an excuse for them to let out their frustrations.

It didn't take very long before they were able to reach a clearing with a few ruins placed in the center. Jaune let out a breath before being relieved.

"Finally. Now to get our Relic and get the hell out of here." Jaune grumbled as he walked towards the pedestals that held the chess pieces. He looked at them before spotting something peculiar.

Among the pieces, there were two Rooks, two Bishops, Two Knights and...a Queen and a King? The pamphlets only ever told of the first three. What were the King and Queen pieces doing here? Especially the King piece. Considering the world threw that piece away and replaced it with the Matriarch. Works the same and does the same as the King, but they just changed it because...you know. Men.

"How strange." Jaune said to himself as he picked up the King piece and inspected it. When he looked closer, he saw a small extension at the bottom before he pulled at it and was surprised when it came off and revealed a USB.

Ruby was next to him, still mad, and didn't really want to ask him what he was holding, so she looked at the other pieces before landing her eyes on the Queen piece. She picked it up, also knowing that there aren't supposed to be Queen pieces here. She shrugged before pocketing it, thinking that the school simply forgot to put them in the pamphlets.

When Jaune plugged the USB into the device on his arm and saw that there was a message on it. Making sure that there wasn't some sort of malware stored inside, he opened the message. It was a voice recording by none other than the Headmistress herself.

"Hello Beacon Student Applicant. If you are listening to this, then you have found the King piece. This piece is placed for those who have found the relics well before the others. If you are up for it, then bring this piece back to the Cliffs and you will be put into a team of only yourself. You will have a dorm to yourself and will no longer have the obligation to be within a team. However, you will be required to attend AP classes, take extra combat lessons during the weekends, and will no longer have vacations off. This program is only for those that are absolutely willing to dedicate themselves to his profession. Should you choose to accept, you WILL be the best in your field. Should you decline, you will still be guaranteed a spot in Beacon, attend normal classes and be assigned to a team." The message ended with that. But it was all Jaune needed to hear. He even let a small smirk grace his features before he heard footsteps coming from behind him. He quickly placed the piece into his lab coat before turning around to see a blonde and a Faunus coming their way.

When Yang touched down onto the forest floor, she kept in mind her sister's plan and thought that eh, it would be interesting to see how the guy was and see exactly what they were like. Then she just wandered the forest in hopes of coming across him while also beating up a bunch of Grim along the way. She eventually found Blake and they became partners. After a bit more exploring, they heard a loud explosion go off in the distance, but paid it no mind. Blake seemed a bit more jumpy, but she just figured that came with being part cat. Blake was actually a fun person. Albeit a little defensive on certain subjects. Most often when it came to stuff like history books and romantic novels that were bias against men. She was an interesting one. Said that she was an advocate for men's rights. What was it again? A Masculist? In any case, she believed that men were not treated fairly and that there should be better laws and regulations to change that. Yang believed in that stuff too, but she didn't really know how to go about changing the laws or whatnot. She liked reading books and stuff, contrasting what you might believe, and she always did find it weird there was a lack of men in the ones she's read. Or the ones that did have them always painted them in a bad light. Her parents would try to get her ones that were unbias of course, but in a world like theirs, the number of those were scarce.

The kind of books Blake read however...were a little too raunchy for her tastes. Anyway, they had finally made it to a clearing when they noticed that there were two other people there. One of them she recognized as her sister. The other, her partner was quick to announce,

"Oh my gosh, it's you." Blake stated, looking at the only male taking the Initiation. Jaune himself turned to them with an impassive look on his face.

"H-hi! My n-name's...Blake." The Faunus was able to stammer out. She extended one of her hands to him with a nervous smile and a shaking posture. Jaune looked at her curiously before cautiously taking her hand and shaking it once.

"Jaune." He stated simply. He found the woman before him strange. The hell was she nervous around him for? Before he could say anything else, Blake was able to get over her own nervousness somewhat and started talking again.

"I just want to say, it's such an honor to meet you. I am a huge Men's Advocate member. I've been working on the laws to get you and all the other men better quality of life and trying to free them from the slave drivers that have been oppressing you for so long, and I..." Blake started to ramble on, really starting to weird Jaune out. A...Men's Advocate member? That was an actual thing? People were actually volunteering to try and give men rights?

'...Thoughts for later, Jaune. Right now, you need to get this golden ticket to the cliffs.' Jaune thought to himself as he attempted to appease the woman in front of him so that he could leave.

"O-okay. I...appreciate your work, and I would absolutely love to hear all the different things you have to say, but If you wouldn't mind, I have Initiation to get through." Jaune said with a bit of sarcasm in his voice. Blake stopped as he talked and blinked before she blushed in embarrassment and nodded in understanding as he walked passed her, noticing that his soon to be ex-partner was talking to the blonde.

"Right! S-sorry. I almost forgot. But we can talk more later, right? Maybe over some lunch? Or...coffee?" Blake stuttered out, feeling shy around the man. She had always had a unique fascination with men. But she hadn't actually seen one. And now that she had, she felt her heart skip a beat, her cheeks flush red, and butterflies in her stomach.

Jaune was still looking over to Ruby and the blonde when he turned to Blake with a fake smile.

"Sure! I would love to!" Jaune said with a very large dose of sarcasm. However, Blake wasn't able to catch onto it and actually thought that he had agreed to what she thought was a date with her. She thought back to all the books she's read about the forbidden love between a man and a woman and how a chance encounter lead to a relationship between them to blossom.

'Is this...love?' Blake thought to herself as she saw him start to walk away.

"I guess if there isn't any racism towards Faunus, the White Fang wouldn't have been formed. And if they weren't formed, then you wouldn't have joined them Blake." Ruby said, trying to ease the tension that was left after the whole nuclear power spiel. The revelation actually made Blake think about how drastically different her life would be if there was no White Fang.

"That...huh. I'm not sure how to feel about that, actually. Strange to be sure, but it is rather surreal to see a version of myself acting like...that." Blake stated as she stared at the obviously love-struck version of herself on screen. She seemed so happy and vibrant there. It almost made her envious...almost.

"That's interesting and all, but are we not going to talk about the fact that Jaune up there is going to just leave them all just so he can finish the Initiation and be on a team by himself? That's kind of a dick move if you ask me." Amber voiced her opinion, wondering why the Headmistress would allow such a piece to even be there in the first place.

However, not too long after Jaune was near the end of the clearing, on the opposite side four individuals came bursting through. They seemed to have been running from something when they spotted the three within the clearing and started shouting for them. Both Ruby and Yang couldn't hear them, but Blake could.

"Huh? What are you saying!?" Ruby yelled back, Yang turned to her partner before asking her what they were saying. Blake really listened before her eyes widened.

"They're being followed by a Giant Deathstalker. We have to help them!" Blake panicked, already making her way toward the four individuals. Both sisters followed soon after. However, Ruby turned back to tell him of a plan she had before she then noticed that Jaune was nowhere to be found.

"What? Where did he-" Ruby tried asking herself as she stopped to survey her surroundings. Her inner musings were interrupted when the before mentioned Deathstalker came bursting into the clearing. But something was off about this one. It's bone plating seemed almost melted onto it's body, having a sort of green glow to it as well. And even now, standing so far away from it, she felt her Aura covering her skin to prevent something from eating away at it. The red markings that would normally trace the body were instead replaced by deep green veins. An ominous pulse flowing through them in an unsteady rhythm. Where it's eyes should have been having melted over by the bone plating and instead having a large broken chunk from the center of it's head with a single large pustule of an eye. It's sclera the color of the void. And in the center lied a pupil that held the embodiment of hatred. Green venom flowed through it's entire being as it raised it's tail. It's lower half of it being like the rest of it's body while the upper half seemed to be concentrated energy. The tip of the tail looking not like a stinger, but like the head of a brush. It brought it's claws up to try and smash the humans in front of it, even those having been morphed as well. Having been melted together as well, they really weren't claws anymore. Being elongated and pointed like a dagger, with jagged teeth along it's bottom like a cleaver. Standing tall on long, spider-like legs, this Deathstalker crushed the ground beneath it with a mighty cleave of it's 'claws'.

"What in the...What the heck is that thing!?" Yang exclaimed as she turned back and ran with the other four. Blake as well, feeling a primal fear rise within her as she looked into this thing's eye. Feeling nothing but hatred and wrath emanating from the creature.

With it's one eye darting around and looking at the prey that it had chased down, it's gaze zeroed in on the one with Silver eyes.

One of the one's that made it like this.

An unholy screech bellowing from the monstrosity, it rushed forward, being much quicker than any normal Deathstalker. It completely ignored the other pests as it stampeded towards it's target. It's legs nearly impaling those it passed, the Beacon hopefuls had to roll out of the way, being confused as to why this thing had just ignored them when not to long ago it had been hellbent on killing them. However, as Yang looked to where it was trying to go, she realized that the mutated Deathstalker was making a beeline towards her sister.

"No!" She shouted as her hair went ablaze and flew forward, intending on saving her little sister.

"Woah!" Ruby yelled in surprise as she saw the monster barrel towards her and use one of it's arms to try and cleave her in two. She used her Semblance to dodge out of the way before she brought out her Crescent Rose and quickly started taking shots at it's blatantly open eye. Upon the first bullet, the bulbus eye burst like a blister and sprayed some sort of venom forward. It was only with quick thinking that Ruby was able to move to the side and avoided the thick puss. The sight of such a thing left her wanting to vomit. However, just as she thought that she had gotten the upper hand, the Deathstalker let out an even louder shrill noise that made everyone around have to cover their ears.

In but a few moments, the socket that had been empty quickly filled back in with another eye, this one baring veins of the same green venom that flowed through it's body. As it gained it's sight back, it immediately turned to Ruby and charged at her with even greater speed and ferocity. Smashing one of it's arms down and thrusting it's other to try and skewer her. Ruby was barely able to dodge the first strike before the second one came in. She hadn't gotten her footing back as her eyes widened and her life flashed before her eyes.

It was then that Yang came to the rescue and tackled her out of the way, the Deathstalker's claw stabbing into the ground where they had been not a second before.

"Ruby, come on! We gotta go!" Yang exclaimed, taking advantage of the fact that the Deathstalker had gotten it's claw stuck and was now trying to pull it out, screeching and bellowing all the while at them. Ruby nodded shakily before running with her sister.

Whatever the heck this thing was, it was way too much for any of them to handle.

"Holy mackerel Is that the same Deathstalker from before? I thought that thing died from the explosion." Nora exclaimed, seeing the creature on screen. More than a few of them were creeped out by it. Others almost puked when they saw the eye pop like a pimple...

"Ugh...bleurgh!"

One of them actually puked, but that's not the point.

"It is. Remember when I told you that in an area that is irradiated, the wildlife that still live within it would be mutated as well?" Konshiro questioned, seeing a few of them nod.

"Well, in this case, the Grim react very strongly when exposed to radiation. It causes them to mutate and...evolve, so to speak. On screen is an excellent example of what I'm talking about. The incident within the cave would actually cause a series of events that neither Ruby or even Jaune could foresee. All because he decided to use nuclear energy for his weapons." Konshiro told them, leaving his statement up for interpretation. Amber was left with a deadpan expression at how many similarities there were between this being and Ozpin when it came to just telling people what they meant.

"But what about the other me? Surely he would try to do something now that they're in actual trouble, right?" Noir asked, thinking that if this Jaune was anything like himself, then he would at the very least try to help. Blanc across from him simply stared at the screen with rapt attention, waiting to see exactly what that version of him was going to do now. Take the opportunity to leave with all the attention off of him, or risk his neck to try and save his partner and people that he's never met.

Decisions, decisions...

Jaune, having surveyed everything from afar, was rather intrigued with the arrival of the mutated Grim. He really was rather curious as to how that Grim came to look like that, but a stray thought occurred to him.

'Could that be the same Deathstalker that I fought in the cave? Perhaps the radiation had more of an impact on the thing than I initially thought.' Jaune mused to himself, seeing the rest of the applicants running away from the Deathstalker. He shrugged at them before turning around to walk away.

"Oh well, not my problem anymore." Jaune said aloud as he started making his way to the cliffs. All he needed to do was get there and present the piece to Ozma and he'd be golden. Didn't matter what happened to those other people, so long as he-

"Jaune!"

Grgk.

/0-0\

Ruby was running away from the Deathstalker when she noticed her partner off to the side and on the edge of the clearing. Simply watching everything happen. She was confused as to why he was just standing there. Sure, he didn't have his weapon anymore, but with the kind of strength he showed in the cave before, she thought that he wouldn't need one. However, like many times before, her wandering thoughts caused her to lose focus and lagged behind her sister. Yang was already a few meters ahead of her sister when she turned back to see that the Deathstalker had freed it's claw and was clambering it's way towards them, this time pointing the tip of it's tail at them before a stream of green ooze shot out, landing behind Yang, but in the path of Ruby, burning into the ground. A sizable puddle grew between them when Yang cried out to her sister.

"Ruby, watch out!" Yang warned, stopping and staring directly at her sister. Ruby snapped out of her thoughts and looked forward just in time to see the small gorge between herself and her sister that was filled with the acidic substance the Deathstalker shot out. She was able to stop herself right at the edge when she turned back to the approaching Deathstalker and felt a chill run up her spine. She tried going to her right when a cleaver like claw slammed down in front of her. She clamored in the opposite direction, only to meet the same thing. She was trapped by the mutant Deathstalker and the pool of acid behind her with no way of escape. She tried shooting at it again, only for her to think better of it, due to the fact that she remembered what happened she she blew it's eye out last time. She knew she wasn't strong enough to try and fight it at this close of a range. So she was completely out of options. She still stood defiantly...futilely. Crescent Rose held by shaking, terrified hands. Her knees buckled, no longer able to support her weight anymore.

Yang tried to run after her sister and fight the thing directly, but was stopped by the Deathstalker shooting a high pressured stream of acid at her feet. It stared her down for a moment, keeping it's tail aimed at her before looking back down at Ruby, a gargled noise coming out of it, as if it were satisfied with the fact that it had one of it's items of hatred in it's grasp. Helpless. Hopeless.

Ruby stared back into the eyes of the beast for a moment, before turning to Jaune as he turned back. She had tears in her eyes as she called to him, desperation heavy in her tone as she hoped to everything above that he would hear her plea.

"Jaune!"

When Jaune heard that, his heart stopped for a moment. He quickly whipped around to see that Ruby was on her knees, looking to him, pleading with her eyes to save her. In a moment, Jaune's world changed, remembering something from a very long time ago.

/0-0\

He wasn't seventeen anymore. He was hardly even eight now. His hair was dirty and unkept. His clothes, if you could call them that, were caked in dirt and grime. Further from this, all he seemed to be wearing was a loincloth. His skin was deceivingly smooth and soft, as if it had been lathered in moisturizing solutions repeatedly. His face was scared, however. And behind his smooth skin lied scars and bruises and cuts. On his back, behind his heart, was a brand with double crescents. His eyes, both of them intact, were staring at the two in front of him.

A woman, a little less than twice his height wore a military uniform that belonged to a branch of the Atlas military. A high caliber gun at her hip that had glowing red lines running across it's barrel. Her hair a platinum blonde and eyes a steely blue. This woman was the person that had lent Jaune to her friends and colleagues and people that were willing to pay for an hour or two so that they could have their way with him.

Sometimes, she would take him for herself as well.

However, none of that was what was scaring him right now. It was who the woman was trying to drag away that was scaring him.

Another boy, only two years younger than him. They wore a dirty brown shirt and small grey shorts, being even dirtier than he was, and looking almost exactly like him, save for the darker shade of blue his eyes were and the shorter hair.

This was Luna, his younger brother. And this woman was trying to take him away.

"N-no! Please! Don't! Take me! Take me!" Jaune pleaded, grabbing the woman's arm and tugging at her sleeve, trying to stop her from giving away his younger brother to the person that had agreed to buy him. The woman herself looked down and scowled at Jaune, shoving him back and continuing to drag the crying child in her grasp up from the basement.

"Not a chance you little ingrate. You are worth far more money to me here than this little snot. Someone is willing to pay a hefty price for him, and I'm more than happy to have one less mouth to feed." The woman spat at him. Jaune ran back up to her and grabbed onto her leg, once again trying to convince her to change her mind.

"Don't do it! Please! I-I'll take care of them for however long they want! Just don't sell him off!" Jaune cried, tears falling down his face as he tried desperately to save his brother. The woman didn't even look back at him as she forced him off with a kick, knocking him to the floor. She was able to get to the top of the stairs when Jaune, in a last ditch effort, grabbed onto Luna and tried prying him from her grasp.

"I won't let you take him away!" Jaune cried angrily as he tugged on his brother's arm. Luna cried even louder, looking into Jaune's eyes as he called to him.

"Don't let them take me away big brother! Don't let them take me away!" Luna begged, tears and snot running down his face as he tried to take his arm away from the woman. Jaune was fueled by his little brother's cry even more and tugged even harder, yelling at the woman one last time.

"You can't take him! I hate you! I hate you Mom!" Jaune shouted, a snarl stretching across his face as he stared at the woman that had given birth to him.

To think that his own mother would do all these horrendous things to her own children.

At this point, the boys' mother had gotten fed up with their yammering and resistance and pulled out her gun before pointing it at Jaune.

"That's it! Let him go, or else!" She threatened. Jaune looked up in horror to see the barrel of her gun pointed straight at him. He froze for a moment before he steeled his nerves and used his already impressive wit to figure out that she wouldn't kill him. She already stated that he was more valuable here.

"I...I refuse!" Jaune yelled, taking a gamble. He stood defiant against him mother as she stayed there for a moment. Just as he thought that he had won, she pulled the trigger.

Red hot pain coursed through his skull as he was blown back. The entire side of his skull felt like fire as he fell down the stairs and fell back into the basement. He screamed and yelled as he tried clutching what was left of his eye socket. The Fire Dust causing no end of pain to the small boy. It was then that his mother spoke up.

"You'll live, but let this be a lesson to you. You'll never amount to anything more than an Agninus." Jaune's mother spat as she holstered her gun. She then turned around and left Jaune to lay on the floor, motionless as he felt himself go numb. The vision in his one good eye went fuzzy, but he could still see his little brother being dragged on his knees reaching out for him, crying his name. Each time getting farther and farther away as he fell unconscious.

"Jaune! Jaune! Jaune!"

Most of the females in the audience were in tears. They had finally been showed exactly what happened to Jaune in his past and...It was so much worse than they thought. To think that his own mother did all of that. It was inhumane.

Even Noir and Amber were crying. Noir couldn't fathom going through all that and then losing a sibling like that. Even imagining losing Amber was bringing him to tears. The same went for Amber when she remembered how she almost lost Noir when they were just outside the village of Kuroyuri.

Blanc's eyes were shadowed as he thought about all the things that he had to go through as a child. Having his entire family, murdered. Being taken away from his home and experimented on and tortured until he was left on the brink of insanity. All of that and more. He couldn't help but feel the Jaune on screen was similar to himself in that regard.

Ren had to console his partner as she cried into his shoulder. He had to admit that a life without Nora wouldn't be worth living, but thanks to his Semblance, he was able to control his emotions and calm himself down. Someone needed to stay strong here.

The OG Ruby was also crying, and while she had her sister here to help console her, she really just wanted to hug her own Jaune and tell him that she would never leave him.

Konshiro sneakily spawned a small Jaune plushy into that Ruby's hands. It was designed after her own Jaune and was big enough to hug with both arms. She only looked confused for a moment before she held it close to her, feeling better already while also feeling her affection for the blonde knight grow even more. Konshiro inwardly smiled at the action, feeling like his plans were starting to come together.

'Yes.' He thought to himself as he saw Ruby whisper to her plushy. He didn't need to guess in order to know what she was probably saying to it. However, it was here that he noticed Pyrrha crying to herself. Ren was occupied with making Nora feel better, and everyone else was too busy crying themselves. So he did the only thing he could do, and summoned another plushy for her as well. She took to it immediately and hugged it even tighter than Ruby did, also whispering sweet nothings to it.

'Yes. Soon all of you will be pulled into the web.' Konshiro thought darkly to himself. That was, until he saw Nora holding onto her partner like her life depended on it.

'W-well, almost all of you.'

Jaune never saw his brother again after that. He vowed that he would find him. He'd do anything to see his little brother again.

Anything.

"Jaune!"

The man was snapped out of memory lane as he saw Ruby about to be brutally killed by the Deathstalker.

"No." Jaune whispered to himself as he zoomed forward in a single bound. A resounding boom echoed throughout the clearing as he broke the ground beneath him and made a mad dash to Ruby's position.

Ruby closed her eyes and held up her weapon in a weak defense against the large blade-like arm of the creature as it came down, ready to turn her into a smear of red paste on the ground.

She flinched when she heard a loud crash, but was soon confused when it was followed by the sound of whirring metal. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see that Jaune was there, holding he claw back!

"Jaune." She whispered in awe.

'He came back.' She thought to herself with more tears streaking down her face. But this time, it was not out of fear. It was out of relief and joy.

But then suddenly, the other claw came into play, and fear once again struck her heart. She was going to cry out to him, to tell him to watch out, but then that claw was stopped as well. This confused her for a moment, not understanding how he could stop both at the same time. He was strong, yes. but not even her sister would be able to do something like this.

Then she noticed it.

Jaune's arms weren't holding the claws. They were up, outstretched even, but they were not holding the attacks. It was then that she saw something protruding from his back.

Six tendril like machines extended from his back through two slits in his lab coat. Two of them were keeping him off the ground while two others were holding back the claws. The remaining two were on standby should he need them.

This was his greatest project. The Hydra System.

/0-0\

Back up on the cliffs, Ozma was smiling at her tablet as she watched it happen.

'I knew those extendable arms would be useful.' She thought as she took a sip from her mug.

/0-0\

"Get out of here." Jaune told her, throwing the claws to either side of him and rising further from the ground.

"What?" Ruby asked, still in awe at what she was seeing. From what she could tell, Jaune was using six extendable arms that were controlled via telekinetic link! That was so awesome!

Jaune however, was not amused, and wanted her out of the way.

"I said-" Jaune started, but was interrupted when the Deathstalker was fed up with being ignored. And seeing the one that ripped off it's tail made it even more enraged than before. So it decided to just melt him with a spray of it's acid. Jaune reacted quickly, however, and had his last two tendrils grab the tail and point it away from them. They were able to prevent too much of it from getting onto him, but a lot of it still ended up spraying onto him. it had only hit his upper torso, melting away a majority of his lab coat and shirt, while also getting onto his goggles and damaging them. He growled in frustration before ripping them off his face and throwing them to the side. He quickly used the four tendrils not on the ground to shove the Deathstalker back in an incredible feat of strength, causing deep trenches to be made where the Grim had been pushed back. Jaune then completely turned to Ruby, showing her his full face, and by extension his bionicle eye.

"Get out of here!" He commanded, to which Ruby obeyed and kicked off the ground, her mind on what she just saw. She rejoined with her sister, and together, they began running away again. This time, Ruby only spared a glance back at her partner before she continued running.

As Jaune saw Ruby get away, he let out a small sigh before he faced the mutated Deathstalker. He absentmindedly tore off what was left of his shirt and coat, revealing that at the base of his tendrils was metal plating that replaced part of is spine, shoulder blades and ribcage. The merge between metal and skin was seamless, the metal only seeming like a drape of silver color as it contoured to be shaped exactly like the rest of his body. Merely flexing to get the access fluid that had landed on him, not worrying about the acid that had gotten on his skin, having made his body resistant to damn near everything.

"Alright you son of a bitch. Let's dance." Jaune taunted as he readied himself for a slaughter.

Coming back from the mood earlier, the audience was now amazed just how much this Jaune was able to do and make. Those tendrils were revolutionary! Just thinking of all the possibilities with them was incredible. Especially for those who had diseases that ate away at their bones or muscles.

"He kind of looks like an octopus." Ruby sniffed, looking at the rather epic scene on the screen. The others looked at him and after a moment or two, agreed.

"Actually, yeah. He kind of looks like Doc Ock." Amber commented, gaining a few looks from the others. She noticed them and looked back before explaining herself.

"It's from a comic book series. It was way old even when I was a kid. Doc Ock was a super villain though." Amber told them. It cleared things up with some of them. Thought the thought of a comic series like that did intrigue both Ruby and Nora. Mostly Ruby, but Nora wouldn't mind reading it if it was interesting enough.

"Can we just talk about...he literally flexed that acid off of himself." Weiss said. It was Blanc that actually answered her first.

"I mean, you've got a point I guess. You'd have to have a lot of control over your muscles in order to pull that off." He stated, actually impressed with this Jaune's abilities. And all of it without outside help like Aura or Ki...

The Deathstalker Charged forward again, Jaune doing the same, his tendrils tearing up the ground below him as he let out a battle cry. The Grim screeched in kind before swinging it's claw at him one more time, to which he had his tendrils pull him out of the way while commanding another to form a saw out of the claws attached to the end by opening up and rotating at a high rate. He then swung that tendril at one of the legs of the Deathstalker and left a deep gash. It howled in pain before swinging it's other claw at him.

Jaune was able to block this one before he was forced to back off due to another volley of acid from it's tail. While his skin was incredibly tough, enough sprays from it's acid would still be able to wear down it's durability.

It also hurt like the dickens, so he didn't want to be soaked in that stuff again.

Taking a more aggressive role, Jaune pressed forward, knowing that he needed to take out that tail as soon as possible. So he used two of his mechanical arms to vault him over the Grim by using it's own claws as leverage before he grabbed a hold of the tail with his other two mecha arms. The Deathstalker remembered the last time it had allowed this human onto it's back and how it had lost it's tail because of it. So with it's elongated claws, it reached back and tried to stab Jaune in the back.

"Nice try you bastard." Jaune smirked as he used another two tendrils to not just grab onto the two claws, but actually impaled them in and through the claws before opening his claws back from their previous harpoon shape and tugging, effectively anchoring them into place. Now Jaune had this thing pinned. It couldn't use it's tail or it's claws. It still screeched at him in defiance and started thrashing around, trying to throw him off. Using his last two tendrils, he turned them into their saw functions and decided to amputate this Grim.

"Alright, let's get you grounded!" Jaune shouted as he had the two cutting tools quickly cut at the base of it's legs and slice them all off with a single stroke. The Grim fell with a loud crash as it cried out once again in agony. Jaune then noticed that it's legs were trying to grow back from the stumps, but was doing so very slowly and seemed to be weaker versions of the last ones.

"So you've got some wicked regeneration there, huh? Oh, I'd love to take you and bisect you to figure out just how you tick. But as of right now, I'm just going to have to kill you. So let's see which part of you is going to break first." Jaune said as he lowered himself down off the Grim, still holding it's extremities in place. Once he had his two extra tendrils on the ground supporting him, he strained himself to flip the creature up over his head upside down. He then started pulling both sides of it's body in opposite directions.

"Will your tail give way?" Jaune started, outstretching his hands to better focus where he wanted his arms to tug.

"Or your arms?" Jaune quizzed, seeing the mutated Grim try to squirm and resist against his pulling. However, it was for not as it was unable to to a damn thing. His face then gained a hyper focused look to them as he dropped to his feet and allowed his last two arms to shoot up and impale the Grim all the way through and did the same that he did the claws, anchoring them in place. If he was struggling with holding up all that weight by himself, he didn't show it. He then started tensing his muscles, adding even more pressure to it's limbs. The Grim was now constantly screeching in pain and agony as it's limbs started to tear away from it's body. Jaune gave a small smirk before shouting in exertion and extending his arms to his sides, forcing the two tendrils in it's torso to do the same.

With a great tearing of bone and flesh, the Deathstalker was ripped clean in half. He let the two pieces drop to the floor next to either side of him. He first turned to the half with it's tail before commanding the two tendrils that had been holding it to slice it to ribbons, doing so within seconds. He finally turned to the front half of the Grim to see it feebly trying to crawl away. For this one, Jaune slowly walked in front of it, so he could come face to face with it. It only took a few seconds before he turned to see the baleful eyes of the creature that he had inadvertently created. It stared at him with utter hatred, even tried to lift it's claws, but was unable to muster the strength to do so. He stared blankly before he used one of his tendrils, brought it's claw tips together and spun it like a drill. He then quickly drove the drill-bit through it's eye and through he rest of it's body. The spray of it's acid never landed on him as he used his other arms to rip off it's claws and drill several other holes into it's now vaporizing body. He could never be too sure a Grim was dead until it was nothing but smoke.

"Oof, that was brutal. He just ripped that thing in half. And he still tore it's arms and tail off. Talk about overkill." Yang commented, finding this Jaune to be a bit over the top. It was then that Konshiro had something to say.

"I should mention that this Jaune also happens to be a bit of a sadist as well." He added, giving some more light into the character of the man on the screen.

"That would explain a few things." Blake said as she sighed. Somehow, as she saw this Jaune continue to slice and crush the last bits of the mutated monster and his tragic childhood, she could see where he got it from.

'And a few of those ladies may or may not be masochists. One of them is even into pet-play. But exactly who...that's not for me to say.' Konshiro thought to himself as he tilted his head to the side. Seeing far into this future and seeing the ladies of team RWBY, JNPR and even a few of the more mature women of their world convincing this Jaune that not all of them are so bad.

That Jaune prepared himself for any and all situations that he might find himself in. One of them being kidnapped and forced through long lasting coitus to break him. It's happened once before...

But he wasn't the one who broke.

Having finished what he wanted, he stared where the Deathstalker used to stand before he turned away and tried looking for what remained of his coat. It only took a few moments before he found the scraps and picked it up, intending to try and find the piece he took. However...

The ground beneath him cratered as his tendrils gripped the dirt with extreme force. His mechanical eye zeroing in on the melted remains of his King piece. Even the USB was slagged to nothing, making any hopes of being on a team on his own moot.

"Fuck." Jaune whispered to himself as he threw the coat away. He started walking back towards the ruins, seeing if there were any other relics for him to take. He picked up and moved fallen pieces with his arms and even lifted himself up to the short pillars that stood, but found nothing. He growled, slicing a pillar down before he quickly made his way back to the cliffs, not liking the fact that he would have to rely on Ruby to have grabbed a piece herself.

Suddenly, a breeze flew by. Jaune stopped for a moment, feeling something about the wind that was different. It was familiar to him at this point, however. He had felt it only a few times before, but he knew what it meant. Something was trying to guide him. Telling him something. He looked around, trying to figure out what it wanted him to do, seeing as it hadn't led him astray before.

"What's it now?" Jaune asked nobody in particular as he scanned the clearing once more. He only saw grass rustling and leaves being blown by the-

Then it hit him, literally. Something impacted his chest as it was blown by the wind. He looked down to see a scrap of a familiar red cloth. He scanned it with his eye before being surprised who's DNA was on it.

"Ruby?" Jaune pondered, realizing that the piece of fabric belonged to his...partner. He stared at it for a moment before the breeze once again came through and rustled the piece of cloak in his hand. He noticed the grass beneath him did not stir, only the cloth. He looked up, feeling agitated with whatever forces were trying to tell him something. He just couldn't understand.

...

Alright, so maybe he did understand. He just really didn't want to think about it.

It was obviously trying to tell him that Ruby was going to be a crucial part of his life, and he didn't like it. He threw the cloth to the side before trying to move forward. It was then that the same piece of cloth was pushed into his face. He sputtered for a moment before he had one of his tendrils pick it off his face. He stared at it for a moment before he groaned once again, this time relenting and placing it into his pocket for later. He figured that he spent enough time here and just wanted to get up to the cliffs and complete this Initiation.

Just as he was leaving, the silhouette of somebody manifested from the winds on the far side of the clearing. It stared at Jaune for a moment before just as quickly vanishing.

"I'm calling it now! That's one hundred percent his brother!" Nora called out, pointing her finger at the screen in a dramatic fashion. Pyrrha found her friend's antics rather amusing, welcoming it after being exposed to what happened on screen. However, a sudden thought occurred to her when she fully grasped what was insinuated with that statement.

"Well, I would hope not. That would mean that his brother..." Pyrrha started, leaving the statement up in the air. The rest of his friends all knew what she meant to say, and felt even more saddened by it. All of that time to try and search for his brother, and it was possible that he was already dead. All the things he's done to himself so that he could look for him, possibly for nothing. It was disheartening.

"Can we have a more lighthearted one after this? I don't think my heart can take much more of this. With or without a break." Blanc's Ruby whimpered as she layed in her chair half dead. Blanc looked down at her for a moment before having another bag of his cookies spawn in his hand. He waved the bag in her face, allowing the aroma to waft into her nose. She seemed to perk up for a moment before once again going slack. Needless to say, Blanc was now worried.

"I'm inclined to agree. Seeing nothing but the negatives isn't exactly a healthy mindset." Yang chipped in. Her partner next to her averting her eyes, feeling personally attacked by that. Even Blanc felt a little stricken with such blasphemy as well, but let it slide. Konshiro already knew this of course, finding that content wise, doing the same thing over and over again would not prove to be a wise thing, in the long run.

"Sure, why not. I'll look through the cosmos, find something I think you guys would like, give you all the option of choosing..." Konshiro began, making all of them feel a little relieved. Of course, the fact that they had let their guard down was too tempting to pass up.

"But, the catch is that there will be one really messed up world mixed in among the others. Even worse that this one." Konshiro stated with the faintest hint of a cheeky tone in his voice. They all groaned, almost fearful as to what could be worse than this.

He wasn't actually going to do that, obviously. He just like messing with these guys.

Maybe next time though.

Using his claws to scale the cliff, Jaune thought about the Deathstalker and what happened to it. He was mildly concerned about how the fallout of his weapon's blast was able to turn it into that monster from before. Other Grim could possibly go through the same transformation. And if that Deathstalker was able to get out of that cave, it probably blew through the rocks that he used to close the entrance. So any Grim in that forest could wander in and transform like that.

'I'll need to find a way to clean that area up. Soon. I don't know if they can turn other's as well. So I better make regular visits to the area just to make sure that no Grim that get mutated are allowed to evolve any further.' Jaune thought to himself as he went over what he needed to do. He was now approaching the top of the cliffs now, so he stopped talking and prepared to defend himself from any advances the other students might try.

He knew the effect his body had on others. He's not blind. At least, not anymore. Not after he replaced his missing eye with a mechanical one of his own creation. He was in perfect shape, and his rough look would no doubt attract more than a few people. One of the many drawbacks of doing what he was. Becoming someone that would resist their advances would only make them double down on their attempts even more.

People want what they can't have, as the old saying goes.

Finally getting to the ledge, Jaune pulled his six tendrils back to his spine, grabbing the wall himself. He didn't want to be revealing his trump card to any of them quite yet. So grabbing the ledge and pulling so that he was able to fly up just high enough to plant his feet on the ground, he scanned the area quickly just to find that only Ozma was standing there.

"Hello Jaune, welcome back. I wouldn't worry about bringing back a Relic. Your partner miss Rose has already done so." She explained to him. He grunted in confirmation before starting to walk towards campus. He was stopped once more by the woman, Ozma this time was holding out a large white shirt.

"If you'd like, I have some spare clothing for you to change into. They might be a tad bit too small however, as we've never had an applicant of your stature." She offered. Jaune's face scrunched up before passing her.

"No thanks. I'm just fine." Jaune said, a scowl still on his face. He didn't want to take much help from that woman, seeing as he knew she saw him as nothing but a tool to be used. And if his eye had told him anything. Ozma had cameras everywhere in that forest. She had seen what happened with the mutated Deathstalker and what he used to kill it. She probably even knew about his gun. If he knew anything about women like Ozma, she had some complicated and convoluted plan to try and involve him in her own affairs or interpersonal conflicts that she was hiding. Like some behind the scenes war with another Kingdom, or maybe even some ancient evil as far as he knows. But what he does know, is that he is going to have no part of it. Nothing!

/0-0\

As Jaune walked away, she turned on her heel and threw the shirt behind her over the cliff, watching as Jaune walked away. She brought her hand up and bit down on one of her knuckles as she stifled down a low moan. She was hoping that he would refuse the shirt. She was just moments away from discarding the shirt and simply marveling at his Adonis like body. His abs looked so hard you could grind meat on them. She was able to see exactly when that acid melted away his excessive clothing and showed off his delicious muscles. How they shined while they were wet...delectable~.

And when he was able to just flex that acid off his body...

A shiver ran through Ozma's system as she looked down to see that some of the acid had also gotten onto his pants, exposing his tones legs. looking like fine marble pillars. And his ass was like two bowling balls vacuum sealed inside a fine leather couch. He was perfect.

'I can't wait to sink my teeth into that flesh, Jaune~.' Ozma thought as she followed soon after him. She wanted to watch him for as long as she could. And she still needed to get through the team making ceremony as soon as possible so that she could go to her own personal quarters and get some...alone time. Seeing as she's gained a lot of new material to take into acount...on the thought, she made a mental note to figure out his showering schedule and habits so she could plant a camera there to get a nice look at the rest of him~.

"That's just wrong!" Amber exclaimed, disgusted. She did not like this version of Ozpin. She almost felt compelled to cover Noir's ears...she did cover Faunus Ruby's ears, however. And when she realized that she still had to cover another set of ears, she took Noir's hands and covered them up as well.

The rest of the room shared the same sentiment, finding that Ozma was more of a lecher than they first thought.

"I mean jeez. Who would even think like that?" Yang complained, shaking her head at such baseless perversion. For the second time that day, Blake felt nervous about the subject. She was thankful that no one was bringing up her taste in literature...or her own fictional works for that matter.

Blanc and his Ruby were sitting there, thinking back to their own Pyrrha and her blatant flirting. And Jaune's memory of her trying to get him to sleep with her naked in his bed. He didn't like thinking about it. Neither of them liked thinking about their Pyrrha. Period.

Getting back and waiting within the auditorium for his partner and the rest of the people that passed Initiation. It didn't take too long, already seeing a few people coming in. He waited, leaning against the wall. He didn't pay any heed to the many women eyeing him like a piece of meat. It wasn't until he was able to spot the stunning silver eyes amidst the crowd that he got off the wall. He slowly walked towards her, moving through the crowd and slapping away the hands that tried to touch him. He only had to walk a meter or two before she saw him as well and dashed the rest of the distance using her Semblance.

"Jaune! You're okay! I was worried when I didn't see you in the cafeteria. It's good to see that you came back! But...why haven't you put on another shirt yet?" She asked, gesturing to his upper body.

"...I just got here. Didn't get the chance." Jaune said simply. He was surprised to hear all this from his partner, seeing as she seemed pretty miffed at him before the Deathstalker attacked. He found women weird like that.

"You know, I don't think I've seen you eat since yesterday...or at all, actually. Aren't you hungry?" Ruby asked, feeling worried that her partner wasn't getting the right nutrition that he needed.

"I don't need to eat. Not anymore at least. I can eat, but It doesn't do anything for me nutrition-wise.." Jaune answered. Ruby looked at him funny. He didn't need to eat? She did remember him telling her that he restructured his whole body, so...

"Okay...then. But um...I also wanted to say I'm sorry for getting mad at you earlier." Ruby said shyly. Jaune was now confused. She was sorry? That was two women now that were apologizing for seemingly nothing. The first, he knew was literally for nothing. The other, he understood, but wondered why she was apologizing for it. No one has ever apologized to him for anything. So he wondered why this one was doing so now.

"It's fine. I'm used to people being mad at me all my life." Jaune stated, looking away, the feint sounds of his mother echoing in his head.

"But that's not okay. That shouldn't be regular for you. And I want you to see that not all of us is like that." Ruby said, trying to make Jaune see that he shouldn't live like everyone's trying to get him. Jaune was still zoned out when he responded, shaking his head as he walked toward the waiting area behind the main stage.

"Maybe. But you're going to be hard pressed to convince me of that." Jaune said as he walked away. Ruby looked on worriedly as she watched him go. She saw the metal that was on his back and remembered the limbs that he used to save her and sighed. But as she was going to turn away and think about her next step, she noticed something else on his back. On the left side of his body, just below his shoulder. It was faded. You'd never notice it if you weren't looking, or had good eyes. It almost looked like a birthmark...no. That wasn't it. It looked too artificial.

It was a brand.

A brand of two arcs. Ruby was now curious as to who that brand belonged to. She knew that whoever gave him the atrocious thing wasn't around anymore, seeing as all owners of men rebranded their 'product' whenever the mark was too faded, or the limb it was on had been cut off. Though, in most situations where a man has his limb cut off, they're deemed unsalvageable and...disposed of.

"I need to find out more." Ruby said to herself as she walked after him.

"Le plot thickens." Ruby said in a fake accent. Yang gave a smile laugh at her side while Weiss and Blake just shook their heads in amusement.

"Doesn't need to eat either. Is there anything that he didn't take away? Or is he just a cyborg now?" Amber asked, not knowing just how far this Jaune was willing to go when it came to altering his body.

"No no. He still needs to sleep. In fact, it's one of the few things that he enjoys doing. But he hardly ever feels safe doing so. And considering he's surrounded by women trying to take him for themselves here and everywhere else, I don't blame him." Konshiro stated, gaining an interested expression from the woman.

"Is that right? Huh. I kind of feel bad for him, really. Being so on edge about everything around him that he can't even sleep. I share the sentiment though." Amber stated, remembering some nights where she couldn't sleep because either Grim or bandits tried ambushing her. She eventually got to sleep those nights, but it would take hours after the fact, and she felt like shit afterwards. So to hear that this Jaune wasn't able to sleep at all made her sympathetic.

As Jaune takes another shot of the hormone suppressants, he sees Ruby approach him and only gives her a small nod before turning back to the stage seeing Ozma walk up to the mic and clearing her throat to speak to the audience of upperclassmen.

"Welcome students to the final part of Initiation where we congratulate all of those that were able to make it in and place them into teams. They will be with these teams for the remainder of their four years, so lets hope that they get along quickly. Or else we're going to have to spend a fortune in repairs again. I'm looking at you Team Maroon." Ozma started, pointing at one of the teams up in the stands. She got a few laughs from them before they all settled down again.

"In all seriousness however, there is one thing different this year. It's something that I have debated with myself for a very long time. And that's...well, I'll let them show themselves first. Will Ruby Rose and her partner, who have collected the Queen Relic please come up here?" Ozma suggested, turning to the curtain behind her. Everyone was cheering at what the second part of what the Headmistress said, both knowing that getting the Queen piece meant, and curious as to what the first part meant.

"What is she talking about?" Ruby asked Jaune, left in the dark about what the Queen Relic meant. Jaune shrugged back at her, not knowing what it meant either, but got up anyway.

"No Idea. But let's go." Jaune said, gesturing for her to go first. She did so, pushing aside the curtain and stepping to the front of the stage. The crowd cheered for her, making her feel a bit of stage fright before she turned back to the curtain and waved for Jaune to step out too. He paused, debating if he should or not, becoming very much aware of the fact that he was shirtless before taking a breath and manning up.

When he did, and the spotlight turned to him, the crowd went completely silent. A few murmurs being heard.

"Hey, what's the Agninus doing up there? Is he hers?"

"She seems kind of young to have one, don't you think?"

"I bet her family is loaded in order for her to have one already."

"I mean look at it, don't you want to do all kinds of nasty things to it?"

"Oh please, girl. I would trade my own for that one down there in a heartbeat!"

"When is her partner going to come out?"

Those were only some of the things that Jaune was able to hear. And he only bore with it. Feeling tired and annoyed with it all. He walked next to Ruby, standing tall.

"Now ladies, ladies. Settle down. To clear up any misconceptions. This is Jaune Arc. Miss Rose's Partner." Ozma said, causing a collective gasp to resound among the crowd. Jaune just rolled his eyes, feeling his patience starting to run thin. Ozma decided that now was a good time to continue before her students went out of control, so she steamrolled on.

"Now, normally, these two would be put into into a team corresponding with the Relic another pair has retrieved. However, since this talented young lady has retrieved the Queen piece, she has earned the right to become the Team Leader of whatever team she becomes a part of. Not only this, but she is also allowed unlimited access to Beacon's facilities along with her partner. However, she is required to take mandatory Leadership Classes and give monthly reports on her Team's status. I along with the rest of our staff will look over her progress as a leader. If we see at all that she is an unfit for her role, we will revoke her position and privilege's and look to her partner for her replacement. The same conditions will apply to them as well." Ozma listed off, turning to Ruby and Jaune. It took both of them by surprise, making Ruby look like a deer caught in headlights. She wasn't expecting that Queen piece to be this important!

It was the final part of what the woman said that caught Jaune's attention though. If Ruby were to fail as a leader, then he would be given that privilege. It was tantalizing. Thinking that he, a male, could reach such a thing that the world thought that he couldn't, or even shouldn't have. To be able to have that and show everyone that he could do anything they could, but even better. He'd just have to sabotage anything that would make her out to be a good leader.

It would be so easy.

"So he's going to be like Weiss, but worse." Blake commented, thinking back to when Weiss was trying to gun for Ruby's leader position. Granted, she never got farther than talking to the Headmaster himself and just being petty, but still. This Jaune was talking about actively trying to ruin Ruby's image and ability to do her job.

"But Jaune-Jaune would never do something like that. Right?" Nora tried to defend her fearless leader, never imagining her friend even trying something like that. Konshiro, nodded, seeing a pattern of them asking a question and him answering them before repeating the process. He believed it a bit drawl, but if it's what got the content out, then he supposed it would have to do.

"True, but this isn't your Jaune. The Jaune up there is rather self serving by a choice, but he does change with some outside help. Observe." The being gestured, waving his hand to the screen.

It was then that Jaune felt something in his pocket, pinching him. He scrunched his face in confusion, digging into his pants and pulling out the offending item. He saw the same red cloth that had been blown to him. He seemed confused at first before it rustled in Ruby's direction. He stared at her, before turning back to the item.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me. Seriously?" Jaune whispered, angered that the mysterious breeze would try to ask him to put his faith into his partner's hands. He shook his head, only receiving a more intense rustling of the cloth in response. He glared down at it for a time, the item still fluttering in his hand, before he relented with a nearly explosive sigh.

"Fine. But If I don't like it, I'm trying my original plan." Jaune stated, seeing the cloth finally settle down and placed it back into his pocket. He turned back to the rest of the world, to see that he had already been assigned to a team.

"From now on, Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose will be known as team JNPR. Lead by Ruby Rose!" Ozma exclaimed to a still silent audience. You would figure that they would have snapped out of it by now, but he supposed that the idea of going to class with a man as an equal wasn't exactly computing with them.

He turned to the other two women that he was now teammates with, being greeted by an amount of pink that almost hurt his eyes, but the orange hair and turquoise eyes did draw a certain reaction from him. It was as they walked off stage to allow the next team to be announced that the ginger decided to introduce herself.

"Hi! I'm Nora! You must be that guy that made it in! I've never met a guy before. I keep hearing about them, but I've never really seen one. So I didn't really know what to think about them, but now that I've met you, I think all those other things I've heard are way off the mark! I mean you are huge! And ripped! Can I feel your arms? Oh wow! That's a lot of muscle! How much can you lift? I can lift like fifty of me with a single finger. Oh! Do you like sloths? I love sloths! I don't really know what sound they make though. Do you? I'm hungry. I like to have pancakes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch, just any meal really. Do you know how to make pancakes? My friend Rei knows how to make the bestest pancakes ever!" Nora spat out faster than the speed of light. Jaune was taken back by how energetic and spontaneous this Nora person was. It unnerved him really. And he was supposed to be living with this?

"Hello! My name is Pyrrha, it's nice to meet you. I hope we can be great friends." A voice spoke behind him. It was a tone that he almost recognized. Not for the voice itself, he knew exactly who Pyrrha Nikos was. But her tone sounded almost frighteningly familiar to the one that his mother would use when in the company of other people. Something that he never wanted to hear again.

It sounded fake. Plastic. Hiding something just beneath the surface. Like a snake in the grass.

He tightened his jaw before turning around to face her.

"Pyrrha Nikos, in the flesh. A prodigy in your field. Hailing from Vacuo, showing amazing combat prowess at the tender age of five when you were able to defeat a thirteen year old combat school student. You then went on to train and enter that same school at the age of eight, graduate at ten, and spent the remainder of your years winning tournaments and training for the day you became old enough to enter the big leagues. You have never once lost a battle. So what in the hell are you doing here of all places, wanting to be friends with me?" Jaune asked, noticing that the 'Invincible Girl' wasn't wearing her usual spartan outfit, but instead upgraded to a mix of full armor platting and military fatigues. Still keeping in theme with her bronze, gold and crimson colours.

The woman retracted her hand with a wince as she looked to the side with a noticeable look of disappointment. Before trying to answer him.

"W-well, I just wanted to greet a fellow teammember is all. But it's nice to meet a fan, at least." Pyrrha said with a strained voice at the end, believing him to be one of the many people that idolized her. She, truthfully, wished that she could start off fresh with someone that didn't know her. Even better yet, she wanted to see just how much of a capable fighter this man could be against her. Jaune had to pause for a moment when he heard her assume that he was a fan.

"A fan...is that what you think I am? A fan? Of you? That's mighty pretentious of someone who believes themselves to be a humble arena champion. Just because I know about you does not mean that I am at all a 'fan'. Quite the opposite really. I'm more interested in besting you in the ring than any form of comradery. The first chance I get, I'm going to grind you into dust." Jaune threatened in a low voice. Nora and Ruby were talking to each other, finding that they had a lot in common. Pyrrha suddenly got the impression that Jaune did not like her. And the mild threat he made towards her were not helping. But on the bright side, this at least means that she would be able to gauge his combat ability. What's strange, however, was that she could feel the pull of her Semblance on his entire body. It was weird. She could understand why she would be able to control his mechanical eye, but everything else was a mystery to her.

"What!?"

Oh, Jaune almost forgot about the crowd. It was about time they responded, he supposed.

"You can't be serious! I refuse to attend classes with an Agninus!" A student yelled out among the now rioting audience. However, Ozma's response was quick, and it struck hard.

"Then leave." She answered simply, no ounce of the amusement from before.

"What?" Was the unanimous answer from the entire audience. They were once again thrown for a loop by what the Headmaster had said. Leave? Leave where?

"If you cannot stand the mere thought of a man being seen as equal to yourselves, then you have no place in my school." Ozma stated, looking across the room. Once again, the mass of students were stunned into silence. She would normally have Glynda do all the disciplinarian work for her, but the woman said she needed a day to really process the fact that Ozma had accepted a man into the school. The face she made though, was priceless.

"Dang, Ozma's really laying down the law here, isn't she? That's nice, though. She's willing to put her reputation on the line for this Jaune." Ruby said, feeling like there was some ray of light in this situation. Her sister looked at her with confused eyes. She didn't know how trying to stuck up for the blonde guy in their group was putting their reputation on the line.

"I suppose that would be a risky move, given the fact that no other school has accepted a male into their midst before simply for the fact that they believe them lesser than themselves. And that Beacon is considered the most prestigious among them, it would stand to reason accepting one would pose as a move that would discredit her word. Even more so when it's found out that she would expel another woman for a man." Weiss explained, causing Yang to try and decipher her words.

"In simpler terms, she's risking a lot by placing a guy as equal or higher value than a woman." Blake whispered into her partner's ear. It was then that Yang finally got it and thanked the Belladonna.

"Hey, you okay Pyrrha?" Nora asked her friend, seeing that she hadn't really responded to anything recently. She was stock still. Staring at the screen with wide eyes and dilated pupils. Nora could tell that something was wrong, but couldn't quite put her finger on it...

"Oh! Are you mad because there's another universe where Fearless Leader isn't your partner?" Nora pointed out, making the redhead's lips twitch. Ren turned to his partner, wanting to see what she was bothering Pyrrha about, before looking upon the Spartan's facial expression, then to the screen, and then putting together the context clues as to what she could be upset over.

"Or is it that Fearless Leader is probably going to be dating someone else and not you?" Nora guessed again, a finger scratching her noggin as she looked into nothingness for an answer. Pyrrha, to her credit, was now starting to have a critical meltdown of her own and was ready to go nuclear. Ren seeing this, pulled Nora close to him and stared at his other teammate carefully, bracing for what was probably going to be an explosion of anger that might be catastrophic.

Konshiro looking over the scene as well, realizing that Pyrrha was going to ruin the relaxed mood sooner than he had intended, he thought quickly before he quickly snapped his fingers and set off his trump card. One that she was currently holding like her life depended on it.

"Pyr? Are you alright?"

Just as she was about to blow, Pyrrha snapped out of her near psychotic break and brought her Jaune Plushy up to eye level, thinking that she had been hearing things. When it was quiet, she hazarded a squeeze of the doll, seeing if she was just hallucinating or not. Once she did, it actually spoke again.

"There you are. I was worried about my favorite Goddess." The doll spoke. The words made Pyrrha's face light up with a crimson hue before melting, holding the doll even closer to her person.

"I love you, Pyr. I hope you know that." Mini-Jaune said in response to being squeezed again. It caused Pyrrha to hug it again, hearing even more sweet nothings come from it. She was placated efficiently for now. At the very least, she wouldn't be bothered by much for the next few minutes.

Nora and Ren looked at their friend with strange looks, feeling like this was rather strange for the arena champion to be acting. Sure she would be a bit lovey dovey when it involved their leader, but this seemed a bit excessive. They only stayed like that for a moment before they just shrugged it off and believed that as long as Pyrrha didn't look half a second away from murdering someone, everything should be fine.

'That should tide her over until the next chapter. For now, I think I should wrap this up so that I can attend to my other duties.' Konshiro thought to himself as he turned back to the screen. He had some familial obligations to attend to after this.

Not to mention, this might give her some brownie points with that hunk of meat behind that curtain~.

"I can see that despite your years training to become Huntresses and warriors, you are but mere spoiled children. So take this as an opportunity to grow not only as women, but as people as well. If mister Arc comes to me and points out names that are harassing him with no good reason, and I find these claims to be true, I will call you into my office to discuss your expulsion. Now, onto our next teams." Ozma warned, transitioning back to the original purpose of the assembly.

/0-0\

Jaune looked over at the front of the stage, being confused once more at what the Headmistress said. It directly contradicted the message he thought she was trying to give him earlier this morning. So what was she doing now? She was obviously against him earlier, but now she was trying to defend him. It didn't make any sense to him.

"I'm heading out." Jaune stated, walking away. He needed a quiet place to think everything over. And he certainly wasn't getting any of his needed silence here.

Walking away, Jaune left behind Pyrrha, who was looking at his back, for the first time seeing the metal plating in his back. She stared at it first with shock, then dread, and finally curiosity. She now vaguely understood why she could feel the pull of her Semblance on him, but wondered if he was just a cyborg, or even an android. But something like that was something you'd find in movies, or even something that Atlas would test secretly. And most certainly not in the form of a man. She really did want to know more about this enigmatic man that had introduced himself to her life. Despite his rather crude and insensitive behavior, she felt like he was going to be a rather good challenge when he did decide to fight her. She would obviously beat him, seeing as she could just use her Semblance on him and he'd be able to do nothing. But as they say, curiosity killed the cat.

Speaking of cats, however...

"H-hey, Jaune. It's me, B-Blake. It's good to see you again." Blake spoke up, appearing suddenly next to the Arc. He turned his head to her, his mechanical eye observing her but for a moment before turning forward again.

"Right." Jaune responded, still walking. In his one glance, he was able to look into the past of this woman and everything that was available in databases across Remnant. From what he was seeing...she wasn't lying about what she said before about a Men's Rights advocate group.

'Lot's of surprises today, that's for sure.' Jaune thought to himself as he listened to what the Faunus said next.

"S-So, I was wondering, since you're free right now, If you'd like to talk more about when we go on our...d-date." Blake stuttered nervously. The last word hit Jaune like a freight train, stopping him in his tracks. A...

"Date?" Jaune asked, staring down at the red faced Blake. She turned away from him, unable to stare him in the eye.

"Y-yeah, like we agreed to out in the Emerald Forest." Blake explained. It didn't matter what she said he agreed to, he was nearly angered once more at the mere thought of a woman trying to fool him into...

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. If he could make...allies, within the school, he would be able to amount a sort of defense force against the other women trying to make advances towards him. And if he were to make the illusion that he was with one of them...yes. That should do nicely. A long con would see to it that he would benefit handsomely.

With that in mind, he switched his attitude, turning on the suave and leaning down to caress the young lady's face and turn it to look into his eyes.

"Of course. Why don't we go somewhere a bit more...private. I know a great place to watch the sunset." Jaune whispered to her. He gave her a warm smile and soft eyes...eye. But even then, his mechanical eye seemed to give a comforting warmth that made Blake feel all sorts of nice sensations.

"O-Okay." Was all she could get out. She swallowed the lump in her throat, feeling like she was one of the main characters in her romance novels being courted by the love interest. She always dreamed of finding a guy to fall in love with. To be able to live happily ever after. And now it was presenting itself before her. She couldn't be any more excited.

Taking her hand in his, he leaded Blake towards the rooftops, like he said. After turning away from her, he let the smile on his face fall before telling himself that this was all for a purpose.

'Suck it up Jaune. Just a bit of this, and you can practically have free reign on everything else. Got to make it convincing though.' Jaune told himself in his head as he turned back to her and gave her his most convincingly loving smile. He knew she bought it when she blushed even more before looking away with a smile.

/0-0\

"Okay, you can open your eyes." Jaune whispered to Blake as he finally lead her to the rooftop of the building facing the Emerald Forest. Once she did, she was awed at the beautiful reds and oranges that came with a sunset while also being treated to the hints of purples that gave tell of the wonderful star-filld night sky that was to come. While she was taking in everything with star struck eyes, Jaune looked on with a satisfied feeling. He wanted to believe that he was successfully tricking this girl into believing that he was showing interest in her, but something else inside him was starting to stir. The part of him that he wanted to leave behind. It swelled with an emotion he didn't like feeling. That he didn't think he deserved to feel. Watching her like this was stirring a feeling of attraction, and a very small amount of love. He quickly squashed it before moving forward and placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Beautiful." He stated, smiling. She nodded, coming out from her trance.

"Yeah, it really is." She agreed. But it was then that Jaune shook his head before clarifying what he was trying to say.

"No, silly. I meant you." Jaune said, making Blake slightly shrink into herself, her blush acting up again. It was then that Blake finally remembered what she wanted to talk about.

"W-wait, we need to talk about our date!" Blake was able to spout out, moving away from his hands and turning to him. Jaune smiled at her before nodding, going to sit on the edge of the roof. He gestured for her to sit next to him before he responded.

"Of course. Where do you want to go? I know a few coffee shops in Vale. Or maybe a pastries shop? It's all up to you." Jaune offered, smiling down at her smaller form. Looking at her now, seeing the fashionable black and white clothing she was wearing. And the pale complecture of her skin that almost glowed in the soft light of the setting sun.

She was beautiful...

"Alright, I get that he's trying to manipulate Blake into a fake relationship, to which I am trying not to explode in anger for, I'm confused." Yang said, seeing everything that was happening on screen. It was Faunus Ruby that asked her question next.

"What's that?" She asked cutely. Yang purposefully didn't look to her out of fear of jumping out of her seat just to glomp the adorable little girl, and continued her question.

"It almost seems like he's starting to actually feel something for her." Yang concluded, gaining a few tilted heads. Konshiro decided to make a few clarifications, so as to not leave any bad blood with the Jaune on screen.

"That's because he is." Konshiro started. Although, he was interrupted rather quickly by the rest of his guests before he could continue.

"He is?" Most of them asked in kind. Konshiro took a deep breath, happy that this chapter was close to being finished so that he didn't have to deal with these annoying interruptions for another few months.

"Yes. He is. And while he will continue to deny it, he will gradually fall more and more in love with Belladonna. However, due to what I have seen, it...won't be the only one he does this with." Konshiro stated, knowing that this Jaune ends up with his own harem of beautiful women. He briefly glanced towards Noir before he heard the comment that he knew was going to be inevitably asked.

"So what you're saying is that he falls in love with not only me, but a bunch of other girls too?" Blake asked, feeling skeptical of what that would do to the relationship between these women once they found out about each other. She along with the other women of the group were only allowed to feel like this Jaune was a scum bag before Konshiro spoke up once more.

"You see, that's the funny thing. He did start seeing other women specifically so that they would want to break it off with him and want nothing to do with him. But somehow, everything ended up landing on the unlikely scenario where they live together in happy polygami." Konshiro clarified. It confused everyone to hell and back, wondering how that worked, but Konshiro just gave them a flat look and a shrug.

"Don't look at me, I only know the end result, I know nothing about how it gets there." He told them. Some of them were still weirded out by what he told them, but others were just rolling with it.

"I was thinking that we could go to the café over by the docks. What do you think?" Blake suggested. Jaune swung his legs over the edge and faced the horizon, Blake doing the same, while he stayed silent for a moment before he spoke up.

"That sounds nice. When do you want to go? In the morning? Afternoon? Evening?" Jaune asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She stiffened up once more before squeaking out an answer.

"Morning." She was able to get out. Jaune chuckled in amusement before bringing her in close, letting her feel the hard structure of his muscles. She was close to passing out when he spoke up.

"Alright. How does this Saturday sound? I'll pay for us." Jaune offered. Though, he only received a short and curt nod from the Faunus girl. He could tell that Blake wasn't complaining about any of this, if the rapid twitching of her cat ears was anything to go by. For a moment, he forgot that he was trying to fool this girl and just felt like a teen trying his hand at his first teenage romance.

It was nice.

Jaune never noticed that his meter that said that he was getting dangerously close to his next dosage of his hormone cancelling formula was failing to let out it's warning due to the acid that had landed on the device and damaged it.

They stayed there for a moment, just basking in the nice cool air of the darkening sky. For once, Jaune felt normal. Like he wasn't in a world that was built against him. He looked down at Blake, who had now relaxed into his arms and felt heat travel to his own cheeks before he continued to look out into the horizon.

"Jaune?"

At the soft voice, he turned back to see that Ruby was there in the doorway, looking at him and Blake with eyes that...almost seemed hurt. He let the thought go before speaking up. Blake at his side also looked back to see who had found them before getting up with him.

"Oh hey Ruby. What's up?" Jaune asked as he walked towards her. Blake was only a step behind him, feeling a little embarrassed that someone had found them like that, regardless of the fact that they weren't really doing anything naughty.

"The other students decided to riot, so the Headmistress decided to email everyone which teams and rooms they'll be staying in. But...what are you and Blake doing out here?" Ruby asked, skeptical of what they were doing. She turned to see what her partner was doing shortly after Jaune had left the auditorium, and found that he wasn't there. And that's when the entire room became a warzone, with angry women declaring dozens of obscenities about something or other. But thanks to some guidance from Pyrrha and Yang, she was put in the right direction. She went about searching the campus before she saw them from the front of the building.

"We were talking about our date this weekend." Jaune answered simply. Though, he answered her question, Ruby was left even more confused. She had to stare at him for the next few moments, making sure that this was still the same Jaune Arc she met on the Bullhead. But she wasn't going to be asking about it in fear of making him revert to what he was this morning.

"Right. So uh...the Headmistress wanted everyone in their dorms as soon as possible, or else she was going to punish us." Ruby relayed to him. He nodded before turning to Blake, offering his arm to her. She blushed even more before taking it.

"Well, I wouldn't want to be the reason you got in trouble then. Come on, let's go." Jaune suggested, leading Blake through the door and down the flight of stairs. They left Ruby there, who made no attempt to follow them. She just...stood there, looking after them. She was hung up on how Blake, someone that he hardly had any interaction with him, was now going on a date with him. He even looked so much more happier than when he was working with her!

'Wait, why am I jealous?' Ruby suddenly thought, wondering why the sight of her partner having romantic relations with someone else was irking her so much. It had to be because she wanted to be the one to make him like that...happy that was! Not because she wanted to have any sort of romantic relations with him or do all that gooey lovey dovey feel good stuff with him!

'Yeah, totally.' Ruby thought to herself, finally making her way down the stairs and towards her dorm room.

"You know, I was kind of hoping you weren't right about that whole...'harem' thing. But seeing this? Dear lord." Amber said, rubbing her face. Konshiro looked once again at Noir before looking away and silently chuckling to himself.

"Oh, if only you knew." Konshiro said to himself. He knew full well what Noir was going to go on to do when he was older. Or more specifically, who he was going to do when he was older.

Hehe, word puns.

Checking his Scroll for the email that was sent to them, Jaune realized that both his and Blake's rooms were right across from each other. He smiled at that, and so did Blake. They mostly talked about smaller things like what Blake's done to try and pass new laws to give men better lives.

"That's really nice of you. But I think we're here. I have to do a few things over in the workshop. So...I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" Jaune said, holding her hands in front of her door. She blushed, giggling. She then nodded before turning away and walking into her dorm, greeting her other two teammates.

It left Jaune by himself, the feeling of her hand in his lingering on his skin. He smiled, feeling warm inside. Although, now, he needed to head over to the workshop and try to see if he could start working on another weapon for him to use. For now, he knew he could fight hand-to-hand. But he wanted to find another permanent weapon for him to use. He knew that the shotgun from before, while innovative and very powerful in it's own right, was far too dangerous due to the nuclear core it used. He should have figured that he would inevitably have it be hit with something heavy. So he needed something else. Something powerful, but not as dangerous.

'Or, what If I did become a hand-to-hand fighter? I could build a suit to enhance my abilities. And I would be able to build around my Hydra System and enhance them at the same time...yes. That's good.' Jaune thought to himself as he began making sketches and prototypes of the suit that he wanted to make digitally with his mechanical eye. It was then that he was reminded of the prototypes he designed for his own changes to his physiology. At one point, he was even tempted to turn his entire body into a robotic behemoth. Something like an Ancient Gear Golem. Or even like a Robocop. All ideas that he scrapped because he knew that would take away from the fact that he was a person and not a machine. So he decided to make all of those changes internal. He couldn't do anything about his eye for obvious reasons. And the Hydra System, while an obvious prosthetic, was actually the minimalist rout he took. If he wanted to go gung-ho with it, he would have to have it go along the entirety of his spine, connecting directly to his brain. But with that design, there was a risk that if the failsafe device were to be compromised, the tendrils would gain a mind of their own and have nearly all control of his brain and persuade him to do whatever they wanted.

"So If I were to adapt these into my new build, I could improve them even more. The materials shouldn't be a problem. Just ordering them online through an alias, have them delivered here. Or if they do pickup only, I can go in saying that I am going on their behalf and go through the usual routine. Then I can worry about actually building it with my own tools. In all, making the prototypes and testing them until he gets it just right is more than likely going to take a number of months. He'd wager he'd finish it just in time to use it during the Vytal Festival. By then, the competing schools would believe that he was a bare fisted fighter. And they'd be underestimating him even more since he was a guy. And if he was really pushed against the wall, he could use his Hydra System to finish them off.

"Alright, so that's the game plan. Let's get to work." Jaune said, smiling. He almost had a skip in his step when he noticed the Headmistress Ozma herself was walking towards him.

"Ozma?" He asked, wondering what she was doing in this hallway. He saw a certain light flair up in her eyes once she saw him, and he wondered what that was about before she spoke up.

"Mister Arc, I hope you realize that you are supposed to be in your dorm now. I'd have to punish you if you don't turn back now." Ozma said, a certain tone to her voice. Jaune looked at her weird before shaking his head and smiling.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but I was heading towards the workshop to work on another weapon to replace my old one. It was destroyed during Initiation. So I need to try and make another one." Jaune tried to reason. His reasoning made Ozma nod her head in understanding. She looked up at his tall stature, briefly imagining him using his strong arms to carry her...while he savagely-

"So if you'll excuse me, I need to get to work as soon as possible." Jaune stated, going to try and pass her. However, before he could, Ozma suddenly stuck her cane out and stopped him in his tracks.

"Now now, mister Arc. I can't just let you go like that. I made that order to everyone. If I let you go, I would be going against my own word." Ozma started, making Jaune pause. He supposed that made sense...

"However, if you were to do something for me...say, assist me with paperwork, or simply keep me company and the like in my office. I would count that as your punishment. How does that sound, Jaune?" Ozma asked, accentuating his name at the end. He raised an eyebrow at how she said his name, but figured that it wasn't that bad. He would get out of class, so that was a plus.

"Alright, Headmistress. I can do that. So may I go now?" Jaune asked. The woman smiled before retracting her cane and letting him pass. But only after taking in his chiseled chest a bit more and mentally worshipping him. Once he passed by, she turned to look at his form retreat.

"I hate to see you go, but I love watching you leave." Ozma whispered to herself as she saw his posterior move and shift in his pants.

"Wait, Ozma isn't going to join that harem, is she?" Blake asked, wanting to take her mind off of the fact that she was the one to make that Jaune feel like that. She briefly wondered if she could make her own Jaune feel like that before she shook it off and stared at Konshiro with a red face. Konshiro himself was chuckling darkly once more in his head.

His plan unfolds even now.

"Is she?" Blake asked once again after Konshiro didn't answer. Only after a dread filled few seconds did he finally answer.

"Maybe." He said, seeing some of the color drain from her face.

"Well, that's going to be a very active sex life. That's for sure." Amber said, feeling more than a little grossed out at the idea that a female Ozpin was going to be having sex with one of her students.

"Amber, what's sex?" Noir asked, looking up at her. It caused her to do a spit take in the opposite direction, drenching Blanc in her sparkling water drink. Blanc closed his eyes before taking a long, deep breath.

"Okay." He whispered, already hearing his own Ruby asking if he was okay.

"Oh my gosh! Do you need a towel or something?" His Ruby asked, looking him over. He shook his head, flaring up his KI before using it to evaporate whatever was wetting his skin and soaking his clothes. He turned to Amber who was still starring into nothing trying to find a way to answer her little brother's question.

"Amber?" Noir asked, feeling concerned that he might have said something to offend her. Sex was a new subject to him. While he could just think up an answer for himself, he wanted to hear what it was from her. Surely she would know. Plus he realized from personal experience that there were some things that you did not want to know. He couldn't even hold a hotdog anymore without gagging.

"You don't need to know." Amber said curtly, sitting back into her seat. Noir looked confused.

"But-" He tried to ask again. However, Amber snapped her head to him with a cold expression, scaring him with how her eyes were shadowed over.

"You don't need to know." Amber stated absolutely. Noir nodded, trusting his sister's word on it. If she was reacting this strongly, he supposed that he really didn't need to know.

"Hehehe. That is going to give him a plus factor when attracting certain women. That's for sure." Konshiro said to himself as he looked back up to the screen.

Getting into the forge, Jaune inhaled before letting out his breath. He stood in the doorway for a moment, enjoying the silence. He wondered briefly what time it was, going to try and look to his goggles before remembering...

"Right. Destroyed. Great." He deadpanned, shaking his head before walking forward and getting to work.

Going over what happened today, he thought about how harsh he was being to everyone, and decided that, maybe, he should lighten up.

"That's more like it. Progress!" Ruby cheered, seeing that this Jaune was getting better already. Konshiro counted down from three before pointing back up to the screen.

'Except for that Schnee. Fuck that bitch.' Jaune thought to himself as he fired up the forge, and readied his own tools.

Ruby's spirits died as she heard those words. That Jaune had a real potty mouth!

He was going about, still sketching out his prototypes, planning on making some basic models to see if they would even work. It went like that for about three hours before he realized that he couldn't advance any further without more planning and designing. So he went about shutting everything off and cleaning up his area. In the end, he was once again standing in an empty and more importantly, quiet, workshop. He just stood there for a moment before he thought of something.

"When was the last time I slept?" He asked himself, scratching his head, thinking back farther than he liked. Sleeping was something that he absolutely loved. It was something that he could slip into and not have to worry about anything until he woke up. And even then, he could just slip right back in and sleep away. But with all the people around him looking to exploit him, he wasn't often given the opportunity to do so. But here...with what Ozma said he could do, he could actually sleep for once.

"I can't sleep in the dorm. At least, not yet. Can't get comfortable there. But maybe here...yeah, a simple blanket should do. I can jump up into the scaffolding and rest up there. Perfect." Jaune said to himself as he used two of his tendrils to help climb up to the roof and lay on one of the ledges. He brought a blanket out from a travel bag he had on him before he tried getting comfortable.

/0-0\

Ruby went to try and find her partner, having to sneak past the Headmaster, but found him in the workshop, knowing that he liked spending time there. When she saw him, she wanted to tell him to come back to the dorm, but thought better of it when he started talking about how long it had been since he slept, and that he just couldn't trust sleeping in the dorm. She wanted to try and convince him otherwise, but thought better of it. If she's learned anything about Jaune, it was that he was very adamant about his decisions and hardly ever backed down from them.

"Hopefully I can help him warm up to the others." Ruby whispered to herself as she walked away to try and sneak back into the dorm and tell Nora and Pyrrha about what happened.

/0-0\

"You know what? I think everything's going to be alright here. I've even got a date with a beautiful Faunus. Life is going just perfectly." Jaune said to himself as he layed back and slipped into slumber, all the while not noticing his wrist device not only trying to warn him that he was way passed due for another dose of hormone suppressant, but also due to the damage, it was running out of power. And the damage was starting to settle into nothing but slag. And since he couldn't feel any of it, he never noticed that the device was being destroyed beyond repair. His future was very bright. Though littered with dark times and tribulations, he would persevere. And ironically, the women around him would be the ones to help him through them despite the fact that they would offer their own troubles.

One way or another, in the end, Jaune Arc would show everyone that this was indeed, A True Man's World.

Seeing the screen black out, signaling that the viewing was finished, everyone got up to stretch their legs.

"That was a rollercoaster, wasn't it?" Weiss asked no one in particular.

"I'll say." Blanc said, popping the joints in his spine. He didn't normally like sitting still for that long. But damn that was interesting from beginning to end. Is this what going to the movies is like? He needed to go more often!

"Are we ever going to see that world again? I mean, personally, I kind of hope we don't, but another, bigger part of me really wants to see where this goes." Noir asked, kind of wishing that he could see a bit farther into the future of this world to a point where that Jaune didn't have a huge stick up his...where the sun don't shine.

Konshiro thought about it, thinking about all the things that he'd need to do in order to even start doing that. All the story making. All the care and world building for the timeline. Hell, he even did some of that already. He wanted to make Jaune immune to that Polarity Semblance that Pyrrha had by constantly fluctuating the electromagnetic field of his metal by flowing a large amount of electricity through his body. He'd use his suit of mecha-armor and call the form 'Lazengann Overload'. It would be so cool and badass...But no. He couldn't. Because then he would have to go ahead and make it an actual story that he would write out. And he felt that the people reading this wouldn't want him adding another story that would push back the updates for the other ones.

Would you guys want this as a story?

Pushing that thought aside for later, he decided to ask everyone else a question that he knew the answer to.

"I guess. But the thing is, it would have to enter in much later in the story. And it would have to be in a more...graphic scene." Konshiro stated, shrugging his shoulders and leaving his statement vague on purpose.

"What kind of graphic scene?" Blanc asked, not entirely sure what Konshiro meant by what he said. From what he's gathered, he was never one to say what he really meant. But oh boy he was going to wish he didn't ask.

"The kind of graphic scene where that Jaune is going to take this." Konshiro started, making a hole out of his fingers before bringing his other arm up and briefly raising his index finger, thinking on if that was a sufficient comparison, realizing it wasn't, lowering his finger and then making a fist.

"And then just go like...this!" Konshiro exclaimed, driving that same fist in and through the hole of his other hand before repeating the process over and over again. Even going as far as simulating the sounds of the actual thing. It caused most of them to break out into atomic blushes. Only a few moments later, he stopped.

"With either Blake, Weiss, or...Penny I think." Konshiro listed off. most of his guests were still shell-shocked at his shameless demonstration. But then he added one more thing.

"Or it might have been all three of them. I'm still not too sure on that." Konshiro said as he rubbed his head. It was then that the only two who weren't blushing, but instead curious, wanted to ask their question at the same time.

"What does any of that mean?" Noir and Faunus Ruby asked at once. Konshiro looked at them before asking himself a crucial question.

"Should I teach them about the Birds and the Bees?"

The response was immediate.

"NO!" Everyone shouted. Konshiro concieded, feeling like he did push it a little too far.

"Alright alright. Fine. Now I'm going to need you all to move out of here. I must start documenting another story of mine." Konshiro stated, allowing them to leave. Most of them, primarily Amber scooping both Noir and Faunus Ruby under each arm, quickly made their way out. However, one of them walked up to him with a simple question.

"What story are you going to write out? Can I read it when you're done?" Nora asked, looking up at him as he held a large tome. The pages flipped over a number of times before it stopped on a blank page. He looked to it before looking back to her and chuckling. Thinking that he could allow them to read the stories up to the part that their current counterparts were currently.

"I suppose. But even I do not know entirely which story I will be writting for. If you wish, I will allow you to my personal library where the stories of these counterparts to your leader can be read." Konshiro said, his eyes glowing for a moment before a seperate door appeared to the side. Nora jumped in excitement before skipping over to it.

"Yay!" She hollard before entering it. Konshiro stared after her before letting out a low laugh. Ren should have stayed with her. In fact, he knew for a fact that he should have been with her.

...

Eh, the guy needed a break from time to time anyway.

So with everyone gone and going about their business, he went back to the blank page, intending to write within it.

'Now which one to write for...'

Hey guys. So this was a whopper of a chapter, huh? Over 50K words. A sort of Christmas present from me to you, eh? Or just a regular present from me to you if you don't celebrate Christmas. Still, happy holidays to you! But I am seriously asking if you would like to see the before mentioned story written out? Could be a good project for after I finish my first three stories. Gosh that's so far into the future. But anyway, that's been this chapter. I now have to go and spend time with my family for the holidays. I love you all! Stay safe! Stay home if you can, and know that if no one else cares, I do. So that's it from me, I will see you all in a later chapter. Toodles~!