Oi! Here I am, back to An Extension of the Soul. You will see that the title is pretty ironic. You know, I should stop putting these AN at the start, they are just useless, but I can't help myself. Well, nothing to say except this is mainly just comedy. Wink.

The next day began in a pretty normal way. They would go to Forever Fall in the afternoon, but the morning classes hadn't been cancelled. For once Port had given out a true and interesting lesson, during Ozpin's Politics of Remnant, but unfortunately Oobleck still spoke lightning-fast. No one really knew why the Professor taught in such a manner, especially since students reported to have heard him talking at normal speed time and again, but the Professor never answered that question when directly asked.

As such, there weren't many students actively paying attention in his class. Sure, many at least tried to, but not everyone could. Some simply weren't very interested, like for example Jaune Arc Rose Xiao Long, who was napping on his desk. All in all, Oobleck was pretty sure he was wasting his time trying to teach them.

However, that was his job. "Prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more popularly known as the Faunus War, humankind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie." He zoomed around the classroom as he spoke, taking sips from the divine ambrosia that kept him sane despite having to deal with hormonal superpowered teenagers everyday, all day long. "Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day! Now, have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?"

A few students raised their hands, and the man darkened, lowering his coffee. "Dreadful. Simply, dreadful. Remember, students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence," he spoke slowly and dangerously, as if daring any of them to deny his words. "I mean… I mean… I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang! A once peaceful organization fighting for equality, now turned into a group of terrorists committing the same mistake humans committed all those years ago. Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorize to be the turning point of the third year of the War?" He smiled a little when a hand was raised. "Yes?"

Weiss puffed out her chest in pride. "The battle at Fort Castle!"

The man nodded. "Precisely! And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"

At the corner of his sight, Oobleck saw Cardin Winchester flick a crumpled paper at Jaune. Well, while he didn't condone the action, at least it woke him up. Pretending to have mistaken his startled interjection for a volunteering, the man zipped before the student. "Mr Arc! Finally contributing to class. This is excellent! Excellent, I say. What is the answer?"

Jaune blinked sleepily. "Uhh… what is the question?"

A few students laughed, but Oobleck didn't show his building irritation. "We were talking about the Faunus Rights Revolution, Mr Arc, specifically about the Battle of Fort Castle. I asked about the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces."

He seemed to think about it for a few seconds, ignoring Yang who had just written 'NIGHT VISION' on a piece of paper and was holding it up, before snapping his fingers. "Ah, yes, I went there. Well, the most accredited theory is that General Lagune forgot about the Faunus' night vision, but I've read that there is a second theory I'm more inclined to agree with."

"Oh?" asked Oobleck, interested. He of course had heard of said second theory, but it had never been proved, so history remembered humanity's defeat as stupidity on Lagune's part. "Care to expand your answer?"

"Well, while I was travelling with my mom I visited the castle and the battlefield alike, as well as the museum, it was all very interesting. However, a few historians points out how General Lagune was, while not the brightest man in the army, not an idiot. As such, those historians find it hard to believe that he would've tried something like a nocturnal attack on the Faunus forces." Oobleck nodded, he was one of those historians, after all. "They believe that the captain of the Faunus 'army' used the Faunus' natural stealth and acute senses to infiltrate the enemy encampment so to lower the troops' morale. For that time alone, the Grimm worked in their favour as they preyed on the human army more than on the Faunus, leaving the humans scared and defeated."

"Ahh, yes, indeed a very solid theory, with unfortunately not enough facts to back it up." Oobleck looked at the young man before him with slightly interest. "Mr Arc, you seem remarkably good in this class, so I must ask you why you were sleeping during it. Are you tired?"

"Didn't sleep well. I've got stuff on my mind." As if to prove his point, Jaune yawned. "And… well, no offence Professor, but I know this stuff already so I thought to try and rest now since we will have that trip to Forever Fall this afternoon…"

Oobleck nodded slowly before continuing. "However, Mr Arc, if you are so knowledgeable in this subject, why don't you drop this class and take up another one? Studying what you already know is not wise."

Jaune laughed sheepishly. "Err… yeah, I guess so… I'll check what other classes I could take, thank you Professor," he replied, ignoring Ruby's not-so-silent cry of 'Take Weapon Class with me!'

"You are welcome, Mr Arc. Anyone else has anything to add?" Oobleck asked aloud before focusing on Cardin, the one who had thrown the paperball. "Mr Winchester, maybe you could participate as well?"

The boy scoffed. "Well, it's obvious that it's easier to train an animal than a soldier."

Oobleck sighed and shook his head. "Mr Winchester, I would really like if you could avoid such comments during my class." The bell chose that moment to ring. "Remain after class."

Cardin grumbled while everyone else packed up and left. Immediately, Jaune found that three fifths of his team had ideas for which class he could take on while dropping history.

"Come with me in Weapon Class!" offered Ruby, zipping around him so fast he just gave up on trying to keep her in sight. "You can learn how to build weapons and oooooooh you can then maybe even add more stuff to Cauchemar!"

"Ruby, it's already complex enough as it is, let's not add any more Jaune-killing modes," sighed the boy before his head was taken in a headlock. "Ugh, Yang…"

"Or, you could take Additional Combat Class with me!" she grinned happily. "Most students do, they can skip the more boring academic lessons and can kick more asses."

"In my case, I'd just get my ass kicked more, not the other way around. While that might be a good way to learn, I'd prefer if first I could get some sparring under my belt, maybe with you guys."

"You could always ask Weiss, Ren or Nora, they were your teammates for a grand total of… what? A week? Well, it's still something." Sky patted Jaune's shoulder. "Come on, come on, it's nothing. You could ask for a free period to go and hit the gym. Oh, or even better, you could take an Aura Manipulation class, you've got a lot of it so it could be useful."

Jaune thought about his options for a bit before he sighed. "Okay, all three are too appealing to give up. I'm hammering the last nail on my coffin. I'll take the Aura class, but I'll probably ask you to spar, as well as my… err… former teammates, and Ruby I'll have to ask you to teach me a little of weapons. Not just building them, a more general 'weapons', I'm pretty sure you know lots about it."

"Yeah, and in return you can help us with other stuff," said Yang, winking at him. "I mean, you kinda suck in combat-related classes, yeah, but otherwise you've been homeschooled all your life and you've studied academic subjects way more than us. Me especially, I only ever cared to get a passing grade."

"Wait, so you tutor me in combat and I tutor you in academics?" They all nodded, and Jaune let out a short laugh. "Eh, this is unexpected. I thought I'd be far far far behind everyone in everything."

"Come on, Jaune, you've got a different education than us, but you've still got an education." Yang leaned in. "Unless you want to tell us that your mom is a Grimm and you've lived with a pack of Beowolves all your life, of course."

"My mother is not a Grimm, thank you!" Jaune exclaimed stiffly as they all entered the cafeteria, receiving a few stares. "Listen, I just thought that everyone in this school would've been like, a superhuman or something. Or superFaunus, whatever. Instead… well… they are…"

"Underwhelming?" offered Blake, raising an eyebrow.

"Well… yeah. I mean, no. They're normal. The point is…" Jaune scratched the back of his head. "We are training to become Remnant's future defenders. Shouldn't people here be… I don't know… different? Better? Maybe more open-minded, or naturally gifted in the art of fighting, or maybe tactical geniuses… I just see teenagers like in any normal school, just with superpowers and no responsibility."

"Well… if everyone thought like you do, Jaune, Remnant would have no Hunters," replied Yang. "I mean, there are indeed people who have ideals and goals to achieve, but most of the students in Beacon -and in the other Academies as well- are here just because they like being strong and powerful, and they like the idea of getting Hunter licenses so they can order people around when they are on a mission."

"Those sound like bullies with superpowers," noted Jaune.

"Well, yes. But the Grimm are too much of a threat to look into such details. Take Cardin, for example," continued Blake, shrugging slightly, as they all took their food trays. "He's a bully and a racist, yet I'm sure even he wouldn't hesitate to protect a Faunus from the Grimm. The Academies overlook such traits because even those people will help in the fight against the Grimm. And, as harsh as that might sound, everyone knows that the best people always die. The ones who can manage to stay alive aren't the best people, but they get experience, and in this career it's most of what matters. So, yeah, they are bullies, but the Grimm do not differentiate between a bully and a victim."

Jaune sighed and looked down. "The best people always die, huh?" His mind went back to what had happened to Ruby. She was the best person, in terms of ideals, he had ever met, and she had been killed at fifteen because of those ideals. Maybe Blake was right. Well, at least now he knew he was gonna live a long life. "Guys, I have to tell you all something."

"What is it, Jaune?" asked Ruby, despite being the only one who already knew about it, even though she didn't know he was gonna talk about that.

"My transcripts, they are… they are forged. Fake. Or well, they were, Aunt Glynda wrote them again and signed them herself so now they are legal, but I got in with forged transcripts," he said quickly, trying to get it over with. They weren't like Ruby, he couldn't really expect-

"Well, it's not I can judge you for that," shrugged Blake, returning to eat her food and leaving a surprised Jaune to stare at her. "I mean, it's not like I am a former criminal or something, of course I am not, but still it's not like I can condemn you for wanting to help people and resorting to less-than-legal methods to do it."

Jaune turned to Yang, who just surprised him further with a shrug. "You saved my sister, Jaune. You're basically already a Huntsman to me. I don't give two shits about your forgery, I trashed a pub before coming to Beacon." She snickered at his slightly frightened expression. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna trash you. Besides, you aren't like Cardin, so I don't even see any reason to rat you out."

Sky looked between Yang and Blake before he shrugged as well. "If they are okay with it, I'm okay with it," he stated plainly.

"But… but… but Torchwick!" Jaune whisper-yelled, attracting Yang's gaze once more. "I got my transcripts from him!"

"So you know where to find that motherfucker?" asked Yang, her eyes just a little burning red. "Ruby, forget I ever said the word 'motherfucker'."

"Noted."

"I… No, I got the transcripts and he asked me to pay him back with a future favour. Nothing extreme, I swear!" Jaune began to sweat under Yang's gaze, and when she smiled his nerves did not ease in the slightest. "Y-Yang?"

"Good, very very good. Now we just have to wait until he asks you for that favour, maybe you two will have to meet, and we can come along and capture him," she said happily, sitting back down as her eyes went back to lilac. "That's a very very big plus in my books. Thanks, lil' brother!"

"Yaaaaaang…" both Ruby and Jaune groaned.

/-/

The red leaves on the ground were disturbed as fourteen pairs of feet stepped over them. The trees' branches swayed gently in the wind, letting a few crimson leaves detach and fall gently down. Glynda Goodwitch was leading them deeper and deeper into the woods. Behind her there was Team PWVR, with Pyrrha lagging behind. After the redhead came Team -BYL, whose leader was in the back together with his Link. Team CRDS hurried after them, keeping away from the last two members of the group. One was a young redhead, Ruby, sitting on the last person's shoulder and squealing in excited at being able to get such a ride. The last was a terrifying iron giant almost ten feet tall, covered in lucid grey armour, who made the ground shake at every step. He seemed just slightly aware of Ruby's presence on his shoulder.

"Yes students, the Forever Fall forest is indeed beautiful. But, we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I am here to make sure none of you die while doing so," Professor Goodwitch explained as she led a few teams of first years into the red-leafed forest. "Each of you is to gather one jar with the red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at four o'clock. Have fun!"

Eight of the thirteen people in her group walked off to her right, with a ninth stomping after them -Jaune-, while the other four students chose to walk away on her left. Well, there they went. She suppressed a sigh. 'Come on, come on. He went through Initiation just fine. This totally isn't gonna be more dangerous. I can't stalk him around, he is a grown young man now, not my little boy any more.' She sniffled. 'My baby Jaune is all grown up and resurrects people. I'm so proud of him.'

Meanwhile, with the other students… Jaune was busy removing the heavy full plate armour his aunt had insisted for him to wear. "Damn, damn, damn, damn it!" he exclaimed as he finally peeled off the first layer, revealing a second full plate underneath. "This stuff weights a ton!"

"Wait, how many layers are there?" Yang asked, standing on tip-toes to try and see his face. With the armour on, he was standing a bit over nine feet in height, far more than his natural six feet something. "How can you even move with that?"

"I'm used to being coddled, and I'm used to overprotective relatives. During History class I haven't mentioned that I visited Fort Castle with Glynda, and that she made me wear all sorts of protective symbols in case the ghosts of the dead soldiers decided to take revenge on me," grumbled Jaune, removing his gauntlets just to reveal a third pair underneath. "It's very very annoying. Or like that time when I went to a swordplay lesson, and -still my auntie- threatened the instructors of painful death if they went too hard on me. As the years went on it lessened, but right now we are in the middle of a Grimm-infested forest."

"Three full plates?" asked Blake, bewildered. "That explains why you look like an iron golem animated by dark magic."

"I currently have other four full plates under this, it was seven of them in total," replied Jaune. "And I still don't know how she can find full plates built so that they can go over other full plates. Normally, they should be worn over a vest and nothing else…"

"You underestimate the powers of family overprotectiveness," sighed Ruby, patting his shoulder. "Once, when we were visiting a cinema, Yang managed to have the entire hall completely empty aside from us. She said it was to prevent people from 'getting handsy' with me with the advantage of the crowd."

Jaune glanced at Yang, who merely shrugged. "You are crazy."

"Hey, she's my little sister, I gotta protect her innocence!" she protested as she began to help him remove the fourth armour. "And this is gonna happen to you too, I gotta protect my little siblings."

"Yaaaaang…"

"Shush, Ruby, you know nothing about the dangers of the world," replied the girl. "And especially, you know nothing about what people could do to you."

"You mean sex?"

Yang choked, stumbled, tripped, fell and cursed all at the same time. Thankfully the curse was lost in choking, or the Gods would've probably returned to Remnant just to punish her. And, meanwhile, punish all humanity because that's how they worked: destroy everyone, so no one will ever commit that mistake again. It was a sound logic, right? If there was no one left alive, no one was going to curse ever again. "Wh-What?!"

"Jaune told me what 'sex' is, Yang, since you refused to tell me," explained the younger girl. "He told me everything I need to know, and honestly now I regret asking him, but still I don't see the big deal…"

Yang looked at Jaune with betrayal written all over her face. "Y-You told her?!"

"Well… yes. I mean…" Jaune chucked aside a piece of armour and laughed nervously. "Err… I just thought it would be better that way. I mean, you won't always be around to protect her, Yang, what if someone else decided to take advantage of Ruby's ignorance?"

Yang continued to choke, but she had to give him that. He had a point, and she had no comeback for that. "I…"

"Oh, come on, it wasn't that much of a big deal, it was just embarrassing," protested Ruby. "Come on, let's gather the sap, so then we can relax!"

Yang was left to choke, but the others quickly began to gather the sap. Weiss and Pyrrha were -vainly- trying to stop Nora from eating all the sap Ren gathered. Keyword being vainly. Jaune apparently discovered a newfound allergy to the red sap, much to his own dismay and everyone else's amusement. One by one, they all finally gathered enough sap for everyone. Then, they decided to just slack off until the time to get back came. Of course, 'relax' included keeping Nora from eating all the sap, helping Jaune with his allergy, and trying to shake Yang out of her shock-induced trance.

The first two weren't all that hard, all in all. Ren had years of experience with Nora to help him with the task, and Jaune's Aura could keep him fine as long as he didn't have to touch the stuff. It was the third one that was giving them trouble. Yang kept staying in a comatose state, staring off into the void, still as a statue.

So, of course, no one really noticed Pyrrha quietly using her Semblance to lift one of the -many- plates of Jaune's 'armour' to shield the boy from a stray flying jar of sap. However, they did hear the shattering of glass, and immediately afterwards the armour clattering to the ground. Pyrrha did her best to appear innocent, but she shouldn't have even tried. Blake heard cursing from nearby, so the redhead was spared from interrogation.

The cursing belonged to a particularly disgruntled Cardin Winchester and his team, Team CRDS. Beside him, a boy called Russel Thrush sighed as he put away the box of Rapier Wasps, their plan having failed. None of the boys realized that they had been found out. However, there was one positive thing about the whole ordeal.

It woke Yang up.

"Motherfuckers!" she shouted, using her gauntlets to propel herself forwards. She glanced back from over her shoulder. "Ruby, forget about the curse!"

"Sure!"

"And you!" Yang landed like a meteor right in front of Cardin, who was shell-shocked by her arrival. "No one messes with my family. NO ONE! Did you get it, you miserable half-piece of Creep shit dried in the desert sun and shaped like the ugliest human on Remnant?! I cannot beat you into a pulp at school, but this is not Beacon! Jaune's allergic to that stuff, you could've seriously harmed him!"

"I-"

"None of that!" exclaimed Yang, cocking a fist before thinking better of it and lowering it. "No, wait, I got a better idea." Her eyes remained red. "I'm gonna tell Professor Goodwitch about your 'prank'."

Cardin went white in abject fear. Rumours were that Goodwitch was extremely vengeful when it came to her 'nephew'. Cardin didn't know if it was true or not, but so the rumours said. His teammates, his traitorous teammates, were just standing behind him. "But he… he broke my-"

"He didn't do anything. Sure, he might've threatened you, and he received punishment in the form of an essay about proper behaviour. You took his weapon, you played with it, and you broke your own arm, dude." Yang's smile wouldn't have been out of place on a Beowolf's face. "Duh, you really want to get revenge on the one who broke your arm? Get revenge on yourself, and learn not to try and fire a railgun in a katara, Aura or no Aura."

Yang turned, greeting her teammates and friends with a victorious grin. "Sup, guys? Let's just go and leave this loser with his team of idiots, we got a professor to find."

A loud stomping of feet attracted her attention, followed by a ferocious roar. A large Ursa Major lumbered into the clearing, attracted both by Yang's anger and Cardin's fear. Russel, Sky and Saber all ran away screaming, while Cardin just looked like a deer in the headlights. The evil Grimm took one step forwards before a reluctant Jaune was pushed forth by Yang. The boy looked up to the corrupted eyes of the monsters and raised his weapons.

The Grimm roared again, showing off its great strength and power, rearing on its hind legs to appear even taller. Before him, Jaune didn't even blink. He had faced Yang in combat, a simple roar didn't even faze him. The Grimm brought down a large paw to try and claw out his heart, and the knight raised his shield, bracing himself for the terrible hit.

He felt a bump on his shield, and nothing else. Looking up, he saw that the Grimm was trying to force his shield down, without any success. Jaune blinked. Seriously? That was it? Yang hit much harder even without her Semblance. Shrugging, he ignored the Ursa's attempts to crush him and pointed his sword at the beast's throat. It was out of his reach, he would have to jump in order to hit it. Honestly, Jaune didn't feel like it. That Ursa was pathetic, come on. His peers went easy on him, and still were a much much greater challenge. With another shrug, he activated the mechashift and the handle elongated into a shaft. The now-spear weapon pierced the monster's throat, killing it instantly, before converting back into a sword.

He turned to his friends and just scratched his head. "That's it?" he asked. No one of them seemed surprised. "Well, this was kinda too easy… Are you sure it was an Ursa and not a Creep or something?"

Yang let out a single bark of laughter. "Jaune, welcome to the world of Hunters. Grimm are easy-peasy. Well, the common ones are, at least. I totally trashed two Ursai during Initiation, basically laughing my ass off."

"I feel cheated…" moaned Jaune, shaking his head. "Come on… And here I thought Grimm were stuff of nightmares. They might be ugly but they are not exactly strong…"

"That's usually what we say in the first or second year of combat school," sighed Yang, following his lead and shaking her head as well. "Grimm are too easy. Then you have to fight a horde, and you reconsider. Few of them are really that strong on their own, but the problem is that… well…"

"The Grimm are endless. There is no limit to their numbers," Blake took up from where Yang had trailed off. "Sure, a single Ursa is not a real challenge, but ten are, a hundred are, and thousand are. And there are thousands ready to attack, in the Grimmlands."

"So yeah, Grimm are not really all that tough," shrugged Sky.

"But then… why did Cardin's teammates run?" asked Jaune, puzzled. "I mean, they should-"

"Not all schools make you fight Grimm, Jaune," Yang explained. "Ruby and I have fought them before, but with our dad and uncle, not with the school. In the school we see a teacher killing a Grimm, sometimes, to show us how to do it, but we rarely get to do it on our own. They were probably intimidated by the Grimm. After all, not everyone encountered Grimm during Initiation."

"I guess that's fair enough, but still…" Jaune looked down at Cauchemar. "I can't help but feel cheated. As if I had paid for a drink, and was given water. Killing Grimm is so much easier than I thought…"

"That's because you haven't met the dangerous ones. The Emerald Forest is huge, Jaune, there are many different Grimm in its depths, and Forever Fall is not different," laughed Blake as the five of them left Cardin in the clearing to go and get Professor Goodwitch. "You'll see, there are hard-to-kill Grimm out there. Just be thankful you don't have to fight them right now."

"I guess…" Jaune stopped as they passed by his discarded 'armour'. "Guys, wait, I need to put this back on. If Auntie sees me without this, she's gonna give me detention until my birthday."

"You really want to put that back on?" asked Yang, bewildered.

"Well… yeah," nodded Jaune. "Oh, and guys, don't worry about that, we settled it," he added toward Team PWVR, who were still trying to keep Nora from eating the sap. Ren, Pyrrha and Weiss gave him a nod of acknowledgement, while Nora didn't react at all.

"Well, all in all I guess this has been a great trip, right?" grinned Ruby.

Slurp.

"NORA!"

Oh man, that was so fun to write. Especially Glynda's overprotectiveness. Seven full plates... poor Jaune, he's carrying around 560 pounds (~280 kg) of armour. Heh, this is a fanfiction, so he can.

As for Fort Castle... well, it just makes sense for Jaune -who has travelled a lot- to have also visited the places he passed by. Although I just had to add that bit with Glynda's protectiveness.

Finally Jaune defeats the Ursa! ... ... ... Wait, that's it? Come on, let's face it, in canon Grimm are Remnant's laughingstock. 17-y-old children LAUGH while fighting them, and while I might comment on said students' mental sanity, it means the Grimm aren't all that strong. Rarer Grimm might, but Beowolves and Ursai must be pushovers. So Jaune, who has been sparring with other students (even if losing), must consider Grimm weak too.

Moving onto his team's reaction to his forged transcripts. Blake is a former terrorist, she'd better shut up. Yang trashed a pub and injured civilians - again something worse than forgery. And Sky... I hope I've been portraying him right. In my opinion Sky is just a guy who goes along with the others. With CRDL in canon he was 'bad'. With them in this fanfiction, he is 'good'. He might change later, but right now he's mostly just the one who accepts anything and rarely speaks up, even though he does have an opinion. I hope I made that clear.

Until next time,

Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh