Hey guys! I know I've been… well, absent as foretold, but yeah me being offline kinda sucks. I hate to leave people hanging with PMs. So yeah, I'm sorry.

Also, next time a chapter goes haywire like it happened with Demonic Redemption Ch4's first draft, please do not swarm my Inbox or review section. Check if there is already a review pointing it out, and if not, please write one. I appreciate the help, I really do, but last time I got 8 PMs and over 23 reviews telling me that… plus one saint of a reviewer who literally re-edited the chapter and posted it in the reviews section. While kinda messy and jarring, they did one hell of a job just for me and my story, so yeah here I'm really grateful. ^^

Anyway, if you're wondering why I skipped ViewingTES on my update list, well the reason is pretty simple. I need to copy the TES chapter from files LordHellPhoenix sends me, so if I have no WiFi or connection, I cannot get those chapter files. As such, I cannot write ViewingTES when I am offline. Sorry, I will try to update it soon. While I'm offline, though, I will continue to write the non-reaction stories. ^^

This chapter is mainly just shits'n'giggles, so beware: if you came here looking for a nice plot, turn away now and don't look back. I'm trying, I'm trying hard, but plot and humour/comedy just don't fit well with me. Coeur Al'Aran is a master of balancing comedy and plot. I unfortunately am not.

"Listen, I'm not telling you to drop the game, just adapt your characters to the monsters you fight!"

"No! I'm pissed! I'm pissed at the game for being impossible, and I'm pissed at you for defeating the area eight's boss in literally four turns! I'm uninstalling it as soon as I can!"

"You just had to think about it! Of course if you use Fire Dust on a fire-based boss you're gonna lose!"

"Blasphemy! Fire Dust always work! Blast 'em to pieces, that's my motto!"

"Yang, for the love of Oum you can't win with that strategy, and if you can't win you're gonna get angry, and if you get angry I am the one who pays for it!"

Several customers turned toward the ruckus as the two blondes went on and on with their argument. A nervous clerk looked like she really wanted them to be quiet, but she did not have the guts to go and tell them to quiet down. Some customers were used to Hunters and Hunters in training, those being the ones who ignored the noise, but others were clearly curious as to what could cause the two teenagers to be so upset.

The answer was simple. Videogames. Or, to be specific, RPG videogames.

Jaune had tried. When it became clear that Epic Grimm Fantasy couldn't work well with Yang Xiao Long, the boy had tried to introduce her to other types of RPG. He had tried Magma Monster. He had tried Cave Escave – Yang had laughed at the pun, much to his chagrin. The creator of the game, a certain TaiXL, was going to pay for that. He had tried The Legend of Amzo – he still didn't know why it was called like that. He had tried Grimm Rule – whose creator, ArthurW, had a very extensive knowledge of the Grimm. He had tried Kill the Maiden – still by the same programmer, the objective of the game was to deal as much damage as possible to the black-haired, amber-eyed woman in red that continued to run screaming across the map's locations. He and Yang had a good laugh at that.

However, all those games had a flaw. Once the first levels had passed, the player had to start using their brain to figure out how to continue without dying, losing, or getting stuck. In Magma Monster that point was during the journey across Atlas, where the cold invariably turned Yang's lava monster into stone. In Cave Escave, as soon as timed puzzles began to appear, Yang couldn't get past them in time. In the Legend of Amzo, to free the girl trapped in the tower, Yang had to carefully store her magic powers… and she of course always used them all against the first enemies. In Grimm Rule, Yang pushed all her resources into launching attacks instead of empowering Grimm or researching more technology, or gaining allies. And in Kill the Maiden, Yang never used the traps, so she ended up uselessly chasing the 'Maiden' across the screen, without hope to really catch her.

Needless to be said, Yang was not in a good mood.

Jaune knew he could've just allowed her to play a fighting game, but he couldn't give up. Yang's utter lack of any strategy other than 'smash them to pieces' was appalling. How had she survived that long?

"Okay, let's try another one. Like… what about… what's this… oh, this is new! 'Fall of Beacon'. Let me read the description." The boy wiped up the screen of his Scroll. "Oh look, it's the same woman from Kill the Maiden. The author's the same. Now… here. 'Join Ember Autumn, Sapphire Sushi and Platinum Grey as they hatch a plan to destroy Beacon Academy. Use your contacts with the Valean criminal underworld, threaten others into serving you, take control of the White Fang, and finally lead an army of Grimm into the school in time for the Vytal Festival. Unique Grimm contents! Gore-less mode available for children! Five levels of difficulty! Seven stages! Control your underlings directly with the change of PoV! Second-screen feature accessible!' Wow, this looks awesome. All of ArthurW's works are masterpieces. Wanna try it?"

"Jaune, you need to plan for that," Yang deadpanned at him. "Me, awful planner, remember? Died in Magma Monster stage four of a hundred because of that. Comprendo?"

"Come on, it's a new ArthurW game! You can't not play it!" protested the boy, already hitting 'Play Online' on his Scroll.

"Is he really that famous?" asked Yang. "I've never heard of him."

"Well, his games usually require intelligence and wit so… err… let's just say you don't usually look for those types of game." Jaune sighed in relief as Yang's eyes remained lilac, proving he had given the right answer. "He's done lots of games. A week ago he posted this video of himself playing the prototype of this new game, back then still nameless, where he had to infiltrate Beacon Academy and hack the CCT Tower, and then hack the military's own computers. It was epic. Like, he wasn't really all that good at using his character's fighting skills. Platinum Grey -one of his recent new characters- has like ten levels more than any student of Beacon, and he still doesn't use him. But other than that, every video of himself playing he does is always so awesome. He's totally my idol."

"That's nice and all, but why can't I just play my fighting games?" snorted Yang, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Please. Just try this one," he begged her, literally going down on one knee and raised his hands to the sky, clasped in prayer. "Please, Big Sis, just one more."

When Yang groaned and looked away, he knew he had her.

/-/

"Wow, Jauney, that's absolutely awesome! Not as awesome as Ren but close!" Of course Nora was the first one to give her opinion of his new combat outfit. She had barely looked at it, and to be honest everyone already knew what she was going to say even before she had actually opened her mouth.

Ren came next, "It does fit your weapon, and it does not seem to hinder you. I supposed that's what matters." As usual, Jaune did not really understand what he meant. He was pretty sure it was meant to be a compliment, but it also sounded like it was practical but did not fit Jaune.

"It's nice," commented Blake, returning to read without as much as a second glance. "Better than jeans and hoodie, at least."

"And that's not saying much, but I dig it," Sky agreed with a thumbs-up. "I mean, it sucks that I've lost the only armour buddy here aside from Pyrrha, but I'll get over it… I think. Anyway, it's nice. You look like a ninja." That last comment made Blake start to read a little more intensely, for whatever the reason.

Probably a reason related to her books.

"That's so cool! I mean, it'd be cooler if you had a cape, but that's fine! Capes are my thing!" Ruby was barely visible as she zoomed around Jaune several times per second. "But if you want a cape or a cloak, you can! I give you permission to copy my style!"

"No Ruby, he can't wear a cape or a cloak. His weapons are placed on his back, and Cauchemar's handle sticks out from over his left shoulder. That makes cloaks unwearable," explained Weiss before turning to look at the boy. "As for your outfit, I guess it is… fitting."

"Is that a compliment, or an insult to both Jaune and his outfit?" asked Nora, a little confused.

Everyone had a small laugh at the heiress's expense at that.

"Anyway, Ruby, shopping with Yang wasn't all that bad. I mean, we got done pretty quickly," said Jaune, sitting down beside the redhead with his dinner tray. "Then we got lost playing RPGs, of course."

"Oh, really?" exclaimed Ruby. "You managed to get Yang to play an RPG?"

"Hey!"

"Well… kind of. She lost every time she tried, and she lost badly. Awfully bad," replied the boy, earning himself a slap to the back of his head from Yang. "Really Ruby, your sister sucks at videogames. She even manage to die in Kill the Maiden!"

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"N-"

"Yes Ruby she did!" snapped Jaune, growing tired of the little game. "And in Grimm Rule, she literally lasted fifteen minutes!"

"How is that even possible? That's a game you can't just lose. You have infinite Grimm to use!" protested Ruby, shock written all over her face. "I mean, the only way you could lose would be if you… no."

"Yes."

"No. Yang may suck but not that much."

"Why are you so upset?" asked Pyrrha, shyly. "I mean, I haven't played any of those videogames, but I've been told losing is part of the game."

"No, Pyrrha, you don't understand. In Grimm Rule, you begin with lots and lots of Grimm. For you to lose, you would need to allow Hunters to come into your castle. And they must be extremely powerful Hunters too, because your castle is automatically guarded by some sort of Grimm Wyvern. Four of them. You'd literally have to never even look at your status screen!" Jaune shook his head in desperation. "And she managed to die in Kill the Maiden, caught by her own trap. I can't believe it."

Weiss scoffed. "You shouldn't focus so much on such details. Playing videogames is not so important."

"That's because you suck at gaming, I just know it," Yang shot back. "I bet even I am better than you. Besides, Jaune said I got better after the first hour of tutoring."

"I said marginally better!" corrected the boy. "Don't make me say just how bad you still are."

"I can beat you at anything, anytime, Xiao Long," Weiss hissed, leaning slightly forwards for added effect.

"Game night!" And just like that, the tension in the air was shattered before it could even build up, all thanks to Nora. The hyperactive bomber literally jumped on the table, somehow not stepping on anyone's food, and grinned down at them. "Tonight, by your dorm!"

"Wait, you can't invite yourself in our dorm!" Blake protested.

"Why not? It makes sense! You have Jaune, Ruby and Yang, all gaming fanatics, so we'll use their stuff!" Nora obviously did not see the flaws in her reasoning, but they had learned to let Nora be Nora. Goodwitch didn't even get angry any more whenever she found yet another pink Dust crystal laying around. "Plus you have five beds, so there's more space for us to sit on!"

"Hey now, I never said I-"

Weiss's interruption went unheard by Nora, or maybe just ignored. "And we can play all kinds of games! Smash Smash Grimm, Hammer Time, The Way of the Hammer, When Everything Looks Like A Nail-"

"I never heard of that one," noted Yang.

"She just made it up," sighed Ren.

"-and lots of other fun smashing games!" Nora completed, full of enthusiasm. Jaune, Yang and Ruby were all for it. Ren was reluctantly forced to accept because of Nora. Sky wasn't against it. Blake, Weiss and Pyrrha, however, seemed uninterested. And that couldn't do. "Weiss~ Are you scared of competing in a little game?"

"I am not scared," huffed the girl, "I just don't see the point in taking part of this while I could study."

"Oh, but you study all day! It's so booooooring!" complained the hammer wielder, laying down on the bench. "Pweeeeeeaaaaaase?"

"Nora, you're making a scene." Weiss's eyebrow twitched at her remark being ignored, but she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. "Nora, stop it." Still no signs of stopping. If anything, Nora's wails got louder and more desperate. "Ugh, fine! Just stop it!"

"Okay dokey!" Tears pushed back, the girl turned on Blake, who just shook her head, hiding her face into her book. However, Nora did not need to cry again to know what to do. "Blakey~~~ Come on~~~ Blaaaaaake~~~"

Her bow twitched.

"Blake! Blake! Blake! Blake!" With every repetition of her name, Nora began to appear and disappear around the girl, a pop accompanying every appearance. "Blake! Blake! Blake! Blake! Blake! Blake! Blake!" Changing rhythm, Nora began to sing-song the word. "Blaaake~ Blakeeee~ Blaaaaaaaake~ Blake~~~ B! B! B! Blake! Bella-donna! Yo!"

The rap version of her name seemingly broke her. "Fine! I'll come too! Just stop repeating my name! Stop it! It's driving me insane!" Nora stopped with a huge grin on her face, and Blake face-palmed. "Is this what you've had to deal with every day of your life?" she asked Ren. "Because I would've either killed her, or killed myself."

"After a while, you get used to her," shrugged the boy. "And besides, despite all her quirks, Nora is a very good companion… even though she can only keep silent for two minutes or so before having to make some sort of noise."

"Yeah, I'm awesome like that," boasted the girl, before turning to face her last victi… friend. Pyrrha Nikos, despite having faced far greater opponents that a five-feet-tall gingerhead, seemed to flinch at her sudden gaze. "You. Game nights are great ways of socializing. You. Us. Game night. Socializing. You make friends. Duh. Capisce?"

"Nora, Pyrrha is not a troglodyte, so stop treating her like one!" Weiss snapped at the redhead, but she didn't care. Instead, she got very close to the taller girl, smirked, and leaned in.

"Besides, if you want others to look past your fame like you sleeptalk about, what is better than to let them see your inner gamer?" she whispered in her ear. "You might even get to learn that you like videogames."

Pyrrha coughed politely into her hand -how she managed to cough politely, no one knew, but polite was something always associated to the redhead girl- and gently pushed Nora away. "I don't see any harm in this, after all. Besides, we don't have anything else to do."

/-/

Cinder Fall was having a fine day.

Her plans were going smoothly. Roman Torchwick had, after some persuasion on her part, agreed to work for her for free. The White Fang, those stupid animals, were happy to be able to 'deal a crippling blow to the oppressive civilization of mankind'. Even Adam Taurus had accepted to work for a human. His hypocrisy was not lost to her. The Dust thefts were going pretty well, and they were planning on hijacking that new SDC shipment's cargo. If that worked, they would've been able to move onto phase two of her plan. Emerald and Mercury, those two hapless fools, were so arrogant and full of themselves they were happy to do anything she told them to just to ingratiate themselves to her. Neo, that psychotic assassin, had just threatened to kill her if anything happened to Torchwick. How cute, in her modest opinion, the amateur thought she could intimidate someone as powerful as Cinder Fall. And finally, the cherry on top of the cake, that fool Ozpin didn't even suspect a thing.

She was having a fine day. Until, suddenly, it wasn't a fine day any more.

"Come on, shoot her! Shoot her!"

"Shooting isn't gonna work, I'm conserving money to buy the grenade launcher, man. That deals a thousand damages per grenade. I ain't taking any chance."

"But she's gonna get away!"

"Don't fret, this is just stage fourteen. And in any case, the Maiden can't win, she can only run screaming across the map's locations."

Cinder froze and turned to the pair of White Fang grunts on break. They were bent over a Scroll. Silently, she moved behind them and watched as they blew up an exact copy of herself. The game's screen then showed the words 'Ember Autumn is dead. Good job! You up for next stage?'

Her eyebrow twitched, and the temperature in the room increased. However, she decided against roasting the two miserable animals -who still hadn't noticed her- and instead moved on. Her day could still be called good. She knew she was a cruel boss, so she supposed it was only fair for her underlings to try and take out their stress on a virtual version of her.

'It's not like they could do that to me,' she gloated silently.

"You got found out."

"Shut up Em. This is, like, the hardest stage of the entire game! Ember is shit at stealth! All she can do is to shoot those fireballs of hers and she has that seduction skill of hers. How am I supposed to infiltrate the CCT without the entirety of Beacon noticing? Oh, someone's coming… fuck!"

"Who was it?"

"James fucking Ironwood. Headshot me the second the elevator's doors opened. Ugh. With Platinum Grey I could've taken him. Come on, combat-based assassin prepared to bring down an army against a single General. Sure victory. Ember Autumn sucks so very much."

Cinder ground her teeth together as she strode over to her loyal underlings and peered over their shoulders. As she had feared, Mercury was playing another game with her as a character. This time, 'she' had to infiltrate the CCT tower like her plan pertained. However, this time Mercury was directly controlling 'her' as 'she' moved through the area and knocked out the guards.

'Stay calm,' she told herself. 'It must have been Watts. It must. He is the only coding genius who knows of my plan. I am going to roast him alive when I see him again.'

Her day had started off fine, and had become bad in just a few moments. However, if she tried hard enough, she was sure that she could find a way to restore her good mood and salvage her day. Like bossing Roman around.

"Neo, come on, I got a present for you. It's the new Torture Ember 4. I know you loved the first three. What? No, I know it's not your birthday. I just know you've been very stressed recently, so I wanted you to unwind a little with something else than eviscerating goons."

Her teeth creaked as they gritted together once more. Cinder Fall burst into the room and snatched the Scroll from Roman's hands. As the thief froze, she selected 'New Game' and glared at the screen as an exact virtual copy of herself was captured and stripped by some Grimm tentacles. Just when she began to fear what would come next, the video ended and a new image appeared. This time, it was 'her', naked as the day she was born, chained to the ceiling. A toolbar on the lower side of the screen showed all the tools that could be used on her. Knuckles, whip, chainsaw, knife, razor, rope, nails, rifle, Dust, and so many more tools to inflict pain to her. Just above the toolbar there was the red bar of 'her' health.

She looked up and met Torchwick's eyes. He gulped nervously.

"I can explain."

/-/

Ruby Rose was in quite the predicament. And, of course, it was all Nora's fault.

Somehow, she had been moved from her spot beside Sky to Jaune's side. That had been the first clue of Nora's involvement. Then, for some reason, when everyone got blankets, they received ones with pink hearts roughly sewn into them – Ruby had no idea where Nora had learned how to sew. Fortunately, Jaune was apparently used to weird blankets popping up during his game nights with his sisters, and eventually the weird blanket always ended up with him, so he had no problem with it. Then Nora kept insisting for her and Jaune to play together in all the teamplay RPG they played, and of course Ruby knew why it was that. Especially in the World of Dust series, because the players could access the romance route, and Nora had stolen Jaune's controller for long enough to activate it.

It wouldn't have been all that bad, had it ended there. Of course, they could've just deactivated it. But then Nora and Yang had encouraged them not to, to see how they handled it. Nora and Ren had the romance active even if their characters stated to be 'not together-together' whenever asked, so Nora convinced Yang to convince Jaune and Ruby.

It would've been difficult to guess which one of the two blushed harder.

Eventually, they had deactivated it. But that was in the last game, World of Dust: the Fall of the Tyrant. And somehow Jaune had the newest WoD game, that meant more embarrassment for Ruby. Thankfully she was at least given a short break, since Pyrrha had just then arrived from the library with Weiss, and the two of them had to be 'educated'.

"So… what exactly is this?" Weiss asked, pointing at the CD cover. "It looks like a DVD."

"Meh, close enough," shrugged Jaune, inserting the CD in the SchneeStation under the TV's screen. "Anyway, this is World of Dust: Running Out. I've played it a little, but I never really got past stage one, so I know the initial plot. Basically, in this game Remnant is running out of Dust. Everything is going to ruin, people are panicked, Grimm swarm the cities, blah blah blah. Your goal is to find a way to either replenish the planet's resources of Dust, or to make Dust recyclable."

"That's impossible," rebutted the white-haired girl, knowledgeable as usual. Unfortunately, her knowledge was in real-life matters, not in videogames.

"It's a game, Weiss. Anyway, the characters can be Hunters, Researchers, or Survivors. Hunters are those with high combat skills, but low lore and medium support skills. Researchers have high lore to study the Dust crystals you find scattered across the various maps. And Survivors are basically those who have survived the worst of the crisis and have high support and healing skills, medium combat and low lore. Oh, Researchers too have medium healing."

"I'm following thus far," nodded Pyrrha, taking mental notes of the game.

"Well, that's basically it, at least at first. You find or create new equipment -oh, Yang, they fixed the max damage bug they had in the last game- and you can discover and explore new areas. Plus the graphics are just awesome." Jaune quickly selected New Game and gestured them to sit. "Thankfully we have enough secondary screens, hehe. Everyone, grab a joystick."

"Wait, if everyone has a personal screen, why are we using the TV screen too?" asked Weiss, pointing at the screen.

"It's a special configuration for multiplayer game sessions. The screen shows everyone's basic status, like health, Aura, level, and stats, so you don't need to check your Group Profile on your screen to see how the other is," explained Jaune as he quickly chose his character's attributes.

"Researcher, Jaune?" Yang snorted a laugh. "I thought you wanted to become a Hunter, not a scientist."

"If played right, the Researcher is the best choice, at least for the first stage of the game," Jaune shot back pettily. "With good equipment -and as Researcher I'm the best at crafting stuff- I can hold my own in combat, I also have medium support and healing skills -that means you don't die immediately- but most of all I got high lore. In this game, if you don't have lore, you are basically done for."

"He's right, Xiao Long," scoffed Weiss, choosing the Researcher herself. "Brute strength cannot win over fine intelligence."

"There is no right choice," noted Ren, wise as always. "You can play with any type of character. Besides, we are nine. I believe we can handle anything."

"You jinxed us," Ruby, Yang and Jaune all droned together, knowing all too well how games always found a way to kill the entire party in a way that still made perfect sense.

"Is there anything else I should know of?" Pyrrha asked, gingerly taking her joystick.

"I don't think so," shrugged Jaune. "Ruby, you think there's something more? Yang, no, I'm not gonna tell them how they should make their characters, that's called ruining their fun." Ignoring her sister's outrage, Jaune turned to her, and his silver-and-blue eyes met her blue-and-silver ones, and for a second…

Skip.

Ruby felt her heart skip a beat, then begin to pick up speed. For some reason, heat began to creep up her neck. Her hands felt clammy with sweat, but that was impossible, they had been clean a second prior. "I-I don't t-think so," she stammered shyly, breaking eye contact. Why had she stammered? And what was that warm feeling in her chest?

Part of those feelings, she already knew about. The warm had begun to appear whenever she was with Jaune a few days prior. Blushes and flusters as well sometimes happened, but mostly when she was embarrassed. She had almost never stammered when talking with Jaune. And that sudden shyness, that fear of it being not the right answer, that he had been expecting more… she had never felt like with Jaune. Jaune was Jaune: easygoing, friendly, awkward-yet-great at socializing, and of course kind. He would've never thought less of her just because she hadn't added anything to his explanation.

"Ruby." Her gaze moved back up from where it had fixed on the floor, and again she met Jaune's eyes. His smile was contagious. "You're upset. I don't know why, but I suggest you just store it for later. We're gonna start the game soon. Well… soonish. Sky is still unsure what to pick."

"They all suck!"

Ignoring Sky's complaint, Ruby nodded and pushed those thoughts away. The weight on her mind went away, and she felt the heat leave her cheeks and neck. It worked. Her hands didn't feel sweaty any more. Her heart was slowing down to a normal level. So those thoughts had been the problem. She moved next to Jaune and leaned slightly to his side while they waited for Sky to choose a character.

Maybe she had a crush on Jaune, and her body attempted to tell her like that. Maybe she didn't, and there was some other reason. In any case, she couldn't let those thoughts ruin her night with her friends.

Much later, when night had already fallen upon the nine students, and sleep had eventually claimed their game-exhausted bodies and minds, silence reigned. Had someone entered the dorm at that moment, they would've seen several things. They would've heard a sleeping Nora, holding onto Ren, who was muttering about pancakes, hammers, and Grimm nails, preparing a new dream that she would later tell the others. They would've seen Pyrrha Nikos, the Goddess of Victory, sprawled on the floor, with just her hair as pillow, muttering about it having been the best night of her life. They would've heard Blake purr in her sleep as she dreamed of eating tuna.

And lastly, had someone entered the room, they would've seen Ruby, Jaune and Yang, sitting against Ren's bed's side, with Ruby's head on his shoulder, and Jaune's head on top of her own, their joysticks still in their hands, while Yang's arm was around the both of them, like the big sister she was.

All the mentioned games are complete creations of my mind. They are not references to any existing videogame/series/whatever. If they are, it's not intentional.

Also, Legend of Amzo: Amzo is Ozma written backwards.

And yes, Watts programs videogames in his spare time, and of course he draws from his personal experience to create them. Oh, right, Torture Ember 4 is the only reference here, to the game Torture Game 3. I played it… when I was 11… and it was fun… hey, don't judge!

Again, I'm sorry for all the problems me being offline might cause. I usually check my Inbox… well, once every 10 minutes when I'm awake. I'm kinda obsessed with not making people wait for my answer.

Romance Status: yeah, finally. Ruby's got a crush. Yang is sisterly there for both. Wait, since when Yang is in the Romance Status section? Get out Yang! And Jaune… he's not oblivious like in all stories, it's just that I literally started the romance in this chapter! Give him time!

News about the author: here it's all kinda fine. I'm turning 17 in less than a month, so yay. I'm also going to take another translation work (I had to request an extension [ha ha ha…] for the current one because my editor is SLOOOOOW and still hasn't read it all) so I might be a little busier. But surely not by much, hehe.

Next chapter: we get to see more of Jaune's Semblance. Really, is there even an end to what it can do? Yes. Have I decided what its limits are? No. Lol.

Until next time,

Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh

PS: here is an Omake for you. A 'I'm sorry' gift for the lack of plot in this chapter. This takes place in a semi-canon AU, not in Extension's world. Thus, there are JNPR and RWBY, and Cardin bullies Jaune like in canon.

TOO CUTE

Jaune had had enough. He had had enough of Cardin's bullying, and he had had enough of being ridiculed every time he tried to stand up for himself. His friends didn't help, either, but he couldn't blame them: even when he was the victim, Goodwitch blamed him too. If they were to help him, they would surely get detention until the next year. Cardin's father was in the Council, so he had his ass covered, but Jaune had already been scolded for causing a scene or a fight. Oh, Goodwitch had scolded Cardin too, sure, but the words had entered his head from an ear and exited from the other.

Cardin had also decided to blackmail him, having him do really anything. After the accident with the Ursa, he knew the matter wasn't over, but at least Cardin's pride wouldn't allow him to blackmail someone who had saved his ass from a giant Grimm. The bully didn't know of Pyrrha's help, after all. He had not felt his own shield moving on its own.

Thus, Jaune was thoroughly fed up. He was sick of being bullied, not only by Cardin, but by others as well. He was sick of being ridiculed. He was sick of being the school's laughingstock. He was sick of dragging his friends down. He was sick of never doing anything good, and he was sick of being so clumsy and unskilled in everything.

Clumsiness, it would go away with time. He had hit a very late growth spurt, and his mother said he still had to get used to his new height, since up until fifteen he had been about five feet tall, and now he was over six feet. But that permanent lack of skill or talent? That wouldn't go away so easily.

Train in the gym? There were people. People not his friends usually ended up with him not being able to improve. His friends, he ended up feeling too bad about dragging them down to really train.

Study in the library? People weren't a problem there. No, the problem were the books. Beacon's books were too advanced for him. The school assumed that its students already knew the basics, so there wasn't much of his level. He found some Grimm bestiaries and books like that, but not much more.

Other places were similar, and as sure as hell he wasn't stupid enough to try and train in the Emerald Forest. He wouldn't last a day. So, he decided that he was done. He was done with being the clumsy, unskilled, lovable idiot his friends adored but kinda pitied and his classmates laughed at.

They had asked for it. He was going to bring out the big guns. No, the huge guns.

He had a few things he was absolutely the best. He was good at dancing, sure, and he could cook fairly well, although not nearly as healthily as Ren. He had some other minor skills, and he was good at gaming, but those too weren't the case. Eh, if only he could've turn the world into a videogame. Then he wouldn't have been forced to this.

He stared at the syringe in his hand with steely determination. That was it. He would no more be the lovable laughingstock of the school. With a nod to himself, he stabbed the syringe into the side of his neck, winced, and injected the experimental Dust mix into his body.

The mix burned and itched even while within his body, and he immediately found himself hating the sensation, but it was working. He could feel it. The room began to grow higher and higher as he got closer and closer to the ground. His clothes weren't being affected by the Dust, so at the end, in the middle of the room stood just a bundle of clothes. His Beacon uniform.

Throwing the clothes aside, Jaune stood up and got dressed in the clothes he had appositely prepared. Yes, Jaune Arc had thought this through many times. He wore the clothes and then peered out of the bathroom's stall, checking if there was someone nearby. No one. Perfect.

Pushing his Beacon uniform into a backpack, he made his way to the full-wall mirror that towered near the door, and smiled.

About four feet tall, with nape-length, messy blond hair perfect for braiding, large blue eyes that just screamed of innocence and malice at the same time, and dressed in a mini version of the Beacon uniform, there stood a young boy no older than nine.

It was time Jaune Arc used his secret, and most powerful, weapon.

Cuteness.

No living being could withstand his cuteness when he was a child. As he got older, his cuteness got him laughed at, but when he was a kid, wide eyes and a trembling lip would get people to do anything. Even the Beowolves that had found him one day while he was wandering in the forest, had been awestruck by his cuteness. With age, he had lost his secret weapon, but that was before.

Before he had allowed Nora to break the timespace stream and create a Dust concoction that would permanently turn people into children. Ren had forbidden her from doing that ever again, and the poor victims were still being treated, but Jaune had watched carefully, and had remembered the preparation.

With a grin, he silently changed into his combat outfit -his new combat outfit, a cute little white dress with skirt- and left the backpack tucked in a corner. His revenge would soon begin. The students were in class, and there would be no one in the halls. And if Ozpin saw him through the cameras… well, either the old man would be dumbstruck by his cuteness, or he would not have the heart to tell anyone. Either case, it was a win for Jaune. Now he only needed to get in the dining hall before everyone else… easy as breathing.

He reached the hall without problems. Just for added measure, he gave a camera the puppy eyes, and he was pretty sure he had heard a thud coming from the Headmaster's tower. No matter. Getting into the dining hall was easy too, as there was literally no one. He quickly made his way to the table where Team CRDL usually ate, and then ducked under the table next to it. No one ever sat near Team CRDL, so no one would accidentally kick him from under the table.

Half an hour later, the students began to arrive. As expected, Team CRDL took their spots near his hiding spot. Just as expected, his team and his friends were very worried for him. 'I will make up for worrying you,' he told himself, noting how his thoughts too were slowly becoming more child-like. All the better. He didn't want to become a manipulative child with the mind of an adult. No, he only wanted to help people, not to use them with his cuteness. 'I'm sure they will love kid me more than teen me.'

He waited until it was the right moment to strike. The dining hall was full of sounds, and everyone had finally relaxed from the tension they usually piled up in class. They were all chatting. No one was suspecting a thing. Especially not Team CRDL.

Moving silently, he sat beside a chair, in sight but going unnoticed, as if someone had pushed him and made him fall, and he hadn't bothered to stand up again. Then he practised the age-old teary eyes, and he was pleasantly surprised when the tears immediately came to him. He thought of every negative and sad thing he could think of. Too easy. Rivers of tears were ready to be cried in his eyes. He let them, feeling them run down his cheeks.

Finally, he wept loudly. Sobs rang out in the noisy hall, and somehow cut through every sound, every conversation, every thought. It took the record time of less than ten seconds for all noise to be gone and forgotten. Everyone was staring at him in shock and pure wonder. A child was crying. They didn't think it weird that a child was in Beacon, because their mortal minds were all too busy to register two things.

That child was the cutest thing they had ever seen, and they would ever see.

And second, that child was crying.

The first thought filled everyone with awestruck wonder and warmth. The second, with white-hot, mindless murderous rage.

Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe it was fate, or it was karma, but Velvet Scarlatina was the first to reach the sobbing child, kneeling and wrapping him in a hug to try and calm him down. "Oh, don't cry, I'm here now. What happened?"

Jaune grinned in her shoulder. Sweet, sweet revenge would soon be served. Erasing his grin, he tearily looked up and pointed at Team CRDL, who froze like a deer caught in the path of a thermonuclear missile. "B-Bad m-m-men hurt m-me," he sobbed as if afraid of them. Which he kinda had been, once, when he was still seventeen. But as nine-year-old, he had a power no one could ever match.

He felt more than saw Team CRDL lose all colour. Not just their faces and skin, no, their whole figures were paling, as if slowing being erased from reality itself. Hundreds of chairs scraped back as every single student in the entirety of Beacon, and the couple of Professors unfortunate enough to be caught in Jaune's cuteness range, stood up and glared at Team CRDL.

As the screams began, Jaune allowed Velvet's gentle rocking movements to lull him into sleep with a smile on his face.

I've had this Omake or oneshot sitting in my mind for quite some time now, but I wanted to write it either as a separate oneshot, or as an Extension Omake. The mood wouldn't fit any of my other multi-chapter stories, and I guess that says a lot about me and my stories. Although I did just murder Team CRDL, but that's beside the point.

I hope you enjoyed it! It's 1.6 k words, WAAAY longer than my usual Omakes, so I hope I haven't bored you! Hehe, this Omake is 2 OpenOffice A4 pages all by itself! ^^

Also, the next chapter has already been written, but I won't publish it straight away. Yeah, an offline Khor is a bored Khor, and a bored Khor is a Khor with lots of writing time.

Again, bye!