Jaune was able to find the stairs to the elevator that reaches Belinda's office. He was so happy to find them and reminded himself to thank Gwen later. However as he reached the elevator he heard a yell come from behind him.

He turns around only to be tackled by a masked figure. The masked figure struggles to get on top of Jaune and when he does he straddles Jaune. Jaune could see he was wearing a ski mask and was covering his entire body to hide who he was.

The masked figure pounds down onto Jaune with vicious left and right punches. Jaune gets his foot underneath his assaulter and kicks him off. Jaune scrambles to his feet but doesn't make it as he is kicked in the gut. He falls to the ground clutching his stomach. The guy grabs and lifts Jaune and holds him against the wall he repeatedly punches Jaune in the face until he slumps on the wall. The masked figure then puts his foot on Jaune's head and puts pressure on it causing Jaune to groan.

Jaune uses his eyes to look for any kind of advantage he could use. His eyes turned his vision a shade of red and a circle began moving around in his vision. A white text in the corner of his eye read "Scanning…" The circle then lay upon the one weak point he could exploit. White text next to it said Weakness #5. Suggested action: Punch very very hard.

Jaune could tell this person was a guy, and every guy had the one same weak spot. Jaune used his hand to grab the boot on his face and move it to help get at a good angle. He then pulled back his other arm and aimed right into the testes.

The assaulter lets out a loud yell and grabs his crotch area. Jaune uses this chance to get up. His instincts then kick in. He knows he is out of his league. Jaune turns and runs from his attacker. If he stayed to fight he knows he'll lose.

As he ran Jaune felt a little sickened with himself. Sure it was necessary, but he was always taught to fight with respect and dignity. Punching another dude in the nuts was neither of those things. He continued to run but still felt a little dirty.

Despite the head start Jaune had, the attacker caught up to him fairly quickly. Jaune looked over his shoulder to see his masked assailant right on his heels. Luckily they were about to enter a crowd that was in the middle of the hallways. Just like any old school, some students still block hallways. Jaune learned how to run through crowds without causing too much of a disturbance when being chased. He learned it at Beacon from Ren, and got more experienced with it during his time working as a messenger and informant at a shifty bar in Vale.

Jaune's vision turned red again and white text appeared again. This time instead of scanning it decided to give Jaune some options.

Current Options:

Option 1: Continue running.

Option 2: Hide within a crowd.

Option 3: Turn and fight opponent.

Jaune didn't have a lot of time to react and decided that option two was the best one. As he turned the corner he noticed a bunch of students in the hallway talking with each other. He thanked the gods for cutting him a break.

"Sorry!" Jaune called out as he entered the crowd. A couple of people swore at him but more swore at his assailant as he did not apologize. Jaune shifted his way through the crowded as fast as he could. That was until he slowed down and pretended to be a normal person. His assailant was so focused on finding a running person he didn't notice Jaune stopped to blend in with the crowd. He moved right past Jaune and Jaune took that as the sign to get out of dodge.

However, just as Jaune exited the crowd, he accidentally bumped into someone who had there weapon out. It drops to the floor and the guy yells at Jaune. "What the hell is wrong with you blondie?!" the assailant turned and saw Jaune, causing him to give chase again.

"Sorry!" Jaune yelled as he ran away. Jaune turned a corner while his assailant chased him. However once the assailant turned the corner he is met with a punch in the face. The assailant falls to the ground and Jaune keeps running from him. The assailant growls and stands up to chase after him again.

The assailant turns another corner only this time more carefully only to meet a bunch of doors. However one was wide open and he knew Jaune entered it. He enters the room to see it's a class. The assailant carefully looks around to see if he is hiding under the desks. He would catch a break however as a scroll just went off. In the closet.

He slowly approaches it and cracks his knuckles as he does. He opens the door and lifts his fist only to find that no one was in there. Or so he thought. The next second he is met with two shoes right in his face.

Jaune hops down from the roof of the closet he was in and grabs his scroll, which he set a timer on to trick and ambush his assaulter, and ran away. The assailant growls as he pounds the ground and chases after Jaune again.

Jaune moves through the hallways as fast as he can. Zigging and zagging through students, doors opening and everything in between to get away from his attacker. He looks behind him to see he lost his attacker. He stops leans on a railing next to some stairs, catching his breath. As he did he tried to think of what he did to deserve this beating.

At first he thought it was Malcolm, but he saw that his assaulter didn't have the bull horns. Not to mention he was smaller than Malcolm. However he wouldn't get any longer to think about who it was because he heard the yell of his attacker again. He turns to see the attacker charging at him. However he jump and lifts his leg to attack Jaune. A flying kick. Jaune dove out of the way, causing the attacker to panic.

"No no no no!" he yelled as he fell down the stairs. He let out a loud grunt as he hit the stairs and continued to stumble to the bottom. Again, Jaune runs away.

Jaune figured with him having to climb the steps, he would be able to get back to the elevator without the tail. So that's what Jaune did. He reached the elevator and pressed the call button. As he did, he kept an eye out just in case the assailant came back. Fortunately, the elevator doors opened and Jaune quickly went inside.

He pressed the button to go to Belinda's hallway and relaxed as the doors began to close. But fate was not on his side. Just when the doors were mere inches apart, fingers stopped in the middle of them causing the doors to open up again. The attacker was glaring at Jaune as the doors opened, causing Jaune to whimper.

"You are so dead!" the attacker said. He slams into Jaune and holds him against the wall of the elevator. He then knees Jaune in the groin and tosses him out of the elevator. Jaune clutches his crotch and the assaulter steps out of the elevator.

"Not so funny now is it?!" he said. His voice was kind of high pitched now that Jaune thought about it. Not that it mattered since he grabbed Jaune and shoved him back into the elevator. Jaune's head hit one of the metal bars and not only did he get a throbbing headache he also saw his vision get blurry.

The assaulter grabs Jaune's neck and pins him against the wall. He pulls back his arm and punches Jaune repeatedly in the face. However Jaune eventually had enough. He growls and grabs the assaulter's head, and headbutts him, causing him to unpin Jaune. Jaune then takes the opportunity to kick him out of the elevator. The doors begin to close but the assaulter tries to crawl to the door to stop it from closing. However, Jaune removed his left shoe and chucked it as hard as he could at the assaulter. The shoe hit him right in the nose, causing the assaulter to stop in his tracks and clutch his face. The elevator doors finally close, and once Jaune felt the elevator move up, he officially relaxed.

He leaned against the railing in the elevator and let out a big sigh. He puts his hand to his face only to realize that stung when he touched his eye. He carefully touched his eye and could feel that it was swelling a little bit. He sighs and tries to keep his mind off of it.

The elevator doors open and he walks down the familiar hallway of statues and paintings. He then knocked on the door at the end of the hallway. The familiar voice of the headmistress rang out. "Enter!"

Jaune opened the door and entered the messy office/room combo. He sees the headmistress at her desk writing something. She looks up from her papers to see Jaune. She was about to greet him but looked at the bruises and marks on him. "Sweet mother of Luna and Shawcross," She said. "Did you spar with someone already?"

"No," Jaune bluntly said. "Some student in a ski mask assaulted me for some reason. Who even brings a ski mask to the desert?"

"Did you notice any distinguishable features?" Her tone was that of both a concerned parent and an investigator. Jaune shook his head.

"No, he was covered completely. However I did hear him speak."

"That's all? I can't really distinguish a lot from a voice."

"Unfortunately yes that's all. I couldn't even give you a skin color."

"Well that's fine but are you okay? Do I need to take you to Leonardo?" Again Jaune shook his head. He didn't want to be admitted to the infirmary again the day after he got out.

"No, I'll be fine. But that's not why I came here."

"Well even so can you at least try to explain this person?" Jaune nods. He tries to remember each detail he could. He was able to see his eyes but didn't get a good look at them.

"I only saw his eyes which I think were a brownish color, and his voice was a little higher pitched, but not enough to be a girl's. They had no distinguishable faunus features either. He was little bit more muscular than me."

"What about his fighting style?"

"Uhh…" Jaune remembered throughout the chase what his fighting was like. He was fast enough to keep up with Jaune, which thanks to his training with his old partner he grew faster and more agile. Whenever he hit Jaune he hit him with enough force to leave obvious marks and a strain on his aura. However while he was pursuing Jaune he didn't seem to care about barging into people even in a crowd. Not only that, he did a flying kick near stairs, a foolish move.

"He is strong and quick, but either had tunnel vision or didn't care about others getting in his way. Also not the smartest, he did a flying kick at me when we were near stairs, which resulted in him falling down them. Whenever he hit me it was pretty harsh. He didn't hold back. He also pinned me to the ground with his foot once, and again with his hand around my throat in the elevator. That's all I got."

The headmistress sighs and rubs her face with her left hand. "You're right it's not a lot, but it's better than nothing. I'll ask around see if anyone knows anything, hopefully they'll distinguish this from the normal fights."

"Normal fights?"

"Mr. Arc, you are in a school that is basically in the middle of a wasteland. While we do try our best to groom the best huntsman and huntresses around, it's a little hard when most of my students learned to fight the minute they walked. I will admit to my students' weaknesses and to my own. They all have to prove to each other who is the best, and I let them. Fights break out all the time around here. It usually ends either tournament style or when someone says they give up. Every now and then a person might go too far, but that's when the others nearby begin to help. The rare cases where a student is severely hurt, the person responsible will often receive harsh punishment, if not expulsion."

Jaune couldn't believe what he was hearing. He just heard the leader of a school be okay with fights. "Ma'am, may I give my opinion on the manner?" She nods and Jaune takes a deep breath. "That doesn't seem the best way to run a school." Belinda just shrugs.

"Mr. Arc, I never said it was perfect. I'd rather have my students fight and get over it quickly than have it boil inside for a while until they literally want to rip each other to shreds." Jaune nodded but still had an unapproved look on his face. "Please keep in mind, this isn't Vale. You've seen what Vacuo is like with your own eyes. Do you honestly think the way Ozpin runs things in Beacon will work here?" Jaune thought about it and he had to agree with her. Vale and Vacuo were completely different.

While Ozpin wouldn't allow fighting in the halls, that was because in Vale you only fought if you had to. Here though? You can get in a fight just for looking at someone the wrong way. In Jaune's case, it could be over nothing! Jaune knew better than anyone to humble someone, they needed to get their ass kicked. Cardin was a perfect example of this. He needed to remind himself he isn't home anymore. This isn't Vale.

He shakes his head. "You're right. I understand, but I still don't like it." Belinda smiles.

"I'm glad you can see where I'm coming from. I have to say, for a transfer student you seem to be adapting well, all things considered."

Jaune lets out a tiny chuckle. "Well, it's not like this past year's been easy for me. I had to adapt, swallow my pride, a lot of things just to survive." Looking back throughout the year, Jaune realized how much he has grown. From meeting his first friend of Beacon to now, he's been through a lot. However he shakes his head as he remembers the original reason he wanted to see Belinda.

"Anyway, I was wondering something."

Belinda motions for Jaune to sit in front of her desk. Jaune nods and sits down in the one of the two chairs. It was surprisingly comfortable. Belinda leans forward. "I'm all ears Mr. Arc."

"What is my schedule now that I'm a student? Also, am I alone or do I have a team?" Belinda blinks and is silent for a second. She then slams her head on her desk. This caused Jaune to jump back in surprise.

"I'm an idiot," he hears Belinda say. However it was muffled as her face was still on the desk.

"Miss Nyx?"

She sighs and lifts her face, a sticky note plastered on her cheek. She removes it and rubs her face. "I forgot about your schedule. I wanted to let you know about your admission and get you your room. It kind of slipped my mind." The headmistress made a fist and knocked it slightly on her forehead. " I'm sorry Mr. Arc, I need to talk with some of the teachers, see if they have room for you. I'll hopefully get it to you by the end of the day."

"That's fine, and the team or alone thing?"

Jaune notices that Belinda closed her eyes and hummed something. Almost as if that was her way of thinking. After a minute of humming she stops and looks at Jaune again. "Well, how about I give you a choice?"

Jaune raises an eyebrow. "What choice?"

"Well I don't exactly have a three man team that wants another leader. I can see if you want to lead a five man team, but again I wouldn't expect the last leader to be happy about the demotion. So you can join and try a five man team, or join a three man team, or I can make you an operator." Jaune raises an eyebrow in confusion.

"What's an operator?" he asked.

"What I mean by operator is that depending on the severity of it, I can have you help others on their missions by having you join them. This way, you can either be joining a team of four, maybe even other operators from here or other countries. You can even join some of the teachers on their missions. It all depends on if they want you and if you want to take it. In a way it's like an independent Huntsman."

"How many operators are there?"

Nyx rubs her face and looks up to the ceiling trying to get an assumption. "In the real world about half or so of huntsman are independent operators; Mistral and here usually have about thirty some students each, give or take ten."

"Would I have to take an extra class since I am an operator?"

"No, you will have the same classes as anyone else. I may have one of the teachers call you and other operators together and discuss some things about one or twice every two weeks but nothing too severe. Any other questions?"

"Yeah, you said something about this being only here or Mistral, why is that?" Belinda sighed in annoyance. Jaune felt a little hurt and thought he was boring Belinda. "N-never mind."

Miss Nyx realized what she did and waved her hands in front of her. "No it wasn't because of you! I just… disagree with why Vale and Atlas doesn't have the program." She clears her throat. "Vale and Atlas believe that training students as operators will make them anti-social, loners, and hurt team dynamics of the team they join. Maybe it's true, but I like to prepare my students for everything. Not everyone is going to want to work with a team." Jaune nodded his head in understanding. "Any other questions?"

Jaune took a moment to think. When he couldn't come up with another question he shook his head. "All right, so now the moment of truth," she said. "Do you want to be an operator, or have me find you a team?"

Jaune thought about it. At first, getting another team sounded like a good idea. Granted he might have to win the trust of them but that was to be expected. He opened his mouth to say he'd want to join a team. That was, until a thought came into his head.

"What about JNPR? My old team…"

Jaune froze at that. Belinda lifted an eyebrow at his unusual behavior. However Jaune still stayed frozen, as memories began to play through his head. From training with Pyrrha, to eating contest with Nora, to meditating and studying with Ren, to just all of them hanging out talking at the end of the day.

Those memories may have been plentiful, but the memories that mattered were the ones following the days after his reveal.

A knock can be heard on JNPR's door. Pyrrha goes over and open to reveal a third year student barging in the door. Behind her was his team.

"Where is he?" she said.

"Excuse me!" Nora yelled. "You can't barge in here!"

"Shut it. I'm looking for Arc, and seeing as how you're his team, you have to know where he's hiding."

"He left," Ren said.

"Where?"

"Didn't say." The third year glared at the raven haired boy. Ren glared back with the same intensity.

"He means Jaune hasn't contacted us," Pyrrha said. "He ran away and hasn't told any of us anything."

"Then you don't mind us searching your room."

The third year team practically ransacked the room. They looked under the bed, in the cupboards, even in the closets. When they realized he wasn't there they left the room. However, the leader turned to JNPR one more time. "If you're holding out on us, he isn't the only one that'll get a beating."

With that they slammed the door shut. After they heard the footsteps disappear, Nora opens up a window and lowers her hand. Another hand grabs on and Nora pulls Jaune up and through the window.

"Thanks guys," Jaune said. "I feel bad having you guys try and hide me."

"You're our leader Jauney!" Nora said.

"More than that you're a friend," Pyrrha said. Jaune looks at the Mistralian, who smiled and then looked at Ren and Nora, who nodded and agreement. Jaune smiled back at them.

"Thanks guys."

As the memories flooded back to Jaune, he began to realize that asking to join another team wouldn't be right. Not only would it probably be a weird change for the team, it felt like he was betraying his old team. Despite leaving Beacon, all the way to the end his team stuck by him. He couldn't just join another team. So that left the only remaining option.

"I'll be an operator."

Belinda nods her head. "Very well. I'll get your schedule later today after I have some discussions with the staff. Anything else?"

"No I think that's everything."

"All right, and are you sure you don't want to see Leonardo about those wounds?"

Jaune shakes his head. "I heal fairly quickly. I'm sure I'll be fine in a few hours."

Belinda nods. "Good bye Mr. Arc, and if I didn't say it, welcome to Shade."

Jaune smiles and nods his head. He then leaves the room, leaving Belinda the only one in there. Once the door closed, she waited a full minute before picking up a scroll. She dialed a number until a certain teacher picks up.

"Hello?" the voice said.

"Michael, it's Belinda. I want you in my office."

Jaune sighs as he rode the elevator down. Today was off to a weird start. He had to beat someone in the knife game, got a tour of the building, got attacked and defended himself, and then talked with the headmistress about his schedule and what he was going to be. And all of this was before lunch. After he gets out of the elevator he was going back to his dorm and watch some movies on his scroll.

The elevator stops and the door opened. Jaune was about to step out until his foot hit something on the ground. Jaune looks down and sees his shoe that he threw, right in front of the door. This confused Jaune as he knows for a fact that the shoe didn't land right in front of the elevator.

He slips his foot in his shoe and stands there wondering why his shoe was there. That was until the elevator door squished him a little bit as it closed with him between the doorway. The elevator squishes him and opens up again. He then walks out of the elevator, praying that no one saw him. However he noticed a few girls did and were snickering. This caused Jaune to blush and scratch the back of his head while letting out a tiny chuckle. After that he speed walked away to save himself from any more embarrassment.

To be continued.