Jaune was sent flying into the wall behind him. A loud thud with a bit of pain in his back was what he was met with. He fell to his hands and knees and took deep gulps of air. That last kick knocked the wind out of a him for a bit.

"Get up," his opponent growled. Jaune held out his hand and had the pointer finger up as if to say 'give me a minute.' But it fell on deaf ears. "That means now!" Two huge rough hands gripped the collar of his shirt and shoved him back into the wall. Jaune could see the red marks on his opponents knuckles from the times he hit Jaune. His opponent pulls another fist back and pounds it into Jaune's face. The momentum caused his head to be slammed into the wall causing both his face and the back of his head to sting.

Jaune's opponent was about to hit him again but his punch was blocked by Jaune moving an arm up. He then snaked his arm around it so that his opponent's arm was trapped between his armpit and elbow crease. The blonde tightened the grip causing his opponent to groan in pain. He then struck his target two times in the face.

When Jaune tried to hit him a third time, the target caught his fist and twisted it slightly to make it uncomfortable for the young student. His opponent then brought his knee into the stomach of the defenseless blonde. He keeled over and let go of the person's arm and clutch his stomach.

"Come on! Don't leave yourself defenseless!" His opponent jeered. Jaune was going to retort but took too long to get up causing him to get a boot to the face. Since he still had his back to the wall, he felt his head collide into the stone. He slid down the wall and the boot had then placed itself on his face and continued to add pressure. Remembering this familiar situation Jaune didn't hesitate to punch his advisory right in the family jewels.

His opponent let out a groan and backed away, clutching his sore jewels. Jaune then swiftly got back up and charged at him. He yelled as he tackled the other person to the ground. The two wrestled on the ground for a little bit until Jaune was on top of him with his foe in what he remembered was called full guard.

Jaune began to pound down into his opponents face for a solid few seconds. Eventually the guy on the bottom blocked and counterattacked with a strong jab. Jaune, idiotically, stopped punching to block his head, which would cause his downfall.

His foe gripped Jaune's bunny sweatshirt and slid his opposite knee right up to where his hand was and rocked back and forth causing Jaune to lose his stable position by standing up just a little bit. It was a small movement, but it was enough for the assailant. He then swept Jaune's legs from under him, causing Jaune to fall sideways, with the momentum of the fall causing the advisory to switch places with him. All of this was in a span of three seconds.

Now Jaune was the one in full guard.

The assailant struck Jaune with a flurry of punches, switching from the face and body anytime Jaune tried to protect the one spot he was hitting. Each hit was a reminder of Jaune's failure to keep his guard up. Every punch hurting more than the last as his aura slowly depleted. His vision began to blur and he could feel, and smell, something sticky on his face. That was when he decided to give in.

Jaune tapped his opponent's leg repeatedly while still having one hand protect his face. It took a second but the person on top felt the tap out and stopped punching the poor defenseless blonde. The other person immediately got up, and went to his side to check up on him.

"You good Jaune?" He asked in a worried tone. Jaune responded by taking deep breathes to clear the stars from his vision. Jaune's head felt like a million goliaths were stomping on it, he was out of breath, and smelt, felt, and tasted some blood on his face. Despite that Jaune still gave a thumbs up. "All right, all right just breath. I'm gonna grab a rag and some water." Jaune nodded his head slightly to approve of the plan. As the person sprinted to their bags Jaune concentrated his aura to his head to get back up as soon as he could.

Right now, Jaune was in one of the sparring areas at Shade. While there was the general arena that used for classes and personal fights, that was often filled with people and can sometimes make training hard. It helped with trying to keep focus while distractions were around, and how to avoid others who were fighting nearby, but if someone wanted some privacy, they could go to one of the other sparring rooms.

Jaune's vision began to focus again, and his head wasn't pounding as much anymore. He slowly sat back up and sat crossed legged as he waited for the water and rag. He looked over to see the progress and saw the familiar dark purple and grey shirted leader of BRNZ, with his grey gradient slicked hair blowing slightly past him as he made his way towards Jaune with two water bottles and a white rag in his hands.

Glad to see he didn't need to call a nurse, or morgue for that matter, he walked over to Jaune. He handed him one of the water bottles, knelt, and began to look over him to see where the major bleeding had been. While Jaune's Aura had already covered the wound (Bless his aura reserves!) there was still a little bleeding from the left side of his forehead. Brawnz silently wiped away the blood and held the rag there for a second before speaking again.

"All right hold that there for now," he dictated. Jaune nodded his head and held the rag in his wound and took a sip from the water bottle. After Brawnz double checked to make sure Jaune was good, he plopped right in front of him and took a sip from his water bottle. "You gotta throw in the towel sooner than that Jaune, I nearly gave ya a concussion."

"I'm fine," Jaune replied. "Besides, it's not like if I give up in the real world people are going to stop. Better to get used to it now, right?" Brawnz grunted in annoyance and took a sip from his water bottle.

"Maybe. Keep in mind, we're just training, there's no point in getting yourself killed over a spar." Jaune slightly kicked Branwz's knee.

"I'm pretty sure a spar doesn't involve one of the people involved getting knocked out and a possible concussion."

"Hey you're the one who wanted me to take it up a notch. Don't start crying because you can't take a couple of hits to the face." This was very true. Jaune had been training hand-to-hand with Brawnz for almost three weeks now. During the house warming party a couple weeks back, Jaune mentioned how Pyrrha would help him with his swordmanship due to him having… well having no training whatsoever. Well, some of his friends, being the kind-hearted souls, they were, decided to help Jaune out.

So, Brawnz said he would help him with hand-to-hand combat, saying that if he ever lost Crocea Mors in a fight, he wouldn't be defenseless. Whether or not it was because he wanted to actually help Jaune or just have an excuse to beat the ever-lasting crud out of him was a flip of a coin. Still Jaune was ecstatic that Brawnz would help him with hand-to-hand.

Three weeks of training and Jaune wanted to test his abilities out already. He had only learned the basics; punches, kicks, knees, elbows, and some grapples but that's it. Despite that he practically begged Brawnz to spar a little more aggressively. So, the team leader obliged him and Jaune got his ass handed to him.

"I can take a punch or two!" Jaune stated defensively. All he was met with was a snigger from Brawnz.

"Yeah that last spar totally proved that." Jaune removed the rag form his head and checked his wound. It was no longer bleeding and the wound had already closed up. He tossed aside the rag and water bottle and pointed at Brawnz.

"You want a rematch right now?"

Now, if Jaune was at Beacon, his friends would most likely baby him. They would make sure that he was 100% first, and that he had enough rest before sparring again despite him looking and saying he was fine.

This wasn't Beacon.

Brawnz saw that Jaune healed himself right up, and if he said he was good to go, then that's all there was to it. After all, no one waits until their opponent is 100% anyway. The tan skinned teen tossed his water bottle over his shoulder and stood up.

"If you're ready for round two then get up." Jaune nodded his head and began to stand up. Of course, he knew what Brawnz was planning. He may be an idiot, but he can adapt.

Just as Jaune was about to stand up Brawnz attempted to kick Jaune in the face. However, due to Jaune being prepared, he rolled out of the way just in time for the attack to miss, and used the remaining momentum to get on his feet.

"Whaduya know, he can learn!" Brawnz jeered.

"You gonna stand there or come hit me?" Jaune taunted back. Just like that, the two were back in action training again.

The two stayed up for a solid five minutes. Jaune remembered as much as he could from all of Brawnz's training. Constantly moving was the part that was tough for him. Sure he could be light on his feet and he knew how to block, punch, and kick, but keeping all of that up constantly for a few minutes wears down on a person. Most fights with grimm are only done in a minute or two, three if they're truly tough. Only times it last longer than that is when it's a huge horde or infestation like the attacks on Beacon.

Jaune could feel sweat dripping from him, as if he was a fountain found in the middle of a town or city. His breathing was heavy, and his heart was racing. To make matters worse, Brawnz didn't even look that tired. It made sense, he was a brawler after all. Stuff like this was second nature to him.

Despite that Jaune continued to be on the attack. He inched towards Brawnz trying to make sure he wasn't within Brawnz's reach when he struck. The two were relatively the same height with Jaune only being an inch taller than him. Didn't give him much of an advantage.

Jaune took a giant step forward and launched himself at Brawnz. He landed a solid right hook to his face and then followed up with a left uppercut to the chin. The speed at which Jaune did it caught Brawnz off guard and thus prevented the leader from stopping the attacks.

Jaune was going to get even closer to go for an elbow strike. As he did Brawnz ducked just in time for his elbow to miss him. Brawnz then punched him three times in the stomach and used an uppercut on his chin.

The blonde took a couple steps back from the blow which caused a grin to appear on Brawnz's face. He got a little closer and attempted to roundhouse kick his protégé in the torso. While the kick did succeed, his target pinned Brawnz's leg and raised his elbow high, making it obvious what he was going to do. While it wouldn't break his leg, it wouldn't be a pleasant experience.

He caught Jaune by surprise by falling to the ground with a thud. Despite that his leg was still caught between the arm and body. So Brawnz used his other leg to sweep Jaune's leg one way and used as much strength in his caught leg to force his body to go the other way.

A scissor takedown.

Jaune was unable to stop the takedown and fell on his back. The two wrestled on the ground for control, but eventually Brawnz was able to get into Jaune's full guard with his hand around Jaune's throat. He added pressure to Jaune's neck making it a little hard for him to breath. He raised his right arm and made a fist.

"Any last words?" Brawnz taunted. Jaune only sputtered out words as he was being choked. However, the blonde remembered reading something on getting out of this position.

You see, Jaune often studied people. Okay maybe studied isn't the right word, but he notices things about them, even if he's just met them. For instance, when he first met Ruby, he noticed her unnatural silver eyes, along with the obvious fact that she was a weapons nut. When he spent the first week living with Ren, he noticed that despite carrying many teas and healthy drinks with him, Jasmine tea seemed to be his favorite.

He noticed that Nebula is a huge comic book nerd like him, but she keeps it hidden from anyone she isn't close with. He knows that Dew is very critical with music and often makes her own for fun. He knows that Roy often makes bets with people because he lived with a wealthy family and could afford to lose.

What does that have to do with now? Well, he knows that Brawnz is a brawler, meaning he barely uses grapples. At the very least, he prefers to stay out of them. He never taught Jaune any grapples, hence why Jaune's go-to method was to tackle someone. So, over the weeks Jaune looked up techniques to catch Brawnz off guard. Hopefully this would be enough.

With Brawnz's arm raised in the air and the other grabbing Jaune's neck, Jaune positioned his legs up on Brawnz shoulders as fast as he could. He then grabbed onto Brawnz's wrist and dug his nails into his skin to make him loosen his grip around the blonde's throat.

It succeeded as the leader wasn't expecting him to counter-attack. Jaune then grabbed the arm and held onto it tightly while trying to get as much of the arm as possible. Finally, he placed his legs tightly on the grey haired student's neck. He adjusted his body ever so slightly to the side and squeezed his body together as tight as he could.

If Jaune remembered the name correctly, it was called a triangle choke.

As he tightened his grip, Brawnz was so surprised by the attack that he had no idea what to do. No matter what, he only made the choke harder for himself, and eventually, he tapped out.

Jaune released everything and Brawnz gasped for air. The two slowly stood up and gasped for as much air as they could, before they looked at each other. Jaune extended his hand.

"Even?" he sighed. Brawnz chuckled lightly and shook his hand.

"Even," Brawnz agreed. The two both had grins plastered on their face for the same reason: pride in Jaune. Brawnz had to admit it, Jaune was a fast learner. Maybe it was because he never knew when to relax, but he digressed.

"Gotta say, didn't expect you to know grapples already," Brawnz admitted.

"You think the only training I do is with you?" Jaune asked. "I'm still leagues behind you guys. Our small training sessions can't be the only training I do." Brawnz chuckled again. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing. Just laughing at the fact that you take all of this a little too seriously."

"Of course I do! We're training to fight Grimm and help people. I can't just treat it like a joke." Brawnz raised his hands in defense.

"I'm not saying that. I'm just saying we got a lot of work in our future. No need to work ourselves to the bone ya'know?" Jaune was going to argue but knew he was right. Ever since Beacon, and especially after Shade's initiation, Jaunes been working as hard as he could. He needed to be reminded to slow down sometimes.

"Yeah I get ya. I just don't want to play catch up anymore." Brawnz clasped his shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze.

"Dude, you're making leaps and bounds in fighting. Trust me, once the semester is over no grimm will want a piece of you." The second year playfully punched Jaune in the shoulder lifting the blonde's spirit. "All right after all of that I think we should call it quits today. You said you had a test to study for tomorrow right?" Jaune groaned as Brawnz reminded him

"Yeah, it's for Camira's class too." Brawnz seethed when he heard who the teacher was. The two students walked over to their stuff and made sure everything was packed. "Still thanks for everything today man."

"Of course! Same time next Sunday?"

"Yep, I'll see you then Brawnz." The two fist bumped each other and went their sperate ways. Brawnz headed back to the locker room while Jaune was just heading back to his dorm. As he did, he pulled out a brown hard cover book with about two hundred pages and a pencil.

During one of his phycologist visits, the ones for his nightmares, his doctor recommended him to keep a journal. She said that keeping a journal can clear thoughts and relive stress. While it may or may not help, Jaune was willing to try.

So, for the past two weeks he's been logging down everything eventful that he's done. Like learning new tricks about his semblance, a huge event that happened (like when Wallace got into a fist fight with another fourth year during lunch) new things he's learned about his friends, and even small stuff like an interesting fact someone told him.

He also started to use the book as a way to take notes. Notes he learned from Dust class would make their way onto the little book, notes he's taken on how certain students fights, and even some details about their weapons!

Notes from other classes made their way onto the journal as well. He used illustrations and colors for Dust types and to help he remember in case he forgot, and he jotted down types of grimm and their strengths and known weaknesses were.

Most of his journal consisted of notes rather than actual events. He was wondering if he should get separate one just for notes. The reason he was writing down all of this was because he thought that if he was bringing that journal with him everywhere, it would help to have notes that would help him on missions. A two hundred page book for event and notes though was a little slim. He'll probably talk to the psychologist if he's doing the right thing or if he should ditch the notes entirely.

He began writing down what he did for training today with Brawnz, going into details about tips Brawnz gave him as well. He was adding onto what he had already written today. He was so concentrated in his journal that he didn't realize that his legs were walking him to his dorm, almost as if they were on auto pilot. A couple of students threw some sneers his way for not watching where he was going but he had completely ignored them.

He finally reached his room and took one last look at his entry.

"Sunday, third week of Shade.

Woke up today without nightmares again. Fifth day in a row that it's happened, maybe this journal is helping? That or I'm just not dwelling on it too much. Although now that I'm writing it down they might pop up again. Probably best to not dwell on it.

I have to prepare for Brawnz's training tonight. Hopefully I can remember and try some of the moves I learned online a couple of nights ago. He's been doing this for me ever since I asked a couple of weeks ago and I can't thank him enough. Maybe I should do something like give him a gift? Or just take everyone who's been helping me for dinner some day? Would definitely make it less weird than if I were to do it one-on-one with them individually.

I still have to study for some of my classes too. Mr. Jett says I've been making good progress but from my other grades I can tell they've been slipping. Still I can always bring those up, right now I need to make sure I can fight anyone in class without having to nearly get myself killed. After I nearly did another suicide move, Mr. Jett stopped the fight and said that he'll fail me again if I pull a stunt like the first day in class again. It's a little weird how he can tell what I'm thinking before I can put it in motion. Is that his semblance?

The next lines were just notes that Brawnz had given Jaune about fighting. Stay up, keep an eye on all opponents, work on endurance, etc.

Below that was a recreation of today's training:

Training today was eventful to say the least! After our usual warm ups Brawnz and I did a couple of standard reps of punches kicks knees etc. Then we got into sparring, but I wanted to see how far I came from the last few sessions. While I definitely improved, it wasn't as much as I was hoping. I was able to hold him off for about three minutes, but I grew tired and he had a constant offense. Nearly passed out before I tapped.

After a few minutes of resting though, we did another round and I was able to win! Although now that I think back on it he probably wasn't trying as hard this time as I was able to last five minutes instead of three. Still when I tried one of the grapples I read on him I was actually able to make him tap! I'm pretty sure he wasn't expecting it though so if I tried it again he'd most likely counter it. I guess I'll try it again see what happens. Still those reps of shadow wrestling with the move definitely helped."

Satisfied with what he wrote down Jaune entered his dorm, a relived sigh escaping his lips.

He tossed his backpack onto the small couch he had and plopped himself on his bed. He told himself that he would study for Camira's class after resting for a bit. He opened his scroll and looked at his mail, as some of the professors would email them for what to expect for class, the class schedule for the week as the professors are allowed to teach what they feel necessary, or if it was canceled. However, what caught his eye was one from the headmistress.

He opened the email and read it, mumbling the words to himself.

"This is a message to all Operators-in-training. You'll meet with me on Wednesday this week. I'll assign some of you missions and teams you'll be working with while others will be training with me for the day. You are excused from all classes that day. We meet at 11 near the training areas. I'll see you all then."

Jaune probed his memory to see if he had any classes on Wednesday. He had combat class with Jett, Dust with Sarid and Math for Wolff but that was it. He could afford to miss those classes for the day. With Wednesday planned, and his email read he continued to stay on his scroll until reluctantly studying for his test tomorrow.

A large aircraft carrying food, alcohol, medical supplies, and ammo was heading towards the city of Shade. The aircraft belonged to a Shade pilot who would bring supplies from Vale over to Shade whenever they could to make a little extra Lien. After all, who wouldn't want some luxuries from Vale after living in Shade for a few weeks? Still he had agreed to take three extra things with him.

Mainly, three girls.

One looked to be a girl in her younger twenties, with long brown hair and single streak of dark blue dyed hair. She had brought a laptop that was somehow getting a connection without messing with the aircrafts electronics. She also had a black hoodie and leggings, and kept the hood up shadowing her face so only her hair showed.

The other was a girl in her late teens, with medium blonde hair. She had a black and grey leather jacket the stopped as soon as it reached her waist, with a white shirt that had a tiny little see through skirt frill near her waist. She wore blue jeans and black boots. Her outfit gave a "punk girl" attitude. She was twirling a knife between her fingers making sure to stay as far away from the last passenger as she did so.

It was a little girl who looked to be very young. She had short blonde hair that had a pink bow in it. She most likely hasn't even hit the double digits in age yet. She had a dark red shirt on that had the design of an old cartoon on it that went a little past her waist. She wore black tennis shoes and had black leggings on with a skirt at her waist. She was playing with a stuffed teddy bear and humming a tiny tune.

However she looked over to one of the other girls and asked in an adorably soft and quiet voice one thing.

"When will we see Jauney?"

The blonde stopped twirling her blade and looked over to the younger girl. The little one was practically beaming at her waiting for an answer. The older blonde sheathed her knife and walked over to her. She playfully put her hand on top of the little girl's head and gave a tiny rub.

"We'll see him soon I promise," the older one said. She returned the smile with an even brighter one. The little girl nodded her head.

"Okay, I just want to see him soon." The older blonde sighed as she stood up.

"Me too sis, me too." As the younger one continued to play with her doll, the older one walked over to the brunette. "How much longer until we're in Shade?"

"Another few hours," the brunette answered. She never looked away from her laptop. "Why, you getting stir crazy Jade?" Jade responded with a scoff.

"No duh. We've been in here for ten hours already." Jade shifted uncomfortably for a second before asking her sister a question. "Cal, do you think he's missed us?" The brunette topped typing on her laptop and looked at her younger sibling.

"Of course he has…" Jade heard the "but" that was coming. "But it's whether or not he'll be happy to see us. After all we did kick him out of the house." She went back to her laptop and continued to type on it.

"No we didn't," Jade defended. "Dad did that."

"Yeah, and we didn't stop him." Jade flinch when Calista said that. No matter what, Jade couldn't help but feel guilty. She loved her brother, she truly did. And how does she show it? By doing nothing when their dad practically disowned him.

Sure she was angry at him for what he did. He not only embarrassed himself, but he brought bad word to the family. Living in a village didn't make that easy to live with. They were able to bounce back from it, but the scar was still there.

But to just kick him out entirely? No one was expecting their dad to do that.

Calista could see that Jade was mulling it over and sighed. She was never good with this kind of thing but her little sister needed her right now.

"Hey," She tugged on her younger sister's sleeve. The blonde looked over to see that she had removed her hood and could see her sister's brown eyes. "He's family. We're his family. He won't blow us off." Jade scoffed.

"You sound so sure…" she said bitterly.

"Because I am. He still loves us, I'm positive." Jade is silent for a few seconds, as if to collect her thoughts. And then…

"If he doesn't?" Calista shut her laptop and stood up and gave her sister a side hug.

"Then we'll just have make him love us again." There is silence between the two of them. But it wasn't uncomfortable silence, it was almost hopeful silence. Jade smiled and looked at her sister, giving her a silent thanks for cheering her up. Then, she followed up with this.

"So, by 'make him' you mean we're just going to bully him until he does, right?" Calista giggled.

"Is there any other way to treat family?" The two shared a laugh which caught the attention of their little sister. She saw the two of them side hugging and ran up to them and wrapped her little arms around their legs.

"Hugs!" she yelled out. The two older sisters were surprised by this but soon wrapped their arms around her to make a big group hug. This was all that Jaune needed, they were sure of that.

To be continued

Beta: TheShadowOfZama

A/N: Hey All! Welcome back to Student of Shade! I decided to give you the first chapter of Arc 3 a little after the birthdate of this fic as a little gift. However, i'm still working on the Arc, as I want to be able to post chapters every week or twice a week depending on how many chapters I get to. That means I want to finish writing first, then post. Right now I'm on chapter 8 and still intend to edit some things once i reread everything. So far i'm enjoying writing, and I hope you all enjoy reading, hopefully I'll see you all again soon.