The attention of everyone in the room was immediately on the headmistress. Even the guys sparring dropped what they were doing and focused on the huntress. Well, one guy had another in a headlock and got one final punch in before they let go, but after that everyone was facing towards the headmistress. Jaune closed his journal, placed it in his backpack and followed suit.
"Now then first things first, anyone who was on a mission during the break bring your reports to me." Reports? The blonde looked around the room to see a handful of the students dig through their bags and take out manila folders. Some were thick while others were thin. Each report was different from each other.
One person was still frantically searching through their bag. This caught the attention of not only Jaune, but Nyx as well. The student searching was a tall, lanky, pale guy with brown hair that was swept to the side. He was wearing a purple shirt, and on it was an intricate design of what looked to be fantasy glyphs. Over that was a lighter purple vest, that only had one long sleeve on his right side There was a feint blue-ish glow radiating from the sleeve that caught Jaune's eyes. On his other arm was a tattoo with a different language on the length. It wasn't Vacuan so what little he learned from Ezra's class wouldn't help.
He was also wearing black pants with one of the legs rolled up to show off more tattoos but this time more tribal on his leg. He wore grey socks and dark combat boots. The side of one of his boots had something sticking out of it but Jaune thought he was imagining it.
"Mr. Yuri!" Miss Nyx yelled. The guy in question shot straight up and froze. "I can see you are still searching for your report. Pray tell, why don't you have it on you?" The student began shaking in fear.
"I-I-I must have misplaced with m-my other homework." Miss Nyx didn't say anything but continued to glare at the poor student. "I didn't lose it, I swear! It's just… in my room."
"Then why the bloody hell are you still here?!" Miss Nyx exclaimed. This caused some of the students, including Jaune to flinch. "Get moving! Go!" The guy scrammed and ran out the door practically crashing through it. The headmistress took a deep breath and looked at the rest of the class. Jaune was both impressed and scared at how casual she was able to address the class after chewing the poor guy out. "All right, as you may or may not have noticed we have a new face joining us. If you haven't met each other yet, the one against the wall over there is Jaune Arc."
Jaune waved awkwardly to everyone in the room causing a few to wave back. The ones who scoffed at him earlier didn't meet his eye, but they didn't give any hostile looks either.
"Now then, I want one of you to help Jaune out with how we run things. Give him tips on what to expect when he's out in the field, tell him what to put in the reports, stuff like that. Anyone that isn't helping him is going to lecture hall 117 with me. Any questions?"
A faunus with a monkey tail raised his hand which the headmistress responded with a nod to his direction.
"How long is class today?" He asked.
"Somewhere between two or three hours. Four or five if you decide to stay for the physical part of the class as well." A few murmurs and groans were received as she said that, but they quickly stopped when she started narrowing her eyes in response.
"The physical part is optional?" Jaune asked.
"Yes, it is Mr. Arc, I know you all have classes outside of this along with schoolwork and practice. However if you feel the need to push yourselves outside of Mr. Jett's class, since you don't have teammates to help you, I often set up exercises you can do with your fellow operators." Jaune nodded and rested his back against the wall.
"Are there any other questions?" When no one raised their hand, She continued. "Okay, so who will help our new operator get his feet wet?"
Jaune and Nyx looked around the room to see who was willing. A couple of students locked eyes with him but shook their heads. Some of them were apologetic, others weren't. His reputation was still a flip of a coin it seemed. He didn't blame them of course, but it still was annoying. Eventually, a student raised her hand. And spoke up.
"I'll do it."
Jaune looked over to his would-be teacher and saw a familiar girl with blonde hair that stopped at her shoulder blades. She was wearing a mix between an olive unbuttoned shirt and crop top, showing off a tight black shirt underneath, and had pockets on the breasts of the shirt. She was also wearing black and dark green boots that went up to her shins.
"Are you sure Miss Foxx?"
Foxx. Jaune knew he had seen this girl before, but he can't put his finger on it. She looked at Jaune and flashed a smile her way and nodded to miss Nyx. Miss Nyx was happy, and caught everyone's attention again.
"All right, if anyone else would like to help her out is free to do so. Otherwise, head to the lecture hall." With that Nyx collected the reports and folders and headed out. Foxx walked over towards him while the rest of the students followed Nyx out. Admittingly it kind of stung his pride no one else would help him, but it wasn't unexpected.
The blonde girl gave him a soft smile and stuck out her hand. Jaune returned the gesture and the two of them shook.
"I'm Olivia," She introduced.
"Jaune," he also introduced. The nagging thought of seeing her somewhere kept pestering him. "I swear I've seen you somewhere. Have we met before?" Oliva giggled as the two stopped shaking.
"Not formally. I'm a buddy of Wallace's." Jaune scoured his head to try and remember if Wallace ever introduced them. Then it hit him.
"Wait… where you the one Wallace was sparring with when I met with professor Jett the first time?"
"Ding ding, give the boy a prize!" She celebrated. "Still, nice to formally meet you." The soft smile on her face put Jaune at ease, which caused him to smile back.
"You too." He cleared his throat and rocked on his feet. "So… shall we?"
"Right, let's get to it." The two of them tried to find a place to sit in the training room, but since it was used for sparring, chairs were barren from the room. So instead, they settled on just hanging around the desk where Nyx placed the folders.
"All right, so what should I expect from being an operator?" Jaune asked Oliva as he hopped on the desk. Oliva leaned over the desk and tapped a small rhythm on it, something to make the silence in the room less obvious.
"Well I'm sure you know the basic knowledge, right?"
"You mean where we are essentially teammates for hire?" Oliva chuckled a bit.
"It's not untrue. We basically help out other huntsmen and huntresses, whether they are students going on their first mission, experienced teams needing an extra hand, or a lone huntsman who needs a partner."
"So how do we get picked or go on missions?" Oliva stretched a little bit and Jaune heard a small pop.
"Usually the headmistress will either give us one at the end of these meetings or email it to us. Sometimes we get asked from others to join, other times they just ask for an operator and we are the ones Professor Nyx picks. If you really want to, you can ask for a mission from her and she'll find one for you." Jaune nodded his head to show he understood. As he did, he felt a weird, but familiar sensation in his nose. As the sensation got worst, he prepped himself for the release and covered his mouth with his arm. "Bless you."
"Thanks." Jaune sniffed and felt the sensation again, and repeated his actions. Oliva blessed him again to which he responded with a nod. "So… what kind of jobs do we do when with others?" Oliva shrugged her shoulders.
"It usually varies. Like I said, we help them out with whatever they were tasked with, but above all else you're just there to help. You essentially do what they say." Jaune didn't feel right about that. It sounded more like they were soldiers or mercenaries than huntsman.
"What if you see a mistake that they don't? Do you still have to follow them?" Oliva tilted her head back and hummed uncomfortably.
"I mean, you can, but then you have to explain yourself in the report you have to give." Right, the reports. Speaking of…
"What do you put in those reports anyway?" Just as Oliva was about answer, the door to the room burst open and in came the student who forgot his report. He sprinted in the room and then heeled over to catch his breath.
Once he did he took a final sigh and looked in the room only to notice everyone was gone. Well, almost everyone. He saw Oliva and Jaune next to each other on the desk and quirked an eyebrow.
"Where did everyone go?" Oliva stopped leaning over the desk and turned to face the student.
"One of the lecture halls. But since you're here Nicki, you mind showing Jaune your report?" The boy recoiled a bit and hugged his report closer to his chest.
"Why?" Jaune shrugged his shoulders.
"I'm still learning?" he asked. Nicki took a moment to think about it. As he did, Olivia rolled her eyes and tried to yoink the paper away. Nicki responded by stepping back and hugging the report closer.
"Come on, just let him read it and we'll tell you what lecture hall the rest of the group's in. Deal?" The boy still looked a little skeptical. The blonde girl quirked an eyebrow as to why he was acting suspicious about a simple report. "Come on Nicki, it's just a report!"
Eventually the boy sighed and reluctantly handed the report over. Oliva gave a curt smile as she took the folder. She opened it up and motioned Jaune to read with her.
For the next few minutes the two of them discussed what to put in a report while using Nick's report as a reference. It had what the main mission was, who he had worked with, and pretty much everything he had done. However, there was also something called a "personality report" for the people he was working with.
Nick actually gave some input about that part of the report. It was used to let the headmistress know about the huntsmen they were working with and whether or not she could trust them. Apparently despite being defenders of human and faunuskind, some see it more as legitimate mercenary work. What the headmistress does with the reports, they don't know. Jaune assumed she cross references them with other reports. What she did after that wasn't his concern.
Although if he had to guess, it would be similar to army discipline. Jaune was still learning the politics of Vacuo. Apparently most if not all of the council members here are Shade's teacher. While there were other huntsmen and huntresses in the council that weren't teachers, most who weren't teachers weren't council members.
So, if a huntsman did something unlawful, or at the very least, goes against the councils wishes, they had to be reprimanded or something. At least, that was Jaune's hypothesis.
After finishing the report they gave it back to Nicki. Jaune grabbed the boy's attention and gave him an impressed nod.
"That's a good report Nicki," He complimented. The student gave a sideways look as he double checked his paper to make sure nothing was missing.
"Thanks…" he mumbled as he tapped the papers on the desk. "And it's Nikolai."
"Yeah, but everyone calls him Nicki," Oliva butted in. Nikolai returned the comment with a middle finger and Oliva returned the gesture by sticking out her tongue. Olivia giggled and turned towards Jaune. "So, any other questions you got?"
"Yeah, what kind of missions should I expect?"
"Depends," Nickolai said.
"For once Nicki's right," Olivia added. "It depends on what the initial mission is, and I'm sure you know what most huntsmen missions are like." Jaune opened his mouth to reply, but Nicki chuckled and gathered their attention.
"He better. If he hasn't got the basic idea of what missions are like, he isn't really fit to be a huntsman." While that was the low hanging fruit, Nikolai said it in a way where he knew he was only half serious. So Jaune reacted accordingly.
"If you're going to insult me, come up with something original." Olivia's eyes bulged out a bit and Nikolai quirked an eyebrow. "I mean, ever since I've been called out as a fake, I've been hearing that insult. After hearing it for the umpteenth time, it kind of loses its punch." Oliva began cackling.
"Oh man the dog bites back!" she commented.
"How about I deck you in the face instead? Will that add enough 'punch' for ya?" Nikolai brought a fist up and shook it in Jaune's direction. He won't lie, it would be good to practice unarmed with someone other than Brawnz.
Jaune slid off the desk and took a step towards Nikolai while he cracked his knuckles. However, before he could take another step, Oliva got between them.
"All right, enough you two." She had her hands in between both guys as they stared each other down. "As much as I would love to see you idiots beat each other up, we're not here for that." Nikolai grumbled a bit as he turned to Olivia.
"Fine."
"You're no fun," Jaune said to Olivia.
"This isn't supposed to be fun, you're learning the basics on being an operator. It's going to be boring." Jaune sighed but nodded for her to continue. "Anyway, once you know your main mission, you help out in any way you can. Most of the time, the leader will give you directions that you have to follow."
"I have to?" Olivia nodded as did Nikolai.
"Unfortunately," the brown-haired boy said.
"Quiet peanut gallery. Anyway, yeah there is kind of a hierarchy that's established when you join your peeps. If they are younger than you, it's a flip of the coin whether or not you take the lead because it depends on the leader of the group. When you're the younger one, it's assumed you'll follow the leaders order."
Again, it was like a soldier following orders. Sure, he could do his own thing, but then he would have to explain himself in his report, not to mention it can hurt the team dynamic. There was also the fact that his choices could hinder their mission, especially if he failed.
"It seems like I get punished if I don't do what the leader says." The two older students looked at each other.
"He's not wrong," Nikolai agreed. Olivia nodded her head. The two of them turned towards Jaune and Olivia crossed her arm.
"At the end of the day, you don't really have to take orders from whoever you're working with. If you think you can help out in your own way, by all means do it. Just don't be surprised by some consequences." Jaune just groaned into his hands. He knew this would be hard. Then again, it's not like he could complain, he hasn't even gone on a mission yet. He can't judge this just by a fifteen minute explanation.
Still, doesn't mean he can't dread it.
To make sure he got all of the basics down, he repeated all the information he gathered from the two older students as best as he could. What to do on a mission, how he gets picked for a mission, the hierarchy within the team or person he's working with, what to put in the reports, and everything else.
After a few corrections from Olivia, and another look at Nikolai's report, the older blonde thought Jaune knew enough that they could all head to the lecture hall where everyone else was. the three students grabbed their respective bags and headed to the exit. Just as they were about to leave however, Nikolai spoke up.
"Hold up," he started. The two blondes turned around to face the purple shirted operator. "I know Oli said no fighting, but I just have to see what Brawnz's been teaching you." Nikolai set his report down on the table nearby and cracked his knuckles. Jaune raised an eyebrow at the familiar name.
"You know Brawnz?" He asked. He didn't move from his spot, but he turned his body away from the door and back into the room.
"Yeah, I went on a few mission with him and his team. They can fight, but I want to see if the hype he gives you is true" Jaune felt a swell of flattery in his chest. Brawnz said he could fight? It was a small notion, but it meant a lot.
Back at Beacon, even his friends said he couldn't fight. He could defend himself, or he was improving, but the word fight never actually escaped their mouths. It was like they didn't expect him to win half the time. It wasn't like they didn't have a reason to, but it still hurt that they never entertained the idea.
Jaune tossed his backpack to the ground and rolled his shoulder. Nikolai smiled and backed up into the training room. As the two boys prepared themselves, Olivia just rolled her eyes.
"Boys," she sighed. She followed them into the room and sat up on the table to watch the fight. "Well since Miss Nyx would probably kill me if I came in without you two idiots, I might as well make sure you don't slaughter each other." Both jaune and Nikolai groaned.
"We're not children," Jaune complained. Olivia did a tiny shrug.
"Could've fooled me." The two boys ignored her and stood across from each other. Jaune raised his fist and got into a standard fighting stance. Nikolai meanwhile was adjusting his one sleeve on his vest. The dark blue glow from the light purple vest seemed to radiate and glow a little brighter that caused Jaune to inspect it.
He focused his aura to his head and took a deep breath. One blink later, his vision changed from the normal colors he saw everyday to a more reddish hue. He focused his eyes on the sleeve and a small white ring circled the sleeve. In the corner of his view some text popped up.
Scanning…
Nikolai finally stopped adjusting his sleeve and looked up to see Jaune staring at his sleeve with red eyes.
"The hell are you doing?" he asked the blonde. Jaune looked at Nikolai and blinked causing his eyes to go back to their normal deep blue. He couldn't scan it in time. It could pose a problem, but this was just a spar, nothing too serious.
"Nothing, you ready?" Nikolai got a cocky smile. And raised his hands. He was in a boxing stance, but had his palms open. Jaune got into a normal fighting stance and had closed fists.
"Let's see how you do against a third year." The two stared at each other for a solid minute, neither moving. Jaune could feel his heart pounding his chest. He was excited, scared, nervous, but ready. This would be his first fisticuffs against someone other than Brawnz. He had to be ready.
The blonde dug his nails into his palm. They had been staring each other down for almost a minute now. His heartrate was increasing and it was starting to get to him. Eventually, the spectator watching the staring contest yelled something.
"Just fight already!"
Jaune looked over to Olivia as his concentration broke. Just as he was about to turn back to Nikolai, he was met with a fist right in his left cheek. The familiar stinging sensation erupted on his face and he stumbled back a bit. Before he could recover, he felt another fist connect to his opposite cheek and throw him back again. The final blow of the three hit combo was an uppercut to his chin.
Jaune stumbled back and nearly fell down, but recovered his balance. Just as he did though he felt a shoe connect to his skull and a ringing sound was blaring in his ear. He dropped to the ground and planted his hands to the ground to make sure he didn't stumble over.
He looked over to see Nikolai about to kick him, but Jaune dodged by rolling away from the kick. He used the momentum to get back to his feet. Unfortunately, Nikolai recovered faster and attacked Jaune again. However the moment of rest gave Jaune enough of a break to see the attack coming and he blocked it.
That wasn't enough to deter the older student however. He tried various punches to try and break through Jaune's defenses, but Brawnz taught Jaune well. He ducked, dodged, weaved, and blocked all of the blows that Nikolai gave. However, during one punch, Jaune weaved his head to the side, and Nikolai found an opening.
He slipped his hand to the back of Jaune's head and yanked down while his other fist drove its way to the blonde's stomach. The blow connected and the contents in Jaune's stomach swirled around. Jaune keeled over a bit but Nikolai wasn't done. He brought his knee up to Jaune's face which caused the boy to straighten up, and his vision began to blur.
Nikolai was going to throw another punch but Jaune caught it just in time. Needing to escape and get a moment to plan, Jaune used his head. Literally. He headbutted Nikolai.
Unfortunately, he wasn't aiming and their noggins collided. While it gave the effect Jaune wanted, it also gave him a huge headache. The two boys rubbed their foreheads to try and sooth the pain away.
"Gods I think I did that wrong," Jaune moaned out. Still, at least he had a moment to think. Nikolai was barely giving him room to breath. He had to get hits in, otherwise this match was as good as done..
The two recovered and Nikolai began his assault again. Jaune kept blocking and dodging hits, but he wasn't seeing any openings for him to counterattack. Brawnz's lessons popped in his head to keep moving. An opening will eventually reveal itself.
For the next two minutes it was just Jaune getting beaten to a pulp. Sure he was dodging and blocking, but Nikolai kept getting hits in, and it was wearing him down. Especially since he still had trouble with endurance. He had trouble keeping up with Brawnz's spar, but Brawnz was nothing compared to Nikolai. The only openings he saw were when he blocked the attacks. So he had to counter Nikolai before he could follow up. That was easier said than done. Nikolai was on an relentless assault
He was always offensive, always attacking, which made it hard for Jaune to think of his next move. He can't just attack, otherwise he gets sloppy. Finally, the gods shined down on him as Nikolai threw a punch and finally lost a little balance. Jaune pounced like a grimm seeing a weakened human.
Nikolai was tackled to the ground and the two wrestled for control. Eventually Jaune was able to get in mount and grabbed his throat with his right hand. He was able to get a couple of punches in but Nikolai had a trick up his sleeve.
He brought his legs up and wrapped them around Jaune as felt them on his back. However, Nikolai stopped trying to pry Jaune's hands off, and his hands went to his boot. All of a sudden, a knife appeared in Nikolai's fingers and he stabbed into Jaune's arm. Jaune saw it coming and activated more of his aura finally, but the knife still plunged into his arm.
Jaune slapped the knife away before gripping his arm, as it felt like it was on fire. Nikolai gasped for air before pushing the blonde off of him. As he did though, Jaune grabbed his foot and fell backwards with the foot still in his hands. He then twisted it to a weird angle and caused Nikolai to yelp.
Jaune kept twisting to make Nikolai tap, but all of a sudden he felt a freezing touch hit his leg, causing him to let go. Nikolai flipped backwards and got back up while Jaune looked at his leg. Somehow, his leg was stuck in a block of ice!
He looked up at Nikolai to see the blue on his sleeve was no longer dark, but almost white with a glow. Jaune put two and two together and glared at Nikolai.
"Unfair!" He yelled.
"Lesson one in being an operator Jaune," He said as his blue design began to glow bright again. A chill formed around his arm and soon it began to manifest in his hand. A solid pole of ice was formed with Nicki's hand in the middle of it, and finally, an axe head formed on one end. His robe stopped glowing and in his hands was an axe made from pure ice. "Playing fair is for morons and dead men."
He raised the axe high in the air, and Jaune's pupils shrunk to the size of an ant. His heart began to race and his instincts kicked in. He covered his entire hands into as much aura as he could muster, and began pounding on the ice that trapped his foot as hard and fast as he could.
Of course, it was to no avail. No matter how much aura or how hard Jaune hit it, it was still a solid piece of ice. The axe swung down and Jaune flinched, and closed his eyes. When the final blow didn't come, he peeked an eye open to see Olivia caught the axe by the head with her hand and arm shaking along with the head
"All right that's enough, I think you nearly gave him a heart attack." Nikolai looked at the two blondes and nodded his head. He'll admit he may have gone a little axe crazy. He stopped putting pressure on the axe and tossed it to the side, while Olivia helped push it away. Nikolai went to recover his knife and strap it back into his boot. Meanwhile, Olivia dug into her pocket and took out a small vial of fire dust that was in its grain form. She poured the vial on her hand and sent her aura around her arm and hand, causing the dust to flair a bit before turning into a large flame. She kept the fire near Jaune's frozen leg to help it melt.
"Thanks," he muttered. Olivia responded with a sweet smile. When Jaune could finally move his leg, he covered it with aura and yanked it out of the ice as best as he could. Eventually, the ice shattered and his leg was free. Granted it was freezing cold, but free.
Olivia kept the now small fire burning in her hand near Jaune's leg to help warm it up. Soon, Jaune felt sensation in his leg and foot and moaned in relief. When he finally stood up, he dusted himself off, then turned to Nicolai who was collecting his report.
"How was using your boot knife and dustweeved sleeve fair?" he complained. Nikolai just gave Jaune a glance before returning to his report.
"I already told you, fighting fair is for idiots."
"Actually, you said it was for morons and dead men!" Olivia commented.
"Same shit." Olivia rolled her eyes and patted her fellow blonde's shoulder.
"You all right?" she asked. Jaune didn't answer. He just looked at the ground as his head continued to argue with itself. Was Nikolai right? Even so, this was a spar, so the fact that he cheated was a load of crap right? The younger blonde turned to face Olivia.
"You agree with me that he cheated, right?" He asked. Olivia began giggling at Jaune's comment. "What?!" Olivia stopped laughing and wiped away a tear.
"Nothing!" she answered. "It's just that yeah he did cheat." Jaune sighed in relief, he was about to turn and yell at Nikolai but Olivia stopped him by grabbing his shoulder. He turned and faced her to ask what she was doing, but saw a serious look on her face. "The thing is, he's right."
"What? But-"
"Dude, we're huntsmen. We are fighting not only darkspawn, but often have to take on bandits, help the police, or in our case be the police, and make sure everyone we help gets out alive. Including ourselves. Fighting fair? All someone or something has to do is just be a little bit better than you and your days as a huntsman are over." Jaune sputtered a bit but then quiet down. "Look, it's awesome that you want fair fights, but realistically, it will get you killed."
Jaune wanted to argue, but knew they were right. After all, when BRNZ, NDGO, and himself were trying to escape the bandit camp, he wasn't exactly a saint when it came to fighting the bandits. Sabotage, stealth, disguises, burning everything, it wasn't like he asked them if it was okay if he did those thing.
"All right… I get it," he said. Olivia smirked. She was proud how he was adapting so easily. "Doesn't mean Nikolai isn't a little bitch!" He yelled that last part to make sure the older student heard. He knows Nikolai heard, but the student just ignored the comment and pointed to the door.
"Can we please go to the lecture hall now?" the older student begged. Both Jaune and Olivia looked at the time and realized thirty minutes have passed already. It was better to get back to the class before Miss Nyx sends someone.
Everyone began gathering their gear, and once they made sure nothing was left behind, Olivia and Jaune led Nikolai to the lecture hall Nyx told them they were meeting at. Along the way there, the three operators had small talk. Some of it was asking questions about how Nikolai's mission went since they read his report, some of it was discussing how long the two of them were Operators, and some of it was just useless talk to pass the time.
One conversation was actually how Nikolai's dustweeving worked. He could choose whatever type of dust he wanted, and as long as he sent aura to the sleeve, it would work in a controlled release. He could send a wave of elements, hurl a ball of it, or even make weapons out of them. Jaune even took out his journal and made sure to write some of this info down. Nikolai and Olivia even gave some tips to help him with his aura manipulation. It would take time, but he'll just have to practice.
After a couple of minutes of walking, they finally reached the lecture hall. They could hear a heated discussion going inside and they braced themselves. One deep breath later, the three of them opened the door.
To be continued.
Beta: TheShadowOfZama