Thank you all for the support! Please enjoy the latest chapter!
\~/
Chapter 14
You better hurry Whitback warned as Jaune looked over himself in the mirror, he couldn't let something slip on initiation day. He looked over the slim white material that covered his entire body, mimicking skin to cover his blackened veins and help hide his identity.
The suit was almost perfect as a disguise but it had two major flaws. It couldn't be hardened else it wouldn't be flexible enough to move in and didn't come up very far past his neck as face looked just plain weird when completely covered.
"I know I know, just making sure." Jaune concentrated on his body, trying to shape it properly to form the clothing and armor he and Ozpin agreed on. With a few seconds pause the blackened veins spread outwards, moving the white material where he willed it and retreating back once it was done.
You're getting much better Whitback commented while inspecting the intricate work brought on by Jaune's imagination and Ozpin's suggestions. Plates of pure white armor covered his body, similar to the knights of old Ozpin spun tales of. Any exposed flesh was covered by an under-layer of tiny interlocked chains. The armor stopped at his neck and was covered by the white cloak Jaune had added in an attempt to appear less intimidating.
"Thanks, but I still wish we didn't have to wear all this armor." Jaune commented while twisting an arm around slowly to make sure the pieces fit perfectly together. You know as well as I that other students would see we had no aura the first time we got cut. Whitback pointed out while quickly making some slight adjustments to the armor to help prevent discomfort and noise.
"Yea…" Jaune trailed off, a bit nervous at the mention of other students. He was excited to finally be going to school of course but what if something went wrong? It had taken two years for Ozpin to let Jaune attempt initiation, what if he screwed up?
Don't worry Jaune, we've practiced this day and night for the last two years. Whitback could feel his unease Be more confident in yourself it tried to encourage.
"You're right." Jaune nodded and, with a slight twitch, his mask formed around his face and covered his eyes with the net of black material to complete his "disguise". He flipped the hood of the cloak up, paused to looked at himself before pushing it back down and showing off his white hair. He thought it made him look a bit more… Human.
You're going to be late if you keep stalling Jaune flinched slightly and turned to look at his clock. "Damn!" He cursed to himself, hastily forming a sword at his hip and a shield in his hand before rushing out the door. The other students would already be heading for the edge of the Emerald Forest by now, would Ozpin be angry if he was late?
Jaune was lucky he already spent so much time in the school, finding his way to the cliff side was easy but as he got closer something caught his eye. Among the gathering of first years that stood at the cliffside Jaune sighted of a familiar red cloak.
"Nice of you to finally join us Mr Arc." Glynda's voice snapped his attention away before he could confirm his suspicion. He felt every eye turn to him, the only late-comer, as he rushed to stand next to the others.
"Sorry miss Goodwitch" Jaune apologised quietly but still loud enough for the surrounding students to hear. Jaune ignored the several different reactions and kept his attention on Glynda, he would not be discouraged so easily. "Did I miss anything?"
Ozpin raised an eyebrow just as the first student was launched into the forest below via spring loaded floor plate. "Not really." he said with a shrug, the second student launching into the forest with a yelp of surprise.
"Just find the temple," Another student went flying. "find a relic," A White haired student went next, followed by a red headed one. "And your partner for the next four years" A boy with a mohawk then a girl with orange hair went upwards. "Will be with whomever you make eye contact with first."
Another two students got launched, a boy in green with a pink stripe in his black hair and a large, armored boy with short brown hair. "Isn't that a bit…" A blonde haired girl who was way too excited to be sent flying was in the air next.
"Random?" A red cloak flashed past his face as the student next to him went skybound. Get ready. Whitback warned while Jaune absently noticed the extra clicks his floor plate gave off compared to the others. Ozpin took a sip from his mug, obviously stalling for the few seconds the contraption required.
"Yes." He responded just as the plate strained to launch Jaune, breaking completely as Whitback timed a jump to add more momentum. We're not falling behind now Jaune, focus on the goal ahead.
Jaune gave a nod, Whitback was right; Oz had his reasons, no point arguing now. He shifted his weight, struggling for a moment to get the cloak behind himself just as the treeline began coming up on him. Even with Whitback's added jump they still weighed too much to stay airborne long.
He bounced off the ground with a loud thud, cursing loudly at the botched landing while Whitback twisted mid-air to regain their footing. He stopped for a moment after coming to a stop and looked around slowly "I'm good, nothing to worry about, no one saw that." he muttered to himself while brushing off a bit of dirt and fixing his cloak.
Except Ozpin, Glynda and whomever they decide to show the video to. Whitback responded bluntly. Since they're recording all the first years.
Jaune let out an exaggerated sigh "Yes. Except for them."
\-/
"Do you really think he's ready?" Glynda knew Jaune had finally caught up in his studies and his combat abilities, without Whitback's tendrils, were developing rapidly. That on its own was impressive but Jaune had much more he had to think about than the average student. "What if he's recognized?"
Ozpin looked at his scroll that showed several different students in various states in the forest, some already fighting grimm while others were still looking for a partner. "Then I suppose he'll be caught and we'll be tried for treason and sentenced to death." he tapped the scroll, switching the camera angle.
"I wish you'd take this more seriously, you're risking an awful lot for one hunter." glynda said with a sigh and turned her attention to her own scroll, grading the students with a critical eye.
"Sorry" The silver haired man apologised with a smile, it had been a long time since he had a class filled with so many interesting students and he was feeling optimistic. "I have faith that mister Arc will surpass our expectations, just as I do with the young Ruby Rose." Ozpin anticipated Glynda's thought process while glancing over his scroll at her.
She shook her head and let out a defeated sigh, of course she was worried about letting someone so young into the school but she couldn't fault Ozpin for it. They needed Huntsmen, now more than ever. "I trust you know what you're doing, I just hope they both understand what they've gotten themselves into."
It was strange in a sense, how two people with such different upbringings could share such a similar mindset. When push came to shove both Jaune and Ruby proved neither could just stand back and do nothing when they saw injustice, but was that noble? or childishly naive?
"Who can say? All we can do is teach, and hope those we are teaching take our lessons to heart." That being said Ozpin still felt optimism when looking upon this batch of students, even without Ruby or Jaune there was a staggering amount of potential to go around. He just had to prevent Salem from corrupting it.
\-/
Gotta find yang, gotta find yang, gotta find "Yang! Yang!" Ruby yelled out into the forest while running, She had landed not a moment ago and began looking for her sister immediately. Why couldn't they just pick their partner? If Ozpin didn't care who they ended up with and made the whole thing random, what difference did it make?
What if Yang already had a partner? Ruby would have to find a different partner! Who else did she know here? Maybe Pyrrha? She seemed nice and she's strong but didn't that Weiss girl already say she was her partner? Ruby already annoyed Weiss when she accidentally exploded her dust… She didn't want to make an enemy on her first day…
A loud crash startled her just as a white figure smashed through several trees before making a small crater a few meters from her. "definitely not the relic…" She heard the cloaked figure mumble while he got to his feet. She was about to asked what he was talking about when a massive Death Stalker smashed its way towards them like a deranged train off its tracks.
Ruby reacted quickly, jumping out of the way and expecting to see the masked figure miss Goodwitch called Jaune to do the same. She turned around when she heard the Stalker impact something solid and was shocked to see him holding the grimm off with nothing but a plain white shield.
"Wow…I didn't think that was even pos-" She was interrupted when the Grimm sent Jaune flying again towards her with a powerful strike from its stinger. She tried to catch him but regretted it a moment later as she had the wind knocked out of her.
"No offense... but you're a lot heavier than you look…" She felt winded but her Aura stopped any serious damage. "Sorry about that! are you alri-?" Jaune paused for a moment as if caught of guard. "Ruby?"
"Yes…?" She said a bit unsure where this stranger had heard of her, though he did look strangely familiar. "It's been so long! I almost didn't recog-" Again the Scorpion-like grimm interrupted, rampaging towards them with reckless abandon. They both jumped out of the way before it could get ahold of them.
"Fight now, talk later!" She stated while pulling free her Crescent Rose and firing off several shots to distract the Death Stalker. Jaune nodded and charged forward only to be stopped by the thing's massive stinger.
It was keeping him from gaining momentum Ruby realized, whenever he would wind up an attack it would strike with the stinger and throw him off balance. Anything less than a significant blow just glanced off its exoskeleton; resulting in Jaune's current stalemate.
"Little help?" Jaune asked while blocking a swipe from the grimm's pincer and trying to make a strike of his own. Ruby switched tactics when her bullets did little, using her semblance to launch a series of attacks to attempt and draw the creature's attention away from Jaune.
Her planned worked if only to enrage the Stalker further, sending it into a frenzy and smacking her into into a nearby tree. Her Aura held strong but she wasn't sure how many more of those hits she could take, it hit a hell of a lot harder than a Beowulf.
"Havin fun without me sis?" The familiar voice made Ruby jump to her feet "Yaang!" She jumped to wrap her sister in a bear hug. "Want some help?" The tall, blonde haired brawler asked with a smirk.
Before Ruby could respond Jaune smashed into the ground next to them, groaning slightly as he got to his feet. "Did I hear something about help?" He asked a bit groggily while trying to shake off the impending concussion.
"Were you two idiots seriously expecting to take on a full grown Death Stalker by yourselves?" Ruby jumped behind Yang at the sound of the Schnee Heiress' voice. Her White hair came down past her bluish-white combat skirt with her pale white Myrtenaster at her hip.
"I mean… Yes?" Jaune said with a shrug, clearly not understanding why it sounded so farfetched. "Guys! Focus" Ruby brought their attention back to charging Grimm, taking a few shots at its eyes to slow it down. "Jaune, keep it distracted. I think I've got an idea." He looked at her for a moment before nodding and charging fearlessly.
"We need to get rid of its stinger, have any ice dust to hold it?" she directed to Weiss who had drawn her weapon but was staring at Jaune like he was a suicidal idiot. "Y-Yes of course I have ice dust" She snapped out of her surprise quickly and flicked her Myrtenaster to the proper cartridge.
"Yang, switch with Jaune when I tell you and keep as much of its attention on you." She tried to speak quickly, knowing Jaune couldn't hold long. "Weiss, try to keep it as still as possible while supporting Jaune and Yang. I'll take off it's stinger and while you two keep it busy Jaune can deliver the killing blow."
Weiss hesitated a moment but relented when nothing better came to mind. "Right." she nodded and lunged forward in a series of glyphs, flicking her rapier and sending forth a wall of ice to encase the Grimm's tail. "Thank you!" Jaune called out, grateful she stopped the stinger from coming down on him again.
With its tail held still and its focus caught up trying to defend against Jaune it could do nothing as Ruby flew out of nowhere moving too fast to see as anything but a blur. Her scythe bit deeply into the grimm's tail, just below the stinger and with a few extra shots to push her Crescent Rose forward it was severed completely.
"Yang!" Ruby called out and Yang jumped over Jaune, letting loose a flurry of blows with glowing red eyes. The Death Stalker was pushed backwards while Jaune readied his sword at his side and waited for an opening.
As Yang delivered a devastating uppercut a glyph appeared around Jaune's feet like the ones Weiss used to move quickly. He didn't waste time questioning it and lunged forward with the added speed, his white blade slicing cleanly through the softer underbelly.
The black sludge like blood spewed from the grimm, evaporating as it touched the air leaving no trace the grimm had ever existed at all.
"Woo! Who else had fun?" Yang called out with a bright smile.
\~/
So this chapter was... difficult. At least two full pages i had written and then deleted because I kept debating how to tackle this. Debated doing it completely from Jaune's pov, also thought about starting it from the grimms perspective but in the end i decided to spread it out a bit more. Please let me know what you think of my changes and constants! I wanted to change the teams but still hope i kept the characters personalities intact. Ruby doesn't fully remember Jaune as she only met him once years ago, though she does remember the encounter it just hasn't "struck" yet. Please let me hear any suggestions or criticisms, especially if I missed something this chapter (I really feel like I did ) and I would love to hear what you're expecting to happen/ want to happen. My "freeform" style lets me incorporate a lot though admittedly it can be a bit difficult at times to keep straight. As always I look forward to hearing from any of you in the reviews and I hope you all have a wonderful evening/morning
Thanks Sm0keyPanda! Even now I plan on using James as a figure Jaune would go to for help if something happened. thanks for the review!
Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh Thank you so much for the compliments! I hadn't realized how common the idea was (I don't read a whole lot of fictions, think whitesheep and one of the gamer ones are two that i remember with the same trope.) But I'm so happy I was able to make it distinct! no one likes a carbon copy over the original. I like to think Ozpin is not panicking but still a more than a bit desperate with how the war against grimm is going, He makes me think of a kind-hearted realist. With the control he can absolutely control it but it depends heavily on his state of mind as well as how often he practices healthy mental exercises. I kind of see it similar to anger problems or even a kind of PTSD just cranked up a bit, Hope I've done a good job of explaining it properly. Whitback is something I'm kinda proud of, you nailed the description of him! Thank you so much for the review! Made my day to hear more people enjoying my work!
Artjom435, I totally should have noticed after the "as i stated previously" comment sorry about that! I'm glad I made the slice of life come out in a naturally way, I feel like I'm a bit better with tense situations than calm ones strangely enough, not sure if that's normal but I'm glad you liked it! As seen last chapter and this chapter Jaune is interested in Ruby though relationship wise i admit I dont have any solid plans. Let me know if you have any suggestions or points you think i missed. thanks for the review!
Thanks for the review Chendong2698! I always appreciate the support!
aSinglePancake, I love to hear that I've drawn more attention! Gives me courage to think I'm doing something right to keep people coming back! Thank you for you kindness!