Hello everyone! sorry for the huge delay on this chapter. When I said this wouldn't be updated regularly, I didn't mean that long of a break between chapters. I got really busy with school stuff - still am - and am trying to find a job, so things kept piling up, and this was, for a moment, at the bottom of said pile. Forgive me.
Without further ado, here's the chapter!
Beta: Knight of Cerberus
"Yeah, all that writing is tiring."
Taking a deep breath, Jaune hesitated, holding his scroll just out of the range of the lock to the dorm room's door. Clicking his tongue, the boy turned his head, looking over his shoulder to the girl who was across the hall behind him. She was looking back at him with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.
Nora Valkyrie, as Jaune had learned, was just a normal person like him – not that she was abnormal, aside from the massive hammer she swung around and her seemingly endless supply of energy. She was normal person. One who had concerns, ideas, feelings... all things he hadn't truly been considering, all this time.
They'd talked for the better part of an hour, discussing their teams, what they should do, how they should go about it. He'd come to her for advice, and found she needed it as much as he did. It wasn't until Jaune got a message on his scroll from Blake that he realized they'd gone on for so long.
Nora's eyes right now, meeting his from across the hall... Jaune didn't want to say the girl was nervous by any means. Just anxious, or perhaps more simply, concerned. Everything he'd seen of VLWR, they were a functioning team.
Underneath the surface, however – as Nora had explained – her team had all sorts of problems: Weiss and Yang's constant bickering was their biggest issue, but Jaune, upon being informed of what he'd been missing with regards to the all-female team he was more or less familiar with, had then turned his thoughts to the team he was the leader of.
What all could he have been missing? Is there something he couldn't see? Multiple somethings?
The boy shuffled in place and attempted to relax as he lowered his scroll to the side, taking a moment to mentally reset. Behind him, he heard VLWR's door closing, now alone in the quiet hallway. He reached up, swiped his scroll across the pad, and turned the doorknob.
As the blond pushed his way in, three sets of eyes turned to him. Ren was standing, seemingly in the middle of the dorm, arms crossed. His expression was, for lack of a better term, blank. Blake had been reading, which was honestly not a surprise to him, while Pyrrha was sitting on the edge of her bed, scroll in hand. Seeing him enter, she slid her scroll closed, and put it down beside her.
They all shared a curious gaze.
"There you are." Pyrrha called out with a smile. "I'd been about to ask you whether we should have just met in the cafeteria, or if we should've just been waiting here."
Jaune nodded along, surveying the faces of his teammates – his team. "You guys are hungry?"
"Yes." Blake stated, sitting up fully after marking the page she was on and setting her book to the side. "You were gone for a while."
Jaune took that moment to nod again, rubbing his face as he looked among the three of them. "We can go grab something to eat in a bit, but...," a last minute feeling of nagging doubt hit him, but he pushed it far into the back of his mind. "I was wondering if you guys wouldn't mind chatting for a bit?"
That got a tilt of the head from Pyrrha, a shrug of the shoulders from Ren, and a perhaps hesitant nod from Blake. The redhead clasped her hands together before speaking.
"What about?"
That was just it though, really: What about? All kinds of scenarios and topics ran through Jaune's head, some of them even ones he suggested Nora bring up when she talked with her team. But for some reason, it wasn't easy to just start talking about something out of nowhere.
After a moment, he let out a breath, and rubbed the back of his head. "I want to talk about us. Our team."
That seemed to get everyone's interest. Ren turned to face him fully, re-crossing his arms. "Us?"
Jaune nodded, before taking a moment to look around the dorm. It was both a means to distract himself, and also to gather his thoughts. As his eyes settled on the desk chair, he walked over, pulling it out and turning it around to face the members of his team. The blond sat, and hunched over a little, looking up and around at everyone. "I... suppose I should be honest about something."
His partner shuffled in place on her bed, and Jaune looked to her. Blake seemed to stare into his eyes, making him less comfortable through no fault of her own. The boy sighed, looking back to Pyrrha and Ren as well.
"I f-feel like I don't know you guys too well yet." The boy explained, their stares putting pressure on him as he feared what they might expect. Ren nodded along with his statement, but Pyrrha looked confused, so Jaune continued: "I mean, I know you guys, but I don't... well, know you, I guess?"
"Like... we've talked and stuff, but we haven't talked-talked?" Ren offered.
"Exactly." Jaune agreed, smiling up at his green-clad teammate.
"Really, you two?" The two boys blinked, turning to Blake. "I mean, it's not like I didn't understand, but you could have explained it better than 'knowing and not knowing' and 'talking but not talking.'"
Jaune and the other boy shared a glance. The blond shrugged with a sheepish smile, and Ren echoed the motion.
"Oh. That's what you mean." Pyrrha sounded out, everyone turning to her. "Since we don't really know each other, even though we... know each other... you want introductions?"
The blond nodded to Pyrrha. Introductions probably wasn't the right word though... but honestly, he couldn't think a better one. "We're going to be a team for four years-" Something else Nora had conveniently reminded him of, "-and while I'm sure being just a team is enough, we should be friends as well."
"You mean we weren't already?" Blake asked, challenging casually. There was something behind her words, but he couldn't read it. The thing was, Jaune had no good answer for her.
After a moment, Ren spoke. "I think what Jaune is trying to say is we've really only just been friendly, and – while we know each other – we don't know each other like he feels we should." Jaune nodding along with him. For some reason, it passed through his mind the boy would have made a good leader – possibly a better one than him.
Blake hummed. Jaune looked up to meet her eyes, and she moved to meet his. He wasn't sure what she was looking at, or looking for, but after a moment, the girl sighed. Her long black hair swung as she moved to the very edge of her bed. She stopped, leaning forwards with her elbows resting on her knees as she propped herself up.
"So we're talking about us..." Blake let out. Jaune wasn't sure if it was a question or a confirmation, but he adopted a somewhat similar pose to Blake's own.
"We can just go around, sharing small things." He suggested. He didn't exactly feel like sharing his entire life story – and he could assume the others weren't privy to doing that either, judging from the looks on their faces. "Like... okay..."
A moment passed, Jaune realizing how truly hard this all was.
"I have seven sisters." The blond blurted out, the silence having reached the point where it was almost as if no one would say anything, ever again. "One older, and six younger."
As he said that, he watched the faces of the rest of his team. He couldn't read Ren's expression, while Pyrrha looked absolutely terrified for a moment, before tilting her head and cringing. Blake, who he remembered he'd talked about this with a little, looked confused.
"An older sister? I thought you said something about being an only child before."
Jaune blinked, as everyone else looked back to him. He had? "My older sister is, well... I chose for myself, I guess you could say? Not related by blood, but a sister through... through..."
"The heart?" Ren offered.
"Sure, we can go with that. Regardless, I consider her my sister – and she might as well be blood, too. We've done so much together. Been there for each other. It's hard to imagine her as anyone but my sister."
Ugh, I'd die if I said that in front of Velvet...
"It's not too different with me." Ren began. The spotlight off of himself for a moment, Jaune took a breath, studying his teammate's face. He had a far off look in his eyes, but he didn't seem apprehensive at all – as if he were simply reminiscing. "Nora and I aren't related by blood, but she's the only family I have."
Jaune nodded along. He'd gotten that kind of impression from the two of them already - Nora especially.
"The two of us are orphans. I..." The boy's lips curled into a faint frown for but a second. "We've always had each other's backs."
A strained silence hung over the room at Ren's following statement. Jaune felt it would be rude to ask any more of the boy, but he couldn't say anything else himself, simply shuffling his feet where he sat.
"I suppose I can go next." Blake spoke up, Jaune more than a little surprised. He'd figured Pyrrha would've been the one to break the silence. "I guess we're talking about our families?" The black-haired girl hummed, staring at a random point on the floor.
"I'm an only child. Lived with my mother and father for a while but... I moved in with extended family after a fight."
Jaune pursed his lips. He couldn't imagine being any further from his family than the distance already between them as is.
"What about your extended family?" Ren queried.
"I had a bad fight with them too."
Jaune cringed. The conversation had really just gone from depressing to somehow even more depressing. When the boy turned to Pyrrha, he noted she had an equally disturbed expression, before her lips turned to a pleasant smile – but yet she still hesitated to speak.
A moment passed, and she still hadn't said anything. Jaune tilted his head when the silence had stretched far too long for his liking. "Pyrrha?"
It was as if the girl had just woken up, blinking and looking around the room, before her eyes settled into his. "Wha- yes?"
"It's your turn." Blake pointed out, causing the redhead to turn towards her.
"Oh, sorry. I was just thinking." The girl smiled awkwardly.
"It's fine. Go ahead."
"Well, with my fighting career, I didn't spend much time at home. My mother was always so supportive of me though. I'm truly blessed to have her."
"Wait, fighting career?" Jaune asked once Pyrrha finished her statement, puzzled. This was the first he'd heard of this. "What fighting career?"
A beat passed as everyone turned to Jaune, looking at him slack-jawed. Blake looked to Pyrrha, Pyrrha looked to Blake, and then to Ren. Ren turned back to Jaune and just stared.
"She's Pyrrha Nikos." Ren stated, emphasizing her last name.
"I know her name." Jaune sighed, responding matter-of-factly.
"No, like, Jaune." Blake shook her head, blinking as if she couldn't believe something. "She's Pyrrha Nikos."
"Yeah, I heard him, Blake. Am I not talking loud enough?"
The black haired girl sighed, and fell back onto her bed, shaking her head. Confused, Jaune looked to Pyrrha, the girl unable to hide her embarrassment behind her hands. As Jaune turned to Ren, he leaned back as the boy's scroll was shoved into his face, alight with a video display.
He watched on as a camera showed a wide angle view of what looked to be a large, circular ring, scattered with boulders of varying size – it almost looked like the kind of arena a tournament fight or something would be held on. In fact, it looked like that was exactly what he was being shown. Some tall guy in red clothes that looked somewhat like Ren's typical attire was standing in an open area, some kind of curved sword at the ready. He was facing a cloud of stirring dust.
Before Jaune could ask exactly what he was seeing, he watched as a familiar figure came rushing out of the cloud, her spear held before her as she ran forward. Her bronze armor seemed to glint in the spotlight of the arena, and Jaune's breath hitched as he watched her ponytail flare out behind her.
"Pyrrha Nikos just doesn't seem to be stopping! No matter what Kylar Carnelian seems to be throwing at her, it seems like she just keeps making out without even a scratch! How does she do it?!"
"What is this?" Jaune breathed out, the crowd cheering as Pyrrha dashed forwards.
"The final match of last year's Mistral Regional Tournament." Ren explained. "The last minute of it, actually."
The Mistral Regional- Jaune watched on as there was a loud ping, and Pyrrha's shield came out from her opponent's right, bouncing off a boulder. As he turned to deflect it, Pyrrha threw her javelin.
The man – somehow managed to knock the shield up, sending it flying straight above him. He just barely managed to deflect Pyrrha's javelin into the ground beneath him, point in the dirt. He was fast.
Pyrrha was faster, the heel of her boot catching him in the chin as she flipped, pulling her javelin out of the dirt and transforming it to the sword form Jaune had seen once or twice before. Her opponent tried to slash at her, but the redhead blocked, using the momentum of his strike to continue her flip, catching her shield.
Jaune had seen her fight in class, but this was different. As the roar of the crowd continued to come through to him, muffled by the limitations of the scroll's speaker, his heart raced.
As Pyrrha fell, the man moved to meet her, but was just a moment too slow as the edge of the girl's shield came down right next to his head, along where the collarbone and shoulder of his sword-wielding arm met. He dropped his sword, and Pyrrha smacked him in the side of his head with the shield, before kicking him away.
"Another impressive show of acrobatics from the three-time champion! It's hard to believe she's only sixteen!"
Jaune glanced up at Pyrrha and met her eyes for but a second before he looked back down at the video. He wasn't sure what the look she gave him meant, but he shoved it in the back of his mind, continuing to watch.
The blond blinked, and the man had his sword back in his hand. A semblance? It didn't matter, because in seconds, Pyrrha had disarmed him again, resting the tip of her spear at his throat. Her opponent raised his arms in surrender.
"Wow." Jaune let out, as the announcer ranted and raved over Pyrrha's fourth straight championship victory, the crowd cheering loudly as the redhead celebrated. The camera zoomed in on her face, and he could see her glee clear as day. "I had no idea" the blonde admitted, looking up to Pyrrha. "Four time champion?"
The redhead shrugged lightly, giving him a light smile.
And I saw her nake- No! Bad Jaune!
As the most recent thought stewed, he wondered how many people would want to kill him if they knew. Probably hundreds, if not thousands.
"I'm never going to not knock again."
Pyrrha blinked, her smile dropping from her face, before she began to blush a shade akin to her hair.
"I said that out loud, didn't I."
"Pervert." Blake called out from across the room.
"It was an accident!" Jaune guffawed, while the black haired girl chuckled. Pyrrha buried her face in her hands, while Ren just shook his head disappointedly, but with the hints of a smile.
Despite everything, Jaune couldn't help but let out a snort of amusement himself.
This was his team. And the sobering realization of how they might have to rely on him, the way he was going to have to lean on them?
He'd have to do better.
"This is boring."
"Shh."
"But Weiss, I-"
"Shh. It's two more minutes."
Nora Valkyrie looked up from her notes – neat, structured, and organized the way Ren taught her – to glance to her right. Yang, furthest away, looked to have given up taking notes all together, while Weiss grumbled, her pen scratching furiously to put down what was written up on the board. Ruby sat between them, looking a little uncomfortable.
"But still-"
The leader of VLWR cleared her throat quietly as she turned back to the front of the class, cutting Yang off and getting a muffled apology from the blonde.
'I grew up with seven sisters, and I think sometimes, you just have to take a side. You'll make the wrong decision sometimes, but trust your gut.'
Nora nodded to herself, eyes tracing the chalk words Professor Peri wrote out as she copied them into her notebook. The tall woman's handwriting was messy, but still legible.
Watching on, Nora even copied down the little smiley face the professor left on the board, before the older woman tossed the stub of chalk in a wastebin next to her desk. Nora didn't even hesitate, closing her notebook as the quiet huntress left the room without even a word.
Yang let out an exasperated sigh, the class coming to life around her – one or two students letting out loud yawns. "Didn't APBL say something about her lessons being interesting?"
"I think it was Pyrrha." Weiss noted, collecting her own notes.
Ruby shrugged her shoulders. "Well, that whole Aura being weaker when you're unaware thing was something new. To me, at least."
Nora nodded along. It was the first she'd heard of it as well. "She's nice."
"I dunno, I think I'd rather have someone more engaging." Yang noted.
"Like Professor Port?"
"Yeah, you've got me there."
"So, lunch time?" Nora offered with a smile, happy the team was interacting somewhat normally.
An enthusiastic "Yup!" from Ruby got the entire team on their feet. As they shuffled over towards the door, Nora watched them all closely – looking between Weiss and Yang specifically. Having been thinking about it the other night, Nora hadn't yet found a way to get the two to really... bond? Not bicker? They were partners, but so far, it seemed like a volatile relationship at bad times, and forced at best.
Sure, they could get along and joke – occasionally – but they seemed to be a little sour towards each other over the strangest things. Nora had no clue if there was something wrong, or if they were just... well... like this?
The girl settled her eyes on Ruby, humming to herself in thought. Could she look to her for some kind of help?
Nora cast the thought into the back of her head. She wasn't just a leader for her team – she was a partner for Ruby as well – and so far, she hadn't really been a partner for her partner.
Being a leader was hard. It was going to give her a headache, sooner or later.
As the team of four moved down the halls – Nora letting the others lead in this as she still didn't quite have the layout of Beacon committed to memory – the girl caught sight of a familiar boy, with his team trailing him. She couldn't say she wanted to see CRDL, but here they were.
She didn't even look at them as they passed each other – wherever the all-male team was headed, or what they thought of her, was of no consequence. However, she did feel their eyes on her, and noticed the way Yang watched them as they watched her.
When Nora could barely hear the boys' footsteps or their muffled whispers, Yang fell out of step with Ruby and Weiss – the white-haired and red-cloaked girl talking about something – and looked down at her.
"What was that about?" Yang quizzed, somewhat quietly. Nora wasn't sure whether Ruby or Weiss noticed or not, continuing to chat between themselves. "I like to think I'm okay at reading people, but-" The girl cut herself off, stretching her arms above her head. "-I have no idea what that was."
"Oh, it's nothing really." Nora smiled, though she kept her tone and general expression serious. 'Be serious when you have to be serious,' Jaune had shared. "I talked with them the other day."
Yang hummed. "If you say so... but those stares tell me there was more than just a little chat."
"Well, that depends on if you want me to tell you everything."
That got the girl a look from Yang. "Sure."
"The big one? Carter? Cardon?"
"Cardin, I think."
"Yeah that's it. He's a bully." Nora hummed. "Or, well, was about to bully Jaune. Or try to? Dunno. I stopped him."
Yang's expression rolled through various phases, but Nora recognized when it scrunched in confusion, then a brief moment of what appeared to be concern, and then a sly smile. "What did you do?"
Nora chuckled, leaning closer to Yang. "I threatened to hit him with my hammer, then punched Jaune in the gut."
The expression that popped onto Yang's face as the blonde leaned back in surprise was priceless, buying a round of laughter from Nora – one that made Weiss and Ruby both stop and turn in front of her.
As Nora continued to laugh, she crumpled over finding she couldn't stop, clutching her gut. VLWR's leader could barely manage to look up at Ruby's smiling face as the girl let out a wary giggle.
"What's so funny?" Weiss crossed her arms.
Nora snorted as her mirth died down, taking a stumbling step forward. "Oh you missed it! I shared a story with Yang, and her face went all bwarg!" Nora twisted her expression into what she assumed Yang's looked like: a mix of amusement, surprise, and shock, but she couldn't hold it as she burst out in laughter again.
"Hey! I didn't look anything like that!" Yang claimed, stepping closer to the other two as well.
As Nora righted herself, she looked up and saw Yang with a pout and a blush on her face, and smiled. She tried to hold the same expression again. "Bwarg!"
A more enthusiastic chuckle broke past Ruby's lips.
Yang smiled. "It wasn't like that... it was like this!" The blonde girl twisted her face into almost the exact same expression from before – how she recreated it willingly far beyond Nora – and the redhead burst out laughing again, followed shortly by a round from Ruby.
And more importantly, though the girl wondered if she was imagining things, it sounded like a most unladylike snort of laughter came from Weiss' direction.
"Yang, I can't breathe!" Ruby let out in between deep gulps of breath, clutching her gut while she hunched over. "You used to make that face to mimic a Beowolf when you-" The younger girl cut off suddenly, face going white as a sheet.
Nora looked over to Yang, body still trembling with laughter. The blonde's expression turned a scheming feral – probably more akin to a wolf than her original mimicry.
"Oh, would you like me to share some stories, sis?"
"N-no!"
"Well, fine. I guess as your benevolent and kind older sister, I'll spare you it this once." Yang grinned.
"I'm surprised you know a word as long as benevolent." Weiss stated. For a moment, Nora thought she was just being all... Weiss-y? But from the tone of her voice and her easy expression, it was more as if she was teasing the blonde girl. "Also, benevolent and kind mean the exact same thing. You essentially just called yourself the 'kind and kind' older sister."
"Really?" Yang scratched her head, chuckling as she smiled nervously. "I guess I did."
Nora looked between the two. Two girls who had just seemed nothing but antagonistic to each other recently. Or had that just been her imagination all along?
Had nothing truly been wrong?
"You okay Nora?" Ruby asked, breaking her from her musings.
"Hm?" The three girls who were her teammates looked to her, so Nora began to walk down the hall again, smiling over her shoulder as she waved off Ruby's inquisition. "Oh, I'm fine. Come on, let's get to the cafeteria. I'm starving."
"I'm rather hungry myself." Weiss admitted, Nora only able to hear her as she turned around to face forwards. "I really hope the cafeteria lady actually gives me food today, and not... that."
Nora shivered at Weiss' statement. Yesterday's supper had not been pleasant.
"We all share the same hope, I think... Except for Ruby." Yang pointed out after a moment. "I still don't think a plate full of cookies is, well... a balanced meal."
"And definitely not something to consume all at once..." Nora didn't even have to see it to know Yang and Weiss were both staring pointedly at the shorter girl.
"I said I was sorry... and did we really need curtains anyways?"
"Yes." All three girls echoed. Nora suppressed her mirth at the unified response, stepping forward with confidence as Ruby groaned.
These girls were her team, and she was their leader.
She felt an odd sense of pride at the thought. Her team. The bestest team ever.
And she was going to be the bestest leader. Ever.
Jaune and his team stood in a circle – or a square, whatever. Three pairs of eyes looked to him, and he met them all as he scanned the faces of his teammates.
He'd never been more nervous in his entire life, really. Okay, that was an understatement. Arriving at Beacon had been much, much worse, but right now he was probably the one of them that knew the absolute least about fighting, and yet...
Here they were.
"So..." Jaune went to scratch the back of his head, before catching himself and not falling back on the nervous habit. He flexed his hand instead, and put a thumb through the loop of his belt where Crocea Mors typically stayed. "Before we get started..." The blonde sighed.
He really didn't know how to go about this. He knew what he needed to do, but putting it in action was much harder than it seemed.
His team, thankfully, was patient. Pyrrha and Ren offered reassuring nods, while Blake just tilted her head inquisitively. Not one of them let out a peep, though Pyrrha shuffled slightly, her armor tinkling in the relative silence of the training area they'd booked for the evening. They were all in full combat gear, ready for whatever Jaune decided what they needed to do.
For whatever the least experienced member of the entire team decided...
This was a bad idea.
"Before we get started..." Jaune tried again. "I need to know more about, well, how everyone fights." He didn't know if that was really the absolute best place to start, but it was all he could think of. "We can start with the basics, and go from there."
"The basics?" Blake asked. "What do you mean by 'basics?'"
Jaune hummed. He remembered discussing this with Velvet before, when they were younger, and tried to adopt her words to his current situation. "I want to know what everyone is good at and comfortable with. I don't know everything we're going to be learning here at Beacon, but knowing how to work with each other is probably an important first step. So... I guess I could use myself as an example?"
Ren spoke next. "I think I understand what you mean, but go ahead." Blake and Pyrrha nodded in agreement with the boy.
Their eyes were on him – their questioning gazes still made him feel uncomfortable.
This was hard... the closer to the truth he gave them, the more of himself he'd be giving away. If he told them too much, would they figure out he was a fraud? If he told them too little, and didn't share enough, what would happen?
Jaune let out another sigh, settling on telling them as close to the truth as he could.
"Admittedly, I don't have much in the way of experience. Most of it comes from sparring one on one with my sister when I was younger. It's hard for me to say what I'm best suited for, personally..."
This really was hard... What could he say?
"I fight with my sword, and you guys have seen what I can do with it. I wouldn't say I have much of a style, though. I mean, it's a sword. What's so hard about swish swish stab?"
"From what I've seen, you seem like a..." Blake started out, pausing a moment before she shook her head slowly and grumbled. "Dammit, I had the word. It's on the tip of my tongue." The black haired girl turned to Pyrrha and Ren, while Jaune watched her curiously, waiting for what she had to say. "From what little I saw of when he fought in initiation, coupled with his fight against the Boarbatusk and that Nora girl, he waits for a good opportunity, and then- an opportunist."
"An opportunist?" Jaune quizzed. He knew the word, but tried to equate it to fighting.
"I can see it." The redheaded girl standing directly across from Jaune spoke. Pyrrha crossed her arms, adjusting her stance as she looked him over. "Like with the Boarbatusk; you waited for an opportunity – a point you knew you could strike and kill the beast – and then hit it as hard as you could. Typically, it's something someone resorts to when they're facing an opponent stronger than them."
"Or a powerful Grimm one cannot take down easily through normal methods." Ren tacked on.
"Precisely." Pyrrha agreed, smiling to her partner. She turned back to Jaune. "I imagine this older sister of yours you mention is the better fighter."
Pyrrha's comment could have passed as a question, but it was more stated as if she already knew the answer. The blond nodded along. "Yeah, much better. I've never won against her."
"That's where the habit comes from." The championship fighter confirmed. "It's not a bad habit, strictly speaking, but..."
"May I?" Everyone turned to Blake.
"Go ahead."
"To be blunt, it's fine to be an adaptable fighter, but not knowing what you're going to do would make it hard for everyone to work together properly. If we don't know what you're going to do until you do it, then we won't know what to do either."
Jaune winced. Yeah, that was certainly blunt. "What should I do about it, then?"
"We can worry about that later." Ren suggested, drawing the spotlight. "It's something that's only going to matter when the four of us are fighting as a team or just as partners anyways – and I'm sure we'll all have to make changes to be able to work together in that way. For now, though, you wanted to know how we fight?"
The blond nodded dumbly, still thinking upon Blake's words even then. "Just the basics. We can talk about the more complicated stuff like semblances later." He added that last bit, wondering what the reactions were going to be like when he discussed his – or his lack thereof.
"Well, I'm limited to being a close ranged fighter," Ren began, "considering Stormflower's rounds tend to lose a lot of their stopping power at about thirty meters. At that distance, I'm nothing more than an annoyance to most enemies, Grimm or otherwise. However…" The boy hesitated. "You know, it's hard to talk about this stuff without making it seem like I'm bragging in some way."
Jaune just offered Ren an easy smile. "Don't worry about what it sounds like. I just need to know."
The green clothed boy nodded his thanks, clearing his throat. "Well, I'm fairly experienced in martial arts. I can probably hit harder than most of our class, if my target is within arm's reach. I'm also fairly good at getting close to targets to be able to do so."
When Ren showed no signs of continuing, Jaune opened his mouth to speak.
"I-"
"That's-"
Jaune and Blake shared a glance, having cut each other off. The blond chuckled, before nodding to the girl. "Go ahead."
The girl blinked owlishly, before looking to Ren. "That's not unlike myself, though I'd argue I'm more effective at slightly longer ranges, and less effective in the area you're strongest. My style sort of revolves around my semblance, in a sense, so that can wait until later?" She finished with a look towards Jaune, and the blond nodded in return.
All three of them who'd gone then turned to Pyrrha, and the girl seemed to smile apologetically.
"If you guys don't mind..." Pyrrha began, traces of that smile remaining. "It would be easier for me if you asked me questions. Mostly because I don't know where to begin."
Jaune nodded quickly, already having an idea of what he needed specifically at this point. He'd seen her use her rifle in Goodwitch's class, so... "What's the furthest you can hit a target?"
"One hundred fifty meters at a standstill, about sixty if the target is moving, and forty if we're both moving." The reply came out, almost mechanically as the girl clasped her hands behind her back.
Pyrrha's answer drew an impressed nod from Jaune. The blond was also struck with a somewhat sobering realization, thinking about what his team had said so far:
He was the only member of his team without any sort of ranged weaponry.
"You'd be the most effective of all of us at a range, then." Jaune thought out loud, but he looked up to meet the girl's emerald eyes. "But you excel elsewhere."
The redhead nodded. "I can throw my shield and hit someone within forty meters as well, and throwing my spear... probably eighty. But I fight better up close, with my weapons in hand."
"Is there anything you're not good at?" Blake asked.
Pyrrha stood there silently for a couple of seconds, probably trying to think up a response. "Not really." she started hesitantly, "I suppose if there's anything I could work on it would be my endurance. Most of the tournaments I fought in have had a time constraint for the matches, and I've always won with plenty of time left on the clock."
Jaune had been just about to ask about her losses, before remembering earlier. A four time champion...
If there was anything that made him insecure about being his team's leader, it was that. Why wasn't she the leader instead? The boy took a breath, steeling himself as he shoved that thought to the back of his mind.
Right now, he was the leader.
"So, it's become apparent to me that as a team, we have a huge range issue." Jaune mentioned, both distracting himself from his errant thoughts and getting himself back on track. The rest of APBL looked to him, and he met their eyes. "I don't think I could learn how to be proficient with any kind of long-ranged weaponry. Maybe in the future, if it's really necessary-"
Jaune, in the brief moment as he thought about what to say next, had an epiphany.
"I think, as far as us fighting as a team goes, we have two options..." He trailed off, trying to put his realization into words before he blabbed out something completely wrong.
"What are you thinking?" Pyrrha quizzed softly. He could feel the stares of his teammates, as he plotted out what to say in his mind.
Goodness, he really didn't like being the center of attention.
The metaphorical gears in his head whirred, and then finally clicked. "With the four of us as a group, we can either play to our strengths – and focus on what synergy we have as far as those go – or we can try our best to learn how to cover each other's weaknesses..." He looked up and around at the faces of the three in front of him.
The expression on Blake's face was one that seemed interested, but there was something behind her eyes he couldn't quite identify. He blinked, turning to Pyrrha, who was standing across from him. She wore a smile, but... like with Blake, there was something off.
Turning to Ren he noticed it immediately. There was nothing off with the boy's curious expression, aside from that it felt somewhat... forced wasn't the word Jaune was looking for, but it was close.
"Am I..." Jaune started off slowly, the three before him adopting actual, naturally curious expressions. "Am I approaching this whole team thing too quickly?"
His team before him looked amongst themselves, before turning back to him. Pyrrha wore a brittle smile, and Jaune felt his heart sink.
"Maybe a little..." Blake confirmed. "I understand your enthusiasm, but..."
"We should start things a little slower." Ren tacked on, wearing a reassuring – but certainly real – smile.
Jaune nodded slowly, looking towards the ground. His gaze rested just in front of Pyrrha's feet, as he considered the situation. He looked up after a moment, able to at least afford his team a half-hearted smile. "Sorry guys, I got a little carried away."
"It's quite alright." Pyrrha reassured. "We understand, right?"
A hum and a grunt of acknowledgement from Blake and Ren followed shortly, and Jaune sighed.
"Well..." He started off. "We're here now, in full combat gear. I sort of had an Idea of what we were going to do after we went through everything, but that doesn't seem like such a good idea now."
"We could just spar. Split off into twos?" Ren suggested.
"Partners against partners?" Pyrrha then suggested playfully.
"...I shouldn't have said anything."
Jaune and Blake shared a chuckle, looking towards each other. "Fine with you?" The blond asked.
"It's as good a time as any." Blake agreed, nodding her head to the empty side of the room. "I'll take the far side."
As the team dispersed – Ren and Pyrrha going moving away to find their own space, Jaune was left to his own frustrated thoughts, though he wasn't left to them for too long as he watched Blake move.
She really is fit...
Once the black haired girl started to turn around, Jaune made sure to move his eyes upwards, meeting hers as she retrieved her weapon from her back. From the little he'd seen of it, it's one form seemed difficult to use, but that proved not to matter to the girl.
Jaune drew Crocea Mors, working his wrist as he held its still-unfamiliar weight. He neglected to use the shield yet again, as until he learned how to use it, it would just be a burden. Perhaps he could ask Pyrrha to help him out with that, if she didn't mind?
For now, that would have to wait. He settled into a ready stance – legs not too far apart, blade held at the proper angle – and nodded to Blake. "Ready?"
The moment Blake nodded back, he took off. The blond noticed his opponent's eyes widen slightly, before she settled in. Considering they'd just discussed their range advantages, he wasn't about to let her use hers.
Pulling Crocea Mors back at his waist, he lunged forward, aiming for Blake's center. Whether he'd caught the girl off guard with the strike's position, or she'd simply been slow on the reaction, she raised her vicious-looking cleaver to block, but was much too slow.
Jaune expected resistance when the tip of his blade met her midsection.
There was none. The black-haired girl before him seemed to shimmer and fade. The momentum of his strike carried him through her ghostly form, and he stumbled.
The next thing he felt, aside from a shock of pain from his legs as he attempted to stop in place, was a taut length of ribbon wrapping around his arm. He was yanked from his course, and as he turned, he very narrowly was able to step around the edge of Blake's blade, though doing so put him off balance.
As he moved his feet to stabilize himself, he caught the heel of her foot in his chest, the girl kicking him away as the ribbon pulled. He spun, but in a last ditch effort, he pulled his bound arm inwards.
It was safe to say at that point that Jaune had no idea what he was doing.
With his free arm, he swung at the girl as she tried to get close, his fist passing through her yet again. He felt the slack part of ribbon brush against his side before he felt the tug on his arm, and knew Blake was behind him.
He pulled with his right arm, and brought his leg up in a kick. There was a yelp of surprise at the pull, and a grunt when his foot connected. The ribbon around his arm loosened, and he shook it off, backing away from Blake.
He met her eyes – those dangerous amber – and dashed towards her again, growling.
For some reason, he really didn't want to lose now.
His partner moved her arm in a very exaggerated motion, and his eyes traced the thick black ribbon, bringing up his sword on that side, continuing to follow it. When it got close enough to him and he had an idea where it would hit, so to speak, he moved his blade to meet the bladed end, deflecting it. He then turned his gaze to Blake, the girl dashing towards him.
Always keep your eyes on the most immediate threat. Velvet had once explained. The Ursa across the field isn't going to matter if a Beowolf's jaws are around your neck. If you're not able to deal with one before the other, you'll have problems.
The only issue was he didn't know what Blake would do, or where she'd attack from. Her bladed sheath, or her weird, gun-blade thingy? He knew she could pull the ribbon to make it fire, but what would happen if she did?
What would happen if she did both?
In a situation where it seemed like no matter what he'd be hit, Jaune stepped towards Blake, bringing his sword down and around in an upwards slash. Blake had to skid to a stop, weaving around the blade. Though it wasn't nearly as effective as a direct strike, Jaune reversed the motion of Crocea Mors, bringing it downwards as cleanly as he could, though he could feel his arms burn and wobble.
He connected with the black haired girl's shoulder, and brought his limited momentum down, even as the girl landed a glancing blow on his side. Jaune felt her step past him, though he did not see it. His blade carved through the image she left behind, fading like the others.
It would have taken an idiot to not realize this was her semblance, and he could see how her fighting style revolved around it.
Jaune turned, swinging his sword where she had to have been, just to pass through one of her images again. She was fast. He spun with his momentum, and panicked when he realized he couldn't see her, nor her weapon where he had knocked it aside before.
It was too late when he thought to look up. The first shot caught him in the shoulder, before her cleaver caught him in the other. The force was enough to push him to the ground and he heard the clatter of Crocea Mors falling next to him.
Blake was atop him, and before he could struggle out from beneath her, she had the barrel of her gun pushed between his eyes and her cleaver held in a reverse grip against his neck. "Surrender."
He couldn't even smile up at her, face stretched into a grimace. He'd barely had a chance.
It still wasn't over, though. She'd wanted him to surrender? He calmed as best he could, coating his hand with his Aura. It would certainly be a gamble.
But he really, really didn't want to lose.
Jaune moved his hand in front of his face, the white glow framing it as he pressed it to the barrel of Blake's gun. He felt her shoot, even as he did the same with his other hand, gripping the edge of her cleaver-like sheath. Pushing it away from his neck, he could feel the bite of the blade against his palm, his Aura stopping it from cutting into the skin.
With a shout, he pulled and pushed, shifting the girl to his side. He had no time to look into her widening eyes, fingers scrambling for Crocea Mors' sheath, even as he grabbed the hilt of the blade.
The sides of the sheath-turned-shield flared out, his family's crest pointing towards Blake as the girl fired at him with her pistol, retreating. He didn't need to know how to use a shield to be able to block with it, so he had no reservations about using it like this. He switched his own sword into a similar grip as Blake had earlier when she was pinning him down, reaching up and sheathing it in the deployed shield.
The blond felt a bullet ping off his vambrace as he did, the impact stinging. Blake's pistol had some kick. Jaune considered his options, and realized he didn't have many: He knew how much more he could take, and it left him very little to work with.
Crouching, Jaune came to a realization.
He didn't need to know how to use a shield. All he needed was...
A bigger shield.
Jaune concentrated, pushing his Aura into it, and it began to glow around the edges. A round passed through the Aura, as it swelled and grew. He felt the impact, but the bullet skipped across the floor next to him, significantly slowed.
Harden.
The white glow found shape. It wasn't perfect, or symmetrical, but it was there – stopping inches from the floor and extending just past his head, spread even further out from the sides – and that would be enough.
The blond grinned. He'd come so far, in such little time.
It was then the boy realized his critical failure, and his grin dropped from his face like his middle school math grade.
He couldn't draw his sword. He'd moulded his Aura around it.
He let out a loud groan, the sound reverberating around the training area. In the ensuing silence between both himself and Blake, he heard the sounds of Pyrrha and Ren's fight, but didn't bother turning to look.
"You okay?" He heard Blake ask. "Hurt?"
"I'm fine." Jaune reassured, before his eyes widened. Her voice hadn't come from the other side of his shield. It had come from behind!
As the boy turned towards her, the flat of her bladed sheath collided with the side of his face. Hard.
It honestly took him a second to react through the pain. It wasn't a heavy enough blow to take him off his feet, but holy hell did it hurt. As he blinked the tears away from the impact, he brought his slightly heavier shield around so it was between them, and he stepped forward to shove her away, mind whirring as he considered what he could still do.
The blond felt nothing, however: No shock from any sort of collision. Stumbling at the lack of resistance, Jaune then tripped, falling atop his larger shield, the wind knocked from his lungs. The boy looked to his feet, to find his ankles wrapped in ribbon.
When had she done that?
"Will you surrender now?"
The boy looked up, Blake's slenderer blade pointed towards his face. She stood far enough away that if he would have attempted anything, she'd be able to react. Effectively, his partner was ensuring he couldn't do what he'd done the last time he was at her mercy.
The blond sighed begrudgingly after a moment. "Yeah, I surrender."
Blake nodded, before sheathing her blade and returning it all to her back. She reached for the ribbon that was still attached to his legs, and gave it a tug, tightening for a moment before loosening. "I thought I had you, when you were pinned."
"You did. I just didn't want to lose."
"You certainly caught me off guard. Most people don't move when there's the barrel of a gun in their face and a blade at their throat, Aura or no." Blake scoffed. "In hindsight, I saw it in your face."
The blond hummed non-committedly, turning his head to look at his shield. He willed it, and the Aura scattered in flecks of light, revealing its original form. He pressed the button, and it retracted to its sheath form before pushing himself up.
He caught Blake looking at it, eyes lingering a couple seconds, before the girl turned to the other pair in the room. "Our fight wasn't really short, but I expected theirs to be over already."
Jaune eyes then followed the fight happening not far from where their own had, but the moment his eyes settled on the two fighters, he knew who was – and had been – winning.
Ren's left arm stretched out in some kind of palm strike, and Pyrrha trapped it under her own right arm at the elbow, moving her left leg between the boy's as she stepped into him. Ren made a motion to try and hit her with his free arm, but the girl's shield popped up and caught the blow, before she drove the circular metal into his face.
With their legs in the position they were, Ren tripped backwards, and Pyrrha's weapon shifted into its spear form, point pressed to the boy's chest. She also positioned a foot over his midsection, thankfully just pinning him at the waist with her heel, and not somewhere else.
She had moved so fluidly. He doubted he'd ever have that much grace.
At their distance, Jaune couldn't hear the words exchanged between the two, but Pyrrha offered the lithe boy a hand up. He took it, and stood. Blake began to walk over, casting a glance back at him, and he followed.
He'd definitely have to do better. Not a doubt in his mind.
The girl looked up, unable to focus on the matter at hand. Sticking out her lower lip, she blew a stray strand of hair out of her face, and turned her eyes to her leader again.
"Coco, I told you, it isn't like that. If you wanted your minigun to shoot fire, you'd need each individual round to-"
Velvet stopped mid-sentence, scratching at one of her top ears as she reconsidered the idea Coco had presented to her. Technically, her leader's idea was possible – but just expensive and inefficient as all hell. Dust on its own was pricey, and rounds made with it even more so.
Those same rounds, in bulk? Enough for a continuous spray as Coco was considering? Unthinkable. But...
"If you were to maybe, say, have one round every... ten? You could essentially have a similar effect." Velvet explained, leaning back in her chair.
"But you do the same thing with a crystal of Dust, don't you?" Coco asked, nibbling on the end of a pencil as she laid back in bed, notebook in hand. "I mean, with your copies and everything that already seem to defy everything I know about Aura, it works. So why not with physical form?"
It was a good question – and also one the rabbit faunus had answered before. "My Aura takes on the element of the Dust when I use it, so the copy takes on the element. The bullets – made from my Aura – also do the same."
Coco grumbled, and Velvet watched on as dragged her pencil across the notebook, likely striking through the idea where it was written down. "It was a silly idea, anyways."
"It's still possible – just not to the degree you're thinking, I'm sure."
"Hm." Coco turned towards her, playing with her caramel colored hair as she met Velvet's eyes. "Something's up, isn't it?"
Velvet blinked at her leader, genuinely confused. "What?"
"Usually, you're a little more enthusiastic when we talk about ideas. Something on your mind?"
Humming, Velvet played with the skirt of her uniform, neither of the girls having bothered getting changed after classes. Something had been on her mind recently, but it hadn't really been relevant, though. For a while there, when Coco had been bounced ideas off her, she hadn't even thought about it. Not once.
To be honest, she'd actually been getting annoyed that she hadn't been able to say anything yet; or rather, that she'd chosen not to, but there really just hadn't been a good time to bring it up. She supposed, with Yatsuhashi and Fox both out getting food for them to eat in the dorm, she could at least share it with Coco, and then the other two later.
The girl took a breath. "You know that little brother of mine?"
"You mean that friend of yours from your hometown? Something happen to him again?"
"Well... He surprised me, a couple days ago." Was there no easy way to say this? Heck, in a way, she really didn't want to.
Jaune didn't deserve this fate.
"He did?" Coco's eyes widened, before she leaned forwards. "What did he do? Send you a heartfelt message? Is he getting married?"
"Married?" Fire lanced through Velvet's veins for but a moment, before she calmed. "He's a year younger than me, Coco! Why would he be getting married? And there's no way he'd get married without even a word to me about, about... some floozy!"
Coco snorted in laughter, Velvet's face heating up in embarrassment when she realized it was just teasing. "I don't know?" Coco chortled. "I thought people who lived in villages and the like did that. You know, because of the whole, uh... security risk thing."
"You're not wrong, but... ugh." Velvet, ran a hand through her hair, huffing as she bounced in her chair. "Okay, Jaune's not getting married. He's not that irresponsible." At least, she hoped not.
If he was she'd probably freak out, and there'd be a lot of yelling.
"So he sent you a heartfelt message?"
"Coco, please." Velvet chuckled. Her leader smiled apologetically, putting her hands together in a pleading gesture. Despite her 'hard style,' Coco was a different person in private. It had taken some getting used to.
"Yes, yes. Sorry. So what was it, then?"
"He's..." Velvet cringed, preparing for Coco's reaction. "He's here."
"Here?"
"At Beacon. He's a first year."
A few seconds passed, as Velvet's words sunk in. Coco's expression showed nothing, at first, before her face twisted in confusion. "Here. At Beacon?"
"Yes."
"This is the same guy who piddled himself when you told him a bedtime story?"
"Tell him I told you that, and I will literally never talk to you again." Velvet blushed.
"When do we get to meet him?"