Chapter 7

Lonely Part 1

Let it be known that Ruby Rose disliked self-absorbed pricks and holier-than-thou jerks. She had dealt with a few of them over at Patch and now that she's a student of Beacon Academy, she had expected to come across a few of them. And she did, in the form of her partner and bestie, but Weiss was alright now. There were those four boys from team CRDL who were also massive bullies and unapologetic racists, but they hadn't given her grief personally.

She disliked those kind of people because they undermine the effort and sacrifice others went through to be where they're at. Coming from a family whose dad was a teacher, Ruby often felt that her classmates and friends attributed her successes at class for her being the daughter of a teacher. She was lucky because she was never really bullied for obvious reasons, but there were those who weren't as lucky.

So when she saw Jaune standing up for those Faunus students who team CRDL were openly mocking, she couldn't help but feel admiration for the boy. Sure, it was a little bit scary how he managed to single-handedly dealt with the four boys all on his own, but this was the same boy who defeated a bunch of Deathstalkers during Initiation and did it all without breaking a sweat!

But it seemed that this reputation Jaune had gotten wasn't exactly all good.

"Have you heard what they been saying about Jaune lately?" Yang suddenly brought up, prompting her teammates to react.

Team RWBY were lounging in their dorm room, all of them wearing their casual day-to-day attire as it was the weekend. Weiss was on her bed tending to her nails, giving them their much needed care and attention. It wasn't equal to what she would get in the salon, but it was enough. Blake was reading that book of hers that seemed to be perpetually glued to her face, she had her bow on even now. Ruby was in the middle of browsing through her favorite magazine, indulging herself in the catalog section of said magazine. Yang herself was sprawled on her bunk with her arms and legs spread eagle, eyes fixed to the ceiling as she had done nothing but stare off into the distance.

Blake slowly pulled her book away from her face. "What have they been saying about him?"

"Some things," Yang supplied briefly, "but most of them aren't good from what I've heard."

"What is it about Jaune?" Ruby had opted to set aside her magazine for now, fully invested in the conversation.

"Let me guess, this is about his performance and currently ongoing winning streaks isn't it?" Weiss suggested, knowing full well that she'd hit the mark dead center.

"Yeah. No shade against the guy or whatever, but people don't really like getting their ass handed to them before they can even do anything about it." Yang said. "More than the body, it hurts the ego."

"That's not exactly Jaune's fault isn't it?" Blake asked from her spot.

"But the other students would not see it that way," Weiss sighed, shaking her head. "They are going to see him as this unbeatable figure who is untouchable and invincible, and that going against him in the ring would be nothing but pointless."

"But Jaune's a nice guy!" Ruby butted in, eager to defend her friend.

"We know he is sis," Yang placated her sister, "but just because you're nice doesn't mean everyone's going to like you anyway."

The way her sister spoke made Ruby's heart clench. Was that why Jaune preferred being alone? He said that his Semblance made him uncomfortable around people, but was there something more to it after all?

"It's the exact opposite of Pyrrha's situation." Blake hummed, having come to a conclusion. "She got the adoring fans, the paparazzi. And while people know they can't beat her in the ring, they attributed it due to her experience as a champion fighter. In Jaune's case, they didn't have anything they could relate him to. To them, it's as if he just appeared one day and defeated everyone to make a name for himself."

Weiss nodded with Blake's assessment. She had come up with the same conclusion earlier. It felt… wrong to her, in many ways. She was reminded of the way she treated Jaune from before they were students and her own preferential attitude for Pyrrha. It was humbling, in a way, now that she'd realized.

"And it's not like Jaune himself is doing anything about it." Yang said. "Rather, I think whatever he chooses to do isn't going to look good for him either way."

Ruby thought about what Yang just said. If Jaune did something, they're just going to see it as patronizing, a form of humble-bragging. If Jaune didn't do anything, they're just going to assume he's a jerk, which he was not. This all didn't sit well with Ruby. It just felt wrong.

"Damned if you do, damned if you don't…" Weiss mumbled, somewhat able to relate to the saying. "Well at least this way, people will leave him alone. Being in a team with Pyrrha Nikos was already enough to scare away any potential harassment sent his way."

And that seemed like it's what Jaune wanted… was the unvoiced thoughts that rang in each girls' heads.

Yang had no strong opinion about the guy. She knew he was a strong fighter and he got the wins to back it up. If she had to be honest, she kind of understood where the others were coming from. When she went against Jaune, she gave it her all in fighting him. Every move she pulled, every punch she threw, and every kick she sent his way… all of them seemed meaningless in the end.

She didn't manage to tire him out, in fact, the opposite of that happened. She knew she wasn't going to beat him in speed, so she hoped she would beat him in strength. Strength. That was Yang Xiao Long's specialty. If there's something she had in abundance of, aside from good looks that is, it'd be strength. Her Semblance was further proof of it. Yet even then, it was still not enough to make the guy break a sweat.

Her fight was one of the longer lasting one, next to Pyrrha's, and it was still over too soon. But where she and the others differed was in her desire to train and grow stronger herself, hoping to one day score a win against him.

Blake had been wary of Jaune the moment she encountered him on Beacon's balcony that fateful night. She had gotten the impression that he was not an ordinary human even at first glance, if he's even human at all. To her, Jaune was like a book of her favorite genre… only written in a completely different language, with most of the pages missing. She could not get a read on him.

She, like her teammates, had bore witness to his prowess in the field and his skill in fighting. Even with her experience in the White Fang, seeing Jaune fight was unlike anything she had ever seen before. So it was not surprising to see him capable of beating a couple of academy students so easily, she doubted even some of the White Fang's best fighters could best him. She had not gone against him in the ring, but she wouldn't bet against him herself.

Still, Blake would be lying if she said she didn't find him interesting. His decision to stand up for those Faunus students may have had a hand in that.

Weiss felt nothing but shame and regret at her initial treatment of Jaune. Of anyone, really. She'd argue for herself, but it would do no one else but her good, so she'll refrain from doing that. There was a reason why she wanted Pyrrha as a partner or a member of the same team at the very least, one that was beneficial in both the strategic and social sense.

She figured with Pyrrha's strength and her intellect, they would be Beacon's number one team, the A-team of Beacon as opposed to a B, C, or D. In her fervor to gain the champion fighter's favor, she had forgotten that there were other potentially good teammates for the picking, and that everyone had their own unique specialties and strength. When Initiation happened, it was safe to say that Weiss's perception of strength was crushed.

Weiss hoped that she would be able to lead her team throughout their time in Beacon properly. Her expectation for others were high, so it would only make sense for her to put the exact same amount on her own output.

Out of everyone else in RWBY, the team's namesake was the only one who find the discussion troubling. Jaune was basically her first friend at Beacon, so she found it unfair that people were making things up about him. She got the impression that he wasn't the most approachable of people, yes, but so was Weiss! Albeit for different reasons, yes, but still!

It's just ridiculous! She bet almost everyone of those people who thought poorly of him never even talked to him. They saw Jaune standing up for those students when Cardin and his goons decided to act up, wasn't that enough evidence that he's a good guy? Seriously, some people… the moment their ego got hurt, the first thing they do was blaming it on someone else. Why can't people just be good sports and take it as a learning experience?

Call her stubborn or something, but Ruby was adamant that Jaune's not at fault. He has a condition with his Semblance that makes him uncomfortable around people, so he couldn't be blamed for that. If anything, people should be considerate of him!

"Achoo!"

"Gesundheit."

Jaune sniffed his nose, rubbing it briefly with his knuckle. "Thank you, Ren."

Beacon did not skimp out in providing their students borderline luxurious facilities for them to use. It should be obvious from the way the academy looks alone, but let it be known that Beacon students were never left wanting. Air conditioning, quality food, gym facilities… chances were, if you could think about it, Beacon already provided it.

Oh except for Bullhead passes. Students had to pay to get them renewed every month.

Among these facilities the academy offered was the kitchen. Normally, only kitchen staffs were allowed in the kitchen but students on lunch duty were allowed to use it so long as they had permission.

"What do you think of this?" Ren offered his team leader a small saucer filled with what he'd been cooking.

Even before tasting it, the kitchen had been immersed in this pleasant aroma of spices that were foreign to him. Jaune tasted the soupy concoction, his face brightening immediately. "Delicious. It's perfect for me."

"Hm," the slight upward tugging of Ren's lips was noticeable, "that's good. Nora prefers a stronger flavor, but I've been trying to make her eat healthier."

"How's that going?"

"Not too well I'm afraid."

Jaune chuckled fondly. He remembered the first time he saw Nora eat. It was the most amazing and horrifying thing he'd seen in a while. He never knew someone who could down ten stacks of pancakes in under five seconds, it's as if she just inhaled them!

"You said that this is a dish from Anima?" Jaune asked, bringing out serving trays for them to serve the food with. "I've never had any Animan food before, well, authentic ones at least."

"It's not from any specific place in Anima," Ren said, pouring the savory broth with a ladle into appropriately portioned bowls, "but every region in Anima has their own version of this dish, making every iteration of it a unique dish of its own. This specific one is the same one I've had ever since I was a child. Every family does it differently."

"I see. What is it called?"

"Depending on which region of Anima you're in, you'll get a different name for it. But interestingly, the traditional Mistrali characters that made up the word for this dish translates to 'Meat, bone, tea' in the Common Tongue."

"Huh, straight to the point. I like it."

"You'll like it even more when we serve it with rice."

With Ren's instructions, Jaune began carrying the tray of delicious smelling broth to where their team usually sit. Over there, Pyrrha and Nora were already waiting for them and, judging by the way Nora just reacted from smelling the aroma alone, they would be digging in immediately.

"Ooh! Ooh! We're having Ren's special tea stew!" Nora, if it was even possible, couldn't look anymore hungry. She had to wipe drool off her lips, a testament to her strong appetite or Ren's cooking.

"The smell is familiar to me," Pyrrha commented as Ren joined them with a tray of rice bowls for them along with the utensils to go along with them. "I believe I've had something similar to this dish before."

"Right, you're from Mistral too." Nora hummed, scooting over a little bit to let her childhood friend some space. "Renny and I have been all around Anima, so he had a lot of time to experiment with food."

"I must say I'm jealous, in a way." The champion fighter admitted. "While I too have been across Anima, I didn't always have free time to myself to enjoy what the place I was in had to offer."

"One of the downsides of being famous I guess." Jaune remarked as he set the tray down on the table, giving each of his friend a serving of the food their resident cook had made.

The champion fighter's smile became strained, although it went unnoticed by the boy. As they each began to dig into their meal with their respective manners, the mess hall was steadily getting filled with students. It being an already spacious area, it's even more impressive that it could hold so many students.

The academy mostly housed first, second and third years. When it came to the fourth year of their education here, students would be deployed out into the world so often to gain and cultivate experience that they would rent apartments in the city. In some cases, they're even allowed to register as an official Huntsman/Huntress but any form of identifiable certificate would have to wait until graduation.

"Speaking of being famous… Jaune, have you been getting into trouble lately?"

Jaune, who was in the middle of scooping out a spoonful of broth, had to take a moment to look at Nora. "No? I don't think I've gotten into any trouble, at least not to my knowledge. Why?"

The hammer wielding ginger shrugged. "I don't know. It's just that, lately, people have been avoiding you for some reason. And I don't think it makes sense since you're such an awesome guy."

"Well, thank you Nora." He thanked the girl and got a row of pearly whites in return. "But I don't think I've done anything that warrants people approaching me in the first place."

The ginger girl's face turned puzzled. "What do you mean you haven't done anything? You beat up a bunch'a racist jerks and showed them their place! You even kicked all of our asses in combat class! And that's awesome! Wouldn't you want to get to know such an awesome guy?"

Ren sighed, sensing that his friend had completely gone about the wrong way in approaching the topic.

"I think what Nora's trying to say is that people have been avoiding you on purpose for the exact reasons she's mentioned." The green-themed boy supplied helpfully, reinterpreting Nora's words in a way that Jaune could understand. "Jaune, I don't know if you know this, but your performance in combat class has made most people feeling… inadequate."

Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. This time, she didn't hesitate to voice what's in her mind. "That is not Jaune's fault, Ren." Her tone of voice made it clear that she had her personal opinion about the topic. "If they feel themselves inadequate, then it's their responsibility to rectify that problem."

Ren nodded, agreeing with Pyrrha. "I agree, but people don't think about it that way. They see Jaune beat you and, not to insult you or anything Pyrrha, but he did it rather effortlessly. To you, it might be a loss, but to them, it's something else entirely."

The champion fighter did not take her teammate's comment to heart. Rather, she found herself reflecting on it and somewhat agreeing.

Jaune's match against her was one unlike anything she's ever experienced before. In her normal matches, she's used to going against fighters who were either stronger, faster, or even smarter than her. Jaune, somehow, managed to be all three combined. She was aware he had training, and although most of it was done out of necessity to suppress his condition, it still provided him with the core to further build up his combat prowess.

If she had to say which part she struggled with when facing against Jaune during that match, it would be his sheer power. Seriously. His strength was insane. Getting hit by him was like being hit by a cannon ball or something along that line. Coupled with his speed, while not as fast as Ruby Rose, it made for a scary combination. But it got terrifying when he started to put his mind in the equation.

Needless to say, he made her look like an amateur.

"I don't know what to say, Ren." Jaune said. "I didn't mean to put everyone's mood down. I was just doing what was expected of me: to fight. Sure, I'll admit that I was holding back, but it's more for their sake than mine. If I don't go easy on them, the results won't be pretty." He felt a hand landing on his shoulder. It was his partner.

"We understand, Jaune. It's not your fault." Pyrrha told him reassuringly. "And it's not like you didn't try to be nice to them."

"Pyrrha's right," Nora chimed, after guzzling down a bowl filled with broth. "I saw you offering to help one of them to stand back up, but they had to be a sore loser. All of them!"

"That's just how it is some times." Pyrrha quipped. She had dealt with a very similar experience, it came along with being who she was; the Invincible Girl. Unlike her, however, Jaune hadn't.

"If only people would understand the true purpose of why they're here in the first place." Their leader's voice came out melancholic, almost disappointed. "They're supposed to be working together to fight the Grimm, but in doing so they've made a competition over trivial things."

The albino boy shook his head, something he'd done for .

"I hope people realize that, at the end of the day, we are all meant to be working together and not against each other." He sighed out. "I've seen many Kingdoms and countless fellowships broken over something as trivial as envy."

"Kingdoms?" Nora questioned, her interest piqued. "Like what?"

"Sorry?"

"You said you've seen many Kingdoms broken," Ren reinforced, interested himself.

"Did I?" Jaune asked, genuinely clueless. His friends nodded simultaneously, prompting even more confusion. "Huh, I… don't know why I said that…"

"Jaune," worry crept up Pyrrha's voice, as she recalled what had just developed over the course of the past few days regarding her leader. "Are you feeling well?"

The boy took a moment to think, setting down his utensils and forgetting his unfinished breakfast. He raised a hand and began nursing his scalp, massaging it ever so slightly. It wasn't pain he felt, but something even harder to describe. Emptiness. The lack of presence, a gap in his memory.

As Jaune dealt with his inner turmoils, his friends could not help but grow even more concerned about him.

"Jaune," Nora asked this time, her voice uncharacteristically soft. "Are you okay? Do we need to get out of here?"

"I'm… fine…" it took him a moment to properly give an answer, elevating his friend's worry further. "I think I just remembered something incorrectly…"

Ren remained unconvinced, however. "Are you sure? If this is about your… condition then I suggest we tell Ozpin."

"No."

There was a pulsating sensation that was felt by everyone present within the area. While JNPR knew Jaune was the source of the sudden pulsating sensation, the others could not. The mess hall got quiet for a brief moment, before murmuring about what just happened began to erupt.

Jaune took a deep breath, pulling at the peak of his hood down to hide his face seemingly out of shame. "No. Don't worry about it, it's just… it's nothing."

"...it's clearly not 'nothing' when you're obviously distressed, Jaune." Pyrrha pressed on, her face turning to look pleading. "Please, let us help you. Tell us what's bothering you?"

Jaune felt torn. He did not know what to do. He couldn't tell his friends everything, no way. No matter how much of a jerk that made him sound like, he just couldn't tell them everything. Period.

Why? Because how could he explain something he did not understand himself? Everything from the dreams, his powers, and the voice… the fucking voice… if he told them about it, they'd definitely think him crazy.

He couldn't do it. He couldn't lose them.

Being alone is never a weakness…

You, alone, are more than enough.

'Shut. Up.' His teeth ground against each other, he was thankful that his hood obscured the savagery growing upon his countenance.

Soon… soon you shall see your true worth...

The weight in his heart grew heavier and his teammates could do nothing but watch as he carried it all by himself.

Life at Beacon had not been great for one Cardin Winchester.

Not only was he sharing the same space as those animal freaks, he and his team had just been reduced to mockery by another freak of a different kind. The heir to the Winchester family seethed on his spot by the bleachers, his teammates noticed this but they did not say anything as per usual.

The reason for his apparent bad mood was none other than the same person who was currently sparring in the ring, Jaune Arc.

How he hated that name already despite only having met the freak for less than a semester. Not only had the nobody made a fool out of him and his team, he had also made a name for himself as the toughest and baddest motherfucker in Beacon.

Recalling his match with the hooded boy made Cardin even more irritated, because not only had he single-handedly defeated Cardin, he also did it under a minute. It could not even be called a battle as, much to Cardin's sheer anger and embarrassment, Jaune managed to break his Aura after the first to strikes.

'He's a freak.' The Winchester thought broodingly. 'No one could move that fast… no one normal…'

Unless, of course, it was Jaune's Semblance doing all of it. Yet it couldn't be. Not once did other boy's Aura meter decrease, if it was the work of a Semblance it would've done so even by a little bit. It couldn't have been Dust, even underneath that stupid old rag he's wearing, Cardin could tell that Jaune was not a Dust user.

To his further ire, even with the reasoning he came up with, it's still not enough to really justify him calling Jaune a freak. The topic of training came up in Cardin's head when he tried to come up with reasons for Jaune's skills, but he stubbornly refused to accept that a no named nobody like Jaune had access to better training than he, the heir of a prominent family in Vale.

"Match! Jaune Arc is the winner!"

The arena was filled with the halfhearted claps of their fellow students, barring a few like Jaune's own teammates and those from team RWBY. Cardin watched as the two fighters did a brief exchange in the middle of the ring, he watched as Jaune walked over to offer a hand to the defeated student. To no one's surprise, the loser did not reciprocate the gesture, choosing instead to slap Jaune's hand away before rushing off to the lockers.

Miss Goodwitch shouted, reprimanding the lack of respect and sportsmanship between the two fighters. Cardin figured she was going to make a big deal out of the whole thing, but she surprisingly didn't. Looks like she didn't want to delay class.

"There he goes again." A male student muttered bitterly under his breath. "The Untouchable Boy…"

"Yeah… look at him trying to act all nice and polite…" This time, it was the voice of a girl. "Must be trying to look good in front of Goodwitch."

"When will staff realize that it's useless fighting against him?" An exasperated student vented. "He'll just blow everyone out of the water under a minute. Not even Nikos beat him!"

"I'm starting to think Beacon was a mistake…" One sighed dejectedly. "I wished I hadn't applied here…"

Hearing what others had to say about Jaune put a smile on Cardin's smile. With the look of someone who had just witnessed his goose laid a golden egg, the scheming student stood up from his seat.

If he couldn't hurt him in the traditional sense, he'd just find other ways of doing it.

Meanwhile, Glynda Goodwitch was confused as to whether give Jaune Arc a trophy or an appointment with her colleagues. The boy was an excellent fighter, skilled tactician, and gifted with the instincts of a good Huntsman. She saw how well he handled Grimm during Initiation, thinking more or less the same thing she's thinking now.

She figured he would show gaps in the ring when facing against real people as opponents. Beacon was not naive in thinking that their students would not encounter any unsavory figures during their careers, learning to fight against another person was just as important, if not more than fighting Grimm.

In a way, she was right.

While Jaune Arc had defeated everyone she pitted him against, she also found him to be holding back. At first, she thought it was a matter of arrogance, of him being too good to show his skills to his classmates and, by extension, her.

Then, she pitted him against his own partner, Pyrrha Nikos; a world renown tournament champion with the training and skills to, hopefully, show him that arrogance would not fly in her class. She thought it would get him to show his hand, show him what he could really do.

Again, in a way, she was right.

She knew Jaune Arc was a skilled fighter. The saying goes 'if you can fight Grimm, you can fight a person'. Glynda was very confident that Jaune Arc was capable of doing the first half of that saying, so that also meant he's capable of doing the second half and, as it turned out, he could. He defeated her, easily. Yet that wasn't the worrying part.

When fighting against Pyrrha Nikos, he was holding back. It was only possible to notice due to her experience of reviewing combat performance for many years, she did not know if miss Nikos herself was aware that her partner was holding back on her. She had been too stunned to call him out on it and she had the feeling that Jaune Arc didn't have the intention to insult her nor his opponent by downplaying his skills.

"Mister Arc, a word. Please." the boy perked up when she called his name. She observed him turning to face her, face shrouded underneath his hood, something that made her frown.

Beacon was fairly lenient in what its students could or could not wear, so long as students were wearing their uniform, any kind of accessories were allowed so long as they didn't hinder academic or combat performance.

She watched him walk towards her, his stature shifting noticeably, back straightening and arms at his side. "Yes, Miss Goodwitch?"

Glynda noticed the paleness of his skin, having did a double-take herself when she saw him in class with his hood down on those rarest occasion. She had raised the matter of concern to the Headmaster, but she was told that nothing would come out of it.

"I noticed that your fight today has been a…" she took a moment to find the right word to use, "...fast one." Faster than usual, yet he still didn't look winded.

She continued. "The purpose of a spar is for you to develop experience and comprehension of your own skills. By finishing a match quickly, you are indirectly telling me that you already have those two plenty. Is that the case, mister Arc?"

As a lecturer and combat instructor, her job was to make sure that her students not only know how to fight, but also why they're fighting. First and foremost, as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, their job will center around the defense of Remnant against the forces of the Grimm. Anyone with enough training can fight. The real question was: for what? For whom?

The difference between a Huntsman and a regular trained person with a weapon was not only Aura. It's the mindset. Before graduation, all of them are required to swear an oath that would bound them to the duty of protection of Remnant's people and defense of all settlement that required it. The students did not know this, but Beacon – and the other Huntsman Academies – take the mental and psychological condition of their students very seriously.

Which was why it hurt them so much as an entity when news of a rogue Huntsman or Huntress made the headlines.

The world was a cruel place. It could turn these hopeful and brilliant souls into someone twisted and horrible, and when they decide to enact their twisted and horrible ways into the world, Beacon would technically be responsible for it. This was something she did not want to see happening. Not again.

"…"

The younger boy's visage was hidden underneath his now iconic headpiece, his body language was calm and unburdened. He slowly raised a hand to the peak of his hood, lifting it up, exposing his face for everyone to see.

Glynda tried her best to not flinch under his stare. For a second, she felt a chill running down her spine. Still, it was not enough to visibly bother her. She met the boy's stare head on.

"No it is not." Jaune answered impassively. "I'm just doing what I've been doing from the moment I step foot in this room."

Glynda actually blinked. Was that an attempt at bragging she heard from him? Doing what he had been doing from the moment he stepped in here… he never lost a spar… thus meaning he's unbeatable. Untouchable. At any other circumstances, she would've bristled and called him out on it.

But Glynda got the feeling that this was not a student's offhanded attempt at bragging. No. Judging by his expression, the incomplete set of armor pieces on him, and the fact that he didn't even try to flare his Aura even once during his fight told her that he was, in fact, just bored.

Bored. Bored.

Jaune's face developed a confused look when he saw miss Goodwitch's left eye-brow twitch ever so slightly. Had he done something wrong? Well, whatever it was, it probably made her mad?

"...mister Arc," he could tell she was irritated by how clipped her voice sounded when she uttered his name, "if you do not mind, would you kindly spare a spot on your timetable after today's lessons are over?"

"Eh? Uh, sure." He paused. "May I ask why?"

Glynda didn't have to think of an excuse. "Enrichment. Combat enrichment." She saw the look of confusion on the boy's face, one of the rare moments she got to see emotion on the boy's face. "It's a special program we give to our… better performing students, in which we let them spar with a senior team. If they want to."

Jaune scratched the back of his head, frowning. He could tell she was still hiding something from him. "Sure."

"Great." Glynda nodded. "You may return now." she then turn around to address everyone else, dismissing them and concluding today's lessons.

She watched as Jaune leave the combat arena with his teammates and team RWBY, the two teams having grown close to each other after Initiation. She saw Nora Valkyrie already beginning to pester her team leader about his spar, Pyrrha Nikos occasionally chimed in and Lie Ren was merely content with listening in.

While watching the interaction, she couldn't help but feel troubled. It's good to see that Jaune was at the very least getting along with his teammates, but she's afraid of what his reputation might do to the rest of them. As if Pyrrha's own troubling reputation wasn't enough, now that team had two giants drawing in the attention of the public eye.

She dreaded to think how things would develop when the Vytal Festival eventually happened.

Uuu… writer block sucks.

Add that with a busy couple of months and you have an author who isn't uploading. I actually had the first half of this chapter done before the block hit me, but I've been stuck ever since then. This chapter was already too long I had no choice but to split it into two.

For the sake of you guys' and my own, I'm gonna be writing shorter chapters from now on. That way I can, hopefully, churn out chapters quicker and you guys get to enjoy them more often.

Anyway, yeah, I'm back.