Chapter 28: Jaune Belladonna Arc 2


Concept: Kali and Ghira adopts Jaune.
Appearance: None


-Nine Years Later Vale October 4th-

"Found you!" A cat eared faunus with short raven hair like that of a boy jumped up in fright when Jaune abruptly opened the door to the closet. In her hands Jaune could actually see a book.

Had she been reading in here? Man I wish I could see in the dark.

"That took forever… your way to good at this game." Blake looked to her brother Jaune and smiled a bit proud.

"Well then it's your turn to hide." Jaune nodded and begun to run off Blake covered her eyes but listened carefully for her brother.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Here I come." Really it wasn't even fair… Blake stepped to the kitchen in the hotel room and opened the doors beneath the sink to reveal Jaune.

"Ahhh! Again!" Jaune's head slumped down upon seeing his sister.

"Hehe I win… Now we read."

"'sigh' okay…" Blake and Jaune had made an arrangement whenever they were alone, and they wanted to do different things they talked and do both splitting their time in half. Jaune wanted to play hide-and-seek seemingly forgetting that his sister had both super hearing and smell. While Blake wanted to read a book Jaune acting out the Damsel Bunny Prince while she would voice the mysterious female feline rough who would whisk him away to the magical forest.

After the third book where Jaune voiced the kidnapped Duke's son Blake finally relented pulling out his favorite book about the brave human Princess Knight Joan Arc and faunus male Ninja Bryce Belladonna who against all odds found themselves on the same side against the forces of Grimm and the evil king Cathater the Third.

"Sweeties." Kali opened the door to the sight of the two acting out Jaune's favorite story where the knight was struck down by Cathater the third to defend her only friend the Faunus Ninja who threw the evil king off the castle. She giggled at the sight of the two yet again moved to tears by the book she had written before looking down to see her other fantasy novels directed towards human faunus equality.

"Okay you two time to go we're eating out today." Jaune and Blake turned to see their mom.

"Where are we going."

"To a fabulous café to meet your uncle Tuskon." Ghira and Kali had come to Vale to to hold the first Faunus Rights Parade. Blake frowned.

"What's wrong sweetie."

"Nothing…" Jaune looked to his sister before looking up to his mom and winking.

good she doesn't know yet.

As the three left the hotel they begun to make way to the café.

'woof, woof' The Kali and Blake froze in place as a tiny Crogi made its way to them. Seeing the canine Blake jumped into her mom's arms while Kali backed away. The Corgi barked once more before advancing making cold sweet form on the two catgirls foreheads.

"Stay back you!" Jaune stood before the dog one hand on his waste while the other held a stick.

"I am the brave princ-Male! Knight Jaune." Blake's eyes shined as she looked to her brother standing up to the horrid beast to protect her and mom The Corgi looked to the stick as if in a daze. Just as the Corgi barked it was scooped up by a blonde man who smiled at them apologetically.

"Sorry about that I was taking him to the vet and he somehow managed to slip away. Bad Zwei." Kali nodded though her eyes never left the dog. After a few moments the blonde man left and both Kali and Blake let out a relieved breath before both hugged Jaune.

"My little hero." After a sufficient amount of cheek rubbing Kali led the two to the café however when entering Blake was shocked to see the whole place filled with Faunus who smiled at her.

"Surprise!" Blake hid behind Kali in freight for a moment before realizing it was a party, after which she smiled and enjoyed it. Uncle Tuscon guided the four to his shop after the small party leading them to his newly opened bookstore.

"Well Blake since it's your birthday you can pick any three books you want." Blake looked wide-eyed at the sheer amount of books before her and quickly scurried off to look examining the titles and the book summaries at the back. Tuscon looked down to Jaune smiling and handed him a wrapped present.

"This is your birthday present sorry it's so late but I couldn't exactly sail to Menagerie to give it to you." Jaune looked down to the present with excitement and opened it to see a small stack of comics while two or three were ones he already had there were a few he didn't which brought the boy immense joy however at the bottom was something that made his jaw drop.

"Oh yeah that's the limited edition sighed copy of Camp Camp Volume 7 Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected." Jaune stared wide eyed at it a large grin on his face.

"I'm done…" Tuscon turned to see Blake holding a stack with four surprisingly thick books.

"I'll buy one with my allowance." Tuscon looked to the titles nodding at each.

"Okay one copy of Howling at the Moon, The Man With Two Souls and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Understood and finally Ninjas of lo-" Tuscon froze as he saw the title before coughing in his hand.

"I'm sorry Blake that books strictly 18 and up." Blake's ear drooped down, however seeing this Jaune stepped forward and present the comics he already had at home.

"Well together we're eighteen does that count and if you need me to pay I can trade in these." Tucson sighed before shaking his head, afraid not. At that both kids looked down before reluctantly giving up with Blake setting for some book about a 'Walking the Forged Path' later Jaune would ponder how similar the two main characters were to them. Slowly the four made way to the where the parade would be held Jaune was on Ghira's shoulders while Blake was holding hands with her mom.

"Okay we're here. Now Jaune and Blake you stay with Sienna okay." Upon reaching the mon of faunus the Jaune and Blake we're left to the woman who was basically their bodyguard at first Jaune use to be scared of her since she would always send him weird stares but recently she had toned them down. Sienna walked behind the two leaving Jaune to feel a bit nervous while Blake seemed to be absorbed in her book. After half an hour Jaune spotted the familiar figure of the blonde man and his Corgi along with him were two girls another scarier looking man with a large sword strapped to his back. At first Jaune was just curious that was until the Corgi spotted him and made way to the blonde boy.

"woof, woof" before Jaune could act Blake jumped behind Sienna however the tiger faunus became weird upon seeing the dog even though she didn't back away she begun to shake and pulled out her sword nervously sweat was dropping from her face. Jaune widened his arms in front of the Corgi once more but that hardly seemed to bother the dog who merely sat and starred.

"Hey come on mutt." The scary man stepped towards them and lifted the corgi up by its collar before glancing at Jaune.

"hehe that enough there hero… hey is that?" The man looked at the carry bag sling around Jaune's chest.

"That's that Camp Camp comic right, hmm, but it looks different from the squirts." Jaune smiled upon realizing that the man knew what it was and quickly pulled out the comic.

"Uh hu it's a limited edition its sighed too…"

"Is it now, so tell me kid where'd you'd get that? My niece loves that comic series and she'd flip for something like that."

"I think this was the only one he had, sorry…" Suddenly an idea flashed in Jaune's head as he looked to the slightly disheartened man.

"But I'll trade you."

"Trade?" Jaune quickly handed the man some of his spar copies along with some lien before telling him what he wanted. The man gave a mischievous smiled.

"Yeah, I get it sure why not."

"I thought you'd say no because of you know…"

"Eh, you being curious about that stuff is normal enough at your age, not my place to judge just do me a promise and don't tell your parents okay." Jaune nodded before handing the man the comic.

"Okay well see you in a bit kid." The man left with the Corgi finally allowing Sienna and Blake to calm down.

"Are you okay Arc." Sienna made way to Jaune checking him for any wounds before sending a glare at the leaving man. While she disliked humans in general Jaune was an exception after all he was an Arc but more importantly he was the Belladonna's son and absolutely abhor the treatment of faunus she had seen him get in a fight with some boys in Atlas once to protect a cat faunus girl. Afterword he had even told her that her pink tail was pretty and again in Vacuo he had fought to protect a monkey faunus who had gotten caught stealing paying the angry human even.

After such actions she could hardly hate the boy or even disliked him. If only more humans were like him then perhaps she could bring herself to believe in Ghira's ideals, checking him once more for any injuries she finally calmed down before returning to escorting the two around. Both she and Blake froze on the spot their face turning to the wonderful smell.

"What is that?" Blake rushed to the booth with a vigor usually only reserved for books, finally, she spotted a man in white and before him were small rice balls with fish cuts on top. Noticing her the man smiled.

"Have you never seen Sushi my dear it's a rather well-known Mistralian dish." Blake could only stare soon Sienna and Jaune reached as well with Sienna's eyes just as focused on the small works of art. Jaune seeing this looked to the man.

"How much?"

"For a plate 12 lien." Blakes expression dampened at hearing that she had used the last of her money to buy the fourth book. Sienna searched for her wallet before realizing she must have dropped it and slumped her head.

"Two plates then please." Both faunus girls turned to Jaune who handed the man his lien with a smile. The man smiled at the boy.

"Well, well it would seem we got quite the gentlemen here, tell you what kid I like you so I'll throw in some samples, so you could try some too." Jaune smiled back to the man before handing Blake and Sienna the plates.

"How'd you have so much money you buy the same number of books as me." Jaune smiled.

"Because comics are cheaper." Blake didn't like that answer and choose to ignore the boy until she tried a piece of the Mistralian dish and found herself utterly enticed by it. Looking up she found sienna to be much the same thou she concealed it much better. Jaune looked to the two enjoying the found and tried his own.

Hmm, taste good enough but nothing compared to chicken nuggets.

Jaune happy walked with the two through the crowds before he finally reached the parade. Jaune and Blake and Jaune watched as dozens of huntsman and huntresses of Faunus heritage walked through the street alongside shop owners and most notably heroes from the Faunus Rights Revolution. Just as his parents begun to appear on a float as the representatives of the White Fang a single gunshot was heard and the guard by Ghira was struck down. Ghira seeing this covered his wife while his guards rushed before him suddenly another bullet could be heard followed by another.

"Damn Animals!" As quickly as the words were yelled a series of bullets suddenly erupted in the crowd, as innocents fell Jaune could make out a group of people donning hockey mask. The group seemed to want nothing more than to kill as many people at the parade as possible. Sienna seeing this quickly grabbed Jaune and Blake guiding them away.

"Hey look it's the alphas of these animal's kid. Whatever we do we gotta butcher her got it!" Bullets began to fire near the three aimed at Blake.

"Don't you dare!" Despite the gun fire Jaune could even hear the roar of his father and knew he was fighting. With the gunfire growing too intense, Sienna Quickly grabbed Jaune and Blake before ducking into a corner behind a stall. Jaune knew Sienna could move faster than this, she could easily carry one of us out of here…one.

"Sienna!" The tiger faunus turned to Jaune noting his scared expression.

"Take Blake and get out of here." Sienna and Blake looked to Jaune wide-eyed.

"As if I would do suc-"

"I'm human, there aiming at Faunus, right? So, if I sneak away I'll be okay… but they're aiming for Blake… If you carry her alone you'd be able to get out of here right?" Sienna bit gritted her teeth as what the boy said made sense but still.

"I refuse to choose one of Belladonna children over the other." Jaune smiled at that.

"Thanks miss Sienna, I know you don't like humans… So that means a lot to me." Jaune looked to Blake who seemed as terrified as him. No for her it was undoubtedly worse after all she was a faunus and right now her kind were being hunted down before her eyes.

"Blake." His sister turned to him and he gave the most convincing smile he could.

"It's a knights job to protect and a Ninja's to escape." Blake's eyes widened as the words left his mouth and he turned and ran to the nearest alley.

"Jau-!"

"Come on miss Belladonna this way!" The hate group directed they're fire to the small boy and readied to fire.

"No!" Ghira grabbing a nearby trashcan threw it at the group hitting a few but not all the people, those who weren't struck opened fire. Jaune quickly jumped for the alleyway managing to get there alive before he turned back to see both Blake and Sienna gone.

"Good they managed to get away… ah." Jaune's left side suddenly begun to burn as he looked down he noticed a pool of blood begin to form.

Huh?

Jaune tried but found he couldn't he felt his stomach begin to burn and finally noticed a red spot forming on his shirt.

"Was I… shot?" Jaune touched the wound and found a surge of pain shot through him.

"Hey where's the faunus brat!" Jaune looked up to see two of the man who attacked before him in their hands were basic rifles but to the injured boy they might as well be machineguns. The bigger of the two-man looked to Jaune.

"Hey brat! Where's the Belladonna offspring." Jaune clutched his wound before using his other hand to point further down the alley. The bigger man nodded and made his way down the alley before stopping Jaune turned and realized his mistake. A dead-end, the large man began to shake and turned back to the boy and slammed the butt of his gun against his face.

"You little bastard you're helping those animals!" The man roughly grabbed the boy up before slamming against a wall and pulled out a pistol raising the barrel to level with Jaune's face.

"Tell me where that little bitch went! NOW!" Jaune stared down the pistol to the man and felt him pee himself but even so.

"S-She's…" The man forced the gun against his head, the cold steel kissing his forehead.

"What was that brat I couldn't hear you!" Tears begun to fall from the boy's face but still he glared at the man.

"She's not an animal! You Are!"

"What the fuck!" The man moved the pistol from the boy's head and fired to show him it was loaded before he placed it back against his head. Jaune could feel the hot metal burn his forehead.

"Say That Again!" Jaune was absolutely terrified of the being before him but even still.

"She's no-"

'Woof!'

"Ahh!" Before Jaune could finish the second man let out a desperate scream turning he could see a familiar Corgi that had somehow managed to leap up and bit the arm the man held his gun in. Before the guy holding Jaune could so much as fully turn around a sound like thunder rang out and the man's handgun was blown apart. Jaune could make out an image at the opening of the alley, it was the scary older man with red eyes. His body radiated a fierce killing intent at the big racist.

"Get away from the kid…"

"Who the fu-" before the man could finish the older man rushed forward faster than Jaune could see. Within a second he was in front of the two and rose is sword severing the man's arm that held Jaune. Just as the man began to scream he smashed his bare fist into his face sending him flying into the dead end. Jaune fell down and finally realized his body was going numb.

"Mister…" The man looked to him a flash of concern in his eyes as he looked to the boy.

"You're that kid." The man kneeled down near Jaune lifting his shirt to see the bullet wound upon seeing it he turned to the man the Corgi was biting and rose the gun sword to his face.

"I-it wa-" a bang rang out and the bullet slammed into the man's body but instead of blood a mass of ice formed around him.

"Shut up you bastard! You don't deserve to die so easy." He turned back to Jaune.

"Hey kid… stay with me." Jaune focused on the man, he was strong.

"M-my sister… she's a… faunus. Please help her."

"Whoa of course I'm gonna help her I'm a huntsman after all. But first I need to help you, understand?"

Huntsman?

"Whoa kid stay with me!" the man lightly slapped Jaune's face to keep him awake, barely managing.

Sleepy…

"Kid if you can't stay awake how am I supposed to find your sister?" At those words Jaune managed to focus on staying up ignoring the numbing feeling.

"Good, good now kid listen I'm gonna do something a little weird but if it works you'll be okay, in fact better then okay you'll be stronger."

Stronger?

"Like a knight?" The man smiled a bit nervously.

"Better than a knight, like a huntsman. Okay?" Jaune weakly nodded and the man placed a hand to the kid's chest. His body begun to glow a bright red.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." Jaune felt a warm sensation take over his body and saw how the man stood up a bit weakly.

"Well damn kid pretty impressive… you feeling any better?" Jaune felt the numbness leave in exchange a warmth grew around the numbed areas. Slowly the boy nodded before everything turned black.

-Patch-

Slowly Jaune begun to open his eyes to see an unfamiliar ceiling above him as well as four eyes two silver and two lilac.

"Um, hello." The smaller of the two girls quickly ran away as soon as she heard him speak.

"Did I say something bad?"

"Nah sis is just shy is all." Jaune faced the other girl noting her pretty long hair.

I wonder if Blake would be pretty if she let her hair grow out like that.

"Um my names Jaune." The blonde girl put out a hand and smiled.

"Mines Yang." Both smiled to one another before Jaune begun to look around.

"Where am I?"

"In Patch."

"Patch?"

"Yeah our Uncle Qrow brought you here after you got hurt during the parade."

Parade…BLAKE!

Jaune quickly rose up ignoring the pain at his abdomen.

"My sister!" Jaune quickly turned to Yang gripping her shoulders.

"Did he bring a black-haired girl too?" Yang seemed surprised by the question but shook her head. Jaune then stopped as he heard the sound of adults talking.

"I still think it was a stupid idea to bring him here."

"Yeah well, I couldn't exactly just leave him there with all that carnage."

"You basically kidnapped the kid."

"I saved him, and took him somewhere safe which so happened to be out of the city… and away from anyone looking for him…even his parents…okay thinking about it now maybe I did kidnap him… sorry."

"'sigh' It fine I mean given the situation… I just wish I went back to help too."

"Nah it's fine besides Firecracker and Squirt are priority number one."

"I'm just worried for the kid's parents… they have to be worried, I don't even know how'd I'd react if I heard my kid was shot."

"Yeah, I think they were the leaders of the parade I saw him earlier today with some cat girl that looked like that Ghira guys wife."

"Well then at least it won't be hard to contact them, Go check on the kid while I contact Ozpin." Jaune looked to the door as it was opened to reveal the man he now knew as Qrow.

"Well your up earlier than expected." Jaune looked to the man in front of him.

"Thank you!" Jaune bowed like his mom had taught him.

"Heh don't mention it kid, it's a huntsman job to help people."

"What is that?"

"What?"

"A Huntsman you keep saying that word." Yang looked to him curiously while Qrow tilted his head in confusion.

"Wow kid you don't even know what a huntsman is. What you from a sheltered house in Atlas or something?" Jaune pouted at that.

"No, I'm from Menagerie." Qrow honestly seemed surprised at hearing that.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"But your human, right?" Jaune's eyes narrowed.

"Why does that matter?"

"It doesn't. um, look I just mean I've never heard of a human living there is all."

"Well I do my mom adopted me after my village was destroyed when I was little… littler"

"Well I guess that make sense, anyways at least that explains why you don't know about huntsman." Qrow then went on to explain what Huntsman were while Yang help emphasize the badassness of them. Surprisingly the little girl who Jaune didn't know the name of got the most passionate of the three after saying they were like heroes from the books she read. After hearing that Jaune was sold.

"I wanna be one!"

"Heh sure I don't see why not. You got your aura unlocked after all."

"Aura?"

"Wow, you don't know what that is either huh. Well get you dad to tell you okay anyways point is if you train hard enough and go to combat school you just need to apply to an academy, once you graduate you'll be a bonafide huntsman."

"Okay. I'm pretty sure I can get Sienna to show me how to fight and maybe dad for fist fighting, oh and moms good at archery." As Jaune contemplated his training the man who had grabbed the Corgi the first time appeared in the doorway with a deadpanned expression.

"Qrow what are you doing?" Qrow shrugged.

"Just grooming the next generation I guess."

"'sigh' You're supposed to do that at Signal. Look my kids are one thing but other parents might get mad."

"Like I care." Taiyang gave up.

"Well whatever look I've already talked to his parents apparently they can't leave the boat port so Glynda said one of us has to go."

"Fine whatever I'll take the kid." Qrow stood up and stretched before helping Jaune up.

-One Hour Later-

"And that's how team STRQ defeated a pack of raging Beringels." Jaune stared at Qrow utterly amazed.

"Really!"

"Yep… though it was mostly me and my partner Summer… okay mostly Summer but I helped." Jaune was utterly amazed by the stories the man told.

"So can I be as strong as you."

"Heh, no chance." Jaune pouted but his head was ruffled.

"But if you want to get even a shot at it you'd have to at least get into Beacon here in Vale." Jaune nodded at that vowing in his heart he would.

"By the way kid a little hint."

"What."

"The best huntsman are the ones who know what they fight for." Jaune looked at the man.

"So you'll need to decide why you want be a huntsman."

"That's easy." Qrow rose a brow at that.

"Really now."

"Yeah I'm gonna be a huntsman to protect everyone. But most importantly to protect my family."

"You might be dreaming a bit too big their kid." Jaune furiously shook his head.

"No I promise in fact."

"Is that right, well then guess I don't need to worry about that." Jaune and Qrow could finally see the port along Vale. Remembering something Qrow dug through his bag.

"Oh yeah that's right I almost forgot to hand you this." Qrow retrieved a volume of Ninja's of Love giving it to Jaune.

"This is the book you wanted right?" Jaune smiled back at Qrow nodding.

"Glad I grabbed the right one, after all when the squirt sees that comic she gonna absolutely go ballistic so I really didn't wanna screw up here. Though I suggest you hid that after all I'm sure your mom won't be too pleased to see you reading that just yet." Jaune nodded hiding the book away in his bag before him a Qrow made their way to the port.

"Jaune!" Before he could even see them, he was embraced by Kali and Ghira, who were in tears.

"We're so sorry!" Jaune looked as his father the toughest man he knew cried and suddenly felt really bad.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to save Blake. If they got her they would've killed her."

"And what about you?!" Jaune froze as he looked to his mom, he had never seen Kali mad before, especially at him.

"Whether it's you or Blake it doesn't matter losing either of you is just… It just…" Jaune saw as she begun to tear up and her embrace tightened.

"I'm sorry… I won't do it again." After a few more minutes of crying the two finally let Jaune go before finally noticing Qrow. Kali was the first to act closing in on the man and taking his hand.

"Thank you so much!"

Wow she's a knockout… hmm maybe I should try picking up faunus girls.

"No problem, couldn't exactly leave a kid to those bastards, frankly my only regret is that me and Tai couldn't act sooner and stop those bastards. But my nieces were there and getting them out was priority."

"But you came back to fight for our people and that speaks a great deal of your character." Ghira stepped forward holding out a hand to Qrow.

Holy shit he's big, good thing I didn't flirt with the mom. Damn this fucker makes Jimmy look like Tai.

"No problem bastards are bastards and civilians are civilians regardless of race and as a huntsman I help the civilians and beat up the bastards." Ghira nodded at this.

"I appreciate that, if you ever find yourself in Menagerie please come to us." Qrow finally took Ghira's hand and smiled.

"Sure thing, same to you if you ever end up in Patch, though it's not my house I'm sure Tai wouldn't mind." Jaune watched the three talk before he turned to see Blake and Sienna and someone else, upon seeing him Blake ran forward leaping at him and slamming him down on the floor.

"Ow!" Jaune opened his eyes and felt tears hit his face as he looked up to see his sister glare.

"You idiot!" Before he could say a word, she buried her head in his chest and just kept repeating those to words tell she tired herself out. After which Sienna made way to them and lifted her up in her arms, she looked to Jaune and made a slight bow an expression of guilt on her face.

"I'm sorry." Jaune tilted his head.

"For what?"

"I left you there, to those monsters… those Humans." Jaune smiled.

"I wanted you to get Blake out of there though and besides if you tried to take us both you might have got hurt too." Sienna looked to Jaune.

I've always thought all humans were bad but at least this boy isn't tainted by his people's evil.

Sienna patted the boys head and for the first time Jaune could remember she smiled at him. Finally noticing someone else behind her who was glaring at him. Tracing his line of sight Sienna turned to the young man behind her and then back to Jaune.

"Oh I suppose you haven't met, this is Adam Taurus, he aided in Ghira's and Kali's escape." Jaune looked to the man who had turned away from him and begun to focus on the sleeping Blake who was in Sienna's arms.

I don't like how he's looking at Blake, how old is he anyways? looks almost fifteen.

"Adam this is Jaune Ghira's and Kali's sole son and Blake's brother."

"He's human." Sienna's eyes narrowed.

"Is that a problem?" Adam didn't answer instead he walked aboard the ship. Sienna sighed before looking back at Jaune.

"Apologies, he's dealt with far too many racist, He's from our faction here in Vale it was suggested that he be Blake's and your bodyguard for the time being."

Why doesn't that make me feel better?

Jaune turned to see his parents finishing their conversation with Qrow. Jaune ran to the huntsman and bowed.

"Thank you again!" Qrow chuckled.

"No need kid just remembers what we talked about." Jaune smiled.

"Right! Just you watch I'll get into Beacon and become just as good as Team STRQ!" Kali and Ghira's looked surprised at their son's sudden proclamation, Qrow however grinned putting out his fist.

"I'll believe it when I see it kid." Jaune bumped fist with the man before donning a goofy smile.

"I'm really glad I met you! I'm lucky I met you." As the boy left he waved at Qrow, not noticing Adam who stared at him from behind.

"Filthy human…"

-Patch-

After finally getting back so late at night and going to his room Qrow laid on his bed looking at his hand.

"Lucky he met me huh. Heh imagine that."