"Jaune Arc vs Cardin Winchester!"

Joan grumbled silently to herself as she watched the screen finish rotating, her brother's bashful face matched up against Cardin's very punchable face. She hated watching Jaune fight, not because she had anything against the way he fought, in fact she loved watching him fight so did Ruby, and apparently Pyrrha, she was somehow unsurprised that Pyrrha was interested in her brother fighting or otherwise. No what she hated was the rest of the class… "BOO! BORING! GET OFF THE FIELD ARC!" Various voices echoed throughout the room, unfortunately not many agreed with her. The remainder of the class hated his methodological way of fighting, his practice patience, the way he waited for his opponent to screw up.

"OI WHY DON'T YOU GUYS SHUT UP!"

"HECK YEAH! I'LL BREAK YOUR LEGS!"

Though, Joan couldn't help but smile to herself, even with all the naysayers she was grateful for their friends. Yang and Nora being surprisingly vocal cheerleaders for their little group.

Speaking of their little group, they'd received quite a few surprises the other day. One of those being in the form of… "All of you will be silent… do you understand me?" Their new combat instructors silver eyes scanned the room, forcing an uneasy silence to fall over the once rowdy students.

Joan eyed their instructor, a shiver running down her spine as silver eyes fell upon her. Why did things have to turn out this way? She was a good girl, she was the one that normally kept her siblings in line, so was escaping their loving but semi overbearing mother impossible?

Her memories flashed back to that terrible day a few weeks ago…

"MOM?!" Joan's mind froze as she stared at her mother who was standing in front of their door along with Glynda Goodwitch, who looked as if she had the worst headache in existence.

"I'm not fixing this… Ozpin doesn't pay me enough for this…"

As if on queue, Ozpin himself showed up behind their mother and headmistress, causing all of the children in the room to seize up, "Hmm… that's fine actually…" Joan's eyebrow cocked up, finally able to take her eyes off of her mother's judging gaze.

"What exactly do you mean Headmaster?" She was hoping to get their mother's attention off of her.

"You eight shall hence forward share a room… I think this should be an interesting experiment…"

The following silence was deafening as no one knew exactly what to say, apparently mother dearest was also shocked, if not a little annoyed by the headmaster's sudden decision. Glynda herself just didn't appear to care at this point, her job obviously tiring her out, Joan had to wonder if she had grey hairs already.

"WHAT!?" Weiss was the first to break it, her face contorted in frustration, shock, and embarrassment. Joan watched as the incredibly pale beauty walked past her teammates and towards the forefront of attention. "Headmaster, you can't be serious! There is no way that I can share a room with… with a boy!" Her snow white finger extended towards Jaune, who was still doing his best not to turn his attention towards the girls, instead fixating on their mother, who was eyeing him just the same.

Joan made sure to glance in Ren's direction who hadn't even budged since the situation started, almost as if he was used to the madness of it all. "Ms. Schnee, as a hunter you will have to grow accustomed to co-ed situations." He paused, "I also believe you were sharing a room with a boy to begin with."

Weiss apparently had nothing to say on the matter as her mouth snapped shut, her eyes glanced downwards. "Well then students… we will work on fixing the dormroom for you all."

"Okay! But that doesn't explain why mom is here!" Ruby was the first to bring up their mother.

"Mom?!" Four voices shouted at once, Yang, Nora, Weiss, and Pyrrha all took glances at Ruby, then at Summer, then back to Ruby.

"Oh wow dang! You look just like your ma!" Yang couldn't help but feel amazed as she stared at the mother daughter duo, taking the chance to glance at Jaune and Joan she noticed they looked nothing like their mother, that was till she noticed that much like their mother Joan also had short hair. Where as her mother and sisters were black, she had blonde hair, but just like theirs the tips faded into a dark red.. "Wait, Joan is your hair natural?"

"Huh? Yeah, why would I dye it?" Joan showed an obvious sense of confusion at Yang's question.

No one really wanted to say their thoughts out loud, though Jaune was the one that thankfully broke the silence. "She actually gets that a lot, but yes, she has red tipped hair, just like our mom just like Ruby, and a few of our other sisters. Most of us take after our dad though, Ruby just looks the most like our mom."

"That's so cool! Ruby you look just like your mom!" Nora's excitement was almost infectious.

"This is… surprising… but that doesn't explain why you're here Mrs. Arc?" Pyrrha's voice was quiet, she hadn't missed the way that Summer had sent judgemental glances her way, possibly catching the way she'd looked at her son earlier, or just because she knew something that Pyrrha herself didn't.

Thankfully to her relief, the mother of eight didn't seem to be off put by the question,a s she was the one that answered for the two professors. "I'll be taking Glynda's place as your combat instructor for the year."

"No!" Everyone's head snapped towards Joan, utter shock sprawled across her face as she stared her mother down.

"Is there a problem with that, my precious little sun?"

The larger girl wilted under the powerful gaze of her mother, "No… no there is nothing wrong with that mom…"

Pyrrha and the others remained silent, the rowdy and powerful girl they'd seen in combat was nowhere to be seen as she seemed to cave under her mother's very presence. Though, Pyrrha supposed that there was no winning against one's own parents.

"Your sisters and father are also here, they'll be helping in class from time to time."

This seemed to oddly perk, "Viola's here?!" Ruby was practically vibrating at the thought of the name.

"Viola?" Weiss was obviously confused by the name.

"Yeah, she's our baby sister." For the first time since he'd been here, a proud confident smile plastered Jaune's face. Pyrrha couldn't help but admire the look on the young man, now only if he did that more often.

"Yep! She's the youngest Arc, and everyone's little baby sister. We're all pretty doting of her."

"Yes yes, my precious little baby is here too." Mrs. Arc seemed to pause before a smile lit on her face, "All my precious babies are here after all, well except for Saphron."

A chill filled the room as all three Arc siblings seemed to freeze in place.

"No… no why is she here?! Shouldn't she be out on the field?!" Joan's expression was bleak, almost desperate.

"Yes, but I offered her a place as security detail. It will allow her to get good pay and stay near her family." Ozpin seemed to have not cared for the sudden change of disposition. "Well children we'll leave you to it, for now we'll have to get Mrs. Rose-Arc situated as your new professor."

"Don't break anything else children." Glynda followed the headmaster out.

"It was a pleasure meeting my children's new teammates and friends! I hope that you treat them right, they're good kids." Their mother left giggling madly as she followed after the professors.

Joan had never been so embarrassed in her life, the following questions were torture as everyone wanted to know how many siblings they ad, what they were like, and what was going on or if they knew about this. Weiss didn't enjoy the fact that their mother would be their professor, she made that pretty clear in the following conversation.

And that led them here, as everyone watched and prepared for the long fight to commence.

"FIGHT!"

Her mother's voice echoed through the arena and like that the fight started. Cardin moved first, most likely not wanting to let Jaune begin to turtle. It's a shame that he was far too slow. The crashing of metal echoed throughout the halls, but as Cardin came in on a brutal swing,Jaune tilted his body. With a metallic shriek, Cardin's vertical slam slid down the shield's side, utterly ineffectual. Blow after blow, Jaune's ability to deflect each powerful strike continued to set his opponent off. It was obvious Cardin was already growing frustrated as each strike proved useless. This was the reason that the class hated Jaune, the reason he was considered the 'weakest' person. He rarely struck, hardly ever needing too, because of his constant defense he was always looked down upon by those who didn't fully appreciate what it was he did.

Even Joan had to admit her brother was annoyingly good at deflecting blows, he rarely ever simply took the attack even if he could. She had asked him why at one point, he told her that if he can avoid taking any unnecessary damage he'd just avoid it all together.

"Arc's such a loser."

"I know, all he ever does is defend."

"Why did they even let him in the school?"

"I dunno, bet it's cause he's a mama's boy."

Joan rolled her eyes at the dismissive whispers aimed at her brother. She'd remember their faces for the future, but for now she'd pay attention from the fight.

SNAP

Her attention quickly fell to Pyrrha, whose hands snapped a pencil in half, now that she got a look, most of their new friends didn't appreciate the peanut gallery. She really couldn't help but smile, they really did make some good friends.

"YOU BASTARD! STOP BLOCKING AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!"

He wasn't going to rise to the provocation, Jaune didn't like attacking if he could help it, instead he'd just let Cardin wear himself out like everyone else. There were several times where he could have struck, but the blows wouldn't have been decisive and he opened himself up to being attacked. That's what he often told himself, but honestly he wasn't sure if he'd be able to make the blow count, he didn't want to have to slash at another human… he didn't want to hurt anyone. He winced as images of blood flashed through his mind, the memories of a crying child flickered in and out. He was a coward… he knew this. Even as Cardin completely wiffed and opened himself up to a free slash, he hesitated. His grip grew tight around the grip of his sword. He couldn't do it… he could never do it.

"Arc's such a loser."

"I know, all he ever does is defend."

"Why did they even let him in the school?"

"I dunno, bet it's cause he's a mama's boy."

They thought they were quiet, or maybe they just didn't care. But he could still hear them, the jeers from the crowd. He always pretended to not care, always pretended to be the wall he wanted people to think he was. But they hurt, they hurt because he knew how true they were. He didn't belong here, he wasn't like his sisters, he wasn't as amazing as them, all he could do was take blows. It didn't help with how amazing his new friends were, they were all heads and leagues above him. Why was he so afraid? Why couldn't he just do it, why was he so weak?

He messed up, lost in his thoughts he'd forgotten to deflect a blow as Cardin's massive mace came down upon his head slamming his body straight into the arena cracking it, followed by the loud splintering sound of the floor cracking under a massive fire dust explosion. His vision faded as pain filled his body, his head reeled from the massive blow as the explosion further sent powerful concussive force through his quivering body.

"JAUNE!" He couldn't tell whose voice it was, his ears were still ringing.

"JAUNE!" Pyrrha's heart raced as she watched her partner literally face tank a blow that cracked the ground beneath them.

"Is he okay?!" She wasn't the only one who was worried, it appeared as if all their friends, Weiss included, were worried about it.

"HAH TAKE THAT YOU LOSER!" Her hands balled into a fist at the sudden jeers, why couldn't these people just shut up!

"YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD BE PARTNERS WITH PYRRHA WITH THOSE SKILLS?!"

Oh, that did it.

She was about to say something, when surprisingly Weiss voiced her opinions, "Will you lot be quiet?! The match isn't over yet, so stop your insipid babbling. You are no longer children, so sit down and be quiet!" The crowd looked like they were about to say something, but her icey glare froze them in their place. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" And with that, no one bothered to say anything.

"Thank you…" Was all Pyrrha could whisper to the icy girl.

"I didn't do it for the dolt… they were just disrespecting a match." Maybe she'd gotten the wrong idea about the Schnee. Though, she probably wasn't the only one if the looks of Nora and Joan were anything to go off of.

Speaking of which, "Ruby, Joan aren't you worried for your brother?" They hadn't made a deal of the situation, instead both kept their eyes glued to the fight below.

"NoPe." Ruby's voice popped with the P, "He's fine, he'll always be fine."

"Yeah, there isn't a thing on this planet that can take him down. Jaune's the best after all." Both girls laid out their flourish with full confidence in their brother.

Pyrrha was nearly taken back, she had seen him take blows before, but she hadn't actually seen him well… do anything other than take hits? Still if they were confident in their brother, then she would too, she was his partner after all. Now that she thought about it, Mrs. Rose-Arc didn't cancel the fight, her eyes fell to their new professor who seemed nonplussed by the situation.

Teeth grit, his hands gripped the ground tightly. The floor crunching beneath his grip as he forced himself up. His bones rattled as he moved, the blow had nearly shaken him to his core. His body ached as he stood, aura pulsing as he got his barings. He could take any hit, could get back up, but that didn't stop his body from reeling from the pain. He'd trained himself to take hits, over and over he'd pushed his body to its limits. And here he was, finally showing what he could do, after all Grimm hit far harder than any human could.

The attention fell back to the girls above as Pyrrha watched her partner rise once more.

"Besides look at the auras on the board."

Five pairs of eyes fell on the board, noting a sudden dip in Jaune's aura only for it to flicker once and then proceed to refill.

"Wait what?!"

"YeP! Jaune's the best strongest older brother ever!"

Pyrrha was sure that he'd gotten hurt, but as the boy rose from the rubble there was nary a scratch on him. Instead his aura was pulsing, not flaring, not forming whisps like it normally did, it was honestly just pulsing.

"Ruby's over exaggeration aside, Jaune's really hard to hurt. You kind of have to keep up the pressure, or his aura will regenerate pretty fast, but he tends to hide behind that massive shield of his." Pyrrha almost noted the jealousy in Joan's voice, though the smile on her face contradicted that situation. "Besides, there's always a ring out, though… good luck getting him out of the ring."

This was astounding, Aura NEVER regenerated during combat, it usually took several minutes of constantly trying to get it back, or resting long enough for it to refill eventually. Though… she had to wonder why Joan had said that aloud.

The smile on her face however… it spoke volumes as the students behind her whispered their 'future' battle plans. It hit her soon enough, she liked it… liked it a lot.

She was sure Weiss would have made a comment, if the girl herself wasn't staring in awe at the stage beneath them.

"WHY WON'T YOU STAY DOWN YOU COWARD!" Once more Cardin rose his weapon above his head, slamming into the ground sending a shockwave towards Jaune. Her partner simply stood there, taking a deep breath as he put his sword away.

"Why is he doing that?!" Yang was the first to nearly freak out.

"Jaune-Jaune no! You need it to hurt him!" Nora was next.

"You dolt, what are you doing?" Weiss was quieter about it.

"I see…" Ren was the second to figure it out.

Pyrrha was the first, not including his sisters. "I see… if he can't raise his blade towards people, then he doesn't need the blade at all."

"Yep! GO JAUNE GO!" Ruby's voice cheered her brother on, while Joan was content with just walking.

Pyrrha watched the young man duck down, his shield suddenly expanding further. She noticed that he was doing something, his aura pulsed inside of his shield. She wasn't sure what he was planning, especially since Cardin' seemed to have been winded with that last attack, was he going to defend then move to atta…

Her question was answered the moment that a blast roared from behind his shield, consuming him in a blaze of crimson. In an instant he was no longer where he once was, blowing through the shockwave. She noticed the moment it made contact with the blast it pulsed, his shield always pulsed when something hit it and she'd finally figured out what that meant. "I see…"

In an instant he was upon Cardin, his shield smashing into the larger boy. "GAAAAH!" Once more his shield pulsed, which was then followed by a massive eruption of aura and dust. In an instant Cardin's body was sent flying, his grip upon his weapon loosened. Then in the next moment he was laying on his back outside of the ring. His aura only just now hit the yellow.

"JAUNE ARC IS THE WINNER DUE TO RING OUT!"

And with that the lights flickered back on.

Silver eyes fell upon sapphire blue. "Good work as usual Jaune. Though, for future reference you may want to take the initiate more often. There were several moments where you could have done an efficient counter strike." Summer knew this well, she helped train her son after all. Though, despite her critique, she understood there were things even she couldn't help him with. She knew how he felt about using a blade against another living being. "There will be times when you need to fight against other humans. And… unfortunately there are going to be times when you have to take a life. It may not be the most… it may not be what you want, but there may come a time where you have to make the decision or lose someone you love."

It pained her to watch her son wilt at her words, but they were still necessary. He was talented, he just didn't realize it himself.

Now then, turning back towards the loser of the match. "Mr. Winchester." The brute of a child eyed her with clear disdain.

"Yes?"

"While you have great strength you often don't plan ahead. In the situation where you are unable to knock out Mr. Arc's aura, you should have opted for an alternate form of take down. Or in press the attack instead of wasting all of your energy in a single big blow. An alternative to wasting your energy would have been to ring him out instead."

"Tch, no man worth their salt goes for a ring out, that doesn't work in the real world! That didn't even count as a win!" Despite his attitude he was clearly out of breath, fatigue had set in long before he'd been knocked out of the arena.

Summer nearly rolled her eyes at the boys back talk, "And yet you were defeated, if the match had gone on for any longer you may not have been able to continue the match. You're already nearly out of breath as it was."

He clearly wanted to say more, however she raised her hand up, after which the bell rang.

"Alright then, class dismissed, remember students, victory can be lost or gained depending on how you handle the battle. There is always more than one way to victory." And with that the class was dismissed, turning her attention towards her son she gave him a sympathetic look. She wanted to help him, but at this point it was rather difficult, he needed help with his confidence, and being more proactive. She herself was at a loss at what to do, but she didn't want to let him sink or swim on his own.

"Ms. Nikos, may I please speak to you after class?"

Jaune's eyebrow quirked as his mother called out to his partner, though he didn't like it he decided not to question his mother. As he made his way out of the room he felt a large shoulder bump into him, and yet despite his fatigue he neither budged or gave an inch. Staring upwards he eyed Cardin who was giving him the ugliest of looks.

"Jauney-boy! You better not think you won that! Your bitch way of fighting means nothing, you hear me?!"

He obviously attempted to look intimidating, and Jaune was sure, in one life or another, he would have found it so. But he'd dealt with people far stronger than Cardin before, hell every one of his friends was above the boy, so he didn't see the reason to cower in fear.

"Yeah! You're such a mommies boy! I bet that's the only reason you even got in!"

And then started the usual jeering from the passerbys and his usual mooks. While outwardly he didn't budge, he still found himself wounded by their words. He already felt inferior and insignificant towards the others. Still he bore it, like he did every day of his life, like he did when he was always compared to his sisters. His family always had his back, was always there for them, but honestly how much of that could he trust?

When everyone else thought he was useless and weak, when they couldn't see if he had any good qualities. He just gave up, instead of ever learning to really go on the offensive he always stayed on the defensive. If they couldn't crack his exterior they couldn't hurt his heart, and that was the same now.

"Whatever you say Cardin." He simply walked past them, even as they tried to surround him he did his best to push forward. However, Cardin had enough, placing his hand on his shoulder he raised his fist only to stop at a sudden voice.

"OI! Do you want your legs broken Cardy? Cause I'll break your dang legs!" And thank you Yang! Internally Jaune felt relief wash over him, he could take it but he hated getting hit nonetheless.

"OH OH OH! Yeah! Let's break his legs! I call the right one!" He really did have good friends… but sometimes he… he could handle it himself right? Right he could have, but he didn't… or at least he hadn't yet..

"Nora, you can't break his legs." Ren waited for a tic, "In public."

"OH OH! I know! I could whisk him away! HE DESERVES IT." Jaune loved his little sister.

"No… no I think I'll be breaking more than his legs." Joan's voice was a low growl.

The only one who didn't comment was Weiss, who looked away, nearly frustrated at the situation but doing nothing to stop it.

"Tch! Fine! I'll back off the stupid loser!" Even as Cardin walked off he decided to leave one last bit, "You won't have girls to save your ass in the future Jauney-boy!"

"HEY REN ISN'T A GIRL!" Both Nora and Yang shouted at the same time causing the boy in question to groan silently. Both girls took the opportunity to give one another a solid fist bump.

As his tormentors made their way out, a mirth of laughter filled the hallways as everyone, Weiss included, began to laugh at the last comment. After a while, Joan approached him, her hand placed firmly on his shoulder. "Everything alright?"

And like usual he lied, "Yeah I'm fine." He lied as easily as he breathed, it was what he was best at after all, hiding the pain. He didn't need to worry others, that was never his place in life. "Let's just wait for Pyrrha then we can go get lunch, are you all good with that?" After receiving several nods of confirmation they decided to wait outside of the room.

Pyrrha wasn't sure what she was expecting when her team's mother called out to her. She hoped it wasn't to chew her out for something she didn't do, as far as she knew she wasn't well liked by their professor.

"Pyrrha."

"Yes professor?"

"Can I ask you a favor?" Oh… she hadn't expected the professor to ask her a favor.

"Y...yes?" She hadn't meant it to come off as a question.

"Haaaaaah don't worry dear, I'm not actually mad at you nor do I dislike you if that's what you're worried about."

"Ho…"

"How did I know? I apologize, I tend to be a bit more judgemental when girls hang around my son."

Well, Pyrrha hadn't expected their mother to be that overprotective, then again apparently Jaune was the only son amongst eight kids so she supposed she could understand.

"He's had some issues with… well I'll let him tell you later if they decide to. Either way, I'm sorry I came off as antagonistic."

"It's alright, I can understand I think." Right, well she wasn't sure why she'd said that.

"Hahah, right it's fine. I was just going to ask if you can keep an eye on him okay? He can be… he can get into this really bad mindset. I've tried to help him before, but well…" She paused in an attempt to find the right words for the situation. "I don't think he'll listen to anyone in the family… at least not anymore."

"What… what do you mean?"

"Hmm lemme see…" She took a moment before she started speaking once more, "what if you were told over and over by the same people that you were good? That you weren't just a blemish? Even when you felt like you weren't progressing, even when others kept on putting you down? Do you think you could believe your family, or would you think they're only telling you what they think you want to hear?"

Pyrrha wanted to say something, but then she thought about her early days, about the struggles she went through to get better. "I… yeah I can see where you're coming from. I suppose he doesn't really take your compliments to heart then?"

"Unfortunately no. That's where the favor comes in, would you be so kind to knock some sense into that boy of mine?"

...

"Excuse me?" She'd never had anyone actively tell her to basically beat their own child.

"He won't accept help so easily, but I've seen you fight and I do mean I've seen you fight." The woman's knowing smile sent a shiver down Pyrrha's spine.

"Oh."

"Don't worry, I won't mention it to anyone, it's your secret. I was just wondering if you could help… train him up. Obviously my approach hadn't been the best, nor any of his sisters. We would unconsciously hold back… but if it's you? I feel like you'd be able to really knock some sense in him."

"... Can I think about it?"

"Of course dear. I'm not trying to pressure you into anything, if you don't want to that's perfectly fine." This time, the smile she sent at Pyrrha felt less frightening.

"Thank you."

"No problem, and thank you for listening. Now I do believe that my kids and the others are waiting out there for you."

As Pyrrha started to make her way out she paused, "Oh and Pyrrha, thank you for being his partner, and if you ever need anything feel free to ask me alright?"

"I… thank you."

As she exited the classroom she was suddenly talked by two missiles, one pink and one red. "PYRRHA! What took you so long! We need fooooood!" Nora's stomach loudly grumbled loud enough for everyone in the hallway to hear it.

I want to thank my wonderful Proof Reader Selene Sokal!

Also I may be starting a third project/forth I suppose if we count Suspended! This one would be a monster universe with a slime jaune being a dad to a human child!