Chapter 01: Jaune and Ruby

A massive castle-like building loomed ominously with floating orbs of fire above several smaller towers.

"Beacon."

"A facility for the best and brightest of young Meisters and Weapons. Operating from the deepest recesses of all corners of the world in order to prevent the second rising of the Asura, who would bring about the destruction of all existence and envelop the world within the spirals of madness."

"And what of our current location itself?"

"It is here that the next generation of Meisters are trained to defend the innocent civilians and to create new Deva Regalias, all in the hopes to prevent the Grimm from regaining a foothold over the world by bringing an Asura back into the world."

"Indeed." Ozpin nodded as he stood in the main court yard of the academy, his usual black and green suit having the addition of a cartoonish skull mask hanging from his collar.

After taking a large gulp from his coffee mug, he sighed in satisfaction with eyes closed. Then he turned to address the readers. "That's the idea for this fanfiction anyway."

Ozpin swung his cane around one handed. "The Academy was founded to fight against evil souls, humans who try to stray into the world of madness. We give them the title Grimm. These Grimm souls are dangerous monsters out to destroy everything in their path. And so, I founded this school to fight back. Granted, making a school of all things was a bit weird but hey, clichés are clichés and tropes are tropes."

His cane slammed into the ground. "But I've rambled enough. You're not here to see me. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work!"

"I don't understand why you're speaking like you're providing exposition, sir." Glynda Goodwitch asked as she suddenly transformed from his cane into a human form in a bright burst of purple light. "I'm honored that you chose me to be your PA despite my recent ascension to a Deva Regalia. But what am I here for?"

Ozpin blinked and looked over Glynda while taking another sip from his mug. Before him, Glynda was dressed in a white dress shirt that hugged her endowed chest snugly and exposed some cleavage while her lower half was a black pencil skirt that stopped mid-thigh and let her slim pantyhose-covered legs continue down into high heels.

"Fanservice."

"Wha-?!"

A clock tolled during the night, it's sound reaching most corners of the city. A creature- No, human?- no, a twisted being of a person mixed with a Beowulf Grimm, grinned it's sharp toothed smile as he dragged along his iron claws across the ground, already on the trail of his latest target.

The Grimm lifted his claws and moved in swift silence, jumping forward. She didn't notice. She didn't turn. She didn't even have the chance to screa-

*BAM!*

Correction.

She wouldn't have had the chance to scream. Especially as the Grimm was suddenly dropkicked in the face hard enough to send it off a stone stairwell and into the wall of a building.

"Get out of here!" The dropkicking girl yelled as her partner caught up, giving the civilian woman the chance to escape.

The Grimm looked up to see two late teens standing at the top of the stairs.

The first was the young woman who had attacked him. Bearing short red-tipped black hair and silver eyes, she wore a long red hooded cloak over a black outfit with red trims and tight black pants.

The taller young man next to her was a blond and blue-eyed boy. He dressed in a white jacket, black shirt, dark jeans, and steel studded boots that matched his partner's. "I'm going to guess that's the guy we're after."

Ruby Rose nodded. "Yup!"

The Grimm finally regained all of his bearings, reaching his hand up to lick one of his claws.

Jaune Arc cracked his knuckles in anticipation as he looked down at the man. "A twisted soul, descending to the path of the Grimm… Big Bad Beowulf Benny... your soul is ours!"

Beowulf Benny howled as he started to charge toward them. As he slammed a claw into the ground, Jaune jumped back to avoid the attack.

Ruby flipped in the air and aimed her body towards Jaune, catching his hand and letting him swing her around to his side as her body glowed a bright crimson.

When Jaune landed, he was now holding a red and silver spear. The majority of the metal was primarily red with several accents being silver, along with the blade itself being completely black.

Beowulf Benny roared and charged toward Jaune, prompting him to dip his stance and spin the non-bladed end of the spear into Benny's gut.

With a powerful charge, he twisted his spear about and stabbed at Benny, earning a deep wound in the Grimm's shoulder. Benny tried to back up, but Jaune yanked back, drawing him close and punching him clean in the snout.

As Benny winced and snarled, trying to slash at Jaune's face, he twisted to the side and slammed the side of his spear against the Grimm's side, sending it flying off the staircase.

As Benny turned around in midair to try and retaliate, it was too slow to act against the thrown spear that stabbed through his chest and pinned him to the ground.

As Jaune approached them, Big Bad Beowulf Benny's body slowly dissipated into black smoke and left behind a floating wispy orb.

Unlike the soul of a normal human which was varied in color but at least translucent, the soul left behind was an opaque, sickly red with various black 'clumps' covering it.

Ruby reformed into her human form, grabbing the soul and devouring it with a smile on her cute face. "And that's our 99th soul! Yay us!"

Jaune smiled as he returned her eager high-five. "Just the final soul left, now. I'll go check in with the headmaster."

Jaune walked up to a nearby window and breathed on the glass, causing it to fog. He then used his finger to write out a phone number as he chanted. "42-42-564 to knock on Death's Door."

After he finished, the glass rippled like a water surface before completely misting up and glowing an ethereal emerald. "Good evening, Headmaster. This is Meister Jaune Arc making a report."

The window suddenly cleared, revealing Ozpin at the other side back at Beacon instead of the building's interior. "Well done, Mr. Arc. How's the situation?"

Jaune grinned. "Just reporting in to say we got the 99th soul."

"And we saved a civilian from becoming Beowulf Benny's latest victim!" Ruby eagerly added in.

"That is excellent news, Miss Rose. In this livelihood, many Weapons usually forget that we're doing this to protect people, not just race towards an evolution for yourselves." Ozpin nodded in approval before his tone dropped to give them a warning. "However, you must remember that your next goal is the Yaksha's soul. Both of you need to be careful. Many great Meisters and Weapons have lost their lives before the magical powers and mischievous cunning of a Yaksha. Be careful, you two."

Jaune and Ruby nodded, a look of determination on both of their faces.

"And, because of that, if anything goes wrong, I will have to confiscate all the Grimm souls you've collected so far. Am I understood?"

Despite the grimace instantly replacing their determination, they both still replied in unison. "Yes, sir!"

"Excellent! Good luck, you two!" The window ceased to glow and returned to its natural state.

Ruby eagerly started to bounce about. "Now, we just need to go find a Yaksha, Jaune! Wait, where do we find one anyways?! The woods? The mountains?"

"I actually have a lead on that..." Jaune ruffled through his jacket before pulling out a piece of paper. "Here we go."

Ruby looked down on the paper, which was actually a hastily drawn picture of what looked like a... fish-themed house? "What am I looking at?"

"I saw this on our way here as we got the alert of Beowulf Benny." Jaune explained. "Due to the urgency, I just drew this quickly and continued on, but now that we can think on it... this can't be a place where a regular person lives."

"Which means... it might be a Yaksha!" Ruby squealed. "They always live in such weird places! Let's go, Jaune! It's close by, right? Let's go!"

An hour later, the duo stood in front of the suspected house, gawking up-close at it's... design.

"Is she a fish-themed Yaksha or something?" Jaune deadpanned.

"It even smells like I'm near the ocean…" Ruby had a similar reaction, her excitement lowered a bit before turning to her partner. "Alright, so what's the plan?"

Jaune took on a thinking stance. "I'm not sure. We may have gotten an extermination order, but neither of us have ever even met a Yaksha before. Besides, we haven't even confirmed that there's one in there at all. Let's start with some recon and go from there."

The two nodded in agreement and made their way toward a window on one side. They both looked around to make sure they were unseen, snapped off the pane, and vaulted into the room.

They landed in a hallway of some kind. After a moment, Jaune made for a nearby door while Ruby went for another one. He cracked open the wooden barrier to look beyond and into the next room without being seen.

This was a mistake as Jaune face turned beet red when he instantly locked eyes with a black-haired woman in a bubble bath, the suds barely covering her decently sized chest as her leg dangled outside the tub. "Ah... I'm sorry."

"Right... Of course, you are." The woman lifted her hand out of the water to point a glowing finger-

*meow*

"SHIT!" Jaune dodged out of the way at a purple energy blast shaped like a cat's head smashed through where he'd been standing seconds ago. "I found the Yaksha!"

"Jaune!" Ruby ran up to his side, only to blush as the Yaksha stepped out of her bathroom, still wet as she covered her decency with just a pretty small towel. "You found her in the middle of her bath?!"

"Focus, Ruby!" Jaune ordered despite the furious blush on his face as he concentrated his attention solely above the Yaksha's shoulders. "We've hit a big one! That's Blake Belladonna the Night Cat! It's unofficial but she's supposed to be 13th of the Zodiac 12!"

Blake raised an eyebrow.

Ruby smacked her cheeks to calm herself back down before turning into her weapon form and rocketing to Jaune's grip. "Right! Let's do this!"

Blake was surprised to see that. "A Meister and his Weapon? Tell you what…"

Using magic, her towel disappeared, leaving her naked for a split second before she was now wearing a long-sleeve black dress, a witch hat and zippered thigh-high boots.

Jaune briefly cursed his hormones as he actually paused to see the whole thing.

Smirking at Jaune's attention, Blake held out a hand, palm upward in expectation to receive. "In exchange of me forgiving your breaking and entering, how about you hand over your spear?"

"What?!" Jaune glared back, readying Ruby(Spear) to attack. "Not happening!"

Blake's hand flipped around with her palm facing Jaune, with a familiar purple light shining from it. A glowing cat head appeared and grew in her hand, a bit larger than her previous attack.

"[Cat Cannon!]"

*Meow!*

The cat attack flew forward and turned into a large beam of power, smashing Jaune through the house walls with a powerful burst until he was back outside and slammed into a tree. Ruby, still in spear form, stabbed into the tree beside him.

"She got us in one attack." Jaune groaned. "Yaksha sure are strong like Ozpin says."

"Fast, too. We couldn't even properly dodge out of the way." Ruby returned to human form and dropped down from the tree. "We can't give up, though!"

Jaune dropped down beside her. "Who said anything about giving up?"

"So, new plan?"

It didn't look like Blake was bothering to leave her home, so the duo quickly hid behind another tree near Blake's house, far from the one they'd been slammed into.

"We'll have to go for an ambush." Jaune described as he used his gloved finger to draw stick figures in the dirt. "It's not glamorous, but Blake herself just proved that we can't beat her in a straight fight."

"Okay. Makes sense." Ruby nodded in agreement. "So, it'll like a quick throw and- EEEK?!"

Ruby's pale face turned beet red as she turned to Jaune. "Jaune, what the heck?! I know that Yang said my new pants make my butt stand out, but you can't just feel me up all of a sudden! Think of the situation!"

"First off, I've never felt you up in my life, not to mention now. Secondly, I..." Jaune trailed off as he looked to Ruby, who finally noticed Blake beside her, as the latter's hand was the one doing the grabbing of Ruby's butt.

"Huh? You've got a pretty toned body, girl." Blake commented brazenly, her eyes solely on Jaune's reaction as her other hand trailed up and cupped one of the spear girl's breasts. "Hmm. Small but so easy to fit in my-"

Blake dodged the glowing punch that nearly tore through her head, missing Jaune's other hand that grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the ground.

"Don't touch my partner." Jaune growled down at Blake, who only smiled at his threat.

"Possessive little thing." Blake purred, her nails glowing purple as they pressed up directly against his chest.

"[Feline Frenzy.]"

*hiss!*

Jaune shouted in pain as Blake's nails grew into glowing claws that stabbed into his midsection.

"I take it back." Blake whispered into his ear as Jaune reflexively curled up. "I think I'll take you as well."

With a throaty chuckle, Blake threw Jaune towards Ruby who had just launched herself at them, causing the two to slam into each other and fall in a tangle of limbs.

With that done, Blake triumphantly walked away while Ruby freaked out over her injured partner.

The next night, Jaune and Ruby made their way back towards Blake's home, the former's waist bandaged.

"We need to try something different if we're going to get to her." Jaune muttered seriously. "We can't use an ambush on someone who was clearly stealthier than us."

"I'm sorry." Ruby apologized again. She'd been so mortified about how she had instantly blamed Jaune for fondling her, especially when he'd done no such things before. Add in how useless she'd been against the Yaksha so far... "She said she wanted me in my spear form. Why not play that up and use it as a sneak attack?"

"That might work…"

"Good luck with that."

The two spun around and looked up to find Blake standing on a high tree branch, already charging up an attack.

"Oh no, you don't!" Fist blazing white with his Aura, Jaune punched the tree at full strength, snapping it in half and sending Blake's attack off course.

Undeterred, Blake ran down the falling tree and leapt off, going for a roundhouse kick at Jaune's head.

"I won't let you!" Ruby yelled as she countered with her own roundhouse kick, repelling the Yaksha away.

Grabbing Ruby by her hand, Jaune leapt after Blake, the transformed spear about to impale her-

*JAB!*

-until, Blake stopped them dead while grabbing Ruby just below the spearhead, an energy construct of a clawed hand ensuring that she didn't touch the Weapon directly.

"Give it up. You can't beat me." Blake yanked Ruby close and dragged Jaune in, kneeing him right in his injury. "Just become mine, already. We'll do great together and I can show you two so many interesting new things to do."

Jaune growled in frustration. He and Ruby had already come so far! To give up just before the goal was unacceptable! "What do I do? She outclasses us in combat and can't be snuck on."

"Jaune... let's do you-know-what." Ruby spoke through her weapon form.

Blake's look of surprise returned. "I didn't know she could talk as a spear."

Jaune had a similar look on his face. "I thought you didn't like it as it was too weird and 'invasive'."

"W-Well, it's not like we're going to be able to beat her any other way!" Ruby's blush could almost be seen despite the red sheen of the spear. "Besides, that was way back when we didn't know each other well."

"...well, then. We can't really fight a Yaksha without going all the way, right?" Jaune grinned confidently. "Let's do this."

The duo's souls thrummed and pulsed at the acknowledgement, one white and the other red.

"[Aura Resonance!]"

Jaune glowed white as he sent his Aura into Ruby who started to glow red and sent back a pulse of her own. As they did so, the pulses went back and forth and sped up until their wavelengths were so synced that they appeared as a singular power.

As Jaune's eyes glowed white with {Aura Resonance} enhancing his physical and spiritual power, Ruby(Spear)'s crimson glow got brighter as her spearhead quadrupled in size, increasing it's slashing and damage output while the shaft lengthened significantly.

Jaune blurred as he leapt forward, instantly above Blake. This time, when he slashed just as Blake fired at him, Jaune reacted faster and cut her attack in two.

Blake leapt back and held both hands outward after clapping them.

"[Cataclysm!]"

*NYAH!*

A massive magic cat appeared, slamming it's glowing claws against Ruby(Spear)'s shaft.

"Gah!" Ruby yelled in pain as she could feel the vibrating claws digging into her side. {Aura Resonance} may have multiplied their power significantly, but it also made her too sensitive to stuff that could bypass their defenses (along with also making her feel a bit good weird as Jaune's Aura soaked into every fiber of her being.).

"Knock it off!" Twisting the construct's claws aside, Jaune swiftly beheaded it and leapt towards Blake, closing the distance in a blink.

For the first time in their battles, Blake was the one having difficulties in keeping up.

Jaune would jump by her and slash, only to dodge around her counterattack and attack again from a different direction.

In the end, Blake retreated, swiftly leaping away from the duo. "It's too bad but it looks like I can't handle you two in that mode of yours. Later~!"

"Do you think you can get away from us?" Jaune hefted Ruby(Spear) up and aimed at the retreating Yaksha. "Do you not know that spears were designed to be thrown?"

"[Gáe Bolg!]"

Jaune threw Ruby(Spear) forward, the red lance soaring through the sky unimpeded by all the blasts sent at it as it kept unnaturally twisting and dodging until it slammed home through Blake's stomach and slammed her down, pinning her against her own house.

"Well, this is my loss... then..." Blake weakly muttered before her body... unfurled and twisted away until there was a floating luminescent wisteria orb beside Ruby(Spear).

"Hmm... We did it...!" Ruby weakly cheered as she took Blake's soul in hand. "Look's weird... Are those cat ears...? Must be related to her magic."

She ate the soul and took in breath just as Jaune reached her.

"Well?" Jaune eagerly asked his partner. "How do you feel?"

"This one's definitely different. I can feel a lot of magical power…!" Ruby shook slightly. "It's a little overwhelming...! But it's… fading?! It's not supposed to do that!"

"What?!" Jaune paused when he felt a weight land on his head. He looked up to see a black cat staring down at him, resting on his skull while wearing a familiar witch hat... "Wait... Don't tell me…"

The cat looked between the two, getting comfortable on the Meister's head. Then it spoke. "I may be strong enough to match one of the Zodiac 12 but I never once stated myself as a Yaksha. You came to that conclusion on your own."

Jaune and Ruby had all the color drain from their bodies in shock.

"I'm not actually a Yaksha." Blake jumped off of Jaune's head and reformed into her humanoid form, revealing a pair of cat ears adorning her head as she took off her hat. "I'm just a cat with an insane amount of magical power."

Ruby felt a chill run up her spine. "But… that means… I ate..."

Jaune's eye twitched. "99 Grimm souls… and a cat…"

"We messed up?!" Ruby wailed in despair. "I ate a cat's soul instead of a Yaksha's!"

They both fell over in disappointed shock, speaking in unison. ""We have to start over…""

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Even as they were back on his motorcycle and racing back to Beacon, Jaune still moaned at their failure while a sympathetic Ruby held him from behind. "We were so close!"

Ruby had her arms wrapped around Jaune's waist to keep herself stable, comical tears running down her cheeks at how much she would have to go through again.

Blake was back in cat form and resting on top of Ruby's head this time. "Come on, it doesn't seem that bad. You two are pretty strong after all."

Jaune growled but kept his eyes on the road. "Shut up!"

Ruby was just as annoyed by the magical cat on her head. "Why are you here, anyway? Didn't I eat your soul?!"

"My magic is based on the concept of a 'cat'." Blake huffed as she snuggled into Ruby's hood, securing herself from the wind. "I can even make the mythological tale of a cat with nine lives true for me. So now, I'm just down to eight souls."

"Ruby, chuck her away." Jaune ordered.

"I can't." Ruby whined. "She just stuck herself to my back with her claws."

"Now, now." Blake mewled. "There's still plenty of time to for me to convince you two into becoming mine."

""No, there isn't!""

KingVessel: Huh... Stupid Plot Bunny keeping me up.