A.N

Ok, I've forgotten to write this up, twice, so ok I'm going to be talking about the whole 'Kamen rider' and 'Masked rider' thing. For the record, I prefer Kamen, it just flows out the tongue, but I can't really make an in-universe excuse for them calling them 'Kamen' rather than mask since, well, Japan doesn't exist in remnant lol.

I mean other languages do KINDA exist? Usually as names but it would feel akward if that was the only instance of another language being used in a sentence and I feel like making it a word from ancient remnant would be weird.

So yeah, sticking with masked right now, I'm sorry for anyone that doesn't like it.

Anyway, please enjoy the chapter.


Jaune scooped up a spoon of cereal, it's sweet pumpkin flavour opening his eyes, speaking of which, were survaying the town outside the window to his new apartment. The town was huge, especially compared to his town, the town was filled with so many different buildings, and so many different areas just for recreation and fun. Arcades and movie theatres galore.

And he couldn't really believe he was living here now, his sister Saphron kept messaging him that she was really jealous he could live in the city and peer out to the sights from his room, speaking of his new room. It was a one room apartment wider than his old room but nothing special, the walls were a nice shade of white with a nicely waxxed wooden floor, a shower room, a kitchen and a separate toilet room and since he was in the fourth flour it had a nice view of the town.

Mr.Branwen said most people were not so lucky. Especially when it was for free, Mr.Ozpin really did mean it when he said it was more like an apprenticeship.

Jaune scooped another spoonful, he sat in silence, the cereal was great. His mom usually stocked up a lot of cereal, it was hard to go bad, she always said that the most important things to pack were water, salt and grains. Dad said that most people from the frontier held at least a similar mind set.

He scooped another bite, the crunch of the cereal. It felt weird how Jaune could just walk out and buy pumpkin pete from the supermarket straight across the street, it was the closest thing to city food he could buy and was only able to be bought once every week whenever the stock was replenished.

The crunch of cereal sounded throughout the room as he took another bite. The call his family gave him yesterday was nice, after a day of crazy after even more crazy, it was nice to have his family to get back to reality, to have him grounded to it again.

Yet as he looked across the table towards the metal box now known as his belt, he couldn't feel anything else other than guilt.

'How did it go?' 'Did they tell you anything important?' 'Do you need anything?' 'Did they show you any cool huntsman secrets!?' He was hit with this barrage of questions, yet he managed to squeak out each of their answers except for one.

He still remembered the last request the Headmaster told him as he was escorted to his new home.

"You must keep this a secret Jaune, even to your own family, promise me this." He held Jaune's shoulders tightly.

And promise he did, he said that it must be kept a secret as tight as possible, to make sure information didn't leek to people who may use it for less than morally sound reasons.

Jaune looked at the blay buckle, name was currently in workshop, with heavy eyes.

Jaune could hardly talk to his mother in the eyes with the weight of the buckle in his pocket, he wouldn't even be able to talk to her period if it was something less honorable.

He just made sure to not mention it, but it still bothered him, he WANTED someone to talk to about this.

He sighed, drinking the bowl of pumpkin flavored sugary milk. He looked through his apartment, it was clean and tidy, opposite to his actual room in Ansel, probably because he still hasn't messed it all up.

He looked at the clock, eight o'clock. His training would usually start at nine and it took thirty minutes to get to signal, he looked towards the belt, a smile creeping on his face as he grabbed the belt.

'I mean, I have the time so...' He shook his head as he walked towards the room's cabinet opening it, and as he pushed away the clothes on hangers away the mirror they hood returned the morning sun into his face.

Standing in front of the mirror he held out the buckle in front of him.

"Transform!" The blonde yelled before he pointed his open arms diagonally across his chest to the side, dramatically slamming the belt, tying itself to his body.

"Armor up!" He brought up the buckle upwards slamming it to his waist.

"Morph!" He brought it forward with both hands.

He spent a good while just posing in front of the mirror, images of heroes and huntsman in cool stances flowed through his mind, Jaune knew that Huntsmen needed to have charisma and style and what was more stylish than cool poses!

Until a certain pose popped up in his head, he kept the belt on, right hand diagonally left, hand in a claw position inwards his left hand on his waist...

Now what to say? Hmmm... got it!

"Turn up!" He shouted, in a quick motion he flipped his right hand over as he brought his left hand forwards, his index and middle finger raised, the rest were closed as he moved his right hand towards the lever of his belt feigning to pull the lever.

"Turn up." Or not.

The holographic card blasted out of his belt as he accidentally hooked his finger on the lever, a mechanical siren blaring out before he was once more coated in armor.

"Shut the hell up and keep it down there!" Jaune jumped in his skin at the sudden shout retaliating with a totally manly screech of his own.

"Sorry!" He replied.

He pulled the lever once more, dematerializing the suit, it's red gaze leaving the reflection in the mirror.

Speaking of reflections, he saw that he only had less than ten minutes till the bus to Signal would roll by, he immediately grabbed his bag and crocea mors and threw himself out before returning to lock the door.

After the three pats to check his keys, scroll and wallet off he went.

As he jogged down he thought of his new teacher, Mr.Qrow...

Maybe he was judging him too quickly, dad always said to give people chances and maybe he would 'show his metal as a huntsman' like his comics always spoke about when he would train him.

As Jaune barely got inside the large gray bus heh saw dozens of children his age, awesome colorful outfits with weaponry in hand and let his mind wonder through thoughts of himself going through dozens of different movie montage training scenarios and ending up like them.

Forgetting to take a seat he grabbed on for dear life the moment the bus lurched, the drivers voice exclamaiting the name of the next station, the blonde was thanking the world that his motion sickness only popped up during flights.

Jaune swore to face down any trial that came his way.


'Crack!' the sound of a twig breaking echoed through the near empty training room, chatter from the classes could be nearly heard through the walls.

'Crack' it came once more, he looked down on his work, eyes twitching.

What was this? Jaune asked Qrow, who was sitting on the training room floor with his legs crossed focused on his scroll.

"I'm teaching you." 'Combo!' The scroll's speakers spoke, the sounds of 8-bit violence leeking through.

"You're playing street hunter 2 mobile."

"And it's working!"

...

"How?" Jaune didn't get it. "You told me to try and push aura into these sticks and make it so they didn't break when I swung them at the dummy." Jaune pointed at the metal android in the middle of the room.

"I don't exactly know how to do that..." Which was weird, it was only yesterday that it felt like he was overflowing with the stuff, like a bucket with a lake's amount of water stuffed inside but when he woke up today it felt faint.

"That's because I haven't taught you yet." A smile on his face, his fingers tapping his scroll.

...

"Then what's the point of this?" Jaune spread his arms in exasperation.

"Aura training, gotta pack the knowledge that you suck at aura control right into your baby brain. You probably have a ton of confidence from the Blay buckle but that's not how it works." Not like Jaune needed help in his lack of conference.

"So now that we've brought you down to earth with the rest of us mortals, let's actually get to work so we're not going to use it for a hot minute." Closing the scroll, the ruffled teacher flipped up and jogged towards Jaune.

Said child was thankful for the black slacks that hid his oddly well shaved legs, he really didn't need to see that.

Qrow once again sat in front of Jaune, he patted the ground in front of him, the message was clear.

Jaune sat down on the training room floor, his hands on his knees.

"Aura is something that flows within all of us, right there, just beneath your skin. It's part of ya and the greatest weapon of a huntsman. The most important technique any huntsman has to have, the ability to shield yourself with your soul." He pointed towards Jaune's chest.

Jaune was surprised at the sudden personality change, he looked like an actual teacher.

"Now let's get on with it, you have to pull your soul outwards, wrap it around you like a bullet proof blanket of light." He wrapped his hands around himself.

Jaune closed his eyes and looked deep inside him.

Er, or tried to at least, all he was doing was tensing his own body trying to find anything in the darkness of his own eyelids.

"No no, relax relax. You're trying to pull out your soul, not taking a dump." Jaune almost chocked on spit.

"Let's start again from the start, remember the feeling you had when you first unlocked it." Jaune opened his eyes and looked up in thought.

That warm light, that overflowing feeling. It felt... natural, like that was how it was always supposed to be. As something inside him was blanketing him.

As Jaune tried to copy the feeling, he closed his eyes, trying to grasp that light inside him he managed to grasp it.

"Woah there kid, turn down the lights." Qrow laughed, Jaune opened his eyes and saw himself covered once more in light.

"Keep that up and you'll get knocked out cold in a few minutes, that gets tiring after awhile. Drop it around to, eeeeh, twenty percent." Jaune nodded, it did feel stressing doing this.

"Alright..." He let go of his breath relaxing slightly, the aura around his body dimming.

"I said drop it to twenty not drop it by twenty." Qrow sweat dropped.

Yet Jaune was confused, he did drop it to twenty yet it still shone hard.

Yet as he explained it towards the gruff man he too made a confused expression, arms crossed in front of him.

"That doesn't make sense, are you sur-" Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "Oh right, your ridiculous aura count. Keep it down to around five percent and we'll start excersising." Jaune stood as the light in his body dimmed to where he couldn't even see it, but to his relief the warmth was still there.

"Now try to stretch that aura over that stick." Jaune reached for one and tried to push aura into it to no avail, the light in his palm barely touching the base of the wood.

"Try looking at it like it's part of your own body, before you know it bada bing bada boom it's tougher than steel." Qrow took a stick as it glowed a dull red in his hands before becoming a normal stick once more. Twisting it and throwing it up and down in his hand and in a swift motion bashed the dummy bot, leaving a large dent, the twig unharmed.

Jaune had to admit that was cool.

And with renewed vigor he tried, and tried, and tried.

Only for the sticks to be as frail as always, frustration, frustration at his faliure for something that looks so simple.

A crack alerted the teacher towards the child's negative emotions.

"Hey kid, huntsmen don't get pissed over stuff like these so calm down. It's not like it's rare for people to mess this part up." He took a quick sip from his flask, before taking a longer one.

The words calmed the child down, taking a breath he closed his eyes, yet as he put pressure on it, it merely broke.

He felt a rough hand on his head.

"Come on kid let's try jogging eh, keep that aura up too."

Jaune agreed sheepishly, he changed clothes in the locker room and followed Qrow and ran around the school with him.

He saw the other students, no, the actual students of signal studying through the windows. The people who got here through their own merit, sure he was chosen for his aura but getting here because of skill was another thing entirely.

"Keep up kid, we're going for the huntsman standard."

Oops, Jaune picked up the pace running to the non professional professor wondering what the huntsman standard meant.

His burning lungs and screaming muscles after over twenty minutes of high paced jogging now knew. This was the standard! Jaune screamed in his heart, heaving heavily as he kneeled on the ground.

"Y'know, a proper huntsman standard jog usually lasts an hour..." Jaune groaned. "But I'll forgive you this time, but now that our warm up's over let's get to weight training." Jaune groaned louder, hitting the floor in despair, he felt his arms getting pulled as he was once more taken towards the school.

This time he felt as though he was being dragged into a torture chamber.

"Come on Jauny, pull! Don't forget your aura." Jaune sat on a machine and pulled on weights twice his size, aura working overtime. "Push aura into your arms and back~."

"22! 23! Almost there, just 28 more! Or was it 27? Who cares." He downed another swig of his flask as Jaune screamed at the comically large dumbell.

"Steak is where is at baby blondie." The man loudly exclaimed and chewed with as much ferver, said blonde could barely bring the buttered bread to his mouth. Both from his muscle ache and the embarrassment from the stares from the student body at both him and Qrow.

"Fire!" Jaune flew back from the recoil of the rifle, missing the target as much.

"Don't let your feet leave the floor, keep steady." He slid his feet across the floor, nowhere nearly as graceful as the drunk in front of him, his hands on his waist.

"Just keep swinging, keep your back straight." Jaune swung a training sword over and over even as the sweat on his brow nearly blinded himself. "Your feet kid, keep em movin' come on." Jaune took steps as kept swinging, over and over until-

A loud thud, his training sword clattered to the ground.

Jaune took a long drink of juice after getting a good forty minute break. He thought he would die but aura was an even bigger boon than he thought.

"Ya did well kid." Qrow sat down beside the tired child.

Jaune smiled, the praise instantly cheering him, with it he thought he could make it. 'Praise, from an actual huntsman!' Jaune gleefully thought.

"Also here's your homework." He dropped several books on Jaune's lap, his smile stayed yet his eyes lost their light mirroring the soulless eyes of the grimm. "See you tommorow kid." Qrow smiled back.

The blonde child's face was frozen as he packed his bag and rode the bus home, even as he unpacked the tower of schoolwork unto his work desk the broken smile stayed.

He slammed his head on the desk, his pens falling from the table.

Jaune imagined himself doing this for years, Jaune imagined the torture he would have to endure, all the physical training was already rough but adding in addition and history and more?!

Jaune graspped his head in frustration.

Maybe... Jaune maybe...

'For someone who's from a huntsman family you're so weak.' The voices of his hometown bullies sounded

'I feel so sorry for the Arc's, having their heir be so... you know.' The gossiping old woman talked behind him.

'Jaune, you're just not huntsman material.' His dad...

...

He'll prove them wrong, he'll prove him wrong.

Jaune halved the workload in half, one half he'll do now the other after his call with his family and dinner.

He'll become the best, and Jaune wondered what he'd become after he did become experience, but now was not the time.

History came first.

"Ok, first of, the birth of the academies of Beacon, Shade, Haven and Atlas. The biggest outlier being Atlas as it acts not only as the star combat school of it's kingdom but as the ruling government as well... huh." Jaune began writing down notes as dusk began.


Atlesian spring was still known for still being colder than any other kingdom's, though the same could be said about all of it's other seasons, what was more odd was a blizzard in the season.

No normal person would traverse through an Atlesian blizzard, even Huntsmen needed major preparation.

On bullhead even, not to mention any land vehicle, yet the rumbles of an engine could be heard.

A yellow light cut through the curtain of hale and snow, two green eyes burned through the fog of cold.

A silver knight aboard a steed of steel, his red undersuit stood in stark contrast to the white surrounding, his faceplate in the image of a beetle, two scissor like horns upon his head in the image of a stag beetle.

He suddenly skid to a stop, propping the bike to the side, hopping over the small mound of snow the sudden stop of the bike made, but first grabbing two rifles large enough to blow two men each with their recoil alone, a shotgun and magnum pistol attached to his hip.

And as he stood in front of his bike, hundreds of red eyes bore onto him, his green eyes stared back unflinching.

Through the snow crawled out multiple beings of darkness, their shapes a mockery of life.

Wolves and bears of shadows, their bodies' were adorned with bone like armor and spikes and thorn like appendages with red markings throughout.

Beowolves and Ursai. Two of the most common of all grimm, the former could tear down a fully grown man in one swing, the latter could do the same to a home's wall.

The unnamed rider merely pointed his arms towards the hoard.

And with a loud bang like thunder a row of grimm fell, they charged, he fired again and again, the hoard charged not bothered by the fear of death. They were young and stupid, the man took this to his advantage.

Each shot took the head of the first grimm and pierced through several more. The roars and growls of dozens more of fully grown grimm roared as they trampled the remains of their comrades, their carcasses already fading from the world, mixing with the snow around them.

Bang bang, two more shots reverberated throughout, piercing through not only their heads but also their roars, the sea of darkness came closer yet they couldn't come close as heavy duty Atlesian weaponry created a spear wall of fire dust and lead.

Heads flew, arms pierced and bone armor was shattered as armor piercing round after armor piercing round flew.

The power in the weaponry was evident, yet the silver knight dual wielded them as if they were small arms.

Yet no gun was infinite, throwing the rifles as he grabbed the shotgun on his back, he charged towards the already thinned hoarde.

Bang, an ursa was cleaved in half with a shot, a beowolf was crushed under his heel, using a mix of gunplay and heavy kickboxing he made the grimm army, the size of which would make any sane huntsman second guess their job, into a dance.

One brutal and lacking in grace.

Shotgun shells rained as he crushed bones with his kicks and punched through bone armor with ease.

Until a click sounded from his shotgun.

A beowolf dived into him, jumping on it's head and used it to jump backwards away from the crowd.

Spinning away in the air he landed on his back and rolled backwards taking out his heavy pistol, and in a swift movement he took out two ursa majors with a dust round to the head.

Running away the crowd chased afterwards.

Only for them to line up perfectly for each shot, only some were smart enough to dodge, but it was too late.

Too much of the herd was culled, they lost.

Bang, bang, bang. The pistol rounds echoed through the snowy mountains, the blizzard doing nothing to hinder his aim.

And as the last wolf jumped at him, a hail mary of sorts, he merely jumped upwards ending it with a dropkick to it's skull.

Yet as he survayed the surroundings, through all the grimm corpses in the process of disintigration one seemingly survived, dragging itself towards the lone rider, it's legs seemingly torn.

But something about it was odd, he was out of ammo, he instead walked slowly towards it cautiosly.

His heightened hearing showed nothing else other than the howling winds and the pained grunts of the living shadow through it's mouth of knives.

Now that he came close he saw it's legs, far too clean of a cut to be his rifles, oh well, for research he'll bite.

The gunman brought his foot above it's head shutting the dog from hell up, and crushed his head.

Not a moment sooner did a mouth of of butcher knife teeth came out from the snow, and no sooner did he jump out of the way, gracefully landing on his feet.

As the snow from both of their sudden movement they stared down each other.

The alpha beowolf would have stood over 3 meters if it straightend itself, but wisely it crouched forward making it slightly harder to hit as well as it allowing it to pounce at a moment's notice.

The armored man dropped the empty gun and took up a stance, fists close to his face.

It sweeped it's left claw horizontally as the man swerved underneath the attack, jabbing it's stomach stunning it. He pressed the offence, a barrage of hooks and straights before kicking it away.

It came back full force, he rolled away, it's long claws dug trenches through the snowy landscape and it's mouth dove straight towards his armored neck as he ducked last moment, a knee flew up to push it away.

It's claws came once more, he matched in strength as his own hands catched them, he tightend his grip crushing claw and bone as shadowy tendons were ripped apart.

It roared a hollow scream of pain before once more attempting a strike on his neck, a headbut made it recoil.

His face staind with shards of bones and dark blood.

The rider then grabbed the wolf's arm and threw it to the ground over his shoulder and swiftly flipped into a heel drop kick crushing it's skull like so many of it's brethren.

As it's growls weakend it's last cries were drowned out by the wind.

Suddenly his coms awoken.

"General, all enemy signal's have been exterminated and there are zero new movements detected." A polite female voice sounded.

"Thanks Penny. Get the data to Dr.Polendina immediately and send a message to all nearby villages and mining stations that the nearby hoarde was culled." The General spoke in a gruff and commanding voice as he went to grab all of the thrown away firearms.

"Affirmative sir!"

"Ugh!" A sudden pain attacked his left shoulder.

"Sir! No, the new system should have gotten rid of the stress..." Her voice was ridden with worry.

"Then send the data wor reworks. But it's fine, I think it was mostly on me for going full melee there, but we need the data." He returned.

"Sir yes sir."

"Good." He strapped his weaponry on his bike and sat on his bike.

"Tell Winter that I'll be on time and that the school schedule is going to be on track and that she's free for the day, haagh, damn workaholic little girl." He sighed as he started his bike.

"Affirmative General Ironwood." The bike drove off into the mountains, the only thing that hinted at the battle as all the cadavers where lifted into the wind was the tracks of a motorcycle.


I really prefer the two week deadline and it really helped me in both making ideas for the series, and man finally being able to write this series' Garren was fun.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

See you all next time, logging out.