A Personal Favor
Chapter 5
-Ruby-
Bouncing excitedly, Ruby sat in her seat in the combat class Arena. She had a feeling in her gut that she'd see something special today and was eager to see what that something was.
"Ruby, stop bouncing. You're shaking the bench." Weiss sighed, the albino Atlesian pinching the bridge of her nose.
"But Weiss, there's going to be something awesome today! I can feel it in my gut!" Ruby insisted, feeling fired up even if she wasn't sure why.
"Are you sure it's not just the all cookie breakfast you had this morning?" Pyrrha asked as Yang's head snapped over.
"Ruuuubyyyyy." Yang narrowed her eyes as Ruby gave a sheepish chuckle, having hoped to be able to get away with doing that sort of thing now that Yang was on a different team.
"Do I need to set up a meal plan for you?" Jaune asked her with a deadpan as Ruby gave her buddy a betrayed look.
"I thought you were studying to be a field medic, not a nutritionist." Weiss frowned in confusion.
"I trained with the Ace Ops for the past few years." Jaune shrugged, "One of their members knew all about the best food groups to eat for what sort of build a huntsman or huntress wanted. She was also a master at barbeque."
"I'd love to pick your brain about that some time." one of Yang's teammates, Ren, spoke up eagerly while Nora paled.
"No more Kelp smoothies! No more!" the orangette begged.
"Sure." Jaune shrugged, pulling out a little notebook "I have their tips and recipes in here. Nothing to do with kelp admittedly, but it's all good information." Before the conversation could continue though, Professor Goodwitch's crop cracked loudly in the air, drawing all eyes forward.
"Students. As is the standard for Friday Combat class, we will be having requested challenges, rather than me determining match ups. Should we not have requests than a randomizer will be used. Do we have any requests or challenges to start?" Professor Goodwitch's tone brokered no nonsense as she laid out the system.
"I do!" Cardin surged to his feet, eyes seeking out and glaring at Jaune "That stupid candy striper!"
"I assume you wish for a demonstration then?" Jaune was remarkably calm about being called out.
"My team against that bastard!" Cardin was snarling angrily, not caring about cursing in front of a teacher. But then again none of the faculty had ever stepped in or stopped him when he was physically bullying faunus or saying anything racist. The most she could think of was Doctor Oobleck reprimanding Cardin when he made a racist remark when answering a question.
"Since the request is multiple students against one, Mr. Arc has the right to refuse the challenge." Professor Goodwitch just seemed tired and done with it all.
"I'll do it." Jaune nodded as he got up to go to the changing rooms.
"And Mr. Arc, do not bring your combat drone into my arena this time." Goodwitch narrowed her eyes at Jaune. For his first fight he'd used AMARI and his own weapons to dominate the fight and the Professor hadn't been pleased.
"Very well." Jaune's tone was clipped and cold as Ruby winced. After the initial questioning about the size of the dorms, Jaune had looked into it and found there had been a few times when the funds of the school were looked into, but it always got shut down rapidly. She knew her teammate had little respect for the faculty at this point and things seemed to just be getting worse.
"Do you think Jaune-Jaune can handle this?" Nora asked nervously, the orangette blinking in surprise as Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha all just started laughing.
"What? What's funny? Where's the joke?" Nora's head went from person to person confused.
"Jaune didn't use AMARI in that first fight because of a lack of skill, despite what Professor Goodwitch implied." Ruby snickered "He was focusing on improving his coordination with her."
"Not only is Jaune a talented fighter, but his semblance, while simple, is incredibly powerful." Weiss nodded "Just because he's focusing the medical applications doesn't mean he neglected combat."
"He already pushes me in our spars and if he had focused on combat over medicine, I'm honestly not sure which one of us would be stronger." Pyrrha admitted as team Ribbon let that sink in.
"Cardinal's fucked." Yang decided to sum up for everyone as Nora pulled popcorn from…somewhere.
-Jaune-
Face set in stone, Jaune stepped out onto the combat ring where team Cardinal was already waiting. They were cocky, positive their numbers would let them win. They'd soon learn otherwise.
"The fight shall go till red aura or ring out." Professor Goodwitch repeated the conditions that every student knew by heart at this point, "Begin!" At that point Jaune was already moving, brain going at full speed to determine the best course of action.
'Cardin first.' Jaune's thoughts raced at full speed even as his body moved to implement his chosen strategy 'The others are only followers. Cardin focuses on overwhelming offense given his thick plate armor and aura reserves. Best course of action?' the Jackal roared as it was fired, the heavy handgun firing a slug pumped full of Jaune's aura, the bullet striking the charging Cardin in the chest with enough force to send the bigoted bastard flying out of the ring and into the wall, 'One moment of overwhelming force.'
"…Cardin Winchester loses by ring out." Goodwitch declared after a moment of shock, the rest of team Cardinal having paused to gape. But Jaune himself hadn't stopped moving.
'All three of them grouped together. Need to scatter. Best course of action?' the Jackal was already holstered as Jaune brought out Peacekeeper, having the triple barrel rotate to the most wide open one 'Grenade in their midst.' The explosive sent the trio scattering as Jaune charged the weak link, the one using two daggers, Peacekeeper rotating back to Assault Rifle mode. Firing as he charged, Jaune reached the staggered bully, the thug's aura already in the yellow from the bullets and grenade. Focusing his semblance, he threw a hard punch, lowering the weaker aura even as his own reserves replenished.
"Russel Thrust, eliminated via aura." Goodwitch declared as Jaune was left in a two on one, his aura reserves now back to full.
"Come on, we still outnumber this prick!" the one with the halberd shouted as the two charged him, swinging the weapon in a wide telegraphed arc that would have worked on a Grimm, but was much less effective on a human. Catching it on his mother's shield, Jaune rammed the butt of Peacekeeper in its shotgun from against his opponent's stomach, firing point blank as the halberd user's aura broke.
"Sky Lark eliminated via aura." Professor Goodwitch declared as Jaune put away his gun, drawing Ascalon to face his final opponent.
"And then there was one." Jaune observed the final member of team Cardinal, noting this one's aura was still in the green and he carried himself with more skill than his teammates. The brunette swordsman of team Cardinal didn't respond, simply readied his blade and charged, surprising Jaune by the level of skill displayed. This guy's skill with the sword was comparable to Pyrrha's from what Jaune had noted of her in their spars.
They were both a flurry of clashing steel, blade meeting blade. His opponent only had a sword, so he was able to put more of his power behind each individual strike. Jaune on the other hand had his sword and a shield so his defense was better, not to mention his coat offered better mobility while still having protection from the dust infused in it.
Unfortunately for Jaune's opponent, they weren't aware of said Dust in his coat. A strike hitting his arm, hoping to destabilize him, was instead met with a mix of gravity and hard light dust that was able to absorb and disperse the kinetic energy of the strike, giving him the needed opening to disarm his opponent.
"Do you yield?" Jaune's voice was firm as he held his opponent at sword point, their own weapon tossed from the ring.
"Defeat by surrender, Dove Bronzewing!" Goodwitch called out as the now identified Dove yielded, Jaune's friends cheering for his four against one victory. At least he'd have a story to share with Ciel and Penny when he called them later.
-Ozpin-
Sitting back in his office, Ozpin ran a tired hand down his face. The year was barely begun, and things were already proving stressful. He was honestly somewhat dreading the arrival if the foreign students for the Vytal festival. He was jerked out of his musings when his scroll started playing the Atlesian National Anthem, the ring tone he'd set for whenever James decided to call.
"Hello James." Ozpin sighed as he answered the call.
"Hello yourself Oz." the chipper General greeted back, "I wanted to call to check in on something I'd heard. Something about Beacon's Dorms being small enough that there's worry of cut corners or missing funds."
"Damnit not again." Ozpin pinched the bridge of his nose, "Which news station?"
"Again? Ozpin, what did you do?" James went from amusedly talking about a rumor to all business in an instant.
"You know what we face James." Ozpin was deadly serious, "I can't deal with the risk of spies, so Beacon has to work on a…smaller than recommended staff. Plus, our missions against her require funds. A few lesser quality meals or smaller dorms are a price I'm willing to pay for that." Not to mention the repair costs he saved thanks to Glynda.
"Damnit Ozpin." He could hear James growing annoyed, "And this isn't a media company. It's your own students. They've noticed. Why risk this Ozpin? You know if the council gets a viable reason they can and will remove you as Headmaster of Beacon."
"I…hadn't considered that." Ozpin slumped into his chair, "It has become that noticeable?"
"Ozpin, you have first year teams already planning to buy a house in the city just to not be stuck in dorms that small." Ironwood's deadpan was audible.
"How did you even learn of this?" Ozpin rubbed his temples as he tried thinking of solutions to fix this mess.
"One of my Specialists, Winter, has a younger sister among your first year." Ironwood answered easily, "Along with a student I helped train, young Mr. Arc." Of fucking course Alexander's child had to learn how to be even more stubborn from James himself. Sweet brothers he needed a drink.