Author's Headnote: Another chapter. Well... I'm guessing you like the name, and I'll be going with it. Too late to change your minds now! We'll be starting in daytime this chapter since I don't feel like writing Ruby cleaning and going to sleep for the fourth time. Y'know the reason why I did the dust thing with the pizza cutter blades is because dust tends to remind me a lot about lyrium from the Dragon Age series. Both of those things have similar properties, the difference is dust isn't a living spirit rock and all. I'm not gonna continue on about lyrium since this is not a Dragon Age fanfic, it's a RWBY one. So anyways, enjoy the chapter.
RWBY: Festival of Blood: Arc Superstitions
Character Change: Ruby Rose - Jaune Arc
Jaune Arc:
Aura Status: 100%
Semblance: Undiscovered
Grades:
- Grimm Studies: B (He was honestly answering all the questions with quotes from Professor Port's rantings, he would get extra credit for taking care of Dave if it wasn't a punishment.)
- History: C- (What kind of teacher gives a student detention for getting a question wrong on a lecture?)
- Dust Studies: C- (He doesn't have the right to call Ruby 'Crater Face' anymore after what happened in that class.)
- Literature: A- (He did all the work for JNPR's team project in the class, but Ren somehow got all the credit)
- Combat Practice: D (He only won against Weiss, and he flopped the semester finals in that class.)
- Mathematics: A + (This is the one class he excels at.)
-Diplomacy (Elective): C (Professor's Note: He always falls for tricks and deceptions in that class, got to fix that).
- Tactics (Leader required task): B - (Playing Videogames doesn't make anyone a good tactician, but they do get the job done.)
Team Activity: Done.
Team Relations:
-Nora Valkyrie: Although a bit loud in mornings, Jaune's fine with it.
-Pyrrha Nikos: She's a good friend.
-Lie Ren: Jaune feels sorry for him, got to bring that flower petal to Ren.
End of major character status report.
Beacon Academy, 4:59 AM, Friday, JNPR Dorm
Jaune was asleep in his bed. Typically, this would be well and nice until...
"TIME TO WAKE UP TEAM! IT'S MORNING!" Nora yelled with her megaphone.
Jaune screamed out of bed, along with Pyrrha. Ren was just getting up like it was a normal Tuesday. Guess he's used to Nora's shenanigans. He gets out of bed and grabs a pair of clothing and heads into the shower before Nora takes up all the hot water. According to Ren, this is exactly why he takes cold showers. He takes a lukewarm shower, like always. He quickly uses the body wash and shampoo & conditioner that's in there. Everyone in the team uses the same brand, why buy separate bottles?
after 5 minutes, he steps out of the shower and puts his clothes on. He than went to get his armor. The armor sadly conceals the icon on his graphic hoodie. He won it on a cereal box contest he partook in. It was one of his many grey hoodies he has, it's his favorite! Because he actually earned it, even though it was a cereal contest. But it was something he did on his own.
Ren was making waffles for breakfast, they are twice as filling as pancakes, or so as Ren told. He does this every now and than to get Nora to pipe down on eating. If it weren't for her metabolism, she would end up a lot wider. But hey, beats eating pancakes for every breakfast. Or... having to order from the cafeteria since Nora would eat all the pancakes. Him and Pyrrha. Hmmm... Pyrrha. Jaune was trying to remember what that guy said to Pyrrha while JNPR was decorating for Pyrefest. Jaune, of course never celebrated the holiday once in his life, neither did any of his team, so he doesn't know what all the hype is about.
Jaune's family is from a coastal town on the southernmost edge of Mantle, where it's cold, but not too cold. It's like the one place on that continent where people can see grass! The rest of Jaune's team is from Mistral, when asked about their origins. Pyrrha said she's from Argus, the Mistrillian city with a large influx of Atlassian populace. Nora and Ren said they were orphans that grew up together, but refused to discuss further about it. Wonder what's that about? Would explain their behavior though.
There were very few huntsmen where he lived, ironically, he lives in Travygrad. The only town in the realm of Atlas with a port. This is the main reason Atlas prefers using air transportation, it's navy is almost non-existent. But they make up with it with a large air force and army, but the weak navy is what costed Atlas the war eighty years ago. When the combined forces of Vacuan and Valean navies invaded the former kingdom of Mantle by sea, causing them to surrender. There was a whole history class on it when Jaune attended school back in Travygrad, but he didn't pay much attention.
But enough thinking about past events. as soon as everyone ate their breakfast and showered and gotten out of the morning drowsiness, Jaune went to talk to Ren. He, after all is an expert on flowers along with aura and semblances. Nora was with him, like usual.
"Hey Ren, could examine this flower petal for me? I think it may be one of Ruby's." Jaune said, giving the wilted and crumbly flower petal to Ren.
Ren takes the flower petal, looking at it. "Hmmm... this doesn't look like one of her semblance petals." He said.
"Maybe she has an evil twin!" Nora commented.
"Nora. If Ruby had a twin sister, we would know." Ren said.
"Think about it. If that flower petal came from a semblance, who else would you think of other than Ruby?"
"Last I checked, I only saw one scythe wielding fifteen-year-old girl attending Beacon, not two!" Jaune commented.
"Renny, go do your thingy with the flower thingy! I want to see if I'm right."
Ren nodded and went off somewhere, likely to do his flower analysis. Jaune hopes Nora is wrong, last thing Vale needs right now is an Evil Ruby. Hopefully it actually is just a regular, dead flower petal and not a semblance petal. Even though the latter is sadly much more likely to be since nobody sane would scatter dead flower petals around a school. Even than, semblances are weird like that, so chances are it was just some dead-inside student who writes poetry or something and it was all just a big happy coincidence.
Hopefully Ren will take care of that, Jaune needed something to get his mind off current events. He exits the dorm, only to find three out of four of the members of team RWBY.
Weiss, Blake, Yang... Wait, where's Ruby?
Jaune stopped to ask one of them about Ruby's whereabouts.
"Hey, where's your team leader?" Jaune asked.
"Oh. Rubes is asleep. She's been sleeping way more quiet lately, she usually makes some sort of noise in her sleep." Yang stated.
"She's asleep? Isn't it 6-7 AM right now?"
"Ya, it is weird. She's usually the first one up, now she just sleeps through the day. Guess all that time wandering around at night is making her tired."
"You have any Idea why she's doing it?"
"To be honest, I wish I knew. Ruby is my sister and I don't want her getting in danger in the middle of the night. Ruby can handle herself, but even she can be caught by surprise."
"So, where are you going?"
"We're heading to the cafeteria, Ruby is still asleep and something about her makes me afraid to wake her up." Weiss said.
"Come on, it's just Ruby." Yang retorted.
"Yes, I get that. Buuuuut. Just something about her being asleep feels... off."
"Oh, like what?"
"I don't know. She just feels off while she's asleep."
"It's likely nothing Weiss, and you shouldn't change people's alarms and try to wake them up, it's rude." Blake said.
"Last I check, people don't set their alarm to 3 PM!" Weiss stated.
"I feel like I'm in the dark here." Jaune commented.
"It's better to not worry, Jaune. Ruby's just asleep." Blake reassured.
"Well, alright than. I'll just head out now." Jaune said and went out the dormitory to the bullhead to the commercial district, where the arcade is held place. At least one of the ones Nora hasn't been banned from for using her own weapon. And to an extent, the ban applies to Jaune for being her team member.
City of Vale, 8:01 AM, Friday, Commercial District
The standard definition that the commercial district is a part of a city solely designated for market and entertainment. many people wrap up Vale's commercial district with Midtown, but Ruby and Yang insist to keep them separate. Not sure why. The main difference between midtown proper and the commercial district is that that midtown proper is residential and the commercial district has the shops and entertainment. Downtown and the industrial district have a similar situation. Jaune doesn't understand it, but it must be a Valean thing.
But it doesn't matter, Jaune went down there to the arcade to have some fun. The arcade is filled with machines and games and stuff, and he has a budget of 50 Lien, so he has enough for an hour's worth of games. So, he exchanged the Lien for some tokens and went down to have fun. the first would be Skee-Ball, then a couple of arcade machines, and than some other games. After an hour he gave his earned ticket to some kid hard down on his luck. He didn't win enough tickets to win the giant bear Nora wanted anyway. And no doubt Weiss wouldn't want anything won in an arcade. So he just wanted to have fun, he couldn't care about Prizes.
He walked past midtown and saw the large central park where both festivals will be held. Although the Vale council is debating to moving it some landmass outside of the city, using the large presence of huntsmen to back the claim. It would make a larger fairground, yes. But a much more dangerous one. Although others say they should expand it to be done across the city. Well, the results won't be in until Monday. And Jaune's fine either way. So as long as they make the streets safer at night. Thank goodness vampires aren't real, or Vale would be screwed like a lightbulb.
Jaune went to head back to his team. He had enough time to himself so clearly, he can head back to beacon no problem. He also saw Blake walking toward the commercial district.
"Hey Blake, you buying something?" Jaune asked.
"No, I'm here to jog. Of course, I am here to go shopping Jaune." Blake replied with sarcasm.
"What are you buying?"
"That's not your business Jaune."
"Come on. Aren't we friends?
"We are, but friends don't get into other friends business."
"You're getting girl stuff, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am getting girl stuff."
"Well, I'll let you buy what you need." Jaune said before heading off, no need to aggravate Blake getting things for her... girl stuff. Jaune knows not to do that, he learned that the hard way. He boarded the first bullhead into beacon. The investigation has to continue on. Whatever Blake had to do and the weird flower petal have to wait.
Beacon Academy, 9:48 AM, Friday, Beacon Courtyard
Back at Beacon. Jaune wanted enjoy the sights of the courtyard, but he can't. He needed to find someone to eavesdrop on. Many students hang around the outside during off-time, and since class won't start until Monday, that's all the time he needs to get a solid lead on someone. Well he could check the news, maybe something happened that could have a lead into whoever the perp is.
Insert News Music here (Why is it always so fast-paced and actiony for something as dull as news?)
"Good morning Vale, and welcome to VNN. I am Lisa Lavender to bring you the news from last night!" She said in a monotone voice.
"There have been two reports on the mysterious mythological grimm: "The Nostferatu" Plaguing the streets of Vale's downtown. one against a poor man down on his luck, who fortunately survived the encounter, the other were two random civilians found dead without any blood."
"We first look into the latter. since it was harder to find out what likely happened. According to grimm studies expert: Peter Port. Grimm don't get hungry and thirsty and only do so for their enjoyment of destroying things. but what we see here is that only the blood was missing, the rest of the body is still intact. for whatever the reason this grimm is only after the blood of their victim. Grimm experts scratch their heads at this, and why this grimm is so elusive and only hangs around the urban centers of vale and never out in the wild."
"These victims were also shown to have bite marks on their necks, showing where the blood was extracted from. This has shown some correlation of the attack on Monday night, where four out of five of the victims had this mark on the neck."
"Whether this is the same grimm is unknown. but it doesn't matter so as long as the potential of a grimm nest inside the city, it could theoretically threaten the security of the city of Vale as a whole."
"As for the attack with a survivor, we now go live to this individual."
"There I was, chatting with my friend about hair dye and stuff, then he went off to get some stuff." He stated.
"What kind of stuff?" She asked.
"Doesn't matter, when I was all alone. it attacked me!"
"Do you have any idea of what it looked like?"
"No, it attacked me from behind, grabbing onto me with it's weird claws. looks animalistic, but at the same time humanoid."
"Humanoid?"
"Yes, it looks like hands, but with claws!"
"Huh, interesting. Anything else?"
"It bit my neck, my neck felt stiff and it couldn't move. I felt my blood leaving my body, and after it was over, I passed out."
"So, you only got to see what it's hands look like?"
"Yes."
"So... If I'm hearing this right, so is all of the public? It's a grimm that specializes in stealth?"
"Yes, how is that hard to comprehend!?"
"It's just something unheard of. Most grimm attack out directly. So, you're saying it could be an apathy?"
"I don't know what grimm are called man! I just want to live!"
"I see. thank you for the time."
"Now less on grimm and more on Faunus issues." She said monotonal.
"White Fang members allegedly attempted to assassinate the queen of Vale, Marianne II. Thankfully, her majesty is left unharmed and the culprits were arrested. Although they claim that someone else outside of the organization is barking orders, they are just unsure as to who."
Jaune closed the news app as soon as he heard that. Someone outside the organization is giving them orders? perhaps they are responsible for the blackout. Using the white fang as a cover would be a great plan. Having them do all the dirty work whilst everyone blames them when the real culprit operates in the shadows. Yet again, the White Fang had a recent history of deploying violence, especially the Atlassian branch of the White Fang. One white fang attack had his elder sister's arm fractured. She was originally trained to be a huntress and wanted to attend Atlas academy. Jaune offered to take her place, but she said no. Not to mention there was nothing left of her javelin to salvage, so he had to use a hand-me-down from his great-grandfather.
So, he went to Beacon instead. sure, he had to fake his transcripts. but here he is, in Beacon. honoring his family name, although his father was grumbling that he got into Beacon instead of Atlas or Haven. But he's honoring his family name by continuing the path of a warrior. Although his father wanted him to enroll in the Atlassian Navy like he did, and his father, and his father before that. But Jaune's not a fan of the ocean. Besides, one of his little sisters is a fan of boats. Ruby reminds him of her, except she likes weapons and not boats.
But enough on info and stuff, he has to do paperwork for Professor Peach. Another one of those mundane tasks having to for faking his transcripts. but anything is better than having to be near Dave. He heads to her classroom to do said paperwork, before risking himself getting expelled for not doing this stuff. Hopefully he doesn't have to do this for the entire year. But chances are, he'd have to do this for the entire School career.
Beacon Academy: 10:22 AM, Friday, Literature: Professor Peach (not in session)
Professor Peach is the literature teacher in Beacon Academy. She also substitutes incase the dust studies professor is away, who has been away for two years according to the fourth-year students. But it matters litle, Jaune was tasked to sort her graded papers in alphabetical order by surname. He sorts out all the A's including himself of course. He got an A- on his literature grade. Next are the B's, of course Blake got a higher grade than Jaune. her nose is under a book every 30 minutes. He also analyzes any other students he knows. He puts them in the list following.
Beacon Student Grades (Known Students only):
Arc, Jaune C.: A-
Adel, Coco: C
Alistair, Fox: B
Belladonna, Blake: A+
Bronzewig, Dove: D+
Lark, Skye: D-
Nikos, Pyrrha: B
Ren, Lie: A+
Rose-Xiao Long, Ruby H.: B+
Schnee, Weiss: A-
Thrush, Russel: A
Valkyrie, Nora: D
Winchester, Cardin: F
Xiao Long-Branwen, Yang W.: B
Notes: Velvet Scarletina and Yatsuhaichi Daichi have scored higher on literature on their very first semester than their math class, so they don't take literature). This only covers students attening beacon academy and ones only Jaune bothers to remember their name.
Huh, Jaune wouldn't expect Yang to get a B. in hindsight, that was rude to think about Yang like that. But before he could get to the Y's... he spends a couple hours resorting the scores of him and his friends back in order. than finally he goes to the Y's... he spends a couple more hours going through the names only to end up finished sorting. Why he didn't use this time to find out the third year's name is unknown. But Jaune metaphorically punches himself for not doing so. It was a wasted opportunity!
He can so this tomorrow when has to sort out the paperwork for the math professor. Yet again, third and fourth-year students don't take either class so searching for the third year in either one would be pointless. Maybe he can do it in another class. But seeing other people's grades made him feel like an obsessive dick. He'll end up forgetting what they are tomorrow. No need to bring it up to ruin friendships!
But maybe, just maybe. He'll find out about him. He's a student in beacon academy, that's as covert as a clown on a unicycle screaming the Atlassian anthem. But he'll digress for now.
Author's Footnote: Sorry for the late and short post, I got distracted with BitLife and got a small writer's block since I had no idea what to do continue the chapter, I'm not doing my normal stuff saying at the footnote because I want to post this ASAP. So people know I didn't ditch this!