Crimson VIII: Contemplation By Fire
"Augh!" came a pained shout as a body hit the floor with enough force that a small crack was heard around the lecture room. Jaune Arc laid on the ground, a painful hiss emerging from his teeth as his body was inflamed by a harsh burning pain. The attack might have on grazed his shield, but he felt like his entire arm had just been torn off after beening sent flying.
"You call that a match?" came a shout from close to him as a large and burly body overlooked the blond with sadistic eyes. "That was pathetic!"
"I think you've already proven your point, Mr. Winchester," came the voice of Instructor Goodwitch as she gave an assertive glare to the victor of the mock battle.
"If you say so, Teach," Cardin said smugly as he made his way back to the seats.
"...Mr. Arc? If you can still move, I'd like you up from the floor... Mr. Arc?"
"I... I can move..." Jaune groaned as he slowly managed to rise to his feet and painfully began to limp back to his team. "That stank... Great first match, Leader..."
"That will conclude today's matches and our lesson. Make sure you're reviewed on everything that you'll need for tomorrow when we begin our team matches," Goodwitch instructed. "Class dismissed."
As Jaune tried to make his way back, he accidentally bumped shoulders with a fellow blond student due to his limp after being so badly beat in his last match. Jaune yelled as he was shoved to the ground landing squarely on his rump. He gave a short groan as he tried to recover, right before seeing the narrow and terrifying emerald eyes scowling at him.
"Out of my way, weakling," Jin Kisaragi told him off as he stepped around the other student. His teeth in an obvious snarl as he was only in the worst of moods.
"Jeeze, and I thought he was an ass the rest of the time," came a groan from Kagura Mutsuki as he made his way over and offered his hand. Jaune took it and was helped to his feet giving a harsh wince at his still burning wounds. "...Celica, you mind?"
"I've got him!" the redhead said happily as she approached Jaune and gave a small green glow. Within a few moments the leader of Team JNPR was feeling much better, impressed with how quickly it had taken effect.
"Thanks, perfect as always" Kagura told her with an underlying flirting in his tone. Celica gave him a small smile before heading off to follow the rest of her team. "Sorry about that; my leader can be kind of dick and not being able to fight his brother just put him in a worse mood than usual." When the students had gotten into their first day of mock battles, it was clear that Jin wanted to select his brother as his opponent, but Goodwitch had made it very clear that she had already arranged the early fights for the next few weeks.
"It's not a big deal…" Jaune told him. "I'm sort of used to it."
"Not exactly reassuring to hear," Kagura told him. "...Just hang in there, he's not that tough of a punk."
'Easy for him to say; he's not the guy being bullied by him. The only person I've seen stand up to Cardin is...' Jaune thought, remembering back to when Ragna the Bloodedge had stood up for that Fanus girl several days back. 'Man... that's the sort of thing I want to be able to do… like that's ever going to happen.'
"You okay?" a new voice said approaching Jaune. He saw Pyrrha Nikos, his own partner heading over towards him.
"I'll be okay… looked pretty bad, didn't it?" he sighed.
"You just need practice and training; and that's why we're all here," she tried to reassure him. "You already shown a apt mind for tactics Jaune, we just need to help bring out your… other talents."
"Or lack of them," Jaune groaned.
"Well… he's not wrong," Lie Ren had to admit with brutal honesty as he and Team JNPR's final member Nora Valkyrie approached with the two. "Maybe if we give our teamwork a little more practice we can win a match if we get called on Tuesday or Thursday."
'Even if we do that, I'll just be holding them all back…' Jaune thought to himself sadly. "Maybe this weekend guys, I… I have some stuff to take care of first."
"Are you sure, we can help you… out?" Pyrrha tried to asked Jaune continued to limp away sadly. "Jaune…"
"Let's just give him some space for now," Ren told her. "He just had a bad first fight; he'll come around… eventually."
As Jaune sadly left, Ruby couldn't help but notice his dour mood from a distance. She then looked to a distant corner of the room and saw Cardin joking with his teammates, obviously obnoxiously mocking Jaune and the defeat he'd just suffered. Ruby had a good hatred for bullies and wanted to help Jaune, but she'd started to notice that he had a lot of difficulty asking someone for help… but an idea started to form in her mind of a way Jaune could get the support he needed.
-After classes-
"You want me to do what exactly?" the Grim Reaper asked as he laid in his dormitory bedroom for the first time in a while. It was actually dinner time at the Academy, but due to the strained nature between Ragna and his team, the Reaper had decided he'd eat dinner later and save himself from the unnecessary scorn and chaos. This left his team room open for a rare chance to use it peacefully, an opportunity he wanted to use in full.
"I want you to help Jaune; try and give him some pointers," Ruby tried to explain as she sat at the foot of his bed while he friend had his nose buried in a textbook. "Come on, you saw what kind of trouble he was in today. He could use a couple of pointers from you."
"...I'm sure he could," Ragna nonchalantly told her back.
"I mean that he could REALLY use a couple of pointers," Ruby tried again with emphasis.
"Uh huh," he noted back, only for Ruby to reach over and pull the book away.
"Like he would REALLY REALLY benefit if you helped him," Ruby told him with a small scowl pointed in his direction at her friend's unwillingness to cooperate.
"...I'm not the type to just help people out of the goodness of my heart Ruby," Ragna told her. "You're better off asking someone else."
"You mean like someone who tried to be my friend when I didn't know anyone when I first got here?" Ruby reminded harshly. Ragna didn't say anything, though a small bead of sweat started to form. "Or a guy that's helping my entire group study and even staying up past midnight with me so I'm ready for a test?" A few beads of sweat. "Or a guy that helped Yang with a big favor despite clearly wanting nothing to do with it?" Ragna turned his head away so he didn't have to look directly at her. "You're not fooling anyone Ragna."
"That's… it's different…" Ragna told him. "Jaune doesn't look like he's the guy that wants to be asking for help, you've seen him. He's trying to play the strong leader card and if he asked for help he's afraid he'll look weak...er as a result." Ragna sighed. "I'm not going to just force a couple of pointers on him; that won't accomplish jack."
"Ragna please?" Ruby tried to beg him.
"If he really wants help he'll go to Pyrrha or his other teammates, they're more than willing to help him out and they're also the ones that SHOULD be helping him out." Ruby couldn't argue, Ragna did have a point there. "It's up to him to come to term with whatever faults he's got."
"So just agree to train him in secret; he'll get some help and he won't have to think that his group think that he needs help so desperately," the huntress-in-training tried again.
"Ruby…" Ragna tried to deny, but that was when he saw her staring directly into his eyes. Her own grey eyes were wide in plea with crocodile tears for effect. Even knowing that her crying was false Ragna winced as he eventually caved in. Giving a groan, he sat up on the his bed so he was sitting upright next to Ruby. "...On one condition."
"A condition?" Ruby asked, thinking Ragna was going to ask something from her. "What is it?"
"You can coax Jaune all you want, but he has to come to me for help if I'm going to do this. Say whatever the hell you want to him, but I'm only helping once he asks me face to face. You got that?"
Maybe it wouldn't be that easy… but if she played it right, Ruby knew she could convince him.
"...Alright, I can work with that," she told him before smiling and punching him in the arm. "Softy."
"Yeah, yeah…" Ragna said with a sigh as he got to his feet. "C'mon, let's grab dinner."
"...In just a minute, I'm going to talk to Jaune," Ruby told him with a confident smile as she headed out of Team RAIN's room, leaving Ragna to shake his head.
"Speed semblance or not, that chick moves fast…" he sighed as he started heading for the cafeteria.
After dinner
'First I lose my opening match in the academy and then I get suckered by Ruby so easily… I really can't do anything on my own can I?' Jaune thought to himself sadly. 'I must be the biggest fool in the academy to be convinced by those eyes of hers, seriously…'
The young blond had been standing outside the door to Team RAIN's room for a good few minutes now, unsure of what he was going to do now that he was actually here. Sure he'd told Ruby that he'd go to Ragna… but standing here in front of the door somehow felt just as intimidating as talking to the terrifying silver-haired man… that was a stranger to him.
'H-here goes nothing…' Jaune thinks to himself before knocking several times on the door. He stood outside waiting, hoping to see Ragna open the door to his team's room… instead he got the least favorable person; a blue haired giant that towered over him. '...Meeep!'
"Eh, what the hell are you doing here?" Azrael asked as he towered over the trembling blond. Jaune looked like he was trying to say something, but his shaking in Azrael's presence of pure intimidation wouldn't let him find his voice. "...I won't be able to get two words out of you, will I? Hey redhead, talk to him for me."
Jaune gave a sigh of relief as Azrael walked away from the door, now revealing Tsubaki whose smile made her seem much more approachable… helped by the fact that she wasn't large enough to take up the entire doorway.
"Sorry about that, is there something I can help you with?" Tsubaki asked him, reminding Jaune why he'd come here in the first place.
"Oh yeah, I'm here to talk to Ragna," Jaune said with a nervous chuckle as he scratched the back of his head and tried to keep smiling.
"TCH!"
"Eh?" Tsubaki's change of mood was so sudden that Jaune had to take a step back from the sheer force of it. Though she was continuing to smile, he could practically see the darkness radiating off of her and slowly backed away. Now he might've prefered to have that nice conversation with Azrael after all.
"I… Don't… KNOW… where… he… is…." Tsubaki told him, her tone giving Jaune a new meaning of the word fear. "Maybe you'll… just have to… LOOK... for him…"
"I...I'll try asking around then," Jaune said to her meekly. "...thank you…"
SLAM
Jaune took a deep breath to try and steel himself after that little debacle, taking note that the force of the door slamming had been enough to cause deep cracks all along the wall. Running down the hallways, his goal right now was to just put as much distance between him and Team RAIN's room as he could… finding Ragna only came second to avoiding the crazies that were in his team.
After spending some time searching around the school grounds, he eventually found the Reaper who was lying across one of the outdoor benches. He was completely exposed to the elements and he'd taken off his coat to lay across himself as he tried to get some sleep with his massive blade laying against his makeshift bed… all in all, he sort of looked like a homeless man that was used to doing things like this. Jaune had been about to walk away and let the red coated man get his sleep (and avoid the risk of seeing if he work up angry), but Ragna seemed to stir from his sleep and rise from the bench with a yawn.
"D… did I wake you?" Jaune asked, worried that he had. Luckily for the blond, Ragna didn't look much more he annoyed than he usually was.
"Nah, I never really fell asleep and even when I do hit the sack it's always with an eye open," the red coat muttered as he twisted his head to get a couple of painful pops out. "You wanted something?"
"Er, yeah… I…" Jaune took a deep breath. "I looked kinda pathetic today, didn't I?"
"I guess…? Honestly I was trying to catch up on my sleep," the Reaper admitted. Since he hadn't been called out just yet, the Reaper had tried getting as much sleep as he could since he clearly wasn't going to get any with Tsubaki and Azrael staying in the same room.
"I've heard from a friend that you're pretty tough… and you kinda seem to be the type that doesn't take anything from anyone," the fellow student told him, all of which seemed to be accurate. "Can… can you give me some pointers? ...I'm kind of in a bind right now without you."
"...Was it the eyes?" Ragna asked out of seemingly nowhere.
"Huh?"
"Truth was I had mixed thoughts about helping you out, but Ruby and those eyes of hers… somehow as cold hearted as I am, I'm still a damn sucker for 'em all the same…" He sighed, quite clearly disappointed in himself.
"...Yeah, it was the eyes," Jaune admitted, scratching the back of his head. Strange as it was, he felt a little better about himself now that he knew that even someone as hard and cold as Ragna could fall for the same trap he did.
"Lesson One, appearances can be deceiving; that works for both me and Ruby," Ragna told him before he rose and slung his coat on. "Follow me."
"Huh? We're starting now?" Jaune asked with some surprise. "I… I didn't bring my sword or my shield…"
"Still, I'm guessing you want to keep your training on the down low and in order to do that we're going to have to take every minute that we've got," Ragna explained. "There's no one in the training room at the moment since it's locked so this is the best chance we're going to get."
"But it's getting late…" Jaune said with worry. "And we'd be breaking in…"
"Lesson Two and Three, being sleep deprived is a real bitch and sometimes you gotta bend the rules," Ragna muttered to the youth as he grabbed his sword. "I'll run up ahead and unlock the room, I need you to run back and grab your gear. Got it?"
"O-Okay…" Jaune said as he hurried off to his room to get his things while the Reaper threw his red coat on and started heading for the training room.
When Jaune got to his team's room he saw that everyone had already made it back from dinner and was taking it easy; Pyrrha was reading a small novel that she'd gotten from the library, Nora was playing games on her scroll, and Ren had apparently purchased a bonsai tree and was currently caring for it. Trying to slip in and out unannounced, Jaune simply grabbed his sword and shield and headed off to find the Reaper.
"So… think he's trying to sneak some practice in?" Ren asked as he made a precise cut on one of the branches.
"I'm sure he is," Pyrrha decided. "Nice to see that he bounced back from his earlier slump… Nora, I think you're making it hard for Ren to concentrate if you're looming over him with his guns."
"Aw c'mon, the blades on these puppies will have the tree cut down to size quickly enough!" the hyper Nora said with a huge goofy smile.
"I think you're missing the point of a Bonsai tree…" Ren told her with a grimace as he tried to focus on the next crucial cut.
Later -Training Room-
By the time Jaune made it into the training room, the place had already been unlocked which was strange because there weren't any obvious signs of tampering with the door. This was probably to make it so that Ragna could easily cover their tracks, but he couldn't be certain on his method of entry. Heading inside, he found Ragna waiting for him with his arms crossed and his sword resting on his weapon's belt.
"Alright, you've got all of your gear," he noted as he tried to think. 'Where the hell do we start? ...I guess my master would… but is that… guess it wouldn't hurt to try.' "Alright, first thing's first; we gotta work on that guard of yours."
"My guard?" Jaune asked as he looked to his shield. "...Can't we start with offense?"
"Offense won't do jack for you if you can't keep from getting thrown around like a rag doll," Ragna told him, reminding the shield user of his fight with Cardinal that morning. "Come on, put the damn thing up and let's get started."
"O-okay," Jaune said nervously as he raised his shield and tried to get ready. "L-like thi-?"
(Power Punch Sound Effect from Dragon Ball Z)
The impact of Ragna's fist upon his shield was nearly ear splitting. Jaune screamed as he was sent flying back, his back hit with a surge of pain as he slammed into a wall. Falling to the ground, Jaune gave a pained cough as he tried to catch his breath after such a heavy blow… well, it was heavy to him.
'Dammit, I thought I was holding back plenty there…' Ragna thought to himself sadly before giving a sigh. "Get up and adjust that guard of yours, we're going to keep going until you can manage an actual block."
"R-Right…" Jaune said as he shakily picked himself up from off the floor. He tried to position his shield in a way that it would cover more of his body and tried adjusting his footing so that he had a more solid contact with the ground. "Okay, I think I'm ready."
Ragna decided that he'd hold back even further on this punch to make sure he'd give Jaune a fighting chance. In his own experience he barely tapped the shield, but somehow he still managed to send the blond stumbling back from the force. The Reaper sighed as he realized that the two had a lot of work if they were going to make Jaune combat ready.
For the next two hours, training with Ragna consisted of Suicide Runs, having Jaune try a few conventional workout routines like weights and crunches, and (Jaune's newly discovered least favorite workout) desperately attempting to guard against his attacks. By the end, the young blond was on the ground gasping and out of breath leaving Ragna concerned if he could actually do this.
'I guess I owe it to Ruby to put the effort in… and he hasn't exactly broken yet,' Ragna thought to himself as he stared down at Jaune's barely conscious form. "...Let's call that good for tonight; meet me here tomorrow at the same time and we'll pick up where we left off."
"A-Already!?" Jaune asked with terror, the fear of having to do that a second time apparently have awoken him almost instantly. "I-Isn't that a bit much?"
"If you want any worthwhile results you're going to have to go through hell, don't expect anything just by taking the painless route," the Grim Reaper instructed. "Head back now… I just gotta cover our tracks."
"R-Right…" Jaune told him as he tried making his way back to his team's room. There was a bit of a slump to his step as he felt both out of breath and badly battered, but he tried to make do. When he made it back to Team JNPR's room, the rest of his group was already fast asleep and ready for the next day. All he had to do was make contact with his own bed before sleep finally overtook him. He was too tired to even dream that night… but when he awoke the next morning, the training he'd gone through the night previous seemed more like a terrible nightmare.
Saturday
"Please tell me that we're doing something different today," the blond begged his fellow student/private instructor. For the past week the two had done nothing but work on Jaune's defence with no obviously foreseeable results. It didn't matter what Ragna or Jaune himself seemed to try, the blond would continue to fumble around all the same.
"Like I said already; we work on defense first and make sure you can at least tank a hit," Ragna told him. Jaune gave a low groan… which then turned into a high pitched shriek as his trainer then took his sword off of his belt. "What's with that look?"
"Y-You're actually going to use that thing against me!? Are you trying to kill me!?"
"Maybe you'll have no choice but to improve if you're faced with this kind of a threat," Ragna told him. Jaune was starting to think that Ragna had a sadistic streak to him, but the Reaper's expression remained clearly neutral.
"Can't we work on something else… My offense… How to use a semblance? ...Anything but this, please!" Jaune pleaded.
"...Alright, fine then," the Reaper muttered. With no warning aside from with telegraphing his punch with a prolonged windup, Ragna threw a strong punch forward which smacked dead into Jaune shield and sent him stumbling back. "COUNTER!" With little else warning, Jaune tried to counter the attack with a blind slash… Ragna didn't even have to move as the blade missed him by a mile.
"Um…" Jaune began with embarrassment. He didn't get a second chance as Ragna lunged forward with a second strike and sent him fumbling back again.
"COUNTER!"
This time Jaune tried to control his counter swing a bit better, but Ragna simply held out his own blade to block him. The end result was Jaunt losing his grip on his sword as the weapon clattered pathetically against the floor.
"...From now on, anytime after I hit you and I say Counter you try to swing at me, got it?" Jaune saw that he had little choice and nodded as he went to grab his sword. He'd managed to raise his shield to guard before Ragna slammed into it, this time using his sword. Jaune screamed as he was sent flying back, this time smacking into a wall. "...Counter."
"You gotta be kidding me!"
Training that night proved to be harder than anything Jaune had faced before and that was including his team's fight with a DeathStalker Grimm. Apparently Ragna had been liniet with Jaune earlier because that night there was nothing held back. He lost track of how many times he'd been hit back into a wall early on and the rest of his training felt like a complete haze.
"You managed to survive," Ragna said, a touch impressed as he reset his blade on his belt. "That's it for tonight, you should head back and-"
Thud!
"...Jaune?"
The blond wasn't responding. He'd fallen to the floor; passed out as all of the damage he'd taken along with his own exhaustion. He'd be alright, physically at least… but if Ragna left him in here they'd both be in trouble.
"Crap… guess I got no choice," Ragna muttered to himself. After returning the training room to its natural state, Ragna headed down the halls carrying Jaune on his back piggyback style. He felt the smaller student's shallow, sleep deprived breath behind him as he went down the halls, but paid it no mind. Even if it was a Saturday night there was no one in the halls and he managed to make it back to JNPR's room without being spotted. Once there though…
'Now what?' Ragna thought to himself, trying to come up with a plan. While it probably wouldn't matter if he told his team or not, he had made a promise to keep quiet… so he'd have to at least make some effort to do so. 'I guess I could just leave him outside, but what if I… yeah, that might work.' At least some form of a plan in his mind, the Grim Reaper knocked on the door to Team JNPR's room. It didn't take long for someone to open the door (luckily, it seemed like no one had hit the sheets).
"You're… Ragna from Team RAIN, aren't you?" Lie Ren asked as he opened the door. The young student was shirtless, only wearing the grey cotton night pants for cover.
"Yeah, that's me," Ragna said, nonchalantly answering Ren's question. "I got something here you might want." Ren's eyes immediately went to the blonde leader he was carrying. "Found him passed the hell out on the floor… might've been killing himself with some training."
"I see…" Ren began, being rightfully suspicious. "What were you doing out this late?"
"What else? Looking for a damn place to sleep; the situation in my team's room is pretty… well it's toxic as all hell," the Reaper defended. To be honest, he'd never exactly told a lie. "Mind if I bring him in? He needs his sleep and I need somewhere to sleep."
"Go right ahead," Ren said parting as Ragna brought Jaune into his room. The place looked homely enough. Nora and Pyrrha didn't give him much of a greeting, but they seemed more concerned with their team leader anyways. "You know, I've got a sleeping bag you can sleep in if you want. Might not be the most comfortable thing, but at least you won't have to spend the night outside."
"...Thanks for the offer, but I'm just here to drop Jaune off," the Reaper told him before roughly dumping Jaune on his bed. Of course, the blond was too out of it to react and just laid there in his exhausted sleep. "Take care… uh…"
"Ren, Lie Ren."
"Right," Ragna told him before heading out the door and closing it behind him.
"He's kind of a weird guy," Nora decided to comment.
"Pot... calling the kettle... black…" Jaune seemed to mutter in his sleep, surprising everyone on his team.
Next Thursday -After Last Period-
"Ah man… now I'm actually wishing class would last longer… If it did I wouldn't have to worry about… Ugh."
Jaune would almost always grumble to himself like this when there was no one within earshot. Now training with Ragna was becoming the least favorite part of any day… hurt further by the fact that it was happening every day. Jaune had next to no solace between his training sessions and Ragna was even making him work hard on the weekends. For over two weeks now they'd been meeting up in the training room, doing nearly the exact same routine and Jaune still didn't feel any stronger. He was surprised he wasn't getting any welts or unsightly scarring, but that was about the only slight good news he could think of.
"Maybe I could opt out of practice… just for tonight," he groaned as he headed for his locker to drop off his supplies. "But what would I have to tell him to-"
"Well, well, look who it is," came about the last voice that Jaune wanted here at the moment. Turning his head, he saw Team CRDL with their leader, Cardin Winchester, at the front. Seeing the smug look on his face, Jaune knew he was in for trouble. "Hey Johnny-Boy, didn't you say that you wanted to lend me a couple of Lien for this weekend?"
"I… I never said anything like," Jaune said hoping for a miracle that Cardin would leave him alone for the day… Of course, he wouldn't have any such luck.
"See… that's funny; I could've sworn you'd said something like that," the leader said as he crossed his arms surrounding Jaune and cornering him behind his locker. He remembered the time a while ago when he'd been shoved inside and Cardin had used its mobile feature to launch it off… that hadn't been fun. "So… maybe you're got a few to spare after all?"
"I… I…" Jaune tried to say. The truth was he'd actually left his wallet back in his team's room earlier that morning, but he doubted Cardin would like that. He slumped his head forward. "I don't have anything for you."
"Huh… what was that?" the bully asked, cupping his ear. "I couldn't quite hear you."
"I said I don't have any money…" Jaune said, his head still slumped forward.
"...So not only are you completely hopeless, but you're also broke? Talk about pathetic," Cardin said as walked off, laughing with the rest of his team. Jaune's fists began to shake; he couldn't take much more of this.
That Night -Training Room-
"Are you even paying attention? Honestly, you've been slipping all night," Ragna muttered as he placed his large blade back on his belt. Jaune didn't say anything as he lied on the floor after being blasted back into a wall for the umpteenth time that session. The truth was he was actually feeling strong enough to get up despite the many hits he'd taken… but he simply didn't feel like he had any reason to. "Tch, that last one was supposed to be an easy one for you… If you don't start to shape up I'll-"
"Is this just a game to you?" the blond asked from where he laid, interrupting the Reaper.
"...Sorry, what was that?" Ragna asked, his voice low and threatening. Jaune was silent for a moment, slowly making his way to his feet and unable to look Ragna in the eye with his cowardice. The Reaper shook his head and turned his back to the blond, starting to make his way out of the training room.
"Y-You heard me!" Jaune shouted. The Reaper stooped cold, yet he kept his back to the youth. "You haven't been training me at all! All you've been doing is beating me down for weeks! I'm surprised you haven't broken any of my bones!"
"What? You can't take it?" Ragna asked as he kept his back to the outraged student. "Maybe you-"
"Maybe YOU should learn how to teach!" Jaune interrupted once more, shouting angrily.
"Ouch, I'm hurt…" the Reaper muttered with great sarcasm. "Who was the one that had to be forced to come to me for help again? Who's the one that can't even admit to his own team something that they obviously know?"
"I…" Jaune had a hard time speaking, now Ragna had turned to face him and had his intense eyes bearing down on him. Though he was shaking uncontrollably, he tried to return the glare. "S-SAYS THE GUY THAT CAN'T EVEN SLEEP IN THE SAME ROOM AS HIS TEAM!"
"That's different; your partner is reasonable, mine ain't brat," Ragna insulted as his glare only intensified while his height allowed him to tower over Jaune. "You know I'm sorry that Pyrrha has to deal with some wimp that doesn't even have enough balls to ask for the help he-"
CLANG!
If he'd been even a split-second slower, Jaune's sword would have easily struck Ragna. As such, even blocking the weapon's force with Bloodscythe had sent out a small shockwave throughout the room. The Reaper was actually a little startled by how fiercy Jaune's glare at him was as he continued to press against the Reaper's guard. But when that moment was gone however, the Reaper only had to give a rough shove to force Jaune stumbling back. Even with the great force against him, the youth quickly regained his footing and continued to glare at Ragna as he sheathed his sword before leaving out the door without another word.
"...Tch, what a pain in the ass," Ragna muttered to himself as he again set the sword back on his belt. "Now what the hell am I supposed to tell Ruby…?" His thoughts were interrupted as he heard the door to the practice room open. Expecting to see Jaune he readied himself to mouth off at the youth once more, but was stopped cold when he saw who was really there.
"Perhaps you should worry about your explanation for me? The one where you tell me how and why you've been ignoring curfew and breaking into the training room so late at night," Instructor Goodwitch told the Reaper with steely eyes behind flawless glasses. "And for your sake, I certainly hope it's a good one."
"Yeah… I hope so too…" the Reaper could only tell her, realizing he was in deep shit.
The Next Day -Final Period-
"Jaune… Hey Jaune… Jaune!" The blond was snapped back to reality not by Nora's voice, but instead by her roughly grabbing his shoulder to a stop his walk as he awkwardly stumbled for a bit. "Your head must really be in the clouds, you passed the room almost a full minute ago…"
"Oh… I'm… I'm sorry," he tried to apologize to Nora and the rest of his team. From down the hall, he noticed Cardin chuckle as he sent him a demeaning smirk.
"You've been acting like this all day," Ren noted in his usual calm voice. "Did something happen?"
"Nah, it's nothing, I just-" Jaune stopped himself. It was either continue to brush off his problems and continue to slow his own team… or come clean with them… as clean as he could at least. "Actually, I… I got… I've got something I need to get off my chest…"
"...We have some time before class starts, so why don't you tell us now?" Pyrrha advised with her regular warm and understanding smile.
"I… I have no idea what I'm doing here," Jaune admitted, his head slumped over in shame. "I can barely hold my sword right most of the time and I can't even last two minutes in a fight against Cardin… I barely know anything about being a leader… most of which I just copied from a few books… And I'm completely clueless when it comes to semblances…" Looking up, he tried to stay strong as he looked his teammate in their eyes. "I know I'm late asking this… but I need your help…"
"...Honestly, you have no idea how relieved we are to hear you say that," Pyrrha told him, not dropping her smile and surprising Jaune. "You don't have to take this burden alone; I'm more than happy to help you."
"You got my support too!" Nora told cheerfully him before raising Ren's arm. "Ren's in also!"
"Let me say it myself," he sighed at his partner's behavior. "Even still, you've got my help any way I can provide it."
"Guys… Thanks," he said, even though he knew how much he was asking it felt good to finally be true to his team.
"I can't promise that it will be easy, but we'll see you through this," Pyrrha told him.
"And I'll work hard too…" Jaune said, closing his eyes and trying to smile.
"Is he about to cry?" Ren whispered to Nora, only to receive an elbow to the ribs.
With Ren gripping his bruised side, Team JNPR headed into the classroom. Jaune noticed that Ragna was sitting up in the far corner which was not only a far distance from the rest of Team RAIN (no surprise), but even from team RWBY as well. Jaune didn't think to much of it, only trying not to glare at the Reaper as he and his team took a seat in the stands as Goodwitch came up.
"For today's matches, we're going to start with something a little different…" she told the class. "Earlier, I was submitted a request for a rematch for one of our first week's fights. While I normally would never consider breaking protocole, this particular matchup just so happened to be listed when I decided to randomly generate today's fights… Just to set the record straight."
"This isn't like Goodwitch at all," Weiss noted to the rest of her team as a few of the student broke off into whispers. "If such a thing came up she'd tell the applicant in person and not even bother bringing attention to it… what's going on here?"
"And for the two participants..." the instructor began before a screen was alit with the profiles of the two. The entire room was dead silent… right up until braying laughter was heard from the seats.
"You've got to be kidding me! HE wants a rematch!? What kind of sick joke is this!?" Cardin shouted as he continued to laugh at Jaune's expense while the blond appeared to be frozen.
"Wait, you mean you didn't send in a request yourself?" one of Cardin's teammates asked.
"Why bother? You know how pointless it'd be to fight someone like him," Cardin said before he grabbed his mace. "Still... doesn't mean I can't take the points."
"Jaune?" Pyrrha worriedly tried to ask her shaken leader.
"I… I… I didn't…" Jaune thought before looking up at Ragna as he continued to sit far away from anyone else, unable to even look Jaune in the eye. While the blond's glare could have been absolutely scathing, at the moment Jaune was more terrified at what Cardin was going to do to him in their rematch. The other members of team JNPR had easily seen where Jaune was looking so as their leader was forced down to the ring, they instead headed up to pay a visit to the Grim Reaper.
"What did you do?" Pyrrha demanded with a scowl as fiery as the gates of hell.
"...Looks like I've got a second redhead pissed at me," Ragna muttered humorlessly under his own breath.
"Ragna, what's going on?" Ruby asked as she approached her friend, the same friend that didn't respond or even look her in the eye. "Is… is this some part of training?"
"Training… so you were training Jaune," Ren concluded, finally putting the pieces together from what he'd seen that night a few weeks ago.
"Were being the operative word; he stopped last night in a pissed huff," Ragna admitted.
"Seriously?" Nora asked. "But then… d-did you send in that request for a rematch?"
"...Match is starting," Ragna told them, pretending that he hadn't heard them. The others were given no choice but to take their seat around the Reaper obviously with some heated tension between him and JNPR.
"You know Johnny-boy, I'm starting to think that you're a masochist," Cardin said with a dirty smirk. The blond couldn't say anything as he brought out his sword and shield, trying not to look too nervous… and failing. "Hah! You're shaking! This is really all you got!? ...You don't even deserve to be at Beacon!"
"Mr. Winchester…" Goodwitch threatened with clear disapproval in her tone.
"Just giving him a reality check, it looks like he needs one," Jaunes opponent said as the timer counted down to zero. "Let's end this quickly!"
Jaune gave a high pitched shriek as he dodged to the side while Cardin's mace smashed into the floor where he'd been standing and sent up a massive dust cloud. The blond stumbled back as he was nearly hit by Cardin's massive horizontal swipe. He tried to counter by stabbing his sword forward, but it was knocked away all too easily by his opponent's mace. Before Jaune could so much as recover, the bully smashed his fist into his face and sent him reeling back.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha shouted, worried about her friend."What's wrong, why isn't he fighting back?"
"...Simply put, I only ever taught him how to block and counter," Ragna explained, not taking his eyes off the fight.
"You what!?" Ruby demanded as Jaune narrowly dodged yet another mace strike. "I thought I told you to help him!"
"I did, but I could only focus on teaching him those two things… all the good it did him," the Reaper muttered. Jaune tried to go for another risky swing with his sword, only to get instantly kneed in the gut and sent back, trying to catch his breath before Cardin strode up to him before grabbing Jaune by the collar, lifted him off of his feet, and threw him against the wall.
"Tch… You're even worse than last time," Cardin told Jaune as the youth's back was pressed against the wall, breathing heavily as his opponent cruelly made his way toward him. "Just give up and get out of the ring, everyone knows your finished…" Jaune then began running, leaving the rival leader to smirk… only to see that the blond had run to the center of the ring.
"I… I'm not done yet!" he shouted, trying to be brave against such terrible odds. The truth was he was scared out of his mind, but as much as his mind was screaming for him to run there was something even stronger was telling him he needed to at least go down fighting.
"You little…" Cardin's cockiness turned into a harsh glare as Jaune brought up his sword and shield, refusing to run from the fight. Gritting his teeth, Cardin gave a great battle cry as he rushed forward. "I'LL SEND YOU STRAIGHT TO THE INFIRMARY!"
"For the first few days of training, no matter how much I tried to tone down my punches he could never block a single one without stumbling all over the place," Ragna admitted from his seat, not helping his situation with Team JNPR and even straining his friendship with Ruby.
Cardin roared as he leaped into the air and raised his mace high above him. Landing such a hit even upon Jaune's shield would be devastating, potentially enough to break a limb or two. The blond didn't run from the attack, instead finally rising his shield in a desperate attempt to cover himself from the blow.
CLANG!
"After that though… I decided to stop holding back."
Many of the students watching in the bleachers stared into the ring, gaping with wide eyes at what they were seeing transpire. Jaune hadn't buckled in the slightest, his arm remained up with his shield covering his face from the mace head as soft steam emitted from both weapon and armor. Cardin was aghast at the sight, never having seen his full powered strike blocked before and now it was being stopped by the weakest student in the class. He grit his teeth as he tried to push forward, but Jaune wasn't giving an inch. In fact…
"Y-YOU CAN SWING NOW!" came a nervous cry from beneath the shield.
"Wha-!?" Cardin's mind was completely blank at those words. Jaune hadn't even noticed he'd blocked the hit, nor did he seem to notice the force he was holding back.
"COUNTER!" Ragna shouted from the bleachers. Though Jaune felt that he'd gotten very little out of Ragna's training, instinct took over and he reflexively spun his body to smash the blunt side of his sword into Cardin's face.
"GAH!" his bully and tormenter grunted in pain at the sudden attack as he was sent stumbling back. Jaune's blade had hit him right in the nose and had broken it hideously, leaving a stream of blood to pour from his nostrils.
(Cue RWBY This Will Be The Day)
Jaune could only stare at what he'd done, now having struck an actual blow to his tormentor's face. He then looked to the stands and all of the shocked faces before looking at his own weaponry as a strange rush of adrenaline washed over him.
"D-Did I… Just…?"
"You little-!"
Breaking out of his daze, Jaune shrieked as he managed to raise his shield and block the first of Cardin's strikes, feeling the ease of which he managed to deflect the blow of the larger warrior. With his attack bouncing harmlessly off, Cardin followed up with a second swing which was just as ineffective. His anger boiling over, he made to punch Jaune's face only to strike his shield with a bare hand. He hissed through his teeth at the self-inflicted pain as his hand flared red. He was just barely able to see Jaune's next attack coming and managed to step back and narrowly avoid the sword. Trying to press the blond, he swung as mace again, only for it to bounce uselessly off his shield before being stuck in the face yet again by the flat of a blade.
"W-Wha-!? Jaune's fight back now!" Nora shouted from the bleachers with indescribable excitement at the turn over events. "He can win this thing!"
"Don't get your hopes up too early; he hasn't won yet…" Ragna muttered as he watched, his expression oddly neutral as Jaune continued to stand against Cardin. "Look there."
Given her combat skill, Pyrrha was the first to easily see it; after Jaune managed to once again counter Cardin's strike with his sword, he tried to follow up with a lunge but the attack went wide.
"He can't keep up an offensive," she quickly deduced with worry as Cardin stopped attacking for a moment, instead circling Jaune. "He has to rely on a solid defense and counter is opponent's attacks."
"Yeah… and as big an idiot as he is Cardin's starting to pick up on that," the Reaper muttered.
Indeed, Cardin had yet to make a move yet as he tried to think of a way to beat Jaune… though the fact that he had to use strategy against someone he'd looked down on so much annoyed him to no end. Through his rage an idea formed in his mind and he gave a nasty smirk. He ran forward with an overhead swing and Jaune raised his shield in turn to defend himself. This was just a bait and he had fallen for it. Grabbing his opponent's shield, Cardin tried to wrestle it off of the blond's arm. Panicking, Jaune tried to use his sword only for it to be knocked out of his hands by Cardin's mace where it clattered to the floor. He continued to try and get himself out of Cardin's grapple, but his enemy held strong… until.
BAM!
"GAH!" Cardin screamed as he held his 'weak spot' that Jaune had kneed out of desperation. The blonde then managed to get his shield out of Cardin's grasp, but the bully looked like he was far too pissed to give him even a second to pick up his sword.
"I'LL PUT YOU DOWN!" Cardin shouted was he lunged forward, smashing his mace into Jaune's shield again and again in a berserk rage. Despite his powerful defense from earlier, Jaune felt his knees start to bend from the force of countless hits slamming into his guard as the floor cracked beneath him. "I TOLD YOU! YOU DON'T BELONG HERE!"
SNAP!
Cardin winded up one especially powerful smash, smirking wickedly down on Jaune… until he saw his eyes peeking from behind his shield. They were not the eyes of a victim, a coward, or even a weakling. ...They were the eyes of a Lion.
Giving one final shout as instinct once again overtook him, Jaune reeled back and dodged Cardin's attack at the last instant and left it to strike the floor in his place. The bully didn't have even a second to react as Jaune thrusted his shield forward, bashing the heavy metal into his opponent's face. His tormentor gave one final pained grunt as he stumbled back… before falling to the floor.
(End Theme)
Cardin lie sprawled out of on the ground, his entire face red from the impact of Jaune's final attack. The mace user tried to make it to his feet, but all he could do was struggle. Everywhere around the arena students gaped in awe at the display (including Jaune himself to a degree). The low groan that came after a moment of pregnant silence left everyone to remember that Cardin was quicker to recover than most as he painfully tried to stand, using his weapon to support his balance.
"And with that the match has ended. Mr. Winchester, Mr. Arc, please make your way back to your seats and we'll move to the next round of participants," Goodwitch insisted as she took notes, her air of professional conduct present as always.
"B-But- But that can't count!" Cardin shouted, apparently still having the energy to yell. "H-He got lucky! I wasn't even treating him seriously!"
"Then that's your fault for ignoring something that all Hunters and Huntresses should know; never underestimate the enemy. If you weren't fighting with everything you had there…" the professor then adjusted her glasses, giving her a look of absolute authority. "Then that's an entirely new level of failure."
Cardin's glare at Jaune was absolutely scathing, but the blond couldn't even notice it at the moment, he was still too busy coming down from his victory high. It was something he never exactly expected to feel… but it was awesome to have now that he'd had a taste. He headed up to seats, seeing the rest of his team and Ruby shooting him congratulatory looks as they sat beside Ragna. The Grim Reaper himself still appeared as reserved as ever, but even as Jaune went to speak to him...
"And now for the next match," Goodwitch began as she looked over her list. "We'll finally be testing Ragna the Bloodedge's fighting capability against…"
SHING!
"...Put your weapon away Mister Kisaragi, he won't be fighting you today," the instructor told Jin with a scowl as unsheathing his blade alone had coated everyone in the immediate area under a heavy layer of frost. Jin moodily put the blade in its proper place as Ragna stood from his seat, a low groan at his younger brother's attitude.
That Night -BEACON Hallways-
"So… how bad was it?" Jaune asked as he walked through beacon's corridor with the rest of Team JNPR. As he'd promised the rest of his team, the four of them had practiced in getting their leader's combat ability to a decent level. While everyone else seemed calmed and relaxed, Jaune was covered in sweat and still trying to catch his breath from the work-out.
"You'll need some work… probably a lot of work," Ren admitted. "Your offense is pretty weak, but your defense is actually pretty hard to get around."
"For now I think you'll be able to cover your weaknesses with that," Pyrrha told him encouragingly. "It should help you get by for the time being, but if we keep working with your offense until the end of the semester you should be able to be a bit more well rounded."
"Until then you're just going to have to be our damage sponge!" Nora shouted with odd excitement, causing Jaune to cringe nervously. "You just need to stand right at the front, taking all of the attacks and just barely surviving before POW! I come in and give 'em a sledgehammer to the face!"
"That's… fun…" Jaune said sighing at Nora's behavior before he suddenly lost his footing. His feet squeaked as he flailed from the ground to the air in a desperate attempt to keep his balance. The effort was a failure as he lost contact with the ground and landed roughly on his back. "Ow…"
"Oi, I'm moppin' over here. Can't you read the damn sign?" Hearing the familiar gruff voice, the group turned their attention and saw Ragna the Bloodedge looking… less than pleased. Much like he'd just said, he was holding a mop as he tried to clean the floors. His trademark red coat was missing as he was forced to wear a plain white apron over his black hakama clothing. A small 'Wet Floor' sign lay off to the side next to a cart of cleaning supplies, easy enough to see if you weren't distracted.
"...Hey, you mind giving us a minute?" Jaune asked his team as Ragna tried to return to his work and he got back to his feet.
"Go right ahead, we'll see you at dinner," Pyrrha promised as the group headed off, leaving the blond alone with the Grim Reaper.
"Hey… I… I'm sorry for blowing up last night," Jaune said to the Grim Reaper. "If it weren't for you I wouldn't have won my match today…"
"If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been stuck there to begin with," Ragna told him as he continued to mop while he talked. "Shit. I was a pretty crappy teacher, wasn't I?"
"...Maybe, but you got results at least," Jaune told him, trying to reassure his classmate. "Trust me, doing something like what I pulled off today felt like a pipedream before I talked to you and I ended up talking to my team anyways… you helped me more than you could ever imagine."
"Honestly, I was a little surprised you stuck around as long as you did," the Reaper admitted. "My old teacher… he sort of had this throw me into the fire and let me figure it out kind of approach, so that's about all I could do for training; press your defense as hard as I could with my offense and hoped it would toughen you up."
"Hey, it worked didn't it?" Jaune said to the Reaper with a still thankful smile. Despite himself, the Grim Reaper couldn't help but chuckle. "So… how did you get stuck with cleaning duty?" Normally students wouldn't be assigned this duty unless they'd gotten into trouble or there was a lack of cleaning staff due to illness … the leader of JNPR reasonably assumed it was likely the former.
"...Goodwitch found out that I'd been breaking into the practice room," he admitted, resuming his moping as he talked with the blond. "Good thing you went to your team, 'cause our training's not an option anymore and I'm stuck with this crap for today and tomorrow."
"Wh-what!? B-But you were only doing that to help me!" Jaune protested.
"That's what I told her… and she wanted me to prove it," the Grim Reaper explained with a sigh. "That's how you ended up getting stuck with Cardin today; call it a test."
"Come on… I won the match didn't I?" Jaune asked. "If anything that should clear you, right?"
"It did," Ragna muttered darkly. "If you hadn't won… well I don't think I would've been Expelled, but there definitely be some kind of harsher hell to pay."
"You- You're serious?" Jaune asked, somewhat terrified of the possibility.
"Calm down, you gave her what she wanted," the Reaper told him. "I'm kinda on thin ice with her right now, but that's par for the friggin' course."
"Still, I was the one that got you into this mess..." Jaune sighed.
"Eh, don't worry about it. Probably could've done something smarter than breaking into the room anyways," the Reaper assured him, giving Jaune a smirk right before he was forced to tilt his head to the side to dodge a soda can. "...Really?"
"Sorry, I thought your face was a trash bin," came the annoyed voice of Cardin Winchester as he glowered at both of his most hated enemies in Beacon academy; the fanus lover and the weakling that had shown him up. "Easy mistake."
"Don't you have anything better to do besides wasting my time, asshole?" Ragna curdly demanded. Looking behind him and see that the half-full can had spilled grape soda all over the floor he'd already painstakingly mopped.
"I'll be gone in a second, just wanted to reinforce a point," the bully said as he made to punch Jaune. The blond visibly flinched and the blow proved to have been a fake out. Cardin smirked mockingly. "You're still a coward Johnny-boy and you always will be, don't forget that."
"Yeah Jaune, don't forget," Ragna added in strange agreement, before giving an oddly whimsical smile. "Even if that idiot smacked you in the face, he can't do much to you now."
"Oh, is that right?" Cardin growled before he made to shove Jaune, only for the blond to stand his ground this time. With his feet planted firmly in place, his own resistance managed to force the much larger man into stumbling back. Jaune tried to give his best heated glare at Cardin, and it proved to do the trick as Cardin merely let out a heated growl and left without another word.
"...Not bad," the Reaper commended, only to see that Jaune was sweating bullets now that his moment of strength was gone. "Well… you kept up a solid front at least."
"I guess I still need a bit of work in the Courage department," the blond admitted with a nervous smile.
"Heh, you might be closer than you give yourself credit for," the Reaper told him, giving a rare but well earned compliment. "Go on and join the rest of your team, I still gotta finish up here."
"I guess I'll have to see you around, but thanks again. If you ever need a favor, just come and ask; you've got a friend in Team JNPR," Jaune promised before running off and leaving the Reaper to his work. With all present distractions gone, the Reaper managed to make solid headway in his punishment.
"Finally, almost done with this crap," he sighed to himself in relief. "Just gotta put the cleaning supplies away and I can finally head to din-"
"HEY RAGNA!" came the familiar cheery voice of one Ruby Rose as she ran down the hall to greet her friend. "Looks like you managed to WHOOOOOOOOAAAAAA!"
CRASH!
...Only to slip on the floor and careen directly into the nearby trash can, sending its filthy contents flying all over the floor. Ruby herself was now trapped headfirst in the can, giving a muffled scream as she wildly shook her legs trying to get out of the garbage container turned trap.
"...ner… Seriously, can't anyone read the damn Wet Floor sign?" the Reaper swore to himself. With little other choice, he went to help the young huntress-in-training out of her predicament so that he could start cleaning the hallway all over again. "I guess this is the cost of getting actual friends… Dammit Qrow, you SO owe me for this."
Author's Note
If it wasn't evident by some of the more… demanding reviews, it's pretty damn obvious that a lot of people have been waiting for this chapter to come out. Ah well, I'll admit this is one iron that I've had in the fire for quite a while now so I can understand where the impatience is coming from.
As you'll have noticed, I'm changing Jaune a little to where instead of being inept but having good intentions I just had him horribly unbalanced. He has great strength in his defence, but is next to completely helpless in his offense (to start anyways). It's an interesting direction which might actually reinforce his whole 'leader' role, more easily able to insert him into key spots as a damage sponge while his team fights around him to support (like Nora had suggested).
Anyways, let's take care of the reviews… including the vulgar ones I guess.
EpicLinkSam: Eh, now that CTB is out I'm using Ragna/Ruby all the way.
Lazruth: True that…
Wlyman2009: With the time since the last update I certainly hope I've recovered.
Zero: Might take a bit…
The Unplanner: I don't think that's what Ozpin has in mind, but it would be easy to see his reaction. And between Rojo and Ruby… I think their differences are pretty plain to see (if Cross Tag Rebellion has anything to say, plug plug).
Star's Keyblade4114: Thanks, I gave them an addition interaction in Character Interactions For Your Viewing Pleasure. (Yes, I'm REALLY plugging my stories this time)
treyalexander63917: That's what I thought too, but I'll save more RWBY interactions for a later date.
ScorchedBacon: Here's a good example of that.
ragriz: How about a slightly different alliteration of Jaune?
Seath01: Got a plan for that.
The Megaevolved Pony: ...Trust me, I know.
Althea Sirius: Hey, there's not much I can tell you. The harem won't be an obnoxious thing, but it will still be present.
WindBrimmedHat and darkhearted86: To quote Captain America 'LANGUAGE!'
kerrowe: Yeah, I got a lot of views when I mentioned this in A Reaper's Awakening. (THIRD PLUG'S A CHARM!)
Until Next Time Guys! Ciao!