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Chapter 9 - Psychology 101
Patch Colony's outskirts, Taiyang Xiao Long's Patrol Route, Day 11...
After rolling out from under a row of bushes and sprinting across a small clearing to press his back against a nearby tree, Jaune cast his eyes around the forest and strained his senses to the very limit. Danger was close. Danger was always close... With eyes widening in alarm over a noise that he'd just barely managed to hear, Jaune instantly dove sideways over a fallen log directly onto the back of a Boarbatusk that was trying to sneak up on him, and he bodily threw the Grimm up into the air behind him as if it was completely inconsequential.
The unsuspecting boarbatusk was immediately punched into a million pitch black smoky particles before ceasing to exist.
Jaune used the time that the Grimm's inglorious sacrifice had bought him to continue running away from Taiyang Xiao Long and the damage that the man was somehow managing to cause him through his fully charged aura field. Bruises and small cuts were beginning to cover his arms and legs as the older man's attacks managed to press directly through his aura into the fragile skin beneath, and the only way to keep that from happening was to keep his entire body moving at all times. Taiyang's attacks only seemed to cut into him when the man managed to press his gauntleted fists against his body in a specific location for longer than half a second, which meant that allowing that outcome to happen was a huge mistake.
Of course, in reality, preventing the Signal Academy close quarters combat instructor from doing whatever the hell he wanted was nearly impossible, which is why whenever they weren't sparring or hunting, Jaune was stuck playing a seemingly never ending game of dodge. Dodge the man's notice, dodge the man's pursuit, dodge the man's attacks... All day, every single day... With each day that passed, Taiyang ramped up the intensity of his attacks, and Jaune was having to choose between fight or flight so often he felt more like an animal than a man.
Case and point, when Jaune dropped into a recessed area of forest and found a fast moving river cascading off of a waterfall about five meters to his right, he dashed towards the ledge and dove right over without even giving it a second thought. Whether or not there were rocks or even Grimm at the bottom of the waterfall was immaterial. At this point, Jaune was confident that his aura bolstered body could handle the blunt force trauma of the fall followed by several different Grimm attacks.
What his aura couldn't protect him from was Taiyang Xiao Long...
Patch Colony's outskirts, Taiyang Xiao Long's Patrol Route, Day 12...
The woosh and crash of rapidly moving metal slamming into metal resounded throughout the clearing as Jaune defended himself from his trainer's attacks, launched a rapid stab of his sword that led into a hard hooking punch using the knuckle duster attached to its hilt, and then instantly turned his body to shield Taiyang's return punch to the back of his head. It wasn't enough. He wasn't moving fast enough. Jaune was getting better and better at channelling aura throughout his brain and eyes to think, see and react faster, but his body wasn't able to keep up with what he needed from it yet.
He could still move faster... He knew it. He could feel it...
If Jaune was ever going to land a hit on Taiyang Xiao Long, he needed to widen and strengthen the nerves threading throughout his body, he needed to bolster and improve the tensile strength of his fast twitch muscles, and he needed to support his joints and tendons to endure the torsion force and the rapid contractions that he was putting them through. He also needed to use one of the hundreds of stabs, sword strokes, parrys, kicks, punches, headbutts, grabs, throws, and environmental distractions that his trainer kept screaming at him to use, with perfect timing and impossibly flawless technique... Long story short, Jaune needed to focus on so many different things all at the same time that the fundamentals slowly but surely slipped through his fingers and Jaune felt himself slowing down again.
Then it finally happened and it wasn't a surprise in the least.
Jaune was suddenly batted clear across the large wooden bridge that they were sparring on by a hard fist crashing through his left hip, and he was forced to grab desperately at the rope supports that suspended the entire structure over the gorge... For the next several seconds Jaune merely held to one of the ropes on with all of his strength as his body waved like a flag. Only then, when the momentum behind Taiyang's hit finally came to an end, was he finally able to pull himself up onto his knees on the bridge's unvarnished, weathered wood.
"You're thinking too much where you should be feeling," Taiyang repeated for over the dozenth time with a small frustrated shake of his head. "I don't know why I was expecting you to understand this within such a short amount of time, but I did... You're so many years behind, you still think that you can just react to the attacks that I'm sending your way in real time. You can't... No Hunter on all of Remnant with the possible exception of little Ruby can move fast enough to identify the target of an attack, decide what to do, and then react long after an attack is already flying their way. That's not how the human nervous system works, even with aura speeding up the process... You need to feel your opponent's intentions ahead of time and you need to be moving before your enemy's attack is already on its way.
"Why am I even using a shield at all then," Jaune asked as he slowly rose back up to his feet.
"Most Grimm are dumb enough that they attack head on, which makes your rifle-shield a good tactic to take out low level beasts," Taiyang replied with a shrug. "If, on the other hand, you want to be a high level Huntsman that can take out dangerous, aura bolstered criminals, then I don't see that shield of yours being of much use in the long term. f we'd had the time or the resources, I'd have made you bring a second sword or a knife to use in your shield hand, but we didn't and we don't have time to change your specialty. I want you to keep what I'm saying in mind for later, if and when you end up at Beacon."
As Taiyang's incredibly coherent and useful explanation came to an end, Jaune found himself arching his eyebrows in unconcealable amounts of surprise... Taiyang Xiao Long almost never explained what he intended to accomplish through the exercises that they did everyday, despite the fact that he always had an agenda. Jaune couldn't even believe that the man had just offered all of that good advice without ruining it somehow...
"Another thing I want you to keep in mind when or if you go to Beacon, is that my daughters are off limits to you or any other boy that wants to live a long life," Taiyang added with a newly menacing quality to his voice and mannerisms. "I will not have boys with bad intentions preying on my girls, and that includes you..."
With a long indrawn breath, Jaune desperately tried to contain the rising amounts of impatience and frustration that he suddenly felt bubbling up within his mind. Damn... Here it was... Taiyang Xiao Long's preaching regarding his daughter's and their chastity never, ever truly came to an end... The man was a complete lunatic where his daughters' virginity was concerned, and it was just similar enough to the Arc family's overprotective attitude back at the Castle that Jaune found himself having to bite his lip for the lion's share of the time that they spent together...
Just two more days... All Jaune needed to do was control his temper for just two more days...
Patch Colony's outskirts, Taiyang Xiao Long's Patrol Route, Day 14, Last Day, Thirty Minutes before Jaune boards an airship heading to Beacon...
With a pained grunt and a dusty cough, Jaune's back was suddenly slammed down into the sandy ground and he was held there by a gauntleted fist digging harshly into his collarbone. He attempted to roll to the side to continue sparring, but he was stuck still and Taiyang was kneeling over him with an extremely serious look on his face.
"Now that I don't have to make you spitting angry to get you properly channeling your aura, I suppose you might be okay to go to Beacon," Taiyang admitted in a voice containing a leery sort of acceptance. "Don't get me wrong... Both your martial arts and your swordsmanship still suck, but you're a crafty little bastard so you'll probably come out okay..."
Jaune didn't say a word. The two of them both knew what his strengths and his weaknesses were, and they both knew that Taiyang wasn't the least bit concerned about critiquing his skills. The man obviously had something else in mind, and Jaune already had a pretty good idea of what it was going to be...
"I want you to keep those womanizing Beacon boys away from my Yang," Taiyang began.
"I refuse..." Jaune didn't even think about his answer. The response came instantly and with a great deal of force behind it.
"Now be reasonable," Taiyang growled out with a tightly clenched jaw.
"The reason I'm refusing you is because I am reasonable," Jaune growled back as he felt something within him snap and his self control evaporating. "Not only am I not your servant, I'm completely convinced that you're worried over nothing. Yang's not going to end up with any boy... She doesn't like them. She doesn't trust them. She doesn't respect them... Hell. Within the first thirty seconds of Yang and I meeting, she called me a lame, douchie asshole for reasons that even she knew were complete and utter nonsense. Then that same night, when the two of us sat around the campfire, she consistently attempted to belittle both my character and my abilities. The thing is, according to Ruby, Yang's not being rude to me because I'm worse than other boys or because I've wronged her. Ruby says that the way Yang treats me is just business as usual... and do you know why Taiyang?
By this point Tai was staring down at Jaune as if he had ten heads and all of them were ugly...
"It's your damned fault," Jaune suddenly belted out directly into the man's face. "You've trained your daughter to believe that every single boy she meets is a reprehensible little degenerate just like you were back when you were a student! You've programmed your eldest daughter to believe that the only thing men want from her is to use and abuse her body! You've raised your daughter to believe that ninety-nine percent of men are weak, stupid and disloyal! Of course, when you add in the way your persistently unhinged behavior has taught her to see all men as insanely possessive and territorial, and the outcome becomes completely obvious! You're the reason why your daughter is either going to end up marrying a woman, or she's going to end up living her entire life alone!"
Immediately after Jaune's truly unwise outburst came to an end, he suddenly grabbed up a handful of sand, filled it chock full of his aura, and then threw it all as hard as she could into Taiyang's face. With that accomplished, Jaune focused every scrap of willpower that he had into his Semblance to force the little grains of silica passed the man's aura field and directly into his eyes. In the end, Jaune's ploy was only marginally effective, both because Taiyang immediately swept most of the sand aside and because forcing an object passed an aura field requires a boatload of instantaneous force. It didn't matter. Jaune still managed to use the older man's momentary distraction to roll to the side, bounce up to his feet and start aura dashing into the trees.
Jaune needed to get three Kilometers through the forest to reach Patch's airfield, and he needed to do it now!... He already knew exactly what was coming...
"Dodge," Taiyang suddenly yelled out in a raw, haggard and terrible sounding voice.
Yes, of course... Dodge...
The Following Day, Beacon Academy, Beacon Academy Initiation...
"Wake up John, wake up, wake up, wake up!"
With a start, Jaune's eyes snapped open to see that two hands had grabbed a hold of his shoulders, so that they could begin slamming him up and down against his bedroll over and over again. On the one hand, he was relieved to no longer be a captive in the extremely unpleasant dream that he'd just been having. On the other hand, Jaune currently felt like his brains were being rattled right out of his head.
"That's not how a lady wakes someone up Nora," Ren called out from somewhere in the background.
"Oh! Okay then!"
When the tightly gripping hands finally released Jaune's shoulders, their sudden absence caused him to spill right off of his bedroll into a messy pile of limbs. It took several moments to shake off the bout of dizziness the rough treatment had caused, and then several more for Jaune to comprehend both where he was and what he was doing. During this time, several nearby ladies seemed to be enjoying themselves at his expense, Yang and Ruby noticeable even over the noise that the rest were making.
It was only after he managed to pull himself up to his feet and wipe the grit out of his eyes that Jaune noticed Weiss's absence. Then he shook his head at himself because the two of them had made a deal. Last night Weiss proved that she's capable of getting along with the locals, which meant that it was officially time for him to stop meddling in her affairs. Still... There wasn't any harm in asking...
"Good morning ladies. How'd last night go? Sleep well?" While Jaune was certain that he'd kept his voice scrupulously nonchalant, he knew that it wasn't working when Ruby and Yang both gave him knowing looks.
"Weiss isn't so bad," Yang admitted, while wiggling her eyebrows at Jaune in a suggestive fashion.
"I'm happy to hear that, but that's not what I asked," Jaune defended automatically.
"Yeah, sure," Ruby drawled, as she stepped forward to quickly hug Jaune around the waist. "When we first bedded down last night with Weiss, the three of us didn't have a single clue what to talk about. Do you know what topic we used as an ice breaker?"
"Uhhh, ohhhh," Jaune breathed out, as all of the sudden he knew exactly what or "whom" the girls had talked about. "Uhhh Ruby. I feel I should explain that Weiss isn't... charitable... by nature, and I've made her extremely angry in the past, by no fault of my..."
"Well I agree that you've made her angry," Yang interrupted, steamrolling right over what Jaune was about to say. Turning towards Nora and Ren, the blonde girl extended out both of her hands with a fiendish smile growing across her entire face. "Heya. My name's Yang and this here's my little sister Ruby. Did you guys know that creep boy over there relentlessly stalked a famous pop idol back in Atlas, tackled her clear off a stage mid concert, and then had to be foisted out by Security?"
By this point, Jaune had a hand cupped over his eyes, so he missed both the disbelieving looks that Nora and Ren exchanged, and the playful wink that Yang gave them. What he didn't miss was the moment that Nora slapped him on the back and squared up at his side.
"So what you're telling me is that ol Johnno here's a high level sexual deviant with hundreds of completely repulsive fetishes huh?" Despite her words, Nora's voice didn't actually sound all that disapproving. "Well shucks. That's a problem then, because other than that, he's a hell of a nice guy... You know what? I've decided that Renny and I are going to save our new friend here from his own disgusting impulses." With her decision made, Nora turned to give Ren an enthusiastic thumbs up.
With Nora's completely mortifying support to galvanize him, Jaune pulled his hand away from his face, gave Yang a hard look and began picking up his bedroll. The sound of feminine giggling was the soundtrack by which he moved to the bathrooms and then again on his way to breakfast. Soon enough, Jaune was sitting in the cafeteria, with Ruby/Yang across from him, and Nora/Ren on his left. The Beacon staff were insisting that everyone finish their breakfast before they'd give out their locker numbers and combinations.
The high quality of the food served for breakfast went a long way towards restoring John's mood. By the time he was finishing his double sized serving of eggs and bacon, a sliced up avocado, a bowl of granola cereal and a grapefruit, he felt ready to tackle the world. Everyone else sitting at the table was distracted away from their own food by watching Nora eat, with the exception of Ren who knew exactly what kind of atrocity the girl was currently committing on her breakfast. No one spoke for several minutes, as they watched the students around them run around in varying levels of disorganization.
Finally, when almost everyone was finished with their food, Yang suddenly grew bored of all the quiet solidarity. "Hey, have you guys noticed how segregated the student body is right now?" Yang swept her spoon around the cafeteria, taking in all of the different groups. "I mean... Most of the people I hung out with back at Signal Academy were girls, but there were a few guys who sat down to eat with us at lunch time and stuff. This though... This is just odd..."
"I'm pretty sure I know the reason why everyone's being all shy with each other, but I'm hesitant to tell you," Jaune announced after swallowing the last of his orange juice.
"Why the hesitation," Yang immediately queried.
"I'm concerned It'll make you feel awkward," Jaune admitted with a shrug.
"You're underestimating how bold I am," Yang declared with a dramatic roll of her eyes. "Lay it on me John. I highly doubt whatever you're thinking is too much for me to handle."
With a return roll of his eyes followed by a small nod of assent, Jaune gestured at all of the boys and girls glancing at each other from the safety of their different tables. "Well... It's like this Yang. Statistically speaking, over seventy-five percent of the people sitting around us will meet their future husband or wife while attending this school. It's what's expected of them. When powerful Huntsmen have children with powerful Huntresses, their offspring have an increased chance of having a large amount of aura, a powerful Semblance or maybe even both. What that means is that the most powerful and skilled Huntsmen are almost always the most sought after from a romantic standpoint, and Hunter Academies are a convenient place to prove that strength. I think the people sitting around us are already beginning to take the whole "meet who they'll marry and mate" aspect of their time at school a little too seriously."
After completing a quick scan of the children sitting around the room, Jaune put down his glass of orange juice and gave Ren a significant look. "I also suspect that quite a few of the boys sitting around us will start kicking the crap out of each other sometime very soon. They'll consider proving their superiority by force a far simpler plan than trying to appeal to a woman on some normal plane, like oh, I don't know... speaking to them."
Snort!... Across the table, Ren immediately covered his face to hide the fact that he'd just laughed with his mouth full of milk.
"Why would the boys beat each other up instead of just sparring with the girl that they want to impress?" While Ruby was completely horrified by the entire theme of their conversation, she was also curious about the rationale behind John's prediction.
"It's a matter of risk versus gain," Ren pointed out, as he put aside the last vestiges of his breakfast. "I'm no slouch as a Huntsman trainee, but my Semblance is better suited as a support skill rather than an offensive one. Most men have either a very simple offensive skill or a far more complicated and versatile support skill. The number of men on Remnant that have extremely powerful offensive Semblances can probably be counted using the fingers on two hands, and they'd all be highly sought after. Women on the other hand... Well... Nora here's a powerhouse... literally, and I'd be willing to bet that you and Yang are the same."
"I've always known that there are a ton more powerful Huntresses then there are Huntsmen," Yang conceded with a smirk aimed at Jaune. "I always just thought that it stemmed from there being far more female Hunters, period."
"A ratio of about four to one for Hunters which is even worse than that of the normal civilian population at three to one, and yes, that's definitely a contributing factor," Jaune agreed, while leaning his elbows in over the table. "None of the geneticists that I've ever spoken to can agree about why the aura bolstering practices of the past resulted in an increased likelihood of women being born over men, or why women tend to have more powerful Semblances. What they do agree about, is that women generally have a modest but noticeable leg up in terms of raw offensive power."
"Which is why the boys at this school are going to be jerks to each other instead of confronting the girls directly." Yang finished in a disgusted sounding voice. "I don't like those schoolyard bully boys to begin with, but now that I know what their motive is, their behavior is going to be that much harder to stomach."
In the end, Jaune didn't bring up the fact that Yang didn't like boys period. He also didn't point out that she definitely wasn't kind and courteous like her sister was. It was a close won thing, but he managed to control himself. He had far more important things to do with his morning than argue back and forth with Yang...
BUUURP! With an enthusiastic smacking of her lips, Nora finally finished pounding back a triple stack of unbelievably syrupy pancakes, at which point she turned to slap Ren on the back. "Renny here's the only reason that the two of us are alive right now. His Semblance is completely awesome even though it isn't useful against people."
"That may be true Nora," Ren allowed with a smile. "That doesn't change the fact that I'll never be a champion in the Mistral Grand Arena or the Vytal Festival, and that's the kind of spectacle that guarantees a half dozen wives."
Off to the side, Nora was visibly ecstatic that there was no harem route in Ren's future. No one who saw the look on the orangette's face thought that Ren had anything to worry about romantically.
On the other hand, when Ruby and Yang turned their attention back towards Jaune, they both went out of their way to give him super embellished looks of overflowing pity. If Jaune was being honest, their comically embellished concern still managed to be just a little bit insulting even though it was obvious that they were just joking around. The fact of the matter was that he was a boy, part of the minority, and thus far more likely to find at least one interested partner...
"Now, now, don't give me that," Jaune laughed out, while waving his hands in front of his chest. "While overwhelming strength is definitely an efficient way of attracting a Huntress, nobody said that it's the only way to appeal to a woman."
"So Creep Boy thinks that he's appealing huh?" Yang's skepticism was loud and clear for everyone to hear.
While Jaune did bristle a bit at Yang's continued use of that annoying nickname, the self assured grin never completely slipped off of his face. "Well... If attracting my partner of choice based on my looks, charm or Huntsman skills doesn't work out for me, I could always try to impress them with my more than stellar househusband abilities. I can balance a budget, cook, bake, clean, sew, and paint. I also know how to weld, repair a car, maintain an airship or custom build a high spec computer."
"You definitely didn't grow up out in the wilds then," Ren pointed out with just a hint of accusation in his voice. "I thought you didn't go to a preparatory school because you were living in some no nothing colony."
"What I said was that I didn't go to a prep school and that I came from far away," John defended in an even tone. "I told you the truth, but the words "far away" don't necessarily mean the outer wilds."
"John's from somewhere in Atlas, but that's all we've gotten out of him so far," Yang revealed in a mischievous tone of voice. "He claims he spent two years on the run from some mysterious group, but he shuts us down whenever we ask for more details."
"I don't trust you with those details because you continue to prove that I can't," John suddenly bit out in an extremely frustrated tone of voice. "My coming here from Atlas isn't a sensitive topic, but the fact that I've been on the run definitely is. You never once thought about why I might be keeping secrets from you, because you have absolutely no tact whatsoever."
"Hey! That's not true," Yang immediately defended.
"Before you even knew Nora and Ren's first names, you told them that I stalked a pop idol back in Atlas," John pointed out in a deadpan voice. "You are quite literally the last person I can trust with sensitive information."
"Wait! That was a true story," Ren gasped out, while leaning forwards over the table. "I thought the girls were just messing with you."
For the next minute or so, John was far too busy trying to convince Ren that he wasn't some kind of sex offender to pay any attention to Yang. When he did finally look back in the girl's direction, it was to find that both she and Ruby had left the table.
"Yang may have deserved every second of that, I don't know, but I do know that she took what you said pretty hard just now," Nora pointed out, as she regarded the plates that Ruby and Yang left behind. "Yang didn't look so happy when she marched out of here just now. Ruby took off after her."
Well... Damn...
"Yang wait," Ruby called out as she hustled to follow her sister through an empty courtyard.
"Just leave me alone," Yang groaned out without turning around.
"I don't get it though," Ruby called out in return. "If you're just gonna get all bent out of shape when John gets angry at you, why do you go out of your way to harass him?"
"I have no idea why I'm doing what I'm doing," Yang suddenly yelled towards the sky with her arms raised above her head. "I have literally no clue! It's completely obvious that John's a hard working, decent guy... and knowing that makes me feel... itchy. I think I'd be much happier if he was like the rest of those losers back in Patch!"
Sliding to a stop just behind Yang's right shoulder, Ruby watched her sister have a total meltdown with a completely astonished look upon her face. Never, not once, not in all the time that Ruby had known her sister, had she ever seen the girl stray this far from sanity.
This... This was going to be a problem...
Half an hour after breakfast ended, Jaune found himself walking through the third floor corridor on the left, looking for his newly assigned locker. The problem with said locker was that the piece of paper described it as being 608, but the lockers in the 600 hallway jumped right from 607 to 609. The end result was that Jaune was wandering up and down the hallway, feeling like an imbecile. It also meant that he was losing time that could be better spent stretching, sharpening his sword or even just using the bathroom.
In the midst of his searching, Jaune passed an intersection in the hallways, where he caught sight of someone wasting their time even more than he was. The illustrious Weiss Schnee was trying to hammer out a partnership with another fighter before Beacon's Initiation test even began... While Jaune was a homeschooled train wreck of both missing knowledge and unnecessary specialties, even he knew that the Initiation test pairings were going to be completely random. The entire point of the pairing system was to force you to make do with the cards that you're dealt, with a side focus on improvisation and small team building. The chaotic nature of the Initiation test was completely obvious to absolutely everyone taking part, with the sole exception of the most obsessive compulsive person that Jaune had ever met.
The situation probably wasn't ironic by textbook standards, but it definitely had a similar flavor.
"...and so I was thinking that the two of us could be on a team together," Weiss monologged to a completely forlorn looking Pyrrha Nikos...
"It seems I'm going to have to be the bearer of bad news," Jaune suddenly called out, as he continued to study the lockers that he was passing. "Unfortunately for the two of you, both the partnerships and the teams are going to be formed essentially at random as a testing element during the Initiation process. It's a shame though. I think you girls would've made an excellent team, which is why I suggest you aim to be good friends instead. Well... Good luck in your Initiation." With his message delivered, Jaune waved over his shoulder and attempted to make a quick getaway.
"John!"
The heiress's outraged voice wasn't something that Jaune was good at ignoring, which is why he stopped in place and turned back around. "Yes?"
"I don't appreciate you yelling PSA announcements at me like that," Weiss barked out while stomping her foot. "Come back here and explain yourself."
"I'd be happy to help, but I'll need to keep this short. I'm pretty sure my weapons locker doesn't actually exist." Walking back over to Weiss and Pyrrha, Jaune extended his hand out towards the redhead. "It's nice to meet you Ms. Nikos. My name's John Freeman. I learned about you and your accomplishments a little over two weeks ago, and that's despite the fact that I've never watched an Arena fight in my life. My suggestion to you, if I'm correct and you do in fact desire some anonymity, is that you put away the tiara for an afternoon, buy a wig and a baggy sweater and be completely honest with both your team and your friends. A little personal freedom and downtime isn't an unreasonable request."
Turning his attention towards the heiress next, Jaune arched an eyebrow at the girl. "This may not be the explanation that you were seeking Weiss, but I want you to tell me something. Why did you travel clear across the ocean to go to Beacon Academy, instead of attending Atlas?"
"That's a stupid question," Weiss immediately grumbled. "You know very well that I wanted freedom from my father and all of the other people that were trying to treat me like a pawn in their chess game..." As Weiss's words slowly trailed to a stop, she looked down at her feet and then back up at Pyrrha. "My apologies Ms. Nikos. It appears I've been rather thoughtless regarding your feelings."
Up until that moment, Pyrrha's mouth had been bobbing open and shut in her surprise and shock. Now that both Jaune and Weiss were looking to include her in their back and forth, she shook the confusion from her face and visibly attempted to form a response. "How... but... I haven't said a word about... Am I just that transparent?"
"No. Rest assured that you're not," Weiss replied, once again in a sullen sounding grumble. "John's just a freak that way. If you decide to have anything to do with this impertinent boy, be prepared for him to meddle in your affairs and learn intimate details about your life that he has no business knowing."
"That's not fair to say or even accurate except under very specific circumstances, and you need to stop telling people stories about me with that kind of slant," Jaune immediately defended. "Besides," he continued, while stretching his arms out at his sides. "I'm not meddling anymore. We had a deal and you delivered. This... I was just walking by. I had no intention of..."
"But you're always just walking by," Weiss interrupted, both loudly and with feeling.
"Is John... a 'fan' of yours," Pyrrha asked Weiss, in an uneasy sounding voice.
Right away, Jaune could see that Pyrrha must've had a few bad experiences with 'fans' in the past, because she definitely wasn't using that word as a compliment. She was also studying the matching scar on his face, which probably meant that she was coming up with some pretty unsettling conclusions of her own.
Well... Damn...
As Weiss managed to create yet another reputation damaging misunderstanding, an angry tick suddenly formed between Jaune's eyebrows, and he began regretting a great many of his recent decisions. He'd never signed up to be the heiress's punching bag, and he wasn't the type of guy that gets off on abuse. Nevertheless, he figured he'd give Weiss just one last opportunity to salvage the situation. While drawing in a very deep breath for the patience required, he turned towards Weiss and stared her in the eyes. He didn't say the words out loud, but he figured the message was clear nonetheless... Fix this. Fix this now or I'm done with you...
While Weiss did look a bit torn about whether or not she would correct Pyrrha's misunderstanding, she never managed to move beyond just staring at him with an extremely complicated expression on her face.
Weiss's non reaction actually made perfect sense when Jaune really thought about it. Anything the heiress might have said in his defense would've ended up making her look completely unreasonable in front of her new friend Pyrrha. Unfortunately for Jaune, that understanding didn't actually make his current situation any easier to stomach. After the silence hanging between the three of them grew into an unbearably awkward impasse, he finally completely ran out of patience, scoffed at the absurdity of it all, and then nodded his head for seemingly no reason. "My apologies Heiress Schnee... It appears I've been terribly naïve regarding the nature of our relationship. Not to worry though. You've firmly put me in my place. I'm so unbelievably uncomfortable right now, it actually feels kind of surreal. Very impressive."
After delivering a picture perfect courtly bow, Jaune spun on the spot and marched away.
The one good thing about being furious to the point of an ice-cold clarity, was that it managed to alter Jaune's perceptions. His locker number wasn't 608 at all... It was 809...
After watching Weiss silently extend her hand out towards John's retreating back as he rounded a corner, Pyrrha saw the Atlesian heiress bite into her bottom lip, a nervous tell that Atlesian nobles simply do not do, and she realized that she must've suffered some kind of misunderstanding. Armed with that knowledge and a healthy amount of curiosity, Pyrrha finally found the will to break the awkward silence... "Ummm, Weiss," she began in a gentle tone of voice. "Judging by how angry John was just now, he's not an avid fan that devolved into a stalker..."
At first Weiss only shook her head, but then she turned her attention down to her feet. "No. He isn't, like, at all... John's the exact opposite. He's a professional. He was part of an undercover protection detail that was placed on me a little over a year ago..."
"Uhh, ohhh," Pyrrha exhaled in her surprise. "Well, I can see why you'd have trouble trusting his motives then, but why were you letting me believe that he's an obsessive fan?"
"I wouldn't have allowed you to leave for the Initiation Test still thinking that John's a stalker, but I was hoping that he'd become more honest about himself and his circumstances if it meant defending his reputation," Weiss explained, with her hands balled up at her sides. "The fact that my plan failed so spectacularly only underscores how determined John is to continue keeping secrets from me... I can't... I won't be able to relax around him until I know for sure... He swears that he isn't on the job right now, but it's extremely suspicious how he keeps swooping in to save me."
"Do you have any specific examples of him swooping in?" At this point, Pyrrha kinda wanted to hug Weiss, because the girl was acting like a cute defenseless little animal. She understood enough about Atlesian nobility to know better, but she still wanted to do it anyway.
After a few moments spent hesitating, Weiss sighed and then began rattling off every instance of John being suspiciously useful to her in recent memory. "Two weeks ago, John just happened to be around to help me save the airship that we flew across the ocean on when it was suddenly overrun by pirates. We met again outside of the school yesterday, where he defended my honor from some random girl who appears to hate my family, and then he stood next to me in the auditorium when he noticed that I was alone. After the assembly, he persuaded me to spend the night with some local girls that he trusts by claiming he'd leave me alone from that point forward. He broke our deal just now by calling out to us. I suspect he was trying to keep my ambitions from driving a wedge between you and I. I'll say it again. John's a professional. He reads people with uncanny accuracy, he's subtle, and while I know that he's a good person, he's a skilled actor that can and has deceived me in the past."
Despite everything that she'd just said being true, a very uncomfortable dropping sensation had formed in the pit of Weiss's stomach, where it was growing larger with every passing second. While John would definitely lie to her if he had a good enough reason, his anger just now had been very, very genuine... She also really didn't like the way that he'd called her "Heiress Schnee" before he turned to walk away...
While listening to Weiss's story, Pyrrha had been waiting for the girl to describe John doing something suspicious or maybe just inappropriately intrusive. The story she received instead sounded more like it came out of a harlequin romance. Whether or not John was actually being paid for any of his services, Weiss was extremely fortunate that the boy had been watching out for her, if not in her social life, then at the very least on that airship. Of course, this meant that Pyrrha owed Mr. Freeman an apology. Between his pitch black hair, unconventional clothing, and the oddly familiar scar marring his handsome features, she'd been making up some pretty scary stories in her head...
At the tail end of Weiss's story, that same unnatural quiet from earlier settled over the hallway.
"Uhhhmm.. Weiss," Pyrrha finally forced out, this time with a noticeably hesitant quality to her voice. "I'm just brainstorming here, so I'm sorry if I'm way off base, but... Is there a possibility that all of John's good deeds are merely a result of chance, the fact that the two of you were heading in the same direction, and that he cares about your wellbeing? It seems to me that John tried his level best to move on just now, only for you to insist that he come back..."
...Unhappy heiress noises...
"...I'm sorry..."
By the time Pyrrha noticed the impact that her words were having on Weiss, it was far too late and the damage was already done.
Weiss Schnee looked completely miserable...
Finally, finally, Jaune found his weapon locker, where he quite happily donned the second last article of clothing that he owned (he'd left Penny's teddy bear knight t-shirt back at Taiyang's house for safekeeping while they were training).
The foundation suit was clean, it was in good repair, and it didn't make Jaune look like a ninja from an extremely low budget movie. Ironically, the black rubber composite and shiny steel plates that made up the foundation suit were probably much closer to what a shinobi really would wear, but they actually served a purpose and that was all that mattered.
The fact that the most normal piece of clothing Jaune owned was a skin tight future-tech onesie would have to remain unexplored for now, and that was probably for the best. His primary concern would have to be the Initiation test and the way that it was evolving into a performance evaluation that would dictate the quality of his education. While his rifle-shield and sword were still serviceable enough, they were far from being in perfect condition and that was going to be a problem. Jaune was self-aware enough to know that he was nowhere near the strongest Hunter trainee, which meant that he was less than pleased with the current state of his gear.
The reality of the situation was that the wear and tear subjected on Jaune's weaponry was far from being their only hangup. More and more frequently as of late, he'd found himself marveling at the weapons used by the people around him, such as Qrow, Taiyang and Ruby. That isn't to say that he knew exactly what he wanted to change, but the sword that he was using had a hilt that could definitely contain a mechashifting pistol or a Dust canister or maybe even both, it was equally uncommon that his sword blade was merely sharpened steel, and his rifle-shield was unsuited towards combat with other Hunters.
One thing was becoming increasingly obvious with every new Hunter that Jaune made contact with. No one had any appreciation for the classics anymore...
Not even him...
Then, there was the fact that Jaune didn't want to spend his entire Huntsman career as a one trick pony that was entirely dependent on his reactive armor to get by. He had a Semblance that could technically be used in a wide variety of ways, and he also had the scientific background necessary to make the most of it. The problem up until now was that he'd always been far too busy to focus on things that were too theoretical or esoteric in nature...
When the initiation was over, and Jaune finally had the free time required to focus on self-improvement, he had every intention of figuring out exactly what he was capable of with the right gear, and training...
The cliff-side field that lay to the South of Beacon Academy was a picturesque bit of land, and it was as appropriate a place as any to begin the Initiation test. Jaune couldn't help but appreciate the theatricality of the nearly two-kilometer drop directly behind the podium as he walked into the clearing and approached some of the other early arrivals.
Once again, for Maiden's only know what time in the last twenty-four hours, Jaune found himself the recipient of some gawking from the girls and a few guys snickered at his expense, but since his clothing was military future-tech, he couldn't say that he was all that surprised. There was also the fact that while quite a few women were wearing skin tight clothing, Jaune was the only boy at the venue that was doing the same. There appeared to be some kind of weird double standard in play over here in Vale and Jaune couldn't quite figure it out. Nevertheless, for the second time in just twenty-four hours, he was forced to adopt a casual and uncaring demeanor as he walked towards a series of small platforms arrayed in front of a larger upraised stage.
When Jaune moved close enough to study the various platforms scattered around the clearing, he saw that they all had names printed on them in what appeared to be alphabetical order. Of course what that really meant was that Jaune's platform was going to be a good distance away from absolutely everyone that he knew.
Then it turned out that Jaune was wrong...
The girl wearing the black ribbon suddenly glided by on Jaune's right hand side, moving her generous hips with a fluid grace that just couldn't be fabricated. She never once looked in his direction while taking her spot about eight meters to Jaune's left among the last names starting with a "B," but she didn't look at anyone else either so he didn't feel all that dejected. In return, Jaune decided not to look at the name printed atop the girl's platform. Until she decided to share her name with him, it was none of his business.
Still... It was oddly comforting to have someone that he recognized standing somewhere nearby.
The black haired girl herself appeared to be both calm and composed, but her posture and bearing made it look like she was standing at attention. The way the girl was behaving had the effect of making the people around her look both sloppy and immature in comparison. Then again, considering the interaction that he'd had with the girl the day before, that was probably exactly how she perceived them all...
Looking away from the black haired girl's proud and somewhat defiant profile, Jaune suddenly decided that it wouldn't hurt to emulate her. With only a few exceptions, all of the people that he'd met within the last month had either disliked, disrespected or were suspicious of him. What made that trend even worse was that all of the people involved were very different from each other and yet they all had similar issues with him. Operating under the assumption that it was his strict Atlesian upbringing that was the problem, the only solution that Jaune could think of was to give everyone a wide berth until he could figure out what he was doing wrong (with the exception of Ruby who seemed to appreciate his attention).
With a small sigh and a stretch of his shoulders, Jaune straightened out his posture and settled his entire focus onto the stage. Soon enough, he was making a list of his priorities during the Initiation, and he didn't even notice the rest of his class filtering into the clearing.
When Headmaster Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch and several other instructors walked up onto the stage, every single one of them were moving both quickly and with a sense of extreme purpose. Nobody who'd ever met Headmaster Ozpin could stop themselves from staring at the man in alarm. Ozpin just didn't do haste or anything even remotely similar. Something was up... Something big was happening... What's more, Ozpin intended to get them involved...
"Croftlan Colony is being Grimm swarmed as we speak," Ozpin suddenly announced without any preamble. "Beacon's response is to send four teams of our most accomplished fourth years to join the defense on the colony's walls. We're also changing the parameters of the Initiation test this year to give all you toddlers a chance to make yourselves useful..."
A series of freaked out whispers bounced back and forth across the clearing as the newest batch of Hunter trainees were suddenly faced with the reality of their future profession. Judging by the surprised looks on their faces, many of the students had thought that Beacon would be just like any other high-school/college, except with daily combat classes and a very well-stocked gym.
They were wrong.
On the other hand, there were several people standing within the students who looked both confident and self-assured. While these students were probably the most highly trained fighters of the class, they were also more than likely the least experienced regarding real life Grimm hunting. Grimm swarms are chaos incarnate, which is why even S Ranked Hunters approach them with extreme caution.
Jaune found himself biting his bottom lip as a steady stream of adrenaline coursed throughout his bloodstream. In the time since he first started taking contracts as a D ranked Freelancer, he'd never been expected to take part in any missions that involved Grimm Swarms. Nevertheless, John knew exactly how bad they could get, and he doubted he'd ever forget it... While he definitely wasn't the most experienced trainee within the newly admitted class, he did have a pretty good idea of the anarchy that they were about to face.
One thing was absolutely certain. They were going to have their work cut out for them...
As his body started thrumming with anxious energy, Jaune suddenly found his right heel tapping against the platform in his growing impatience. If the situation was as dire as what Ozpin was describing, then it was already well past time that they be on their way. Any explanation that Jaune and the rest of his class required could be given on the airships, but time was already of the essence...
It was at the tail end of that thought that Jaune caught a deep thrumming sound growing louder and more powerful by the second, and realized that Ozpin was way ahead of him. A somewhat violent grin started growing upon his face as over half a dozen troupe transport airships crested the edge of the cliff and the downward pressure from their VTOL thrusters beat down upon his head and shoulders.
Several of the boys scattered around the clearing were buffeted right off of their pedestals and some even left their feet entirely. Jaune found himself grinning even wider as he looked around at the sprawled out boys... If they hadn't been wearing such baggy clothing, the air pressure wouldn't have knocked them over.
Sometimes, you just have to take enjoyment in the little things...
Less than five minutes later, Professor Goodwitch and her fellow professors had all of the students secured in the various airships. While at first they'd intended to keep everyone organized in the same neat alphabetized rows that were used on the launchpads, they finally gave up on that idea around the time the different groups were dashing up the boarding ramps. Speed was far more important than strict organization, so Jaune ended up just mashed in with the first chunk of the alphabet.
The airships were military in nature, which meant that they were darkly lit, utilitarian in nature and devoid of any comfort whatsoever. Instead of seats, everyone was ordered to enter their own little drop bay, where they were attached to the wall with several straps and harnesses.
From his spot at the midpoint of the fuselage near the machine gun emplacement, Jaune kept himself occupied by adjusting a brand new pair of HUD display goggles. All of the students had been handed a pair as they boarded their different airships, so they were probably going to be the visual aid portion of the mission briefing. That much was obvious even without the small but bright series of green numbers that were streaming across the bottom of the right side lens. It was a one minute countdown.
To Jaune's right was a noticeably muscular girl that was either manic with excitement or terrified in the extreme. It was hard to tell which it was because of all the harnesses obscuring the girl's features, but she was shaking like a leaf and her knees were bouncing up and down at a rapid pace. On the other hand, by some fluke, the black ribboned girl had ended up on Jaune's left and the chances were pretty good that she was asleep. She was just hanging there in her harnesses like a slab of beef in a butcher shop. It was only when the airship's engines kicked into gear and the entire fuselage began vibrating that the ribbon girl's hand twitched and then flattened out against her thigh.
Soon enough, the airship drew itself up off of the ground and then began accelerating vertically at a rapid rate. Small shrieks, yelps and scattered muttering could be heard throughout the dark compartment, as all of the students swung and bobbed in their harnesses. While it may not have been the most convenient timing, this was also the moment when the digital countdown on the goggles came to an end and an image of Headmaster Ozpin superimposed itself over their vision.
On the other side of the HUD projection, Ozpin stared at the holographic camera as if he were using it to peer into the student's souls. He was piling on the intensity with his gaze to the point that everyone was distracted away from the airship's erratic movements. Then he started speaking, and the inertia being piled on everyone's shoulders was completely forgotten.
"Now that we aren't wasting time just standing around in a field, I'll explain what will be expected from you during the Initiation test," Ozpin announced in an extremely serious voice. "I want to make one thing very clear right from the beginning. Until you prove your skills to me over several years on dozens of different missions, I will continue to consider you a liability in the field. What that means is that you are not allowed to just sprint off towards Croftlan's defensive walls to fight the entire Grimm swarm. The areas that comprise the initiation test will be at least a Kilometer away from Croftlan, will be lit up on the lens of your HUD glasses in one of several different colors, and if you leave these areas you will fail." Ozpin's eyes held zero negotiation... There weren't going to be any tribunals or extenuating circumstances involved. If you left the testing area you were out...
"The colors that will be imposed over your HUD glasses will indicate the level of danger that will be present in an area," Ozpin finally continued. "The level of danger will escalate from green, which is relatively safe, to blue, yellow, orange and finally red. Likewise there will be a dull color superimposed over all of the Grimm you fight today using the same color coding as before. Green enemies will be extremely weak and red enemies will be strong."
After pausing for just a moment to let everyone absorb what he'd said so far, Ozpin began speaking again. "Within the next few minutes, your drop bay is going to open, your harnesses are going to release you, and you will find yourself in a free fall towards the ground. From that point forward, it'll be up to you to control your descent and land in an area with a danger level that you're comfortable with. In order to pass the initiation test, you must accomplish the following objectives. You need to meet up with and work next to someone else in your class. The first solo person that you meet after landing in the testing area will end up with a white halo superimposed over their heads. This person will be your teammate and everyone else is to be considered the competition. That's not to say that I'll condone any of you attacking each other, but your performance relative to everyone else will be a deciding factor in the quality of your education. Every move that all of you make for the rest of the afternoon will be recorded by your HUD goggles for review purposes, and Ms. Goodwitch, Mr. Port and Mr. Oobleck will be on site enforcing the rules. If any of the professors are forced to discipline you for leaving the area or attacking a fellow student, your time with us will be at an end. "For the second time in less than a minute, Ozpin's eyes reflected the fact that what he'd just said was completely non-negotiable.
After several more seconds went by where Ozpin just stared into the camera, he finally wrapped up his explanation. "Your goal for the day is to destroy fifty blue colored Grimm and four yellow colored ones. This quota is directed to both you and your partner as a team, which is why none of the Grimm that you destroy before you pair up with someone will count towards the test's completion."
While the fact that he was about to be dropped from an airship midflight did have Jaune's asshole tightening up in alarm, for the most part he was just impressed with the engineering of Ozpin's test. Having the HUD goggles recording everything was an ingenious check against cheating, and making the test impossible to finish without first finding a partner made people far more likely to cooperate with each other. Those two things plus the color coded testing area to keep them all at a relatively safe distance from the swarm had Jaune nodding his head in appreciation. Their new Initiation was well thought out, especially considering the time constraints that Ozpin was forced to work with when designing it. Then he realized that he didn't have time to be impressed. It was long past time that he start focusing on his aura.
Just a few short weeks earlier, Jaune had admitted to Weiss that he didn't have what Hunters call a "landing strategy." What he hadn't revealed at the time was just how frustrated he was with his own lack of forethought. For that reason, he'd been thinking of a solution to the problem during what little free time he'd had over the last couple of weeks.
The way that Jaune had survived falls in the past was to channel his aura throughout his body and then hold it in a kind of suspended animation during the moment that he impacted the ground. The problem with using his aura to turn his body into a meteor was that it had never been a hundred percent effective at preventing damage and it usually drained about twenty percent of his total aura. Now that he'd given the problem some more thought, Jaune had devised a strategy to decrease his downward velocity which would hypothetically reduce the impact against his body and lower his aura expenditure to about five percent. The new plan still couldn't be compared to the elegant antigravity landing that heiress Schnee would probably make, but it was still far better than nothing.
When Ozpin's face dropped away from the inner lens of their goggles, a thirteen-minute timer popped into place in its stead. Presumably this was the amount of time that they had left before their drop bays would open and their Initiation test would begin.
Or had their test already begun?
Several people off in the din of the airship compartment could be heard muttering to themselves, and Jaune wasn't fool enough to believe that their words weren't being recorded. Likewise, several other people were taking out their anxiety on the people around themselves by belittling their weapons, skills, appearance or demeanor, which had Jaune shaking his head in disgust.
While low level anxiety before a dangerous operation was very common and not worth mentioning in a mission assessment, uncontrolled fear was a very real problem and cruelty was even worse. It was vital that Hunters present a united front against the Grimm, which is why they simply couldn't afford to spread negativity like that just minutes before an operation. With that axiom in mind, Jaune started speaking into the quiet of the passenger compartment in a low but clear tone of voice... "According to what I've read in the Freelance guild's records, the average size of a Grimm swarm can be estimated by the size of the colony being attacked. Does anyone here know Croftlan's current population?"
After several moments passed without anyone responding, the black ribboned girl to Jaune's left quietly sighed and then answered the question. "Croftlan's only existed for a little more than half a decade. It's never been able to grow over the benchmark of ten-thousand people, but it's gotten close on a regular basis."
"The ceiling estimate for a Grimm swarm attacking a colony that size is about fifteen-thousand strong," Jaune continued into the renewed silence. "While there's a pretty good chance that there won't be quite that many Grimm, I think it's best to assume the worst. I'd be willing to bet that the segments of test area that are closest to Croftlan Colony are all going to be bright red on our HUDs because they'll be filled by the tail end of the swarm. If you can picture a line beginning at Croftlan's barrier wall, cutting through the main body of the swarm and then running about two kilometers further out into the forest, this is where I'd suggest everyone land. If we all drop somewhere near there, we can make contact with our partners and then approach the operation in larger numbers."
"You're a coward and an idiot," a nasally male voice called out from somewhere near the rear of the airship. "This is a competition, not some third grade field trip. I'm not going to play nice with anyone except the lucky SOB that gets me as a partner."
"There's still going to be hundreds and hundreds of Grimm left long after each and every one of us destroy our quotas," Jaune countered in the same tone as before."
"You better hope I don't destroy you during the test," the boy growled in reply. "I know exactly what you're trying to do. You're trying to manipulate us into getting a late start. You're trying to give yourself an advantage."
"I have no idea what you think I'd gain by deceiving you, but what you decide to do is up to you." With a sigh, Jaune closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. What this unnamed boy was failing to understand was that the Initiation test contained at least one hidden element.
In his own insulting fashion, Ozpin had given them all an important clue about what was truly expected of them during the test. They weren't to be heroes. They weren't allowed to dash towards the Grimm swarm like a one-person army. Ozpin had been very clear that the first year trainees were only being brought along because they might be useful in large numbers.
What this meant to Jaune was that Ozpin wanted them all to work together despite the rules of the test pushing them to do otherwise. Ozpin was testing them morally just as much as he was testing them physically. The Headmaster wanted to know what was most important in the eyes of his newest trainees. Was their top priority the resources and prestige that they might win over each other, or was it protecting Croftlan Colony?
While it couldn't be denied that the Initiation was a competition, it was also a very real crisis with very real lives on the line. There were civilian families with little children that were currently waiting for help within Croftlan's emergency bunkers. If the Hunter trainees sitting around the airship's hangar bay only saw the upcoming mission as a way of showcasing their skills, then they'd be ignoring the entire purpose of their training to an absolutely unforgivable degree...
Thankfully, Jaune could hear several different students around the compartment confirming that they were going to land two kilometers further out so that they could meet up with other people. It was enough to restore Jaune's faith in humanity even if most of the people were only doing what made sense.
"Tests within tests within tests," the black ribboned girl suddenly whispered from Jaune's left hand side. The way the girl was staring at him paired with her words made it clear she thought that he was a part of the test. The suspicion in her eyes wasn't malicious, but she clearly thought that he was a 'plant,' a student that was on Beacon's payroll as a spy or informant.
"Why do so many people immediately assume that I'm an imposter," Jaune groused to himself.
"There's just no way you're a normal student," The black ribboned girl quietly responded. "Too informed... Too quick... Too polished... Waaay too meddlesome... You're a plant. You're staff."
"It upsets me that your life experiences have made you this cynical," Jaune whispered, even as he bobbed his head in a thoughtful manner. "Still... No. I'm not a plant. My name's John Freeman and I'm no less a student here than you are. Ozpin doesn't need spies policing students or delivering information. He made it abundantly clear during his earlier explanation that we're not going to be of any use to Croftlan unless we work in larger numbers. We can either choose to work together or we can choose to be of no help at all. I want to help."
"That sounds exactly like something a plant would say," black ribbon girl pointed out with just the smallest of grins on her face.
After releasing a long, slow breath, Jaune abruptly turned away from the girl and began readjusting the weapons on his back. He didn't have time to worry about this girl's opinion. Less than two minutes remained until drop, and once again he'd allowed himself to be distracted away from his mental preparations. He also had to admit that the black ribbon girl was being a bit of a pain.
"My name's Blake Belladonna..."
Halting right in his tracks, Jaune's blue eyes slowly tracked back towards Blake Belladonna's yellow gold irises. This Blake girl was starting to remind him of Yang, and not in a good way. Both girls were just a little too openly judgmental to be considered polite, and neither girl seemed to know how introductions are supposed to work. On the other hand, if Ruby's advice on the matter was to be believed, then this girl was probably just teasing him and didn't actually mean any harm...
As if he was flipping a switch in his head, Jaune suddenly forced all of his growing frustration to leak from his body in one overlarge exhale. Then, when he was finished with that feat of mental discipline, he quietly extended his left arm out at his side, and the two of them awkwardly shook hands in space between their drop bays.
For just a moment, Jaune thought about saying something nice or welcoming to rubber stamp the moment that the two of them were sharing, but then he caught the determined set of Blake's jaw and realized that she was already pushing the limits of her comfort zone. Young Ms. Belladonna was clearly reserved well beyond the point of being merely guarded, but she was attempting to grow beyond the constraints of her self-isolation. Well... It was either that or the girl had an extreme aversion to touching him... It may not have been very charitable on his part, but Jaune suddenly found himself hoping that Blake truly was a paranoid social recluse...
"Beep. One minute to drop, one minute to drop. Beep."
With that cheerfully robotic alert from within the band of his HUD glasses, Jaune immediately put aside his rather bad track record with the opposite sex to focus his attention towards far more important things...
It was time... The Mission was about to begin...