Best possible version of yourself, chapter 8
AN: Welcome back everyone, this chapter will be a fairly long one again, though my apologies ahead of time for not making it to the 'final chapter before Beacon' in this, originally was going to but it just became too long. More explanation after the chapter itself.
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Atlas, Schnee household
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Whitley can be seen pacing and muttering to himself in front of a door before shaking his head and steeling his resolve, at which point he turns towards the door and knocks. A feminine voice can be heard from behind it, allowing him entry. As he walks in the young lady sitting there looks up while saying ''Klein, I didn't expect you to return so early…. Oh?'' Her demeanour changes immediately, growing colder ''Why are you here Whitley, ready to spout fathers words on how I'll be wasting my time trying to help people, that profits and fortune for the family name are the only things worthy of chasing?''
This behaviour from her, while expected, doesn't help with Whitley's already waning confidence in his current actions, before he gathers himself, remembering the sights and feelings in Vale, both the good and the bad, especially the helplessness when faced with a single beowolf growling at his face only to later see two men jump down into a veritable horde of the beasts as if it was nothing. ''It's about our family semblance sister…''
She looks confused for a moment before a spark of worry appears in her eye, something he'd not seen her look at him with for a long time, long enough to believe it might have been gone as she almost rushes over, but then instead slows and composes herself and walks over, before taking him by hand and sitting him down on the bed next to herself, both very unfamiliar and uncertain about the situation. Softly she asks ''How did it happen? Does anything hurt? Do you need medical attention?''
Slowly Whitley talks about what happened, ''I'd gone to Vale intending on getting some simple favours and connections with a young huntsman after finding some interesting information about one saving one of our outposts from a report sent from the Vale branch and how he'd intend on sharing a proposition on assisting with additional security in Vale for us. Only once there and meeting him, he instead had met up with a companion and the two of them had devised a plan to start up a Private Military Corporation.'' He looks up at her with sad eyes while saying this, making her worry increase.
''I know how the general populous, even most workers in our company and the family staff see me Weiss, they call me the soft Schnee, the only one not strong enough to stand up to father, even in the small ways they see you do. They consider me the only one not living up to grandfathers legacy of a businessman who when his workers are in danger charges in and breaks that danger into a thousand pieces with a weapon in hand. So when I heard his intentions, I jumped on them. Of course I negotiated, if he was a complete fool I wouldn't have gone with it, but he was fairly smart and if nothing else looked like the statue of a Valean war hero come to life…'' he shakes his head for a moment before he reveals things he's still coming to terms with himself.
''After some back and forth I got it to the point where I and two bodyguards would be included in the PMC and I would get a decent amount of the shares, but that isn't important now. We were dragged around by another member of the PMC and got ourselves some similar combat uniforms and weapons before I went back to the hotel room and grabbed this. I'd taken it with me in the hopes of finding some way of being able to use it for PR, but this was in my mind even better.'' He draws a short sword from its sheath and lays it across his lap, with Weiss recognizing it very quickly.
''Grandfathers cutlass from when he was a teenager…'' Weiss looks at Whitley in concern ''Whitley, while it is a beautiful ornament, it hasn't been truly maintained for combat in years, possibly decades, in addition to him changing to other weapons specifically because this even when sharp wasn't a very good weapon against more powerful and dangerous Grimm.'' While the remark in and of itself is delivered more harshly than intended, the concern in her voice is also easily noticeable, taking away almost all the sting it would have had, in addition to warming up the young man's heart more.
The two continue talking quietly between them like this, both aware that this will likely be one of their last chances to see each other face to face for quite a while, as Whitley talks about his experiences in Vale while Weiss is both impressed, concerned and especially later on in the story also a bit amused? It seems her little brother has gained a crush in Vale, revolving around what would have been an amusing idea of a stereotypical knight straight from a story, had it not been for the fact that without that knight riding in to rescue him she likely wouldn't have had a younger brother sitting next to her anymore.
As the two sit there quietly talking, reconciling after the many years of a cold conflict between them, neither can see Klein having returned but staying outside, looking in with a sad smile on his face and a tear in his eye, knowing that while the rift is far from completely gone, one can't take away years of distrust and pain in a single moment, a foundation is being laid to overcome it. He softly closes the door but stays near, making sure they are not interrupted by any of the other servants.
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Vale, the next day
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Two blondes where standing in the ring, with their two dark haired younger companions sitting in the small audience benches, with the elders preparing themselves for a fight. Jaune had been feeling somewhat confident until Spirit suddenly spoke up in his mind 'Just so you know, I'm not going to be helping much in this fight. You need to learn how to fight dangerous opponents by yourself at some point. Might as well be against somebody who isn't trying to kill you.'
This drained away just about all confidence Jaune previously had, which Yang noted from the other side of the ring, but set aside as him simply finally realizing he was going to be fighting her, who could smash gangs of criminals on her own. As Jaune was busy cursing out Spirit, he saw Ruby bringing up her hand, causing him to move into a defensive position just in time as a second later she shouted ''Start!'' upon which Yang rushed forward and slammed into his defence with a straight right handed punch followed by firing the shotgun on it while she parried his weak counter attack to the side with the bracer on her left arm, before firing it and while most of the pellets of both missed or hit his shield, two did hit his legs.
At this point though he manages to force aside her right arm with his shield and kick her back with an aura enhanced kick to her left leg before he disengages, though she manages to get off another shot with here gauntlets while this is happening, this time having over half of the pellets hit his retreating right leg. She moves into the offensive again, sending several explosive punches that he manages to block with the shield while parrying another with his sword, however her sheer speed keeps him from being able to react in time to counter-attack.
As this pattern continues for a while Jaune notices something, an opening on her left upper arm and shoulder, she keeps leaving it open while going on the offensive! The next time she sends a left hook he blocks it with his shield instead of parrying and moves in for a heavy but fast overhand hit to her shoulder, committing to it. However as he hits he suddenly realizes something…. Yang doesn't look annoyed at him for getting such a hit in nor is she shocked, instead she is grinning madly… and suddenly as his now outstretched arm is hit by the explosive punch of her right while she quickly follows it up with a hit from her left arm to his now unprotected side, forcing him back instead.
A quick glance at the board shows that while he has done damage, he has suffered more in return, with her still being at 93% while he's already down to 85%. The next exchange begins with him launching light probing attacks, which get parried by her bracers while she fires twice, he dodges the first and takes the second shot on the shield, negating damage. For a counter-attack he stabs at her leg, causing her to jump back before he uses the momentum of the earlier stab to move forward and upward out of his crouched position all the while stabbing at her, only for her to move to the side at the last second, forcing him to turn the stab into a slashing attack that only hits her upper left arm before she slaps the and sword holding it away before punching forward with her other arm, putting him on the defensive again.
At this point she manages to land a shot to his face over the shield, temporarily blinding him and forcing him back, slightly unbalanced, allowing her to grab his sword wielding hand and forcibly push him against the wall with it while trying to keep him in place with her physical strength, with the shotgun end of her gauntlet aimed at his face ''Ready to surrender yet?'' The only thing this overconfidence does though is allow for him to pour so much aura into his shield that it creates a blinding light, distracting her long enough for him to bash forward with the shield, loosening her grip and allowing him a downwards hit against her forehead with the pommel of his sword, sending her stumbling back before he hits her shoulder with another slash downwards.
At this point however Yang's hair turns into a flaming wave behind her as she smirks, her entire body now glowing before she launches a left into his side far faster than she had previously moved, sending him flying sideways down the length of the arena for multiple meters. As she looks up, she now has 70% of her Aura, with him having 49% left. 'If it wasn't for you having half again her aura reserves you would already be on the verge of losing.'
Jaune tries to ignore Spirits currently somewhat annoying voice, realizing that unless he's ready to reveal some of the magical abilities he read up on and have to explain them, there isn't much he can do anymore by this point, causing him to relax his stance a bit ''How do you feel about calling it here? Both of us still need to get back to our homes and the cities streets can be dangerous around here.''
Yang smirks in response ''Sure knight boy, as long as its clear that I beat your ass in this fight.'' While she's talking she moves over and gives him a powerful clap on the shoulder ''That was probably the best fight I've had in a while besides fighting dad or uncle Qrow though, most of my classmates at signal don't even try to put up a fight anymore. Nice breath of fresh air.''
At this point Ruby zips over ''That was awesome, you were all like, while he was all like'' while saying this she attempts to imitate their moves, which the other three people in the room all find both amusing and cute, before she moves a bit too close during said imitation and smells Yang, at which point she pulls quite the face ''And the both of you need to get a shower, badly.'' At this point both of them laugh while Yang tries to grab her sister, causing her to engage her semblance and run behind Oscar. ''Bad Yang, bad!''
Once they stop laughing, Jaune and Yang go to the changing rooms and take a shower before they leave the place as a group to go grab something to eat. As they walk through an alley though a dozen armed men and women step out of nearby alleyways, half with their guns aimed at the young huntsmen in training, the others with axes in hand ''Well, well, if it isn't some lost Beacon kids that have already sparred away their aura. Give us your money now quietly or we'll have to take it from your cold corpses!''
Jaune turns towards the speaker, a dark haired man clad in a grey outfit very reminiscent of how cartoons and comic books portray ninja's. After that he turns his head a bit and looks at the others, all young men and women in their late teens, who are wearing similar outfits and look far too confident in them, especially considering the inexperience the way most of them are holding their weapons showed, regardless of whether it was those with fire-arms or the ones with axes.
Mentally spirit shakes his head 'Yeah these guys aren't going to be much of a challenge, they're probably only used to attacking civilians and more mediocre combat school students that have already used up most of their aura in sparring like they imply they think we did. Leader looks like he actually somewhat knows what he's doing, probably a combat school dropout that thinks he's going to be the next Roman Torchwick, and somehow managed to convince a group of bored teenagers this was a good way to strike it rich quick. I'm going to let you handle this one, if things get dicey I'll interfere, but this seems a good learning experience.'
Sharing a look with Yang he surmises from her bored expression that she realised something similar to him and Spirit, with them exchanging a quick nod and smirk once she realizes he's looking at her face, causing her to turn to the groups leader ''Well that is nice you know… except here's the thing: any single one of us could probably beat your whole little gang on their own. So here's my counter-offer, you guys fuck off, go back home and reconsider your life goals and we don't use you guys as stand-ins for punching bags before dragging you to the police.''
There is a moment of silence, during which several of the 'gang' members seem to realize that this it might not be the best idea to attack a group of armed people with combat training, causing them to start losing the previous confidence. At this, combined with the simple act of his opponents not giving in, the group's leader turns visibly angry and snarls at his goons ''Get them!'' With some still confident and the doubters still fearing him more than their opponents, half of the dozen strong group opens fire while the others rush forward.
This might have been a semi-decent tactic since they surrounded the group, however it was ruined by the sheer lack of co-operation between them, as shown when ruby and Oscar rush to meet their lone close quarter opponents and Ruby's activating her semblance causes the shooter aiming at her to panic and swerve her gun back too far, causing her to hit her comrade in the back with two shots, though luckily for him he had his aura up the combination of that and Ruby ramming her scythe into his middle section throws him into a wall to the side, his aura already breaking after his back hits the wall causing his head hitting the wall to knock him out.
At this point the shooter just straight up drops her rifle and flees, only realizing the folly of this action once Ruby appears in front of her with the business end of a gun aimed at her face, deadly sharp scythe blade hanging below it. Even Ruby's high, childlike voice cannot chip away at the sheer fear the pampered child in front of her feels ''You are going to follow my sisters advice, head home, rethink your life and never do something like this again, yes?''
While said as a simple warning and a honest question, the girls fear makes her pick up a far darker and colder message out of it 'You are going to leave and forget you ever wanted something to do with this, because the next time I catch you, you'll wish you were never born. Got it?' The girl nods so rapidly and stammers out a ''Yes!'' before running faster than she had ever done in her life. As Ruby looks at this confused, not understanding just how dangerous this all would look to a civilian, she shrugs before going back to the group to see if any of them need help.
Rewinding the clock a bit, at the same time as Ruby rushing to deal with her opponents, Oscar quickly moves so that the one rushing him with a hand-axe is between him and the one with a rifle, allowing him to quickly disarm the other teen by slamming his cane under the blade of the axe in a sidewards upwards slash, ripping the axe out of the young mans hands, before kicking him in the knee, followed up by a downwards slash from his cane into where his shoulder and neck meet, sending him stumbling back which is followed up by two quick hits to the head before he shoulder rushes the man into a wall, all the while bringing him within sword reach of the man with a rifle, allowing him to push said rifle upwards and to the side with his left hand while giving a number of quick light hits to the mans face and shoulders before slamming the pommel down into the mans face, sending him stumbling away with his weapon ripped out of his hand, allowing Oscar to use the rifle as a baton and slam it into the face of the man previously wielding an axe, throwing him back down to the ground.
All the while their younger companions where dealing with their opponents with grace and semblances, Jaune and Yang had taken a far more straightforward approach with their two close quarter enemies each, with Jaune just using his charging speed and aura enhanced sword to stab one of his enemies straight in the middle of his rib cage with enough aura enhanced strength to throw the man back several meters where upon landing he stumbled and was doubled over in a mixture of shock and pain, while Jaune dealt with the other man by slapping him in the face with his shield hard enough to throw him into the wall, before delivering a vicious kick to the head of the doubled over man, throwing him down onto the ground with a broken aura and several visible injuries, through he was still breathing.
Yang meanwhile did something even simpler, she just punched both of them in the chest hard enough and with a shotgun enhancement to send them flying back, even managing to hit one of the girls aiming a pistol at her from besides the 'leader' with one of them while the other slammed into the wall. At this point two of the remaining teenagers simply dropped their weapons and started running, leaving only the leader and one young man with a pistol axe combination left, the young man opening fire while rushing Jaune, with the leader pathetically enough instead turning tail to run once he realized just how badly his group lost.
Yang quickly rushed after the cowardly leader while Jaune dealt with the last man standing by taking two of the three shots and the first hit of the axe on his shield, all the while slashing his sword through the barrel of the young mans pistol before going on to hit him hard in the arm holding the axe, sending the man tumbling a bit and allowing him to ram into his shoulder with the shield, before slamming the pommel of his sword in the back of the man's head all the while kicking him hard in the back of the knee.
At this point the man collapsed to his knee only to be slammed down into the ground by a knee to the back as he feels cold steel on the back of his neck. Jaune turns to look at the fight between Yang and the leader, only to see its less a 'fight' and more 'Yang repeatedly slams man into wall while said man is crying before he surrenders with all dignity and gravitas gone'. At this point both Oscar is dragging his defeated enemies towards them while Ruby stands guard over all of them with her scythe, all confidence in the still conscious enemies gone, now all shaking in fear while looking at them as if they're the monsters from horror stories come to life.
At this point Jaune stands up and drags his own defeated enemies towards the others, while Oscar switches to calling the police and Yang comes back, dragging the weakling that considered himself a gang leader by the scruff of his neck. After Jaune confirms with the police that they're heading there, he gathers up the remaining weapons into a pile while they wait for the law enforcement.
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Several hours later
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After having dealt with the paperwork at the police station, before they head out to get lunch at a small diner nearby, with a mixture of small talk, the events of the day and potential expectations of life at Beacon being the topics of discussion. Afterwards Jaune and Oscar head back to their hotel while Ruby and Yang go to get some shopping done. Once the two young men get back to the hotel they meet up in Oscars room again.
''Okay, so tomorrow I'll get the digital test sent at noon and I'll complete the thing immediately, I propose we go to try and get some additional equipment today so that we can go on a small recruitment drive tomorrow for the PMC before training our new recruits up so that I can assist wherever possible before I have to go to Beacon on Saturday next week. Should also allow me to be there for at least a few more missions, so you don't have to do all the work in close quarters.''
Oscar nods, easily agreeing and the two of them head out to the great war shop, since if nothing else they'll have to go there for uniforms, and as Spirit points out ''We'll likely have a number of people who don't know if they'll stay long term once they join, so we need a fairly high number of decent spare weapons. Especially since it'll be a while before the White Fang starts using the whare-houses in the city that we know of and can raid for equipment.''
At this point Wizard speaks up ''Though that one place Roman owns under a false name that law enforcement found near the breach should already be operational, lets head there in a few days. It should mostly have relatively cheap civilian grade weaponry, but that doesn't change the fact that some of Romans or Neo's personal gear might be there.'' At this the other three nod, before the two spirits remove their projections while the other two grab some things before going to the shop.
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Great War Shop
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Jaune and Oscar walk into the shop, causing the old man to look up and smile at the two ''Hi there, you two looking for anything specific today or just looking to stock up on some low priced but still decent weapons you can get for new recruits.''
Jaune raises an eyebrow at the older man ''Well it sounds like you had something specific in mind, and we went here just trying to find anything to expand our arsenal, so what do you have for us that you wish to sell so badly?''
He leads them over to a corner mainly stocked with what seems to be bulk equipment, crates full of Adrian helmets, binoculars, officers caps and various other smaller implements before they get to several racks with large covers over them. He removes one of the covers, revealing that it was a cutlass rack, with ten of the swords being present. ''Due to just how widespread these were among all fighting nations of the great war as close quarter weapons for troops not assigned a specialist role on that front, pretty much everyone that wants one already has one. And unlike with the rifles, these aren't really in favour with those interested in it to actually use in great war era equipment in combat so there's not much of a long term prospect of selling them. Pricing would be at 5000 for the lot.''
As the two young men opposite of him nod they turn to each other for a moment, stepping a bit closer and whispering before nodding in agreement, causing Jaune to turn back ''So a question, we saw some helmets, and you said yourself that you won't be able to actually sell these swords to many people, we're assuming the same is true for the Adrian helmets,'' a pained grimace from the man indicates he's not far from the truth ''So how do you feel about 5500 for the cutlasses, but add in ten of the helmets, the rack itself and some basic sheaths.''
The shop-owner thinks it over for a bit before agreeing ''Yes that would be fine, the rack itself was included in the 5000 anyways and those helmets don't sell for much, so I'm fine with it since you two are shaping up to be frequent long term costumers.'' At this point he gestures for them to follow to another part of the store where they find themselves in front of a number of crates, the man cracks one of them open to reveal five rifles.
''These here are late war Valean standard MAS-40 semi automatic rifles, they've got ten shots before reloading with a box magazine and are for the most part a followup to the MAS-36 rifles, however they have one major disadvantage compared to their earlier variants, while they have a roughly equal combat accurate range of around 500 meters, however unlike the 36 variant which is a bolt action rifle these ones don't have the additional total range of 2000 meters, only reaching about 800 instead. Which while against human opponents or small groups of Grimm doesn't make much of a difference, against large hordes these things will be firing for quite a bit less long.''
At this point he opens a crate next to it, showing off five very similar looking rifles though there are some differences, the most obvious of which is the bolt on the side of it the rifle ''These meanwhile are MAS-36 rifles, got five shots in them and need to be reloaded with clips or singular bullets unlike the magazine loaded more modern ones, but in addition to the earlier major long range advantage they also are easier to maintain and repair. Both rifles are very reliable, though and fairly user friendly, though the 36 slightly more so than the 40, meaning even someone with little experience with rifles can use these to decent effect after some shooting practice, with both even using the same ammunition type.''
Jaune and Oscar both look at him with interest, either of these would be a good addition to their stockpile. After they share a quick look and nod Oscar speaks up ''And how much do these rifles cost? Because as you know we're on something of a budget, and your glowing descriptions of both of these rifles makes them sound like somewhat expensive options for that budget.'' At this the older man chuckles a bit.
''You'd think so but no, they're actually pretty cheap actually 1000 for the bolt action and 2000 for the semi-automatic.'' The two young men look at him with some surprise at this ''Let's just say that with both of these, though the bolt action even more so than the 40, the Valfean army produced enormous amounts of the things. And with how much Vale's military complex shrank post war, these essentially flooded the market. Even now, any collector worth the name and most interested militia's have a number of both lying around or in use. And with how obsessed the past few generations have been with mecha-shifting weapons, demand for these only really come from those previously mentioned collectors and militia. I'll even give you a crate of ammunition for them if you buy all ten.''
At this the two young men quickly discuss again before Jaune calls Whitley to confirm he was on board with a purchase of this size, and the other young man was more than happy enough with them being able to essentially equip 10 soldiers with everything besides uniforms for only 20500 lien, with him having expected to have to spend upwards of 30000 on guns and ammunition alone for a similar sized group, he also quickly notifies them that he's heading back to Vale soon and will arrive at four in the afternoon of the following day with a positive surprise.
Once the call ends they quickly agree to buy everything and return for uniforms once they actually have some recruits. At this point he calls his granddaughter down to help her colleagues in bringing the equipment back to their hotel, which is done in short order though said hotel rooms are now both fairly crowded. Once they're done however Wizard takes over for Oscar ''Hey Auburn, you interested in going out for dinner with the two of us?''
The slightly older women looks at him surprised for a moment before smiling ''A dinner with two good looking young men, who also happen to be my bosses? Sure, count me in. Don't expect me to be the desert though sweetheart, that'll have to wait till you're older.'' At this she laughs at her own joke with Spirit, now in control of Jaune, chuckling along with her while Oscar is already regretting allowing Wizard to make the invitation with a fairly heavy blush on his face.
''All joking aside, that is fine with me. There's a restaurant we could get to without reservations at the Monsieur Gamelin street, it is number 17 I think. Could you guys pick me up at say 6 o 'clock?'' at their affirmatives she smiles back at them ''Nice, I'll see the both of you in a few hours then, bye!'' As she says this she leaves the house before immediately starting in a run towards her grandfather's house.
Once he's certain she's out of hearing range Oscar sighs in defeat ''Just why does she always tease me, while only knowing each other for a few days, and never you?'' Jaune smiles in response.
''Probably because it is just so much fun to watch your reactions to the teasing.'' At this Oscar turns towards Jaune's smiling face, looking betrayed, before Jaune lays a hand on his shoulder ''Also since you're a decent looking young man who is normally far more mature than others his age, she probably thinks you look cute when you blush.'' At this point the younger man can only groan. At this Jaune, starts chuckling, until Oscar kicks him in the back of the leg. ''I deserved that one.''
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That evening
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As Jaune and Oscar pick her up in front of her grandfathers shop the old man calls out to them ''Don't have too much fun you three, and I want her back before midnight!'' In answer the young woman puts up her middle finger to the old man before dragging the two young men away by their shoulders, with her grandfathers laughter at the gesture being heard all the way down the street as she keeps dragging them until they turn a corner.
After she releases them they walk onward following her to the restaurant while they make some small talk about the menu of the restaurant and what types of food they like. As they arrive they realize it's in the Hellenic style from Vacuo, the culture of people that Jaune mainly has knowledge of due to Phyrra being a part of it and thus having gotten some knowledge of it from his older self. Said older self then speaks up 'You should probably take marinated lamb chops, our new friend has mentioned this restaurant having them and when I tasted them at a stand during the Vytal festival at Phyrra's recommendation they were pretty good.'
Storing that nugget of information for later Jaune focuses more no their female companion talks to a waiter and they get led over to a table inside. Once there another waiter comes to their table and they order their first drinks, with both Jaune and Auburn both ordering a red wine, a Bordeaux for him while she picks a pinot noir, with Oscar simply going for a Jus d'Orange. After the waiter left hearing range Auburn starts up ''Okay, so why did you two invite me out for dinner? I like the idea of the both of you being interested, but that's probably not the actual reason.''
Jaune chuckles while shaking his head with Oscar blushing slightly, both of the young men having given over control to their older selves for this conversation ''True my friend, we're not here for that, at least for now.'' As he returns the fire and Oscar smirks at her she smirks back ''We are here because we wanted to both share our plans for the next while and warn you of a potential future threat.'' This certainly pulled her attention ''The plans for tomorrow are simple, I have to fill in some papers from Beacon early in the afternoon, after that we go to the airport to pick up Whitley and whomever he brings along before heading out to start recruiting people for our PMC.''
Oscar picks up where Jaune left it ''We are going to be focusing on recruiting the poorer segments of society, with a specific eye for the Faunus parts of it, because according to information we have acquired a section of Vale's White Fang branch is growing more violent by the day and is planning to strike both before and during the Vytal festival, supported by some sort of cult that worships a powerful Grimm.''
As Jaune takes over again she is now staring at them, highly worried ''To try and either prevent this or at the very least soften the blow when it does happen we plan on taking the fight to the White Fang whenever they pop up in the city. For this purpose our goal for the next few months is to make our PMC essentially a small military, 50 troops with a single platoon of forty riflemen while the remaining ten a mixture of a heavy weapons team, logistical personnel and whatever other support personnel we manage to gather.''
As she is processing this news she looks down to the table before looking up to see a waiter approach with the menu's. She then downs her glass at once ''I'd like another glass please, I have just gotten some bad news and need more to work through it.'' The waiter nods and takes out his scroll, typing the information into an app before walking over to another table. She then turns towards her two companions for the evening.
''…So a cult that worships a Grimm is supporting the White Fang in plans on attacking Vale… I'm probably going to regret this but how did the two of you come upon this information, and how can you be so sure that they'll put resources into a plan as insane as attacking Vale itself, not some specific place or group in it, but the city as a whole instead?''
Jaune calmly answers her question ''Let's just say that we knew somebody that fled the White Fang upon realizing just how violent they're getting and deciding they could no longer support those actions, in addition to us knowing the mental stability of some of the members of this cult, which is usually somewhere between slightly delusional and batshit crazy.'' He sighs before continuing ''So yes chances are pretty high that the majority of them think they stand a real chance of winning. Which is part of what makes them so dangerous, since even if they're beaten they'll likely not care or even realize and just keep on fighting.''
Oscar now picks up, the younger one this time ''We'll talk more of this tomorrow, we just wanted to make sure you knew before we explained it to Whitley tomorrow since we didn't want to shock both you at once, we decided to handle it one by one. Since Jaune will be going to Beacon within two weeks we need you two to be on board. For now, let us just enjoy what remains of the night.'' Shortly afterward the waiter arrived with her drink, at which point they ordered their food.
The rest of the night passes with them eating while making small talk, though Auburn is quieter than she had been beforehand. Throughout the evening however, she regains her usual confident attitude bit by bit and as the evening is ending she is once again smiling, though it is still slightly more reserved than the ones she sent them at the start of the evening.
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Following day, hotel
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The early portions of the day had gone as usual, and as mentioned by Spirit, the digital written exam was fairly easy on the actual information based questions, focusing far more on what seemed to be fairly basic psychological evaluation questions and other similar topics. As Jaune finished these and sent them back Oscar looked up from the book he was reading and looking at his watch ''Okay so that was done within thirty minutes, we've got thirty minutes to spare before we have to go pick Auburn up. Anything you wish to do?'' As Jaune shakes his head Oscar shrugs and puts away his book ''Me neither, might as well go and pick her up already, spend some more time getting to know her and also be in time just in case Whitley arrives early.''
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Southern airport Vale
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While sitting in the main hall, Jaune, Oscar and Auburn are chatting a bit about their pasts, mainly telling interesting stories about their family members, with it currently being Jaune's turn. ''So, as a part of his decision to treat every relationship me and my sisters had equally, my dad gave any girlfriend Saphron brought home the same talk as he gave the others boyfriends. It was hilarious for the rest of us, especially since it very quickly weeded out those who were not good long term relationship material for her, since they would usually flee within minutes of meeting my dad.''
He leaves a dramatic pause for a moment to his now fairly interested audience ''That is until Terra showed up, she instead stood her ground and instead said, to his face 'I'm your daughters wife to be, deal with it.', which led to both Saphron blushing like crazy, and my father smiling and clopping her on the shoulder all the while saying 'Welcome to the family then, I'll hold you to that.'. '' As his story finishes he can now see a young man with white hair walking out of one of the halls followed by two others and upon them coming closer they recognize them as Thomas and Hermann Paulus like last time.
They stand up and walk over while Jaune waves, with Whitley noticing them, first looking very happy and smiling, almost running over before he controls himself and instead calmly walks over. However, Jaune had seen the earlier emotion and decides to take a note from Nora on how to greet people that are both younger and smaller than you ''Hello Jaune, Oscar, Auburn, it is good to see all of…'' as he is talking he's suddenly stunned into silence as Jaune picks him up in a bearhug.
The stupefied but flushed boy sputters against it but his actual opinion of the act is easily seen by him unconsciously returning the hug with as much strength as he can. The others leave them to it for a few minutes while chatting with each other, at which point Whitley remembers they are still in public causing him to whisper-shout to his captor ''Jaune d'Arc, let me down right now, we're still in the middle of a busy airport!'' causing a smiling Jaune to put Whitley down to the ground who then resumes in greeting the others, though these only resulting in handshakes rather than bearhugs.
Afterwards as they are leaving the airport Whitley calls up the limousine that he had requested from his father and gestures everyone to step in. As they are all seated he hands a note over to the driver ''Get us to this address please.'' The driver nods before rolling up the privacy screen to the back of the car ''Before anyone asks, we are currently heading towards the surprise I have managed to acquire.''
After a few minutes a mostly silent ride, the car stops and as they all step out they can see a very large white painted building complex in front of them. ''Welcome, to our new base of operations.'' They all turn to Whitley ''A few years ago, the various local portions of the SDC branch of Vale moved together into one larger building, while previously they had been in separate ones. This centralisation effort led to us to abandoning this building, which had until then been a barracks for newly recruited security personnel who had finished basic training but hadn't gotten an assignment yet.'' From the outside its white walls are visibly made of painted concrete, with firing slits in several places in addition to strategically placed windows that currently have armoured coverings rolled down over them.
As they are lead inside they quickly realize it is a very large building complex, with barracks meant for a garrison of at least a hundred, a vehicle bay where a dozen armoured personnel carriers could be stored with some space left over and last but not least a firing range with twenty firing lanes. Once they reach a large strategy room, though now empty and filled mostly with the not valuable kind of dust, Jaune asks ''A question, just how did you manage to get your father to give you this place? He could have easily sold it to someone else long before this point if it was empty for years as you say, meaning he probably had some kind of plans for it?''
Whitley shakes his head in response and gives him a slight smile ''Not really, due to the nature of the building and its size, it is essentially rated as a paramilitary complex, meaning that by Valean law, the only people he can sell this to other than the Valean government are PMC's. And since most PMC's are fairly small affairs or already have made a base of operations for themselves by the time they are large enough to actually be able to use something of this size…''
''Nobody with the money to buy it actually wanted to place, probably especially not for the price your father wanted for it.'' As Oscar finishes his sentence, Whitley nods at the other young man ''Though that does still make me curious, how did you manage to get your father to give it to you? Even with little interest from buyers, it is still a large well-built complex kept in decent state, though visibly neglected slightly due to disuse.''
At this Whitley gives a slight smirk ''My father is quite heavily interested in diversifying the family business empire. As such when I came to him with the information of me having bought my way in as one of the owners of a Vale based PMC with three huntsmen quality members, I was able to talk him into handing over this place with relative ease. It was on the condition that we will pay the transaction tax of the building, which is 1% of its total worth, or in other words 30.500 lien.''
At this point all of the others are looking at him very surprised before Jaune speaks up again ''You were able to talk your father into handing over a property costing more than three million lien, simply by talking about diversifying the family business with what is literally only a week old company…'' Whitley nods at this, not seeing the strange part of it, giving him a look at the surprise in his tone ''Whitley that is more money than mine and Oscars houses cost combined and my family lives in a centuries old mansion built back when we were still the noble family ruling our surrounding area and we still own all of the towns vineyards to this day…''
The young boy just stares at him before turning to Oscar, who nods in response to confirm ''While I don't know exactly how much Jaune's house costs, my aunts house where I've lived most of my life was somewhere around 150.000 lien.'' At this point Oscar turns to look at his bodyguards who both give confirming nods to be in a somewhat similar situation, at which point he turns to Auburn.
''I've lived in a number of different places but my grand-fathers store, with the upper area serving as our current home included, is probably worth just over seven hundred thousand lien, with the building being something he has owned and expanded on over the past fifty years.'' At this point Whitley is standing absolutely confused by the revelation of just how much something like this would be to most people, especially since the price is already lower than usual since it has been standing empty and without permanent caretakers for years. His father meanwhile had given it to him after a conversation lasting all of four minutes…
As the youngest Schnee is dealing with this, the others exchange glances before Jaune comes up to the young man and lays a hand on his shoulder while sinking down so his head is at equal height to the boy ''Hey, this is great news Whitley, you got us something we couldn't have hoped for and served it up to us on a silver platter. We're all very thankful for that, in addition to it proving you're a good negotiator if nothing else.'' At this he then pats the boy on the head for a moment before hugging him in thanks.
At this point one thought is streaming through Whitley's mind above all others 'Need to figure out how to get more hugs, both from Weiss and him. This is the best feeling in the world!' And while the affection deprived teen is finally getting what he subconsciously wished for all those years, the others look at it with slight smiles. After a few minutes though Oscar breaks the two up ''Sadly enough we have other, less pleasant things to discuss.'' He looks at the two bodyguards ''Is it possible to speak to Whitley about this without the two of you present? It's not that we don't trust you, we just want to keep the information contained within as small a group as we possibly can.''
The two bodyguards turn to Whitley, who nods to them, at which point they leave the room and close the doors behind them while they dust off the few chairs still around the central table and move them closer to each-other ''So here's the thing, we wished to inform you about a reason we held back about why we're starting this PMC.'' As Jaune speaks Whitley looks interested, though he is trying to hide it, but not fooling anyone ''We have insider information from a White Fang defector.'' at this Whitley's eyes already go wide and he's now dropped any attempt at hiding his interest.
''They realized that the schemes concocted by the violent sections of Vale's White Fang movement are growing more extreme by the day, with plans having been drawn up to attack Vale both shortly before and during the Vytal festival to send a message. They weren't able to give us much more in the way of information on what exactly those attacks are going to be, as they fled shortly afterwards, not wanting to get caught up in all of it and forced to go along with it. What they did manage to get was information on who was supporting the White Fang in this and getting them wild enough to believe it would in any way be a good idea.''
Whitley is staring at Jaune now, before switching over to Oscar as he starts talking. ''There is apparently a crazed cult that believes in a very powerful and probably old Grimm, thinking it a deity. Said cult is supplying the White Fang with weapons, Dust, monetary assistance and several highly skilled operatives, which is apparently enough for Adam Taurus to think that he can actually take on the Kingdom of Vale. Our goal for the next few months is to make our PMC essentially a small military, fifty troops with a single platoon of forty riflemen while the remaining ten would be a mixture of a heavy weapons team, logistical personnel and whatever other support personnel we manage to gather in order to help oppose these attacks.''
Whitley is now staring ahead of him, a horrified look on his face as he tries to work through all this new information in silence. Afterwards though he looks at the other three ''I have two hundred thousand lien in a bank account I can easily access. If I invest eighty percent of that into this PMC, can you give me equal ownership rights to the two of you, with each of us having a third of the shares?'' as Jaune and Oscar nod with shocked looks on their faces he continues ''Then I'm investing that right now, first by immediately paying off that transaction fee, before we'll use the remainder to buy equipment for that full platoon of riflemen already. I want to speed up that goal from a few months to by the end of this month, and enlarge that number up to a company size of 150 men within the coming half a year. We can use whatever money remains from the initial investment and from that first mission to hire the new recruits.''
All three of the others look at him ''I have seen the White Fang kill family friends, board members and even distant cousins for years. I am not going to allow them to do that to a city filled with not only innocents, but also my own sister.'' He looks up with fury in his eyes ''Since she intends to train as a huntress here she'd probably be one of the first to respond to such an attack, and I only just got her back, I am not losing my sibling to the crazed dreams of some violent lunatics. If she will have to fight them she'll do so with myself and a small army at her back.''
At this point the others have gathered themselves and Jaune lays a hand on his shoulder while giving him a resolute nod ''That will help us greatly, we'll start recruiting in Vale immediately. In the meantime you and Auburn can get us more weapons, helmets and ammunition to equip those recruits in addition to hiring in some caterers to feed them, while the cousins get started on cleaning up this place and getting it operational again. Anything other than those basic requirements such as uniforms we can give to our troops once we've done our first mission with them at which point we can be sure if they're actually suited to fighting. Everyone fine with that?'' He gets nod from the other three and Whitley quickly goes to inform his bodyguards of their new task before they leave the building, with Whitley and Auburn stepping into the limo while Jaune calls for a taxi to get them to a bus rental service.
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Slum near the docks
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While Vale is for the most part prosperous, like every city it has areas where those less fortunate gather. Though this slum is not as bad nor anywhere near as large as those of the other capital cities of Remnant, that thought doesn't bring much joy to the poor gathered here. Most living off whatever money they can make from off the book work at the docks, the competition for anything that can grant them a better life is high. Because of this as Jaune walks into the street, sheathed sword on his hip while dressed in a military style uniform while followed by a well-dressed Oscar Pines, he draws a sizable crowd.
''Hello to all of you people of Vale. My name, is Jaune d'Arc, and I'm here with my business companion Oscar Pines.'' As he leaves a slight pause for the crowd to take that in he continues ''We are two of the three owners of a new private military company and due to a recent influx of new capital we're looking for new recruits. We are currently looking for up to fifty new members, with more coming afterwards to replace whomever isn't suited from the first group. Our enlistment bonus is 600 lien, which is also immediately the pay for the first week up until the try-out mission. Our main jobs will be to clear Grimm near Vale and to assist the national militia in taking out larger packs of Grimm and bandits threatening Vale's roads. Whom of you is interested?''
A lot of the younger members of the crowd, men and women both, start stepping forward. While the work would be dangerous, the fact of the matter is that most of them feel it can't be much worse than their current lives. ''We'll be holding the auditions at our headquarters at Marseille street 18. Anyone who gets rejected will be given a hot meal as thanks for coming before being returned as a group, while those who get accepted will get trained and equipped for the next week before we set out on the trial mission. So pack whatever you need and meet us at the northern end of the street in half an hour if you're interested, as you'll be staying with us for at least a week if you're accepted.''
Half an hour later, the bus filled with sixty-four people left for the complex at Marseille street, many of them hopeful for a chance at a better future.
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In the meantime, at the Great War Shop
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As Whitley and Auburn walk in, they are quickly greeted by her grandfather, who upon Whitley's request brings them to the bulk equipment section. ''So you had those ten shot semi-automatic rifles right?'' As the older man nods in affirmation Whitley nods back ''Good, I want thirty of those, thirty-five cutlasses and five of those bolt action rifles, along with three crates of ammunition and thirty-five helmets. We're intending on equipping a small army within the next week.''
At this point the old man is happily shocked before he realizes something ''One problem with that order kid, I only have twenty of the semi-automatic rifles and while I do have other semi-automatic rifles, I don't have anywhere near enough ammunition for those for them to be useful as actual combat weaponry for larger groups.'' Whitley looks annoyed at this, knowing that one of the main reasons for them aiming on using these rifles being the ease of being able to supply the new recruits with same ammunition instead of having to buy different rounds for every individuals personal weapon type.
''What I do have in stock is an additional ten bolt action MAS-36 rifles, in addition to fifty or so more of the things if you need to equip even more men quickly some time soon.'' At this Whitley stares slightly at the man, who shrugs ''Due to being far more widely used and produced in addition to being a less wanted rifle by collectors and military types both means that I could get them far cheaper than the semi-auto variant when they were sold at a military surplus event a few decades back in addition to the fact of them just being easier to get and restore when people who found them on old battlefields sell them to me. All in all its 75.000, with the discount for the bulk buying.''
Whitley nods and writes out a cheque before handing it over to the older man, who easily accepts it. ''How do you want to transport all of this though?'' Whitley notifies him of the nearby limousine ''I'll help you carry what you can fit into it towards it, the remainder I'll load onto my own truck and deliver it after closing up shop tonight.'' Whitley nods his thanks before they start transporting the equipment.
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Home complex of Arc and Pines rifles
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''Thank you for coming, please go to the cafeteria for your meal, there is a good chance you'll be accepted into our forces, and even if not we could offer you another job considering your skillset.'' The young woman leaves the room with a smile while once she has left the room Jaune, with Spirit currently in control to let Jaune rest mentally from the conversations before this one, sighs softly and writes down her name below Leonard Magnice and Henry Roche on the list 'potential support staff for the base.' With the notification 'Promoter/PR work' behind her name ''Why did three people who are physically incapable of stomaching violence try to sign up to a military group as soldiers…''
Looking over the second list he sees the seven names there, people unsuited for combat who have no other skills nor the motivation for a hard and violent life. He looks over to the last of the lists, seeing the 20 names there ''Oh well at least the majority has a good chance of being a decent combatant.'' He then calls out ''Next person please.'' The door opens and a young woman steps in with fairly obvious dogears above her head. ''Name?'' Answered by Ashley Allard ''I'll begin to ask, do you have any long term medical issues we need to know about or possibly psychological issues relating to seeing violence in general or blood specifically?''
The man shakes his head, causing Jaune to nod. ''I'll write that down as a no. Can you describe your physical attributes?'' 175 centimetres tall, weighing 73 kilograms, no major injuries in the past, twenty-one years old, overall fairly normal. ''Any past experience with combat related jobs?'' The young woman nods in return, giving Jaune a bit of hope.
''I was a wildlife hunter in the town of Auxerre, a small fishing town of at most five-hundred people situated on an island far to the south-west of Vale. While I mainly hunted rabbits and birds, whenever the militia had spotted a pack of Grimm they called on me to assist as a sharpshooter. Half a year ago there was a sudden surge of aquatic Grimm in the area that cut us off from most of our fishing income in addition to a sudden invasion of the Island by almost two-thousand Grimm. We fought and held our own for a while, since the approaches to the Village from land where through a long stretch of grassland and we already had fairly capable seaward defences, however by the end of the week we'd started running out of ammunition.''
As he is watching for lies, he quickly realizes that she is either a very good liar or speaking the truth. ''We thought we were doomed, but luckily an Atlesian naval squadron had been in the area and moved to assist us once they received our distress signal, breaking through the aquatic Grimm blockade of the island, allowing us to get everyone still alive onto our boats and get to their ships. They then escorted us to Vale where they left us to the government of Vale to deal with.'' She sighs ''And while I'll be forever thankful for them for saving us, the issue is that we were an independent town in the middle of nowhere, with most people with any kind of authority having died in the fighting. Very few of us had any sort of paperwork that was in any way useful here, and without proper paperwork almost nobody accepts trained Faunus combatants since they expect us to be either ex-White Fang or current White Fang.''
They talk a bit further about her experience in combat, to what degree she was formally trained and what was self-learned, and for the most part it looks like she knows what she's doing. Jaune looks her over once more before writing her down on the now 21 long list ''Ashley Allard, thank you for coming. You will most likely be accepted into our forces, please go to the cafeteria and get some food.''
He looks down to his list and realizes that was the last of the candidates he would be screening, he gathers his papers and heads over to the other nearby room that Whitley would be using. He sees that he is still busy with his last applicant so he sits down to wait for a bit while Oscar finishes up. After the man leaves, Jaune walks in causing Oscar to look up at him ''How many potentials with you? For me twenty-four of them are decent options for combat duties, with two others potentially being useful as logistical personnel instead.''
Jaune raises an eyebrow at the younger man ''Then you had a bit more luck than I did, twenty-one of mine could be decent combatant material, with three more having the skills and motivation to be useful elsewhere. By the way, you got the message from Auburn as well that her grandfather closed up earlier and has just arrived with the last of the gear?'' Oscar nods in return ''Since that was about fifteen minutes ago, they should be done unloading by now. I'm happy with them being able to get us enough weapons and helmets for the troops immediately, otherwise training them was going to be a pain in the ass.''
After chatting for a few more minutes Whitley and Auburn show up in the office and the four of them start discussing their options. The discussion on the fully rejected ones is pretty short, as they essentially just all agree on the choices there. The full on accepted ones have slightly more discussion among them but overall are also accepted without much issue since they need all the combat capable men and women they can get. The biggest topic of discussion between them is what to do with the ones written down as 'potential support staff for the base.'
''I feel we should just get them in and offer them a week long try-out before we decide whether we should hire them long term or not. We need the support personnel regardless, and we can certainly use ones with the skills these people claim to have.'' Whitley looks back up at them before he goes down the list ''Two people who worked in the logistical divisions of a small mining company, one trucker and one of the planners at their headquarters, who lost their jobs once the company collapsed after their mine got overrun by Grim while the head of the company died in said assault on the mine.''
''Next up, a PR specialist that got fired from her last job during budget cuts, a butler to a family who had to size down their staff after falling upon hard times but still has some of his connections to important figures from that time and a medical practitioner who lost his clinic due to the town it was in becoming too small to sustain one, but who can't work in a hospital because he learnt his medical skills through an apprenticeship rather than an academic education and as such has none of the papers to prove his skills.''
At this point Whitley takes a deep breath from speaking that long, at which point Oscar speaks up ''That is all true, however outside of the PR specialist and the butler none of them have the paperwork to prove it, like you mentioned already for most of them, since the headquarters of the company the two logistical workers and the clinic the other one owned were headquartered in the overrun mining complex and a small town in the middle of nowhere, neither of which kept paperwork in Vale for anyone's use.''
While he is talking Auburn has been looking on her scroll before she nods as she reads something, causing her to look up ''Okay, so I did just find out that the company the two logistics guys worked for actually existed and was at some point overrun by Grimm, the paperwork for it can be found in the public records of Vale's chamber of commerce. That is all that there is from them though, no personnel records or anything similar. No trace of the 'doctor','' she shakes her head at this ''however that could also simply be because as he mentioned to you it was a town that didn't align itself to Vale but instead considered itself independent and as such saw no need to forward that kind of paperwork to Vale.''
Jaune sighs and shakes his head ''Lets just go with the plan of giving them a month or so to prove themselves, if they're competent we keep them. Now, about half of the people we're going to accept is Faunus right?'' With a nod from Oscar he smiles, somewhat viciously ''Good, especially since several of those where people with previous combat experience, and the rest are all fairly fit and well-motivated, we're depriving the White Fang of competent future recruits already.'' They all smile slightly at this, though it should be noted that these are quite vicious ones instead of more overtly happy ones.
After a few moments Jaune speaks up again. ''Now as for the training schedule, I believe it would be a good idea to have Auburn, Thomas and Hermann train them in ranged combat, I'll train them in the basics of close quarter combat, while Oscar trains Whitley more in how to use Aura in combat, all the while also getting some sparring for himself in between the two of you. Is this acceptable to you three?''
All of them think it over for a moment before nodding, not seeing anything out of place, though Oscar has to repress some disappointment that it wasn't going to be Jaune training him. ''Good, then we'll start tomorrow at eight o'clock with the training, we'll split them up in two groups of 23 each since only twenty-five can use the firing range at the same time anyways. Now let's go and actually break the news to them on who stays and who doesn't.''
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The next day
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Early in the morning Oscar goes outside with a cup of coffee, where he sees Jaune sitting outside carving a wooden spear out of a broom that had been left behind by the SDC after it lost almost all of its hairs and as such wasn't useful enough to take to the new location. As he goes to sit down next to Jaune the other young man smiles at him, causing him to give one back before he asks the obvious question ''So what are you carving that spear for?''
Jaune smiles back ''Well while we are giving them cutlasses, that doesn't change the fact that there's a pretty good chance they'll have to fight a Grimm up close with their bayonetted rifle instead at some point, and as far as I know a bayonetted rifle is essentially a spear that can shoot bullets. So since a week is too short for me to teach them much of anything meaningful about fighting with swords unless I could give them a lot of one on one training, I'll instead train them in the basics of using a spear while Auburn and the Paulus cousins focus on training them in the ranged capabilities of those rifles. I'll still show them basic stances with the swords in case they lose their rifles of course, but the main point of learning is going to be the rifle.''
After Oscar nods back at Jaune in understanding as the other young man changes the topic slightly ''Anyways, how are you intending on training Whitley? First a spar to test out just what he does know and then go from there?'' At the other young man's nod, Jaune nods in understanding ''Understandable, not much else you can do till you know just how capable he is with a sword or even weapons and combat in general.''
They sit quietly for a few minutes while Jaune finishes off the carving of the spear before he pours the blood he had kept in a small beaker onto the wooden 1,5 meters long spear before chanting over it ''I call upon the might of metal, change this humble stick into a powerful spear so that victory might be near.'' As he does so Wizard and Oscar are watching intently to see what will happen.
The stick only glows slightly for a second before it gains a somewhat metallic sheen while Jaune feels the use of magical power leaving him again for the first time in a while. After he's done he looks at the beaker with blood and checks quickly if he didn't pour too much, 50 millilitres left and he'd put just over 200 into the beaker last night, so it was roughly the correct amount, no chance of the thing exploding.
Afterwards they move back into the building to get some breakfast from the caterers who hand them some ham and cheese sandwiches in addition to some hard-boiled eggs, a small fruit bowl and an apple. As they proceed to sit down on a table in the corner Jaune shakes his head after looking around for a bit. ''Do you sometimes also have this feeling that this is all a bit unreal?'' Oscar looks at him with some confusion, the question for clarification clear in his eyes. ''As if you're going to wake up from a dream at any moment?''
At this a look of understanding dawns on Oscar, before he thinks for a few moments, visibly coming to a conclusion ''If I'm going to be honest now that you mention it, yes. The past while has been too hectic for me to put much thought to it, but this whole experience so far has been somewhat crazy.'' He shakes his head ''Nevermind leave out the somewhat, my previous standards for crazy have just essentially been thrown out of the window by this whole thing.''
He turns to look to see if nobody is trying to listen in before continuing ''Barely a month ago I was a teenage farmer in the middle of nowhere, who's only interaction with world outside of my small town was looking up movies and some front page news on my scroll. Now I'm one of the commanding officers of a fifty strong paramilitary unit that has assisted in fighting off a Grimm horde and is planning on saving Vale from supernatural terrorists that are lead by the Queen of the Grimm, all the while being advised on how to do so by a future version of me that had to share a body with a millennia old Wizard.''
Jaune nods in response ''Yeah that is what I meant, I mean a month ago I was just a country kid who had through a combination of luck and a bit of skill at forging gotten his hands on papers to enter Beacon, with no aura nor any serious combat skills and only physical strength in my favour for having a chance. Now I'm in that same boat while skilled enough to hold my own against one of the more capable upcoming first year Beacon students, all the while having seen my own death in the eye only for it to smile back and give me a backseat driver and coach in the form of a possible future self of mine.''
At those last words spirit is grumbling 'Ungrateful youths' and a litany of other similar, but less child friendly terms before stopping and, though nobody can see it, looking horrified as he realizes something 'I'm becoming more like Qrow every single day in spite of having twenty years less baggage. And I can't even drink my problems away. Fuck.' As Spirit has this, to him, horrific realisation, the two teenagers continue their conversation. Though they do so while shifting to lighter topics, all the while the room slowly begins filling up with others coming to get their morning meals, it being startingly basic meals for some, while for others its some of the best they've had besides the previous night in weeks.
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And that's it, the end of this chapter. Okay might not be the most natural space to stop, as I did originally continue writing however at around thirteen thousand words I realised that I still had at least four thousand more words to write to get to the point where I originally wanted to end the chapter, and that since what is written above in the current chapter was originally estimated to be a bit over seven-thousand words… yeah I didn't want to produce a singular chapter with almost 20k words, so I just looked for the most logical space I could find to stop it at post the 12k words mark.
Thanks again for reading everyone, please read and review, I'll keep reacting to every single one that I have gotten for at least the coming while at the end of each chapter, and they help keep up both enthusiasm to write and inspiration on what to do with smaller details that I'm uncertain about.
(While I do have an overall planning for the story, it is fairly bare bones, meaning a lot of the details are only decided about once I actually start writing a chapter, unlike some other writers I know that plan the next 50k words out in detail beforehand, the moment I try that I'll only end up getting stuck at some point because I'll start contradicting myself in the details leaving me with the issue of what and how to change for it to start making sense again).
So with that said, onto the reviews:
Aelmellin: Another enjoyable chapter. A good showing to bring up how Salem was setting up everything for Cinder to support her plan or take advantage of it, whichever was warranted. Really shows just how intelligent you are making her as an antagonist and I very much appreciate that. Kind of Surprising how accepting Jaune and Oscar were of Whitley but it wasn't enough to suspend my suspension of disbelief for the story but it did bring up a number of questions that I hope get answered in future chapters. Like why Whitley was there and why he seemed so interested in Jaunes proposal. Probably a small POV from his side would help explain that easier than to figure it out some other way.
But I do like what you are doing with his character in regards to how he actually appears to want to be helpful and a good character, just rife with rumor against him. And now a small man crush on Jaune? or something more? or a false flag as a young boy who hasn't had any good male role models and now has one that has proven to be protective of him and supportive as well? Meh, we'll see how it all goes and what character growth comes of it all.
Oh, and RUBY! She has the hints and dreams but not the full memories! Oh I so can't wait to see where you take that! Thanks for the previous response and apologies for the misspellings I missed in my speed to write. Your doing great so far and am definitely enjoying it still!
Answer: Thanks again for reviewing, so yeah that was highlighting a small part of Salem's assistance to the larger plan, expect to see more of the sort in future chapters. And yes Ruby in addition to some of the other characters that where near the summoning in the alternate season seven timeline when it happened will get partial information from it through things like these, though it will differ from person to person just how much information and to what degree it will affect them.
I hope this chapter gave you an idea on why Whitley was so quick to join in on it in addition to how he knew of everything and why he was in Vale in the first place. Jaune and Oscar easily accepting is fairly simple, unlike most people they know that there is a high chance Jacques will try to replace Weiss as a heir with Whitley instead, so having him do work for the company and familiarize himself with it will help towards that goal in the long run. I won't make much further comment on the character, you'll need to read more to see more of it.
Twilight rasengan:
This could be a good way for jaune and company to learn various forms of combat so they don't become copies of their past selves and they don't need to step of rwbys toes to stay relevent while keeping the story fresh. Especially if they get the faunus to join so they can get the scoop on the white fang and recover the dust with minimal casualties and high arrests which would mean less pressure on the faunus who are not terrorists ( that is what they are and Blake was invited to act as a propaganda piece unknowingly).
I wonder why sienna Khan never thought to turn the white fang into a pmc as well as accept human sympathizers? She would have gotten more positive publicity. No matter what Blake says, the fact that the white fang didnt have any humans in the ranks paints a paint a negative picture to the public. Their practices run in opposition of what they preach.
Could jaune use his semblance to communicate with her from a distance? I always thought his semblance was like an adaptive force multiplyer like Isse's boosted gear. Semblances make it less costly to perform certain actions like elemental affinities in naruto.
Jaune's aura amp is used to enchance aura of others, dust, sensations (therapeutic massages) and anything and everything that interacts with aura.
When used on himself and others, it is a performance enhancer. If jaune's aura is capable of adapting to the aura of others when enhancing it, would he have access to their semblance. If so, that means his semblance is about give and take. Sharing is caring, just like .
Would be great for creative sparing.
Answer: Thanks for reviewing. Regardless of what happens, they won't be needing to step on RWBY's toes to keep themselves story relevant and fresh, I can reveal that much. And though yes I feel especially in later seasons the White Fang are terrorists, I have to disagree with Blake being 'invited' only for PR purposes. At the time where Blake 'joined', it is implied that her parents where still the ones running the Fang, and she just stayed on while they left after Sienna and others like her started turning it more violent.
Shortly before season one begins, they have transformed, at least the Vale sect anyways, into terrorists yes, but a number of the other sections seem to still be less violent than that, which is one of the reasons behind Adam killing Sienna and taking over the organisation. Blake also seemed to very much be aware of her at least partial PR role.
There are a number of reasons why not to turn the Fang into a PMC from the perspective of a member/leader of it, one of the simplest is thus: A PMC is a government registered company, that is bound to government law and at least to some extent answers to said government. The White Fang is a political movement that turned violent. The moment you try to register that as a company of any kind, several things happen, firstly not only does the government just straight up reject it, but you also lose a number of your more ideologically/politically extreme supporters in addition to taking a PR and image hit in general, meaning you have just lost access to some funds, recruits and annoyed a national government, for essentially no gain.
The behaviour of the White Fang itself and their viewpoint of the world means that human sympathizers will be seen as little more than lackeys that have seen the light, and would thus very quickly no longer be White Fang sympathizers simply from experiencing how the White Fang treats them, leading to even less positive public reception. The company creation itself will be at least partially seen as a sell-out attempt to whatever government you try to form the PMC in, in addition to being essentially an admission you can't effect the system enough without needing the system itself to support you, which will paint you as weak to the more violent and radical members of the Fang.
On Jaune's aura, I'm still looking into exactly how to use it, though your ideas have some merit. The thing is that I'm uncertain whether I'll actually have him have the exact same semblance as his future/canon counterpart, or for it to be slightly different, since while the general idea of a semblance seems to be mainly luck of the draw at birth, exact specifics of it seem to depend on a number of other factors, including the users personality and circumstances of it being activated for the first time. Though I'm not sure who the 'her' is you are referring to, if it is Ruby, I can state right now that Jaune isn't using his semblance to influence Ruby's dreams.
/AN/ So I tried posting a picture in the chapter to show off looks, maps and uniforms, didn't work sadly enough. My apologies. Will try to find a way around that issue. I hope to see you all next time, bye. /AN/
