Here it is.
Not much to say so reviews:
adistl - Well yeah it looks like it if i think about it but the rest is already happening like this and That's why I wanted to change the beggining to fit the rest of the fic more and not the otherwise. Someday I might actually make some prologue about Jaune before meeting Summer and basically everything that happened in these ten skipped years in the first chap(Something like Shaman King Zero manga if you read it) but I'm not sure.
X3runner - Yeah it would be pretty funny wouldn't it? Not for now, there will be some training like that in the later arcs but for now I don't think there will be anything.
Loveless - You are welcome :) Every story needs it's trials and tribulations to be interesting, even the stories with Over Powered characters need to have some other type of conflict to be interesting (One punch man and lack of thrill in the fight or Above myriad people and the main character's lack of knowledge) so it's kinda natural to make characters loose sometimes.
Guest - Well i wouldn't change how it's going from now on I just wanted to change the beginning everything from chapter 2 onwards would stay the same as it was or was going to but if you don't want me to change the start then I guess I will just leave it as it is for now.
Guest (The other one.) - I have no idea how am I supposed to reply to that...
Gamelover41592 - Thanks as always :)
In one of the less popular parks in Vale a whooshing sound created by a repeating swinging of a heavy weapon could be heard. If one were to investigate it then they would see a certain young blond shaman training tirelessly to become stronger.
Jaune was determined to grow stronger. After witnessing how the strongest of shamans fought, he couldn't just go back to relaxing walks and lazing around between fights because he would be left behind by all of his opponents if he were to do so.
The young shaman clicked his tongue in irritation after incorrectly doing one of the swings before correcting himself during the next repetition. He couldn't afford making mistakes during the training.
"Are you sure you don't want to take a break?" Summer on the other hand was watching all of that in worry.
It was already midday and Jaune had been practicing since before the sun rose. She was starting to be truly concerned about Jaune's health. Despite being great for your health when done correctly, exercising could lead to many long and short term complications.
She remembered how once during their time at Beacon, Tai after practicing for an entire night before a mission to impress Raven couldn't actually help them in the mission because he was too tired.
"I'm sure, Summer. With how weak we are right now every second wasted on not growing stronger might be a second that causes us to die in the later rounds of the tournament." Jaune said without stopping his swinging.
At first when she saw Jaune's drive for training she was delighted as it meant that they could finally go through her entire training without Jaune complaining or asking to make it easier.
Her joy quickly turned into nervousness or maybe even uneasiness after the blond shaman woke in the middle of the night the next day to continue putting himself through those exercises.
She was certain that if Jaune were to follow her training correctly then he wouldn't have any issues with his health but seeing how her shaman was making it actively harder and more dangerous on himself she wasn't so sure anymore.
"You could at least give Nora her Magnhild back. We can still go through the motions and stances with our usual walking stick." She said while pointing at the giant metal hammer Jaune was using to train at the moment.
After the first day of training with his newfound motivation, Jaune got the stupid idea of asking Nora for her weapon to practice his strikes with something heavier. He even said that he would give it back just before their fight against Whitley since they would have to visit Beacon anyway to get to the place the fight would take place at.
It was a terrible idea as using heavier objects to go through the fighting styles would not only make it more tiring making it less efficient but it also would be extremely dangerous for the muscles on his arms.
Unfortunately no matter what she said, she couldn't stop him and with her being a ghost preventing him from doing that physically was even harder.
If she didn't know any better she would have said that Jaune was actively trying to get himself out of the tournament by overworking himself to a serious injury.
"Hey, she said she didn't mind though. Apparently the next few days at Beacon are supposed to be light on fighting anyway." Jaune said while wiping the sweat from his forehead.
Okay, now Jaune wasn't only worrying her but he also was starting to irritate her.
Weapons were the most important partners of every huntsman and taking them away from them for even a single day was like leaving them without teammates for an entire mission let alone taking that weapon away for almost a week.
"Are you even listening to yourself!? Shouldn't you be resting right now!? We have a fight tonight!" She shouted with anger clear in her voice.
To Jaune's credit he at least winced a little when she said that, showing to her that he knew he was in the wrong here.
"Yes bu-"" No buts! Weren't you the one who said that there is no point in working yourself to death the day of the fight when it will only result in us losing the fight we have?"
A look of clarity quickly appeared on the blond shaman's face as the Magnhild dropped from his hand to the ground right after she said that. He most likely forgot his own argument he made earlier when he was trying to find any excuse to skip on training.
She smiled lightly in relief after seeing Jaune stop his near suicidal training and him opening his mouth to say something only for nothing to come out. It meant that her slightly stupid shaman finally came to his senses.
A while passed in silence as Jaune looked at her without knowing what to say. The moment quickly ended though because not a minute after quieting down Jaune collapsed on the ground from his tiredness.
A small and empty laugh escaped the blond haired shaman's mouth as he laid on the ground while using one of his hands as a support.
"Yeah, I guess I did say that." Jaune said with a small sigh and a dazed expression after he stopped laughing.
When Summer saw that Jaune finally calmed down she looked at him with an understanding and a slightly pitying gaze. The young Arc might not have said it but she knew that he was afraid, otherwise he wouldn't have been training like that.
It was completely normal in their situation. After seeing the sheer difference in power between them and their possible future opponents even greater people would have been scared of dying.
Hell, she was afraid of fighting against the X-Laws herself and she was already dead. She didn't even want to think about how terrifying it must be for Jaune who still hadn't lost his life yet.
"We must get stronger, Summer. Not only to compete in the tournament but also to actually survive it." Jaune said while looking at the sky and thinking on what he could do to survive fighting against foes countless times stronger than them.
The atmosphere around them quickly turned solemn as they contemplated their future. She wanted to give Jaune some advice on how to deal with such states of mind or at least say something to improve his mood but unfortunately she was struggling with the same issues as well.
A cold wind blew past them as they were sitting there in silence making Jaune shudder a little, or at least she thought it was cold because as a spirit she was unable to feel physical pains and interactions.
"Hey Summer, is there some hidden method you used to win your fights when you still were a huntress?" Jaune asked for any advice while hurriedly standing up from the ground to avoid getting sick because of the cold dirt and the weather.
She thought about the question Jaune asked her for a few moments while watching him shake off the dirt from his clothes. It was actually quite a difficult topic at the moment because normally she would have answered in an affirmative way before giving a few examples like teamwork or learning of their opponent's weaknesses before the fight began but at the moment it wasn't the case.
Unfortunately she knew that none of them would work as the scale of their fight is not only larger than typical huntsman battle but at the moment all of their battles were one on one fights as well.
Saying things like 'make sure to always pay attention to your opponent' was pointless at this point because they were so obvious for anyone who ever fought in a real fight that there was no point in repeating them to Jaune again.
"I don't think there is anything you can do to increase your chances at winning at the moment." She said with a conflicted tone in her voice before trying to say something to reassure Jaune. "Just do what you were doing until now and I'm sure we will manage for now. We will still have time to grow in strength after the first round, won't we?"
Thankfully she didn't do too bad of a job at reassuring the young shaman because soon after she said that he started to laugh a little at the situation they were in at the moment.
"Of course, there's no point in worrying too much at the moment." Jaune said with a short laugh before picking the Magnhild up with both of his arms and starting to walk towards the entrance of the park they were in at the moment.
The young Arc then swiftly turned his head towards her before saying. "Let's go. We still have to give Nora her weapon back."
Seeing that Jaune was doing better than before she smiled a little to herself with a small nod of her head before promptly following behind him.
"Now, that's the person I chose to be the guardian spirit of!"
...
Somewhere else in Vale...
...
Recently there were many unusual people in Vale. It wasn't uncommon to find a guy covered entirely in bandages talking to himself or two people clothed in white carrying an ancient torture device.
As most of these weird people knew almost all of them were shamans. It was mostly because once someone became a shaman it was easy to distance themselves from the rest of society in order to not deal with the prejudices or to find some semblance of normality.
There were of course shamans who believed themselves to be completely normal despite clearly showing signs of being different from the rest of Remnant by talking to spirits in public.
One of those normal shamans was Whitley Schnee who was currently in one of the lesser known alleys of Vale. He appeared to be practicing some basic slashes and stances with the saber he used for combat.
At first glance Whitley's current exercise looked both demanding and tiring but if someone were to look closer at the young Schnee then they would see that he wasn't doing that exercise to improve his skills. He was doing to relieve the excitement that was surging within him.
It was also something Nicholas Schnee noticed after watching his grandson starting his routine training earlier than usual today.
"What got you so excited, Whitley?" He said in a calm manner while watching the young Schnee do some light slashes and stabs.
Whitley despite all of the excitement present in him managed to stop himself from his training to look at his guardian spirit to have a conversation with him. He was slightly tired but it wasn't anything that would make having a conversation with his own granddad impossible.
"Isn't it obvious? After the last two rounds against those fakes we fought until now, we finally have a chance to fight against a true shaman!" Whitley said with a small smile, already thinking about his fight.
Hearing Whitley say that, Nicholas sighed a little with a subtle shake of his head to make sure that his grandson wouldn't notice.
Sometimes he really regretted teaching his grandchild in the shamanic ways. Especially since his teachings somehow turned Whitley into a shamanic puritan who wouldn't see people straining from the traditional methods of shamans as equals.
Although, despite thinking that, he knew that if he were to make the same decision one more time then he would have done it again without a second thought. He wouldn't do it because he would want to but he would do it because it would have been the only way for the true heritage of the Schnee family to continue after his failure of a daughter who wasn't even capable of interacting with the spirits.
A sigh once again escaped him as he remembered his own father and grandfather teaching him the ways of a shaman and their disappointment when his daughter showed no signs of being able to become a shaman.
"I know I was the one who taught you that true shamans shouldn't have their Aura unlocked but you shouldn't insult your previous opponents just because they had their aura unlocked." He said in a resigned voice, already knowing that his words would be either ignored or misinterpreted by Whitley.
Honestly, he couldn't really blame him for that. With how he was treated by the ordinary side of his family, Whitley had all the rights to not respect 'false' shamans. He still disagreed with it though.
"If they were true shamans and our fights were fair then we wouldn't have to worry about this fight." Whitley said with a scoff after hearing his guardian spirit try to protect shamans who refused to follow the tradition.
"Are you still bitter about that draw in our second fight?" He said, remembering how their previous fight ended.
"If that terrible comedian didn't have his Aura unlocked he would have lost the moment I broke his Over Soul for the first time!" Whitley snapped in response to his question.
He laughed a little at his grandchild's annoyed reaction.
Looking at it from the outsider's perspective, the result of their second fight was actually quite funny. They held the absolute advantage during the first part of the fight but after their opponent's Over Soul broke and his grandson tried to use his fist to knock them out he was stopped by an annoying soul barrier that almost broke his arm.
Since then because of the injury his grandson got from the punch the fight turned into a stalemate that ended in a draw which infuriated Whitley to no end.
It was also the main reason why they were so focused on winning their third fight. They had no idea whether a single win and a draw would be enough to get to the second round of the tournament so they had to win their next for safety.
If they had already won two times then he was sure that Whitley would only attend the third fight for formality since their opponent would be that blond shaman they fought while first entering the Vale. Despite their only meeting being basically only a fight, he could tell that his grandson somewhat respected the traveling shaman who ran away from them earlier.
He wasn't sure why though.
Maybe it's because the Arc boy was the first living shaman he really interacted with? He thought to himself while looking back at what happened that day.
Yet another sigh escaped him this day as his thoughts made him remember that his grandson didn't really have anyone who would treat him like a normal person aside from himself.
His daughter tried to treat Whitley better than the rest of his family, especially since she learned that the young boy was capable of becoming a shaman, but the jealousy in her was easy to see for someone like him.
He could only hope that his grandson would manage to find a friend in the young Arc boy they were about to fight later today.
"Do you think we will be able to win?" Whitley suddenly asked him in a worried tone startling him a little because of the drastic change in the mood. The clear concern on his grandchild's face made the unforeseen change even more jarring.
"Are you worried about losing to the blond Arc we are fighting tonight?" He asked in a slight confusion at his grandchild's worry.
Sure, it was normal to feel nervous right before the fight but he was certain that they would be able to easily win that fight, even if the young Arc became way stronger than he was when they fought him before, and he knew for a fact that Whitley wasn't worried about that as well.
The sheer excitement his grandson was full of not even a minute ago was proof of that.
Apparently he was right about Whitley not being worried because of their next fight as he noticed his grandson calmly shaking his head in denial to the question. Unfortunately it made the previous question of his grandchild even more confusing.
"I wasn't talking about our next fight. I'm worried about the entire tournament." Thankfully, Whitley explained precisely what he meant right before he began to wonder again.
He let out a hearty laugh and shook his head in response before answering with confidence in his voice.
"Do you remember the first lesson about shamans I gave you when you were still a little child?"
The confusion quickly filled Whitley's face as he heard him ask a rhetorical question as an answer. The young Schnee had no clue what it had to do with anything related to the tournament at the moment.
"You said that the shamans at their peak could move mountains and contend against ancient gods, right?" Whitley answered with a question as he wasn't sure where his grandpa was going with it.
"Exactly!" He vigorously answered his grandson's question before elaborating on his previous answer.
"The strongest of shamans is the Shaman King who after merging with the Great Spirit could be considered to be the god but it doesn't mean that the other shamans are weak. While I myself might have been weak when I was alive, it shouldn't matter to you at all. You are at the stage when your power grows the fastest! You will grow to be one of the most powerful shamans capable of everything I told you of shamans when you were a child in no time!"
His encouragement seemed to be working because soon after he said that, Whitley appeared to be looking a bit more hopeful than he was before. The worry and uncertainty were still present on his grandson's face though.
"But what about others? They will be able to grow in strength as well and if they have their Aura unlocked or use other unfair methods to fight then we still will be at a disadvantage." Whitley said while looking at him.
He smiled hollowly when he noticed how Whitley was looking at him. It wasn't hard to see that his grandson really wanted to win the tournament with how he always treated the things related to the tournament as the most important activities he could be doing at the moment with him always attempting to do them as perfectly as possible.
Unfortunately, despite being Whitley's grandfather he didn't know exactly why his grandson wanted to win the tournament so much. He knew it was to become the Shaman King but he didn't know exactly why Whitley wanted to become one.
Whenever he asked him what he would do after becoming the Shaman King, Whitley would always answer by saying that it's a secret.
"Don't worry, Whitley. A battle between shamans is a battle between their wills and I'm certain you will have greater will than people who are cheating to defeat you." He said as a final reassurance and it appeared to work well as at the moment Whitley looked as almost as excited as he was when he noticed that his next opponent would be the young Arc.
"You're right. Now, let's go. There's no point in swinging my weapon randomly here and doing nothing productive." Whitley said with a nod before going towards the exit of the alley they were currently in.
He nodded subtly, approving of his grandson's new attitude, before slowly following him in his spirit ball form.
"How about we look for the place we where will fight at tonight? I loathe how they describe these places." He offered after arriving right next to his grandson's head.
"I agree. What is even 'the most isolated cliff side at the greatest huntsman academy in Vale' supposed to mean!?" Whitley said with a fake scoff before leaving the alley.
...
Few hours later...
...
Despite Beacon Academy being a private institution belonging to Ozpin, getting there was actually quite easy. As long as you were visiting someone from the academy you should be able to rather easily enter its grounds.
You didn't even need to have a prior-made notice to get there because most students and teachers from Beacon could simply be on an immediate mission ordered by the government of Vale so making the process of visiting complicated would mean that there would rarely be any visitors at all.
There were even dozens of bullheads flying to the land right before Beacon since the place the academy was built at was considered to be one of the few national landmarks of Vale.
It was even a popular tourist spot during the holidays when the school was closed.
In summary, as long as someone didn't have any sickness preventing them from using the public bullhead lines they shouldn't have any problems with getting to Beacon.
Unfortunately, Jaune Arc was one of the few unlucky people who were cursed with one of the most malicious scourges existing on Remnant known as the motion sickness. Truly, he wouldn't wish for his worst enemy to be plagued by this evil.
"Stop complaining. The first time we were here you didn't make too much of a fuss about it." Summer said with some annoyance in her voice as they left the torture device even Iron Maiden Jeanne would be afraid of using.
His guardian spirit clearly didn't understand the sheer agony pulsing present in his body which was trying to leave him through his mouth at the moment.
"I didn't even say anything yet." He weakly whispered to Summer so he wouldn't look like a complete weirdo who was saying random things to people only he could see right after barely leaving the metal trap some people used for transportation.
Although he tried to not get too much attention on himself by saying things as quietly as he could, some people still looked at him. For some reason their gazes were filled with weariness and pity instead of the usual confusion whenever he talked to the spirits in public.
Based on how he felt at the moment, he could likely guess why.
"You might not have said it but that look on your face is more than enough for me to know what you are thinking about." Summer answered while crossing her arms and flying right before him.
Of course Summer would know what he wanted to complain about after merely looking at his face. She wasn't his only guardian spirit for nothing, after all.
"The first time we were here, I was too lost in my thoughts from the grandness of this place to fully notice how terribly I felt. Unfortunately, the feeling of awe disappears quite quickly if one is encountering it often." He whispered explaining the difference between then and now.
The unconvinced look his guardian spirit sent him right after he said that made him feel even worse.
It wasn't his fault that as long as he didn't have anything to keep his mind on during the travel in a vehicle he would be feeling especially bad. Motion sickness wasn't that rare of a disease!
"Let's go give Nora her weapon back!" Summer shouted with energy after shaking her head a little in response to his behavior. She then flew towards the entrance to Beacon to look for Ren and Nora.
He sighed a little before following right behind her while trying to ignore the violent protest of his stomach.
While he wasn't capable of moving as fast as Summer because he wasn't a ghost, he didn't really mind that as he slowly moved forward towards Beacon's entry. If Summer met Ren and Nora before him then he was sure she would tell them why they were here.
The hallways of Beacon's hallways were surprisingly tame compared to how the school looked from the outside. Don't get him wrong they still looked impressive and would put any other learning facility to shame but compared to the castle-like outside it didn't look too thrilling.
It wasn't his first time visiting Ren's and Nora's dorm since he had to stop by there a few times when he was practicing with on Ren how to form their Over Souls. He also visited it a few days ago to borrow Magnhild from Nora.
Thanks to that he already knew where to go.
With that knowledge it didn't take him long to find his friends' dorm and, based on the four familiar voices having a conversation he was hearing from the inside, his friends within it.
He knocked on the door and waited for either Ren or Nora to open since he didn't own the electronic key in his scroll the entire team RLND seemed to have.
Thankfully, he didn't have to wait for too long as not even ten seconds later the door before him opened revealing Ren talking with Summer and his father while Nora stood right before him since she was the one who opened the door.
There wasn't any other member of Ren's team present. Although he already knew that before even knocking at the door as Ren for sure wouldn't have a loud conversation with Summer and Li if there were any non shaman people here except for Nora.
"Jauney, I knew you would come! Come in. Did you come to tell us how you won your last fight?" Nora said with her iconic energy present in her voice.
"Not yet. I'm here to give your weapon back. While it didn't help me much in the end, I still appreciate that you let me borrow it." He answered while giving Nora her hammer back before entering team RLND's dorm.
The first thing he did after being inside the room was to sit down on Ren's bed right next to the place the owner of said bed was sitting at.
"Finally, a place I can relax after that death trap I had to go through to get here." He said with some relief in his voice while stretching his back and arms. Being able to sit and let his stomach calm down after the flight was a wonderful feeling.
Right after he did that the attention of every human and ghost in the room turned towards him. Summer shook her head at his antics while the Ren father and son duo merely shrugged their arms as a response.
"I still can't believe that you have motion sickness. Seriously, You can teleport as easily as swinging your weapon and have once survived being thrown through the entire forest by Renny before, yet flying a bullhead is the thing that can defeat you?" Nora said while raising one of her eyebrows.
While the orange haired huntress in training wasn't able to notice that during her entire short speech Summer was repeatedly nodding her head in agreement.
"It's not like being motion sick is my choice, you know?" He answered in a protest, getting some laughs from Ren and Nora by doing so.
Their laughs were short-lasted though as the jovial atmosphere in the room naturally shifted into a more calm and casual one. It didn't take long for them to start having a laid-back conversation about what they were doing the last few days or how school life was going.
Of course, he and Ren had to work as provisional ghost translators so that Nora would be able to know what Summer and Li were saying but thankfully it was somewhat manageable.
It was surprisingly easy to forget that he still had a fight later that day when everything appeared so peaceful. Ren and Nora looked even more relaxed than he was at the moment though.
They almost looked as if they weren't concerned about the Shaman King Tournament at all.
Maybe Ren has a long rest period before his next fight? He thought to himself with some confusion because based on the free times between fights he had always gotten there shouldn't really be a long period of time in the tournament when they could fully relax.
He could have been an exception though.
"I have actually been wondering for quite some time now. How are you guys doing with your shaman fights?" He decided to ask to satisfy his curiosity after they finished their previous topic.
Right after he asked that, Nora suddenly smiled with a proud grin which made her look as if she was a child who just won at some competition against adults and was about to get their reward.
Ren smiled as well although his smile wasn't nearly as exaggerated as Nora's was.
"You see-""I'm glad you asked because I was just about to tell you!" Ren started answering only to be out-shouted by an overly excited Nora.
A wry smile appeared on the long haired huntsman in training soon after that happened. There wasn't any ill feeling noticeable on his face though most likely because Ren didn't truly mind that.
He shot the other shaman in the room a quick sympathetic look only to receive a calm smile in return as if to tell him to not worry about it. Sometimes he really was in awe of Ren's temperament.
"Tell me what?" He asked Nora, hoping to get an explanation.
Nora laughed to herself in response to his question before moving slightly to the side and presenting Ren to him with her hands as if she was advertising some expensive treasure to him.
"You may not know it yet but just two days ago our Renny here had got his second win meaning that as of right now we are just waiting for the first round of the tournament to end."
To say that he was surprised after hearing those news would be an understatement. Don't get him wrong, Ren already qualifying for the next round of the tournament was a great thing. He was simply shocked that during the time he had lost a single fight his friend had already managed to win two of them.
"So quickly?" Summer asked in surprise, clearly wondering about the same thing he was.
"Yup!" They immediately got an answer from Nora and when he and Summer looked at her to expound on that she continued. "Apparently the Great Spirit thingy makes it so the shamans who have their Aura unlocked have their fights quicker than the others because they are able to heal from their previous fight faster."
"Huh." He and Summer reacted at the same time, not knowing how to respond.
Both of them decided to completely ignore the fact that Nora just now referred to the greatest spirit to ever exist which would grant the winner of the tournament the powers of a god as a 'thingy'. They have long since accepted Nora's eccentricity to care about such little things.
"Or at least that's more or less what the judge said when I asked them why Renny had his third fight so quickly after the second." Nora clarified even more.
A loud laugh escaped the father and son duo who were the topic of the entire conversation just now after they have observed his and Summer's reactions to the news given by Nora. It made him wonder whether the reason they didn't tell them this right after winning through a scroll was because they wanted to see these reactions in person.
"Hey, don't laugh." He lightly snapped at Ren before asking a question. "Why weren't we told about this earlier? We visited you not too long ago when I was borrowing Magnhild from Nora."
In response to his question Ren and Nora looked at each other for a few seconds as if to communicate something between themselves while not telling him anything. Thankfully, their secret conversation didn't last long as not even five seconds later they were once again looking towards him.
"At first we wanted to but when we saw how concentrated and fixated you were on preparing for your fight, we decided against it." Nora said while scratching the back of her head with an honest smile.
"There was no point in increasing the pressure you were under even more." Ren calmly added.
At first when he heard Ren's explanation, he was a bit confused because of it and wanted to argue that the opposite would have been the case but he quickly stopped himself after realizing what the black haired shaman was talking about.
While he might not have acknowledged it, with how stressed he was up until a few hours ago he certainly would have forced himself to go beyond what his body could take to make sure he wouldn't leave Ren alone during the later rounds of the tournament.
He wasn't even sure whether he would be able to keep his calm or not now.
"That's... incredibly considerate of you. Thank you." He answered after a short while of deliberating.
"You're welcome." Ren said in a kind voice making the room go silent for a second.
"Enough about us, You have your fight today, right? Where is it? I want to watch it!" Only for the silence to be immediately disrupted by Nora loudly saying in excitement while dashing directly at him so that he wouldn't be able to dismiss her question.
It seemed that for Nora calmness and peace were only good in short bursts between near constant energy and chaos. If he were to be honest then at this point he wouldn't want her to act in any other way.
He chuckled lightly in contentment before answering Nora's questions. "Yeah, it's today. We are fighting against Whitley at the secret place at Beacon that Summer showed us when we were awakening Ren's Over Soul."
"At least, We think that's the place based on the description given. I'm genuinely always lost with these stupid Oracle Bells." Summer added shortly after.
"Tell me about it. Renny's last fight was apparently at the most enigmatic connection between sea and the land. Seriously, couldn't they have just written something like 'your fight is at the closed docks'?" Nora said in agreement.
Shortly after that, the room filled itself with their laughter diffusing the pressure he felt almost entirely. It didn't take long for them to come back to more casual topics to kill the time before his next fight in comfort.
...
Couple of hours later...
...
Despite occasional nerve-racking exceptions, life at Beacon was surprisingly normal. There still was homework you had to make, grades you had to care about and free time you had to find a way to spend.
There rarely were situations when that ordinary routine would change.
It was a way of living Weiss Schnee was perfectly content with at the moment.
After she and the rest of the team RWBY resolved their conflict which made Blake run away a couple of days ago, it didn't take too long for everything to return to how it was before the fight.
If someone were to look at them today then they wouldn't have believed there was any fight between them.
Yang was playing some childish game on her scroll. Blake was reading one of her books that she refused to admit was smut. Their team leader Ruby was currently outside because apparently she had something to improve upon in her weapon.
Honestly, she didn't really care too much.
She on the other hand was currently studying for a test they were going to have in few days and she believed that her friends should be doing the same thing as well at the moment. Grades were important.
"What are you studying so hard for Weisscream?" Yang asked her out of boredom while not even caring enough to get off the bed.
She narrowed her eyes at Yang after she said that because she was certain she heard a little giggle from her blond teammate after she said that terrible pun using her name.
"We have a history test next Tuesday and if I were you I would have tried to prepare for it as well. I don't want our team to be known for always having at least one person who can't pass a test." She answered rather calmly.
It seemed that her answer was enough for Yang to find a reason to get up because soon after she said that she could see her teammate standing right beside her with a small grin on her face.
"Ohh, calm down Weiss we still have about three days until then and the topics for it were rather easy to remember so we should be fine. Let's go do something fun now. I'm bored." Yang said with a small whine at the end.
The tip of her pencil snapped from the pressure she put on it when she heard Yang say that.
Does that blond brute of a teammate think about anything else than having fun? She thought to herself with tiredness.
It wasn't the first time Yang asked them to do something fun with her today. In fact she was pretty sure she heard the exact suggestion at least four times in the last hour. Up until now She and Blake have always ignored it but even a paragon of patience like her would get tired of it.
"Listen Yang-" She started with a voice full of irritation only to be interrupted by the door of their room being wildly opened by a blur of roses they called their team leader.
"Hey guys! You won't guess what I stumbled upon!" Ruby loudly said with some excitement in her voice getting the attention of everyone in the room.
An awkward second of silence passed in response to their team leader's statement as all of them simply looked at the young huntress in training standing in the doorway. None of them really knew how to react to this in their current situation.
"Have I come at a bad time?" Ruby awkwardly asked as she didn't know what to do.
"Just... Tell us what you've found." She answered with a sigh as she was already getting used to her leader's antics.
Yang and Blake slowly nodded to show Ruby that they agreed with her.
Sometimes she really wondered how this team would function without her keeping everyone straight. Probably it would have been way more filled with unnecessary energy that would have to be wasted on useless things.
"Huh? Right." Ruby said in acknowledgement before explaining what she found. "I found Ren and Nora sneaking somewhere out of Beacon together with that blond haired boy who scolded Yang before. What was his name again? Something like John?"
"It was Jaune and I don't think those news were impressive enough for you to burst through the door like you did." Blake answered before turning a page in her book and looking back at it to read.
"Normally, I would have thought so as well but I overheard them talking about some tournament and something called shaman fight. Something interesting might be going on. Do you we could go and watch whatever that is?" Ruby clarified the reason behind her actions.
She raised her eyebrow in response. As far as she knew that Jaune guy wasn't a fighter so him taking part in some tournament was certainly a weird news for her. She still didn't see why Ruby would want to watch that though.
"Thank you for the offer but I will kindly refuse. We have our own important assignments to do and I doubt that the tournament he is a part of could compare to the Vytal Tournament we will compete in later in the year." She answered with a shake of her head, getting the attention of her team.
"Don't be like that Weisscream. It's finally something other to do beside studying and being bored." Yang said to her before turning to her younger sister and adding. "I don't know about others but I'm coming. It's not like we have anything else to do."
Of course that blond brute would agree to go, she was pestering her to do something with her for the last few hours after all.
She sighed with regret after thinking about it for a second. Yang was going to watch a fight between amateurs that probably wasn't going to be very gripping or exciting. She would most likely see her back after a few short minutes and be forced to endure her teammate's annoying distractions once again.
At least Blake seemed like a sensible person at the moment. At times like these she really regretted fighting with her that memorable day. If Blake were to truly run away then she wouldn't know how she would survive with the rest of her team alone.
"I will go watch it as well. It might be interesting." Blake calmly said while closing her book and standing up from her bed.
Her head immediately turned towards her faunus teammate and if her team were to focus on her face then they would have seen a very clear look of betrayal on her face.
Apparently it was her who was the only logically thinking person on the team.
"It looks like Blakey's on board as well. Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Yang said while leaning back before moving towards the door.
"Yes, I'm sure. Have fun at your pointless outing. I'm sure it will be entertaining." She answered with a wave of her hand before coming back to studying.
The Rose-Xiao Long sister duo shrugged their shoulders in response before waving at Blake and going through a door. They appeared to be weirdly excited because of it and she wasn't sure why.
It might just be because they had nothing else to do at the moment.
Typically after something like this were to happen she would have simply ignored everything and come back to her studies but her teammates leaving voices caught her attention for some reason.
"So, do we know against whom the scolding boy is going to have this shaman fight thing?" She heard Yang say through the door.
She tried to ignore it but the nature of humans makes them unable to willingly leave questions unanswered so despite trying to not listen to it she couldn't stop herself from doing so.
"I have no idea but I heard them talk about someone called Whitley. Do you think it might be Weiss's brother?" Ruby's voice answered.
Wait, Whitley was another person in that tournament? She knew she should have looked for him the moment she heard he might be in Vale to make sure he wouldn't do anything weird.
Unfortunately, she didn't do it and now her younger brother seemed to be turning the Schnee family name into a laughingstock again. It was just like the time he once spent the entire weekend lost in a graveyard talking to his imaginary friends.
She couldn't allow him to do that!
"Wait guys! I'm going with you!" She shouted as she stormed out of their room getting the attention and small giggles from her team.
...
At a certain secret place at Beacon...
...
It was an incredibly bright night outside. If one were to look towards the sky then they would be able to see countless stars illuminating the usually dark sky even the eternally broken moon looked peculiarly captivating that night.
Such a night was perfect for the final fight of the first round.
Excitement and tension could be easily felt by everyone currently standing on a distant cliff side on the Beacon's grounds. Even if the only people present at the moment were Jaune and his two friends who were going to watch his fight.
At least these were all the people he was aware of at the moment. He wouldn't put it past the judges of the tournament to somehow observe them quietly from hiding especially if the judge of this fight was going to be Raven.
Jaune yawned and stretched a bit before leaning on his walking stick to wait for his opponent in a more comfortable position.
It seemed that his hellish training was finally getting to him. Sure, he was excited for his next fight and couldn't quite calm down now but it didn't mean that he wasn't tired from the couple days of almost non-stop exercise.
"How long do you think we will have to wait until Whitley arrives for our fight?" He asked Sumer and his friends.
"It migh-""Considering the fact that the only reason we know about this place is thanks to Summy he might come a bit late compared to us or the examiner." Nora said, interrupting Summer as she wasn't able to hear her.
The annoyed look his guardian spirit shot at Nora was seen by him so often in situations similar to that one that he didn't even need to look at her to know what face she was making.
It still didn't stop him from quietly laughing at it though.
"Why are you laughing?" Nora asked with some confusion although she already suspected what was the reason for his laughter.
"It's nothing important." He answered between his giggles.
"Is it? I know, I personally would like to have some fun together with you." A rather confident voice said from afar while slowly becoming louder and louder as it began getting closer.
It looked like Whitley arrived here earlier than they anticipated.
He slightly turned his head in the direction the voice came from to see a young white haired boy slowly walking towards them with a spirit of a serious looking old man floating right behind him.
It was the first time he actually saw Whitley's guardian spirit in person as the last time they fought, Nicholas and Whitley were already in their spirit integration form before they even met. He must say though, he could easily see the family resemblance between those two. Even if one were to ignore the obvious things like the same hair or eye color, the confident attitude that was oozing out of them would have been more than enough to know that they were related.
"Hello there." He casually said with a fake salute and a kind smile after looking at his opponent for tonight's fight for a few seconds.
Whitley certainly didn't expect such a meeting based on the flabbergasted expression the young Schnee had on his face after he said that.
"Normally at this point I would have introduced myself but I guess there's no point in doing that with you, is there?" The white haired shaman said with a shake of his head and a small laugh after finally getting over his confusion.
Apparently Whitley was still trying to act as formal as he was acting the last time they had met. It was weirdly calming to see that his opponent still behaved similarly to how he remembered.
It meant that there wouldn't be that much of a difference between then and now.
"Yeah, It would be quite pointless indeed." He answered with a small chuckle while straightening himself out before adding. "It's good to see you again Whitley. I must say I didn't expect you to find this place so easily though."
At the mention of the difficulty of finding the place they were currently at Whitley grumbled something under his nose quietly and even though he wasn't able to hear it he could likely guess what it was about. Seriously, why weren't they given precise addresses or at least a map with a marked location of the fight?
"It's good to see you too." Whitley answered with an honest grin while ignoring the grumble he did earlier before continuing with a smile that looked a tad bit more condescending.
"You have no idea how glad I am to be able to fight against you so early in the tournament. All of my previous fights were against people who could at best pretend to be shamans. I was slowly starting to think that I won't be able to have a real shaman fight at all unless I challenge you myself."
He almost forgot about his opponent's overbearing opinions on certain topics because of how nice everything appeared just a few seconds ago. If he didn't know where the white haired boy was coming from then he certainly would have thought that the young Schnee was a villain who only joined the tournament to cause problems.
No matter what would be the outcome of their fight he would have to help Whitley get rid of that terrible mindset because it wasn't healthy.
Luckily, he noticed that Whitley's guardian spirit was looking a bit disappointed the moment the white haired shaman said his opinion on his previous fights so there might be a chance that he would have a help with that.
"Hey! What do you mean by 'pretend'?! Renny is twice the shaman you could ever be!" Unluckily Nora didn't seem to be as understanding as him in this scenario.
The shout from Nora easily got Whitley's attention but not because of the reasons Nora hoped for as the young shaman merely looked towards the orange haired girl in confusion as if he already forgot that there were other people here beside him and Jaune.
"I guess you two are here to be our audience?" Whitley said while looking at Ren and Nora with one of his eyebrows raised. He clearly didn't respect either of them in any way.
The moment she heard that Nora exploded in anger and was about to lash out at the white haired boy but thankfully she was stopped by Ren. She was stopped at a perfect time as well because soon after Ren grabbed her spiritual feathers visible only to shamans started to fly through the air.
Jaune and Summer smiled a little after they saw that because they already knew who was most likely the person responsible for these feathers. When a bunch of ghost birds started flying towards them there was no more doubt who that person was.
It seemed that this time it was his examiner who would be judging the fight.
Raven flew from under the cliff while being carried by one of her spiritual birds. There was a smirk on her face as she most likely was glad that there already was tension between both sides of the fight.
"Looks like I am the last one to arrive." Raven said with a short laugh before jumping from her bird to land on the ground.
His guardian spirit merely shook her head with a sigh in response. Summer clearly wasn't impressed by her ex-teammate's theatrics.
"Hey kid, did you miss me?" One of Raven's birds asked while tilting it's head. He was pretty sure it was the one Raven threw at him to invite him to the tournament back in the day but he wasn't certain.
These birds looked way too similar to each other for him to be sure.
Nevertheless he still smiled and waved his hand in a greeting. Getting on the bad side of one of their judge's spirits wasn't a good idea, especially right before the fight. At worst the little guy wouldn't be as annoying as he could be if he was angry.
"Woah! How did she do that?! She just flew here without doing anything!" Nora screamed out of surprise as she couldn't see all of the ghost birds that traveled with Raven.
"She was carried by one of her spirits, Nora. Now let's be silent for a while. We shouldn't interrupt their fight." Ren answered while finally releasing Nora from his hold.
"Good thing that at least one of you has some awareness on what to do as an audience of a shaman fight." Raven said with a scoff while looking somewhere further away with a frown.
She then moved to the side after glaring in that direction for a few seconds to make a place for him and Whitley to fight. He wanted to check what she was looking at but he decided against it because the current fight was probably way more important to him than whatever could be happening there.
"Since both of you appear to be ready, I think we should start this fight!" Raven said with a small smirk while sitting down on the ground in a crude way. It might be just his imagination but she seemed to be distracted with something at the moment. The thing that she saw there must have really made an impression on her.
After both him and Whitley nodded in approval of starting the fight earlier Raven manually started the countdown earlier.
Meanwhile, somewhere around a hundred meters away from the shaman fight that was about to take place, on the ground lay team RWBY. Normally they would have come a little bit closer to watch what was happening but the almost flat shape of the ground at the edges of Beacon's ground made that impossible to do while unnoticed.
Needless to say, they didn't want to be caught by the people they were spying on and be thought of as weird because of doing so.
The idea to lie on the ground was proposed by Blake who had the experience with tailing and spying mission from her time in the White Fang and the only one was actually against it was Weiss who didn't want to get her clothes dirty for some stupid reason like watching a fight between beginners.
"I still can't believe we have to sneak around like that. Can't we just go there and watch the fight like Ren and Nora are doing? We won't see much from here anyway." Weiss complained quietly to make sure she wouldn't be heard by the people preparing to fight.
"Of course we can, if you want to be seen as a noisy passerby who can't mind their own business. Besides, it looks like what they are doing is secretive for some reason and I doubt they would continue it if there were too many people watching." Blake answered with some spite, being tired of Weiss's complaining.
Just because she forgave her for what happened during their White Fang adventure didn't mean that she couldn't find her friend annoying sometimes.
"Weiss does have a point though. What's the point of watching the fight if we are too far to actually see anything?" Ruby agreed with her partner on this case.
Blake thought about it for a while in response before answering with a small frown. "We might try to get a little bit closer but we would have to be really sneaky about it since there aren't any objects to hide behind here."
"I'm up for it. Let's go." Ruby said with a hum and a nod before slowly moving forward.
Blake and Weiss soon followed behind her as they also were curious about the fight even if one of them wouldn't want to admit it. Strangely she noticed that her sister wasn't with them and instead still stayed in place.
"Are you coming Yang?" Ruby asked while turning her head backwards to make sure Yang would hear her.
The moment she turned around she saw that Yang didn't seem to feel so good. She was almost entirely pale and started to breathe really quickly as if she was having a panic attack. Even her eyes were dilated and red from her emotions.
"Are you alright?" Ruby asked, concerned about her older sister.
"Mom..." Yang absently said while looking at the person who just arrived at the scene.
And... that's a wrap.
Believe it or not but I originally planned for this and the next chapter to be one but after I was in the middle of it and saw that there were already about 4000 words I decided against it.
The next chapter is the fight between Jaune and Whitley.
See ya!