Here's the chapter!
Reviews:
Guest - Glad that you're excited because here's more.
Midnight49 - Don't worry about that, I should have either made Pyrrha not being at Beacon more important to the story until now or at least mention her leaving it after the initiation later in the story.
X3runner - I personally also visualize him with a little bit lighter hair. And being tsunderes is apparently in Schnee's blood in this fic.
Gamelover41592 - Uh ho!
adislt - That's a good question, with all of his years Ozpin should at least be aware of what's going on. I want to reference back to chapter 15 when I wrote that he's aware of something weird happening every 500 years but not wanting to learn more about it because the brother gods insisted on him keeping away from all of those things but I guess it could be considered a bit too weak of an explanation. It doesn't entirely explain the complete lack of knowledge about shamans as a whole as well. In the end I didn't give a full explanation in the story itself yet but I will try to give a better one in the next arc.
The sky above Argus looked remarkably pretty today.
It might not have been the most profound reflection out there but it certainly helped Jaune focus on something else besides the hectic situation he somehow found himself in.
He still lied on the ground after being tackled, there wasn't really a time to stand up or change position for that matter. The familiar lady that tackled him to the ground didn't move from him either so he was kinda stuck.
The sound of shifting movement and swirling winds brought his attention to his friends who already began pointing their weapons at the strange lady. Not unexpected, considering that he had been basically attacked from behind but a bit unnecessary for sure.
The lady didn't look like a shaman. If she was one then there would be no chance for him to had been tackled to the ground like that, the only result other shamans would have strove for after sneaking up on him like that would have been a surprise attack with their Over Souls.
It didn't give him any clue as to who that familiar looking lady might be though. His mind was going through all the people he interacted with in the last ten years or so but it was finding nothing.
Maybe she was a hallucination his mind made up after two months of tiring journey with his frankly exhausting to be with friends to relieve some tension.
Jaune slowly closed his eyes in hopes that the moment he opened them again everything would return to a relative normality. Or at least allow his mind to fully comprehend what actually was going on.
Sadly, only a few seconds after he closed his eyes, Jaune had to give up on that idea as he felt his shirt becoming wet because of something. Tears, probably.
A sigh escaped the blond shaman. Whoever was that familiar woman, she must have either mistaken him for someone close to her or somehow knew him from somewhere and dearly missed him.
"Alright, I'm not exactly sure what's going on right now but I believe we can solve whatever's happening after getting up from the ground, don't you think?" Jaune said while gently pushing the older girl back a little.
"I-I..." The blond woman looked at him intensely with tears in her eyes before shakily nodding her head once and getting up from the ground.
While getting up, she held onto him with an almost forceful strength. It was almost as if she was afraid that he would run away or disappear if she wasn't holding him.
Jaune wasn't sure what to think of that, he didn't remember abandoning anyone to make them react to him like that aside from his family back when he was still a child which he wasn't really considering at the moment since Argus wasn't even close to his home village.
"Okay, now that we aren't lying on the ground anymore, can we-" He started saying only to be cut short by the blond woman suddenly hugging him so tightly that it would make Nora's hugs look loose.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry all of us always called you weird or a freak." The blond woman started weeping into his shirt again before mumbling quietly. "Please don't leave us again."
Jaune, still as confused as before, stood there in place awkwardly not knowing what to do. He saw all of his friends raising their eyebrows at him as if to ask what was happening but he couldn't really answer, all he could do was to silently reassure them that the blond woman that was hugging him wasn't an enemy and that they didn't need their Over Souls for it.
As silence among them was slowly replaced with the sound of weeping from the woman hugging him, Jaune couldn't stop himself from patting the blond lady reassuringly on the back. He might not have had any idea who she was but he couldn't deny that she felt familiar.
"Let's go visit my home." The blond lady said all of a sudden after grabbing Jaune by his shoulders. "I will introduce you to my wife and son. I will also call the rest of the family to come here, they have to know that you are here. Oh, but before all of that..."
Before that blond woman could begin listing all the things they apparently needed to do, Jaune stopped her by lightly grabbing one of her arms.
After the blond lady stopped herself from talking, she looked at him curiously and waited for him to say something. Jaune gulped loudly when he saw that look, he already suspected who that person might be but he still had to ask that question.
"I'm sorry but who are you?"
Jaune had to wince after seeing the expression the blond lady made when he asked that. The small amounts of fear and happiness that were present on her face earlier turned into full panic in less than a second.
"I-It's me. D-Do you not remember your own sister anymore?" The woman asked shakily and Jaune winced once again.
It was exactly as he suspected. Though, he certainly didn't expect to meet one of his siblings in Argus or in Mistral at all. Was this sister of his the only one in Argus or were the others here as well?
She did say that she would need to call the rest of the family to come here so it's possible that she's the only one who moved here. Of course it's also possible that the rest of his family was simply in the other parts of Argus, it was a big city after all.
"O-Of course, I remember all seven of you." Jaune said while avoiding eye contact. "You are Violet, right? You've changed so much in the last ten years that I simply didn't recognize you."
"I'm Saphron." His sister said with a frown.
"I'm sorry." Jaune said with some shame.
"There are other things you will have to apologize for, Jaune." Saphron said sternly with her eyes narrowed at him. "For now though, let's go to my house and have a talk, there's so much I want to tell you."
With that said, she grabbed Jaune's arm and started dragging him towards somewhere. If a loud cough from the side didn't stop her after she took a few steps then she would have dragged her brother with her without realizing that there were other people with him.
"Huh?" Saphron turned her head towards the sound with some annoyance.
"While I'm happy for the small family reunion you are having, don't you think that you are forgetting something?" Whitley asked, feeling discontent at being ignored along with the rest of Jaune's friends.
"Who are you, again?" Saphron asked with genuine confusion in her voice. She had been so focused on getting her brother back that she didn't stop to look at the people he was with.
"You-!" Whitley started while reaching for his saber only to abruptly stop when Ren grabbed his dominant arm.
"We are Jaune's friends." Ren said diplomatically. "My name's Ren, that arrogant brat is Whitley and the girl beside me is Nora. We were traveling through Mistral for the last couple of weeks together."
"Ohh..." Saphron drawled out, ignoring an agitated shout from Whitley. "In that case you should come as well. I certainly didn't expect my little bro to have friends good enough to travel through an entire kingdom with. Thank you for taking care of him."
"You are welcome, Jauney's sister." Nora chirped happily before jumping a little and arriving right next to Saphron. "Now, let's go to your house! I wanna see how Jaune's family is living."
Nora's enthusiastic cheer made everyone move towards Saphron and with everybody ready they all went to Saphron's home. Throughout the entire journey not once was Jaune able to break from his sister's steady grip.
...
Half an hour later...
...
Visiting the house of his sister that he hadn't seen for about ten years was a bizarre experience for Jaune.
Photos of events and occasions that happened after he started his journey littered the house. On some of them people appeared sad, mostly on the older ones that happened right after he had ran away though. On others his family looked happy, joyous even, those usually depicted more recent happenings like marriages or the first photos with the young boy that Jaune assumed was his nephew.
The dates on those pictures probably meant a lot to his family, you rarely put a photo of an event you didn't want to bother to remember after all, but for him those numbers were meaningless. He could barely remember what he was doing on the very same day his sister had her marriage.
There were the moments in his life he would never want to forget of course but they never aligned themselves with the moments his own family considered important.
"There are a lot of them." Jaune remarked quietly while looking at the walls filled with different pictures and photos as they walked through the corridor that led to the living room.
"You mean the pictures?" Saphron asked after overhearing him and when she saw him nodding continued. "Yeah, there sure are. I might not have been that interested in having my life showed on the walls like that when I was younger but throughout the years I came to appreciate them. I still have that photo with all of us, we took when we were five, by the way."
"You still have it?!" Jaune recoiled a little after hearing that. Out of all the things he had expected to come across in his sister's house, a photo with him on it was not one of them.
All of his friends looked at him questioningly hoping that he would explain his surprise. Well, at least most of them, Summer stormed off to look for the pictures of him back when he was a young child the moment she saw that there were photos of his family here for some reason.
Seeing how his friends looked at him, Jaune could only fake a cough embarrassingly to drop the topic. He would explain to them later if his sister wasn't going to do that for him quicker.
Obviously his attempt at changing the topic wouldn't work on Nora as the orange haired huntress dashed directly to Saphron with clear curiosity in her eyes.
"What's on that picture with young Jauney?" Nora asked excitedly with a wide smile on her face. "Will you show it to us later?"
"It's nothing that interesting so don't put your hopes too high." Saphron said with a small giggle. "But sure, it's not like it is some sort of a secret that cannot get outside our family."
"Yes!" Nora cheered loudly.
This time it was Jaune who looked at his friend questioningly but the only thing he got from Ren was a wry smile and a shrug. It seemed that even Ren couldn't fully understand the reasons behind Nora's actions.
"Oh my god, Jaune! He's so adorable!" A loud shout from somewhere deeper in the house brought the attention of every shaman in the building towards the end of the room. Summer must have found something.
"We are here." Saphron said with a smirk, not being able to hear the shout, before opening the door to the living room wide open.
The room was surprisingly big, not as big as he remembered his family home's living room used to be but still larger than any room he had to sleep in for the last couple of years. The photos were here as well but there weren't as many of them as there were on the corridor or at least they were more spaced out, making it seem less clustered.
There were two rather large sofas surrounding a small table in the middle of the room, behind them stood a couple of large bookshelves by the wall and right next to all of this Jaune could see Summer excitingly floating above a dark haired woman and a really young child.
The gushing from his guardian spirit could probably be clearly heard by any shaman in the span of at least a hundred meters. He let out a wry and barely noticeable sigh at Summer's antics, he couldn't feel bad about her gushing over a young child when she was forced to abandon her own daughters back when they were four years old.
"I didn't know you were bringing guests, Saph." The dark haired woman said. "What's the occasion?"
"They are special guests." Saphron answered with a small grin before turning sideways so that she could point at both Jaune and the dark haired woman. "Speaking of which, Jaune this my wife Terra Cotta-Arc, and Terra this is my runaway of a younger brother that I miraculously managed to find today, Jaune Arc. Be nice to each other."
Out of all the awkward and embarrassing things Jaune had to live through across the years, being introduced to your sister's wife after two years of marriage would likely rank somewhere along the most awkward of them.
The only thing he could think of that would undoubtedly beat it was that one time he tried to convince an old living hermit to allow him to send the man into the afterlife. He had been so lucky that the man had thought of that as a joke.
"Nice to meet you all." Terra said somewhat stiffly. "I assume that the rest of you are Jaune's friends? I would have stood up to greet all of you but Adrian has just fallen asleep and I don't want to wake him up."
"Likewise." Jaune answered as awkwardly as his sister's wife had. "And please don't worry about that, your son's more important than we are at the moment."
When he said that, Jaune expected a small nod of agreement or a somewhat quiet hum to acknowledge his answer, maybe even some words of compliance. What he didn't expect was for Terra to start laughing in response to his reassurance.
"I wouldn't make such bold statements, Jaune." Terra said through her laughter. "You have no idea how often your older sister talks about you. If I didn't know any better then I would have thought that the only reason she married me was to have additional help with looking for you."
"Terra!" Saphron whined a little. "You know that's not the case. I love you like no other but finding Jaune was one of the most important thing for me. How would you feel if a member of your family one day ran away while leaving a letter stating that he would be back in at most a single month and then proceed to not return in ten years."
"He did return in the end, didn't he?" Terra said with a smile.
"Yes and after I call the rest of the family, we will all make sure he won't be leaving again!" Saphron said with a self-assured nod.
"About that..." Jaune started to say that they were in Argus only temporarily but decided to stop himself from delivering the terrible news to his sister after she turned towards him with the most content smile he had ever seen on a person.
He just couldn't bring himself to destroy the happiness him being here brought to his sibling.
"Is something the matter?" Saphron tilted her head slightly. "Wait, before that let me prepare tea and something to eat. I would have offered you a dinner with us but I kinda dropped all of the food that I bought at the store in shock the moment I saw you. Now, sit down for a moment, alright?"
Without waiting for any of their answers, Jaune's older sister quickly went into the kitchen to prepare some tea and snacks.
"She didn't even ask us if we wanted tea in the first place." Whitley remarked with a raised eyebrow before slowly starting to move towards one of the sofas.
"You just saw our team leader reunite with the family he hasn't seen for the last ten years and the first thing you do is nitpick at his older sister. Are you for real?" Ren said, ignoring any of Jaune's previous claims that he wasn't any team leader and starting another bickering fight with Whitley.
It was a really comforting feeling to know that no matter the situation his friends would always find a way to start a fight between each other. He half expected Nora to add something to the brewing fight as well but the orange haired girl was too busy gushing over Adrian with Summer.
He didn't even see her move there!
If he wasn't so certain that Nora wasn't a shaman he would have suspected that she had some form of movement Over Soul that allowed her to teleport in a similar manner to him.
With a tired yet a little relieved sigh, Jaune sat down on the sofa right next to Terra and Adrian. He had no clue how to break the news of them leaving in a couple of days to Saphron, especially since they barely had their reunion not an hour ago.
She was going to end up crying!
"So, what brings you all to Argus?" Terra asked from beside the sofa while slowly cradling Adrian with a small smile on her face, curiosity was clearly filling her voice. "And for how long will you be staying?"
"Huh?" Jaune asked in surprise with a slight movement of his head while watching how Terra carefully stood up with her child in hands and slowly moved to sit beside him on the sofa. Every move of hers was mindful and leisurely to not wake up Adrian.
"Don't be so surprised." Terra rolled her eyes. "It's obvious that you are in here only for a short while considering that you don't have any heavy baggage needed to move in and despite looking non-stop for the last few years Saphron found you only now."
Yeah, he guessed it made sense. It's not like they were trying to hide the fact that they were here to find someone and leave immediately after. They only had two months left so they couldn't waste too much time here.
It did however make him worry about when would Saphron realize that on her own and wonder why she hadn't already. As if to answer his curious thinking, Terra briefly added after finally sitting down.
"If Saph wasn't so ecstatic from being able to see you again, she would have realized that instantly as well."
"Well, keeping quiet about it isn't going to help us in anyway." Whitley said before Jaune could answer. "We are looking for a woman called Lilirara and we will be leaving right after we find her. Since we are on this topic anyway, do you know where we could find her?"
Terra grabbed her chin and looked a bit upwards in thought. Names of the people she met throughout the years no doubt went through her head as she tried to place the name Lilirara somewhere among them.
After a few short seconds of thinking, Terra slowly shook her head.
"Argus is a huge city that has a population that can already be counted in millions. There's no way for me to know about a single specific person you are looking for let alone tell you where to find them. Especially if that person isn't famous." The dark haired woman said kindly.
"Of course that old lady pointed us towards some random unknown person, shamans can never be well known people apparently. Why can't we have some easy tasks to do for once?" Whitley grumbled in response before returning to his squabble with Ren.
Jaune and Terra laughed a little at his friends' antics, although Jaune couldn't help but frown a little after hearing the answer from Terra. It wasn't that he expected her to know Lilirara and point them directly towards her but when he looked at her and how she acted he doubted if she would tell them where to find her even if she knew.
Considering that she just saw her wife happily bringing her younger brother back saying how their family would finally reunite it wasn't hard to see why.
"I've got the tee!" Saphron said with a wide smile as she slid back into the room with a tray full of tea cups in her hands. "What did you talk about?"
Jaune opened his mouth in response but had no idea what to say. If he told her that they were talking about them leaving Argus she would for sure be devastated but he wasn't certain if he could lie to her after meeting her for the first time in the last ten years.
"You know, the usual." Terra answered vaguely for him.
It looked like Terra didn't want to break the sad news to Saphron either. They would have time for that later, maybe the day they would be leaving would be a good time for that then they wouldn't have to worry about her reaction for too long.
Jaune tightened his fists a little in distress. After the Shaman Fight ended he would definitely have to return here. He hoped he would have a chance to apologize for leaving again properly at that point.
"It's good to know that you guys are getting along with each other." Saphron grinned while sitting down in front of him which just so happened to be right next to Ren and Whitley. "I've already told the rest of the family that you are here when I was making tee by the way."
"What?!" Jaune asked loudly.
There was no way he would be able to leave Argus and continue competing in the Tournament if his entire family were to arrive here. It wasn't even because leaving them again would have been too hurtful for him but there would be no way they would physically allow him to leave.
His father was a trained and active huntsman. If that man were to grab him the only thing he could do would be waiting for release because there was no way he would try hurting his dad with an Over Soul.
Not to mention that with how Saphron reacted upon seeing him again he would be buried under six bodies of his sisters throwing themselves at him to keep him in place.
"Yup!" Saphron said happily, interpreting his loud question for pure happiness at being able to see his family again. "All of them will arrive here in about a week, except dad who should be here in two days as he is currently on a mission nearby."
"T-That's great." Jaune stuttered in response though his answer was quickly lost to a loud shout from his orange haired energetic friend.
"We will be seeing Jaune's dad?! I can't wait. Is he also a shaman like Jauney and Renny are? He must be an amazing one if Jaune is his son."
Saphron and Terra looked at each other quietly in confusion after hearing Nora's question. It was also the moment that Jaune realized exactly how little he told his friends about his family.
The most that all of his living friends knew about his family was that it was huge and that he ran away from home at a young age. The only one of their entire group beside him who knew more about them was Summer who couldn't really interact with neither Saphron or Terra.
"What's a shaman?" Saphron asked in confusion.
The house was silent as all of Jaune's friends, beside Summer who was wincing a little at the situation, looked at him quietly. They all probably assumed that his shamanic abilities were hereditary since both Ren and Whitley came from families that were at least aware of the spiritual side of the world.
"Shaman's a person who's a medium between ordinary world and a spiritual one." Ren broke the silence by briefly answering Saphron's question. "To put it simply, they are the people capable of interacting with ghosts and spirits. You should know that, your brother is one."
The awkward silence continued as Saphron blinked and took her time to process the information. They sat there not saying anything for at least a few long seconds which felt almost like minutes to Jaune.
"Ohh..." Saphron said in realization. "You mean that my little bro still has those freaky imaginary friends he had in his childhood? It's been ten years since he left, I can't believe that he isn't over it by now."
Frowns and scowls appeared on all of Jaune's friends when those words left his sister's mouth. The only ones who weren't affected by them were Summer and him who already expected such an answer from Saphron.
"Excuse you?" Whitley asked with a scowl on his face.
Jaune hid his face inside his hands and groaned loudly. It's been a long time since the last time he saw Whitley so pissed at something. He was really happy that the younger shaman was angry for his case but he really didn't want to start a fight with the family he hadn't seen in ten years.
Thankfully it seemed like Summer was already on her way to calm Whitley down and hopefully stop the young Schnee from hurting his sister.
A long and tired sigh escaped Jaune as he lifted his head up a little. Surprisingly few things have changed about his siblings despite almost ten years passing. It was a really terrible feeling to remind himself of one of the reasons why he had run away in the first place.
Maybe this time he would be able to convince his family that the spirits really existed now that he had two shaman friends with him?
Jaune leaned back as he witnessed a rather intense verbal fight between one of his friends and his older sister. Either way he would try to accomplish that near impossible challenge later down the line.
...
Somewhere else in Argus...
...
Pyrrha Nikos was famous for many things. Whether it was he unmatched battle prowess that led her to winning four Vytal festival tournaments in a row or her seemingly infinite kindness that was often shown in many commercials she starred in, there likely wasn't a single person on Remnant who wouldn't be able to say at least a single thing about her.
There was however a single secret she had that not even her parents knew about.
In a rather remote but not entirely separated alley in Argus stood a run down house that on the first look appeared abandoned.
It wasn't, of course. The taxes were still being collected from it and if it was completely empty then it would have been abolished a long time ago to make more space for newer and more useful buildings. It didn't stop the building from being regarded by many people as haunted however.
As Pyrrha well knew it didn't take much for common people to come up with the wildest theories for the most common things that appeared unusual on the surface. She still had to deal with the aftermath of someone theorizing that her winning streak was a result of her being a fully adult and trained huntress who had the semblance to change her appearance.
Some people were truly too absorbed in their delusions.
A creaking sound echoed through the remote alley as the invincible girl climbed up the few wooden stairs that lead to the run down house. She walked slowly and carefully, making sure that none of the steps would be accidentally damaged if the person she was here to meet decided to ambush her.
She loved that woman like a second mother but she would never understand her obsession with keeping her always vigilant. Especially since more often than not it resulted in the destruction of those wooden stairs that should have really been replaced with the stone ones a long time ago.
Stopping right before the door, Pyrrha slowly knocked in a rhythmic and delicate matter.
"Who is it?" An indistinct voice resounded from the building and Pyrrha immediately sighed and jumped back as far as she could.
The owner of this house would have never bothered with asking who was knocking, she would have just shouted to come in. At least if it wasn't another one of her ambushes she called tests that so often were prepared for the times Pyrrha visited.
Four small wooden dolls burst out of the old door shattering it to pieces. Pyrrha sighed again, it was another object she would have to replace for the reclusive woman in the building and once again it would be paid for with her money.
She was never forced to pay for the repairs but she knew that if she didn't do it the door would simply remain shattered for at least a couple of years.
The dolls flew at her in almost incomprehensible patterns that would easily defeat the most experienced of huntsmen. Kicks, punches and many different types of attacks were being thrown around as the dolls tried everything they could to defeat her, one of the dolls even tried to simply ram into her at a full speed.
Yet despite all of that none of that could touch Pyrrha as she gracefully dodged in between all of them while barely paying attention to the dolls themselves. It wasn't a scene that could be an outcome of skill alone, all of the dodges here had to be made thanks to her experience.
"I see that you are as agile as ever my dear apprentice." A familiar voice said from the building as the sound of footsteps began to echo from the house.
The attacks from dolls didn't stop with those words so Pyrrha didn't have an occasion to reply. Luckily they at least started to slow down a little as the footsteps resounded closer and closer.
In about a minute the attacks stopped entirely and the invincible girl could finally talk with the person she came to visit.
"Are all of those greeting tests really necessary at this point, teacher?" Pyrrha asked while turning her head towards the door of the run down building.
There stood her teacher casually leaning on the door frame, waiting for her to enter. Her teacher was a young woman with light brown skin and long black hair flowing behind her. She's always wielding a wooden staff and wearing clothes that reminded Pyrrha of the more reclusive tribes from Vacuo.
The most distinctive feature of her teacher was certainly a white tattoo of a cross combined with an arrow covering one of her cheeks. Sadly, Pyrrha never learned what the tattoo was supposed to represent or why her teacher had it as every time she asked her teacher would always dismiss it as not important.
"And is insisting on calling me 'teacher' necessary, either?" Her teacher asked back with a smirk. "I quite clearly remember telling you to simply call me Lili, my dear student."
"You are the one who refers to me as the student all the time so don't try to put this on me." Pyrrha answered with a slight snap at her good friend before slowly shaking her head. "Anyway, I came as you asked. Is something big that you want me to avoid happening again?"
"The 'big thing' like you called it hasn't stopped yet but some action from it might impact Argus soon so be careful. Also I didn't forbid you from going to Vale and Beacon, it was you who decided to return right after the initiation so don't be sour at me for this." Lili rolled her eyes.
"You might have not done that but your warning about staying away from any suspicious activities really did play a part in my decision to leave Beacon, you know? Especially since I ended up with no partner and a bunch of fans following me around wherever I went."
"You're exaggerating." Lili waved one of hand in dismissal. "There had to be at least a few people who didn't care about your fame. Now stop standing there like some tourist and come inside."
With her invitation said, Lili went back into her house fully expecting Pyrrha to follow her.
Knowing that it would be the warmest welcome she would get from her teacher, Pyrrha rolled her eyes and entered the house as well. She knew Lili for most of her life and no matter how much time had passed she was always the same.
As she entered the house, Pyrrha couldn't help but worry about what Lili said earlier about some of the action from 'the big thing' coming to Argus. She had no idea what that big thing actually was since when she asked Lili about it the only answer she had gotten was that she shouldn't worry about that too much because there was no way to impact it in any way but knowing that it was considered to be both important and dangerous by her teacher was enough for her to be wary of it.
Despite the fact that Pyrrha was a prodigy at fighting, she had never managed to defeat her teacher in a fair fight and it was even considering the fact that Lili refused to have her Aura unlocked. Her teacher was just that strong, it was why she was teaching her combat.
Yet even with all of the power at her disposal, Lili still considered whatever was happening right now as too dangerous to interfere.
If it truly was so dangerous then didn't that mean that Argus was in trouble?
...
Late in the evening...
...
The sun had already set, it was dark and colder outside, and they had made no progress on finding Lilirara at all. Instead all of them wasted their time on socializing with one of his sisters.
Jaune sighed as he watched the stars move from the window of the room that Saphron lent to him to spend the night. His sister's house wasn't large but with Ren and Nora sharing a room and Whitley sleeping on a sofa they managed to fit everyone in.
It was yet another thing he would be indebted to his sister and would want to somehow repay later.
Unfortunately with them leaving so soon it would be hard to do so. And they would need to leave soon because he had no idea if he would be able to leave if his father were to return.
In spite of the fact that the last time he saw his dad was relatively close to the time he saw everyone else in his family, he had the hardest time remembering the old man. It might have something to do with how often the man had been going out on missions to earn the money so that their large family could live relatively well.
When he was younger he probably didn't understand how hard it was but now after surviving practically on his own for the last ten years he found a new appreciation for the old Arc.
It wasn't to say that he didn't respect and appreciate the rest of his family. Despite how long ago he had last seen them and how they were rejecting his ability to see spirits he couldn't just not love them.
They were still his family who simply didn't know any better.
"Thinking about tomorrow?" He heard the voice of his guardian spirit ask him from behind.
Summer must have returned from the small trip around the city she and the rest of the spirit had done. They hadn't really had the time to explore the city after Saphron had invited them to her house so they had done the second best things and sent their guardian spirits to at the very least scout the city a little before they began their search for Lilirara.
It probably wouldn't amount to much but hopefully it would save them from being too lost the next day.
"Is it so easy to see?" He asked back to Summer.
"You loudly sighed while dejectedly watching the stars from your room." Summer said with a deadpan expression. "You tell me if it sounds difficult to guess what you're thinking about. I thought we were supposed to be done with moping after getting rid of the Apathy grimm in the Brunswick Farms."
Jaune snorted lightly at his guardian spirit's words. When she put his actions into words it became embarrassingly apparent how he looked. He might have underestimated how easy he was to read.
"Alright, I will try to stop the brooding." Jaune playfully rolled his eyes with a smile before becoming a bit more serious. "What am I supposed to do though? I know that we won't be able to leave yet and I have no idea what to think about meeting my father again."
The way Saphron found him was so much easier. He didn't have to think about how to greet her or how to apologize properly for leaving so many years ago, there was no reason for him to do so when he didn't even know she was in Argus.
He couldn't do that with the person he knew was coming.
"Just meet him and explain how important our current objective is. Your dad is a huntsman, right? As a huntress myself I can tell you that we do not really care for the details of someone else's job as long as we know that it's helping people." Summer said.
And by doing so he could try to explain the Shaman King Tournament to Saph as well, since he didn't really explain it to her either. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't apologized for leaving those ten years ago yet.
A frown appeared on Jaune's face as he looked at how he was acting from a bit different perspective. He hadn't properly reunited with Saphron alone yet he already was thinking of sneaking out.
It wasn't like he couldn't though. The Shaman Fight was way too important for him to simply ignore it, maybe if he met his family back in Vale then the decision to leave wouldn't be so forgone but after witnessing people like Hao or Iron Maiden Jeanne and realizing that he couldn't leave the Shaman King position to an evil person like Hao without a fight the question stopped being 'if he should leave' and became 'how he should leave'.
Summer sighed when she saw her partner painfully thinking about his next actions. It reminded her a little of how they first met, although back then it was her who couldn't think straight because of her family situation.
"If you still aren't convinced then how about leaving it to you in the future?" Summer asked and after getting Jaune's attention elaborated. "There's nothing you can do to prepare for it at the moment anyway and by wasting your energy now you won't have anything for tomorrow's search for Lilirara."
"I-" Jaune started but was stopped by Summer raising a finger right before his face.
"You need to rest right now." The ex-huntress insisted sternly. "You won't stop your father from coming here by worrying needlessly and you will only waste the single day we have in Argus during which he won't be here by being too tired."
Jaune opened his mouth to argue but before he could say anything Summer turned around and started flying towards the exit of his room. She didn't need the door to leave but from the many years they knew each other he knew that Summer still preferred entering and leaving through the places that were designed for that.
"I will be keeping the night watch so don't worry about anyone attacking us unannounced either. We might not be under any danger from Grimm in Argus but I doubt that being in your sister's house will stop any shaman trying to attack us. Anyway, make sure to sleep properly since we are starting the search for Lilirara in the morning."
With her words said, Summer quietly floated through the door, leaving Jaune to be alone in his room once again.
Despite saying that she would be keeping the night watch, Summer stopped moving the moment she passed through the door in order to listen if Jaune had anything to say and when the only thing she heard was a soft chuckle followed by the sound of moving bed sheets a relieved smile appeared on her face.
Back when she was still alive she had never thought that she would somehow end up adopting a third child after her death. Though, Jaune wasn't exactly a brother figure to Ruby and Yang.
And cut!
First scene with Pyrrha in it that I ever wrote! Yay!
I hope I did the invincible girl justice.
Also lately I've been playing quite a lot of 'Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel' so when I was writing the beginning of the Pyrrha segment my mind might have brought up an image of a certain 1900 attack normal insect monster. In face I think it went something like that:
PysAn: "Pyrrha Nikos was famous for many things. Whether it was her unmatched battle prowess-"
PysAn's mind: "That we could no longer ignore. Come on, write it, we both know you want to. "
PysAn: "No, that's stupid. It's a reference to a single card in a children's card game that nobody will know about."
PysAn's mind: "You still want to do it, though."
PysAn: "I do."
In the end I didn't do it but I still had to share that with you.
Anyway.
See ya later!