It was a week or so before the new school year would begin and Jaune was already sweating bullets. It was one thing to be welcomed into Beacon as the New Professor and to participate in the first few days, it was another thing entirely to actually run the whole show. Luckily, Oscar (and Ozpin by extension) were back from their vacation in Vacuo and could show him how it worked in Glynda's place.
"How was the beach?" Jaune asked.
"I-It was something alright," Oscar muttered.
"Ozpin dragged you to Shade and made you help out, didn't he?"
"Yeah." Jaune gave a good hearted laugh at that, which quieted down as Oscar's posture changed, his eyes grew sharper, and he reached for the cup of coffee on Jaune's desk. Jaune (after a few intense moments of deliberation) let him have the cup and relax for a brief moment.
"Jaune, it is good to see you again," Ozpin said, giving a smile that bore none of the weight of the world. For once, Ozpin could truly relax.
"Hey Oz, just wondering, you and Oscar still going to become a hunter?" Jaune asked. Ozpin thought on that with the young boy before shrugging.
"Oscar says he'd love to. As long as the money I've been saving up for decades and much of the future proceeds of being a hunter go to his aunt, of course. Beyond being a provider, he said he wanted to be a hero like you." Ozpin flinched, Jaune recognizing that as a sign of Oscar abruptly saying something. "Sorry, he's just embarassed I said it."
His first thought was to laugh, him? A hero? And then he looked at his track record. It wasn't hard to see where Oscar was coming from.
"And you'd love to be a wanderer? Drifting from town to town, saving it from threats of all kinds, and playing the mysterious stranger beloved by the farmer while loathed by the bandit?" Jaune asked, a warm smile forming on his face at the prospect of Oscar and Ozpin getting to relax. Or well, relatively. It was more relaxing than Salem, that's for sure. And by the look of it, Oscar seemed to agree.
"Oscar says that would be lovely," Ozpin said with a warm smile. "It makes me wonder what could've been. What if you took a wrong turn and ended up in the Valean country, wandering from place to place with only your weapon and armor?"
"Well, the world would be a lot more doomed. And I'd probably be dead," Jaune said, not a hint of hesitation at the admission.
"I suppose. And- oh yes, thank you for reminding me. It seems old habits die hard: I still have to prepare you to admit the new students," Ozpin said, hopping up with the twirl of his cane. "Follow me!" So Ozpin lead Jaune to Beacon's amphitheater. It'd been a while since Jaune had been to the large and empty building.
"So, what should I do for a speech?" Jaune, for all of his cunning, really could not 'adapt and bluff' when it came to a speech like this. Even to a fraud like him, he understood how important this first impression would be.
"Well, use it to send a message."
"Didn't you call the students a waste of energy last year?"
"Yes, the message I sent was that I should not be bothered. Honestly, you should not send that same message." When Jaune gave a look of confusion, Ozpin explained.
"You're already extremely familiar with teams RWBY and RVNN. While picking favorites is fine, such a vast difference in attitude could foster resentment in the student populace. Instead of trying to distance yourself like I did, your message should be warm. You're barely one year older than them, after all, though I suppose the students think that's actually 4 years. Regardless, you should use that fact. Appear genuine, but don't forget to emphasize on the dangers and responsibility of their chosen vocation."
Ozpin allowed a few seconds of silence for Jaune to process the advice.
"So, just be me?"
"No-" Ozpin paused for a second, before briefly recalling Jaune's first few weeks as a professor and student counselor. Then he took into consideration that even as a fraud, Jaune managed to become beloved by the students. "Actually, yes. Be yourself, have no fear." And if he crashed and burned, well, it wasn't Ozpin's job.
Suddenly, the door to the amphitheater burst open as Roman screamed, "KID! I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!"
"Yea? What is it Roman?" Jaune asked, turning over to the former-crook in question. Roman walked over to Jaune in a huff, puffing into his cigar before snubbing it on the ground.
"I just noticed a problem: Your clothes suck!" In the brief silence that followed, the only thing that could be heard was the ever so slight snicker that escaped Ozpin's traitorous lips. "No, seriously, your clothes suck."
"Hey, it's not that bad." He currently wore ripped jeans, his trademark hoodie, and his shining white breastplate. "Plus, why does my wardrobe matter?"
"Image, kid, image. You may not have thought about it because you were preoccupied with either keeping your secret hidden, beating Cinder, beating Salem, or beating your meat to whatever one of like twenty people coming onto you, but your image is important. And you're headmaster now! We're going to need to make you look dandier than a certain smug ass vampire," Roman said, forcefully pushing Jaune out of the theater.
"Jaune, Roman does raise a good point. Regardless of how warm the image you wish to cultivate is, your clothes should still establish your authority." At Ozpin's insistence, Jaune gave a long sigh before going along with Roman. Eventually, the group of three ended up at a high class tailor that either Roman or Ozpin knew. Jaune really couldn't tell.
"H-hey, Jaune?" Oscar was in control now and was sitting down as Jaune got his measurements. Roman was intensely debating with the tailor (A komodo dragon faunus by the name of Qing Long) on the design of Jaune's new outfit.
"Yea?"
"I'm just wondering what I should do during my second year. I can't continue to bunk with team RWBY. It'd be unfair. And I can't come in as a first year." Oscar seemed clueless as to what he should do. "Ozpin said you could probably come up with a solution." Godamnit, the old man was evading work even now. Well, Jaune couldn't blame the immortal. After a few minutes of thinking and listening to Roman making passive agressive comments towards the tailor around the design, Jaune came up with an idea.
"Hmmm, what if you apprenticed under me?"
"What?"
"Yea, becoming a hunter doesn't require going to an academy. Some learn by becoming the personal student of someone. I could say that tutoring you was the dying request of Ozpin," he could feel the eyeroll from the former-headmaster," and use that as the reason why you're studying here with no team. I could even get you one of the smaller rooms, if that's what you want."
"Yea! That'd be great! Ozpin says that it'd be better if I had my own room be- OZPIN!" Guessing what the immortal said, Jaune chuckled a bit.
"Yea, but the kid's insistent that he keeps the armor. Dunno why, makes him look like he was vomited on by a clam." Roman eventually came to a compromise with the tailor. In the end, Jaune's new outfit was, while far from Ozpin's in terms of formality, still leagues more professional looking than his old one.
With dark blue dress pants instead of jeans, a single form-fitting belt, his shining white breastplate over a black dress shirt with a bright red tie tucked right underneath the armor, an unbuttoned dark blue longcoat, and fingerless leather gloves. Underneath were sleeves colored a heroic red.
At his new appearance, Ozpin came out to clap.
"Thank you, thank you," Roman said while bowing, which earned a dirty look from both the tailor and Jaune.
"This does look good. Surprisingly breezy," Jaune said, feeling the new uniform. It was far from a perfect fit, but that was why they went to a tailor. With their customer's satisfaction ascertained, they left Jaune with a bill (that he was putting on Beacon's budget) and went to work on the form-fitting version. In the meanwhile, Jaune was allowed to keep what he was wearing.
"Mr. Arc, it's been so long since I've left Beacon to someone else. And, with this outfit, I dare say you could pull it off," Ozpin said with a proud smile. It would be heartwarming if Jaune didn't flinch at the statement.
"You 'dare say' I could pull it off!? I've been running Beacon for the past year! You're a little late when it comes to welcoming me to the job and assuring me I'll do fine!"
"To be fair, I was murdered, the last year was hardly a normal one, and I've heard Glynda did much of the work," Ozpin defended.
"Fair," Jaune replied. With a sigh, "Thanks. It means a lot, actually."
"Which is why, with a heavy heart, I must say goodbye to something dear to me." Ozpin held out his cane. "The Long Memory, forged countless centuries ago." At the sight of the veritable artifact, Roman whistled.
"Wow, that's one sweet museum item," he said, earning a roll of the eyes.
"I created it in my eternal battle with Salem. But with the war ended, I have no use for it." With a pause, Ozpin continued. "I'd rather if Oscar could choose our weapon, he deserves that and more. And I'd rather not let it wither away in a museum. I see no better person to pass it on to than you, my successor. Handle it with care, Jaune."
"Oz, I don't know what to say." Jaune took the collapsed cane in hand. He inspected it, paying attention to each intricate detail carved onto the metal. "As in I don't know what to say, I still have Croeca Mors." That definitely earned a polite, though still embarassed 'ah' from Ozpin.
"Well, Neo'd be thrilled if you had a lighter weapon like hers. Plus, that gem seems rather, how do I say, bullshit. I have an eye for detail, you see." Roman's face was uncomfortably close to the Gem of The Long Memory. "And I can see little green lightning pulsing in that thing. Oz, is this a magical artifact?" Ozpin laughed.
"Yes, though you won't be able to cast much of anything. Come now, Jaune. Let me teach you some of its secrets. Everything else will be up to you," Ozpin said, ushering Jaune away so he could teach the boy some of the neat tricks that The Long Memory had hammered into it.
AN: Ozpin giving Jaune his cane felt kinda right to me. It's him letting go of the past after finally winning and also allowing his future incarnations to no longer be chained to said past. Also, it neatly explains why Headmaster Arc in Arc Royale has the cane.
AN2: Sorry, realized my error a tad late and reuploaded it