We open to the outside of a rundown building, a warehouse upon further inspection, In what Is obviously the slums at night. Moving to the inside, The place is very dimly lit. The sounds of welding echoing off the walls, bright lights syncing with the sounds. Upon even closer inspection, we can see the back of the Blacksmith manning the bench, standing over their project as they worked. They wore a dark grey jumpsuit over their bodies, some timber boots on their feet and a welder's mask covering the owner's face as they worked. However, If anyone knew anything about this smith in particular, they'd recognize them by the hair alone.

They continue working like this for a few seconds before the figure stopped what they were doing and turned their head to the side, putting their tool down on the workbench and turned around fully as if to address someone. It was then that the figure finally raised their mask to reveal one Jaune Arc with a rather disgruntled look on his face. His face itself had a few small scars littering it with noticeable burn scar going over his right eye. Being an inch or two wide and going from above his eyebrow to just under his cheekbone. That wasn't the most noticeable feature though. It was the glowing dark blue mechanical eye that was in the socket in place of a real one. Along with this, some of the surrounding flesh and bone had been replaced with bionic reinforcements. Really giving focus on the fact that the eye was robotic.

"What do you want? I'll have you know that this is private property. You are trespassing. If you don't leave, I will contact the authorities and have you escorted off the premises." Jaune stated, crossing his arms while looking at someone past the screen. There was silence for a moment before the clacking of heels was heard. A set of heel clad feet began walking toward Jaune. They stopped once they were in the light that hung over Jaune's work space. Once Jaune was able to get a good look at them, his eyes narrowed.

"Oh, it's you." Jaune relented, his voice no less irritated after the fact. The light finally revealing who Jaune was talking to. They were clad in a dark green, three piece suit, a white dress shirt underneath it. A faded green scarf wrapped around her neck with a pair of small glasses resting on their nose. Her chest length hair that was tied into a braid jostled a bit as she shook her head, an amused smile on her features.

This was the Headmistress of Beacon: Professor Ozma.

"Greetings, Jaune Arc. I am here in regards to your application to Beacon." Ozma stated, a voice not unlike silk. A woman of class and wisdom, she held no ill will towards the man in front of her, neither did she have any ulterior motives regarding him. She had learned enough in her time that she grew past any thoughts of sexism or prejudice. She simply wished to talk.

Jaune however, was unconvinced of any of this.

"Right. So what? Are you going to tell me that I can't because I'm a man? Bribe me so that I don't attend? You and I both know I'm qualified to get in." Jaune stated in a gruff voice. Both his regular eye and the prosthetic one dilating at the woman in front of him before his mouth settled into a deep scowl at his next statement.

"Or perhaps the more likely scenario where you threaten me out of attending. With your reputation as the Headmistress you could do that without much repercussion." Jaune said with no small amounts of malice in his voice.

Ozma seemed unfazed by his accusations, only seeming amused by his statements.

"That is true, I very well could get away with all of that." Ozma said with a small giggle. Jaune however, found no amusement in this conversation.

"Let me tell you something, Ozma, I will be attending that school whether you like it or not. And nothing is going to stop me." Jaune stated, promptly turning around, flipping his mask back on his face and picking his tools back up to work.

"Now leave." Was all he said before resuming his tinkering on whatever it was that was on the bench. Ozma raised a delicate eyebrow before her smile widened a tiny bit and turned to leave. However, that wasn't before she was able to get a small peek at what it was that Jaune was working on. With blueprints hanging on the walls and different pieces of technology littering the place, she nodded to herself and walked away. The idea of extendable mechanical arms being intriguing to her.

'I knew I was right when accepting him. I for one am going to have a field day seeing how Glynda will react to this.' Ozma thought to herself as she walked out of the building.


(Several Weeks Later)

We see a Bullhead flying above a lush green forest heading towards the easily identifiable Beacon Academy. Inside this Bullhead, we turn to Jaune as he sits at the back of the vehicle, no longer wearing a jumpsuit, allowing the audience to see exactly what he had been hiding under all that clothing.

A chiseled body that pushed the physique to it's furthest capacity.

Jaune had a pair of rather advanced goggles on his face, hiding his eyes from view while he hunched over a pack in his lap. He held a small screwdriver in his left hand while a soldering Iron was in the other. His clothing consisted of a lab coat that hugged his frame tightly and went down to his feet, while a simple black tank top laid beneath it, only going down to just bellow his abdomen, showing his chiseled stomach. Curious though, was the small cylindrical disk looking thing that seemingly poked out from underneath his shirt and resided on the left side of his chest, right above his heart...

Probably just a fashion choice.

On his legs were a pair of black jeans. They hung low, showing his prominent sex lines. However, covering these lines were two crisscrossing utility belts. There were various tools attached to them, however, one item stuck out from the rest. A rectangular object that was mostly white with marine blue lines running along it's surface. He was minding his own business, simply adding the finishing touches to what was in his lap when somebody decided to approach him, snow white hair being flipped over her shoulder as she let out a huff.

"You." She called, looking at him expectantly. Jaune just ignored her and kept at his work.

She only waited for a moment before her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth set into a small frown.

"Ahem!" She tried again, trying to get Jaune's attention. His face only twitching once in what could only be called annoyance before he ignored her again. She didn't take this lightly as she let out a scoff before stomping her foot.

"Excuse you, Agninus, a woman is talking to you. You should be groveling at my feet for even having the privilege of being near me." Weiss said, her chest lightly bouncing from her huff.

"I heard you loud and clear Ice Cocotte. Now what do you want?" Jaune said in a cool and levelheaded manner. Weiss looked at him with anger. Talk to her like that would he!?

"Why you! I will have you know that I am Weiss Schnee of the Schnee Dust Corporation! You should think better of talking to your future mistress like that you worthless worm!" Weiss exclaimed, staring down at him. The statement caused Jaune to stop what he was doing, slowly putting his tools back onto his belt.

"Excuse you. Did I hear 'Future Mistress'? Is that what you said?" Jaune asked, getting up after placing the pack he was working on to his side. When he fully stood up, his height dwarfed Weiss' five foot four with his own being seven foot eight. She couldn't see it, but he was giving her the hardest glare that he could muster. Despite this however, she glared at him harder.

"That's what I came over here for. I was under the impression that Beacon was going to have a man here. Obviously it was sent over by Atlas for me to retrieve. I couldn't care less for any of the barbaric activities that would entail having one, but I could make money off of it by renting it out. Obviously, they failed to properly condition you." Weiss complained, poking a hand into his chest. Jaune on his part started shaking with anger. Memories of his childhood being dug up from the deepest recesses of his mind. However, before he could lash out at the vile creature before him, another person came up and tried to diffuse the situation.

"Hey!"


Ruby had been a little nervous when she got on to the Bullhead heading towards Beacon. She had been accepted two years early by the Headmistress herself! But she was still nervous. Especially when her sister had quickly dashed away further into the ship with her friends after giving her a quick hello and a message about making new friends.

Pfft, new friends...

Besides, Ruby already had her sister and Crescent Rose! She didn't need anyone else. She's proven that she could work alone. Take the Dust robbery from a week or so ago! She was able to handle that situation just fine on her own. Though, as she was thinking about just how much she could work solo, another girl had shoved past her, not even bothering to apologize or anything. She looked over to the girl and noticed that her wardrobe consisted of mostly whites.

'Must be a nightmare when trying to eat' Ruby thought to herself, slightly pouting at how she didn't even say sorry. Though, as she was going to turn away, something caught her eye. It was the spark of someone soldering something. She looked closely and noticed another girl(?) sitting there with a piece of technology in their lap. Even from here she could tell that it was a real fine piece of work. She was almost mesmerized by it's design before she noticed that the same girl had approached them. She couldn't hear what she was saying, but after a few seconds, the sitting figure looked like they had spoken up before shortly thereafter standing up. It was then that Ruby finally realized that it was not actually a woman...

But a man.

That had immediately caught her attention. Her family was one of the only 'complete' families on the planet. Both her mother and father had taken care of her and her sister...well, her father and three mothers. Taiyang, her father. With Summer as her birth mother, and Raven and Robin as her adjacent mothers.

Despite what others told her about men, her parents had taught her that they weren't worth any less than her and should be treated equally. Of course, that was what her father, mother and adjacent mother Robin tried to teach her. Raven...was a bit of a work in progress. The only reason she had gotten together with Taiyang was because he had 'proven his worth' to her. He blushed whenever she brought that up, but she didn't really understand why.

.

..

...

Okay, maybe she did understand, it's just that she really, really really didn't want to think about it.

Either way, she noticed the white haired girl had gotten aggravated with him and had even poked him on the chest. She knew when a fight was going to break out and figured that here wasn't the best place for that, so she decided to intervene.

"Hey!"


Both Jaune and Weiss had turned to the source of the sound and saw a girl that must have been a year or two their junior and confused them. Weiss, however was the only one who was willing to voice this.

"What do you want?" Weiss asked with a bite. Ruby slightly winced at her harsh tone, but persevered.

"I-I just noticed that you two were having an argument and was worried that one of you would try to start a fight or...cause a scene." Ruby said, nervously looking between the two. Weiss clicked her tongue before sighing, knowing that a Heiress should always look presentable. Jaune just let out a grunt before turning and going back to his seat.

"Fine, this Agninus is probably broken anyway." Weiss said, turning around and walking away, fully intending on filing a complaint to the Headmistress for having such low quality items in storage.

Ruby stood there for a moment, watching her go before turning to Jaune, who had gone back to working on his gadget. Getting a closer look at it, she notice that the machine had some of the best craftsmanship she had ever laid her eyes on. She also noticed that the rectangular device on his hip was no ordinary rectangular device! But a-

"Attention Beacon Applicants, We Have Arrived At Our Destination. Please Make Your Way To The Exit." The speakers announced, interrupting Ruby's train of thought for a moment, causing her to look around at the leaving crowd. She only took her eyes off of him for a moment, but when she turned back, he was already gone.

"Aw fiddlesticks."


Jaune was making his way through the crowd and towards the Auditorium. Ozma had told him that it was to be mandatory. He didn't like it, considering there were going to be nothing but women in there, but he wasn't going to stay out of there and show that he feared any of them.

.

..

...

Scratch that, he hated the idea.

His goggles were still on as he walked among the crowd. Most them had already noticed his presence and were eyeing him with various looks ranging from curiosity, disdain, lust, etc.. He'd seen it all.

And it made him absolutely livid.

He mostly kept to himself as he walked, not really wanting to waste time, he tried to make it there as fast as possible. Though, some of the women around him tried to get his attention by grabbing his arm. He simply shrugged them off, sometimes even thrusting his shoulder away. Pretty soon everyone had learned to keep off of him...for now.

'They'll try again eventually. They always do.' Jaune thought with no small amounts of agitation. He was just going to go over his schedule for the day when he heard an explosion a few meters to his left. He turned his head and saw that the same white haired bitch from before standing over the other girl that got her off his back. He watched as the Schnee yelled at the one on the ground before storming off, leaving the hooded girl alone on the floor.

'Not my problem.'

"Welcome to Beacon I guess." He overheard. His face twitched. He shook his head, clicking his tongue.

"Don't you do it, Jaune. It's not worth it. You're already getting dangerously close until your next dose is needed. She's not worth the time." Jaune said to himself as a small voice in his head was telling him to help her. A voice that he had thought died so long ago. One that he had tried to smother every time it reared it's head due to the amount of trouble it's gotten him in. He took a few more steps, fighting with the voice until he heard another whimper from that direction and stopped. He shook for a few moments until he seemingly won over the voice and went to take another step, until he suddenly turned on his heel and headed towards the girl sitting in the crater.

"Fucking damn it."

"Hey." Jaune grunted out as he stood in front of Ruby. The small Reaper looked up from her gloom state and could have sworn the sun had reflected off of him in just the right way to make him seem like an angel.

"Uh, hi." She squeaked. Jaune raised an eyebrow at her before letting out a breath and leaned over to give her a hand. She stared at it for a moment before smiling slightly and going to take it.

"Come on, let's get you up." Jaune said as he pulled her to her feet. She was a little surprised when she practically rocketed up from her position to a standing one. She let out a nervous chuckle before introducing herself.

"Hi, my name is Ruby Rose!" She greeted, sticking a hand out. Jaune's face twitched, deliberating over it for a bit before slowly going to shake it.

"Jaune Arc." He said with some trepidation. He gave her only two shakes before he heard a beeping from his goggles. His facial features immediately tightened up before he grumbled to himself, reaching into his lab coat. Ruby looked at him with worry, wondering what that beeping meant.

"Hm? What's wrong?" She asked, seeing him quickly retreat his hand back from his coat and pull out a small metal cylindrical device that contained a peculiar purple liquid. He only grunted in response before he pushed a button at the top, a small needle popping out from the bottom before he quickly injected it into the circular device in his chest. He lightly twitched at the action while Ruby's eyes widened at him just stabbing himself with a strange liquid.

"Hormone suppressants. Nullifies the effects of women's pheromones. I need to take them whenever my last dose works out of my system. This device in my chest allows safe injection strait into my heart. Was a pain in the ass to install though. I think it stopped beating for a solid five seconds." Jaune said as he felt the chemical flow across his body. The stuff made him calm. A certain tingle ran up his spine as his mind cleared of clutter that he didn't even know was there. A small smile made it's way to his face as he refocused on Ruby.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense...sorry about that." She apologized, knowing that her own pheromones were also being emitted from her. Jaune looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

'That's new.' Jaune thought to himself, never having encountered a woman that apologized to him. It kind of weirded him out, but made this girl a bit more interesting to him. However, He noticed the time was getting close for the meeting in the auditorium.

"I'm done here. Farewell Ruby." Jaune said as he turned to leave and started walking away. He only took a few steps before he stopped again and turned around to look down at Ruby...who had decided to follow him for some reason.

"What are you doing?" He asked her after shaking his head and continuing to walk. Ruby was right behind him, wanting to talk to the only other male that she had ever seen.

"I was just going to ask you where the auditorium was. I'm going to try and get into Beacon you see." Ruby said with a nervous giggle. Jaune raised his eyebrow at her, more out of interest than surprise. After all, who was to say that a girl her age...fifteen if he had to guess, couldn't get into a school meant for those who were seventeen? He was a man trying to get into a school that was only for females, so he wasn't going to deny her a dream like so many had done for him, not like his mother who-

Stop.

Deep breath.

Okay.

"Is that right? Well then, I guess we have the same goal." Jaune said, walking forward. His statement cause Ruby to gasp at him, her eyes wide with wonder.

"Really!? That's so cool! I've never heard of a guy becoming a Huntress before. But I guess the word would be...Hunter then? Bah, doesn't matter. That's so amazing!" Ruby praised, happy that a guy was going above and beyond what the status quo told of him. She once again prompted Jaune to stop for a moment before continuing on.

'What the hell is with this girl?' Jaune pondered, not having ever met a girl like this before. He was more than a little skeptical of her motives, but he'd tolerate her for now.

"Trust me, I'm not doing this because I want to save people or fight Grim. I am doing this simply because I want to spit in society's face. That I'm better than everyone else. With the Huntsman's license, I'll never have to worry about being some bimbo's personal slave. As soon as I'm finished with my four years, I'm done." Jaune clarified, his tone holding a finality that told of his conviction. It made Ruby purse her lips, feeling awfully awkward now.

'I...don't know what to say to that...oh I know!' Ruby thought, an Idea popping into her noggin.

"Well, I've got this thing." Ruby said after a few tense moments of silence. She had brought out her pride and joy, Crescent Rose, and turned it into it's scythe form before stabbing it into the ground between them. Jaune turned his head at the noise, at first not paying it any mind and turning his head back, before his head suddenly snapped towards it fully and inspected it thoroughly.

"The craftsmanship is impeccable. Nice attention to detail. Advanced mecha-shift function. Efficient use of materials. A sniper scythe that can fire sniper rounds, but can turn into a full rifle for more precise aim. A compact form as well..." Jaune mumbled as he looked at the weapon from various angles. Ruby stood there, watching him mumble to himself about various things, all about her weapon and the things that he noticed.

'Is...Is that how I sound when I do the same thing?' Ruby realized before she heard Jaune speak up again, a ghost of a smile on his face.

"Impressive. You made this yourself?" He asked, looking directly at her. She shook herself from her own thoughts before beaming up at him and nodding.

"Yup! I made Crescent Rose all by myself! Took me almost three years to make the final product. Had to go through a few dozen prototypes to get to it right though..." Ruby said, remembering how many versions of her weapon that had blown up in her face, both metaphorically and literally.

"Makes sense. If you get everything right on the first try, then you weren't aiming high enough." Jaune stated as his hand brushed upon the rectangular object on his belt. The slight movement catching her eye before she commented on it.

"Hey, I was going to ask you on the Bullhead before we got off, but what's that?" Ruby asked, pointing at the thing on his belt. He looked down and took hold of it, simply gripping onto the device.

"That's..." Jaune paused. Did he want to show her?

.

..

...

'Eh, it's not like my other project. Besides, she's probably going to see it tomorrow anyhow.' Jaune relented, shrugging his shoulders before detaching the device from his belt.

"That's my weapon, Avenir." Jaune stated, holding the 'weapon' in his hand. Ruby looked at it a bit, wondering what it was before looking up at him.

"I'm going to guess that it shifts into something else?" Ruby asked, making him nod. He then pushed a button on top before it started unfolding and extending, a handle appearing underneath near the rear while the top showed an accessory that could be flipped back for a more stable shot. The barrel at the end being a little bigger than what would be considered normal. The entirety of the futuristic weapon being white with glowing marine blue lines.

"Yes, and I could spend the afternoon talking about it's functions and how it works, but considering we still have to get to the Auditorium soon, I'll just simplify it for now." Jaune said as Ruby was practically drooling at what was in his hands. That's...

"It's also a gun."

"That's so cool." Ruby whimpered out, hands reaching out, but never daring to try and touch it. Jaune let out a small chuckle before compressing the gun back into it's compact form and putting it back onto his belt.

"I think I've shown you enough for now. How about we head over to the Auditorium?" Jaune suggested, turning around and walking towards the building in question.

It took Ruby a second or two to snap out of it before she rushed over to catch up to him.


"Here we are, just in time too." Ruby said as they entered the Auditorium. She noticed though that as they neared the building and were getting closer to the other applicants, he had grown eerily quiet and tense. She figured that with how he was talking about them earlier that he didn't like women all that much. She felt bad for it honestly. Not all of them were bad! Take her sister for example. She was real nice! Though she hadn't seen another guy other than her father either, she was almost certain that she wouldn't treat him any differently.

Before she could think any further, the Headmistress had walked onto the stage and quieted down the entire room, briefly looking to Jaune directly for a moment before going back to idly sweeping her eyes across the crowd.

Jaune didn't care either way. He just tuned her out to focus on something else. Aptly, his goggles.

While they may look like some run of the mill standardized eye-wear, they were anything but. Though, they were designed to be unassuming. The inside of the goggles actually had an entire HUD with specs on not only himself, but thanks to a database from the Atlas Military that he may or may not have hacked, he has specifics on almost everyone that he sees. He's also able to bring up different blueprints and maps and info on wherever he is.

He would be lying if he said that he didn't get some inspiration from old time video games that he may or may not own...


Jaune barely caught on to something or other about where they were to be sleeping, but that didn't matter.

"Sleep is for the weak." Jaune said absently as he started walking away, against the flow of women as he stared strait ahead. It wasn't hard considering he was taller than most if not all of them. He kept his hands in his lab coat pockets as to keep his hands from being touched by any of the filth around him.

"Hey Jaune! Wait up!" Ruby called out to him. He didn't stop his stride, not even turning his head to her direction. If she really wanted to talk to him, then she was going to catch up to him eventually.

After a minute or two, the crowd had thinned out and Ruby had finally caught up to the tall man.

"Hi Jaune, where are you going? We're supposed to be going to-" Ruby tried to explain, but Jaune shook his head, interrupting her.

"I'm heading to the workshop. I need to add the last few tweaks on my equipment." Jaune stated as he pulled out something from his pocket and pushed a button before it morphed over his arm and created something akin to a smart watch that covered most of his forearm. He looked to the wide screen that was on his arm before swiping a few things and pushing a number of commands.

"Wow! That's some really cool tech! You made that yourself?" Ruby asked as he continued to walk and check a number of things on his wrist screen. He grunted in confirmation before pausing and bringing up a diagnostic of sorts on the screen showing that it had a bar that was about half way full. He frowned at the sight before continuing walking to his destination.

"So are you gonna..." Ruby tried to start before Jaune sighed and turned his head to her, still typing a few things onto his device.

"Don't you have someone or other that's expecting you?" Jaune asked, slightly irritated. He may have tolerated this woman before, but as time went by, his patience had started to stretch dangerously thin. A side effect of his hormone suppressant serum. Increased aggressiveness and irrational thought. Though mostly negated by his high IQ, Jaune's innate and deep seated HATRED of women directed that irrational thought and anger towards them. And though Ruby proved to be different from the others, he didn't know her all that well. So for all he knew, she was just trying to make him let his guard down. He wouldn't-no, couldn't let that happen.

Not again...

"Well my sister might be looking for me, but I'm sure she'll understand that I'll be gone until we have to go to bed that I'll be hanging out with you! You should meet her actually! Then we can all be great friend-" Ruby tried to say before Jaune finally had enough of her blabbering and motor mouthing. He was visibly shaking with anger as he turned to her, the only thing keeping him from completely blowing up was his ungodly amount of self control.

"Listen here Ruby. I am not here to make friends, I am not here to socialize, and I am especially not here to be lured in by some doe eyed, simple minded, silver eyed little brat, just to be branded as your slave for the rest of my days! You may think that I'm wrapped around your little finger, but I'm telling you this right now, I am NO ONE'S slave. I'm only here to spit on everything this world seems so keen on keeping pristine. Now stay out of my way before I cut you down." Jaune threatened before storming off, leaving a deflated Ruby.

Ruby stood there for a moment, trying to figure out why exactly her new friend had gotten angry at her, but thought about it for a few moments.

She remembered something about him saying that he was no slave, or something. Now she was no fool. She knew that most women out there often branded men they find as their own property and use them however they see fit. Due to some recent laws, women were supposed to relinquish 'ownership' of the men they had branded and would instead have to convince a man to sign a contract that they would both work over and agree to before they would work in tandem with each other. Where one would either be given a 'donation' and he would be on stand by for another one should she want it, or be let go as a one time thing. Or they would stay in constant business with each other with her selling his 'goods' with the both of them being paid equally for the goods and services. All this so that the men could have a say in what they wanted to do with their bodies and have more freedom. That was the idea. Equality.

However

Almost ninety percent of all women had found loopholes in the system that allowed them to not only keep their 'property' but to also continue to grow their collection unabated. By the time that men grew to be around twelve, about ninety nine percent are claimed or sold off by some rich woman with the resources to maintain them. With Atlas being the main offenders on that front. Pretty much being the human breeders for males. It was actually a wonder that Jaune had snuck around like he did without being claimed now that she thought about it. It brought her sadness that he was so angry though. It wasn't his fault that most women were like that! She wanted to make him see that she just wanted to be his friend...

"That's it!" Ruby suddenly lit up, turning on her heel and making her way over to where she remembered everyone else going. She needed to talk to her sister about this to work.

After she was done, she'd befriend the socks off of his feet!


"Do you remember the plan?" Ruby asked as she and her sister got ready for Initiation.

"Yeah, yeah. I remember, Ruby. Once initiation starts, one of us becomes their partner and the other gets on their team." Yang droned, placing her Ember Celica on her wrist and making sure that it was locked and loaded. After a satisfying click of an ammo belt being locked in place, she nodded. Though, she still had one question for her little sister.

"Who even is she? You haven't told me anything about them. All you said was that they're blonde, had 'Really cool gadgets' and were angry...wait, are you sure it wasn't that one chick? The one with the white hair and resting bitch face? Because if it is, then I'm gonna have to leave that mess of a project up to you." Yang said as she closed her locker and walked along side her sister.

Ruby giggled as she made sure that Crescent Rose was placed firmly on her hip for later use before replying.

"First of all, I'm sure they're not the white haired girl. Second, they're not a she." Ruby smiled as she continued walking. Yang nearly tripped over her own shoes as she finally processed the information. She stared wide eyed at her sister, trying to see if she was joking or not with her.

"Geeze sis, and I thought I was supposed to be the jokester of the family." Yang got out as she recuperated from her shock. However, before either Ruby or Yang could say anything else, the doors to the room burst open, revealing a messy haired and slouched Jaune lumbering in. A prominent shadow on his face. And even with the goggles covering his eyes, one could clearly see the bags under his eyes...eye. Neither of the two sisters could figure out why only one of his eyes had bags under them.

Immediately, the room became quiet and still, all eyes watching as HE, a MALE, strode across the lockers, checking over his weapon one last time before placing back onto his belt. His annoyance was almost palpable as he passed the two sisters. He briefly turned to the two sisters and shot Ruby a glance before turning his head back forward and continued his trek and out the other side of the room.

"...Holy shit there's a dude." Yang said finally after a long pause of silence. As if her comment had knocked everyone out of their trances, the room burst out into whispers, all wondering what a guy was doing there. Most were just lecherous comments about how they wanted to make him theirs the next chance they got while others were praising the school for 'providing' such resources to their students. Some even gloating how they have several men at home that their mother owns and how they wouldn't mind adding this Agninus to their collection.

There was one however, that simply stared on in fascination. Emerald eyes glinted with curiosity and wonder as she tried to comprehend what a man was doing here.


Jaune stood on one of the launch pads that faced the cliffs, posture merely slouched and face uncaring. Another side effect of another concoction that he made to get rid of sleep altogether was that it caused his emotions to become dull and mute. Used in conjunction with the purple serum makes for a jaded, cold and uncaring man. Jaune mistook these side effects as his mind being cleared and his logic shinning through to guide his actions and reasonings.

For all the knowledge and smarts that Jaune may have had, none of it could quite shine through the haze that was his deep seated anger.

The rest of the students slowly trickled out and also got onto their own launch pads and awaited further instructions. Luckily for Ruby, the spot next to her soon-to-be-best-friend Jaune, was open!

Unluckily for Jaune, she took it.

She smiled brightly at him, and was going to speak to him before his head slowly turned to her. She could feel his gaze trying to burn through her skull through those goggles, promptly causing her voice to die in her throat before it even got a single syllable in. Luckily for her, It was then that the Headmistress decided that everyone was accounted for and began speaking to them.

"Hello future Huntress hopefuls. As you may know, I am Headmistress Ozma. I understand that you are all here to have a chance at becoming the next big Huntress that comes out of Beacon Academy, however, the admission into the school is not so easily obtained by any woman. You must be skilled, talented, strong and have the iron will that comes with being a woman." Ozma stated, looking at everyone there with smiles. That smile nearly increased in size when she turned to Jaune for a moment and then just as quickly turned back to the other applicants.

He was fucking pissed.

Ozma having felt that she had revved Jaune's motor enough, knew that she should address his presence and really force him against the wall~.

For some reason, Jaune felt a chill run up his spine but ignored it and hardened his glare at the Headmistress as she continued her speech.

"Now I know some of you are curious as to why a man has joined you here on the cliffs. The answer is simple. He will be taking the test just the same as all of you." Ozma stated, taking a sip of her coffee. The statement itself immediately caused a reaction among the applicants.

"What!? A man!?"

"Sweet! Do we have to retrieve it to pass Initiation?"

"Oh oh oh! Can we keep it if we do?"

"Great, they've somehow creeped their way here now? What next? Your going to tell us that it's going to be attending classes too?"

That last statement was met a rather smug smile from the Headmistress. Waiting a few moments before staring at all of them knowingly. More silence permeated the clearing as Ozma said nothing to refute the claim. The females of the group quickly deducing that he was indeed taking initiation to try and get into Beacon like the rest of them.

"You cant be serious! That Agninus cant possibly be allowed to even attempt initiation! He's...a MAN!" Weiss screeched as she pointed to the man in question. Jaune was simply staring ahead with a deep scowl on his face, seething in anger that everyone around him was speaking as of he were a lower race, that he was merely an object. His emotions overpowering the drug, making him unable to notice that Ruby was trying to defend him.

"Hey! I'll let you know that his name is Jaune Arc. And you should see some of the stuff that he has. He's made all of his weapons and gadgets himself! I'm sure that he could do this just as well as anyone else!" Ruby huffed out, glaring at the Schnee with an agitated look. Weiss herself scoffed at the girl as she fixed a haughty scowl at her.

"Do you realize what you're even saying? Your defending a lower barbarian who probably is only here because the Headmistress wants to show once and for all that Agninus are and always will be below us." Weiss said as she turned away and ignored anything else that the small reaper would have said. Ruby was going to try and further push the argument, but Ozma finally shook herself from ogling at the tensing, rippling, sexy muscles of one Jaune Arc.

"Ladies, please calm down. You still have initiation to get through." Ozma warned as she stared between the two. Weiss simply let out another scoff before turning the other way and Ruby sighed in displeasure. Jaune still shook in anger as he was completely left out of the conversation as if he weren't right there.

Ozma had to wipe off a bit of drool as she addressed the applicants again.

"Now children, your objective today is to head north and retrieve a relic placed within a few ruins. You will also be attaining a partner. As you all know from the pamphlet you read before coming here, your partner is decided by who you make eye contact with first. The two of you will bring back a relic for the both of you by the end of the day. If the relic is lost or damaged before time is up, you will have failed initiation. Do not hesitate to cut down everything in your path. Otherwise you will die." Ozma instructed. The students all nodded before focusing on the forest that lay before them at the bottom of the cliff.

One by one the students started being sprung through the air and into the forest.

Jaune had already been rather pissed that morning having had to stand so close to all those women, but decided that he should focus on just getting through Initiation. So he did as such, having landed on the ground safely after utilizing the gravity Dust on his person to make sure that any force that would have otherwise made him a stain on the forest floor was negated. He had looked around at the surrounding area as he pulled his weapon from his hip and mech shifted the weapon into its gun form. He stalked forward, using his goggles to lead him I'm the right direction of the aforementioned ruins.

A rustling of bushes sounded from beside Jaune as he made his way through the dense woods and caused him to turn his head. Once he saw that it was a singular Beowolf, he casually turned his crosshairs to it with an impassive look before putting pressure on the trigger.


With a resounding bang, Ruby had disposed of yet another Beowolf that stood in her way. Her plan right now was simple.

Find and befriend Jaune Arc.

She was sure that Jaune was just in need of a friend. He was about as socially awkward as her, if not more so because of something or other, probably due to the fact that he was a man in a women's school. But that didn't matter right now. All that mattered, was that she could make him see that not all women were terrible. She was a little disappointed in the women that were at the cliffs and more than angry at those who had treated him as nothing but an object. It seemed that not even the Headmistress was really on his side. She felt bad for him. Honestly. Not like a pitying kind of bad either. Just a genuine concern for her friend.

Either way, she had been walking in what she hoped to be north for a while now, finding that she was grateful that her sister had showed her the pamphlet regarding Initiation. Otherwise she would most likely be very Ill prepared for this. Though in her musings, she had not noticed a Beowolf sneak up from behind her and tried pouncing on her, its loud snarl and howl making her quickly turn her head towards it and widen her eyes in fear. She was literally watching her death lunge right at her!

Until a flash of light erupted from out of her peripheral and completely decimated the Grim and blew off almost eighty percent of its body to oblivion. Ruby only took a moment to recuperate before she quickly turned her head to the source of such a destructive shot.

There she found Jaune Arc standing only ten or so yards away, his gun in hand and the muzzle smoking from its last shot. He cocked back the pump at the bottom, causing a crystalline shell to eject before it was disintegrated into tiny square pixels.

'Its a laser shotgun. So cool!' Ruby nearly squealed in her head. Her eyes were wide in wonder and amazement. She thought that it only used Dust rounds like hers, but to see that it used actual freaking lasers was AMAZING!

After shaking her head of her own daze, Ruby went to try and talk to him...

Only to find that he had already passed her.

"Hey, wait a minute! Jaune!" Ruby tried to call as he kept walking. He didn't even show a reaction to her as he continued to walk. He was focused solely on passing initiation. Ruby huffed for a moment before suddenly getting an idea.

She dashed in front of him and pointedly stared into his goggle lenses.

"Ha! Now you cant ignore me! We made eye contact. We're partners now." Ruby said with a satisfied smirk. Jaune gave a small breath before he ignored her again.

"Out of all the people here..." Jaune stared before suddenly being interrupted by a familiar beeping noise. He promptly stopped before blanching again.

"What in the!? I know that meter wasn't that full when I woke up this morning. Oum damn it." Jaune grumbled as he once again pulled out another metal syringe filled with purple serum and injected himself with it. He shivered a bit at the sensation before shaking away the shiver that ran up his spine. He quickly checked his goggles to check something.

'These things are supposed to last me a whole day. But they're only giving me a few hours at a time now. Is the serum faulty? No, I made sure it wasn't. The only way that they wouldn't be as effective is if...' Jaune quickly turned his head to Ruby and quickly scanned her, and more importantly...

The amount of pheromones she was emitting.

Instantly he was nearly blinded as he was assaulted by a cloud of the strongest pheromones he had ever seen.

'Holy fuck! No wonder my serum was only lasting so long, she's emitting enough pheromones to produce for nearly the whole school over! I need to get away from her, stat.' Jaune thought to himself as he turned back around and walked at an even faster pace away from the Rose, trying to put as much distance between the two as possible.

Ruby just looked at the whole interaction with confusion before he nearly bolted away from her. She recoiled at his sudden burst of movement before she stomped her foot on the ground and let out a whine.

"This isn't fair! How am I supposed to make friends with him and make him see that some of us are awesome if he keeps running away from me!" Ruby complained before quickly running after her new partner.


Jaune was still running through the forest, promptly trying to both make it to where he was told the relics were, and to get away from Ruby. However...

"Hey Jaune, can I see some of the other cool stuff you made? I want to compare designs and see if we can't bounce ideas off of each other."

Running from her was a little difficult seeing as how she had a speeding Semblance.

"Ruby, please, I'm just trying to get through Initiation, so if you could just-" Jaune tried to say before he suddenly did a front flip over a Beowolf that tried to lunge at him. He seamlessly transitioned into a combat roll and into a crouch where he just as quickly fired a beam of energy through the head of the Grim. His goggles telling him that a rather large pack of the Grim had accompanied it and were now focusing on the two Beacon students-to-be. He let out a breath and ran the calculations of what the best course of action would be.

He didn't necessarily like it, but he knew that he'd have to team up with Ruby if he wanted to get through this as quickly as possible.

"Alright Ruby, get ready, I'm going to be giving you cover fire while you go in with your scythe and cut them to ribbons. Your sniper is good when you can focus on one at a time with ample room to spare, but in the forest like this, it's better to move quickly with a melee weapon." Jaune stated, twisting the grip of his gun before it suddenly started retracting up his forearm and transforming into...an arm cannon!?

Ruby was nearly drooling over the device before Jaune tensed his muscle, the cannon's end showing multiple rows of gun barrels spinning both clockwise and counter-clockwise of each other.

"Not now, Ruby. Grim to fight here." The blonde stated as he jumped back from a swipe at him before bringing his free arm back and landing a punch that landed with an audible crunch to the Grim's bone plating. It was able to knock Ruby out of her trance before she nodded and promptly took the head off of the Beowolf that Jaune had punched. Jaune grunted in confirmation before he open fired on the rest of the Grim, dozens of smaller energy shots whizzing through the air and leaving devastating damage onto the Grim that tried to get close to Ruby as she worked on the Grim that Jaune wasn't focusing his fire on. It was a good synergy, if one that Jaune wasn't entirely into. She would deal with a Grim on her right while he would kill the other Grim on her left that tried to tear out her jugular. All great from a purely technical standpoint. But to Jaune, this was a bad omen. Seeing that they were good at fighting together, she would be bolstered in her attempt to try and 'befriend' him. Of course, he didn't believe a damn word of that. All women were looking for an opportunity to exploit men and take them away from their younger...

Jaune shook the thought from his head as he mowed down the last of the Beowolf pack. Now wasn't the time for that.

With one last flourish, Ruby sliced the final Beowolf in half, killing it. As she let out a breath and saw it start to dissipate, she turned to Jaune as he continued walking through the woods, his weapon still in it's arm cannon form. Ruby smiled at this, despite the fact that he was still walking away from her without checking to see if she was okay or not, he at least wasn't running anymore!

'Progress!' Ruby thought to herself as she used her Semblance to catch up to him.

"So, Friend-" Ruby tried to start, but was quickly interrupted by Jaune's low voice.

"Partner." Jaune spat out. Ruby backpedaled before returning with her smile again.

"So, Friend-Partner..." Ruby tried again, this time getting a grumble from the man. She smiled as she saw this as a confirmation.

"Are you sure we're heading north? I'm pretty sure we are, but I just wanted to see if you think so too." Ruby said, trying to make him believe that she genuinely wanted to hear his opinion on the matter. His frown twitched before he let out a breath and nodded.

"I've got a built in compass in these things. We're headed in the right direction." Jaune said as he tapped on his goggles. Ruby nodded with a smile before striking up another conversation.

"So...where are you from, Jaune?" Ruby asked as they moved through a thick brush. He showed no visible reaction as he answered her question.

"Domremy." He answered with no emotion in his tone. Ruby was perplexed though. She hadn't heard of a Domremy.

"Where's that? I don't think I've ever seen that place on a map before." Ruby stated, thinking of all the towns and cities that she was taught in school. Jaune shook his head and let out a grunt, absentmindedly shooting a single Boarbatusk dead before answering.

"It was a small town outside the borders of what used to be Mantle. Got destroyed by Grim almost ten years ago." Jaune said with an undertone of anger. He remembered exactly what happened when that Grim invasion came in and destroyed everything. But at the very least, he was able to avenge his-

"Jaune!" Ruby's voice called as he was made aware of the Ursa that tried to swipe it's claw at him. Ruby tried shooting it in the head, but each shot just kept bouncing off of it's surprisingly thick bone plating. Ruby was going to try and pull him out of the way, but Jaune actually moved forward and brought a hand up to stop the paw. Ruby's eyes widened as...

*Thud*

Jaune was actually able to block the swing and completely stop the attack. It wasn't just Ruby that was shocked, but the Ursa as well. It stayed still for a moment, allowing Jaune to drive the hand that his arm canon was on into the Grim's gut and proceed to fire. Not only did the actual shots drive into the beast, but the actual rotation of the cylinders were shredding the dark skin of the Ursa as well! It only took but a few moments before the limbering Grim was killed and Jaune let it topple to the side. He then brushed whatever got onto his coat off, and continued walking.

'Stop thinking about the past, Jaune. You're getting distracted.' Jaune thought to himself as he walked off, tensing his muscles to get his mind off of what happened then.

What happened all those years ago...

Ruby was amazed at the sheer strength that her partner displayed so casually. Sure she would be able to do the same, and her sister wouldn't even bat an eye at the same swing, but to see that Jaune was able to block that attack without Aura amazed her! He was so cool!

"Holy cow! You were able to block that swipe like it was nothing! How did you do that? Tell me!" Ruby asked excitedly, jumping up and down in front of Jaune. He glanced down at her before answering, finding the distraction from his thoughts welcome.

"I've engineered this body to be the perfect fighting machine. Altering the biological structure and structure of my muscles, organs and skeleton to fit my needs. Further from that, I've also surgically fitted an endoskeleton into my body for optimal performance. In short, I am the perfect soldier."

Ruby stared at him for a few moments before turning her head from him and really contemplating his words. Thinking about what he meant. She didn't really get what he meant by restructuring his entire body, but it sounded hard. And the whole endo-whatchamacallit was a little out of her depth, but she got the gist of it.

"Are you the Terminator?" She asked innocently enough. It caused Jaune to pause, looking back at her with his face still blank before the feintest traces of a smile crept onto his face. She was an amusing one, if nothing else.

"Let's just say that I'm...built different." Jaune simplified for the young reaper. Ruby shrugged at his words, still not able to fully grasp what it was that Jaune had revealed to her.

Continuing into the forest with the aid of his goggles, Jaune and Ruby only had to kill a few more Grim before they came across a cave. Jaune finished snapping the neck of a Beowolf before walking towards the entrance. Ruby followed close behind, looking around and seeing the different carvings on the walls. Depicting long gone hunters forcing a scorpion looking animal into a cave.

There was obviously a large Deathstalker in there. It didn't take a genius to figure that out.

"Hey, Jaune. I don't think it's a good idea to go in there. From these drawings, I think there's supposed to be a giant Deathstalker in here." Ruby warned, turning to her partner before noticing that he was already heading into the darkness. Her eyes widened before trying to go after him.

"Wait! What are you doing? I just said that there's a Deathstalker in there!" Ruby cautioned once more. Not once did Jaune slow his stride, however. His pace consistent and strong.

"I understand that. I intend to kill it." Jaune stated, adjusting his weapon accordingly to fire a higher caliber. In order to do so, he would have to overwork the small nuclear reactor he's put into it, causing it to go a bit unstable, but so long as he doesn't allow any severe physical force to impact it, he shouldn't have to worry about any sort of nuclear detonation.

...If something like that does happen however, he would have to run about a mile or so out of the initial blast radius. Not to mention the resulting fallout of the nuclear detonation would have to be accounted for as well. Thankfully, Aura is able to protect the body from any radiation poisoning so long as you weren't there for the actual explosion.

With a worried look on her face, Ruby was torn between going in there and trying to talk him out of it, or staying out here and waiting until he came back. She debated over her decision before she heard a loud rumbling coming from within the cave. She let out a loud groan before taking out her Crescent Rose and dashing after her partner with her Semblance.


Jaune was currently duking it out with the Giant Deathstalker within the dark cave, his goggles giving him perfect sight with it's built in nigh vision. He calmly ran circles around the behemoth as it thrashed about. He picked his shots carefully and only fired when he knew he had a clean hit. It's carapace was a lot thicker than he had thought it would be, but it didn't matter. So long as he was able to get a good shot in, he should be fine. Even so, he could tell that the integrity of the cave was starting to fail, and that he needed to end this as soon as possible before there was a cave in.

'Just one more shot.' Jaune thought to himself as he lined up his gun with the exposed part of the Grim's body. A small chunk of it's bone plating had been blown off in the dead center of it's skull. A single blast would be enough to put it down for good. He was about to take the shot when he heard the call of Ruby to his right.

"Jaune!" Ruby shouted, seeing that Jaune was about to be crushed by a falling boulder. She used her weapon in it's rifle form to blow it to bits, however, the distraction caused Jaune to miss his shot, the intense beam of energy impacting the cave wall and shaking everything within it. It was then that the entire cave started to crumble, more boulders started to fall around them and made them realize that they needed to get out of there. Now.

However, after Jaune missed his shot, the Deathstalker was given a brief look at it's surroundings and saw the human that attempted to bring it down. Being as enraged as it was, it took the opportunity and swiped it's claw at the man and caught him by surprise, knocking him away and into a wall with a loud thud. He fell to the ground disoriented before he looked to his right and saw his weapon next to him...

With an alarmingly large indent to where the chamber for the nuclear reactor was.

Jaune immediately checked the device on his arm and looked for the weapon's condition before his blood ran cold.

'Alert: Nuclear Core Going Critical. Alert: Nuclear Core Going Critical'

The young man immediately got back up and made his way towards his partner who was now trying to keep the Deathstalkers attention on her.

As the Deathstalker buried it's stinger in the space that used to be occupied by Ruby, the young reaper used her Semblance to dodge out of the way while trying to shoot out it's eyes. She was preparing to dodge another one of it's attempts to strike her when she saw Jaune leap a great height and grabbed it's tail before bringing it with him onto it's back. Immediately, the Deathstalker tried to take it's tail away from the thing on it's back, but with tremendous strength, Jaune is able to hold onto it and proceeded to rip half of it's tail off and threw it away. Leaving the Grim to screech and writhe in agony while Jaune jumped off and ran towards his partner.

"We have to get out of her now!" Jaune commanded as he ran towards her. Ruby was still a little baffled after seeing her partner dismember the Deathstalker before being confused at his words. They had the thing on the ropes!

"What? Why?" She asked, but Jaune said nothing as he ran up to her and quickly scooped her up and held her over his shoulder. She cried out in surprise before demanding what was going on.

"Jaune! What are you doing?! What's going on!?" She demanded. Jaune looked at his arm again, seeing that he only had less than a minute before his weapon would detonate.

"My gun's nuclear core is going to blow, that's what!" Jaune answered. His response left Ruby gobsmacked, that thing was what!?

"You're gun was powered by a nuclear reactor!? What were you thinking?!" Ruby scolded, fully knowing the kind of risks such a thing would entail. Jaune saw the light of the exit as he answered with a snarl.

"If you hadn't distracted me, I would have killed that Deathstalker no problem and I'd still have a weapon!" Jaune argued, now at the mouth of the cave. He stops before letting Ruby off his shoulder. He turns back and looks at the cave before he walks up to one of the walls and starts smashing his fists into it. Ruby looks like she was just slapped across the face as she looks at him with angry eyes.

"If I hadn't-are you kidding me!? You were about to be crushed by a boulder! What was I supposed to do!? Just let you die? I saved you!" She yelled at him. Jaune started striking the cave walls with even more force before once last hit caused the roof and subsequent rocks to collapse and close off the cave.

"I was fully aware of that boulder and would have moved out of the way after I took my shot! Now we have to move in the next fifteen seconds or we're going to have super heated rock shrapnel blow up in our faces." Jaune said, running into the forest. Ruby was still miffed at him, but relented and ran with him.

Deep within the cave, as the Deathstalker is starting to make it's way towards the exit of the cave with it's hateful eyes intending on killing those two humans that dared to oppose it, Jaune's weapon that laid on the floor was starting to glow red with heat before it started to bloat. Soon after, the weapon finally reached a breaking point, and exploded in a blinding light, quickly filling the cave and enveloping everything in it.

As Jaune and Ruby were already a good few meters out, they heard a loud explosion erupt behind them. They only briefly turned back to it before they continued to where they were supposed to be. They didn't know the ranged the radioactive waves would reach, and they didn't want to find out.

Well, Jaune knew the range, but he wasn't going to be taking any risks.

As the two walked forward in tense silence, they once again had to fight a few Grim that were rustled by the sound of the explosion and attracted to their negative emotions. At the very least, it was an excuse for them to let out their frustrations.

It didn't take very long before they were able to reach a clearing with a few ruins placed in the center. Jaune let out a breath before being relieved.

"Finally. Now to get our Relic and get the hell out of here." Jaune grumbled as he walked towards the pedestals that held the chess pieces. He looked at them before spotting something peculiar.

Among the pieces, there were two Rooks, two Bishops, Two Knights and...a Queen and a King? The pamphlets only ever told of the first three. What were the King and Queen pieces doing here? Especially the King piece. Considering the world threw that piece away and replaced it with the Matriarch. Works the same and does the same as the King, but they just changed it because...you know. Men.

"How strange." Jaune said to himself as he picked up the King piece and inspected it. When he looked closer, he saw a small extension at the bottom before he pulled at it and was surprised when it came off and revealed a USB.

Ruby was next to him, still mad, and didn't really want to ask him what he was holding, so she looked at the other pieces before landing her eyes on the Queen piece. She picked it up, also knowing that there aren't supposed to be Queen pieces here. She shrugged before pocketing it, thinking that the school simply forgot to put them in the pamphlets.

When Jaune plugged the USB into the device on his arm and saw that there was a message on it. Making sure that there wasn't some sort of malware stored inside, he opened the message. It was a voice recording by none other than the Headmistress herself.

"Hello Beacon Student Applicant. If you are listening to this, then you have found the King piece. This piece is placed for those who have found the relics well before the others. If you are up for it, then bring this piece back to the Cliffs and you will be put into a team of only yourself. You will have a dorm to yourself and will no longer have the obligation to be within a team. However, you will be required to attend AP classes, take extra combat lessons during the weekends, and will no longer have vacations off. This program is only for those that are absolutely willing to dedicate themselves to his profession. Should you choose to accept, you WILL be the best in your field. Should you decline, you will still be guaranteed a spot in Beacon, attend normal classes and be assigned to a team." The message ended with that. But it was all Jaune needed to hear. He even let a small smirk grace his features before he heard footsteps coming from behind him. He quickly placed the piece into his lab coat before turning around to see a blonde and a Faunus coming their way.

When Yang touched down onto the forest floor, she kept in mind her sister's plan and thought that eh, it would be interesting to see how the guy was and see exactly what they were like. Then she just wandered the forest in hopes of coming across him while also beating up a bunch of Grim along the way. She eventually found Blake and they became partners. After a bit more exploring, they heard a loud explosion go off in the distance, but paid it no mind. Blake seemed a bit more jumpy, but she just figured that came with being part cat. Blake was actually a fun person. Albeit a little defensive on certain subjects. Most often when it came to stuff like history books and romantic novels that were bias against men. She was an interesting one. Said that she was an advocate for men's rights. What was it again? A Masculist? In any case, she believed that men were not treated fairly and that there should be better laws and regulations to change that. Yang believed in that stuff too, but she didn't really know how to go about changing the laws or whatnot. She liked reading books and stuff, contrasting what you might believe, and she always did find it weird there was a lack of men in the ones she's read. Or the ones that did have them always painted them in a bad light. Her parents would try to get her ones that were unbias of course, but in a world like theirs, the number of those were scarce.

The kind of books Blake read however...were a little too raunchy for her tastes. Anyway, they had finally made it to a clearing when they noticed that there were two other people there. One of them she recognized as her sister. The other, her partner was quick to announce,

"Oh my gosh, it's you." Blake stated, looking at the only male taking the Initiation. Jaune himself turned to them with an impassive look on his face.

"H-hi! My n-name's...Blake." The Faunus was able to stammer out. She extended one of her hands to him with a nervous smile and a shaking posture. Jaune looked at her curiously before cautiously taking her hand and shaking it once.

"Jaune." He stated simply. He found the woman before him strange. The hell was she nervous around him for? Before he could say anything else, Blake was able to get over her own nervousness somewhat and started talking again.

"I just want to say, it's such an honor to meet you. I am a huge Men's Rights Advocate member. I've been working on the laws to get you and all the other men better quality of life and trying to free them from the slave drivers that have been oppressing you for so long, and I..." Blake started to ramble on, really starting to weird Jaune out. A...Men's Advocate member? That was an actual thing? People were actually volunteering to try and give men rights?

'...Thoughts for later, Jaune. Right now, you need to get this golden ticket to the cliffs.' Jaune thought to himself as he attempted to appease the woman in front of him so that he could leave.

"I...appreciate your work, and I would absolutely love to hear all the different things you have to say, but If you wouldn't mind, I have Initiation to get through." Jaune said with only a tiny bit of sarcasm in his voice. Blake stopped as he talked and blinked before she blushed in embarrassment and nodded in understanding as he walked passed her, noticing that his soon to be ex-partner was talking to the blonde.

"Right! S-sorry. I almost forgot. But we can talk more later, right? Maybe over some lunch? Or...coffee?" Blake stuttered out, feeling shy around the man. She had always had a unique fascination with men. But she hadn't actually seen one. And now that she had, she felt her heart skip a beat, her cheeks flush red, and butterflies in her stomach.

Jaune was still looking over to Ruby and the blonde when he turned to Blake with a fake smile.

"Sure! I would love to!" Jaune said with a very large dose of sarcasm. However, Blake wasn't able to catch onto it and actually thought that he had agreed to what she thought was a date with her. She thought back to all the books she's read about the forbidden love between a man and a woman and how a chance encounter lead to a relationship between them to blossom.

'Is this...love?' Blake thought to herself as she saw him start to walk away.

However, not too long after Jaune was near the end of the clearing, on the opposite side four individuals came bursting through. They seemed to have been running from something when they spotted the three within the clearing and started shouting for them. Both Ruby and Yang couldn't hear them, but Blake could.

"Huh? What are you saying!?" Ruby yelled back, Yang turned to her partner before asking her what they were saying. Blake really listened before her eyes widened.

"They're being followed by a Giant Deathstalker. We have to help them!" Blake panicked, already making her way toward the four individuals. Both sisters followed soon after. However, Ruby turned back to tell him of a plan she had before she then noticed that Jaune was nowhere to be found.

"What? Where did he-" Ruby tried asking herself as she stopped to survey her surroundings. Her inner musings were interrupted when the before mentioned Deathstalker came bursting into the clearing. But something was off about this one. It's bone plating seemed almost melted onto it's body, having a sort of green glow to it as well. And even now, standing so far away from it, she felt her Aura covering her skin to prevent something from eating away at it. The red markings that would normally trace the body were instead replaced by deep green veins. An ominous pulse flowing through them in an unsteady rhythm. Where it's eyes should have been having melted over by the bone plating and instead having a large broken chunk from the center of it's head with a single large pustule of an eye. It's sclera the color of the void. And in the center lied a pupil that held the embodiment of hatred. Green venom flowed through it's entire being as it raised it's tail. It's lower half of it being like the rest of it's body while the upper half seemed to be concentrated energy. The tip of the tail looking not like a stinger, but like the head of a brush. It brought it's claws up to try and smash the humans in front of it, even those having been morphed as well. Having been melted together as well, they really weren't claws anymore. Being elongated and pointed like a dagger, with jagged teeth along it's bottom like a cleaver. Standing tall on long, spider-like legs, this Deathstalker crushed the ground beneath it with a mighty cleave of it's 'claws'.

"What in the...What the heck is that thing!?" Yang exclaimed as she turned back and ran with the other four. Blake as well, feeling a primal fear rise within her as she looked into this thing's eye. Feeling nothing but hatred and wrath emanating from the creature.

With it's one eye darting around and looking at the prey that it had chased down, it's gaze zeroed in on the one with Silver eyes.

One of the one's that made it like this.

An unholy screech bellowing from the monstrosity, it rushed forward, being much quicker than any normal Deathstalker. It completely ignored the other pests as it stampeded towards it's target. It's legs nearly impaling those it passed, the Beacon hopefuls had to roll out of the way, being confused as to why this thing had just ignored them when not to long ago it had been hellbent on killing them. However, as Yang looked to where it was trying to go, she realized that the mutated Deathstalker was making a beeline towards her sister.

"No!" She shouted as her hair went ablaze and flew forward, intending on saving her little sister.

"Woah!" Ruby yelled in surprise as she saw the monster barrel towards her and use one of it's arms to try and cleave her in two. She used her Semblance to dodge out of the way before she brought out her Crescent Rose and quickly started taking shots at it's blatantly open eye. Upon the first bullet, the bulbus eye burst like a blister and sprayed some sort of venom forward. It was only with quick thinking that Ruby was able to move to the side and avoided the thick puss. The sight of such a thing left her wanting to vomit. However, just as she thought that she had gotten the upper hand, the Deathstalker let out an even louder shrill noise that made everyone around have to cover their ears.

In but a few moments, the socket that had been empty quickly filled back in with another eye, this one baring veins of the same green venom that flowed through it's body. As it gained it's sight back, it immediately turned to Ruby and charged at her with even greater speed and ferocity. Smashing one of it's arms down and thrusting it's other to try and skewer her. Ruby was barely able to dodge the first strike before the second one came in. She hadn't gotten her footing back as her eyes widened and her life flashed before her eyes.

It was then that Yang came to the rescue and tackled her out of the way, the Deathstalker's claw stabbing into the ground where they had been not a second before.

"Ruby, come on! We gotta go!" Yang exclaimed, taking advantage of the fact that the Deathstalker had gotten it's claw stuck and was now trying to pull it out, screeching and bellowing all the while at them. Ruby nodded shakily before running with her sister.

Whatever the heck this thing was, it was way too much for any of them to handle.

Jaune, having surveyed everything from afar, was rather intrigued with the arrival of the mutated Grim. He really was rather curious as to how that Grim came to look like that, when a stray thought occurred to him.

'Could that be the same Deathstalker that I fought in the cave? Perhaps the radiation had more of an impact on the thing than I initially thought.' Jaune mused to himself, seeing the rest of the applicants running away from the Deathstalker. He shrugged at them before turning around to walk away.

"Oh well, not my problem anymore." Jaune said aloud as he started making his way to the cliffs. All he needed to do was get there and present the piece to Ozma and he'd be golden. Didn't matter what happened to those other people, so long as he-

"Jaune!"

Grgk.


Ruby was running away from the Deathstalker when she noticed her partner off to the side and on the edge of the clearing. Simply watching everything happen. She was confused as to why he was just standing there. Sure, he didn't have his weapon anymore, but with the kind of strength he showed in the cave before, she thought that he wouldn't need one. However, like many times before, her wandering thoughts caused her to lose focus and lagged behind her sister. Yang was already a few meters ahead of her sister when she turned back to see that the Deathstalker had freed it's claw and was clambering it's way towards them, this time pointing the tip of it's tail at them before a stream of green ooze shot out, landing behind Yang, but in the path of Ruby, burning into the ground. A sizable puddle grew between them when Yang cried out to her sister.

"Ruby, watch out!" Yang warned, stopping and staring directly at her sister. Ruby snapped out of her thoughts and looked forward just in time to see the small gorge between herself and her sister that was filled with the acidic substance the Deathstalker shot out. She was able to stop herself right at the edge when she turned back to the approaching Deathstalker and felt a chill run up her spine. She tried going to her right when a cleaver like claw slammed down in front of her. She clamored in the opposite direction, only to meet the same thing. She was trapped by the mutant Deathstalker and the pool of acid behind her with no way of escape. She tried shooting at it again, only for her to think better of it, due to the fact that she remembered what happened she she blew it's eye out last time. She knew she wasn't strong enough to try and fight it at this close of a range. So she was completely out of options. She still stood defiantly...futilely. Crescent Rose held by shaking, terrified hands. Her knees buckled, no longer able to support her weight anymore.

Yang tried to run after her sister and fight the thing directly, but was stopped by the Deathstalker shooting a high pressured stream of acid at her feet. It stared her down for a moment, keeping it's tail aimed at her before looking back down at Ruby, a gargled noise coming out of it, as if it were satisfied with the fact that it had one of it's items of hatred in it's grasp. Helpless. Hopeless.

Ruby stared back into the eyes of the beast for a moment, before turning to Jaune as he turned back. She had tears in her eyes as she called to him, desperation heavy in her tone as she hoped to everything above that he would hear her plea.

"Jaune!"

When Jaune heard that, his heart stopped for a moment. He quickly whipped around to see that Ruby was on her knees, looking to him, pleading with her eyes to save her. In a moment, Jaune's world changed, remembering something from a very long time ago.


He wasn't seventeen anymore. He was hardly even eight now. His hair was dirty and unkept. His clothes, if you could call them that, were caked in dirt and grime. Further from this, all he seemed to be wearing was a loincloth. His skin was deceivingly smooth and soft, as if it had been lathered in moisturizing solutions repeatedly. His face was scared, however. And behind his smooth skin lied scars and bruises and cuts. On his back, behind his heart, was a brand with double crescents. His eyes, both of them intact, were staring at the two in front of him.

A woman, a little less than twice his height wore a military uniform that belonged to a branch of the Atlas military. A high caliber gun at her hip that had glowing red lines running across it's barrel. Her hair a platinum blonde and eyes a steely blue. This woman was the person that had lent Jaune to her friends and colleagues and people that were willing to pay for an hour or two so that they could have their way with him.

Sometimes, she would take him for herself as well.

However, none of that was what was scaring him right now. It was who the woman was trying to drag away that was scaring him.

Another boy, only two years younger than him. They wore a dirty brown shirt and small grey shorts, being even dirtier than he was, and looking almost exactly like him, save for the darker shade of blue his eyes were and the shorter hair.

This was Luna, his younger brother. And this woman was trying to take him away.

"N-no! Please! Don't! Take me! Take me!" Jaune pleaded, grabbing the woman's arm and tugging at her sleeve, trying to stop her from giving away his younger brother to the person that had agreed to buy him. The woman herself looked down and scowled at Jaune, shoving him back and continuing to drag the crying child in her grasp up from the basement.

"Not a chance you little ingrate. You are worth far more money to me here than this little snot. Someone is willing to pay a hefty price for him, and I'm more than happy to have one less mouth to feed." The woman spat at him. Jaune ran back up to her and grabbed onto her leg, once again trying to convince her to change her mind.

"Don't do it! Please! I-I'll take care of them for however long they want! Just don't sell him off!" Jaune cried, tears falling down his face as he tried desperately to save his brother. The woman didn't even look back at him as she forced him off with a kick, knocking him to the floor. She was able to get to the top of the stairs when Jaune, in a last ditch effort, grabbed onto Luna and tried prying him from her grasp.

"I won't let you take him away!" Jaune cried angrily as he tugged on his brother's arm. Luna cried even louder, looking into Jaune's eyes as he called to him.

"Don't let them take me away big brother! Don't let them take me away!" Luna begged, tears and snot running down his face as he tried to take his arm away from the woman. Jaune was fueled by his little brother's cry even more and tugged even harder, yelling at the woman one last time.

"You can't take him! I hate you! I hate you Mom!" Jaune shouted, a snarl stretching across his face as he stared at the woman that had given birth to him.

To think that his own mother would do all these horrendous things to her own children.

At this point, the boys' mother had gotten fed up with their yammering and resistance and pulled out her gun before pointing it at Jaune.

"That's it! Let him go, or else!" She threatened. Jaune looked up in horror to see the barrel of her gun pointed straight at him. He froze for a moment before he steeled his nerves and used his already impressive wit to figure out that she wouldn't kill him. She already stated that he was more valuable here.

"I...I refuse!" Jaune yelled, taking a gamble. He stood defiant against him mother as she stayed there for a moment. Just as he thought that he had won, she pulled the trigger.

Red hot pain coursed through his skull as he was blown back. The entire side of his skull felt like fire as he fell down the stairs and fell back into the basement. He screamed and yelled as he tried clutching what was left of his eye socket. The Fire Dust causing no end of pain to the small boy. It was then that his mother spoke up.

"You'll live, but let this be a lesson to you. You'll never amount to anything more than an Agninus." Jaune's mother spat as she holstered her gun. She then turned around and left Jaune to lay on the floor, motionless as he felt himself go numb. The vision in his one good eye went fuzzy, but he could still see his little brother being dragged on his knees reaching out for him, crying his name. Each time getting farther and farther away as he fell unconscious.

"Jaune! Jaune! Jaune!"


Jaune never saw his brother again after that. He vowed that he would find him. He'd do anything to see his little brother again.

Anything.

"Jaune!"

The man was snapped out of memory lane as he saw Ruby about to be brutally killed by the Deathstalker.

"No." Jaune whispered to himself as he zoomed forward in a single bound. A resounding boom echoed throughout the clearing as he broke the ground beneath him and made a mad dash to Ruby's position.

Ruby closed her eyes and held up her weapon in a weak defense against the large blade-like arm of the creature as it came down, ready to turn her into a smear of red paste on the ground.

She flinched when she heard a loud crash, but was soon confused when it was followed by the sound of whirring metal. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see that Jaune was there, holding he claw back!

"Jaune." She whispered in awe.

'He came back.' She thought to herself with more tears streaking down her face. But this time, it was not out of fear. It was out of relief and joy.

But then suddenly, the other claw came into play, and fear once again struck her heart. She was going to cry out to him, to tell him to watch out, but then that claw was stopped as well. This confused her for a moment, not understanding how he could stop both at the same time. He was strong, yes. but not even her sister would be able to do something like this.

Then she noticed it.

Jaune's arms weren't holding the claws. They were up, outstretched even, but they were not holding the attacks. It was then that she saw something protruding from his back.

Six tendril like machines extended from his back through two slits in his lab coat. Two of them were keeping him off the ground while two others were holding back the claws. The remaining two were on standby should he need them.

This was his greatest project. The Hydra System.


Back up on the cliffs, Ozma was smiling at her tablet as she watched it happen.

'I knew those extendable arms would be useful.' She thought as she took a sip from her mug.


"Get out of here." Jaune told her, throwing the claws to either side of him and rising further from the ground.

"What?" Ruby asked, still in awe at what she was seeing. From what she could tell, Jaune was using six extendable arms that were controlled via telekinetic link! That was so awesome!

Jaune however, was not amused, and wanted her out of the way.

"I said-" Jaune started, but was interrupted when the Deathstalker was fed up with being ignored. And seeing the one that ripped off it's tail made it even more enraged than before. So it decided to just melt him with a spray of it's acid. Jaune reacted quickly, however, and had his last two tendrils grab the tail and point it away from them. They were able to prevent too much of it from getting onto him, but a lot of it still ended up spraying onto him. it had only hit his upper torso, melting away a majority of his lab coat and shirt, while also getting onto his goggles and damaging them. He growled in frustration before ripping them off his face and throwing them to the side. He quickly used the four tendrils not on the ground to shove the Deathstalker back in an incredible feat of strength, causing deep trenches to be made where the Grim had been pushed back. Jaune then completely turned to Ruby, showing her his full face, and by extension his mechanical eye.

"Get out of here!" He commanded, to which Ruby obeyed and kicked off the ground, her mind on what she just saw. She rejoined with her sister, and together, they began running away again. This time, Ruby only spared a glance back at her partner before she continued running.

As Jaune saw Ruby get away, he let out a small sigh before he faced the mutated Deathstalker. He absentmindedly tore off what was left of his shirt and coat, revealing that at the base of his tendrils was metal plating that replaced part of is spine, shoulder blades and ribcage. The merge between metal and skin was seamless, the metal only seeming like a drape of silver color as it contoured to be shaped exactly like the rest of his body. Merely flexing to get the access fluid that had landed on him, not worrying about the acid that had gotten on his skin, having made his body resistant to damn near everything.

"Alright you son of a bitch. Let's dance." Jaune taunted as he readied himself for a slaughter.

The Deathstalker Charged forward again, Jaune doing the same, his tendrils tearing up the ground below him as he let out a battle cry. The Grim screeched in kind before swinging it's claw at him one more time, to which he had his tendrils pull him out of the way while commanding another to form a saw out of the claws attached to the end by opening up and rotating at a high rate. He then swung that tendril at one of the legs of the Deathstalker and left a deep gash. It howled in pain before swinging it's other claw at him.

Jaune was able to block this one before he was forced to back off due to another volley of acid from it's tail. While his skin was incredibly tough, enough sprays from it's acid would still be able to wear down it's durability.

It also hurt like the dickens, so he didn't want to be soaked in that stuff again.

Taking a more aggressive role, Jaune pressed forward, knowing that he needed to take out that tail as soon as possible. So he used two of his mechanical arms to vault him over the Grim by using it's own claws as leverage before he grabbed a hold of the tail with his other two mecha arms. The Deathstalker remembered the last time it had allowed this human onto it's back and how it had lost it's tail because of it. So with it's elongated claws, it reached back and tried to stab Jaune in the back.

"Nice try you bastard." Jaune smirked as he used another two tendrils to not just grab onto the two claws, but actually impaled them in and through the claws before opening his claws back from their previous harpoon shape and tugging, effectively anchoring them into place. Now Jaune had this thing pinned. It couldn't use it's tail or it's claws. It still screeched at him in defiance and started thrashing around, trying to throw him off. Using his last two tendrils, he turned them into their saw functions and decided to amputate this Grim.

"Alright, let's get you grounded!" Jaune shouted as he had the two cutting tools quickly cut at the base of it's legs and slice them all off with a single stroke. The Grim fell with a loud crash as it cried out once again in agony. Jaune then noticed that it's legs were trying to grow back from the stumps, but was doing so very slowly and seemed to be weaker versions of the last ones.

"So you've got some wicked regeneration there, huh? Oh, I'd love to take you and bisect you to figure out just how you tick. But as of right now, I'm just going to have to kill you. So let's see which part of you is going to break first." Jaune said as he lowered himself down off the Grim, still holding it's extremities in place. Once he had his two extra tendrils on the ground supporting him, he strained himself to flip the creature up over his head upside down. He then started pulling both sides of it's body in opposite directions.

"Will your tail give way?" Jaune started, outstretching his hands to better focus where he wanted his arms to tug.

"Or your arms?" Jaune quizzed, seeing the mutated Grim try to squirm and resist against his pulling. However, it was for not as it was unable to to a damn thing. His face then gained a hyper focused look to them as he dropped to his feet and allowed his last two arms to shoot up and impale the Grim all the way through and did the same that he did the claws, anchoring them in place. If he was struggling with holding up all that weight by himself, he didn't show it. He then started tensing his muscles, adding even more pressure to it's limbs. The Grim was now constantly screeching in pain and agony as it's limbs started to tear away from it's body. Jaune gave a small smirk before shouting in exertion and extending his arms to his sides, forcing the two tendrils in it's torso to do the same.

With a great tearing of bone and flesh, the Deathstalker was ripped clean in half. He let the two pieces drop to the floor next to either side of him. He first turned to the half with it's tail before commanding the two tendrils that had been holding it to slice it to ribbons, doing so within seconds. He finally turned to the front half of the Grim to see it feebly trying to crawl away. For this one, Jaune slowly walked in front of it, so he could come face to face with it. It only took a few seconds before he turned to see the baleful eyes of the creature that he had inadvertently created. It stared at him with utter hatred, even tried to lift it's claws, but was unable to muster the strength to do so. He stared blankly before he used one of his tendrils, brought it's claw tips together and spun it like a drill. He then quickly drove the drill-bit through it's eye and through he rest of it's body. The spray of it's acid never landed on him as he used his other arms to rip off it's claws and drill several other holes into it's now vaporizing body. He could never be too sure a Grim was dead until it was nothing but smoke.

Having finished what he wanted, he stared where the Deathstalker used to stand before he turned away and tried looking for what remained of his coat. It only took a few moments before he found the scraps and picked it up, intending to try and find the piece he took. However...

The ground beneath him cratered as his tendrils gripped the dirt with extreme force. His mechanical eye zeroing in on the melted remains of his King piece. Even the USB was slagged to nothing, making any hopes of being on a team on his own moot.

"Fuck." Jaune whispered to himself as he threw the coat away. He started walking back towards the ruins, seeing if there were any other relics for him to take. He picked up and moved fallen pieces with his arms and even lifted himself up to the short pillars that stood, but found nothing. He growled, slicing a pillar down before he quickly made his way back to the cliffs, not liking the fact that he would have to rely on Ruby to have grabbed a piece herself.

Suddenly, a breeze flew by. Jaune stopped for a moment, feeling something about the wind that was different. It was familiar to him at this point, however. He had felt it only a few times before, but he knew what it meant. Something was trying to guide him. Telling him something. He looked around, trying to figure out what it wanted him to do, seeing as it hadn't led him astray before.

"What's it now?" Jaune asked nobody in particular as he scanned the clearing once more. He only saw grass rustling and leaves being blown by the-

Then it hit him, literally. Something impacted his chest as it was blown by the wind. He looked down to see a scrap of a familiar red cloth. He scanned it with his eye before being surprised who's DNA was on it.

"Ruby?" Jaune pondered, realizing that the piece of fabric belonged to his...partner. He stared at it for a moment before the breeze once again came through and rustled the piece of cloak in his hand. He noticed the grass beneath him did not stir, only the cloth. He looked up, feeling agitated with whatever forces were trying to tell him something. He just couldn't understand.

.

..

...

Alright, so maybe he did understand. He just really didn't want to think about it.

It was obviously trying to tell him that Ruby was going to be a crucial part of his life, and he didn't like it. He threw the cloth to the side before trying to move forward. It was then that the same piece of cloth was pushed into his face. He sputtered for a moment before he had one of his tendrils pick it off his face. He stared at it for a moment before he groaned once again, this time relenting and placing it into his pocket for later. He figured that he spent enough time here and just wanted to get up to the cliffs and complete this Initiation.

Just as he was leaving, the silhouette of somebody manifested from the winds on the far side of the clearing. It stared at Jaune for a moment before just as quickly vanishing.


Using his claws to scale the cliff, Jaune thought about the Deathstalker and what happened to it. He was mildly concerned about how the fallout of his weapon's blast was able to turn it into that monster from before. Other Grim could possibly go through the same transformation. And if that Deathstalker was able to get out of that cave, it probably blew through the rocks that he used to close the entrance. So any Grim in that forest could wander in and transform like that.

'I'll need to find a way to clean that area up. Soon. I don't know if they can turn other's as well. So I better make regular visits to the area just to make sure that no Grim that get mutated are allowed to evolve any further.' Jaune thought to himself as he went over what he needed to do. He was now approaching the top of the cliffs now, so he stopped talking and prepared to defend himself from any advances the other students might try.

He knew the effect his body had on others. He's not blind. At least, not anymore. Not after he replaced his missing eye with a mechanical one of his own creation. He was in perfect shape, and his rough look would no doubt attract more than a few people. One of the many drawbacks of doing what he was. Becoming someone that would resist their advances would only make them double down on their attempts even more.

People want what they can't have, as the old saying goes.

Finally getting to the ledge, Jaune pulled his six tendrils back to his spine, grabbing the wall himself. He didn't want to be revealing his trump card to any of them quite yet. So grabbing the ledge and pulling so that he was able to fly up just high enough to plant his feet on the ground, he scanned the area quickly just to find that only Ozma was standing there.

"Hello Jaune, welcome back. I wouldn't worry about bringing back a Relic. Your partner miss Rose has already done so." She explained to him. He grunted in confirmation before starting to walk towards campus. He was stopped once more by the woman, Ozma this time was holding out a large white shirt.

"If you'd like, I have some spare clothing for you to change into. They might be a tad bit too small however, as we've never had an applicant of your stature." She offered. Jaune's face scrunched up before passing her.

"No thanks. I'm just fine." Jaune said, a scowl still on his face. He didn't want to take much help from that woman, seeing as he knew she saw him as nothing but a tool to be used. And if his eye had told him anything. Ozma had cameras everywhere in that forest. She had seen what happened with the mutated Deathstalker and what he used to kill it. She probably even knew about his gun. If he knew anything about women like Ozma, she had some complicated and convoluted plan to try and involve him in her own affairs or interpersonal conflicts that she was hiding. Like some behind the scenes war with another Kingdom, or maybe even some ancient evil as far as he knows. But what he does know, is that he is going to have no part of it. Nothing!


As Jaune walked away, she turned on her heel and threw the shirt behind her over the cliff, watching as Jaune walked away. She brought her hand up and bit down on one of her knuckles as she stifled down a low moan. She was hoping that he would refuse the shirt. She was just moments away from discarding the shirt and simply marveling at his Adonis like body. His abs looked so hard you could grind meat on them. She was able to see exactly when that acid melted away his excessive clothing and showed off his delicious muscles. How they shined while they were wet...delectable~.

And when he was able to just flex that acid off his body...

A shiver ran through Ozma's system as she looked down to see that some of the acid had also gotten onto his pants, exposing his tones legs. looking like fine marble pillars. And his ass was like two bowling balls vacuum sealed inside a fine leather couch. He was perfect.

'I can't wait to sink my teeth into that flesh, Jaune~.' Ozma thought as she followed soon after him. She wanted to watch him for as long as she could. And she still needed to get through the team making ceremony as soon as possible so that she could go to her own personal quarters and get some...alone time. Seeing as she's gained a lot of new material to take into account...on the thought, she made a mental note to figure out his showering schedule and habits so she could plant a camera there to get a nice look at the rest of him~.

Getting back and waiting within the auditorium for his partner and the rest of the people that passed Initiation. It didn't take too long, already seeing a few people coming in. He waited, leaning against the wall. He didn't pay any heed to the many women eyeing him like a piece of meat. It wasn't until he was able to spot the stunning silver eyes amidst the crowd that he got off the wall. He slowly walked towards her, moving through the crowd and slapping away the hands that tried to touch him. He only had to walk a meter or two before she saw him as well and dashed the rest of the distance using her Semblance.

"Jaune! You're okay! I was worried when I didn't see you in the cafeteria. It's good to see that you came back! But...why haven't you put on another shirt yet?" She asked, gesturing to his upper body.

"...I just got here. Didn't get the chance." Jaune said simply. He was surprised to hear all this from his partner, seeing as she seemed pretty miffed at him before the Deathstalker attacked. He found women weird like that.

"You know, I don't think I've seen you eat since yesterday...or at all, actually. Aren't you hungry?" Ruby asked, feeling worried that her partner wasn't getting the right nutrition that he needed.

"I don't need to eat. Not anymore at least. I can eat, but It doesn't do anything for me nutrition-wise.." Jaune answered. Ruby looked at him funny. He didn't need to eat? She did remember him telling her that he restructured his whole body, so...

"Okay...then. But um...I also wanted to say I'm sorry for getting mad at you earlier." Ruby said shyly. Jaune was now confused. She was sorry? That was two women now that were apologizing for seemingly nothing. The first, he knew was literally for nothing. The other, he understood, but wondered why she was apologizing for it. No one has ever apologized to him for anything. So he wondered why this one was doing so now.

"It's fine. I'm used to people being mad at me all my life." Jaune stated, looking away, the feint sounds of his mother echoing in his head.

"But that's not okay. That shouldn't be regular for you. And I want you to see that not all of us is like that." Ruby said, trying to make Jaune see that he shouldn't live like everyone's trying to get him. Jaune was still zoned out when he responded, shaking his head as he walked toward the waiting area behind the main stage.

"Maybe. But you're going to be hard pressed to convince me of that." Jaune said as he walked away. Ruby looked on worriedly as she watched him go. She saw the metal that was on his back and remembered the limbs that he used to save her and sighed. But as she was going to turn away and think about her next step, she noticed something else on his back. On the left side of his body, just below his shoulder. It was faded. You'd never notice it if you weren't looking, or had good eyes. It almost looked like a birthmark...no. That wasn't it. It looked too artificial.

It was a brand.

A brand of two arcs. Ruby was now curious as to who that brand belonged to. She knew that whoever gave him the atrocious thing wasn't around anymore, seeing as all owners of men rebranded their 'product' whenever the mark was too faded, or the limb it was on had been cut off. Though, in most situations where a man has his limb cut off, they're deemed unsalvageable and...disposed of.

"I need to find out more." Ruby said to herself as she walked after him.

As Jaune contemplates taking another one of his hormone suppressants, he sees Ruby approach him and only gives her a small nod before turning back to the stage seeing Ozma walk up to the mic and clearing her throat to speak to the audience of upperclassmen.

"Welcome students to the final part of Initiation where we congratulate all of those that were able to make it in and place them into teams. They will be with these teams for the remainder of their four years, so lets hope that they get along quickly. Or else we're going to have to spend a fortune in repairs again. I'm looking at you Team Maroon." Ozma started, pointing at one of the teams up in the stands. She got a few laughs from them before they all settled down again.

"In all seriousness however, there is one thing different this year. It's something that I have debated with myself for a very long time. And that's...well, I'll let them show themselves first. Will Ruby Rose and her partner, who have collected the Queen Relic please come up here?" Ozma suggested, turning to the curtain behind her. Everyone was cheering at what the second part of what the Headmistress said, both knowing that getting the Queen piece meant, and curious as to what the first part meant.

"What is she talking about?" Ruby asked Jaune, left in the dark about what the Queen Relic meant. Jaune shrugged back at her, not knowing what it meant either, but got up anyway.

"No Idea. But let's go." Jaune said, gesturing for her to go first. She did so, pushing aside the curtain and stepping to the front of the stage. The crowd cheered for her, making her feel a bit of stage fright before she turned back to the curtain and waved for Jaune to step out too. He paused, debating if he should or not, becoming very much aware of the fact that he was shirtless before taking a breath and manning up.

When he did, and the spotlight turned to him, the crowd went completely silent. A few murmurs being heard.

"Hey, what's the Agninus doing up there? Is he hers?"

"She seems kind of young to have one, don't you think?"

"I bet her family is loaded in order for her to have one already."

"I mean look at it, don't you want to do all kinds of nasty things to it?"

"Oh please, girl. I would trade my own for that one down there in a heartbeat!"

"When is her partner going to come out?"

Those were only some of the things that Jaune was able to hear. And he only bore with it. Feeling tired and annoyed with it all. He walked next to Ruby, standing tall.

"Now ladies, ladies. Settle down. To clear up any misconceptions. This is Jaune Arc. Miss Rose's Partner." Ozma said, causing a collective gasp to resound among the crowd. Jaune just rolled his eyes, feeling his patience starting to run thin. Ozma decided that now was a good time to continue before her students went out of control, so she steamrolled on.

"Now, normally, these two would be put into into a team corresponding with the Relic another pair has retrieved. However, since this talented young lady has retrieved the Queen piece, she has earned the right to become the Team Leader of whatever team she becomes a part of. Not only this, but she is also allowed unlimited access to Beacon's facilities along with her partner. However, she is required to take mandatory Leadership Classes and give monthly reports on her Team's status. I along with the rest of our staff will look over her progress as a leader. If we see at all that she is an unfit for her role, we will revoke her position and privilege's and look to her partner for her replacement. The same conditions will apply to them as well." Ozma listed off, turning to Ruby and Jaune. It took both of them by surprise, making Ruby look like a deer caught in headlights. She wasn't expecting that Queen piece to be this important!

It was the final part of what the woman said that caught Jaune's attention though. If Ruby were to fail as a leader, then he would be given that privilege. It was tantalizing. Thinking that he, a male, could reach such a thing that the world thought that he couldn't, or even shouldn't have. To be able to have that and show everyone that he could do anything they could, but even better. He'd just have to sabotage anything that would make her out to be a good leader.

It would be so easy.

It was then that Jaune felt something in his pocket, pinching him. He scrunched his face in confusion, digging into his pants and pulling out the offending item. He saw the same red cloth that had been blown to him. He seemed confused at first before it rustled in Ruby's direction. He stared at her, before turning back to the item.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me. Seriously?" Jaune whispered, angered that the mysterious breeze would try to ask him to put his faith into his partner's hands. He shook his head, only receiving a more intense rustling of the cloth in response. He glared down at it for a time, the item still fluttering in his hand, before he relented with a nearly explosive sigh.

"Fine. But If I don't like it, I'm trying my original plan." Jaune stated, seeing the cloth finally settle down and placed it back into his pocket. He turned back to the rest of the world, to see that he had already been assigned to a team.

"From now on, Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose will be known as team JNPR. Lead by Ruby Rose!" Ozma exclaimed to a still silent audience. You would figure that they would have snapped out of it by now, but he supposed that the idea of going to class with a man as an equal wasn't exactly computing with them.

He turned to the other two women that he was now teammates with, being greeted by an amount of pink that almost hurt his eyes, but the orange hair and turquoise eyes did draw a certain reaction from him. It was as they walked off stage to allow the next team to be announced that the ginger decided to introduce herself.

"Hi! I'm Nora! You must be that guy that made it in! I've never met a guy before. I keep hearing about them, but I've never really seen one. So I didn't really know what to think about them, but now that I've met you, I think all those other things I've heard are way off the mark! I mean you are huge! And ripped! Can I feel your arms? Oh wow! That's a lot of muscle! How much can you lift? I can lift like fifty of me with a single finger. Oh! Do you like sloths? I love sloths! I don't really know what sound they make though. Do you? I'm hungry. I like to have pancakes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch, just any meal really. Do you know how to make pancakes? My friend Rei knows how to make the bestest pancakes ever!" Nora spat out faster than the speed of light. Jaune was taken back by how energetic and spontaneous this Nora person was. It unnerved him really. And he was supposed to be living with this?

"Hello! My name is Pyrrha, it's nice to meet you. I hope we can be great friends." A voice spoke behind him. It was a tone that he almost recognized. Not for the voice itself, he knew exactly who Pyrrha Nikos was. But her tone sounded almost frighteningly familiar to the one that his mother would use when in the company of other people. Something that he never wanted to hear again.

It sounded fake. Plastic. Hiding something just beneath the surface. Like a snake in the grass.

He tightened his jaw before turning around to face her.

"Pyrrha Nikos, in the flesh. A prodigy in your field. Hailing from Vacuo, showing amazing combat prowess at the tender age of five when you were able to defeat a thirteen year old combat school student. You then went on to train and enter that same school at the age of eight, graduate at ten, and spent the remainder of your years winning tournaments and training for the day you became old enough to enter the big leagues. You have never once lost a battle. So what in the hell are you doing here of all places, wanting to be friends with me?" Jaune asked, noticing that the 'Invincible Girl' wasn't wearing her usual spartan outfit, but instead upgraded to a mix of full armor platting and military fatigues. Still keeping in theme with her bronze, gold and crimson colours.

The woman retracted her hand with a wince as she looked to the side with a noticeable look of disappointment. Before trying to answer him.

"W-well, I just wanted to greet a fellow team member is all. But it's nice to meet a fan, at least." Pyrrha said with a strained voice at the end, believing him to be one of the many people that idolized her. She, truthfully, wished that she could start off fresh with someone that didn't know her. Even better yet, she wanted to see just how much of a capable fighter this man could be against her. Jaune had to pause for a moment when he heard her assume that he was a fan.

"A fan...is that what you think I am? A fan? Of you? That's mighty pretentious of someone who believes themselves to be a humble arena champion. Just because I know about you does not mean that I am at all a 'fan'. Quite the opposite really. I'm more interested in besting you in the ring than any form of comradery. The first chance I get, I'm going to grind you into dust." Jaune threatened in a low voice. Nora and Ruby were talking to each other, finding that they had a lot in common. Pyrrha suddenly got the impression that Jaune did not like her. And the mild threat he made towards her were not helping. But on the bright side, this at least means that she would be able to gauge his combat ability. What's strange, however, was that she could feel the pull of her Semblance on his entire body. It was weird. She could understand why she would be able to control his mechanical eye, but everything else was a mystery to her.

"What!?"

Oh, Jaune almost forgot about the crowd. It was about time they responded, he supposed.

"You can't be serious! I refuse to attend classes with an Agninus!" A student yelled out among the now rioting audience. However, Ozma's response was quick, and it struck hard.

"Then leave." She answered simply, no ounce of the amusement from before.

"What?" Was the unanimous answer from the entire audience. They were once again thrown for a loop by what the Headmaster had said. Leave? Leave where?

"If you cannot stand the mere thought of a man being seen as equal to yourselves, then you have no place in my school." Ozma stated, looking across the room. Once again, the mass of students were stunned into silence. She would normally have Glynda do all the disciplinarian work for her, but the woman said she needed a day to really process the fact that Ozma had accepted a man into the school. The face she made though, was priceless.

Not to mention, this might give her some brownie points with that hunk of meat behind that curtain~.

"I can see that despite your years training to become Huntresses and warriors, you are but mere spoiled children. So take this as an opportunity to grow not only as women, but as people as well. If mister Arc comes to me and points out names that are harassing him with no good reason, and I find these claims to be true, I will call you into my office to discuss your expulsion. Now, onto our next teams." Ozma warned, transitioning back to the original purpose of the assembly.


Jaune looked over at the front of the stage, being confused once more at what the Headmistress said. It directly contradicted the message he thought she was trying to give him earlier this morning. So what was she doing now? She was obviously against him earlier, but now she was trying to defend him. It didn't make any sense to him.

"I'm heading out." Jaune stated, walking away. He needed a quiet place to think everything over. And he certainly wasn't getting any of his needed silence here.

Walking away, Jaune left behind Pyrrha, who was looking at his back, for the first time seeing the metal plating in his back. She stared at it first with shock, then dread, and finally curiosity. She now vaguely understood why she could feel the pull of her Semblance on him, but wondered if he was just a cyborg, or even an android. But something like that was something you'd find in movies, or even something that Atlas would test secretly. And most certainly not in the form of a man. She really did want to know more about this enigmatic man that had introduced himself to her life. Despite his rather crude and insensitive behavior, she felt like he was going to be a rather good challenge when he did decide to fight her. She would obviously beat him, seeing as she could just use her Semblance on him and he'd be able to do nothing. But as they say, curiosity killed the cat.

Speaking of cats, however...

"H-hey, Jaune. It's me, B-Blake. It's good to see you again." Blake spoke up, appearing suddenly next to the Arc. He turned his head to her, his mechanical eye observing her but for a moment before turning forward again.

"Right." Jaune responded, still walking. In his one glance, he was able to look into the past of this woman and everything that was available in databases across Remnant. From what he was seeing...she wasn't lying about what she said before about a Men's Rights advocate group.

'Lot's of surprises today, that's for sure.' Jaune thought to himself as he listened to what the Faunus said next.

"S-So, I was wondering, since you're free right now, If you'd like to talk more about when we go on our...d-date." Blake stuttered nervously. The last word hit Jaune like a freight train, stopping him in his tracks. A...

"Date?" Jaune asked, staring down at the red faced Blake. She turned away from him, unable to stare him in the eye.

"Y-yeah, like we agreed to out in the Emerald Forest." Blake explained. It didn't matter what she said he agreed to, he was nearly angered once more at the mere thought of a woman trying to fool him into...

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. If he could make...allies, within the school, he would be able to amount a sort of defense force against the other women trying to make advances towards him. And if he were to make the illusion that he was with one of them...yes. That should do nicely. A long con would see to it that he would benefit handsomely.

With that in mind, he switched his attitude, turning on the suave and leaning down to caress the young lady's face and turn it to look into his eyes.

"Of course. Why don't we go somewhere a bit more...private. I know a great place to watch the sunset." Jaune whispered to her. He gave her a warm smile and soft eyes...eye. But even then, his mechanical eye seemed to give a comforting warmth that made Blake feel all sorts of nice sensations.

"O-Okay." Was all she could get out. She swallowed the lump in her throat, feeling like she was one of the main characters in her romance novels being courted by the love interest. She always dreamed of finding a guy to fall in love with. To be able to live happily ever after. And now it was presenting itself before her. She couldn't be any more excited.

Taking her hand in his, he leaded Blake towards the rooftops, like he said. After turning away from her, he let the smile on his face fall before telling himself that this was all for a purpose.

'Suck it up Jaune. Just a bit of this, and you can practically have free reign on everything else. Got to make it convincing though.' Jaune told himself in his head as he turned back to her and gave her his most convincingly loving smile. He knew she bought it when she blushed even more before looking away with a smile.

"Okay, you can open your eyes." Jaune whispered to Blake as he finally lead her to the rooftop of the building facing the Emerald Forest. Once she did, she was awed at the beautiful reds and oranges that came with a sunset while also being treated to the hints of purples that gave tell of the wonderful star-filld night sky that was to come. While she was taking in everything with star struck eyes, Jaune looked on with a satisfied feeling. He wanted to believe that he was successfully tricking this girl into believing that he was showing interest in her, but something else inside him was starting to stir. The part of him that he wanted to leave behind. It swelled with an emotion he didn't like feeling. That he didn't think he deserved to feel. Watching her like this was stirring a feeling of attraction, and a very small amount of love. He quickly squashed it before moving forward and placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Beautiful." He stated, smiling. She nodded, coming out from her trance.

"Yeah, it really is." She agreed. But it was then that Jaune shook his head before clarifying what he was trying to say.

"No, silly. I meant you." Jaune said, making Blake slightly shrink into herself, her blush acting up again. It was then that Blake finally remembered what she wanted to talk about.

"W-wait, we need to talk about our date!" Blake was able to spout out, moving away from his hands and turning to him. Jaune smiled at her before nodding, going to sit on the edge of the roof. He gestured for her to sit next to him before he responded.

"Of course. Where do you want to go? I know a few coffee shops in Vale. Or maybe a pastries shop? It's all up to you." Jaune offered, smiling down at her smaller form. Looking at her now, seeing the fashionable black and white clothing she was wearing. The pale tone of her skin that almost glowed in the soft light of the setting sun.

She was beautiful...

"I was thinking that we could go to the café over by the docks. What do you think?" Blake suggested. Jaune swung his legs over the edge and faced the horizon, Blake doing the same, while he stayed silent for a moment before he spoke up.

"That sounds nice. When do you want to go? In the morning? Afternoon? Evening?" Jaune asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She stiffened up once more before squeaking out an answer.

"Morning." She was able to get out. Jaune chuckled in amusement before bringing her in close, letting her feel the hard structure of his muscles. She was close to passing out when he spoke up.

"Alright. How does this Saturday sound? I'll pay for us." Jaune offered. Though, he only received a short and curt nod from the Faunus girl. He could tell that Blake wasn't complaining about any of this, if the rapid twitching of her cat ears was anything to go by. For a moment, he forgot that he was trying to fool this girl and just felt like a teen trying his hand at his first teenage romance.

It was nice.

Jaune never noticed that his meter that said that he was getting dangerously close to his next dosage of his hormone cancelling formula was failing to let out it's warning due to the acid that had landed on the device and damaged it.

They stayed there for a moment, just basking in the nice cool air of the darkening sky. For once, Jaune felt normal. Like he wasn't in a world that was built against him. He looked down at Blake, who had now relaxed into his arms and felt heat travel to his own cheeks before he continued to look out into the horizon.

"Jaune?"

At the soft voice, he turned back to see that Ruby was there in the doorway, looking at him and Blake with eyes that...almost seemed hurt. He let the thought go before speaking up. Blake at his side also looked back to see who had found them before getting up with him.

"Oh hey Ruby. What's up?" Jaune asked as he walked towards her. Blake was only a step behind him, feeling a little embarrassed that someone had found them like that, regardless of the fact that they weren't really doing anything naughty.

"The other students decided to riot, so the Headmistress decided to email everyone which teams and rooms they'll be staying in. But...what are you and Blake doing out here?" Ruby asked, skeptical of what they were doing. She turned to see what her partner was doing shortly after Jaune had left the auditorium, and found that he wasn't there. And that's when the entire room became a warzone, with angry women declaring dozens of obscenities about something or other. But thanks to some guidance from Pyrrha and Yang, she was put in the right direction. She went about searching the campus before she saw them from the front of the building.

"We were talking about our date this weekend." Jaune answered simply. Though, he answered her question, Ruby was left even more confused. She had to stare at him for the next few moments, making sure that this was still the same Jaune Arc she met on the Bullhead. But she wasn't going to be asking about it in fear of making him revert to what he was this morning.

"Right. So uh...the Headmistress wanted everyone in their dorms as soon as possible, or else she was going to punish us." Ruby relayed to him. He nodded before turning to Blake, offering his arm to her. She blushed even more before taking it.

"Well, I wouldn't want to be the reason you got in trouble then. Come on, let's go." Jaune suggested, leading Blake through the door and down the flight of stairs. They left Ruby there, who made no attempt to follow them. She just...stood there, looking after them. She was hung up on how Blake, someone that he hardly had any interaction with him, was now going on a date with him. He even looked so much more happier than when he was working with her!

'Wait, why am I jealous?' Ruby suddenly thought, wondering why the sight of her partner having romantic relations with someone else was irking her so much. It had to be because she wanted to be the one to make him like that...happy that was! Not because she wanted to have any sort of romantic relations with him or do all that gooey lovey dovey feel good stuff with him!

'Yeah, totally.' Ruby thought to herself, finally making her way down the stairs and towards her dorm room.

Checking his Scroll for the email that was sent to them, Jaune realized that both his and Blake's rooms were right across from each other. He smiled at that, and so did Blake. They mostly talked about smaller things like what Blake's done to try and pass new laws to give men better lives.

"That's really nice of you. But I think we're here. I have to do a few things over in the workshop. So...I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" Jaune said, holding her hands in front of her door. She blushed, giggling. She then nodded before turning away and walking into her dorm, greeting her other two teammates.

It left Jaune by himself, the feeling of her hand in his lingering on his skin. He smiled, feeling warm inside. Although, now, he needed to head over to the workshop and try to see if he could start working on another weapon for him to use. For now, he knew he could fight hand-to-hand. But he wanted to find another permanent weapon for him to use. He knew that the shotgun from before, while innovative and very powerful in it's own right, was far too dangerous due to the nuclear core it used. He should have figured that he would inevitably have it be hit with something heavy. So he needed something else. Something powerful, but not as dangerous.

'Or, what If I did become a hand-to-hand fighter? I could build a suit to enhance my abilities. And I would be able to build around my Hydra System and enhance them at the same time...yes. That's good.' Jaune thought to himself as he began making sketches and prototypes of the suit that he wanted to make digitally with his mechanical eye. It was then that he was reminded of the prototypes he designed for his own changes to his physiology. At one point, he was even tempted to turn his entire body into a robotic behemoth. Something like an Ancient Gear Golem. Or even like a Robocop. All ideas that he scrapped because he knew that would take away from the fact that he was a person and not a machine. So he decided to make all of those changes internal. He couldn't do anything about his eye for obvious reasons. And the Hydra System, while an obvious prosthetic, was actually the minimalist rout he took. If he wanted to go gung-ho with it, he would have to have it go along the entirety of his spine, connecting directly to his brain. But with that design, there was a risk that if the failsafe device were to be compromised, the tendrils would gain a mind of their own and have nearly all control of his brain and persuade him to do whatever they wanted.

"So If I were to adapt these into my new build, I could improve them even more. The materials shouldn't be a problem. Just ordering them online through an alias, have them delivered here. Or if they do pickup only, I can go in saying that I am going on their behalf and go through the usual routine. Then I can worry about actually building it with my own tools. In all, making the prototypes and testing them until he gets it just right is more than likely going to take a number of months. He'd wager he'd finish it just in time to use it during the Vytal Festival. By then, the competing schools would believe that he was a bare fisted fighter. And they'd be underestimating him even more since he was a guy. And if he was really pushed against the wall, he could use his Hydra System to finish them off.

"Alright, so that's the game plan. Let's get to work." Jaune said, smiling. He almost had a skip in his step when he noticed the Headmistress Ozma herself was walking towards him.

"Ozma?" He asked, wondering what she was doing in this hallway. He saw a certain light flair up in her eyes once she saw him, and he wondered what that was about before she spoke up.

"Mister Arc, I hope you realize that you are supposed to be in your dorm now. I'd have to punish you if you don't turn back now." Ozma said, a certain tone to her voice. Jaune looked at her weird before shaking his head and smiling.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but I was heading towards the workshop to work on another weapon to replace my old one. It was destroyed during Initiation. So I need to try and make another one." Jaune tried to reason. His reasoning made Ozma nod her head in understanding. She looked up at his tall stature, briefly imagining him using his strong arms to carry her...while he savagely-

"So if you'll excuse me, I need to get to work as soon as possible." Jaune stated, going to try and pass her. However, before he could, Ozma suddenly stuck her cane out and stopped him in his tracks.

"Now now, mister Arc. I can't just let you go like that. I made that order to everyone. If I let you go, I would be going against my own word." Ozma started, making Jaune pause. He supposed that made sense...

"However, if you were to do something for me...say, assist me with paperwork, or simply keep me company and the like in my office. I would count that as your punishment. How does that sound, Jaune?" Ozma asked, accentuating his name at the end. He raised an eyebrow at how she said his name, but figured that it wasn't that bad. He would get out of class, so that was a plus.

"Alright Headmistress, I can do that. So may I go now?" Jaune asked. The woman smiled before retracting her cane and letting him pass. But only after taking in his chiseled chest a bit more and mentally worshipping him. Once he passed by, she turned to look at his form retreat.

"I hate to see you go, but I love watching you leave." Ozma whispered to herself as she saw his posterior move and shift in his pants.

Getting into the forge, Jaune inhaled before letting out his breath. He stood in the doorway for a moment, enjoying the silence. He wondered briefly what time it was, going to try and look to his goggles before remembering...

"Right. Destroyed. Great." He deadpanned, shaking his head before walking forward and getting to work.

Going over what happened today, he thought about how harsh he was being to everyone, and decided that, maybe, he should lighten up.

'Except for that Schnee. Fuck that bitch.' Jaune thought to himself as he fired up the forge, and readied his own tools.

He was going about, still sketching out his prototypes, planning on making some basic models to see if they would even work. It went like that for about three hours before he realized that he couldn't advance any further without more planning and designing. So he went about shutting everything off and cleaning up his area. In the end, he was once again standing in an empty and more importantly, quiet, workshop. He just stood there for a moment before he thought of something.

"When was the last time I slept?" He asked himself, scratching his head, thinking back farther than he liked. Sleeping was something that he absolutely loved. It was something that he could slip into and not have to worry about anything until he woke up. And even then, he could just slip right back in and sleep away. But with all the people around him looking to exploit him, he wasn't often given the opportunity to do so. But here...with what Ozma said he could do, he could actually sleep for once.

"I can't sleep in the dorm. At least, not yet. Can't get comfortable there. But maybe here...yeah, a simple blanket should do. I can jump up into the scaffolding and rest up there. Perfect." Jaune said to himself as he used two of his tendrils to help climb up to the roof and lay on one of the ledges. He brought a blanket out from a travel bag he had on him before he tried getting comfortable.


Ruby went to try and find her partner, having to sneak past the Headmaster, but found him in the workshop, knowing that he liked spending time there. When she saw him, she wanted to tell him to come back to the dorm, but thought better of it when he started talking about how long it had been since he slept, and that he just couldn't trust sleeping in the dorm. She wanted to try and convince him otherwise, but thought better of it. If she's learned anything about Jaune, it was that he was very adamant about his decisions and hardly ever backed down from them.

"Hopefully I can help him warm up to the others." Ruby whispered to herself as she walked away to try and sneak back into the dorm and tell Nora and Pyrrha about what happened.


"You know what? I think everything's going to be alright here. I've even got a date with a beautiful Faunus. Life is going just perfectly." Jaune said to himself as he laid back and slipped into slumber, all the while not noticing his wrist device not only trying to warn him that he was way passed due for another dose of hormone suppressant, but also due to the damage, it was running out of power. And the damage was starting to settle into nothing but slag. And since he couldn't feel any of it, he never noticed that the device was being destroyed beyond repair. His future was very bright. Though littered with dark times and tribulations, he would persevere. Ironically, the women around him would be the ones to help him through them despite the fact that they would offer their own troubles.

One way or another in the end, Jaune Arc would show everyone that this was indeed, A True Man's World.