Disclaimer: See prologue.
Chapter 2:
Later in the day, Jaune took the opportunity that the girls went on their own for a moment, read bathroom break, to ask Ren to meet him at the small garden situated in Beacon's campus later on in the evening. He hoped his plan would work.
Later the same day, in the evening.
The both of them were seated face to face at one of the garden tables, far removed from anyone who could either overhear or eavesdrop on them.
"So what can I do to help Jaune?" Asked Ren the ever picture perfect of calmness.
'Now's where it's going to be tricky...' He thought. "Well, I'd need some advice with Aura control, I have lots of it you see, at least more than average, and sometimes I find it difficult to get a proper handle for it. And as we are teammates, I'd figured I could go to you for helping me with it."
"Well it's true that I'm quite proficient at controlling my Aura, if I can say so myself. Alright, let's see what we can do."
"Thanks, you're a life saver." Jaune said with a thankful smile.
"To begin with, we should move to the grass over there," he pointed at the open space to their sides, "I find it more confortable to meditate on Aura in such a way."
"Alright, you're the expert." He nodded.
"I wouldn't necessarily call myself an expert, but thank you for the compliment."
At that they rose from their seats and headed to a fairly wide open spot of grass, quite distanced from any of the well-kept flowerbeds of the academy.
'So, meditation, huh..? As expected there is a lot of similarities between Aura and Qi. Now I need to understand what sets them both apart from each other in terms of control.'
After they had walked the distance, they stopped to a random spot.
"Are you familiar with meditation?" Ren inquired.
'Indeed, am I?' The Cultivator joked inwardly. "I know of, if that helps." Which made Ren slightly smile.
"It would be better if you'd sat cross-legged and placed your hands on your knees, either facing up or down or in however position that'd be the most comfortable for you."
"Got it."
So they both took a seat legs crossed on the grass. Ren with his hand down and Jaune mirroring him.
'Nonsense in approaching this as if it was like Qi Gathering. With my lack of knowledge about Aura, and if this position works for him, then nothing to lose besides time.'
"Now before we start I'd like to know where are you at Aura control."
"Erm..." 'What a moron I am, I forgot that by now I should have long been taught in this matter! That is if I had been properly trained! Thanks dad!' "Let's take it from the top? You know, so we can be sure to cover all our bases..."
He could clearly see Ren found this odd even if he didn't outwardly show it. Luckily Jaune could pull off a pocker face well enough.
"...Very well... Close your eyes," he did as he was instructed, "and try to visualise your Aura encompassing your whole body."
'Alright... So, from what I remember of the Initiation my Aura appeared to be white in color...' He pictured a white form roughly in the shape of his body surrounding him. 'I don't even know if I'm doing it right, it feels so differ-' Suddenly he could feel it, the same energy that couldn't help but to mix with his Qi, it shrouded his body like a tight glove around his skin.
"There you go, you did a basic Aura technique consisting in actively protecting your entire body like a shield. You can open your eyes now by the way."
So he did and suffice to say he was somewhat impressed.
'It's like a spiritual energy shield array but much more interesting in its use. Not only don't I spend any Internal Energy or Qi, it's passive/active nature makes it even better! I don't feel any loss of energy by doing this, Aura really is a game changer...'
"Now, while you know how to manifest your Aura, doing it in such a way is wasteful, especially while in the middle of a battle where you need your Aura to enhance your body, by example for outrunning a Beowolf. I want you to focus on one part of your body, let's say your shield arm, and flood it with Aura in the same way."
"Got it." He nodded.
Doing as said, he focused his mind on his arm and without much surprise he could feel and see through his clothing the recognizable layer of Aura encompassing his arm.
'Hmm... So its control is much more will oriented than anything. Would have been convenient to know that earlier... Now that I've got the hang of it, let's play around a bit.'
At that he started to move around the membrane of Aura on various locations on his body, first to other limbs, then to only a specific region, and afterwards covered and uncovered his body with Aura randomly without much rhyme or reason. It made for quite the light show.
'I was slightly mistaken earlier, doing all this shifting around does take a sliver of energy, but so little that it's barely noticeable and regenerate a few moments afterwards. However, doing this in battle while taking hits would quickly start to take its toll on my Aura, no matter how much I have of it. Not that I plan to let myself be easily hit anyways...'
"Ahem..." Ren cleared his throat after a few moments, the sound took Jaune slightly unaware and made him stop his experimenting.
"Sorry." He apologized as he scratched the back of his head. "I genuinely was fascinated by it..."
At that Ren had an understanding smile.
"It's alright, I know how it feels. Congratulations, you have managed to obtain a sufficient amount of control on your Aura. You're a natural."
"Thank you, but you've also been a great help." He politely inclined his head. 'Though that was easier than I thought it would be. Must be my knowledge of energies manipulation that gave me an advantage.'
"Your welcome." Ren returned the gest. "But there's something important we overlooked since the beginning. Did you notice where exactly your Aura manifested on your body?"
'Where is he going with this?' "On my skin, why?"
"Have you noticed what is protected by your Aura and what isn't?"
He frowned in thought at that question and looked at his body while manifestating his Aura completely over it.
"What is and what isn't... What is and isn't... What-" He blinked in realization, stopped his Aura and directed his gaze at his improvised teacher who sported a faint knowing smile. "My clothes."
Ren nodded in appreciation for his discovery.
"Precisely. While Aura offers passively a certain protection, and while you can consciously activate it giving your body a more potent level of protection, if you don't include your clothes you'll find yourself very soon suffering an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction."
That made Jaune slightly laugh.
"Yes that'd be unfortunate, I admit."
"Indeed... But Aura is not just limited to shield yourself from harm or to enhance your body. There's another interesting utilisation of it." Ren added more seriously.
"I'm listening." Jaune said especially focused on his teammate.
"Do you remember at the Initiation when both Teams RWBY and JNPR faced the Nevermore and the Deathstalker respectively?"
"Pretty hard to forget that..." He nodded.
"While on our end we defeated the Deathstalker in quite an unorthodox way, good strategy by the way," Jaune humbly bowed, "Team RWBY, especially Ruby, beheaded the Nevermore. And while I must admit I've not had the opportunity to closely observe Ruby's weapon, tell me, do you think that just mere metal could scythe through the hardened feathers, skin, flesh and bones of such a Grimm?"
"No. Impossible... Although she had the help of Weiss's Semblance, while propelling herself by firing shots from her scythe, a sentence I'd never expected to say one day by the way, that would have necessitated much more strength to go through the bones... Only someone as strong as Yang or Nora could have done it, and even then I've my doubts, maybe with their Semblances? But never mind that, this wasn't either of them but Ruby who dealt the killing blow."
"Go on..." Ren nodded.
"So what could have- Aura! Of course, Aura enhances the body and can even extend to our clothes so by extention if you'd, I don't know the exact term, let's say infuse your Aura into a weapon it'd make it more durable!"
"Exactly. Weapons, especially Huntsmen grade weapons, are great conduit of Aura. By infusing, as you said, Aura into a weapon you can, including but not limited to, enhance its durability and sharpness. Basically preventing its blade from losing its edge."
"I see. Again I cannot thank you enough for your help." He said as he stood up and dusted himself off, Ren doing the same.
"It was my pleasure, but, if I may, how come you have never received a proper teaching on Aura? I would have thought it would have been a compulsory subject in combat school?"
The hesitation was clear in his eyes despite the poker face.
'C'mon Jaune, find an excuse, something, anything!'
"I'm sorry I didn't meant to pry," apologized Ren, "It's alright if you don't want to say, you are entitled to your privacy."
'No choice, I'll make it up as I go. Wait, I've an idea.'
"No, it's not that... It's just that where I went to our teachers just contented themselves to unlock our Aura, taught us to never let it be depleted to the point of shattering, and then quickly moved on to fighting skills. Unorthodox I know but that's how it's done where I'm from..."
Jaune felt like trash for lying in such a way, especially to someone who he began to concider such a good friend who took a bit of his time, time he could have used for himself, to teach him out of his goodwill. But he couldn't just make the existence of his faked transcripts known, memories of his past life or not.
"I see. I guess each place on Remnant has their own way of doing things..."
"Yeah..." 'Let's go with that.'
To avoid an awkward silence Jaune decided to move along.
"So, I know I've already said it but thanks again, if you need anything don't hesitate."
"Very well."
"C'mon, let's rejoint the girls they must be wondering what we're doing."
With a nod from his teammate, Jaune and Ren made their way back to their dorm, sadly the awkward silence followed them all the way. Arrived at destination the girls, meaning Nora, asked where they went to and told them she hopped it wasn't for anything romantic, while Ren was immune to such teasing and Jaune managed to not overly react, the blushing storm on Pyrrha's face gave Nora the laugh she looked for.
After the members of Team JNPR got over Nora's teasing they headed out to get dinner.
After dinner.
As the girls and Ren decided to finish digesting in the comfort of their room, Jaune went to his cultivation spot. It was finally time now that he knew how to handle his Aura for him to properly enter the Core Formation and to form his Golden Core. The Foundation Establishment, the previous stage before the Core Formation will really only be a formality for him. At least that's what he hoped.
Arrived at destination he settled himself into his preferred meditation pose for Qi Gathering, and didn't lose time gathering his Qi.
'Alright first, to leash down my Aura like Ren taught me...' In his mindscape, he pictured his Aura as still as the surface of a lake, frozen in the middle of winter for good measure. 'Now I'd like to see it try interfering with my Qi...' He took a deep breath. 'Focus Jaune...'
Suddenly his being was flooded by Qi, coursing through his Meridians, without the presence of any Aura to overload the former.
'Phew... That's finally done. Though not gonna lie its taking some mental power to hold my Aura down and control my Qi both at the same time, but I'm doing it! Alright, now to burst through the Foundation Establishment Stage...'
And it went for the better part of two hours. Minute by minute, Jaune gathered the ambient Qi of the world, first through breathing exercises while he expelled the turbulent Qi formed in his body, and secondly by extracting the Qi from his dinner, he made sure to overeat as much as he could without hurting himself. When enough Qi condensed in his body he then refined it, made it flow through his Meridians and concentrated it in his Dantian.
The processus continued as such for that amount of time, the Qi in his Dantian increased in volume and density until that sought moment where he finally broke through.
"Gasp!" His eyes burst open.
He could feel it, he finally did it, he reached the first rank of the Foundation Establishment Stage.
His entire body went through a process akin to a reforge. His bones became tougher, denser and more flexible, meaning he could take a much severe punishment without them risking to break from the strain, his muscles took the density and tensile strength of iron, his skin could now naturally stop a small caliber bullet.
His entire cardiovascular system too got an upgrade, throughout his very blood vessels, heart and lungs, assuring a better oxygenation of his body.
His senses were sharpened. His sense of touch, smell and taste, got better. His hearing allowed him to hear from farther and to pick up quiter sounds, it also gave him a broader range of frequencies.
His eyes underwent a reforge of their own. He no longer had any blind spots, his cones and rods now faced outwards, allowing him to perceive more light. In addition to this, he gained different cones, permitting Jaune to see in a broader range of light spectrum at will, offering him at the same time a lesser form of night vision. He could now consciously operate his ciliary muscles, allowing him a certain level of control on his lens, giving him the ability to "zoom" on his environment and allowing him to see up close to objects less than 20 kilometers away as if they just a few dozen meters from him and he was now able to use his eyes as microscopes on objects close to him.
And let's not forget a key organ, his brain.
The very composition of his brain rearranged itself, from the pathways of his neurons to his biochemistry. As of now, Jaune's mind was overclocked. His thoughts were even faster than before, giving him the possibility to processes everything his senses, physical or spiritual, made him perceive and alternating his perception of time as he wished, giving him a clear advantage against everyone else in analyzing situations and coming up with solutions.
In essence, he was a step closer to becoming an Immortal.
He felt both invigorated and spent respectively from having reached a new stage and the reforge of his body, and from the amount of effort he had to make to both hold back his Aura from interfering and to breakthrough.
"About time... Eh, eh..." He laughed.
The euphoria was well deserved. Not anyone can manage a breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment stage in such a record time with his mental power halved. In this case, the accomplishment felt even more deserved.
"Phew..!" 'Now to take a breather for five, maybe ten minutes and then next step the Core Formation Stage. I wanna my Golden Core!'
Several days later, morning.
Jaune woke up bright and early this day at six after managing to breakthrough to the Core Formation Stage the previous night. It would seem Jaune overestimated his ability to gather Qi while having to hold back his Aura. That, coupled by the fact he had to concentrate time on his schooling at the academy and that he wanted to spend time with his team and his friends, things he very much looked forward to by coming to Beacon so he wasn't complaining, it had necessitated Jaune more time to breakthrough to the last ninth rank Peak of the Foundation Establishment Stage.
But he finally did it, he is now at the Early-stage Rank 1 of the Core Formation Stage and thus the previous night he went to sleep after forging his brand new Golden Core currently residing in his Dantian completely spent mentally. But after a good night of sleep his energy levels either mental, Qi or Aura were finally back to full capacity. Jaune felt much more stronger and healthier than he did yesterday.
'My Spiritual Sense now encompasses a range wide enough to actively let me scan the entire building and parts of the surrounding buildings, if I give it my all... And let's not talk about my lifespan! Approximately three hundred of years is fairly comfortable. It feels so good to make progress and to have something to show for it.'
After quickly freshening up he headed out to his cultivation spot and started the age old processus anew. He stayed at his spot for a complete hour, not enough to reach the Early-stage Rank 2 of the Core Formation Stage but that was expected, the more ranks and stages he'll reach the more difficult it'll be to pass to the next one.
'If only I could get my hands on materials to boost my cultivation. Though on this world unaware of the path to the Dao I'm not holding my breath... I'm not even sure if it's possible to find anything noteworthy in the wild. Besides Dust that is. Hmm... I'll have to investigate this prospect later on, when I'm at least past the Core Formation Stage, like this I'll be able to at the minimum produce something worthwhile with my Golden Core maxed out, nonsense in losing time and resources by doing it right now. And I'm not in a hurry...'
Then he went back to his dorm to get properly ready for today's classes.
After he had made sure to wake his team up and after that everyone were ready they headed to the Dining Hall to get breakfast.
Same day, morning at breakfast.
"-and that's when I became the new queen of Remnant!" Finished Nora, as she talked about the dream she had last night.
"I still say that's the fastest coup d'etat ever seen, or dreamt." Said Jaune.
Both Teams JNPR and RWBY were currently having breakfast together, the sister teams began to be fast friends through the friendship of the team leaders.
"What the queen says is law!" Proclaimed the hammer wielder.
"Or off with their heads?" Asked Yang.
"Of course not I'm not a monster..!" Responded Nora a hand brought to her chest in false indignation. "Rather I'd say off with their legs!" She added with a laugh.
Ruby who sat besides him whispered in Jaune's ear.
"Are you sure it's safe to let her handle a hammer?"
"Don't worry I've got a Ren in case of emergencies." He whispered back with a wink.
That made her snicker into her hand.
"What's this I see, Vomit Boy's flirting with my baby sis?" Yang teased the two.
"Yang..!" Squeaked the aforementioned little sister. "He's not flirting with me and I'm not a baby! I drink milk!"
"My point." Answered Yang while her partner let out a near silent suffering sigh behind her book.
'I feel for you Blake...' "I know that I insist about it but motion sickness is much more common than it looks like..!"
"Tell yourself that Vomit Boy..." Yang went back with a smirk.
"Argh…" Groaned Jaune while Pyrrha, who sat at his other side, patted his shoulder in support.
"I'm sure it'll pass Jaune..." She reassured him.
"Thanks Pyrrha." Jaune told her with a smile. 'Though I'm pretty sure ever since I've had my Aura unlocked and started my cultivation I should be freed of it. Still I'm not in a hurry to test that theory...'
"Oh~ What doth my eyes sees..?" You could literally hear the smirk in her voice. "Is there actually some romance in the air..?"
"You bet there is!" Added the other half of the rambunctious duo.
"Hmph… I trust Pyrrha has better taste in men than that." Put her two Liens a certain heiress.
"Love you too, Weiss..." Answered Jaune dryly to her insult as he reached for a plate of toasts.
"I actually find Jaune to be a satisfactory example of the male population, Weiss." Said Pyrrha without thinking.
"Thank you..?" He looked first at Pyrrha who sported a sudden blush and quickly reached for her cup of tea to hide behind. Then at Ruby in askance and the only thing she could offer was a shrug. 'Could she..? Nah I'm looking too much into it.'
Though he did notice the snickering Yang and Nora.
"Ahem, anyways," started Weiss, "today is another class with Professor Goodwitch, I hope you are all ready to display to everyone a good example of what a Beacon Academy student should be." She said with a pointed look at him, which he shrugged off while rolling his eyes.
"Pfff..." Yang waved her off. "They're better be ready for these babies!" She said while displaying her biceps.
"Not if I show them before you!" Taunted Nora with a defiant smirk.
"Oh yeah..? Bring it on!"
"Not exactly what I meant..." Mumbled Weiss.
"I think we are all going to do great." Said Pyrrha.
'Professor Goodwitch, huh? Meaning Combat Class... I've still yet to be called, but approximately everyone else of our year had a turn so with my luck...' He idly thought while munching on a toast. That was after he swallowed that another thought struck him.
This made Jaune realize something quite crucial.
'Oh, oh… I kinda forgot that since Initiation I have yet to even wield Crocea Mors once in days so much I was busy cultivating... Oh well, Xiao Long had literally centuries of wielding a sword or a blade of some kind. Shouldn't be that difficult to translate those memories over, right?'
After a few moments of contemplation he made his peace.
'Sigh… I guess if Professor Goodwitch calls me I'll have to wing it.'
Later on, in the morning.
"Mister Arc and Mister Winchester, please go change and bring yourselves to the arena."
Nodding he rose up and went to the Locker Room to get his gear.
'Welp, looks like I jinxed myself earlier...'
On the way he crossed eyes with his opponent and received an arrogant glare from him.
'Oh..? Interesting...'
As they arrived in the Locker Room they went their separate ways to their own locker. Jaune took his Scroll and opened the door, revealing his personal gear lying in wait inside. He instantly eyed his sword, the family heirloom of the Arc family.
'Crocea Mors...' He thought while reaching inside to take it. 'I feel bad now to have taken so long to get hold of it again. I focused so much on cultivation that I totally forgot why I've ran from home to go to Beacon and why I stole Crocea Mors from its resting place above the fireplace doing it...' His hands tightened around the sheath. 'From now on I must do what I make my team believe I do everytime I go cultivating and also take some time to train with it, I'm not pressed by time to become an Immortal that much.'
He put his weapon down propped against the locker and took his armor.
'Now that on the other hand I must decide what to do with it. As a boy and, even just right before I regained my past memories, I always aimed to be a knight sort of Huntsman, but the thing is that as Xiao Long I never really used to wear armor, maybe some legs and arms protections but those were more ornemental than anything... Now the question is do I go with my former life's fashion that I remember being fairly efficient or do I take advantage of my reincarnation and do a complete do-over and go with a knight style as Jaune Arc?' Shrugging off the thought he still decided to wear it, for appearance sake at the very least. 'Still I'll really have to make a choice later. Maybe alternate it? By mixing both styles? I could be a sort of knight Cultivator... Even if I have no idea how I could go about it. Maybe I could ask my friends, Ruby would sure go on-board with it, that'd make her day, eh, eh...' He chuckled.
As he finished to gear himself and started to head towards the ring until his Spiritual Sense suddenly alerted him of something and he instinctively dodged the shoulder check Cardin was about to give him.
"Tsk... Let's see if you can dodge that well on the ring..." Cardin growled as he walked out.
'All bark and no real bite. I've seen meaner Demonic Beasts half his size... That guy was on my and a few others cases for the past week for no reason. I swear, bullies in a school of what should be future symbols of hope and peacekeepers... I should be surprised but I really ain't.'
As they finally arrived to the ring, they both took place facing each other, awaiting their professor's signal.
"This will be a tournament style duel between the two of you. When either of your Aura goes in the red, or if your are cast out of the ring's bound, or if you become unable to go on, it will mean an instant disqualification. Is that clear for either of you?" She asked severely.
Both nodded in affirmation. At that she walked out of the arena to the ring's border and readied her Scroll tablet.
"Students at the ready."
Jaune unsheathed his sword and deployed his shield, rolled his shoulders to work out inexistent knots and twirled his sword to gain a proper feel on it. He then went into position, his shield loosely covering his body for mobility and his sword arm extended straight downwards and slightly behind him.
Cardin for himself held his mace before him shoulders squared, knees bent ready to launch himself at Jaune, with a mean glare sent at the Cultivator.
'Okay let's see how I fare with a sword and shield combo...'
A few heartbeats later a ringing sound was heard broadcasting the green light.
The ringing bell had barely rung that Cardin did as Jaune predicted he would, his adversary ran to get some speed then launched himself at him with his arms raised, his mace primed to strike.
'Look at him... Either he's underestimating me or he's a fool. There's barely any guard when he charges... He's wide open.' Instead of dodging out of the way, Jaune also launched himself in a burst of speed that caught Cardin off guard.
Upon reaching him, he sidestepped around the mace wielder and did a wild shield bash to his back that, thanks to Jaune's increased strength, sent the heavier armored young man flying. Unfortunately Cardin managed after landing to roll and make use of the momentum to dig his mace into the ground to stop himself from going out of bound.
With a growl Cardin got back on his feet and charged at Jaune again.
The young Cultivator brought his shield up and blocked the powerful strike, the vibrations going from his shield to the rest of his body without any damage.
'A good thing that I've breakthrough to the Golden Core Stage, my body's constitution increased much more than when I was at the Foundation Establishment Stage.'
Cardin brought back his mace and struck again with more strength behind the blow, with an application of Aura this time.
'Alright, that I felt. Seems like the tales of Huntsmen able to tear through steel are not an exaggeration. And he's just a trainee! Imagine what a fully licensed Huntsman can do...'
As he thought this, Cardin's blows became even more thunderous. Jaune imbued his Aura into Crocea Mors' shiled each time a blow was about to hit.
'Okay, that's better, but I can't very well stand here and take a beating!'
Thus, after waiting for the mace to impact his shield, Jaune stabbed at Cardin's chest plate, right where the heart was.
'What am I doing!? That's clearly a killing blow I've done here! And it was so poorly executed... Not only because the strike was blocked by his armor and his Aura, but because I also completely lacked any finesse in it! Turns out, memories doesn't completely translate over practicals, who would have thought...' He thought sarcastically.
"Oh..? Getting confident there Jauney boy..!" Cardin taunted with another blow, he was clearly enjoying it.
'I don't need you patronizing me! I'm older than you! Sort of... Does having past life memories count?'
Having enough of being used as a punching ball, even if he didn't receive any damages if but for his Aura diminishing after each hits, Jaune disengaged from the more brawny fighter by kicking him in the knees which made him fall down and leaped backwards in a relatively safer position quite a distance away.
'Sigh... That's what I feared, not only my body isn't trained enough to put into practice whatever techniques I remember, especially with this weapon configuration, but I've never fought nor even trained using a shield and sword combo! The only reason I have an edge against him his because of my advantage with my Internal Energy control and the enhancements of my body through the cultivation stages, and I'm not going to use my Aura to enhance my strength just to beat him up with brute force. Not only that would be just too much suspicious for someone with my build to do against him, Aura or not, but that'd be so unsightly of me, I'm more refined than that darn it..! Time to change tactics, for now I'll keep on dodging until I can come up with a better solution...'
In barely the amount of time it took for Jaune to think his approach Cardin had already rose to his knees and from what Jaune could tell he was seething about the fact of being sent on the ground this way.
Cardin got back up then went back to the fore trying to get a hit on him at a most controlled pace.
Jaune simply evaded every hits, Cardin made to strike him from above? He sidestepped. Made to strike with a swipe? He crouched under it. And this dance kept on going for a moment.
'How bothersome...' He thought mid dodge. 'If he didn't had Aura and not such a thick armor I'd try to hit his Acupoints and I'd been long done with him by now... I could try some Pain Manipulation through my Spiritual Sense...' A novelty he avoided a kick. 'Nah too overkill...' He jumped over a low swipe and sent a kick back in his torso, gaining some distance in exchange. 'And I'd rather not flail about with my sword, that'd be ridiculous and I have my pride thank you very much...' He swerved away from a mean underhand strike aimed at his nether.
"Rahhh! Stop moving!"
"Huh, how about no? I'm not dumb enough to do that, again, you know?"
Cardin then went for a next strike and when Jaune made to simply dodge it the armored scion of the Winchester suddenly showed a fiendish grin.
With the flick of a switch the top hollow part of his mace lit up and blowed him up backwards.
Luckily he managed to redirect his momentum upward while he elegantly did a back flip in the air and with a simple application of Internal Energy glided slowly and gently on the ground a few meters away from his opponent.
"What was that?" Someone in the audience asked.
"It's like he glided?"
"His Semblance maybe?"
"His Semblance is to glide?"
"There's stranger Semblances out there..."
"You got a point."
Over the sister teams...
"Did you see fearless leader!?" Asked Nora excited. "What was that move!?"
"I don't recognize that technique..." Ren said.
"Me neither. Do you think it's his Semblance?" Asked Pyrrha.
"I could not say..." Answered back Ren.
"Whatever it was, it was awesome! It's like gravity stopped to work normally. At least it's a change pace, all these dodging around started to become old." Said Yang.
"The moves he pulled were a great display of acrobatics." Said Blake.
"Did you see Weiss!?" Asked Ruby. "That was so cool!"
"Humph, I guess he has more skills than I thought..." This made her partner shake her head and roll her eyes.
"Good old Weiss..."
"She's not the Ice Queen for anything!"
"Hey..!"
Back to Jaune...
As he heard them argue he couldn't help the little smile that appeared on his lips, 'these guys...' However it died with a frown.
'Dust I guess... If he's going to start using that it could quickly become problematic, sigh... Oh well, I tried the shield and sword combo and I can admit I need training in it, maybe I'll ask Pyrrha to give me some pointers. In the meantime let's chance something...'
He folded his shield in its sheath form and put it back on his belt, under the surprised eyes of the people watching. He changed the way he held his sword, one handed, blade following the direction of his arm. He oriented his body slightly sideways so his left side was forward, knees bent and right elbow back. His left hand close to the blade with two fingers on the metal. Invisible to everyone's eyes he imbued his blade with his Qi.
'I hope I'm doing this right, I'm flying by the seats of my pants there..!'
"What the hell are you doing!?" Asked Cardin with a mad and doubtful look.
"Cutting this short." 'Hopefully.'
And then he moved. With a burst of speed that'd make Ruby proud, he almost flew towards Cardin. The latter, as he saw Jaune's sword aimed at his form, quickly brought his mace to bear in an attempt to intercept the bladed weapon and to strike back. However, in Jaune's eyes, Cardin moved at such a slow pace, it almost looked as if he was fighting in molasses.
Evading what was a telegraphed move for him, Jaune swiped his sword at the back of Cardin's unarmorded knees. While the blow hadn't left a wound thanks to his Aura the strength behind it was enough to make him knell. Taking advantage of the situation he attacked his arms and sent the mace flying with a kick.
Then he made use of his superhuman strength, he was now strong enough to roughly handle a weight of slightly more than about half a tonne, which was plenty enough to overpower him, and so with a clear application of Aura just for appearances sake, it would have been literally overkill, he made Cardin hit the ground with a foot on his back.
He barely began to try to lift himself up that Jaune then brought his sword to the back of Cardin's neck and the end of match bell rung, making him backdown.
'That's not beating him up with brute force so it doesn't count right?'
As Professor Goodwitch announced his win, she started to enumerate ways they could improve, told off Cardin for charging while underestimating his opponent and criticized Jaune for being too much on the defensive leaving his opponent time to change strategy.
Jaune respectfully bowed and went back to his friends. He barely arrived that they instantly started to question him about his moves, he answered in a roundabout way under the suspecting eyes of a couple of them.
Later at night.
Pyrrha had asked Jaune if they could talk privately, he readily agreed and so the both of them went to the roof of their dorm building.
"So Jaune, I wanted to ask you about what you did earlier in the day in Professor Goodwitch's class. Could you please tell me how you did all this?"
He slightly opened his mouth, about to answer, until his Spiritual Sense warned him.
"Wait a second, we're not quite alone..." He whispered.
At this, he slowly walked to the edge of the roof and swiftly reached over, hearing a gasp from a deeper voice Pyrrha saw Jaune lift Cardin by his arm and threw him into the roofs floor.
"So, mind telling us why you're spying on us?" Jaune asked blandly before a surprised Pyrrha at the sudden appearance of this third party.
"Back off! I wasn't spying on you I was just taking some fresh air!" Cardin visibly lied.
"So you're telling us that you have the habit of taking some fresh air with your body half out of the window in what was clearly an eavesdropping position?" He asked arms crossed behind his back and an eyebrow raised.
"Err... Shut up! I don't have to explain anything to you!"
"Of course..." Jaune nodded in a faux understanding. "However..."
He started to take slow deliberate steps, increasingly emitting Killing Intent step by step, Cardin felt the brunt of it, and even Pyrrha was slightly unnerved.
"If I catch you trying to pull off something like that again in the future..." He walked so his back faced Pyrrha and bent his head toward Cardin, his Killing Intent focused in his eyes, making them glow red. "I'm not going to be that so forgiving next time is that clear?"
Cardin nodded frantically.
"Out of my sight." He said pointing at the door with his head.
Cardin leaped at his feet and ran away.
"You freak!" He said as the door closed behind him. Jaune stopped emitting his Killing Intent the moment the door closed.
After she took a few moments to process all this, Pyrrha slowly walked to him.
"Jaune..? What was all that? And for that matter, what was all that happened earlier in the day? Where you always this skillful?"
'What to tell her... Obviously I still can't quite tell her about my nature as a Cultivator, I'd rather speak about my fake transcripts than doing this. Not that I think that doing this would be a good idea. Though again, she does know about the fact that I came to Beacon without Aura...'
"Sigh…"
He looked at her and saw the concern in her eyes, they were so genuine he instantly felt his instincts told him she could be trusted. Making sure with his Spiritual Sense that the cost was clear he decided to put out a feeler.
"So... Before breaching the subject about my skills, do you remember our Initiation?" She nodded. "Did you never ask yourself why you had to unlock my Aura?"
She took some time to gather her thoughts and took a breath.
"Well… Yes. I must confess that I wondered how someone without Aura could have ever managed to get this far past Beacon's screening... At the time I was worried about how you could put yourself in harms way, then the Initiation continued on its way without anything major until the Deathstalker and the Nevermore, but by then everything worked itself out and you even put together a plan to defeat the Deathstalker!"
"Yes, about that, have you not seen how I fought against it? Or any other Grimm for this matter?"
"No... I mean, you haven't really... Done anything..."
"It's because I couldn't. Back then I mean. I had no real fighting skills to speak of. Really." That made her widen her eyes in surprise.
"I had my suspicions that you were less skilled then the average trainee but not at that point! But then, how..?"
"How did I get into Beacon?" She nodded. "Simple, I technically haven't, at least not through the official ways. I... Faked my transcripts."
This seemed to get her, not through surprise but shock. Then after a moment of reflection on her part, the started to nod her head.
"That makes sense... I suppose..."
"Yeah… Eh, eh..." He chuckled awkwardly as he looked away.
"But then, how have you done what you did in Combat Class, and with Cardin right now?" He stayed silent still looking everywhere else besides her.
Finally he decided to come with a sorry explanation.
"...W-"
"Is it your Semblance?" She said before he had any chance to come up with anything, making him look at her in surprise. He certainly didn't minded the interruption though. "Have you discovered how to use it?"
'My Semblance? Huh, sure, let's go with that.' He simply nodded, his face neutral.
"I see..." She then placed her hands on her chest with a bright smile. "Well I'm happy for you Jaune, now you have the strength to realize your dream of being a Huntsman."
"Thanks," he slightly bowed his head, "but you know it's in great part thanks to you that I can, you did unlock my Aura after all."
"That was my pleasure to help."
She sent him another smile warmer than the last which he returned.
"Speaking of help. I'm sure you saw back in Combat Class how my fight against Cardin went, most specifically at the beginning before I used only my sword?"
"Yes." She nodded. "While you managed to cleverly make use of your shield, and brilliantly dodged every hits your counterattacks left much to be desired. Sorry..."
"No, no... Eh, eh. I appreciate the honesty. Well it's like you said, I very much lack in ways to use my sword and shield. And, seeing as that's one of your main fighting style I figured I could ask you for help, you know..."
"Yes!" Exclaimed Pyrrha excited. "I'd be very happy to help you out with learning sword and shield forms!"
"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to encroach on your own training time..."
"I'm perfectly sure." She affirmed with another bright smile. "It will not only give me the opportunity to review my basics, I actually was already nurturing the thought of offering you my help."
"Oh, well thanks again. Very well then, I look forward to learning from you." He bowed in thanks.
And at that, the both of them started to plan their training program, then they decided that they'll use the rooftop as it was wide open enough and fairly close to their dorm room to be able to train in peace without fearing the curfew.
Then they both headed back to their room and to the other half of their team. Upon arriving however they couldn't escape Nora's teasing about their private meeting, thankfully Ren soon distracted her, but not before letting her have her fun. It seemed Ren was more playful than Jaune thought.
A/N:
So... Yep. That went from one to one hundred real fast. Your thoughts?
Especially on the part where Ren taught Jaune about Aura, I really would like to know what you all think about it. Was it good? Or was it too simple? I really didn't want to linger too much on Jaune learning to control his Aura so I might have went too fast on that scene... I don't know.
So yeah, if you all could share your thoughts that would be fantastic.
By the way, about pairings/shippings and what not, according to popular opinions and my own wishes, I can without a doubt announce that it'll be a harem!
Now, who among those lovely ladies will get the honor? Well, that's for me to know and for you to find out- kidding.
I've already decided that there'll be at least Ruby and Pyrrha. Easy way out and everything... No seriously, they're going to be the easiest to write.
But that's not going to be after quite a while, like, really far along the way. A few people pointed out that they'd have preferred ICH to not have a harem, there were even some telling me that they'd have preferred it to not have any sort of romance at all, for reasons that I very much understand, however considering where I want to take the plot I must do with. Though for those people I assure you that it won't happen at least before a long time. When it'll happen you'll know it's there, there'll be romantic scenes, at least as romantic as I can write them, but this won't take precedence over everything else, that I can assure you. I really want to write cultivation.
After these two? Well I've been giving some thought about it and I'm fairly certain about one or two, maybe three more girls... I'm not yet certain, we will have to see how it'll all turn out.
Now that I think about it, maybe you all could offer me some ideas? That'd be awesome.
Well, that's pretty much all I have to say. Please don't forget to review! I find your ideas and criticism very much valuable.
Fyr out!
