Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY.
Cloud
By: Imyoshi
Winning. Losing.
Did any of that matter?
Winning or losing—did it matter?!
Jaune Arc scratched his head at the question. By Monty Oum, he hadn't a clue, and the thought killed him from the inside out. Sometimes, during these rare moments of dysfunction, he considered there to exist some higher entity purposely making his life a living hell. Why? Why not. Of course, thinking something like that was bonkers. Then again, irrational paranoia and the Arc mixed well together, like syrup and pancakes, or Nora and Ren, no how many times Nora denied those claims with an awkward blush. Not together-together his foot.
Whatever.
All of Sunday went from bad to worse from ten minutes of waking up. Aura training went nowhere because lingering doubts plagued him the whole afternoon. His team chattered about the tournament with open joy, only worsening his mood. No notes got added to his Aura notebook from forgetting. Oum, Shooting Star's function, mechanics, properties, and everything else still needed to be cataloged. A terrible habit he needed to nip in the bud before it bloomed.
All in all, a disaster of a Sunday.
He never thought he would look forward to a Monday, but here he was, trudging slowly to Professor Port's class while deep in thought with a lack of sleep to push him through the day. Cardin's warning might have been kind, but cruel too. It made him question his next move—weighed him down. Any plan he conjured up to solve this problem faced a dozen possible what-if scenarios, and each one of these came with their own set of unintentional consequences.
Truthfully, if he so desired, ignoring Cardin's warning would be simple. Wave if off as nothing more. Move on! Forget about it and pretend he knew no such information. Easy? Yes! Could he do it? Hell no! From the minute he stepped into this academy, he had quickly learned that pushing things away and purposely ignoring them came back to haunt a person. Exhibit A, no training whatsoever. Exhibit B, unable to properly wield a weapon and not knowing what Aura was. The list went on from there. So no! Nope! He could not ignore this.
It was a genuine miracle that he still breathed after falling into initiation with nothing but a sword and misguided dream.
Win? Lose? All of it was so confusing to him! When did his life suddenly switch to hard-mode, and why wasn't he informed about it or able to shift it back? What kind of planet did he live on where horrible news hit a person like a slap to the face, stunning them just long before the worst problem came to deliver the killing blow, while it pulled his pants down.
Stopping in the middle of the hallway, he ran a tense hand through his hair, glancing at the nearby students hurrying off to class. He envied their carefree attitudes and free spirits. Rotten teenagers. Humph! Not a single care in this monster-infested world. What a life.
How unfair.
Whelp, he reached Professor Port's door. With a troublesome sigh, he figured some mindless storytelling might do him some good. Maybe his stories of ripping Grimm with his bare hands would distract him from his memories just long enough for him to rethink things through for the hundredth time and consider every conceivable path. For all he knew, the jolly professor might provide him the answer he sought.
He shrugged with a weak grin. "I guess I'll find out soon enough. Don't want to be late to class again. Pyrrha will wipe the floor with me in training if I am."
He entered the classroom, and no seemed to notice his presence as most busied themselves to prepare for their professor's lecture. Setting up pillows, convenient book covers for hiding said pillows, earplugs, Scrolls for games, and yadda-yadda. Before, some students would have mockingly glared at him for almost arriving late, however, his constant ignoring and never-care attitude made that activity less than appealing and time wasting. Eventually, everyone stopped trying entirely.
He never noticed.
Sitting beside Pyrrha was an automatic motion, and he leaned down on his desk with his arms thrown across the edge. A very Nora-like position. A quick turn of his head gave him the image of his partner prepping for class, being the only other student, except for Weiss, to bother with notes. That reminded him. He quietly, but swiftly scooted away from her, but kept a fair distance between them so his partner wouldn't become suspicious of his plans. Not to much distance, only enough so Pyrrha wouldn't notice him writing down notes and sketching doodles for ideas relating to Aura manipulation. He saved full detail planning for Doctor Oobleck's class. In there he was given more freedom.
Jaune snickered, recounting the time she caught him writing in his notebook. A few seconds. That was all she needed to intercept him red-handed, and during the time he refused to talk, being hush-hush about it. Not to say things have changed. Forging Excalibur came soon after. He had just needed to figure things out before jumping into anything else new. Arc honor and pride demanded it!
So after a week of trial and error, the noodle managed to figure out the safe distance to silently sketch and write without her noticing. Too much length and she noticed with a curious glare. Too little space and their elbows brushed which caused issues of their own. No. A healthy distance allowed for optimal brainstorming.
Fortunate for him his partner subjected herself to the inhumane torture of taking notes during Professor Port's Slash and Bash tales. Why? He never asked. The universe just lucked out in his favor. Best not to poke it with a stick.
Thank Oum for small mercies.
Sighing, he reached down and pulled out his Aura notebook, needing to add some footnotes and basic weapon properties for the Aura sphere. Shooting Star's notes would have to wait for history class. For now, describing the destructive, overly eccentric force of the Aura ball became the top priority. Who knew? He might come up with a name or two for the technique. Anything to get the creative juices flowing. His plans were cut short, however, when Pyrrha tapped him pointedly on the shoulder, looking unnervingly relaxed.
"You were almost late, Jaune." Pyrrha hummed, smile too innocent. The type of smile Yang had two days ago. "Why?"
Darn it! She noticed.
Training was going to be a bloody nightmare today.
Caught-in-the-act, he resorted to a signature Nora level grin, hoping for the best. If the trigger-happy girl could get away with practically anything with Ren watching her, then the same rules must apply between Pyrrha and him. Judging from her narrowed eyes and tight lips, none of that was happening. Her sickening-sweet smile remained. Yup. No mercy today in training. Well, time to fake it, or maybe not. Some brutal honesty never hurt.
"I got distracted thinking about the Vytal Tournament. Kind of lost track of time thinking about what Professor Ozpin said. Honestly, it's a little nerve-wracking."
Pyrrha's eerie smile completely vanished at the mere mention of the Vytal Tournament. She looked a bit drawn back instead, not meeting his stare anymore. Thoughts of his lackluster training and abysmal improvement hit her hard, and before long, she was sporting him an I'm Sorry Smile. Someone needed to tell the champion her sleeved emotions were showing.
"Oh?" Jaune detected hints of both excitement and dread in her tone. It washed away his Nora grin. "I happen to be thinking about that as well. How do you feel about the Vytal Tournament, Jaune? Do you wish to fight? Because we don't have to if you don't feel up to it."
Pyrrha finished quickly—too quickly. Even Jaune wasn't that dense to not catch the double meaning of her question. She didn't think he was ready, and for a split-second, he felt relieved and insulted at the same.
Now he only felt insulted.
It would be one thing if he didn't want to fight. That was fine. He made that choice. It was another if someone else didn't think he was ready to fight. That judgmental attitude reminded him too much of his parents. Caring to all their children, yet oblivious to his feelings. Rather hurtful, honestly. Any day they expected him to come home with a sad story of woe to tell. He would prove them wrong at all costs, but back to the matter at hand.
His partner.
Again, she wore her emotions on her sleeves. It was plain as day in her eyes that she was both thrilled at the mention of the Vytal Tournament, but concerned for his safety. She was more than ready to drop out of the tournament for his sake because beneath all that training, and all teamwork, she didn't think he was ready yet. The worst part about it, the irony lacing on his cake, if she had only beaten Cardin to the punch at talking to him, then maybe this would have made everything ten times easier, but she hadn't. For a split-second, he felt somewhat grateful that Cardin beat her because Jaune Arc of ten minutes ago would have taken the easy way out, and probably would have disregarded the consequences of not competing altogether.
Not to say the Arc wasn't grateful for her having his best interest at heart. He was touched. It made him smile with his cheeks warmed. One day he planned to repay her kindness, but for now, it was his decision. Because even if the idea of his fake transcripts coming to light sounded somewhat okay, he preferred they remained hidden. Why get kicked out when the feeling of belonging somewhere finally took root? No. He wanted to stay and graduate at Beacon Academy as the team leader of Team JNPR.
Why throw that all away for a what-if?
Furthermore, he still had a whole week to sleep on it.
He absently waved away her concern with a harmless grin. "Don't worry about me, Pyrrha. I'll be fine. The real question is..." Jaune paused, playfully poking her on the shoulder.
There was a slight hesitation in her voice, and Pyrrha struggled, about to answer, but Professor Port chose that moment to roll into his class, carrying with him a stack of papers and a chest. An oddity all on its own. The jolly man never used papers or props, preferring sticking to lectures about his youth. Handout assignments and class group work were rare, mostly centered around tests weeks, but no exam was scheduled.
Hn? Maybe today he might pay attention?
Distracted, he looked over to his partner. She wasn't paying him any more attention, preferably ready to take notes on whatever it was Professor Port planned to yammer on about this time, but he narrowed his eyes, seeing right through his hesitance today. Sorry, Pyrrha, but having a shaking hand when preparing to write fooled no on. As a friend and teammate, he was beyond worried, so much so that he was about to question what was wrong, but their professor chose that moment to excitedly start his next amazing Tale of Wonder and Daring Excitement, Professor Port First Edition.
"Now class..."
He could ask later.
...
Beep! Beep!
Students already stood up, prepared to leave, but their professor stopped them by holding up the papers he earlier brought.
"Ah! Ah! Students! I forgot to inform you that Dust class will be held here today!" Port waved the papers around. "It seems there was a freak explosion in your regular Dust class due to a student's involvement with chemicals. I don't know the whole story. Since then, Professor Peach has asked me to take over while they clean up the spill. So your Dust class has been moved here for today! Alright! Everyone! Come over and pick up your assignments and find a partner!"
Talking amongst themselves, students flocked over to retrieve their assignments. Most chose their partners from initiation, a favored choice, but occasionally students spiced it up. Friend and non-friend, acquaintance and stranger, loner and gossiper, enemy and pacifist, human or Faunus, goth and emo, the variety of partner mix up could be endless, but the standard was partners.
Grabbing the assignment, Jaune was about to call out Pyrrha when he saw Ruby and her already working together with their Dust crystals all piled onto a table. As in partners!
What the? Ocean eyes grew in size. He unknowingly crushed the paper in his hand, wondering what was troubling Pyrrha. Something was unmistakably upsetting her. Regularly she searched him out, not the other way around, which meant she was avoiding him. Either that or maybe he was only over thinking this? No, not overthinking. She was concerned but for the life of he couldn't fathom why.
"Ahem?"
He peeked over his shoulder with an automatic smile forming. "Snow Angel!"
Ignoring the name, Weiss Schnee glared hard at him, waving the paper frantically in his face. "Looks like we're stuck working together." Wow? She made that sound like pure torture. "So? What do you know about Dust?"
Honestly? "Nothing."
Her mouth opened and then closed, and this happened once more with her finger raised, only for her to lower it. Then she hid her face behind the paper, mumbling. "Of all the people I could've gotten stuck with, and it had to be him."
"What?"
"Nothing!" Glaring fiercer, she dragged him to gather the Dust supplies, hoping to finish this dreaded assignment as swiftly as possible. "Hurry up. The quicker we finish this ridiculous assignment, the less we have to talk to each other."
"That hurts, Snow Angel." Jaune crossed his hands over his heart, enjoying the way her cheeks flushed in anger.
"Stop calling me that!"
...
Pyrrha Nikos quickly learned that working with Ruby Rose as a Dust partner came with its own set of rules and guidelines. Imagine juggling a pair of grenades with one of her arms bound and the other drenched in slippery soap. Oddly difficult, dangerously life-threatening, and an overall hassle altogether with far too many problems with little payoff. That was how it felt working with her. If ever a reason to question sanity, check the box labeled Ruby Rose as Dust partner. Life insurance would cover the rest.
Boom!
"Oops! Don't worry! I'll get it!"
Ruby zoomed away to come back with a blanket to put out the spreading fire from consuming their substitute workstation. Her tongue was out in concentration as she doused out the Fire Dust, one-hundred percent oblivious to the ash-covered Pyrrha. A small wisp of smoking hair burned the ends of her tips, charbroiling her in a flavor of smokey substance. Ironically, the more Ruby sped around the table to snuff the fire out, the more she contributed with her rose petals burning into the mix.
Cough! Cough!
The champion wiped away the charcoal-colored soot from her Dust goggles, finding the entire anomaly all the more confusing by the second. Her regularly painted on smile was washed away, replaced with a small frown and questionable tilt of the head as she watched Beacon Academy's youngest and more adorable student put out the small fire she created. The sight warranted questions and concerns for Pyrrha.
She lifted her goggles and aided Ruby in the mission to kill the flames. She eventually threw her own two cents into the mix. "What I don't understand is how a person who spends so much time painstakingly tinkering with weapons, can be so terrible at handling Dust?"
Ruby huffed and crossed her arms in a very excellent Weiss impression. "Hey! I'm not that bad."
"Uh, Ruby? The fire's spread to your sleeve."
"Gah!" Ruby panicked and fluffed out the fire like a crazy lunatic. Pyrrha couldn't help but giggle and then burst into a light laugh at her misfortune. Hilariousness aside, she was instantly on the defensive. "It's not funny!"
Pyrrha's devilish smile said otherwise. "I'm sorry, but I must disagree. It is quite humorous." Now she saw why Weiss always complained about Ruby's Dust handling. It certainly was bad for one's health. "You should try and be more careful in the future."
Ignoring the dumb champion, Ruby cautiously blew away the smoke from her outfit, finding nothing funny about her clumsiness. Everyone had a fault! Look at Jaune and his sneaky airsickness, or Yang and her desert-dry sense of humor. Fine! None of those were weaknesses per se, more of like a headache waiting to happen, but snickerdoodles, she needed to make her point clear.
Her older sister shouldn't be allowed to make jokes or anywhere near a microphone.
Ruby finally managed to fluff the fire out and threw her hands to her hips in a victory pose. "There! All done!"
Pyrrha blinked. She nearly made it a point to ask whether or not they should double-check their figures, their results, and repeat the experiment to make sure the assignment was expertly complete but bit her tongue because she honestly didn't care. Her mind was too preoccupied worrying over other matters than to give a second glance over to trivial things like Ruby's little fire stunt. While the flames easily distracted her, they hit her hard in the heart. A distraction the fire might've been, but it was also a reminder of how unprepared a person could be at a moment's notice.
Like her leader.
The Vytal Festival stirred her feelings. She still wasn't sure what prompted her to seek out Ruby instead of Jaune. Maybe she required time to ponder about her partner's strange behavior and the upcoming Vytal Tournament. Two things that couldn't be fretted over if he happened to be her Dust partner. No. Possibly, she wanted a change in Dust partners for the sake of breaking any cycle? Being trapped in a loop was never fun. Like this secretive nature her partner adopted. Change sounded pleasant. Hn? Difficult to tell.
Slam!
Blinking out of her stupor, she peered over to find Ruby pulling out a steel case from out of nowhere. Inside there were empty bullet shells just waiting to be filled with a variety of Dust, and speed reaper's greedy fingers grabbed a few from their remaining stockpile of experimental Dust. No wonder a second experiment never happened. The hungry grin on her face didn't escape the champion's eyes, and her curiosity was peaked when Ruby began slowly fixing the perfect amount of gunpowder and Dust into each shell as if the process was as simple as breathing.
This time Pyrrha merely shook her head in amusement. "Again, I do not understand how you move with such grace when handling your weapon, but with Dust, well, you're a klutz?"
Ruby mumbled something unintelligible underneath her breath, busy filling the bullet shells in absolute concentration. Her cheeks were puffed out, and Pyrrha saw some of Weiss's personality mixed into the bunch. Weiss' presence seemingly had a hostile influence on the ever impressionable Ruby Rose. Funny when she pictured it, Pyrrha doubted Weiss got anything from Ruby.
Ah. Such was the cruel Fate of irony.
Hn? Maybe if she looked hard enough, she might find some similarities between the two yet? Peeking to where Jaune and Weiss were seated, she stumbled upon a lackluster pair of Dust partners. The Heiress appeared to be ordering her partner around while he tried his best to follow said orders. Amusing to watch. A well-oiled team they were not, then again, neither were Jaune and her when it came to Dust, and she couldn't imagine Weiss and Ruby working in sync, but at least Pyrrha knew as partners they worked better together than they did. A hollow victory. Nothing worth hanging on the wall. Not even the small accomplishment robbed away the doubts eating away at the pit of her stomach.
Jaune? Could she have faith in her leader—her partner—to be ready for the Vytal Tournament? His generous smile spoke one thing, but her doubtful mind said another. Such a complicated question to mull over. The whole ordeal left her emotionally exhausted. She had secretly hoped he took the opening she offered him to back out. The sheer surprise when he turned down such a gift stunned her into a numbed silence.
Such confidence eluded her.
That very same confidence pushed him to enter a school where the line between life and death was but a stone's throw away. No background training. No understanding of the arts, nothing! Jaune jumped into the deep end of the pool without even a life preserver—his Aura—and somehow woke up the next morning to tackle whatever life threw at him. Where? Where had that pride been during their nightly training session, and how could she attain it?
Sometimes, after a tiresome sparring session, she wondered if he even cared about the training? The smiles and laughs said yes, but her heart disagreed. Didn't even seem like he cared much for it, but still thoroughly put himself through the grinder most nights. So there was that. Dedications and confidence. A winning combination. His endless goal to improve himself was both enduring and haunting, enough so that the champion was afraid to tell the bumbling knight he wasn't showing signs of improving, but how could she shatter that perfect smile of his?
She couldn't.
When it came down to it, maybe she just needed time to figure things out before it all came spiraling out of control. Perhaps, with enough perseverance, sweat, and some fortune, she could stop to whatever the problem was from happening before it was too late to turn back.
Worth a try.
Forgetting about the problem, for now, Pyrrha allowed her eyes to roam back to Ruby, finding her still refilling the bullet shells to the brim with an assortment of Dust. The activity was tranquil to watch, easing some of her burdens, if only for a little while. As a matter of face, she could use some more Dust ammunition herself. Her stock was running low, and they finished the assignment already. A hundred percent complete with their numbers triple checked?
Eh, good enough.
...
Sigh.
So working with Weiss Schnee on a Dust project tended to be a one-sided deal. Must be related to Ruby fumbling around every vial of Dust her slippery hands managed to hold? In other words, she took over and did the real Dust work, beakers and calculations, and Jaune was her lackey who did all the heavy lifting. Heavy lifting code for here, hold this and don't drop it, or maybe he was the test dummy, and she tested all her Dust experiments on him. Does this burn? How many fingers am I holding up? What day is it?
Sometimes, to throw a whole monkey wrench into the operation, she just glared at him for no reason and then venture back to work.
Throughout the painful process, Weiss ultimately just took over the whole project and pushed him aside to work in peace, leaving him to watch her work in silence. Upon given the boot, he noticed little things about a dutiful Weiss. Every Dust vial was tested separately in firm concentration. All observations got carefully calculated and written down with meticulous notes for future results. The sight of her working sucked the life out of him.
How boring.
Yup, he was bored. Who knew Dust science had this air of dullness around it? Like taking care of a plant. For possibly ten years. Oh well. Speaking of future paper, he peered down at his Aura notebook, wanting to write details for future projects, but he stopped and spotted Nora taking some skull plaque, with overly large canines, off from Professor Port's wall. She carried Dust vials tucked beneath her arm in a haphazardous way. She then sprinted over to Ren, tripped, and ended up throwing all the bottles of Dust, plus the decoration, toward Ren. Luck would have it he caught all the items before they fell, including a flustered Nora. He then proceeded to verbally chastise Nora for her reckless antics, although, her guilty smile made it appear that Ren couldn't keep up his charade with no real punishment on the horizon.
The leader smiled deliciously at Nora's antics. Seriously! She could've caused a freak explosion and created a new Faunus or something along those lines, and Ren would've still defended her. Which, in the end, could've possibly led to some interesting White Fang problems that he had heard so much about, now wouldn't that have been some crazy story?
Part of him wished Ren hadn't caught all of those Dust vials. He would be lying to say he wasn't curious about what might have happened if she successfully spilled them.
Pity.
Glancing back down at his notebook, he lost to temptation and was about to open it, but Weiss' shaking of a vial of red Dust caught his attention. She was adding a mix of what he assumed was her Aura and other Dust particles into the jar, eyes narrowed in sharp concentration. Everything about it, the mixing and Dust ratios made him scratch his head at possibly potential ideas for Aura and Dust, but all proved worthless with his limited knowledge of the stuff. Unlike Aura, Dust required an exquisite touch of expertise and understanding.
He lacked both.
"What are you doing?"
Scream!
A yelp escaped her. She almost dropped her vial of Dust, jumping from his sudden question, and seemingly forgetting his existence. A second later, after her frantic heart slowed down, she kicked him for his amusing grin. That fire in her eyes burned hotter than any Dust.
"Don't do that, you dolt! You scared me! I almost dropped this! Do you have any idea what would've happened if I did?"
"Ah? Nope."
"Oum!" Rubbing her forehead, she couldn't help but compare this to when Ruby caused a similar situation. Weiss then waved the vial in front of his face, poking him roughly on the shoulder, hoping it stung. "It would've caused an explosion and destroyed the entire room."
He tilted his head. That tiny vial of Dust would have done all that? Aura he believed, he only witnessed the power firsthand, but Dust? "Really? That tiny vial of Dust would've done all that?"
"Yes! Really!" Weiss placed the vial down, calming herself. "That's why you must be careful and not sneak up on me."
"... I was standing right next to you?"
Ignoring him, she checked the jars, inspecting them with a critical eye. Good. Nothing misplaced. She then nodded in satisfaction and pulled out a few vials of empty Dust cartridges from her combat skirt's hidden pockets. Her tongue slipped out with Ruby Rose level of adorableness as she slowly began to add a variety of colors into her cartridges. The act pulled him in. He leaned closer to peak over her shoulder in acute fascination.
"What are you doing this time?" Jaune said slowly, not wanting to alarm her unless he wished to get kicked in the leg again. He did not. That hurt almost as bad as Yang's Friendly Fist of Affection or Nora's Death Hug of Friendship.
Almost.
Checking the vials, she put them down, making sure they were properly sealed, her Schnee Dust training in full effect. She then gave him an impassive glare, arms coolly crossed. A foot of hers tapped, but he noticed none of that.
"I'm refilling my Dust cartridges for Myrtenaster?" Jaune appeared lost. She humored by stabbing him with an invisible stick. "You know... my weapon."
Now he remembered.
"Oh! That's right! You use a lot of Dust when you fight." Jaune laughed which earned him a humph from Weiss. He stared at the random assortment of vials on the desk. "How does Dust even work?"
An innocent question, he never used the power or considered it. Crocea Mors wasn't built to use Dust, and neither was the shield. Not to say he never contemplated the thought, but he just couldn't. Limitations aside, he knew next to nothing about the strange shards, always lost on the subject matter whenever Pyrrha fruitlessly tried to explain the concept behind them.
She glared harder at him as if he had grown a second head. "You're not joking, are you? You honestly haven't a clue to how Dust works?"
He shrugged. "Never needed the stuff. And it's not like Crocea Mors can use it."
"Regardless, do you even know what Dust is?" Weiss leaned forward and awaited an answer with her foot busy tapping impatiently. His only response was another shrug. Dust! She scoffed. "I can't believe you! How are you even passing this class?!"
Hey! He was about to counter, but she raised one finger to silence him. The act stunned him. So he remained quiet as she reached into her combat skirt and pulled out a pamphlet with the title on the front being Dust for Dummies. Her icy demeanor didn't prevent her from shoving it into his frozen hands, but it did stop him from even reading the first word. She was far too confident in her Dust knowledge to allow a brochure to show her up.
"Dust itself isn't used strictly in a combat sense, we, as a civilization, use Dust as a source of energy for everything, however, if you only planned to use it for combat, then Aura is needed." He blinked. Really? Why give him the pamphlet in the first place if she planned to lecture him? "Dust comes in two forms. First, a powdered form like the one I'm filling these cartridges with and a crystallized form. You have the four fundamental colors which are green, blue, red, and yellow." Weiss then pointed over to her partner from across the room, catching her infusing some powdered Dust into her bullet shell casing alongside his partner who copied her. "As you can see from Ruby, Dust can be used in ammunition as well, and Huntsmen with a high degree of control can manipulate Dust and manage all sorts of elegant feats with them."
He breathed. He never knew this about Dust to such an extent. Working with Pyrrha as a Dust partner allowed him to be near the material, but he never bothered learning about the rocks. Still. Too bad he couldn't see a practical use for him since he controlled and manipulated Aura into various sizes. Maybe he could find another use for Dust?
Worth a try.
"You can also try to create new ways to make sure of Dust..." Uh-oh? She was still talking. He prayed she didn't catch him spacing out. "By mixing and matching various powders and crystals, you can potentially create a new form of unique Dust. It all depends on dilution, quality, structure, and what types you blend." Weiss suddenly frowned at him, wanting to kick him again. He reacted easily enough by hiding behind his pamphlet. "You got that?" He shook his head in fear, and she smirked. "Good!"
Turning around with a spin of her heel, she resumed refilling some of Myrtenaster's Dust cartridges, immensely pleased she was able to educate the noodle in something as significant as Dust. Humanity so owed her one. Maybe even two. Meanwhile, he kept thinking about Dust and what Weiss lectured. Dust as a weapon, unique variations of Dust, even Dust and Aura? Yes. The applications of this rock candy looking stone churned his imagination.
That made him wonder.
He reached for his Aura notebook. His eyes scanned over a few of the notes he had written about Aura. Not much existed when it came to a weaponized Dust Aura based technique. Nothing he was too fond of, not with his lacking knowledge. He never considered any of it. Why would he? Excalibur more than made up for that in the weapon regard. Extra firepower sounded nice, or it did before Shooting Star, and the Aura sphere came to fruition. Although, the Ice Queen mentioned Dust usage came in a variety of different ways. Maybe something other than firepower?
Gazing over a few old notes, he flipped through the pages and stopped at one he underlined a significant amount of times.
Aura exhaustion.
A problem he became more familiar as time passed. Aura exhaustion only followed whenever a person ran out of Aura. He hadn't hit zero, yet, but the past few days, Shooting Star required usage of Aura that couldn't be reclaimed, unlike Excalibur. Not to mention factoring in taking any damage and healing drained away his reserves. Those were other obstacles entirely. Sadly, with issues like that, he burned through his reserves much faster than the rest. A large amount of Aura or not, he desperately needed to find a way to even the playing field, and that was where his idea for Dust came into play.
Could he maybe find a way to utilize Dust to fix his depleting Aura problem?
Now that idea was interesting enough worth pursuing, but first, to make his idea a reality he needed the knowledge to make it shine success, and the only person he could think to ask for any variety of help, did not take too kindly to his presence. Heck! He still remembered when she chose to leave him hanging in a tree once. Still, the Arc managed to sneak passed Ruby's Yang defense system. Surely thawing out Weiss' cold heart might be doable. Who could say no to begging?
Putting his notebook away, he cautiously tapped her on the shoulder, silently fearing her wrath. "Uh? Weiss?"
"What is it now?" Weiss grumbled, turning around to deal with him. "I'm almost done refilling Myrtenaster. So this better be good?" Jaune almost scoffed. She acted like he was honestly torturing her.
Putting aside her blatant attitude, he held up a Dust vial, picking any random color for good measure. It was blue. Not his favorite color, but enough to get his point across.
"Can you store Aura into Dust?" Jaune questioned while putting down the vial with Nora level care. "You know, so when you're running low on Aura, you can just refill yourself back up!"
The question caught the Heiress off-guard, he saw with the way her glare vanished before it returned, only less severe, and she remained mute for a while, fixated at glaring at him heatedly. He slowly feared he might have asked her a dumb question and began to channel his Aura to his legs for protection, however she shocked him by shrugging to a Dust question. Her extensive knowledge hadn't a clue to his query, although a hint of wonder crossed her eyes as she fumbled with a flask of Dust.
"There's no such Dust..." Weiss belatedly answered, holding the yellow vial up. "But there are some cases of Dust crystals having Aura stuffed in them. However, they're incredibly rare and cannot be manufactured or created. Our Schnee Dust scientists aren't even sure where to begin recreating them. Other experts say they're impossible to make unnaturally."
The leader disregarded all that information except for the bits that mattered most. "But there are Dust crystals that can store Aura?"
The Dust Heiress stilled.
"Yes..." Weiss answered slowly, leaning on the desk with the flask gripped in her hand. Now she was peaked at his sudden interest. "Why For what reason do you ask me this?"
He pondered over her question. Seconds ticked on by with the sound of his heartbeat resonating loudly in his ears. He could lie and say he was curious, but unlike when he asked Ruby for help on Shooting Star, Dust was an entirely foreign concept collectively. No last minute reading or web search was going to supply him with the knowledge of an extensive subject. Nope! Zip! Zero! Chances were Dust learning needed more than a simple one-sided conversation. Besides, she could probably read him like a book. So lying would end up wasting both of them valuable time.
Nonetheless, he answered just as careful with her as he did with Ruby. "I want to try and create a Dust crystal that restores Aura. So I never run out! So I was wondering if you can teach me about Dust?"
The Dust expert frowned. She saw passed parts of his innocent, guilty smile, but not all of it. He was a much better liar than she initially thought. There was a hint of truth in his claim, but he hid something vital from her. Of course, this led to some complication on his part. No way, no how was she going to aid anyone if they chose not to be entirely honest with her.
"Nope!"
"C'mon! I'll owe you one!" Jaune begged. She wasn't budging. Okay, time to play a card he had been saving for a long time for just such an occasion. "I'll even stop calling you Snow Angel."
She faltered a smudge. Her glare turned to steel. A once-in-a-lifetime offer stood before her. No more Snow Angel? How tantalizing. Unmistakably he was still hiding something, but how could she pass up such an opportunity? It might never come again. Her business etiquette demanded she accepted the deal.
Stepping forward, she somehow made him feel like the small one between the two. "And how do I know you won't go back on your word?"
"Because an Arc's word is everything to their honor." Jaune answered with an incredibly serious tone in his voice. "Our words mean more to us than anything."
She melted her glare, finding nothing but the truth behind the weight of his words. As a Schnee and future Heiress to a lucrative business, honoring one's word was important to her, too. A concept both an Arc and Schnee understood very well from the deepest depths of their soul. Thus she tapped her fingers against her arm, suddenly kicking an ill-prepared leader on the shin. Ignoring his yelp, she grabbed a Dust vial from the spares and held up to his nose.
"We'll start with going in-depth about the four basic Dust types..."
Jaune Arc couldn't help but smile through the sheer, blinding pain.
...
Hm?
Lie Ren held up a vial of Dust and played with it in a bored fashion. He relaxed into his seat, done with the class assignment early. He took a moment from spinning to the vial to calmly look away to see Nora lounging lazily on the table with her arms spread out far. A goofy expression captured her face with her tongue sticking out. He didn't think twice about it. Nora was falling fast asleep without simulation. Dust class always lost its appeal to her whenever he took over and shut down or forced actual work upon her. A waste of time on his part. More times than naught he ended up doing all the assignment. Dust never was her specialty, even for such a volatile substance. He took care of all her Dust needs, not able to trust her around the dangerous substances. Explosions and mishaps were Nora's ace in the sleeve, and he never found the strength to say no to her, not while she acted all innocent and goofy.
Acted being the keyword.
Without a doubt he knew better than to believe any innocent smile that sprouted from her mouth—she was a trickster—but he admitted he was weak to her troublesome charm. Maybe he cherished the fact she lied behind her mirthful grins and mismatched intentions? Oh well. Didn't stop the sloth from disturbing her almost-slumber by gently shaking her awake with ignorance to her whining.
"Get up, Nora. We have to clean up before the bell rings."
After some more relentless pushing, she moaned and sat up. The girl faked a yawned, reaching out to pick up a jar of Dust, but he predicted such an idea and idly snatch it before her fingers touched the glass. He also foresaw all her other attempts and swiped them all, leaving her to clean and throw away any lingering trash or papers.
Nora pouted with her arms crossed. "Why won't you let me hold any of the Dust?" Ren raised a single brow and shook the Dust vial temptingly in front of her. He then proceeded to drop and catch it at the very last second. "You never let me hold the Dust."
Her childhood friend held up the plaque for her to see. "Because you're worse than Ruby when it comes to messing around with Dust. I cannot trust you around such dangerous materials. Who knows what kind of mess you'll get yourself into."
She sat straight up with a fire in her belly. "I'm not that bad! You're just acting all paranoid and boring! Stop doing that!"
A little boop to the nose ended it all. "Last week I had to stop you from eating a Dust shard just because you thought the color looked appetizing."
"It did!" Nora then realized her mistake when he calmly smirked at her slip up. Now she knew she lost the battle, but she fought back a hopeless fight, anyways. "Bleh! You don't know what a good idea looks like even if it kicked you in the butt! One day I'll prove I'm a genius with Dust! Mark my words!"
Ren booped her again on the nose.
...
Weiss Schnee knew an enigma when she saw one.
Working through the remainder of Dust class, hoping to teach Jaune the ins and outs of Dust powders and their crystalline structures, she discerned he only took notes on certain aspects of her lesson. Mostly Aura-related facts, how Dust and Aure react, and any information he could gather on Aura manipulation and Dust shards. A certain spark burned in his eyes whenever the subject of Aura came up that she only saw in Ruby whenever she tinkered with Crescent Rose or read Vale's monthly Weapons are Your Friends catalog.
Waving it off for later notes, she recalled something that she wished to ask Pyrrha Nikos, but questioning their team's leader should suffice. Now? How to begin? Small talk and she weren't the best of allies. Perhaps the direct approach? Yes. Simply ask. Good. Good! Carefully, ignoring Jaune as he wrote down some notes in this odd notebook of his, she, as casually—cringed worthy—as possible, attempted to make some form of small talk.
"So? Are you competing in the tournament?" Weiss not so subtly asked, watching as he abruptly stopped what he was working on to lower the Dust vials in his hands.
He had wholly forgotten about the tournament.
A miserable sigh escaped him. Being reminded about that problem screw up his mood, and he placed the jars of Dust down with a slow tilt of his head, tone suddenly tired. "Are you?"
She scoffed at the ridiculous question, missing his lack of energy entirely. "Of course our team is going to compete. Headmaster Ozpin personally chose us himself. There's no greater honor! We represent all of Beacon Academy! I'm planning to persuade our team to go on a trip to Vale to—!"
The Schnee couldn't see it, too busy with her marvelous speech and stars shining in her eyes, but he was utterly ignoring her. A personal first. Being reminded about the upcoming Vytal Tournament had effortlessly crushed his mood and made studying Dust no longer vigouring or fascinating. At the very least he managed to snag a few intriguing notes before his spirits got damaged. Somewhere along the way, he theorized a fascinating concept he wanted to experiment on and planned to head to Vale to pick up some Dust shards later, but for now, he was stuck dealing with this Vytal Tournament issue.
What a mood killer.
"—and that's why Team RWBY is going to prevail in the Vytal Tournament!" Weiss finished, almost out of breath. "And what about Team JNPR?"
He laughed a bit.
She acted more like Ruby that he gave her credit for, or maybe Ruby's adorable influence on her went beyond his previous assumption? Either way, this Weiss Schnee was much better than the first one he met during initiation. She even restored some of his broken mood.
"Yeah, I'm not sure yet?" Jaune pursed his lips, finding the Dust vials way more interesting. "I haven't talked about it with my team just yet, too busy with all this."
"Well!" Weiss hotly added. "If your team does think about fighting in the tournament, you should know what you're up against." Pulling out her Scroll, she opened up a screen with the tournament barracks, filtering for all the teams that weren't her own. She then handed him her Scroll, flicking through the candidates. "Here! Take a look. It pays to be prepared."
He scrolled down the strange list, locating info on all the team competing, including his. He discovered everyone had a ranking system in the network off based on merit, skill, tournament wins, and overall status. Pyrrha was one of the top five Huntsmen-in-Training on the list with four others he didn't recognize, but three of them ranked higher than his partner. Reasonably, their tournament victories included small, lesser known competitions, but the points added up.
That was a shock all in itself.
Three other Huntsmen-in-Training in the other academies ranked higher than Pyrrha? A frightening thought. Not to forget these three were going to compete in the Vytal Tournament? An even scarier thought! Wait a second? Weiss wanted to challenge these people?
Yup! Something was seriously wrong with her.
Checking other stats on the competition, he found a treasure trove of information. He saw an overall gauge of each student's fighting prowess and known Semblances, plus the weapons they wielded. Some of the students' Semblance wasn't available. Meaning either they lacked one—which he highly doubted—or they have kept it a well-hidden secret.
Okay, now he was curious. He searched for his status and found himself on the very bottom of the list, labeled as no threat. Sarcasm tickled his tongue. Nothing—no word or phrase—came close to describing this moment. A sense of pride he abandoned during initiation came back to burn his soul anew.
His stats were low with a poor record of his fighting skills and non-existent Semblance. With a subtle sigh of relief, he smirked, no records of his Aura based techniques existed. At least no one was spying on him. Good. Ha! The tournament stats revealed to everyone that his Aura control was below average at best.
For once in his life Jaune Arc took offense to something said about him.
The anger swiftly vanished from his face. Reading passed his abysmal readings, he unearthed a comment section on his profile page for other students to comment on what an easy win this chump was. If he even bothered showing up! Others were much crueler.
He stared long and hard at the screen. A sense of calmness overtook him with him fighting back to still his Aura from flaring to life. He briefly wondered if backing out of the tournament was the right move. Not to say peer pressure got to him, but peer pressure got to him, and he wished nothing more than to wipe all the arrogant fighters' faces into the dirt. Years of being called useless have taken their toll on his soul, and he was more than ready to unleash fury upon the unsuspecting fools. Let them experience what it felt like to be cut by Excalibur or shot by Shooting Star.
Needing more time to think it over, he handed her back her Scroll, shooting her a grateful smile. "This is awfully kind of you... Weiss." Whoa? Weird. Snow Angel just rolled off the tongue smoother. Oh well. "You're the best."
She accepted the compliment with flustered pride, playing with the hem of her combat skirt. She refused to look away. "But of course. I'm glad you're finally understanding that. Perhaps there's hope for you yet."
For the life of him, he couldn't find a reason not to laugh, so he did. Even she joined in on the fun against her futile efforts not to.
Beep! Beep!
Oh? Time for lunch! Maybe, if he devoured his food fast enough, quicker than Nora, he could get some quick Aura training done in his team's room and a chance to think in peace over this whole Vytal Festival Tournament nonsense once and for all.
...
Life had a habit of kicking while he was down.
Not alone in his team's room, Jaune laid on his bed, having forgotten he promised Blake essentially unlimited reading time in his team's room anytime she managed to catch him and ask. The Arc had only made it three steps outside Professor Port's class before she jumped out from the shadows like a sneaky ninja, asking if she could read in his room. So here he was with Blake reading on the comfort of his bed, lost in one of her fantasy worlds. Nope.
No Aura training today.
Hn? Might not be a total loss? Maybe he could still get some sound advice on this whole Vytal Tournament thing? Blake read many books, and he meant a ton. She probably knew all about inner conflict and turmoil type of stuff?
Worth a try.
Scratching his cheek, he sat crisscross on Ren's bed, unsure how to proceed. They weren't exactly friends, but this was a good start, and he could always use more companions in this crazy world.
"Hey, Blake?" Said person looked above her book's cover, eyes stoic. "Can I ask you something?"
"You just did."
He didn't appear to have heard her. "I was wondering... have you ever had to make a big decision?"
The bookworm stared at the leader for a moment, studying his slightly nervous posture. A simple yes answer would suffice, but she felt generous. Granting her the ability to read in his room reward him with benefits and hating the Intruder put him on her strong side. All of that earned him a better answer than yes. He deserved an honest answer.
Her black bow twitched. She lowered her book a tad more. "Could you elaborate more?" He appeared lost. "I mean, can you explain what you mean, Jaune? What are you asking?"
Page Flip!
Oh! Understanding her question now, he attempted to find the right words to say, wondering what the right question was, but his tongue fumbled. He didn't want to rob her any more of her precious reading time. She only got so much! Fellow dog haters had to stick together!
He got up and leaned on the nearest wall for support. Chances had it be the Sloth King poster. He searched for the right words, finding some that sort of fit what he hoped to ask.
"Did you ever have to make a choice that could change your entire life! No! Wait! Hold on a minute." Jaune frowned while removing from the wall. "Did you ever have to make a choice that could change the lives of the people around you? Hold up!" He stopped, humoring himself. "Never mind. Who am I kidding? Of course, you haven't. You're always so level-headed and calm. Problems like that have probably never happened to you." Heading out, he absently waved to her, needing to find somewhere else to think. "Thanks for listening anyways, Blake. Sorry to cut into some of your reading time! Weiss is planning a trip to Vale later for your team, so don't forget!"
If Jaune Arc had stayed behind a little while longer, he would've noticed Blake Belladonna clutching the book in her hands remarkably hard with her eyes cloudy from the memories of leaving a certain individual.
...
"I wonder if Beacon's got a guidance counselor?"
Skipping lunch, the leader wandered the tangled hall of Beacon Academy, in search for an answer to his many questions, yet, he found nothing to further his research. Zip! Hardly in this overly spacious academy had anything to help. Hell! These hallways were surprisingly sparse of people or things. Only a very displeased Professor Goodwitch who moved in a very brisk pace across the halls, weapon out, shoulders back, all angry, occupied the hallway along with him.
Granted, it was lunch, so most of the student body probably flocked there?
He lifted his arm foolishly, waving with an even bigger silly grin. "Hey, Professor Goodwitch."
"Mr. Arc!" Goodwitch nodded roughly, not paying any actual attention to him. "If you would excuse me."
He never got the chance to ask how her day was going before she already entered a room, slamming the door shut with a compelling swing of her riding crop. He was the only one around to have felt the vibrating aftershock of her Semblance.
"Whoa? What's she so angry about?" As long as it had nothing to do with him, he overlooked it, figuring their Headmaster must've done something absurd again. Like when he replaced all the regular coffee with decaf that one week. What a week that had been. Many students moved like slugs with others hardly moving at all.
Poor Doctor Oobleck.
He turned a corner. Upon doing so, he spotted Pyrrha aimlessly wandering the same halls but didn't him yet with her head down. Arms raised, he was about to call out to her when he spotted her shoulders slumped. When she lifted her head to brush away some of her hair, her ever-present smile was nowhere to be found. The memories of her strange attitude from Professor Port's class came back to haunt him, and he found himself concerned for his partner.
The partner lowered his arm. Instead of yelling out, he quietly ran up to her, not planning on allowing her time to wipe away her rare frown. Once he managed to quiet his footsteps, it didn't take long for him to trail her shadow. The moment she turned into another hallway, he jumped right in front of her, ready to ask what was wrong before earning a shocked fist to the gut!
Yup! He deserved that.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha wasted no time and moved beside him, checking for injuries to his stomach. "I'm sorry! But you should know better than to sneak up on me like that!"
That made two of them. First Weiss and now her? He was starting to see a pattern here. Sneaking up on girls proved to be a horrible idea. Maybe all the times he did that to his older sisters should have taught him that? Ha-ha. If Weiss and Pyrrha reacted like this, then he refused to imagine what creeping up on Yang would entail. Probably filled with loads of unrelenting fists and pain.
Mostly pain.
He absorbed the pain and stood up straight while ignoring everything but his partner. "Didn't even hurt!" Yes. Lying almost made the pain vanish. "Anyways, I was walking by and saw you wandering the halls. Thought I join you?"
Anybody would've noticed the panicked expression on her face the moment it appeared, even he wasn't that dense when she tried to cover it up with a weak smile. "That would be most welcomed, Jaune."
The partner grinned. He tagged alongside her, arms crossed behind his head, with his mind focused on trying to recall the last thing he said to her before Professor Port's class begun. The conversation flashed back to him and all his questions flooded after, and this time she had no escape route. No more dumb luck for her.
Looking over to her with a small grin, he saw her smile not quite reaching up to her eyes, practically mirroring her smiles from the late-night training sessions. Her I'm Sorry Smile. Whatever bothered her about this festival must have been huge to shock his partner into such a state. Never before had he seen The Invincible Pyrrha Nikos so troubled. Haunting, to say the least.
"So? Jaune trailed, forcing humor in to ease the awkward silence. "The Vytal Tournament? That's a thing?" Seemingly, that was the wrong thing to mention because her smile completely died. "Uh, Pyrrha? You okay?"
"Jaune?" Pyrrha paused, stopping their walk with concern laced in her words. "Are you sure you want to fight in the Vytal Tournament?"
Ha! It wasn't even a question. He knew full well he didn't want to partake in the Vytal Tournament. Only the option to say no had long since been stripped from him, not with the threat of expulsion on the table.
He laughed without any mirth, making light of the situation. "I don't want to. Tournaments aren't my thing, but it would look bad if we don't fight, Pyrrha. The Kingdom of Vale of chose us. And Team JNPR is not a bunch of cowards, I should know. Remember, I'm the Fearless Leader!"
A smile threatened the corner of her lips, but she suppressed it.
"I know... I just don't want to see you get hurt, Jaune."
"What?" Jaune playfully mocked, bumping her shoulder with his. "You don't think we can win?"
Her silence said it all, and she refused to answer or meet his eyes anymore, and it slowly gnawed away at him. Glaring for a split-second, he relaxed and decided to try a more direct tactic.
Standing before her, he grabbed her by the shoulder without any more humor to act as a barrier between them. "Hey? Pyrrha? What's wrong?"
His partner remained stubborn. "Nothing."
He exhaled and stopped her from shaking her head in denial. Time to get this off their chests. They probably should've had this talk a long time ago. Sooner would've been better, but hindsight was twenty-twenty and better late than never.
"This is about our training, isn't it?" Pyrrha's wide eyes give away all her secrets. He just scratched the corner of his cheek, laughing sadly. "Yeah... I know I haven't been improving much over the few months." He stopped before she could kindly deny it, hand out. "Trust me I know all about it. You're a pretty terrible liar."
Stubbornly refusing to believe him, she looked away, making a small fist in anger. Her partner said nothing, idly waiting for her to say something. Anything! He felt bitter on the inside, but sugarcoating words would cause more harm than good.
She bit her lips and almost drew blood. No! Her pride must've felt wounded. Through it, all the champion had perilously grieved for him to improve with Crocea Mors and his swordplay. He did get better, there was no denying that, but his improvement happened and then didn't as if he reached his limit two months ago when he decided enough was enough. Even after all the practice with Aura manipulation and numberless sparring session, adding Aura to that family blade changed nothing. It wasn't her fault for his lack of improvement. No. Only he was to blame. It was always his fault. Since the day he stepped into Beacon Academy.
Eventually, he discovered that Aura couldn't be added to Crocea Mors to aid him. That ended up being the final nail in the coffin. The sword rejected Aura for reasons he didn't know. Hehe! He recalled not believing it at first, refusing to accept such a baseless theory from simple trial and error, but now with an exceptional handle of Aura control, and no results to show for it, he settled on the conclusion that Crocea Mors rejected Aura.
Plain and simple.
A hard reality to swallow, but the truth nonetheless.
So what was the point in giving a weapon all the power in the world if it denied it and refused to reach its fullest potential? That was the whole reason he bothered creating Excalibur in the first place. At some point, through the lies and deception, during weeks of training, both of them accepted he wasn't improving in the traditional sense. The only issue was she refused to tell him. Perhaps wanting to shield him from the harsh truth?
Ha. Ha-ha! It was funny. Really.
The leader wasn't the least bit mad at her for never telling him. How could he be? She still kept training him until this very moment, hoping one day he would improve and prove her wrong. She never gave up on him. Never stopped trying to help him reach his fullest potential. Refusing to allow hopelessness to drive apart her determination. She was everything his parents weren't. So no. He wasn't mad at her. What a ridiculous notion. His partner was too kind for such a thing.
He was mad at himself for not being able to live up to her expectations.
Frowning, the Aura user leaned closer. "Pyrrha—?"
"Then you know why I don't want you to fight in the Vytal Tournament! That leader free-for-all is going to be brutal!" Jaune forcefully took a step back from her cracking voice and intense stare, even more so when she pushed him. Hard. "Those Huntsmen won't hold back! You're only going to get hurt, Jaune. I don't want to see you get hurt."
Her wavering voice broke something in, and he attempted to comfort her.
"Hey? Hey! C'mon, I'm going to get hurt in the tournament." Pyrrha's glare said otherwise to his grin. "Okay, fine! Maybe I will get hurt, but you should of all people know that pain is a part of this game we play as Huntsmen." She turned her back to him; not having any of this conversation, he rolled his eyes. When did he become the mature one in this partnership? He stubbornly moved in front of her. "Look? What's the worst that can happen?"
He felt his grave digging itself around him. Famous last words for a reason. Without checking he knew the worst case scenario, but unless he could guarantee the safety of his transcripts, he was forced to take chances. His future here at Beacon Academy depended on it. Playing it safe was a no-go.
Moving closer, he gently shook his partner by the shoulders. "Pyrrha?"
Finally braving a glance up, she quietly slipped into his private bubble, glad her partner was slightly taller than her. "Why are you so determined to fight in this tournament?" Her voice was so small and meek, not like her at all. He hated it. "Why?"
He wished he could answer that. He truly did. However, he couldn't.
If she was taking it this bad for his lack of improvement in training and her inability to protect him, then who knew how she would react to the plausible discovery of his fake transcripts and inescapable expulsion? All that would devastate his partner, and he wouldn't allow for any of them to deal with that. Not Nora, Ren, or Pyrrha. Not if he could fight against it.
Furthermore, he had new amazing Aura skills. Those ought to even the playing field. Not only that, he Excalibur even the odds against the Grimm far better than Crocea Mors. Even Shooting Star and the unnamed Aura ball were here to back him up. All he had to do was show her during Professor Goodwitch's class today. Then she would see she didn't have to worry or fret about him. She would see a leader that was worth of protecting his teammates.
Not a perfect plan. Not remotely close, but no plan was perfect. Flaws existed in everything. This plan just had the highest probability of working.
Grinning, he wrapped her in a one-arm hug. "Because, that's the reason I came to Beacon, to get stronger and become a Huntsmen like my ancestors before me. But how am I going to become a Huntsmen if I run away from every challenge that I'm forced to face?"
It soothed his soul to find a good portion of truth there. The past few months have been rough.
He was getting so weary with lying to his friends. It ate away at him for such a long time now, and he felt the negative emotions affecting his life. Lying changed everything about him. Monty Oum! Even his first steps into this academy were nothing but a lie—a deep, dark, terrible lie. At this rate, it might tamper with his Aura.
If nothing else, this tournament was a blessing in disguise. This festival was the one chance he needed to turn all the lies into truths and show every doubter he belonged here. Above all else, he wished to be able to call himself a leader worth leading Team JNPR.
Glancing back down at his partner, he smiled warmly at the one person who went through each of his hardships. She didn't deserve any of this. She merited so much more happiness than what he could scrap.
The leader released her, flicking his smile on full force. "So you understand now, Pyrrha? I gotta do this."
She nodded, finally understanding his plight, but her heart still wasn't in it. "I understand, Jaune. But I don't like it. That leader free-for-all is going to be dangerous. You need to get stronger! You need to!" Agreeing, he looked at his palm, channeling Aura, but not forming a ball.
Seriously! He needed to give the Aura ball a new name. Something cool—eh? He'd worry about that later. Now wasn't the time to grieve over such trivial nonsense. Shooting Star and Excalibur filled that criteria. Still! He would become stronger. No! He had already gotten stronger. He just needed some more time to improve on it.
"Trust me, Pyrrha!" Flashing her yet another signature Nora move, Jaune gave Pyrrha a perfect thumbs up. "I will! I will get stronger! And I'll win! I'll prove to you that I'm no longer weak."
Unable to stop her wavering smile, she reluctantly accepted the fact that there wasn't any way to convince their Fearless Leader not to fight in the tournament. "Fine... okay... I believe you. And you were never weak."
Beep! Beep!
The bell rung. The partners realized it was time to head to Professor Goodwitch's class, and Jaune didn't even get a say on the matter when Pyrrha started pushing him toward their next destination, glad for a moment to forget about the Vytal Tournament. Distractions were thy ally.
"C'mon, Fearless Leader. You're not going to be almost late this time."
Darn! His evil plan! Foiled!
Author Notes: Rewritten.