Editorial Note:

Due to the lack of relevant events following the last entry, we will be skipping ahead to one month after the last archived chapter—which unfolds a more notable story.

Skipping will be a regular occurrence between some chapters as I cannot include every single journal entry on the archive since many of them provide little-to-no contribution to the overall chronicle that drove Jaune to prominence. However, some of the more interesting rejected entries would still be included in an 'extras' section, which should be released soon.

Chapter 4

Pathological Jaundice

"Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo"

-A line from an old Imperial Poem

It's kinda hard to believe that I actually managed to survive Beacon for a month. I have to admit, I was too pessimistic to think that I wouldn't last a week. Sure, prudence must be maintained, but it's nice to know that getting accustomed to this wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. So far, my team has been very cooperative; our training sessions have been so far successful, they complied with the roles I assigned them to and they have been following my orders without a question, which made the preservation of my own life a lesser concern, making me focus my worries on my other problem—academics.

Despite being a passable leader and strategist, I was never big on theoretical education. I graduated with average scores when I was in elementary, which was adequate enough for me since I wasn't the type to brag about stupid letters on a card. I mostly passed since I was able to convince my sisters, particularly Bleu, to do my homework for me. They were a little to perfect though since she gave little room for flaws that they barely resemble what should be a work of mine but thankfully the teachers would overlook this and gave me perfect scores nonetheless.

When I started being homeschooled, I would usually pass by derailing classes, taking advantage of loopholes, and testing my sisters' patience by making them want to end our lessons as soon as possible, so I could go back and peacefully spend my time on whatever I please. Here, I can't simply bullcrap my way into passing without getting into trouble, so I had to take my schoolwork seriously.

I spent most of the previous night writing a thousand word essay on what I've learned about Dust Studies the past month which was due today, added with the fact that it has been my weakest subject compared to others, so I had to cram the textbook while writing it down. As a result, I wasn't able to get an adequate amount of sleep so I spent the entirety of Professor Port's class making up for it.

Since Grimm Studies was just nothing more than his storytime, I doubt that I missed anything that's actually noteworthy. I still ended up sleeping during Professor—or rather, Doctor Oobleck's class. Initially, I tried to stay awake only to find out that sleeping almost straight for two hours at Port's class wasn't enough.

I was eventually awoken by a paper football crashing at the back of my head. "Hey!" I cried out, shaking my head from the sensation, and that seemed to have grabbed the good doctor's attention.

"Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?" He suddenly zoomed in front of my desk. Filled with caffeine as usual. If only I asked to have some of it for myself.

Since I wasn't able to pay attention at that moment, I had to ask about the question if I were to answer, and it was almost impossible to not make it sound awkward. "Uh, what was the question again, sir?" I asked, followed by some students snickering, which I frankly couldn't care less, given how students here are always bored that they'd pretty much laugh at anything. Kids my age don't exactly have the most clever type of humor.

"Have you not been paying attention again, Mr. Arc? Very well, since you kindly asked; What advantage did the faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"

Oh brother, I thought. I recall having this lesson sometime back in elementary and homeschool but I tend to forget these things as I wanted my mind to have room with things I want to remember. Well, here goes nothing. "Uhh… the answer… the advantage… that the faunus…" I looked at Pyrrha behind the doctor's back for some help. "…had over General... whatever's stuff."

"General Lagune!"

"Right, right. General Lagune… is that…" I looked again at Pyrrha, who was cupping her hands around her eyes, making her look like she was making some binoculars with her own hands. I found myself playing a brief game of charades, one which I could not make up what she was gesturing to, so I answered with the best of what I could come up. And frankly, it wasn't a good answer.

"Is that they have really big eyes!"

As I would have expected, laughter ensued accompanied with Pyrrha and Blake shamelessly putting their palms to their faces. I could see the headlines for the next issue of the school paper: 'Supposed slayer of a bandit lord loses to a history question!'

The doctor sipped his coffee and zoomed back to his desk as if he was in a hurry, then again, the world was probably too slow for him. "So close, yet so far, Mr. Arc. Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject!"

"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier," Cardin insufferably leaned back in his chair. Judging by that statement, Cardin probably never owned a pet.

"You're not the most open-minded of individuals, are you, Cardin?" Pyrrha responded.

"What? You got a problem?"

"No, I have the answer," she turned back to Doctor Oobleck. "It's night vision. Many faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark."

"General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched and the general was captured." Blake added before making a mocking glance towards Car-dimwit. "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

The class hollered at Blake's potshot. Unsurprisingly, Cardin lost his cool and stood up. Doctor Oobleck immediately called him out before he was able to do something stupid.

"Mr. Winchester! Please take your seat."

I chuckled, I really didn't give a flip about Cardin and his tough guy demeanor, but I enjoy seeing people like him get humiliated. That was when the Doctor then suddenly zoomed at me again. "You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings."

With that, I groaned. I think this is what I get for not taking Bleu's history lessons seriously.

"Now! Moving on!" He continued after another sip from his cup.

The class concluded as the bell rang. Everyone left the room for recess, except for me and Cardin of course. He smirked as moved next to my seat and tackled me, hoping he'd get a reaction out of it. I responded by simply moving to the next column while doing my best not to give him what he wanted.

Before he began to reprimand us, the Doc took a sip of his coffee in which I started to lost count. "Mr. Arc, Mr. Winchester. You two have been struggling in my class since day one! Now, I don't know if it's a lack of interest or just your stubborn nature, but whatever it is..." He took yet another sip of his coffee before putting it down on his desk. "It stops now! You've worked hard to gain entrance to this school, and we only accept the best of the best, so I expect you to act like it. Especially you, Mr. Arc! You have a family name to live up to. If you intend to uphold its honor, then I suggest you start taking your lessons seriously."

"Heh," Cardin smugly uttered before Doctor Oobleck turned to him.

"Don't think I have forgotten about you, Cardin! Not only your grades have been falling back, you have an attitude problem that needs fixing as well! I do not want you causing any more trouble at my class!" Oobleck told him, causing his smirk to disappear while I boredly watched him.

"I expect both of you to take this as a consideration to start improving your performances for this subject. History is important, gentlemen! If you can't learn from it... you're destined to repeat it. Pages 51 to 91! I want an essay on my desk by next class! Now! Run along," He took one last sip before blurring out of the classroom.

Another essay, oh joy. In any case, that was thankfully quicker than I expected, it would have been annoying if this took long enough for me to miss the entirety of recess.

I walked out of the classroom and saw Pyrrha waiting for me. I suspiciously looked at my back to make sure Cardin doesn't try anything funny, which he did try as he looked like he was about to push me before he froze when I saw him, so instead, he contemptuously sniggered at me and gave me two pats at the back before walking away.

"Is he bothering you?" Pyrrha folded her arms as she glared at Cardin.

"Eh, don't worry about him," I told her, trying to not sound bothered at all. "Let's just go eat."

We then walked to the cafeteria together. She kept eyeing on Cardin, as she does not trust him one bit. While I cannot really blame her for that, I think she's worrying too much. Sure, Losechester has a track history of being an arrogant jerk, but he really isn't that much of a BMOC[1] he thinks of himself as. In fact, he only picks on weaker students, which is very pathetic even for someone like me. This attitude tend to backfire a lot, so I don't need to worry about him as much as he needs to worry about himself.

=o=

1. Big Man On Campus. A term used to describe a well-known and influential male student, which Winchester barely qualified as. However, it is often used derisively towards someone deemed conceited, which described him more appropriately.

During lunch, I ate more excessively since I woke up late and didn't have time to take breakfast and just went to class after a quick shower. Nora was telling a story about one her of adventures with Ren, although judging by Ren's commentary, she didn't seem to be the most reliable of narrators. [1]

"So! There we were, in the middle of the night..." Nora told.

"It was day," Ren corrected, holding a mug with one of his palms.

"We were surrounded by Ursai..."

"They were Beowolves."

"Dozens of them!" She stood up, suddenly shouting and shocking everyone who was trying to peacefully enjoy their food.

"Two of 'em."

"But they were no match... And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!" she proudly finished her story as she sat down. Knowing how the Grimm work, I'm pretty sure those 'Ursa' skins stopped existing long before she claimed to have sold them.

"She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now." Ren sighed. I got to give it to him. He has been living with Nora for half of his life, while I was still doing my best to get used to her demeanor since day one. Thankfully, I was patient enough not to lose my temper on her and kept her on my good side since her strength and loyalty was essential to whatever madness this academy may bring.

"Jaune, do you need help with your grades?" Pyrrha asked.

No reason to lie about this, I have been planning to improve my grades, as they have become more of a problem recently. But as much as I want Pyrrha's help, I don't want her to overdo her assistance, otherwise, I'll be owing her a lot after what she'll go through and I don't think I'll be able to recompense her many favors. "Uh, yeah. But don't worry! I'll take care of it myself. It's my responsibility after all."

She hummed. "Well, if you ever need help, you can always come to me."

"Thanks, Pyrrha." I said before I went back into eating.

"Hey Jaune, has Cardin been bothering you a lot lately?" Ruby suddenly brought up, probably after remembering the ruckus that happened a few minutes ago.

"Who?" I asked as if he wasn't a big deal, which he really wasn't and shouldn't be treated as such. But that was about to change in a few more minutes thanks to my idiocy.

"Cardin Winchester? The guy who has been picking on you since the first week of school."

"Oh, him? He just likes to mess around. Nothing special about him at all."

"He's a bully."

Oh please, I thought. She was giving him way too much credit. I believed Losechester was nothing more than a minor nuisance at worst; almost everything he did to me is so petty, they could be easily ignored or fixed within the span of four seconds. I refuse to let him have a major impact on one part of my life. The only attention he deserved was the wrath of the Beacon staff.

"He's just an idiot. He's doing this because he wants my attention, and I am not going to give him what he wants. Just let him get bored or better yet, get himself punished soon enough." I said before turning around after hearing Cardin laugh. Speak of the devil.

Him and his lackeys picking on that rabbit girl, whose name I recalled to be Velvet or something. While he came off as your resident tough-guy wannabe to me, this showed me that he really was a bully to some. Though, if you ask me, that doesn't make him much more threatening; a simple tattle to Miss Goodwitch would be enough to wipe that dumb look on his face.

"Well, I hope you're right," Ruby scoffed.

"Atrocious, I cannot stand people like him," Pyrrha remarked as Blake glared at him.

"He's not the only one."

"Must be hard being a faunus," Yang chimed in.

"Well, we can't just sit here and watch!" Nora stood up before looking at me. "We need to do something!"

"Break his legs maybe? Psh. I dunno" I jokingly suggested as I go back to finishing my meal without thinking. I was about to tell her I was being sarcastic and that we should report this behavior to the faculty in seriousness when unfortunately...

"You got it, Leader!" she said before she started skipping towards the table where Cardin and Velvet were at.

This made me almost choke on my nuggets, realizing she took my word seriously and was heading off to carry the deed. Knowing Nora, she was crazy enough to actually do it and Cardin will surely blame me over it and worsen the hostilities between us, so I quickly followed her to Cardin's table."Nora! Wait—No! Stop!"

"Ow! That hurts!" Velvet grunted as Losechester pulled her ears. "Please stop."

"I told you it was real!" Cardin said with a despicable grin.

"Man, what a freak!" Russel, the one with the terrible mohawk, chimed in. I feel sorry that this guy and his other teammates has to spend the entire school year licking Cardin's dirty stinking boots. Being a bully's lackey is that sad.

Cardin was suddenly turned around by Nora before being pulled from his seat and being pushed to the ground. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

"I'm here to bring you to your doom!" She answered in a sinister-sounding voice (to her, at least) before grabbing one of his legs as she started to pull it while pushing his pelvis with her right foot, making Cardin grunt in pain. Before it was about to get any worse, I pulled Nora while Cardin's teammates were about to intervene, allowing Velvet to take her chance to run away from there.

"No, Nora, No! We are not breaking anyone's legs! I was only kidding when I said that," I told her as I kept pulling her away.

"He deserves it!" Nora said, struggling to get out of my arms. And boy, she's a heavy one.

"Nora. Stop. That's an order." I dissuaded, which made her stop resisting before letting her go.

That didn't stop her from continuing to provoke Cardin and his lackeys. "We're warning you, Cardin. If you don't stop, Jaune is going to kick your butt!"

"Nora…" I irritably sighed. What have I gotten myself into this time, I thought.

"Isn't that right, Ren?" She looked at Ren, who was behind me with Pyrrha and Ruby. The other three girls stood at the other side behind Cardin and his goons in case they got the wrong idea.

"Uh, that's fairly plausible," Ren said, and he was suppose to be the sensible one.

"Ren!" I yelled. I was trying to get Cardin to ignore me, and he wasn't exactly helping. I looked at Cardin and apologized. "Look, I am so sorry, we'll leave now."

I walked away with my team as Cardin and his team glared at me. I didn't want to make a scene, it will only give Cardin a legitimately good reason to hate me. Not to mention, it'll also get us in trouble for assaulting a fellow student outside of a friendly duel.

"Let's go, guys," I led my team out of the cafeteria. I groaned knowing that I have enraged Cardin, I don't think they are going to forget this anytime soon, let alone forgive me.

And it didn't take long for that to come back and bite me.

=o=

1. Reminds you of something, don't you think?

To prepare for Dust Studies, I went to my locker to grab my textbook and the essay I spent all night trying to finish. My team and most of the others were already waiting in class so I was the only person in the locker room.

At least that was what I thought.

When I was about to close my locker. I felt my hoodie get pulled off before I got pinned to another locker, I opened my eyes and saw Cardin grabbing by the collar of my hoodie along with his little band of juvenile hooligans behind him, one of them, Sky looked really nervous about this.

"You thought you were so funny back there, didn't you, Arc?" Cardin fumed.

I knew this would happen, just not this early. It was too cheap for him to ambush me while I was defenseless; I should have expected him to stoop that low. Losechester can waste his breath yelling at me for all he wanted for all I cared, I've dealt with worse. "Come on, I said I was sorry."

"Yeah, right, like I would believe that easily. Do you really think I'm that stupid?"

As a matter of fact, he kinda was. Not everyone got to Beacon because they had good grades or were impressive enough, some were able to attend because of their influential connections and just happened to be skilled enough to be accepted. Which explains why there were some mediocre students around here despite claiming that they only accept 'the best of the best'.

Yeah, nepotism. I wonder what kind of idiot would get into this school because one their family members said so?

Russel then swiped my essay. "Oh, what's this? Your essay for Professor Peach?" He chuckled. "Thanks, Cardin's been nagging me to make one of these for him. Nothing a simple name change and a reprint can't handle."

That is when I started to lose patience, I tolerated them for being petty morons and now they're really asking to get suspended. Maybe Cardin did deserve to have his legs broken after all. "Give that back, now!" I demanded, trying to struggle out from Cardin's grasp.

"Make me," Russel taunted.

"Guys, I think we're going a little too far," the one with the blue hair shuddered, I could already guess that this guy is the brains of this group because hewas the only one using it so far.

"Oh shut up, Sky! We need to show this little runt that Cardin Winchester is not to be messed with!" Cardin yelled.

"But he—"

"I don't care if you buy that stupid story from the news! He is going to pay for getting that stupid ginger of his to almost break my leg!"

Well, good to know that my one month of fame has expired, at least, probably because Northern Sanus found something else to obsess with. And calling Nora a stupid ginger would probably be the dumbest mistake he'd make if she was present. His legs won't be the only thing that would be broken, that I know of.

"Let's see how you like it when someone screws you over!" He then shoved me into my locker and closed it.

He was this much of a sore loser are you to do this over a dumb mistake. It's not like he had anything good to gain in doing this. "You're making a mistake, Cardin! Let me out now!"

"Not in a million years, bunny boy!" Cardin replied before a short pause. "Now… uh, how do you launch the lockers again?"

"Oh, you need to put in a separate code." Another voice answered, which was from Dove, I think.

"Dammit! And I thought it'll be that simple!" Cardin slammed my locker, which made me shake for a bit. "Alright Jauney-Boy, just tell your locker's launch code and just get this over with."

He had the gall to ask me that after what he did for me, then again he wasn't exactly that clever. I thought about tricking him into not using it which I thought was funny idea at the time. "Oh-five-one-four-three-one," I said in a mocking tone, making him think that I was trying to tell him the code that I would open my locker. Little did he know, that was actual launch code. If I learned anything about hiding the truth was that if you confessed in a way that makes people think you're not being serious, no one will believe it.

"Nice try, Jauney-boy but I'm not gonna open your locker for you."

His loss. If he is not putting that down, then he wasn't going to see anything blasting off in his little space program.

"Now tell me your launch codes so we could watch you fly! Or we'll…"

"Or what?" I asked with a smug grin on my face.

"Shut up! We'll…" Cardin paused. "Uh, any idea guys?"

There was no answer. I thought I got him good, that was before I realized I missed a crucial part part that immediately made me regret my decision and for not thinking this through.

He lost patience and smashed the keypad. "Screw this! I think you're better off staying there for a while, it's good enough for me!"

I forgot that he could just leave me here trapped. If I knew that earlier, I would have tricked him into opening this locker somehow. The lockers here don't have a latch from the inside in case someone got locked in. My dumb ass striked again and it was all too late.

"See you later, butthead! Have fun breathing in there and thanks for the essay!" Cardin mocked with laughter from his team followed while his face on the vents disappeared.

I saw Sky on the vents, he quickly looked at the side before whispering "I'm really sorry." He then quickly caught up to his teammates.

To make things worse, the bell rang, indicating that class was starting, making me late for Professor Peach's class without an essay to pass. I tried slamming the walls of the locker door and calling for help but it was no use, there was nobody in the locker room except me as everyone was now taking their class.

Taking out my scroll, I attempted to contact someone at my team to come and help me, only to get a screen that says 'Calling and Messaging are disabled during class hours', which made me bang my head at the door. Beacon systems were being counter-productive as usual. Couldn't they at least add an 'Emergency Call' feature in case of situations like this? [1] I can't launch myself out either because the staff didn't like the idea of student's playing with the rocket-propelled lockers during class except during circumstances where it would be tested or demonstrated.

I sighed and put the scroll back into the pocket and tried to ram the locker doors open which also failed since I heard that these lockers were made to survive long falls. I gave up and just accepted the fact that I was missing Professor Peach's class—in a claustrophobic locker with little ventilation no less.

If I had known this would happen, I would have let Nora break Cardin's legs. I don't care if I get in trouble, it's a lot better than being trapped in here.

=o=

1. The feature actually once existed, but it was removed by Ozpin when he discovered that students were abusing it. He thought that nobody needed it anyway, as nobody calls for help, and that as Huntsmen, students are expected to be capable of handling oneself during an unexpected event.

I spent an entire hour and a half trapped inside a locker when it felt longer than that. To say it was an unpleasant experience was an understatement; there was barely enough room for me to breathe in and I was wearing my armor at the time, which made the whole thing much more uncomfortable. It was also hot in there, I have been sweating since the first ten minutes that the back of my hoodie was drenched. I found myself almost passing out a couple of times out of suffocation because of how the little air I'm getting.

I ended up taking a nap to hopefully speed things up. I slowly woke up after hearing the bell, which sounded very wonderful at the time. I soon heard some familiar voices calling my name, the voices become much louder and audible, making it clear that they're in the locker room. I used my remaining strength to bang the door, signaling them to where I was

"Jaune!" I heard Pyrrha's voice as I heard footsteps become increasingly rapid and louder, they stopped after I saw the reassuring faces of my teammates through the vent, albeit barely since the opening allows for a limited view. "Jaune, are you okay?"

"Two…nine…" I cracked my voice, mouthing off the numbers of my locker's code with every breath I still had.

"Jaune, what are you—?"

"Quiet!" Ren interjected, gesturing for everyone to concentrate on my broken speech. If there was a time that I had to appreciate Ren's stoic professionalism it was now.

"…six…three…oh…one."

"Two-nine-six-three-zero-one! Type it in!" Ren directed. Pyrrha nodded and typed the code I gave them.

The locker doors opened, I inhaled deeply as I stepped out before collapsing. They turned me around to face the ceiling. I panted heavily as I gazed at my teammates squatting in front of me while I lie on the ground, exhaling as much air as possible. "Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked.

"You look a little red!" Nora said.

"Wa...ter…" I breathed out in desperate need for hydration.

"He needs water now!" Ren pointed.

"Okie-Doke'!" Nora zoomed away and almost immediately returned with a bottle of water. "Done!"

Pyrrha took the bottle from Nora and opened its cap before feeding it to me. "Here"

I grabbed hold of the bottle and chugged all of its contents within mere seconds that some of them ended up spilling. Spending ninety minutes caged in a tight locker can dehydrate you pretty quick. "Thanks," I continued panting still feeling thirsty. "More please."

"Aye!" Nora saluted before zooming out again. Ren and Pyrrha helped me up, I leaned at the nearest locker as I was having trouble trying to balance myself as I was still suffering from the headache I just got. "I'll get you a towel," Ren bolted out.

"What happened? You were missing last class, we were so worried." Pyrrha questioned. "Let me guess… Cardin."

I nodded, scowling at the thought of his face. Pyrrha's hands gripped and her eyes narrowed. "That Winchester… He went too far, you know I will really break his legs," she stated. At that point, I would have allowed her and gladly watched them fight but digressed because I believe he deserves a more severe punishment.

Nora came back with three water bottles, one of them standing above her head. "Here ya go!"

"Thanks again," I said to Nora before taking the bottles and drank back my strength and lowered my body temperature. Ren also came back and gave me a white towel.

"What were you doing there anyway?" Nora asked.

"Cardin," I simply answered while wiping the sweat off my forehead.

"Oh, that does it! Just say the word and I'll break his legs!" She fisted her own palm, eager to finish what she tried to do back at that cafeteria.

"You'll get your chance, Nora, but right now I need to talk to Professor Goodwitch," I said. As much as I want to confront Cardin and have Nora go berserk on him and his team, I needed to snitch on him first and make this whole mess clear to Miss Goodwitch. Damn birdman just stole an essay I spent all night working on for crying out loud. I needed to be realistic and if there's one thing Cardin was scared of, then it's the staff. He was going to get punished one way or the other. "Get to combat class, I'll meet you all there."

Ren and Nora nodded before heading out. Pyrrha meanwhile held to my shoulders. "Take care this time."

I nodded at her advice before she followed her teammates. I went to the hallways and waited for Miss Goodwitch. She then appeared a few minutes later, holding her tablet as usual. I approached her before she managed to get to the combat hall. It took some guts approaching someone like her since she's basically that one dreaded teacher found in school, but she's mostly doing her job trying to look over a school full of brats with wacky weapons, and I can't exactly blame her for her disciplinarian attitude. Someone has to remind these kids that embracing Huntsman individuality does not mean you are free to commit reckless tomfoolery at all times after all. "Professor Goodwitch, can you excuse me for a second?"

"Mr. Arc! Professor Peach recently reported that you were absent from her class," she scolded. "You better explain yourself!"

'I was busy rethinking my whole life in my locker,' I'd answer, but I didn't think she was in a mood for that kind of sass, besides I really needed to get to the point. "I'm sorry ma'am, I would have attended had not Cardin Winchester and his team trapped me in my own locker. I couldn't call for help because scrolls are disabled during class." I explained.

She sighed, albeit with some sympathy for me. "Mr. Arc, those are some bold claims to accuse your fellow students of such a heinous act, however, I'm willing to believe you because Mr. Winchester has been a nuisance recently."

That was reassuring. All I wanted was to see Cardin pay for making me stay at my locker and stealing my essay. That crossed the line enough for me.

"But even if they're true. I cannot do anything at the moment, I am occupied with commencing today's class which is vital as it reintroduces the combat matches from last month. Mr. Winchester will be given a trial once this class is complete."

That didn't go as well as I hoped but it was still good enough for me. "I understand, professor."

"Which begs the question," she adjusted her glasses. "Haven't you been able to defend yourself against Winchester then? This school assumes that you are capable of standing your own ground."

"I was caught off-guard, ma'am. I was unarmed and they had me bound and surrounded. I was not able to fight back." I explained, the whole thing was so sudden that I wasn't able to plan it out properly. In hindsight, I should have saw it coming.

She sighed again. "Honorless ruffians. I guess that's understandable."

"He also stole my essay for Dust Studies and passed it off as his own," I added, making sure she knew how it was the last nail in the coffin. I didn't actually care if it was too late to get those grades as long as Cardin wasn't getting any of them.

Her brow raised. "Is that true?"

"He reprinted it with his name, I still have the original document on my computer, which was marked as written on an earlier date. I can't show it to you now of course."

"I'll look into it then," she made a slight nod in acknowledgement, and as we were about to close this conversation something else came to her mind. "Say, do you want to face Cardin today in a fair match?"

I was almost shocked when she asked me that. "Excuse me, professor?"

"You said you were not given a chance to defend yourself when he tormented you. I thought it'd be fitting when he finds out what he was up against before I give him some proper punishment. That way, he would learn humility while we discipline him," she almost making a slight grin at that suggestion as if to tell me she would be very glad to see him humbled.

I thought about it for a brief moment before deciding to settle with it. I was too infuriated at him that I didn't feel like pretending to be peaceful or helpless. I wanted to have a taste for vengeance for once. It would at least encourage everyone to leave me alone. "I'd be delighted to."

"Good. Your match will be the last one before the end of the class. Students like Winchester needs to be reminded that Beacon is no place for bullies. I'm glad Caiaphas Arc's son would do the honors," she said. Mentioning my father's name took a slight hit to my confidence as I still wasn't sure if I could even deliver on his legacy but my mind was too focused on Cardin at that moment.

"Thank you, ma'am," I nodded.

"And don't think I have forgotten about your grades, young man. Your theoretical performances are still mediocre at best." she then bluntly prompted.

Since I expected her to eventually bring that up, I wasn't exactly fazed by her reminder. "Of course, ma'am." I nodded.

"Now, proceed to class. I will follow shortly."

It went easier than anticipated. I thought that it would take more persuading for Miss Goodwitch to take action, but it turned out, it seems that we have a mutual infuriation towards Losechester's antics that we were able to settle in a agreement without much trouble.

I ran to the combat hall and went inside and saw Nora and Losechester trying to strike at each other while Ren does his best to restrain them both with Pyrrha and Cardin's goons standing behind their respective teammates. Some students who were watching seemed eager for a fight while others looked concerned that they were distancing themselves away from them.

"You're freaking insane, do you know that?!" Cardin shouted as Nora was aiming to choke his own neck.

"Better than being a no-good bully!" She retorted.

Ren did his best pushing back both parties from each other. "Both of you, Get. A. Grip!"

"I agree. As much as I want to see this vermin get what he deserves. We mustn't get in trouble. We should save it for a match." Pyrrha chimed in before turning her gaze at me. They all suddenly stopped after they saw me approaching them.

"Ah, look who it is," Cardin took the opportunity grab away Nora's arm from his neck before slowly walking toward me. "So how's your stay at—", he was interrupted by Pyrrha who stood in his way as she scowled at him. I could almost feel him cover up his own apprehension of her by taunting me. "What's the matter? Need your girlfriend to fight your battles for you?"

I tried to respond but Pyrrha beat me to it. "You have gotten one step too far with him, Winchester."

"You didn't like how I repaid Jauney-boy for almost breaking my legs? Don't worry there is more where that came from," He's scoffed. Can't wait. Hopefully, you won't get suspended or even expelled so I can see how you pull it off, I sardonically thought.

"If you know what's good for you, you better start leaving us alone!" Pyrrha shouted right before the doors of the entrance opened as Miss Goodwitch entered the room and saw all of us standing.

"All of you, please be seated," Miss Goodwitch said with a stoic face as she went down the stairs of the combat hall.

"But Prof—", Nora tried to explain before Miss Goodwitch raised her hand.

"No excuses. If you're holding a grudge you can save it for a match," she said, not even turning her head toward her. Nora groaned but knew she couldn't do anything at the moment and obeyed her word. Ren sat down with her and patted her back.

"Hmph. I think you'll learn not to mess with me better in actual combat. I'll show you how I could have saved Pucelle better than you did." Cardin smirked as he brought up that event, as if there was something to be proud of given on how much he would have died if he wasn't as lucky as I was.

To give an impression of someone nervous, I responded with a gulp. Not that I'm actually scared of Losechester, I wanted him to underestimate me, so he could act as smug as possible before wiping the floor with it.

"Watch yourself, Jauney-boy," he walked away with his peers, with Sky nervously looking back. Pyrrha continued to scowl at him, but I told her to calm down and walked her to our seats beside Ren and Nora.

"How disgusting." she crossed her arms, still angry over Cardin.

"Don't worry, Pyrrha! Justice will soon be brought to Cardin and our team's dignity will never falter!" Nora said. "Jaune, just say the word and I will break his legs!"

As much as I want to see Losechester in a wheelchair. I'm still going to plan to get back to him through legal means, and I needed to inform them that. "Actually, you don't need to do anything. I have it all figured it out." I turned to my teammates and gave them a smirk.

Nora was confused before her face shifted into an evil grin. "Ohh, I like where this is going. The suspense is killing me!" she said, rubbed both of her hands in a rather dastardly manner.

"You won't be disappointed." I nodded.

"So, what are you planning to do?" Pyrrha inquired.

"Just wait and see."

We all went to our seats, directing our attention to Miss Goodwitch, who was now in the arena, conducting her class. "Good afternoon, students. I'm sure you're all excited to know that today we are resuming combat matches for this class."

"Woo!" Nora cheered along some other students thirsting for some action.

"But first, since we have plenty of time. You still have to do some warm-up exercises first as usual and spend half of another hour reviewing what you've learned for the past month."

The same people who cheered, including Nora, groaned. Nevertheless, they were still excited that combat matches are back.

"You already know the drill, so it is best for you to be on with it if you wanted the matches to start sooner."

We all lined up outside the classroom to start our daily warm-ups for combat class. Cardin looked back and sneered at me, I coldly looked back as I planned on how to beat him in the match. I had most of everyone's combat styles and moves noted, Cardin was no exception. He was one of those people who believe themselves to be superior to everyone, which would surely cause him not to fight too seriously to anyone he perceived to be weaker than himself. If I take that to my advantage, then the fight has already been won.

Combat class is a favorite among Huntsmen-in-training, and for good reason; it is practical, entertaining and educational that it's no mystery why it's two times longer than other classes. Even I find myself attached to the subject since it gives me insight into my classmate's fighting ability as I take note of them as it may be proved beneficial for the future.

Today, my knowledge of other students would be put to the test, particularly Cardin's. When I was observing him during this class for the past month, I learned that he uses a large mace that apparently could release explosions on impact, which tells me that I have to be careful when blocking it with my shield. Thankfully, Mom's shield is known to be almost indestructible, I saw her demonstrate it against missiles and lasers and it still remained intact with barely a scratch. Plus, his mace is shown to be heavy, added the fact that he was an armor that weighs him and while that made him durable, it came with the cost of his mobility. In short, I actually didn't need to worry about him that much. Since I was able to win against dad, my sisters and a bandit lord, this would be child's play by comparison.

The last hour of combat training was spent on matches, which were exciting to the bloodthirsty students since they were finally able to fight and be graded in the process. A lot of students has always been obsessed with strength and would often compete over who is the strongest, never mind that strength by itself is only a contributing factor to victory along with everything else and it wouldn't mean much if you don't have the appropriate smarts and strategies to back it up because charging in headfirst with all your might and yelling your attacks without much thinking will only get you nowhere other than a hospital bed. If only the hot-blooded idiots with bad hair knew this. It's no wonder why Huntsmen tend to die in droves despite being far more powerful than your average living being.

So far, the fights have been one versus one, probably because Miss Goodwitch wanted to go easy with the fights for today and wanted to see what the students learned when fighting alone. I noticed Team CRDL trying to get themselves volunteered which Miss Goodwitch did her best to ignore since she's saving Cardin to face me for the last match before the class ends.

"Maus Itter's aura is in the red. Piper Rivers has been declared winner." Miss Goodwitch announced after the lights went back on.

The two participants return back to their seat before Miss Goodwitch stepped back in the arena. "We still have time for one more match before we could conclude this class."

I took a deep breath as I prepared for my name and Cardin to be called. I've been twiddling my thumbs over it ever since class started.

"Jaune Arc of Team JNPR. Cardin Winchester of Team CRDL, please enter the arena."

As I was about to stand up, Pyrrha held my shoulder, turning my gaze at her emerald eyes. "Be careful, Jaune," she said. I always found her comfort to be welcoming. It always gave me a soothing feeling in what would be an otherwise stressing situation.

Well, that feeling was quickly replaced once Nora started shouting her encouragements. "Get him a body bag, Fearless Leader!" That got dark. Another reason to be glad that Nora is on my side, if she had her way, Cardin would have been to the infirmary by now. He should be thankful that I'm challenging him to a fair fight especially since I don't actually believe in all that honor crap.

I walked toward the arena, unsheathing my sword and collapsing my shield. While feigning anxiety to give Cardin a false impression of an inadequate joke who don't even deserved to be fought with all his capabilities, looking at his stupid overconfident smile as I faced him on the arena.

I know that this was going to get the professor's attention, but they already know who I am and what my team was capable of, and I'm sure Ozpin has been making plans for me the moment he formed my team. So there wasn't anything to worry about that I already have; if they see me as an accomplished warrior and expected me to act like one, then so be it, I just wanted Cardin off my back.

"Hey, Jauney-boy. Do me a favor and don't concede early." Cardin scoffed, leaning his mace at his shoulder.

"I don't plan to, Cardin. Just please take it easy." I said somewhat confidently while still feigning anxiety to get him to underestimate me.

"Heh. Maybe. But only because you're so pitiful, I'll be only gentle for a bit, don't you worry."

Looks like I got him where I want, I thought. The Next thing for me to do was make this moment something he would not forget.

I gave a nervous chuckle to delude Cardin for the last time. The lights outside the arena turn off, holographic screens showing both of our aura gauges emerged. I gave a faint smirk, knowing how this would go.

"Ready? Begin!" Miss Goodwitch commenced.

I held my sword tight and remained calm as Cardin horizontally swung his mace aiming toward my face which I dodged right in time then used my shield to uppercut his face, pushing him back. He shook his head, not knowing what just happened.

The next thing he saw after clearing his vision was me stepping forward before giving him a series of rapid slashes which he was too stunned to counter, quickly draining his aura. He stumbled back before getting angry and charged, trying to slam me with his mace, which I dodged by simply sidestepping, barely affected the mini-explosion he caused. Once he turned to me, I bashed his face with my shield twice before swinging my left arm sideways, striking him with my shield rim and knocking him to the ground.

"Consider this my free notes for ya'," I leaned toward him with a smirk.

He opened his eyes and looked at his screen, he was shocked to see that his aura levels were already at the red and mine were still full, it was already over.

"WHAT THE FU—!"

The buzzer rang and the lights turned back on before anyone knew it. I heard the audience murmuring shock, amazement, and confusion. I guess the so-called Defender of Podunk was back with vengeance, though, I have pretty much gotten to the point where it barely bothers me. As shameful and undeserving it is, being on a pedestal does have some of its perks, and this was one of the only times where I wasn't ashamed of capitalizing on it.

Honestly, I was pretty scared that it wouldn't work out as planned, but it turned out to be comically easy since Dad and even my non-Huntsman sisters with limited training offered more challenge when sparring with them. Hearing Cardin scream in agony was pretty satisfying too. Cardin was too stupid and angry to be a serious threat. I know his type, they're the kind of jackasses who strives from picking on those who are seemingly weaker than him to hide the fact that he was a pathetic excuse of a living being who'd otherwise get his ass handed to him in every other situation. Sometimes I wonder why I had to wait until this moment to teach him a lesson if it was that easy, it could have saved me the trouble.

"Jaune Arc wins the match… by flawless victory within thirteen seconds… A new record among freshmen," Miss Goodwitch announced, sounding just as surprised as everyone else.

There was an awkward silence in the audience until clapping was heard from Nora. "That's our Fearless Leader!" The rest of my team joined in followed by Team RWBY then the rest of the class. Some shouts and whistles were heard during the applause.

Cardin gripped his hands and tried to get up, needless to say, he wasn't pleased getting beaten by someone who he taught was someone who was lower than dirt in thirteen seconds. "What?! No!"

"Class." Miss Goodwitch uttered, which silenced the audience. "Cardin, were you aware of who you just faced?"

"Does it really matter?" He responded bitterly, whose body was faltering after recently getting beat up.

"He is the son of Caiaphas Arc! One of the most exceptionally skilled individuals I know. Being trained under him, you were outmatched the moment you faced him, added that you let your guard down hence why he was able to defeat you within seconds. Did the introductory match with Miss Hisakawa teach you nothing?"

Cardin had no answer, he just stared at her, faintly grunting.

Miss Goodwitch continued. "Mr. Winchester, while you have proven yourself to have fighting skills sufficient enough for acceptance within this academy. You need to humble yourself. Arrogance is one of the leading causes of death in the field, along with incompetence."

Cardin just distraughtly looked at the ground. Miss Goodwitch then turned her gaze toward me. "Mr. Arc, due to your background, I anticipated that you'll be able to handle this skillfully, but even then you have still managed to catch my surprise."

"Oh, it was nothing. I only followed what I learned from my father." I said as modestly as I could. In hindsight, that might not have been the best response to avoid more trouble.

"Is that so?" she mused. "I guess one opponent must have been too easy for you. Since we still have time, you could show the class how one extraordinarily skilled warrior could handle several opponents."

Those words stuck me like venomous lighting. It was enough to put me in a state of shock, disbelief and terror that the satisfaction and adrenaline of defeating Cardin disappeared within me the second she stated that.

She turned to the audience. "Since the match ended rather too quickly. We will have another match. Only this time, Jaune will face the rest of Cardin's team, since the last match was proven to be too trivial for him and his aura levels are still full. Of course, he will fight by himself; I believe this an adequate enough handicap for him to give us a fairer fight."

The class cheered with anticipation. Meanwhile, my jaw dropped as my mind went into a panic while trying to remain calm as I didn't want them noticing my insecurities and get them to exploit it. I was not able to anticipate facing everyone else on Cardin's band of delinquents after humiliating him. I should have known that defeating Cardin without holding back would eventually backfire. I really wasn't sure if I could handle his teammates ganging up on me.

"Would the rest of Team CRDL kindly enter the arena?" Miss Goodwitch said. Russel and Dove stood up and dragged Sky into following since he was too hesitant to go. "Mr. Winchester. Please return to your seat and rest. Your team will take care of this."

He angrily hobbled out of the arena. "You won this one, Arc." Cardin spat when he passed through me. He approached his teammates who just came out of the entrance. "Crush him."

His team minus Sky nodded. They all pulled out their respective weapons; Russel with his dual daggers with dust chambers, à la Weiss' rapier. Dove with his sword-revolver, which is actually a decent weapon if you ask me. And finally Sky's weapon, which is a halberd-rifle like Bleu's weapon, which meant I already know how to counter it, especially considering that Sky is less-skilled and far more anxious than Bleu, who was already a full-fledged Huntress when she challenged me. Russel and Dove both have faces with vengeance written all over them, Sky, of course, was meanwhile whimpering.

"You just wasted your luck on the last match, bunny jacket. Big mistake thinking you can get back on us." Russel said.

"Yeah, you should know your place, nerd!" Dove dissed.

Nerd? I thought. I refuse to believe that he was being serious when insulting me with that and it made me feel less pathetic. Say what you want about me, but at least I don't use insults that sound like they came from crappy high school dramas that were written by out-of-touch 40-something adults. And with that, my apprehensions against them deteriorated and it almost motivated me into wanting to punish them for calling me with a less-than-original insult.

"Hey, uh, just so you know, this isn't anything personal." Sky said to me.

"What was that, Sky?" Russel turned to him.

"Uh, nothing."

Just as I thought I was done with birds. I went back into my battle stance and told myself to remember my training. Being somewhat familiar with these idiots and without Cardin's leadership, they'll all be focused on trying to put me down without regard to tactics. [1]

"You can do it, Jaune!" Pyrrha motivated.

"Yeah, show them who's boss!" Nora stood raising her fist.

"We believe in you!" Ruby cheered.

All the lights on the room, barring the one on the arena, of course, all turned off while Cardin's aura screen changed to show all of his teammate's aura gauges as well another gauge that represents the team's overall aura. Miss Goodwitch then started giving out the instructions.

"This will be a three versus one battle. You will be given five minutes for this match. When the timer runs out, whichever team that has the most aura combined wins assuming an entire team hasn't been knocked out by then. Have I made myself clear?" All of us nodded, and with that she officially declared a match. "Good. You may begin when ready."

We continued staring at each other for a few more seconds when all of a sudden, Russel fired a round of fire dust which I blocked just right in time. Lowering my shield, I saw him running towards me before leaping, ready to thrust both of his daggers in a reverse grip. I raised my shield again and blocked his strike before using it to push him back, I went on to parry all of his attacks with my sword before looking at my right and saw Dove approaching me as he was about to swing down his sword. I deflected him mid-swing with my own sword and parried his following attacks while fending off Russel with my shield.

Dove suddenly rushed back and switched his weapon to a gun mode, I quickly bashed Russel's face with my shield before turning my shield towards Dove and blocking his gunshots. I then sensed something coming towards my legs so I leaped up and looked down and saw a halberd sweeping near the ground. I turned my head back and saw Sky giving a nervous chuckle. I chose to ignore him for the moment since he was already shaken and that his buddies were still actively trying to pin me down. A bullet ran near my face, making me look back at Dove who quickly started reloading since his chamber ran out. I used this opportunity to focus on Russel who attempted to flank me from the other side.

I blocked his flurry of slashes with my sword before clashing with him as I continued to block Dove's gunshots at the back until he switched back to his sword and tried to strike, I quickly turned around while swinging my shield at Russel's face as I parried Dove's attack. I suddenly heard a gunshot and quickly turned towards Sky with the shield covering me. I then bashed the shield on Dove, trembling him back and making him open to attack.

After giving him a few slashes, I quickly dodged back from a thrust from Sky's halberd before clashing blades with Russel at the back. He flipped back and started firing electric dust which made me dart around the room before I got close to him, causing him to stop and jump to the side before lunging at me while rolling in mid-air.

No, I don't think so, I thought. I caught him with my shield and shoved him to my back, making him fall to the ground before I sliced his aura to the red while he was lying.

"Russel Thrush is out for the match!" Miss Goodwitch announced.

"Dammit!" Russel cursed as he slammed the floor.

"Bunny jacket one, mohawk zero." I smirked at him, referencing his last taunt to add insult to injury, literally in this case. All he could do was glare helplessly.

One down, two to go. I looked at Dove and Sky, who was furious and frightened respectively. I bolted toward them while they tried to shoot me down with their guns. I engaged Sky who went to block my slash with his polearm, before turning my attention to Dove, using my shield to bash away his defense then turning back, shoving away the tip of Sky's weapon before it fired and pushed him back. I went back to Dove and swung my sword, causing him to block and parry before sweeping his legs under him, collapsing him to the ground. I gave him one last swing of my sword as his aura lowered to the red.

"Should have kept your eyes open," I said, I always wondered why he looked like he always kept his eyes shut, or maybe it's just me.

"Dove Bronzewing is out! Only Sky Lark remains on Team 2!" Miss Goodwitch announced. The screen showing Team _RDL's aura has Russel and Dove both crossed out with Sky being only one left. The team's overall aura is at the orange, with only a third of it remaining.

"Time to bring down the sky." Making my one last I quip, I turned my gaze towards him, who was shuddering like there was no tomorrow. Since he was the least worse among the team in terms of personality and the only one there who thought this entire thing is a farce, I'll go easy on him. I stormed towards him and proceeded to overwhelm him with a flurry of slashes. He wasn't able to attack since he was too occupied trying to block everything I threw at him. Eventually, he had enough and threw the towel while his aura was still light-green.

"This is hopeless!" He yelled. "I yield!"

The buzzer rang and lights turned back on as Miss Goodwitch walked back to the arena "Jaune Arc has once again, won the match."

The room was bombarded with applause, I looked at my team and saw Pyrrha standing up and clapping as hard as she could while Nora jumped while raising her fist to the air then giving Ren a hug who was noticeably smiling. The only person who wasn't who wasn't cheering was obviously Cardin, who was sitting with his arms folded, glowering at his team's failure.

"Good work. Mr. Arc. As expected from your family. You truly are an exceptional fighter." Miss Goodwitch commended.

Taking on Cardin's entire team wasn't the plan at all. I chose to follow my training instincts and win because I had to meet their expectations and Car-dimwit would continue harassing me with more ammunition if I lost. Team CRDL mostly lost because they were over their heads. Had they been someone else and more serious, I would have needed more luck to win.

"Mr. Lark. While you chose to make a decision that is normally frowned upon, I cannot blame you for it. I am somewhat pleased to know that you're aware that you have little chance of winning and accepted defeat." She then looked at Russel and Dove, who both were standing on the sidelines, flustered and shaken by their defeat. "As for the rest of you. You need to plan your attacks if you are to face someone who is levels above you. Just because an opponent is outnumbered, it doesn't instantly mean you have the upper hand. A skilled individual can make a quantity of a group meaningless."

"Can we go back to our seats now?" Russel whined.

"Not yet. You still have something to answer for. That goes the same for you, Mr. Arc." Miss Goodwitch responded, and I already knew where this is all headed to.

She turned back to the audience. "That is all for the day. Remember, everyone—the Vytal Festival is only a few months away. It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale!" she announced, exciting the students; most notably, Team RWBY, who were all pumped up after the mention of the tournament. Blake meanwhile, looked just as disinterested as ever.

The bell rang, ending all of the classes for today. Everyone left the combat hall so they could spend the rest of the day for themselves. Of course, me and Team CRDL stayed after class because of some unfinished business. The juvenile delinquents were lined up facing Miss Goodwitch's unimpressed face as I stood beside her.

"Cardin Winchester. While you and your friends of yours have been causing ruckus since the first day. I cannot be more disgusted with your behaviors of what you did to Mr. Arc a few hours ago," Miss Goodwitch scolded.

"But, ma'am. Even if that's true, then shouldn't Jaune be able to fend for himself. After all, he is an exceptional fighter, was he?" He replied while making an insulting parody of a innocent smile.

Miss Goodwitch's eyes further narrowed. "Mr. Winchester, answer me this honestly: Do you think I'm stupid?"

Cardin flinched as he lost his grin and started to whimper that he couldn't answer. Miss Goodwitch continues to berate him. "Mr. Arc has already proven to be superior against you and your team. I'm sure Mr. Arc would have taken care of you. But he has the excuse of not being able to fight as he was unarmed and ambushed. Now normally, I would stay out of student's personal affairs as they are expected to deal with them themselves, but after hearing that you stole a student's essay and passing it as your own has caught my ire. Is that true?"

The quartet continued to shudder and sweat profoundly at the stern witch. "Don't try to lie. Know that I would eventually find out the truth, and if you ever tried to hide it from me, you will know why my enemies sometime call me 'The Wicked Witch'." she intimidated.

They looked at each other before giving in, making Cardin and Russel give a dim nod. "As I have suspected. Are you all trying to get expelled?! I cannot be more disappointed in you four right now. You will all stay at detention for the day. As for Mr. Winchester, you would be staying in detention for a week, I will also make sure that the essay you submitted to Professor Peach would not be graded, as they rightfully belonged to Mr. Arc."

Cardin was furious, but knew he could do nothing, so all he did was look down with the rest of his team.

"Now, I want you all to apologize to Mr. Arc here." She slightly and gently pushed me toward them which I didn't thought was necessary at all.

Cardin rolled his eyes and sighed. "Sorry, Jauney-boy." he said, disingenuously, of course…

"Politely…" Miss Goodwitch urged as her eyes narrowed further.

He groaned before apologizing again. "Alright, Alright! I'm sorry for being such a jerk, Jaune!"

"Yeah, sorry." Russel followed.

"I regret this…" Dove said.

"No hard feelings, right?" Sky weakly grinned.

"Good." She turned to me. "Mr. Arc, you may go now. You four stay. I am still not done with you."

I nodded before walking to the exit. I looked at them out of pity and saw Cardin's gaze still distraught at me. I shrugged it off and left the room. He had a lot to think about, so I'll let him take the hint. I had enough of them for the day and I wanted to refresh my mind after everything that happened these past hours and I got what I came for.

After walking out the exit of the combat hall, I was greeted by the sight of my team and Team RWBY. All, where still congratulating me on my recent win. "Here he is, the bane of CRDL!" Nora bounced.

Pyrrha went at my side with a satisfied look. "You did great, Jaune. I'm so proud of you."

"Looks like Cardin won't bother you for a while," Ren commented.

"Yeah! You showed those mean ole' bullies who they were messing with!" Nora cheered.

"You were amazing! You beat all of them with barely a scratch! Oh, you have got to teach me some time!" Ruby squealed.

"Looks like Vomit-Boy has promoted himself to Vomit-Man!" Yang quipped.

I could only smile at the praise my friends were giving me. "Thanks, guys, really. But I only did what I should be doing. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, after all."

"Oh, don't put yourself down, lady-killer. You beheaded a giant bird and put some birds to their place. I'd say you're just good at what you do." Yang tapped the back of my armor. "I guess Cardin was a little jaundiced, eh?"

There was not a single laugh or groan but instead silent stares of confusion. I wasn't even sure if that was a joke at all. "Oh for fu—fudge's sake!" She swore. "I know some of you eggheads got that! Is it that right, Weiss-cream?"

"Do you seriously study the dictionary to make your puns?" Weiss responded.

"Hey, at least I try!"

I chuckled for a bit before getting my team to accompany me out. I needed a break after beating a bunch of bullies and I still have another essay to write which I only had because Cardin wouldn't stop harassing me that class, and I want to finish soon so I don't end up sleeping tomorrow, and not because of some mustached professor's tall tales.

At least after this, him and his lackeys are now the least of my problems. I can now focus on problems that actually matter.

=o=

1. Knowing Winchester's tactical knowledge. I doubt it would make much of a difference.

After that eventful day, Cardin and his team were noticeably quiet, not starting any trouble like they would normally do. Velvet was even surprised that he and his team just walked past her without a word or anything since she was a usual victim of his tormenting. I guess they learned their lesson yesterday and was hit hard by Miss Goodwitch's disciplinary action. Which is a relief, because it means I don't have to keep my head down for any more incoming spitballs. That immature crap was one of the few things that actually nag me about Cardin.

Professor Peach pardoned me for being absent from her class yesterday after she was informed of what happened. She had my essay graded for myself instead of Cardin. Though, she reminded me that I still have a lot to make up for since my performance in Dust Studies wasn't exactly the best. She also announced that the class would have a field trip to Forever Falls on the following day starting after recess and ends at dismissal, which meant there won't be combat class for the day but Miss Goodwitch agreed to chaperone us during the trip.

I spent my time after class catching up with my studies, which also meant that team training had to be postponed. Nevertheless, my team decided to help me, even though they don't have to since they owe me nothing. It's probably because I acted too much of a good leader to them that they're always here to help. While I'm grateful for that, I'm worried that we'll never be even, they'll spend these years saving my rear and I find myself guilty that I may never properly repay them, hence I never felt comfortable getting help from people who were supposed to be my glorified meatshields.

When the field trip began. We traveled to Forever Fall via airship, which was a sight that I did not miss after remembering my past travel with it. Although the trip was short, lasting around only ten minutes or so, I was doing my best not to repeat the incident that happened on the first day; Ruby and Yang noticeably even kept a distance from me during the duration of the flight. When we arrived, I left the airship with some minor headache, but I thankfully didn't throw up for once.

"Here we are students, Forever Fall! Now I want all of you to follow me and stay with your team, I don't want any of you wandering off," Miss Goodwitch said.

Forever Fall. While it's somewhat of an odd forest, having red grass and leaves instead of green, there was barely anything out of the ordinary at all. Aside from a few Grimm since it's the wilderness.

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so." Miss Goodwitch stated while we were following her in the forest before halting after she turned back.

Cardin bumped on me while carrying a case with empty jars on it. He gave me a scowl before moving along. That seemed to have annoyed Miss Goodwitch, who wanted to make sure that he learned his lesson the other day. "Be careful, Cardin. Those are fragile." Miss Goodwitch warned before turning back to the whole class. "Each of you is to gather one jar worth of red sap," she pulled out a jar filled with red fluids. "However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm—so be sure to stay by your teammates and try to suppress any negative emotions."

Of course, it wouldn't be a forest without the Grimm lurking around and ruining nature. I checked my belt to make sure I still have my sword and scabbard. Can't afford to let your guard down these days.

"We will rendezvous back here at sixteen hundred hours. Have fun!"

While the class split into their respective teams, I had mine accompany Team RWBY just to be safe and convinced them that it was more the merrier. They didn't seem to mind since we were close since the first week, not to mention Ruby wanted her team to get to know us better. This outdoor activity was a great opportunity for both of our teams to learn to how to work cohesively as allies.

For whatever reason, I didn't feel comfortable collecting sap—I suspect that I might be allergic to this stuff. When I filled my first jar, I already wanted to give up. This stuff could potentially kill me and I could not imagine anyone drinking this. I almost feel like I would rather take another airship ride than to touch sap again. The worst part was since they are sweets, they also mean that wasps are aggresively attracted to them, so there are some places in the forests swarming with wasps and these are places you want to avoid while collecting sap.

I looked at my surroundings and saw the other fill their first jar. Ren went to fill another jar after giving one to Nora, who chugged all of it even before Ren could add a drop with the other jar. Of course, I thought with slight repulsion.

Looking back into my jar, I found out that it was suddenly opened and empty. I shook my head to assure that my vision was not playing with my head and looked closer and saw that it really was empty. I looked at my side and saw Nora with her mouth covered in sap. "Mmm."

"Nora!" I yelled.

"Oops, sorry!" she giggled before dashing away.

I was more surprised that she was able to digest these things than annoyed that one of my jars was effortlessly consumed by my hyperactive teammate before I even knew it. Nora was definitely being...herself for a lack of a term that wouldn't sound too derogatory. At least I don't have to deal with six more of them, well, Ruby might count since she is basically 'Nora: Lite', but she's not in my team and her enthusiasm is more uplifting than annoying. [1]

"Need help?" Pyrrha asked as she approached me.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," I replied, trying to collect more sap and suddenly feeling disoriented again. "I think I'm allergic to this stuff though."

She analyzed me for a second and noticed my somewhat less-than-ideal state. "Huh. Looks like you do need help. Well, Nora drank all of my sap too. So how about you let me—."

"No no no, it's alright. We just need one sap. I'm sure it wouldn't kill me to fill another one up." I insisted.

"Oh. Okay. If you say so then." She looked down.

At that moment, I thought I made her believe that she was bothering me with her desire to help me out. So, I gave her an assurance that I'm still glad to have her by my side. "Hey, Pyrrha."

"Yes, Jaune?"

"I want to thank you for supporting me after all these days. I really appreciate it. Just don't push yourself too hard, okay?"

Her face brightened after that. "It was my pleasure, Jaune. But you shouldn't push yourself too hard as well. It's just that—you have been having trouble these past couple days and you have been refusing help from us. I'm worried."

"Hey, I'm an Arc. I can solve my own problems. You don't need to worry much about me," I smiled.

She chuckled. "Well, I hope you're right, Mister Arc."

I tried to answer with good humor. "No need for formalities, Miss Nikos. After all, I—" I was interrupted when I felt something sting at my back. I touched it to see what it was and saw red fluids on my fingers. Turning around, I saw shattered glass on the ground. I looked up and saw Team CRDL pointing and laughing at me.

They had the audacity of doing that after serving detention and while their leader was still serving it. It's almost as if they want another term especially since Miss Goodwitch was not far from us, and they seem to have no concern over being caught while doing it. A pretty stupid way to exact petty revenge if you ask me.

"Oh, that does it." Pyrrha started marching toward them.

"Pyrrha, wait!" I called. She turned back with a perplexed expression. "I'm coming with you."

She smirked and we headed out to get Cardin together. I thought it was finally the appropriate time to let my team be involved since hamulating them myself didn't seem enough.

They suddenly started to look frightened and hurriedly tried to throw a jar of sap on her, only for her to effortlessly dodge it. They began to panic as they started opening a box and released a swarm of Rapier-Wasps right after me.

I was startled by the swarm. What makes them worse than normal wasps was that they were Grimm so they could actually kill me once they get past my aura, so this feel less of a prank and more of an attempted assassination on Team CRDL's part and I was having the urge to actually kill them for it.

Turning back, I made a run for it. I went outside the class parameter, trying to shake off and chased by the rapier-wasps around the forest in circles and repeating the process until I inadvertently gathered enough negative energy to attract a nearby Ursa Major which I ended up running into. Not knowing what exactly to do because I was afraid of a repeat of the Podunk disaster I ran back to the groups in hopes that they'll be able to get rid of it. The rapier-wasps on the other hand, I cannot reach my own back to wipe it off and I didn't want to take off my armor yet especially with the Ursa behind my rear.

"Ursa!" I screamed after I saw Pyrrha grabbing Cardin by the collar. Pyrrha turned her head and dropped Cardin, then pulled out her shield and xiphos and thrusted herself towards the Ursa, beginning with a shield bash to its forehead followed by thrusting her blade at it.

Team CRDL ran off, Pyrrha was holding off the Ursa, and the rapier wasps were still after me. I kept running aimlessly trying to think of a way to shake them off. The only plan I had was the good old 'run and live'.

I ran as fast and hard as I could, not looking back nor caring about where I was going, shaking off the swarm was the only thing I had in mind, so I kept fleeing away without regard for my location. As a result, I wasn't aware that I went a little too deep into the forest that I found two armed men wearing white vests and black hoods entering a cave. Without thinking if they were friendly or not, I went ahead and ran past them

"Hey, what the hell?" One of them said before they saw the rapier-wasps coming after them.

I went inside the cave. I looked back and saw the two men getting swarmed, both of them struggling to get the wasps off. I watched with horror while I slowly walked back then turned around and was greeted with more armed men with the same outfits, pointing their guns at me. I saw that they were all wearing visors similar to Grimm masks, a sign that says that these people aren't exactly affable.

Bandits. [2] Great. Just great, I thought. I wandered too far from the class and now I ended up in a camp full of Bandits. Knowing that these people are a bunch of criminals who could kill me in a heartbeat and aren't exactly big on fighting fair and honorably. The safest course of action was to put your hands up and hope for the best. I had my scroll's tracker turned on and I doubt that a bunch of bandits could handle some Huntsmen, well, Huntresses and a number of Huntsmen-in-training, really crazy Huntsmen-in-training.

I would have let myself get stung several times if I saw this coming, though. I hope it was worth it, Losechester.

=o=

1. As her former partner, I can confirm that they're both true.

2. Jaune was not aware that he actually encountered The White Fang, which were worse than bandits. Then again, he denied that he confronted something as bad as an outpost of a notorious international terrorist group.

Editorial Note:

While Jaune was busy wandering off being chased by the rapier wasps before being captured by a 'bandit camp', which in actuality is a White Fang terrorist cell. Ruby recorded the situation back at the class assignment when we were alerted by the presence of the Ursa Major on her personal memoirs, unknowingly filling the gaps caused by Jaune's typically self-centered writing.

The Red Rose Diaries: Trouble at Forever Falls

Things got weird on the field trip real fast. One second we were gathering sap as instructed by Miss Goodwitch, and then the next second, we saw Jaune getting chased by a bunch of flies, which Cardin might have to do something with, seeing how Pyrrha was really mad at him. It wasn't really that bad until Jaune came back with an Ursa Major chasing him. Pyrrha was trying to stop it. I got Team RWBY to go help her out. Ren and Nora weren't able to help because Nora passed out after drinking too much sap and Ren had to look after her.

I ordered Blake and Yang to bait the Ursa into slamming trees, causing it to get stunned, giving me, Weiss and Pyrrha the opportunity to absorb its damage safely. We repeated it a few times until we finished it off with a team attack to finally kill it. Blake gave a few slashes, then Yang punched it a few times before throwing it off the air when it would be trapped by Weiss' glyphs and I used my semblance to get close to it and sliced it down with the Crescent Rose. The Ursa fell as it started to evaporate. Miss Goodwitch came in and demanded what was going on. Pyrrha told her that Cardin and his team threw a jar of sap at Jaune and had rapier-wasps chase him, which made us wonder—where was Jaune?

Pyrrha pulled out her scroll to find where he was, she found her location and got Ren and Nora (who just woke up and was recovering) to follow her. We were ordered to stay and guard the area in case more Grimm came.

The bandits violently tied and dragged me to their camp inside the cave. The camp was pretty impressive and organized for a bunch of bandits in the middle of a red forest, they even had banners of their emblem hanging around. Of course, the emblem had to depict a wolf, which seems to be the animal of choice for most gangs thanks to the wolf pack nonsense.

Everyone there kept giving me dirty looks, with one of them even had the audacity to spit on me. It looks like this bandit camp doesn't really like blonde idiots like me for some reason. One could think that these could be El Segador's ex-goons, a thought that was VERY unhelpful at the time but that would explain why they all seem to hate my mere existence as if I was lower than dirt.

They took me to a cage and pushed me inside. Before they could leave two of them entered the cage, one of them untying me, and the other pointing his gun on me to make sure I wasn't trying anything they didn't want me to do.

"Yer belongins'—weapons, money, scrolls, surrender them now." The one with the gun said after his buddy was untying me, he was speaking in Hibernian accents, in fact most of the bandits here seem to have it. [1]

I have no choice but to comply. I gave them my stuff, they let me keep my armor as they didn't need it anyway, they sent my belongings to another room. The scroll was password-protected, so I don't have to worry about them opening it and disabling the team tracker, even if they did manage to open it, I doubt that they would have the time to learn to navigate the applications exclusive to Beacon students.

"So…" the same guy who was pointing his weapon at me said after leaving the cage and locking it. "Are ye alone or are ye with someone else?"

Normally, I'll tell the truth out of fear, but being the seasoned liar I am, I knew it would be better for me not to tell them the truth. It's only a matter of time until my team finds me, who just happens to be crazy enough to handle a bunch of bandits especially since Ren and Nora have experience fighting them (at least if Nora's tall tales are to be believed) and Pyrrha had evidently fought worse. I just needed to make them keep their guard down so that this would be over before I even knew it, so I had this clever idea of pretending to be more of a pathetic unlucky idiot that I already am.

"N-No, no, no, no, no. Whatever idea you had, you got it wrong. I'm just a lone traveler. Look, I'm really, really sorry for running into you guys while being chased by rapier wasps. I didn't know you were there and I didn't mean it, believe me!" My whimpering was convincing enough, probably because I was already shaking with anxiety to begin with.

"So ye had nothin' to do with the 'untsmen brats we found wanderin' 'round?"

"Wait, there are Huntsmen here?" I continued to play dumb. He paused for a moment before looking at me closer. I was worried that he'd recognize me from something. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

"Well, ye don't look like a 'untsman." The bandit mentioned after he examined my clothes, which were just ordinary clothes with armor you can buy at your nearest blacksmith, making me pass as a civilian who just happened to be armed for the worse. "Sorry to break to ye, humie, but ahm afraid that yer stuck 'ere with us. Shouldn't have wandered 'round the woods alone." He said before leaving with a petty laugh.

I gulped at the statement while being appalled by his use of the word 'humie'. This person was clearly a faunus, a very unpleasant faunus with breath as just as dirty as his mouth. I know there are certain types of people who like to argue that faunus can't be racist to humans because they're the oppressed minorities, but calling me with that slur was kinda uncalled for, even it's just a puerile nickname for us hairless apes. And I thought being called a nerd was bad, I would have preferred a more original insult, I would have gave him credit for that.

I sat down waiting for help to come. I really should learn how to think straight while trying to flee from danger, I thought. I keep getting into these situations because of stupidity and I should learn how to break that habit before it becomes lethal.

Examining the camp, I looked for possible escape routes, as well as making some sort of plan B in case no one comes. I saw the bandit who was guarding have a key on the back of his belt, while tempting, it was best for me if I waited for the right time; my hands aren't really soft enough to steal it without getting caught. I looked at all the other bandits and studied their equipment, most of them were using projectile-based firearms of some kind, and others were seen carrying energy weapons. I overheard something about a kidnapping, I think, I tried to continue eavesdropping and went closer to the cell to which the guard just angrily whipped his weapon at the bars. "Don't get any bright ideas."

I flinched back and continued to sit at my cell for almost a half an hour, thinking of what to do and praying for the best.

Eventually, I heard sounds of bandits running to the exit followed by an explosion coming from the outside, then heard a familiar yell from a certain Valkyrie.

"Where did you put our dear leader?! Tell us before I break all of your legs, one by one!"

The bandit guarding the cage was startled and raised his gun and was about to walk away. Before I could let any of that happen. I quickly looked around to see if the coast was clear, I saw that everyone had left the area to deal with the intruders. I grabbed the bandit's mouth through the cage and bashed his head at the bars until he was knocked out cold, not really caring if I killed him or not as it would make little difference to me.

I grabbed the key from his belt and used it to open the lock when I got out of the cage, I took his submachine gun and looted his body for lien, ammo, dust and any valuables for good measure. [2]

After a minute of walking around, aiming with an SMG, I went toward the room where my stuff was hidden. The room was an office with several lockers, file cabinets, and chests, as well as a flag with the bandit clan's emblem hanging in the wall and a single fan on the corner of the ceiling. I looked at every locker and chest to find my stuff until I eventually found them and continued to scavenge for supplies.

"Oi!" A voice called while I was looting one of the chests.

I quickly turned around and saw him reaching for his pistol. I threw the submachine gun at him, knocking him over as I grabbed my sword by its scabbard before storming towards him and then swung the pommel to his head, rendering him unconscious. I put my sword back at my belt and searched his body and took all of his money and ammunition.

The best thing that I took from him, however, was his pistol; it wasn't just a pistol—it was a laser pistol. While it doesn't look like much, laser weaponry were feared for a good reason. They're much more accurate and powerful than projectile weapons as they can deplete aura within a few shots while projectile weapons require an entire clip or two to accomplish that, depending on the ammo or gun type. They also lack recoil and hold more ammo than projectile weapons, meaning I don't have to worry about reloading every now and then, I just needed to make sure it doesn't overheat after firing it too many times. I also have to be careful with its power cells—I've been hearing reports on how the overcharging of lasers cause them to explode; those are one of the few downsides of laser weapons. But despite its few flaws, overall, these types of weapons are effective enough that they are often degraded as 'coward guns' but only because they are afraid of people wise enough to use them, and besides, that only made the weapon more suitable for me. Makes me wonder why Huntsmen don't use more guns like this.

I left the room with my sword unsheathed on my right hand, and the laser pistol on the other. [3] Two bandits came in and spotted me. I hastily shot them both, almost instantly disabling them. After seeing their bodies collapse, I took a moment to look at my newly-owned laser pistol and be impressed by how powerful it is. I am so keeping this, I thought. I guess my stupidity to get myself into crap like this was finally paying off for once.

I continued to find my way out of the bandit cave, subduing, and looting every bandit I came across. Eventually one of the bandits managed to ambush me off-guard, knocking me to the ground. He was about to thrust his bayonet into me when he was suddenly shot by a few bullets and was knocked out by a kick, the person responsible was then revealed to be Ren. "Jaune! There you are!"

"Ren! Why, am I glad to see you!" I stood up.

"What were you doing here?"

"Not important." I said, emptying the last bandit's pockets "Let's just focus into getting out of this mess."

He nodded and followed my lead. I gave him all of the .45 ACP ammo I picked up for guns. Some of them have the bonus of being HP and AP rounds that make his dual machine pistols more powerful and look less like peashooters mainly used for distraction. [4] He kinda looked puzzled when I handed them to him but chose not to question it.

We soon found Nora and Pyrrha fighting off a horde of bandits that surrounded them. The fight was in our team's favor, with bandits dropping like flies. Made worse for them when one of them thought it would be a good idea to electrify Nora with a shock rod, which went as well as you'd expect.

Nora screamed as her body started sparking with power. Pyrrha, knowing what would happen, jumped out of the way. The bandits remained bewildered until they were all knocked out by a shockwave caused by a single drop of Nora's hammer.

Nora went out of her way to finish off every single one of them as neat as you please; they were never given a chance to retreat or retaliate. We both watched with a mixture of astonishment and horror. "Ren. Remind me to never make her angry." I told him.

"Agh! Who's next?!" She said after putting the last bandit to sleep. Her semblance then wore off and she was back to her normal state, and that was when she finally noticed me. "Jaune!"

She bolted to give me a hug, it was tight especially with the armor I'm wearing, but I have gotten used to it! "You're okay! I mean, of course, you are. You're the fearless Jaune Arc! Nothing could ever get to you!"

Yeah, tell that to these guys when they captured me because I was too busy not being stung by wasps to think clearly.

Nora suddenly groaned and held her stomach. "Ugh. Sorry, still hung over from the saps."

"Jaune!" Pyrrha approached me. "Thank goodness you're okay. What were you thinking?! Miss Goodwitch told us not to wander off. Now you're here surrounded by… bandits! Do you have any idea how worried we were?!"

I held both of her shoulders. "Pyrrha. Like I said before, I can solve my own problems."

She sighed. "I guess all that matters is that you're fine. But don't ever do that again! You have a lot to answer to Professor Goodwitch!"

As much as I was idiotic enough to wander off because I was being chased by killer flies, I didn't believe I was the right person to blame over all of this. I never even wanted to be in there. "Hey, I don't think we'd be in here if Cardin didn't sent those rapier-wasps at me!" That, and if I thought all of this through.

"Winchester…" she hissed, almost looking away. "Will he ever learn?"

"After this, he probably will," I remarked, believing that this was the last straw that I didn't have any plan to be lenient, given how they were almost trying to kill me and that was something I wasn't going to take lightly.

"I think they went this way!" An incoming voice said. Judging by how many bandits we dealt with. This was likely the last batch. I think I needed to fully repay these bandits for holding me hostage and as gratitude for the fine pistol and loot I got, besides, I could use a little more lien.

"So, wanna make the world a better place?" I asked my team.

They all hesitated but agreed anyway. If we knocked out most of a bandit camp, we might as well take care of the rest. Take it as a service to the community.

Six armed bandits came out. "A'ight, you tailless monkeys! Ye better say yer pr—" they then saw all of their unconscious buddies and four barely scathed Huntsmen glaring at them, it didn't take long for them to begin shruddering. "Uhh. Beautiful weather, ain't it?"

These were a bunch of bandits only armed with regular weaponry and they were facing a rather talented team in one of the finest academies in Remnant with significant amounts of combat experience in spite of not being fully-fledged Huntsmen. I'll keep it short and clean while you do the math. And that's not even mentioning that Pyrrha used her semblance to pull all of their weapons away from them. Let's just say it did not take much effort at all.

We soon casually walked out of the cave. All bandits were dispatched and looted. I left an anonymous tip for the Valish authorities of the location of the bandit camp. My only concern was explaining this entire mess to Miss Goodwitch. "So, how are we going to tell Miss Goodwitch that we ended up in a bandit camp?" Nora inquired.

"We don't. We just tell them we got lost and killed a few Grimm along the way," I told them. Team CRDL would be punished all the same and I didn't have to make my situation worse by telling them that I subdued a bunch of bandits like if it was nothing. I wasn't in the mood of making my undeserved reputation worse at the moment.

"But what if the bandits wake up?"

"They'll be greeted by the authorities when they do. Besides, we took most of their supplies, they are basically broke by now," I pointed out as if I didn't another near-death experience.

"I don't know… but why do I get the feeling that they're not bandits—but something worse." Ren mused, glancing back at the cave.

Pyrrha seemed to have concurred with that assessment. "You're not the only one. Their emblem looked oddly familiar—I think I heard about them before."

I was rather skeptical that we just ended up beating something more severe and sinister than a bunch of forest bandits. I thought that was giving us too much credit. "Guys. Don't be silly. If they were worse than bandits, I'm sure at least one of us would be too dead to have this conversation."

"But still…" Pyrrha sighed and shook her head. "Let's just get back to the others."

Good idea, I thought. I didn't want to think about it anymore. It was a fun yet unpleasant experience that didn't need to occur at all. I was mostly alive thanks to Pyrrha and Nora dealing with most of the bandits. At least the loot made it all worthwhile, especially the laser pistol, I'm going to be using it a lot.

And I'm going to have a hard time passing Dust Studies, since I wasn't able to pass a single jar of sap at the end of the day. This is going to mean extra-studying if wanted to compensate for my unimpressive grades.

Wonderful, just wonderful.

=o=

1. A good number of White Fang members in the Valish Cell are of Hibernian descent, likely due to the history of Hibernian faunus being marginalized by the predominantly-Albionic human population in Valish Region.

2. Aside from his feats, consummate leadership and fighting ability, Jaune was known by his friends and allies for looting every unconscious/deceased hostile body he comes across, as well as scavenging the area for any valuables and having them sold if they lack any use. Thankfully, he only commits this act to criminals and corrupt officials, otherwise, he would do his best to restrain himself. He admits that video games inspired him to do this.

3. Despite being right-handed, Jaune exclusively wields one-handed firearms with only his left hand, even if his dominant hand is vacant. This is because he was trained to use such weapons while wielding a sword, making him ambidextrous to an extent.

4. Ren uses regular .45 ACP FMJ (Full Metal Jacket) rounds for his StormFlower, likely due to being cheap, common, and being the few types of ammo that weren't prohibited from being sold for non-licensed Huntsmen. While they have decent stopping power, FMJ rounds are considered less effective than HP, AP and AUP rounds (Hollow-Point, Armor-Piercing and Aura-Piercing) due to them not being designed to expand on impact with a soft target.

The field trip ended with Cardin and company getting an extended detention. He should be at least thankful for that because if I told Miss Goodwitch that his stunt just caused me to accidentally run into a bandit camp, got me imprisoned and forced my team to wipe it clean just to break me out, he would have gotten suspended or worse. And if was up to me, I would have 'tested' my new laser pistol on them, that was how pissed I am. But in any case, they are definitely not going to bother me anymore, that's for sure. He already got the satisfaction of me getting chased by rapier-wasps, now he doesn't have a reason to mess with me for much longer. I'm pretty sure they're still afraid of me because I made them a laughing stock the other day, they just wouldn't admit it.

I went to Vale to sell some of the stuff I took from the bandit camp, the only ones I didn't sell was weapon add-ons and ammo that were compatible with the team's weapons, upgrade parts, medical supplies, dust in case we find ourselves in a situation where we might need it, everything else was fair play. I ended up making a bank with the junk I sold. The people who bought them were rather suspicious of my possession of them, but were too afraid to ask and just bought them. I spent a quarter of the money I made on laser pistol ammo and a box of pizza for my team to celebrate our first month and surviving the latest incident.

After that, I decided to have some alone time on the rooftop where we train. The view from there is pretty beautiful during the night, especially when it illuminates with lights of the academy and the city lights of Vale in the distance, accompanied by the sound of peaceful silence. Looking at the night sky and its shattered moon, I can't help but be reminded of the night where I wished to become a hero. Oh, how simple those times were. But that memory also reminded me of why I relinquished that wish. I quickly cleared my head as I did not want to relive that particular period in my life. I still remember the words that drastically changed my view on heroism as a whole.

But I have to ask myself, was it beneficial for me to be here in Beacon? I found myself conflicted—I still don't want to be in here nor intend to be a Huntsman, but I also made genuine friends here and I cannot afford to let them and my family down. The problem is when this is all over and we're finally graduated, what was I supposed to do when I would finally be free from combat school? Leave the friends I made for the sake of my original plan? Or condemn myself into becoming a potential casualty in a world that might not be saved? The most logical choice was to just live a regular life while keeping in touch with them, but they'll be disappointed that I will be no longer fighting with them and they'll eventually realize that the Jaune they knew, turned out to be some selfish liar. In any case, all I could do at the moment was lament on what I have gotten myself into.

I stayed there gazing at the scenery while I was updating this journal. I remained uninterrupted until I heard the roof open and saw Pyrrha came in. "Oh hey, Pyrrha. What brings you here?"

"Hello again. I just want to check up on you," she said with a friendly smile as she was walking toward me.

I looked back at the sky for a moment. "I was just gazing, nothing much."

"So do you mind if I…?"

"No. By all means." I said, tapping the side.

"Thanks," she said as she sat down.

"Hey, Pyrrha. I'm sorry about what happened before. I really don't know what I was thinking at the time." I apologized. She really didn't deserve to be dragged into a mess like that and it was my fault that she got involved.

"It's okay. It wasn't something you couldn't handle. Just don't scare me like that!" she cried out suddenly that I was expecting her to punch my shoulder over it..

"I'll do my best. No promises, though," I said.

What followed was an extended period of silence just before Pyrrha spoke up. "Strange day, isn't it?"

"It won't be the last; we'll be here for four years and it's only been a month," I said, especially that weirdness in my life has become increasingly common ever since I made a wish on that stupid star and it only has gotten worse since I decided to go to Podunk on that fateful day.

"I guess you could say that," she replied, knowing what I was talking about and was probably expecting more of her status of being tested. In another life, Someone like me shouldn't be relating to her that much but there I was. Life can be that weird sometimes.

We then both sat in silence, just staring at the scenery and the night sky, enjoying each other's company. But there was a burning sensation inside that I could not release, something that I had trouble comprehending.

She suddenly called out my name. "Jaune…"

"Yeah?" I asked, still eyeing the view as I was hearing her out.

"I just wanted to say that I…" she hesitated for a moment. "I…"

"What is it?" I turned to her in curiosity, the way she was trying to say it made it sound important.

"I…" she took a deep sigh before looking back at me. "Nothing. It's just that… since we're both here, I thought we could have a little spar."

I paused for a moment before agreeing with it, there was nothing else to do there after all. "Sure. Why not?" I nodded.

"Great!"

We both started to stand and went to the middle of the rooftop. We both pulled our weapons as we stared at each other. I went with my sword and shield stance, for now, I did not use my pistol because it was too risky and would make too much noise. Gunfire is forbidden during nighttime for a reason."Okay, Pyrrha. You can start when—"

She abruptly charged and swung her xiphos. I was startled and blocked the swing just in time. "Sorry! You told me not to give your opponent a chance to attack while abiding by the rules." she explained.

I was surprised but I was happy she was taking my advice. With her skill and experience along with my combat philosophy, she would be an unstoppable force if she used all of them right. "Well, Miss Nikos. That's actually a good plan."

"I learned from the best," she chuckled, and I couldn't help but feel flattered over that. I pushed back from her and caught my breath. We smiled at each other before continuing the duel.

I started to understand why they called her the Goddess of Victory. She was so fast and strong that I never felt such adrenaline in a duel since I sparred with Dad. I was only able to get the upper hand a few times while she was dominating me the entire match. It was no surprise that she ultimately won the match between partners.

She was able to knock me back for the last time before she sheathed her weapons and offered her hand.

"Good fight, Pyrrha." I said, returning the gesture.

"You're not bad yourself. You have actually been the most challenging I've ever fought in a long time."

"Wait, I have?" I raised my brow in disbelief, for someone of her record that would be quite the compliment.

"I don't expect anything less from you. You have proven yourself to be a great fighter after all. Keep it up," she said. It was only necessary for survival though. It was the reason why I was still even breathing after everything I went through. Then again, my survival instincts are what got me here in the first place.

I became much more tired and drowsy after the fight. "Let's get back to the dorm. It's getting really late and I'm really tired after everything that happened." I yawned.

"I was thinking the same thing."

We left the rooftop together and went to our dorm. After a sparring session on a long day, rest was the only thing I could think of.

Editorial Note:

After Team JNPR's encounter with the White Fang outpost on Forever Falls, an anonymous member of the Valish terrorist cell recorded the aftermath of the incident. These documents were eventually recovered after the Atlesian military seized the White Fang's assets following their downfall. Through some bartering, I managed to get a hold of some of these documents for the sake of the archive.

The White Fang Reports: Forever Fall Aftermath.

The philosophy of the legendary Adam Taurus states that the lives of many faunus are worth more than a single human. Hence why the recent attack on the Forever Fall outpost was a huge blow for us, despite being a relatively minor asset located in a crimson-colored wilderness that only a few go to. While the revolution calls for the necessary sacrifice of faunus blood, the attack was not called for whatsoever.

The attack was significant, not only because lives of our fellow revolutionaries were lost and the supplies cached there were stolen, but also because it was not carried out by a hostile military operation, but a single lone human with unknown motives. [1] There was only a vague description of his appearance that was provided before the outpost fell: blond, male, average build, around five to six feet tall, wore the colors of white and blue during the attack. Due to how common the perpetrator's physical appearance was, we are led to believe he could be anyone fitting the description. The brave men and women of the White Fang in Vale were warned for any human who shows such attributes, as this mysterious perpetrator is a threat to our cause if he was to go as far as to cripple a part of our organization.

The event claimed the lives of fourteen of our members, most of whom lacked aura, thirty-two were injured and eventually arrested by the Vale Defense Force (VDF) during their arrival, twenty-three others have managed to escape apprehension but are now missing, hungry and defenseless at the Forever Fall forest, a forest lurking with Grimm. There was even a report that one of the survivors, a feline faunus, resorted to cannibalism to a comrade who happened to be a fish faunus, [2] prior to being found and arrested. Few of the other survivors have turned themselves to the authorities as a desperate attempt to be fed and sheltered despite their impoverished conditions.

When the Atlesian Military heard about the attack, they took over the operation from the VDF, specifically taking control of the assets seized and the prisoners captured. Since unlike the Atlesian Military, the VDF does not have an active campaign against the White Fang and agreed to hand over the operation.

Fortunately, the outpost was able to transmit a few valuable intel shortly before the attack. The scouts have spotted a group of Huntsman students in the premises; there were two notable individuals found within the group that the outpost planned to kidnap. The first being the SDC heiress—Weiss Schnee, a target for ransom. The second which caught the personal interest of Adam Taurus—Blake Belladonna, a deserter and former agent of our cause, who was still wearing that disgusting bow that hid her feline features. [3] A repugnant display indicating shame within your faunus heritage.

Sadly, because the attack occurred minutes later after this information was acquired, they were not able to carry the plan of kidnapping the persons of interest. Nevertheless, our operators manage to pinpoint the girls' location to Beacon Academy. However, Adam Taurus instructed us to postpone any plans to kidnap the Schnee heiress and Miss Belladonna until said otherwise. For now, he wants us to prioritize the main operation. Despite our losses, the fight against the fascist humans will press forward.

Though, we are not to forget the person who was responsible for essentially destroying and robbing one of our outposts, killing and injuring some of our comrades, and ruining our attempts to kidnap some valuable assets. There was some debate on who the perpetrator was. Some say that he was one of the Huntsmen accompanying the persons of interest, some speculate that he could be the same person who killed a known bandit lord in a small settlement as the person's descriptions match, others even went as far as to believe that he was death incarnate, the boogeyman of the White Fang. Regardless, this person is a threat to our goals and if we were to succeed, he needs to be dispatched as soon as possible.

Seriously, who the fuck is this guy?

=o=

1. The White Fang either forgot to include the contributions of Jaune's teammates or was not able to. It's likely because Jaune was the only hostile they were able to designate during the incident.

2. Predator faunus have rare tendencies to become cannibalistic towards prey faunus. As a result, a lot of the infighting within the faunus community are between predator and prey subspecies.

3. Strangely, it is indeed confirmed that Blake was still wearing her bow before even attending Beacon, despite having no reason to, and the practice being frowned upon by faunus society, especially without the intent of infiltrating humans.

Whelp that was my take on the infamous bully arc of Volume 1. So, what do you guys think? Please leave a review to share your thoughts, whether positive or negative.

Jaune's looting tendency was inspired by RPG protagonists, as well the Mass Effect fanfic 'Accidental Hero of the Galaxy', a fic that I mentioned on the first chapter as an example of Ciaphas Cain-inspired works. I just thought that typical video game kleptomania would fit this Jaune's pragmatic and somewhat roguish personality.

Chapter 5 will cover the last two episodes of Volume 1 and will be released soon.

EDIT: I realized I mixed 'theoretical' with 'theological', with the latter referring to religious studies. My bad.