Jaune had woken up early that morning, had a well balanced breakfast with Pumpkin Pete cereal and was in the middle of staring at his scroll's contact list. Had he not blocked his family's numbers, his scroll would be going off nonstop right now. He wondered for a second if he should call home to tell them he was more or less a Beacon student now.
But no he shouldn't, if he called mom would cry and then Jaune would doubt himself. He was aware that she was faking the tears but Jaune wasn't strong enough to ignore his mom's son. Soon he would succumb to her wishes and quit Beacon.
And he couldn't quit, Billy would be disappointed and Jaune had spent years training for this. He had worked his way through the entrance exam and he still got the initiation to go through. Whereas there was a chance he could fail the entrance exam, the initiation as he had come to understand was a rite of passage for first year students. He virtually could not fail, die maybe but fail he could not. Huntsman and huntresses were always in demand after all, the academy could not afford to be picky.
Putting away his scroll, Jaune focuses on the next task on his list. Getting his armour and weapon.
" Where did I put them again?" He scanned through the row of lockers that was provided to them.
" Locker 636." Billy reminded him. "Honestly Jaune, you should really write this kind of stuff down somewhere."
" Yes mom." Jaune muttered. It was ridiculous, why did he ever choose a locker that high in number? Now he had walked across a lengthy hallway.
To make matters worse he spotted a familiar white haired girl right in front of his locker.
No offense to Weiss, she looked like a snow angel that had come down from heaven and perhaps under other circumstances she could be a nice person. In another world he would be smitten with her. Unfortunately, Jaune had the front row seat to her temper twice in one day and he really didn't want to deal with that first thing in the morning.
Not that he had a choice.
"Excuse me," Jaune interrupted Weiss' conversation with another girl clad in armour. " Could you please -"
"What do you want? Can't you see I'm in the middle of a conversation ?" Icy blue glared at him
"Urg, Atlas elite." On some level Jaune had expected that, Billy was a Vacuan by heart no matter how many years he had spent in Vale. And like those from Vacuo, Atlas was viewed with a negative connotation.
Ignoring Billy's comment Jaune repeated his question. "Can you please move? you're standing in front of my locker."
"Well, you'll have to wait. I'm still have to talk to-" Weiss trailed off when the girl she was talking to placed a hand on her shoulder.
" Perhaps we could continue our conversation another day? You still need to prepare for the initiation." The armoured warrior said.
Grumbling Weiss left, Jaune could feel her glare at the back of his head as she walked away . Sighing, Jaune elected to go on with the day.
He pulled out Aeternal Campio, put on the armour that he actually got from the pawn shop, checked his dust canister and quietly took his leave. All the while not noticing the armour clad girl was still standing nearby. She watched him with great interest as he not once acknowledged her.
When Billy had told him about landing strategies, Jaune had assumed that his would be used to escaping from burning buildings or jumping out of a bullhead to escape nausea.
Not because his Headmaster decided to throw him off a cliff with a launcher pad!
Strapping his lance back on his back, he had thought that they would have to fight right off the bat, Jaune held out his hand.
The white dust imbed in the sleaves on his arm glowed, looking identical to wind dust. They were some kind of water down hard light dust that was commonly used for practical effect in movies. Here though it allowed Jaune to use his wind magic more freely. ( Because gods know that if he revealed his magic willy nilly people would question him. Not to mention there was apparently a group that was hunting down magic users.) Billy spent hours preparing the sleeves and Jaune was glad that it worked.
Wind gathered beneath his feet as Jaune willed it to. It then spread out around him creating a protective dome and slowed down his descend. If one was looking from below they would have thought he was floating in the air.
With a flick of his hand, Jaune glided down toward the ground using the wind. Of course he hit a few branches on the way down, his control over wind had gotten better but it wasn't perfect yet. All in all, Jaune deemed it to be a success as he stumbled down on the ground.
Now he just had to finish the rest of the initiation. Headmaster Ozpin mentions something about a temple but Jaune didn't do any sort when he was up in the air.
"Guess I'll just have to wander around for awhile." Growls echoed from behind him.
"Or not."
Hopefully that was just the sound of his very hungry soon to be partner.
Unfortunately he had no such luck because the next thing he knew he was facing three Ursa. Judging from the few protruding spikes they were all Ursa Minor. Pumping aura into Aeternal Campio, Jaune readied his weapon for a fight. He had fought Grimm once before and he was itching to fight them again.
One of them lunged at Jaune and greeted with the tip of Aeternal Campio plunged deep into its chest. Jaune pulled back and stabbed into its flesh again and again in quick succession. The other two Ursa circle him, taking advantage of the boy's distraction they charged at him.
With one final thrust Jaune finished off his current problem leaving the beast evaporate up in dust. He didn't have any time for a break before rolling away whirling around to deal with the pairs of claws that were aimed at his head. Calmly Jaune tapped his lance on the ground. The Ursa yelped as they crashed into an earth barrier that had suddenly risen.
Another tap and sharp pillars pierced into the two Grimm ending them within seconds.
" Great job dealing with those!" Billy's voice rang out. " Ready to finish the rest of your initiation ?"
"Oh, yeah." Jaune let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"Of course you are! You got this thing in a bag."
He just need to figure out where exactly the temple was and hopefully get a partner along the way. As if on cue, another growled echoed from nearby.
"Kurrah, kurrah, kurrah."
Jaune jumped at the ominous sound. " What is that?"
"That sounds awfully lot like a sloth."
" Sloth doesn't sound like that!" Jaune gripped his weapon, ready for another fight when…..
From out of a nearby tree, a girl popped out of nowhere and hung upside down from a branch. Her face inches away from his. " Hey Ren! Ready to be partn-" she trailed off as she spotted Jaune standing there. "Wait a minute, you're not Renny!"
She stretched her chin and narrowed her eyes at Jaune as if she was judging him.
" No, I'm Jaune Arc. It's nice to meet you?" Teal eyes narrowed even further.
"Boop." She poked his nose. Jaune blink at a blur of pink and the next thing he knew Jaune was swept off his feet with a bone crushing hug.
" Hello, new partner !" The hands wrapped around Jaune constricted even further. " I'm Nora! Do you like sloths? What about rabbits? Have you seen Ren? He's like my bestie better than the restie. We've been together for so long! But not together-together, that would be weird. Hey, since you're my partner now that you're my new bestie, not bestie better than the restie 'cuz that Ren since we're childhood friend. Oh! Do you like pancakes? We could go and ask Ren to make us some."
"Can't breath." Jaune croaked out.
Nora tilted her head and let go of Jaune. "Woopsie."
Jaune gasped for air and he fell down on his back. The hug didn't literally break any of his bones, his aura prevent that, that doesn't mean it didn't hurt.
" Come on Jaune-Jaune ! No time for a break!" Nora pulled Jaune back on his feet by the hood of his hoodie. " Let's go find Ren and get our pancake."
" Sure," Jaune croaked out as Nora dragged him forward. " What does he look like ?"
" Well, he's tall, Mistralian. Oh! Oh, and he had magenta eyes and this one streak of pink hair ." Nora waved her hand animatedly as she described her 'bestie better than the restie'.
Jaune could vaguely remember a boy with that exact description. " I think I saw him.."
" Really?"
"..Yesterday."
The bright smile on Nora's face turned into a pout, flicking a finger at his forehead as she pointed an accusingly at him. "Don't be sucha meanie. "
Jaune just laughed sheepishly.
As they continued to wander around, Nora began to take to skipping through the forest with a joyous tune and had somehow convinced him to join in.
"It's faster this way!"
It seemed like there was nothing stopping them from their road toward the temple, up until they encountered another sleuth of Ursa. Then again they weren't even a challenge seeing as his partner just shot out 2 grenades which killed most of the Ursas, mechashift her weapon into a hammer and slammed down on a few others before mounting the last one.
" Nora," Jaune had a feeling that he wasn't going to like what will happen next. " What are you doing?"
"Getting a ride! Skipping is just too slow." She, by tucking on the Ursa's spike, directed the raging beast to charge forward, running past him on the way. Not letting Jaune voice his protest, Nora grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the beast. " March my noble steed."
Turns out, Grimm counted as a fast moving vehicle because not a second passed since Jaune landed on the Ursa his motion sickness kicked in. Holding onto the armour spike for dear life, Jaune tried not to puke out his breakfast while his monster of a partner laughed ecstatically. Inside his mind, Jaune could hear Billy joining in with her laughter which did not help.
" Our last pair had been form, sir." Ozpin didn't turn around from his spot on top of the cliff looking over Emerald Forest when Glynda Goodwitch stepped beside him.
" Lie Ren and Pyrrha Nikos. It appears that they're having a bit of a roadblock when it comes to communication." The deputy headmistress commented. " Still, he's better off than Mister Arc. Poor boy, he'll have his hands full for the next four year."
Glancing over, Ozpin chuckled as he watched the camera footage of the mentioned boy being pulled onto an Ursa by his partner Nora Valkyrie. " And what of Miss Rose and Miss Belladonna? "
Glynda swiping across the monitor, half of the screen now shows Ruby Rose arguing with Weiss Snchee while the other half reveal Blake Belladonna walking alongside Yang Xiao-Long. Not what he had expected, but the result was very good nevertheless.
" I believe that with the current rate, the students should reach the temple with the next few minutes." She handed him the monitor. " Speaking of which, what did you use as relics this year ?"
Ozpin hummed. " I've realized recently that I barely have any free time as of late and there's something just not meant to be laying around collecting dust."
" Professor Ozpin?"
" Say, Glynda, do you remember what Summer Rose had gifted me before she left ?"
That was all it took for Glynda to realize what he was talking about. " You used the chess set ?"
" I figure it would be appropriate." Ozpin smiled sadly. "Her two girls are entering Beacon this year after all."