Currently seeking a beta reader for this story, message me if you're interested.
For as long as mankind kept history in the world of Remnant, mankind had Huntsmen to protect them. Although scores of them die every year keeping the creatures of Grimm at bay, no profession was considered more glamorous and heroic than to be a huntsman. It's really no wonder that children would see people perform incredible feats with the arms they took up and idolize them. Such was the case for one Jaune Arc: whose great grandfather fought for the king of Vale in the Great War, whose grandfather became a warrior of repute despite being on the wrong side of history in the Faunus War, and whose father dedicated every day of his life to keeping the creatures of Grimm out of the small rural village young Jaune grew up in.
For Jaune, it only made sense to be one as well. It didn't matter that he waited until he was too old to attend a combat school to realize this. It didn't matter that his father refused to teach him even some basic combat to protect his fifth child of eight and only son among them. It didn't even matter that he had no idea how to use dust or how a huntsman could perform such extraordinary things when in combat. Jaune Arc wanted to be a huntsman, a hero, and so he stole his great grandfather's sword and shield which acted as a family heirloom, struck some less than reputable deals for a forged transcript that qualified him for a huntsman school, and set out for Beacon Academy.
The boy was hilariously underprepared. He made good connections during his first day at the academy; befriending a prodigy who got to attend two years early, charming the heiress to the most well known Dust retaIler in all of Remnant (or so he thought), and convincing a four time tournament champion and one time cereal mascot to consider being on his team. However, good connections could only get you so far when you have no knowledge or experience in surviving dangerous situations.
In one world, Jaune was lucky. Pyrrha Nikos, the aforementioned champion, had tossed her spear at him in order to pin him to a tree and save his life. In this world, she still tossed the spear, but the ability to manipulate metal could only improve accuracy so much when tossing something so far away. She missed by a hair, quite literally, and the rush of wind as the spear passed by his head and above the hood of his sweatshirt was the last thing Jaune felt before he collided with the ground.
In one world, a stubborn Weiss Schnee would seek out a partner other than Ruby Rose, stumble across Jaune hanging pathetically from a tree, and decide the immature younger girl is not the worst partner she could have. In this world, she should have stumbled across the young man's corpse and been horrified at the sight. Instead, she kept walking, not noticing a pile of ash sitting where the young man should have landed.
What happened afterwards was a blur to Jaune. He remembered a lot but separate and faraway moments blurred together to him.
He remembered awakening in a prison cell, nearly naked with his skin shriveled and rotting.
He remembered a knight tossing a corpse to him with a key to his freedom and a broken sword to defend himself with.
He remembered that same knight telling him about a prophecy as he lay dying in a pile of rubble.
He remembered walking to a cliff, wearing that knight's armor and holding his sword and shield as a crow took him to the dying kingdom where a bell would give him answers.
He remembered climbing atop a church to ring one bell, and he remembered having to go into the depths of a swamp to ring a second.
He remembered seeing a great golden city (a fake) where a beautiful woman (a lie) asked him to link the First Flame and free everyone from the undead curse.
He remembered a toothy servant reiterating that woman's request before he set out for that city and promising him glory if he obtained four great souls to access the flame.
He remembered another serpent appearing after the first of those four souls were obtained, telling him that they were liars, that the fire was meant to go out and that he could rule an age of darkness if he obtained the other three and slew the god who linked the flame before him.
He remembered gathering the other three lord souls after equally greuling trials.
He remembered travelling to an ancient land being swallowed by the Abyss that dark age represented, seeing that it only bred mindless monsters in a cold, dark world.
He remembered confronting the hollowed god, and deciding that the first serpent's lie was preferable to the second's.
He remembered dying, a lot, so many times and in so many ways that he didn't keep count and just instinctively held onto the memories of all the pain each death caused.
Before awakening, Jaune's last memory was of how despite all the times he died on his journey, the pain of being part of that fire was so impossibly worse it was almost a joke to compare them. Indeed, whatever remained of the Jaune Arc the undead was before his journey through Lordran was burned away by that flame over the course of the eternity he spent as its fuel.
Eventually the memories stopped, or more accurately made way for complete darkness as sleep caught up to the boy for the first time since before he could vaguely remember.
To say Pyrrha was freaking out was an understatement. She may, after all, be partially responsible for the death of the first person to not see her as an untouchable being who was above everyone. It was in the distance, but she could hear a snap that meant nothing good. What if he had a weak Aura? What if he somehow got into Beacon without an Aura at all?
The invincible girl killed Grimm after Grimm like it was nothing on her way to where the boy landed, having long since pulled Miló back to her. It simultaneously felt like forever and only a few seconds before she ran into a flash of red.
"Aah! I'm so sorry!" the young girl, Ruby Rose, apologized as she stood up, "I just need to find my partner! Her and I started off on the wrong foot but I HAVE to work well with her even if I don't really wanna so... gottagobye!"
Just as quickly as she said that sentence had the younger girl raced off, leaving behind a few rose petals and a stunned Pyrrha. Shaking her head to recollect her thoughts, Pyrrha calmly stood up and jogged to where she was sure the boy had landed.
She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw him, his clothes and the chestplate he wore over them were a little damaged but the young man himself was fine. He appeared to be knocked unconscious by the fall, under him were a pile of ashes, some of them glowing with small embers. Perhaps an effect of his semblance, or just a really strong aura that produces a fire effect? Pyrrha didn't really care at the moment, she was simply relieved that he was alright.
"Jaune," she addressed him as she approached his limp form. When it was clear that her words would not wake him up she gently shook him, and as he started to stir she took the opportunity to tease him a bit, "There are better places to take a nap than on the ground Jaune."
Him quickly shifting into a combat stance while pointing his blade at her made it clear he didn't take that very well. Pyrrha dropped her smirk.
"It's me, Pyrrha, from the locker room earlier," she informed him in an attempt to get the young man to stand down. From what she could remember, Jaune was from a village a bit outside the walls of Vale, probably on edge because he's back in a place where Grimm are.
"Locker room…" he repeated, trailing off and straining a bit. Oh dear, is he suffering amnesia. Aura doesn't offer perfect protection so a good hit to the head, or headfirst collision with the ground in this case, could likely cause memory loss.
To test how much he was missing, she stated, "We're in the middle of the Emerald Forest, we were launched here for our initiation to Beacon."
"Beacon… I tried to get into Beacon to be a huntsman…" he lowered his blade as he strained to recall, sheathing it back into his folded shield at his hip.
So he had a vague idea of who he was before, and he seemed to trust her again. Pyrrha could work with that.
"Yes, and we're here now. The two of us just need to find a relic in these woods and we'll pass our first test."
"I…" he trailed off from whatever he was about to say before really saying anything. After a moment he told her, "alright, let's go."
Pyrrha nodded and decided to jog his memory a bit more by lightly teasing him with his own quote, "I'm glad I could take that opening to be on the winning team."
Jaune didn't respond, or acknowledge what she said, instead he seemed to intently look around at their surroundings. Finally, he set his eyes on a path laid out to the left of him, Pyrrha turned in that direction and saw a trail of rose petals in that direction.
"Want to follow that Ruby girl?" She asked her surprisingly serious partner.
"Hm?" He turned to face her, probably leaving her room to continue.
She was only happy to, "Ruby Rose, I remember you talking to her yesterday. From what it looks like, her semblance gives her increased speed but leaves behind rose petals."
"Let's follow her then, I'm guessing we don't have anything else to tell us which way to go."
"Lead the way."
Were Jaune the same person he was early on in his quest through Lordran, he would be feeling a mixture of confusion, panic, and euphoria to be back at Beacon, before the hell he endured had happened. Instead, all he felt was a resigned acceptance of what the girl who found him had told him.
It explained his location, the forest of Oolacile, both in the past and present, had a feeling of death and decay lying in every tree that surrounded him that these woods just didn't have. In fact, even if there were no undead in Lordran the flame fading made everywhere hold that same feeling. The shock to his system here was unrecognizable, yet also relieving for the undead boy.
It was also clear he was back before he started because of the equipment he had. The blade was similarly shaped to the Astora straight sword he used during the early stages of his adventure, though it was made of simple steel instead of the rare Twinkling Titanite that Sir Oscar's blade consisted of. His armor was a weak breastplate and some leather gauntlets over a cotton hooded shirt and jeans, the latter material being completely alien to Lordran.
The girl recognized him too, which should raise alarm bells but he vaguely recalled a girl in red during his brief time at Beacon, before he became the Chosen Undead. The memory of the academy was so vague that he could only recollect feelings associated with it. Sickness from flying, uncertainty when surrounded by people he pretended were his peers, fear before the headmaster launched him to his death (not that he blamed the man, most students were already trained to come up with a landing strategy, his past self was in over his head).
This wasn't to say Jaune felt nothing about returning to before he was in that dying land, but a variety of deaths would always await the young man when he didn't put his primary focus on the here and now.
So here he was, walking a trail that would at worst lead to the corpse of a girl that could create rose petals, followed by someone who he could cooperate with for the time being like he did with Solaire and Lautrec before the former had gone mad and the latter had betrayed him.
The once Lord of Cinder swallowed the feeling of hurt remembering them. He needed to focus. But just walking left him with no choice but to assess his state. He had no catalyst or talisman, but he could feel that if he had one or the other he could cast the sorceries and miracles he learned. With a bit of will to ignite it, a small flame appeared in his left hand, and he had to not let thoughts of the man who gave it to him to get to the boy, instead he silently thanked his two teachers that he could still use his Pyromancies if he needed to.
Keeping the flame lit for comfort, Jaune looked at his right hand and called on something else he knew was deep within him, after seeing what became of Artorias after his exposure to the Dark, the undead swore to himself he would never call on this power again, but if he had no other choice he would feel better knowing he had something to defend himself.
It wasn't long before he felt his Dark Hand absorbing ambient humanity, surrounding itself in a purple mist to show this. There was, however, a large amount of it gathered right in front of him, as if a creature of the Abyss was rapidly rushing to him.
Having no time to draw his sword, Jaune thrust out his left hand and unleashed a quick Combustion at a Beowulf that leapt at him from the bushes. Pyrrha drew her spear and shield as Jaune switched his Dark Hand and Pyromancy Flame, generating a weak shield in his left and preparing a Fireball in the right.
The Grimm survived his strike, but the mask was charred and it obviously was hurt because of how it quickly jumped away from its would-be prey. Jaune's companion shifted her weapon into the form of a rifle (how long ago was it that he'd seen a gun, another thing alien to that awful land) and fired at the Grimm. The first shot damaged its jaw but the others were blocked by bone armor on its arms.
While it was blocking though, Jaune had time to quickly finish it off with a punch from his Dark Hand, absorbing a bit of the Humanity that a creature of the Abyss would carry.
"You have good reflexes, I couldn't see that until you already hurt it."
Not wanting to explain the Dark Hand to his partner, Jaune accepted the complement with a quiet "thanks" and continued in the direction the two were originally headed, silent for almost the whole time outside Pyrrha awkwardly trying to make small talk with the undead. He sympathised with her every time she trailed off, realizing he wasn't willing to chat. He was much the same way with the few sane people he met in Lordran, but with the exception of his few meetings with Solaire, Griggs, Laurentius, and Siegmeyer none of them were willing to make conversation, so he got used to being cold to everyone just as nearly everyone was cold to him. That and he would rather focus on passing this trial so he can get to somewhere where he could safely decide on what he wanted to do.
Jaune looked to his left hand seeing the dark energy surrounding it again. While he was in Oolacile, realizing what a mistake he made by trusting Kaathe and joining the serpent's covenant, he developed a theory that the Abyss was connected to the creatures of Grimm from his homeland, the fact that it reacted to Grimm, or more accurately the Humanity they were composed of, proved his theory correct. He filed the thought of what to do with this information for later, instead using the Dark Hand to check for an approaching Grimm that could be downed by Sword, Spear, Bullet, or Pyromancy.
The boy should have realized he was jinxing himself by thinking of one of those lying snakes earlier, because he felt a giant snake rushing towards him through his left hand. The boy quickly rolled to the right and drew his sword as it leapt out. Only him thinking he dodged it was a mistake when a branch out of its neck slammed into him and knocked him off his feet. Jaune stabbed the thing when he recovered but that seemed to do nothing to it as it circled around to try for him again, ignoring Pyrrha as she stabbed it too.
Jaune rolled to the left this time, only to see the creature follow him. Thinking quickly, he deactivated his dark hand and put his shield in his left hand to at least block the fangs if he couldn't dodge them. He didn't need to though, because a girl with orange hair let out a war cry as she jumped off a nearby tree and crushed its skull with her hammer.
"Thank y-" Jaune was about to say only to be cut off by the girl suddenly standing in front of him and putting a finger to his lips.
"Sorry bub but I'm already taken, he's actually running here right now. We saw each other while chasing the Taijitu there so you'll have to find someone else."
"It's okay, we've got that covered," Pyrrha cut in as she approached the two.
"Oh, good then! My name's Nora! Wait, you're that girl on the cereal boxes!" The now named Nora said as she held her hand out for Pyrrha to shake.
As the excitable girl in pink hounded his partner, Jaune returned his shield to its sheath form and safely hooked it and his sword at his hip again. He briefly considered activating his Dark Hand again before opting not to, it was so easy to slip back to relying on it, absorbing Humanity through it was incredibly addicting, to the point where Jaune thought he was suffering withdrawal symptoms after he became a Warrior of Sunlight before he and Solaire set off to collect the last lord soul in Izalith.
Before he could get wrapped up further in his own memories, the sound of someone running up to the three of them caught the Knight's attention.
A young man in a green tailcoat and white pants stopped when he reached the group, he immediately proceeded to fall and catch his knees to remain standing as he gulped down air like he never breathed before. Despite seemingly being quick when he ran, he must lack stamina to maintain that.
In between breaths, he said "Nora… don't do that… again."
"Aww, sorry Renny I just wanted to get the other head for you." The girl responded as she rushed to her friend's side.
Turning to Jaune and his partner, the boy introduced himself, "I am Lie Ren. You've already met my partner Nora. Since we're all looking for a relic, perhaps you could join us?"
Jaune nodded, more allies in a dangerous situation was often the difference between life and death in combat. Pyrrha also approved of Ren's suggestion, and so the three were off.
"Wait," their new companion said, noticing his partner rushed off again, "Nora! Where are y-"
"YEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAW!" she cut off with a shriek as a large bear Grimm, an Ursa, ran past the trio with the girl in question on its back.
As quickly as it rushed in, the beast disappeared deeper into the woods. The dark haired boy tasked with reigning her in loudly sighed as he saw he failed to keep her close yet again. "I suppose this makes our arrangement short lived." He commented to his companions.
"Wait," Jaune said as he brought out his Dark Hand again, "I'll be able to track her down for you."
Ren nodded, so Jaune focused on where the Grimm that was running away from them was headed, knowing which Grimm that was through how it was rapidly headed in roughly the direction Nora rode it to. Only for something interesting to happen. It suddenly stopped, then reversed course to the three of them. No, more accurately it was drawn to Jaune.
Could the Dark Hand attract creatures of the Abyss? Jaune never tested this theory as he refrained from using Dark Hand during his entire trip through Oolacile Township where the corrupted human citizens ran wild. Artorias went wild when he was close but Jaune figured that as a Darkwraith he had a similar presence to the dark creatures formerly known as people that the maddened Knight was hunting. He needed a little more evidence to this theory.
"It's turning around and coming back." Jaune said, startling the two he was with, "attack it with everything you have, don't worry about dodging because it won't retaliate."
Pyrrha and Ren both raised an eyebrow at that statement, "how do you know?" queried the other male companion.
Calling his Pyromancy Flame, Jaune confidently answered with an "I won't let it."
The two did not look as confident as him, but they put some distance between the three of them and took on battle stances with their weapons anyway. Meanwhile, Jaune strained to apply some Chaos to his Pyromancy so he could douse the Ursa in lava if his theory was false. However, no matter his strain he could not turn the Great Fireball he was conjuring into a Chaos Fireball.
Jaune didn't have time to think on why this was though, as the Ursa leapt into view, wildly bucking a hollering Nora off as it rushed to Jaune. Pyrrha and Ren shot at the creature, but it kept it's focus on Jaune. He went left as Pyrrha rushed in, but it still dashed to Jaune even though the champion was the one attacking it.
The undead extingued his flame as Ren joined Pyrrha in engaging the Grimm in melee. He focused on limbs and joints while Pyrrha struck it's belly and back. Yet it still hobbled to a casual Jaune that just held up his right hand, letting both a trail of darkness and the bear's eyes follow as he moved it in different directions.
Jaune then recalled his Darkwraith technique, satisfied his theory was proven right, as Pyrrha finally decapitated the hammer wielder's short lived mount.
"Interesting Semblance you have there," the other boy said to Jaune as everyone put their weapons away, "mine suppresses emotions to keep attention from Grimm away, so it seems we are opposites in a way."
"Semblance?" Jaune asked, staring at Ren only to be met with an equal amount of confusion.
"Oh, was that not a Semblance? I guess you also control fire so that's what your actual Semblance is, though I've never heard of an Aura technique that lets you track and attract Grimm before, but the black energy around your hand was certainly Aura."
It was understandable that they wouldn't know about Humanity and Soul Arts like the Dark Hand or Pyromancy, but Jaune had never heard of Aura or a Semblance before. He figured huntsmen used some kind of magic, but in his former life his father forbid him from learning anything about that. Aura and Semblances could be what they call the Remnant version of these arts though.
Jaune had more reason to not lie to his companions than to lie, but he preferred to not reveal what the origin of the Dark Hand actually was, so he decided to just rely on the first conclusion Ren had come to. It seemed by the way he said technique that it implies it could be taught, which implied a Semblance couldn't.
"No, you were right the first time, the fire is an Aura technique called Pyromancy. It is interesting that we seem to have Semblances that can be used for opposite effects."
"Okay then, I would love to learn how to do so. I could always benefit from further knowledge of Aura." The Mistralian young man said, satisfied.
"Me too!" The ginger girl shouted as she suddenly appeared near everyone, "I wanna learn to set my hands on fire and punch stuff!"
"If you have the patience to learn any Aura technique it would be a miracle. Now please stay with us Nora." Her exasperated partner said.
"Okaaaaay. I just wanted to ride an Ursa once before we had to go back."
"Um… Jaune?"
"Yes Pyrrha?"
The crimson haired girl pointed to the sky, the undead followed with his eyes until he saw a blur of red speeding to the quartet from above, followed by a dive-bombing black bird that didn't seem nearly as friendly as the crow which brought Jaune to Lordran at the start of his quest.
Lordran or no, it seemed that today would not be peaceful for the Ex-Lord of Cinder.
AN: This story is inspired by "Is it too Much to Ask to be Left Alone" by Ashbel Longhart which I highly recommend even if you aren't much of a fan of Danmachi. I basically borrowed the premise of a protagonist dying once in canon where they originally didn't, dying a lot more in Lordran, then returning to the canon setting for my story but applied it to Jaune from RWBY.
Regarding this chapter, I wanted to get initiation out of the way, but I feel as though a lot had to be covered beforehand, there's still a lot Jaune has to go over to readjust to being back at Beacon. We'll be out of the Emerald Forest and really diverging from canon next chapter. I know Ren talked a lot, but don't worry this will be the most he says in one chapter. I just found him to be the best person to question Jaune since Pyrrha would respect her partner keeping his abilities to himself like her and Nora isn't able to focus on one thing for long.
Please leave a review, I'd love to see where I can improve as a writer and where I'm doing well. And finally, have yourselves a good one!