DISCLAIMER: I own nothing RWBY related

Jaune's eyes open and he silently slips out of bed. It is early morning and the sun had yet to rise. Dressing himself in loose training clothes, he collects Crocea Mors and exits the dorms. He walks for several minutes until he comes across a hidden grass field with enough space to adequately train. He'd noticed this area when they were walking to the dorms after the initiation ceremony.

He strolls to the center and sits down with his legs crossed. Then, he places Crocea Mors across his lap and closes his eyes. As he focuses on his breathing, he can feel himself connecting deeper with the world and his mind. Soon, he slips into a state of deep meditation.

There is nothing but himself and the traces of that energy similar to qi, now identified as Aura. He mentally grabs hold of the Aura and circulates it through his meridians, tempering his muscles, bones, skins, and organs. Meanwhile, he delves deeper towards the source of this power, venturing closer and closer to his dantian, above his navel. As he's about to cross the threshold into his dantian, an invisible force pushes him back.

'This is? My dantian is blocked?'

Concern ripples across Jaune's eyes as his mental eyes gaze across the void representing his body and soul. In a distant recess of his mind, he notices an anomaly. A structure he could only identify as an enormous Paifang, an architectural gateway, bordering on the invisible boundary of his dantian. The Paifang is evenly split down the middle.

From the left, Jaune feels a constant pulsing of energy, like a heartbeat. On the right, the structure looks as if a permanent shadow had been cast upon it. He approaches the left half and places a palm on one of the pillars.

'This feels vaguely familiar. As if this is something I've always had. It feels... right.'

He removes his hand and places it on the right half of the Paifang.

'Cold, yet I can feel an unbridled strength hidden within. It does not resonate with me as the left half does, yet, it is represented as the matching pair to complete this Paifang...'

Jaune presses both hands against the boundary and pushes with all of his strength, but there is not the slightest give to the invisible barrier. With a deep sigh, his eyes reopen to the outside world.

'If my dantian is blocked, that means that I am stuck with body tempering. This is not ideal... but I will have to make do with what I have available to me. I will have to spend any extra free time in resolving this mystery as top priority. Otherwise, I will not be able to guarantee my own safety.'

He reaches into his pocket and checks the time on his Scroll.

'I have some time to spare. Let us see this body's capabilities.'

Jaune stands up and smoothly draws Crocea Mors from its scabbard. The blade seems to glow as it reflects the light from the rising sun. He casually swings the blade down to his side in a neutral stance, causing the grass to sway from the force of this action.

Taking in a single swift breath, Jaune initiates a standard routine for sword practitioners. With practiced precision, he begins with a series of stabs, slashes, parries, and blocks, caring more for accuracy than speed. As he grows more comfortable with the movements, he incorporates complex footwork and increases his tempo, until eventually, a miniature hurricane of blades rages in the center of the grassy field. This continues for 20 minutes until he slows down to a stop with sweat soaking through his training clothes. A long wisp of air escapes Jaune's mouth as he breathes out.

'Just how long has it been since I've done this routine? How nostalgic and invigorating.'

Though breathing heavily, each breath is taken with full control.

"My stamina could use some work," Jaune murmurs. "Only 20 minutes at full capacity."

He sheathes the blade back into his scabbard and makes his way back to the dorms.

Team RWBY and JNPR burst into a classroom. They are late by 5 minutes.

'For someone to be so stubborn when waking up,' Jaune mentally sighs at Nora.

He and Ruby apologize to the professor for their teams' tardiness and quickly find their seats.

Morning class quickly concludes, and the students make their way towards the location of their next lecture.

'Aura is the power of the soul... And a Semblance is a power said to represent the user's soul? This would verify that the energy I am feeling is indeed Aura. However, what the Paifang represents remains unexplained. I suspect that this is a situation unique to myself.'

"Jaune, we've arrived for Professor Port's class."

The vast majority of the students do not pay attention to Port's lecture, as he continues to ramble about his various adventures. Unlike most, Jaune finds the man's lessons to be rather useful. After filtering out the useless information, what is left are detailed accounts of the various types of Grimm and how to efficiently deal with them. As such, Jaune is among the few who writes down extensive notes.

Port is no idiot, and can clearly see those who are paying attention and those who are not. A certain blonde catches his attention.

"Ah... Mr. Arc. I see that you've put in the effort to take rather extensive notes during my lecture. Would you like to take the opportunity to demonstrate that knowledge to the class?"

He presses a button under his desk, opening a section of the floor and bringing up a cage. A deep growl is heard from within its confines. A Grimm.

Feeling slightly annoyed, Jaune pushes himself onto his feet and makes his way down to the front of the class.

'You did not really give me the option to refuse...'

"Are you prepared?"

Jaune nods.

In response, Port kicks the cage open and a medium sized Ursa claws its way out. Those in the crowd glance at each other nervously.

"An Ursa?! Is the Professsor mad?" Weiss exclaims. "A Boarbatusk or Beowolf I could understand, but Ursa are one of the more dangerous Grimm found near Vale!"

Jaune quietly observes the Ursa pawing at the ground, preparing to charge. He gives the audience a quick glance, namely the expressions of his team and RWBY's.

'They do not have the highest of hopes for me. Hmm... obviously I will dispatch this Ursa, but I must also take care not to reveal too much. If I pretend to struggle too much, they will think I am weak, which will have its own set of annoying consequences. After all... the strong will prey on the weak and I am not foolish enough to think this world is an exception.'

The Ursa roars and kicks off its hind legs into a full blown charge. Meanwhile, Jaune remains in place showing no intention of moving out of the way.

"Jaune! Move out of the way!" Ruby yells.

Pyrrha tightly grips her desk, though she trusts that Professor Port would interfere should it get dangerous for Jaune.

The Ursa reels its head back and opens it maw, revealing its razor sharp teeth. As it lurches forward to bite down on Jaune's neck, his hand blurs into motion and quickly shoves half of his scabbard into the creatures open mouth. With a simple press of a button, the scabbard rapidly expands into shield form, tearing through the Ursa's head, leaving only its lower jaw intact.

Unfortunately for the class, black ichor splashes across the entire classroom, but Jaune remains untouched by the substance. As the Ursa corpse collapses into a heap, Jaune switches his shield back into its scabbard form and calmly secures it to his waist. Save for the sound of someone vomiting in the background, the students stare with wide-eyed silence.

"Ehem," Professor Port clears his throat. "Well well, Mr. Arc. That was quite a... unique method of dispatching the Ursa, but points to you for being resourceful with your equipment. Class, I would strongly suggest that each and every one of you take note of how Mr. Arc handled that situation. Class dismissed."

The student rustle with movement and they mutter amongst each other of how Jaune had dispatched the Ursa with minimal effort.

Jaune waits outside of the classroom for RWBY and his team, before heading towards their next class.

"Where did you get the idea to use your shield like that?" Pyrrha asks curiously.

"A spur of the moment decision," Jaune chuckles. "I was rather lucky that Ursa was so predictable."

"A spur of the moment?" Weiss rolls her eyes. "You blew chunks of Ursa across the entire classroom! It's a good thing Grimm disintegrate upon death!"

"It should be noted that combat class is next. Don't go sticking your scabbard into your classmate's mouths," Yang teases with a grin.

"Ew, Yang," Ruby makes a disgusted face.

"That was indeed quite a distasteful joke," Ren comments.

"Jaune Arc vs Cardin Winchester"

'He looks rather average in ability. It should not be a problem.'

Cardin shoves Jaune on the shoulder as he passes by.

"Get ready to feel pain," he growls.

'Did I perhaps offend him in some way? It would seem that I spoke too soon.'