Jaune spent the rest of the day wandering around Kuo Kuana, speaking with the locals. After his little stunt with the bat-boy earlier, word quickly spread around of the human that healed him and he found many of the suspicious or fearful glares he had been receiving since disembarking from the boat the day before. This made investigating the attack on Gerard and Gabriel's farm go much smoother as people started to believe he was a genuine Huntsman that Blake's father had hired, and, as he normally did when that particular assumption was made about him, he saw no reason to actively try and dissuade them if it was making things easier.
"It's nice to see the old jungle cat finally managed to rustle up some help with those damn things," a middle-aged woman said as Jaune helped her carry her groceries, her webbed fingers making it slightly harder to carry her things. "And a human! One who's not even fazed by our kind either!"
"You mean that attack wasn't the first?" Jaune asked, deciding to avoid the discussion of politics and racism as much as he could.
"Hah! You kidding?" The woman laughed as they arrived at the small hut she called home. "This ain't like one of those little settlements in the Kingdoms where a Beowulf will eat a farmer maybe once a month, and a Huntsman will be dispatched to take care of it within the week. We've had to take care of ourselves pretty much since we landed here. It's why so many people join the Fang."
"So, the White Fang helps you guys deal with the Grimm?" Jaune concluded.
The woman nodded. "That they do. If just one member of your family's with 'em, you can be pretty much guaranteed safety from the Grimm."
"What about the city guards," Jaune asked. "Surely they help?"
"Do you ask the police in the kingdoms to go on missions with you?" The woman countered. "Besides, the guards're usually too busy with problems inside the city."
"What do you mean?"
"Too many mouths, not enough to eat," she explained. "That makes people desperate, which in turn makes 'em stupid. Same thing in pretty much every other village on the island. It was worse before Ghira became Chief, he's done a lot for us, but we're all lucky the Fang looks after its own. People get training against the Grimm, food in their bellies, and can fight for our rights."
"Sounds like a pretty good deal," Jaune muttered as the woman opened her doors.
"That it is," she replied, turning to accept her groceries from him. "And, if the kindness you've shown me is anything to go by, then the fight is going well. Goodbye, Huntsman, and good luck with tracking your prey."
Jaune's stomach twisted in discomfort, but he held his tongue as he smiled to the woman and bid her farewell before turning back towards the main road. That's the third person to mention the White Fang helping with the Grimm attacks, he thought to himself. But Gerard was supposedly a member, so where were they? He had no conclusive evidence that the White Fang were at all involved with the destruction of the farm just outside of the city, but he couldn't stop his instincts from warning him that there was more to this than there seemed.
"You have the instincts of a warrior. Always trust them, for they are your souls way of telling you what your senses cannot," a familiar voice chimed in the back of his memory.
Nodding his head resolutely, Jaune closed his eyes and focussed on his aura. When he had first had it unlocked, his aura had seemed like such a foreign concept to him. All he knew was that it was some sort of energy that protected him from harm and kept the Grimm from tearing him to shreds. Even when he had first set out on his own, he had been woefully ignorant. However, after a year of careful on-and-off instruction, and a lot of experimenting on his own, the power derived from his soul was a familiar, comforting presence that he could grasp and channel with ease.
Taking a deep breath, Jaune gathered his aura before releasing it in a pulse around him, allowing the energy to travel in every direction as it swept through his surroundings, giving him an extraordinarily detailed view of everything and, more importantly, everyone around him. It had taken him months to be able to properly understand the information that was fed back to him as his aura made contact with his surroundings, and, while he was nowhere near as skilled as a real Huntsman or Huntress would be with the technique, he was proud of the distance his aura could cover due simply to its vast quantity.
Looks like my shadow still isn't back, Jaune thought to himself as he set off once more towards the Belladonna mansion. He had detected someone following him and Blake that morning before they went to visit the farm, and again when they returned to town, but the last few times he had pulsed his aura the mysterious follower was nowhere to be found. He wished he could dismiss it as little more than an overly cautious faunus following him to make sure he was behaving, but, once again, it just didn't sit right with him.
A grumbling from his stomach interrupted his thoughts just as he walked through the massive doors of the mansion. Patting his gut and lamenting his lost wallet, he began to make his way back to the room Blake's parents were letting him stay in to grab the banged up. old fishing rod he carried with him for times such as these. He had just thrown the rod over his shoulder and exited the room when he nearly ran into Blake's mother as she walked down the hall.
"Oh! Hello there, Jaune!"
"Hey, Mrs. Belladonna," Jaune returned, waving awkwardly.
"Please, call me Kali! What have you got there?" She asked, nodding towards his rod.
"Oh, this? I still don't have any money, so I was going to go find a nice river or something and see if I can't catch myself some dinner."
"Nonsense!" Kali exclaimed, turning him around on the spot. "You didn't think that we would let one of our guests go hungry, now did you?"
"I... Uh..."
"Now you put that thing away before you poke your eye out and follow me. You'll eat with us in the dining room."
"Oh, no! I couldn't!" Jaune tried his best to escape the woman, but her grip was like iron as she yanked the fishing rod out of his hand and tossed it into his room, only for it to sail right out the window.
"I insist!" She persisted, halfway dragging him through the halls as Jaune tried desperately to keep up with the deceptively strong woman while throwing longing glances back towards where his trusty rod had just been defenestrated. With less reluctance than his manners should have dictated due to his raging innards, Jaune followed Kali into the same room where he and Blake had shared tea with her and Ghira the day before, the other two having already seated themselves on the floor while awkardly looking anywhere but at each other until Kali joined them opposite her husband, and Jaune sat down across from Blake, crossing his legs.
"Ah! Jaune!" Ghira exclaimed in what Jaune could have sworn was relief. "Come, join us!"
Servants came out and placed trays of food before them, and Jaune had to stop himself from drooling as he stared at the steaming plate of rice and tuna before him. He looked around for his knife and fork, but was dismayed to find them missing from the table until he noticed a thin pair of wooden sticks laying next to his cup.
"Thank you for the meal, sir," Jaune said, grabbing the sticks and watching Blake take a bite to see how he was supposed to use them to eat his food. "It smells delicious."
"You're quite welcome, young man," Ghira replied. "So, tell me, how goes your investigation?"
"It's uh... still ongoing," Jaune replied, trying hard to pick up a chunk of rice, only for his sticks to slip and the food to fall onto his plate. "Blake helped me examine the farm for any tracks that might tell me what exactly it was that attacked. It's unlikely to attack in the same place or so soon, so until I can identify what type it is and how best to track it, I plan on getting to know the city, try and figure out where it's most likely to go for."
"Gently, Jaune," Kali instructed as Jaune once more tried to take a mouthful of food, his face reddening in embarrassment before turning to her daughter. "I had no idea they taught you how to identify Grimm by the mess they leave behind at Beacon."
"They didn't," Blake replied, smirking as Jaune just barely missed his mouth on his most recent attempt. "Jaune was the one who followed the tracks, I just helped him get past the guards."
"I am sorry for their behaviour," Ghira said. "Most people living on Menagerie are refugees from a life that was made more difficult at the hands of oppressive humans. Unfortunately the wariness they have developped as a result of such has made some of them just as prejudiced as the humans that scorned them."
"Oh, there's no need to apologize," Jaune replied, grinning as he finally managed to take a bite. "I've seen how terribly faunus are treated more than enough to understand where they're coming from."
"That's quite admirable of you, Jaune," Kali said, smiling softly.
"My sisters and I even attended a few of the White Fang rallies when they came to town," Jaune continued, his confidence somewhat bolstered as he managed to slowly sate his hunger.
"Which town is that?" Ghira asked.
"Ansel."
"That's quite far," Kali noted. "You're family must be worried sick."
"They are," Jaune replied, smiling as he thought of his sisters. "But I try to stay in contact as often as I can. Helps them know I haven't been swallowed whole by a Beowulf."
An awkward silence fell over the table as Blake's ears drooped over her head and she shot furtive glances at her parents before returning to staring at her food. Jaune realised he must have touched a sore spot there and hurried to correct his mistake.
"So, Ghira! How did you come to lead Kuo Kuana?"
"Actually, Dad's the chieftain for all of Menagerie," Blake informed him making Jaune's eye widen as he turned to the mountain-like man.
"There's not really much to tell," Ghira admitted modestly. "When it became clear that the White Fang was going in a direction I did not approve of, I chose to step down rather than incite any sort of infighting. It didn't take long, however, for the people of Menagerie to look to me for guidance as well, so I accepted the role of chieftain."
"You were the leader of the White Fang?" Jaune asked, his eyes wide. No wonder those two creeps treated him with such respect yesterday.
"I was," Ghira said. "Unfortunately, my ideas of a peaceful revolution soon lost traction as violence towards the faunus continued to go on, and I eventually chose to abdicate. I did not approve of what it was becoming, and it after what you told us yesterday, it seems that my instincts were right."
The rest of dinner was filled with light-hearted conversation that Jaune was more than thankful for after the minefield he had just navigated through, and Jaune went to bed that night with the first genuine smile on his face in a long time.
*(OoO)*
It took four days for the Grimm to make a reappearance.
In an effort to better understand him (and avoid any more uncomfortable moments with her parents), Blake had taken to following Jaune as he conducted his investigation in and around Kuo Kuana. She watched as he helped out wherever he could around the city, sometimes simply helping an older woman with her groceries, sometimes making use of his strange semblance to heal whatever injuries were brought to him. Regardless of what he did, he always wore the same pleasant, inviting smile on his face.
This only raised even more questions, however, as Blake wondered why he was spending all this time helping out in and around the city when he had clearly shown the ability to track the Grimm by the prints it left alone. On top of that, she wondered why he was going to such great lengths to befriend people when he stood no chance of changing the general outlook towards humans on Menagerie. At best, he was treated like the exception to the rule. At worst, he was regarded with even more suspicion as people wondered what his angle was. Either way, it only proved to make her more curious as she followed him day in and day out.
So, having taken up her daily ritual of watching him from the shadows, Blake was perfectly position to see him notice the shifting trees on the other side of the farmland, and how he stiffened before ordering Gerard and Gabriel inside along with their children as he climbed down from the roof and started to walk towards the treeline while she followed from a distance until her eyes widened as a bellowing roar filled the air and a Beringel the size of a large truck burst through the trees.
She began sprinting towards Jaune, but froze halfway when he she noticed him throw off his brown cloak, revealing the tattered armor underneath. Instead of the breastplate and guards he used to wear, Jaune now wore a thick leather jacket over his signature hoodie with plates, chain, and studs attached in various sections. His left shoulder was equipped with a large plate that connected to one covering his left pectoral and raised over his neck before extending down the side of his back, protecting his heart from both sides. Attached to the plate on his back a blade about half the length of the one she remembered him using in Beacon, its grip concealed by a group of compressed plates at the top of the sheath. Reaching over his shoulder, Jaune drew the blade, and Blake watched as he drew the blade, and realised it wasn't the same one he used to wield at all as it extended to nearly four feet in length. Unlike the white steel of his old blade, this one had a silvery finish to it. Its edges were segmented to accomodate its shifting length, as well as making his stabs more damaging, and as Jaune twirled it in his hand, Blake could already tell that its balance was different from its predecessor.
The Beringel howled angrily as it watched Gerard usher his children into the cellar beneath his home and Blake felt a surge of fear as she suddenly realised she didn't have her weapon with her. This seemed to attract the Grimm's attention, as it sniffed the air, picking up on the negativity she was unwillingly emmitting and started turning towards her before freezing in its tracks as Jaune took another step forward. Something in the air changed then, and the Beringel suddenly zeroed in on him as he slowly continued to walk towards it, his expression neutral.
Just like with the Feilong on the boat, Blake watched in awe as Jaune faced down a massive Grimm with no trace of emotion other than determination and couldn't help but wonder at the changes that he had gone through since she last saw him at Beacon. The Beringel snarled and charged towards Jaune, leaping through the air as it approached and Blake felt her heart leap into her throat as the three ton Grimm came crashing down fist first towards Jaune.
Rather than jump away, Jaune waited until the last moment before swiftly taking a step towards the Beringel just as it slammed into the ground, spewing mud and debris everywhere. While inside the beast's guard, Jaune raised his blade and plunged it underneath one of its massive, tree-sized arms before pulling it out as the Beringel reared back in pain, hollering loud enough to make Blake's feline ears throb with pain. Raising both its fists, the Beringel tried once more to crush Jaune into paste and brought them both down on his head, only for him to twirl even farther through its guard, spinning around its back and burying his blade in the crook of its opposite thigh as he went.
The Beringel whirled around as Jaune ripped his blade from its hip and released an inhuman scream as it pursued him relentlessly, tearing up mud and smashing into trees as he danced away from its swipes. Blake watched as they moved closer and closer to the treeline and wondered why Jaune wasn't making any move to attack again as the Beringel thrashed and raged, always just missing him. It wasn't until they were nearly back in the jungle that Blake noticed how much slower the Grimm was moving, its attacks becoming more sluggish as they caused less and less damage upon impact before eventually it stopped, reaching up to grab its head as it head and leaning against a nearby tree. There was a loud thud as the Grimm slumped to the ground before Jaune stepped forward once more, raisning his sword once more and looking down at the large ape-like beast that glared at him and growled in impotent rage. The Beringel opened its mouth, revealing long fangs as it roared one last time before it was cut off as Jaune swung and a sound more reminiscent of a birdcall than a blade rang through the air, high and clear, as the head of the beast was separated from its shoulders.
Once more, Blake found herself brimming with questions as she watched Jaune swing his sword once more through the air, clearing it completely of any residual blood on the blade before it collapsed in on itself, shrinking as he returned it to its sheath on his back. Deciding she had much to think about, Blake took the opportunity to retreat back into the jungle and return home before she would have to explain herself to Jaune and risk further embarrassment.
Clearly there was much more than Jaune Arc than any of them could have guessed, and she was determined to unravel that mystery, one way or another.
A/N: So obvious call out to One Good Turn Deserves Another for the inspiration behind this little fight. I wanted to show that, despite definitely having gotten stronger over the past year, Jaune's biggest improvement is his ability to fight smart, not hard, and the scene with the massive Nevermore in OGTDA was a good way of demonstrating it as it wasn't a death by a thousand cuts, or a battle of sheer strength, but him using his know-how to take down the Beringel with minimal effort. I'm also happy to see you guys appreciate Sherlock!Jaune. Volume 4 opens with him claiming to be the strategist, and I'm trying to write him with a slightly more analytical mind. That being said, he is still somewhat socially awkward when he's nervous, as when he chastised himself as racist when he saw Kali and noted how similar she was to Blake.
Anyway, I hope you guys liked this, and thank you for reading and reviewing. I'll see you around next time!