Cover art - Mike (You know what? Fuck all of you. I don't need you judging me)

Chapter 6 - Foreboding Dread

"It feels strange coming here," Jaune admitted, "but I'm willing to admit when I might have a… problem."

Jaune never liked going to the doctors. They never had any good news. Ever since he unlocked his aura, he thought he was free from checkups and needles and all other unpleasant things in the name of healing.

But his team was worried about him, and he didn't blame them. He had been given quite the ear-chewing by his partner after she found out what happened in the library yesterday. Even now, he couldn't come up with any excuse for his behaviour.

Something was wrong with him. The least he could do was get a checkup, just to make sure his head wasn't scrambled. If anyone knew what was going on, it would be a man with a stethoscope.

"You don't know me, doc, but I can tell you that I'm a normal person," he told the doctor. "I don't do strange things, at least not intentionally. You'd never look at me and think I've escaped from a nuthouse. In fact, I'd go as far as to say I'm painfully boring. I'm too average for my own good, especially when you compare me to my friends. Amongst them, I stand out like a piece of dog crap in a rose garden."

"I see," murmured the doctor.

"So, that's why when I do something out of the ordinary, it gets more attention," Jaune continued. "Because people don't expect me to act weird. I've got my feet so firmly planted on the ground, you'd swear gravity's trying to give me a foot massage."

Jaune lowered his head. "But here's the thing: I have been acting weird. I've been doing the kind of things people post online for a laugh, except I've been doing them completely unironically. The scary part is I don't even realise what I'm doing is weird until I look back at what I've done. It's like my mind turns off and instincts take over."

"That sounds like a problem…" the doctor said, sounding slightly confused.

"That's why I'm here," Jaune sighed. "Want me to give you an example? Yesterday, I trashed my school's library chasing a red dot. Looking back at it now, I realise what I did was crazy, but at the time it felt like the most important thing in the world to do. I thought it was trying to kill me. A red dot! Can you believe that?"

"Yeah, that does sound hard to believe…"

"Do you think I'm crazy, doc?"

"I-I don't know."

"Are you lying to me? You think if I tell you the truth, I'm gonna flip and go crazy?"

"No, no! I don't think that!"

Jaune gripped his hair. "I don't know what's going on with me. Maybe I'm under a lot of stress? I'm a hunter-in-training after all, shit's trying to kill me all the time. I don't drink, I don't do drugs. Maybe this is a leftover side-effect from puberty? Either way, something's up and I need your help with this. You gotta get me back to my same-old boring self again, doc."

"Well, I'm sorry, sir, but I don't think I can help you."

Jaune's eyes widened. He felt like he was gonna be sick. "What? Come on, doc, don't give up on me just yet! I've got a serious problem here! At least give me some pills or something before you pull the plug!"

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do for you," the doctor insisted.

"Why not?" Jaune cried.

"Because this is a vet."

Jaune blinked. It was what?

He looked around and sure enough, he saw loads of pictures of animals decorating the wall. On the floor was a green dog bowl with the words 'BENNY' written on it. Jaune was quite surprised he hadn't noticed the model giraffe skeleton in the corner the first time he walked in.

Jaune was aware of his face getting warmer. Someone must have turned up the heating. "Ah… I see," he said steadily. "Perhaps I can reschedule for another appointment?"

"Please never come back here again," said the vet.

"Fair enough."

Jaune exited the office, walked down the hallway, past all the other people with their pets waiting to discuss their animal problems. They were all probably wondering why a young man with no pet was walking out of a vet looking flushed. He needed a cover story if anybody asked. His dog died? Yeah, that would work.

Jaune stood outside and sucked in a deep, disappointing breath. Talk about a waste of time. He checked his scroll. It was still early afternoon. More than enough time to get himself a real checkup.

How the hell could he have possibly thought a vet would be able to help him? It must've been the stethoscope. That thing would fool anyone. If hunters wanted to look even more reassuring to civilians, they'd all wear stethoscopes.

"Well, look who's here: freak-of-the-week," came a snarky voice.

Jaune jumped. "My dog died!" he blurted out.

"What?"

Jaune squinted. He could see where the voice was coming from now. Cardin was leaning against a wall, arms crossed over his chest.

Frustration bubbled. "Great, Cardin," he groaned. "What do you want?"

"What were you doing in there? Getting your rabies jab?"

"I don't have time for you right now. Go bother someone else."

He began to walk down the street, but Cardin quickly stood in his way.

"You think I haven't noticed what's been going on with you?" he said hotly. "Gods, look at you! Even now, with all the evidence staring you in the face, you're still in denial. You just can't help yourself, can you?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're already changing! You're becoming one of them! Those faunus freaks!"

Jaune sighed. He could already feel his head warn him of the impending headache about to hit. Now he was gonna need two medical appointments. "Cardin, I am not in the mood for this! I'm having a really difficult week, and the last thing I need is your mumbo-jumbo crap! Now leave me alone!"

"You can't keep running from the truth for much longer, Arc. The cracks are showing. Very soon, you're gonna be growing deformities and turning our civilised world into your own personal litter box!"

"How many times do I have to tell you, there's no such thing as a werefaunus!" Jaune snapped.

Cardin raised an eyebrow. "No? Then how do you explain waking up in a tree?"

Jaune hesitated. "I… I don't-"

"Or that thing with the fish in the cafeteria?"

"That's got nothing to do with-"

"Do I really have to bring up what happened yesterday too?"

"Enough! I don't know what's going on with me! I don't know why I'm behaving so weird lately! But what I do know is that it's got nothing to do with me turning into a faunus, because that's impossible! And even if I was, that still wouldn't explain what's wrong with me because guess what? Faunus are normal people! They don't act crazy like you say they do!"

"Well, that's where you're wrong, Jauney boy. It's got everything to do with your behaviour."

"Oh yeah? How?"

"You are aware that humans and faunus have different DNA, right?"

Jaune rolled his eyes. "Please don't tell me you of all people are gonna give me a science lecture."

"I'll forgive your cattiness because I guess it can't be helped now. Answer me."

"Yeah, of course I know that. So what?"

"Well, the thing about DNA is that it's built to make something work. It gives us life, identity, as well as some little goodies on the side, like making some of us taller than average or whatever. That's why humans are the superior species- we're born with the best genetics. Our DNA gives us better traits over the faunus because of how it's structured. That's the keyword there- structure. DNA must follow a strict pattern because it must, otherwise shit goes wrong and you get a bunch of freaks with animal ears walking around!"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but please go back to shoving me in lockers," Jaune pleaded. "That was way more durable than this."

Cardin ignored him. "What I'm saying is, DNA doesn't like it when people start messing around with its structure. It's not a toy, you can't just go mixing all the pieces however you like. Humans and faunus are what they are because of what they're genetics build them to be. It is a perfect and complex system, the result of millions of years of evolution.

"But then there's you. You've now got both human and faunus DNA swirling around in your system, and your skinny body's gonna reject it. You've let your molecular tower turn into a house of cards; one final push is all it's gonna take for the whole thing to come crashing down. Your brain's gonna pop trying to deal with all these irregularities inside you. It's already happening. I reckon you've got a few more days left until… until the man is gone, and all that remains is the animal."

That was the last straw. Jaune clamped his hands over his ears. "I'm not listening to you anymore!" he yelled.

"Yes, that's right, let the denial flow through you," Cardin hummed. "It'll just speed up your transformation."

"La la la! Can't hear you, Cardin! Guess my faunus hearing isn't as good as what I thought it was!"

"I almost feel sorry for you, Arc. I'd be miserable myself if I knew I was turning into one of those degenerates. But I tried to warn you. I'm not gonna enjoy seeing you change, but in the end, you brought this on yourself…"

Cardin turned around and walked down the street, finally leaving him alone. Unfortunately, the silence didn't bring him peace.

Despite his best efforts, Jaune had been listening to Cardin. He knew Cardin was stupid, and that everything that came out of his mouth was equally as stupid. Despite being a 'superior human' as he put it, he was clearly at the bottom end of his supposedly perfect gene pool.

Which was why it was even more embarrassing for Jaune to find himself… almost believing him.

Maybe all the stress from the past few days had turned his brain to mush, but a lot of what the bully was saying made sense to him. It was currently the only solid explanation for why he was behaving so strangely, even if that explanation went against basic logic.

But then again, everything about this situation went against logic. Waking up in trees? Chasing red dots? Cardin was right about one thing: normal people didn't do that. Could he have actually been on to something here? Was there any truth behind this werefaunus business?

Jaune's mind argued back and forth with itself. The added stress made him feel even more agitated. He needed to calm down. Nora owned a stress ball for when she needed to squeeze the tension out of her. He needed one of those right now.

He stormed his way into a nearby shop and grabbed the first one he saw on the shelf. The other customers stood back to make way for the man on a mission.

The woman behind the counter turned around to greet him. "Welcome, sir, how may I-?"

She yelped when he slammed the ball on the counter.

"I'll take one of your stress balls if you please," he snarled.

The woman looked nervous. "S-Stress ball?"

"Yes please."

"Sir… that's a ball of string."

"It'll do, damn it!"