It's another day at Beacon Academy and SAPR and JNPR are having lunch together with Blake and Yang. As the two and a half teams eat their lunches in silence, Persi and Reginald seem to glare up at one another before Persi lets out a slight growl and goes back to his food.
Reginald just rolls his eyes before going back to his lunch as he cuts into his salsberry steak, the blade causing a loud scrapping sound as it scrapes against the glass plate.
Sensing the tension in the air, Nora tries to break the ice by asking, "So...how is everyone doing today?"
Reginald and Persi only glare up at her before turning their attentions back to their food, earning a sigh from their leader. "Just ignore them, Nora. They've been like this since that fight a couple days ago.", Sapphire says to her with a concerned look.
Persi takes a moment to look up from his food and ask, "You mean that complete embarrassment of a fight where he walked out of the arena?"
"At least I didn't get shot in the face.", Reginald shoots back without even taking the time to look up at Persi.
"Well at least I didn't ELIMINATE MY OWN PARTNER!", Persi shouts as he leans over Reginald, towering over his partner, but before he can continue laying into Reginald, Sapphire stops both of them by saying, "That's enough. This pointless arguing is getting us nowhere."
They both look over to Sapphire with burning glares before both growl, "Stay out of this!"
"Well, at least all Weiss and Ruby are doing is giving each other the silent treatment. Ruby's drowning herself in Ultra Alfredo Sisters 3 and Weiss is burying herself in next week's studies. I'm glad they aren't arguing with each other like this everyday.", Yang groans with a sigh to which Sapphire nods.
As the two boys glare at each other, Nora tries yet again to break the tension at the table by saying, "Well, I had this cool dream last night." The girl quickly starts describing the scene dramatically as if she suddenly turned into a narrator, saying, "There I was, in the middle of the night."
"It was day.", Ren immediately says after her, causing the orange haired girl to glance over at him before continuing.
"I was surrounded by Ursai...", Nora continues, and Ren corrects her again, saying, "They were Beowolves."
"There were dozens of them!", the energetic ginger exclaims, slamming her hands down on the table as she stands up from her seat, trying to ignore Ren's meddling, but he continues correcting her, saying, "There were two of them."
As she plops back down into her seat, confidence just covers her face as she crosses her arms and pridefully says, "And Ren and I made a fortune selling Ursa Skin Rugs! Pretty neat, right guys?"
Ren lets out a exhausted sigh before taking a sip of his tea and saying, "She's been having this reoccurring dream for nearly a month now."
"Isn't it a bit weird that you know that...?", Blake awkwardly asks as she looks up to Ren from her book.
Nora quickly wraps an arm around Ren's neck, pulling the stoic boy close to her side before happily saying, "Not really, Ren and I have known each other for a really REALLY long time. We know everything about each other. Right Ren?"
With his head wrapped in Nora's headlock, Ren silently nods in agreement before returning to the peace of his tea.
Yang looks over to Blake with a slight smile, to which Blake rolls her eyes and returns to her book. As she does this, Yang's mood saddens as she turns to Nora and Ren and says, "I wish our team could be that close."
"Well, bonds like this don't happen over night. If you keep at it, you two might just end up with a partnership like ours, right Ren?", Nora replies before looking to Ren for his response, which he replies to with yet another nod.
"You can't rush these kinds of relationships. We have four years to get to know one another. There's no need to rush things.", Jaune notes, adding his eternal wisdom to the conversation.
Yang snickers at the blonde boy's comment before saying, "You're one to talk about rushing, Jaune. Considering how quickly you laid down and cried after Pyrrha beat your ass the other day."
"I-It wasn't that quick, really! I just have more experience than most other students here. I'm certain if I was any other student, Jaune could've easily held his own, right Jaune?", Pyrrha quickly replies, shooting down Yang's playful jab to defend her partner's pride.
Much to their surprise, Jaune quickly rebuttals both of them, saying, "It wasn't that! I could've easily taken you on, Pyrrha. I was just off my game a little. The arena was smaller than the one I practiced in back at home, so I was focusing too much on staying in the arena instead of the actual fight, but I think I've gotten the feel for it now. I could easily take any of you on any day of the week now."
"Oh, is that so, Mister Bigshot? How about we test that then?", Yang playfully asks the blonde boy with a sly grin on her face. The busty blonde stands up from her seat and as she points to Jaune, she says, "If that's the case, then I dare you to challenge Cardin Winchester to a match tomorrow in Sparring Class. If you're such a great fighter, then you can handle that much, right?"
"You're on Xiao Long! An Arc never backs down from a challenge!", Jaune boasts as he also stands up, empty tray in hand as a confident grin comes across his face.
Pyrrha looks up at her partner with worry in her eyes before asking, "Are you certain that's a good idea, Jaune? We saw Cardin almost destroy the cafeteria on the first day of school."
"Exactly, I know all of his movements already. That gives me a clear advantage over him not to mention knowing his semblance. This'll be a piece of cake, trust me.", Jaune replies confidently, causing Pyrrha's worry to fade away into a slight smile.
And as Jaune leaves the lunch table, Ash sighs and says, "This will not end well..."
The next day, during Sparring Class, Jaune is frantically dodging fireballs in the arena, rolling across the ground and leaping over them to avoid the explosions they cause. Across the arena, Cardin is standing there with his mace turned into what seems like a flamethrower, which he's using to shoot flames of all shapes and sizes at Jaune.
"Come on, Jaune. Put up more of a fight than that! You're starting to bore me!", Cardin gloats as he presses a button on his hilt, causing the head of his mace to rotate. As he pulls the trigger on his weapon, flames spew out of his mace toward Jaune, but he manages to get his shield up in time to block the attack. The power behind the flames is too strong for the blonde boy to do anything else but block however, and Cardin just walks towards him as his fire starts to overwhelm Jaune's defenses.
As Cardin stops right in front of him, he quickly switches his weapon back into a mace and Jaune tries to take this moment to counter attack with a downward slash, but Cardin manages to block his attack with the shaft of his weapon. "You're absolutely pathetic. You really thought you could beat me?", Cardin asks as he starts pushing Jaune back with his raw power.
Jaune desperately tries to bash Cardin away with his shield, but Cardin knocks it away with ease, leaving Jaune with only his trusty sword. Cardin completely ignores Jaune's blade and instead of clashing blades with him once more, he simply knocks Jaune to his knees with a swift knee to the stomach.
As Jaune looks up at Cardin, he sees the boy as he lifts his mace up into the air, aiming to crush his skull as a sadistic grin comes across his face.
Before he can lay into Jaune with his massive weapon, a loud buzzer goes off behind him, causing Cardin to stop in his tracks entirely as they hear Glynda say, "That's enough."
Cardin glances over his shoulder to see Glynda as she walks into the arena, her eyes focused on the two boys entirely. "This match has been decided. Cardin Winchester is the victor.", Glynda proclaims as she walks over to her students. When she gets closer, she looks down at Jaune with a slight glare before saying, "Mister Arc, you've been in my class for quite some time now, so you should have learned to get a good feeling for your aura levels naturally and use that information in your battle strategies. Please try to be a tad more cautious in your next battle. We wouldn't want you to get gobbled up by a Beowolf now, would we?", and Pyrrha looks to him with a worried frown.
Cardin scoffs to himself before muttering, "Speak for yourself.", and walking out of the arena to the locker room with the head of his heavy mace resting on his armored shoulder.
"Well, that will be the last spar of the day it seems. Now, before I dismiss you, I would like you all to remember that Professor Peach and I will be taking you all to Forever Fall next week for your first investigation mission as Huntsmen in training. And I would suggest that you take your weekly funds and spend them wisely on your supplies, you will need them. You are dismissed.", Glynda states with a slight glare aimed at the rest of her students before dismissing her class.
As Jaune pulls himself off the floor, he looks over to the locker room and thinks, "Good one, Jaune. Add that to your long list of failures.", before heading to the locker room to change.
When he gets there though, he's met with a smirking Cardin, who's already finished getting changed into his school uniform. "That was a fun fight, Jauny-boy.", Cardin says with a slight hint of sarcasm.
Jaune just looks to him and says, "Cardin, I'm not in the mood right now.", but Cardin ignores him and says, "I haven't had a match that easy since middle school! You're a real push over, you know that?" Cardin shoves Jaune out of the way as he walks over to the exit, causing Jaune to run into a nearby locker shoulder first.
And as he leaves, he says back to Jaune, "You'd do well to remember your place Jaune. Glynda won't be around to save you forever."
As Jaune tries to catch his breath, he hears a kind voice ask, "Do you...need a hand?", and he looks up to see Pyrrha walking into the locker room.
"I'm fine Pyrrha, I just need a few minutes to breathe right now, but thanks for asking. I'll be fine, honest.", Jaune replies with a forced smile to the girl, but she isn't buying it.
Pyrrha walks over to him and throws his arm over her shoulder before saying, "Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school, but you haven't tried fighting back at all. I'm getting worried, Jaune."
Jaune lets out a quick sigh before telling his partner, in a more stubborn tone than usual, "I'll be fine. You probably have more important things to worry about than this. Besides, what kind of leader would I be if I kept getting help from everyone all the time?", causing a light to turn on in Pyrrha's head.
"I have an idea. Once you're done changing, come with me. I need your help with something.", Pyrrha suddenly suggest, causing Jaune to give her a confused look.
Knowing he can't win, Jaune simply nods before heading deeper into the locker room to get changed.
As Pyrrha finishes pulling Jaune through the hallways and up two flights of stairs, they finally end up on the roof, looking off at the sunset. The redhead gently guides him over to the ledge, but Jaune starts to pull back as he hesitantly says, "P-Pyrrha, I know I look a bit down and Cardin's picking on me, but I don't think this is my only other option! I could always be a farmer or open a store or something..."
The girl looks down to see the high drop before realizing what he meant and quickly saying, "No! That's...that's not what I meant..." Pyrrha places her hands on Jaune's shoulders and takes a deep breathe before saying, "Jaune, I want you to train with me up here."
"What?", Jaune replies in his usual confused tone and Pyrrha just gives him her classic gentle smile.
"We can come up here every night and train together. It's rare to come across someone who uses a similar style along with a shield, so I feel like it would benefit both of us if we worked together to get better.", Pyrrha suggests as she rubs her arm nervously.
Jaune rubs the back of his head as he asks, "Do I really look that bad? Would you really take the time out of your day to have to help me?"
Pyrrha lets out a sigh and says, "Jaune, we all need a little bit of help every now and then. Even I need to keep training so I don't lose my edge. And if you train hard enough, I'm certain you can become a great Huntsman. I can help you."
"What's the point? I don't belong here. I should just go back home.", Jaune replies as his depression starts to take over.
"You DO belong here Jaune. So what if you haven't unlocked your semblance yet? You made it past the entrance exams and made it here with your raw skill alone. That speaks wonders for your ability.", Pyrrha quickly refutes, but this only infuriates Jaune.
Jaune sadly mutters to himself, "You're wrong...", but Pyrrha manages to hear this and says, "You BELONG here Jaune."
"No I don't! I didn't even earn my place here!", Jaune exclaims in his frustration as he turns away from her, earning a slightly confused look from the redhead.
Pyrrha takes a step towards her partner and asks, "Jaune, what do you mean?"
Jaune quickly turns around to the redhead and shouts, "I didn't earn my spot here in Beacon, okay!? I found some fake transcripts and forged them to look like I attended a nice huntsman school and had enough skill to attend these classes! I cheated and lied to get here... I-I just wanted to be like my father, and his father before him... I just wanted to be a hero...", as he holds himself and looks off to the sunset.
Pyrrha takes another step towards him with an open hand and says, "Jaune, it's alright. We can-", but before she can finish, he shouts, "Just leave me alone!", causing the girl to pull her open hand back.
Nearly driven to tears, Pyrrha manages to say, "If..If that's what you want...", before running through the nearby exit and down the stair.
As Jaune stands there alone on the roof, he thinks to himself, "Great work, 'Team Leader'. You yelled at your partner and made her cry. Some leader you are..." "Maybe I should go apologize...", he mutters to himself before turning back to the doorway to follow after her, but before he can, he hears his own voice say, "I found some fake transcripts and forged them to look like I attended a nice huntsman school and had enough skill to attend these classes! I cheated and lied to get here."
The boy quickly turns back to see Cardin Winchester standing there on the roof with a tape recorder in hand, and as the bully presses the pause button on it, the recording stops and he says, "Well well well, who would've thought you were the type of guy to do such a thing, Jauny-boy?"
"Cardin!? Please, please don't tell anyone about this!", Jaune begs, but Cardin only chuckles before putting the device in his inner jacket pocket as he walks over to Jaune.
"Oh Jaune, why would I ever do that? That's not what friends do.", Cardin says with a smirk on his face. He then puts Jaune in a headlock before saying, "I think this is gonna be the start of a beautiful friendship, Jaune."