Greetings everyone,

Welcome back to the 9th chapter of "Don't Mess With An Arc".

I want to give my thanks to all of those that have been reading this story and I hope you all enjoy it just as much as I enjoy writing it. Originally, I wanted to do a different scene with Jaune after "somehow" losing sight of Yang but granted I was completely out of it from working on repairs for my car, work overload, and just general real world bullcrap, I decided to just go with something easy before adding some character building drama at the end. I liked the scene well enough but maybe I should switch this comedy-based story into a dramatic one. Or perhaps just restart from scratch. I dunno, I guess I'll leave that decision up to you, the readers.

Just another note, that due to the ongoing checks on the potential hurricane coming my way, I decided to shorten this chapter just in case anything were to happen. That way, I have plenty of time to fix any problems before I need to update the next chapter. I also decided to update this chapter a few days early because it's looking like I may have to evacuate just in case. As such, I hope you guys stay safe as well and I hope you enjoy this chapter too.

Next Scheduled Update:

October 21st: "Don't Mess With An Arc - Ch. 10"

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Till next time!

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Chapter Nine

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to see a man with untold godly amounts of untapped power weeping over a textbook as a snow-haired princess grilled you like a boot camp drill sergeant?

Well, Yang Xiao Long had that exact same thought as she sat upon her bed, watching as her teammate-turned-temporary-leader, Weiss Schnee, grilling Yang's partner, Jaune, for not knowing the difference between purified Dust and un-purified Dust. And it was quite a sight to behold, to be honest.

"How can you not know the difference between purified Dust found in the northern most region of Remnant and un-purified Dust found in the southern most region of Remnant? This is basic common knowledge needed in the career of a Huntsman!" Weiss shouted, placing her hands on her hips as Jaune weeped tears of frustration. "I thought you said before that you were home-schooled? Do you mean to tell me that that was a lie?" she asked, causing Jaune to finally face her with a red eyed glare, trying to uphold an expression of manliness despite the raging waterfalls that were coming from his tear ducts.

"An Arc never lies!" he shouted back, feeling frustrated that someone had the gall to call him, an Arc, a liar. He knew that Arcs as only three things ever since he first found out about their great and glorious history. When in times of adversity, they were courageous. When faced with hardships of the people, they were charitable. And when their backs were against the wall and down to their dying breath, their overwhelming power. But never, ever, were they liars.

But, alas, Weiss held no interest in the glorious exports of the Arcs.

"Then how is that your own mother, who somehow saw the need to teach you advance mathematical equations did she not teach you about basic information regarding Dust and their properties when found in completely different biomes?" asked Weiss, crossing her arms over one another as she made a pointed glare on Jaune's lowering head, seeing him more preoccupied with fiddling with his index fingers. Sighing at her leader's actions, Weiss ran a palm through her hair. "You never bothered paying attention, did you?" she asked, getting her answer as Jaune's head lowered further until his forehead meat his desk.

Seeing, the boy that she was grooming to become a leader, Weiss took a chair and placed it on the other side of Jaune's desk before placing herself upon it. Slowly, she reached out to his hand and cupped it with her own as she shocked Yang and Ruby beyond belief with a gentle smile aimed at Jaune.

"Jaune, look at me." she said, watching as Jaune raised his head to look up at her, giving her amply time to wipe away his tears with a napkin. "I know that this is hard for you but it is a step you must take to become the leader I know you will become. So, please, even if it gets hard, please, give it your all to try." she pleaded with a gentle smile.

And sadly, she was right. Jaune had swore that he would become a better leader for his team. And even though studying as obviously something he'd have the most trouble with. Seeing as all he wanted to do when originally came to attend Beacon was to fight stronger opponents and finally be able to go all out. But now, he had a different goal that would run alongside his original goal.

And so, he wiped his remaining tears away from his eyes, grabbed the textbook on his desk and used his entire mental might to etch every single letter that formed a word into his memory banks. He would make his teammates proud of him, even if he had to stay up for nights at a time to do it. Because when it came to a challenge an Arc never, ever, backs down.

Though, if one were to ask him as to how someone of his caliber and strength could be so afraid of someone as frail and fragile as Weiss, he'd say to them the very life-changing advice spoken to him by his mother, the matriarch of the Arc family. "Behind every great man of the Arc clan is a wife who can kick his ass." And while Jaune was certainly sure that there was absolutely nothing that Weiss could ever hope to do when it came to theoretically kicking his ass. There was one thing that Jaune was not gifted with, unlike his godly strength, and that was a timid personality in the face of girls such as Weiss. For some strange reason Jaune almost felt compelled to earn her acknowledgement, though that could be just because she reminded him so much of his mother.

Either way, Jaune's routine with Weiss was only the tip of the iceberg as his time spent at Beacon Academy as Prof. Goodwitch's personal combative assistant had it's own rewards as well as consequences. To start with, Prof. Goodwitch had decided that until Jaune could successfully pull back his punches then he was forbidden from participating in sparring matched with his fellow students. This was beyond blasphemy for someone like Jaune. Asking an Arc not to fight was like asking a bird not to fly or a fish not to swim, It just went against the very law of the universe.

But alas, every time he even attempted to join in the fun Prof. Goodwitch was just as quick to put it to an end by enveloping him in her telekinetic Semblance and lifting him to the ceiling of the classroom. Granted, he could break out of her hold at anytime he desired but he was raised to take his punishments like a man. Even though he wanted desperately to fight against his fellow students, especially Pyrrha and Yang. He knew he made the right choice when he asked Pyrrha to fight him. Her skill on the battlefield of combat was enough to send his thirst for battle to it's maximum limit. Which was then broken at the sheer power and rage that his own partner, Yang, had often demonstrated through the use of bombastic personality, expert use of various martial arts that accentuated her shotgun gauntlets. But it was her Semblance that really had Jaune's adrenaline pumping through his veins. In an instant, her lilac eyes would change into bloody red, her golden locks would ignite into a firestorm of gold, and her Aura practically flared like the holy sun itself. Everything about Yang was driving him wild for battle.

He almost couldn't take it anymore when he watched Yang make use of her weapons' concussive blast to launch herself at Pyrrha's form, only for Pyrrha to duck beneath her at the last second and retaliate by twisting her legs until they met Yang's side. The resulting action held enough force to launch Yang out of the ring and onto the marbled floor, granting Pyrrha, through use of strategy and superior combative skill, the victory and leaving Yang, disappointed in her failure but ecstatic in her overall experience in the sparring match.

And as he witnessed the sweat of head labor dance across this glistening skin, Jaune finally couldn't take much more of it. So when he watched as Prof. Goodwitch raised from her placement at the operator's desk, he knew that he had to make the next few seconds count.

"Excellent work as always, Ms. Nikos. Your form and subsequent combat stance were superb. Although, you often left yourself open to many of Ms. Xiao Long's attacks. Remember that just because he decide to lure in an opponent in hopes f countering them does not mean that you should." said Prof. Goodwitch, glancing down at her notes that she had written for many of her students.

"Yes, ma'am." said Pyrrha, smiling as she took a bow.

"And you, Ms. Xiao Long, must learn to gain better control over your Semblance. While anger and rage can certainly be a blessing when in the heat of battle, it is only truly a force to be wrecking with when tempered by your mind. Other than that, your overall combat strategy, while rudimentary, did have it's moments when Ms. Nikos had left herself open at various points in the match." said Prof. Goodwitch, glancing at Yang, who smiled at her in return before giving her two finger guns.

"You got it, teach." said Yang with a smirk. "I'll make sure to end my next fight with P-Money with a Yang." said Yang, smiling even though many of the others groaned at her humorless puns, sans Jaune, who was snickering behind his hand to avoid any reprimands from his mentor, who was keeping him aloft in the air. "Seems like Lady Killer up there is the only one who knows what comedy really is." she said, shrugging her shoulders before sending her floating partner a friendly thumbs up, to which he happily returned in kind.

With a heavy exhausted sigh of having to deal with another one of Yang's horrendous puns, Prof. Goodwitch pushed her glasses further up the bridge of her nose before turning her attention back to her students.

"Now, we have a few more minutes before the end of class and as such I will allow a final sparring match. Is there anyone that would like to go?" she asked, watching the students around her until she saw the raised hand of one Cardin Winchester. His smug expression causing her great amounts of personal disgust as she was already well aware of his less than reputable actions regarding many of the students with Faunus traits as well as his general attitude towards his fellow classmates. "Yes, Mr. Winchester, would you like to volunteer for our final match?" she asked, already knowing the answer to her question.

"Yeah, that's right." said Cardin, sounding as cocky and arrogant as ever before as his eyes raised to meet Jaune's floating form. "And I want ole Jauney Boy as my punching bag." he said, unaware that the remainder of Team AYSR and Team PNBR were trying desperately to contain their comments and laughter over Cardin's request. Why, even Prof. Goodwitch was practically sighing at his idiotic decision. Jaune's moment had come as he began waving his arms and legs erratically in the air.

"Yeah! Let me fight him, Professor Goodwitch!" shouted Jaune as he continued to float around the room above Prof. Goodwitch's head as she tried to ignore Jaune's pleas.

"Mr. Winchester, we have been over this before. Mr. Arc is special case and as such any activity involving him is to be considered just as so." said Prof. Goodwitch, sending Cardin her trademark death glare. But apparently cockiness was a natural defense against her as he merely shrugged off her glare with a dark chuckle. "And you, Mr. Arc, have already been notified of the repercussions should you engage Mr. Winchester in combat."

"But how am I supposed to get better if I don't even get a chance to test myself?" asked Jaune, frowning as he remained floating in the air due to Prof. Goodwitch's telekinetic semblance.

Suddenly, a raised hand caught the combative professor's attention, drawing her green eyes towards the one who raised it, Weiss.

"Yes, Ms. Schnee?" asked Prof. Goodwitch, answering Weiss's raised hand with a sigh of exhaustion.

"Professor, with all due respect, Jaune has tremendous amounts of progress regarding his... problem. I ask that you merely offer Jaune the opportunity to prove, not only to you but himself as well, that he has gained better control over his gift." said Weiss, her icy blue eyes burning bright with the passionate tutor desiring to see their pupil reach their goals.

Prof. Goodwitch sighed at Weiss's request. Surely, even the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company knew better than anyone that Jaune's power was not one that could be so easily controlled with only a few months. But, before the blonde combat professor could voice her denial towards the three's requests, the sight of very familiar face caught her eye at it's corner.

There, standing in the nosebleeds of the sparring classroom, with a mug of piping hot coffee was her employer and headmaster of Beacon Academy. His green scarf hung loosely around his neck as the steam from the coffee threatened to fog his spectacles. The slightest nod from her boss and long time associate very nearly caused all hope to die out in her eyes.

Fine, if they all desired to see the school she'd worked tirelessly on during long nights after many of Jaune unfortunate accidents then who was she to deny them their wishes. But she'll be damned if she's the only one cleaning up the mess, again.

And so, with a harsh glare pointed directly at the smirking face of her employer, Prof. Goodwitch willed Jaune's floating body back onto solid ground. The purple haze surrounding his body vanishing little by little as she marched her way towards him.

"Very well, Mr. Arc." she said with a heavy sigh as she rubbed her eyes with her index finger and thumb. "I will allow you to participate in a spar with Mr. Winchester."

Jaune immediately went to voice his joyful emotions when the harsh glare brought to him by his professor ceased all joyful thoughts in his mind. She loomed over him like dark goddess over a mere halfling. Why was it that Jaune was so terrified of women with dark personalities? One who have to ask his mother to gain that answer. And even then, would they even want to know it after seeing her towering over them like a giantress?

"But, understand this, Mr. Arc." she slowly began with a dark expression as if promising to deliver the most painful of ends should he disregard her next words. "If anything happens during your match with Mr. Winchester that gives me even an inkling that something will go wrong then I swear to you that not only will make you clean up the mess, I will ensure that whatever punishment I deliver pales in comparison to your worst nightmare. Are we clear?" she asked as Jaune, the most powerful being between the two of them, cowered beneath her dark glare. His head shaking with fear but his warrior's passion burning as bright as the sun.

Maybe once he gained better control over his strength he could fight against Prof. Goodwitch?

Regardless, it was but a few minutes that Jaune finally found himself standing the sparring room's center ring across from his opponent, Cardin. Finally, he'd be able to prove to everyone that he was more than a boy with godly amounts of power. And though he didn't know it at the time, his opponent, Cardin Winchester, would evcentually become his greatest rival.

It was time for the match that would change both fighters' lives forever.

Jaune Arc VS Cardin Winchester!