Sup y'all, it's me. It's your boy Asmongold (except not really, just want to quote him lol) and here I am with the introduction of the final volume of Hero of Beacon as we celebrate the (late) anniversary of the Jaune Archive.

Sorry this took too long when all I needed to do was splice and improve on chapters from the old version. This was due to a combination of me being busy with college work, burnout from RWBY and writing in general, interest in other things, and admittedly some procrastination here and there.

Aside from that, I wanted to update the side stories in the Extras, and have a new one finished while it's publishing coincide with the release of this volume, I recommend you check it out if you haven't yet. The next few chapters will have relatively fewer changes from the original version because this was the point where my writing had improved. But there will be bigger changes with later chapters because I found some of parts from the original version that needed some extra rework.

I would also like to note that as I continued to write an outline for the sequel I've decided to retcon Jaune's education before Beacon. Originally, he was mentioned to have been homeschooled, but I decided to change it so that he attended four years in a military academy instead. Not only more in fitting with his eventual occupation and his Ciaphas Cain inspiration, but it also explains why he has rather exceptional combat and leadership skills before Beacon aside from just training in his family every other day. Most of the changes are relatively minor, only changing a few paragraphs in a select few chapters with a couple of sentences added here and there, so the story will mostly remain the same.

Since it's another anniversary again, I've also decided to bring back the bonus Spotify playlist from the original story, with new tracks and then some. Here is the link (replace the commas with dots):

open,spotify,com/playlist/5Rb3nr11yvLyQo3FHNNAlL?si=45cdfa7ca6d344f5

And a YouTube mirror of course with a more detailed description on which track takes place in the story:

youtube,com/playlist?list=PLx-5liPQvheKpDAZ9ED8OiF57YkRQwNiX

I will also upload an AO3 mirror of this new version of the fic. The original can still viewed there, but you'll need an account to see it.

Anyway, here's Volume III, hope you enjoy! The next chapters will be released shortly.

The Jaune Archive

The Hero of Beacon

Volume III

To Thrive and be Victorious

Editorial Note:

This is the third and final volume of the Jaune Archive that chronicles his year at Beacon Academy. It centers on the 40th Biennial Vytal Festival, an event that went down as a very major episode in modern history and changed the lives of many Huntsmen and civilians alike, for better or worse, and Jaune and his fellow students at Beacon were no exception. In fact, this was a significant turning point in his life, and I was personally there to witness it.

I will keep this brief and let Jaune's writing speak for itself. As with previous volumes, his accounts remained mostly self-centered so pertinent footnotes and excerpts from other records will continue to be included to provide the reader with a wider perspective of this historical event.

Without further interruption, let us proceed to the end of the beginning of this chapter in Jaune's life and career.

Weiss Schnee

Chief Executive Officer, Schnee Dust Company®

PROLOGUE

Ah, the Vytal Festival. Nothing says peace between nations than celebrating with fun activities such as parades, dances, contests, games, and a tournament that has students of the world's top academies fighting each other for martial supremacy. And some people take it very seriously to the point that it occasionally even results in brawls if disputes get heated enough; thus contradicting the festival's purpose of promoting peace and friendships. Basically, it's just sports in general—except the players are school children whose goal is to basically crush their opponents. Once these few weeks of partying are all over, the kingdoms will inevitably go back to bickering at each other over dumb, petty politics until the next festival arrives.

To the surprise of literally no one, we made it to the tournament as there was absolutely zero reason for them not to put us in there. Ren and Nora are very competent fighters that complement each other perfectly; Pyrrha is the four-time, back-to-back, consecutive champion of the Mistral Regionals; and everyone is calling me the latest Hero of Beacon for stopping the breach while Vale is hosting for this year. We are pretty much celebrities at this point. Of course, why wouldn't they put us in the tournament?

I'll give The Great & Powerful Ozpin some credit for keeping the Merlot situation confidential. Nobody needed to know that the person behind Mountain Glenn's demise was still alive even if he was incarcerated. Or that he was able to mutate Grimm. And most of all, no one needs to know that I was one of the people responsible for his capture. It might cause public hysteria when the festival begins and Ozpin wouldn't look good if people find out that he sent first-year students on a very dangerous mission no matter how exceptional they consider themselves to be.

Come to think of it; if it went public, it might have been kind of nice if it would have deemed me and my team overqualified for the tournament, with my partner already being famous for being near-untouchable and thus, saving us some trouble. Then again, it's probably just wishful thinking and that they would still put me in the tournament anyway since everyone would still want to see me in action regardless of what I do. My status as a breakout celebrity is already overbearing; I don't need to make it worse for myself, especially if I intend to get far in the tournament and not spoil Pyrrha's winning streak.

The tournament was held in the floating arena that was hovering above Vytal—the Amity Colosseum, an acrophobia's least favorite place to visit. Everyone who had tickets or an invitation had to ride an aircraft to get there [1]. Thankfully the ride there was very brief since the coliseum remained in Vytal's airspace when Vale is hosting the festival, so it wasn't that far from Beacon and I didn't have to hide much of my motion sickness to avoid showing signs of weakness, especially to potential opponents.

It wasn't the first time I visited the Coliseum, I remember my last visit here about six years ago. My father brought most of the family to watch Rouge's participation in the tournament during her first year at Beacon. I also remembered being so terrified of the airship ride, not only because of my motion sickness but also because I had never been that high before. It was one of the last moments in a simpler and happier time of life; I even dreamed of competing in the tournament myself. That was all before it took a more cynical turn. Ever since then, I never even thought of seeing the Coliseum in person again.

Well, here I am once more. If I was my eleven-year-old naive self, I would be dying of joy right now and cherish every second of this, but instead, I feel like I have to play some stupid games because everyone wanted me to.

Airships loaded with fans from all over the world gathered around the arena, and of course, the Gods-forsaken press was also there. All the tickets were sold, explaining the dense population of the Coliseum. Let's just be thankful that this coliseum was able to support this many people. There were plenty of well-known teams and fighters that were anticipated; Pyrrha was one of them, especially for her fellow Mistralis as this was the first time she participated in a tournament outside her home region. And of course one of the other acclaimed prodigies they were waiting for was me.

That gods-awful video of me during the incident of Podunk just hit over a million views on PruneHub. [2] I feel bad for everyone who had to watch that shaky, vertically recorded mess that serves as the quintessential example of everyone's misunderstood perception of me. I was advertised as one of the most popular upcoming fighters in the tournament and this was only my debut. What made me nervous the most was I had to perform in front of thousands of people. Doing stuff to perpetuate my image was one thing, but doing my best to maintain my composure in front of a large audience was something else. The best thing to do was focus on the match and ignore the audience as best as you could. The problem is, that their constant cheering will keep reminding you of their presence, which makes ignoring them impossible.

The first round consisted of entire teams, followed by doubles and singles. The winners will be able to decide which of their teammates would participate in the following round. For this round, we were matched against Team ABRN (Auburn) from Mistral, consisting of Arslan Altan; Bolin Hori; Reese Chloris; and Nadir Shiko, if I remembered their names correctly.

Like some of the exchange students I observed, I've seen them fight before, and while they do have a few quirks that made them slightly stand out from the others, they didn't seem to be much of a problem. That said, I reminded myself that they were not planning on holding back as they are aware that they were facing one of the most incontestable freshmen teams on Beacon.

After a few matches from the other contestants passed, it was our turn. Checking to see if all my equipment is functional and in place, I held a deep breath and faced my teammates in the locker room. They all bore expressions of eagerness and determination. "Alright team, are we ready?"

"We're all set," Ren nodded. Nothing odd there aside from his voice sounding somewhat different. I don't think it's anything serious; it's probably just the effects of the weird plants he consumes somehow.

"Let's put Team JNPR in the history books!" Nora pumped beside him. Hopefully not for the wrong reasons if I wind up doing something stupid that would put a stain this team's reputation, I thought. She then checked the tournament's livestream on her scroll. "Online chat is pretty pumped up. Let's give 'em a show!" She had to remind me that a third of the world is watching us right now.

"Here I go once more…" Pyrrha sighed, listening to the waiting crowd upstairs as she prepared for yet another tournament round she needed to win to please everyone.

"Hey," I motioned to Pyrrha and comforted her by holding her shoulder. "It's going to be alright. We're all in this together."

Her face brightened up, with a small blush visible from her. I smiled back and let go of her as I led them out of the locker room. "Remember, guys, this was all we've been training for the past weeks. Let's show them how far we went to get ourselves here," I told them. Well, we all know that the real reason why we were qualified was that we had a champion and a so-called hero on our team, but that doesn't sound too inspiring, now would it?

"Don't worry, what's the worst that can happen? Pyrrha's a world-renowned champion, Ren's basically a ninja, I can bench five of me, and you're the biggest hero his kingdom has in a while! And after everything we went through, these guys will be like moles ready to be whacked!" Nora boasted.

"Even if the odds are with us, we're still up against serious competitors, Nora. They're well aware of our feats, so we should prepare for anything we might not expect." Ren pointed out.

I nodded at him in agreement especially when my plan mostly boiled down to: 'throw some relevant commands, look good, and hope that my team pulls it together.' Constant practice was the best way to keep us prepared for the tournament as no one knew who their first opponents would be until the tournament officially started, and having an undefeated champion on your side can only take you so far if you don't stay sharp. "He's right, Nora. We can't underestimate these guys. Who knows what clever tricks they might have in their sleeve that they could use just so they could beat us?"

"I'd still say it's great that we're back into participating in friendly matches with actual guidelines rather than confronting more dangerous criminals who would not hesitate to kill us." Pyrrha chimed in. That, I could agree on. It was honestly kind of refreshing to be back in 'honorable' duels with fellow students after dealing with plenty of crazy psychopaths I had the misfortune of crossing paths with.

But even though I could rest knowing that my opponents won't try to kill me no matter how threatening they are, I can never rest when my reputation is on the line. Undeserved I may be of it, it was still something I need to maintain to preserve my dignity so I might as well put on a show.

Well, here goes nothing, I thought as my team and I exited the locker room.

=o=

1. The Amity Coliseum was stationed on the Lancaster Airfield on Vytal when inactive. It was originally a ground structure located in the middle of Amity's city—hence the name—prior to being modified to become an aircraft after several riots and attempted terrorist attacks since the twenty-seventh biennial tournament.

2. A popular video sharing platform in the holonet where various types of videos are shared or streamed by both professionals and amateurs. It is occasionally infamous for copyright-related controversies and its questionable treatment of content creators.