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To Thrive and be Victorious
CHAPTER 4
Ren and I went straight to the dorms after arriving back in Beacon to take a break from all the excitement of the first day of the festival. Pyrrha and Nora, meanwhile, wanted to continue roaming around the fairgrounds for a little longer. It's good that they'll have each other there, Nora would need to protect Pyrrha from her own fans while Pyrrha would want to protect her fans from Nora. It's as chaotic and confusing as it sounds, I know, but that's what happens when you're teammates with both of them. As long as it does not concern me though, it's not my problem.
Ren went to his bed and reviewed some notes before taking a nap while I relaxed at my desk, Updating combat notes and this very journal as I listened to rock music that was decades older than me. I eventually fell asleep on my desk when fatigue finally caught up. My nap only lasted for about half an hour as the sky was still bright as I woke up. It was then I decided to take a short stroll outside.
Opening the team dorm's door, I saw Zwei standing in front of it as if it was waiting for me for whatever reason. Knowing Zwei from what little interaction I had with it, I braced myself as I expected it to pounce the moment it saw me. But strangely, it just stared at me. As relieved I was, there was just something off about Zwei not trying to attack me on sight.
Adding to my confusion, it suddenly trotted past me and inside the dorm. "Hey, what are you doing?"
It sat in the middle of the room before turning around to stare at me. "What do you want boy?" To be more appropriate, I should have asked what he was up to instead.
It tilted its head as he continued to stare at me. Rolling my eyes, I opened the dorm's room and showed it out.
"Look, there's nothing for you here and I think Ruby wouldn't want you wandering around so…" I turned back and saw that it suddenly was on my desk, standing on the chair with its hind legs. "Hey! What the—!"
It grabbed my journal with its mouth and then left the room. My exclaiming woke up and alerted Ren as he leaped up from his bed. After I shook my head out of being baffled while wishing that Zwei painfully bit me instead of doing this. I really wanted to like dogs, I really did, but this wasn't making it any easier for me.
I grabbed Ren's hand and bolted out of the room. "Ren, we got a canine committing a four-eight-seven and I'm going to need some backup."
Ren looked befuddled; understandable given the oddity of the situation. "Four-eight-seven?" [1]
"Just help me get Zwei!" I went straight to the point. Ren didn't even answer despite his confusion, probably because he was used to nonsense like this courtesy of the redhead he's glued with, so he just complied and helped me chase down a maliciously mischievous puppy.
I wasn't going to let my undeserved reputation go down the drain all because of a stupid mutt. Attacking me randomly was one thing, but trying to expose my secrets was another, and I wasn't having any of it.
We pursued Zwei through the residence hall as a few students watched in confusion, mostly because there was a dog in the vicinity when pets weren't allowed, and it being chased by the boys of the famed Team JNPR while holding someone's journal only added to the oddity.
Zwei went through a door in one of the rooms, unfortunately, that door was the entrance to the girl's locker room. Ren and I hesitated, staring at the door and at each other. With no other options, we sighed simultaneously before barging in. I thought I was going to lose some girls' respect over this but it was better than getting shunned by everyone after they found out that I wasn't being truthful and sincere about my stature at all.
The locker room was thankfully fairly empty, aside from Sandy Graves who was shocked to see us suddenly enter. Fortunately, she was fully clothed as it seemed that she was only there to pick something up and she was too confounded by the appearance of a dog roaming with a journal to be infuriated by two boys entering the girl's locker room.
After I found Zwei. I sprung toward it only for me to hit the floor as it darted away and leaped through a hopper window. This wasn't good as it meant I had to chase a dog on the campus where everyone is outside for the festival.
I got myself up. Ren and I then quickly made our way to the locker room. "You didn't see any of this," Ren told Sandy, who appeared as if she was still processing all of this. Good riddance, I thought. I didn't need to hear anyone calling me a pervert when I didn't see anything revealing during a dire situation such as this.
We went through the back door, which was the nearest exit from where we were. I bashed the door open before Ren and I made our way to the campus. It wasn't difficult to spot a black and white corgi running in the open like a sore thumb while students step aside to make way for it, especially feline faunuses with one of them even hissing at it.
He managed to enter the school building as someone left the door open. We pursued him around the corridors of the school, avoiding the passersby who just happened to be in the place. Zwei was heading down south to the front entrance, giving us an idea of where it was planning to go. Since we walked around the school enough times to know the different paths that can be taken, I ordered Ren to take a shortcut that was right around the corner as I continued to follow the dog. He nodded silently before splitting up.
"C'mon, boy, just give it back. What did I ever do to you?!" I yelled at Zwei as I kept on following him in hot pursuit. As he continued to make his way to the hall. He tackled one of the students and made her drop a vial of ice dust, causing a frozen puddle on the floor. When I saw the puddle I quickly leaped toward the wall and jumped above the puddle before landing on the dry, concrete floor and moving forward.
Zwei went past my two least favorite classmates, Russel and Dove. The two were bewildered seeing a dog running around in the hallway, but when they turned to me, they began to smirk and started blocking my path.
Pricks. I thought. I continued to streak straight as I charged toward Russel since he has less body weight compared to his shut-eye midget of a friend. Predictably, he collapsed to the ground. Dove turned back and tried firing a spitball at me, convincing me that they'd run out of ideas at this point.
Sensing it and also because of how predictable they are, I tilted my head away from the spitball and it ended up hitting an Atlesian student wearing an eyepatch with scars on his face instead. The Atlesian was unamused and cracked his knuckles as he went on to approach the two idiots who began whimpering in fear. I would have loved to watch it if my rep wasn't currently at stake then.
Shortly afterward, Zwei was getting close to reaching the front door. Ren appeared, sliding into his front. He attempted to grab the dog when it ran past him through his legs, resulting in him tumbling to the floor. I helped Ren get back to his feet before going back to chasing the dog again. Ren groaned, being a little displeased that the chase was still on. I couldn't blame him, I wanted this to be over with too.
We left the building as Zwei kept on heading south, where the fairground was located. I figured that I needed to stop him before he winds up causing more chaos than he should. We continued to push forward. I sprinted as hard as I could that a normally agile Ren was struggling to catch up along with his fleeting stamina. Ren eventually ran out of steam and stopped as he held the nearest wall.
I noticed that he was no longer accompanying me. "Ren!" I stopped and exclaimed at him, keeping my legs jogging in place to maintain my momentum. "C'mon buddy, we ran further than this!"
"Look, just go. I'll try to get the others to help if they can," he replied. There wasn't any time to argue, so I just let him be and carried on. I ran as quickly as I possibly could to make up for the short distance I lost after stopping for a few seconds.
I later found myself in the front garden of the school with a large pond in the center. It was the place that was rather notable to me as it's where Ruby introduced her weapon, but now I'm going to remember it as the place where I had chased her pet in circles. Zwei might as well be a weapon used to annoy enemies while it snatches their stuff. If only it didn't recognize me as the enemy, that would have been nice.
After revolving around the pond a few times, I turned back and continued to see if I could catch it on his front while it was still circling, however, it was able to notice this and turned around as well.
When the path that led to the fairgrounds was located, I focused on that particular pathway since I knew that the dog was likely going to head there and try to expose my secrets to my friends. Surprisingly, Zwei didn't take that route when I expected him to. Instead, he continued to head south toward the academy's courtyard.
The courtyard was packed full of people as there was some sort of commotion going on, but I was too occupied with saving my secrets to caring about what was happening in there.
A few more people went in to see what was happening. I kept my sights on Zwei who passed through the crowd, startling those who suddenly felt fur below their legs.
Rushing in, I did not notice Mercury leaving the scene in an apparent rush. We ended up colliding and knocking each other to the ground. Since I was in an urgent situation, I quickly got up to my legs and helped him up. "Oh, Mercury. I'm sorry. I didn't see you there."
"Hey, no biggie. I'll be sure to watch out for you next time," he replied.
"Thanks. I really appreciate that." I nodded.
He smiled before leaving. "See ya'!"
Getting back to business, I went through the crowd before seeing what all the fuss was about while looking for Zwei. There were two adults in the center of the courtyard, a woman who appeared to be an older version of Weiss down to the same color scheme, wielding two swords; and a middle-aged-looking man with a large sword who seemed to have a similar aesthetic with Ruby.
While it was quite apparent, I didn't find out they were actually related to them until shortly after. That's not even mentioning a destroyed Atlesian Knight laying on the ground with its head ripped off. Why these two were fighting in the middle of a campus full of people during the festival was beyond me.
I found the dog running onto the stage while the two combatants raised their weapons as they were about to strike one another. However, they both stopped as if they were frozen in time after seeing Zwei stand between them. Zwei barked, letting go of my journal before jumping into the man's free arm.
"Zwei?" The man gave a puzzled look at him, unsheathing his weapon, and held Zwei with both of his hands. Zwei then started affectionately licking his face, which only confused me. Talk about a sudden mood swing.
"Zwei, what are you doing out here?!" Ruby shouted from the front of the crowd; Weiss was with her too.
"Ruby?" The man turned before Ruby zoomed in and hugged him while he was still holding Zwei.
"It's good to see you too, Uncle Qrow![2]" Ruby said, revealing her relation to the man in question. I genuinely would have mistaken him for her father had I made assumptions earlier, he looked like he fit the bill. [3]"Did you miss me, did you miss me?!"
The white-haired woman who Ruby's uncle battled a few seconds ago—just stood there, contemplating and not knowing what else to do. That is until she saw my journal laying on the ground and nosily picked it up.
I panicked after seeing this, so I rushed in and swiped my journal from her hand the second she opened it to a random page, not caring that she was some sort of elite soldier girl for Atlas so long as my secrets were safe. I would have asked her to just hand it to me politely but I went all this way to retrieve it from a dog that was bullying me and I couldn't calm down until it was in my hands again. "I'm sorry, but this is mine! And it's private!"
She frowned at me but she didn't do anything to retaliate. Weiss meanwhile, wasn't pleased in seeing this as if she was entitled to snoop around a random student's personal belongings without a warrant just because she's a high-ranking official from an influential family. At least she referred to me with my first name; she wouldn't have if we didn't make any progress in our friendship a couple or so weeks ago. "Jaune! You have such a nerve to disrespect my sister like tha—!"
"Stand down, Weiss," she raised her hand at her younger sister, silencing her and prompting her to step back. "I would have done the same if I was in his position. The secrecy of one's memoirs should be respected."
Though I would have preferred if she didn't bother with them, I appreciated her understanding of my situation. "Uh, thank you."
"I apologize for that. My curiosities can get the better of me at times. Rest assured that I was barely even able to read a word from your private accounts," she said, speaking with professional Atlesian eloquence as expected from a woman like her.
"Well, that's a relief," I said, taking a reassured sigh as I put my journal in my pocket.
Now that pretty much settled how I am still able to write the very thing that is currently being read and why I haven't been burned at the stake yet since no one was still able to find out that my acts of heroism were either false or embellished. I sincerely hope that it stays that way because my life already has more problems than it should.
She stood elegantly. "In any case, you must be Arc. The Jaune Arc, I presume."
At this point, it was that difficult to meet someone who doesn't recognize me, especially if they were from Atlas. "Yes, that's me." I nodded.
"Then it's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Winter Schnee. I hope my attempted intrusion into your private memoirs did not leave a poor impression on me. I wasn't aware that it was something personal and sensitive."
Yeah, this is why people put unlabeled memoirs in secluded places where no one else could find them. Some nosy idiot reading into this very journal because they had no idea what it was something I feared might happen one day. "Don't worry about it. It's nice to meet you too, Winter. Your sister mentioned you a few times." I said, noticing her sister make a flustered blush behind her.
"Ah yes, of course. And Weiss writes highly of you in her letters in addition to what I've heard from the news coverages about your exploits."
"Hey!" Weiss shouted, her face visibly becoming as red as her partner's cloak.
Winter continued with a slight smile while maintaining her professional military attitude. "With that, you have earned my respect. Not many boys her age are treated with such regard from her."
"Winter, please!" Weiss ran in and grabbed her arm. Looks like she is losing her cool in more ways than one.
"I believe I have said enough," Winter smirked while her sister pouted at me.
Speaking of the others, Ruby's uncle approached me, with Ruby herself holding Zwei while I noticed it glaring at me angrily. At least in her hands, it wasn't going to try anything funny.
"So, this is really the kid everyone's been telling me about?" He stared at me with his red eyes beyond belief. His voice was somewhat rough and I swear I could smell alcohol from his breath. "The one which everyone keeps saying who'll win the award for Junior Huntsman of the Year?"
"Yeah, pretty much…" I said uneasily. Though, I wasn't planning on winning any awards since I didn't want a trophy or medal reminding me of the crap I've gone through and all the people who have been deceived by it. Not that it will stop certain people from giving them to me though.
"You know, I pictured you being beefier; you would have made a nice clone of a certain friend of mine."
I gave him a confused look the second before I responded with a quip. "Your friend must really be a handsome guy."
He chuckled, "You're definitely Caiaphas' kid alright."
"Like father and son, I guess," I murmured. It wasn't just me, to be honest, a smart mouth was something shared by almost every Arc. An average household conversation can sound like it came from an insufferable superhero movie script sometimes.
"That's what they say. And just so you'd know, I wasn't talking about him. No offense, but your Dad's not blond enough to look like the friend I mentioned." He smirked and patted my shoulder before going back to face Winter, much to my confusion on who he was talking about if he wasn't referring to my father in terms of my looks.
Winter left her sister's grasp and walked toward him until they were a couple of yards away. "Don't think we're done yet, Qrow."
"Oh, I was just getting warmed up, Ice Queen," he replied.
I stood beside Ruby and Weiss as I watched their relatives continue their battle—verbally, this time. I was wondering what was going on, especially after chasing the very dog Ruby was carrying. And that dog was still growling at me but it eventually stopped after Ruby petted him.
"What's with them?" I asked the two.
"Your guess is as good as ours," Weiss answered while Ruby just shrugged.
It was bizarre witnessing your friends' relatives argue like an old married couple, [4] especially if they went as far as to start a brawl with some collateral damage as evidenced by the few cracks on the ground while everyone watches. Thankfully, no one appeared to be hurt. Well, no one with flesh and bones anyway. Someone was going to pay for that broken Atlesian bot.
The two kept going at it that they were close to grabbing their weapons, but before they could go for round two, an authoritative voice boomed in the courtyard. "That's enough!"
Everyone turned their attention to General Ironwood as he stepped into the scene, accompanied by some Atlesian Knights and most interestingly—Penny. Ruby seemed pretty happy to see her again. Meanwhile, I found myself standing upright upon seeing the General in person again. Old habits die hard, I suppose.
"General Ironwood, sir!" Winter stood upright to her superior.
"What in the world do you think you're doing?" The General interrogated.
Winter pointed at Qrow. "He started the altercation, sir!"
"That's actually not true. She attacked first," Qrow retorted nonchalantly.
"Is that right?" The general stared her down. Winter wasn't able to make a response apart from looking down shamefully. He looked around the area with everyone watching silently before making a glance toward me, recognizing me not only as Commissar Arc's son but as one of his former cadets as well. I was able to keep a stoic expression and conceal my anxiety while his imposing eyes stare at my own.
"And you," he turned to Qrow, prompting him out from his relaxed stance as he approached him. "What are you doing here?"
"I could be asking you the same thing," Qrow responded.
General Ironwood was about to say something before The Great & Powerful Ozpin interjected with Miss Goodwitch following her. Of course, he still has his coffee[5] with him. "Now, now, everyone. There is a sanctioned fight happening just around the corner at the Colosseum, that I can assure you has better seats... and popcorn."
"Break it up, everyone!" Miss Goodwitch ordered the crowd before glaring at the three. "We will take care of this mess."
After a brief pause with nothing to be heard aside from a few murmurs from the crowd. General Ironwood finally decided to leave. "Let's go."
The general led his subordinates out as he quickly glanced at me with a quick nod. "Arc."
"General." I nodded back as I made a concealed gulp. I haven't felt that moment ever since I graduated from military school in Atlas. He's not a bad guy per se; from what I've seen from him, he's actually a pretty cool guy for someone who leads the most powerful military force in the world. But given how he was quite a fan of my father and had worked with him several times in the past, there was a high chance that he will try to recruit me or something, so I should keep watching my back for him.
Winter, Penny, and the Atlesian Knights followed him out of the courtyard while Penny turned back to wave at us. Ruby happily waved back before Penny caught up with her superiors. The people in the crowd murmured for a bit before dispersing back to their respective businesses as well.
"And Qrow…" Ozpin called, grabbing his attention. "A word please."
"I think I'm in trouble," Qrow whispered above Ruby.
You think? I mentally snarked as I watched Miss Goodwitch pick up a large piece of the ground that was lying around and placed it back where it came from. Whatever just happened could have been easily avoided if everyone simply acted like rational human beings. But apparently, The Brother Gods decided that there wasn't enough craziness today even though there were already a few bones broken at the tournament.
"You did kinda tear up our courtyard," she replied.
"Yeah, I did." He winked at her and they gave each other a fist bump before leaving. "Catch ya' later, kid."
"And suddenly, your recklessness makes sense," Weiss remarked to Ruby, who simply grinned as if it was a compliment to her.
Ruby petted Zwei before a thought suddenly came to her mind. "Hey Jaune, why did Zwei come here with your diary-thingy?"
I gave a nervous chuckle as I thought for an answer. I looked at Zwei who still had the urge to pounce on me. I gave it a subtle glare before sorta answering Ruby's question. "Err… I think he was just playing around." Aside from that, all I could answer without mentioning animals' hatred for me was a simple shrug.
"Some games he play," Weiss remarked. That I can agree with.
Pyrrha, Nora, and Yang then suddenly rushed at the moment I was about to leave and forget about everything that led me here.
"Jaune, Ren told us that you needed some help!" Pyrrha said.
"Yeah, what's the situation?!" Yang asked before raising a brow at Ruby carrying Zwei. "And what's Zwei doing here?"
Better late than never. They were better off missing most of what just happened, otherwise, things would have been a little more awkward. "Don't worry, everything is fine now. Sorry if I scared you," I said.
All of them sighed in relief, except for Nora who was aching for some action. "That sucks, I was hoping to smash something when I heard you were in trouble." With that, I sensed that she was banned from playing Whack-A-Creep again.
"I believe there's been enough of that for today," Weiss stated.
"So what's…" Yang looked around and saw some of the fractures on the ground that came from the recent battle. "…cracking?"
"Just a little family reunion," Weiss replied nonchalantly as if nothing disastrous just occurred, like that terrible joke Yang just made.
Ruby, meanwhile, answered candidly. "Uncle Qrow is here, and so is Weiss' sister."
"Uncle Qrow is here? Really?!" Yang burst a grin. "Where is he now then?"
"He went with Ozpin to talk about something, but don't worry, I'm sure he'll come by when he's done," Ruby answered. "You should have seen him fight Weiss' sister. It was so cool! But then they had to stop when Zwei suddenly came in."
At least, she left out the part that involved my journal. Trying to explain that to them was something I didn't need especially after what I had to go through.
Yang was rather surprised to hear about that. "Hold on. He fought Weiss's sister?!"
"Well, he provoked her," Weiss said. I still thought it was avoidable. No offense to them or anything, but I expected the Schnees to know better than starting fights in a place full of bystanders. "Don't worry, it wasn't too serious, at least for the most part."
"Don't tell me he's still drunk," Yang grumbled.
"He was drunk?!" gasped Weiss. As I recalled the way he moved and spoke, I realized I would have been more surprised if he wasn't. The destruction that happened a minute prior made sense now.
Yang raised her brow. "You haven't noticed that, Ice Queen?"
"No wonder why his breath smelled terrible!"
"It's also funny how Uncle Qrow calls her Ice Queen too," Ruby added.
That seemed to have disappointed Yang. "So you're telling me she's an older Ice Queen? Can't really imagine that. I thought she'd be cool to hang out with, bond about being big sisters and stuff."
"I mean, she's kinda cool actually," Ruby admitted. "She fights with two swords and even has the same semblance as Weiss!" That slightly raised my brow. I never got the chance to witness the fight to see Weiss's sister use the same glyphs she has but it was an interesting revelation nonetheless.
"So your glyphs were inherited by your family? I gotta admit, that's pretty neat especially since your semblance is pretty handy." Yang said to Weiss.
"I agree. Family-Inherited semblances are quite rare." Pyrrha chimed in. "The fact that your family is possessing a remarkable one is a blessing in itself."
"It's all in the family." Weiss proudly said.
"Or judging by what happened recently, it's brawl in the family." Yang grinned, followed by a few groans.
Weiss raised her brow, understandably unimpressed by that travesty of a pun. "Can you even call that a joke?"
"Hey, you gotta admit, that was good," Yang felt proud of her own joke as she always was.
Weiss remained unamused. "If you think that was good, then consider raising your standards."
"Tough crowd," Yang muttered. Not really, we were just maintaining our good sense of humor.
"Hey, Jaune." Nora called, "Doesn't it make you think that you might have the same semblance as your parents?"
As much as I would love to have my instincts make me sense imminent danger or be basically fireproof, there is a very slim chance that it's the case. "I don't know, Nora. All of my sisters have theirs unlocked and none of them remotely resembles either of my parents."
"Maybe it's a different case for you. We should try it out!" Nora smirked, grabbing a lighter.
I restrained her before she was able to do something. It's already proven a long time ago that I'm not immune to fire unlike Mom, and it was a moment I prefer not to recount. "No-no-no-no-no, Nora. That would be for another day."
At that point, I needed to find a way how to make Nora forget all about
Suddenly, something popped up in Yang's mind. "So Weiss. If I remember correctly, your sister's name is Winter, right?"
"Yes," Weiss's eyes remained narrowed toward her. "What are you trying to say now?"
"It's just that, you can now say that Winter is in Vale," Yang answered with a slight smirk.
I heard crickets chirp as everyone stares at her dumbfounded while she waits for someone to laugh at her sorry excuse of a joke. I just had to respond with something that couldn't be as horrendous as whatever that was. "It hasn't gotten any cooler, Yang. And by the sound of it, neither did your jokes." It was a little harsh, but someone had to say it.
The others giggled, I even made Weiss chuckle at that quip. Yang laughed it off like a good sport before grabbing me by my collar as I saw her eyes turn red. "If that wasn't so clever, I would have ravaged you for that."
If we were being honest, she was totally jealous that I was better at making witty remarks than her. Hell, I think everyone is a comedic genius compared to her by default. But of course, that wouldn't be a smart thing to say under the circumstances I was in. "Noted."
Her eyes blinked back to their normal lilac colors as she let me go. Nora, who was ready to lunge at Yang for abruptly seizing her 'fearless' leader, stepped back after that, which was a relief because I've seen enough fights for today.
After it was decided that there was nothing left to do there, we went back to our separate businesses. Zwei looked back and gave me one last growl as Ruby carried him out followed by her teammates. I responded by pointing my own eyes with two fingers before pointing at him, telling him that I will keep watch of him and remember this. After that, Pyrrha and Nora went back to the fairgrounds while I returned to my dorm and filled out what just happened.
For a time that should be fun and peaceful barring a competition that makes schoolchildren spill each other's blood as the world watches, there are still plenty of things to look out for. It just shows that I will never truly rest until I'm done with this whole mess. The worst part is, judging by my actions, I am not making it any easier. But hey, what else could I do?
=o=
1. The Gallican police code for grand theft. Jaune's other entries indicate that he learned police codes from Rose Arc and his father, both of whom worked with Pucelle's sheriff's department.
2. Humorously, earlier spellings of Qrow Branwen's first name in Jaune's raw writings including the ones in this very chapter are all misspelled as 'Crow'. This is coming from someone whose name was commonly misspelled until becoming much more renowned that such errors became increasingly rare.
3. Despite the resemblance and the close relationship between the two that spawned several rumors (or nonsensical hearsay if I were to be blunt), Qrow had stated multiple times that he did not father Ruby and he had no intimate relationship with Summer Rose…
4. …Let alone my sister, Gods forbid.
5. They're still hot chocolate, in case anyone forgot.