Author's Note: Yay, another chapter is up. Now let's see how long I can keep this streak up. I'm trying to pace myself in my writing, just so I don't burn myself out like last time. On a side note, ever notice how some writers/people on social media/people in the comments of stuff type out "hunters" instead of huntsmen/huntresses? I find it kinda weird seeing as how RT sticks to going out of their way in using the word "Huntsmen."
Jaune held the granola bar in his teeth as he groggily laced his boots onto his feet, chewing every few seconds, making sure there were no loose spots, then ending with a quick double loop knot. Putting down the granola bar, he slipped into his favorite hoodie, then into his breastplate, then took a full bite of the granola bar. After slipping on his sleeves, he carefully placed his elbow pads and arm guards to the proper position, making sure the armor didn't cut off any circulation, followed with another quarter of the granola bar. After slipping on his gauntlets, tying his sash, and finishing the rest of his granola bar, he reached into his belt compartment and pulled out another wrapped granola bar along with some jerky.
Jaune attached Crocea Mors to his belt as he closed the door behind him and wandered out into the still-dark morning. He sleepily ate as he sauntered through the city, making his way to an empty field where Ruby stood waiting for him. Looking up, he lazily tossed the bag of jerky to her, along with a couple of granola bars.
"Thanks for the breakfast, Jaune," Ruby said as she happily reached into the bag of dehydrated meat.
"So what kind of training are we doing on day one? If it's combat, you're gonna have to slow down a lot for me," Jaune managed to yawn out through his half-full mouth.
"Well, since it's been well over a year, since you started combat training, I guess I should let you take a break from that," Ruby said devilishly, "instead, we're gonna work on aura, more specifically, we're gonna force your semblance to manifest."
"Wait, what?" Jaune snapped wide awake at the mention of aura and his semblance, "Ruby, I don't know if you know this or if you haven't picked up over the last few months, but I'm pretty sure I don't have a semblance."
"That's nonsense, everyone has a semblance," Ruby refuted.
"Seriously, Ruby, I've tried to force it out, Pyrrha tried too, nothing worked," Jaune continued to argue his case.
"Jaune, do you know what exactly is a semblance?" Ruby asked.
"It's the manifestation of a person's soul. It's their way of manipulating their aura in a way that's unique to them, it's how Nora has her thing with electricity, and you have your speed. It's based on your history and what kind of person you are."
"Correct, so what kind of person are you?"
"I'm not sure I follow."
"It's exactly how I asked it, what kind of person are you Jaune?"
"At this point, I don't know anymore, can you answer that for me because I don't know who exactly I am."
"You're Jaune Arc. You're my friend, one of the kindest people I've met. You're awkward and a total pushover at times, but you don't take crap from anyone and you defend your friends when it matters to you. That's the kind of person you are."
"Wow, Ruby. You really think that?"
"Of course, I do, Jaune, and I mean every word of it. That being said, I'm going to try a bunch of things to try and force your semblance out of you."
"Alright, like what?"
"Well, for starters, since you tend to fight defensively, you're gonna stand over there while I shoot dust rounds at you."
"Ruby, please, no," Jaune held his hands up, then slowly moved his hand towards Crocea Mors.
"Too late!" Ruby yelled as she quickly drew Crescent Rose and fired five rounds at Jaune.
Jaune's perception of time seemed to slow to a crawl. He sees how fast the bullets are going, but he knows that there's no time to pull out his shield. Jaune panics and feels this pressure building up in his core. Out of instinct, Jaune projected the pressure outward and his body begins to slightly shimmer. He moves his arms as fast as he can to cover his face as tries to brace himself for the impact, but as the bullets contacted his skin, he felt as if he'd been hit with a pebble. Jaune slowly lowered his arms and looked down at his feet, seeing the bullets had been crushed. Ruby waltzed on over to Jaune and bent over to pick up a bullet to be inspected.
"Hmmmm," Ruby furrowed her brow and rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "I can't tell if this is just your aura or if it really is your semblance."
"What do you mean?" Jaune bent over to cluelessly look at the bullet in Ruby's fingers.
"I've seen this happen before. Remembered what happened at Forever Fall?" Ruby continued to turn the bullet, inspecting it from different angles, "I was watching when Cardin was wailing on you, he pulled back to punch you, but he hurt his hand and you weren't hurt."
"Wait, you saw what was happening, and you didn't do anything?" Jaune pointed accusingly at Ruby.
"Jaune, I wanted to do something, I wanted to help," Ruby dropped the bullet and pleaded with Jaune, "but you weren't letting us help you. At least I thought I wanted to. But part of me pretended to not see it."
"That's true though," Jaune sighed. His body stopped shimmering and he dropped down to sit, "I'm pretty sure it would have broken me. I was a leader and part of me thought that I didn't need help, but another part of me wanted to reach out. Both sides were always fighting each other, and the leader side of me won every time."
"I'm sorry I didn't do anything about it Jaune," Ruby frantically apologized, "you were the first friend I made at Beacon an if it weren't for my friendship with you, our teams wouldn't have been as close as they were. What kind of friend looks the other way and pretends not to see her friend being miserable? Am I a bad person Jaune?"
"Ruby, do you remember the night before we went out to Forever Fall?" Jaune moved closer to rub Ruby's back to comfort the now sobbing girl, "You may not have realized it, but that one word you kept telling, what you told me. It did so much for me, you did so much for me. You told me what I needed to hear. You came down to my level, you understood the struggles to be a leader, and you gave me the strength that I needed to stand up for myself. You're not a bad person, Rubes, you're the best kind of friend that I could ever ask for."
"You mean that?" Ruby said through her sniffles.
"Of course, and I forgive you," Jaune patted Ruby's head from behind causing her to let out a small giggle.
"Are you okay?" Jaune got up and offered to help Ruby to her feet, to which she gladly accepted.
"Yeah," Ruby sniffled one more time, "back to training?"
"Will it make you feel better?" Jaune bantered.
"Yes please?" Ruby folded her hands together and smiled and pleaded with her eyes as best as she could.
"Alright, how do you wanna do this?" Jaune drew his sword after popping his shield to full length, "I don't have any sort of guns, do you still wanna use your sniper rifle?"
"Nahh, that'd be really unfair," Ruby twirled Crescent Rose as she unfolded it, letting the tip of her blade sink itself into the ground, "just regular physical combat, try to keep up with me?"
"Don't go easy on me just because I'm weaker than you," Jaune said as he got into the stance that he practised on. Ruby circled Jaune as he turned several times doing his best to predict Ruby's moves. Ruby looked for an opening, Jaune swung his shield to his left to block a strike from Crescent Rose then returned with a front moving jab, only for Ruby to continue circling Jaune after the strike. He brought his sword down slightly to his right whilst turning around as hard as he could, bashing his shield into Ruby's side, causing her to fly to Jaune's left. Jaune slightly squat to launch himself to Ruby's direction, swinging his sword in an outward slash, he came at Ruby as quickly as possible.
Ruby blocked Jaune's strike with the shaft of her scythe, then hooked its blade behind his shoulder. Jaune, using the window of his aura's protection, swung his body to send Ruby flying upwards. Launching himself upward, Jaune prepared another shield bash, but Ruby propelled herself downwards by launching a round behind her barely missing the hit. Jaune turned his body just in time to block the rounds Ruby had shot during her descent.
As Ruby landed in the field, Jaune threw his shield with high accuracy as a distraction on his way down. Jaune took his sword in both hands and brought it down with immense strength coupled with the pressure of his fall, Ruby slightly faltered as she swung her scythe to parry. As the two blows connected, the ground around Ruby's feet sank slightly, forming small cracks in the grass. Time seemed to slow for a second, long enough for a short exchange of words.
Ruby nervously smiled and looked up at Jaune, "You've gotten so much better."
Jaune met Ruby's gaze and smirked confidently and used his sword to launch himself backwards, causing Ruby to step back. "And you've gotten slower," bantered in response.
"I'll show you slow!" Ruby retorted as she began to circle Jaune faster.
Jaune smirked as he looked at different angles, picking up on Ruby's erratic behavior. Jaune lowered his guard slightly, doing his best to bait Ruby into attacking. He sheathed his sword into his still open shield, turned around and caught Crescent Rose by the shaft, stopping Ruby dead in her tracks. He looked up, seeing the scythe had been extended and pointed outwardly. Jaune turned to see Ruby's shocked face with surprise on his own.
"Did you try to go for a killing hit?" Jaune's face became stern.
"I don't know," Ruby looked down in shame, "I guess I'm just a little mad that you're catching up so quickly. I kinda missed being better at fighting than you. I'm happy, but you didn't have to say that I'm getting slower because I feel like I actually am."
Jaune let go to allow Ruby to lower Crescent Rose. She kept her gaze to the ground to avoid Jaune's piercing eyes. She felt the shame from the tugging feeling of jealousy spawned from Jaune's quick improvement. It had taken her years to get to a high level of skill to wield Crescent Rose, but it had taken Jaune several months of training to match her level. She had tried to deal a lethal attack to someone who, several moments before, had just called her his best friend. Her thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of Jaune's hand on her head. She felt the metal tips of his gauntlets massage the back of her head.
"It's okay, Ruby," Jaune comforted the teenager once again, "mistakes happen. Besides, I'm a huntsman and a leader, I should be prepared for accidents like these."
Ruby smiled through her tears as one thought rang clearly through her head, 'I don't deserve your friendship and kindness Jaune. I'm a terrible person.'
Jaune clipped Crocea Mors to his hip and pulled out a piece of jerky to offer to Ruby. He held the piece of preserved meat in front of her gaze, which Ruby readily accepted. Jaune took Crescent Rose and folded it down to its compressed form and clipped it to the small of Ruby's back, to which she squealed slightly.
"C'mon, we should meet Ren and Nora and get some real breakfast," Jaune cheerfully said, wrapping his arm around Ruby's shoulder pulling her into his stride, surprising her as she popped the piece of jerky into her mouth, "I don't know if you've had them yet, but Ren's pancakes are amazing. Get your syrup while you can though, Nora tends to empty the bottle really quickly."