Wohoo! Reached a hundred reviews on this story! Thanks guys! Sorry it took so long but things have been crazy! Now, I present the next chapter!
"Checkmate." His grandpa said as he placed his knight in position for the winning move. A rook made sure that his king couldn't shift upward while a bishop guarded an empty open white space to his right. He was trapped and had no choice but to admit defeat…
….For the thirteenth time in a row that morning.
"You're enjoying this too much." Jaune scowled at the smug look his grandfather sported from across the small table. "I thought we were supposed to train today?"
"What do you think we've been doing for the past two hours?" His grandpa said while he began to rearrange the pieces for another game.
"Well you've been grinning like a madman after every match so I thought you just liked winning so much."
Grandpa chuckled as he leaned back in his chair. "While I do get an unmistakable amount of satisfaction from my victories, I assure you Jaune that this is indeed part of your training."
"Sure it is." Jaune rolled his eyes. He was starting to get seriously annoyed after so many defeats even though it was just a board game. With a resigned sigh, the young Arc moved his pawn forward to start another match. If what his grandfather said was true then they would probably go at this all day until he called a stop.
"Is that sarcasm I hear?" Grandpa asked as he also moved one of his pawns.
"It's just that I don't see how this will help me improve at all." Jaune said. "I mean, yeah it will help me develop some strategies and plans but aside from that, this is pointless."
His grandfather shook his head in disappointment. "You youngsters today are all so impatient. All you care about is who has the biggest weapon or the best Semblance. Very well, watch closely and I'll teach you something."
And so, the game of chess continued. With each placement of pieces Jaune couldn't help but frown at his predicament. By now, the only important pieces he had were his knight and bishop while his grandpa still had two rooks, a knight and his queen. He tried to get one of his remaining pawns to the other side of the board to try and replace it with a queen of his own but he was stopped by another pawn from advancing.
Before he knew it, the game was over. "Checkmate."
"Alright, I get it, now can we just skip to the part where I can actually use this?"
His grandfather frowned at his impatience and gestured at the board. "First off, what did you notice during our match? Think carefully."
Jaune racked his brain for an answer. "Well, after the first couple of moves, I hesitated in moving some of my pieces because you were always ready to take one."
"What else?"
The young teen directed his attention to the board. "Whenever I moved my queen, your bishop and knight were already in position to take it. At the time that I finally took out those two pieces, I lost half of my forces."
"True, that is one of the main reasons you lost." His grandfather picked up his fallen queen. "You were so focused on defending your most powerful asset that you failed to notice your soldiers getting picked off one by one."
"I didn't have a choice." Jaune casually defended. "Even if I did use one of them, you would have just defeated my queen and then destroyed the others."
"And why did you think that happened?" Jonah gave him a pointed stare.
"Because…." Jaune tried to come up with an answer but he failed.
Jonah sighed and tapped on the board. "I was able to win because I knew you would make those moves."
Jaune continued to look confused as his grandfather explained further.
"You see Jaune, this game is about more than just simple strategy. Even the best plans never survive first contact with the enemy. A general can spend months organizing his troops into the perfect formation but it will never last more than a few minutes in the heat of battle. The real trick is to anticipate your enemy's actions four moves ahead without them noticing."
"So, I have to think about what the other guy's going to do before he realizes it himself?" Jaune ventured.
"In a manner of speaking, that is exactly what you're supposed to do." Grandpa said. "If you can somehow guess what your opponent is about to attempt then it is merely a simple task to adjust yourself beforehand and counter. For example, how would you defend a simple overhead strike?"
Jaune shrugged. "I'd probably block with my sword or my shield."
"And now, since I know that you are about to do just that, I can easily change into a feint and instead ram you with my shield or a kick in the abdomen to knock you off-balance."
The young Arc tried opened his mouth to say something but then snapped it shut again as he lost what he was about to say.
"Not so useless now, is it?" Jonah said with an amused smirk on his face. "Of course, anticipating your enemy's moves is one thing but manipulating him into doing those moves at the opportune moment is another important part of the game. However, let's go at this one step at a time since I feel that you still greatly lack the certain finesse to pull it off. For now, let's start by putting yourself in your opponent's shoes and try to think about what you would do in his situation."
Jaune looked down at the newly reset chess pieces with more determination. "Okay, let's try that again."
Pyrrha and Ruby quietly shadowed the blonde leader of JNPR as he hastily made his way through the empty corridors of Beacon. The two girls often had to hide behind corners to avoid being seen since Jaune did glance around from time to time to make sure he wasn't being followed. So far, her partner was unaware of the fact that they were behind him.
The redheaded Spartan had to give Ruby credit. She was far stealthier than Pyrrha thought. She just assumed that because of her cheerful nature, which was quite similar to Nora's, that she would be ill-suited for the task of silent pursuit. She could see that the younger girl clearly earned her spot here at the academy despite being moved ahead by two years.
However, Pyrrha did have to pull her back behind a corner as she leaned outward a little more than necessary to observe Jaune.
"Sorry." She whispered a little embarrassed that she almost gave them away.
The two of them risked a peek into the hall where they spotted Jaune enter a classroom. The two Huntresses waited for a few minutes before nodding to each other. They crept silently up to the door where her partner disappeared into.
"That's odd. What does he plan to do in the Combat Arena?" Ruby asked.
"Let us find out." Pyrrha said before quietly opening the door and letting Ruby dash inside first. A trail of rose petals were left behind as the girl used her Semblance. The young Spartan followed and shut the door with a barely audible click. She crouched next to Ruby as the two of them observed what was about to transpire.
The first thing she noticed was the considerably bright spotlight directed to the center of the arena. At the far end of the circular space stood Cardin and his team. The four students had their weapons drawn and were just waiting for her partner. She should've known that the brutish boy had been involved in this somehow.
"What's Cardin doing here?" Ruby asked quietly. "Are they going to fight?"
"I believe so." Pyrrha replied. However, she couldn't help but question her partner's motives for allowing him-self to get drawn into another confrontation with Cardin.
Jaune had just entered the large area where he and Cardin exchanged a few words that they couldn't hear. After which, the boys all assumed their respective combat stances. She could see that her partner was hesitant to draw his weapon but it would seem that he had no choice unless he wanted to get beaten up.
Pyrrha wished that she had her spear and shield so that she could go down there and help him. She felt a little bad for doubting the blonde but his combat skills had been rather below par lately. The two of them trained together when they had free time but she had yet to see any real improvement from her leader.
Ruby was fidgeting beside her, obviously wanting to assist Jaune as well despite not having a weapon.
It was when the red-head saw the change in his usual stance that her eyes widened as realization dawned on her. Her leader now stood a little straighter and from the looks of it, his sword didn't feel so awkward in his hands. How had she missed it? All this time and she never knew that Jaune was actually right-handed.
Cardin wasted no time by giving his teammates a signal that clearly meant to begin engaging. The three members of team Cardinal got into a hasty formation before running forward to meet Jaune head on. Sky was in front due to the fact that his weapon offered more reach while Dove charged a few paces behind him. Russel veered to the left in attempt to catch the blonde in between two of their assaults.
In all honesty, it wasn't a bad plan. It would be difficult to fend them off in two directions. However, he didn't plan to just stand there and wait for them.
Sometimes, you have to strike first to win.
With that thought in mind, Jaune immediately sprinted forward to face his attackers. Instead of going straight, the blonde quickly changed directions and decided to go after Russel first because he had no support. However, he did manage to get a glimpse of Cardin heading toward him.
Suddenly, he heard someone fire a shot that missed him by inches. Jaune looked back to see Dove aiming his weapon at him from behind Sky. The young knight immediately raised his shield as a Dove began to fire in rapid succession. He was able to deflect most of the Dust rounds as he and Russel rapidly closed in on each other.
Once the two were within reach of each other, Russel swung his left blade and aimed to catch him on the side of his chest. Jaune managed to meet the weapon with his own and blocked the strike with his sword. The blonde then ducked into a quick roll and ended up on his opponent's right side just as he heard several shots fire from behind him. The dual sword wielder quickly turned to face him as he prepared to swipe at the young knight with both of his weapons.
From his crouched position, Jaune adjusted the grip he had on his sword and forced himself into a standing position while he delivered a powerful underhand cut to knock Russel's blades upward. He wasn't able to disarm the boy but his opponent was caught off-guard by the amount of force behind the attack and was momentarily knocked off balanced. Not wasting any time, Jaune pressed his advantage and followed it up by ramming his shield into the dual-wielder that made him stumble backwards.
"You're mine Jauney-boy!" Cardin said from behind him just before he brought down his exploding mace. However, Jaune had been expecting him to attack since the moment he caught sight of him charging in his direction. The young knight leaped out of the way as an explosion destroyed the spot where he had been standing.
He didn't have time to catch his breath as he felt something bite into his shoulder. Jaune raised his shield just in time to block a fresh hail of Dust bullets from Dove. He had momentarily forgotten about the other two coming from his left. Unfortunately for him, Russel had already recovered and was almost upon him again. The chambers on his blades that were similar to Weiss' rapier spun and landed on a yellow cartridge. The blades lit up with sparks of electricity.
Jaune made the mistake of meeting his dual strike with his shield. A jolt of lightning ran through his arm that made him grunt in pain. He then promptly planted his foot on Russel's chest and kicked him away before he could do anymore damage. The young knight then retreated for a couple of steps back with his shield arm hanging limply at his side. He could feel his Aura already dispelling the numbness.
"You don't look so good Jaune." Cardin taunted as he and his team regrouped. "Not so tough without that redheaded partner of yours, are you?"
The blonde brushed off the insult and responded with his own. "Wish I could say the same about your team, but I guess someone needs to hold your hand, right Cardin?"
The boy's nostrils flared angrily as he gripped his mace so hard that Jaune could see his knuckles turning white. Thanks to their little banter, his aura had mostly finished healing his arm to the point where he could move it again. He kept it hanging limply to his side however, to keep up the illusion that his left arm was still useless.
Cardin gave his team another signal and the other three once more charged at him. This time the three of them fell into step behind each other with Sky in front and Russel at the back.
Jaune then raised his sword and waited for them to reach him. Time seemed to slow down as he felt his heart thumping in his chest. He took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes.
Okay, let's try this again.
Sky was now within striking distance and was about to swing at him. Jaune swung his sword to strike the weapon in an effort to stop it.
Idiot, you can't stop my Halberd with just one hand!
A confident smirk appeared on the other boy's face as their blades nearly clashed in the middle. However, the smirk soon turned into a look of shock as Jaune twisted his wrist at the last second and avoided meeting the powerful swing. The sword passed under the long weapon. Sky missed and now, Jaune's weapon was directed at his exposed side.
In a quick move, the young knight delivered a strong cut to the boy's arm. He didn't stop there. Jaune planted his foot forward, pivoted, and delivered another blow behind Sky's knee. The boy toppled to the ground as his momentum carried him forward and his leg failing to carry his weight after the sudden attack.
Jaune then charged forward to meet Dove. The young knight moved in a zigzag pattern to avoid getting hit by Dust bullets that were being sent his way. After a few moments, the other boy quickly readied himself to resort to close combat.
Rushing in is a bad idea. I might end up like Sky. I'll wait for him to attack first. Then I'll counter and go for his useless shield arm.
Their swords clashed and the two of them exchanged a few blows that they both countered or blocked. The two of them reached a standstill at one point with their swords locked in the middle. Jaune's sword was positioned vertically while Dove's was held horizontally. Before Dove could push the young knight back, the blonde quickly slid his sword upward with force and used the cross-guard of his weapon to disarm his opponent.
Not wasting any time, Jaune slammed the hilt of his sword onto the surprised boy's face and made him stumble back. Russel appeared in his line of sight and was rapidly approaching. His dual blades were ablaze with fire.
If I strike now, I could catch him off-guard.
However, Jaune saw him coming and decided to quit playing possum. Russel raised both of his blades and prepared to strike. The young knight lifted his shield just as his opponent brought down the ignited weapons. Instead of completely blocking it however, the blonde angled his shield so that it would deflect the strike and not absorb the force behind the blow. A wave of heat washed over him as the blades slid along the surface of his shield.
Not wasting a second, Jaune immediately lunged at Russel but the smaller boy sidestepped out of the way to the right. However, he never expected the blonde's follow up move. Using his heel, Jaune twisted counter clockwise and used the side of his shield to ram the unprepared boy backwards.
Needless to say, Cardin was the only one left standing at the moment. The boy looked angry and was currently charging at him with his mace held in both hands, ready to deliver a powerful swing.
Bring it.
Jaune sprinted toward the larger student to meet him in combat. The blonde was a few feet away when Cardin unleashed a loud battle cry and swung his mace. At the same moment, the young knight pushed upward and lifted himself off the ground while poising his sword to lunge at the larger boy in mid-air.
Now, what happened next was so fast that you would have missed it if you weren't paying close attention.
Everything around the blonde seemed to fade into nothingness as he diverted all of his focus onto the opponent before him. Cardin's mace was already in motion and was mere inches away from delivering a clean hit. His target was Jaune's sword that was still too far to hit its mark. Once the mace made contact with anything, the resulting explosion might severely damage his arm and blow him backwards in the process.
Unfortunately for Cardin, he never could have expected what Jaune did next.
In an amazing show of control and coordination, the young knight switched his weapon into a reverse grip just in the nick of time and retracted his arm just enough for the explosive part of the mace to pass by untouched. This caused Cardin to be left completely open since he couldn't block to defend the reverse grip strike that Jaune delivered cleanly.
Although, neither of them noticed the faint glow Excalibur emanated just before the blade sliced into Cardin's cheek. The sword broke through his Aura like it wasn't even there and left a small cut on the boy's face. The glow was gone as quick as it came a second afterward.
Jaune landed in a crouch next to the stunned boy before he jumped away to a more defensive position. Wow, that actually worked, he thought. He successfully managed to pull it off without getting his arm blown to bits. For a moment, he thought that he was a goner but thankfully Lady Luck decided to smile upon him today.
He looked towards Cardin who was still rooted in place as he tried to comprehend the quick turn of events. He slowly reached up and touched his cheek where a small trail of blood leaked from the already healed wound thanks to his Aura. The large boy stared at the tip of his fingers that were now stained with a tiny amount of red before he gradually balled his hand into a fist.
Cardin turned around to face the person responsible. He didn't lash out or showed any visible signs of outrage like Jaune expected which was…odd. From the corner of his eye, the blonde could see the rest of team CRDL carefully creeping away from the two combatants. This action flared warning bells inside his mind.
He turned his attention back to Cardin.
"You're going to pay for that." The boy said in a dangerously calm tone.
Uh oh
Pyrrha bit her lip anxiously as the fight began. The tide was not in her partner's favor and team CRDL seemed to be winning straight from the get-go. Jaune was steadily losing ground as he tried to fend off his attackers from two directions. He was barely managing from the looks of it since they had the strength in numbers.
Ruby couldn't help herself and failed to restrain her comments and thoughts to herself.
"That's it keep your guard up!" Ruby said in a hushed tone while punching the air slightly. "Swing to the left. No, your other left! Gah! Look out!"
"Ruby!"
"Sorry."
With that said, Pyrrha turned her attention back to the fight just as Cardin was approaching to blindside a distracted Jaune with his mace. At that point, she didn't care about staying hidden anymore. She couldn't just sit here and do nothing while her friend might get hurt. She had to help her partner. She abruptly stood up and opened her mouth to shout out a warning but failed due to the sudden hand that clamped over her mouth.
"Hold it right there missy." A feminine voice told her. "Let's not interfere just yet."
She pushed away the person's hand and faced the girl who was suddenly standing right behind her. "Who are you?"
Even with the dim lighting, she saw the girl raise her eyebrows at her. "Name's Coco Adel and this is my teammate, Fox."
Pyrrha was slightly confused for a moment when she mentioned a second person with her but then she saw him holding onto a wide-eyed Ruby's mouth to prevent her from squealing in surprise.
"It's okay Fox. I think she got the message." Coco told the other boy.
He nodded and released his grip on the younger girl before opting to stand next to the Coco.
Now that she could observe the newcomers properly, Pyrrha could already tell that they were older students. They exuded an heir of seniority even without directly saying it. Plus, the fact that the two of them were able to sneak up on her and Ruby was a testament to their skill. She was confident in her prowess and she was sure that Ruby was no pushover but Coco and Fox got up right behind them and caught them completely off-guard.
"You know, it's rude not to give out your name as soon as another person introduced themselves." Coco peered at them over her shades. Pyrrha found it quite odd that she would choose to wear them despite the heavy lack of sunlight inside the combat room.
Quickly remembering her manners, she extended a hand to the older girl. "I'm Pyrrha Nikos and this is Ruby Rose."
"Hi." Ruby gave them a smile and a small wave.
Coco shook her hand before getting back down to business. "Now, care to explain why a couple of first years are sneaking past curfew? I don't think I even want to know about what's going on down there."
An explosion drew everyone's attention back to the fight taking place below them. Jaune had just managed to skip away from the attack and provided himself with enough distance for a quick respite. This could prove disadvantageous because it also gave team CRDL time to regroup.
"Oh great, it's those two again." Coco muttered. She fixed a stern stare on the two younger girls. "Start talking, now."
Pyrrha did her best to explain the situation in short and straightforward sentences starting with their missing weapons. Ruby jumped in from time to time, filling in details that she might have forgotten. Half-way through the story, the Spartan let her companion take over as she wanted to see how her leader was faring.
Jaune had been backed up to the far side of the arena looking slightly out of breath but otherwise unharmed. Team CRDL began to converge on her partner while their leader remained to see how things play out.
If this had been an ordinary match, she would never even think about interfering with the people participating in it. She respected the traditions of single combat and believed that it would be dishonorable to disrupt such an ancient practice. However, this was not the case at the present since Cardin and his team has opted to completely ignore the terms of a fair fight. Perhaps a little assistance would even the playing field a bit.
Pyrrha began to call upon her Semblance as her hand began to glow black. Raising her hand, she directed it at Sky who was leading the assault. Even a small tug or nudge on the weapon would be enough to knock the boy out of balance for Jaune to have an opening.
But before she could activate her Polarity, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Fox was staring at her with an unreadable expression.
"He's my friend. I have to do something." Pyrrha explained.
The older boy merely shook his head before he held his hand up for a pause gesture, pointed at his eyes and gestured to the fight.
Just wait and observe the match, he seemed to say.
The girl reluctantly lowered her hand and complied. The trio had reached the point where they would be within striking distance but Jaune looked undeterred. In fact, even from so far away, she could see the determined glint in her partner's eyes as he engaged them. She knew that look. She'd only seen it once before, back in the Emerald Forest, when they were faced with a dangerous Leo Grimm.
Sky swung his Halberd and the series of blows and moves that happened afterward was nothing short of impressive.
Jaune weaved through his opponents as easily as if threading a needle. He caught Sky off-guard and delivered two quick strikes that left the other boy stumbling into the ground before moving onto the next. He did the same to Dove and Russel and rendered them unarmed or otherwise momentarily stunned. The young knight attacked with a combination of such precision and ferocity that the other boys looked like they were moving seconds too slow in comparison.
Not only that, Pyrrha also noticed the slight alterations that her partner made whenever his weapons clashed with theirs. Being an experienced warrior herself, she could see the last minute variations to his sword strokes. It was then that she realized that he used a similar fighting style to hers.
While she used her Semblance to throw her opponents off-balance, allowing her to exploit the opening she created, Jaune was anticipating the next move before adjusting himself accordingly. He didn't need to create an opening for himself because anything that was thrown at him could be countered immediately. Of course, there were several drawbacks to this style of fighting. The largest disadvantage of this strategy would be the prediction in itself. No one could accurately determine the next person's actions by a hundred percent and there was always that risk of anticipating the wrong move.
However, the effects were remarkable and devastating once you get it right. Plus, Jaune's swordsmanship was very refined and solid now that he was using his dominant hand. He demonstrated excellent control over his weapon when he reversed his grip at the last second to avoid Cardin's mace and opened a small cut on his face.
Pyrrha couldn't help but smile as the larger boy just stood dumbfounded. She resisted the urge to cheer and merely settled for the feeling of pride for her partner and maybe something else. She fanned her face for a moment because of the heat rising to her cheeks. There was no denying the fact that Jaune looked absolutely hot right now.
She quickly banished those thoughts from her mind.
Stupid Hormones!
"Blondie's pretty good." Coco noted as she and Ruby joined them in observing the fight.
"Are you kidding? That was amazing!" Ruby barely contained her excited outburst. "He was all slice! And hi-yah!"
"Alright take it easy there." Coco told her before she could say anymore. "You two aren't off the hook yet. While I admit that Jaune doesn't seem the type to start looking for trouble, you can't put all of the blame on Cardin. He's a jerk and all but the fact remains that you guys have no concrete evidence to prove that he did it."
She was right, of course. Without the proper evidence, they would be hard pressed to accuse anyone of stealing their weapons. Cardin was a possible suspect but perhaps he had merely goaded Jaune out here to hash it out with him since Pyrrha was certain that he was still holding a grudge over the cafeteria incident.
But still, she had faith that Jaune would never have risen to the bait unless it was important…
"No. I trust my leader's judgment and I have a feeling that Cardin is involved." Pyrrha stated with utter confidence. "I'm sure of it."
Coco crossed her arms. "Well then, I hope you're right because you're going to need a lot more than feelings if you want to convict somebody of a crime."
A bead of sweat trailed down the side of Jaune's face as he prepared to spring into action. Cardin's earlier disposition of wild anger was now tamed and focused. In that moment, the blonde knew that he would have to be even more careful when he engaged the brutish boy.
Cardin bared his teeth at him before he swung his mace underhandedly. The weapon made contact with the ground and unleashed an explosion that dislodged a few chunks of the floor. The force of the swing and the explosion sent those chunks flying toward Jaune at great speeds. The young knight used his shield to deflect the attack and rolled to his right just as another volley of flying concrete was sent.
He then caught sight of Cardin barreling toward him at a faster pace than before. The large boy managed to bridge the gap between them in the seconds it took him to block the chunks of debris.
A distraction! Jaune cursed himself for falling for the simple yet effective tactic.
Cardin was already upon him with his mace held high.
Seeing no other option available to him Jaune hastily activated his Semblance and received a significant boost. Hopefully this would be enough to block or even deflect the incoming blow. At the very least, it would increase his chance of taking the brunt of the attack without too much injury.
I am going to feel this in the morning.
Strangely enough, the attack never landed and he unknowingly released the breath he was unconsciously holding. His relief was cut short when he found himself unable to move an inch and was locked in his current defensive position. What the hell was going on?
Then, the unmistakable sound of heels clicking on the floor was heard and Jaune could not suppress the nervous shudder that ran through his spine. This was not going to be good.
"Mr. Winchester, Mr. Arc, What on Remnant do you two think you're doing at this ungodly hour?"
The paralysis lifted and Jaune was finally able to move. Cardin's arm dropped to his side and the two boys turned their attention on the scowling blonde professor who, in simple terms, looked seriously pissed off.
"Well, care to explain yourselves?" Ms. Goodwitch demanded as she tapped her foot impatiently. She brandished her riding crop threateningly and her light green eyes flitted from one to the other.
Neither boy chose to speak and merely settled to glare at each other from the corner of their eyes.
The professor sighed. "Very well then, the two of you will follow me to the headmaster's office at once. Your teammates will also be accompanying us Mr. Winchester."
The blonde woman turned on her heels and briskly began to walk out of the room, her heels tapping on the floor. The two boys followed a few paces behind, subdued now that the fight was over and the adrenaline was fading. Unbeknownst to the professor, the two boys exchanged a brief glance that held a silent promise.
We'll settle this another time.
Glynda stopped abruptly by the exit and frowned up at the bleachers. "The four of you may as well come out and join us in professor Ozpin's office."
"Yes ma'am!" A nervous squeak came from the dark bleachers. Jaune recognized the voice immediately and knew that it could only belong to one person.
Ozpin calmly sipped his coffee before setting the mug down gently on his desk. He then clasped his fingers together on top of his desk before turning his attention to the students standing in front of him. Glynda stood next to him, giving each of them a dose of her stern glare which they all wisely avoided. Jaune gulped when she lingered on Cardin and him a little longer than the rest.
Gods, that woman was scary when she was pissed off. She just exuded this aura of authority that made you want to stand at attention whenever she was within the vicinity and she had a zero tolerance for troublemakers. Not to mention the fact that she was wickedly good at using her riding crop. Case in point, the night he met Ruby when she just came out of nowhere and battled with a mysterious accomplice of Roman Torchwick.
Jaun was actually kind of glad that Professor Ozpin was the one who would be hearing them out. Monty knows what kind of punishment Ms. Goodwitch might have given them.
"Now, I would like to hear all the accounts first before I come to any conclusions." He spoke calmly. "Let us start with you Miss Rose."
Ruby shuffled forward nervously before once again recounted her version of the events. Once she was finished, Ozpin turned to Miss Nikos for her account and this continued until each of the students had their chance to tell their sides of the story. As expected, Cardin and his team denied stealing the weapons. However, thanks to Pyrrha and Ruby's decision to follow him earlier, the larger student couldn't deny luring Jaune out for a late night rumble.
"Well, it appears that we are faced with quite the conundrum." Ozpin stated once the students were finished. "Mr. Winchester and his team claim to have taken no part in the theft of your weapons and yet Mr. Arc swore that he received a message earlier today sent by Cardin to meet him this evening if he wanted to retrieve the weapons. It is clear to me that one of you is obviously not a hundred percent forthcoming so I will give you one last chance to do so."
Jaune glanced to his left where Cardin and his team stood unfazed which caused him to frown. A normal person would at least be experiencing doubt or nervousness in the face of punishment but looking at Cardin's team, you would think that they were about to receive a medal instead. He could detect a trace of smugness on the boy's face disguised by a calm and stoic façade.
A person wouldn't be acting this way unless they had a trump card up their sleeves.
This thought did not sit well with the blonde.
"Very well, Mr. Arc, if you could please show us your scroll so that we may verify this message." Ozpin instructed.
Jaune took out his device and handed it to the Headmaster. He spared Cardin another glance yet the boy remained confident. He couldn't detect a hint of hesitation anywhere on his face.
Ozpin was scrolling through his inbox and Jaune had a sinking feeling that the professor was not going to find anything.
His suspicions were confirmed when Ozpin raised an eyebrow and turned to face him. "Mr. Arc, are you certain that you did in fact receive a message from Mr. Winchester earlier today telling you to meet at the Combat Arena this evening?"
Jaune answered with as much conviction as he could muster. "Yes."
Ozpin scrutinized him for a moment, looking for any sign of falsity. "Unfortunately for you Mr. Arc, your inbox contains no such message. It is hard to determine the validity of your statement due to this fact. We will continue to investigate on this matter but let's not point any fingers just yet."
The young knight clenched his fists. Cardin gave him a small look of triumph before schooling his features so that the professors wouldn't notice it.
You sneaky bastards, Jaune thought as he wondered how they accomplished it. He had underestimated them and immediately assumed they wouldn't be capable of pulling something like this. Well, he wouldn't be making the same mistake again. Meanwhile, he failed to notice Russel exhaling in relief at the other end of the line.
It was then that Coco stepped forward. "I don't know if this would be of any value but we did see Cardin goading Jaune out in the hallway earlier after class. Fox and I were too far away to hear what was said but it was obvious that Winchester wanted to get some kind of reaction from him. Maybe that's where he told Arc where to meet and just sent another message to confirm it."
"An astute theory Ms. Adel," The Headmaster told her. "However, we still need the proper evidence to confirm this. But it is apparent that the two of you have been rather hostile to each other lately that it has reached the point where I must intervene before it can escalate. I've overlooked the cafeteria incident as nothing more than a petty squabble but now you both have crossed a line."
The man paused for a moment to not only give the two boys a meaningful look but the others as well. "At this school, we teach you the skills and knowledge needed to be able to defend the Kingdoms should the time come. You are all being trained to become the best Huntsmen you can be. Notice that the word Huntsmen is plural which means that none of you can do this alone. This is why we form teams to improve camaraderie and trust with one another so that we may not fight among ourselves but to fight against the real enemy."
Jaune and the rest of them couldn't help but take the Headmaster's words to heart at that moment. Even Cardin had the good graces to look slightly ashamed.
"Now, we must take steps to ensure that this never happens again." Ozpin continued. "That is why the five of you will be serving a week's worth of detention starting tomorrow. You will be separated for obvious reasons and your families will be notified of your actions tonight."
The blonde paled when he heard that last part. His grandpa would probably have a few things to say to him but his mother…Jaune shivered just thinking about it.
"Um, excuse me sir? What about us?" Ruby raised her hand tentatively and gestured to herself and Pyrrha.
The silver-haired man considered it for a moment. "For now, I will let you and Ms. Nikos off with a warning since the two of you only thought to do what was right at the time but we would encourage you to notify a staff member regarding situations like these."
The two girls nodded as Professor Ozpin returned his attention back to the two boys.
"Ms. Goodwitch will be the one to supervise your detentions and I hope we can avoid incidents like this in the future for I fear that the next offense will most likely lead to expulsion. Am I understood?"
"Yes sir." The two leaders said.
"Very well, you may go."
The students plus Ms. Goodwitch all headed toward the exit. Jaune was about to step onto the elevator when he heard the Headmaster say. "Oh and Mr. Arc, I would advise you not to limit yourself as you train for if you continue to hold yourself back, then you may never know just how high you can reach."
Jaune turned to see Ozpin giving him a knowing look just before the elevator doors closed.
"What did he mean by that?" Ruby asked, but Jaune didn't answer.
The young knight unconsciously flexed the fingers of his left hand. "I'm guessing that he wants me to do my best."
The professor did have a point. He used his left hand to fight in spars to see if he would be able to wield his sword just as well as his right. Being ambidextrous would give him a slight advantage if ever one of his hands were rendered useless but it would seem that he still had a long way to go before he mastered it. Perhaps he should focus on fighting at full capacity to know what to improve on.
The ride down was taken in silence and seemed to drag on longer than it really was. The two offenders tried ignoring each other for most of it but the leader of team CRDL kept giving Jaune venomous glances when Ms. Goodwitch's back was turned. He was grateful for the beeping sound that signaled the end of the descent.
Cardin shot him one last glare before following Glynda out the elevator with his team right behind him. Jaune didn't bother returning it because frankly, he didn't care anymore. Ozpin was right. The time here at Beacon shouldn't be used for making more enemies but forging alliances and friendships instead.
Speaking of which…
"Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked with a hint of concern as he fell into step beside her as the three friends headed back to their dorms.
He gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm just a little tired. On the other hand, I am not looking forward to those detentions."
"Well maybe if you would tell me these things in advance before you go and do something like this then I might have been able to talk you out of it."
"Yeah, sorry about that,"
Pyrrha just shook her head. "I'm your teammate Jaune. We have to look out for each other and watch each other's back. We can't do so if you decide to keep us out of the loop. I think Nora and Ren would feel the same way."
Jaune winced guiltily. "I know that now and I promise that I'll inform you if I ever run into this kind of situation again."
"Good." Pyrrha nodded.
"You know the same goes for team RWBY." Ruby chipped in. "We'll be there if you need us."
"Thanks. Likewise," Jaune smiled gratitude.
"Aw, isn't that sweet." Coco suddenly said from behind them. The three friends jumped at the sound of her voice. They had completely forgotten about the two older students and now the two stood behind them sporting matching amused grins. "Oh don't mind us. We're just heading back to our dorms. We'd hate to ruin such a touching moment."
Russel unceremoniously flopped onto his bed as soon as they arrived in their dorm room. He didn't even bother to freshen up or change out of his combat gear and just shoved his dual blades under his bed before getting into a comfortable position. His teammates opted to do the same thing except for Cardin, who decided to take a shower first.
Good, the cold water might cool you off a bit. He thought.
Today had been a very stressful day for him and there were plenty of close calls. It was only thanks to his quick thinking that they had managed to avoid getting expelled altogether.
Russel knew that they should have a back-up plan just in case the shit hit the fan, which it did, but fortunately for them, the young hacker thought of a way to decrease the amount of said shit to lessen the impact. The boy was aware of the fact that there was a high probability of getting caught fighting in the arena so there was no way to prevent that. However, he did manage to cover up their theft pretty well thanks to his programs.
He was able to convince his team to return the weapons to the locker rooms just before they went to the arena to confront Arc.
"Think about it, would you expect a thief to suddenly return something they stole?" He had told them. "Besides, all we want to do is lure Arc out right? We already accomplished that so I say we put the weapons back before the staff starts looking into this even closer. The two teams will never expect to find their items in the exact spot where they thought it was stolen. We just have to make sure that the theft can't be linked back to us and with no real evidence, their word won't be able to sway the professors."
And so by tomorrow morning, one of the two teams might find their stolen weapons back where it should be. Russel also took the liberty of hacking into the forge's logs and entered their names to register their gear for a maintenance check. As far as the teachers were concerned, they would think that the students just forgot and overreacted.
And of course, the piece de resistance of the whole operation had been his vanishing message act. He let Cardin use his personal scroll to send a message to Arc. He added a special virus attached to the message that would inevitably delete the message after two hours. Even if Jaune knew how to trace a message back to its source, which Russel doubted, the blonde would be shocked to find the sender located in Mistral thanks to a simple rerouting.
All in all, it could have been worse but Russel did groan at the thought of all those detentions. The next time his leader decided to pull a stunt like this, he would flip him the bird.
Meanwhile, Jonah Arc was sitting in the study with a frown on his face as he read the message on his scroll.
White Fang are on the move. They've formed an alliance with Torchwick. They're targeting dust shops all around Vale. There's still no word from the mysterious leader of the operations. -T
He reread the message a couple more times before deleting it. If what his informant said was true then things are about to get truly hectic soon and he had to take the necessary precautions before things started to spiral out of control. The White Fang are mobilizing with an infamous criminal as their ally and for some reason they were acquiring large amounts of Dust.
Jonah mulled things over before coming to a decision. Perhaps it was time to visit an old acquaintance. Surely Cassandra can handle the girls for a few days. It's been a while since he's been to Atlas. Hopefully the man he wanted to meet wasn't too busy to spare a few hours of his time.
After all, the man did run one of the largest Dust Companies in the four Kingdoms.
Whew, it took some time but I did it. I kinda winged Fox's character a bit since I don't know whether he talks or not but to me he seems like one of those mysterious guys who only talks when he needs to. So yeah the duel did sort of end in a tie but Jaune was outnumbered and he didn't use his Semblance to the fullest so I hope you guys take that into consideration. Plus it would be lame if team CRDL all got expelled already. I got other plans for them. The next few chapters will kind of slow down and focus more on the normal school life of the students as I set up my big finale for volume 1. So as always, tell me what you think!
