Salem moved through the room with an unnatural grace. To her right her most loyal and capable servants all stood in attention to their queen. She sat down on her throne at the head of the table. Ordering them to take their seats as well with an unspoken command.
"Watts. What day is it today?" Salem casually asked.
"It would be Friday mistress." Watts responded from his seat to her immediate right.
Salem turned her head to look at him, then back to the rest of her servants before smiling and whispering "Good."
/==========================================================================================================/
Jaune grunted as he reached for his cup of water. It was several centimeters out of his reach and that alone was driving him crazy. Where the hell was his stand!? He knew he had one but it wasn't materializing for him. He tried focusing his will, he tried focusing his mind and he tried using whatever was left of his aura to will his stand into the material world but nothing worked.
He half sighed, half growled as he gave up, it was one thing to be exhausted and have to go to the hospital for it. Another thing entirely to be exhausted to the degree he was with a gut wound and a warning not to move too much because of the risk of aggravating or opening your digestive track which would likely lead to death by septic shock.
He growled again, he was thirsty and the one thing that would help him get his cup was not helping and apparently not going to respond to him unless it was an emergency.
'If I wait much longer it will be an emergency!' He had nothing to do while he waited for his aura to regenerate and heal him, he could will himself into his private realm and speak to Dio, but what was he going to say?
'Hi Dio, I have a stand but I can't control it?'
That wouldn't do. It was like coming home to tell mom and dad that you had almost passed a test, almost got into the institute you wanted and almost got your way. Dio wasn't a man you bothered with 'almost', with him it was either you succeed or you were wasting his time. Jaune didn't want to waste any of Dio's time or hear what he would have to say about that. The next time he saw Dio in their private realm would be after he made some headway with his stand.
He looked up at the ceiling and the strange brown stain there, realizing he wasn't used to this kind of isolation or loneliness. Back home his sisters would always be there with him and if they weren't then his parents would be, in the rare instance this wasn't the case he could always count on some of his friends. Their was almost no point in his life when he wasn't alone or with his family or friends, here he had none of those. At this point he was even willing to hang out with that 'Yang' girl who was responsible for him being in the hospital in the first place.
Wait no, he didn't want her here. The only reason she wasn't with him now was because he was too injured to be interrogated when she brought him in. That or because a police officer had finally shown up to -just like Yang- be told that he was too injured for interrogations, thankfully he waited for him to recover while passively warding off Yang. After Jaune gave his account of how he got the injuries, the officer left to do who knew what, again leaving him alone. He sighed and leaned back, hopping that his aura would heal enough of his stomach wound to allow him to safely move. After all the sooner he left, the sooner he could get back to his room and be done with the day.
He lay there for what felt like hours, it was still dark outside and he didn't have his pocket watch with him making time seem to pass at a much slower rate. This was made much worse by when he tried his 'healing' trick. The general sensory deprivation made him attuned to all the little things around him from the sounds of the nurse answering questions to the end of the hallway to how his aura stitching his wounds closed. While he wasn't an expert on stab wounds, after enough time had passed he felt confident that he could move now and not accidentally open his digestive track and turn his blood septic.
Reaching over and wincing at the minor pain he finally grabbed his cup of water and drank before getting up and opening the window. He needed the fresh air and almost immediately regretted it as a foul smell came from several floors below, he gagged and forced it closed. He needed to check out, the longer he stayed the more he would likely have to pay the hospital and the more likely Yang would be to return.
"Excuse me is my brother still here?" He heard a familiar voice ask as he got the last of his clothes on.
He froze, 'Brother?' he thought, before hobbling his way to the door frame.
As he feared Yang had come back and was currently talking to the man at the nurse's station. His actual sisters didn't know he was here and even if they did their was no way that they would be able to get from Sino to here in that short a period of time. Since Yang apparently thought the two could pass for siblings in some bizarre way she decided to check him in under a fake name claiming to be his twin sister. He cursed and closed the door, turning what he thought was the lock as he began to think of a safe way to escape. The hallway Yang was in was empty and had a clear view across it's linear pathway. As he was too injured and weak to move quickly enough to escape Yang when she would spot him, he needed another escape plan and fast.
When the janitor finally got the door open and let Yang in she was shocked to find the room empty. That was impossible, there was no way he could have escaped down the hallway, she would have seen him. She stepped in to investigate while the supervisor called security and looked around. To her disbelief she found a crude rope made of bed sheets tied to the windowsill, pushing the window open she gagged as the smell of the full dumpster several stories almost directly below her reached her nose.
"That son of a bitch." she seethed before leaving the room, not noticing Jaune's satisfied smile as he crawled out from between the metal frame of the hospital bed and the mattress.
/-/
'By far the most bizarre and violent party I ever went to.' he mused as he entered his hotel room.
He checked his watch and decided to take a bath, despite being 2 am he felt that once he got clean he could be able to sleep properly. He settled in the bath and sighed blissfully, his skin protested as the boiling hot bathwater attacking him while the scent of complementary soap that transformed the tub into a fizzy, bubbling mess embraced him. He couldn't understand why everyone but him hated bathing in water so hot you could swear you being boiled alive, maybe he was just bizarre like that.
He sunk himself fully under and smiled as the burning water assaulted his face and hair before coming back up for air and leaned his head backwards onto the rim of the tub. The journey to Vale had been short, and a little too eventful for him but he had made it. With only 4 days left until the Beacon entrance ceremony and initiation he would need to re-arrange his budget to focus on living in Vale until he got into Beacon.
Getting his shield repaired would cost him he didn't know how much and he would need a new shirt to replace the one Yang damaged but if he was truly desperate, he would find a seamstress or a sewing kit and transform his once long sleeved shirt into it's short sleeved version. He sloshed over to the end of the tub where he left his phone and deleted his planned schedule. No point keeping it if the things he planned for no longer applied, he also considered leaving his family a message to if nothing else let them know he was OK. He decided to postpone the task and tossed his phone onto the pile of now dirty clothing.
He had left home 3 days ago and already so much happened, granted it was worrying that he had one near death experience per day. First the bandit lady, then riding in Odis' truck and now clubbing with Yang, he leaned foreword placing his arms over the rim and resting his head on them.
Yang, something about her seemed very familiar, far too familiar. Not because she resembled the middle-aged bandit lady so much, it was the familiarity that suggested she was a friend he had finally met again after what seemed like a lifetime apart. The more he thought about her the more bizarre his feelings became.
'She. Won't be coming with us. She. She needs time to recover. I don't know how long it will take. We should go now if we are going to do this.' a sad but familiar voice echoed in his head.
He stirred, the voices again, he needed to figure them out and soon, if they were a side effect of his stand emerging then he needed to get it under control and fast, something he could work on when he got up. He curled up and felt cold, the blanket felt weird, why was it so cold and engulfing? Wait, was he breathing?
He burst from the now cold water of the bathtub yelling "I'm awake!" and was met by the hotel maid screaming and rushing out the room. He paused to gulp some air, running his hands over his body. Once confirming that; yes, he fell asleep in the bath and no, he somehow didn't die of drowning despite being submerging for an unknown amount of time, he got out and tried to shake off the shock of his 4th near-death experience in as many days.
/-/
'I'm cursed.' he morbidly thought as he made his way through Vale.
'Any second now someone is going to come and try to kill me.' he thought as he glanced at the faces of the people going about their business.
Was this truly what it would mean for him to be a huntsman? Sure he expected danger, he would need to fight Grimm and on occasion other people, that was part of the job description. However he doubted him being a huntsman would involve nearly dying 4 times in as many days before he had even entered Beacon academy. That may have been acceptable if he were in the contested lands where Grimm, bandits and other hazards to life and limb lurked freely. It wasn't in Vale's interior territories where safety was one of the priorities the governing councils not only focused most on but were actually capable of ensuring.
/-/
"Oh this is bad." he said as he looked through his phone.
As he had feared the cost of living in Vale for almost 4 days, having his armor and shield repaired even at the lowest price he could find and setting aside money for a hospital bill to cover the expenses of treatment for injuries that -thankfully- hadn't occurred almost completely destroyed his projected budget for the trip. He groaned and fell back on the cheap bed of the equally cheap motel he had moved into to save on costs and began wondering what else he could cut on. His stomach growled and he punched at it angrily, a reminder of one of the things he cut costs on in order to save his budget. He sighed and checked his account again, noting he still had a couple hundred Lien left, which was enough for a quick trip to the hospital or getting his clothes and gear a cheap patch job when it was required.
If his family knew he was cutting down on necessities to have money for a hospital bill or medication for the injuries he knew he was bound to receive, or get quick and cheap repairs to his gear before someone attacked him again, they would be horrified or at the very least concerned. No doubt his mother might tell him to come home because of the dangers. His father might lecture him about the importance of having a good budget plan before caving in and depositing some money into his account along with some cryptic warning about it being his last 'handout' in an attempt to scare him into handling his money better. His sisters would have various responses, depending mostly on their mood at the time rather than how much they actually liked him. Although he had to admit it was kind of his fault he was in this situation, if he had stuck to his original plan he would have entered Vale yesterday with at least 2000 Lien still in his account for whatever he wanted.
In hindsight he probably should have planned for the possibility, -no matter small- that he would get into several fights with psychopaths, specifically female psychopaths who seemed hell-bent on murdering or hurting him. His stomach growled at him again as he went over his checklist, he was certain he had everything he would need for his initial stay at Beacon. His shield was repaired, the rift in his back plate was welded shut, his airship ticket was paid, his clothing no longer smelled, and his toiletries were still viable. All that was left was medication for motion sickness, something he just remembered now. He slapped his phone down on the bed, he needed to go out didn't he? He didn't have to out tonight per-say, after all the airship was scheduled to leave in the afternoon which would still leave him several hours to get it when he woke up in the morning. He could probably visit the pharmacy and get it in about 10 minutes, it wasn't like anything bad would happen if he stayed, right?
In the end it was his growling stomach that had convinced him to go. If he went to bed that hungry he wouldn't be able to sleep properly, and if he was going to out to eat he had might as well get the medication if there was any pharmacies still open at this time. Sadly but not exactly surprising, all the pharmacies were closed at this time. As he stepped out of a convenience store biting into the cheap sandwich he bought, he paused to look at the shattered moon. It seemed strange to him to be looking at it from the great city of Vale, the center of his kingdom, it wasn't the first time he saw it but there was a strange feeling to watching it from Vale rather than Sino. Strange and familiar.
'HELP US! PLEASE HELP US!' he heard an unknown voice scream in his mind, not at him but like it was something he would hear in the background of a Grimm invasion.
Why was he hearing that? He starred at the moon, feelings of dread washed over him, anguish, despair and more, a negative wave of hopelessness, helplessness and more he couldn't immediately identify. Something moved in his vision, he froze in absolute shock, no it couldn't be. It was impossible! Perched on one of the jagged edges of the moon was a giant Grimm, one that looked like a dragon. He could tell it's was huge based on how large it appeared compared to the moon itself and it's size in his forced perspective. Questions screamed in his mind faster than he could register them and the voices and noise intensified. All going silent for one last phrase.
'Goodbye Jaune.'
Something crashed into him and he fell over. Looking up he saw 4 men in black suits, red ties and sunglasses. The same style that was worn by the thugs at Junior's club.
"It's you guys again!" Jaune yelled.
"It's one of the blond brats! Get him!' the one who crashed into him yelled back.
Jaune leaped up or at least intended to when he moved. Instead he practically flew back 10 meters, confused he focused his vision and saw them again. Ghostly arms, the same ones that had emerged to save him from death at the gates of Vale, then again at the club. Now they had emerged again to help him fight off the goons.
'Huh. So they might only be able to emerge when I am in combat or facing immediate threats to my life.' he thought as he skidded on all fours to a halt.
3 goons went after him the moment he landed, he pushed himself to his feet as the first swing came at him. Jaune blocked it with both arms and retaliated with an elbow to the throat knocking him back to clutch his bruised windpipe. The second made a downward stabbing attack to his heart with a knife, Jaune pushed his left arm up, stopping the movement at the wrist, inches above his chest before delivering a punishing uppercut to his jaw. The thug flew several feet into the air as the fist of Jaune's stand delivered most of the force. Jaune side-stepped the 3rd thug as he kicked at him and delivered a resounding strike to his temple, knocking him into the second thug as he descended toward the ground. The 4th had finally gotten to his feet and pulled out a shape that expanded into a standard rifle from his suit.
"DIE YOU-" the rest of his sentence being cut off as his gun barked 3 times. Jaune gasped as the bullets whistled towards him.
The goon nearly fell over from the shock of what came next, the bullets froze in mid air, inches away from Jaune's face while he looked at them with a bizarre calmness. The thug screamed as he emptied his gun's clip at Jaune, this time Jaune moved his arms to intercept. The goon gasped in horror when he saw that all the spent shots from his gun fell from the palm of Jaune's hands as he brought them up. He tried to take a step backwards but found he couldn't. His arms were shaking, but seemed locked in place. He felt something warm and wet slide down his leg as the blond terror advanced towards him. The goon's face twisted into one of despair and he practically squeaked his pleas for mercy as he stared into cold blue eyes that promised certain death. He didn't see it, but he felt it.
He made a sound that sounded like a mix of screaming, moaning and anguish as pain engulfed his face. The fist that hit him left a deep and visible indentation as the force rippled through his head and neck, breaking his nose, upper and lower jaw while his front teeth flew away. He started gagging as the pain overwhelmed his mind and he slipped into unconsciousness, vaguely seeing something ghostly behind the boy he thought he could beat.
Jaune smiled as he looked over the men he so easily defeated. A confidence and pride as rare as a blue moon danced in his chest. They would live, although they would need to be in the hospital for a considerable amount of time, one more than the others. That hardly mattered to him though, he had figured more about his stand and how it worked. While he couldn't confirm it without a similar stand or an actual system to compare it to, he did know that it was fast, very fast. It had stopped dozens of standard dust bullets in mid air at close range, not only grabbing them but placing them in his hands while he brought them up in his own silly attempt to catch them without slowing time. It also seemed extremely powerful, it had knocked the man out with just 1 punch and broke his face as a result. That was with him intentionally holding it back as to not kill the shooter.
His face returned to a more neutral one as he looked back up to the moon. The Grimm he saw wasn't there, of course it wasn't there how would a Grimm get to space? How would it survive the cold vacuum when they could barely survive the cold tundras of Atlas? Whatever was going on it seemed to be tied to his stand, first the voices, now hallucinations? He doubted things could get any worse.
"Huh?" he blurted out as he felt his right hand twist behind his back.
He flailed and felt his left hand become snared at the wrist before it was twisted behind his back with his right hand. He screamed in pain and looked over his shoulder meeting stern, green eyes of a middle aged blond woman as she tightened a pair of what he guessed were handcuffs on his wrists. Any protest he would make were cut off when she applied more pressure to his wrists threatening to break them should he act out.
'I'm screwed.' he couldn't help but think.
/==========================================================================================================/
Stand name: ?
Destructive power; uncertain
Speed; uncertain
Range; uncertain
Durability/staying; ?
Precision; uncertain
Development potential/Learning; ?
User: Jaune Arc
Abilities: Unknown
/==========================================================================================================/
AN: Oh snap! Jaune's stand started to reveal itself properly. What will it be? I haven't decided yet. In part 7 of 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure' Johnny's stand also started emerging in a similar manner until we got 'Tusk' in it's full form with him able to control it. I do plan to follow a similar method of development for his stand until it is fully revealed and Jaune is able to assert full control over it. How will he do it? Find out soon on 'Jaune Arc's Bizzare Adventure'.
Also; Yes. The beginning segment was my take on the popular Jojo meme.
