"What?" he gagged. 'OH CRAP! She's trying to kill me!' his mind screamed.
"Oh my Gods you can see her too!" Nora practically squealed "That makes things so much easier."
"That's your stand?" he somehow managed as his muscles tensed up.
"Is that what you call your spirit? 'Stand'?" Nora asked tilting her head slightly. "Mine is named Electronic. You have no idea how good it is to meet someone with the same problem as me."
"What problem?" he froze.
"Evil spirits silly. If you have one then you must have been hit by the arrow too." she said with a mock scowl before she got off his bed, moved to her bed and stated rummaging through her belongings.
"What arrow?" he asked as he focused his vision on her.
She was calm and collected, nothing about her posture suggested that she had any hostility towards him. On her face was a pleasant expression, which was to be expected as evidenced by her current actions and he could tell that she was apparently having an internal debate as to which of what was no doubt a long series of question she was going to ask first or in which order to do so. He knew he would if he was as ignorant of stands, their abilities and how they related to their masters as Nora apparently was. Fortunately for him, her stand had vanished shortly after she got off his bed and right now their seemed to be little to no chance that she was going to try and murder him with it, but given what little he currently knew about her he couldn't be certain if she would try to assault him if his answers proved unsatisfactory or not.
The thought of fighting Nora in their dorm wasn't a pleasant one, for better or worse they were stuck together for the foreseeable future and the last thing he wanted now was another enemy, especially one that slept only a few meters away from him.
In the end Nora pulled out an old journal from her bag. "This arrow." she stated showing him a picture of a strange arrow.
The arrow itself was nothing special save for it's head, it was shaped in an articulated manner with deep corner notches that cut into the rest of the arrow adding to the bizarrely ornate pattern imprinted on it and a strange insect carving no doubt meant for decoration. If the picture was in color he had a feeling that it would appear to be even more impressive, but all it honestly looked like to him was a fancy arrow that only a select few could afford in the era's before technology had rendered the bow and arrow largely obsolete.
"And you got your stand after you were hit by this arrow?" he asked.
With a clap she closed her journal "Yep, it started when I was young-" she started.
She gave him a short version of what happened and omitted all but the relevant points. According to her it started when she was stabbed in the back with the arrow when she was four years old, whomever it was that stabbed her, and whether she choose to tell him was something she didn't want to mention. According to her the wound should have killed her but instead it probably got infected and gave her a high fever leaving her bedridden for several days before she had miraculously recovered. Shortly after that Electronic appeared for the first time and had been with her since though the best and worst times of her life being both helpful when she was alone but dangerous to those around her until she had somehow managed to gain control over it in an urban area.
"-and that's all their is to it really. I am kinda hopping that you know more about it." she concluded
"Well that's-" he started.
He had no idea what to say to her, the story was almost too bizarre to be true, yet he could not detect anything resembling a lie as Nora told it to him which meant that either their was truly a practically magical arrow that could awaken stands in people out in the world somewhere or Nora's story was somehow false. However given the bizarre things that he experienced in the last week he was more inclined to believe her especially when she showed him a strange hole in her back which had appeared to be about the size of a coin and was roughly where an arrow wound to the human heart would be. If such a thing existed then he was certain that Dio would know more, after all the man seemed to know everything.
"Nora, I truly don't know much about the arrow itself but I think I can get in touch with someone who does."
"Really? You mean it?" she asked, her face brightening up.
"Yep." he couldn't deny the warm feeling blossoming through him, Nora clearly needed help and right now he was the only one ho could help her. His mother would be proud that he was doing the 'right thing' -especially for a girl who may marry him in the future- and Dio would be happy because this made Nora easier to manipulate should he decide to do so.
"Good, because if you're lying to me, I'll kill you." she venomously said as an evil smile crept across her face "You know I can do it too." she reminded him as an aura of malice seemed to ooze from her.
"Good to know." he said tying to hide the fear and surprise under this sudden turn of events, suddenly he didn't feel so warm anymore. "By the way what can your stand do? If I am going to help you I am going to need to know as much as possible" he asked trying to make things less tense.
Learning what she was capable of would also give him an advantage should he have to fight her for any reason in the future, if he could figure out how her stand operated without revealing any of his abilities then he could easily think of ways to counter them and since Nora was his team mate he reasoned that thier was no harm in asking.
"What she can do are personal secrets. If you get me the information I want then I will tell you, how does that sound?" she asked.
'Damn it!' he silently cursed "Deal." He said holding out his right hand. All things considered it was probably the best he was going to get at this time.
/-/
He sighed blissfully, the Vytal was in full swing with the stalls, vendors and more present almost everywhere on the fair grounds outside the coliseum. He smiled as pride filled his chest and his team followed him within the collusion. It was their turn to fight now in the opening rounds and he was determined to win and something assured him that he would win. He slowed down slightly as the announcer started giving a hyped-up introduction to the team and stepped into the light of the coliseum and was met be the cheers of their apparent fans. On the battle ground across from them stood their opponents or victims as Nora so eloquently put it.
'The fools.' he mused 'They have no idea what they are in for.' With a smile and one final step he entered the stage and heard a high pitched whistle sound out.
"GOOOOD MORNING TEAM RWBY!" he swore he heard Ruby yell out after he woke from his dream.
'Damn it Ruby.' he thought as he pushed himself out of bed with a yawn.
After greeting his team who collectively were somewhere between ready for the day and getting starting on that process. He shuffled towards the bathroom for his morning shower, another shrill whistle sound, this time muffled by the doors effectively killing any chance of him falling asleep again. As he stepped into the shower he happily noted that the boiling hot water he loved so much was still available to him and sighed. Today he would start his tutelage at Beacon where professors with years of experience and experts in their respective fields would impart their wisdom upon him. The thoughts made him giddy and he sincerely hopped that he wasn't going to squeal like a girl at the first awesome thing he saw, then again an almost silent voice from somewhere in the deep, dark parts of his mind told him not to expect to much in that regard and he had to pause and wonder what that meant.
After his shower he stopped to look in the mirror and smiled, his reflection smiled back. His muscular frame, while not overly muscular was just enough to be impressive and with a rare confidence he swore he could almost feel it, that moment that tells you 'from now on things will be different'. As it seemed to washed over him along with a bizarre comfort he couldn't understand at that time, he noticed something move in the mirror. Behind him he saw Pyrrha wearing Beacon's trade marked uniform as she sat down on her bed, coincidentally the one that was also the closest to the bathroom, as she finished putting her shoes on before getting up and vanishing behind the door frame.
His smile dropped 'wait a minute.' he thought as he realized just how familiar the scene was.
"Hurry up Jaune we have class starting soon." she called out to him.
"WHAT?" he yelled out as he quickly twisted himself around.
/-/
"That's actually pretty funny." Ruby giggled from beside him.
"It is when you think about it." Yang said from beside her sister, whether that was a subtle jab at him or not he didn't really care for at this point and instead mumbled under his breath.
"And that is why you wear rubber slippers in the bathroom." Weiss inputted from next to Yang.
'Yes thank you Weiss.' his brain echoed.
"Should we invest in a set of slippers Ren?" Nora asked from beside Pyrrha who sat next to him.
"We should be fine if we are careful." Ren answered.
Jaune could only grumble angrily, he could only blame himself for slipping on the tiled floor and slamming his head into the side of the sink, all because of whatever 'that' was. And by that he meant the bizarre event that played out almost exactly like what happened when he had pushed himself to the bathroom after seeing Pyrrha for the first time, thankfully he was able to brush it off as panic from thinking he was going to be late to his first class at Beacon -which was never a good way to start the semester- which resulted in Pyrrha apologizing for apparently startling him. While it was a little embarrassing for him, he was willing to take it as long as it avoided any uncomfortable questions like if he was crazy or something equally as bad, or trying to explain the phenomenon that occurred less than an hour ago to his team.
He grumbled something as Blake contributed her two lien to the conversation from beside Weiss. Whatever the phenomenon actually was would require a proper investigation if he did not want to be surprised again. The best idea he had now was something akin to predicting the future or advanced foresight, which, thankfully was a topic that was discussed time and time again and written down in literature as a phenomenon that did actually occur in regular intervals or bizarre circumstances if he was remembering correctly.
He let a small smile sneak its way into his lips, despite whatever it was he had a lead, granted it wasn't a good lead or even a mediocre one at least now he had something to go on, which when compared to the wild theories he had from the night before seemed like a huge step in the right direction. If he was correct and the bizarre phenomenon was somehow connected to his stand, he could figure out more about it's abilities and when he did he could probably figure out a method to test and learn how to control it better. Something which would without a doubt save his life in the future.
"Shush class is starting." Ruby hissed.
"Huh?" he blurted as his attention was brought back to reality.
Standing in the middle of the classroom was a slightly overweight man with a burgundy suit with gold buttons, a thick grey mustache and pants tucked into what for all intents and purposes looked like cavalry boots. And while Jaune couldn't be sure it seemed as though their professor was squinting as he took a deep breath, extended his arm towards the seemingly hand-drawn posters of the various Grimm species and their well known physical traits and began his lecture.
"Monsters! Demons. Prowlers of the night. Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I know them only as 'prey'."
'Oh sweet Dio.' Jaune internally groaned as a bizarrely familiar sense of dread washed over him and his head began to slowly fall into his folded arms.
AN: hey all, sorry for the short chapter but things have become even more hectic on my end since the new year started, sadly I am unsure if I can keep the fic going at a constant rate. I will still do my best to release new chapters at a constant rate and am not giving up on this fic. Thanks for your support so far and happy 2018 everyone.
