Hello everyone! Ulqui here!
I thank everyone who reviewed on my story! Thanks for giving me a chance!
Who else around here is a fan of Muse? Their new album is coming out soon! And I am SO pumped for it!
Also, I have a few excuses why I did not update earlier... again...
1. My finals were up, which I already covered last chapter.
2. I was on a trip in Tokyo, Japan. And I wanted to relax during the time.
3. Distracted by Video Games (Project CARS)
So yeah. Hopefully the next chapter will come sooner!
And ideas for Jaune's semblance are still accepted! So far, only Desperate Dreamer (Check out his stories!), Sashiro and Benthino gave me a few suggestions for his Semblance.
I once again thank Sashiro for being the beta again!
Almost forgot! I added a bit of content in the previous chapter. Hope you can check it out. :D
Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to RoosterTeeth and Monty's family.
Chapter 3
"WAKE UP, LAZY BUM!"
Jaune instantly got up from the bedroll and assumed a fighting stance once he had heard the shout. He turned to the direction of the shout and saw an orange-haired woman pacing around the surrounding area repeatedly saying "It's morning~!" Confused, he looks at Ren, who is simply staring at the orange-haired girl calmly like he expected this to happen.
"Don't worry about her. It's just Nora being Nora." Ren simply said to Jaune as he continues to stare at the girl known as Nora, whose turquoise eyes were filled with excitement.
Nora's clothing style seems to be… a bit random. A black vest, a white top that has a heart-shaped hole located on her cleavage, pink gloves, pink skirt, pink and white shoes, and bits of armor on her torso, Jaune thought that it fits her personality well. She can be bubbly and fun, yet deadly when agitated enough. When she suddenly appeared right in front of his face, he steps back in shock.
"W-Whoa! T-Too close!" It was then that Jaune entered his 'Panic Mode', as Ozpin would have called it. Nora simply just steps closer until her face is a few inches away from his. She kept on staring at Jaune as his mind begins to shut down due to the close contact with Nora.
*Meanwhile in Jaune's brain….*
The inside of Jaune's brain surprisingly looks like… a city. A city full of lights, skyscrapers and lots and lots of mini-Jaunes. Everything looks so peaceful, everyone is minding their own business and-
"CODE RED! CODE RED!" As soon as those two words repeat itself, pandemonium occurs. Mini-Jaunes running around in random directions, cars crashing into each other, mini-Jaunes falling off from buildings and fires spreading across the city. Jaune's brain is in complete chaos.
"Calm down people! Police! Try and calm things down around here!" A mini-Jaune dressed in a black tuxedo with a name tag that has the words 'Mayor' inscribed on it, shouted orders to the few mini-Jaune policemen who were still calm even with all of the commotion around them. "Hey, you!" He shouted out to a mini-Jaune who is just relaxing on a chair, drinking lemonade like this occurrence is normal to him. "What are you doing there just sitting around, drinking some lemonade at this time?! What do you think I am paying you for?!" Mayor mini-Jaune shouted at policeman mini-Jaune.
"You don't pay me. We don't even exist. We're just a clever visual metaphor used to personify the abstract concept of thought." Replied policeman mini-Jaune, who kept on drinking his lemonade. "And besides, everything will just fix themselves once Jaune calms down. And people who died will reappear anyways." Mayor mini-Jaune stared at him for a few seconds before he said one thing that will make policeman mini-Jaune obedient to him.
"One more crack like that, and you are outta here!" Mayor mini-Jaune screamed out to policeman mini-Jaune, who got up from the floor and dropped to his knees while tears were streaming out from his eyes.
"No! Please! I have three kids!" He begged Mayor mini-Jaune, who just gave him a small smirk, satisfied that his small bluff worked. The whole city began to crumble into ground zero as almost every mini-Jaune continued to panic…
*Back to reality*
Jaune just gave a blank stare at Nora, who turned her attention to Ren, who is now standing right next to her. "Hey, Renny? Who's your little friend?" Nora, with her bubbly smile, asked Ren, who just gave a small smile in return.
"This here is Jaune Arc. You know, the one we read about a few days ago on the newspapers?" Ren replied to Nora, whose smile grew bigger as she heard the name 'Jaune Arc'
"You mean THE Jaune Arc?! AWESOME!" She said as she starts pacing around the room again with more speed than usual. Ren just sighed at her actions before she stopped in front of Ren. "Oh! I hope that the both of us can be on a team with him!" Nora said to him as she jumped in place due to her excitement on meeting Jaune for the first time.
"Hey, Nora? Could you meet me at the dining hall later? I need to make sure that Jaune will come back to reality." Ren, who placed a hand on Nora's shoulder, asked her. She nodded her head in response and heads off into the girls' shower room with amazing speed.
"Alright Ren! Save some pancakes for me!" She shouted to Ren from afar. Ren turned his attention to Jaune and he slapped Jaune's face, freeing him from his 'Panic Mode' Jaune gave off a low groan as he clutches his head with both of his hands.
"Ugggghhhh…. What happened?" Jaune asked Ren, who gave off a small chuckle.
"I don't know. You were acting abnormal when Nora got close to you. It's like your mind had shut down or something." Ren replied, as Jaune raised his head to look at him.
"Yeah… Sorry about that. I tend to get lost in my thoughts sometimes." He said with a goofy smile on his face. Ren just gave him a deadpan stare.
"I can see that… Hey, I'm heading to the showers. Want to come with?" He asked Jaune.
"Sure." He said with a shrug. And with that, they head off to the boys' shower room.
After Jaune and Ren hit the showers they changed into their usual outfit. Jaune's outfit is still the same outfit that he wore yesterday. Ren is wearing a dark-green, long-sleeved tailcoat; a pair of white pants; and a pair of black shoes. It was then that they found Nora waiting for them near the sinks. Jaune was surprised that Nora entered the boys' shower room, but Ren did not pay too much attention to it, saying that he and Nora have taken baths together so often since they were children, which surprisingly does not disturb Jaune in the slightest due to how close they were…
…And also, when he was a kid, he had taken baths with his sisters a lot…
They went to the dining hall to eat breakfast after they had brushed their teeth. Jaune was not able to eat his breakfast in peace because Nora. Just. Kept. On. Talking. Like seriously, how could anyone, besides Ren of course, would be able to handle her for an extended period of time? 'I guess this is what Ren meant when he said that he can sleep peacefully just this once… '
… At least he ate a pretty good grilled cheese sandwich…
After breakfast, Nora went to the restroom to do some private business while Ren and Jaune head their way to the locker rooms.
"What's with Nora talking about strategies involving sloths?"
"Heh. Don't ask."
They stopped at Ren's locker, which is just a few lockers away from Jaune's locker. Ren opened up his locker to grab his weapons.
"So what's your weapon?" Jaune asked Ren, curious about his weapon. Ren then pulls out two green SMGs, which are quickly concealed into Ren's sleeves.
"My pair of SMGs is called StormFlower. They have collapsible blades that can be used in close quarters combat, and as you can see, they can be hidden beneath my sleeves." Ren explained to Jaune about his weapon. Jaune gave him an impressed look.
"Well that is useful. Hidden weapons in one's sleeves that is. If you do not mind, can you help me implement that feature with one of my backup weapons? Having that feature can catch my enemies off guard." Jaune pleaded with huge puppy eyes and a smile. Ren just rolled his eyes at Jaune's antics with a small smile.
"Sure, why not?" Ren replied as he pats Jaune's back and heads out to the exit. "I gotta go wait for Nora. Who knows what she will do without me…"
"Take care!" Jaune then proceeds to his locker. He gave a small smile once he opened his locker to find lots of books and a picture in the locker. The picture is a family picture of the Arcs. He reached out to the picture and grabbed it. He traces his fingers across the picture, reminding himself of the happy memories that he had with his family.
… His time with his parents…. His seven sisters… His only younger brother…
"… I miss you guys… I wish all of you can forgive me for my failures…" He places the picture back inside his locker and closes it.
"So, Pyrrha, have you given any thought to whose team you'd like to be on? I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong, well-known individual such as yourself!"
Jaune turns to his right to find Weiss talking to a red-haired woman, whom Jaune thinks is Pyrrah. Curious, he cautiously steps a bit closer, hoping that he can overhear their conversation.
To say that the Pyrrah is pretty is an understatement. She is beautiful enough to look like a supermodel. With her hypnotizing vivid-green eyes and her perfect long red hair tied into a ponytail, surely there would be a lot of boys swarming around her. As for her outfit, it looks like she was born a warrior. She is wearing a strapless bronze top split vertically with a bronze V-neck underneath, a piece of red cloth wrapped around her waist that reaches her ankles, a bronze circlet, brown boots with a bronze trim, bronze greaves, and a bronze gorget on her neck.
"Hmm... I'm not quite sure. I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may." Pyrrha replied to Weiss. Jaune stared at Pyrrha with a small smile on his face. Her beautiful voice sounds pleasant to his ears, and her red hair looks vibrant…
… Both of those qualities remind him of his mother…
"Leave my young boy alone!" A red-haired woman wielding a sword shouted out to the White Fang members in front of her, with a ten year-old Jaune behind her, who sat on the ground and clutched Crocea Mors closer to his body with a terrified look on his face. They were inside what seems to be a dining room. One of the White Fang members on her left, a male dog faunus, charged right at her with an overhead strike, which she quickly sidestepped out of the way and countered with a stab to the back, killing the goon instantly. A female deer faunus tried to attack her with a horizontal slash, but she parried it with a horizontal slash of her own and she bashed the goon's skull with the handle of her sword. Suddenly, a female fox faunus far away from Jaune's mother had a rifle with her, and a clear shot. So the fox faunus took the opportunity to disable Jaune's mother and she shot her on her right arm, where Jaune's mother was holding her sword.
"M-Mother!" Jaune cried out to his mother as she dropped her sword and clutched her hand in pain. She had not noticed a male lion faunus moving towards her and forcing her to face Jaune. The lion faunus then pulled out a sharp knife and brutally killed his mother by slitting her throat, blood in large amounts spewed out of her throat as her body fell down to the floor. Jaune just stared at his mother's body in horror, as her lifeless eyes stared right back at him.
Jaune came back to reality and he quickly covered his face with a nearby towel. 'S-St…Stop thinking about it… D… Don't cry… Must… suppress the bad memories…' He thought to himself, tears still flowing from his face. After about a few seconds or so, he was able to compose himself. As he removed the towel from his face, he finds a strange sight that creeped him out. Thunderclouds were forming around Weiss, who had a maniac look on her face as she adopted a scheming pose like some stereotypical villain would do. '… Okay, what the fuck just happened?' Jaune, who was not liking her look at all, decided to step in and tried to snap Weiss out of her thoughts. "Ummm… Miss? You're creeping out the other students. Including me." When Weiss came back to reality, she noticed that Jaune is right next to her and she looks away with a small blush on her face.
"O-Oh… It's you…" Weiss said before she was able to compose herself. Pyrrha tried to join in on the conversation.
"Hello! It's nice to meet you!" Jaune turned his attention to Pyrrha and he tried to smile at her.
"Why hello to you too. And you are?" Jaune calmly said to her. As she was about to introduce herself, Weiss rudely beat her to it as she tried to glare at Jaune.
"Are you an idiot? Do you have no idea who she is?!" Jaune just shrugged in response.
"Uhhhh… Nope?"
"Ugh!" Weiss threw her hands up in annoyance as she pulled Pyrrha closer to them. "This is Pyrrha Nikos." She gestured at Pyrrah, who just waved her hand with a smile.
"Hello again!" Jaune just stared at her for a few seconds before he tilted his head with confusion like what a dog would do.
"…. Who?"
"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum!" Weiss just placed her hands on her hips as she stared at Jaune, her left eye had started twitching.
"Sanctum? Honestly never heard of it." Weiss scoffed at him for not knowing about Pyrrha.
"She's won the Mistral Region Tournaments four years in a row! A new record!"
"Really? Never been into any of those tournaments, but I have to admit, that is an impressive feat." Weiss then suddenly turned smaller, started to float and waved her arms in frustration like a cute cartoon character would do.
"She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!"
"Cereal?! Ugh!" Jaune just looked at Weiss with disgust. "I hate cereal. Who knows what are they made of? I'm more of a… Grilled Cheese kind of guy." Weiss just glared at Jaune, fingers occasionally twitching.
"Exactly. It's why it is very unhealthy." Pyrrha said to Jaune, who just smiled at her.
"You seem to be very famous. I apologize if I do not recognize you. I barely pay attention to recent events because the Wizard of Oz over there have kept on training my ass off for 7 years." Jaune said to her as he pointed on a portrait of Ozpin. Weiss suddenly grabbed him by his hoodie with a suspicious look on her face.
"You know the headmaster?! Who are you anyways?" Jaune, who tried to prevent another meltdown inside his brain, just gave off a small chuckle as he scratches his head awkwardly.
"Oh yeah, I haven't properly introduce myself to you yet. My name is Jaune. Jaune Arc." As soon as he said his name, both Pyrrha and Weiss stared at him with wide eyes, making him uncomfortable with all of the female attention. "Uhhhh… Was it something I said?" He asked them before Weiss released her grip on his hoodie.
"Y-You're Jaune Arc? F-Forgive me for my actions!" Weiss bowed her head as she tried to ask for his forgiveness. Jaune just sighed in irritation and Pyrrah just hid a giggle with her hand.
"I hate it when people suddenly try to kiss my ass. Seriously though, you don't have to do that." Jaune said to Weiss as he hesitantly placed his hand on her chin to gently lift her head. "It is just off character of you." Weiss stared at him with a heavy blush on her face while Pyrrah just placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder, who was surprised as he turned to her.
"That was so nice and romantic of you." Pyrrha said to him. Jaune just gave off a small laugh as he heard the romantic part.
"Huh. Trust me. When you live with seven sisters that are older than you under one roof, it is hard to avoid the mushy romantic novels, TV shows and movies." Jaune said to her as he relaxed his body under her touch. 'Why am I so relaxed when Pyrrha touches me? Does she really remind me too much of my mother?' He then noticed Ruby and Yang talking on the opposite side of the room. He smiled as he bid farewell to Weiss and Pyrrha. "Well, I hope we can see each other again often. See you guys later." He then proceeds to head over to the two sisters as Pyrrha happily waved goodbye at Jaune.
"Goodbye, Jaune!" Weiss then regained her composure as she also waved at Jaune, although a very short one.
"G-Goodbye…" Weiss then turned to Pyrrha, who just stared at her teasingly. 'Oh no…'
As Jaune moved closer towards the two sisters, he noticed Ruby cradling Cresent Rose while Yang just gave an amused look at her sister.
"Well, remember, Ruby, you're not the only one going through initiation. If you wanna grow up, you're gonna have to meet new people and learn to work together." Yang said to Ruby as she just gave a cute pout.
"She's right you know. No man is an island." Jaune said to Ruby as her pout deepened, like that was even possible. Yang for once, gave a sincere smile at Jaune, glad that he was unlike most men.
"Ugh, both of you sound like Dad! Okay, first of all: What does meeting new people have to do with fighting? And secondly: I don't need people to help me grow up! I drink milk!" As she said that last sentence, Jaune could not help but to snort in amusement. Ruby just stared at him with a confused look while Yang narrowed her eyes, thinking that Jaune was thinking dirty thoughts involving her sister.
'Maybe I was wrong about him…' Yang thought to herself as Jaune just shook his head slightly.
"Sorry Ruby, but if you truly believe that, then you really are a child." Ruby stomped her foot in frustration as she glared daggers at him… Like, literally. He could see various small versions of various bladed weapons coming out of her eyes as he tried to dodge them as best as he can.
"W-Whoa!" He ducked to dodge a pair of tantos. "R-Ruby!" He sidestepped to dodge some kunais. "I-I'm sorry!" He dodged a wakizashi by dropping to the ground. "P-Please sto- WHAT THE FUCK, IS IT RAINING KATANAS!" He screamed out as he quickly rolled away from a huge number of katanas that suddenly dropped from the ceiling. Yang just dropped down on the floor, laughing very hard at Jaune and Ruby's antics.
'Or…. Maybe not… HAHAHAHA!' She thought to herself as she continued to laugh until an announcement was made by Glynda on the intercom.
"Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately." As soon as the announcement was finished, Jaune, Ruby and Yang composed themselves as they head towards Beacon Cliff.
In Beacon Cliff, all of the first year students are lined up in a single line, with Ozpin and Glynda standing before them. Ozpin took a sip of his coffee before he begins his speech.
"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." He said to the students. Jaune, who have heard the speech for years, just rolled his eyes.
"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of "teams." Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today." Glynda said to them. Ruby just groaned for the fact that she needs to partner up with someone. Yang and Jaune just sent a smirk on Ruby's way, confident that she will learn sooner rather than later.
"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Ozpin said as Ruby just covered her face with her hands.
"UGHHHHH!"
"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." It was then when Ruby widened her eyes in shock as her world crumbled.
"WHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT!" Jaune noticed Nora poking Ren at his side.
"See! I told you~!" Nora said with an I-told-you-so look on her face. Ren just shook his head slightly.
"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die." By instinct, Jaune grabbed Crocea Mors by the handle and gripped it tightly. "You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" The students remain silent. "Good. Now, take your positions." Everyone prepared themselves for the test. "Also… Mr. Arc? Do you want to go ahead first?" Jaune just gave Ozpin a confused stare.
"…What? What do you mean by-" Jaune stopped talking when he heard a clicking sound below, he slowly looked down to find a metal plate, then he looked back at Ozpin with an annoyed expression. "Oh, you son of a-! " He was not able to finish his sentence as he was launched into the air towards the Emerald Forest. Ozpin just stared at Jaune from afar with a smirk on his face, while Glynda just facepalmed.
After a few minutes of air time, he landed hard on the ground, buried beneath the grass. It was then that he burst out of the ground with a pissed off look on his face. "BITCH!" He looked around his surroundings to find that he was surrounded by trees, which confirms his expectation that he is going to land in the area filled with trees. Suddenly, he heard the rustling of bushes, and he senses a familiar presence coming next to him and he smiled.
"… I never thought that you would be my partner…" He then turned to the source of the rustling with a smirk on his face. "… Ren…"
Ren just smirked back at Jaune. "Funny. I feel the same way… Jaune."
So yeah, end of the chapter. You can probably tell that the end is pretty rushed. My bad. Hopefully it might not happen again.
When will I upload the next chapter? Honestly, I don't know. I have summer classes for this month only, so the pacing will be really fast. I need to focus on my studies then I can relax and write more chapters!
See you guys on the next chapter!
-The10thDoctor1964 (Ulqui)