Author's Note: Wow it has been a while. Took a bit longer than expected since I had to use the whole month up to finals studying and I then spent half of the month of December away from a laptop but that did give me some time to literally write most of this chapter down. As some small compensation, this chapter is significantly longer than the others. Speaking purely content wise you could take half of The Forge, add it to The Hero I and it would still be shorter. Now, onto reviews:

Shirou: yes, he will be an important part of the story but his influence will be sort of limited. More on that in chapter three (this being chapter two since the first was a prologue).

La Pucelle: I really like having Jeanne (both of them) be Jaune's primary teacher because: one, she's his character inspiration, two, her noble phantasm's description allows me to insert her in, and three, La Pucelle's magical fire attack can only be used as a sort of suicide move that none of the three would want to do. Something like Excalibur or Photon Ray is way too OP for Lv. 1 Jaune so I think La Pucelle fits well. Can't make it too easy for him. If I wanted to I could maybe justify giving him Luminosite Eternelle or La Grondement Du Haine but the first converts Magic Resistance, a stat Jaune doesn't even have, into an area wide defense and I think the second is supposed to convert the user's grudges into an attack but Jaune doesn't have enough hatred. I could introduce it as some sort of Chekhov's Gun for if I ever wanted to turn him into an edgelord, not saying hatred=edge but I think that is how it would turn out, but that thought doesn't really appeal to me especially since there are way too many edgy Jaune fics already. Besides, I don't think Ruler would ever let him go down that route.

Also, not really a spoiler but I spent way too long thinking of Jaune's parents names. At first, I thought of being historically accurate and going with Jacques and Isabella but Ryuugi's already done that and there was a high amount of characterization given to both. Plus, I don't think either evokes a color which is something people can be real sticklers for. Then I was going to go with Nick and Juniper, the first short for Nickel and the second because of JNPR but something close to that is already being used by Coeur and I wanted to make it a bit easier for people to keep their fics straight in their minds so I changed Juniper to June but kept Nick for Nickel since it is still vaguely color related. Am I overthinking this? Probably.

Resonance

I skidded back from the blow I just received, only managing to block less than every other strike that Mr. Emiya sent my way even though our hour of sparring was almost up.

"That was better, but remember that normally you should only block if you are unable to parry. If you can divert the enemies attack then you won't have to expand as much energy and you can leave them off balance for a counterattack."

"Perhaps then you won't sound as tired as a draft horse after a hundred-year campaign, after only one hour of light sparring no less."

All I could manage as a response was heavy breathing but that was all I could afford. I knew that I wouldn't get a chance to catch my breath, if I was lax then all I would get would be a strike to the stomach to steal whatever air I had managed to regain. My expectations were rewarded when I looked up from the blow to find that in the second between skidding back and looking up my opponent had decided to disappear which meant he wa-jump.

I leapt before I could finish my thought, mostly avoiding Mr. Emiya's wooden sword. I say mostly because I wasn't fast enough and he still caught the sole of my shoe. I lost my balance, a situation that he capitalized on with a kick to my side that sent me into the nearest tree, the tree in question being about a dozen feet away. I had only had it for about an hour but thank God for Aura.

"Okay, the hour is almost up. This will probably be the last exchange for the day. Finish strong!"

I was planning on it. It had taken me ten minutes before I was even able to dodge an attack and the rest of the time to get to the point of blocking less than half of the ones I couldn't dodge. The whole time I hadn't been able to get my blade within a foot of him before he would redirect it so quickly and fluidly that I would be left wondering what happened before being smacked in the face and remembering that I had other things to wonder about.

'Going to attack.'

"You do remember how well that went last time right?"

'This won't be like last time. Trying something different.'

"Very well, do your best."

"More than your best, do it right. Don't swing with just your arms and certainly not just your hands, put the whole of your body behind it if you ever decide that you want to hit anything worth a damn. Don't close your eyes for a second and for God's sake Follow Through!"

Right. I had tried to hit him before, probably a dozen times, but this time would be different. I ran towards Mr. Emiya and twisted my body in a diagonal swing, putting my arms, waist, back and all of my momentum into my attack. I had tried this exact same move before, three times in fact. The first time I had been sloppy and had barely had any force behind my swing. The second time had been deemed 'barely passable for a novice' by Avenger and the third had been used to verify something. Each time he had diverted my weapon with the edge of his before sidestepping and allowing my own momentum to carry me past him before delivering a vicious swing to my backside. I imagined that that was the same way this exchange would have turned out… if I had been stupid enough to try the same thing again.

Shift.

As La Pucelle approached his wooden sword it phased from reality, and the swing that Mr. Emiya's sword was ready to block blocked nothing but air. My hands passed his arm and the spot that my blade would inhabit was already well within his guard.

Shift.

And my sword was now rematerialized inside his guard, past his arm, and ready to finally hit-

Suddenly empty hands grabbed my wrist and in a swirl of motion that I was unable to comprehend I was thrown over Shirou's shoulder and into the same tree from earlier. I blearily thought that there was going to be a me-shaped indention in it if he kept this up.

"Good job. You almost could have hit me with that last one."

"How?" I croaked out in regards to how he knew what I was about to do instead of how I could have gotten him even though both may have had the same answer. Clarity was for people who could breathe because they hadn't just been thrown into a tree.

"The first time you swung from that direction your form was sloppy and your strike didn't have much force behind it. By the second I think Jeanne had corrected you on your swing but you hadn't tried to do a third swing in the same way for any of your other approaches, only one to make a mistake and then one to revise it before trying something else, so I thought you were probing. When you went for a fourth attempt from the same angle I knew you had to have something planned. Also," he paused and stuck out his hand, rematerializing and dematerializing his own weapon before my eyes, "I've astralized my own weapons like that before to take my opponents off guard. If you are going to try that again then be mindful that the sword loses its momentum when it is astralized so unless you can accelerate it to a sufficient speed after you rematerialize it then you won't have as much force behind your blow. That move probably would have worked on someone unprepared. Good job for thinking outside of the box, you'll need that in your line of work. I think with that we can call it good for today."

I should have thought of that, of course he would have tried something similar, and I didn't even think about the lack of force it would have if it did hit. Next time I was going to have to try harder, be more focused. I dispelled La Pucelle and collapsed backwards against my tree, out of breath, almost out of Aura, and entirely out of areas on my body that had yet to be hit by Mr. Emiya's sword. If I didn't have Aura then I would be a black and blue blond.

"Good job, Jaune. That last strike was quite creative. You seem to be a very fast learner."

"Indeed. Your stance, which was originally pitiably awful, is now just pitiable," I couldn't tell from the lack of malice in her tone if Avenger was mocking me or if this was her being encouraging. I'll take it a compliment.

"Regardless of her words, you are doing quite well. If you wish to continue doing this well however you have to remember to continue working hard. I don't know how strong a Huntsman is but I am sure that there will be no room for slacking."

I nodded, thinking about how right she was. Students normally started training to become Hunters at or before the age of twelve and they entered one of the combat schools at seventeen and may have already gone to a preparatory academy three years earlier. I was working with less than a fifth of the time that the average Beacon applicant had and the ones who actually made it into the school had often been trained for even longer. If I didn't learn fast then I had no hope of getting into Beacon at all.

As for what they had said about hard work, I wasn't good at most things but when it came to stupid, single-minded, persistence I couldn't be beat! If I replaced both my morning and evening training with training with my sword then that would put me at close to four hours each day. I'd need to use more breaks as I was already exhausted from just one hour's work but I would keep getting better until I would be able to go the whole time without any rests, until I could block or parry all of the attacks that came my way and give a few in return. If that could be made true through any amount of perseverance then it was as good as done.

"You're doing very well," Shirou encouraged. "I can't be absolutely sure after only one hour but you should be ready for Beacon in a year if you continue training for the same amount of time as you have been. I think that Jeanne, both Ruler and Avenger, will make excellent teachers and a persistent student will help."

It was good to hear that from Mr. Emiya as well since he probably had an actual idea of the combat level suitable for a Beacon initiate. Even if I was going to be near the bottom in terms of skill going into Beacon thanks to my late start that didn't mean that I had to stay there. If I got in, even if I was the weakest in the school, and trained twice as hard as everyone else there then by my last year I could maybe be one of the top students like JEWL had been when they attended.

"Now, in regards to your weapon," he continued. "La Pucelle is the best sword you could ever hope for but it is a sword. You won't be able to throw it and have it return to you like a boomerang while bisecting your enemies on its return path, make powerful magical blasts launch from its tip, or use its pommel to aim a death laser, it's a classic that way."

I don't think anyone would ever expect a sword to do that. They swung, they parried, they blocked. If they were owned by a Huntsman or Huntress then they were probably also a gun but nothing as extreme as what he was talking about.

"My point is that you don't have a ranged weapon and the Creatures of Grimm can and will take advantage of that, often through ranged attacks of their own or by diverting you to one area while other Grimm target civilians or locations far away from you while you're helpless to stop them. Most Hunters get around this through the use of Dust ammunition integrated into their weapons or, failing that, range-oriented teammates but I don't really know how to use Dust in a proper or intricate fashion and you won't be on a team for another year. I could certainly make you a decent firearm but guns aren't really my specialty and, as I said when we began sparring, I am not going to settle for decent. Even if they were my forte that would leave you pretty limited in terms of Dust rounds as the bullets wouldn't be reusable. Since we don't yet want to let your parents know what you're doing we would have to get you ammunition in some other manner, probably from the nearest town that sells it, as the one in Anthem would likely recognize you, and they probably don't let just anyone purchase a highly volatile and destructive substance. I could think of a few workarounds, such as me stealing ammunition for you or even mining and refining our own Dust and experimenting with original bullets, but all of those methods would be dependent on my continued support instead of being something you would eventually be able to do on your own. So, to circumvent the whole issue, I think it would be best to just not use a firearm at all.

"Tomorrow when you go on your run, whether I am present or not, there will be a bow and several arrows here for you to begin practicing with. Firearms are generally easier to use and pack more of a punch but if I am around long enough to make you a real bow then no gun will ever be able to compare. If you have no talent with the bow then I can try to get you a pistol or rifle instead but it would be best in the long run for it to not have to come to that."

I had to fight down the smile that wanted to show on my face. Everything he said, everything he had told me since I called out to him in the crater really, sounded great, amazing even. He had helped me so much that I thought I could feel my dream getting closer and closer but… there was something that was bothering me, something that needed to be said now before I lost the courage to say it later.

"Mr. Emiya, are you sure this is okay?"

"Hm?" he raised an eyebrow towards me. I had had enough time to get my breath back, I should have elaborated more.

"I mean, you helping me so much. My town is pretty well protected, the mountains to the east and west and the lack of Grimm to the north means that Anthem only needs to be defended from the southern wall. My parents have been able to protect it for decades so the town probably won't hire another Huntsman for guard. I'm not saying that I don't want you to stick around and I'm really grateful for everything you've done for me but I don't think that there are any areas around here that would justify an extended mission. Are you sure it's alright for you to be staying around for so long?"

I assumed that that was what he had meant when he said 'whether I am here or not' and 'if I am around long enough'. Eventually he would have to take a mission and move on, leaving me behind in the process. When that happened I didn't think I would have the audacity to ask him to stay, he didn't owe me anything, quite the opposite with him giving me both La Pucelle and my Aura, and whether that day was today or the day I left for Beacon I would just have to look him in the eye and say how grateful I was. Anything else would be unbefitting of an Arc.

"You could say I am on a mission right now," he replied while closing his eyes with a small smile on his face. "I don't know how long it will last before I am called away on a quest of a different sort but I'll try to make sure that everything is in good hands before I go. As for the nature of my task…" He shook his head and turned towards his former landing site. "That will take a rather long explanation. Jeanne can give you the general information sometime after you get home and I will try to fill in the rest when you get here tomorrow morning. Speaking of when you get home."

He walked over to me and crouched down before flicking my arm. The last bit of my Aura was dispelled in a small shimmer of light. He locked his eyes onto mine and he wore a hard expression as if to make sure I was paying attention and I found myself straightening a little.

"Your Aura is very strong and it will protect you as long as it is able. The average Hunter relies on the protection of their Aura to such a degree that they regularly use the explosions and recoil produced by their weapons as a means of transportation. It can be easy for them to forget what it was like before their Auras were unlocked.

"Regular people do not have theirs unlocked and the average person who does have it unlocked, such as bodyguards, police officers, and soldiers, can take one or two hits before becoming just as vulnerable as everyone else. You have a lot of Aura and people are fragile now. You have to remember that. If you don't want to break a friend's arm the next time you give them a high-five or crush your sisters the next time you hug them then you need to be careful and constantly mind your strength. Do you understand?"

I couldn't help but picture the last scenario he had described and I immediately vowed to make sure it remained just a thought. My older sisters must have always had to keep their strength in check whenever they would play with me after their training. They had always taken care not to hurt me and I would do the same for Coral, Cynthia, and Diana.

I nodded firmly to Mr. Emiya.

"Good. Remember, in order to awaken you Semblance you need to think about what is most important to you. Do so every night before you go to sleep, contemplate what excites you, what stirs you and fills you with a sense of purpose, something that literally moves your soul. I'll be off to your town's library. Expect a longer training session tomorrow."

At that he walked in the direction of Anthem proper and after a few minutes I stood up and began jogging back to my house. At around halfway there I heard Ruler's voice in my head, something that I was starting to get a little bit used to.

"Jaune, seeing as we are going to be together for the foreseeable future perhaps it would be best to learn more about each other. Could you tell us more about your family before we see them?"

Right, best to have some names to put to faces before they met the five of them.

'Sure, I was born the fifth of eight children, big family, I know. My parents' names are Nick and June Arc, short for Nickel if you were wondering. Soon after they were married mom gave birth to a set of twins, Jasper and Emerald, and then got pregnant again only a few months later with another set of twins, Whitney and Layla. My parents say that two sets of twins so close together was such a handful that they didn't even think of trying again for years which is why I was born almost a decade later. I was followed pretty quickly by Coral, Cynthia and Diana, my younger sisters, each of whom was born individually-I mean, not twins. I used to always tell my older sisters that the rest of us were one of a kind while they were part of a set. They always said that that made them twice as awesome in response to my supposed uniqueness.'

I missed them. I should go visit later.

'Anyways, the only ones still living with my parents are myself, and my three younger sisters. Jasper, Emerald, Whitney and Layla left the house and went to Beacon, a training academy for Huntsmen and Huntresses, almost ten years ago. Coral is fourteen, Cynthia twelve, and Diana ten and I think I forgot to mention it, but I am sixteen. I wouldn't know what else to say without just having you meet them. They're family and I wouldn't trade them for anything. If you want to know hobbies then my dad is really good at stone work, making statues and stuff. My mom is a history buff, Coral seems to be trying to learn as much cooking as she can from my mom, Cynthia loves reading and Diana recently discovered comic books.'

Now that I thought about it, maybe my dad's Semblance had something to do with rock. He never let me watch him work nor had I ever seen him with any carving tools but his statues were more lifelike than anything I had ever seen. Funny how you can notice little details that pointed to something larger only after seeing the finished product.

'Anyways, you'll be able to meet them soon, my house is right around…'

I exited the last of the trees around the property and came to my house, a building large enough to have at one point comfortably housed nine. My parents' occupation had benefits beyond the whole defending humanity and superpower which in this case came in the form of a rather large salary.

'Here.'

"I'm back," I called to whoever was listening as I entered the front door.

"About time you got here," Coral replied from the kitchen. "Now come in here and stir the sauce."

"Sure, sure," I agreed easily, walking into the kitchen and seeing Coral, her hair done up in a long ponytail with an apron tied around her waist. I saw that it was her favorite one when I walked next to her at the stove and saw the words on the front. 'I am in a kitchen surrounded by innumerable instruments of murder. Do something to the cook. I dare you'. "So where's everybody else?"

She took a moment to check on some chopped potatoes before answering. "Diana is watching TV, mom and dad went to investigate some sort of dust cloud that Old Man Hendrickson reported seeing around an hour ago and Cynthia is reading one of her books upstairs. Diana is too short to stir anything without a stool and since I am not risking walking in on Cynthia 'Forgets to lock the door during her activities' Arc," I think saw her shudder a little bit, "that means that you get to be the gracious benefactor to the completion of our meal! Drain the excess water from the potatoes into the sink."

I mechanically followed directions while going over what she had said. That middle one sounded strange. Did that have something to do with the cloud of dust Mr. Emiya kicked up on his landing? If so then they would probably find the very visible crater that was on my jogging route and that could raise plenty of questions.

'Avenger, Ruler what do we do if they see the crater? They would know that that was on my route! They would probably ask if I had seen anything and I am not a good liar! What if they-'

"Stop worrying so much. You apparently didn't notice," even though Avenger didn't say it I could almost hear her thinking 'because you're an idiot', "but Shirou already smoothed out the crater earlier while he was smacking you around the clearing."

Oh. Well that took care of that, I guess.

"I see," I said, acknowledging both Coral and Avenger. "How has your day been then?"

"Better now that you're here."

"Huh?"

"Better now that you're here to stir the sauce. Make sure it doesn't burn on the bottom."

"Right, sorry."

I then heard the door to the front porch open and close behind me.

"We're back, couldn't find anything strange like Hendrickson said. Not too surprising since he is called Old Man for a reason but he does pick up on things every now and again that the rest of us would miss," my mom called before she and my dad entered the kitchen. "Ah, you're back. How was your run, Jaune?"

I had the sudden and inexplicable urge to tell my parents everything that had happened, how I had Aura now, teachers, a weapon and soon I would have the skills to use it. How becoming a Huntsman was no longer just a pipedream but something that was more certain to happen.

I stomped on that urge as hard as I could. I knew that that conversation wouldn't go well and to pretend otherwise would be fooling myself. I would tell them, eventually, whenever I had advanced enough to pass the Beacon entrance exam and had gotten my scores back. Then I would have irrefutable proof that I was strong enough and at that point there wouldn't be any way for them to stop me. Until then, what took place earlier between Shirou, Ruler, Avenger, and I would remain between Shirou, Ruler, Avenger and I.

"It went fine. I think I got a little bit faster. Maybe I was going so fast that I kicked up that dust cloud Mr. Hendrickson saw?" The dust cloud was out of the conversation, there was no reason to bring it back in!

"Maybe, maybe," my father brushed over my response. "Any other improvement?"

He didn't normally ask much, did he know something? No, no, I could do this. I raised my shoulders a bit and turned back to the sauce both as to not look them in the eye and to make sure neither of them would be able to see the small smile that came to my face. I was still a little excited about Aura but I would have to try to keep a neutral tone.

"Nope." Nailed it. My father patted my shoulder as the both of them walked past me towards their room to put up their weapons.

I sighed and relaxed as they left. Okay, I could make it, I could keep everything a secret for just a year. I turned to Coral to ask if I should begin setting the table but I froze when I met her eyes. Her narrowed, suspicious, analytical eyes that were significantly closer to me than before seeing as she was leaning forward intently. Her entire posture was intimidating and I felt that if her gaze was any sharper she could have cut me with it. The rest of her face wasn't much better with her lips pursed, and she didn't move a single muscle as she peered at me, silently demanding the secret I was hiding. I let loose a mental plea to the heavens and actually got response.

"Language."

"Also, stop panicking, both immediately and in general. She can't know anything important just from that smile and don't let me catch you freezing again. Hurry up and get back to what you were doing."

Right, that was…

"Should I start setting the table? The potatoes have softened, the sauce looks delicious and judging by the smell from the oven the bread is probably good, right?" I got the last part of the sentence out very quickly in what may have been a squeak.

Her gaze didn't leave my face, particularly my mouth where my smile had been before she cut it down, but she gave a slight nod. I grabbed silverware from the drawer near the dining room and plates from the middle right cabinet and began placing them around the table, feeling her attention on me the whole time I was doing so, even when she shouted 'Dinner!' to the rest of the house.

Diana was the first to enter, her blonde curls bobbing with every step. Cynthia's footsteps followed down from upstairs, her hair falling flat and her bangs almost covering her face enough to not notice the slight dark circles under her eyes from staying up late. Mom and dad were last and we began to eat.

'So,' I thought midway through my meal to my currently nonexistent sword, 'does it seem like Coral is keeping an eye on me to you two?'

"Yes, she does seem very observant. Maybe she is just concerned about you. How do you normally react when someone asks you about your training?"

'Normally? I think I say something like 'fine', 'okay', 'could be better'. Nothing really different there.'

"So it was solely your expression then. That can be easily passed off as having a stray thought perhaps a joke or of something cute like a dragon. We shouldn't worry about it, she will likely forget in an hour or so after she has some time alone and something else to fixate on."

"Or perhaps she thinks that your smile was showing that you had grown complacent with your mediocrity and she was wondering if you had chosen a career path that she thought more suited to your talents?"

'I guess it's possible,' I thought but it didn't feel quite right. None of my younger siblings had ever shown any interest in my choice to become a Huntsman and it would be weird for them to start now. I soaked up the last of the sauce from my plate with a slice of bread before eating it and cleaning my dishes in the sink. I had something else to focus on for now.

'So how should I try to use my Semblance, just go up to my room and start meditating?'

"It would likely be best to go to a place where you can think clearly, find a comfortable position and think for about half an hour or so. If you need to talk to someone then we will be here for you. We always will."

'Thanks, Ruler.' I didn't know what else to say but we had a mental link so I tried to focus on the sword or where I could feel it and convey the gratitude I felt. I think she understood because I felt something like assurance from her and I smiled. Now, somewhere where I could think clearly about what was important…

"I'm going to visit JEWL, I'll be back soon," I said to those left at the table, Coral, Diana, mom and dad.

"Fine, but you owe me a story before bed," Diana replied while I passed through the back door.

"Where are we going?"

'To see the rest of my family. It's normally pretty easy to think over there,' I replied while starting down a well-worn path. 'It's only a few minutes from here. My family lives pretty close to the southern end of the wall as that is where most Grimm attacks normally occur. That also makes it the least lived in area in Anthem. There aren't any other houses within over a mile of my own.'

"Must be planning to pick up the pace if they live only minutes away then."

Instead of going faster I kept my relaxed pace and thought about my sisters and all those times they came back from Beacon.

'JEWL, the team that my sisters made while they were in Beacon, used to always come to this one area to hangout, a small clearing up ahead. Not to train since any area they practiced in would get destroyed, just to relax. They took me a couple times when I was younger and they had gotten into Beacon. The Headmaster let Whitney and Layla start a year early at sixteen because he didn't want to break them up. They were the top of their year for all four years of school and they would tell me stories about what it was like there.' I looked up to the sky and saw the last bit of the sun's light leave as night came. They would always go to the clearing later whenever the moon had come out and reached a high enough angle for its light to fall past the top of the trees. It was always really beautiful then.

'Stories like how the variety of food the cafeteria offered was fit for a king and how you shared one room among four people, having to eventually trust them entirely due to it being impossible to keep secrets from them forever. When I first met Mr. Emiya, I thought he was concussed like they told me Layla was after Jasper smashed her into a wall. They used to tell me about how vast Vale was, a hundred times bigger than Anthem with all kinds of shops and how all of them seemed to be run by one person. About the faculty with a history teacher who never stopped for air, just coffee, a second teacher who could put students to sleep with a word and a headmistress that could wake a whole class with a wave of her wand. Oh, they always used to say that the headmaster would die if he didn't act cool and mysterious all the time but that he lost all of his cool points since, in their words, 'his chair is clearly overcompensation'.' We were almost there, just at the end of this pathway and around this bend. I could probably talk aloud to Jeanne but it was best to wait until I reached JEWL just to be safe.

"…Jaune."

'They always thought that it was really cool there and said how I should hurry up and reach seventeen so that I could join them. They weren't around for when I actually started practicing to become a Hunter and in a way I was glad for that. When I didn't grow strong like them after years of effort I thought that I wasn't talented enough, or that I wasn't trying hard enough. I was glad because I thought that if they saw me, saw how much I failed where they succeeded then they wouldn't believe I could make it. Just like everyone else.'

"…Used to, had, were, thought, saw. Those are the only words you use to describe them. I don't think that I've ever heard you talk about your older sisters in anything but past tense."

"…Yeah, you haven't."

I walked into a clearing and saw my older sisters sitting together. Jasper was in the center in her suit, her waist length hair framing her body with her arms around Whitney and Layla. The younger set of twins were each facing outward in light armor with a single braid over opposite shoulders, each a perfect mirror of the other, always part of a set. Emerald had her chin on Jasper's head and her long arms wrapped around her shoulders. None of the jewelry she wore was as pure or as radiant as the small smile on her face, the same smile that was on all of their faces. They looked like they were the happiest people in the world, sharing a perfect moment. A moment that would last forever.

My dad really did make the best statues.

"How did it happen?"

"…"

"You took us here. You didn't say they were passed on so I am assuming that you wanted to tell us what they were like before explaining what happened. You said this was where it was easiest to think, particularly in regards to what stirred you to become a Hunter, so their deaths must have had something to do with it, some motivational factor. You have my attention."

"Whenever you're ready, Jaune."

I moved over to the headstone and sat down in front of it with my arms wrapped around my legs and my chin resting on my knees. I materialized La Pucelle and let it rest on the ground alongside me. JEWL, Jeanne, Jeanne, JEWL. Right after they passed I could almost pretend that they were still here, right in front of me. I took a deep breath and thought about my sisters and all those times they had come back from Beacon.

And the one time they hadn't.

"Beacon is a combat school. It trains Huntsmen and Huntresses to protect all four kingdoms and most consider it the school to go to. It has over a ninety-five percent survival rate with the graduates having the longest average career time. Every trip outside the main kingdoms that is thought to pose any danger is accompanied by an experienced Hunter even if they don't interfere unless absolutely necessary.

"On a trial mission in their senior year it became absolutely necessary. They were supposed to act as an additional guard to a village called Terebinth while their wall was being rebuilt, not really having to do much in the way of actually defending but meant to be there to alleviate any doubts the people would have about their safety. The village was pretty well protected, it had its own Huntress and the place had been around for a while so not only were the inhabitants more used to life outside of the kingdoms but Terebinth had even had maintenance done on its wall before so the townsfolk weren't as uneasy as they could have been. Two veteran Hunters and the strongest senior team in Beacon. They were able to handle everything that came at them for the first couple days, only some minor Grimm trying to probe the walls before evaporating under rifle fire or sliced to ribbons if somebody felt like stretching their legs a little.

"Everything was going fine until the third night when the city's Dust reactor exploded and took part of the town with it. The Huntsman that was talking to my parents said that no one knew what went wrong with it but the town's Huntress was right outside the building when it went critical and she was able to shield a lot of the civilians but put herself out of commission in the process. He said that everyone was already a little on edge with the wall being repaired and when people are woken up in the night by a thunderous explosion and they look outside to see the only light in the whole town coming from the smoking wreck that used to be their power plant they panic. A lot. Which brought a lot of Grimm. Terebinth's Huntress was trying to calm everyone down using an emergency broadcast system to everyone's scrolls while JEWL helped the Huntsman chaperoning them, Qrow Branwen, with all the Grimm. Things were bad but it looked like they still might pull through.

"Then the ground started shaking and a section of the wall on the other side of the village was destroyed by a Goliath."

"A giant?"

"It's an elephant Grimm over a dozen stories tall. The really big ones are supposed to be content just circling the main kingdoms but Grimm don't have rules they have to follow, they have habits that they can break and this one did so as easily as it did Terebinth's wall and whatever was left of its morale. I did some reading on Goliaths later, there habits, strengths and such. Lesser Grimm try to stay at least a hundred meters away because a Goliath's trunk can produce a noise so powerful that it kills almost anything that close to it. I think that's why no more Grimm tried to go through the Goliath's entrance but the amount trying to go through the original one doubled. Maybe one of my sisters had a Semblance to deal with it because Mr. Branwen said they ran off to face it while he had to stay behind to deal with the new wave of monsters flocking to the town's increased despair." I took a breath. Almost finished, just the ending left. "By the time that reinforcements arrived the Goliath was already dead as well as a fifth of Terebinth's population and my sisters."

"…I am surprised that your parents told you so much about what happened."

"They didn't," my voice came out rather bitter when I said that but I didn't mind. "I was the one who met Qrow at the door. Whenever my mom and dad came home and saw him they probably knew why he was there because they sent the rest of us upstairs. I snuck back down to the dining room entrance to hear what the Hunters were talking about and that was how I heard all of what happened. My dad hadn't started training me yet to become a Huntsman and he never would. After I had snuck back upstairs and Mr. Branwen had left, my mom and dad went up to tell us about Jasper, Emerald, Whitney, and Layla. All my parents said was that they wouldn't be coming back, that they had died on a mission. I think that they expected me to, I don't know, just break down? I had always been the one who was closest to them. Coral only had a few memories of when they lived at home and Cynthia and Diana had none. They only knew them from when they came home during semester breaks. I guess it would make sense for me to have reacted the worst, to scream and cry, call them liars and things like that."

"But you didn't."

"Nope. After I heard it downstairs I felt numb but after my parents just said that they died, no deeper explanations, no reasons, no saying how they had saved most of the town I felt determined. I had always wanted to become a Hunter, it was something that I believed in. I mean, being a hero, fighting against something that was indisputably evil for the good of everyone, how could I not? My sisters losing their lives didn't change that. It was something that they wanted to do and they were smart, they had to have chosen to fight there knowing what they were risking. The Goliath was on the other side of Terebinth, they could have run out of the town and never looked back but they didn't. I think they stayed so that others could live, so that other families would remain whole."

I looked up above the statue of my sisters to the darkening sky. The sun had set but the moon had not yet risen high enough for its light to pass above the trees. I was alone in the dark with a beautiful sword and a beautiful gravestone.

"I didn't cry until I was laying in my bed that night. It was one of the only times I cried for them but I think they would have understood that it wasn't the amount of tears that mattered. The very next morning I asked my dad if he would start training me and he looked shocked. He told me to wait, that I wasn't thinking clearly. I waited a whole month, exactly a month, to make sure he knew I was thinking just fine before asking him again. I think he thought that my first request was some sort of spur of the moment decision and that I was grieving and acting rashly due to what had happened because he wasn't expecting to be asked again. He turned me down. He told me that he didn't think that he and mom should have ever told us the bedtime stories with Huntsmen and Huntresses or their past equivalents going on fantastic journeys or fighting fearsome beasts. He said that they had pushed JEWL down their career path and that they were not going to do the same to me and my sisters. I tried to tell them that I didn't want to become a Hunter because of what they said but he never listened and my mom didn't either. They wouldn't talk with me about it afterwards and I stopped trying to talk to them about it as well but I never gave up on my goal. When I started training myself neither of them ever said anything but I think that was because they never thought I could do it…and they were right.

"This may sound stupid but I thought that training alone was what set Hunters apart from everyone else. I watched my siblings train a few times, I once saw Jasper break a whole tree by mistiming a kick and Layla then using said tree to smack Jasper into another tree which also broke. I thought that if I just did the same things they did then I would become as strong as they were. When that didn't happen I thought I wasn't running as hard or pushing myself as intensely as they were. I kept going harder and longer and nothing ever changed. Week after week, month after month, for four years. I improved, exercising for hours every day, but only as much as a civilian. I…I probably would have kept it up too, never getting close to my goal and never getting into Beacon. That is, if I hadn't met you and Mr. Emiya. So I guess what I'm trying to say is thank you. Avenger, Ruler, thank you so much."

"Jaune…we meant what we said and Shirou did too. Whether or not you had met us I think that you still would have become someone amazing. Genius is part talent and part hard work and what someone lacks in one can be made up for in another. The determination you have isn't common and I believe you would have still gone far. We are just going to make sure that you can go farther."

"Thanks, Ruler." I was beginning to sound like a broken record. Even if I wasn't sure if she was right the fact that she encouraged me meant something.

"…Is that why we came here?" Avenger cut in with a voice full of scorn, "Because you feel a strong calling?" Her voice was now mocking as well. "Because they remind you of what you want to become, martyrs, individuals that will try their best and still fail to return home, who will die due to circumstances beyond their control because of people that they will never even meet?!"

Ruler didn't speak up against Avenger even though I felt like she wanted to but that was fine, I didn't want her to. When it came to this I wanted to stand up for myself.

"I don't want to become my sisters. They were amazing, each and every one of them but they're not me and I'm not them. They helped me realize what I wanted to be and they gave me the determination to try to become it. I wouldn't have thought to try to become a Huntsman without them but that doesn't mean that I am trying to become a Huntsman because of them."

I felt like my answer didn't please Avenger but that didn't matter. This was my life and I wasn't going to change it just because someone else disapproved. If that was the case then I never would have started training in the first place. So I did what I did best: squared my shoulders and pushed on.

"If I didn't think that I would be happy being a Hunter then I wouldn't have trained for so long to try to become one. I don't want to settle for being a farmer or a cook or something as meaningless as that! The thought of being a hero, of protecting humanity, of fighting alongside friends that I will have known for years and can trust entirely, of doing something absolutely and unquestionably right gives me determination, a purpose that I won't abandon, and I can't imagine ever being anything else!"

By the time I was finished I had been shouting but I didn't care. This was important to me, something that was worth getting angry about, and I wasn't going to not stand up for myself, not when it came to this. I took a deep breath and steeled myself for whatever they would say. Several minutes passed before they spoke.

"You wish to be a hero, someone that fights and risks their life so that others may live," Ruler spoke as if she was remembering something that was pleasant but also the slightest bit painful.

"And that and the comrades you will make gives you strength, determination," the scorn that had previously been in Avenger's voice was gone and in its place was a slightly pensive tone.

"You said you could never be anything else and I believe you. To dedicate your life to others"

"It actually makes you happy. We can feel it, that happiness it brings you. It is rare for there to be something that saves others but brings yourself such joy as well."

"No matter what anyone else may say, a goal like that,"

"That is worth striving for!"

I didn't say anything because I couldn't say anything. I didn't think anything because my mind had ground to a halt, expecting ridicule but finding understanding. They got it. My parents didn't know why I tried so hard and they didn't want to. My younger sisters weren't in any way attracted to the idea of becoming Hunters and never seemed interested when I talked to them about me wanting to. My older sisters, JEWL, I think they would have understood but they weren't here. Even after hearing that, Avenger and Ruler they…

"So you think I can? You still think I can become a Huntsman?"

"Ha. You have to ask? After what you just said?"

"You will become a Huntsman, Jaune."

"The best if we have anything to say about it."

"Nothing you have said so far has led us to think otherwise. If anything, I'm even more certain than before. We believe in you."

I couldn't help it. I laughed. That felt wonderful, that belief that they had for me, me. If they could have faith in me then maybe…maybe I… I smiled and looked down to my sisters' statues. It was bright. Not my smile, or not just my smile, but everything. The statue, the clearing, everything around me was illuminated in a white light. What-

"Jaune,"

"Your hands."

I looked down at my hands and found the source of the light: me. My hands were glowing and I heard a sound that was like a tuning fork had been struck. I felt like, like what I had been feeling just a second ago was more here, more real somehow, as if it was filling me to the brim and wanted to burst out.

The light left my hands as quickly as it came and the clearing became silent again. I tried to will my hands to start shining again but that had about as much effect as if a normal person tried to make their appendages spontaneously glow. I thought back to why I had come here, and what Shirou had said earlier.

"Was-Do you guys think that was my Semblance?"

"It very well could have been but none of us actually know what one looks like. We can ask Shirou tomorrow, he will likely have an idea."

"Do you think you can make it happen again?"

I tried a few more times to bring back the light that had earlier covered the clearing just because Avenger had asked but nothing happened.

"No, it doesn't seem like it," I said apologetically.

"Don't worry, I am sure that we can figure it out. We can ask Shirou for any more tips he might have later. For now, I believe we should head back. It is best to not have to navigate a forest in the dark if one can help it."

Right. I stood up and said goodbye to my sisters before starting down the trail that led to my house. There was plenty of stuff to do and even if did want to try to get my Semblance to work right now I could wait if I had to. Besides, there was something else that was just as important that could be done at home.

"Goodnight, Jaune."

"Goodnight, Diana. Don't be like Cynthia, staying up all night reading, and actually go to bed."

I closed Diana's door and as I passed by Cynthia's I gave it a couple taps.

"Cynthia, don't pull a Cynthia and go to bed at a reasonable time, okay? Love you."

I heard a bit of a moan followed by what may have been 'Love you too'. I counted it as close enough and passed on to Coral's door.

"Goodnight, Coral." I said just loud enough to be heard and I caught her quiet 'Goodnight' in return.

I entered my room, changed into my onesie ("A rabbit. Really?"), and turned off the lights before laying down on the bed. I closed my eyes and focused on La Pucelle, my sword, my teachers, and, after tonight, maybe my friends too. After all, strangers are just friends you haven't met yet and I think that in terms of getting to know each other the day went pretty well. I concentrated on my sword and felt myself slip away.

When I opened my eyes it was to Ruler and Avenger in a world of flowers and empty rods with a golden sky overhead.

"It's time for us to tell you a story. Shirou told us to inform you of his and you told us your own so it only seems right that we share with you ours. The first tale is of a man who, after countless battles and lifetimes of effort, finally attained salvation."

"The second is of a determined girl who felt a calling, who ventured out to war and tried to save thousands. She was put on trial and burned at the stake for being a witch as per the whims of people she would never even meet, and all of it because she claimed to hear the voice of God," Avenger spat those words with so much scorn that I couldn't help remembering what she said earlier in my sisters' clearing and how mocking she had sounded then.

It didn't take a genius to figure out who either of those stories was about nor did it take one to figure out how Avenger felt about the second. I took a breath to give myself a moment to think of a response.

"The second one doesn't sound like it had a happy ending."

Avenger didn't dignify that with a response beyond a scoff while she closed her eyes and leaned against one of the poles sticking from the ground while Ruler responded.

"Not in the traditional sense of the term, no."

"Do you…do you think we could change that?"

Avenger opened her eyes and turned her head towards me while Ruler gave me a small smile.

"Don't worry, Jaune. In a way, you already have."

Ending Notes:

Jaune:

I have tried to make his Semblance as canon compliant as I can, looked at the only clues we have for it, Cardin's punch and its comparison to a shield, and made something that I think will be satisfactory. Also, there is a clue about what exactly was the trigger for the scene in the clearing and it is related to Jeanne.

This has been my head-canon for Jaune's backstory for a while and I have tried to make it believable. At the dance Jaune said he grew up with seven sisters, he seems to be pretty clueless about dating, and in the latest volume I still only see him talking about them in the past tense, although granted, Ruby asked a question about his sisters in present tense and he answered. Jaune is an insanely fast learner, he went from untrained (V1) to able to fight on equal-footing with several genuine Huntsmen-in-training in the Vytal Tournament. There is no way that he would be like he was at the beginning of the series if his parents trained him at all so the believable thing is that they refused to train him and I think the easiest answer for why would be because they already lost people to that life.

In regards to him working so hard for four years and not giving up even though he doesn't see any improvement to becoming a Hunter, this is something I can totally see Jaune doing. I think Miles said that Jaune's biggest flaw is that he tries too hard and like he said earlier 'when it came to stupid, single-minded, persistence (Jaune) couldn't be beat!' He didn't know anything about Aura but he still had an idea of how strong the Grimm were so he thought he lived in a universe like One Piece where all he would have to do was train to become pre-time skip Zoro but it is actually more like Dragon Ball where the best you can hope for without Ki is Mr. Satan. If anyone is asking 'why is Jaune accepting all this help and not trying to do everything on his own?' I would say that his first speech on the rooftop only came about after spending enough time around other Hunters his age to feel inferior to leading him to think that the only way he could prove himself as worthy to his team and himself was to do everything on his own. Here he doesn't have that and he isn't going to compare himself to Shirou since he doesn't think that they are near the same age and he is very right. I am going to try to not write him angsting about trying so hard for no results since I don't really think that would be in-character. If I slip up and write something too edgy then write a review. Speaking of reviews.

Thank you to everyone that favorited, followed and reviewed the last chapter. All three categories more than doubled since the last chapter and I appreciate it. I wasn't really sure how the last chapter would pan out since it had a very different focus from the prologue but all the reviews were generally positive. I hope you enjoyed.

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