Chapter 11 – Jaune Arc

A few hours later, an airship flies toward Beacon Academy. Inside are Ruby, Mine, and Tatsumi who all return after a successful mission. Ruby smiles as she waits to go back and see her teammate at the landing pad.

"You two were great out there, both of you are natural hunter and huntress." Ruby says complementing both Tatsumi and Mine.

"We are both kind of used to killing beast far worse than those things." Tatsumi says with a smile as Mine nods.

"Thank you for telling me about dust and everything, I do not think that white haired girl will not be so condescending to me now." Mine says to Ruby as she polish her weapon. "Yeah Weiss can be irritating at times, but I know she means well in the end." Ruby say to Mine.

There airship gets ready to land, Ruby looks out the window expecting to see her team but instead only one student with blonde hard and white armor. He stands waiting for his friend to get out of the plane looking at the ground. Ruby gets out of the airship and runs over him.

"Hi Jaune, do you know where is my team at?" She asks, then notices that his eyes were red and in pain. "Why do you look like you have been crying?"

"Ruby, I am so sorry. We tried calling you but there must have been no connection." Jaune says in a raspy tone. Mine and Tatsumi walk out the airship and looks at Jaune, they recognize the look on his of someone having to give the awful news.

"What are you talking about? Where is Yang? Where is Blake?" Ruby continues to ask, until she figured out what must have happened to have him act this way. "Where is Weiss?" she says in a serious tone.

Jaune looks Ruby in the eyes, trying not to cry, "Weiss, Sage, and Scarlet were found dead at the dock a few hours ago. Her weapon was missing and her body has already been sent to Atlas so her family could plan the funeral. My team told Yang and Blake already. Blake ran off saying she was going to find out who did it; Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha went to find her. Yang said she was going to do the same thing except she said that if anyone followed her she would knock them out and toss them back to Beacon." Ruby's eyes fill with tears as she remembers what Weiss told her earlier today, not realizing that it was the last time she was going to see her friend. Mine and Tatsumi gasp when they hear the information.

Jaune moves his hand towards Ruby to comfort her, but Ruby them bolt towards the academy. Jaune lowers his hand in defeat as he sees the rose petals fall. He looks down at the ground ready to cry again. The blonde leader then feel a hand on his shoulder. He looks over to see Tatsumi is the one who offered him a hand.

"I think she went to her room, do you know where that is? Mine and I need to talk with her. We can help her out." Tatsumi says in a serious tone as Mine nods. Jaune looks at both of them with remorse, "If you can help her, thank you. I just do not know what to say?"

Mine looks Jaune in the eyes and says, "Both of us know what it is like to loss a teammate. Will you show us her room?"

Jaune feels at a lost for word, then he tells the two were Ruby's room was. All three go to her room and Jaune knock on her door.

"Please leave me alone." Ruby says as she tries to hide the fact that she is crying. Jaune walks away and into his room across the hall. Tatsumi looks at Mine, "Let me talk to him." He follows Jaune into his room. Mine nods and walks up to Ruby's door knocks on the door.

"Ruby, you do not need to talk, just listen. I know what you are going through. Losing a teammate is one of the worst feelings." Mine says as she sits next to the door.

"I had a friend that always had my back. She may have been airhead but she was really sweet and caring of others. One day, we were on a mission, when we were ambushed by a psychopath and her crazy beast. I was almost killed by that thing until she came to save me. However, she lost her life in the process. In the end, I would have died to trying to get revenge, but she used the last of her strength to give me time to escape," The pink haired girl looks in the distance, towards the celling.

"Why did not she want me to help her, why did she have to do this?" Ruby says as she continues to cry in her room, "Why did she have to die?" Mine makes out what Ruby say through the tears and looks down at the ground in remorse. She remembers Weiss and all the petty hate she had towards her.

"I may have only met with Weiss once and we did not get along to well, but I did get the feeling she was a good person behind that cold exterior. Ruby, she did not want you to help her because of pride, she did not want you to get hurt." Mine says as Ruby walks closer to the door. "I think it is thanks to her telling me how little I knew about dust, that you and I had something more to bond over and become friends."

Upon finishing that sentence, Ruby opens the door. Mine gets up sees the girl has been crying since she ran off. She offers Ruby a hug, to witch, Ruby accepts and continues to cry. However, she still is able to say one thing clearly while crying, "Thank you, Mine."

Across the hall in team JNPR's room, Tatsumi overheard the conversation. He remember Sheele and knew how hard it was for Mine to bring up. Never the less, he could tell how much that meant for Ruby to hear that. He looks over and sees Jaune sitting at the edge of his bed, looking at the ground in depression. Tatsumi looks to see a weapon on Jaune's side.

"Is that your weapon? It is an impressive sword." Tatsumi says.

"Thank you, it was given to me from my family. I wish though I got to make my own weapon like everyone else." Jaune says in an unenthusiastic tone, know what Tatsumi is trying to do but to no avail.

"I had a similar way of thinking, until I got my sword from my mentor. I use it now as a way to remember all that he taught me and to carry on his legacy." This time, Tatsumi's words have gotten a slight reaction out of Jaune.

He continues, "His name was Bulat, he showed me how to be a strong fighter. He took me on missions with him and showed me, firsthand, how powerful this weapon was. One day, we were fighting three enemies at the same time. He killed the first without any problem, but the second enemy left him unable to fight. I was not able to take on the third, he was out of my league. Bulat, with his dying breath, gave me his weapon so I was strong enough to finish the fight." Tatsumi then draws his weapon and looks at his reflection in the blade.

"When I look at this weapon, I see the man who Bulat was and who I strive to be." Jaune then pulls out his weapon and looks in the blade like Tatsumi did. He looks in and see his family, all the memories of him seeing them use this weapon in combat. But most of all, he sees Weiss in his weapon, looking back at him with a smile. He looks at Tatsumi, "But what if I am not worthy use this weapon, I was not able to save Weiss."

As he says this, Tatsumi smacks Jaune across the head with the side of his hand. Jaune looks back at Tatsumi confused at what happened. "Why did you do that?"

"You are just beating yourself up over things you could not control. If you think that it is your fault that someone die, you have two options. Either give up and stay in self-pity, or get stronger so you can be protected others you care about," Tatsumi walks near the door of the room and puts his hand over the handle. He looks back at Jaune with a smile, "If you do want to get stronger, I can show you a move or two Bulat taught me tomorrow."

Jaune looks up to see a smile on Tatsumi's face. The blonde student nods as he smiles back. Tatsumi walks out to Mine and Ruby in the other room.

The two spent that time talking about their friends. Mine told her the story of her being washed with the clothes by mistake. "Did that really happen?" Ruby says, wiping a tear away, not from her the loss of her friend, but from laughter. "Yes, it did. It is getting late now, Tatsumi and I need go to sleep. We will see you tomorrow. "

"Okay, thanks for being here with me, really." Ruby says as she wipes the last tear from her eye.

"Any time you need to talk, come find me." Mine says as she walks out the door. Ruby lies down on her bed and thinks about her other teammates and hopes they come back soon. She knows they are not going to do anything to reckless, but takes out her scroll to call them.

Tatsumi reunites with Mine. They both look at each other with a slight smile of bittersweets. While they could not bring Weiss back, they made it easier for Ruby and Jaune to deal with the pain of loss.

Mine and Tatsumi return to their room when the notice the lights were on and the door was in a jar. Tatsumi grabs his weapon as he slowly pushes the door open. Mine scans the room to see someone waiting for them on one of the beds. She was sitting lazily and has a lollipop in her mouth. The two realize who the person was and rush over to give their comrade a well needed hug.