Residuum
Blood 1.6
i
"So there we were, in the middle of the night."
"It was day."
The group listened to Nora's tale about fighting off Grimm, with Ren interjecting every now and then to correct her embellishments. Yang and Ruby were the only ones really listening to the girl as Blake was reading a book as always and Weiss was filing her nails.
Jaune and Pyrrha had already heard the story before when Nora mentioned it in Team JNPR's room so they they didn't really pay attention, deciding instead to focus more on their breakfast than anything.
"We were surrounded by Ursai…"
"They were Beowolves."
Every so often, other students would enter the hall and glance at their team. There probably wasn't a single person in Beacon that hadn't heard of them. There was the popularity of them being the first eight-person team ever in Beacon, but also whispers of the battle prowess of their team. Pyrrha was easily the most famous of the group, her skills in combat vaunted throughout Remnant. Weiss also held quite a lot of acclaim as a Schnee. The students also took notice of Ruby who had entered Beacon two-years early.
However, it was Jaune that currently stood out in amongst Beacon's resident gossipers. His actions in the initiation were already somewhat of a legend, but the students also witnessed what they could only presume was favoritism from the teaching staff as he completely ignored their lessons for the most part. They saw his manners (or rather lack thereof) and his viciousness in combat.
"...it's them."
They did their best to ignore the extra attention, to take the comments and whispers with grace. It was taxing on most of them, especially when they wanted nothing more than to lash out.
"-the blond guy," they heard yet another hushed voice say, though obviously not quiet enough.
"...he's an animal."
Jaune gripped his fork harder after hearing the comment aimed at him. Pyrrha had heard the careless remark as well, taking on a sad frown and sighing as she laid down her utensils.
"Dozens of them!"
"Two of 'em."
The blond seemed to have lost his appetite, bitterly picking at his food as he glared at his plate. As much as he wanted to lash out, he held himself back from doing anything. Pyrrha looked at him in concern and Ruby seemed to have noticed his frustration as well.
If there was anything he had learned from his time in the Wilds, it was how to be observant. Jaune wasn't the greatest at reading the moods of his teammates, but even he could see that his teammates were bothered by the spotlight cast on them. He knew he did nothing but create messes for them and didn't want his actions to put more pressure on them.
"But they were no match, and in the end Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of lien selling Ursa skin rugs!"
Ren sighed at Nora's story.
"She had this dream thrice in two days," he told them, "I'm not sure how that's possible."
"Jaune," Pyrrha spoke up, "Are you… okay?"
"I'm fine," he said, not looking at her, "Just not so hungry any more."
"It's not okay Jaune," his fellow team leader said with a sad look, "If something is bothering you, you have to tell us. We want to be able to help."
Nearby, the team heard a familiar laugh. They looked over and saw the leader of CRDL, Cardin Winchester laughing at another student as his team surrounded her and made mocking motions. Jaune felt his ire rise up a bit at seeing them. Since the match from his first day at Beacon, the hostility between the two teams had been prevalent. The other students had assumed that the blond was kept on a tight leash since the incident, and there was some mocking stares and minor pranks aimed at him.
Jaune had done his best to refrain from retaliating, which only seemed to reinforce their behaviour. Instead of reciprocating on his behalf, his teammates had decided to uphold his choice to keep things peaceful and protected him as best they could.
"Look at her, what a freak!"
"See, I told you they were real," Cardin said to his teammate as he pulled on one of the long rabbit ears protruding from the girl's head. The girl squealed in pain as she told him to stop.
Pyrrha grit her teeth as she looked away from the scene. Blake had finally placed her book down to glare at the boy, looking like she wanted nothing more than to attack him.
"Atrocious," she said as the girl ran away from the group, "I can't stand people like him."
Jaune looked at the rabbit-eared girl for a moment, curious about her.
"What are those anyway?" he asked, "I mean, can't she just take them off?"
The team looked at him in surprise and the boy got the feeling that he had just asked something he should have known. Obviously another piece of information that Qrow had neglected to tell him about, but then their training was almost purely combat-oriented than anything.
"They're… not fake ears," Blake told him carefully, "She's a faunus."'
"A what?"
"Haven't you seen a faunus before, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, "It's an entire race of people that have certain traits, like rabbit ears or tails and the like."
"So, they're basically half-animals?" Jaune asked.
"THAT'S NOT-"
The group's head whipped over at Blake who had abruptly stopped herself from shouting any further at the blond's comment. The girl had closed her eyes and seemed to be whispering something unintelligible to herself.
"You shouldn't say that," the bow-wearing girl told, having apparently calmed down, "I understand you didn't know, but it's an incredibly racist thing to say about them."
"Sorry," Jaune apologized, "I've seen some here and there but I don't really know much about them."
The group fell quiet as they considered what they just learned about the blond. The Wilds were a rough place to live but many people resided outside them, faunus included. The odds of the blond not running into or ever speaking with a faunus had to be astronomical.
Ruby opened her mouth to ask him about it but thought better of it. What if Jaune was an orphan? Or if the person that raised him hadn't allowed him near faunus? For all she knew, the town he had grown up in was one of those completely human towns where faunus were unfortunately prohibited. She didn't want to bring up any unpleasant memories for him.
"It's okay," Blake told him quietly, looking down at her book as she avoided his gaze. The girl seemed to be contemplating something, a sad frown on her face.
"I- if you like," she said suddenly, getting his attention, "I could… teach you a bit. About faunus, I mean."
The blond looked slightly taken aback at her offer. He hadn't really bothered doing any of the work for his non-combat classes, having given up on trying to read or write at a level where he would be able to keep up. The blond hadn't bothered to ask for help with his illiteracy, partly due to his lack of interest in those classes but also due to feeling embarrassed at his deficiencies in that regard.
Thankfully, his team had only picked up on the former reason on his unwillingness to do homework rather than the latter. Despite some nudges from Pyrrha for him to study or do his assignments, nobody had really bothered to try to actually help him.
"I, uh, sure," Jaune said, feeling slightly uplifted at Blake's offer, "If you really want to."
Truthfully, the blond didn't overall care about what she was going to teach him, but he didn't mind spending more time with a friend.
"We should get going to class before we're late," Pyrrha spoke up. Jaune noticed a strange look on her face; she seemed a bit downcast. But it was only there for a moment before her expression went back to normal, and he saw her gave Blake an appreciative smile.
Blake also noticed this but if she had anything to say, she kept it to herself.
"Right," Ruby said, "No dilly-dallying! Let's go!"
Notes: So we see here that things aren't going so smoothly for the group, specifically Jaune. His actions against Russel definitely had negative repercussions in regards to his standing with the student body; they think he's violent and they're not exactly wrong.
This particular chapter shows off more of Jaune's lack of knowledge. He's accidentally racist and offended Blake (who nobody knows is a faunus). Still, it seems Blake is trying to be understanding, which Pyrrha appreciates.
Anyways, there are two more scenes left in 1-6. The next two will move a lot of plot forward quite a bit and we're going to start getting into the story for real.
Cheers and leave a review! I look forward to reading your comments.
knuckz
