Residuum
Blood 1.6
iii
The group entered a mostly crowded cafeteria for breakfast, hoping to get their typical seats. Though there were no specifically assigned spots in regards to the seating, most teams had their usual places they sat at and the eight of them were no exception.
As the team waded through the rows of benches, Jaune saw a group of people already seated there. Upon getting closer, he noticed it was none other than team CRDL. Ever since the incident between him and Russel, there had been a growing animosity between their teams. Their team leader, Cardin, was specifically vocal about it. As much as Jaune tried to ignore him for the sake of his friends, the boy and his team had gotten on his nerves.
The blond was itching to bash his face in, and each day that went by without being able to participate in combat class, the more he felt as if he was at the end of his rope. If not for the fact that there was always someone from his team with him, Jaune was sure he would attacked him.
"Ugh, what is it now?" Yang muttered, annoyance clear in her voice.
"Well, if it isn't the Dimwits," Cardin said, turning around as they drew near.
Nobody really knew who started that name for them, though everybody knew how it ended up there. Because they were a team of eight, someone had the bright idea of naming them Team Huit. It didn't take too long for another student to point out that saying it really fast sounded as if they were saying 'dimwit', and thus the name had stuck.
When they had discovered it, Weiss had taken it upon herself to complain to Glynda. However, the student population that had it in for them for some reason or another were careful not to utter it near any authorities and though everyone knew it existed, nobody could really do anything about it. It was just another source of irritation they had to bear. Truthfully, it didn't bother Jaune as much as it did some of the other members of his team, but he kept quiet about it nonetheless.
"What do you want, Cardin?" Ruby asked, giving the older boy an ineffectual glare. Cardin just shrugged.
"Hey, I'm not the one that approached you," he said, "We were here first."
"You're sitting in our spots," Nora said, almost growling at him.
"That's funny, I don't see your names written anywhere," he rebutted.
"Well then look closer," Nora shot back at him, pointing to something near his spot. As everyone craned their necks to see it, Jaune noticed her name was roughly scratched into the edge of the table.
"Damn it, Nora," Ren muttered, slapping a hand to his face at her casual vandalism.
"Actually, we wanted to offer Jaune an olive branch," Cardin said, ignoring Nora's disregard for school property, "Just to show you we care."
Jaune had noticed the large paper on their table, though he couldn't see what was on it as it was face down. Blake snorted at Cardin's statement; apart from himself, she seemed to despise the carrot-haired boy the most.
"Is that right?" she asked dryly, "You just had a sudden change of heart from being an asshole?"
Jaune noticed more than a few heads turn their way towards them. The dark-haired girl hadn't really been quiet when she said that, causing some attention to fall onto them. He couldn't help but think it was slightly out of character of the normally quiet girl.
"Hey, look, we heard about it as well, Jauney boy," Cardin said, "And we wanna help out."
Jaune frowned at what Cardin was suggesting.
"Heard about what?" he asked uncertainly. The only thing he could possibly think of was the conversation he had with Pyrrha last night. She promised she wouldn't tell anyone outside their team and he trusted her with that.
Cardin didn't say anything immediately, smirking as he reached for the board that innocuously sat on the nearby table. Russel grabbed the other end of it, the two of them holding it up for everyone to see.
Jaune saw his own face staring back at him, obviously a photo of him team CRDL had procured one way or another. Beside it were words he didn't quite know but judging by the rising anger on his own team, he knew it was nothing short of an insult.
"What's wrong, don't know what it says?" Cardin asked, raising his voice so as many people in the hall could hear them as was possible, "Oh right, I forgot. You're illiterate, of course you don't know. Here, I'll help out. Repeat after me."
Whispers broke out as the other students in the hall began discussing Cardin's statement. Jaune clenched his fist as anger started bubbling in his chest. He wanted nothing more than to rip that smug look off his face, but he remembered Glynda's tired face from the last time he lashed out.
"'Retard'. Come on, repeat after me," the boy said, causing a few gasps around them. Jaune glared viciously at the boy.
"Shut up, Cardin," Yang said dangerously, moving forward menacingly. Ruby held her back from attacking the boy however, not wanting to let the situation devolve any further.
"Jaune, let's go, okay?" Pyrrha said to him, a hard tone in her voice. Her hand clasped his arm, ready to pull him away but Cardin continued his spiel, making the blond pause.
"Oh, aren't you going to ask how I know?" Cardin asked. Jaune considered his words. He had only told Pyrrha last night and had gone straight to bed after. The only way the boy could have found out was if someone from his team had told him between that time.
"What do you mean, Cardin?" Ruby asked fiercely. The boy just shrugged.
"I just thought he might like to know how much of a laugh we all had," he said, "I mean, nobody would want to be saddled with a partner like that, right Pyrrha?"
Jaune's head snapped to Pyrrha, his eyes wide. There was a tight feeling in chest as if someone was squeezing his heart and a freezing sensation in the pit of his stomach. The blond felt a tremor go through his hand. He didn't want to believe it but she had stayed behind.
Pyrrha's body shook and Jaune noticed the furious look on her face directed at the larger teen.
"You are truly vile! A lying, foul cretin!" The redhead glared at the team leader for a moment, looking as if she wanted to do nothing more than slap him across the face. She turned towards Jaune however, an almost desperate look on her face.
"I didn't, Jaune," she said, a pleading tone in her voice, "I swear, I didn't tell him."
"Ha, she didn't deny that you can't read," Cardin said immediately, "So, how did you cheat your way into Beacon without being able to even read? Well, I guess it doesn't matter now. You're finished."
Jaune ignored him as he watched as Pyrrha's hand covered her mouth at what she had unwittingly admitted. Tears sprung to her eyes as she gave him a pained look. It was too much.
He felt the blood pounding in his ears and his rage boiled over. Jaune had done what Glynda had asked and held himself back for so long, but Cardin hadn't let it go. He just didn't stop and now Pyrrha was crying because of him. Pyrrha was crying!
"Nora!"
A couple of members of his team latched onto the pint-sized girl as she tried to break free and attack the enemy team leader.
"Let me punch him!" she shouted as Ruby and Ren held her back, "Just one!"
"Man, you're all animals!" Cardin laughed, leaning back stretching out his arm across the table.
"What's going on here!?" He heard Glynda's familiar voice call out from a distance.
"Don't," Weiss said authoritatively to Yang who was clearly struggling not to attack the boy herself. Even Blake seemed to be wrestling with herself not to attack him.
Jaune ignored all of this however. The sight of Pyrrha's tear-stricken face was burned into his mind and his fury grew too much to contain.
The first thing to do in a fight against a bigger enemy was to get the element of surprise. Instead of a straight-up battle, attack it unawares in an ambush. Nora had created a commotion, and he felt everyone's stares slide right off him. Even Pyrrha, who had been looking at him as if begging for his forgiveness, seemed to lose sight of him.
Next, he would make sure his first attack crippled the enemy. A stationary enemy was easier to track and easier to hit. Reaching over, Jaune swiped a knife off of a nearby table. Seeing Cardin's hand resting near him, the blond swung downwards ruthlessly.
The boy was obviously not suspecting it, and his aura remained unactivated. With the force of Jaune's swing, the knife tore through the flesh and muscle of his hand with a loud squelching sound, pinning the enemy to the table. The boy shouted at the sudden pain, struggling to move as he stared wide-eyed at the knife in his hand.
He heard the shrieks and shouts in the hall at the sudden violence, but it made no difference. The enemy couldn't escape now. Unsuspecting and pinned down, all that was left was to eliminate his opponent decisively.
"Jaune, no!"
He leapt for the beast, aiming his hand at it's throat and hopefully claw it out while it was still preoccupied with the injury he had inflicted. But he felt something take hold of him, something invisible that dragged him back. He fought against it as best as he could but Jaune found he couldn't move. All he could do was glare hatefully.
Glynda stepped in front of him, blocking his view. He heard the whimpers of pain, heard the teacher telling the enemy team to get to the infirmary. The hall had fallen silent for the most part, many of its occupants having scattered. His team was still there, shocked at what had occurred.
As they disappeared, Jaune felt some of his anger towards them ebb away, but his frustration built up. He watched as the teacher cleared the cafeteria of all the students sans his team, feeling irritated at her interference.
"What good did it do to attack him, Jaune?" she asked quietly once the hall was empty, "What would it have done?"
"He'd be dead if you didn't stop me," Jaune said, glaring at the table where Cardin had been, "He wouldn't ever bother us again, he couldn't hurt Pyrrha again."
"No, Jaune," Pyrrha said, collapsing onto a bench, "Oh Jaune, you…"
The blond saw the faces of Glynda and his team; it wasn't the shock or anger he had seen when they were in Glynda's office. They all just looked at him sorrowfully, eyebrows bunched up and small frowns on their faces.
He felt that tightness in his chest again and for the first time since he had arrived at Beacon, Jaune felt as if it was a mistake to leave the Wilds.
fin
Notes: So.
First, I'm going to preface any comment by saying that Cardin is acting on limited information. He's seen Jaune be vicious and violent, but both times were in sanctioned combat. He has no way of knowing Jaune would go to this extreme, especially not in a crowded cafeteria. Next, Jaune may be vicious but he's not actually that strong. He only really won against Russel because Russel underestimated his speed without his weapon. The reason Cardin didn't just activate his aura was because he was at most expecting to get punched, which he could use to get Jaune (and RWBYJNPR) into more trouble.
Second, while this might seem like a big deal, don't overestimate it. Beacon trains Huntsman, people that put their lives on the line to fight the Grimm. This is hardly the first time the school might have had to deal with violent students. The problem here is less about what Jaune did and more about how they're going to help him. We see Jaune's thought process a little bit. He actually eliminated the human factor from his supposed enemy (you'll see him refer to Cardin as 'it' or as a 'beast'). That's super alarming behavior! There will have to be some exposition. We're finally out of the beginning stages!
Now, I'm going to address the status of future updates. The stuff that I've been posting so far was content that had already been written some time ago. Like I mentioned in the first chapter, I had 18 scenes already written at that point. The reason I'd been posting scene by scene was because it was easier for me to do so and because it also generated interest in the story. Residuum is one of the more popular and well-reviewed RWBY fanfics now! Going forward however, due to personal matters I can't keep updates up at the same rate.
So from here on out, updates will consist of all scenes in the chapters. For example, 1-1 had four separate scenes (i, ii, iii, iv), meaning there were four updates for you to read of approximately 1500 words average. Instead of doing that, I'm going to combine the scenes in a single updates so you'll have longer chapters to read. Thus, while future updates will be sporadic, the length should make up for the wait-time, hopefully.
Lastly, it's FF Friday on the RWBY subreddit tomorrow! Check it out for a bunch of awesome stories to read, and if you happen to post there, give me a rec! ;)
Cheers and leave a review! This was such a momentous chapter, I hope I get a bunch of comments to read!
knuckz
