Chapter 7 – Fists of Fury
A week passed since the incident in Vale and the two groups have been continuing to go to school and wait for the inevitable meeting. Jaune has been continuing to improve his skills day in and day out. His friends have been trying to stop him from over exhausting himself, but he continued to insist that if he wants to have a standing chance against a big threat, he will need to get better. Jaune doesn't want to rely on Dark power alone because of the possibility of him turning on his own friends. Every night was the same nightmare that has been reoccurring ever since the day he lost Pyrrha. This was a reminder for him to remember why he is trying to get better. Although Qrow and Ironwood had told Jaune to stay away from revenge, he wants the person who caused this pain to be erased from Remnant… even if it kills him. Since the warehouse incident, it has been calm and nothing out of the ordinary has been going on. No signs of the mysterious man and any crime that could possibly be traced back to the White Fang. The only thing that the students could do at this time was to continue going to school.
"I can't just stand here doing nothing but studying. I could use this time to get back to training." Jaune said as Professor Port was telling a story of his youth to the class.
"And so there I was… cornered by 20 Beowolfs. It seemed like that was the end for me, but I found the will to fight and so I…" Professor Port said as he continued his story.
Jaune put his head down and looked to the right. His eyes immediately locked on to a guy who had a Faux Hawk hairstyle.
"Since when was that student in my class? I never noticed him at all this week. It's probably the training that has me out of it. Could that be the guy that the Faunus officer was talking about? Oh who am I kidding, almost everyone these days have a Faux Hawk. It's become a trend and very popular so the chances of him being the culprit is close to zero. This is like what? The 8th time?" Jaune thought.
*RING* The bell sounded to signal the end of class and the start of lunch. Everyone got their bags and walked out of the class. However, Jaune took his time packing his bags in hopes that the Faux Hawk fellow walked out before him.
"Jaune what's taking so long!" Nora yelled at the blonde. The stranger looked at the source of the yelling and simply continued walking.
"Nora!" Jaune said quietly. Jaune looked back at where the Faux Hawk fellow was and he was gone.
"What did I do!?" Nora said.
"Nevermind… let's go get lunch with the rest of the team." The two proceeded to head to the lunch room and take their seats with the others.
"So then Blake managed to take out these crooks in seconds!" Yang said to the group
"What did I say about this? No vigilante work! I don't want any of you involved in that." Jaune said angrily.
"Chill out vomit boy, Blake wasn't alone. I was there to help her out." Yang said to the blonde.
"I don't care. What if something went horribly wrong!?"
"You need to relax Jaune. We can take care of ourselves just fine."
"Ugh fine. Just make sure you guys tell me if you go out and do any vigilante work so that I can know exactly where you guys are at just in case things do go wrong."
"Okay, but I doubt you will do anything helpful if you come exhausted after training so long." Blake said with a slight giggle.
"Ha ha, that was so funny I forgot to laugh. Anyways, I saw a guy with a Faux Hawk that could possibly be the mysterious fellow that the White Fang Officer had mentioned."
"What makes you think that?" Ruby asked.
"Well uhhh… he has a Faux Hawk?" Jaune said nervously.
"Jaune… you can't just go around and point fingers just because he has a Faux Hawk. That's like the 10th time you said that and none of them were even the slightest suspicious." Ren told the blonde boy.
"Actually, 7th time to be exact. Anyways, this time I am right. I am certain." Jaune said, crossing his arms.
"Ugh… fine, where is this dude at?" Yang asked.
"Well, I think I saw him go into the combat training room, but I could be wrong since Nora kept blocking my view.
"HEY! I didn't know." Nora said.
"Let's go check then. If he sees us we'll just say that we happened to pass by and seem him sparring." Yang said.
"Ok, sounds like a good idea." Ruby said.
The group headed towards the training room to see this mysterious fellow, but ended up bumping into him instead.
"Ouch!" Yang said. She had crashed to the guy that was reading a book.
"Oh sorry, I was too focused on my book." The guy said.
"Watch where you're walking dude." Yang said angrily.
"Hey! I said I was sorry sunflower."
"You're that guy!" Jaune said loudly.
"Yes, I'm that guy. Nice to meet you. I'm going to leave now." The guy said as he tried to walk around Yang and the others. Yang however, stepped to the side to stop the guy from heading towards his destination. She continued this pattern until the student responded to her actions.
"What are you a Mime? Can you move? I'm trying to go somewhere.
"Oh I'm a Mime now? I thought I was a sunflower? Yang said angrily
"Okay, since you seem to love sunflower more, I will be sure to call you that from now. Can you move Sunflower?"
"No! I can't nerd."
"Oh… your words hurt me. I will be sure to cry about it in my dorm room, which I will be heading towards now."
"Your sarcasm really annoys me you know?"
"I apologize for my sarcasm madam, allow me to remove myself from your presents." The boy turned around and walked the other way. Yang quickly walked towards the boy and placed her hand on his shoulder and stopped him from leaving.
"Yang, let him go." Blake said.
"You heard the cute kitten, let me go."
"What did you say!?" Blake said angrily. Without a sign, Yang had swung at the boy who had his back towards the group. However, the student moved to his side and quickly got around her and took her down by grabbing her arm and sweeping her legs. The boy now held Yang's arm in a position where it can easily be broken.
"HEY! LEAVE HER ALONE!" Blake pulled out Gambol Shroud and attacked the boy who held her teammate. The boy let go of Yang and turned his attention towards the Faunus and back stepped to avoid the dual wielding attack.
"What's going on here?!" Professor Goodwitch said as she walked towards the crowd.
"We were just having a friendly game of charades professor." The guy said to the instructor.
"By the looks of it, you three were fighting."
"He started it!" Blake said.
"I started it? Unless bumping into someone accidentally is starting it then guilty is charged." The Faux Hawked student said.
"Why is it that it's always you James that has to start these ridiculous confrontations?" Professor Goodwitch asked the Faux Hawked student.
"I thought I made myself clear to call me Jay professor!"
"How about I make myself clear and tell you to go towards the detention room where you will be spending the rest of your lunch time at." Goodwitch said with an annoyed tone.
"Might as well name the room Jay's room since that's where I go just about every single day." The boy proceeded to head toward the room's direction and was gone.
"Sorry if he caused trouble for all of you. He can be a bit of a handful sometimes." Glynda said.
"It's fine. We were just here in the wrong time." Jaune said. The professor then left and the group had begun to talk about what just happened. Everyone now had a small feeling that this student could possibly be the guy that the Faunus Officer had talked about.
"I still don't know how he knew my secret. DID ANY OF YOU TALK!?" Blake said out loud.
"NO! We wouldn't do that, you know that Blake." Yang said, as the others nodded in agreement.
"In any case, we should keep an eye on him." Ruby said.
"We shouldn't do anything! I'm going to alert Qrow about the discovery and all of you will let him handle it." Jaune said. While he was arguing with the others, Yang walked up to the blonde and grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him against the wall.
"If you tell Qrow anything, I will make it my mission to break your third leg. You understand?" Yang whispered to Jaune. Her eyes turned red because of the humiliation she just went through and what he called Blake.
"Okay." Jaune's voice cracked when he said that. Fearing for his manhood that will most likely be gone if he did tell Qrow about the information.
"Good. Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm headed to my room. I need to go grab my book for the next class." Yang smiled and walked away.
"I guess we should head back towards the Lunch room and think about what we should do." Ren said as they all left towards the lunch room.
You Shook Me All Night Long
"Yeah you… shook me all night l" Jay's earphones were pulled out of his ears by Yang who arrived into the detention room.
"Hey! What was that for? I was listening to one of my favorite bands!" Jay told the red eyed girl. Yang put the earphones on and listened to the song for a couple of seconds.
"Never heard of them." Yang said as she pulled the earphones out and placed them on the table, along with his iPhone.
"Never heard them!? You probably never heard of ELO either huh!"
"ELO what?"
"You're serious?" Jay took a deep breath then exhaled and sat back down to his seat.
"So are you here for my head because of what I did back there? If you are let me tell you, it's going to take more than words to get it."
"What you said back there pissed me off. I should really tear you a new one for doing what you did back there."
"Well you're going to need to buy me dinner before you do that sweetheart."
"Do you take any of this seriously? Yang said, getting annoyed by the student.
"I stopped taking things seriously a while ago. How about I apologize to you and your friends and pretend we ever met? Sounds good?
"I'll tell you what, you beat me in a sparring match tomorrow and I'll accept your apology and let you take me on a date."
"A date?" Jay took a deep breath and released it.
"Sorry Sunflower, but I am not interested in a date right now."
"Then why are you still hitting on me then?" Yang asked as she got close to the student.
"Is that what you think I'm doing? Sorry, but this is how I am. I have been this way for weeks now and I can't really control it. I tend to talk this way with just about everyone. That might explain why I have absolutely no friends, but hey, what can you do? Am I right?"
"Well for starters, you can stop acting that way."
"Hmmm… nah. I'm fine with the way I am."
"Alright fine, if you win my friend and I will apologize for what we did."
"And if I lose?"
"I will get the satisfaction of beating you to a pulp and have you take me on a date."
"Well, after much thought I have no choice but to sadly accept your challenge."
"I'll see you tomorrow then James." Yang winked at the student and walked out of the room.
"It's Jay!" Jay got his iPhone and put on his earphones.
"Starve the Ego, Feed The Soul… perfect."
The day went just like every other day in school. Everyone studied, went to their classes, and did a little bit of training in their spare time. Jaune on the other hand, spent most of his free time training in the training room. The school had brought in recently Atlas newest android model that knew every fighting style known to man. It had a difficulty meter that allowed the person training to set if he or she wanted intense training or not as well as an option to use a specific weapon or fighting style to train against. These androids were very durable so it would manage to not get destroyed so easily. There were a few free to use androids in the room that had multiple students already occupying some of these. This didn't stop Jaune from continuing to train himself to become the best Huntsman he can be. The night went by smoothly other than the fact that Yang got herself into a predicament that she is really looking forward to.
Hand to Hand
"Professor Goodwitch, I would like to make a request for today's sparring match." Yang said to the professor.
"What kind of request?"
"I want to spar with a specific person and he agreed to it."
"Okay sure. Who is the lucky person?"
"IT'S ME!" Jay screamed, as he spread his arms as if he were about to receive a giant hug. He wore a somewhat navy blue long sleeve with a blue sleeveless hoodie that he had on over his head.
"James!? Are you serious?" Professor Goodwitch asked. Jaune spat his drink and began choking on the water he had left in him.
"What is she thinking?! Why do you always do something like this Yang?!" Jaune couldn't believe that Yang would challenge the guy who they ran into the other day. He didn't want anyone to get physically involved with him.
"Relax Jaune, I'm sure she can take this guy." Blake said.
"Yes I'm sure." Yang told the professor as she heard James's voice correcting the professor of what his name is.
"Fine. Today's match will be Yang Xiao Long vs James Von Vanquisher.
Jaune spat out his drink and began to choke again.
"Von Vanquisher!?" Jaune could not believe what he was hearing. He could not believe what the man in the old shop in Victorville said was actually real. He would always leave his ring in his room or in his bag whenever he trained.
"Jaune did you hear what the professor just said!?" Ruby asked.
"YANG! YOU NEED TO FORFEIT THE MATCH NOW!" Jaune yelled.
"Why!?" Yang said loudly.
"This guy is the real deal! You're probably no match for him!"
"Don't be ridiculous! I can take him out with ease!"
"Mr. Arc! Take your seat and wait for your turn!" Professor Goodwitch said.
"Dammit! What am I going to do now! It's just a sparring match, I need to calm down. He wouldn't make a scene." Jaune thought to himself.
"You should really listen to your blonde friend over there. He seems to know who I am now."
"Who you are now?" Yang asked.
"BEGIN!" Professor Goodwitch yelled.
Yang was caught off guard and Jay had used his aura to dash close to Yang. He went for a straight punch that Yang barely managed to avoid by rolling to the right and began to use her gauntlets to shoot at him. She swung several times, but none of the shots made its mark on Jay. He kept moving out of the attacks and ran towards the girl who was still on her knee swinging endlessly. He went for a high kick that Yang managed to avoid by ducking and she immediately swung her fist at the boy who left himself open to the attack. He took note of what she was about to do and used the momentum to perform a roundhouse kick that allowed him to dodge the incoming attack and attack in one fell swoop. Yang was launched across the arena and held her face that was damaged.
"So you're a hand to hand fighter as well. Well, sort of." Jay said to the girl who sat on the floor.
"You talk too MUCH!" Yang yelled as she swung her arms repeatedly, launching several shots towards the boy in blue. He quickly avoided every attack and began to run straight towards Yang. Yang swung her arm at the boy who stood in front of her, but it was useless. The student managed to move to the side and avoid the attack. He kneed the girl in the stomach and went for a kick to the jaw that sent the girl flying in the air.
"YANG!" Ruby yelled.
She fell back down and slowly got back up to her feet.
"You're still standing? I applaud you. I haven't seen anybody stand back up after that attack."
"SHUT UUUP!" Yang's hair fired up and her eyes turned crimson as she sped towards the student. She shot backwards and used the recoil to send her flying towards Jay. Her strength had dramatically increased and the tactic she used to get to him caught him off guard and her attack landed. The strength behind the attack got him in the ribs and this made Jay cough out blood and was sent flying to the end of the arena. Yang's rampage didn't stop there. She ran towards the fallen student and went for a jump attack that had tremendous force behind it. Jay barely managed to move his head to the right and the attack missed. The floor completely shattered and an explosion was created that sent Jay hurling to the side of the arena. Jay used the momentum to get back to his feet, but the damage he had sustained from Yang's punch was still lingering.
"RAAAAAHHHH!" Yang yelled, as she sped towards the student. Along the way she shot several times at Jay who continued to avoid the shots by moving his body. Yang got up close and swung several times at Jay. Jay managed to disrupt every move by using his strength to chop the punch out of its intended target. Jay then grabbed Yang's arm when she swung at him again and he used the power behind the punch to his advantage and threw her over him. She was sent sliding away from him. She quickly got back up and ran at him again.
"HOW ARE YOU STILL STANDING!?" Jay yelled as he coughed out a little bit of more blood. Yang on the other hand, did have quite a few scratches and bruises, and was bleeding out of her mouth. She again ran towards Jay with intentions of beating him to a pulp. Jay pulled out his Colt M1911a1s ivory gripped, blue engraved pistols and shot several times at the crimson eyed girl while running to avoid the rounds from hitting him. She didn't expect Jay to have any long range attacks and took the impact of the rounds. She still had some aura left so she was able to take the attack head on luckily. She rolled out of the way from the other shots that were sent and ran towards the student that was running towards her as well. Both shot several times at each other and every round made contact with one other. Jay quickly holstered his pistols and both were ready to unleash their last attack. Yang's punch had every ounce of strength she had left in it and skinned Jay's face, but Jay's punch had landed on the left side of her face knocking her unconscious on the floor.
Jay coughed out more blood and collapsed to one knee.
"The match is over! James Von Vanquisher wins!"
"It's Jay." Jay said, breathing heavily after the intense sparring match which was pretty much a insane battle.
"YANG!" Ruby yelled.
"Ruby stay here I'm going to get Yang." Jaune said.
Jay who was on one knee got back to his feet and walked towards the unconscious girl who laid on her side. He crouched and was about to pick Yang up.
"GET YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM HER! Blake yelled, as she ran towards the battlefield.
"MS. BELLADONNA! STOP!" Professor Goodwitch yelled.
"Mr. Vanquisher is going to take your friend to the infirmary."
"What?" Blake looked at the direction where the boy was and he had Yang on his arms, walking towards the exit.
"If you want to help your friend, I suggest you come with me!" Jay said loudly to Blake as he stopped and looked at the Faunus. Blake ran to their direction and both exited the area.
"The rest of Team RWBY can wait here until the end of class to see your fellow teammate." Goodwitch said.
"The old guy from the shop wasn't lying when he said the Vanquisher family were strong. Does that mean that the ring actually has something special? This Jay guy doesn't seem someone who would do something terrible. The description that the White Fang Officer gave is different than what Jay was wearing. Could he possibly have that specific outfit hidden in his room? I'll just wait later tonight and go through his room, but wait…I don't know where his room is. I better ask Ozpin for his team's dorm room location." Jaune thought to himself.
Back with Jay and Blake, they were walking towards the infirmary and began talking about the situation that had happened yesterday.
"Hey, I want to apologize for what I said the other day. I didn't mean it as an insult. I meant it as a compliment." Blake's face blushed.
"How did you know that I was a Faunus?" Blake asked, as she looked down in embarrassment.
"Wait… you're a Faunus?" Jay asked in a surprised voice.
"Wait! What! I thought you knew I was a Faunus!" Blake's face blushed even more, this time it was as red as Ruby's cape.
"Oh… so that bow was for you to hide the fact that you're a Faunus?"
"uh… yeah. Human's aren't the best when it comes to equality these days."
"I can agree to that." The two made it to the infirmary and placed Yang onto the comfy bed.
"I want to ask you a question if you don't mind." Blake said.
"Hit me."
"Why did you carry Yang to the infirmary? You didn't have to you know."
"I'm the one who did this to her. That and I can't just stand by and watch a person who is hurt stay on the floor without any help. It's in my nature." Jay said, staring at Yang who was asleep on the bed.
"Oh, I see… Can I ask you another question."
"Yea of cou" Jay began to cough out blood again and collapsed to one knee.
"Are you alright!?" Blake asked worriedly.
"I think Yang's attack caused some internal bleeding and probably fractured my ribs." Jay said, chuckling a bit.
"Let me help you get on the other bed! I'm going to contact the nurses about your condition."
"Yea, sure, thanks." Blake helped the student up and placed him on the other bed.
"I'm going now. I'll see you later if they let me see you."
"Thanks" Blake walked out of the room and left to tell the nurses about the two.
Completed Puzzle
"So you want to know where's his team's dorm room is located? Ozpin asked Jaune.
"That's right. I have reasons to believe that this student could possibly be the person behind the explosion of the warehouse." Ozpin sighed at the statement and walked towards the window.
"Revenge seems to be a trend these days."
"Revenge? What are you talking about."
"It seems as though you aren't the only one who is trying to find the ones who caused the attack from weeks ago. Do you know about team JADE Jaune?"
"Never heard of them. How does this so called team JADE fall into this?"
"Well most of team JADE was here in Beacon during the attack. Ash, Dustin, and Ecru were one of the many who were protecting the civilians from the attacks by Grimm and the White Fang Soldiers. When I was given the names of those who died on the battlefield, their names were on the list. Jay on the other hand, was just arriving from a mission during the attack and later found out about the death of his whole entire team."
Many things went to Jaune's mind after listening to what Ozpin said. When he first looked at Jay, he looked perfectly fine. No sign of aggression other than his sarcastic ways. However, Jaune can't to stop to think about how he is really feeling inside. Jaune had lost Pyrrha and had felt as if he were in a pit of darkness. He couldn't imagine what Jay had to go through and unlike himself, Jay didn't have someone to pull him out of this pit. He had great sympathy for the student after hearing what Ozpin said.
"When I heard what happened to him, I couldn't imagine the pain he had to endure after learning about their deaths." Ozpin said.
"Do you know how they died?" Jaune asked.
"I have a good idea how they died, but that's something you need to ask Jay himself. It's not my place to say."
"I understand. Can you tell me his dorm room number so that I can confirm if it's true?"
"Of course."
Jaune then headed towards JADE'S dorm room to find the last piece of evidence that would 100 percent confirm that Jay was indeed the person behind the explosion. He unlocked the door and walked into the room. The room had 4 beds, a bathroom, a perfect view of the city, and also very clean… somewhat. The three beds had their own section in each side of the room. Each of their area was clean and still had their owners stuff on them. Jaune walked over to one specific side and looked around. He found a picture of Jay and his team on this bed. The picture had a girl who was slightly taller than Ruby, but had the exact same smile. She had average long brown hair, brown eyes, light skin, and wore a grey long sleeve lace dress. The other two were males who looked average built, both wore the same tan assassin looking jackets, but had different strip of color on one side. Jaune put the picture down where it was and started searching underneath the bed. He found a grey briefcase and pulled it out from underneath the bed and opened it. There were quite a bit of photos of Ash and Jay together in places that looked unfamiliar to Jaune. He looked through the rest of the briefcase, but found nothing. He placed the briefcase back underneath the bed and walked towards a different bed. This time he found a navy messenger bag. He looked through the contents inside the bag and found what he was looking for, but it didn't match the description. There was a navy blue head band, tactical utility belt and a navy blue tactical jumpsuit and vest.
"The Faunus probably mistook the navy blue color for black. In any case, I have found the culprit. Now I'm going to need to confront him about this and see what happens there. The worst possible thing is that we might end up trying to kill each other. I just hope it doesn't have to come to that." Jaune thought.
Most of you are probably upset that I've added my own character into the fray, but I assure you he will come to grow on you eventually. He
will be here for a while so all I can suggest is for you to get comfortable sorry. He will not steal Jaune's spotlight though, I guarantee it. So I
do hope you enjoyed today's chapter and I will be seeing you next time!