Disarmed: Part 2

Professor Ozpin's office was always described one of two ways. One way was a place that was relaxed despite the nature of most visits there, the other was a place with enough tension to choke an elephant. It may have been because of the motif the headmaster had chosen, with the colour scheme consisting of mostly black and green. It may have also been the placement of the office, the fact that it was right at the top of a massive clock tower, and you could evidently see that from the big see-through clock right behind the headmaster's seat. Though no student or teacher, even headmaster Ozpin himself tip-toed around this subject, had said anything directly, almost all would agree the atmosphere depended on if one Ms Glynda Goodwitch, the good witch herself, was in the room. For any resident of Beacon, why this was the case was obvious, Glynda was a good witch, but she was still a witch. She was a disciplinarian of the highest order, often expecting perfection from her fourth-year students, and only expecting slightly less from her first years, she kept the peace around the school with an iron fist. Yet she was only second in command to the laid-back Ozpin, a man that brought students in two years early after only seeing one performance, a man that probably let a certain blonde in even though his transcripts were fake – whether he knew or not he would never tell. Many would wonder why Ms Goodwitch did not just take over, stage a coup or something along those lines. Though Glynda herself had given a negative response every time she was asked why she didn't, which was one time, and the unlucky young student had to clean toilets for a week, with his toothbrush.

Though this was not on our favourite one-armed blonde's mind at the time, it certainly was relevant to his situation, given that he was currently under the scrutiny of two of the most powerful Hunters of the generation, maybe of all time! It was quite obvious that Jaune was in the later of the two atmospheres, and it definitely showed, given the fact that he was sat with his back straight up. Slouching is Ms Goodwitch's presence was grounds for a punishment, and she did not hold back. Jaune would know, given that he had suffered her wrath throughout the first half of his stay at beacon. Her eyes had always been on him; during sparing class, whenever he got any homework she would always check in to see if he had it done, which a lot of the time he hadn't, but that was beside the point.

Actually, now that Jaune thought about it, she had somewhat of a good reason to keep an eye on him. He had horrible grades in both practical and theoretical work and he had been getting bullied quite severely. Those were probably the main three reasons that you would pay attention to a student. He deflated a bit, realising that he was the poster child for, well, a problem child, but snapped back up straight once he caught Ozpin raise his eyebrow. He couldn't show weakness now, of all the times of his life, he had to be strong. He was on both Goodwitch'sand Ozpin's radar, and he had been since he lost his arm. He was, even though the thought made him wince, a cripple, and he still wanted to be a huntsman, if he was lacking now of all times, the amount of effort that would be needed to improve him would outweigh the benefits. And then they would do the most logical thing: kick him out.

Jaune was used to this line of thinking, he had been on the cusp of leaving beacon multiple times, now more than ever. But he couldn't leave, not after he had found his drive, his motivation. He would be a hunter if it killed him. But he understood where they stood, because he couldn't become one if it killed other people.

Ozpin took a sip of his trademark cup of coffee, his other hand laid on the table as he calmly tapped his fingers in a rhythm, whilst Goodwitch stood straight off to the side of his desk, arms folded, with her whi – ahem – riding crop in her hand. Just the way they stayed idle showed the massive contrast in their personalities, with Ozpin sitting comfortably in his chair with his mug in hand, eyebrow still raised.

Jaune's nervousness was reaching an all-time high. Should he say something? Take the initiative? That would show a level of control, and he mentally patted himself on the back for having the thought. What Jaune forgot was that he had come up to the office and then proceeded to not say anything for the past 10 minutes, so the illusion of control he was trying to create was weak at best.

"Um- "

"Mr Arc," Ozpin started off, shattering the illusion before it was even formed. Seriously, did he do that on purpose? Knowing Ozpin, yes "How are you doing?" The white-haired professor asked with an easy smile on his face

How was he doing? That question threw him off guard, he hadn't been expecting something so broad, if anything he thought they were going to go straight to the jugular and ask about his arm, or lack thereof. Well to be honest, he was doing pretty damn good, everything considered. After he had simultaneously lost his arm and gained his motivation, he had needed to improve at twice the rate he had before, his friends had agreed to help him almost instantly. He hadn't even needed to ask his own team, but team RWBY had been adamant about it as soon as he approached them, or approached Ruby, and she had volunteered her team's service in their entirety. Weiss had been a bit exasperated once she found out, but apparently her team out-voted her. So, for last couple of weeks, his days alternated from sparring with a rotation of Yang, Pyrrah, Ren and Nora – God help him when he got the pink Valkyrie – and arguably more intense study sessions with Blake, Weiss and Ruby. Ruby got roped into the last one because she was as bad as him when it came to academics, so he guessed the social awkwardness wasn't the only thing they had in common.

Sometimes, if his body and mind weren't too tired, he'd sneak out in the late night or early morning and fight the training bot over and over again, which always made Pyrrah a little peeved, but she seemed to melt every time he gave her an earnest smile though so no big deal. He had just moved up from low-intermediate to Intermediate, which was an achievement because the gap between levels gets higher and higher each time, though that being said he wasn't passing intermediate any time soon. Overall, his grades were improving, and if he was honest with himself, his combat performance had recently become better than his ones before Forever Fall. So yeah, pretty good.

Ozpin watched as the young Arc's face went through a myriad of emotions, as though he were answering the question in his head, but not actually voicing anything, this caused Ozpin's trademark smirk to widen as he looked over to his side at his right-hand woman. Glynda seemed to have a somewhat exasperated look in her eyes, though he only knew this because he knew her so well, to anyone else it would seem that she had the same stern look she always had. He wondered when she would-

"Mr Arc," ah, there it was "we would appreciate it if you would answer the question." Glynda said this coolly, though he could hear the slight exasperation and impatience in her voice. The younger blonde in the room snapped to attention, as he had been before they had spoken, and seemed to look somewhat sheepish with a slightly red face.

Jaune coughed "Ah, sorry. Um, I'm doing pretty good, sir, mam." He answered the way you would expect an awkward teenage boy to answer; awkwardly. This caused Ozpin no small amount of joy, to see someone that had just went through something as tragic as losing a limb act so… Natural, specially someone so young. It was amazing, though that was not what they were here to talk about.

"Hmmm, that's good Mr Arc, especially after… recent event." He noticed that Jaune didn't flinch at the mention of his lost arm, the boy ability to bounce back was truly something. "However, given the circumstances of your situation, this meeting was inevitable, you do understand this?" Jaune gave a nod "Excellent. Now, we are here to discuss your grades, and your performances in practical tests, Ms Goodwitch is here to help with that part, and assess whether or not you are fit to still be trained." Ozpin said this in a very formal tone, like he was reciting this from a script he had memorised. Jaune wondered how many students he had had to do this in front of, for whatever reason.

"Then first we must look at are your past performances. Ms Goodwitch, if you would." A small stack of papers was levitated towards the headmaster, a purple glow surrounding them. That semblance was just plain cheating, Jaune thought. Ozpin took a look at the papers, his eyes roaming over them at an incredible speed, if Jaune hadn't been so nervous, he might've been amazed at the sight. It took Ozpin all of five minutes to read his entire history at Beacon so far, which made Jaune feel a little small for some unknown reason, maybe it was because it made his accomplishments seem small, but then again there he hadn't accomplished much anyway.

"Hmm," Ozpin hummed, again. He seemed to be doing that a lot, and it was freaking Jaune out slightly, though he tried, unsuccessfully, to not let any of this show. "Below average grades… Hasn't won a spar since the beginning of the year… Abilities reversely proportional to transcripts," Ozpin started listing things of casually, the last one making Jaune break out into a cold sweat "though I'm sure that wasn't you at your best, given the fact that you were being severely bullied at the time, though the perpetrators you don't want to name." Ozpin eyed Jaune, seeing him nod. He didn't want to rat out Cardin, not after his words were the ones to inspire him.

Jaune knew that Ozpin knew though, the mysterious headmaster seemed to know everything, hell Jaune was about eighty percent sure he knew his transcripts were fake. But if Ozpin wanted them gone, they would be gone, not even Professor Goodwitch could argue the point if he made up his mind. Speaking of the blonde professor, she was currently glaring at him off to the side, which was normal, what wasn't normal was the way her eyebrow twitched whilst the headmaster spoke. What was that about?

"Given your past grades, Mr Arc, you would have, no, should have been removed from Beacon, however the fact that you showed improvement over the short period we had taught you gave us hope," now Ozpin was getting down to the real issues "Now that you have lost an arm, the amount of effort needed to bring you up to speed would be tremendous. Especially if you grades and performances stay the same, and this would outweigh the benefits of keeping you at this school." Ozpin spoke matter of fact manner and to the point, not one distinct emotion in his voice. "So, Mr Arc, why do you think you should stay?"

Jaune had been expecting this, but the line of question still caused his blood to run cold. He had also been expecting this type of question to pop up and had been reciting an answer in his head for the last fifteen minutes "I'm improving," he finally said, though he was trying to make sure his voice didn't crack "a lot faster than I was before, in both my work and fighting." Before he could say anything else, the shark in the room struck.

"Is that really good enough, Mr Arc?" Glynda Goodwitch finally spoke up, stopping Jaune dead in his tracks with wide eyes. "Personally, I think that you should have been expelled months ago, and it is only the headmaster's kindness (read: whimsy) that has allowed you to stay at our institute." Jaune was still speechless "With one arm, your progress has been set back to the basics, you would have to learn an entirely new fighting style, and possibly forge an entirely new weapon. And whilst I can agree with your improvement in academics, in the long run it cannot make up for a lack of physical ability." Jaune finally woke back up at this point.

"B-but my friends are helping me! My team and team RWBY are making sure I can fight, and in a few weeks I- "

"That just means that you're becoming a distraction to other students, becoming as much of a detriment to them as to yourself." Glynda adjusted her glasses, "What if you do become a hunter, Mr Arc? What if during a mission, a Grimm attacks from your weaker side, possibly distracting your teammates with your injury, and, Oum forbid, putting the ones you were protecting in danger. Not only could you possibly end up dead, innocent lives could be put at risk." Ms Goodwitch finished with her arms back in their original position, folded under her chest.

Jaune sat before two of the greatest Hunters in the world, his mouth open and his thoughts in a blur, it was stressful times like these that he could feel a phantom pain on his right side, his brain trying to reach something that wasn't there. He was trying to grasp something to say, anything to tell the professor that she was wrong, that he could do it, anger and determination suddenly spiked through his veins "No." he finally uttered, causing both adults in the room to raise eyebrows, "I can do it, and I will do it. Even if I have to study until my ears and eyes bleed, even if I have to walk until my legs break, even if I have to swing my sword until my arm breaks." Jaune looked up, a fire in his eyes "I will succeed."

"And what if it's not enough, Mr Arc?"

"Then I'll die!" Jaune yelled, standing up. He had momentarily forgotten where he was and who he was speaking to for a second, and quickly sat back down. "Then I'll die," Jaune repeated in a much calmer tone, a complicated look on his face. "I can't promise you it won't happen, but I can promise you I'll be the only on," Jaune let out a calming sigh. "If my death can prevent someone else's, even if only for a long enough time for them to get away, then it wasn't meaningless." Jaune looked at his remaining arm, and clenched his one hand.

Throughout this small tirade, Goodwitch's face had grown impassive, though Ozpin could see the budding resect in her eyes, his own face had been growing a wider and wider smirk each second. "Well then," Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, "that settles that" Jaune's eyes snapped up, a very confused expression in them. "Well Mr Arc, we'll see you at classes tomorrow, 8:30 sharp, yes?" Ozpin gave a smile as the young blonde's eyes widened, before he snapped out of his seat, and the proceeded to flounder about a bit before settling on bowing low, like a certain Lie Ren did when grateful

"T-thank you so much, sir, mam." Jaune stuttered out "But, uh there's one thing…"

"Yes, Mr Arc?"

"It's Saturday tomorrow."

Ozpin contemplated this complicated subject, before taking a sip of his coffee" Ah, well then. I suppose that'll be Monday at 8:30 then," Ozpin didn't miss a beat.

Jaune had ran out of words, so he settled for a fast nod. He bowed low again, before hastily making his way to the elevator, entering and making his trip down, which he then proceeded to let out the longest breath anyone had ever been holding, ever.

Back up with the teachers, both Ozpin and Goodwitch watched the young man leave, and once he was out of sight, Goodwitch turned to Ozpin "That boy surprised me, I didn't expect such an assertive reaction to my hazing." She said this as though it were a hard criticism, though Ozpin knew Glynda enough to hear the fondness underneath.

"Why Glynda," Ozpin started, a smirk coming to his face, "Is that pride I can hear in your tone?" As Glynda blushed and stuttered negatives, something only Ozpin had ever made her do, he took one last look at the exit the blonde boy had went through, "That young man," he began, "is going to do great things" he finished this will a sincere smile and a sip of his coffee.

END

Author's note

I really enjoyed writing this one, though I'm not sure if it's as good as the first chapter. Shout-out to Kaito-sama, my first reviewer and the one who requested this. I also wanted to give a shout-out to my, as of now, 16 favourites ,11 followers and 3 reviewers. You guys are the best. Maybe don't expect any new stories any time soon, cause of life and stuff, anyway. See ya next time!

Your author, Zakku