Chapter Seven - Hitting It Off.

Two knights stood boldly facing one another. The first in white armour sword and shield in his grasp, stood tiredly, gathering himself. He charged the second standing tall in grey plate, only to be rebuffed as a mighty blow hammered against his shield from his foes heavy mace. Being thrown clear but losing his shield the white knight swung his blade once again at his cruel foe. Locking weapons the dark warrior called out "surrender."

"Never!" came the valiant cry, but it was in vain as the white knight took a blow to the groin sending him sprawling to the floor. As he lay then his foe raised his mace to strike the killing blow and - "Cardin, That's enough." said Gylnda Goodwitch, "students as you can see, Mr Arc's Aura has dropped into the red zone. in an official match this is where an official would stop the match." she explained. "Mr Arc, it has been weeks now. Please refer to your scroll during the match, gauging your Aura will help you decide when to attack and when a more defensive strategy may be prudent. We wouldn't want you getting gobbled up by a Beowulf now, would we?" she joked.

"Speak for yourself." mumbled Cardin.

"Remember, everyone the Vytal festival is only a few months away anyone entering the festival will be representing Vale." Finished Mrs Goodwitch. "Class dismissed."

Later in the lunch hall team KAYL joined teams RWBY and JNPR for their meal. As Nora and Ren finished telling a story about a dream Nora had been having, Pyrrha noticed Jaune was barely touching his food "Are you OK?'' she asked. "Huh, yeah, why?" he said unconvincingly.

"It's just you seem... hit okay?" said Ruby concerned about her friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine." he chuckles nervously.

"Is it Cardin, he's been picking on you for weeks." says Yui looking up from the bento her mamma made her.

"What do you mean? Name one time." he denied.

"He shut you in a locker and shed you into the woods." says Asuna in a stern tone. Looking up at Cardin to see his team harassing a rabbit eared faunas girl, Leafa excused herself from the table and went up to them. She then taped Cardin on the arm and as he turned around, still pulling the girls ears, decked him across the jaw. She then brought the girl back to the table with her.

Looking at the group, rather uncomfortable around so many new people the girl manages to squeak out, "um... thanks for that, that guy was a jerk."

"It was nothing, if he ever bothers you again, feel free to come find one of us." said Leafa giving her a smile, "I'm Leafa by the way and these are my family." introducing the members of team KAYL.

''Velvet... I'm sorry but, family?" asks the rabbit eared girl, curiously. This caused Leafa to blush.

"Well, Leafa here is my sister, A-Chan and I are married, and Yui-Chan is our daughter." Kirito explained, shocking everyone except Ruby and Yang, who already knew. Their questioning was interrupted Mrs Goodwitch approached the table.

"Ms Leafa, could you come with me to the headmasters office." she asks leading the sylph away. Velvet seeing this looks down at her food, worried her new friend was in trouble because of her. Yui seeing this said "don't worry so much, Aunt Sugu would have probity hit the idiot anyway he's tried to harass me a few times too."

At Ozpin's office Suguha found herself face to face with both the principal and Cardin. "Ms Leafa, do you know why you're here?" asked Ozpin, looking slightly amused. "Presume it has something to do with me laying out this idiot." was her curt reply. "Indeed, and why did you do this?" he asked. "because, he was physically harnessing another student, and had tried the same with my niece previously." came her honest answer.

"hum, well in light of this you will both serve detention for the remainder of the week." declared Ozpin. This caused Cardin quite some indignation. "What?! Why should l be punished for putting an animal in its place?" he yelled.

"I think, that's by the same logic l am, you hairless ape!" retorted Leafa.

"I see this matter won't end here will it? perhaps another way then, a duel, the winners punishment as the stakes." suggested Ozpin, a wry look in his eye.

Back with the others they were headed to the next class when Leafa re-joined them. She told them about their punishments and how she ended up in the fight tomorrow and Cardin's harsh words. In class they were covering the faunus uprisings. "... and what advantage did the faunus have in the battle, Mr Arc?" asked the teacher.

"... binoculars?" he said, misinterpreting his teammates signals. Cardin laughed prompting the teacher to ask him and he replied that it was easier to Warn an animal than a soldier. Finally Pyrrha had enough and said they won because they had right vision and the general tried to ambush them in their sleep. After class Pyrrha took Jaune to the roof. "Pyrrha, this is nice and all, but I'm not that depressed." says Jaune looking over the edge.

"No!" she yelled. "I brought you here so we can practice, every day after class' ends we can meet up here to practice."

"You think I need help?" he asked looking even more dejected

''No!'' she denied, "that's not what I meant."

"but you just said it"

"Look, everybody needs a little help from time to time, that doesn't make you any different from the rest of us. You made it to Beacon, that speaks volumes of what your capable of."

"Your wrong, I don't belong here."

"that's a terrible thing to say, of course you do."

"NO, I DON'T!" he yells before sighing, "I wasn't really accepted into Beacon." He quietly admits.

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't go to combat school, I didn't pass any tests, I lied, I got my hands on some fake transcripts and… I lied."

"What, but why?"

"Because this is what I've always wanted to be. My father, my grandfather, and his father before him, were all warriors, they were all heroes, I wanted to be one too. I was just never good enough."

"Then let me help you."

"I don't want help, I don't want to be the damsel in destress, I want to be the hero. I'm tired of being the loveable idiot stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives. Don't you understand if I can't do this on my own then what good am I?" he asks flinching away from Pyrrha. "just leave me alone."

"OK, I'm going to have to stop you there." The pair look up to the rooftop above them to see Leafa floating there an amused look on his face.

"You know, you remind me of my friend, Recon." She says conversationally, "He was never the best fighter either, but he was loyal his friends, and there are few I would rather have watching my back when the chips are down."

"Did you hear all that." Asks Jaune nervously.

"what part, the bit where Pyrrha offered to help get you up to scratch, or the part where you admitted to being here under false pretences." Leafa said wryly.

"Yeah, that."

"Or maybe the part where you proved this is exactly the place you should be, seriously the entry requirements aren't that high, I was reading them over after we ended up coming here."

"What?!"

"Yep the only real requirements are that you have you aura unlocked, and are will to fight the Grimm with everything you have. Getting in to Beacon isn't the issue, it's staying in, you passed the biggest obstacle to that when you became a team with Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren."

"R-Really?"

"Yep, ultimately it's up to you. Jaune, has anyone ever taught you how to actually use that sword."

"No. Not really."

"it was our grandfather who taught Kirito and I the basics of using a sword, I actually was still receiving training in our family style until recently that I stopped receiving his instruction. Kirito has been using those swords on his back to fight for his life for years. Asuna is the same as Kirito, but I know she received fencing lessons for a few years before that, the only one on our team without basic training on our team is Yui-chan and she gets sword lessons from all of us on a regular basis."

"See I shouldn't be here."

"That's not what I said, look from now after class come to me or Kirito after class, both of us have experience training beginners and we could use an opponent at Yui's level to help with teaching her."

"I, um, I'll think about it." Jaune surrendered.

"Good, well I'm off to bed, night guys." Leafa said as she landed and went inside.

"That's a good idea, are you coming Jaune." Said Pyrrha.

"I'll be in, in a bit. I just need a few minutes to think." And with that he went over to the edge, watching the stars.