Chapter 8: Jaune

Many great fighters trained and sparred in Beacon Academy, but sadly there were exceptions. In fact, Jaune happened to be looking at one of those exceptions right now.

Jaune charged at Cardin Winchester, team leader of team CRDN. Jaune tried to hit Cardin with an overhead swing, but missed as Cardin sidestepped his attack, and hit Jaune with his mace. Jaune was sent reeling from the blow, his shield flying out of his grasp - but Jaune was far from finished. Suzaku watched as Jaune tried to swing at Cardin again in the same predictable motion. Cardin blocked the attack with the shaft of his mace, and began to push Jaune back.

Suzaku watched as the two glared at each other, neither wanting to lose. If he were fighting Cardin, then he would have gone with a more rapier styled combat; jabbing at the enemy. Cardin would have had a hard time blocking those types of attacks. Unfortunately, Suzaku wasn't the one fighting.

Suzaku saw Cardin knee Jaune in the stomach. Jaune kneeled in pain as Cardin raised his mace, preparing to make the final blow.

The overhead light turned off, removing the shadow that engulfed all the students that stood outside of the combat stage. The aura level was seen above the stage, showing how easily Cardin had decimated Jaune. Cardin's aura hadn't taken any damage, while Jaune's was nearly depleted.

Ms. Goodwitch walked onto the stage, before she began speaking to all of the students. "Students, as you can see, Mr. Ark's aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match," she stated, as she tampered with the scroll cradled in her hands.

Suzaku wasn't surprised by the results of the battle. As much of a leader Jaune was, he was a horrible combatant.

"Mr. Ark, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your scroll during combat. Gauging your aura will help you decide when it is appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more… defensive strategy." Ms. Goodwitch told Jaune, as Jaune looked at his own scroll, seeing the red bar above his picture, "We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a beowulf, now would we?"

"Speak for yourself" Cardin said, as he swung his mace onto his armored shoulder.

And even though Suzaku knew that Jaune would lose, he still rooted for him.

"You owe me ten Lien," Yang said with a smug grin as Suzaku dropped the coins into her open hand. Suzaku sighed in aggravation. He really wanted to buy Euphy something with that.

"Remember everyone, the Vytal festival is only a few months away. It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing. Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale." Just as Ms. Goodwitch finished the announcement, the bells of the classroom rang, informing students of the end of class.

Most of the students began to flood out of the classroom as Jaune continued to lie on the floor of the stage. Teams RWBYS and JNPR remained as they all waited for Jaune to eventually get up, and walk with them to lunch.

While most of the team was cheery, or at least seemed cheery, Jaune gloomily walked with the team. This attitude stirred Suzaku's attention, driving him to speak.

"Jaune, you did fine out there. You just need some practice, that's all." he said with a smile. Jaune gave a smile back, but it wasn't genuine. It was the smile that you would give if you were trying to make someone perceive you as happy. Suzaku knew something was nagging at Jaune's mind, but decided not to prod any further until they were at the lunchroom.

All of the students sat down with their meals in hand. Suzaku sat next to Wiess and Ruby. While he had expected a change to occur, he never expected one so drastic in such a short period of time. Wiess and Ruby were actually tolerating each other!

Everyone talked to each other casually, while Nora began to tell a story about how she and Ren defeated a pack of Ursa. Of course, it was exaggerated, made even more obvious by Ren's constant corrections.

Suzaku spoke to Jaune once more, deciding this time to take a more direct approach.

"Is Cardin becoming a problem?" Suzaku asked. Jaune looked up to him before he spoke in a distant tone.

"Everything's fine" he said, barely touching his food.

"Are you sure?" Pyrrha spoke up, looking at Jaune with worry.

Nora had finished her story, leaving the focus of everyone's attention on Jaune. Jaune broke out of his stupor as he noticed that all the eyes of the table were on him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jaune said, pulling up his fake smile once more.

"Do not think you are alone. You are surrounded by friends. All you must do is reach out for their assistance," a sweet voice said. Suzaku turned around to find Euphimia walking to the table in her traditional dress attire. She walked up, prompting Ruby to scoot down to accommodate for the newcomer.

"Euphy, what are you doing here?" Suzaku asked.

Euphimia gave a quick shrug of her shoulders, "I had time, so I decided to join you all for lunch."

Suzaku gave a soft smile at her outgoing nature. It was another quality he enjoyed about her. She spoke kindly, but with volume, garnering the attention of most people in the room.

Jaune looked at the people who had just spoke, before he sighed. "I know that, but I can deal with this myself. Besides, it's not like he is doing anything too bad," he said, waving their comments off.

"Like that time he knocked your books out of your hand?" Ruby said, with sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"Or the time he opened your shield in the door arch, causing it to get stuck in the frame for an hour?" Pyrrha said.

"Or when he sent you flying in a mobile locker?" Suzaku said.

"I didn't land that far from the school!" Jaune defended.

Suzaku face palmed himself after listening to the long list of times that Cardin had bullied Jaune. Here they were, trying to stick up for Jaune, but he lets his pride get in the way. It was aggravating Suzaku to no end.

Suzaku's ears picked up the sound of laughter. He turned his head to the noise, seeing Cardin bullying a faunus by the name of Velvet. Cardin's attitude reminded Suzaku of the way the Britannians treated his people, the Japanese. However, in Britannia, they were second class citizens, but in a place where both faunus and humans were of the same stature in the eyes of the law…

Suzaku's eyes widened as Euphimia stood up and began to walk over to Cardin and his team. Suzaku stood up and followed after her.

Cardin was pulling on Velvets bunny ears when he saw Euphy and Suzaku walking towards them. Cardin let go of Velvets ear, before he began to walk towards Euphimia and Suzaku. His team followed close behind.

"Well if it isn't Suzaku. What are y-" Cardin didn't get to finished as Euphimia briskly walked up to him and gave him a firm slap to the face. Cardin's team looked on in surprise as Euphimia spoke up.

"You should be ashamed of your attitude towards this lady. She has done nothing to warrant your teasing," Euphimia said as Cardin looked back at Euphimia in anger.

"You wanna defend this faunus? They have done nothing but cause violence all across Vale!" Cardin said angrily.

Euphimia stood firm as she answered, "They were treated this way, even before the White Fang turned to violence for a solution. If you were to treat them the same way that you treat your fellow man, then the violence would end. I know what they are doing is wrong, and I fully disagree with their violent actions, but we, as civilians, must not retaliate like vigilantes. Let the government perform its function, and peace will return."

Cardin's anger did not subside at her words. If anything it made him more angry. He was about to backhand her, but Suzaku stepped in and caught Cardin's hand.

Suzaku looked at Cardin with intensity and threatened, "Don't even think about it."

Cardin pulled his hand back before he scoffed and left with his team following closely behind.

"Thank you," the bunny eared faunus, Velvet, said with a hint of relief.

Euphimia just gave a small nod before she walked back to the table with Suzaku.

"I'd watch yourself. Cardin is very low class. His anger might cloud his senses," Suzaku said to Euphimia.

She nodded in agreement. "Then I'll make sure to keep you in my company whenever I talk to him."

Suzaku gave a sigh of annoyance. "Close enough," Suzaku said as they sat back down.

All of team RWBYS and JNPR were present except for Jaune.

"Where did Jaune go?" Suzaku asked.

Pyrrha responded solemnly, "I think he just needs a bit of time to himself."

Suzaku nodded in agreement with her words, but he still found himself worrying for the blonde. Jaune was his friend, and Suzaku didn't want to see a friend hurting without reason.

"I hope Jaune gets better." Suzaku said.

Author's notes: I'm back, baby! Sorry for the delay in chapters. It won't happen again. I am planning on putting this on hiatus after I finish all the chapters placed in volume one. That won't take awhile, so there will be plenty of upcoming chapters until I'm finished. After I do that, I'll begin work on my other stories and maybe publish another chapter to RWBY: Genesis.

Thank you for reading my book. If you like the book, please do follow and favorite it. If you like me, please do follow and favorite me. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day.