Full chapter this time.
He's gotten better, Natsu thought watching as Jaune and Cardin spared one day in Ms. Goodwitch's combat class. It had been almost two weeks since Acnologia had given his warning to Natsu about someone gathering the magic of Remnant and since then Natsu had been splitting most of his free time between training Jaune and looking into the Dragon King's claims. This led to two interesting discoveries. One, while Jaune couldn't fight barehanded to save his life he was a borderline prodigy when it came to swordplay, by the end of the year he would be on par with most of their classmates. And two, someone with an extremely damaged Aura was being stored beneath the school, someone who had magic.
The night he and his sister's team came back from their shopping trip, Natsu had decided to see if Acnologia was telling the truth, and he decided the best way to start was to search for any magic signatures. He remembered what magic felt like from his first life, and he learned to tell the differences between peoples' Aura long ago, so spreading out his senses with the magic that Zeref had given him, Natsu had a fairly good idea what to look for. It came as a surprise however that instead of only feeling the magic that Acnologia had left behind when he talked to him, he also felt magic coming from the depths of the school. He had wanted to go see the source right then and there, after all he thought he would never see another wizard again, but then he looked deeper.
Whoever it was down there was in bad shape. Their Aura, something that Natsu had learned was deeply connected to one's soul, was warped and felt broken, like someone had torn it in half. And that didn't even take into account the state of their magic, it was like a tug of war was constantly being fought over the power making what Natsu guessed to be mid to high B ranked energy levels only mid C. Neither was anything special by Earthland standards but for Remnant it would put the user in the top five percent of the huntsman roster, he would know his Uncle Qrow was ranked as the second strongest huntsman alive with only Ozpin above him.
Seeing this only made him want to see them more, they were obviously fighting whatever happened to them and were in a great deal of pain and he hopped that he could help with the soul based fire spells that he learned from Zeref or the healing spells from Mavis somehow, either to restore their health or dull the pain. Unfortunately wherever they were being kept didn't have an easy to find entrance and while he could just blast a hole down to whatever chamber they was being kept in he had a feeling doing so would be taken the wrong way.
"That's enough." Professor Goodwitch called out, bringing Natsu back to the present. It seemed Cardin had beaten Jaune, though the knight had managed to take almost an eighth of the other leader's Aura. "You have improved a great deal Mr. Arc, but you still have a long way to go. Next time please refer to your scroll during combat, gaging your Aura will help you decide when it is appropriate to attack and when it is best to move to a more defensive strategy. Do this and maybe you won't die the first time you see an Ursa, and we wouldn't want that now would we?" She asked rhetorically.
"Speak for yourself." Cardin muttered.
Hearing what the two of them said angered Natsu. 'Refer to his scroll during combat'? That's one of the stupidest things you could do in a fight! Why would you take your eyes off your opponent just to see your reserves? The only reason you would need to would be because you were losing, making focusing on something else an even dumber thing to do. Clearly Professor Goodwitch had either never been in close quarters combat- which given her weapon and Semblance was very likely- or she highly underestimated just how fast paced a fight could be.
And Cardin's remark… saying something like that so casually showed a clear disregard of life, something Natsu detested. He would admit that he had taken lives before, both during the war with the Alvarez Empire, and on several jobs that were assigned to him and his team by the Magic Counsel and later the Royal Family after the Grand Magic Games. He hated killing, but even someone who had been as naive as he had been knew that sometimes it was safer for everyone to do so. The sayings about soldiers forced to kill desiring peace the most were more true than many realized.
Goodwitch's voice brought Natsu back to reality a second time when she began to speak to the class as a whole, "Remember everyone, the Vytle 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." She announced to the gathered students as the bell started to ring, causing exited shouts and murmurs to erupt from them.
While the rest of their class was talking about the festival, Natsu and Pyrrha were more concerned with Jaune, who sat in the arena where he had fallen upon his defeat by Cardin, his head bowed in depression. Walking up to the blond, the Pyrrha pulled her partner to his feet, Natsu standing beside her. "Come on Jaune, let's go get something to eat." She told the depressed knight. The prospect of food did not seem to raise the boy's spirits in the least, but he nodded his head anyway and walked past his two concerned friends, heading for the cafeteria.
Seeing that Jaune's actions had made Pyrrha even more worried, Natsu put his hand on his friend's shoulder, "Don't worry, everyone gets a little upset when they lose a fight. Remember the first time I beat you? You pouted for an hour and ate a gallon of chocolate ice-cream. I'm sure that he'll bounce back in a little bit, and if not we can talk to him and drag him out of his funk that way, okay?" he told his friend, earning his own nod of the head.
"Yeah," she agreed brightening up slightly, "now come on, I'm hungry and I hear they have chocolate croissants today." She told him, grabbing his hand and dragging the slayer in the direction of the lunchroom.
Sheesh, she likes chocolate like Erza liked cheesecake. Natsu thought with a shudder, may whatever gods that may exist have mercy on the poor fool who gets in the way of one of the redheads and their favorite food.
Arriving at the cafeteria the two tournament champions took their seats with team RWBY and the rest of team JNPR just as Nora began one of her infamous 'recountings' of her and Ren's past adventures which more often than not sounded like something strait out of Professor Port's own mouth, Ren correcting her at every turn. "There we were, in the middle of the night." –"It was day."- "We were surrounded by Ursai"- "They were Beowolves"- "Dozens of them!" –"Two of them" Ren sighed- "But they were no match, and in the end Ren and I took them down and made boatload of lien selling Ursa skin rugs." She finished her tail with an air of satisfaction, seeming unaware that only Yang had been paying any form of attention, Weiss had been polishing her nails, Jaune depressingly poked at his food, Ruby watched Jaune with a worried expression, Blake read a book that Natsu was almost positive was some kind of porn, and he and Pyrrha were giving each other silent looks that spoke of plans of a less than innocent nature.
"She's been having this reoccurring dream for nearly a month now." Ren tried to explain his childhood friend's eccentric tale.
"Jaune, are you okay?" Ruby questioned her friend.
"Huh?" The blond knight asked seeming confused, "Oh, yeah. Why?" He asked in turn, his eyes never meeting the others at the table.
"It's just you seem a little…not… okay." Ruby confessed.
Seeing that the others around him shared the gothic girl's concerns Jaune tried to assure them, "Guys I'm fine. Seriously. Look!" He said giving a thumbs up a strained smile and a fake laugh.
Hearing the laughter of someone else the blond tuned his head to see Cardin and the rest of team CRDL around a rabbit Faunus with brown hair and ears mocking her and making her visibly uncomfortable.
With one last worried look at Natsu, Pyrrha turned to talk to her partner herself, "Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school."
"Wh-Who? Cardin Winchester? Naw, he just likes to mess around, you know practical jokes." Jaune told them, trying to wave off their concerns.
"He's a bully." Ruby bluntly told her fellow team leader with a frown.
"Oh please," Jaune said, "Name one time he's 'bullied' me." He challenged them.
Natsu, being the kind of guy he was took that challenge, "Let's see, he's knocked your books and homework out of your hands in the hallway, opened you shield in doorways to get you stuck, and when Goodwitch was telling us how to use the locker's rocket function he locked you in one and sent you flying." He listed off.
By that point both teams had given Jaune their full attention, "I didn't land far from the school." Jaune tried to defend himself.
"Jaune you know if you ever need help you can just ask." Pyrrha told her leader.
"Ooh" Nora cut in standing up from the table, "We'll break his legs!" She exclaimed with far too much enthusiasm, not that they were all opposed to the idea.
"Guys its fine." Jaune tried to assure his friends. "Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me, he's a jerk to everybody."
"Ow, that hurts!" They heard a girl scream. Looking over the group saw that the scream came from the rabbit Faunus that CRDL was picking on, the cause being Cardin himself pulling on the girl's ears.
Seeing this angered Natsu more than anything else Cardin had done since they had come to Beacon, they were in a school to train guardians and soldiers, to have the gall to disrespect another student here- to disrespect someone who was being trained to protect and die- showed Natsu that team CRDL didn't deserve to even be there.
Reacting on instinct, Natsu stood up from his chair and stalked toward the taller boy, ignoring the questions from his friends and sisters. Walking up to the team leader Natsu roughly grabbed the brown haired boy's wrist forcing him to let go of the ear he had been pulling and causing him to face Natsu with an angry expression on his face, only to see the salmon haired teen with his arm drawn back, hand curled into a tight fist.
As soon as the bully had fully turned, Natsu threw his fist forward intending to break the other teen's nose. Unfortunately for the slayer, before his fist could meet the other's face, and unseen force flung him back and away from Cardin. Flipping himself over to land on his feet, Natsu turned to in the direction the energy had come from, only to come face to face with the scowling face of Glynda Goodwitch.
"Mr. Xiao Long, I hope you know that we do not condone the unprovoked assault of fellow students in this school." She told him angrily.
Natsu in turn scoffed at the blond woman's attempt to frighten and chastise him, she wasn't as scary as Erza, nor did she hold the same respect that he gave to Master Makarov. "Hell of a double standard you got there then, how about you cut the crap and just tell everyone the truth and say that you don't condone the assault of humans here Goodwitch." He told the professor, causing her scowl to deepen.
"What are you implying?" She demanded
"Exactly what I said." Natsu told her, holding up his right hand with his palm facing up the wizard summoned a purple fire, the same fire that Macao always used. As soon as the flames were lit, three tendrils split from the source and flew around the cafeteria, each one grabbing an unseen target. As soon as he felt his fire finish grabbing those he wanted, Natsu grabbed the fire in his hand and pulled it as if it were a rope causing the three people he had captured to be yanked from their spots around the room and be thrown on the floor between him and the deputy headmistress of Beacon academy revealing them to be other teachers employed by the school.
"All four of you saw what Cardin was doing just now, hell you people have seen him harassing almost every Faunus in the whole school since day one. Don't even try to deny it I saw you. Not once did you do anything, in fact most of the teachers did all they could to turn a blind eye. So tell me again what exactly don't you condone here Professor?" Natsu accused, the altercation now having the undivided attention of the whole room, something Goodwitch noticed.
While it was true that the staff was aware of team CRDL's actions, they had decided to turn a blind eye not because they approved of the team's actions, but because they couldn't risk being labeled as supporters for either side, be they the White Fang and the Faunus, or racial supremacists like Cardin Winchester and his team. "I assure you, Mr. Winchester would have been dealt with and punished without your intervention." The blond professor said, trying to save face.
Her answer however only seemed to anger Natsu even more, "I thought I said to cut the crap. If I hadn't stepped in you would have done nothing, and would have continued to do nothing until this asshole either ended up maiming, killing, or raping someone or one of his victims snapped and decided to attack him in turn, and I think we both know who would have been punished if that happened, don't we?" Let it be known that Natsu Dragneel Xiao Long did not like people hurting others without just cause, or those in charge letting people get away with a crime. Heck, even he hated getting away with breaking rules, he always accepted his punishment when he did something against the law, he couldn't tell you how many hours he spent repairing the damage he caused in his battles during his first life. (AN: For those of you thinking about the time Erza got arrested and Natsu barged into her trial, he doesn't see what they were charging her for as a crime. Ever hear the phrase 'that which is necessary is legal'? It's the reason people who kill in self-defense aren't charged with murder.)
Seeing that the red eyed teen's comment had caused the other student to begin to give their own looks of anger to her and the other teachers, Glynda Goodwitch thought that it was time they brought this conversation somewhere more private, "I think you should come with me to the headmaster's office Mr. Xiao Long, and you as well Mr. Winchester."
While hearing this caused Cardin to pale, Natsu himself only smirked at the woman across from him, "Sure, there are some things I wanted to ask him about anyway." Natsu told her, following the woman as she lead the two out of the cafeteria, leaving several hundred students with several new things to talk about, along with three freshman teams filled with worry.
Okay lots of stuff happened this chapter, the highlights being that Natsu now knows that a magic user is being kept at Beacon, and now he is going to be seeing Ozpin while being pissed at him and his school staff so sorry all you people who want the two to get along but that won't happen for a while yet.
Also, starting next chapter Linked Chains will be this story's beta so everyone be sure to check him out as a way of thanking him for doing this.
Be sure Follow, Favorite (Almost number 2 of the RWBY/FT crossovers) and of course Review!
Wingd Knight out.