Chapter Eight.
[{{]
Classes.
More specifically for Jaune, the very first class he happened to attend ever since the Fall.
And it was Port's class of all things.
"…And lo and behold! I blocked the fowl beast's teeth with nothing but the barrel of my weapon. Yes, all two-hundred and seventy-eight of them!"
Jaune was sure no Grimm in existence had this many teeth to begin with, let alone a 'Sigma Beowolf' as their professor had named it. Looking back now, he realized some of the Grimm in his stories seemed made up.
Then again, who was him to ruin his teacher's fun?
Never minding the fact that this was the second time he heard that exact same story. Having already experienced that exact same lecture once before.
He wished he could have remembered the details more vividly, but all those weeks before the Fall felt like a blur to him. Both because it was difficult and painful for him to remember.
He made a makeshift pillow with his forearms before resting his head on it. That whole class felt like torture. Not because of the sheer boredom courtesy of the bumbling elder in front of him, but because of the 'calm before the storm' feeling that perpetuated around him. Like a lucid dream, waiting for the right moment to become a nightmare.
Or maybe it was just boredom. One of the two, take your pick.
A loud harumph chimed in, prompting Jaune to raise his head.
"Mr. Arc. While I do find it flattering seeing you sleep at the soothing sound of my voice, there is a time and place for resting and my class is neither of them."
"Right… Sorry, professor."
"Now, now Mr. Arc. Would you kindly give us the answer to the question I have previously inquired to the whole class?"
Okay, now he was messing with him. Jaune had made the effort to listen to one hour and forty minutes worth of rambling and at no point there was a question mark in Port's whole story.
Letting out a deep sigh, the blonde decided to do what he did best: Make a fool out of himself.
He made two 'O' shaped signs with his hands. "Binoculars?"
Most of his classmates snickered. At least some people were having fun with his misery.
The professor huffed. "Firstly, we are talking about Beowolfs' pack formation. Secondly, this isn't Oobleck's class in case you are unaware. Thirdly, I will ask you to see me after class."
And now he was getting in trouble for disrupting class. Maria would have a field day if she heard about that, among other things.
"Now, son. I understand you must be feeling all high-and-mighty after discovering your Semblance. But do keep in mind you are a student just like any other."
See? This is what he was talking about. Everyone and their mother knew he had a Semblance. Which in turn affected several events of his everyday routine.
"Well then, where was I? Ah, yes! After being stripped of my own weapon, I had no choice but to punch that boulder with my bare hands!"
Enamored by his own story, Port proceeded to hop on top of his desk. Which gave Pyrrha the chance to poke her leader on the shoulder.
"Is everything okay?" She asked. "You seem a bit under the weather."
He jolted ever so slightly from her touch. Ah yes, Pyrrha was still very much there. Attending classes together, eating at the cafeteria with their friends, sleeping in the same room, helping him with his uniform…
After all those restless months travelling across Anima, getting to interact with her again was probably the greatest blessing he had ever received from this whole exchange. And yet… Her presence still felt daunting for many discernible reasons.
He shook those thoughts off and turned to her with a playful smile.
"Nothing, really." He shrugged off. "Just… A lot of things in my mind right now. You know, the usual."
"Well, whatever it may be, I'm here to help. As always." She whispered to him. "Speaking of, I got the week off from all those sponsorship deals. Not to mention we have been meaning to catch up with your training. We might as well resume our nightly sessions, don't you think?"
Jaune blinked twice at the proposal. "Huh. Actually, that does sound nice. Yeah! I would love to hang out with you back on that roof. It's been forever, really."
That response earned Pyrrha a light blush across both cheeks. "Y-Yeah, me too. I cannot wait for it."
The blonde gulped. He made a mental note to watch out for his enthusiasm next time.
And then the Academy's bell went off, signaling the end of the class.
"Already?" Port descended from his desk. "Hm, I guess time does fly when you're having a great time learning! Isn't that right, children?"
Everyone just collectively zombie-chorused in agreement with the professor. Background-student number three's head slipped out from his hand and fell on top of his notebook.
"Ah… To be young and full of energy." Port sniffed. "Truly remarkable. Class dismissed!"
Jaune began to pack up his material. For as weird and possibly life-threatening as that whole situation was, he at least could enjoy some tidbits of his old school-life.
'Guess I do really need to settle down after all. Technically, this is all a dream come true. Getting to relive the best days of my life. Getting to see Pyrrha again…' He chuckled with genuine joy. 'You know what? Maybe I am worrying too much when I should be enjoying myself while I still can. Yeah, things are finally looking up for me!'
The scroll on his back pocket vibrated twice. He did a brief check to see who was messaging him at that hour. And it was none other than the former Grimm Reaper.
"Spoke too soon…"
[}}]
Jaune had a bad feeling about Maria's idea for training that morning. His first clue was the sweet and vague message on his scroll telling him to leave his sword at home.
Apparently, she wanted to help him build some physical endurance to make up for literally skipping a year, even though Aura was a thing. And what better way to grow some thick skin than a classic hand-to-hand combat session behind her trailer?
And Maria knew just the ideal partner…
Jaune backed away from Yang's left jab. The latter party clearly having the most fun out of the two.
"Man, you have no idea how much I've missed throwing hands like this." She threw another punch. "Casually, I mean."
"Really?!" He dodged a swing. "I couldn't-!" He blocked another one with his arms. "Tell!"
Unaware of his placement, Jaune was backed against Maria's trailer. He ducked under Yang's incoming robotic fist, causing her to leave a dent on the metal surface.
"Hey!" Maria yelled, sitting on a plastic chair while drinking from a juice box. "If she damages my crib one more time, it's coming out from your allowance, son!"
"Wha-!" Jaune snapped his head at the elderly lady. "But I don't even have-"
He barely defended a punch aimed at his ribs.
"Don't pay attention to her." Advised Yang. "It's all part of the training. She's trying to distract you."
"Not really!" Maria yelled again. "Things cost money in the real world, you know?!"
Dodging away from where the trailer was stationed, he kept himself on his toes against a very experience brawler who could and already had ended matches like this without ever needing to fire her gauntlets.
"C'mon, you could at least try hitting back." Taunted Yang. "Where's all that training Ruby insists you were doing while she was spying on you?"
"You're still on about that?" Jaune dodged a strong hook aimed at his chin on the last second. "Forget I asked!"
"Fine." She dropped her stance. "I'll let you get one free hit at me."
He found that very suspicious. "You're serious?"
"It's only fair. If I wanted a one-sided spar, I'd be fighting a dummy." She smiled provocatively. "Unless you're admitting to be one yourself."
"Well, since you're asking so nicely." He reluctantly took the bait. "I won't be holding back, just so you know."
He then charged and swung a fist at her direction. What followed next was a sequence of Yang dodging his punch, grabbing him by the wrist, throwing his entire body over her shoulder and finishing with a punch to his ribs before he landed on the mud. All in less than a second.
"How…?" He whimpered, laid still and covered in mud.
She shrugged. "You left yourself open."
"Yeah… I guess did." 'Open to this crazy idea.'
"Alright, that's enough for now." Maria walked towards them. "Take five, you two."
"You got it, granny." Yang skidded away to do some stretches at the corner of the backyard.
While Jaune was struggling to get up, Maria approached with a granola bar in her hand. "Want some?"
"Sure." He sat up. "I'll take it."
"Hmph. Should've asked before I went to the store." She took a bite out of it.
Jaune groaned, dusting some dry mud from his hoodie.
"You know," He lifted himself from the muddy ground. "I'm starting to think your idea of training is basically getting my friends to do all the work for you."
"Hey, as long as it works. I also can't help when they're practically volunteering themselves for the job."
"Yeah, I can see that. Weird, isn't it?"
"…Weird how?" She inclined her head. "You're all close friends, right? Why is it weird that they want to help you?"
"I…" He tsked. "I don't know. I can tell something happened to the group's dynamic. Like I have drift apart from them or something."
It was almost like they haven't interacted that much over the time he skipped. And it felt like they were trying to make up for lost time. Something Jaune definitely needed. Well not 'him' him, but the other one…
Things like this made him wonder. What would it be like to meet his future self? To actually see how much all of this journey had affected him.
"Stop it." Maria spoke.
"W-What?" He responded after being pulled out from his reverie.
"You're doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"You keep staring at nothing while deep in your own thoughts." She explained. "It's getting old."
"Heh. Old… That must mean something coming from you." He let it slip out of his mouth. He regretted as soon as he saw her cyan lens glaring at him.
"Yang, come here!" Maria ordered while walking away. "He says he wants another go!"
"H-Hey! Wait, can we talk about this?!" He pleaded to no avail.
Maria was now heading back inside her trailer while Yang approached, ready for round 'he lost count'.
"Square up!" She announced, assuming a boxing stance. "I'm not letting up until one of us starts seeing bruises. Maria's orders."
"Gee, I wonder why I believe you." With that sarcastic remark, he raised both arms to prepare for another onslaught.
And despite all that hassle, they still found room for conversation.
"You're taking any jobs today?" She asked mid-punching.
"Yeah, preferably somewhere easier to keep track of my teammates."
"I get what you mean." Yang shot another jab. "Oscar told us the other day. Must've been rough."
"It was my fault, anyway." He blocked it. "I really need to catch up with you guys more than ever."
"Don't be so hard on yourself." She dodged an easily telegraphed punch from Jaune. "I honestly think you're fine. Even if you're lacking years' worth of experience in the hunting business."
"Already knew that from day one, but thanks for the reminder." He paused to catch his breath. "If only I could be nearly as strong as you…"
"Buttering me up won't make me go easy on you." She adverted. "And to be frank, strength alone isn't all that cracked up to be. Sure, on one hand, I have won my fair share of fights just by brute-forcing my way through. But on the other hand-"
"You have a robot arm." He couldn't resist.
"On the Other hand!" She exclaimed, delivering a fist to his belly. "I… Still need to work out on some impulses. Heh, I guess old-habits do die hard."
He winced before recovering from her punch. "…Noted."
"But hey! You also have your own strengths you can work with."
"Really? Like what?"
"For one, you're really good at coordinating a whole team. Seriously though, it takes talent to have someone like Nora on your team and make it work on your favor."
"She does most of the heavy lifting if I'm being honest. Sometimes, it's just as easy as pointing her at a general direction and letting nature follow its course."
"Oh, I'm sure it's that easy…" Yang took a pause. "By the way, is there any beef between you and Nora?"
"…Huh? What makes you say that?"
"After our last mission, she's not really talking about you as much as she usually does. Did something happen?"
"Uh… Not that I know of?" He said, unsure if he had somehow got on bad terms with Nora after what happened the other day.
"Oh well. I'll leave that up to you." She assumed her stance again. "In the meantime, I'll be putting you up to shape. And hey, we could do this again but with our weapons next time."
"I guess that would be an improvement." He put his fists up as well. "While we're at it, we could ask Ruby if she would like to come and watch. What do you say?"
Jaune became more acquainted with the ground after that.
[{{]
Back once again at the main city of Vale, Jaune found himself entering a rundown neighborhood near the city's walls.
Maria had finally contacted him and sent the address of the apartment she had rented during her stay in Vale.
Something told him she wasn't exactly picky when choosing a place to stay. What next? She owned a banged-up trailer in Argus?
"This is… Quite the scenery?" Spoke Ren. "Remind me again why you invited me along?"
Ah, yes. He was with him too.
"Look, you were just gonna follow me no matter where I went." He responded. "This way, it makes it easier for the both of us to keep track of each other."
He hummed. "That sounds like something you would come up with."
"…Thanks, I guess?"
"I am simply stating that I'm glad you're still 'you' despite whatever change may have carried. Which I am assuming it has something to do with this little errand of yours."
For how much Jaune himself had changed, he supposed it was good thing he still had some recognizable traits in him.
"You're not entirely wrong." Jaune frustratedly swung his hand as they walked across the sidewalk. "And I'm not really sure how much I'm risking bringing you with me. At this point I may as well be treading in eggshells and not knowing."
"Let's just hope your 'contact' you mentioned earlier can help us bring the real Jaune back." Ren said.
"Agreed…" He concurred, not sure how he felt about that statement. 'Then again, the 'Real Jaune' might as well have died along with Beacon.'
There was also the issue where his 'actual' friends were still waiting for him in Argus one year from now, stuck with a more-useless version of him. Would they envy his position if they knew?
After ignoring another tangent in his mind, he came across the porch with Maria's address on it.
"We're here." He announced. Both boys stared at the entrance of an old brick clad apartment complex.
"Shall we?" Ren gestured at the door.
Without saying anything, Jaune climbed the small flight of stairs into the building.
[}}]
Saphron turned to the door the moment her little brother returned home.
"Hey, you're back- Whoa."
Jaune stood by the entrance with mud all over his body.
"Hey… I just got back from training at Maria's place."
"Okay? And why does it look like you were thrown in the middle of a truck rally?"
"I'll take that as a compliment!" Yang casually strode by them into the living room.
Jaune ignored her quip and turned back to his sister. "Look, I'm just gonna use the shower if that's okay with you."
Saphron scoffed. "Couldn't you just have showered at Maria's instead of coming to my house like that?"
"Oh, believe me. She doesn't have anything remotely close to water."
"Sure, whatever. Just try not to mess up my house or else Terra will have my head when she gets back. She's already stressed enough after she started working overtime."
"Wait, did something happen at her work?"
Saphron shrugged. "She says it's nothing. Just something messing up with the comms of the Atlesian base. Now go get yourself clean, I have to take care of Adrien."
After both siblings had their talk, Jaune went upstairs while trying to not leave any mud stains on his way. He firstly headed towards the guest room to get some clean clothes before he could go to the bathroom.
Right on the upper floor, he entered his room, finding it strangely darker than usual. He preventively closed the door for some privacy only for the lights to suddenly turn on without him flipping a single switch.
Jaune rapidly turned at the light source, and saw Nora sitting in an armchair next to a bedside lamp and staring deadly serious at him.
"Uh… Hey Nora…"
"We need to talk."
Yey, I'm continuing this... Or not.
Anyway, just felt like releasing this one out. As well as this:
[OMAKE] "PSA: Huntsman-at-Arms"
"Hi! I'm Jaune Arc from the popular web-series: R.W.B.Y." He said, spelling out the name of the show.
"And I'm Lie Ren from the same show."
"Every year, we have tons of aspiring Huntsmen all eager to enroll into the academies and make a name for themselves defending mankind against the forces of Grimm."
"So for posterity sake, we have decided to share some helpful tips to anyone seeking pursue such an honorable career."
"That's right! And if there's something any good Huntsmen worth their salt should know, something I also happen to be an expert in the field, is… Weapon Maintenance!"
"…Wha-"
They were now in the middle of a training gym, with a large table in front of them containing the weapons of the main cast of characters.
Jaune cleared his throat. "Which is why yours truly is going to do a breakdown of some of these weapons and teach the folks at home how to keep your most important instrument of work in perfect fighting condition-"
"Jaune, Jaune. Listen." Ren interrupted him. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't know anything about maintaining weapons of any kind. Pyrrha even had to teach you how to sharpen your own sword."
"Oh, c'mon. It can't be that hard." He claimed. "Production even handpicked me to present this PSA, saying and I quote: 'No one else better to explain the inner workings of a collection of melee weapons that so happen to also function as guns.'"
Meanwhile, a pair of angry silver orbs stared at him from the bleachers.
"Okay, let's get things started with something simple…" He scanned the table briefly. "Let's see… Oh, hey! Blake's weapon!"
"I thought you said you 'something simple'."
Jaune picked Gambol Shroud in its gun state separately from the cleaver portion and turned to the audience. "As you can see, it functions similarly to a pistol. With the benefit of a long lasso tied to its grip. Which is good in case you accidentally drop it on the floor so you can pull it right back up!"
"I don't think that was the intended purpose-"
"Not only that! It also comes with a morphable sword that can stick out for close-range encounters. Let me just…" He fiddled with it. "Is there a switch or-"
Like a Swiss knife, the blade abruptly swung upwards almost hitting his forehead. The boy panicked, dropping the weapon back on the table.
Ren only offered a raised eye-brow at him.
"Let's try something else!" Jaune went back to the table and picked Magnhild. "Now this thing here doubles as a grenade-launcher and as a sledgehammer. It is rather robust in terms of design, but it does its job well."
"Nora would be upset if she heard you saying that." Said Ren. "She probably wouldn't know what robust means, but she would be upset all the same."
"Now, the trick for keeping this weapon in good shape is to regularly check for faulty grenades, as one can blow the entire thing apart." He opened up the drum. "Here, let me show it up-close."
"I don't think that's a good idea. Nora's grenades are really sensitive-"
Jaune ignored his advice and held one of the grenades with his hand. "As we can clearly see here-" The grenade went off on his hand, a pink smoke completely covering him.
Ren calmly watched as the smoke began to dissipate with Jaune coughing frantically, slight burned from the explosion.
"Ugh! What's this smell?" He coughed some more. "Wait, is this sugar?"
"Yes, she does mix sugar and other concoctions along with Dust." Answered Ren. "Do not ask me how or why."
"Moving on!" Jaune quickly selected the next weapon to showcase, which ended up being a handbag with bullets attached to the handle. "Oh hey, this one is Coco's. Hope she won't mind."
Ren blinked. "Wait, are these not replicas created for the purpose of the PSA?"
"No, these are the real things. We don't have enough on our budget to recreate exact copies of our friends' weapons. Now where was I?"
Jaune held the handbag in front of the camera.
"Now, while this may look like a trendy handbag on the surface, with a simple press of a button…" The blonde pressed said button, which resulted in the bag fully transforming into a gatling gun. And not even a second later, Jaune was crushed by the sheer weight of it.
"Agh!" He struggled from under the weight of Gianduja. "How does this thing weight more when deployed?! That doesn't make any sense!"
Ren disappointedly massaged both temples with one hand while his friend made out from under Coco's mini-gun.
"Let's do one more!" Jaune announced all confidently, hoping nothing silly would happen to him this time.
He once again reached out for the table and lifted out Crescent Rose of all weapons, struggling to hold due to its weight.
"This last weapon is a fan favorite and interestingly enough, really popular among stickman fight animations. Not only it works as a devastating scythe, but it is also a customizable, high-impact sniper rifl-"
Jaune was immediately struck by a storm of rose petals as he was tackled down to the floor by Ruby.
"You stole my spotlight!" Ruby yelled as she gripped his hoodie while straddling him. "And how dare you steal my most beloved creation and showcase it in a PSA without me?!"
As Jaune pleaded for mercy, Ren went to face the audience.
"I think we're done here. Stay tuned for more informative guides like these, I guess." He said, putting a palm over the camera.
[/O]