Hey guys, I hope you are enjoying chapter 6 of A Shattered Soul. If you have advice or suggestions for me to improve, please leave a comment, I would read and give my response in the next chapter. As usual, get on with this chapter. Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY only my OCs. RWBY belongs to Rooster teeth and their creator (bless his soul) Monty Oum.
"Hi I'm bob" exterior conversation
"hi I'm bob" interior talking
Chapter 6
Jaunedice and more questions
It has been weeks since Jade had joined team RWBY and so far, they have been going well, despite his struggles with his studies due to the lack of education, his team always have his back. Weiss was willing to help him in dust studies though he had to run some errands for her just to get her help (much to his initial displeasure). Yang was willing to help him improve his hand to hand combat though his tendency to dodge instead of taking it forward pissed off Yang, a lot. Now as of yet, they were in the arena while Jaune and Cardin were duelling.
Jaune was hunched over, trying to catch his breath, while Cardin was just standing in front of him with his mace resting on his left shoulder, laughing at him. Jaune collects himself before rushing at Cardin again, Yelling as he swings his swords, only for Cardin to side-step to Jaune's right and easily avoid the attack. Jaune turns around in shock as Cardin swings his mace in upward swing towards Jaune. Jaune managed to block the attack with his shield, but the attack knocked the shield out of his left hand and sent him crashing onto the ground. Jaune rolls back onto his feet before charging Cardin again, Wielding his sword with both hands this time, as he makes a downward swing that gets blocked by Cardin's mace in both his hands. Jaune tried to push back, but Cardin easily overpowered him.
"This is the part where you lose," Cardin taunted him.
"Over my dead-," Jaune starts before Cardin knees him in the gut, causing him to drop his sword and fall onto the ground. Jaune weakly looks up to see Cardin raising his mace, preparing to finish him off before the sound of a buzzer going off and the lights in the room come back on, showing that the match has ended. "That's enough." Glynda says as she walks in between them and to the front of the stage.
"Students, as you can see, Mr Arc's aura has now dropped into the red" She says as she works her scroll to show the results.
"In a tournament style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match. Gauging your aura will help you to decide when it is appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move into a more… defensive strategy." Glynda looked at Jaune who was fumbling with his scroll before continuing.
"We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now would we?"
"Speak for yourself." Cardin muttered as he placed his mace back onto his right shoulder and left the stage. Jade heard what he had said and narrowed his eyes while thinking,
"It's been weeks since I joined, Why is Jaune fighting as if he never held a sword before… though, It would be nice to humiliate Cardin. Such arrogance is begging to be knocked down." Jade thoughts wonder before it gave him a sadistic smirk as Blake looked at him with concern and asked.
"Jade, what are you planning?" She asked with suspicion in her voice. In the past few weeks, the relation between Jade and Blake only grew and now they could be seen hanging out more often with the other members noticing and Yang's constant teasing that both of them are together.
"Oh nothing." Jade blatantly lied before continuing on.
"Just that I'm thinking of something to knock Cardin's ego down into the ground."
"I suppose that would be a sight to see." Blake agreed with Jade as weeks prior, Cardin had started to pick on Jade, with variant degrees of success. Most had ended in failure for the bully, Jade proved elusive to him.
"Now then, we have time for one more sparring match. So, who would like to volunteer?" Glynda asked.
"Perfect just what I needed," Jade smiled before raising his hand up.
"Professor, I would like the honours of doing this."
"Very well, Mr Grayson. Let's find you an opponent." Glynda says as he goes through her scroll.
"That won't be necessary Mrs Goodwitch, I wish to have Cardin Winchester as my opponent." Jade extended a palm and pointed it at his opponent.
Cardin smirks at the challenge set against him, "What? The animal needs to be taught his place? Fine by me." As he returns to the stage a variety of responses can be heard in the arena but most notably was from team RWBY who voiced their disapproval of what Cardin had said.
"Very well then, the final match will be between Cardin Winchester and Jade Grayson. And Mr Winchester, please refrain from speaking anymore hurtful remarks about faunses or else you will be in trouble." Glynda announces as she glares at Cardin who ignored the Professor's advice as he readies his mace as Jade got up from his seat and walked down the steps with determination in his eyes.
"Give him hell Jady." Yang tells Jade.
"Oh yes, it's going to be hell for him all right." he responds back.
Jade walks towards the stage as his clothes dissolves into a more combat oriented outfit with his signature mask appearing on his face. He looks at Jaune before commenting.
"Don't worry I'll avenge your loss, thank me later." Jade says with confidence that he can ROFL stomp Cardin.
"Know that you are nothing but a freak even to animals that I know." Cardin taunted Jade.
"You mean those who you torment for no reason? That low when there are literal creatures of darkness we were trained to fight. But you know what I find stupid?"
"What animal?" Cardin retorted.
"Both our people are not very different, but we just have to make it a serious issue all because of a few rotten eggs on both sides. But no matter, I'm not here to give a lecture. But…" Jade pulled his weapons before continuing on.
" I'm here to give ya a beatdown and humiliation of a lifetime."
Glynda Goodwitch left the stage as the lights went dim. "Aright, let the match begin!"
She says as the buzzer sounds As the Buzzer sounds, Cardin immediately rushes up to Jade and sends a side swing, only for Jade to take a step back and sends a slash to the head of Cardin, Carding sloppy dodges Jade's slash only to received another strike by Jade, this sends Cardin back who grunts in pain as he grabs his head with his free hand. Taking advantage of Cardin's stunned state Jade uses his semblance to bind and wrap Cardin's legs. He then sends shots after shot at Cardin who uses his mace to block some of the shots coming at him. Jade proceeds to use his semblance and slam Cardin into the ground before picking him up and doing it again and again before sending him flying into a wall.
"Oh… that looks like it hurts." Yang winched as Cardin was smashed against the floor before being tossed into a nearby wall.
"That's quite brutish of him don't you guys think?" Weiss asked her fellow friends.
"I wouldn't worry about it, he deserves it anyways." Blake bluntly says as Cardin tries to get up on his feet.
"Really now?" Weiss questioned back.
"Yes, Jade never told you guys but Cardin had tried picking on him."
"What do you mean tried?" Ruby joined in.
"Most of Cardin's bullying on Jade usually doesn't affect Jade that much , what we are seeing is Jade letting his annoyance off on Cardin." she says back.
"Damn you alley cat…" Cardin groaned as he used his mace as a support to stand up as Jade slowly walked towards him with his swords out.
"Yield Cardin, you'll lose if you continue." "Like hell I'll lose to an animal like you!" Cardin yelled as he rushed at Jade and swung down his mace at Jade's head, only for Jade to side step and trip him onto the floor.
"You poor poor fool…" Jade muttered before taking out two grenades and tossing it at Cardin's feet. Team RWBY flinched when they noticed what Jade was doing much to the confusion of their sister team.
"Are you guys ok?" Pyrrha asked them.
"Yea... just bad memories." Ruby answered back.
"Bad memories?" Jaune joined in.
"Jade did something similar to us when we were sent to apprehend him." Weiss explained.
The cry of pain can be heard drawing their attention back onto the arena stage, their eyes widen at the scene. Electric smoke can be seen at where Cardin was at while Jade was at a distance sitting on the ground and checking his scroll. The screen above the arena shows Cardin's aura steadily depleting towards red while jades are still in the yellow.
"I believe I see what you mean…" Ren says with a hint of awe in his voice at what he saw.
"Yea.. he did 'that' to us, using our combo too." Ruby added in with a hint of embarrassment.
"Really! That's awesome! Renny we should try it out!" Nora being the only one excited at the whole situation.
"Nora please calm down" Ren muttered back.
The electric smoke cleared out revealing a groaning Cardin in pain on the floor, Jade walked up to him before stomping him in the family jewels. Everyone but a small few winched at the stomp and the buzzer can be heard in the background signifying the end of the match. Cardin can also be heard moaning in pain as Glynda walked back on stage.
"And with that, Jade Grayson is the victor. But Mr Grayson, was it necessary to strike Mr Winchester in the genitals?" Glynda looked back at Jade with a deadpan expression on her face.
"Well no Professor but he had it coming for a while and besides, I bet that was a shocking experience for him." Jade addressed Glynda with a shit eating grin with laughter in the background.
"I see…" Glynda turned back to the audience.
"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." She says as the bell for the end of the class ring and students begin to leave.
Jade walked back to his team who still had a traumatized look on their face with a very satisfied smile on his face as if he just won a bet with someone. Noticing the expressions on his team's face, Jade wiped the smile off his face into a concerned look.
"Are you guys ok? I know that might have brought up a memory of what I did with ya.
"No, we are good, though I'm glad that jerk gets what is coming." Yang muttered with Jade nodding back.
Much later...
As of now they were with team JNPR in the dining hall in one of Nora's stories.
"There we were. In the middle of the night…" "It was day." Ren corrected Nora.
"We were surrounded by Ursai." Nora continued on while Yang listened on, Blake sitting at her right and Jade beside her reading their books.
"They were Beowolves." Ren corrects her again while holding his mug.
"Dozens of them!" Nora shouts, her yell causes Yang to jerk back and nod her head while Jade gives them a glance before returning to his book.
"Two of them." Ren corrects him again. "But they were no match, and in the end , Ren and I took them down, and made a boat-lode of Lien selling Ursa-skin rugs." Nora finished her story with a smile while both Ruby and Pyrrha looked at Jaune with worried looks.
Ren sighed, "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now." Ren informs them.
"How would that work?" Jade put his book down with a perplexed look on his face before continuing.
"Grimm would dissolve upon death, so there is no logical way to obtain Ursai rugs."
"Just don't bother Jade, at least it makes the story interesting." Yang answered Jade continuing with a smile on her face,
"Besides… you and Blake are getting all cuddly there aren't ya?" This understandably gets both Blake and Jade into a red blushing mess as they both splutter and try to deny Yang's accusation, meanwhile Pyrrha notices that something is bothering Jaune and questions him,
"Jaune are you ok?"
"Huh? Ohm, uh yea, why?" Jaune says as he places his fork down and looks away from them.
"It's just that you seem a little… not okay" Ruby says as everyone's attention is now on Jaune.
"Jaune, you couldn't be more obvious that something is wrong so stop denying it. It is not a good look on ya." Jade added while flipping to the next page of his book.
"Guys, I'm fine. Seriously, look." Jaune tried to convince them to no avail. Jade sighs with a facepalm then continued,
"Please Jaune, stop lying yourself to the situation here, you're only making it look worse on ya." He moaned in annoyance.
Laughter can be heard nearby and they all looked at Team CRDL at another table, surrounding another student. That student is the same student that Jade met a couple of weeks ago, Velvet. His eyes widen at the scene before returning to his food with an even more sour mood and mumbled, "I swear to Oum this idiot does not know when to quit"
"Jade? Are you ok?" Ruby asked her sour mood teammate.
"Ouch!" a cry of pain can be heard from Velvet as laughter can be heard from team CRDL.
"I am not standing for this." he muttered as his eyes glowed red.
"Jade what are yo-" Weiss didn't manage to finish her question as Jade stood up and extended his left hand towards Cardin, Within less than a second, multiple metallic ribbons shot out of his sleeve and binded all of team CRDL.
"What!"
"Hey!"
"Who did that!"
Various cries can be heard from CRDL as Velvet was surprised that her tormentors are all bound up by metallic ribbons. The whole canteen went completely silent except for team CRDL's futile struggle against the bind, Footsteps can be heard as all looked at Jade as he walked towards the bounded team with metallic ribbons seen on his left sleeve with a deadpan yet furious look on his face.
"You have a lot of guts to pull this nonsense again… was the humiliation I've given you wasn't enough? If so, I can give you some more." Jade continued with a sinister feeling around him.
"Release me at once alley cat!" Cardin Yelled at Jade to no avail.
Jade chuckled at Cardin's empty threat before saying just one word, "No."
With it, he swung his left arm towards the window and sent Team CRDL through the window with an audible crash. With the filth out of the way, his eyes returned to normal and looked at Velvet.
"Hey there, it's been a while yes?" Jade smiled at Velvet as he extended his hand out for her.
"Jade… Thank you." She then meekly grabbed his hand and with his help, got back up on her feet.
"No problem Velvet after all, us faunus got to watch each other's backs if no is willing, If Cardin bully you again, call me, I'll give what's coming." Jade continued the conversation with Velvet with a satisfied smile on his face.
"Uh, thank you again Jade, you helped me a lot." Velvet says, showing a shy smile as she walked off. Jade nodded before heading back to his team table and continued eating his lunch and reading as the other two teams stared at Jade with awe. Jade, getting uncomfortable with all the staring uttered.
"Please stop staring at me and say something, y'all making me nervous like I did something wrong."
Jade noticeably shrinks before Yang interjected. "Well if you don't like all the attention why did you intervene?"
"Besides, who's the girl?" Weiss responded back.
"Her? Ah, her name is Velvet Scarlatina, nice girl though could use a confidence boost." Jade continued eating and reading his book as if nothing had happened a few minutes ago.
"How did you meet her?" Blake surprisingly asks that question.
"Ooh… someone's jealous." Yang butted in.
"Yang!" Blake yelled at Yang as Jade continued on.
"I accidentally bumped into her back on the first day when I first joined your team." Jade slightly blushing as he eats.
"Besides that, people like Cardin are atrocious. I can't stand people like him." Pyrrha angrily says.
"He's not the only one." Blake adds, showing her disdain.
"It must be hard to be a Faunus." Yang utters, feeling back for them.
"Life overall is cruel and merciless, even humans get the stick occasionally, if you ask me, it's the will to keep going forward no matter what life has thrown at your face that's what matters to me at least."
"What do you mean Jade?" Weiss interjected.
"What I meant Weiss, is that the world is not all sunshine and rainbows or in your case Weiss, all safe and sound with no issue, Mistral has a strong underground society, some of the most detestable things can be found there. I can only pray to Oum to whoever gets preyed as in the undergrounds, only those with power control the undergrounds and it contains the worst this world can put out whatever worst thing you name, they'd done it already multiple times."
"I hope you are making it up, Jady." Yang hoped that Jade was making it up while everyone else was horrified at what they heard.
"But why?" Ruby could only mutter.
"That I wish I could answer, but it's disgusting, even for me. It's for the best you don't learn anything about it." Jade could only mutter.
"As for what I mean by the latter, it means that life would and no doubt give all of us challenges in our lives, whether that be a crisis or losing a beloved one. All we can do is to pursue forward and not let it hold us back." Jade continued.
Jaune sighs and walks away, not feeling good about the whole situation.
Later at night…
Jade was having those dreams again, ever since he got into beacon this time, it showed him a world so strange yet so familiar… A world that possessed no dust, Grimm, aura or even Faunuses. He wandered through the busy streets as his body is semi-corporeal as people walked though his body as if he's not there, it's a strange experience. He then walked towards a public canteen of sorts, a wide variety of smells infiltrated his nostrils as he walked past some shops with people queuing to buy it. People can be seen eating different meals that he never seen before, fried noodles with vegetables and black sauce mixed in? Pork meat with pepper and soup that people here called Bak Ku Teh? Carrot cake? (Velvet would like that...) Chicken rice? and many more as he continued to walk on.
Jade wandered out of the public food court and down the streets again. His thoughts ran through as he watched people jogging past him, trees and bushes along the streets and roads, high rising buildings that seemed to touch the skies and covered in glass, some of them even had plants grown on them. It's all beautiful in their own way, he then comes across a school, as he walks past it, there's a flag on a pole, it's top part is made up of red and bottom white, but what's more interesting is the white crescent moon and five stars present on it right before everything turned white.
Jade woke up in confusion at what he saw, it all doesn't make sense, how would it? A world that exists beyond Remnant that has no Grimm, faunus, dust or even aura. Yet it only spars more questions about how and why is he shown this. Jade then looked at his scroll. It's only 4 am in the morning. He then got up from his Futon and headed towards the table, taking his scroll and a book and pen. Sitting down, he begins to write down everything he had seen in the dream despite the darkness in the dorm, his faunus eyes allowed him to see in pure darkness. No doubt should his team read it, they would probably think he's insane. Though some of the food he sees makes him curious, "I wonder if I can make them, they do smell good though." After he's done writing, Jade went back to his futon and tried to sleep again.
And there's chapter 6 done . So far I have written between 3k to 4k words, this would normally take me two days to finish (one day to write it, the other to make changes and grammar checking) however, in the coming weeks I would have more work to do, so I planned to still upload when I am able but the upload rate would be much slower than usual. As of yet I'm not sure if I pulled it off well enough on my writing though. I want to make this fic unique from others but I don't know, I guess only time will tell.
Please give me a review on how to improve anyways see you in the next chapter! RGQC signing out.