A/N: I dont own RWBY or Highschool DxD, and all I get from this is the satisfaction from reviews and telling a story.
More than a few reviewers had questions/concerns about a few things, so I'll just blanket address them here for all of you wonderful folks who didn't review and get an answer that way.
Jaune acting basically the same as he did in cannon: I was trying to avoid landing him in 'may as well be an OC' territory and will freely admit I over-committed in that endeavor. The changes in his mindset/demeanor should hopefully be more obvious in this chapter and even more so going forward.
Kings are all High Class devils and more powerful: Yes, I know, yes I have a reason why he's still technically mid-class, and I will properly address that in the next chapter. Sorry, but it just didn't fit in this chapter cleanly. He's plenty more powerful and competent though, don't worry.
Pyrrha threw Jaune: Being more powerful doesn't make you magically heavier, surprise can get people a long way, and having control of polarity makes moving a guy in metal armor pretty easy if you want to.
Jaune should know more about Aura/Semblances/Remnant things: That'll get addressed in this chapter.
Dont do Jaundice over!: Dont worry, I wont.
Pretty sure that was the bulk of the recurring questions. That said, thanks a ton for all the reviews, favorites and follows. It makes me feel awesome knowing how many people enjoyed the first chapter. All that out of the way, enjoy chapter 2 of Remnant DxD!
"-Uuuuuuuuuck!" Jaune wails as he tumbles out of control through the sky. Being a devil has a lot of perks. Near immortality, enhanced physical prowess, magic, and comprehension of spoken languages to name a few. What it doesn't provide is protection from becoming sticky red paste after striking the cold, hard, unforgiving ground at terminal velocity. Of course, some devils are skilled with wind magic or telekinesis, they'd be fine. Kuisha could just spawn a black hole behind herself and arrest her fall that way. Literally any devil worth two shits and or a giggle could manifest their wings and fly safely to the ground, or use a summoning circle to go, well, anywhere they have one that isn't hurtling through the air on a course to certain death.
Unfortunately for Jaune, manifesting his wings is out, thanks to him being watched, both by his fellow students and the myriad drones and cameras in the forest today, and a human randomly becoming a bat faunus would raise some serious questions. Magic is out, as all he is good at is enhancement runes, none of which will do much to stop him from splattering on the ground. Of course, all the other students have weapons that are letting them arrest or control their fall. All he has is a freaking sword and shield! And, finally, using a teleportation circle is right out, as that would just dump him back in his empty manor in the underworld, no peerage and cover blown to wait for his rank, job, and kingship to be stripped; dying as a stray or political inconvenience is just a slower slide to the same fate he's currently falling towards.
A crimson and bronze spear pierces his hoodie and pins him to a tree, as a familiar voice calls out "I'm sorry!" from the distance.
Heart still hammering away in his chest as adrenaline courses through him, Jaune takes a few calming breaths before calling back "Thank you!" Still dangling halfway up a redwood all he can really do is wait for his savior, probably Pyrrha, to arrive.
The forest itself is undeniably beautiful, though the idyllic scenerys appeal is marred as roaring grimm and gunfire break the silence with increasing frequency. Off to his left he can make out the sound of what is probably one of his fellow students struggling through the undergrowth. The commotion dies down, and he can barely hear a frustrated growl. Shortly afterwards a somewhat familiar voice grumbles "The Blonde Lech was more insightful than his first impression let on. The Child must have done something to be accepted into Beacon early. She gets one chance." then, without breaking through to the clearing Jaune is dangling above Weiss can be heard heading back to wherever she came from. Sighing, Jaune starts to pass the time trying to wiggle his way free.
"Jaune?" Pyrrha asks as she approaches the clearing nearly half an hour later. Ceasing his totally dignified attempts to descend the tree he is pinned to. Not struggling. He definitely hasn't been struggling. Jaunes gaze snaps to the direction of his saviors voice, and immediately glances to the side. Arms crossed under her impressive bust, further accentuating what her armor all but displays, a view only improved by his downward viewing angle "Do you have any spots left on your team?"
With an exasperated grumble he shakes his body back and forth, swinging in the wind, but not breaking free as he crosses his arms "Very funny."
Which is the best he can manage before glancing back at his partner and grinning. Smiling as well, Pyrrha spends the next few minutes jumping from branch to branch until she is perched on the one off to his left. One swift tug leaves her armed and him crouched on the forest floor, Pyrrha landing beside him as he stands up.
Not really sure where to go Jaune follows Pyrrha when she picks a direction and starts walking. Both of their attempts at small-talk as they walk through the forest can best be described as awkward and stilted. Though Jaune isn't sure whether that is the result of his less than stellar first impression, both of their nerves fraying as the sounds of battle fill the forest while they walk in peace, or-
Sputtering as his head cracks off the ground Pyrrha turns to check on him as the branch that had ambushed him sways to a halt "Jaune! I'm sorry." she manages, looking more ready for battle than apologetic.
Not that he can blame her "It's okay." He calmly answers, leaving the scratch be. The magic circle he would need to spawn to close up the inconsequential wound equal parts impossible to explain away and a waste of energy "Just a scratch."
Walking over to him as she calms back down "Why didn't you activate your aura?" Honestly? He doesn't have one, he has a cover for why he doesn't of course, but that doesn't change the fact that he doesn't. All he really knows is that Aura is part of what lets huntsmen and huntresses do what they do, and what makes them such enticing prospects for recruitment into a devils peerage. Still doesn't change the facts.
"Dont have one." He simply replies, face totally calm. He supposes he could have feigned ignorance, but his own pride makes that a non-option.
"Jaune, you, what?" Pyrrha asks, a mixture of shock, worry and confusion scrawled across her face.
Jaune shrugs. "Never had mine unlocked. Didnt get in any fights serious enough to have it unlock itself either." Bullshiting as best he can.
"How did you get into Beacon without one? How did you get through combat school?" Pyrrha presses, shock giving way to pure confusion as grimm off in the distance howling in rage.
"Tartarus Combat School focused on our skills and mindset." Jaune all but quotes his cover story as Pyrrha starts circling him, probably looking him over for injuries.
Pyrrha finishes turning and walks over to Jaune, resting her left hand in the crook of his neck as she moves right into his personal space and rests her hand on his shoulder, a scowl now crossing her face. "Close your eyes and concentrate."
Fighting hard not to react to the rather intimate touch of the beautiful girl standing in front of him and directly in her personal space, he manages to stutter out "Uh- okay." Before complying.
"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality." Pyrrha intones, and Jaune can feel the power radiating off her form. "Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all." A tingling sensation spreads across his body, starting at his heart and spreading outwards like wildfire. "Infinite in distance and unbound by death." The tingling up-shifts into a painful sense of pins and needles. "I release your soul," a brief flash of agony he knows only comes from over-exposure to light or holy objects "and by my shoulder, protect thee."
A brilliant white seeps through to his eyes from beyond his eyelids. Then, as soon as the pain came he can feel his magic mingling with and twisting his aura. With a toneless pulse the color shifts to a patina reminiscent of tarnished silver. Glowing or not, Jaune can't help but to enjoy the steady, tingly, and utterly right sensation enveloping him. However, Pyrrha is slumped over and looking incredibly drained.
Which is enough to get him to jump back, startled and worried as he exclaims her name. "Its alright, I used my Aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own," he can feel the shallow cut on his cheek seal itself as Pyrrha adds "you have a lot of it."
He can feel the grin splitting his face, but frankly, he doesn't care how goofy he looks. This, this is his and Sairaorgs ticket to forging a better Underworld, one where your skill and drive dictate how high you can rise. Not your political connections, family and the species you are born to. Pyrrha slowly rights herself and her exhausted features bleed into an indulgent smile "So, any idea which way we are supposed to go from here?"
The mischievous smirk slides back on to her face, vibrant eyes sparkling "What, you mean to tell me you dont know which way leads to the center of the forest?" before turning to lead the duo again.
"Pyr, I was tumbling ass over tea-kettle through the sky on my way to becoming a particularly bad tasting puddle of chutney before you saved my bacon. What do you think?" he deadpans, before realizing that he just gave a nickname to an apparently famous girl he had known for all of an hour "You, ah... you don't mind if I call you Pyr, do you?"
She lets a brief titter escape before answering "Of course not Jaune, though, I admit I'm surprised you didn't have a landing strategy ready before coming to Beacon."
Jaune suppresses the urge to growl at that "Hey, I know plenty of ways to fall safely. I just need prep-time. The headmaster just stood there giving me half-answers until it was my turn to get launched. I wasn't ready for the force of the launchpad, forget about actually landing in a controlled manner!"
Pyrrha looks back over her shoulder "Oh, I see." her voice just a touch too polite "And your Aura still being locked wouldnt have cut down on those?"
"Well, you see..." Jaune stalls, scrambling to come up with an excuse as he thinks over what having his Aura unlocked felt like. "In Tartarus Combat School..." it, it had felt a lot like when he would use promotion when he was still a pawn. Or, to be more accurate when he woke up from his stupid attempt to save Sairaorgs mom as a king or passing his mid-level devil exams. "We, we focused on drilling the basics and improving your physical prowess before you get the boost and crutch of an Aura." He continues, knowing that he is repeating himself. "So when it came to sticky situations not involving fighting, we were taught to rely on tools." he answers, hoping he was able to make it sound like a proper brag, not bullshiting off of his cover story.
Pyrrha tilts her head to the side as she breaks her stride to think "That... is actually a very sound philosophy. You'd be surprised how many fighters I was able to defeat because their strength drained with their Aura, or had to spend too much time thinking in a match to keep fighting at the level they needed to. Though I didnt see any tools on you, Jaune."
He shrugs. "If I had known I was going to be launched off a cliff, I would have had some with me." Wincing just after Pyrrha does, realizing too late that he had just snapped at his partner. Scrambling, he tacks on "Though, if my teachers knew that I didn't have mine on me they'd probably skin me alive. Please don't tell them if you meet them." He knows he's laying it on thick, but this is probably the only way he'll be able to keep up his cover.
Pyrrha resumes walking, with a shrug and a giggle. "Though I am shocked that having your Aura unlocked wasn't part of your graduation ceremony."
Well, right back on the spot then. As Pyrrha slows to a halt and crouches behind a bush, Jaune joins her and replies "Well, you might just be a student like me, but think about how much unlocking my Aura took out of you. Now imagine doing that for a few dozen people in a row." Pyrrha grimaces, nods, puts a finger to her lips and points over the bush they are crouched behind. Jaune peeks his head up to see an Ursa and a dozen or so Beowolves.
In another life, Jaune may have stayed behind the bush with his new partner and let the pack pass. However, Jaune recently received a substantial boosts to his power, and is eager to test his newfound strength. He quietly moves to a small deer-trail to the right of their hiding spot, draws his blade, expands his shield and sprints ahead as silently as he can. He hears Pyrrha shouting his name in shock and dismay, but by the time she can vocalize her displeasure he is in the middle of the grimm pack.
The first he passes has its arm sliced clean off. The second is decapitated and the third is run through where a normal animals heart would be. At that point the steady cracking of a rifle joins the grunts and growls of Jaunes cannon-ball like charge through the pack. Each shot followed by a grimm jerking back as its skull or heart is pierced by a dust round. His partner prioritizing whichever grimm he left maimed instead of dead after passing his blade through the monster.
The rush of power is... intoxicating. Euphoric even. Jaunes sword sails through a boulder, shearing off nearly a third of it before he buries the weapon in the Ursas gut. Drives his blade home with his shoulder and weight then heaving the beast over his body and out of the clearing. His blade sinks into a tree on the follow through as Pyrrha picks off the last beowolf. Then, much like the moment of clarity when you break a limb at a drunken party, the rush of power leaves him. Jaune finds himself unable to remove Crocea Mors from the tree. Pyrrha joins him in the clearing with a slight smile on her face. "That wasn't as hard as I thought it would be." She opines as Jaune struggles to pull his sword free. "I think we'll make an excellent... What are you doing?"
Jaune chuckles nervously "Uhh, its stuck?"
Pyrrha looks at him, face unreadable. "You killed most of the beowolves with barely any effort. Sliced the top of a boulder off on accident, and threw an ursa hard enough to break its back. Your sword being hilt deep in that tree is because you had to lunge on your follow-through after throwing an ursa."
"Yes?" Jaune cautiously ventures.
Pyrrha continues to look at him with a flat expression. Jaune gives up his pathetic attempts to free his weapon. "And you think I will be able to succeed where you failed?" Jaune nods his head hopefully. Pyrrha sighs and walks over to his stuck weapon. Jaune backs away, Pyrrha plants her left leg on the tree and grasps his sword with both hands. She takes a steadying breath, pulls back and as a slight black haze coats his blade it slides clear of the tree.
"Thanks Pyrrha, your a life-saver." Jaune happily quips as she hands his weapon back to him. The duo falls back into amiable silence as they continue working towards the supposed center of the forest. Eventually, they chance across a cave. There's some ominous looking stuff carved on the entrance, but... "Think this is a shortcut?"
Pyrrha shrugs "The entrance does seem to be headed in the right direction. But there's no telling where the cave comes out, or how complex the system is."
Jaune pulls his scroll out of his pocket and flicks the light on "Well, its at least worth checking, and if it looks like its too complex to not get lost we can just turn around." before setting off into the cave.
After almost ten minutes of Pyrrha silently padding along beside him she opines "I'm not sure this is it."
Jaune heaves a sigh and looks over his shoulder, slowing his stride. "I suppose it isn't like I went to the trouble of making a torch. Your probably right P-"
At that moment, walking askew and not watching his feet, Jaune trips. Of course, the fall causes him to drop his scroll. It bounces off a stalagmite, toggling the flashlight off before skittering to a halt next to Pyrrhas foot. "Do you feel that?"
"Burning embarrassment and self depredation?" Jaune deadpans, thoroughly glad the pitch black is hiding his blush.
"No, its, warm."
As the duos eyes slowly acclimate to the dark, Jaune finds his scrolls screen to be broken. He wants to ask Pyrrha why she doesn't use her scrolls light. But is cut off by something straight out of his nightmares. "That's... that's not good."
He takes a step back. The glowing orange stinger darts forward to stay a few inches from his nose. "Jaune?" Pyrrha prompts, slowly backpedaling so as to not trip him again.
"I can handle spiders." He calmly offers, further confusing his partner. He continues to backpedal, and the glowing bulb continues sliding forward to keep pace. "Pictures of scorpions don't scare me either. And I can tolerate the ones crazy people keep in terrariums as pets." He takes a gulp and swats the stinger away from his face. "But the thought of one of those hell-bugs with a stinger the size of my torso is where I draw the line."
The stinger retracts, its dull light revealing the massive form of the Deathstalker it is attatched to. Black chitin, red tracings lighting it up and way to many eyes and legs, with giant pincers and a stinger to go with. Jaune doesn't just shout. Nor does he scream. The noise he lets out as he turns to flee is a piercing, high pitched, admittedly girlish shriek of terror. Something in the back of his mind is made aware of Pyrrha exclaiming his name then sprinting after him. As the duo flees the massive Grimm, Jaune howls his displeasure to the sky. When the beast explodes out of the too-small for its form cave as Jaune and Pyrrha vault over a log, his partner shortly bites out "Less whining, more running."
Jaune slides under a branch, spring-boarding away from the stinger as Pyrrha rolls under a claw swipe. The beast easily keeps pace as they sprint. Pyrrha vaults over another log. The grimm smashes the wood to splinters. Jaune is sent flying when a claw slams into his shield, which gives Pyrrha enough time to snap off a few shots at the monster. Jaune rolls to his feet in time to avoid another stinger strike.
Run. Jump. Catch Pyrrha when she is launched sideways after taking a swipe to her shield. Run up a boulder and leap forwards. Ignore the shower of pulped stone when the deathstalker plows through it. Pyrrha rolls to the side to avoid another stinger jab. Slash at the beast to buy her time to stand up and get moving again. Run. Run, Dodge, Run. Vault over a log, roll forwards and leap back into a sprint. Check for Pyrrha. Jumping from branch to branch dodging the stinger. "There's a clearing ahead!" he shouts as the forest starts to thin out. Pyrrha drops to the forest floor to run alongside him.
They clear the forest at full tilt, and notice what looks to be some ruins and more students. Not that they can spare the effort to care at the moment. Pyrrha leaps through the grimms sweeping claw in a dodge, Jaune catches the blow on his shield. The blow launches him sideways, and forces him to twist midair to dodge the other claw, which Pyrrha rolls under. Oh, great, the others are just standing there chattering. He notices a blur of white to his right and leaps to catch what he assumes is a falling Weiss Schnee. He more or less slams into her gut, but breaks her fall.
Jaune is barely able to twist so that he slides on his back instead of crushing her into the ground. All she can manage is a gasping wheeze as the Deathstalker finally lands a blow on Pyrrha and launches her towards the gaggle of students. Weiss gathers enough of her senses to realize that Jaune currently has her pinned to his body, his right arm around her waist. She struggles free enough to slap him across the face as the blonde from earlier exclaims "Great! The gangs all here! Now we can die together!" With entirely too much pep as a blushing Weiss finishes struggling free.
"Not if I can help it." Ruby counters with a bit too much enthusiasm, before launching herself at the deathstalker. Her wordless battlecry is cut short when the beast effortlessly bats her bum-rush aside. She actually turns her back on the Deathstalker to 'reassure' the rest of the students shes fine. She takes a few potshots at the beast before turning to flee. Her blonde friend shouts the scythe-wielders name and runs to try to aid her. Jaune is more concerned with the grouchy Heiress dusting herself off and slowly stalking towards the unfolding drama. Rubys retreat to the rest of the students is cut off by a salvo of giant black feathers crashing to the ground point first, one of them pinning her cape to the ground. Jaune spares a glance skywards to see a massive nevermore circling the clearing. Wonderful.
As Jaune levers himself off the ground and rubs at the sore spot on his cheek, he finds himself mesmerized. With impeccable poise and form the Schnee heiress draws her rapier. With a flick of her wrist a line of white glyphs spring to life before her. She taps the tip of her blade to the air behind her, spawning a single black glyph. She couches her blade, jumps to plant her feet on the black glyph, and fires herself like a haughty missile at the deathstalker. Just as the scorpion grimm is about to impale Ruby, Weiss twists in midair, and buries her blade in the ground, spawning another white glyph and a massive wall of ice, shielding both girls.
Weiss and Ruby then seem to jointly decide that a battlefield is a good place to start having some sort of scolding/bonding argument. While the massive scorpion struggles to free itself from the summoned glacier Jaune picks himself up and pats some of the dust off his legs. He jogs over to Pyrrha, who is also in the process of dusting herself off. "You okay?" He prompts, getting a simple nod in response.
As Ruby, Weiss and the blonde make their way over, Pyrrha glances up and informs the group "That Nevermore is circling back for another attack."
Jaune nods after glancing up himself. "Then we should just get our relics and get out of here."
Weis grumbles before agreeing "There is no point in dilly-dallying here. Our objective isn't to kill Grimm this time."
"She's right, all we have to do is get back to the cliffs with an artifact. There's no point in fighting these things." Ruby agrees.
"Run and live." Jaune summarizes. He looks at the assorted black and gold chess pieces resting on stone pedestals. Some pairs already missing entirely, while it seams that the octet currently preparing to make a hasty retreat already has one of the golden rooks and knights spoken for. Ruby grabs the second golden knight, so Jaune decides to make a gamble he's pretty sure is playing it safe and goes for the golden rook. Ren and Nora had seemed like alright people when he met them yesterday.
Ruby flashes him an infectiously excited grin, which he returns. At that point the Deathstalker finally begins working its tail free, the groaning and crackling of breaking ice almost drowning out the beasts enraged howl. "Time we left." Ren barks. Ruby agrees and dashes off, Jaune just behind her, and the other following their lead.
For the next few minutes the group runs deeper into the ruins, and an increasingly thick fog. The nevermore continues to fly overhead, and the Deathstalker dogs their heels. The ruined pillars, half-tumbled columns, and moss covered granite walls making for an increasingly ominous backdrop to their flight. The massive stone cliff-face, and its winding staircase up and out of the Forest their target and beacon of hope.
The entire group stumbles to a halt and into hiding places in what looks to have been some sort of embarkation or reception plaza on one end of a narrow bridge over a seemingly bottomless chasm. The Nevermore had decided to perch on a ruined tower on the far side of the chasm, cutting them off, and the Deathstalker finally catches up with them. Jaune curses under his breath before exclaiming "We gotta move people!"
Ren and Nora dash out of cover, Nora pelting the Nevermore with grenades while Jaune, Pyrrha, Ruby and her friend make for the bridge. He can hear the distinctive cry of steel on bone quickly drowned out by the Deathstalkers shriek, and spares a glance over his shoulder to see the rest of their group dashing to catch up. Pyrrha drops to a knee and starts pelting the massive scorpion with rifle fire, clearly intent on delaying the beast. Jaune takes a knee as well, just to her right, both of them almost entirely guarded by the duos raised shields. Nora and Weiss sprint past, Ren flips over Jaune and begins unloading his SMGs into the grimm, one held to either side of Jaunes head. The black haired girl leaps over the three of them, then Jaune launches himself shield-first into the grimm.
Its stinger misses him thanks to the speed he closed with the beast. It howls in pain at the resounding crack of metal meeting bone. He shoves his shield into the staggered monster, only for his power to spike, turning what would have been a controlled back-flip into a graceless tumble. He rolls to a stop just as the nevermore shatters the center of the bridge.
Jaune picks himself up in time to see Pyrrha, Ren and the black haired girl barely keeping the Deathstalker at bay with their guns. "They need backup over there." he plainly states as Nora jogs to his side. "Any ideas on clearing the gap?" Nora just grins, and shoves him back. He barely has time to grunt in surprise before her grenade launcher shifts into a warhammer. She leaps up and slams her weapon into the crumbling bridge just as Jaune gets his feet under him again, launching him across the gap.
He hears explosions behind him as he orients his body so he can land on his feet, and sees a pink and white blur streak past. Nora lands a massive blow to the Deathstalkers head, and fires a grenade to dodge its retaliatory strike instead of simply landing. Unfortunately this slams her into the unsuspecting black haired girl, who flies past Jaune and over the ledge as he rolls to his feet on the bridge. He runs his blade through the grimms stinger, but before he can say anything he is nearly knocked off the bridge by a claw sweep. Pyrrha grunts in exertion as she slides to a halt next to him, blocking the other claw with her shield. "Ren, the stinger!" He bellows over the din of combat.
Moments later he feels a pair of feet touch off his back and a green blur passes his peripheral vision. Ren is able to cleanly sever the stinger with his blades, only for the tail to launch him into a nearby wall. Nora shouts her partners name in concern as Jaune allows the Grim to throw him at the other claw, which he runs through, dropping to a knee and raising his shield over himself for both defense and to form a platform. "Pyrrha, give Nora a nail!" he shouts as the beast howls in agony. His partner sprints forward, expanding her blade into its spear form. She holds her weapon to the grimms face, shield touching its butt as Jaune grunts from the force of Noras hammer firing on his shield. Two more explosions echo in the valley. Then a pink and white comet streaks past the grimms defensive claw swipe to pound Pyrrhas spear through the beasts brain. The trio are launched from the remains of the bridge to the dais before it as the dying grim falls.
A panting Ren shuffles over to Nora, who gives him a worried and excited hug as Jaune and Pyrrha pick themselves up off the ground. The quartet turns to the other fight just in time to see Ruby drag the nevermore up the side of the cliff-face. By its neck. With her scythe. Running along a trail of glyphs and firing Crescent Rose as quickly as she can behind her. So she can decapitate the massive grimm. "Whoaaaaa" Nora mumbles at the other groups flashy maneuver.
Jaune cant help but be impressed himself. Not that being impressed made the next fifteen minutes spent leaping from one support of the now ex-bridge to the next to cross the chasm with his likely new team any easier. Compared to the adrenaline fueled running battle through the Emerald Forest and flight from the massive grimm it's cathartic, calm and relaxing. Still a pain though. For a while the septuple proceeds in amicable silence. After ten minutes Jaune cant take it anymore, and walks over to the two newcomers. "Hi, I'm Jaune Arc."
"Yang Xiao Long. Rubys big sister." The blond answers with a carefree grin. "You must be the guy she met when she got lost after the airship dropped us off."
Jaune chuckles as the students reach the long winding switchbacked stairs leading from the the Emereald Forest back up to Beacon. Rubys distant figure now perched at the edge of the cliff, legs kicking the air as she watches them. "Guilty as charged." He looks Yang up and down. "And you two are sisters?"
Grinning Yang rolls her eyes and answers "Welllll, half-sisters if you wanna split hairs." Jaune opens his mouth in an 'o' of understanding. When the raven-haired girl still doesn't introduce herself Yang presses on as she wraps an arm around the taciturn girls shoulder. "And this" She jerks a thumb at the be-bowed girl "is my partner, Blake Belladonna. Shes shy."
Blake side-eyes her partner "No, I'm not."
The students round one of the many corners on the climb back up "Well, you aren't exactly talkative Blakey."
"Oh, so they get asked their names instead of being assigned a pet name by you right away." Weiss interjects sourly.
Jaune lightly scowls at the heiress. "Hey, you're pretty and I have bad impulse control when I'm nervous." Stopping on one of the corners to wave his arms in agitation as he tries to defend his, in hindsight, cringe-worthy actions.
Yang pats him on the shoulder as he passes him by. "You must be pretty nervous right now then, lover-boy." Jaune freezes in place, realizing what he had just said, a blush racing across his face, before slumping over in defeat.
A lightly blushing Weiss stops on the stairs from her spot at the front of the group. "Please don't encourage him Miss. Xiao Long."
As Yang continues to climb the stairs, Pyrrha replaces her, and rests a hand on his shoulder "Dont worry, I'll always just call you Jaune."
"And you can just call me Yang, Ice Queen." The blonde brawler interjects as she catches up with her partner. The group falls back into a more or less easy silence as they finish climbing the narrow stairway up to Beacon. The stairway widens out considerably after the landing that serves as the entrance to the Vale Huntsman Tomb. Traffic in and out of that somber place is light, though most of the mourners are around his own parents age by the look of it today. Every few feet for the last stretch of their ascent they pass another statue of some huntsman or huntress long dead carved into an alcove carved from the cliff face. The lawn overlooking the forest, which had been empty in the morning at the start of initiation is now filled with medical Bullheads and senior huntsman teams.
"Why aren't they doing anything yet?" Nora wonders aloud as they regroup with Ruby.
The usually chipper girl frowns "I, I asked some of the paramedics while I was waiting for you guys to catch up with me. They don't start rescue and recovery operations until the last team has been formed."
Weiss and Pyrrha both flinch at that, as Yang replies. "I guess Ozpin wasn't kidding when he said hesitating will get us killed this morning." Her bombastic demeanor subdued.
Ruby shrugs. "Yea, the paramedics said this year is shaping up to be pretty light as far as casualties go, but-"
"JAUNE! Hey Jaune, over here!" An excited and familiar voice exclaims.
He turns to face the voice just in time to be tackle-glomped by a curvaceous strawberry blonde missile. He looks up to see one of his older sisters smiling faces. "Aurora? What are you doing here?" He asks, hugging the elder sister second closest in age to him back.
She stands up as a trio of huntsmen and huntresses make their way over to the larger group. Jaune accepts her offered hand to stand back up. Long legs clad in fitted khaki cargo pants, an olive drab green utility belt resting at an angle on her generous hips, white crop top and faded denim vest concealing her ample bust her bastard sword resting in a sheath over her shoulder, Aurora is more or less the same as he remembers her from the last time she and her team had stopped through the Arc family home. "Who's the babe?" Nora stage whispers to Jaune.
Jaune chuckles nervously as most of the girls in the group level glares at him "Ah, this is one of my older sisters, Aurora." He looks behind her to see three more semi-familiar faces as names are exchanged between his sister and new friends. "And, the rest of her team, it looks like."
Aurora nods "Yep. Ozpin likes to have a few older or recently graduated teams on hand for initiation day in case the current Senior class can't handle things, so-"
Jaune notices something new about his sister. Specifically a golden, sparkling ornament on her left ring finger. "Holy shit Aurora, Mike actually proposed to you!" Jaune cuts her off, a happy grin crossing his face as he shoves the one man on the team out of the way to hug his sister again.
The powerfully built pale, dusty-brown haired young man with a neat mustache/goatee combo chuckles awkwardly as Jaunes sister breaks out into a blush. His olive drab greatcoat fluttering in the wind to reveal dark blue-jeans, a plain black t-shirt and his pair of maces underneath. "Yea, and it only took the idiot a month after he bought the ring to pop the question." A faunus with a wolf tail and a lit cigarette hanging out of her mouth interjects.
Grumbling Aurora interjects just loudly enough to be heard over the bullheads starting up "And I still can't believe all of you knew what he was planning and didn't warn me, Cobalt." naming the black leather short-shorts, combat boots, crimson midriff bearing tube-top and open denim jacket clad faunus. She shrugs, jostling the lance at her back just enough to brush one of her spikey side ponytails.
"Indi's the one who figured it out." the muscular girl defends herself, jerking a finger over her shoulder to indicate a quiet girl with long straight black hair clad in a simple black and white diamond checker patterned combat dress with an oversize heater shield on her back.
For a few minutes the small group stops talking, the roar of the initial wave of bullheads taking off making any verbal communication impossible. In fact, its all they can do to keep all of their clothes in place and weapons properly sheathed. When the noise and wind dies down, the girl in question gracefully steps up to stand beside the similarly proportioned faunus. However, her more dancer-like appearance hints to her most likely lighter than the svelte blonde. "Michael is incredibly easy to read when he's nervous." Before she pauses to glare at the other girl "And my name is Indigo, Miss Roi."
As the faunus clutches at her chest as if wounded and begins crowing about how cruel her partner is, Aurora giggles. "Yea, those two had to physically throw my idiot of a fiance into our hotel room during our last mission. Apparently he'd been sitting on the ring for a month and-" The leader of the older team cuts herself off when her scroll starts blaring out an alarm. She checks it and winces "That's us Team Aquamarine, looks like some of the recently cut prospective students stirred up a Beringel troupe." The team turns to jog back to their bullhead, though Aurora stays long enough to hug her brother one last time "Good luck with your stay at Beacon, Jaune. Stay in touch!"
The eight freshman finish picking their way through the lawn as the bullhead activity picks up. They are just barely able to make out the first few to return. Many of the the rescued prospective huntsmen and huntresses dejectedly plodding away from the transports towards the isolated Academies bullhead docks to begin the journey home. A few are being helped towards the medical tents. Fewer still being rushed to ambulance bullheads on stretchers, a a scant handful of unmoving forms are quietly laid inside body bags.
Much of the excited pep is drained from the group as they make their way to the assembly hall Ozpin had made his welcome speech in yesterday. They are handed Beacon uniforms and sent to the lockers after having their pictures taken for their new ID's, then corralled into a bland waiting room off to the side of the stage to await the news of what their teams will be. Professor Goodwitch selects groups of four and sends them to the stage at a decently steady pace, though the room is otherwise silent.
The room itself is, nice, to be honest. Deep forest green walls, plush crème carpet, and plush leather sofas and recliners. Half of the students seem to be nursing wounds or doing their best to not doze off, and the quiet isn't helping them. Bored, Jaune pulls his scroll out on a whim. Oh, a new message from Sairoarg. Looks like he sent it during the very start of Initiation. He opens the email, and feels his chest ice over.
'Hey Jaune.' Is the simple greeting. 'Here's wishing you good luck during your initiation. As well as a reminder to review the report Lord Baels scouts prepared for you after agreeing to my plan to send you home to set up the Underworlds foothold in your world. A lot of important info you'd be expected to know in that document, make sure you know it forwards and back before interacting with you peers too much. We have a decent finger to the pulse of Remnants civilians, but the huntsmen and huntresses are pretty insular.'
Jaune scrolls back a few messages until he finds the one marked as 'secure' and opens it. Information on Aura, on Semblences, known grimm variants and their sub-types. Famous huntsmen, well known lineages in the trade as well as infamous traitors and blunders. Some of this he knew already, but after spending the better part of half a dozen years in the Underworld, a lot of it he didn't. Between his excitement over becoming both a King and Huntsman, and prideful hubris not expecting anything to be in the report that he, a Remnant native, to not already know. He'd let his emotions run away from him and acted every inch the clueless greenhorn out of his depth.
His scroll pings to notify him of an incoming message. He scrolls up to see that its from Ravel. 'Good luck at your initiation, don't make a fool of yourself.' Well, too late for that. He morosely thinks to himself. At least only one person had seen the worst of it, and Pyrrha strikes him as a nice enough person to not spread that story. On top of that, his partner has the feel of a Sacred Gear wielder, oblivious and untrained, but still...
Ozpin calling the next team to the stage breaks his train of thought as Proffessor Goodwitch ushers the rude, armored guy from the transport to Beacon, along with the grouchy mohawked punk from last night, along with two others. Jaune is barely able to remember their names – Cardin, Russel, Dove and Sky, Professor Ozpins voice helpfully informs over the intercom as he names them team Cardinal.
Then Professor Goodwitch is ushering himself, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora onto the stage, insisting he lead the quartet. He is almost able to register that he had been right in his guess about matching pieces indicating teams, but the sheer size of the crowd gazing on and cheering has him on tilt. As soon as they had been announced and named team Juniper a giggling Nora leaps over to hug Ren, nearly tumbling the duo to the ground in a tangle of green pink and white. When Professor Ozpin names him the leader, he freezes for a moment, allowing a grinning Pyrrha to playfully punch his shoulder.
Not even thinking, he playfully shoves Pyrrha back with one arm, causing her to stumble and trip over the unstable group of Ren being hugged by Nora, causing all three to fall to the ground. The Amphitheater erupts into laughter as Jaune jogs over to try to help his freshly formed team up. Still grinning, Pyrrha reaches up to accept Jaunes offered hand, only for Nora and Rens writhing attempts to disentangle themselves to shift Pyrrha back and pull Jaune down into the pile of his team. The laughter goes thunderous as Jaune realizes his face had actually impacted something soft, he looks up to see his face buried in Pyrrhas boobs, the Mistrali champions face as red as her hair. He looks back to see his legs straddling both Nora and Ren, forcing the pair even closer together. Groaning, and probably blushing himself, Jaune rolls off his team to the crescendo of laughter, and silently prays to whatever deity may be listening for the ground to swallow him up.
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