A/N: I dont own RWBY or Highschool DxD, and make no profits from this story. Please dont sue me, I'm broke enough as it is.
I normally try to have the next chapter done before I upload, but with the holidays coming up, I dont think I'm gonna finish the buffer in time to keep up my monthly update minimum. Hopefully that wont bite me in the ass. Things will be picking up with the story arc that starts after this chapter, so strap yourselves in folks!
Waking up Saturday morning is, less than pleasant, to say the least. The throbbing headache and churning stomach acting as swift reminders why he rarely drinks to excess. "Rough hangover?" Ren asks from his perch on Noras bed, the bombastic girl moaning as if in pain.
Jaune shakes his head. "Not that bad really, I just don't do this often."
"Showers and breakfast?" Ren prompts without looking up from his partner, or stopping rubbing the miserable girls back.
"No. Dying then being buried." the ginger girl moans through her pillow.
Jaune hops out of his bed and pads over to Pyrrhas bed, knocking on one of the wooden posts like one would a door. "Hey, Pyrrha, wanna get up with the rest of us?"
"Why did we do that again?" Pyrrha croaks after a few minutes of silence, bloodshot eyes and disheveled hair visible as she pokes her head over her lofted beds edge.
That is enough to get a chuckle from Jaune. "Because it sounded like fun, Weiss was being obtuse, and we did something pretty amazing by making it this far?"
"And now we're going to die."
"Nora, stop being melodramatic."
Pyrrhas head retreats back out of sight, and, sounding more than a little embarrassed asks "Jaune, could you hand me up the sweatpants and t-shirt I keep on my desks chair?" Jaune is about to ask why, when he realizes that just about everything the champion had been wearing last night is scattered around her bed, roughly in tossing range for a drunk, and balled up as if taken off by one. Blushing, Jaune collects his partners go-to 'lazing around' clothes and tosses them up onto her bed.
A startled squawk followed by a thump prompts Jaune to turn around to see an annoyed looking Ren in a heap on the floor. "No boys above ground level when the girls are changing." Nora scolds as she starts climbing down from her bed, clad in the athletic shorts and t-shirt she normally sleeps in. Her hair, much like Rens, and probably Jaunes is a wild mess, and her eyes are bloodshot.
Grumbling, Ren counters "You were already dressed Nora."
"Pyrrha was naked." his partner counters, eliciting an embarrassed squawk from the other redhead. Who attempts to hop down from her bed shortly after, though her usual adroit landing is replaced by her stumbling into Jaune, both of them blushing furiously. Though Jaune is able to get his own embarrassment under control quickly enough.
The quartet collect their shower caddies, towels and proceed to shamble from their room to the showers. They pass a chipper looking Coco on their way, the fasionista even able to make pajamas seem chic with her swishy, comfy looking black pants and tan tank top hugging her frame in all the right places. "Morning after pills, ladies?" she shamelessly asks, offering a pill bottle to the suddenly mortified girls as she passes the group. She takes their red faced stammering as a no and, laughing, carries on down the hallway to start knocking loudly on one of the dorm doors. "Oh loooooovebirds! Did we remember to use rubbers last night?" She loudly crows, likely waking some of the other, still sleeping students up.
A blushing, annoyed looking Velvet stomps past the still frozen in place team JNPR. "Coco, what did I say about trying to embarrass the freshman!" Jaune grumbles a bit, the fuzzy brown onesie she's in looks really comfy, and he misses his.
"That its fun and they brought it on themselves. Besides FSJC look adorable as a pair of couples." Coco quips as her teammate catches up with her and starts trying to pull the other girl back to their room.
Velvet growls "No, I said not to ship the freshmen! You took the RA job to get us the perks, not for an excuse to be a nuisance!" The door she is standing in front of opens, a pillow flies out and connects squarely with Cocos face, and team JNPR remembers why they are out of bed to the sound of the door slamming shut again. The showers are mostly empty, and the entire team is able to claim a stall without any wait. Luckily, enough of the other students on their floor are sleeping in that no one complains about how long their showers end up going. So, about twenty minutes later four slightly more human looking hunters in training make their way back to their dorm room wrapped in towels. They get dressed, each facing a different corner of the room, in silence.
Well, near silence, about halfway through Pyrrha lets out a startled yelp. "Saber, stop scaring my partner." Jaune dryly orders his familiar, knowing better than to turn around this time. The hellhound mutt whimpers and nuzzles his hand as he finishes dressing.
"There's no need to be mean to your dog Jaune." Pyrrha quips, resting a hand on his shoulder to let him know its okay to turn around now.
"If you know how many of my sisters roommates and teammates he's gotten indecent exposure tickets you wouldn't be saying that." Jaune deadpans, causing Pyrrha to pale and take a step back.
Before any further banter can take place though, Nora grabs both of them by their collars and starts dragging them towards the door. "Food." she almost tonelessly states. After a few seconds of shocked compliance the partners extricate themselves from Noras grip and start walking under their own power. Campus is pretty empty, but enough students are up that there's still a line in the cafeteria.
A few minutes later and the team re-convenes, Nora armed with the greasiest looking breakfast sandwich Jaune has ever seen, Ren with a fruit salad and truly massive cup of either coffee or tea, Pyrrha with an omelet that looks to contain more cheese than egg and Jaune with a heaping plate of biscuits and gravy. Jaune doesn't sit to eat, rather he goes to get himself and the rest of his team glasses of orange juice. After returning to the spot at one of the tables they had claimed he joins them in silently eating for a few minutes, eventually breaking the silence with a snigger "So, Nora, what did we learn about dancing on tables last night?"
"That I look good doing it and you should shut up unless you want me to get into how you don't know how to handle a girl hitting on you." The grumpily hung over girl retorts, rubbing her thigh where she had fallen into a different table after trying exactly what Jaune had brought up.
"Who was talking about not knowing how do deal with a girl hitting on her?" Yang quips as she saunters over to the spot on the table JNPR had claimed, her aviators from initiation covering her eyes.
Noras head snaps around to look at the new arrival, and her eyes bug out a bit. "What are you talking about, people teasing each other about not being able to deal with being hit on? None of that happening here, nope. Hahaha why would anyone I know do that, especially with a Yang around? Ha Haha. Stop being silly Yang!" The bombastic girl speed-rambles, looking more than a little like a deer caught in the headlights, and just loud enough to have everyone wincing.
Yang sits, the rest of team RWBY following suit, and all wearing cheap plastic sunglasses with frames coordinated to match their usual outfits. Laughing, she announces "So, last night was a blast, when are we gonna do it again?"
"Never, I'm never having alcohol again." Ruby moans from her seat next to her sister, timidly poking at a bowl of oatmeal.
Blake suppresses a smirk when Yang shoots back "Oh don't be like that Ruby, the first hangovers always the worst. I'm sure you'll be way better off this time next weekend."
Weiss' turns to glare at the blonde brawler from behind her sunglasses. "No. Absolutely not. If I ever do decide to go out with you lot again, it wont be for a while."
"Aww, dont be like that Weiss-cream."
Jaune sighs. "She has a point though, as fun as it was, we need to put our training first. Celebrations or the occasional need to blow off steam are fine and all, but..."
Ren, picking up where his leader had trailed off adds "Coco was pretty clear last night she isn't going to be anywhere near as lenient with not reporting rulebreaking on our floor going forward."
"Okay." Yang caves, causing the more reserved teenagers to pause, clearly surprised at her reaction. "What, isn't that how negotiation works? Ask for more than you expect to get, then accept the deal that's closer to what you wanted?"
Blake narrows her eyes at her partner. "And you just got the rest of us to tacitly agree to cut loose as a group every now and then."
Yang nods, grinning "Doesn't even have to be going out partying. I just wanted to make sure we don't end up as the 'all work and no play' teams."
Jaune nods in agreement "Putting to much time and effort into just one facet of your life is never healthy. Making it a group thing will make it so more than just me and Ruby are watching out for our teams mental health."
"I'm surprised you were able to sneak that one past me Xiao Long." Weiss interjects, honest surprise on her voice, fork froze halfway from plate to mouth. "And when did Coco say anything last night. The last we saw of her was on the way out."
Nora shoots an offended glare at Weiss, who flinches back a bit. "You can't get into Beacon if your all muscle and no brain Weiss."
"And Coco was waiting for all the freshman on our floor to get back for the night. Gave us medicine for the headaches and some juice to help with the dehydration this morning." Ren adds, more than a little judgment in his voice as well. Jaune supposes it makes sense for Nora to come to Yangs defense, since both girls probably got dumped into the 'dumb brawler' stereotype pretty frequently. Ren backing Nora up makes just as much sense, he supposes, with how long the pair has apparently been watching out for each other.
The awkward silence after Weiss' chastisement hangs for a few minutes as the hung over teens eat until Ruby breaks it. "So, plans for today?"
Jaune shrugs. "Once we're feeling better, probably do some team sparing and training. Talk about semblances, get some synergy figured out before our turn on weekend duty in the Emerald Forest."
"Wanna do some four on four sparring later today then?" Yang offers, still sounding entirely to chipper as far as most of the teens in the group are concerned.
Pyrrha looks up from her breakfast and croaks "That sounds wonderful." Jaune and the rest of team JNPR nodding along with the leaders partner.
"Yea, I mean, I know the semblance part is kinda personal, only your team and people you trust sort of thing but it would be nice if we could train together some." Ruby rambles, tapping her pointer fingers together, her voice an awkward combination of sheepishness and eagerness.
Jaune nods "I could see our teams getting there, but, yea. Relax and recover, do some warm up sparring, actually talk to our teammates about our semblances and their limitations instead of guessing from what we saw last week and in initiation, cap it off with some four on four."
"Don't forget homework." Weiss interjects, looking a tad bit cross.
Blake side-eyes the heiress "He said this afternoon, Weiss. That leaves all evening and tomorrow for any classwork we have left." Inane chatter dominates the remainder of the meal, the group of friends eventually moving back to the common area of their dorm floor. There are already a handful of other students sprawled out on the couches and chairs watching what looks like one of those horror movie parody movies. Blake rolls her eyes and wanders off, returning to the common area with a book, claiming one of the recliners off to the side, left empty due to its abysmal view of the TV. Nora and Yang plop down on the floor in front of one of the couches, Ren to his partners right and Ruby her sisters left on the couch. Behind them. Weiss curls in on herself to her partners left against the arm of the couch, leaving Jaune and Pyrrha to claim whats left of the couches right half.
The next few hours are spent chuckling at bad jokes and slapstick humor, only really moving to go to the bathroom, or take a fresh can of Woohoo chocolate milk from one of the cases of it someone had left on one of the tables against the wall and marked 'free'. Jaune has his suspicions as to who the saint that did so is. It's maybe an hour after noon that sees team JNPR in their battle garb, armed and ambling into one of the practice rings near Professor Goodwitches classroom.
The room very much resembles a scaled-down version of the combat classroom. The ring is about half the size of the classrooms, and the stadium seating is scaled down to two sets of bleachers that can, maybe, fit twenty people total and is bisected by the only entrance to the room. There is a screen on the opposite wall, much smaller than the one in Goodwitch's classroom, but still larger than any TV a person would have in anything but a home theater. Below the screen is a small computer to synch up any combatants scrolls with to display their aura level instead of the hidden wireless setup in the classroom that the practice ring is modeled after.
Nora is sprawls out on one of the benches, and Ren leans against it from the seat below, his head near Noras legs. Pyrrha sits crossleged on the bleacher below Ren, and halfway between him and Jaune, who straddles the middle bleacher of the three the team is using. "So, semblances. I'll open by saying that I just had my aura unlocked by Pyrrha in initiation, so I have no clue." Jaune had been tempted to try to pass off his magic as his semblance, but between the prep-work he needs to actually accomplish anything with it currently, his inability to properly study to rectify that weakness, and the difficulty he would face when he suddenly gained a 'second' semblance, he had opted not to.
"Wait, if you didn't have an Aura, how'd you get into Beacon?" Nora asks, half sitting up.
Pyrrha, the saint of a partner that she is, answers for him. "Tartarus Combat School, apparently, subscribes to the train of thought that Aura is a crutch, and trains its students without unlocking their auraus first."
Nora tilts her head in confusion "But then why didn't he get his Aura unlocked when he graduated?"
Pyrrha chuckles "Trust me Nora, after unlocking his aura myself, even thinking about doing the same for a few dozen students in some grand ceremony, or even spaced out over a few days before graduation is enough to make me want to sleep for a month."
"Though that does explain why you are so physically powerful but still-"
"Able to scratch your own back." Nora cuts her partner off, a bombastic grin on her face.
Blushing a bit at the praise Jaune cuts in "Anyhow, so, us, semblances. I plan to take enough extra-curricular combat lessons and pick-up spars to get mine as soon as possible. What about the rest of you?" hopefully heading off further byplay, and keeping things on course enough to get each member of his team set up for a spar with the others before RWBY arrives.
Nora thumps back down onto the bleacher and replies "Electricity makes me stronger."
"And I can mask negative emotions. Great for sneaking around grimm, aside from that…" Ren offers, his usual calm facade masking any feelings he may have about his souls power made manifest.
Juane, not about to let a friend even hint at self deprivation breaks the trailing silence. "So, you have a skill that's ideal for hunting down our intended quarry. Perfect." He pauses, before turning to face his partner. "Pyrrha?"
The redhead looks away from the group, her bangs covering most of her face, and left hand 'clearing' said hair shrouds the rest. "I, well. No one else in the tournament circuit knows what it is."
"And we'll have saved each other's lives more times than we can count before the end of our sophomore year." Nora counters, leaning in towards the champion eagerly.
Pyrrha looks away again, clearly unable to meet the bombastic fingers gaze. "Be that as it may, some of my competitors might accuse me of cheating if word got out." Her shoulders hunched inwards in shame.
Ren scowls briefly before responding. "A person has no control over how the power of their soul manifests. None of us will judge you for that, and we will keep your secret safe." Pyrrha glances about, both Nora and Juane nodding silently when they make eye contact with her.
"I, can control polarity. Just, a wave of the hand, or twitch of the fingers, and anything even remotely ferrous…" Pyrrha states, trailing off as understanding blooms in her teammates eyes.
The silence reigns until Jaune starts to chuckle "Well, that explains how you can dodge and parry so well. Anyone who takes a swing at you is predetermined to miss."
"I'm supprised no one has figured it out yet." Ren adds, sounding more thoughtful that upset as he leans back into the bleachers behind him.
"So, I'm the beatstick, Ren helps us get work done, and Pyrrha will make bandits and criminals easy-mode." Nora lazily summarizes, Picking up Magnhild and idly twirling it in its hammer form as she speaks. "So, about that sparring."
Jaune stands, stretching a bit as he makes his way over to the arena. "Lets go for ring out or first to lose fifteen percent of their aura for these. We still want to be mostly fresh for team RWBY."
The teammates head to opposite edges of the ring and face off. With an understated "Go." from Ren, they spring into motion. Fighting Nora, Jaune quickly realizes, is like battling a friendly landslide. Trying to dodge her hammer just gets him hemmed in by a momentum-fueled follow up swing, and catching the blows on his shield only gives him a sore arm and lets her create distance. Still, there are only so many different ways a hammer can be swung, especially ones that chain together well.
Were they outside and Nora able to use her grenades as freely as he had seen her in initiation, the duel may have gone differently. As things stand however, he simply has to bide his time for one of her powerful horizontal sweeps and dodge underneath it. With a sweep of his legs and a flick of his blade he leaves Nora on her back and disarmed, Crocea Mors tip at her throat. After a few tense seconds Nora starts giggling, and Jaune reaches forward to help her up. "That was a good one Jaune, I almost had you."
He nods "If we had been outside you probably would have been able to rush down my aura enough for a quick win with those grenades of yours." The girl just shrugs at that, clearly used to being at a disadvantage during indoor spars. "We'll start doing some of these sessions outside I think. We all need to get our practice in after all." Pyrrha and Ren face off, and Jaune starts the match for them the same way Ren had a few minutes prior.
Rens rapid, acrobatic, close in style of fighting, on paper, is a perfect counter for Pyrrhas positional focus and conservative, no nonsense defensive tactics. Always darting in and out, striking from odd angles and off tempo. However, every 'opening' the black haired young man instinctively dives for is a carefully laid trap, Stormflower never quite striking at the angle or spot he wanted, Miló and Akoúo̱ always a touch better placed and more accurate than they should be. After nearly five minutes of constant clashing, Pyrrha's weapon never in the same form for more than a few blows as she deals with the green blur that is Lie Ren seeking an opening to exploit, the buzzer sounds, indicating that Ren had lost the predetermined amount from his aura for a loss.
Jaune strides past a panting, red faced Ren to face off against his partner, who is smiling pleasantly, looking none the worse for the wear, aura matching his at a healthy ninety fife percent. He barely has time to settle into a ready stance before Nora all but bellows "Fight!" starting the next match. Jaune rushes in, knowing that if he holds back, she will just drain his aura away with rifle fire. At first, he manages to keep his red-headed partner from zoning him out. Each of his hits taking a larger chunk out of her aura then hers can drain from him, despite his strikes never landing cleanly or squarely enough to transfer all of his strength into the blows.
Then Pyrrha shifts from defensive, to offensive tactics, and it is all Jaune can do to keep the blows landing on his sword and shield. Constantly backpedaling under a veritable storm of xiphos and short spear strikes, the occasional shield bash or rifle shot keeping him from finding his balance. A minute after the Invincible Girl began her offensive, Jaune stumbles off the arenas edge, his aura two percent away from costing him the match anyways. Pyrrha still even breathed at eighty five percent aura.
Pyrrha leans over the edge of the ring to offer him a hand getting up, which he gladly accepts. "You nearly had me for a bit there, Jaune." Normally he would assume such a claim made after such a brutal beatdown to be taunting, but Pyrrha just sounds to earnest for it to be anything but what she believes to be the truth.
Jaune shakes his head as he dusts himself off. "Don't know what you're talking about, I could barely keep pace once you went on the offensive." Pyrrha gives him an odd look at that, but he is already passing Nora on her way out to face down Pyrrha, so lets it slide as unimportant. Jaune waits until the two girls on the team are set in proper fighting stances, and starts their match. It quickly becomes obvious that Nora is the worst equipped of Jaune, Ren and herself to fight the Mistrali champion. Relying even more on hard hitting attacks than Jaune, without the defensive option of a shield, while also lacking Rens speed and agility to more effectively dodge and wielding a massive, heavy slab of steel. To put it simply, Pyrrha takes an increasingly frustrated looking Nora Valkyrie to pieces.
The shorter girls controlled chaos and weaponized momentum is gone, almost entirely replaced by startled stumbling and a struggle to stay on her feet. A struggle that Nora looses on several occasions when an opportunistic swipe, stab or shot from Miló tips Noras tenuous grasp on balance over the edge. Nora spends most of her time in the 'match' not on the ground spinning wildly out of control after another near miss when trying to strike Pyrrha, or desperately regaining control of her own momentum whilst trying to evade Pyrrhas jabs and slashes.
The buzzer sounds after a mere two minutes, and a growling, stomping Nora makes for the bleachers, a pensive looking Pyrrha following behind the defeated ginger, right arm holding her lefts elbow, face turned down and away from the rest of her team. Mentally, Jaune knows that he will need to address whatever is budding between Pyrrha and Nora sooner rather than later, but calling them out with the whole team present would be a horrible idea. So, he takes his place in the arena opposite Ren for the teams penultimate spar. When neither girl announces the matches start, Jaune shrugs and offers "On three, then?" The black haired teen nods, and Jaune taps his sword on his shield one, two, three times and the duo explodes into motion.
Ren is a blur of green and white, and while Pyrrha had been hard to land a telling blow on thanks to her semblance and skill at dodging, Ren simply isnt in one place for long enough for Jaune to land a meaningful hit. That said, most of the dual-wielders blows land on Jaunes shield or armor. For a few minutes the spar carries on in that frustrating vein, neither young man able to gain meaningful headway. Jaune is the one to break the stalemate, when Ren goes for an aerial lunge. The leader waits until the last possible moment before dropping both his sword and shield as he sidesteps Rens attack, getting nicked in the process. It is, however, just barely enough for Jaune to catch Rens leading arms wrist and bicep, albeit sloppily, but firmly. Jaune drops to a knee, twisting his body as he rams his shoulder into Rens armpit and launches the other teen out of the arena and across his own back.
Ren is able to twist in midair and land in a neat three-point stance, but the buzzer is already going off for a ring out. Smirking slightly, Ren stands up as Jaune collects his weapons and returns them to their place on his belt. "Well fought. I wasn't expecting you to go for a ring-out that way." Ren congratulates his leader as he re-enters the ring for his bout with Nora.
Jaune shrugs "It was a gambit, you would have had me with the death of a thousand cuts if that hadn't worked." Whether or not Ren felt inclined to question that he holds his silence. Nora playfully swinging Magnhild as she moves to take to her place opposite him in the ring.
Jaune starts the match, and, as Ren and Nora fall into what is likely a familiar dance of him dodging for all he's worth, and Nora pushing her ability to control her naturally unwieldy weapon to the limit in search of the one or two hits she will need to win, Jaune looks over to his partner. "You aren't feeling guilty about going three and out in our spars, are you?"
"What, no, of course not! I had a splendid time sparring with each of you." Pyrrha answers a bit too quickly, waving her hands in front of her.
Jaune keeps his face even. "Yes, because that's why you weren't looking at any of us when you and Nora were headed for the bleachers." Pyrrha doesn't say anything as Jaune holds her gaze, the redhead eventually blushing and looking back towards the spar in progress. "Well, if you ever feel like talking about it, I'm your partner, and wont be going anywhere for at least the next four years." Pyrrha nods a bit, and Jaune glances back to the ring just in time to see Ren sweep Noras legs, knocking the now madly giggling girl over as her weapon goes flying, Stormflower held to her neck.
Clearly not overly upset over having lost the spar, she reaches up with her right hand to poke Rens nose with a "Boop". He steps to the side and helps her up, and, still grinning Nora announces "That has us back to even sparring against each other Ren. You know what that means!"
A small smile on his face, Ren answers "Loser of the next spar has to make the winner pancakes for a month."
"If you were wondering, that means Noras gonna win the next dozen or so." Yangs cheery voice half-whispers as the blonde saunters into the room, Ember Celica on her wrists.
Pyrrha covers her mouth with the hand not planted on the bleachers "So, did you come to spar with all of us to save your team the hassle then?"
"Nope." Yang quips, popping the p at the end of the word. "Ruby managed to snag one of the outdoor rings. I volunteered to come and get you four." At that she turns around and starts heading for the exit.
Team JNPR follows her, Jaune, as soon as his team is within earshot mutters. "Alright, I'll rush in, take Yang head on and generally try to draw their attention. Nora, Ren, cause chaos, don't let RWBY get anything coordinated set up. Pyrrha, pick off any stragglers we are able to single out." Jaunes instructions are met with a series of silent nods, and his team catches all the way up with Yang as she strides out of the classroom building and into the main courtyard.
"You guys enjoy your spars?" Yang asks no one in particular once they are moving as a group, Yang just barely ahead of the others so as to keep leading them.
Nora nods excitedly "Yup! I mean, I totally thought I would do better against Pyrrha than I did, which was kinda stupid of me. I mean, Me and Ren are good, but neither of us are exactly international tourney circuit good."
Pyrrha casts a glance at the other partner duo on her team. "I don't know, you're certainly more skilled than some of the combatants I face in the early rounds. I'm sure that with all of us training together you will be able to finish Top Ten this time next year. I mean, if you decided to participate that is." Nora waves Pyrrha off, mumbling something about just trying to make them feel better.
For the next few minutes the group walks in amiable silence, lead away from the main path by Yang. After passing between the Sophomore and Junior dorm rooms, and a brief detour through the storage sheds they find themselves walking through what seems to be a well signed hedge maze/garden combination. As they continue to follow Yang through the apparent garden it becomes clear that every intersection has a statue of some huntsman or huntress with a small plaque at its base either on one of the corners or central to the junction. Each length of 'wall has a pair of gates, equidistant from each other and the corners of the hedge wall, however, thanks to an additional wall inside the closed off area, he cannot make out what is inside each. That said, the sounds of combat emanating from most of the 'rooms' is enough of a clue as to what is behind the gates.
Each corner has a sign somewhere between to what Jaune is used to seeing in big hospitals and hiking trails. After a few minutes of bouncing from sign to sign Yang walks up to one of the wrought iron gates, and taps her scroll against the panel opposite the hinges. Yang pushes the now unlocked gate open, and the group of teens enter and walk around the privacy wall to see a large, sunken arena about halfway between the indoor sparring rings and the combat classrooms arena. More seating than the sparring ring, though it is carved stone instead of cheep steel and wood. The screen and interface system likewise seem to be scaled down versions of Professor Goodwitch's classroom, all nestled under an awning large enough to protect the electronics from the elements.
Ruby is idly chattering at Blake, who is stretching, while a bored looking Weiss is lounging on one of the bleachers. "Alright! Lets get this show on the road!" The busty blond happily exclaims as she moves to re-group with her team.
"So, how are we gonna do this?" Blake prompts as the two teams set about syncing their scrolls to the arenas monitoring system. The two teams defaulting to red and blue teams for RWBY and JNPR respectively as they do so.
"May as well go for tournament standard, we only planned on having the one match today anyways." Jaune replies as he and his team start doing light stretches while Ruby continues to tap away at the screen.
Snickering as she shakes her arms out, Yang quips "What, still sore from last night Jaune?"
He glares at the beaming girl "You're the one who was insisting on playing punchies. If I hadn't taken you up on the offer one of those guys that kept hitting on you girls all night would have ended up with a cracked sternum."
"I don't see why your complaining Jaune. You got off easily." Weiss grumbles as the display rolls over to show team JNPR and RWBY instead of the default blue and red.
Yang grimaces. "Weiss, don't be like that, I already said I was sorry like, a dozen times."
"You punched me in the boob!" the heiress shoots back, still scowling as she glares at her teammate.
"And I said it was an accident and I was-"
"Hard!" Weiss cuts the other girl off, right index finger now inches away from the blondes left breast.
Ruby, giggling a bit walks over to the rest of her team "Yang, Weiss was already pretty drunk by then. I think. Also, rolling around on the ground in pain."
Nora nods sagely "So, she probably didn't even hear half of your apologies."
Ren, glancing at the other laughing teens interjects "So, are we ready to start then?" Jaune galnces to the display screen, Yangs aura is the lowest at sixtey eight percent, the rest of the gathered students falling somewhere between seventey five and eighty five, save Pyrrha who is at eighty nine percent.
Still looking grumpy, Weiss turns from her teammate to face Jaunes team, and Ruby manages to clear the smirk from her face. The two teams settle into ready stances, Jaune at the head of his team, Pyrrha directly behind him with Nora to her right and Ren between him and Pyrrha to the left. Team Ruby is arrayed mostly in a straight line, save for Ruby, who is behind her sister in the middle of their formation.
Ruby taps one last button on her scroll before returning it to her pocket. The display screen starts a slow countdown from ten. At the final, long tone the two teams burst into action. Jaune meeting Yangs opening hay-maker with a shield-punch, only for three more blows to impact his shield before he can force the other blond to break off her attack to roll under a quick sweep of Crocea Mors.
Glancing to his right he is able to spot Blake and Ren locked in a high speed duel as well, Blakes semblance allowing her to keep pace with Rens faster strikes. The moment of distraction is enough for Yang to sweep Jaunes legs out from under him, though he is able to roll out of the way of the two-fisted smash Yang had been moving to follow up with and spring back to his feet before another follow-up can be attempted. Jaune is able to use his shield to shove Weiss, who had been moving to circumvent him and Ren to get to Nora and Pyrrha. That is all the more attention he can spare before going back to focusing on the brawler he had singled out.
A pair of dismayed squawks followed by what sounds like a small thunderstorm clues him in to the current disposition of Weiss and Ruby, in short, exploded. A manically cackling Nora streaks past as Jaune dodges another shotgun enhanced right hook. He makes to hook Yangs, but the blond slides away from his attempted takedown and buries her left fist in his short ribs just beneath his armor and fires Ember Celica, sending him skidding back and twisting him around.
Now facing more towards Ren and Blake, he is just able to catch the raven haired girl knocking Ren out of the air with a brutal side-kick, only for a bronze disc to zip over his downed teammates form to knock Blake down as well. Jaune is able to make out a crimson streak heading towards the two prone fighters and catching Akoúo̱, but is forced to revert his concentration to Yang as she rushes him again. This time he is able to cleanly slide past her strike and deliver a pommel strike cleanly to the base of the other blonds skull, sending her stumbling forward.
Galncing around again he spots Ruby crouched over a slow to rise Blake, grimacing as she tries to keep Pyrrha from taking the prone girl out, their weapons deadlocked as they struggle. On the other side of the arena Weiss is doing an admirable job of avoiding Noras hammer-swings. Jaunes distraction costs him however, as Yang is able to catch Ren's attempt to sneak behind Weiss to help finish her off with a blast from Ember Celica. Which means Weiss is able to summon an angled black glyph under the staggered teens feet at the same moment Magnhild impacts her gut. With a click, the launcher fires as Weiss activates the glyph she had summoned, and both her and Ren are launched clear of the arena.
Before Yang can react to the turn of events, Jaune rushes her, keeping the brawler at bay with jabs and slashes preventing her from closing range with him. The deafening crack of Crescent Rose firing almost distracts him more than the startled 'eep' from its wielder, or the strangling noises from the other man on his team. Jaune knocks Yang down with another powerful slash, buying himself enough time to see Pyrrha well inside Rubys effective range and driving her towards the center of the arena, draining her aura away hit by hit as she presses towards where Blake has Ren in a sleeper hold, slowly draining his aura as well by choking him with Gambol Shrouds ribbon.
Yang surges to her feet with a roar, eyes now crimson, her golden mane now a halo of flame as she bears down on Jaune, intent on rushing him down to so that she can aid her sister and partner. It is all Jaune can do to dodge and block the berserkers onslaught, but he can feel her chewing through his recently unlocked aura far quicker than he is comfortable with. Luckily for him, the buzzer sounds two more times in rapid succession, probably Ruby and Ren getting taken out. Jaunes suspicions are confirmed a heartbeat later when a quartet of Milós stacato cracks and a third elimination tone herald Blakes elimination as Yang knocks him to the ground with an enraged jab.
Jaune is once again able to roll away from Yangs attempts to strike his prone form, rolling to his feet as Pyrrha paces up behind the other girl, all three of them sweating heavily at this point. The two sword and board fighters begin circling the remaining member of team RWBY like hungry sharks. Jaune spares a glance to the display, to see Yang is barely above the red, his own aura in the thirties, and Pyrrhas in the sixties. "How are you still going Jaune?" the other blond huffs as they prepare for what will likely be the last exchange of the bout.
"Its an Arc thing. Deep aura reserves." He answers plainly, once more silently thanking Sairoarg and Lord Bael for having gotten him such a complete dossier on the home-world he had barely spent any of his recent life on.
Grinning through her sweat matted hair and heavy breathing, Yang quips "Neat. We'll have to have a proper spar with both of us starting fresh some day."
"Not to be rude, but shouldn't we..."
Jaune chuckles at his partners interruption, but Yang is the one to respond as she resets her stance. "Yea, me with an almost bottomed out aura and spent semblance against the Invincible Girl and her partner. I know how this ends." At that, Pyrrha moves in, serpent quick, driving Yang back with a series of jabs from Milós spear form, allowing Jaune to land a shield bash to Yangs under-defended off side, spilling her to the ground, dropping her aura into the red and ending the match.
Pyrrha reaches down to help the blond to her feet, and the eight sweaty but invigorated teens make their way back to their dorm rooms, bantering about the days spars and last nights reveries. Showers and getting to bed early dominating their tired minds and weary bodies desires.
_-*R-DxD*_
Sunday is spent on homework, and generally lazing around, though Jaune does have to print off a fresh set of contract tags for his familiars harness when the unholy mutt turns up in the dorm room with an empty harness. Then, Monday comes and the semester falls into a comfortably familiar pattern. Classes during the day, the occasional spar in Professor Goodwitch's class, which both teams RWBY and JNPR had been placed into the top group of, despite Jaunes efforts to make sure he doesn't stand out too much. Sparing and homework before goofing around after classes. A few times a week Jaune would use his summoning circles to teleport out to the Emerald Forest to kill grimm to fulfill more of his loophole contracts.
On their free Saturdays, teams RWBY and JNPR spar during the day, regularly switching up the format to keep it from getting dull. It quickly becomes an unspoken agreement that after Saturday spars, nothing important or strenuous is to be done. All of them are simply too tired to do anything else well by then. So, Jaune is understandably surprised when Pyrrha gets up from the couch in their dorm when he gets back to it from his post-spar shower on a Saturday night. "Jaune, we need to talk." is all she says, before moving to leave the room. Both Nora and Ren shoot him confused, unhelpful looks before returning to the movie they had been watching. Slothman, if he is identifying the villain on the screen right.
He throws on a t-shirt and follows his partner out to the rooftop. Pyrrha is standing near the edge, and he walks up to stand next to her "So, whats up Pyrrha?"
"Why are you holding back, Jaune?" She asks him, her even voice lacking its usual warmth and her blunt approach both equally shocking to him.
"I, I dont know what you're talking about Pyrrha, I give it my all every day." Jaune lies through his teeth to stall for time.
Pyrrha fixes him with the sort of even look normally reserved for her first time sizing up an opponent in the sparring rings. "Jaune, you pulped a boulder during initiation. You threw an Ursa Major over your shoulder as well." She pauses, and Jaune sticks to his guns and silence. "Plus, I'm a four time National Tournament Champion for the most populace nation on Remnant. I've, been in a few fights. The way you fight isn't the way most people do when its a spar not a serious fight. Its more than that."
Jaune suppresses the urge to, well, emote at all, at that. Chances are, she has him dead to rights. He weighs his options, Pyrrha is an incredibly polite, soft-spoken person. He could probably hold his ground, insist he isn't holding back as much as she seems to know, or at least suspect strongly enough to confront him that he is. She would probably back down, and he could keep up the facade of being just another huntsman in training. The problem with that is, not only could it potentially hurt both his long and short term relationship with his team and potential members of his peerage, it could backfire. Badly. Big secrets are risky like that, and very hard to maintain long term.
He takes a breath to steady himself, and answers "I'm holding back to protect something of an... open secret I have."
"An, open secret? How so?" Pyrrha queries, looking more confused than anything.
Jaune shrugs. "I'm not human, but am able to hide in plain sight pretty well. I just don't want to spread the word around to people I don't trust or know all that well."
Now Pyrrha just looks confused, taking a step away from him and the ledge "How does, being a faunus mean you have to hold yourself back to hide your species, Jaune?"
He shakes his head at that. "Not a faunus, actually. I'm a devil, Pyrrha."
Her face shifts from confusion to that politely offended scowl she gets when people are trying to play a prank on her or asking for an autograph. "Your the fictional guy in a red suit that convinces people to do bad things. Of course."
Jaune scratches at the back of his head. "Ah, your thinking of the original Satan, who I guess has somehow made the jump into Remnants entertainment. But no, I'm not that monster. He died a few centuries ago, the underworlds under new leadership. Nowhere near as nasty as it used to be." He manifests his wings, and Pyrrha leaps back with a startled gasp. "Once I graduate I'll be the first devil that's also a huntsman, hopefully it'll help me move up in the social hierarchy of the underworld quicker than you would expect for a guy in my situation."
"What, how... you didn't have those wings..." Pyrrha starts, well, almost rambling. Clearly shocked.
Jaune, hoping that just ripping the band-aid off in one go will help her believe him "Yup, wings that I can hide at will, superhuman strength and senses, near perfect night vision and magic. Comprehension of most spoken languages. All part of the basic devil package."
That is enough to draw Pyrrha up short, her shocked face clamping back down to the politely offended face she gets after finally managing to get away from a group of pushy fans. "Magic, like the Four Maidens? Really Jaune?"
Quickly patting down his pockets, he is relieved to find a few of the simple summoning circles he had been getting ready, hoping to eventually take on more traditional contracts with humans and faunus as well. He hands her one of the slips "Walk to the far corner of the roof, I can at least prove the magic." She complies, luckily, though she still looks skeptical and upset. At least until a pair of summoning circles spring to life on the rooftop in the tarnished silver patina he knows is representative of both his aura and magic, and, with a few arcs of power he is standing right next to her, instead of the opposite corner of the roof.
Pyrrha just stares at him, dumbfounded. "But, how..."
"Like I said, magic. I can explain things to you more in depth when we're less tired. All you need to know for now is that, aside from my upper limits being a lot higher than is normal, how long I'll live and a few other minor things I'm the same guy. Just a different species." Jaune soothes her, or, well, tries to. He likes to think he can be smooth when he needs to, and hope this is one of the instances of him pulling it off.
Pyrrha shakes her head, blushing a bit, he had teleported rather close to her, and replies "I suppose I can see why you would rather not advertise what you are. It is rather a lot to take in."
He chuckles as they begin to head back towards the interior of the dorm hall and their beds. "That and the presumption that I'm evil because of my species. More driven by desires maybe, but not evil. I just wanna be a huntsman and make the worlds a better place."
The door to the rooftop closes, and, in the room below, a group of teens who had all fallen silent when they heard the conversation look to their leader. "We have to be absolutely sure before we take this to Lord Suriel." Cardin Winchester informs his subordinates, plans and contingencies already forming in his mind.
Loved it? Hated it? Have an uncomfortable rash and a burning desire to tell someone about it? Drop a review either way, those are like rocket fuel for me, nothing motivates me to write more!
Also, just gonna head off some of the anger, while Cardin is still in an antagonistic role there will not be a re-hash of Jaundice. Aint no blackmail planned in this fic.