Ok, just wanted to note something: I'm so sorry for how long this took. I kind of picked up another project and switched gears entirely.

Anyways, as promised I'll include mainline cast (RWBY, NPR) but only a couple (A Pyrrha segment and a Weiss (and even calling it a segment for her is pushing it, more like a cameo) segment. The former is a bit long, so feel free to skip) everything else is basically fanservice.


Food, games, shows, and more,

All at the Vytal Festival!


Jaune Arc was a man who had a complicated relationship with the big cities. Oh, yes, the big cities were definitely important places where he'd have no trouble restocking on supplies, but it was also a giant safe haven that he had nothing to do in. Plus, he was still procrastinating on getting his license. The 'nothing to do' bit went doubly so for the academies.

There was one time every two years when that rule was shattered. That time was the Vytal Festival.

Look, Jaune was a man dedicated to protecting the outlands. He was the countryside knight, he was a vigilant warden of the farmlands.

But he was also a guy who loved festivals, so sue him! There were many things to love about it. First of which would be the food. Second of which would be the games. Third of which would be the shows. Fourth of which would-ok he just liked a lot of stuff about the festival!

Also, Darling had been very insistent they go.

So, they went! And boy, what a time was had!


"HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA!" Jaune Arc was not a man easily made to clutch his chest laughing. He was not a man who could be paralyzed with sheer delight by a mundane joke. He was a man with high standards.

Qrow and Winter both kneeling with dunce caps on their heads very easily met those standards.

"Oh laugh it up, jackass." Qrow rolled his eyes as Jaune got a few more laughs in.

"This is a rare occurrence, but I agree with the over inflated balloon full of alcohol and misery."

A good question to be asked was why Qrow and Winter, a respected veteran Huntsman and a prime Atlesian Operative respectively, were being humiliated as such. The answer was that in an escalating argument, the two of them decided to duke it out like petulant school children in a public courtyard. Anyways, it turns out that the headmasters of Beacon and Atlas had a sense of humor, deciding to give the two agents dunce caps and forcing them to kneel before the destruction they caused.

It was fucking hilarious.

"Oh my brothers it's funnier every time I look!" Jaune actually fucking hit the floor with how much mirth was flowing out of his lips. Before Winter and Qrow could execute their master plan and beat on a teenager while he was down like bul-valiant hunters, a haughty voice interrupted them all.

"Excuse me!" And out of the watching crowd came one Weiss Schnee, who looked at the buffoon who was mocking her sister with disdain. "And who do you think you are, laughing at an esteemed hunter?" A part of Winter felt proud at her younger sister's praise, another part was mortified that she was talking to her friend like that.

"Huh?" Jaune, to his credit, stopped laughing when someone was talking to him. He swiftly got up, shaking some dirt and dust from his armor as he did. "Well, name's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tong-"

"He's a friend." Winter knew what Jaune was about to say and to save him (and her, by association) the embarrassment, she muffled his next words.

"Ah, ice queen can't keep away from her knight in white~" Qrow gave a teasing smile. "And I thought the steak dinner was platonic!" Winter regretted sharing that detail with Qrow.

"Oh? And this is coming from the man who slept with him while you were both drunk?"

Something that wasn't (or was) taken into consideration was the fact that Ruby and Weiss were listening to the verbal spat and before anything could escalate, they reacted.

"UNCLE QROW!?" The cry got Qrow to react with more fear than Jaune had ever seen from the man. "IS WHAT SHE SAID TRUE!?" And boy did she look angry!

"Winter! Did you actually go on a date with this, this, this, rapscallion!" Jaune internally noted that the mini-Winter seemed to think that farting in someone's general direction was considered a tremendous display of profanity.

The two were quickly dragged off by their family members as they tried to explain the context behind the accusations at hand. The crowd lost interest as the noise died down and all that was left was Jaune, whose chest was sore from all the laughing he did. After recovering from probably pulling a muscle and bruising his stomach against his armor, he shrugged and walked off.

Well, time to enjoy the festival.


May had a habit of bringing out a childish and competitive side in Jaune. The side in him that responded in Lavendar's teases and insults with all the grace and dignity of a fellow child. It wasn't like he didn't enjoy yelling at and with her as they continued to one up the other in whatever competition they decided on. Hell, he enjoyed it!

"Hah! I got ya now!" May laughed from the highground, hoisting her lever action rifle over her shoulder with one hand and spinning her revolver with dazzling grace with the other.

Among its many attractions, the Vytal Festival also had a dedicated spot for roleplayers. This year, the theme was Old Vacuan Shootout. They had created a prospector's ghost town, complete with a saloon and bank for people to rob. Employees dressed up as clerks, sheriffs, and one as a cactus!

Anyways, the two were quick to spend their Lien on rental outfits that they wore under their desert cloaks. May's wide brimmed hat had been tilted to cover her eye, which May liked and shot Jaune for saying it'd fall off. Thankfully due to aura and airsoft guns not even holding a candle to the force of an actual firearm, Jaune barely reacted.

Anyways, the two started well, walking into the town and getting a drink.

And then they got into an argument. Not a serious argument, a stupid argument, a stupid argument about who was the best cowboy.

Jaune brought up the fact he had been wandering Remnant for a year or so, doing good as he did, and was a local legend around some parts. May brought up the fact that she actually knew and appreciated guns unlike his uneducated boarish medieval ass.

The argument naturally grew from there. In fact, they shot the sheriff at the same time when he yelled at them to keep quiet and got into further arguing over who drew first. To his credit, the sheriff played along and protracted his death scene with a melodramatic monologue over how tragic his demise was while the two bickering pretend sociopaths continued to argue over who killed the guy faster.

They eventually took it outside, with the two getting into a very intense fight. Thankfully, the entire place was hunter-proof. And actual fighting beyond using the guns was prohibited, with guests who didn't have aura were afforded small hard light dust reflectors that would protect their face.

Anyways, those facts did not prevent the two from having an epic duel, which started with Jaune kicking up a cloud of dust and running away. It wasn't the cloud itself that blinded May, she had her Semblance to prevent that, it was the fact that it hit her eye and stunned her before she could react.

May called him a dirty cheater, Jaune called himself smart. Anyways, May found a ladder and some highground on the roof of the bank while Jaune was taking cover behind a barrel while she shot shot after shot of small plastic beads in his general direction. She didn't like the fact her gun had no kick whatsoever, but she'd live with it.

"Screw you too!" Jaune flipped May off from behind the barrel, only for the nail of his middle finger to be hit with a bb. He flinched at the sudden impact and retracted his fingers.

"Another point for me!" May howled triumphantly, already assured in her victory. "At this rate, the town will be painted red with your blood!" Well, if they were using actual weapons, it would've. And that wasn't even considering aura.

"Don't count me out just yet!" Jaune used the barrel as cover as he ran behind another building. He was at a remarkable disadvantage here, given that May had what was essentially wallhacks. Luckily for him-

Ok, actually, he was kind of fucked. He technically had more experience with one handed weapons, his flare gun found frequent use, but it paled in comparison to May's sharpshooting. Just a few practice shots later and she dwarfed his abilities. All he really had going for him was his wit and the environment wasn't exactly one he was used to.

Still, it wasn't like there was much at stake. Well, there was pride, but what would losing really mean in the long run? May holding it over his head every time their discussion veered close to the realm of firearms?

... Jaune felt a burst of motivation upon imagining her smug smile. Luckily, she wasn't using actual bullets, or their fight would be even more one sided. Seriously, that semblance of hers was just insane. She could see through anything, with the only problem being that she had a limited range and could only see through one material at a time.

And he was in a place where most of everything was made of wood. To his benefit, he had the cloak on, but she could still pinpoint where exactly he was with little trouble.

"I wish this was a renaissance fair." Jaune grumbled as he bemoaned the unfairness of the situation. Whatever, that just meant he had to work just that much harder to win. "At least then I could've worn my armor." Oh yea, he didn't have his armor on. May complained about him not being dressed for the part and he had to dress down. Under the cloak he was wearing his jeans, but instead of his hoodie he had a brown leather jacket on. He also attached some spurs to his boots.

"I hear whining!" And that was May, just great! He could see her shadow as she rounded the corner, spinning her revolver like some cheesy action movie character.

"And I hear an overconfident idiot!" Jaune pulled out his second gun, a double barreled shotgun, and fired as he ran around the building.

The small wild ghost town was just a street of carefully constructed buildings to accurately emulate a ghost town, with a floor of dust (the dry ground up rock that's easy to make clouds with) made using dust (the fuel source that Jaune paid way too much for). There were actors (with aura) who populated the town. Sheriffs, townsfolk, bandits, and more were present.

And when Jaune ran up to main street, where most of the people were, he was immediately greeted with a choir of firearms ready to sing him a chorus of plastic. He looked up from the guns to see a mixture of guests and actors, differentiated by the tags they had on them.

"Hey, what's the hold up-oh." May rounded the corner and found some guns pointed at her as well.

"Alright, now I don't appreciate you two coming around and wrecking my town." The sheriff spoke up in an exaggerated accent. "So why don't you two put your hands up and come to the jail?"

"..." Jaune shared a look with May and they both put their hands up. They weren't in any real danger, but it was in the spirit of the place to pretend as if they were. And this many guns was a pretty overwhelming threat.

The two of them sat were promptly thrown in jail to languish until they either decided to break out or were bailed out. Before they could do the former, the latter happened.

"Hah!" Unfortunately for Jaune, it was only May that was bailed out. "Suck it!" And with little else to compete over, the two bickering morons ended up deciding who won with that.

"So this is where you were!" To Jaune, the new voice was unfamiliar. To May, it sent a wave of terror through her spine. "And to think you were spying on our competition." Around the corner came out a few people Jaune recognized quickly, what with May describing them in fairly vivid detail.

The rest of Team BRNZ stood before the jail. Brawnz, Roy, and Nolan in all their uncostumed glory.

"..." And May looked like she was screwed in fifteen different ways. "Uh, Jaune? Could you help a friend out here and stuff? It'd be appreciated." She spoke quietly so that only he could hear.

"..." Jaune looked with an amused smile as Brawnz opened the cell door and picked May up.

"Alright May! We agreed on this, we have three hours after class to ourselves, and then we train for the rest of the day! We can't go representing our team with a sloppy performance, now can we!?" Brawnz had a cocky and slightly strained smile as Jaune realized that May had gone over the time by an hour or two. "And after all that big talk about how we couldn't let Team NDGO show us up!"

"AHH! Jaune help me! Please!" May cried out in horror as she knew Brawnz's training was going to be exhausting.

"Good luck! Make sure her training is extra hard!" Jaune smiled like a madman as May cried out obscenities and promises of brutal revenge while she was being carried off by Brawnz.


The Vytal Festival was absolutely gigantic in scale. There was no other way of putting it. The campus of Beacon had been seperated into numerous parts, each of which contained a different type of attraction. There were food trucks, there were company sponsored exhibitions, and finally there were the games, the tons and tons and tons of carnival games. Games from every corner of Remnant were all jammed into a single campus, all ready to siphon away the Lien from any poor fool who thought themselves skilled enough to beat the rigged odds.

Evidently, Qrow, Winter and Jaune were all very much fools. After a brief time apart, they met up once more to catch up. It was all going very well.

At least until Qrow decided to open his stupid mouth.

"Well, Ice Queen, I think it says a lot that my brat is the team leader over yours. Don't you know the saying? The children mimic their elders." Qrow took every opportunity to mock and goad Winter into a fight as he leaned over with a shit eating grin while Winter bristled.

"Oh?" In truth, she really didn't care. Weiss had complained in letters in the first few days, but had quickly come around to the choice. And it wasn't Winter's place to mind the choice. Still, she couldn't just back down from the insult. To do so would basically be letting Qrow trample over her! And she was not letting that drunkard get one over on her. "And you're insinuating that your niece will be just as much of a lush and lech?" With a frigid smile, she turned towards Qrow.

"Damnit, guys. We were doing so well." Jaune sighed, he really should've expected this. It was a testament to the insanity of the Vytal memorial that those two hadn't killed each other yet.

"I'm just insinuating that it's clear that I'm the best hunter here."

"You use a shotgun cause you can't hit the broad side of a barn. You just a giant sword because precision and grace don't exist in your vocabulary. You are far from the best." Winter smirked as Qrow's eyebrow twitched. "Furthermore, who here is the one in an exalted position in the Atlesian Military with a pension? And who here has to slaughter Grimm every week in order to get a measly check?" Looks like Qrow's griping about the complicated bureaucracy was coming back to bite him in the ass.

"And-"

"Guys, how about we settle this feud like reasonable people." There was a brief moment of silence. "Ok, scratch that. How about we do something fun. Why not settle this with carnival games instead of destroying another courtyard?"

"Hmph, playing games with the clown is below me." She rolled her eyes, though her hand left her saber.

"Aww, are you scared?" And with that taunt, the deal was sealed and the three of them were competing in carnival games. How was he also taking part in this competition despite running out cash with May? Well, he had managed to get some pocket money from Darling after a few games with her. He ended up owing her a few favors (he was dreading when she was going to call those in) but it was worth it.

Wait, no, it definitely wasn't. They were carnival games for brother's sake! They were basically playing the entertainment equivalent of snake oil!

The first game they decided to play was a cup toss. They were supposed to throw a ball into one of several buckets without the former falling out of the latter because of the former's bounciness and the latter's relative shallowness. Anyways, it was one Lien for a single shot and three Lien for five. The three of them decided to save their cash and only get one each.

"Alright Ice Queen, let me show you how it's done!" With careful precision, Qrow tossed his ball towards the shallowest bucket, aiming for the biggest prize. And in a uncharacteristic display of hubris and forgetfulness, he forgot his Semblance was what could be described as 'a total bitch'. That was to say, the ball bounced off of the rim, off a table, off his stomach, and landed in the rubber duck pool in the next stall over. "... Fuck my semblance."

"It's my turn." Winter smiled as she tossed the ball herself.

The same thing happened to her. Except the ball landed in the bucket, bounced out, slammed her in the face, and then landed on the ground.

"..." Winter's eyes twitched as Qrow choked on air laughing at her. Jaune stifled his chuckles and moved to take his turn. The bucket was angled upwards, but its rims were facing outwards as to make it easier for the ball to leave. The hard part wasn't landing it in the bucket, it was controlling their strength so that it wouldn't just leave immediately afterwards. And unfortunately for him, Jaune was a hunter. And while he wasn't the strongest, the game was made for it to be difficult for normal people's usual strength.

As he prepared to throw the ball, he thought through his strategy. Through it straight in was obviously the worst choice, it'd just bounce off the bottom of the bucket and jump out. And it was just far enough so that the amount of strength necessary to get it in the bucket was also the amount of momentum needed to force it out.

So he did something else. Instead, he threw it upwards. He hoped that by throwing it up and letting the ball first impact the rim of the bucket, the bouncing would instead be confined to the bucket itself, letting it lose all that momentum on the rim instead of on the bottom.

And he failed to account for the rim's tilt, which led to it bouncing up and then going out on the curved edge.

"Whoops! Good try, would you like to do it again?" Obviously not. With no prizes in hand, the three of them left the ball toss for another prize. Qrow was still grumbling about his Semblance, Winter was grumbling about how his Semblance probably affected her, and Jaune was stewing in disappointment at failing the game. They eventually found another stall with a relatively short line, the maze.

The idea was to control a little guy as he ran through a randomly created maze with several exits for several different prizes. The entry fee was ten Lien, which they paid for a run.

"Ok, this one's more my thing!" Qrow cracked his knuckles as he grabbed the joystick and began to command the little cartoonish guy as he ran through the maze. Qrow's eyes and mind worked double time as he kept track of his character's position, mapped routes to the end, and eyed the timer. He was going for the big prize and immediately began going towards it.

And then the timer ran out.

"Eh?" Qrow could've sworn that he had more time. It was around 60 seconds and he definitely had more!

"Such a shame. And you were doing so well." Winter offered another smug smile while Qrow grumbled some more. She stepped up to the stand and smiled. Immediately before it started, small Glyphs formed under her feet as electricity dust was used to create dilation Glyphs. She saw the world in slow motion, finding the optimal path in less than a second and then moving towards it with equal speed. The time meant that she could keep an eye on the counter and on the maze with less effort.

That was when she noticed the trick, the timer was going fast. And the maze was made so that all but the smallest prize was practically impossible to reach within the limit. So, she changed course midway, and aimed for the smallest prize. She didn't need to go big, she just needed something better than Qrow.

And then the game was terminated.

"Hey! No Semblances!" Oh, it looks like they noticed. Her face was reset to a stony expression as Qrow's sour one became a sunny smile.

"What? The ever diligent and stick-assed Winter Schnee is cheating at a carnival game? What has the world come to!?" Qrow feigned fainting at the horror of such a prospect.

"It seems that I've learned well from you." Winter grumbled, he was going to hold it over her for a while, she knew.

"Ok, my turn I guess." Jaune stepped up and proceeded to bomb the game horribly. He was good under pressure, but mazes were just something he could never get. The lines blurred together and he often couldn't keep track of the pathways. His hands got sweaty and he was wearing gloves, so it was doubly uncomfortable.

They ended up not doing it a second time.

"Are there any carnival games that aren't rigged?" Jaune counted his dwindling reserves of Lien.

"Well, there are the shooting ones," Winter mused.

"But we're banned from those, remember? Hunters can't play them cause of prior experience and yadda yadda." Qrow sighed and shrugged. "You know what, a spar sounds about good at the moment."

"It does. I'm feeling rather restless with this competition. And seeing you on the ground would probably make for good medicine."

"As if you'd get to that point."

"Well, might as well get some practice in." Jaune immediately regretted speaking up. Because as soon as he did, the two of them turned to him with what could accurately be described as the eyes of predators (the kind of ones in the wild).

"Oh yea! I gotta make sure you're still up to snuff!" Qrow had a sadistic grin that reminded Jaune of Raiden's. "We're going to be practicing for a while. Without Vytal Park's weirdness and with Beacon's arena, I can finally give you the full Qrow Branwen training experience!"

"And I have to test your skill with Calm Waters. It is imperative that you master one auric art if I am to teach you any others." Jaune remembered the time he only had one teacher that was willing to grind his bones to dust to teach him a lesson. Jaune remembered the time he had only one teacher that probably enjoyed doing to him as their teachers did to them. Jaune remembered the time when Qrow was just a weird guy he met and Winter was a random girl he helped.

He kind of missed those times.

"GOODBYE!" Jaune immediately turned tail and ran away. Fuck that shit, he wasn't going through this crap again.

He was caught in less than five seconds and dragged to Beacon's training facilities. They were going to have a field day with the knight.

He swore to apologize to May later.


"Owowowowowowowowoowowowowowowow." Jaune groaned in displeasure as he lay face first on the floor of Beacon's in house arena. To his credit, he had lasted a fairly long time against a combined assault of Qrow and Winter. Qrow's vicious swings that were accented by blasts from Harbinger's shotguns were made worse with Winter's precise and lightning fast thrusts and slashes. Despite their bickering, the two were very good at fighting together as old instincts came into play, with the two of them timing their attacks so that Jaune couldn't get a word in otherwise.

The new features of his armor surprised them when he revealed it, with both of them failing to admit that they were a tad jealous (even though he could see it in their eyes). But his gloating only earned him a worse beating. His defense was superb, holding the majority of their attacks off with barely a fraction of his aura depleted. The problem came in mounting a counterattack. Having a shield like his was all fine and dandy, but it wouldn't matter for jack if he couldn't turn the tides using his defense.

Hell, he could barely get a short jab in without them taking advantage of it.

Turns out, Qrow and Winter seeing him as a fellow fully fledged (if novice) hunter came with its downsides. The most prominent of them was that they treated him as if he had the wealth of experience and strength that they had. The experience and strength he very well lacked in comparison and supplemented with guile and dust.

And by guile and dust, Jaune meant using his new cloud rounds (the ones that fired clouds of dust instead of crystals) to blind, bind, or paralyze one while he engaged the other with unrelenting speed. The majority of his lost aura came from burning it to boost his speed to catch up to Winter or Qrow. He also used his dust to create barriers to block attacks, cover to hide where he was, and to alter the floor to block or impede movement (like lighting the floor on fire or turning it to ice). He was practically burning so many holes in his wallet it could count as a rotten piece of swiss cheese, but he always put his all in a fight.

In the end, he lost. It was a forgone conclusion either way. He was one junior huntsman against two veterans. But he still managed to hold them off to the point where Qrow and Winter were satisfied.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh." Jaune groaned as he felt his muscles spasm in retaliation for his mind's stupid decision making.

"Hoo~! That was a good fight." Qrow sat on the floor, Harbinger clattering as he dropped it. His clothes were drenched in sweat.

"Indeed." Winter's clothes were also similarly damp. The thing was that hunters usually didn't have longer fights. Since most hunters were so strong, matches could end in seconds as a hunter got one good swing in and decimated the others aura by a lot. But with Jaune, his aura made fighting him an absolute slog, as to even get it to half they'd have to wail on him relentlessly for minutes straight. And he didn't let that happen, so their fight was dragged out to the point they were losing aura from exhaustion alone.

"Mr. Branwen, Ms. Schnee." They all froze when they heard a stern woman's voice and turned around to notice that they were being watched. It seems that their spar had beld into class time as well. "And who may you be?" She looked at Jaune.

"Oh! Uh, Jaune Arc!" He chuckled nervously under the numerous gazes while Winter stood at attention and Qrow lazily got up, preparing himself for a lecture.

"Mr. Arc, then. Anyways, would anyone like to make their observations on the spar you just saw?" Interestingly enough, many raised their hands and offered their observations. From the teamwork on display between Winter and Qrow to how Jaune always used his footwork to position himself so that he wouldn't get surrounded, it was all thoroughly analyzed. Qrow and Winter were used to this sort of thing, having taken part in more than a few of these types of practice matches, but Jaune blushed under the attention, stumbling nervously whenever he would be asked something every so often.

"Mr. Arc, could you explain to the class why you lack a proper firearm?"

"Oh! Uh, well I'm actually out in the frontier most of the time. And I don't like fiddling around trying to find specific calibers. And making ammo for the flare gun is easy, so I just use it-"

"Like a fucking moron!" May cried out from the stands.

"Ms. Zedong!" Glynda's riding crop was pulled out and earned a scared squeak from the sniper.

Jaune awkwardly cleared his throat before continuing. "Its slower than a gun, but each round carries a higher amount of dust." Ms. Goodwitch nodded and continued on with the questions. Eventually, it had devolved from specific inquiries about their fighting to broader tidbits about themselves. Some of the guys asked questions about Winter (much to the dismay of her younger sister, given the nature of the questions and the accompanying looks) and some asked questions about Jaune (much to his dismay, given he was still catching his breath). And none asked anything about Qrow (much to his dismay, he wanted to brag).

"Now, would one among you would like to face one of our guests?" No one raised their hands for two reasons. First, the three hunters had just demonstrated that they were incredibly skilled. Second, none of them wanted to reveal their fighting style to their classmates who could easily watch and take notes.

Well, no one but a single person. A single person whose fighting style had been seen already millions of times overs.

Pyrrha Nikos raised her hand.

"Very well. Ms. Nikos. Get dressed and come on down. Would you like to choose who you will be facing now?" That downtime gave room for all three hunters to regain their aura as the students chattered amongst themselves.

"Yes." Jaune could've sworn that across his travels, he heard that name before, from somewhere. Though what with all the constant fighting, he kind of forgot unimportant things. It was on the tip of his tongue for a while before he threw out the thought due to it not going anywhere. "I would like to face off against Mr. Arc." The chattering grew even more intense.

"Well, kid, good luck." Qrow gave a cheeky smile as he walked off to join the stands.

"I hope you do well. I'm going to talk with my sister before heading off." Winter gave a similar remark as she walked off.

But the muttering was confusing him, who was Pyrrha Nikos anyways?

Whatever, this was a spar and he was going to put his all into it. He did a head count of his equipment. Sabatons? Check. Greaves? Check. Chestplate? Check. Pauldrons? Check. Arm guard? Check. Gauntlets? Check. Grappling hook? Check. Crocea Mors? Check. His sheath? Check. Flare gun and ammo? Check and check. So, with nothing more than a few stretches, he awaited his opponent.

"..." Confused blue eyes met green ones.

"I hope we have a good fight!" Pyrrha offered an excited smile as she pulled out her weapons. His eyes quickly got to work analyzing, seeing that it was a Mechashift shortsword paired with a simple shield. "Facing someone with a shield is bound to be interesting!"

"I wonder why more people don't have one." Jaune chuckled under his breath, knowing full well the answer. "But there is one thing I'd like to ask."

"Hmm?"

"I don't mean to be an ass, but what's with the outfit?" A blush formed on her face. "I dunno, looks kind of impractical. Heels? And is that a corset?" The blush deepened. "And that sash around your waist. And even the hair. All that stuff can be grabbed, you know?" He offered a comforting smile as he kind of pointed out the obvious.

"..." On one hand, Pyrrha was a bit embarrassed at how he was tearing apart her combat outfit, on the other hand, he was clearly doing this to put her off. So, shaking it off, she steadied herself as she prepared for the fight. "I hope you don't talk as much during the fight." Still, he was amiable enough and he demonstrated skill during the exhibition match. She was positively burning for a good fight.

"Yea, yea, I'll try." Jaune lazily shrugged as he prepared for the fight.

"With that done-" Jaune felt a bit guilty as Goodwitch glared at him. "-You may begin when the timer reaches zero. You must stop when your aura reaches red. And you cannot leave the arena perimeter." And with that, the countdown began. Jaune's mind worked overtime as he was faced with an unknown foe. He very well could've just ran in blind without a worry, but where was the fun in that?

Jaune may've been a hunter focused on saving people, but even he could appreciate a good fight. Plus! There were a bunch of other hunters his age watching and he couldn't just underwhelm after the previous preformance. Unfortunately, he was running out of flare ammo. Like, he only have 4 flares left.

He really was fighting at a disadvantage in multiple ways. First, Pyrrha was well rested, he had just gotten out of a fight. Second, she knew about his armor and his fighting style while he knew jackshit about her. Third, he was a barely trained idiot while she probably got into this school by her own merits. Thankfully, he had two more tricks up his sleeve. Nowhere near as potent as the advantage she had, but if he could get a good hit with his gauntlet, he could probably send her flying. And the grappling hook was probably a good way of wrapping her up. On top of that, there was the dust weaving in his clothes.

The buzzer rang.

His opponent ran efficiently and surprisingly well in her heels, her shield covering her body as she leaned forward to make the most of its relatively small size. Meanwhile, her sword arm was holding her blade, ready to strike.

The first clash went well, in his opinion. He saw the blade coming and managed to block it, forgoing counterattacks in favor of purely reactive movements. His resolve to do was tested when Pyrrha began to unleash a flurry of blows and slashes upon him. He quickly learned what her weapon was.

Specifically, it was a mechashift sword-spear-javelin-rifle. And it was made so that she could switch between the four forms several times in rapid succession. Gunfire followed a jab followed a swing followed an overhead followed a nasty thrust. He kept his shield up and turned to block the appropriate strikes, keeping his feet wide and backing up when needed. He kept track of how close he was getting to the edge and navigated around it when necessary, taking the time to do pure observation.

Her moves were fast, strong, and flashy. It felt like she was fighting for an audience, which she technically was. But her fighting still felt all too wide, sometimes she did things that reminded him of moves he saw in movies. Like when she freaking flips in the air!

Her assault lasted for a couple more seconds before he was confident in what he'd do next.

He fucked off, using the jets to back off away from her.

Jaune Arc was not a total idiot. He knew that fighting her in close combat was basically asking for death. So he instead took the better road, being an annoying ass. He'd use every trick in his self-published book to win this fight and above all else, he'd make sure to never get in a straight up clash with her.

The force of his retreat managed to stun her for a second, with her being surprised at the action. She had instinctively put up her shield, but widened her eyes upon realizing that it was all for naught as Jaune had retreated.

And then she felt the dread of something coming towards her.

Honed instincts had her cut it in half, only for her to realize it was a dust flare. Winter and Qrow never made the same mistake in their match with him, meaning she couldn't know that cutting the flare was not a good idea. Suddenly, her face was engulfed by a cloud of fire that blinded her and stung her eyes. Her aura protected her, but she was stunned for a few seconds as she felt someone coming at her.

Luckily, she also knew Auric Arts. She was well versed in the Mistralian technique of the Jumping Flea. It was named after the sensation a finely honed practitioner would have whenever they were alerted. Essentially, even while blind she could have a broad idea about where she was being attacked. And using that, she could hold him off.

And then she felt sensations coming from two different directions.

"Huh?" How?

Jaune pounced on her in her stunned state, unleashing his grappling hook like a snake that encircled and slammed into her. She dodged and blocked, but all that mattered was that she was being assaulted on two fronts. He ran in, slashing in tandem with the grappling hook. It turned out that she was as good, if not better, with a shield than him. He felt his hits practically just bounce off of her with every slash that he made.

He realized that she was going to regain her vision and began to change plans. Instead, he engaged her in close combat while the grappling hook ran around her, seemingly doing nothing.

She maintained focus on the primary threat, him. She really didn't have any other choice, given how her vision was still recovering. Meanwhile, Jaune unleashed his own assault. He offense wasn't nearly as good as his defense, but it was still servicable. And in her half blind state, it was definitely good enough to hold her off. Plus, he stacked the deck even more in his favor by using his 2nd flare, which was ice dust, on the floor, making it harder for her to move.

Meanwhile, the audience were raptured in the stands. After talking to their relatives, Qrow and Winter decided to watch the match together.

"Fighting dirty, I like it." Qrow smiled proudly. While he didn't get the chance to build Jaune up from the ground up, he still admired the guy's skill.

"I prefer to think of it as fighting smart. We both know he'd never win in a straight fight against her."

"Yea, fun to watch anyways." Qrow shrugged.

May was being interrogated by the rest of her team because they realized that Jaune was the guy hanging out with her earlier.

"No, Brawnz, I'm not dating him. And no, he won't join our team. No, not even if you beg, not even if you volunteer to Roy to be replaced!" May groaned, covering her face with her beanie in embarrassment.

"Wait, what!?" That was news to Roy.

Back on the arena, Pyrrha was wondering what happened to that second threat. She learned when her vision finally cleared; He had been preparing to wrap her up from legs to arms with the hook's rope. She only realized what had happened a second too late, with her eyes opening to see the rope just beginning to wrap her arms. Soon enough, she was covered in rope.

Meanwhile, Jaune sheathed Crocea Mors and put his hands in his gauntlets, ready to give a final blow. Nothing he had could ever destroy all of her aura in one blow, but the force of his gauntlets could probably push her out of the ring.

And just as he went for the poorly made, but strong punch, she suddenly burst out of the ropes, snapping them. She was still at the perfect spot for him to punch, but for some reason it just glided off of her.

And that was when he realized what was happening.

There was no way for her to have broken out of the ropes like that. He had them so tight that she couldn't have possibly moved her fingers around. There were only two ways for her to have possibly done what she just did. One, she had the Semblance to magically cut things with her mind. Two, she had a Semblance that could move her weapons without need for her own movement.

He went with the second as soon as he saw the gauntlet glide off of her. To anyone else watching, it looked like she simply dodge. But he knew that the hit should've found its target. And he quickly came to a conclusion, she could control metal.

His armor again proved to be the perfect getaway option, using it to jump back and reset the fight back to neutral. She was at 85% (the fire dust) while he was at 44% (he started at 50%). It was impressive to everyone in the room considering how well she did against others in the past, but Jaune didn't know that. Plus, his Semblance skewed the numbers. She had actually done far more damage to him than he did to her, but he just had more aura to fight with.

Still, how did he fight an enemy that could control all metal? Practically all of his tricks were metal!

This was basically an impossible fight, all things considered.

He could just throw in the towel. Seeing the look in his eyes, Pyrrha was worried that he would do just that.

He threw out the possibility within seconds. He was seeing this through to the end.

He ran forward, using his shield to cover for the fact that he was reaching for a flare. She prepared for an assault, crouching with her weapon hidden behind her shield.

She recieved just what she wanted as he began to use his feet instead of his sword. He remembered when Mercury decided to teach him some martial arts, actually managing to get Jaune to incorporate some kicks into his fighting style. He used the dust in his armor to put extra force into his kicks while protecting his body with his shield. He got into a comfortable rhythm with the kicks and waited for movement.

He got what he wanted when she began to move for a slash.

His fist gripped on the flare and cracked it open as he tossed the broken container of dust towards her face. She jumped backwards just in time for the electricity dust cloud to crackle and fizz in the air.

Again, they were back at neutral, circling each other as they caught their breaths.

Despite facing an opponent who had no intention of fighting on even ground, Pyrrha couldn't help but smile.

And facing someone who was as skilled as Qrow and Winter, Jaune gave a similar grin.

The taste of victory would be sweet-

Sweet?

"Wait." Jaune almost dropped his weapons with the realization. "I just realized who you are!"

"... What?" Pyrrha asked as stoically as she could. Did that mean that he was fighting her without knowing who she was? The very idea of that was threatening to make her heart explode, but his words were beginning to kill that newly born hope.

"Yea!" He laughed at the realization. "You're the girl on the cereal, right? Pumpkin Pete's?" The uttering of those words killed any noise in the room. Pyrrha stopped dead in her tracks.

So he didn't know about her fighting in tournaments? Didn't he say he traveled the entirety of Remnant? Hell, she was pretty sure she saw him on a cooking show filmed in Argus once. She didn't mean to sound arrogant in the slightest. But how was it possible for him to be that oblivious yet that well traveled?

"Yes, I am the girl on the cereal box." She smiled and went along with it. "I wish you the best of luck."

"You too!" Jaune's smile was as wide as ever.

Pyrrha went on the offensive this time, forgoing her shield by throwing it at Jaune. To his credit, he faced it head on, letting it bounce off his own shield for Pyrrha to catch. They clashed blades and shields for a while, with Pyrrha being the one to hit most of hers. She threw her shield and transformed often, sometimes backing up to unleash fire on him while he could do nothing but turtle.

And then, he pulled another trick up his sleeve. Just as she went to strike his side with her extended javelin, he collapsed his shield and instead let his arm guard take the blow.

He then activated the magnet in it, sticking the javelin to it. She wasn't expecting the resistance and couldn't react as Jaune suddenly wrenched her own weapon out of her hand, pulling her in using it as a lever and kicking her away. Soon, his gloved palms were gripping onto Milo as she held Akouo.

And then he super heated his gloves to the point where the metal started to glow red before bending it over his knee. He then threw the mangled weapon into the stands.

All was silent for just a moment as the students processed that someone had just disarmed the Invincible Girl.

Pyrrha, meanwhile, had a face splitting grin.

"Even if you get it back, can you unbend it?" Her smile threatened to tear her skin with how wide it was. Just as she thought nobody would notice! "Ready to throw in the towel?" Jaune knew the answer.

"Sorry, but no." Pyrrha shook her head. "I apologize, Mr. Arc-"

"I'm your age. Call me Jaune." He rolled his eyes.

"Oh, sorry, Jaune. Because I've been going easy on you." She held out her hand and suddenly her weapon, from its place out of bounds, began to shake. And all of a sudden, it was back in her hands. And with a metallic crunch, it was bent back into shape. "Now, shall we fight for real now?"

"Heh, let's go!"

The rest of the fight was a blur, but it couldn't matter less who won or lost. Pyrrha was more than satisfied she had found an opponent her age that managed to force her semblance out of her. Meanwhile, her team was shocked at the sudden reveal of her semblance that not even they could get out. The rest of the class furiously took notes and guessed what it could be and its limitations.

In the end, she won, obviously. She had the power to control metal for gods' sake! He tried his best, but it was inevitable that she'd win if she didn't hold back. He had to dispose of all of his equipment (asking Qrow to hold onto it so she couldn't use it) to avoid being instantly thrown out the ring. But really, they both won. In the eyes of the audience, Jaune had just gone toe to toe with the Invincble Girl. And in the eyes of Pyrrha, she had found a determined fighter.

The audience cheered when it was over.

It was also at that moment when the bell rang, meaning that everyone had to go to their next class. Qrow and Winter gave their compliments to Jaune, clapping him on the back. Before she left with her team, Jaune walked up to Pyrrha and offered a handshake.

"That was one of the best fights I've ever had." Not that he got into many fights. Some hunters would ask to spar with him, but it was mostly for stretching. "Though I do wish you didn't reveal your semblance. I thought I was special, guessing it and all."

"Sorry, I just couldn't help myself." Pyrrha's smile was infectiously giddy. "That was a good spar as well. Can I hope to have more in the future?"

"Yea, sure. Always got to keep my skills sharp, you know? Though, I won't be around here for much longer."


Academy students were still underage (except for the 4th years), but even if they weren't, they'd still be banned from drinking on campus for a variety of sane and sensible reasons.

Of course, how much the rule was followed varied wildly.

Case and point? Team SSSN getting drunk out of their minds with hunter grade booze that Jaune had delivered. He decided to make a delivery for some pocket cash and ended up at Team SSSN's dorm room. Neptune answered the door, surprising the both of them.

"A friend of Nep!?" Sun was absolutely ecstatic about the new addition to the party. "Come on in!" And he implored Jaune to join them. He shrugged and did so, he already got his pay anyways.

"I didn't know you were at Vytal." Neptune spoke under his breath to Jaune as they were both dragged into the team's dorm by the team leader.

"Who isn't? Thought I'd see the festivities." Jaune carried two rather hefty six packs full of hunter grade beer. It was basically everclear to civilians, but to hunters it gave a light buzz for a couple of minutes. "Though I didn't think I'd see you like this."

"You and me both. Just in advance, I am so sorry for whatever we do in the next few hours." Neptune's pre-emptive apology was caught by Sun, whose smile was equally worrying and enthusiastic.

"Just so you know, Friend of Nep-"

"Jaune."

"-Jaune, we'll be having fun for a while! Put your scroll and wallet in a safe before having your first drink, because I bought something special!"

"You never did tell us what was so good about this stuff." Jaune's vaguely remembered talks with Neptune let him identify Scarlet, who was dressed in more casual wear, meaning he wore a slightly unbuttoned dress shirt.

"Yea, you made quite a big deal about it." And by process of elimination the big guy was Sage.

"Because this stuff-!" He pulled the six packs from Jaune's hands and held it up in all their alcoholic glory. "Is the beer of legends. There's this net chat group where academy students can anonymously talk, right? I got the code by finding years old graffiti in the farthest bathroom at Haven which they can't be bothered to clean. Anyways, I was told by someone in the chat that this was the good stuff. Alcohol so good that it apparently transports us to heaven. Alcohol so good that they don't need to market it or anything, people just buy it! This is Beschtin Brew!"

"Well, I guess if you hype it up like that, I can't say no." Scarlet shrugged, it wasn't like they hadn't had alcohol before. It was just that they usually kept their drinking lighter, an occasional beer or shot to celebrate something big. Then again, the fact that they were one of the few teams chosen to represent Mistral in the Vytal Festival was probably worthy of celebration itself.

"Well, that sounds fun!" Jaune, meanwhile, smiled. It would be good to have some celebration after such a tiring day. Though, a hangover probably wasn't going to be the best thing to have when he explored the Vytal Festival the next day. Well, his aura probably would work through the alcohol at record time, so if as long as he didn't drink so much that the alcohol levels in his blood somehow rivaled Qrow's best, he was fine.

Anyways, Jaune learned what Sun meant after they all cracked open the first beer. The only word to describe the nectar that cleansed their mouths was divine. The ambrosia graced their taste buds with a sweet honey flavor that was helped with subtle hints of various other herbs and spices that gave it a kick. It practically made all five of them melt as they all drank in unison.

Not one of them let the first can leave their lips for a few seconds, milking out all of the enjoyment from the first sip. And after the high simmered down, they parted ways with the can all at once, letting out a satisfied sigh.

"Ok, that was good." Jaune's smile was wobbly and his legs felt numb with the intake of alcohol. His aura was already helping work away at the booze in his blood at high speeds, but it wasn't quick enough to immediately make him sober. It had been a long time since Jaune had booze that could give him a buzz like this.

"Wow! This is good stuff." Neptune nodded in approval as he looked at the can.

"I knew you'd like it! And you were doubting my choose of booze!" Sun drunkenly wrapped his arm around Neptune, only to miss and accidentally choke the poor guy. Luckily, Sun realized his mistake and loosened his grip.

"My, I haven't had something this good since my father's brew." And Scarlet had grown up on a ship! His father's alcohol had to be good or else the crew would all groan and complain.

Sage merely nodded along, already a bit drunk. For such a big guy, he really couldn't hold his liquor.

Anyways, the next hour or so was the group of them falling into increasingly bizarre behaviors. Sun and Neptune began doing a mixed spar/dance, with sun using the standard issue sheets as a sort of dress as he fought with Neptune using his legs and arms. Scarlet was singing sea shanties in the corner while Sage seemed to be meditating.

Meanwhile, Jaune was doing something equally stupid.

"Heyyyyyy~, are you a margarita? Cause I'm pretty thir-" Jaune immediately fell onto the floor, the rest of his words muffled by the carpet. Darling had decided to check out what was happening outside of her little deck and found Jaune rather drunk. She immediately took ten pictures of him looking rather foolish before enjoying a rare moment of his guard being let down.

"Ahh, if only that old lush had survived the culling. Perhaps the world would be a happier place. Then again, those priests across the waves carry on with her ideas just as well." Darling lifted Jaune up again, letting him lean on her shoulder while she herself looked at a can of the stuff that absolutely annihilated his inhibitions. "Well, cheers!"

Darling rose the can and drank some for herself.

The group of six woke up to an apartment full of weird relics and alcohol that promptly disappeared with a snap from a very frazzled and embarrassed Darling.


"This is enjoyable." Talos absolutely decimated a bowl of ramen as he sat on a wooden table before Jaune. To any who paid extra attention, Talos probably stood out. He wore a concealing hoodie, a mask, and sunglasses that basically covered his entire face. He only briefly pinched it partially off in order to consume food.

And he consumed a lot.

Luckily, they were in the middle of the Vytal Festival, where the crowd covered for anything.

Anyways, Jaune had found Talos eating food and decided to join the Grimm-Human hybrid for lunch.

"Where did you get the money to afford all of this anyways?" Jaune pointed to the rather sizable amount of receipts that Talos had acrued.

"A month ago, I heard that this Vytal Festival would be the best place to find new food. So, I began to take on these 'jobs' as you may call them. I came here with 10,000 Lien. It turns out that not needing to sleep gives me more time to earn money. And the fact I do not need to pay for what is called 'upkeep' means I can simply save up without a care." Talos spoke despite the fact that they were currently drinking out of six different cups with six different drinks. One had a smoothie, the other a cocktail, the third juice, the fourth a soda, the fifth a blend of sauces, and the last one was literally just oil. Not cooking oil, fuel oil.

"I-uh, yea, sure." Jaune remembered once more that Talos' sense of what was tasty was rooted in what had the strongest flavor. Or at the very least, what tasted the most interesting to him. As such, it made sense when Jaune saw that he had pork chops that were absolutely covered in spices, practically forming a crust of insanely strong flavor that only the dead-tongued could consume without gagging.

"Would you like some?" Talos offered a three scooped ice cream with an unbearable amount of garnishes like wasabi, flakes of onion skin, and actual sand.

"No, no I would not." Jaune didn't want to know what that would look like coming out. Just the thought of it would plague his nightmares.

"Anyways, I actually made a friend. She is extremely kind and is willing to make me interesting foods." Talos consumed the ice cream in a single bite, thoroughly disturbing Jaune with the sheer messiness of the act. Though, he at least kept the spillage to a minimum, but that was by catching each drop with his hands, which grew mouths to consume the drops.

"Really?" Talos gaining more friends was always a plus in Jaune's book!

"Oye! T-JAUNE!?" And all of a sudden, a very short Mistrali woman walked up to their table and noticed the blonde armored idiot sitting on a bench in front of some weird but kind nino that liked food. "You're here chico, really?" Maria quickly put Talos' food on the table and took a seat across from him.

"Yea, visiting. Also, why are you here?" Seriously, Jaune was not expecting the old lady from Mistral who was legally dead to suddenly show up in Vytal where basically EVERYONE was! "Did you get carried by waves?" Considering she had few options against the seas, she could've actually gotten stranded on the waters.

"No!" And even if she did, Maria wouldn't admit it. "I heard about the Vytal Festival and decided to attend for old times sake! What good is retirement if I can't enjoy life every once in a while? Why do I have to be stuck on that boat in the same old rivers all the time?"

"Yea, yea, got it." Jaune backed off.

"Hmmm, this is extremely good, Ms. Calavera." Talos basically destroyed the food Maria gave him, which was a nice soup that she had whipped up. "Nice and peculiar."

"By the way, nino, why do you know this Grimm man?" She whispered the last part, but the uttering of those words caused Jaune to stiffen up. "Don't worry, don't worry. He clearly isn't out for our blood. And you definitely aren't planning something sinister. So tell me."

"I met him a while ago. I'm actually the one who unlocked his aura."

"Huh, that's a new one. A Grimm using a man's body with aura. That's definitely a new one." Maria, in her nigh-century long existence, actually found herself shocked for once. "Well, if they don't cause problems, it's not my problem." She shrugged, no good stopping the peculiar, but well meaning person from having their fun.

"Yea, thanks for that." Jaune sighed, he wasn't expecting things to go over so well. "Anyways, what was the first Vytal Festival like?" Considering she was part of the first generation, she should know.

"Ohhh, it was incredible! There we were, the first years of Haven Academy, the newest generation of Hunters! And the crowds were wild for us! That big old thing in the sky wasn't a thing yet, nor were academies this big, so we had to make do with a make do with a sports arena. But it was still exciting!"

"Did you win?"

"Huh? Oh, I got close! I actually managed to beat Jack and get to the semi-finals, but was disqualified after I punched a guy under the belt."

"..." Even with aura, there was no preventing a punch to the balls from hurting. "Remind me to never piss you off, considering every attack you make it probably below the belt now."

"Hey! Just because I'm hunched over doesn't mean I'm short!" Before their argument could ramp up to a fit 18 year old fist fighting with someone old enough to be his grandma, there was a crack. The two of them looked over to see Talos, who had accidentally snapped off a part of the wooden table and consumed it.

"... Was I not supposed to do that?"

"No, no you weren't."


"..." Jaune was sitting on a nice bench in the Beacon plaza and had watched the day's tournament matches. One that caught his interest was a doubles matchup with one person he remembered.

"RAINBOW BEAM!"

Yea, apparently Penny was in the tournament. And she was bringing back the magical girl shtick for the fight. Then again, it wasn't like the audience didn't like it, considering how people cheered with every flashy and theatrical move she made. Plus, she looked like she was enjoying herself, so who was Jaune to judge?

"Oh my god can I get your autograph?!" He looked up to see what the fuss was about.

"Of course!" Jaune didn't blink when he heard Penny's voice. He probably should've expected it, considering he recieved a couple texts from her when he arrived near Beacon saying that she registered his presence. It was a bit creepy but she was also rather polite about it, so it cancelled out.

"..." Jaune looked down from his scroll and saw that he was a girl, again. And then he looked up to see Penny, with a surprised and (literally) starry eyed smile. "Gods damnit Darling."

"Friend Jaune!" Penny immediately hugged him with so much force that Jaune felt like he was going to pop. Luckily, the hug was brief. "I had an idea you were here!"

"Penny, I know you knew I was sitting on this exact bench." Jaune gave a bemused look as Penny pouted.

"I suppose that may be true, but it's still pleasant to see you again!" Penny's smile was as bright as ever, something Jaune didn't really want to damper with his snark.

"Yea, yea, alright." He got up and felt his eyebrow twitch, internally cursing Darling again for how breezy wearing a short skirt was. At least in comparison to pants, it was. "So, looks like I'm going to spend a while with you." Not like he had anything else to do that day, after all. "So, got any plans?"

"Yes!" Penny pulled out a large pamphlet complete with a timetable of events. "We will be visiting the jousting tournament-" Oh yea, there was a renaissance fair! "-then we will go to see a concert by famous band Achieve Men-" Wasn't his thing, but sure. "-and then wrap it up by seeing the premier of the newest innovations by Gotz Robotics!"

"Wow, you really thought this through." The pamphlet even had a map with routes to take and side attractions to visit on the way. There were all sorts of things to fill the itinerary and she only mentioned the biggest parts.

"Of course! My plans were formulated through careful focus group testing and examination of the available venues." Penny said no more as she grabbed Jaune's hand and pulled him along for the ride for their first visit, the medieval Vale section of the Vytal Festival.

Jaune had only been to the festival once or twice before, but he remembered loving the renaissance fair section. He and his sisters would have so many sword fights, with all of them eventually beating dad. With hindsight, Jaune could see that Nicholas was holding back a lot, but he always made the fights hard enough so that they had to do their absolute best. And he was good enough at gauging them to make their wins natural, instead of it feeling like the difficulty dropped midway through.

Even Coral had some fun back then, making all sorts of vile concoctions to mess with Jaune's tastebuds.

Now, as a more seasoned young adult, he saw it less as a realm to indulge in fantasies and more as a place to enjoy the joy of others as they did. With seasoned eyes, he could see how the place was more of a theme park version of the time, but it was still enjoyable to take a dip in.

It was extra enjoyable considering he didn't need to pay for a costume, what with his armor basically being knight's armor. Penny, on the other hand, rented a nice dress to wear for the occasion. The two cut a nice picture as they walked through the nicely paved streets filled with people all having their own fun.

Jaune, who at that point was at least a toe in Calm Waters, felt a level of detachment from the crowds. While he never considered himself above civilians, he felt different from them. Their presences were defined, but far more subtle. Compared to the void and wild of Grimm or the wild fires of other hunters, they felt more like weak candles.

That wasn't a flaw, if anything it made their lives even more precious. He faced it less in the frontier, where most had their auras unlocked but untrained, but he knew that some hunters were resentful towards the people they protected.

It was mostly from those who resided in the cities, who often were sent on purge missions without ever seeing the faces of the people they helped.

"Friend Jaune?" Penny looked at him with those wide eyes of hers that shook him from his thoughts. Now was no time to contemplate the social gap, now was the time to have fun with his friend. "What would you like to do? We have thirty minutes until the joust begins and I have enough funds for us to do anything you wish."

"Anything?"

"Barring the extremes. We are not buying a horse." Thousands upon thousands of Lien for that.

"Damnit." Jaune sighed, there went his plans of giving a horse aura like Amber. Apparently Albus could actually kill several Grimm by ramming, with aura making its impact much dealier. "Well, whatever. Might as well check out some souvenirs."

"Want something for memory?" Penny followed him as he began to slowly stride towards a stand.

"Nah, getting something for my family." He thought for a second before adding, "And a friend."

"How nice!" Penny leaned over to look at the goods at one of the stores selling little charms.

Jaune began looking through the selection himself. He got some assorted items for his family before pondering about what he should get Gil.

He still thought about the guy from time to time. And Gil either called or left voicemails for Jaune to catch up. So, of course, Jaune was going to get him something from Vytal. But what to get? Jaune didn't think there was any Eternal Warriors stuff at Vytal, but then again one could find half of anything at Vytal as long as the seller was big enough.

As he mulled over his choices, he didn't notice how Penny's eyes widened and she walked into the stand, hiding behind the pillars holding merchandise. She even put on a nice hat and sunglasses. It was only after Jaune decided on a cool stained glass keychain that he saw what she was doing.

"Uh, Penny?" He whispered, unsure if she was doing a bit or not.

"Yes, friend Jaune?" She also whispered, though he wasn't sure if it was to mimic him or out of a legitimate need for secrecy.

"What are you doing?"

"Just browsing this fine collection of hats and sunglasses."

"You're wearing it backwards." Indeed, she was.

"Even better. If it looks this good backwards, then it must look better forwards." Jaune could tell she was lying. She didn't sound like she loved every single word she spoke. "Or maybe I am wearing it forward. Who says that I am wearing it incorrectly?"

"..." Jaune's deadpan tone was betrayed by his amused smirk. "Whatever you say, Penny." He looked around to see if there was anything she was trying to avoid. Even with his training in Calm Waters, the crowd was too hectic for him to find anything in. He sighed and shifted gears to poking at Penny, waiting for her to stop trying to blend in with the scenery by becoming a misaligned mannequin.

It eventually worked, as she soon turned around with the same old smile. "Alright friend Jaune! Let's go to the joust!" Seems like whatever had her shy passed by. He shrugged, passing it off as nothing.

Well, he would've if it weren't for the fact she immediately turned around after saying that.

"Nevermind! It seems like the joust's stands are far too crowded!" Her words sounded forced.

"Eh, Penny? Is something wrong?"

"Nope! Everything is simply sensational!" Definitely forced.

"Penny, it's fine if something is-" He yowled in pain as he felt Penny's iron grip on his arm as she began to drag him away. To her credit, she did loosen up a bit to allow blood circulation. "Ok, I guess we're going then."

Penny decided to start going directly towards their second stop, the concert. It was a while away, so the walk took a good moment. Midway, she let go of his arm and they began to walk casually, with normal conversation.

"But if you have a gravity dust core in there, why even bother with the wires?" Well, normal enough for him.

"For aura control. Father was unsure if my body would allow for immediate telekinetic manipulation of Floating Array, so he included wires for the sake of ease of use. With my newest upgrade, that will likely be changed so I may have wireless blades." Penny adopted a cheery informative voice and even provided a little graphic to go along with it on her scroll.

"Huh. Any other upgrades?"

"Oh, I actually thought about getting propulsion engines on my boots, like you! It'll certainly increase my vertical mobility!" Penny spread her arms out and twirled a bit, imagining herself flying in the air.

"Never thought I'd see the day when someone is actually inspired by me." He was kind of expecting that day to come when he was an old ass man like Raiden.

The rest of their conversation was rather mundane, with little of note besides Penny admitting a fondness for pop music. Jaune added a note to buy a music player and some discs some day, though listening all the time might detract from his alertness. Eh, he'd see how that would work out.

Anyways, they made it to the concert in time to see a dense crowd packing the space in front of the stage. Some time before the concert began, Penny walked off to get a drink. Jaune asked if he should get it instead, since he was the only one drinking either way, but she insisted. He shrugged it off and stared at the stage, eventually getting bored with looking at nothing.

Right before he could pull out his scroll, he felt someone tap his shoulder. He turned around to see a girl his age wearing a blue beret, a form fitting shirt, a blue skirt, and fingerless black gloves.

"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you." She spoke flatly, though Jaune's hearing wasn't exactly the best with all the chatter clouding it. "I saw you talking to a classmate of mine. May I ask what your relationship is?" She was rigid and disciplined, though in a rather mundane way. She was definitely Atlesian, the colors and attitude fit.

That also fit with her worry. Who wouldn't be? Penny could be a bit gullible at times and seeing her talk to some wild looking stranger would likely be worrying. "Just friends. Met a while ago while she was on break and happened to meet up again." He said the truth.

"I see, I see." She nodded. "I am glad she is making progress in that regard. My name is Ciel Soleil, first year at Atlas Academy." He felt a fleeting sense of joy from being proven right, though a tad guilty for the assumption despite it being correct. "And you?"

"Oh, yea, sorry. My name's Jaune Arc, huntsman." He gave a humble smile, though worried a bit over calling himself that. Was she going to question it? "Well, not really." Just in case, he corrected himself. "Never got to the academies and all."

"I see, I see." Ciel nodded. "And you're getting field experience in place of that?"

"Well, yea. I did tutor for a couple months under this old silver haired hunter-" Ciel's eyes widened ever so slightly. "-and then got on my way." Not technically a lie, just not the truth either. "Anyways, I met Penny when I was taking a break in Argus."

"Yes, that does line up with where she went." So she was making sure his story checked out? Well, good on her for being such a considerate friend. "Speaking of, where is Penny?"

"Oh, she's getting some drinks." He didn't mention the fact that she probably shouldn't, given how it was a waste of time since she literally couldn't drink.

"Ah, I see." She nodded sagely, or perhaps she was just trying to fill the time. An awkward silence bloomed as the two of them ran out of things to talk about. On Jaune's part, he was half looking around for Penny and half paying attention to the absolute silence. On Ciel's part, she just didn't make small talk all that often.

"Is that-?" Jaune looked to see a redhead avoiding his gaze. He rolled his eyes and held back laughter. "Oy, Penny, come on out." She could probably hear him. Or maybe she couldn't. Either way, she came out from the crowd with a bottle of soda for him. He took it and noted that he should probably give her some lien as compensation.

"Hello Penny, I was just talking to your friend here." Ciel showed a little warmth to Penny, though it was smothered in discipline despite the fact they were in a rowdy crowd for a boy band.

"Hello Friend Ciel!" There was something off in Penny's voice. It was still cheery, but Jaune could notice an edge in it, though he was unsure if she was straining her voice on purpose or not. "May I ask what you are doing here?"

"Neon was busy with makeup work, so she gave me her ticket to see this. There was no use wasting it, especially considering how it lined up perfectly with our break day." Jaune wondered if she'd like the music. Jaune liked it well, enough, he kind of had to with how much the twins played it.

"That's great! I hope you enjoy the show!"

"Yes, yes." Ciel rolled her eyes and Jaune felt a little satisfaction at seeing the affection for Penny present in that motion. "I hope you two enjoy the show." A pause. "Oh yes, Penny? Officially, as your minder, I'm supposed to be on the look for you. Skipping meetings with the general is a rather poor showing. But, I saw nothing."

"..." That meant something, even to Jaune. He could tell Ciel was a follower of rules, or maybe that was just another assumption. But with Penny's shock, he was pretty sure he was right in guessing that. "Thank you Friend Ciel!" Penny embraced Ciel in a probably spine shattering hug that knocked the wind out of the student.

The rest of the performance was rather enjoyable. Jaune even found himself singing along a bit, though he regretted it later when he saw the few dozen pictures of Jaune's female form singing wildly to the pop tune.

It was only as they were leaving that Jaune remembered something.

"Wait, you're skipping a meeting?" Jaune gave a curious look to Penny, who fidgeted guiltily.

"Well, uh, yes!" A pause. "I am."

"So that's why you were hiding at the fair." It explained quite a bit. And now Jaune was noticing the paranoid buzzing of her eyes, as if she was tracking the movements of a hummingbird.

"Yes." She spoke matter-of-factly in a flat tone. "I'm supposed to have a meeting with Father and uncle Ironwood. But immediately afterwords, I have dinner at the Beacon mess hall. And it's lights out from there. This was the only thing I could skip without arousing too much suspicion."

"Huh, alright then." Jaune shrugged, accepting it without a word. "Well, I guess I'm glad you want to hang out with me so much."

"Of course I would! You're one of my friends! And being around you makes me feel normal." Her smile was once again back in full force and Jaune was basking in its glow. "Thank you for that, by the way."

"No problem, Penny, no problem."


Jaune's last experience in a game show took ten hours to wash out all the food that somehow got stuck in every nook and cranny of his body and clothes. He swore that his next experience would be cleaner. And by all accounts, it was.

Though it'd become very messy very soon if he dared answer wrong.

For context, he was on an episode of some variety show and they were doing a quiz live at Vytal. They made it interesting by having the contestants put their cleanliness at stake, with the platforms they were standing on capable of collapsing and dunking them in a thick goo at any moment.

Anyways, since it was the Vytal festival, the contestants were all young-ish hunter looking types. He was just picked out of the crowd for fun and because he managed to answer a good enough amount of questions right.

And so, for the second time, Jaune Arc was on live television.

"Why'd it have to be me?" Jaune quietly groaned in despair. "And it's slime this time. God, whoever I ask to clean it will kill me." If there was any consolation, the quiz was on something he was intimately familiar with.

Grimm.

One would think the number one cause of death beyond the kingdom walls would be a topic better kept for serious discussion, but here he was! He supposed relaxed displays like this were for the purpose of raising spirits, but then again they could've done that with other topics. Then again, what else could they test hunters on? How to assemble a gun?

Yea, no.

"Mr. Arc! What is the average number of spines on the back of an Ursa Major!?" The high spirited host rattled off questions he really should've failed. Seriously, who counted this stuff except the most dedicated of Grimmtologists?

"Fifty six." This one wasn't even something he learned on the field, it was just some online trivia he read.

"Correct!" And they probably were using the same source.

Anyways, there were a few other students playing the game. The only one he could recognize was Winter's sister. He sighed, not like he could pull something in order to shake things up. Plus, he was pretty sure they wouldn't appreciate him doing that sort of thing here.

"Ms. Schnee! List the kingdoms by how likely you are to find a King Taijitu!" That was the next question.

"Mistral, Vacuo, Vale, Atlas." She rattled it off quickly. And while he didn't really want to be dunked in slime, he was kind of facing off against a data processing machine. Winter had said that, while he didn't like her sister's choice, that her father wouldn't accept anything other than perfection. As such, Weiss was expected to get perfect grades. This was just a way of showing off the fruits of her labor.

"Correct!"

Jaune gulped. He didn't have a change of clothes. And he was half sure the slime would take hours to clean out. Worse, if he let it dry, then his clothes would get all crusty and stuff. And he couldn't deal with that for the rest of the day. Plus, Qrow would make fun of him. May would make fun of him. Darling-well, Darling would keep silent, but the mirth in her eyes would be clear.

"Ms. Gayl! True or false: Tempests create snowstorms in Solitas." Jaune thought about it. Many storms in Remnant were caused by Tempests. But they were short lived things, dying as soon as they ran out of fuel for the storm. Perhaps they did? "What's your answer?"

"Uh, true?"

"False!" A big red buzzer appeared and Dew Gayl, who had already been barely coasting by, got three strikes. With but a cry of terror, the platform collapsed and she fell in the slime. She didn't drown, it wasn't nearly deep enough for that, but it did screw up her clothes. "Snowstorms are caused by wind! Tempests only create clouds and lightning." Well, that was informative.

The questions kept on coming and coming until there were only two. On one end, there was Jaune Arc. On the other, Weiss Schnee. They were in the finals and both seemed determined to win.

"Well, at least you seem well read enough on these sorts of things. As expected from one of my sister's friends." Wait, no, this couldn't possibly be- "Let's see if you truly have what it takes to match her." Oh brothers damn it was this actually a sister complex?

"Eh, sure."

"You got this Weiss!" He could hear Qrow's niece cry in support for her teammate, with said huntress in training giving a confident nod.

"Well, let's try not to fail." Seriously, Jaune didn't know if there was any dry cleaning. He could not lose this. Well, ok, he very well could, given he was facing off against someone who apparently read the Grimm encyclopedia.

"Alright! Mr. Arc! Here's your question! How many tails does an Eschroding have?" Eschroding being very rare to find, this was a rather tough question. Luckily, he had faced one or two in the field.

"Three."

"Correct!" The host turned to Weiss. "Ms. Schnee. True or false: Nevermore migrate from Vacuo to Vale during sandstorm season."

"False. Nevermore don't migrate."

"Correct!" A turn to Jaune. He sighed, he had gotten one question wrong before, but he still had some leniency here. Sure, she was still unblemished, but he could last. Maybe he'd survive long enough that the camera ran out of film and they'd end the show? Wait, no, cameras didn't use film anymore. And they had a generator. Maybe it could short circuit? Bah, he was basically asking to win the lottery with that. "Mr. Arc, tell me what the cultural significance in Mistral in regards to a Goliath herd."

"..." What. "..." Uhh, maybe Raiden told him something about this? Wait, no, he rarely talked about Mistral. Uh, shit.

"You have five seconds."

In what number did Goliaths naturally travel in? He thought back to his days on the frontier in Mistral. Ok, four, four. And Goliaths represented inevitability with their hulking, nigh indestructible mass. And at the last second, he made up an answer. "Four became the number representing death, because Goliaths traveled in fours."

"Correct! And just in time." The announcer looked pleased, while Weiss seemed vaguely disappointed. "Ms. Schnee! True or false? Lancers, a rare type of Grimm that plagues Bullheads, are capable of firing their stingers like harpoons."

"True."

"Correct!"

It went on for a while, with the two of them playing a game as the questions became increasingly niche. Even Weiss was beginning to get answers wrong. After a while, the two of them were at one cross each, and the announcer was actually out of questions.

"Well! This is a first, we only have one left! In this case, we will be changing the game. Take these buzzers for the tie breaker!" The audience got a bit bored, so they kind of had to spice things up every once in a while. They had to do stuff like balance on a single point or run on a treadmill to avoid falling in the slime. "Ok, here is the final question. Spot the problem: Deathworms-" A type of heavily armored Grimm common in underground and sandy environments. "-are recorded to have at max 10,000 pieces of plating on their skin, twenty hearts across their body, and can spit molten rock and sand from its maw."

Jaune also hadn't fought any

Bzzt! "Deathworms don't have twenty hearts across their body."

"Wrong!" Weiss fell into the slime. Jaune would've laughed if it weren't for the fact it was now his turn up to the plank. In a panic, he went with what sounded plausible.

Bzzt! "Uhh, the deathworm has been recorded with more than 10,000 pieces of armor?"

"Wrong!" And he fell into the slime. It felt as gross as he expected, with it both being wet yet not wet at the same time. He didn't drown, of course, it'd be pretty hard to with how relatively shallow the thing was. The unfortunate part was the fact that it was going to be a bitch to clean and that his friends were going to laugh at him. Oh well, might as well make them happy with his own downfall.

While he couldn't hear it at the moment, he would later learn that Deathworms apparently spat fire, not molten sediment.


"This is nice." Turns out, having his stuff dry cleaned meant that he could dress casually and go on a date with Darling. He kept Crocea Mors and the flare gun by his side, but that was more out of habbit than from genuine caution or belief anything would go wrong. "Wish I didn't have to earn it in three hours of poker."

"But where'd the fun in that be?"

"Me losing and you not having a date?"

"But the punishment was even better!" Darling had a shit eating grin which Jaune rolled his eyes at. His punishment would've been to take her to Vacuo to fund her gambling addiction. Turns out that the desert had some really high stakes games. "Not that I don't enjoy this." Darling licked at her ice cream curiously. She probably could've devoured it whole without problem, but where'd the fun in that be?

"Yea, yea." Jaune's own ice cream was nice as well. Though, Darling's insistence on getting the massive quadruple scoop elicited a sigh and emptying of pockets from Jaune. For a goddess of gambling who loved playing the odds and cheating at the same time, she sure was cheap when the chips were down. "Hmmm, you know, I was wondering something."

"Yes?"

"In the world before, what was it like?" Seeing the high point of modern day Remnant, the Vytal Festival, got him thinking. "I mean, I know it had some weird stuff, like how a bunch of people had the magic Oscar has. But, was there was also things like this?" It seemed certain, if they were people, even if bearing different powers.

"Hmmm, I suppose you may say that. If you're asking if the days of yore had flying arenas that held grand tournaments then-well, actually, I suppose that did happen a few times." She chuckled lightly. "Oh yes, that was quite the event. But, not the norm. No, not even close." She hummed. "The days of yore were a magical time, Jaune."

"Yea?"

"I think you would've loved it and hated it in equal measure. It would be a land straight out of fantasy, one of wonder and joy. It would be a land where you may see sights straight from your dreams on a daily occurance." Her smile was so real at that moment, so genuine. "But, alas, the magic circuits are painted with blood. Remember what I told you of those two tempermental brothers?"

"That they were dicks?"

She chuckled. "Yes, that they were dicks. And, well, their 'dickery' so to speak spread to the mortals. Wars were waged. Lands torn apart. Cities annihilated with the flick of a wrist. Grand conspiracies with death tolls of thousands, with the majority collateral. And yet, we had simple things, like this." She snapped her fingers and for a moment, Jaune could see a different time.

The modern technology was missing, but the smiles remained. Ice cream carts and modern treats were replaced with things like candied apples and magical candies like lolipops that glowed like stars. And with another snap, the image was gone.

"I see no reason to trade technology for magic. After all, even if Grimm were a lesser problem in those days, I'm sure you wouldn't enjoy having toilets without smooth toilet seats." She chuckled as soon as she saw the look of dread on his face.

"Jeez, with all that illusion magic, you might start giving me ideas." He chuckled, meaning that as a joke.

"Oh? What ideas?" Darling saw it as a suggestion.

A suggestion to torture him, of course. The next day, he'd wake up to a room full of ten feet tall talking feet discussing the plans to end the world. Jaune would not take off his socks for the next few days.


"..." Ozpin was having a heart attack. Or perhaps a brain hemorrhage. Or maybe a stroke. An aneurysm? Whatever it was, he was definitely hallucinating. Or perhaps his coffee was spiked. Or perhaps-you know what, time to acknowledge reality. "Qrow. I respect you."

"Good to know, boss!" Qrow offered a semi-tipsy thumbs up. It was the best any of them would ever get, really.

"But I must ask, who the fuck is this?" Ozpin's use of profanity really emphasized the fact he had no clue what the hell was happening. Qrow asked the others to trust him and then suddenly brought in someone who was most certainly not human. Nor were they Faunus. No, they were a humanoid bearing a lot of Grimm traits and exuding the same anti-aura that Grimm did, except confusing him was the fact that they also had aura!

Needless to say, Glynda also seemed to be exhibiting symptoms of the myriad conditions Ozpin considered checking himself for. Perhaps this was a new Semblance, or a way Salem was trying to get at him. Instead of slaughtering innocents, she'd just do something so insane that he'd die of a heart attack.

That sounded plausible.

"Greetings." The thing walked up to Ozpin and he tensed up, it was only because of Qrow's reassuring and pleading look that the man didn't immediately kill or at least incapacitate the thing in front of him. Ozpin could sense its eye going towards his chest, was it aiming for the heart?

Its hand reached out and Ozpin tensed up, only for him to realize that the thing took his mug full of coffee.

A mortal sin.

And before Ozpin could react, it gulped the coffee in an instant, and the cup. Ozpin never thought someone could make crunching sounds like those with their mouth without breaking their jaws, but here he was.

"Strong. I like it." The man nodded and suddenly, Ozpin felt a sense of joy.

"Really? My, it is a pleasure to find another enjoyer of coffee! Why my assistant and one of my dearest friends simply don't get the joy of the beverage! It is a shame. It's an equal that my greatest ally in caffeine consumption is both away in Atlas-" Well, he was actually enjoying his own stay at the Vytal festival, but it was for dramatic effect. "-and is a mere utilitarian!"

Qrow was regretting his decisions while Glynda was broken from her shocked stupor by her boss' eccentricities.

Meanwhile, Ozpin celebrated the start of something new and novel.


It was the final day of the Vytal Festival. The tournament was already over and all that was left were celebrations and the stands selling the last of their stock. For students, it meant a full day off and celebrations or training. For Jaune, it meant packing up and taking one last walk around the grounds. It was fun, though he didn't indulge in any of the attractions besides a bit of food.

It was nice, getting one last day in what could be called paradise. At the end of it all, he stood at the cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest.

"Back to work I go." Jaune yawned, those were probably the best nights of sleep he'd had for the past few weeks.

"Can we not stay in Vale for a bit longer? I've heard that there are some good casinos there."

"Nah, you know how it is Darling. Visiting for Vytal is one thing, but anything else is just me shirking my duties."

"Very well, then let's go."

"Alright" And so, Jaune turned to the side and stepped forward.

And immediately stepped on a spring plate, which would send him flying thousands of feet into the air before letting him crash onto the ground.


I hope ya'll enjoyed it!

I was planning on doing an entire second section where it's Jaune and the rest of the TH5 visiting the Vytal Festival after Salem is defeated, but I cut on that cause it'd take too much time and I already slowed down my progress on writing this stuff cause of a new project.

Alternate omake idea would be a poker game between Jaune, May, and Penny. Jaune loses no matter what because Penny can go hard mode bot on their asses while May can use her semblance+a convenient mirror on the floor to peak at the cards

Sorry Pyrrha's section is really big. I just like writing fights. Also, I kind of realized I'm inconsistent as shit with his skill/power level. Then again, the skill needed to kill a giant monster is not the same for intensely technical spars

I wanted to include something for Mercury but ultimately couldn't.

Options for next chap!:

1: Jaune encounters a holy man in Vacuo who he escorts to the promised land on a pilgrimage.

2: Jaune and Raiden find themselves in Vacuo and clean up after a messy spaghetti western.

3: Jaune goes to the moon and goes questing on the moon with moon people

4: Jaune finds himself in Mistral in the company of a monk (Part 2 of Time Travel Arc)

5: Jaune goes on a quest to buy groceries

Also, even if the Fall did happen, Jaune would've scared away the Wyvern cause of time travel weirdness (no he wouldn't have)