April 2nd(1 year and 8 months B.C) Mid-day
*Ivy PoV*
A young lady with curly deep green hair stares out the window, an easel holding a canvas is next to her. Her reflection shines upon the glass, vibrant green eyes stare back at her, but she stares not at her reflection and instead past it towards the back yard of her house. There, two figures clashed, and oh how perfectly they contrasted each other. One standing elegantly and imposing, moving very little if at all. The other is tall, but has very little presence when compared to the first and is moving quickly and erratically. One being grace and strength the other being agile and chaotic.
As Jaune attempted to strike Yamamoto with a wild flurry of blows, Ivy picked up her paintbrush, dipped it in paint, and added another line up on her work. As Yamamoto stood there, he deflected every blow raining upon him with minimal movement. Ivy added a few more lines of color to the canvas. As the rain of slashes from Jaune came to a finish, Yamamoto struck once and the fight was over. She added a final line to her painting.
It was finally finished, this past week ever since Jaune started training she's found so much inspiration in what they do, what Jaune is now doing.
At first she'd been shocked, and assumed that they had begun training without her mom's permission or while she was away. She didn't attempt to find out or even ask her mom for fear of accidentally stopping what appeared to be Jaune's one chance at chasing his dream. She just went up to her room and just stared at them from the window. Jaune appeared to be doing some pretty boring exercises, but was completely focused on them, she silently wished him luck and went back to her paintings. It wasn't until dinner that night that she'd been shocked to discover that not only was Jaune getting training from Yamamoto, but mom would even allow him to attend school to become a huntsman. She couldn't believe it at first, and judging by the expressions of her sisters neither could they, but Jaune's beaming smile told them this was reality and to face it. As the shock of the moment passed he got swarmed by his sisters who hugged and congratulated him. They were overjoyed for him.
Ever since they began training a week ago the family realized something. Jaune was a prodigy. His advancement in training was completely unnaturally fast, it was as though he was born to become a hunter and with him finally beginning to train, his skills finally shined through. At that point everyone in the Arc family realized that the training should have probably happened much sooner, but even though the whole family knew what Jaune wanted, they had never managed to convince mom. Many times her and her sisters had tried asking or talking their mother into letting Jaune at least make the attempt, to let him enroll in combat academies and such. Not once had they come even close. She really didn't understand how Yamamoto did it.
Ivy couldn't imagine not being able to pursue her dream, she loved art. There was beauty in the world that she just could not describe in words. It was everywhere she looked there was just so much, and so she decided to paint the world instead. Well really her dad gave her a paint set for one of her birthdays not knowing the impact it would have. That day she painted and painted until everything she felt and everything she'd seen had been exhausted, used up by the painting. She knew her effort worked as her family had gazed upon one of her first works and they had a look in their eyes that told her they finally understood exactly how she saw the world. If she became unable to do that, well she would either break and become a shell of herself or attempt to run away, but Jaune was too kind for either of those options, so she couldn't imagine what he would do.
She finished her musings and looked at her latest painting showing two figures clashing. She had always loved experimenting with different styles of drawing, and as she saw her brother progress in his training she saw inspiration. Many of the styles she's painted with before, while beautiful, could not properly convey the way the two fought. She played around with different styles until she just found something that worked. Short strokes and jagged lines. It made the painting look less elegant, but it exchanged that elegance for ferocity, for excitement and a more savage and dynamic look. As she gazed upon it she was pleased with her work.
She began to clean up her brushes and paints, gathering the things she would need to wash in one pile and things she would need to throw away in another. As she did this she considered something that has changed in this past week.
Ivy considered her grandfather. While it had been extremely strange to have him around for the first few days she was slowly becoming used to his presence. He seemed very standoffish at first, but that was quickly disproven by Luna. As soon as the girl realized during dinner that he had helped Jaune she took that as the go sign and began to hound him with nothing but questions since, heck even when she wasn't asking him questions she was happy to read a book silently next to him. She was often seen hanging around him, and although his face was as stoic as always his presence was more... docile? calm? less intimidating? well basically he just seemed much more approachable when Luna was next to him. Hazel had also talked to him a bit more, Ivy hadn't yet, but maybe it was time to change that soon.
*Yamamoto PoV*
He walked over to the young Arc and began to help him up. Yamamoto delivered a single precise strike to the youths solar plexus and swiftly took him out of the fight. He needed to teach him that such a flurry of attacks are only effective if you can overwhelm the opponent, if not it will just leave you tired and open for a counterattack after.
As Yamamoto pulled Jaune up, the latter said, "Oh man, I thought I could at least make you move a bit more with that attack, but it didn't do anything"
"I have years of experience over you," '3000 years actually' he thought to himself, "It is only natural that I have this advantage over you."
He continued, "That said you could certainly improve more, the swift attacks you tried to pile on were in proper stance and well placed, the timing could have been better, but as you can see it's useless unless you're confident it will finish off your enemy otherwise you're open to retaliation."
"I see." said Jaune as he rubbed his chest where he'd been hit.
"Also used that shield of yours, I slowed down enough to give you time to place it in the way but you are not using that brain of yours you brat, you didn't even attempt to block!" Yamamoto glared at him.
"Haha whoops, sorry gramps I just kinda panic", responded Jaune chuckling as he scratched his head. "It's no biggie though, it's just training anyways."
"Hoh?" Yamamoto said calmly. Too calmly actually, "Well then I suppose we'll just have to beat that habit out of you it seems"
"W- wa- wait! Let's talk about this gramps, I'm sure I can remember to block just give me some ti-" Jaune lost his jovial mood and began to panic and stutter as he failed to convince Yamamoto.
"En guard!" said Yamamoto as he launched himself towards him. Then began what could only be described as a beat down. Jaune tried his very best to survive, but everywhere he left open Yamamoto immediately hit him with that stick of his.
[Notice: Following skills have been activated]
[Teaching: 46/100]
[No pain, No gain: 57/100]
Slowly as the beating continued, without Jaune even noticing, considering he was struggling to survive, Jaune started placing his shield in better positions and rather than block and eat the impact he would at times parry.
Yamamoto did notice though, and he smiled. He thought the teaching skill would be by far his best, but remembering to ask about his other skills after the first day he had trained Jaune he discovered just how amazing those two abilities were. Just remembering them brought a smile to his face.
[No pain, No gain: 57/100]
[Description: This skill represents the level of pain one can inflict while allowing the target to gain experience. As a skill it allows the user to quickly form/destroy habits within the target up to 5 times faster. For example a user can either teach to dodge via hitting whenever the target doesn't dodge or destroy a bad habit via hitting whenever they do said habit. Multiplier goes up every 10 levels and stacks with other skills.]
What a great skill for breaking down the bad habits of a student and building them up from scratch. Many times when Yamamoto had taught others he'd first needed to get over the long hurdle of getting rid of their bad habits and only then could he properly teach them, but with this skill not only would that process be shorter but he'd be able to teach them better habits up to twenty times faster, and as his skills leveled up it would only get faster. Yet both these skills paled in comparison to Transference.
[Transference:02/100]
[Description: This skill allows the user to transfer traits. For example the user is X race and the student is Y, by using transference the teacher can change the student to X race or for example the user has a unique ability X a student has no ability Y, the user can transfer unique ability X to student. Cool down for this ability is 1 year and ability doesn't transfer skill/experience. Doesn't consume traits. Cool down is reduced every 10 levels]
If Yamamoto were to know gamer speak he would say the skill was absolutely unbalanced and broken, but he didn't. He just knew that this ability would definitely be the best way to allow his students to thrive.
He had actually already used it on young Arc after careful consideration. He didn't want to let the boy become a shinigami, for a life long lived had to be willingly chosen and with understanding of all that entails, otherwise it would just lead to misery. So letting him become shinigami was out, but transferring a unique skill was not out of the cards. He could give him kido, it was very versatile with offensive, defensive, and even healing spells. He could also give him HohÅ, the ability to have fast movement would also make him a cut above the rest. Maybe he should give him some other trait. Yamamoto had trouble deciding what to give him, but eventually he settled on something that would take him as far as he could work for and transferred the zanpaktou spirit trait to him. He knew he had been successful not just because his skill level went up once, but because he could feel Jaune's soul growing heavier and more stable as the days passed.
Focusing back in the moment Yamamoto kept striking at every opening that Jaune presented. While Jaune was noticeably improving, it was still going to be long ways off until he would subconsciously protect his vital areas with that shield of his.
'At least it's a sword and shield and not one of those mechanical monstrosities.' Yamamoto thought to himself as during the past week he's been doing more research into the world he's in and more research into what hunters are.
Apparently according to his findings the people of this world were remnants of a once great and powerful civilization, but something happened causing them to go almost completely extinct. Eventually though they managed to pull themselves together and form kingdoms. The kingdoms were named Vale, Vacuo, Mantle, and Mistral, but with kingdoms came war. Mantle and Mistral seeing the lush shores of the continent of Sanus around the same time that Vale set up there decided that the territory was valuable enough to go to war for. It became a world war as Vale and Vacuo fought against Mistral and Mantle, they called it the great war. Eventually it ceased because Grimm he learned were apparently attracted to negativity, and the attacks were becoming far too great and far too frequent for any side to be able to withstand. Yamamoto couldn't help but be amused, even in a completely separate world people still found answers in violence, maybe violence was a multidimensional constant he mused to himself.
Yamamoto also learned about hunters but mainly about the mecashift weapons they used since there was a strange lack of info on hunters, simply put he didn't like them. While he could appreciate how genius the people of this world were to be able to not only conceptualize, but properly build and use these weapons he saw too many points of failure within them, he simply believed them to be too complex to be able to repair without a workshop if they were to ever break down on the field. Strangely they also reminded him of zanpaktous just bit considering how many soul reaper blades changed appearances when in shikai form. Luckily his student had no mecashift weapons and when he went looking for something to use in his training he found Crocea Mors. His mom had been somewhat annoyed with him for taking what was apparently the family heirloom, but she relented once she realized he had nothing else to use.
Eventually as he finished his musings within his mind he also stopped the rain of strikes upon his student. Finally finishing his beatdo- training for his student Yamamoto spoke to the bruised and battered Arc.
"You are improving noticeably, but training by yourself can only bring you so far."
"At the end of this month I will bring you hunting for Grimm and there you will earn proper experience." he finished.
"Y-Yessir!" spoke Jaune with his hands on his knees and still attempting to get more air.
"Very good, take a 5 minute rest, and when you're done with that perform the stances I taught you. 5 repetitions for all of them." Yamamoto said.
"aw man" complained the young Arc as he let his body fall to the ground.
"No complaints when training or I'll make that 20 repetitions" chastised Yamamoto
The Arc made a face, but didn't complain. It seems he learned his lesson after the last time he whined. As Yamamoto stood there the young Arc who was laying down looked upon him and asked him a question.
"Hey gramps, where did you learn to fight?" he questioned
Yamamoto considered how to best answer this while keeping in line with his story.
"I learned to fight across many battles and many places. During my years as a wanderer I encountered many enemies." he stated
"Enemies? Why were they your enemies?" asked the youth
"They were my enemies because I could not stand for what they would do. Some of them were madmen bent on the destruction of everything. Others were manipulators and cheats, muddying everything behind a cloud of lies. Finally there were those who I mistakenly labeled as enemies and still regret it to this day." Yamamoto stated, with his tone turning solemn towards the end.
The young Arc was silent trying to absorb the information and think about what he wanted to ask next.
Yamamoto looked upon his student, and with a serious face said, "Jaune. You will eventually encounter people like this, for from what Luna has told me about you, you have always dreamt of being a hero. As a hero you will meet opposition like never before. It is a path filled with pain and hardship and misery, nothing like the stories. The only way to come out of this unharmed is through sheer strength and will. I ask you here and now, do you still wish to become such?"
Jaune who had been shocked into stillness suddenly sat up. He looked upon Yamamoto with steel in his eyes and said, "I do. I wish to be just like my father, a hero who saves people, no matter the cost, even if it costs me everything."
Thus Yamamoto hit him on the head with his cane.
"Owwwww, what the heck gramps?!"
"Foolish brat, it seems you've learned nothing from what I've taught you. The path is dangerous, but the sacrifice of self is only for those too weak in will to protect what they desire, too weak in strength to protect their home. Stand up" Yamamoto said a bit incensed as he had already talked to the boy about not sacrificing, but instead preparing to overcome any obstacle. It seems he didn't listen and so Yamamoto would have to beat it into him.
Listening to his command and wanting to defend the image in his head of a self sacrificing hero from legends, Jaune grabbed his weapons and stood.
"There will be no more breaks, if you're going down such a path then I must thoroughly prepare you." Yamamoto stated menacingly.
Jaune did not like the sound of that.
"Wa-Wait I'm suddenly having second thoughts, aha aha..." Jaune said with a nervous laughter as he tried to back away from the old man while holding his shield up.
"Grit your teeth boy, and do your best to survive." Yamamoto said as he slowly, but menacingly approached the youth.
Jaunes screams echoed throughout the town, as the sound of wood smacking flesh filled the back yard of the Arc house from mid day until the sky grew orange.
*Interlude Qrow PoV*
A man with graying black hair on a certain shoreline curses as his footing around what appears to be a glass crater on the beach breaks. Laying down on the sand and broken glass he sighs to himself and runs his hands through his spiky hair. He doesn't bother getting up, and instead reaches for his scroll, and as he rests his faded red eyes upon the screen, he taps on his contacts list and calls. It isn't long before the person he's calling picks up.
"Yes Qrow? What do you need? Perhaps you've found something?" the silver haired man on the screen finished with a hopeful tone in his voice.
"Yeah actually, I've found recently that laying down upon broken glass and sand doesn't feel very comfortable." he stated in a slow and dry voice.
Seemingly unfazed almost as if used to these antics the silver haired man says, "No Qrow I meant about the source of the fire. The quite literal sky high column of fire that was seen even from even Anima and Solitas."
"Then no Ozpin I haven't in fact found the source of fire seen from two different continents, just the same nothing I've had for the past week! There's nothing here to tell us what happened, or if it even was a person!"
"Qrow I know you're tired of being out there, but-"
"But nothing Ozpin! All that's left is a massive line of glass in the sand that goes miles into the ocean. What the fuck do you want me to do? Swim out there, maybe ask the Grimm if they've seen something?"
As Qrow laid down he reached for his flask with the hand not holding the scroll, honestly he'd been too long without a drink, exactly 5 minutes too long.
"Qrow!" the person now known as Ozpin got his attention, "I know the possibility of this being caused by a person unnerves you, but you know there to be no other explanation" Ozpin finished calmly taking a sip from his mug
Truly it did in fact unsettle Qrow. The fact that if this was caused by someone, then they were hidden probably by an organization or faction. Hopefully not hers, but knowing his luck he wouldn't be that fortunate.
He opened the cap to is flask and took a swig, ignoring the exasperated look Ozpin was sending him through the scroll.
When he arrived here to investigate over a week ago he hadn't expected much, because even though he had seen that pillar of fire even from deep inside the continent of Sanus in Vale, it was quickly circulated around the CCT that some undiscovered faults along the ocean floor had opened up leading to such a massive pillar of fire before they formed into volcanos. Then the second day into his snooping around the general area of where the fire had originated from, he received a call from Ozpin. The faults and volcano talk was all him, his way to control information. He had started the disinformation campaign as soon as he saw the jet of flame emanating from somewhere where, according to him, it was impossible to be a fault. So yes he was a little frustrated that as he properly investigated the area he found what he believes to be the start point of the pillar, but little else, and he's had that little else all damn week.
Qrow put his flash back in his pocket, stood up from his laying position and dusted himself off as he talked down into the scroll "I get it's important Ozpin, but I told you 5 days ago and I'm going to tell you again. I ain't finding shit here, do you expect me to suddenl-" a glint reflecting upon his eye stopped him.
"Qrow?"asked Ozpin wondering why thean had suddenly stopped, "Hold up Ozpin let me check something out." and Qrow set off towards the glint.
He walked closer to it, and was actually walking much further away from the shore where the glass crater was located. There, on the ground covered almost completely in sand was a single solitary button. Nothing and no one made their way along this bit of shoreline, there was nothing for them here, so what was a single button doing all alone out here near the beach.
"Ozpin... I think I may have found our only lead, but it's kinda gonna be the hardest lead to follow." He stated as he scratched the stubble on his chin while observing the button and took his flask out to take another swig from his flask.
*Jaune PoV*
Jaunes everything hurt. He was laying down on the grass struggling to catch his breath, he tried to get up but his arms failed him. At least the sun wasn't on his face right now. As he gazed up at a glowing orange sky he felt happy, despite how much it hurt to exist right now. Jaune hadn't even known that breathing could hurt this badly.
"Dinner is going to be ready in a short while, if you want to eat I would advise getting up soon." Yamamoto stated, acting as if it wasn't his fault that Jaune was currently downed.
"Yeah just... just... a moment" Jaune managed to pant out, and with that his grandfather walked away.
He thought to himself how odd it was that he just felt so comfortable calling him that, it got stranger when you remember he's only known him about a week. The again he wasn't alone as Hazel and Luna were already pretty comfortable around gramps. Ivy seemed to be warming up to him, but the others still somewhat distrusted him or were just plain neutral and wouldn't approach until approached first. For his siblings distrust he could do nothing but give it time, but for the ones who were neutral well he had to do something. He had quickly learned that Yamamoto was a no nonsense type of person, and if you didn't approach him first he wouldn't not talk to you unless he needed something. Yamamoto never needed much, which means that these two groups were very unlikely to talk with each other. He'd need to do something to fix that, he really wanted to show them how awesome gramps was.
After a short while he attempted to get up again, he struggled and his arms trembled, but he managed to push himself into a sitting position. Jaune's life had turned around ever since meeting his grandfather. If he were completely honest he was actually planning on running away to Vale before his mother had agreed with his grandfather and allowed him to train. Well it wasn't much of a plan honestly, he was going to save up his allowance and then buy himself a new scroll, a one way ticket to Vale, and use the most of it to buy some forged transcripts and get into Beacon academy. Easy enough he thought, but realistically he didn't know anyone who would forge his transcripts for him, and even less how much it would cost, thinking back on it there's no way that plan would've worked. Luckily he didn't have to worry about that anymore, he was free to pursue his dream now and better yet he had the encouragement of his sisters and the approval of his mom.
With a final heave of effort he pushed himself to his feet and began the slow trek towards the dining room. He was so glad it connected to the back yard. As he reached the house he put his hand on the handle of the door and opened it. He stepped inside and saw that everyone was seated and the food was ready, they had just been waiting for him.
"Glad you could finally join us squirt" A voice called out from his left, he looked over and saw it was Hazel. She had been the one that had supported him the longest, ever since he made his dream known she had encouraged him to pursue it. She had even offered to teach him how to lift weights and exercise so that he may be ready one day, but unfortunately his mom had caught wind of this plan and began to supervise the two whenever they would hang out to make sure he wasn't training. That was kinda messed up now that he thought about it.
"Helloooo, Sanus to Jaune can you hear us?" Hazel called out again, she then looked over at gramps and said, "I think you may have hit him too hard gramps, look at him, he clearly has brain damage now!" she said with a teasing smile on her face.
"I was just-"
"Hmph, I see no difference in him, he's just as slow as before." Yamamoto stated, interrupting him and drawing chuckles around the table
"Graaaaamps" Jaune whined at him as he took his seat. The table was large and round, and had the family facing each other, his seat was next to Luna and Ivy. Luna was actually seated the closest to Yamamoto, and it made sense considering out of everyone including even Jaune she had grown the most attached to him. Jaune wasn't sure if Yamamoto liked her, but he at least tolerated her even with her endless questions.
"Whatever I'm just a bit more tired than usual" Jaune stated giving his reason as to why he was late.
"Well I would expect so, but I might have to talk with your grandpa about hitting you so hard" his mom said as she gave Yamamoto a frowning look.
'Hah, take that gramps, let's see how you get out of this one' Jaune thought to himself as he started digging into his food.
Yamamoto just nonchalantly responded, "The boy is foolish, he talked about sacrificing himself without even knowing it. I intend to beat that out of him"
His mom turned to look at him, her face was a mess of expressions, some anger, some disappointment, and finally some grief.
"I see." Responded his mother.
Jaune was in trouble, he could feel it.
She turned to look back at Yamamoto and said, "Well make sure to hit him harder so it really sticks"
'ah crud' thought the male Arc as he realized he wasn't just in trouble, he was going to be fighting for his life.
"You have my word" Yamamoto said facing her, and then turned towards him and said, "I hope you are ready boy" and Jaune could swear the corners of his mouth creeped upwards for a nanosecond. No time to be thinking about that he had to get out of this, he had barely ever survived today!
"Hold up, just- just wait a moment, we can talk about this" Jaune said raising his hands nervously in a placating motion. "You guys agree with me right, there's no need for him to train me harder" He turned towards his sisters looking for support.
All he found was betrayal.
"I think gramps is right" Said hazel with a small smile and a vicious look in her eyes. The rest of his siblings simply responded in similar fashions. Jaune was alone, and ate dinner in silence and misery.
Yet even then, he liked this much more than what he had before, and without noticing a small smile developed as he ate dinner with his family and its new addition. He was looking forward to tomorrow.
(AN: I'm not sure when it's appropriate to time skip so I'm messing with it a little, I kinda wanna flesh out the family as I skip around, maybe give them flashbacks of how their interactions have slowly changed with Yamamoto over the months. Also I would not be able to properly describe Jaune's daily training as that's something I'm not knowledgeable about. Could probably be, but then it'd be weak writing, then again isn't it already? lmaoo)
(AN2: Also I want to add more interludes of how the world is reacting to Yamamoto's presence, we're currently 2 years before canon[b.c] so that's a lot of waiting)
(AN3: Leave me those reviews, critiques, opinions, ideas vbucks and robux. Until next time)