On the next day, Jaune had nearly cried upon re-realizing that he was alive once again and then by noon he had mostly regained use of every part of his body. His fingers and toes still felt slightly numb, but nothing he couldn't deal with. And he was just in time to eat lunch without help, Yang had been happy for him she even joked that she would miss feeding him before she left back to class.
Eventually someone came to check in on his condition.
"Pardon?" Chryssa Aegle, Volunteer Nurse and a DO according to her name tag, asked.
This girl with fluffy golden hair had nervously introduced herself to Jaune, and then she awkwardly checked in with him and noted down his recovery.
"I, uh, said that you should probably note down that I also have some brain damage and can't recall anything about my Aura or how to fight." Jaune lied, and he had mostly worked up the courage to do so after seeing how nervous this girl was.
"Um, uh, uh." Frantically the girl began flipping through papers on her clipboard, and then she pulled out her Scroll and clicked a few times. "But, but, your scans looked fine." Her fingers rapidly tapped away at her Scroll as her breathing sped up. "They did, right?" She asked herself.
Jaune gulped but he wasn't scared, just slightly anxious, he was lying, just like he had done so to cheat his way into Beacon. If this nurse pursued his files and transcripts she might uncover his lies and he'll be kicked out of this Academy after all the deaths he had to go through.
"Noo, noo." Chryssa whined as she started her Scroll. "Your hippocampus is slightly smaller than it should be but I thought you were just stressed out, everyone always complains about their stress here." She dropped her Scroll and it landed on his bed, she used her hands to block her eyes. "Stupid Chryssa! This is why we're failing! You let a bias lead you into a misdiagnosis!" She fell to her knees. "It's over! It's all over! I'm going to get expelled over a simple mistake! Brain damage! I mistook brain damage as stress!" She wailed on the floor.
"Hey hey, uh, it's okay." Jaune awkwardly began trying to comfort her. "I'm, uh, not blaming you for your mistake." And he was doubling down on his lie, hopeful that he could trick this wreck of a girl.
After a few minutes, the nurse finally calmed down and proudly declared that although his extreme, unique, and bizarre, case of Aura Exhaustion made it seem like he was just stressed out, she had seen through it and discovered shortly afterwards that he had suffered from an impaired memory.
During their conversation, Jaune had learned she was fourth year at Beacon and she was taking medical classes because her parents had been doctors who traveled to far out villages to lend a hand but they were killed by Grimm along the way. She wanted to honor their memory and make them proud. And that she really liked to overshare.
"Oh Jaune, I almost forgot." She addressed him like they were friends, and all signs of her nervousness were gone, she also didn't seem like a professional nurse. "I'm supposed to ask if you would be willing to submit your case to researchers, your identity doesn't need to be disclosed unless you're willing and any questions of legitimacy would be handled by Beacon, so please consider contributing to the advancement of understanding Aura! Your case is really special, not only with what you did to Miss Schnee but your quick recovery is also astonishing!" She had spoken incredibly quickly and in one breath.
"Um, is it really that important?" He didn't want his papers to be inspected, the chance of his lies being exposed would rise even higher.
"Absolutely! Even with the most ancient techniques and the most advanced technology it's almost impossible to restart a Soul, and you did so with your bare hands. And even the most skilled Huntsman take decades to recover from severe Aura Exhaustion, even though Miss Schnee took hours to recover after being resuscitated and that in itself was a marvel, you had been the one to make that possible so any observations made with her report would be incomplete without yours!"
Jaune stared at his nurse, who was clearly passionate, and then he thought about how he had felt when his soul was burning and the despair he had felt creeping in when he was unable to move his limbs. He sighed. "Fine, I'll consent or whatever." He blinked and something occurred to him. "Did Weiss already submit hers? Or was that wishful thinking on your part?"
"That's great, I'll go get the forms, and yeah she even gave her consent to share her name. And, um, I'm not trying to speak ill of her, but um, I hope she recovers quickly."
"Same here, she was pretty creepy." He smiled at his nurse, who giggled in response.
And then he was left alone.
Fuck, life is wonderful. Beacon is great.
Even in the months he had lived in Vale, not a single conversation had been nearly as fun as this one had been. And even then he still considered his nurse to be a little off kilter, she definitely wasn't his type of girl, but still her joy was nice.
After he finished signing off on consent and his release forms, Yang had come around and when she learned he was allowed to leave she dragged him off. She gave a quick tour of the academy grounds, which was actually just her pointing at places and telling him their uses.
"And this is our room!" Yang said as she just about kicked in a door.
Jaune looked around the room, his legs had carried him with much issue and his eyesight had seemed sharper than ever so he was glad to be up and about, so basically he didn't care much for this small and cramped room. His sense of exploration had been reignited since he could walk again, something he had been close to giving up on.
One of his hands was slightly warm, although it was mostly numb he could still feel it, and right now he was feeling another hand squeezing his own, Yang had grabbed it so she could drag him around in the literal sense of the word. It somehow seemed soft to Jaune.
Was this the hand she choked me out with?
Perhaps his question had shown on his face because Yang quickly released him and looked away. Not that it particularly mattered which hand she used, so he dropped the thought and walked towards a bed with his luggage resting atop. And there was something else that caught his eye. "What's this?"
Yang peered over to where he was looking. "Oh, it's your Beacon issued Scroll. It comes with a few unique features, such as an Aura Gauge and it also serves as an E-Key to our room. Anyways, make yourself at home, I got to go, class is starting soon."
"Weapon Crafting and Upkeep, right?" Jaune checked, when Yang had stopped by yesterday she had informed of the classes they had, she also warned him about two professors in particular.
"Ding ding ding!" Yang made a sound that implied he was correct. "I'll check back in after about two hours, so leave a note if you're going somewhere." And then she closed the room door.
Jaune absently checked his stuff, everything he remembered was there, and he also found a school uniform. He took out and examined his bunny onesie, it had previously been something of a comfort tool and it had served as a reminder to himself to never take this world too seriously and to always find the fun in the little things, he packed it back up.
There was nothing in his luggage that mattered, not his clothes and not his pajamas nor his comic books, so he planned to drop the thing off at a donation center next time he was free.
Now that he was finished unpacking he took a quick shower before getting dressed in his new school uniform. He almost wished he had been born a girl as he struggled to tie his necktie properly. Yang, Weiss, and Ruby all wore small ribbons instead of a stupid necktie, and he could easily tie ribbons. Eventually he decided that if Ruby could wear her cloak, he didn't need to wear a noose.
As he sat in his bed he took notice of the three other beds in the room, each bed had been placed in a corner of the room. Finally it occurred to him that he would be sharing his room with three other people.
I should probably ask Ren or Chryssa for something to help me sleep.
He had seven sisters, and although only a few were older than him, he knew that teenage girls hated having their beauty sleep interrupted. And even though one of his sister had held him in a necklock and told him to retract his, apparently sexiest, comment, he claimed he would do so when he met a girl who enjoyed being woken up, his mother had to be the one to free him.
And while his mom scolded him for being rude, his father told him that a man was supposed to keep quiet regarding women's many faults. The 'many' part of his advice had landed his father in trouble and for a week not a single one of Jaune's sisters talked to him.
His parents and his sisters, he had last seen them over almost a year ago, but in this world and from their perspective he had run away two months ago. They were probably waiting for him to return, hoping he would, because otherwise the only other outcome they could imagine was that he had died.
Not a single one of them believed that he could accomplish his dream, that he could be a Huntsman, they told time after time that he just wasn't cut out for it and that he shouldn't throw his life away. And Jaune Arc didn't listen, he cheated his way into Beacon and then he died. Proving his family correct in the worst way possible,
He would be dead, he should be dead, but he wasn't. Somehow he wasn't dead.
Even though he died, Jaune Arc was still alive.
And as he fiddle with his school issued Scroll, he found the Aura Gauge that Yang had mentioned.
Aura, he had never known of its existence, his Soul apparently. He had managed to claim brain damage had removed his memories regarding it, so he shouldn't have to worry about his unfamiliarity with it, but still his worldview had been shaken when he learned magic was real.
The previously incomprehensible existence of his ability to retry after his death didn't seem so odd anymore.
What had previously been attributed to Gods and Concepts, his Fate and Destiny, his Life and Death, his apparent reversal or traversal of Time, everything had been snatched away from the higher beings and given to human hands by the means of Magic.
That girl, that redheaded bitch, she's responsible for all this.
Although he had previously been confused by her chant, he didn't believe it was possible for a single human girl to have caused his hell, but now he knew the truth.
Magic was real and she had cursed him.
Thanks for reading! I'm always open to feedback so please leave a review, or reply in my forum, about what you liked or hated about this chapter or the whole story. If anyone wants to be a Beta Reader then PM me and we'll talk details.
Sorry for the rather lackluster chapter, but next time Jaune will begin his adventure as a Beacon Student.
Ahem. And in the case of OCs, like the flight attendant Ms. Lazulum, the pawn shop owner Zlato Srebro, the airdock guard Bran, and the student nurse Chryssa Aegle, all of them serve a negligible importance to the overall plot. They mostly exist to make the world feel less empty and so Jaune could interact with people aside from the main cast.
They only matter in relation to Jaune. So don't worry too much about them.
