April 9th(1 year And 8 months b.c.) Morning
*Lily PoV*
As the sun rose from the east Lily gracefully maneuvered her hand to her cup and drank her tea all in one fluid and graceful motion. She let out a sigh of content. Mornings like this were the best in her opinion, the calm cool morning slowly rising into activity as the sun ate away the lingering darkness of the previous night. She was at the porch of her backyard, sitting on some pillows as she enjoyed the moment.
"You've improved" stated a calm voice next to her.
She looked over to Yamamoto, her grandfather and thought back to the events that led up to this.
She had always enjoyed tea, and honestly thought herself to be somewhat of the tea authority of the house. That was until she found her grandfather making tea in the morning within the kitchen and asked for a cup. She hadn't really interacted much with him before that, but as the tea authority of the house she decided she must try it. She ended up the tea authority no longer.
He had acquiesced to her request, and decided to make her some fresh tea right then and there. As he went about the process of making her a cup, she realized she may have been out of her depth. Honestly she hadn't thought making tea could seem like an art, yet her grandfather made it so. Every movement was precise and graceful, almost ceremonial even. As he went about the process she had found herself mesmerized seeing an entirely different side to making tea. By the time she was done starring, Yamamoto was already in front of her with a cup of tea and a sweet.
When she tasted the tea she realized how foolish of a notion it was to think of herself not just as the tea expert of the house, but of herself as somewhat of a tea connoisseur. With a sip her horizons had been expanded and she understood, there was always a bigger fish. Someone who would be better or more experienced than her, and so resting at the peak of mediocrity was foolish. She asked Yamamoto to teach her how to make tea as good as his. Once again he acquiesced to her request, but warned her that the road of tea was not one to be taken lightly.
Over the course of the following week she'd been learning more and more. She even learned how to theoretically perform a team ceremony. She said theoretically because unfortunately they lacked the tools that Yamamoto said were required to have an official tea ceremony. It frustrated her to know that she couldn't expand her skillet due to a lack of tools, but next time she visited one of the big cities maybe Vale she would buy the required items. For now though she would settle with trying to refine the tea she made and improve upon her etiquette.
"Thank you, but I am still nowhere near your level of experience." She humbly responded to him as she finished her musings.
"Young one, you would need two-hundred lifetimes before you came anywhere close to the same level of experience as me." He responded, and although his face was neutral his tone danced with amusement.
She noticed her grandfather wasn't very expressive, apart from the sheer authority he could radiate, he seemed to be very stoic. As she grew more familiar with him she realized that he had very small tells. From the way his eyes would light up in amusement when her and her siblings would start arguing over dinner to the way his brow would crease whenever Jaune said or did something dumb.
"I believe that, but it is still something I aspire to reach." She stated in a serious voice
"Hoh? Very well then, I'll see about getting us some of the materials needed for the ceremony, Your education will start properly then, I expect nothing but your best under my tutelage." He said as he lifted up the cup to once again take a sip
"Thank you grandfather" she stated happy to receive the extra help.
Honestly before growing closer to him Lily did not like Yamamoto. She acted neutral, but considering her penchant for being kind, she quite disliked the way he was training the young Arc and thought him needlessly cruel and harsh. Now looking upon him as his eyes softened ever so slightly from unwavering steel to hard granite at the word grandfather she understood he was probably doing his best to make sure Jaune would be ready for his future. He was doing his best for his grandkids.
They spoke no more as they sat there drinking tea and watching the sun rise until it was time to go to breakfast.
*Amber Arc PoV*
She watched her sister and her grandfather enter the dining room as she sat at the table ready for breakfast. She was surprised that the two had grown closer considering how Lily felt about him initially. Lily thought she hid her feelings well, but not from Amber, never from her.
Amber had always been able to understand how the people around her felt, and sometimes if the emotion was strong enough she could even feel some of what they felt. She had asked her mother about this when she was younger, and although her mother was surprised she told her that she was just very empathetic, which meant that she understood people more than others. As a kid she liked hearing that, it means she was special.
As she grew up though she realized what a responsibility it was to be able to tell how others felt. Anytime someone in their family was hurt she felt as if it was her responsibility to console them. Emotionally she matured much faster than the others, especially with what she went through during dad's death. The family had fallen apart, even if they acted like everything was fine, all of them putting on masks to not worry the rest of the family. She saw right through them. Although she herself wanted to grieve, she realized she had no time for that as she had a monumental task ahead of her.
Day by day she spoke to them, she cared for them, and she tried to cheer them up. When her mother wouldn't be able to get out of bed by herself some days, she'd help her move. When her siblings cried by their lonesome she found them and provided company. She became the glue that stopped the family from falling apart, but in doing so her own mental well-being became dependent on how her family was doing.
The years where Jaune started to slowly chafe under her mothers stubbornness were the worst in recent memory. She could feel that Jaune had been getting ready to explode, but she couldn't bring herself to ask her mother to allow him to pursue his dreams. This was because she could still feel how strong the grief that lingered from that day was. It was stuck this way until one day he arrived. Her grandfather.
She had realized how relieved her mother had felt during the dinner of the day they ate Arc style meatballs and during breakfast the day after, before the argument. Although she was thankful for his help with mom, she didn't trust him. This was because on the same day of their argument during dinner her mother had been despondent as she announced that she'd let Jaune pursue his dream, her feelings were muted almost as if in shock.
The last time she felt shock like that had been when the news of her dad dying had reached her mom. What had Yamamoto said to her to get such a strong reaction she wondered. She had prepared herself for another breakdown, but luckily her mom seemed to have slept it off. Hell she would say the day after she was happier than before even that first day, even though she was letting Jaune become a hunter, as though she believed the path he had taken to be the safest. Amber was clearly missing something and she didn't know what.
Until she figured out what was going on she would remain wary of Yamamoto.
*Yamamoto PoV*
As Yamamoto trained the young Arc he began to muse to himself.
He was growing soft.
Maybe it was age, maybe it was nostalgia, maybe it was something else entirely, but he found that these youngsters were growing on him. He hadn't approached any of them, keeping his distance as he saw no reason to interact with them.
Instead they approached him. Slowly as they began to interact throughout the days he found himself growing more fond of them. Little Luna and her ceaseless questions, honestly he didn't know too much about the human world and actually somewhat learned when she went on long winded spiels about one subject or another.
Jaune and his endless thirst for his quest. His old students had been much tougher than young Jaune, but they had also been much less motivated. Where areas they would run from his teachings, Jaune would just complain a bit and then face them head on regardless.
Hazel would interact with him a bit less, but she seemed to enjoy talking about her exercise routines and asking him what he used to do to get fit, he told her and she'd been shocked but then took it as a joke and laughed, she probably had him pegged for a jokester now. Oh how little she knew.
Slowly but surely, this family was growing on him like moss.
"Owwwww, what the heck gramps?"
He looked down where he saw Jaune cradling his head
'Whoops, let myself use a bit too much strength there' Yamamoto thought to himself as his musings had distracted him
"I did that to prepare you to take hits and keep fighting, you won't always manage to block or parry an attack so if it connects you need to learn to move through the pain and keep fighting" Yamamoto lied
"ugh this is gonna suck" said the young Arc, but he stood regardless and prepared to face him again.
Yamamoto looked at his stance, it was solid. His feet spaced apart, knees bent ready to either receive a blow with his shield, jump back, or push forward. He shield was held steadily just below the eye level, covering his vital areas while also not losing sight of the opponent. He held his sword low to the ground ready to swing upwards against an enemy.
Honestly Yamamoto was glad the system had given him Jaune as a student, for his thirst and drive to reach his dream would push him forward far beyond others he may have chosen. It didn't matter how much or how well Yamamoto taught if his student didn't have the will to push forward, if they didn't have drive then it would all be for naught.
The corner of Yamamoto's lips crinkled upwards ever so slightly as he gripped his disguised zanpaktou and walked towards the young Arc to begin another lesson.
Afternoon
*With Ozpin*
"Is this truly all we have?" A voice questioned out of a screen and into a room with 3 people in it
The room was located on top of a CCT tower and was the main office of the current headmaster of Beacon academy. Ozpin.
The room had a massive window showing an impressive view of the land from above even the clouds. The window had a large clock located outside and inside the room itself had a gear motif. Large massive moving gears hung above the ceiling, gears were in the walls and even on the very desk and chair the headmaster of Beacon sat on.
The head master of Beacon had a head full of neatly combed slightly long silver hair. He had small circular glasses sitting on his face and wore an elegant set of clothing. He also was gripping a cane even as he sat down.
"Unfortunately so" Responded Ozpin with a sigh. Their one and only clue being a single button.
"You honestly cannot expect us to find where this button came from, there's not even a single unique thing about it that would give even a semblance of a clue as to where it came from." The man on the screen exclaimed.
Qrow and one other person in the room gave him looks that seemed to agree with the statement of the man on screen. The person next to Qrow appears to be a middle-aged woman that has very light-blonde hair tied back in a bun with a curl hanging down the right side of her face. Her eyes are bright green and she wears thin ovular glasses. She has dangling teal earrings that match the hanging pendant on her collar.
"Ironwood is right professor, this clue is a dead end." she spoke, "it is possible that Qrow may have missed something else that we could use"
"I didn't" "He didn't" spoke two voices, Qrow looked in surprise at Ironwood considering he was usually the first one to doubt the quality of his work.
Ironwood had black hair, with some gray areas, while his eyebrows were solid black. He had a strip of silver metal above his right eyebrow and was dressed in what appeared to be a white military styled uniform.
"Glynda as rare as it is for me to agree with Qrow on... anything really, it doesn't undo the fact that the team of specialists I sent down the location of origin has found nothing." The man now known as Ironwood responded to the person next to Qrow now known to be Glynda.
'No wonder, he already doubted my work and sent his own little team' Qrow mused to himself.
Ozpin sighed and while he agreed with them somewhat, it was there only lead.
"This button as much of a dead end as it seems to be is our best bet. The fact that it has no brand or style might be a clue within and of itself, perhaps it is from a custom shop" Ozpin responded.
"Great that just leaves us with every shop that does custom order across the entirety of Remnant, I'm sure it's only a few thousand" Qrow quipped sarcastically
Ozpin gave him a dry look and said, "Be that as it may, we literally have nothing else to go off, but I do recognize the task I ask of you is quite... improbable to achieve. Do not focus on it as a priority, and instead research slowly where you can and if you can. I'm certain now that this force started acting up they will once again take action and from there we will be able to investigate more."
"Very well Ozpin. Good day" signed off Ironwood curtly as his face was no longer shown on the screen.
"You know he's going to keep harassing every single business that is even closely related to buttons right?" said Qrow facing him and he started to reach for his flask.
"James does tend to... act fast professor" Glynda supported Qrow
Ozpin sighed, he had already seen reports on the CCT that many Vale soldiers had been seen in clothing and tailoring shops, "I know Qrow, but I suppose it's better than having him trying to question everything and everyone if we hadn't found even a clue after informing him that the fire originated from a person."
Qrow gave a non committal hum before taking a swig of his flask ignoring the disgusted look Glynda was throwing his way.
Ozpin sighed, he was really feeling the weight of his age now.
Nighttime
*Jaune PoV*
After a hard day's work Jaune was about to head to bed. He was extremely sore and aching from the training once again, and although it was hard to sleep for the first few days he eventually would end up sleeping through the pain as the sheer exhaustion would subsume him.
He hoped he didn't have that weird dream again. It was a strange dream. He would wake up in his house but it wasn't his. He couldn't explain it but whenever he woke up there, the place was too still , too quiet for it to be normal. Then there was always a figure that seemed to evade his sight. It was strange because it felt as though they were right next to him and yet at the same time it felt as if they were miles away. The best way to describe it would be seeing something out of the corner of your eye, but every time you turn to face it, it somehow remains in your peripherals. Every time it felt like he was about to be able to have them within his sight and felt like he was about to hear their voice, he would wake up in a cold sweat.
He really hoped his sleep would be dreamless tonight, otherwise it may distract him from training. He didn't always wake up in the morning after these dreams, and waking up too early sometimes meant the training that day was going to be extra gruelling. These were Jaune's last waking thoughts as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
He opened his eyes and looked around. It was the house that wasn't quite his.
'Aw crud' he thought to himself.
He sighed. The action and sound corresponding to it shattering the silence of the house like glass. It was always jarring to Jaune how such small noises that he made would seem to almost bounce off the walls.
He began his trek through the house as he walked down the stairs in front of him. He always started at the top of the stairs, and this time it was no different.The house was silent, empty. Despite the light shining through the windows signifying mid-day the house felt cold instead of warm.
His steps echoed as he navigated past the bottom of the stairs and into the living room, he stood still and looked around. It was so quiet, so still, so dead almost.
Out of the corner of his eyes he saw movement. He ignored it, he already knew that no matter how much he tried to look directly at it, it would always evade his sight. He decided to keep moving.
He went to the front door, locked and immovable like always. He would say the front door was closer to being part of the wall than a door. He went to the kitchen, as always empty and lifeless. He went back upstairs and tried the doors of the different rooms on that floor, the door handles would jiggle unlike the immutable object that was the front door, but still he could not open them. He moved to the dining room, on the table there was breakfast out and it looked as though people had just been eating before vanishing.
The dining room was an odd part of his dream, it felt a bit less empty than the rest of the house. He has tried to race down the stairs to see if he could catch a glance of his family, but he always just found the same thing, breakfast set out with no one in sight.
He sighed and began to pull out a chair getting ready to sit down and wait until he woke up, but then he heard something from the back yard. It had sounded like a clang, metal upon metal. That should not be possible, nothing in this dream made noise aside from him, not outside, not the house, and certainly not the back yard which he couldn't access.
Tentatively he tucked the chair back in and began to walk towards the door leading to the back yard. He grasped the handle and began to slowly open it. He was surprised it moved as it had not before. As he peeked through the widening gap, he saw. No one.
The door opened fully, and he was greeted by his backyard. There was no other person there and no sign of what could have caused the noise. There was something there though, in the middle of the yard lay Crocea Mors.
He walked forward, while he should have been happy or at least noted that he finally exited the house he didn't. For some reason he could focus only on his weapon. He felt like they were the most important thing in the world right now. In a trance-like state he kept moving towards them.
As he reached them and stood over them, he paused. He felt hesitant, and he didn't understand why. Right now it felt as though the dream was holding its breath. Trying to shake off the feeling he reached down and as soon as he touched them the shadow within his periphery moved directly towards him.
Jaune gasped, in front of him was someone else. They towered over him. They were wearing ornate knightly armor, covered fully from head to toe in it. It was beautiful, the armor was mostly white with golden edges and beautiful intricate patterns of gold etched along the armor. The helm seemed to completely shadow the figure's face since despite the large T-like gap in the helm he could not see within. Before Jaune could finish admiring and noting the details the figure reached out and grabbed him.
It held Jaune aloft in the air by the scruff of his shirt. He would have tried fighting back, but was stopped as he was assaulted by feelings he could recognize as not his own.
IRRITATION
IRRITATION
IRRITATION
Any thoughts he had were drowned out by these emotions, they had his heart hammering in his ears as they bled into him and he could feel that his frustration was building.
"WHAT! WHAT ARE YOU ANGRY ABOUT?!" He shouted as the frustrations bleeding into him made him lose his temper even as he was held aloft by the figure.
That did not help, and the figure's frustration only seemed to grow stronger as it started to bring Jaune closer to its helm. As it did this the gap in its helm began to glow and Jaune started to thrash, trying to break away from the iron grip of the thing that held him. He could do nothing as it brought him closer and closer.
As the helm made contact with Jaune's forehead it began to glow brightly, brighter than even the sun within his dream. In a panic Jaune screamed as images and feelings bled into his mind.
The images were always Crocea Mors and the feelings were only singular in goal.
Closer
Frustration
Closer
Frustration
CLOSER!
FRUSTRATION!
As Jaune's scream finished he suddenly awoke in a cold sweat and sat up on his bed looking around for the threat.
'What the hell?' He questioned silently to himself as he began to calm down. 'That felt way too real'
He looked around the room as he calmed his beating heart. It was dark, probably still in the early hours of the morning, nothing was out of place and his house felt less empty than the dream place. As he continued to scan his room he laid his eyes upon his weapon, Crocea Mors, his sword and shield sitting there on his desk in its scabbard and sword form. His gramps disliked the mecashift feature, but said he found it, 'acceptable compared to those monstrosities on TV.'
With the dream still very vivid in his mind and the echoes of the emotions he felt still there, he decided to do something dumb. He got up, walked over to his desk and grabbed Crocea Mors and took it back to bed with him. Maybe this was a bad idea, and his weapon was probably cursed considering how the figure seemed to... send images to him. It was odd because all the images were from his point of view, maybe it had sent him his own memories?
As he embraced the weapon in its scabbard and adjusted his covers he realized he felt, well not safer, but something similar. Possibly something like complete. As Jaune tried to fall asleep again, he found it came easier to him this time despite usually not being able to go back to sleep after similar dreams. He fell unconscious and did not dream again. He awoke in the morning feeling strangely refreshed.
April 10th, Morning
*Yamamoto PoV*
'His soul is much denser than yesterday' Yamamoto thought to himself as he looked over Jaune during breakfast.
He had actually felt a small spike of spiritual energy today during the early morning hours. His experience sensing the energy and the general lack of its use in this world allowed him to very easily determine that it had come from Jaune's location.
'His spirit either finished forming or it made first contact' He reasoned to himself, this meant he would have to begin meditation training for the young Arc.
He was also going to soon have to throw Jaune into the fire. While the basics were good, and sparring was great, both of these were nothing compared to proper field experience. In the soul reaper academy the students would be taken out on the field by the teachers and staff to start hunting hollows in order to gain experience. He would take him Grimm hunting.
'I will also need to find some human enemies for him to fight' he reasoned to himself. While him being the sparring partner for the young Arc helped improve his reflexes and reaction time it also got him too used to fighting only one person and one style.
'It should not be too hard' He thought to himself as he remembered seeing that even in a world threatened by Grimm bandits still existed. Hell there was a named tribe called the Branwen tribe, maybe he'll have young Arc wipe them out as a test of his progress in a years time.
"Hey gramps?" A voice from the target of his musings ironically broke him out of them.
"Yes?" He responded
"Have you ever had a dream, but like it felt super real?"
"I have" Yamamoto answered knowing far more than Jaune could imagine, "To dream is to reflect on oneself, this is especially true for people on the path of warriors."
"So dreams are normal to warriors? I guess that makes sense, I mean I started having these weird dreams a few days after I started training" Jaune said almost reassuring himself
"Could you describe these dreams Jaune?" Violet's voice cut into the conversation looking the slightest bit concerned
The rest of the siblings while still talking amongst each other or looking at their scroll seemed to also be curious about what he would say.
Jaune then proceeded to explain the dream he experienced. When he finished the eyes around the table were looking at him in either concern or amusement.
"Wow Jaune looks like that training finally made you crack huh?" Hazel stated while chucking
"Hazel that's mean, and Jaune I'm here if you need to talk, ok?" said Lily as she chastised hazel.
"I'm fine, than-"
"According to my books dreams are random neurons firing and your brain tries to process these signals, which eventually it interprets as the things you see in a dream" Luna said while scribbling on her journal as if she hadn't just interrupted him
"I would love it if you could describe the armor to me in detail later Jaune" Ivy stated
"Well darling I can't say that's not concerning, but at least you didn't wet the bed this time." Violet stated stopping anymore questions as the atmosphere room was replaced with chuckles.
"Moooooooom!" Jaune whined as his face began to flush, "Not in front of grandpa!"
"Whoops, sorry dear!" Violet said completely unapologetically.
"Do not worry Jaune, I already expected something like that from you" Yamamoto said as he decided to go for the finisher. The situation was pretty amusing.
"Ughhhh" Jaune said as he covered his face with his hands and bonked his head on the table in defeat.
"Regardless Jaune I'll begin to train you in meditation, you need to center yourself and find balance." Yamamoto stated as he finished his breakfast and stood up
"Thank you for the meal, it was delicious." He aimed the compliment at Violet who nodded at him, and then walked to the door leading to the back yard.
As he was upon the door he turned and said "Meet me at the-"
"Backyard once I finish breakfast, I knowww gramps you tell me every time" Jaune said cutting him off
Yamamoto narrowed his eyes at him and the young Arc gulped realize he had just bought himself an extra hard training session that day. Regardless Yamamoto turned back to the door and proceeded to go into the back yard.
As he moved to the middle of the yard he pondered over what the young Arc had revealed. Clearly that was his zanpaktou spirit. He didn't mention anything about being able to talk to him, so it was possible the spirit wasn't ready to converse with him. Still this actually put him ahead of thousands of Shinigami who would go years and years without being able to contact their spirits. He supposed motivation might have been the biggest factor in that.
He knew that many of the graduate Shinigami felt as though they had an endless amount of time to achieve what they wanted, and many did not care for bettering themselves. They cared only that they had gotten out of the rokungai and for little else. Truly humans always loved to push forward.
"Grandfather" A voice called out to him from near the house.
He looked over and saw Ivy she had some art tools that Yamamoto did not know the name of next to her, "Yes?" he answered while raising an impressive eyebrow.
"I would like your permission to draw a portrait of you, if you don't mind of course" She said already setting up her tools
"I do not mind , but I will have to ask what brought this on?"
"I have already painted a few scenes of your training with my brother, but that was from my spying through the window, it wasn't the best view and so I would like to be able to properly gaze upon what I want to paint this time" she stated
"I see" Yamamoto said, he already knew she had been watching them train, but hadn't realized she'd been painting them. "Go ahead, I do not mind what you do, but I shall proceed to train Jaune as usual." he responded
"Thank you" She said with a small smile
Just then Jaune exited the house, "Ivy? What are you doing here?" he questioned as he spotted his sister
"I am just taking in the view" she responded as she continued to set up her things.
"hmm, ok but don't get too close to us ok? I don't want you getting hurt somehow" Jaune stated nonchalantly accepting his sisters odd arrival.
"Jaune" Yamamoto said grabbing his attention, "I need to train you in meditation, this will cut down our time to physically train you and so we will need to work you much harder before working on meditation at the end"
Jaune nodded his head. His face was serious as readied himself for the training. He unsheathed Crocea Mors, with the scabbard transforming into his shield and gripped them tightly. He walked out onto the back of the yard and set himself in his stance as he faced Yamamoto.
"Are you ready?" Yamamoto asked
"Yes!" Jaune responded
Yamamoto nodded and in a flurry of speed, he was upon the Arc to his left. He decided to not keep his abilities just barely within the arcs reach and instead he would be around two steps above to force him to either adapt or end up in pain.
Jaune looked surprised and had barely any time to try and bring up his shield before he was hit on the chest with the cane and shoved back. Jaune grimaced as he grit teeth and moved towards Yamamoto.
The day was going to be a long one for Jaune Arc.
(AN: sorry went to see Oppenheimer and then got busy lol. I think I will need to balance out the time skips and the meat of the story, I'm planning on having probably one more before I really dive into Jaune as the main character and his development under Yamamoto's influence)
(AN2: Also really?!? No one commented on the genius pun that was the title of the last chapter??? A small Training Arc? get it??!?! It's a small arc for training which had the small Arc who trained! My genius is underappreciated :(, As always leave reviews, chemical composition of meth, critiques, and the like, also big thanks for 100 follows, honestly didn't think I'd make it to 20 lmaooo.)