Ch. 11 Putting the pieces together
Jaune was tired. It was almost sunrise and he still wasn't finished. He had honestly believed that it wouldn't take too much longer when he told Ruby to go and get some sleep, but that was a few hours ago now and he still had details left to file off.
It took him most of the weekend just to forge the receiver plate and slider. Then he did the rough work with a dremel, but the closer he was to finishing the parts, the higher chance of messing them up.
Ruby was done with machining the internal parts on early Saturday, but spent her time in the workshop anyway. Unfortunately for her, as distracted as Jaune was, he eventually noticed when she decided to run full maintenance on Crescent Rose for the third time that day.
Jaune stopped her of course, but telling her she didn't need to spend all her weekend in the foundry because of him earned him a snort and a "But I want to be here." which confused Jaune to no end.
Not knowing how to interpret Ruby's actions he just went back to forging the pieces. After all that was what he was here to do and it's why Ruby wanted to watch him work… right?
But on a late Sunday evening, with most of the rough work done and only details left to work on he'd send Ruby away. And now it was probably Monday already and he was regretting his decision.
Having Ruby there to keep him company was… nice. She made the work livelier and time seemed to flow faster with her there.
"Jaune? Why are you still here?"
His hands stopped. Why was he still here indeed? And why was he imagining Ruby's voice?
"I woke up and you weren't there. Have you been here all night?"
Jaune turned his head to the door. He wasn't imagining things.
"I uhh… maybe? What time is it?"
"It's six forty. On a Monday, we have Goodwitch first thing in the morning and from the looks of it you haven't slept at all."
There were many things Jaune felt at that moment. He felt tired, ashamed, and mildly terrified of falling asleep in Goodwitch's class. But the only thing he replied with was "I missed my shower timeslot…"
=O=O=O=
Team RNJR was eating breakfast with the female half of team SWNY. Jaune would be perfectly content to turn his brain off and leave the conversation to others. Unfortunately he'd found himself at the receiving end of Yang's attempt at embarrassing Ruby.
"And then dad found her asleep in the workshed, drooling all over her blueprints. So dad wanted to get her back inside the house, but when he woke her up she was so out of it she stumbled at the door and face planted right into the freshly fallen snow outside."
Jaune chuckled. The imagery of a younger Ruby overlapping with his younger sisters in his sleep deprived mind. Ruby glared at him for laughing. She had given up on trying to stop Yang, but being made fun of was embarrassing enough when people didn't laugh.
"Yeah, I can see that. I'm just lucky there's no snow outside. I have a feeling a similar fate would wait for me."
"You bet it would…" grumbled Ruby under her breath.
Meanwhile Pyrrha was talking with Ren about dietary supplements, much to Nora's displeasure.
"All I'm saying is that kelp and kale are filled with minerals and vitamins."
"And they taste awful. Those green smoothies of yours are vile."
"Nora, you can't survive on pancakes and protein. You need a balanced diet."
It was an argument they had many times before. At this point it wasn't even a heated one. Just an exchange of opinions.
Pyrrha was… apprehensive about Ren's health smoothies. She had some experience with workout diets and in her experience, they weren't particularly pleasant. Not that she said so, even though it was her who had started the conversation by asking about Ren's choice of Mistralian breakfast, but the conversation soon went to dietary plans and now she sat silently on the sidelines, feeling she had very little to say.
By the time breakfast was over and Pyrrha and Yang went off to find the rest of their team, Jaune was barely staying awake. It was one thing to pull an allnighter when one had something to do. It was a different beast entirely to have to sit and pay attention to the lectures that would span the rest of the day. Of course he had to survive Combat class before that, possibly literally if he was chosen to fight.
=O=O=O=
"MISTER ARC!"
Jaune was roused from his nap by the voice of one professor Goodwitch. It would appear he fell asleep. It would seem his team was unable to wake him up before the professor noticed.
"Yes professor?"
"Do you consider my lecture to be so boring you'd rather sleep?"
Fortunately for Jaune, it wasn't the first time he had to explain his lack of sleep to his teacher.
"No professor, I'll admit I didn't get enough sleep last night. Believe me, falling asleep was unintentional on my part."
"Get down to the ring mister Arc. We'll see if lack of sleep has affected your performance."
Unfortunately for Jaune, the teacher's response was also much the same.
"Yes professor."
"Miss Belladonna, you'll be his opponent."
Jaune didn't even know what weapon Blake used, let alone how she fought, so there really wasn't much in terms of planning for the match he could do. Jaune was tired, stood against an opponent he knew nothing about and was probably more experienced than him. The objective was clear - survive.
Well that was a bit of an over-exaggeration. What Jaune wanted to do was not to lose too hard and maybe gain an insight on a new weapon and fighting style.
Jaune's own style was, as he'd come to realise, basic and utilitarian. Effective sure, but predictable by human opponents. His strength currently hinged on having a lot of aura, but winning a match would take more than that.
As both combatants got ready both Jaune and Blake remained silent. Jaune on account of being really tired and Blake on account of being Blake. As all students had to be dressed for combat, Jaune had taken his weapons out of his semblance in advance. So they both took a fighting stance.
When Goodwitch called for the fight to start, Jaune had barely brought his sword to guard when Blake's strike landed. Blake was quick with the blade and kept up the pressure.
While the fight wasn't entirely one-sided, Jaune's strikes were dodged more often than parried and when it finally seemed like he would land a glancing strike, Blake dodged with her semblance and all he hit was the leftover shadow.
Jaune tried to keep up the pressure and close the distance but was quickly peppered by automatic pistol fire. His aura was already in the yellow while Blake only lost aura via semblance use.
Jaune tried to use Gemini Aculei to get a hit in, but didn't manage to so much as scratch her. With his ranged options exhausted he decided to try and charge into a grapple. Jaune took Atra Aurora into a one handed grip and caught Blake's kusarigama in a parry. With his left he went to grab Blake, but barely missed her.
Blake was sure she had gotten away from his grapple and went to kick him in the side. The kick brought Jaune off balance as well as dropping his aura into the red, but not before getting his first proper hit on Blake.
Blake was surprised when she caught a stab of the hidden blade on her arm. It didn't pierce her aura, but it was a fairly solid hit nonetheless. She could tell from the beginning that Jaune didn't have the experience to fight her on even footing, but she had to admit that his form wasn't bad and his tactics were at least varied enough to keep up when they proved ineffective.
She didn't expect to get hit with a surprise attack though and was suitably upset because of it.
"Mister Arc, it was glaringly obvious you lack a worthwhile ranged option, you'll also need more combat experience."
"I am aware and working on both, professor."
"In that case, good job on getting at least one hit despite the obvious disadvantage. Miss Belladonna, can you tell me why mister Arc managed to hit you?"
"He used my lack of familiarity with his weaponry and their range. I thought I got away from the grapple and attacked while still in his range."
"That is the case. Good job miss Belladonna. You may both go clean up and return to the stands."
=O=O=O=
Jaune stood in the changing room's shower, the cold water keeping him awake. For the first time since he passed the entrance exam he doubted himself.
When Ruby planned the RNJR against SWNY match she spoke of their teamwork, but Jaune now thought that her opinion of his skill was skewed. Sure he did well enough during initiation and he had some experience against the Grimm under his belt, but his skill in combat against people was limited to one match against his father and the match he just had against Blake.
Huntsmen trained in primary academies learned through fighting each other and the teachers. Fighting the Grimm came later. It made sense that people who could fight the Grimm would also be proficient at fighting people. Even people who learned the hard way through travelling beyond the kingdoms' walls would inevitably face thieves and bandits.
Jaune was a rare exception. His skills with weapons came without the experience of learning them, making him skilled but inexperienced.
Jaune growled in frustration. He'd need to get more experience, more actual training. His father's words came back to him, he shouldn't think himself some sort of prodigy. He would have to put in more effort than others to catch up.
The plan was clear. Finish the gauntlet to fix his range issue and then train, train, train until he gets on par.
Of course the match against Yang and Cardin would come first and Jaune didn't exactly feel confident right now.
=O=O=O=
The rest of the day went by a bit too fast in Jaune's opinion. Though it may have had something to do with being asleep for most of it. Professor Port didn't seem to mind, or notice, Doctor Oubleck's lesson passed by without much issue, and lab work for Dust studies with professor Peach was simple enough due to his experience with it.
Then again, it's not like his team let him so much as touch dust during the lab. Even Nora behaved herself on account of Jaune being tired. But with his and Ruby's combined knowledge along with Nora's occasional piece of advice on improper yet effective handling procedures (proven to work by Nora not blowing herself up yet), they had finished early and were allowed to leave.
Now, Jaune would love to go to sleep but there was a more pressing matter to attend to.
"Well, it's time to put the pieces together. Ruby you wanna come with?"
"Uhh… sure."
Ruby felt conflicted. On one hand the proper thing would be to force her partner to have some rest, on the other hand she was excited to see the high calibre pistol she helped design in action.
"Ren? Nora? Do you want to come?"
"Yeah I wanna go! I want to see when it blows up!"
Jaune just smiled at the friendly jab. Ruby on the other hand took mock offence.
"Oh yee of little faith, there is no way a firearm I helped design would blow up."
"We also need to see if my semblance takes to the weapon. Ruby did machine the internals so it's possible I'll have to remake them later."
A short walk to the workshop later Jaune was putting the pieces together, under Ruby's guidance of course.
He still needed to file down some of the contact surfaces to achieve a perfect fit but about an hour later the gauntlet pistol hybrid was in one piece. Jaune put it on his forearm and tightened the leather straps.
"...looks good… what now?" asked Nora.
"Now I saturate it with Aura. It shouldn't take too much longer, ten or fifteen minutes tops."
As Jaune started to push his Aura into the gauntlet he could feel the structure. Not unlike in its sibling the Ocultus Ferrum the parts made from high dust alloy and took to Aura like an empty vessel, greedily letting itself be filled. The inner mechanism however felt different. The Occultus Ferrum's inner mechanism was made out of ordinary dust steel, but since it was made by him it still took to his Aura easily enough, like pushing his hand through a viscous liquid, like honey. The inner guts of the gun though… well they felt gritty to his Aura. Like pushing his hand through sand and gravel.
He couldn't help but frown a little, the weapon felt a little wrong to his senses and he was fairly certain that meant that his semblance wouldn't take to it. And even if it did…
"I'll be honest, this doesn't feel right. I think it's my semblance rejecting the parts I didn't make."
Ruby's face fell a bit. For just a moment she felt like it was her fault it wasn't working. That was until Jaune turned to her with a smile.
"Well, guess you'll have to teach me how to make the parts later, Ruby."
"Yeah, um sure… So what now?"
"Now? I say we go and shoot it for a bit. See if it cycles, feeds from the magazine and so on?"
"Ohhh and see if it blows up!"
"It's not gonna BLOW UP!" yelled Ruby in response to Nora's teasing.
Nora just laughed in Ruby's face before declaring a race to the shooting range and running off. This of course prompted Ruby to do the same, leaving behind a trail of Rose petals.
"Nora really knows how to lighten up the mood huh."
Ren only nodded before patting Jaune on the back and setting off to the firing range.
=O=O=O=
That evening Jaune fell in his bed like a sack of potatoes. Yes, he was really tired, but it was the good kind of tired. He felt like he had accomplished something. Sure the gauntlet wasn't done yet, but it worked! All the hard work they had put into it paid off when they tested it at the range. Sure he couldn't hit jack shit, especially when he dumped all 21 bullets in full auto. But that was something his semblance could help with eventually. And the muzzle flash was a glorious burst of flame. Hell in full auto one could probably mistake it for a flamethrower.
Now he just needed to make some more parts, but if Ruby can do it in about a day, he should be able to do it by the end of the week. just in time to get some training with Ruby in before their match with SWNY.
Speaking of SWNY, Yang's Ember Celica was fairly similar to the gauntlet… Heh, Jaune was sure she would appreciate the name once she heard it. There's something to be said for a good pun. Hopefully Ruby will appreciate it too… or at least won't be too upset about it.
=O=O=O=
When Jaune woke up that morning, he was still tired. Well, maybe tired wasn't entirely accurate. He felt awake and all, he just didn't really want to get out of bed.
Light was streaming through the blanket turned curtain and Fort RNJR was bathed in soft pinkish-red light. Ruby was slumbering peacefully on the bed next to him, as was Nora and Ren a little further.
The air was warm and a bit damp, as a consequence of four people sleeping in an enclosed room. It had occurred to him that they'd need to disassemble the fort and give the blankets a wash somewhat periodically. That could be a weekend endeavour though, maybe after the fight with Yang and Cardin.
Jaune finally found the mental strength to get up and have a shower. The team went through their morning routine.
It was Tuesday, meaning their lessons started later than other days. Well technically the lessons started as normal but that was only true for electives which operated on a sort of come and go lecture system. Meaning the lesson plan was posted for all to see and if something caught the students interest, they could come to the lecture.
One such lecture was History of Weaponry taught by doctor Oubleck. Jaune was fairly interested in the class until he saw the lesson plan and figured out that he already knew most of it. Sure he didn't know all the dates by heart, but his apprenticeship combined with the book he got from Lavender and Topaz gave him enough to work with. Frankly until they got to modern mechashift theory next semester, he would sit that one out.
Speaking of mechashift theory…
"Hey, Jaune? Wanna go and get started on those parts after breakfast?"
"Sounds good… though we should probably set an alarm or something so we don't miss class."
Grimm studies might not have been his favourite subject but he'd rather not have more homework assigned for missing the class.
"Sounds good. Ren, Nora, we'll see you in Port's class."
Nora looked up from her pancakes and took a moment to swallow the syrup soaked bite.
"Oh sure, I'll go have a workout and we'll see you at naptime."
"Nora!"
Ren took it upon himself to reprimand Nora, though they all knew it was to no avail. Partly because Nora tended to do whatever Nora wanted to do, consequences be damned, and partly because it had only been a week and most students already figured out that Peter Port didn't care if you were awake in his class. So long as you wrote your homework assignments and didn't interrupt him he would let almost anything slide.
=O=O=O=
The parts were coming along great. Ruby was in her element, explaining the different tool settings and letting Jaune not only make the parts, but learn how to work the machines to make his own parts on his own next time.
Jaune was taking his time with the work. They wouldn't be done that morning but that wasn't the goal. By the time the alarm on his scroll sounded they were done with some of the smaller parts.
=O=O=O=
Weiss was having a dificult morning. Her life at Beacon wasn't going as well as she imagined. When she left Atlas for Vale she thought she was ready. She had trained hard for this, but so had everyone else.
She had been running away for a while now. From her father, from her legacy, from the things she knew the SDC did to people.
And now, despite everything she did to be here, she felt like she was holding her team back. She came to Beacon with expectations of being team leader, of being a model student. But the first week here proved otherwise. She had done well enough at academic subjects and did reasonably well in combat class, but when it came to teamwork…
Her partner didn't say anything about it, but she could tell that Blake wasn't happy about being partnered up with her.
And now she woke up to find out her team had left her alone. She wasn't surprised about Maroon and Cocra, they talked about attending the elective lecture on Small Settlement Logistics. But Blake just disappeared. Didn't wake her up, didn't leave a note, nothing.
If this was the first time this had happened Weiss wouldn't care. But Blake seemed to leave her every opportunity she got.
Weiss hoped to make friends, real friends. She had hoped her team would be that for her, but in the end nothing changed.
But Weiss was nothing if not stubborn, she would make friends dammit. So she got up and got ready for breakfast.
=O=O=O=
Yang was drying her hair. It was something of a morning ritual for her. She was enjoying her time at the Academy so far. She got in, despite most of her friends from Signal failing initiation. Her sister got in too and she seemed to be getting on well with her team.
Yang was content… except for her team. Well one teammate in particular - Cardin.
Cardin was convinced that he was the leader. Not in the sense that he was the responsible one. No, he thought he was the one who called the shots.
Luckily Sky had picked up on this and did something about it. Cardin was still being insufferable, but his aggression was now aimed at team RNJR's Jaune Arc, her sister's teammate.
Overall, not ideal but could be worse.
=O=O=O=
A few days had passed and Jaune and Ruby had finally done what they set out to do. That is the pistol gauntlet now sat completed on Jaune's forearm, all parts made by him.
Ruby would be lying if she said she wasn't excited. After all this was the first time she saw this aspect of Jaune's semblance. And what's more she helped make it happen.
Jaune smiled at Ruby, her excitement overshadowing even his own. But that was fine. He'd rather see her overly excited than anxious or sad.
"Well, let's try it again shall we?"
Jaune spoke softly, as much to himself as directed at Ruby.
He focused on his aura, the parts they made before needed a top up but it was minor and still accepted his aura hungrily. The new parts felt viscous with the occasional grit, though nowhere near the old ones. Jaune guessed that his semblance didn't like machine work. The barrel, being made on a lathe, was by far the grittiest, like honey that had crystals of sugar in it. But it would do, Jaune felt as much.
"Looks good, now comes the fun part." Jaune smirked, knowing the pun he was about to commit to was likely to elicit a reaction from Ruby.
"Ignis Manus, I name thee The Fire Arm in the ancestral language in which all weapons carried by an Arc are named."
Jaune sported a shit eating grin on his face as Ruby stared at him stunned. Then she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Ugh… why are you blonds like this?"
"Oh come on. It sits on my arm, it spews fire when shot and it's a gun. The Fire Arm is appropriate."
"...seriously did Yang tell you to do this? She had the same bloody argument when naming her gauntlets."
"Nope, all from my own head."
"Jaune, that's even worse. I stopped Yang, but I'm afraid it's too late for you."
"But can you imagine beating Yang with a pun?"
"She's gonna hate you, you're living her dream."
Ruby was frowning. She wasn't angry, just disappointed. She thought better of him.
"Hey, I know what will cheer you up. Wanna go to the range and have a shooting match?"
"Under the condition you'll only use the Ancient Valian name. Let's go pick up Crescent Rose."
=O=O=O=
After Jaune and Ruby left, headmaster Ozpin entered the foundry. Some may say that he was spying on his students. In his own words, he was merely keeping an eye on them, the prospective ones at least. And these two were very prospective indeed.
As he replayed the footage from the security camera, he timed up the aura monitor of one Jaune Arc. At first his aura decreased as he saturated his weapon in it, that much was expected. But when his semblance activated the aura gauge filled to just above 100% and kept rising slowly after that as his aura regenerated to fill the newly acquired space.
The increase above full marked Jaune Arc for automatic recalibration of his monitor. This wasn't entirely uncommon and the monitors recalibrated every month regardless, but in Jaune's case it wasn't a gradual increase through rigorous training and meditation. It was a jump, albeit a small one in this case, but one triggered deliberately.
"Interesting."
The headmaster replayed the footage once more, focusing on the chant mister Arc used to trigger his semblance.
"Very interesting."
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
The old man takes interest, as another addition to the Arsenal is forged.
The last chapter was somewhat shorter, so in exchange this one is the logest one yet. Unfortunately we are pretty much at the end of my buffer right now untill I can connect with the chapters later on. Sleep deprived Jaune encompasses how I feel at the moment.
Anyway, please look forward to the next chapter: Ch. 12 The beatdown